a pindaric poem to the reverend doctor burnet on the honour he did me of enquiring after me and my muse by mrs. a. behn. behn, aphra, 1640-1689. 1689 approx. 6 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a27311 wing b1754 estc r5178 13083752 ocm 13083752 97272 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a27311) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 97272) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 408:6) a pindaric poem to the reverend doctor burnet on the honour he did me of enquiring after me and my muse by mrs. a. behn. behn, aphra, 1640-1689. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. printed for r. bentley, and are to be sold by richard baldwin ..., london : 1689. reproduction of original in bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng 2002-06 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-08 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-09 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2002-09 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a pindaric poem to the reverend doctor burnet , on the honour he did me of enquiring after me and my muse . by mrs. a. behn . london , printed for r. bentley , and are to be sold by richard baldwin in the old baily . 1689. a pindaric poem . ( 1 ) when old rome's candidates aspir'd to fame , and did the peoples suffrages obtain for some great consul , or a caesar's name ; the victor was not half so pleas'd and vain , as i , when given the honour of your choice , and preference had in that one single voice ; that voice , from whence immortal wit still flows ; wit that at once is solemn all and sweet , where noblest eloquence and judgment shows the inspiring mind illustrious , rich , and great ; a mind that can inform your wond'rous pen in all that 's perfect and sublime : and with an art beyond the wit of men , on what e're theam , on what e're great design , it carries a commanding force , like that of writ divine . ( 2 ) with pow'rful reasoning drest in finest sence , a thousand ways my soul you can invade , and spight of my opinions weak defence , against my will , you conquer and perswade . your language soft as love , betrays the heart , and at each period fixes a resistless dart , while the fond listner , like a maid undone , inspir'd with tenderness she fears to own ; in vain essays her freedom to regain : the fine ideas in her soul remain , and please , and charm , even while they grieve and pain ( 3 ) but yet how well this praise can recompense for all the welcome wounds ( before ) you'd given ! scarce any thing but you and heaven such grateful bounties can dispense , as that eternity of life can give ; so fam'd by you my verse eternally shall live : till now , my careless muse no higher strove t' inlarge her glory , and extend her wings ; than underneath parnassus grove , to sing of shepherds , and their humble love ; but never durst , like cowly , tune her strings , to sing of heroes and of kings . but since by an authority divine , she is allow'd a more exalted thought ; she will be valu'd now as currant coyn , whose stamp alone gives it the estimate , tho' out of an inferiour metal wrought . ( 4 ) but oh ! if from your praise i feel a joy that has no parallel ! vvhat must i suffer when i cannot pay your goodness , your own generous way ? and make my stubborn muse your just commands obey . my muse that would endeavour fain to glide vvith the fair prosperous gale , and the full driving tide but loyalty commands with pious force , that stops me in the thriving course , the brieze that wafts the crowding nations o're , leaves me unpity'd far behind on the forsaken barren shore , to sigh with echo , and the murmuring wind ; vvhile all the inviting prospect i survey , vvith melancholy eyes i view the plains , where all i see is ravishing and gay , and all i hear is mirth in loudest strains ; thus while the chosen seed possess the promis'd land , i like the excluded prophet stand , the fruitful happy soil can only see , but am forbid by fates decree to share the triumph of the joyful victory . ( 5 ) 't is to your pen , great sir , the nation owes for all the good this mighty change has wrought ; 't was that the wondrous method did dispose , e're the vast work was to perfection brought . oh strange effect of a seraphick quill ! that can by unperceptable degrees change every notion , every principle to any form , its great dictator please : the sword a feeble pow'r , compar'd to that , and to the nobler pen subordinate ; and of less use in bravest turns of state : while that to blood and slaughter has recourse , this conquers hearts with soft prevailing force : so when the wiser greeks o'recame their foes , it was not by the barbarous force of blows . when a long ten years fatal vvar had fail'd , vvith luckier wisdom they at last assail'd , vvisdom and counsel which alone prevail'd . not all their numbers the fam'd town could win , 't was nobler stratagem that let the conquerour in ( 6 ) tho' i the vvond'rous change deplore , that makes me useless and forlorn , yet i the great design adore , tho' ruin'd in the universal turn . nor can my indigence and lost repose , those meager furies that surround me close , convert my sense and reason more to this unpresidented enterprise , than that a man so great , so learn'd , so wise , the brave atchievement owns and nobly justifies . 't is you , great sir , alone , by heaven preserv'd , whose conduct has so well the nation serv'd , 't is you that to posterity shall give this ages wonders , and its history . and great nassav shall in your annals live to all futurity : your pen shall more immortalize his name , than even his own renown'd and celebrated fame . finis . the expedition of his highness, the prince of orange, for england giving an account of the most remarkable passages thereof, from the day of his setting sail from holland, to the first day of this instant december, 1688 : in a letter to a person of quality. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 18 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30346 wing b5790 estc r14211 12004671 ocm 12004671 52272 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30346) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 52272) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 85:5) the expedition of his highness, the prince of orange, for england giving an account of the most remarkable passages thereof, from the day of his setting sail from holland, to the first day of this instant december, 1688 : in a letter to a person of quality. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. n. n. 8 p. printed for t.w. ..., [s.l.] : 1688. caption title. signed at end: n.n. written by g. burnet. cf. halkett & laing (2nd ed.). imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in yale university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng william -iii, -king of england, 1650-1702. great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the expedition of his highness the prince of orange for england . giving an account of the most remarkable passages thereof , from the day of his setting sail from holland , to the first day of this instant december , 1688. in a letter to a person of quality . sir , the account ( you so earnestly desire of me ) of the prince's expedition and invasion of england , is a task no one should have commanded from me , but yourself ; the ancient friendship between us , makes nothing appear difficult in the way to serve you . i shall not undertake to determine the legality of this great and bold attempt , nor reflect on the counsels that have brought this misery upon us , but shall content myself with giving you a brief account of the prince's expedition . and first , you are to take notice , that his highness set sail from holland with 51 men of war , 18 fire-ships , and about 330 tenders , being ships hired of merchants , for the carriage of horse and foot , armes , ammunition , &c. the fleet stood out at sea to the norward , which met with horrid storms for two days and two nights together , in which bad weather there were lost above 500 horse , and a vessel parted from the fleet , wherein were 400 foot , supposed to be lost , but now known to be arrived safe at the texel , but grievously shatter'd and torn by the storms ; two of the prince's principal men of war were ●●●●ed to new rigg at helversluse . the prince immediately on his return back inform'd the states of the condition of the fleet , ( which was not so damnified as was represented by the vulgar and ignorant ) who thereupon , to lull a great man asleep , the states , or some one employed by them , order'd , that the harlem and amsterdam courrantier should make a dismal story of it , by representing to the world , that the prince returned with his fleet miserably shatter'd and torn , having lost nine men of war , and divers others of less concern ; 1000 horse 〈…〉 ture among the sea-men ; the loss of dr burnett , and the chief ministers under the prince , the ill opinion the states had of the expedition ; in short , that a 100000 l. would not repair the damage sustained ; and , almost next to an impossibility , that the prince should be in a condition to pursue his design till the spring . and yet at the same time all hands were at work to repair the damaged ships , which were inconsiderable : so that in eight days time they were all re-fitted . the signal being given by the discharge of a gun , all the fleet immediately weigh'd anchor and stood out at sea , steering their course norward all that night ; next day , upon tide of ebb , they made a stretch and made a watch above a league , and then stood westward , and lay all night in the same posture , not making two leagues of watch. in the middle of the night , an advice-boat brought us an account , that the english fleet , consisting of 33 sail , lay to the westward of ours . upon which the prince fired a gun , which caused a great consternation in the whole fleet , we having a brisk easterly wind , concluded ourselves to be all ruin'd : but the small advice boats crusing for a more certain account of the english , brought us back word , that instead of the english fleet , which the former advice had alarm'd us with , it was admiral herbert with part of our fleet which had been seperated some hours from the body of the fleet : upon whose arrival , great rejoycing was among us all , and a signal of joy was given for it by the prince . in the morning , about eight , the prince gave a signal , that the admirals should come aboard him : immediately after the whole fleet was got into the north-foreland , upon which the prince gave the usual sign of danger , ( according to the printed book ) and ordered that the fleet should all come up in a body , some fifteen or sixteen deep , his highness leading the van , in the ship brill , ( in english , spectacles : ) his flag was english collours , the motto impaled thereon , is , the protestant religion , and liberties of england , and underneath , instead of dieu & mon droit , and i will maintain it . the council of war , from aboard the prince , sent three small frigats into the mouth of the thames , viz. the porpus , postilion , and mercury ; who on their return , brought us word , that the english fleet lay in the buoy of the nore , consisting of 34 sail , and three more which lay in the downs . the wind continuing at e. n. e. the prince immediately thereupon , gave another signal of stretching the whole fleet in a line , from dover to callis , twenty five deep : so that our fleet reached within a league of each place ; the flanks and reer were guarded by our men of war. this sight would have ravish'd the most curious eyes of europe . when our fleet was in its greatest splendour , the trumpets and drums playing various tunes to rejoyce our hearts ; this continued for above three hours . immediately after the prince gave us a sign to close , and failed that night as far as beach , and commanded us to follow the signal by lights he had hung out to us , viz. all the small sail should come up to him by morning . by the morning-day we espied the isle of wight , and then the prince order'd the fleet to be drawn into the same posture as before related ; yet not stretching above half channel over in this place . about five in the morning we made the start , the wind chopping about to the westward ; upon which we stood fair by dartmouth , and so made for torbay , where the prince again order'd the whole fleet into the same posture as at dover and callis . upon his arrival at torbay , the people on land , in great numbers , welcom'd his highness with loud acclamations of joy. immediately after the prince gave two signals , that the admirals should come abord him , which they did ; and then order'd , that the whole fleet should come to an anchor , and immediately land ; and further order'd , that the admirals should stand out at sea as a guard , as well as the smaller men of war to attend and guard their landing ; and also order'd six men of war to run in to guard torbay . the prince then put out a red flag at the misen-yard-arm ; and provided to land in sixty boats , laid ready for that purpose : upon which the prince signified , that general mackay with his six regiments of english and scotch should first land ; and also , that the little porpus with eighteen guns should run a ground to secure their landing : but there was no opposition ; for the people bid us heartily welcome to england ; and gave us all manner of provisions for our refreshment . the fifth of november ( a day never to be blotted out of the english-man's heart ) the prince caused to be landed about 2000 : on the sixth we landed as many horse and foot as we could possibly ; and so continued the seventh . the country bringing in all manner of provision both for man and horse ; and were paid their price honestly for it . the prince the same day commanded captain m — to search the lady c — 's house , at tor-abby , for arms and horses ; and so all other houses which were roman catholics . the lady entertained them civilly , said her husband was gone to plymouth : they brought from thence some horses and a few arms , but gave no further disturbance to the lady or her house . nor shall it be forgotten , what was faithfully acted at this lady's house , immediately on our arrival at torbay : there was a priest , and some others with him were upon a watch tower , to discover what our fleet was , whether french or dutch : at last they discover'd the white flags on some of our men of war ; the ignorant priest concluded absolutely we were the french fleet , which with great impatience they had so long expected ; and having laid up great provisions for their entertainment ; the priest ordered all to the chappel to sing te deum for the arrival of their supposed forces ; but being soon deceived , on our landing we found the benefit of their provisions ; and instead of vostre serviture monsieur , they were entertained with yeen mijnheere , can you dutch spraken ; upon which they all run away from the house , but the lady and a few old servants . the whole army , to the best of my knowledge , consisted of 1800 horse , 3000 draggons , and 1800 foot , besides 1000 volunteer persons of quality , horse well equipped , and about 800 horse for carriage . november the eighth , the prince came from chudleigh towards exeter with the greatest part of his army attending him , and about one of the clock entred at the westgate of the city , welcomed with loud acclamations of the people . the manner of his publick entrance into exeter was as follows . 1. the right honourable the earl of m — with 200 horse , the most part of which were english gentlemen richly mounted on flanders steeds , managed and used to war in head-pieces , back and brest , bright armour . 2. 200 blacks brought from the plantations of the neatherlands in america , having on imbroyder'd caps lin'd with white fur , and plumes of white feathers , to attend the horse . 3. 200 finlanders or laplanders in bears skins taken from the wild beasts they had slain , the common habit of that cold climate , with black armour , and broad flaming swords . 4. 50 gentlemen , and as many pages to attend and support the prince's banner , bearing this inscription , god and the protestant religion . 5. 50 led horses , all manag'd and brought up to the wars , with two grooms to each horse . 6. after these rid the prince on a milk white palfrey , armed cap-a-pee , a plume of white feathers on his head , all in bright armour , and forty two footmen running by him . 7. after his highness followed likewise on horseback 200 gentlemen and pages . 8. 300 switzers with fuzies . 9. 500 voluntiers , each two led horses . 10. his captain and guards 600 armed cap-a-pee . the rest of the army brought up the reer . that night the prince lay at the deanry , having before ordered the advanced guard to march to clist-heath , and setled the quarters of the army ; which was done so much to the content and satisfaction of the inhabitants in and about the city , and such just payments made for what the soldiers had , and such civil behaviour among them , without swearing and damning , and debauching of women , as is usual among some armies , that 't is to admiration to behold . i am sure sir i was an eye-witness of the whole order , and when we marched away from this city , their joy was turned into dulness and cloudiness . on the ninth the prince commanded dr. burnet to order the priest , vicars of the cathedral , not to pray for the prince of wales , and to make use of no other prayer for the king , but what is in the second service , which they refused to observe , till they were forced and very severely threatned ; the bishop and dean being then gone from the city . about twelve this day , notice was given to the canons and all the vicars , choral and singing lads , to attend in the cathedral immediately , for that the prince would be there , and dr. burnet ordered them as soon as the prince entred into the quire , they should sing te deum , which was observed . the prince sat in the bishops chair , and all his great officers attending on him . after te deum was sung , dr. burnet in a seat under the pulpit , read aloud the princes declaration and reasons for this his expedition : when this was over the prince returned to the deanery . the baggage was many days bringing from torbay , but the ammunition , both arms for foot and horse , and the artillery were brought into topsham road , and there by boats and other carriages landed ; the field pieces were sent after the army at clist-heath , the brass canon remaining some of them in exon. the greatest part of the army were ordered to march forward to ottery and honyton , and in several parties were ordered to divers places in the county . one party was sent to the north of devon for horses , which were bought at excessive rates : from roman catholicks they took horses without money , and many gentlemen who might have had money for their horses refused , as the bishops son and divers others . on sunday dr. burnet preached at the cathedral on this text , 107 psalm , last verse . ferguson preached in the presbyterian meeting house , but was fain to force his way with his sword up to the pulpit , for even the old presbyter himself could not away with the breath of his brother ferguson in his diocess : his text was in the 94 psalm , who will rise up for me against evil doers . i heard one of that gang say , that his discourse came very much under the lash of the 25 of edward the third ; he is not much regarded by any of the princes retinue . sir william w — who had been at ford with the prince , to see sir william g — were both refused to be seen of him . one major m — and sir will were in commission to make new levies , which was carried on vigourously , and many listed under them : but sir. w. it seems began to use an old trade of taking money for quarters : complaint was made thereof to the prince , and they were discarded , and the men disbanded to seek for new officers . but sir w. does continue under the prince's protection . the prince was here above three days , before any appearance of gentry came , insomuch that the great officers began to wonder , that the prince should be invited into england by them , and not to appear to the prince's assistance ; but this consternation was soon over , when a considerable body of the gentry came into him . some that were for taking off the test and penal laws , they have not appeared as yet . so that now the counties of cornewall and devon are in the possession of the gentry thereof , and the prince's army quite marched away . pendennis castle is managed by several gentlemen , who take their turns , plymouth fort is declared for the prince's service , by the earl of b — who it seems was to have been poyson'd , by throwing white mercury over a leg of mutton ( appointed as one dish for his supper ) instead of flower ; that , and for some other reasons , he secured the lord h — turned out all papist soldiers , and has taken in the county soldiers into the fort. since which , there is an association among the gentry , worded much after that of my lord shaftsbury's . mr. seymour being made governor of exeter , and the lord mordant in his absence ; there are new leavies raising every day ; so that this city is almost full of these new regiments , which are hourly disciplining by officers and old soldiers left here by the prince . all their arms are the prince's , and i am told , he brought with him as many as will set out 20000 both horse and foot. i am apt to believe this to be true , having seen most of what has been landed . all the vessels that brought up the ammunition , &c. are returned again to torbay , under the guard of the principal men of war , a squadron of which lye now in the sound of plymouth , and saluted each other with many cannon from the fort and the fleet. on sunday last there was a report that the french were landed 20000 , at porlock in this county , upon which the whole country rise with pikes , spits , scythes , and what weapons they could get , and made away for exeter ; but it prov'd a false allarm ; for there were two small french ships driven by the dutch fleet ashoar , and the french quitted their vessels and went on land , and were some killed , others sent hither . so that now they are pretty quiet again ; but has given that advantage to the commissioned officers , who are to raise new leavies , to pick and choose amongst them whom they please . i shall now return again to the prince ; when his highness left exeter , wednesday nov. 21. he marched with his own guards , attended by a great many of the gentry both of somersetshire and devon , to st. mary ottery , where he dined , after which he marched to axminster , where he continued four days , from thence to crookehorn , where he tarried only one night , from thence to sherborne , where his highness was splendidly entertained by the lord d — from thence he went to wincanton , where he lodged at the house of one mr. churchill a merchant , and it s credibly reported , designs for oxford . sir , i have given you the best account i can of this great affair , you may communicate it to such friends as you think fit . sir , i am with all due respects , wincanton 1 dec , 1688. your most obedient servant , n. n. printed for t. w. and are to be sold by the book-sellers of london . 1688. a letter to a lord upon his happy conversion from popery to the protestant religion by g. burnett ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 15 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 3 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30375 wing b5820 estc r36042 15597639 ocm 15597639 104013 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30375) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 104013) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1587:14) a letter to a lord upon his happy conversion from popery to the protestant religion by g. burnett ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 4 p. s.n.], [s.l. : 1688. caption title. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng protestant converts -england. protestantism. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter to a lord upon his happy conversion from popery to the protestant religion . by g. burnett , d. d. right noble lord , when i consider seriously these words of st. paul ▪ brethren , you see your calling , that not many noble , not many wise , according to the flesh , not many mighty are called : but hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise , and weak things to confound the mighty , and base things in the world , and things not accounted of , and things that are not , to bring to nought things that are ▪ when , i say , i consider of these words so often , i admire at that rare blessing of god , which he hath vouchsafed to you a noble and mighty man ; namely , that he should grace you with that true and incomparable nobility , which is attained by true faith in christ jesus , and a holy life . as much greater as this blessing is , so much the more holy and sincere ought your life to be , and so much the more upright are you to walk with your god ; less that your thorns ( that is , riches , pleasures , and honour ) should choke the seed of the gospel which is sown in you . for ▪ this i am sure of , that god hath begun some great work in you , which he will finish to the glory of his own name , and will bring to pass , that as heretofore you had care so to live a noble-man amongst noble-men , that you might observe the decorum , and maintain the dignity of nobility : so hereafter that you may imploy your whole self in this , that you may defend and uphold the honour and dignity of the protestant religion ; and in this life upon the earth to resemble that holy and heavenly life which you shall lead in the world to come . call to mind continually ( my lord ) in all your words and deeds , that we are graced with this honour to be made the sons of god by jesus christ : for that meditation will by the help of the holy ghost , work this care in us , that we never commit any thing unworthy of that holy name of christ , by which we are called . and yet alas , such is our estate , as that if we endeavour to please christ , we are sure to displease men , and must be content to contemn the vain-glory of the world , that we may enjoy heavenly and eternal glory with god ; for it is impossible ( as christ saith ) for him to believe in god which seeks the honour and praise of men . i mean of the men of the world , which as the kingly prophet saith , are lighter and vainer than vanity itself . and therefore their judgment is little worth , and less to be esteemed : but rather the iudgment of god , who seeth not all our actions only , but even our most hidden thoughts and purposes . which being so , were it not folly and madness to displease such a god , to please so fond a world ? it were a shameful thing , if a wife should endeavour to please other men , rather than her husband . how much more then unworthy is it , if our souls should rather aim to please the vain world , than their most holy spouse christ jesus ? if the only son of god was content not only to be reviled , yea and scourged , but even to die upon the cross as a cursed malefactor , and all for us : why should not we much more bear patiently the taunts and mocks , yea even the slanders of gods enemies ? let us therefore arm our selves as it were with a holy pride , and ( in a sort ) scorn and laugh at the mocks of the roman catholicks ; and putting upon us mercy and pity as the feeling members of christ , let us bewail so great blindness in them , and let us intreat the lord for them , to pull them out of that palpable darkness into his true and marvellous light , lest satan bind them to himself in his everlasting apprentiship ▪ and so being his bond-slaves , and hired sworn servants of his black-guard , do send them out to prosecute jesus christ in his members . which when they have done all they can , and all that the devil their master can teach them , though the devil himself should burst with malice , and they for anger grind their teeth ; yet shall it all tend to the magnifying of gods glory which they labour to obscure , and to the furtherance of their salvation , whom they so disdained : yea , to the increase of their glory in a better world , whom in this world they thought worthy of nothing but disgrace : and surely ( my most honorable lord ) he that is possessed with the certainty of this faith , will without doubt make open war with the corrupt affections of his own nature , and with all the world , yea even with the devil himself ; and will not doubt but in time to overcome them all . therefore let us humble our selves to our god and father everlasting , that he would increase that faith in us , and bring forth in us those most blessed and sweet fruits of faith in our hearts and lives , which he useth to work in them whom he hath elected ; that so our faith may appear not a fained , but a true faith ; not a dead , but a living faith ; not a humane , but a divine work in us ; that so it may be to us an infallible pledg of our salvation to come . let us labour to shew our selves the legitimate and undoubted children of god in seeking above all things , that his most holy name may be sanctified in our selves and others ; and in imitating his admirable love and gentleness , which makes his sun to shine on good and bad , let us worship his heavenly majesty in spirit and truth ; and let us yield up the temple of our hearts to christ jesus as an acceptable sacrifice unto him ; yea , let us shew our selves members of the heavenly high priest christ jesus , in sacrificing to god our bodies , and in crucifying the flesh with the affection and lusts thereof ; that sin being dead , god may create in us a spiritual life , whereby christ jesus may live in us . let us dye to sin , and dye to our selves , and to the world , that we may live blessedly to god and christ jesus ; yea let us acknowledg and shew by our lives that we were once dead , but now are raised to the life of grace , by the power of christ jesus . let our conversation be heavenly , though we live on the earth ; let us begin that life here , which we hope to lead in heaven ; let the image of god shine bright in us ; let us disgrace and wear out the old image of sin and satan ▪ and labour to renew the image of christ jesus , that all that see us may acknowledg gods image in us . which holy image of grace , as it is beautiful and glorious , in all gods saints , so in you ( my good lord ) it shall be so much more glorious , in as much as you go before others in birth , nobility , honour , and high place . o what a pleasant sight is it to all true christian men , yea to the angels ; yea how acceptable to the lord himself , to behold a man of your place and estate so far to forget the world and deny himself ; so deeply to consider the frailty of his own nature , and the vanity of all temporal things , as to say with 〈…〉 a worm and no man ; and to cry out with david , turn thy face to me , and have mercy upon me , for i am desolate and poor : o happy and true rich man , which hath attained to this spiritual and heavenly poverty , and can give a farewel to himself and the world , and all things that he hath for christs sake ; and can freely renounce and forsake carnal reason , human learning , company , and counsel of friends , wealths , honors , lordships , pleasures of all sorts , delight of the court , high places and preferments , dignity , and offices ; yea , favor of princes ; yea , his own self ! how welcom shall he be to christ , which can deny all those for christs sake ? such a one may go for a fool in the world , but he shall be of the almighty's counsel ; such a man knoweth that felicity consists not in any thing that this world can afford , and therefore in the midst of all his wealth and abundance , he crieth out to god as tho he had nothing , even out of the feeling of his heart , give us this day our daily bread. such a man preferreth the rebuke of christ , before the honour of the world and the afflictions of christs religion , before the pleasures of the world : and because he despised all things in respect of christ and his righteousness , and is possessed and grounded with god's spirit , therefore he sings with true joy of heart with the kingly prophet ; the lord is my shepherd , therefore i can want nothing , neither will i feel hunger , or any outward thing ; he feeds me in green pasture , and leads me forth beside the water of comfort . this man distrusts himself and all the creatures in the world , that he may trust and cleave only unto god ; neither aims he at any pleasure , any wisdom , any honour , any riches , any credit or estimation , but such as comes from god himself ; and therefore professeth with the same prophet : i have none in heaven but thee alone , and none in the earth do i desire but thee , my flesh consumeth with longing after thee , and thou lord art my heritage and portion for ever . he that spake thus was a wealthy and mighty king , yet suffered he not the eyes of his mind to be blinded or dazled with the glittering glory of riches , pleasures , or honor , or ought else that a kingdom could give ; for he knew well that they all came of god , and were held under god , and must all be used to his glory , and that he that gave them hath far better things to give his children . and therefore that king and prophet makes his heavenly proclamation before all his people , blessed art thou , o lord god our father , for ever and ever : thine o lord is greatness , and power , and glory , and victory : all that is in heaven and earth is thine , thine is the kingdom , lord , and thou excellest as head over all : riches and honour come of thee , and thou art lord of all : in thy hands is power , strength , and honour , and dignity , and kingdoms are in thy disposition : therefore we give thee thanks , o god , and we extol thy great and glorious name . but who am i , and what is my people , that we should promise such things to thee ? for we are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers were ; our days are like a shadow upon the earth , and here is no abiding . see how david cannot content himself in abasing himself , and extolling the lord ; and in how many words his affections utter themselves . this was david's meditation , and let this be your looking-glass ; in this looking-glass look once a day , and pray daily , that god would still open your eyes to behold your own vileness , and his incomprehensible power and love to you , that with king david you may humble your self under the mighty hand of his majesty , and acknowledge all power and glory to belong to god alone , that so you may be made partakers of those heavenly graces which god bestowed , not on the proud and lofty , but on the humble and 〈◊〉 . remember that ordinance of the eternal god that saith ▪ let not the wise man glory in his wisdom , nor the strong man in his strength ▪ or the rich man in his riches , but let him that glorieth glory in this , in that he understandeth and knoweth me , that i am the lord which do mercy and justice on earth ; for these things please me , saith the lord. therefore ( my good lord ) if you list to boast , boast not as the world doth , that you are rich , or that you are of noble birth , or that you are heir apparent of a rich marquesdom , or that you have married so noble a woman ; leave this kind of boasting to them , who have their minds glewed to the world , and therefore have no better things to boast on ; whose portion being here in this life , they can look for nothing in heaven . but rather rejoyce you are entred into the kingdom of grace ; glory in this , that the king of kings hath had mercy on you , and hath drawn you out of the misty darkness of the errors of the romish religion , hath given you to feel his endless love and mercy in christ , hath made you of a child of wrath , his own son ; of a servant to sin and the devil , an heir of heaven ; and of a bondslave to hell , a free denison of the heavenly jerusalem ; and glory in this , that even christ jesus himself is given you , and made your own , and with him all things else . so that as paul saith , all are yours , whether the world , or life , or death , things present or things to come , all are yours in and by christ , who is the only felicity of our souls : and therefore whosoever have him , have with him all things else . this is the true glory , and the sound boasting of christianity ; for hereby is god's mercy extolled , and mans pride troddon under foot , by which a man trusting too much to himself , rebelleth against god ▪ this glorious boasting makes us humble even in our highest honours , and modest and meek in prosperity , patient and quiet in adversity ; in troubles strong and courageous , gentle towards all men , joyful in hope , fervent in prayer , full of the love of god , but empty of all love of our selves , or ought in the world ▪ yea , it makes us christs true beadsmen , and his sworn servants , and make us yield up our selves wholly to imitate and follow christ , and to esteem all things else as frail and vain , yea dung and dross that we may win christ. right honourable and my good lord , you see that i am so willingly employed in this service of writing to your honour , and in conferring with you of heavenly matters , that i have forgot my self , or rather your honor , in being so tedious , which in the beginning i purposed not . i am privy to my self of my own ignorance , and guilty of my own insufficiency , as being sitter to be a scholar than a teacher ; and to hear and learn my self , rather than to teach others ; and therefore i crave pardon of your honor : farewel . the most reverend e. s. desireth in his heart he had occasion to testifie indeed , that true good will which in his soul he bears you : in the mean time he salutes you , and so doth the illustrious prince , and all other the honourable personages which are with me ; all which rejoyce for this good work of god in you , and in all kindness do kiss your hands ; and they do earnestly intreat the lord for you , that he that hath begun so great a work in you ▪ would accomplish the same to the end ; and the richer you are in temporal goods , in lands , and lordships , that he would make you so much the more poor in spirit ▪ that so your spiritual poverty may do that which your worldly riches and honors cannot ; namely , bring you at last to eternal and never-fading riches of the world to come : amen . your honours most humble and obedient servant , g. b. printed in the year 1688. popish treaties not to be rely'd on in a letter / from a gentleman at york, to his friend in the prince of orange's camp ; addressed to all members of the next parliament. gentleman at york. 1688 approx. 25 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 3 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a55468 wing p2960 estc r988 12181770 ocm 12181770 55685 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a55468) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 55685) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 875:1) popish treaties not to be rely'd on in a letter / from a gentleman at york, to his friend in the prince of orange's camp ; addressed to all members of the next parliament. gentleman at york. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 4 p. s.n., [london? : 1688?] reproduction of original in huntington library. caption title. attributed to gilbert burnet. cf. nuc pre-1956. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion popish treaties not to be rely'd on : in a letter from a gentleman at york , to his friend in the prince of orange's camp. addressed to all members of the next parliament . the credulity and superstition of mankind hath given great opportunities and advantages to cunning knaves to spread their nets , and lay their traps in order to catch easie and unwary creatures ; these being led on by ignorance , or stupidity , they by pride or ambition , or else a vile and mercenary principle ; therefore seeing we are in this state of corruption , bred up to believe contradictions and impossibilities , led by the nose with every state mountebank , and monkish iugler , moved like puppets by strings and wires ; it seems high time to vindicate humane nature , and to free her from these shackles , laid upon her in the very cradle ; for man ( who ought to be a free and rational animal ) in his present state is only an engine and machine , contriv'd for the vanity and luxury of priests and tyrants , who claim to themselves , and seem to monopolize the divine stamp , tho' we are all made of the same materials , by the same tools , and in the same mould , equal by nature , met together and link'd in societies by mutual contracts , plac'd by turns one above another , and entrusted for some time with the power of executing our own laws , and all by general consent for the publick good of the whole community ; this is the genuine shape and figure of primitive and sound government , not distemper'd and fatally infected with the monstruous excrescencies of arbitrary power in one single member above all the laws of the whole ; infallibility , divine right , &c. started by knaves and sycophants , believ'd by fools , who scarce ever heard of the greek and roman histories , and never read their own . i shall therefore give some examples ( out of an infinite number ) of people ruin'd and utterly destroy'd by their easie credulity , and good nature , matter of fact being a stronger proof , and better rule to steer mankind , than the empty notions of the schools , invented only to perplex and confound our ratiocination , lest it should discover the naked truth of things . the present letter will confine it self only to publick promises , oaths , and solemn contracts , scandalously violated by the roman catholicks ▪ not with heathens and hereticks only , but amongst themselves : we will begin with the more remote countries . the spaniards and portugueses have acted so treacherously with the africans , and the natives of both indies , that the cruelty of the history would be incredible , if it was not related by their own historians ; their leagues and treaties ( the most sacred bonds under heaven ) were soon neglected , and the spirit of their religion broke all before it ; how many millions of those innocent creatures were murder'd in cold blood , and for pastime sake , with all the variety of torments that the devil could inspire into them ; how soon were the vast regions of mexico , new spain , peru , hispaniola , brasel , &c. depopulated , above twenty millions of the poor harmless inhabitants being put to death in full peace , and they the best natur'd people in the world , and very ingenious ; tho' they may seem savages to a sort of men , who think all barbarians that differ from them in habits , manners , customes , diet , religion , language , &c. not considering that all-wise nature hath contriv'd a different scene of things for various climates ; nay , such is the inhumanity of these catholick nations here at home , that they will frequently bring strangers ( settled amongst them by the laws of commerce ) and their own fellow subjects into the inquisition ▪ especially if they are rich , upon a pretence of some heretical opinion , tho' they themselves at first protect and license the opinion ; as in the case of molino , whose book had receiv'd an imprimatur from most of the inquisitors of spain and italy , and even from the infallible head of the church , yet afterwards it was burnt , and he himself together with many of his followers miserably tortur'd ; the pope scarce escaping the punishment . the generous marshal schomberg ( driven out of france for his great services ) who had won many battels for the portugueses , and sav'd their country , could not be suffer'd to end his old age amongst them , but was forc'd in the midst of winter to commit himself to the sea , and fly to an inhospitable shoar . the present french king renounced all his pretences on flanders , concluded the pyrenean treaty , and swore at the altar , not to meddle with that country , but how well he observ'd that sacred covenant , baron d' isola will best inform you in his bouclier d'etat , for which he was thought to be poison'd ; neither hath the french monarch been contented to break all faith and measures with the spaniard , but he hath gone about to deceive and ruine the pope , emperour , all the princes and electours of the empire , the prince of orange , duke of lorrain the swizzes , the dutch , and the english , and not only these his neighbours and allies , but his own protestant subjects , who had all the security that solemn edicts , oaths , and promises could afford them , besides many other obligations upon the crown for bringing the king to the throne ; yet all of a sudden they found themselves oppress'd and destroy'd by his apostolical dragoons ▪ their temples razed , their wives and children taken away , their goods and estates confiscated , themselves cast into prisons , sent to the gallies , and often shot at like birds : his seising of lorrain , franch compte , alsace , strasburgh , luxemburgh , the principality of orange , the county of avignon , philipsbourg , the whole palatinate , the electorates of mentz , treves , and cologn , his building of cittadels in the empire and in italy , &c. are so contradictory to national agreements , and publick treaties , that scarce a iesuit or a frenchman can have impudence enough to defend them ; a banditto , a pyrate , or a pick-pocket would be asham'd of such actions ; and an ordinary man would be hang'd for a crime a million times less . his seising upon hudson's bay , and leading the english into slavery ; the french treachery in the engagement at sea between us and the dutch , their frequent seizing of our ships , are light things , not worthy our resentment , being under the conduct of a monsieur whom the world so justly vilifies and despises . the emperour can have no good pretence to condemn the king of france , or any other catholick prince for breach of common faith and honesty , since he himself hath plaid the same game with his protestant subjects , inviting some of the chief of the hungarian nobility to vienna , under the colour of treaty and friendship , and then cutting off their heads , seizing their estates and properties , destroying their pastors and churches , and extirpating the whole reform'd religion , after he had promis'd and stipulated to protect and give them the liberty of their consciences . the parisian masacres were carried on and executed under a mask of friendship , all the principal protestants of france being invited to the healing marriage , to revel and caress , were barbarously butcher'd at the toll of a bell in their beds , when they dream'd they slept securely . the irish massacre of above 200000 protestants was no less treacherous , it was a copy of the spanish cruelty in the west indies , to whom the irish are compar'd by historians for their idleness and inhumanity , tho' not for their wit. the persecutions of the protestants in the valleys of piedmont , are another instance of popish immanity and baseness ; they were under the common shelter of publick pactions and treaties , and had been solemnly own'd by the dukes of savoy , to be the most loyal and the most couragious of their subjects . the present duke , who undertook this last persecution , was not content to destroy them with his own troops , but call'd in the french to assist at the comedy , to shoot them off the rocks ▪ to hunt them over the alps , and to sell the strongest of them to the gallies , that the very turkish slaves themselves might deride and insult over them ▪ catholicks , who have not power or opportunity to execute the same things ▪ seem to condemn the conduct in publick , but sing te deum in private , and as soon as ever they have got a sufficient force , commit the like barbarities , so essential to their religion , that all the instinct of nature cannot separate them . the holy father at rome ( tho' he sets up for a moderate and merciful pontificate ) order'd te deum to be sung up and down , for the extirpation of heresy out of france and piedmont ; and our english catholicks have given us ( as their army and interest encreas'd ) several proofs , how well they can juggle and disguise themselves ; setting up courts of inquisition , turning protestants out of all employs ▪ and even out of their freeholds , dispensing with laws , ravishing charters , packing corporations , &c. and all under a notion of liberty or a divine right ; they with their accomplices defended illegal declarations , and set up an authority above all our laws , under the cloak of a sham liberty of conscience ▪ racking at the very same time the consciences of the church of england men , and undermining the foundation of our state : if mr. pen and his disciples , had condemn'd the unlawfulness of the declarations and the dispensing power , when they wrote so fast for liberty of conscience , they had then shew'd a generous zeal for a just freedome in matters of religion , and at the same time a due veneration to the legislative power ▪ ( kings , lords , and commons ) but the secret of the machine , was to maintain and erect a prerogative above all acts of parliament , and consequently to introduce upon that bottom tyranny and popery ; yet , notwithstanding all this uncontroulable power , and shew of grandeur , an easterly wind , and a fleet of fly-boats , would cancel and undo all again . our monkish historians relate of king iohn , that being in some distress , he sent sir tho. hardington , and sir ralph fitz-nichols , ambassadours to mirammumalim the great emperour of morocco , with offers of his kingdom to him , upon condition he would come and aid him , and that if he prevail'd , he would himself turn mahometan and renounce popery . i will not insist upon the violations of laws and treaties in the low countries , or the spanish tyranny over them ▪ because the spaniards have got so much by that persecution and cruelty , that they might be tempted to practise the like again ; for by forcing the netherlanders to take up arms for their defence , and by necessitating queen elizabeth to assist and preserve them , they have set up a free and glorious state ( as they themselves have call'd them in some treaties ) that hath preserv'd the languishing monarchy of spain , and the liberty of christendome . the base and cowardly massacre of that great hero william prince of orange , of the renowned admiral coligny , and the prince of conde ; the many bloody conspiracies for the extirpation of the whole race of the house of orange ; the murders of henry the 3 d ▪ and henry the 4 th , are all records and everlasting monuments of popish barbarity ▪ what incredible effusions of blood hath been occasion'd by the frequent revolts of the popes against the emperours ▪ by the image-worship , and the holy wars ? what treachery in the bohemian transactions and treaties ? what inhumanity in burning ierome of prague , and iohn hus ? when they had the emperours pass , and all other publick securities from the council it self , that put to death those two good men. the reign of queen mary , is another scene of the infidelity and treachery of the church of rome , what oaths did she take , what promises and protestations did she make to the suffolk men who had set the crown upon her head , and yet they were the first that felt the strokes of a persecution from her. read her history in fox's martyrs , and doctor burnet's history of the reformation . the many conspiracies to destroy queen elizabeth and king iames , the gunpowder-plot , the counsels carried on in popish countries to take off king charles the first , and the many late popish plots are a continued series and thred , carried on by the church of rome , to break thro all laws both of god and man , to erect an universal monarchy of priest-craft , and to bring the whole world under their yoke . the sweeds have taken an effectual and commendable way , to keep popish priests and iesuits ( those boutefeus and disturbers of societies , the declared enemies to the welfare of mankind ) out of their countries , by gelding them , and consequently rendring them incapable of sacerdotal functions , tho the priests have found out a salvo , and will say mass and confess , if they can procure their testicles again , and carry them in their pockets either preserv'd or in powder : in aethiopia , china , and iapan , the roman priests have been so intollerably turbulent , and such extravagant incendiaries , that they have been often banished and put to death ; so that now they disguise themselves all over the eastern nations , under the names and characters of mathematicians , mechanics , physitians , &c. and dare not own their mission to propagate a faith , which is grown ridiculous all over asia . the long and dreadful civil wars of france , the many massacres and persecutions , and lastly the siege of rochel , are living instances how far we may rely upon engagements and laws , both as to the taking of that bulwark , and the promised relief from hence , the protestant defenders of it , refusing to rely any longer upon paper edicts , and the word of a most christian king , had this city granted them as a cautionary town for their security , for before they had alwaies been deluded out of their advantages by fair promises , insignificant treaties , and the word of a king ; yet lewis the 13. following the vitious examples of treacherous princes , fell upon this glorious city , which , upon the account of their laws and priviledges , made a resistance and brave defence , ( having never heard of passive obedience amongst their pastors ) thinking it more lawful to defend their rights , than it was for lewis to invade them . as for the late and present reign here in england , they are too nice and tender things for me to touch ; whether the transactions of them are consistant with the coronation oaths , the many declarations , protestations , publick and solemn promises , i am no fit judge ; they are more proper for the gravity of an historian , or the authority of a parliament to handle , than for a private gentleman in a letter to his friend : the bishops papers , and the p. of orange's declarations are the best memoirs of them , but they only begin , where the two parts of the history of the growth of popery and arbitrary government left off , and how far we may trust to catholick stipulations , oaths and treaties , the facts of past and the present age are the best criterions and rules to guide and determine us ; for what happens every day ▪ will in all probability happen to morrow , the same causes alwaies produce the same effects ; and the church of rome is still the same church it was a hundred years ago , that is , a mass of treachery , barbarity , perjury , and the highest superstition ; a machine without any principle or setled law of motion , not to be mov'd or stopt with the weights of any private or publick obligations ; a monster that destroys all that is sacred both in heaven and earth ▪ so ravenous that it is never content , unless it gets the whole world into its claws , and tears all to pieces in order to salvation ; a proteus that turns it self into all shapes , a chameleon that puts on all colours according to its present circumstances , this day an angel of light , to morrow a belzebub . amongst all the courts of christendome where i have conversed , that of holland is the freest from tricks and falsehood ; and tho' i am naturally jealous and suspitious of the conduct of princes , yet i could never discover the least knavery within those walls , it appear'd to me another athens of philosophers , and the only seat of iustice and vertue now left in the world ; as for the character of the prince of orange , it is so faithfully drawn by sir will. temple , doctor burnet , and in a half sheet lately printed , that i , who am so averse from flattery , that i can scarce speak a good word of any body , or think one good thought of my self , will not write any further panegyrick upon his highness , only that he is a very honest man , a great souldier , and a wise prince , upon whose word the world may safely rely . a late pamphleteer reviles the prince with breaking his oath when he took the statholder's office upon him , not considering that the oath was impos'd upon his highness in his minority by a french faction , then jealous of the aspiring and true grandeur of his young soul ; that the states themselves ( to whom the obligation was made ) freed his highness from the bond ; and that the necessity of affairs , and the importunities of the people forced that dignity upon him , which his ancestors had enjoy'd , and he so well deserv'd , that he sav'd the sinking commonwealth ( their provinces being almost all surpriz'd and enslav'd by the french ) compared to the gasping state of rome after the loss at cannae ; his highness was no more puft up with this success , than he had been daunted with hardships and misfortunes ; alwaies the same hero , just , serene , and unchang'd under all events , an argument of the vastness of his mind ; whereas on the contrary , mutability , ( sometimes tyrant , sometimes father of a country , sometimes huffing , other times sneaking ) is oftentime a symptome of a mean and cowardly soul , vile and dissolute , born for rapine and destruction . as for the princess , she may without any flattery be stiled the honour and glory of her sex ; the most knowing , the most virtuous , the fairest , and yet the best natur'd princess in the world ; belov'd and admir'd by her enemies , never seen in any passion , always under a peculiar sweetness of temper , extremely moderate in her pleasures , taking delight in working and in study , humble and affable in her conversation , very pertinent in all questions , charitable to all protestants , and frequenting their churches : the prince is often seen with her at the prayers of the church of england , and she with the prince , at the devotion of his church ; she dispenses with the use of the surplice , bowing to the altar , and the name of iesus , out of compliance to a country that adores her ; being more intent upon the intrinsick and substantial parts of religion , prayer and good works : she speaks several languages even to perfection , is entirely obedient to the prince , and he extremely dear to her ; in a word , she is a princess of many extraordinary virtues and excellencies , without any appearance of vanity , or the least mixture of vice ; and upon whose promise the world may safely depend : as for the many plots and conspiracies against this royal couple a short time may bring them all to light , and faithful historians publish them to the world. lastly , we may observe that whereas it hath been the maxim of several kings , both at home and abroad of late years , to contend and ourvie each other in preying upon , and destroying not only their neighbours , but their own protestant subjects , by all methods of perfidiousness and cruelty ; the only way to establish tyranny , and to enslave the natural freedom of mankind , being to introduce a general ignorance , superstition , and idolatry ; for if once people can be perswaded that statues and idols are divinities and adorable , and that a wafer is the infinite god , after two or three ridiculous words , utter'd by a vile impostor and impudent cheat , then they may easily be brought to submit their necks to all the yokes that a tyrant and a priest can invent and put upon them ; for if once they part with their reason , their liberty will soon follow ; as we behold every day in the miserable enslav'd countries where popery domineers . on the contrary , it hath always been the steddy and immutable principle of the house of orange to rescue europe from its oppressours , and to resettle governments upon the primitive and immortal foundation of liberty and property ; a glorious maxim , taken from the old roman commonwealth , that fought and conquer'd so many nations , only to set them free , to restore them wholsome laws , their natural and civil liberties ; a design so generous , and every way great , that the east groaning under the fetters and oppressions of their tyrants , flew in to the roman eagles for shelter and protection , under whose wings the several nations liv'd free , safe and happy , till traitours and usurpers began to break in upon the sacred laws of that vertuous constitution , and to keep up armies to defend that by blood and rapine , which iustice would have thrown in their face , and punished them as they deserved ; the preservation and welfare of the people being in all ages call'd the supreme law , to which all the rest ought to tend . from the foregoing relation of matter of fact , it appears most plain , that the roman catholicks are not to be ty'd by laws , treaties , promises , oaths , or any other bonds of humane society ; the sad experience of this and other kingdoms , declares to all mankind the invalidity and insignificancy of all contracts and agreements with the papists , who notwithstanding all their solemn covenants with hereticks , do watch for all advantages and opportunities to destroy them , being commanded thereunto by their councils and the principles of their church , and instigated by their priests . the history of the several wars of the barons of england , in the reigns of king iohn , henry the third , edward the second , and richard the second , in defence of their liberties , and for redressing the many grievances ( under which the kingdome groan'd ) is a full representation of the infidelity and treachery of those kings , and of the invalidity of treaties with them ; how many grants , amendments ▪ and fair promises had they from those princes ▪ and yet afterwards how many ambuscades , and snares were laid to destroy those glorious patriots of liberty ; what violations of compacts and agreements , and what havock was made upon all advantages and opportunities , that those false kings could take : read their histories in our several chronicles . finis . a sermon preached at the chappel of the rolls on the fifth of november, 1684 being gun-powder-treason day / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1684 approx. 26 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 15 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30424 wing b5880 estc r27240 09726092 ocm 09726092 44057 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30424) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 44057) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1351:14) a sermon preached at the chappel of the rolls on the fifth of november, 1684 being gun-powder-treason day / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 30 [i.e. 24] p. printed for the author and are to be sold by r. baldwin, london : 1684. reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -o.t. -psalms xxii, 21 -sermons. gunpowder plot, 1605 -sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached at the chappel of the rolls , on the fifth of november , 1684. being gun-powder-treason-day . by gilbert burnet , d. d. london : printed for the author , and are to be sold by r. baldwin , in the old-baily corner , upon ludgate-hill , 1684. this sermon as it was the shortest i ever preached , so was not at all intended for the press ; but some discourses that have been raised upon it , made me conclude , it was in some sort necessary to publish it for my own vindication . i have writ it out with all possible exactness and fidelity ; tho since i do not read my notes , nor repeat them word for word , i cannot answer that either in this or the other sermons that i have printed , my pen has so governed , or followed my tongue , that there was no variation between them ; i am sure it is here printed as near the words i used , as i can remember them ; and in this i have not depended only on my own memory , but on several of my hearers , who hearkned to that sermon with more than ordinary attention , and do think that it is very punctually set down here as i spake it . i am sure the last part of it , that presses loyalty and obedience , is not at all enlarged beyond what i not only preached in that sermon , but on many other occasions , in which i appeal to all my hearers . but i leave the sermon to speak for it self , and me both ; and will refer it to every mans conscience that reads it , to judg whether or not i can be concluded from it to be a person disaffected to his majesties government . psal. xxii . 21. save me from the lyons mouth , for thou hast heard me from the horns of the vnicorns . we have no greater encouragement in our addresses to god , than the remembrance of past deliverances ; and we never worship him more decently , than when we mix our acknowledgments for what is past , with our prayers for what is to come . so david here implores the divine protection in an extreme danger , which is poetically exprest , by the lions mouth , the figure of a lion importing the strength as well as the rage of his enemies ; and its mouth importing the nearness of the danger , which perhaps relates to the hazards he run of falling into the hands of saul . and with this he gives the reason of his confidence in god , even in that extremity ; because in some former dangers , which are expressed by the figure of being on the horns of the unicorn , or rhinoceros , and so being ready to be tossed up , or torn by it , god had heard him . this perhaps relates to his deliverance from the lion , and the bear , or from goliah . it is needless to enlarge more upon the words . three things occur very naturally to our thoughts from them , with relation to this present occasion . the first is , the apprehension of danger from a formidable and cruel enemy . the second is , a hope of preservation founded on former deliverances . and the third is , the mean that is here laid before us for our preservation ; it is prayer to god , that he may save us from the lions mouth , who has before heard us ( that is , in the seripture-phrase delivered us ) from the horns of the unicorns . for the first particular , i will use no preambles , but plainly tell you , that it is the church of rome which i mean , that is both so strong and so cruel an enemy ; and is as a lion going about seeking how to devour all that differ from it . as for the strength of this enemy , it may be measured by the empire which that church has assumed , not onely over mens persons , but over their consciences : this being indeed the fundamental doctrine of of that church , of believing as the church believes ; of delivering up mens reasons and consciences to be led blind-fold into whatsoever doctrines or practices their guides impose upon them ; and making them think , that to doubt of any of these is a sin , and that therefore it must be opened to the priest , and cannot be taken away , but by his leave , and pardon given by him . the mystery of popery lies not so much in other speculative opinions , as in this main point , that we ought not to trust neither our reason nor our senses in the examining such articles as that church proposes to us , but must take them all , and her authority to boot , which determines all the rest , upon her own word : so that the main thing in controversie between the church of rome and us , is , whether we ought to inquire into the will of god our selves , or must take it upon trust from our guides ? a church that has established such a tyranny upon the tenderest part of our natures , our reason , which is the most jealous of its liberty , as well as the most desirous of it , no wonder if she takes it ill to see so sacred a secret look'd into ; for , as it will not bear an inquiry , so every inquiry into it , is a step towards the shaking it off . and therefore , as her power is absolute over her own votaries ; so she must bear an extreme hatred to any that will be so impudent as to pretend , that their understandings are exempted from her yoke . other things concur in that church to confirm this empire . the belief of the priests power , both of transubstantiating the bread and the wine , and of granting absolution , makes it seem very reasonable to trust a body of men , that are so wonderfully qualified , with the keeping and conduct of other mens consciences . and after the most essential , as well as the most uneasily subdued power of a man was conquered , no wonder if the lesser matters , such as wealth and dominion , should follow the other , as a sort of perquisits . he that can forgive the sins of the living , and redeem the souls of the dead , will drive a sure trade for himself ; for though it cannot be sure that what he does is ratified in heaven ; yet the belief of it , whether it gives heaven to the purchaser or not , is sure to bring the best part of this earth to the seller . men do not return to tell that they were cheated in the bargain , and to demand an equity . on the contrary , in dark ages nothing was more common than pretended apparitions and voices to confirm the imposture ; which have vanished in an age that is more apt to suspect and examine such things , as the illusions of our dreams fly from us whenever we are awake . but the night was so long and so dark , that no wonder if so gainful a trade was carried on with great success : and who would stand much upon the case , after they had parted with the jewel ? so mens reasons being once given up , no wonder if wealth , and all other secular advantages , were thrown into the bargain . a church established upon such a bottom , and supported with so much wealth and power , and defended by such multitudes , who as they have all their proportion of the spoil , so are tied to it by vows , as well as engaged in it by interest ; and that has subdued so great a part of the world , and claims a more than ordinary title to us , as having been once a very valuable part of her empire , is justly to be looked on as a great and formidable enemy . but it is not the greatness of an enemy , that makes him so formidable ; it is his rage and cruelty that gives the most mortal apprehensions . the old romans made the nations that they subdued , gainers by the conquest they made of them : but the modern romans are more unrelenting enemies . they first make all their votaries look on such as are not of their party , as hereticks , that is , men hated of god , and devoted to damnation . now it will be no hard thing to inspire men with cruelty , when they are once possessed with such inveterate hatred and aversion to a sort of men who they believe are to burn in hell for ever ; and so they think they but co-operate with the justice of god , if they help this forward , and bring it on a little the sooner ; especially when such fires purifie the air , which would be otherwise corrupted with their heresie . a church that has substituted this wild-fire of rage and cruelty , to these gentle flames of love and charity ; and that , in stead of making us love one another , makes us destroy and burn one another , is the most opposite thing possible to a society founded on the gospel ; as if , in stead of the union that ought to be among christians , we ought onely to be bundling up numbers of them in faggots , to be burnt or blown up . all means possible are taken to impose this cruelty on the world , which without some practice and extraordinary endeavours could not be wrought up to such a pitch , as to lay down the bowels of a man , and take up the rage of a wolf or lion. bishops among them are made to swear at their consecration , that they shall persecute hereticks to the utmost of their power . decrees of general councils have been made for the extirpating hereticks ; and indulgence , with the pardon of sins , have been promised to such as should assist at it . and because there is somewhat great and generous in the nature of most princes , therefore they have decreed , that if they are remiss in this affair , of extirpating such as the church condemns of heresie , which is onely a soft word for being the churchmens executioners , they shall be first excommunicated ; and if they persist in their merciful inclinations , they are next to be deposed , their subjects to be acquitted of their oaths of allegiance , and their dominions to be disposed of to other more zealous , that is , less merciful catholicks . thus all possible ways are taken to engage all sorts of people , both clergy and laity , both princes and subjects , into these cruel practices ; and therefore the bloody things that have been done among them , are not so much the excesses of particular persons , as the natural effects of the established doctrines and rules of their church , which seems to have forced them upon all within it , with so affected a care , as if those who had managed it had been jealous that good nature and common humanity would have been too hard for them , if this machin had not been set on by so many strong springs , that nothing should withstand it . so in short , here is an enemy that if it prevails it must either swallow up our souls , or will be sure if that project fails , to succeed in that which it has in reserve , it will devour our bodies . if any say , that these were effects of heat long ago , which are now disowned by that church . to such this must be answered , that as bellarmine says , the church does not always put in practise her power of deposing princes , because she is not always able to execute her censures ; so this doctrine of extirpation is either really hid from some good-natured proselytes , whose hearts might perhaps turn against a church that should authorize such barbarities ; or is cautiously and prudently enough disowned by those who know it , till they see a fair conjuncture and a fit opportunity : and those who do not now see it , may perhaps then feel it . but we are not to seek long for instances of this cruelty , when we have such a crying one in our eyes in the business of this day , which is the second thing i proposed to speak to . where we have a crime before us that far past all the invention of former ages : for never was there any one single action , that would have produced such mischievous effects , as one spark of fire would have done here , if god had not heard and delivered us from the horns of the vnicorns . none could suspect the nature of man of so black a design : and it was less to be apprehended from men of the same countrey , if the becoming a proselyte to rome did not make a man both forget that he was a man , and an english-man . nor was there any violent oppression in the case , which often makes even a wise man mad , for they were under so little pressure , that the government was a little censured for its remisness : so that a merciful prince and a gentle reign do not allay their fury . it had been long in consultation among them , as may appear by this one instance among many more that might be given , delrio a jesuite in a book printed at leuvain , but five years before this , puts a case , whether if a confederate discover in confession that he or some else have placed gunpowder , or such like matter under such or such a house , and unless it be removed , the house will be blown up , the prince destroyed , and as many as are in or going out of the city , will sustain great mischief , or run an extream hazard , the priest ought to reveal it ? it is determined in the negative , that he ought not to do it ; and for this he cites a bull of pope clement the eighths , against the taking any notice of things discovered in confession , which though it related only to superiours , and required them to take no notice in their government of such things as they know in confession , yet the jesuite argues from thence , that the pope approved the opinion , that confessors ought to behave themselves in all respects , as if they had heard nothing at all in confession . this being published so near england , and so near the time when this train was laying , shews that it was then in their thoughts : for it is a case that had never before fallen out , and so was not likely to have fallen into a mans thoughts , if the thing had not been in consultation among them . in conclusion , when a sufficient number were cemented by so many oaths and sacraments in such a black design , then it was laid with so much artifice , that it was not probable it could have miscarried . thus were our fathers upon the horns of the vnicorns , when by an unlookt for accident it appeared , that that eye to which those dark places lay naked , took pitie on us , and laid this open to the preservation of king , and queen , and prince , the clergy and nobility , the commons and all others whom that great solemnity of the meeting of a parliament commonly brings together ; besides the crouds round about the place , who would very probably have had a large share of so devouring an earthquake , as so much gunpowder must have produced . it is true , some humanity was left , but it was only to their own party ; warning was given to so many , that there were not above three worth saving , in their account , in all that vast assembly , who were not advertised to absent themselves , as sir everard digby writ out of prison to a friend . one of these advertisements being conveyed very odly to a lord of that religion , gave him the happy opportunity of being the instrument that brought out all this secret provision for so many deaths that was laid up in store . the bold incendiary that undertook the thing , was taken , and all broke out : but then , though a great many of those who had not learnt the depths of satan , were so far overcome by the discovery , as to confess all , yet as one of these was prevailed with to retract that afterwards , but a few minutes before his death in prison , which prevented his suffering by the hand of justice , so the jesuites shewed on this occasion how they can steel their consciences , both in undertaking the blackest crimes ; and in throwing off that guilt with the most impudent denials . garnet their provincial did this to a degree of assurance , that astonished those who took his examinations . sir everard digby , one of the conspirators in his letters , of which i have seen the originals , calls that conspiracy , a cause dearer to him than his life ; and so powerfully had the poyson of that religion corrupted his thoughts , that in all his letters writ during his imprisonment , even in his last advices to his children , there is not the least hint of repentance for his engagement in so vile a design , though in all other respects he appeared to be a man that was both vertuously and religiously inclined , such an influence has that religion even on the best natures . if after all this , these had been only the execrable practices of some assassinates , though it would have left some imputation on a church , for having such members in her bosome , yet it might be well enough put by with this ; that there will be still cockle among the wheat , and that there was a traitor among the twelve apostles . but if these things were done pursuant to the doctrines of that church , that makes it lawful to kill hereticks , to depose princes , to dissolve the bonds of allegiance , and to give their dominions to other ; then we may more justly charge the guilt of this day upon the church it self . it gives very just grounds of suspicion that the pope never made any declaration of his detestation of that crime , though , as i have been credibly informed , it was much desired : on the contrary , two priests that had engaged in it , getting beyond-sea , were well received and provided for by the pope even in rome it self . and the jesuites have made prints and pictures for garnet as a saint , and fables of straws that wrought miracles by virtue of some drops of blood that fell on them , which afterwards were converted into little pictures , have been proposed to the world as evidences of his saintship . in a word , it is plain that these who engaged in this conspiracy , were carried into it by the principles of their religion , and that they were so far from being condemned for it , that they were supported and justified both living and dead for what they did in it . and that learned king , though by the goodness of god he never felt the effects of the bloudy rage of that cruel religion , yet he knew it well , and therefore upon a solemn occasion he protested to his councellours , that he would never so much as grant a toleration of that religion , but would spend the last drop of bloud in his body before he would do it ; and pray'd that before any of his issue should maintain any other religion than what he truly professed and maintained , that god would take them out of the world . since then , notwithstanding the close management as well as the secret contrivance of this cursed plot , which was so near its execution , that the whole state both of this church and nation was in a danger , not unfitly expressed by their being on the horns of the vnicorns ; god yet heard our fathers and delivered them , who have handed down to us the remembrance of that great salvation that he wrought for them on this blessed day ; then all the royal family descended from that king , all the nobility and gentry , whose ancestours were markt for destruction , all the clergy to whose burning that fire was the forerunner , unless they resolved to save themselves by apostacy , and the whole english nation that was then like to have seen so black a day , and have fallen under so dark a night , ought all to joyn together and say , o give thanks unto the lord , for he is gracious , for his mercy endureth for ever , amen and amen . and because his mercy endureth for ever , therefore we ought still to pray to him to preserve us , and to say to him , save me from the lions mouth , which is the third thing in my text. we believe there is a secret providence that governs the world , and that discriminates between the good and the bad , and therefore we ought to address our selves to that providence , as well as to depend on it and submit to it ; and since the religion that we profess is the cause of god , and the dearest of all other things to him who delivered it to the world , who sealed it with his own blood , and in whose hands the government of all things in heaven and in earth was put by his father , we may well quiet our minds , amidst all the fears and apprehensions which melancholy thoughts may suggest to us . god will not abandon his own work , nor will christ forget that which was the purchase of his own blood. we may indeed make our selves unworthy of it , and the cry of our sins may go up so loud to heaven , as to drown these softer whispers of our prayers and thanksgivings . it is our contempt of god and religion ; our unreformed lives amidst all the noise we make of the reformation , our forgetting past mercies , and our insensibility to all the methods of divine providence , that ought to make us fear the lion's mouth , and every thing else that is dismal and frightful : and therefore if we would have our prayers to be effectual , we must take care that our lives may not defeat our cold and slender devotions . but as we desire to have our prayers to be heard , so we must take a particular care to join no endeavours with them that may argue a distrust of god , or of our religion : and while we have a zeal against popery , as a bloody , a rebellious , and a cruel religion ; we must do nothing to shew that we are acted by the spirit of popery , even while we seem to oppose it . all malice to mens persons , all desire of revenge , the thirst of blood , fierce zeal , and indecent rage , are the characters of the persecuting spirit that reigns there : we must not think ill of every particular man among them , because of their corruptions , which perhaps he does not know ; and if he did know them , would disown them . we must think as charitably of men as we can : for tho' there is very little charity due to the complicated body , and the governing part of that church ; yet we owe a great deal to many particular men in it , who are still in it , because they have not known the depths of satan ; and would very probably forsake it , if they saw so well as to discern them . but above all these , we must never forget the station in which god has put us , as we are subjects under a lawful prince , to whom we are tied both by divine and humane laws : and even the lion's mouth it self opening to devour us , can never excuse us from our obligation to submit and suffer , if god had so ordered it by his providence , that we had not the blessing of being born under a prince that is the defender of the faith , but were born under one that would deliver us up to the lion . much less ought jealousies to be so blown into our minds by ill-disposed men , as to make us forget our duty to god and the king. suffer me here to speak this freely , that the late rebellion , as it was managed with a popish , that is , a bloody spirit , so many of the arguments that were used to defend it , were taken from popish authors . when we go out of the way of patience and submission , of obedience , and of bearing the cross ; when we give scope to passion and rage , to jealousy and mistrust , and upon this fermentation in our minds we break out into wars and rebellion ; we forget that the god whom we serve is almighty , and can save us either from a devouring fire , or a lion's mouth ; and either will save us from these , or reward us infinitely for them : we forget that the saviour whom we follow , was made perfect by sufferings ; and that we become then truly his disciples , when we bear his cross , even tho' we should be crushed under it : we forget that our religion ought to inspire us with a contempt of life and the world , and with meekness and lowliness of mind : we forget that we are the followers of that glorious cloud of witnesses , who have by faith and patience inherited the promises , and have gone to take possession of the kingdom that was prepared for them , through fire , and through blood , but it was their own blood. and to sum up all , we forget that our reformation was the shaking off of popery , that is , a bloody conspiracy against the souls and bodies of men : against the souls of the weak , and against the bodies of the firm , but innocent professors of this holy religion . we are not to share with them in their cruelty , nor imitate them in their rebellion . but on the other hand ; if we will live so suitably to our religion , that we may be thereby entitled to the blessing of enjoying it , and of being secure in it ; and if our melancholy apprehensions make us pray more earnestly to the great author of it , then we may lie down in quiet ; for god will either make us to dwell in safety , and deliver us from the lion's mouth ; or if he gives us up as a prey , yet at least we shall even in death overcome , and obtain the crown of life . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30424-e230 delrio dis. mag. lib. 6. c. 1. crooks reports term. trin. 2. iac. a sermon preached at st. dunstans in the west at the funeral of mrs. anne seile, the 18th of july, 1678 by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1678 approx. 35 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 16 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30416 wing b5871 estc r13574 12389558 ocm 12389558 60962 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30416) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 60962) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 272:3) a sermon preached at st. dunstans in the west at the funeral of mrs. anne seile, the 18th of july, 1678 by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 29 p. printed by mary clark, london : 1678. reproduction of original in bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng seile, anne, d. 1678. future life -sermons. funeral sermons. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion memento mori a sermon preached at st. dunstans in the west at the funeral of mrs. anne seile , the 18th of iuly 1678. by gilbert burnet . london , printed by mary clark , 1678. a sermon on ephes. v. 15 , 16. see then that you walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise , redeeming the time , because the days are evil . this text seems very proper on this occasion ; since what is here recommended , agrees very near to the character , which i have had given me , of the person to whom we are now paying the last duties ; but having been a stranger to her my self , and she being much better known to you all , among whom she led her life , i shall say no more of her : but apply my self to the text. this is an exhortation following very naturally upon the preceding discourse ; in which st. paul had been comparing the state of christians under the gospel to light , opposing it to the darkness of the former superstition under heathenism : which was made up of many mysterious riddles , and unaccountable rites and performances , the chief design whereof was rather to darken than enlighten its blind votaries . but the gospel , being a plain and clear direction , how to attain eternal life in the practice of the most excellent rules that ever were delivered ; is therefore fitly as well as frequently in the new testament , compared to light , in which there are no dark secrets ; which must be known only to a few priests : but all is laid open , and made plain to every discreet and diligent reader . and though it contains several things which are dark and mysterious , as in the clearest light places at a great distance seem black , yet the darkness is not in the manner of revelation , which is explicite and plain , but rises from the remoteness of the object , which being at such distance from us , and so far above us , cannot be made so visible to us , as those things that are before us , and lie in our way : about which not only the precepts are plain and express , but the reason of them is so apparent , that like publick high ways , the rule is so plain , that without some art a man cannot be mistaken ; so that if the history of past ages , and the sad prospect of the present did not give us an unanswerable objection to the contrary , one that considers the thing in it self , would hardly think it possible , that a man could be mistaken about it . this being then laid down : the exhortation in the text i have read , does naturally follow . he that walks in the dark , though he stumble often , it is forgiven him , and if he makes but any tolerable progress in his way it is wondered at : but if we should see a man stumbling who walks in full day light , and if he made no considerable progress , we must needs conclude him under some distemper of body or mind : so how justly soever we admire the vertues of the heathens , whose religion tended rather to corrupt than purifie them ; yet it will be an eternal reproach on us , if we who are enlightned by so heavenly a doctrine , do not far outstrip them , both in the exactness of our deportment , and our constant progress in vertue . i shall without any accurate division follow the thread of my text ; and offer from it such considerations , as may be most profitable and suitable to the present o●casion ; and shall consider , first , what is imported in this walking circumspectly , or exactly and accurately . secondly , the character given of such a walk : that it is the consequence of true wisdom , and that the contrary is the greatest folly in the world , not as fools , but as wise . thirdly , that we ought to be making a daily progress in vertue : either making up what we have lost by our former idleness and folly , or cutting off those superfluities of naughtiness which consume so much of our time . redeeming the time . and lastly , the reason given for all this , because the days are evil . to walk circumspectly , according to the true notion of the word , is to live with all possible strictness and accurateness : not affecting a pharisaical sowrness , nor a nicity about some lesser matters . this exactness consists not in a coarse habit , sullen looks , an affectation of odd gestures , or a peevish scrupulosity about little things . these are the arts of hypocrisie , which though a discerning mind see through and despise them , yet have in all ages wrought much on the feeble , and easily deceived multitudes ▪ it is true , a man cannot be religious in good earnest , but let him use what secresie and care soever he can to conceal it , it will shine in his deportment ; and even in the external parts of it , there will appear so much of a composed gravity , tempered with a just mixture of sweetness and good nature , that he will shine as a light in the world . yet there is such a variety of mens humours and dispositions , some being naturally melancholy , others more gay and jovial , that we ought never on the one hand to be taken too much with an outward appearance , how fair soever , nor be on the other hand too apt to censure people for such things in their external behaviour , which do perhaps rise from their natural tempers and dispositions . but to walk circumspectly is a thing of far greater importance . it is in a word , to govern our hearts and inward affections , and our lives and outward actions , by the rule of the gospel . it is not only to be so far good as to live without scandal in the world , nor to quiet the clamours of conscience which may rise upon us after some more notorious sins ; but it imports somewhat beyond all these : that a man should dedicate himself to religion , making it his business ▪ and as the bloud circulates over the whole body , in greater vessels thorough the nobler parts , and in smaller ones even thorough the remotest members ; so the true spirit of christianity runs through a mans whole life , with a due proportion of care and application : not putting his whole strength to lesser matters , and doing the greatest slightly and carelesly , but applying his greatest industry to things of chief concernment , yet so as not to be too remiss in the smallest matters . he therefore that would walk circumspectly must first , lay down to himself a complete scheme of his whole life , that he may form distinct rules to himself , in all the parts of his business , by which he shall govern his life and actions . he that has not thus digested into his thoughts a clear model of what he resolves to be , lives at random , and cannot walk circumspectly : for he knows not what it is . an architect that builds by rule , has a plane or model according to which the house must rise ; and without which all must be irregular , and out of order : if therefore we set about the raising of this spiritual building , we must both lay down a regular frame of it , and cast up the expence of what it rises to . therefore he that will be an accurate christian , must consider himself in all the circumstances of his life : what his station calls him to : how he is obliged to his relations , how he ought to imploy his time , both in his retirement , business , and diversions ; that upon all these he may agree within himself to such rules as shall be the measures of his actions . this scheme being once laid down , we must by frequent thinking so infix it in our memories , that we need not run to any books for our rules , but have them always before our eyes , and by firm and positive resolutions we must engage our selves as deep as we can to the observance of them . secondly , we must frequently compare our lives and actions by the rules thus laid down : and this not only in some transient thoughts , but in deep and serious reflexions . no business can go well on , unless the accounts and progress of it are often ballanced and much considered . if men therefore do so carefully manage their fortunes , that they set off large portions of their time either daily , weekly , or yearly , to examine their accounts : how can it be imagined that a thing of that importance , upon which all the hopes of our eternal state depends , should be so easily transacted ? therefore we ought often to search our hearts , and try our actions , that we may discover if there be any evil way in them . the tradesman does often and anxiously apply his square to the work , left little irregularities which the eye cannot discover , should by an undiscerned progress amount to so notable an errour , as might spoil the whole design . we slip into many habits without reflection ; which as an unsensible motion of dust upon our cloaths , does not stain them so visibly in any one minute , but after a little time do cover and discolour them : so many little things that pass neglected will at length run on to a greater matter in the total sum of them ▪ thirdly , he that walks circumspectly does by an even and steady course avoid extremes on all hands ; he must not allow himself any one fault : for willingly to consent to a small sin makes it a great one . he must therefore keep himself at a distance from sin , by avoiding it in its first beginnings , in which it is easily resisted . nor must he only avoid things in themselves sinful , but every thing that leads out of the way . there are many things which in their own nature are innocent , and therefore fall within our liberty : but if those things by an unlucky hit with our tempers and other circumstances , prove snares to us , then a man who walks accurately must avoid them ; as he who is exactly regular in his diet , does not only consider food as it is wholsom in it self , and pleasant to his taste , but if upon frequent experiments he feels it does not agree with him , he therefore restrains his appetite and rejects it . this rule is so much the more necessary in moral matters , as our souls are of greater importance than our bodies . these are the measures and rules by which he that walks accurately and circumspectly governs himself ; and upon a sober application of these to our selves , we may be able easily to judge , whether we have complied with st. paul's exhortation in my text. do we satisfie our selves in some forms and ceremonies of our religion , and imagine that if we perform these with some care and solemnity , we may live at large all the rest of our time ? are we such strangers to our selves , that we have never so much as considered what our callings and relations oblige us to ? vainly conceiting , that if we pray a little , all is well ? do we often and narrowly review our life that we may discover past errors , and correct them for the future ? count we nothing small that offends god , and blemishes our own integrity ? and do we readily and willingly throw up every thing which proves really a scandal or stumbling to us , even where it is dear as a right eye or a right hand is to us ? if we put those queries to our consciences , and hear what answers they make to them , we may be soon satisfied whether we walk circumspectly or not . i shall not use any other argument to commend this course of life but what is taken from the following words , not as fools , but as wise . the second thing i proposed to speak to . wisdom consists in two things : the first , is to balance things aright , and to judge well of them . the second , is to direct our practice by judgments so well framed . the one is speculative , the other is practical wisdom . now in both these a man that walks circumspectly carries himself as a wise man. no man can judge aright till he has considered all things well . to pronounce rashly is an evident sign of folly . the loose libertines run on headlong , and never stay to think or examine what they do : then resolutions are not the effect of judgment , but rise either from the hurry of passions , the violence of appetite , or the force of some popular customs and habits . men therefore that view things so slightly cannot judge maturely ; but he that walks circumspectly brings all his actions into the light , and tries them by a test that cannot deceive him . i speak now to persons who believe the gospel , and may be supposed upon the present occasion to have something more than ordinary tenderness upon their hearts : and therefore i shall not pursue this further , but certainly as much as things eternal are preferrable to things temporal ▪ as much as the soul is better than the body , and as much as the enjoyment of god is above the possession of a small parcel of this earth ; by so much he makes the better choice who dedicates himself to religion , and supposing those principles are to be acknowledged , certainly it is much the better choice to resolve to walk circumspectly , than to live at the rate of our ordinary christians ▪ for if we believe that god sees , and takes notice of our actions , that he will call us to an account for them , and reward and punish us eternally according to them : then we cannot be too accurate and careful in the ordering of our lives . nor is there any folly in the world equal to this , of thinking that some slight or low form of religion will serve the turn , and that it is needless to strain for high degrees of holiness ; but that god almighty will take any thing off our hands . if a mans life or whole estate be put upon the issue of a trial , the exactest diligence and carefulness is necessary : and remissness then is a crime not to be excused : but of how much greater consequence is eternity , eternity ! rewards are proportioned to the services that are expected : no man is raised to the greatest honours for going on an errand . to expect then eternal life upon some trifling performances , is to conclude that god keeps no proportion between the rewards he offers , and the services he enjoyns . upon all which it may be very reasonably concluded , that he who walks circumspectly gives us this first evidence of his wisdom that he makes the best judgment of things . but wisdom is an empty notion , if it rest in a speculation ; then it is wisdom indeed when it is reduced to practice , and certainly what a man judges fit , ought either to be done by him ; or else he has that within him , which will make his life very uneasie to him . no man has a more uncomfortable life , than he who has good notions of religion , but does not answer them in his actions : for he neither feels the pleasures of sin without controul , nor the joys of a good conscience : but is perpetually rackt between his good principles , and his ill life , so that it is the greatest folly in the world to be religious only by halves . besides , a man who would compound in the matter of religion , and content himself with as low a measure as is possible , evidently discovers that he hath neither true love to god , nor holiness , but is only acted by a base principle of servile fear : which as it perplexes a man inwardly , so it gives him no assurances of gods favour to him ▪ since no man can expect great returns for what is done upon fear . he then that serves god thus , is in danger of losing all his labour ; and if he does not come quite short of his reward , yet he cannot promise himself a full one . it is likewise the easiest , and by consequence the wisest course , to be accurate and circumspect in our religion ; for there is no admitting of sin by measure into our hearts , which is like the breaking in of waters ; give but a passage to a few drops , and they will make way for a whole stream ; and as fire and water cannot be limited by rules in their progress , so it is not possible to restrain our lusts and passions , if we but give way to their first beginnings : but on the other hand , he whose life is of a piece , and does not consent to the commission of any sin , finds the whole work by so much the easier ; for vertue and religion are of a complicated nature ; so that one part strengthens another , and what weakens it in a part pulls down the whole frame . upon the whole matter then it is apparent , that nothing tends so much to quiet a mans mind , to secure his happiness hereafter , and to make his work easie in this life , as to be exactly severe and strict in his whole deportment . and now why do we court the reputation of wisdom so much , and are so heavily offended when we are accounted foolish and unwise ; and yet are guilty of a madness that is far beyond all that can be seen at a bedlam ? to believe eternity , and yet not labour for it ; to acknowledge a god , and yet not serve him with our utmost care ; to profess that we are christians , and yet to live so unlike christ and his gospel , are extravagancies beyond any common madness , and if those fits did return only after long intervals , as they do in lunaticks , it were not so desperate ; but that the fits should be so lasting and constant , and our sober moods only return after long intervals of folly , are sad symptomes that our distempers are past cure . mad men shew their art and skill in some little things about them , and yet are mad men still . so what are all the arts of policy and craft in the world , but like the cunning tricks of madness ? they , they are only truly wise , that consider the author and end of their being aright ; and make that the chief work of their life here , which can secure to them the hopes of an eternal one hereafter . is the art of governing kingdoms , cities , or families , or improving or managing of fortunes to be compared to this , by which a man so governs himself that he has quiet in his own conscience , joyned with assurance of gods favour and protection here , and being with him eternally hereafter ? and yet after all this , how do men glory in their follies , in which they appear as ridiculous to those who discern aright , as those in bedlam , a great part of whose madness does consist in their extravagant gestures and postures , laughing at others , though themselves be a more proper object of it , if tenderness and compassion for them did not over-rule the mirth which their folly is apt to raise ? those who are fools in the severest sense laugh at , and despise the truly religious , who with a far better reason might turn back their contempt upon themselves , if another principle which their religion inspires them with , did not turn it to compassion and pity ; for who can look on such objects without all the meltings of tenderness and good nature . the third thing i proposed to speak to , is the great care and caution with which those who walk circumspectly do measure out and employ their time . redeeming the time ▪ which is capable of a double sense : either first , by redoubling our diligence to make up the time we have lost in our former vanity and folly . when one begins to live exactly , and reflects on his former course of life , he finds so much of his time has been spent to so little purpose , that from the sincere compunction he has of so great a loss , he sets himself forward with all possible industry , to do such services to god in the remaining parts of his life , as may in some sort balance his former irregularities . he that has a long journey to make , and a limited time for it , if he has trifled away a great deal of it , is the more vigilant and busie , and puts on with the greater activity and force : that if it be possible he may repair the faults he formerly committed . when we reflect on the great portions of our time that are already gone , and have been ill applied , if we have any ingenuity in us , we will from a generous sense of our former errours study some way to compensate for what is past , and this will hold more forcibly in those who begin late to be religious ▪ whose youth , strength , and vigour have been employed in the service of their lusts and passions . how will they reckon that the time past ought more than suffice them to have wrought the will of the flesh ? and since they cannot recover what is lost , and redeem it in the strictest sense ; yet they will more vigorously improve the little remainder of time that is before them . to such persons an ordinary measure of holiness is not sufficient ; as one who has long neglected his duty to any superiour , when he returns to himself , expiates what is past with a more punctual obedience and profounder submission . and this is to redeem the time in its first sense . a second sense of it is to rescue and buy it out ( as the word imports ) of their ill hands who have engrost too much of it . many masters have dominion over it ; every one claims his property , and stretches it as far as may be . our bodies claim their share : both in the necessary supplies of decaying nature ; and in providing for those supplies : but beyond these the irregularities of diet , and the vanities of dressing , swallow up a great deal more . the weakness of our minds makes that some diversions are necessary , but modest recreations discreetly used , will not serve turn . many hours must be spent in looking on a defiled stage , where the scenes that are represented are not worse than the impressions they leave on the greatest part of the spectators : and the rest of the day is given up to gaming , which perhaps is continued to the next morning . our friends likewise may claim their share of it , but certainly this ought not to be stretcht so far , as the perpetual receiving and giving of those idle visits , which consume so much time , amounts to . to redeem or buy out our time is to take as much as may be out of the hands of those unjust invaders of it , and to apply it to better and nobler purposes : and to give every one what is their own share , reserving still the best part of it to our selves , and to the noblest part of our selves , our souls . it is a generous piece of kindness and friendship to assist others in their concerns , upon great occasions , when they need our help : but if a man minds only his neighbours affairs , and neglects his own , he is justly censured as a busie body . and what do most of those things amount to , in which we are employed ? one great impertinency runs through our whole life : and if about the greatest part of those affairs in which we toil and labour we put our saviours question to st. peter to our selves , what is that to thee ? we will be to seek for an answer . he then that will turn a manager of this great treasure , time , must reduce his expence , and cut off all the needless waste , he must give his body such refreshments as may both preserve life , and exhilarate his spirits ; and not oppress them with a surcharge of that which will both disorder his body , and clog his mind . and though all the labour of a man is for the belly , yet he must so provide for it , as not to starve his soul ; much less give it into the bargain ; for then he buyes his provisions dear . he must likewise use those diversions which are necessary to keep his body in health , and his mind in temper , but not throw away his time so profusely on them , as if he knew not how to dispose of it otherwise . besides the evaporating the spirits into too much mirth and folly makes us unfit for more sober employments ; as a truant scholar after some days of play , knows not how to turn himself again to his book . it is likewise a very ill evidence of our kindness to our friends to rob them of so much of their time , as the excessive humour of visiting wastes : which whatever people may pretend , about the obligations of civility and kindness , does really flow from this , that they know not how to bestow their time another way . and though many looking on it as a decent way of speaking , complain of these excesses ; yet by their extreme officiousness in them it is visible they are not much troubled at them ; as then he who has out-run himself , and begins to grow more frugal considers the several branches of his expence , and sees what he can cut off from every one of them ; so if we go about to redeem our time , and think to apply it to better purposes , we must see what portions of it we can recover out of the hands of those several consumers of it ; and apply what we can thus gain to nobler exercises , to the serious meditations of vertue and religion : that we may consider how we shall improve our faculties , lay out our talents , and employ our time in such services as may tend to the honour of god , and the good of our neighbours ; and attaining such an inward noble temper of mind , as religion requires , we may walk not only blameless and harmless , but as the sons of god we may shine as lights in the world . and now if we do consider how short our time , and how lasting eternity is ; if we consider how much we have to do , and how small a portion of our time is perhaps before us , which if it be quite wasted , can never be recovered , no not in all eternity ; if we also put to the account the many accidents of sicknesses , and other disorders which waste our time ; we must needs be convinced that it concerns us nearly to husband it as closely and carefully as we can . the reason here given by st. paul , because the days are evil , is next to be considered . evil days in scripture-stile stand either for great afflictions , or publick calamities , or for the declining of a mans age , or the approach of death , but in this place the apostles meaning must either relate to the ill conversation of those among whom they live ; for an evil day , and an evil time by an hebraism stand often for the same thing : or this phrase relates to the afflictions , the scorn , and other miseries the christians lay under , and the more severe persecutions which they had reason speedily to look for . and in all these senses the inference is very just , that because the days are evil we ought to redeem our time . the first sence relates to the corruption of the age , and the great immoralities of which both jews for gentiles were guilty , were a very convincing argument , to perswade christians to consider their ways with more than ordinary carefulness : that they might be upon their guard against the snares of so evil an example ▪ and resist the temptations of vice and sin when it was grown so common , that men were neither ashamed nor afraid of it . it was also the more necessary for christians to look more carefully to themselves , that they might shine as lights in the midst of a wicked generation , and set off the glory of their profession , with a greater advantage , having so black a foil placed near it . and certainly this argument has all possible strength in it , if we apply it to this dissolute age , in which men seem to have lost the shame as well as the sense of sin : and to have delivered themselves up to work wickedness with equal degrees of impudence and greediness . and we ought the rather to look narrowly to our selves , because the vices that have been discovered in some pretenders to piety , seem one of the greatest grounds of those mens confidence , that there is no truth in the things so much talked of . this prejudice is not to be beaten down by any arguments drawn from discourse , but by those undeniable and convincing experiments of a holy life , and vertuous conversation . and when a plague rages so universally that few escape the contagion , we should with the greater strictness look to our selves , that we be not infected . evil communications corrupt good manners . an ordinary diligence will not serve the turn , where the hazard is great , and the danger near . if therefore we either take care of our selves , or be concerned in the honour of our holy profession , we will employ our utmost care both to preserve our selves pure and undefiled , and to free our religion from the blemishes , which the ill-willers of it are apt to cast upon it , for they wait for our halting , and are both industrious to draw us into snares , and censorious enough to cast an imputation on religion , if we do any thing unworthy of it . the second sence of this phrase relates to calamities , and adversities , under which the christians did then groan , and had reason rather to look for an increase than a diminution of them . they who were exposed to the malice of the world had the greater reason to walk with that strictness that might maintain peace and quiet in their consciences ; which alone could balance all the other troubles they lay under ; and the interrupting of which made their lives indeed most miserable and uncomfortable of all other men . they had also the more reason to walk with all possible strictness , since they did not know but the malice of their enemies might very speedily put an end to their days : for to be a christian then was to die daily in its most literal sence . these then who believed eternity , and were every day almost in sight of it , had the greatest reason possible to look to themselves with the strictest caution . it is true we are not under those circumstances ; the profession of our religion is not matter of hazard to us ; we may be securely as religious and vertuous as we will , yet we are still exposed to all those miseries and calamities which naturally follow man in this mortal life . and what is the just support of a man under those trials ? he that can say , with the prophet , unto god , thou art my hope in the evil time , may well with great assurance subsume with david , wherefore should i fear in the days of evil ? when a man is overwhelmed with calamities and troubles , what miserable comforters prove all those other things in which he formerly rejoyced ? they rather increase his trouble , and add to his pain ; those perhaps who are of heavy hearts , may drink till they forget poverty , and remember their misery no more ; but when the fumes of wine are gone , and that fit of frolick mirth is over , their sorrows will return on them with the greater violence . they dare not ask comfort from their own hearts , which are black and defiled ; there being no such terrible companion in misery , as an evil conscience , which will be importunately putting in its accusations at every turn . but on the other hand , that inward peace and joy which a good conscience affords , entertains a man with a continual feast , even in the midst of troubles , and is musick to him over a dinner of herbs . he can look up to god , and look within himself , with much inward joy ; and though all things about him are black and dark , yet those set his thoughts inward more frequently , and with the greater pleasure , to that most agreeable prospect which a good conscience opens to him . this is a sufficient counterpoise to all other weights , that hang about us , and will steadily balance a man though walking on the the most slippery ground , and therefore because the days are evil , we must walk circumspectly , redeeming the time . the last sence of this phrase , is , that by the evil days are meant the approaches of death , so we are commanded to remember our creator in the days of our youth , before the evil days come , after which follows a most poetical description of the decays of old age. when persecutions seem'd near , there was a more visible cause to look on death as approaching : but if we consider how frail we are , and how short a time we have all to live upon the earth , we must acknowledge it most reasonable for us so to number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom . this , that is now before our eyes , with the many other spectacles of mortality , which daily occur , together with the decays we feel within our selves , do sufficiently assure us that we must remain here but a very little while : so that there is nothing in this life , in which our days are both few and evil , that is of any great consequence to us , unless it be according to the relation it hath to another state . how can he that is daily thinking of dislodging , be much concerned about the house he is so soon to leave : but if we believe that there is another state , a just judge , and a severe account , then the consideration of the shortness of our life , should engage us with our utmost industry to prepare for that other state , which will soon come on , and never have an end ; since upon the improving of so short a time depend all our hopes of eternity , and if we do now walk circumspectly , and redeem our time , we may assuredly hope that within a very little we shall be delivered from all the frailties and miseries which sin and infirmity keep us under , and shall be admitted into the presence and enjoyment of god , where , ( as we hope this our sister now doth , who after a long vertuous life led according to these rules , having attained almost to the age that in the psalm is called the full age of a man , of threescore years and ten , has now entred into the rest prepared for the people of god , ) we shall for ever rejoyce with all the companies of angels and saints : with whom , that we may eternally rejoyce , let us now , and all the days of our life , offer up to god the father , son , and holy ghost all honour , praise , and glory , amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30416-e130 mat. 4.16.5.14 . joh 1.4 , 5 , 8 , 9.3.19 , 20. 2 cor. 4.4 , 6. eph. 5.8 . 1 pet. 2.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . mat. 5.16 . phil. 2.15 . psal. 119.6 , 9 , 30 , 106. luk. 14 . 2● . psal. 119.11 . 15.24 . psal. 139.23 , 24. james 1.10 . psal. 119 . 1●3 . psal. 26.45 . mat. 5.26 ▪ 2 cor. 5.10 . 1 joh. 4.18 . 2 joh. 8. ver . jer. 8.9 . psal. 111.10 . prov. 16.32 . 1 pet. 4.3 . john 21.23 . phil. 2.15 . gal. 1.4 . phil. 2.15 . 1 pet. 2.12 , 15. 1 cor. 15.33 . jer. 20.10 . psal. 37.19 . amos 6.3 . eph. 6.13 . jer. 1● . 17 . psal. 49.5 . prov. 31.6 . prov. 15.15 ▪ eccles. 12.1 . psal. 90.12 . gen. 47.9 . an enquiry into the measures of submission to the supream [sic] authority and of the grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for subjects to defend their religion. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 34 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 8 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30362) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 43331) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1326:13) an enquiry into the measures of submission to the supream [sic] authority and of the grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for subjects to defend their religion. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 13 p. [s.n.], london : 1688. attributed to gilbert burnet--nuc pre-1956 imprints. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng government, resistance to. church and state -church of england. great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into the measures of submission to the supream authority . and of the grounds upon which it may be lawful , or necessary for subjects to defend their religion lives and liberties . london , printed in the year 1688. an enquiry into the measures of submission , to the supream authority : and of the grounds upon which it may be lawful or necess●ry for subjects , to defend their religion , lives and liberties . this enquirie cannot be regularly made , but by taking , in the first place , a true and full view of the nature of civil society , and more particularly of the nature of supream power , whether it is lodged in one or moe persons . 1. it is certain that the law of nature has put no difference nor subordina●ion among men , except it be that of children to parents , or of wives to their husbands ; so that with relation to the law of nature , all men a●e born free ; and this libert● must still be supposed entire , unless so far as it is limited by contracts , provisions and laws ; for a man can ei●her bind himsel● to be a servant , or sell himself to be a slave , by which he becomes in the power of another , only so far as it was provided by the contract : since all ●hat liberty which was not expresly given away , remains still entire ; so that the plea for liberty alwayes proves it self , unless it appears that it is given up , or limited by any special agreement . 2. it is no less certain , that as the light of nature has plan●ed in all men a natural principle of the love of life , and of a desire to pr●s●rve it ; so the comm●n principles of all religion agree in this , that god having set us in this world , we are bound to preserve that being , which he has given us , by all just and lawful wayes . now this duty of self-pr●serv●tion , is exerted in instances of two sorts ; the one are in the resisting of violent aggressors ; the other are the taking of j●st revenges of those who have invaded us so secretly , that we could not prevent them ▪ and so violently that we could nor resist them . in which cases the principle of self preservation warrants us , both to recover what is our own , with just damages ; and also to put such unjust persons out of a capacity of doing the like injuries any more , either to our selves or to any others . now in these instances of self-preservation , this difference is to be observed , that the first cannot be limited , b● any slow forms , since a ●ressing danger requires a vigorous repulse , and cannot admit of delay ; whereas the second , of taking reverges or reparations , is not of such haste , but that it may be brought under rules and forms . 3. the true and original notion of civil society and government is , that it is a com-promise made by such a body of men , by which they resign up the right of demanding reparations , either in the way of justice , against one another , or in the way of war against their neighbours ; to suc● a single person , or to such a body of men as they think fit to trust with this . and in the management of this civil society , great distinction is to be made between the power of making laws for the regulating the conduct of it , & the power of executing these laws : the supream authority must still be supposed to be lodged with those who have the legisl●tive power reserved to them ; but not with tho●e who have only the executive , which is plainly a trust , when it is separated from the legislative power ; and all tru●ts by their nature imp●rt , that those to whom they are given , are accountable , even tho that it should not be expresly specified in the words of the ●rust it self . 4. it cannot be supposed by the principles of natural religion , that god has authorised any one form of government , any other way than as the general rules of order and of justice oblige all men not to subvert constitutions , nor disturb the peace of mankind , nor invade those rights with which the law may have vested some persons ; for it is certain that as private contracts lodge or translate private rights ; so the publick laws can likewise lodge such rights , ●rerogatives and revenues , in those under whose protection they put themselves ; and in such a manner that they may come to have as good a title to these , as any private person can have to his property ; so that it becomes an act of high injustice and violence to invade these , which is so far a greater sin than any such actions would be against a private person ; as the publick peace and order is preferable to all private considerations whatsoever . so that in truth , ●the principles of natural religion , give those that are in authority no power at all● , but they do only secure them in the possession of that which is theirs by law ▪ and as no considerations of religion can bind me to pay another more than i indeed owe him , but do only bind me more strictly to pay what i owe ; so the considerations of religion do indeed bring subjects under stricter obligations , to pay all due all●giance and submission to their princes ; but they do not at all extend that allegia●ce further than the law carries it . and though a man has no divine right to his property , but has acquired it by humane means , such as succession or industry , yet he has a security for the enjoyment of it , from a divine right , so tho princes have no immediate warrants from heaven , either for their original titles , or for the extent of them , yet they are secured in the possession of them by the principles and rules of natural religion . 5. it is to be considered that as a private person , can bind himself to anoth●r mans service by different degrees , either as an ordinary se●vant for wages , or as an appropriat for a longer time as an apprentice , or by a total giving himself up to another , as in the case of slavery : in all which cases the general name of master may be equally used , yet the degrees of his power are to be judged by the nature of the contract ; so likewise bodies of men can give themselves up in different degrees , to the conduct of others . and therefore though all tho●e may carry the same name of king , yet every ones power is to be taken from the measures of the authority which is lodged in him , and not from any general speculations founded on some equivocal terms , such as king , soveraign or supream . 6. i●'s certain , that god , as the creator and governour of the world , may set up whom he will , to rule over other men : but this declaration of his will , must be made evident by prophe●s , or other extraordinary men sen● of him , who have some manifest proo●s of the divine authority , that is committed to them , on such occasions , and upon such persons declaring the will of god , in favour of any others , that declaration is to be submitted to and obeyed . but this pretence of a divine delegation , can be carryed no farther than to those who are thus expresl● marked out , and is unjustly claimed by those who can prove no such declaration to have been ever made in favour of them , or their families . nor does it appear reasonable to conclude from their being in possession , that it is the will of god that it should be so , this justifies all usurpers , when they ●re successful . 7. the measures of power , and by consequence of ob●dience , must be taken from the express laws of any s●ate , or body of men , from the oaths that they swear , or from immemorial prescription , and a long possession , which both give a title , and in a long tract of time make a bad one become good , since prescription when it passes the memory of man , and is not dispured by any other pretender , gives by the common sense of all men , a just and good title : so upon the whole matter , the degrees of all civil authority , are to be taken either from express laws , immemorial customs , or from particular oaths , which the subjects swear to their princes : this being still to be laid down for a principle , that in all the disputes between power and liberty ▪ power must alwayes be proved , but liberty proves it self ; the one being founded only upon positive law , and the other upon the law of nature . 8. if from the general principles of humane society , and natural religion , we carry this matter to be examined by the scriptures , it is clear that all the passages that are in the old testament , are not to be made use of in this matter , of neither side . for as the land of canaan , was given to the iews by an immediat grant from heaven , so god re●erved still this to himself , and to the declarations that he should m●ke from time to time , either by his prophets , or by the answers that came from the cloud of glory that was between the cherubims , to set up judges or kings over them , and to pull them down again as he thought fit , here was an express delegation made by god , and theref●re all that was ●one in that dispensation , either for or against princes , is not to be made use of in any other state , that is founded on another bottom and constitution , and all the expressions in the old testament relating to kings , since they belong to persons that were immediatly designed by god , are without any sort of reason ap●lyed to those , who can pretend to no such designation , neither o● themselves nor for their ancestors . 9. as for the new testament , it is plain ▪ that there are no rules given in it , neither for the forms o● government in general , nor for ●he degrees of any one form in particular ▪ but the general rules of justice , order , and peace , being established in it upon higher motives , and more binding considerations , then ever they were ●n any other religion whatsoever , we are most strictly bound by it , to observe the constitution in which we are ? and it is plain , that the rules set us in the gospel , can be carried no further . it is indeed clear from the new testament , that the christian religion as such , gives us no grounds to defend or propagat it by force . it is a doctrine of the cross , and of faith , and patience under it : and i● by the order of divine providence , and of any constitution of governmen● , under which we are born , we are brought under suf●erings , for our professing of it , we may indeed retire and fly out of any such countrey , if we can ; but if that is denyed us , we must then according to this religion , ●ubmit to those suffe●ings under which we may be brought , considering that god will be glorified by us in so doing , and that he will both support us under our sufferings , and gloriously reward us for them . this was the state of the christian religion , during the three first centuries , under heathen emperours , and a constitution in which paganism was established by law ; but i● by the laws of any government , the christian religion , or any form of it , is become a part of the subjects property , it then falls under another consider●tion , not as it is a religion , but as it is become one of the principal rights of the subjects , to believe and profess it : and then we must ju●ge of the invasions made on that , as we do of any other invasion that is made on our rights . 10. all the pas●ages in the new testament that relate to civil government are to be expounded as they were truely meaned , in opposition to that false notion of the iews , who believed themselves to be so immediately under the divine authority , that they would not become the subjects of any other power ; particularly of one that was not of their nation , or of their religion : therefore they thought , they could not be under the roman yoke , nor bound to pay tribute to caesar ▪ but judged that they were only subj●ct out of fear , by reason of the force that lay on them , but not for conscience sake : and so in all their dispersion , both at rome and elsewhere , they thought they were gods free-men ; and made use of this pretended liberty as a cloak of maliciousness . in opposition to all which , since in a cour●e of many years , they had asked the protection of the roman yoke , and were come und●r their authority , our saviour ordered them to continue in that by his ●aying , render to caesar that which is caesars ; and both st. p●ul in his epistle to the romans , and st. peter in his general epistle , have very positively condemned that pernicious maxim , but without any formal declarations made of the rules or measures of government . and since both the people and senate of rome had acknowledged the power that augustus had indeed violently usurped , it became legal when it was thus submitted to , and confirmed both by the senate and people : and it was establisht in his family by a long prescription when these epistle● were writ : so that upon the whole matter , all that is in the new testament upon this subject . imports no more but that all christians are bound to acquiesce in the government , and submit to it , according to the cons●i●ution that is setled by law. 11 we are then at last brought to the constitution of our english government ; so that no general considerations from speculations about soveraign power , nor from any passages either of the old and new t●stament , ought to determin us in this matter ; which must be fixed from the laws and regulations that have been made among us. it is then certain , that with relation to the executive part of the government , the law has lodged that singly in the king ; so that the whole administration of it is in him : but the legislative power is lodged between the king and the two houses of parliament ; so that the power of making and repealing laws , is not singly in the king , but only so far as the two houses concur with him . it is also clear , that the king has such a determined extent of prerogative , beyond which he has no authority : as for instance , if he levies money of his people , without a law impowering him to it , he goes beyond the limits of his power , and asks that to which he has no right ▪ so that there lyes no obligation on the subject to grant it : and if any in his name use violence for the obtaining it , they are to be looked on as so many robbers , that invade our property and they being violent aggressors , the principle of self preservation seems here to take place , and to warrant as violent a resistance . 12 there is nothing more evident , than that england is a free nation , that has its liberties and properti●s reserved to it b● many positive and express laws : if then we have a right to our property , we must likewise be supposed to have a right to preserve it ; for these rights are by the law secured against the invasions of the prerogative , and by consequence we must have a right to preserve them against those invasions . it is also evidently declared by our law , that all orders and warrants , that are issued out in opposition to them , are null of themselves ; and by consequence , any that pretend to have commissions from the king for those ends , are to be considered as if they had none at all : since these commissions being void of themselves , are inde●d no commissions in the construction of the law ; and the●efore those who act in vertue of them , are still to be considered , as private persons who come to invade and disturb u● . it is also to be observed , that the●e are some points that are justly disputable and doubtful , and others that are so manifest , that it is plain that any objections that can be made to them , are rather for●ed preten●es , than so much as plausible colours . it is true , if the case is doubtful , the interest of the publick peace and order ought to ca●ry it ; ●ut the case is quite different when the invasions that are made upon liberty and property , are plain and visible to all that co●sider them . 13. the main and great difficulty here , is , that tho our governm●nt does indeed as●ert the li●erty of the subject , yet there are many express laws made , that lodge the militia singly in the king , that make it plainly unlawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the king , or any c●mmissioned by him ; and these laws have been put in the form of an oath , which all that have born any imployment either in church or state ●ave sworn ; and ther●fore ●h●se laws , ●or the assu●eing ●ur liberties , do indeed bind the kings conscience , and may af●●ct his ministers ; y●t since it is a m●x●m of our law , t●at the king can do no wrong , these cannot be carried so far as to justifie our taking arms against him , be the trans●r●ssions of law e●er so many and so manifest : and since this has be●n the consta●t doctrine of the church of england , it will be a very h●avy imputation on us , if it appears , that tho we held these opinions , as long as the court and the crown have favoured us , ●et as soon as the court turns against us , we change o●r principles . 14. here is the true difficulty of this whole matter , and therefor it ought to be exactly considered . fi●st , all general words , ●ow large so●ver , are still supposed to have a tacite exception , and reserves in them , if the matter seems to require it . children are commanded to obe● their parents in all things : wives are declared be the scripture , to be subject to their husbands in a●l things ; as the church is unto christ : and yet how comprehensive so●ver these words may seem to be , there is still a reserve to be understood in them ; and tho by our form of marriage the p●rties swear to one another till death them do part , yet few doubt 〈◊〉 this bond is dissolved by adultery , tho it is not named ; for odious things ought not to be suspected , and therefore not named upon such occasions : but when they fall out , they carrie still their own force with them . 2. when there seems to be a contradiction between two articles in the constitution , we ought to examine which of the two is the most evident , and the most important and so we ought to fix upon it , and then we must give such an accomodating sense to that which seems to contradict it , that so we may reconcile those together . here then are two seeming contradictions in our constitution : the oneis the publick libert● of the nation ; the other is the renouncing of all resi●tance , in case that were invaded . it is plain , that our liberty is only a thing that we enjoy at the kings discretion , and during his pleasure ; if the other against all resistance is to be understood according to the outmost extent of the words . therefore since the chief design of our whole law , and all the several rules of our constitution , is to secure and mantain our liberty , we ought to lay that down for a conclusion , that it is both the most plain and the most important of the two : and therefore the other article against resistance ought to be so softned ▪ as that it doe not destroy this . 3. since it is by a law that resistance is condemned , we ought to understand it in such a sense , as that it does not destroy all other laws : and therefore the intent of this law must only relate to the executive power , which is in the king , and not to the legislative , in which we cannot suppose that our legislators , who made that law , intended to give up that , which we plainly see they resolved still to preserve intire , according to the ancient constitution . so then the not resi●ting the king , can only be applyed to the executive power , that so upon no pretence of ill administrations in the execution of the law , it should be lawful to resist him ; but this cannot with any r●ason be extended to an invasion of the legislative power , or to a total subversion of the government . for it being plain , that the law did not design to lodge that power in the king ; it is also plain , that it did not intend to secure him in it , in case he should ●et about it . 4. the law mentioning the king , or those commissionate by him , shews plainly , that it only designed to secure t●e king in the executive power : for the word commission necessarly imports this , since if it is not according to law , it is no commission ; and by con●equence , ●●ose who act in vertue of it , are not commissionate by the king in the sense of the law. the king likewise imports a prince clothed by law with the regal prerogative , but if he goes to subvert the whole foundation of the governmen● , he subverts that by which he himself has his power , and by consequence he annulls his own power ; and then he ceases to be king , having endeavoured to destroy that , upon which his own authority is founded . it is acknowledged by the greatest asserters of monarchical power , that in some cases a king may fall from his power , and in other cases that he may fall from the exercise of it . his deserting his people , his going about to enslave or sell them to any other , or a furious going about to destroy them , are in the opinion of the most monarchical lawyers , such abuses , that they naturally divest those that are guilty of them , of their whole authority . infamy or phrenzie do also put them under the guardian-ship of others . all the crowned heads of europe have , at least secretly , approv'd of the putting the late king of portugal under a guardian-ship , & the keeping him still prisoner for a few acts of rage , that had been fatal to a very few persons : and even our court gave the first countenance to it , tho of all ot●ers the late king hade the most reason to have done it at least last of all , since it justified a younger brother's supplanting the elder ; yet the evidence of the thing carryed it even against interest . therefore if a king goes about to subvert the government , and to overturn the whole constitution , he by this must be supposed either to fall from his power , or at least from the exercise of it , so far as that he ought to be put under guardians ; and according to the case of portugal , the next heir falls naturally to be the guardian . the next thing to be considered , is , to see in fact whether the foundations of this government have been struck at , and whether those e●rors , that have been perhaps committed , are only such malversations , as ought to be imputed only to humane frailty , and to the ignorance , inadvertencies , or passions to which all princes may be subject , as well as other men , but this will best appear if we consider , what are the fundamental points of our government , and the chief securities that we have for our liberties . the authorit● of the law is indeed all in one word , so that if the king pretends to a power to dispense with laws , there is nothing left , upon which the subject can depend ; and yet as if dispensing power were not enough , if laws are wholly suspended for all time coming , this is plainly a repealing of them , when likewise the men , in whose han●s the administra●ion of justice is put by law , su●h as judges and sheriffs are allowed to tread all laws un●er foot , even th●se that infer an incapacity on themselves if they violate them ; this is such a breaking of the whole constitution , that we can no m●re have the administration of justice , so that it is really a dissolution of th● government ; since all tryals , sentences , and the executions of them are become so many unlawful acts , that are null and void of themselves . the next thing in our constitution , which secures to us our laws and liberties , is a free and lawful parl●ament . now not to mention the breach of the law of triennial parliaments , it being above three years since we had a session , that enacted any law ; methods have been taken , and are daily a taking , that render this impossible . parliaments ought to be chosen with an in●ire liberty , and without either force or pre-engagements : whereas if all men are required before hand to enter into engagements , how they will vote , if they were chosen themselves ; or how they will give their votes in the electing of others ; this is plain●y such a preparation to a parliament , as would indeed make it no parliament , but a cabal , if one were chosen a●ter all that cor●uption of persons , who had pre-engaged themselves ; and after the threatning and turning out of all persons out of employmen●s who had refused to do it ; and if there are such daily regulations made in the towns , that it is plain those who manage them , intend at last to put such a number of men in the cor●orations as will certainly chuse the persons who are recommended to them . but above all , if there are such a number of sheriffs and majors made over england , by whom the elections must be conducted and returned , who are now under an incapacity by law , and so are no legal officers , and by consequence these elections that pass under their authorit● are null and void ▪ if , i say , it is clear that things are brought to this , then the government is dis●olved , because it is impossible to have a free and legal , parliament in this state of things . if then both the authority of the law , and the constitution of the parliament are struck at and dis●olved , here is a plain subversion of ●he whole government . bu● if we enter n●xt into the particular b●anches of the government , we will find the like diso●der among them all . the prote●tant religion , and the ●hurch of england , make a great article of our government , the latter ●eing secured not only of old by magna charta , but by many special laws made of late ; and there are par●icular laws made in k. cha●l●s the first , and the late king's time , securing them fr●m all commissions that the king can raise for judging or cen●ureing them : if then in oppofition to this , a court so condemned is e●●cted , which proceeds to judge and c●nsure the clergy ▪ and even to d●ssei●e them of their free holds , without so much as the form of a t●yal , tho this is the most indispensable law , of all these that secures the property of engla●d : and if the king pretends that he can ●equire the clerg● to publish all his arbitrary declarations ▪ and in par●icular one that stricks at their whole setlement , and has ord●red p●ocess to be begun against all that disobeyed this ill●gal warrant , and has treated so great a number of the bishops as ●r●minals , only for representing to him the reasons of their not obe●ing him ; if likewise the ki●g is not satisfied to pro●ess his own religi●n openly , tho even that is contra●y to law , but has sent ambassadors to rome , and received nunci●'s from thence , which is plainly treason by law , if likewise many popish churches and chapels have been publickly opened ; if several colledg●s of iesuits have ●e●n set up in ●ivers parts of the nation , and one of the ord●r has been made a privy counsellour , and a principal minister of state ; and if papists and even those who tu●n to that religion , tho de●la●ed traitors by law , are brought into all the chief employm●nts , bo●h mili●ary and civil ; then it is plain ▪ that all the rights of the church of england , and the whole establishment of the protestant reli●ion are struck at , and designed to be overturned ; since all these things , as they are notoriously illegal , so they evidently de●onstrate , that the gr●at design of them all , is the rooting out this pestilent heresie , in their stile , i mean the protestant religion . in the next place , if in the whole course of justice , it is visible , that there is a constant p●actis●ing upon the iudges , that the● are turned out upon their varying from the intentions of the court , and if men of no reputation or abilities are put in their places ; if an army is kept up in time of peace , and men who withdraw from that illegal service are hanged up as criminals , without any collour of law , which by consequence are so many murders ; and if the souldierie are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous crimes , that so the● may be thereby prepared to commit great ones , and from singl● rapes and murders , proceed to a rape upon all our liberties ▪ and a destruction of the nation : if i say , all these things are true in fact , then it is plain , that there is such a dissolution of the government made , that there is not any one part of it left sound and entire : and if all these things are done now , it is easie to imagine what may be expected , when arbitrary power that spares no man , and popery that spares no heretick , are finally established : then we may look for nothing but gabelles , tailles , impositions , benevolences , and all sorts of illegal taxes ; as from the other we may expect burnings , massacres , and inquisitions . in what is doing in scotland we may gather what is to be expected in england ; where , if the king has over and over again declared , that he is vested with an absolute power , to which all are bound to obey without reserve . and has upon that annulled almost all the acts of parliament that passed in k. iames i. minority , tho they were ratified by himself when he came to be of age ; and were confirmed by all the subsequent kings , not excepting the present . we must then conclude from thence , what is resolved on here in england , and what will be put in execution as soon as it is thought that the times can bear it . when likewayes the whole setlement of ireland is shaken , and the army that was raised , and is maintained by taxes , that were given for an army of english protestants , to secure them from a new massacre by the irish papists , is now all filled wìth irish papists , as well as almost all the other employments ; it is plain , that not only all the british protestants inhabiting that island , are in dayly danger of being butchered a second time , but that the crown of england , is in danger of loseing that island , it being now put wholly into the hands and power of the native irish , who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the crown of spain , sometimes to the pope , and once to the duke of lorrain , so are they perhaps at this present treating with another court for the sale and surrender of the island , and for the massacre of the english in it . if thus all the several branches of our constitution are dissolved , it might be at least expected , that one part should be left entire , and that is the regal dignity ; and yet that is prosti●u●ed , when we see a young child put in the reversion of it , and pretended to be the prince of wales ; concerning whose being born of the queen , there appears to be not only no certain proofs , but there are all the presumptiones that can possibly be imagined to the contrary . no proofs were ever given either to the princess of d●nmark , or to any other protestant ladies , in whom we ought to repose any confidence that the queen was ever with child ; that whole matter being managed with so much mysteriousness , that there were violent and publick suspitions of it before the birth . but the whole contrivance of the birth , the sending away the princess of denmark , the sudden shortning of the reckoning , the queens sudden going to st. iames's , her no less sudden delivery , the hurrying the child into another room , without shewing it to these present , and without their hearing it cr● ; and the mysterious conduct of all since that time ; no satisfaction being given to the prin●ess of denmark upon her return from the bath , nor to any other protestant ladies , of the queens having been really brought to bed ; these are all such evident indications of a base imposture , in this matter , that as the nation has the justest reason in the world to doubt of it , so they have all possible rea●on to be at no quiet , till they see a legal and free parliament assembled , which may impartially , and without either fear or corruption , examine that whole matter . if all these matters are true in fact , then i suppose no man will doubt , that the whole foundations of this government , and all the most sacred parts of it are overturned ; and as to the truth os all these suppositions , that is left to every english-mans judgement and sense . finis . an enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of parliament offered by sa. oxon. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 38 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30368 wing b5813 estc r4008 13677299 ocm 13677299 101254 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30368) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101254) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:7) an enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of parliament offered by sa. oxon. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. s.n., [london : 1688] written by gilbert burnet. cf. wing. a reply to samuel parker's reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. caption title. place and date of publication from wing. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng parker, samuel, 1640-1688. -reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. test act (1673) 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 john latta sampled and proofread 2003-12 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of parliament . offered by sa. oxon. when the cardinals in rome go abroad without fiocco's on their horses heads , it is unstood that they will be then incognito , and they expect nothing of that respect which is payed them on other occasions . so since there is no fiocco at the head of this discourse , no name nor designation , it seems the writer offers himself to be examined without those nice regards , that may be due to the dignity he bears : and indeed when a man forgets what he is himself , it is very natural for others to do it likewise . it is no wonder to see those of the roman communion be stir themselves , so much as they do , to be delivered from the test , and every thing else that is uneasie to them : and tho othres may find it very reasonable to oppose themselves , in all the just and legal ways that agree with our constitution , to this design , yet it is so natural to all that are under any pressure , to desire to get free from it , that at the same time that we cannot forbear to withstand them , we cannot much condemn them : but it raises nature a little , to see a man that has been so long fatned with the spoils of our church , and who has now got up to a degree so disproportioned to his merit , to turn so treacherously upon it . if he is already weary of his comfortable importance , and will here give her into the bargain , and declare himself , no body will be surprised at the change of his masque , since he has taken much pains to convince the world , that his religion goes no deeper than his habit : yet tho his confidence is of a piece with all his other vertues , few thought it could have carried him so far ; i confess i am not surprized , but rather wonder to see that others should be so ; for he has given sufficient warning of what he is capable of ; he has told the world what is the worst thing that dr. burnet can do . p. 50. but i am sure the dr. cannot be quit with him , to tell what is the worst thing that he can do ; it must needs be a very fruitful fancy that can find out all the degrees of wickedness to which he can go : and tho' this pamphlet is a good essay of his talent that way , yet that terra incognita is boundless . in the title page it is said that this was first writ for the author 's own satisfaction , and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern . but the words are certainly wrong placed ; for the truth of the matter is , that it was written for the author 's own benefit , and that it is now published for the satisfaction of all others whom it may concern : in some sense perhaps it was written for the author 's own satisfaction ; for so petulant and so depraved a mind as his , is capable of being delighted with his treachery and a poor bishoprick with the addition of : presidentship , being too low a prize for his ambition and avarice . he resolved to assure himseif of the first great bishoprick that falls ; the liege letter let us see how far the iesuits were assured of him , and how much courted by him : and that he said , that none but athiests supported the protestant religion now in england ; yet how many soever of these may be among us , he is upon the point of lessening their number , by one at least : and he takes care to justifie the hopes which these father 's conceived of him. they are severe masters , and will not be put off with secret civilities , lewd jests , entertainments , and healths drank to their good success ; so now the price of the ●residen●ship is to be pay'd , so good a morsel as this deserved that dr. stillingfleet , dr. tillotson , dr. burnet , and some other divines should be ill used , and he to preserve the character of drawcansir , which is as due to him as th●t of bays , falls upon the articles of the church , and upon both houses of parliament . it is reproach enough to the house of lords , that he is of it ; but it is somewhat new , and a character becoming sa. oxon , to arraign that house , with all the insolence to which he can raise his wanton pen. laws that are in being are treated with respect , even by those who move for their repeal ; but our draw●ansir scorns that modest strain , he is not contented to arraign the law , but calls it barbarous , and says , that nothing can be more barbarous and prophane than to make the renouncing of a mystery , so unanimously received , a state test ; pag. 133. pag. 64. but he ought to have avoided the word prophane , since it leads men to remember , that he had taxed the praying for the king , as under god and christ , as crude , not to say prophane : when in the prospect he had then [ 36 ] of a bishoprick he raised the king above christ , but now another prospect , will make him sink him beneath the pope , who is but at best christs vicar . but this is not all , there comes another flower that is worthy of him , he tells us , that the test was the first-born of oats 's plot , and brought forth on purpose to give credit and reputation to the perjury , pag. 5. and because this went in common between the two houses , he bestows a more particular mark of his favour on the house of lords : and tells them that this was a monument erected by themselves in honour of so gross an imposture . ( ibid. ) but after all , the royal assent was added ; and here no doubt it itched somewhere , for if it had not been for the manner of the late king's death , and the papers published since his death , he would have wreaked his malice upon his memory , for he will never forgive his not advancing him : and the late king being so true a judg● of wit , could not but be much taken with the best satyr of our time ; and saw that bays's wit , when measured with anothers , was of a piece with hi● vertues , and therefore judged in favour of the rehearsal transpros'd : this went deep , and though it gave occasion to the single piece of modesty , with which he can be charged , of withdrawing from the town , and not importuning the press more for some years , since even a face of brass must grow red , when it is so burnt as his was then ; yet his malice against the elder brother was never extinguished but with his life : but now a strange conjuncture has brought him again on the stage , and bays will be bays still . he begins his prologue with the only soft word in the whole piece , i humbly conceive , but he quickly repents him of that debonarity , and so makes thunder and lightning speak the rest , as if his designs were to insult over the two houses , and not to convince them . he who is one of the punies of his order ▪ and is certainly one of its justest reproaches , tells us pag. 8. that to the shame of the bishops , this law was consented to by them in the house of lords : but what shame is due to him , who has treated that venerable bench , and in particular his metropolitan , in so scurrilous a manner . the order has much more cause to be ashamed of such a member : tho if there are two or three such as he is among the twenty six , they may comfort themselves with this , that a dozen of much berter men , had one among them , that i confess was not much worse , if it was not for this , that he let the price of his treachery fall much lower than sa. oxon does , who is still true to his old maxim , that he delivered in answer to one who asked him what was the best body of divinity ? which was , that that which could help a man to keep a coach and six horses , was certainly the best , but now i come to examine his reasons for abrogating the test . the first is , that it is con●rary to the natural rights of peerage , and turns the birth-right of the english nobility , into a precarious title : which is at the mercy of every faction and passion in parliament , and that therefore , how useful soever the test might have been in its season , it sometime must prove a very ill president against the right of peerage : and upon this he tells a story of a protestation made in the house of lords , against the test , that was brought in , in 1675 , together with the resolution of the house against that penalty upon the peers , of loosing their votes in case of a refusal : he represents this , as a test or oath of loyalty , against the lawfulness of taking arms upon any pretence whatsoever against the king. but in answer to all this , one would gladly know what are the natural rights of peerage , and in what chapter of the law of nature they are to be found , for if those rights have no other warrant , but the constitution of this government , then they are still subject to the legislative authority , and may be regulated by it . the right of peerage is still in the family , only as the exercise of it is limited by the law to such an age , so it may be suspended as oft as the publick safety comes to require it : even the indelible character it self , may be brought under a total suspension , of which our author may , perhaps , afford an instance at some time or other . 2. votes in either house of parliament , are never to be put in ballance with establish'd laws : these are but the opinions of one house , and are changeable . 3. but if the test might have been useful in its season , one would gladly see how it should be so soon out of season : for its chief use being to secure the protestant religion in 1678. it does not appear , that now in 1688. the dangers are so quite dissipated , that there is no more need of securing it . in one sense we are in a safer condition than we were then : for some false brethren have shewed themselves , and have lost that little credit which some unhappy accidents had procured them . 4. it was not the loyalty in the test of the year 1675. that raised the greatest opposition to it : but another part of it , that they should never endeavour any alteration in the government , either in the church or state. now it seemed to be an unreasonable limitation on the legislative body , to have the members engaged to make no alteration : and it is that which would not have much pleased those , for whose satisfaction this book is published . the second reason was already hinted at , of its dishonourable birth and original ; pag. 10. which according to the decency of his stile he calls the first sacrament of the otesian villany , pag. 9. this he aggravates as such a monstrous and inhuman piece of barbarity as could never have entred into the thoughts of any man but the infamous author of it ; this piece of elegance , tho it belongs to this reason , comes in again in his fourth reason , pag. 6. and to let the house of lords see their fate , if they will not yield to his reasons , he tells them that this will be not only an eternal national reproach , but such a blot upon the peers , that no length of time could wear away , nothing but the universal conoagration could destroy , which are the aptest expressions that i know to mark how deeply , the many blots with which he is stigmatized are rooted in his nature . the wanton man in his drawcansir humor thinks that parliaments and a house of peers are to be treated by him with as much scorn as is justly due to himself . but to set this matter in its true light , it is to be remembred that in 1678. there were besides the evidences of the witnesses , a great many other discoveries made of letters and negotiations in forreign parts , chiefly in the courts of france and rome , for extirpating the protestant religion ; upon which the parts that was most united to the court , set on this law , for the test , as that which was both in it self a just and necessary security for the establish'd religion , and that would probably lay the fermentation which was then in the nation : and the act was so little acceptable to him , whom he calls its author , that he spake of it then with contempt , as a trick of the court to lay the nation too soon asleep . the negotiations beyond sea were too evidently proved to be denied ; and ( which is not yet generally known ) mr. coleman when examined by the committee of the house of commons , said plain enough to them , that the late king was concerned in them ; but the committee would not look into that matter , and so mr. sacheverill , that was their chair-man , did not report it ; yet the thing was not so secret but that one to whom it was trusted , gave the late king an account of it ; who said , that he had not heard of it any other way , and was so fully convinced that the nation had cause given them to be jealous , that he himself set forward the act , and the rather because he saw that the e. of s. did not much like it . the parliament as long as it was known that the religion was safe in the kings negative , had not taken any great care of its own constitution , but it seemed the best expedient that could be found , for laying the jealousies of his late majesty , and the apprehensions of the successor , to take so much care of the two houses , that so the dangers with which men were than allarm'd , might seem the less formidable , upon so effectual a security : and thus all the stir that he keeps with perjury and imposture , ought to make no other impression , but to shew the wantonness of his own temper , that meddles so boldly with things of which he knew so little the true secret : for here was a law passed of which all made great use that opposed the bill of exclusion , to demonstrate to the nation that there could be no danger of popery , even under a prince of that religion ; but as he would turn the matter , it amounts to this , that that law might be of good use in that season , to lay the jealousies of the nation , till there were a prince on the throne of that communion , and then when the turn is served , it must be thrown away , to open the only door that is now shut upon the re-establishment of that religion . this is but one hint among a great many more of the state of affairs at the time that this act of the test was made , shew that the evidence given by the witnesses , had no other share in that matter , but that it gave a rise to the other discoveries ; and a fair opportunity to those who knew the secret of the late king's religion , and the negotiation at dover , to provide such an effectual security , as might both save the crown , and secure the religion : and this i am sure some of the bishops knew , who ( to their honour ) were faithful to both . the third reason he gives for repealing the act , is the incompetent authority of those who enacted it ; for i● was of an ecclesiastical nature : and here he stretches out his wings to a top flig●t , and charges it with nothing less than the deposing of christ from his throne , the disowning , neglecting and a●fronting his commission to his catholick church , and entrenching upon this sacred prerogative of his holy catholick church : and then that he might have occasion to feed his spleen with railing at the whole order , he makes a ridiculous objection of the bishops being present in the house of lords , that he might shew his respect to them , by telling in a parenthesis that ( to their shame ) they had consented to it . but has this scaramuchio no shame left him ? did the parliament pretend by this act to make any decision in those two points of transubstantiation and idolatry ? had not the convocation defined them both for above an age before ? in the 28 th article of our church these words are to be found : transubstantiatien ( or the change of the substance of bread and wine ) in the supper of the lord , cannot be proved by holy writ ; but it is repugnant to the plain words of scripture , overthrows the nature of a sacrament , and hath given occasion to many superstitions ; and for the idolatry of the church of rome that was also declared very expresly in the same body of articles : since in the article 35 the homiliys are declared to contain a godly and wholesome doctrine necessary for those times : and upon that it is judged that they should be read in the churches by the ministers , diligently and distinctly , that they may be understood of the people . and the second of these , which is against the peril of idolatry , aggravates the idolatry of that church in so many particulars , and with such severe expressions , that those who at first made those articles , and all those who do now sign them , or oblige others to sign 'em , must either believe the church of rome to be guilty of idolatry , or that the church of england is the impudentest society that ever assumed the name of a church , if she proposes such homilies to the people , in which this charge is given so home , and yet does not believe it her self . a man must be of bays's pitch to rise up to this degree of impudence . upon the whole matter then , these points had been already determined , and were a part of our doctrine enacted by law : all that the parliament did , was only to take these out of a great many more that by this test it might appear whether they who came into either house were of that religion or not , and now let our reasoner try what he ●an make out of this : or how he can justifie the scandal that he so boldly throws upon his order , as if they had as much as in them lay destroyed the very being of a christian church , and had profanely pawned the bishop to the lord : and betraied the rights of the church of england as by law established in particular , as well as of the church catholick in general . p. 8.9 . all this shews to whom he was pawned both the bishop and the lord , and something else too , which is both conscience and honour , if he has any left . when one reflects on two of the bishops , that were of that venerable body , while this act passed , whose memory will be blessed in the present and following ages , those two great and good men that filled the sees of chester and oxford , he must conclude , that as the world was not worthy of them , so certainly their sees were not worthy of them , since they have been plagued with such successors ; that because bays delights in figures taken from the roman empire , i must tell him , that since commodus suceeded to marcus aurelius , i do not find a more incongrous succession in history . with what sensible regret must those who were so often edified with the gravity , the piety , the generosity , and charity , of the late bishop of oxford , look look on , when they see such a harleguin in his room . his fourth reason is taken from the uncertainty and falsehood of the matters contained in the declaration it self , pag. 9. for our comedian maintains his character still , and scorns to speak of establish'd laws with any decency ; here he puts in a paragraph , as was formerly marked , which belonged to his second reason , but it seems some of those to whom he has pawn'd himself , thought he had not said enough on that head , and therefore to save blottings , he put it in here . after that , he tells the genty , that transubstantiation was a notion belonging to the school-men and metaphysitians , and that he may bespeak their favour , he tells them in very soft words , that their learning was more polite and practicable in the civil affairs of human life , to understand the rules of honour , and the laws of their countrey , the practice of martial discipline , and the examples of great men in former ages , and by them to square their actions in their re●●●●tive station● , and the life . but ●ine the bishop is here without his fiocco , yet at least for decencys sake he should have named religion and virtue among the p●oper studies of the gentry : and if he dares not trust them with the reading the scriptures , yet at least they might read the articles of our church , and hearken to the homilies , for tho it has been long one of the first maxims that he has infused into all the clergy that come near him , that the people ought to be brought into an 〈…〉 ance in matters of religion , that prea●●ing ought to be laid aside , for a preaching church could not stand , that in sermons no points of doctrine ought to be explained , and that only the rules of human life ought to be told the people , yet after all , they may read the short articles : and tho they were as blindly implicit as he would wish them to be , yet they would without more enquiry , find transubstantiation to be condemned in them . next he triumphs over the renouncing of it , pag. 11. as too bold and too prophane an affront to almighty god : when men abjure a thing which it is morally impossible for them to understand . and he appeals to the members of both houses ( whom in a fit of respect he calls honourable , after he had reproach'd them all he could ) if they have any distinct idea or notion in their minds , of the thing they here so solemnly renounce . i do verily believe none of them have any distinct notion of transubstantiation , and that it is not only morally , but phisically impossible for them to understand it : but one would think thet this is enough for declaring that they do not believe it , since the test contains no declaration concerning transubstantiation it self , whether it is a true or a false doctrine : but only concerning the belief of him that takes it . and if one can have no distinct notion of it , so that it is morally impossible for him to understand it , he may very well declare that he does not believe it . after a far●e of a ●light story , he concludes , that there seems to be nothing but a prophane levity in the whole mat●er : and a shameless abuse put upon god and religion , to carry on the wicked designs of a rebel-faction . for he cannot for his heart , abate an ace of his insolence , even when he makes the king , lords , and commons , the subject of his sco●● . certainly whatever his character is , it ought not to be expected that a man who attacks all that is sacred under god and christ , should not be treated as he deserves : it were a feeble weakness , to have so great a regard to a character that is so prostituted by him . he tells us ▪ pag. 47. that all parties agree in the thing and that they differ only in the word and m●nner ▪ and here he makes a long excursion to shew his learning , in tacking a great many things together , which passes with ignorant readers as a mark of his great reading : whereas in this , as well as in all his other books , in which any shews of learning appear , those who have searched into the fountains , see that he doe● nothing but gather from the collection of others : onl● he spoils them with the levities of his bu●●o●n-stile , and which is worse , with his dis-ingenuity . i leave all these matters to be exa●ined , by those who have leisure for it , and ●hat think him worth their pains ▪ but asfor tra●substantiation , the words that i have cited from out of our articles , shew plainly that it is rejected in our church , so that he is bound either to renounce it , or to renounce our church : therefore all that shew he makes with our history , comes to nothing , since whatever he may say with relation to edwar● the sixth's reign , it cannot be denied , but they were enacted by the convocation in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign , and t●ey have been ever since , the doctrine of our church : so that without going further , this is now our doctrine , and since sa. oxon carries the authority of the convocation so high , he will find the original record of these arti●les in corpus-christi college in cambridge , subscribed by the members of both houses , in which there is a much more positive decision then is in the prints , not only against transub●tantiation , but against any corporal or real pre●●●ce of the body and blood of christ in the sacra●●●● : and if he will give himself scope ▪ to rail at those who suppressed this , i leave him to his liberty . but here is the formal decision of this church , and the pretending that there was no evidence of cranmer's opinion , but in an unknown manuscript , or a famous invisible manuscript , p. 49 , 47. when there are two books writ on this matter by cranme● himself , and when all the disputes in queen mary's time , besides those that were both in oxford , and cambridge , in king edward's time , shew so clearly , that this was his doctrine , is a strain becoming his since●ity , that gives this among many other essays of the trust that is due to him . but it seems he thought that dr. tillotson , dr. stillingfleet , and dr. burnet , besides some others w●om he does not name , had not reputation enough in the world , and therefore he intended to raise it , by using them ill : which is all the effect that his malice can have . he had set on one of his poor under-workmen , some years ago , to decry the manuscript which dr. stillingfleet had in his keeping for above twenty yea●s , and which d● . burnet had in his hands , for many months , and which ●hey shewed to as many as desired to see it , but th●t had turned so much to his shame that first vented the calumny , that it seems he summoned sa. oxon to appear his second in the slander : and he whose brow is of so peculiar a composition ▪ will needs bring it here , tho ever so impertinently . but i forgive the hatred that he bears both to that manúscript , and to those doctors , since nothing could be less to the satisf●ction of those for whom he published his book , then to see the mature and regular methods in which the reformation was advanced , for the bishops and divines were appointed , to examine all points with much care , and to bring every man his opinion in writing , all which were compared very faithfully , and upon these the decisions were made . there are many other papers yet extant , which by comparing the hands shew these to be originals : and they were in the salisbury family probably ever since they were at first brought together . their ancestor the lord burghly who was secretary of state in edward the sixth's time , gathered them up ; and as appears in a letter ●nder his own hand yet extant , he had 6 or 7 vol●mes of them , of which dr. stilling fleet had only two , but dr. burnet saw two more of these volumes . the history of the reformation sells still so well , that i do not believe mr. chiswell the printer of it has made any present to this reasoner , to raise its price : for to attack it with so much malice , and yet not to offer one reason to lessen its credit , is as effectual a recommendation , as this author can give it . he pretends that dr. burnets design was , to make cranmer appear a meer sacrame●tarian as to doctrine , as he had made him appear an erastian , as to discipline : and he thinks the vain man was flattered into all the pains he took , that he might give reputatio● to the errours of his patrons , and that those two grand forgeries are the grand singularities of his history : and the main things that gave it popular vogue and reputation with his party . so that were these two blind stories , and the reasons depending upon them retrenched , it would be like the shaving off samsons hair , and destroy all the strength peculiar to the history . but to all this stuff i shall only say , 1. that the charge of forgery falls back on the reasoner , since as to cranmers opinion of the sacrament , his own books , and his dispute at oxford are such plain evidences , that none but bays could have questioned it : and for his being an erastian , dr. burnet had clearly proved that he had changed his opinion in that point , so that tho he shewed that he had been indeed once engaged in those opinions , yet he proved that he had forsaken them : let the reader judge to whom the charge of forgery belongs . 2. dr. burnet has indeed some temptations to vanity now , since he is ill used b● bays ; and put in such company ▪ but i dare say if he goes to give him his character he will never mention so slight a one as vanity , in which how excessive so ever he may be , yet it is the smallest of all his faults . 3. these two particulars here mentioned , bear so inconsiderable a share in that history , and have been so little minded , that i dare say of an hundred that are pleased with that work , there is not one that will assign these as their motives . he censures dr. burnet for saying he had often heard it said that the articles of our church were framed by cranmer and ridley ; as if it were the meanest trade of an historian to stoop to hear says . p. 55. but the best of all the roman historians ( salust . in ●ello catil . ) does it , and in this dr. burnet maintains the character of a sincere historian to say not●ing that was not well grounded : and since it has been often said by many wr●ters that these two bishops prepared our articles , he finding no particular evidence of that , delivers it with its own doubtfulness . it is very like sa. oxon would have been more positive upon half the grounds , that dr. bu●net had , but the other chose to write exactly : yet h● adds , tha● it is probable that they penned them : a●● if either the dignity of their sees , or of their persons be considered , the thing will appear reasonable enough . but i do not wonder to see any thing that looks like a modesty of stile offend our author . he is next so kind to dr. b●r●et as to offer him some counsel , ( p. 50. ) that he would be well advised to imploy his pen in writing lampoons upon the present princes of christendom ( especially his own ) which he delights in most ; because i● is the worst thing that himself can do , then collecting the records of former times : for the first will require time and postage , to pursue his malice : but the second is easily traced in the chimney corner . one would think that this period was writ by mr. louth , it is so obscure and ill expres●ed , that nothing is plain , but the malice of it : but he of all men should be the furthest from reproaching any for writing lampoons , who has now given so rude a one , on the late king and the lords and commons ; if bold railing without either wit or decency , deserves that name . i will only say this further , that if one had the ill nature to write a lampoon on the government , one of the severest articles in it , would be . that it seems writers are hard to be found , when such a baboon is made use of . it is lampoon enough upon the age , that he is ● bishop : but it is downright reproach that he is made the champion of a cause , which if ●t is bad of it self , must suffer extreamly by beïng in such hands . and thus i think enough is said in answer to his impertinent digression upon transubstantiation , let him renounce the article of our church , and all that he possesses in consequence to his having signed it , and then we will argue all the rest with him upon the square : but as long as he owns that , he is bound likewise to own the first branch of the test , which is the renouncing of transubstantiation . in this discourse he makes his old hatred to calvin and the calvinists return so often , that ít appears very conspicuously . i believe it is stronger now than ever , and that for a particular reason : when the prince and prircess of orange were married , he was perhaps the only man in england that expressed his uneasiness at that happy conjunction , in so clownish a manner , that when their highnesses past thro canterbury he would not go with the rest of that body , to which he was so long a blemish , to pay his duty to them , and when he was asked the reason , he said , he could have no regard to a calvinist prince . now this calvinist prince has declared his mind so openly and fully against the repeal of the test , that no doubt this has encreased bays's distemper , and heightned his choler against the whole party . the second branch of the test is the declaration made of the idolatry committed in the roman church : upon which he tells us , pag. 71.72 . that idolatry is a stabbing and cut-throat word , a●d that it is an inviting and warranting the rabble whenever opportunity favours to destroy the roman catholicks ; and here bays will outdo himself , since this was a master-piece of service , therefore he makes the taxing the church of rome with idolatry , a piece of inh●manity that outdoes the savages of the canibals themselves ; and damns at once both body and soul. he charges dr. stillingfleet as the great founder of this , and all other anti-catholick and antichristian and uncharitable principles among us , and that the test is the swearing to the truth of his unlearned and fanatick nation of idolatry . pag. 130.135 . and the result of all is , that idolatry made the plot , and then the plot made idolatry , and that the ●ame persons made both . he has also troubled the reader with a second impertinence to shew his second hand reading again upon the notion of idolatry . but all this falls off with a very short answer , if he is of the church of england , and believes that the homilies contain a godly and wholsome doctrine , all this clamour against idolatry , turns against himself , for he will find the church of rome charged with this , almost an age before dr. sti●lingfleet was born ; and tho perhaps none has ever defended the charge , with so much learning as he has done , yet no malice less impudent than his is , eould make him the author of the accu●ation . it will be another strain of our authors modesty , if he will pretend that our church is not bound to own the doctrine that is contained in h●r homilies , he must by this maxe our church as treacherous to her members , as sa. oxon is to her , or to deliver this doctrine to the people , if we believe it not our selves , is to be as impudent as he himself can pretend to be . a church may believe a doctrine which she does not think necessary to propose to all her members ; but she were indeed a society fit for such pastors as he is , if she could propose to the people a doctrine , chiefly one of so great consequence as this is , without she believed it her self . so then he must either renounce our church and her articles , or he must answer all his own plea for clearing that church of this imputation : which is so slight , that it will be no hard matter even for such a trifling writer as himself is , to do it : as for what he says of stabbing and cut-throat words , he may charge us with such words , if he will , but we know who we may charge with the deeds . i would gladly see the list of all that have been murdered by these words , to try if they can be put in the ballance , either with the massacre of ireland , or that of paris ; upon which i must take notice of his slight way of mentioning coligny , and faction , and telling us in plain words , pag. 45. " that they were rebells , this is perhaps another instance of his kindness to the calvinist prince , that is descended from that great man. if idolatry made our plot , it was not the first that is made ; but his malignity is still like himself , his charging dr. stillingfleet , who he says is the author of the imputation of idolatry , as if he had suborned the evidence in our plot. i should congratulate to the dr. the honour that is done him by the malice of one who must needs be the object of the hatred of all good men , if i did not look upon him as so contemptible a person , that his love and his hatred are equally insignificant . if he thinks our church worse than canibals , i wish he would be at the pains to go and make a trial , and see whether these salvages will use him as we have done . i dare say they would not eat him , for they would find so much gall and choler in him , that the first bit would quite disgust them . finis a sermon preached before the king at whitehall, on christmas-day, 1696 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1697 approx. 39 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 18 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30449 wing b5905 estc r21549 12683194 ocm 12683194 65705 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30449) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65705) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:14) a sermon preached before the king at whitehall, on christmas-day, 1696 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 28 p. printed for ri. chiswell, london : 1697. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng christmas sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion printed by his majesty's special command . a sermon preached before the king at whitehall , on christmas-day , 1696. by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for ri. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxcvii . the bishop of salisbury's sermon before the king , on christmas-day . 1696. a sermon preached before the king . gal. iv. ver . 4. but when the fulness of the time was come , god sent forth his son made of a woman . the mysteries of god's providence , are of all others the most amazing . a small measure of true reason , with good degrees of humility and modesty , will easily bring one over to submit to matters of doctrine , relating to the divine essence , if it appears that they are expresly revealed , though the forming distinct apprehensions of them be above our faculties , which god knows are weak and short-sighted ; but it is a more obvious , as well as a more pressing difficulty , that arises from the methods of god's governing the world. there is no great matter in that which is drawn from the varieties and seeming partialities of providence : the prosperity of bad men , and the afflictions of the just , have often such visible tendencies in this life , and are followed with such a just distribution of rewards and punishments in another state , that this is no formidable objection . but that the world should be , as it were , abandoned , so great a part of it being , as it were , delivered up in bulk to ignorance , idolatry , immorality , and magick ; so small a part of it being enlightned , and of that so very small a part being either guided or bettered by that light , carries in it a train of difficulties , which we can never hope to see through , till welcome at that light to which we cannot now approach . why the world was let run into so much corruption for about 4000 years , before the son of god was sent forth into it ; why this light has not shined into all the corners of the world ever since ; and that which is the most amazing of all , is , why do those who enjoy it value it so little , and are so little reformed by it , are indeed mysteries that we cannot see through . yet though we cannot quite comprehend them , we have some hints given us to shew us , that there was a certain conduct , and by consequence a wise direction in this great transaction . a time was prefixed for it , long before it happened ; and the accomplishment did punctually answer the predictions . i shall name only two of the most remarkable . about 1800 years before it , jacob when dying had foretold , that the scepter should not depart from iudah , till shiloh should come , by whom the gentiles were to be called to the knowledge of god. the importance of which was , that the tribe of judah should continue to be god's people , under their peculiar laws and government , till the messias should come , to whom the gentiles were to be gathered . the other tribes were for the greater part so lost , that scarce any remnant of them was left : but the tribe of judah still remained a visible body of men , governed by their peculiar laws , till the time of our saviour's coming into the world . herod had been made their king by the roman senate , and was afterwards confirmed by augustus ; they were thereby brought under subjection , though herod governed them indeed according to mose's law. augustus ordered a taxing of all the empire , of the tributary or subjected provinces , as well as of that which was incorporated into the empire : and this happened precisely at the time of our saviour's birth . soon after that , judea was made a province ; their current money was only the roman coin ; pontius pilate the roman procurator condemned our saviour ; and by that time , according to the prediction , the gentiles were called to the knowledge of god ( through this shiloh the messias , ) the jewish nation was destroyed , their temple burnt down , their city razed down to the ground , and they scattered to the four winds of heaven ; but far the greater part adhering firmly to their religion , still owned the prophecies , which we hope are to have at last a glorious effect upon them for their final conversion . here is one character of the time , and we see the fulness of it was come . another is yet more express , given out about 500 years before the accomplishment ; it was revealed to daniel , that within sixty nine weeks after the going forth of the commandment to build and restore ierusalem , messiah the prince should come , and be cut off . that by weeks are meant so many sevens of years , is confessed by the jews ; and can easily be proved to have been a common form of designing such a period of time among them . the commandment to build ierusalem , was given in the 20th . year of artaxerxes longimanus ; the edict given out before by cyrus , and confirmed by darius , being only for the building the temple , and for the worshipping of god in it . sixty nine weeks of years are just 483 : now we have the certain characters of those times left , by which we are sure , that from the 20th . year of artaxerxes to the 19th . of tiberius , in which our saviour suffered , there were just so many years , neither more nor less , according to the calculation of years that we know the caldeans then reckoned by , of 360 days to a year , which they divided into twelve months , assigning thirty days to every month ; which we see by jeremiah was likewise the measure that the jews counted by ; and of such years only can that prophecy of daniel's be understood . here are two evident characters that the fulness of the time was come ; that a time was prefixed to this great transaction long before , and that it happen'd punctually according to it . we do likewise find in the state of the gentile world a great conjuncture of favourable circumstances previous to its appearance : the roman empire was as calm at this time as it was great : the world was conquer'd , and after a course of many years wars janus temple was shut . it was a constitution made up of justice and morality ; but was under a religion that was then so strangely corrupted , that the tempers as well as laws of that nation did very much dispose them to an aversion to that religion , or rather to that mixture of all religions , which the wiser and better sort among themselves could not but despise and abhor : by consequence this prepared them to receive a religion that not only agreed to all their notions of morality , but that tended to improve and exalt them all . thus we who cannot know why this was the time marked for the appearance of the son of god , yet do certainly know that it was precisely marked out , and was as exactly fulfilled ; and from that we have reason to acknowledge and adore that wisdom in it , which we cannot yet discover . i go next to the great article of the christian religion mentioned in the text , that the messias who was sent forth , was the son of god. the jews understood these two designations to be so inseparable , that they had no other controversy at first with the apostles and the first converts , but about this , whether jesus was the messias , or not ? but supposing him to be the messias , they never questioned his being the son of god ; nor did they object to the christians their giving him divine adoration . we have the martyrdom of st. stephen the most punctually related of any of all the passages that happen'd in the first beginnings of christianity : the jews heard and saw all that past ; st. stephen died calling upon the lord iesus to receive his spirit , and praying to him not to lay that sin to the charge of his murtherers . if the jews had not then believed that the messiah was to be truly god , and that as such he was to be invocated , they must after this have reproached the christians with idolatry ; with making a man god , and with the worshipping him as such . this they did not do ; which shews that then they owned that the messiah was to be truly god. this was yet more instructing to the christians , who could not but observe that st. stephen ended his life in acts of invocation of christ , to the same effect with those in which christ himself had called on his heavenly father , when he gave up the ghost : into thy hands i commit my spirit , being of the same importance with that of st. stephen's , lord iesus receive my spirit : as , father , forgive them , they know not what they do , being the same act in effect with this , lord , lay not this to their charge . if christ was not truly god , and to be worshipp'd as such , it is not possible to excuse this from a very high degree of idolatry . i love not in such an audience to dwell long on points of speculation : yet since this is the capital article of the christian religion , and since it is one of the great infelicities of the age we live in , that as many have been carried to question the truth of the whole of it , so not a few have with a particular eagerness attack'd this fundamental point of it ; i hope the day , as well as the time we are in , will justify the insisting a little more upon it . it is certain , that if we confess that the new testament was a book writ by divine inspiration ( which those who deny this doctrine , profess they do acknowledge ) , we must also confess , that divine honours are through the whole of it ascribed to jesus christ : from this , common sense seems to infer , that either he was truly god , by such a real union with the eternal word , who is god , as makes both natures one person in him ; the nearest resemblance to which is the union of our souls and bodies , out of which very different natures arises one man , or one person : or if this is not true , it will follow , that the christian religion , one of whose main ends was to banish idolatry out of the world , did really only change the object of this idolatry , and draw men from worshipping the deities of the several nations , to worship one who according to those mens doctrine was only a creature , and yet was to be worshipp'd with the same honour which is due to the eternal god ; which were indeed a strain in idolatry beyond that of most heathen nations . but to make this matter yet plainer : all the sects among christians that have rejected our saviour's divinity , who yet acknowledge that divine honour is due to him , may be reduced to these two ; either such as hold him to have been some excellent created being , made before the world , and imployed by god in making and governing the world , and so dignified with divine honour . these were the arians of old , who under many high words , seem to have meant no more but to acknowledge that he was some created mind , such as the jews and we all apprehend angels to be ; superior indeed , in rank and order , to any other of them ; but no idea can be formed of a created mind , how perfect soever , but what is of the nature of angels . now st. paul in his epistle to the hebrews , begins it with the rejecting this conceit ; and he pursues that in the two first chapters , in expressions , that considering the simplicity of stile in which the new testament is writ , are as full as can be imagined . they are of the nature of negative words , which are always to be severely understood . they are likewise set in the terms of opposition , and so must be strictly expounded : the bare repeating them will make this yet more more sensible . it is said of christ , that he was the brightness of the father's glory , and the express image of his person . being made so much better than the angels , as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they . whatsoever dignity they have , it is a free donation , whereas christ has his by inheritance . to which of the angels said he at any time , thou art my son this day have i begotten thee . but when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world , he saith , and let all the angels of god worship him ; an opposition as express as it is full . these words are in the book of psalms ; but they are also in the conclusion of the last song of moses , according to the septuagint translation , tho' not in the hebrew : rejoyce , o ye heavens , and let all the angels of god worship him . this being then the translation that was in use among the jews , when st. paul writ , it is most probable that he had regard to it , there being no part of the law , that the jews think is more full of mystery and prophecy than that song . the angels being thus called on to worship the messias , is a very strict expression of another nature in him , superior to theirs , and to which they are subject . that is farther prosecuted : of angels , this is said , he makes his angels spirits ( that is , winds , which imports the quickness of their motion ) , and his ministers a flaming fire ( a figure importing their subtil force ) . in opposition to which , this follows ; but unto the son he saith , thy throne , o god , is for ever and ever . — and , thou , lord , in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth , and the heavens are the works of thiue hands ▪ — they shall be changed , but thou art the same , and thy years shall not fail . the creation of the heavens and the earth , and eternity , being in these words plainly affirmed of the messias , which could not be said without blasphemy , if he was not truly god. this is carried yet further : to which of the angels said he at any time , sit thou at my right hand , until i make thine enemies thy footstool ; in opposition to which , it is said further of angels , are they not all ministring spirits , sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation . this is more expresly prosecuted in the next chapter , where this is made a part of the difference between the mosaical and the christian dispensation , that the former was spoken by angels ; whereas this was first begun to be spoken by the lord. for unto angels god hath not put in subjection the world to come ( a phrase importing in the jewish stile , the dispensation of the messias ) ; whereas the messias , though made a little lower than the angels , was crowned with glory and honour , and set over the whole creation . in the conclusion of that chapter , there is an expression that makes all this yet more evident ; for verily he took not on him the nature of angels , but he took on him the seed of abraham ; which fully shews that the nature in him , which he had before his incarnation , was not the nature of angels . the second supposition on which those who deny his divinity , do yet pretend to assert the high dignity to which he is raised , is the sublimity of that ministry and dispensation that was committed to him ; in conclusion of which , and as a reward of his patient sufferings , he was raised up , and exalted to divine honour . this artemon of old , and the socinians of late , have advanced : but , as by a spirit of prophecy , st. paul does in the next place destroy this conceit in that way , which of all others , was the best suited to the notions of the jews . he sets christ in opposition to moses , not only in a priority of rank , and precedence , but in a superiority of nature . he prefaces this with a charge to us , to consider the high-priest and apostle of our profession : to which he adds , that both moses and he were faithful , but with this distinction ; that this man was counted worthy of more glory than moses , in as much as he who hath built the house hath more honour than the house . he adds to this ; that he who hath built all things , is god. but the opposition follows ; moses was faithful in all his house as a servant ; but christ as a son over his own house . words that are as clear as they are full . to make this yet more sensible , it is to be considered , that the degree of moses's inspiration , is set by god himself above any other prophecy , in these words : if there be a prophet among you , i will make my self known to him in a vision , and will speak to him in a dream . my servant moses is not so , who is faithful in all my house , with him will i speak mouth to mouth ( or face to face , as one man speaks to another ) even apparently , and not in dark speeches ; and the similitude of the lord shall he behold : or , to put this in modern expressions , he shall see god in a true and compleat idea . thus moses was above all other prophets . the peculiar excellencies of the pe al pe , face to face , is well known to all who have any acquaintance with jewish notions . now after all this , christ is not only preferred to moses , but is put in such an opposition to him as is that of a son to a servant . these are plain and simple authorities , that need only a little reflection , but no commentary , to make us apprehend the force and evidence that is in them . god be thanked , that by his good providence , and the care of all the churches , we have this book brought down to us , in its first genuine and uncorrupted state , in which the inspired penmen delivered it to the world. it was the interest of the enemies of this doctrine , to endeavour to corrupt it . they understood that , and followed it ; for which we have an undeniable testimony recorded to us by a writer who was too favourable to them to be declined as partial against them . it was eusebius , who in his history cites a passage from a writer in the beginning of the 3d century , believed to be gaius presbyter of rome , who tells us that artemon's disciples had endeavoured to corrupt the new testament , but in such a manner , that as they could shew no ancient copies to justify their corruptions , so they did not agree among themselves ; and these corruptions were , as he says , very strange and enormous ones . so notwithstanding all the cry that they do now raise of the corruption of the text , we see who they were that begun it ; but that the church was watchful in preserving this sacred depositum , and did early detect this impious piece of fraud , and stopt it in its first beginnings . if any shall ask , how can these things be ? it must be answered , we cannot tell : we can form no distinct apprehensions concerning them . this is wisdom indeed , in a mystery : it is wisdom , because it comes from god ; but it is in a mystery , because we cannot attain unto it . can we apprehend eternity , or god's being every where ? and that in one single act he sees all things past , present , and to come ? can we form any distinct thought concerning creation ? how beings arise out of nothing , in consequence to the will of an infinite mind , who said of all things , let them be , and they were ? or can we so much as apprehend how matter thus created , shall move at the act and will of its eternal creator ? can matter know that will to obey it ? or can an intellectual act give motion to insensible matter ? can we apprehend the propagation of plants , much less of animals ? and as to that which of all other things we perceive the most sensibly , can we apprehend how soul and body dwell together ? how thought and motion , how distant soever in their natures , have that union with , and influence upon one another ? how a motion of matter can throw an inexpressible agony into a mind ; and how a mind can command so many regular and unaccountable motions of matter , as we perceive in memory , imagination , and speech ; are difficulties that confound us . these are such plain and home convictions of the defectiveness of our faculties , which can much more easily apprehend difficulties , than resolve them , that it can be no just objection to any part of the divine revelation , that it contains matters out of which great difficulties do arise , and that we are not able to give our selves any account of them . our apprehensions are not only finite , but very much bounded ; we see but a very little way ; and therefore we ought not to plead our want of capacity , in opposition to any thing that appears to be plainly revealed to us in scriptures . when such things occur to us , we ought to take the shield of faith ; maintaining our selves with this , that the god of truth , who cannot lye , has revealed such things to us ; and when we are sure of that , we are at the same time as sure that it must be true , because it comes from him : and by this we may beat back all the fiery darts of the devil ; all those objections that arise out of a mixture of pride and weakness ; for our faculties are as weak , as our arrogance and self-conceit is high . this is so important a part of the christian religion , that it deserves well to be insisted on , and to be made out , as much as the nature of the thing , or rather as much as our nature is capable of . the next thing to be considered , is the ends for which the son of god was sent forth into the world. they were certainly great , since such extraordinary methods were taken to promote them : when it was introduced with so many particular and distinct predictions ; when all was supported with such a series of miracles , done not only by our saviour himself , but by those who were sent in his name : the propagation it self , considering the instruments made use of , and the opposition it met with from all hands , being one of the greatest of all miracles . now since it is unsuitable to infinite wisdom , to employ extraordinary methods for the attaining of some ordinary ends , it is very just to conclude , that the ends must be great , when the means used in order to them were such . they were indeed the greatest that the humane nature was capable of : all the principles of natural religion , together with the tradition concerning the first beginnings of the world , were so corrupted , or so intermixed with fables , that it was necessary to restore these by a mighty authority . that which we call strictly religion , was turned wholly to idolatry and magick , charm , or superstition . it was therefore necessary to raise up just and great ideas of god , which the philosophers had attempted , but faintly and with small success . barbarity and vice had so over-run the world , that the plainest ideas of virtue were either quite lost , or rendred very doubtful . under such a corruption of religion , it was no wonder if atheism made a great progress , since few can be much concerned to support a religion that is visibly made up of fraud ; and that may make men the worse , but cannot make them the better for adhering to it ; and such was the heathenish religion . judaism it self , though sound in its own nature , as well as divine in its original , yet was but low , and was become much more so by the increase of the ceremonial part by tradition , which still as it increases too much , does sink the moral and best part of religion . it being then necessary to free the jews from their bondage ( which is the occasion upon which these words are in this place made use of by st. paul ) as well as to deliver the gentiles out of their darkness , which was become black and thick as the shadow of death ; god sent his son to give the world true and high notions of god and his attributes ; of his justice and goodness more particularly ; to open a way of worship that should be plain and simple ; suitable to the ideas of god , and to our faculties : and to set such rules to mens inward thoughts and tempers , as well as to their lives and actions , as should rectify human nature , and render mutual society both safe and happy . for this end he delivered his doctrine to his hearers , and lived it as well as he spake it . if an angel from heaven had pronounced it , as the law was given on mount sinai , it could not have had so sensible an effect , as when the person who delivered it set such a pattern as gave more distinct ideas concerning his end in it . in it he expressed what a sort of holiness he came to promote : not the affectations of a pompous exterior , but the real purity of genuine virtue ; of truth and goodness ; of modesty , humility , and charity . here was one great end for which the son of god was sent forth : a great one it was ; to raise and reform mens natures ; to give us noble thoughts and excellent rules , as well as a clear pattern , that can neither fail nor misguide us . a second end of his coming , was to open such a method of reconciling sinners to god , as should both render them capable of the mercies of god , and yet give them great impressions both of the guilt of sin , and of the justice as well as the goodness of god. no offer of pardon at all , must have made men desperate ; as too easy a one , must have made them bold in sinning . the offer of a pardon was necessary to be begun with , but it must be made in such a manner , that it might not encourage men to live on in sin , at the same time that it gave them the hopes of mercy . the ideas of the guilt and odiousness of sin were to be kept up in a religion whose chief design was to reform and purify mankind , at the same time that a general offer of a pardon was to be proclaimed to the world. therefore this messias , who was to procure that offer to be made , was to become a sacrifice himself in our name and stead , he was to bear our sins , and so to take them away : he was not to be brought by priests , to be offered up on an altar , as the heathens did with their piacular victims ; much less was he to slay himself , according to some stories that the heathens had . every thing in him was to be innocent , as well as great ; such as became both the majesty of god , and the purity as well as the dignity of his person . he was therefore fallen upon by an enraged multitude , who to satisfy their own brutal fury , first treated him most barbarously , and then put him ignominiously to death ; all which he who could have saved himself by miracle , if not by other ways , not only bore patiently , but with an intire submission to the will of god , and an unconquerable charity towards even those his persecutors . this was only the outside , and the visible part of his sufferings ; but with these he endured an inexpressible agony in his mind , both before and during his being on the cross , of which we who understand only the agonies of guilt , of pain , or of passion , can form no distinct idea . all this he offered himself to bear ; he was not surprized in it ; he foresaw it coming , and longed for it . it is by this , and on the account of it , that sinners are encouraged to come to god , and to claim their pardon . in this they find great characters , setting forth both the guilt of sin , and the holiness , the justice , as well as the goodness of god. by such a ransom it appears , how hateful a thing sin is , since god has thought fit to offer the pardon of it , in so solemn and so severe a manner . by this the doctrine of the messias has this most effectual recommendation accompanying it , that he shewed he loved us , in instances beyond imagination , as well as expression . a third design upon which god sent forth his son , was to bring men to awaken much within themselves , the ideas of god in the seriousest and tenderest manner , by frequent meditation , and earnest prayer : to which he added the most encouraging of all promises , that god will not only hear , but answer our prayers ; and more especially that he will give his holy spirit to every one that asks it . our faculties are not only under a great depression , but a vast disorder : appetite and passion do soon fire us , and are not easily resisted ; we may have some good minutes , but we have many more weak and bad ones : we do plainly perceive that without some inward assistance to cure and rectify our nature , we cannot go through with the business of religion . our saviour has assured us of this ; and he has made the condition of our attaining it , to be that which is both in it self easy , for nothing can be easier than to have a thing for the asking , and is the properest method possible , to keep alive in us great and powerful impressions of god ; which are the seeds and principles that must reform our natures , and mould them unto the likeness of god. before the son of god was sent forth , there were some general ideas of god's hearing and answering of prayer , and of his furnishing his worshippers with an inward aid . but it was our saviour only , who made it a part of the covenant that he came to establish between god and man , that a divine power should be conveyed into the faculties of all such as should earnestly pray to him , by which they should be enabled to pay him that sincere obedience , of which he is pleased graciously to accept ; and in consideration of which , he does through the merits and intercession of christ , pardon all our other errors and defects . this is now to us , a foederal promise ; we may depend upon it , and with all humble confidence claim to it . the fourth great design of god's , in sending forth his son , was , that he might give the world the most powerful of all motives , to work either on their hopes , or fears , by offering them both a full assurance , and a particular description of a future state. some notices of this were still in the world ; but they were both doubtful and dark : the greatest assertors of it among the greeks and latins , did it but faintly : they proposed it , rather as an opinion that was highly probable , and fit to be believed , than as that which was certainly true . the hints given of it in the old testament , are very general , and may be made capable of other senses : by it the jews might be inclined to believe not only another state , but the resurrection of the body ; but the account they contain of it , is very defective . our saviour brought it to light ; he not only affirmed it in many expressions , that were so full and so plain , that it is not possible to doubt any longer about it , without rejecting his authority : he gave a very express proof of the possibility of the resurrection , by his own rising from the dead : he went further , and assured us , that we should then be made like unto angels : that our bodies should shine as the sun ; that we should be for ever with god , inheriting that kingdom which was prepared for us ; previous to this , he told us , that we shall hear his voice , by the power of which we shall be raised out of our graves , and be judged according to all that we have done in this life ; and that the micked shall go into everlasting punishment , and the righteous into life eternal . this being then so evidently delivered , and so fully described by him , we have in it given to us exceeding great and precious promises , with the greatest encouragement possible , to undertake that course of holiness , which he has set before us , in consideration of the glory which , with it , he hath also set before us . we are assured by him , that if we go through life in an imitation of his example , and an obedience of his laws , as well , as in a submission to those sufferings by which he may think fit to exercise our faith and patience , we shall at last escape out of this evil world , and from these vile bodies : we shall arise above the depressions of sense and imagination , and the disorders of appetite and passion . we shall drop our bodies with all the necessities and weaknesses that hang about them ; and shall arise into a state of pure and clear light ; into a state of purity and perfection ; into the fellowship of angels and saints , and be brought to see and enjoy god to all eternity ; and that too , with all the fulness of comprehension , as well as of joy , that our faculties in their utmost enlargement and elevation are capable of . these are the hopes that the son of god has given us . i will not turn the prospect , and give the black face of that dismal eternity , which he has at the same time denounced against the impenitent . the joy of this day agrees not so well with that , as withthe other more lovely and more animating prospect ; which we ought to carry ever in our thoughts , that so we may lay hold on that eternal life , which he who cannot lye has thus set before us . these are the great ends for which god sent forth his son : they are all worthy of god , as they are the greatest that the human nature is capable of . but what are we the better for all this , if we come not under the influences of it , if we are only brought to have chaster thoughts of the divinity , a decenter way of worship , with correcter expressions , and more reasonable opinions , but come not under the vital energy of it ? if neither our hearts nor our lives are made the better for it , we do very little consider or pursue the ends for which the son of god was sent into the world. can we imagine that all this was designed for no higher end , than to bring men under some forms , and to bind them to some opinions ? this amounts to little , and must needs give but a mean idea of a religion , that with how much pomp soever it might be introduced , seems now to have very little effect on the great numbers of those who profess it . this alone disposes the world more to doubt of it , than all that prophane minds can draw from any part of it , as a prejudice against it : then shall these be the most effectually confuted , when the world shall see many instances of such true christians , over whose thoughts and actions this religion bears sway . human nature is too universally corrupted , to expect great numbers of such ; but a happy mixture of some of these among the crouds of those who are called christians , but are the reproaches of their profession , would give another air of authority to all that we can say in behalf of our faith ; if we could at the same time appeal to such who are the living apologies for religion . this ought to be the noble ambition of those , whom god has eminently distinguished from the rest of mankind , and exalted above them : to be patterns to others to follow , is an honour far beyond the authority of commanding them : the examples of those in great posts , will be both followed and observed in that which is good , as well as in that which is bad . happy they who live so as to convince the world of the power that religion has over them ; and that give such an essay of the beauty as well as the purity of true holiness , as disposes the rest of mankind to love it as well as to follow it . let us all then consider for what ends god sent his son into the world ; that we may comply with them , and correspond to them . let us fill our minds with great thoughts of god , with just ones of our selves , and with the generous principles of virtue , even in its most heroical instances . let us study the doctrine of christ , that we may be enlightened by it , and have it in all its branches distinctly before our thoughts , and in our memories ; that so we may ever know how to conduct our selves by it : and let the pattern of our saviour's holy life and deportment , be ever as a picture before us , that we may always study and copy after it . let the meditations of what he suffered for us , and for our sins , be ever tender upon our minds ; to humble us when we reflect on our sins ; to give us deep horror for what is past , and great cantion for the future : that so we may learn to value those souls that were to be purchased at such a price , as well as these sins that were to be expiated by such a sacrifice . let us not sink under the sense of our frailty , since we have great assistances at hand , such as will strengthen us against all difficulties , and will enable us to resist all temptations , and in the end to be more than conquerors . all this is offered to us through him , in whom , as the fulness of the godhead dwelt bodily ; so out of that fulness we shall all receive grace proportioned to our occasions , to our necessities , and to those services in which we are to be imployed . finally , let us with joy look beyond life and mortality , and all the fading glories of this world : those scenes that change so often , and so suddenly . let us look beyond sense , and matter , and all that train of vanity and vexation that accompanies them , unto those regions above , where dwelleth light and love , and life for evermore . let us look unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith , whom god sent forth into the world , to seek and save lost sinners , of whom we ought to reckon our selves among the chief . to whom with the father and the h. ghost , be all honour and glory both now and evermore . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30449-e220 gen. 49. 10. dan. 9. 25. neh. 2. 5 , 6. ezra . 1. 2. ezra 6. 8. heb. 1. 3. ver . 4. ver . 6 , 7. ps. 97. 7. deut. 32. 43. heb. 1. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. ver . 13 , 14. heb. 2. 2 , 3 , 4. ver . 5. 7. ver . 16. heb. 3. 7. ver . 2. ver . 5 , 6. numb . 13. 6. eus. hist. l. 5. c. 28. the conversion & persecutions of eve cohan, now called elizabeth verboon a person of quality of the jewish religion, who was baptized the 10th of october, 1680, at st. martins in the fields, by the right reverend father in god, william, lord bishop of st. asaph. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1680 approx. 42 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30333 wing b5772 estc r7379 11630880 ocm 11630880 47933 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30333) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47933) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:30) the conversion & persecutions of eve cohan, now called elizabeth verboon a person of quality of the jewish religion, who was baptized the 10th of october, 1680, at st. martins in the fields, by the right reverend father in god, william, lord bishop of st. asaph. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [6], 27 p. printed by j.d. for richard chiswell, london : 1680. attributed to gilbert burnet. cf. mcalpin coll. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng verboon, elizabeth. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2003-11 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the conversion & persecutions of eve cohan , now called elizabeth verboon , a person of quality of the jewish religion . who was baptized the 10 th of october , 1680. at st. martins in the fields , by the right reverend father in god , william , lord bishop of st. asaph . london : printed by i. d. for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . 1680. the preface . the world has been so often deceived in many pretended converts , who make a trade of changing their religion , that it is no wonder if men are not easily perswaded of the sincerity of those who come over from one religion to another ; since it is certain the prepossession of education and custom is so strong , that such as turn to a new religion , must either be led to it by a clear conviction , which will shew it self in other signal effects , or are guilty of great levity and fickleness of mind , that disposes them too easily to change for changes sake ; or do it upon a baser account , of working upon the compassions of those , who being very religious themselves , are apt to deal their charity liberally to such as seem to follow the steps of abraham , who being called to it , forsook his kindred and country to serve the true and living god. but here is a convert that is indeed a disciple of the cross , and has , in all the steps she made towards her change , been oft in danger of her life , and has suffered much from her mother and kindred : whose persecutions ceased not after she had taken sanctuary in this country , where she might reasonably have thought , that either the jews durst not presume to have pursued her any longer ; or if they would have attempted it , could not have found instruments to have served their wicked designs . but even here , as they found out cursed tools to have spirited her away ; so when they failed , they betook themselves to all the arts of villany , in which they are so well practised : and hoping that nothing could resist their wealth , of which they resolved to be prodigal upon this occasion , they carried their designs so far , that she was neglected by some , and hardly used by others , from whom a greater zeal to the christian religion ought to have been expected . when she seemed thus abandoned by many christians , the jews then hoped to have prevailed on her weakness and fears , and her mother writ tenderly to her , to perswade her to return home again : but god left her not wholly destitute , for as he directed her to lodg in a house , where she met with all the care and tenderness she could have expected from her nearest relations ; so she was found out by that eminent and learned convert charles du veil , doctor of divinity ; who being born and bred a jew , was first converted to the christian religion in france ; but both he , and his most learned brother , seeing and detesting the idolatry of the church of rome , forsook the great advantages they had , and might have expected there , and came hither , and joined themselves to our church . this dr. du veil , remembring that word of our saviour to st. peter , when thou art converted , strengthen the brethren , made it his business both to instruct and comfort her , and to procure the charitable supplies and assistances of others to her . he applied himself chiefly to the right reverend father in god , the lord bishop of st. asaph , as the churchman most concerned in it , since this convert had taken shelter in the parish of st. martins , of which he was then vicar : and he followed her concerns with that zeal that the occasion required . and the lord mayor of london being informed by him of the whole business , has taken it into his care , with that sincere and hearty affection which becomes a christian , and so great a magistrate ; and is contriving the most effectual means possible , not only to do her right against her oppressors , but also to have her possessed of a fair estate that belongs to her in holland : the hazard of losing which estate , together with both liberty and life , she run with chearfulness , that she might embrace the christian religion . the particular account of so remarkable a conversion , and those things which happened upon it , i hope will be no unacceptable entertainment to the reader ; and therefore having gathered the passages and steps of it together , upon very good authority , i now offer them to the world. the conversion & persecution of elizabeth verboon . elizabeth verboon carries her christen'd name from the baptismal font , and her surname from her husband mr. michael verboon , but her name formerly was eve cohan : her father was abraham cohan , a man of great wealth and credit , not only among the jews in holland , but among the dutch : so that as michael levi , the sollicitor for the jews , informed the lord mayor , he was chief governor of the dutch plantations in brasile ; and was then believed worth 100000 l. sterling , but lost a great deal of it when the portugueses beat the dutch out of brasile ; yet , he said , that to his knowledg he died worth 20000 l. or upward : he died about ten years agoe , when this his daughter was not twelve years old ; who has lived ever since under her mothers care : her name was rebekah , alias elizabeth : she was daughter to one pallacius , who as this convert had been told , was sent ambassador from the states , and was one of the professors in the university of leyden . levi knew this better than she did , and told the lord mayor that he was sent ambassador , both to the emperor of morocco , and to the king of poland ; what he professed in leyden we do not yet know : it may be supposed , from his negotiations , that he was a civilian . he was a jew in his heart , but gave himself out for a christian : so that his daughter , and other children , as we are informed , were all baptized . this eve cohan lived with her mother at delft , where one mr. shol , that teaches musick , being imployed to teach her , used frequently to discourse with her of the christian religion : and carried her sometimes to church , on pretence to hear the organs play ; where she staid , not only while the psalms were singing , but all the while , both of the sermon and prayers : and a new testament being secretly conveyed to her , she took great delight in reading in it . she says , that which first made impression on her was , that their nation was now dispersed over the world , no more under the conduct of any prophet : nor had they any of those visible marks of the favour and protection of god , which their ancestors enjoyed in those ages in which the books of the old testament were written . so that they seemed cast off by god , and under these curses threatned by moses and the prophets : and yet they kept the laws of moses better than ever , and were more careful than their fathers had been to abstain from idolatry . when she read the account of our saviour's passion , she felt her self mightily affected with that passage of iudas's confessing that he had betrayed innocent blood ; and his being so transported with the horror of it , that he went and hanged himself . this did first open her eyes , about two years agoe , and from that time she was ever since disposed to become a christian. but it coming some way to her mothers knowledg , as she discharged the musick-master , so she treated her very severely , and shut her up as a prisoner near six months : and when gentler severities were ineffectual , she threatned to poison her if she changed her religion . so that once , for eight days together , she durst eat nothing that they gave her , till she saw others taste of it before her . she was oft beaten by her mother , and not suffered to come to the door , or look out at those windows that opened to the street , lest being in a christian country , she might have discovered her designs to such as would have assisted her in bringing them to perfection . but that which confirmed her in the belief of christianity , was , what she read of the resurrection of our saviour , of which he had given assurance to his followers before his sufferings ; this did so effectually convince her , that he was her onely saviour and redeemer , that she called often on him for his assistance and direction , and resolved to dedicate her self to his service . while she was under those apprehensions and fears , he that is now her husband , mr. michael verboon , then served her eldest brother , iacob cohan ; he is descended of honest parents , though but of a mean condition : he had been entertained by one of the admiralty of utrecht , as his servant for three years . after that he served the heer waerkendam ( one of the states general , who was sent ambassador into denmark ) other three years ; and when he left his service , he had a certificate of his faithful service , signed by his lady , himself being then from home , bearing date the third day of may , 1679. from thence he went to serve iacob cohan , and staid with him nine months , and had from him a certificate of his faithful service , two days after he left him . there has been very great enquiry made concerning him in holland , and all people there give a good character of him . he being in the same house with her , addressed himself to her as a suitor for marriage , which she for some months rejected , but at last gave him some encouragement , though no promise nor assurance ; and indeed intended then no more , but to make use of his kindness to her , so far as to be conveyed , by his means , into some place of safety , where she might without danger profess her self a christian. upon this he left her brother's service , and resolved to go for some time into france , and went on his way as far as brussels . she was daily in fear of her life , and the rather , because her mother had said to her , that mr. honslaier , a minister at delft , had been with her to demand her from her , because he understood she had an inclination to turn christian. this we have learnt from holland was not true , but only pretended by her mother : and it is probable was said by her , that she might by that artifice draw from her daughter the discovery of a correspondence she suspected might be between the minister and her . these things made her desirous to be out of their hands ; so having contrived the way of her escape , she got out of her mothers house in the end of may ; and knowing by a letter that mr. verboon wrote to her , that he was still at brussels , she went thither . but being more concerned to preserve her life , and to save her soul , then careful how to live , she did not so much as carry away the jewels that were in her own possession : so far was she from robbing her mother , or giving the rest of the family any ground to lay those actions on her , by which they hoped to have ruined her : though a parcel of very fair jewels , that were her mothers , lay so open to her very eye , that she could easily have carried them away if she had designed it . when she saw that the christians at brussels worshipped images , and hearing that the christians in france were generally guilty of the same idolatry ; she resolved rather to come into england , and be baptized in a christian church , that was not defiled with such abominations : and mr. verboon having been bred a protestant , and makeing her understand the difference between the two churches , she chose to join her self to a protestant church . so they went to newport , and from thence came to england , in iuly , and took lodgings in mr. peter lavignes house , a french taylor in bedford-bury . she carried her self there very decently and vertuously ; the people of the house knew that she went oft to prayers : mr. verboon and she lived like brother and sister together ; sometimes they went to the dutch church in london . the mean while she went to the countess of arlington , to desire her to help her to a service ; but that good lady knew not how to recommend her , till she had a farther account of her from other hands . on the 27 th of iuly , moses cohan , her youngest brother , and samuel vandersee her cousen german , to whom , as it is said , her mother intended to have married her , found her out , and took lodgings in the same house . this made mr. verboon more pressing to have her marry him , fearing they might , either by force or persuasion , prevail with her to return . so on the 29 th of iuly , they went out to knightsbridg , with two witnesses , and were married there , according to the form of the church of england . levi was not ashamed to say , before the lord mayor , that she was within six weeks of her time ; yet she having been now ten weeks married ▪ appears not to have been with child till after her marriage , of which she has since miscarried by fright , as shall be told afterwards . and her husband with a solemn oath declared to bishop lloyd , that she kept him at a due distance ever till they were married . her brother brought her a letter from her mother , in which she charges her with no dishonest or unhandsome thing , but with many fair offers and promises , persuades her to abandon verboon , and return home again . vandersee did , by many impious blasphemies against the person of our blessed saviour , endeavour to divert her from her resolution of becoming a christian. but seeng all these ways were ineffectual , they resolved to betake themselves to more desperate and mischievous ones . and for this end they consulted with michael levi , the formerly mentioned sollicitor for the jews ; who laid the train artificially enough to have spirited her away . he came often to the house where they were lodged , and dealt with mistris lavigney to help him to speak with mistris verboon ; he offered her a present , and made her many promises of large rewards , both of gold and silver , if she would perswade her to go back to her mother : but as mistris verboon could not see him , so mistris lavigney worthily rejected all his offers , though he came four times to her , hoping , by such importunities and bribes , to overcome her at last . they intended first to have arrested mr. verboon , hoping if he were once put out of the way , they might deal with his wife more effectually : but when the bailiffs were brought about the house , he was , by his landladies care , conveyed out at the window . it is plain , they have no just ground of any action against him , for two days after he left her brother's house , he had a discharge of his service under his hand and seal , bearing date the 17 th of may , 1680. when those two jews had been five weeks in the same house with her , and perceived all the ways of persuasion and bribery were insuccessful , they then betook themselves to other courses , in which they hoped they should succeed . michael levi found out two fit tools for their purpose , one holland a middlesex bailiff , and one hammond a serjeant , belonging to the poultry-counter ; the former of these came sometimes into the house where they lodged , as a porter , carrying jewish meat to cohan and vandersee ; by these means he was not suspected , and so found an opportunity to execute a warrant upon master verboon , under the name of eve cohan , on the first of september , for forty pound , at the suit of her mother . there was bail presently offered , by the procurement of the landlord and his wife : the bailiff seemed willing to accept it , but hammond had learned his lesson better ; and pretended he must needs carry her to the under-sheriffs office in hatton-garden , and so hurried her into a coach , into which hammond went with him : but mistris lavigne thrust her self also in with them to see what should be done with mistris verboon : and those who offered to bail her , followed them to the sheriffs office. all the while that this was doing , levi , the principal contriver , was standing at some distance , to see the issue of the plot he had so skilfully laid , and carried himself , as if he had known nothing of it , but asked one , for what was that disturbance ? the woman he spake to , perceiving he was a jew , treated him with the indignation that such a provocation seemed almost to justify ; and he fearing some violent effects of it , ran away . but holland the bailiff , instead of carrying his prisoner to the sheriffs office , where those that went to be bail , staied some hours in vain expecting them , ordered the coachman to drive within the liberties of london , and then discharged her of the arrest he had her under , and immediately hammond took out his mace , and arrested her for 2000 l. at her mothers suit , and so carried her into london . it was in vain to tell them , that she being married , and under covert-barr , was liable to no arrest for debts ; for though the certificate of the marriage was shewed them , they who had other instructions from levi , resolved to finish the project he had laid : which , as hammond then declared , was for carrying her away into holland . and levi confessed afterward , before the lord chief justice scroggs , that he had employed hammond to arrest her . when the coachman had driven to the rose tavern near the poultry counter , hammond had a mind to make mistris verboon to go up two pair of stairs ; but she was in such a fright , and trembled so , that she sat down in the first floor ; and there mistris lavigne began to open the business to some company that was in the rome : but hammond , in a great rage , called the drawer , and made him drag her out of the room ; and then going up one pair of stairs higher , he went about to persuade her to be contented and go home in quiet , for , said he , mistris verboon should not go to prison , but lodg in his house , where she should be well used : and told her , that levi had emploied him in this business , who never undertook any affair in which he did not succeed . but finding she still persisted in her resolution of assisting of mistris verboon , and of bringing some to bail her , he threatned her that she should never be paid what was owing her , and that she and her husband both , should come into great trouble and danger , by medling further in it ; but if she would make no more noise , she should not only be paid , but well rewarded . all these had no effect on her , so a person she had sent for coming to them , he forced hammond to carry her to the counter ; for they knew well the design of carrying her to the serjeants-house , was only that she might be conveyed away more secretly . she being lodged in the prison , master lavigne fearing that the jews might have taken her out of prison , set some to keep constant watch before the counter gate ; and after two days entred an action of 500 l. against her , that so she might not come out without his knowledg ; and lest the jews should have brought some to have bailed her out , that so they might get her into their power ; he continued his watch there [ employing some , on whom he knew their bribes would have no influence ] several nights before the counter gate . there was need of all this caution , when the jews were so cruelly set on the poor womans destruction ; and had found out such fit instruments for their ends . she knew what she was to expect if she fell in their hands , for vandersee had told her , that if she proved with child in their hands , she should see it when delivered of it , but never more : but she had reason to look for further effects of their enraged cruelty , if they had her once in their power . and that those , whose ancestors in unbelief , had with so bloody a malice crucified our blessed saviour , would have spared no invention of mischief , to execute their revenge on one , that was now resolved to believe in him. but so zealous was hammond to serve the jews in this plot , that seeing mistris lavigne was like to raise a great stir about it , and that neither promises , nor threatnings , nor violence , could work on her ; for he found the calling of her witch , bawd , and such other base names , and the beating her , and pulling her by the hair of the head , could not deliver him from her importunities ; he thereupon contrived another way to frighten her , or to have her torn in pieces by the people . it is probable that levi contrived this also , for both he and the other jews came oft and drank with hammond at the rose tavern : but whosoever contrived it , this way hammond took ; the next time he saw her , he cried out , a papist bitch , a harbourer of iesuits ; though it is notoriously known , that both she and her husband have been always good protestants : with this out-cry he brought many together ; who if her sister had not been there ▪ and brought some friends to rescue her out of their hands , had very probably done her much mischief . but the poor prisoner , who now seemed in a forlorn state , was not forsaken of him , to whose service she was resolved to dedicate her self . mistris lavigne had brought dr. du veil to her while she lay at her house , as the fittest person to instruct her , having been himself of that religion . he waited on her every day during her imprisonment , and comforted her much in her afflictions : for these were the pledges of her being to reign with christ , since she now suffered for him . he took care also of providing such supplies as her necessities called for . and above all the rest of the good offices he did her , he acquainted the lord bishop of st. asaph with the matter , in whose parish this prisoner was lodged , when she was so violently and fraudulently carried out of it ; he had been out of town when she was taken , but coming to it the next day , he set about it with all that diligence and zeal which the occasion required . but now the jews finding their prisoner was under such a protection , betook themselves to more artificial methods ; and knowing that there was no ground , neither for the action of 40 nor of 2000 l. let these fall the next court day , and brought two new actions , one of 500 l. at the suit of vandersee , and the other of 200 l. for trover and provision at her mothers suit ; and they entertained my lord chief justice scroggs his son to be their counsel . a reverend divine had informed my lord chief justice of the affair , who ordered a hearing of the business before himself at his house , on the 10 th of september : where because bishop lloyd could not then attend , he sent mr. tissar to appear for mistris verboon . when they came thither , levi and vandersee , with hammond , being on the one side , were called up stairs , for what end is not known : but after a little stay they came down , and soon after my lord chief justice came out , and said , he was in haste , and must go to white-hall , and so could not hear it : but he very mildly said , he saw the thing was a trick , and that hammond had been abused ; but he bad him go from him , to the judg of the sheriffs court , and tell him , he perceived it was a cheat. this was all could be obtained for him . so the poor christian complainants went away , as much cast down , as the jews were lifted up with this great success . on the 7 th of september , the trial for vandersee's pretended debt was brought into the sheriffs court , where mistris verboon's attorney , mr. cross of woodstreet , though he knew of her marriage , yet pleaded non assumpsit . so the witnesses were ordered to be summoned to the next court day ; which was the 9 th , and then the trial was put off till saturday . then the jews had obtained a levetur for removing it to the lord mayor's court , for a further delay : but the lord mayor being informed rightly of the matter , by that worthy gentleman mr. crisp , the common serjeant , presently signed a remandetur , by which the business was turned back to the sheriffs court ; for the jews had such a good acceptance with the lord chief justice , that they hoped now to have wearied the poor prisoner out with vexatious suits and delays . the common serjeant did also most worthily bail her , on the 11 th of september : so being at liberty , she resolved to delay her profession of the christian religion no longer , having been now as it were initiated into it by the cross which she had born so long . yet the bishop of st. asaph resolved to delay it till he got a return to a letter he wrote to the minister of the english congregation at the hague , desiring him and mr. swanswick ( a learned advocate there , with whom he had made an acquaintance , when he waited on her highness the princess of orange into holland ) to inform themselves of as many particulars as they could learn concerning mistris verboon and her husband : and having received a long and full answer from the minister to whom he wrot , he perceived it had been known in delft , by the means of the musick-master , that this convert was enclined to be a christian ; that she had been sometimes at church to hear sermons ; that she used often to read the new testament ; and that her mother had treated her barbarously ; but the ministers had not demanded her , as her mother had said to her . so that was a piece of the mothers craft , to fish out of her daughter what correspondence there might have been between them and her : and for mr. verboon , they had a good character given of him by all that knew him ; only the angry mother accused him of some ill things ; but the discharge of his service two days after he left the house , shews these were all calumnies . and in a word , the bishop found that every thing that mistris verboon had told him , proved to be true : so having used this caution , which the many cheats of pretended converts had made more necessary , he resolved to baptise her into the christian religion ; and left the particular care of instructing her on dr. du veil , who had of his own accord travelled much in it , and had followed all her concerns with a very tender care and assiduous zeal . but though she was bailed out of prison , yet she was not delivered from the persecutions of her family . they knew well she had stollen nothing from her mother , and that she owed her nothing . on the contrary , her mother ows her her portion , which by levy's own account , will rise to above 2500 l. and he also said , that her mother had offered her to him with 3000 l. portion in present , and more after her ovvn death . vandersee , when he was before my lord chief justice , pretended , that all he did was on the mothers account , and that mistris verboon was indebted so much to her in mony. but novv in the sheriffs court , vandersee sued for a debt pretended to be due to himself . her marriage was proved in court , by the oath of the minister , the clark , and two witnesses ; but all that went for nothing , the attorney having made another plea. but then for the pretended debt , no evidence was brought , but her brother moses ; and he could speak no english , but as smith his interpreter swore : he said , upon his oath , that he saw vandersee lend her four duccatoons at mr. lavigne's house , which comes to about two and twenty shillings english mony : so now all the actions of 40 , 2000 , 500 ▪ and 200 l. upon which they had so long vexed and imprisoned her , dwindled into this small debt ; which the jews knew , if it had been due , they could have had it any time for the asking . but so impartially did the jury proceed in this verdict , that upon this single evidence , and he manifestly a party in the conspiracy , and swearing on an english bible , which they count a prophane book , and on the back side of it too , which dr. du veil told them was no oath by the jews doctrine ; yet upon this evidence they cast mistris verboon ; so that after all other rigours , costs of the suit were to come on her , according to our law ; which the judg of the court set at 40 s. from all this it is apparent , that the whole business was a conspiracy of the jews , of which levi vvas the chief contriver , and hammond the main instrument , though the lord chief justice was so favourable to him , as to say , he was abused in that matter , and drawn into it . both of these expressed their joy , not vvithout some transport , vvhen the jury gave their verdict . levi said , he would give 500 l. on condition she had not been bailed : hammond said to those vvho had depended much on the bishop of st. asaph's assistance , where is your lord now ? mr. verboon vvas advised to arrest vandersee for the false imprisonment of his wife ; and on the 4 th of september he arrested him in an action of 200 l. vvhich vvas not out of reason ; but very modest for one that had suffered so many arrests for such great sums , and all for nothing : but levi soon bailed him ; and so prevalent vvere the arts and presents of the jews , that it vvas entred in the books but 20 l. so that vvhether they are plantiffs or complainants , they are resolved to shew their skill ; and perhaps have a secret pleasure to let the world see how much their practices can vvork on those vvho are called christians ; even in a matter vvherein the honour of jesus christ is so much concerned . but the malice of the iews stopt not her , for perceiving that mistris verboon vvas by her marriage covered from all their suits , they resolved on another vvay , vvhich looks like a design to destroy her . levi had said before my lord mayor , that she vvas vvithin two months of her time , and therefore he could not but believe she vvas vvith child , and very capable of being frighted into miscarriage . but it vvas a sure effect of their revenge on her husband , against vvhom vandersee had expressed so much malice , that he hath often said he vvas resolved to kill him , though he should be hanged for it . so on the second of october , mr. verboon vvas arrested in an action of 200 l. and it appears that the bailiffs vvere again instructed to behave themselves vvith more than ordinary rudeness : one of them vvas benedict helm ; there vvere others vvhose names are not known . they came at dinner-time , vvhen they might expect to find them at dinner together : they seized upon him at table , and dragged him forth vvith their utmost violence ; vvhich vvhen mistris lavigne saw , and vvithal took notice of a coach at the door , she immediately reflected on the trick that they had put on them before : and therefore ran to him , and clasped her arms about his waste , to keep him from being thrust into the coach. the bailiffs , to be revenged on her , beat and bruised her head , brest , and body , vvith the greatest fury ; of vvhich the marks appear yet on her : her head vvas broke in three places , and she vvas thereby , as the chyrurgeon has certified under his hand , in great hazard of her life : yet she clogged them so , that they could not get their prisoner into the coach ; and the people beginning to come about them , they were fain to thrust him into an alehouse near at hand : from whence she presently sent an advertisement to the bishop of st. asaph . upon his coming , and offering the bailiffs bail , they saw it in vain to attempt any thing farther , and so accepted the bail. but though mrs. lavigne was forced to keep her bed some time , by the wounds and bruises she received , yet this had a more fatal effect on poor mistris verboon ; who when she saw the bailiffs draging her husband , fell presently in a swoon ; and being then young with child , was so disordered by the fright , that she has not yet recovered it ; but on the 9 th day after she miscarried . the midwife , and others that were with her , are ready to declare upon oath , that the conception had been some days dead , and wasted within her ; and that it was not above eight or nine weeks old , though she had been eleven weeks married . so false was that imputation which levi cast on her before the lord mayor , that she was within two months of her time . how far the law will charge this on the bailiffs , or on the jews that set them on to it , i do not know ; but sure i am , they are in a high degree guilty of murder before god. when all these effects of the malice and industry of the jews had appeared so evidently , the bishop of st. asaph , who had before acquainted the lord mayor with the business , having received the answer formerly mentioned from holland , did then , with more assurance , desire his assistance in this affair , in which the honour of the christian religion , and of the english nation , was so much concerned . the lord mayor did thereupon send for levi , to hear what he could say for the defence of himself , and of his countrymen : who made some pretended excuses for himself , as if he had not medled in the matter at all ; but he did not deny that he believed the design of the jews was to force mrs. verboon to go back to her mother , who he acknowledged was a severe and cruel woman . by his own story , the lord mayor perceived clearly what a malicious contrivance this whole prosecution of mrs. verboon and her husband had been ; and told levi , very roundly , that they should soon see what a thing they had done , who finding shelter in a christian country , and being so obnoxious to the law as they all were , durst offer such an affront to the religion , and to the nation , as thus to endeavour to spirit away one , to whose charge they could lay nothing , but her turning christian. this he assured him should be carried so far , as to reach their whole congregation . there was no way to redeem them from trouble , but for them to bring over her portion from her mother , and to satisfy her to the full for the costs and trouble to which they had put her : and if they did not do that , he assured him , he would carry the matter as far as the law would allow him against their whole sect : and though his time was near an end , yet he knew his successour would pursue it with the same vigour , with which he was resolved to begin . he gave also order to some to bring him an extract of the laws in force against the jews . and for hammond , no doubt he will be made an example for his impious conspiracy with the enemies of christ , against one for turning to him , which was the only root of all the malice they bore her . this matter being thus put in a fair way , the bishop resolved to receive her into the christian church by baptism . he gave the right honourable , sir lionel ienkins , one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state , an account of all the steps of this affair ; who as he has expressed in his whole life a true & sincere love to the christian religion ; to which he has been an ornament indeed , by the gravity and strictness of his deportment , in all those high employments in which he has behaved himself with so much honour ; so he received the bishop's information of this conversion and persecution , with that sense which might have been expected from so good and so great a man. he offered , not only all the assistance which he could give her in his office , or at the council-board , when the matter should be brought thither ; but concerned himself so particularly in it , as to be her susceptor in baptism ; and those two most religious and devout ladies , the countesses of thanet and clarendon very readily took upon themselves to be her godmothers . so on the 10 th of october , after evening prayers , she was baptized in st. martins church in the fields . she has since said , that she felt an unusual joy in her mind , when she was initiated to christianity , having now performed vvhat she had long purposed and vvished to do : and though she saw a jew in the church , looking and laughing at her in the very time , this did not a vvhit disorder her but as it may be supposed , her inward and vehement desire of baptism might have supported her till that was over ; so the night after it , those frights and disorders she had been put in formerly , chiefly that last vvhen her husband vvas arrested , brought pains on her , vvhich ended in an abortion , as vvas formerly told . this recital was thought necessary , to let the nation see what a sort of people these jews are , whom we harbour so kindly among us ; who , as they yet lie under the guilt of that innocent blood , which their fathers wished might rest on them and their children : so continue not only in their obstinate infidelity , but do still thirst after the blood of such of their nation as believe in him whom their fathers crucified ; and whom they in derision called often to this convert that hanged man. he was indeed hanged on a tree by the jews of his time , but they themselves knew then that he rose from the dead , and so triumphed over all that hell or hellish men had contrived : and tho they hired the souldiers , that first saw him rising out of the grave , to suppress so dreadful a truth , as his resurrection must needs have been to them , yet it broke out with such undeniable evidence , that 〈◊〉 a few of those who had procured his death , came afterwards to believe in him : nor could they , by the imprisonments , whippings , stonings , and all the other effects of their enraged cruelty , by which those first converts to christianity suffered so much , fright them from publishing those things which they had seen and heard . one of whom , as he was among the most violent persecutors of that way , so he was one of the most learned and zealous of their religion ; was by such an irresistable force from heaven both convinced and converted , so that he became from the chief of sinners , the chief of the apostles of christ. according to the sage advice of gamaliel , the event clearly proved that this doctrine was of god : for as of old , dagon's falling before the ark of god , was a proof of the weakness of the idol , and of the majesty of the living god , whose simbole the ark was ; so their being driven out of their land , their temple being destroyed , by which all those expiations , which that covenant afforded for sin , can no longer be had ▪ shew that the covenant with their fathers is dissolved , their ceremonies are ineffectual , and the whole mosaical religion is determined long agoe . iosephus , the last of their writers , to whom any credit is due in matters of history , has given a great , though a short testimony to these things ; and though he has not enlarged on our saviour , as he has done either on st. iohn the baptist , or st. iames the lesser , the brother of our lord ▪ as he is commonly called , knowing how displeasing it would be to his countrymen to dwell much on such a subject ; yet he was too faithful a writer , to have quite passed over a matter of such great consequence . i do not design to inflame any to rage or fury against the jews , nor do i desire to have any force put upon their consciences : for the wrath of man worketh not out the righteousness of god ; but i have the rather written this , to provoke all , that may be concerned in the sequel of this affair , to proceed in it as becomes truly zealous christians , and to redeem the nation from the infamy that so base a conspiracy ( if not severely punished ) will bring on it ; that so those enemies of christ , if they are suffered to live among us , yet may not again dare to adventure on such practices , against those who forsake their blind superstition , and come to believe in the only saviour of the world : and that those who are called christians , may by the signal punishment of those instruments of wickedness , whom they found among us , be so terrified , that they may no more , with iudas , for a little mony , betray a member of christ , to be crucified by them . finis . an answer to a letter to dr. burnet, occasioned by his letter to mr. lowth burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 approx. 7 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30321 wing b5758 estc r7059 11626170 ocm 11626170 47922 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30321) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47922) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:25) an answer to a letter to dr. burnet, occasioned by his letter to mr. lowth burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ; 20 cm. printed for richard baldwin, london : 1685. attributed to burnet by wing. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lowth, simon, 1630?-1720. -letter to dr. burnet. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to a letter to dr. burnet , occasioned by his letter to mr. lowth . sir , i thought you had some remnants of shame and sence left with you , and that a correction you met with some years ago , had brought you a little into order ; but , as was then observed , nature is nature still , and will return and have the better , where neither religion , vertue , nor good manners , have force enough to restrain a petulant and insolent temper . you intend to support a forgery , of which i have reason to suppose you the parent , as well as you are now the nurse to it , and therefore you are tender of your own brat , but with what success i can even make you your self the judg ; and if you knew the opinion that i have of your sincerity , you would believe this was a great evidence of my being very well assured that i am in the right . but some men have got a trick of facing all things down with noise and impudence ▪ and imagine that blustering and foul language will carry all before it . in short , for no man can take pleasure to take a kennel long , you discharge a whole sheet full of slime and choler at me , for asserting that i had omitted no part of that manuscript of cranmer's ▪ and that i had particularly printed that for the omission of which mr. lowth has accused me , whereas you tell me that i have only printed the subscription of t. cantuarien , to an assertion concerning extream unction , and that i have not added it to the assertions concerning church power . now how any man that had his sense about him , and thought that i would call him to an account of it , could venture on so gross a piece of falshood and folly both , i cannot easily imagine ; so that really i am inclined to think , the last new moon , or the new wine , have their shares in it . in the beginning of those papers , pag. 201. line 6. where i set down their title , i tell , that as they are taken from the originals , under the hands of those bishops and divines , so i add , that in copying them , i judged it might be more acceptable to the reader to see every man's answer set down after every question , and therefore they are published in that method . thus instead of setting every paper entirely by it self , i set every man's answer under every question ; to which i was advised , as being the easier method to give a view of their thoughts of every particular altogether . and pag. 242. when i come to the last question , i set this down on the margent , over against cranmer's subscription ; these are the subscriptions which are at the end of every man's paper . after all this , no man but you , could have been so forsaken of common sense and honesty , as to pretend that the subscription to which i refer , was only to the last article concerning extream unction , and not to the whole paper ; and by this same art of reasoning , you may pretend that your subscription belongs only to the last line of your letter . i do assure you i do not admire your understanding so much , as i perceive you do your self ; yet i did not think it was so sunk , for this is such childish and gross ignorance , that your friends had best enter a caveat , lest you be beg'd for it . but i am afraid your morals are more in fault here than your intellectuals . you thought somewhat must be said for supporting your friend , and so took hold of any thing could furnish out a letter . and now for the flourish and garniture of your letter , it is so like the author , that none who have given themselves the trouble to read any of his books , can miss him . the character is indelible , and sticks as close as if he were stigmatized with it . i will let it all go , for i am not practised to search among excrements , only one remarkable line in it deserves some observation . you sprinkle a little civility , p 2. l. 13. and call my history , the only good thing i ever wrote , that could recommend me to the kind opinion of honest men , that know the difference between english and scotch . this lewd reflection on a whole nation , as it shews the clownishness of your temper , for all your pretence to courtliness , so it shews your contempt of the king and the whole royal family , and of that blessed martyr himself , that was born in that kingdom , notwithstanding all your affectations , and writing of addresses in the name of the primitive church . but thus it is , that because in the last disposal of bishopricks , the secretary to the primitive church was forgotten , he who but a year ago set his majesty above christ himself , and taxed the expression of praying for the king as supream under christ , as crude , not to call it profane , is now so disgusted , that he says , honest men ( and to be sure he ranks himself in that number , tho he is singular in that too ) know the difference between english and scotch . and thus while you fall on me , you secretly discover what lies at your heart ever since the last disappointment . but now that you have so wisely taken a whole nation to task , it seems you intend to have all the characters of the rehearsal transprosed to you ; and that you are not contented with being bays , but you will be draw-can-sir too . i wish you a better mind , and am , yours , &c. i have now justified my sincerity in my history ; and that being established , i will think my self little concerned in all the billingsgate language that you or any else can throw out upon me . i would not have said so much , if there were not some occasions in which it is necessary to answer a fool according to his folly , as well as there are others in which it is as necessary not to answer him according to his folly : and as i have brought my self , not without some uneasiness , to treat you as you deserve , so it will be much easier for me , to despise all you can say , and to be silent hereafter . finis . london : printed for richard baldwin , in the old-baily corner on ludgate-hill . 1685. a sermon preach'd before the king in the chappel at whitehall on the third sunday in lent, being the 7th day of march, 1696/7 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1697 approx. 42 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30450 wing b5906 estc r21494 12683137 ocm 12683137 65700 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30450) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65700) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:15) a sermon preach'd before the king in the chappel at whitehall on the third sunday in lent, being the 7th day of march, 1696/7 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 32 p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : 1697. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lenten sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion printed by his majesty's special command . a sermon preach'd before the king in the chappel at whitehall . on the third sunday in lent , being the 7th day of march , 1696 / 7. by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for ri. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxc vii . the bishop of salisbvry's sermon before the king , on the third sunday in lent . 1697. a sermon preach'd before the king . ephes. v. ver . 2. be ye therefore followers of god as dear children . there is nothing more natural , than for every man to form himself upon some pattern or other . few have the strength of thought , and the correctness of judgment that is necessary for framing a scheme to themselves . it is much easier , as well as much surer to work after some oaiginal ; in which we may be better able to find out what may be corrected or improved , than to form an entire design to our selves . this is the simplest and surest way of instruction . great attention to observe well , and some reflection to judge aright , will carry us far . but when we view patterns given us in history , we are apt to mistrust it , both because we flatter our selves , and so do not believe any thing that is too high above us ; and because we see friendship or interest dispose men to flatter others , both living and dead , we do not believe the heroes of former times had so much good , and that with so few mixtures , as their lives represent them ; so that dead patterns and written examples move us but feebly . as for those whom we have known , we find after much practice , such defects and abatements in them , as will much sink the high thoughts that a slighter knowledge of them might at first raise in us . and though charity is willing to shade them , yet still they are foils which weaken the lustre of the piece . if we follow any too closely , we may insensibly enter into the imitation of their weaknesses , as well as of their virtues ; and by too servile a forming our selves according to such originals , we may run into singularity and affectations , which are always disagreeable . for some native or bolder airs , that lookt nobly in the original , shew but poorly when copied by a weak and unskilful hand . after all , since a copy must needs sink below the force and grace of the original , for copy imports weakness ; if we take our patterns from those who are too near our own size , they will raise us but very little ; and if we take them too far out of our reach , they will make us despair of rising up to them . but what mistakes soever we may commit in copying out men like our selves , we cannot err in endeavouring to become as like god as is possible . the word in my text rendred followers , is imitators , and is the same word from which the abusive ones of mimick and mimichry are drawn . god made man after his own image , or to be an image and resemblance of himself . he had no other pattern to copy from , but his own infinite and eternal mind ; he made us from that pattern , and has obliged us to imitate it . but is there not a boldness that seems to border on blasphemy in this , for a mortal man to pretend to be like god ? it seems too high an aim : a flight above our reach , and beyond our prospect . the very idea of god carrying infinite perfection in it , declares him to be incomprehensible : can we then pretend to imitate that which we cannot look at : no eye hath seen , or can see him ; and though all is light about him , yet it is a light to which we cannot approach ; for clouds and darkness are round about him , with relation to us . yet if this light is too strong for us to behold , god has so tempered it , and has brought it so near us by dwelling in flesh , that while we look at him in that express image of his person , we see in his face the light of the knowledge of the glory of god ; and in him with open face , as in a glass , we behold the glory of the lord. the brightness that would otherwise dazzle , is here so softned , as yet to lose none of its beauty , or its glory ; it is both more instructive , and more agreeable , as well as less vehement and awful . upon the whole matter it is certain , that this is the great and fundamental truth of all religion , that its main design is to raise and exalt the nature of man , all that is possible , into a conformity to the divine nature . this is the standing difference between true and false religion , between idolatry or superstition on the one hand , and pure religion and undefiled on the other . that whatsoever proposes any forms or practices , opinions or interests to be espoused , that have no real tendency in them to the reforming or exalting our natures , but that rest in these , as things in which the divinity will be pleased , as in such acts of homage and submission that are offered to it with which the deity is appeased or bribed , so as to dispense with , or forgive greater matters . this is superstition , and is the practice of those who study to corrupt religion in its vital and most important parts , and who would bring men into parties , and under conceits , of which they may have the conduct , and by which they may manage other ends that may pass under solemn names , but are really the effects of passion and ambition , and are directed to serve the interests of carnal and designing men. on the other hand , the right view of true religion is , when a set of such principles and practices is set before us , which gives us great and noble thoughts of god , and of another life ; just and humble ones of our selves , with a tender regard to other men , and a generous contempt of this world , with every thing in it , and even of life it self : and when this set of mind breaks out into a course of vertuous and generous actions ; when we shew that our religion is the best of all others , because we are made much the better by it ; and all others feel such an influence in our religion , and such effects from it , that thereby they are both disposed to enquire after it , and prepared to believe well of it . for the world will always think this to be as true an argument , as it is a short and an easy one , that that must be the best religion which makes the best men. all the rules , forms , practices , and institutions in religions , must be such as have a tendency to raise , to feed , and to maintain those great and noble ideas which true religion gives . when they are so practised , they contribute towards it , and so become a part of true religion . for instance , if one prays only as a custom , in which so much time must be spent , so many forms gone through , so many words repeated , and so many acts drawn out of the mind ; which being done , if he think his duty is also done , god is pleased , scores are cleared , and all is set to rights ; here is the superstitious conceit of prayer . on the other hand , if one considers prayer as a mean and method to raise within him high thoughts of god , and low ones of himself ; a severe sense both of his sins and duties ; with earnest addresses made to god , and humble resolutions formed in himself ; and thus uses prayer as a real mean to humble and to purify himself , to keep him in mind of his duty , and to direct him by fervent addresses to obtain divine assistances ; he feels this is a practice , the continuance of which makes him really the better ; and upon such performances he sees it is very reasonable for him to believe , that according to the promises made in the gospel , of the hearing and granting our prayers , that god will accept of such addresses , and will upon them make such returns as our necessities or occasions do require . this in general then is certain , that god has not imposed religion on the world , as it were , to lay a tax on men , or raise a tribute from them ; he needs nothing from us , as we cannot give him any thing ; he has only commanded us to be religious , because it is the only possible way to exalt our natures , to compose our minds , and to govern our actions . it is that which renders us proper objects of the divine love and complacence , and puts us in the certain way of attaining the utmost happiness of which we are capable ; which is to see god as he is , and to be made like unto him : our being made like god here , is the certainest method , as well as the surest earnest , of our being to enjoy him for ever , in that state of a more and perfect conformity to him , than we are capable of arriving at here . what is this , to be like god! can a mortal and finite nature , stretch it self so far beyond its bounds and capacities , as to become either infinite or eternal ? can such frail and short-sighted beings , as we are , become omnipotent or omniscient ? no surely : man is but vanity , and even men of high degree are a lie ; they are no less a vanity than the rest ; but because they seem to be somewhat , they are a lie . the kings and mighty potentates of the earth , after all the swellings of flattery and vanity , are , when compared to god , as nothing , or less than nothing , and vanity ; a diminution in speech , that wants not its beauty . wherein must we then resemble god , or how can we hope to become like unto him ? it must be at a great distance , and with an infinite disproportion , that we can pretend to this imitation . god may be considered by us , either in an intellectual way , as he is a mind perfect in himself ; or in a moral way , as he is perfect in his dealings with all others . in both respects we may be able to find out proper instances of conforming our selves to him . he is a pure and perfect spirit , not clogged with matter , or any union or relation to matter . we are indeed chained down to a body and lock'd up in it : we are incumbred with all its pressures , and drawn down to an earthliness and lowness , by too great a commerce with sense and sensible objects . this captivates and depresses us , nor can we quite throw it off , or escape from it , till the prison can hold us no more , and our fetters fall off . a disturbed imagination does now viciate our thoughts ; violent passions and inflamed appetites do strangely , by a sort of magick , transform our souls : they become heavy and dull , feeble and unactive , and almost as low and insensible as matter it self . then do we rise up to resemble god in the intellectual way , when we raise our minds as much out of our bodies and above them as we can ; when we deny our selves all commerce with those viciating objects , that corrupt our minds , and war against our souls : and when we reduce our selves to short allowances , with relation to those more innocent amusements and delights ; which may be necessary to the support of the body , and to the keeping it in such tune , as to answer the occasions that our souls may have with it ; or to give our minds such easy and lively intervals between severer exercises , a continuance in which would quickly wast or overset us , that so we may return to them with greater advantage , and prosecute them with more force . but besides this , a man who would raise his mind to be the greatest and noblest sort of being to which it can be exalted , ought to break himself all he can to all eagerness and vehemence , and to a quick pursuit of his passions or pleasures . he ought to shake off all those additional fetters which he has added to those under which he is put by the state of life he is now made subject to . he gives wings to his soul , who raises it often above sense and interest , above the views of pleasure or advantage , who directs it to contemplate and to meditate ; and by such practices is , as it were , making escapes from his body and bodily objects , who grows even ashamed of that necessary commerce which he must hold with this material world , and therefore he not only prepares to leave it , but is daily looking and longing for it . in a word , do not all men feel that when then they let their minds go far into voluptuous , covetous , or ill-natur'd designs , their souls are , as it were , steep'd and soak'd into matter , they are depressed and debased by it , and made capable of nothing that is high or generous . by a long continuance in these things they lose their relish of better things , as they become incapable of them . their minds grow down to earth , and become little better than what the libertines allow them to be , mere sluggish and unactive matter . is not this a degeneracy and a debasing of our natures , and a sinking them deeper and deeper into matter and corruption ? whereas those , and those only , feel that they have souls indeed , who rise to the higher regions of thought and meditation : who break themselves to appetite and passion , to humour and interest , and live in thought and reflection ; who awaken all those noble seeds that are in their natures , and exercise and improve them , and make themselves to become as much minds as they can possibly be . the clog of the body will be often taking them down , yet they will rise up again , and aspire after as much of intellectual light and life as this state of matter and mortality will allow of . a second thing in the intellectual way , in which the considering god as our pattern will direct us to raise and exalt our selves , is when we consider him as acting eternally upon a true and full view of all things , and upon the purest and clearest light , with a perfect and unerring wisdom . it is true we are not capable of this sort of perfection . god sees all things past , present , and to come , in one single view . yet in this we see what is the perfection of a rational nature . it is thought , acting with liberty , and guided by knowledge . the better we know things , the more we examine their nature , causes , and effects ; the more we examine what is past , and look into what may be before us ; the deeper we go into our selves , to consider our capacities , and to examine our defects , the greater views we give our selves of truth in general , the more we open our minds to know the works of god , the courses of the heavenly bodies , the structures of this earth , with all the varieties with which it is both beautified and enriched ; but above all , the more we consider this strange mixture of light and darkness , of soul and body which meet in man , the wonderful capacities of his mind , and the amusing texture of his body ; and when from all this we accustom our selves to think much of god and his attributes , when from mere speculative views we descend to more practical ones , and view our selves , and compare our obligations and our actions , and from a strict review of what we have seen , form a wise prospect of what may be before us ; and above all , when a man brings those more general thoughts to an exact knowledg of himself , and a strict rule of life , then does he become truly wise , and so grows up to be as sublime , and as exalted a sort of being , as he can work himself up to . then a man grows up to the height of his nature , when he is often turning his thoughts towards some useful piece of knowledge or observation : when he reflects much , and judges slowly , but sedately and truly , and frames his whole life to a constant pursuit of that which is the effect of so much consideration and care. a man needs but reflect a very little on what he feels within himself , to be convinced of the truth of all this . the more ignorant and implicite , the more rash and inconstant , the more headstrong and wilful he is , he feels that he is the lamer and imperfecter sort of creature : he whose knowledge is only imployed in the mean business of life , or in the meaner arts of cozenage and deceit ; he who is led or driven blindfold , and who neither knows , nor is concern'd to know how he ought to conduct himself , but leaves himself to chance or fate , to sudden thoughts , or unlook'd-for accidents , and is not the wiser for what is past , nor the carefuller of what may be before him ; this man , i say , is with all his shows of wealth and greatness , with all his gilding and trappings , but a poor , a blind , and a miserable creature : a slave to humour or interest , to envy or ill-nature . but he is of a much nobler order , one is almost tempted to say , of another sort of beings , who has opened his mind , and spread his faculties wide , to the acquiring of true and useful knowledge ; who imploys his thoughts and time to the digesting of what he knows , and the rendring it useful to himself and others , and who makes it the study of his whole life , to reduce those his theories to practice , and so lives by thought and reflection . souls so raised , are aspiring to imitate that original perfection ; they are on a true scent , and in the right way ; they may perhaps make some wrong steps , but it is impossible that those who take this method can miscarry . all must end happily with those who begin so well . as god is pure and perfect in himself , so he is holy in all his ways ; and all those who arrive at good degrees of this intellectual purity , are at the same time very exactly careful in observing the moral order of things , that rule of their actions and deportment towards others . these are reduced to two general heads , of truth and goodness . truth is the vertue which of all others nature puts on us with the most forcible impression . it is indeed no other but the speaking and acting according to the sense that we have of things . it is that which nature always suggests ; it shoots it self ever first into our thoughts and words . it is simple and uniform , ever the same , maintained without care , and managed without study . it requires a good degree of study to carry on false and deceitful designs , with proper disguises , with that contrivance and presence of mind , and with that memory and attention that are necessary to indirect practises . whereas if a man has but the virtue and the courage to be honest , he goes on with little anxiety , trusting to his integrity , for that will both support and conduct him . truth is the first and the most indispensable of all the obligations among men. it is the basis of society , and the foundation of all the confidence and security that can be in the world. many nations have differed much in their notions concerning the other virtues , but all have agreed , that within society , at least , truth ought to be maintain'd sacredly ; and the more open and free , the more unreserved and hearty this sincerity is , it tends to establish nations and neighbourhoods upon a surer bottom . it is the same vertue that makes us true in our words , just in our dealings , faithful to our promises , and exact in our payments : all arise from the same root , from an integrity of heart , and a candid sincerity in all that one professes , says , or does . this is the speaking the truth as one thinks and intends it , and the maintaining the truth as it has been spoken or promised . this is the conforming our selves to the divine being , who is true and faithful , keeping his covenant and promises ; who is the god of truth , and who desires truth in the inward parts : whereas the men of falshood and deceit , who love and tell lyes , who lie in wait to deceive , who give themselves to oppression and extortion , who take advantages from the simplicity and credulity of other persons , to impose on them the more dextrously ; and who make lies their refuge and their strength , and are not wanting to fortifie them with oaths and imprecations , that they may vent them with the better grace , and give them the more credit ; these are fallen from the resemblance of the true and righteous god , and are lapsed into the state of the apostate and fallen . spirit , whose character is , that he abode not in the truth , because there is no truth in him , who when he speaketh a lye , speaketh of his own ; that is , his natural stile and dialect , for he is a lyar , and the father of it . here we must begin our conformity to god , as to our morals . it is a vain thing to pretend to make any farther progress in religion , 'till we have learnt to practise this which is the first element of virtue . there is no going further 'till we enter upon the diligent practice of this : as a careful master will not carry his scholars over the first elements 'till they are once fully the masters of these . it is the deceiving them to pretend to lead them further , before these are well understood by them ; so truth is of so ●ndispensable a nature , both with relation to religion and humane life , that without it we can neither be happy nor secure in this life , nor have any hope in the next . since liars are reckoned in almost in every catalogue , that is given us , of those who are adjudged to endless miseries . next truth is goodness and in this we find that nature has also made very deep impressions on us : we feel dispositions to kindness and compassion , to acts of mercy and pity , and to love and friendship , laid in our natures . we feel that the more these are shut up , and restrained in us , the feebler their influence and the fain●er their power is , that we are thereby the lower , the meaner , and the deader in every thing that is either great or generous : whereas the more we awaken and open these seeds in us , the greater compass they take , and the stronger that they work upon us , we become thereby a nobler sort of creatures : we have greater thoughts , better designs , with a more generous exaltation of nature and a further enlargment of our faculties . goodness is not meer pity ; much less a feeble disposition to pardon too easily , or to carry compassion beyond all rules or measures : such a goodness as this , would too much encourage the wickedest race of men , they would presume too much upon it . if princes were too easie in this way , society would become an impracticable thing : the worst sort of men would be too bold , if the best were too merciful . the chief acts of goodness are , the endeavouring to make others truly good. he who feels in himself the power and excellence of the principles of religion and virtue , endeavours to spread and communicate these all he can : he is so sensible of his happiness , in being under their influence , that he takes all the methods he can , to infuse the like sense into all others . love and compassion are the root of this disposition in him : all the other offices and acts of charity , are acts only of a lower order , though they are all necessary in their kind : those which tend to make men truly good , are of the nobler sort. this we find in the manifestations of the divine goodness . god is perfect in himself , and from that fulness there is a perpetual emunation to all rational beings , while they are capable of being made truly good. in order to that end even the pardon of sin is offered but as an encouragement to our becoming truly good : our faculties are made capable of it : all knowledge is set before us in order to that end : and the blessings of life are given us like so many largesses , which make it easie and convenient , to give us the more freedom of thought , and the better to dispose us to enter upon wise and good methods . so the whole design of god in all his dealings with us , is to make us really good. other things are only collateral , and are directed to this end . here then is the true idea of perfect goodness ; a real desire and hearty endeavour to make men good , by all the means and methods that we can think on . happy they who have their power to do much good ; who ought to consider this as the noblest character of divinity , by which they do shine with a glory that is much brighter than all the attire of majesty . they are born to be publick blessings to mankind , not only as they protect and defend them , as they rescue them from oppression and tyrany , and as they do justice and spread their royal bounty among their people . this is no small degree of honour , but it is not all their dignity . they can make the world not only the safer and the happier , but the better by their means . they can set such an example that will bring many to endeavour to imitate it . what they do is much observed ; they are ever in view , and always narrowly lookt to . many for interest , and others for decency , will follow the patterns that they set , especially if all is uniform and of a piece ; and if they join with it , the influences of their favour , and the force of their authority , to encourage and promote virtue and religion , and to discourage and disgrace vice and impiety . the bare practice of virtue , and giving good examples , is all that the lower sort of men are capable of doing , in order to the reforming the world. but for those who are fortified with power and authority , who have rewards and punishments in their hands , besides that , which in other persons is of little force , but has in them a mighty influence , their good or ill looks which carry life , or give death , or at least a damp that will put boldest to a stand . for them , i say , to be silent observers of the vices of others , is to give them impunity , if not protection . when these are of the side of nature , and give it scope , then they are very successful : little labour , with bad examples in those set on high , will soon corrupt a nation . but when they work against the current , tho' the foundation of all that they can hope to effect , must be laid in their own good example ; yet this will work slowly and feebly , if not follow'd with a mighty influence . practices that have got possession , when they have nature on their side , will be stubborn , and are not easily conquered . but rewards and encouragements , with some few severities , when extorted , will turn the tide at last . are not those then born for the noblest ends , and exalted to the best purposes , who live and govern so , that the world grows the better by their means . but as this is the top of their honour , and a high one it is indeed , so they must remember that they must give an account of it to him by whom kings reign . the greater opportunities and advantages that are put in their hands , they have so much the more to answer for , since to whom much is given , of them much will also be required . here then is our pattern , and this is our lesson ; we must be the followers of god , and shew forth the vertues of him who hath called us from darkness to his marvellous light . but if we think this is too far out of sight , let us view it a little , as it is brought nearer us , and set before us in more sensible idea's . in the person of our blessed saviour , we see those characters of the divinity , in a light , that is more accommodated to our faculties . if we view him with relation to the particulars that have been hitherto insisted on , we find that tho' he was clothed with our nature , together with all its innocent infirmities , yet he not only kept at a perfect distance from all the defilements of sense , but he despised wealth and greatness , ease and pleasure , and fled even from the offers of a crown : he neglected his person , and spent many days in fasting , and the nights in prayer : he lived in contemplations that were indeed above us , because he saw truth in a light superiour to our capacities : he was neither led by partialities nor humours , but was ever delighted to do the will of god in all things . there was no guile in his mouth : he would not save his life by the concealing or disguising of truth , but freely confessed that upon which his enemies were resolved to take it away : he was ever open and sincere , tho' he knew that all his words were wrested to the worst sense possible . he was ever doing good , as his life was a perfect pattern of it : his time was chiefly imployed in instructing the multitudes that gathered about him : he taught them plainly , suitably to their capacities , with great tenderness and patience : only he shewed a just indignation , which he has thereby recommended to us , against the proud , the bloody , and the hypocritical corrupters of religion in his time : he bore all the contempt that was put upon him , and all the injuries that were done him , with silence and patience , and was ever ready not only to forgive them , but to render good for evil ; while an unaffected humility , and a decent modesty run thro● all he either said or did . thus he lived , and thus he died . he died that he might reconcile us to god ; but he lived to set us a pattern , to shew us what true religion was , how to be attained , and how practised . this was that which gave the christian religion its chief authority , after the miracles with which it was at first proved , had ceas'd . the shining lives , the purity , the sinceri●y , and the charity of those who professed it , recommended it so effectually to the world , that even the most malicious of all its enemies , iulian the apostate , in a letter to one of his priests , in which he laments the small progress he was making in restoring heathenism , and confesses the disorders that were among them , says , the christians , ( whom he in derision calls usually the galileans ) had gained their credit by their charity to the poor , and by the gravity or purity of their lives . it is true , his malice made him put in the word counterfeit gravity , but the virulence of that is very plain . in the same letter , speaking of relieving the poor , he does it by this gradation ; he reproaches the gentiles with their neglect of them ; he says none of the iews did beg ; but of the christians , he says they not only take care of their own poor , but of ours likewise . it was by the force of such patterns , that the christian religion prevail'd so much as it did in the world. but what made the stand ? what put a stop to its progress , and has brought it under so fatal a reverse , that now it is losing ground instead of gaining any ? we that are called christians , are chiefly to be blam'd for this : our bad practices , and the ill examples we set the world , have given it deep , and , with relation to us , just prejudices . it amazes a man to think , what it can be that should possess the world so much against a religion that is so pure and holy in all the parts of it , but chiefly in its precepts , and that particularly tends to make all mankind both safe and happy . the first and great reason , is the corruption of men's natures ; that stands it out in a stiff opposition to that which is so contrary to them , to their ends , their interests , their appetites , and their passions . this they are willing to fortifie by all the ill-natur'd observations , whether true or false , that they can make , of those who are of any form , or bear any character in this religion . but suppose all were true that they suggest , and that we were as bad as they wish we were , or study to make us appear to be ; we are certainly so much the more to blame , since our practices will have a more certain influence than our discourses ; yet whatever we may be , tho' we may have the defects and infirmities of humane nature hanging about us , and returning too often on us , yet we have this treasure put in earthen vessels . how contemptible soever the pot or vessel may be , that makes not the treasure found in it to be of less value . it is so temper'd , and was so from the very beginning , that the excellency of the power may appear to be of god , and not of man. let men say of us what they please , and let us defend us from it the best we can , yet what can the whole tribe of libertines say against the vertues and rule of life , that temper of mind , and course of the whole conversation , that this our religion prescribes : let us bear our own burden , but let no part be cast on that faith which we believe , and that doctrine in which we instruct the world : nor ought judgments to be made too rashly : for men may have weak sides and frail minutes , and yet upon the whole they may sincery believe , and faithfully follow this form of doctrine , even tho' humane nature may be so strong , as to make them give ground sometimes , and start aside but too often . yet certainly this is so strong a prejudice to those who seek for it , and study to fortifie themselves by it , against the power of conviction , that it ought to have a great effect on all persons , in whom , or by reason of whom the honour of religion may be concerned ; to oblige them to a great attention to themselves , and to a strict watchfulness over all they do ; for they are watched and observed by others , who wait for their halting , and will not fail to improve all the advantages that are given in this manner , with a most industrious spite . but after all , we cannot pretend to go further than st. paul did , beye followers of me , as i also am of christ. then indeed our words will have the utmost force , that can be put in words , when our lives are of a piece with them : but when it is otherwise , it is the worse for our selves ; but our cause has still the same truth and the same force in it , how ill soever it may be set out , or supported by us . god be thanked for it , we are not so destitute of patterns , but that some remain ; and some we have known , who are now enjoying the rewards of their religion and vertue , who have signally edify'd the world , and whose name and fame do still live . we are to do all this as dear children , under deep impressions of the love and goodness of god : for these are the powerfullest motives to a generous and lively obedience . the glory and majesty of god strike us , but his goodness overcomes all those that are capable of a just sense of things ; we receive a great deal in common with the rest of men , or of christians , and those blessings are of such a nature , that if we but let them in upon our thoughts , in their true value , we will feel a mighty force in them , to determine us to a sincere obedience . the blessings that go to all mankind in common , or at least to a great part of it , will not perhaps make such impression on some , as those that are more special , or that having more immediately and particularly to themselves . in such every man who examines the whole conduct of providence towards himself , from his first setting out to the present time , will be able to collect such a train of kind and tender , happy and indulgent instances of the goodness of god towards him , preserving him from evil , rescuing him out of dangers and inconveniences , conducting him thro' difficulties , and following him with many blessings ; that he will soon find matter enough , if he but believes and observes providence , to raise within himself a grateful sense of it , and humble acknowledgments for it . in this no man's life is so barren , but that it will afford him great occasions of praise and thanksgiving : for all men share more or less in the watchfulness of providence . some have indeed had a larger measure of it : happy and great accidents , have as it were by a combination , led them thro' difficulties that seem'd insuperable , they have rescu'd them out of dangers , that have been of so extraordinary a nature , as if they had been directed on design , to shew the wonderful interpositions of providence , for their preservation . friends and enemies , seasons and winds , and heaven and earth , have seem'd as it were to conspire to their elevation , and cross accidents have seem'd to be interspersed thro' their lives , only to make the unlookt-for happy crisis , come with the greater surprize upon themselves , and upon all others , as if they were the special favourites of providence , and markt out to be among the most amazing instances that can occur in history . if such things have hapned to any , and have set them as much above the rest of mortals by the distinctions of providence , as they are by the elevation of their fortunes , then what returns do they owe to that goodness and love that has been so very bountiful to them , in such a copious distribution of its favours ? what returns of praise and gratitude ought they to make ? how ought they to distinguish themselves from the rest of mankind , by their zeal and activity , and by their influence and authority , to promote the glory of that god who has laid so much honour on them , and to imploy their thoughts and time chiefly in contriving and executing the best designs they can think of , or that can be suggested , for the greatest good of mankind ; which , if they sincerely pursue , this will be , after all , the greatest of all the blessings of heaven to them ; it will make them blessings indeed to this world , and advance them to the highest degrees of happiness in the next . here is then the design of religion ▪ the chief aim to which all the rest is directed , to raise and perfect our natures , to make them as great and as pure , as wise and as good as is possible to raise them above the depressions of interest and sense , above the intanglements of appetite and passion , above little , low , and narrow things , to an enlargement of their capacities , to an exaltation of their thoughts and tempers , and , in a word , to make them become like god , that is , the perfectest kind of beings possible . can a greater thought enter into the mind of man , or can he pursue a nobler design ? which carries greatness and majesty in very sound of it . it is plain this must be the greatest design of religion ; it is ▪ the primary end of the creation , and the chief business of the whole christian religion . every man must feel there is somewhat in the bare proposition of it , that strikes his faculties , which presently yield to it , and dispose him to close with it . oh happy they who do really set about , and do sincerely prosecute it : it shews a nobleness of mind to be capable of so great a thought , which could not move an abject soul. this is none of those vain speculations that set men on to a fantastical pursuit of unattainable things . the design is solid and practicable , as well as it is generous and great : it does not swell the mind with air and vanity , on the contrary it seasons it with modesty and humility . how difficult soever the performance may be , there are aids proportioned to the labours of it ; which will both encrease our force , and render all those difficulties the more easie to us . our sincere endeavours will be both accepted and assisted : and how small a progress soever we may make here , how often soever we may be taken down from so high a flight , and how much soever we may feel our bodies and our senses , and the necessary commerce that we are engaged in with sensible objects , depress and distract us ; yet as there is a secret pleasure in great undertakings , even tho' our success does not answer our hopes , so we are sure we shall master all at last , and in conclusion arrive at that state of a more perfect conformity , whereas our bodies shall be made like unto the glorified body of the son of god , and shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of our father , so in our minds we shall become like unto god ; for we shall see him as he is , and the sight of these infinite perfections shall transform our minds , into as near a resemblance of them , as is possible : and as in this we shall ever feel a true joy and real happiness , following us , in proportion to those advances we make in our conformity to god : so when that conformity shall be carry'd as far as our created and limited capacities can go , then we shall with it partake of a proportion'd fulness of joy : as great a fulness as our faculties can receive : and we shall be ever with the lord , in those pleasures that are for evermore . in this our being now the followers of god will certainly end ; we who study to follow him here , shall follow him into those mansions of glory , where with angels and saints we shall be unspeakably happy to all eternity . thither god of his infinite mercy lead us thro' all the changes and chances of this mortal life ; for the sake of iesus christ our saviour , to whom with the father , and the holy ghost , be all honour and glory both now and for ever . amen . finis . errata . page 12. line 15. for amusing read amazing . p. 26. l. 1. for us r. our selves . p. 27 . l. ult . for 〈…〉 notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30450-e220 gen. 1. 26. 1 tim. 6. 18. 2 cor. 4. 6. 2 cor. 3. 18. 9 dan. 4. 51 psal. 6. 8 john 45. 1 pet. 2. 9. 1 pet. 2. 22. 1 tim. 6. 23. jul. ep. 49. 2 cor. 4. 7. 1 cor. 11. 1. a sermon preach'd before the king, at st. james-chapel on the 10th of february 1694/5, being the first sunday in lent / by gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1695 approx. 44 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30448) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 49413) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 526:2) a sermon preach'd before the king, at st. james-chapel on the 10th of february 1694/5, being the first sunday in lent / by gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 32 p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : 1695. reproduction of original in bristol public library, bristol england. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -sermons. bible. -n.t. -corinthians, 2nd, vi, 1 -sermons. lenten sermons. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preach'd before the king , at st. james-chapel , on the 10 th . of february 1694 / 5 , being the first sunday in lent . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london , printed for ri. chiswell at th● rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard , mdcxcv . printed , by his majesty's special command . 2 cor. vi . 1. we then , as workers together with him , beseech you also , that ye receive not the grace of god in vain , these words as they are part of the epistle for the day , so they do contain the chief subject of our labours , and of your duty : we as fellow labourers nor with him is not in the greek ) are to unite all our endeavours , to beseech you not to neglect this great salvation , nor to receive in vain that grace and favour which is offered you in the gospel : that is , not to hear it without the impressions that it ought to make , and the effects that it ought to have upon you . in the end of the former chapter st. paul seems to raise our character very high . he calls us ambassadours for christ. an ambassadour is the second character of dignity in the world , because it represents the first . we come in the name and stead of our great master . we pray men in christs stead , and as tho god did beseech them by us . but that we might not swell too much upon so sublime a designation , we are taken down again in the words of my text : we are workmen , and builders , and ought to be esteemed for our works sake , as we labour faithfully , and diligently . we are called to labour and not to authority , to perswade and not to command . the chief subject that we are to be imployed in , is to perswade men to be reconciled to god , and not to receive his grace in vain . one might think , that this was an easie task , in which we could not doubt of our success . what criminal under the arrests of justice , who has the time of his execution in view would , need great perswasions to accept not only of a pardon , but of favour . this would go so naturally , that it would seem a superfluous labour to use strong arguments to prevail upon him . were we but sensible of the load of sin , and guilt that is upon us , what humble supplicants would we be for grace , in stead of needing motives to perswade us to accept of it . the best method for us both to maintain the dignity of our character , as ambassadours , and to succeed in our labours as joynt workmen , is to live sutably to the station we are raised to , to represent as near as we can the vertues of him who sends us , and to direct the perswasions that we offer to others , so effectually to our selves , that the world may from thence believe , that we know our arguments to be strong , because we our selves are convinced by them . if they observe not this , they will have little regard to all that we say : they will rather think , that it is for the sake of our character , or rather as they will turn it , for the sake of our appointments , that we study to set out this matter with good colours , and a seeming strength of reason to others : but if we our selves do not yield to it , they will conclude , that we , who have oppo●●●●iti●● to meditate well on those matt●●● have ●ound out the weak sides of the arguments , since we do not yi●ld to 〈◊〉 , what noise soever we may make 〈◊〉 them , for the subduing and terrifying of others . the strokes of art , and the charms of rhetorick do please rather than perswade . the heart has a language peculiar to it self , which is well perceived by the hearts of others : how plain and neglect●d soever it may be , as to the airs or graces of discourse . it will soften and melt more than laboured or artificial composures . mankind will judge of our hearts by our actions rather then by our words . that we may effectually beseech others , we must carefully watch over our selves , that , according to the words which follow , we may give no offence in any thing , that we may neither give just grounds , nor even colourable pretences to others , to stumble by any thing that we may lay in their way : that so our ministry may not be blamed . the enemies of religion will not think it enough to triumph over us , when we furnish them with such advantages ; they will carry it further , and lay the blame , not where it ought to be laid , upon our persons : they will charge our function with it , for they hate that more than our persons : we ought therefore to approve our selves in all things in the conduct of our lives , and in the discharge of our function : in much patience , even tho we should fall under great afflictions . by honour and dishonour , by evil report and good report : neither much cast down for the one , nor at all listed up for the other : and upon the whole matter we ought to behave our selves so , that tho impious and wicked men may study to make us pass for impostors and deceivers ; yet we may be found to be true : to be men of integrity and probity . st. paul says , we beseech you also : that is , not only the heathens , but the saints or christians of corinth , not to receive this grace in vain . they not only believed the gospel , but were , when this epistle was written to them , under deep impressions of sorrow , for those disorders and scandals , for which he had treated them so severely in his first epistle to them : yet no good temper of theirs , could supersede the necessity of this exhortation : therefore he saies , we beseech you also . this is the end of our ministry and the chief subject of our labours : therefore it is ever to be repeated , and to be alwayes insisted on , even to the greatest proficients , and in their best minutes . by the grace of god : in the general signification of the word , is to be understood the love and favour of god ; but more particularly that goodness and mercy of god , which is revealed to us in the gospel , which in opposition to the law of moses is called grace : we are not under the law but under grace : and the grace of god which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men , teaching us , that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , we should live soberly , righteously , and godlily in this present world . to receive this grace in vain , is not to have that sense of it , nor to make those acknowledgments for it , or returns to it , that become us , and which it deserves . so then the subject of this discourse shall be , 1 st . to shew you what it is to receive the gospel in vain , and who they are that are guilty of this . 2 dly . what are those arguments that we have to offer to the world to perswade them to receive it not in vain , but sutably to the truth and importance of it . i come therefore now to consider , what it is to receive this grace in vain ; and what sorts of men are guilty of it ? i shall name three sorts . the 1 st . those do certainly receive it in vain : in the highest degree , who treat it with scorn , who make it the subject of their prophane mirth , and diver● themselves with such impieties , as an abused liveliness can furnish them with from any of the parts of it . this is the peculiar unhappiness of the present age , that men are not contented to receive this grace in vain , but they turn it into lasciviousness : they are not satisfied with indulgences to their appetites and passions , unless they gratifie them so far , as to sacrifice religion and that veneration , which by the consent of all ages and nations , has been payed to sacred things , to them . but if the men of that sort will bear so serious a thing , as the arguing closely ; this may be asked them , would they have all mankind set free from all restraints ? if this is a right of humane nature , all men have an equal claim to it : now what a thing would the world be , if men were let loose ; or rather if their appetites and passions were let loose , first on themselves , and then on all the world about them . god knows the restraints of religion are but feeble things : yet as to some matters , and in some instances they have such influence , that without them the world would soon be turned into a desart . men would be as beasts of prey , destroying and devouring one another : on the other hand what order and harmony , what confidence and mutual affection , what happiness in families , and what peace in neighbourhoods , would arise out of the sincere receiving of the christian religion and the submitting to its discipline ? every man would have all those duties payed him , which arise out of the relation of others to himself ; as he would become to all others every thing that in reason they could expect from him . the doctrines of this religion concerning god and his attributes , concerning the government of this world , and the prospect of another : the theories concerning the soul and a future state , and the notions of good and evil , have in them such a majestick gravity , such a sutableness , with the highest ideas and the purest thoughts that we are capable of , that in this respect there is nothing in christianity , that does not well agree with the most elevated apprehensions that our natures are capable of . the worship of this religion is so free from all pageantry and vanity , so simple in the few rites it proposes , so natural in the acts that are commanded by it , and so easie in their performance , that take all the parts of this religion together , the morals , the doctrines , and the rituals of it , it is evident , that as every considering man will acknowledge , that the world could not be kept in order without any religion ; so there is no other that can be in any sort compared with this : and therefore every man must soon see cause to wish it were true : and to be inclined to believe a doctrine that has nothing in it unworthy of the divine nature , and that does conduce so eminently to the perfecting of the humane nature . this is enough to dispose men to believe , that it may be true , even tho' they could not bring evident proofs to perswade them that it is so . but when that stands so clearly attested , when the miracles of moses and the prophets , of christ and his apostles , were wrought in the sight of so many witnesses , and in such eminent and uncontested instances , which overcame the world so fast , that without any humane supports , nay in opposition to all the powers on earth , this doctrine being received in so many remote provinces , so early , by such numbers , who suffered much for it , and were ready to have suffered more ; when i say , all this is well considered , here was a just reason once to receive this gospel , upon the authority that proved those , who delivered it , to have been sent of god. there is no reason to demand the continuance of such wonderful works : such a rule of life , and such a method of worship , do so effectually recommend this religion , that we ought to acquiesce in those proofs that were once given : for whatsoever is once well and fully proved , ought never to be questioned again ; unless there is somewhat in the nature of the thing , that gives a perpetual and just ground of doubting . so much in the way of argument against this sort of men : as to perswasion , all that needs be offered to them , is to appeal to their own minds , if they do not feel a secret joy , when they do a good action , and as sensible a horrour when they commit some bad ones : if in dangers and fears , they do not feel somewhat within them , that drives them to god and religion , if the prospect of death does not terrifie them at some times , and if the horrours of conscience grow not someti●es too hard even for them to bear ; and that after all their practices upon themselves to stifle and extinguish the rests of education , and the dread of invisible objects ? if they will not hearken to those secret intimations , that they feel within themselves , if they will neither consider what the world would be if there were no religion in it , nor what it must be if men were sincere christians ; if they will neither consider the reasons that are offered for our religion , nor the whole frame of it in it self , but will only fix on a few particulars , on which they think they can lay their censure and seed their mirth , all that remains to be said to such , is , let him that is filthy be filthy still : for if our gospel is hidden , it is to them that are lost , and whom the god of this world hath blinded . a second sort of those who receive this grace in vain , are they who outwardly profess it , nay go into parties and factions , and become hot and angry about it , and yet do by no part of their whole behaviour shew that they inwardly believe it ▪ since they live as if they did not ; and that with relation to many of the most express rules and principles of it . from hence it is , that the men of the former sort conclude , that these men believe it as little as they themselves do : and they infer from thence that since religion does not bring its votaries to that , which is both the clearest and the most valuable part of it , therefore it can neither have that truth , nor yet that strength in it , that is pretended , otherwise it would shew it self in more real effects . it is but too true , that the much greater part of those who are called christians , are a reproach to their prosession : the higher their pretensions are , the reproach is the greater : and it never has such a certain effect for the hardning of others , as when any of our prosession give just colour to this . the world observes us carefully as well as maliciously : and will lose none of the advantages that we give them : they wait for our halting , and will not only insult upon it , with respect to our selves , but will turn it against the doctrine that we profess with our mouths , while we deny it by our lives . these certainly who know their masters will and do it not , shall be beaten with many stripes : they must expect the deepest portion in the miseries of the next state , even the portion of hypocrites , who have been all their lives acting a part : for how ●ll soever they have acted it , how thin soever the disguise and mask has been , yet still they have passed for christians , and have perhaps acted with some zeal , in some of the concerns of that religion , and yet have all the while lived so , as to make all the world conclude , that they believed nothing of it : but yet after all this is confessed , this ought not to strengthen the libertines in their impieties : since it is certain , that men may be really convinced of some truths , and yet either thro want of attention to them , or thro the power of some of their appetites or interests , they may pursue such a course of life as is most directly contrary to that , which they are well perswaded of . men do know , that a li●e of riot , a carreer of vice , and a profusion of expence must either shorten their daies , or make them miserable : what they see in others , and what they observe in themselves , do assure them that luxury will both exhaust their fortunes , and bring pains and intollerable diseases upon them : yet they go on , and pursue their vices ; and that even after they have felt the ill effects of them , both on their persons and estates : so that they see all must end in beggary and rottenness , or some violent pains , under the returns of which they must languish out their daies . their ill habits are gone too deep and becom● too dear to them to forsake them : so that daily observation shews us , that men may really believe some truths , tho their lives seem to be a continual contradiction to them . but after all , though such an outward form of religion can be of little advantage to those who put it on ; it is a great blessing to a nation to be brought under even the profession of the belief of it : for whatsoever is received as a national religion , if it is generally known , it must have such an influence on the laws and constitutions , the outward forms and decencies of such a nation , that the nation must come under another face , even by that outward appearance . in athens and rome , the two most refined pieces of heathenism , though wit and eloquence , reason and philosophy seemed to rise among them as high as any age can pretend to : and a good constitution ; publick liberty , a generous education , courage , the love of vertue , and the love of their country , seemed to raise them as high as human nature unassisted can go ; yet the corruption of their religion , the fables concerning their gods , the brutalities of their worship , together with all the ill consequences of it , were too hard for their philosophy and good government : the corruption of their religion went too deep , and was too early received , to be overcome by speculation or management . this their philosophers saw well ; and so they despaired of reforming the world , unless those things could have been first corrected . the reverse of this appears , even in the most degenerated state of christendome ; which with all its faults , has another face than either paganism or mahometanism : and that appears yet more eminently , according as the knowledge of this religion has been spread . the outward appearance of christendome is very far different now , from what it was before the reformation ; in which it was kept up from the world , and no more of it was let out than what was thought necessary to feed superstition , and to maintain the authority of those who had the secret in their hands . now things have another face ; and though the greater part of those who are called christians can expect nothing from it themselves , but an aggravated condemnation , since they dishonour it more by their ill practices , than they can pretend to support it by their zeal ; yet the publick profession , and the general knowledge of it , are great blessings to mankind . a third sort of those who receive this grace in vain , are persons who with the profession of religion , do think themselves bound to join some practice● agreeing with it ; but by reason of some false principles , and through a vicious indulgence to their sloth and other ill inclinations , they form so low an idea of a religious life , and make such abatements to themselves from that , to which at firs● view this doctrine seems to oblige them , that they bring it down to a very small matter ; to an external compliance with forms and institutions ; to some outward regularity ; and some other easie practices , by which they pacify their own minds ; they lay such terrors as may be apt to arise upon them ; and they form such theories of the attributes of god , and the mercies of the gospel , that they grow to be easie under those low degrees . it is certain , that the main design and chief effect of religion , is to purify our hearts , to reform our natures , to restrain our inclinations , our appetites and passions , and to spread such an influence through our whole lives , through all our powers , and in all our actions , that the world may from thence , as from the evidentest as well as the powerfullest argument , be convinc'd both of the beauty and force of this religion . the christian religion in its true purity , and as it is received among us , is so stript of all those outward appearances of pompous and costly , of severe or cruel performances , that unless it reforms our natures and our lives , it has not enough in it to feed and support that false quiet that superstition may give . a heathen that sacrific'd his child , or ruin'd his fortunes to do honour to his idol ; a mahometan that fasts severely , that goes on chargeable pilgrimages , that exposes himself to all dangers , believing the certainty of fate ; a jew that paid tythes of all his encrease , besides many costly sacrifices and oblations ; that travelled oft up to jerusalem , and that was not to lend upon interest ; and one of the roman communion , that goes through severe penances , and makes great endowments for the honour of a saint , or the redemption of a soul ; all these , i say , suffer so much in their religion , it puts them both to so much cost and pain , that they may come to persuade themselves that it may be put to their account , that god may be pleased , and sins or defects may be forgiven upon their doing such services , that put them to so great a charge , and condemn them to such severities . but as to us and our religion , what can we expect from it , if it has not a real influence upon our hearts and lives ? can we think that for our going sometimes ( seldome god knows ) to prayers ; our assisting , that is being present , rather than joining with any devotion at them ; that our giving the hearing , often a very wandering one , to a few discourses ; and our coming to sacrament upon some great occasions , in compliance with law or custom , rather than out of true devotion ; can , i say , any man have such high thoughts of such nothings , such mean and dead performances , or can he have such low thoughts of god and religion , as to imagine that any value can be set on them ? it is certain , that so simple and plain a religion as ours is , which lays so little cost or trouble on us , can be of no value in the sight of god ; it has not so much as an outward appearance considerable enough to give a false quiet : so that man who know that his religion has not its real effects on him , has no reason to flatter himself upon that account . indeed such a half religion , as it lets in upon a man the belief of the principles of it , so it lays him open to all the checks and terrors which arise out of these . it is strong enough to teach him his duty , to make him know his sins , and to apprehend the terrible consequences of them ; but it does not compleat its work ; it gives him only the terrors , but lets him not in to the joys of true religion . he does not live in that purity , as to feel the sense of a good conscience ; nor has he that right to the promises of the gospel , which may settle in him a firm confidence in god , with a full assurance of his love , and an entire dependance on his providence . the terrors of guilt must make him start often , and the corruptions that he feels still within him , are to him like those secret pains and diseases , that though they break not out into violent symptoms , yet are sensibly felt , and do imbitter our lives , in spite of the highest affluence of wealth and pleasure that may compass us about on every side . after all , such a low state of religion , though it is not to be rested on , yet is not to be neglected it may be a good beginning , and carry us on 〈◊〉 better things : a fire may arise from a spark , an● a little leaven may come to leaven the whol● lump : men of low attainments ought to know that they are but low ; and to press forward , fo● getting the things that are behind , reaching 〈◊〉 those that are before them . to conclude this head ; as we have seen different classes of men who do receive this grace in vain so in opposition to them , those who do not receive● in vain , are they who are firmly persuaded of t●● truth of it ; and that not from the impliciteness o● education , or custom , but upon principles , ●●ter a due consideration of the matter . they being thus assured of the truth of it , apply themselve● in earnest to frame the inward disposition of the mind , their designs and setled resolutions , n●● even their wishes and suddener thoughts , into conformity to the spirit of the christian religion . they become inwardly humble and modest , charitable and good natur'd , patient and gentle , serious and devout ; they have moderate designs as to this world , and are contented with that state of life , and those circumstances that god shall think sit to chuse for them : they consider this world as a pilgrimage , and themselves as strangers in it ; and have their eyes and aims raised to a blessed immortality beyond it ; and so they lay down a stedfast resolution to allow themselves in no sin , nor to compound for any one by affecting higher degrees of zeal in any of the other parts of religion . thus their mind is framed within . to this temper they join an exactness in their whole deportment , free from affectation or superstition . they begin at the most indispensable rules of vertue ; they are sincere and true , honest in all their dealings , and faithful to all their promises ; they are harmless and innocent , shew neither envy nor spite to others , nor allow themselves the liberty of calumny or detraction : they are chast , sober and temperate ; ready not only to do good to all , but particularly to render good for evil : and in all these things they do not content themselves with low degrees , but study to shine ; not to gratify vanity , or to be observed ; but to set a pattern to others , and to do all the honour that they can to their holy religion . but alas ! if this is the extent of not receiving this grace in vain , how ●ew are they who come within this character ? oh where are they to be found ? some there are , god be thanked for it , in whom religion shews both how amiable , and how effectual it is . it is indeed an amazing and melancholy consideration , that the number of them should be so small ; nor does any thing prove more evidently the monstrous depravation of human n●ture , than that a religion composed of such principles , and supported by such an author , should prevail so little , and have so feeble an influence , even over those who seem to deliver themselves up to its discipline . this carries me to the second point to which i proposed to speak , to wit , what are those arguments that we have to offer the world , to persuade them not to receive this grace in vain . the 1 st is imported in the very word it self ; that it is grace , and favour . generous minds value themselves on this ; that how firm soever they may be against terrors or threatnings , they are easily conquer'd by the methods of love , and of kindness . they are rather too feeble here , and too apt to be overcome by them . if we do either consider our own guilt , or the majesty of that god who offers this grace to us , we will have tenderer impressions of this matter . i know the profane tribe look upon all the sad reflections that men may be induced to make on their past lives , as the fumes of melancholly , and as vapours that arise from cross accidents , or uneasy circumstances . if indeed we thought that a few sad acts could compound matters with god ; be as sort of reparation to discount all other reckonings ; this were a very mean thing , and a great foundation for superstition . but when reflections on past disorders are only meant in order to the humbling of our selves , to the making us claim to , and value the mercies of god the more , and to the obliging us to be more watchful over our selves for the future , and more tender towards the failings of others ; sad reflections so managed , and so directed , must give us another view of things , and make us see our selves in other colours . these , while they sink us under the apprehensions of what we have deserved , so they must raise in us a high sense of the grace and pardon offered us in the gospel ; such persons must love much in proportion to the sense that they have of the much that is forgiven them . if to this we add the consideration of the method by which access was given us to this grace in which we stand , it must carry us to very high thoughts of it : when we see that holy and divine person , who delivered this religion to the world , in whom the fulness of the godhea● dwelt ; who was not only full of grace and trut● as man , but was the only begotten son of god. words that carry such an august sound and sense in them , that they must beget in us the highest idea's possible of the dignity of his person ; tha● this person , i say , was made a sacrifice for us , and went through such a black and ignominious scen● of sufferings ; that at all this distance from tha● time , the history of them cannot yet be read without giving great tenderness to every seriou● reader ; and that all this was done only to reconcile us to god , to obtain to us the pardon o● our sins , and the favour of god. when all thi● is duly considered , it must raise in us a very dee● and sensible gratitude ; it must create in us a ju●● horror of those sins which god would not pardo● without giving so signal a demonstration of h●● abhorrence of them , when he laid so great a loa● of suffering on him , who was thereby to becom● the mediator and intercessor for them . so that ●● we have tractable natures , that can be conquere● by that , which the noblest minds have thought i● an honour to be overcome by ; the goodness of god in offering so free a pardon on such easy terms on our side , and by so hard a purchase to him who procured it for us , will make such impressions on us that will receive and value this grace as we ought , and will study to make those returns for it which become us . another consideration that may justly prevail on us to give this grace a suitable reception , is the easy conditions on which it is offered to us . here an objection does presently arise : can such a course of strict obedience and severe holiness be thought an easy matter , while all our faculties are under such feebleness and disorder , that they do ●evolt against every part of it , and seem indeed ●ncapable to bear it ? here a distinction is carefully to be made be●ween the law that is laid upon us , and the condition upon which we can hope for a share in this grace . we are under a law of universal holi●ess ; but the condition of the covenant of grace ●s a sincere obedience . the meaning of which ●s not , that we are only obliged to a sincere obedience , and not to an entire one . the whole law of god obliges us to the utmost extent that the gospel has carried every branch of it ; so that ●ve sin against god , and provoke his wrath , when we fail in any part of our duty . but on the other hand , the gospel is not of the nature of such an act of grace , as pardons all former faults , but gives no hope in case of a new disobedience ; it does not only pardon all that is past , but it encourages us to continue in the service of god , tho● we should relapse , as well as it accepts of our si●cerity ; and it makes abatements for those frailties that hang about our natures , and that do often prevail over us : yet this does not alter the nature of things ; it does not dissolve our obligations , nor make such actions no sins ; it only offe●● a continued pardon , not subject to forfeiture upon our offences . nothing but a deliberate course in sin excludes us from this grace ; and even i● that case we are not condemned to despair , bu● there is room for repentance . therefore we ar● not to imagine , that sincere obed●ence is all tha● we are bound to ; for if it were so , we should no● be guilty of sin , by such offences as may consi●● with it . from hence it appears , that we are sti●● under an obligation to an entire obedience ; 〈◊〉 that when we say , that a sincere obedience is the condition of this covenant , we do not disa●●● the law , nor its binding force ; we only hold for●● the continued offer of the pardon in the gospel notwithstanding our sins , upon our repenting of them and forsaking them in the main course of our life . every man that deals honestly with himself , must soon be made to confess , that a sincere obedience is not so far out of the reach of human nature , but that he may hope to attain to it , especially with the help of those aids that are offered to him . and as every man knows what it is seriously to mind his health and his affairs , even when he is guilty of some errors and omissions in it ; he knows what it is to pursue a science , or be employed in a trade , even when he does not bend his utmost application to it , nor use all possible diligence in it ; yet when it is that which he labours in , and does constantly follow , that becomes the business of his life : he is sensible of many errors that he makes , he corrects them , and studies to perfect himself by all the improvements that come in his way . from hence it will be easie to judge of our sincerity , whether we mind religion with that honest care , and hearty application with which we pursue all our other concerns . the easiness of this condition , appears yet more fully in those supplies by which we are enabled to perform it . secret assistances are promised to us ; but how they are conveyed , and how they have their effect upon us , is not easie for us to apprehend : who can tell how it comes that our food does animate and exhilarate our minds ? or that the dew of heaven should make the earth fruitful ? so how much soever prophane minds may lay out their wits , to make all this pass for the delusion of the imagination , or for a false pretension ; yet all good men may be appealed to , whether they do not feel that upon their pursuing those methods that are offered in the gospel ; they do perceive such a change to grow upon them , that how insensible soever the steps of it may be , yet the whole , after some time becomes very apparent : they feel such a new turn in their minds , such an alteration in their inclinations and aversions , that they become , as it were , moulded a●new ▪ their thoughts have another ply , and their mind another form . the unaccountableness of the way in which this is brought about , is no just prejudice against the truth of it : for as air , though the weakest and most yeilding of all the bodies we know , yet is sometimes driven with such mighty force , that nothing can resist it ; so our saviour has compared the unseen motions of the divine spirit , to the invisible direction of the air : such operation have those secret influences , that men are transformed by them ; and since what exalts the power of our faculties , does at the same time weaken the opposition that can be made to them , by the difficulty of any performance ; this removes the prejudice that may be raised from the feebleness of our natures , and the hardness of the conditions that are laid upon us . it is our sloth and unwillingness to undergo those labours that we know our selves capable of , that makes the difficulties appear to be insuperable . we must confess that we have seen such instances of the power of religion , in some persons raised to the highest circumstances of life , and who lived under the most constant observation ; that by those we may be convinced how far human nature can go , or rather how far religion can carry it . we have seen them shine with such a lustre , as well as influence , that by those apparent proofs we are forced to acknowledge , that those who attend to the methods that this religion prescribes , and do closely pursue them , rise up to a pitch that would scarce be credible , if it had not been evident beyond contradiction . to those instances we appeal the more confidently , that from them the world may judge how amiable a thing true religion is ; how excellent in it self , and how beneficial to mankind . such impressions it is to be hoped will stick long , and will let us see what we may grow to be , if we are not wanting to our selves , and to those assistances that are offered to us so freely , that we may have them if we but ask them earnestly , and use them carefully . a third argument by which we are to besecch you to receive this grace , and to pursue the designs of it with due care , is , that our labour shall not be in vain . there is a vast reward laid up for them that walk worthy of this gospel . and since it is of such infinite value , it is but suitable that our acceptance of the gospel , and the effect it has upon us , should bear some proportion to our expectations from it , and to those hopes that are held forth to us by it . there is nothing more certain , than that in every wise constitution there ought to be a proportion kept between the rewards that are offered , and those services for which they are proposed ; as the due encouragements to them , and as returns for them . even the highest generosity and magnificence of bounty , must be conducted by this rule ; for the proposing vast rewards for slight matters , will always betray great want of judgment , in not setting a true value on things , either on the rewards , or the services , or perhaps on both : the rewards may rise vastly above the true value of the service ; and it is fit they should do so , that men may be duely animated and heated by them ; but then the services must with relation to him that does them , be in proportion as great for him to do , as the rewards are for him who gives them . the rewards that our religion proposes , are certainly far above all the services that we can do : and yet it does not derogate from the infinite wisdom of god to offer them to us ; because the services that he commands in order to our obtaining them , are the highest that we are capable of . but to offer such rewards to such slight services , as the taking up of a name , and a profession , the ●spousing of some opinions , the being regular in some forms , and the exteriour parts of our deportment ; all this , as it is a mean thing in it self , so it is the insincere acting of a part ; and therefore it cannot be supposed , that a god who is infinitely wise and holy , would propose such a reward to such services that are so far below the capacities and the faculties that he has planted in us . but when we apply our selves sincerely to his service , when we do set all our powers to it , and give up our thoughts and studies , our time and our care to know and to do his will ; when we perceive that we make religion the business of our lives , and pur●ue a constant obedience to the laws and will of god seriously and constantly ; then since this ●s all that our natures are well capable of , it may ●e highly sutable to the infinite goodness of god , ●nd to the vast regard that he has to the death and ●ntercession of christ , to offer us unspeakable rewards for such services , which tho they are mean ●n themselves , and add nothing to him , yet are the ●ighest that we are capable of . this is therefore very clear , that the greatness of the reward ought t● be a most powerful argumen● to persuade us to ca●● our religion as far as we can , and not to rest conten●ed with low measures , and lifeless performance● . now that we may have some idea of the val●● of this recompence of reward that is offered us , 〈◊〉 us a little consider our own natures , and see wh● imaginable perfections we are capable of . bodies 〈◊〉 great purity and fineness of composition , so fixe● as to be subject to no wast , and liable to no neces●ties ; and so well temper'd as to suggest to us 〈◊〉 bad thoughts ; that are capable of a great quickne●● of motion , and of enduring a perpetual bent of 〈◊〉 mind : in a word , such bodies as we can imagi●● our animal spirits would be , if they were no mo●● volatile but fix'd , seem to be one ingredient in the 〈◊〉 most happiness that we are capable of . another m● be , that our minds should be fill'd with the cleare● ideas of truth , of the nature of all things ; and abo●● all , of that supreme mind that both gave being a●● still continues it to all other things . those ide●● must be ever present with us ; and all the inferenc● from them must be as easily made , and as constant●● remembred , as we do see with our eyes , or do ●●member such things as have made the greatest i●pressions upon us . our actions must be as certain●● determined by them , as the easiest things are no● carried on by the idea's that are the clearest , and t●● least painful to us : a sovereign love to the perfectest being , and to every other being in proportion to its approach or resemblance of the supream , must so intirely possess and overcome us , that we shall be always living and acting under the power of that noble and active principle , when there is a constant sense of loving the best object , and of being beloved by it : when with all this , there is a constant joy in the reflections on all that men do , and a perpetual delight in it ; when this is enjoyed in company with many other pure and perfect minds who do all love one another , and rejoice together : and when there is joined to all this a clear sense of those insupportable miseries to which they had made themselves obnoxious , and from which they are for ever delivered : and to crown all , when they do certainly know that all must be eternal , without end , or so much as an interruption . let all these be supposed to be joined together ; and they make up all the happiness that our natures are capable of ; besides what other seeds of a further possible happiness may lie in us , of which we can at present frame no true idea . this composition of all the ingredients of an imaginable happiness , as it carries nothing in any part of it that does not appear very possible , and that is not suitable to all our apprehensions and observations , so it does very perfectly agree with the descriptions that this religion , which ha● brought life and immortality to light , has given us concerning it . our bodies are to be raised in a state of honour ▪ and power , incorruptible and immortal : we shall see god as he is , and know him as we our selve● are known . and when that which is perfect shall come that which is in part shall be done away ; and we shall be ever with the lord , in the fellowship of angels and of saints . are not these hopes and promise● sufficient to inflame our affections , and to quicken us to all the application and zeal possible ? it were a vain attempt , and unbecoming the dignity of the subject , and of this place , to pretend to add to or enlarge on these arguments . they are so full and so clear ; there is that energy and conviction in them , that we must give over those , upon whom they have no effect , as persons too hard to be softned , and too desperate to be reclaimed . our gospel may appear to them weak and foolish ; but to those who consider and judge more maturely , it is the power and the wisdom of god. such it is , and such it will appear to be to all those who receive not hi● grace in vain . god grant it may not be our condemnation , that light is come unto the world , but tha● we have loved darkness better than light , because ou● deeds are evil : but that as we have received thi● gospel , so we may walk worthy of it , to the praise of h●● holy name , through jesus christ our lord. amen the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30448-e150 2 cor. 5.20 . 〈…〉 ver. 3 d. v. 4. v. 8. 6 rom. 4. 2 ti● . 11. jude 4. 22 rev. 11. 2 cor. 4. 3. 4. 7. luke 47. joh. 3.8 . 1 cor. 15. 43 , 53. 1 joh. 3. 2. 1 cor. 13. 10 , 12. 1 thess. 4. 17. a letter from gilbert bvrnet, d.d. to mr. simon lowth, vicar of cosmus-blene in the diocess of canterbury, occasioned, by his late book of the subject of church-power burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 approx. 11 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30372 wing b5818 estc r7433 11631141 ocm 11631141 47935 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30372) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47935) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:33) a letter from gilbert bvrnet, d.d. to mr. simon lowth, vicar of cosmus-blene in the diocess of canterbury, occasioned, by his late book of the subject of church-power burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ; 20 cm. printed for richard baldwin, [london : 1685] caption title. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lowth, simon, 1630?-1720. -of the subject of church-power. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter from gilbert bvrnet , d. d. to mr. simon lowth , vicar of cosmus-blene in the diocess of canterbury . occasioned , by his late book of the subject of church-power . reverend sir , i know no other address to you , but this of the press , which i hope will find you out : you have forced me to deal so publickly with you , by your beginning with me ; and , which is yet worse , by your refusing to give your own eyes that satisfaction which i desired a neighbouring clergyman of yours to offer you . when i saw your letters to the two deans , in which you accused the dean of st. paul's for his copying out unfaithfully the papers of cranmer and the other deans , which he had published , and added , that i had also printed them imperfect , and so had abused the house of commons unto an approbation of my history of the reformation , ( where by the way , i cannot imagine why you left out the house of lords , whose approbation is printed with the other . ) i confess , i wondred upon what you could found so heavy a charge : i printed no record in that collection without comparing the copies exactly with the original , for i thought that too important a thing to trust it to any person whatsoever : therefore finding my self accused of a designed fraud , which , if true , must needs shake the credit of my whole book ; i did what i could to prevent your bringing that shame upon your self , which i do now unwillingly lay on you , not so much for the support of my own credit , as for maintaining the reputation of that work. i therefore desired your neighbour to tell you , that i was sure i had printed all those papers faithfully and exactly , without departing from the originals in any thing but the spelling : i added , that if you thought fit to fall on any discourse or inference of mine , you might do as you pleased , but if you accused me of unfaithfulness , in publishing any of the papers that are in my collection imperfect , i should be forced to justify my self , tho to your cost : for in such accusations a man ought not to be over patient . i bid him also tell you , that as i had printed those papers exactly , so if you had a mind to see the originals themselves , i should procure them for you : this was done many months ago . he brought me an answer from you , that i could make nothing of ; but now i see it in print , and so i will examine it . you say that if you may believe the dean of windsor , dr. durel , there is among these papers in dr. stillingfleet's ms. one of dr. leighton's , in which there are two assertions contrary to cranmer's opinion concerning church-power , and that cranmer signed dr. leighton's paper ; from which he infers that cranmer changed his mind , and subscribed to leighton's opinion ; and of all this , you say i have given no account to the world , but have omitted it in two impressions . i would willingly believe the best of every man , and make the best of all things that i can , and therefore i should have imputed this to an extream carelesness in you ; but since you have charged me so severely for unfaithfulness , and abusing the house of commons in it , and since you refused to accept of the satisfaction which i had offered you , i must crave leave to tell you ( for it is a hard thing , and needs a preface to soften it ) that you have accused me both uncharitably as to the manner of it , and unjustly as to the matter : since these very things that you say i have left out , are in my collection , taken verbatim from the original , which will appear by my setting down that which you cite from the dean of windsor , and that which is in my collection , over against one another . there is indeed a variation in the words , tho none in the sense : mine is exactly according to the original : and the variations of the dean of windsor from it , tho they make no change in the sense , yet are too many to be the mistakes of a transcriber : therefore i am apt to think that as dr. durel writ them out , he put them either in latin or french , intending perhaps to make use of them in one of these tongues , and that afterwards he translated them into his own english when the manuscript might be perhaps no more in his power to copy them from the original . the reasonableness of this conjecture will appear from a view of the words themselves , as he and i have published them ; for i have published all leighton's paper together with cranmer's subscription at the end of it . the words that you cite from the dean of windsor , pag. 485. of your book , l. 24. are these . the words i have , hist. reform . vol. 1. coll. rec. book 3. pag. 227. l. 36. are these . i suppose a bishop according to scripture , to have power from god as his minister of creating a presbyter ; tho he ought not to promote any to the office of a presbyter , or admit to any other ecclesiastical ministry in a common-wealth , unless the leave of the prince be first had . but that any other have power according to scripture i have neither read nor learned by example . 2. i suppose consecration to be necessary as by imposition of hands , for so we are taught by the examples of the apostles . i suppose that a bishop hath authority of god as his minister by scripture to make a priest , but he oug●t not to admit any man to be priest , and consecrate him , or to appoint him to any ministry in the church without the princes licence and consent in a christian region . and that any other man hath authority to make a priest by scripture , i have not read , nor any example thereof . and pag. 230. l. 22. i suppose that there is a consecration required as by imposition of hands , for so we be taught by the ensample of the apostles . and pag. 243. l. 3. from the bottom , where dr. leighton's subscription is set down , there is set by it t. cantuarien . thus , sir , you see you may believe the dean of windsor , and believe this further , that you have slander'd me falsly : if there is any harshness in these expressions , the things themselves draw them from me , and your unaccountable behaviour in this matter has brought them on you . i wish that instead of reading any other books , you would read the gospels and epistles more carefully ; and before you venture to treat of such tender points as church-power , that you will learn to practise the rules of justice and christian charity ( not to speak of prudence and common discretion ) ; and then the advices of your friends will prevail more with you than your own heats : for tho you flatter your self so far as to fancy ( as you began your preface ) that there was a huged in and noise , pannick almost and universal , raised in london and else-where , for two full years and upwards , occasioned by your treatise ; i assure you i never heard of any ; tho none , after the two worthy deans , were more concerned in it than i was ; all that look'd into it ( for i spoke with none that had quite read it ) said it could hurt no body but the bookseller or your self : tho i have not heard that the chancery ever gave equity against an author for an unsaleable book . many wished for the churches sake , and for your own sake , that she might not suffer by so ill an advocate , and that you would not discharge your spleen on two such eminent men , whose works ( as well as their persons ) will be had in honour , long after both you and your book will be forgotten . you are indeed proud of the honour of assaulting two such men , and tell the world that their eminence was no small motive to you to undertake this work , and give this modest account of your self ( preface , pag. 7. l. 22. ) doth the king of israel go out as against a flea ? i confess this is a lofty figure , and the application of it to your self is somewhat extraordinary . but there was a roman emperor that used to be shut up catching flies , and i am afraid some will think that since you will borrow a figure from a crowned head , this had become you better ; but you have secured your self by writing in a stile so unintelligible , that as i hear few read your book , so i am confident no body can understand it , and so to be sure they will not answer it . yet since you tell the world that here is a course of studies upon full thoughts and a thorough consideration : you had best do as another roman emperor did , write of your self , and illustrate your book with annotations , and i suppose the bookseller will take care that it shall only be to your self . you tell us that your book is born with a beard , as the iews say esau was : it is indeed hairy all over , and so rough is the shag , that it will not submit to the discipline of a comb. i shall only offer to your consideration , one passage which i hope you will not forget in your annotations : it comes just after that humble comparing of your self to the king of israel , and i suppose your spirits were a little exalted upon so glorious a figure , and so you have risen above my pitch . the words are remarkable : nor do those of meaner order and qualily undertake that authority which is in it self none , falls of it self to the ground , nor was ever influential upon any ? this is but one of many , and is the shortest i could pick out . i suppose you had a meaning when you writ it , tho perhaps in the two full years and upwards in which it stuck so that it is over grown with hair , you may have lost it . i shall conclude with two short advices ; the first is ▪ that if you intend to write any more , you will learn first to write true english , and then to write good sense : but i believe this will prove so very hard a task , that the best and easiest advice can b● given you , is , that you will write none at all , but se● about matters of a more close and comfortable importance in which i wish you better success than you are like t● have by your book , and am , notwithstanding th● freedom with you , reverend sir , your most humble servant . g. burnet . london , december the 20 th , 1684. london : printed for richard baldwin in the old-baily-corner on ludgate-hill , 1685. a sermon preached before the king, at whitehall, on the second of december, 1697. being the day of thanksgiving for the peace. / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1698 approx. 56 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30451 wing b5907 estc r21499 12683145 ocm 12683145 65701 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30451) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65701) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:16 or 1923:8) a sermon preached before the king, at whitehall, on the second of december, 1697. being the day of thanksgiving for the peace. / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 31, [1] p. printed for ri. chiswell, at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard., london : mdcxcviii. [1698] advertisement: p. [1] at end. wing b5909 mis-identified as a "second" edition. cf. estc. item at reel 682:16 identified as wing b5907; item at reel 1923:8 identified as b5909. reproduction of original in henry e. huntington library and art gallery and british museum. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-02 shawn martin sampled and proofread 2005-02 shawn martin text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion published by his majesty's special command . a sermon preached before the king , at whitehall , on the second of december , 1697. being the day of thanksgiving for the peace . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert , lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for ri. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxcviii . the bishop of salisbury's thanksgiving-sermon for the peace . 2 chron. ix . 8. blessed be the lord thy god , which delighted in thee , to set thee on his throne to be king for the lord thy god : because thy god loved israel , to establish them for ever , therefore made he thee king over them , to do judgment and justice . these are the words of an arabian queen , who was so moved with a noble curiosity , raised by the same of solomon's wisdom , that she undertook a journey from the utmost parts of the earth , furnished her self both with an equipage and presents suitable to her rank , and also with questions , by which she might judge whether fame had not too much heightned this great king's character . she could not believe the half of what she had heard ; and having probably a good opinion of her own understanding , she resolved to try his with those questions that puzzled her self . but when she came , and found that report , instead of magnifying matters , had been very defective ; when she observed the compass of his knowledge , with the depth of his mind , and that he applied his speculations to the arts of government , as well as to the contemplations of nature ; when she saw his vast designs of buildings ( his own as well as god's house ) so wonderfully executed ; the treasures he was heaping up , and the methods of trade he was setting on , for procuring constant and fresh supplies ; and that he could join the magnificence that belonged to his character , with the more real greatness of his own comprehensive mind : so that while he employed his thoughts in the sublimest enquiries , he did not neglect even those lesser ones , of external grandeur , which how inconsiderable soever they may seem , to a soul capable of vaster things , yet are necessary to maintain those impressions of awe and respect which give authority to government : when she saw the state in which he was served , the pomp of his retinue , and his glorious processions to the temple , she was overcome with wonder ; she despised her own dignity and kingdom : and thought that the subjects and servants of such a prince , were happier than the sovereigns of other nations . her admiration of this being above all ordinary expressions , she vents it in those raptures that i have read . she adores the great jehovah of the jews , who had taken pleasure in advancing one who so well deserved it , and who imployed it so worthily , in raising the honour of that god who had so eminently exalted him : from hence she concluded , that certainly god loved that nation , whom he had blessed with such a prince , by whose wisdom and conduct they were in all probability to be established on the firmest basis : the best principles and measures of government , which would make them sure and lasting . establish them for ever . for she could not think but that so extraordinary a blessing must be designed for great ends. such a king would certainly govern them both with judgment and justice . two words that seem to signify the same thing ; yet the masters of that language put this difference , that the former relates to the rewarding , and the latter to the punishing part of justice . so wise a king would maintain a severe execution of law against offenders , and be no less careful to find out the men of merit , and to trust , advance , and reward these . certainly such a prince , and such an administration are so great blessings , and so much the greater , because so little common , so few instances of them occurring , either in the observation of the present age , or the records of past times ; that wheresoever we meet them , we ought to acknowledge they are the special favours of heaven , and the most distinguishing marks of god's loving a nation . the blessings we now enjoy , and that great one which at this time we do particularly acknowledge , do so naturally carry us to devotions like those in my text , that all my hearers must be beforehand with me in the application . but in our case there are some specialties that give it a peculiar exaltation : solomon had his crown , his treasures and armies transmitted down to him ; conquests were made for him , he himself had gone through none of those scenes of horror , but had an easy inheritance conveyed from his father , without battels or blood , fatigue or danger : he was bred up to the maxims of government and acquainted with all his father's secrets , his designs as well as his conduct ; so that he began upon great advantages : david's long and glorious reign before him , had prepared peoples hearts to love and obey him , who was god's choice as well as his father's . the building so magnificent a temple in the beginnings of his quiet and auspicious reign , made him the delight and wonder of his people . thus the causes of his being so great and prosperous , were very visible . if then the queen of sheba was so struck with seeing solomon in all his glory , with how much louder accents ought we to carry on the hallelujahs of this day , who see a prince raised and conducted by such a special train of amazing providences , without any of those supports , that every step he has made , carries in it characters of a particular direction from heaven ! he has , indeed , the blood of sovereigns in him , but his crowns are the gifts of heaven . the two great heroes of the last age , the defenders of religion , and the patrons of liberty , were proper sources to give life and descent to one , in whom their characters were to be exalted , as well as their dignity was to be raised . they were both of a race of sovereigns : one was of the first form ; but what might be wanting in the extent of their territories , and the lustre of their coronets , was fully made up in those truly royal accomplishments of their minds . they were capable of the greatest things , and acted in a sphere suited to their capacity : they talked little , but did wonders : they had all the gravity , as well as all the virtues of religion in them , without the affectations of shew or hypocrisy : they had none of the arts of flattery or insinuation , yet could bring vast multitudes to depend on them , to trust to them , and to obey them . they had souls of so peculiar a make , that they seemed born to animate whole nations to a pitch of their own courage , to a like zeal for religion , and a like love of liberty . they lived great , but died greater ; the greater for the conjunction of their descent , the mixing those noble qualities of their minds , as well as their blood. the issue of such a union was designed to perfect the work which they had begun ; that seemed buried with them , but was to have a second and nobler revival in one , whose composition from such principles gave a just hope to expect all that we do now see . one character belonged to them both so equally , that no wonder if in the conjunction it is carried to a further perfection . they wrestled through great difficulties , and as great misfortunes , but with so firm a constancy , that no cross adventures could ever damp them , or sink them even to the hearkning to any propositions , other than what they had pretended to in their most prosperous condition . so little power had fortune over their minds , unless it was to animate them with so fresh a courage , that they rose by misfortunes : they never had better armies about them , than soon after they had met with such checks , that their enemies look'd on them as lost , without a possibility of recovery . the two greatest powers then in europe , after they had found them too hard for them in the gallanter methods of war , were not ashamed to betake themselves to the baser ones of treachery and assassination . souls so brave and so candid as theirs , were not capable of believing their enemies so black , as they , or rather as their friends , felt them to be . but so entire was their love to religion and their countrey , that as they both perished in the cause , so one of them in the agony into which the fatal bullet put him , having but a minute for one single thought , he ended his life as he had led it ; he died praying for that people for whom he had lived so long : feeling he could live no longer , he expired with this word in his mouth , have mercy on this people . yes , great soul , thy prayer was heard ; and from thee one springs , in whom god signalizes his mercy , not to that people only , but to a great many others , who share with them in this extraordinary grace ; the more extraordinary for this , that it is not restrained to one single nation , but is a deliverance to mankind . these advantages meeting in one person , set him indeed above the common level . a greatness that passed down through three successors , who maintained the lustre of the first raiser of that state , with a glory suitable to its wonderful beginnings , was at last brought under a cloud , that so the favour of heaven might shine the brighter on him in whom it was to be revived . the accession of royal blood had indeed exalted the race , and seemed to bring it nearer to that imperial dignity , with which it had shined some ages ago ; but it raised jealousy , as much as it advanced their scutcheon . the ruins of monarchy here , helped to draw down a family allied to it ; but the restoration of it did not contribute to its recovery . that was to be the immediate care and work of heaven . an inundation of conquest and calamity , forced a sinking state to seek for shelter to the issue of that race to which it owed its first rise . an ordinary courage would have sunk at the undertaking . it look'd like the raising one up only to bear the burthen and reproach of their ruin. the prospect was on all hands so black , that posterity will reckon their recovery with that of the romans after cannae . if it were proper for this place , it were easy to shew that theirs was the much more desperate state of the two : the turn was signal , the effects of it were soon visible , though the conclusion may seem to have come on but slowly ; for now we see a career run of almost six and twenty years , to which we may challenge the histories of all ages to give a parallel . a mighty power , great armies , well commanded , an uncontroul'd authority , full of treasure , and accustomed to victory , was an enemy , as it were marked out to raise the character of him , who with unequal forces , and feebler assistances , put a stop to a progress that amazed the world ; and made the greater part even of princes to conclude , it was in vain to maintain the struggle any longer ; it was better to prevent the violence of conquest , by submitting to what terms could be got , none being thought worse than what was like to be the issue of the war. no life could be of more importance than this , which seemed the soul of the whole alliance ; and yet none was more freely exposed , not only in the constant fatigue of perpetual journeys and voyages , in the worst seasons , with such an uninterrupted continuance of lengthen'd campaigns , that these alone might have worn out the firmest stock of health and strength ; but in all the adventures of war , in the greatest heat of action , and in the most desperate posts . this was a fair offering himself to danger : gallant men knew where to find him . in this only he seemed to forget the great concern that others had in him , and exposed them all too much , while with a noble intrepidity , as one insensible of danger , he past through many new scenes of them ; but in which heaven shewed so particular a watchfulness , that the single relation of them all , with his deliverances out of them , would make a history . the surest as well as the swiftest messenger of death , attacking him in the view of two armies , and on the eve of a deciding day , seemed to be sent on purpose to let so many witnesses see what an invisible guard was about him ; and that how near soever the greatest of all dangers might come to him , yet it was to do him no other hurt , than to leave so slight an impression , as seemed only made to prove the truth of so unusual an accident ; that without an uncontested evidence it could not easily be believed . but while angels kept guard about him on all honourable occasions , they were no less watchful in discovering and disappointing blacker methods , and baser designs . those who thought not fit to venture on him in the day of battel , betook themselves to the most infamous practices . designs of assassination were pursued with such unrelenting eagerness , that as soon as one failed , another was set on foot . a mind not capable of these , was almost as little capable of believing them in others , as of practising them himself . there was no extraordinary caution used , neither for penetrating into such secrets , nor of keeping so strict a guard , as appeared afterwards was necessary . discoveries were made by a particular hand of heaven : men who were thought capable of executing the worst designs , could not bear the horror that this gave them . those who were appointed to be the instruments of our ruin , proved the means of our preservation : i say , our preservation , because we owe it to the influence of that sacred life . and now at last , after so hard a struggle , such a lengthned war , so vast a consumption of men and treasure , we celebrate the happy peace and tranquility that we , and the greatest part of europe do now enjoy , through his means . have we not reason to conclude that this is the day which the lord has made ; that this is the man whom he has made strong for himself , whom he has delighted to set on his throne ? it is his doing , and it is wonderful in our eyes . the characters of god's care of his affairs have been no less signal , than those relating to his person . good seasons and favourable winds have attended constantly upon him . the critical turns of those winds that brought him first hither , were so amazing , that those who observed them , can never reflect on it without a constant freshness of admiration . all the many passages that he and his forces have since that time made on the seas , have been not only successful , but smooth and quick . on two great occasions , nature seemed to go out of its course to cover us from invasion . in the first , the calmest month in the year was a continued storm , till we were ready to make use of fairer weather , and then we had it ; and by a great variety of circumstances , as happy to us as cross to our enemies , we had the most glorious day that ever the channel saw ; beacons of a new form ; fires from the sea carried the dismal tidings to the adverse shores , and scattered the army lying ready to invade us . that seemed to put an end to all dangers from that element ; we were restored to our empire on this sea , which recovered and established our then sinking reputation . we found at another time , a no less unusual reversing of seasons ; we had a winter that seemed to anticipate the spring ; the wind stood all the while in the warm corner , and broke the designs of sending a great part of our naval strength from us . we little knew our danger , and that all this was stopt by a watchful interposition , to cover us from a second design of invasion ; we were uneasy to see the season so obstinately good , so contrary to our intentions , and to what was to be expected at that time ; but we afterwards had large opportunities to observe the kind direction of heaven that made the seasons wait on us , and as it were conspire to break their own laws , rather than suffer a breach to be made upon us. other favourable circumstances shewed us also how god delighted to maintain him on the throne , under whose shadow we are all to sit safe . plenty at home made us easy under all the charge of the war ; and while our neighbours ( for we have now no more any enemies ) were much pressed with even the extremities of want , under those vast impositions that lay on them , we had enough and to spare ; to furnish the rest of the world , and to supply that great waste of treasure , which came back in some years faster then it went out . and after all the unconceivable expence of the war , with all the losses we made in it , yet if it had not been for the wicked practises of those corrupters of our coin at home , with all the train of mischievous consequences that have followed upon them , which was an evil of our own growth , and that had no relation to the affairs abroad , we had gone through it without feeling any uneasy pressure by it . but that we have been able to provide effectual remedies to the one , while at the same time we have so gloriously maintained , and now so happily finished the other , is a secret indication of the power and riches of the nation , in this reign , of which perhaps the most sanguine could not have been convinced , if they had not seen it . add to all this , the noble triumphs of liberty . one of the common topicks of the enemies of publick liberty , is , that upon great occasions , the divisions in councils , and the length of debates that do naturally arise in free assemblies , bring such a backwardness and slowness on their deliberations , that the best opportunities of acting are lost while they are consulting . here the publick interest was so visible , that a concurrence beyond all former examples , has appeared in supporting undertakings that seemed above the strength and wealth of the nation . nor could such a treasure have been raised by all the efforts of arbitrariness ; for nothing but the certainties of the faith given by the body of the nation , could have created the credit that was necessary in such unusual supplies . these went on with that unanimity and heartiness , that we have reason to put this among the great articles of that over-ruling providence that has watched over us . if at any time insuperable difficulties made the publick consultations go heavily , the season was stopt , the course of nature seem'd to stand still , till we were ready for it . so wonderful a conduct has appeared both at home and abroad , and in all the elements , as if every thing had been set at work , either to do us good , or at least to shelter us from evil. i reckon not among the happy instances of god's care of us , our being preserved from the restless attempts of some wretched incendiaries among our selves , those betrayers of religion and their country . they are too inconsiderable , to be ranked among the occasions for which we do now celebrate the blessings of heaven . if their power and skill had been equal to their malice , we should indeed have had great reason to rejoice that we have been preserved from a race of men , whose tongues have been set on fire , while the poyson of asps seemed to lie under their lips : but the one has proved as contemptible , as the other was odious . they ought not to be mentioned in a time of rejoycing , in which , objects that give horror , ought to be kept out of sight ; yet , how little reason soever we may have either to value , or to love them , we ought still to pity them , and to pray for them , that if possible , they may be recovered out of the gall of bitterness , and the bond of iniquity . let us turn to nobler objects , and rejoice in the glory of god , and in our own happiness , while we see who is the man whom god delights to honour : whom by a concurrence of many providences he first led to his throne , and whom he has hitherto maintain'd on it by as many more : and has now given him as full an establishment upon it , as humane things are capable of . he has made his enemies to be at peace with him : and while the much greater half of europe own him to be its recoverer and restorer , the rest do now unanimously call him that , which he is , independent on all foreign acknowledgments , the rightfvl and lawfvl king of these realms . and to make the parallel to my text run exactly , a much greater king , lying at a vaster distance , leaves his throne and dominions in the midst of war , struck with the fame , and amazed at the actions of this prince . instead of a little southern queen , a mighty northern emperour , cover'd with laurels , and us'd to victories , resolving to raise his nation , and enlarge his empire , comes to learn the best methods of doing it , and goes away full of wonder , possessed with truer notions of government . but while we humbly adore those instances of the good pleasure of our god towards his anointed ; let us also with the same holy gratitude observe how he has shewed that he loved us , as well as that he delighted in him , who now sits on the throne . we are separate from the continent ; and were cut off from the great affairs of the world , till navigation and trade brought us into them , with the more advantage ; because our situation keeps us at a distance from the confusions of war , and secures us from the inroads and depredations of enemies ; while the sea that covers us , gives us also a passage to let in their wealth among us , and to pour out our force upon them . our seas and our fleets are both our fences and our mines : which others seem to work for us , and give us no other trouble about them , but that of a safe conveyance . all this , how flourishing soever , yet gave us but a melancholy prospect , while we saw a mighty rival so near us , rising up to an equality with us , in that which was our strength as well as our glory . the counsels at home were then employ'd in designs of another nature : they were laying down methods to subvert our constitution , to corrupt our senate , and destroy such as were above their practice . the laws of england , the charters of our towns , as well as the great charter of the nation , our religion and liberty , were all the conquests that were then projected : while the safety of the whole at home , and the security of our neighbours about us , were abandoned . so the beloved design prospered , it seemed to be laid down for a maxim , that it was better to reign at the discretion of a mighty prince , than under the restraint of laws , which was called the reigning at the discretion of subjects . so infatuated we were , that a competition , or rather a superiority , in that which hitherto we claimed as a property , gave us no jealousie ; we seemed pleased with it , and were glad to promote it . we had so far retir'd our selves from that share which we naturally ought to have in the publick concerns of europe , that we seemed to forget them : we had so much work at home , that there was no room for foreign speculations . we had been engaged once and again into wars with those , who , as they are our near neighbours , so have been in all ages our faithfullest allies : we fell into contentions at home , by the direction of our enemies , who plaid us so dexterously one against another , that they hoped to have done the best half of their work , by making us first hate and then destroy one another ; while they were ever ready to support those , whose passions and circumstances might contribute the most for carrying on their designs . all this seemed too slow , to those who thought they lost time ; and therefore began to quicken their pace , and make a little more haste in destroying us . then it was fit for god to interpose , when all was struck at . there was no prospect of deliverance , but from one single corner , and even that seemed doubtful . it was the reverse of elijah's vision ; one hand breadth of a cloud in a clear sky gave him the welcome hopes of the rain he pray'd for : here the whole sky seemed set for storms and thunder , while but one speck of blue appeared in the whole horizon : who could have thought that this should have conquered all the clouds , and have given the heavens and the earth a new face ? all eyes turned that way , because it was plain there was no other hope left us : yet many thought it was too great an attempt to be expected from the cold and cautious counsels of a state , naturally slow , and apprehensive danger . the interpositions of providence were not wanting in this extremity ; many favourable accidents concurr'd ; popular assemblies agreed then so unanimously together , that there was not opposition enough made to create delays . the states seemed to rejoyce , that an opportunity offer'd it self in this age , for them to repay what they had been owing to england ever since the last . and they were willing to perish with us , if we could not both flourish together . an advanced season made the sea less practicable : all was to be put to hazard ; because all lay at stake . a long course of cross winds and rough weather in the beginning , looked like the frowning of heaven . the first attempt was unprosperous : this would have shaken any mind less firm than that which animated the whole undertaking . a constancy was then observed so steady and inflexible , that not so much as an inequality of temper could be discovered . the unsuccessfulness of the first step would have damped a mind that was either feeble or superstitious ; tho' our returning all safe after three days tossing in a storm , was an earnest of a particular care even in that seeming disappointment . but after the roughness of the season had continu'd long enough , to teach us all to depend a little more on providence , and to apply our selves more earnestly to him that rules the seas , and the winds at his pleasure , and after there was a full and visible experiment made of the steadiness of him , on whose mind seas nor storms could make no impression , then god commanded the winds , and rebuked the seas , and after that first rub , all our affairs were so conducted , that every thing succeeded , beyond our hopes , i had almost said , beyond our vvishes . an orderly march of a friendly tho' foreign army , an unstained victory , an overturning of that which had design'd all our ruine , by their own counsels and practices , a sinking of heart and a giddiness of head among them , made the way smooth . then we saw that success , in its turn , had as little power to exalt , as misfortunes had to depress a soul , raised above both . an abandon'd nation sought for shelter to him , to whom the chief of them had before sought for relief . all men were left to the freedom that became such important deliberations , without any disturbance . neither violence nor threatnings were used , no not so much as the secret arts of practice or insinuation . some thonght there was a coldness of behaviour express'd on that occasion , that seemed too indifferent : but the directions of providence were depended on ; men were left to themselves , or rather to that invisible chain which encompasses and governs all things here below . we pass'd from the extremities of danger , to an entire establishment , without those intervals of confusion , that may be well look'd for in so great a turn . when we reflect on all this , and on what has happened since , which must be too present to our thoughts to need any further enlargement , have we not reason to conclude , that god loved our nation ; and that because he has loved us , he has set such a king over us ? indeed it is much easier to observe , how god has loved us , than to find out the reason of his doing it , when we look at our selves , at what we were then , and what we have been ever since , and continue still to be , we can hardly give our selves any good account of those distinctions of providence , in which we have had so large a share . it is true , our religion , our doctrines , our worship , and our constitution are pure : but those we owe to the last age , and to the laws then made about them . all that belongs to us from them , is the reproach of corrupting our selves under such advantages : and our refining upon the immoralities that are but too common to mankind at all times , by the profanations and impieties of the present age. a new species of wickedness , that perhaps has never appeared with such impudence , and in such bold instances as among us ; and yet god has loved this nation . we must without any compliment acknowledge , it is not for our sake , for any worth or previous merit in us : but we may allow our selves to hope , that tho' we have no title to this love , and that it did not find us worthy of it , yet it will have those effects on us , that may engage us to answer its design , so far at least that we may not quite forfeit it . who knows the secrets of god's counsels , or what lies hid under all that train of extraordinary circumstances that we have seen ? whether we are at last to be reformed by them , and to be made the instruments of spreading the light of the gospel in its purity , to other nations , as we have been already honoured to be the instruments in this glorious reign , to give the affairs of europe another face , a truer balance , and the prospect of a firmer establishment ? for let the men of envy and ill-nature look thro' our whole history , and see where they can find , in any age since we were a nation , that we appear'd with so much glory , and made so great a figure , not only over our neighbourhood , but over the whole vvorld , as we do in this reign . this disposes a man to hope , that the whole designs of heaven are not yet accomplished : but that what we have seen is a noble pledge of somewhat further , that is yet hid in the counsels of god , but is to break out in due time . there is no need of great meditation , of much searching into history , and a depth of thought , to comprehend this , that good and bad princes are among the chief instances , in which the love or anger of heaven do discover themselves . what greater blessings can be hoped for on earth , than from the reign of princes , that have in them the true elevations of greatness , tempered with the bowels and compassions of good nature ; that are faithful observers of their promises , and are severe lovers of truth ; that not only maintain the sacred regards that are due to equity and justice , but do generously reward those whom merit distinguishes , how little soever they may press forward themselves , being as modest as they are deserving . princes , i say , who treasure up the services of their people , and surprise them with such rewards as become royal minds : so that the fortunes of their subjects are owing to the value they set on them , without those abatements that will always be made in the acknowledgment s , when importunity or intercessions are thought to have a large share in the success . a prince , who observes well and thinks much , who descends oft to the equalities of friendship with his subjects ; who hears the petitions of the oppressed , and hearkens to the suggestions of the wise and good ; a prince , who has the just and noble ambition of meriting fame and glory , without the troublesome vanity of shewing it ; who deserves all the returns of duty and gratitude from his people , without being fond of hearing or seeing it express'd , tho' in the highest forms of a just magnificence ; who is satisfied with this , that it is apparent what all men must think , tho' it is not easie to them to find out the properest methods of setting that forth ; which sometimes may shew greater , when surprize does so fill the mind , that men must be silent , because they feel that language is not copious enough to furnish suitable expressions to such an overcoming joy ; such a prince as this , will still be owned as one of the best gifts of heaven . forced rhetorick , and hired panegyricks lie thick in the lives of some princes who have deserved them the least . perhaps commodus had as many flatterers , as his incomparable father had silent admirers . the best princes are those who feel the pleasure of making their people happy most sensibly , and yet are uneasie and in pain , when in compliance with what is not only decent but almost necessary on solemn occasions , they submit to hear it acknowledged , tho' in strains far below the dignity and majesty of the subject . but the happiness of good government is then best felt , when set in opposition to all that train of blood and cruelty , of injustice and rapine , of a dissolution of morals , and a scorn of religion that blacken a bad reign . princes who have a wrong set of mind , wrong notions of government , and worse of religion , who are corrupted by their own principles , and more by the power that they suffer others to have over them , are apt to grow to excesses that are as insufferable to mankind , as they themselves are incapable of cure. accidents , how unusual soever , cannot reform them , they grow rather the worse for them . justinian the second , delivered himself up to tyranny and to favourites ; to whom he gave such an unbounded authority , that his nearest relations felt a large measure of it , and that in barbarous instances . he was carried so far , as to deliver constantinople to them to be a scene of horrour and massacre . such a pitch in cruelty animated the world against him : he was judged incapable of government . he had a mark set on him indeed , but he was sent to live in exile , where he continued ten years . two emperours reigned in that interval ; discontents arose at last , and a proper season appear'd for him to attempt again . a great party of justinianites was formed in constantinople , who invited him over ; when he crossed the sea , a storm had well nigh saved that effusion of blood that was occasiond by his restoration . one about him ventur'd in that extremity , to suggest to him that he should vow , that if god would deliver him from that imminent danger , he would pardon all his enemies : but so fierce a thing is a savage tyrant , that even under all those fears , he could not be softned for one single minute , but said , may i perish in this storm , if i ever pardon one of them : he was as good as his word . after his party had made him master of the empire , he discharged his first fury on those who had possessed the throne : he made two of them to be brought to him ; he had the brutality to trample on their necks , repeating these words of the psalmist , thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder : and after some other inventions of infamous usage , he put them cruelly to death ; tho' they had let him live , when he was in their power . next , he gave scope to his rage against all those who had been concern'd in the revolution ; both they and their children were destroy'd , without either mercy or the forms of justice : and because he had been ill used in the place of his exile , the country now inhabited by the crim-tartars , he resolved to destroy , or to use a modern word , to execute the whole country . his army thought they had obeyed his cruel commands , when they had murdered all , both men and women : they indeed spared the children ; they thought they could not be within their orders ; they might be sold for slaves , or trained up to war. they were bloody enough , but not to the pitch of a tyrant's cruelty . he resolv'd to satiate his revenge , even with the blood of innocents ; and ordered them all to be shipt and brought to him . they were upwards of seventy thousand . a storm fell upon them , they all perished in the euxine , where they found a milder fate than was prepared for them : this gave him great joy , because they had all perished ; it had been greater , if he had glutted his own eyes with so inhumane a sight ; but the pleasure lasted not long ; he had now raised all mankind against him , his own army abhorr'd him . the second revolt ended more tragically ; they were not then contented to stigmatize him as before , both he and his son were cruelly put to death . this meditation may seem to go too far from the joyfulness of the present occasion ; but perhaps nothing can make us feel it so sensibly , as the remembring that we have been deliver'd from , and the considering what might have been the consequences of a fatal relapse . it remains that we look at the ends of government as they are express'd by the queen in my text. the two great ones are in these words , with relation to god , to be king for the lord thy god , and with relation to the people , to establish them for ever : then follows the standing maxims of a good king , in the course of his administration , to do judgment and justice ; to execute law , to punish and reward , leaving the severer part to just and impartial judges , and taking the nobler one of rewarding , under his own care and management . to be king for the lord his god , is plainly to govern in god's stead : to consider power and authority as a derivation from him , which will be then best applied , when the first and chief of the princes cares is , to maintain and raise the honour of religion . solomon began his reign with the executing david's designs , and the employing his treasures , in building a temple of that glory and magnificence , that it may be justly reckoned among the wonders of the world. this was suitable to natural religion , and more particularly to that dispensation then instituted by god ; which was to have its last finishing , in this great structure , and in the exact observance of all those rules and orders that had been settled by david . in all this , he was to reign for the lord his god , to reduce the people that was so fond of outward state and solemnity , that they were thereby much disposed to idolatry , and to make them delight the more in the worship of god , by such a compliance with their inclinations . but the chief instances in which he was to rule for the lord his god , were the recommending piety and holiness by his own example , and the encouraging it by his authority . his prayer in dedicating the temple , gives a noble instance of the impressions that religion had made upon his own mind . certainly those who reckon the title of defender of the faith one of the peculiar glories of the crown , will apply their thoughts with a particular zeal to every thing that may promote religion , both in their own dominions , and out of them . the decencies as well as the solemnities of the worship of god , will not be thought below their care. but above all things , the contempt and scorn of sacred matters , is that against which they will turn their indignation with the warmest zeal , and against those who do , as it were , attack heaven , and make war upon it , who study to render religion as contemptible to others , as they have made it look to themselves . what prince cou'd suffer a subordinate magistrate under him , who should bear with all the affronts put on majesty , as long as the lower respects due to himself were observed . this may teach them with how just a zeal they should punish those bold attempts against heaven , tho' made by some who pretend to zeal and affection to themselves . such persons instead of supporting the throne , pull it down , by engaging heaven against all that they undertake . it is a degree of compliance with thei● wickedness , to be pleased with them , to trust them or to shew them favour . but it is not enough not t● seem to be of the side of those who fight against god or to abett them . princes who rule for god , enter into all the true concerns of religion , tho' not indeed into the passions and violences of those who espouse it : while they check these , they will promote the other in the most effectual manner . an unblemish't pattern set by themselves in the purity and probity of their own deportment , will give the fullest authority to all their other designs . next to their persons , their chief care will be the reforming of their court and houshold , and the letting it appear that vertue and religion are reckoned among the first and most indispensible qualities of those who may pretend to favour : and that vice and impiety are insuperable barrs in the way to it . princes who govern so , that they rule for god , may justly expect that he will watch over them and protect them : that he will make their crown sit sure and easie , and their thrones safe and fix'd under them . the second design for which such kings are raised up , is , because god loves their people , that by their means they may be established for ever , that is , in the jewish phrase for a long time . a happy tempering of government at home , a subduing of enemies abroad , and a ballancing of neighbours so equally , that none of them may grow beyond their pitch , are the surest methods for arriving at a fixed establishment . we were so shaken at home , that the foundations of our government seem'd to be undermined ; not only by open and violent attacks upon liberty and property , but likewise by the more cover'd , tho' no less dangerous invasions , made under the pretences of law , but against the plainest intentions of it . colours were oft given to excuse that , which in it self carried such a face of injustice , that without those masks , it could not have passed upon a free people . success in some of these attempts encouraged the contrivers to a further prosecuting of them ; so that there was scarce any part of our law left , which those harpies had not touch'd , and by touching defil'd . the happiness of this reign is , that in it all those attempts made on law and liberty , have been stigmatiz'd , as they well deserv'd to be , but with such mildness towards those who had offended , hurried on in the croud , or betray'd by their fears , that those who understand not how boundless a thing royal clemency ought to be , have , from thence , pretended to infer , that the not punishing offenders , was a confession , that their actings were legal and innocent : but a government that was merciful as well as just , was as gentle in punishing past : offences , as it intended to be exact to provide against the like for the future . the laws have been fortified by new explanations , which assure us of their true meaning . these have deliver'd us for the future , from the practices of those corrupters ▪ of justice , and enemies to liberty ; nor is this all , but where our ancient constitution seem'd defective , and had not guarded enough against the fraud of sycophants , it has been fortify'd by the addition of further securities , which as buttresses were judged necessary to support the fabrick . the bringing matters on the other side of the sea , to juster proportions , the raising of some depressed princes , and the limiting others that were over-grown , has laid the fears that the world had fall'n under , of being overpower'd by a new monarchy , and has provided for our own quiet , by stopping the progress that was made upon our neighbours , by which we have secured to our selves , all the returns of gratitude , acknowledgment , and dependence , that can be expected in such cases . both ancient and modern writers have thought that theodosius conquering maximus , and restoring valentinian the second , not only his own share of the empire , but to gratian's likewise , was a subject fit for rhetorick : yet that cost him but one campaign , and in it there were only two days of action , neither the charge nor the danger were extraordinary . besides , that it was a just gratitude to gratian's memory , who had raised him to a partnership with him in the empire , to revenge his death , and to restore his brother . how much juster is the panegyrick ! when we see a prince in a course of many years carry on a war thro' infinite dangers , and at an inestimable charge , and that only to preserve the states of neighbouring princes , without any other advantage , but the pleasure of having protected the oppressed , and of having secured the neighbourhood ; not reserving any one place , either as a pledge upon his allies , or an encrease of dominion to himself . in all ages princes have been ready to assist their neighbours with auxiliary troops , and sometimes with hired armies ; but it is the peculiar glory of this age , that we see a king , who has maintain'd a long war , led the armies , and exposed himself to innumerable hazards , only to maintain others in their right . if this adds nothing to his crown , yet as it makes it fit the firmer , so it must be acknowledged , that it makes it shine the brighter : the gems of it have a peculiar lustre , a glory of which former ages cannot boast . this is indeed to answer that character to which all princes pretend , how few soever of them study to deserve it , of being god's representatives , and vicegerents , who takes pleasure in delivering the oppressed , setting him at liberty from him that puffeth at him . thus we see what are the two great ends of government , as they are set forth by this southern queen : next let us view the measures to be kept in the administration ; to do judgment and justice . the generosities as well as the severities of government , are believed to be implyed in these two . the rigour of punishment being the harder part , not so natural to minds of the best mold , is to be left to the persons of that robe , who ought to be so chosen , that they be men fearing god , hating gifts , and eschewing covetousness . they minister in the less acceptable part ; and to them it ought to be left , except when the interposition of a just mercy softens the rigour of strict justice . i say a just mercy , for there are mercies that are cruel . when upon false suggestions , blood is cover'd , or encouragement is given to enormous criminals , when they have the hopes of favour , especially when they see that it may be purchased , this will soon dissolve the strength as well as the order of societies . princes , by so doing , render themselves , in some sort , accessary to all the crimes that happen to be committed afterwards , by those whom , thro' a feebleness of grace , they have rescued from deserved punishment . judgment is the more acceptable part . the branches of this are the distributing of trusts and rewards , the delivering the oppressed , and the relieving the necessitous , beginning at those who are brought low by a heavy share in common calamities , especially those of war , which entitle them to more special degrees of the prince's favour and bounty . there is in all this such a shadow of divinity , that in it lies the noblest part of a king's prerogative . it is not he but the law that punishes the bad ; but the distinguishing , the employing , the honouring and rewarding of those who deserve well of him and the publick , is singly in him . all must owe this only to the bounty of the prince ; yet the whole is a trust from heaven ; and those who rule for god and the good of their people , will manage this , as knowing that they must answer it to the king of kings . this subject is too tender to be enlarged on by any person below that high dignity , let us then hear the resolutions of a good , as well as a warlike king , when he found himself setled on the throne , to which his son had , no doubt , a particular regard . i will behave my self wisely in a perfect way : i will walk within my house with a perfect heart : i will set no wicked thing before mine eyes , a froward heart shall depart from me : i will not know a wicked person . who so privily slandereth his neighbour , him will i cut off ; him that hath a high look , and a proud heart , will i not suffer ▪ mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land , that they may dwell with me : he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me : he that worketh deceit , shall not dwell in my house : he that telleth lies , shall not tarry in my sight . i add not the words that follow , for they seem too severe for the milder state of the gospel : i will early destroy all the wicked of the land : there would be little occasion for this , if the former resolutions were exactly maintain'd : kings have a dialect peculiar to themselves ; they will understand one anothers language , and penetrate into their thoughts ; therefore i will not presume to add to these words either paraphrase or inferences . but now having looked over all that compass of thoughts , to which this noble devotion of the royal traveller led us : it remains that we conclude , in turning the whole to solemn adorations , and to the celebrating the goodness of god both to king and kingdoms . our hearts are now so full of joy , and our mouths so full of praise , that these will inflame us to hallelujahs , equal , if not to the occasion , for what can rise up to that ! yet to our strength , which will naturally carry us to the highest transports , the loudest acclamations , and the perfectest harmony that we are capable of . this will go easily ; we can hardly restrain our selves from it : our thanksgivings must go further . we must study to express them in more valuable , as well as more lasting instances . let us remember and pay all the vows that we made to god in our days of fasting and prayer : let us now resolve to live as a nation deliver'd and redeem'd of god , and blessed with the most special favour of heaven : let us walk suitably to that light , and to those advantages that we enjoy beyond all other nations . under god , the fountain of our life , as well as the giver of our peace , let us make all the humblest returns of duty and gratitude , of fidelity and zeal , to our great deliverer . let us continue our most earnest prayers , as well as our highest thansgiving to god for him . i will not suggest so melancholy a thought , as the change in solomon's reign : the difference between its bright beginning and dark conclusion . none , how great , or how wise soever , are so established in the ways of vertue , as to be above prayers , and beyond temptations . let us all therefore pray that god may long preserve the king whom he has set over us , and the peace that by his means is procured to us . may his reign of peace be as glorious , as his course in war has been , but of a much longer continuance . may he be long the delight of his people , the arbiter of europe , the patron of justice , and the maintainer of right all the world over . may the nation still flourish , and the church be ever glorious , by his conduct and care : and may he be as happy in the love of his subjects , as he has made them safe under his protection . to conclude , in a devotion dictated by a royal , as well as an inspired author . the lord hear thee in the day of trouble , send thee help from his sanctuary , grant thee according to thine own heart , and fulfil all thy councels . the lord fulfil all thy petitions . we will rejoyce in thy salvation . now we know that the lord saveth his anointed : he will hear him from his holy heaven . and we will remember the name of the lord our god , for we are risen , and stand upright . o lord save the king. and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswel . reelections upon a libel lately printed ; entituled ; [ the charge of socinianism against dr. 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . the church history of ethiopia ; wherein , among other things , the two great splendid roman missions into that empire are placed in their true light ; to which are added an epitome of the dominican history of that church . and an account of the practices and conviction of maria of the annunciation , the famous nun of lisbon . composed by michael geddes , d. d. chancellour of the cathedral church of sarum , 8 vo . mr. whitefoot's discourse of charity , on 1 peter 4. 8. mr. wharton's 14 sermons before a. bp sancroft , in 1688 , 1689. with the author's life . dr. john conam's sermons , in 2 volumes . published by dr. williams , now lord bishop of chichester . the fathers vindicated : or animadversions on a late socinian book , entituled . [ the judgment of the fathers touching the trinity , against dr. bull 's defence of the nicene faith. ] by a presbyter of the church of england , 8 vo . dr. william ●● tram's 20 sermons . published by dr. gardener , now ld. bp. of lincoln . the present state of germany , written in latin by the learned samuel puffendorss , under the name of severinus de monzabano veronensis . made english and continued by edmund bobun esquire , 8 vo . four volumes of archbishop tillotson's sermons . published from the originals by ralph barker d. d his graces chaplain . a commentary on genesis , exodus , and leviticus , by the r. r. symon , lord bishop of ely , in three volumes , 4 to . a map of the diocess of canterbury , with an alphabetical table of all the rectories , vicariges , curacles , peculiars , chappels and desolate churches in the said diocess , with the first fruits . drawn by the r.r. dr. john williams , ld. bp. of chichester . in the press a fifth volume of his grace , archbishop tillotson's sermons . published by his chaplain dr. barker . a second vol. of mr. h. wharton's sermons before a. bp. sancroft , in the year 1690. [ which with the first vol. lately . published , are all the preached . ] primitive christianity : or the religion of the ancient , christians in the first ages of the gospel . in three parts , by william cave , d. d. the fifth edition , 8 vo . a new account of india and persia in eight letters , being nine years travel , begun in 1672. containing a description of the countries , together with the natural history of vegetables ; minerals , jewels , and also a collection of coins and weights usual in those places of trade , by john fryer , m. d. cantabrig . scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria , facili & pers icud methodo digesta . pars altera . qua plusquam .... ▪ scriptores novi , tam edi● i quam manuscripti recensentur prioribus plurima adduntur ; breviter aut abscure dicta illustrantur ; recte asseria vindicantur . accedit ad finem cujusois saculi conciliorum omnium tum generalium tum particuliarium historica notitia . ad calcem vero op● ris dissertationes tres , ( 1. ) de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis incerta aetatis . ( 2. ) de libris & officiis ecclesiasticis gracorum . adjecti sunt indices utilissimi scriptorum & concitiorum alphabetico-chronologici . studie & labore gulielmi cav● . s. t. p. ganon . windesoriersis . fol. * this book will be finished in hillary . term next , ( or easter term at farthest ) and is intended to be published by subscription , with advantage to the buyer . propo●●●● will be shortly published . or sometime before the book will be extant . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30451-e200 william prince of orange , gaspar de coligny , admiral of france . una morientis ad deum vox , miserere popish , grot. annal. lib. 4. rhinotmel . cedrenus , theophanes . psalm 101. psal. 21. a sermon preached before the queen, at white-hall, on the 16th day of july, 1690, being the monthly-fast by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 62 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30434 wing b5892 estc r21629 12683283 ocm 12683283 65711 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30434) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65711) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:9) a sermon preached before the queen, at white-hall, on the 16th day of july, 1690, being the monthly-fast by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 34, [2] p. printed for ric. chiswell, london : 1690. advertisement: p. [1]-[2] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng fast-day sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion publish'd by her majesty's command . a sermon preached before the queen , at white-hall , on the 16 th . day of iuly , 1690. being the monthly-fast . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london , printed for ric. chiswell at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , mdcxc . the bishop of salisbury's fast-sermon before the queen . a sermon preach'd before the queen , at white-hall , &c. psal. lxxxv. ver. 8. i will hear what god the lord will speak , for he will speak peace unto his people , and to his saints : but let them not turn again to folly. in all the various turns of david's life , we find him neither so much lifted up with success , nor depressed with misfortune , that he went off from that confidence in god , which was his basis , and on which all his hopes rested ; when he was beset with ten thousands of people that had compased him round about , he was not afraid , but laid himself down in peace and slept , for it was god only that made him to dwell in safety : and when his afflictions grew so high , that once his own people spake of stoning him , yet even then when he had fainted , unless he had believed to see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living , he encouraged himself in the lord his god : and when a happy reverse of his affairs raised him to a vast elevation , and a series of great successes covered him with so much glory , that all his enemies did fall or fly before him ; this change of his condition wrought no change in his mind , unless it were to the better , he imploying the hours of that tranquillity which he had procured to himself , and to his people , in composing this book of psalms , in which by a happy intermixture of the two charmingest things in the world , poetry and musick , he studied to raise in himself and in his people , the loftiest thoughts of god , and the most grateful acknowledgments of his mercies that was possible . there is somewhat in misfortune and affliction that gives men naturally a cast towards religion and devotion . for , the mind being driven in upon it self , and forced to think much , if it is apt to be overcharged with melancholy , then it encreases its trouble by severe thoughts , drawn from the considerations of religion ; but if it is naturally gay and cheerful , then it entertains it self with such a pleasant prospect of hope , as religion proposes . thus it is so common to all men in trouble to look towards god , that unless the mind is strongly fortified against those impressions , they will then break in upon it . but the charms of ease and prosperity , of greatness and glory , do soon deface all those good thoughts , which arise out of blacker circumstances ; the mind stays no more within it self , but is softened with pleasures , and dissipated with business or folly , and retains neither its former wise thoughts nor good resolutions ; yea , that very devotion which was ones sanctuary and relief in the evil day , becomes matter of raillery in the daies of mirth and gaiety . how different from all this was this great king , who though he was raised from a low condition to an high dignity , which often brings a giddiness over weak minds , that cannot bear such an unlookt-for progress in their fortunes , and that extraordinary merits , a high courage , a wise conduct , and great vertues made , that his advancement might be considered , as the effect as well as the reward of his worth ; yet he ascribes all his deliverances , all his victories , and all his glory , wholly to the goodness of god , and to his great designs , in which he was employed as an instrument , that how glorious soever it might be , was yet only an instrument in the hands of that eternal mind that raises up and uses all persons in subserviency to those ends , for which all things were made , and do still subsist . in these his raptures he did not think it would derogate from his glory , to acknowledg , that he did not trust in his bow , neither did his sword save him , but that it was god that had saved him from his enemies , and had put them to shame that hated him ; that god was his refuge and strength ; that vain was the strength of man ; that a king was not delivered by the multitude of an host , nor was a mighty man delivered by much strength ; that god was his deliverer , and his shield , in whom he trusted , that subdued the people under him that gave salvation to kings , and that delivered david his servant from the hurtful sword . the conquests and the treasures of david are perhaps , objects which strike the minds of some princes , while his courage and his wisdom raise a nobler ambition in others . but alas , shall his piety and devotion have no force to work on great minds , raised to great dignities , who , how much soever they may be exalted above the rest of mankind , yet still in comparison to god , and when put in the ballance with him , they are altogether lighter than vanity . what a new face would the world put on , if it were governed by princes of such a temper , as appears in david , when he composed this psalm , of which my text is a part . he begins it with a grateful remembrance of the deliverances of former times , and particularly of their being redeemed out of the bondage their fathers suffered in the land of egypt . lord , thou hast been favourable unto thy land , thou hast brought back the captivity of iacob , thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people , thou hast covered all their sin , thou hast taken away all thy wrath , thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness of thine anger . these are both acknowledgments of past mercies , and encouragements to hope for a return of the like blessings , since such extraordinary favours were marks of a particular care and kindness that seemed to watch over them . from these he proceeds to an earnest intercession for the people , who it seems were then under signal characters of god's displeasure : turn us , o god of our salvation , and cause thine anger towards us to cease : wilt thou be angry with us for ever ? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations ? wilt thou not revive us again , that thy people may rejoyce in thee ? shew us thy mercy , o lord , and grant us thy salvation . words of great tenderness , that express both a deep sense of god's anger , and a most earnest desire of being again restored to his favour ! after these comes my text , which carries in it a poetical allusion to the consulting of the cloud of glory , which was between the cherubims , and to the receiving answers from it , upon all critical occasions . david turned his thoughts from all the other views , he might have , to this , i will hear what god the lord will speak , that so he might depend wholly on the assurances that he should receive of god's favour , upon the repentance and prayers of the people ; and in consideration of god's covenant with them , he knew the answer would be peace ; which being the form of salutation in those ages , among friends , imported an intire reconciliation . so that by speaking peace , is to be understood an assurance of god's love and favour to his people , and to his saints ; that is , to the people that was sanctified , and dedicated to the service of god by so many federal rites . the words that follow are capable of different rendrings , either thus , to his saints , and to such as turn not again to folly , or , and they shall not turn again to folly ; or as it is in our translation , and let them not turn again unto folly . the lxx . interpreters differ much more , but the enlarging on any account of those various rendrings , would require too long and too dry a discourse for a day of this kind . folly in scripture stands often for atheism and impiety ; the fool has said in his heart , that there is not a god. sometimes for idolatry , there being no instance of folly that is more extravagant , than the giving divine honours to the works of mens hands , or to the fictions of their vain imaginations : but most commonly the irregularities of vice are set forth in scipture under this notion , to shew how contrary they are to all the principles of true reason that are in our natures . the words being thus opened , lead me to speak to these three heads . i. that the great security and happiness of a nation depends on its being at peace with god , and in his favour ; and that its greatest danger and misery arises out of god's anger and displeasure . ii. that therefore it is necessary to use most earnest and fervent prayers , for removing god's anger , and for the procuring his favour : and that our great encouragements to this , are the remembrance of past deliverances , and the consideration of the attributes of god , who is naturally gracious and merciful . iii. that a nation which would secure to it self the continuance of god's favour , and of all the blessings that accompany it , must above all things take care of not relapsing into vice and idolatry , ungodliness and atheism . to return : the greatest security and happiness of a nation , depends on its being at peace with god , and in his favour : and its greatest danger and misery arises out of god's anger and displeasure . either this is true ( let our scoffers make it the subject of their profane mirth as much as they will ) or there is nothing true in all religion . if god is infinitely wise and perfect , and if he made the world , which they pretend to own , then certainly he still takes care of it : for no body can deny a providence , that does not likewise in his heart deny a god , and a creation . the prejudices against providence arise chiefly from the narrowness of our minds , that cannot conceive how one being can have an extended and universal care of all things : but is not the prejudice of a blind man against the possibility of seeing , as well grounded ? for how extravagant must this appear to him , that through so small a passage as the pupil of the eye , such a vast variety of objects should enter at once , and open themselves within the body of the eye without confusion , and there be represented to us in their just figures , with their distance from us , and from one another ; and in their colours , which he cannot understand neither , and that thus at a great distance we can reason and judge of things : to one that pe●ceives nothing but by touch , this will appear very unconceivable . if then the good disposition of an organ raises one man so far above another , that he cannot apprehend how such an extent of perception is possible , it is a most unreasonable thing to conclude against any perfection in the divine mind , because it is beyond our compass of thought . the other prejudice against providence seems a little better grounded , which is , that in the government of the world there is such an irregularity , that it cannot be supposed to flow from a good and a wise being : but this is likewise an effect of the shortness of our prospect , we seeing only things that are before us , but not being able to guide our eye further to the end of the scene , nor to what revolutions or catastrophes are abiding those who at present seem covered with success and glory . but if we believe god to be the infinitely pure and holy , we must likewise believe that he loves those that are truly good , and are conformable to his own nature , and that he has an aversion to those who are contrary to it , and that are defiled and impure : for the principle of self-love that is natural to every being , makes it love such as resemble it , and hate such as are in an opposition to it ; not by a hatred of anger and fury , which is the effect of passion and disorder , by a hatred which arises out of the contrariety of nature that is between them . it is then , as certain as that there is a god , that he is perfectly pure and holy , and that by consequence such nations as are vertuous and innocent , that are neither false nor cruel , vicious nor dissolute , must be more acceptable to him , and more constantly protected by him , than those that are corrupted by sensuality and luxury into all the degeneracies of humane nature , and into a scorn of religion and vertue . but though it is certain , that such debauched nations are under the divine displeasure , yet as to the properest time , and the suitablest circumstances , in which god will pour out his indignation upon them ; and as to the ballancing of the sins of one nation against another , and the delivering one over to be plagued by another , till the one is purged , and the other has filled up the measure of its iniquities , those are secrets lodged in that infinite mind , into which our sight can carry us but a very little way . upon the whole matter , if there is a god that made the world , he governs it ; and if he is wise and holy , he must govern it so as to favour the good , and to hate the wicked . if any object to this , the long-flourishing of the turkish empire , and the strange progress and success of mahometism , the answer is plain enough , that the eastern christians were so far degenerated from all that is pure and noble in the christian religion , that they were become a reproach to it , and therefore god has delivered them up into so long a captivity , and has rewarded the temperance , the justice , and the aversion to idolatry , that are among the mahometans , with so long a course of prosperity . if the reign of some princes , that have broken through the faith of oaths and treaties , and through all the sacred'st rules of justice and mercy , has hitherto had a course of success and glory , to which we find nothing that can be compared in history since augustus's days ; yet even to this it must be said , that we can form no true judgment of it till we see to the end of it : and even this is only a personal success , for that the nation that is the scene of that prince's glory , may suffer as much under him , if not more , than it could have done from any enemy ; since all the protection that they enjoy under him is , that they are preserved from the impressions of others that they may be the entire prey of the lawless power , that devours them and all their substance , and employs it in the support of his injustice and cruelty . besides , the great decays of true religion among all those churches that carry the name reformed , may have required an exemplary chastisement to awaken and parifie them ; and the slow progress that they make in this , may have occasioned so long a continuance and encrease of glory in him whom god has made the rod of his anger for correcting them but when that end of providence is once fulfilled , we may then reasonably hope to see that persecutor , who is swelled up upon his success , become the object of as much scorn as he has been hitherto of flattery . but alas ! our impenitence and irreligion keeps off still that day , and our immoralities and vices do still feed his pride , and furnish him new matter of triumph and glory . in a word , nothing needs be further said for a fuller proof of this matter , than that those very sins that provoke the wrath of god , do likewise dissolve and corrupt all that is great or noble in human nature ; falshood dissolves the mutual confidences and union of a nation , without which it must act feebly and move irregularly , as a disjointed body . cruelty brings a barbarity on mens natures , which makes them incapable of prudent and wise counsels . sensuality takes away mens hearts , their courage , and their spirit . but above all things , a brutal impiety and scorn of religion cuts all the banks and fences of human society , and not only sets men loose to all their appetites and passions , by taking off all inward checks and restraints , but begets a sort of boisterousness and insolence in their tempers , so that they become incapable of order and conduct , and equally unfit both for council and execution . how much of all this belongs to us is but too visible ! would to god it were but a secret , and not too notorious and publick ! where is the ancient gravity and composure of behaviour that made a large part of the character of this nation ? where is the truth and fidelity which was formerly one of the distinctions of englishmen ? where is the good-nature and generosity that was the ornament of those that were nobly born ? where are even the decencies of religion , or of the worship of god ? what is become of the love of our country , and of its ancient government and liberty ? has not this shameful degeneracy of our morals brought us so low , that there is scarce virtue enough left , and men enough to be found , that have even a general tincture of it to save a nation ? sensuality has run many into such a deep arrear for vice , that they cannot be true neither to publick nor private engagements , and then imployments will be made the robberies of the publick , and vice will swallow up all that strength and treasure which should go to the support of the nation . men are pleased or displeased only as their vices are fed or starved : some pretend to be patriots that are so eminent for vice , that a government fixt , and strong enough to reform the nation , must throw them off as the scum and reproaches of it : for let those sons of belial say what they will , atheism and impiety are as destructive to a nation as they are to a church . what can secure a man's honesty , or give life to his industry ? what can cure all those diseases under which we languish , but the possessing mens minds with inward principles of religion , which will make them to become a law and a rule to themselves ? what can raise in men a generous love to their country , which is the root of all political virtues , to so high a degree as the principles of christian love and charity , the sense of an account to be given to god for all we do , and that noblest principle of all religion , the raising up our natures to become as like the divine being as possibly we can ; which will give us a zeal of doing all the good we can to mankind , and of being publick blessings to the age and place we live in . these are solid principles , upon which vertue is founded , and in these it finds a root , from which it receives a perpetual encrease . but if virtue has no other root but honour , which is a decenter name for pride or humour , there is no strength in this principle to resist a temptation that bears hard upon some other corrupt inclination , especially if one hopes that things may be managed with art and secrecy . but on the other hand , what can be desired to make a nation great and happy , but that which at the same time recommends it to the favour of god ? when the principles of truth and goodness , of sobriety and temperance , of mutual love and kindness , and above all , when an inward strictness in examining ones actions as in the sight of god , come to possess multitudes of men , then a nation may reckon it self safe and happy ; because as it comes under a kind and indulgent providence ; so it has a real strength from the vertues of every individual person , in whom those good qualities live . the world might be well and happily governed with a moderate proportion of understanding , if there were but a great deal of vertue under it . for if it were not for vice and falshood , which must be watched over carefully , there are not such mysteries in things , but that they may be easily master'd . here is then the root of all our evils on the one hand , and the remedy to them all on the other ; we have fallen from our ancient vertues , and our religion has not force enough to reform or restrain us ; we went easily into corruption , when great examples led and encouraged us to it . but we do not so easily recover out of it , though we have now as bright examples before us the other way ; but this has a contrary operation on depraved minds , and instead of making them love vertue & religion the better for the lustre with which it shines in the persons of those that govern us , many perhaps love the government the worse , because they apprehend that immorality and impiety will become more odious , less excused , and less protected . but a noble pattern set by princes , tho' it is a great thing in it self , yet it is not all that they owe to god , and to their people . it does indeed give them great advantages in reforming their courts , and their subjects , when it appears that they do not deny to others the freedoms of vice , that they may appropriate them to themselves ; and that what they do this way , is not a hypocritical affectation for advancing other designs , but that it is a genuine effect of their own vertues , a homage that they pay to god , and an effect of the love that they bear to their people . and we do not doubt but that every advance that is made in the establishment of the throne of those whom god has set over us , will be acknowledged by them in such returns of their zeal for god , as we find resolved on by david , that there eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land , that they may dwell with them , and that those who walk in a perfect way shall serve them ; but that froward and wicked persons , those that work deceit and tell lyes , shall not stay within their house , nor so much as in their sight . for as god will honour those that honour him , so he likewise expects that such as he has honoured in the sight of all the world , by so many repeated marks of his favour , should honour him not only in their own private deportment , but likewise in the sight of all their people : and how natural soever clemency may be to them , and how beautiful soever it may appear in them ; yet if milder methods cannot reform us , they must at last resolve even to cut off wicked doers from the city of the lord. then we may carry our hopes as far as we can do our wishes , when god is of our side , who commands the seas and winds , of which he has given us many and signal instances , and some of these very lately , who confounds the councils of the wicked , who sometimes takes both their understanding and their hearts from them , and at other times strikes them with such panick fears , that one man can chase a thousand of them ; and on the other hand , blesses those that depend on him , with happy circumstances , so that the frame of nature is of their side , and from those favourable appearances their courage is raised , and their spirits are animated so , that nothing can stand in their way . this is often the portion of those that fear god : for , to conclude all , as there is nothing that depresses and misguides men more than superstitious and false opinions of god and religion ; so there is nothing that does so raise and establish the mind in every thing that is great and noble as true principles of religion , which carry a man to the highest and best things , of which his nature and faculties are capable . and thus from a great variety of considerations it is plain , that the favour of god is the foundation both of the security & of the happiness of a nation . this then leads me very naturally to the second head , which is , that it is therefore necessary to use most earnest and fervent prayers for removing god's anger , and for the procuring his favour . this can be no indifferent thing , and therefore it is either to be neglected quite , as an empty dream ; or if there is any truth in it , we ought to use all possible means to compass it . if the favour of princes is pursued with so much application and industry , that all methods both good and bad are made use of for gaining it ; if a constant attendance , and all the arts of pleasing them , how costly or how abject soever , are taken for securing an interest in them , which perhaps will never succeed , or when gained may prove of small advantage , and may be quickly lost ; what do we make of our religion , if we own that we believe all these things to be true , and yet will be at no pains to procure to our selves or to our country an interest in them . can such cold devotions as ours are , that in the greatest part are only a compliance with custom , which we offer up to god without either attention or affection , give us a title to such invaluable blessings . we pursue all things with an earnestness of desire , and a strength of thought proportioned to the value that we set on them : and if we are cold and slack only in the matters of religion , when we over-doe every thing else , this shews that either we do not at all believe them , or that we do not at all value them . i know earnestness in prayer is one of the subjects of the profane mirth of our scoffers ; they cannot think that god is moved by our earnestness to depart from his own counsels , and therefore they think all fervency in prayer is a vain heating of the imagination to no purpose . but though it is certain that our importunities do not overcome god , though men are sometimes wearied out with them , and yield to them ; yet he commands us to pray earnestly , and he promises to reward our fervour in prayer , for this end , that the impressions of religion , and of our dependance on him , of our impotence without him , and of his goodness and bounty to us , may go deep in our minds . these are the springs of all religion and vertue ; and when these are strong in us , they govern us in all our actions . in fact it is certain that none are so powerfully and effectually subdued by the principles of religion , as those who are frequent & earnest in prayer . god haing made this the condition of bestowing his favours on us , not as it has an effect on himself , to soften and overcome him , but as it has an effect on us to make us serious and good : from hence it appears how reasonable a thing it is for us to pray often and fervently . and in this all good minds may be appealed to , that set themselves often to seek god by fasting and prayer , if they do not find the happy effects of it upon their minds : that earnest agitation of their thoughts , which is raised by fervent prayer , ends in an inward calm , ioyned with higher degrees of confidence of god , and upon it , a good temper of mind dwells upon them , their minds grow clearer , and their thought , brighter : whereas such as disuse secret prayer , come under a flatness and deadness in the matter of religion : it has no life within them , it gives them neither joy nor courage , zeal nor affection : nor is there any thing to which the visible decay of religion in this age is so much owing , as to the neglect of secret prayer ; which has prevailed so universally , that whereas in former times it would have passed for a strange thing , if a man had gone into any business without he had first said his prayers , it would now be thought ridiculous to hear that a man was retired to his prayers : and the using such earnest and tender expressions as we find here in this psalm , would pass for a mark of an enthusiast , or an hypocrite ▪ but let the world think and say what they will , it is by prayer that our souls ascend up to god , and draw down all blessings from him : this is that which removes his displeasure , and procures his favour ; and neither the abuse of it by hypocrites , nor the scorn cast upon it by atheists , can lessen its value in the sight of god , nor our obligation to it . to encourage us to it , we have the consideration of the nature and attributes of god : he is gracious , slow to anger , and ready to forgive : judgment is his strange work ; whereas mercy and compassion are natural to him . it is true , as he is the just and righteous governour of the world , he must punish when it is necessary , for the maintaining the order that he has established ; but yet he afflicts not willingly , nor grieves the children of men : and therefore we are sure , that upon our turning to him , our praying earnestly , and our repenting sincerely , he will turn from the fierceness of his anger . of this we are assured , both from his nature and attributes , and also from his promises ; and if those limited degrees of goodness that are in us bring us under a tenderness of heart and readiness to forgive such as seek to us , had they offended us ever so much , we have much more reason to assure our selves , that god will speak peace to us , upon our supplicating him as we ought to do . there is in this psalm another consideration that gives us great encouragement in our addresses to god for pardon , which is , that in former times , when his people had provoked him to deliver them up to captivity , he had , upon their repentance , forgiven their sins , turned away his anger , and brought again their captivity . and from those instances of his mercy in past-times , david does expect new proofs of it , as we may also do if we take the same method now which had such effects formerly : the nature and promises of god are still the same ; repentance and prayer have the same effect at all times . david did here encourage himself with the remembrance of the deliverance of the people out of egypt , when after a long course of oppression , god did with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm bring their fathers out of that bondage : and from that time downward , god had often heard them when they groaned under the yoke of oppressors , into whose hands he had deliver'd them for their sins ; but he had also raised up instruments , by whose means they were freed from the yoke they lay under . and from those signal instances of god's hearing their prayers , and being reconciled to them , they had reason to reckon , that the severities of his judgments , which at any time broke out upon them , were intended only for their reformation and correction . the whole old testament contains a series of history , made up of those varieties ; that people sinned , and were punished ; they repented and were delivered . in conclusion , their sins were such , that they were given up as a prey to the king of babylon , but after 70 years captivity , they were brought back , upon the prayers and intercessions that daniel and other good men put up to god , according to god's promises and to the time limited by the prophets . upon the perfecting of that deliverance under artaxerxes , they began to relapse into some of their old sins ; but ezra and nehemiah , who saw well what consequences these sins must have , and how they might be prevented , engaged them to an early and serious repentance , the good effects of which continued near 300 years : but then they corrupted themselves again , upon which they were delivered up into the hands of the kings of syria , who oppressed them severely , and studied to defile their temple , and to extirpate their religion : upon this they returned to god , and he raised up deliverers for them , in the persons of matthias and his sons the maccabees , in whose courage , conduct , and success , we see one of the beautifullest scenes that is in history . those wars did purge them quite from all that mad inclination that had been so long among them , to idolatry ; they flourished and had rest , about an hundred years , till they corrupted their morals again , and then they fell under the mischiefs of civil wars , which made way to their coming first under the tyranny of herod , and then under the roman yoke ; but under all that oppression they did not as they had done formerly , repent and turn unto god ; and tho' first st. iohn the baptist , afterwards our saviour himself , and his apostles after him , particularly s. iames the brother of our lord ceased not to call on them to repent , and threatned them with a final extirpation if they did it not ; yet this had no effect , except on some particular persons , the rest hardened themselves in their immoral ties and hypocrisies : they killed the heir , that the inheritance might be their own , according to the parable , and they stoned and slew the rest ; and they being so obstinate in their impenitency , that neither the calamities they lay under , nor the messengers sent them from god , could work on them ; the wrath of god at last came upon them to the uttermost , and in so terrible a manner , that their destruction is by much the most tragical piece of history . let us next observe in short , the history of the christian religion . it is an astonishing thing to see a doctrine , that by its rules carries men to the highest degrees of purity , and that received so great authority from all those miracles that accompanied the first opening of it to the world ; yet so soon depraved , even in the apostles days , by many false teachers and false christians ; this were an incredible thing , if the epistles of the apostles themselves were not full of it . but upon this , god delivered many of them up to the fury of the jews , and to the cruelties of nero ; but upon their repentance they were spared in the final destruction of ierusalem ; and though there were some particular instances of persecution under domitian and trajan , they passing for a sect of the jews ; yet after that they had a long peace of about 140 years continuance : in which time the christian religion did shine in the purity of their lives , who professed it , and did spread it self over the whole roman empire : and the instances of severity that were acted in a few places , gave the church the glory of many martyrs , while the rest were rather encouraged by their constancy , than terrified with their cruel deaths . the writers of those times do often make their appeals to the lives of the christians , to prove the purity of their doctrine : yet numbers are generally bad , and a long peace brings naturally with it , a softness on mens minds , together with a dissolution of their morals ; of which s. cyprian gives us a particular account , in terms that shew he did not flatter his side , nor the order of the church , to which he was so great an honour ; for he sets out the corruptions , as well of the bishops and clergy , as of the laity of his time , in a stile that is far from partiality . after this came persecution after persecution ; but these having the effect for which they were appointed of god , the church had again forty years peace . but it would offend weak minds , to hear the words in which eusebius sets forth the corruption that this brought on the church : then came the last persecution , which continued ten years with very little intermission , and with so excessive a fury , that in the succession of the persecutors , every one studied to out-do all that had gone before him . yet these repeated fires of their martyrs , kindling another fire in the minds of the christians , and setting them on to fastings and prayers , god did at last arise , and sent them a deliverer , from this island , constantine , who first gave them quiet and liberty , and then protection and favour , and then the christian religion shined with a new lustre of wealth and prosperity : but , alas , this was not so happy to it as that which the fires of the martyrs had given it . the church did soon degenerate , and the bishops of the chief sees fell into factions . the history of that time gives us but a sad viow of the governing men of the church . but yet even there we have a witness in favour of that religion that is beyond exception , i mean iulian , who tells his heathen priests , in his zeal for the restoring of paganism , how both priests and people ought to imitate the lives , the temperance , the gravity , and above all , the charity that was among the christians . but insensibly in the course of an age , christianity did so degenerate , that scarce any thing of the first purity and simplicity was left . great disorders , irreconcileable heats , and differences , and disputes , even about authority and precedence , tore the church , and exposed it to the reproaches of its enemies : and after that god had suffered that apostacy for a whole age , it drew at last a series of plagues upon them , that amazes every one that reads it . the western empire was over-run with an inundation of northern nations , that came so thick one after another , that whatsoever one had spared , seem to be only reserved to be destroyed by the next that came . in a word , the goths and vandals , and the hunns brought an unheard-of destruction along with them ; that was followed by plagues and famines , to so high a degree , that whole countries were almost dispeopled . the eastern empire was also long wasted by the goths and avares , and then by the saracens , and finally destroyed by the turks . in this island we received the christian religion very early : we had our martyrs as well as the other churches , and a particular simplicity of manners , which is remarked as the peculiar ornament of our clergy : but this did not last long , for there followed a vast corruption among all sorts of people , which is set forth very sincerely and pathetically , by a very good man that saw it , and lamented it , i mean gildas ; after that we lost both our religion and liberty , and fell under the saxon tyranny , than christianity got footing again among us , within an age and an half after that , but it was much allayed and debased ; yet , such as it was , it made a great progress , and produced some very good men , if we may believe bede . but the nation became rather more corrupt than ever , and then we were delivered over to the depredations , the burnings and cruelty of the danes , which continued at several reprises , for near two hundred years to be the plague of england . at last all was melted into one government , but then the nation became a scene of blood , what during the competitions to the crown , the barons wars , the wars with france , and those of the houses of york and lancaster . but to take a narrower view of the state of the protestant religion , both abroad in the world , and here in england , we shall find how often god , for the sins of those who carried that worthy name of reformed churches , but that were not worthy of it , has brought them very low ; and what sudden and unlook'd-for deliverances have again recover'd and restored them . upon the first opening of the reformation , all the world run into it . the corruptions and ignorance of popery , were things of which all men were so weary , that they with joy welcomed the light and the purity of the gospel : but in the multitudes that embraced it , there was a great mixture ; many came in only for the spoil , and threw off the yoke of all religion , as well as that of popery . but god punished this severely ; for though they were by much the superior force in germany , which was then the scene ; and were secretly favoured both by england and france , yet all their strength did melt away , and they dividing their forces , became an easy prey to charles the 5th , who got both their heads , the elector of sax , and the landgrave of hesse into his power , and made all the rest bend under him ; only the town of magdeburgh stood out against him : and in a course of five years success , the protestant interest was brought so low , that it was every where given for lost , when of a sudden , maurice of saxe , that had been the chief instrument of dividing the party , and of delivering it up to the emperor , gave matters so quick a turn , that the emperor was forced to run out of germany ; and he soon saw he could not hope ever to return to it , without granting the edict of passaw , under which security the protestant religion has subsisted there ever since . not many years after that a second storm arose , king edward died , and while queen mary persecuted and burnt the protestants here in england , france and spain fell under the ministry of two cardinals , who seeing that the way which they called heresy , was gaining ground every-where , under the shelter of the wars , they projected and effected a peace , in order to the extirpating of heresy ; but while this was in agitation , queen mary died : and soon after , the king of france was killed , and left that kingdom under the feebleness of a long minority : a deliverance sprung up also in holland , after many unsuccessful attempts , by a small company of fishermen , who seized on the brill , and from inconsiderable beginnings , falling happily ▪ under the conduct of a family of heroes , have grown up to be one of the powerfullest nations that any age has seen : here was the second crisis carried off . a third was , when the league of france was formed , for the extirpation of protestants , and that spain at the same time designed the conquest of england , upon which they reckon'd , that the war in the low-countries would soon come to an end : but all this was blasted , the armada of eighty eight was scattered and lost , the heads of the league were killed , and spain became so feeble , that those were its last efforts . in this age , from the year 1620 , for ten years together , the whole protestant interest was every-where sinking . the revolution of bohemia , and the reduction of hungary , raised the house of austria so high , that every thing that stood in their way , fell before them ; and all the attempts made to preserve germany , proved fatal to those who undertook it ; then holland was brought very low , by the loss of breda , and the breach among themselves occasioned by the arminian business ; the french protestants were by the reduction of rochel , brought to extremities ; england fell under a feebleness and dis-joynting at home , when of a sudden , the great gustavus with a small army broke through the whole austrian force , and restored the liberty of germany , and obliged france that needed his alliance to confirm the edicts in favour of the protestants ; so that storm went over , and the protestant religion was again as strong as ever . the next crisis was in seventy two , when the states were marked out , to be the first sacrifice ; but we were to have gone next , and tyranny and popery were every-where to be established : that union which had at first such an unlook'd-for success , had almost swallowed up holland , the inundation breaking in upon them with such a rapidity , that nothing could stand before it , till a young prince , who as he was the inheritor of the glory of four successive ancestors , every one of whom had lustre enough to have ennobled a whole race ; so was he designed by heaven , for a much greater harvest of triumph and glory ; till he , i say , stemmed this torrent by so small a handful at first , that it seemed a tempting of providence , to have hoped for success , where the force was so unequal . but his vertues , and his valour begot , first union at home , and then security abroad ; and tho' he could not all at once raise up their armies to imitate the pattern he set them ; yet , we now see , even in their late misfortune , with what a spirit of courage such a hero can inspire an army . this crisis went off likewise , and there appeared such characters of the protection of god over the man , whom he had made strong for himself ; and the state which was then so gloriously preserved , that all the world looked on this , as an essay of the great things that heaven design'd to the age , by that hand , whose first attempts proved so fortunate . the last crisis in which we still are , began in 85 , when within the compass of one year , popery was on the throne here in england ; it had likewise the palatinate brought under it , and the protestant religion was proscribed and persecuted , both in france and savoy . then the instruments of the pride and cruelty of the persecutor , reckoned that heresy was to be extirpated all the world over : there was indeed no visible hope left , but in him who had begun his carier with so much glory , and seemed marked out to be the common deliverer of europe , as well as the special blessing of all the churches of god. i shall not enlarge further on that , with the sense of which i hope all your hearts are filled , how ungratefully soever it may be opposed by some , whose designs , whatever their meaning may be , tend to the bringing us under french tyranny , and popish cruelty . when we also consider the special deliverances of this church , the critical time of henry the eighth's breaking with rome ; and of q. mary's death . queen elizabeth's glorious reign ; the discovery of the gunpowder-treason ; the long peace of eighty years with which this kingdom was blessed , to which there is not any thing that can be compared in our whole history ; the easy conclusion of a long and bloody civil war ; the first , and now the second preservation of ireland , with the surprising circumstances of both : what reason have we from all these to conclude , that as god has hitherto watched over us , and preserved us in so wonderful a manner , he will still continue to do it ? but this last deliverance of ireland must not be past over in general words . can we reflect on the many dangers to which that sacred life , on which all ours depend , in so signal a manner , was so lately exposed , without feeling a commotion within us , that is both melting and tender ? for though it is now past , we still tremble to think that it was once so near ; while a hand of heaven seemed so to lead the bullet , that though it was suffered to touch his anointed , yet could do him no harm . do not we look amazed on one another , when we think in what a state we had been , if it had gone deeper ; while he that received it , seemed to be the least concerned of all that beheld it . and thus while other princes take care of their own safety , and grow proud upon the glory that their subjects procure them ; he does not think the regal dignity bright enough , but as it takes a fresh lustre from military glory . but while we take leave humbly to complain , that he has so little regard to himself , we must with all thankfulness acknowledg , that this defect of care in him is fully supplied by the watchfulness of that providence , on which he does in so particular a manner depend ; if our glory has on another side received an eclipse , tho even on those less fortunate occasions we have seen particular instances of a watchful providence , while the winds changed to preserve and favour us ; and perhaps it would have been too great a provocation to pride and security , if we should have had two great victories at once . yet if we have failed at this time , what may not we hope from such an essay , but that angels watch over him , and that the head of angels covers him ? and that this retarding of our deliverance , and darkning of our glory , is but for a new reserve of triumph to him , whose scene of success is not compleat , till all that false shining , which has so long compared it self to the sun , is darkned ; and that not only england , but europe , is by his means delivered from all their fears and dangers . but how far soever such a subject may carry me , i must not suffer you to forget that which remains of my text , but let them not turn again to folly. i shall not dwell here upon so beaten a path , as the shewing you the madness and follies of vice. you have so many instances of so great force round about you to demonstrate this , that it is needless to enlarge upon the breaches that vice makes on mens persons , and their estates , on their reputation and courage ; it s wasting their spirits , and depressing their minds , are such visible things , and have shewed us so many wrecks on all hands , that we must needs see how just and reasonable it is to bring all these disorders under the denomination of folly. idolatry is also such a debasing the nature , both of god and of man , by which the idea's of god are brought so low , and our natures are so affronted , while we prostrate our selves before the works of mens hands , or the fictions of their minds , that this is also folly , and a folly of so strange a kind , that it is not easy to imagine that humane nature should be capable of it : but no folly is more extravagant than that of imagining that things were made , and are preserved by chance , or fate , without the directions of a wise and good being : and that either there is no god , nor maker of all things ; or if there is one , that he has abandoned the works of his hands , that he does not see through the thick cloud , that it is in vain to serve him , and that his wrath is but a word , made use of by crafty men to frighten fools . this is the language of scoffers , and a degree of folly beyond all others , even the venturing upon eternal misery , upon the maddest set of principles that ever were put together . these are the follies that we must guard against , lest if after god has delivered us once more , we should again relapse into them , and that then our latter end should prove worse than the beginning . if god should now according to the riches of his grace deliver us from all our enemies , and from the hand of all that hate us , and should establish that which he has wrought for us , and add to the settlement of his true religion , and the happy constitution both of church and state among us , a secure and honourable peace , a fullness of plenty , and a freedom of trade , and should carry the glory of our soveraigns so high , as to make them the arbiters of christendom , and the protectors of all protestants . if i say , after so great an accession of wealth and prosperity , of success and glory to us , we should then give our selves up to our vices , as if all our blessings were only intended to furnish out our luxury with all the variety of entertainments ; if we should grow proud of the ancient valour of our nation , while we degenerate from it our selves ; and by despising our neighbours , should both make them stronger , and our selves weaker ; if we should take up our animosities , as if we had only made a truce with one another , while we had a mighty enemy to deal with , and so would revive these follies , which god has by an interposition of so many providences called on us to forget ; if we of the church should forget all our promises , and resolve to yield nothing for the gaining of our brethren , but should let our minds rather be soured with the old leaven of bitterness and malice . if those who depart from us , should rather study to strengthen their party , than to hearken to the counsels of peace ; if those of a higher rank , should become swell'd with pride , or softned with voluptuousness ; if the clergy should become lazy , covetous , and ambitious ; and the whole nation should again break loose into open vice , and divide into parties and factions : but above all , if impiety and blasphemy , scoffing and atheism , should again be in vogue , and pass for wit and spirit , then upon so fatal an abuse of god's mercies , we should have reason to look for judgments as eminent , as such our ingratitude should be ; and that the return of wrath should be so heavy , that our portion should be to perish with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord , and from the glory of his power . but if we become so wise , and so good as to improve the deliverance that is already come to us , and those which we have in prospect , to the noble ends for which they are design'd by god , then we may expect to see an accomplishment of all the other blessings which david promises to himself , and to his people in this psalm , that mercy and truth should meet together , and righteousness and peace should kiss each other . that a spirit of truth , and honesty , and love , and charity , should run through the whole nation , and knit it altogether in one body ; that truth should become so natural to them , that like the growth of the earth , it should spring up of it self ; and that righteousness should like a dew from heaven , cover the whole land ; that god should bless them with every good thing , and that they should have a rich soil and fruitful seasons ; and that deliverances should be near or present at every return of danger , for preserving those that fear god ; and the top of all , that glory should dwell in their land : by which is to be understood that cloud of glory which was between the cherubins , and was the symbol of god's presence among them ; that is , that the true religion , with all the happy characters of god's favour , should be still continued among them , by which they were the glory of all lands , and all the nations of the earth were to be blest in them : this as applied to us , is , that god may establish and continue his true religion among us , that he may watch over , and preserve those whom he has set over us ; and that as their lives have been hitherto a series of wonders , so he may perfect that which concerns them , and bless the work of their hands ; and that the whole nation may return to its ancient honesty and vertue ; and that all differences and divisions may be composed , we being animated with one heart , and one spirit ; and that to all this , the blessings of peace and plenty may be joined : which god of his infinite mercy grant , through jesus christ our lord , amen . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswell . bishop burnet's sermon before the king and queen on christmass-day , 1689. on 1 tim. 3. 16. — his sermon of peace and union , nov. 26. 1689. on acts 7. 26. — his fast sermon at bow-church , march 12. 1689 / 90. on luke 19. 41 , 42. some remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the ancient churches of piedmont . by p. allix , d. d. 4o. geologia : or , a discourse concerning the earth before the deluge , wherein the form and properties ascribed to it , in a book intituled [ the theory of the earth ] are excepted against . and it is made appear , that the dissolution of that earth was not the cause of the universal flood . also a new explication of that flood is attempted . by erasmus warren , rector of worlington in suffolk . a private prayer to be used in difficult times . a thanksgiving for our late wonderful deliverance : [ recommended chiefly to those who have made use of the prayer in the late difficult times . ] a prayer for perfecting our late deliverance , by the happy success of their majesties forces by sea and land. a prayer for charity , peace and unity , chiefly to be used in lent. dr. tennison's sermon of discretion in giving alms , 12o. on psal. 112. 5. — his fast-sermon before the house of commons , iune 5. 1689. — his sermon concerning doing good to posterity . preached before their majesties at whitehall , on feb. 16. 1689 / 90. on psal. 78. 5 , 6. dr. wake 's lent-sermon before the queen , april 2. 1690. on 1 tim. 5. 22. — his easter-sermon before the lord mayor , 1690. on gal. 6. 10. — his sermon before the king and queen , may 4. 1690. on luk. 16. 25. bishop of chichester's fast-sermon before the king and queen , april 16. 1690. on prov. 13. 34. a new history of the succession of the crown of england . and more particularly from the time of king egbert , till henry the 8th . collected generally from those historians who wrote of their own times , and who consequently were the best witnesses and relators of the actions done therein . father parsons the jesuit's memorial for the intended reformation of england [ or destruction of her established church ] under their first popish prince . published from the very manuscript copy that was presented to the late king iames ii. and found in his closet . with an introduction , and some animadversions , by edward gee , chaplain in ordinary to their present majesties , 8o. a prayer for his majesties success in isis great undertaking for ireland . advertisements . there is newly printed , a large folio bible of a fair new roman letter , with annotations , and parallel scriptures or references ( some thousands more than are in the cambridg , oxford , or any london bibles yet extant . ) to which is annexed , the harmony of the gospels : as also a reduction of the iewish weights , coins and measures , to our english standards . and a table of the promises in scripture . in one intire volume , containing three hundred twenty five sheets , in good demy paper . proposed by the booksellers undermentioned , on these terms , viz. i. he that buys only one book , to pay twenty five shillings unbound . ii. he that buys six books , shall have a seventh gratis , which reduces the price to a guinea unbound . which terms are to continue until the first of september next : but after that , no seventh book will be allowed , nor a single book sold under twenty seven shillings unbound . richard chiswell , ionathan robinson , both in st. paul ' s church-yard . brabazon aylmer , against the royal exchange in cornhill . there is also newly published a book , intituled , censvra celebriorvm avthorvm , sive tractatus in quo varia virorum doctorum de clarissimis cujusque saeculi scriptoribus judicia traduntur . vnde-facillimo negotio lector dignoscere queat quid in singulis quibusque istorum authorum maximè memorabile sit , & quonam in pretio apud eruditos semper habiti fuerint . omnia in studiosorum gratiam collegit , & in ordinem digessit secundum seriem temporis quo ipsi authores flornerunt thomas pope-blount , anglo-britannus baronettus . cum indice locupletissimo . containing near two hundred sheets in folio , of a fair character and paper , ( the same as fasciculus rerum expetendarum , lately published ) printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . by whom , for the benefit and encouragement of gentlemen , it is propounded as followeth : i. that whereas the book is now sold for 18 s. in sheets ; whoever will come in as a subscriber , and pay to the said richard chiswell 16 s. and 4 d. shall receive . one perfect book in sheets . ii. whoever shall subscribe , or procure subscriptions , for six , shall have a seventh book gratis : so that he that takes this advantage , will have every book for 14 s. in sheets . iii. that this subscription-price shall continue to the first day of michaelmas-term next , and no longer : and after that , what remains of the impression , shall not be sold under 18 s. in sheets . 1. the impression is but small ; no more than five hundred printed . 2. the book is now compleatly finished , and ready to be delivered , in she●●● or bound . binding , two shillings plain . 3. book-sellers shall have the same allowance for their collecting subscr●●tions , as was made in the fasciculus rerum expetendarum . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30434-e220 psal. 3. 6. psal. 4. 8. 1 sam. 30. 6. psal. 14. 1. jer. 5. 21. & 10. 8. & 23. 13. news from france in a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french king and the court of rome : to which is added the popes brief to the assembly of the clergy, and the protestation made by them in latin : together with an english translation of them. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1682 approx. 70 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30395 wing b5839 estc r21875 12739754 ocm 12739754 93095 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30395) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 93095) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 376:13) news from france in a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french king and the court of rome : to which is added the popes brief to the assembly of the clergy, and the protestation made by them in latin : together with an english translation of them. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. innocent xi, pope, 1611-1689. ad archiepiscopos, episcopos, totumque clerum in regno galliae. english & latin. fall, james, 1646 or 7-1711. catholic church. assemblée générale du clergé de france. cleri gallicani de ecclesiastica potestate declaratio. english & latin. [2], 38 p. printed for richard chiswel ..., london : 1682. probably a revision of a letter from james fall. cf. clarke, t.e.s. a life of gilbert burnet, 1907, p. 529. written by gilbert burnet. cf. bm. errata: p. 38. advertisements: p. 38. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -france. church and state -france. regalia -france. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion news from france : in a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french king and the court of rome . to which is added , the popes brief to the assembly of the clergy , and the protestation made by them in latin , together with an english translation of them . london , printed for richard chiswel , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . m dc lxxxii . news from france : in a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french king and the court of rome . sir , in obedience to your commands , i send you herewith a copy both of the pope's last brief to the clergy , and of the protestation made by them . but i know these will not fully answer your expectation , nor satisfie your curiosity , unless accompanied with a more particular account of the state of that affair , such as a stranger who is not yet so happy , as to be let in to much of the conversation of this place , could pick up in so short a time . it is true , the french are apt to talk , and upon this occasion , it is no hard thing to engage them into much discourse , especially when their fears do not check the freedom of speech that is so natural to the nation : for being now safe under the protection of the kings authority , and secured under the covert of edicts and an assembly of the clergy , they are ready enough to speak out what they formerly disguised , or trusted only to a few confiding persons . as for the generality of the inferiour people here , and the women , they appear to be more addicted to the see of rome than could have been imagined . the popes infallibility passes among them for an article of faith ; so they are much scandalized at the reports which are secretly set about by the monks and fryars , as if the king were like to be abused by the arch-bishop of paris , and engaged in a schism from the chair of st. peter ; and it is said , that that prelate hopes by these means , to be made patriarch of france , and so to become very little inferiour to the pope himself ; and in time , if the design of the universal monarchy goes on , which is the common discourse of this court , then as the patriarch of the french empire , he may pretend at least , to be made in all things equal to the bishops of rome , as well as the bishops of constantinople were anciently ▪ when that city was made the seat of the empire . it is true , the precedence was then granted to the bishops of rome , because it was the chief city , and the empire ▪ carrying its name from rome , no wonder if the bishop of the capital city had the right-hand still reserved to him . but if paris becomes the metropolis of this fifth monarchy , then i do not see , but it may so fall out , that the bishop of paris may even dispute precedence with his holiness at rome ; that city having now retained little more of its ancient greatness , than the name : and it is not like to be ever esteemed the metropolis of the new empire , which is now so much talked of here . in a word , the people here that are most zealous against heresie , have been so managed by the jesuites and the begging fryars in confessions , that they almost universally look on the pope as infallible : and every one remembers , that about twenty year ago there was scarce any other doctrine to be heard , but that which extolled the popes infallibility , not only in points of faith , but also in matters of fact : and the falling from the submission due to st. peter's chair , was called the root and source of all heresie , which was aggravated with all that could be invented to make the iansenists the more odious , who were then looked on as ill affected to that see. this is so fresh in all peoples remembrance , and is now so often repeated by those who bear no good will to that order , that if they were not a sort of men very incapable of the impressions which modesty and shame make on most people , they would scarce know how to lift up their heads . it is not unpleasant to hear how those that rally them , make apologies for them from their own principles : some tell us , that the intention according to their casuistical divinity , justifies the means used to accomplish a good end ; and since the promoting the honour of the society , is the end they aim at , it is said , that when the complementing the see of rome may promote , that it is lawful to do it : but if the depressing that , and extolling the regal power becomes more necessary for the interests of the society , the good intention will secure all still : and there is no reason to doubt , but they seriously intend the good of their order , and as little to question , that this is a good thing . so here the doctrine of intention serves them to very good purpose . their other celebrated maxim of probability , is no less useful to them , that in a probable opinion a man may with a good conscience follow either side , and that any approved doctor 's being of any side , makes that opinion probable . from which , those that divert themselves with them , say in their defence , that approved doctors having been of both sides in the point of the pope's infallibility , a man may with a safe conscience chuse either side , as he finds it is most convenient for him . thus the two doctrines of intention and probability joyned together , make a very substantial apology for them ; and indeed it is all i hear said to vindicate them in this particular : for to tell you truth , it is very hard to get any of them to talk of this matter : those that are meer scholars , are still for the pope ; but they are so restrained by the political fathers , that they will not enter upon this discourse : and for those that play their game at court , you may as soon make those of whetstones-park among you blush , as put them out of countenance . they do now value themselves upon their zeal for the king , and upon his zeal for the catholick religion against heresie : and one can draw nothing from them on this subject , but high elogies of their king , as , that he who has given peace to all europe , will never raise a war in the church ; and who can think , that a prince who employes all his authority for the extirpation of heresie , will ever turn it against the church ? upon this occasion i could tell you a great deal of mr. maimbourg's eloquence , who is so full of raptures when he engages in this discourse , that if he thinks what he sayes will be reported either in the kings hearing , or before any of his ministers , he grows almost ecstatical on that head . these things are not said only by the canaille , but by those of the highest condition ; and even the queen and dauphiness , as we hear , grow apprehensive that a rupture may happen between those two great luminaries the pope and the king : but i assure you , whatever the popes presumption might be in former ages , in comparing himself to the sun , and the temporal princes to the moon , that would now pass here for a piece of high presumption : for this glorious monarch would think it a strange degradation , if he , to whom so many of the glories of the sun have been ascribed by hungry flatterers , were now to be compared to the moon . it is reported , that these two illustrious princesses have expressed their zeal on this occasion , and have told the arch bishop of paris , that they were informed , he and some others of the clergy intended to break with the pope : they might do what they pleased , but for their parts , they were resolved to continue to be good roman catholicks . others say , the king is a good catholick , the most christian king , and the eldest son of the church , full of zeal for it , but he sees by other mens eyes : and as the common style in england of those who are displeased with the government , is only an arraigning of the ministers , the king himself being treated with the respect of civil words , even by those who study most to expose his government ; so here the zealots take the freedom to speak very liberally of the clergy . indeed the arch-bishop of paris carries the heaviest load ; the former parts of his life have been such , that he is not proof against censure : and upon all such occasions , if there has been just grounds given for some ill reports , malice and envy improves these with great industry , even to a pitch that is scarce credible : but i love not to dwell much on so unfavoury a subject . i shall therefore say no more of him , but that as he is certainly a man of great and polite thoughts , and a very dexterous courtier ; so there is nothing to be imagined neither for impiety nor lewdness with which he is not openly charged here , not only in discourses , but in prints , of which the authors are known , and some that are in the bastile for them , offer to justifie all that they have aspersed him with . for the rest of the clergy , i understand they may be reduced to three ranks or classes . the first and greatest , is of those who have neither learning nor piety , nor common morality : some of the greatest of them where they think they may use freedom , speak of religion with all the insolence of blasphemous scorn possible : they are men of quality who have taken orders meerly for the dignity and wealth that they aspired to ; and do scarce observe the common decencies of their profession . in short , the king is all the god they serve , and so they are ready to advance any thing that will recommend them to his favour , or contribute to their promotion . the second class is of the cartesian philosophers , who approve of the morals of the christian religion , but for miracles or mysteries , they believe very little ; and consider the several institutions of religion , only as they do laws and received customs , which are not to be rashly changed for fear of the convulsions that may follow ; but as to their own perswasions of things , all opinions and practices in the ritual part of religion seem indifferent to them . so that when some gross things are objected to them , they are ingenuous enough to confess , there is a great deal of reason in the objection ; but after all , they will comply with their interests , and this not so much out of an atheistical temper , as because they consider all the institutions of religion , only as matters of policy and law. a third class , which as it is much the best , so it is much the least , is of those who are both learned and good men , and are fully convinced of many errors in their church , which they think need reformation : but what by a weakness of temper , what by some principles which they have carried too far against every thing that seems to lead to schism , they have not spirit enough to own the freedom of their thoughts , and say they hope that god will forgive their temporizing , since they know not how to emancipate themselves : nor do they see a party to which they can turn . they have great prejudice against the hugonots , both as to the first constitution of their churches , and several other things that are among them : but i am confident if they were in england , they would be more inclined to come over to the church there : and indeed i hear only two exceptions to the church of england among them ; the one is the positive definition against the corporal presence in the sacrament , which they wish were left in general terms without positive definitions either one way or another ; the other is , that there is not such a spirit of devotion and mortification and exemplary piety among the church-men , as ought to be . they speak of pluralities and non-residence and of the aspiring and pomp of church men with horror : and it is certain that this church could not have subsisted so long , if the gross scandals that are given by the bishops and abbots of the court were not counterballanced by the shining examples of some of their prelates , which i must confess , is far beyond any thing i ever saw . you may wonder , that in this enumeration i do not reckon up the bigots ; but really there are so few of those among the superiour clergy , that they scarce make a classis . i have not heard of one of them that believes the pope infallible , or is perswaded of transubstantiation . i heard one pleasantly declaim against the folly of the messieurs of charenton , for writing such learned volumes in confutation of these things , which , said he , none of the catholicks believed any more than they did , so they might well spare the pains . but he reckoned the revenues of the ecclesiasticks in their communion were fifty millions a year ; in that , said he , is the strength of our cause : let mr. claude answer that , and then mr. arnauld will be a feeble party to him . among the monks and fryars there is something very like bigotry , though there is so little sincerity among them , that it is very hard to know when they may be believed . i confess , one thing i heard put to one of them that seemed unanswerable , and it pressed them hard in this point of the popes infallibility . the great topick they use , and that is in every bodies mouth against the hereticks , is , that men must not trust to their own opinions , but submit all to the church : and that truth could not be preserved , if there were not a living infallible judge on earth ; and by this great numbers of well meaning hugonots are drawn over . it has an appearance that is apt to work on an humble and well disposed mind . now the people alwayes thought that this was to be understood of the pope , to whom all the bishops were to make their application for the resolution of such controversies as might arise ; and so the argument had still some effect : but now that the councils of constance are declared for , that lodged this infallibility in a general council , the church has lost her great advantage against hereticks : for there is no such council in being , there has been none that pretended to that title now almost one hundred and twenty years ; and it is not probable there shall ever be another , so there is no living infallible judge . the fryar said so little in answer to this , that i clearly perceived , he looked on the belief of the popes infallibility as the basis or the center of the church . but they are so much afraid of the arch-bishop of paris his spies , and of the rigour of the court of parliament , that they speak of this matter only in dark figures or riddles . one of them would say no more , but that it was safest to stick to the root of the tree : another said , all things will return to their center . the truth is , the regulars are much concerned in the maintaining of the popes authority , for all their exemptions depend upon it . and there is no heresie of which they are so apprehensive , as that of losing their priviledges , and being brought under the jurisdiction of their bishops : and this the bishops do all so openly pretend to , that it would be the first step that would be made after a rupture with rome , to bring them in all points , within the care , and under the authority of their diocesans . this present assembly of the clergy had this matter under their consideration , and by this time it is probable they would have made some progress in it , if the king had not ordered them to adjourn for some time . so you need not doubt , but that they are very careful to possess all people in such secret methods as they dare venture on , with very tragical apprehensions of the issue of the present contest with rome . and if the severity against the protestants were not interposed , as a signal evidence of the kings zeal for the faith , it is probable this meeting with the other things that raise so much discontent in this kingdom , might have produced more considerable effects than have yet appeared . that this may be alwayes in the peoples eye , new edicts come out every day , which shew , that the king is resolved to make his hugonot subjects grow weary either of their lives , or of their religion . two came out the other day : the one was , that no protestant may have the relief of an evocation ( or appeal ) from any court of justice where he finds himself aggrieved . the other is , that no sea-man nor tradesman shall offer to go out of the kingdom without leave , under the pain of being sent to the gallies . so that it is resolved , that all who profess that religion , shall be miserable , if they stay in the kingdom ; and much more so , if they offer to fly out of it . these things give the people some comfort , who cannot be easily made to doubt of their kings firmness to their religion , as long as he continues true to one main branch of it , which is persecuting those of other perswasions . but upon the whole matter , it is not probable , that all this business , on which the world has now lookt so attentively for some time , will produce any great effect . the king does not meddle in matters of speculation himself , and there is little reason to expect much from a man of the arch bishop of paris his temper . so that we begin generally to think , that some expedient will be found . the king has declared , that he is resolved , not to break with the pope , and he has lately received a brief from him , writ in a more obliging strain , than those formerly sent . i have not yet seen a copy of it , so i cannot send it ; only the first words are much talkt of , for it begins thus , my son give me thy heart . it seems it has made some impression on the king , and that he is in hopes of bringing the whole matter to an amicable conclusion ; and therefore he takes cares that there be no new provocation given the pope , and so he has ordered the assembly of the clergy to adjourn for some time , which they did on the 30th of may last , and many think they will hardly meet again except it be for forms sake . some begin also to talk of a legate to be sent into france , for concluding this affair ; and azolini is the man most talked of , who is a very fit person for such an employment , for he has the reputation of a very prudent and devout man. last winter he retired from all business , and gave himself wholly to devotion and meditatitiom : so whether he will leave his retirement to do so great a service to his church or not , we do not yet know . it is true i found at rome , last winter his character much lessened among the italians , who look upon such retirements , as either the effects of melancholy or affectation : for indeed few there understand either the philosophy , or the piety that should work such a change in a man dignified with the purple . but the pope has a much better sense of such things , as appeared in this last promotion of cardinals , which i found all at rome , confess was the best that ever was made . this is the state of the affair of the regale , which has set both france and rome in such a fermentation : but for the last edict , touching the popes authority over princes , his infallibility and the superiority of general councils over him , it is a harder chapter : for as at rome it is not to be imagined they can ever comply with it or endure it ; so it is not likely this court will ever suffer it to be altered or recalled . the temper that will be perhaps found , will be this the edict will be still left upon record ; but there will be secret directions given not to execute it . the pope has by his brief annulled all that the assembly has done , and so he will look upon it as condemned by his authority ; and perhaps will be satisfied with this , without proceeding to a more express condemnation . on the other hand a secret intimation from the court not to proceed any further in the execution of it , will be perhaps easily obtained ; and so this which is the greatest difficulty may be so made up , that at present this difference will be carried no further . the court of parliament will think it enough that the edict is past , and will advise the keeping it as a perpetual terrour for the court of rome . so that hereafter , upon every disgust offered to this crown by that court , this edict will be made use of ; and by the shaking this rod it may be thought the popes will be kept to their good behaviour . somewhat of this will appear within a few days , for many of the doctors of the sorbon have complained highly of the proceedings of the parliament , and in particular of the making a declaration on such points , and the requiring them to register it , without ever asking their opinion about them : they have not yet obeyed the edict nor registred it ; yesterday they were cited to appear before the court of parliament , and were required for the second time to call an extraordinary assembly within ten days , and without further delay to put the edict in their registers . so whether they will give obedience , or whether the thing will be let fall , or at least delay'd , is not yet certain and therefore you must have a little patience till the progress of this affair give you a better view of it , than can be done by such conjectures as are made here . in the mean while it seems the iansenists expect a storm both because the arch-bishop of paris is their declared and enraged enemy , and looks on them as the authors of all those libels that fly about paris against him ; and also because in this matter they do openly espouse the popes interests . and this is represented to the king as an effect of their factious and restless tempers , and of the hatred they bear to his government . in this there is too much reason to justifie that imputation ; for it seems as odd a thing to see them turn champions for the popes authority , as it is to see the iesuites declare against it : and it shews but too evidently that interests and resentments govern both parties in their opinions as well as in their practices . the iansenists are now mightily run down here , and beside the old imputations of their being too favourable to the hereticks , this is now added to it , that they are too great friends to the liberty of the people ; that they do not love the kings arbitrary government , and , that they will be of any side that is against the king. it seems they expect nothing but severity ; and therefore they animate their party to prepare for it , and to bear it patiently : for the famous mr. arnauld , though he has retired out of the world , so that it is not known where he lives , has of late published a continuation of his defence of the translation of the new testament , printed at mons ; which he concludes with a bold and pathetick discourse concerning the sufferings of that party , in which he rejoyces , and calls them the tryals of their faith and patience , and a portion which the church militant must of necessity look for . and on this he enlarges with all the strains and figures of that masculine eloquence that is so natural to him . but that for which he is much blamed , is that he makes so bold with the king ; he laments that he sees with other mens eyes , and that his reign must be reckoned among the reigns of persecution . in short , it is such a discourse , as would make a very pertinent conclusion to the sermon of a hugonot minister , on a fast-day , if he intended to spend the rest of his days in the bastile . iansenism is a thing now disowned almost by every body , and yet it spreads so universally among the learned and good men in this church , that upon the first favourable conjuncture , it will appear how considerable it is : though those that now receive it , use almost as much precaution in owning it , as they would do in speaking of treason . but though they dare not speak out in the condemned points concerning grace ; yet by many other things as so many shibboleths , it is not hard to know them , as by their excessive commendations of st. austin among the ancients ; and cardinal borromee among the moderns : by their lamenting over the present corruptions in the church , chiefly in the conduct of penitents , and by their sharpness against the iesuites : by these things they are generally known , and a mark is set on them , so that none of them are at any time raised to any eminent promotion . the king considers them as men that love liberty , and so thinks them bad subjects : and the lewd court-bishops look upon them as their worst enemies , and do hate them much more than the hereticks ; and consider all that is said of a reformation , as intended on purpose to expose them ; for guilt makes men very tender and jealous . i shall end this long letter , with a passage that has fallen out here of late , that will perhaps give you some diversion , and make you more easie to forgive the tedious length to which this letter has run out . a woman that lives in tours , and was melancholy and full of vapours , desired to receive the sacrament every day , in which she said she found most wonderful consolation . the priest has the reputation of a very worthy man , and being a judicious person , he clearly saw through the poor womans weakness and superstitition , and was willing enough to do what he thought an innocent fraud , that might both give the distempered person some ease , and yet not tend to a profanation of holy things ; so instead of the sacrament , he gave her unconsecrated wafers which she received with her ordinary devotion , and they had their ordinary effects on her : but as frenchmen are too apt to tell their own secrets ; the curate made himself merry with some of his friends upon this occasion , and told how he had deceived the hypochondriacal woman : so the thing got wind , and was lookt on as a great impiety in the priest to suffer one to commit such idolatry to a piece of bread , to which no doubt she offered the same adoration , that was due , if it had been consecrated ; so the curate was cited before the arch-bishop of tours , where he had met with a severe censure , if the esteem he is justly in , had not preserved him : he excused himself that he had not failed out of malice , but out of ignorance , and that he thought it best to comply with the weakness of a woman , abused by melancholy , and since it would have encreased her distemper to have denyed her the sacrament , and yet her condition was not such that it was fit for her to receive every day : he thought he took that course in which there was the least danger ; but he was condemned to six months imprisonment , yet it is thought the sentence will be mitigated , and upon his submitting to some severe penances , he will be set at liberty ere long . i leave it to you , and your most learned friend when you meet , to consider , if this is acknowledged to be idolatry in the melancholy woman , to worship a piece of bread , which she verily believed was the body of christ ; then whether it will not certainly follow that the whole church of rome is guilty of idolatry , if christ is not corporally present in the host , and that their adoring him as present , will not excuse them from idolatry , if he is not really present . but i must not enter upon points of controversie with you , much less will i encrease the trouble i have given you , by offering you a great many apologies for what i have written ; i know your curiosity in this affair of the regale makes you more than ordinary concerned to know the true state of it ; and i was willing to enlarge much more copiously , than was perhaps necessary , for one that knows so much of the transactions of this kingdom : but as i demonstrate to you my readiness to obey your commands , so i am not unwilling so far to expose my self to you , as to let you see the use i make of my travels , which will at least give you occasion to correct what you find amiss ; and i shall be a great gainer by the exchange , if instead of a long scrible of news i have a return from you , that shall contain such reflections of yours , as may be able to direct me to observe matters more exactly , and to judge more maturely of them . i shall afflict you no more , but shall only add that i am , with great sincerity , sir , your most humble and most obliged servant . paris the 6th june s. n. the popes brief to the assembly of the clergy of france , annulling all that they have done . venerabilibus fratribus , archiepiscopis , episcopis , &c. paternae charitati quâ carissimum in christo filium nostrum ludovicum regem christianissimum , ecclesias vestras , vosipsos & universum istud regnum amplectimur , permolestum accidit ac planè acerbum cognoscere ex vestris literis tertio februarii ad nos datis , episcopos plerumque galliae qui corona olim & gaudium erant amplissimae sedis , ità se erga illam in praesens gerere ut cogamur multis cum lachrymis usurpare propheticum illud , filii matris meae pugnaverunt adversus me ; quanquam adversus vosipsos potius pugnatis , cùm nobis in ea causâ resistitis , in qua vestrarum ecclesiarum salus ac felicitas agitur , & in qua pro juribus ac dignitate episcopali in isto regno tuendis , ab aliquibus ordinis vestri piis ac fidelibus viris appellati absque morâ insurreximus , & jampridem in gradu stamus nullas privatas nostras rationes secuti , ut debitae omnibus solicitudini , ac intimo amori erga vos nostro satisfaciamus . nihil sanè laetum ac vestris nominibus dignum eas literas continere , in ipso earum limine intelleximus ; nam praeter ea quae de normâ in conciliis convocandis , peragendisque servata ferebantur , animadvertimus eas ordiri à metu vestro , quo suasore nunquam sacerdotes dei esse solent in ardua & excelsa pro religione & ecclesiae suae libertate vel aggrediundo fortes , vel perficiendo constantes . quem quidem metum falsò judicavistis posse vos in sinum nostrum effundere , in sinu enim nostro hospitari perpetuò debet caritas christi , quae for as mittit & longè arcet timorem , qua caritate erga vos regnúmque galliae paternum cor nostrum slagrare multis jam ac magnis experimentis cognosci potuit , quae hîc referre non est necesse ; si quid est autem in quo benè merita de vobis caritas nostra sit , esse imprimis putamus illud ipsum regaliae negotium , ex quo , si seriò res perpendatur , omnis vestri ordinis dignitas atque auctoritas pendet . timuistis igitur ubi non erat timor , id unum timendum vobis erat nè apud deum hominésque jure redargui possitis , loco atque honori vestro & pastoralis officii debito defuisse . memoriâ vobis repetenda erant , quae antiqui illi sanctissimi praesules , quos plurimi postea qualibet aetate sunt imitati , episcopalis constantiae & fortitudinis exempla in bujusmodi casibus in vestram eruditionem ediderunt . intuendae imagines praedecessorum vestrorum , non solùm quae patrum , sed quae nostra quoque memoria sloruerunt . ivonis carnotensis dicta notatis , facta etiam cùm res posceret , imitari debuistis . nostis qui is fuerit , quaeque passus sit in turbulenta illa & periculosa contentione inter urbanum pontisicem & philipum regem , muneris sui arbitratus , contra regiam indignationem stare , bonis spoliari , carceres & exilia perferre . deserentibus aliis meliorem causam , officii vestri erat sedis apostolicae auctoritati studia vestra adjungere , & pastorali pectore ac humilitate sacerdotali causam ecclesiarum vestrarum apud regem agere , ejusque conscientiam de tota re instruere , etiam cum periculo regium in vos animum irritandi , ut possetis in posterum sine rubore ex quotidiana psalmodia deum alloquentes , davidica verba proferre , loquebar de testimoniis tuis in conspectu regum & non confundebar ; quanto magis id vobis faciendum fuit jam perspecta atque explorata optimi principis justitiâ & pietate , quem singulari benignitate episcopos audire & episcopalem potestatem intemeratam velle vos ipsi scribitis , & nos magna cum voluptate legimus in literis vestris . non dubitamus pro causae tam justae defensione , neque defutura vobis quae loqueremini , neque regi cor docile , quo vestris annueret postulatis ; nunc cùm muneris vestri & regiae aequitatis quodammodo obliti in tanti momenti negotio silentium tenueritis , non videmus quo probabili fundamento significetis vos ad ita agendum adductos . quod in controversià victi sitis , quod causâ cecideritis , quomodo cecidit qui non stetit ? quomodo victus est qui non pugnavit ? quis vestrum tam gravem , tam justam , tam sacrosanctam causam apud regem oravit , cùm tamen praedecessores vestri in simili periculo constitutam , non semel apud superiores galliae reges , immo apud hunc ipsum liberâ voce defenderint , victorésque à regio conspectu decesserint , relatis etiam ab aequissimo rege praemiis pastoralis officii strenuè impleti . quis vestrum in arenam descendit ut opponeret murum pro domo israel ? quis ausus est invidiae se offerre ? quis vel vocem unam emisit memor pristinae libertatis ; clamarunt interim , sicuti scribitis , & quidem in mala causa pro regio jure clamârunt regii administri cùm vos in optima pro christi & ecclesiae honore sileretis , neque illa solidiora quod reddituri nobis rationem , seu verius excusationem allaturi rerum in ejusmodi comitiis per vos actarum exaggeretis periculum nè sacerdotium & imperium collidantur , & mala quae exinde in ecclesiam & rempublicam consequi possent , proinde existimasse vos ad officium vestrum pertinere inire rationem tollendi è medio gliscentis dissidii , nullam verò commodiorem apparuisse quam remedia à patribus ecclesiae indicata , utili condescentione canonis temperandi , pro temporum necessitate , ubi neque fidei veritas neque morum honestas periclitentur ; deberi ab ordine vestro , deberi â gallicana , imo ab universa ecclesia , plurimum regi tam praeclare de catholica religione merito , & 〈◊〉 magis mereri cupienti ; propterea vos juri vestro decedentes illud in regem 〈◊〉 . omittimus hîc commemorare quae significatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à vobis seculari magistratu a quo victi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim ejus facti memoriam aboleri , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vos verba ex literis vestris expungere , nè in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gallicani resideant ad dedecus nominis vestri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . quae de innocentio 3. benedicto 12. & 〈◊〉 8. in vestram defensionem adducitis , non defuerunt qui doctis lucubrationibus ostenderint quàm frivola & extranea sint huic causae , & magis notum est quàm ut opus sit commemorari quo zelo , quâ constantiâ eximii illi pontifices ecclesiae libertatem defenderunt adversus seculares potestates , tantùm abest ut eorum exempla possint errori vestro suffragari : caeterum ultro admittimus & laudamus consilium relaxandi canonum disciplinam pro temporum necessitate , ubi fieri id possit sine fidei & morum dispendio . immo addimus cum augustino , toleranda aliquando pro bono unitatis quae odio hadenda sint pro ratione aequitatis , neque eradicanda zizania ubi periculum sit nè simul etiam triticum eradicetur : sed ità tantùm accipi oportet ut in aliquo tantùm peculiari casu , & ad tempus , & ubi necessitas urget , licitum sit . factum est ab ecclcsiâ cùm arianos & donatistas ejurato errore , ecclesiis suis restituit , ut populos qui secuti eos fuerunt in officio contineret . aliud est ubi disciplina ecclesiae per universum amplissimi regni ambitum sine temporis termino & cum manifesto periculo nè exemplum latius manet , labefactatur , immo evertitur ipsius disciplinae & hierarchiae ecclesiasticae fundamentum , sicuti evenire necesse est , si quae à rege christianissimo in negotio regaliae nuper acta sint , una etiam consentientibus vobis contra sacrorum canonum , & praesertim generalis concilii lugdunensis authoritatem , contra notam jam pridem vobis in ea re mentem nostram , & contra ipsam jurisjurandi religionem , qua vos deo , romanae , vestrisque ecclesiis obligastis , cum episcopali charactere imbuti eramini , haec exsecutiom mandari & malum invalescere diutius differendo permittamus , ac non nos pro datâ divinitus humilitati nostra suprema in universam ecclesiam potestate praedecessorum nostrorum vestigiis inhaerentes improbaremus : cum praesertim per abusum regaliae non solum everti disciplinam galliae res ipsa doceat , sed etiam fidei ipsius integritatem in discrimen vocari facilè intelligatis ex ipsis regiorum decretorum verbis quae jus conferendi beneficia regi vendicant , non tanquam profluens ex aliqua ecclesiae concessione , sed tanquam ingenitum & coaevum regiae coronae . illam vero partem literarum vestrarum non sine animi horrore legere potuimus , in quâ dicitis vos juri vestro decedentes illud in regem contulisse quasi ecclesiarum quae curae vestrae creditae fuére , essetis arbitri , non custodes , & quasi ecclesiae ipsae & spiritualia ipsaram jura possent sub potestatis secularis jugum mitti ab episcopis qui se pro illarum libertate in servitutem dare deberent . vos sanè ipsi hanc veritatem agnovistis & confessi estis , dum alibi pronunciâstis jus regaliae servitutem quandam esse quae in eo praesertim quod spectat beneficiorum collationem imponi non potest , nisi ecclesiâ concedente , vel saltem consentiente . quo jure ergo vos illud in regem contulistis ? cúmque sacri canones distrahi vetant jura ecclesiarum , quomodo ea vos distrahere in animum induxistis quasi eorundem canonum authoritati liceat vobis derogare ? revocate in memoriam quae inclytus ille clarevallensis abbas non gallicanae modo sed etiam ecclesiae universalis lumen à vobis merito nuncupatus eugenium pontificem officii sui admonens praeclarè scripta reliquit , meminisse , esse cui claves traditae , cui oves traditae sunt , esse quidem & alios coeli ianitores & gregum pastores ; sed cum habeant illi assignatos greges singuli singulos , ipsi universos creditos , uni unum , nec modo ovium sed & pastorum eugenium esse pastorem . ideóque juxta canonum statuta alios episcopos vocatos fuisse in partem solicitudinis , ipsum in plenitudinem potestatis . quantum vos admoneri par est , de obedientiâ & obsequio quod debetis huic sanctae sedi , cui nos , deo authore , quanquam immeriti , praesidemus ; tantum pastoralis nostra solicitudo excitat nos ad inchoandam tandem aliquando in hoc negotio , quàm nimia fortasse longanimitate nostrâ dum poenitentiae locum damus , hactenus distulit apostolici muneris executionem . quamobrem per praesentes literas , tradita nobis ab omnipotente deo authoritate , improbamus , rescindimus , & cassamus quae in istis vestris comitiis acta sunt in negotio regaliae , cum omnibus inde secutis , & quae in posterum attentari continget , eáque perpetuò irrita & inania declaramus : quamvis cùm sint ipsa per se & manifestè nulla , cassatione aut declaratione hujusmodi non egerent . speramus tamen vos quoque ipsos re melius considerata celeri retractatione consulturos conscientiae vestrae & cleri gallicani existimationi , ex quo clero sicuti huc usque non defuere , ita in futurum non defuturos confidimus , qui boni pastoris exemplo libenter animam suam parati sint pro ovibus suis & pro testamento patrum suorum dare . nos quidem pro officii nostri debito parati sumus , dei adjutrice gratiâ , sacrificare sacrificium justitiae , ecclesias dei , jura , libertatem , & hujus sanctae sedis authoritatem dignitatémque defendere ; nihil de nobis , sed omnia de deo praesumenda sunt qui nos consortat , & operatur in nobis , & qui jussit petrum super aquis ad se venire : praeterit enim sigura hujus mundi , & dies domini appropinquat . sic ergo agamus , venerabiles fratres & dilecti filii , ut cùm summus paterfamilias , & cùm princeps pastorum rationem ponere voluerit cum servis suis ; sanguinem pessundatae & laceratae ecclesiae quam suo acquisivit , de suis ipsorum manibus non requirat . vobis iterum omnibus apostolicam benedictionem , cui coelestem accedere optamus , intimo amoris affectu impertimur . dat. romae 11. aprilis 1682. the translation of the former brief , directed to his venerable brethren the arch-bishops , and bishops , &c. assembled at paris , bearing date the eleventh of april 1682. it was very uneasie and bitter to us , by reason of the fatherly affection which we bear to our dearest son in christ lewis the most christian king , and to your churches and persons , and that whole kingdom , to perceive by your letters , directed to us on the third of february , that a great many of the bishops of france ( who were anciently a crown and rejoycing to this most eminent see ) should now behave themselves so toward it , that we are sorced with many tears to make use of these words of the prophet , my mothers children have fought against me : though in truth you rather fight against your selves , when you set your selves in opposition to us , in a cause , in which the welfare and freedom of your churches is so much concerned ; and for which some pious and resolute men of your order having appealed to us , we did without delay stand up for defence of the episcopal rights and dignity in that kingdom , which now for a great while we have maintained , having in that sought no private ends of our own ; being set on to it meerly by that care that we owe to all the churches , and the love that we bear to you , which is so deeply rooted in our hearts . we perceived from the very beginning of your letter , that there was nothing in it that could be either welcome to us , or worthy of that name you bear in the world : for not to insist on what you said of the rule that was observed in the calling and managing of councils , we observed that your letter began from your fears , and that is a motive , by which gods priests are never animated to undertake any difficult or weighty cause , that concerns either religion , or the liberty of the church , with that courage that becomes them at first , or to persevere in it with that constancy , which they ought to hold to the last . and you were much mistaken when you thought you might pour out your fears into our breast ; for the love of christ ought always to dwell in our breast , which casts out fear , and keeps it at a great distance : we have already demonstrated in many and signal instances , that fatherly love that is kindled in our hearts towards you and the kingdom of france , which we need not here reckon up . and if there is any thing in which our affection has deserved well at your hands , we think it has chiefly appeared in this business of the regale , upon which if the matter is well considered , it will appear that the whole dignity and authority of your order doth depend . you were therefore in fear where no fear was : whereas this only was that of which you ought to have been afraid , lest you might have been justly accused before god and men , for having been wanting to your station and honour , and the duty of your pastoral charge . and you ought to have remembred the examples of episcopal constancy and courage : which in the like cases , the ancient and most holy bishops have set before you , for your instruction ; and which have been imitated by many bishops in every age , from their days . you ought also to have reflected on your own predecessors , not only those who flourished in the times of our forefathers , but in our own days . you cite the words of ivon of chartres , but you ought also to follow his actions , when there is occasion for it : you know what he both did and suffered in those troublesome & dangerous contests , that were between pope urban and king philip. he thought it became his function , to endure the kings displeasure , to bear the spoiling of his goods , and to suffer both imprisonment and banishment . it became your function , even when others were forsaking the better cause , to have joyned your endeavours to the authority of the apostolick see , and to have pleaded the cause of your churches before the king ; joyning the resolution that became pastors , with the humility of priests ; and to have informed his conscience of the whole matter , even though you had apprehended the danger of drawing his displeasure upon you : that so for the time to come , you might without blushing , use the words of david , when you address your selves to god in the daily psalmody , i did speak of thy testimonies before kings , and was not confounded : but how much more ought you to have done this , when you had so well known , and so often tryed the justice and piety of your excellent prince , of whom you your selves write , that he hears the bishops with a singular gentleness , and that he is resolved to maintain the episcopal authority without suffering it to be entrenched upon ; which we read in your letter with great joy . we do not doubt , that in the defence of so just a cause you could either want arguments fit to be used ; or the king a heart tractable , and inclined to grant your desires . but now since you seem to have forgot both your own duty , and the kings justice , and that you have been silent in a matter of so great consequence , we do not see upon what probable ground you can found that which you represent to us , that you have been induced to do what you have done , because you have been overcome in this dispute , and have lost your cause . but how could he lose it that never stood to it ? and how could he be overcome that never struggled ? who of you all did plead this weighty , this just , and this most sacred cause , before the king ? whereas your predecessors , even in the like danger , did defend it oftner than once with all freedom , both before the former kings of france , and even before this king himself : and having carried their cause , they were dismist by their most just king , with rewards for having so manfully performed the duty of the pastoral charge . but who of you have ingaged in this contest , that he might raise a wall for the house of israel ? who has had the boldness to expose himself to envy ? who has uttered so much as one word , that savoured of the freedom of former times ? the kings officers have indeed cryed aloud as you write , they have cryed aloud in an ill cause , for the rights of the crown ; whereas you in the best cause , that was both for the honour of christ and the church , have been silent : nor is there any more weight in what you say , when you render us an account , or indeed rather offer us an excuse , for the things that have been done by you in this assembly . you aggravate the danger of a breach between the priesthood and the civil power , and the ill effects that may follow from thence , both in church and state : and inferr that therefore you thought it became you to find out a mean for removing the difference that was encreasing , and that no mean appeared more convenient than those remedies proposed by the fathers of the church for tempering the canons by a prudent condescention according to the necessity of the times , in such things as might no way endanger either the truth of religion , or the rules of morality : and that you thought your order and the whole gallicane and indeed the universal church owed so much to a king that had merited so eminently of the catholick religion , and who was daily desiring to merit further of it , and that therefore you passed from your rights , and resigned them to the king. we forbear to mention what you represent to us of the appeal you made to the secular magistrate , by whom this cause was judged against you ; for we wish the remembrance of that might be buried in oblivion , and would gladly have you dash out those words out of your letters , so that they might not remain upon the records of the gallicane church to your eternal reproach . as for what you bring for your own defence , concerning innocent the third , benedict the twelfth and boniface the eighth , there have not been wanting some who have by learned treatises demonstrated how frivolous and foreign they are to this matter : and it is so notoriously known , that it is needless to mention it , with what zeal and constancy those great popes defended the liberty of the church against the secular powers : so little reason have you to maintain your error by those precedents . we do readily allow of and commend the resolution of relaxing the discipline of the canons according to the necessity of the times , where that may be done without any prejudice either to religion or a good life : and we add with st. austin , that things are to be sometimes endured for the good of unity , which ought to be abhorred , if considered according to equity : nor are the tares to be rooted out , if there is danger of plucking up the wheat likewise with them . but all this is so to be understood that it may be done only in some particular case , and for a time , and upon an urgent necessity as was done by the church when she restored the arrians and donatists to their churches , upon their abjuring their errors , that so the people that had followed them might be the more easily governed . but the case is very different from this , when the discipline of the church is weakned , and the foundation of the whole ecclesiastical discipline and hierarchy is indeed overthrown through the whole extent of so great a kingdom without any limitation of time , and with the manifest danger of establishing a precedent which may spread much further . these consequences must certainly follow , if we should suffer the things to be put in execution , which have been lately done by the most christian king , even with your consent , in the affair of the regale ( against the authority of the holy canons , and chiefly against the general council of lions , and against our mind that has been long ago signified to you in that affair , and contrary to that sacred tye of your oaths by which when you received the episcopal character , you bound your selves to god , to the roman church , and to your own particular churches ) and if we by delaying longer , should suffer this evil to become more inveterate ; and should not , in imitation of the examples of our predecessors , and according to that supream authority over the whole church which is given by god to our meanness , condemn it : and that the rather , that by the abuse of the regale the discipline of the church is not only overthrown , as is notoriously evident , but even the purity of the faith is brought in danger : which you may easily gather from the very words of the kings edicts , by which the right of conferring benefices is ascribed to the king , not as flowing from any concession of the church ; but as a right innate and coaeval to the crown : nor could we read that part of your letter without horror , in which you say , you have departed from your rights , and have transferred them on the king ; as if you were the masters , and not the guardians of these churches that are trusted to your care ; and as if the churches themselves and the spiritual rights belonging to them could be brought under the yoke of the secular power , by the bishops , who indeed rather ought to become slaves themselves for setting them at liberty . you your selves did acknowledge and confess this truth , when upon another occasion you declared , that the right of the regale , especially in that branch of it that belongs to the collation of benefices , was a servitude that could not be brought upon the church , but by her concession , at least by her consent . by what right then have you conferred that on the king ? and since the holy canons forbid the alienating the rights of the church , how could it enter into your minds to alienate these rights ? as if you could derogate from the authority of the canons . call to mind what that renowned abbot of clarevall writ excellently to this purpose , whom you justly call the light not only of the gallican , but of the universal church , when he was putting pope eugenius in mind of his duty , he bids him remember that the keys of the church were delivered to him , but not the sheep themselves : there were others that kept the gates of heaven , and were the pastors of the flock ; but whereas every one of these have their several flocks assigned them , to him were the whole trusted : one flock under one shepherd : and that eugenius was not only the shepherd of the sheep , but of the shepherds themselves : and therefore according to the appointment of the canons the other bishops were called to a portion of the care , but he to the fulness of the power . but as it is expedient to give you warning of the obedience and submission that you owe this holy see , which we , though unworthy , do now by the divine appointment govern ; so our pastoral care doth stir us up , now at last , to set about the discharge of our apostolical office , which we have hitherto delayed , perhaps by an excessive long suffering , being willing to give time to repentance . therefore we through the authority of almighty god committed to us , do by these present letters condemn , rescind and annul what has been done in this your assembly in the affair of the regale ; together with every thing that has followed thereupon , or that may happen to be attempted for the future ; and we declare them to be for ever null and void : though these things being of themselves manifestly null , it was not necessary to interpose any declaration for annulling them : yet we hope that you your selves having considered better of this matter , will by a speedy retractation consult the good of your own consciences , and the honour of the gallicane clergy : of which clergy , as hitherto some have not been wanting , so we hope that for the time to come , others will not be wanting , who following the example of the good shepherd , shall be ready to lay down their lives willingly for their sheep , and for maintaining the inheritance conveyed down to them from their fathers . as for our part , we are ready according to the duty of our function , and by the assistance of divine grace , to offer up the sacrifice of righteousness , and to maintain the rights and liberties of the church of god , and the authority and dignity of this holy see : not trusting in our selves , but depending for all things on god , who comforts and strengthens us , and who commanded peter to come unto him , walking on the waters : for the fashion of this world passeth away , and the day of the lord approacheth . let us therefore , venerable brethren and beloved children , so behave our selves that when the great master of the family , and the prince of pastors shall make his accounts with his servants , he may not require at their hands the blood of a broken and torn church , which he redeemed with his own blood . we do again give you all our apostolical blessing with much sincere and cordial affection , and pray that the divine blessing may be added to it . given at rome , april 11. 1682. the protestation made by the assembly of the clergy against the popes proceedings before the former brief was read by them . ecclesia gallicana suis se regit legibus , propriasque consuetudines inviolate custodit , quibus gallicani pontifices , majoresque nostri , nulla definitione , nullaque authoritate derogatum esse voluerunt , & quas ipsi summi pontifices agnoscere & laudare dignati sunt . prope tamen est ut perfringantur leges justae quas prisca galliarum religio reverendáque vetustas , inconcussas fecerunt . ecce etenim , quod sine acerbissimo animi sensu dici non potest , hisce annis superioribus , per provincias galliarum & civitates literae apostolicae seminatae sunt , quibus antiqua gallicanae ecclesiae jura & patria instituta aperte violantur . ex his scilicet intelligimus de regni ecclesiarumque nostrarum negotiis contra mores nostros usurpatam esse cognitionem . inauditis partibus pronunciata judicia , jurisdictionem episcoporum conculcatam , denique contra canonem ecclesiasticum & contra consuetudines illustrissimae gallicanae ecclesiae , metropolitae gladium excommunicationis intentatum esse . dolet clerus gallicanus , queriturque ex his & aliis quae exinde facta sunt , oppressas libertates ecclesiarum ; perturbatam ecclesiae formam , illatum dedecus pontificali ordini , terminósque perruptos quos patres nostri constitueraent : et nè officium & causam suam deserere aut praevaricari suae dignitati , ecclesiarumque suarum commodis videatur , publica contestatione obloqui , & inertis silentii à se movere culpam , decrevit : ut exemplo patrum suorum in posterum provisum sit , nè quid nocere possit juribus & libertatibus ecclesiae gallicanae ; eóque magis inclinat in eam sententiam quod summus pontifex innocentius xi . morum antiquorum & canonicae disciplinae severus assertor non patietur fieri injuriam decretis suorum praedecessorum , est canonibus promulgatis qui rescindebant quicquid subreptum erat contra privata provinciarum jura . nolebant siquidem ecclesiarum privilegia , quae semper conservanda sunt , confundi . propterea clerus idem gallicanus professus antea omnem reverentiam , obedientiámque quam semper exhibuit , perpetuóque exhibiturus est , cathedrae petri , in qua potentiorem agnoscit principatum , coram clarissimo domino joanne baptista lauro , protonotario apostolico , & nunciaturae apostolicae galliarum auditore , protestari constituit , sicut de facto protestatur per praesentes , nè literis pontificiis datis ad episcopum apamiensem die secundo octobris 1680. ad ecclesiae apamiensis capitulum eodem die octobris , ad episcopum tholozanum die primo januarii 1681. ad moniales seu canonissas regulares congregationis beatae mariae virginis monasterii de charonne die septimo august . & 15. octob. 1680. vel aliis exinde & illarum virtute actis & secutis quibuscunque ; damnum aliquod seu praejudicium juribus ecclesiae gallicanae fieri possit , neve quis in aliis locis & temporibus hoc in exemplum & in authoritatem trahat , ut antiquos ecclesiae canones , avitas regni consuetudines , receptosque mores ecclesiae gallicanae oppugnare audeat , aut propter ea quidquam sibi licere existimet ; immò vero nemo nesciat hoc nihil obstare , quo minus canones , consuetudines , jura & libertates ejusdem ecclesiae pristinam vim & integram authoritatem retineant & custodiant . hoc , clerus gallicanus sibi suisque privilegiis cautum consultúmque voluit , & omnibus notum esse , nè quis ignorantiae causam praetexet . datum in comitiis generalibus cleri gallicani lutetiae habitis , may 6. 1682. the translation of the former protestation . the gallicane church governs her self by her own laws , and does inviolably observe her own customs , from which the bishops of france and our ancestors have thought that no decision , and no authority could derogate ; and the popes themselves have thought fit both to acknowledge and to commend them : but now those just laws , which the ancient piety of france , and venerable antiquity have esteemed such as that they were never to be shaken , are almost enervated . for we have seen ( which cannot be mentioned without a most bitter and sensible affliction to us ) that of late years , letters from the apostolick see , have been disseminated through the provinces and cities of france , in which the ancient rights of the gallicane church and the appointments of our forefathers are manifestly violated . by these we understand that an inspection into the affairs of this kingdom and of our churches , has been assumed against our customs ; that judgements have been given without hearing the parties ; that the episcopal jurisdiction has been trodden under foot , and that the sentence of excommunication has been threatned against a metropolitan , contrary to the ecclesiastical canons , and the customs of the most illustrious gallicane church . the gallicane clergy is grieved and complains , that by these things , and by what has been since done pursuant to them , the liberties of their churches have been oppressed , and the order of the church has been disturbed ; that the episcopal office has been disgraced , and the land-marks have been broke through , which our fathers had fixed : and therefore that they may avoid the imputation of having abandoned their duty and station , or betrayed their own dignity and the interests of their churches , they have resolved to oppose these things by a publick protestation , and so to free themselves from the guilt of a neglectful silence ; that so according to the examples set them by their forefathers , they may take care , that these things may not for the future prejudice the rights and liberties of the gallicane church . to this they are the more inclined because the present pope innocent the eleventh ( so eminent for excellent vertues and a strict observance of the discipline established by the canons ) will not suffer any thing to be done that shall be injurious to the decrees of his predecessors , and the canons already promulgated ; by which every thing is rescinded that hath been surreptitiously obtained , contrary to the proper rights of provinces ; nor would they suffer the priviledges of churches to be confounded , which ought to be constantly preserved . therefore the said gallicane clergy having first made profession of all reverence and obedience , which she ever has expressed and ever will express to the chair of st. peter , in which she acknowledges a more powerful * principality , has resolved to protest before the most renowned iohn baptist lauri , protonotary apostolick , and auditor of the apostolick nunciature in france , as in fact she does by these presents protest that the popes letters to the bishop of pamiers , bearing date the 2 of october 1680. and to the chapter of pamiers of the same date , and to the bishop of tholouse , bearing date the 1 of ianuary 1681. and the letters to the nuns , or regular canonesses of the blessed virgin of the nunnery of charron , bearing date the 7 of august and the 15. of october 1680. or any other that have followed since that time , or any thing that has been acted or done by vertue of those , shall be no wayes hurtful or prejudicial to the rights of the gallicane church , and shall turn to no precedent or warrant for doing the like in any other time or place ; and that none may thereupon presume to oppose the ancient canons of the church , or the established customs of this kingdom , or the received practices of the gallicane church , or think that he may lawfully do any thing , pursuant thereunto ; and let none be ignorant , that these things notwithstanding the canons , customs , rights , and liberties of the said church , shall still remain and preserve their ancient force and authority entire : hereby the gallicane clergy have thought fit to secure and preserve themselves and their priviledges , and this this they will have known to all persons , that so none may pretend ignorance . past in the assembly general of the clergy of france , the sixth of may 1682. a letter from paris of the 20th of iune new-stile , containing a further account of the contests between the pope and the french king. by my last , which i sent by one that went from hence a fortnight ago , i gave you a large account of our affairs here , which i hope has come to your hands before this time ; but the great change of the present prospect we have of that matter , from that which appeared when i wrote last , needs not surprize you : for the secrets of state are not known here , so quick as with you , and they lie in so few hands , and those are so true to the kings service , that the greatest persons here can penetrate no further into the councils than as they are pleased to lay them open . you will not therefore wonder , if i now tell you that instead of the adjusting of that affair , of which all people here seemed so assured that it was universally spoken of as a thing done , yet it appears now to be more desperate than ever . we now know the true cause of the sudden adjourning the assembly of the clergy , and that it flowed not from any disposition to compose this difference , but that it was done to prevent a stroke , that might have put it past reconciling : the true reason was this , the old resolute pope sent a courier to france to the internuntio with a bull of excommunication , which he required him to carry into the assembly , and there to fulminate in his name against all the assembly . this came to the knowledge of cardinal d' estree , who , to prevent the ill effects of so hardy a step , sent presently a courier with a strict charge to use all possible hast to get before the popes courier , that so the king might have timely notice of what the other was bringing ; and this is now known to be the true reason of that sudden adjournment . so by this you see this matter is further from being composed than ever . as for the affair of the sorbonne , of which i gave you an account in my last , it has had another effect than was expected . on monday last the faculty met , where there was great opposition made to the registring the kings edict , insomuch that they could not bring the affair to any issue at that time ; but adjourned the debate till next day , yet it was visible enough that those for the negative were the stronger party ; so at night the arch-bishop of paris , the marquiss of segnelay , the first president , and the attorney general met , and it seems resolved on that which was put in execution next day ; for when the sorbonne was again assembled and engaged in the debate , about eleven a clock an officer was sent from the court of parliament , requiring them to suspend their debates , and to send them 12 of their number , who were named in the order , together with their clerk and their register ; the persons were not left to their choice , lest they might have sent some that might have spoken too freely to the parliament . when the persons thus called for , appeared , the first president made a most terrible harangue to them ; he accused the sorbonne of ingratitude and presumption , that they who were but a faculty , that had no authority , and had their meeting only by the kings connivence , should have arrogated an authority to themselves , to have examined the matter of an edict that was made by the assembly of the whole clergy of france , and was confirmed by the king , and verified by the parliament . he therefore commanded their clerk to insert it in their register , and charged them not to assemble any more , but as they should be required and authorised to it by orders from the court : and told them that by the first of july , the kings pleasure should be signified to them . thus you see how firm the sorbonne is in this matter , for the proceedings of the court of parliament are an open confession that the majority of the sorbonne would have refused to receive the edict . i add no more but that i am intirely yours . paris , june 20. s. n. 1682. finis . errata . pag. 8. l. 33. after constance , r. and basil : p. 18. l. 22. r. nostis quae is fecerit : p. 25. l. 8. for from r. with . there are lately published the abridgement of the history of the reformation of the church of england . the history of the rights of princes in the disposing of ecclesiastical benefices and church-lands . both written by gilbert burnet d. d. and printed for richard chiswell . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30395-e190 * or dignity . reflections on a paper, intituled, his majesty's reasons for withdrawing himself from rochester burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 10 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30404) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47953) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:38) reflections on a paper, intituled, his majesty's reasons for withdrawing himself from rochester burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ; 21 cm. printed for john starkey and ric. chiswell ..., london : 1689. attributed to gilbert burnet. cf. mcalpin coll., halkett & laing. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -ii, -king of england, 1633-1701. england and wales. -sovereign (1685-1688 : james ii) 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion reflections on a paper , intituled , his majesty's reasons for withdrawing himself from rochester . published by authority . london : printed for john starkey ; and ric. chiswell at the rose and crown , in s. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxix . reflections on a paper , intituled , his majesty's reasons for withdrawing himself from rochester . there is a paper spread about the town , which might be confuted in every particular , not only with clearness , but with severity too , if there was not a restraint put upon the full liberty of answering any thing that goeth under a name , to which respect will still be paid , even by those to whom it is denied : therefore nothing will be said to it by way of an intire answer ; nor any advantage taken of the many mistakes which lye too open to be defended . it shall suffice for the present to mention some things which are laid down in the paper , in such a manner , as may , perhaps , mislead men into a wrong judgment of them , for want of being sufficiently informed in the matter of fact . the particulars are : 1. the prince sending his guards at eleven of clock at night , to take possession of the posts at whitehall , without advertising him of it in the least . 2. the sending a kind of an order by three lords , to be gone out of his own palace before twelve that morning . to the first , the matter of fact is , that upon the king 's being apprehended , when he was going out of the kingdom , and afterwards being brought to rochester , whither his servants and coaches were sent for by him , to bring him up to london , the prince , who had upon that taken his measures to hasten up to town , and being fixed in his opinion , that it was , in many respects , improper for the king and him to be there at the same time , in the present state of affairs ; sent monsieur zulestein to meet him in the way , and to desire him to return to rochester ; but monsieur zulestein missing him , by going another way than that by which he came , the king arrived at whitehall , and at the same time sent a message by my lord feversham to the prince , inviting him to come to st. james's , with what number of troops he should think fit to bring with him . the prince upon this deliberateth with the lords then at windsor , the day before he had appointed to be in town , and having communicated the message to them , and left them to debate the whole matter , it was agreed , that it was in no kind adviseable for the prince to accept the invitation ; and on the other side , there being a necessity that the prince should be in town next day , the lords thought that the shortness of time could admit no better expedient , than that the king might be desired to remove to some place within a reasonable distance from london ; upon which , ham , a house belonging to the dutchess of lauderdale , was pitched upon . in order to this , a paper was drawn in these words , and signed by the prince : we desire you the lord marquess of hallifax , the earl of shreusbury , and the lord delamere , to tell the king , that it is thought convenient for the great quiet of the city , and for the greater safety of his person , that he do remove to ham , where he shall be attended by guards , who will be ready to preserve him from any disturbance . given at windsor , the 17th day of december , 1688. prince de orange . the prince appointed three lords to carry this paper ; and it was resolved , that before the delivery , the prince's guards should be possessed of all the posts at whitehall , to prevent the possibility of a disturbance from guards belonging to several masters ; which besides other ill consequences might perhaps have involved even the king 's own person in the danger that might have arisen from any dispute . it was supposed by computation , that the prince's guards might be at london by eight of the clock that night : but it so happened , that it was past ten before they all arrived , commanded by the count of solmes ; and when they were come , there being difficulty made of withdrawing the king's guards from whitehall , there was so much time spent , that it was past twelve of the clock before the lords could proceed in their message . in which , that they might preserve all possible decency and respect ; and that they might not suddenly break in upon the king with a message of this kind , they sent to my lord middleton , his principal secretary of state , the following letter . my lord , there is a message to be delivered to his majesty from the prince , which is of so great importance , that we , who are charged with it , desire we may be immediately admitted ; and therefore desire to know where we may find your lordship , that you may introduce , my lord , your lordship 's most humble servants , hallifax , shreusbury , delamere . the lord middleton told the messenger , he would be ready at the stairs of the guard-chamber to carry the lords to the king. upon this they went , and finding my lord middleton at the place he had appointed , he brought them to the king , whom they found in bed : after making an apology for coming at an hour which might give him disturbance , the prince's message before recited was delivered him ; which after he had read , he said , he would comply with . then the lords , as they were directed , humbly desired , if it might be done with convenience to his majesty , that he would be pleased to remove so early , as to be at ham by noon ; by this means , to prevent the meeting the prince in his way to london , where he was to come the same day ; his majesty readily agreed to it , and then asked , whether he might not appoint what servants should attend him ; to which the lords replied , that it was left to him to give order in that as he pleased . and after that , they took their leave . when they were gone as far as the privy chamber , the king sent for them again , and told them , that he had forgot to acquaint them with his resolutions before the message came , to send my lord godolphin next morning to the prince , to propose his going back to rochester , he finding by the message that monsieur zulesteyn was charged with , that the prince had no mind he should be in london ; and therefore he now desired , that he might rather return to rochester , than go to any other place . the lords replied , that they would immediately send an account to the prince of what his majesty desired , and did not doubt of such an answer as would be to his satisfaction ; accordingly they sent presently to the prince , who was then at sion , to inform him of all that had passed ; and before eight of the clock in the morning had a letter from monsieur benting , by the prince's order , agreeing to the king's proposal of going to rochester ; upon which , the guards being made ready , and the boats prepared , he went that night to gravesend . the observations which may naturally arise from this whole matter are , first , that the king having been sent to by the prince by monsieur zulesteyn , that he would be pleased to return to rochester . this message by the lords could not possibly be a surprize to him , but must have been expected as a necessary inference from the first ; and this is proved in fact by the king 's having given order to my lord godolphin to go to the prince with an offer to return to rochester , concluding that his highness would have less exception to his being there , than he might have to his remaining at london . in the next place , as to the complaint of the prince's sending his guards at such a time of night , and without giving warning ; let it be considered , whether , since a thing of this kind was judged necessary to be done , it had not better grace even in respect to the king himself , to do it upon short warning , rather than expose him more by treating and proposing formally that which his majesty was in no condition to deny . in all cases where the means of contesting fail , it is sure a respect to those who are under such a disadvantage , not to add to their mortification , by drawing it out in length by the deceitful ceremony of treating where no power is left to dispute . then as to the unseasonable hour , besides other reasons that have been mentioned ; would those who make the objection have been content , a thing of this nature should have been done in broad day-light , and by sound of drum and trumpet ? no doubt they would then , with more reason , have complained , that a king , in these unhappy circumstances , should be exposed to such an appearance of a triumph ; the thing , in the world , the prince is the least inclined to , and in that respect hath right to the fairest construction such a proceeding will admit . whoever will compare the power of the prince , with the use he maketh of it , must be sufficiently convinced of his moderation : and in this particular instance , allowing the necessity of the prince's coming to town that very day , of which he was the best judge , and admitting the consequence , which cannot reasonably be denied , that the king 's remaining there at that time might not only have given an interruption to the peace of the town , but to the respect that ought to be preserved to his person ; it was not possible to execute what was thought so necessary , with more decency and precaution than was observed ; and impartial judges , who are not carried away by the sound of things , against the reason of them , will , no doubt , give their opinions , that this proceeding doth not deserve any part of the censure that hath been put upon it , by those who did not know the truth of it . the end . a sermon preached at the funeral of the honourable robert boyle at st. martins in the fields, january 7, 1691/2 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1692 approx. 62 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30441 wing b5899 estc r21619 12683266 ocm 12683266 65710 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30441) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65710) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:11) a sermon preached at the funeral of the honourable robert boyle at st. martins in the fields, january 7, 1691/2 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 40 p. printed for ric. chiswell ... and john taylor ..., london : 1692. cf. fulton, j. bibl. of robert boyle 300. first ed., issue b. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng boyle, robert, 1627-1691. funeral sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2000-00 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2001-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-07 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2002-07 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached at the funeral of the honourable robert boyle ; at st. martins in the fields , january 7. 1691 / 2 ; . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown , and iohn taylor , at the ship , in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxcii . eccles . ii. 26. for god giveth to a man that is good in his sight , wisdom , knowledge , and joy . when the author of this book , the wisest of men , applied his heart to know and to search , to seek out wisdom , and the reason ( or nature ) of things ; and summed up the account of all , article by article , one by one , to find out the thread of nature , and the plann of its great author ; tho his soul sought after it , yet the riddle was too dark , he , even he , could not discover it : but one man among a thousand he did find , and happy was he in that discovery , if among all the thousands that he knew , he found one counting figure for so many cyphers , which tho they encreased the number , yet did not swell up the account , but were so many nothings , or less and worse than nothings , according to his estimate of men and things . we have reason rather to think , that by a thousand is to be meant a vast and indefinite number ; otherwise it must be confessed that solomon's age was indeed a golden one , if it produced one man , to a thousand that carry only the name and figure , but that do not answer the end and excellency of their being . the different degrees and ranks of men , with relation to their inward powers and excellencies , is a surprizing but melancholy observation : many seem to have only a mechanical life , as if there were a moving and speaking spring within them , equally void both of reason and goodness . the whole race of men is for so many years of life , little better than encreasing puppits ; many are children to their lives end : the soul does for a large portion of life , sink wholly into the body in that shadow of death , sleep , that consumes so much of our time ; the several disorders of the body , the blood and the spirits , do so far subdue and master the mind , as to make it think , act , and speak according to the different ferments that are in the humours of the body ; and when these cease to play , the soul is able to hold its tenure no longer : all these are strange and amazing speculations ! and force one to cry out , why did such a perfect being make such feeble and imperfect creatures ? wherefore hast thou made all men in vain ? the secret is yet more astonishing , when the frowardness , the pride and ill-nature , the ignorance , folly and fury that hang upon this poor flattered creature , are likewise brought into the account . he that by all his observation , and encrease of knowledge , only encreaseth sorrow , while he sees that what is wanting cannot be numbred , and that which is crooked , cannot be made straight , is tempted to go about , and with solomon , to make his heart to despair of all the labour wherein he has travelled . but as there is a dark side of humane nature , so there is likewise a bright one , the flights and compass of awakened souls is no less amazing . the vast croud of figures that lie in a very narrow corner of the brain , which a good memory , and a lively imagination , can fetch out in great order , and with much beauty : the strange reaches of the mind in abstracted speculations , and the amazing progress that is made from some simple truths into theories , that are the admiration as well as the entertainment of the thinking part of mankind ; the sagacity of apprehending and judging , even at the greatest distance ; the elevation that is given to sense , and the sensible powers , by the invention of instruments ; and which is above all , the strength that a few thoughts do spread into the mind , by which it is made capable of doing or suffering the hardest things ; the life which they give , and the calm which they bring , are all so unaccountable , that take all together , a man is a strange huddle , of light and darkness , of good and evil , and of wisdom and folly. the same man , not to mention the difference that the several ages of life make upon him , feels himself in some minutes so different from what he is in the other parts of his life , that as the one fly away with him into the transports of joy ; so the other do no less sink him into the depressions of sorrow : he scarce knows himself in the one , by what he was in the other : upon all which , when one considers a man both within and without , he concludes that he is both wonderfully , and also fearfully made : that in one side of him he is but a little lower than angels ; and in another , a little , a very little higher than beasts . but how astonishing soever this speculation of the medly and contrariety in our composition may be , it contributes to raise our esteem the higher , of such persons as seem to have arisen above , ( if not all , yet ) all the eminent frailties of humane nature ; that have used their bodies only as engines and instruments to their minds , without any other care about them , but to keep them in good case , fit for the uses they put them to ; that have brought their souls to a purity which can scarce appear credible to those who do not imagine that to be possible to another , which is so far out of their own reach ; and whose lives have shined in a course of many years , with no more allay nor mixture , than what just served to shew that they were of the same humane nature with others ; who have lived in a constant contempt of wealth , pleasure , or the greatness of this world ; whose minds have been in as constant a pursuit of knowledge , in all the several ways in which they could trace it ; who have added new regions of their own discoveries , and that in a vast variety to all that they had found made before them ; who have directed all their enquiries into nature to the honour of its great maker : and have joyned two things , that how much soever they may seem related , yet have been sound so seldom together , that the world has been tempted to think them inconsistent ; a constant looking into nature , and a yet more constant study of religion , and a directing and improving of the one by the other ; and who to a depth of knowledg which often makes men morose , and to a heighth of piety , which too often makes them severe , have added all the softness of humanity , and all the tenderness of charity , an obliging civility , as well as a melting kindness : when all these do meet in the same person , and that in eminent degrees , we may justly pretend that we have also made solomon's observation of one man ; but alas ! the age is not so fruitful of such , that we can add one among a thousand . to such a man the characters given in the words of my text , do truly agree , that god giveth to him that is good in his sight , wisdom , knowledg , and joy : the text that is here before us , does so agree to this that i have read , that the application will be so easie , that it will be almost needless , after i have a little opened it . a man that is good in the sight of god , is a character of great extent : goodness is the probity and purity of the mind , shewing it self in a course of sedate tranquility , of a contented state of life , and of vertuous and generous actions . a good man is one that considers what are the best principles of his nature , and the highest powers of his soul ; and what are the greatest and the best things that they are capable of ; and that likewise observes what are the disorders and depressions , the inward diseases and miseries , which tend really to lesson and to corrupt him ; and that therefore intends to be the purest , the wisest , and the noblest creature that his nature can carry him to be ; that renders himself as clean and innocent , as free from designs and passions , as much above appetite and pleasure , and all that sinks the soul deeper into the body ; that is as tender and compassionate , as gentle and good natured as he can possibly make himself to be . this is the good man in my text ; that rises as much as he can above his body , and above this world , above his senses , and the impressions that sensible objects make upon him ; that thinks the greatest and best thing he can do , is to awaken and improve the seeds and capacities to vertue and knowledge , that are in his nature ; to raise those to the noblest objects , to put them into the rightest method , and to keep them ever in tune and temper : and that with relation to the rest of mankind , considers himself as a citizen of the whole world , and as a piece of humane nature ; that enters into the concerns of as many persons as come within his sphere , without the narrowness or partiality of meaner regards ; that thinks he ought to extend his care and kindness as far as his capacity can go ; that stretches the instances of this , to the utmost corners of the earth , if occasion is given for it ; and that intends to make mankind the better , the wiser , and the happier for him in the succeeding as well as in the present generation . this is the truly good man in god's sight , who does not act a part , or put on a mask ; who is not for some time in a constraint , till the design is compast for which he put himself under that force ; but is truly and uniformly good , and is really a better man in secret , than even he appears to be ; since all his designs and projects are worthy and great : and nature , accidents and surprizes may be sometimes too quick and too hard for him ; yet these cannot reach his heart , nor change the setled measures of his life ; which are all pure and noble . and tho the errors of this good man's conduct may in some things give advantages to bad men , who are always severe censurers ; yet his unspeakable comfort is , that he can make his secret appeals to god , who knows the whole of his heart as well as the whole of his life ; and tho here and there , things may be found that look not quite so well , and that do indeed appear worst of all to himself , who reflects the oftenest , and thinks the most heinously of them ; yet by measuring infinite goodness with his own proportion of it , and by finding that he can very gently pass over many and great defects in one whose principles and designs seem to be all pure and good , he from that concludes , that those allowances must be yet infinitely greater , where the goodness is infinite ; so being assured within himself , that his vitals , his inward principles , and the scheme and course of his life are good , he from thence raises an humble confidence in himself , which tho it does not , as indeed it ought not , free him from having still low thoughts of himself , yet it delivers him from all dispiriting fear and sorrow , and gives him a firm confidence in the love and goodness of god , out of which he will often feel an incredible source of satisfaction and joy , springing up in his mind . a man who is thus good in the sight of god , has , as one may truly think , happiness enough within himself . but this is not all his reward , nor is it all turned over into a reversion . we have here a fair particular given us , by one that dealt as much both in wisdom and folly , as ever man did ; who run the whole compass of pleasure , business , and learning , with the freest range , and in the greatest variety , and who by many repeated experiments knew the strong and the weak sides of things : he then who had sound the vanity , the labour , the sore travel , and the vexation of spirit , that was in all other things ; the many disappointments that were given by them , and the painful reflections that did arise out of them so sensibly , that they made him hate life for the sake of all the labour that belonged to it , and even to make his heart despair of all the travel he had undergone , gives us in these words another view of the effect of true goodness , and of the happy consequences that follow it . the first of these is wisdom , not the art of craft and dissimulation ; the cunning of deceiving or undermining others : not only the views that some men may have of the springs of humane nature , and the art of turning these ; which is indeed a nobler scene of wisdom , by which societies are conducted and maintained . but the chief acts and instances of true wisdom , are once to form right judgments of all things ; of their value , and of their solidity ; to form great and noble thoughts of god , and just and proper ones of our selves ; to know what we are capable of and fit for ; to know what is the true good and happiness of mankind , which makes societies safe , and nations flourish . this is solid wisdom , that is not mis-led by false appearances , nor imposed on by vulgar opinions . this was the wisdom that first brought men together , that tamed and corrected their natures ; and established all the art and good government that was once in the world ; but which has been almost totally defaced by the arts of robbery and murder , the true names for conquest ; a specious colour for the two worst things that humane nature is capable of , injustice and cruelty . wisdom in gross , is the forming true principles , the laying good schemes , the imploying proper instruments , and the chusing fit seasons for doing the best and noblest things that can arise out of humane nature . this is the defence as well as the glory of mankind : wisdom gives life to him that hath it , it is better than strength , and better than weapons of war ; it is , in one word , the image of god , and the excellency of man. it is here called the gift of god ; the seed of it is laid in our nature , but there must be a proper disposition of body , a right figure of brain , and a due temper of blood to give it scope and materials . these must also be cultivated by an exact education ; so that when all these things are laid together , it is plain in how many respects wisdom comes from god. there are also particular happy flights , and bright minutes , which open to men great landskips , and give them a fuller prospect of things , which do often arise out of no previous meditations , or chain of thought ; and these are flashes of light from its eternal source , which do often break in upon pure minds . they are not enthusiasms , nor extravagant pretensions , but true views of things , which appear so plain and simple , that when they come to be examined , it may be justly thought that any one could have fallen upon them , and the simplest are always the likest to be the truest . in short , a pure mind is both better prepared for an enlightning from above , and more capable of receiving it ; the natural strength of mind is awakened as well as recollected ; false biasses are removed ; and let prophane minds laugh at it as much as they please , there is a secret commerce between god and the souls of good men : they feel the influences of heaven , and become both the wiser and the better for them : their thoughts become nobler as well as sreer ; and no man is of so low a composition , but that with a great deal of goodness , and a due measure of application , he may become more capable of these , than any other that is one the same level with him , as to his natural powers , could ever grow to be , if corrupted with vice and defilement . knowledge comes next . this is that which opens the mind , and fills it with great notions ; the viewing the works of god even in a general survey , gives insensibly a greatness to the soul. but the more extended and exact , the more minute and severe , the enquiry be , the soul grows to be thereby the more inlarged by the variety of observation that is made , either on the great orbs and wheels that have their first motion , as well as their law of moving , from the author of all ; or on the composition of bodies , on the regularities , as well as the irregularities of nature ; and that mimickry of its heat and motion that artificial fires do produce and shew . this knowledge goes into the history of past times , and remote climates ; and with those livelier observations on art and nature , which give a pleasant entertainment and amusement to the mind , there are joined in some , the severer studies , the more laborious as well as the less-pleasant study of languages , on design to understand the sense , as well as the discoveries of former ages : and more particularly to find out the true sense of the sacred writings . these are all the several varieties of the most useful parts of knowledge ; and these do spread over all the powers of the soul of him that is capable of them , a sort of nobleness ; that makes him become thereby another kind of creature than otherwise he ever could have been : he has a larger size of soul , and vaster thoughts , that can measure the spheres , and enter into the theories of the heavenly bodies ; that can observe the proportion of lines , and numbers , the composition and mixtures of the several sorts of beings . this world , this life , and the mad scene we are in , grow to be but little and inconsiderable things , to one of great views and noble theories ; and he who is upon the true scent of real and useful knowledg , has always some great thing or other in prospect ; new scenes do open to him , and these draw after them discoveries , which are often made before , even those who made them were either aware , or in expectation of them : these by an endless chain are still pointing at , or leading into further discoveries . in all those , a man feels as sensibly , and distinguishes as plainly an improvement of the strength and compass of his powers , from the feebleness which ignorance and sloth bring upon them , as a man in health of body can distinguish between the life and strength which accompany it , and the flatness and languidness that diseases bring with them . this enlarges a man's empire over the creation , and makes it more intirely subject to him by the engines it invents to subdue and manage it , by the dissections in which it is more opened to his view , and by the observation of what is profitable or hurtful in every part of it : from which he is led to correct the one ; and exalt the other . this leads him into the knowledge of the hidden vertues that are in plants and minerals ; this teaches him to purify these , from the allays that are wrapped about them , and to improve them by other mixtures . in a word , this lets a man into the mysteries of nature : it gives him both the keys that open it , and a thread that will lead him further than he durst promise himself at first . we can easily apprehend the surprising joy of one born blind , that after many years of darkness , should be blest with sight , and the leaps and life of thought , that such a one should feel upon so ravishing a change ; so the new regions into which a true son of knowledge enters , the new objects and the various shapes of them that do daily present themselves to him , give his mind a flight , a raisedness , and a resined joy , that is of another nature than all the soft and bewitching pleasures of sense . and tho the highest reaches of knowledge do more clearly discover the weakness of our short-sighted powers , and shew us difficulties that gave us no pain before , because we did not apprehend them ; so that in this respect , he that increases knowledge , increases sorrow : yet it is a real pleasure to a searcher after truth , to be undeceived , to see how far he can go , and where he must make his stops : it is true , he finds he cannot compass all that he hath proposed to himself , yet he is both in view of it , and in the way to it , where he finds so many noble entertainments , that though he cannot find out the whole work of god , which the preacher tells us , that though a wise man thinks he may know it , yet even he shall not be able to find it out ; yet he has this real satisfaction in himself , that he has greater notions , nobler views , and finer apprehensions then he could have ever fallen upon in any other method of life . this knowledge , though it may seem to be meerly the effect of thought , of labour , and industry , yet it is really the gift of god. the capacity of our powers , and the disposition of our minds are in a great measure born with us : the circumstances and accidents of our lives depends so immediately upon providence , that in all these respects , knowledge comes , at least in the preparations to it , from god : there are also many happy openings of thought , which arise within the minds of the searchers after it , to which they did not lead themselves by any previous inferences , or by the comparing of things together . that , which the language of the world calls chance , happy accidents , or good stars , but is according to a more sanctified dialect providence , has brought many wonderful secrets by unlookt for hits , to the knowledge of men . the use of the loadstone , and the extent of sight by telescopes , besides a vast variety of other things that might be named , were indeed the immediate gifts of god to those who first fell upon them . and the profoundest inquiries into the greatest mysteries of nature , have and still do own this , in so particular a manner , that they affirm , that things that in some hands , and at some times are successful almost to a prodigy , when managed by others with all possible exactness do fail in the effects of them so totally , that the difference can be resolved into nothing , but a secret direction and blessing of providence . the third gift that god bestows on the good man is joy , and how can it be otherwise , but that a good , a wise and knowing man , should rejoyce both in god and in himself ; in observing the works and ways of god , and in feeling the testimony of a good conscience with himself . he is happy in the situation of his own mind , which he possesses in a calm contented evenues of spirit . he has not the agitations of passions , the ferment of designs and interests , nor the disorders of appetite which darken the mind , and create to it many imaginary troubles , as well as it encreases the sense of the real ones which may lye upon ones person or affairs . he rejoyces in god when he sees so many of the hidden beauties of his works , the wonderful fitness and contrivance , the curious disposition , and the vast usefulness of them , to the general good of the whole . these things afford him so great a variety of thought , that he can dwell long on that noble exercise without flatness or weariness . he rejoyces in all that he does , his imployments are much diversified , for the newness of his discoveries which returns often , gives him as often a newness of joy . his views are great , and his designs are noble ; even to know the works of god the better , and to render them the more useful to mankind . he can discover in the most despised plant , and the most contemptible mineral that which may allay the miseries of humane life , and render multitudes of men easie and happy . now to one that loves mankind , and that adores the author of our nature , every thing that may tend to celebrate his praises , and to sweeten the lives of mortals , affords a joy that is of an exalted and generous kind . if this at any time goes so far as to make him a little too well pleased with the discoveries he has made , and perhaps too nicely jealous of the honour of having done those services to the world , even this which is the chief and the most observed defect , that is much magnified by the ill-natured censures of great men , who must fix on it because they can find nothing else , yet i say even this shews the fullness of joy which wisdom and knowledge bring to good minds , they can give them so sensible a pleasure , that it cannot be at all times governed : and if it break out in any time in less decent instances , yet certainly those who have deserved so highly of the age in which they have lived , and who have been the instruments of so much good to the world , receive a very unworthy return , if the great services they have done mankind do not cover any little imperfection , especially when that is all the allay that can be found in them , and the only instance of humane frailty that has appeared in them . but if the joy that wisdom and knowledge give , is of so pure and so sublime a nature ; there is yet another occasion for joy , that far exceeds this : it arises from their integrity and goodness which receives a vast accession from this , that it is in the sight of god , seen and observed by him , who accepts of it now , and will in due time reward it . the terror of mind , and the confusion of face that follows bad actions , and the calm of thought and chearfulness of look that follows good ones , are such infallible indications of the suitableness or unsuitableness that is in these things to our natures , that all the contempt with which libertines may treat the argument will never be able to overcome and alter the plain and simple sense that mankind agrees in upon this head . a good man finds that he is acting according to his nature , and to the best principles in it , that he is living to some good end , that he is an useful piece of the world , and is a mean of making both himself and others wiser and happier , greater and better . these things give him a solid and lasting joy , and when he dares appeal to that god to whom he desires chiefly to approve himself , who knows his integrity and sees how thoroughly good he is , even in his secretest thoughts and intentions , he does upon that feel a joy with in himself , that carries him through all the difficulties of life ; and makes most accidents that happen to him pleasant , and all the rest supportable . he believes he is in the favour of god , he hopes he has some title to it , from the promises of god to him ; and his grace in him . he can see clouds gather about him and threaten a storm , and though he may be in circumstances , that render him very unfit to suffer much hardship ; yet he can endure and bear all things , because he believes all god's promises . he may sometimes from the severe sense that he has of his duty , be too hard , and even injust to himself , and the seriousness of his temper may give some harsher thoughts too great occasion , to raise disquiet within him ; but when he takes a full view of the infinite goodness of god , of the extent of his mercy , and of the riches of his grace ; he is forced to throw out any of those impressions , which melancholy may be able to make upon him : and even those when reflected on in a truer light , though they might have a little interrupted his joy , yet tend to encrease it , when by them he perceives , that true strictness of principles that governs him , which makes him tender of every thing that might seem to make the least breach upon his purity and holiness , even in the smallest matters . i will go no further upon my text , nor will i enter upon the reverse of it , that is in the following words , but to the sinner he giveth travel , to gather and to heap up , that he may give to him that is good before god. these i leave to your observation : they are too foreign to my subject to be spoke to , upon this occasion , that leads me now to the melancholy part of this sad solemnity . i confess i enter upon it , with the just apprehensions that it ought to raise in me : i know i ought here to raise my stile a little , and to triumph upon the honour that belongs to religion and virtue , and that appeared so eminently in a life , which may be considered as a pattern of living : and a pattern so perfect , that it will perhaps seem a little too far out of sight , too much above the hopes , and by consequence above the endeavours of any that might pretend to draw after such an original : which must ever be reckoned amongst the master-pieces even of that great hand that made it . i might here challenge the whole tribe of libertines to come and view the usefulness , as well as the excellence of the christian religion , in a life that was entirely dedicated to it : and see what they can object . i ought to call on all that were so happy , as to know him well , to observe his temper and course of life , and charge them to sum up and lay together the many great and good things that they saw in him , and from thence to remember always to how vast a sublimity the christian religion can raise a mind , that does both throughly believe it , and is entirely governed by it . i might here also call up the multitudes , the vast multitudes of those who have been made both the wiser and the easier , the better and the happier by his means ; but that i might do all this with the more advantage , i ought to bring all at once into my memory , the many happy hours that in a course of nine and twenty years conversation have fallen to my own share , which were very frequent and free for above half that time : that have so often both humbled and raised me , by seeing how exalted he was , and in that feeling more sensibly my own nothing and depression , and which have always edified , and never once , nor in any one thing been uneasie to me . when i remember how much i saw in him , and learned , or at least might have learned from him ; when i reflect on the gravity of his very appearance , the elevation of his thoughts and discourses , the modesty of his temper , and the humility of his whole deportment , which might have served to have forced the best thoughts even upon the worst minds , when , i say , i bring all this together into my mind ; as i form upon it too bright an idea to be easily received by such as did not know him ; so i am very sensible that i cannot raise it , equal to the thoughts of such as did . i know , the limits that custom gives to discourses of this kind , and the hard censures which commonly follow them : these will not suffer me to say all i think ; as i perceive i cannot bring out into distinct thoughts all that of which i have the imperfect hints and ruder draughts in my mind , which cannot think equal to a subject so far above my own level . i shall now therefore shew him only in perspective , and give a general , a very general view of him , reserving to more leisure and better opportunities , a farther and fuller account of him . i will be content at present to say but a little of him ; but that little will be so very much , that i must expect that those who do never intend to imitate any part of it , will be displeased with it all . i am resolved to use great reserves ; and to manage a tenderness , which how much soever it may melt me , shall not carry me beyond the strictest measures , and i will study to keep as much within bounds , as he lived beyond them . i will say nothing of the stem from which he sprang : that watered garden , watered with the blessings and dew of heaven , as well as fed with the best portions of this life , that has produced so many noble plants , and has stocked the most families in these kingdoms of any in our age , which has so signally felt the effects of their humble and christian motto , god's providence is my inheritance . he was the only brother of five , that had none of these titles that sound high in the world ; but he procured one to himself , which without derogating from the dignity of kings must be acknowledged to be beyond their prerogative . he had a great and noble fortune ; but it was chiefly so to him , because he had a great and noble mind to imploy it to the best uses . he began early to shew both a probity and a capacity ; that promised great things : and he passed through the youthful parts of life , with so little of the youth in him , that in his travels while he was very young and wholly the master of himself he seemed to be out of the reach of the disorders of that age , and those countries through which he passed . he had a modesty and a purity laid so deep in his nature , that those who knew him the earliest have often told me , that even then nature seemed entirely sanctified in him . his piety received a vast encrease as he often owned to me from his acquaintance with the great primate of ireland , the never enough admired vsher , who as he was very particularly the friend of the whole family , so seeing such seed and beginnings in him , studied to cultivate them with due care . he set him chiefly to the study of the scriptures in their original languages , which he followed in a course of many years , with so great exactness he could have quoted , all remarkable passages very readily in hebrew : and he read the new testament so diligently in the greek , that there never occurred to me an occasion to mention any one passage of it , that he did not readily repeat in that language . the use of this he continued to the last , for he could read it with other mens eyes ; but the weakness of his sight forced him to disuse the other , since he had none about him that could read it to him . he had studied the scriptures to so good purpose , and with so critical a strictness , that few men whose profession oblige them chiefly to that fort of learning have gone beyond him in it : and he had so great a regard to that sacred book , that if any one in discourse had dropped any thing that gave him a clearer view of any passage in it , he received it with great pleasure , he examined it accurately , and if it was not uneasie to him that offered it , he desired to have it in writing . he had the profoundest veneration for the great god of heaven and earth , that i have ever observed in any person . the very name of god was never mentioned by him without a pause and a visible stop in his discourse , in which one that knew him most particularly above twenty years , has told me that he was so exact , that he does not remember to have observed him once to fail in it . he was most constant and serious in his secret addresses to god ; and indeed it appeared to those , who conversed most with him in his enquiries into nature , that his main design in that , on which as he had his own eye most constantly , so he took care to put others often in mind of it , was to raise in himself and others vaster thoughts of the greatness and glory , and of the wisdom and goodness of god. this was so deep in his thoughts , that he concludes the article of his will , which relates to that illustrious body , the royal society , in these words , wishing them also a happy success in their laudable attempts , to discover the true nature of the works of god ; and praying that they and all other searchers into physical truths , may cordially refer their attainments to the glory of the great author of nature , and to the comfort of mankind . as he was a very devout worshipper of god , so he was a no less devout christian. he had possessed himself with such an amiable view of that holy religion , separated from either superstitious practices or the sourness of parties , that as he was fully perswaded of the truth of it , and indeed wholly possessed with it , so he rejoyced in every discovery that nature furnisht him with , to illustrate it , or to take off the objections against any part of it . he always considered it as a system of truths , which ought to purifie the hearts , and govern the lives of those who profess it ; he loved no practice that seemed to lessen that , nor any nicety that occasioned divisions amongst christians . he thought pure and disinteressed christianity was so bright and so glorious a thing , that he was much troubled at the disputes and divisions which had arisen about some lesser matters , while the great and the most important , as well as the most universally acknowledged truths were by all sides almost as generally neglected as they were confessed . he had therefore designed , tho' some accidents did , upon great considerations , divert him from settling it during his life , but not from ordering it by his will , that a liberal provision should be made for one , who should in a very few well digested sermons every year , set forth the truth of the christian religion in general , without descending to the subdivisions among christians , and who should be changed every third year , that so this noble study and imployment might pass through many hands , by which means many might become masters of the argument . he was at the charge of the translation and impression of the new testament into the malyan language , which he sent over all the east-indies . he gave a noble reward to him that translated grotius his incomparable book of the truth of the christian religion into arabick , and was at the charge of a whole impression , which he took care to order to be scattered in all the countries where that language is understood . he was resolved to have carried on the impression of the new testament in the turkish language , but the company thought it became them to be the doers of it , and so suffered him only to give a large share towards it . he was at 700 l. charge in the edition of the irish bible , which he ordered to be distributed in ireland ; and he contributed liberally both to the impressions of the welsh bible , and of the irish bible for scotland . he gave during his life 300 l. to advance the design of propagating the christian religion in america , and as soon as he heard that the east-india company were entertaining propositions for the like design in the east , he presently sent 100 l. for a beginning and an example , but intended to carry it much further , when it should be set on foot to purpose . thus was his zeal lively and effectual in the greatest and truest concerns of religion ; but he avoided to enter far into the unhappy breaches that have so long weakened , as well as distracted christianity , any otherwise than to have a great aversion to all those opinions and practices , that seemed to him to destroy morality and charity . he had a most particular zeal against all severities and persecutions upon the account of religion . i have seldom observ'd him to speak with more heat and indignation , than when that came in his way . he did throughly agree with the doctrines of our church , and conform to our worship ; and he approved of the main of our constitution , but he much lamented some abuses that he thought remained still among us . he gave eminent instances of his value for the clergy . two of these i shall only mention . when he understood what a share he had in impropriations , he ordered very large gifts to be made to the incumbents in those parishes , and to the widows of such as had died before he had resolved on this charity . the sums that , as i have been informed , by one that was concerned in two distributions that were made , amounted upon those two occasions , to near 600 l. and another very liberal one is also ordered by his will , but in an indefinite sum , i suppose , by reason of the present condition of estates in ireland : so plentifully did he supply those who served at the altar , out of that which was once devoted to it , though it be now converted to a temporal estate . another instance of his sence of the sacred functions went much deeper . soon after the restoration in the year sixty , the great minister of that time , pressed him both by himself and by another , who was then likewise in a high post , to enter into orders . he did it not meerly out of a respect to him and his family , but chiefly out of his regard to the church , that he thought would receive a great strengthening , as well as a powerful example from one , who , if he once entered into holy orders , would be quickly at the top. this he told me made some impressions on him . his mind was , even then at three and thirty , so intirely disingaged from all the projects and concerns of this world , that as the prospect of dignity in the church , could not move him much , so the probabilities of his doing good in it , was much the stronger motive . two things determined him against it ; one was , that his having no other interests , with relation to religion , besides those of saving his own soul , gave him , as he thought , a more unsuspected authority , in writing or acting on that side : he knew the prophane crew fortified themselves against all that was said by men of our profession , with this , that it was their trade , and that they were paid for it : he hoped therefore , that he might have the more influence , the less he shared in the patrimony of the church . but his main reason was , that he had so high a sense of the obligations of the pastoral care ; and of such as watch over those souls , which christ purchased with his own blood , and for which they must give an account , at the last and great day , that he durst not undertake it , especially not having felt within himself an inward motion to it by the holy ghost ; and the first question that is put to those who come to be initiated into the service of the church , relating to that motion , he who had not felt it , thought he durst not make the step ; least otherwise he should have lyed to the holy ghost : so solemnly and seriously did he judge of sacred matters . he was constant to the church ; and went to no separated assemblies , how charitably soever he might think of their persons , and how plentifully soever he might have relived their necessities . he loved no narrow thoughts , nor low or superstitious opinions in religion , and therefore as he did not shut himself up within a party , so neither did he shut any party out from him . he had brought his mind to such a freedom , that he was not apt to be imposed on ; and his modesty was such , that he did not dictate to others ; but proposed his own sense , with a due and decent distrust ; and was ever every ready to hearken to what was suggested to him by others . when he differed from any , he expressed himself in so humble and so obliging a way , that he never treated things or persons with neglect , and i never heard that he offended any one person in his whole life by any part of his deportment : for if at any time he saw cause to speak roundly to any , it was never in passion , or with any reproachful or indecent expressions . and as he was careful to give those who conversed with him , no cause or colour for displeasure , so he was yet more careful of those who were absent , never to speak ill of any ; in which he was the exactest man i ever knew . if the discourse turn'd to be hard on any , he was presently silent ; and if the subject was too long dwelt on , he would at last interpose , and between reproof and rallery , divert it . he was exactly civil , rather to ceremony ; and though he felt his easiness of access , and the desires of many , all strangers in particular , to be much with him , made great wasts on his time ; yet as he was severe in that , not to be denied when he was at home , so he said he knew the heart of a stranger , and how much eased his own had been , while travelling , if admitted to the conversation of those he desired to see ; therefore he thought his obligation to strangers , was more than bare civility , it was a piece of religious charity in him . he had for almost forty years , laboured under such a feebleness of body , and such lowness of strength and spirits , that it will appear a surprizing thing to imagine , how it was possible for him to read , to meditate , to try experiments , and to write as he did . he bore all his infirmities , and some sharp pains , with the decency and submission that became a christian and a philosopher . he had about him all that unaffected neglect of pomp in cloaths , lodging , furniture and equipage , which agreed with his grave and serious course of life . he was advised to a very ungrateful simplicity of diet ; which by all appearance was that which preserved him so long beyond all mens expectation ; this he observed so strictly , that in a course of above thirty years , he neither eat nor drank to gratifie the varieties of appetite , but meerly to support nature ; and was so regular in it , that he never once transgressed the rule , measure , and kind , that was prescribed him . he had a feebleness in his sight ; his eyes were so well used by him , that it will be easily imagined he was very tender of them , and very apprehensive of such distempers as might affect them . he did also imagine , that if sickness obliged him to lie long a bed , it might raise the pains of the stone in him to a degree that was above his weak strength to bear ; so that he feared that his last minutes might be too hard for him ; and this was the root of all the caution and apprehension that he was observed to live in . but as to life it self , he had the just indifference to it , and the weariness of it , that became so true a christian. i mention these the rather , that i may have occasion to shew the goodness of god to him , in the two things that he feared ; for his sight began not to grow dimm above four hours before he died ; and when death came upon him , he had not been above three hours a bed , before it made an end of him , with so little uneasiness , that it was plain the light went out , meerly for want of oil to maintain the flame . but i have looked too early to this conclusion of his life , yet before i can come at it , i find there is still much in my way . his charity to those that were in want , and his bounty to all learned men , that were put to wrastle with difficulties , were so very extraordinary , and so many did partake of them , that i may spend little time on this article . great summs went easily from him , without the partialities of sect , country , or relations ; for he considered himself as a part of the humane nature , and as a debtor to the whole race of men. he took care to do this so secretly , that even those who knew all his other concerns , could never find out what he did that way ; and indeed he was so strict to our saviour's precept , that except the persons themselves , or some one whom he trusted to convey it to them , no body ever knew how that great share of his estate , which went away invisibly , was distributed ; even he himself kept no account of it , for that he thought might fall into other hands . i speak upon full knowledge on this article , because i had the honour to be often made use of by him in it . if those that have fled hither from the persecutions of france , or from the calamities of ireland , feel a sensible sinking of their secret supplies , with which they were often furnished , without knowing from whence they came , they will conclude , that they have lost not only a purse , but an estate that went so very liberally among them , that i have reason to say , that for some years his charity went beyond a thousand pound a year . here i thought to have gone to another head , but the relation he had , both in nature and grace , in living and dying , in friendship , and a likeness of soul to another person , forces me for a little while to change my subject . i have been restrain'd from it by some of her relations ; but since i was not so by her self , i must give a little vent to nature and to friendship ; to a long acquaintance and a vast esteem . his sister and he were pleasant in their lives , and in their death they were not divided ; for as he lived with her above fourty years , so he did not outlive her above a week . both died from the same cause , nature being quite spent in both . she lived the longest on the publickest scene , she made the greatest figure in all the revolutions of these kingdoms for above fifty years , of any woman of our age. she imployed it all for doing good to others , in which she laid out her time , her interest , and her estate , with the greatest zeal and the most success that i have ever known . she was indefatigable as well as dextrous in it : and as her great understanding , and the vast esteem she was in , made all persons in their several turns of greatness , desire and value her friendship ; so she gave her self a clear title to imploy her interest with them for the service of others , by this that she never made any use of it to any end or design of her own . she was contented with what she had ; and though she was twice stript of it , she never moved on her own account , but was the general intercessor for all persons of merit , or in want : this had in her the better grace , and was both more christian and more effectual , because it was not limited within any narrow compass of parties or relations . when any party was down , she had credit and zeal enough to serve them , and she employed that so effectually , that in the next turn she had a new stock of credit , which she laid out wholly in that labour of love , in which she spent her life : and though some particular opinions might shut her up in a divided communion , yet her soul was never of a party : she divided her charities and friendships both , her esteem a well as her bounty , with the truest regard to merit , and her own obligations , without any difference , made upon the account of opinion . she had with a vast reach both of knowledge and apprehensions , an universal affability and easiness of access , a humility that descended to the meanest persons and concerns , an obliging kindness and readiness to advise those who had no occasion for any further assistance from her ; and with all these and many more excellent qualities , she had the deepest sense of religion , and the most constant turning of her thoughts and discourses that way , that has been perhaps in our age. such a sister became such a brother ; and it was but suitable to both their characters , that they should have improved the relation under which they were born , to the more exalted and endearing one of friend . at any time a nation may very ill spare one such ; but for both to go at once , and at such a time , is too melancholly a thought ; and notwithstanding the decline of their age , and the waste of their strength , yet it has too much of cloud in it , to bear the being long dwelt on . you have thus far seen , in a very few hints , the several sorts and instances of goodness that appeared in this life , which has now its period ; that which gives value and lustre to them all , was , that whatever he might be in the sight of men , how pure and spotless soever , those who knew him the best , have reason to conclude , that he was much more so in the sight of god ; for they had often occasions to discover new instances of goodness in him ; and no secret ill inclinations did at any time shew themselves . he affected nothing that was solemn or supercilious . he used no methods to make multitudes run after him , or depend upon him . it never appeared that there was any thing hid under all this appearance of goodness , that was not truly so . he hid both his piety and charity all he could . he lived in the due methods of civility , and would never assume the authority which all the world was ready to pay him . he spoke of the government even in times which he disliked , and upon occasions which he spared not to condemn , with an exactness of respect . he allowed himself a great deal of decent chearfulness , so that he had nothing of the moroseness , to which philosophers think they have some right ; nor of the affectations which men of an extraordinary pitch of devotion go into , sometimes , without being well aware of them . he was , in a word , plainly and sincerely in the sight of god , as well as in the view of men , a good man , even one of a thousand . that which comes next to be considered , is the share that this good man had in those gifts of god , wisdom knowledg , and joy. if i should speak of these , with the copiousness which the subject affords , i should go too far even for your patience , tho i have reason to believe it would hold out very long on this occasion . i will only name things which may be enlarged on more fully in another way . he had too unblemish'd a candor to be capable of those arts and practices that a false and deceitful world may call wisdom . he could neither lie nor equivocate ; but he could well be silent , and by practising that much , he cover'd himself upon many uneasy occasions . he made true judgments of men and things . his advices and opinions were solid and sound ; and if caution and modesty gave too strong a biass , his invention was fruitful to suggest good expedients . he had great notions of what humane nature might be brought to ; but since he saw mankind was not capable of them , he withdrew himself early from affairs and courts , notwithstanding the distinction with which he was always treated by our late princes . but he had the principles of an english-man , as well as of a protestant , too deep in him to be corrupted or cheated out of them ; and in these he studied to fortify all that conversed much with him . he had a very particular sagacity in observing what men were fit for ; and had so vast a scheme of different performances , that he could soon furnish every man with work that had leasure and capacity for it ; and as soon as he saw him engaged in it , then a handsom present was made to enable him to go on with it . his knowledg was of so vast an extent , that if it were not for the variety of vouchers in their several sorts , i should be afraid to say all i know . he carried the study of the hebrew very far into the rabbinical writings , and the other oriental languages . he had read so much of the fathers , that he had formed out of it a clear judgment of all the eminent ones . he had read a vast deal on the scriptures , and had gone very nicely through the whole controversies of religion ; and was a true master in the whole body of divinity . he run the whole compass of the mathematical sciences ; and though he did not set himself to spring new game , yet he knew even the abstrusest parts of geometry . geography in the several parts of it , that related to navigation or travelling , history and books of travels were his diversions . he went very nicely through all the parts of physick , only the tenderness of his nature made him less able to endure the exactness of anatomical dissections , especially of living animals , though he knew these to be the most instructing : but for the history of nature , ancient and modern , of the productions of all countries , of the virtues and improvements of plants , of oars and minerals , and all the varieties that are in them in different climates ; he was by much , by very much , the readiest and the perfectest i ever knew , in the greatest compass , and with the truest exactness . this put him in the way of making all that vast variety of experiments , beyond any man , as far as we know , that ever lived . and in these , as he made a great progress in new discoveries , so he used so nice a strictness , and delivered them with so scrupulous a truth , that all who have examined them , have found how safely the world may depend upon them . but his peculiar and favourite study , was chymistry ; in which he engaged with none of those ravenous and amitious designs , that draw many into them . his design was only to find out nature , to see into what principles things might be resolved , and of what they were compounded , and to prepare good medicaments for the bodies of men. he spent neither his time nor fortune upon the vain pursuits of high promises and pretensions . he always kept himself within the compass that his estate might well bear : and as he made chymistry much the better for his dealing in it , so he never made himself either the worse or the poorer for it . it was a charity to others , as well as an entertainment to himself , for the produce of it was distributed by his sister , and others , into whose hands he put it . i will not here amuse you with a list of his astonishing knowledg , or of his great performances this way . they are highly valued all the world over , and his name is every where mentioned with most particular characters of respect . i will conclude this article with this , in which i appeal to all competent judges , that few men ( if any ) have been known to have made so great a compass , and to have been so exact in all the parts of it as he was . as for joy , he had indeed nothing of frolick and levity in him , he had no relish for the idle and extravagant madness of the men of pleasure ; he did not waste his time , nor dissipate his spirits into foolish mirth , but he possessed his own soul in patience , full of that solid joy which his goodness as well as his knowledg afforded him ; he who had neither designs nor passions , was capable of little trouble from any concerns of his own : he had about him all the tenderness of good nature , as well as all the softness of friendship , these gave him a large share of other mens concerns ; for he had a quick sense of the miseries of mankind . he had also a feeble body , which needed to be look'd to the more , because his mind went faster than that his body could keep pace with it ; yet his great thoughts of god , and his contemplation of his works , were to him sources of joy , which could never be exhausted . the sense of his own integrity , and of the good he found it did , afforded him the truest of all pleasures , since they gave him the certain prospect of that fulness of joy , in the sight of which he lived so long , and in the possession of which he now lives , and shall live for ever ; and this spent and exhausted body shall then put on a new form , and be made a fit dwelling for that pure and exalted mind in the final restitution . i pass over his death , i looked at it some time ago , but i cannot bring down my mind from the elevating thoughts that do now arise into that depressing one of his death ; i must look beyond it into the regions of light and glory , where he now dwells . the only thought that is now before me , is to triumph on the behalf of religion , to make our due boast of it , and to be lifted up ( i had almost said proud ) upon this occasion : how divine and how pure a thing must that religion be in it self , which produced so long a series of great effects , thorow the whole course of this shining life ? what a thing would mankind become if we had many such ? and how little need would there be of many books writ for the truth and excellency of our religion , if we had more such arguments as this one life has produced ? such single instances have great force in them ; but when they are so very single , they lose much of their strength by this , that they are ascribed to singularity , and something particular in a man's humour and inclinations , that makes him rise above common measures . it were a monopoly for any family or sort of men to ingross to themselves the honour which arises from the memory of so great a man. it is a common not to be inclosed . it is large enough to make a whole nation , as well as the age he lived in , look big and be happy : but above all it gives a new strength , as well as it sets a new pattern to all that are sincerely zealous for their religion . it shews them in the simplest and most convincing of all arguments , what the humane nature is capable of , and what the christian religion can add to it , how far it can both exalt and reward it . i do not say that every one is capable of all he grew to ; i am very sensible that few are ; nor is every one under equal obligations : for the service of the universe , there must be a vast diversity in mens tempers , there being so great a variety of necessities to be answered by them : but every man in every imployment , and of every size of soul , is capable of being in some degrees good in the sight of god ; and all such shall receive proportioned degrees of wisdom , knowledg and joy ; even though neither their goodness nor these accessions to it , rise up to the measure of him who was a while among us , indeed one of a thousand , and is now but one of those ten thousand times ten thousand that are about the throne , where he is singing that song which was his great entertainment here , as it is his how endless joy there ; great and marvellous are thy works , o lord god almighty ; and just and true are thy ways , o king of saints . to follow him in the like exercises here , is the sure way to be admitted to join with him in those above ; to which god of his infinite mercy bring us all in due time , through jesus christ our lord. amen , amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30441-e160 chap. 7.25 , 27. eccles. 8.17 . a letter, containing some reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience dated the fourth of april, 1687 burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 31 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30370) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64574) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:9) a letter, containing some reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience dated the fourth of april, 1687 burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. defoe, daniel, 1661?-1731. 8 p. s.n., [london : 1689] caption title. attributed also to daniel defoe. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng england and wales. -sovereign (1685-1688 : james ii). -his majesties gracious declaration to all his loving subjects for liberty of conscience. liberty of conscience. 2002-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-08 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-10 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2002-10 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter , containing some reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience . dated the fourth of april , 1687. sir , i. i thank you for the favour of sending me the late declaration that his majesty has granted for liberty of conscience . i confess , i longed for it with great impatience , and was surprised to find it so different from the scotch pattern ; for i imagined , that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune : nor can i see why the penners of this have sunk so much in their stile ; for i suppose the same men penned both . i expected to have seen the imperial language of absolute power , to which all the subjects are to obey without reserve ; and of the cassing , annulling , the stopping , and disabling of laws set forth in the preamble and body of this declaration ; whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here : for instead of repealing the laws , his majesty pretends by this only to suspend them ; and tho in effect this amounts to a repeal , yet it must be confessed that the words are softer . now since the absolute power , to which his majesty pretends in scotland , is not founded on such poor things as law ; for that would look as if it were the gift of the people ; but on the divine authority , which is supposed to be delegated to his majesty , this may be as well claimed in england as it was in scotland : and the pretention to absolute power is so great a thing , that since his majesty thought fit once to claim it , he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his language ; especially since both these declarations have appeared in our gazettes ; so that as we see what is done in scotland , we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts , and what we may expect in england . ii. his majesty tells his people , that the perfect injoyment of their property has never been in any case invaded by him since his coming to the crown . this is indeed matter of great incouragement to all good subjects ; for it lets them see , that such invasions , as have been made on property , have been done without his majesties knowledge : so that no doubt the continuing to levy the customes and the additional excise ( which had been granted only during the late kings life , ) before the parliament could meet to renew the grant , was done without his majesties knowledge ; the many violences committed not only by soldiers , but officers , in all the parts of england , which are severe invasions on property , have been all without his majesties knowledge ; and since the first branch of property is the right that a man has to his life , the strange essay of mahometan government , that was shewed at taunton ; and the no less strange proceedings of the present lord chancellour , in his circuit after the rebellion ( which are very justly called his campagne , for it was an open act of hostility to all law ) and for which and other services of the like nature , it is believed he has had the reward of the great seal , and the executions of those who have left their colours , which being founded on no law , are no othet than so many murders ; all these , i say , are as we are sure , invasions on property ; but since the king tells us , that no such invasions have been made since he came to the crown , we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his privity . and if a standing army , in time of peace , has been ever lookt on by this na●ion as an attempt upon the whole property of the nation in gross , one must conclude , that even this is done without his majesties knowledge . iii. his majesty expresses his charity for us in a kind wish , that we were all members of the catholick church ; in return to which we offer up daily our most earnest prayers for him , that he may become a member of the truly catholick church : for wishes and prayers do no hurt on no side : but his majesty adds , that it has ever been his opinion , that conscience ought not to be constrained , nor people forced in matters of meer religion . we are very happy if this continues to be always his sense : but we are sure in this he is no obedient member of that which he means by the catholick church : for it has over and over again decreed the extirpation of hereticks . it encourages princes to it , by the offer of the pardon of their sins ; it threatens them to it , by denouncing to them not only the judgments of god , but that which is more sensible , the loss of their dominions : and it seems they intend to make us know that part of their doctrine even before we come to feel it , since tho some of that communion would take away the horror which the fourth council of the lateran gives us , in which these things were decreed , by denying it to be a general council , and rejecting the authority of those canons , yet the most learned of all the apostates that has fallen to them from our church , has so lately given up this plea , and has so formally acknowledged the authority of that council , and of its canons , that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing , of warning us before hand of our danger . it is true bellarmin sayes , the church does not always execute her power of deposing heretical princes , tho she always retains it : one reason that he assigns , is , because she is not at all times able to put it in execution : so the same reason may perhaps make it appear unadviseable to extirpate hereticks , because that at present it cannot be done ; but the right remains entire ; and is put in execution in such an unrelenting manner in all places where that religion prevails , that it has a very ill grace , to see any member of that church speak in this strain : and when neither the policy of france , nor the greatness of their monarch , nor yet the interests of the emperour joyned to the gentleness of his own temper , could withstand these bloody councils , that are indeed parts of that religion , we can see no reason to induce us to believe , that a toleration of religion is proposed with any other design but either to divide us , or to lay us asleep , till it is time to give the alarm for destroying us . iv. if all the endeavours , that have been used in the last four reigns , for bringing the subjects of this kingdom to a unity in religion have been ineffectual , as his maj. says ; we know to whom we owe both the first beginnings and the progress of the divisions among our selves ; the gentleness of q. elisabeth's government , and the numbers of those that adhered to the church of rome , made it scarce possible to put an end to that party during her reign , which has been ever since restless , and has had credit enough at court during the three last reigns , not only to support it self , but to distract us , and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them , by fomenting our own differences , and by setting on either a toleration , or a persecution , as it has hapned to serve their interests . it is not so very long since , that nothing was to be heard at court but the supporting the church of england , and the extirpating all the nonconformists : and it were easy to name the persons , if it were decent , that had this ever in their mouths ; but now all is turned round again , the church of england is in disgrace ; and now the encouragment of trade , the quiet of the nation , and the freedom of conscience are again in vogue , that were such odious things but a few years ago , that the very mentioning them was enough to load any man with suspitions as backward in the king's service , while such methods are used , and the government is as in an ague , divided between hot and cold fits , no wonder if laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their effect . v. there is a good reserve here left for severity when the proper opportunity to set it on presents it self : for his majesty declares himself only against the forcing of men in matters of meer religion : so that whensoever religion and policy come to be so interwoven , that meer religion is not the case , and that publick safety may be pretended , then this declaration is to be no more claimed : so that the fastning any thing upon the protestant religion , that is inconsistent with the publick peace , will be pretended to shew that they are not persecuted for meer religion . in france , when it was resolved to extirpate the protestants , all the discourses that were written on that subject were full of the wars occasioned by those of the religion in the last age , tho as these were the happy occasions of bringing the house of bourbon to the crown , they had been ended above 80. years ago , and there had not been so much as the least tumult raised by them these 50. years past : so that the french , who have smarted under this severity , could not be charged with the least infraction of the law : yet stories of a hundred years old were raised up to inspire into the king those apprehensions of them , which have produced the terrible effects that are visible to all the world. there is another expression in this declaration , which lets us likewise see with what caution the offers of favour are now worded , that so there may be an occasion given when the time and conjuncture shall be favourable to break thro them all : it is in these words , so that they take especial care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them , which may any ways tend to alienate the hearts of our people from us or our government . this in it self is very reasonable , and could admit of no exception , if we had not to do with a set of men , who to our great misfortune have so much credit with his majesty , and who will be no sooner lodged in the power to which they pretend , than they will make every thing that is preached against popery pass for that which may in some manner alienate the subjects from the king. vi. his majesty makes no doubt of the concurrence of his two houses of parliament , when he shall think it convenient for them to meet . the hearts of kings are unsearchable ; so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into his majesties secret thoughts : but according to the judgments that we would make of other mens thoughts by their actions , one would be tempted to think , that his majesty made some doubt of it , since his affairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse , if it appeared that there were a perfect understanding between him and his parliament , and that his people were supporting him with fresh supplies ; and this house of commons is so much at his devotion , that all the world saw how ready they were to grant every thing that he could desire of them , till he began to lay off the mask with relation to the test , and since that time the frequent prorogations , the closetting , and the pains that has been taken to gain members , by promises made to some , and the disgraces of others , would make one a little inclined to think , that some doubt was made of their concurrence . but we must confess , that the depth of his majesties judgment is such , that we cannot fathom it , and therefore we cannot guess what his doubts or his assurances are . it is true , the words that come after unriddle the mystery a little , which are , when his majesty shall think it convenient for them to meet : for the meaning of this seems plain , that his maj. is resolved , that they shall never meet , till he receives such assurances , in a new round of closetting , that he ●hall be put out of doubt concerning it . vii . i will not enter into the dispute concerning liberty of conscience , and the reasons that may be offered for it to a session of parliament ; for there is scarce any one point , that either with relation to religion , or politicks , affords a greater variety of matter for reflection : and i make no doubt to say , that there is abundance of reason to oblige a parliament to review all the penal laws , either with relation to papists , or to dissenters : but i will take the boldness to add one thing , that the kings's suspending of laws strikes at the root of this whole government , and subverts it quite : for if there is any thing certain with relation to the english government , it is this , that the executive power of the law is entirely in the king ; and the law to fortisy him in the management of it has clothed him with a vast prerogative , and made it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to resist him : whereas on the other hand , the legislative power is not so entirely in the king , but that the lords and commons have such a share in it , that no law can be either made , repealed , or which is all one suspended , but by their consent : so that the placing this legislative power singly in the king , is a subversion of this whole government ; since the essence of all governments consists in the subjects of the legislative authority ; acts of violence or injustice , committed in the executive part , are such things that all princes being subject to them , the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill administrations , in which as the law may be doubtful , so the facts may be uncertain , and at worst the publick peace must alwayes be more valued than any private oppressions or injuries whatsoever . but the total subversion of a government , being so contrary to the trust that is given to the prince who ought to execute it , will put men upon uneasy and dangerous inquiries : which will turn little to the advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate issue . viii . if there is any thing in which the exercise of the legislative power seems indispensable , it is in those oaths of allegeance and tests , that are thought necessary to qualify men either to be admitted to enjoy the protection of the law , or to bear a share in the government ; for in these the security of the government is chiefly concerned ; and therefore the total extinction of these , as it is not only a suspension of them , but a plain repealing of them , so it is a subverting of the whole foundation of our government : for the regulation that king and parliament had set both for the subjects having the protection of the state by the oath of allegeance , and for a share in places of trust by the tests , is now pluckt up by the roots , when it is declared , that these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken , or subscribed by any persons whatsoever : for it is plain , that this is no suspension of the law , but a formal repeal of it , in as plain words as can be conceived . ix . his majesty says , that the benefit of the service of all his subjects is by the law of nature inseparably annexed to and inherent in his sacred person . it is somewhat strange , that when so many laws , that we all know are suspended , the law of nature , which is so hard to be found out , should be cited ; but the penners of this declaration had b●st let that law lie forgotten among the rest ; for there is a scurvy paragraph in it , concerning self preservation , that is capable of very unacceptable glosses . it is hard to tell what section of the law of nature has markt out either such a form of government , or such a family for it . and if his majesty renounces his pretensions to our allegeance as founded on the laws of england ; and betakes himself to this law of nature , he will perhaps find the counsel was a little too rash ; but to make the most of this that can be , the law of nations or nature does indeed allow the governours of all societies a power to serve themselves of every member of it in the cases of extream danger ; but no law of nature that has been yet heard of will conclude , that if by special laws , a sort of men have been disabled from all imployments , that a prince who at his coronation swore to maintain those laws , may at his pleasure extinguish all these disabilities . x. at the end of the declaration , as in a postscript , his majesty assures his subjects , that he will maintain them in their properties , as well in church and abbey-lands , as other lands : but the chief of all their properties being the share that they have by their representatives in the legislative power ; this declaration , which breaks thro that , is no great evidence that the rest will be maintained : and to speak plainly , when a coronation oath is so little remembred , other promises must have a proportioned degree of credit given to them : as for the abbey lands , the keeping them from the church is according to the principles of that religion sacriledge ; and that is a mortal sin , and there can no absolution be given to any who continue in it : and so this promise being an obligation to maintain men in a mortal sin , is null and void of it self : church-lands are also according to the doctrine of their canonists , so immediatly gods right , that the pope himself is only the administrator and dispencer , but is not the master of them ; he can indeed make a truck for god , or let them so low , that god shall be an easy landlord : but he cannot alter gods property , nor translate the right that is in him to sacrilegious laymen and hereticks . xi . one of the effects of this declaration , will be the setting on foot a new run of addresses over the nation : for there is nothing how impudent and base soever , of which the abject flattery of a slavish spirit is not capable . it must be confest , to the reproach of the age , that all those strains of flattery among the romans , that tacitus sets forth with so much just scorn , are modest things , compared to what this nation has produced within these seven years : only if our flattery has come short of the refinedness of the romans , it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed fulsomness . the late king set out a declaration , in which he gave the most solemn assurances possible of his adhering to the church of england , and to the religion established by law , and of his resolution to have frequent parliaments ; upon which the whole nation fell as it were into raptures of joy and flattery : but tho he lived four years after that , he called no parliament , notwithstanding the law for triennial parliaments : and the manner of his death , and the papers printed after his death in his name , have sufficiently shewed , that he was equally sincere in both those assurances that he gave , as well in that relating to religion , as in that other relating to frequent parliaments ; yet upon his death a new set of addresses appeared , in which , all that flattery could invent was brought forth , in the commendations of a prince , to whose memory the greatest kindness can be done , is to forget him : and because his present majesty upon his coming to the throne gave some very general promise of maintaining the church of england , this was magnified in so extravagant a strain , as if it had been a security greater than any that the law could give : tho by the regard that the king has both to it and to the laws , it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally : since then the nation has already made it self sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding ages ; it is time that at last men should grow weary , and become ashamed of their folly. xii . the nonconformists are now invited to set an example to the rest : and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their opposition to popery , and that have quarrelled with the church of england , for some small approaches to it , in a few ceremonies , are now solicited to rejoyce , because the laws that secure us against it , are all plucked up : since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together . it is natural for all men to love to be set at ease , especially in the matters of their consciences ; but it is visible , that those who allow them this favour , do it with no other design , but that under a pretence of a general toleration , they may introduce a religion which must persecute all equally : it is likewise apparent how much they are hated , and how much they have been persecuted by the instigation of those who now court them , and who have now no game that is more promising , than the engaging them and the church of england into new quarrels : and as for the promises now made to them , it cannot be supposed that they will be more lasting than those that were made some time ago to the church of england , who had both a better title in law and greater merit upon the crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to . the nation has scarce forgiven some of the church of england the persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cosened : tho now that they see popery barefaced , the stand that they have made , and the vigorous opposition that they have given to it , is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past , and raises again the glory of a church that was not a little stained by the indiscretion and weakness of those , that were too apt to believe and hope , and so suffered themselves to be made a property to those who would now make them a sacrifice . the sufferings of the nonconformists , and the fury that the popish party expressed against them , had recommended them so much to the compassions of the nation , and had given them so just a pretension to favour in a better time , that it will look like a curse of god upon them , if a few men , whom the court has gained to betray them , can have such an ill influence upon them as to make them throw away all that merit , and those compassions which their sufferings have procured them ; and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them , that they may destroy both them and us . they must remember that as the church of england is the only establishment that our religion has by law ; so it is the main body of the nation , and all the sects are but small and stragling parties : and if the legal settlement of the church is dissolved , and that body is once broken , these lesser bodies will be all at mercy : and it is an easy thing to define what the mercies of the church of rome are . xiii . but tho it must be confessed , that the nonconformists are still under some temptations , to receive every thing that gives them present ease , with a little too much kindness ; since they lie exposed to many severe laws , of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily , and as they are men , and some of them as ill natured men as other people , so it is no wonder if upon the first surprises of the declaration , they are a little delighted , to see the church of england , after all its services and submissions to the court , so much mortified by it ; so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some follies upon this occasion . yet on the other hand , it passes all imagination , to see some of the church of england , especially those whose natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of persecution , chiefly when it is levelled against the dissenters , rejoyce at this declaration , and make addresses upon it . it is hard to think that they have attained to so high a pitch of christian charity , as to thank those who do now despitefully use them , and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them . this will be an original , and a master piece in flattery , which must needs draw the last degrees of contempt on such as are capable of so abject and sordid a compliance , and that not only from all the true members of the church of england , but likewise from those of the church of rome it self ; for every man is apt to esteem an enemy that is brave even in his misfortunes , as much as he despises those whose minds sink with their condition . for what is it that these men would thank the king ? is it because he breaks those laws that are made in their favour , and for their protection : and is now striking at the root of all the legal settlement that they have for their religion ? or is it because that at the same time that the king professes a religion that condemns his supremacy , yet he is not contented with the exercise of it as it is warranted by law , but carries it so far as to erect a court contrary to the express words of a law that was so lately made : that court takes care to maintain a due proportion between their constitution and all their proceedings , that so all may be of a piece , and all equally contrary to law. they have suspended one bishop , only because he would not do that which was not in his power to do : for since there is no extrajudiciary authority in england , a bishop can no more proceed to a sentence of suspension against a clergy-man without a tryal , and the hearing of parties , than a judge can give a sentence in his chamber without an indictment , a tryal , or a iury : and because one of the greatest bodies of england would not break their oaths , and obey a mandate that plainly contradicted them , we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried . i will not anticipate upon this illegal court , to tell what iudgments are coming ; but without carrying our iealousies too far , one may safely conclude , that they will never depart so far from their first institution , as to have any regard , either to our religion , or our laws , or liberties , in any thing they do . if all this were acted by avowed papists , as we are sure it is projected by such , there were nothing extraordinary in it : but that which carries our indignation a little too far to be easily governed , is to see some pretended protestants , and a few bishops , among those that are the fatal instruments of pulling down the church of england , and that those mercenaries sacrifice their religion and their church to their ambition and interests ; this has such peculiar characters of misfortune upon it , that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity , since we fall by that hand that we have so much supported and fortifyed , but we must become the scorn of all the world , since we have produced such an unnatural brood , that even while they are pretending to be the sons of the church of england , are cutting their mother's throat : and not content with judas's crime , of saying , hail master , and kissing him , while they are betraying him into the hands of others ; these carry their wickedness further , and say , hail mother , and then they themselves murther her . if after all this we were called on to bear this as christians ; and to suffer it as subjects ; if we were required in patience to possess our own souls , ând to be in charity with our enemies ; and which is more , to forgive our false brethren , who add treachery to their hatred ; the exhortation were seasonable , and indeed a little necessary ; for humane nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion : but to tell us that we must make addresses , and offer thanks for all this , is to insult a little too much upon us in our sufferings : and he that can believe that a dry and cautiously worded promise of maintaining the church of england , will be religiously observed after all that we have seen , and is upon that carried so far out of his wits as to address and give thanks , and will believe still , such a man has nothing to excuse him from believing transubstantiation it self ; for it is plain that he can bring himself to believe even when the thing is contrary to the clearest evidence that his senses can give him . si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur . postscript . these reflections were writ soon after the declaration came to my hands , but the matter of them was so tender , and the conveyance of them to the press was so uneasy , that they appear now too late to have one effect that was designed by them , which was , the diverting men from making addresses upon it ; yet if what is here proposed makes men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done , and is a means to keep them from carrying their courtship further than good words , this paper will not come too late . finis . a discourse concerning transubstantiation and idolatry being an answer to the bishop of oxford's plea relating to those two points. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 73 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30335 wing b5775 estc r23015 12623040 ocm 12623040 64583 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30335) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64583) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:1) a discourse concerning transubstantiation and idolatry being an answer to the bishop of oxford's plea relating to those two points. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 36 p. [s.n.], london : 1688. first published in two tracts, the first titled "a second part of the enquiry into the reasons offered by sa. oxon [bp. parker] for abrogating the test", the second, "a continuation of the second part of the enquiry." reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng parker, samuel, 1640-1688. -reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. catholic church -controversial literature. transubstantiation. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse concerning transubstantiation and idolatry . being an answer to the bishop of oxford's plea relating to those two points . london , printed in the year , 1688. an answer to the reasons of the bishop of oxford , &c. this author would perswade the world , that transubstantiation is but a nicety of the schools , calculated to the aristotelian philosophy ; and not defined positively in the church of rome ; but that the corporal and real presence of the substance of christ's body and blood in the sacrament was the doctrine of the universal church in the primitive times ; and that it is at this day the generally received doctrine by all the different parties in europe , not only the roman catholicks and lutherans , but both by the churches of switzerland and france , and more particularly by the church of england : so that since all that the church of rome means by transubstantiation , is the real presence , and since the real presence is so universally received , it is a heinous thing to renounce transubstantiation ; for that is in effect the renouncing the real presence . this is the whole strength of his argument , which he fortifies by many citations , to prove that both the antient fathers , and the modern reformers , believed the real presence ; and that the church of rome believes no more . but to all this i shall offer a few exceptions . i. if transubstantiation is only a philosophical nicety concerning the manner of the presence , where is the hurt of renouncing it ? and why are the roman catholicks at so much pains to have the test repealed ? for it contains nothing against the real presence : indeed , if this argument has any force , it should rather lead the rom. catholicks to take the test , since , according to the bishop , they do not renounce in it any article of faith , but only a bold curiosity of the school-men . yet after all , it seems they know , that this is contrary to their doctrine , otherwise they would not venture so much upon a point of an old and decried philosophy . ii. in order to the stating this matter aright , it is necessary to give the true notion of the real presence , as it is acknowledged by the reformed . we all know in what sense the church of rome understands it , that in the sacrament there is no real bread and wine ; but that under the appearance of them we have the true substance of christ's glorified body . on the other hand , the reformed , when they found the world generally fond of this phrase ; they by the same spirit of compliance , which our saviour and his apostles had for the iews , and that the primitive church had ( perhaps to excess ) for the heathens , retained the phrase of real presence : but as they gave it such a sense as did fully demonstrate , that tho they retained a term that had for it a long prescription , yet they quite changed its meaning : for they always shewed , that the body and blood of christ , which they believed present , was his body broken , and his blood shed , that is to say , his body , not in its glorified state , but as it was crucified . so that the presence belonging to christ's dead body , which is not now actually in being , is only his death that is to be conceived to be presented to us , and this being the sense that they always give of the real presence , the reality falls only on that conveyance , that is made to us in the sacrament , by a federal right of christ's death as our sacrifice . the learned answerer to the oxford discourses has so fully demonstrated this from the copious explanations which all the reformed give of that phrase , that one would think it were not possible either to mistake or cavil in so clear a point . the papists had generally objected to the reformers , that they made the sacrament no more than a bare commemoratory feast ; and some few had carried their aversion to that gross presence , which the church of rome had set up , to another extreme , to which the people by a principle of libertinism might have been too easily carried , if the true dignity of the sacrament had not been maintained by expressions of great majesty : so finding that the world was possessed of the phrase of the real presence , they thought fit to preserve it , but with an explanation that was liable to no ambiguity . yet it seems our reformers in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign had found , that the phrase had more power to carry men to superstition , than the explanations given to it , had to retire them from it , and therefore the convocation ordered it to be laid aside , tho that order was suppressed out of prudence : and the phrase has been ever since in use among us , of which dr. burnet has given us a copious account , hist. reform . 2 vol. 3d book . iii. the difference between the notion of the sacraments being a meer commemoratory feast , and the real presence , is as great , as the value of the king's head stamped upon a meddal differs from the current coin , or the impression made by the great seal upon wax differs from that which any carver or graver may make . the one is a meer memorial , but the other has a sacred badg of authority in it . the paschal lamb was not only a remembrance of the deliverance of the people of israel out of egypt , but a continuance of the covenant , that moses made between god and them , which distinguished them from all the nations round about them , as well as the first passover had distinguished them from the egyptians . now it were a strange inference , because the lamb was called the lord's passover , that is , the sacrifice upon the sprinkling of whose blood the angel passed over or passed by the houses of the israelites , when he smote the first-born of the egyptians , to say , that there was a change of the substance of the lamb : or because the real faith of a prince is given by his geat seal , printed on wax , and affixed to a parchment , that therefore the substance of the wax is changed : so it is no less absurd to imagine , that because the bread and wine are said to be the body and blood of christ as broken and shed , that is , his death really and effectually offered to us , as our sacrifice , that therefore the substance of the bread and wine are changed . and thus upon the whole matter , that which is present in the sacrament is christ dead , and since his death was transacted above 1600 years ago , the reality of his presence can be no other than a real offer of his death made to us in an institution and federal symbol . i have explained this the more fully , because with this all the ambiguity in the use of that commonly received phrase falls off . iv. as for the doctrine of the antient church , there has been so much said in this enquiry , that a man cannot hope to add any new discoveries to what has been already found out : therefore i shall only endeavour to bring some of the most important observations into a narrow compass , and to set them in a good light , and shall first offer some general presumptions , to shew that it is not like , that this was the doctrine of the primitive times , and then some positive proof of it . 1. it is no slight presumption against it , that we do not find the fathers take any pains to answer the objections that do naturally arise out of the present doctrine of the church of rome . these objections do not arise out of profound study , or great learning , but from the plain dictates of common sense , which make it hard ( to say no more ) for us to believe , that a body can be in more places than one at once ; and that it can be in a place after the manner of a spirit : that accidents can be without their subject ; or that our senses can deceive us in the plainest cases . we find the fathers explain some abstruse difficulties , that arise out of other mysteries , that were less known , and were more speculative : and while they are thought perhaps to over-do the one , it is a little strange that they should never touch the other : but on the contrary , when they treat of philosophical matters , they express themselves roundly in opposition to those consequences of this doctrine : whereas since this doctrine has been received , we see all the speculations of philosophy have been so managed , as to keep a reserve for this doctrine . so that the uncautious way in which the father 's handled them ( in proof of which volumes of quotatations can be made ) shews they had not then received that doctrine , which must of necessity give them occasion to write otherwise than they did . 2. we find the heathens studied to load the christian religion with all the heaviest imputations that they could give it . they objected to them the believing a god that was born , and that died , and the resurrection of the dead , and many lesser matters , which seemed absurd to them : they had malice enough to seek out every thing that could disgrace a religion which grew too hard for them : but they never once object this , of making a god out of a piece of bread , and then eating him : if this had been the doctrine of those ages , the heathens , chiefly celsus and porphiry , but above all iulian , could not have been ignorant of it . now it does not stand with common sense to think , that those who insist much upon inconsiderable things , could have passed over this , which is both so sensible , and of such importance , if it had been the received belief of those ages . 3. it is also of weight , that there were no disputes nor heresies upon this point during the first ages ; and that none of the hereticks ever objected it to the doctors of the church . we find they contended about all other points : now this hath so many difficulties in it , that it should seem a little strange , that all mens understandings should have been then so easie and consenting , that this was the single point of the whole body of divinity , about which the church had no dispute for the first seven centuries . it therefore inclines a man rather to think , that because there were no disputes concerning it , therefore it was not then broached : since we see plainly , that ever since it was broached in the west , it has occasioned lasting disputes , both with those who could not be brought to believe it , and with one another concerning the several ways of explaining and maintaining it . 4. it is also a strong prejudice against the antiquity of this doctrine , that there were none of those rites in the first ages , which have crept in in the latter ; which were such natural consequences of it , that the belief of the one making way for the other , we may conclude , that where the one were not practised , the other was not believed . i will not mention all the pomp which the latter ages have invented to raise the lustre of this doctrine , with which the former ages were unacquainted . it is enough to observe , that the adoration of the sacrament was such a necessary consequence of this doctrine , that since the primitive times know nothing of it , as the greek church does not to this day , it is perhaps more than a presumption , that they believed it not . v. but now i come to more positive and convincing proofs : and , 1. the language of the whole church is only to be found in the liturgies , which are more severely composed than rhetorical discourses ; and of all the parts of the office , the prayer of consecration is that , in which we must hope to find most certainly the doctrine of the church : we find then in the fourth century , that in the prayer of consecration the elements were said to be the types of the body and blood of christ , as st. basil informs us from the greek liturgies , and the figure of his body and blood , as st. ambrose informs us from the latin liturgies : the prayer of consecration , that is now in the canon of the mass , is in a great part the same with that which is cited by st. ambrose , but with this important difference , that instead of the words , which is the figure of the body and blood of christ , that are in the former , there is a petition added in the latter , that the gifts may be to us the body and blood of christ. if we had so many of the mss. of the ancient liturgies left , as to be able to find out the time in which the prayer of the consecration was altered , from what it was in st. ambrose's days , to what it is now , this would be no small article in the history of transubstantiation : but most of these are lost ; since then the antient church could not believe otherwise of the sacrament , than as she expressed her self concerning it in the prayer of consecration ; it is plain , that her first doctrine concerning it was , that the bread and wine were the types , and the figure of the body and blood of christ. 2. a second proof is from the controversy , that was began by the apollinarists , and carried on by the eutichians , whether christ's humanity was swallowed up of his divinity or not ? the eutychians made use of the general expressions , by which the change in the sacrament seemed to be carried so far , that the bread and wine were swallowed up by it ; and from this they inferred , that in like manner the human nature of christ was swallowed up by his divinity : but in opposition to all this , we find chrysostome the patriarch of constantinople , ephrem the patriarch of antioch , gelasius the pope , theodoret a bishop in asia the less , and facundus in africk , all within the compass of little more than an age , agree almost in the same words , in refuting all this : asserting , that as the human nature in christ remained still the same that it was before , notwithstanding its union with the divine nature ; even so the bread and wine retained still their former nature , substance and form , and that they are only sanctified , not by the change of their nature , but by adding grace to nature . this they do in terms plain , and beyond all exception ; and theodoret goes over the matter again and again , in two different treatises ; so that no matter of fact can appear more plainly , than that the whole church east , and west , and south , did in the 5th and 6th centuries believe , that the sanctification of the elements in the sacrament did no more destroy their natures , than the union of the two natures in christ did destroy his humane nature . 3. a third proof is taken from a practice , which i will not offer to justify , how ancient soever it may have been : it appears indeed in the ancientest liturgies now extant , and is a prayer , in which the sacrament is said to be offered up in honour of the saint of the day , to which a petition is added , that it may be accepted of god by the intercession of the saint . this is yet in the missal , and is used upon most of the saints days : now if the sacrament was then believed to be the very body and blood of christ , there is nothing more crude , not to say prophane , than to offer this up to the honour of a saint , and and to pray that the sacrifice of christ's body may be accepted of god thrô the intercession of a saint . therefore to give any tolerable sense to these words , we must conclude , that tho these prayers have been continued in the roman church , since this opinion prevailed ; yet they were never made in an age in which it was received . the only meaning that can be given to these words is , that they made the saints-days days of communion , as well as the sundays were ; and upon that they prayed , that the sacrament which they received that day , to do the more honour to the memory of the saint , might be recommended to the divine acceptance by the intercession of the saint : so that this superstitious practice shews plainly , that the church had not , even when it began , received the doctrine of the change of the elements into the body and blood of christ. i will not pursue the proof of this point farther , nor will i enter into a particular recital of the sayings of the fathers upon this subject ; which would carry me far : and it is done so copiously by others , that i had rather refer my reader to them , than offer him a lean abridgment of their labours . i shall only add , that the presumptions and proofs that i have offered , are much more to be valued , than the pious and rhetorical figures , by which many of the fathers have set forth the manner of christ's presence in the sacrament . one thing is plain , that in most of them they represent christ present in his dead and crucified state , which appears most eminently in st. chrysostome ; so that this agrees with that notion of a real presence , that was formerly explained . men that have at the same time all the heat in their imaginations that eloquence can raise , and all the fervour in their heart which devotion can inspire , are seldom so correct in their phrases and figures , as not to need some allowances : therefore one plain proof of their opinions from their reasonings , when in cold blood , ought to be of much more weight than all their transports and amplifications . from this general view of the state of the church during the first centuries , i come next to consider the steps of the change which was afterwards made . i will not offer to trace out that history , which mr. larrogue has done copiously , whom i the rather mention , because he is put in english. i shall only observe , that by reason of the high expressions , which were used upon the occasion of the eutychian controversy formerly mentioned , by which the sanctification of the elements was compared to the union of the humane nature of christ with his divinity , a great step was made to all that followed . during the dispute concerning images , those who opposed the worship of them , said , according to all the ancient liturgies , that they indeed acknowleged one image of christ , which was the sacrament ; those who promoted that piece of superstition ( for i refer the calling it idolatry to its proper place ) had the impudence to deny , that it had ever been called the image of christ's body and blood ; and said , that it was really his body and blood. we will not much dispute concerning an age , in which the world seemed mad with a zeal for the worship of images ; and in which rebellion , and the deposing of princes , upon the pretence of heresy , began to be put in practice : such times as these we willingly yeild up to our adversaries . yet damascene , and the greek church after him , carried this matter no farther than to assert an assumption of the elements into an union with the body and blood of christ. but when the monk of corbie began to carry the matter yet farther , and to say , that the elements were changed into that very body of christ that was born of the virgin , we find all the great men of that age , both in france , germany and england , writ against him : and he himself owns that he was looked upon as an innovator ; those who writ against him , chiefly rabanus maurus , and bertram or ratramne , did so plainly assert the ancient opinion of the sacraments being the figure of the body and blood of christ , that we cannot express our selves more formally than they did : and from thence it was , that our saxon homily on easter-day was so express in this point . yet the war and the northern invasions that followed , put the world into so much disorder , that all disputes were soon forgot , and that in the 11th century this opinion , which had so many partisans in the 9th , was generally decried and much abandoned . vi. but with relation to those ages in which it was received , some observations occur so readily to every one that knows history , that it is only for the sake of the more ignorant that i make them . 1. they were times of so much ignorance , that it is scarce conceivable to any but to those who have laboured a little in reading the productions of those ages , which is the driest piece of study i know : the stile in which they writ , and their way of arguing , and explaining scripture , are all of a piece , both matter and form are equally barbarous . now in such times , as the ignorant populace were easily misled , so there is somewhat in incredible stories and opinions , that makes them pass as easily , as men are apt to fancy they see sprights in the night : nay the more of mystery and darkness that there is in any opinion , such times are apt to cherish it the more for that very reason . 2. those were ages in which the whole ecclesiastical order had entred into such conspiracies against the state , which were managed and set on with such vigor by the popes , that every opinion which tended to render the persons of church-men sacred , and to raise their character , was likely to receive the best entertainment , and the greatest incouragement possible . nothing could so secure the persons of priests , and render them so considerable , as to believe that they made their god : and in such ages no armour was of so sure a proof , as for a priest to take his god in his hands . now it is known that p. gregory the 7th , who condemned berengarius , laid the foundations of the ecclesiastical empire , by establishing the deposing power ; so p. innocent the 3d , who got transubstantiation to be decreed , in the 4th council of the lateran , seemed to have compleated the project , by the addition made to the deposing power , of transferring the dominions of the deposed prince to whom he pleased ; since before this the dominions must have gone to the next heirs of the deposed prince . it is then so plain , that the doctrine of transubstantiation was so suitable to the advancing of those ends , that it had been a wonder indeed , if it being once set on foot , had not been established in such times . 3. those ages were so corrupt , and more particularly the clergy , and chiefly the popes were by the confession of all writers so excessively vicious , that such men could have no regard to truth in any of their decisions . interest must have carried all other things before it with such popes , who according to the historians of their own communion , were perhaps the worst men that ever lived . their vices were so crying , that nothing but the credit that is due to writers of their own time , and their own church , could determine us to believe them . 4. as the ignorance and vices of those times derogate justly from all the credit that is due to them ; so the cruelty which followed their decisions , and which was employed in the execution of them , makes it appear rather a stranger thing that so many opposed them , than that so many submitted to them . when inquisitors or dragoons manage an argument , how strong soever the spirit may be in opposing , it is certain the flesh will be weak , and will ply easily . when princes were threatned with deposition , and hereticks with extirpation , and when both were executed with so much rigour , the success of all the doctrines that were established in those days ought to make no impression on us , in its favour . vii . it is no less plain , that there was a great and vigorous opposition made to every step of the progress of this doctrine . when the eutychians first made use of it , the greatest men of that age set themselves against it . when the worshippers of images did afterwards deny , that the sacrament was the image of the body and blood of christ , a general council in the east asserted , according to the ancient liturgies , the contrary proposition . when paschase radbert set on foot the corporal presence in the west , all the great men of the age writ against him . berenger was likewise highly esteemed , and had many secret followers , when this doctrine was first decreed : and ever since the time of the council of the lateran , that transubstantiation was established , there have been whole bodies of men that have opposed it , and that have fallen as sacrifices to the rage of the inquisitors . and by the processes of those of tholouse , of which i have seen the original records , for the space of twenty years , it appears , that as transubstantiation was the article upon which they were always chiefly examined ; so it was that which many of them did constantly deny , so far were they on both sides from looking on it only as an explanation of the real presence . viii . the novelty of this doctrine appears plainly by the strange work that the schools have made with it , since they got it among them , both in their philosophy and divinity , and by the many different methods that they took for explaining it , till they had licked it into the shape , in which it is now : which is as plain an evidence of the novelty of the doctrine as can be imagined . the learned mr. alix has given us a clear deduction of all that confusion , into which it has cast the school-men , and the many various methods that they fell on for maintaining it . first , they thought the body of christ was broken by the teeth of the faithful : then that appearing absurd , and subjecting our saviour to new sufferings , the doctrine of a body's being in a place after the manner of a spirit was set up . and as to the change , some thought that the matter of bread remained , but that it was united to the body of christ , as nourishment is digested into our bodies : others thought , that the form of bread remained , the matter only being changed : and some thought , that the bread was only withdrawn to give place to the body of christ , whereas others thought it was annihilated . while the better judges had always an eye either to a consubstantiation , or to such an assumption of the bread and wine by the eternal word , as made the sacrament in some sense his body indeed ; but not that body which is now in heaven . all these different opinions , in which the school-men were divided ▪ even after the decision made by pope innocent , in the council of the lateran , shew , that the doctrine , being a novelty , men did not yet know how to mould or form it : but in process of time the whole philosophy was so digested , as to prepare all scholars in their first formation to receive it the more easily . and in our age , in which that philosophy has lost its credit , what pains do they take to suppress the new philosophy , as seeing that it cannot be so easily subdued to support this doctrine , as the old one was ? and it is no unpleasant thing to see the shifts , to which the partisans of the cartesian philosophy are driven , to explain themselves : which are indeed so very ridiculous , that one can hardly think , that those who make use of them , believe them ; for they are plainly rather tricks and excuses than answers . ix . no man can deny , that transubstantiation is the doctrine of the church of rome ; but he that will dispute the authority of the councils of the lateran and trent . now tho some have done the first avowedly , yet as their number is small , and their opinion decried ; so for the council of trent , tho i have known some of that communion , who do not look upon it as a general council , and tho it is not at all received in france , neither as to doctrine nor discipline , yet the contrary opinion is so universally received , that they who think otherwise , dare not speak out ; and so give their opinion as a secret , which they trust in confidence , rather than as a doctrine which they will own . but setting aside the authority of these councils , the common resolution of faith in the church of rome being tradition , it cannot be denied , that the constant and general tradition in the church of rome , these last 500 years , has been in favour of transubstantiation , and that is witnessed by all the evidences by which it is possible to know tradition . the writings of learned men , the sermons of preachers , the proceedings of tribunals , the decisions of councils , that , if they were not general , were yet very numerous , and above all by the many authentical declarations the popes have made in this matter . so that either tradition is to be for ever rejected as a false conveyance , or this is the received doctrine of the church of rome , from which she can never depart , without giving up both her infallibility , and the authority of tradition . x. there is not any one point , in which all the reformed churches do more unanimously agree , than in the rejecting of transubstantiation ; as appears both by the harmony of their confessions , and by the current of all the reformed writers . and for the real presence , tho the lutherans explain it by a consubstantiation , and the rest of the reformed by a reality of vertue and efficacy , and a presence of christ as crucified ; yet all of them have taken much pains to shew , that in what sense soever they meant it , they were still far enough from transubstantiation . this demonstrates the wisdom of our legislators , in singling out this to be the sole point of the test for imployments : since it is perhaps the only point in controversy , in which the whole church of rome holds the affirmative , and the whole reformed hold the negative . and it is as certain , that transubstantiation is the doctrine of the church of rome , as that it is rejected by the church of england ; it being by name condemned in our articles . and thus , i hope , the whole plea of our author in favour of transubstantiation is overthrown in all its three branches : which relate to the doctrine of the primitive church , the doctrine of the church of rome , and the doctrine of the church of england , as well as of the other reformed churches . i have not loaded this paper with quotations , because i intended to be short : but i am ready to make good all the matters of fact asserted in it , under the highest pains of infamy , if i fail in the performance : and besides , the more voluminous works that have been writ on this subject , such as albertines , clauds answer to mr. arnaud , and f. nonet , larrogues history of the eucharist , there have been so many learned discourses written of late on this subject , and in particular , two answers to the bishops books , that if it had not been thought expedient , that i should have cast the whole matter into a short paper , i should not have judged it necessary to trouble the world with more discourses on a subject that seems exhausted . i will add no more , but that by the next i will give another paper of the same bulk upon the idolatry of the church of rome . an ansvver to that part about idolatry , &c. the words of the test that belong to this point are these , the invocation or adoration of the virgin mary , or any other saint , and the sacrifice of the mass , as they are now used in the church of rome , are superstitious and idolatrous ; upon which our author fastens this censure , that since by this the church of rome is charged with idolatry , which both forfeits mens lives here , and their salvation hereafter , according to the express words of scripture : it 's a damnable peice of cruelty and uncharitableness , to load them with this charge , if they are not guilty of it ▪ and upon this he goes to clear them of it not only in the two articles mentioned in the test , the worship of saints , and the sacrifice of the mass , but that his apology might be compleat , he takes in , and indeed insists chiefly on the worship of images , tho , that is not at all mentioned in the test , he brings a great many quotations out of the old testament , to shew the idolatry prohibited in it , was the worshipping the sun , moon , and stars , or the making an image to resemble the divine essence , upon which he produces also sōme other authorities . and in this consists the substance of his plea for the church of rome . but upon all this he ought to have retracted both the license that himself gave some years ago to dr. stillingfleet's book , of the idolatry of the church of rome , and his own hasty assertion in condemning both turk and papist as guilty of idolatry ; the one for worshipping a lewd impostor , and the other for worshipping a sensless piece of matter . it seems he is now convinced , that the latter part of this charge that falls on the papists , was as false as the former that falls on the turks certainly is ; for they never worshipped mahomet , but hold him only in high reverence , as an extraordinary prophet , as the iews do moses . it 's very like that if the turks had taken vienna , he would have retracted that , as he has now in effect done the other : for i believe he is in the same disposition to reconcile himself to the mufti , and the pope , but the ottoman empire is now as low as popery is high : so he will brave the turk still to his teeth , tho he did him wrong , and will humble himself to the papist , tho he did him nothing but right : but now i take leave of the man , and will confine my self severely to the matter that is before me . and , 1. how guilty soever the church of rome is of idolatry , yet the test does not plainly assert that ; for there is as great a difference between idolatrous and idolatry , as there is in law between what is treasonable and what is treason . the one imports only a worship that is conformable to idolatry , and that has a tendency to it , whereas the other is the plain sin it self . there is also a great difference between what is now us'd in that church , and the explanations that some of their doctors give of that usage . we are to take the usage of the church of rome from her publick offices , and her authorised practices ; so that if these have a conformity to idolatry , and a tendency tō it , then the words of the test are justified , what sense soever some learned men among them may put on these offices and practices ; therefore the test may be well maintained , even tho we should acknowledg that the church of rome was not guilty of idolatry . 2. if idolatry was a crime punishable by death under the old testament , that does not at all concern us : nor does the charge of idolatry authorize the people to kill all idolaters ; unless our author can prove , that we believe our selves to be under all the political and judiciary precepts of the law of moses ; and even among the jews the execution of that severe law belonged either to the magistrate , or to some authorized and inspired person , who as a zealot might execute the law , when the magistrate was wanting to his duty ; so that this was writ inviduously only , as it seems , to inflame the papist the more against us . but the same calvinist prince , that has exprest so just an aversion to the repealing the test , has at the same time shewed so merciful an inclination towards the ro. catholicks , that of all the reproaches in the world , one that intended to plead for that religion ought to have avoided the mentioning of blood or cruelty with the greatest care . 3. it 's true we cannot help believing that idolatry is a damnable sin , that shuts men out of the kingdom of heaven ; and if every sin in which a man dies without repentance does it , much more this , which is one of the greatest of all sins . but yet after all , there is mercy for sins of ignorance upon mens general repentance ; and therefore since god alone knows the degrees of mens knowledg and of their ignorance , and how far it is either affected on the one hand , and invincible on the other , we do not take upon us to enter into god's secrets , or to judg of the salvation or damnation of particular persons , nor must we be byassed in our enquiry into the nature of any sin , either by a fond regard to the state of our ancestors , or by the due respect that we owe to those who are over us in civil matters . in this case things are what god has declared them to be ; we can neither make them better nor worse than he has made them ; and we are only to judg of things , leaving persons to the merciful as well as the just and dreadful judgment of god. 4. all the stir that our author keeps with the examining of the idolatry committed by the iews under the old testament , supposing it were all true , will serve no more for acquitting the church of rome , than a plea would avail a criminal , who were arraigned of high treason for coyning mony , or for counterfeiting the king's seal , in which one should set forth , that high treason was the murdering the king , or the levying war against him , and that therefore the criminal who was guilty of neither of these two , ought to be acquitted . idolatry , as well as treason , is a comprehensive notion , and has many different branches : so that tho the worshipping the host of heaven , or the worshipping an image as a resemblance of the divinity , may be acknowledged to be the highest degrees of idolatry , yet many other corruptions in the worship of god are justly reducible to it , and may be termed not only idolatrous , but idolatry it self . 5. our saviour in his sermon on the mount has shewed us how many sins are reducible to the second table of the law , besides those of murder , adultery , &c. that are expresly named in it ; and tho the jews in that time having delivered themselves entirely from the sin of idolatry , to which their fathers were so prone , gave him no occasion of commenting on the first and second commandment , yet by the parity of things we may conclude , that many sins are reducible to them , besides those that are expresly named ; and tho we have not so compleat a history of the idolatry of the neighbouring nations to iudea before the captivity , yet we do certainly know what was the idolatry of which the greeks and romans were guilty when the new testament was writ , and the greatest part of the new testament is written chiefly with relation to the jews , whose freedom from idolatry gave no occasion to treat of it , yet in those few passages which relate to the heathen idolatry then on foot , the holy writers retain the same phrase and style , that were used in the old testament , which gives us just reason to believe , that the idolatry was upon the matter and in its main stroak the same under both , and if so , then we have a door opened to us to discover all our author 's false reasonings ; and upon this discovery we shall find that all the inspired writers charged the heathen worship with idolatry , not so much with relation to the glosses that philosophers and other political men might put on their rites , but with relation to the practice in it self . 6. but since idolatry is a sin against a moral and unchangeable law , let us state the true notion of the right worship of god , and by consequence of idolatry ( tho this is done with that exactness by the worthy master of the temple , that it should make a man afraid to come after him . ) our ideas of god , and ▪ the homage of worship and service that we offer up pursuant to these , are not only to be considered as they are just thoughts of god , and acts suitable to those thoughts , but as they are ideas that tend both to elevate and purifie our own natures ; for the thoughts of god are the seeds of all truth and vertue in us , which being deeply rooted in us , makes us become conformable to the divine nature . so that the sin of idolatry consists in this , that our ideas of god being corrupted , he is either defrauded of that honour , which , tho due to him , is transferred to another , or is dishonoured by a worship unsutable to his nature , and we also by forming wrong ideas of the object of our worship , become corrupted by them . nothing raises the soul of man more than sublime thoughts of god's greatness and glory ; and nothing perfects it more than just notions of his wisdom and goodness . on the contrary , nothing debases our natures more , than the offering our worship and service to a being that is low and unworthy of it ; or the depressing the supreme being in our thoughts or worship to somewhat that is like our selves , or perhaps worse ; therefore the design of true religion being the forming in us such notions as may exalt and sanctify our natures , as well as the raising a tribute to the author of our being , that is in some sort unworthy of him , the sin of idolatry is upon this account chiefly forbidden in scripture , because it corrupts our ideas of god , and by a natural tendency this must likewise corrupt our natures , when we either raise up an idol so far in our thoughts as to fancy it a god , or depress god so far as to make him an idol , for these two species of idolatry have both the same effect on us : and as a wound in a man's vitals is much more destructive , than any , how deep and dangerous soever , that is in his limbs , since it is possible for him to recover of the one , but not of the other ; so idolatry corrupts religion in its source : thus idolatry in its moral ▪ and unchangeable nature is the honouring any creature as a god , or the imagining that god is such a being as the other ▪ creatures are ; and this had been a sin , tho no law against it had ever been given to mankind but the light and law of nature . 7. but after all this there are different degrees in this sin : for the true notion of god being this , that he comprehends all perfections in his essence ; the ascribing all these to a creature is the highest degree of idolatry : but the ascribing any one of these infinite perfections , or ( which is all one with relation to our actions ) the doing any thing which imports , or is understood to import it , is likewise idolatry , tho of a lower degree of guilt ▪ so likewise the imagining that the true god is no other than as an idol , represents him to be , is the highest degree of the other species of idolatry , but the conceiving him as having a body in which his eternal mind dwells , or fancying that any strange virtue from him dwells in any body to such a degree , as to make that body the proper object of worship , unless he has assured us that he is really united to that body , and dwells in it ; which was the case of the cloud of glory under the old testament , and much more of the humane nature of christ under the new ; this is likewise idolatry , for in all these it is plain that the true ideas of god , and the principles of religion are corrupted . 8. there are two principles in the nature of man that make him very apt to fall into idolatry , either inward or outward . the first is the weakness of most peoples minds , which are so sunk into gross phantasms and sensible objects , that they are scarce capable to raise their thoughts to pure and spiritual ideas : and therefore they are apt either to forget religion quite , or to entertain it by objects that are visible and sensible : the other is , that mens appetites and passions being for the most part too strong for them , and these not being reconcileable to the true ideas of a pure and spiritual essence , they are easily dispos'd to embrace such notions of god as may live more peaceably with their vices : and so they hope by a profusion of expence and honour , or of fury and rage , which they employ in the worship of an imaginary deity , to purchase their pardons , and to compensate for their other crimes , if not to authorise them . these two principles that are so rooted in our frail and corrupt natures , being wrought on by the craft and authority of ambitious and covetous men , who are never wanting in all ages and nations , have brought forth all that idolatry , that has appear'd in so many different shapes up and down the world , and has been diversified according to the various tempers , accidents and constitutions of the several nations and ages of the world. 9. i now come to examine the beginnings of idolatry as they are represented to us in the scripture , in which it will appear , that our author's account of it shews him guilty , either of great ignorance or of that which is worse : he pretends , that the first plain intimation that we have of it in palestine , is , when iacob after his conversation with the schechemites , commanded his family to put away their strange gods ; whereas we have an earlier and more particular account of those strange gods in the same book of genesis , chap. 31. where when iacob fled away from laban , it is said , ver . 19. that rachel stole her father's images or teraphim : and these are afterwards call'd by laban his gods , ver . 30. and these very images are called by ioshua 24. v. 2. strange gods : so that the strange gods from which iacob cleansed his family , gen. 35. 2. were no other than the teraphim ; so that in the teraphim we are to seek for the true original of idolatry , and for the sense of the phrase of other gods , or strange gods , which is indeed the true key to this whole matter . these were little statues , such as the dii laris or penates were afterwards among the romans , or the pagods now in the east , in which it was believed , that there was such a divine virtue shut up , that the idolaters expected protection from them : and as all people in all times are apt to trust to charms , so those who pretended to chain down the divine influences to those images , had here a great occasion given them to deceive the world ; of this sort was the palladium of troy , and the ancille of rome ; and this gave the rise to all the cheats of tolesmes and talismans that came afterwards , these were of different figures : and since our author confesses , p. 124. that cherubim and teraphim are sometimes used promiscuously for one another , it is probable that the figure of both was the same ; and since it is plain from ezekiel that the cherubim resembled a calf ( compare ezek. 1. 10. with chap. 10. 14. where what is called in the first the face of an ox , is called in the other the face of a cherub ) from hence it is probable that the teraphim , or at least some of them were of the same figure . in these it was also believed , that there were different degrees of charms : some were believed stronger than others ; so that probably pharaoh thought that moses and aaron had a teraphim of greater virtue than his magicians had , which is the clearest account that i know of his hardening his heart against so many miracles : and this also seems to be the first occasion of the phrase of the gods of the several nations , and of some being stronger than other ; that is , the teraphim of the one were believed to have a higher degree of enchantment in them , than the others had . this then leads us to the right notion of aaron's golden calf , and of the terms of graved and carved images in the second commandment , and even of the other gods in the first commandment : for we have seen that both in the stile of moses and ioshua the images were those teraphim , which they also called strange gods , when the israelites thought that moses had forsaken them , they came to aaron desiring him to make them god's , that is , teraphims , yet they prescribed no form to him , but left that wholly to him , and so the dream of their fondness of the egyptian idolatry vanishes ; for it was aaron's choice that made it a calf : perhaps he had seen the divine glory , as a cloud between the cherubims when he went up into the mountain ; exod. 24. 9 , 10. for a pattern being shewed to moses of the tabernacle that he was to make , it is probable aaron saw that likewise , and this might dispose him to give them a seraphim , in that figure : this is also the most probable account both of the calves of dan and bethel set up by ieroboam , and also of the israelites worshipping the ephod that gideon made ▪ iud. 8. 27. of the idolatry of micah and the danites who robbed him , iud. 17. 18. and of the israelites offering incense to the brazen serpent , 2 kings 18. 4. which seemed to have all the solemnities of a teraphim in it , so that it is plain , the greatest part of the idolatry under the old testament was the worship of the teraphim . 10. but to compleat this argument with relation to the present point , it is no less plain , that the true jehovah was worshipped in those teraphim . to begin with the first , it is clear that laban in the covenant he made with iacob , appeals not only to the god of abraham , gen. 31. 53. but likewise to iehovah , ver . 49. for though that name was not then known , yet moses by using it on that occasion , shews us plainly that laban was a worshipper of the true god ; aaron shews the same by intimating that feast which he appointed to iehovah , exod. 32. 5. ( which our author thought not fit to mention ) the people also by calling these , ver . 4. the gods that brought them out of egypt , shew that they had no thoughts of the egyptian idolatry : but they believed that moses had carried away the teraphim , in the virtue of which it seems they fancied that he had wrought his miracles , and that aaron , who they believed knew the secret , had made them new ones : and this is the most probable account of their joy in celebrating that feast . and as for ieroboam , the case seems to be plainly the same ; he made the people believe that the teraphim which he gave them in dan and bethel , were as good as those that were at ierusalem : for as his design was no other than to hinder their going thither , 1 kings 12. 27. so it is not likely that either he would or durst venture upon a total change of their religion , or that it could have passed so easily with the people , whereas the other had nothing extraordinary in it . it is also plain , that as ieroboam called the calves the gods that brought them out of egypt , v. 28. so he still acknowledged the true iehovah : for the prophets both true and false in his time prophesied in the name of iehovah , 1 king. 13. 2 , 18 , 26. and when his son was sick , he sent his wife to the prophet of iehovah , ch . 14. the story of the new idolatry , that achab set up of the baalim , shews also plainly that the old worshippers of the calves adhered to the true iehovah : for elijah states the matter , as if the nation had been divided between iehovah and baal , 1 king. 18. 21 , 39. and the whole story of iehu confirms this , 2 kings 9. 6 , 12 , 36. he was anointed king in the name of iehovah : and assoon as the captains that were with him , knew this , they acknowledged him their king ; he likewise speaking of the fact of the men of samaria , cites the authority of iehovah , 2 kings 10. 10 , 16 , 29. which shews that the people acknowledged it still : and he called his zeal against the worship of baal , his zeal for iehovah , and yet both he and his party worshipped the calves . it is no less clear that micah , who called his teraphim his gods , judg. 18. 24. was a worshipper of the true iehovah , judg. 17. 13. and there is little reason to doubt that this was the case of gideon's ephod , and of the brazen serpent . it were needless to go about the proving that all these corrupt ways of worship were idolatrous : the calf is expresly called an idol by st. stephen , acts 7. 41. and the thing is so plain that it is denied by none that i know of ; so here we have a species of idolatry plainly set forth in scripture , in which the true god was worshipped in an image ; and i fancy it is scarce necessary to insorm the reader , that wherever he finds lord in capitals in the english bible , it is for iehovah in the hebrew . 11. it is very true that the great and prevailing idolatry of all the east grew to be the worship of the host of heaven , which seems to have risen very naturally out of the other idolatry of the teraphim , which probably was the ancienter of the two , for when men came to think that divine influences were tied to such images , it was very natural for them to fancy that a more soveraign degree of influence was in the sun , and by consequence that he deserved divine adoration much more than their poor little teraphim . but it is also clear , that this adoration which they offered to the sun , was not with relation to the matter of that shining body , but to the divinity , which they believed was lodged in it . this appears not only from the greek writers , zenophon and plutarch , but from the greatest antiquity that is now in the world ; the bas reliefs that are in the ruins of the temple of persepolis , which are described with so much cost and care , by that worthy and learned gentleman sir iohn chardin , and which the world expects so greedily from him , he favoured me with a fight of them , and in these it appears , that in their triumphs , of which a whole series remains intire , they carried not only the fire , which was the emblem of the body of the sun , but after that the emblem of the divinity that it seems they thought was in it under the representation of a head environed with clouds , which is the most natural emblem that we can fancy , of an intelligent and incomprehensible being . it 's true , as idolatry grows still grosser and grosser , the intelligent being was at last forgot , tho it seems it was remembred by their philosophers , since the greeks came to know it , and all their worship was paid to the sun , or to his emblem the fire , so that even this idolatry was most probably the worship of the true god at first , under a visible representation ; and that this was an effect of the former idolatry is confirmed from what was said by moses , deut. 4. 14 to 19. where he plainly intimates the progress that idolatry would have , if they once came to worship graven or molten images , or make any sort of similitude for the great god ; this would carry them to lift up their eyes to heaven , and worship and serve the host of heaven . 12. the next shape that idolatry took , was the worshipping some subordinate spirits their genies , which were in effect angels , or departed men and women , and this filled both greece and rome , and was the prevailing idolatry when the new testament was writ : but that all these nations believed still one supreme god , and that they considered these just as the roman church does now angels and saints ( mutatis mutandis ) has been made out so invincibly by the learned dr. stillingfleet , that one would rather think that he had over-charged his argument with too much proof , than that it is any way defective , and yet this worship of those secondary deities is charged with idolatry both in the acts and in the epistles , so often , that it is plain the inspired writers believed , that the giving any degrees of divine worship to a creature , tho in a subordinate form , was idolatry ; and st. paul gives us a comprehensive notion of idolatry , that it was the giving divine service ( the word is dulia ) to those that by nature were not gods , gal. 4. 8. and he throws off all lords as well as all the gods of the heathen as idols , and in opposition to these , reduces the worship of the christians to the object of one god the father , and of one lord jesus christ , 1 cor. 8. 5 , 6. so that the greek and roman idolatry being strictly that which is condemned in the new testament , of which we have such a copious evidence from their writings , it is plain that even inferiour degrees of worship , when offered up to creatures , tho angels , is idolatry ; and tho the heathens thought neither iupiter nor mercury the supreme deities , yet the apostles did not for all that forbear to call them idols , acts 14. 15. 13. our author pretends to bear a great respect to antiquity , and therefore i might in the next place send him to all that the fathers have writ against the greek and roman idolatry , in which he will find that the heathens had their explainers as well as the church of rome has ; they denied they worshipped their images , but said they made use of them only to raise up their minds by those visible objects ; yet as st. paul begun the charge against the athenians of idolatry , acts 17. 29. for their gods of gold , silver , wood and stone , it was still kept up and often repeated by the fathers , tho the philosophers might have thrown it back upon them with all that pomp of dreadful words , which our author makes use of against those that fasten the same charge upon the church of rome . the same might be said with relation to the fathers , accusing them of polytheism , in worshipping many gods , and of idolatry , in worshipping those that had been but men like themselves : for it is plain that at least all the philosophers and wise men believed , that these were only deputed by the great god to govern some countries and cities ; and that they were mediators and intercessors between god and men ; but all this , that appears so fully in celsus , porphiry , and many others , did not make the fathers give over the charge . dr. stillingfleet has given such full proofs of this , that nothing can be made plainer than the matter of fact is . we know likewise that when the controversy arose concerning the god-head of jesus christ , athanasius and the other fathers , made use of the same argument against the arrians , who worshipped him , that they could not be excused from the sin of idolatry , in worshipping and invocating him whom they believed only to be a creature ; which shews that it was the sense of the christians of that age , that all acts of divine worship , and in particular , all prayers that were offered up to any that was not truly and by nature god , and the eternal god , were so many acts of idolatry . so that upon the whole matter it is clear , that the worshipping the true god under a corporeal representation , and the worshipping or invocating of creatures , tho in an inferior degree , was taxed by the apostles and by the primitive church as idolatrous . when they accuse them for those corruptions of divine worship , they did not consider the softning excuses of more refined men , so much as the acts that were done , which to be sure do always carry the stupid vulgar to the grossest degrees of idolatry ; and therefore every step towards it is so severely forbid by god , since upon one step made in the publick worship , the people are sure to make a great many more in their notions of things , therefore if we should accuse the church of rome for all the excesses of the past ages , or of the more ignorant notions in the present age , such as spain and portugal , even this might be in some degree well grounded , because the publick and authoris'd offices and practices of that church has given the rise to all those disorders ; and even in this we should but copy after the fathers , who always represent the pagan idolatry ; not as cicero or plutarch had done it , but according to the grossest notions and practices of the vulgar . 14. all that our author says concerning the cherubims , deserves not an answer ; for what use soever might be made of this , to excuse the lutherans for the use of images , without worshipping them , ( tho after all , the doing such a thing upon a divine commandment , and the doing it without a command , are two very different things ) yet it cannot belong to the worship of images , since the israelites paid no worship to the cherubims . they paid indeed a divine worship to the cloud of glory , which was between them , and which is often in the old testament called god himself , in all those expressions in which he is said to dwell between the cherubims . but this being a miraculous symbol of the divine presence , from which they had answers in all extraordinary cases , it was god himself , with any image or representation , that was worshipped in it ; as we christians pay our adorations to the human nature of christ , by virtue of that more sublime and ineffable in-dwelling of the god-head in him , in which case it is god only that we worship , in the man christ : even as the respect that we pay to a man terminates in his mind , tho the outward expressions of it go to the body , to which the mind is united ; so in that unconceivable union between the divine and human natures in christ , we adore the god-head only , even when we worship the man. 15. the general part of this discourse being thus stated , the application of it to the church of rome will be no hard matter : i will not insist much on the article of image-worship ; because it is not comprehended in the test , tho our author dwells longest on it , to let us see how carefully , but to how little purpose he had read dr. spencer's learned book . but if one considers the ceremonies and prayers with which images ▪ and particularly crosses , are to be dedicated by the roman pontifical , and the formal adoration of the cross on good-friday ; and the strange virtues that are not only believed to be in some images by the rabble , but that are authoriz'd not only by the books of devotion publickly allowed among them , but even by papal bulls and indulgences , he will be forced to confess that the old notions of the teraphim are clearly revived among them . this could be made out in an infinite induction of particulars , of which the reader will find a large account in the learned dr. brevint's treatise , entituled , saul and samuel at endor . but i come now to the two branches mentioned in the test. 16. one is the sacrifice of the mass ; in which if either our senses that tell us it is now bread and wine , or the new testament in which it is called both bread , and the fruit of the vine , even after the consecration ; or if the opinion of the first seven centuries , or if the true principles of philosophy , concurring altogether , are strong enough , we are as certain as it is possible for us to be of any thing , that they are still according to our author 's own phrase , a sensless piece of matter ; when therefore this has divine adoration offered to it , when it is called the good god , carried about in solemn processions , and receives as publick and as humble a veneration as could be offered up to the deity it self , if it appear'd visibly . here the highest degree of divine worship is offered up to a creature ▪ nor will such worshippers , believing this to be truly the body of christ , save the matter , if indeed it is not so . this may no doubt go a great way to save themselves , and to bring their sins into the class of the sins of ignorance : but what large thoughts soever we have of the mercies of god to their persons , we can have no indulgence for an act of divine adoration , which is directed to an object that we are either sure is bread , or we are sure of nothing else . 17. as for the invocation and adoration of the blessed virgin and the saints , i shall offer only three classes of instances to prove it idolatrous . 1. in the office of the mass on many of the saints days , that sacrifice which is no other than the body and blood of christ , according to them is offered up to the honour of the saints , and they pray to god to accept of it through the saints intercession , one would think it were enough to offer up the sacrifices of prayers and praises to them ; but here is a sacrifice , which carries in the plain words of it the most absurd idolatry that is possible , which is the offering up the creator to the honour of a creature . 2. in the prayers and hymns that are in their publick offices , there are petitions offered up to the saints , that in the plain sense of the words import their pardoning our sins , and changing our hearts : the daily prayer to the virgin goes far this way ; tu nos ab hoste protege , & hora mortis suscipe ; do thou protect us from our enemy , and receive us in the hour of death . another goes yet further ; culpas nostras ablue , ut perennis sedem gloriae , per te redempti , valeamus scandere ; wash thou away our sins , that so being redeemed by thee , we may ascend up to the mansions of glory . that to the angels is of the same nature ; nostra diluant jam peccata prestando supernam coeli gloriam ; may they wash away our sins , and grant us the heavenly glory . i shall to this add two addresses to two of our english saints ; the first is to s. alban , te nunc petimus patrone preco sedule , qui es nostra vera gloria sive precum votis , servorum scelera ; we implore thee , our patron , who art our true glory , do thou take away the crimes of thy servants , by thy prayers . and the other relates to thomas becket , whom i believe our author will not deny to have been as great a rebel , as either coligny or his faction , and yet they pray thus to christ , tu per thomae sanguinem , quem pro te effudit , fac nos christe , scandere quo thomas ascendit ; do thou , o christ , make us by the blood of thomas , which he shed for thee , to ascend up whither he has ascended : and the hymn upon him is that verse of the 8th psalm ; thou hast crowned him with glory and honour , and hast set him over all the works of thy hands . one would think it were no bold thing to pronounce all this and innumerable more instances which might be brought to the same purpose , to be idolatrous . if we are sent by our author to the sences that may be put on those words , i shall only say with relation to that that the test condemns the devotions as they are used in the roman church ; so this belongs to the plain sence of the words , and if it is confessed that these are idolatrous , as ascribing to creatures the right of pardoning sins , and of opening the kingdom of heaven , which are main parts of the divine glory , then the matter of the test is justified . a third sort of instances is in the prayer that comes after the priest has pronounced the words of absolution , passio domini nostri iesu christi , merita b. mariae virginis , & omnium sanctorum , & quicquid benefeceris , vel mali sustinueris , sint tibi in remissionem peccatorum , augmentum gratiae & proemium vitae aeternae : may the passion of our lord iesus christ , the merits of the b. virgin , and all the saints , and all the good thou hast done , or the evil thou hast suffered , be to thee effectual for the remission of thy sins , the increase of grace , and the reward of eternal life . absolution in its true and unsophisticated meaning , being the declaration made to a penitent of the mercies of god in christ , according to the gospel , i would gladly know what milder censure is due to the mixing the merits of the virgin and the saints , with the passion of christ , in order to the obtaining this gospel-pardon , with all the effects of it , than in this of our test , that it is idolatrous . i have now examined the two points , in which our author thought fit to make an apology for the church of rome , without descending to the particulars of his plea more minutely . i have used him in this more gently than he deserves ; for as i examined his reasonings , i found all along both so much ignorance and such gross disingenuity , that i had some difficulty to restrain my self from flying out on many occasions : but i resolved to pursue these two points , with the gravity of stile which the matter required , without entangling the discourse with such unpleasant digressions , as the discovery of his errors might have led me to . and i thought it enough to free unwary readers from the mistakes into which his book might lead them , without encreasing the contempt belonging to the writer , who has now enough upon him ; but i pray god grant him repentance , and a better mind . finis . advertisement . the reader is desired to take notice , that the author did not know of the death of the bishop of oxford , till this answer was printed . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30335-e3730 def. of his eccl. pol. p. 285 , 286. an exhortation to peace and union in a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury, on tuesday the 26th of novemb. 1689 / by ... gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 54 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-08 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30343 wing b5788 estc r22992 12623015 ocm 12623015 64579 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30343) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64579) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:5) an exhortation to peace and union in a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury, on tuesday the 26th of novemb. 1689 / by ... gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 30, [2] p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1689. half title: the bishop of salisbury's sermon of peace and union. advertisement: p. [1]-[2] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -n.t. -acts vii, 26 -sermons. concord -sermons. sermons, english. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-04 john latta sampled and proofread 2004-04 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion licensd , novemb. 29. 1689. an exhortation to peace and union , in a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury , on tuesday the 26th of novemb. 1689. by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london , printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , mdclxxxix . the bishop of salisbury's sermon of peace and union . an exhortation to peace and union : in a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury , on tuesday the 26th of novemb. 1689. acts vii . ver . 26. sirs , ye are brethren , why do you wrong one to another ? the open assaults and the secret practices of our enemies are things that we are prepared for , we look for them , and guard against them ; so that we are not surprised with them , nor unprovided when they appear . but the mutual animosities of those who are all united in the same common interests , and that ought to be animated with the same spirit , have somewhat in them that is more terrible , that carries the characters of a nation not capable of a deliverance , but fitted for destruction . this is at all times deplorable , but sometimes it is so dismal , that it is not easie to see a people in such a state , when their dangers are extreme ; without concluding that so fatall a madness must be the mark as well as the effect of some stroak from heaven . who could have seen ierusalem in the state in which iosephus describes it , without concluding them cursed of god ? besieged by the greatest power that was then in the world , & languishing in famine ; yet in the intervals of the attacks of their enemies , giving one another no rest , but divided into three great parties , who were butchering one another , as oft as their enemies gave them leisure for it . somewhat not unlike this , though in a lower form , is set forth in the words of my text : the posterity of iacob had endured a terrible bondage in egypt , and it was no wonder if while they groaned under such an oppression , an israelite and an egyptian were engaged in a quarrel , in which moses it seems took it for granted , that the egyptian was in the wrong , and so he killed him in the assistance of an injured israelite . but it was an astonishing thing to him to see two israelites fighting ; therefore he who was the meekest man in the earth , studied to soften both their minds , with a reproof that in very gentle words , set forth the madness of their quarrel with great authority . they were brethren either as they were one people ingaged all in the same interests , groaning under the same miseries , and wishing for the same common deliverance ; or as they were all initiated into the same covenant with god , as being the seed of abraham according to the promise made to him . but besides this general consideration of their being brethren , there were two special ones that enforced it in their present circumstances . they were in bondage to a strong , an ingrateful , a perfidious , and a cruel enemy ; that forgetful of all the services ioseph had rendred the crown , was not satisfied with condemning them to an ignominious slavery : but carried this to so brutal a degree of cruelty , as to design the murder of all their male issue , and even to oblige parents to destroy the fruit of their own body . now while they were under so terrible a bondage , it seemed a very unnatural piece of madness for them to have any quarrels among themselves . but besides this they had reason to believe that a deliverance was approaching : the time that was marked by prophecy , for the continuance of their captivity was now almost expired ; so they had reason to believe that god was to appear very speedily , and to set them at liberty : and therefore nothing was more contrary to that prospect , than for them in such a state of things to engage into quarrels and animosities , which might naturally have produced such consequences , that they must have been very much disabled from being the instruments of heaven in such a glorious work , as that which they had reason to conclude was now near at hand , since the period of 430 years was now expiring . from the consideration of the mutual tie of their being brethren , it was reasonable to expostulate , as moses did , why do you wrong one to another ? insinuating that in such quarrellings the wrong lay not only on the one side , but was mutual . both were to blame , they wronged one another , and wronged the publick besides . but though both were in the wrong , we see who was most so , even he that would not hear of a reconciliation , or of the putting a stop to the quarrel ; he reproached moses with the assistance that he had given the day before to an israelite against an egyptian : so enraged he was at the friendly interposition of moses in the matter , that he seems concerned for the egyptian that was killed ; a publick enemy being less hated than a brother , when those domestick feuds are once raised to any height ; even a reconciler becomes then more odious than an alien . this is the account of the occasion on which these words were spoken , and of the words themselves , and of the effect they had . in the next place , let us consider how far we may be concerned in them . we have been engaged in a great and hard struggle with open enemies as cruel and as treacherous as pharaoh or the egyptians ever were : we have overcome them , but now we are falling into mutual quarrellings ; some are whetting on their spirits to revenge , by the remembrance of past errors , with relation to civil matters : others are raising up those disputes which have been already once and again so fatal to us , that they have given us often cause to wish that they had never been once named amongst us ; and after all these unhappy consequences that such things have hitherto had , we are now again trying our strength , mustring our forces , and raising within our own minds , and in the minds of all , over whom we have any influence , all the sowrness and peevishness that is possible , which at any other time were an inexcusable piece of folly ; but now it is a madness that wants a name . let us then so far at least take breath in our quarrel as to hearken to these words , and to examine what is imported by them . ye are brethren . this belongs to us , first , as we are englishmen , all of the same nation under the same laws , and the same protection , shut up indeed in an island , which as it separates us from all the world , so it secures us against all the world. we were anciently a broken people divided into many kingdoms , and tho' most of these were swallowed up many ages ago , yet we were never brought all under one head before the beginning of this century : our climate , it is true , is none of the best ; we have but a faint sun , and the product of our soil cannot be compared with that of more southern regions ; but our ports and rivers give us such advantages , that we send out both colonies and manufactures all the world over , and fetch home rich returns ; so that we have both security and wealth beyond any of our neighbours . it is a melancholy thing to live upon a continent , and to be subject to the chances of war , and to all the depredations , and miseries which follow all wars ; but it is yet much more unhappy to be in the neighbourhood of that cruel and barbarous enemy of mankind , who having laid off all the tenderness of humane nature , and the regards that have been by a common consent held sacred in the most destructive wars , executes whole countries all at once : who after all the wealth that can possibly be squeezed out of them , is drawn from them to the last farthing for purchasing a security for their houses , persons , and cattel : who i say , after these securities are so dearly paid for , sends the final order of destroying all , and burning , and wasting every thing without exception . i speak not this to aggravate matters with words of pomp ; i say nothing but what they do daily practise , and of which i have seen many fatal proofs in the ruins of many great towns , and large countries , where the words of ioel were literally accomplished by that devouring army ; the country before them being like the garden of eden , but behind them like a desolate wilderness . but our security from enemies without us , is but half our happiness : we are safe at home likewise , having the blessing of a government so tempered , that as we are not exposed to the fury of a levelling multitude , nor the confusions of an equality among men , but have a government that is strong and firm enough to keep us in order and obedience ; so we have the greatest blessing that can be found in government in as high a degrees as wise men can desire . oh! the difference between us and some happier climates , where mens estates and liberties , and often their lives are at the mercy of mere humour and passion : where the frowns of a court can throw a man in a moment from the most plentiful to the most miserable condition imaginable : where one rash word is thought crime enough for a perpetual imprisonment joyned with all the circumstances of rigour that can render it much more terrible than death it self ; so that if such tyrants do not make many publick examples of their severity , their design in so doing seems only to be to lengthen out the miseries of such as suffer at their hands , that so they may glut themselves with a more lasting revenge . i say , nothing of those terrible impositions by which they eat out the fortunes , and the very strength of their subjects , all mens estates by a quick circulation , are melted into the support of their unjust wars , or extravagant expences ; and the poorer sort must give at least the half of their time to work , in order to the paying those cruel taxes , by which they grind their people . their ruined houses , their ragged cloaths , their hungry looks , and their half-naked children , give evident proofs of the tyranny of those governments that can render their people extreamly miserable , in spite of all that abundance which nature has set before them , while millions of people are pining away in want and beggary , that so a few may surfeit themselves with all the excesses of fulness and vice. this is a short hint of that which every one that has travelled abroad has seen in the richest countries beyond sea , god grant we may never see it nearer . but we know it has been the language of all the flatterers of lawless power , that nothing can tame people , and make them quiet and obedient but poverty ; whereas plenty makes them haughty and mutinous , as if pharaoh's maxims had been to be derived to all his successors in tyranny : ye are idle , ye are idle , therefore ye say , let me go . we are all then brethren , as we are englishmen and freemen , born under a government that gives us all possible securities for both liberty and property , the two chief earthly blessings of humane nature , whose persons can neither be restrained , nor punished beyond the bounds of law ; who can be charged with no taxes but by their own consent ; and who can be subject to no laws but what were prayed by themselves . happy liberty ! and happy subjects ! if they but knew their own happiness ; but as good men love liberty , so it is only wise men that can value it and secure it ; fools part with it easily , and if they pay but a little for the purchase of it , are apt to think it is dear bought . the israelites in their march when they saw not the abundance to which they had been accustomed in egypt , wish'd themselves there again ; so a voluptuous nation that was over-set with abundance , and corrupted with luxury , may think it was better with them when they were languishing away under that false appearance of plenty , into a certain ruine ; then now , if their prospect of liberty is like for a year or two to force them to be a little more frugal and sober , less vain , and less prodigal : such a lessening of expence to secure liberty , will appear intollerable to those that have not sense enough to value it , nor vertue enough to starve their vices ; that they may settle it upon themselves and their posterities . our neighbours in the low countries after they had felt the smart of tyranny , resolved either to recover their liberty , or to perish in the attempt , and by a war of forty years continuance a small corner of the world maintained it self against the greatest power then in europe , and was reduced to a misery and poverty ; that nothing but an obstinate resolution of being freemen , or of perishing , could have supported . in conclusion , their noble designs were bless'd with success , they became the wonder , and the envy of the world , the arbiters of europe , and the supports of that very power which then studied to crush them , and to crown their glory , the instruments of giving us liberty , as well as of securing their own . and yet after all this , tho' the name of their government has a greater sound towards liberty than our own , we are really the much freer people of the two , where every man has a more open access to a proportioned share in the government , than among them . that small expence which we may borrow from our pleasures to secure our liberty will be soon repaied to us in that firm and settled happiness which is in our view . we run indeed the hazard of losing it , and we deserve that it should be so , if we either throw it up , as not worth the holding , or let it be snatched from us by the great ravisher of liberty , and common enemy to mankind : the truth is that corruption of our morals which is spread so universally over the nation , gives us just cause of apprehending that we have not vertue enough left to maintain liberty . but that as the voluptuous and degenerated romans , after they had shaken off cesar's tyranny , were too much vitiated to return to their ancient government , and so they quickly fell under a new , a worse , and more lasting tyranny . thus we who have fallen so far from the vertues of our ancestors , can never be able to maintain those rights which they derived to us , if we do not resolve to return to their vertues , and to cleanse our selves of those vices which do deprave us . if we will unite in maintaining this common cause , and concur with every man who on this occasion is willing to shew himself an englishman , if we will forget all our little interests to mind this great one , and sacrifice small matters for the saving our all , then we will shew that we are brethren , all born of one common mother , and all equally concerned in her preservation . but in this ye are brethren , there is a closer relation implied ; that as the iews were all brethren with regard to that covenant to which they had a right , as they were abraham's seed ; so we christians are brethren , as we profess the same common christianity , and look for the same common salvation . as we are christians , or as we are protestants we are brethren , believing the same gospel , owning the same god , and the same saviour , animated by the same spirit , and hoping to live together in the same state of happiness for ever . in all these respects we are brethren ; for that we are protestants , imports no more but that we are christians who believe that holy religion in the same purity and simplicity in which it was at first delivered to the world. if there happen to be any diversities among us about some lesser things , we ought first to compare the importance of that in which we agree , with that in which we differ ; and if we find the one is vastly great , and the other is nothing in comparison to it , then it is plain , that small differences must give place to the greater points , in which we are at one ; for all that act otherwise , shew clearly , that tho' they do not think it decent to speak out what they think , yet in their hearts they undervalue the common interest of the protestant religion in which we agree , but set a real value upon indifferent matters , and are acted by the heats and animosities of a party , to which all other things give place . it was not only a certain sign of ruine to the iews , but an infallible cause of it , that while they were besieged by the romans , instead of consulting together the methods of their common defence , they were broke into such irreconciliable feuds , that they no sooner had a time of breathing given them by their besiegers , than they fell upon one another , so that they became their own most implacable enemies . when the saracens were too hard for the whole state of christendom , the eastern and western churches fell out about so trifling a matter , as whether the bread in the sacrament ought to be leavened , or not : this first broke them , then some other matters not much more important , were found out to widen the breach , which had such effects , that the western nations that ought to have supported the greek church and empire , if not out of charity to them , yet out of a due care of themselves , that they might be covered by such a barrier from the turkish empire , lookt on , and saw them destroyed , and found themselves by that means exposed to a power that has been so often formidable to europe . shall not the madness and miseries of others make us so wise as to fortifie our selves all we can , and to forget , if we cannot quite remove the occasions of our differences : shall an evil spirit still prevail among us to the defeating all the designs of providence , and the crossing of all attempts for peace and union ? so that neither the errors that all men seemed lately to confess , nor the promises which were then generally made , neither our late distress , 〈◊〉 our present dangers , can bring us to a sound mind , or to a calm temper , that in this our day we may know the things that belong to our peace . it is indeed strange that we should not know them , when all the world besides us knows them . but as there is nothing that can tend ●…o the strengthning of all bodies so much , as their being ●…ted among themselves ; so there is somewhat ●…o peculiar to the genius of the christian religion , that both obliges us to peace and love , and also disposes us to it , that we cannot give a more eminent proof of our ignorance of the main design of our great master , and of his blessed doctrine , than to delight in everlasting quarrelling , and to hate , and study to destroy those for whom christ died . nor does any thing defeat the design , nor stop the progress of religion , so much as the divisions of those who profess it ; for these do divert all men from bette●… things , as much as they scandalize the world against those who promote them with so much zeal . when the reformation appeared first in the world , it made a mighty progress ; whole states and kingdoms embraced it so fast , that the advances it made in the hands of a few instruments , seemed to supply the want of miracles , and look't like a great one it self : but all on a sudden it came to a full stop , and now for above an hundred years it has gained little ground , but lost much . the chief reason that can be assigned for this , is , that those who embraced it , instead of carrying on their common cause with an united strength , have fallen a quarrelling among themselves about some uncertain and inconsiderable things . those in germany being broken about the manner of the presence in the sacrament ; though all agree , that neither the one , nor the other opinion has any relation , either to the worship of god , or to any practical duty : those in holland have quarrell'd about the decrees and councils of god , though both sides acknowledge that it is a mystery past finding out : and we here in england have had a long●… and fierce contest about things , which we all confess are indifferent in their own nature . this animosity works still so high among us , that many take fire upon the smallest steps that can be made towards the healing so great a breach ; and fill all places with tragical outcries , as if the church of england were to be pulled down : while the chief promoters of these reports know well how false they are ; and that instead of offering at any thing that can in any sort weaken our church , every thing which has been endeavoured , must prove its strength , as well as its glory ; if we are so happy as to weigh all in even ballances . the things that are proposed are of themselves desirable , though there should not be one dissenter gained by them ; and are such as will tend to the making all the parts of our offices both more unexceptionable , and more edifying . but distempers are far gone , when the patient rages at the first mention of a medicine . we have lost many happy opportunities since the first beginnings of the reformation among us , for the healing our breaches : one is sorry to remember them , and wishes that such fatal errors could be covered from the knowledge of all succeeding ages for the sake of the church , and of those who have governed it . but if we do again repeat former errors , and let the present advantages that we have now in our hands slip from us , what is to be said upon it , but that this is of the lord , who by it is punishing us for our other sins , for our remissness in our duties ; for our neglect of the pastoral care ; for our slackning that strictness of life which becomes our profession ; for our indulging our selves too much in sensuality and laziness ; and for all those other sins , by which we have departed from his law , and have corrupted the covenant of levi , and made many to stumble at the law ; and that therefore god will make us become base and contemptible before the people ; and that all our flocks shall be scattered . but we might hope for better things , if every one would put away all prejudices , all wrath , anger , and revenge ; and would put on bowels of mercies and kindness , remembring that we are brethren . so that having purified our selves from humour , passion , interest , and every thing else that may corrupt our minds , unto the unseigned love of the brethren , we would resolve to love one another with a pure heart fervently : and if instead of the pride of not yielding to one another in any thing , we should rather engage into a holy emulation of trying who could yield most for the healing of those wounds that have been so often opened , and that begin now again to bleed afresh . it is not the differences themselves that keep us asunder , they are too inconsiderable for that . it is a secret dislike that we bear to one another : for as the greeks and latines could never have fallen out about so inconsiderable a matter as the leavening the bread in the sacrament , if the dispute about the authority of the bishops of rome and constantinople had not embittered their minds : so our subjects of dispute are only the occasions by which our uncharitableness works ; and if by bringing our selves to a more christian temper , that hidden disease were once cured , all the symptoms of it would fall off of themselves , and men would grow ashamed that they had ever spent so much time and so much zeal about things which deserve them so little . the apostles who were full of this divine temper , after they themselves had judged in a dispute of much more consequence than any is among us , yet were not only willing to let the iews continue to do as they had wont to do , but even to the iews they became iews , that so they might gain them , not by a spirit of servile compliance , but by the enlarged spirit of true charity , which is of too great a compass , to be limited within any narrow sub-division . by this spirit it was , that while st. paul was a prisoner for the gospel , some thinking to add affliction to his bonds , preached christ not sincerely , but out of malice and envy ; yet so triumphant was the spirit of universal love , and of zeal for the honour of his blessed master , in him , that he rejoiced in this , that christ was preached : and then do we become his followers , when by a degree of the same spirit , we can so far raise our minds above all the narrownesses of a party , that tho we were assured that those men who differ from us , were in the wrong , and had ill designs against us , yet w● would conquer them in the spirit of the gospel , and so overcome their evil with our good . upon all such occasions we ought not so much to consider what we owe to these with whom we have to do , as what we owe to our selves , to the church , and to the succeeding generation : so that if we can see how we may do that which may produce good effects at any distance of time from us , we ought to do it ; though it should not , like a charm , have a present sensible operation ; nor ought things that are offered at for peace , be rejected , if they are in themselves reasonable , because we cannot be assured before hand , that those in whose favour they are proposed , will be gained by them . the church will always gain both with god and man , by offering at peace as much as is possible , and as much as in her lies ; nor are we to stop in a good thing , because the effect is not certain ; in such cases we may well trust the providence of god ; and things that will be their own apology , are never the worse , if they are defeated by the sowrness of unreasonable men ; on the contrary , as the one side will have the more glory , so the other will be the more inexcusable , when great concessions are frankly made , but unhandsomely rejected . to crown all ; we have still one reason to persuade us to reflect a little more frequently on our being brethren , since we know our enemies do it to purpose ; their bottom is on absolute authority and infallibility , that are maintained by implicit faith , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which gives them indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ou●… principles do not allow us ; yet it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…ccountable piece of the pervers●…ness of human nature , that false persuasions should have so great an influence , when certain truths are so feeble ; and when all the weight that our saviour has laid on mutual love and charity , shall have so little force , while some false notions work more certainly . our adversaries have indeed among them , many differences , both in doctrine and practice , not to mention a vast variety in their rituals , that are much more important than any of those are , about which we are divided ; and yet as soon as they see the common cause concerned , they can lay all these to sleep , in order to their running down their common enemies ; but we by a fatal obstinacy continue our disputes , and heighten our animosities , when our enemies are in our bowels , ready not only to take advantage of our passions , but to devour us ; while we , instead of securing our selves from them , seem only to be set on devouring one another . this is from god , and gives us a melancholly prospect of it self ; but a much more melancholly one , when we have reason to look upon it as a judgment of god on us for our sins , and as a forerunner of our destruction . we seem now to be in the like state with that in which ierusalem was , when our saviour said of her , how often would i have gathered thee under my wings , as a hen gathereth her brood , but thou wouldst not ! this leads me to consider the first circumstance in which the israelites were , that made it more necessary for them to remember that they were brethren , since they were then in egypt , in bondage to a cruel , treacherous , and ingrateful tyrant , who had both strength enough to master them , and rage enough to destroy them . it is true , such has the goodness of god been to us , that we are not now in egypt ; but we were lately very near the being brought under that yoke : and if we do not manage the happy opportunity that is now in our hands , we have reason to apprehend that we shall quickly fall again under it . the scene that has been lately acted in france , and savoy , has given us sufficient warning of what we ought to expect when we fall under such pharaohs , who will neither remember ioseph , nor the most signal services that can be done them , nor have any of the tendernesses of humanity , not to say of the compassions of christianity , but who will by a slow oppression eat out the estates , and spoil the houses of those they call hereticks , and give them all the vexatious disquiet that they can contrive ; and then , when all is consumed , will separate the nearest relations , and throw them into terrible and noysome prisons , without any regard to age or sex , to sickness or infirmity : and the very attempt of flying away from so dreadful a misery , will be made a crime to be punished by the greatest severity to which men can be adjudged ; to be chain'd to a bank , and to tug at an oar , in the most uncomfortable state of life that is imaginable . this is what many thousands in france have suffered , and still do suffer ; and has driven vast multitudes out of their countrey from their dwellings and families , naked almost , and destitute of all things : you have seen so many crying instances of this cruelty , that it is not necessary to enlarge further upon it : and you have received , and relieved them with such a bountiful hand , and so tender a charity , that you have reason to hope that there is a blessing reserved for you , proportioned to the labour of love you have shewed , who have ministred to so many of our persecuted brethren , and still do minister . we here , had formerly reason to have looked for no better usage ; we know their church is uniform in her proceedings against hereticks ; the spirit and principles are the same every-where ; so we had no reason to have expected to be exempted from the fate of others , if we had been delivered over to them whose tender mercies are cruel . we saw that they remembred not ioseph , not only in the age after he was dead , but that immediatly after the greatest service that could be done , and the most solemn promises that could be made , all was forgotten : and if there appeared at any time any relenting , it was like that in egypt ; for when pharoah felt the weight of the divine displeasure , he was so far wrought on , that he was willing to let the people go ; but that terrour was no sooner over , than his heart was hardned ; so that his good temper went off , and all his promises were forgotten . some , perhaps are so foolish as to imagine , that present misfortunes may have wrought a change somewhere , and that they now see past errors , so that they would not venture to fall again into the same follies , that have proved so fatal to them . but yet such persons ought to consider that pharaoh was pharaoh still , and would be so still , after all the changes of fortune through which he could pass ; obligations and engagements will be but feeble things . and we must expect to be the most miserable nation under the sun , if after the escape that we have made , we should again fall back into the same hands ; not only the old crime of heresy must be brought against us , but our presumption in daring to set our selves free , and to accept of the deliverance , which god has so wonderfully wrought for us , would be thought the greatest of crimes , and be aggravated by all that could be invented to make it look odious . we have in such a case the most deplorable state of misery imaginable to look for , all the hardships of prisons , all the cruelty of rough treatment , and after the lengthned misery of ill usage , such a terrible death , as they may think , will give us the most exquisite misery ; so that all the ease and pleasure we might hope for , should be to be speedily delivered by a quick execution out of their hands ; their temper and principles are of themselves cruel enough , but when these are sharpned by resentment and revenge , then new contrivances of cruelty are to be expected . this is that egypt out of which we are delivered , i wish i could say delivered . alas , ireland is not ! but is still in bondage with her children , and like to be a long scene of blood and misery , nor can our deliverance be compleat till that is perfected ; and tho we here are not at present in their power , yet it is but too evident that many wish we were . if these were the avowed members of that body , it ought not to surprize us , but that many who seem zealous against it , should yet by their whole conduct be carrying us back thither , is more amazing . can any man be so void of understanding , as to forget so soon what was so lately done ? or imagin that any change in the affairs of our enemies , can have changed either their principles or their hearts , unless it be to the worse ? and yet after all this there are not a few , that say plainly , would to god we were in egypt again , for it was then better with us than it is now . others are not so sincere as to speak out , but their actings speak for them . some are uneasy , because they can no more persecute their brethren . others , because they can no more insult over their neighbours . some are afraid of suffering a little of the great deal they deserve : while , on the other hand , others are acted with another extream of fury , and under the pretence of punishing past errors , seek only to gratify their own revenges , and so drive others to the common folly of all that are in any present danger , to wish for any thing that may deliver them from that , how fatal soever it may prove afterwards . these unruly agitations of mens minds on both hands , are the very plague that our enemies ought to wish to us , that while pharaoh pursues , we may stand still quarrelling with one another till he can overtake and destroy us ; and thus , instead of securing our selves against the common enemy , we create many new ones among our selves , and expose the whole to the rages of those who can have no mercy . the second circumstance of the affairs of the israelites was , that they were upon the point of being redeemed out of their bondage , and being made one of the most glorious nations that ever was : the prophecy relating to it was near the assigned period ; and it seems it had begun already to be understood , that moses was to be the person to be imployed in it , for we find here that he imagined they had known it , which shews that it was got even then into many hands . and now if we turn this towards our selves , here is a dawning to a happiness , and a deliverance begun , that carries with it all that is desirable to us . whether this is a beginning of that great restitution of all things , which is supposed to be held forth in prophecy , and to be near its accomplishment , is that which i will not undertake to affirm ; but this is certain , that since the first beginnings of the reformation , the face of the times never looked so bright towards that blessed work as it does at present . there was never such a happy conjunction of interests among those who professed it , as there is at present ; nor were ever these kingdoms , and the united provinces , in such a close conjunction as they are at this day . and on the other hand , the great persecutor of protestants has , by his violence and injustice , raised against himself so strong an alliance of princes of the same religion , that it is visible the signs of the times give us all the grounds of hope that we can propose to our selves ; nor can any thing disappoint all this , but first our sins that may provoke god to appear against us , and then our mutual animosities and quarrellings that may distract us at home . if men will forget their present danger , and only think of former provocations , if both sides are studying to aggravate matters one against another , and seeking and improving all the advantages they can find ; if the repeated interpositions of him , to whom , under god , we owe our present quiet , and our late deliverance , cannot inspire us with softer thoughts : if , i say , we continue firm to these ill-temper'd resolutions , what must the conclusion of all this be , but the ruin of religion , and the loss of liberty ? we will appear to all the world , as well as to all succeeding ages , the most unthinking , and the most blinded nation under heaven , the least sensible of religion , and the least capable of liberty ; that have not the regard due to the one , nor the sense and the vertue necessary for the other ; and that after all the noise we have made about religion , that we have none at all ; and that after all the concern we have shewed for liberty , we neither deserve it , nor can maintain it . upon our behaviour at present depends all the prospect that , humanely speaking , we can possibly have of our religion 's not being wholly extirpated , at least in all these parts of the world. if in this fermentation and crisis the design miscarries , there is nothing so black and dismal , as that which we ought to look for . we will be despised by all our enemies , as much as we are now hated by them ; we will fall unregarded and unpitied ; and if such a misery is reserved for us , we shall have one aggravation of it , that as the damned in hell are supposed to curse and reproach one another , so if we fall again into a state of persecution , both sides will be reproaching , and next to cursing one another for it . weaker minds will be struck with this , that the miscarriage of so great a design , that was carried on so far with such unlook'd-for successes , looks as if god had only let things go so far of our side , that all the world might see in our mismanagement of them , that we are under a curse which no successes could remove , and under a madness that was pass'd all cure. what prospect can we have , or whither can we so much as think of flying , if our present settlement should be overturned ? the view is so terrible , that if that should happen , the thing which next to it a good man would chiefly fear , must be his own out-living it , and not perishing in it ; since after such a miscarriage , nothing beside miracle could retreive that , without which life would be a perpetual burden to a wise or a good man. these are not words of pomp , nor the undue aggravations of a misery , which can never be fully exprest in words , and which i pray god may never be felt in deed by us . at such a time as this , is it fit for us to raise up into our thoughts the unreasonable remembrance of all the errors and follies into which the weakness and credulity of some may have led them , who yet as soon as they saw how they had been deceived , seem'd sensible of former faults , and stood firm afterwards ? if , i say , all these things are to be canvassed with rigour , how can it be hoped that mens minds should ever be setled or freed from those apprehensions that may tempt them to think of securing themselves at any rate ? and on the other hand , men whose passions have once so fatally misled them , as not only to be concerned in the shedding of innocent blood , but in the exposing the whole nation to be destroyed , ought not to suffer the like passions to return afresh upon them , to the keeping up and heightning our differences , and to the reviving our animosities , by a pretended zeal for the church , which they have once already endangered to the highest degree ; it were more modest and becoming in them to be silent and retired , than to study still to trouble our waters , and to sow the seeds of new dissentions among us , and so commit new faults instead of repenting of old ones : all these indecent errors of all sides concur , to let us see how far we are yet out of the way , and give us reason to conclude , that our deliverance was too quickly wrought for us ; that we were not long enough in distress , and that we are not yet wholly purged from our dross , but that we must go thro a fiery trial , which will either purge us more entirely , or consume us quite . but if after all that heat which we are raising in our selves , or in others , we would grow so calm and so wise , as to remember that we are brethren , this would quickly give us another view of things , and make us see our madness while we are so much worse than the two israelites in my text , who did wrong one to another , for we wrong our selves and our common concerns in the wrongs that we do to one another . are not the hard speeches we throw out , and the severe words that we fasten on one another , injuries of a very high nature ? we first hate one another , and then study to render one another as odious , both to our selves and to all the world , as possibly we can : we are possess'd with a spirit of jealousy and distrust , which makes us easily believe all the ill that we can hear of those that differ from us , and to create to our selves groundless apprehensions and fears ; and when such an ill temper has once corrupted us , we are easily led to all the injustices that do follow parties and divisions on the account of religion . god be thanked for it , that there is an end put to all persecution in matters of conscience ; and that the first and chief right of humane nature , of following the dictates of conscience in the service of god is secured to all men amongst us ; and that we are freed , i hope , for ever , of all the remnants of the worst part of popery that we had too long retained , i mean , the spirit of persecution . if this gives uneasiness to any , it shews that their eye is evil , because the eye of our legislators has been good towards those , who tho they may be mistaken in their notions , yet have still the rights of men and of christians . but after all this it is to be remembred , that men may be still persecutors , though they are not able to persecute any longer , according to our saviour's charging the guilt of intended sins on those who never acted them : for as long as we entertain hatred and malice in our hearts , and wish that it were in our power to do hurt to others , so long we become guilty before god , and so do wrong to our selves , though we are not in condition to do them any ; but if we do them all the wrong we can , we shew what our tempers are , and that we would do more if it were in our power . if we love to keep up old differences , or to create new ones , if we will continue to make the terms of communion with us as strait as possibly we can , and shut out all persons , as much as in us lies , from joining labours with us , because they do not in all things think as we do : if we will by turns imploy all the interest we have in any turn of government that is kind to us , to do wrong to others , either by loading them with false accusations , by aggravating some lesser matters , or by an undue prosecution of real , but repented of faults ; all these are the several instances , in which an injurious temper shews it self ; and while such things are among us , we are under the guilt that is charged on these israelites in my text , who though they were brethren , yet did wrong one to another . while we are so liberal in throwing out of lies and slanders , or at least , while we do so easily believe them , and so willingly report them , we shew that whatsoever our want of power to do mischief may be , yet that our inclinations are still full of malice and wickedness . and while we are under the power of such ill tempers , we are far enough from the blessedness of brethren that dwell together in unity : indeed this disease is gone too far to admit of any other cure , but what must come down from above from the god of love , through the effusion of the spirit of love and peace . the corruption that is rooted in our natures , is too deeply fixed there to be cured any way , but by an interposition of a divine power . we see that neither the consideration of reason nor of interest ; neither the sense of honour , nor the apprehension of danger , are strong enough to prevail over the prejudices of our education , or those angry impressions which we have so long cherished in our selves and in others , that perhaps we are now scarce masters of them , and therefore since the disease has gone so deep , we must look up to him who alone can cure it ; we must all consider , that such an evil spirit prevailing among us at such a time , is a plain indication of gods anger that is kindled against us . therefore before this proves our ruin , let us all turn to god with our whole hearts , and repent us of the evil of our ways , and cry mightily to him , that so he may arise , and save , and deliver us , who by our sins and our divisions are brought so very low , and who must yet fall into the most abject and miserable state possible , if god do not bless us with a healing temper , and with healing counsels , that so we may go on to perfection , and compleat those great things which god has begun to work for us , and in which we our selves have fatally stopt the course of his mercy to us , and that we may both live as christians , and love as brethren ; that the god of love and peace may delight to dwell among us , and bless us , that this church may become more and more , that which she truly is , the praise of all the churches , and the ioy of the whole earth , and that every one of us in our own particular may , at last come to dwell in those regions above , where all are made perfect in love ; which may the god of love grant us , for the sake of him that loved us , and that gave himself for us ; to whom be glory and dominion for ever . amen , finis . books lately printed for richard chiswel . t●…e case of allegi●…nce in our present circumstances considered , in a letter from a minister in the city , to a minister in the country . a breviate of the state of scotland in its government , supream courts , officers of state , inferiour officers , offices and inferiour courts , districts , jurisdictions , burroughs royal , and free corporations . fol some considerations touching succession and allegiance . 4 to reflexions upon the late great revolution : written by a lay-hand in the country , for the satisfaction of some neighbours . the history of the dissertion ; or an account of all the publick affairs in england , from the beginning of september 1683. to the twelfth of february following . with an answer to a piece call'd the dissertion discussed , in a letter to a country gentleman . by a person of quality . k. william and k. lewis ▪ wherein is set forth the inevitable necessity these nations lie under of submitting wholly to one or other of these kings ; and that the matter in controversie is not now between k. william and k. iames , but between k. william and k. lewis of france for the government of these nations . a sermon preached at fulham , in the chappel of the palace upon easter day 1689. at the consecration of the right reverend father in god gilbert lord bishop of sarum : by anthony horneck , d. d. the judgments of god upon the roman catholick church , from its first rigid laws for universal conformity to it , unto its last end. with a prospect of these near approaching revolutions , viz. the revival of the protestant profession in an eminent kingdom , where it was totally suppressed . the last end of all turkish hostilities . the general mortification of the power of the roman church in all parts of its dominions . by d●…ue cressener , d. d. a discourse concerning the worship of images ; preached before the university of oxford : by g. tully sub-dean of york , for which he was suspended . two sermons , one against murmuring , the other against censuring : by symon patrick . d. d. now lord bishop of ●…hichester . an account of the reasens which induced charles the second , king of england , to declare war against the states-general of the united provinces in 1672. and of the private league which he entred into at the same time with the french king to carry it on , and to establish pope●…y in england , scotland , and ireland , as they are set down in the history of the dutch war , printed in french at paris , with the priviledg of the french king , 1682. which book he caused to be immediately suppress'd at the instance of the english ambassador . fol. an account of the private league betwixt the late king iames the second , and the french king. fol. dr. vvake's sermon before the king and queen at hampton-court . dr. tenison's sermon , before the house of commons , iane 8. 1689. mr. tully's sermon of moderation , before the lord-mayor , may 12. 1689. an examination of the scruples of those who refuse to take the oath of allegiance . by a divine of the church of england . a dialogue betwixt two friends , a iacobite and a vvilliamite ; occasioned by the late revolution of affairs , and the oath of allegiance . the case of oaths stated : 4 to . a letter from a fr●…h lawye●… to a●… english gentleman ▪ upon the pr●… revolu●… 4 to . the advantages of the present settlement and great 〈◊〉 of a 〈◊〉 . the interest of england in the preservation of ireland ▪ the answer of a protestant gentleman in ireland to a late po●…ish letter of n. n. upon a discourse between them , concerning the present posture of that country , and the part fit for those concern'd there to act in it . 4 to . an apology for the protestants of ireland , in a b●…ef narrative of the late revolutions in that kingdom ▪ and 〈◊〉 account of the present st●…te thereof : by a gentleman of q●…ty ▪ 4●… . a true representation to the king and people of england 〈◊〉 matte●… were carried on all al●… in ireland by the late king iames , in favour of the i●…ish papi●… there , from his accession to the crown to the 10th of april 1689. the mantle thrown off : or the irish man dissected . 4 to . reflections upon the opinions of some modern divines , concerning the nature of government in general , and that of england in particular . with an appendix 〈◊〉 ●…o this matter containing ▪ 1. the seventy fifth cano●… of the council of 〈◊〉 2. the original articles in latin , out of which the magna charta of king iohn was ●…amed ▪ 3. the true magna charta of king iohn in french : by which the ma●…na charta in ma●…h . paris is cleared and justified ▪ and the alterations in the common magna charta discovered . ( of which see a more particular account in the advertisement before the appendix . ) all three englished . the 〈◊〉 of non-resistance or pa●…ve o●…edience no way concerned in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depending between the willia●… ac●… the i●…es . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 historia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter orthodoxos & ●…ac 〈◊〉 descri●…it , dige●…t h●…cus wha●…ton , a. m. 〈◊〉 archie●… 〈◊〉 a sacris domesticis . a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new seperation on account of the oath●… with an answer to the history of p●…ssive obedience . a discourse concerning the 〈◊〉 c●…mission opened in the ierusalem ▪ chamber ▪ 〈◊〉 10. 1689. taxes no charges : in a letter from a gentleman to a person of quality : shewing the nature ▪ 〈◊〉 and ●…enefit of 〈◊〉 in this kingdom ▪ and compared with the impositio●… of ●…oreign states . together with the improvement of trade in time of war. a discourse of the necessity of encouraging 〈◊〉 industry : wherein is plain●… proved ▪ that luxury and the want of 〈◊〉 labour , became the ●…in of the four grand 〈◊〉 of the world in the former age , a●… of spain and other 〈◊〉 in this ; and the promot●…g of m●…al tra●… ▪ the rise of dutch , german●… , &c. parallel'd and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to be practi●… under the present 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 a se●…mon preached at the a●…zes at 〈◊〉 july 8. 1689. by iohn 〈◊〉 m. a. vicar of low-leyton in essex . the bishop of salisbury's sermon before the house of peers . nov. 5. 1689. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30343-e280 gen. 15. 13. joel 2. 3. exod. 5. 17. exod. 16. 3. mal. 2. 8 , 9. jer. 10. 21. 1 pet. 1. 22. 1 cor. 9. 20. phil. 1. 15 , 18. luke 13. 34. a discourse on the memory of that rare and truely virtuous person sir robert fletcher of saltoun who died the 13 of january last, in the thirty ninth year of his age / written by a gentleman of his acquaintance. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1665 approx. 85 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 97 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30337 wing b5778 estc r37517 16964620 ocm 16964620 105529 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30337) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 105529) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1610:37) a discourse on the memory of that rare and truely virtuous person sir robert fletcher of saltoun who died the 13 of january last, in the thirty ninth year of his age / written by a gentleman of his acquaintance. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [10], 180 p. printed by a society of stationers ..., edinburgh : 1665. running title: on the memory of sir robert fletcher. attributed to burnet by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. imperfect: print show-through, with slight loss of print. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng fletcher, robert, -sir, d. 1665 -influence. conduct of life. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-11 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse on the memory of that rare and truely virtuous person sir robert fletcher of saltoun : who died the 13. of ianuary last , in the thirty ninth year of his age. written by a gentleman of his acquaintance . 2 sam. 3. 38. know ye not there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in israel . edinbvrgh , printed by a society of stationers , anno dom. 1665. to the reader . svch is the force and tyranny of custome , that somewhat must be prefixed to the following discourse . the occasion was told in the preceeding page : at which time love and regrate , were bringing to the authors remembrance , many instances of that excellent one his worth and virtue . he feared least in that croud , many precious reliques of his dear friend might be lost . he thought therefore , that to digest them into a regular composure , would be the surest course to preserve them . in which attempt , he had also an eye at the satisfaction of some others , but did intend nothing lesse than the presse . else may be he would have been more backward in it . it was in hast he wrote it : and you have it here with the same defects , which at first dropt with it from the authors pen : for neither his leisure , nor his humour , could well allow him a serious review of it . only some amendments were made by the pen of another : yea , he could heartily wish , it had been guilty of greater errours and faults ; that so , both it and he might have been excused from this pennance , which the importunities of others , to whom neither the design nor discourse was unpleasing , hath enjoyned . if the vndertaking be thought unusual , all the answer intended for that is , the person was extraordinary . some will , may be , say too much is said of him. well! but others think there is too little. and i know , with great truth , more might have been said . some will call it too flaunting , others , too flat : the author knows of a sanctuary from all censures , that is , a carelesse indifferency . may be it will find favourable reception with some , if it be not more vnfortunate in print , than it was in writ . sure it will not be unwelcome to those to whom that rare person was not vnknown . for as in the absence of the sun , these rayes which are reflected , though from the uneven and spotted surface of the moon , are not ungratefull : so that shining soul being now gone from our horizon , this representation of him , although the rude essay of an unpolisht hand , will not be disdained , except in spight that so good a them should be ill managed . the author will detain you no longer : but leaves the discourse to your perusal , and himself to your charity , and so bids you farewell . a discourse on the memory of that rare and truely virtuous person sir robert fletcher of saltoun . as a river when cut in many streams , loseth in strength though it abound in chanels : so mankinde becoming fruitful , hath multiplied , by those many productions & diffusions of humanity ; mean while the vigour of the rational soul , hath suffered great decaies , and by a daily and lasting degeneracy is mouldred almost to nothing . so that however the face of the whole earth , be covered by swarmes of men ; yet most of them are of that temper , that nought but their shape doth entitle them such . their spirits are so emasculate , their strength and vigour so effoeted : that save a skelete , nothing of a man shall be found amongst whole droves of mortals . yet in this rable , there are some erected souls , who like saul amongst the people , are from the shoulders upward higher than the rest. shall one of these engage in the search of more of his kind , long will he weary himself with fruitlesse labour , ere he espy a person truely virtuous : but if he discover any such , suddenly that sight will snatch him to admiration , and anon fix him to attention . with what pleasure will he consider all the treats of these wel-featured souls ? whos 's beautified looks will quickly conquer the hearts of all true judges thereof . hence followeth such an union of noble minds , that no force nor craft can unty the knot , which their entangled affections cooperating have sublimated beyond the bond of ordinary friendship , into that of indissoluble love . whence flow the truest joyes that frail mortality is capable of . but while this pair of souls ( or rather one enlivning two bodies ) does grasp one another in the closest embraces , and with a disdainfull smile laughs at misfortoun , as not within its reach : like a ship carried by the prosperous gales of a favourable wind , through smoothed waves to the desired harbour . lo , of a sudden the sturdy blasts of boisterous storms , together with the swelling billows of an inraged sea , will force those , whose hopes had set them beyond danger , to their long home amidst the waters . thus divine providence , not allowing us repose while here below , having reserved our happinesse for another state , when nothing can undoe that entangled knot ; in a trice , deaths dividing sword is sent to cut it : the halfed soul finding it self fallen from its rest and felicity , into a gulf of misery , will fill heaven and earth with the doleful resentments of its desolation and woe . being now , by a sad arrest , widowed of him , whose charming conversation hath so oft relieved and refreshed us , by the delights of many a pleasant hour : it is but just we pay to his memory , the tribute of a tear , and besprinkle his hearse with such fragrant flowers , as may make others relish that wherewith vve have been much glutted yet vvithout hazard of loathing . descend we then into a charnel-house and in this mournfull vault may we see the ruines of a noble fabrick , which the hands of the great architect had reared up : but novv the soul is dislodged , the house unfurnisht , and the structure fallen to the ground . if to a searching eye , there appeared in him , an unsampled glory , even while he was in his travelling cloaths ; sure now , vvhen apparelled with the garments of salvation , he shines with a lustre bright and orient . while he sojourned here on earth vvith us , he knew his soul was sequestred for heavens service : and hating sacrilege too much , he would not invade gods propriety , nor bestow it on prophane uses ; but payed his love and obedience in a constant annuity to him whose right it was . and having the stock , his soul , ever in his hands to yeeld up when demanded , the terme is now come and the sum payed , which was so vast that it hath impoverish'd us all , even to the point of being bankrupt ; for , there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in israel . a sublime mind joyned with a noble extraction doth justly entitle one great : begin we then with the latter of the two . if we consult the lyon of the tribe of iudah , he will tell us that in true heraldry the noblest descent is heavens pedegree ; each of whose off-spring resembleth the children of a king. titles of honour among men are but a mean peice of pageantry : the blason of whose coats in solomons stile , is , vanity of vanity , all is vanity ; being a borrowed light , as that of the moon , which when it shineth most brightly , doth most discover its conspicuous spots . can the glory of an ancestour , ascribed him many times for an action in it self not justifiable , and eclipsed rather than decored by the intervention of many degenerating descents , add ought of real worth to any ? whence doth the root of earthly honour spring , but from earth ? what though the pretenders to nobility could ascend in their genealogies to adam ? sure , there would they terminate , even in red earth . but to be the son of god is an original so noble and sublimely divine , that the desire of being accounted such , did make the heathens so to begod themselves , that could they but derive their descent from a god they were content to do it by histories , that not only degraded them from the dignity of being such , but immersed them into a gulf of eternal infamy and imprinted on their memories such characters of disgrace , as , in succeeding ages could never be defaced . in what a goatish shape do the fables represent their ador'd iupiter ? did not the grecian conquerour conquer his reason by his pride , in conceiting himself the son of iupiter hammon ? but christianity hath taught us that as all souls are first the breathing of the divine spirit , so by the power of that same eternall spirit vve are born again , not of corruptible seed , but of incorruptible by the word of god , which liveth and abideth for ever . the spirit of this iust man now made perfect , would stoop to no meaner state : but by a raised and noble ambition , did choose for his branch , him that growes out of the roots of iesse . which , as it taught him such a contempt of that which the world calls honour , as being but a gilded ratle for children to play with ; so it scarce permitted him to bestow on the worlds greatnesse , so much as a reverent thought . yea , it was to him a pennance , and that none of the least , to converse with those , to whose state and rank civility commanded respect to be payed , when a virtuous and rational soul did find nothing in their persons that merited esteem . this he often complained off , as one of the great toiles of his life , to find discourse and entertainment suitable to the mis-shapen and bedwarfed souls of our gentry . who like vmbrelloes of true worth swarme every where , and bate fouling , gaming and the pedling affairs of the world , understand nothing either of their maker , or of his works . but how pleased was he in the conversing with and cherishing , of such as carried heavens liveray , and were begotten to the image of god : those excellent ones were they , in whom was all his delight , how mean soever their condition in the world had been . in such company time did seem to fly , howbeit at other occasions it seemed to craul like a snail . with them midnight was past , ere he would believe it to be late . with others the first approaches of darknesse were taken for night . with those he complained of night , as the interrupter of his quiet ; willing rather to deny his body rest than his mind repose . with these he waited for the shadows of the evening ; even more than the watchman doth for the dawning of the day . and therefore it is but just we conclude , that , there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in israel . there is no grosser soloecism , than an ignoble prince : to be the degenerous brat of an illustrious parent , is as great a reproach as the foulest mouth can devise . a low and mean soul , set in a high rank , is , as an ape upon a pole. yea , as a small imperfection , in an , otherwise rare and well-featured beauty , will be espied by all ; when the same , if not a greater defect would in an ordinary face passe unregarded : and the stumblings of princes will be marked in history , when the falls of their subjects will be ingulfed in oblivion : so , when a soul , by the dispensation of god , comes to be exalted into a higher region , how unseemly will it be for such a one to trip ? especially considering that thereby , the wicked get occasion to blaspheme the name of god , and load virtue with obloquy ; and the sincere and tender hearted christian is much scandalized . nor is it only vnbecoming but questionlesse perilsome , seeing the iealous god by his all-seeing eye observes well the motions of his own , and accounts those errours , which by a holy connivance , he may wink at in others , in them , crimes deserving chastisement . the true grandieur of a soul then , is the emerging thereof from the sink and kennel of passion , interest and self-love , and the fixing of it on god and divine objects . passion is a feaver in the soul , which having agitate the vigour of the minde into fainting heats , maketh the thoughts , the pulses of the soul , move quick , high , and unequally : for reason being dethroned , every paultry passion in its tour will usurp the chair , and according to its imperious humour , make that faculty lacquey up and down , which , in the strictest iustice deserveth the precedency : thus folly is set in great dignity , and , servants are on horses when princes walk as servants . reason is the supream power of a man , on which , in legible characters is engraven the image of god. and although it be crusted over with a grosse and foeculent film on which is stamped the visage of the foul fiend of darknesse ; yet is it much like that of the artist , who imbossed his masters name with plaister ; but had underneath , engraven his own in stone : knowing that age and tempests would wear of the one , whereas t' other would weather out all periods of time. for after the dew of heaven hath washed of that superscription of satan , then will the goodly and glorious image of god , conspicuously appear in a purified reason . in regard that , as that skilfull statuary did engrave his name in pallas shield , with so deep a stroak , as could not be defaced while the whole statue were undone : so god did imprint so lively treates of the divine nature on the soul of man , as the remaines thereof are yet to be seen even in the greatest monsters of mankinde , which the earth doth bear . but man since that first fall is so unplum'd and so robt of that gayety , which at first did adorn him , that all his faculties are become soft and languide . a company of passions , like so many birds of prey , having divided the dominion of the soul among themselves . reasons first work then , is to vindicate her liberty from the tyranny of these insulting slaves . and even lame nature in the unhallowed heathens hath made strange attempts for the re-enthroning reason and regaining that undisturbed tranquillity of minde , which man was once in possession of : but alas ! man though mounted on his tiptoes , will not reach this fruit of the tree of life , it hangs too high for him ; and it is iacobs ladder only by which we must essay to climb up to heaven . our heros was behind few mortals in this atchievment . did we not see an unclouded sweetnesse and serenity so possesse his looks , that easily we might conclude , how little his thoughts were disturbed ? for being ever the same , the elevations of joy did not transport him , neither could the depressions of sorrow crush him . hymens pleasures had not so mastered his soul , as to make him neglect the duty he owed his god. neither did the death of his deservedly beloved children , imbarasse his spirit . those who by injuring him intended his disturbance , missed of their design ; for he knew that no man could wrong him , and that malice and revenge only bricole on the doer , without prejudging the party against whom they are directed . for then only doth one suffer when he permits himself into a passion ; and wrongs done us in this world , are rather the occasions than the causes of our misfortune : which he was so fully perswaded of , that , if at any time passion peeped , it did but give opportunity for the exercise of reason in the quelling so strong an enemy . he wisely considered the tongue to be that whose intemperate speeches do give rise , growth and continuance to passion : it being the rudder , which , when dexterously managed , holds us in an even and steady course : but if let loose makes us fluctuate and move at randome . his thrift of discourse was great , but his sparingnesse in censuring , rebuking , reproaching , and detracting was such , as perhaps in all his life , he was never accus'd by any ; yea , i believe , scarce by himself ( the most severe critick upon his ovvn actions ) of this fault . so studious was he to evite every occasion of affronting his reason . so that justly we may say there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in israel . well! we have considered reasons , first triumph over passion : its next conquest is the trading on the cares and concernments of this life . our bodies are the case which contains the jewel . the shrine for that stem of divinity . so the cares and concernments of the body must never come in consideration but as vassals to our souls . but now this order is inverted . are not mens bodies become the prisons , if not , the tombs of their souls . the caring for the one is accounted a debt , but thinking on the other , is thought an act of charity and benevolence . how many impoverished souls are lodged in bodies , whose cabinets are well stored with riches ? many a plump body is the receptacle of an hunger-starved mind . me thinks they resemble egypts temples , whose outside had a tearing show : but when admitted to the interiour recesses of that idol-house , with the wan light of an half extinguish'd torch , they could discern an ape . so what a sight should it be , if we could unfold the plicatures of the garments wherein many souls are invelopt ? within these cloutes vvould vve see pitifull brates : on whom if one look , he will be at a losse , whither he shall have , pity , contemn or account them unworthy of all his thoughts . is it possible that so sublime a being as the soul of man , made and shaped for high things , can be drencht in the dirt of sensuality and luxury , or grovel on this earth ? far different from this are the apprehensions of a transformed spirit , which laboureth to forget its being detained in a body , when it finds it self hailed to and depressed in earthly imployments , doth with sorrrow and pity regrate the distance it is at , from the object of its ioy and desire : the smart of which the body will feel in severe mortifications ; being denied the wanton jolleties and unnecessary flatterings which are craved by a luxurient temper . yea the formerly bewitching pleasures , become more bitter than gall and wormwood . and even life it self , the preservation whereof carrieth away the supremacy of our affections and desire , doth prove a burden , since it detaineth from that which the purified soul so vehemently longeth for . and while the pilgrimage continueth , what time they bestow on humane affaires , is rather complying with the providence of god ( who ordereth every one to their post and several imployments in this world ) than out of any pleasure they have in it , or any desire of self-satisfaction . and when their occasions and hours of divine employment do avocate them , they quickly disingage themselves , and their craving appetites ( unsatisfied with every thing beneath god ) will with an unexpressible satisfaction , suck in those comforts that are sweeter to them than the honey or the honey comb . with how little flattery , what i have been saying , may be ascribed to him , who now enjoyeth what he much desired , his freedome from covetousnesse , did discover it self in the pain he was at when crouding affairs did invade many portions of his time : careful was he to rid himself of that load . and though he was dexterous enough , so to order his affairs , as to throw away nothing vnnecessarily , which may be occasioned mistakes in some , yet these to whom his soul was known could well discern it flowed from no sordid ground . and his frank and large charity did fully discover of what mettal he was . yea a resolution of his ( which his modesty keeped unknown to all , save those who shared in the secreter motions of his soul ) never to have encreased his estate , but to offer what improvements he could make of it to god , by relieving the necessities and wants of the poor and needy : such a design , i say , to those who knew what a plentiful fortune he enjoyed , and what children he had , will make them believe , that he counted the things of this world but dung. little did they know of him , who know not how regardlesse he was of his body . he was notar for his temperance , sparing in the enjoyments of his lawful pleasures . neither could the weaknesse of his body , extort from him care and tendernesse , but rather draw from him pity and contempt . the society of drunkards he hated and shunned , as much as a toad . yea so little force had all the enjoyments of this life ( although even of these god had bestowed on him a large share ) on his spirit , that he was ever desiring to be rid of them all , and to be where no affair could avocate him from that he so much desired : that being uncloathed of his vile body , he should be fred from grosse and material conceptions of spiritual things ; from the tribute he owed his body , and from the trouble he was at with businesse : but most of all , from the dregs of corrupted nature which pinch the soul and make it long to be with christ. some dayes ere he died , being desired not to wrong himself with the apprehensions of death , his answer was : that having exercised himself so long with the thoughts of it , he did not apprehend it with fear as an enemy : and therefore with joy did he receive the approaches of it . it was the last morning of his life that he said ( even in the midst of high and furious raving , occasioned by a feaver of which he died ) o my most adorable and glorious lord god , to thee i come , and with thee shall i be for ever . who can then blame me when i say , there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in israel ? reason , having made a foul fray among the passions , and trampled the body underfoot , it carrieth on its conquests , and at length combates it self , and beats down any good opinion it is tempted to have of its self . it fares with many , as with those vapours , which , being by the suns active beams agitated into a subtile thinnesse , mount up ; but because they had not layed down their earthinesse , reach no further than the regions of the air : where , after being toss'd too and again , they fall down in big drops , more grosse than when caught up . so the souls of some , by the forcible impressions of some heats are caught up from worldly , carnal , yea and passionate courses : but there being no true renovation of heart , they mount no higher than the aery regions of vanity . self-love being the root of their actions , though they may appear specious , being set of with canting and dissimulation ; yet , their depth being sounded , prove in effect nothing but profound venerations , payed to the shrines of their adored selves . this is the last battery of the enemy of our salvation . other engines failing , he insinuats himself into the more retired corners of the soul , and by this deadly venome , he poisons and leavens the whole soul , making it forget that dependance upon god by which it lives ; and cease to praise that unbounded goodnesse , to whom it owes more , than seraphims can expresse . as also the active vigour of the soul in every duty of religion , growes remiss , when it conceits it self victorious over all its enemies . this is the tympany of the mind which often , if not ever , proves deadly and irrecoverable . but true greatnesse , will quickly evacuate the mind of all those tumours , by representing as well the frailties of its nature , as , the miseries of its depraved state. the one , by remembring it is a creature started out of nothing by the omnipotent power of its adored maker : the other , by discovering how weak and effeminate our souls are become : how short sighted and dim our vnderstandings : how lame and unactive our wills. how furious and undaunted , our passions . as also by reflecting on the great and frequent errours of our life , and our ever recurring imperfections . it is by the like considerations , that man comes to be undeceived , and doth perswade himself that he is an empty nothing , and so delights in self-degrading thoughts , and , with s. paul , doth glory in his infirmities , that the power of christ may rest upon him . it is now time to apply what hath been said to him who hath finished his course and hath obtained the crown . but i suppose all , to whom he was not wholly unknown , could spare me the labour . it were indeed a puzling question , whither his worth or his humility was greatest . he took more pains to conceal what he really had , than , may be the proudest do to set of what they have not at all . his shunning all occasions of any publick appearance , and his great silence and sparingnesse of discourse ( which were too well known to insist on , yea it were a difficult work to instance , unlesse there were produced a catalogue of all the actions of his life ) were pregnant proofs of what hath been said . neither did this nonpareiled modesty , flow from either natural retirednesse of temper , or the contempt of others , which makes some retreat from the societies of men ; accounting it below them to converse with persons , beyond whom self-conceit hath far advanced them . no , on no such ground he withdrew himself from the too much beaten road of conversation : but he did so distrust himself , as to be ever regrating those imperfections ( judged to be in him by none but himself ) he found depressing his spirit . he talked much of his want of memory : yet was he well known both in greek and hebrew , in the latter especially . neither was he a stranger to the other oriental tongues ; not to mention his perfection in the latine & several europaean languages . language being a heap of words , connected by no string of method , ( people being taught to speak , by custome and not by philosophy ) there is nothing that more racks and overcharges the memory . a memory then so well twisted , as to be able to retain singled words , cannot be thought so treacherous , as to let slip connected things , when commanded to such an imployment by inclination . truth was , he was ready enough to forget any pedling affair : but the impression such stuffe could make on a mind so much alienated from the world , was so overly ; that no wonder it was not lasting . should we also take his own testimony of himself , we should believe his mind was shallow and purblind . but a whiles conversation would have forced any to change their opinion . he was deeply skill'd in the mathematicks , thogh he was well advanced in years before he began that study : and his distracting affairs , did never allow him that time , which an exactness in those sciences doth require . notwithstanding he was well seen in most of them . it was the science , and not the art in them , most pleased him . his dexterity in unridling the most knotty theorems and problems was singular . his patience was unwearied . so that i stick not to say , that had his conveniency permitted him that study , as much as his genius and inclination would have led him to it , he had been inferiour to few of his age. which , many of his papers would make no hard labour to prove . he gave himself also much to philosophicall studies , but could never satisfie himself with that empty scelet of aristotles philosophy . which being by the trifling way of logick , digested into some order , hath imposed so long upon the world , and hath abused them into an opinion of their own great knowledge , when notwithstanding , they could never extricate one difficulty in all nature : and yet they would bear the world in hand , that wisdome shall die with them , but was well pleased , with the late ingenious attempts to unmask nature . and as the rational subtility of these designs delighted him , so he was much pleased with the ingenious candor of these mechanical philosophers , and expected great things , from the honourable and truely royal society of the virtuosi in england . for he believed that design , to be the strongest attempt the world had seen , to rescue it from ignorance and vncertainty . he was also a great friend of chimistry , and being no stranger to it , was purposed to have applied himself seriously thereto : hoping by vulcans key to have disclosed nature . he had also studied mechanism , and all such things as might improve a society . but the more he knew , the more he was perswaded of the defects of humane knowledge . neither was he like these globes , wherein the author , rather than acknowledge his ignorance , will fill up these wast and unknown spaces , with lands designed and marked only in his conceit : but he choosed rather , to mantle over that which he knew , by a shadow ; than , to pretend to that which he had not . in fine rare was it to see so much worth vailed under so much humility . which keeped him so from the knowledge of others , but most of all from himself . yet as the sun beams when stopped in their even course , and refracted in a cloud , do appear in that rare contexture of light and shadow the rainbow : so the vail of humility , though , it a little interrupted , yet , it had not the force to keep up the glancing light of that shining soul , but rather , as a shadowed picture , appeared he with advantage . and as the rare endewments of his mind , did not intoxicate him ; so the virtues of his soul , however valued by others , were ever counted few and mean by himself . for he had perfection in his eye . his aimes & designs stooping no lower . whence the recurring defects of the daily imperfections which annoyed him in his pilgrimage , represented alwayes himself , in the blackest shape disdain could set him in . and there was nothing more grating to his ears , than his own praises . is there not then a prince and a great man fallen this day in israel ? the soul of man being by the power of the divine spirit rescued from the bondage of corruption , is brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of god. for these staining tinctures of passion , lust and pride are not done of , that he should continue as a whited wall or a fleece of wool. nor are these divels only cast out , that the house be empty sweeped and garnished : no , we need not fear so great preparations shall end in nothing . we are uncloathed of our filthy garments , in lieu whereof we receive change of raiment : and the treats of the image of god are drawn on the soul. thus the mind is transform'd , by that participation of the divine nature , whereby it is united and knit unto god , with that bond of perfection , love : which having consum'd , all that fewel of lust and vanity which had so long smothered the divine life , but becoming victorious , it inflameth the whole pile , and offereth it up in one burnt-offering to god : and the soul being agitated by the love of god , shed abroad in it , as by an active principle of life , is ever in its desires and meditations mounting thither , where it hopes to be for ever . our saviour compared this establishment of the minde on god to hungering and thirsting : which is not caused by reason but by life . thus the supream exaltation of the soul , is in being so fixed on god , that we need not be jogged up to it by arguments : but , by a natural and unforced emanation of spirit , to be ever breathing after , and panting for communion with god. this is to have our fellowship with the father , and with the son. to place our whole affiance and confidence on god , who through the mediation of his son , is become our mercifull and gracious father . to bestow on him the supremacy of our love and affections ; and by uncessant motions to be springing towards him. thus the soul , maugre the load of its body , that separateth it so far from heaven , will not be delayed of its glory , untill vnbodied ; but will be snatching the summer-fruits even before harvest come . which , though they be not ripened , to the delectableness of angels-food ; yet , that antepast of glory will yeeld the mind , such sweet solaces and pleasures , so sublime and highly divine , as will beget a loathing of the most unmixed delights earth can afford . for that original sin , that they be of the earth , will sufficiently discredite them . the soul having now found an object , that will both deserve and attract its more fixed thoughts , with what silent admiration will it be considering these divine adorable excellencies , wherewith the glorious lord god is cloathed , as with a garment ? which will sometimes choak them , to a stillnesse next to ecstasie ; and at other times will burst forth in halelujahs and thanksgivings . could we trace the steps and sacred soliloquies of a devout spirit , in those blessed retreats it makes , from the loud disturbances of the world into the presence of him , who is its hiding place , and strong habitation whereunto it will continually resort : we should see it with delight sum up , all the passages of the power , providence and goodnesse of god : whereby it rouseth it self and all that is in it , to blesse his holy name , and to forget none of his benefits . and , if the world offer it self to its view , it will quickly say with s. paul , these things that before were gain to me , are now become losse through christ. yea , doubtless , i count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of iesus christ my lord. yea , i will account them but dung that i may win christ. thus are the meditations of god , sweet unto it : neither is this only the holy-dayes imployment of the soul. for god doth not come to a soul , as a way-faring man to tarry for a night ; but he dwelleth and abideth in it . the soul is acted , moved and directed by him , in all its goings . and when its station , to which god hath commanded it in the world , calls it from these immediate adorations , it resolves quickly to return again , and leaves the heart with god in pawn . so that however it may be busied , yet all passionate fervour is blunted and quenched . and it is so exactly regulated , by the divine will , into which its own is changed , that it cares , desires , joyes and sorrows for nothing earthly : but all the methods and steps of the divine providence , are by it judged to be , both wise , good and just : as flowing from an unerring skill , an unchanged goodnesse , and a spotlesse iustice. therefore in patience doth it possesse it self , and , with an unreserved submission , equally welcomes as well the ebbings , as the flowings of earthly satisfactions . as being none of them of a nature , capable of promoting or retarding , that happinesse it expects and desires from god alone . thus with open face as in a glasse , beholding the glory of the lord , we are changed into the same image from glory to glory , as by the spirit of the lord. the order of this discourse doth call for the applying , what hath been spoken to the glorified saint that hath now left us . in doing whereof , several instances must be disclosed , which in his life were unknown to all , save to , his other self , his friends . his soul was even fraughted , with adoring and magnifying thoughts of his maker . his frequent and fervent entertaining himself with divine meditations , did let us all know wherein he placed his happinesse . every day , many hours of his time , were spent in the outer court of heaven , in those approaches to god. no company was so bewitching , as to make him forget him , who had inhanced all his desires and delights . but when the entertainment of friends , did seem to hinder him from that imployment : yet still he either found or made a shift to excuse himself for a while , that he might converse with his god : which an ingenious modesty did so contrive , that it was not so much as suspected , to be done upon design . yea when he was so pressed , that he could get no time in the day stollen , he made it up in the night . often he used to be eight hours a day in the immediate service of god : beside his diligent observance of the lords day , which was indeed singular . he used a constant method in reading scripture , wherein he was much conversant . neither did the translation satisfie him , but he searched the original carefully : for he could quot , the new testament and psalter , as easily , in the first language , as most can do in their mothers tongue . in his daily reading , he did still choose some place , which he fixed in his mind . to the consideration whereof , he recollected his thoughts , all that day when ever he found himself at leisure . which he used to say , was his sanctuary whither he retreated , from the persecution of idle thoughts . many such methods used he to wing up his soul to the work of cherubims , ever to behold the face of his heavenly father . yea a radiant splendor which possessed his looks , when he returned from his closet , could make us , easily discern , what joyfull and pleasant work he had been about . he used often , to separate whole dayes , for the worship of god , wherein he denied himself any other refreshment , save what was ministred to his soul. he performed himself , the duties of his family constantly at two returns each day : where you might have heard both reading , singing and prayer , and that with such a true and unaffected devotion , as discovered how little formality may be in the observance of forms . the first arrest of that fatall sicknesse , had exhausted the active vigour of his spirit so far , that the keennesse and fervour of his soul was somewhat blunted , which drew him into sadnesse , judged melancholy by beholders ; for he complained , that then when these attaques of god , did alarum him up to a greater diligence , he was become more languid and tepid : this trouble was but of short continuance , for he found the union of his soul to his god , as close as ever , though a mistuned body , could not bear up in a concord with it . the last lords day of his life , was he diligent in the search of his heart , and earnest in wrestling with god : the issue whereof was , a quiet and composed mind . which was , apparant , in the cheerfulnesse of his spirit , which was greater that night , than it had been all the while of his sicknesse . two dayes after , he was seized with a spotted feaver , or rather , his sicknesse did evidently discover it self to be such . which having in a sudden disturbed his fancy , what , after that , came from him like himself , was rather curt ( though raised and divine ) contemplation , than any fixed and well ordered conceptions . often did he pray , often did he speak of the glory of his god , and of his redeemer : yea never mentioned he either , but his soul seemed to go out with fervour . the last night of his life , five times , did he direct his desires to god , in the words of the lords prayer . about the morning , his raving seemed to have taken leave of him : for about a quarter of an hour , did he , with great seriousnesse , and in well fitted words , call upon the lord and invocate his aid . neither did he forget his soveraign , the church , his nation or his family . he had no sooner ended , when the fury of his distemper , as if it had given him truce , only for that blessed work , did again invade him . it was a few hours after that ( for he scarce spoke any more ) that the cords of his tabernacle , begun to be slackened : and before we were awar , he gave up the ghost and fell asleep , passing into glory . is there not then , a great man fallen this day in israel ? having thus viewed the greatnesse of that soul , wherein i do protest , no hyperbole hath been used ; neither hath ought been said but what i certainly knew to be true , those who are little acquainted with true worth , and who imagine there is no such thing in the world ( but that it is a chimaera , contrived to amuse and overaw the sons of adam ) will , may be , look on what hath been said , as a flaunting story . but it will gain credit with such , as are , neither strangers to virtue , nor to him. what was seen of him was so fair and alluring , that every one will not stick to believe , the vnseen and hidden parts of him must be the most glorious : all will believe the closet of a palace to exceed the glory of the walls . but it is a sad conclusion , to say , there is a great man fall'n , i shall rather invert the words , there is a great man rais'd up . the soul and body are wreathed into unity by such a congruity of life , that forgetting the difference of their natures , they come to be so linked , in the embraces one of another , as to move joyntly in all their operations . whence followeth such an eccho of the one , to all the affections of the other , that they both gain or losse , according as their yoak-fellow is pleased or prejudged . which being a riddle too hard for the crazed vnderstanding of man , whose sight hath not yet reached the inside of beings , their natures ; some take a compendious way to extricate themselves , by saying , it is but agitated and subtile matter that keeps us in life . how well this may be applied to such agents as are devoid of ratiocination , and to the plantall and animal actions of a man , i am not now to examine . but that cogitation can be an effect of matter , even when it acts on immaterial objects and in self-reflexions , will be found a greater difficulty , than that they intended to shun . and sure in the conception of a cogitating being there is no greater absurdity , than in that of an extended one. after the soul hath lodged in the body , that space of pilgrimage and probation , appointed it by god ; then the time of its dissolution draweth nigh . when it is to be unfettered , then , through the dark shades of death must we passe to immortality . and though there be nothing more dreadfull , to them whose leud and atheistical life , doth fill them with just apprehensions of approaching miseries ; yet the lord god , who can out of the eater bring forth meat , and out of the strong give honey , hath ordered that to be the fore-runner of a blisse , so far elevate beyond the mean and lo apprehensions , we frail mortals can conceive , that the most fluent eloquence , can do it no right . may we but imagine , what an amazement a holy soul will be struck in , when it finds it self , of a suddain freed from , the depressions of a grosse and terrestrial body , the allurements of a debauched mind , the entisements of a foolish world , the contagion of evil company , the stings of sicknesse and pain , and from an unactive tepidity of mind in the service and converse with god. and in stead of all this , it enters heaven , where it is received and welcomed by innumerable companies of angels and spirits of iust men made perfect ; and is by them led into the presence of that king of saints , who is glorious in holinesse , whose majestick greatness , being then clearly discovered by the purified soul , will occasion the greatest transports of ioy , the rational nature is capable of . for , we shall then see , with the evidence of sense , the brightnesse of the fathers glory , the only begotten son of god , whom , while on earth , we behold in the obscurity of faith. believe me , this glory were too dazling a sight to us while we are in the body . moses , when he saw but the outside of the divine glory , yet such a brightnesse , from that passing view , was imprinted in his looks , that he must needs vail himself : what eye could then behold an vnvailed god ? and if a passing sight of that exalted prince , did so swallow up the spirit of the apostle of the gentiles , what could resist the ecstasies and ruptures , a fixed looking on the sun of righteousnesse would occasion ? if the one made s. paul forget his body , t'other would have made him abandon it . but in glory , those ravishing objects shall not consternate the beholders into a languishing faintnesse , but , being transformed , it will rouse them into a vigorous activity and sprightfulnesse of blessing , adoring , loving and rejoycing in their maker , that fountain of life . and this by no short or passing returns , but by a constant efflux of soul. so the creature is wholly swallowed up of , and overwhelmed by the vision of its creator . now into the number of that coelestial quire is received the soul of him , who , while on earth , having seen the glory of that land which is a far of and tasting some of the grapes of canaan , did run his race with joy and pressed forward toward the mark , even the prize of the high calling of god in iesus christ. and having now finish'd his course , he hath entered into his masters joy , and and hath received , that crown of righteousnesse , which is incorruptible and fadeth not away . now , being uncloathed of all dulnesse and frailty , doth his soul as an unsullied mirrour , yeeld a bright reflexion of that uncreated light , with whose beams he is irradiated : and , in that purest light of divine illumination , doth he see light , seeing him that is invisible . if an vnknown saviour did by a secret influence , warm the hearts of the two disciples , while he talked with them ; sure then the hearts of this disciple , is now inflamed with love and zeal , while he closely embraceth and immediately converseth with an vnmasked redeemer ▪ o how much doth he rejoyce and blesse himself in the possession of that glory : the meanest degree whereof he preferreth to the empire of the world. what hallelujahs is he now singing ? with what delight doth he keep his part in those heavenly anthems ? with what pleasure feels he himself beyond the assaults of corruption ? how doth it rejoyce him , that he needs no further incentive of the love of god , and that no cloud doth disturb or darken the excellent and magnificent glory ; no drowsinesse of mind doth steal him into sleep ? for there is no night above : but day and night do they see the face of god. know ye not then there is a great man raised up this day in the new ierusalem ? it followeth to be considered , where hath this great man fallen . even in scotland our israel : a nation of which it may well be doubted , whither its mercies or ingratitude be greatest . and though at some time it might have compared with any round about , being barren in nothing but the soil ; but now indeed the case is altered . to instance it in one thing . it not the power of godliness , whose effects should be , a reformation of our spirits into a likeness and conformity with our glorious master and redeemer , turned into formes and words ? with what violence and eagernesse , may we daily see inconsiderable and controverted opinions , pressed and advanced ? what severe censurings , bitter reproaches and scurrilous invectives , are we daily forced to hear ? and we are become so keen on such stuff , that the great and indispensable precepts of the law of jesus , holinesse , charity and obedience are counted but mean and sorry doctrines . what triumphs are made upon the failings and errours of those that differ in opinion , though such had no truth in them , and are but the forgeries of gall and despite ? and how well pleased are we , when we get the inglorious advantage of crushing and ruining these , whom blind zeal , tinctured with malice , and revenge makes us account our enemies ? thus for all our canting , if one should give a judgment of us by our lives and conversations , he should not miss of calling us christned heathens . we are called christians , and professe our selves to be such , and do wisely in so doing ; for there is nothing that would make any suspect us guilty of religion , save our outside . are we not covetous , proud , passionate and self-conceited ? thus have we flatly contradicted the great design of the gospel . which doctrine was proclaimed to the world by the wisedome of god , not to disturb our heads , with harsh and unprofitable questions ; but to prick our hearts with a sorrow and hatred of sin. not to make us talk big , but to live sublimely and to become like unto his glorious self . yea , how degenerate by such work are we become , and what loathing this hath begot of the great truths of religion in the hearts of our supernumerary gentry , i should rather mask with a silent sorrow , than with a brisk forwardnesse , discover the nakedness of my parent , my countrey . but their detestable and impious lives , their irreligious and blasphemous scoffing at piety and holinesse , and their daily falling off to the superstitions and idolatry of the church of rome , do give too evident a testimony what kind of cattel they are . neither hath this contagion only corrupted the morals of this people , but their very spirits are become mean and sordid . and how receptive their vitiated minds are , of the worst impressions may appear from the great footing that french contagion of atheism ( more to be abominated even then the sicknesse which goeth under that name ) hath among us . the furious wits of some rampant hectors , who having immersed themselves into all brutalism , and apostatized from that god-like nature , conceive the deepest hatred against the adored deity ; and with a monstruous arrogance proclaim an open feud against god and religion . and if they can with blustring and sophistry elude those arguments , where with some , lesse experienced with their cursed arts , do assail them , and with a wide-mouthed impudence run down the modester : thence do they conceit themselves , the only sons of wisdom ; of whom , i dare boldly pronounce , that in themselves we have the greatest instance of their so eagerly contended for principle , that a man hath no real preheminence over , or difference from brutes . which if now they so much desire , what wil their wishes be when , with their master leviathan , they shall be shut up in that lake of fire and brimstone . their triumph is , that no argument can reach them ; for , they deny the certainty of all those principles whence any argument can be drawn : and yet in the maintaining their own hypotheses , how many absurdities are they driven to suppose ? which could never have captivated any mans reason , but his who hath consented to that slavery , and resolves , to believe any thing but religion . further , if all things be uncertain ; then , that there is no god , must be so likewise ; and as their principles yeeld to this , so they could never pretend to any positive argument for this monstruous tenet . if it followeth then , that for ought they know , there may be a god , it will be easie for every one to collect hence , whether atheism or religion be the safer course . how much these hellish doctrines begin to be received among us , is too notar , the daring boldnesse of those blaspheming rascals , telleth us , they fear man no more than they do god. this great person that is now fallen , although , he needed no such foil to set off his glory ; yet it cannot choose , but make him the more considerable , and his fall the more lamentable . how much the degeneracy of this nation grieved him hath been touched already . great was his indignation against that divellish crew of atheists : that one should thought so calm a mind , could not be stirred to so much spight . much was he incensed against some pretenders to the mathematicks , who ranked themselves under leviathans banner : for he believed that from these sciences , more then one or two arguments could be brought for the principles of religion . in fine , he judged the greatest right could be done to reason , was the belief of christianity , which is in all things so proportioned to our faculties , that the very proposing of them will gain credit , from any unstained mind , which is freed from the polluting tinctures of lust and passion , and , converseth much with its own faculties , in still and serious reflections upon it self . his spirit was too large to shrink into the narrow orb of a party or interest . no , his charity taught him to dispise none of his brethren . for though he believed his conscience to be his own rule , which he carefully and diligently observed and followed , yet he judged it an impudent peice of antichristian arrogance , to assume authority over the consciences of others , and to dictate to them . in fine , he judged none of our debates , to be about matters essential to religion : but found himself oblieged to all love and kindnesse for those , that lived holily and whose souls had taken on that light and easie yoak of iesus , and had stouped to his government , however they might disagree about the outside and model of church-polity . and howbeit he was of opinion , that , episcopal government moderating over but regulated by presbyters , might have as strong a plea for the chair as any other form ; yet he judged forms , to be but forms , which , of their own nature , are neither so good as to make men good ; nor so evil , as to make men evil : but would prove succesfull according to their skilful management : or vuneffectual by the furious overdryving of these , to whose care that work was trusted . by this description , the truth whereof was so fully known to all perswasions ( yea the last morning of his life , did he cordially pray that the lord would heal our breaches , and poure out the spirit of love and meeknesse on this divided and furious people , and fell out in a noble panegyrick on the power and exaltedness of the great truths of our religion ; and concluded , that god who had not denied us the knowledge of his son , would never have envied us a clear discovery of these opinions , had they been necessary for his church . ) hence we must conclude , that now his advantage , is our great and unspeakable losse : for he was one of a thousand , a burning and a shining light , blamelesse and harmlesse as a son of god , in midst of a crooked and perverse generation . o scotland ! doth none of you lay it to heart , that this righteous and mercifull man is taken away : and who knows , but it is from the evil to come . hath not the loud cry of the iudgements of god awakened you ? and doth not the musick of his mercies charm you ? hath not the preaching of his word converted you , nor the life of his servants , wrought upon you ? yet let the death of his saints allarum you . know ! that the lord god is angry : and that the cry of your abominations is going up to heaven : and a cousumption from the lord , is come out upon you . the power and vitals of religion are daily decaying , and the true seekers of god are melting away as snow before the sun. they are the pillars of the earth , and it is for their sakes , that the end of time is not already come . justly may we then fear , that the lord shall be gathering in those excellent ones to himself , and so his fury shall run out upon us without a stop . therefore let me excite you to notice this great losse . and so i say to you , know you not that there is a great man fallen this day in israel . here is offered to our consideration , what kind of notice the death of such a great person doth call for . which that we may the better understand , i shall remove that great errour of many , who think the violent touches of a passionate sorrow to be a debt they owe the memory of their deceas'd friends : wherein they so obstinately harden themselves , that their wit and spirit is put to task to defend and justifie these daily affronts they receive . and if the force of reason or length of time be rescuing them from that vassalage , then their vitiated minds become incensed against themselves : and they wil challenge their hearts of insensibility and forgetfulnesse . shall we then see how iust their sorrow is . will we step into a gallery of heathens , there shall the stoicks teach us wisdom . from them may we learn to look upon nothing without us , as our own ; but count them of a lower nature , and to have nothing in them , that can render us truely happy , but to be so fluctuating that when we think our selves most secured in the possession of them , we are to remember , they may be removed from vs : and so we are to preserve our minds from the bondage of passion and fondnesse on ought that is earthly . for an opinion of excellency in any thing , and the apprehension of that to be ours , doth make the losse of it unsupportable . they will also teach us never to be troubled , for that we cannot help ; for they believed all things to be governed by a fate , which was inevitable : they therefore judged it irrational , to be busied in a fruitlesse labour , since that nor tears nor sorrow can recall the life that is gone . thus vnchristned reason taught these philosophers to argue . and sure if they lived as they talked , they shall rise in judgement against many called christians , who see a clearer light , and yet walk in greater darknesse and disorder . it is no disgrace neither to our religion , nor to the grace of god , to magnifie the morality and worth of the heathens . methinks it saith and that strongly for the honour of it , to find , among the rubbish of ruined nature , still remaining , some impressions of virtue . but if we attempt a comparison betwixt that sacred doctrine delivered in the bible and the writings of the more moralized heathens , you may as justly compare a fish eye to a pearl , or a diamond to a peece of christal : natures light being as the first dawning ▪ of the morning , pleasing to one wearied with the blacknesse of night , which may well delight the eye with its beauty , but will hardly guide the traveller on his way . but the divine light , like the noon beams , which clearly discovers all things here below , and maketh us easily discern every object save it self , not for any dimness in its self , but an excessive brightness . so after one hath been vexed , with looking on the darknesse of heathenish idolatry , and finds in greece something of a higher strain , he cannot choose but be somewhat satisfied : but will find himself little furthered . their doctrine being able excellently to inform , how he is to be unhinged , but prescribing no foundation to fix on , nor furnishing any helps towards such an atchievment . this is peculiar to the glory of the latter house , whose radiant splendour doth discover to us , all the instances of our duty , and fills our hearts with true understanding , for the perfect knowledge of every thing in our course . only he whose glory it is to be incomprehensible , cannot be found out to perfection . the truth whereof shall be now applied , to the affair in hand . religion then teacheth us , that in this life , we are but pilgrims , and aiming at ▪ but not attaining , happinesse : and that the very essence of all earthly enjoyments , is to be transitory . for we have no lease of life , nor of the comforts thereof . there is a wildernesse betwixt and canaan , in which we must sojourn . we must not then fret , although we have no water at every station : but with all cheerfulness , ought we to follow every remove of divine guidance ; for here we live in hope , and expect that after we have walked through the valley of baca , we shall appear before the lord in sion , in that rest that remaineth for the people of god. being thus in the gospel assur'd of that approaching glory , how irrational is it , to reckon upon our present troubles , which last but for a moment . no traveller will deeply resent the losse of company he encountered on the way , much lesse if he be assur'd to find them at home before him : why should the death of an excellent person be accounted a losse , when we know the separation shall last but a few hours , compared with the boundlesse length of that eternal fellowship wherein we shall enjoy one another . further the gospel tells us , that , all things here below are managed by the exactest skill , and a well ballanced providence . the most despicable of creatures , are no forgot by him , much lesse , the masterpeece of his work , man , in the greatest ▪ concernment thereof , life . the hairs of our head are numbered , much more the years of our life , the end whereof never approacheth but in the fittest and best chosen time . for we are not exposed , to the uncertain chances of accidents , nor folded under the fatality of stoicks , or the influence and aspects of stars ; but led by an unerring wisedome that doth all things in number , weight and measure . it is then but a well set off blasphemy against the wisdom of god , to be offended with his government of the world. again christianity informs us well what death is : that it is no extinction of the soul , nor doth it carry us to still and dark caverns , where , in an unactive drowsinesse , we shall sleep over our time ; much lesse to any violent , though temporal pains , as some dream : but the instant of a christians dissolution is the time he shall be invested with all glory and dignity and possess'd of all blesse and happinesse . how strong a curb must this be to any believers sorrow , when , without being criminal in a secret envying their deceas'd friends glory , they dare not regrate his death . for all their complaints do carry in their bosome , so many wishes that the ground of their trouble had not been : and self-interest and satisfaction ; is preferred to the unspeakable advantage of him that is dead . even true friendship would command one to say , since my happinesse cannot come at any other rate than my friends being detained from his , which is a good degree of misery , with all contentednesse of mind shall my losse redeem my friends gain . further there be comforts and delights of the mind of a higher nature than those of the sense and fortune , which can never be shaken , by any thing without us : these true delights , which a well grounded assurance of the love of god doth bring into the mind , are so far beyond all the world can promise , much more give , that , when weighed in a true ballance , they prove lighter than vanity . the lord god out of his love to man , doth use all means , leaving none unessayed , that he may obtain the mastery of the soul : when earthly satisfactions do carry on this design , they are allowed us : but if they prove retardments , the same reason doth call for their removal . an absolute belief of the fulnesse of the love of god , who maketh all things work together for good to them that love him , will secure the peace of the soul so entirely , that none of all the batterings of passion will brangle it . and it is by these scorchings of affliction that god draws in many to dwell under the shadow of his wings , where they are in safety ; whereby they come more actively to attempt , and carry on a triumph over all the entanglments of sense and passion . thus the foundation of our joys and hopes ( the love of god in christ ) remains unmoved , however the outside of our condition , which is but our exteriour happinesse , may be subject to change. it is by these considerations ( of the truth whereof , by the interiour operation of the spirit of god , we are perswaded ) that the faith and fear of god , doth guard our minds and preserve them in perfect peace : so that we are not afraid of evil tydings , every one whereof , carrieth that strength and evidence with it , that to it quickly the assent of the mind is gained . and although the fetters of nature and passion , not being wholly , while in the body , broke off , they will as a hurrican , master for a while the whole powers of the soul. yet that fury being over , in cold blood do they begin to condemn themselves , and to amass those comforts of the gospel , by the force whereof and the assistance of heaven , they at length become proof to all the assaults of their enemies . hither to have we seen , that a raging sorrow , is not the debt we owe to the memory of the dead . neither did david ( whose practise upon the removal of his beloved childe , doth clearly discover his temper , upon the like occasions ) intend any such thing when he saith , know ye not that there is a great man fallen this day in israel . neither is a sullen negligence of the providence of god , the stilnesse virtue requires . betwixt these two doth the writer to the hebrews direct , our course . for he wrote , my son , despise not thou the chastning of the lord , nor faint when thou art corrected of him. when therefore the fall of a great person doth allarum us , we should diligently heed and observe the voice of it . we should hear our selves thereby called to an elevation of soul beyond all earthly enjoyments , and to consider how little our hearts should be fixed on such things . may be that love hath made us forget our work , and the lord by snatching it from us doth court our kindnesse ; yea , forceth us to it , by the retiring us , from the bewitching enchantments of sublunary contentments ; that so being beaten of the other objects of desire , he may be unrivall'd in the possession of our heart . the least slip of adulterous love , will be accounted unpardonable and quench all the others kindnesse , or rather inflame it into a fury and revenge . thus the jealous eye of god , if it find us gadd a whoring after strange loves , and give the highest of our love to the creature , then an incensed creator removing his rival , doth loudly call us back to the duties of our wedlock . and further , then must we also have a just value of the worth and virtue of him who is fallen , by numbering up his severall excellencies which will never shine so bright as then. while the person is alive , his present worth doth so choak us with joy and complacency that scarce have we leisure to run over the foregoing instances of his life : which when he is gone ; being summed together in our remembrance , and endeared to us , by the privation of our equally beloved and admired friend , cannot but highly encrease our esteem of him , that so when dead he may live in our memories : as that queen , who , thinking no tomb worthy of her deceased king and husband , did drink over over his ashes , and so buried him in her own bowels . and sure those impressions of love and affection , which are outlived by the person or worn off by separation or distance , either , were never real , or , at most , skindeep . for the character of true friendship is indelible . a bacchick fury , or flouds of tears , or languishing fits do well prove the strength of passion ; but only a lasting esteem demonstrateth the reality of love. neither ought such resentments to be expressed only with sad face and doleful voice , but chiefly by proposing such a rare person , as an example both for our own and others imitation . the sun is in the firmament , not to be gazed at , but to guide : and beacons are lighted not for show but service . many run his fate , who looking to the stars did not mind his way , but fell into a ditch . so their diligent attention to the virtues of another , is so far from provoking them to endeavour a resemblance of them , that it proveth but a scandal , while that remembrance galls them , either fretting them into agonies of grief and sorrow , or benumming them into idle heavinesse . thus as the brazen serpent , proposed for a cure , became an occasion of idolatry ; so an exalted soul lifted up to glory , being set forth to draw us after it , doth indeed prevail over many to draw them away , not to , but from their duty . so corrupt man can suck poyson from the sweetest flowr . it is now time to bring what is set down in general to our occasion . let not then the death of this great person , choak our hearts with that pusillanimous and sordid passion of sorrow . he is not dead , but is asleep : neither hath death triumphed over him , but he hath obtained the victory . what , though in the heat of the combat he hath thrown his cloaths from him , and striped himself of such burdensome apparel , which yet will be rescued from the jawes of death , in the last scene of his triumph , the morning of the resurrection . then shall he shine as the brightnesse of the firmament . let us not therefore envy his glory , but rather congratulate his happinesse . neither should the apprehension of our misery in his being torn from us possess our souls with an uncomforted melancholy . the fellowship of our saviour , the supreamest of all earthly comforts , was , when removed , made up to their advantage that were blessed with that ▪ mission of the holy ghost . upon which consideration , did our saviour say , it is expedient for you that i go away . so ought we believe that no satisfaction on earth is so great , but can be exceeded by these inward ioyes , which the gracious lord god will bestow on us , in that measure that is most fit and expedient for us . labour we therefore seriously a subjection of mind , to the good , acceptable and perfect will of god. let his memory also be dear and precious to us , and we stirred up to active attempts after those virtues he possessed . was he meek , humble , temperate , charitable , patient , pious and devout : let us not onely flauntingly talk of those excellent graces , but silently study the practice of them . let the impious and impudently wicked be ashamed , and be you remembered by the death of this great man , that you must all once die , and after that come to iudgement . me thinks this thought should start you and stop your carreer , lest you drive into these unquenchable flames ere you be aware . learn you that are satisfied with the praise of being no ill men , from the example of this great one , not to halt betwixt two gods. you must either love god or mammon . it was said by him , that spoke never amisse , he that is not with me is against me . be therefore holy , as your god is holy : and be ye followers of this blessed disciple , as he was a follower of christ. you also that are entered into the school of christ , be not as babes , ever learning , and never coming to the knowledge of the truth : but go on to perfection . be not cripled with , or detained under , the pedagogy of forms ; but imitate this great man , by tasting and feeling the power of the divine life , transforming and uniting your souls unto god. and love one another , and let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory. learn that wisdom that is from above , which is first pure , then peaceable , gentle and easie to be entreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality and without hypocrisie . and for these whose souls have not overly tasted of the waters of life , but are vigurously wrought upon by the mighty power thereof , seeing this great soul with that cloud of witnesses that are passed into glory , they will be animated to run with patience , that race , that is set before them . forasmuch then as your labour is not in vain in the lord , be ye stedfast , unmoveable , alwayes abounding in the work of the lord. it is now time to conclude , for i doubt not but upon such a speaking occurrent as this , every one will be ready to supply themselves , with such fit and suitable considerations , as may most conduce toward that end we all ought to aim at . so that i shall need to say no more , but know ye not , that there is a great man fallen this day in israel . finis . an apology for the church of england, with relation to the spirit of persecution for which she is accused burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 33 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30325) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47931) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:28) an apology for the church of england, with relation to the spirit of persecution for which she is accused burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ; 20 cm. s.n., [amsterdam? : 1688?] caption title. attributed to gilbert burnet, bishop of salisbury. cf. halkett & laing (2nd ed.). reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng freedom of religion -england. church and state -church of england. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an apology for the church of england , with relation to the spirit of persecution : for which she is accused . i. one should think , that the behaviour of the english cl●rgy for some years past , and the present circumstances in which they are , should set them beyond slander , and by consequence above apologies ; yet since the malice of her enemies work against her with so much spight , and since there is no insinuation that carries so much malice in it , and that seems to have such colours of truth on it , as this of their having set on a s●vere persecution against the dissenters , of being still sowr'd with that leven , and of carrying the same implacable hatred to them , which the present reputation that they have gained , may put them in a further capacity of executing , if another revolution of affairs should again give them authority to set about it ; it seems necessary to examine it , and ●hat the rather , because some aggravate this so far , as if nothing were now to be so much dreaded as the church of england's getting out of her present distress . ii. if these imputations were charged on us only by those of the church of rome , we should not much wonder at it , for tho it argues a good degree of confidence , for any of that communion to declaim against the severities that have been put in practice among us , ●ince their little finger must be heavier than ever our loins were , and to whose scorpions our rods ought not to be compared ; yet after all , we are so much accustomed to their methods , that nothing from them can surprise us . to hear papists declare against persecution , and iesuits cry up liberty of conscienc● , are , we confess , unusual things : yet there are some degrees of shame , over which when people are once passed , all things become so familiar to them , that they can no more be put out of countenance . but it seems very strange to us , that so●e , who if they are to be believed , are strict to the severest forms and sub-divisions of the reformed religion , and that who some years ago were jealous of the smallest steps that the cour● made , when the danger was more remo●e ; and who cried out popery and persecution , when the design was so ma●●t that some well-meaning men could no● miss being deceived by the promises that were made , and the disguises that were put on ; that , i say , these very persons who were formerly so distrustful , should now when the mask is laid off , and the design is avowed , of a sudden grow to be so believing , as to throw off all distrust , and be so gulled as to betray all ; and expose us to the rage of those ▪ who must needs give some good words , till they have gone the round , and tried how effectually they can divide and deceive us , that ●o they may destroy us the more easily ; this is indeed somewhat extraordinary . they are not so ignorant as not to know , that popery cannot change its nature , and that cruelty and breach of faith to hereticks , a●e as necessary parts of that religion , as transubstantiation and the popes supremacy are ▪ if papists were not fools , they must give good words and fair promises , till by these they have so far deluded the poor credulous hereticks , that they may put themselves in a posture to execute the decrees of their church against them : and tho we accuse that religion as guilty both of cruelty and treachery , yet we do not think 'em fools : so till their party is stronger than god be thanked it is at present , they can take no other method than that they take . the church of england was the word among them some y●ars ago , liberty of conscience is the word at present ; and we have all possible reason to assure u● , that the promises for maintaining the one , will be as religiously kept as we see those are which were lately made with so great profusion of protestations , and shews of friendship for the supporting of the other . iii. it were great injustice to charge all the dissenters with the impertinencies that have appeared in many addresses of late , or ●o take our measures of them , from the impudent strains of an alsop or a care ▪ or from the more important and now more visible steps that some among them , of a higher form , are every day making ; and yet after all this , it cannot be denied but the several bodies of the dissenters have behaved themselves of late like men that understand too well the true interest of the protestant religion , and of the english government , to sacrifice the whole and themselves in conclusion to their private resentments : i hope the same justice will be allowed me in stating the matter relating to the so much decried persecution , set on by the ch. of eng. and that i may be suffered to distinguish the heats of some angry and deluded men , from the doctrine of the church ▪ and the practices that have been authorised in it ; that so i may shew , that there is no reason to infer from past errors , that we are incurable ; or that new opportunities inviting us again into the same severities , are like to prevail over us to commit the same follies over again . i will first state what i● past , with the sincerity that becomes one that would not lye for god ; that is , not afraid nor ashamed to confess faults , that will neither agrravate nor extenuate them beyond what is just ; and that yet will avoid the saying any thing that may give any cause of offence to any party in the nation . iv. i am sorry that i must confess , that all the parties among us , have shewed , that as their turn came to be uppermost , they have forgot the same principles of moderation and liberty which they all claimed when they were oppressed . if it sho●ld shew too much ill nature to examine what the presbytery did in scotland when the covenant was in dominion , or what the indepedents have done in new-england , why may not i claim the same priviledge with relation to the church of england , if severities have been committed by her while she bore rule ? yet it were as easie as it would be invidious to shew , th●t both presbyterians and independents have carried the principle of rigour in the point of conscience much higher , and have acted more implacably upon it than ever the church of england has done , even in its angriest fits ; so that none of them can much reproach another for their excesses in those matters . and as of all the religions in the world the church of rome the most persecuting , and the most bound by her principles to be unalterably cruel ; so the church of england is the least persecuting in her principles , and the least obliged to repeat any errors to which the intrigues of courts or the passions incident to all parties may have engaged her , of any national church in europe . it cannot be said to be any part of our doctrine ▪ when we came out of one of the blackest persecutions that is in history , i mean q maryes , we shewed how little we retained o● the cruelty of that church , which had provoked us so severely ; when not only no enquirie● were made into the illegal acts of fury , that were committed in that pe●secuting reign , but even the persecutors themselves lived among us at ease and in peace ; and no penal law was made ex●ept against publick exercise of that religion , till a great ma●y rebelions and treasons extorted them from us for our own preservation . this is an instance of the clemency of our church , that perhaps cannot be matched in history ▪ and why should it not be supposed , that if god should again put us in the state in which we were of late , that we should rather imitate so noble a patte●n , than return to those mistakes of which we are now ashamed ? v. it is to be considered , that upon the late kings restauration , the remembrance of the former war , the ill usage that our clergy had met with in their sequestrations , the angry resentments of the cavalier-party , who were ruined by the war , the interest of the court to have all those principle● condemned , that had occasioned it , the heat th●t all parties that have been ill used are apt to fall into upon a revolution ; but above all , the practices of those who have still blown the coals , and set us one against another , that so they might not only have a divided force to deal with , but might by turns make the divisins among us serve their ends : all these , i say , concurred to make us lose the happy opportunity that was offer'd in the year 1660. to have healed all our divisions , and to have triumphed over all the dissenters ; not by ruining them , but by overcoming them with a spirit of love and gentleness ; which is the only vict●ry that a generous and christian temper can desi●e . in short , unhappy councils were followed , and several laws were made . but after all , it was the court-party that carried it for rougher methods : some considerble accidents , not necessary to be here mentioned , as they stopped the mouths of some that had formed a wiser project , so they gave a fatal advantage to angry and crafty men , that to our misfortune , had too great a stroak in th● conduct of our affairs at that time . this spirit of severity was heightned by the practices of the papists , who engaged the late king in december , 1662. to give a declaration for liber●y of conscience . those who knew the secret of his religion , as they saw that it aimed at the introduction to popery , so they thought there was no way so effectual , for the keeping out of popery , as the maintaining the vniformity , and the suppressing of all designs for a toleration . but while those who managed this , used a due reserve , in not discovering the secret motive that led them to it , and others flew into seve●ity , as the principle in vogue : and thus all the slacknings of the rigour of the laws , during the first dutch war , that were set on upon the pretence of quieting the nation , and of encouraging trade , were resi●ted by the instruments of an honest minister of state , who knew as well then , as we do now , what lay still at bottom , when liberty of conscience was pretended . vi. upon that ministers disgrace , some that saw but the half of the s●cret , perceiving in the court a great inclination ●o toleration , and being willing to take measures quite different from those of the former ministry , they entred into a treaty for a comprehension of some dissenters , and the tolerating of others , and some bishops and clergymen , that were inferiour to none of the age in which they lived , for true worth and a right judgment of things , engaged so far , and with so much success into thi● project , that the matter seemed done , all thing● being concerted among some of the most considerable men of the differen● parties . but the dislike of that ministry , and the jealousie of the ill designs of the court , gave so stro●g a prejudice against this , that the proposi●ion could not be so much as hearkned unto by the house of commons : and then it appeared how much the whole popish party was alarm'd at the project : it is well known with how much detestation they speak of it to this day : tho we are now so fully satisfied of their intention● to destroy us , that the zeal which they pretended for us , in opposing that design , can no more pass upon us . vii . at last , in the year 1672. the design for popery discovering it self , the end that the court had in favouring a toleration became more visible : and when the parliament met , that condemned the declaration for liberty of conscie●ce , the member● of the house of commons , that either were dissent●rs , or that favoured them , behaved themselves so worthily in concurring with the church of england , for stifling that toleration ▪ choosing rather to lose the benefit of it , th●n to open a breach at which pope●y should come in , that many of the members that were for ●he church of england , promised to procure them a bill o● ease for protestant dissenters . but the session was not long enough for bringing that to perfection ; and all the session● of that parliament af●er tha● , were spent in such a continual struggle between the court and countrey party , that there was never room given for calm and wise consultations : yet tho the party of the church of england did not pe●form what had been promised by some leading men to the dissenters , there was little or nothing done against them , after that , till the year 1681. so that for about nine years together they had their meetings almost as publickly and as regularly as the church of englan● had their churches , and in all that time , whatsoever particular hardships any of them might have met with in some corners of england , it cannot be denied b●t they had the free exercise of their religion , at least in most parts . viii . in the year 1678. things began to change their face : it is known , that upon the breaking out of the popish plot , the clergy d●d universally express a great desire for c●ming to some temper in the points of confo●mity : all so●ts and ran●s of the clergy seemed to be so well disposed towards it , that if it had met with a sutable entertainment , matters might probably have been in a greater measure composed . but the jealousie that those who managed the civil concerns of the nation in the house of commons , took off all that was done at court , or proposed by it , occasioned a fatal breach in our publick councils : in which division the clergy by their principles , and interests , and their disposition to believe well of the court were determined to be of the kings side . they thought it was a sin to mist●ust the late king● word , who assured them of his steadiness to the protestant religion so often , that they firmly depended on it : and his present majes●y gave them so many assurances of his maintaining ●till the church of england , that they believed him likewise : and so thought that the exclusion of him from the crown , was a degree of rigour to which they in conscience could not consent : upon which they were generally cried out on , as the betrayers of the nation , and of the protestant religion : those who demanded the exclusion , and some other securities , to which the bishops would not consent in parliament , looked on them a● the chief hindrance that was in their way : and the license of the press at that time was such , that many libels and some severe discourses were published against them . nor can it be denied , that many churchmen , who unde●stood not the principles of humane society , and the rules of our government , so well as other points of divinity , writ several t●eatises concerning the measures of submission , that were then as much censured , as their per●ormances since against popery have ●een deservedly admired . all this gave such a jealousie of them to the nation , that it m●st be confessed , that the spirit which was then in fermentation went very high against the church of england , as a con●ederate , at least , to popery and tyranny . nor were several of the nonconformists wanting to inflame this disli●e ; all sec●et propositions for accommodating our differences were so co●dly entertained , that they were scarce hearkned unto . the propositions which an eminent divine made even in his books writ against separation , shewed that while we maintained the war in the way of dispute , yet we were still willing to treat : ●or th● g●eat man made not those ●dv●●●es towa●ds t●em without consulting with his s●●eriours . yet we were then ●a●●lly gi●en up to a spirit of dis●ention : and t●o the parliament in 1680. entred upon a project for healing ou● differences , in which great steps were made to the removing of all the occasions of our contest● ; the leaders of the dissenters , to the ama●ement of all pe●sons , made no account of this : and even seemed uneasie at it , of which the earl of nottingham and sir thomas clarges , that set on that bill with much zeal , can give a more particular account : all these things concurred to make those of the church of ●ngland conclude , a little too rashly , that the●r ruin was resolved on ; and then it was no wonder if the spirit of a party , the remembrance of the last war , the present prospect of danger , and above all , the great favour that was shewed them at court , threw them fatally into some angry and violent counsels ; self-preservation is very natural ▪ and it is plain , that many of them took that to be the case , so that truly spaeking , it was not so much at first a spirit of persecution , as a desire of disabling those who they believed intended to ruin them from eff●cting their designs , that set them on to all those unhappy things that followed . they were animated to all they did by the continued ear●estness of the king and duke , and of their m●nisters . that reproach of iustice , and of the p●ofession of the law , who is now so ●i●h , was singled out for no other end , but 〈◊〉 the●r common hangman over england ; o● whom the late k●ng gave t●is true character , that he had neither wit , law ▪ nor common sen●e ; b●t that he had the impud●nce of ten carted w●ores in him . another buffo●n , 〈…〉 to pl●gue the nation with three or four p●pers a week , whi●h to the reproach o● t●e age in which we live , had but too g●eat and too general an effect , for poysoning the spirits of the clergy . but those who knew how all this was managed , saw that it was not only set on , but still kept up by the court. if any of the clergy had but preached a word for moderation , he had a chiding sent him presently f●om the court , and he was from that day marked out as a disa●fected person : and when the clergy of london did very worthily refuse to give informations against their parishioner● that had not always conforme● , the design having been form'd , upon that to bring them into the spiritual courts , and excommunicate them , and make them lose their right of voting , that so the charter of london might have been delivered up when so many citizens were by such means shut out of the common-council ; we remember well how severely they were censured for this , by some that are now dead , and others that are yet alive . i will not go further into this matter : i will not deny but many o● the dissenters were put to great hardship● , in many parts of england . i cannot deny it , and i am sure i will never justifie i● . but this i will positively say , having observed it all narrowly , that he must have the brow of a iesuite , that can cast this wholly on the church of england , and free the court of it . the beginnings and the progress of it came from the court , and from the popish party : and tho perhaps every one does not ●now all the secrets of this matter , that others may have found out , yet no man was so ignorant as not to see what was the chief spring of all those irregular motions that some of us made at that time : so upon the whole matter , all that can be made out of this , is , that the pa●sions and infirmities of some of the church of england , being unhappily stirred up by the dissenters , they were fatally conducted by the popish party , to be the instruments in doing a great deal of mischief . ix . it is not to be doubted , but though some wea●er men of the clergy may perhaps still retain their little peevish animosities against the dissenters , yet the wiser and more serious heads of that great and worthy body , see now their error : they see who drove them on in it , till they hoped to have ruined them by it . and as they have appeared against popery , with as great a strength of learing , annd of firm steadiness as perhaps can be met with in all church-history , so it cannot be doubted , but their reflections on the dangers into which our divisions have thrown us , have given them truer notions with relation to a rigorous conformity : and that th● just detestation which they have expressed of the corruption● of the church of rome has led them to consider and a●hor one of the worst things in it , i mean their severity towards hereticks . and the ill ●se that they see the court ha● made of their zeal ●or supporting the crown , to justifie the subversion of our government that is now set on from some of their large and unwary expressions , will certainly make them hereafter more cautious in medling with poli●icks : the bishops have undo● their hands both disowned that wide extent of the pr●rogative , to the overturning of the law , and declared their disposition to come to a temper in the matters of conformity ; and there seems to be no doubt left of the sincerity of their intentions in that matter . their piety and vertue , and the prospect that they now have of suffering themselves , put us beyond all doubt as to their sincerity , and if ever god in his providence brings us again into a setled state , out of the storm into which our passions and folly , as well as the treach●ry of others has brought us , it cannot be imagined , that the bishops will go off from those moderate resolutions , which they have now declared ▪ and they continuing fir● to them , the weak and indiscreet pa●sions of any of the inferiour clergy , must needs vanish , when they are under the conduct of wise and worthy leaders . and i will boldly say this , that if ●he church of england , after she has got out of this storm , will return to hearken to the peevishness of some sour men , she will be abandoned bo●h of god and man , and will set both heaven and earth against her the nation sees too visibly , how dear the dispute about conformity has co●t us , to stand any more upon such punctilio's : and those in whom our deliverance is wrapt up , understand this matter too well , and judge too right of it , to imagin that ever they will be priestridden in this point ▪ so that all considerations con●ur to make us conclude , that the●e is no danger of our splitting a second time upon the same rock : and indeed , if any argument we●● wanting to complea● the certainty of this point ▪ tha wise and generous behaviour of the main body of the dissenters , in thi● present juncture , has given them so just a title to our friendship , that we must resolve to set all the world against us , if we can ever forget it ; and if we do not make them all the returns of ease and favour , when it is in our power to do it . x. it is to be hoped , that when this is laid together , it will have that effect on all sober and true protestants , as to make them forget the little angry heats that have been among us , and even to forget the injuries that have been done us : all that we do now one against another , is to shorten the work of our enemies , by destroying one another , which must in conclusion turn to all our ruin. it is a madmans revenge to des●roy our friends that we may do a pleasure to our enemies , upon their giving us some good words ; and if the diss●nters can trust to papists , after the usage that the church of england ha● met with at their hands , all the comfort that they can promise themselves , when popery begins to act it● natural part among us , and to set smithfield again in a fire , is that which befel some quakers at rome , who were first put into the inquisition , but were afterwards removed to bedlam : so tho those false brethren among the dissenters , who de●eive them at present , are certainly no changlings , but know vvell vvhat they are doing ; yet those vvho can be chated by them , may vvell claim the priviledge of a b●dlam , vvhen their folly has left them no other ret●eat . xi . i vvill not digress too far from my present pu●pose ; nor enter into a discussion of the dispensing power , vvhich vvas so effectually overthrown the other day at the kings-bench-bar , that i am sure all the authority of the b●nch it self is no more able to support it : yet some late papers in favour of it , give me occasion to add a litt●e relating to that point . it is ●rue , the assertor of the dis●ensing power , who has lately appeared wi●h allowance , pretends , that it can only be applyed to the test for publick employments ▪ for he owns , that the test for both houses of parliament is left e●tire , as not within the compass of this extent of the prerogative : but another writer , whom by his sense we must conclude an irish man , by his brow a iesuit , and by the bare designation in the title page , of iames stewarts letter , a quaker , goes a strain higher , and thinks the king is so ●bsolutely the soveraign as to the legislative part of our government , that he may dissolve even the parliament test ▪ so nimbly has he leapt from being a secretary to a rebellion , to be an advocate for tyranny . he fancies , that because no parliament can bind up another , therefore they cannot limit the preliminaries to a subsequent parliament . but upon what i● it then , that counties have but two knights , and burroughs as many ▪ that men below such a value have no vote , that sheriffs only receive writs and return elections , besides many more necessary requisites to the making a legal parliament . in short , if laws do not regulate the election and constitution of a parliament , all these things may be overthrown , and the king may cast the whole government in a new mould , as well as dissolve the obligation that is on the members of parliament for taking the test. it is true , that as soon as a parliament is legally met and constituted , it is tyed by no laws , so far as not to repeal th●m : but t●e preliminaries to a parliament are still sacred , as long as the law stands that setled them : for the members are still in the quality of ordinary subjects , and not entred upo● their share in the legislative power , till they are constituted in a parliament legally chosen and lawfully assembled , that i● , having observed all the requisites of the law. but i le●ve that impudent letter to return to the most apology that has been yet writ for the dispensing power . it yields that the king cannot abrogate laws , and pretends only that he can dispense with them : and the distinction it puts between abrogation and dispensation , is , that the one is a total repeal of the law , and that the other is only a slackning of its obligatory fo●ce , with relation to a particular man or to any body of men ; so that according to him , a simple abrogation , or a total repeal , is beyond the compass of the prerogative . i desire then that this doctrine may be applyed to the following words of the declaration ; from which the reader may infer whether these do import a simple abrogation , or no● , and by consequence , if the declaration is not illegal ; we do hereby further declare , that it is our royal will and pleasure that the oaths commonly called the oaths of supremacy and allegeance , and also the several tests and declarations — shall not at any time hereafter , be required to be taken , declared , or subscribed by any person or persons whatsoever , who is or shall be imployed in any office or place of trust , either civil or military , under us or in our government , this is plain english , and needs no commentary . that paper offers likewise an expedient for securing liberty of conscience , by which it will be set beyond even the dispensing power ; and that is , that by act of parliament all persecution may be declared to be a thing evil in it self , and then the prerogative canno● reach it . but unless this author fancies , that a parliament is that which those of the church of rome believe a general council to be , i mean infallible , i do not see that such an act would signify any thing at all . an act of parliament cannot change the nature of things which are sullen , and will not alter , because a hard wor● is clapt on th●m in an act of parliament ; nor can that m●ke that which is not evil of it self become evil of it self : for can any act of parliament make the clipping of money , or the not burying in wo●llen evil of it self ? such an act were in●eed null of it self , and would sink with its own weight ▪ even without the burden of the prerogative to press it down : and yet upon such a sandy foundation would these men have us build all our hopes and our securi●ies . another topick like this , is , that we ought to trust to the truth of our religion , and the providence and protection of god , and not to lean so much to laws and tests . all this were very pertinent , if god had not already given us human● assurances against the rage of our enemies , which we are now desired to abandon , that so we may fall an easie and cheap sacrifice to those who wait for the favourable moment to destroy us : by the same reason they may perswade us to take off all our doors , or at least all our locks and bol●s , and to sleep in this exposed condition , trusting to gods protection : the simily may appear a little too high , tho it is really short of the matter ; for we had better trust our selves to all the thieves and robbers of the town , who would be perhaps contented with a part of our goods , than to those whose designs are equally against both soul and body , and all that is dear to us . xii . i will only add another reflexion upon the renewing of the declara●ion this year , which has occasioned the present ●●orm upon the clergy . it is repeated to 〈◊〉 that so we may see ●hat the king continues firm to the promises he made la●t year . yet when men of honour have once given their word , they take it ill if any do not trust to that , but must needs have it repeated to them : in the ordinary commerce of the world , the repeating of promises over and over again , is ●ather a ground of suspition than of confidence , and if w● judge of the accompli●hment of all t●e other parts of the d●●laration , from th●t o●e ▪ which relates to ●he m●intaining of the church of england ▪ as b● law established , the proceedings again●t the fellows of magdalen colledge , gives us no reason to conclude , that this will be like the laws of the medes and persians , which alter not : all the talk of the new magna charta cannot lay us asleep ▪ when we see so little regard had to the old one . as for the security which is offe●ed us in this repeating of the kings promise● , we must crave leave to remember , that the king of france , even after he had resolved to break the edict of nantes , yet repeated in above an hundred edicts , that were real and visible violations of that edict , a clause con●irmatory of the edict of nantes , declaring that he would never violate it : and in that we may see what account is to be had of all promises made to hereticks , in matter● of religion , by any prince of the roman commu●ion , but more particularly by a prince who has put the conduct of his consciince in the hands of a iesuite . finis . a modest survey of the most considerable things in a discourse lately published, entituled naked truth written in a letter to a friend. selections. 1685 burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1676 approx. 81 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 16 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30391 wing b5835 estc r16335 13151773 ocm 13151773 98111 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30391) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 98111) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 447:5) a modest survey of the most considerable things in a discourse lately published, entituled naked truth written in a letter to a friend. selections. 1685 burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 29 p. printed for moses pitt ..., london : 1676. "not acknowledged by burnet but assigned to him by moses pitt in a printed letter of 1695". j. e. s. clarke and h. c. foxcroft. a life of gilbert burnet. cambridge, 1907, p. 524. reproduction of original in huntingto library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 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that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng croft, herbert, 1603-1691. -naked truth. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2003-12 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a modest survey of the most considerable things in a discourse lately published , entitled naked truth . written in a letter to a friend . imprimatur , g. iane. may 26. 1676. london , printed for moses pitt at the sign of the angel in st. paul's church-yard . 1676. sir , you have made use of your authority over me in a particular , that nothing under that absolute power you have with me , could have prevailed : to give you an account of my sence of that discourse that has of late made so much noise , entitled naked truth , chiefly in what he says , concerning bishops and priests . if i were only to discharge my thoughts into the bosom of so generous and worthy a friend , i could easily have resolved on it : but you insinuated a design of making a more publick use of what i might write about it , and this raised a mutiny in my thoughts , which could not be soon subdued into a compliance with so uneasie a task . others have already animadverted upon that discourse with great advantages of wit and learning ; but i not being born under such happy stars , do expose my self much , in hazarding to write , both after such pens , and about a book that has had the luck to be much read , and by some no less commended . it may therefore seem great presumption in me to interpose in such a matter : i know what i say will be received with all possible disadvantages , that may arise , either from the great partiality many have for that discourse , or from the just disdain others may conceive , that a person unknown and undesired should engage in it . yet after all this , i am so entirely at your disposal , that i shall resist no longer , but deliver my sence very plainly , in that blunt freedom that must be allowed my breeding , and way of converse , upon some of the most material things in that paper . i cannot but acknowledge the writer seems a person that is in good earnest , and does sincerely desire the peace of our church ; that so we being at one among our selves , may both carry on the common designs of true piety , and resist the in-roads popery is making on us . he writes gravely , and like a man that has deep impressions of religion upon him : and so i am heartily sorry so good a man , as i verily believe he is should have been prevailed on , to have done so unadvised a thing , as was first the writing , and then the publishing such a discourse . we do already groan under too many divisions , and we need no new attempts to encrease them : or make parties among our selves . and therefore the rule of our saviour ought to have been followed , if he had thought his fathers and brethren had trespassed against the laws of charity , order , or edification : he should first have proposed it to his ordinary , and the right reverend bishops , and have hoped that either they should have satisfied him , or he them . but to begin at publishing such papers , cannot be reconciled with the rule of the gospel : for if he owed that precaution in dealing with his brother , it was much more due to his mother the church , and the spiritual fathers of it , and he should not have attempted as cham did , to expose any supposed nakedness of his ghostly parents . there was another thing he ought to have considered , that christ has said , wo unto him by whom offences come . by offences or scandals are meant such stumbling blocks , snares , and gall-traps , as may occasion our brother's fall . i wish he had considered this well , and then i suppose , he would have seen that his labours in that discourse were like both to encourage those that do unreasonably separate from us : and make some of these who adhere to our communion stumble , and shake , when they see such things said by one , who seems to be of our church , and yet studies very industriously to blame us in every thing . if he had minded these things more , and the heats of his breast , and head less ; he had not gone so far , nor trusted himself so much in a matter of such high concern . for i am confident , had he shewed his papers , during all that time they lay by him , to any man of learning or judgement , they had so clearly convinced him of a great many mistakes , that this issue had turned abortive , and died before the birth . after all the horrid abuse has been made of the supposed returns of prayer , which has turned away the minds of many from those sacred exercises , either in private , or publick ; looking on all secret wrestling with god , as the heat of fancy , and all publick worship , as the compliance with that form or party we cleave to ; it appeared strange to me , to find a man that seems ▪ inflamed with a zeal for devotion , own his publishing this upon returns of prayer : which to some will be thought to patronize enthusiasm , and by others will be made a scoff to jear at all piety and devotion . god answers our prayers , when he bestows on us those graces , and blessings , we ask of him : but if any body that is fond of some composure of his , which he has a great mind to publish , prays for direction what to do ; and if he take measures from the temper or heats , he feels after such prayers , he exposeth himself to the greatest dangers imaginable . for , he ought to examine what he is about , not by his own liking , or disliking it , but by the rules of the gospel , of doing all things to peace , edification , and order : by the rules of humility , and modesty , not over-valuing himself , nor putting himself forth , but as he is called and directed by a good warrant and authority : and by the rules of the church and state where he lives . and if any man on a pretence of following the answers of prayer , will supersede any of these rules , he sets up one of the worst principles that can be imagined , which must needs subvert all religion and government . i do not deny but in matters purely indifferent , and that relate only to my self , when i cannot see wherein god has bounded my liberty ; many directors of consciences , think it is a safe rule to pray to god for direction , and after that to follow what makes the strongest impression upon my mind , but this must only take place where the thing in all it's circumstances is absolutely indifferent , and in my choice , for if i carry it farther i cannot stop till i have run into all the precipices of the worst kind of enthusiasm . now sure the authour of that discourse could not be such an ill discerner , as not to see that he was not left to his free choice in this matter : and therefore there is too much ground to suspect that he made his prayers , having this idol of his beloved book in his heart : and praying in such a manner , if god left him to his idols , to be deceived , and misled by them , it is nothing but what the prophet threatned to all that should so pray to god. from which i hope i may safely conclude , that if this authour had examined what he was about , rather by these sure and constant rules before hinted , than by the unstable and fallacious illusions of an inflamed brain , he had weighed things in juster ballances . but i shall now enter into the re-tail of the particulars he suggests ; having thus viewed it in gross . and to begin with what he says about articles of faith , there are two things i wish he had considered when he wrote it . the first is , thanks be to god , there is no need of any canvassing about these in our present case : for the greatest parties of the non-conformists have not departed from us , for any articles of faith : there being none of the articles of our church , that relate to faith so much as contested by them . this being on the contrary , the great thing they boast : that they do in all things agree to the doctrine and belief of our church . so that i cannot imagine why fifteen pages were written on this subject , when the writer designed union . for the church of england is so far from being taxed by them for imposing and dogmatizing , that they rather judge our articles too slack and large : and therefore when they went to compile a confession of faith , how positively they determined in many points , in which the articles of our church leave us to the freedom of our thoughts , is apparent to all . it cannot be denied but the articles of our church were compiled with the highest discretion , and moderation that ever was used by un-inspired men . where questions were so subtile , and intricate , that there were great grounds of doubting on both hands , as about predestination and the efficacy of grace , they laid down the doctrine of the church in such general expressions , as left a freedom to every one to choose in so difficult a point ; where the questions were metaphysical , as about the manner of our justification , they did not impose any subtilty on the consciences of the clergy ; who only are obliged to subscribe them . and this temper is the more to be wondred at , since we know by their other writings , and the accounts of that time , that the chief compilers of these articles , were in their private opinions positive , and determined about those things ; yet they thought it very unreasonable to establish controverted points as articles of faith , and to make their private judgements the standards of church-communion . so that as it is a most unreasonable charge on the church of england , to say she has tyrannically imposed many unnecessary conditions on her members in points of faith and doctrine ; it is also a very strange complaint from one that expresses a great zeal for re-uniting the dissenters to the body : for any relaxation that way would be so far from bringing them nearer , that it would rather drive them farther from us , upon new and more justifiable prejudices . what occasion would be given them to insult , and say we had changed the boundaries and land-marks our predecessors had left us : and were making a new hotch potch of a church , to take in all heresies ? how would the church of rome triumph , and say that our faith was indeed temporary , and changed with the fashion ? and let the wit of man devise such an engine for propagating popery , as to disclaim the doctrines and practices of the primitive church . this were indeed to fortifie the prejudices of novelty and schism , with which the emissaries of that church , study to asperse us to the highest degree possible . for i speak it knowingly , we should by so doing shake , if not wholly scandalize and drive from us , the greatest part of our most devout communicants : who are all apt to say of those first ages , let my soul be with theirs . and this carries me farther on this head , into a just wonder and astonishment , to see one that is but of yesterday , ( i shall not add the other part of that character ) assume such a confidence to judge those great worthies , who came out of the fire of the persecution , with so many trophies of an honourable victory about them ; having lost their eyes , and other members in the conflict : who sate in the council of nice to determine in a point of no less concern , than the glory of the son of god , by whose cross and spirit they had triumphed over all the powers both of earth and hell. i remember when i lived in holland and conversed with the disciples of episcopius and curcelleus , we often discoursed on this very point : they usually said , why should we not accept of scripture expressions without imposing new ones for tests ? and often did they entertain me with discourses of the simplicity of the first christians , and the most ancient creeds . to whom i always answered , as long as the christians did retain that simplicity of believing , it had been very ill done , to have introduced new expressions or subtilties into our faith or creeds : but when it is apparent that men have invented corrupt glosses for scripture expressions , and use the scripture phrases only with a reserve of these meanings : it was necessary to find out such tests as might discover their double dealing . for to accept of general expressions , from one that i have good reason to believe uses them in an heretical sence , is plainly to accept money that i know is of a false alloy because it hath the right stamp . nor can it be said , the difference was small and about a speculative point , for the difference was both about a matter of great weight , and about a practical point . i suppose no body can be so shallow as to think it was about a letter , the one being for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differed but in another letter , that made christ totally unlike the father . the controversie was , whether the word that dwelt in the flesh of our blessed saviour , was a being truly distinct from the substance of the father , and created by the father ; or as others did moderate it , made by the father ? so that there was a time , wherein he was not ? or if he was the increated word , that was from all eternity with the father . in short whether he was god or a creature ? and when the arians pretended that they believed the word was god , the fathers thus argued with them : either he is god by his nature and substance , or not ; if he was not god by his nature , then it was but a cheat , and a false title , they gave him : but god's honour was not so to be given to another . if he was god by his nature and substance , then he must either be of the same substance with the father , or of a different substance : if of the same substance , they gained what they desired : if he was of another substance , then there were more gods than one ; if there were two different substances , that were both truly gods in substance which was gross polytheism . i must acknowledge i shall very much suspect any man's reasoning faculties are not sound , that sees not a necessary series of truths hanging closely together in this contexture . so that it is plain the arians and our modern plotinians ( who are indeed more ingenuous than the arians were ) did not think the word that was made flesh , was truly god. and now let any man judge if there can be a greater and weightier matter , than whether jesus christ were god by nature , or only a creature . nor can a mistake rise higher than to believe him to be a meer man who is the eternal son of god , or him to be the eternal son of god , who was only a meer man. this controversie was not only speculative but practical , for our apprehensions and belief must direct our acts of worship , and adoration : if christ be only a man , we cannot have that veneration for him , that confidence in him , or love to him , which we offer to the great god. for there can be no idolatry in the world so great , as the worshipping a meer man , with the same adoration both inward and outward , that we offer up to the father . this is , sure if any thing can be , the giving god's glory to another . on the other hand if he be the great god and of the same substance with the father , it is the most irreverent , irreligious and ungrateful thing in the whole world , not to offer that adoration which is due to him , equally with the father : he having so signally commended and expressed his love to us . so that this is a matter not only of speculation , but of practice . this may suffice to satisfie any body , how just , reasonable , and necessary it was for the council of nice to make their definition in this matter , that so a test might be found out , for discriminating the catholicks from the hereticks . i am as far from a desire of multiplying new creeds and subscriptions as any man alive , but if there be not some in the church , how soon may a conspiracy be laid and formed within the bosom of it , that lying secret under general expressions , till it be ripe and strong , at length as out of a trojan-horse shall burst forth to ruine and subvert religion . it is indeed a high tyranny of the church of rome , that has added anathemaes to her canons about lesser and disputable points ; but except there be foundations laid , on which all the builders of the church must edifie , we shall soon grow worse than a babel , for we shall build with divided languages and tongues . for what he says about ceremonies and all other controverted heads among us , i shall only offer you one or two considerations . the first is , that in all such rents as are now in our church , it is a very unreasonable demand to desire any thing that is established should be changed without a very great cause : for to love changes for changes sake , is an argument of a light unsettled mind . and mutations in things external , work much on the vulgar : who seldom looking beyond what they see , and hear , are apt to be much startled at any visible alteration . this made our blessed saviour in his new dispensation alter outward things as little as was possible . therefore he sanctified two rites that were familiar to the jews , to be the two great sacraments of his gospel , that so the jews might be as little startled as might be . but if there did appear great and just causes to change things that are indifferent , there is no doubt but the fathers of our church and our legislators , the king and his two houses of parliament would examine them very deliberately . if then the authour of that paper offers any reasons for a change , he must take care they be very good and material ones : i hope he will not insist on the so often baffled objections against them . there is but one new reason can be offered , and that is an agreement of a considerable body of our dissenters , to desire such concessions , upon which , they being granted , they would enter into the communion of the church ; when this is once done then such a step were made , as must needs set all men to very deep and serious considerations , to ballance the evils of schism , the danger of popery , the relaxing all order , and the abounding of all impiety among us , which those who have made the schism are deeply guilty of . it is the duty of all men to lay these things home to the consciences of such as separate from us : that they may not stiffly keep up a breach , thorough which so much mischief flows in upon us , but may in colder blood review what is past : and come to make such offers , as may encourage those who love peace and moderation , to drive on so desired a work . but to expose the dignity of a church , and of constitutions settled by so long a prescription , to the scorn of every bold dissenter , can have no other effect , but to encourage them in their schism , and heap contempt upon our selves , when we prostitute law and authority to such affronts . then do those that divide , boast , as if we distrusted our cause , or were afraid either of the strength of their reasons , or of their party : and they stand their ground the more firmly , because they see us quitting ours ; and are confident , that if they can weather out a few more blasts , we will leave the field entirely to them . this makes their pride swell , and their demands become endless and unsatisfiable . but if their stomachs were so far down , that they had the humility and honesty to confess they had been mistaken in some things , and were now resolved to go as far towards the repairing our breaches , as their consciences could allow , and did propose a clear scheme of what they would submit to , and on what terms they would again enter into the communion of the church , then i am confident such candid dealing will find an entertainment beyond what they can justly hope for . and that upon very good reasons : for we ought to make another account of the modest scruples of such as are indeed tender consciences , than of the presumptuous demands of insolent sectaries . and it is most just that propositions this way ought to begin from them : they are subjects , and the laws are settled : and they gave very just cause both to church and state to be displeased with them and to distrust them , and so they ought to address for favour upon such reasonable terms , that the insolence of their demands may give no new grounds of irritation and offence . and till then all that is incumbent on us of the church , is ; first to live and labour so , as to outdo all these appearances of good among them ; which have wrought so much on the vulgar ; then to pray the god of peace , that he would of his infinite mercy and compassion to these divided churches , pour down a spirit of love and peace on all men : and in fine , to do all that lies in us to convince those that separate of the evil of their courses , in making such breaches in christ's vineyard and sheepfold , that lets in the foxes and wolves : and to be disposing our own minds into such a gentle temper , that notwithstanding all past provocations , and all the advantages we have from the laws and law-givers , yet we may be willing to yield even to the peevish weakness and unaccountable scruples of these that separate from us : as far as can be without giving just occasions of scandal on the other hand . but to give them such advantages as this discourse does , is , that which i cannot reconcile to the common rules of prudence and edification . i wish this writer had also considered , how unjust a way of reasoning it was , to argue from the indecencies and abuses any may be guilty of in the use of some of the ceremonies , that they ought to be taken away . alas ! at that rate , the most sacred and solemn things shall not escape : since all things when they fall into the hands of mortal men , are subject to such abuses . he did also very much forget himself , when he reckoned , the bowing to the altar one of the ceremonies of the church , which has never enjoyned it , neither by canon nor rubrick : for in it all are left to their freedom . so that this can furnish none with so much as a pretence to excuse their separation . for his long discourse about church-men and their qualifications and labours chiefly about preaching , i● certainly deserves great consideration , and in it we cannot steer by a better rule , than those most excellent constitutions antiquity has left us : which are indeed so divine and pure , that if this age could bear such a reformation , i know no greater blessing could befal us . but it is more to be wished than hoped for , to see plato's commonwealth built upon the ruines and dregs of romulus . we ought to converse much with the writings the ancients have left us concerning the qualifications and employments of the clergy , such as nazianzen's apollogetick , chrysostome's books of the priesthood , and gregory the great 's books of the pastoral care . but whatever defects we may charge our selves with , this is so far from contributing to our schism , that it is rather the effect and consequence of it ; for where there is bitter zeal and strife , there is confusion and every evil work : and so it was not needful to put this in a book concerning union . nor have these that divide from us any reason of insulting over us , whatever we may have to humble our selves for those things , and least of all for preaching : which perhaps is at this day come to such perfection , that if all our other defects were as much mended as these of preaching are , we might on all accounts be esteemed the best and most excellent church that ever was since the ages of miracles . in a word to end all that needs be said on these heads , the grounds of our communicating with any church being chiefly the purity of their doctrine and worship , and that their order and rules are such that they hinder the exercise of no christian virtue , but very much advance it : no personal failings or defects how publick and gross soever , ought to make any to separate from such a society . for till i be involved in some guilt , ( which no other man's faults can do ) by joyning in communion with a church ; i ought still to abide in it . this must either be laid down for a principle , otherwise schisms and rents shall be endless , for as long as men are men , personal failings and corruptions are unavoidable . and now having thus far examined the most considerable parts of that discourse , except what relates to bishops and priests , about which you desire chiefly to be satisfied ; and upon which the authour has laid out his utmost strength : i come at last to consider that : which i shall do with that candour and calmness i have carried along with me hitherto . his opinion is . that the bishops precedency over the rest of the clergy with authority to ordain , to exhort , to rebuke , to judge , and censure as he found cause , is of apostolical institution , and hath been continued in the whole church of god ever since , so that nothing but necessity , if that , can excuse those that set up another ▪ form of government : therefore this government ought to be still kept in the church . but after all this he thinks the bishops and priests are one and the same order ; so that by their ordination they have no more power conferred on them , than presbyters have , this he studies to prove : 1. from the silence of the scriptures that do not mention two such orders . 2. because he finds but one ordination , which he thinks cannot confer two characters . 3. because the apostles call themselves presbyters , and no where bishops . 4. because st. clement in his epistle speaks only of bishops and deacons . 5. justin martyr calls the bishop only president . 6. st. cyprian calls himself praepositus . 7. because the form of ordaining elders , is the same with which christ ordained the apostles , receive ye the holy ghost , whose sins ye forgive , they are forgiven them . 8. the bad consequences of admitting this difference of order are great , for it will condemn all the other reformed churches . upon these reasons he rejects the difference of order , and instead of that says , the apostles ordain'd all equally to be bishops or presbyters , but some having more eminent gifts than others , the apostles did by commission empower and constitute these to be overseers and bishops over the rest , from which beginning this practice has been kept up in the church ever since . therefore he thinks priests ought not to ordain other priests , but yet having done it , it is valid , and may without a crime be done by a priest that were by shipwrack or any such chance cast into a countrey where no person can be had that is thus commissionated to ordain . this is a full and clear account of his opinion , and of the reasons that led him to it . i shall now examine both , and first , let us see what all this will amount to . this must signifie little or nothing to the composing differences among us : but will rather inflame them . for a presbyterian may upon this supposition , very reasonably plead , that since by his order he has the same authority that a bishop hath , he ought not to be obliged or limited in the exercise of it . that any such commission the apostles gave some extraordinary men , must have been but temporary , for their lives ; for if they had judged this a thing needful to be kept up in the church ; they had given such lasting directions about it , constituting it a distinct order , as might have preserved it still in the church ; but since they did not that , we have no reason to acknowledge any such power now . and therefore if priests see their bishop doing what they think amiss , they may assume that power their order has given them , and judge and depose him too if need be . i am confident that authour will not allow of this , and yet it is visible that it arises naturally out of what he has set down . but suppose he could avoid that , what does all he has said contribute to the re-uniting our dissenters , and us again : somewhat he may say , as to the foreign churches , and yet i hope to shew that may be done another way . a little may be also said , to such as were ordained before , by priests in the time of the late usurpation ; who are now but a small number : and yet even these , by his principles did a very ill thing , who out of no necessity , but in a wanton sedition against their bishops , threw them off by the strength and force of a prevailing army . and if such persons ought not to be marked by some censure , or at least not admitted to any sacred employments , till they have been sensible of their fault , and repent of it ; i leave it to every body to consider . but for the rest of our dividers , as long as the bishops have such an authority over their priests , by what title or conveyance soever they possess it , it is all one to them . and indeed the weaker their title is , they will think they have the stronger plea : so that this notion were it ever so true , cannot go a great way towards the settling matters among us , but on the contrary will rather widen the breach . i go next to examine his opinion in it self : that there are many contradictions in his discourse , is apparent . for if bishops have authority to ordain , to exhort , to rebuke , to judge , and censure as they find cause , and if this authority was given by the apostles . is not here a distinct order ? all ecclesiastical functions are but so many commissions from god , of which the conveyers were the apostles , for what is the order of priesthood , but a commission from god , which was first issued out by the apostles : giving such persons authority to preach , and to administer sacraments ? and can any think that the apostles could have given any such commissions , but 1. they must have had the direction of the holy ghost , that assisted them in all they went about . 2. they must have conferred such a measure of the holy ghost , as was necessary for the discharge of such a commission , for they that conferred the holy ghost on all they laid their hands on , would have done it much more on those they did commissionate for so high a trust . 3. this must have been done by imposition of hands , so we find they laid hands on paul and barnabas , when they were sent to the gentiles , though they were endued with extraordinary power before , and were apostles ; according to what st. paul says of himself in the beginning of his epistle to the galatians . god had also by name marked them out for that service , yet hands were laid on them , and so they were sent out by the holy ghost . 4. if these persons commissionated with such authority were empowered by the apostles , then all the rest of the priests were bound to submit to that authority , and whatever power they might have pretended before that ; then , since latter deeds do vacate and invalidate former ones , that power being conferred on another , who is acknowledged vested with the authority , the former must be supposed divested of it , and bound to subject themselves to it . nor could they , except in cases of simple necessity , re-assume it , without rejecting the authority of the apostles themselves : according to that maxime of our saviour's , he that rejecteth me , rejecteth him that sent me . 5. either the apostles did declare this was only temporary , that for the present exigency , such extraordinary persons were vested with such authority , or that this constitution should continue still in the church . he cannot chuse the former , for then that order must have determined with these mens lives , in whose hands it was entrusted : which is against what that authour pleads for . so that he must say they declared that such commissions must continue to the end of the world , otherwise there were no obligation lying on the church to continue them , which yet he acknowledges . 6. after the apostles were dead , either these commissions were to be renewed on the account of what the apostles had appointed , or only by a voluntary delegation of the priests and people ; if the former , then our bishops at this day act by vertue of a commission from the apostles . if the latter be true , then . 1. this delegation may be given , or not , as they please , and so the order may vanish . 2. they may limit or enlarge it as they please , and so may very much change it . 3. those who are ordained bishops without such commissions , cannot be bishops at all . for if that power be only a commission , then it cannot be seated in any person that has got no such commission : therefore there being no such thing asked as a delegation of such authority from the priests , ( for the election of the dean and chapter relates only to the person , but not to the power and office ; ) none are now truly bishops ; since they have no such commissions : nor does the metropolitan , and the other consecrating bishops , give any such commissions , but only ordain a bishop to the work and office so committed to him , by the imposition of their hands : in which it is clear , as also from the whole office of the consecration of bishops , that they suppose there is a standing power and authority in the office , and therefore do believe it does not depend upon any commission they can give , all they do being to ordain him to the office to which the authority is necessarily annexed . so that it is clear , that either we have no bishops at all , or the commission for this authority is annexed to the office , and the church does not constitute the office , but only admit or ordain a person duly elected and qualified unto an office already constituted . from all these particulars which necessarily follow upon that authour's hypothesis , i may well assume , that by his principles bishops were empowered for ordination , and jurisdiction by the apostles , they being directed in it by the holy ghost ; and laying their hands on them , and conferring the holy ghost by such imposition of hands : upon which all the rest both clergy and laity were bound to submit to them : and that the apostles intended this order should be still continued in the church : so that all succeeding bishops , act by that power then conveyed by the apostles to the first bishops , and continued with their successors to the end of the world. and if this does not state the distinct office of bishops and priests , let every reader judge . there is a different power lodged with the bishops , another commission , ratified by an imposition of hands , which is to continue in a succession for ever . so that , that hypothesis destroys it self , establishing so many different things that contradict one another . but before i go to answer his arguments , i shall premise somewhat of the office of bishop and priest as it appeared in it's first origination . when christ sent out his apostles with an universal jurisdiction , as they gathered and planted churches , there was a necessity to fix some to have the charge of them , and to labour in the conversion of others . now the apostles having observed , that christ had in the institution of the sacraments , and many other things , followed such customes as were received by the jews : they must certainly have likewise followed the same rule , for as the gospel was first offered to the jews , so they raising their new superstructure on the foundation of moses and the prophets , could not change the customs that were among the jews , and instituted by moses , further than was necessary for emancipating the gentiles from that yoke . therefore every church of christians coming in place of the temple of ierusalem , in which living sacrifices were offered up to god , instead of the dead ones that were then antiquated : it was natural for them to take their model from the temple of ierusalem , as the synagogues had also done , in which there was one high priest , a company of priests and levites , and this even st. ierome who is in no small esteem with that authour , in that epistle to evagrius , confirms to us in these words . and that we may know the apostolical traditions were taken out of the old testament : what aaron and his sons , and the levites were in the temple ; that the bishops , presbyters , and deacons are to claim to themselves in the church but where the number of the christians was small , they made only one bishop , who as his charge encreased might ordain others to assist him : this epiphanins tells us he had from the most ancient or profoundest histories , and in a matter of fact to distrust history where it is strengthned with high probabilities from the nature of things is unreasonable . there were two ranks of christians , the one was the neophites or novices , who had lately received the faith ; the other were the first fruits of the gospel who as they had at the first preaching received the faith , so had continued longer in it , and these naturally must have been called the seniors , elders or presbyters . there is one great errour that vulgar observers fall in , of which though all criticks have often given notice , yet most people are still guilty of it , which is to judge of all words and appellations , according to the more received customes in or near their own time , not examining how they were used in former ages , and till this caution be minded , we must fall into frequent mistakes every hour . so at first these names of bishop and presbyter were not used in that sence , they came afterwards to be appropriated to ; any person that was of great and long standing in the faith , would have esteemed it an honour to have been called a presbyter , hence it is that there was not , that nice and choice distinction of the terms which use did afterwards bring in . upon which i shall with all modesty suggest to you one thing , which is not so much considered : that though those who were chosen to look after the poor be called deacons in the 6. of the acts , yet we find that term in the new testament is not at all restricted to that sence , even after that appointment . st. paul calls christ a deacon , rom. 15. 8. he calls also the civil powers the deacons , or as we render it the ministers of god , rom. 13. 4. he calls all church-men in general the deacons of righteousness , 2 cor. 11. 15. he calls the apostles deacons frequently , 1 cor. 3. 5. 2 cor. 3. 6. and 6. cap. 4. v. and cap. 11. ver . 23. and eph. 3. 7. and col. 1. 23 , 25. he calls tychicus a deacon , eph. 6. 21. and col. 4. 7. he calls epaphras a deacon . so also timothy , 1 thes. 3. 2. so that we see this term is used in a great many other sences , than that of a distributer of charity among the widows . therefore there is no reason to think that when st. paul wrote to the philippians , to the bishops and deacons , and when in his epistle to timothy he gives rules about church-offices , passing immediately from the bishop to the deacons , that by deacons we are only to understand the distributers of charity , which was not an office of such importance , that they must have such extraordinary qualifications but that he is treating of some other standing ministry in the church , in which all christians were more concerned ; and therefore though the subsequent use of the church appropriating the term deacon to the other function , these places in the epistles of st. paul were generally applyed to these deacons , and the translations of the new testament as well the vulgar latin as other modern ones into the vulgar languages , rendring the greek of deacon by the term minister in all the other places i have marked , this was less observed therefore there being so good ground to think that st. paul in these epistles is treating about priests , whom he calls by a common name deacons or ministers ; we have the disparity between these offices clearly set down in the scriptures . another thing is observable , that as long as the extraordinary effusion of the holy ghost continued , there could not be such a critical distinction of functions , as came to be settled afterwards , when that ceased : for even the laity were by these inspirations qualified to many things , which can be no presidents , when that effusion of the spirit is ceased . so though while that extraordinary assistance continued , there were not such clear traces of the several offices in the church , yet if as soon as that began to fail , we find this distinction of orders appear clearly ; we have reason to conclude it could be no other way settled but as the apostles had at first appointed : though while every one was so full of the holy ghost all these limits were not observed , for any extraordinary emission of the holy ghost being above positive and constant rules , it is not to be wondred if we have no such clear account of a formed and regulated society , at the first planting of churches in all offices and functions . and yet we see the new testament full of evidences that christ and his apostles intended there should be an eminence of power , committed to some pastors beyond others . so christ gave that universal authority over all , to his twelve apostles , so the apostles had some assistants , whom though they employed on other commissions , yet their chief residence and work was in some particular churches , over which they were set . and to such the apostles write , as to persons that had the charge and were accountable for these churches . and the reason of this was , that since there could not be found such numbers of men sufficiently fitted for the work of the gospel , especially in those trying times ; therefore it was to be depositated in a few hands , who were of more approved sufficiency and worth , the rest being to be directed and subject to them . this did very much compense the defects of other church-men , who though not so well qualified to govern , yet being willing to obey , and able to follow directions , they might by that means become very useful in the gospel . now there are two things that must be annexed to that superiour inspection without which we cannot imagine that it could be managed or have force : the one is , that all to be ordained should receive their orders from such bishops : otherwise obedience could not be expected from them , nor could the superiour be any way accountable for them , if he did not convey their authority to them . it was also necessary that in all matters of indifference the superiour governour , or bishop , must be looked on as having authority to rule and command , and so the inferiour judge himself bound to obey . and indeed if in those days of persecution , when the church had no assistance , but all possible opposition from the civil powers , there had not been very positive rules of obedience and order , left by the apostles , it had not been possible for them to have been kept in any order , or under any government . but the rules of superiority and subjection were without doubt formally left by the apostles . thence it was that the whole precinct of a bishop's charge was called his parish : in which he had the care of souls , and for his assistance did chuse out and ordain some of the more eminent and ancient christians , to assist him in teaching the flock , and administring sacraments , who were in all things directed by him ; and upon his death one of these was presented by the election of the clergy and people to the superiour bishop of the province , who did ordain him . now though the writings of the first ages are for the greater part lost , yet there are abundant evidences to shew this authority was set up by the apostles . i need not take pains to prove it against this authour , for he acknowledges it . but because some may perhaps read this letter , that have not studied this point in the larger and more learned works of the asserters of this order , i shall say as much on this subject as i think may very justly and reasonably satisfie any man , and shall wave st. ignatius his epistles , though the authority of those is made good with the astonishing labours of the incomparably learned bishop of chester . but being to give a short hint of the uncontested authorities that may be brought to prove this , i shall begin with ireneus to whom we may very well give credit in a matter of fact , he knew st. polycarp and was instructed by him , and he tells us that he was constituted by the apostles bishop in the church of smyrna . so that we find from him that st. polycarp was ordained by the apostles bishop of the church of smyrna . now that great saint and martyr , must have taken his notion of a bishop from no other original , but that which he saw in his first instructor : and yet we clearly see , he judged the bishop was more than the president , for he reckoning the tradition of the faith , counts it by the bishops that had been in rome from the apostles days : from whence it appears he considered them as the chief depositaries of the faith. and in his epistle to victor bishop of rome , wherein he condemned his severity in excommunicating the eastern bishops for observing easter on the 14. day of the moon , he lays the whole blame of it upon victor , though damasus tells us it was done upon a consultation victor held about it with his presbyters and deacons . now the blame was not to be laid on victor , if it had not been the received practice of the church at that time , for the bishops to have the jurisdiction chiefly in their hands . so that we clearly see what ireneus understood a bishop to be , and if that had not been consonant to what he knew in st. polycarp who had instructed him , we cannot in reason imagine he would have consented to such a tyrannical excess of power . tertullian a reckons the origine of the bishop's power from the apostles , from whom they derived their succession . the same writer also tells us , * that neither priests nor deacons had right to baptize , but upon a power from the bishop . he also says † they received the sacrament from no hands but their presidents ( or bishops ) firmilian that was st. cyprian's contemporary tells us * the bishops ( whom he there calls majores natu , and from the other parts of that epistle it is plain he means bishops ) did preside in the church , and had the power of baptizing , confirming and ordaining ; and even * ierome himself tells us , that neither priest nor deacon had a right to baptize without the bishop's command . and st. denis of alexandria , who was undisputed one of the greatest persons in his age , in his letter to fabius bishop of rome tells him , that upon the difficulty was raised , how to deal with those that died , before they had compleated their penitence , he had given a command that the peace of the church should be given them . where it is clear the authority of commanding and not only presiding rested with the bishop . and in fine , when the christian church came out of the fire of persecution , she decreed in the council of nice , that the ancient customes should be in force , concerning the power of metropolitans and patriarchs , we must acknowledge there were many very ancient men in that council , so that they , who were within 200. years of the apostolick time , and among whom we may reckon many that were 80. years of age , or near it , could not esteem any thing ancient , that had not been derived from the apostolical institution . i shall not insist on any thing that was decreed afterwards , where we may suspect power , and cunning , might have gone a great way to have east the church into such a mould , as might best agree with the constitutions of the empire . there might be also other political reasons , to have made the bishops after that time aspire to power and precedence . but i have only vouched the writers of the former ages , witnesses in a matter of fact , wherein we have no just cause to suspect them , to depose to us what was the successive government of the church from the apostles days . upon all which i desire , that you and every honest man will in your consciences consider a few particulars . 1. whatever we find generally received in those ages about a thing that was visible , and in which none could mistake , we may safely think it came from the apostles days . we may indeed imagine that when some of the apostles , to gain upon the jews did observe the christian easter on the 14. day of the moon , others might have mistaken this compliance , as if the apostles had judged that the 14. was the right day : we may also reasonably enough think , that when they heard st. iohn mention the thousand years , that were represented to him in his visions , they might have thought that had a literal meaning . but in a matter of government , we cannot fancy how such mistakes could have been taken up . 2. in things that were external and related to government , there were many concerned , and so an innovation could not be easily brought about . the people all looked on , and were obliged to know , to whom they owed obedience in things sacred : the clergy we may reasonably think were not so meek , as to have submitted to any unwarranted authority over them . and if they had known they were equal to their bishōps in order , we cannot think but either out of a just zeal for asserting their freedom , or out of an indignation at the miscarriages and insolence of some bishops , or out of an unwillingness to submit and obey , which is natural to most people , they had asserted their equality . 3. where different churches among whom we see no commerce , especially in the times of persecution , do agree in any constitution , we must suppose that came to them , from some persons , from whom they received common instruction . this is an argument thought very convincing against atheists , when we show many things wherein all mankind agree , which we cannot imagine how it should have been brought about , if they had not common parents , who had derived these things to all their posterity . so how can it be imagined that from the churches of armenia and persia in the east , to those of spain in the west , from the african churches in the south , to our brittish churches in the north , that had little or no correspondence together , this constitution of the church should have been universally received and submitted to . this was when no general council could meet to appoint it , and there was no secular prince to set it forward , upon any political account . now it cannot be imagined , how this could have been brought about , if their common spiritual fathers the apostles had not agreed upon it : when they first scattered to go over the world. for we have no reason to think they did ever meet all together again . 4. no men do an ill thing , or desire a change but upon some advantage , or at least the prospect and hope of it . and if the worst of men , are to be measured by this ( i except hectors in vice ) what must we judge of those , whom we ought justly to pronounce the best of men. their being bishops exposed them to the sharpest fury of their persecutors , they were but poor and mean , excepting the bishops of the great cities , they commonly were begun with , in every new storm that was raised against the church ; their labours were great , for the care of the flock lay on them : and they were unwearied in the discharge of their pastoral care . can we think any man would be fond of such a station , to that degree as to violate the institution of christ , to arrive at it . but with what face can any man suspect those ages , of such foul dealing upon whom the impressions of the lowliness of their great master , were so deep , and who were daily looking for a cross , and some cruel death : with what assurance could they have prepared for such trials , if out of pride and ambition they had been invading the rights of the other churches , and aspiring to an unjust domination over their brethren . 5. suppose we could be prevailed on , to think the whole church was so abandoned , the bishops to their pride , and the priests to an heedless simplicity , yet how can we reasonably think none of her enemies were so sharp-sighted , as to discern and object this to them ? they had malice enough , and if the orders of bishop and presbyter were one at first , but afterwards the episcopal ambition had subdued the priests under them ; some memory of it had been certainly preserved ; otherwise how should st. ierome and the pretended ambrose be supposed to have heard of it . but if any such thing had been known , is it possible to imagine that among all the hereticks and schismaticks that were in those ages , none should have charged it on the church , but on the contrary all of them had bishops of their own ? and in the end when one arose that did condemn the order , he had very few to follow him : nor did his own party the arians , receive this at his hands . therefore we have all reason to conclude that there was no such change made after the apostles days , for st. ierome himself acknowledges , the apostles set this order up , though he seems to insinuate , it was not in the beginning of their planting the church . and it is very clear that pseudo ambrose gives us his own imaginations for canonical histories . so from all these things put together , i dare appeal to any man to say upon his conscience , if he is not perswaded the episcopal authority over the flock and the clergy , is clearly derived from the apostles . all this i have said more fully than perhaps seemed at first view needful , but when i consider that though this authour does confess the episcopal function to be of apostolical institution ; yet over his whole discourse there are many things said , that do very much detract from that very acknowledgement , which the force and evidence of truth drew from him in the beginning of that chapter ; so that some suspect these words were only set down , that upon such an introduction he might seem a friend , and so wound both more securely , and more mortally ; since also many who read and magnifie that discourse , do with open mouth declame against this order , i hope none will judge it impertinent , if i have taken some pains to lay such things before them , as may give new and fresh impressions of the divine and apostolical origine of this holy office. all that remains yet to be considered is , what answers to make to the objections that authour lays in our way . his first objection is , from the silence of the scriptures , to which , the answer will be easily gathered from what has been said , for if what i do suggest about the sence of deacons in st. paul's epistles be true , then the case is most clear ; but besides that , there are manifest hints of a disparity , or superiority in scripture , and these are expounded by so authentical and clear a tradition , that we are not more sure of the change of the iewish sabbath , into the christian lords day , or of the baptism of infants , or of the canon of the scripture than we are of this apostolical institution . it was necessary that all super natural revealed truths , should have been clearly and fully expressed in scripture , and none of these left to the mistakes and misrepresentation of every age , but for matters of government it was enough , if general rules were given , which the platform of the churches then gathered did so explain , that we have no reason to have scruples about it , though a full and formal account of it be not left us . the second objection is , because he finds the apostles gave but one ordination , which he cannot conceive , how it could confer two distinct orders or characters . this is founded on a great mistake , for pray cannot the same great seal , that affixed to one writing , does only confer the honour of barronage , when affixed to another writing , confer the dignities of duke , marquess earl , viscount , and baron ? so it is plain the apostles when they were to send out any with a sacred commission , by the same outward rite , they might have conferred whatever authority they intended to confer . for they declaring on what errant , and with what power they sent out a person , and imposing hands upon him , that imposition confirmed the mission and authority committed to such persons . so there was no need of their ordaining church men through several degrees , but as they saw men qualified , they did ordain them , and i do not question but with the ●ame imposition of hands , and the same prayers and words , they might have ordained two persons at once , the one a bishop , the other a priest. for we are not to consider in an ordination the outward rite and prayers only , but the preceding declaration made , and the publick intention of those that ordain . it is true , we find by the ancientest ordinals we have , that there were some differences used in the consecration of bishops that were not used when a priest was ordained , which may be reasonably judged were very ancient , they held the book of the gospels over his head and shoulders , and all the bishops laid their hands on him , one pouring out the blessing . and denis the areopagite , tells us , that besides the imposition of hands , and laying the book of the gospels on his head , and the prayer , he was marked by the sign of the cross , and faluted by the bishop and all the holy order . and in the ordination of a priest , the bishop and the priests with him only laid their hands on his head , and blessed him . by which simplicity of their forms we may on the way observe , how unlike the primitive church was to the roman church : that abounds in so many superstitious fopperies , with which their pontificall is full . there was also provision made , that none should be made a bishop , till he had passed thorough inferiour degrees , not from any such subtleties as school-men have since devised : but that none might arrive at the highest order of the church , till he gave a sufficient trial of his faith and manners , by his deportment in all the inferiour steps in which they intended he should stay so long , that all might be well satisfied about him . and in or a little before st. cyprian's time they appointed some inferiour steps , which were not sacred orders , nor pretended to be apostolical , but degrees of probation through which those who intended to serve the church , should pass , before they were made deacons . and this furnishes me with a very considerable remark , to shew the fidelity of those ages in the accounts they give us of apostolical institutions : for they do every where tell us , there were but three sacred orders , deacon , priest , and bishop , and no where study to make us believe these other degrees of porters , readers , acolyths , exoreists and sub-deacons were apostolical : now if the episcopal superiority and power was a device of that age , or of the former , why should they not have called all apostolical , as well as some parts of it . but it is plain they were careful and conscientious in delivering punctually to us , what was apostolical , and what only ecclesiastical . his third objection is , because the apostles call themselves sometimes presbyters , and no where bishops ; this sure if it prove any thing must prove more than that writer intends , even that presbyters are above bishops . he should also have considered that the apostles do call themselves much oftner deacons than presbyters . so if this argument be of force , then the deacons must be likewise of the same order with the bishops . but the true account of this is , that the name presbyter was used for any ancient person of authority , and among the christians it signified a christian of a long standing . so upon both these accounts , the apostles being then both ancient men , and of great authority , and those that were the first fruits of the world unto christ , might well be called presbyters , though not in that sence by which the following ages understood that term . for i do not question but the names of bishops and priests , were at first promiscuously used and continued so even to ireneus his time , who in his letter to victor calls the bishops of rome , that were before him presbyters , but afterwards those two terms were appropriated to that sence we now understand them in . or if you will stand upon the apostles being called presbyters , to prove an equality , or superiority of presbyter over the bishop ; let me desire you to observe , that st. peter , who calls himself an elder , yet puts us in mind that bishops are above presbyters , for he tells us in that same epistle that christ was the bishop of our souls , and in that subordination i acknowledge the apostles were but priests , which perhaps gave occasion to ignatius to resemble the bishop and presbyters to christ and his apostles . besides it is as unreasonable to build any opinion concerning these orders , upon such humble expressions of the apostles , as if because a prince or a general will ordinarily call his souldiers , fellow souldiers , that therefore they and he are of the same order . the fourth objection is , because st. clement in his epistle to the corinthians speaks only of bishops and deacons . it is true in one place he does say , that the apostles did ordain the first fruits of their labours , having first tryed them in the spirit , to be bishops and deacons . but if what was before observed about the use of the term deacon , be well grounded , then st. clement's words may be also very justly understood of bishops and priests , but because this has the prejudice of novelty against it , let us look further into that epistle , and we shall find it no less clear by other expressions , that there were different orders in the church , though in that place he comprehends them under that common name , for he commends them because they were subject to their governours , and gave all decent honour to their presbyters , and again says , let us reverence our governours , and honour our presbyters , and clearly applies the subordination that was in the temple of ierusalem , of high-priest , priest , levite , and lay-man to the ecclesiastical constitution , as will appear to any that will consider that epistle . from which i conclude , that though st. clement did comprehend bishops and priests under the common name of bishop , yet he shews us evidently , there were governours in the church that were superiour to the presbyters , and to whom there were higher degrees of honour due : and particular ministrations proper , as were to the high-priest . the fifth objection is , that iustin martyr calls the bishops only presidents . this is of no force , for that father had no occasion given him to reckon up the several functions in the church when he was writing an apology for the christians to the roman senate , in which he gives a plain and simple account of their faith and worship , but it had been to very little purpose for him , to have told the roman senate , what were the several orders of church-offices among them . and it is not improbable that both he and tertullian might have used the term president , the rather because it would be the more easily understood by the romans than either bishop or priest ▪ the sixth objection is , from st. cyprian , who calls himself praepositus or president . but neither does this signifie much , for we are to consider the sence of authours , not so much by some terms or words they use , as by the formal accounts they give us , when they come to treat expresly on any subject . therefore when we would examine that father's opinion in this matter , we are neither to consider what in modesty he writes to his flock or clergy , nor what terms he makes use of , but the sure way is to see what his sense of the episcopal authority was , when he formally treated of it upon it's being questioned and to this we have reason to appeal ; st. cyprian's counsel was asked by rogatian another bishop concerning the censure of a deacon , who had carried himself insolently toward him , to whom st. cyprian writes , that by the vigor of his episcopat and the authority of his chair he had just power to have avenged that insolence instantly . and toward the end he says , these are the beginnings of hereticks , and the rise and attempts of ill meaning schismaticks , that they may please themselves , and despise their bishop , with a swelling pride . so men separate from the church so a prophane altar is set up without , and so men rebel against the peace , of christ and the divine ordinance and unity . these words st. cyprian writes like one that prophesied of the age we are born in , and if he does not assert the power of jurisdiction to the height i leave to every ones eyes . and the same saint in another epistle , challenging the insolent presumption of some priests , hath these words . there is no danger which we ought not now to fear , our lord being thus offended , when some of the priests , who neither are mindful of the gospel , of their place , or of the judgement to come , and consider not that there is a bishop set over them , do assume all to themselves , to the reproach and contempt of him that is set over them , which was never at all done by any that went before us . and another of his epistles which is about the same subject , concerning the lapsed that had fallen in the persecution begins with these words . our lord whose commands we ought to fear and observe when he was settling the bishop's honour ( or authority ) and the rule of his church says to peter : i say , thou art peter , and upon this rock will i build my church , &c. from thence through the revolution of times and successions , the ordination of bishops and the account of the church hath run down , that the church should be constituted upon bishops , and every act of the church should be governed by these presidents ( or praepositi as that authour would have them called , though he seems not to have considered that by this saint they were not bare overseers , but had the whole power lodged with them . ) since then this is founded by the divine law , i wonder at the bold rashness of some that wrote to me as they did , since the church is made up of the bishops , the clergy , and all that stand ( i. e. in the faith , or stand in the worship ) and if in all these places , st. cyprian that lived within 140. years of the apostles does not very formally assure us , that both the full authority was in the bishop and that this was settled by christ , so that there remains no room for any shift or answer i appeal to you and every unprejudiced reader . but there is yet a clearer and less suspected testimony in st. cyprian's works , in an epistle which the clergy of rome wrote to him , when their see was vacant after fabian's death , from which we may judge , what sense the priests of that age had of the episcopal office : these are their words , after the death of fabian of most noble memory , there is no bishop yet constituted among us , by reason of the difficulty of affairs and the times , who should regulate all these things , and must consider the case of the lapsed with authority and advice : can any thing be more evident , than at that time which was but 150. years after the apostles were dead , it was acknowledged by the priests that they had no full authority to govern the church when they wanted a bishop . now if the difference between bishop and priest , be only by commission , they being both the same order , then certainly in a vacancy the priests have a full power . but here we see the greatest company of priests then in the christian world , did not think they were of the same order , or had the authority of a bishop , even in a sede vacante . the seventh objection is , that presbyters are ordained in the same form , in which christ ordained his apostles , receive ye the holy ghost , whose sins yo forgive , they are forgiven them . this must either prove nothing to the purpose , or too much , for if there be any strength in this consequence , it must amount to this , that all ●●esbyters are of the same order the apostles were of , which certainly that authour will think is too much . the answer to it is given by st. paul , that there are diversities of operations , administrations , and gifts , but it is the same god , the same lord , and the same spirit , for all these worketh that one and the self same spirit . and since it is both by the authority and assistance of the holy ghost , that all these offices are derived and discharged , it is no argument to prove the offices are the same , because we pray that all may receive the holy ghost , it being necessarily to be understood , that every one receives it in his own order . nor do the following words of forgiving of sins , prove any more , but that both these offices are empowered to that equally . for it is acknowledged that a priest gives absolution as well as a bishop : but from their being both authorized equally in one thing , it is somewhat a strange kind of inference , to conclude , there is nothing else which a bishop has authority to do , that is not competent to a priest. the last objection is , from the inconvenience that must needs follow on our asserting bishops and priests to be of different orders , since this must condemn and un-church all the foreign churches ; which were indeed a very severe and uncharitable censure . i know this is very popular and taking , therefore i shall study so to clear it , that i hope no scruple shall remain about it . there are some conditions that are simply necessary to salvation , without which , no man shall see the face of god , and these do indispensibly oblige all without exception . there be other positive precepts which are of obligation to all who possibly can obey them , so that the contempt or voluntary want of these is a high provocation , they being both means of grace , and symbols of christian fellowship instituted by christ , and to continue for ever in his church . yet few are so severe as to deny a possibility of salvation without these . i know st. austin was of this severe side , but in that he is generally censured , as having exceeded ; it is an hard doctrine to condemn all infants that die without baptism , at least to exclude them from the kingdom of heaven , as st. austin did . for if the child die in the belly or birth , it is not conceiveable that it should be punished for the want of that which god himself made impossible . and the primitive church did generally believe , that such as being converted to the faith , did suffer martyrdom , even though they were not baptized , were certainly saved . in like manner if in some northern and poor countries where wine can scarce be had , and goes at excessive rates , if persons be so poor , that they cannot get wine , and so either die without the other sacrament , or offer some other liquor in the chalice , it were a strange degree of hardness to deny salvation to the people of such a clime . so also the offices of the church are necessary by a divine appointment , even in the principles of most of the non conformists , and yet neither this authour nor they will deny but even a laick if cast upon an island , where he upon learning their language came to instruct them in the christian faith , and could have no commerce with any church ; under such a necessity he might perform all divine functions ; for all christians are a royal priesthood , and absolute necessity supersedes all the rules of order , decency and government . and the presbyterians who acknowledge as great difference between a presbyter and a laick , as we plead is between a bishop and priest , yet acknowledge these to be true churches , which began upon no orders at all , where some persons that understood the scriptures , did gather churches , and administer the sacraments ; and they can say nothing for justifying such churches , which is not applicable to us in this case . therefore when the western churches were so corrupted that none could any longer with a good conscience receive orders in them , or submit to the terms upon which only their communion could be had ; if any priests seeing these errours , did instruct the people in the truth , and finding no other way possible to propagate or preserve that purity of doctrine , did ordain other priests , though this was irregular and defective yet we are not so uncharitable as to judge people under these circumstances , but acknowledge that absolute necessity supersedes all positive precepts . i know some have been severe on this head , because they judge they are under no absolute necessity . but that is a great mistake , those that live under a prince of a different religion , as the protestants in france do , could not with any security come over hither to receive orders . for can it be imagined that princes who are always jealous of their authority , and chiefly of such of their subjects , as differ from them in religion , would suffer them to come and be ordained in another prince's dominions : they would certainly use that as a pretence to justifie their severities against them . nor would they permit them to come under such a strength and compacted unity , as this constitution of the church would bring them to . therefore these are to be pitied , helped , and prayed for , and not insulted over . and for those other churches , that are under princes or a government of the same religion , they are in no less captivity to their superiours , who will never suffer them to go to another church for orders : and they would think it a thing inconsistent with the peace of their states , to let any ecclesiasticks get into so calumniating a power , where the constitution of their policy is democratical . it is to be regrated that at first their bishops were stubborn , and would not receive the reformation , which the chief of the reformers did very much lament . nor is it to be wondred , if these churches being thus formed under these necessities , and not according to the ancient and apostolical constitution in their ordinations , have since that time studied to justifie themselves upon other accounts , than bare necessity . in that we think them in an errour , but it being no fundamental one , and the necessity that at first forced that disorder , lying still over them , we dare not be so severe , as to deny them to be true churches . though we hold there is still such defects among them , that they are not compleat and perfect in all their constitutions . but after all this charity to those under such hardships , we have great cause to conclude much more severely against those , who being born in a church that had no such defect in it's first reformation , but was exactly moulded after the primitive pattern , and continued in so flourishing an estate that it was the just glory of the reformed churches , and the chief object of the envy and hatred of the roman , was at first separated from , and then subverted by some hot-headed schismaticks . therefore the disparity being so great between our dissenters , who are such out of choice , and in opposition to all laws both of church and state , and the foreign churches who are irregular out of necessity , our judging tenderly and favourably of the one , does no way oblige us to relax and forego these excellent primitive constitutions , on the account of the others among our selves . and thus far i think i have given you a satisfactory account of all that this authour says on this head . you know me and my circumstances better , than to suspect , either interest , design , or obligation , has engaged me to these perswasions , since by all these i am rather byassed another way . i have written nothing but that about which i am so well assured , that i know i am able to make good every particular i have set down . and therefore though i do not allow you , to let my name go with this paper , if you make a more publick use of it ; it is not that i fear either the censures of engaged and partial zealots , or the replies of a contentious disputant , so he abstain from railing and fooling , in neither of which , my genius , which was born for severer exercises , will permit me to engage . but now to wind up all after so tedious a letter , i must conclude with my 〈◊〉 regrates , that we are brought to such a pass , that discourses of this kind find such acceptance among us . the patient is in a high distemper , when he loaths wholesome food ; and longs after every fantastical quelque chose he hears of : so it is indeed to be lamented , that the best composures that do either inform or edifie the reader are neglected , and if any thing gets vent , that tends to make the most sacred things grow cheap , and fall in contempt , it is bought up at any rate , and read with an insatiable itch . i wish the authour of that discourse may with serious and deep reflections , consider what he has done in this work of his : he has made all the enemies of peace triumph , and has put some popular things in the mouths of his readers , with which they think themselves sufficiently armed to baffle both the articles and rules of our church . i am confident he is so serious and so sincere a man , that when ever he is made sensible of this , he will be very ready to take out of the way any scandal which these his conceptions have brought forth . in fine , i pray god teach us to know the things that belong to our peace , that so our animosities and heart-burnings being laid aside we may all study to seek the things that belong to peace , and the things whereby we may edifie one another . if i have wearied out your patience with a long epistle , i was forced to it , by the subject you commanded me to write about . and yet i have done it as short as was possible : which has made me overlook many lesser errours in that discourse , which were not of such general concern , but discover how easily that writer takes many things upon trust . it was needless to amuse the world with these particulars , and i am more a friend and honourer of that authour , than to engage with him meerly out of humour , to contend with him , or to expose him , least of all to make a needless show of reading . but i will make an end . london , may the 23. 1676. advertisement : a conference about religion , held in london , april 3. 1676. between edward stillingfleet , d. d. and gilbert burnet . with some gentlemen of the church of rome , octavo , price 2 s. 6 d. sold by moses pitt at the angel in st. paul's church-yard . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30391-e100 ezek. 14. ver . 7 , 8 , 9. acts 13 ver . 2. 3. iren. lib 3. cap. 3. et apud 〈◊〉 lib 4. cap. 13 lib. 3. advers . heret . cap. 3. apud euseb lib. 5 ▪ cap ▪ 24. a de prasc . cap. 32. cont. marcion lib. 4. cap. 5. * de bapt. † de cor. milit. * epist. 75. inter epist. cypr. * cont. lucifer . apud . euseb. lib. 6. cap. 44. can. 6. can. 2. con. carth. 4. de eccles . hier. cap 5. can 3. carth. and dion . ibid. epist. 65. epist. 10. epist. 27. ep. 31. 1 cor. 12. v. 4. 5. &c. their highness the prince & princess of orange's opinion about a general liberty of conscience, &c. being a collection of four select papers. correspondence. selections fagel, gaspar, 1634-1688. 1689 approx. 91 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a70113 wing f93 wing b5930 estc r3295 11789062 ocm 11789062 49157 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a70113) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 49157) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 175:2, 491:29) their highness the prince & princess of orange's opinion about a general liberty of conscience, &c. being a collection of four select papers. correspondence. selections fagel, gaspar, 1634-1688. stewart, james, sir, 1635-1713. correspondence. selections. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 36 p. printed and are to be sold by richard janeway, london : 1689. reproduction of original in cambridge university library and huntington library. papers originally edited or translated by gilbert burnet. i. mijn heer fagel's first letter to mr. stewart -ii. reflexions on monsieur fagel's letter -iii. fagel's second letter to mr. stewart -iv. some extracts, out of mr. stewart's letters, which were communicated to mijn heer fagel, together with some references to mr. stewart's printed letter. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts 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at the text creation partnership web site . eng william -iii, -king of england, 1650-1702. mary -ii, -queen of england, 1662-1694. fagel, gaspar, 1634-1688. liberty of conscience -early works to 1800. freedom of religion -england -early works to 1800. church and state -england -early works to 1800. 2005-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-07 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2005-07 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion their highness the prince & princess of orange's opinion about a general liberty of conscience , &c. being a collection of four select papers , viz. i. mijn heer fagel ' s first letter to mr. stewart . ii. reflexions on monsieur fagel's letter . iii. fagel's second letter to mr. stewart . iv. some extracts , out of mr. stewart's letters , which were communicated to mijn heer fagel . together with some references to mr. stewart's printed letter . london , printed , and are to be sold by richard janeway , in queens-head-alley in pater-noster-row . 1689. a letter , writ by mijn heer fagel , pensioner of holland , to mr. james stewart , advocate ; giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test , and the penal laws . sir , i am extream sorry , that my ill health hath so long hindred me from answering those letters , in which you so earnestly desired to know of me , what their highnesses thoughts are , concerning the repeal of the penal laws , and more particularly of that concerning the test : i beg you to assure your self , that i will deal very plainly with you in this matter , and without reserve , since you say that your letters was writ by the king's knowledge and allowance . i must then first of all assure you very positively , that their highnesses have often declared , as they did more particularly to the marquis of albeville , his majesties envoy extraordinary to the states , that it is their opinion , that no christian ought to be persecuted for his conscience , or be ill used because he differs from the publick and and established religion : and therefore , they can consent , that the papists in england , scotland and ireland be suffered to continue in their religion , with as much liberty as is allowed them by the states in these provinces ; in which it cannot be denied , that they en●●y a full liberty of conscience . and as for the dissenters , their highnesses do not only consent , but do heartily approve of their having an entire liberty , for the full exercise of their religion , without any trouble or hindrance ; so that none may be able to give them the least disturbance upon that account . and their highnesses are very ready , in case his majesty shall think fit to desire it , to declare their willingness to concur in the settling , and confirming this liberty , and as far as it lies in them , they will protect and defend it , and according to the language of treaties , they will confirm it with their guarranty , of which you made mention in yours . and if his majesty shall think fit fuether to desire their concurrence in the repealing of the penal laws , they are ready to give it ; provided always that those laws remain still in their full vigour , by which the r. catholicks are shut out of both houses of parliament , and out of all publick employments , ecclesiastical , civil and military ; as likewise all those other laws , which confirm the protestant religion , and which secures it against all the attempts of the roman catholicks . but their highnesses cannot agree to the repeal of the test , or of those other penal laws last mentioned , that tend to the security of the protestant religion ; since the r. catholicks receive no other prejudice from these , than the being excluded from parliaments , or from publick employments . and that by them the protestant religion is covered from all the designs of the r. catholicks against it , or against the publick safety ; and neither the test nor these other laws can be said to carry in them any severity against the roman catholicks upon account of their consciences : they are only provisions qualifying men to be members of parliament , or to be capable of bearing office ; by which they must declare before god and men , that they are for the protestant religion . so that indeed , all this amounts to no more than a securing the protestant religion from any prejudices that it may receive from the r. catholicks . their highnesses have thought and do still think , that more than this ought not to be askt , or expected from them : since by this means , the r. catholicks and their posterity will be for ever secured from all trouble in their persons or estates , or in the exercise of their religion ; and that the roman catholicks ought to be satisfied with this , and not to disquiet the kingdom because they cannot be admitted to sit in parliament , or to be in employments ; or because those laws , in which the security of the protestant religion does chiefly consist , are not repealed , by which they may be put in a condition to overturn it . their highnesses do also believe , that the dissenters will be fully satisfied when they shall be for ever covered from all danger of being disturbed , or punished for the free exercise of their religion , upon any sort of pretence whatsoever . their highnesses having declared themselves so positively in these matters , it seems very plain to me , that they are far from being any hindrance to the freeing the dissenters from the severity of the penal laws ; since they are ready to use their utmost endeavours for the establishing of it ; nor do they at all press the denying to the roman catholicks the exercise of their religion , provided it be managed modestly , and without pomp or ostentation . as for my own part , i ever was and still am very much against all those , who would persecute any christian because he differs from the publick and established religion : and i hope by the grace of god to continue still in the same mind ; for since that light , with which religion illuminates our mind , is according to my sense of things , purely an effect of the mercy of god to us , we ought then , as i think , to render to god all possible thanks for his goodness to us : and to have pity for those who are still shut up in error , even as god has pitied us , and to put up most earnest prayers to god , for bringing those into the way of truth , who stray from it , and to use all gentle and friendly methods for reducing them to it . but i confess , i could never comprehend how any that profess themselves christians , and that may enjoy their religion freely and without any disturbance , can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the quiet of any kingdom or state , or to overturn constitutions , that so they themselves may be admitted to employments , and that those laws in which the security and quiet of the established religion consists , should be shaken . it is plain , that the reformed religion is by the grace of god and by the laws of the land , enacted by both king and parliament , the publick and established religion both in england , scotland and ireland and that it is provided by those laws , that none can be admitted either to a place in parliament , or to any publick employment except those that do openly declare , that they are of the protestant religion , and not roman catholicks ; and it is also provided by those laws , that the protestant religion shall be in all time coming secured from the designs of the roman catholicks against it ; in all which i do not see , that these laws contain any severity , either against the persons or estates of those who cannot take those tests , that are contrary to the roman catholick religion ; all the inconveniences that can redound to them from thence , is , that their persons , their estates , and even the exercise of their religion being assured to them , only they can have no share in the government , nor in offices of ●rust , as long as their consciences do not allow them to take these tests : and they are not suffered to do any thing that is to the prejudice of the reformed religion . since , as i have already told you , their highnesses are ready to concur with his majesty for the repeal of those penal laws , by which men are made liable to fines or other punishments . so i see there remains no difficulty concerning the repealing the penal laws , but only this , that some would have the roman catholicks , render'd capable of all publick trusts and employments , and that by consequence , all those should be repealed that have secured the protestane religion against the designs of the r. catholicks , where others at the same time are not less earnest to have those laws maintained in their full and due vigour ; and think , that the chief security of the established religion consists in the preserving of them sacred and unshaken . it is certain , that there is no kingdom , commonwealth , or any constituted body or assembly whatsoever , in which there are not laws made for the safety thereof ; and that provide against all attempts whatsoever , that disturb their peace , and that prescribe the conditions and qualities that they judge necessary for all that shall bear employments in that kingdom , state or corporation : and no man can pretend , that there is any injury done him , that he is not admitted to imployments when he doth not satisfie the conditions and qualities required . nor can it be denied , that there is a great difference to be observed in the conduct of those of the reformed religion , and of the roman catholicks towards one another : the roma catholicks not being satisfied to exclude the reformed from all places of profit or of trust , they do absolutely suppress the whole exercise of that religion , and severely persecute all that profess it ; and this they do in all those places where it is safe and without danger , to carry on that rigour . and i am sorry that we have at this present so many deplorable instances of this severity before our eyes , that is at the same time put in practice in so many different places . i would therefore gladly see one single good reason to move a protestant that fears god , and that is concerned for his religion , to consent to the repealing of those laws that have been enacted by the authority of king and parliament , which have no other tendency but to the security of the reformed religion , and to the restraining of the roman catholicks from a capacity of overturning it ; these laws inflict neither fines nor punishments , and do only exclude the roman catholicks from a share in the government , who by being in employments must needs study to increase their party , and to gain to it more credit and power , which by what we see every day , we must conclude , will be extreamly dangerous to the reformed religion , and must turn to its great prejudice : since in all places , those that are in publick employments , do naturally favour that religion of which they are , either more or less . and who would go about to perswade me or any man else to endeavour to move their highnesses , whom god hath honoured so far as to make them the protectors of his church , to approve of , or to consent to things so hurtful , both to the reformed religion and to the publick safety . nor can i , sir , with your good leave , in any way grant what you apprehend , that no prejudice will thereby redound to the reformed religion . i know it is commonly said the number of the roman catholicks in england and scotland is very inconsiderable ; and that they are possessed only of a very small number of the places of trust : tho even as to this , the case is quite different in ireland : yet this you must of necessity grant me , that if their numbers are small , then it is not reasonable that the publick peace should be disturbed on the account of so few persons , especially when so great a favour may be offered to them ; such as the free exercise of their religion would be : and if their numbers are greater , then there is so much the more reason to be affraid of them ; i do indeed believe that roman catholicks , as things at present stand , will not be very desirous to be in publick offices and imployments , nor that they will make any attempts upon the reformed religion , both because this contrary to law , and because of the great inconveniences that this may bring at some other time both on their persons , and their estates : yet if the restraints of the law were once taken off , you would see them brought into the government , and the chief offices and places of trust would be put in thnir hands ; no will it be easy to his majesty to resist them in this , how stedfast soever he may be ; for they will certainly press him hard in it , and they will represent this to the king , as a matter in which his conscience will be concerned ; and when they are possessed of the publick offices , what will be left for the protestants to do , who will find no more the support of the law , and can expect little encouragement from such magistrates ? and on the other hand , the advantages that the r. catholicks would find in being thus set loose from all restraints , are so plain , that it were a loss of time to go about the proving it . i neither can or will doubt of the sincerity of his majesties intentions , and that he has no other design before him in this matter , but that all his subjects may enjoy in all things the same rights and freedoms . but plain reason , as well as the experience of all ages , the present as well as the past shews , that it will be impossible for r. catholicks and protestants , when they are mixed together in places of trust and publick employments , to live together peaceably , or to maintain a good correspondence together . they will be certainly always jealous of one another ; for the principles and the maxims of both religions are so opposite to one another , that in my opinion i do not see how it will be in the power of any prince or king whatsoever , to keep down those suspitions and animosities , which will be apt to arise upon all occasions . as for that which you apprehend , that the dissenters shall not be delivered from the penal laws that are made against them , unless at the same time the test be likewise repealed : this will be indeed a great unhappiness to them ; but the roman catholicks are only to blame for it , who will rather be content that they and their posterity should lie still under the weight of the penal laws , and exposed to the hatred of the whole nation , than be still restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the peace and the security of the protestans religion , and be deprived of that small advantage ( if it is at all to be reckoned one ) of having a share in the government and publick employments ; since in all places of the world his has been always the priviledge of the religion that is established by law ; and indeed these attempts of the roman catholicks ought to be so much the more suspected and guarded against by protestants , in that they see that roman catholicks , even when liable to the severity of penal laws , do yet endeavour to perswade his majesty , to make the protestants , whether they will or not , dissolve that security which they have for their religion : and to clear a way for bringing in the roman catholicks to the government , and to publick employments : in which case there would remain no relief for them but what were to be expected from a roman catholick government . such then will be very unjust to their highnesses , who shall blame them for any inconveniency that may arise from thence ; since they have declared themselves so freely on this subject , and that so much to the advantage even of the roman catholicks . and since the settlement of matters sticks at this single point , that their highnesses cannot be brought to consent to things that are so contrary to laws already in being , and that are so dangerous and so hurtful to the protestant religion , as the admitting of roman catholicks to a share in the government , and to places of trust , and the repealing of those laws , that can have no other effect but the securing of the protestant religion from all the attempts of the roman catholicks against it would be . you write , that the roman catholicks in these provinces are not shut out from the employments and places of trust ; but in this you are much mistaken . for our laws are express , excluding them by name from all share in the government , and from all employments either of the policy or justice of our country . it is true , i do not know of any express law , that shuts them out of military employments ; that had indeed been hard , since in the first formation of our state they joyned with us in defending our publick liberty , and did us eminent service during the wars ; therefore they were not shut out from those military employments ; for the publick safety was no way endanger'd by this , both because their numbers that served in our troops were not great , and because the states could easily prevent any inconvenience that might arise out of that ; which could not have been done so easily , if the roman catholicks had been admitted to a share in the government , and in the policy or justice of our state i am very certain of this , of which i could give very good proofs , that there is nothing which their highnesses desire so much , as that his majesty may reign happily , and in an entire confidence with his subjects ; and that his subjects being perswaded of his majesties fatherly affection to them , may be ready to make him all the returns of duty that are in th●●● power . but their highnesses are convinced in their consciences , that both the protestant religion , and the safety of the nation , will be exposed to most certain dangers , if either the test , or those other penal laws , of which i have made frequent mention , should be repealed ; therefore they cannot consent to this , nor concur with his majesty's will ; for they believe , they should have much to answer for to god , if the consideration of any present advantages should carry them to consent and concur in things which they believe would be not only dangerous , but mischievous to the protestant religion . their highnesses have ever pay'd a most profound duty to his majesty whcih they will always continue to do ; for they consider themselves bound to it , both by the laws of god , and of nature : but since the matter that is now in hand , relates not to the making of new laws , but to the total repealing of those already made both by king and parliament : they do not see how it can be expected of them , that they should consent to such a repeal , to which they have so just an aversion , as being a thing that is contrary to the laws and customs of all christian states , whether protestants or papists , who receive ●one to a share in the government , or to publick employments , but those who profess the publick and established religion , and that take care to secure it against all attempts whatsoever . i do not think it necessary to demonstrate to you how much their highnesses are devoted to his majesty , of which they have given such real evidences as are beyond all verbal ones ; and they are resolved still to continue in the same duty and affection ; or rather to encrease it , if that is possible . i am , sir , yours , &c. novemb. 4. 1687. amsterdam , printed in the year 168● reflexions on monsieur fagel's letter . sir , i shall endeavour to answer yours as fully and briefly as possible . 1. you desire to know whether the letter i sent you be truly monsieur fagel's or not . 2. whether their highnesses gave him commission to write it . 3. how far the dissenters may relie on their highnesses word . 4. what effects it has on all sorts of people . sir , roman catholicks may be pardoned if they endeavour to make that letter pass for an imposture , it is their interest so to do , and they are seldom wanting to promote that , let the methods be never so indirect which they are forced to make use of : it does indeed spoil many hopeful projects of theirs . but how any protestant among us can really doubt the truth of it , is strange to me . some things carry their own evidence along with them : i take this letter to be one of that kind . i do not desire you to believe me upon my bare affirmation that i know it to be genuine , ( tho this be most true ) but shall offer my reasons to convince you that it cannot be otherways . first , the letter is like its author , the matter is weighty , the reasoning solid , the stile grave , full and clear , like that of a lawyer : it has an air all over , which as well shews the religion and temper of its writer , as the matter and method of it do his capacity and judgment . now all these qualities make up the character of monsieur fagel . secondly , there are the same grounds to believe this letter to be m. fagel's , as there are to believe any thing you have not seen , viz. the constant asseverations of persons of undoubted credit that come from holland , who all agree in it , and assure us of it . m. fagel own'd it to several english gentlemen , and many both here and in holland knew two months ago that such a letter was written ; a forgery would before this time have been detected , esecially such a one as ruines the designs of the triumphing party . thirdly , it was written by m. fagel in answer to letters from mr. stewart , sent by his majesties special orders , and mr. stewart hath both an english and latin copy sent him : therefore the english copy is not called a translation , but it is a sort of original ; for you are not to doubt but the matter was ordered so , that her royal highness might peruse it as well as his majesty . in the next place you would know whether their highnesses gave order to monsieur fagel to write it . i wish sir , you would take the pains to read the letter over again , and consider who this monsieur fagel is ; he is pensionary of holland , and first ministor of state , raised to that dignity by the prince's favour , he answers letters written to him , which are ordered by his majesty to be communicated to their highnesses . in his answer , he gives an aceount of their highnesses opinions about the repeal of the penal laws and test ; matters of a national concern , and of the greatest importance . now you must have a strange opinion of monsieur fagel , if you think him capable of so great an indiscretion ( or rather imposture ) as to write such a letter of his own head. the letter it self demonstrates , that whoever writ it is no fool , and the circumstances i have marked show that he is no knave . and indeed the substance of it is not new , it only repeats to his maiesty the same answer which the prince and princess had formerly given to his majesties envoy there . in short , you may leave the whole matter to this plain issue : if this letter be a false one it will be disown'd , if a true one it will be owned . their highnesses love not to do things that will not bear the light. it is evident , they did not intend the matter of it should be a secret , having told it to monsieur d'albeville , as often as he ( in his discreet way ) necessitated them to do it . but how it came to be printed , i cannot inform you justly ; however you shall have my conjecture . i remember as soon as it was noised about town , that mr. stewart had received a letter of such a nature from monsieur fagel , care was taken that the writer of the common news letters which are dispersed over the kingdom , should insert in them that their highnesses had declared , themselves for the repeal of the test . this pias fraus might , i suppose , give occasion to the printing of the letter , as the wisdom and policy of our states-men ( in putting mr. stewart on writing such letters ) had procured it : i say letters , for monsieur fagel had five or six on that subject before he answered , so unwilling were they in holland to return an answer , since they could not give one that was pleasing , or do any thing that look'd like meddling . the third thing you desired to be satisfied in , is , whether the dissenters may rely on their highnesses word . i am as apt to mistrust princes promises as you are . but shall now give you my reasons , why i think the dissenters may safely do it . and at the same time , because of the affinity of the matter , i will tell you why i think we may all rely on their highnesses for our civil liberties , as well as the dissenters may do for liberty of conscience . much of what i have to say is equally applicable to them both , yet because i know you have had an account of her royal highness , better than i can give you , i shall for the most part , speak only of the prince . my first reason is the certainest of all reasons , that it will be his highnesses interest to settle matters at home , which only can be done by a legal toleration or comprehension in matters of religion ; and by restoring the civil liberties of the nation , so much invaded of late . that this will be his interest is evident , if his designs lye abroad , as it 's certain they do . designs at home and abroad at the same time are so inconsistent , that we see his majesty , though raised above his fears at home by his late victory ; and invited abroad , by all that can excite his appetite for glory , cannot reconcile them : the truth is , one that would undertake it , is in the same condition with officers that beat their men , to make them fight , they have enemies before and behind . but you may happily object , that princes do not always follow their true interests , of which it is not difficult in this age to give several fatal instances . i answer , that it is to be presumed that princes , as well as other men , will follow their interests till the contrary appear ; and if they be of an age to have taken their fold , and have till such age kept firm to their interests , the presumption grows strong ; but if their inclinations , the maxims of their families , the impressions of their education , and all their other circumstances do side with their interest , and lead them the same way , it is hardly credible they should ever quit it . now this being the present case , we have all the certainty that can be had in such matters . the prince of orange has above these 15 years given so great proofs of his firmness and resolution , as well as of his capacity and conduct in opposing the grand ravisher ( i may add the betrayers too ) of liberty and religion , that he is deservedly ( by all impartial men ) own'd to be the head of the protestant interest : a headship , which no princes but the kings of england should have , and none but they would be without it . now one may rationally conclude , that when the prince shall joyn to his present possession of this headship , a more natural title , by being in a greater capacity to act , he will not degrade himself , nor lay aside designs and interests which ought to be the glory of england , as they are indeed the glory of his family , acquired and derived to him by the blood of his ancestors , and carried on and maintained by himself with so much honour and reputation . i might add here , that the prince is a man of a sedate even temper , full of thoughts and reflection : one that precipitates neither in thinking , speaking , nor acting ; is cautious in resolving and promising , but firm to his resolutions and exact in observing his word : inform your self , and you 'll find this a part of his character , and conclude from hence what may be presumed from his inclinations . now as to the maxims of his family , let us compare them a little where it may be decently done . the french king broke his faith to his protestant subjects , upon this single point of vain glory , that he might shew the world he was greater than most of his predecessors , who though they had the same inclinations , were not potent enough to pursue them effectually , as he has done , to the everlasting infamy of his name and reign . the maxims of the french kings have been to outvie each other , in robbing their neighbours , and oppressing their subjects by perfidiousness and cruelty . but those of the family of orange on the contrary , have been to rescue europe from its oppressors , and maintain the protestant interest , by vertue , truth , honour and resolution ; knowing that such methods are as necessary to make protestant princes and states flourish , as vice and oppression are to maintain popish government . no popish prince in europe can pretend to have kept his word to his protestant subjects , as the princes of orange have always done to their popish subjects at orange , and elsewhere ; and the papists have often broke their word to that family , and have been , and are its declared enemies ; and though the princes two great grand-fathers , admiral coligni , and prince william , were assassinated by the authority , and with the approbation of that whole party , yet it cannot be made appear , that ever the princes of that family failed in keeping their word , even to such enemies , or used their own popish subjects the worse for it , in making distinction between them and their other subjects , or influenc'd the states to use theirs so : i say the states , who allow their r. c. subjects all the priviledges of their other subjects , only they are kept by a test from having any share in the government , which is truly a kindness done them , considering that ill-natured humour of destroying all those that differ from them , which is apt to break out when that religion is in power . now the church of england may justly expect all sort of protection and countenance from the successors , when it 's their turn to give it , they have a legal right to it , and impartial dissenters must acknowledge , that of late they have deserved it . but as for the protestant dissenters , i think no honest man amongst them will apprehend , that their highnesses who keep their word to their popish enemies , will break it to protestant subject , tho differing from the publick establishment . the next thing i am to make good , is , that his highnesses education must have infused such principles as side with his interest : there must be a fatal infection in the english crown , if matters miscarry in his highnesses hands , his veins are full of the best protestant blood in the world : the reformation in france grew up under the conduct and influence of coligni . prince william founded the government of the united netherlands on the basis of property and liberty of conscience . his highness was bred and lives in that state which subsists and flourishes by adhering steadily to the maxims of its founder . he himself , both in his publick and private concerns , as well in the government of his family , and of such principalities as belong to him , as in that of the army , and in the dispensing of that great power which the states have given him , has as great regard to justice , vertue and true religion , as may compleat the character of a prince , qualified to make those he governs happy . it does not indeed appear , that their highnesses have any share of that devouring zeal which hath so long set the world on fire , and tempted thinking men to have a notion of religion it self , like that we have of the ancient paradice , as if it had never been more than an intended blessing , but all who have the honour to know their highnesses and their inclinations in matters of religion , are fully satisfied they have a truly christian zeal , and as much as is consistent with knowledge and charity . as to his highnesses circumstances , they will be such when his stars make way for him , as may convince our scepticks , that certain persons , times and things , are prepared for one another . i know not why we may not hope , that as his predecessors broke the yoke of the house of austria from off the neck of europe ; the honour of breakin● that of the house of bourbon is reserved for him . i am confident the nation will heartily joyn with him in his just resentments . resentments which they have with so much impatience long'd to find , and have miss'd with the greatest indignation in the hearts of their monarchs . his highness has at present , a greater influence on the councils of the most part of the princes of christendom , than possibly any king of england ever had . and this acquired by the weight of his own personal merit , which will no doubt grow up to a glorious authority when it is cloath'd with soveraign power . may i here mention ( to ●ay the jealousies of the most unreasonable of your friends ) that his highness will have only a borrowed title , which he may suppose will make him more catious in having designs at home , and his wanting children ( to our great misfortune ) will make him less solicitous to have such designs . but after all , it must be acknowledged , that in matters of this nature , the premises may seem very strong , and yet the conclusion not follow . humane infirmities are great , temptations to arbitrariness are strong , and often both the spirit and flesh weak . such fatal mistakes have been made of late , that the successors themselves may justly pardon mens jealousies , a widow that has had a bad husband , will cry on her wedding-day , though she would be married with all her heart . but i am confident you will grant to me , that in the case of the present successors , the possibilities are as remote , and the jealousies as ill grounded , and that there is as much to ballance them , as ever there was to be found in the prospect of any successors to the crown of england . now may i add , to conclude the reasons that i have given you , why we may depend on their highnesses , that i know considerable men , who after great enquiry and observation , do hope that their highesses ( being every way so well qualified for such an end ) are predestinated ( if i may speak so ) to make us happy in putting an end to our differences , and in fixing the prerogative , and in recovering the glory of the nation , which is so much sunk , and which now ( when we were big with expectations ) we find sacrific'd to unhappy partialities in matters of religion . the last thing you desire to know , is , what effects this letter has had . but it is not yet old enough for me to judge of that , i can better tell you what effects it ought to have . i find the moderate wise men of all perswasions are much pleased with it . i know roman catholicks that wish to god matters were settled on the model given in it ; they see the great difficulty of getting the test repealed : and withal , they doubt whether it is their interest that it should be repealed or not : they fear needy violent men might get into employments who would put his majesty on doing things that might ruine them and their posterity . they are certainly in the right of it . it is good to provide for the worst . a revolution will come with a witness ; and it 's like it may come before the prince of wales be of age to manage an unruly spirit , that i fear will accompany it . humane nature can hardly digest what it is already necessitated to swallow , such provocations even alters mens judgments . i find that men who otherways hate severity , begin to be of opinion that queen elizabeths lenity to the r. c's proves now cruelty to the protestants . the whole body of protestants in the nation was lately afraid of a popish successor , and when they reflected on queen maries reign , thought we had already sufficient experience of the spirit of that religion ; and took self-preservation to be a good argument , for preventing a second tryal . but now a handful of roman catholicks , perhaps reflecting on queen elizabeths reign , are not it seems afraid of protestant successors . but if some protestants at that time from an aversion to the remedy , hoped that the disease was not so dangerous as it proves , i am confident at present , all protestants are agreed , that henceforward the nation must be saved , not by faith. and therefore i would advise the r. c's to consider that protestants are still men , that late experiences at home , and the cruelties of popish princes abroad , has given us a very terrible idea of their religion . that opportunity is precious and very slippery , and if they let the present occasion pass by , they can hardly ever hope that it will be possible for them to recover it . that their fathers and grandfathers would have thought themselves in heaven to have had such an offer as this is , in any of the four last reigns , and therefore , that they had better be contented with half a loaf , than no bread. i mean it will be their wisdom to embrace this golden occasion of putting themselves on a level with all other english-men ; at least as to their private capacity ; and to disarm once for all , the severity of those laws ; which if ever they should come to be in good earnest executed by a protestant suceessor , will make england too hot for them : and therefore i should particularly advise those among them , who have the honour to approach his majesty , to use their credit , to prevail with him to make this so necessary a step in favour of the nation ; since the successors have advanc'd two thirds of the way for effecting so good and pious a work . then , and not till then , the r. c's may think themselves secured , and his majesty may hope to be great by translating fear and anger from the breasts of his subjects , to the hearts of his own and the nations enemies . but if an evil genius ( which seems to have hovered over us now a long time ) will have it otherwise ; if i were a r. c. i would meddle no more , but live quiet at home , and caress my protestant neighbours ; and in so doing , i should think my self better secured against the resentments of the nation , than by all the forces , forts , leagues , garranties , and even men children that his majesty may hope to leave behind him . as for the protestant dissenters , i am confident the body of them will continue to behave themselves like men , who to their great honour have ever preferred the love of their country and religion to all dangers and favours whatsoever , but there are both weak and interested men among all great numbers ; i would have them consider how much the state of things is altred , upon the coming out of this letter , for if hitherto they have been too forward in giving ear to proposals on this mistake , that they could never have such a favourable juncture for getting the laws against them repealed ; i hope now they are undeceived , since the successors have pawn'd their faith and honour for it , which i take to be a better security ( as matters go at present ) than the so much talk'd of magna charta for liberty of conscience would be , though got in a legal way ; for our judges have declared , that princes can dispence with the obligation of laws , but they have not yet given their opinion , that they can dispence with the honour of their word ; nor have their highnesses any confessor to supply such an omission . however it is not to be charg'd on their highnesses , if such a magna charta be not at present given them , provided the test be let alone ; but i fear the roman catholicks zeal will have all or nothing ; and the test too must be repealed , by wheedling the dissenters to joyn with willing sheriffs in violating the rights of elections , which are the root of the liberties of england ; a prudent way of recommending their religion to all true english-men . but if any of the dissenters be so destitute of sense and honesty , as to prefer a magna charta , so obtained , void and null in it self , to their own honour and conscience , to the love and liberties of their countrey , to the present kindness of all good men , and their countenance at another time , and above all , to the favour and word of the successors , who have now so generously declared themselves for them ; we may pronounce , that they are men abandoned to a reprobate sense , who will justly deserve infamy , and the hatred of the nation at present , and its resentments hereafter . is it possible , that any dissenter , who either deserves or loves the reputation of an honest man , can be prevailed with by any pretences of insinuations how plausible soever , to make so odious and pernicious a bargain , as that of buying a precarious pretended liberty of conscience , at the price of the civil liberties of the country , and at the price of removing that which under god is the most effectual bar to keep us from the dominion of a religion , that wouldas soon as it could , force us to abandon our own , or reduce us to the miserable condition of those of our neighbours , who are glad to forsake all they have in the world , that they may have their souls and lives for prey . as for the church of england , their clergy have of late oppos'd themselves to popery , with so much learning , vigour , danger and success , that i think all honest dissenters will lay down their resentments against them , and look on that church , as the present bulwark and honour of the protestant religion . i wish those high men among them , who have so long appropriated to themselves , the name and authority of the church of england , and have been made instruments to bring about designs , of which their present behaviour convinces me , they were ignorant , as i suppose many of the dissenters are , whose turn it is now to be the tools . i say , i wish such men would consider , to what a pass they have brought matters by their violences , or rather the violences of these whose property they were , and at length be wise ; they cannot but be sensible of the advantages they receive by this letter . i suppose they apprehend ( i am sure they ought to do it ) that the ruine of their church is resolv'd on : but if the dissenters upon this letter withdraw themselves , the r. c's have neither hearts to keep firm to such a resolution , nor hands to execute it . since therefore , they themselves , have unhappily brought their church into such pre●pices by provoking the dissenters , it is in a particular manner their duty , as well as their laterest , to endeavour to soften them , by assisting the letter , and promoting the design of it . but if the old leaven still remain , they continue to argue as formerly , if the surplice be parted with , the church of england is lost ; if the penal laws be repealed , the test will follow : and comfort themselves with this most christian reflection , that the r. c. will not accept of what is offered them ; such men deserve all the misery that is preparing for them , and will perish without pity , and give thinking men occasion to remember the proverb , beat a fool ( or a zealot ) in a morter , yet his foolishness will not depart from him . but the dissenters ought not to be much concerned at this , they have their own bigots , and the church of england theirs ; there will be tools whilst there are workmen . this a time for wisdom to be justified of her children , when honest men ought to leave off minding the lesser interests of this or that particular church , and joyn in securing the common interest of the protestant religion . and to conclude , i would particularly beg of the dissenters to make use of their best judgment on this so critical an occasion , which they will do in my opinion , in keeping close to the contents of this letter , by endeavouring to obtain in a fair and legal way such a liberty to all perswasions , as is the natural right of freemen , and as our protestant successors declare themselves willing to joyn in ; and if those who have an equal , nay a greater interest than themselves , will not agree to such a liberty , because they will be masters or nothing ; the dissenters will have the comfort of having discharged their own consciences , as prudent men and good christians ought to do , and may safely trust god with the event . sir , i thought i had made an end , but looking your letter over again , i find i have forgot to answer a reason or two you give , why you doubt whether the letter be truly m. fagels : you are informed ( you say ) that such and such great men doubted of it ; but some might as well pretend to doubt of the truth of that letter , ( tho they knew it to be true ) as believe her majesty to be with child , almost before she knew it her self ; and that she was quick , when the embryo , as anatomists say , is not much above an inch long ; i don't think that popish successors , like certain weeds , grow faster than others : the persons you name may trim , and presume on their merit , least they might be thought capable of resentment . a dangerous reflection . i say their merit ; you have seen a long relation of the great services some ( when they were in power ) did their highnesses ; it is bound up with a relation of the true causes of their sufferings for their ( or rather their highnesses ) religion . you know even how one of them the last summer payed them his reverence with all the respect and humility of a due distance , and with the same caution with which the invincible monarch fights out of cannon shot . but , sir , though the character of a trimmer be ordinarily the character of a prudent man , there are times and seasons when it is not the character of an honest man. i acknowledge that since their highnesses marriage , nothing has hapned so much for the good of the protestant interest as this letter of m. fagels , and if i had been either the writer or adviser of it , i should be very proud of it , and think the nation much in my debt . but sir , that was not a very good reason to make you doubt of it ; for a good cause will have its time , tho not so often as a bad one , which hath ordinarily the majority on its side . i am confident at present we have all the reason in the world to expect it , for my own part , though i am neither young nor strong , i hope to live to see a day of jubilee in england for all that deserve it ; when honest men shall have the same pleasure in thinking on these times , that a woman happily delivered hath in reflecting on the pain and danger she was in . but knaves shall remember them , as i am told the damned do their sins , cursing both them and themselves . sir , i am yours . january 12 , 1688. a letter writ by mijn heer fagel , pensioner to the great and mighty lords , the states of holland and westfriesland . writ in french on the 9th of april , n. stile 1688. to the marquiss of albeville , envoy extraordinary of his majesty of great britain , to the high and mighty the states general of the vnited provinces . to which is prefixt an account in dutch of the letter writ by mijn heer fagel , on the 4th of november , in the year 1687. to mr. stewart , written by the said pensioner , and published by his order . printed at the hague by james scheltus , printer to the states of holland and westfriesland . translated out of the french and dutch into english . reader , i gaspar fagel , having the honour to serve the great and mighty states of holland and westfriesland , in the quality of their pensioner , cannot any longer delay the giving the publick this account , that in the month of july last 1687. i was very earnestly desired by mr. james stewart advocate , to write to him what were the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repealing the test and the penal laws : but i was not easily brought to put pen to paper on this subject , because i knew that their highnesses thoughts did not agree with his majesties ; so that the writing in such matters was extream tender : therefore i delayed it till i was more earnestly pressed to it : and it was intimated to me , that those pressing desires were made by his majesties knowledge and allowance : at last i did according to the mind of their highnesses , draw the letter which i writ to mr. stewart on the 4th of november : i transmitted the draught of my letter to their highnesses , and received upon it their order to send it , after that their highnesses had read and examined the draught in dutch , together with the translation of it into english : upon all this i sent my letter to mr. stewart in the beginning of november ; and received an answer from him , by which he signified , that he had shewed my letter , both to the earl of melfort and to the earl of sunderland , and that it was also shewed to the king himself ; nor did he in the least intimate to me that it was desired that i should make any great secret of it ; or take care that it should not become publick : that letter , was afterwards about the middle of january , printed in england ; and upon its coming over into this country , it has occasioned a great deal of noise ; yet i have not hitherto concerned my self in all those discourses , or in all that has been writ and printed upon it , but have let all people reason or write concerning it as they pleased : but i have lately seen an english book , entitled , parliamentum pacificum , printed in london , in this present year , by vertue of a licence signed by the earl of sunderland ; in which that letter writ by me , is not only called a pretended piece , but it is said , that which i had set forth in my letter , concerning the prince and princesses thoughts , relating to the repeal of the test and the penal laws was advanced by me without the knowledge of their highnesses , at least of her royal highness : and by this the reader may be perhaps wrought on to believe either that my letter was a pretended piece , and forgery , or that i writ it without order from their highnesses ; since it may indeed seem scarce probable , that the author could have obtained a license for the printing of a paper that contains such falshoods in it , which the court and in particular the earl of sunderland could not but know to be such : for they know well both that the letter was writ by me , and that i was ordered to write it by their highnesses : therefore i could not delay any longer to undeceive the world. thus i am obliged to publish this account of the matter . i have still in my possession , those letters by which i was earnestly pressed to write the fore-mentioned letter , in which it is expresly said , that they were writ by his majesties knowledge and allowance : i have also that letter in which notice is given that my letter had come to hand , and that it was shewed not only to the earls of melf●rt and sunderland , but to his majesty himself , so that they know well that it is no pretended piece . i have also by me the letter , by which his highneses desired me to send ●●●●●ter to mr. stewart , together with the english translation of it : all which i will print , if i find it necessary . so that it is a gross abuse put on the world , to say that my letter is a forgery , since as it was truly writ by me , so it has been avowed by me ever since it first appeared : and it is a base calumny and slander , to say , that i writ that account of their highnesses thoughts concerning the repeal of the test and the penal laws without their knowledge : which appears so much the more evident , since it cannot be imagined , that their highnesses would not have expressed their just resentments , at so high and extravagant a presumption as i should have committed , if i had written any account of their thoughts , without their knowledg : all this has obliged me for my own vindication to write the following letter , to the marquess of albeville , his majesties envoy to the states : because i have had much discourse with him concerning the writing of that letter , long before this book called parliamentum pacificum was published : but i will not engage my self any further to examine the reasonings of the author of that phmphlet : for i know well , that in those matters the world is divided into very different sentiments , and that men are apt to approve or censure such things , according to their preconceived opinions : of all this i thought it necessary to advertise my reader , and to order this account of my letter to be printed by a known printer , from a copy signed by my hand . at the hague the 10th . of april , 1688. gaspar fagel . a copy of the letter writ by mijn heer fagel , to the marquis of albeville , bearing date the 9th . of april , 1688. sir , there has appeared here an english book , printed at london this year , entitled parliamentum pacificum with an im●rimatur before it signed by the earl of sunderland : ●f which i cannot but complain to you how averse soever i am 〈◊〉 things of that kind . it is affirmed in that book , that the letter which i writ to mr. stewart the 4th . of november last year , concerning the test and the penal laws is a pretended piece , or at least that i writ it without order ; and without the consent of their highnesses , and more particularly of her royal highness the princess of orange : i will not engage my self to examin and refute the particulars that are in that book , for that were as unsuteable to the character i bear , as it is to my own inclinations ; which do both concur in making it unfit for me to enter upon a publick dispute in things of this nature : but you cannot think it strange , if i desire you to call to mind , that it was not of my own head that i was engaged to write that letter which is now called in question : it was far from that . i was pressed by earnest and often repeated instances for the space of four months , that were made to me in his majesties name , to write upon that subject ; which at last prevailed with me ; yet i went about it with all the caution that a matter of such importance required ; and i took care not to write one single period in that whole letter , that i apprehended might give his majesty the least offence : yet after all i see this letter is treated as an imposture , in a book published by authority : tho both his majesty and the whole court know the truth of this matter ; which sir , i have in particular owned to your self , as being the kings minister here : as i have also owned it to all that have spoke to me upon the subject . but that which troubles more is , that i am accused for having made use of their highnesses name , and in particular of her royal highnesses without their order , as if i were capable of so infamous a forgery , and of an imposture so unworthy of any man of honour , and that chiefly in a matter of so great consequence . sir , you must not think it strange , if in this i appeal to your self , to that which you know , and which you have often owned to me your self : that their highnesses , and particularly her royal highness have often expre●sed to you their thoughts concerning the test and the penal laws , conform to that which i writ in their names : which you owned to me , that you had writ to the court of england , long before i writ that letter , and that therefore you could not imagin upon what reason the court could press me so much as they did to write to mr. stewart . i do assure you , i find my self very little concerned in what is said in this late book , or in any other of that kind : i foresaw well enough from the beginning that i should be attackt upon the account of my letter : in which it was indifferent to me what any man thought of it . but this book being published by the authoaity of a licence granted by the earl of sunderland , president of his majesties privy council and secretary of state , i find my honour is so touched in it , that i am obliged to undeceive the world , of the false accusation with which i am charged in it . and i thought sir , that i could not do this better , than by writing to you , that are his majestys minister , and who know perfectly the truth of the matter that is now called in question : and therefore i desire you will write concerning it , to the earl of sunderland : i believe he has not seen or at least that he has not considered the passages of that book that do concern me . for i am sure if he had done that , he would never have licensed it : for my lord sunderland knows , as well as any man alive does , that my letter to mr. stewart is no pretended piece : he himself saw the letter , or at least the english translation of it that i sent along with it : and he could not but know likewise , both by your letters , and by what you told by word of mouth , that their highnesses , and in particular her royal highness , have often owned to you , their sense of the test and the penal laws , conform to that which i writ in their name to mr. stewart . so i do persuade my self , that my lord sunderland will have the justice and goodness to recall this licence , which has been obtained of him by a surprise : and that the author of so manifest and so injurious a calumny , shall be punished as he deserveth . i will not likewise conceal from you , the design i have of publishing an account of all that has passed in this matter , as well as of this letter , which i take the liberty now to write to you , in which my design is not to enter into any dispute concerning the matter it self , much less to offend any person whatsoever , but only to cover my honour which is struck at by this attrocious calumny . i am sir your most humble and most obedient servant gaspar fagel . to all which this attestation of the printer is added . i the under subscribing james scheltus printer in ordinary to the great and mighty lords the states of holland and westfriesland , dwelling in the hague , do declare and attest by these presents , that the writing here published , together with the copy of the letter writ in french to the marquis of albeville , envoy extraordinary of his majesty of great brittain to the states , were delivered into my hands in order to their being printed , by mijn heer gasper fagel , pesioner to the above named lords and states of holland and westfriesland , and that i have printed them by his express order . at the hague the 10th of april 1688. j. scheltus . some extracts , out of mr. james stewart's letters , which were communicated to mijn heer fagel , the states pensionary of the province of holland . together with some references to mr. stewart's printed letter . mr. stewart staid about seven months , after he had received the pensionary's letter , before he thought fit to write any answer to it : and then instead of sending one in writing to the pensioner , or in a language understood by him , he has thought fit , by a civility peculiar to himself , to print an answer in english , and to send it abroad into the world , before the pensioner had so much as seen it . the many and great affairs that press had upon that eminent minister , together with a sad want of health , by which he has been long afflicted , have made that he had not the leisure to procure mr. stewart's letter to be translated to him , and to compare the matters of fact related to in it , with the letters that were writ the last year by mr. stwatr , which are in his possession ; nor did he think it necessary , to make too much haste : and therefore if he has let as many weeks pass , without ordering an answer to be prepared , as the other had done months , he thought that even this slowness , might look like one that despised this indecent attempt upon his honour , that mr. stewart has made in giving so unjust a representation of the matter of fact. he hopes he is too well known to the world , to apprehend that any persons would entertain the hard thoughts of him , which mr. stewart's late print may have offered to them ; and therefore he has proceeded in this matter , with the slowness that he thought became his integrity , since a greater haste might have look'd like one that was uneasy , because he knew himself to be in fault . as for the reasoning part of mr. stewart's paper , he has already expressed himself in his letter to mr. d' albeville , that he will not enter into any arguing upon those points , but will leave the matter to the judgement of every reader ; therefore he has given order only to examine those matters of fact , that are set forth in the beginning of mr. stewart's letters , that that so the world may have a true account of the motives that induced him to write his letter to mr. stewart , from the words of mr. stewart's own letters : and then he will leave it to the judgment of every reader , whether mr. stewart has given the matter of fact fairly or not . it is true , the pensioner has not thought fit to print all mr. stewart's letters , at their full length ; there are many particulars in them for which he is not willing to expose him : and in this he has shewed a greater regard to mr. stewart , than the usage that he has met with from him deserves : if mr. stewart has kept copies of his own letters , he must see that the pensioners reservedness is rather grounded on what he thought became himself , than on what mr. stewart has deserved of him . but if mr. stewart , or any in his name , will take advantages from this , that the letters themselves are not published , and that here there are only extracts of them offered to the world , then the pensioner will be excused , if he prints them all to a tittle : the truth is , it is scarce conceivable how mr. stewart could assume the confidence that appears in his printed letter , if he have kept copies of the letters that he writ last-year : and if he engaged himself in affairs of such importance without keeping . copies of what he writ , it was somewhat extraordinary : and yet this censure is that which falls the softest on him : but i will avoid every thing that looks like a sharpness of expression ; for the pensioner expects , that he who is to give this account to the english nation , should rather consider the dignity of the post in which he is , than the advantages that mr. stewart may have given for replying sharply on him . and in this whole matter the pensioner's chief concern is , to offer to the world such a relation of the occasions that drew his letter to mr. stewart from him , as may justify him against the false insinuations that are given : he owed this likewise as an expression of his respect and duty to their highnesses , in whose name he wrote his letter , and at whom all those false representations are levelled , though they fall first and immediately upon himself . the sum of the matter of fact , as it is represented by mr. stewart , amounts to this , that he was so surprised to see in january last , the pensioner's letter to him in print , that he was inclined to disbelieve his own eyes , considering the remoteness of the occasion that was given for that letter : that he had never writ to the pensioner , but was expresly cautioned against it : but that seeing the sincerity of the king's intentions , he was desirous to contribute his small endeavours for the advancing so good a work , and for that end he obtained leave to write to a private friend , who , he judged might have opportunity to represent any thing he could say to the best advantage : but that of the letters which he writ to his friend , there were only two intended for communication , in which he studied to evince the equity and expediency , of repealing the tests and the penal laws : and that with a peculiar regard , to the prince and princess orange's interest ; and he desired that this might be imparted to friends , but chiefly to those at the hague . and that this was the substance of all that he writ on that occasion . but finding that the prince had already declared himself in those matters , he resolved to insist no further : yet his f●ind insinuating , that he had still hopes to get a more distinct and satisfying answer , from a better hand , tho without naming the person , he attended the issue ; and about the beginning of november , almost three months after his first writing , he received the pensioners letter , though he had not writ to him ( which is repeated again and again ) and in it an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts about the repeal of the tests and penal laws ( which he had not desired ) upon which he took some care to prevent the publishing of it : put when he saw it in print , he clearly perceived that it was printed in holland ; and so wonders how the pensioner could say , that it was printed in england , which he found in his printed letter to mr. d' albeville ; he knows not upon what provocation the pensioner writ that letter ; but in it he finds that he writ , that he was desired by himself to give him an account of the prince and princess of orange ' s thoughts , and that these pressing desires were made to him by his majesties knowledge and allowance ; this being so different from the letters he had writ , of which he is sure that the account he has given is true in every point , he was forced to vindicate the the king's honour and his own duty . he writ not out of any curiosity to know their highnesses though 's , which were already known , they having been signified to the marquis of albeville , and therefore he had no orders from the king for writing on that subject , but only a permission to use his little endeavours for the advancing of his service ; but it was never moved to him to write , either in the king's name or in the name of any of his secretaries . this is mr. stewart's account in the first nince pages of his letter , and is set down in his own words . now in opposition to all this , it will appear from the following extracts , that mr. stewart writ to his friend , as the most proper interpreter for addressing himself to the pensioner ; that he repeated his proposition frequently , finding his friend unwilling to engage in so critical a matter . he gives great ●●surances of his majesty's resolutions never to al●●r the succession ( which is plainly the language of a treaty ) he presses over and over again to know the prince's mind , whose concurrence in the matter would be the best guarentee of the●●iberty . he by name desires his letters may be shewed to the prince and princess of orange ( though he says , he only ●rder●d ●hem to be shewed to friends at the hague : so it seems he has the modesty to reckon them among the number of his friends ; but it is a question whether their highnesses do so or not . ) he says in one leteer , that what he writ was from his majesty himself , and enlarges more fully on this in two other letters ; and he desires , that the prince's answers , with his reasons , might be understood ; which very probably gave the occasion to all the reasoning part of the pensioner's letter . and it appears by that letter , that the return to all this was expected by the king , and in almost every letter he presses for a return . and in conclusion , upon his receiving the pensioner's letter , he expresses likewise a great sense of the honour done him in it ; that he had so far complied with his insignificant endeavours , he mentions his acquainting both the king and the earls of sunderland and melfort with it ; and in another letter , after new thanks for the pensioner's letter , he laments that it was so long delay'd . but all these things will appear more evident to the reader from the passages drawn out of mr. stewart's own letters , which follow . mr. stewart seems not to know upon what provocation the pensioner writ to mr. d' albeville , and yet the ponsioner had set that forth in the letter it self ; for the pamphlet entituled parliamentum pacificum , that was licensed by the earl of sunderland , contained such reflections on his letter to mr. stewart , either as a forgery , or as a thing done without the princess of orange ' s knowledge , that the pensioner judged himself bound in honour to do himself right . as for mr. stewart's criticalness , in knowing that the pensioner's letter was first printed in holland , and his reflection on the pensioner for insinuating that the letter was first printed in england ; it is very like that mr. stewart , after so long a practise in libels , knows how to distinguish between the prints of the several nations better than the pensioner , whose course of life has raised him above all such practices . but it is certain , that wheresoever it was first printed , the pensioner writ sincerely , and believed really it was first printed in england . this is all that seemed necessary to be said for an introduction to the following extracts . july 12. 1687. and i assure you by all i can find here , the establishment of this equal liberty is his majesty's utmost design — i wish your people at the hague do not mistake too far both his majesty and the dissenters ; for as i have already told you his majesty's utmost design , and have ground to believe , that his majesty will preserve and observe the true right of succession , as a thing most sacred ; so i must entreat you to remark , that the offence that some of the church of england men take at addressing , seems to me unaccountable , and is apprehended by the dissenters to proceed so certainly from their former and wonted spirit , that they begin to think themselves in large more hazard from the church of england's re-exaltation than all the papists their advantages . and next , that the prince is thought to be abused by some there to a too great mislike of that which can never wrong him , but will in probability in the event be wholly in his own power — i hope you will consider and make your best use of these things — i expect an account of this per first , i mean , an answer to this letter , and pray improve it to the best advantage . the second letter , without a date . that it is a thing most certain , that his majesty is resolved to observe the succession to the crown as a thing most sacred , and is far from all thoughts of altering the same ; and that his majesty is very desirous to have the prince and princess of orange to consent to and concur with him in establishing this liberty — so that upon the whole it may be feared , that if the prince continue obstinate in refusing his majesty , he may fall under suspicions of the greatest part of england and of all scotland , to be too great a favourer of the church of england , and consequently a person whom they have reason to dread — and many think that this compliance in the prince , might be further a wise part , both as to the conciliating of his majesty's greater favour , and the begetting of an understanding betwixt the king and the states ; and the parliament will consent to the liberty so much the rather , that they have a protestant successor in prospect — i cannot on these things make any conclusion , but simply leave them to your reflection , and the best use you please to make of them — i will expect your answer per first . vvindsor , july . 18. 1687. the hints that i gave you in my two former letters i shall now explain more fully in this — and therefore i heartily wish , that the prince and princess may understand all that you think needful on this subject . it troubles his majesty to find them so averse from approving this liebrty , and concurring for its establishment — so that in truth i cannot see why their highnesses should not embrace cheerfully so fair an opportunity to gratify both his majesty and the far greater and better part of the nation — now upon the whole ; i expect that you will make all i have written fully known at the hague , especially with the prince — but the main thing i expect from you , is to have your mind , whether or not his highness may be so disposed , as that a well chosen informer sent to himself might perfect the work. and this answer i will expect per first ; where ever the prince be , you know who are to be spoken and how — i again entreat your care and dispatch in this , with your return . london , july 29. 1687. mine of the 19 july , with my last of the 26th july , v. st. will i am sure satisfy you fully ; for therein i have indeed answered all can be objected , and have given you such an account of the confirmation of all i have writ from his majesty himself , that i must think it a fatality if your people remain obstinate . — and i again assure you , if your people be obstinate , it will be fatal to the poor dissenters , and i fear productive of ills yet unheard of ; and therefore pray consider my letters , and let me know if there be any place to receive information by a good hand — but however , let us endeavour good all we can , and i assure you i have my warrant . — haste your answer . windsor , aug. 5. 1687. and in a word , believe me , if the prince will do what is desired , it is the best service to the protestants , the highest obligation on his majesty , and the greatest advancement of his own interest that he can think on ; but if not , then all is contrary — but pray haste an answer . windsor , aug. 12. 1687. i have yours of the 15. instant , long looked for ; you remark , that you have received mine of the 26 of july , but say nothing of that of the 19. which was my fullest , and which i assure you was writ , not only with permission , but according to his majesties mind sufficiently expressed ; our religion ought certainly to be dearer to us than all earthly concerns . it is very true what you say , that mistakes about its concerns ( especially in such a time ) may be of the greatest importance , which no doubt should perswade to a very scrupulous caution : but yet i am satisfied , that the simple representing of what was wrote to you ( which was all i required ) was no such difficult task — but to be plain with you , as my friend , your return was not only long delayed , but i observe such a coldness in it , different from the strain of your former , that i think i mistake not when i understand by your letter more than you express — i wish the p. may see or hear this from end to end . london , aug. 22. 1687. i have yours of the 16th instant ; when i said your last was more cool , i meant not as your affection , but as to your diligence in that affair — for i am perswaded , that the establishing of this liberty by law , is not only the interest of protestant dissenters above all others , but that his highness s consenting to it , would be its secure guarantee both against changes and abuses — as you love the quiet of good men and me , leave off complements and ceremonies , and discourse his highness of all i have written — i am now hastening to scotland — but may return shortly ; for the kings is most desirous to gain the prince and he will be undoubtedly the best guarantee to us of this liberty , and also to hinder all your fears about popery . newwark , aug. 26. 1687. but now i must tell you , that though — i know — to be my very good friend , yet he hath not answered my expectation ; for you see that to seven of mine , he gave me not one word of answer ; although i told him , that the substance of them was writ by the king's allowance , and a return expected by him — besides , the answers he makes are either generals or complements , whereas my desire was , that the prince should know things , and that his answer with his reasons might be understood , — but my friend has delayed and scruffed things . from scotland , septemb. 24. 1687. i have yours of the 30th of aug. but have delayed so long to answer , because i had written other letters to you whereof i yet expect the return — my most humble duty to my friend at the hague . edinburg , octob. 28. 1687. as for that more important affair , wherewith i have long troubled you , i need add no more ; my conscience bears me witness , i have dealt sincerely for the freedom of the gospel — i had certainly long e're now written to the pensioner fagel , were it not that i judged you were a better interpreter of any thing i could say : i know his real concern for the protestant religion ; and shall never forget his undeserved respect to me ; but alas ! that providences should be so ill understood . london , novemb. 8. 1687. i have yours of the 1st of november — the enclosed from the l. pensionary surprize me with a testimony of his favour and friendship , and also of his sincere love to the truth , and fair and candid reasoning upon the present subject of liberty , beyond what i can express ; he hath seriously done too much for me ; but the more be hath done in complience with my insignificant endeavours , the more i judge and esteem his noble and zealous concern for religion and peace , which i am certain could only in this matter be his just motive : i hope you will testify to him my deep sense of his favour and most serious profession of duty with all diligence , until i be in 〈◊〉 to make his l. a direct return . i showed the letter to my l●rd melfort , who was satisfied with it . london , novemb. 6. 1687. which it seems is by a mistake of the date . i have your last , but have been so harassed and toiled , that i have not had time to write to you , much less to my l. pensionary ; yet since my last , i acquainted the earl of sunderland with his answer , as the king ordered me ; but i see all hope from your side is given quite over , and men are become as cold in it here as you are positive there . london , novemb. 19. 1687. by my last of the 8th . instant , i gave you notice of the receipt of my lord pensionary ' s letter , and what was and is my sence of his extraordinary kindness and concern in that affair . since that time i have had the oppertunity to shew them to the king , and at his command did read to him distinctly out of the english copy all the account given of her highnesses mind touching the penal statutes and the test ; and withall , signified the sum of what was subjoyned , especially the respect and difference therein expressed to his majesty ' s person and government ; but to my own regret , i find that this answer hath been too long delayed , and that now the king is quite over that matter , being no ways-satisfied with the distinction made of the tests from the penal laws ; and no less positive , that his highness is neither to be prevailed upon , nor so much as to be further treated with in this matter . the conclusion . and thus all that relates to the occasion that drew the pensioners letter from him , appears in its true light . if this discovery is uneasie to mr. stewart , he has none to blame for it but himself . it is very likely the first article of his merit , for the defacing of all that was past , was the pains he took to work on their highnesses , by the pensioners means : but that having failed him , the abusive letter that he has published upon it may come in for a second article : and now the reproaches to which this discovery must needs expose him , must compleat his merit . if upon all this he is not highly rewarded , he has ill luck , and small encouragement will be given to others to serve the court as he has done . but if he has great rewards , it must be acknowledged that he has paid dear for them ; the printing and distributing 15000 copies of his letter , is only the publishing his shame to 15000 persons , though it is to be doubted if so many could be found in the nation who would give themselves the trouble to read so ill a paper . finis . a sermon preached before the king & queen at white-hall, on christmas-day, 1689 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 50 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30432 wing b5890 estc r19736 12676236 ocm 12676236 65543 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30432) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65543) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:7) a sermon preached before the king & queen at white-hall, on christmas-day, 1689 by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 36 p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1690. advertisement: p. 36. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -n.t. -timothy, 1st, iii, 16 -sermons. sermons, english -17th century. christmas sermons. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion printed by their majesties special command . a sermon preached before the king & queen , at white-hall , on christmas-day , 1689. by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london , printed for richard thiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , mdc ●xc . the bishop of salisbury's sermon before the king and queen on christmas-day , 1689. a sermon preached before the king and queen , &c. 1 tim . iii. ver . 16. and without controversie , great is the mystery of godliness : god was manifest in the flesh , justified in the spirit , seen of angels , preached unto the gentiles , believed on in the world , and receive up into glory . the most venerable part of religion consists in the mysteries it contains : and the more sacred and sublime that these are , the religion to which they belong , becomes thereby so much the more august . the minds of men are subject to two extreams in the matter of mysteries : some have such a liking for every thing that pretends to mystery , that this alone serves to recommend all things to them ; and as if religion were designed to give perpetual affronts to reason , they despise things that are intelligible , and think it is a character of a mean and contemptible religion , if it is not full of unaccountable things : and they seem to be so taken with a sickness after mystery , that the more absurd that any doctrines are , they like them the better : this serving to gild or sweeten the pill : and perhaps they think that a fond credulity will atone for all other faults ; as if an easiness of believing might serve to compound for the most hainous sins . but on the other hand , some have such thoughts of themselves , and of the force and compass of their own reasons , that they think it an unreasonable imposing on them to expect that they should believe any thing which they cannot quite comprehend . the mean between these , is to fix such sure measures in this matter as may preserve us both from a tameness , that may expose us to be an easie prey to every one that will force perswasions on us , with this bugbear , that they are mysteries , and that therefore they ought to be believed , even before they are examined : and also on the other hand , from such a swelling of pride , as to reject every thing how solemnly soever attested , only because it does not agree with our notions . we have st. paul here in my text concluding a charge that he had given to timothy , and in him to all that should minister in holy things , that he should from the rules here set him , learn how he ought to behave himself in the church of god : for since the world that is ever apt to be implicit in its thoughts of religion , will judge of that which they do not know , nor understand , i mean the doctrine , from that which they do see and know , i mean the lives of those who do teach and profess it ; and since the majesty that is in some mysteries requires a suitable authority and gravity in those that handle and propose them ; therefore the obligation that lies on church-men to a great exactness of deportment , appears particularly from this , that the mystery of their religion is without controversie great ; and that it is likewise a mystery of godliness that leads to right thoughts of god , and to a way of worshipping him , that is suitable to his nature and attributes : both which considerations agree to point out this to us , that the bishops and pastors of the church ought to be men of a sublime pitch of mind , and of an unaffected strictness of holiness . in speaking to these words i shall consider , i. what is the true and strict notion of a mystery in general . ii. what reason there may be for us to believe such mysteries as may be revealed to us by god. iii. how credible the mysteries mentioned in my text are in themselves . iv. what reason we have offered to us that obliges us to believe them . v. in what sense this is a mystery of godliness . i. mystery in its common and general notion , is a sacred secret : and it was chiefly applied by the heathens who first used the word , to those rites and ceremonies by which men were either initiated into religion , or reconciled to the deity : and the performance of these things , had in it many secrets which the priests were careful enough to conceal , and thereby to encrease their value . among the romans it was one of the methods by which the people were managed to make them believe that publick misfortunes rise from some error in the performance of the service that they paid their gods. a deputation of fifteen men who were of the most intire confidence was appointed on great occasions ; to examine the rituals of their religion ; and these either found or pretended they had found out , both the error that had been committed , and the proper remedy : upon which it was given out , that the offended deity was pacified , and thereupon the people that were out of heart , took new courage ; and this to be sure , contributed not a little to the procuring them better success . from this common use of the term mystery , it is applied in some places in the new testament , to some of the rites and doctrines of christians . marriage is said to be a mystery , not as if there were any thing mysterious in that compact , which is founded on the laws of nature and society : but st. paul had been shewing the reciprocal tie that is between the man and the wife ; by which it appears that a man can no more have two wives , than a wife have two husbands : and upon that he says , that in this lay a mystery relating to christ and the church ; that is , a mystical argument to prove that the gentiles were to be brought to equal priviledges in the dispensation of the messias with the iews : for the prophecies having expressed the union of god with mankind , in the messias , under the figure of a marriage , then it follows according to the allegory of a marriage , that all must be called to him in an equality of priviledge and dignity ; and not as the iews imagined , that they were to have many priviledges under the messias above the gentiles , who were only to have a second share after them . now in the mystical way of arguing which was in use among the iews at that time , it was no ill way to convince them , to shew that the whole church was to come as one wife under the same priviledges : otherwise a disparity in that , some having more and some fewer , looked like the state of polygamy , or concubinate , and not of a single marriage . but to return from this digression : the sacraments of the christian religion came to be also called mysteries , because in these , men were initiated and confirmed in their religion ; yet not by any secret methods that priests only might know , but in actions that were plain , simple and significative . this great doctrine of the christian religion , mentioned in my text , of god's dwelling among us in flesh , is likewise called a mystery , as containing in it , not any secret which was too sacred to be trusted to lay-hands , that priests only might know ; but carrying in it a sublime discovery of the divine nature , and of the person and conception of the saviour of the world. ii. and this leads me to the second point , which is to shew , that if any such extraordinary discovery is made , we ought not thereupon to be prejudiced against it , because it contains some things , of which we can form no clear and distinct notion . it seems indeed at first view a hard imposition on us , to require us to believe that of which we can form no thought at all , and which by consequence is nothing to us . it seems also unreasonable to think that god has given us faculties which yet we must contradict and over-rule in matters of religion . but all this , how much soever it may be enlarged , and how specious soever it may appear , will have less force when it is considered , that really our faculties are so defective , that we do not penetrate into the essence of any one thing what soever ; and therefore tho'we can never be obliged to believe any thing that is contrary to our faculties and to our simplest conceptions , yet we may be obliged to believe things in which we find difficulties , through which we cannot make our way . the notions of time , space and motion , are entangled with inextricable difficulties ; the continuity of matter , or the admitting of vacuities in it , are subject to no less exceptions ; but these are matters of a more remote speculation : that which is more sensible to every one , is , that there are in us thinking beings , which we call souls , that are united to beings of a quite different nature , which are bodies , in so strange a manner , that the acts of the mind give the body a great variety of motions : we will , we reason , we remember , speak , or move , and immediately our animal spirits go into the chanels into which they are directed , without mistaking their way or their errand . now , how the acts of a mind should give , or , at least , direct the motion of matter , is as unconceivable to us , as how the motions of matter should give a mind pain or joy ; yet after all , in fact we find it is so , though we can give our selves no reasonable account how it should be so . indeed , if we examin memory alone , it affords us matter enough for wonder ; for it is not conceivable , how we should have lodged in our brain the figures of all words , persons , and things , which we can call up when we please , and so quick as words come into our mouths when we speak : now , what the nature , the variety , and order of all these figures should be , is that which we can as little understand , as how the soul should read them , ( if i may so speak ) and be able to do nothing without them . thus it appears , that in the thing which of all others we should be like to understand best , i mean our own souls dwelling in our bodies , and acting upon them , we plainly perceive , that a thing may be true , though at the same time all the notions that we can form of it do present to us difficulties concerning it , which we cannot overcome . it will then be no prejudice against religion , if it should offer some things to us , that we can as little reconcile to our own notions , as we can do , that of our souls lodging in our bodies , and governing them . it seems indeed to be very unconceivable , how the same person should be both god and man ; but it is not a whit more conceivable , how the same man should consist both of body and soul , so united in one , that the properties of both should belong to the same man , who from the characters of his mind , may be said to be just , wise , and good ; and from the characters of his body , may be said to be tall , fair , or sickly . so that though these , strictly speaking , belong only to one part of a man ; yet the denomination from each of them , goes to the whole . it cannot be denied , that our souls are united to our bodies , though we do not conceive how it should be so ; for we must consider , that all that which is imported by this union , is , that our bodies being put and kept in such a mechanical texture and disposition , our souls act upon and govern them , both in their vital and their free or rational operations : and this government is called the union of our soul and body ; which is no other than the bodies being put and kept in such a mechanical state , that the motion of the animal spirits runs regularly through it , which way soever the acts of the mind do determine and direct it ; and when the structure of the body is so disordered , that the animal spirits do their work imperfectly , then pain and sickness follow upon it ; but when they can do nothing , then death comes , the body being no longer in a disposition to be subordinate to the mind . by vertue of this union , the mind receives likewise many sensations from the body . all which lead us very near the forming somewhat like a notion of the union of the two natures in christ. for , if a body , which is a different sort of beings from the soul , is capable of being brought under such an immediate and constant direction from the mind , as we see it is in our selves ; then it is not at all absurd to think , that the soul of a man should be brought under an immediate and constant actuation from the divine nature , which may as well denominate god and man to be one , as the union of the soul and body denominates the compound of both to be one man : and as the whole man has the attributes both of soul and body given to him , so the whole in our saviour may also have the attributes both of god and man given to him . and this is as true an union , as is that between soul and body ; only whereas the body gives sensations of pain and pleasure to the mind , by vertue of the union between them , the perfection of the divine nature is such , that it can receive no reciprocal returns from the humane nature ; though it does immediately and constantly act upon and conduct it . i do not pretend , that this does fully explain the mystery , but it brings it nearer to our thoughts : so that if it does not help us to comprehend it clearly , yet it carries us so far toward it , that we perceive that it is not impossible : and that is all which is at present offered at . there is somewhat in the old testament , that will also contribute to give us a more distinct notion of this mystery . there was a mass of shining matter that hovered over the cherubims , which was wrapped about with a cloud ; and it sometimes broke through it , and gave answers to the israelites , when they consulted god by the high-priests . this had at first appeared to the whole nation , in the wilderness , and rested on the top of the tabernacle , and went before them in their march , and was the lasting character of god's presence among them . it was the standing miracle of their religion , which none of their idolatrous kings could ever disprove ; and it continued among them till their temple was destroyed by the babylonians . now this cloud was called god's face , his glory , and the light of his countenance , and even god himself . o thou that dwellest between the cherubims , shew thy self , and shine forth . and yet never was there any thing more carefully managed , than the diverting that people from every step that might have any tendency to idolatry . so the true account of this cloud 's being so spoken of , is , that this mass of pure and bright matter , as well as the thicker cloud that was folded about it , must have been quickly dissipated , according to the laws of motion , all flame being quickly gone , if not fed by new fewel ; but that god by an act of his power ; kept it constantly in that fixed state , and did sometimes make it break through the cloud to declare his mind to his people that consulted him . so by vertue of the constant impression that god made upon that matter , he was said to be in it ; and by vertue of that , the cloud is said to be god. now it was prophesied , that the glory of the second temple should be greater than the glory of the first ; and this cloud , in which god was present , being the proper glory of the first , and it being wanting in the second , a higher degree of glory was god's not only acting upon , and appearing in a mass of dead matter ; but his acting upon and appearing in animated matter ▪ in a man that had all the principles and ingredients of our nature in him . and thus this mystery that god was manifest in the flesh , has nothing in it that can render it any way incredible , either from the principles of reason or philosophy , or from the discoveries that were made concerning god in the old testament . as for another part of this mystery , that our saviour was born of a virgin , that carries not any thing in it , which reason shews to be absurd or impossible . for all matter being uniform , and only different by the figure and motion into which it is put , as god did upon the first creation of matter , put it into what form he pleased , he can still put any part of it , into what shape or motion he intends to impress upon it : so that there is no difficulty in apprehending how god could have formed the first principles of our saviour's body in the virgin. and it being necessary that the author of so holy a religion should be perfectly pure and holy , that he might be a perfect pattern , and so recommend his doctrine with the more advantage , it was suitable to this , that he should have none of those frailties in his nature and constitution , which might have exposed him to the failings , into which the best men that have their natures vitiated with those ill inclinations , are apt to fall . it is certain , that with the first principles of our being , there are derived to us the seeds of ill dispositions , both of body and mind . cronical diseases , such as gout and stone , folly and madness , are thus derived ; and tho' this is in some instances more visible and sensible than it is in others , yet as every man has some particular feebleness , of which some principles descend to those who derive their being from him , so in all men this is sensible , that their bodies and bodily impressions grow too hard for their minds , and do always struggle and often revolt against them . it was then sutable both to this holy religion , and to the union unto which the divine nature assumed the author of it , that he should be free from all that disorder ; and therefore the matter from which he was to take his beginning , was to be so exactly rectified and purified , that there should be no principle of ill inclination in it : for we perceive that our minds act so much the more perfectly , the more pure and clear , that our bodies are : we grow as our bodies ripen , to be another sort of beings , than we were when we were first born ; and a distemper in our brain , may so hide or disorder all our ideas , that we may thereby become in a moment fit for nothing : nor shall it be a small part of our happiness in another state , that our bodies shall be highly rectified , and so our minds must become both purer and sublimer when they shall dwell in bodies of heavenly and exalted matter . upon all this , it is plain , that as there is no absurdity in believing that our saviour's first principles were formed by miracle , so it was highly suitable to the design on which he was sent into the world , that his body should be freed from all that disorder which follows the ordinary course of nature . iii. but yet after all this , it may still be said , why must things of this nature be required to be believed of us ? why was this doctrine of christianity , which is hard enough in practice , made so much the harder , by containing in it so many things which render it so difficult to be believed ? and why were such prejudices laid in the way , both of iews and gentiles , by making these doctrines to be parts of our faith , which seemed to savour of their most absurd fables , as if there were in the godhead a descent from father to son ▪ to all which this is to be answered , that as there was no doctrine more ancient and sacred among the philosophers , than this of three in the deity , which is well known to all that have well examined the matter , so nothing could more recommend a religion , that was to meet with great oppositions both in the nature of man , and from the powers that were then in the world , than the great dignity of the author of it ; and therefore , as he was brought into the world with so much pomp , so many prophesies going before his birth , and so many miracles accompanying it , a whole nation being selected , out of which he was to descend , and a religion being instituted that was full of types and ceremonies that were to be accomplished in him , so god thought fit to vest him with all possible glory ; that so his doctrine might not only have the more credit , but that all men might be the more encouraged to come into it , and to continue in it , by the great assistances and the mighty protection that they were to expect from one that was the head of angels : and was also the brightness of the fathers glory : and since it was necessary to draw men to think seriously of religion , by offering them a full and free pardon of all past sins , it being in vain to press men to come into any religion , if they are told that by their sins they are already become miserable , past recovery and redemption ; god therefore as he resolved to offer a pardon in the gospel , so thought fit to do it in such a manner , as should declare his hatred of sin , as well as his love to mankind ; and therefore he so ordered it , that the author of this holy religion after he had fully declared it to the world , should be seized on by wicked men , and be by them cruelly put to death ; in the suffering of which , as he offered himself up with all submission to the will of god , and bore every thing with all imaginable patience ; so he felt in his mind , the most unconceivable sense imaginable of the sins & miseries of mankind , and of the offence done to god by sin , which raised in him the vastest agonies possible ; all which concurring to make his sufferings most exquisite , must have overset a human force , if it had not been supported from a higher principle : and as it pleased god to accept this of him , as a sacrifice for the sins of the world , and to crown him in reward of it , not only with honour and glory , but by giving him all power both in heaven and on earth ; so he conferred on him , an authority of giving eternal life to all that should believe on his name ; and receive his holy gospel , and live according to it : and therefore since the making mankind eternally happy , was a design of so high a narure , it was suitable to so glorious a project , that the person in and by whom all this should be wrought , should be raised up to the highest pitch of glory possible . thus though it is always a bold question to ask , why were things so ordered by god ? since if they are declared to us by him , we ought to conclude , without any further enquiry , that they were ordered according to the best and most infallible reason , even tho' we should not be able to find it out ; yet here even we , can discern a great sutableness in all these high mysteries , to the great design of god in this holy religion . iv. but yet in the next place must be acknowledged that we ought never to be too easie in believing things , that seem hard impositions on us ; and that therefore there ought to be a degree of certainty and clearness in the revelation of any such thing , that is proportioned to the weight and the extraordinary nature of that which is proposed to us ; for as in the common affairs of life , an ordinary degree of evidence serves to persuade us of an ordinary thing ; but if somewhat that is very much out of the way is told us , we then are in the right , not to believe it , till we find it is well attested to us ; and that by a very good authority . so in divine matters such precepts of morality as agree with our natures and the ends of human society , may be easily received , as needing no extraordinary authority to recommend them to us ; but if doctrines that are more above us are laid upon us , we ought to examine well the authority upon which they rest , that so we may not become too easie a prey , to every one that thinks to subdue us with the terrour of the word mystery . since then that the acknowledging that one who as to all his outward appearance was a man , like unto us , was also the true and the great god , or the son of the living god , carries such an uncouth sound in it , that it naturally affrights and startles us , it is necessary that though the possibility of this has been already considered , yet that before we believe it , we be sure that it is a truth , which is clearly revealed to us by god ; for a thing of this kind must appear in the scripture , if it is at all in it , with such an evidence as must put it past all doubt ; since it is not suitable to the design and ends of divine revelation , that a thing which is both so dark and yet so important , as this must be acknowledged to be , should be revealed , so as to be proved only by hints , inferences , or some passages that are capable of a double meaning . now in pursuance of this , we must observe two things ; 1st . that there is nothing which is more expresly forbid in the scriptures , than the giving divine adoration to a creature . idolatry is no other , than the worshipping those that by nature are not gods ; and even the old testament for all the compliances that were in it , to sensible nature , yet allowed of nothing that looked like idolatry ; and this is much less to be imagined in the new , that carries religion in all respects , to a higher degree of sublimity and purity than the old did : this then is to be laid down for a principle , that nothing is proposed to us in the new testament , as the proper object of our adoration , but god himself . in the next place , it is no less plain , that all the acts of worship , such as adoration , prayer , praises , faith , and confidence , and in a word , every act by which we testifie our dependance on god , and our homage to him , is declared to be due to iesus christ in the same words , in which it is said to be due to god himself ; therefore when these two things are laid together , the result of both is , that either the new testament is the most incoherent and the worst composed legend that ever was writ , in which one main and essential point is contradict by another , or that iesus christ must be truly god. it is certain , that he is either such , or we christians that pay him divine adoration , in so ample a manner as we do , are the greatest idolaters that ever were . and as this is contained in the new testament , in express words , so the whole doctrine that is revealed in it , was attested in so eminent and so indisputable a manner , as to leave no pretence to infidelity ; so many prophecies concurring in the person of our saviour to prove him the true messias , promised to the jews many ages before ; and so many miracles appearing , first at his birth , and afterwards in the whole course of his life , but above all at his death , his resurrection , and ascension . the apostles published the history of all this soon after it was done , and mentioned many circumstances that were involved in it ; which , if false , might have been authentically overthrown by the jews , in whose hands the authority was lodged at that time , and who had both interest and malice enough to set them on to make the discovery . one part of the story was such , that it is not possible to believe that it could have past upon the world if it was not true . the apostles pretended , that after the holy ghost was poured out on them , they not only wrought miracles , but had likewise the gift of tongues . now this was such a thing , that if it was false , it was in the power of every one of any strange nation , to make the discovery , and by so doing , to overthrow the credit of the whole gospel . we see , by what both suetonius , tacitus , and pliny have left to us , that the christian religion was soon spread up and down the world ; and that both in rome , and in remote provinces , their numbers and their maxims , made them to be very considerable . we also see , in the last of these , that he had strictly enquired into their doctrine , their worship , and their course of life , and had put some of the women , that were the deaconesses in the churches , to the torture , to draw from them a discovery of such things whereof they were accused : yet he found nothing but a great probity of manners , and a great steadiness in adhering to the doctrine which was believed among them : upon whose enquiry the emperor ordered a stop to be put to the persecution , that was then begun : so that this carries in it , not only an apology for the morals of christians , but a proof of the doctrines of christianity ; for it being so easy a thing to have confuted them , if these things which the evangelists relate had been false , since they cannot be said to be cunningly devised fables ; we cannot conceive how it is possible that their enemies , who were then the governing party , did not discover , and so confound them . upon the whole matter then it appears , that god did by a profusion of miracles , if i may so speak , give this divine doctrine its first authority and credit in the world ; and he continued to water what had been so planted , with a succession of miraculous powers , which continued for some ages in the church , and to which the fathers made most solemn appeals , in the apologies that they writ for their religion ; of which some were address'd to the emperors , and others to the senate of rome . if these things which they assert , and to which they appeal , had not been known to be certainly true , it is not easy to determine whether their madness in venturing upon such an appeal , or the heathens in not joining issue with them in it , was the greatest . and thus without controversy , great is the mystery of godliness , or of the christian religion : god was manifest in the flesh , that is , in the humane nature of our saviour , in which he dwelt . he was also justified in the spirit , that is , proved to be so , in the wonderful evidences of the divine power , that were solemnly given in the confirmation of it : he was seen of angels , the heavenly host appearing visibly at his nativity , and celebrating the glory of it ; preached unto the gentiles by a company of poor illiterate fishermen , who went about with those mighty credentials of the gift of tongues , and the power of miracles ; attesting the truth of what they themselves had seen , and known ; upon whose evidence he was believed on in the world , by the gentiles , tho rejected by the iews ; who being possessed with false prejudices concerning the messias , could not then receive an humble and a suffering one , while they look'd for nothing but triumphs and conquests under him . but this loss was more than ballanced by the great multitudes of the gentiles ; who tho they laboured under the prejudices of their education , and the more biassed liberties which the heathen religion allowed them , yet did in great numbers renounce their idolatry , and embrace a religion that both obliged them to a great strictness of life , and also exposed them to many present sufferings , besides what the first planters of it warned them of , concerning a persecution that was quickly to overtake them . we see by tacitus , what multitudes of them were in rome in nero's time ; and by pliny , that almost all those of bithnia and pontus , both in town and country , were become christian. and in conclusion , god thus made manifest , was received up into glory ; which either relates to his ascension , when in the sight of his apostles , while he was talking to them , and blessing them , he was caught up , so that they beheld him ascending up into heaven ; or this received in glory , for so it may be rendred , may relate to the glorious instances of god's power , that appeared in the first planting of christianity : for , as a cloud of glory had appeared hovering over the tabernacle , and leading the israelites through the wilderness , which gave the chief authority to the law of moses ; so in this first setling of our most holy faith , god seemed , as it were , to have made bare his arm , and shewed the greatness of his glory , as well as of his power . thus he appeared to st. stephen at his death , and to st. paul at his conversion ; but above all , the wonderful effusion of the holy ghost at pentecost , was such a declaration of his glory , as far exceeded all that ever had appeared before or since . v. in the last place it remains to be considered , how this is said to be a mystery of godliness : the word signifies true piety , or the right way of worshipping god. so the meaning of this is , that the wonders and glories which appeared in the person of christ , and at the planting of his gospel , are not only lofty declarations of the greatness and power of god , and of the truth of our religion , upon which we are to value our selves , and our doctrines , but that they were all intended by god to give our religion the more authority , that so it might have the more efficacy upon us , for the reforming and governing of our lives : for all the use that we make of them besides , is only to boast , that we believe a religion to which god has given a great deal of credit , but to which we will give none at all . by godliness is comprehended the having right notions of god , the worshipping him suitably to these , and the framing our whole lives according to them : and therefore we treat this mystery but as a sublime cant , and not as a mystery of godliness , unless it has these effects on us . when our minds are by this so possessed with a noble idea of god and of his attributes , that we adore his power , we admire his wisdom , and rejoice in his goodness and love : when we compare the prophecies that went before , with their accomplishment in our saviour's person ; when we observe all the circumstances of providence that accompanied this transaction ; when from thence we form right notions of the hatefulness of sin , and of the purity of the divine nature , of his justice as well as of his mercy ; and when from all these laid together , our hearts become full of high and great thoughts of god , which dwell upon us , and possess us , then we make it become to us a mystery of godliness indeed . besides , when this leads us to a right notion of the worship of god , as not consisting in outward pomp nor glory , much less in proposing to our selves visible objects of worship , or in dressing it up , as if it were rather a sort of opera , than the worship of that god , who has in his gospel revealed himself to be spirit and truth , and that he will be worshipped accordingly . when our worship consists in humble acts of confessing our own sins , that needed such an expiation , in earnest prayers for a share in all the benefits of it , and in solemn acknowledgments of the wonders of it , and of all those blessings which we are always to own as the effects of it , flowing to us through it : when these , i say , are our thoughts and exercises in the worship of god , then does this become to us a mystery of godliness . and finally , when our minds are so seasoned with it , that our whole lives carry the impressions of it upon them ; when we are afraid of departing from the rules of it ; when we are strict in observing them ; when it appears that we highly value the blessing of the knowledg of the gospel , that we are sensible of the danger of losing it , and that we rejoice in it above all other things ; and when the honour of our religion does so affect us , that we are wounded at heart , when it falls under any reproach or suffering , but rejoice in all the glory of it ; when we feel a sensible concern in the whole body that professes it , and in all the accidents that relate to it ; then do we shew that we make this to be , that which truly it is , a mystery of godliness . but if we are only proud of our religion , and factious about it ; if it neither works on our hearts , nor reforms our lives ; if we grow neither the better nor the wiser for it ; if on the contrary , it is only a pretence to cover ill designs , and a handle to manage factions by ; if it makes us think that we may compound by our heat in point of opinion , for our coldness in true piety , and that orthodoxy will atone for immorality ; if we lay in fewel for our ill nature from it ; if we make use of it to serve every end , but that for which it was appointed of god ; and in a word , if , instead of growing better by it , are really the worse for it : then here is the most fatal reversing of the greatest design that ever was . in order to the examining the truth of all this , it is necessary for us to consider , what impressions have the various scenes that we have seen , with relation to religion , made upon us ? how did our apprehensions of losing it affect us ? was it only with the sense of a party , and the anger of thinking that we were depressed , and like to be ill used ? or did that scene make us reflect on our sins , that had rendred us unworthy of so great a blessing , and that had brought us so near the danger of losing it : did we in all that time of fear and melancholly , turn to god , repent us of our sins , and enter into solemn vows of living more suitably to our religion , if god should be so gracious as to restore it to us ? such a preparation as this , had made our deliverance prove a double blessing to us . and how have we received it ? has it been only with the joy of seeing our enemies fall before us , and of finding our selves now come in for a turn in the advantages of fortune ? does this serve only to lift us up upon our success and prosperity , and to make us remember all quarrels , and so gratify passion and revenge ? is our ease and abundance abused into luxury and vanity ? are our hearts lifted up , or our passions sharpened ? and instead of parting with our old sins , are we adding new ones to them ? if our hearts , when sincerely asked by us , concerning all these things , tell us that they are but too true , then we need not wonder if we see a stand made in the course of those blessings , which god has been holding forth to us , but that we have by our sins not only stopt , but turned many of them to curses . we ought in that case to ask our selves , what have we done ? and wherein have we troubled israel ? it is but a melancholly comfort when a man is full of so sad a speculation , to think that man is so made , that it ever was , and ever will be so . when the christian religion in constantine's time , became triumphant over all the powers of darkness , that had conspired its destruction , and that after many cruel persecutions , had set on foot the last , that was both the bloodiest and the longest of all that had gone before it ; in which , for ten years together , the sword had been made drunk with the blood of the saints ; and it was so firmly believed that the name of a christian was extinguished , that medals were struck to perpetuate the memory of that performance ; when , i say , the christian religion got out of all this , and had not only edicts of liberty in its favour , but was also cherished by the kindness and protection of emperours ; one should have expected that a society which had been so long in the fire , as they had been , must have come out of it freed from all its dross : and that the christians from the remembrance of the former persecution , and the reflections on their present ease , should have been so full of a sense , both of what they had escaped then , and what they enjoyed , that there should have been nothing to be found among them , but churches full of devotion , clergy-men animated with zeal , and christians that were an honour to their profession . but how far was it from all this ! generally ignorant and vicious men were promoted to their best and greatest sees , who fell into most extravagant disputes concerning the dignity and privileges of their episcopal sees . in africk a breach arose upon no greater matter than this , whether cecilian , the bishop of carthage , was ordained by men that had , during the persecution , denied the faith , or not ? this was of no great consequence , if it had been true ; and being a matter of fact that turned upon proof , the case was judged against donatus , and his party , who complained of cecilian : but this did not stop the breach , which made such a fatal progress , that almost in every town in africk there was a church formed with a bishop over it , that adhered to donatus : and the division continued above 120 years , and at last grew to be a matter of so violent an animosity , that much blood was shed upon it : and they continued to be destroying one another , till the vandals broke in upon them , and conquered , and consumed them both . at the same time that this dispute began at carthage , another was raised at alexandria , occasioned at first by some indiscreet words that passed between alexander the bishop , and arius ; whose spirits being sharpned against one another upon secret reasons , they aggravated some mistaken expressions too far : as appears from the wisest writing of that age , the letter which constantine writ to them upon this occasion : but this was carried afterwards so far , that we may safely say the spirit and power of the christian religion was lost in the dispute . the scandals given by the ill lives , not only of lay christians , but even of the chief bishops of the church , and those no less scandalous disputes among them , brought much shame and infamy on that holy profession : which will ever suffer , when those who pretend to it , are a reproach to it . in conclusion , after a whole age of god's long-suffering patience and forbearance , there fell on the church , both in the east , and in the west , a succession of the terriblest plagues for two ages together , that is in history : one conquerour coming after another , and wasting what the former had left . and these brought on such famines and pestilences upon the whole roman empire , that all the history of those ages is a continued scene of horror and misery . these are speaking things , and are set before us for our terror , as well as for our instruction ; to let us see what we ought to look for , it not warned by such terrible examples , we should still continue to despise all the methods of god's providence , as well the severity of his judgments , as his long-suffering patience , and forbearance towards us . if any had observed the constancy and zeal that appeared in this nation , for some years last past , when we saw our religion in danger , and that scarce any could be prevailed on , so much as to give way , much less , to concur or comply with the designs that were then on foot ; from thence , one that saw the matter at a distance , would have been tempted to think that we were full of zeal for our religion , since neither hope nor fear could work on any considerable number among us ; and from thence one might have been led to conclude , that if god should have delivered us from all that danger , with a high and uplifted hand , and should have prevented even our hopes and wishes , in giving us such a quick and cheap deliverance , as is without example in history ; that at least all people should have received this with all possible acknowledgments ; and that upon it , we should all have considered , what were the causes of our late dangers , that threw us into them ; and that we should have agreed in this , that our divisions had been from the beginning to the end , the chief foundation of all our enemies hopes ; that they had been set on , and managed by them in order to our ruin ; that nothing made our publick councils so slow and feeble , and that nothing did so violently distract the minds of the people , as to see us so broken among our selves , especially in matters of religion ; and that we should have studied to have healed all differences among our selves ; and in conclusion , that the effects of so great a revolution , should have been a visible reformation among all ranks and conditions of people . but what shall be said , if all this change of affairs , has produced no other change among us , but for the worse ? if we are as bad as ever in all respects ; if vices of all sorts have still their free course among us ; and if those animorsities which were generally looked on for some years , as forgot and extinct ▪ are now revived with a new and greater heat ; and if different sentiments , whether with relation to sacred , or to temporal concerns , should now disturb us in so unseasonable a time , when the eyes of all the world are upon us , and that all europe expects from hence , a deliverance from a tyranny , which has now lain so long and so heavy on it . all these things are sad indications of our great indifferency in the matters of religion ; that after all the talk that has been about them , we either believe them not , or at least , consider them not to be as they are indeed , the most valuable of all things . but let the world think of these things as they please , in them we see the power , and the wisdom of god : and as morality without religion , will be found to be but a feeble principle ; and such as will only constrain a man to follow his interests , or at least his pride , which in that language , is called honour ; so religion in general , unless it is grounded on a divine revelation , will not have strength enough to hold , or govern a man , it not having foundation enough for much weight to be laid on it : and therefore here is a short resolution of a good man's principles . he is persuaded that god sent down this divine person into the world , to declare to us the will of god ; and upon our following it , to assure us of the pardon of sin , of the favour of god , and of eternal happiness . next upon his believing these things , he sets himself to the serious performance of all that is commanded him by god ; in doing which , he finds great inward joy in himself , since a mind reduced to a calm and quiet state , will feel as real a complacency in all that is good , as the eye feels in light , or the ear in musick ; from this arises in a good man , a secret confidence in god ; for as he feels that he is conforming himself to his will , so he grows assured of the favour and love of that infinitely good god ; out of that there springs in a good mind , a perpetual source of joy ; he is walking with god , and ever delighting himself in him ; and this joy goes far beyond life , and all that is present ; it shoots out into another world , and gives him both a prospect of eternity , and also some earnests of it . this is the state of a truly godly man , he feels himself happy , but rejoyces because he believes he shall be infinitely more so , when he shall be in a state where he shall perfectly comprehend that , which is now to him the great mystery of godliness ; to which state , god of his infinite mercy bring us , through jesus christ our lord. amen . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswell . jacobi usserii armacbani archiep. historia dogmatica controversiae inter orthodoxos & pontificios de scripturis & sacris vernaculis , nunc primum edita . accesserunt ejusdem dissertationes de pseudo-dionysii scriptis , & de epistola ad laodicenos antehac ineditae . descripsit , digessit , & notis atque auctuario locuplet avit henricus wharton , a. m. reverendissimo archiep. cantuariensi à sacris domesticis . a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths . with an answer to the history of passive obedience . a discourse concerning the ecclesiastical commission opened in the ierusalem ▪ chamber , octob. 10. 1689. dr. wakes sermons and discourses on several occasions , 8vo . a sermon preached at the assizes at hertford , july 8. 1689. by iohn strype , m. a. vicar of low-leyton in essex . the bishop of salisbury's sermon before the house of peers , novemb ▪ 5. 1689. — his sermon of peace and unity , 4to . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30432-e230 ephes. 5. 32. exod. 40. 34 , 38. psal. 80. 1 , 2. 2 kin. 29. 15. psal. 99. 1. hag 2. 9. matth. 〈◊〉 . 18. 〈◊〉 . 2.9 . & 5. 9. galat 4. 8. revel . 5. 8. heb. 1. 6. heb. 13. 15. john 14. 1. 2 cor. 12. 8 , 9. luke 24. 51. acts 5. 9. the declaration of his highnes william henry, by the grace of god prince of orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him, to appear in armes in the kingdome of england, for preserving of the protestant religion, and for restoring the lawes and liberties of england, scotland and ireland here unto are added the letters of the aforesaid his illustrious highnesse to the sea and land forces of england, together with the prayer for the present expedition. declaration of his highness william henry, by the grace of god, prince of orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the protestant religion and for restoring the laws and liberties of england, scotland and ireland. william iii, king of england, 1650-1702. 1688 approx. 55 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 10 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a66129 wing w2328c estc r221019 99832402 99832402 36875 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a66129) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 36875) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2142:13) the declaration of his highnes william henry, by the grace of god prince of orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him, to appear in armes in the kingdome of england, for preserving of the protestant religion, and for restoring the lawes and liberties of england, scotland and ireland here unto are added the letters of the aforesaid his illustrious highnesse to the sea and land forces of england, together with the prayer for the present expedition. declaration of his highness william henry, by the grace of god, prince of orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the protestant religion and for restoring the laws and liberties of england, scotland and ireland. william iii, king of england, 1650-1702. william iii, king of england, 1650-1702. declaration of his highness william henry by the grace of god prince of orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the protestant religion, and for restoring the laws and liberties of the ancient kingdom of scotland. aut burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. fagel, gaspar, 1634-1688, attributed name. [2], 17, [1] p. by arnold leers, bookseller at the signe of plutarch. by speciall order of his highnesse, printed at the hague : 1688. according to j.e.s. clarke and h.c. foxcroft, "life of gilbert burnet" (p. 243), the declaration was actually written for william of orange by gaspar fagel and was translated into english by gilbert burnet. at foot of title page: with priviledge of the great and mighty the states of holland and westfriesland. includes "the declaration of his highness william henry by the grace of god prince of orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the protestant religion, and for restoring the laws and liberties of the ancient kingdom of scotland", which has caption title on p. 11; register and pagination are continuous. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -revolution of 1688 -sources -early works to 1800. 2002-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-04 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-05 tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread 2002-05 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-06 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the declaration of his highnes william henry , by the grace of god prince of orange , &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in armes in the kingdome of england , for preserving of the protestant religion , and for restoring the lawes and liberties of england , scotland and ireland . here unto are added the letters of the aforesaid his illustrious highnesse to the sea and land forces of england , together with the prayer for the present expedition . ie maintiendray prot. religion and liberty printed at the hague by arnold leers , bookseller at the signe of plutarch . by speciall order of his highnesse , 1688. with priviledge of the great and mighty the states of holland and westfriesland . the declaration of his highnes william henry , by the grace of god prince of orange , &c. of the reasons inducing him , to appear in armes in the kingdome of england . it is both certain and evident to all men , that the publike peace and happines of any state or kingdome , can not be preserved , where the lawes , liberties and customes established by the lawfull authority in it , are openly transgressed and annulled : more especially where the alteration of religion is endeavoured , and that a religion which is contrary to law is endeavoured to be introduced : upon which those who are most immediatly concerned in it , are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established lawes , liberties and customes : and above all the religion and worship of god , that is established among them ; and to take such an effectuall care , that the inhabitants of the said state or kingdome , may neither be deprived of their religion nor of their civill rights . vvhich is so much the more necessary because the greatnes and security both of kings royall families , and of all such as are in authority , as well as the happines of their subjects and people , depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their lawes , liberties and customes . upon these grounds it is , that wee cannot any longer forbear to declare that to our great regret wee see that those councellours , who have now the chiefe credit with the king , have overturned the religion , lawes and liberties of those realmes , and subjected them in all things relating to their consciences , liberties and properties , to arbitrary government : and that not only by secret and indirect waies , but in an open and undisguised manner . those evill councellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts , did invent and set on foot the kings dispencing power , by vertue of which , they pretend that according to law , he can suspend and dispence with the execution of the lawes , that have been enacted by the authority , of the king and parliament , for the security and happines of the subject , and so have rendered those lawes of no effect : tho there is nothing more certain , then that as no lawes can be made , but by the joint concurrence of king and parliament , so likewise lawes so enacted , which secure-the publike peace , and safety of the nation , and the lives and liberties of every subject in it , can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority . for tho the king may pardon the punishment , that a transgressour has incurred , and to which he is condemned , as in the cases of treason or felony ; yet it can not be with any colour of reason inferred from thence , that the king can entirely suspend the execution of those lawes , relating to treason or felony : unlesse it is pretended , that he is clothed with a despotick and arbitrary power , and that the lives , liberties , honours and estates of the subjects , depend wholly on his good will and pleasure , and are entirely subject to him ; which must infallibly follow on the kings having a power to suspend the execution of the lawes , and to dispence with them . those evill councellours , in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable maxime , have so conducted the matter , that they have obtained a sentence from the judges , declaring that this dispencing power is a right belonging to the crown ; as if it were in the power of the twelve judges to offer up the lawes , rights and liberties , of the whole nation , to the king , to be disposed of by him arbitrarily and at his pleasure and expressly contrary to lawes enacted for the security of the subjects . in order to the obtaining this judgment , those evill councellours did before hand examine secretly the opinion of the judges , and procured such of them , as could not in conscience concurre in so pernicious a sentence , to be turned out , and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the changes which were made , in the courts of judicature , they at last obtained that judgment . and they have raised some to those trusts , who make open profession of the popish religion , tho those are by law rendred incapable all such employments . it is also manifest and notorious , that as his majestie was , upon his coming to the crown , received and acknowledged by all the subjects of england , scotland and ireland , as their king without the least opposition , tho he made then open profession of the popish religion so he did then promise , and solemnly swear at his coronation , that he would maintain his subjects , in the free enjoyment of their lawes , rights and liberties , and in particular , that he would maintain the church of england as it was established by law : it is likewise certain , that there have been at diverse and sundry times , severall lawes enacted for the preservation of those rights and liberties , and of the protestant religion : and among other securities , it has been enacted that all persons whatsoever , that are advanced to any ecclesiasticall dignity , or to bear office in either university , as likewise all other that should be put in any imployment , civill or military , should declare that they were not papists , but were of the protestant religion , and that by their taking of the oaths of allegange and supreamacy and the test , yet these evill councellours have in effect annulled and abolished all those lawes , both with relation to ecclesiasticall and civill employments . in order to ecclesiasticall dignities and offices they have not only without any colour of law , but against most expresse lawes to the contrary , set up a commission of a certain number of persons , to whom they have committed the cognisance and direction of all ecclesiasticall matters : in the which commission there has been and still is , one of his majesties ministers of state , who makes now publike profession of the popish religion , and who at the time of his first professing it , declared that for a great while before , he had beleeved that to be the only true religion . by all this , the deplorable state to which the protestant religion is reduced is apparent , since the affairs of the church of england , are now put into the hands of persons , who have accepted of a commission that is manifesty illegal ; and who have executed it contrary to all law ; and that now one of their chiefe members has abjured the protestant religion and declared himselfe a papist ; by which he is become incapable of holding any publike imployment : the said commissioners have hitherto given such proof , of their submission to the directions given them , that there is no reason to doubt , but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most aggreable to them . and those evill councellours take care ta raise none to any ecclesiasticall dignities , but persons that have no zeal for the protestant religion , and that now hide their un concernednes for it , under the specious pretence of moderation . the said commissioners have suspended the bishop of london , only because he refused to obey an order , that was sent him to suspend a worthy divine , without so much as citing him before him , to make his own defence , or observing the common formes of processe . they have turned out a president , chosen by the fellows of magdalen colledge , and afterwards all the fellows of that colledge , without so much as citing them before any court that could take legall cognissance of that affair ; or obtaining any sentence against them by a competent judge . and the only reason that was given for turning them out , was their refusing to choose for their president ; a person that was recommended to them , by the instigation of those evill councellours ; tho the right of a free election belonged undoubtedly to them . but they were turned out of their freeholds , contrary to law , and to that expresse provision in the magna chartae ; that no man shall loose life or goods , but by the law of the land . and now these evill councellours have put the said colledge wholly into the hands of popists , tho as is abovesaid , they are incapable of all such employments , both by the law of the land , and the statutes of the colledge . these commissioners have also cited before them all the chancellours and archdeacons of england , requiring them to certifie to them the names of all such clergymen , as have read the kings declaration for liberty of conscience , and of such as have not read it : without considering that the reading of it was not enjoined the clergy , by the bishops , who are their ordinaries . the illegality and incompetency of the said court of the ecclesiasticall commissioners was so notoriously known , and it did so evidently appear that it tended to the subversion of the protestant religion , that the most reverend father in god , william archbishop of canterbury primate and metropolitan of all england , seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppresse such persons as were of eminent vertue , learning and piety , refused to sit or to concurre in it . and tho there are many expresse lawes against all churches or chappell 's , for the exercise of the popish religion , and also against all monasteries and convents , and more particularly against the order of the iesuites , yet those evill councellours have procured orders for the building of severall churches and chappels , for the exercise of that religion : they have also procured diverse monasteries to be erected , and in contempt of the law they have not only set up severall colledges of iesuites , in diverse places , for the corrupting of the youth , but have raised up one of the order , to be a privy councellour and a minister of state. by all which they doe evidently shew , that they are restrained by no rules or law whatsoever ; but that they have subjected the honours and estates of the subjects , and the establisht religion to a despotick power and to arbitrary government : in all which they are served and seconded by those ecclesiastical commissioners . they have also followed the same methods with relation to civill affairs : for they have procured orders to examine all lords lieutenants , deputy lieutenants , sheriffs , justices of peace and all others that were in any publike imployment , if they would concurre with the king in the repeal of the test and penal lawes : and all such , whose consciences did not suffer them to comply with their designes , were turned out ; and others were put in their places , who they beleeved would be more compliant to them in their designes of defeating the intent and execution of those lawes , which had been made with so much care and caution for the security of the protestant religion . and in many of these places they have put professed papists , tho the law has disabled them , and warranted the subjects not to have any regard to their orders . they have also invaded the priviledges , and seised on the charters of most of those towns that have a right to be represented by their burgesses in parliament : and have procured surrenders to be made of them , by which the magistrates in them have delivered up all their rights and priveledges , to be disposed of at the pleasure of those evill councellours : who have thereupon , placed new magistrates in those towns , such as they can most entirely confide in : and in many of them they have put popish magistrates , notwithstanding the incapacities under which the law has put them . and whereas no nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartiall justice , upon which mens lives , liberties , honours and estates , doe depend ; those evill councellours have subjected these to an arbitrary and despotick power : in the most important affairs they have studied to discover before hand , the opinions of the judges ; and have turned out such , as they found would not conform themselves to their intentions : and have put others in their places , of whom they were more assured , without having any regard to their abilities . and they have not stuck to raise even professed papists to the courts of judicature , notwithstanding their incapacity by law , and that no regard is due to any sentences flowing from them . they have carried this so far , as to deprive such judges , who in the common administration of justice , shewed that they were governed by their consciences , and not by the directions which the others gave them . by which it is apparent that they designe to render themselves the absolute masters of the lives , honours and estates of the subjects , of what rank or dignity soever they may be : and that without having any regard either to the equity of the cause , or to the consciences of the judges , whom they will have to submit in all things to their own will and pleasure : hoping by such waies to intimidate those who are yet in imployment , as also such others , as they shall think fit , to put in the rooms of those whom they have turned out ; and to make them see , what they must look for , if they should at any time act in the least contrary to their good liking , and that no failings of that kind are pardoned in any persons whatsoever . a great deale of blood has been shed in many places of the kingdome , by judges governed by those evill councellours , against all the rules and forms of law ; without so much as suffering the persons that were accused to plead in their own defence . they have also by putting the administration of justice in the hands of papists , brought all the matters of civill justice into great uncertainties : with how much exactnes and justice soever that these sentences may have been given . for since the lawes of the land doe not only exclude papists from all places of judicature , but have put them under an incapacity , none are bound to acknowledge or to obey their judgements , and all sentences given by them , are null and void of themselves : so that all persons who have been cast in trialls before such popish judges , may justly look on their pretended sentences , as having no more force then the sentences of any private and unauthorised person whatsoever . so deplorable is the case of the subjects , who are obliged to answer to such judges , that must in all things stick to the rules which are set them by those evill councellours , who as they raised them up to those imployments , so can turn them out of them at pleasure ; and who can never be esteemed lawfull judges ; so that all their sentences are in the construction of the law , of no force and efficacy . they have likewise disposed of all military imployments , in the same manner : for tho the lawes have not only excluded papists from all such imployments , but have in particular provided that they should be disarmed ; yet they in contempt of these lawes , have not only armed the papists , but have likewise raised them up to the greatest military trusts both by sea and land , and that strangers as well as natives , and irish as well as english , that so by those means having rendred themselves masters both of the affairs of the church , of the government of the nation , and of the course of justice , and subjected them all to a despotick and arbitrary power , they might be in a capacity to maintain and execute their wicked designs by the assistance of the army , and thereby to enslave the nation . the dismall effects of this subversion of the established religion , lawes and liberties in england appear more evidently to us , by what wee see done in ireland , where the whole government is put in the hands of papists , and where all the protestant inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the arbitrary power which is set up there : which has made great numbers of them , leave that kingdome and abandon their estates in it , remembring well that cruell and bloody massacre which fell out in that island in the year 1641. those evill councellours have also prevailed with the king to declare in scotland that he is clothed with absolute power , and that all the subjects are bound to obey him without reserve : upon which he has assumed an arbitrary power , both over the religion and lawes of that kingdome , from all which it is apparent , what is to be looked for in england , as soon as matters are duely prepared for it . those great and insufferable oppressions , and the open contempt of all law , together with the apprehensions of the sad consequences that must certainly follow upon it , have put the subjects under great and just fears ; and have made them look after such lawfull remedies as are allowed of in all nations : yet all has been without effect . and those evill councellours have endeavoured to make all men apprehend the losse of their lives , liberties , honours and estates , if they should goe about to preserve themselves from this oppression , by petitions , representations , or other means authorised by law. thus did they proceed with the archbishop of canterbury , and the other bishops , who having offered a most humble petition to the king , in termes full of respect , and not exceding the number limited by law , in which they set forth in short the reasons for which they could not obey that order , which by the instigation of those evill councellours , was sent them , requiring them to appoint their clergy to read in their churches the declaration for liberty of conscience ; were sent to prison and afterwards brought to a triall , as if they had been guilty of some enormous crime . they were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursute , but to appear before professed papists , who had not taken the test and by consequence were men whose interest led them to condemne them ; and the judges that gave their opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out . and yet it can not be pretended that any kings ; how great soever their power has been , and how arbitrary and despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it , have ever reckoned it a crime for their subjects to come in all submission and respect , and in a due number , not exceeding the limits of the law , and represent to them the reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their orders . those evill councellours have also treated a peer of the realme , as a criminall , only because he said that the subjects were not bound to obey the orders of a popish justice of peace : tho it is evident , that they being by law rendred incapable of all such trusts , no regard is due to their orders . this being the security which the people have by the law for their lives , liberties , honours and estates , that they are not to be subjected to the arbitrary procedings of papists , that are contrary to law put into any employments civill or military . both wee our selves , and our dearest and most entirely beloved consort , the princesse , have endeavoured to signify in termes full of respect to the king the just and deep regret which all these proceedings have given us ; and in compliance with his majesties desires signified to us , wee declared both by word of mouth , to his envoy , and in writing what our thoughts were touching the repealing of the test and penall lawes ; which wee did in such a manner , that wee hoped wee had proposed an expedient , by which the peace of those kingdomes , and a happy aggreement among the subjects of all persuasions , might have been setled : but those evill councellours have put such ill constructions on these our good intentions , that they have endeavoured to alienate the king more and more from us : as if wee had designed to disturb the quiet and happines of the kingdome . the last and great remedy for all those evills , is the calling of a parliament , for securing the nation against the evill practises of those wicked councellours : but this could not be yet compassed , nor can it be easily brought about . for those men apprehending that a lawfull parliament being once assembled , they would be brought to an account for all their open violations of law , and for their plots and conspiracies against the protestant religion , and the lives and liberties of the subjects ; they have endeavoured under the specious pretence of liberty of conscience , first to sow divisions among protestants , between those of the church of england and the dissenters : the designe being laid to engage protestants , that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from popish oppression ; into mutuall quarrellings ; that so by these , some advantages might be given to them to bring about their designes ; and that both in the election of the members of parliament , and afterwards in the parliament it selfe . for they see well that if all protestants , could enter into a mutuall good understanding one with another , and concurre together , in the preserving of their religion , it would not be possible for them to compasse their wicked ends . they have also required all persons in the severall counties of england , that either were in any imployment , or were in any considerable esteem , to declare before hand that they would concurre in the repeal of the test and penall lawes ; and that they would give their voices in the elections to parliament , only for such as would concurre in it . such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all imployments ; and others who entred into those engagements were put in their places , many of them being papists : and contrary to the charters and priviledges of those burroughs , that have a right to send burgesses to parliament , they have ordered such regulations to be made , as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the members , that are to be chosen by those corporations : and by this means they hope to avoid that punishment which they have deserved ; tho it is apparent that all acts made by popish magistrates are null and void of themselves . so that no parliament can be lawfull , for which the elections and returns are made by popish sheriffs and majors of towns ; and therefore as long as the authority and magistracy is in such hands , it is not possible to have any lawfull parliament . and tho according to the constitution of the english government and immemoriall custome , all elections of parliament men ought to be made with an entire liberty , without any sort of force , or the requiring the electors to choose such persons as shall be named to them , and the persons thus freely elected ought to give their opinions freely upon all matters , that are brought before them , having the good of the nation ever before their eyes , and following in all things the dictates of their conscience , yet now the people of england can not expect a remedy from a free parliament , legally called and chosen , but they may perhaps see one called , in which all elections will be carried by fraud or force , and which will be composed of such persons , of whom those evill councellours hold themselves well assured , in which all things will be carried on according to their direction and interest , without any regard to the good or happines of the nation . which may appear evidently from this , that the same persons tried the members of the last parliament , to gain them to consent to the repeal of the test and penal lawes , and procured that parliament to be dissolved , when they found that they could not , neither by promises nor threatnings , prevail with the members to comply with their wicked designs . but to crown all , there are great and violent presumptions , inducing us to beleeve , that those evill councellours , in order to the carrying on of their ill designes , and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them , for the encouraging of their complices , and for the discouraging of all good subjects , have published that the queen hath brought forth a son : tho there have appeared both during the queens pretended bignes , and in the manner in which the birth was managed , so many just and visible grounds of suspicion , that not only wee our selves , but all the good subjects of those kingdomes doe vehemently suspect , that the pretended prince of wales was not born by the queen . and it is notoriously known to all the world , that many both doubted of the queens bignes , and of the birth of the child , and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfy them , or to put an end to their doubts . and since our dearest and most entirely beloved consort , the princesse , and likewise wee our selves , have so great an interest in this matter , and such a right , as all the world knows , to the succession to the crown , since also the english did in the year 1672. when the states generall of the united provinces were invaded in a most injust warre , use their uttermost endeavours to put an end to that warre , and that in opposition to those who were then in the government : and by their so doing , they run the hasard of losing both the favour of the court , and their imployments ; and since the english nation has ever testified a most particular affection and esteem , both to pur dearest consort the princesse , and to our selves , wee cannot excuse our selves from espousing their interests in a matter of such high consequence , and from contributing all that lies in us for the maintaining both of the protestant religion , and of the lawes and liberties of those kingdomes , and for the securing to them the continual enjoyment of all their just rights . to the doing of which wee are most earnestly solicited by a great many lords , both spirituall and temporall , and by many gentlemen and other subjects of all ranks . therefore it is that wee have thought fit , to goe over to england , and to carry over with us a force sufficient by the blessing of god , to defend us from the violence of those evill councellours . and wee being desirous that our intentions in this may be rightly understood , have for this end prepared this declaration , in which as wee have hitherto given a true account of the reasons inducing us to it , so wee now think fit to declare that this our expedition is intended for no other designe , but to have a free and lawfull parliament assembled as soon as is possible : and that in order to this , all the late charters by which the elections of burgesses are limited contrary to the ancient custome , shall be considered as null and of no force : and likewise all magistrates who have been injustly turned out , shall forthwith resume their former imployments , as well as all the borroughs of england shall return again to their ancient prescriptions and charters : and more particularly that the ancient charter of the great and famous city of london , shall again be in force ; and that the writts for the members of parliament shall be addressed to the proper officers , according to law and custome . that also none be suffered to choose or to be chosen members of parliament but such as are qualified by law : and that the members of parliament being thus lawfully chosen they shall meet and sit in full freedome ; that so the two houses may concurre in the preparing of such lawes , as they upon full and free debate , shall judge necessary and convenient , both for the confirming and executing the law concerning the test and such other lawes as are necessary for the security and maintenance of the protestant religion ; as likewise for making such lawes as may establish a good aggréement between the church of england and all protestant dissenters , as also for the covering and securing of all such , who will live peaceably under the government as becomes good subjects , from all persecution upon the account of their religion , even papists themselves not excepted ; and for the doing of all other things , which the two houses of parliament shall find necessary for the peace , honour and safety of the nation , so that there may be no more danger of the nations falling at any time hereafter , under arbitrary government . to this parliament wee will also referre the enquiry into the birth of the pretended prince of wales , and of all things relating to it and to the right of succession . and wee for our part will concurre in every thing , that may procure the peace and happines of the nation , which a free and lawfull parliament shall determine ; since wee have nothing before our eyes in this our undertaking , but the preservation of the protestant religion , the covering of all men from persecution for their consciences , and the securing to the whole nation the free enjoyment of all their lawes , rights and liberties , under a just and legall government . this is the designe that wee have proposed to our selves , in appearing upon this occasion in armes : in the conduct of which , wee will keep the forces under our command , under all the strictnes of martiall discipline : and take a speciall care , that the people of the countries thro which wee must march , shall not suffer by their means : and as soon as the state of the nation will admit of it , wee promise that wee will send back all those forreigne forces , that wee have brought along with us . wee doe therefore hope that all people will judge rightly of us , and approve of these our proceedings : but vvee chiefly rely on the blessing of god for the successe of this our undertaking , in which wee place our whole and only confidence . wee doe in the last place invite and require all persons whatsoever , all the peers of the realme , both spirituall and temporall , all lords lieutenants , deputy lieutenants , and all gentleman , citisens and other commons of all ranks , to come and assist us , in order to the executing of this our designe ; against all such as shall endeavour to oppose us : that so vvee may prevent all those miseries , which must needs follow upon the nations being kept under arbitrary government and slavery : and that all the violences and disorders , which have overturned the whole constitution of the english government , may be fully redressed in a free and legall parliament . and wee doe likewise resolve that as soon as the nations are brought to a state of quier , wee will take care that a parliament shall be called in scotland , for the restoring the ancient constitution of that kingdome , and for bringing the matters of religion to such a setlement , that the people may live easy and happy , and for putting an end to all the injust violences that have been in a course of so many years committed there . wee will also study to bring the kingdome of ireland to such a state , that the setlement there may be religiously observed : and that the protestant and brittish interest there may be secured . and vvee will endeavour by all possible means , to procure such an establishment in all the three kingdomes , that they may all live in a happy union and correspondence together ; and that the protestant religion , and the peace , honour and happines of those nations may be established upon lasting foundations . given under our hand and seal , at our court in the hague , the tenth day of october in the year 1688. william henry , prince of orange . by his highnesses speciall command c : huygens. his highnesses additionall declaration . after wee had prepared and printed this our declaration , wee have understood , that the subverters of the religion and lawes of those kingdomes , hearing of our preparations , to assist the people against them , have begun to retract some of the arbitrary and despotick powers , that they had assumed , and to vacate some of their jnjust judgments and decrees . the sense of their guilt , and the distrust of their force , have induced them to offer the city of london some seeming releefe from their great oppressions : hoping thereby to quiet the people , and to divert them from demanding a secure reestablishment of their religion and lawes under the shelter of our armes : they doe also give out that wee intend to conquer and enslave the nation , and therefore it is that wee have thought fit to adde a few words to our declaration . wee are confident , that no persons can have such hard thought of us , as to imagine that wee have any other designe in this undertaking , then to procure a setlement of the religion and of the liberties and properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation , that there may be no danger of the nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter . and as the forces that wee have brought along with us , are utterly disproportioned to that wicked designe of conquering the nation , if wee were capable of intending it , so the great numbers of the principall nobility and gentry , that are men of eminent quality and estates , and persons of known integrity and zeal both for the religion and government of england , many of them being also distinguished by their constant fidelity to the crown , who doe both accompany us in this expedition , and have earnestly solicited us to it , will cover us from all such malicious insinuations : for it is not to be imagined , that either those who have invited us , or those that are already come to assist us , can joyne in a wicked attempt of conquest , to make void their own lawfull titles to their honours , estates and interests : wee are also confident that all men see how litle weight there is to be laid , on all promises and engagments that can be now made : since there has been so litle regard had in time past , to the most solemne pormises . and as that imperfeit redresse that is now offered , is a plain confession of those violations of the government that wee have set forth , so the defectivenes of it is no lesse apparent : for they lay doune nothing which they may not take up at pleasure : and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned , their claimes and pretences to an arbitrary and despotick power ; which has been the root of all their oppression , and of the totall subversion of the government . and it is plain , that there can be no redresse nor remedy offered but in parliament : by a declaration of the rights of the subjects that have been invaded : and not by any pretended acts of grace , to which the extremity of their affairs has driven them . therefore it is that wee have thought fit to declare , that wee will referre all to a free assembly of the nation , in a lawfull parliament . given under our hand and seal , at our court in the hague , the 24. day of october in the year of our lord 1688. william henry , prince of orange . by his highnesses speciall command c : huygens. the declaration of his highnes william henry , by the grace of god prince of orange , &c. of the reasons inducing him , to appear in armes for preserving of the protestant religion , and for restoring the lawes and liberties of the ancient kingdome of scotland . it is both certain and evident to all men , that the publike peace and happines of any state or kingdome , can not be preserved , where the lawes , liberties and customes established by the lawfull authority in it , are openly transgressed and annulled : more especially where the alteration of religion is endeavoured , and that a religion which is contrary to law is endeavoured to be introduced : upon which those who are most immediatly concerned in it , are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established lawes , liberties and customes : and above all the religion and worship of god , that is established among them ; and to take such an effectuall care , that the inhabitants of the said state or kingdome , may neither be deprived of their religion nor of their civill rights . vvhich is so much the more necessary because the greatnes and security both of kings royall families , and of all such as are in authority , as well as the happines of their subjects and people , depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their lawes , liberties and customes . upon these grounds it is , that wee cannot any longer forbear to declare that to our great regret wee see that those councellours , who have now the chiefe credit with the king , have overturned the religion , lawes and liberties of those realmes , and subjected them in all things relating to their consciences , liberties and properties , to arbitrary government : and that not only by secret and indirect waies , but in an open and undisguised manner . and indeed the lamentable effects of an arbitrary power and of evill counsells are so manifest in the deplorable state of the kingdome of scotland , that both our reason and conscience doe prompt us to an abhorrence of them . for when wee consider the sad condition that nation , though always affectionate to the royall family , and governed for many ages by laws made by the authority of their kings , and of the estates of parliament , and by common customes , is reduced to , by endeavours that have been used to change the constitution of the monarchy regulate by laws , into a despotick or arbitrary power : which doth evidently appear not only by the actings of evill councellours in power , but by the deliberate and expresse publick declarations , bearing that the king is an absolute monarch , to whom obedience ought to be given in all things without reserve , thereby to make way to introduce what religion they please , without so much as the necessity of the consent of the nation by their estates in parliament . whilest wee consider and ponder these things as wee cannot but be touched with a tender sense of those miseries , so the giving such a remedy to them as may be proper and may answer the expectation of all good men , and true protestants , is the great thing which wee propose to our selves in this undertaking : the equity where of will be justified to the world , if what hath been acted at the instigation of those evill councellours be further impartially weighed . it is well known , that the laws , priviledges and rights of the kingdome have been overturned to the great prejudice of king and people , whilest thus all foundation of confidence and trust is removed . and it is no less known what have been the arbitrary procedures of an encroaching privy councell ; for although by the laws enacted by the authority of king and parliament , it is expressly prohibited that the popish religion should be professed or seminary priests suffered within the kingdom , or that the children of any noblemen or gentlemen should be sent abroad to be educated in popish colledges ; yet have these evill councellours ordered or suffered young noblemen to be taken from their relations , and to be sent abroad to be instructed in jesuites colledges , and have likewayes caused schools to be erected under the conduct of popish priests , and that in the capitall city of the kingdom . in an open contempt also of the known laws of the kingdom , papists are put into places of highest trust both civil and military , and entrusted with all the forts and magazins . the rights and priviledges of the royall burrows , the third estate of parliament , having as many deputies in it as all the shires in the kingdom , are taken away , and they hindred in the free election of their magistrats and town-councells , to the manifest violation of their charters , established by law and immemoriall possession . and all this is done by meer arbitrary power without any citation , triall or sentence . and whereas no nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartiall justice , upon which mens lives aud liberties their honours and estates depend , yet those evill councellours have subjected these to an arbitrary and despotick power : having turned out judges , who by law ought to continue during their life or their good behaviour , becase they would not conform themselves to their intentions , and put others in their places , who they believe would be more complyant , and that without any regard to their abilities : by which it evidently appears that those evill councellours design to render themselves the absolute masters of the lives , honours and estates of the subjects , without being restrained by any rule or law. by the inflence of the same evill counsellours hath a most exorbitant power been exercised in imposing bonds and oaths upon whole shires without any law or act of parliament : in permitting free quarters to the souldiers , although they had a sufficient establisment for their pay , whereby the kingdom was doubly burdened without any redres ; in imprisoning gentlemen without any , so much as alledged , reason , for ceing many to accuse and witness against themselves , imposing arbitrary fines , frighting and harassing many parts of the countrey with intercommoning and justice-aires , making some incurre forfeiture of life & fortune for the most generall and harmless converse even with their nearest relations outlawed . and thus bringing a consternation upon a great part of the kingdom , which when outlawries and intercommonings went out against multitudes upon the slenderest pretexts , was involved so universally in that danger , that those councellours themselves were so obnoxious as to find it necessary to have pardons and indemnities , whilest the poor people were left to mercy ; impowering officers and souldiers to act upon the subjects living in quiet and full peace , the greatest barbarities , in destroying them by hanging , shooting and drouwning them without any forme of law , or respect to age or sexe , not giving some of them time to pray to god for mercy : and this for no other reason but because they would not answer or satisfy them in such questions as they proposed to them without any warrant of law , and against the common interest of mankind , which frees all men from being obliged to discover their secret thoughts ; besides a great many other violences and oppressions , to which that poor nation hath been exposed without any hope of having an end put to them , or to have relief from them . and that the arbitrary and illegall proceedings of those evill councellours might be justified and supported , such a declaration hath been procured by them , as strikes at the root of the government , and overturns the most sacred rights of it , in making all parliaments unnecessary , and taking away all defences of religion , liberty and property , by an assumed and asserted absolute power , to which obedience is required without reserve : which every good christian is perswaded to be due to god almighty alone , all whose commandements are always just and good. these evill councellours have used their utmost endeavours to abolish penall laws excluding all who are not protestants from publick trust , which give too great a check to their designes . for the accomplishing of this a liberty hath been granted to dissenters , but such a●one , as that the continuance thereof is plainly insinuated to depend upon their hearty concurrence for abolishing the abovementioned penall laws , the only legall defence of their religion ; although the dissenters have just cause of distrust when they call to mind how some hundreds of their ministers were driven out of their churches without either accusation or citation : the filling of many of whose places with ignorant and scandalous persons hath been one great occasion of all those miseries which that countrey for a long time hath groaned under . and dissenters have but small ground to rest on any present ease founded upon a proclamation which may be recalled every hour , and which in the first and second editions of it gave no relief to them , especially considering that not many monts before , the greatest of the forementioned severities and barbarities had been exercised upon them . but to crown all , there are great and violent presumptions , inducing us to beleeve , that those evill councellours , in order to the carrying on of their ill designes , and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them , for the encouraging of their complices , and for the discouraging of all good subjects , have published that the queen hath brought forth a son : tho there have appeared both during the queens pretended bignes , and in the manner in which the birth was managed , so many just and visible grounds of suspicion , that not only wee our selves , but all the good subjects of those kingdomes doe vehemently suspect , that the pretended prince of wales was not born by the queen . and it is notoriously known to all the world , that many both doubted of the queens bignes , and of the birth of the child , and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfy them , or to put an end to their doubts . and since our dearest and most entirely beloved consort , the princesse , and likewise wee our selves , have so great an interest in this matter , and such a right , as all the world knows , to the succession of these kingdomes , which those men have attempted to violate , for preventing of all redress of miseries , by the lawfull successors of the crown , educated by the good providence of god , in the true profession of the protestant religion , wee cannot excuse our selves from espousing the true interest of these nations in matters of such high consequence , and from contributing all that lies in us , for the defence of the laws and liberties thereof , the maintaining of the protestant religion in them , and the securing of the people in the enjoyment of all their just rights . but that our intentions may be so manifest that no person may doubt or pretend to doubt thereof , to excuse themselves from concurringh with us in this just design for the universall good of the nation . wee do declare that the freeing that kingdom from all hazard of popery and arbitrary power for the future , and the delivering it from what at the present doth expose it to both , the setling of it by parliament upon such a solid basis as to its religions and civill concerns as may most effectually redress all the above mentioned grievances , are the true reasons of our present undertaking as to that nation , and therefore wee persuade our selves that our endeavours to give the best assistance wee can for the relief of so distressed a kingdome , shall not only not be misconstrued , but shall also be accompanied with a chearfull and universall concurrence of the whole nation , that even those who have been instruments for the enslaving of it , will now show their dislike of what they have done , by their timeous and reasonable diligence for its rescue ; and that if any shall not give us that assistance which their conscience to god , and their respect to their countrey oblige them to , they shall be justly charged with all the evills that may be the effects of such a want of their duty . and as wee our selves desire to trust to the almighty god alone for the success of our arms , so wee expect of all good men , that they will apply themselves most earnestly to him for his blessing upon our endeavours , that so they may rend to the glory of his great name , to the establishment of the reformed churches , and to the peace and happiness of that kingdome . given under our hand and seal at our court in the hague , the tenth of october in the year of our lord 1688. william henry , prince of orange . by his highnesses speciall command c : huygens. to all commanders of ships and all seamen that are now imployed in the english fleet. gentlemen and friends , our right trusty and well beloved admirall herbert is fully instructed by us : and therefore wee expect that you will give an entire credit , to every thing that he shall say to you in our name : wee have prepared a declaration , containing the reasons that induce us to undertake the present expedition , in which wee have no other designe but the preservation of the protestant religion , and the restoring of the lawes and liberties of england . the totall ruine of your religion being as much designed by the papists in england , as it is already accomplished in france ; and it will as certainly be effected , if they are able to prevail at this time . wee can not beleeve , but that you must be already sensible , that you are only made use of as instruments , to bring both your selves and your countrey under popery and slavery , by the means both of the irish and the forreigners who are preparing to compleat your destruction . and therefore wee hope that god will put it in your hearts at this time , to redeem your selves , your countrey and your religion from all those miseries . this in all humane appearance can onely be done , by your coming now to assist us , who are labouring for your deliverance . and wee doe assure you that wee will be ever mindfull of the services that youw shall now doe us : and wee promise to you that wee will place particular marks of our favour on all those who will upon this occasion deserve well of us and of the nation , wee are with all sincerity your truely wel wishing and affectionate friend given at our court at dieren the 29. day of septembre 1688. william h : prince of orange . by his highnesses speciall command c : huygens. to all the officers and souldiers in the english army . gentlemen and friends . wee have given so true and so full an account of our intentions in this expedition , in our declaration , that as wee can adde nothing to it , so wee are sure that you can desire nothing more of us. wee come to preserve your religion , and to restore and establish your liberties and properties : and therefore wee can not suffer our selves to doubt , but that all protestants and true englishmen will come and concurre with us in our designes to secure these nations from popery and slavery . you must all see plainly , that you are made use of only as instruments , to enslave the nation and to ruine the protestant religion : and when that is done you may judge what you your selves ought to expect , both by the casheering of all the protestant and english officers and souldiers in ireland , and by the irish souldiers that are brought over to be put in your places , of which you have seen so fresh an instance , that wee need not put you in mind of it . you know how many of your fellow officers have been used , only for their standing firm to the protestant religion and to the lawes of england : and you can not flatter your selves so farre , as to expect to be better used , if those who have broke their word so oft , should by your means be brought out of the straits , to which they are reduced at present . vvee hope likewise , that you will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false notion of honour : but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to almighty god and your religion , to your countrey , to your selves and to your posterity : which you as men of honour ought to preferre to all private considerations and engagements whatsoever . vvee doe therefore expect , that you will consider the honour that is now set before you , of being the instruments of saving your countrey and of securing your religion . vvee will ever remember the services that you shall doe upon this occasion : and vvee promise to you , that vvee will place such particular marks of our favour on every one of you , as your behaviour at this time shall deserve of us , and of the nation , in which vvee will make a great distinction of those , that shall come seasonably to join their armes with ours . and you shall ever find us to be your vvell vvishing and assured friend william henry , prince of orange . by his highnesses speciall command c : huygens. a praier for the present expedition . almighty god , the lord of hosts , and the aid and refuge of all that trust in thee , wee humbly pray thee , to blesse and prosper this undertaking , for the glory of thy name , and for the good of thy people : let not our sins provoke thee , to deny thy blessing to thy servant the prince , compasse him with thy favour as with a shield : direct him in all his councels , and be thou ever present with him and assisting to him in all his actions : that so he may be successefull in this great designe : and that he may imploy all the power , that thou puts in his hands , to the honour of thy great name , to the establishing and advancing of thy true religion , and to the procuring of the peace and happines of these nations : blesse both the army and fleet under his command , with successe and victory . and grant ô gracious god that all of us , may be turning to thee , with our whole hearts ; repenting us truely of all our past sins , and solemnly vowing to thee , as wee now doe , that wee will in all time coming , amend our lives , and endeavour to carry our selves as becomes reformed christians . and that wee will show our zeal for our holy religion by living in all things suteably to it . hear us holy father , and set thy angels to encamp round about us , for wee put our whole trust in thy protection and defence , which wee humbly pray thee to grant us , for the sake of jesus christ our only saviour and redeemer . amen . a letter written upon the discovery of the late plot burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1678 approx. 91 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 25 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30379 wing b5825a estc r23836 07915509 ocm 07915509 40390 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30379) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 40390) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1199:16) a letter written upon the discovery of the late plot burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 45, [1] p. printed for h. brome, and r. chiswell, london : 1678. "licensed w. jane, octob. 17, 1678." attributed by wing to g. burnet. this item is identified in the reel guide as wing b5825. it is actually wing (2nd ed.) b5825a. reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng popish plot, 1678. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-02 paul schaffner sampled and proofread 2005-02 paul schaffner text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter , written upon the discovery of the late plot . licensed w. jane , octob. 17. 1678. london : printed for h. brome , and r. chiswell , both living in st. paul's church-yard , 1678. a letter , written upon the discovery of the late plot . sir , i heartily thank you for the news your last brought me , of the discovery of that horrid plot , both against his majesties person , and the whole kingdom . i doubt not but all good men are offering up their acknowledgments to god , for so great a blessing ; which is a fresh demonstration of his care of this church , and state : and that all our crying sins have not provoked him yet to abandon us : of which i pray god make us all sensible , that we may not continue to pull down such judgments , as the malice of wicked men would readily become instrumental in , if the providence of god did not so wonderfully and seasonably interpose . there is only one passage in your letter , that i wonder at . you tell me every body is surprized with this plot now discovered . i confess i am not of their mind ; for although i know there are persons of high honour , and untainted loyalty of the roman religion , who abominate the thoughts of all secret assassinations , much more of murdering his majesty ; yet such practices are so necessarily consequent to the principles of that church , that no member of it , who throughly understands them , can , while they continue in that communion , avoid the being involved in conspiracies , as oft as a sit occasion presents it self . these several years past they have boasted much of their loyalty , and their services and sufferings for his majesty , during the late civil wars . all this was necessary to make the government put confidence in them , that so they might more secretly lay their designs : which were to take effect , when a conjuncture was offered that seemed favourable . but i must again and again repeat , what i often told you in discourse ; that no member of that church can thorowly understand and believe the principles of it , and be a good subject even to a king of his own perswasion : but he can be much less so , to a prince whom he looks on as an heretick , who thereby lies under a general excommunication , and may be brought under a particular and formal one , before he , or any body else , but such as are fit to be entrusted with the secret , shall know it : and then the prince is at the mercy of all his popish subjects , who if they consider aright the doctrine of their own church , must depart from their allegiance to him , and be ready to do any thing that is laid on them , by those who are either directly their superiours , if they have taken religious vows ; or at least , have some authority over their consciences . this i shall open to you in as short and plain terms as is possible ; and the rather , that you may communicate it to some persons of honour of that religion , who i hope upon so fresh a discovery of these practices , may be now not unwilling to examine a point , the consideration of which they before rejected , as an imputation cast on their religion . this will now , i imagine , move them so far to demur , as to consider impartially whether such practises flow only from the ill tempers of particular persons , or from the received principles of their church . this latter i undertake to make out , from the undeniable maximes , to which all of that communion are bound to adhere . there are two principles , which i may well call the fundamental principles of the roman church : since all opinions that are not inconsistent with them , can be tollerated among them : but whatever strikes at these , must needs be abominated , as destructive of that , they call the catholick faith. the one is , the authority of the church , the other is , the certainty of tradition . if then the doctrine of deposing kings , and by consequence killing them ( for if they are justly deposed , it 's as just to kill them as to kill any usurper ) is such , that without denying the authority of the church , and the certainty of tradition , it cannot be denied ; then all men must resolve either to acknowledg it , or to renounce their subjection to a church that must needs believe it . about the authority of the church , two things are to be observed , that serve for clearing what i design to make out . the first is , that the church in any one age has as much authority as ever it had , or can have in any other age : for if christs promises , together with the other arguments they bring for the authority of the church , be good , they are alike strong at all times , and in all ages : and therefore though in writing books of controversies they muster up authorities out of the former ages , because we profess we pay little esteem to the latter ages : yet among themselves all ages are alike , and the decrees of them are of equal authority . secondly , the authority of the church is as little to be disputed in moral matters , that fall under practice , as in articles of faith that only fall under speculation , and in a word , the church must be the infallible expounder of the ten commandments , as well as of the creed . all the arguments from christs promises , from the hazard of trusting to our private reasonings , and the necessity of submitting to a publick judg , are by so much the more concluding in practical matters , as it is of more importance , that men think aright in practical than in speculative opinions . if then there arises a question about a moral matter , or the exposition of any of the commandments , the only certain decision must be expected from the church . for instance , a question arises about images , whether it is lawful to use them in the worship of god , upon the seeming opposition which the worship of them has to the 2d commandment ? since the church has once determin'd that it may be lawfully used , it is heresie to deny it , on this pretence , that we fancy it is contrary to one of the commandments . so if a controversie arise upon the fifth commandment , how far a king is to be acknowledged , if the church has determined the limits of that , it is heresie to carry it further . if also another question arise how much the sixth commandment obliges ? it must be carried so far and no further than the determination of the church allows . i confess by the doctrine of that church , even a general council may err in a point in which any matter of fact is included : because they may be deceived by a false information . but in a general rule about morality , and the extent of any of the ten commandments , the decision of the church must either be certain , and for ever obligatory , or the whole doctrine of the infallibility of the church falls to the ground . concerning the certainty of tradition , the general opinion of that party , is , that tradition is an infallible conveyance of divine truth : and that whatever any age of the church delivers to another as derived from christ and his apostles , must be received with the same veneration and obedience that we pay to the holy scriptures . and for the ways of distinguishing a tradition of the church from any imposture , or novelty : there be four of them . the first , that is the most doubtful , is , that the greatest and most esteemed doctors in any age deliver as a divine truth . nor is it necessary that they formally say , this is a tradition : but if many of them mention an opinion , and declare their own assent to it , this passes as a sufficient proof of the tradition of any age of the church . so in all points of controversie between them and us , the greatest part of their writers , ( some few later and suspected ones only excepted ) think they have sufficiently justified their church , when they bring testimonies out of any of the writings of the fathers , that seem to favour their opinion : and will call it unreasonable for us to reject these , because they only deliver their own opinion , and do not call it the tradition of the church , but conclude , that many writers in any age asserting an opinion , it may well be looked on as the tradition of that age. but , because this is more liable to exception , there is another way , that is more infallible to judg of tradition : and that is , by the conveyance of the see of rome , which they judg the chief depository of the faith ; and for which they fansie they have so many proofs , from the high things some of the fathers have said about the dignity of that see. now if these conclude any thing , it must follow , that whatever has been delivered in any age by a pope , as conveyed down from christ , or his apostles , must either be so indeed , or the see of rome is not a faithful transmitter of tradition . but , there is yet a more certain way of judging of tradition , by what the chief pastors of the church have delivered , when assembled in a general council . this being the supreme tribunal in the church , there can lie no appeal from it : nor can the doctrines delivered or approved by it be questioned . for instance , if it were under debate , how the tradition about transubstantiation can be made out in the thirteenth century ; it is needless to seek any other evidence , than , that one almerick is condemned for denying it , and in opposition to that , it was formally established in a general council . this is as much as can be had , and he were very unreasonable that were not satisfied with it : so if it be asked , how can the tradition of the doctrine of deposing kings , and giving away their dominions in the same century be proved ? the answer is plain , that same very council decreed it : upon which a great prince was deposed , and his dominions were given to another . these are the common standards by which traditions are examined . but to these a new one has been lately added : which is indeed a much shorter and nearer way : and that is , whatever the church holds in any one age , as a material point of religion , she must have received it from the former age , and that age from the former , and so it climbs upwards till the days of the apostles . if this be a certain track of tradition by which we may infallibly trace it ; then for instance , if in any one age , it hath been believed , that st. peter had power from christ , which he left to the see of rome , by which his successor in it can depose kings , then this must be an apostolical tradition , and by consequence of equal authority with any thing written in the scriptures . to these general considerations about the authority of the church , and the certainty of tradition ; i shall add two other , about the nature of supreme and soveraign power : by which we may judg of what extent the popes power must be , if he have an authority to depose kings , and transfer their dominions to other persons . first , when the soveraign powers proceed in a legal way against its subjects ; if either they abscond , so that they cannot be found ; or have such a power about them , that the sovereign cannot bring them to punishment ; he may declare them rebels , and set prices on their heads ; and in that case it is as lawful for any subject to kill them , as it is for an executioner to put a condemned person to death . these being the several ways the law provides in those several cases . so when a pope deposes a prince , he may as lawfully set on private assassinates to kill him , as oblige his subjects to rise with open force against him . for if the pope has a power over him to depose him ; this clearly follows from the nature of sovereign power , and it is the course that sometimes must be followed , when the rebel can be no other way brought to deserved punishment ; and if the pope has the power of deposing , then a prince who after such a sentence , carries himself as a king , is a rebel against his supreme lord : and is also an usurper . for his title being destroyed by the sentence , he has no authority over his subjects : and therefore may be as lawfully killed as any rebel or usurper . secondly , the supreme power may in cases of great necessity , when the thing is in it self materially just , pass over such forms as ought in ordinary cases to be observed . i need not tell you , that in a great fire , subordinate magistrates may blow up houses . but doubtless the supreme power of all , as a king in an absolute monarchy ( and such is the papal power if these opinions be true ) may dispence with some forms , when the matter is in it self just ; and if the chief design of a law be pursued , the circumstantial parts of it may upon extraordinary occasions be superseded : therefore , if the pope is supreme over all kings , and has this deposing power ; then though by the canon , a king ought to be first a year excommunicated for his heresy or favouring hereticks ; and at the years end he may be deposed by the pope , ( there are also other rules for excommunications , tho the summary way in some cases may be used ) yet all these are but circumstantial and lesser matters . the design of that law , is , that no heretical prince , or favourer of heresie , be continued in his power ; the other , are but forms of law , that cannot be indispensibly necessary in all cases . besides , the very canon law teaches , that when there is both a notorietas juris & facti , summary proceedings are legal ; when then it is notorious , that the doctrines of the church ( of england for instance ) are heretical , and that the king is an obstinate favourer of these heresies , and will not extirpate them , summary and secret proceedings are justifiable . there is no hope that bulls , breves , or citations would do any good in this case : these would on the contrary , alarm the state , and bring all the party under great hazards : therefore from the nature of supreme power , it is most justly inferred , that though there have been no publick sentence of deposition ( according to the forms of the canon law ) yet all these may be dispensed with , and a secret and summary one may do as well . these positions are such , that i cannot fansie any just exceptions to which they are liable ; and from all these laid together , the inference will undeniably follow : that according to the doctrine of the church of rome , the power of deposing kings is lodged with the pope , by a divine authority ; and that , by consequence , private persons may conspire to take away the life of a king so deposed : even though there be no publick sentence given about it . but before i bring the evidence for all this , i shall desire the reader will a little reflect on the positions i have laid down : in which he will find an answer to all the exceptions , that can be made against the following evidence . by the first , the authority of the church , being the same in all ages ; he will see it is to no purpose to pretend these were dark ages : so that what was done in an ignorant time , cannot oblige the world when things are seen in a better light . but if the church has an authority from christ , that shall last till the end of the world , it must be the same in all ages . the ignorance of the age is a very good answer when made by a protestant , but can signifie nothing in a papists mouth . by the second , of the churches authority in setling moral rules for practice , it appears how fond that distinction is , which they make between a canon and a decree . it is true , a decree about a particular case , in which there is some matter of fact , may be wrong according to their principles , and yet the authority of the church remain entire . for instance , in the deposing a prince , or condemning a man for heresie , the church may either by false witnesses , or mistaking a man's words , be drawn to pass an unjust sentence , by reason of a mis representation of the fact. but that is nothing to the purpose here , where a decree is made as a perpetual rule of practice ; this must be of the same authority of a canon about any article of faith. otherwise it will follow , that the church may mislead the people in matters indispensably necessary to salvation : for such is the obedience to the ten commandments . by the first way of judging of the tradition of the church , from what the most received writers in any age deliver , as the doctrine of the church , it will appear ; that the schoolmen and canonists are as competent conveyers of tradition from the twelfth age downward , as the fathers were from the sixth age upward ; and laying this for a principle , that the church is the same in all ages , they are really more competent witnesses than the fathers were . first , because they write more closely to the subject they have in hand ; they consider what is said for , or against an opinion in a more exact manner , than the fathers did , who being carried with the heat they are sometimes in , go off from the purpose : and generally affect eloquence , which is the most improper stile for nice matters : whereas the schoolmen write in a blunt way , only considering the purpose they are about , coyning the most barbarous words they can light on , when they think them the fittest to express their notions . secondly , they were divided into two famous schools , among whom there were great heats , the scotists and thomists : so that if either of these had asserted any thing that was not the received doctrine of the age they lived in , the other party had such emulation against them , that they would not have failed to have laid them open : as they did in the matter of the immaculate conception of the b ▪ virgin. whereas the fathers writing only against hereticks , or other enemies to christianity , they might have mistaken some things , without so publick a discovery as was likely to happen among the schoolmen ▪ 3dly . the schoolmen wrote on purpose to deliver the doctrine of the age in which they lived , to those who were to succeed them . their books being generally the divinity lectures they read , either in colledges or religious houses , to their scholars , whereas the fathers wrote upon emergent occasions , either letters or treatises to private persons , regarding more the present , than the succeeding age. in which we cannot expect that exactness , that is to be looked for in a publick lecture . upon all which i assume , that allowing the church to have the same authority in all ages , the schoolmen are more competent witnesses of the tradition of the church in their ages , than the fathers were in theirs . by the second rule for judging of traditions , from the conveyance of the see of rome , it does undeniably follow , that the popes from gregory the sevenths time downward , were as sure depositories of the traditions of the church , as were the popes from gregory the first his time upward . they were both alike christ's vicars , and st. peters successors . so that all the high words that the fathers bestow on the see of rome , were either complements , in which they are not wanting , or were said because of the worth of the bishops , whom they had known in that see. but if they be to be understood in that sence in which the writers of controversy obtrude them on us , then it will follow manifestly , that as to the conveyance of tradition , p. gregory the 7th is as much to be believed , when he says any thing in the name of st. peter , or of christ , as any of the popes are . for in the preamble of bulls and breeves , the reasons are given of what follows , which are most commonly vouched from apostolical authority and tradition . so let the pope be ever so ignorant , or so corrupt in his manners , what he asserts to be apostolical tradition , must be either received as such , or the authority of that see is overthrown : therefore they must either cease to press us any more with tht authority of the see of rome , or acknowledg that all the popes declarations , which they make about traditions , are to be received . it is an answer to be made use of only to ignorant persons , to say , these depositions were the deeds of some popes , who might be ill men , and the church is not concerned to justify them . i confess , whether this or that deposition was justly or lawfully made , is a personal thing , in which only the pope who decreed it is concerned . but if he declares in the preamble , that the power of deposing upon those reasons , is grounded on an apostolical tradition , then the see is concerned in it : for either he declares true or false ; if the former , then that power of deposing comes from apostolical tradition ; if they acknowledge he declares false , then we are not any more to be urged with the authority of that see , as the certain depository of the traditions of the church . by the third mark , to judge of the tradition of any age from the decision of a general council , it appears , that the decisions of the fourth council of lateran are as obligatory as the decrees of the first council of nice : the church having the same power in all ages . if it be said , it was only a council of the western church , the like may be objected against the first general council , which were generally made up of eastern bishops , and very few of the western bishops sat in them . and if we esteem a council general , because it was received by the church , then the whole church of rome having received that council , it must be acknowledged to be general as much as any ever was . but to this , others answer , that a council is only infallible , when a thing is decreed by it according to the tradition of the church . if this be true , the whole controversie between the roman church and us , about the authority of councils , is decided on our side . for if a council has only authority to declare traditions , then it is free for every person to examine , whether this declaration be according to truth or not ? and if it be found that it is not so , they may lawfully reject such decisions . for instance in the second council of nice , the worship of images was established upon a mock-shew of tradition : and yet all the world knows , there were no images allowed in the church the first four ages after christ ; and even in the sixth age p. gregory declared , that though they might be in the church , yet they ought not to be worshipped . nor was there any contest about it , before the eighth century . this being thus examined , and found to be true , then according to the foregoing answer , that decision was of no force , though made by the second council of nice . in a word , if this maxime be true , that councils are only to be submitted to , when they decree according to apostolical tradition , then they have no authority in themselves : and their decisions can have no more force than this , that it may seem probable that they were not mistaken , and in an ignorant age , even this probability will vanish to nothing . no body will reject the decision of a council , when the decrees are just and right : but if it be upon that score alone , that they are to be submitted to , then none are bound by them , before they have examined them : and if upon a search it appear they decreed against tradition , then their decrees are to be rejected . so it is apparent this answer does plainly , according to their principles , lay the foundation of all heresie ; since it gives every man a right to question the decrees of a general council . besides , how can those persons be assured , that the fourth council of lateran did not decree according to tradition ? the acts of that council are lost : so we cannot know upon what reasons they made their decrees . and it cannot be said , that because there is no mention made of any tradition in the decree , that therefore they considered none . it is seldom found that the reasons of any decree are put with it . but we may reasonably enough believe , that they followed the method in this council , that had been used in some former ones ( particularly in the second council of nice ) which was this , a writing was read , penned perhaps by the pope , or a patriarch , in which the tradition of the church was confidently alledged ; and some quotations were brought ; and very oft out of some later writers . the paper was no sooner read , than a loud and often repeated shout of applause followed , without any further search or canvasing about these authorities . and upon that the decree was made . this was the practice both of the second nicene , and of some more ancient councils ; whose journals are hitherto preserved ; and where the journals are lost , we have reason to believe they followed the same method : so that it is very probable there might have been some such writing read in the council of lateran . and if they did not found their decree upon tradition , they were much to blame ; for they had as venerable a tradition , as either the second council of nice , or some other councils had : a practiee about 150 years standing from the days of pope gregory the vii . so that it is not to be denied but they had as good authority from tradition , to make this decree , as to make most of the other decrees , on which they insist much , in the books of controversies that are written by them . by the fourth rule of judging about tradition , the matter is yet much plainer : for if the generally received belief of any age of the church , is a good thread to lead us up to the apostles times , then there needs no more be said . for it is certain , that for near four ages together , this was the universally received doctrine of the church of rome . and the opposition that some princes made to it was condemned as heresy , rebellion , and every thing that was evil . and it is remarkable , that both ockam that wrote much for the emperors cause against the pope , and gerson and almain , no great favourers of papal power , are cited by cardinal perron , as acknowledging the ecclesiastical power of deposing , if a prince were guilty of spiritual crimes . so that the controversies in this matter that were managed between the writers for the popes and emperors , were not , whether the pope in cases of heresy might depose a prince ? but were concerning two things very remote from this . the one was , whether the pope had a direct temporal power over all kings , by which as being lord of the fee , he could proceed upon any cause whatsoever against a king , and take his dominions from him . to this indeed gregory the 7th pretended tho more covertly , and boniface the 8th more avowedly . there was great opposition made to this by many writers ; but at the same time they all agreed on it , as an undeniable maxim , that the pope had an indirect power over princes , by which in the cases of heresy he might excommunicate and depose them ; nor was there so much as any debate about it . a second thing about which there was some controversy was , whether the particulars that fell under debate came within the head of heresy , or not ? so in the case of princes giving the investitures into bishopricks , the pope brought it in within the head of heresy , and condemned those persons as simoniacks . the writers on the other side denied this , pretending it was a civil matter , and a right of the crown . the like debates fell in , when princes were sentenced on any other account . the authority of the sentence in the case of heresy was not controverted ; all the question was ; whether the point under debate was heresy or not ? and concerning these things , any who have read the writings in the great collection made of them by goldastus , will receive an easy and full satisfaction . by which it appears , that the popes power of deposing kings in the case of heresy was the received doctrine of the church for several ages , and by consequence it must be looked on as derived down from the apostles , if the doctrine of any one age of the church can lead us backward in a certain track to discover what it was in the apostles days . by the first position about the nature of supreme power , it is apparent , that in the case of heresy , a prince deposed by the pope , if he stands out against the sentence , may be as lawfully killed as any tory or moss-trooper , or bantito , may be ; for he is a rebel against his lord , and an usurper over the people , from that day forward . and therefore tho mariana told a secret too publickly , yet it cannot be denied to be a certain consequent of their principles . it had been indeed more discreetly done to have ordered this only to be infused unto peoples consciences , by their confessors in secret . and for mariana , tho the book in gross is condemned , as they give out , yet the opinions set down in it are not censured . but a suarez writing against k. james , tells him in plain terms , that a king , who is canonically deposed , may be killed by any man whatsoever . this was not only published with an ordinary license , but the whole university of alcala declared every thing in it to be according to the doctrine of the church . valentia , tho he disguises it a little , yet says , that an heretical prince may by the popes sentence be deprived of his life . b foulis cites ten more doctors for the same opinion of killing kings by private persons . i do not build upon the assertions of these jesuits , as binding authorities in that church , but make use of them to shew , that some of their own eminentest writers acknowledg the force of this consequence ; which is indeed so evident , that nothing but good manners , and some small care not to provoke princes too much by such bare-faced positions , keeps others from asserting it . few princes are so tame as childeric was , to go into a monastery after they are deposed . therefore this doctrine is but a lame provision for the churches security from heresie , if the lawfulness of killing does not follow that of deposing kings . and it was so generally received , that it is told of gerson , that he was at great pains to get it declared that no private cut-throat might kill a king , and that by consequence it was only the popes prerogative to order them to be destroyed . by the second position about the nature of supreme power , that in extraordinary cases forms of law may be superseded ; it is also clear , that tho we know nothing of any sentence of deposition given out against the king , yet he is not a whit the safer , for he lies under an yearly curse every maundy thursday . the notoriousness of his heresy will sufficiently justify a particular sentence , without any further process or citation , according to the maxims of the canon law. and there may be for ought we can know , as valid a deposition as parchment and lead can make it , already expeded . and if it be not yet done , we are sure it may be done very suddenly , and will be done whensoever they see any probability of success . bellarmine hath very sincerely told us the reason why heretical princes are not deposed , because the church has not strength enough to make such a sentence good , or does not think it expedient ; that is to say , they will do it whensoever they find a prince who will execute the sentence , and yet by that conquest not grow so strong , as by that means to turn the ballance . so the two considerations to which we owe our security are , the want of force , and the fear of another prince his becoming too powerful by the conquest . but i must add , that bellarmine , while he was a jesuite , had taught , that heretical princes were not to be deposed , except they endeavoured to turn their people from the faith : this was all his bounty to them of which we could not pretend to a crumb , since there were such laws made against popery among us . yet when he became a cardinal , he considered better of the matter ; so that in his recognitions he retracts that , and says therein be followed durandus his opinion , who maintains it against aquinas , but he thinks the latter was in the right , and says , even in that case they may be deposed , only the church does it not always ; either because she wants strength , or does not judge it expedient . but he concludes , if princes endeavour to draw their subjects from the faith , they may and ought to be deposed . so in our case there is no mercy to be expected , unless we repeal all laws against that religion . but after all this there is another device in the canon-law , called , ipso facto , by which a sentence is incurred immediately upon the doing of a fact. this began in the priviledges granted to monasteries or churches , in most of which this clause is to be found , that if any king or prince , &c. did any thing contrary to these priviledges , he thereby fell from his power and dignity . now that heresy is one of the things upon which a prince is ipso facto under excommunication and deposition , we have the authority of father e parsons , or creswel , who tells us , that the whole school of divines and canonists agree in it , and , that it is certain , and of faith , that a prince falling from the catholick religion , and endeavouring to draw away others from it , does immediately fall from all his power and dignity , even before the pope has pronounced any sentence , and that his subjects are free from their oaths of obedience , and may eject such an one as apostate and heretick . but there is a clearer evidence for this ; the great and famous college of the sorbon , ( seventy doctors being present ) when consulted , whether the people of france were not freed from their obedience to henry the third , upon his putting the duke and cardinal of guise to death ; they , before ever the pope had given sentence , declared , that they were absolved from their obedience , and might with a good conscience make war upon him for the defence of the catholick faith. upon which the parisians wrote to the pope to desire the confirmation of that decision . from all which it appears , that if the deposing power be in the pope , the king is not a whit the safer , because we know nothing of any such sentence pronounced against him . and thus having made good and illustrated the positions i laid down , against all the exceptions which that small and condemned party of widdrington's followers make use of , to cover themselves from the charge of treason , that lies against their church ; i go next to lay open the evidence , after which i shall leave it to every man's conscience to pass the verdict . there are in f pope gregory the great 's works , four priviledges granted ; one to the abbey of st. medard , another to the hospital , a third to the nunnery , a fourth to st. martin's church of autim . in which after the priviledges are granted , a sanction is added in these words ; if any kings , &c. shall endeavour to countervene this writing , let him lose the dignity of his power and honour . or shorter , in that of st. medard , let him be deprived of his dignity . these are to be found both in all the mss , and printed editions of that popes works . it is true , the first of these to saint medard's monastery , is looked on as a forged piece , both by cardinal perron , sirmond , and lannoy . but as it went for a true one till of late , and is still defended by others , baronius in particular , concluding from thence for the popes power over kings ; so the other priviledges are not denied to be true by any , except lannoy of late , for ought i know . these have been for above 600 years looked on as the grants of that pope . but this may seem a private writing , and not of such force . about 130 years after that , pope g gregory the 3d deposed leo the emperor , from all his dominions in italy , because he would not tolerate the worship of i , mages . and if that single heresie merited such a sentence what may we look for , among whose many imputed errors this is but one , and none of the most considerable ? not many years after that , did his successor zacharias upon a message he received from france , absolve that nation from their oaths to childeric , and ordered boniface to crown pepin in his stead and not long after that pope adrian gave the empire of rome , and of the west to charles the great . as h bellarmine proves from above 30 of the historians of that time , and the testimony of many soveraign princes . yet these being dark ages , in which there was more of action than dispute , we do not find the grounds laid down , on which those proceedings were founded . but the constant maxim of the papacy , was , once to begin a practice , and then to find arguments to defend it , among which the practice it self was no inconsiderable one ; for he was a mean spirited pope , that would in a title fall short of what his predecessors had assumed . about 250 years after charles the great had assumed the empire of the west , there arose a pope ( gregory the seventh ) that resolved to make the most of his see that could be : and reckoning , that the empire of the west was the gift of his predecessors , and building on that known maxim , that none can give that which they have not , he looked on the supreme dominion of it , as one of the perquisites of the see , which he would by no means part with . and therefore in his i dictatis , in which he asserts the several branches of his prerogative , these be three of them : that the pope only may use the imperial ensigns . that he may depose emperours . and , that he can absolve subjects from their fidelity to wicked princes . and to shew he was in earnest in these doctrines , he began soon to lay about him . his first threatnings were against king philip of france , who was a vicious prince : in a letter to the bishops of france , he requires them to admonish the king for his faults , and if he did not mend them , to put the whole kingdom under an interdict : and if after all that he continued still disobedient , he swaggers out in these words , k we will have none to be ignorant , or doubtful , what we intend to do upon it ; for by the help of god we will endeavour by all means , to wrest the kingdom of france out of his possession . but upon the submission of that king , these threatnings came not to any effect : yet he went on against the emperor , hen. the 4th , at the rate he had threatned the king of france . i need not tell what all the world knows : that he first excommunicated and deposed the emperor , in the year 1076. then upon his doing of penance , he received him into his favour . but upon new provocations he deposed him a second , a third , and fourth time , in the years 1080 , 1081 , and 1083. in all which he had the concurrence of so many roman councils , and set up against him , first rodolph , after that herman : as his successors did ; first conrade , and then henry , that emperor 's unnatural sons . the prosecution of the history , is needless to my design . but in his letter to herman , bishop of mets , l we meet with that which is more considerable . for there he largely justifies his proceedings , which he grounds on the keys of the kingdom of heaven , being given to st. peter ; and the power of binding and loosing joined to them . more places of scripture he sought not , but his successor , m boniface the 8th , made use of ecce duo gladii , and the power given to the prophet jeremiah , over kingdoms , to root out , pull down , destroy , throw down , to build , and to plant : and they took it in great dudgeon , if any would compare a single prophet under the law , to christ's vicar under the gospel . but gregory goes on in his proofs , to the tradition of the church : and says , the fathers had often both in general councils , and in their particular writings acknowledged , that this power was in the see of rome ; that it was the mother and head of all other churches : that all matters were to be judged by it , from whose sentence no appeal could lye : nor could there be a review made of the judgments passed in that see. and to confirm what he had asserted , he cites some passages out of gelasius , and julius , and that clause in the priviledges granted by gregory the great , formerly mentioned . so here he very fully and formally delivers the tradition of the church , and builds upon it . he also cites the precedent of pope zacharias , his deposing childeric , not for any fault he found in him , but because he thought him not fit to govern. from that he goes on to some reasons , ( such as they are ) for the justification of his proceedings . the pope having thus declared the tradition and doctrine of the church , it is not to be wondered at , if both the schoolmen mixt it with the instructions they gave their scholars , and the canonists made it a part of the law of the church . n hugo de sancto victore , alexander alensis , bonaventure , durand , peter of aliac , john of paris , almain , gabriel biel , henry of ghant , john driodo , john de terre iremata , albert pighius , thomas waldensis , petrus de palude , cajetan , franciscus victoria , dominicus a soto , and many others , ( in all 70 are reckoned by bellarmin , but foulis enlarges the number to 177 , whom he cites , who ) did formally assert it . aquinas also taught it ; tho' in some places he contradicted himself . but a boniface the 8th , thought his predecessors had proceeded in this matter too cautiously , and therefore he went more roundly to work . in the jubilee in the year 1300 , he shewed himself the first day in the pontifical habit , but the second day , he was clothed with the imperial habit , a naked sword being carried before him , and cried out with a loud voice , i am pope and emperor , and have both the earthly , and heavenly empire . this upon so publick an occasion looks very like the teaching the church ex cathedra : but because words vanished into air , he left it in writing , in these terms : p we say and define and pronounce , that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane creature , to be subject to the bishop of rome . this being put into the text of the canon law , in which it is continued to this day ; we cannot think it strange that panorimitan , ostiensis , silvester , with all the other canonists assert the popes direct dominion over all the world. and what can they say less , believing him to be christs vicar on earth , to whom all power in heaven and earth was given of his father , therefore the power in heaven being judged enough for christ to manage himself , they thought all the power in earth was committed to the vicar . this passed down without contradiction among them , but was not received by the rest of the church : yet the indirect , or as they termed it , the ecclesiastical power in cases of heresie was universally agreed to : not one person opposing it , till luther and his followers came , sawcily to look into the popes title to this , and many other pretended rights of the see of rome . but because the plea for an indirect power , was not sufficient , since if a prince did not favour heresie , it was of no use : and the pretention to a direct power was of an harsh sound : therefore a title of another kind was set up . it was pretended , that all the kingdoms in the western and northern parts of europe were by formal surrenders offered up to st. peter , and st. paul ; and therefore whatever the popes did , was said to be done in defence of their rights ; which made gregory the 7th fly to them in that flanting address , with which he begins his sentences against the emperor . first of all , the donation of constantine the great was forged : by which the power of all the west , italy , sicily , sardinia , germany , france , spain , and england , were given to the pope . this was put into the text of the canon law : and was stood to , by all the canonists . it is true the civilians wrote generally against it . among whom bartholus may be reckoned , for in his preface to the digests having mentioned the opinions of some against it , when it comes to his own , he delivers it thus ; take notice that we are now in the territory of the church ( for he taught at bulloigne ) and therefore i say that donation is valid . but till valla discovered the impostures of it so manifestly , that they are now ashamed to maintain it any longer , their plea from it was never laid down . but augustinus steuchus , who undertakes the vindication of that donation against valla , does likewise alledge from some instruments in the vatican , that both the kingdoms of spain , arragon , france , england , denmark , muscovy , sicily , and croatia and dalmatia , did subject their crowns to the see of rome . b krantzius tells us , that lakold king of poland , made it tributary to rome . and for the german empire , tho steuchus says nothing of it , perhaps that he might not offend charles the 5th , yet there is both in the canon law , and the letters of popes , more to be said upon that head , than for any of the rest . they pretend the popes set up first the empire of the west : then gave the princes of germany the right of choosing the emperor , and does still give the imperial crown , upon the emperors swearing an oath of homage to them , according to the verse under that insolent picture set up by pope innocent the 2d . in the lateram r of the emperor lying prostrate at his feet , and receiving the crown from him . post homo fit papae , sumit quo dante coronam . but all these surrenders were made use of only to strengthen the great pretention they had of being christs vicars , and st. peters successours ; which from the end of the 11th century , till the beginning of the 16th . for above 4 ages together was as authoritatively asserted by popes , as positively taught by divines , and as tamely received by the whole church , emperors and kings not presuming to contradict it , as any other article of faith. and for proofs of this we need appeal to no other witnesses than those 3. great cardinals baronius , bellarmin and perron , who may be presumed to have understood the doctrine of their own church , better than any body else . the first of those , through his whole work strains his industry , to discover as many instances as he can of it : and never parts with any without expressing the particular satisfaction he had in so pleasant a discovery . i shall only set down what he says on the two 1st . occasions that he met with . when he takes notice of gregory the great 's priviledges formerly mentioned , he adds , s you see reader , that the popes can make laws , to which if kings themselves do not yield obedience , they shall lose their kingdoms . upon the first deposition m●de by gregory the 3d. he adds , t the faithful in the west being awakened by this thunder , do immediately fall from the obedience to leo , adhering to this apostolical pope . so this gregory left a worthy precedent to posterity , that heretical princes , be not suffered to reign in the church of christ , if having been often admonished , they continue to persist obstinately in their errors . such strains as these do so often occur afterwards , that they can scarce be reckoned . it is well known what advice he gave p. paul the 5th in the quarrel with the venetians , applying the voice to st. peter , arise and kill , to the case in hand ; and that , with his insolent paraenesis to that republick , are clear evidences of his sence in this matter . what bellarmin taught more shortly and obscurely in his controversies , was afterwards made more plain both by his writings , about the translation of the roman empire , upon the interdict of venice , and against king james , and william barklay : and cardinal perrons eloquent speech against the bill put in by the third estate of france , for condemning those pretensions of a deposing power , shews us not only his own sense , but the sense of the whole clergy of france ; in whose name he delivered it . u he calls the contrary opinion , a doctrine that breeds schisms , a gate that leads unto all heresie , and so detestable , that he and his fellow bishops will choose to burn at a stake rather than consent to it . he affirming that all the parts of the catholick church , and of the church of france in particular , and all the schools of divinity , till the coming of calvin , held the affirmative , and says , that no where in france since the divinity schools were set up , can they find any one doctor , divine , or lawyer , any decree , council , or sentence of parliament , or any one magistrate ecclesiastick , or politick , who had held that in case of heresie or idolatry , subjects might not be absolved from their oaths of fidelity to their princes . it is true , at first he spake more modestly , and pretended the thing was problematical , and so was not fit matter for an oath : but when that modester strain ( tho it tended all to depress the regal , and exalt the papal power ) had so far prevailed with the king , that he ordered the matter to be laid aside , and not to be further insisted on . they were not satisfied with this , but made a new address in the name of the clergy ; and the cardinal spake now in a higher tone , asserting formally the popes indirect power in temporals ; and that all who maintained the contrary were schismaticks , and hereticks , even those of the parliament it self ; and did plainly threaten the king , that if he did not raze all the proceedings out of the register , the clergy would leave the assembly , and excommunicate all who denied the popes power of deposing . and if the king would not suffer them to execute these censures , they would proceed upon their hazard tho they were to suffer martyrdom for it . for which zeal , they received a breve from the pope , giving them his solemn thanks for what they had done ; desiring them to persevere in the same mind . so we have in this instance , not only cardinal perrons own mind , but the sense of the whole clergy of france . i do not think it necessary to enquire further into the opinion of later writers ; tho it were easie to shew , that to this day , both the court of rome , the whole order of the jesuites , the writers both of controversies , and cases of conscience , and the expositors of scripture , do as oft as occasion offers , assert the power of deposing kings to be still in the see of rome . and tho some few writers of that religion , since barkelay and widdrington's time , both of the english and irish nation , have adventured to deny this power ; they have been censured for it , and branded with heresy . this has been so notorious in the matter of the irish remonstrance , that i need say no more of it . but whether the writers of this age allow it or not , they are bound according to their doctrine about tradition , to acknowledg it ; since two of the characters of tradition are found to agree to it . for it has been delivered in several ages of the church , as true catholick doctrine by all the publick doctors in these times : so that either this is a tradition of the church , or that is not a true mark of tradition : nor is it a certain conveyance of truth , if we may be thus deceived in a clear tradition , for four ages successively . it does also appear , that if the see of rome be a faithful depositary and transmitter of church traditions , this must be one , since it is delivered to the world by so many popes in the names of st. peter and st. paul , and founded on the power of the keys , and of binding and loosing granted to st. peter . but i shall next shew how the third mark of tradition , the authority of general councils , agrees to this doctrine . when this doctrine had been so well spread over europe , then the popes found it was safe , to trust it to the judgment of such an assembly as they esteemed a general council . and they proceeded in this matter , after the same manner that they had done in the worship of images : and as they did afterwards in the points of transubstantiation , and denying the chalice in the communion . they took care first to infuse it into all the clergy , ( which god wot's was no hard thing ) and then brought them together , and made up the pageant of a council , for giving it more authority . so above an hundred years after gregory the vii . had first taught this doctrine , a thing under the name of a general council sate in the lateran at rome , where , upon the advantage the popes had against the albigenses and others , who were according to their opinion most pestiferous hereticks ; they first procured a decree for it . it is true , many provincial councils had concurred with gregory the vii . ( one of these is called a general one , 110 bishops being present ) and the other popes who had formerly given out these thunders : but now the matter was to be more solemnly transacted . in this council many hereticks are condemned and excommunicated ; and all that had sworn oaths of fidelity or homage to them , are absolved from those oaths : and they are required in order to the obtaining the remission of their sins , to fight against them : and those who die doing penance in that manner , may without doubt expect indulgence for their sins , with eternal rewards . and in conclusion , by the authority of st. peter and st. paul they remit to all who shall rise and fight against them , two years penance . here the council does industriously infuse this doctrine into all people ; and calls rebellion penance ( a very easy one to a poor or discontented subject ) and assures them of a deliverance from purgatory , and that they should be admitted straight to heaven for it . in an age in which these things were believed , more effectual means than those could not be found out , to engage the people in it . by this decree , if we are guilty of the heresies then condemned , ( as no doubt we are of most of them ) without more ado , or any further sentence , upon the declaring us guilty of the heresies of the albigenses , the subjects are delivered from their obligations to the king. and when they conspire or rebel against him , they are only doing penance for their sins ; and he were hard-hearted that would punish men only for doing of penance . about thirty years after that council , the pope had a mind to regulate the former law , that the deposing of kings might be declared a part of his prerogative ; and that thereby he might with authority dispose of their kingdoms to others . for hitherto the popes had only pretended to the power of deposing , and then the states of the kingdom as in an interregne , were to choose a new prince . but p. innocent the iii. thought it was half work , except he could bestow , as well as take away crowns . his predecessor celestine had in a most extravagant humour set the crown on henry the sixth his head , with his two feet , and then kickt it off again ; to shew , according to barronius his comment , that it was in his power to give , to maintain , and take away the empire . a very full assembly therefore being called of about 1200 of one sort or other to the lateran again , it was first decreed , that the aid of secular princes should be required for the extirpating of hereticks ; after that they proceed and enact thus . when the temporal lord required or admonished by the church , shall neglect to purge his territory from heretical wickedness , let him be excommunicated by the metropolitan and his suffragans . and if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year , let him be signified to the pope : that he from thenceforth may pronounce his subjects discharged from their obedience ; and expose his territory to be seized on by catholicks , who having exterminated the hereticks , shall possess it withont contradiction , and preserve it in the purity of the faieh ; so as no injury be done to the right of the supreme lord , where there is such , provided he do not any way oppose himself : and the same law is to take place on them , who have no superiour lord. the deposition of the court of tholouse , being the thing then in their eye , made that the decree runs chiefly against feudatary princes , yet as the last clause takes in soveraign princes , so by the clause before , it was provided , that if the soveraign did any way oppose what was done against his vassal , he was to forfeit his right . i did in the former part of this letter , meet with all the exceptions that are commonly made to this canon . only one pretty answer which a person of honour makes , is yet to be considered . he tells us , that there were so many soveraign princes , or ambassadors from them , at this council , that we are to look on this decree , as a thing to which those princes consented . from whence he infers , it was rather their act , than an invasion of their rights made by that council but be it so , he knows they allow no prescription against the church . if then those princes consented to it , upon which the power of deposing had that accession to fortifie it by , it can never be recalled nor prescribed against . it is true there were many ambassadors from princes there : but they were all such as either held their dominions by the popes grant , or had been either deposed by him , or threatned with depositions , or were the children of those whom he had deposed . so no wonder they stood in such fear of the pope , that they durst not refuse to consent to every thing he had a mind to . for indeed this council did only give their placet to a paper of decrees penned by the pope . henry called the greek emperor , brother to baldwin , that had seized on constantinople , had no other title to it besides the popes gift . frederick the 2d . who had been the popes ward , was then the elect emperor of germany , made so at the popes instance , who had deposed the two immediately preceding emperours , philip and otho the 4th . the last being at that time alive ; so that he durst not contradict the pope , lest he should have set up otho against him . but no emperor , except henry the 4th , ever suffered more from the popes tyranny , than he did afterwards . one sad instance of it was , that the pope having pressed his march to the holy-land much , did at last excommunicate him for his delays : upon which , he to avoid further censures , carried an army thither : which was so succesful , that the pope who hoped he should have been destroyed in the expedition , ( as the first emperor of that name was ) now being vexed at his success , complained that he should have presumed to go thither , while he lay under excommunication , and was in rebellion against him ; and went about not only to dethrone him , but to get him to be betrayed by the knights hospitallers , and templers , into the sultans hands , who abominating that treachery , revealed it to him . john of brenne had the kingdom of jerusalem by that same popes gift , who took it from almeric king of cyprus , and gave it him ; but almeric had no cause to complain , since he held cyprus only by the same copy of the popes gift : so they both were at the popes mercy our john of england was his vassal , as he usually called him ; but his successour went higher , calling the king of england not only his vassal , but his slave ; and declared that at his beck he could procure him to be imprisoned , and disgraced . james king of arragon , who was also the popes ward , had no less reason to be afraid of the pope , who had deposed his father for assisting the count of tholouse . philip augustus king of france , had his kingdom twice put under an interdict , worse things being also threatned . the like threatnings had been made to andrew king of hungary , but upon his submission he was received into favour . and now is it any wonder , that those princes gave way to such a decree , when they knew not how to help themselves by opposing it , which would have raised a storm , that they could not hope to weather ? anothet thing is remarkable concerning this time , by which the belief of the deposing doctrine in that age will better appear . other princes whom popes had deposed , procured some civilians to write for them ; and got synods of bishops sometimes on their side against the pope . because it was evident the pope proceeded not upon the account of heresie , but of private spite and hatred . but in the case of the count of tholouse , who was a manifest favourer of that , which was esteemed heresie , ( the opinions of the albigenses that were his subjects ) not a writer in all that age durst undertake to defend his cause , nor could he procure one bishop to be of his side . so universally was it received , that in the case of heresie , a prince might be deposed by the pope . the 3d general council that confirmed this power , was the council of lions , held by innocent the 4th against the forementioned frederick the 2d , where ( as the sentence bears ) the pope having consulted with his brethren and the holy council , being christs vicar on earth , to whom it was said in the person of st. peter , whatsoever ye bind on earth , &c. declares the emperor bound in his sins , and thereup●n deprived by god of his dominions . whereupon he by his sentence does depose him , and absolves all from their oaths of fidellty to him . straitly charging all persons , to acknowledge him no more either emperor or king. declaring all that did otherwise , excommunicated ipso facto . there are in this process several things very remarkable . it is grounded on a pretence to a divine tradition ; so here the whole council concur with the pope , in asserting this power to flow from that conveyance . and thus either that tradition is true , or the councils are not to be believed when they declare a tradition 2ly . tho this is but a decree in one particular instance , yet it is founded on the general rule ; and so is a confirmation of it , by which it is put out of doubt that the 4th council of later an included soveraign prin●es within their decree . 3ly , when the emperors advocate appeared to plead for him ; he did not at all except to their jurisdiction over him , or power of deposing in the case of heresie , but denyed that the emperor was guilty of the crimes objected , namely heresie , whereby he , at least , waved the denial of their power in that case . he also desired some time might be granted for the emperor to appear and plead for himself in person . whereby he plainly acknowledged their jurisdiction . 4ly when the ambassadors of france and england , interceded that the emperors desire might be granted ; the council gave him near two weeks time to appear in : which was so incompetent a time , and all had declared themselves so prepossest , or rather so overawed by the pope that hated him mortally ; that the emperor would not appear because they were his professed adversaries . and upon that , and other grounds ( none of them touching on the power of deposing in cases of heresie ) he appealed from them , to the next general council ; upon which the pope and prelates sitting in council , with candles burning in their hands , thundred out the sentence against him . here were three very publick judgments , of three general councils on this head , within the compass of sixty years . but it may be imagined , these were councils that wholly depended on the pope ; and so their decrees are to be looked on , only as a ceremony used by the pope to make his own sentence look more solemn . but when upon the long schism in the see of rome , the power of that see was much shaken , and a council met at constance to heal that breach ; in which the bishops taking advantage from that conjuncture , to recover their former dignity , began to regulate many matters . it may be , upon such an occasion , expected , that if any party in the church had disliked these practices , they should have been now condemned ; and that the rather , since by so doing , the bishops might have hoped to get the princes to be of their side , in their contests with the pope . but it fell out quite otherwise . for as the murtherers of his late sacred majesty pretended , when the king was killed , that all his power was devolved on them , and would have even the same precedence allowed their ambassadors in forreign parts , that his had : so the council of constance reckoned , that whatever rights the popes had assumed , did now rest with them , as the supreme power of the church . for in one of their sessions , a decree was framed , made up of all the severe decrees that had ever been made against those who violated the rights of the church : and this clause often returns , that all the breakers of these priviledges , whether they were emperors , kings , or whatsoever other degree , were thereby , ipso facto , subjected to the banns , punishments , and censures set down in the council of lateran . and tho they do not call it the fourth council , yet we are sure it could be no other ; for they relate to that in which frederick the 2d . was consenting to , which was the fourth in the lateran and in another decree , by which they hoped to have set up a succession of general councils , at every ten years end ; this clause is added , that if any person , whether of the papal ( for they had subjected the pope to the council , and had more reason to fear his opposing this decree , than any bodies else ) imperial or regal dignity , &c. should presume to hinder any to come to the next general council , he is declared to be first excommunicated , then under an interdict , and then to be subject to further punishment both temporal and spiritual . and in the pass they gave the king of the romans , to go to the king of arragon , they add this sanction , that whatever person , whether king , cardinal , &c. do hinder him in his journey , he is ipso facto , deprived of all honour , dignity , office , or benefice , whether ecclesiastical or secular . so here the indirect power over princes , by which they may be both deposed and punished , is plainly assumed . it is true that same council did indeed decree , that no subject should murther his king or prince ; upon which some of our english and irish writers , who condemn these practices , think they have great advantages . that d●cree was procured by gersons means , who observing that by the many rebellions that had been generally set on by popes , the persons of princes were brought under such contempt , that private assassinations came to be practised : and in particular that of the duke of orleance by the duke of burgundy : therefore to prevent the fatal consequences which were like to follow on that , and to hinder such practices for the future , he with great earnestness followed that matter : and tho it had almost cost him his life ( it is like from some of the duke of orleance his faction , who were resolved on a revenge ) yet at last he procured it : but this was only a condemnation of private cut-throats . and the article condemned had a pretty reservation in it , for it strikes only against subjects killing their prince , without waiting for the sentence of any judg whatsoever . so if a sentence be past by the spiritual judg , then this condemnation notwithstanding , a prince may be murthered . and the other decree of that council passed in the same session , shew they had no mind to part with the deposing power . besides the answer to this decree is clear . it is acknowledged : by the defenders of the contrary opinion , that it is not lawful in any case to kill a king ; but when one that was a king is no more such , but becomes a rebel and an usurper , then it is lawful to kill him . pursuant , to the decree made at constance , a council met at siena ten years after , in which all the former decrees made against hereticks are confirmed , and the favourers or fautors of heresie are delared liable to all the pains and censures of hereticks , and by consequence to the chief of them all , deposition . after that came the council of basil , which ratified the forementioned decree made at constance about general councils . by which popes , emperors , kings , &c. that presumed to hinder any from coming to the council , are subjected to excommunication , interdicts and other punishment spiritual and temporal . last of all came the council of trent , and tho matters were at that pass , that the council durst not tread on princes , as others had formerly done , lest they should have been thereby provoked to join with the protestants ; yet they would not quite lay aside the pretence of a deposing power , but resolved to couch it so into some decree , that it might continue their claim to a right , which they would not part with , tho they knew not at that time what to make of it . so in the decree against duels , they declare , that if any emperors , kings , &c. did assign a field for a combat , that they did thereby lose their right to that place , and the city , castle , or other places about it . now it is certain , if by their decrees a prince may forfeit any part of his dominion , he may be also dispossessed of all the rest ; since his title to his whole territory being one individual thing , what shakes it in any part , subjects it entirely to him who has such authority over it . here we have found 7 general councils , as they are esteemed by that church , all either expresly asserting the deposing power , or ratifying former decrees that had asserted it . and from such a succession of councils , it is reasonable to conclude , that this third character of a tradition of the church agrees to it ; and if general councils are fit conveyors of traditions , we have as full evidence as can be desired , for proving this to be a church-tradition . this last character of a tradition is what the whole body of the church has held in any one age. upon which , they say , we may calculate that such opinions must have come down from the apostles , since it seems neither credible nor possible , that the belief of the church could be changed . with this arnold has of late made great noise . and as the new fashions that come from france do please our young gallants best , so some of the writers of controversies among us have taken up the same plea here . that the whole church received the deposing doctrine in cases of heresy , may be inferred from what had been said . the church is made up of popes , bishops , & priests : of soveraign princes , and subjects of all ranks . that the popes believed it , none can doubt . so many definitions of councils , shews us as plainly what the bishops and other prelates believed : the writing of the school-men and canonists shew , what the rest of the clergy believed . those princes who suffered under the sentences , give at least a tacit consent to it , since they never question it , but study only to clear themselves of the imputation of heresie . the other princes who made use of the donations of the popes , shew as plainly that they believ'd it . the great armies that were brought about their standards , must have also believed it : and the people who generally deserted the deposed prince , notwithstanding the great vertues of some of them , and the love that subjects naturally carry to their princes , shew that they believed it . so that if st. james his question , shew me thy faith by thy works , be applied to this particular , the answer will be easie . what shall i mention the frequent depositions of charles the 1st , of henry the 4th , of his son henry the 5th , of frederick the 1st , philip , otho the 4th , frederick the 2d , and lewis the 4th in the empire . the frequent depositions in sicily and naples ; the many attempts upon france ; that terrible bull in particular of julius the 2d , against that good king lewis the twelfth . by which , besides the sentence against the king , it appears he designed the total destruction of the nation , promising the pardon of sin to every one that killed one french man ; the frequent attempts upon england , both in hen. the 2d , and k. john's time ; not to mention their later bulls of deposition against k. henry the 8th , and q. elizabeth ; the many attempts in spain ; particularly ; the deposing the king of navarre by p. julius ; and the sentences against henry the 4th , then king of navarre , and the prince of conde . all these , and a great many more , with the strange effects that followed upon them , are so clear proofs of the worlds believing this doctrine , for many ages together , that if men had any remainders of shame left with them , they could not deny it . and to this day all their writers maintain it , tho perhaps now the greatest part of the laity know little of it ; but whenever the tradition of the church is laid before them , they are obliged to submit , or they fall from the catholick faith , the chief branch of which is , to believe all the traditions of the church . and since the church is the same in all ages , according to their doctrine , the traditions of any one age must be as good as the traditions of any other can be , all being grounded on the same authority . and now let all the reasons that arnold brings to prove , from the churches believing transubstantiation in any age , that she must have always believed it , be considered , and applied with a small variation of the terms to this purpose ; and we shall see if they conclude not as strongly in favour of this doctrine , as for that which he has pursued so much . how can it be imagined , says he , that a doctrine so contrary to common sence and reason , could have been so universally received , if every man had not been taught it by those who instructed him in the faith ? will men easily change their faith ? or , tho particular persons would prevaricate , would the whole clergy conspire to do it ? or would the people take it easily off their hands . these and many more topicks of that sort may be so mustered up , and set off by a man of wit and eloquence , that an ordinary person would stare , and not know what to say . the premises will shew , that there is need but of very little art to change the same plea , and fit it to this purpose , with two great advantages beyond what can be fanci'd to be in the other . the one is , that the generality of mankind is naturally more concerned in the preservation of temporal things , than about nice points of speculation ; the one they see and handle every day , and are much concerned about ; the other they hear little of , and are not much touched with them . so that it is less probable there could be a change made in opinions , on which the titles of princes , and the peace of kingdoms depended , than about subtil discourses concerning mysteries . so that the plea is stronger for the tradition of deposing kings , than for transubstantiation . a second difference is , that there was a continual opposition made to the belief of transubstantiation in all ages , which they themselves do not deny , only they shift it off the best they can , by calling the opposers hereticks ; but for the deposing doctrine , there was not one person in the whole world , that presumed to bring it in question , from the first time it was pretended to , till those whom they call hereticks disputed against it ; and tho some few others , who hold communion with them , have ventured on a canvasing of that doctrine , it is well enough known what thanks they got from rome ; nor can they shew any one book , licensed according to the rules of their church , that denies it . and thus the plea for this doctrine has a double advantage beyond that for transubstantiation . upon the whole matter then , if tradition be a sure conveyance , and if we may pronounce what is truly a tradition , either from the opinions of doctors , the constitutions of popes , the decrees of general councils , and the universal consent of the whole church for some ages ; then the doctrine of deposing kings , to which all these agree , must be reckoned among church-traditions . there is but one other mark that can be devised of a tradition , which is , what the church has taught and believed in all ages ; but for a certain reason , which they know very well , they will not stand to that . they know we do not refuse such traditions , and if only such may be received , then the worship of images , the prayers to saints , the worship in an unknown tongue , the belief of transubstantiation , the sacrifice of the mass , the denying the chalice to the laity , the redeeming souls out of purgatory , with many other things of the like nature , will be soon taken off of the file . and indeed in this sence , the deposing doctrine is so far from being a tradition , that we have as undeniable evidences , that the church for the first six ages knew nothing of it , but on the contrary abhorred the thoughts of it , as we have , that their church these last six ages has set it up : from which , among many other reasons , we conclude , that these latter ages have not been acted with the same spirit , nor followed the same doctrine , that was the rule of the former ages . there is more than enough said to shew , that these doctrines are a part of their faith ; from which they can never extricate themselves , but by confessing , either that their church has erred , or that tradition is no true conveyance ; when they do either of these , they turn their backs of rome , and are in a fair away to come over to our church , with which purpose i pray god inspire them . the mean while , it is no wonder , if those of that communion , have been guilty of such horrid plots and rebellions every where , especially in england , since henry the 8th's time . there was in his reign , first a rebellion in lincolnshire , another greater one in the north , and some lesser ones after that . in edward the 6th's time , there were risings , both in the north , and in the west . but these succeeded so ill , and turned only to the ruine of their own party , that they resolved to try secreter ways in queen elizabeth's time ; in whose long and blessed reign , there scarce passed one year in which there was not some plot against her life . there was not matter enough to work upon , for raising any considerable rebellion in england : but in ireland , there were more frequent attempts that way . it is true , the care and providence of god was too hard for all their plots , how closely soever laid ; and they were turned back on themselves , not so much to the ruine of the chief plotters ( who were wise enough to conveigh themselves out of the way ) as of many noble families , that were poysoned with their ill principles . all the blood which the state was forced to shed , lies at their door , who were continually giving fresh provocations . and for king james ( not to mention the conspiracies against him in scotland , nor that plot of cobham and watson , upon his first coming to this crown ) the gun-powder treason was a thing that went beyond all the wicked designs that had been ever in any age contrived . and when his late majesty was embroiled in his affairs in this island , how did they take advantage from that conjuncture , to break out into a most horrid rebellion in ireland , joyned with a massacre of persons of whatsoever age , or sex , or condition ? which was so far set on by rome , that a nuncio came publickly to direct their councils . i will not dwell on particulars that are sufficiently known , but only name these things , to shew , that no reign of any of our princes , since the reformation , has been free from the dismal effects of these doctrines . and for his sacred majesty who now reigns , ( whom god long preserve from their malice ) they have felt such signal marks of his royal clemency , that they can have no colour to complain , except it be , because they cannot bear any office in the nation . for what noise soever they make , of the severe laws yet in force , both against the clergy and laity of their religion , they cannot pretend that since his majesties happy restauration , any priest has died , or any family has been ruined for their religion . but i confess , it is enough , according to the doctrine of their church , to discharge them of their allegiance , that the king is a favourer of heresy ; and if upon this reason they will still plot and conspire against his person and government , we have no reason to wonder at it , for they act according to their principles . nor have these islands been the only scenes , in which those principles have produced such dismal effects . if we look abroad and reflect on what was done in france , we shall find , they have had the same operation there . i need not mention that perfidious and cruel massacre , that as thuanus tells us was so much extolled in rome and spain : and of which the pope has a memorial kept in the hangings , at the entrance of his chappel , to this day . the barricadoes of paris , the design of deposing henry the 3d , only because he had made peace with the king of navarre , and the prince of conde ; the whole progress of the holy league ; their taking arms against that king , when the duke and cardinal of guise were killed by his orders , and at last his being stabbed by clement , a dominican friar , are instances beyond exception . the prosecution of the rebellion against henry the 4th , the attempt made upon his person by john chastel , which was more successful in ravilliack's hands , shew sufficiently , that a princes turning from that , which they call heresie , over to their church , does not secure him , unless he will extirpate hereticks . for tho henry the 4th changed his religion , yet the favour he shewed the protestants , in the edict of nantes , was a thing never to be forgiven . these things were set on and encouraged from rome , and pleaded for by their writers . that the holy league was authorized from rome , that sixtus the 5th , by his bulls , declared the king of navar incapable of the succession , that he intended to have deposed henry the 3d , and that he rejoyced at his death , and magnified the fact ; preferring it to eleazar's killing the elephant , and judeth's killing hollofernes , and ascribed it to a singular providence and disposition of the almighty ; called it a great miracle , and appeared vain that a friar had done it , having been one himself , ( tho no doubt he had liked it better , if clement had been of his own sute ) and would have had himself thought a prophet for foretelling it , ( and so he might well do perhaps ) : and in the end concluded , that unfortunate kings favouring hereticks , to be the unpardonable sin against the holy ghost : these were all so publickly done , that it were a needless labour , to go about the proving them . franois veronne wrote a book , to justify both the facts of clement the dominican , and chastel , ( as well he might from the principles of their church ) . after all these dismal facts , was it not time for the states of france , to think of some effectual remedy , to prevent the like for the future ? and they judged aright , that without condemning the deposing power , it could not be done : to which , as was already hinted , the clergy made such vigorous opposition , that it came to nothing . if these things had flowed only from the heat of some violent spirits , the danger were not so great ; but it is the doctrine of their church , so lessius ( under the name of singletonus ) says , that if the power of deposing lies not in the pope , the church must of necessity err , which has taught it ; and to assert that , is heretical , and a more intollerable error , than any about the sacrament can be . and becanus , confessor to ferdinand the 2d , says , no man doubts , but if princes are contumacious , the pope may order their lives to be taken away . what security then can there be found out from persons , who give up their consciences to the conduct of men of such principles ; and profess an implicite obedience and belief of all that their church teaches and commands , which possesses all its votaries with such cursed rage against hereticks , that not content to adjudg them to eternal flames in another life , they must needs persecute and burn without mercy where they have the power in their hands ; and plot and conspire , kill and massacre without relenting , where they have not power to do it with any colour of law ? men of honour will not be easily drawn in to such practices . but in conclusion , when a fit opportunity appears , they must either forsake their church , or concur in the most mischievous designs , that the masters of their consciences will draw them into ; which i pray god make them see in good time , before they are involved in such snares , that repentance will come too late to do them good , or to preserve the nation from those miseries that they will bring upon it . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30379-e190 a in regiam majest . br. l. 6. c. 4. sect . 20 , à quocunque privato poteris interfici . in thom. tom. 3. disp. 151. q 12. p. 2. b romish tre●sons , l. 2. cap. 4. the life of gerson before his works , and tom. 1. p. 375. recog . in lib. 5. de rom. pont. e philopater p. 106 , 107. f greg. m. l. 2 post . ep. 38. lib 11. ep. 10 , 11 ▪ 12. siquis regum , &c. contravenire tentaverit potestatis honorisque sui dignitate careat . — in alio honore suo privetur . g baron . ad an. 730. n. 5. h bellar. de trans imperii romani . i dictatus l. 2. post ep. 55. k lib 2. ep 5. ad ep. france . l liv. 8. ep. 21. m extra . de major . & obed cap. 1. n bellar. de pont. rom. lib. 5. c. 151. a cuspiman in vita albert. p cap. de major . ut obed . exter . b in vandal l. 8. c. 2. r chron. hirsaug . in vita abb. hartiingi . s bar. ad ann. 593. num. 86. t bar. ad an. 730. num. 5. u in his diverses oevres and recueil general des affaires dis ▪ clerge de france . conc. late . 3. chap. 27. anno 1287. tom 28. conc. later . 4. can. 3. tom. 28. the same council that established transubstantiation . math. paris . ad an. 1253. conc. lugd. tom. 28. conc. const. tom. 29. sess. 19. sess. 15. sess. 17. sess. 15. con , sien . tom. 29. con. basil. tom. 29. conc. trid. sess. 25 c. 19. bud. de asse lib. 5. diseuss . decree . con. lateran . p. 46. bec. controv. angl. p. 115. the declaration of almighty god, in some few texts of scripture, recommended to the reverend conforming divines: / by g.b. b. of s----b---y ... being the publick fast appointed to implore god's assistance for the reduction of ireland, and the overthrow of the late king james, and his rebellious forces. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 5 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). b01848 wing b5773 estc r170915 53298979 ocm 53298979 179757 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. b01848) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 179757) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2802:1) the declaration of almighty god, in some few texts of scripture, recommended to the reverend conforming divines: / by g.b. b. of s----b---y ... being the publick fast appointed to implore god's assistance for the reduction of ireland, and the overthrow of the late king james, and his rebellious forces. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1 sheet ([1] p.) s.n., [london : 1690] caption title. initial letter. place and date of publication suggested by wing (2nd ed.). reproduction of original in: national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -17th century. fast-day sermons -early works to 1800. broadsides -england -17th century. 2008-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-12 john pas sampled and proofread 2008-12 john pas text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the declaration of almighty god , in some few texts of scripture , recommended to the reverend conforming divines : by g. b. b. of s — b — y. to be preach'd upon every third wednesday in the month ; being the publick fast appointed to implore god's assistance for the reduction of ireland , and the overthrow of the late king james , and his rebellious forces . proverbs , c. 24. v. 21 , 22. my son fear thou the lord , and the king , and meddle not with them that are given to change ; for their calamity shall rise suddenly , and who knoweth the ruine of them both . 16. 10. a divine sentence is in the lips of the king , his mouth transgresseth not in judgment . eccles . 8. 2. i counsel thee to keep the kings commandment , and that in regard of the ●ath of god. 10. 20. curse not the king , no not in thy thought . levit. 21. 17. he that curseth his father , or his mother , shall surely be put to death . 15. he that smiteth his father , or his mother , shall surely be put to death . 19. 3● ye shall fear every man his mother , and his father , and keep my sabbaths . prov. 20. 20. whoso curseth his father , or his mother , his lamp shall be put out in obscure ●rkness . deut. 21. 18. if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son , which will not obey the voice of ●s father , or the voice of his mother , and that when they have chasten'd him will not hearken ●to them . 19. then shall his father and mother lay hold on him , and bring him out unto the elders ●his city , and unto the gate of his place . 21. and all the men of his place shall stone him with stones that he die : so shalt thou ●t away evil from among you , and all israel shall hear and fear . 27. 16. cursed be he that setteth light by his father , or his mother , and all the people ●ll say , amen . prov. 19. 26 he that wasteth his father , and chaseth away his mother , is a son that causeth me , and bringeth reproach . 28. 24. whoso robbeth his father , or his mother , and saith it is no transgression , the same is companion of a destroyer . ●0 . 17. the eye that mocketh at his father , and despiseth to obey his mother , the raven● the valley shall pick it out , and the young eagl●'s shall eat it . ● sam. 24. 5. and it came to pass , afterwards , that david's heart smote him , because he cut off saul's skirt . ● . and he said unto his men , the lord forbid that i should do this thing unto my master , lord's anointed , to stretch forth mine hand against him , seeing he is the anointed of the ●d . ●6 . 9. who can stretch forth his hand against the lord's anointed , and be guiltless . ●5 . 22. behold , to obey is better than sacrifice , and to hearken than the fat of rams . ●3 . for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry . 〈◊〉 1. 19. if ye be willing and obedient , ye shall eat the good of the land. ●0 . but if ye refuse , and rebel , ye shall be devour'd with the sword , for the mouth of the ●d hath spoken it . ●sal . 38 1. plead my cause , o lord ! with them that strive with me , fight against them that ●t against me . 〈◊〉 let them be turn'd back , and brought to confusion , that devise my hurt , &c. 〈◊〉 for without cause have they hid for me their net , in a pit ; which without cause they have ●ed for my soul. ●1 . they laid to my charge things that i knew not . ●2 . they rewarded me evil for good , to the spoiling of my soul. ●5 . but in mine adversity they rejoyced , and gathered themselves together ; yea , the ab 〈◊〉 gathered themselves together against me , and i knew it not ; they did tear me , and ceased ●3 . stir up thy self and awake to my judgment , even unto my cause , my god! and my ●d ! ●m . 19. 9. and all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of israel , saying , the 〈◊〉 saved us out of the hands of our enemies , and he delivered us out of the hands of the ●tims , and now he is fled out of the land for absalom . 〈◊〉 — now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back . 〈◊〉 and he bowed the heart of all the men of judah , even as the heart of one man ; so they sent this word unto the king , return thou and all thy servants . finis . the protestant's companion, or, an impartial survey and comparison of the protestant religion as by law established, with the main doctrines of popery wherein is shewn that popery is contrary to scripture, primitive fathers and councils ... / by a true son of the protestant church of england as established by law. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 approx. 103 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 36 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30399 wing b5845 estc r29606 11179213 ocm 11179213 46562 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30399) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 46562) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1437:3) the protestant's companion, or, an impartial survey and comparison of the protestant religion as by law established, with the main doctrines of popery wherein is shewn that popery is contrary to scripture, primitive fathers and councils ... / by a true son of the protestant church of england as established by law. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [20], 45 p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1685. attributed by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints to gilbert burnet. reproduction of the original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -controversial literature. church of england -doctrines. anti-catholicism. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the protestant's companion : or , an impartial survey and comparison of the protestant religion , as by law established ; with the main doctrines of popery : wherein is shewn , that popery is contrary to scripture , primitive fathers and councils ; and that proved from holy writ , the writings of the ancient fathers for several hundred years , and the confession of the most learned papists themselves . whereby the papists vain pretence to antiquity , and their reproaching the protestant doctrines with novelty , is wholly overthrown . by a true son of the protestant church of england , as established by law. london , printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in s. paul's church-yard . m dc lxxxv all scripture is given by inspiration of god , and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , 2 tim. 3. 16. in vain they do worship me , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , matth. 15. 9. — but from the beginning it was not so , matth. 19. 8. non audiatur haec dico , haec dicis , sed haec dicit dominus . augustin . de unit . eccles. contr . petil. c. 3. id verius quod prius , id prius quod & ab initio , ab initio quod ab apostolis . tertullian . advers . marcion . l. 4. c. 5. id esse verum quodcunque primum , id esse adulterinum quodcunque posterius . idem advers . praxeam , c. 2. the preface to the protestant reader . as we have immortal souls of infinite more value than all transient glories and sublunary advantages ; so ought we both in obedience to the tender and compassionate advice of our blessed redeemer ( who purchased them with his own dear blood , ) and out of a true concern for our eternal welfare , to live such lives here as we may be happy hereafter . pursuant to this excellent design , we ought carefully attend to that holy religion we have so long professed , which teaches no doctrines that are not agreeable to the holy scriptures , and to the practice of the best and purest ages of christianity . a religion , which neither robs god of his honour , nor the king of his due ; a religion , whose venerable rites keep a just medium betwixt vain popish pomp , and fanatical indecency ; a religion that not only teaches us how to be good , but obliges us so to be , that is , a religion truly christian , and a copy of that perfect original which our lord and saviour hath left us for our direction . and therefore as nothing ought to be dearer to us ; so we cannot be sufficiently thankful to his sacred majesty ( whom god preserve ) for the gracious assurance he has given , that he will support it , and defend us in the profession of it . a king whose royal progenitors of immortal memory for above 100 years , have not only been the ornaments but the supports too of the protestant religion ; his fam'd grandfather king iames learnedly defending it by his pen , and thereby justly meriting the glorious title of its defender ; his excellent a father dying a glorious martyr , and his late dearly beloved brother being a long time exile for our reformed religion . let us then strive to shew that we are not unworthy of so illustrious and valiant a protector , by our loyalty to him ; not unworthy of such a religion , by our conformity to its principles , in holiness , sobriety and charity , and a stedfast adherence to it , in opposition to any other that will destroy that which our church hath built upon so sure a foundation . and that we may rightly understand what this religion is , and the difference betwixt that which is established in our church , and what is owned in the church of rome , i have made the following collection ; wherein is demonstrated how contrary the popish religion is to our church , and how inconsistent with scripture , the practice of the primitive and best ages of christianity , and that prov'd , not only from the writings of the apostles , and choice records of antiquity , but even granted to be so by the most b learned and no less impartial papists themselves ; which as it is the testimony of one friend against another , is lookt upon as an undenyable evidence . before i conclude , i must admonish the reader , that i have not rendered the authors at large , but so quoted them , that the learned may examine them , nor have i drawn arguments ( as usually ) from them , because that would have made this book ( design'd for a pocket-companion ) to have swell'd into a great volume ; yet to make requital for that just omission , i have , at the conclusion of each section , directed the reader to other writers of our religion , which treat of that particular controversie at large . may then the all-wise god , by whose divine permission thus much hath been perform'd , so bless this poor labour of his unworthy servant , that it may be instrumental to the good of his church , and the confirming of all our weak brethren in our most holy faith ; which was the principal design of its publication . the introduction . the church of rome , though she talk aloud of the antiquity of , and an universal consent in her doctrines , is so far from either , that therein she will be tied to no rule , nor observe any law , as if she would verifie that remarque of 1 crantzius upon her in another case , nunc ad se omnium ecclesiarum jura traxit romana ecclesia , that she hath engrossed to her self all the priviledges or rights of other churches . her greatest 2 defendants reject the scripture , though given forth by * divine inspiration , and do say it is no more to be believed , in saying it is from god , than mahomet's alcoran , &c. and good reason why , 3 because her doctrines are repugnant to the holy scriptures . what then will she trust to ? tradition : that she equals with 4 the scriptures themselves . and yet her great annalist , cardinal baronius , who was once , as it were , a living library , while he kept the vatican 5 6 confesseth , that he despaired to find out the truth even in those matters which true writers have recorded : because there was nothing which remained sincere and incorrupted . this blow given by so skilful an artist , dashes all the characters wherein the defence of oral tradition should be legible . and , if tradition in true writers be so difficult to preserve , how can it be expected to be safe from spurious ones , or without any writers at all ? however , though the papists do not grant , that this ruins their tradition , i am sure , it cuts off that definition of it , by † cardinal bellarmin , who affirms , that to be a true tradition which all former doctors ( mind that ! or then will the fathers come in for a share ) have successively in their ages acknowledged to come from the apostles , and by their doctrine or practices have approved , and which the universal church owns as such . moreover bellarmin's definition of tradition gives us this encouragement and liberty to try antiquity by fathers , councils and papal decrees . for the fathers , i hope , the romanists , who boast so much of their being on their party , will not refuse to be try'd by them , when 7 coster and others make such a fine flourish in their pretensions to antiquity . no , the fathers shall not be iudges of the papists : the romanists will not be controlled by the fathers . for cardinal 8 baronius saith , the catholick church ( and this they would have you to believe , is their own church ; but against all reason and sense ) doth not in all things follow the interpretation of the fathers . this is a fair but modest confession . but cardinal 9 bellarmin goes further , the writings of the fathers ( saith he ) are not rules to us , nor have the authority to bind us . this is an 10 home thrust : and yet 11 salmeron is more incivil with those ancient doctors , when he saith , that the latter doctors are sharper-sighted than they , and therefore pronounces of many of them at once , that we must not follow a multitude to deviate from the truth . i am afraid he gave his own church a rude blow there ; for we may turn that argument of his against the church of rome , which ever and anon is pleading her great number of professors . to which let us add , what another romanist saith in this point . and 12 he tells you , that he believes the pope in matters of faith , before a thousand augustines , jeroms or gregories . this indeed is plain dealing , and no mincing of the matter ! but then again it is wholly opposite to their vain pleas for antiquity , and wholly different from the modest procedure of 13 s. jerome , who thinks it great rashness and irreverence , presently to charge the antients with heresie for a few obnoxious terms ; since , when they erred , they erred perhaps with a simple and honest mind , or wrote things in another sense than they were ( afterwards ) taken . but , if this be all the esteem the papists have for the ancient doctors , then adieu to the authority of the fathers in the church of rome . moreover , even the councils fare no better in the papists hands : for it is usual in their editions of the councils , to have some printed with this title , reprobatum ( or disallowed ) others ex parte approbatum , 14 accordingly as they agree or disagree with their opinions and interest at rome . which verifies that 15 smart censure of ludovicus vives , that those are accounted decrees and councils , which make for their purpose , and all others are no more valued by them than the meetings of some tatling women in a weaving shop , or at the baths . but although they reject both fathers and councils , ( when they are pressed by the protestants with their authorities ) yet , to take away all testimonies of the fathers from us , the politick council of trent set up their indices expurgatorii , which they referred to pope pius iv. whose bull for that end bore date march 24. 1564. 16 and in these tables they set down , what books were by them forbidden , and in which to be purged , and what places ought to be left out . thus design'd they , that both fathers and councils should lisp their language . but , though it be contrary to that rule , by which 17 christ himself was willing to be tried , if i bear witness of my self , my witnes is not true ; and contrary to all equity and the old 18 laws , viz. that they which are brought out of our own house , ought not to be witnesses for us ; yet , since they have disowned ( when pressed with strength of reason , and oppressed with truth ) the scriptures , the fathers and councils , we will pursue them to their last fort ; to wit , to the decrees of their popes , which they so much adore . if they gain-say these , then conclamatum est , their case is desperate . well , then it must be so ; for they have rejected the traditions of old popes for those of new ones : one would have thought , that old friends and old divines had been the surest and soundest ; but it is not so at rome . for they have slighted and contradicted that decree of 19 anacletus : that all , who are present at mass , shall communicate ; that of 20 pope gelasius of not taking the bread alone , which ( honest-man ) he called sacrilege ; and 21 that of alexander 11. of celebrating but one . mass in one day . which abominable practice of the roman church make good that saying of their own pope 22 gelasius , quaero ab his judicium quod praetendunt ubinam possint agitari , an apud ipsos , ut iidem sint inimici , testes & judices ? which signifies in short , that they would be both enemies , witnesses and iudges in their own cause ; as being conscious to themselves of such errors as will not bear the test , nor can be defended without such foul play . who then can safely trust the conduct of his salvation to that church , ( of rome ) which refuseth to be tried by the word of god , by the ancient fathers , by general councils , and even by the decrees of her ( pretended ) spiritual heads ? but because in the following book i have produced the testimonies of the fathers voting against popish doctrines , it will not ( i judge ) be unnecessary to subjoyn , that , although we highly esteem and respect the fathers , and especially those of the first three hundred years after christ , and make use of their writings , as explaining the sense of the scriptures , and handing to us the opinions of the ages they liv'd in ; yet we never receive any of them with the same respect and esteem that we do the word of god : and that with good reason : for though they were learned and pious men ; yet they were but men , and consequently were lyable to error as well as other men . and herein the advite of s. austin is to be followed , to wit , to follow 23 him ( and such as himself ) no further than they follow truth and holy scripture , which ought still to be preferred before them : and yet s. augustin was neither the worst nor the meanest of those christian hero's . thus do we reverence but do not idolize them , and only prefer the scriptures before them ; whereas the papists value their late papal decrees before the primitive doctors . these things being premised , i shall renew that five-fold challenge about the popes supremacy , formerly propounded by a reverend and learned bishop of our church ; which the papists ought first to answer , before they can justly obtain what they in vain pretend to as consequences of that supremacy . for , they failing to prove this , ( which , i think , they will never be able to do ) their attempts in the points depending thereon must needs be fruitless and ineffectual . the challenge is this : 1. whether our saviour before his ascension did constitute s. peter his vicar , and gave him a monarchical supremacy over the apostles and the whole church ? 2. whether the papists can prove , that s. peter , while he lived , exercised such power and supreme iurisdiction , even over the apostles ? in such cases as these , idem est non esse & non apparere . 3. whether , if s. peter exercised any such authority , it was not temporary , and ceased with his person , as the apostleship did ? 4. whether ( if all these were true , as they are wholly the contrary ) they can make it appear , that the bishop of rome was the successor of s. peter , and not the bishop of antioch ? and whether ever he was at rome or no ? 5. whether they can make it appear , that our blessed saviour , when on earth , exercised such a temporal monarchy as the pope now challengeth ? confessions of the popish doctors in this case . to the first and second queries it is confessed by 25 cardinal cusanus , that s. peter received no more authority ( and then he could not exercise any authority over his fellows ) than the rest of the apostles . to the third and fourth queries it is confessed by 26 aeneas sylvius ( afterwards pope , by then ame of pius ii. ) that the pope's succession is not revealed in scripture ; and then it cannot be proved jure divino positivo . and by bellarmin , 27 that neither scripture nor tradition ( habet ) allows ( then farewell papal supremacy ) that the apostoliok seat ( or chair ) was so fixed at rome , ( which i really believe as well as he ) that it could not be taken from thence . and then why might it not be at antioch or jerusalom as well as rome ? confessed by him 28 further , that as long as the emperors were heathen , the pope was subject to them in all civil causes , and that for above one thousand years , his 29 judgment was not esteemed infallible , nor 30 his authority above that of a general council . where was then the exercise or acknowledgment of this supremacy and infallibility of the popes ? was all the world a-sleep , or ignorant so long of this power which they now challenge to themselves jure divino ? no , but the pope ( i warrant you ) had not yet the opportunity to usurp and challenge it , as he hath done since . to four of these , you see , they have plainly yielded : and the last , they can never make good , either from scripture or ecclesiastical history . add to these the confession of that learned papist , 31 father barns , that allowing the bishop of rome to have supremacy elsewhere ; yet the pope hath no supremacy in britain . insula autem britanniae gavisa est olim privilegio cyprio , ut nullius patriarchae legibus subderetur . and afterwards , videtur pacis ergô retineri debere sine dispendio catholicismi & absque schismatis ullius notâ . what can the papists say to this so plain an acknowledgment ? but not designing to treat at large upon the pope's supremacy , i have not ( as in the following subjects ) produced the testimonies of fathers and councils against this doctrine of rome , but shall advise the reader to consult herein bishop jewel against harding , article 4. archbishop bramhall's schism guarded against will. serjeant . dr. barrow of the pope's supremacy , and the bishop of lincoln's brutum fulmen , who will give him full satisfaction in that point . the contents of the following treatise . sect . i. of the scriptures sufficiency . page 1. sect . ii. of the scripture-canon . 5. sect . iii. of invocation of saints , and of the blessed virgin. 7 of image worship . 10. of adoration of the host. 11. sect . iv. of the three creeds , and how the pope imposes new articles of faith upon his followers . 13. sect . v. of the number of sacraments , and of communion in one kind . page 15 sect . vi. of transubstantiation . 19 sect . vii . of purgatory . 23 of indulgences . 25 of the sacrifice of the mass. 26 of justification by faith. 27 of merits . ibid. sect . viii . of prayers in an unknown tongue . 30 sect . ix . of the marriage of priests . 33 of auricular confession . 39 sect . x. of obedience to governors . 4● the protestant's companion . section i. the protestant church of england , our holy mother , admits of no other rule for faith and practice than the 1 holy scriptures , which according to 2 the apostles are able to make us wise unto salvation . the church of rome doth equal unwritten 3 traditions with the holy scriptures : whom 4 some of that church do call a nose of wax : 5 another , and that no less man than a cardinal , affirms , that the scripture is no more to be believed in saying that it comes from god than mahomet's alcoran , because that saith so too . another 6 cardinal saith , that the scriptures have no authority but for the decree of the church ; ( they mean the roman church ) by whom it 7 ought to be regulated , and not the church be regulated by it : and the reason is , because ( as it is 8 confess'd ) that the people would easily be drawn away from observing the church's ( i. e. romish ) institutions 9 , when they should perceive , that they are not contained in the law of christ , and that their ( i. e. popish ) doctrines are not only different from , but repugnant to the holy scriptures . hence doth the church 10 of rome under severe penalties forbid the laity the perusal of them , and thereby involves every lay-man in the guilt of being a traditor ; which in the 11 first ages of christianity was a crime 12 next door to apostasie . which act doth not only imply , that the popish church refuseth to be try'd by the test of god's word , but is diametrically opposite to the practice of the primitive christians , as appears in the following quotations . the romish tenet of slighting the scriptures is contrary to the word of god , ioh. 5. 39. 2 tim. 3. 16 , 17. contrary to the fathers , clemens romanus epist. ad corinth . p. 58 , 61 , 68. irenaeus l. 2. c. 47. idem l. 3. c. 1. &c. 2. tertullian adv . hermogen . c. 23. clemens alexandrinus stromat . l. 7. origen in esai . hom. 2. idem in comment . in iosh. p. 27. id. homil. in leviticum 9. & comment . in matthaeum p. 220. cyprian epist. 74. eusebius adv . sabellium l. 2. constantinus magnus apud theodoret. histor. lib. 1. c. 7. athanasius in orat. adv . gentes , & de incarn . christi . hilarius ad constant . optatus l. 5. de schis . donat. basil. de sp. sancto c. 7. id. de verà side ac pià fide tom. 2. op. graec. lat. p. 386. id. in ethicis reg. 16. tom. 2. id. hom. 29. de trinit . tom. 1. gregor . nyss. in dial. de animâ ac resurrect . hieronymus in comment . in esa. cap. 19. id. in epist. ad laetam . id. adv . helvid . id. praefat. comment . in epist. ad ephes. chrysostom 13. hom. in gen. id. hom. 52. in ioh. id. homil. 4. in lazar. id. hom. 34. in act. 15. id. praefat. in epist. ad rom. id. hom. 13. in 2 cor. 7. id. hom. 9. in coloss. 3. id. hom. 3. in 1 thessal . id. hom. 3. in 2 thessal . 2. id. hom. 8. in epist. ad hebr. c. 5. augustin , epist. 3. id. de doctrinâ christi l. 2. c. 6. & 9. id. de unitat. eccles. c. 3 , 4 , 5 , & 12. id. epist. 157. id. de bapt. c. donat. lib. 1. c. 6. & l. 2. c. 3. & 14. ( that passage in s. augustin , ego evangelio non crederem , &c. contr . ep. fundam . c. 5. is interpreted by these learned papists following , to be meant of the primitive church , and those men who saw and heard our blessed saviour , and not that the fathers should be of more authority than the scriptures : ioh. gerson de vitâ sp. lect. 2. hic aperitur modus , &c. ioh. driedo de eccl. script . & dogm . l. 4. c. 4. & th. wald. doctrinal . l. 2. c. 21. sufficiat universali ecclesiae pro preconio potestatis suae modernae , &c. who is very smart upon such as held the contrary ) idem epist. 48. tom. 2. & epist. 19. cyril alex. l. 7. adv . iulian . theodoret dial. 2. id. qu. 45. in genes . theophilus alexand. in 2 pasch. homil. cyril . hieros . cat. 4. vincentius lirinensis contra haeres . cap. 2. &c. 41. iustus orgelitanus in c. 4. cantic . gregorius magnus in ezekiel . l. 1. hom. 9. tom. 2. id. moral . l. 8. c. 8. id. in cant. c. 5. id. moral . l. 16. c. 17. tom. 1. id. l. 4. ep. 40. ad theod. medic. tom. 2. id. epist. ad leand. c. 4. praefat. in iob. tom. 1. that the holy scriptures could not be corrupted , but those corruptions would have been discover'd : see augustin de utilit . credendi , c. 3. & id. c. faustum l. 11. c. 2. and confess'd by bellarmin , that the scriptures could not be corrupted , but those corruptions would be discovered by catholicks , de v. d. l. 2. c. 7. consult in this point bishop iewel 's treatise of the holy scriptures ( who in his excellent apology handles all the main points in controversie betwixt us and the church of rome ) and article 15. against harding . dr. stillingfleet's rational account of the grounds of protestant religion , reprinted in 1681 , part 1. c. 7 , 8 , 9. chillingworth's religion of the protestants a safe way to salvation , part 1. chap. 2. lively oracles by the author ( as it 's said ) of the whole duty of man. sect . ii. we receive no other books of scripture for 13 canonical ( in the church of england ) than 14 such as of whose authority there was never any doubt in the church . the church of rome doth make the books commonly call'd apocrypha of equal authority with those of the old and new testament ; which neither the 15 iews , ( to 16 whom were committed the oracles of god ) nor the primitive church , nor 17 any general council , nor any doctor in the ages succeeding , till about 120 years ago , in the council of trent , nor the 18 greek church to this day , did ever receive as canonical . apocrypha receiv'd as canonical by the papists , is contrary to the fathers , melito apud euseb. histor. eccles. l. 4. c. 25. & graec. 26. origen in psal. 1. athanasius epist. 39. in 2 tom. oper. & synops. sacr. scriptur . hilarius in prol. explanat . in psalmos . cyril hierosol . in catech. 4. de sacrâ scripturâ . concil . laodic . canon . 59. epiphanius haeres . 8. contr . epicur . & haeres . 76. contra anomaeos & lib. de mens . & pond . basil. in philocal . c. 3. gregor . nazianzen de veris & genuinis libris s. scripturae divinitus inspiratae in libro carminum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . amphilochius in epist. ad seleucum inter canonicas epistolas à balsamone not at . p. 1082. gr. lat. hieronymus in prol. galeato , sive praefat. in lib. regum . ruffinus in symbol . apostol . sect. 35 , 36. iunilius africanus de part . divinae legis l. 1. c. 3. tom. 6. bibl. patr . part . 2. colon. 1618. gregorius magnus moral . l. 19. c. 17. & occam . ( who liv'd above 700 after gregory , viz. about anno dom. 1320 ) explains gregory's judgment , that iudith , tobias , the maccabees , ecclesiasticus , and the book of wisdom are not to be receiv'd for the confirmation of faith , dial. part . 3. tract . 1. l. 3. c. 16. confessed by cardinal cajetan , who liv'd but eleven years before the council of trent , that the apocryphal books are not canonical , in libro esther sub finem — et in hoc loco terminamus , &c. and afterwards , nam ad hieronymi limam ( scil . in prol. galeato , where he owns no books for canonical , but such as ws receive in that sense ) reducenda sunt tam verba conciliorum quàm doctorum . confessed by 19 catharine ( who was in the council of trent ) and by 20 stapleton , who liv'd after catharine , that the apostles never received nor confirmed the apocrypha . and this will quite ruine their cause , when we have produced 21 bellarmin confessing , that the church hath no power to make a book canonical , which was not so before . consult the learned bishop cosin's scholastical history of the scripture-canon , upon this subject . sect . iii. we worship the only 22 god , as we are taught to believe in him , and 23 none other . the church of rome 24 enjoyns those that live in its communion to pray to their fellow creatures ( who 25 know not our thoughts and necessities ) to hero's and saints ( of whom they feign so many ridiculous stories ) and to the blessed 26 virgin , to whom they use such abominable expressions . yea 27 a great cardinal doth not blush to say , that it is not absurd , that holy men be called redeemers after a sort . invocation of saints or angels is contrary to scripture , matth. 11. 27 , 28. * ioh. 6. 37 , & 14. 13. & 16 , 23 , 24. acts 10. 25 , 26. & 14. 13 , 14 , 15. rom. 8. 27. ephes. 3. 20. col. 2. 18. 1 tim. 2. 5. 1 ioh. 2. 1 , 2. and contrary to the fathers , who , tho' they might sometimes use rhetorical apostrophe's and poetical flourishes , are far from the popish tenet of invocation . fathers against this doctrine , ignatius in epist. ad philadelph . iustin martyr , apol. 2. theophilus antiochenus ad autolycum , l. 1. irenaeus , l. 2. c. 57. origen c. celsum , l. 5. p. 233 , & 236. concil . laodicenum , can. 35. ambrose de obit . theodos. id. de interpellat . l. 3. c. 12. id in 28 rom. 1. tom. 5. p. 174. ierome to. 7. in prov. c. 2. augustin de civit . dei , l. 8. c. 27. l. 9. c. 15. &c. 23. l. 10. c. 1. l. 20. c. 10. l. 22. c. 10. id. l. 2. de visit . infirm . id. confess . l. 10. c. 42. theodoret in 2 , & 3. coloss. dracontius poetic . hexameron . confessed by some of the most 29 learned papists , that it is a doctrine , neither expresly nor covertly contained in the scripture . 30 spalatensis confesseth , that religious invocation of saints is heathenism , and meer civil invocation of them ( tho' not so bad , yet ) dangerous . 31 cardinal perron confesseth , that there are no footsteps of it , either in the scriptures or in the fathers before the first four general councils ; none of which were call'd till 320 years after our saviour's incarnation . bellarmin 32 confesseth , that invocation of saints was not so much begun by any law as by custom . this is to the purpose ! but yet further , wicelius 33 saith , that the invocation of saints is to be cast out of the church , because it ascribes god's honour and attributes to his creatures , and derogates from the office and glory of christ , by making saints mediators and intercessors . what protestant could have opposed this vain doctrine with greater strength of reason and argument than these papists have done ? truth will conquer . the romish church 34 likewise obliges all those in its communion , to worship images , ( the idolatrous practice of the heathen world ) and that with the same 35 worship which is given to him whose image it is ( and that , i think , is far enough ) ; so that the worship may be terminated in the image 36 . if this be not idolatry , i know not what can be such ! and yet , that nothing might be wanting in their worship , to make up the measure of iniquity , they deny 37 that god alone is to be worshipped . i suppose , they mean , he must have sharers with him in that honour ; for otherwise it cannot be sence : i am sure , however , it is blasphemy . image worship is contrary to scripture , exod 20. 4 , 5. hence do the papists often leave the second commandment out of their catechisms , as in vaux's catechism , ledesma's catechism , & officium b. mariae , pii 5. pont. jussu editum antwerp . a. d. 1590. that the second commandment was meant of , and desigued against images and idols , the following fathers and doctors do attest : iustin martyr dial. cum tryph. p. 321. tertullian de idol . c. 3 , 4. & id. c. marcion l. 2. c. 22. despect . c. 23. clemens alexand. stro . l. 3. p. 441. origen c. celsum l. 4. p. 182. & l. 7. p. 375. id. in exod. hom. 8. athanasius in synops. nazianzen in vers . de decal . ambrose & ierome in ephes. c. 6. augustin ep. 119. c. 11. procopius & rupertus in exod. c. 20. contrary to scripture , lev. 26. 1. deut. 4. 15 , 16. & 5. 7 , 8 , 9. isa. 40. 18 , 19 , 20. micah 5. 13. matt. 4. 10. ioh. 5. 21. rev. 19. 10. contrary to the fathers , iustin martyr apol. 2. p. 65 , 66. theophilus antiochenus ad autolycum l. 1. p. 77 , & 110. clemens alexandrinus strom . l. 6. & in paraenetico . tertullian adv . hermogen . init . minutius felix p. 33. who saith , cruces nec colimus nec optamus . origen c. celsum l. 7 , & 8. the council of eliberis in spain , at an. d. 310. can. 36. lactantius lib. 2. cap. de orig . error . dubium non est , &c. optatus l. 3. epiphanius epist. ad ioh. hieros . augustin de morib . ecclesiae cath. l. 1. c. 34. & de side & symbolo c. 7. & id. contr . adimant . c. 13. & id. tom. 3. de consens . evangel . l. 1. c. 10. id. de civit . dei l. 9. c. 15. fulgentius ad donatum . gregorius mag. l. 9. epist. 9. imagines adorare omnibus modis devita . moreover the 38 church of rome would oblige us to adore the consecrated host , ( or bread in the sacrament of the lord's supper ) and with the same worship which is due to the true god. which by the 39 confession of some of their learned men is an idolatry ( if 40 transubstantiation cannot be made out , which if it can , we ought no more to believe our own eyes ) more stupid than the sottish heathens were guilty of . though this practice is so far from being ancient , that elevation of the host , accompanied with the ringing of a bell at the consecration thereof ( that all who heard it , might kneel and joyn their hands in adoring the host ) was instituted but about an. dom. 1240. 41 the fathers were so far from worshipping the host , that some of them are sharp in reproving those , who reserved the reliques of it ; as appears by clement's epistle to s. iames , origen in levit. hom. 5. and by the 11th . council at toledo , c. 14. and in ierusalem they us'd to burn the remainders thereof , hesychius in levit. l. 2. c. 8. concerning invocation of saints , angels , &c. see archbishop laud's excellent book against jesuit fisher , so much commended by king charles i. dr. stillingfleet's rational account of the grounds of protestant religion , &c. part 3. ch. 3. dr. stillingfl . discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the ch. of rome , c. 2. bishop taylor 's disswasive from popery , part. 1. ch. 2. sect. 9. f. white against jesuit fisher , pag. 289. dr. brevent's saul and samuel at endor . bishop of lincoln's letter to mr. evelyn . concerning image-worship and the adoration of the host , see bishop iewel 's article 14 against harding . archbishop laud against jesuit fisher. dr. stillingfleet's discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the church of rome , and his defence of it . his rational account of the grounds of protestant religion , part. 3. chap. 3. bishop taylor 's disswasive from popery , ed. 3. c. 1. sect. 8 , 9. ch. 2. sect. 12. rodon's funeral of the mass , c. 5. confessed by these learned popish doctors hereafter mentioned , that the making of images was prohibited in the old law , and not to be found in scripture . aquinas 3. sent. dist. 9. q. 2. ad . 1. prohibitum est . alexander hales , p. 3. q. 30. m. 3. ar . 3. albertus 3. d. 9. ar . 4. bonaventure 3. d. 9. marsilius 3. q. 8. ar . 2. rich. media villa 3. d. 9. q. 2. gerson compend . tr . 2. d. 10. praecept . abulensis exod. 20. q. 39. et dominic . bannes in 2a . 2ae . qu. 1. art . 10. that the fathers condemn'd image-worship is confess'd by polydore virgil de invent. l. 6. c. 13. where he saith , sed teste hieronymo omnes ferè veteres sancti patres ( speaking of images ) damnabant ob metum idololatriae . for fear of idolatry . and by cassander , consult . d. imag. quantum veteris initio ecclesiae ab omni imaginum adoratione abhorruêrunt , declarat unus origenes . and that for the first four ages after christ , there was little or no use of images in the temples or oratories of the christians is confess'd by petavius , dogmat. theol. to. 5. l. 15. c. 13. s. 3. c. 14. s. 8. sect . iv. our church contends for and embraces that faith , which was 42 once delivered to the saints , and admits and professes that same , which all true christians have made the badge of their holy profession , which 43 is briefly comprehended in the apostles creed , and explain'd in those others call'd the nicene and athanasian , which may be prov'd by the scriptures , and have been approved by the universal church , by the decrees of the first general councils and writings of the fathers . the popish church , especially that part of it which is called the court of rome , obtrudes and imposes new articles of faith , making 44 the bishop of rome the infallible judge and arbitrator of all doctrines , enjoyning an implicit faith and blind obedience to his dictates ; wherein we must renounce 45 our very reason : so that 46 if he call that white which we see to be black , we are to say so ; since he hath ( as 47 they say ) the power of making new creeds , contrary to scripture , gal. 1. 8 , 9. contrary to s. augustin de unit. eccles. contr . epist. petil. c. 3. and all the fathers who shew an esteem for the scripture . confess'd by cardinal bellarmine , that till above a thousand years after christ , the 48 popes judgment was not esteemed infallible , nor his 49 authority above that of a general council ; much less then is it above that of the holy scriptures . hence must it necessarily follow , that it is a new article of the creed , to believe that the pope can make new creeds . consult dr. stillingfleet's discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the church of rome , chap. 4. sect . v. our church useth the same 50 sacraments , which our saviour christ left in his 51 church and no other , to wit , baptism and the lord's supper ; which both the 52 laity and the clergy in our communion receive intire without mutilation , according to our blessed saviour's institution 53 , the practice of the apostles , and of the latin church for 54 fourteen hundred years after our saviour's incarnation , and of the 55 greek church in the last age ; if not until this day . the church of rome doth not only clog its members with the number of 56 seven sacraments ; ( which precise number of sacraments was not held for catholick , even in the roman church , till above a thousand years after christ , and therefore far from primitive christianity ) but deprives the laity 57 of the cup in the eucharist , contrary to our saviour's institution : which is at once the highest presumption , and withal not one degree remov'd from sacriledge . the number of seven sacraments contrary to the fathers , iustin martyr , apol. 2. ( whom even bellarmine himself confesses to have mentioned but two sacraments , de effect . sacram. l. 2. c. 27. sect. venio . ) tertullian advers . marcion . l. 4. c. 34. & id. de coronâ militis c. 3. cyril of ierusalem in his catechisms . s. ambrose in his books de sacramentis . augustin de doctr. christi , lib. 3. c. 9. id. de symbolo ad catech. tom. 9. id. epist. 118. ad ianuar. tom. 2. iunilius in genes . confess'd , that peter lombard , master of the sentences ( who liv'd anno dom. 1144. ) was the first author that mentioned the precise number of seven sacraments , and the council of florence held anno dom. 1438 , was the first council that determined that number . by cardinal bellarmin , de sacram. lib. 2. c. 25. and cassander , consult . de num . sacram. communion in one kind contrary to scripture , matt. 26. 26 , 27 , 28. luk. 22. 19 , 20. 1 cor. 11. 26 , 27 , 28. contrary to the fathers , dionysius areopagita , eccl. 58 hierarch . c. 3. ( which author i quote in the front of the fathers , because the papists would have him to live in the first age ; though it is more probable that he liv'd later ; albeit not so late as monsieur daill'e would have him . ) ignatius ep. ad philadelph . iustin martyr , apol. 2. in fine p. 162. clemens alexandrin . stromat . l. 1. p. 94. & id. paedagog . l. 2. c. 2. p. 35. tertullian de resurrect . c. 8. & id. l. 2. ad uxorem c. 6. origen , hom. 16. in num. cyprian , epist. 54. tom. 1. l. 1. epist. 2. gregor . nazianzen orat. 11. in laud. gorgon . & orat. 40. in sanctum baptism . tom. 1. athanasius , apol. 2. contra arrianos , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. ambros. in orat. ad theodos. & apud theodoret. hist. eccles. l. 5. c. 18. hieronymus epist. ad rusticum tom. 1. id. sup . s●phon . c. 3. tom. 6. chrysostom in 2 cor. hom. 18. tom. 3. edit . savil. p. 646. augustin 4. qu. 57. in levit. leo ser. 4. de quadrages . gelasius decret . 3. part . de consecrat . dist . 2. cap. comperimus . hincmar in the life of the archbishop rhemes ( who converted king clovis of france to the christian faith ) reports that the archbishop gave a chalice ( or cup ) for the peoples use , with this motto , hauriat hinc populus vitam de sanguine sacro , injecto , aeternus quem fudit vulnere christus , remigius domino reddit sua vota sacerdos , è cassandri liturg. c. 31. pamelii liturgic . p. 618. tom. 1. gregorius magnus , dial. l. 1 , 4. c. 58. id. dial. l. 3. c. 36. tom. 2. id. in sab. paschae , homil. 22. tom. 2. confess'd , that communion in one kind , is against the practice of the apostles , by paschasius radbertus de corp . & sang . domini c. 19. confess'd , that it was a general custom for the laity to communicate in both kinds , by salmeron , tract . 35. confess'd by cassander , 59 that it was receiv'd in both kinds for above a thousand years after christ ; by 60 vasquez and thomas 61 aquinas for above 1200 years ; by 62 becanus for 1400 years ; and last of all by the 63 council of constance it self , it was acknowledged , that communion in both kinds had been instituted by our blessed saviour himself , practised by the primitive church , and to that very time ; and yet they had the confidence to alter it ! they certainly had confidence enough , but neither too much reason nor too much religion , who durst disannul what our blessed saviour had enjoyn'd , and what carried his seal to that very day . where was then that reverence to antiquity , which their followers to this day so much pretend to ? concerning the number of seven sacraments , see birkbeck's protestant evidence article 4. of communion in both kinds , see bishop iewel 's article 2. against harding . bishop taylor 's disswasive , part 1. ch. 1. sect. 6. dr. stillingfleet's rational account of the grounds of protestant religion , part 3. ch. 3. archbishop laud against rodon's funeral of the mass , ch. 6. sect . vi. we do not believe that the elements of bread and wine 64 after consecration become the very body and blood of christ , though the worthy receiver partakes of both in a spiritual manner by faith ; because we herein have all the testimony we are capable of ; viz. that of our reasons and of our senses , to believe , that there is not a real transubstantiation or a change of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of our saviour : which is an absurd tenet , and hath occasioned many superstitions . the church of rome holds , that there 65 is a conversion of the whole substance of bread and wine into the substance of christ's body and blood by consecration . transubstantiation contrary to scripture , luk. 22. 17 , 18 , 19 , 20. contrary to the fathers , iustin martyr , apol. 2. irenaeus l. 4. adv . haer. c. 34. tertullian cont . marcion . l. 4. c. 40. origen , comment . in matth. c. 15. id. homil. 3. in matth. eusebius de demonst. evangel . l. 1. c. 1. &c. ult . macarius homil. 27. gregor . nazianz. orat. 2. in pasch. ambros. lib. de bened. patriarch . c. 9. epiphanius in anchorat . p. 6. chrysostome homil. 24. in epist. ad cor. id. epist. ad caesar. monach. ierome , comment . s. matth. c. 26. id. in isa. 66. & in hos. 8. & in ierem. 22. augustin . serm. 9. de divers . id. l. 3. de doctr. christ. c. 16. id. l. 20. contr . faust. manich. c. 21. & in psal. 98. id. de civit . dei l. 21. c. 25. & tractat. 26. in ioh. gelasius in lib. de duab . nat . christ. ephrem , patriarch of antioch , apud phot. cod. 229. primasius comment . in 1 epist. ad cor. facundus defens . conc. chalced. l. 9. c. 5. gaudentius tract . 20. add to these , that hesychius bishop of hierusalem , in leviticum , l. 2. c. 8. saith , it was the custom in the ancient church to burn the remainders of the eucharist . which place when cheyney , a protestant in q. mary's days , insisted upon against the papists , and demanded what it was that was burned ? one answered , that it was either the body of christ , or the substance of bread put there by miracle ; at which he smil'd , and said , a reply was needless : and i think so too . chillingworth hath a pretty joking dialogue betwixt c. and k. about transubstantiation and the infallibility of the roman church , in his protestant religion a safe way to salvation , part 1. ch. 3. edit . 2. 1638. p. 158 , 159. transubstantiation confess'd not to be in the canon of the bible , by these learned papists hereafter mentioned , scotus in 4. lib. sentent . dist . 11. q. 3. occam ibid. q. 6. biel lect. 40. in can. missae . fisher bishop of rochester , c. 1. cont . captiv . babyl . cardinal cajetan apud suarez . tom. 3. disp. 46. sect. 3. melchior canus , loc. com . l. 3. c. 3. fund . 2. that transubstantiation was not touch'd by the fathers , was confess'd by our english jesuits , discurs . modest. p. 13. and by alphonsus a castro de haeres . l. 8. verbo indulgentia . not own'd as an article * of faith before the lateran council ( held anno dom. 1215 ) therefore it is no ancient article , confess'd by scotus apud bellarm. l. 3. de euchar. c. 28. and yet this was the bloody test in queen mary's days , by which so many glorious martyrs changed earth for heaven . sect . vii . our church acknowledges no purgatory 66 or propitiation for our sins , but that which was made once for all 67 by our blessed saviour ; and that upon the condition of faith and repentance . we 68 disown all pardons and indulgences as grounded upon no warranty of scripture , but rather repugnant to the word of god ; since we are told that we have nothing 69 but what we have received . we own that good works 70 are the fruits of faith , and follow after justification , but that they cannot put away sins , and endure the severity of god's judgment , much less for the sins of others : nor can 71 we perform works over and above god's commands , call'd by the papists works of supererogation : to say which , is the highest arrogance . for when we have done all we are commanded , christ enjoyns us to say , we are unprofitable servants . and we look upon our selves as righteous before god for the 72 merit of our blessed lord and saviour jesus christ by faith , and not for our own works and deserts . the romish church owns a purgatory 73 for sins pardoned , so that there still remains a guilt of temporal punishment to be paid , either in this life or hereafter in purgatory . which upstart doctrine of purgatory ( for we shall anon shew it to be so ) hath prov'd the mother of indulgences and pardons , and thereby hath mightily enriched 74 the church of rome , whereby remission of sins is set upon terms 75 in the vile market of indulgences ; murther and incest being valued at five grosses ; 76 perjury at six ; sacriledge and simony at seven , and so on in the tax of the apostolick ( as it is pretended ) 77 chancery . hence above 78 60000 marks besides all other payments to the see of rome were yearly carried out of this kingdom by the italians , being a greater revenue than our king then had ; as appears by a fruitless complaint in a letter from the whole nation to the council of lions , anno dom. 1245. a round summ it was in those days before the indian gold was discover'd , and yet that was spent in maintaining the lust and ambition of the popish clergy . popish purgatory contrary to scripture , gal. 3. 13. heb. 1. 3 , &c. 9. 14. &c. 10. 10. rom. 5. 1 , 2 , 10 , 11 , rev. 14. 13. which last text is a place so clear against purgatory , that picherellus a papist of the sorbon college , did ingeniously confess that s. iohn had in those few words put out the fire of purgatory , de missà , pag. 156. contrary to the fathers , dionysius areopagita eccles. hier. c. 7. author of the questions in iustin , quaest. 75. tertullian de baptismo . cyprian's tract . ad demetri . sect. 16. macarius homil. 22. hilarius in psal. 2. gregon . nazianzen . orat. 5. in plagam grandinis , & orat. 42. in pascha . de eccles. dogmat. c. 79. ambrose de bono mortis , cap. 4. chrysostom de poenit . serm. 3. id. in genes . hom. 5. & hom. 16. in ep. ad rom. epiphanius haeres . 79. sub finem . augustin , though he doubts in this point , in enchirid. c. 67 , 69. & de civit . dei , l. 21. c. 26. & de fide & op . c. 16. is positive elsewhere against purgatory , ( scil . lib. de pec . mer. & rem . cap. 28. ) he saith , that there is no middle place . that a man may be any where but with the devil , who is not with god. gregor . magnus in iob. lib. 13. c. 20. bede in psal. 6. otho frisingensis in chron. l. 8. c. 26. anselm in 2 cor. 5. bernard . epist. 266. lumbard sen. 3. dist . 19. lit . a. he liv'd anno dom. 1144. contrary to the doctrine of the greek church of the later ages , as appears from their apology delivered to the council of basil 78 about 253 years ago . hence doth alphonsus a castro place their not holding a purgatory among the errors of the greek church , l. 12. tit . purgat . purgatory confess'd by petrus picherellus to have no fewel either to kindle or maintain its fire in scripture : picherell . de missa , c. 2. confess'd that neither the scriptures nor the ancient fathers have any thing in them concerning purgatory , by alphonsus à castro l. 12. tit . purgat . f. 258. confess'd , that few or none of the greek fathers ever mention it , and the latin fathers did not at all believe it , but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it , and that the catholick church knew it lately , by roffensis art. 18. con . luther & polydore virgil. de invent. rerum , l. 8. confess'd by another learned roman catholick , father barns , that it is a thing which lies meerly in human invention , and cannot be firmly deduced from scriptures , fathers and councils , and that the opposite opinion seems more agreeable to them , in catholico-rom . pacificus , sect. 9. consult herein archbishop laud against jesuit fisher. dr. stillingfleet's rational account , part 3. ch. 6. bishop taylor 's disswasive , part 1. ch. 1. sect. 4. the rise of in dulgences . at first the indulgences ( that were ) were but relaxations or releasements of canonical satisfaction , i. e. of the discipline or correction of the church . in this sense are to be understood the first council of nice , c. 11. of arles , c. 10. and of ancyra , c. 2. but their new and chief foundation was laid by 79 pope clement the sixth in his 80 extravagant , ann. dom. 1350. confess'd that we have nothing in the scripture nor in the sayings of the ancient fathers concerning indulgences as satisfactions before god for temporal punishments , or holding them as profitable for the dead , by antoninus part. 1. sum. tit . 10. c. 3. by biel lect. 57. de canon . missae , and by hostiensis in sum. l. 5. tit . de remis . nu . 6. consult herein bishop taylor 's disswasive , part 1. ch. 1. sect. 3. the church of rome likewise in the council 81 of trent accurses all such as say , that a sinner is justified by faith only , or deny that the good works of holy men do truly merit everlasting life : not to mention that blasphemous doctrine of the roman church , that 82 the sacrifice of the mass offered ( as they pretend ) by the priest is a meritorious and propitiatory sacrifice for sin ; which wholly takes away the efficacy and merits of christ's passion and resurrection . that the missal sacrifice is a propitiatory sacrifice for sin , is contrary to scripture , heb. 10. 10 , 11 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , &c. 9. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. &c. 7. 25. contrary to the fathers , ( who by those tropical speeches of sacrificing and offering , did not admit of any propitiatory sacrifice but only the passion of christ. ) iustin martyr , apol. 2. ireneus l. 5. c. 34. clement in constitution . l. 6. c. 23. eusebius lib. 1. cap. 10. de demonst . ambrose l. 4. de sacram. c. 6. chrysostom hom. 17. in hebraeos . augustin enchiridion ad laurent . c. 33. & id. de trinitate & de civitate dei , l. 10. c. 6. & l. 3. c. 13. & lib. 3. contra secund . epist . pelag. cap. 6. gregor . dial. lib. 4. c. 59. lumbard 4. dist . 12. thomas aquinas ( who lived a. d. 1253. ) 3. p. q. 83. art. 1. so far is the romish doctrine of the mass from being ancient ! that men merit eternal life by their good works is contrary to scripture , luke 17. 10. 1 cor. 4. 6 , 7. ephes. 2. 8. 1 ioh. 18. contrary to the fathers , ignatius in epist. ad rom. polycarp apud euseb. histor. eccles. l. 4. c. 15. origen l. 4. in epist. ad rom. c. 4. basil. in psal. 114. macarius homil. 15. ambrose in psal. 118. serm. 20. & in exhort . ad virgines . chrysostom in matth. homil. 53. id. ad stelechum de compunct . cord . ed. savil. tom. 6. p. 157. ierom super ephes. 2. tom. 9. id. l. 6. in isai. c. 13. id. lib. 17. c. 64. tom. 5. leo serm. 1. de assumpt . & id. serm. 12. de pass . dom . theodoret in rom. 6. v. ult . & id. in rom. 8. augustin confess . l. 10. c. 4. tom. 1. & id. super iohan . tract . 3. tom. 9. & id. tom. 8. in psal. 109. fulgentius ad monim . l. 1. c. 10. iustus orgelitanus in cantic . cap. 2. cassiodore in psal. 5. council of orange , 2. can. 20. caranza in summa concil . gregor . magnus tom. 2. in ezech. ad sinem . id. moral . l. 5. c. 8. l. 9. c. 14. l. 29. c. 9. l. 35. c. ult . id. psal. 1. poenit. tom. 2. merit not allow'd of in anselm's time , ( who liv'd an. dom. 1086. ) as appears from him in rom. 12. nor in s. bernard's days , as appears from him in cant. serm. 73. where he saith , that the saints had need to pray for their sins , that they may have salvation through mercy , and not trusting in their own righteousness . so far was s. bernard ( who liv'd an. dom. 1120. ) from owning the popish doctrine of merits . confess'd by bellarmin , that good works are rewarded above their deserts , de iustif. l. 1. c. 19. concerning the sacrifice of the mass , consult bishop iewel 1 and 17 article against harding , bishop morton of the mass , dr. brevint's depth and mystery of the roman mass. rodon's funeral of the mass , c. 7. & 8. concerning the popish doctrine of merits , see birkbeck's protestant evidence , article 9. that men are not justified by faith only , and for the merit of our saviour , but by their own good works too , by which ( as the papists hold ) they merit eternal happiness , is contrary to scripture , rom. 3. 28. &c. 4. 4 , 5. &c. 5. 1 , 2 , 3. &c. 11. 6. ephes. 2. 8 , 9. contrary to the fathers , irenaeus l. 4. c. 5. clemens alexandrinus paedagog . l. 1. c. 6. & stromat . l. 5. origen l. 3. in epist. ad rom. c. 3. ambrose ( or some in the same age with him , as bellarmin confesseth , de iustif. c. 8. ) in his comment . upon rom. c. 4. and in 1 cor. c. 1. theodoret de curandis graec. affectib . l. 7. chrysostome in rom. 1. 17. homil. 2. & id. in tit. 1. 13. homil. 3. augustin l. 1. contr . duas epistol . pelag. c. 21. & id. in psal. 8. concion . 2. primasius in c. 2. ad galatas . fulgentius de incar . & grat . c. 16. confessed by cardinal bellarmin , that it is most safe and sure to place all our trust upon the only mercy of god , because of the incertainty of our own justice and the danger of vain glory , de iustif. l. 5. c. 7. after he had confessed , that good works are rewarded above their deserts , id. de iustif. l. 1. c. 19. consult herein birkbeck's protestant evidence , article 8. sect . viii . our church performs all her prayers and other divine offices , and administers the sacraments with such rites as are agreeable to the word of god , being for 84 decency and order in a language understood 85 by all those that are concern'd therein . the popish church 86 hath her prayers in an unknown tongue , to which if the people do say , amen , it is without understanding . which is not only an unreasonable service , but an abominable sin , robbing god of his honour , and men of their devotion . prayers in an unknown tongue are ( 1. ) contrary to scripture , 1 cor. 14. ( 2. ) contrary to the fathers , origen contra cels. l. 8. basil lib. qu. ex variis script . locis q. 278. ambrose in 1 cor. 14. chrysostom hom. 18. in 2 cor. hierome tom. 1. epist. 17. augustin epist. 178. id. in psal. 18. con . 2. id. de doctr . christ. l. 4. c. 10. bede hist. angl. l. 1. c. 1. ( 3. ) contrary to councils and papal decrees , concilium moguntinum an. dom. 812. cap. 45. concil . lateran . an. dom. 1215. c. 9. greg. l. 1. titul . 31. cap. quoniam plerisque baronius , tom. 10. a. d. 88. n. 16. histor. boem . c. 13. written by aeneas sylvius , who was afterwards called pope pius 11. ( 1. ) confessed to be against edification in spiritual matters , by lyra and cardinal cajetan , in 1 cor. 14. cassander in liturgic . c. 28. & consult . article 24. ( 2. ) confessed to be contrary to the practice of the primitive church , by aquinas and lyra , in 1 cor. 14. consult herein bishop iewel against harding , article 3. bishop taylor 's dissuasive , part 1. ch. 1. sect. 7. sect . ix . as our church employs such persons in the ministry of god's worship and sacraments , and in feeding and governing the flock of christ , as are 87 lawfully called to their office and ministry , and are consecrated and ordained according to the scriptures and canons of the universal church , and of whose bishops we can shew * a succession to the apostles of our saviour as fully as any other church at this day can do : so do we leave all 88 ecclesiasticks , whether bishops , priests , or deacons , to marry at their own discretion , as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness ; since 89 marriage is honourable in all , and not forbid , but permited , and , in cases so requiring , enjoyned by god's law , and practised as well as taught by persons of the same function ( i. e. priests ) in the best and purest ages of the church , as may be seen in the following quotations . the church of rome 90 denies marriage to the clergy , but permits ( i suppose , by way of requital to ) them concubines 91 : for so doth * cardinal campegius observe , and pighius teach , which doth not only give great cause of scandal to iews and infidels , but in 92 the holy apostles judgment is the doctrine of devils . and the reason of concubinage may be easily inferr'd , when some 93 of their most learned men will scarce allow fornication to be a sin ; however preferring it in ecclesiasticks before lawful wedlock . the forbidding of marriage is contrary to scripture , levit. 21. 13. 1 tim. 3 , 2. 12. hebr. 13. 4. 1 cor. 7. 2 , 9. that the apostles were married , except s. iohn , is confessed by these fathers , ignatius ad philadelph , clemens stromat . lib. 7. euseb. histor. eccles. lib. 3. c. 30. who report that s. paul was married ; and s. ambrose in 2 cor. c. 11. who acknowledges , that all the apostles except s. iohn were married . fathers that were married themselves and yet were either bishops or priests , &c. tertullian , as appears by his two books to his wife , and yet he was a priest , as appears from s. ierome , do eccles. script . gregory nazianzen was the son of a bishop : see greg. nazianz. in carmine de vitâ suâ , & elias cretensis in orat. greg. nazianz. s. hilary , bishop of poictiers , was married , as is evident from his epistle written to his daughter , abrae , &c. fathers voting for , or acknowledging matrimony in the clergy , salvian de providentiâ l. 5. ambrose offic. l. 1. c. ult . chrysostome in epist. ad tit. homil. 2. id. in epist. ad hebraeos homil. 7. epiphanius contra origenian . theodoret. in 1 tim. 4. isidore reg. de vitâ cleric . dist . 23. c. his igitur . theophylact . in 1 tim. 13. bernard in cant. serm. 66. aeneas sylvius epistol . 308. and he lived anno dom. 1458. marriage of the clergy was not absolutely forbidden by the greeks in the last age , as appears by the patriarch hieremias's letter to the tubing divines , dated may 15. 1576. primum patriar . resp. apud chytrae . de statu eccles . orient . p. 149. this heretical doctrine of forced celibate in ecclesiasticks , was first established at rome by pope gregory the 7th . aliàs hildebrand , termed antichrist by 94 ancient historians about a. d. 1074. and was first put in practice to purpose by anselm archbishop of canterbury 95 here in england , about a. d. 1105. 96 though some will have his predecessor lanfranc to have imposed it upon the prebendaries and clergy that lived in towns , but not without great reluctancy . for what complaints , what tragedies , what lascivious pranks this devillish doctrine occasioned , the historians declare at large ; particularly that comical story of the italian cardinal iohn de crema , recorded by ancient 97 popish historians , who , after he had entertained the english clergy with a fine discourse against marriage , was the same night caught in bed with a harlot in london ; as if he would only commend virginity to others , and practise the contrary himself . that the reader may know , what an age this was , wherein the celibate of the clergy was established , let him hear cardinal bellarmin describing and characterizing it in his chronology . in these times ( saith he ) wherein the roman bishops did degenerate from the piety of the ancients ( mark that ! ) the secular princes flourished in holiness . you therefore see , that priests marriage was forbidden by impious popes . and about the beginning of this contention , ( viz. about an. dom. 860. ) the pope got a round check from udalricus or ulric . 98 a bishop of that time , who told him , that in the judgment of all wise men , it was to be accounted violence , when , any man against evangelical institution ( mind that ! ) and the charge of the holy ghost , is constrained to the execution of private decrees . the lord in the old law appointed marriage to his priest , which he is never read afterwards to have forbidden . but not to insist upon this clear testimony for the doctrine and practice of our church , nor to mention the many other ill consequences of a celibate in the clergy ( which occasion in other countries , where popish religion is publickly professed , that satyrical proverb to be fils de prestre ) by some of the most eminent men in the roman church , and those too of a late date . it is confessed , that priesthood doth not dissolve marriage ; so cardinal cajetan , tom. 1. tract . 27. nor that it is of the essence ( or being ) of a priest to keep single ; so dominicus soto l. 7. de iure qu. 4. moreover that upstart practice in the roman church of auricular confession , wherein 99 every christian is bound under pain of damnation , to confess to a priest all his mortal sins , which after a diligent examination he can possibly remember ; yea , even his most secret sins , his very thoughts , yea , and all the circumstances of them which are of any moment , is a slavery as great as groundless . then not to mention its ill aspect upon government , as being made an engine of state , and a picklock of the cabinets of princes , sealing up all things from the notice of the magistrate , but in requital of that , making a liberal discovery of what is against him to others . a pregnant instance of which horrid consequence was that damnable treason designed by gunpowder against the person of king iames the first ( of blessed memory ) and the two houses of parliament , to which the pope himself , as we 100 are credibly informed , was not only privy , but its director too . pursuant thereof , that pope ( clement viii . ) a little before that time gave order , that no priest should discover any thing that came to his knowledge in confession , to the benefit of the secular government . i think there needs no better evidence of the pope's good intentions towards the secular government , nor what ill effects the practice of this sort of confession can and may produce than this . and , that it still may be used as an instrument in procuring the ruine of princes , and subversion of kingdoms , let us hear their ( i. e. the popish ) doctors opinion of its virtue and use . one of them ( then ) tell us , that the seal of auricular confession ( which they hold to be of divine institution ) is so sacred , that it may not be broken open to save 101 the lives of princes , or of the whole commonwealth . another 102 goes further , and saith , that the seal of confession is not to be broken ; no , not to save all the world. here the reader may see , ( for this is not only the opinion of one or two private men , but runs with the stream of their 103 writers ) what may be expected from the charity of their popish priests ; what an unlucky tool auricular confession is in 104 their hands . besides , to how great an awe of , and respect for their confessor ; ( to whom they are bound , as i have already said , to discover all their sins under pain of eternal damnation ) to what pride and insolence , to what lust and revenge , to what avarice and rapine are not only the meanest men , but even persons that make the greatest figure , exposed unto , by auricular confession in popish churches ! it is a slavery so great and intollerable , that the israelitish tasks in egypt were a pleasure , or ( at least ) a divertisement in comparison of it . auricular confession to a priest under point of salvation and damnation , and that people cannot be saved without it , is contrary to scripture , isai. 55. 7. acts 2. 38. & c. 3. 19. & c. 16. 30 , 31. rom. 10. 3. contrary to the fathers , ( who when they did speak of the necessity of confession , generally meant confession before god only , or a publick acknowledgment of some publick crimes incurring the censure of excommunication , and that in an ecclesiastical assembly . ) origen in psal. 37. hom. 2. cyprian de lapsis serm. 5. chrysostom hom. 4. de lazaro . id. hom. 2. in psal. 50. homil. 31. in epist. ad hebraeos . hom. 5. de incomprehensibili nat . dei. hom. 8. de poen . hom. de poenit . & confessione . augustin . confession . l. 10. c. 3. auricular confession acknowledged not to have been instituted by our saviour , and that it is not of divine institution by these learned papists . cardinal cajetan in ioh. 20. scotus in sent . 4. dist . 17. q. 1. maldon . in summa qu. 18. art. 4. bell. de poenit . l. 1. c. 4. acknowledged by others , that it is better to say , that it was instituted rather by the tradition of the universal church , than by the authority of the old and new testament ; and yet it is denyed , that this tradition is universal , and that it is not necessary amongst the greeks , because this custom ( i. e. of private confession ) sprung not up among them , de poenit . dist . 5. in principio gloss. again it is confessed , that the fathers scarce speak of it as a thing commanded , by rhenanus in admonitione de tertullian . dogmat. lastly , it is confessed , that we may obtain pardon though our mouths be silent , ( then we do not confess . ) and our lord doth shew , that a sinner is not cleansed by the judgment of the priest ; but by the bounty of divine grace . gratian ▪ dist . 1. cap. convertimini . what clashing and enterfering is here ? is this the pretended solid union of the popish church in matters of salvation , and which she enjoyns under pain of damnation ? have they no better grounds for their articles of faith than these ? can auricular confession be of divine institution , and yet neither be instituted by our blessed saviour , nor mentioned by the fathers as a divine precept , nor imposed by an universal tradition of the church ? and lastly , can it be necessary to salvation , and yet we can obtain pardon of sins without the use of it ? let any papist reconcile me these , & erit mihi magnus apollo . consult herein bishop taylor 's disswasive , part 1. ch. 2. sect. 2. f. white against jesuite fisher , p. 189. concerning the marriage of the clergy , see bishop iewel 's defence of the apology of the church of england , part 2. p. 180. and part 5. p. 456. bishop hall's honour of the married clergy . sect . x. as i have all along shewed the vast difference in doctrines betwixt the protestant church of england and the church of rome : so will i put a period to this discourse , after i have done the like in that of obedience : which i shall not ( as i have hitherto ) argue from the articles and homilies of our church , the decrees of their church , the writings of the fathers , and from ancient councils , because that hath been sufficiently canvassed of late years ; but only subjoyn the undenyable testimonies of king iames i. and king charles the martyr , of ever-blessed memories ( and the royal grandfather and father of our present gracious sovereign ) to determin the case of protestant's loyalty and popish rebellion . king charles i. in his excellent book , entituled ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 27. to our late gracious king ( and then prince of wales ) saith , the best profession of religion , i have ever esteemed that of the church of england in which you have been educated . 105 in this i charge you to persevere , as coming nearest to god's word for doctrine , and to the primitive example for government . i tell you , i have tried it , and after much search , and many disputes , have concluded it to be the best in the world : keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious tyranny , and the meanness of fantastick anarchy . king iames i. in his works , p. 504. saith , as on one part , many honest men , seduced with some errors of popery , may yet remain good and faithful subjects ; so on the other part , none of those that truly know and believe the whole grounds and school-conclusions of their doctrines , can ever either prove good christians or good subjects . ibid. scarce any one who hath been a beginner or prosecutor of this late war against the church , the laws and me , was , or is a true lover , embracer or practiser of the protestant religion established in england . to which i add ( solatii ergô ) that excellent expression in his majesty's first and most gracious speech to his privy council : i know the principles of the church of england are for monarchy , and the members of it have shewed themselves good and faithful subjects , therefore shall i always take care to defend and support it . king charles i. in his solemn declaration , october 23. 1642. saith , that there was a greater number of papists in the rebels army than in his. to which may be added , that then they are guilty of this mortal sin of obedience to a protestant prince , when they are not strong enough to manage a rebellion , watson's quodlibets , p. 255. these words deserve to be written in letters of gold ; however they are written in large characters in good protestants hearts . now , unto him who is able to keep us from falling , and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding ioy , to the only wise god our saviour , be glory and majesty , dominion and power , both now and ever , amen . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswell . a dissertation concerning the government of the ancient church : more particularly of the encroachments of the bishops of rome upon other see's . by william cave , d. d. octavo . an answer to mr. serjeant's [ sure footing in christianity ] concerning the rule of faith : with some other discourses . by william falkner , d. d. 4o. a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england ; in answer to a paper written by one of the church of rome , to prove the nullity of our orders . by gilbert burnet , d. d. octavo . an abridgment of the history of the reformation of the church of england . by gilb . burnet , d. d. octavo . the apology of the church of england ; and an epistle to one signior scipio , a venetian gentleman , concerning the council of trent . written both in latin , by the right reverend father in god , iohn iewel , lord bishop of salisbury : made english by a person of quality . to which is added , the life of the said bishop : collected and written by the same hand . octavo . the life of william bedel , d. d. bishop of kilmore in ireland . together with certain letters which passed betwixt him and iames waddesworth ( a late pensioner of the holy inquisition of sevil ) in matter of religion , concerning the general motives to the roman obedience . octavo . the decree made at rome the second of march , 1679. condemning some opinions of the iesuits , and other casuists . quarto . a discourse concerning the necessity of reformation , with respect to the errors and corruptions of the church of rome . quarto . a discourse concerning the celebration of divine service in an unknown tongue . quarto . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30399-e370 a for so doth mons. militere , in his epistle to his late majesty , confess . b vives de instrumentis probab ▪ notes for div a30399-e510 1 crantzius metropol . 7. 45. 2 bellarmin de verbo dei , l. 4. c. 4. — pighius eccles. hierarch . l. 3. c. 3. pool de primatu romanae ecclesiae , fol. 92. * 2 tim. 3. 16. 3 concil . de stabilienda rom. sede , p. 6. 4 concil . trident. sess. 4. decret . 1. 5 dr iames his corruption of the fathers , part 4. p. 26. 6 anno 44. sect. 42. † bellar. de tradit . cap. 9. 7 coster enchirid . controvers . cap. 2. constat manifeste , &c. campian rat . 3 seculis omnino quindecim , &c. & rat . 10. testes resomnes . 8 baronius ad 〈◊〉 34. 9 bellarmin de concil . autorit . l. 2 c. 12. sect. respondeo . 10 how the papists contemn and condemn the fathers , see dr. iames's corruption of the fathers , part 4. 11 salmeron in ep. ad rom. cap. 5. disp . 51. p. 468. 12 corn. muss . episc. bitont . in rom. 14. p. 468. 13 apolog. adv . rufin . l. 2. p. 219. tom . 2. 14 vid. bin. not . ad 2. concil . constant. tom . 1. part . 1. p. 541. item not . ad concil . chalced. tom . 2. par . 1. p. 410. 15 lud. vives in aug. de civit . dei , l. 20. c. 36. 16 see dr. iumes's corruption of the scriptures , fathers and councils , printed 1611. part 4. 17 joh. 5. 31. 18 capitul . carol. mag. c. 88. 19 anaclet . epist. ap . bin. tom. 1. part. 1. p. 43. 20 gelas. decr . de confec . dist . 2. cap. 12. 21 binius in notis tom. 1. part 1. p. 64. 22 p. gelas. ep. 4. 23 neminem velim sic 〈◊〉 mea omnia , ut me sequatur , nisi in eis , quibus me non ertare perspexerit : august . de persever . sanct. cap. 21. tom . 27. solis eis scripturarum libris qui jam canonic appellantur didici hunc timorem honoremque de erre . ut nullum eorum autorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmissime credam , august . epist. 19. 25 cusan . de concil . cath. 2. 3. 26 aen. sylvius de gestis concil . basil. 27 de rom. pont. l. 4 c. 4. 28 idem de pontif. l. 2. c. 29. 29 id. de rom. pont. l. 4. c. 2. sect. secunda opinio . 30 idem de concil . l. 2. cap. 13. 31 barns's catholico-romanus pacificus ms. sect. 31. notes for div a30399-e2490 1 articles of the church of england published ann. dom. 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of opinions , and for the establishing of consent touching true religion , article 6 , & 20. 2d book of homilies , hom. 2. 2 2. tim. 3. 15. 3 concil . trident. sess. 4. decret . 1. 4 pighius eccles. hierarch . l. 3. c. 3. 5 bellarmine de verbo dei , l. 4. c. 4. 6 pool de primatu romanae ecclesiae , sol . 92. 7 caranza controvers . 1. and no marvel , when another affirmeth that the scripture hath no more authority than aesop's fables : v. bailly tract . 1. 9. 17. 8 peter sutor translat . bibl. c. 22. 9 consul . de stabilienda rom. sede , p. 6. and though the papists do cashier the publick use of the holy scriptures , and fly to ( as they pretend ) an infallible judge ▪ yet are they not agreed among themselves , who that should be . these learned romanists following contend , that the priviledge of infallibility belongs only to the whole church militant , and neither to the pope , nor general council , nor to the body of the clergy : occam dial. p. 1. l. 5. c. 25 , 29 , 3. 10 cusanus concord . cathol . l. 2. c. 3. antoninus sum. summarum , p. 3. tit. 23. c. 2. §. 6. panormitan decret . p. 1. l. 1. tit. de elect. cap. significasti . mirandula de fide & ordine credend . theor. 4. 11 in fine concil . trident. reg. 4. 12 hence comes it to pass that not only the popish laity , but even the priests themselves are very ignorant in the holy scriptures , so that once a schoolman in the last age , being to preach at paris , where the famous melancthon was his auditor , took a text ( for want , i suppose , of a better book ) out of aristotle's ethicks , sixtinus amama orat. de barbarie ex melancth . 13 artic. 6. 14 concil . trident. s●ss 4. 15 witness the two learned iews , philo iudaeus ( apud euseb. de praeparat . evangel . l. 8. ) and iosephus ; ( apud euseb. histor. eccles. l. 3. c. 9. alias 10. ) and this is fully confessed by bellarmine de verbo dei , l. 1. c. 10. 16 rom. 3. 2. 17 as for the third pretended council of carthage ; alledged by some papists . s. austin , who was one of the chief therein , votes in this point for the doctrine of our church , de civitate dei , l. 17. c. ult . & alibi . and though they pretend that the book of baruch ( held by us as apocryphal ) was declared canonical in the council of florence ; yet did driedo afterwards deny it to be so , de dogm . eccles. l. 1. c. 4. which neither would have done if the church catholick had declared the apocrypha canonical . 18 rycaut's present state of the greek church , pag. 372. 19 catharin . op●sc . de script . canonicis . quod autem apostoli , &c. 20 stapleton de autoritat . s. script . l. 2. c. 4. § 14. — sapientiam ecclesiasticum , &c. 21 bellarmin de verbo dei , c. 10. itaque fatemur ecclesiam nullo modo posse 〈…〉 non canonico , nec contra . 22 article 1 . -2 . book of homilies , hom. 2. 23 artic. 22. 24 concil . trid. sess. 25. & bulla pii 4. 25 1 cor. 2. 11. compared with isai. 63. 16. s. augustin saith , that the souls of the dead are there , where they see not all things , which are done or happen to people . in this life , augustin de cura pro mortuis , c. 13. 26 brev. rom. antw. 1663. p. 984. 27 bellarmin de indulgentiis c. 4. sub finem . * to win them by the expressions of his kindness , and to hold them fast bound to his service by the testimonies and declarations of his goodness , saith peter chrysol . serm. 147. 28 bellarmin alledgeth in particular this comment upon the romans to be s. ambrose's , see crocus in censura scriptorum vet . p. 133. 29 dominic . bannes in secunda secundae , qu. 1. art. 10. orationes ad sanctos esse faciendas , venerandasque esse imagines , neque etiam expresse nec involute scripture docent . 30 spalatensis often . err . 31 beatit . sanctorum . l. 1. c 8. sect. ult . other papists say , that there is neither precept nor example for it in scripture : and they give reasons for it ; for the old testament , because the fathers were not yet admitted to the heatifical vision ; and for the new testament , because that the apostles were men of such piety and humility , that they would not admit of it themselves , and therefore mentioned it not in their writings ; and withal , because in the beginning of christianity there would have been a suspicion , that they had only changed the names of the heathen deities , and retain'd the same kind of worship . eckius in enchirid. c. 5. salmeron in 1 tim. 2. disp . 8. peres . de tradit . p. 3. 32 sancti . l. 1. c. 18. 33 via regia de invocat . sanct. 34 concil . trident. sess. 25. bulla pii 4. super forma iuramenti ad calcem concil . trid. bellarmin de imag. l. 2. 35 azori . us , l. 9. instit. mor. c. 6. art. 3. cajetan . in thom. part. 3. qu. 25. art. 3. gregory de valentia tom. 3. disp . 6. qu. 11. punct . 6. coster enchirid. p. 438. 36 bellarmin de imag. l. 2. c. 21. prop. 1. 37 index expurgatorius madri . 1612. in indice librorum expurgatorum , p. 39. dele — solus deus adorandus . 38 concil . trident. sess. 13. 39 coster enchirid. con trov . c. 8. de euch. p. 308. & fisher c. o●colampadium l. 1. c. 2. 40 that the apparitions , which as the papists pretend , have appear'd upon the altar , instead of the sacrament , may , and have been the illusions of the devil ; is confessed by two learned schoolmen ; viz. alexander de hales , sent . 4. qu. 11. & biel 51. lect. upon the canon of the mass. 41 naueler . ad ad. 1240. krantz . sex . l. 8. c. 10. 42 jude 3. 43 articles , and iewel 's apology . 44 bellar. de eccles. l. 3. 45 m. cressie in his appendix c 7. sect. 8. saith , that the wits and judgments of catholicks ( he means papists ) is to renounce their judgment and depose their own wit. i will make no application , let the reader do it himself . 46 exercitia spiritualia ign. loyolae , tolosae 1593. p. 173. reg. 1. 47 turrecremata summae de ecclesia l. 2. c. 103. petrus de ancorano de heret . n. 2. augustinus triumphus de ancona , p. 59. a. 1. & art . 2. and this knack of making new creeds is very agreeable to that fancy of salmeron , non omnibus omnia dedit deus , ut quaelibet aetas suis gaudeat veritatibus , quas prior aetas ignoravit , dis. 57. in ep. ad rom. 48 bellar. de rom. pontif. l. 4. c. 2. sect. secunda opini● . 49 id. de concil . lib. 2. c. 13. 50 article 25. 51 mat. 28. 19. luk. 22. 19 , 20. 52 article 30. 53 mat. 26. 27. 1 cor. 11. 26 , 27 , 28. 54 concil . constantiense anno dom. 1414. sess. 13. 55 apud chytrae . de statu eccl. orient . primum patriar . resp. p. 149 , &c. the greek patriarch hieremias's letter to the tubing divines , bearing date may 15. 1576. 56 concil . trident. sess. 7. 57 concil . constant. sess. 13. 58 although some learned men in our own church will have apollinaris , who liv'd in the fourth century , to be the author of that book . see dr. stillingfleet's answer to cress. apolog. c. 2. §. 17. p. 133. and dr. cave in the life of dionysius areopagita , p. 73 , 74. 59 consult . sect. 22. 60 in tertiam partem s. thome , tom . 3. quest. 80. disp. 216. art. 12. cap. 3. nu . 38. 61 in ioh. 6. lect. 7. 62 in manuali de communione sub utraque specie . 63 concil . constant. sess. 13. they in that council likewise contradicted the judgments of their ancient popes , leo , gelasius , and gregory the great , as may be seen in the quotations of the fathers . 64 article 28 , & 29. 65 concil . trident. sess. 13. c. 4. * deny'd to be the faith of the church by barns in his romano . catholicus pacificus , ms. sect. 7. liter . q. 66 article 22 , & 18. 67 article 31. heb. 10. 10. 68 article 22. 69 1 cor. 4. 7. 70 article 12. 71 article 14. 72 article 11 , & 13. 73 concil . trident. sess. ult . hence doth bellarmine threaten us , saying , that whosoever believes not purgatory , shall be tormented iu hell , de purgat . l. 1. c. ult . and yet this same cardinal ( forgetting what he had before affirm'd ( for herein he doth not only contradict himself , but all popish pretensions for purgatory , when he ) grants that souls in purgatory do not merit . in purgatorio animae nec mereri nec peccare possint , bellarm. de purgatorio , l. 2. c. 2. to what end then are they sent to purgatory ? 74 spalatensis de republ. eccles. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 73. 75 bellar. de indulg . l. 1. 76 taxa cancel . apost . 77 but the poor have not these priviledges ( whereby mark the great charity of the romish priests , which will suffer by consequence , if their doctrine were true , the poor to go to hell for want of money ) , diligenter nota quod hujusmodi gratiae non dantur pauperibus , quia non sunt , ideo non possunt consolari , taxa cancellariae apostolicae tit. de matrimoniali . 78 tom. concil . 28. p. 460. 78 apolog. graecorum de igne purgat . p. 66 , & 93. ed. salmas . 79 unigenitus , de poenitentiis & remissionibus . 80 the doctrine of indulgences was oppos'd by two famous papists not long before the extravagant of pope clement , by franciscus de mayronis in 4. l. sen. dist . 19. q. 2. and by durandus in 4. l. sen. d. 20. q. 3. so that it was far from being either catholick or ancient . 81 concil . trid. sess. 6 can. 9. & sess. 6. cap. 16. can . 32. 82 catechis . rom. de euchar . num . 55. 84 1 cor. 14. 40. 85 article 24. 86 harding against bp. iewel article 3. missal . rom. approbat . ex decreto concil . trident. & bulla pii 5. chorabini bullar . tom. 2. p. 311. 87 article 36. book of ordination . mason of the consecration of bishops in the church of england . archbishop bramhall's works tom. 1. discourse 5. and tom. 4. discourse 6. * which the roman church , notwithstanding its big pretences to constant succession , cannot justly challenge : and that both from its five vacancies , making up almost nine years , when rome had no bishop at all , and the many schisms , by some chronologers reckoned up to be twenty nine ( a fair number indeed ! ) by onuphrius to be thirty , and by bellarmin himself to be twenty six : whereof the twentieth schism lasted twenty years , and the 21st . lasted 36 years ; during which time the church of rome had two popes , which excommunicated each other ; the 26th continued , saith genebrard ( chron. l. 4. ) an. dom. 1378. from urban vi. till the council of constance , which was at least thirty five years . baronius ( ad annum 1044. sect. 5. tom. 11. ) calls the three popes who then contended for the papal chair , a beast with three heads ascending out of the bottomless pit. add to these the seventy years stay of the popes at avignion , which quite joints their boasted succession . for during these times , where was the true successor of s. peter ? or was the church ( in their sense ) so long without an head ? 88 article 32. 89 heb. 13. 4. 90 bellarmin . lib. 1. de cleric . c. 20. sect. respondeo . id. de matrim . l. 1. c. 21. 91 hence did aeneas sylvius ( afterwards pope , by the name of pius 11. ) mention how ulric bishop of ausburg reprov'd the pope concerning concubines , aeneas sylvius de morib . germaniae . * dist. 82. can. presbyter in glossa . 92 1 tim. 4. 1. 3. 93 coster . enchiridion de coelibat . prop. 9. durandus sent . l. 4. dist . 33. martinus de magistris lib. de temp . qu. 2. de luxuria . 3. qu. 7. lata extravag . de bigamis quia circa . communiter dicitur , quod clericus pro simplici fornicatione deponi non debet . dist . 81. maximianus glossa in gratian. 94 aventinus anual boiorum , l. 5. who tells us , that hildebrand confessed , when he was dying , that it was by the instigation of the devil that he made so great a disturbance in the christian world. a fit man then was he ( whom the papists still cry up so much ) to introduce unchaste celibate , and banish holy matrimony ! see also cardinal benno ( who knew him ) in vita & gesta hildebrandi . matth. westmonast . anno dom. 1074. who saith , that hildebrand expell'd married priests ( mark what follows ) contra sanctorum patrum sententias , against the opinions of the holy fathers . see also sigebert ad annum 1074. & matth. paris ad annum 1074. 95 henry huntington p. 378. and by ioranal . histor. the constitutions of this synod may be seen in archbishop parker's antiq. britan. ed. 2. p. 118 , 119. 96 dr. burnet's abridgment of the history of the reformation l. 2. p. 70 , &c. 97 roger hovedon , henry huntington . 98 udalricus ( mentioned by aeneas sylvius de moribus germaniae ) de coelibatu clerici . nunquid enim merito communi omnium sapientum judicio haec est violentia , &c. 99 concil . trident. sess. 14. de poenitenti ▪ i. 100 delrio disq . magic . l. 6. c. 1. 101 tolet. instruct. sacerd . l. 3. c. 16. 102 henriquez . de poenit . l. 2. c. 19. n. 5. 103 see eudaemon ▪ ioannes in his apology for garnet , binet , suarez , &c. 104 and yet they can say , that it is of divine right , see biel l. 4. dist . 17. q. 1. & scotus ibid. & bonaventure ibid. n. 72. which if it had been , the fathers would never have writ against it , nor would it have been disannull'd : for private confession of crimes was abrogated about anno dom. 396. upon the discovery of a whoredom committed betwixt a deacon and a noble woman , histor. tripartit . l. 9. c. 35. and , though it was practised several years before , yet was it not enjoyn'd as a necessary act of salvation before the council of lateran , an. dom. 1215. under pope innocent iii. and therefore ar from true antiquity ! 105 yea it was but two days before his death , that he told the princess elizabeth , that he should dye for maintaining the true protestant religion . jude 24 , 25. a letter writ by the lord bishop of salisbury, to the lord bishop of cov. and litchfield, concerning a book lately published, called, a specimen of some errors and defects in the history of the reformation of the church of england, by anthony harmer burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1693 approx. 46 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30378) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47950) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:35) a letter writ by the lord bishop of salisbury, to the lord bishop of cov. and litchfield, concerning a book lately published, called, a specimen of some errors and defects in the history of the reformation of the church of england, by anthony harmer burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 29 p. ; 21 cm. printed for ric. chiswell, london : 1693. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lloyd, william, 1627-1717. wharton, henry, 1664-1695. -specimen of some errors and defects in the history of the reformation of the church of england. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. -history of the reformation of the church of england. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter writ by the lord bishop of salisbury , to the lord bishop of cov. and litchfield , concerning a book lately published , called , a specimen of some errors and defects in the history of the reformation of the church of england , by anthony harmer . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . m dc xc iii. a letter writ by the l d. bishop of salisbury , to the l d. bishop of cov. and litchfield , concerning a book lately published , called , a specimen of some errors and defects , &c. my lord , a book lately published , under the title of a specimen of the errors and defects in my history of the reformation , calls upon me to say somewhat in justification of that work : which i intend to do in the same method in which i composed that history ; and address it first of all to you , and then to the publick , after it has past under your censure ; in which i know you will use the same friendly and plain freedom that you did in perusing the other ; and let nothing pass , to which you find any just , or even plausible exception . and indeed , if there are such errors in that work , as this specimen pretends to discover , and puts the world in expectation of more , this being offered but as a sampler , that does not amount to above a third part of what may come afterwards ; your lordship must submit to bear some part of the blame . you know well , that you were the person that prest me most to undertake that work ; and to encourage me to it , you promised me two very valuable things ; the one was , the copying-out of all your collections relating to that time : the value of this can only be judged by those who have seen with what an amazing diligence , and to how vast an extent , and in how exact a method , all those many volumes , i had almost said , that library of collections , is digested . no part of this pleased me more , than that criticalness which is so peculiar to your self , in marking all dates so punctually ; this being one of the most necessary , but withal one of the most unacceptable ( to me at least ) of all the labours of a historian . all this , as far as concerned my design , i had the free use of , and i found my work much shortned by it . your other promise was no less exactly performed by you , of revising my first draughts with that censorious severity that became your zeal for truth , and for that great work , and also that most obliging friendship with which you had honoured my self . and you did acquit your self in all points as became an honest man , and a faithful friend . you spared me in nothing ; you made both rasures , additions , and alterations , with so much reason , and so true a judgment , that i all along felt what i can never enough acknowledge , how happy i my self was , and how great advantages that work received from the share that you were pleased to take in it . so that i hope you will suffer me to say , that you ought to take some share likewise in the fault that is found with the history , and the reproaches that are cast both on it and on my self . your friends have hitherto often blamed you , for being so minutely critical in all you do , which as they do rightly judge , has deprived the world of a great deal that might have been otherwise expected from you ; and no man has taken the liberty to complain more of this than my self , who have seen the almost incredible compass and fulness of your collections , which indeed seems to be beyond what the longest life of any one man could lay together ; and has made me often say , that if you could be but at half the pains to bring out your learning , that you have been at to lay it up , never man should merit so much of the learned world , as you might do . this i confess made me the more secure in publishing my work , when it was so strictly sifted by you ; for i do still preserve the copy that was so carefully perused by you . the greatest part of it was examined by you when you were in the countrey , out of the town , and out of that vast application in which you laid your self so intirely out upon the greatest parochial cure of england , that it took up the whole day constantly ; and tho you gave the best part of the night to your study , yet i could not have expected , that a work , in which every thing was to have been weighed , could have had such a share in those hours as it required : but you reserved it for your retreats into the countrey , and there you answered , and even exceeded my expectation . you saw there was need of more than ordinary care , since we could not but expect , that every thing of a work of this nature would be enquired into . i confess we expected it from other hands . we thought they of that church which was most concerned to blemish the honour of the reformation , would have taken some pains to have discredited its history , especially when they saw it had the reception which this author confesses the world gave it ; he is pleased to add , justly ; but it seems this was meant only to gild the pill , for he has been at a great deal of pains to lessen the credit of it ; with what success , let the world judge . i do not believe that he did this to ingratiate himself with them whom he chiefly gratifies in this : but i do acknowledge , i looked for nothing of this strain , from one of our own communion . it was no small addition to the credit of the work , that in the late reign , in which the book and the author both were in such publick disgrace , yet nothing was then published to lessen its esteem , and that it was appealed to by our best writers , as often as matters of fact were under debate . but quod non fecerunt barbari , fecerunt barberini . i may be pardoned to quote from pasquin , since he that deals thus with me vouches athenae oxoniensis . i do not trouble my self to find out the author . i am assured that the name in the title page of anthony harmer is a feigned one ; nor , as i hear , does the stationer for whom it is printed , know any thing concerning him . but this is a matter of no consequence . i am only concerned to consider what is said , and not who says it . and what reason soever i may have to lay my conjectures on the true author , yet that is not to enter into the present discourse : only i must crave leave to say , that a man who pretends to have many papers in his hands , and to affirm a great many things upon his single word , without saying upon what authority he grounds most of his corrections , ought to have named himself true , and to have told how he came by his informations : that if we must take his word for every thing that he says , without searching into the truth of it , yet at least we might have been able to quote our author , in those things for which he is pleased to give us no other author but himself . he treats me always with so much slighting and contempt , that if things of that kind could provoke me much , i should be obliged to watch over both my thoughts and pen for fear they should run too quick . he owns those low thoughts of me , that do indeed very well become me to entertain of my self , but look not so decent in another , whom to my knowledge i never injured ; and whom , if i guess right , i have endeavoured to serve . but it is of no great consequence how meanly soever , he or any others may think of my judgment or learning , so long as that work is like , for ought i see or can learn , to remain still as entire in its reputation as ever , after such a keen attempt as he has made upon it . the scorn he lays upon me , and the injuries he does me , in charging me with falshood so often , give me very little disturbance : and the prejudices that arise from such a way of writing , are likelier to turn upon himself , than to do me much hurt . those things do very ill become scholars and christians , but worst of all men of our profession , who ought never to be overcome of evil , but to overcome evil with good. and therefore tho' the station i am in , did not reach him the regards that he owed it , how little soever i may deserve them , yet it obliges me to write in a stile that becomes it , rather than in that which he has deserved from me . only in one particular i desire not to be mistaken , as if the softness with which i treat him , was intended to manage and cajole him , and so to prevent his going on with those farther discoveries with which he threatens me : for he says this was but a months work at a destance from his other helps , and that he has only noted what his memory and present collections suggested to him : tho' by the way , ones memory is no very good voucher , in things of this kind : i published that work on design to undeceive the world , and to give true relations of things ; therefore i am very well pleased to be informed my self , and to have the world told , tho' at my cost , if i have been mistaken in any thing . truth is great and must prevail : therefore i do so earnestly desire to see all that he can say of this kind , that if he brings out no more , i shall be much disappointed of my hope , and shall complain more of that , than of all the ill usage he has given me . as to the charge of falshood that comes over so often , that it is plain by his frequent repeating of it , that he intended it should stick . i can and do affirm it , that to my knowledge , i did not willingly mistake , or misrepresent , nor so much as suppress any one particular relating to that great transpaction : if i were called on to say this , with the highest solemnities of religion , upon oath , or at the sacrament ; i am sure i can do it with a good conscience . i have also sent for mr. angus of st. dunstans , who was then my amanuensis , not having leisure or other opportunities at present to enter into the retail of smaller matters ; and have asked him if he can imagine , how there should be so many mistakes about dates in the transcribing of the records ; for this author scarce allows one of them to be true . and therefore he thinks little credit is due to the history , and that the records will be of little value if once there appears just reason to suspect the care , or the fidelity of the transcriber . and assures he the reader , that of those dates which he has examined , he has found near as many to be false as true . mr. angus was amazed at this , and said he was ready to take his oath upon it , that tho' he himself used his utmost diligence , to examine every paper that he copied out ; yet i was never satisfied with that , but examined all over again my self : so that i may sincerely say , what i once writ on a very solemn occasion , at the making of my will when i went out of england , that i writ that work , with the same fidelity that i should have given an evidence upon oath in a court of judicature . all this i think necessary to be said upon this occasion ; for i do hereafter expect to see this specimen often brought out by those of the roman communion to overthrow the credit of that history , which no doubt they will urge with a sort of triumph , since one who seems zealous for our church , does charge it with so much falshood . for all this , i do not suspect this writer of any leaning to popery , his zeal for justifying the marriage of the clergy , upon which subject he seems to have taken some pains , is enough to cover him from all such suspicions . but yet he seems so sharpned against me , that rather than not vent his spleen , he would furnish them with a weapon that they will not fail to make use of on many occasions . he seems indeed to have some zeal for one of the worst bodies of the roman communion , the monks of the later ages : and is concerned for the reputation both of their morals and of their learning ; tho' for their morals , where he censures me most severely for charging them with incontinence , he is pleased in the very next leaf to brand them with such crimes as are not to be named among christians . for their learning , tho' he is pleased to enter the lists against me , yet i have reason to believe that he is no admirer of it . his studies have been much that way , and it is natural for men to value that much on which they have bestowed much of their time : and perhaps he has been infected by the rudeness and maledicence that runs through their writings , to imitate so bad a patern . he prevents one objection to which he saw how open he was , that he was sensible somewhat was to be said to it . i had invited all that could give me a further light into those matters , to communicate their remarks or discoveries to me , and promised both to retract my mistakes , and acknowledge from whose hands i had received better imformation . but in answer to this , he sends me to a passage in the second part of the athenae oxonienses . i confess i did not expect to see a writer of his rank , descend so low as to cite such a scribler , especially upon such an occasion . that poor writer has thrown together such a tumultuary mixture of stuff and tattle , and has been so visibly a tool of some of the church of rome , to reproach all the greatest men of our church , that no man who takes care of his own reputation , will take any thing upon trust that is said by one that has no reputation to lose : he who has laid together all that the malice of missionaries could furnish him with , to blemish the work of one of the greatest men of our church , who was the lasting honour of that see which i do now so unworthily possess , i mean bishop jewell , does but follow his stroke when he calumniates my history : and he who has so barbarously attackt the memory of my immediate predecessor bishop ward , who was in so many respects one of the greatest men of his age , but that had appeared with too much zeal against popery , to be spared by one of their faction : he , i say , does but like himself , when he endeavours to blacken me with his calumnies . but what is it that this angry correcter is pleased to take upon the word of such an author ? he says mr. fulman complained much that i had not dealt faithfully with him in publishing his correction of my first volume . i have not that despicable book now by me , so i cannot quote the words , but this is the sense of them : and upon this the author of the specimen depends so intirely , that he thinks he is by it excused from using me in that friendly way that i had proposed , or in that charitable method which the gospel directs . it happens that i have in this instance a great variety of proo● to shew the falshood of this calumny . you know , my lord , in particular , that it was bishop ●ell of pious and blessed memory , that engaged mr. fulman to send up his corrections to me . you your self , and indeed every body else , thought they were not of that moment , that they deserved so publice a notice as i took of them : i confess i was of that mind my self , but i thought it was fit for me upon that occasion , to behave my self so as to encourage all others to set me right , if they found i was mistaken in any particular ; and that i might make as much advantage from mr. fulman as was possible , i bore with an odd strain of sourness that run through all his letters . bishop ●ell had prepared me for that ; and i took every thing well at his hands . i in conclusion drew a short abstract of all his corrections , and sent it down to him to have his approbation of it , before it should be printed : for it would have been too tedious to have published them so largely as he had sent them to me . i staid long for his answer , till the carrier that brought his letters to me , had come up a second time , from those parts where he lived . it happened to be in the month of february , before the sitting of the oxford parliament : and mr. chiswell thought it might be of some consequence in the sale of the work , to have it ready to appear at that time : so he pressed a dispatch : for all stuck at the return which i expected from mr. fulman . but the second carrier bringing me no answer , i took it for granted , that he was satisfied with the abstract that i had sent him ; so i put it in the press . but before it was printed off , the third carrier came , and brought me his answer . he was satisfied with the main of what i had prepared , only he desired that some alteration might be made in four or five articles : and so careful was i to gratifie him in every thing , that tho' these things were of no consequence , yet i would needs have all to be reprinted : his corrections happened to be all in one leaf , so that leaf was only reprinted , and pasted to the other half of the sheet : and this will be found in the greatest part of the copies of the first edition of my work , not in them all , for i stopt the press which was working , and reprinted a leaf for all that were wrought off ; and the rest were printed with those amendations . so that both from mr. fulman's own letters , which i still do keep , and from this real evidence , it appears how unjustly this is laid upon me ; and how weak an excuse this will prove for the method in which this author has thought fit to deal with me . since i had in that very instance which he gives , used that person with a candour , that gave me a right to expect fair dealing from all others . yet after all this and a great deal more that i might well urge , if i intended to aggravate matters , i must say that i have not seen any one thing , relating to my history , that has pleased me so much as this specimen does . it is plain that here is a wrirer who has considered those times and that matter with much application : and that he is a master of this subject ; he has the art of writing skilfully , and how much soever he may be wanting in a christian temper , and in the decency that one who owns himself of our communion , owed to the station i hold in it ; yet in other respects he seems to be a very valuable man , so valuable , that i cannot without a very sensible regret , see such parts , and such industry , like to be soured and spoiled with so ill a temper : all the heresies and schisms in the church have been either started or carried on by men who have been pussed up with their knowledge , and have not tempered it with that charity which edifieth . as he is a man capable of making the severest observations that the subject will bear : so he shows that he is so much set on it , and so inclined to disparage both me and my work , that no body who reads his specimen , will believe that he is tender of me , or that he has spared me in any one thing . so many remarks that are so very trifling , force a reader to believe , that he had a mind to make a great muster , and that it was meerly want of matter that led him t● make so much of things , on which no body , as far as i can hear , besides himself , sets any value . i confess i my self value his book much more than i find any of the more judicious readers tell me they do . i value it so much , that i do earnestly desire that all those who have my book , will likewise procure this , as the best apology that i know can be made for it . since in all this collection , there is not any one material fault , relating to any of the transactions of the reformation ; and among those that he pretends to find , there is not any one in which , even he himself ▪ who is liberal in accusing me of falshood , yet can charge me with any fraud or ill design : so that how much soever ▪ the reputation of my own learning or exactness may be lessened by this specimen , there is nothing brought to overthrow the truth of the history , in any important matter : and if in things of no moment there was not all that exactness used that was possible , the fault is the more pardonable . and after all , so the credit of that work stands unshaken , let the credit of the historian take its venture , and stand or fall as men may be disposed to be kind to him , or severe upon him . but after all that has been said in general , it is time now , that i should come to speak more particularly to the things contained in his book : i once intended to have examined every one of all his remarks ; but your lordship , as well as the rest of my reverend brethren with whom i spoke upon this subject , were of opinion that his reflections on my history , were not such as could deserve , that either i my self should spend that time upon them which they will require , and that may be certainly much better improved ; or that i should publish any thing of that kind , the reading of which must needs be both flat and tedious : since in that great variety which he has affected to bring together , there is not any one instance that seems to be of any consequence . thirteen years are now past since i finished that work , so that now many of the things that i writ are quite out of my head : yet i have taken care to preserve all the notes i then made , so carefully , that without seeking for it elsewhere , i am confident , i could say enough in my own defence , if i should again open my papers . but the things excepted to here are such trifles , that i had much rather that the world should believe all that he says is true , than engage into so fruitless a controversie . therefore in compliance with your advice , and which my own inclinations too , i shall decline this ingrateful work , and shall only offer somewhat on the several heads on which he exercises his censure . which may be reduced to these four . the first are the recapitulations that i make of the state in which things were before the reformation ; in which he triumphs often over me , as ignorant of the antient english history : and not having so much as a competent knowledge of it , nor being conversant enough among the writings of the monks and other authors that lived in the dark ages , which preceded the light. indeed i am not at all out of countenance to own that i have not much studied those authors : the little that i have studied , did not encourage me to go further , than to carry in my mind a true view of the state of the church in those times , from which i might be able to judge of the necessity of a reformation . the barbarous stile , the mixture of so much fable , the great want of judgement , and the gross partiality that runs thro the writings of the monks , has so disgusted me at their works , that i confess i could never bring my self to read them with pleasure . if any one that has more patience than i , can think it worth the while to search into that rubbish , let him write volumes of anglia sacra , and have the glory of it for his pains : and even these two pompous volumes have not at all changed my tast. to dig in mines were not to me a more ingrateful imployment . i am contented to take these things from second hand , and am no more out of ●ountenance to own this , than to own that i have no arabick , or that i have not read the talmud : a study after all that i should vastly prefer to the other , i● my genius and leisure should favour it . after all this , he that recapitulates , as i do in the places for which i am censured , gives only general views of things , to furnish ordinary readers with some general notions ; so that no man expects an accuracy in this . nor does the historian here , deliver any thing upon the credit of special vouchers , but only draws from other books a short state of past times , to give an introduction to what he himself is to open : he neither pretends to be exact nor particular : and so the view he gives is upon the main true ; this is never to be ●urther canvassed . this author has very probably examined the m●nastick writers , and especially in the point of the celibacy of the clergy , more minutely than i have done : and so he is very full of disdain , and comes over with it very often , that i am ignorant of the ancient english history : i own it , as to that part in which he charges me , and if i had not been engaged in that work , i should have continued still much more ignorant than i am ; without either remorse or shame . i confess that made me go further than otherwise i should ever have done , and much further than ever i shall do again : but he is not satisfied with my proficiency , and i must bear his displeasure . but , after all this , i must now say somewhat to your lordship , and by the good leave of my most learned brother , my lord bishop of worcester , to him likewise , whom i take the liberty to call in here for my excuse , without asking his leave ; he being now at such a distance . it was on you both , that i chiefly depended as to the correction of my work : and all the world knows how exact you both are in those matters . i remember well i desired you to look particularly into those recapitulations , that went into the dark ages . i thought i had good authority for all i said , but i left it to you to judge whether i had or not : i am sure i never pretended to justifie any thing after either of you found fault with it . i had all reason to believe that you had all possible zeal for having our reformation so opened , that its history should appear with credit , and be liable to few exceptions : you both had also given me good reason to believe that you had some care of my part in it , so that i conclude that either this critick is mistaken in some of his remarks ; or , that you did not think such a minuteness was necessary , when a short abstract was only proposed . it seems by this author , that your lordship , whom i have often thought too exact , and by consequence too slow in all that passes through your hands , has been in this too hasty , and too superficial : and perhaps you will receive this as a sort of reprimand , which may oblige you hereafter to be yet more exact and more slow than you have hitherto been . but there is no need of all this caution , since i hope all the world will impute the looseness and omissions which are blamed by the specimen , and that were let pass by you . , rather to your true judgment , that led you to conclude that too full an exactness in such a part of history , is as vicious an abundance , as the fullness of the account in what is to be related , is ncessary and indispensable . yet it is no small comfort to my self , and no little honour to the work , that in so vast a variety of recapitulations , as are made in both volumes , he could find so little , and that too so inconsiderable , for an entertainment to his ill humour : but i must not build too much on this , till i see what the rest of his performances may produce , which i must again tell him , i expect from him ; otherwise i shall not take him for a a man of his word . a second head of censures is the many dates that he finds to be amiss , upon which he gives other dates , without descending so low as to tell from whence he had them : which is a way of writing that no man ought to assume , when he is censuring another , especially when he appears under a disguised name . as for the dates he questions , i confess i cannot tell what to say to them , unless i should enter a new upon that whole matter : many of them i had from your lordship , and i am sure yours are right , if the authors from whom you took them , are not in the wrong . others i took out of the several offices , from which i gathered my materials : i might have writ them wrong , or collationed them too negligently ; or perhaps he is in the wrong when he pretends to set me right . he says he has made his observations upon the second edition , which in the title page is said to be corrected : yet he who will teach us all exactness , should have held to the first , for it was that only that i took care of , and left all editions since to the booksellers care : so i am only answerable for the first . probably the errata i drew out in the first , were corrected in the second edition , and upon that account it might be said to be corrected : but more new ones might have crept into it , especially in figures . when any thing of moment seems to depend upon a date , it is in that case necessary to use great caution for fixing it right : but in the course of a history , where ordinary transactions occurr , about which there has been no controversie , one may safely take dates from the common writers . if then i have often followed either fox or goodwin , i do not think my self lyable to a just censure , tho' the date should be found to be wrong . but there is one thing , that does very much offend this author , that i have questioned the exactness of the clerks in the enrolling of dates : for he thinks that the honour of the whole nation is much concerned in the truth of records . i confess , i thought the honour of nations was not struck at as oft , as the diligence of any clerk was questioned . we know that notwithstanding the religious care of the copiers of bibles , many of whom have been monks , and so they are more particularly under this author's protection ; yet the different readings make a competent volume ; and tho' the dates of the roman laws have been , and that justly too , esteemed one of the surest helps of chronology ; yet the learned gothofred , and baluze have undertaken to prove that very many of them are wrong , even in the correctest copies . when these matters were fresher with me , ▪ than they are now , i could have given him many proofs of , that assertion , which yet is no asseveration , as he is pleased to call it : nor do i assert any thing of the record there in question , but say only in general , that the enrolments are not always exact as to dates ; and he must love contradiction for contradiction's sake , that will quarrel with this . if one dictates to another , it is easy to mistake thirty for thirteen , or to write eighteen for twenty eight , or thirteen for twenty three ; or sometimes to omit the decimal figure . after all , no designed mistake appears to be among all these that he reckons up : so there is neither fraud in all this , nor falsity , a word that some of his friends think it would have become him to use more sparingly . but to conclude this head , i promise you , that as soon as he has gone through with his whole undertaking , and that he gives me reason to believe that his correction of dates is well-grounded , i will take care that none of them shall be forgotten , but will correct all by them , if my history comes to be printed again ; for i desire nothing so much as to find out the truth , even in the smallest and the least important matters : and i shall not decline to own my mistakes , whensoever a full conviction is offered me , though it be accompanied with all the rudeness , of which this specimen has given so many blunt , but designed stroaks . the third head to which these censures do belong , is the conjectures that i was put to make in some places , where my materials were defective : upon some of these he falls , and thinks that he has evinced that they are groundless . if he had overthrown what i had affirmed as certain , there had been some cause of triumph : but i cannot imagine what harm it can do , either to a man or to his work , that when he is put to guess , it is found that he guessed wrong in some few particulars : yet after all , if i had a mind to value my self upon my conjectures , it is plain , that many of those i made in the first volume , are justified in the second ; and many of the defects that he supplies by the papers which he has found , and that i never saw , justify others of my conjectures : so that if it appears from his specimen , that i guessed sometimes wrong , it is no less evident that i was much oftner right in my conjectures . nor is it a fair way , when one studies to expose another , for guessing wrong , only to attack the conjecture it self , without examining the grounds on which it was made : for if the grounds were but specious and plausible , they may serve to justify the conjecture , even where there appears better reason to lay it aside . he is offended , because judgments that i gathered in the first part , happen to be contradicted by what is related in the second . now a more candid censurer would rather have made an inference from that in favour of my sincerity ; and have gathered from it , that i was not biassed by any partiality to my own prejudging , but that i tell truth , even though it happens to disparage or detract from what i had formerly writ . in fine , he thinks i say many things as embellishments to my history , that are not well-grounded . these are indeed small matters , and they prove to be yet much smaller , when they are doubtfully proposed : and whatever the strict importance of the words no doubt may be , which has drawn such an angry remark from him , yet in common use , it signifies no more than a conjecture , of which one believes himself pretty well assured . but one prejudice still remains against all conjectures in history , since it ought to be a severe recital of matters of fact , without the intermixture of conjectures and inferences : which not being certain , as they ought not to be received , so they ought not to be proposed neither , since they prepossess and often mislead the reader . it were enough , in answer to this , to cite the authority of the most esteemed writers of history that have frequently practised it ; in particular of padre paulo , whose history of the council of trent i acknowledg i made my pattern : and that i might copy after it with some resemblance and success , i read it over five or six times before i set about that work. if a man is to write memoirs , he must keep close to his vouchers ; but when he writes a history , on a subject of much consequence , and that was transacted long before his own time , and that it is visible that many of the most valuable papers relating to it , are lost , but that enough remains to give him a right view of the whole , and a thread to guide him in it , he may certainly find many hints of things , which since he cannot lay before his reader as historical facts , he may and ought to suggest them as probabilities . and he who forms a true character of a man , from some of his secretest papers , can frame judgments , and see likelyhoods that could never come in the way of one who only reads his work ; but does not dwell so long upon it , nor turn it so much in his thoughts as he himself has done : and yet the offering of these may be necessary , since they may be of use to let his reader see further than he would do without them . for instance , he is angry for my taking notice of bonner's writing to his friends for puddings and pears . i must desire you to observe his ingenuity in this , since my reflection did not fall upon these words of bonner , but on his adding , that if his friends did not furnish him with them , he would give them to the devil , to the devil , and to all the devils . now this from a bishop in affliction , writing to his private friends , shewed a strange kind of brutish levity ; and the observing of that was not below the majesty of history , since bonner acted so great a part , during the whole time that i write upon ; so that such a stroke as this , in my poor opinion , ought not to have been suppressed . i come now to the fourth and last head of the specimen which relates to those additional discoveries that he has made . he calls them the defects of my history ; how justly i leave to you , who are a true critick in the use of words . according to my sense , a defect is a vitious want of that with which one might have supplied himself , if he had not been too careless . i cannot see what i could have done more than i did , to be well informed . i put advertisements in gazettes , desiring the assistance of all that could furnish me with materials . i let two years and a half pass between the publishing my first , and second volume . i did in the first desire the assistance of all the learned and curious men of the nation : i went through all the offices and records that were about london or westminster : i went to cambridge , when i understood that arch-bishop parker's manuscripts were there . i was upon going to oxford , had not bishop fell let me know that he was informed , they had nothing worth my journey , that was not already printed . i met with great assistances from many learned men , all which i gratefully and publickly acknowledged , and made the best use of them that i could . i do not see what more i could do . your lordship and several others of my worthy friends , set all persons that you thought capable of assisting me , on work for materials . that great and good man who was then lord chancellour , the late earl of nottingham , did on many occasions recommend the procuring materials for me in the most effectual manner . their majesties most deserving attorney general that now is , was pleased without my presuming to give him the trouble , to visit and examine some offices for me in the countrey . if our author has been an inquisitive man of so long a standing , ( he pretends to be longer , for he tells us of what he observed 20 years ago ) he could not but hear of all this , so there was occasion offered , and time given for him to have contributed out of his store . if i had refused any help that had been offered me , or had not look'd out and got together all that could be had ; if i had either called for no assistance , presuming on my own industry ; or if i had made so much haste , that i had prevented even the diligence of learned men , here had been great occasion for censare . but he has got a council-book of the last four years of king edward the sixth's reign , and this must be brought out with great pomp to reproach the defects of my work. i had the book of the first two years of that reign . but though it was freely given me , i thought it did of right belong to the crown , and delivered it in to be kept among the council-books : if this author does the same with his , then his quotations out of it may be examined . they make indeed the valuablest part of his book . but neither these , nor any thing else he says , can be of any value , till he gives himself his true name , that 〈◊〉 one may know how to look into , or examine those things that he pretends to have in his hands . i have now gone as far as i can in so general a way ; when your lordship or any other person whose judgment is of weight with me , advises me to descend into further specialties , i shall not decline it . yet if i had any inclination to it , i think still it is best to make one work for all , and to stay till he brings forth that which he has in reserve ; for i will still hold him to it : he must either give the world a great deal more , or he must expect to be thought to have insinuated that which he cannot perform . only when he writes next , i wish he may do it with a better spirit , and in a decenter stile . he who knows so much , cannot judg so ill , as not to see that the attacking a man's reputation , but especially a bishop's , in so great a point , as is that of his truth and fidelity , upon which the success of all his labours , and the credit of his whole life and ministry does depend , is not a slight thing , and is not to be attempted , unless one is very well assured , that what he objects , is not only just in it self , but that it is incumbent on him to do it . the fame of a man is a most valuable thing ; and the rules of charity , and against detraction and slander , are delivered in such weighty strains in the new testament , that it is no small matter to make so bold with them . the years i have spent in the service of the church , the labours i have undergone , and the station i am in , deserve at least a modest and decent treatment : and my diligence in that history , the designs i pursue through it all , and that sincerity and candor that even enemies do acknowledg , appears in its contexture ; the great additions i had made to what was formerly known , and the general acceptance with which it has been entertained , both at home and abroad , ought to have made a man to have thought well of what he did , before he had attack'd it at all : but if he was so full of his matter , that he was not to be restrained , at least he ought to have writ it in another manner , with another air , and in a strain of civility ( i had almost said respect ) sutable to the subject , and such as my way of writing had deserved . if this author is so made , that nothing of all this touches him ; i am sorry for it , i will not treat him more roughly ; but must despair of working on him so as to do him good : i should think it a very particular happiness , to be able to turn such a man to a better mind , from that sourness which prevails over him at present . he seems capable of better and greater things ; but till his capacity and his industry are sanctified to him , at another rate than this specimen shews , he is a much worse man for them , and will have a much greater account to make at the last day . i ask your pardon for having given you so long a trouble . i am , with all possible esteem and respect , my lord , your lordship 's most affectionate brother , and most humble servant , gi. sarum . windsor , feb. 23. 1692 / 3. finis . books sold by richard chiswell . books written by gilbert burnet , d. d. now lord bishop of sarum . the history of the reformation of the church of england , in 2 volumes . folio . — abridgment of the said history . octavo . — vindication of the ordinations of church of england . quarto . — history of the rights of princes in disposing of ecclesiastical benefices and church-lands . octavo . — life of william bedel , d. d. bishop of kilmore in ireland ; togewith the copies of certain letters which passed between spain and england in matter of religion , concerning the general motives to the roman obedience : between mr. james wadsworth a late pensioner of the holy inquisition in sevil , and the said william bedel then minister of the gospel in suffolk . octavo . — some passages of the life and death of john late earl of rochester . octavo . — examination of the letter writ by the late assembly-general of of the clergy of france to the protestants , inviting them to return to their communion ; together with the methods proposed by them for their conviction . octavo . — a collection of seventeen tracts and discourses written in the years 1687 to 1685 , inclusive . quarto . — a second volume , or a collection of eighteen papers relating to the affairs of church and state during the reign of king james the second . with twelve others published a little before and since the late revolution , to christmas , 1689. — fast sermon at bow-church ; march 12 , 1689. luke 19. 41 , 42. — fast sermon before the queen ; july 16 , 1690. on psal. 85. 8. — thanksgiving-sermon before the king and queen ; octob. 19. 1690. on psal. 144. 10. 11. — fast-sermon before the king and queen ; april 19 , 1691. on psal. 82. 1. — thanksgiving-sermon before the king and queen ; nov. 26. 1691. on prov. 20. 28. — sermon at the funeral of robert boyle , esq jan. 7. 1691. on eccles. 11. 26. — a discourse of the pastoral care. octavo . 1692. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30378-e150 pag 161. pa● . 26. p. 9. 10 , 1● , 2● . pag. 3. p. 28 , 121 , 153. p. 127. pag. 51. p. 140. 141. pag. 87. an enquiry into the present state of affairs, and in particular, whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances? and whether we are bound to treat with him, and to call him back again, or not? burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 25 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30366) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64575) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:8) an enquiry into the present state of affairs, and in particular, whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances? and whether we are bound to treat with him, and to call him back again, or not? burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 16 p. printed for john starkey and ric. chiswell ..., london : 1689. published anonymously. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into the present state of affairs : and in particular , whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances ? and whether we are bound to treat with him , and call him back again , or not ? published by authority . london : printed for iohn starkey ; and ric. chiswell at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxix . an enquiry into the present state of affairs , &c. 1. since the subject that is now undertaken , is of such vast consequence both to the quiet of the nation in general , and to the settling of the conscience of every man in it , it shall be treated with all possible plainness , and with that simplicity of stile , which may shew that the writer intends rather to convince than to amuse or mislead his reader . it is certain , that the reciprocal duties in civil societies , are protection and allegiance ; and wheresoever the one fails wholly , the other falls with it . this is so true , that in the only government which is founded on the law of nature , i mean the authority of a father over his children , if after a long course of rough and barbarous usage , a father goes about to destroy his children , they owe him no other regard , but that of a due care of his person ; for since their being was conveyed to them through him , they are for ever bound to preserve that life which gave beginning to theirs ; but as to their service and obedience , they are without doubt absolved , when a father ceases to be a father by becoming an enemy . this is much more true with relation to every form of political government , in which there is a mutual tye of protection and obedience , according to that system of government given by st. paul in his epistle to the romans , chap. 13. in the first seven verses . let every soul be subject unto the higher powers : for there is no power but of god. the powers that be , are ordained of god. 2. whosoever therefore resisteth the power , resisteth the ordinance ef god : and they that resist , shall receive to themselves damnation . 3. for rulers are not a terror to good works , but to the evil . wilt thou not be afraid of the power ? do that which is good , and thou shalt have praise of the same . 4. for he is the minister of god to thee for good : but if thou do that which is evil , be afraid : for he beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of god , a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil . 5. wherefore ye must needs be subject , nor only for wrath , but also for conscience sake . 6. for , for this cause pay you tribute also : for they are gods ministers , attending continually upon this very thing . 7. render therefore to all their dues , tribute to whom tribute is due , custom to whom custom , fear to whom fear , honour to whom honour . in these words we have the duty of the magistrate , as well as the obedience of the subject , set forth , and so mixt together , that we must conclude , that upon the total failing of the one , the other does likewise cease . 2. i suppose few will dispute the matter of fact , that the king being pushed on by his zeal for a religion that must , by its nature , first deceive , and then destroy us , was subverting this establishment both with reference to our religious , and to our temporal concerns ; and that as this was carried on a great way , even to the subversion of our government and laws , so it must have ended at last in the total ruin of both , and in the exchanging that independent freedom , which is the present glory , as well as the security of the nation , into a subjection to a foreign and antichristian yoke . this being confessed by those for whom this paper is written , it were needless , and might seem invidious to set about the proving of it . in a word , that which ought to have been our security , was become our greatest danger ; as if the cannon of a fort that ought to point at the enemy , were turn'd on the inhabitants ; in which case , how absolute soever the authority of a governor may be , yet as soon as it appears that the bulwarks , instead of being the defences of the city , are become batteries to ruin it , nature will lead to a short way of arguing : and all men will forget that one is their governour , when they clearly see that he intends to turn their destroyer . 3. a king 's deserting his people , and withdrawing both his person and his seals , by which the peace , justice and order of the nation are preserved , does certainly warrant them to look to their own safety and preservation ; and when they are obliged to do this by ways and methods that are inconsistent with his authority , and that are so many crimes if they stood still under any engagements to him , then they must be considered as acquitted from all their ties to him . it is the great seal that is the dead spring of our government , as the king's presence , or the presence of any that are deputed by him gives life to it : when then this disappears , and the king withdraws himself , without naming any persons to represent him , the government is certainly laid down and forsaken by him indeed , if any eminent present danger , or just fear ( tho a king can never be decently suspected of that ) had driven the king away , it might seem a little too hard to urge this too much . but when a treaty was set on foot , and when by the proposals which the prince had made , and that came to the king the night before he left whitehal , the power both civil and military , the army , the fleet , the forts , and the revenue , were still left in his hands , and that the prince's army was not to come within 30 miles of him , and that the settlement of the nation was refer'd to a parliament ( which was that which the king seemed to desire , by his publick declaration , tho he shew'd his averseness by destroying the writs ) and when all that was proposed , that can be called hard , was only the executing the law against papists that were in employments , the giving the city of london some quiet from their just fears , and the assigning the pay for the prince's army ; all this being laid together , it is plain that the king had no just visible cause of fear upon him ; and that therefore the withdrawing himself , was the forsaking of his people , which put them on the necessity of looking to their own safety in the best manner they could . 4. it seems plain , that our allegiance being our tye to the king , according to the constitution of this government , it is either entirely dissolved , or it subsists still in its full vigour and force : if it is entirely dissolved , then we are under no obligations to the king ; and if that bond is once untied , so that our consciences are freed from it , it will be a hard task to persuade men , that they ought to return to it again : if it stands in its full force , then we ought to recall the king , imploring only his pardon for what is past , without entering upon any previous treaty , or presuming to offer any articles to him . if it is said , that the allegiance , tho it still remains , yet is under a suspension ; as in the case of an infant or a mad-man , in which a guardian may be necessary for the administration of the government , tho the right and dignity is still in the person of the king ; and that therefore , tho the king 's misguided zeal may have rendered him unfit to govern , yet the title and dignity of a king ought still to be preserved , even when the regency may be put in other hands . to this it is to be opposed , that in case of infancy , or lunacy , the incapacity to govern is transient in the one , and so pitiable in the other , that this will not afford an argument in favour of an incapacity that is affected and culpable : besides , in those cases , there is no danger to the government , by any struggle between the king and the regent ; which cannot be avoided where a king is of age , and under no other distemper , but that which is the effect of his religion . in this case a contest is inevitable : a king without power cannot be much at his ease ; and his struggle for it must either end in the overthrowing the regency , if not in the assassinating the regent ; or in the imprisonment of the king , which must needs have such fatal consequences , that it is not to be imagined that any of the king's children , in whom piety and nature work , can ever engage into a state of life that gives them so melancholly a prospect : besides , that the name and title of king carry a sound with them that strikes the people ; and if now , after all the provocation that the nation is under at present , it is yet thought fit to let the title and dignity remain in the king , it will be natural for all men , when that sharpness is over , to soften , and to think that things have been carried too far : and since no government is secure from accidents , and free from all the subjects of discontent , it is not unreasonable to foresee , that the leaving any root in the ground , may occasion a new spring at some distance of time , when past errors may be forgot , and the present accidents may give another turn to mens thoughts . we are likewise as much bound by the oath of allegiance to maintain the king's state , and all his prerogatives , as his title and dignity . it will look like the condemning our own actions , to allow him the honour , and to take from him the power of a king ; so that if the oath may be slackened in one point , i do not see why it must of necessity bind us in another . in a word , we do either too little or too much , if we allow him to be king , and do not likewise vest him with the whole extent of the royal authority . 5. in all settlements , it is very natural for men to look for good security , especially for those , who being newly come out of a storm , have the terror of it still on their thoughts ; now what security can be proposed in any treaty with the king ? we see what insignificant things promises and oaths are , when popery is in the other scale ; and to trust any more , is too impudent a proposition , to apprehend that any one should insist upon it . as for all limitation by laws , when that for the test-act , which was penn'd with all possible caution , has been broke through by a pretended dispensing-power , it is a vain thing to trust such remedies , against an ungovern'd zeal , which when whetted with resentment must act with so much the more rigor and fury . we have also many instances in our own time , to shew us how little regard is to be had to all the offers that are made in general terms , in order to the gaining of a great point , which being once gained , those offers are no more thought of . to make way for the late king's restauration , nothing was so much talked of , as the terms on which he should be restored , but the point was no sooner gain'd than the terms were not only forgot , but all things were carried higher than before . and a few years ago when the nation was set on the bill of exclusion , all those who opposed it were framing schemes of limiting a popish successor ; but that storm was no sooner weather'd , than a party was form'd that carried their victory so far , that instead of limitations , all the chief securities and fences of our government were thought the only proper sacrifice to atone for the guilt of attempting the exclusion . so if a treaty were once opened , and the king were to be brought back again , on what terms soever it might be , we should probably see the whole design of popery and arbitrary government return upon us with more fury than ever : and we should find our selves in no possibility of resisting it , or being redeemed from it ; for this deliverance was no such easy performance as to make us think that such another could ever be compassed , or that god will work new miracles for our preservation , after we had thrown our selves back into that miserable condition out of which he has rescued us . 6. if it be insisted on that the oaths of supremacy and allegiance are conceived in such terms , that there is no breaking thro' them ; and that we have sworn that we shall never take arms against the king ; that we have renounced the position , as traiterous , of making a distinction between the king's person and his power ; in short , that we are under the most express ties that can be put in words , never to rebel against the king , nor to shake off his authority . to all this it is to be answered , that the end and design of those oaths was to secure us against the danger of popery , as any one may see in the acts by which they were imposed : and tho all these oaths are still to the king ; yet that is to a prince who subsists upon law , and rules by law ; and therefore if the king ceases to be king , by subverting our constitution first , and deserting us next , then all our oaths fall to the ground : as the matrimonial oath , tho made for term of life , yet is capable of being dissolved , when that which is the essence of the bond is broke . and if the king ceases to be a king , then the next heir becomes the only lawful and rightful king : and if the next is a femme covert , then by the law of nations , which creates a communication of all the rights of the wife to the husband , this is likewise communicated , so that here we may have still a lawful and rightful king. and after all , it is plain that if any diminution of the regal authority be imposed on the king , as the condition upon which only he can be admitted , this very imposition is as real a breach of the oath , as a total shaking him off . this makes a vast difference between the king's person and his power , tho that is a point expresly renounc'd in the oaths that we swear ; so that it is plain after all , that if the oath of allegiance binds us still , it binds us to a great deal more than those that are for treating seem willing to allow . 7. all the schemes that may be offered of securing us by a treaty with the king , have such visible defects in them , that men who are accustomed to examine things , cannot be deceived by them . we have had it given for law of late , too often to forget it , that all acts of parliament that are to the disherison of the crown , are null and void of themselves : so here all the securities that can be offered us , are swept away at once . we can have no legal parliament without swearing first the oath of allegiance to the king ; and what a scorn is put on god and religion if one swear this oath to the king after he is reduced to that naked state to which these treaters pretend to bring him . nor can the nation have any security by law , either for what is done , or for what may remain yet to be done , but by acts that are past by king , lords , and commons . men are to be pardoned if they are uneasy , till they have the utmost security that the constitution can give them . and after all whosoever is the king for the time being , he has the law so entirely of his side , that tho during the present fermentation the force of this is not perceptible , yet it is a cruelty not to be easily forgiven to keep a nation too long in so dangerous a condition . 8. but after all some men plainly say , the king can do no wrong , that his ministers are only accountable for all the ill he had done ; and that the prince in his declaration has laid the blame of all that for which he engaged in this great design on the evil counsellors about the king , on whom the punishment ought to fall , and not on the king himself , whose person is exempt from censure . to all which this is to be answered , that the maxim , the king can do no wrong , is perverted to a sense very different from that which was at first intended by it ; for the meaning of it is only this , that the king's power cannot go so far as to support him in the doing of any injustice or wrong to any , according to that chapter in magna charta , by which all commissions granted against law , are declared to be null and void : for this is the true meaning of that maxime . but there is no reason to carry this so far as that if kings will strain their authority visibly , to do the highest wrongs possible , they were in no way accountable for it . whatsoever has been done in parliament , and has never been condemned by any subsequent one , is a part of the law of england , since then two of our kings , edward the 2d , and richard the 2d , have been judged in parliament for their mal-administration , and since these judgments have never been vacated by any subsequent parliaments , those proceedings are a part of our law. and though perhaps there have been more express definitions made of late in favour of the crown than ever were in former times , yet as long as those proceedings remain upon record , it is plain that this great right of the english nation of preserving it self in cases of extream necessity , against the violent invasions that the crown may make upon it , is still entire and in force . but after all it will be readily yielded , that as the life of a father is never to be attempted on by his children , how great soever their provocations may be ; so the king being made the political father of the country , his person ought still to be sacred . but when the root of the king 's overturning our laws is his being so entirely devoted to his religion , and to the order of the jesuits , how decent soever it might be for the prince to lay the blame of all on his evil councellors , yet it will be an unreasonable piece of tenderness in the representative of the kingdom not to lay the blame of things where it ought to be laid . 9. either all thoughts of treating with the king , or all enquiries into the birth of the pretended prince of wales are to be laid aside . the king has gone so far in what he has averred , with relation to that matter , that it is impossible to judg it an imposture without giving him a large share in it ; and no man can think that it is possible to maintain the common decencies of respect to the king , if any steps are made in that matter : for even an enquiry into it is the calling his honour into question , in so sensible a point that no man that can make a discovery is safe to make it , nor are any safe who pretend to examine it , as long as there are any thoughts of treating with him ; which will never be believed to be quite laid down , as long as the title of king is acknowledged to be still in him . men that condemn the errors in government committed by him , may flatter themselves with the possibility of his pardoning them ; but there is no mercy where the matter is personal , in which his honour is so immediately concerned , and where a judgment against the child casts so black and so indelible a stain on himself . 10. if articles are prepared to be offered to the king , they will be either such as he will probably grant , or such that it cannot in reason be expected that he should grant them . the former is not to be supposed ; for such a stripping himself of power , as seems necessary to give us any tolerable security , is that which we ought not to imagine he will grant : and it will appear to the world a triumphing over him in his misfortunes , if we make a shew of treating with him , when it is visible before-hand that the demands which must be made him are such , that he cannot in honour grant them , nor we in reason expect them from him . when matters are brought to that pass at which they are at present ; it is more suitable to the dignity and wisdom of the nation to act frankly and above-board , than to think to varnish them over with some outward appearances . in such cases , any other way of proceeding has not that air of greatness and openness which is necessary upon such occasions . a great deal of time will be lost in preparing the propositions , and a treaty being once entertained , many may be practised on , and either be corrupted or destroyed . and perhaps the half of the articles will be drop'd in the treaty , or the whole will be given up by the king in less time than was imployed in preparing any one of the articles . the very talk of a treaty will keep the minds of many in agitation and suspence : some that are now desperate with relation to the king , may enter into a separate treaty with him : and an inconstant multitude will be too much tempted to run as fast to him as ever they shewed zeal against him . that these are not imaginary dangers is visible to all that have conversed much in history , or have observed the varieties of mens thoughts with relation to publick affairs , and considered how little is to be built on any present heats , how fervent and how universal soever they may seem to be , and how soon a nation may be apt to run even out of one extream into another , and therefore the keping thing still in a loose and unsettled state is the hazarding the whole matter , and the running the risk of a relapse , which will be much more dangerous than the former disease was , unless the king of france , who has the king now in his power , will be pleased to mediate for us , out of his tried love to us and our religion . 11. the clear and natural method of proceeding upon this occasion , is , first , to state this nation as a protestant kingdom , that is incompatible with popery or a popish king ; of which opinion many were before the king came to the crown ; and he has so managed the matter since , that he has convinced the whole nation of it at last . here a view may be taken of the course of his government , in those things that have been notorious and publick , without entring into such specialties as will need proof , and by consequence take up time ; and in conclusion it is to be set forth , that he has quitted the realm in a storm , and has left the nation to shift for it self ; and has both deserted the government in general , and abandoned even those who had stuck to him , and were ready to have sacrificed all for him in particular . and that the last act of his authority might be long remembred , he ordered his army to be disbanded ; which ( since it was to be done without paying or disarming the souldiers ) was the letting loose of so many armed men , under the greatest temptation to live like banditti and robbers in the nation . upon all this it is natural to declare the throne void ; and that the king has fallen from all right to it . in all that i have said concerning his desertion , i limit my reflections to his first leaving of whitehall ; for the accident at feversham , and what followed after that , cannot be called a return to his people ; and since the seals never appeared , and the king never spake of a parliament , nor altered his measures in any thing , but still prosecuted his first design by his second escape , his deserting is still to be dated from his first going from white-hall ; and he having given that just advantage against himself , which came after all that series of injustice and violence that had gone before it , no man can think that it was not very fitting to carry it as far as it would go , and not to treat with him any more upon the foot of acknowledging him king. 12. when all this is laid together , it is not to be supposed , that considering men can be shocked with those prejudices that arise , rather out of the sound of some ill understood words , than out of any real and forcible arguments , and it can least of all be imagined , that the great and learned body which has so triumphed over popery in their late contests with it , should now let themselves be so misled with the narrow notions of an unbounded loyalty , as to oppose or even dislike such a compleat settlement , as the present exigence of our affairs requires . their worth , the courage that they shewed against popery , and their readiness to have been made sacrifices in that noble resistance which they both made and maintained to the last , has indeed raised them above censure , and all severe imputations . but it cannot but lessen the esteem that is due to any , though it does not detract from their worth , if they will still pursue a point that is liable to such great and just exceptions . no body can think they are in love with popery , or fond of coming again under father peter's ministry : but men that see through all the reasons that are offered for treating , and foresee the fatal consequences that must attend it , will be tempted to think that some men , either have not strength of thought enough to examine this whole matter more impartially , or that having once declared themselves of a contrary opinion , they cannot conquer nature so far , as to do that which will import a confession of their once having been in an error . finis . a sermon preached before the house of commons, on the 31st of january, 1688 being the thanksgiving-day for the deliverance of this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power, by his highness the prince of orange's means / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 51 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30428 wing b5885 estc r22904 12622729 ocm 12622729 64568 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30428) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64568) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:12) a sermon preached before the house of commons, on the 31st of january, 1688 being the thanksgiving-day for the deliverance of this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power, by his highness the prince of orange's means / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 35, [1] p. printed for john starkey and ric. chiswell ..., london : 1689. half title: a thanksgiving-sermon before the house of commons. advertisement: p. [1] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng william -iii, -king of england, 1650-1702. sermons, english. great britain -history -william and mary, 1689-1702 -sermons. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion veneris , 1mo die februarii , 1688. resolved , nemine contradicente , that the thanks of this house be given to the reverend dr. gilbert burnet , for the sermon yesterday preached by him before this house ; and that he be desired to print his sermon . and mr. dolben is to acquaint him with such the thanks and desire of this house . paul iodrell , cl. dom. com. a sermon preached before the house of commons , on the 31st of ianuary , 1688. being the thanksgiving-day for the deliverance of this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power , by his highness the prince of orange's means . by gilbert burnet , d. d. and chaplain to his highness . london : printed for iohn starkey ; and ric. chiswell at the rose and crown , in s. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxix . a thanksgiving-sermon before the house of commons . a sermon preached before the house of commons . psal. cxliv . verse xv . happy is that people that is in such a case : yea , happy is that people whose god is the lord. there is no instinct that is stronger and more universal , than the desire of happiness : there is a charm in the sound of the word , which overcomes every one as soon as it is heard ▪ if some noble minds have a largeness of soul which carries them beyond all narrow and partial regards , yet these do most passionately desire to see the happiness of their countrey . and it must be confessed , that to see ones countrey happy , and to feel ones self happy , are provocations to joy , which few men can possibly resist . but there are perhaps very few that have the notion of happiness which the psalmist here sets forth : for , having considered all those blessings which are apt to make the greatest impressions on humane nature , such as goodly sons , and beautiful daughters , full granaries of all sorts , fruitful flocks of sheep , and cattel fit to cultivate the ground ; and the enjoying all this so securely , that no enemy from without should break in upon them , and that no disorder within should drive any away , or give so much as occasion to discontent or complaining in any part of their countrey or fields , rendred here streets . upon all this he pronounces , that the people was indeed happy that was in such a case ; but that , after all this catalogue of blessings summ'd up and set together , there was a happiness that far exceeded it . it is true , this opposition is set forth with more beauty by the seventy translators in these words : a people that is in such a case has been esteemed or called happy ; but happy is the people whose god is the lord ; as if all other happiness was only imaginary , this being the only real one . and it is certain , that if we can find a nation that has both these , we must esteem it happy , without diminution or comparison . but if , laying the whole matter together , it appears that we are the nation to whom both the branches of this blessedness belongs , and that we are , or at least , if we are not much in fault our selves , that we may be the just envy of the whole world , then we must conclude this action with all possible joy , when we find our selves under so happy an influence . we feel our selves already delivered from great miseries that we had not only in prospect , but that had actually seized us . our minds give us also the happy auguries of a blessed settlement ; that our religion shall shine all the world over , and that our nation shall give law to it . who can look on this great assembly , in which we see a true representative of england , brought together , and that without those arts and practices that had made the calling of a parliament as formidable of late , as it was desired upon all other occasions : who , i say , can look on all this without raising in himself all the just expectations of every thing that is great or good ? or who can look back on those black clouds that were hanging over our heads , and that seemed charged with storms and thunders , and observe the present calm , and consider the steps of providence , i had almost said the prodigies and miracles of providence , that have attended our deliverance , without letting his heart run out into all the joyful expectations possible ? you feel a great deal , and promise your selves a great deal more ; and you are now in the right way to it , when you come with the solemnities of thanksgiving , to offer up your acknowledgments to that fountain of life , to whom you owe this new lease which he has granted you of your own ; this is the true way both to maintain that which you have already got , and to improve it to all those happy ends to which even your wishes can carry you . every man is full of the happy change of our affairs ; but they are perhaps but few who offer up all in inward adorations to him to whom all is due . we have added to our former sins the shew of many days of fasting , and of rejoicing ; and these how much soever they may affect the multitude , for whose sake it is , perhaps , that many are willing to shew an outward compliance with such like orders , while they inwardly despise them ; yet when they are observed with a contempt that is too gross to be called hypocrisie , they can signifie nothing unless it be to leave us under the condemnation of those who honour'd god with their lips , when their hearts were far from him . in the opening these words i shall not look further back into the particulars here enumerated , that make a people happy , than to the words immediately preceding my text , that there be no breaking in , nor going out , nor complaining in our streets . i shall shew you , first , what is signified by every one of them ; and in the next place , i shall consider , how such like blessings may belong to us ; and thirdly , i shall shew you what that superiour and more valuable happiness is , of having the lord , the true jehovah , to be the god of a nation ; and in the last place , i shall consider what you ought to do for procuring both to your selves , and to the whole nation , a share in this happiness . 1. by breaking in , may be meant either the hostile invasion of an enemy , or any violences committed by our ▪ neighbours round about us . the word in the hebrew signifies only in general a breach ; and so no breaking in , imports no more , but that there is so firm a quiet , and that so well setled , that there is no disturbance given to the publick safety : but the seventy translators have given a paraphrase upon it , thus , that there be no breaking of the hedge , or partition wall ; and this may be either applied to the whole nation , which being considered under the figure of a walled city , every hostile invasion is like a breach made in the walls and bulwarks of a town ; or it may be meant more specially , of every man's inclosure , and property : and so the blessing of a nation that is set forth in this phrase , amounts to this , that they are all so safe in general , and every one is so secure in his own particular , that they need neither fear the injustices of their neighbours , nor the violences of their enemies . by going out , may be meant the driving away the people into some foreign land ; which was the custom of the eastern conquests and empires , who carried away the more considerable men of one country , and planted them in another ; and then in the way of exchange brought men from the countries where these were put , and planted them in their seats , and thus created a misunderstanding between the superiour and the inferiour orders of men. this policy appears evidently in the account that we have given us of the captivity of the iews under the assyrian and babylonish monarchies . by going out , may be likewise meant an abandoning the country , when the inhabitants should find themselves so little safe within their inclosures , that they were forced to seek for that quiet elsewhere , which they could enjoy no longer at home . by complaining , or , as the word is strictly , a cry , may be either meant that publick howling that spreads it self abroad , upon hostile invasions , and eminent dangers ; or the more secret murmurings of such as go about , seeking redress for the injuries that are done them . streets is put for a word of a larger signification in hebrew , and signifies all open places and fields ; and a cry being opposed to justice by the prophet , i looked for righteousness , and behold a cry , these words may be likewise applied to the cries of the oppressed , with which the wise man was so deeply affected , when he heard their groans , and saw power on the side of their oppressors , but that they had none to comfort them , that he praised the dead more than the living : so that these words of no complaining to be heard , import , that there should be such an equal and steady administration of justice , that the poor should have no cause given them to go and spread their complaints about the streets . these words may be yet carried further , that as there should be no cause given to just complaints , so the humour of murmuring , and of making injust ones , should cease ; and that as the government should be just and equitable , so the people should have a sutable sense of it . and thus summing up all this together , the happiness of a people , as it is here set forth , amounts to this : that a government is strong and vigorous with relation to its enemies abroad , and just and equitable in its administration at home , and that the whole society and every member of it is safe ; that none are either driven out of their country , or tempted to leave it , and that there is a general serenity in all mens tempers , as well as an equity in the government , no complaints , murmurings , nor censures being to be heard in the ordinary places of concourse . i need not add to this representation of the happiness of a nation , any thing in commendation of it , this were an impertinent imposing on your patience . a man that would imploy his rhetorick to praise health , or to speak well of the sun , would be very unwillingly hearkned to . indeed if one were to make a panegyrick on tyranny ▪ and on a hard and unjust government , he ought to turn over all the common places of vvit , all the stores of invention , and the liveliest figures with which his fancy could furnish him , to make so odious a thing look but tollerably , and by sacrificing truth to interest , and varnishing it over with wit and eloquence , he might shew how gracefully he could plead a very ill cause : but to commend that which i have set forth , is needless , where the sense of every man goes even before the reflections that arise either from his own observations , or those that others may set before him , and determines him to conclude , that such a state is a great felicity , because he feels it to be so . and indeed to see the miseries of those nations that have the advantages of sun and soil beyond others , which yet are happy under a feeble sun and fruitless soil , is an argument beyond all that fancy or eloquence can invent . in short , liberty and justice are so naturally desired by all men , and the happiness of them is so sensibly felt , that any further discourse for setting them off , is as little needful , or indeed as little tolerable , as it is to set forth the advantages that a man who sees and hears , has of those who are deaf and blind : so you see what is meant by a people that is in such a case : and i am sure you all feel somewhat within you , even the voice of nature , telling you how happy the people is that is in such a case . 2. suffer me then to go over these particulars , that in them we may have a full prospect of all that we ought to propose to our selves , in order to our temporal happiness : the first is , the securing us against all breaking in ; which in the first sense of the words , is foreign invasion ; and of this we had very lately just apprehensions of two different sorts : the one was our being again brought under that foreign yoke , out of which we had so happily escaped in the last age , and which was ready to be laid upon our necks in this . a yoke it is , god knows , that leaves nothing free ; all other tyranny reaches only to mens persons and estates , but their thoughts must be enslaved here ; reason it self must be stifled , and all must be taken upon trust : nor are men's reasons and consciences enough for this devouring power , but their wealth , their persons , and their temporal , as well as their spiritual concerns , must be fetched within this bondage : and with this difference , that all men are sure that they give them their temporal and perishing vvealth , but none are made sure whether they receive in exchange that which is called the spiritual and incorruptible treasure ; we are sure that the saying of masses brings in a great treasure to the church , but no man can pretend to be sure that his friends soul is delivered out of purgatory by them : and the shrines and churches of the saints are certainly enriched out of measure , but none of their benefactors is sure that they interceed for them ; so that upon very fallible and doubtful assurances , a vast vvealth is certainly brought into their hand ; and imprisonments , cruelties of all sorts , and death it self in its most terrible shape , must be the fate of any that but dares to think of shaking it off . as this is a yoke , so it is foreign to us ; we owe no dependance to the see that pretends to be mother-church ; we received not the gospel from any sent by them . the christian religion was in this island for several ages before we had any commerce with that see ; nor were we ever subject to it any other way , than as a prisoner is in the power of him that took him ; we have all the just titles to an entire exemption from any acknowledgment of them ; for even in the time that we were a province to the roman empire , tho' the see of rome had all its authority from the dignity of the city , and that this could go no further than the empire ; yet even then we were not put under them , much less can it be pretended that the empire being now dissolved , and at an end , we owe any homage there any more : and tho we did run the common fate of the rest of europe , of falling under the prevailing superstition of some dark ages ; yet this nation did even during the darkness , maintain its liberty the best it could ▪ it had not force enough for a great while to get the better in the dispute ; but it felt the rigour of that bondage so heavily , that it broke thro' it at last , and being once made free , it was a strange presumption to imagine , that a nation which has ever retained such a generous sense of liberty , could return to so severe and so ignominious a servitude ; and yet our enemies hoped even to have gained this point : we saw the negotiation set on foot with a high hand , solemn embassies were sent of both sides , and the worst body of all those who support that usurped authority , were to be our task-masters . whether they acted wisely in this matter , or not , i shall not determine ; but it is certain , they acted very fairly , by letting us see our danger so seasonably , that we had a timely warning given us , intimating to us how we were to be treated . but tho' this yoke was bad enough , god knows , this was not all the misery that was before our eyes ; we were charmed by the arts of a powerful but cruel neighbour ; and they had already broke in so entirely upon the counsels here , that they had nothing to wish for with relation to the nation , but to have the people as much under them , as the publick authority was at their disposal : we were trembling at the apprehensions they put us in sometimes , of their having one of the keys of england , and one of the most important posts of the nation , put into their hands ▪ which fell indeed afterwards into other hands , that proved less cruel , because less strong : but yet in that there was a particular character of reproach to the nation , when a people conquered by it were become the masters of the chief posts in it . but when one alarm went over , another succeeded : for from an alliance which they themselves had publickly owned , we had reason to apprehend every thing that was dismal : a government which had broke faith both at home and abroad , that persecuted with characters of cruelty beyond all that former ages had ever dreamt of , and that made war with inhuman fury ; that broke , i say , both edicts and treaties with so high a hand , as if they had intended to affront all that was sacred among men ; that had managed their persecution with so much barbarous rage , as if they had intended to let the world see that the inquisitors had yet bowels left of which they had quite devested themselves ; and that in their wars have acted that in whole provinces , which would have passed for a blot before , if done but in a single town that had been taken by storm . such a government , i say , as this is , being in so close a conjunction with our own , gave us the blackest apprehensions possible . this was the breaking in that threatned us : but though we are no more in danger to have our gates set open to such an enemy , by those who ought to keep them , yet we ought still to guard against them . they hate us , because we dare to be freemen and protestants . they have skill and cunning enough to wait for every opportunity , and to improve it : this is a breaking in that is to be dreaded , as we do the inundations of the sea , or the eruptions of a devouring fire . it is an union in your councils , and a vigour in your proceedings , that next to the blessing of god , must secure us against the breaches that may be made upon us by those two enemies , who according to the character given in the psalm , are strange children , whose mouth we know speaks vanity or deceit , and whose right hand we are sure is a right hand of falshood ; and who , how much soever they may have differed of late , will be probably brought to unite in order to their first dividing , and then their destroying us . excessive severities upon the account of religion will be as needless in themselves , as they may prove hurtful to the main design , and dishonourable both to our religion and our nation : for as the one condemns cruelty , so we know the other cannot endure the sight of it . let us leave upon that church the infamy of persecution , and not bring on our selves any share in the reproaches that we so justly throw on them for so odious a thing . nothing makes a bank so strong against the breaking in of waters , as the confolidating it well together ; if there is an universal concurrence in the civil settlement , and afterwards an union in matters of religion , we may hope that our bank shall neither be broke thorow nor yet undermined . here suffer me to tell you , that in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign our adversaries saw no hopes of retrieving their affairs , which had been spoil'd by queen mary's persecution , but by setting on foot divisions among protestants upon very inconsiderable matters . i my self have seen the letters of the chief bishops of that time , from which it appears that the queen's stiffness in maintaining some ceremonies , flowed not from their councils , but from the practices of some disguised papists : and i have had in my hands the original journal of the lower house of convocation in the 5th year of that glorious reign , in which the matter of the ceremonies was first argued , and when it came to the vote it was carried by the greater number of the voices of the members that were present , to lay down all those subjects of contests : but the proxies turned it to the severer side . and as these fatal disputes have ever since in a great measure screened that party , so they have weakned us and exposed us to all the dangers out of which we have now escaped , yet so as by fire . but the second sense of breaking in , is never to be forgotten by you , i mean the breaking through a man's inclosure ; or , in a word , the violating these two sacred things , liberty and property , and the constitution of this august body , which is the great fence to both : when the only use that was made of laws , was to find a colour to break them ; when justice was only pretended to support the highest injustices ; when no man's fence was strong enough to resist precarious judges , and suborned juries ; when adhering to law and religion was become a crime , and when prerogative which is only a power to preserve the people on extraordinary occasions , was made the great engine to destroy them : in a word , when no man was safe in his innocence , nor secure in his property ; and when the owning the concerns of the nation in this great body , was accounted a crime to be expiated by the best blood that was in it ; when , i say , all these things were done , then was our fence not only broken down , but as if it were not enough to pluck up park-pales , without knocking down the owners with them ; so laws , justice and trials were become the words of form to be made use of for destroying us by rule and method , and were only the solemnities and ceremonies of our ruine . the securing us then against such a breaking in , is the explaining and determining that which lay formerly too loose in general terms ; the shutting of all those back-doors , by which corrupt men had found a way to escape from the true meaning of the law ; the providing real securities against the returns of the like dangers for the future , and the giving remedies to that which is reparable for what is past : all this is incumbent on you , that so hereafter there may be no breaking in upon us . this will be so much the more easy for you to do , because you have not now a misled authority , or a corrupted party amongst you to strugle against the methods which may be suggested . for now those who are the truest patriots and the best friends to their religion and their country , must reckon to be the most acceptable to the glorious instrument of our deliverance , who carries in his heart the words that he ordered to be put on his standard , the protestant religion , and the liberties of england : and who will be the forwardest in every proposition that may secure and establish them both . to say all in a word ; you see where , and how we have been broke in upon , and this will best direct you to secure us for the future , that so hereafter there may be no more breaking in . nor going out , this being the consequence of the other , it will not be necessary to dwell long upon it . no stray sheep will run out of the fold if you secure them from the wolf ; apostates and deserters will be no more known among us , if you shelter us from the beasts of prey that would devour us . to be led into captivity and become slaves , is the best that we can look for , when we fall into their hands , who have no pity , or at least dare not shew it , if any had it . of this the world has seen an instance in france , beyond all that former ages ever knew , for it was an unheard-of thing to see a million or two of people fallen upon , and either made miserable , or forced to render themselves miserable , by doing that for which their own consciences must every day reproach them . multitudes thrown into prisons and dungeons , condemned to the gallies , and by a fury scarce known among barbarians , the very bodies of the dead were made subjects on whom they exercised their rage . common cruelty is glutted with the death of an enemy , but it must be whetted by the principles of an inhuman religion , that can commit outrages on the carcasses of the dead : all this was acted with so high a hand that men of quality and learning , that had been eminent in the former parts of their lives for vertue and gentleness , seem'd to put on all the fierceness of inquisitors , and to divest themselves of all those tendernesses which hand long even about the worst of men. insulting and reproach was become the language of the clergy . and there was so little dissimulation in the case , or shew of good nature , that the barbarous usage of our unhappy brethren was heightned by the circumstances and manner of it . this was the going out , or the captivity , that was to be expected by us after such a breaking in as has lately threatned us . all the happiness we could have expected was , that which was the portion of some of our persecuted brethren , that abandoning their countrey , their estates , and their families , thought themselves but too happy if they could escape with their lives in their hands , and their consciences undefiled . but if such a dispersion had come upon us , whither could we hope to fly ? the french had a great continent which could not be so narrowly watch'd , but that some passage or other was still to be found , whereas we were shut up in an island . they had us to fly to ; and likewise those blessed provinces which have been the sanctuaries of the unhappy , and the refuge of all that were persecuted for righteousness sake , ever since they were a free-state : but to vvhom could vve have gone ? for as the states could not have survived our ruine long ; so that vast number of refugees whom they received with open arms , had stock'd their countrey and exhausted their charity : a long and dangerous navigation to the east or west-indies was all the hope that seemed left us , and even there we could not think to be long safe from an industrious malice which persecutes at the greatest distance . another sort of going out that we were beginning to fall under , was the being tempted to forsake all those engagements , that tie a man to his family and to his native country , and to seek for that ease by wandring abroad , which could not be allowed us , while we lived ( tho ever so harmless ) at home . and tho this is not so severe a lot as to need much patience to bear it , yet it must be confessed that there is a charm in ones native air , in friends and kindred , and the easiness of a setled life , which nature cannot throw off without feeling some repugnancies to it . the setling all matters so among us , that our country may have security from without , and justice within , so that instead of tempting the inhabitants to wander out of it , it may attract strangers from all places to it ; this , i say , will effectually keep us from going out : for an englishman needs nothing to recommend his countrey to him , but to be set a wandring for some years . that there be no complaining in our streets , no alarms nor crys ; this will be best compassed by the giving our enemies work abroad : by supporting the persecuted protestants , and by forcing an execution of the edicts made in their favours , and a reparation of the crying injustice that has been done them ; and most particularly , by a perpetual and entire conjunction with those provinces , that have in so noble and indeed unparallel'd a manner , supported and assisted our great deliverer , in so vast an undertaking . this nation did them great services in the last age , when they were strugling for liberty ; but it was by lending money and sending them troops , upon the security of cautionary towns , though it was then the visible interest of england to preserve them . but they have now in a way much more frank , more dangerous to themselves , as well as more obliging to us , without either bargain or security , put all to hazzard , because we were ready to perish . it is not to be supposed that so generous a nation as this is , can bring upon it self so foul a blot as ever to forget so vast a service : their very name ought to be to us , to speak in a phrase of scripture poetry , as ointment poured forth . we were their neighbours , and friends , and their brethren before : but now upon this heightning of our relation and obligations to them , if we cannot find out terms of greater tenderness ; yet at least we must study to feel somewhat , and ever to carry it in our hearts towards them that cannot be expressed in words . when we have thus secured our selves from cries and allarms , the next care must be to see justice and peace so to flourish at home , and rewards to be so equally dispensed , with as little punishment as can possibly consist with publick safety , that there may be little occasion given to complaint . the exact conduct of publick justice ; and the avoiding every invasion upon the freedom of conscience , which is the first , and the most sacred of all a man's rights , are the surest ways to prevent all just cause of complaint : to speak the truth and to work righteousness ; to relieve the oppressed without respect of persons , to plead the cause of the widow and the fatherless , and the not ruling over the consciences of any with force or cruelty , but the leaving men within the limits of a just discretion , as to the manner of it , the entire freedom of serving god in the sincerity of their hearts , will put an end to many heavy and just complaints , which have been poured out before god in the bitterness of many mens spirits ; whose lives have been made a burden to them , only because they could not act contrary to those persuasions , which they were not able to change or overcome . but the removing the just occasions of complaint is not enough to take away all complainings from us , unless we can deliver our selves from an impatient and jealous temper , which forms complaints out of nothing , which creates imaginary dangers , and suggests groundless jealousies . this temper having once sowred our minds , will give an ill taste to every thing : every humour disagreeing to ours , or way of behaviour that we do not like , will be so swelled up to us by a disturbed imagination , that we will be often in the state of those that were in great fear , where no fear was . we must put on a meek and gentle , a humble and good-natured temper , which thinks no evil , and believeth and hopeth all things . 3. and thus i have gone through the first half of my text , happy is the people that is in such a case . but to speak in s. paul's words , i go now to shew you a more excellent way . for how much soever all these blessings may affect you , here is one of another sort , to which , they all put together , cannot be compared ; happy is the people whose god is the lord. when idolatry had spread it self over the world , every nation , city , and family , had its peculiar object of adoration ; which was called its god , that was worshipped by it , and to which the people fled , and on which they depended in all their distresses . this being the corruption under which mankind had fallen . when god inspired moses to deliver to the iews , a religion by which he intended to wean them from idolatry , in such a way as their capacities and inclinations could bear : he proposed himself to them , under that simple idea , of being the iohovah , that , is he who truly and necessarily is , that by the simplicity of this notion , they might be kept in , and might not let their minds run out into gross imaginations , concerning him : for when images of god are once formed in peoples minds , they will be easily led to represent him to their senses in some visible and gross shape . but as god was presented in so simple and such an unbodied idea to them , so he entred into a covenant with that nation , by which they on the one hand were engaged to worship him only , and to do it in a way suitable to his nature , and to those precepts which he had set before them : so he on his part promised to them protection and acceptance . and this is the full meaning of those words so often repeated in the old testament , i am the lord thy god , which are sometimes a remembrance to the people of their duty towards him ; and at other times an assurance to them of that protection which they might expect from god : so that the happiness of a people whose god is the lord , amounts to these two things , the one is , that they serve and worship god sincerely , being delivered from the corruptions and defilements of idolatry ; and the other is that they came under the special care and protection of god. to make the true jehovah our god imports , first , that we adore and acknowledge him , and worship him in spirit and truth , and that we free our minds from every thought that leads to idolatry , and our worship from every object that may tempt us to it . the two extreams relating to religion seem to be atheism and idolatry , and yet they come nearer one another than can be imagined ; for as the one worships no god , so the other makes that which is worshipped , to be no god. when we bring god down in our minds to somewhat that is like our selves , or only a very little better , the impression that such a religion can make on us will be but feeble , and it working only on our fears , may subdue us into a blind compliance to some contrivances that way prove of advantage to those who have invented them ; but will never purifie , nor exalt our natures , which certainly is the true design of religion . in a word , atheism denies god , and idolatry degrades him . it depresses our idea's of him , and debases all our notions of religion . the pomp and solemnity of it will perhaps affect the vulgar , but they being satisfied with the expence and trouble that their religion puts them to , grow upon that , dissolute and immoral , severe and cruel , so that nothing defaces all the impressions of religion , nor destroys all the seeds of morality that are born with us , more than idolatry . and as the heathens departing from the idea of the great gods being the sole object of worship , their mixing with him an infinity of inferiour deities , and their representing the divinity by some visible objects to their senses , was the idolatry practised all the world over , and into which the iews did frequently relapse , during the time that the old testament was written , in opposition to which the true jehovah was the god of israel : so another , not unlike this , in all its main characters , was introduced among christians . the notion of a single mediator was as much pressed in the new testament , as that of one god is in the old ; and the worship was reduced to a plainness and simplicity far different from the pomp that was allowed by moses : and yet how many under-mediators have been brought in to divert us from depending solely upon the only mediator by whom we are taught to come to god ? and how have the christian churches been defiled with so many visible objects of worship , and so gross a pageantry , as if the designe had been to make the idolatry of christians appear to be a much more scandalous thing , than that of the heathens ever was ? but the freeing our temples and even our thoughts from idolatry , is but one branch of that which is implied in this , that the jehovah or lord is our god : for this signifies that we not only do not worship him in a way unworthy of him ; but that we do adore him in those instances that become this relation of his being our god : and this we do when we seriously call upon him and pray to him , when we do entirely depend on him , and resign up our selves wholly to his conduct ; when we do sincerely acknowledge , that all the blessings we receive , come from him ; and when , in a word , we perform all those duties to him , which we owe to the author of our being , and the giver of all the good that we enjoy . but if we laugh at all that is sacred , or set about the performances of it in so slight a manner , as shew how little we believe that which we profess ; if it is plain , that prayers and thanksgivings , worship , and sacraments are only . words or rites of form ; and if the whole frame of our lives , and the disposition of our hearts shews that these things are only masks and disguises put on to deceive those that have some regard to them : then it is plain , that the lord is not our god. and if he is not our god in this first sense , we have no reason to expect that he should be our god long , in the second sense of these words , that is , that he will protect and defend us . he is a sun and a shield , and will give both grace and glory : but this blessedness comes only on those that trust in him . it is certain , that according to the phrase in the psalms , the shields of the earth , that is , the defence of the land , belong unto god. and how unworthy soever those that have made him their god may have become of that relation , yet till their sins grow up to that height that he will throw them off , he will continue to watch over them , with so distinguishing a providence , that all the world shall see that his eyes are upon those that fear him , and that hope in his mercy ; he can and will when he thinks fit , defeat the councils of the wise , and make the diviners mad . he taketh the crafty in the snare , which they themselves had laid : and , as we do all with joy feel and acknowledge this day , he can raise up deliverances for his people , even when they seemed to be as sheep appointed for the slaughter : he can raise up an instrument , even the man whom he has made strong for himself ; and so animate , direct and conduct him , that he , with a small force in opposition to a great and powerful army , should yet find no enemy , but overturn a mighty empire , and that with so little confusion and disorder , not to say so little blood and destruction , that instead of scenes of horrour , all was welcome and acclamation ; and this god has carried on so far , that we are now upon the point of seeing all end in an entire settlement . thus tho' god knows we , i mean all ranks and conditions of men , or to enumerate them in daniels words , our kings , our princes , and our fathers , and all the people of the land , had sinned , and done wickedly , and rebelled against him ; so that we had reason to have looked for some heavy curse to be poured out upon us , and that because we had rejected the lord from being our god , therefore he should have cast us off from being his people ; yet he in the midst of all this wrath , that we had stirred up against our selves , has remembred mercy : and he has given us such a pledge , and all the world such a proof that he is our god ; that if this does not soften us first into repentance , and then into acknowledgments , and to the performance of those vows that we made to him in our distresses , we may fear that we shall fall under that curse of the tree which continued barren , after the last essay of cultivation was made upon it : cut it down , why should it cumber the ground any longer . 4. i come now in the last place to propose to you those things by which you can secure to your selves and the nation this great blessing of the lords being our god ; i doubt not but you have all the former part of my text enough upon your minds : it is indeed your duty , and you ought to do it , but even in order to the securing our temporal happiness , you may all now see how necessary it is to take care that god be always on our side , for the best laid and most prospering designs are soon blasted , when they are crost by him : you see such revolutions , and such disappointments in all humane councils , and in the fairest probabilities , that i hope this will make you for ever consider of what importance the blessing of god is to the success of every undertaking ; and to lay this before you in instances that are fresh and speaking ; you saw several assemblies of parliament , from which the nation did expect a happy settlement , and yet all were disappointed : after that you saw another , from which you expected every thing that was fatal , and yet god made that the means of maintaining our laws , and our religion : you saw a mighty army and a vast revenue fortified by a formidable ally ; but you could never have hoped , that this army which gave you so much terrour , should have have had so great a share in the glory of your deliverance , and no man could have thought , that the councils of our enemies should have done more for us , than all the projects of our friends could ever have done : you who saw the state of things three months ago , could never have thought that so total a revolution could have been brought about so easily , as if it had been only the shifting of scenes . these are speaking instances to let you see of what consequenee it is to a nation to have the lord for its god. we have seen it hitherto in so eminent a manner , that we are forced to conclude , that we are under a special influence of heaven , and since in god there is no variableness , nor shadow of turning ; we must confess that if there comes any change in gods methods towards us , that it arises only out of our ingratitude and unworthiness . if we will go on in our atheism and immoralities , in our contempt of god and religion , and in all those disorders that have cried so long for vengeance upon us ; then we may justly apprehend that this short reviving , will be but an interval of a moments breathing , to try whether we are fit for a total deliverance , or indeed capable of it or not ; but that this being abused and lost by us , we must next fall under more dismal calamities , even than those that we lately feared , and that we shall be a hissing , and a reproach to all the earth . i shall not now enlarge upon those things , that every private person ought to do for diverting so terrible a desolation ; but shall only name those things , that all good men expect from your councils . the first is , to secure us for ever , as far as humane wisdom and the force of law can do it , from ever falling under the just apprehensions of the return of idolatry any more amongst us ; and the making the best provisions possible against those dangers that lay on us so lately . 2. to beat down that irreligious and atheistical humour , that has gained so much ground among us , and that impudently scoffs at all that is sacred in religion : you cannot indeed make men become truly religious , but you can make them be both afraid and ashamed of professing themselves atheists . 3. you can in a great measure remove that scandal that falls on all religion , and on ours in particular , which is occasioned by the diversity , not so much of opinions , for god be thanked there is not much of that , as of rites , and matters indifferent , that so we may be brought to glorifie the lord our god with one heart and with one mouth . 4. you can make provisions for the support of so great a part of our clergy , who being destitute of the necessary means of subsistence , are neither qualified for those sacred imployments , nor any way able to render themselves more capable for maintaining even the decencies of divine worship , much less for the discharge of so high a trust , as is the care of souls . 5. you can concur in giving the last finishings to our reformation . many of the old corruptions doe yet remain among us in practise , and the administration of the ecclesiastical authority is liable to great objections . i will not run out into farther particulars , for it will be easie to find them , and if you once set about it , you will soon see what work there is before you . 6. and in the last place you ought to put such marks of acknowledgment for this great deliverance , both with relation to that god who has wrought it , and to the happy instrument by whom he has wrought it , that there may be a frequent return of the full discharges of our gratitude . now our fifth of november is to be enriched by a second service , since god has enobled it so far , as to be the beginning of that which we may justly hope shall be our compleat deliverance from all plots , and conspiracies ? and that this second blessing which has fallen on that day shall darken , if not quite wear out the former . let our souls , and all that is within us , rejoyce in that god , who has saved us from the lyons mouth , and has heard us from the horns of the vnicorn . let us in the words in which the psalm begins , bless the lord who is our strength , our fortress , and our deliverer ; what are we that he has thus thought on us , and sent his hand from above , and delivered us from the hand of strange children , whose mouth speaketh vanity , and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood : let us for all this sing a new song to god , even sing praises to him , who has hitherto delivered one , that we hope shall be to us a david from the hurtful sword. let us meditate a little on this great salvation that he has wrought for us , and let us carry it on to those glorious ends of settling our religion , and delivering our nation , not only from all oppression and injustice at present , but from the danger of falling under it for the future . and then let us celebrate with the highest acknowledgments , and the justest and gratefullest returns possible , him through whose means we enjoy our quiet , and you the liberty of this free and august assembly . neither the vastness , nor the dangers of the undertaking could shake a mind that is above fear , and yet beyond the restless ambition , that pushes on an unquiet spirit . he has saved the nation , but leaves it now the entire liberty of securing it self ; and you know best how this is so to be performed , that there be no breaking in , nor going out , nor complaining in our streets ; for happy is the people that is in such a case , yea , and happy is the people whose god is the lord. finis books lately printed for ric. chiswell . dr. bvrnets history of the reformation of the church of england , in ii. vol. fol — vindication of the ordinations of the church of england , 4o. — history of the rights of princes in disposing of ecclesiastical benefices , and church lands , 12º — life of william bedell bishop of kilmore in ireland , together with the letters betwixt him and wadswork , about religion . — a collection of seventeen tracts and sermons , written betwixt the years 1675 ▪ and 1688 to which is added two tracts , by another hand , viz. the history of the powder treason , and an impartial consideration of the five jesuites dying speeches , who were executed for the popish plot , 1679. — reflexions on the relation of the english reformation , put out by ch. walker of oxon. — animadversions on the reflexions upon dr. burnets travels , 12o. — reflexions on a paper , intitled his majesties reasons for withdrawing himself from rochester . — enquiry into the present state of affairs , and in particular , whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances ? and whether we are bound to treat with him , and call him back or no ? — a sermon before the prince of orange 23d . decemb. 1688. dr. iohn lightfoots works , in ii. vol. fol. together with his life . disquisitiones critica de variis per diversa loca & tempora bibliorum editionibus , 4º eight tracts against popery , lately written , by william wake , m. a. — preparation for death , in a letter sent to a young gentlewoman , in it dangerous distemper , of which she died . dr. william caves lives of the ancient fathers , in the iv. first centuries , in ii. vol. — a dissertation concerning the government of the ancient church , by bishops , metropolitans , and patriarchs . dr. william burtons several discourses of purity , charity , repentance , and other practical subjects , in a vol. oct. reflexions upon the books of the holy scripture to establish the truth of the christian religion in two parts , oct. scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria a christo nato ▪ usque ▪ ad ▪ saeculum xiv . facili methodo digesta . qua de vita illorum ac rebus . gestis , de secta , dogmatibus , elogio , stylo ; de scriptis genuinis , dubiis ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , deperditis , fragmentis ; deque variis operum editionibus perspicue agitur , accedunt scriptores gentiles , christiane religionis oppugnatores ; & cujusuis saeculi breviarium . inserantur suis locis veterum aliquod opuscula & fragmenta , tum graeca , tum latina hactenus inedita , praemissa denique prolegomena , quibus plurima ad antiquitatis ecclesiasticae studium spectantia traduntur . opus indicibus necessariis instructum . autore gvilielmo cave , ss . theol , profes , canonico windesoriensi . accedit ab alia manu appendix ab ineunte saeculo xiv . ad annum usque mdxvii . fol. 1689. finis ▪ notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30428-e350 isa. 5. 7. eccles. 4. 1 , 2. an answer to mr. henry payne's letter concerning his majesty's declaration of indulgence, writ to the author of the letter to a dissenter burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1687 approx. 15 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 3 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30323 wing b5760 estc r15369 12651178 ocm 12651178 65283 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30323) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65283) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 346:3) an answer to mr. henry payne's letter concerning his majesty's declaration of indulgence, writ to the author of the letter to a dissenter burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 4 p. s.n., [s.l. : 1687] caption title. signed: t.t. [i.e. gilbert burnet]. cf. halkett & laing (2nd ed.). date of publication from wing. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng payne, henry neville, fl. 1672-1710. -answer to a scandalous pamphlet entituled, a letter to a dissenter concerning his majesties late declaration of indulgence. halifax, george savile, -marquis of, 1633-1695. -letter to a dissenter. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2004-01 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to mr. henry payne's letter , concerning his majesty's declaration of indulgence , writ to the author of the letter to a dissenter . mr. payne , i cannot hold asking you , how much money you had , from the writer of the paper , which you pretend to answer : for as you have the character of a man that deales with both hands , so this is writ in such a manner as to make one think you were hired to it , by the adverse party : but it has been indeed so ordinary to your friends , to write in this manner of late , that the censures upon it are divided , both fall heavy : some suspect their sincerity others accuse them for want of a right understanding : for tho all are not of the pitch of the irish priests reflections , on the bp of bath and wells's sermon , which was indeed irish double refined ; yet both in your books of controversy , and policy , and even in your poems , you seem to have entred into such an intermixture with the irish , that the thread all over is linsey-woollsey . you acknowledge that the gentleman whom you answer has a polite pen , and that his letter is an ingenious paper , and made up of well-composed sentences and periods . yet i believe he will hardly return you your complement . if it was well writ , your party wants either men or judgment extreamly , in allowing you this province of answering it . if the paper did you some hurt , you had better have let the town be a litle pleased with it for a while ; and have hoped that a litle time or some new paper ( tho one of its force is scarce to be expected ) should have worn it out , then to give it a new luster by such an answer . the time of the dissenters sufferings , which you lengthen out to 27 years , will hardly amount to seven . for the long intervals it had , in the last reign , are not forgot : and those who animated the latest and severest of their sufferings are such , that in good manners you ought not to reflect on their conduct . opium is as certain a poison , tho not so violent , as sublimate ; and if more corrosive medicines did not work , the design is the same , when soporiferous ones are used : since the patient is to be killed both ways : and it seems that all that is in debate is , which is the safer : the accepting a present ease when the ill intent with which it is offered , is visible , is just as wise an action , as to take opium to lay a small distemper when one may conclude from the dose , that he will never come out of the sleep . so that after all , it is plain on which side the madness lies . the dissenters for a little present ease , to be enjoyed at mercy , must concur to break down all our hedges , and to lay us open to that devouring power , before which nothing can stand that will not worship it . all that for which you reproach the church of england amounts to this , that a few good words , could not persuade her to destroy her self ; and to sacrifice her religion and the laws to a party that never has done nor ever can do the king half the service that she has rendred him . there are some sorts of propositions that a man does not know how to answer : nor would he be thought ingratefull who after he had received some civilities from a person to whom he had done great service , could not be prevailed with by these so far as to spare him his wife or his daughter . it must argue a peculiar degree of confidence to ask things , that are above the being either askt or granted . our religion and our government are matters that are not to be parted with to shew our good breeding : and of all men living you ought not to pretend to good manners , who talk as you do , of the oppression of the last reign . when the king's obligations to his brother , and the share that he had in his councils , are considered ; the reproaching his government , has so ill a grace , that you are as indecent in your flatteries as injurious in your reflections . and by this gratitude of yours to the memory of the late king , the church of england may easily infer , how long all her services would be remembred , even if she had done all that was desired of her . i would fain know which of the brethren of the dissenters in forreigne countries sought their relief from rebellion . the germans reformed by the authority of their princes , so did the swedes , the danes , and like wise the switsers . in france they maintained the princes of the blood against the league : and in holland the quarrell was for civil liberties ; protestant and papist concurring equally in it . you mention holland as an instance that liberty and infallibility can dwell together : since papists there shew that they can be friendly neighbours , to those whom they think in the wrong : it is very like they would be still so in england , if they were under the lash of the law , and so were upon their good behaviour , the goverment being still against them : and this has so good an effect in holland , that i hope we shall never depart from the dutch pattern : some can be very humble servants that would prove imperious masters . you say that force is our only supporter : but tho there is no force of our side at present , it does not appear that we are in such a tottering condition , as if we had no supporter left us . god and truth are of our side : and the indiscreet use of force , when set on by our enemies , has rather undermined than supported us . but you have taken pains to make us grow wiser , and to let us see our errors , which is perhaps the only obligation that we owe you ; and we are so sensible of it , that without examining what your intentions may have been in it , we heartily thank you for it . i do not comprehend what your quarrell is at the squinting term of the next heir , as you call it ; tho i do not wonder that squinting comes in your mind whensoever you think of her ; for all people look asquint at that which troubles them : and her being the next heir is no less the delight of all good men , than it is your affliction : all the pains that you take to represent her dreadful to the dissenters , must needs find that credit with them , that is due to the insinuations of an enemy . it is very true , that as she was bred up in our church , she adheres to it so eminently , as to make her to be now our chief ornament as we hope she will be once our main defence . if by the strictest form of our church you mean an exemplary piety , and a shining conversation , you have given her true character : but your designe lies another way to make the dissenters form strange ideas of her , as if she thought all indulgence to them criminal : but as the gentleness of her nature is such , that none but those who are so guilty , that all mercy to them would be a crime , can apprehend any thing that is terrible , from her , so as for the dissenters , her going so constantly to the dutch and french churches shews , that she can very well endure their assemblies , at the same time that she prefers , ours . she has also too often expressed her dislike at the heats that have been kept up among us concerning such inconsiderable differences , to pass for a bigot or a persecutor in such matters : and she sees both the mischief that the protestant religion has received from their subdivisions , and the happiness of granting a due liberty of conscience , where she has so long lived , that there is no reason to make any fancy that she will either keep up our differences , or bear down the dissenters with rigor . but because you hope for nothing from her own inclinations , you would have her terrified with the strong argument of numbers , which you fancy will certainly secure them from her recalling the favour . but of what side soever that argument may be strong , sure it is not of theirs who make but one to two hundred : and i suppose you scarce expect that the dissenters will rebel , that you may have your masses , and how their numbers will secure them , unless it be by enabling them to rebell , i cannot imagine : this is indeed a squinting at the next heir , with a witness , when you would already muster up the troops that must rise against her . but let me tell you , that you know both her character and the prince's very ill that fancy , they are only to be wrought on by fear . they are known to your great grief ; to be above that : and it must be to their own mercifull inclinations , that you must owe all that you can expect under them , but neither to their fear nor to your own numbers . as for the hatred and contempt , even to the degree of being more ridiculous then the mass under which you say her way of worship is in holland , this is one of those figures of speech that shew how exactly you have studied the iesuites moralls . all that come from holland , assure us , that she is so universally beloved and esteemed there , that every thing that she does , is the better thought of even because she does it . upon the whole matter , all that you say of the next heir , proves too truly that you are that for which you reproach the church of england , a disciple of the crown only for the loaves ; for if you had that respect which you pretend for the king , you would have shewed it more upon this occasion . nor am i so much in love with your stile , as to imitate it , therefore i will not do you so great a pleasure , as to say the least thing that may reflect on that authority , which the church of england has taught me to reverence even after all the disgraces that she has received from it : and if she were not insuperably restrained by her principles , instead of the thin muster with which you reproach her , she could soon make so thick a one as would make the thinnes of yours , very visible upon so unequall a division of the nation : but she will neither be threatned nor laughed out of her religion and her loyalty : tho such insultings as she meets with , that almost pass all humane patience , would tempt men that had a less fixed principle of submission , to make their enemies feel to their cost , that they owe all the triumphs they make , more to our principles , than to their own force . their laughing at our doctrine of non resistance , lets us see , that it would be none of theirs under the next heir , at whom you squint , if the strong argument of numbers made you not apprehend that two hundred to one would prove an unequal match . as for your memorandums , i shall answer them as short as you give them 1. it will be hard , to persuade people , that a decision in favour of the dispencing power , flowing from iudges that are both made , and payed , and that may be removed at pleasure , will amount to the recognising of that right by law . 2. it will be hard to persuade the world , that the kings adhering to his promises , and his coronation oath , and to the known lawes of the land , would make him felo de se. the following of different methods were the likelier way to it , if it were not for the loyalty of the church of england . 3. it will be very easy to see the use of continuing the test by law ; since all those that break thro it , as well as the iudges , who have authorised their crimes , are still liable for all they do : and after all your huffing , with the dispencing power , we do not doubt but the apprehension of an after reckoning sticks deep somewhere , you say , it may be supposed , that the aversion of a protestant king to the popish party , will sufficiently exclude them , even without the test. but it must be confessed , that you take all possible care , to confirm that aversion so far , as to put it beyond a it may be supposed . and it seems you understand christs prerogative , as wel as the iudges did the kings , that fancy the test is against it : it is so suteable to the nature of all governments , to take assurances of those who are admitted to places of trust , that you do very ill to appeal to an impartial consideration , for you are sure to lose it there . few english men , will believe you in earnest when you seem zealous for publick liberty , or the magna charta : or that you are so very apprehensive of slavery : and your friends must have very much changed both their natures and their principles , if their conduct does not give cause to renew the like statutes against them , even tho they should be repealed in this reign , notwithstanding all your confidence to the contrary . i will still believe that the strong argument of numbers will be always the powerfullest of all others with you : which as long as it has its force , and no longer , we may hope to be at quiet . i concurre heartily with you in your prayers for the king , tho perhaps i differ from you in my notions , both of his glory and of the felicity of his people : and as for your own particular , i wish you would either not at all imploy your pen , or learn to write to better purpose : but tho i cannot admire your letter , yet i am your humble servant t. t. a sermon preached before the king and queen at white-hall on the 19th day of october, 1690, being the day of thanksgiving for his majesties preservation and success in ireland by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 49 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30435 wing b5893 estc r4094 13677451 ocm 13677451 101261 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30435) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101261) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:12) a sermon preached before the king and queen at white-hall on the 19th day of october, 1690, being the day of thanksgiving for his majesties preservation and success in ireland by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 36 p. printed for ric. chiswell ..., london : 1690. half title: the bishop of salisbury's thanksgiving-sermon for the king's preservation in ireland. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -william and mary, 1689-1702 -sermons. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2004-01 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached before the king and queen , at white-hall , on the 19th day of october , 1690. being the day of thanksgiving , for his majesties preservation and success in ireland . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarvm . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxc . the bishop of salisbvry's thanksgiving-sermon for the king's preservation in ireland . psalm cxliv . 10 , 11. it is he that giveth salvation unto kings , who delivereth david his servant from the hurtful sword . rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children , whose mouth speaketh vanity , and their right hand is a right hand of falshood . this place as well as this day is dedicated to the honour of the great god , to the celebrating of his praise , and the glory of the deliverance and victory that he hath given us . those whom he has made the blessed instruments of procuring it to us , do so entirely offer up the acknowledgments due for it to that providence which they signally adore , that as they ●ould not endure so sacrilegious a thought , as ●he putting the honour that belongs to them in ●he least degree of competition with the praises ●hat are to be offered up to the great king of kings ; so by a modesty which gives a peculiar grace to all they do , they cannot bear even that which is just , and in some sort necessary upon such occasions . in other places and courts , invention and fancy are put to the rack to find out the highest figures , and the noblest expressions to raise the glory of princes , even when their successes do more eminently belong to some secret design of providence , since no share of them can be ascribed either to their courage or conduct . but here we are so confined by orders which one knows as little how to obey , as how to disobey , that how large soever the field , and how rich soever the prospect is , it must either be quite overlookt , or if it be suffered to be shewed , it must be by reversing the telescope in little and contracted . princes , whose actions are their own panegyricks , cannot bear that others should make any for them ; for what they themselves do , exceeds all that can be said by others : whereas the want of real merit must be hid or supplied by the false appearances of it ▪ the sun and stars must be brought down , and in every comparison be humbled in the preference that is to be given to the flatter'd prince ▪ how many a reproach must the sun have endured in some courts , if when the day is at it longest , the prince had for some hours prevented his rising , and continued his watchful fatigue till after he was set ; and that a wound which made so wide a breach upon him by the certainest instrument of death , could scarce interrupt his motion . here had been a copious theme for hungry and mercenary flattery : the sun would have been for ever after that , despised as a diminution to their prince's glory , when compared to him . impious attempts which were once began , would have been pursued , of calling ●im the king of glory , who is strong and mighty in bat●●l . one king was signally struck from hea●en , for admitting divine honours that were offered up to him : that jealous god who will not suffer his glory to be given to another , ●nows what are the properest times and methods for punishing all the blasphemy that is in ●he courts of princes who encourage and engage their subjects , or rather their slaves , to fly to such an extravagant pitch . but to us , who acknowledg that most high god , that rules in the kingdom of men , and giveth it to whosoever he will , and that he sets up and pulls down according to the hidden designs of his wise providence ; as all that approaches to such irreligious excesses , 〈◊〉 matter of horror ; so the princes we serve , make this an easie duty to us , they being as deeply possessed with the belief of providence , as they are free from all those swellings which must be fed with gross and exorbitant flattery . and therefore i am not afraid to make this the subject of my present discourse : it t s god that giveth salvation to kings , that delivereth david his servent from the hurtful sword . if any considers the scituation of these words , between those that go before , and those that come after , they will see , that the sentence is cut by this as an abrupt meditation , which probably was to be sung by the chorus ; whereas what is before and after , was , as is most likely , sung by single voices in the person of david . the first part of this verse contains a general position , that the advancement of kings , and the progress of empires , the victories obtained by them , their escapes and deliverances , is of god , and is the effect of signal providences , that watch over them . the words that follow relate more particulary to david himself . 〈◊〉 shall not determine whether the word hurtful or evil sword is only a poetical epithete , to swell up and beautifie the period ; or if it relates to poisonous swords , that gave a certain death with every wound . in the second verse that i have read , there is a prayer for a complete deliverance ; that which is here celebrated being yet imperfect : therefore the psalmist , returning to his former thread , says , rid me and deliver me from the hand , that is , from the power , of strange children , or the children of the strange god , that is , idolaters . idols in the scripture phrase are called strange gods ; and as the people of israel are called the children of god , so idolaters are called the children of the stranger , or of the idol . there follows a description of idolaters by their words , and by their actions : their mouth speaketh vanity ; that is , either falshood , in which sense vanity frequently stands in scripture ; or words of arrogance and insolent scorn . right-hand , in the phrase of the old testament , is to be understood , either of oaths made by the ceremony of lifting up the right-hand to heaven , or of compacts and agreements confirmed by the joyning mens right-hands ; from which came the phrase of the right-hand of fellowship . their right-hand , that is , either their oaths or their covenants , is a right-hand of falshood , or of a lie , according to that in isaiah 44. 20. a lie is in their right-hand . since in all these they were double and false . the characters here given them , may either be thus understood ; they are false both in their words and oaths : or thus ; there is much haughtiness and pride in their discourses , and as much falshood in all their treaties and engagements . to return to the first words in my text. there appear often eminent characters of god's providence , in the raising up and preserving of kingdoms , and in the victories and salvation given to kings . if there is a providence that watches over any part of this lower world , then certainly the most eminent parts of it , upon which the rest does so much depend , are its chief care : this has been so universally confessed , that those among the philosophers who thought it below the infinite greatness of the divine being , that it should take care of the most inconsiderable parts of the creation , did yet believe that the greater and more important transactions were conducted by it : tho' this slowed from the low and narrow conceptions which they had of god , as if an universal providence had been too great a distraction , and too mean a care for a being infinitely perfect . but there is such a chain in all things , the most important matters taking oft their rise or turn from very inconsiderable circumstances , that it is certain that either there is no providence at all , or that it has no limits , and takes all things within its care . yet god having put the whole frame of nature under certain rules and laws , the greatest part of providence is only the supporting and directing of those beings that do still act according to their own natures ; and in these , tho' providence is less discernable , yet it is still the spring of the whole machine , which , tho' covered and unseen , gives motion to all the parts of it . there are other more solemn occasions , in which some second causes are raised above their own pitch , and are animated beyond the ordinary rate ; and others are at the same time as far depressed below themselves , the spirits of the one abating , as much as those of the other are elevated . this has never appeared with more eminent characters than in the revolutions of states and empires , in which both the course of natural agents , the winds and seasons , and the tempers of mens minds , seem to have been managed by such a direction , that not only every thing , but every circumstance has co-operated to carry on great designs in such a conjunction , that those who observe them with due attention , are forced on many occasions to cry out , this is the finger of god! this is the lord 's doing ! and we may the more certainly conclude , that such a systeme of things is the effect of a special and directing providence , when the tendency of it is to advance some design in which the honour of god is more particularly concerned . cyrus , in whom the second great monarchy began , and by whom god's judgments against babylon , and the bringing back the captivity of the iews , were to be executed , according to what isaiah had prophesied above 150 years before he was born ; cyrus , i say , a small prince , and doom'd to an early death by a superstitious grandfather , scaped that severe fate , and was bred up in obscurity : he first dethroned astyages , his grandfather ; and after that , he extended his conquests into lydia and asia the less : during all the progress of his glory , the babylonians , instead of putting a timous stop to his victories , thought only of fortifying their capital city ; which when they had done to a degree that almost passes belief , he , by diverting the course of the river , made himself master both of city and empire ; and sent the iews back to rebuild their temple , retaining still his authority over them . when the final period of this monarchy came , then one of the smallest powers in greece did effect it . the kingdom of macedon had been one of the most inconsiderable of all that body , tho it was become more powerful in philip's time . the greeks had been twice attacked by the persians , and vast numbers had fallen before handfuls of them ; upon this , as had been prophesied by daniel , alexander , a haughty , a vain , and a dissolute prince , with an army of 37000 men , invaded the persian empire , and after three great battels , in the first of which 200000 came against him ; 600000 in the second , and a million in the third , he carried his conquests on to the ganges with such a rapidity of victory and success , that nothing could stand in his way : among the conquered provinces , tudea was one which came under his protection , and continued for 146 years under that branch of his empire that reigned in syria . but to give another instance of this , that has a greater relation to the people of god , after the iews had been long under the syrian yoke ; antiochus epiphanes , not content with the subjection that they had paid his ancestors , set himself totally to destroy both their religion and their nation ; upon which mattathias , the father of iudas , and his brethren , a priest full of zeal for god and for his countrey , was raised up to resist that fury ; he only began the opposition , but dying soon after , he left the conduct of the deliverance of his countrey from persecution and tyranny , to his son iudas maccabeus , from whom it passed to his brethren , and to their posterity . a total subversion of their religion and policy , was begun , and that according to the sense of all mankind , has ever been esteemed a dissolution of government ; and mattathias and his children their venturing on so dangerous an undertaking , is reckoned up in the epistle to the hebrews , among the heroical attempts of faith ; it is reserved to the last place , and enlarged on in a variety of lofty expressions , to shew that it was one of the greatest performances of faith : and it was so indeed , for it seemed to be a desperate attempt , in which the best success that , reasonably speaking , they could have expected , was a speedy and a glorious death ; they had nothing to trust to , but miracles of providence ; they were few in number , destitute of every thing , and the kings of syria were masters of all the strong places in iudea , and poured in at several times , seven or eight great armies upon them : but that deliverance which began in a cloud that was no bigger than a hand-breadth , made such a progress under several heads who conducted the iews with equal degrees of prudence and courage , that tho they were unprovided of all things , but what were afforded them from the spoils of their enemies ; they , after a war of twenty-four years continuance , and a series of constant and amazing successes , became at last a free people , both with relation to their religion and government . shall i give you another instance of him , during whose peaceful reign , the saviour of the world was born ? augustus was the son of a roman knight , and was but eighteen years old when his uncle iulius caesar was killed , whose usurpation upon his countrey had rendred him and his family the objects of the hatred of rome ; yet he not only scaped the first rages of that popular fury , but was very soon at the head of their armies ; he entred into the triumvirate , and was in a few years rid of the other two ; and after that first scene of artifice and cruelty was over , he became the wisest , the moderatest , and was the happiest prince , and the longest 〈◊〉 of any in history , having had a course of glory of fifty-six years continuance . but not to weary you with a dry recital of too much history , i shall conclude with one whose circumstances were as remarkable in themselves , as in the effects that followed on them : when dioclesian and maximian had , chiefly by the instigation of galerius , begun the last persecution of the christians , the design seemed so well laid , and was managed with so much fury , that by all the appearances of things , it could not miscarry , when successors were prepared to carry it on steddily ; galerius , that had been the most violent of all the persecutors , having chosen maximinus daia , that had been an ordinary grazier , for his successor , who had not any one quality to recommend him to that elevation , but his fury against the christians : it is true there was a part of the empire that fell not under the common calamity ; it was indeed that part in which there were the fewest christians . constantius chlarus had for sixteen years govern'd the west , first as caesar , then as emperor , in which time he had kept both gaul and spain in perfect quiet ; he had reduced all britain , and had frequently beat the germains , and driven them beyond the rhine : these successes made him so formidable , that tho he was favourable to the christians , and would not persecute them in his share of the empire , yet galerius durst not plainly fall upon him , but he had got his son constantine into his hands , and kept him about him at his court in nicomedia : his father began to languish , and upon that sent for him , but galerius put him off by delays ; and tho he did not flatly refuse to let him go , yet he plainly saw that he had no mind to grant it . but galerius happening as he often did , to get drunk , he obtained then his leave to be gone , and got his seal for it . upon this he went away immediately , and crossed the sea , near to the place where constantinople was afterwards built by him ; and because he apprehended that galerius when he came to himself would send after him , he took up all the horses that were in every stage , and at the end of it disabled them ; so he passed quite through to italy , and it was impossible for those whom galerius sent after him , ever to overtake him : he came to his father at york , whom he found just expiring : he immediately declared him his successor ; which he was not willing to accept of , till the soldiery in some sort forced him to it , and made him take the purple . he went over after that into gaul , where his father-in-law maximian , who had abdicated the empire , came to him , and intending to return to it again , he pretended kindness to his son-in-law , the more effectually to betray him : he was practising upon his army , when he had advised himself to go on an expedition with a small part of it ; but constantine was inform'd of this in time , and came back so quick upon him , that he being both afraid and ashamed , fled to marseilles : constantine pursued him , and those within refusing to stand by him , he delivered himself into his hands , who for two years after that , used him in all respects as became a great prince , and his father-in-law . yet nothing being able to overcome his restless ambition , he solicited his daughter to let him into her bed-chamber , while constantine was in bed ; she thought her ties to a good husband were stronger than to a bad father , and therefore discovered all to him ; so an eunuch was laid in the bed , and a door being left open by the empress , maximian came in and killed the eunuch ; constantine was in the next room , and rushed in with some of his guards about him , and maximian being so fully convicted of the crime , all the grace that constantine thought fit then to shew him , was to leave the manner of his death to his own choice ; he chose the worst , for he hanged himself . another signal instance of god's care of constantine , was , that when he advanced towards rome to possess himself of the seat of the empire , maxentius , that was maximian's son , who had assumed the power there , came out to fight him : but he had taken care the night before , to cut the timbers and beams of the wooden bridg over the tyber , so that they must have cracked , if any great weight had been upon them ; and he reckoned according to the disposition of the battel , that constantine should be forced to take that bridg , and so perish with its fall ; but the issue of the battel was such , that he himself was forced to pass over the bridg , which crackt under him , and he was drowned in the tyber . through this tract of wonderful circumstances , was constantiue brought to the possession of the empire , by whom not only the persecution of the christians was put to an end , but in pursuance of the dream he had the night before , he defeated maxentius , that represented to him the figure of the cross , as that under which he was to conquer , he himself both turned christian , and made it the religion of the empire . such have been the methods by which god has raised up kings and empires for the advancing the glory of his great name , for the punishing and humbling persecuting tyrants , and for giving salvation and protection to his people . but we need not weary our selves in seeking instances of this in past times , when in our own days , we have seen a prince , born indeed to have a rank among sovereigns , but with no intrinsick power to support any great undertaking ; born an orphan and an abortive both , and , as to all appearance , crushed under a double misfortune : a royal family to which he was allied , was become an encumbrance to him , and his own was under a vast and a seemingly insuperable depression ; his country ty'd up by oaths to exclude him ; and those from whom in justice and gratitude he ought afterwards to have promised himself a mighty protection , leaving him to his own strength and conduct : yet , by a series of steps which need not be reckoned up , him we have seen raised from a plant that seemed to rise out of a dry ground , to be a great tree , under whose shade all the beasts of the field come for shelter , and in whose boughs all the fowls of the air come now to lodge . it is this very day two full years since he first set to sea , to calm our storms . the beginning was rough and inauspicious ; yet even that seemed to be intended only to those about him a lesson which he had long before well learnt , of observing providence , and depending upon it . since that time , fair winds , good seasons , prosperous undertakings , happy discoveries , success and victory , seem to have been chained to him , and bound to follow him ; and now he has not only the necks of his enemies , but the hearts of all his people , as well as the hopes of all europe fastned on him . he triumphs over his enemies , as well by his mercy in pardoning , as by his courage in conquering ; and , which is more , he triumphs over all the accidents of life by such an unshaken equality of mind , that his most glorious days and his less-prosperous hours do not create in him any varieties of temper and behaviour . and what can we now think , but that a life which has been a sequel of wonders , will be carried on and concluded as it hath been hitherto advanced ; and that if there is a nebuchadnezzar , or an antiochus epiphanius , a galerius , or a maximinian now in being , that god is by this hand to deliver his church from them ? for it is god that giveth salvation to kings ; he puts down one , and setteth up another . he raiseth up kings to break his enemies with a rod of iron , and to ●●sh them in pieces like a potters vessel ; for the oppression of the poor , and for the sighing of the needy , god will at last arise , and set him in safety from him that puffeth at him . the second part of this verse will also afford us matter of useful speculation , which is , the bringing the general observation to a particular head in the instance of david , who was preserved from many dangers , the accidents of war , as well as the attempts of saul ; he was raised up from being the youngest of many brethren , and from looking after his father's flock , to be the shepherd of israel . god girded him with strength , and taught his hands to war , and his fingers to fight , and gave him the shield of his salvation ; he delivered him from the lion and the bear , and from the philistine that defied the armes of the living god ; he delivered him also from the strivings of the people , and made him the head of all the nations round about him . therefore it was that he , who had seen so many essays of the goodness of god to him , besides his active zeal when settled on the throne for advancing god's glory , and the beauty and solemnity of his worship , he employ'd many of his thoughts and hours in composing this book of psalms , as the highest return he could make to god , that by the elegance and variety of those inspired hymns , not only that age and nation , but all succeeding ones , might be furnished with a stock of the most elevating devotions possible , which might give wings to their minds , and raise● them up towards god. so much of the david in my text , which leads me to say somewhat of the david of the day . is it nothing to you all , that see and hear the signal steps of providence , that have so gloriously watched over , and conducted this our david ? i reckon not among the greatest of these , his being raised up to a throne of such high dignity among the kingdoms of the earth , by a title , that , let ungrateful men say what they will , has more both from god and man in it , than any the world has seen for many ages . but kingdoms and crowns are so distributed in the world according to the secret designs of providence , that this singly is but an ordinary blessing , and given in common to him with other crowned heads . to be a deliverer of mankind , a preserver of religion , a fence against tyranny and cruelty ; to have for his first essay saved his own countrey from utter ruine , when it seemed to be in its last agonies ; and to have not only resisted , but beat back a mighty torrent that swept every thing before it ; to have stopt the blackest designs that were formed against religion and liberty both there and here ; for the preserving the united provinces , and their religion and government , was at that time likewise the saving this church and nation ; so soon did he begin to be a deliverer to us : this , perhaps , was not then known to every one ; but we do now all know , that we were to have been the second sacrifice ) ; all this , i say , one should think was greatness and glory enough to have fallen to any one mans share . but that a reserve of blessings should yet be kept in store for the same person , is a peculiar favour of heaven ; and shews us , that this is the man whom god delights to honour , and whom he has made strong for himself . that the day of our extremity being come , when we saw the net spread over us , and that a little time was only wanting , to model the army , and to make a parliament , that just then the conjuncture of affairs over all europe , and the disposition of all mens minds in the netherlands , the errors and follies of our enemies , both within and without this kingdom , with the zealous assistance of our friends and allies ; but above all , that the insensible creation , the seas , the winds , and the seasons , should all have joined together to promote that great undertaking , shewed the care and tenderness of that wise conduct that watched over us . every one of these particulars is extraordinary in it self ; but the conjunction of them all together is such a scene of wonders , that no man who knows the contexture of all the parts of this deliverance , can look upon them , without seeing such a prospect of providence as raises his mind into all the heights of joy and wonder . but to view next the second scene of god's raising his glory on this stage , when our sins had for a while retarded the progress and the finishing of our happiness , when many among our selves were wishing to be again in egypt , and were saying , we will not have this man to rule over us ; when many of those who had formerly aggravated our dangers , as much as any , were changing their stile , and fancying that a power thrust upon us from france , and supported and guarded from thence , was , or would be a tame and harmless thing , and seemed to forget all the affections that nature gives for our country , and that religion gives for the church of god , so that a new and perhaps a greater crisis than the former had returned upon us ; then it was that our david resolved to be no longer a spectator and a director of his forces , and to make war by proxy , but again to venture that sacred life , in which , if in a day of rejoicing we may mix any complaints with our jubilee , we must venture to say , that by a courage which is too prodigal of that in which we have all so great a share , even while he preserves us by his happy genius , yet he exposes us too much by the repeated dangers to which that life is exposed , by which as we all live , so all europe is kept united against the great destroyer and enemy of mankind . here again ; the winds and seasons , the courage and fidelity of all about him , the feeble counsels and conduct of the enemy , conspired of his his side ; but above all , the watchfulness of providence shewed it self in instances that posterity will be tempted to think the contrivances of a happy imagination to beautify our history . but invention could hardly be so bold or so fruitful , as to represent a prince just in the eve of a day , upon which not only the security of his throne , but that which to a mind like his is much more valuable , the preservation and happiness of his people depended , receiving a wound by that , which of all the inventions of giving death , is the most infallible , and yet so slight a wound , that it seemed sent upon no other intent , but that the firmness of his mind , upon so extraordinary an accident , and the care of heaven in so critical a minute , might be shewed in the properest time , and in the sight of all his army , both for animating and assuring them , that there was an invisible guard watching about the person of him , under whose standards they were to triumph next day . this prov'd so inconsiderable , that it neither hindred the continuance of a fatigue of nineteen hours that day , nor a return to one of sixteen the next , in which his presence was every where so necessary , that the slightest wound which had disabled him from that , might have proved a mortal one to us all . the glories of that day , that was neither stained with a great effusion of blood , nor with any of that sort that might have lessened the beauty of the victory , the entireness of the defeat , the consequences that followed upon it , the quiet that it secured to us here as well as that it procured there ; the unhappy state out of which it delivered us , when we were beginning to languish by a misfortune which i unwillingly mention , because nothing that is melancholy ought to be mixed with the joys of this day . all these things carry in them such matter of reflection , that tho i must now croud them together , yet they are capable of affording great variety of thoughts . our spirits here were as much depressed , as those of some unnatural english-men were exalted in the prospect they had of the approaching ruin of their country . some were not ashamed to say , that we needed fear nothing from the french , they would not hurt us : and thus the terriblest of all the calamities that can befal our nation , was set forth by some as an innocent , or rather as a desirable thing , that would prove a deliverance and not an invasion . while this fermentation was working , even in the very moment in which we wanted so mighty a support , came the happy news which put a new face upon our affairs . some feared that in the absence of our sun we should have only had a faint moon-light to guide us , and that the gentle hand which then held the rudder should have proved too feeble for such rough work , especially when the first essay was in a storm , and that there was an enemy so powerful triumphing in view , and on our coasts , and so many ill instruments at work within . but to our admiration , and to the eternal praise of divine providence , we found we had another sun in our firmament , and that spirit which till then gentleness and modesty had shut in , now finding that the conjuncture required it , shewed it self with so much firmness and so bright a lustre , that we began to doubt whether one soul did not animate both , and give its influences equally in both . so much skill in government , tempered with so much softness , such a dexterity in management , such a constancy of devotion , and so unwearied an application to business , are things so much out of all common roads , that we must look up to heaven , and acknowledge that this was of god , that has raised up and conducted these our deliverers and preservers . he has also literally preserved our david from the hurtful or the evil sword , since we know that the chief of our enemies in the secret corresponcies , encouraged themselves , when the prospect of their affairs seemed melancholy and desperate , with a reserve of hope from the negotiation of an assassinate whom they had employed : but god has delivered his servant even from this evil sword ; and to crown all the blessings of this year , he has now given him the hearts of his people , in so eminent a manner , that the q. elizabeth's days seem to return again upon us , in which the purses of the subject were that happy queen's never-failing treasure , who reckoned that their money was never more their own , and never better placed , nor better imployed , than when it was in the queen's hands . she twice discharged the subjects of the taxes they had given her for a war , when a treaty of peace put an end to her warlike preparations . such a justice to her self , and to her people , gave her so sure a title to their wealth , that she was indeed the mistress of it all , and knew that she could call for as much of it as the publick occasions required . when we see the same confidence in the crown returning in the nation , which has been so long and so fatally interrupted , we may then reckon that our kings are become truly great , and the masters of the whole property of england , not by the strained and false pretensions of a devouring prerogative , but by the surest and best-grounded dominion , which they have over the hearts of their people , which must infallibly draw every thing else after it : for a nation can deny nothing that it can give , when it is both asked and laid out for their own defence and preservation . and now , dread soveraigns , suffer me , in the name of god , to turn my self to you. it cannot seem a small thing in your eyes , that he has not only raised you up to so sublime a dignity , and set a crown of pure gold on your heads , but that he has watched over your persons , and blessed your councils , that you both do now shine with the lustre becoming each sex , the one with the glory of a conqueror of enemies , and the other with the softer rays of a preserver of your people ; that this has given you the hearts of your subjects , and made you the terror and dread of your enemies , of which they have made an ample confession , in those barbarous jollities upon the supposed death of you , great sir , every extravagant demonstration of that inhumane joy , being a loud discovery of what they apprehended from you. god has drawn the eyes of all the world upon you , who hope that by you that tempestuous sea , whose inundations have destroy'd so many countries , shall be shut up within bounds , and that you shall set bars and doors to it ; and that by you god shall say to it , hitherto shalt thou come , and no further ▪ and here shall thy proud waves be staid . it is from you that europe expects liberty and peace , and the reformation a recovery and a new lustre . by you exiled princes hope to be restored to their rights , and exiled subjects to their houses , churches , and edicts . it is from your influence that our elder brethren , the first begotten of the reformation , or rather the last remnant of true and primitive christianity , hope to be confirmed in the settlement that their prince hath granted them . it is from your counsels and arms , that both your subjects and your allies expect a happy and a secure peace . what more could have been hitherto done for the gradual raising of your glory than has been done ? you are now advanced to be as true representatives of god , as mortals can be made , since from your power , your justice , your wisdom , and your goodness , so great a part of the world waits for happy influences , for great undertakings , and for glorious successes , that shall be the joy of the present age , and the wonder of the next . but remember , o ye kings , that to whom much is given , of them much shall be required ; and if you expect from those that you imloy , degrees of fidelity , zeal , and application , proportioned to the favours and trusts you bestow upon them ; think a little , i know you do a great deal , what examples of piety and vertue you ought to set your people , and how much you ought to imploy your authority in promoting his glory , who has covered you with so much of his own image . ordinary degrees of zeal may be accepted from those of a lower form , but the highest pitch of it is the least sacrifice that you can offer . the discountenancing and driving from you all that prophane scorn of religion and vertue , which has so deeply infected the nation , that strong remedies must be used before we are purged from it . the disgracing and punishing such as are not ashamed of the most open and crying vices , the encouraging vertue by all the distinguishing marks of your favour to those who pursue it . the reforming your court and your people , and particularly that body which of all others should need your care least , but i am afraid does it but too much , i mean those who minister in holy things : these are the returns that god expects from you . i know all cannot be done at once , and the leisure as well as the calm of peace will be necessary to bring this about . but as your resolving on it inwardly before god , will be accepted by him who knows the sincerity of your hearts , and does not oblige you to endanger the publick too much , by a violent and precipitated cure : so when it is once understood that you are settled in these noble purposes , this will make the execution of them easy to you. and to conclude , i must crave leave to add one thing more ; your royal grandfather , who had great vertues in himself , was perhaps too easy to vice in others , and from hence sprang in a great measure the ruin of his affairs ; for dissolute and depraved men will be always truer to their vices , than to their masters . i am not afraid of your displeasure for this freedom , it becomes the place i am in , and the station you have raised me to ; and i am sure the other parts of this discourse , which the occasion has made necessary , have been much more uneasy to you than this is . but david's joy was not so entire , when he composed this psalm , that there was no need of praying for a further and a more compleat deliverance ; therefore he adds to this joyful note a mournful one ; rid me , and deliver me ; he was yet encompassed with idolaters , and not only common idolaters , but men whose morals were as defiled as their worship ; who were treacherous and insolent , to whose oaths and treaties no regard was due , who in the time that they made up their treaties , were intending to break them , which is imported in this , that a lie was in their right hand ; and whose mouths were full of insolence , daring pride , and haughty scorn : who how much soever they depressed their god by their idolatry , yet were swelled up in themselves to all the caresses of lofty arrogance ; they perhaps loved to be celebrated by statues , titles , and inscriptions , which might render their names immortal , tho they could not make their persons so : they might delight in all the contrivances of servile flattery , to set them above all other mortals , and by hearing that oft said , they might fancy themselves to be really so ; they might suffer all the topicks of flattery to be exhausted , and all the methods of it to be imployed in adoring them with that tinsel . it might be understood that it was the surest way of raising ones fortune much more infallible than any merit whatsoever , to find out some new strains of commendation ; and when that once appear'd , then minds made for nobler purposes when pressed with a lowness of fortune , would stoop to the abjectest things of humane nature by turning their wits to every artifice that might give a false light and lustre to counterfeit ware. but to compleat the character of david's enemies , we are to consider them as breaking through the sacredest bonds , and protesting that they would maintain them in the midst of the most publick violations of them , as if they had been equally voi● both of truth and shame , giving and breaking their faith as oft as either their interests or their vanity required it , violating the ties of nature , as wel as breaking the bonds of humane society , robbin● all their neighbours , invading orphans trusted t● their care , and ruining whole provinces after the● had purchased their protection at the most extravagant rates , sparing neither age nor sex , but destroying both cities and countries , and hoping to compensate for all the crimes to which their ambition ●nd fury could lead them , by a pretence of zeal for ●●eir idol , and that way of idolatry which best plea●●d them ; and yet sometimes with the basest sort 〈◊〉 idolaters , who beat and whip their idols when ●●ey think they are not favourable enough to them , ●●ey might even rob their own idol , and profane eve●● thing that had relation to it , when they them●●lves were not made the chief idol , and served with 〈◊〉 deepest veneration : such were many of the ido●●ers of the heathen nations . perhaps the cha●●●ters i have set them out in , may not all frequent●● meet in the same persons : yet tho many in●●ances of every part of this description might soon 〈◊〉 found out , i will not interrupt the chearfulness 〈◊〉 this day , by setting before you objects that ●●st give horrour : nor will i seek for any of these the present scene of the world , nor examine any 〈◊〉 our david's enemies , and see how well these ●●haracters may fit them . we serve princes who ●●e as little to hear their enemies reproached , as ●●emselves commended ; but it will be no hard ●●ing , upon a general survey of the present state 〈◊〉 europe , to pronounce who seem to be born to the blessings , and who the curses and plagues the age. but what or whosoever our enemies may be , both kings and subjects ought to join in their most earnest prayers to god , that we may be delivered from all the children of the strange god , who may think that the offering up those that are of a different worship to that of their baal , is a sacrifice that will atone for all the rapine and bloodshed , and every others immorality of which they may be guilty . it was no wonder that david by repeated prayers desired to be delivered from such enemies ; for we find this petition , and this character of them is twice in this short psalm , with this addition in the 7th verse , that imports their strength and numbers ; send thy hand from above , rid me and deliver me out of great waters , from the hand of strange children . we who are now the happiest nation under heaven , want nothing to make us the most miserable , but to fall under the power of those who have no remnants either of truth or goodness left in them . but while our kings are consulting , and our parliaments are assisting , while our fleets and armies are a preparing , and our allies are uniting ; while the joint endeavours of so many within and without the kingdom , are all at work to procure us an entire riddance and deliverance from the hands , the rough and iron hands of these our enemies ; there is one thing i am afraid is too generally neglected or forgotten , and that is , our praying to god earnestly to rid and deliver us from those false and cruel men. we have been this last summer frequently brought together to fast and pray for success and victory ; god has heard our prayers , and in that has given us all possible encouragement to continue our praying to him . we are now , as to outward appearance , following the method that he has prescribed ; call upon me in the day of trouble ; i will hear thee , and thou shalt glorify me . we have called , god has heard , and we are now glorifying his name , and rejoicing in the great salvation that he hath wrought for us : and if we desire a return of such happy occasions , we must in the mean while continue our most earnest prayers to god ; and when we are called on to it , we must return to our monthly fasts and humiliations . it did not derogate neither from david's courage nor conduct , that he acknowledged god was his fortress , his high tower , his shield and deliverer , in whom he trusted ; who subdued his people under him ; and being full of the sense of his glory , he reflected on himself , and on all his people as nothing ; lord , what is man , that thou takest knowledg of him , or the son of man , that thou makest account of him ? man is like vanity , his days are like a shadow that passeth away : therefore it is that he prays earnestly , bow the heavens , o lord , and come down . here is a noble pattern to excite and encourage our devotion , and we have all reason to conclude , that the blessings we now celebrate , are in a great measure owing to the prayers of those happy souls that have been the intercessors for the nation , of which it is not to be doubted but we have a great many among us , for it is certain that we have never seen a more solemn observation , as to all outward appearance , of such days as was on those monthly returns ; and tho many were very bare-faced in their neglect of them , and others that should have animated the publick zeal , were extream cold in the observance of them , yet much earnestness and fervour shewed it self in many places . we see god has heard the prayers of those who cried mightily to him ; and we have all reason to hope , that he who has deliver'd us from so great a calamity as then threatned us , will still hear and deliver us , if we continue still to call upon him . but let the murmurers and the troublers of our israel say what they will , god hath wrought in the midst of us a mighty deliverance , and he will perfect and stablish that which he hath wrought for us , if we do not , by our ingratitude and rebellions , stop that course of blessings that seems ready to flow in upon us , as soon as we are delivered from our enemies , and from the hands of all that hate us . then we may hope to have the true religion , and the best church in the world established among us , and the reformation by our means secured and maintained elsewhere : we may hope to see this nation become the center of the union and peace of europe , that shall assert and warrant it against every bold or perfidious invader : we may hope to see this vvhole island become one church and one body , as it has one head ; and the neighbouring island set upon a foundation liable to no more shakings nor convulsions . we may hope to see law and justice become the constant and certain measures of our government ; charity and mutual forbearance , become the strength as vvell as the ornament of our church , and our church become the pattern , as vvell as the glory , of the vvhole reformation . and in conclusion , vve may hope to see our princes heads still covered with fresh lawrels , ever triumphing over their enemies , and yet never making themselves enemies to any , but to the invaders and enemies of mankind ; giving security to all about them , and in a length of days , and a stability of peace , giving a fulness of wealth and happiness to all that are under them ; an encrease of trade , an improvement of soil , and such an advancement of the prosperity of the nation , as is expressed in the followed words of the psalm , that our garners may be full , affording all manner of store ; that our sheep may bring forth thousands , and ten thousands in our streets : that our oxen may be strong to labour ; that there be no breaking in , nor going out ; and that there be no complaining in our streets . happy are the princes , and happy is that people that is in such a case ; yea , and happy are the princes , and happy is that people whose god is the lord. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30435-e240 dan , 4. 25. psal. 2. 9. ps. 5. 12. ps. 78. 71. ps. 18. 35. ver. 43. psal. 50. 12. ver. 2. a sermon preached before the house of peers in the abbey of westminster, on the 5th of november, 1689, being gun-powder treason-day, as likewise the day of his majesties landing in england by the right reverend father in god gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 40 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30430 wing b5889 estc r4055 13677419 ocm 13677419 101259 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30430) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101259) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:11) a sermon preached before the house of peers in the abbey of westminster, on the 5th of november, 1689, being gun-powder treason-day, as likewise the day of his majesties landing in england by the right reverend father in god gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 32 p. printed for ric. chiswel ..., london : 1689. half title: the bishop of salisbury's sermon before the lords, november 5th, 1689. advertisement on p. 32. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng gunpowder plot, 1605 -sermons. great britain -history -james i, 1603-1625 -sermons. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion die mercurii 6. novembris 1689. ordered by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled , that the thanks of this house be given to the lord bishop of salisbury , for his sermon preached yesterday before this house ; and his lordship is hereby desired to print and publish the same . jo. browne cleric . parliament . a sermon preached before the house of peers in the abbey of westminster , on the 5th . of november 1689. being gun-powder treason-day , as likewise the day of his majesties landing in england . by the right reverend father in god gilbert lord bishop of sarvm . london , printed for ric. chiswel at the rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard . mdclxxxix . the bishop of salisbury's sermon before the lords november 5th . 1689. a sermon preached before the house of peers , in the abbey of westminster , on the fifth of november , 1689. micah vi. verse 5. o my people , remember now what balak king of moab consulted , and what balaam the son of beor answered him from shittim unto gilgal , that ye may know the righteousness of the lord. there is somewhat in ease and prosperity , that does so weaken the minds of men , who are apt enough , even without that softning , to forget all the good they receive , and both the author of it , and the instruments made use of by him in it , that it is necessary to call upon them often to reflect on what is past ; and that not only on these visible blessings of god to them , that fall under the observation of all the world , but on the secret methods , as well as the hidden designs of providence . we are naturally apt to flatter our selves so much , that we do easily imagine , that the happy things which at any time befal us , are the effects of our wisdom , or the rewards of our vertues ; if a worse principle does not corrupt us , and make us ascribe them either to fate or chance . no nation had ever such a wonderful series of blessings , that did so distinguish them from all the world round about them , and gave them such signal evidences of god's power and greatness , of his mercy and severity , of his hatred of idolatry , as well as of the authority of their law and religion , as the iews had ; and yet never was there any nation under heaven that was so apt to forget all this , and to revolt from god into that very idolatry , which they saw him punish so severely in others . never was there a more amasing scene than that which they had seen in egypt , in the red sea , and on mount sinai ; the miracles came so thick one after another , they were both so various and extraordinary , and they were so often and so long repeated , that to one who lays together all that they saw in a course of forty years , it appears as astonishing a part of that history as any of all the miracles recorded in it , that a people , which had such a wonderful evidence given them for their religion , should yet have been so bent to idolatry , and so apt to forget god , and all that he had done for them . no nation now in the world can be in this respect so guilty as they were , because none have seen such miracles . but setting aside extraordinary things , it may be affirmed without any arrogant preferring our own nation to others , or any partiality for our selves , in imagining that we are god's favourite people ; that within this last age ( or , if we will carry up the matter to so blessed a period as the reformation , that ever since that time ) we have had as many of the distinguishing characters of the iewish nation upon us , both in the blessings that we have received from god on the one hand , and in our ingratitude to him on the other , as any under heaven . the wonderful conjuncture of circumstances that concurred to give the reformation its first footing among us ; the terrible but short lived shaking it had in queen mary's time , which served only to awaken , and to prepare the nation to the long and glorious reign of queen elizabeth ; the discovering and defeating all the designs that were laid , both against her person and government ; the signal overthrow of the boasted invincible armada . the uniting the island afterwards under one head ; by which we were delivered from the danger of war within our selves . the many rebellions of the irish , which gave occasion to so vast a colony to be sent thither , which rendred that island that had been an incumbrance on the government before , so useful to it . the encrease of our trade , the many colonies that we have sent into america . the preserving us during our civil wars , from being made a prey to our neighbours , and from strangers getting footing among us . the putting an end to anarchy and enthusiasm in so serene a manner in the year 60. the long continued peace and happiness since that time , and the preserving us from our own follies , and the restraining those passions which had like to have been fatal to us , if the precipitated haste of our enemies had not brought us to our senses again before it was too late . but to come to the repeated deliverances of this auspicious day , when one train that was laid to blow up the nation , in its head and representatives , that was so well managed , and brought so near the critical minute , was just then discovered and prevented ; and now again , when another that was laid to destroy both church and state , not only in their representatives but in person , has been not indeed discovered , but happily prevented and brought to nothing . for our late conspirators were not so cautious as to hide the fuel that was prepared for our destruction , since we saw them persecute in so many other places of europe at the same time that they talked of toleration here among us . when , i say , we have had such a series of deliverances , as perhaps cannot be matched in history , since that of the israelites coming out of egypt ; there is but one thing wanting to make the parallel compleat ▪ and that is our ingratitude . the israelites were always murmuring both against god , and against the instruments whom he had raised up for their deliverance ; and after all that they had seen to render idolatry detestable to them , yet they were always apt to relapse into it . but here the parallel agrees too exactly ; for it is but too apparent , that upon every new instance of gods care of us , we have given also new instances of our rebellion and ingratitude , of our not only forgetting his mercies , but repining at them , and of our hardning our selves in our vices and ill nature . god charged his ancient people in the words before my text , o my people what have i done unto thee , and wherein have i weari●● thee ; testifie against me , for i brought , thee up out of the land of egypt , and redeemed thee out of the house of servants ; and i sent before thee m●ses , aaron , and miriam . these words may be applied to this nation , in some respect , more literally than to the jews , for they might have said that god had wearied them , by giving them a religion that had so many troublesom and costly rites in it ; though on the other hand these were nothing in comparison of the rites of paganism round about them ; but what can we object to god's methods towards us ? he has given us a plain and simple religion ; he has delivered us from all bondage , both in our spiritual and temporal concerns ; and he has sent us mighty deliverers ; aarons in the church , and moses and miriams in the state , an elizabeth and a mary , as well as an edward , a charles , and a william . but because a general view of too many things may tend to evaporate our thoughts , rather than to fix them . there is in the words that i have read , one particular set before the israelites , which carries indeed a great variety of instruction in it : they are called on to remember what balak the king of moab consulted , and what balaam the son of beor answered . in order to the setting this in its true light , it will be necessary to take a short view of that transaction . when the israelites , after their long march through the wilderness , were ●ome near the border of the land , which god ●ad given them , two kings that were in their ●ay , sihon king of the amorites and og the the king of bashan , not only refused them passage through their kingdoms , which they had desired in a regular and peaceable way ; but not satisfied with this , they carried the matter further , and brought together their forces to stop their march ; but they were defeated and their kingdoms were conquered . upon this balak king of moab apprehended that he might likewise become a prey to them : so he fancying , according to the idolatry of that time , that there were peculiar gods for every nation and that the successes of a nation depended on the prevalency of the deity that protected it , sent to balaam , who was a prophet held in veneration in those parts , hoping that if he could be got to curse them , then the divinity which inspired him would espouse the qua●rel . it were too long a digression here to examine balaams prophecy , who seems to have acknowledged the true god , and to have ha● divine inspirations . he had a strange mixture in him , an awe of god , and yet a love 〈◊〉 money ; he was a prophet of god , and ye● a servant of the devil ; he either could no● or would not falsifie the divine enthusiasm that were imprest on his mind , and yet 〈◊〉 could give the most effectual council possible to balak , for his first debauching the israelites , and then destroying them . the most probable account of balaam's inspiration is this , that god continued for some ages after the flood , to raise up in several nations prophets by an immediate commission to be his witnesses against idolatry , and against the corruption of the traditional religion , which was handed down by the first and long-liv'd patriarchs : but so imperfect was this conveiance , though the long lives of the fathers gave it advantages , which it could never have since that time , that men did very quickly corrupt both their religion and their morals ; and in abraham's time idolatry had got strange footing all the world over : men in all ages have had a strange biass to a sensible religion , and to a visible object of it . in many of these nations it is highly probable , that god raised up both prophets and preachers of righteousness , that so they might be without excuse : and as noah warned the old world , and lot the men of sodom , before those terrible judgments of god which destroyed them fell upon them ; so melchisedeck and balaam seem to have been inspired persons , in whom god made the last essay upon these nations . but with this difference , that the former was a person that did in all things answer his character ; whereas the other was only passive in his inspirations ; but these had no effect upon himself ; so that while he preached to others he himself was a reprobate : for though god made such impressions on his imagination , as gave him views of future events , and furnished him in the expressing them with a due degree of sublimity of stile , yet these neither came from his heart , nor could make any impression upon it . he loved balak's presents , which are called the rewards of his divination , so well , that he would gladly have done any thing to have deserved them at his hands ; yet he was so restrained by the divine prohibition , that he refused to go to him at first : but a second message , carried by more honourable messengers , enforced with a promise of promoting him to great honour , and of doing whatsoever he should desire of him , was a bait which he could not reject ; so his heart being set on going , god so far gave way to it , that he suffered him to go , that from the prophesies which he should be forced to pronounce , there might be a further declaration made of his blessing the israelites , not only in the success and prosperity that was then to attend upon them , but in that wonderful view that was given him of a star , that at a great distance of time should shine , and that then a scepter should rise out of israel , to which all the nations round about should submit ; for out of iacob should he come that was to have dominion . balak according to his fond and superstitious notions , fancied that the offering many sacrifices , and the giving balaam a new prospect of the israelites in several places , would have changed the matter ; and so he gave him three different views of them , at every one of which there were seven altars built , and a bullock and a ram were offered on every one of these altars ; but all the preparation that balak made , and all this shifting the scene of often , had no other effect , but that reitterated blessings on the israelites were pronounced at every time : and when this provoked balak so much , that he would have no more of balaam's prophesies , he then of himself gave forth the most express and positive one of them all , in favour of the jewish nation , of their success , and of that vast glory that should accrue to them , when that prince , whose appearance should be accompanied with a star , should come . but though balaam , as he said himself , had no power to speak any thing but the words which god should put in his mouth ; in which it seems he was so intirely passive , that he was not at all master of himself , when he fell into those trances ; yet after those essays he had vainly made to curse them , he offer●d an advice to balak , that had a more certain effect than all the curses that were desired from him could have had ; which was this , he knew well that god's favour to that people was conditional , and so could last no longer than they should continue observing their part of the covenant ; therefore he counselled balak to endeavour first to corrupt their morals , and then to debauch them in their religion ; or as it is expressed by the spirit of god , rev. 2. 4. he taught balak to cast a stumbling-block before the people of israel , to eat things sacrific'd to idols , and to commit fornication ; lewd women were sent in among them , to intice them first to vice , and then to the idolatry of baal-peor ; the rites of which were so indecent , that as the scripture wraps them up in general words ; so it is better to pass them over , than to explain them . this had the desired effect ; the people did defile themselves in both ; they sate down to eat and drink , and rose up to play . but , though god was by this highly provoked , yet he would not deliver them up into the hands of their enemies , he sent a plague among them , by which in one day there fell four and twenty thousand . this was done in shittim , which is here mentioned in my text ; but when the wrath of god had broke out upon them , in so severe a manner , that besides the destruction made by the plague , moses was commanded by god to hang up all the heads of the people against the sun ; and he charged the judges to stay every one of them his men that were joined unto baalpeor ; this struck the whole congregation , so that they were weeping before the door of the tabernacle . but so impudent a thing is vice , when strengthned by idolatry , that zunri , one of the princes of israel , brought in a prostitute before them all , as if he had gloried in that which was his shame . this was an object that must needs have given horrour to all that saw it , and it raised such indignation in phinehas , that in a transport of zeal he killed them both ; upon which the plague was staid , god was reconciled to his people , and in a battel which they had soon after this , balaam , that was the author of this cursed advice , was slain : this is that transaction which the prophet calls upon them to remember , and in doing it , to consider of the righteousness of the lord. righteousness in the strict notion of the word , is iustice ; and in that sence they might , in calling to mind the passages of that story , reflect on god's righteous judgments in punishing their fathers , when they had departed from him , in sending a plague among them ; in stopping it upon their repentance , and upon phinehas's zealous deportment ; and in turning the course of his wrath upon the wicked instruments that had cast those temptations in their way , and particularly on balaam , the chief author of the counsel . but if righteousness may be taken , as it often is , in a larger sence , for goodness and mercy , then these words import this , that in reflecting on that story , they should observe god's goodness to his people , in disappointing all the designs of their enemies ; in restraining a false prophet , that would have willingly divined for hire , and prophesied whatsoever balak should have dictated to him ; and afterwards , in not suffering that corruption , which began to spread among the israelites , to go long unpunished ; but by the early punishing of a few , staying the progress of the defection , and upon that zealous performance of phinehas , staying the plague likewise . here are eminent characters both of justice and mercy : and therefore , since the people were at this time so apt to fall into idolatry , it was fit to put them in mind both of the severity and of the goodness of god , that in both they might see effectual reasons to perswade them to serve god , as it is expressed in the following words , in doing iustice , loving mercy , and in walking humbly with their god. so far i have gone in explaining my text , as it related to the people of israel ; i come now to make it look towards this nation , and the blessings of this happy day : i shall not stretch the parallel so far , as to make every thing come within it , or to force any strained allusions , but shall only consider such things as are both obvious and easie . it is well known , that when we had got out of the house of bondage , the neighbouring nations began to be afraid of us , they combined against us , to enslave and destroy us ; they had their false prophet more entirely at their command , than balaam was at balak's , who was , of his own accord , ready enough to curse us : he needed no hire to be perswaded to it , his own interest was deep enough engaged in it . it is true , his thunders were spent in angry and lofty words , without the designed effect : wars were indeed raised within and without , and a mighty league was formed above an age ago , which went on with great success for several years , till it had its crisis in 88 , and then a fleet , armed with all that either the blessings or curses of that see could add to it , came against us , while we seemed to be as sheep numbred out to the slaughter , or , at least , appointed to be slaves ; but all this storm went over , and in it we had many occasions , that invited us to reflect on the righteousness of the lord ; when all that scene of curses was spent and turned on them that had denounc'd them against us : then the open methods of enmity proving so unsuccessful , secreter practices were thought the safer : we were cursed , and devoted to endless destruction , so that nothing was thought too bad for us ; and by a succession of many conspiracies , the life of that great princess , upon which our safety then depended , was struck at ; most of those were well laid , many of them were almost quite ripe , when by unlook'd-for accidents and methods they were discovered : at last a design was laid , in which there was a complicated train of all the mischief that could possibly be done us in one minute ; and even that was brought so near its conclusion , that had not the tenderness of a sister prevailed over her zeal for her religion , to the preserving her brother , as is generally believed , the greatest and happiest nation in europe , had become , in a moment , the most miserable . how far this was concerted among the balaks and balaams of that time , we do not certainly know : but , a case of this nature being put by one of their writers some years before , in a printed book , and determined in the negative , that a priest was bound not to reveal any such design , if discovered to him in confession ; gives a shrewd indication , that it was then projected among a sort of men , who have never seemed guilty of the least tenderness of nature , when heresie was in the case . but when their curses proved harmless things , and their designs were fatal only to themselves , and to their friends ; then they fell on new methods , which have indeed succeeded better with them . one has been the dividing us among our selves , and the engaging us into such mutual quarrellings , that their assistance might be alwaies some way or other necessary to the party that was deprest . thus , though they themselves were the most inconsiderable party in the nation , yet they have so managed the matter by shifting sides , as their interests led them to it ; that they who could not have stood it out by their own strength , yet by joining themselves to those who needed such an accession , and were willing to support themselves by it , came not only to preserve themselves , but to make a much more considerable figure among us , than without those their practices and our own follies , they could ever have pretended to . they had art enough on the one hand to make one side maintain vigorously some indifferent things , while they could on the other hand engage the other to as obstinate an opposition to them : they knew well , that in this dispute , which side soever lost , they must needs gain , both by the weakening that it gave us , and by the advantages that it furnished them : for , while we grew afraid only of one another , and angry only at one another ; they were no more lookt after ; and so they had opportunities to work so long under ground and unobserved , that they had almost quite undermined us before we were sensible of our danger : and when they could conceal it no longer , but that the mask must fall off , they even then could so far work on our mutual animosities as to make us instruments for doing half their work : while some were so far deluded , as to be their tools in the destroying our civil liberties , and others , who had complained of the former , had yet no sooner an opportunity offered them , than they struck in to overthrow all the security that we had for our religion , under the pretence of enjoying a toleration , when the price of it was the owning a dispensing power , that must needs have devoured all in a little time . so that both sides have deserved by turns this reproach ; that our enemies could manage their passions so , as to graft their own designs on them , and to make them grow out of them , only with this difference , that the last deceived are certainly the more inexcusable , since they had seen and censured other mens errors , and yet fell into the same follies themselves , when the designs were become more barefac'd ; and , by consequence , errors of that sort were the more criminal . this we have all felt , so long , that it may be now reasonably expected , that the experience of past-times , and the publick and solemn promises that were made in the late distress , should now bring us to a right temper , and , that we should now join all our forces together , for we shall have occasion for our whole strength , while we struggle with such powerful and vigilant enemies . 3. but the second artifice , which comes nearer to that in my text , has been no less succesful to them , than fatal to us ; and that is , the vitiating all our notions of religion , and the corrupting the morals of the whole nation . it is plain that they thought it was a good step to bring us over to their religion , once to make us have none of our own . true morality can never bear a religion that dissolves all duties , and dispences with all obligations ; nor can a sense of religion , once rightly awak'ned , bear the impositions of tyranny , superstition , and infallibility : therefore it was necessary for them to propagate atheism among us , since men that had no religion could easily be brought to profess that which is next to none , and that agreed best with their interests . and this they carried on in one respect very avowedly ; for in their books they studied plainly to prove , that men could have no certainty for the christian religion , unless they took it on their word ; and so they set themselves to weaken the force of all those arguments by which the truth of the christian faith is proved , and to put the whole authority of it upon the testimony of the church . this was no small comfort to the atheists , who from the common principles of sense saw the unreasonableness of believing or submitting implicitly to the authority of the church , and so were glad to be told that this was all the evidence that could be brought for christianity it self . but the debauching our morals , was that which seemed chiefly necessary for the compleating their designs ; and in this their agents had too much matter to work upon . the folly and hypocrisie of some , that in the late times had given great advantages against the profession of religion , was a handle that they failed not to make use of , to render all secret prayer , the reading the scriptures , and the observation of the lord's day , together with all the shews of piety , ridiculous ; morality was thought the effect of a mean education , and of a narrow mind ; true piety was despised as a cant ; the strictness of virtue , the fidelity to the vow of marriage , chastity , and sobriety , were put out of countenance , as signs of ill-breeding , or of a weak and superstitious temper . it look'd big and gallant to laugh at religion , to despise the worship of god , to affront those that ministred in holy things , and to set up for the most avowed disorders on that day which is dedicated to the worship of god. the open practice of the blackest vices , was a good step to assure a man of their favour , and to make him pass for one on whom they could depend . instruments of vice were ready to carry on the design : and , as if we had been to be drawn to their idolatry by the same sort of persons that were sent in by balak to corrupt the israalites , their balaks had likewise their moabitish women to send among us ; which was practised almost as barefacedly as when zimri brought in cosbi before the door of the tabernacle in the face of the whole congregation . this was a train that being once laid , and having taken fire , could not but prove fatal to a nation that is but too apt to be corrupted ; and the effects of it we feel to this day : for vice having over-run us so entirely as once it did , we cannot be soon freed from so infectious a disease ; which , wheresoever it once takes root , drives it so deep , that it cannot be easily extirpated . when a nation is once given up to pleasure , and to a profuseness of living , to falshood and treachery , and to all the arts of dissembling and supplanting one another , it must be the work of an age to bring men back to a decent frugality and sobriety , to an exactness of truth , and a strictness of virtue . nature will be long of the side of pleasure and interest ; these things being soon learned , and foarce ever forgotten . out of a due reflection on all these things , we must come at last to know the righteousness of the lord : god has disappointed the councels of our enemies , and made all their diviners mad ; they have been taken in their own craft , and in the net which they laid for us was their own foot taken . in every step that they made , a spirit of giddiness and infatuation seemed to have been poured out upon them . i need not repeat things that must still be fresh in all your memorie , and i hope will be so long ; for we must ever acknowledge , that we owe our preservation and deliverance much more to their folly , than to our own wisdom . when we were broken to pieces , they used arts on design indeed to divide us further , but they helped to reconcile us : when we were guilty , even to madness , of believing every promise that they made us , they took care to let us see how little regard they themselves had to any of them : when we could not believe that they would break any of our laws , they broke through them all at once , and shewed us what feeble things either promises or laws are , when heresie stands in their way . and thus god in his just and righteous judgments suffered them so far to precipitate all matters , that they ruined their own designs by their over driving them . we must have acknowledged that god had been just and righteous , if he had delivered us over as a prey unto them . we had by our contempt of the gospel , and by the ill use we had made of all his mercies , and of all former deliverances , provoked him to cast us off ; and when we consider the extreme miseries into which he has cast other churches , the long oppression , and the hard struggle through which scotland has pass'd , and the pangs in which ireland continues still , being now a scene of blood and misery , and like to be so yet for some time , if we do not more effectually interpose for bringing their deliverance to a quicker conclusion ; and if we compare with all this , the gentle visitation that we have had , and that has pass'd over us in so easie and harmless a manner , that few broke their sleep , or interrupted their method of living for it : we must , in our reflections on these things , change the signification of the word righteousness , and instead of using it in the sense that imports strict iustice , we must take it in the other that imports mercy and goodness ; for who can reflect on these two fifths of november , without adoring the riches of god's mercy and goodness to us in them both ? the former was in it self a great deliverance , but its consequences were not so signal as might have been expected . if that cursed train had wrought the designed effect , it had been indeed the most fatal blow that ever was given : but after all , the nation , tho' cast by it into a most dreadful convulsion , would probably have had strength enough to have recovered it self ; the crime would have been revenged , and the nation for ever purged from all such instruments of cruelty . the circumstances of the discovery , and the judgments of god on the conspirators , had particular characters of his righteousness in them , as the prevarications and denials of the criminals had also their characters of that cursed school in which they had learned the depths of satan . the whole thing was such a contexture of the wickedness of man on the one hand , and of the mercy and goodness of god on the other , as is indeed without an example in the histories of former times . but without derogating from the blessing of such a wonderful preservation , it may be affirmed , that as the danger which we lately run was greater , so by consequence , the deliverance which had its beginning this day , is not only the fresher blessing , and so the more sensible to us ; but is likewise the more important in it self of the two . the gunpowder-treason was a personal thing , but the late conspiracy was national : the former was levelled at the person of one king , and some of the branches of the royal family , but the latter was against the crown it self ; by which one half of that authority that belongs to it , was to have been surrendred up to rome , and the other half must have become tributary to france . our religion must indeed have suffered highly by the one ; but it was to have been quite extirpated by the other . a great many had perished in a quick and sudden fire by the one ; whereas the end of the other would have been , that we must all have languished in such slow fires as inquisitors might have made for us , or under the studied cruelties of dragoons , according to the french pattern , if we would not have consigned our selves over to everlasting burnings , by renouncing our religion . our laws and liberties might have suffered in the one , tho' spain at that time was not in a condition to have made so great a conquest : but all must have gone now , when they had so vast a power so near them as france is , to have supported and compleated that destruction of our liberties which was so barefacedly begun , and that had already made so great a progress among us . and when i have named france , i have said all that is necessary to give you a compleat idea of the blackest tyranny over mens consciences , persons , and estates , that can possibly be imagined , where every thing that the subject possesses is at the mercy of a boundless power , and of a severity that has no mixtures either of truth or goodness to govern or allay it ; and by which subjects are treated with as much cruelty , as enemies are with barbarity ; that has broke thro all that is sacred among men , and has bid defiance both to heaven and earth . this is a short view of that from which we are now a second time delivered . i need not enlarge on the particular characters of the hand of god in our deliverance . these were too visible not to have been observed by all men , and they are yet too fresh in our memories to be forgotten by any ; but that which few are apt either to reflect on , or to remember , is the design of heaven in all this , that so we may understand the loving kindness , as well as the righteousness of the lord in it . we had by our sins , and our divisions , brought our selves very low , we had provoked god , and irritated one another , therefore he has made us to see and feel the effects both of our sins and follies , that so we may be brought to repent of the one , and to correct the other . let us then resolve to turn to god in good earnest , and not to provoke him any more , lest if we stir up his wrath again against us , his displeasure break out upon us in as terrible a manner as has been hitherto again and again designed by our enemies , but still prevented by his watchful providence . let us grow ashamed of those vices which have so dispirited and corrupted the nation , that we were both fit for destruction , and had made our selves an easy prey to our enemies , being so shamefully degenerated from the vertues of our ancestors . let us compose our minds to softer thoughts of one another , that those animosities which have arisen from some small diversities in opinions and ceremonies , may be allayed , and that we may make such observations on the practices of our enemies , as from these to form righter judgments of things , and so come to such temperate resolutions , as to love one another ; at least , if we cannot be so wise , or so happy as to agree all our differences . and let us in a more particular manner rejoice in the goodness of god who now gives us the hopes of happy days , under the man whom he has made so strong for himself , whom he made first the instrument of saving the best church and people upon earth after our own , and who now again has been put on to preserve and rescue us , as if he were born to be the deliverer and darling of mankind . god be blessed for it , we have now a king and queen , whose examples we hope shall have a great an influence over us for making us truly good , as their government has for making us really happy . let us then study to be peaceable and obedient to them ; and thankful to god for them , and then we need not fear what either the balaks or the balaams , that are contriving our destruction , and consulting the methods of doing it , can project or set on foot against us . for if we are at peace with god , and united at home , we may assure our selves , that the course of blessings which has hitherto followed him , whom god in his providence has set over us , shall not be interrupted but by a glorious progress of triumphs it shall be carried on , till both the balak that is now set on our destruction , shall fall before him , and those balaams that divine for her , and that prophesy falsly , be put to confusion : which god of his great mercy grant , for the glory of his great name , through jesus christ. amen . finis . books lately printed for ric. chiswell . the doctrine of non-resistance , or passive obedience no way concerned in the controversies now depending between the willia●●● and the iacobites . jacobi usserii armachani archiep. historia dogmatica controversiae inter orthodoxos & pontificios de scripturis & sacris vernaculis , nunc primum 〈◊〉 accesserunt ejusdem dissertationes de pseudo-dionysii scriptis , & de epistola ad laodicenos ante hac inedite . descripsit , digessit & notis atque auctuario 〈◊〉 pletavit henricus wharton , a. m. r. archiep. cantuar. à sacris domest . 4º a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation 〈◊〉 account of the oaths . with an answer to the history of passive obedie●●● . a discourse concerning the ecclesiastical commission opened in the ierusalem-chamber , octob. 10. 1689. fasciculus rerum expetendarum & fugiendarum cum appendice ( underta●● to be printed upon subscription , by richard chiswell ) is now finished , 〈◊〉 will be ready for delivery on the 25th day of this instant november , at 〈◊〉 rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard ; to which place all subscrib●●● are desired to send in their second paiment , and their acquittances for 〈◊〉 first . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30430-e300 verse 3. numb . 21. 21. numb 22. 7. verse 13. 15. verse 20. numb . 24. verse 17. 19. numb . 23. 24. numb . 24. 10. 17. numb . 22. 23. numb . 25. v. 1. v. 4. 5. ps. 106. numb . 16. 31. v. 8. ps. 112. 8 , .9 . ps. 116. 5. prov. 10. 2. mar. 1. 19. a word to the wavering, or, an answer to the enquiry into the present state of affairs whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances? &c. : with a postscript of subjection to the higher powers / by g.b. hickes, george, 1642-1715. 1689 approx. 24 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 7 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a70226 wing h1878a estc r11270 09501963 ocm 09501963 43334 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a70226) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 43334) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 496:35 or 1326:16) a word to the wavering, or, an answer to the enquiry into the present state of affairs whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances? &c. : with a postscript of subjection to the higher powers / by g.b. hickes, george, 1642-1715. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 10 p. [s.n.], london : 1689. attributed by the nuc pre-1956 imprints to george hickes and to gilbert burnet by wing. this item is identified as wing b5941 at reel 1326:16 and as wing h1878a at reel 496:35. wing number b5941 cancelled in wing (cd-rom). reproduction of originals in the cambridge university library and the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng government, resistance to -biblical teaching. church and state -church of england. great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2007-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-04 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-05 angela berkley sampled and proofread 2007-05 angela berkley text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a word to the wavering : or an answer to the enquiry into the present state of affairs : whether we owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances ? &c. vvith a postscript of subjection to the higher powers ; by dr. g. b — london , printed in the year , mdclxxxix . a word to the wavering , &c. 't is said , ( page 3. ) — wheresoever protection fails wholly , allegiance falls with it . the whole nation almost did not think so when they own'd king charles the second in his exile , when his protection failed them ; and yet they , very dutifully and religiously , as well as loyally and unanimously , brought him in in 1660. and did what they could possibly for him by their pens , and purses , in his absence . and the whole people of israel and judah , did not think their allegiance cancell'd , because king david's protection over them was disabled , but strove who should be the forwardest to bring him back , 2 sam. 19. 42. and all the men of judah answered the men of israel , because the king is near of kin to us : wherefore then be you angry for this matter ? have we eaten at all of the king's cost ? or hath he given us any gift ? ( nay , to accommodate the case to the objection , — was he so much as able to protect us ? ) yet the men of israel answered the men of judah ( ver. 43. ) we have ten parts in the king , and we have also more right in david than ye : why then did ye despise us , that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king ? what more evident , then that their allegiance did not fall with david's ability to protect them , seeing they profess no self-interest in the case , no gift , &c. but only the allegation of birth , family , and kindred , or the like . again , ( pag. 3. ) — service and obedience are without doubt absolved , when a father ceases to be a father , by becoming an enemy . that the father of our country is not become an enemy , shall be made out hereafter — but if a father , or a prince , becomes an enemy , yet service , and obedience , are still due to them ; in as much as the vices of the fathers cannot affect the duty of the children . c ham got a curse for discovering his father's nakedness , while shem and japheth got a blessing by covering it . why should cham be cursed , if noah's drunkenness had cancell'd his son's respect and duty ? and , i believe , his majesty's children abhor the thoughts of but supposing their duty to their natural parent and soveraign at present waved , or extinguished ; lest upon the breach of the fifth commandment , of not honouring their father , &c. their days should not be long in the land ; besides the considerations of eternity . ( pag. 4. ) the first 7 verses of the 13th . chapter to the romans are set down ; in which the duty of the magistrate , as well as the obedience of the subject , are set forth , and so mixt together , as that our author thence concludes — upon the total failing of the one , the other does likewise cease . but first , does this hold on both sides ? then , if rebels and traytors have totally failed their duty of allegiance , the magistrate is not to do his ; not to try , judg , nor condemn , nor see them executed . is that it , which you would be at ? why then do you blame the king for going away , from that his duty ? but thus much only to shew the weakness of your reasoning . as to the text , st. paul meant it primarily , and literally , of nero , the worst of men and princes ; who was so very far from doing his duty , or protecting our religion , that he was a grievous tyrant , and a mighty terror to good works ; and yet the apostle commands all , without exception , to be subject to him , not because he was a good governour ( for that he was not ) but because he was one of the higher powers ; and because he had received that power , not from any mutual compact of the people , but only from god , whose vicegerent he was ( though never so bad ; ) since there is no argument ever yet able to shake that assertion , that there is no power but of god , and the powers that be are ordained of him : whosoever therefore resisteth ( not the vice and wickedness of the man , but ) the power and ordinance of god , lodged in that man , shall receive to themselves damnation ; from which , good lord , deliver us all . as nero was the worst , so saul was none of the best of princes ; and yet david stiles him , 1 sam. 24. 8. my lord the king ; and owns him his soveraign , because he was the lord's anointed , ver. 10. and this not out of flattery and courtship , but loyalty and duty ; for he had been far from a saint after god's own heart , if ( even upon any occasion ) he had let himself loose to speak evil of dignities . to nero , and saul , i will add a third , and that is pilate , whose power christ owned to have been from above , joh. 19. 11. and therefore submitted to it even to the death , though there was no law of the romans by which he could be put to death , joh. 18. 31 , 38. and when he suffered , he threatned not , but committed himself ( not to arms and revenge ) but to him that judgeth righteously , thereby leaving us an example that we should follow his steps : and accordingly all the primitive and succeeding christians fought the battles of all their pagan emperors and tyranical persecutors , without resistance , or ever aiding the armies of the rebels . tertullian glories , that when possenius nigar in syria , and clodius albinus in france and britany , rebelled against septimius severus , that bloody and cruel emperor , and pretended piety , and publick good , yet that none of the christians joyned with either . and the noble thebaean legion , in the 18. of dioclesian , are most eminently famous for laying down 6666 lives at the command of the emperor maximinian , when they could easily have saved them ; if they could have imagined , that the protection of the magistrate failing , it was lawful for the subject to withdraw his obedience . this is visible throughout all ages and places of the christian church , and has been ever most eminently the constant doctrine and practice of this church of england , in her articles , constitutions , and behaviours ; however some that have been willing to rejoyce in iniquity have imagined some occasion of triumph , in respect of some persons , and things , which perhaps they do not fully understand : but there is too much behind . ( pag. 4. ) the king's zeal for his religion never pushed him beyond the measures of a pious and just prince : if he attempted any thing that has appeared since illegal , it was against his will , having had the judgment and decision of all ( or most of ) the judges , and many other protestant counsellors learned in the law , upon their oaths , and consciences , that what they put him upon , was so far from subverting the establishment of our religion and laws , that he thought he did no more than his royal predecessors had done ; and particularly queen elizabeth , and king james , by their legal , and acknowledged prerogative , which is law , as well as those priviledges which concern the subject , according to statute , as well as common , and natural law. ( pag. 5. ) seeing you grant , that if the king was in eminent danger , he was then driven away : i shall only say , that as long as the king did rationally believe it , and all his friends , you and i ought to believe it too , or at least acquiesce so far in it , as that his majesty hath not thereby forfeited his crown , and right : it is more mannerly to suppress the diminishing conditions of ( what you call ) a treaty , than insist upon the hardness , or unacceptableness of any of them ; as for the seals they may be brought again , by the same hand that took them away , at a convenient season . ( pag. 6. ) allegiance stands in its full force , make you what consequence you please ; neither is it under any suspension , for none but god can suspend it , or legally put the regency into other hands : neither is there any incapacity , by being affected , and culpable ; for nothing is supposed to be culpable in the person of a lawful king , in respect of his subjects , who are no competent judges of what are supposed his faults . ( pag. 8. ) as for the terms of security , the best way is to leave them to him , who is the only ruler of princes , by whom alone kings reign , and princes decree judgment ; and that without the expectation of miracles , to preserve us under our again restored sovereign ; forasmuch as he sees those rocks upon which he dash'd before , and doubless will avoid them , as becomes so great , so wise , and so experienced a prince : neither need we now fear any jesuits in the council , no , nor so much as any papist in the government ; seeing they now expect and desire no more priviledge than they have in holland , nor so much neither , unless the king and parliament shall vouchsafe it them ; no danger therefore of throwing our selves back into any miserable condition upon the king's return . ( pag. 10. ) oaths are binding , although those in behalf of whom they are taken do not perform their part . the breach of one man's duty , will not legitimate an others . the matrimonial oath is not absolutely made for term of life , but god himself has put in an exception in the case of adultery , which he has not done in the case of loyalty ; wherefore the oath of allegiance binds semper , & ad semper , and admits of no intermission , or interception . the king never ceases to be a king till he ceases to be a man ; and it is a contradiction in terminis , that the next heir , should be at the same time king : for if he be actually king , he is no heir ; and while he is an heir , he is no king. ( pag. 11. ) for all your new fangled interpretation of that maxim — the king can do no wrong ; it is to be understood of the king's person , not his power , in your sense ; for his power , even in his minsters , may possibly do amiss ; but this is not to be imputed to , or exacted of his person , but his instruments , whose fault it is , if he be not better advised . ( pag. 12. ) as for the presidents of edward ii. and richard ii. 't is too long to examine their histories : but , let me offer in general , that never any king of england was judged in parliament for their male administration , in quiet and sedate times , but always soon after some great commotions or rebellions . and would you bring the acts of the rump , or those at the latter end of king charles i. reign , for presidents of law , especially against a king ? for the judgments of edward ii. and richard ii. whether they were ever revoked or not , by the succeeding kings , is a question ; but this is certain , that some of the conspirators against edward ii. were in the 4th . of edward iii. adjudged and attainted in parliament , although the king was but a child . and as to that against richard ii. it was given in the first parliament of henry iv. whose son , and son's son , reigned after him , and was the foundation of their usurping titles , and so could not be for their honour or interest to have them set aside . and besides , edward iv. who succeded that line , claimed from edward iii. and not from richard ii. he leaving no issue , whose business it might have been , more properly , to have seen the judgments against his father abrogated . besides , notwithstanding that , richard ii. was murthered so inhumanly , yet he was several times set up , by the people , against henry iv. which shews what opinion they had of that scandalous judgment . but for that against charles i. which was much of the same nature , all the proceedings against that unfortunate prince were , by act of parliament , ordered to be taken off the file , eraced , and ( if i am not mistaken ) ordered to be burnt by the common hang-man ; and the persons concerned , by parliament , attainted , and most of them executed . besides , considering the distance of time between richard ii. and edward iv. which was 60 yeras probably erasing them would not quit cost , nor be tanti , in comparison of the smoak and puther those agitations might raise , between king and people ; to prevent which , the wisdom of those latter definitions ( you speak of ) is conspicuous , and has been successfull to the peace and welfare of the kingdom . but our author in this matter , ( as well as to the right of a husband , who marries the heiress of the kingdom of england , ) shews his little reading in the laws and statutes of this kingdom : for if he had any , he would have remembered what the parliament , by an established law has declared , after giving a history of the proceedings against king charles i. that by the undoubted and fundamental laws of this kingdom , neither the peers of this realm , nor the commons , nor both together , in parliament or out of parliament , or the people collectively or representatively , nor any other person whatever , ever had , have , hath , or ought to have , any coercive power over the persons of the kings of this realm , which is , i hope , a full abrogation or declaration of the illegality of those judgments of edward ii. and richard ii. with a witness . the convention , which you call the representative of the kingdom , having such an honour and deference to the prince , it is to be hoped , they will concur with his highness , in laying the blame on the evil counsellors rather than on the sacred person ( which you acknowledge so ) of the king , his father , and uncle , and great obliger . as to the calling his majesty's honour in question , he has born a great deal of that already . in gods name ; if another mother , father , nurse , midwife , servants , will come in , and confess all , with due credible circumstances , ( outweighing the depositions upon oath , of so many protestants , and others ) let them come forth and be heard ; and that with all safety , till the truth be out . let us try all things , and hold fast that which is good ; and let truth never fear the frowns of any imposture , how great and powerfull soever . this , i conceive , is the cardo controversiae ; and , i hope , we may wish his majesty's affairs , and all his royal family , may thrive and prosper according to the merit of that great cause . ( pag. 13. ) the 10th . paragraph is wholly spent in throwing down the imaginary treaty with the king ; and the arguments are so strong against any indecent proposal that i cannot answer them ; neither is it the interest of the cause , if i could . ( pag. 14. parag. 11. ) there my author contends , that this nation is a protestant kingdom incompatable with popery , or a popish king , witness the exclusioners — you know it was compatable before the reformation ; and you ought to know , that dominion is not founded in grace : neither do the temporal rights of princes depend upon religion , whether true or false . the power of the magistrate is never the more from god , because he is a good man ; and never the less from god , because he is a bad man : to this purpose is that of st. augustine , in his fifth book de civitate dei , — qui augusto ipse & neromi , &c. qui constantino christiano , ipse apostatae juliano , &c. he that gave the soveraign power to augustus , gave it likewise to nero ; and he that conferred it upon constantine a christian , bestowed it in like manner upon julian an apostate . ( pag. 15. ) as for the king's friends , i dare say you , sir , are none of them ; and they know how to construe his absence from them , without your invidious suggestion of his abandoning them . true friendship , much less steady loyalty , will never think ill of a prince in such circumstances ; who has done so much good , and so little deserved any ill usage from his subjects . as for the disbanding the army ; what danger was there of their turning banditti , when there was such a potent and successful prince , and power to suppress them ? and the event shews this suggestion to have been meer malice . upon all this , is it natural ? i say it is unnatural to declare the throne void , which the law looks upon as impossible ; no , not upon the death of a king , who in law never dies ; insomuch that it never admits of an interregnum , much less vacancy for another candidate . that the king therefore has fallen from all right to the throne , is a chimaera , and figment of this authors brain , proceeding from a vacuum , or vacancy , never known , or understood , or read of before . as to the king's return from feversham . — doubtless had he thought himself in safe and honorable circumstances , he had stay'd ; and , then there would have been no want of the seals , or a parliament , or any other concession , that was fit for a good king to grant , to make his people happy ; which they can never be , without rendering to caesar the things that are caesars ; and acknowledging the lords anointed , to be their only lawful sovereign during his life . ( pag. 16. line 3. errata . ) instead of unbounded , read legal , or scriptural , or primitive loyalty ; which is as much as the king , or our clergy call for . to conclude , your flurts and dawbing , can never alter the steady principles of the reverend and learned clergy , who have declared themselves abundantly , ever since the reformation , in behalf of the crown , and in favour of entire loyalty : and it is not nature ( as you say ) they must conquer , but scripture and reason , primitive and establish'd authority , their own great learning , and their well regulated consciences ; if they ever depart from the glory of the church of englands loyalty , which they have so nobly , so faithfully , and so dutifully asserted and propagated , as a most evident and fundamental truth . postscript . since i wrot this i heard some ask at a bookseller's shop for dr. burnet's enquiry after allegiance , &c. and therefore to do the doctor right , i have added some of his own words transcribed out of two of his sermons . pag. 30. ] — david , his going out with the armies of the philistins , and professing a great desire to fight against the enemies of achish , who were no other but saul his natural liege . lord , and the armies of israel , ( wherein he acted a very unsincere part , or did really resolve to have ingaged against them ) are things so manifestly contrary to the laws of god , that they give a strong presumption , that the whole business of his taking arms , was contrary to law , and religion . pag. 33. ] may not one be said to kill the king , that robbed him of his revenue , power , and authority , and every thing that was necessary for the maintenance of the royal dignity ? pag. 17. ] there is a tribunal set up by god for the magistrate in all our breasts , which will pass sentence severely , and will not be put off by the tricks of law , &c. pag. 20. ] the higher powers being deputed by god must indeed render him a severe account , but not to others ; we are therefore to obey them for the lord's sake . 1 pet. 2. 13. pag. 26. ] christ did in the plainest style was possible condemn all practising's against government upon pretence of religion , by saying , my kingdom is not of this world , &c. joh. 18. 36. this does so expresly discharge all busling and fighting on the pretence of religion , that we must either set up another gospel , or utterly reject what is so formally condemned by the author of this we profess to believe . pag. 31. ] though after that the emperors turned christian , and established the faith by law ; yet neither did the subtil attempts of julian the apostate , nor the open persecutions of some arrian emperors , who did with great violence prosecute the orthodox , occasion any seditious combinations against authority . pag. 34 ] they are without more ceremony of words . traytors , who subject our sovereign's rights which he derives from god only , to a foreign superior power , &c. pag. 36. ] the dr. taxes also those who pretend a great heat against rome , and value themselves on their abhorring all the doctrines and practices of that church , and yet have carried along with them , one of their most pestiferous opinions , pretending reformation , when they would bring all under confusion ; and vouching the cause and work of god , when they were destroying that authority he had set up , and opposing those impowred by him . and the more piety and devotion such daring pretenders put on , it still brings the greater stain and imputation on religion , as if it gave a patrociny to those practices , it so plainly condemns . this is judas-like to kiss our master when we betray him ; and to own a zeal for religion , when we engage in courses that disgrace and destroy it . but blessed be god , our church hates , and condemns this doctrine , from what hand soever it come ; and hath establish'd the rights and authority of princes , on sure and unalterable foundations , enjoyning an entire obedience to all the lawful commands of authority , and an absolute submission to that supreme power god hath put into our sovereign's hands . this doctrine we justly glory in ; and if any that had their baptism and education in our church , have turned renegades from this , they proved no less enemies to the church her self , than to the civil authority : so that their apostacy leaves no blame on our church , &c. this is enough to clear the doctors reputation , and moreover to entitle it — dr. burnet ' s answer to the enquiry about allegiance . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a70226-e90 12 car. 2. cap. 30. notes for div a70226-e1590 dr. g. burn. sermon on 2 sam. 2. 12. preached jan. 30. 1674-75 . dr. burn. sermon on rom. 13. 5 1674. a pastoral letter writ by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum, to the clergy of his diocess, concerning the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to k. william and q. mary burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 41 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30398 wing b5842 estc r7837 11636214 ocm 11636214 47951 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30398) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47951) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:36) a pastoral letter writ by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum, to the clergy of his diocess, concerning the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to k. william and q. mary burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 29, [3] p. ; 20 cm. printed for j. starkey and ric. chiswell, london : 1689. "this letter ... gave such offence to some persons ... in parliament, that it was ... ordered to be burned by the hands of the common executioner, in 1693." cf. lowndes, bibliographer's manual of english literature. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -william and mary, 1689-1702. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 andrew kuster sampled and proofread 2004-11 andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the bishop of sarvm's pastoral letter . licensed , may 16. 1689. a pastoral letter writ by the right reverend father in god gilbert , lord bishop of sarvm , to the clergy of his diocess , concerning the paths of allegiance and supremacy to k. william and q. mary . london : printed for j. starkey ; and ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxix . a pastoral letter writ by the right reverend father in god gilbert , lord bishop of sarvm , to the clergy of his diocess , &c. since i cannot yet come to do the duties of my function among you , i think my self obliged to supply my absence by watching over you as effectually as i can at this distance . and since some have raised so many doubts and difficulties concerning the allegiance which is due to the king and queen , that the minds of the people may be distracted by them ; especially if they should observe , that those of the clergy who have more occasion to enquire into such matters than other people , and whose examples ought to have great authority , should be so far possessed with these scruples , that they should rather choose to desert their stations , than swear the oaths required by law ; i have thought it incumbent on me , to lay this before you in the best light in which i could put it , in order to the satisfying of all those objections which may arise upon this occasion . 1. the importance of this matter is too visible to need any reflections upon it to make it more sensible : it does not only concern you in your own particular , tho that is a consideration in which the present interest that is of its side , may tempt a good man to be a little jealous of it : yet , on the other hand , men that are in a station , in which they may do service to god , and the church , and from which they cannot withdraw without doing a considerable prejudice to the publick peace ; and without shaking , as far as in them lies , the present settlement of the nation ; ought to consider well the grounds upon which they go , before they venture on the setting themselves against a work , which in the whole progress of it has had many signal characters of a favourable providence conducting it ; and that gives us the fairest beginnings of the most desirable things that we can hope or wish for on earth . it gives us all the security , that , humanely speaking , we can look for , both for the protestant religion , and for civil liberty . it is our present fence from the three things in the world ; which , if they were asunder , ought to give us the greatest terror ; but being now all joined together , if they do not both unite and awaken us against so dreadful an appearance , it looks like a curse from god upon us , that is the certain forerunner of our ruine ; and these are , popish tyranny , an irish conquest and massacre , and french barbarity and cruelty . if our saviour has denounced a terrible woe against those , who lay a stumbling block before one of his little ones , under how much greater damnation do they fall , who lay such a stumbling block , as the refusing the oaths will be , before a whole nation , and a nation in whose strength and union , the security both of religion and liberty consists ? a man that adventures on so dangerous a thing , had need be very sure that he is in all this matter in the right , otherwise he runs a risque of fighting against god , if he should happen to be in the wrong . 2. but all this may look like a pathetical aggravating of the matter , unless it should appear to be well supported . i go therefore in the next place to set before you those reasons that seem convincing to me , even though there were no more to be said for the present settlement , but that we have a throne filled , and a king and queen in possession . the bringing the state of the question so low , may seem at first view not to be of so much advantage to their majesties title ; but since i intend to carry the matter farther before i leave it , i hope it may be no incongruous method to begin at that which will take in the greatest numbers , since there is no dispute in this , that they are actually in possession of the throne , that they protect us , and that we by living under their protection , and enjoying the benefit of it , are therefore bound to make some returns to them for it . 3. a man may lawfully promise to do every thing which he may lawfully do ; so that if it is lawful to obey the king , it is also lawful to promise to do it . and therefore since it does not appear that any persons do doubt of the lawfulness of obeying , it cannot with any colour of reason be said to be unlawful to promise it ; and if it is lawful to promise it , it is also lawful to swear it ; for an oath being only the sacred confirmation of a promise , we may lawfully swear every thing that we may lawfully promise : and as it appears that there lies no just objection to the swearing obedience , so there arises none from the word allegiance , for that being in its original signification , nothing but the service that a vassal owed to the chief lord of the fee. if the king is owned in fact to be our king , then he is the lord of the fee , and by consequence allegiance is due to him ; allegiance being also now in our present aeceptation , an obedience according to law , that is to say , not a blind nor absolute obedience , but such an obedience , as is defined and limitted by the law , then the scruple that arises out of the word allegiance vanishes . 4. this is either true , or all these who live upon a continent , and that are subject to the conquests and invasions of their neighbours must be miserable : for tho our happy scituation has exempted us for a whole age from falling under any such difficulties ; yet this is a case that falls often out in all different states , which are on the same continent ; for if subjects owe their natural prince such an obstinate allegiance , that neither desertion nor conquest can dissolve it , then in what a miserable condition must they be , when they fall under the power of their enemy , that never thinks himself secure of them , but treats them still as enemies , till they swear allegiance to him . now all the true maxims of government being such , that they must tend to the preservation and not to the ruin of mankind , it is certain that all those are false which tend to the inevitable destruction of cities , and societies ; and therefore this of an indiffeasable allegiance , must be reckoned among these , since the fatal consequences that must attend upon it are evident , and this is the opinion in which all who have considered this matter , either as lawyers or casuists do agree . 5. if we consider the whole history of the old testament , in which there were much plainer rules , with relation to then policy given by god himself , than can be pretended to be given to christians ; we clearly see that after any revolution that happened , of which there are many instances in the history of the ten tribes , the people acquiesced always in the possession ; and the prophets that were among them , never charged them with this , nor required them to return back to those princes , or families which they had shaken off . it is true this is but a negative authority ; yet when we consider how particular the prophets are in the enumeration of their sins , their silence on this head is at least a great presumption , that they had not contracted much guilt on this account . the same may be said of the obedience of those in iudah to athaliah during her unjust and bloody usurpation ; which shews , that tho the title of a prince were manifestly unjust , yet it may be lawful to take protection under him , and that , in most states cannot be had without both giving obedience , and the entring into such engagements for it , as are required by the rules of that constitution ; such was the making covenants with their kings among the jews ; such was the military oath among the romans , and such are the oaths of allegiance where the fendal law prevails . 6. the jews were obliged by a plain and express law , deut. 17. ver . 15. to set a king over them from among their brethren , and not to set a stranger over them who was not their brother ; here was a positive exclusion of all aliens ; so that any stranger that reigned over them , could only be their king in fact , but not in right : yet in our saviour's time the romans , from granting the jews their protection against the kings of syria , had so far extended their authority , that not only the race of the maccabees , who had long reigned over them , was destroyed , but even the shew of freedom which was left , while herod , that was circumcised and allied to the family of the maccabees , was their king , was taken a way , and iudea was reduc'd into the form of a province : and that but lately , when the question was put to our saviour , whether they should pay tribute to cesar or not ? upon this our saviour plainly determined for their obeying the romans : and according to the opinion of almost all interpreters , he drew his argument for it from this , that their current coin carrying cesar's superscription upon it , this was an acknowledging of his authority ; and that therefore since they had once submitted to cesar , they ought still to reader to him all that was his , that is to say , all that he was then possessed of in fact. this seems to be a very express decision in this matter , and that even when the possession fell within the memory of man , so that it was not fortified by prescription or immemorial practice , and when the righteous heir was known , and while the pharisees kept up the debate , by refusing to own a foreign and idolatrous authority . yet our saviour , whose whole doctrine tended chiefly to secure the peace of the world , decided plainly in favour of possession ; for it were in deed a great misery , and would throw men into vast distractions if they were obliged to examine all titles , and in every revolution to perish , for the sake of those by whose means they had like to have perished before . 7. it is upon the same reason that st. paul , writing to the romans , declares in favour of the powers that were ; a form of speech not unlike ours , of the king for the time being , whom he calls the ordinance of god , and he requires all men to be subject to them . we know very well what was the true ancient government among the romans , and that not only the rights of the people and senate were as fully secured , as any thing could possibly be in any human constitution , but that by the valerian law it was lawful for any private person to kill any magistrate that should go about to invade the liberties of the people , and that the crime for which catilin's memory is held in detestation ; proving more successful in the hands of iulius cesar and augustus , they became the usurpers of the liberties of their country ; and though something like a consent was obtain'd from the senate and people , yet it is evident that this was extorted from them by force ; we also see from all that remains of tiberius's reign in tacitus , that the design which he constantly pursued , was to overthrow all that was left of their freedom ; and to rob the people of such of their liberties as remain'd yet in their hands ; so that it was a constant progress of usurpation and tyranny ; and this was yet more barefac'd and blacker under caligula ; yet when st. paul writ to the christians of rome , he is express in this ; that they should not trouble themselves with inquiries into titles , but should take things as they found them , and consider the state of the empire under which they lived , as such an effect of the providence of god , that they ought to be subject to it , and not resist it : but this related only to the christians , who were neither concern'd in the authority of the people , nor in the jurisdiction of the senate ; so that unless we will think that the holy ghost approved of the blackest and cruellest usurpation that ever was , we must conclude , that it is the will of god , that all private persons ought to be subject to that authority , which is in possession , and that prevails in the places and times in which they live . 8. it is clear from the whole history of the church , that the primitive christians understood this to be the doctrine of christ : for notwithstanding all the revolutions of the empire , that were often sealed with the blood of the dethroned emperour , they adhered still to the possession . and since we see by tertullian's apologetick , as well as from several other indications , that many of them were in the army , they certainly swore the military oath to every one that prevailed , and were never once so much as reduced to any straits , much less put to trouble for their adhering to the dethroned emperour , or for their refusing to acknowledge the new one . this appeared eminently in the cafe of maximus who had murdered gratian and usurped his share of the empire ; and yet all the bishops of the west , not excepting the great st. martin , who was called the apostle of france , made their applications to him , and followed his court , as much , if not more , than they did any prince's of that age : nor is there one single instance , that i could ever yet hear of , in any part of age of the christian church , where the clergy refused to acknowledge him that was their king in fact ; or to give him all those securities of their allegiance and fidelity to him , which were required of them . 9. it appears in another instance which is indeed foreign to this matter , that our saviour judged that the minds of the people ought not to be distracted with enquiring into titles , but that they ought to acquiesce in the possession , even when the title was visibly and unexceptionably bad . in the jewish religion as the high-priest was the first of all the sacred tribe , so the greatest piece of their religion , which was the annual expiation , was to be perform'd by him ; & by their law it was provided that the high-priest's eldest son should be anointed to serve before the lord in his father's stead , unless he had any of those blemishes in his body that tendred him unfit for it . so that the high priesthood went by inheritance , and their genealogies were so carefully preserved , that it was not possible for them to be mistaken in him that of right ought to have been their high priest ; yet in our saviour's time this sacred office was set to sale by the romans , so that caiaphas had both purchased it with his mony , and had also thrust out him to whom it belonged by the law of god. here were all the nullities that could almost be in a title : yet our saviour owned this mercenary high priest , he joined in all the parts of the temple-service ; and since he fulfilled all righteousness , no doubt he obeyed that law , of going thither on the day of the general atonement for the sins of the whole people , though he had no need of it in his own particular : he also acknowledged the high-priest's authority by answering to him when he was brought before him , and adjured by him to speak the truth . st. paul not only did the same , but when he had been guilty of an indecency to ananias , not knowing him to be the high-priest , he made an apology for it ; in which as he pleads his ignorance , so he plainly acknowledges the respect that was due to him . this is yet carried further by st. iohn who says that caiaphas as high-priest for that year prophesied . all this shews that even when rules were given by god himself and were notoriously and infamously broken in the offices of the highest nature ; yet the peace and quiet of mankind were to be preferred to all positive laws , and that all persons were directed by an infallible authority , to acknowledge those who were in possession . 10. but now i will advance the state of the question a little further , beyond that of a bare possession , into that of a title declared by those who only can be supposed to be the proper judges of it : and in order to the opening this , it ought to be considered , that there is this difference between all speculative points of opinion and all questions that relate to matters of fact ; that in the former every man must still think according to the sense , that he himself has , and must not subdue his understanding to any authority whatsoever , nor yield to any pretended infallibility ; but in matters of fact ; if a man belongs to any body that makes any decision relating to them , he must agree to it , and acquiesce in it , though he thinks it wrong . a member of any court of justice in which an unjust decree is past , though he is bound to oppose it , while it is in agitation ; yet when it is past , he himself not only acquiesces in it , but must afterwards issue out such orders as are consequent to that decree , as readily as if he himself had concurred in the making of it . that this is a certain truth there needs no other proof but this , that it is simply and indispensibly necessary to the preserving the peace of mankind , and to the keeping of all societies in union and order ; and every maxim that is of such absolute necessity to mankind must be true . now , with relation to the subject now under consideration , there are two questions which may be made : the first is , a point of speculation , how far subjects are bound to obey , or submit to the supreme power , and whether they may resist them in any case ; and more particularly , if that may be done on the account of religion . and as to this there is no debate at present , so that all men may retain their former opinions . but the second relates to the history and policy of england , whether the king derives his power from god , and so is accountable only to him ; or if he holds it by an original contract with his people , so that upon his breaking it , they likewise may be acquitted from all obligations to him . this depends on our laws , records and histories , and the resolution of it , can only be taken from them ; so these being all matters of fact , whatsoever decision was made by those who are the only competent judges , it must oblige all persons , not excepting even those who being of that body opposed it while it was a making : therefore all english men are bound to act according to that judgment , and by consequence of swear that they will do it . and therefore no private person ought to let his particular notions of our government determine him , but is bound to resign them up to the decision that has been so publickly made in it . here it were an easie thing to urge all those topicks which have been made use of with relation to the dissenters , who in the matters of government have set up their own doubts and scruples in opposition to laws and established rules . but this argument might seem invidious , and therefore i will not insist upon it . 11. but i will , in the last place , carry this matter further to justifie the present settlement , as a thing right and lawful in it self : and in order to the stating this aright , this must be acknowledged , that there are few of those , tho' some seem now to be in some doubt concerning this matter , who did not think that the king , when he was prince of orange , had a just cause of war , when he first undertook this business ; for even at common-law an heir in remainder has just cause to sue him that is in possession , if he makes wasts on the inheritance which is his in reversion . it is much more reasonable , since the thing is much more important , that the heir of a crown should interpose when he sees him that is in possession hurried on blindfold to subject an independent kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction , and thereby to rob it both of its glory , and of its security . and when it is manifest that this must occasion the greatest ruine and miseries possible to that kingdom : and when a pretended heir was set up in such a manner that the whole kingdom believed him spurious . in such a case it cannot be denyed , even according to the highest principles of passive obedience , that another soveraign prince might make war on a king so abusing his power ; and that this was the case in fact , will not be called in question by any protestant . so then here was a war begun upon just and lawful grounds , and a war being so begun , it is the uncontroverted opinion of all lawyers , that the success of a just war gives a lawful title to that which is acquired in the progress of it . therefore king iames having so far sunk in the war , that he both abandoned his people , and deserted the government , all his right and title did accrue to the king , in the right of a conquest over him ; so that if he had then assumed the crown , the opinion of all lawyers must have been on his side : but he chose rather to leave the matter to the determination of the peers and people of england , chosen and assembled together with all possible freedom , who did upon that declare him their king ; so that with relation to king iames's rights , he was vested with them by the successes of a just war , and yet he was willing , with relation to the people , to receive the crown by their declaration , rather than to hold it in the right of his sword : and indeed which way soever that king iames's deserting the government is turned , this argument has much weight ; for if he was forced to it , then here was a conquest ; and if it was voluntary , it was a wilful desertion : the great seal's being cast into the thames , is an unaccountable part of it , and seems to imply this at least , that either he did not think of returning again , or that if he should return , that he would no more govern by the shew of law , of which the great seal seems always to carry some prints . so that , in a word , the people of england being left without a government , and in the hands of one that could and might have assumed it , and that stood so near the immediate succession to the crown , were reduced to the necessity , either of continuing in a state of anarchy ; for a regency for life , which was offered by those who except to the oaths , though it was a real divesting of king iames of our allegiance , and the translating it to another , is no better in the construction of the law , it having no legal security in it to conduct the government , or so much as to indemnify those that should act under it ; or of returning back to that misery which they had so much dreaded but a few months before , or of settling themselves upon such a legal foundation as might secure the peace and quiet of the nation ; and in all extremities relating to the government , that is always best which is safest ; and every resolution which is necessary to the peace and happiness of the nation , is upon that very account just and good , because it is necessary . and now i have gone over this argument , in all the branches and different views in which it may be set , and have laid before you the reasons that make me conclude , that the settlement now made , was founded on good grounds , and that tho the grounds were doubtful , yet that all the subjects ought to be determined by the decision made by the representative of the kingdom : and beyond all this , that even a possession , without so great a support , ought to quiet all mens minds , at least so far , that they ought to submit and swear to it without any scruple . it remains that i should say somewhat in answer to these objections that may arise against all this , the chief of which are taken from those oaths and engagements by which you were bound to king iames and his heirs : and from this , that allegiance seems to be a personal tie which binds you to him during life , and after his death passes to his heirs ; but if it is certain that allegiance is a tie to a prince , in consideration of the protection which he gives , then , when he can no more protect those who owed him allegiance , they can be no longer bound to him , but must give their allegiance to him that protects them . the very term of allegiance rises out of the feudal law , by which the chief lord of a fee , when he made any grants to his vassals , took them bound in consideration of these grants to adhere to him , to defend his person , and to assist him in his wars ; but all this being done by the vassals in consideration of the fee that was granted , an original contract is plainly implied in it ; so that if the lord of the fee should go to take away the fee it self , or to change the nature of the subjection in which the vassals were put by the first grant , then the oath which was grounded on it could not be supposed to bind them any longer . nor can any man be bound to a man's heir before he himself is dead ; so that the tie arising from the word heir can signify nothing , till the inheritance is opened by death ; and in that case we must return to this , that allegiance and protection being reciprocal , there can be no allegiance due , where there can be no protection given . in short , the declaring of this government , and the degrees of the submission which the subjects owe our prince , and of the person so whom their allegiance is due , can only be made by the peers and people of england : and when that is done , you must rest there , and give your selves no further trouble , otherways you take to your selves an authority of judging in a matter relating to your government , after those who are the only competent judges have decided it . this being then the true state of the question , it is now reduced to this , that since there is on the one side , such clear and apparent reasons leading us to obey , and that on the other side there is nothing but an opinion , that some men whose studies have never led them to examine , either the nature of civil societies in general , according to the roman law , or the nature of the english government from the laws and history of england , with that care that was necessary , have taken up that there is an uncontroulable and supream power lodged with our kings by a divine deputation , which exempts them from being called to an account , or resisted by their people , let their violations of the law be never so many or so eminent ; when , i say , these two things are weighed the one against the other , it seems very plain that the former must far down-weigh the other . i will not here enter into this argument , that must carry me very far if i should once undertake it ; i have done it upon another occasion , and i will only add one thing in this paper ; that the original articles of the magna charta granted by king john , is now in my hands , with his great seal to it ; which has been ever since that time esteemed the measure of the english government ; and by it , it is expresly provided ; that in case the king should violate any part of it , and should refuse to rectify what he had done amiss , it should be lawful for the barons , and the whole people of england , to distress him by all the ways they could think on ; such as , the seizing on his castles , lands , and possessions , provition being only made for the safety of the persons of the king and ducen , and of their children . and the subjects are not only warranted , but required to enter into associations and oaths for that effect . this is an evidence , that by the ancient constitution of england , there was no such irresistible authority in our kings , as some have been inclin'd to imagine . but after all , if there be any who are so possest with their preconceited opinions , that they either cannot lay them down , or will not confess that they have been mistaken in their notions of politicks , these ought to be very sure that they are in the right , before they will adventure , as far as in them lies , to undermine and shake the present constitution . to conclude ; i hope you will examine this whole matter with the care and attention that it deserves ; that you will weigh the reasons of both sides , without partiality ; that you will fast and pray , in order to the preparing your minds for the finding out of the truth ; and that you will hearken to all that can be said of both hands , being neither byassed to the affirmative by your present interests , nor inclined to the negative as to the received opinion , neither affecting singularity , nor throwing your selves into the croud ; but that you will seek to hear reason , and examine what is most agreeable to the scriptures , and be determined by it . this is the daily and most earnest prayer of reverend and dear brethren , your most affectionate brother and most humble servant . gil . sarum . may the 15th . books printed for john starkey . an historical and political discourse of the laws and government of england , from the first times to the end of the reign of queen elizabeth , with a vindication of the ancient way of parliaments in england , collected from some manuscript notes of john selden , esq by nathaniel bacon of grays-inn esq in folio , price bound 12 s. for printing this book john starkey was outlaw'd , in the year 1682 , which is now by him new published . the journals of all the parliaments , during the reign of queen elizabeth , both of the house of lords , and house of commons . collected by sir simmonds d'ewes of suffolk knight and baronet . revised and published by paul bowes of the middle-temple esq in folio price bound 20 s. a new systeme of the apocalypse , or plain and methodical illustrations of all the visions in the revelations of st. john , written by a french minister in the year 1685 , and finisht but two days before the dragoons plunder'd him of all except this treatise , to which is added this authors defence of his illustrations concerning the non-effusion of the vial , in answer to mr. jurieu ; faithfully englished : in 120. price bound 2 s. 6 d. books lately printed for richard chiswell . dr . burnet's history of the reformation of the church of england , in 2 volumes in folio . — his abridgment of the said history of the reformation . — history of the rights of princes in disposing of ecclesiastical benefices , and church lands , 12o. — life of dr. william bedell bishop of kilmore in ireland , to which are annexed the letters betwixt him and wadsworth , about religion . — his two letters written upon the discovery of the popish plot , together with a collection of several other tracts and discourses : written by him betwixt the years 1678. to 1685. to which is added a letter written to dr. burnet , giving an account of cardinal pools secret powers . the history of the powder treason , with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon . an impartial consideration of the five jesuites dying speeches , who were executed for the popish plot , 1679. — his account of the life and death of the earl of rochester . — a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england : in which is demonstrated , that all the essentials of ordination , according to the practice of the primitive and greek churches are still retained in the church . — reflexions on the relation of the english reformation lately printed at oxford in two parts . 410. — animadversions on the reflections upon dr. burnet's travels . 80. — reflexions on a paper , intitled his majesties reasons for withdrawing himself from rochester . — an enquiry into the present state of affairs , and in particular , whethewe owe allegiance to the king in these circumstances ? and wher there we are bound to treat with him , and call him back or no ? — a sermon preached in st. james's chappel before the prince of orange 23d . decemb. 1688. — a sermon preached before the house of commons 31 january 1688. being the thanksgiving day for the deliverance of this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power . — his eighteen paper relating to the affairs of church and state , during the reign of king james the second ▪ seventeen whereof were written in holland , and first printed there ; the other at exeter , soon after the prince of orange's landing in england . — a letter to mr. thevenot . containing a censure of mr. grand's history of king henry the eighth's divorce . to which is added , a censure of mr. meaux●s ●s history of the variations of the protestant churches . together with some further reflections on mr le grand . — a sermon preached at the coronation of william iii. and mary ii. king and queen of england , scotland , france , and ireland . at westminster , april 11th , 1689. dr. patricks parable of the pilgrim . the sixth edition corrected . — a private prayer to be used in difficult times . 80. — exposition of the ten commandments : 80. — his sermon before the prince of orange , 20. january 1688. — his sermon before the queen at whitehall , march 1. 1688. — the pillar and ground of truth : a treatise shewing that the roman church falsly claims to be that church , and the pillar of that truth mentioned by st. paul in his first epistle to timothy chap. ● . v.15 . — his sermon preached on st. peters day , published with enlargements — his sermon preâched at st. pauls covent garden , on the first sunday in lent , being a second part of a sermon preached before the prince of orange newly published . preparation for death being a letter sent to a young gentlewoman in france in a distemper of which she died , by william wake , m. a. preacher to the honourable society of grays-inn — his two discourses of purgatory and prayers for the dead . 40. — his exposition of the doctrine of the church of england , in the several articles proposed by the late bishop of condom , [ in his exposition of the doctrine of the catholick church ] — his defence of the exposition of the doct. of the church of england ; against the exceptions of mr. de meaux , late b of condom , and his vindicator . — a second defence of the exposition of the doctrine of the church of england , against the new exceptions of monsieur de meaux , late bishop of condom , and his vindicator . the first part : in which the account that has been given of the bishop of meaux's exposition , is fully vindicated ; the distinction of old and new popery historically asserted , and the doctrine of the church of rome , in point of image worship , more particularly considered . — second defence of the exposition of the doct. of the church of england against mr. de meaux and his vindication , the second part . — a continuation of the state of the controversie between the church of england and the church of rome , being a full account of the books that have been of late written on both sides . — an historical treatise of transubstantiation . written by an author of the communion of the church of rome ; rendred into english by william wake m. a. with a preface . books lately published . scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria a christo nato usque ad saeculum xiv . facili methodo digesta . qua de vita illorum ac rebus gestis , de secta , dogmatibus , elogio , stylo ; de scriptis genuinis , dubiis , supposititiis , ineditis , deperditis , fragmentis ; deque variis operum editionibus perspicae agitur . accedunt scriptores gentiles , christiane religionis oppugnatores ; & cujusvis saeculi breviarium . inseruntur suis locis veterum aliquot opuscula & fragmenta , tum graeca , tum latina bactenus inedita , praeinissa denique prolegomena , quibus plurima ad antiquitatis ecclesiasticae studium spectantia traduntur . opus indicibus necessariis instructum . autore guilielmo cave , ss . theol. profes . canonico windesoriensi . accedit ab alia manu appendix ab ineunte saeculo xiv . ad annum usque mdxvii . fol. 1689. a letter written by a clergy man to his neighbour concerning the present circumstances of the kingdom , and the allegiance that is due to the king and queen . the case of allegiance in our present circumstances considered , in a letter from a minister in the city , to a minister in the country . a sermon preached at fulbam , in the chappel of the palace upon easter day 1689. at the consecration of the right reverend father in god gilbert lord bishop of sarum : by anthony hwneck , d. d. the judgments of god upon the roman catholick church , from its first rigid laws for universal conformity to it , unto its last end. with a prospect of these near approaching revolutions , viz. the revival of the protestant profession in an eminent kingdom , where it was totally suppressed . the last end of all turkish hostilities . the general mortification of the power of the roman church in all parts of its dominions . in explication of the trumpets and vials of the apocalypse , upon principles generally acknowledged by protestant interpreters . by drue cressener , d. d. a breviate of the state of scotland in its government , supream courts , officers of state , inferiour officers , offices and inferiour courts , districts , jurisdictions , burroughs royal , and free corporations . fol. some considerations touching succession and allegiance . a discourse concerning the worship of images ; preached before the university of oxford : by george tully sub-dean of york , for which he was procured to be suspended by obadiah walker . reflexions upon the late great revolution : written by a lay-hand in the country , for the satisfaction of some neighbours . the history of the dissertion ; or an account of all the publick affairs in england , from the beginning of september 1688. to the twelfth of february following . with an answer to a piece call'd the dissertion discussed , in a letter to a country gentleman . by a person of quality . k. william and k. lewis , wherein is set forth the inevitable necessity these nations lie under of submitting wholly to one or other of these kings ; and the matter in controversie is not now between k. william and k. james , but between k. william and k. lewis of france for the government of these nations . an examination of the scruples of those who refuse to take the oath of allegiance , by a divine of the church of england . a dialogue betwixt two friends , a jacobite and a williamite ; occasion'd by the late revolution of affairs , and the oath of allegiance . two sermons , one against murmuring , the other against censuring : by symon patrick . d. d. injunctions for the arch-deacons of the diocess of sarum to be delivered by them to the clergy in their easter-visitations, 1690 : together with a letter from their diocesan, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 15 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30360 wing b5806 estc r15330 12650857 ocm 12650857 65281 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30360) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65281) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 346:7) injunctions for the arch-deacons of the diocess of sarum to be delivered by them to the clergy in their easter-visitations, 1690 : together with a letter from their diocesan, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ric. chiswel ..., london : 1690. caption title. imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in trinity college library, dublin. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -pastoral letters and charges. church of england -government. church of england -clergy. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion injunctions for the arch-deacons of the diocess of sarum . to be delivered by them to the clergy in their easter-visitations , 1690. together with a letter from their diocesan gilbert lord bishop of sarum . imprimatur . april 30. 1690. z. isham r. p. d. henr. episc. lond. à sacris . i. you shall read his majesty's letter , of the 13. of february last , to the clergy in your respective archdeaconries ; and you shall press them seriously to consider and observe the rules that are set in it . ii. you shall signifie to the clergy of this diocess , that in order to their obeying regularly and uniformly the commands sent to us and them by his majesty's letter , they shall observe this method . on the second sunday in may they shall read the act of parliament concerning the observation of the lord's day , and shall exhort their hearers to the religious observation of it . on the sunday seven-night before the assizes , they shall read the act against perjury , and preach on the same subject . on the first sunday in advent , they shall read the act against drunkenness , and li●ewise preach against that uice . and on the second sunday in lent they shall read the act against blasphemy swearing , and cursing , and preach on the same subject : and on the fourth sunday in lent they shall preach against the sins of adultery and fornication . it is intended to provide homilies ▪ for all these daies , but till these are prepared , every one is to furnish himself with sermons on these heads : and this is to be continued from year to year . iii. you shall read this our letter , that is herewith given to you , to our clergy , of which care shall be taken to send to every one of them a printed copy ; and you shall charge them strictly to consider well the contents and matter of it . iv. you shall require such as have sermons twice a day in summer , to make their evening-sermon on some part of the church-catechism , in such a division , that they may go quite through it once a year . and for such as preach but one sermon a day , you shall charge them , that every fortnight they preach on some part of the church-catechism , so that once a year in every church the catechism be explained quite through : and charge them likewise to examine the young persons of their parishes quite through the catechism at every time that they preach on any part of it . v. you shall signifie to the clergy of the diocess , that for avoiding crowds and disorders in confirmations , we intend to confirm frequently , not only in our cathedral on good-fridays , and whitsun-eves , and christmas-eves , but as we go about to any of the churches of our diocess ; and that therefore they take care to send such to us , to be confirmed by us , when they hear that we are in their neighbourhood , whom they find not only capable of repeating the words of the catechism , but likewise sensible of those uows which were made in their name in baptism , and which they are then to renew : and who are of an age capable of receiving the sacrament , and in a disposition fit for it . vi. you are to deal with our clergy ▪ and particularly with the rural deans , to see if the clergy of each rural deanery ▪ can be brought to meet together in some convenient place within the respective deanery , if it may be three or four times in a year , to consult of their common concerns , and to acquaint us with such things in which we may be assistant or helpful to them . this may be a great means of begetting and keeping brotherly love and friendship among them , of giving advice to such as want experience , and of strengthening the whole body : therefore we do most earnestly recommend it to you and them . vii . you are to enquire into the deportment of the clergy , and to see what scandals or ill reports go upon any of them ; and in particular , what their behaviour is , with relation to those canons which his majesty has charged us to look more narrowly to . you are also to examine who reside in their livings , who attend constantly on them , or are frequently , and without any just cause , absent from them ; who have prayers wednesdays and fridays at the least ▪ if not oftener , where it is possible to have any number of christians brought together , though it were a very small one : and you are to accept no excuse from those who have not for some considerable time tried it : even two or three make a congregation . viii . you are to enquire , if under the pretence of having the benefit of the indulgence granted by law there are any that do cast off quite the worship of god , neither coming to church , nor going to any of the meetings of the dissenters ; and since it was far from the intent of the law to grant any indulgence to atheism , you are to enquire after all such persons , that they may be procéeded against ; but you are not to suffer any uexation to be created upon this pretence , to any that go to the méetings of the dissenters . ix . you are to signifie to our clergy , that all such as desire to be put in orders , must be addrest to us some considerable time before the ordination-sundays , that so we may have sufficient time not only to try and examine them , but also to order notice to be given at the parish-churches where they live , that so any who have any impediment to object why they should not be admitted into holy orders , may have timely warning , and may signifie it to us . we do desire that such as come for orders , appear before us in the ember-week , not immediately preceeding , but thrée months before we ordain them , that so we may have a larger time and better opportunities of being fully satisfied concerning them , remembring those heavy words of st. paul's , lay hands suddenly on no man , neither be partaker of other mens sins ; keep thy self pure . gi . sarum . my dear brethren , i send you herewith his majesty's letter that was sent to me by my lord bishop of london , which , according to my duty , i do now transmit to all you the clergy of my diocese . i do bless god that has put into his majesty's heart such a zeal for this our church , and such a sense of the ways that are most proper for preserving it , and which by the blessing of god will certainly do it . for if the pastors and guides of the church of all ranks , do adorn their profession with a good conversation , and apply themselves seriously and zealously to the duties of their function , the church will both shine and prosper in spite of all the opposition that can be made to it from its enemies of both hands . the least blemish in a church man's life , as it is searched out and observed by all men , so it not only lessens the force of all his other labours ; but it weakens very much the credit of the whole church , which is often judged by the errors and disorders of every one of its pastors . yet it is not enough for men in holy orders to be free of those crying sins which are odious in all christians , but are to be detested out of measure in church men . it is a monstrous thing to see one of that holy profession give himself to the excesses of eating and drinking , or to other sensual appetites , to be guilty of injustice or lying , of ungoverned passion or swearing , of malice or filthy avarice . these things ought not to be named but with detestation among us . we ought not only to be blameless and harmless , but to shine as lights in the world , and to shew in our lives , that to which we exhort our people in our sermons , being patterns to the believers in word , in conversation , in charity , in faith , and in purity , and giving attendance to reading , to exhortation and to doctrine , that in so doing we may both save our selves , and also them that hear us . consider often what a great account you have to make to god for the souls committed to your charge . remember and read over frequently the vows that you made to god at your ordination , and the charge that was then given you , and examine your selves frequently whether you do observe these or not . think how sacred a trust that of souls is , which the son of god has purchased with his own blood : and how severely he will reckon with you , if through your ill example , bad doctrine , or the other neglects of your duty , those souls perish , for which he died . think it not enough barely to read prayers , or perform other divine offices . you must go often among them to instruct , exhort , admonish , or reprove them , as the●e is occasion for it ; you must instruct the youth , visit the sick reprove offenders , and reconcile such differences as happen at any time to create quarrels among your people , and all this you must do with zeal and affection . and in particular , you ought to warn your people frequently of the heavy judgments of god , which the sins of the land give us just cause to apprehend ; and that the rather since god has spared us so long , whilst he has visited so many nations round about us in so terrible a manner , and has given us so great a measure of the light of his gospel , and so long a course of temporal as well as spiritual blessings ; and you ought frequently to set forth to them the heinousness of such sins as you find do most abound among them , whether they be the crying ones mentioned in the acts of parliament herewith sent you , or others you ought to represent to them the high contempt done to god , when men make their bodies , which ought to be temples for god to dwell in by his spirit , the members of a harlot , and the indignity done their own natures , when by the excesses of drinking , a man has changed himself into a beast . you ought to shew them what a horrible affront it is to almighty god to profane his holy name by rash and vain swearing , and what a dreadful thing it is to swear falsly , even in common discourse , but much more when it is before a judge . you ought to set often before your people the great wickedness of lying and slander , of falshood and injustice , and of all cheating and oppression , and that in all cases of wrong done their neighbours , there is no repentance that is acceptable to god , but that which is accompanied with restitution or reparation , as far as the party can possibly make it . you are often to represent to your people the indispensable necessity of true holiness , without which no man can see god , and without which , their believing a true faith , and their being of a true church , cannot serve them in any stead . for we are assured from the word of god , that not only idolaters , but fornicators , and adulterers , thieves , covetous persons , drunkards , revilers and extortioners cannot enter into the kingdom of god. put them often in mind of the importance of the word reformed church , that imports , that as our doctrine and worship are by the blessing of god reformed ; so our lives ought also to be reformed ; otherwise all the advantages that we have of light and truth beyond other churches , will rise up in judgment against us , if we do not live suitably to them . but above all things study to possess your people with a deep sense of the duty that they owe to god their maker , and to jesus christ their saviour , that they may apply themselves to the exercises of devotion in secret , to the frequenting the publick worship of god , and chiefly to the receiving the sacrament with that serious disposition of mind that becomes such holy performances ▪ that so they may delight in going together to the house of god. and in order to their doing this aright , infuse into them a great reverence for the lord's day , as a time separated from the common business of life , for their attending on the worship of god , and such other religious exercises as may both increase their knowledge and their sense of divine matters , and that therefore they ought not to satisfie themselves with going to church , and assisting publickly in the service of god ; but that they should set themselves more to prayer on that day , and to the reading of scriptures , or other good books , both apart and together in their families , that so they may grow up in grace , and in the knowledge of our lord and saviour jesus christ. these things you must open to your people frequently in season and out of season , both at church , and from house to house . and i charge you by all the authority that i have over you , by the zeal that you bear to the church of england , and as you desire to have from your labours and your people , a crown of rejoycing in the day of the lord , and as you bear a due regard both to your own souls , and to the souls that are committed to your care , and to that precious blood by which they were redeemed , as you desire to be faithful to your ordination-vows , and to have a share in those blessed words ; well done , good and faithful servant , enter thou into the joy of thy lord : that you will give your selves wholly to these things , that you will account no labour great in advancing that work for which our saviour spared not his own life : and that you will pursue all the parts of your ministry with a zeal suitable to the importance of them , that so we doing our parts faithfully under the protection and favour of our gracious king and queen , whom god long preserve , this church may recover its first glory , and may so shine in all those things which can adorn our holy profession , that she may become the head of the reformation , and the joy of the whole earth ; that she may still be safe under the protection of god , and may so conquer and gain upon all that depart from her , that all her children may with one heart , and with one mouth glorifie the god and father of our lord jesus christ , to whose grace and favour i do most earnestly commend you and your labours . and am very sincerely , my dear brethren , your most affectionate brother and servant in the lord iesus , gi . sarum . salisbury april 22. 1690. london , printed for ric. chiswel at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1690. romes glory, or, a collection of divers miracles wrought by popish saints, both during their lives and after their deaths collected out of their own authors for information of all true-hearted protestants ; together with a prefatory discourse declaring the impossibility and folly of such vain impostures. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1673 approx. 126 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 74 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30413 wing b5868 estc r34774 14702244 ocm 14702244 102702 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30413) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 102702) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1566:4) romes glory, or, a collection of divers miracles wrought by popish saints, both during their lives and after their deaths collected out of their own authors for information of all true-hearted protestants ; together with a prefatory discourse declaring the impossibility and folly of such vain impostures. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [8], 136 p. printed and are to be sold by moses pitt ..., london : 1673. running title: a collection of popish miracles. attributed to burnet by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -controversial literature. saints -legends -controversial literature. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion romes glory ; or , a collection of divers miracles wrought by popish saints , both during their lives , and after their deaths . collected out of their own authors , for information of all true-hearted protestants . together with a prefatory discourse , declaring the impossibility and folly of such vain impostures . london : printed , and are to be sold by moses pitt , at the sign of the white hart in little britain . 1673. the epistle to the reader . reader , the grand design of this collection of popish miracles , is to inform thee of the absurdities and wickedness of the church of rome , in compelling her members to believe such ridiculous stories , as are here related out of popish authors , set out and own'd by their church ; and some of them very lately published to the world by mr. cressy , in his church history , printed , 1668 , who has raked together out of bede , capgrave , and others , such stuff , as i am sure must needs fill thee with admiration . as for ignatius , the character given of him in his life denotes him to be little better than a lunatick person , for pag. 146. this is related of him , but that he had regard to the good of his neighbour , ( for which it was necessary for him to uphold himself and his authority ) he would have walked the streets half naked , in a contemptible manner , that so he might have been held and reputed a mad-man . and pag. 80. we have an account of the devils appearing to him , endeavouring to fright and distract him in his prayers , and was often with a little stick chased away by him . and pag. 48. we have this vision , at such time as he composed the constitutions of his society , having one day consecrated the holy host , and offered to almighty god the rules of his society , god the father appeared most graciously unto him , insinuating by some mystical signification , that it would be a thing pleasing to his divine majesty , that the mother of god should offer up her prayers unto him for him ; whereupon the blessed virgin suddenly appeared , recommending st. ignatius to the eternal father ; and demonstrating , that her own flesh was there present in the eucharist , in the flesh of her son. at one time we have account , that both father and son appeared to him ; and at another , the holy spirit : and many such extravagant passages , which are more probable to be the frenzies of a mad-man , than the visions of a saint : for god says , exod. 33. 20. there shall no man see me and live . but it is in vain to bring scripture against those , that both deny the scriptures to be the iudge of controversie , and likewise make it their business to derogate from it . in a spanish catechism , entituled , caton christiano , composed by geronimo de rosales , a jesuit , and printed at sevil , 1670. this plainly appears , for instead of citing siripture to confirm the doctrins of the roman church , he brings in forged miracles for examples : as to instance only in one : to prove the lawfulness of praying to the virgin mary , he tells this wonderful story : a great sinner put himself into a religious order , and being grosly ignorant , he was not able to learn the christian doctrin , no not so much as the ave maria throughout , but only these words , hail mary full of grace , which he repeated many times . this man died , and afterwards there grew on his grave a very handsome tree , on whose leaves were these words written , hail mary full of grace : the miracle was divulged , the bishop came and caused the tree to be digg'd up , and they found that the root of this tree came out of the man's mouth . this is their way of proving their doctrins , as may be seen throughout this catechism . that most of these miracles were invented by the romish priests and monks , to make the ignorant laity have a more venerable esteem for them , ( than which nothing has more contributed thereto , ) and to distribute their riches amongst them for pardons , masses for freeing their souls from purgatory , &c. needs no other proof , than the impossibility and impertinency of the things related , and the doctrins they maintain , viz. invocation of saints , worshipping of images , &c. which are quite contrary to the revealed will of god , and the practice of the holy apostles : and therefore if some things of this nature have been miraculously acted , it is not to be attributed to our most holy god , since it tends to the violating his commands , by setting up new doctrins contradictory thereto ; but rather to the subtilty and power of the devil , who in all ages has made it his business to seduce men to the most abominable sin of idolatry , and for that end did work many miracles in the temples of the heathen ; so that it is no new thing for him to work miracles , when it is to gain himself proselytes ; and that the church of rome has been so far deluded by him , as to break the second commandment , in giving divine worship to images , is learnedly proved by dr. moore , dr. stillingfleet , and others , in their books of the idolatry of that church . by this , they may see what danger they are in , whilst they communicate with a church , that imposes such notorious lies on her members to support her false doctrins . god give them grace to see their errours , that so they may withdraw themselves from that idolatrous church , and cast anchor in the true protestant , grounded on scripture , and the practice of the primitive christians ; which is the hearty desire of the publisher . romes glory : or , an account of miracles wrought by popish saints . miracles wrought by ignatius , as they are related in ch. 16 & 17. of the glory of the blessed father st. ignatius , printed at rouen , 1633. after the copy compiled at cracovia . 1. the famous miracles wrought by st. ignatius , in his life time . ignatius , founder of the society of iesus , is reported to have done these following miracles in his life time . it fell out at barcelona , that two brothers , about their patrimony ; had long sued one another , and he , in fine , whose fortune it was to lose the suit , falling through too vehement apprehension into despair , hung himself with a halter upon a beam in his chamber : the bruit of which came no sooner to the ears of st. ignatius , but suddenly he betook himself to the place , and cutting asunder the halter from that unfortunate rafter , gave order that the dead body should be laid upon a bed ; which done , falling a part upon his knees , he began with many tears to demand the safety of that miserable creature at the hands of almighty god ; but whilst ignatius ( being at that time but a student in the grammar school ) was thus earnest in his prayers , they who were there present standing in suspence , with their eyes fixed upon the bed , ( a thing full of miracle ) the dead man returned suddenly to life , and had the use of his voice so long , till calling for a ghostly father he had confessed his sins and received absolution , and then at last gave up the ghost , lately redeemed from out the jaws of hell , into the hands of his creator . he recovered immediately a certain man called bastida , who had been many years sick of the falling-sickness , by casting up his eyes and prayers for him to heaven . he often chased the devil out of possessed persons , by the sign of the cross. he restored a woman to health , who lay half dead of a consumption . he delivered one simon rodriguez , being also at death's door , from his disease , by a pious embrace . iohn baptista coco , who by accident one evening had so burnt his hand , that it became utterly unserviceable , and disabled for any manual function , the next day by his prayers had his hand healed and restored . returning sick into his own countrey of a quotidian ague , and preaching often in the open fields , ( because the churches were not capable of the concourse of people ) howbeit his weakness would not permit him to raise his voice aloud , yet every word of his sermon was perfectly and distinctly heard and understood by all men for the space of more than 300 paces . coming once to visit one alexander petro●io , who lay sick in a dark and close chamber and bed , in regard the windows and doors were kept shut to keep out the light , he replenished the room with the supernatural splendour of his face , and recovered the sick person . he freed one elutherio pontano , who had been grievously molested for the space of more than two years with certain foul tentations of the devil , by his only seeing and discoursing with the party . the college of loretto being fearfully haunted with spirits , appearing in sundry foul shapes of men and beasts , and the ordinary exorcisms and other ceremonies usually havitg been applied , and those fearful apparitions nevertheless not ceasing , the rector of the college addressed himself by letters to st. ignatius , commending the business to his holy sacrifices and prayers , who no sooner received news of it , but he absolutely freed the house from those haunts of ill spirits by his prayers and letter , not for the present only , but for ever after . st. ignatius his linnen , being washed with devotion by a certain devout woman , restored life and motion to her withered and dead arm. one isaac , a jew , refusing with a passionate obstinacy to become a christian , and contemning courtesies , and all other courses taken with him by others , was by st. ignatius soon satisfied , appeased , and perswaded to be baptised , by the only uttering of these three words , mane nobiscum isaac . a certain person of note , being of a more turbulent spirit than was fit longer to be endured , and st. ignatius not being able by gentle perswasions to cure his diseased mind , changing at last his stile , and beginning to call upon the justice of god , and represent unto him the vengeance of heaven , he did it with such a feeling , and expression of servour , that the walls and house appeared to him to tremble and shake with horrour ; with the sight of which , the standers by , being stricken , immediately fell upon their knees , imploring the mercy of god by their prayers and vows ; and the delinquent , prostrating himself at the feet of st. ignatius , and with a voice of confusion begging pardon for his offence , promised from thence forward an amendment of himself . father leonard kesselius , residing at colen , had a vehement desire to see st. ignatius , then at rome , above 300 leagues distant from thence ; and having besought the b. father by letters , that it might be lawful for him to travel on foot to rome ; he made answer , that his presence was necessary at colen for the good of others , enjoining him besides not to stir from thence , for that almighty god peradventure by some other course might so provide , that he might see him without the pains and toil of so tedious a journey ; the father therefore being one day at his prayers , st. ignatius appeared unto him , being yet alive and breathing , and discoursed long with him , to his infinite contentment . the b. father lying often sick , if in the mean time any difficulty hapned , for the solving of which his virtue and wisdom was required , he seemed in a manner to be perfectly recovered , and his mind guiding his body , appeared a sound man ; so that it became familiar to them of the houshold , as often as he fell sick , to desire that some business of consequence might happen , for the facilitating of which st. ignatius might rise , and be quit of his disease . 2. divers miracles wrought by st. ignatius after his decease . in the processes for the canonization of st. ignatius , commenced by the authority of the ordinaries first , and afterwards by that of the see apostolick , more than 200 miracles are related , wrought by the merits and intercession of st. ignatius after his decease ; besides which , there are divers others as authentical , not yet published , ( because those former for his canonization were more than sufficient ) confirmed nevertheless by the grave testimonies of men beyond exception , and printed at rome and other parts of italy , in spain , and in germany and other places , by the approbation of them whom it concerneth to approve them : here only i will relate some few , because my brevity promised will not permit many . when the body of st. ignatius lay exposed upon the bier , for the performance of his funeral rites , one bernadina , a roman , had a vehement desire to bring a daughter of hers , who had been long troubled with the emcroids , so grievously , that no art of physick could cure her , to kiss the hands of his dead body , assuring her self the recovery of her daughter by that touch ; but the daughter , transported often times by the press of people , not being able for the throng to approach near the body , her mother laid hold of a piece of his garment , and had no sooner applied it to her daughters body but she was quit of her disease . father nicholas bobadilla , having been long sick of an ague , was recovered by lying in the bed of st. ignatius . at manresa , a certain lady of quality feeling no living motion of her child in her womb , for the space of three hours before she was brought to bed , at last was delivered of a dead child ; the unfortunate success of which , being much lamented by the standers by , the rather because the child had not been christned ; the midwife about half an hour after the delivery of the woman , implored with confidence the help of st. ignatius , and had scarce begun her prayers , but the child , before pale and black , returned now to life . st. ignatius being besought for the life of a little dead intant of an indian woman , restored the child to life . he restored many blind men their sight , deaf men their hearing , lame men their limbs , cured men stricken with the palsie , others given over by the physicians and lying at deaths door he restored perfectly to their health . he appeared to many after his decease , either delivering them from grievous tentations , or freeing them from their diseases or other dangers , or giving them good counsel , or foretelling things to come , or comforting such as served him with divine consolations ; and in his journey to heaven , at the very instant of his decease at rome ( as afterwards appeared by computation of hours ) he appeared in glory to that noble and religious lady margareta de lilus , commending the society to her , as a principal benefactress of the college of bolonia . many devils have been cast out of possessed persons , and out of houses which they haunted , by the relicts of the holy father , or by hanging up his picture . the oyl of the lamp which burns before his body , hath wrought many strange cures . he hath eased many women who have called upon him in the extremity of their child-bearing labours , and bestowed children upon barren women . at carpentras , a certain woman being delivered of a child without motion , and of the complexion of a blackmoor , so that it was doubtful what course was to be taken in th● prodigious accident , whether th● child ought to be christned or no● or whether it were to be deferred ti●● some motion were discovered in it at last , by the perswasion of a certain canon , they implored the ai● of st. ignatius , by which the child was suddenly not recovered only but so recovered that his countenance became chearful and fair . he cured divers of the pleurisie . he protected many men from the fury of their enemies ; others being fallen head-long from some dangerous precipice , were defended from all hurt by invoking his name . at cesenza , one angelo lopez , upon the eve of st. ignatius , in expression of his affection , had filled his windows with many paper-lanthorns ▪ adding to each lanthorn the picture of the saint , and with infinite demonstrations of gratulation , repeated often these words , io loyola , b. pater io ! but in the midst of this triumph , by chance it came to pass , that by the greatness of the wind the fire had taken hold of his lanthorns , which when it was observed by some raskallity of the vulgar , they began to scoff at his devotion , upbraiding the man for his superstition , and with a bitter allusion to his motto of triumph , invert the words of it thus ; at , at , beatus uritur : at , loyola crematur ! at which the man growing insinitely out of patience , out of his sense of this irreligion used to st. ignatius ; and i for my part , quoth he , ●ave so high an esteem of the sanctity of the b. father , that i believe him to be able to protect his singed picture from the fire : neither was he deceived in his belief , for the flame having consumed the paper round about it , forbore to touch the picture , either in demonstration of the sanctity of the b. father , or in observancy of the zeal of him who desired it . at braga , a certain woman having been lately brought to bed , was so much weakned , for many days after , with a continual flux of blood , that life could hardly be kept in her from following the course of the flux ; who drinking of the water into which her child had been dipped , having been wrapped immediately before in the garments of saint ignatius , her flux suddenly stopped , and she recovered her accustomed strength . in the town of guimarent , a certain woman having lost the use of her sight and hearing , and received the holy oyl and other rites of the church , lay utterly out of her senses ; and whilst some about her , out of devotion , were endeavouring to put her in mind of her last words , a certain woman who in courtesie came to visit her , called to remembrance , that a little piece of the girdle st. ignatius used in his life time , having lately been sent to her by a son of hers of the society ; which she with great confidence , and reverence towards god , presently applied to the sick woman ; which done , she began to recover her senses by degrees , to breath , to stretch out her hands , and make signs for meat , to the admiration of the physicians , for the suddenness of the cure. all which things were afterwards confirmed by the attestation of sworn witnesses . at caglari a certain elder brother snatching up a knife at dinner time , hurt his younger brother in the eye ; and at the same time , the daughter of a certain gentlewoman , carving at the table , was sorely hurt in like manner , in one of her eyes ; both which calling upon the aid of saint ignatius , were delivered from danger , beyond expectation . another woman had been so weakned , for the space of four months , with continual pains , that she was utterly deprived of the use of her feet ; but the feast of st. ignatius drawing near , she desirous to partake of the common jollity that day expressed in our church , was not frustrated of her desire ; for her pain ceasing , and her feet being restored to their wonted strength , she came thither with joy , to have a share in the devotion . in the same place , upon the eve of st. ignatius , the artillery playing round , a little infant who could not speak , and who had never heard the name of st. ignatius , cryed out , to the admiration of all standers by , to morrow is the day of b. ignatius . but they who were present , hearing a thing so full of wonder , for experiment sake , demanded again of the child , what was to be done to morrow , who answered as before . at majorca dwelt a certain woman , who through the contraction of her sinews , was become so lame , that she could not go without crutches ; the whole town therefore being filled with the noises of trumpets , voyces , and other musical instruments , almighty god inspired her with a desire of visiting our church ; who put her self in readiness to go , notwithstanding the disswasions of her sister , who feared she might miscarry by the press of people , she nevertheless gave no ear to her disswasions , but put her self upon the way , and was suddenly cured , and recovered strength in her feet ; and throwing away her crutches , without any help betook her self to the church , where in thanks-giving she caused a mass of the b. sacrament to be said . another woman , who some years past had received her sight by the means of this b. father , lying now again desperately sick , and being given over by four physicians , not forgetful by whom she had received light before , now again reposed all her hopes and confidence in the same physician . one night therefore she called out upon one of the women , who were accustomed to watch with her , make haste , quoth she , come hither with speed and behold this glorious splendor ! o if thou hadst come sooner , thou shouldst have beheld my st. ignatius visiting me ! for i am now recovered , and perfectly well . and the event confirmed it to be true ; for the physicians themselves could not deny , but that she was cured by some secret power . at monte in gallicia , a great fire raging for many days together , and consuming a certain wood , gathered still new forces , dispersing and spreading it self far and near , there being no human means to stop or restrain it , to which the wind rising upon a sudden , drove the flames towards the barns and bordering town , so that the fire was now advanced within three or four paces of the corn and houses ; a certain person therefore , taking the picture of st. ignatius , which he had about him , and falling to his prayers , threw it into the midst of the flames , there where the fire raged most , and threatned greatest ruin , and immediately the fury and rage of it ceased , the flames which flew highest descended and vanished , and the whole fire returned upon a sudden from whence it began . and which is worth admiration , a certain woman , who had observed the throwing in of the picture , leaping into the midst of the smoaking brands , raked away the ashes with her fingers , and being unhurt , brought away the picture from the midst of the burning coals . at friburg , a little child of three years of age by chance had broken his arm , the mother of whom fearing the displeasure of her husband , being then absent , invoketh the help of st. ignatius , but she had scarce ended her prayers , when , to her infinite contentment , she found her child before her eyes , whole and without hurt . st. ignatius being invoked , wrought a present cure upon divers who had been sorely wounded , whose cure would otherwise have exacted a long time . many men by the presence of st. ignatius his picture , or by the presence , or by the application or touch of his reliques , have cured the plague when it raged most sorely and consumed multitudes . a certain nobleman at placa perceiving the sky to be overcast with thick clouds , and fearing a great spoil of his corn , lying yet open in the field , made a vow to st. ignatius for the preventing of the tempest , so that when all the adjoyning territories swell'd with floods of rain , not a drop had touched or fallen upon his fields . at naples , one vincentio pagano having prepared certain artificial fires for the celebration of the feast of st. ignatius , had dangerously through his own folly scorched his hand , upon which accident , certain women of his acquaintance began to flock about him , applying to his burnt hand a note or superscription of st. ignatius his hand-writing , the touch of which presently eased his pain , and the raging of the burnt part , which usually ceaseth not till a certain day , was out of hand appeased . at catanzaro , a certain pious woman , having a son by one gasper mariscano , her husband , out of her devotion to st. ignatius , had a desire to have him christned by the name of ignatius , howbeit her husband ( in regard the reliques of irenaeus were preserved in that city ) had rather the child should have been called irenaeus ; but in conclusion , after much debate about the business , they concluded the child should be named ignatius irenaeus ; but this contention occasioned many differences betwixt the man and wife , for the wife ever after called her child ignatius , and gave a strict command to them of her houshold to do the like ; and gasper on the other side , commanded them to call him irenaeus : the difference had continued thus betwixt them almost three months , when arguing the business one morning , they both grew somewhat hot , till the father , at last , in jest ; well , quoth he , let the strife be put to the arbitrement of the child it self ; to which the mother was contented to agree , whereupon the father , in merriment , demanded of his child , at that time but three months old , by what name he would have himself called ? when , behold ! the child miraculously received the use of his tongue , distinctly pronouncing the name of ignatius ; which voice so took his father with admiration of the miracle , that from thence forward he gave order his child should be called ignatius , dedicating him to the service of st. ignatius . in the territory of peru in the west-indies , one christopher martinez de peredes , for the space of four years together , was forced through the lameness of his feet , to make use of one crutch in the beginning , and afterwards of two ; who hearing , upon the feast of st. ignatius , the triumph of the people , and shall i , quoth he , upon this day , when all men are in jollity , remain as it were an unbidden guest ? shall i alone remain destitute ? which words he had scarce uttered , when his feet recovered forces , and he found himself so strong , that early the next morning , without any other help , he betook himself to the college . one benedicto lopez , prefect of the silver mines , pursuing a certain ethiopian fugitive , was set upon by five others at unawares , who stabbing and butchering him in sundry places dragged him from his horse in a most barbarous manner : in which his extremeties he implored the aid of st. ignatius , who presently presented himself to him in these exigents , and laying hold of his cloak , bore off , with both hands , the blows of his enemies , so that at last ( his enemies being departed , and the b. father vanished ) he found himself safe , and without hurt , saving that his hat and other garments were pierced . a certain lady at avignon , had a son much afflicted with a violent continual feaver , who besides the disease it self , with the violence of it , had one of his hands disjointed , and in a deformed manner turned the wrong side outward , so that in the opinion of the physicians he was in danger of the loss of his hand , if not of his life with it ; which lamentable case , a certain religious woman , allied to the sick youth , compassionating , vowed three masses , and as many wax candles to st. ignatius , for the health of her kinsman ; which done , the youth immediately recovered , and for a more infallible confirmation of the miracle , his hand was replaced in the right place . at barcelona , one elizabeth rebelles , a religious woman , being in some high place busie about her work , upon a sudden unfortunately tumbled headlong to the ground , and received so sore a blow , that her thigh-bone , which is the solidest bone of the body , was utterly broken : the physician and chyrurgeon were immediately called , who for more than forty days together , with what diligence was possible , applied all the remedies their arts afforded , howbeit to little purpose ; in conclusion , the sick woman was brought to those terms , that in all mens judgments she was past recovery , and as it was conceived , could not last longer than that day ; yet notwithstanding , as soon as a relique of st. ignatius was applied to her heart , she presently recovered . one hierome humphrey , a boy of ten years of age , upon one of his eye-brows near the temples , had received a mortal wound , which occasioned an inflammation in his eye , and cast him into a feaver ; for which the chyrurgeon had him in cure a month , not being able to help him , for the wound did not only not heal , but grew so wide , that it received a tent of a finger long , and voided so much filth as amazed the chyrurgeon : the mother of the child made a vow to st. ignatius , commending her child to him ; and behold ! when ( another chyrurgeon in the mean time having been called , for the better consulting about the cure ) the bands of the sore were unfolded , they found the wound perfectly healed , closed up , and sound . one ferdinando pertel , having fallen into a tertian ague , which afterward proved to be a double tertian , and at last a pestilent feaver , with a kind of raving and fearful horrour of his senses , was forsaken by the physicians , and lay in his last extremity ; being prepared with all the rites of the church , and invoking st. ignatius , whose picture he held in his hand , he began suddenly to recover , and was cured of his disease . one anne barzellona , a woman of sixty years of age , having for about the space of two years been so miserably strooken with the palsey , that she was unfit for any labour , and unable without crutches to go up and down stairs , and with her crutches also seemed rather to creep than go ; to which when the application of no remedies would serve , and she besides was taken with an apoplexy in her other side , so that she became impotent , and was confined to her bed ; finding her self thus void of all human help , by the assistance of her crutches and one margaret her sister , she betook her self to a chappel of st. ignatius , two hours travelling distant from her lodging , where making a vow in honour of st. ignatius , immediately she began to find her self better , and was able to bow her knee , which before was grown stiff ; and having ended her devotions , arose full of contentment , and returned a joyful woman nimbly to her lodging . a bone and superscription of st. ignatius being applied to the eyes of a certain widow of majorca called iane clara noguera , who was blind , restored her to sight . divers other miracles of st. ignatius are related in a late life of his , set forth by father pedro ribadeneira in spanish , printed at madrid in the year 1601 , and translated by others into latin , greek , italian , the polish and other languages , and published in the chief cities of italy , spain , france , germany , and other places , where such as are curious to peruse them , may find them . miracles wrought by saint francis xaverius and saint philip nerius , taken out chapt. 18 and 20. of the fore-mentioned book . upon the frontiers of piscaria he raised a boy , who for many hours together had layn drown'd in a well . in the town of mutan in like manner he raised another boy , who dying of a pestilential feaver , had remained dead four and twenty hours . at comire he rais'd a third body , which had layn buried under the earth a whole day together . near the promontory of comori he rais'd a girl ; not far from that place , a certain married woman . in the island of vaccare near zeilan , the son of a certain infidel . at malaca , the daughter of one who had been lately converted . at bembari , a certain boy : another at comari . at punical he raised a man who had lain dead a whole day . near manapar he rais'd one antoni miranda . at malaca , a certain mans daughter who had been three days buried and overwhelmed with earth . he restored to life in like manner the son of one mahomet sarangio , who had lain three dayes under water ; to omit others raised by him in his life time . after his death he restored almost as many to life . in the processes of his canonization mention is made of above five and twenty persons raised by him from death to life . he often restored blind men to their sight : dispossessed possessed persons : cured many lying desperate , and given over by the physicians : healed lepers : calmed tempestuous seas : preserved ships from wrecks : restored the lame to their limbs : and recovered men strooken with the palsie . he foretold infallibly many things to come , penetrated mens concealed thoughts , had a certain knowledge of secrets and things absent . he appeared in divers places far distant at one and the self same time ; he spake several languages which he had never learned , as readily , congruously and eloquently as if he had been born and bred among those nations . and it fell out often times , that at such times as he preached to multitudes of people , men of several nations , at the same time , heard him utter their own language ; and with one and the self-same answer he often satisfied the demands of several infidels . he was so ravished and transported with the desire and love of god , that he was often and miraculously raised from the ground , with a countenance inflamed , eyes sparkling and fixed upon the heavens ; and being surcharged with celestial joy , was forced to exclaim , sat est domine ! sat est . by the sign of the cross he turned salt water into fresh , in several vessels at sea. having dipped a brazen crucifix which he wore about his neck into the sea , to appease a tempest , and by accident lost it , walking next day upon the shore , he espied a sea-crab miraculously bringing him his crucifix in his claws , which having delivered it , suddenly returned back into the sea , from whence it came . he ended his life at sancion , near china , in the year 1552. famous for many miracles . his body was found entire long after his death , howbeit it was neither bowelled nor balmed , but buried in quick-lime ; and it appeared many months after its decease , lively , full of juyce and fresh colour , soft and tractable , sending forth an admirable sweet favour , and many times bleeding , for which he was honoured , and reputed a saint immediately after his death . it appeareth by the process of his canonization , that many-dead bodies were raised by him , after his death ; that many lamps burned before his body with water only put into them , as clearly as if they had only been filled with oyl ; which being oftentimes extinguished , took fire again of themselves without human help : that divers were cured by him , or by his reliques , or pictures , of leprosie , palsie , and other incurable diseases . saint philip nerius preserved his virginity untouched , and he discerned in chast persons the persume of chastity , and in others the rankness and stenoh of unchastity . he arrived to the knowledge of many things concealed from him , such as are the most intimate secrets of mens hearts . he restored one dead man to life , in his life time ; another after his own decease . he was seen raised from the ground in the time of his masses . miracles of some others , taken out of their lives . pope iohn , when he came to corinth , a gentleman lent unto him a horse whereon his wife used often to ride , and when the horse was sent back , he would never abide that the woman should come on his back ; so that it seemed , that beast which had carried the greatest man of dignity and authority in the world , disdained to be checked and ruled by a woman ; the gentleman marking it , and holding it for a very strange thing , ( as it was indeed , ) sent the horse to be given unto the pope . pag. 147. a ship wherein were three hundred persons being in a storm , and in danger to be cast away , they recommended themselves to st. iuvenal , and they saw him walk on the waves of the sea , and the tempest ceased . see his life , pag. 60. st. anthony was a corpulent man , but the devil displeased with his good life , molested him , and one night would have strangled him , and had already set his hands to his throat , so that he was in danger of death ; but recommending himself to the glorious virgin , and saying the hymn , o gloriosa domina , the devil left him , and vanished away . see his life , pag. 193. saint anthony had the gift of tongues , with a pleasant , cleer and ringing voice ; and though there was at his sermons many thousand persons of different languages , yet they all understood him . as at rome , where the people of sundry nations listening unto him , and he preaching in the italian tongue , yet they all understood him . preaching one time in france , near bruges , in the field because of the multitude of people , ( it was summer ) and whil'st he preached it began to thunder and lighten grievously , wherefore the people doubting to be throughly wet , began to haste away to shelter ; st. anthony bade them be quiet , for they should not be wet ; all the people gave credit to his words , and none stirred out of his place , then it began to rain very much throughout all the countrey , but upon the people that heard his sermon there fell not one drop . it happened in the same province in france , that a devout woman was desirous to go to the sermon of st. anthony , but her husband would not suffer her because she was sickly ; she went up unto the top of her house , looking toward the place where he preached , and though she was two miles off , yet she heard the words of the preacher as if she had been hard by . of this the husband of the good woman was witness , who calling her , and she answering , that she stayd there to hear the sermon ; he scoffed and derided at her words , and with some pain he went up to the place where his wife was , and he also heard the words as plain as if he had been hard by . one time st. anthony preaching ; he saw a traveller approach unto a noble lady which was at the sermon , and speak unto her ; the saint seeing her much troubled , and change countenance , bade her ( as he stood in the pulpit ) not to believe that false messenger , who brought her news that her son was dead , for it was a lye without doubt , and said withall , that he that told it her was the devil . the wicked fiend would by this lye have disturbed the sermon , but seeing himself discovered , he vanished away in all their sights . st. anthony being in padua , it was revealed to him that his father was in danger of death at lisbon , being accused of man-slaughter , whereof he was innocent ; wherefore he asked leave of his guardian , and having obtained it , he was carried in one night only ( by an angel ) from padua unto lisbon . being come thither he spoke with his father , and brought to pass , that the judges caused the dead body to be brought before him ; st. anthony before much people asked him if his father had killed him , the dead body spake , and said no , and that he was falsly accused thereof . the judge having seen the strange miracle set free the father of st. anthony , who remained in his company all night , and the next day he was carried back from lisbon unto padua , as he had been brought thither . one time st. anthony preaching at the funeral of a rich man , and among other things discoursed upon these words , where thy treasure is , there is thy heart ; to confirm these words , the father said , that the former words be true , it is evident in this rich man , who was covetous , for his heart was to be found in his chest , where his money lyeth ; forthwith some went and opened it , and there they found the heart of the covetous man indeed , as fresh , as if it had been taken out of the breast of a man. it happened often at the end of the sermons of st. anthony , that the people departed with such desire to be confessed , that the confessors of his order , and of the other orders also were not sufficient to satisfie them . he also heard confessions , among others he heard the confession of a paduan , who told him that he had kicked his mother ; st. anthony reproved him sharply , and told him , that the foot that had strook his mother was worthy to be cut off . the words of st. anthony were of such force in the mind of him that was confessed , that when he came home , he himself cut off the same foot : st. anthony being advertised thereof , caused him to be brought unto him , and restored him his foot again , with the sign of the cross. all these stories that follow are taken out of cressy's church-history . st . winwaloc and his disciples being not content with their habitation , prayed to god that he would direct them to a more convenient one ; he shewed them a place remote in the sea ; but wanting a ship , he renewed his prayers , and having done this he said to his brethren , be couragious and firm in a strong faith , and as you see me lead this brother by the hand , so do every one of you take his next fellows hand , and follow one another . then invoking the name of our lord , with his pastoral staff he strook the sea , upon which it opened a passage for them ; so that taking one another by the hand , and himself marching in the front , they walked securely over the dry sands , the waters on both sides standing like walls . cress. pag. 183. st. benignus discovered to st. patrick the motives of his journey to a solitary place , who exhorted him to pursue his purpose , saying , go brother , take only your staff with you , and when you shall be arrived at the place for your repose , wheresoever having fixed your staff in the ground you shall see it flourish and grow green , there know you must make your abode . st. benignus being accompanied only with a youth named pincius , began his journey through woody and marish places , but as soon as he was arrived in an island where he saw a solitary place , he presently fixt his staff in the ground , which without delay wonderfully grew green , and brought forth fresh leaves , and to this day the same tree remains flourishing with green boughs . yet one incommodity it had , that there was no water near , whereupon st. benignus gave his staff to young pincius , commanding him to go to a certain place full of reeds , and there striking the ground with his staff , he should without doubt find water so earnestly desired by them , the child obeyed , went to the place and strook the ground three times , making three holes in it with the end of his staff , which he had no sooner done , but immediately a fountain gusht forth , from whence to this day a brook is supplied , which is good for fishing , and healthfu● for many infirmities . cr. p. 194. st. piran fed ten irish kings and their armies with 3 cows , rais'd to life dead pigs , and dead men. cr. p. 195 ▪ at the church of st. almedh● one especial thing usually happening on the solemnity of this virgin , seems to me very remarkable ; for you may oftentimes see there young men and maids , sometimes in the church , sometimes in the church-yard , and sometimes whilst they are dancing in an even ground encompassing it , to fall down on a sudden to the ground ; at first they lye quiet , as if they were rapt in an extasie , but presently after they will leap up , as if possessed with a frenzy , and both with their hands and feet before the people they will represent whatsoever servile works they unlawfully performed upon feast-days of the church ; one will walk as if he were holding the plough , another as if he were driving the oxen with a goad , and both of them at the same time singing some rude tune , as if to ease their toyl ; one will act the trade of a shoomaker , another of a tanner , a third of one that were spinning . here you may see a maid busily weaving , and expressing all the postures usually in that work : after all which , being brought with offerings unto the altar , you would be astonished to see how they would return to their senses again . cr. p. 217. the manner of st. kentigern's birth . a certain king of britanny who was a pagan begot of his wife a very beautiful danghter , she having been a frequent hearer of sermons , became a christian , and though she had not been baptized , yet she was addicted to the duties of ecclesiastical discipline , as much as the fear of incensing her father would permit : she bore so great devotion to the fruitful virginity of the blessed virgin , that mov'd with womanish presumption , she begg'd that she might imitate her in her conception and birth . at length , as she thought , she obtained her desire , for she found her self with child . now it is not to be conceiv'd that this hapned without the embraces of a man , notwithstanding who that man was , or in what manner , or when this was done , she oft protested , and with oaths confirmed it , that she was utterly ignorant . her father perceiving this , and not being able by fair speeches or threatnings to wrest from her , who was the father of the child ; for she seriously protested , that she had never suffered the unlawful embraces of any man ; hereupon in a rage he determined to execute upon her the law established by his ancestors , by which it was enacted , that whatsoever young maid should be with child by fornication in her fathers house , should be thrown down headlong from the top of a high mountain , and the person corrupting her , should lose his head. in conformity therefore to this law , the young woman was placed on the highest point of a mountain in that countrey , called dunpelder , from thence to be thrown down and torn in pieces . she therefore with deep sighs , looking up to heaven , implored mercy : after this , she was cast down ; but by the fall was neither bruised , nor received the least harm , but sliding down easily and slowly , came safe to the bottom . the pagans ascribed this to the magical enchantments of christians , therefore they carried her several miles into the sea , and there left her , destitute of all humane help , in a small boat made of leather without oars , but the boat was carried to a far distant haven with great swiftness ; being arrived there , the young lady went out of the boat , and presently after was brought to bed of a son , without the assistance of a midwife . the next morning st. servanus came to the place , and seeing the mother with her infant , he took them into his care , and baptized them , and called the mother thanen , and the child kentigern . cr. p. 231. st. iustinian having reproved his servants for idleness , and mispending their time , they were inflam'd with fury against him , insomuch as rushing upon him they threw him to the ground , and most cruelly cut off his head. but in the place where his sacred head fell to the ground , a fountain of pure water presently flowed , by drinking of which in following times , many were miraculously restored to health . but miracles greater than these , immediately succeeded his death ; for the body of the martyr presently rose , and taking the head between the two arms , went down to the sea shore , and walking thence on the sea , past over to the port called by his name , and being arrived to the place where a church is now built to his memory , it fell down , and was there buried by st. david . cr. p. 234. st. david being enjoined to preach , he commanded a child which attended him , and had lately been restored to life by him , to spread a napkin under his feet , and standing upon it he began to expound the gospel and the law to the auditory . all the while this oration continued , a snow white dove descending from heaven , sate upon his shoulders ; and moreover the earth on which he stood , rais'd it self under him , till it became a hill , from whence his voice like a trumpet , was clearly heard and understood by all , both near and far off . on the top of which hill a church was afterwards built , which remains to this day . cr. p. 235. st. david , when priest , went to paulens , who in a certain island lived a holy life , with him st. david lived many years ; now it fell out that his master paulens fell blind , hereupon calling his disciples together , he desired that one after another they would look upon his eyes , and say a prayer or benediction on them . when they had done this , and that he received no ease or remedy , david said thus to him , father , i pray you do not command me to look you in the face , for ten years are passed since i studied with you , and in all that time i never had the boldness to look you in the face . paulens admiring his humility said , since it is so , it will suffice , if by touching my eyes thou pronounce a benediction on them . presently therefore , assoon as he touched them , sight was restored to them . cr. p. 238. st. iohn , a british priest , avoided the sight of men , confining himself to a little cell , where in a little orchard , cultivated by himself , he had planted a few lawrel trees , which are now so increased that they afford a very pleasing shade , his custome was , under these to sit , read , or write , as he thought fit . after his death , among the said trees there was one which through age was withered ; then he to whom the care of the place was committed digg'd up the roots of the said dry tree , and of the body of it hewed out a seat or bench , upon which he used to sit . after he had used the seat for the space of above two years , a thought of remorse coming into his heart , he said , alas , sinner that i am , why do i for my own conveniency make use of a seat framed of the tree which so holy a priest planted with his own hands ! having said this , he presently took a spade , and digging a deep hole in the ground , he put the seat into it , after he had cut off the feet which supported it , and then covered it with earth . now behold a great wonder ! the very next spring , this dry bench , thus buried , sprouted forth into green branches as the other trees did , which prospered so well , that at this day there are proceeded from it several young trees , five or six foot high , and some higher , which every year do more and more flourish . cr. p. 246. here mr. cressy brags , that the centuriators took notice of this saint , and of the orchard , but conceal'd this wonder . the miracle of st. ivo's translation . st. ivo's body remained several ages in the place of his burial , insomuch that his memory was lost in that place ; but at last , in the year 1001. a certain husbandman , as he was plowing the ground , lighted upon his tomb , which being taken up and opened , the body of a bishop in his pontifical ornaments was seen in it ; whereupon the pastor of that village being sent for , they with his advice carried the body to the church , and with great reverence placed it near the the altar ; the night following st. ivo appeared in a very reverend form , and with great brightness , to a carpenter called ezi , and told him who he was , commanding him to signifie to ednoth abbot of ramsey , that he should translate his and his companions bodies from thence to his monastery ; but the poor man , not having the boldness to relate this vision , he appeared to him the second time , repeating the same commands ; which he still neglecting to perform , at the third apparition the bishop smote him on the side with his crosier , telling him , that the pain of that stroke should remain till he had performed what he had enjoined him . the man awaking , presently after found as grievous a pain in his side as if a sword had pierced it . thus was he compelled to declare his vision to the abbot , which assoon as he had done he was freed of his pain : but the abbot would give no credit to what the man told him , but calling him clown and fool , said , must we translate and venerate the ashes of i know not what cobler ? the night following the bishop appeared to the abbot , and said , rise quickly , for i whom thou scornfully call'st cobbler , have brought thee here a pair of boots that will last a good while , these thou must put on and wear for my sake . having said thus , he seemed to draw on his legs a pair of boots , with care to make them sit smooth and handsome . presently the abbot waking felt such horrible pain in his legs , that he was not able to walk or stand , and fifteen years did he remain in this infirmity . by this miracle , the sanctity of the bishop was approved , and his body translated to ramsey , to whose honour the abbot ednoth built a church ; in which he placed his tomb in such manner , that half of it appeared within , and half without the wall , to the end , that a fountain of water that flowed thence might be ready for the use of every one who came in devotion , whether the church was shut or not ; which water , by the merits of the bishop , had the virtue to cure many diseases ; one great miracle wrought there was on a monk troubled with a dropsie , his skin was strangely swell'd , and his breath so noisome , none could approach him , and his drought was so excessive , that he thought he could drink whole barrels ; on a time , by admonition received in his sleep , he went to saint ivo's monument , where after he had taken three draughts of the water , he cast up all the superfluous humours within him , and was restored to perfect health . cr. p. 293. king sebert having built st. peters church at westminster , and endowed it with many possessions ; now on the night before the day designed for the dedication of this church , st. peter appearing to a certain fisherman in the habit of a stranger , on the other side of the river of thames , demanded to be wafted over , which was done ; being gone out of the boat , he entred into the church in the sight of the fisherman , and presently a heavenly light shone so clear , that it turned the night into day . there was with the apostle a multitude of heavenly citizens , coming out and going into the church , a divine melody sounded , and an odour of unexpressible fragrancy shed abroad . as soon as all things pertaining to the dedication of the church were performed , st. peter return'd to the poor fisherman , who was so affrighted with his divine splendor that he almost lost his senses , but saint peter kindly comforting him , brought him to himself . thus both of them entring into the boat , st. peter asked him if he had any provision ? who answered , that partly being stupified with seeing so great a light , and partly detained by his return , he had taken nothing , being withal assured of a good reward from him : hereto st. peter replied , let down thy nets , the fisherman obey'd , and immediately the net was filled with a multitude of fishes , they were all of the same kind , except one salmon of a wonderful largeness . having then drawn them to the shore , st. peter said , carry from me this great fish to mellitus the bishop , and all the rest take for thy hire ; and moreover be assured , that both thou all thy life time , and thy children after thee for many years shall be plentifully furnished with these kind of fishes ; only be careful you fish not on our lords days . i who speak now with thee am peter , and i my self have now dedicated this church , built to my fellow-citizens and to my honour , so preventing by my own authority the episcopal benediction . acquaint the bishop therefore with the things thou hast seen and heard , and the sign yet marked on the wall will confirm thy speeches . let him therefore surcease from his design of consecrating the church , and only supply what i have omitted , the celebration of the sacrament , and the instruction of the people . let him likewise give notice to all , that i my self will oftentimes visit this place , and be present at the prayers of the faithful ; and will open the gates of heaven to all that live soberly , justly and piously in this world. as soon as he said this , he presently vanisht from his sight . the next morning , as the bishop mellitus was going in procession to the church , with an intention to dedicate it , the fisherman met him with the fish , and related to him whatsoever st. peter had enjoyn'd him : at which the bishop was astonished , and having unlockt the church doors , he saw the pavement mark'd with letters and inscriptions both in greek and latin , and the wall annointed in twelve several places with holy oyl ; he saw likewise the remainders of twelve torches sticking to as many crosses , and the church every where yet moist with aspersions . all which being observ'd by the bishop and people , they gave thanks . a further testimony of this miracle is afforded by the whole progeny of this fisherman , for his children , according to the command from their father , brought the tythes of all their gains by fishing , and offered them to st. peter , and the priests attending divine service in his church . but one among them having presumed to defraud the church of this oblation , presently was deprived of the wonted benefit of his trade , till having confess'd his fault , and restored what he had reserv'd , he promised amendment for the future . and moreover , the fisherman , who was very simple , and as yet not a christian , described to the bishop very exactly the shape and lineaments of st. peter , well known to the bishop by his picture at rome . cr. p. 308. st. lawrence found the son of a man who had kindly entertained him , dead , and the parents in great sorrow , who with a loud voice cryed to him , o holy man ! restore our son to us , that we may more firmly believe in christ. hereupon the bishop having offered up his prayers , said to the child , arise , who presently rose up , and withal testified , that being dead , his soul was violently drawn by horrible spirits to the flames of hell ; but upon the prayers of st. lawrence it was by angels shining with brightness brought back to the body . cr. p. 327. a miracle wrought at king oswald's cross. bothelm , a monk of hagulstad , walking unwarily by night upon , the ice , fell suddenly and broke his arm ; one morning having heard that one of his brethren was to go that day to the place of the holy cross , he desired him to bring him a small portion of that sacred wood , for he said he was confident it would cure him by gods help . the brother performed what he desired , and gave him a little of the moss which covered the outside of the wood , which he put into his bosom ; when he went to bed , forgetting to lay it by , it remained in his bosom all night , but waking about midnight , he felt something that was cold lying against his side , and searching for it with his hand , he perceived that both his hand and arm were become perfectly whole . cr. p. 347. a certain woman who had a long time been deprived both of her sight and hearing ; to her it was suggested by revelation , that she should repair to the bishop birinus for her cure , she delay'd not therefore , but took with her a guide to conduct her . the bishop therefore seeing the womans piety , immediately made the sign of the cross upon her eyes and ears , whereupon both her-sight and hearing were restored to her . cr. p. 351. st. fursey's wonderful visions . on a certaim time he was rapt from his body , and in that extasie , which continued from evening to cock-crowing , he was favoured with the sight of troops of angels . three days after , being again in an extasie , he saw yet more glorious apparitions of angels . moreover there were discovered to him , very earnest contentions of wicked spirits , who by many accusations of a certain sinner , lately dead , endeavoured to stop his passage to heaven , but by reason the holy angels protected him , they could not effect their desire . on a certain time being elevated in spirit , he was commanded by the angels which conducted him , to look down upon the earth ; whereupon , bowing his eyes downward , he saw as it were a dark valley under him , in a very low bottom : he saw likewise in the air four fires , not much distant one from another , and asking the angels what fires those were , he was told , that those were the fires which now inflamed the world , and would in the end consume it , viz. the fire of lying , the fire of covetousness , the fire of dissention , and the fire of iniquity . now these four fires increasing by little , at last joyned together , and became an immense flame ; and when they approached near them , fursey was affraid , and said to the angel , sir , behold , the flames come close to us ; but the angel answered , fear not , for since thou didst not kindle this fire , it will not burn thee ; for though this flame seems to thee great and terrible , yet it tryes every one according to his merits , so that the concupiscence which is in any one , shall burn in this fire ; for accordingly as every one being in the body is inflamed by unlawful pleasures , so being loosed from his body shall he burn by condign torment . then he saw one of the three angels , which in both visions had been his conductors , go before the other and divide the flame , and the other two flying on each side of him , which defended him from the danger of the fire . he saw likewise many devils flying through the fire , and kindling war against the just : these malign spirits pursued him likewise with accusations , but the good angels defended him : and after this , he saw great numbers of blessed spirits , among which some were of his own nation , priests who had well discharged their office , as he had heard by report ; by these he was informed of many things , very profitable , both to himself and all who are willing to attend them . when they had finished their speeches , and were returned to heaven with the rest of the angels , there remained only with st. fursey the three angels mentioned before , who were to restore him to his body . and when he came close to the foresaid great fire , one of the angels divided it as before ; but when the man of god was come to a door which stood open among the flames , the unclean spirits snatching up one of those whom they were tormenting in the flames , and casting him against him touched him , and burnt his shoulder and one of his cheeks . he knew the man , and remembred when he was ready to dye he had received from him a garment . but the angel , laying hold of him , cast him back into the fire ; but the devil answered , do not cast him back , since you have once received him ; for as you have taken the goods belonging to a sinner , so you must be partakers of his punnishment ; but the angel replied , he took not that out of covetuousness , but for saving the mans soul. after this , the burning ceased , and the angel turning himself to st. fursey , said , the fire that thou hast kindled has now burnt thee , for if thou hadst not received money from this man who is dead in his sins , thou hadst not tasted of his torments . st. fursey being afterwards restored to his body , carried visibly in his shoulder and cheek , all his life time , the marks of the burning which he had suffered in his soul. cr. p. 354. st. eanswitha's monastery being seated on the top of high rocks , they found this incommodity in their retirement , which was a penury of sweet water : the holy virgin was sensible of this inconvenience ; and after she had by prayer sollicited our lord , she went to the fountain more than a mile remote from the monastery , and striking the water with a staff commanded it to follow her ; the deaf element heard and obeyed the sacred virgins voice , and against the inclination of nature followed her steps , till overcoming all the difficulties of the passage , it mounted up to the monastery , where it abundantly served all their uses . one particular more increased the admiration of the event ; for this rivulet in the way being to pass through a pool , flowed notwithstanding pure and free from all mixture . cr. p. 357. st. cuthbert when a child , saw st. aidan's soul carried into heaven . and likewise on a certain day , as he was journeying alone , about the third hour , he turned aside into the house of a certain matron , being desirous to repose there a while , and to get food not for himself but his horse : the woman received him kindly , and earnestly desired that she might make something ready for his refection ; but he refused , telling her , that he could not eat , because it was a day of fast , for it was indeed friday , she notwithstanding persisted in her desire , and told him , that all the rest of his journey he would find no habitation , therefore i desire you would eat , lest you should faint if you fast all day ; notwithstanding out of love to fasting , he would not be overcome by the womans importunity , but fasting as he was he continued his journey till evening ; when st. cuthbert saw he could not finish his journey that day , neither was there any lodging near , as he was riding he saw certain cottages , which in the summer time the heardsmen had built for their present use , but then the winter approaching , they were left empty ; thither he went with an intention to stay all night , and tying his horse to the wall , he gathered up a bundle of hay which the wind had blown from the house-covering , and gave it him to eat , and himself passed his time in prayer . but on a sudden he saw the horse lift up his head , and with his teeth biting somewhat that was on the house-roof , and presently after he drew down a linnen cloth wrapped up ; being desirous therefore to know what that was , he took up the linnen , and found wrapped up in it half a loaf of bread warm from the oven , and so much flesh as would suffice himself for one refection ; he blessed god , who vouchsafed to provide a supper for him and his companion ; half of the bread therefore he gave to his horse , and the other half he eat himself . cr. p. 366. a secular priest foolishly adventured to make a tryal whether saint ethelreda's body yet remained uncorrupted , fastning therefore a candle to the end of a rod , he passed it through a hole which the danes had made in the sepulcher , and looking in as curiously as he could , searched round about the tomb. and not content with this , with the end of a forked stick he endeavoured to draw to him the cloaths in which her body was enwrapped , and some part of the body he discovered ; when the h. virgin , having indignation that a vile person should presume to look upon her naked body , with great violence drew back the cloaths , insomuch as he striving against her fell backwards , and was forcibly dashed against the pavement ; by which fall he became lame all his life , and afterwards was struck with madness . cr. p. 383. a doubt entring into the minds of some touching the incorruption of st. withburga sister to st. ethelreda 55 years after her death , when the bodies of these two virgins were translated , that doubt was put to the tryal . as touching st. ethelred , considering the antient proofs of her incorruption , none durst presume to touch her body ; but they discovered the body of st. withburga as far as her breasts , and she was seen perfectly entire , more like to one asleep than dead , with a silk cushion under her head , her veil and vestments shining as if they had been new , her countenance chearful , with a rosie blush ; her teeth white , her lips a little opened , and her breasts exceeding small . one of the monks adventuring to touch her body , a lively blush coloured her cheeks , as if she still had breath in her . cr. p. 385. it hapned on a certain sunday , when st. winefrids parents were gone to church , some necessary occasions detained her at home ; at which time a certain young man named caradoc , the son of alan prince of the countrey entred the house , where he found the virgin alone sitting by the fire ; she knowing the prince , hastily rose up , and desired to know his pleasure . his answer was , you are not ignorant who i am , and how i abound in riches and honour ; all these riches and honours you shall partake if you will yield to my will. the virgin perceiving his intent , held down her head and blushed extremely : at first she seemed as if she were much troubled that he should find her unadorned , and she told him , sir , you being a prince , there is no doubt but you are able to heap upon me all wordly happiness in abundance , if i were your wife ; however be pleased to expect here a while till my fathers return , in the mean time i have some business in my chamber , and will return presently . this she said to gain a little time , for she saw the young man burning with lust ; with much ado he permitted her to go to her chamber , having hopes she would return as soon as she was dressed ; she therefore entred hastily her chamber , and as hastily went out at the other door , and ran towards the church . as soon as the young man perceived this , he drew his sword , run after her , and soon overtaking her , with a stern countenance strook off her head ; and immediately in the place where it fell to the earth , a most pure and plentiful spring gushed forth , which flows to this day , and by the holy virgins merits gives health to a world of diseased persons . it being in the steep descent of a hill where the virgins head was cut off , it lightly running down to the bottom , slid into the church , whereas the body remained in the place where it first fell . the congregation were wonderfully astonished to see the head tumbling among their feet , they all went out , and found the murtherer near the liveless body , wiping his sword on the grass : s. bueno therefore seeing his pride , and having in his hand the virgins head , looked on him and said , impious villain ! hast thou no shame of the stain wherewith thou hast defiled thy high birth ? and shewest thou no repentance of this horrible crime ? thou hast disturbed the peace , thou hast polluted the church , thou hast provoked god : since therefore it is so , i beseech him without delay to inflict on thee a just punishment for this thy detestable crime . as soon as he had ended these words the young man fell to the ground , gave up the ghost , and which was more wonderful , his body presently disappeared , and many say it was swallowed up by the earth , and with the wicked soul sunk into hell. but bueno kissing the head which he had in his hand , joyned it to the body , covering it with his mantle , celebrated mass at the altar , preached , and prayed that the virgins soul might return to her body ; this prayer being ended the virgin rose up as from sleep , and cleansing her face from the dust and sweat , filled the congregation with wonder and joy. now in the place where the head was rejoyned to the body there appeared a white circle compassing the neck , small as a white thred , which continued so all her life ; and from that white circle she had the name of winefrid ; and after her death when she appeared to any , that white mark was alwayes visible . the place where her blood was shed is at this day called st. winefrids well . the stones likewise both where the springs gusheth forth , and beneath in the current , having been sprinkled with her blood , retain the redness to these times ; which colour neither the length of many ages , nor the continual sliding of the water over them , has been able to wash away . and moreover a certain moss , which sticks to the said stones , renders a fragrant odour like incense . cr. p. 389. st. clare , an hermit , when come to years of maturity , was by his parents affianced to a beautiful virgin ; but when the time wherein the marriage was to be solemnized approached , the young man withdrew himself form his parents house , and out of britany passed over into france ; but there a noble woman dwelling near him , inflamed with lust , impudently attempted his chastity ; but st. clare resolutely resisted the shameless lady ; notwithstanding which resistance , when her sollicitations still more and more increased , he was forced to forsake his monastery ; the lascivious lady desperately inraged with his departure , sent two murderers in search of him , who at last found him in a poor cottage , there they set upon him with opprobrious speeches , and at last drawing out their swords they cut off his head : st. clare presently after arose , and with his hands taking up his head , by the assistance of angels , carried it to a fountain not far distant , into which he cast it , and then carried the same back to the oratory of his cell , and going on a little further towards a village near the river epta , he there consummated his course . cr. p. 411. two kentish princes , ethelred and ethelbert , being murdered , and buried under the seat where the king was wont to sit , the murder was most miraculously discovered ; wherefore taking up the bodies , and honourably putting them in coffins , the arch-bishop theodorus commanded to carry them to christ-church in canterbury , but in vain they attempted this , for with all the force they could use they could not remove them out of the place ; whereupon , changing his purpose , he advised to transport them to the church of st. augustin , but with as little success as before ; at last , it was agreed they should be carried to the monastery of wering , of great renown in those days , which being resolved upon , the bodies were as easily removed as if they had no weight at all ; being arrived at that place , the bodies were buried near the great altar , where many wonderful miracles are daily wrought . cr. p. 412. st. wilfrid entring into a village called tiddafrey , there met him a great multitude of women , offering their children to be confirmed by him . amongst them , one woman mingled her self , craftily carrying in her arms her dead child , pretending that he should be catechised , but inwardly perswaded that by the bishops sanctity he should be restored to life ; the bishop therefore uncovering the childs face , to the end he might perform the due rites , found that he was dead ; then the woman perceiving that her fraud did not succeed , betook her self to prayers , earnestly beseeching him for god and his holy mothers sake , if he had any faith or pity , torestore life to her child , saying this , she cast her self at his feet , and would not be removed , thus offering an importunate violence toward him : all this while the bishop continued doubtful , whether he should seem rash in attempting the miracle , or reject the tears and prayers of the disconsolate woman , but a charitable pity at last got the victory ; therefore , after he had with a low voice repeated certain devout passages out of the psalms , he laid his right hand upon the dead body , whereupon immediately the soul was restored , for by gasping , moving his eye-lids , and stirring his whole body , he gave proof that he was alive . the child was called ethelwald , who was afterward a monk at rippon . another miracle wrought by st. wilfrid on a monk , who falling from the top of the church , whilst it was a building at the cost of king egbert , broke all his bones , and tore asunder all his members , was restored to health by the prayers of the bishop and his covent . cr. p. 422. st. ositha's head being cut off by a danish pirate , at the very place a clear fountain broke forth , which cured several kind of diseases ; moreover assoon as her head was off , the body presently rose up , and taking up the head in the hands , by the conduct of angels walked firmly the straight way to the church of st. peter and paul , about a quarter of a mile distant from the place of her suffering ; and when it was come there , it knocked at the door with the bloody hands , as desiring it might be opened , and thereon left marks of blood ; having done this , it fell there down to the ground . cr. p. 424. the miracle of st. wereburga's driving away wild-geese . at chester there was near the walls of the town a farm belonging to the monastery , the corn whereof was much wasted by flocks of wild-geese , which the steward of the place endeavoured , but in vain , to chase away ; of which incommodity he made complaint to st. wereburga , whereupon she commanded him , saying , go your ways and shut them all up in a house . he wondring at so strange a command , thought the saint spoke those words in jest : but when she renew'd the same injunction constantly , and in a serious manner , he returned among the corn , where seeing great numbers of such fowl devouring the grain , he with a loud voice commanded them in his mistresses name to follow him ; hereupon immedately they all in one drove followed him , and were shut up together in a house . now it hapned that a certain servant privately stole one of the said birds , which he kill'd and hid , with intention to eat it . the next morning early the holy virgin went to the house , where after she had in a chiding manner reprehended the birds for usurping that which belonged not to them , she commanded them to flye away and not return : immediately the whole army of them took wing ; but being sensible of the injury done them , they flew not away , but hovering over the holy virgins head , with wonderful noyse made complaint of their loss . she hearing their importunate clamours , understood by inspiration the cause thereof ; and after search made , the offender confessed his theft ; whereupon she commanded the bird to be restored to her companions ; after which they all with one consent flew away , so as not any bird of that kind was afterward seen in that territory . cr. p. 427. after st. wereburga was dead her body was carried to the church of trickingham , where it was most diligently kept , the doors of the church being carefully barred , and a watch moreover set upon it . but one night a deep sleep suddenly seised on those which watched ; and at the same time great multitudes of the inhabitants of hambury coming on them , all the doors of the monastery became opened , the locks and bars without any violence offered , falling to the ground . whereupon they took away the body , not any one resisting , and with great joy carried it to hambury , where it was honourably buried . in which place sick persons recover health , sight is restored to the blind , hearing to the dumb , the leprous are cleansed , and persons oppressed with several other diseases , do there praise god for their recovery . cr. p. 427. st. milburga rests at wenlock : in antient times her memory was celebrated by the inhabitants , but after the coming in of the normans , by reason that the place of her sepulchre was unknown , she became forgotten . but of late a covent of cluny-monks having been established there , whilst they were busie in erecting the fabrick of a new church , a certain child running earnestly over the pavement , the vault of her sepulchre broke under him , by which means the body of the h. virgin was discovered , which being taken up , a most odoriferous vapour , as of a most precious balsam , perfumed the whole church : and such a world of miracles were wrought by her intercession , that wonderful multitudes flock'd thither , both rich and poor , insomuch as there was scarce room in the open fields to receive them , so strong a faith they had to find remedy there for their maladies . neither did they fail of their expectation , for none departed away without a cure , or at least a mitigation of their diseases . and particularly the kings-evil , incurable by physicians , was through the merits of the holy virgin , healed perfectly in several persons . cr. p. 429. a wonderful miracle , shewing the efficacy of the holy sacrifice of the mass. in a battel where prince elwin was slain , among others there was one of the princes souldiers named imma slain , ( at least in opinion . ) this souldier all that day and the night following lay among the other dead bodies , as if he had been slain ; but at last his spirit returning he sate up , and as well as he could , bound up the wounds he had received ; then resting himself a while , he raised himself on his feet , and began to walk away , with an intention to find out , if possible , some friends , who might take care of him . as he was going away , he was met with and taken by some of the enemies , the mercians , and brought to their captain , a principal officer of king ethelred , who examined him what he was . the poor man was afraid to acknowledge himself a souldier , therefore he answered that he was a poor countrey-man , who had a wife , and was come in this expedition with several others of the like quality , to bring provision to the army . upon this answer the officer commanded that care should be taken of his wounds , and when they began to be almost cured , he made him every night to be put in chains , to prevent his running away ; but no chains could hold him , for after they were gone which had put the chains upon him , they presently fell off . and the cause of this wonder was this ; he had a brother named tunna , a priest and abbot of a monastery in a certain town which at this day from his name is called tunnacestir . this abbot having heard that his brother was slain in the late battel , came himself to search for his body ; and having found another in all regards very like to his , he carried it to his monastery , and there buried it honourably . moreover he took care that several masses should be said for the pardon of his sins ; and by vertue of those masses it came to pass that no bands could hold him , but they presently fell loose from him . in the mean time the officer whose prisoner he was , began to ask him , how came it to pass that he could not be bound ? whether he had about him certain charms , which as some think , have a power to untie all bands ? his answer was , that he was utterly ignorant of such unlawful arts ; but , said he , i have a brother in mine own countrey , and i am assured that he thinking i am slain , says frequent masses for me ; so that if i were now in the other world , i doubt not but my soul by his intercession and prayers , would be absolved from all pains . after he had continued a good space a prisoner to the said officer , those who guarded him observed by his countenance , gesture and speeches that he was no countrey-peasant , but a person of quality . thereupon the officer calling him aside privately , enquired more diligently who he was ; withal promising him that if he would simply declare his condition , he would not use him any thing the worse . he then plainly manifested to him that he was a servant of the king of the northumbers . whereupon the officer replied , i did assure my self by the manner of thy speech , that thou wert not of a base condition : and now thou deservest to dye , in revenge of all my brethren and kinsmen who have been slain in the battel : but because i will not break my promise , i will not kill thee . as soon therefore as he had recovered health and strength the officer sold him to a certain man at london called freson . but neither could he be bound by his new master ; for after tryal of several sorts of bands and chains , they became all unloosed . when he therefore who had bought him perceived that he could not be restrained by fetters , he gave him permission to redeem himself , if he could . for commonly after nine of the clock in the morning , the usual time of masses , his bands were untyed . upon this offer the prisoner was suffered to depart , having first given his promise by oath , that he would either send the money agreed on for his ransom , or return and yield himself a prisoner again . he went therefore from london into kent , to king lothere , nephew to the famous queen ethelreda by her sister , who likewise had formerly been a servant to the said queen ; and from him the prisoner received the money appointed for his ransome , which according to promise he sent to his master . being thus free , after some time he returned to his countrey , and coming to his brother the abbot , he related to him particularly all the accidents , both good and bad , which had befaln him ; and then perceived , that his chains for the most part had been loosed precisely at the hours in which masses had been celebrated for him , and moreover that many other commodities and comforts had befaln him from heaven in his dangers , by his brothers prayers , and the oblation of the saving sacrifice . cr. p. 439. on a certain day st. cuthbert came to the village of a certain count , whose wife at that time lay sick at the point of death ; the count himself met him in the way , and conducted him into his house , and acquainted him with the desperate state of his wife , beseeching him that he would give his benediction to water for sprinkling her ; the bishop assented to the mans request ; and water being brought , he blessed it , and gave it to a priest , commanding him to sprinkle the sick lady with it ; who thereupon entred into her chamber , where she lay like one deprived of sense and life , and both sprinkled her face and bed , yea withal , opening her mouth , distilled a few drops into it ; the holy water had no sooner touched her , but o wonderful ! though she was utterly ignorant of what had been done , she presently recovered a perfect health of body and mind , and without delay rising up , she her self came to do service to the bishop , being the first of the whole family which presented to him a cup of refection . cr. pag. 469. the divine disposition being pleased to demonstrate in how great glory st. cuthbert lived after his death , gave this testimony : eleven years after his burial his brother monks , opening his sepulchre to take up his bones , found his body perfectly intire , with a lively freshness , and all his limbs as flexible as if he had been alive , so that he appeared like a person rather asleep than dead ; moreover all his vestments were not only undecayed , but appeared in their primitive freshness , and also with the addition of a wonderful lustre . cr. p. 473. a coffin of stone was prepared for entombing the body of king sebbe , but when they endeavour'd to put the body into it , they found that it was a hands breadth too long for the coffin ; whereupon paring away as much of the stone at each end as they could , they thereby lengthened it about the measure of two fingers breadths , yet after all it would not receive the body , whereupon finding so great a difficulty to inter him , they intended , either to seek out a new coffin , or to endeavour by hewing the body to shorten it so much as to make it enter into the coffin ; but by a wonderful accident , which could proceed from no less than an heavenly power , both these designs of theirs were prevented , for presently in the sight of the bishop , and sighard son to the said king and monk , who together with his brother seofrid reigned after him , a great multitude of others being likewise present , the coffin was found of a convenient length , insomuch that there was room enough to lay a cushion under his head , and yet at the feet there remained four fingers breadths beyond the body . cr. p. 486. the wonderful story of a man revived , and recounting his visions . a certain man who had been a good while dead , was restored to the life of his body , and related many notable things which he had seen . this man was an honest house-keeper , who with his family lived a religious life in a region of the northumbers , called incuningum ; who having been struck with a disease , the same growing more and more violent upon him , it brought him to extremity , so that on a certain day towards evening he died ; but the day following early he came to life , and suddenly raising himself up in his bed , all those who mournfully watched the body , were terribly affrighted and ran away , only his wife , whose love to him was excessive , though she trembled at the sight , staid still by him . the man seeing his wife , bid her be of comfort : fear not , said he , for i am truly restored to life from death which had seized me , and permission is given me to live a while longer among men ; but my conversation hereafter , must be quite otherwise than formerly it has been . having said this , he presently rose , and went to an oratory of that village , where he remained a good while in prayer : afterward having divided his whole substance into three portions , one portion he gave to his wife , a second to his children , and the third he distributed to the poor . not long after , having thus freed himself from all worldly cares , he went to the monastery of mailros , where having received tonsure he entred into a religious life . now the account which he gave of his visions , was on this manner : a certain person brightly shining in his face and vestments , conducted me , and we walked together silently , as it seemed to me , towards the place where the sun rises in high summer : thus walking together , we came to a place where there was on our left hand , a valley of a vast depth and breadth , and the length of it seemed infinite ; one side of this valley was terrible with its burning flames , and the other no less intollerable for the cold blasts , hail and snow , driving through it ; and both these places were full of mens souls , which seemed to be forcibly tossed from one side to the other , for those which were in the fire , not being able to endure its scorching , leaped into the horrible cold , and not finding ease there , they leaped back into the unquenchable flames . having observed an infinite number of deformed souls thus tormented , with an interchangeable vicissitude of tortures , without any respite of ease , i began to think that this place was surely hell , of whose intollerable torments i had oft heard preachers speak . but my conductor who went before me , answered these my thoughts , saying , do not entertain such an imagination ; for this is not hell , as thou thinkest . but when he saw me affrighted with so horrible a spectacle , he conducted me leisurely somewhat further , where i saw all places round about me become obscure , and at length filled with utter darkness . into which when we were entred , the darkness was so thick , that i could see nothing but the shape and vestment of my conductor . and as we went on further in this shady darkness , on a sudden there appeared before us frequent globes of hideous flames ascending out of a deep pit , and again falling down into it . when i was come thither , presently my guide vanished out of sight , leaving me alone in the midst of this darkness and horrid spectacle . but when the said globes of fire without any intermission mounted up , and again fell down , i perceive that they full of were humane souls , which like sparks of fire carried up by the smoak , were sometimes cast upward , and then drawn back by the vapours of fire . moreover an unexpressibly noysom stink belched out by those vapours filled all the dark spaces round about . as i was thus standing still in a terrible fright , being uncertain what to do , whither to go , and what would be the end of all this , i heard behind my back a most horrible noise , as of persons wailing in unutterable misery , and also at the same time i heard others loudly and scornfully laughing , as the rude vulgar people are wont to do when they insult over their captive enemies . when this noise came nearer to me , i perceived a troop of wicked spirits haling into the midst of that darkness the souls of men which wofully cryed out , whilst the others burst forth into laughters . and among these souls i could distinctly see one that was shaved like an ecclesiastical person , another was a lay-man , and a third was a woman . these unhappy souls thus haled along by those spitefully malicious spirits , at length were plunged into the midst of that burning pit . into which after they were descended a good way , i could no longer distinctly hear the wailing of men , and laughing of devils , but only had in mine ears remaining a confused promiscuous sound . in the mean time certain obscure , spirits ascended out of that fire-vomiting pit , which approached me on all sides , and with flaming eyes and stinking fire issuing out of their mouths and nostrils vexed me grievously . moreover , with fiery pincers which they held in their hands they threatned to catch me ; but for all that , though they frighted me , they had not the boldness to touch me . being thus on all sides encompassed with darkness and enemies , i turned mine eyes every way to see if there were any one to deliver me . at last there appeared by the way which i had passed something that shone like a star , which increasing and approaching nearer and nearer , as soon as it came to me , all those hateful spirits which had endeavoured with their fiery pincers to lay hold on me , were dispersed and fled . now he whose coming drove away these spirits was the same who at first had been my conductor ; who presently after turning his steps more southerly toward the east , led me out of that darkness into a clear and lightsom air ; in which after we had walked a while , i saw before us a mighty wall , of the length and height whereof every way i could see no end , i began then to marvel to what purpose we should go to that wall , in which i could discover neither door , window , nor any other passage . but being come to it , presently , i know not by what means , we found our selves on the top of it . and there appeared to me a most large pleasant field , so replenished with all sorts of odoriferous flowers , that the sweet fragrancy of them immediately took away all the former stench of the dark fiery furnace . and so great was the light there on all sides , that it far exceeded the brightness of mid-day . moreover there were in that field innumerable assemblies of men in pure white garments , all rejoycing and singing . now as he led me among these happy quires , i began to think , that this might be the kingdom of heaven , which i had oft heard preached of . but he again answered to my thought , no , this is not heaven , as thou supposest . and as we passed on in our progress , i saw before mine eyes a far greater and more pleasant light than we had seen before , and in that light i heard a most sweet melody of persons joyfully singing , and so wonderful a fragrancy of a most sweet odour issued from thence , that the former sweetness , which before seemed excessive to me , now i very meanly esteemed ; as likewise the former light compared with this , appeared almost obscure . now , when i was in a hopeful expectation that we should enter into this blessed place , my guide made a stop ; and presently turning his steps , he lead me back again the way that we had come . and when in our return we were come to the joyful mansions of those inhabitants cloathed in white garments , he said to me , doest thou know what these things are which thou hast seen ? i answered , no. he replied , that valley which thou sawest so terrible by the scorching flames and horrible frosts , is the place in which those souls are to be tried and afflicted , which having delayed to confess and amend their sins , at the very point of death retire for safety to repentance , and so depart out of the body : these , because even in the last moment of their lives , they confessed and were contrite for their sins , they shall all at least in the day of iudgment come to the kingdom of heaven ; and many of them before that day , are eased and delivered by the prayers , fasting , and alms of the living , and especially by the celebrating the most holy sacrifice . moreover , that flame-vomiting and stinking pit which thou sawest , is the very mouth of hell , into which whosoever once falls , he shall never come out of it for all eternity . as for this pleasant flowery field here before thine eyes , in which thou seest such multitudes of youth making merry , and cloathed with white raiment , this is the place which is the receptacle of such souls which have continued to their death in the exercise of virtue , but yet their works have not been of such perfection , as to deserve their present admission into the kingdom of heaven ; yet all these in the day of iudgment shall arrive unto the vision of our lord , and the joys of his heavenly kingdom . but as for those , who in their words , works and thoughts , have attained to perfection , such assoon as they have left the body shall enter into that blessed kingdom . to the confines of which kingdom , that place pertains where thou sawest so great a light , and heardest so sweet harmony , and wast refreshed with so admirably sweet-smelling odours . thou therefore having seen all these things , must presently return to thy body , and again as formerly live among men . if then hereafter thou wilt be diligent to examine all thine actions , and to observe uprightness and simplicity in thy conversation and speeches , thou also after death shalt receive a mansion among these joyful troops of happy spirits . for i , having departed for a time from thee , did it to this end , that i might see what would in the end become of thee . when he had spoken thus to me , i had a horrible aversion from returning to my body , being extremely delighted with the sweetness and beauty of that place which i saw , and the happy society of the persons living in it . notwithstanding i had not the boldness to make any such request to my guide . and whilst i was busie in these thoughts , i know not how , i presently perceived that i was again alive among men . cr. p. 500. saint decumanus , when his head was cut from his body , the trunk raising it self up , took the head , which it carried from the place wher it was slain to a spring not far off , which flowed with a most chrystalline water , in which with the hands it washed the blood away ; which spring , in reverend memory of the saint , is to this day called st. decumanus spring ; near to which place the body together with the head was buried . cr. p. 526. in those dayes there was in the territory of worcester a certain place wholly uncultivated , and almost unpassable by reason of thorns and bryars growing thick there . this place formerly called homme , was in succeeding times named eovesham , for the reason which i shall now declare . st. egwin had appoinetd four shepherds to feed their flocks about the said wood for the sustenance of his monks . now on a certain day it hapned that one of the said shepherds , named eoves , entring deeply into the midst of the wood , there appeared before him a certain most glorious virgin , attended by two others , her splendour darkned that of the sun it self , and her beauty incomparably exceeded all wordly features : she held in her hand a book , out of which she with the other two virgins , sung hymns of praise to god. the poor man dazeled with this splendor upon which he durst not fix his eyes , stood a while silent and trembling , and presently after in great fear retired home , and repairing to the bishop acquainted him with his vision . the holy bishop considering the matter advisedly with himself , on a certain day after he had fasted and prayed , taking three companions with him , went toward the place described by the shepherd , walking all the way bare-foot , praying and singing psalms ; and commanding his attendants to stop at a distance , he himself passed further into the wood , and being come to the place , he fell prostrate on the ground , where with many sighs and tears he remained a good space imploring a merciful regard from our lord. after which he rose up from prayer , and immediately there appeared to him the three virgins , with the same majesty and glory as before ; among whom she who stood in the midst seemed more tall and resplendent than the other , in pure whiteness infinitely excelling lillies , and in freshness roses , and from her proceeded a celestial and inestimable odour : she held in her hand a book , together with a golden cross casting forth bright heams of light . now whilst he thought within himself , that surely this was the mother of our lord , the said glorious virgin as it were approving such his inward pious cogitation , stretching forth the said cross gave him a benediction with it , and presently with that farewel disappeared . the holy man with great joy rendring thanks to god for this favour , understood thereby that it was god will that the same place should be consecrated to his service , and dedicated to the honour of the blessed virgin mother of lord. for during his former afflictions and persecutions he had made a vow , that if god would vouchsafe to give a prosperous end to his desires , he would build a church to his service . hereupon without delay he cleansed the place , began the work , and shortly brought it to perfection . cr. p. 528. st. egwin , bishop of worcester , undertook a painful pilgrimage to rome , thereby to satisfie for the offences of his people , and withall to do a rigorous penance for some faults committed in his youth : and to render his pilgrimage more painful , he in the presence of a great multitude bound about his legs certain iron chains , and cast the key which locked them together into the river of avon , publickly protesting , that he would never esteem himself secure of the pardon of his sins , till either the key were restored to him , or the chains unloosed by a power supernatural . having with great pain performed his voyage , he at last arrived at rome , where , whilst he was performing his devotions in the church of st. peter , his servants going to the rivers side to buy provision for their master , they found in a fishes belly the key which had formerly locked the chains about his legs , which being brought to him , he in the presence of a great multitude unlocked the said chains . so that he who before was looked upon as a sinner , was afterwards honoured as a saint . cr. p. 528. in the year 711 , when st. swibert went into a certain village to celebrate mass , a certain rich man who had been a pagan , but converted and called peter , conducting a cart loaden with materials for building a monastery ; in the way by the malice of the devil peter fell from the cart under the wheels , and was taken up dead , having his head and other members grievously wounded , by occasion of which , there assembled a great concourse of people , when preparation was making for his funeral , st. swibert came to the place , and commanded the body to be carried to his cell , which being done , he with many sighs and tears poured forth his prayers to restore to life the said peter , who was a servant of his monastery , then rising up , and kissing the body , immediately the dead man revived , and rose up perfectly whole , insomuch as there was not left on his body the least marks of any wounds , nor no settling of any blood . cr. p. 538. in the same hour st. swibert died his soul appeared to st. willebrord , requesting him that he would be present at his funerals in werda ; whereupon he presently took boat , and with several others made haste to werda ; where all these , as they were the day following , according to custom , singing the vigile of the dead , a young man was brought among them , who had been made blind by lightning , and with his clamours interrupting the psalmody , and calling to the saint to have his sight restored , assoon as he had touched the coffin he immediately recovered his sight . another , who was raging mad , being brought in , and kissing the cover of the same coffin was presently restored to his senses . a third also , who was possessed of the devil , by the same means was freed from the wicked spirit . cr. p. 556. st. boniface one morning celebrated mass in st. michael's church in ordorf ; after which , he commanded that dinner should be made ready ; but being told that there was no meat , is it so , answered he , how many thousand did god feed in the wilderness , forty years together ? cannot he provide for his servant , how unworthy soever , nourishment for one day ? having said this , he commanded the table should be covered , and presently a great bird flew thither , bringing in her mouth a fish , sufficient to satisfie all their hunger , this fish he bade should be dressed , which having eaten , the remainder was cast into the river . cr. p. 569. a certain devout lady named irmgardis , attended only by two maids , and her son gocellin , a child of little more than eight years of age , came to see the solemnity of the canonization of st. swibert , ( the first saint that was solemnly canoniz'd , ) and to demand the popes benediction . now it hapned that whilst the boat in which they came , was amongst others turn'd about for landing , the young child who then stood near his mother , by reason of the rushing of the boats against one another , not being able to keep his standing , fell into the river ; which his mother seeing , would have thrown her self after him , if she had not been held back by such as were present . this hapned about five of the clock at even . presently one of the maids ran in hast to acquaint the archbishop with this calamity ; who came and found the lady in the church , shreiking out , and almost mad with grief ; he with much ado conducted her to his lodging , and endeavoured to asswage her grief ; but all in vain , for the whole night she spent in weeping , groaning and praying to st. swibert , by his accustomed piety to succour his afflicted servant ; vowing withal , that if she might have her child restored , she would consecrate him for ever to gods service in his church . the day following about eight of the clock in the morning the dead body was found and taken up out of the river : which being presented to his mother , she became pale and fell into a swoon ; but being recovered , she took the body in her arms , and attended with a great troop of men and women weeping with her , she carried it into the church , and laid it before the sepulchre of st. swibert . after which the whole company betook themselves to their prayers ; and within a very short time the childs spirit returned into him , so that he opened his eyes , and standing upon his feet he looked about with wonder on so great a multitude , and spoke some tender and kind words to his mother . cr. p. 687. the pagans having cut off st. edmond's head , they cast it into a secret place in a thicket of the wood adjoyning , there it remained a whole years space ; after which the said pagans retiring out of the countrey , the first care of the christians was to honour their holy king and martyr . assembling themselves therefore together out of their lurking-places , they reverently took his body out of the unclean place where it had been cast , and then with all diligence sought for the head ; and whilst every one of them with equal affection searched each corner of the wood , there hapned a wonder not heard of in any age before . for whilst they dispersed themselves in all parts , and each one demanded of his companions , where it was that the danes had cast the head , the same head answered them aloud in their own tongue , here , here , here ; neither did it cease to cry out in the same words , till it had brought them to the place . and to add to the wonder , there they found a mighty and fierce wolf , which with its fore-feet held the head , as if appointed to watch and defend it from other beasts . when they were come , the wolf quietly resigned it to them . so with joyful hymns to god they carried and joyn'd it to the body , the wolf in the mean time following them to the place where they buried it , after which , the beast returned into the wood ; in all which time , neither did the wolf hurt any one , neither did any one shew the least intention to hurt the wolf. cr. p. 736. a certain scotchman buried in the church at rhemes , lay many years there unknown , till the ground being afterwards digged for the burial of another , his coffin was found , but could by no force of men be opened , till the pastor of the place , whose name was hildegarius , comeing , opened it a little , and was infinitely ravished with the odoriferous smell issuing out of it ; within the coffin he saw a body intire , cloathed with priestly vestments , therefore not daring further to violate the sepulchre , but laying boards over it , upon those boards he placed the other dead body . the night following his uncle , who had been dead many years , and was a priest , appeared to him , telling him , that he had much offended god in violating the sepulchre of a holy man. the like did the holy man himself make known to another , commanding him to signifie to the priest , that unless he removed from out his grave the stinking carkase , he should quickly receive from god a severe punnishment . whereupon without delay he caused a new grave to be made for the newly dead persons body . afterward the same holy man in a vision required a husbandman , and again a priest , to advise him in his name to remove his body from without into the church , withall signifying , that he was of the scottish nation , that his name was merilolan , and had been murdered in his way towards rome on the river aisne ( axona ) . and least he should forget the name , he commanded him to write it with chalk , which he seemed to give him upon the cover of a chest standing by ; which he accordingly did , and writing it false , was corrected by the holy man. the next morning he found the name written in so perfect a manner , that he could not write so well , though waking and in the light . cr. p. 813. a debate happening between the secular canons and the monks , about their revenue and possession , the canons pretentions were supported by the queen , &c. on the monks side stood king edward , saint dunstan , &c. when the debate was in the assembly , st. dunstan was silent , and holding down his head , he debated in his mind what might be the best course to proceed in this affair . a great silence was observ'd by the whole assembly , every one expecting the archbishops answer and resolution ; when on a sudden an image of our lord upon the cross , which was fastned aloft in the room , in the hearing of all that were present , spake these words distinctly ; it must not be , it must not be ; you have ordered things well , you shall do ill to change them . this strook a terrour into the whole assembly , and thereupon st. dunstan said , my brethren , what would you have more ? you have heard the present affair decided by a divine sentence ; they answered , we have heard it . and upon this the monks of winchester remained secure . cr. p. 883. st. editha , daughter to king edgar , a little before her death built a church to the honour of st. dionysius ; at the consecration whereof by st. dunstan he observed how the virgin frequently with her thumb made the sign of the cross upon her forehead ; at which being much delighted , he said , may that thumb never be corrupted . thirteen months after her death , st. dunstan in a vision of sleep saw st. dionysius holding the virgin by the hand , who commanded that her memory should be celebrated on earth ; the virgin her self likewise admonished him to take up her body ; withal telling him that he should find her upper parts , her eyes and hands all corrupted , because in her childish age she had employed them lightly and vainly ; but her thumb which she had frequently used in signing her self with the cross , and all her lower parts remained uncorrupted , in as much as she had been alwayes free from impurity and gluttony ; hereupon st. dunstan went to wilton , and taking up her sacred reliques , found all she had said to be true . but canutus the danish king , who made small account of english saints , was wont to say in jest , he could never believe that a king so licentious and cruel as k. edgar could have a saint to his daughter . and when archbishop ednot defended the sanctity of s. editha , the king being then at wilton , in a passion commanded her sepulchre to be opened ; which being done , the holy virgin was seen to sit up , with a veyl before her face , in a posture as if she intended to assault the king ; at which he terribly affrighted started back , and fell half dead to the ground . but coming to himself , he ever held the holy virgin in great veneration ; and once being endangered by a tempest at sea , he implored her assistance ; upon which the tempest immediately ceased , and he came safe to land . cr. p. 895. in the year of grace a thousand and twelve , the people of a town of saxony named colewiz ( or colbec ) being assembled in the church dedicated to the holy martyr magnus , on the vigil of our lords nativity , the priest named robert according to custom began the first solemn mass. at the same time there were fifteen men and three women in the church-yard dancing and singing profane songs , and they made such a noise that they hindred the priest , for their voices were louder than the quire which sung at mass. the priest therefore sent to them once and again to be quiet , but they contemned his command ; whereupon in great indignation he said , may it please god and st. magnus , that you may continue singing thus till a year be passed . now what followed ? this imprecation of the priest had such force , that azo a son of the same priest taking his sister , called ava , by the arm to draw her from the rest , and she not being able to leave them , he pulled her arm from her body , and yet not a drop of blood was seen . she therefore with the rest remained singing a whole year . no rain fell upon them ; neither cold nor heat , hunger nor thirst , nor weariness troubled them . their cloathes and shooes were not worn out , but they continued incessantly , like mad people , their singing . they by dancing so wore away the ground , that they sunk into the earth first to the knees , and afterward to the middle , the trench became so deep . there was by their friends a kind of pent-house raised over them , to defend them from the foul weather ; but there was no need of it . at last , when the year was ended , herebert archbishop of colen came to the place and absolved them from their bonds , and bringing them before the altar of st. magnus , he there reconciled them . the priests daughter with two others presently gave up the ghost ; the rest slept three dayes and three nights without waking . some of them dyed shortly after ; but some remained many years alive , and by a trembling of all their members published to the world their sin and punishment . cr. p. 919. iudith , wife of count tosti , desiring of agelwin bishop of durham to bestow on her some portion of the reliques of that glorious martyr st. oswin king of the deiri , received from him a large lock of his hair , altogether incorrupted . and being desirous to confirm in faith certain incredulous persons , she caused a great fire to be kindled in the midst of her hall , into which she cast the same hair , which received no prejudice at all , but on the contrary a great lustere . whereupon the countess by the bishops order laid up the said relique in a precious repository . cr. p. 988. a certain church being to be consecrated to the honour of saint iohn the evangelist , devout king edward the confessor attended the procession thither ; when upon a sudden a person in a strangers habit pressing near the king , earnestly begged an alms of him for saint iohn's sake , the king having charitably given away all the money he brought thither , took a rich ring from off his finger and gave it to the stranger , who returning him many thanks , presently disappeared . it happened afterward , that two englishmen went to adore the sepulchre of our saviour at ierusalem ; who at their return lost their way , and the night coming on them , they were in great pain what would become of them . being in this perplexity , they saw passing by them a company of beautiful young men in white shining garments , before whom went two carrying torches in their hands , which took away all the obscurity of the night . after them followed a comely old man , attended by two on each hand , who looking aside , and spying the two pilgrims , he stay'd , asking them , who and whence they were , what religion they professed , who was their king , and what was the cause of their journey thither ? they told him they were englishmen , and christians , that their kings name was edward , that they came to visit the holy places of our lords passion and resurrection , and that the same day having wandred out of their way , they knew not where to find lodging or entertainment . then the venerable old man with a chearful countenance bid them follow him , conducting them into a most beautiful city , where they were most delicately nourished and lodged . in the morning the same old man brought them on their way , and being out of the city he said to them , my brethren , doubt not but god will give you a prosperous journey homeward ; i am john the apostle and evangelist ; your king i affectionately love for his chastity , salute him in my name ; and to take from him all doubt , restore him this ring which at the dedication of a church to my name he gave me , being then disguised in the habit of a pilgrim ; tell him withal that the day of his death , approaches , and that six months hence i will visit him , and conduct him after the lamb , who is alwayes attended by pure chast souls . as soon as he had said these words , they presently found themselves in their right way ; and with great joy returned home . whither being come , they presented the ring to the king , acquainted him with the oracle , and taking him aside discovered to him what was told them of his death . as soon as they had mentioned the name of st. iohn , the king burst forth into tears , and after he had diligently enquired of them touching the things they had seen and heard in their journey , he dismissed them with thanks . cr. p. 988. thus you have some miracles of ignatius , s. anthony , &c. and a few of mr. cressy's many stories of the miracles of our english saints ; if these gain your acceptance , you will oblige me farther to prosecute this collection from more of their legends , and present you with another small book of the like nature . finis . the history of the persecution of the valleys of piedmont containing an account of what hath passed in the dissipation of the churches and the inhabitants of the valleys, which happened in the year 1686. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 132 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 27 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30351 wing b5796 estc r4741 12085499 ocm 12085499 53725 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30351) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 53725) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 57:7) the history of the persecution of the valleys of piedmont containing an account of what hath passed in the dissipation of the churches and the inhabitants of the valleys, which happened in the year 1686. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 50 p. printed for tho. newborough ..., london : 1688. attributed to gilbert burnet. cf. nuc pre-1956. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce 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good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng waldenses -italy. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the history of the persecution of the valleys of piedmont . containing an account of what hath passed in the dissipation of the churches and the inhabitants of the valleys , which happened in the year 1686. london : printed for tho. newborough , at the golden ball in s. paul's church-yard . mdc lxxx viii . the history of the persecution of the valleys of piedmont . it is not my design at present to make a large and particular relation of all that hath happened on account of this sad and lamentable dissipation , since i hope to treat of it more amply hereafter . nevertheless , i shall observe all that is necessary to make it appear that there never was a persecution more cruel nor more unjust , than that which hath been put in execution this last time against the churches and the inhabitants of the valleys of piedmont ; that their religion hath been the only cause of this persecution , and that those who have escaped from it do well deserve the compassion and charity of all good christians . the churches of the valleys of piedmont , or of the waldenses , as they are commonly called , were the most ancient of all those that derive their original from the apostles , whose doctrine they have always followed and taught . they stood in no need of a reformation , by reason that they never were partakers of those gross errors and idolatries with which the church of rome and popery have infected christendom . the purity of their manners hath corresponded so well with their doctrine , that their very enemies have not stuck to avouch , that their moderation , and the exemplariness of their lives , have contributed much to the establishment of their religion . they have not been content only not to enter into an idolatrous and superstitious communion , but they have always openly declared and protested against those abuses and against the papal tyranny ; insomuch , that neither luther nor calvin , nor any other of our reformers , have pleaded more strongly or more boldly in confutation of the heresies of the roman church : as also the aforesaid great men have given their approbation of the doctrine of the churches of the waldenses , as orthodox and apostolical . it is not at all to be wonder'd at then , that these churches have always been the object of the hatred and rage of the papists ; that popes have caused croisades to be published , and engaged a part of europe against them ; that divers famous inquisitors have at several times made use of all that cruelty and subtilty that rage and malice could invent for the extermination of the waldenses ; and that particularly the council de propaganda fide & extirpandis haereticis hath left no stone unturn'd to effect their utter destruction : but we cannot sufficiently admire that special and peculiar providence with which it hath pleased almighty god always to protect the churches and the inhabitants of the valleys of piedmont , since notwithstanding so many violent persecutions , notwithstanding the perfidious treasons with which their enemies have always repaid their fidelity , notwithstanding seven or eight and twenty wars , which their religion hath drawn upon them , and notwithstanding the massacres which have so often as a torrent overflowed the valleys with the blood of the waldenses , this great god hath preserved them by continual miracles of his providence . all historians , even they of the contrary party , are agreed , that these churches have continued in an immemorial possession of the exercise of their religion , before they fell under the dominion of the dukes or counts of savoy , which came not to pass till the year 1233 , when thomas count of savoy made himself master of the city of pignerol and of the valleys of piedmont , under pretence that the race of the princes of piedmont was extinct . it is also certain that the waldenses never submitted to the counts of savoy ( from whom his royal highness is descended ) but on condition that they should be maintained in their privileges . in fine , it is upon this foundation that the said counts being become princes of piedmont , have defended and confirmed the waldensian churches in the exercise of their religion , and in their other rights and privileges . they have granted unto them upon this account , from time to time , several authentick concessions , particularly in the years 1561 , 1602 , and 1603 ; which being enacted and enroll'd in the senate and in the chamber of the accompts of turin , in the year 1620 , on consideration of a great sum of money which the waldenses paid thereupon , as appears by the act of enrollment , these concessions thus passed in form of an irrevocable transaction and of a perpetual and inviolable law , the execution whereof was ordained by several solemn decrees of the dukes of savoy in the years 1638 , 1649 , 1654 , and 1655. the council de propaganda fide , which is obliged by its establishment , by its title , and by its oath , to procure the ruine of those whom it brands with the name of hereticks , observing with great regret the peaceable and quiet state which the waldenses enjoyed under the protection of these laws , put every thing in execution that might tend to the disturbance thereof . to this end it was that this council which was then composed partly of the principal ministers of state of the court of turin , taking advantage of the minority of charles emanuel , duke of savoy , caused to be published in the month of ianuary 1655 , an order which obliged all the inhabitants of the valleys to quit the plain within three days , and to retire into the mountains , upon pain of death , in case they did not make proof that they were turned catholicks . the waldenses obey'd this order , as unjust and cruel as it was . but this their obedience that took away all pretence from their enemies , could not secure them from that horrible massacre in the year 1655 , of which all europe hath been informed and astonished at , and of which posterity will speak as of an action the most inhumane , the most perfidious , and the most infamous that ever was committed in the world. this massacre seem'd in all appearance irrecoverably to have destroyed the waldenses ; but there were many , who having escaped the fury of these butchers , resolved to defend their lives to the last gasp . they executed this their resolution with that brave force and undaunted courage , that they had defeated in several rencounters a considerable party of their enemies , when all the protestant princes and estates interessed themselves in behalf of the waldenses . these generous protectors having been informed of this dreadful massacre , were not content only to open to them the bowels of their charity and benevolence , but they continually sollicited the duke of savoy by their intercessions . the reform'd cantons of suitzerland among the rest , sent on this account four ambassadors to the court of turin . these ambassadors joining themselves to that of france , who had already made himself mediator or arbitrator in this affair , in the name of his master , laboured together to procure a peace , and obtained for the churches and inhabitants of the valleys , a confirmation of their privileges definitively and irrevocably , by a solemn patent which the duke of savoy gave the 9th of august 1655 , enrolled in due form in the senate , and in the chamber of accompts of turin . one would think that after a patent of this nature , that carries the title and character of a perpetual and inviolable law , granted in the presence and at the mediation of the ambassadors of france and suitzerland , and of which the king of france was declared garantee , as shall be made appear hereafter ; one would think , i say , that the waldenses might have enjoyed the fruits of a peace which they had purchased with the blood of more than six thousand of their brethren ; but all this was not capable to cover them from the insults of their enemies . the council of propagation violated this patent in its most essential points , and persecuted the waldenses by divers unjust and violent means . but since they oppos'd their persecutions only with complaints , their enemies took their patience for sloth ; and believing that they could oppress them without resistance , they employed again once more fire and sword , and renewed in 1663. the mischiefs and the violences that they had caused in 1655. the waldenses knowing by experience that to stand in their own defence was the only way to save themselves , were constrained to take up arms ; and defended themselves so well , that they had re-established their affairs about the end of the year 1663. it was at this time that the reformed cantons sent again ambassadors to the court of turin , to render themselves mediators of the peace : these ambassadors being joined as the former to that of france who resided with the duke of savoy , they procured again for the waldenses a solemn , perpetual , and irrevocable patent in the month of february 1664 , confirming the precedent , and enrolled likewise in the senate , and in the chamber of accompts . but this patent was not executed with better faith than the former , though the duke had engaged with the reformed cantons in a letter bearing date the 28th of february 1664 , to cause it to be punctually observed . it would not be easie to represent the artifices which the council of the propagation made use of to render this patent useless to the waldenses : it may suffice to say , that it were impossible for them to defend themselves against so much subtilty , and so much malice , if god , who holds the hearts of kings and princes in his hands , had not changed in their favour that of charles emanuel duke of savoy . this prince on the other side , examined the conduct of the waldenses ; knew that it was without reason , that they had rendered them odious to him , and calling to mind the zeal which they had shewn for his service on several occasions , particularly in the years 1638. and 1640. when they so vigorously opposed his enemies , whilst the greatest part of his estates had revolted against him , he resolved for the future to treat them as subjects , who well deserved his love and protection . the war which he had with the genoeses in the year 1672. mightily confirmed him in the favourable opinion he had conceived of the waldenses . they served him in this war with so much zeal and courage , that this prince not satisfied witch commending their valor and fidelity in a letter which he wrote to them for this purpose , gave them continually assured marks of his protection and good will towards them ever to his death . the duchess , his widow , after his example , treated them not only with abundance of gentleness and goodness , but likewise engaged with the reformed cantons in a letter dated the 28th . of ianuary 1679. to maintain the waldenses in the exercise of their religion , and in their other privileges . i have touched but lightly on these matters , lest i should go beyond the due limits i have set my self , but i thought it not convenient to suppress them . for besides that , they serve for to shew that the rights and privileges of the waldenses were eshablished on immovable foundations , and to shew that their enemies have alwaies violated the most solemn and the most authentick engagements , and have exercised nothing but cruelty , injustice , and perfidiousness towards them ; they serve also to justifie the conduct which the waldenses have at last taken , which is properly the subject of this relation . the waldenses flattered themselves , that under the government of the duke of savoy that now reigns , they might enjoy some tranquillity . they had rendered him very considerable services in the year 1684. in the war of the banditi of mondovi . this prince hath given them authentick assurances of his satisfaction and good will , in a letter that he caused to be written to them on this occasion , and the beginning of his reign seemed to promise for the future , that in rendering unto caesar that which is caesar's , they should have the liberty to render to god that which is god's . they were disappointed of that hope , when the governour of the valleys of piedmont caused to be published , about the end of the year 1685. an order which forbad all foreiners to go and inhabit these valleys , and to remain there above three daies without his permission , and the inhabitants to lodge or entertain them , under severe penalties . the waldenses had already heard of the violencies which were used in france , to compel people to change their religion : they had also heard that the king of france had made void the edicts of nantes , and they judged well that the prohibition that was given them not to further the retreat of their brethren , might be of dangerous consequence to them . but they foresaw not the mischiefs that happened to them , whether it were by reason that men naturally love to flatter themselves , or because their enemies took all the care they possibly could to deceive them , and to drive from them all thoughts that fear might inspire them withal , to the end that they might take no precaution . they were in this condition when the order of his royal highness , dated the 31st . of ianuary 1686. was published in the valleys , which prohibits the exercise of their religion in general , upon pain of death , the confiscation of their goods , condemneth all the churches to be demolished , and all the ministers to banishment , ordaineth that the children that shall be born , shall be baptized and educated in the romish religion , under penalty that their fathers shall be sent to the galleys , and contains almost the same things with the declaration of the king of france , that annuls the edict of nantes . it is impossible to express the fears and grief with which the waldenses were seized at the sight of an order so surprizing , so unjust and so rigorous , as also so much more terrible than the preceding , that had produced such tragical effects . for the former tended only to lock them up within streighter bounds , and to take from them the right of inhabiting the plain which they had enjoyed time out of mind : but the order of the 31st . of ianuary , deprives them intirely of the exercise of their religion , and of the liberty of conscience . they saw themselves at one stroak precipitated into a dreadful abyss of misfortunes without perceiving any means of recovery , and they found themselves exposed either to see the light of the gospel extinguished in the valleys , that had shone so bright there for so many ages , or to see those cruel massacres renewed , that had sacrificed so many of their brethren : nevertheless , since they were perswaded that this order was got by surprize , and that their enemies had imposed on the equity of their prince , they had recourse to complaints and supplications , according to their usual custom , and presented four petitions to the duke of savoy , to implore the revocation of this order . but since they could obtain nothing but some adjournment to prepare themselves for its execution , they saw that their misfortune was without remedy ; they were yet more certain of it when they understood that the king of france , who for reasons of state and polity had hitherto protected them , and who was also declared garantee of the patents aforesaid , had not only obliged the duke to put forth this order , but further , that his majesty had caused his troops to advance into piedmont for the execution of it . then it was that the waldenses seeing themselves insulted over by the papists of their neighbourhood , took some precautions to defend themselves , and to preserve their lives from the danger that threatned them . in the mean time the reformed cantons having been informed of this order , and of the measures that they had taken for the execution of it , thought that they ought not to abandon a people persecuted for their religion , and that they ought to appear on this occasion as they had before appeared on others of the like nature . they were resolved then , in an assembly held at baden , in the month of february 1686 , to send again ambassadors to the duke of savoy to intercede for the waldenses . these ambassadors arrived at turin in the beginning of march , and made their propositionstending to the revocation of the order of the 31th of ianuary . they made it appear that the reformed cantons were interessed in this affair , not only as brethren of the waldenses in the communion of one and the same faith , but also by reason that the patents of 1655 and 1663. which that order destroyed , were the fruits of their mediation , and they back'd their demands with many cogent and solid considerations . the court of turin disputed not these reasons , and contented it self to cause it to be told the ambassadors , that the engagements wherein the duke of savoy had entred with the king of france , opposed the success of their negotiation . this obliged the ambassadors to represent in a memorial which they gave for that purpose , that the predecessors of his royal highness having engaged their royal word to several sovereigns , and particularly to the reformed cantons , for the execution of the patents granted to the waldenses , he could not renounce engagements so formal and so authentick , whether because these patents are not simple tolerations , but perpetual concessions , and inviolable laws , or because these patents were granted at the intercession of several sovereigns , and according to the law of nations they are everlasting monuments of the publick faith ; or lastly , because the words of sovereigns ought to be sacred and inviolable . they alledged also many reasons of polity that ought to oblige the duke of savoy to maintain the waldenses in their privileges ; and the rules of justice and clemency did not permit him to carry fire and sword , blood and slaughter into his own dominions , nor to destroy a people that implored his grace and mercy , and who had done nothing to draw upon themselves this severe order which was the cause of their despair . but neither the reasons of the ambassadors , nor their pressing sollicitations , nor the letters of intercession that many protestant princes wrote besides on behalf of the waldenses , produced any effect , but served only to confirm the ambassadors in the assurance of the engagements wherein the duke of savoy had entred with the king of france , for the extirpation of the religion in the valleys . the waldenses in the mean time were ignorant of that which passed at turin : they had not heard of the departure of the ambassadors , for they had taken and stopt two men on their passage who went to carry the news into the valleys . it is true that they had heard at length by a common report , that these ambassadors were at turin to demand a revocation of the order of the 31th of ianuary ; but they knew nothing certain of the success of their negotiation . they could not go so much as to inform themselves ; for besides that none of them durst go to turin since the adjournment that was granted them from the execution of the order was expired , the court had moreover refused a safe conduct that the ambassadors had demanded of them , that the deputies of the valleys might come and defend their rights , as hath been practised in the preceding negotiations : but however things went , in expecting the event of this , the waldenses had fortified themselves in their own country with certain entrenchments , and stood upon their guard to hinder the entry of the troops , the most part of which were already encamped at the foot of the valleys . the duke of savoy returned an answer to the proposition of the ambassadors by the marquess of st. thomas , one of his ministers of state , who hath the management of foreign affairs , and who swore to them that the duke could not revoke his order , by reason he was not the master of it . he protested to them also , on the part of his royal highness , that provided the order were executed , he would not refuse to enter into some expedients . he gave them also to understand , that upon their account he would not refuse to give the waldenses permission to depart out of his dominions , and to dispose of their goods . the ambassadors were persuaded , that the waldenses , having neither a commander nor regular troops , could not sustain a war against the king of france , and the duke of savoy , who were united for their destruction . they thought therefore , that to avoid the storm with which the people were threatned , the best way would be to procure a retreat for them , with the disposition of their goods . but because before they entred into this negotiation , it was necessary for them to consult the opinion of the valleys , the ambassadors took measures with the court of turin to make a journey thither ; and the duke of savoy also gave them a letter to this effect for the governor of the valleys . the ambassadors arrived there the 22th of march , and caused the communities to be assembled by their deputies the next day , to whom they declared what they had done . they told them , that the condition of the waldenses being such , that they were destitute of all hopes of relief , they had no more to do but to consider of a retreat , in case they could obtain it with leave to sell their goods ; and that if they would embrace this proposition , they would relate this their disposition to it as coming from them . the deputies of the commons being much surprized to understand , that they might not expect any succor in an occasion wherein they thought that all the reformed part of europe ought to be concerned , told the ambassadors that they were persuaded that they could not do better than to follow their advice , but that to take deliberation in an affair of so great importance , it was necessary to call a general assembly . the orders being given for this , the ambassadors returned to turin , they informed the marquess of st. thomas of the success of their journey , who assured them that this negotiation was very agreeable to the court. they demanded , at length , a safe conduct , that some of the inhabitants of the valleys might have liberty to come , and bring the deliberations that should be taken in this assembly : but it was refused upon these two pretences ; one was , that the duke of savoy would not permit that any waldenses should appear at the court ; the other was , that he designed to do nothing in this affair but only for the sake of the ambassadors . they were forced then to send the secretary of the embassy into the valleys to fetch these deliberations . this secretary found the communities assembled at angrogne the 28th of march , very much unresolved what course to take ; for on one side they saw the lamentable consequences of war , on the other side the dangers , and the almost unsurmountable difficulties in the execution of their retreat ; besides , although they might depart without danger , they could not behold , but with extreme regret , the hard necessity of being forced to abandon their goods and their native country to go into a foreign land to lead a miserable , disconsolate , and a vagabond of a life . at last they took a resolution to send a memorial to the ambassadors , concerning the dangers and difficulties that obstructed their departure , and to write a letter to them signed by nine ministers and eight lay-men , in which , after having entreated them to reflect on these obstacles , they should declare , that they would refer the whole to their prudence and conduct . upon this letter the ambassadors made it their business to obtain a permission for the waldenses to retire out of the estates of piedmont , and to make sale of their goods ; but the duke of savoy , to whom this proposition was referred , gave it out , that before he would return any answer thereto , he expected that the communities of the valleys should send deputies to him , with full power to make those submissions that were due to him , and to beg leave to depart out of his territories , as a peculiar favour that they should implore of their prince . the ambassadors had reason to be surprized at these preambles . they had denied them the safe conducts that they had demanded for the coming of the deputies of the valleys to turin . they had assured them several times , that if they should grant to the waldenses leave to retreat , it was only upon the account , and at the intercession of the ambassadors : nevertheless , they would by no means have it said that the ambassadors desired a permission for them to depart , on their own behalf ; but on the contrary , that it was the waldenses themselves that made this request . this alteration was not made without cause , and it was not for nothing that they took measures altogether different from their former . the council of the propagation who managed this affair , had without doubt respect to these two several regards ; one was , that they would not have the ambassadors named in the permission of departure , to the end that they should have the less right to demand the execution of those things that should be promised to the waldenses ; the other , that the waldenses themselves desiring this permission as a favour , they might be at liberty to impose on them what conditions they pleased ; and lastly , that the waldenses making those submissions that the duke required of them , must needs be in the state of supplicants , and would by consequence be forced to lay down their arms ; otherwise they could not be in the condition of petitioners . but however it were , the ambassadors being willing to take away all pretences from the enemies of the waldenses , took a safe conduct to bring the deputies whom they had demanded : they sent this safe conduct into the valleys by the secretary of the embassy , who caused the communities to be assembled to nominate their deputies . but as on the one hand , there were many who were never engaged in the design of departing ; and that on the other , the new marches of their enemies appeared suspicious , the communities were not all of one mind , nor the orders they gave to their respective deputies conformable one with another . for the tenor of some , was to beg leave to depart and sell their goods ; and others required the maintenance of the exercise of their religion and their other rights . these deputies being arrived at turin , the ambassadors thought it not convenient for them to appear at court thus divided ; but sent them back into the valleys to endeavour a union between themselves , and labour'd in the mean time to obtain a truce for them . their enemies heard with a great deal of satisfaction , that the communities were divided amongst themselves upon the point of departing ; they were so well persuaded that this division would be an infallible means to destroy them , that they caused it to be carried on and fomented ever since , in those parts , by perfidious persons whom they had gained for that purpose . it is also to be presumed , that they never had proposed the expedient of departing , but with a prospect that it might be the occasion of the disunion of the waldenses . to make advantage then of the variable dispositions of the communities , their enemies changed their minds once more . they had lately declared , that they expected , in the first place , that the waldenses should themselves desire a permission to depart , and should make their submissions thereupon . the waldenses had not made this request nor these submissions : several of the communities were not of the opinion to retire : the ambassadors did not sollicit any longer a permission to depart , but a truce , as appears by a letter that they wrote to the marquess of s. thomas , the 8th of april , 1686. in the mean time , notwithstanding all this , to accomplish absolutely the division of the waldenses , and consequently to ruine them with the greater ease , they published forthwith , and unknown to the ambassadors , an edict dated the 9th of the same month of april , granting to the waldenses an amnesty , and a permission to retire out of the estates of piedmont . for the better judging of the design of the council of the propagation , i have inserted a copy of this edict , translated from the italian . divine providence , in establishing sovereigns above the people , hath granted unto the first the distribution of rewards and punishments , to the end that the hopes of the one may invite the good , and that the fear of the other may restrain the wicked . the last of these ought to fall from our revenging hand on our subjects of the valleys of lucerne , who make profession of the protestant religion , sinee it is notorious , that they have not only opposed , with great obstinacy , our order of the 31st of ianuary last , but they have also hardened themselves in their crime , and have fallen into the excesses of an enormous and consummated rebellion : nevertheless , our natural clemency surpassing their crimes , and not suffering us to be content with that paternal forbearance , with which we have so long time in vain waited for their repentance ; it is our good pleasure again to leave it to their will , that hath hitherto followed evil counsel , the choice of a happy or a miserable condition , and to open to them this last time the gate of our grace , to the end that they may make their best advantage thereof in manner following ; which if they do not accept by a ready obedience , they cannot but impute to their rashness the chastisements which they shall deserve , and which they shall receive from our exasperated patience . wherefore , in the first place , for the confirmation of our order of the 31st of ianuary last , in regard that it shall not be contrary to this , we have by vertue of these presents , of our certain knowledge , full power and absolute authority , by the advice of our council , ordained , that all our subjects of the valleys of lucerne making profession of the protestant and reformed religion , shall lay down their arms , and retire into their houses within the time herein afterwards prescribed . we command them also to make no associations nor assemblies in any manner whatsoever , to the end that following our direction , the judges of those places may have free access , and that the fathers missionaries , and other religious orders , may return into the churches from whence they have been forced to depart , and that the catholicks , and those that have turn'd catholicks , may possess the houses that they have abandoned . and forasmuch as it is not reasonable that the religious missionaries , catholicks and made catholicks , should suffer by so many damages that they have received from the protestant religion ; we will , require , and ordain , that the necessary sums to indemnifie them , shall be levied without distinction , and generally upon the goods of the said professors of the protestant religion , so far as shall be justified and summarily made appear before the chevalier monroux , intendant of justice in the valleys ; declaring nevertheless , that in proving by the said religious that the damages they sustained were caused by private persons , they shall have their redress and satisfaction from the said private persons . and to demonstrate to our said subjects how great our clemency is towards them , we give permission to those that shall think fit to go out of our estates , to do it within the term and upon the conditions hereafter prescribed . but by reason that their ill disposition is but too manifest by their past carriage and conduct , and that several may cloak their wicked designs , under a false pretence of obedience , we do reserve , besides those that shall go out of our estates of their own accord , to order such others as we shall think fit , and as we shall find it most expedient to ascertain the repose of those who shall remain , unto whom we shall prescribe such rules as they shall observe for the future . and for an augmentation of our favours , we grant as well to those who shall retire voluntarily , as to those who shall depart by our orders , power to carry away with them what moveables and effects they please , and to sell their goods and effects that they shall leave behind ; nevertheless after the manner hereafter prescribed . the same shall be understood of foreigners and those descended from foreigners , who shall conform themselves to the last article but one of the order of the 31st of ianuary above-mentioned . the abovesaid sale of goods shall be made to catholicks and those that are converted catholicks : but because it may happen that there may not be found buyers enough within the term hereafter mentioned , and since we are not willing that the religious , who shall go out of our estates , should be deprived of the benefit of our present concession , it shall be lawful for them to agree with four or six persons to whom they shall give their commissions , and who shall remain , by our permission , in lucerne , with all freedom , during three months , to treat and negotiate with any , and to sell the goods of those that are retired , to whom it shall be permitted to prescribe in their commissions the precautions with which they would have their goods sold for their greater security , and to receive the price of them where they have a mind to have it sent them , without fraud or malversation of the appointed commissioners , over whom the chevalier and intendant monroux shall have the charge to inspect . they who have a mind to retire , shall be obliged to appear respectively on the days and places hereafter specified , to be ready to depart without fire-arms by the way that shall be marked out for them , either by savoy , or by the valley of aoste : to this effect a pasport and a free safe conduct shall be given them on our part , to the end that they may not receive any evil treatment or hindrance in our estates ; but on the contrary , that they may receive all aid and assistance ; and because , that being in great numbers , they may be exposed to some inconveniencies in the roads and in the places through which they must pass , being overloaded , they shall be formed into three brigades , after this manner . the first that shall be composed of those of the valley of lucerne , shall rendezvous at the tower , to depart immediately the day after the term hereafter appointed , viz. the 21st . of the month of april . the second brigade composed of these of the valley of angrogne , s. bartholomew , rocheplate , and prurustin , shall rendezvous at s. second , and shall depart the day following , viz. the 22d . of this month . and the third and last brigade formed of those of the valley of s. martin , and about perouse , shall rendezvous at miradol , and shall depart the third day , viz. the 23d . of this month . the term limited wherein our said subjects of the protestant religion inhabiting the valleys of lucerne , shall be obliged to lay down their arms , after the manner expressed in the first article of this present order , is eight days after that it shall be published in the place of lucerne , during which they must obey the contents of the same order , to enjoy the fruits of our clemency , the motions of which we follow as well as those of a paternal affection , with which we regard our said subjects , notwithstanding the heinousness and enormity of their crimes . and provided all that is above said , be punctually observed , we grant our grace , pardon , remission , abolition , and an ample oblivion to our said subjects , of all the excesses , defaults , crimes , and other things that they may have committed since the publication of our order of the 31st . of ianuary last , as well in general as in particular , insomuch that they may never be called to an account under any pretence whatsoever , prohibiting all judges , fiscals , and others to whom it may appertain to make any enquiry thereinto . but because if they should render themselves unworthy of such grace , in not observing every point as is above said , within the time prescribed , it would be of too pernicious a consequence to delay any longer the chastisement that they have deserved , after we have been so prodigal of our favours to them , and have waited so long time for their repentance , we will put in execution those means that god hath put into our hands to reduce the obstinate to their duty , and cause them to undergo the punishment of their unheard of rashness . we deliver it to our senate , &c. given at turin the 9th . of april 1686. enrolled the 10th . this edict was published in the valleys the 11th . of april , the same day the ambassadors wrote a letter to the same effect to some of the communities to know their resolution . in the mean time they gave a very pressing memorial to the marquess of s. thomas , to have some assurance that the troops should not enter into the valleys , and to obtain for the waldenses certain conditions more favourable than those of the edict : but the court of turin certified them that there was nothing to be expected for the waldenses , till they had laid down their arms , of which the ambassadors gave advice to the deputies of the valleys who had been at turin , by a letter dated the 13th . that they wrote to them on that subject . the 14th . the communities held a general assembly at rocheptate , wherein after having examined the terms and conditions of the edict , they were of opinion , that their enemies thought of nothing less than in reality to permit their departure , which they seemed to grant to them , and that this edict was nothing but a snare that they had laid to entangle them , and to destroy them with more ease : they resolved then not to accept of it , but to follow the example of their ancestors , and to refer the event of it to providence . insomuch that this edict which was designed altogether to divide them , wrought a quite contrary effect , and served to unite them all in the same judgment . the principal reasons that hindered them from accepting this edict , were , first , that since it ordains the entire execution of the order of the 31st . of ianuary , that condemns all the churches to be demolished , they must of necessity demolish all the churches within eight days , because the edict declareth expresly , that if all that is contained in it be not executed within the space of eight days , they are deprived of and forfeit those favours that are granted in it . it must follow then , that for the execution of the edict , either that the waldenses themselves should demolish their churches , or that their enemies should do it . the waldenses could not resolve to demolish them themselves , they would have sent then troops , that under the pretence of this demolishing , would have infallibly oppressed the waldenses . secondly , if they designed to permit them to retire without disturbance , why did they not defer the execution of the order of the 31st . of ianuary , till after their departure ? why should they oblige them to demolish their churches within the eight days that were given them , to prepare themselves to abandon for ever their native country , were it not to render their retreat impossible ? thirdly , this edict requires further , that they should lay down their arms , and that they should open their country to monks , missionaries , and catholicks . now it is plain , that if they had thrown away their arms , and opened their country before their departure , they would have been exposed to the mercy of their enemies , and to the fury of troops who would not have failed to enter into their country , to oppose the retreat of the waldenses , and to torment them till such time as they had changed their religion , as hath been practised elsewhere : but their fear was so much the more justifiable on this occasion , in regard that they gave them no assurance that their troops should not enter into the valleys . fourthly , the waldenses are also obliged to retire in three separate brigades , and to rendezvouz in those places , where the troops being encamped , they must consequently surrender themselves to the discretion of the soldiers , and deliver themselves up to be butchered . fifthly , the permission that the same edict gives to the waldenses to sell their goods , was altogether useless to them . for besides that the sale could not be made till after their departure , to catholicks , and by the management of commissioners , they were bound out of the price of the same goods , to indemnifie the monks , the missionaries , the ancient , the modern , and the future catholicks , from those damages and interests which they should pretend , which they would have enhanced above the value of their goods . sixthly , the edict also ordereth , that besides those that shall go out of the valleys of their own accord , the prince should reserve to himself a power to banish whom he shall think fit , for the securing the repose of those that remain , which supposes not only that the conditions of the edict were so disadvantageous , that there would be many waldenses , who would not accept them , nor depart out of their station ; but also that their departure ought not to be looked upon as a favour , but as a punishment that they intended to inflict on several waldenses , since they reserved to themselves a power to banish those who should have a mind to stay . seventhly , the ambassadors were not named in the edict , and the waldenses had no security for the execution of those things that are therein contained . they had good reason then very much to mistrust these proceedings , since the many sad experiences that they had made on several occasions , how ill their enemies kept their word , especially in this juncture , when they had broke the most inviolable laws , were but too just a ground for their suspicions . lastly , since the duke of savoy had declared that he was not the master of this affair , because of the engagements that he had taken with the king of france , it was not to be presumed that his majesty , on whom this matter depended , would take any other measures , in respect of the waldenses , than those he had taken with regard to his own subjects . the waldenses had also several other reasons grounded on the impossibility of their departure in so short a time , and upon other obstacles . the communities sent their resolution to the ambassadors , who used all the diligence imaginable , to procure for the waldenses conditions more certain and more advantageous than those that are contained in the edict ; but neither their reasons nor their sollicitations produced any effect . they were always told , that as long as the waldenses were in arms , they could not agree to any thing , nor so much as promise any thing positively . as also the waldenses being perswaded that they would not disarm them , but to destroy them without trouble and without resistance , would by no means yield to it , and persisted in their resolution to defend themselves , if they came to attack them . there happened a thing that served much to confirm them in this resolution . two or three days after the publication of the edict , several persons , namely , tholozan , gaurier , gauanre , chabrict , and ten or twelve other inhabitants of the valleys , went to the intendant , to declare to him , that they and their families intended to go out of the estates of piedmont , conformably to the edict , and to desire of him safe conducts , which he refused them , under pretence that they should stay till they went out with the rest . moreover , because there were several who resisted his sollicitations to change their religion , he caused them to be put in prison , where some of them languished , and at last died miserably , and others remained there above nine months , viz. till the time when all the other prisoners were discharged . there is no need of any further proof to make it appear , that their design was to destroy the waldenses , who would not change their religion . however , the communities of the valleys having received a letter from the ambassadors , made another assembly at rocheptate , the 19th . of april : they persisted in their resolution not to accept the edict , and to defend themselves . it was then ordered in that assembly , that all the ministers should preach , and administer the sacrament the sunday following , which was easter-day . the valley of s. martin entered into this deliberation with the rest , but put it not in execution . some of that valley changed their mind , without acquainting the other valleys . and the rectors of the church of villeseche wrote to the ambassadors who were yet at turin upon the point of their departing , a letter dated the 20th . of april , wherein they declared to them , that they would execute the edict , they entreated them for that reason , to procure for them a safe conduct , and some time to provide for their retreat . one of the ambassadors took the pains to go to the camp to demand a safe conduct ; but they deni'd it , under pretence that they had not desired it in time . it was always too soon or too late , and the time was never convenient to obtain safe conducts . in the mean time the duke of savoy was come into the camp some days after the publication of the edict , to the end he might strike terrour into the waldenses by his presence , and force them to accept of the conditions that he had imposed on them ; he had made a review of his troops , and of those of france , that were encamped on the plain at the foot of the alps ; his army was composed of his family , of all the cava'rie and infantry , and the militia of mondovi , of barjes , of bagnols , and of a great number of foragers . and the army of france consisted of several regiments of horse and dragoons , of seven or eight battalions of foot , that had passed the mountains , and a party of the garison of pignerol and casal , he had also prepared all things to attack the waldenses , as soon as the truce that was granted them should be expired , having appointed his own army to storm the valley of lucerne and the community of angrogne ; and the army of france to attack the valleys of s. martin and peirouse . the waldenses on the other side had taken some care to defend themselves ; they possessed but a part of the valley of lucerne . for the tower that gives the name to this valley , and many other considerable places were in the enemies hand . the community of angrogne , from which some call the valley by the same name , by reason of its large extent , was not wholly occupied by the waldenses . in the valley of peirouse they took up only certain posts in the places that depend on the estates of piedmont ; for this valley is divided by the cluson between the king of france and the duke of savoy ; but they were in possession of all the valley of s. martin , being the strongest of all by its situation . they had fortified themselves in every one of those valleys with several retrenchments of earth and dry stones . they were about 2500. men bearing arms ; they had made captains and officers of the chiefest among themselves , for they had no foreigners , and they expected the approach of the enemies with a great deal of resolution . but since on the one side they had neither regular troops , nor captains , nor experienced officers ; and that on the other side there were several waldenses who had been corrupted , or that had relented during the negotiation ; it is not to be wondered if they took not all the necessary precautions that were in their power . one of the greatest faults they committed was , their striving to maintain all their posts ; for if they had abandoned the most advanced , and had retired withing the retrenchments they had made in the mountains , it is not likely that they would have been beaten out of them . the 22d . of april being the day appointed for the attack ▪ the french army commanded by catinat governor of casal , march●● two hours before day by torch-light against the valleys of peirouse and s. martin , having for some time followed the river cluson on the kings territories . catinat sent out a detachment of infantry , commanded by vellevieille lieutenant colonel in limosin , who having passed the river over a bridge , entered into the valley of peirouse on the side of piedmont . he seized on s. germain a village that the waldenses had abandoned , and came to attack a retrenchment that they had made hard by , in which there were two hundred men. the waldenses quitted this post after some resistance , and took possession of another more advantageous . in the mean time a new detachment of horse and of yellow dragoons having again passed the river , came to relieve the foot who had began the engagement . they used their utmost efforts to gain the entrenchments of the waldenses , which they thought easily to be masters of , since they were six to one ; but they found so stout a resistance , that after having lost abundance of their soldiers , they were forced to entrench themselves at a pistol shot distance ; continual fires were made on both sides for more than ten hours together ; but at length the waldenses went out of their entrenchments with their swords in their hands , surprized the french , who little expected so bold an action , and drove them even into the plain on the other side of the cluson , where opportunely they found a bridge that kept them from being drowned . there were on this occasion more than five hundred french-men killed and wounded , and among the rest several officers of note , and the waldenses had but two men killed and some few wounded . the account that the contrary party hath given of this action , entituled , a relation of the war against the religious , called barbets , agrees in this , concerning the great loss the french then sustained ; for it affirms that the fire of the revolted put a great party of them into disorder . it confirmeth also the routing of the french ; for it saith , that the waldenses fell violently upon the soldiers , and drove them out to the other side of the cluson . in this rout villevieille threw himself into the church of s. germain with threescore and ten soldiers and some officers : they summoned him to surrender himself , and offered him good quarter ; but he refused it , and shewed great courage , although they had killed and wounded a party of his men . the waldenses had nevertheless infallibly forced him ; but the night being come , they found themselves so harrassed with the fatigue of the day , that they were constrained , having left a few behind to guard at the door of the church , to go seek for some refreshment . villevieille was disengaged at break of day by certain troops that the g●vernor of pignerol had caused to march all night . the waldenses retreated into their intrenchments , thinking that they would come and attack them , but the enemies being gathered together in greater numbers than the day before , were content to encamp out of the reach of a pistol-shot , without shooting on either side but at random for two days together . whilst things passed thus in peirouse , the body of the kings army repassed the cluson to the fort of peirouse on the side of france , then catinat made a detachment of horse commanded by melac , who having passed the river on two bridges , fetch'd a compass about to gain the high grounds that separate the valley of s. martin from dauphine . the rest of the army having likewise passed the river , went to encamp with catinat at bolards part of the night , and the next day attack'd the valley of s. martin at a village called rioclaret . but since those that had the command in that valley , did not think that they would molest them , after they had shewn their inclination to accept of the amnesty , especially since the day appointed for their departure out of that valley was not prefixed : the waldenses were not in a condition to defend themselves nor to make any resistance , but yielded to lay down their arms , and to implore the pity and compassion of the conqueror . but the french being heated and vexed with what had passed before s. germain , were not content only to burn , to ravish , and to pillage , but they massacred without distinction of age or sex , with an unparallel'd fury all those that could not escape their barbarous cruelty . catinat having ravaged all the country of rioclaret after a most horrible manner , left some troops in the valley of s. martin traversed with the body of his army the mountains that separate this valley from that of peirouse , and encamped without any opposition , in the community of pramol in the valley of peirouse ; the soldiers notwithstanding put to the edg of the sword all that fell into their hands , without respect to women nor children , to the old nor the sick . in the mean time the detachment that melac commanded , having encamped one night on the eminencies of the valley of s. martin , entered through divers passages into that valley , having certain waldenses for their guides , who were so base and treacherous as to conduct them through ways unknown to any but the inhabitants of the country . he left wheresoever he passed the marks of an unheard of rage , and joyned the main body of the army that was encamped at pramol . i shall not here give an account of the cruelties that were exercised here on these occasions and many others : it shall be sufficient to report in the sequel of this relation , some examples whereby one may judge of the rest . it is necessary to interrupt the relation of the actions of the french in the valley of peirouse , because their happened things in the valley of lucerne and angrogne that ought to be known before . the army of the duke of savoy having had their rendezvouz at the plain of s. iohn the 22d . of april , was divided the next day into several bodies , that attack'd divers entrenchments that the waldenses had made in the valleys of lucerne and angrogne . the waldenses not being able to resist the enemies cannon in the post that were too open , where the horse might also draw up , were forced after some resistance to abandon a part of these entrenchments , and to withdraw into a fort that was more advantageous above angrogne , where they found themselves to be near five hundred men. the enemy having burnt all the houses that they found in their way , came to storm the fort of the waldenses , who received them so warmly with their muskets and stones , and defended themselves so vigorously against this great body , that they kept their post all that day without the loss of above five men ; the enemy lost above three hundred , though they were covered with an intrenchment beyond pistol shot . the waldenses fearing that they should not be able to keep this fort any longer , by reason that the troops encreased , passed into another distant an hundred paces beyond it , in a more convenient place , there they expected with great resolution the army that advanced to attack them ; when the next day being the 24th of april , they were informed that the valley of s. martin was surrendered , and that the french were coming on their backs ; for from that valley there is an easie passage to those of lucerne and angrogne . this news obliged the waldenses to treat with don gabriel of savoy , uncle to and general of the armies of the duke of savoy , and with the rest of the general officers , who having understood the mind of his royal highness , promised positively on his part and on their own , that the waldenses should be absolutely pardoned , and that they should be remitted to the terms of the order of the 9th of april , provided they would yield themselves up to his clemency : but the waldenses making some difficulty to confide in this promise , don gabriel who had notice of it , sent them a note written and signed with his own hand in the name of his royal highness , to this effect , lay down your arms immediately , and submit your selves to his royal highness's clemency , in so-doing , assure your selves that he will pardon you , and that your persons and those of your wives and children shall not be touched . an assurance of this nature might give full satisfaction to the waldenses for the security of their lives and liberties . for besides that this promise was made in the name and on the part of the duke ; on the other hand , though it had been made only by don gabriel and the general officers , it ought not to be the less inviolable . the waldenses then lay down their arms , relying on his promise , and the greatest purt of them went and surrendred themselves to their enemies , believing that they should be quickly released . but all those that yielded themselves into their hands , were made prisoners , and carried to the city of lucerne , under pretence of leading them to his royal highness to make their submissions . the enemies seized also all the ●osts that the waldenses possessed in the community of angrogne ; they were not content only to plunder , to pillage and to burn the houses of these poor people , but they also caused a great number of the waldenses of what age or sex soever , to be put to the edg of the sword , they ravished abundance of women and virgins , and in fine , committed actions so barbarous and brutish , that they are enough to strike horror into the minds of all those that have any shame or sense of humanity lef● . there were nevertheless many waldenses , who after this composition dispersed themselves up and down , not being willing to deliver themselves into the hands of their enemies , till they had heard what became of the first that did : seeing then on the one hand , that the army exercised all manner of outrages whithersoever they came , and on the other , that all those that had surrendered themselves were detained , they hid themselves in the woods , and sent a petition to don gabriel by a man of s. iohn named bartholomew fraschie , to entreat the release of their brethren whom they kept in hold contrary to their word , and to cause a cessation of those acts of hostility that the army executed after so barbarous a manner . don gabriel returned no answer to this request ; but certain officers replyed to fraschie , that they carried the waldenses to lucerne , for no other cause , but to ask forgiveness of his royal highness , and that afterwards they should be released . in the mean time don gabriel caused the highest places of the valley of angrogne to be gained by part of his army , who finding no more opposition , came as far as the tower , being the most considerable fort of the waldenses , in which they had the greatest part of their cattle . the marquess de parelle who commanded this body of the army , gave the waldenses to understand , that a peace being concluded by the capitulation of angrogne , he offered to them the enjoyment of the frui●s of the said peace . he assured them to this effect , on the word and honour of a gentleman , that if they would deliver themselves into his hands , their persons and those of their wives and children should be preserved harmless ; that they might carry away with them what they had a mind to , without fear of having any thing taken from them ; that they had nothing to do but to come to lucerne to make their submissions to his royal highness ; and that upon this condition , those that were willing to turn catholicks , might return with all safety to their houses and goods ; and those that would go out of the estates of piedmont , should have liberty to depart , conformably to the order of the 9th of april . the waldenses that were in the field and in the tower yielded themselves again , upon the credit of these promises , that were no better performed than the other : for the enemies were no sooner entred within the bounds of the tower , when not only all that belonged to the waldenses , was left to the plunder of the soldiers , and of the banditi of mondovi their mortal enemies , who enriched themselves with their spoils : but those poor people , the greatest part of whom consisted of old men , of sick persons , and of women and children , were made prisoners , with some ministers who were among them , and hurried along so violently , that those who through age or infirmity could not march so fast as the soldiers would have them , had their throats cut , or were flung headlong down precipices . to return to the french , whom we left at pramol in the valley of peirouse , they committed almost the same outrages that the dukes troops had done at angrogne and at the tower in the valley of lucerne . they were encamped in a quarter of the community of pramol , called la rua , distant about half an hours march from another quarter called peumian , where a party of the communities of pramol , st. germain , prarustia and rocheplate were retreated , to the number of 1500 persons , as well men as women and children . the french might easily make a descent from their quarters to st. germain , and carry away the two hundred waldenses who had so valiantly defended themselves before , and were retreated within their retrenchments : but they being informed of the loss of the valley of st. martin , and of the enemies march , quitted this intrenchment , fearing lest they should be surprized in it , and went into peumian with their brethren . they were consulting how they might defend themselves against the french who prepared to attack them , when certain inhabitants of the valleys who had revolted to the enemy , came and assured them that the valleys of angrogne and lucerne had already submitted to their prince's discretion , who had pardoned them , and referred them to the terms of the order of the 9th of april . they told them also , that he only offer'd them to put an end to a war , the weight whereof they were not able to sustain alone , and to procure for themselves an advantageous peace . this news having in part broke the measures of the waldenses , they sent deputies and a drummer to treat with the general of the french army , who desired nothing more than a proposition of peace . he told them that his royal highness's intention was to pardon them , and promised them positively on the part of the prince and on his own behalf , the lives and liberty of the waldenses , with a permission to return with all security to their houses and goods , provided they would readily lay down their arms : and whereas the deputies represented to him that they feared lest the french , being exasperated with what had passed at st. germain , should revenge themselves on the waldenses when they were disarmed ; he made great protestations to them , and confirmed them with oaths , that although the whole army should pass by their houses , yet they should not kill so much as a chicken . this proposition being made , catinat detained with him one of the deputies , and sent back the others to give notice to the waldenses , and to oblige all them that were dispersed to meet together the next day , being the 25th of april , at peumian , to the end that every one might return to his house after they were informed of the peace , while the waldenses were gathering together their scattered families at peumian , catinat gave an account of this capitulation to don gabriel , who sent a courier to him in the evening , who passing through peumian assured the waldenses that he brought peace ; and the next day at his return , he told them that the peace was concluded . they were so well persuaded of it , that they had laid down their arms the day before , observing the conditions of the treaty , and confiding wholly in catinat's promises . in these circumstances they were expecting the news at peumian , when there arrived a person named st. peter , one of the kings captains in the garrison of the fort of peirouse , with several dragoons with him . this captain , who was very well known by the waldenses , repeated to them the assurances of peace , and caused the men to be put in one quarter , and the women and children in another . the french troops being arrived at the same time , told the men that they had orders to lead them to their own houses , and caused them to march four by four . these poor people being forced to leave their wives and their daughters exposed to the discretion of the soldiers , were conducted , not to their houses , as they were told , but to don gabriel who was encamped on the mountain de la vachiere , and caused them to be carried prisoners to lucerne . in the mean time , the women suffer'd all the abominable usage and cruelty that the rage of brutish soldiers could invent ; for these barbarians were not satisfied with rifling them of all the money they had about them , but they ravished many women and virgins after a manner that modesty forbids to relate , and murther'd several of them that offer'd to resist in defence of their honour . catinat was not present at this that was acted at peumian . he left the management of this affair to certain officers , without doubt that he might be out of the hearing of those complaints that the waldenses might justly have made to him , or that he might not be a spectator of these villanous actions . howsoever it were , it is certain that besides the women that were killed , and those that escaped by flight from the persecution of these monsters , and saved themselves in the neighbouring woods , in danger of being killed by the musquets they shot to stop them : all the rest of them were dragged to divers prisons after a most inhuman manner . it were needless here to alledge any reasons to make it appear that the enemies of the waldenses have broke in these rencounters the most sacred and most inviolable laws . this relation of what hath passed is sufficient to confirm the truth , since it is evident that the waldenses have fallen , as so many sacrifices to the false promises of their enemies . and it is in vain that they pretend to excuse themselves from this treachery , under pretence that the waldenses were rebellious subjects , who had taken up arms against their lawful prince ; for besides that it were easie to demonstrate that they cannot be accused of rebellion , since they have only made use of a natural and warrantable defence against the unjust and violent oppression of the council of the propagation , and of their other enemies ; on the other hand , the question is not whether the waldenses have a right to do what they have done ? the case is precisely concerning the execution of those promises that have been made to them notwithstanding this pretended rebellion , since this is the only foundation of those promises that they made . now it is certain that the breaking of their word in this nature can never be justified but by those that follow this pernicious maxim , that faith is not to be kept with hereticks . it is certain also , that kings and princes are so much the more obliged to condemn this maxim , in regard that they are the lively images of god almighty , who hath never failed to keep his faithful promises , and who hath always punished perjury and perfidiousness either in the person of those that have committed it , or in that of their posterity . it is also in vain that they would say , that when the waldenses surrendred themselves , they only promised them their lives , according to the relation of the contrary party ; for it hath been justified that they had positively promised them their liberty . but supposing that they had only promised them their lives , can it be said in good truth that they have kept their word ? is it not true , on the contrary , that they have caused almost all to expire under the weight of an unsupportable misery , and of the hardest captivity that ever was ? the valley of peirouse being reduced as the others , by the capitulation of peumian , a party of the french army quitted this valley , and went to joyn don gabriel at la vachiere : then it was that they gathered together the poor waldenses from all parts , and dragged them into divers prisons or castles , under pretence of leading them to his royal highness to ask his pardon ; but that which was most afflicting and most lamentable , was this , that they refused , upon their earnest prayers and tears , to put their families together . they separated a father from his child , and a husband from his wife , to take away from them all means of supporting and comforting one another . they broke the sacred bonds of nature and consanguinity , to the end that they might be the less able to withstand those temptations , and to undergo those evils that they had prepared for them ; they would have those who could not bear the sufferings and miseries of a close confinement , to be consumed with the corroding anguish and regret of being separated so far from their kindred . there was a great number of young boys and girls whom they put not in prison , but dispersed through piedmont in private houses ; yet this was not done upon point of equity , but only to make them change their religion , to cause them to be instructed in the catholick , and to ravish them from their parents . there was also a considerable number of waldenses who had not surrendred themselves , and were not taken . for those of villars , of boby , and some other places in the valley of lucerne , would not come to composition as the rest did , that they might not partake of the same fortune . several of those of angrogne had joyned with them , having seen the enemies break their word ; and several waldenses of the valley of st. martin had took sanctuary , and retreated into the woods and in the rocks , to escape the barbarous fury of the french , who gave no quarter . the enemies were resolved to become masters of these waldenses by force or by craft , as they had done to the others . for the effecting this , while a body of the army of the duke of savoy was engaged against those that remained in arms in the valley of lucerne , the french returned into that of st. martin with the marquess de parelle , who was a person well known to the waldenses , and very fit to persuade them . he knew by experience , that policy was a more certain means to gain his ends than open force . he made use of then certain waldenses who had yielded themselves , in whom the people had much confidence . he caused them to march at the head of the army , and with pistols presented to their breasts , forced them not only to serve as guides to the french , to discover the waldenses in their most hidden recesses ; but also to write several letters to the valley of st. martin , to exhort their country-men to submit themselves to the clemency of their prince , whose pardon was offer'd to all those who would accept it : and because the measures that they had taken with respect to those that had surrendred themselves , might take away the credit of this sollicitation , they added , in many of these letters , that the prisoners should be suddenly released ; whereupon , on the sight of these letters , the writing and character whereof they knew , and on the assurance that the marquess de parelle , and the other general officers , gave the waldenses concerning the peace and favour of the prince , a great number of these poor people delivered themselves into their hands within a few days : many others were taken or butcher'd by the soldiers ; but those that yielded themselves , and those that were taken , had the same fate ; and were equally carried prisoners into divers prisons or castles . whilst subtilty or cruelty depopulated the valley of st. martin of its inhabitants , let us fee what happens in the valley of lucerne . the waldenses possessed among others two posts , one called iaimis , and the other chamroma , beyond the tower , wherein a party of those that had escaped at angrogne had cast themselves . these two posts covered villars , where there were about a thousand persons , as well old men as women and children . a detachment of the army of the duke of savoy enforced by the banditi of mondovi , came to attack these two posts , wherein the waldenses defended themselves a whole day with extraordinary courage : they killed a great number of soldiers and considerable officers , among whom was the commander of the banditi . they had but six men killed and as many wounded . the enemies were extreamly wearied , and having no more ammunition left , began to think of a retreat ; but since they might have been easily pursued , and defeated in retreating , they made use of this stratagem : several officers having laid their arms and their hats on the ground , approached in the evening to the intrenchment of chamrama , with a handkerchief tied to the top of a stick , and demanded a parley , to make propositions of peace : they shewed a paper , and told the waldenses that they had just now received letters , the purport of which was , that the peace was concluded in all the valleys ; that his royal highness had given a general pardon to all his subjects , and that those that were still in arms were comprehended as well as the others : they added , that they had orders not to fight any more , but to retreat ; and exhorted the waldenses to do the same , and to accept of this favour that his royal highness had offer'd them , whereof the podesta prat , who was there present , might assure them . this podesta being well known to the waldenses , having joyned his protestations with those of the officers , and all together having positively promised them their lives and liberty provided that they would retire : the waldenses of chamrama confiding in their promises , left off firing , and gave their enemies opportunity of retreating , and retreated also themselves , being all persuaded that the peace was made . there were several of the community of angrogne who met at the tower to enjoy the fruits of this peace , but they were presently committed to prison . the credulity of the waldenses made them lose a fair opportunity of revenging themselves on their enemies ; for they might without trouble or danger have vanquished those troops that had no ammunition of war left , and the greatest part of whom were in disorder . the enemy that feigned to retreat , only to cause the waldenses to retire , and to oblige them to abandon the post of chamrama that was so advantageous , being reinforced with some succors , immediately seized on the said post. those that were at iaimet , and had made no composition , were thereupon forced to quit their post , because it was commanded by the other , and to wheel off to the hills of villars . the enemy marched on after them , and encamped at bonnet on the avenues of villars and boby ; they remained there two days without storming the waldenses , who were got together , and might make four or five hundred men . the officers of the army spent this time in making propositions of peace to them , accompanied with fair promises if they yielded , and terrible threatnings if they refused , the waldenses replied to these propositions , that they were desirous of nothing more than peace , but that that which they offer'd them was more lamentable than war , since they could not purchase it but at the price of their liberty ; that notwithstanding the peace that they had promised to those of chamrama , in pursuance of which they had quitted their post , they had not left imprisoning those that surrendred themselves ; and that the example of their brethren had sufficiently instructed them what they were to expect from such propositions : however this hindred not a great number of waldenses from going to deliver themselves into their hands , on the account that they had sworn to them , those who would submit should return quickly to their houses , without being carried to his royal highness to beg his pardon , but these also were clap'd in prison , and treated after the same manner as the others . there is great reason to admire the easiness with which the waldenses suffer'd themselves so often to be deceived . but it is to be observed , that there were many who could not believe that it was possible for them to resist after the reddition of the body of the valleys , others feared lest resistance would be of mischievous consequence to their wives and children that were in prison , and the greatest part could not be persuaded that their enemies would be so cruel as to cause those to perish in prison who had surrendred themselves . they imagined that they should be discharged for a few weeks captivity , and that afterwards they should obtain their liberty . however , the waldenses being very much weakned , left villars , which the enemies seised . they gave them respit till the 4th of may , when the troops being re-inforced , went to attack boby , where the waldenses were retired ; but they were vigorously repulsed by 150 waldenses who were on the mountain of subjusque , and without the loss of a man , killed some officers and a great number of soldiers . eight days after , the army of france joined that of the duke of savoy . the enemies then made their last effort to gain boby ; but the waldenses defended themselves so resolutely , that after a fight that lasted all the day , they forced the army to retire , and to go and encamp at sarsena , with the loss of abundance of their men . the next day the marquess de parelle , who came from the valley of st. martin , with a great detachment passed the mountain of iulian , which is one of the alpes , that was thought , till then , inaccessible , and prepared to take the waldenses from above . this obliged the waldenses to abandon bobi , and to convey themselves into the woods and rocks . the marquess de parelle , and the count de birchanteau , having occupied the posts that the waldenses had quitted , sent after them in their retreat divers persons to exhort them to submit , and to offer them favour : several of these poor people being worn out with the fatigue , and fore pressed with hunger and misery , yielded to this offer , but they lost their liberty into the bargain . others surrendred themselves to the governor of mireboue , on an assurance that he had given them of their lives and liberty ; but he rewarded their faith with a rigorous imprisonment . there were several who had withdrawn themselves into the mountain of vandalin , and fought for some time with much courage and good fortune : but at last they did as the others , and let themselves be seduced by the count de la roche , governor of the valleys . he promised them positively , by a letter wrote with his own hand , that they should return to their houses with all freedom ; but they had no sooner quitted their post , than that he caused them to be carried to prison , and took from them the letter that he had given them . the enemies of the waldenses having thus by the means aforementioned taken away the lives of a multitude of people , deprived more than twelve thousand waldenses of their liberty , and taken away and dispersed two thousand children , thought that they had no more to do . they proceeded to carry on their injustice to the utmost , and caused all the goods of the waldenses to be confiscated . after this manner it was , that the valleys of piedmont have been depopulated of their ancient inhabitants ; that the light of the gospel hath been extinguished in a country where it hath shone so bright for so many ages ; that perfidiousness and treachery hath triumphed over the good faith of the waldenses ; that the council of the propagation and the rest of their enemies , have executed the design they had formed for their extirpation ; and that the waldenses have unjustly suffer'd , and for the sole cause of their religion , this horrible persecution and lamentable dissipation , that ought to draw tears from the eyes of all good christians . but for the more perfect knowledge of what spirit their persecutors have been animated with , it will be requisite to take a prospect of the outrages and cruelties they have committed on these occasions . although it is my design to give an account only of those dismal effects of their rage that were produced after the capitulations , yet i cannot but mention the barbarous enormities where with the french signalized their entry into the valley of st. martin ; not only because they exceed those bounds that christians ought to set to their victories , but also because they were committed on persons not capable of defending themselves : it were easie to expose to publick view the massacre of so many old men , women , and little children that were sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers , the desolation of those poor women and maidens , who after they had been ravished , were constrained to march stark naked at the head of the army , to serve for guides to the french , and the monstrous and diabolical actions of those enraged soldiers that satiated their infamous lusts on the very bodies of those whom they had deprived of life . but i shall pass by all those things , to produce some examples of cruelties and oppressions executed after the subduing of the valleys . the soldiers committed several massacres at angrogne , which i shall not specifie , that i may not be engaged in too tedious a recital . they ravished many women and maidens , whose names ( for modesty sake ) i shall spare by reason that several of them are yet living . they would also have deflowered margaret maraude who was not fourteen years old , and because iames maraude her father , and margaret maraude made some opposition to this violence , they were most inhumanly butchered . susanna oliviette and margaret baline endeavouring to preserve their chastity lost their lives by the hands of these barbarians . ioseph david being wounded at angrogne , was carried by the soldiers into a neighbouring house , where they caused him to be burnt . four women and three children of prarustin were murthered in a cave in a rock where they had hid themselves . daniel fourneron's mother aged fourscore years was tumbled down a precipice coming from the tower-field , because she did not go fast enough . m. deumian kill'd the wife of iames fourneron and magdalen roche , with a back sword , because they had not delivered soon enough the mony that they had about them . mary romain a handsom young woman espoused to iames griot was massacred for striving to maintain her honour . another maid for keeping hers , being cast into a river , was killed with a musket-shot . several women and maidens who are yet living , were dragged by the hair into houses , where they were ravished with abominable circumstances ; there was one of these who through despair flung herself headlong out at window . honoria iayer a young child , being found with the woman , was shot to death with a fuzee : a great number of women and virgins trying to save themselves in the woods to get out of danger of the violences of the soldiers , were dispatched with muskets that were shot off to stop them . the marquess de parelle and several waldenses whom he caused to march to serve him for guides , passing through plumian to go into the valley of s. martin , found the dead bodies of many little children cut in pieces , several naked women massacred with swords , among whom there were some that had stones thrust into their privy parts : they saw also several soldiers that carried in their hats the mark of an horrible cruelty , and of a diabolical impudicity , at the sight whereof , the marquess de parelle was offended . in the valley of s. martin there were six men , twenty women , and some children , who went to surrender themselves in the city of peirouse , upon promise that was made them that they should receive no harm . but as soon as they were come they shot these six men to death in the presence of their wives . iohn ribet of macel being apprehended , they caused his arms and legs to be burnt , to oblige him to change his religion ; but god gave him the grace to obtain the crown of martyrdom , in constantly suff●ring the death that these butchers put him to . they also inhumanly murthered bartholomew ribet , iames breus and his son. they tyed a poor infirm person to a horses tail , and drag'd him along till he expired . they hung up an old blind woman before her own house . they found a woman at the point of being brought to bed , and committed two murthers at one blow , taking away her life and that of the child in her belly . they pursued after two young maids from a place called le colet to another quarter named bonniot , where having overtook them they ravished them , and at length shot them to death and hack'd them in pieces . four women falling at the same time into the hands of these barbarians , had the same fortune , with this difference only , that before they were ravished and massacred , they saw their childrens throats cut , at a place called the fountains . they cut open the body of a mother and her child , and tore out their entrails which they burned in the fire . they killed a great number of children in the same place , because they were sick , and had not strength to follow them into the prisons where they would have carried them . twenty two persons who were for a long time hid in the woods , the greatest part of whom were women and children , were found by these murtherers on the mountain of pelue , and flung down headlong into dreadful abysses cross the points of the rocks , where the entrails of these martyrs were seen a great while after . in the valley of lucerne , susanna the wife of daniel violin , katharine the wife of iames negrin , and anne melanote and her daughter , had their throats cut with a baionet . some soldiers having used their utmost endeavours to flea daniel pellene alive , and not being able to pull the skin over his shoulders , laid him along upon the ground , put a great stone upon his belly , and caused him to expire in this condition . daniel blumerol lost his life by the means of a cord that they tied violently about his head , his belly , and his privy members . anne and magdalen vittorie , and several others were burnt . the wife of daniel monin was massacred with a back-sword , and had her head chopt in pieces . anne bastianne was tumbled down the precipices . david moudon had his head cleft asunder with a broad sword. margaret salvajote being stript stark naked , was run through with a dagger in several parts of her body , but she did not suffer only this cruel death in her own person ; for before they cut her throat , these russians mortified her little daughter about seven months old before her face , and dashed her head against the rock , till all her brains flew out . they cut mary salvajot in pieces with a scimeter . they pierced mary duraud through with a dagger because she resisted their design to ravish her . they cut the throat of the mother of the sieur bertrand a minister , a person that was 80 years old , and lay bed-rid through extreme old age. a certain maiden of boby was tyed stark naked cross a mule , with her privy-parts exposed to publick view , and was led about in this condition through the city of lucerne . amongst a great number of waldenses whom they hanged at boby , there was one called anthony malanot , whom the soldiers shot at several times after he was dead , taking for their mark those parts of his body that modesty forbids to name . the soldiers having found a woman named iaimonate in a hole in a rock on the mountain of carbonnieres , brought her to the marquess de bevil colonel of the regiment of savoy , who demanded of her how long she had been in that cavern , and what food she got there : she made answer , that she had been there eight days , and that she nourished her self with a little milk of a shee-goat that shee took along with her : they would force her at length to discover where the waldenses were that hid themselves in the rocks ; but she protesting that she knew nothing of them , the soldiers having put her to a sort of torture by fastening their matches to her fingers to make her speak , tied her feet to her head backwards , and in this posture hurled her down a precipice : but as she was stopped in falling , the soldiers flinging stones and brick-bats at her , caused her bowels to drop out of her belly , and thrust her down headlong in the presence of the marquess de bevil . a young lad of the valleys , by name david magnot , whom the said marquess took for his domestick servant , and who had afterwards made his escape , was an eye-witness of , and related this horrible action . daniel moudon an elder of the church of roras , after he had been spectator of the death of his two sons iohn and iames moudon , whose heads the soldiers cut off , having seen iohn's wife cleaved asunder from her breast to the bottom of her belly , her child also knock'd on the head that was but six weeks old , and iames's two children cut in pieces , one whereof was four years old , and the other but fourteen months , was constrained by these butchers to carry the heads of his two sons on his shoulders , and to travel thus bare-foot two hours , till they came to lucerne , where he was hanged in the middle of these heads that were stuck upon the gibbet . i shall pass over an infinite number of examples of barbarity of the like nature , not to mention the miserable death of so many old men , women , young infants and sick persons that died with cold and hunger in the woods or in the clefts of the rocks : not to mention an incredible number of prisoners that were hanged without form of justice on the branches of trees , or in the towns and villages , among whom there was one paul megle aged 27 years , whom they carried from his bed to the gallows . at present i shall content my self with what i have already related , which may be sufficient to shew how far the fury of the enemies of the waldenses proceeded . i shall only add here the death of the sieur leidet that equally deserves pity and admiration : he was minister of pr●be in the valley of s. martin , who had escaped at the subduing of the valleys , and had hid himself for some time within the caverns of the rocks ; he was taken by a detachment of soldiers , and carried to lucerne into the palace of the marquess of angrogne , where the duke of savoy was at that time : he was put in prison within a tower of this palace , and fetter'd with a kind of stocks that were made with two thick pieces of timber , between which they lock'd his legs : he remained a great while in this condition , fed with bread and water , not being able to lie down by reason of the weight of those shackles ; it was reported that he had taken up arms , but it was a false accusation , from which he was cleared even by the testimony of those that apprehended him : they let him lie several months in prison , without bringing him to his tryal , and some judges themselves desired to be excused from being concern'd in his process . in the mean time there was not a day passed wherein he was not exposed to the persecutions of the monks and priests , and had great disputes with them about matters of religion , wherein he came off always victorious . they caused one day two bibles to be brought , wherein he demonstrated to them so clearly the truth of his belief , that being ashamed and put to confusion , they retired after a conference of four hours . they often threatened him with death , thinking thereby to affright him , and told him several times that there was no other means to preserve himself , but by turning catholick . but he received the news of his death with a great deal of tranquillity . he replyed to them , that although he knew well that they could not put him to death with justice , since he was not taken in arms , and that besides the duke of savoy had pardoned all his subjects ; nevertheless he was prepared for death , esteeming himself most happy to be able to suffer for the name of jesus christ. he fortified by his example and pious exhortations the prisoners that were in the same palace , some of whom were permitted to see him . at last , the monks and priests provoked with his zeal and constancy , found out judges who were willing enough to condemn him to death . the day that he was executed , the auditor salvay caused sentence to be pronounced against him in the presence of certain monks , he heard the publication thereof with a resignation altogether christian , without any emotion , trouble , or fear appearing in his countenance . the monks left him not that day , and although he desired them several times to leave him to his repose , that he might pray to god freely without disturbance , yet they always persecuted him , and forced him to enter into a dispute with them , thinking that he was not in a condition to maintain it ; but he acquitted himself with that courage and presence of mind , that they were astonished at it . this did not hinder them nevertheless from coming again the next morning at break of day , to give themseves the pleasure of tormenting him , even to the end of his life . he said as he was going out of the prison , that it was the day of a double deliverance to him , since his body went out of captivity , and his soul was agoing quickly out the prison of his body to enter into heaven , to enjoy the full liberand pleasures of the blessed . he went to execution with an holy joy and admirable resolution , despising equally both the life that the monks offered him , and the death that was set before his eyes ; he made a long and good prayer at the foot of the scaffold , with which all that assisted were extremely touched . he pronounced these words on the ladder , o my god , into thy hands i recommend my spirit ; and dyed a death so edifying , that the monks themselves , who forsook him not to the last , were forced to avouch that he died like a saint . at that time there remained only in the valleys certain inhabitants , who preferring death before slavery , would not hearken to any propositions of peace whatsoever . some of these were in the valley of s. martin , and although they could not know one anothers designs , because the army was encamped between the two valleys , and hindered them from having any communication , yet they were all of the same mind , and equally took up a resolution worthy of immortal praise . they remained a long time hid and distressed in the mountains , that they might avoid falling into the hands of the enemies that every day sent out detachments to surprize them ; one cannot sufficiently admire the constancy with which they endured all the fatigues and all the miseries to which they were exposed , but especially that whereby they suffered the extremity of hunger , for they were often compelled to feed on the grass of the fields , and to eat dogs and other beasts that came to devour the dead bodies of those waldenses that were left unburied . but the french and the banditi of mondovi being retired , they were no more so hardly pressed by the duke of savoy's army that remained alone in the valley . then it was that they that were in the valley of lucerne began to go out of their places of refuge to search for some victuals wherewith to sustain their languishing lives . there were found in this valley but 42 men , some women , and children when they were got together ; nevertheless they made several incursions into the plain , from whence they always carried away victuals and booty , defeated in several rencounters several detachments of the enemies , killed or drove away a great number of savoyards that were come to inhabit in the valleys , and lastly for some months , committed actions , so stout , so bold and so vigorous , that they put the enemies to contribution , and forced them to furnish them with provisions for some time , to hinder them from continuing their inroads into the plain . i shall not here recite all these marvellous actions , that i may not be engaged in too long a relation : i shall only say thus much , that the court of turin having to no purpose made use of force to drive them out of the valleys , caused an offer to be made them of safe conduct , in due form , and hostages for the security of their retreat . they that brought the proposition to the waldenses , took no care to avouch that they acted by order of the court of turin . but they affirmed on the contrary , that they treated only on their own account , and at the motion of some persons that had promised to procure for them these safe conducts , and to cause hostages to be given ; but it is certain that these overtures mere not made without the participation of the court : for besides that no private person durst have undertook such a negotiation of his own head , the safe conducts that were afterwards dispatch'd make it appear plain enough , that all was done by the orders of the court. however it were , the waldenses at first refused to hearken to this proposition , whether it were because they thought that they ought not to give any credit to their words , or because they were resolved either to perish , or to bring the prisoners out of captivity , death being more eligible to them than life , so long as their brethren groaned under their chains . some time after this proposition was renewed , they made use of divers considerations to oblige the waldenses to accept it . they told them that the d. of savoy had declared that as long as they were in arms , the prisoners should not be released , and promised them positively that as soon as they were gone , orders should be given to set their brethren at liberty : in so much that the waldenses considering on the one side that the winter drew nigh , and that they could not expect any relief ; and on the other side , that their resistance might give them a pretence to detain the prisoners , thought it was best for them to retire out of the estates of piedmont . it was agreed then and ordained , that they should go out of the valleys with their wives and children , arms and baggage , in two troops or brigades , that should be defrayed and conducted to suitzerland at two several times , by one of his royal highness's captains named perret , with safe conducts in due form : that for the security of the first troop that should depart , hostages should be left in the valleys in the hands of the second , who should keep them till they were certified of the arrival of the first ; and that as soon as the first troop should be arrived , this captain should give them an officer of his kindred for an hostage till such time as the second troop should be also arrived . this treaty was faithfully executed ; for these two troops arrived happily in a place of security with their arms and baggage under the conduct of the said captain . one remarkable circumstance is not to be forgot ; that is , that the waldenses could never be brought to consent to a retreat , till they had sent them back some of their kinsfolks that were in prison , and in effect carried them away along with them ; whence it may be inferred , that this treaty was managed by the court of turin ; since these prisoners could not have been delivered but by their orders . the waldenses that were in the valley of st. martin acted almost the same things as the other had done in the valley of lucerne : for although they were reduced at last to twenty five men , and some women and children , yet they defended themselves with so much courage and resolution , that they procured for themselves safe conducts and securities to pass into suitzerland with their wives and children , arms and baggage . it is said , that those that were in one valley knew not what passed in the other , because the army hindred them from keeping any correspondence one with another . if they had been able to joyn together , or to have heard any news one of another , they had without doubt made a more advantageous composition , and it may be have rescued their brethren out of captivity . for whether the court of turin would have been obliged to maintain an army in the valleys to hinder the incursion of the waldenses , or whether they had a design to re-people that country with savoyards , who would not care to go and inhabit there , as long as there were any in arms ; it is probable that to cause them to depart , they would have consented to deliver the prisoners . whilst the valiant waldenses retreated into switzerland by vertue of the hostages and safe conducts that their arms had procured , the generous reformed cantons transacted for the liberty of the prisoners . they had wrote several times in vain to the court of turin on this subject : but as their zeal and charity never fails , they called an assembly at arau in the month of september 1686. in which they resolved once more to demand the release of the prisoners : to this effect they sent two deputies to the count de govon the duke of savoy's resident at lucerne in switzerland . these deputies having carried the proposition to this resident , and having represented to him the reasons that induced the reformed cantons to intercede for the waldenses , concluded a treaty with him in the beginning of october by agreement of their superiors . the tenor of this treaty was , that the duke of savoy should give liberty to all the prisoners to go into switzerland in safety , and that he should cause them to be cloathed , conducted , and their charges born to the frontiers of switzerland , where the reformed cantons shall cause them to be received and conducted into the heart of their country , that they may not be in a condition to re-enter into the territories of piedmont . when this treaty was made they were ignorant without doubt at lucerne , that the waldenses afore-mentioned were already retired ; for there is an article that imports that the duke should give them safe conducts in due form , that they might be able to retreat freely and securely , which they would not have inserted in this treaty , if they had known what had passed with respect to them . however the cantons immediately ratified this treaty ; but the duke of savoy did not ratifie it till some time after , in a letter that he wrote to them on this occasion , in which he appoints the road through which the prisoners should pass , by mountains then inaccessible , and by the country of valay that belongs not to the duke of savoy , nor to the switzers , and thorow which there is no going without agreeing for a passage with the bishop of sion in whose jurisdiction it is . it was evident that they designed to raise obstacles to hinder the execution of this treaty ; otherwise they would not have appointed a passage through other territories than their own , where there are roads much more convenient to go into switzerland . the reformed cantons complained thereof to the count de govon , who having wrote about it to the court of turin ; at length the duke order'd their passage through that part of savoy that borders on the canton of bern , and caused the prisons to be opened ; but it was in the middle of winter and in a season so rigorous , that according to all appearance , those that had escaped the miseries of the prisons would have perished on the way . it would be very difficult to represent all the miseries and calamities that the prisoners have endured during a captivity of more than nine months . there are nevertheless exact memorials of what hath passed in every prison , out of which a particular relation might be collected : but since it would exceed the due bounds of this present narrative , i shall only give a general idea of the hardships they have suffered , expecting a more particular enumeration of them hereafter . they were put in prison at several times , according to the different circumstances wherein they surrendred themselves or were taken . they were dispersed to the number of about two thousand , as well men as women and children , into fourteen prisons or castles of the estates of piedmont , and they were more or less ill used according to the humour of those that had the government of those prisons : but it is certain , that every where they were exposed to many inconveniencies and great sufferings . in every prison they had nothing but bread and water for their ordinary food ; neither had they as much of that as necessity required . in some prisons they gave them very bad bread , black and heartless without substance , kneeded up with dirty water taken out of sinks and kennels , in which they often find pieces of mortar , glass , and other ordure : in other places they gave them stinking and corrupted water , of which they could hardly drink : they were forced in some places to take it out of a pond wherein they had watered cattel and flung in dogs . in some places they would not suffer them to take water out of the wells , but caused it to be poured into troughs and exposed to the sun-beams and to the heat of the weather , that they might not drink it till it were lukewarm . in other parts they would give them no water but at certain set hours , out of which it was not permitted them to take any , though they were ready to dye with thirst ; which hath caused many poor sick persons to expire for want of a glass of water to refresh their parched bowels . they were compelled almost every where to lye on the hard bricks with which the chambers of piedmont are paved , without straw ; or if in some places they had any given them , it was either reduced to chaff , or as rotten as dung. they were so crowded together and stuffed up in some prisons , that they were scarcely able to stir themselves ; and when any of them dyed , which happened every day , they put others in their room , that they might be always equally pressed . the suffocating heat that there was in the summer , and the corruption with which the chambers were infected , by reason of the sick , had engendred abundance of lice that would not let the prisoners sleep night nor day ; there were also great worms that eat thorow their skin : there were several sick persons to be seen that were ( if we may so say ) eaten up alive with worms ; for by continual lying , as not being able to rise or lift themselves up , these poor people were become so mangy , that their very skin being already putrified , parted from their flesh and mouldred away in pieces : they left them thus flead and miserably languishing till death put a period to all their sufferings . they have not only endured all the inconveniencies of excessive heat , but also those of extreme cold ; for in the middle of winter they never allowed them any fire to warm themselves at , nor gave them any cloths to cover themselves with , tho' they lay in upper rooms , that for the most part had no windows . they never were permitted neither during the summer , nor yet in the winter , to have any candles or lamps to give light in the obsourest nights , notwithstanding they have often desired it , to find means to succor the sick , many of whom have died for want of relief : a great number of women have also expired in the pains of child-birth merely for want of help in the dark , and the loss of them hath been followed with that of their infants , who have received death the same moment wherein they should have received life . they have put sick people whom they had separated from the whole , into open places , to be exposed to the injuries of the air and the weather , whether fair or foul , wet or dry . but this sort of cruelty hath proved in some manner charitable , since it hath caused them to find an end to their sufferings and sorrows in that of their lives . in other prisons they have put many children taken with the small-pox into wet yards , and on the gutters of the houses , forcing them to receive the water that falls from thence . they are not content not to afford the sick any relief themselves , but hinder others from bringing them any sustenance , as water-gruel , broth , &c. whenever the prisoners dare so much as to complain of the little care they take of them , they reproach them with threatnings , and blows . they tell them that instead of having compassion on them , they will use them like dogs till such time as they are all dead . there is hardly a prisoner that is not seized with many distempers . there hath been such a great number of sick people together , that they have counted threescore and fifteen at the same time in one chamber : they have taken away out of the prisons many young children , notwithstanding the opposition of their parents . in fine , the prisoners have been so barbarously used , that it is scarce possible to believe , that among those that bear the name of christians , there could be found so much inhumanity , were it not known to what degree the enemies of the waldenses have extended their fury . but we cannot doubt of the excess of miseries that these poor captives have endured , since we have been informed that more than 8000 persons have expired under the weight of this cruel bondage . in the mean time , as if the sufferings wherewith their bodies were afflicted were not sufficient , they have even persecuted their very souls after a most dreadful manner . for the monks and the priests have tried all the means imaginable to oblige them to change their religion . the good god hath nevertheless given them the grace to persist in the truth , and there are very few that have yielded to the force of these temptations : those that turned were treated a little more gently than the others , but they gave them not their liberty . the prisoners were reduced to this lamentable condition , when the duke of savoy caused the order to be published in the prisons , that permitted them to go out , and to retreat into switzerland . this publication was not made every where in the same manner , nor at the same time ; but successively , and with proportion to the departure of the prisoners . it was made nevertheless in the greatest part of the prisons by the means of an auditor who caused the prisoners to appear before him , and told them that those that had a mind to retreat out of the estates of piedmont to go into switzerland were permitted so to do ; even those that had promised to change their religion , because that promises that had been made in a prison ought to be look'd on as forced and extorted , and by consequence and void . he added that they were left to their liberty , whether they would go , or stay behind and change their religion ; nevertheless the prisoners had not all this freedom of choice that they pretended to grant them . for the monks and the officers of the prisons who were present at this publication endeavoured to hinder the effects thereof . sometimes they represented to them that the rigour of the season , and the cruelty of the soldiers that conducted them , would cause part of them to perish on the road. sometimes they flatter'd them with the hopes of returning to their houses if they would abjure their religion . but when these considerations could not move them , they beat them outragiously , as it hapned in the prisons of ast , where the governor gave them a thousand blow , with his cane in the presence of the auditor leonardy . they shut them up in deep ditches , and in very stinking places , as were the prisons of queirasque and others . in fine , they raised so many obstacles , that there were several that yielded to the temptation , and consented to renounce their religion . but instead of sending them back to their houses , they carried them at length , as it were into captivity , into the province of verceil , being the most barren , and the least fertile part of all the duke of savoy's dominions . i cannot omit some circumstances that were very remarkable ; one whereof is , that several young children , as well those that had been taken out of the prisons , as those that were dispersed through piedmont , hearing that the prisoners were set at liberty , desired to go along with their parents and kindred , but they would not suffer them to do it : the other is , that the permission to depart was not published in the prisons of lucerne , but only stuck upon the walls , that the prisoners might have no benefit thereof : and lastly , they would not give liberty to the prisoners that were in the deep ditches of ast , nor to the families that were in the citadel of turin . soon after this publication , they caused the waldenses to depart in several troops or brigades , that were conducted to geneva by the officers , and soldiers of the duke of savoy . they had promised by the treaty made with the count de govon to cloath all the prisoners ; whereupon they gave them certain old tattered coats , and some pairs of stockings ; but as they executed the treaty in this particular , they broke it in others much more considerable . for besides the cruelties that they exercised against several brigades ; they took away a great number of young children upon the road. there hapned amongst others , two things by which one may judge of the rest . one respects the prisoners that were at mondovi ; they caused to be published at christmas , about five of the clock in the evening , the order that gave them permission to depart ; they told them that if they did not go away immediately upon the spot , they should have no benefit of the order , because they intended to revoke it the next day . these miserable creatures were all disabled and worn out with diseases and languishing pains . nevertheless they chose rather to go free , and to expose themselves to a manifest danger , than to groan any longer under this cruel captivity . they departed then in a night the most cold , and the most inconvenient that can be possibly imagined , and travelled without stopping , four or five miles over the snow and the ice , but with so great misfortune , that there were more than an hundred and fifty that fainted under this fatigue , and dyed by the way , without any possibility of succour from their brethren . the other is in reference to the prisoners that were at fossan . there was a brigade of these prisoners that having lain at novalaise , at the foot of mount senis , perceived the next morning as they were going , a great storm to arise on that mountain . some of them caused the officer that conducted them to take notice of that storm . they entreated him to stay till it was over , and not to expose them to an apparent destruction , but to take pity of so many persons , the greatest part of whom were feeble , and without strength ; they told him also that if he would be so charitable to them , they would ask him for no bread , choosing rather to pass without eating , than to venture to cast themselves on this danger : but this officer was so rigorous and unmerciful , as to cause them to march on , and to sacrifice part of them to his barbarous cruelty . for there were about twenty six that dyed under mount senis , being destroyed by the tempest . they were old men , sick persons , women , and little children , that had not strength to resist the rigour of the bad weather , whom their kindred were compelled to leave behind them for a prey to the wild beasts , because this officer would not suffer them to take any care of them : the following brigades , and several merchants , who soon after passed by this mountain , saw the bodies of these miserable wretches extended on the snow , and the women having their children in their arms. however , this testimony must be given to the truth , that several officers , that conducted the waldenses , took a particular care of them . the reformed cantons being informed of the taking away of the children , and the other ill treatment received by the waldenses on the way , thought that they were still obliged in charity to sollicit in their behalf . therefore to that end they sent deputies to the court of turin , as well in favour of the march of the brigades that were not yet arrived at geneva , as to demand the restitution of the children that were taken away on the road , and of the young boys and girls that were dispersed through piedmont , when the valleys were subdued . and since they had received at the same time a letter from the count de govon , wherein he acquainted them that his master had deferred for some time the deliverance of the ministers , and that he would not release some prisoners that had been taken in arms , and that had been condemned to work all their life-time in his royal highness's fortifications : the reformed cantons charged their deputies again to demand the liberty of the ministers , and of all the other prisoners conformably to the treaty made with the count de govon . but before we speak of the success of this negociation , let us see in what condition the waldenses were , when they arrived at geneva . they arrived at several times , and in several troops or brigades , that composed in all but two thousand five hundred persons ; but they were in so sad and deplorable a condition , that it is not possible to express it . there were several poor people that expired between the two gates of the city , and that found the end of their lives in the beginning of their liberty ; others were so consumed with diseases and pain , that they thought every moment they would dye in the arms of those that had the charity to entertain them . others were so frozen with cold that they had not strength enough to speak ; some staggered under the weight of an extreme faintness and weariness , others lost the use of some of their members , and were not able to lift up their hands to receive the assistance that was offered them . the greatest part of them were naked and without shooes : in fine , they all carried about them such marks of excessive sufferings , and extreme misery , that the most obdurate heart would have been pierced to the quick with a sensible grief at the very fight of them . whereas the brigades remained some time at geneva , to take a little rest and refreshment before they set forward for switzerland ; those that arrived first went to meet those that came after , to inform themselves concerning their kinsfolks and acquaintance of whom they had heard no news since the reddition of the valleys . a father enquired after his child , and a child after his father , a husband sought for his wife , and a wife for her husband , and every one endeavoured to hear some news of their friends and neighbours ; but as this was to very little purpose , since the most part were dead in prison , it made a spectacle so sad and dismal , that all that stood by , were dissolved in tears , whilst these poor miserable creatures , being oppressed , and overwhelmed with the excess of their grief , were not able any longer to lament themselves , or so much as to complain . but as it is very difficult to represent objects so sad and so affecting , so it would be as hard a task to express the charity wherewith the people of geneva were animated on this occasion . the inhabitants pressed on so fast to go before these poor wretches to lead them into their houses , that the magistrates were obliged to forbid them to go out of the city , to avoid the confusion and disorders that usually attend so great a concourse of people . every one strove who should entertain the most sick , or those that were most afflicted , to the end they might have a greater subject whereon to exercise their charity . they treated them not only as dear and tender children , but also as persons that brought peace , and a blessing along with them on their families . they took an extraordinary care of the sick , several of whom dyed at geneva , and some of them had the wounds yet on their bodies , that the worms had caused in prison . all the waldenses that wanted cloathing , were either furnished by those that lodged them , or by the italian bank , the directors whereof from the beginning to the end , shewed all the marks of a tender compassion , and of an ardent charity . but it was not only in geneva , that the waldenses have found such consolation , but they have received also a great deal in switzerland , where the reformed cantons have opened to them their country , and the bowels of their compassions , after the most generous , the most christian , and the most charitable manner in the world. and it is upon the account of the waldenses , as well as of other distressed people that have took sanctuary there , that it may be said , that the country of switzerland is a safe harbour , that the hand of god hath made , to preserve from shipwrack , those that are exposed to the waves of persecution . furthermore , the deputies of the reformed cantons being arrived at turin , demanded the liberty of the ministers , and of the other prisoners , and the restitution of the children that were took from them on the way , and of those that were dispersed through piedmont when the valleys were subdued . they represented on behalf of the ministers , that they could have no justifiable pretence to detain them , not only because they were comprehended in the treaty made with the count de govons ; but also because they were the principal subject of the switzers intercession : besides that it was but just to restore the pastors to their flocks , to comfort and support them in their tryals . as for the prisoners condemned during their lives to work in the fortifications , they represented also that they ought not to be distinguished from the rest , under colour that they were more culpable : for 1. the treaty mentions no exception to their prejudice . and it imports , that all the prisoners in general shall be released . 2. the count de govon himself hath declared in a letter , that he wrote on this subject in behalf of the duke his master , that they did not intend to detain any of the prisoners . 3. since it hath pleased his royal highness to grant safe conducts to those that were actually in arms , with much more reason ought he to give leave to these prisoners ( of whom it is disputed ) to retreat , who have always been considered as far less criminal . and as for the young children , they shewed , that they ought to be released , both those that had been took away upon the road , and those that had been dispersed through piedmont , because both the one sort and the other was kept back , contrary to the purport and intent of the treaty : but neither the reasons nor the sollicitations of the deputies produced any effect ; they yielded to nothing but the restitution of some of the children that were taken on the way . for all the rest remain as yet in the estates of piedmont . it is true the court of turin hath promised to restore the ministers in some time . but at present they are distributed with their families , consisting of forty seven persons into three prisons or castles , where they are strictly guarded , and exposed to abundance of inconveniences and miseries , without seeing yet any appearance of redemption . thus i have given you in short , a relation of the most material passages on the account of the dissipation of the churches and inhabitants of the valleys of piedmont . there wants nothing more to demonstrate , that there never was any persecution more unjust , nor more violent . much less is there any thing wanting to make it appear , that there never were any objects more worthy of the compassion of all good christians , than the waldenses that have escaped this persecution . they are perswaded , that all reformed europe will look with an eye of pity on the calamities and pains with which they are overwhelmed , and that they will be partakers of their sorrow . these are the sad remains of that dismal shipwrack , wherewith the true successors of the apostles have been so lately swallowed up . this is that scattered remnant of those mother churches , the most ancient of all , that from the top of the alpes had illuminated a great part of the universe . finally , this is that poor remainder reduced to so small a number , and to so deplorable a condition , on whose diminution and misery we cannot reflect without being pierced to the heart with an extraordinary and surprising grief . they implore the protection of kings , princes and protestant estates : and in fine , of all the faithful . they conjure them by the bowels of compassion of the common saviour of the world , and by all that is most sacred in the communion of saints , to hearken to the sad voice of their bitter lamentations and groans . they beseech them to continue the effects of this incomparable charity of which they have given so many famous examples , and to open the treasure of their benevolence towards this residue , that the good god hath just now saved by a miracle of his providence . they will by this means endeavour to conduce somewhat to the glory of the sovereign monarch of the universe . and they will receive this consolation , that they have made use of so happy an opportunity of preserving in the persons of the waldenses , the first fruits of the primitive church . in the mean time , these poor distressed people will never cease to open their hearts in the presence of the father of light , for their charitable benefactors , that it may please him to multiply more and more these their good fruits , and crown their charity with the most precious blessings , both in this life , and that which is to come . a letter from his royal highness of savoy , to the inhabitants of the valleys . to our most dear and faithful subjects , the communities of the valleys of lucerne , peirouse and s. martin , and of the quarters of perrustin , s. bartholomew and rocheplatte the duke of savoy , prince of piedmont , king of cyprus , &c. most dear and faithful , since we have been well pleased with the zeal and readiness , with which you have provided men who have served us to our entire satisfaction in the affairs we had against the genoeses ; we have thought fit by these presents to testifie unto you our good liking thereof , and to assure you , that we will keep it in particular remembrance , to make you sensible on all occasions , of the effects of our royal protection , whereof the count and intendant boccaria shall give you a more full information , whom we have commanded to express to you our sentiments more at large , and also to take a list of the officers and soldiers , as well of those that are dead , as of those that remain prisoners , to make report thereof unto us ; to the end that we may have due regard thereto . in the mean time these presents shall serve you for an assured testimony of our satisfaction and good will ; and we pray god to preserve you from evil. from turin the fifth of november , 1672. signed c. emanuel buonfiglio . a copy of a letter wrote to count boccaria , by his royal highness . trusty and well-beloved , the men whom the communities of the valleys of lucerne , &c. have provided , have served us so faithfully , that being desirous to testifie unto them our satisfaction therein , we have sent you a letter herein inclosed , that we have wrote to them ; to the end that you may deliver it to them , and also express more fully the good will that we bear to them on this account , and that you may assure them , that whensoever any thing shall happen , that may tend to their advantage , we a sermon preached before the queen at white-hall on the 29th of may, 1694, being the anniversary of king charles ii, his birth and restauration by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1694 approx. 50 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30444 wing b5901 estc r4125 13677514 ocm 13677514 101265 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30444) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101265) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:14) a sermon preached before the queen at white-hall on the 29th of may, 1694, being the anniversary of king charles ii, his birth and restauration by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 28 p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : 1694. half title: the bishop of sarum's sermon before the queen on the 29th of may, 1694. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng charles -ii, -king of england, 1630-1685 -sermons. bible. -o.t. -psalms cv, 5 -sermons. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-01 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion printed , by her majesties special command . a sermon preached before the queen at white-hall , on the 29 th . of may , 1694. being the anniversary of king charles ii. his birth and restauration . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum london , printed for ri. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , mdcxciv . the bishop of sarum's sermon before the queen , on the 29 th . of may , 1694. a sermon preached before the queen . psalm cv . 5. remember his marvellous works that he hath done his wonders , and the judgments of his mouth . the chief design of the anniversaries , as well as of the rituals instituted by moses , was to oblige the jewish nation frequently to reflect upon the wonderful characters of gods love and care of them , and the signal miracles wrought for their preservation and deliverance . upon the returns of those days , and upon the performance of many rites , which had no clear signification in themselves , it was natural for the younger , and the more ignorant among them , to ask what the meaning of those things was ? and then the fathers and masters of families made them long and particular recitals of their deliverance out of egypt , on the days of their paschal festivity , of their station at mount sinai ; and the promulgation of the law , at their pentecost ; and of their march through the wilderness , on the feast of tabernacles ; and with the commemoration of those signal transactions , they were to mix reflections on their religion and laws , their obligations to adhere to the one , and to conform themselves to the other . this was the provision that god made for keeping that people always in mind of his goodness to them , and of their duty to him , besides the weekly returns of their sabbaths , and the monthly returns of their new-moons . those festivities were of seven or eight days a piece : and all the people of the land assembled then at ierusalem , and spent that time in discoursing over those memorable transactions . the rituals of their worship at the temple on these days , were likewise suited to the ends of those institutions , and several of davids psalms were probably intended , as hymns to be sung at those times for heightning the solemnities of the feast , and for infusing those matters deeper , both into the memories and the affections of the people . in the daily worship of the iews , they made use only of a small number of the psalms , the greatest part of them being composed upon some of the eminent turns of davids own life : but others relate to remoter and more general matters . this and the following psalms , seem to have been penned for the passeover : this carries on the thread of gods providences towards their fathers , till they came out of egypt : the next begins at the wonders wrought in the red-sea , to which he adds a lively recital of their ingratitude , disobedience , and frequent murmurings : the one psalm tending as much to humble that nation , with a representation of the sins of their fore fathers , as the other exalted them with reflections on gods care and love to their ancestors , that had appeared in such surprising-instances . both these psalms are introduced and ended with such elevating expressions , that could not but very much affect the israelites , as oft as they repeated them , or heard them sung in the temple . in the words of my text , we have , in short , the chief duty of those and all other festivities : they tend to raise our minds towards god , to acknowledge and adore his providence , remember his marvellous works that he hath done ▪ his wonders : some have thought that one of these words belongs to the miracles that were wrought for that people , and that the other belongs to those happy providences that had watched over them , and conducted them ; but there may perhaps be too much nicety in this , for as both the words seem to relate to miracles , the history here related to being one continued scene of miracles , so it is an ordinary piece of beauty in poetry , especially when it is designed for musick , to express the same thing by different words ; and therefore i shall not strain these too nicely : but while they remembred the miracles that god had wrought , in order to the bringing them out of egypt , they were not to forget the iudgments of his mouth or face , that is , the laws which were delivered on mount sinai ; first to moses face to face , and to the whole nation in that majestick appearance , which rested on the top of the mountain , and in that dreadful promulgation , which did not only terrifie the israelites , but moses himself , who though more accustomed to divine manifestations did fear and tremble exceedingly . iudgments being one of those words that are used promiscuously with laws , statutes , and commandments , as appears through the whole 129 psalm . these words thus opened , do plainly lead us to consider the right end , and true use of anniversaries , which is to have the impressions of gods governing the world infixed deeply upon us ; by considering the more eminent steps of his providence , that from thence we may be brought under a deeper sence of our obligations and duty to him . the repassing frequently in our minds , the blessings that have descended either upon that church and nation to which we belong , and in whose prosperity every individual has a share ; or more particularly upon our selves , is a duty of religion which is sounded upon the common principles of gratitude and justice . if the favours that we receive from one another , ought to be frequently thought on by us , to beget in us due acknowledgments , and to oblige us to suitable returns , then by a higher parity of reason , we ought to raise our minds to a very frequent revolving of those great and unvaluable blessings , that have in so distinguisht a manner , been now for many years the happy lot of this church and nation . an● as every man will find in the series of his own small concerns , much matter of reflection and praise , when he considers that watchful providence that has hovered over him , that has by an indiscernable conduct , carried him by many dangers , which he seemed to be courting , and into which he had precipitated himself , if that good hand had not diverted the danger from him , or him from it : often dangers being past before we were so much as aware of them . the good things that we receive , come to us often very unexpectedly , by unpromising means , and by a conjuncture that we had neither laid , nor so much as ever looked for : in short , every man , who does attentively and gratefully observe the methods of providence towards him , will be soon able to furnish himself with much matter of meditation here : but i am now upon a more general subject , of considering the reflections that we ought to make on those blessings , that come down upon greater bodies in common ; which anniversaries are designed to perpetrate . here is an exercise of religion which is beyond no mans compass of thought or capacity . a little memory to lay things together , and a small measure of judgment to observe the visible causes and consequences of them , will serve turn here ; some may descend to more particulars than others , and may reason more exactly ; but every man is capable of thought enough upon this head , to beget in him a sense of the power and wisdom , the justice and goodness of god , in the government of the world. a man needs no great stock of knowledge , nor much fineness of thought to go far here ; and as this sort of exercise is within every mans reach , so it has not in it that irksomness that hangs often upon other duties , such as publick or private worship , the sorrowings of repentance , or earnestness in prayer : this goes more with the grain , there is no pain but a very considerable pleasure in it . all history , especially what is secret and instructing , is pleasant , but most of all are such remarks from history as represent the church and kingdom to which we belong as the special subjects of a favourable providence . partiality and self-love may carry us too far on this head , and make us construe things too advantageously of our own side , and stretch them too much ; imagining perhaps , that to be the indication of a more particular care , which was only the effect of a general providence : but even this bias upon us , to carry our observations further then things will bear , makes it out , that such meditations are exercises that give much more pleasure than pain . sometimes i confess a black prospect and a gloomy face of things , may be on the other hand as unreasonably aggravated by men of melancholly tempers : yet even in that case , the remembring past deliverances gives livelier and more promising hopes , so that this may be well reckoned the easiest and pleasantest exercise of religion , nor is there any one more useful : nothing shews the folly of man , and the wisdom of god more eminently , then when we set them together : nothing shews the corruptions of the human nature , and mercies of the divine more conspicuously , nothing mitigates the sharpness of our afflictions , nor tempers our mind in prosperity so much as our depending upon providence and ascribing the good things that happen to its influence , and not claiming too great a share in them to our selves ; nothing tempers the mind so equally in every turn and sta●● of life , as the belief of god's go●erning the world , and the turning our thoughts frequently to serious reflections upon it . i will not enter here upon that deep , but mysterious , and often abused argument of providence . i suppose you do all believe it ; for indeed if you believe it not , you believe nothing in religion , to any purpose : without this , our prayers and praises would come within a very small compass : our faith and hope would be much narrower ; and our love to god would be much blunted , if we brought our selves once to think , that all things go in a chain , that there are no special directions in the conduct of this world ; but that chance or fate dispence every thing ; either with inexorable sullenness or in a tumultuary levity ; we must in consequence to such perswasions let our selves loose from all the restraints and all the seriousness of religion : but instead of these , how ungrateful soever they may be to undisciplined minds , we should have nothing to ballance , to fix or to govern us , but should be toss'd from wave to wave . we should either have the black cloud of hard fate hang over us , or be in the constant fears of the next bad chance , which might in a minute throw down all that former good ones had built up . a man that does not believe a providence has no support from a better prospect in his ill circumstances , nor are his good ones secured to him by any hope of their continuance : whereas he who believes that all things are directed by infinite wisdom and goodness , receives the good things that fall to him with a particular tenderness ; because they seem to be the indications of the love of his heavenly father towards him ; and he expects that they shall be continued to him , as long as it is fit that he should hold them , that is , as long as they are real blessing to him ; and he desires to keep them no longer , and on no other terms : he does not sink under calamities ; he considers them as medicinal things sent to reform him or to try his vertues , and to make some publick essay of the force and firmness of his faith and patience . to all this , that demonstrates how much a happier thing it is for mankind to be under the belief of providence then otherwise , i will only add one consideration that wise men have observed in many different ages and climates of the world ; and which they have thought no small confirmation of this great article of religion ; that at some times a strange spirit seems to run through whole nations an● communities , which can hardly be either resisted or repressed . a great impetus and fermentation works powerfully for a while , and then goes off , without any visible cause that appears , either for its beginning or for its ending . the same occasions that produced such a temper at one time , will not have the same effect at another ; an irresistible courage does sometimes rise in great bodies , as unaccountably as it falls . the servour with which the reformation began was not more extraordinary , than the flatness under which it has fallen in this age , and the extraordinary heat and giddiness that spread it self over these nations in the beginning of the wars , was not more amazing than the calm conclusion in which they ended at last , which is the blessing that we do now commemorate , and on which i do now enter . but as the iews did at the paschal solemnity carry back the recapitulation of their deliverance out of egypt , to god's first calling abraham out of the land of the caldeans , so that we may make fuller and clearer reflections on the blessings of god to this church and nation , in the protection and prosperity of the royal family , and that in the same view , we may observe those extraordinary steps of providence , that have appeared both towards the crown and the reformation , and at once , both consider his wonders , and the iudgments of his mouth , suffer me to begin my recital of some more signal providences , as high as the first beginnings of the reformation . before that time , our princes were but half kings , a forreign power ruled over the consciences of their people : the immunities of places and persons were great checks to their authority . the best part of the soil , and much of the wealth and treasure of the kingdom , were at the disposal of a body that claimed to be independent on the crown ; and were subject to a severe master , at whose mercy our kings reigned , and governed their subjects ; and were frequently put into great convulsions , when they seemed to break in upon an authority that pretended to be sacred , and on that score justified its being so tender of all its usurpations . a high-spirited king arose , who together with his people , were resolved to bear no longer with that diminution of the security and dignity of this imperial crown : the importance of that word , as it is used in our laws , having no relation to our constitution at home , as some have vainly imagined , it signifying only , that this was a compleat government within it self , having no dependance on any forreign authority whatsoever . that king though often threatned with invasion and rebellion , and though he had drawn upon himself the fury and revenges of a vast multitude of implacable wasps , whom he had stirred out of their nests , yet escaped all dangers , and carried on his designs as far as his principles could go : he removed the rubbish , and so made way for that which he could not have promo●ed himself , being still deeply tinctured with his first impressions and engagements . it was much for one man , to do so much as he did : he restored the crown to a g●eat part of its lustre , as well as its authority , and recovered that which was weakly parted with , in a course of many dark and superstitious ages . before him our princes were to make their applications elsewhere , and to take their measures from thence , how their own people were to be governed : but now the government is entire , all is done at home , no vassalage is to be paid to a tyranny , which was as cruel in its administration , as it was unjust in its pretentions ; and had in a more particular manner oppressed this kingdom , triumphing too imperiously over the easiness of our princes , and the superstition of their subjects . as the first part of that great work was so far advanced by a king , whom nature had fitted for a performance that required a man of no ordinary genius : so a young prince succeeded , who had every thing in him that was great and promising , far beyond his years . in his reign our reformation was perfected , but while some went into that good design upon true and noble principles , there was a mixed multitude that came in for a share of the spoil , and were a reproach to that which they seemed to promote : one bad man in particular , who at his death professed that he had all the while adhered to his old perswasions , even when he seemed to act most differently from them . the good men of that time , did look for a terrible catastraphe : they did not think that god would suffer his house to be built up by such defiled hands , or bless such a corrupted scene , with the continuance of so good a king , the iosias of this church . all was quickly laid in the dust , and turned not only into rubbish but to ashes , and a severe storm was set over this church ; but when it was like to have spread it self over the rest of europe , and that the two crowns being under the ministry of two cardinals , both designing to extirpate the reformation , were coming into a peace , that so they might be at leasure for such bloody work at home ; it pleased god to deliver this church , to raise up again that light which seemed almost quite extinguisht , and to bless us with that ever renowned queen , who did not only restore and repair what had been ruined at home ; but became the support and strength of all abroad . they found not only sanctuary among us , but carried from us both force and treasure , to preserve and secure themselves . things lookt often so cloudy , whilst the greatest power , and the vastest treasure of europe , was engaged with an unrelenting fury on the other side , that for about twenty years together , the wise ministry of that reign were every year looking for a fatal revolution : at last god by blasting all their designs , both open and secret , and chiefly the last and greatest attempt of the boasted invincible armada , did secure that queen , and establish this church ; and by her protection and influence , several forreign churches were also formed and established , and the correspondence we maintained with those beyond sea , made us the safer , and the more united at home . the crown was fortified with alliances and dependencies abroad , the nation was spread by many colonies into remote parts . trade flourished , and wealth from all parts flowed in upon us : the blessings both of heaven and earth meeting together in that celebrated reign . what was wanting to compleat the happiness of this nation was brought about in the next , in which the whole island was brought under the same head : and the northern parts which had been formerly scenes of war and desolation , uncultivated and ill peopled , became the quiet seats of tillage and industry ; so that nature , that seemed to have laid this island , and designed it for one monarchy , was now answered by this happy union . and the many disorders in ireland , forced the reduction of that kingdom to civility and industry , to the same laws and language , and for the greater part to be of the same stock and race with our selves . these are some of the more signal felicities , which have happened to us , and to the crown that protects and governs us , since that happy light first visited us : and the land had rest fourscore years : the longest period that we find marked in the old testament , of the quiet of the people of israel . nor can we easily assign the like period in any history , of such an entire and long continued peace : for in all that time , tho we had wars abroad , they never broke in upon us , to disturb us at home . the short and soon supprest insurrection of some earls in the north , scarce being to be reckoned as an interruption of our quiet . but while god protected us from our enemies , yet when we had corrupted our ways before him , he delivered us up to our selves , to be plagued by our own follies , and they proved severe punishments . i will not open that black and dismal scene : i will not suffer any thing that looks like anger or satyre , to darken the chearfulness of this day , or to sowr those thoughts that should be now softned to joy ; but a joy in god , decent and modest , and suitable to the occasion . i will not repeat history or gazettes : i will only lay before you some reflections that are not the less important , because how obvious soever they may be , yet they are not so generally commented on , as they well deserve to be . our confusion lasted long , and the scenes shifted so oft , that at last men found no known constitution , no precedent either at home or abroad , that could fit us : so that assemblies of a new nature were formed , in which men gave scope to their imagination ; to invent a scheme of government that could secure us : bu● all in vain , the ancient landmarks stood still in all mens eyes , and thoughts , and the nation grew so weary of its tossings , and so wise after so many practices , that had been made upon it , as to return to its first basis , and to its immemoral constitution : the confusions of that time will still be preserved in our history , as the best and most demonstrative arguments , to recommend our constitution to us : since we see that nothing could bring the nation to quiet and order , till it settled again on its old foundation , and returned to that frame under which it had subsisted , and flourished for many ages ; and without which it could not be supported a few years , even tho a resolute and victorious army , that was deeply engaged both by principle and interest , endeavoured to fix it upon another bottom . the tide turned , and how strangely soever mens passions and humours wrought against it , yet nothing could withstand the united desires of the whole nation , that called aloud for bringing back the king. this no doubt has been , and will still be a powerful curb to restrain the violence of some mens tempers ; and to make all to consider , how hard it is even by force and with success , to work a nation off from its antient and known government , to new models and airey speculations . the great and free range that enthusiam then had , the multiplicity as well as the extravagance of the sects that sprung up among us , in those day of confusion and violence , the wild notions as well as the ungoverned practices of the several parties , their mutual animosities , and the gross hypocrisie that run too visibly through the greatest numbers of them , did contribute not a little to bring the nation back to love decency and order in sacred matters : and many , who perhaps formerly disliked our publick establishment , having exceptions that seemed plausible to some particulars in it , came afterwards to see how mischievous it was to bring men once off from rule and order , and to give such scope to humour and fancy : and so , they grew more in love with settled methods , and have adhered more firmly to them : and thus we may conclude that the essay , which was made then to new model both church and state , how fatal soever it proved to those who were run down in the struggle , yet has since that time , had this good effect , to establish both , upon a firmer foundation in the hearts of the people . two things were also very eminently remarkable in the whole course of our disorders , the one was , that the very party which of all others was the most concerned to new cast the nation into the old model , and to set up that government , on how bad a title soever , which was that only , that our law could acknowledge , since they of all others needed a pardon most to cover them from sacred and royal blood , besides many other lesser crimes , which lay upon them , they had also divided among themselves the spoils of the crown , and of the church , to which they could have no title founded in law , without an authority , with which our constitution did agree : for so sacred is our frame , that the very shadow of it , has a great operation in law , and had they agreed to have set up their idol king , this would have gone so far ▪ both to have indemnified their persons , and to have secured their estates , that even the happy restoration that followed , could not easily have set that matter right : both the crown and the church had been put to wrestle with great difficulties ; all which was happily prevented , by the unmanagable stiffness of those , who of all others were the most concerned to have promoted it : and thus without any considerable difficulty , every thing did easily fall into its old channel again : and when it was too late , those who proved the instruments of their own ruin , saw their errer : but could not then rectifie it : they expiated their crimes with their own blood , and so the land was purged : and what had been unjustly acquired , was most justly restored back to the true owners again . but the most eminent character of god's merciful providence towards these nations , in the blessing of this day , was the manner of it . it made our miseries both the less sensible to us , and the less out of our power to overcome , that strangers got no footing among us , all the while : and that the depressed side , was not cast on demanding assistance from those who might in conclusion have proved cruel friends , and the worst of enemies . all europe was so deeply engaged in a long and cruel war , that it was not in the power of our neighbours to take advantage either from the feebleness that our distractions threw us into , or from the necessities of the weak and unfortunate side , and so to come in for a share of the spoil , which is commonly all , that auxiliary forces design on such occasions . while the nation was left to its self , and all was in its own hands , as well as its substance and stock was kept entire , it was in their own power to return again to their old foundations . the time in which this happned , was also critical , for it was when our destemper was at its height : when an enthusiastical and cruel spirit was in the ascendant , which probably if it had not then been effectually mastred , had burst forth into very dismal extravagancies . enthusiasm armed with power , being like a sword in a mad mans hand : but as our distractions at home were in their heighest fermentation , the state of affairs abroad changed so considerably , by the peace that was made between the two crowns , that then it was highly probable , foreigners might have thrust themselves into our affairs : and that both out of political and religious considerations . it appears to have been the settled opinion of a great cardinal , and a chief minister at that time , that when the war was quite ended , both crowns should have concurred to the reestabliment of the royal family ; tho from those remnants of his , it also appears that he neither meant well to the king nor to the nation in it . however it is most likely , that upon the lessening of the forces on both sides , that followed upon the peace , the late king might have received such a powerful assistance of men of fortune , that he might have invaded , or rather come into his kingdom with a foreign force . if he had succeeded in it , as he would have been under great obligations to those who had assisted him , so he would have been much in their power , and might have come under the odious name of a conqueror , which might have rendred his government both severe and hateful ; and must have ended , either in the total subversion of publick liberty , or in new and dreadful convulsions , which must have endangered the whole , and exposed us to be a prey to some violent invader . it was therefore no inconsiderable part of the deliverance of this day , that it was brought about in such a manner , that the king owed it entirely under god , to the duty and affections of his own subjects , without any others pretending to have the least share in it ; so that the whole frame of our constitution reverted to its former state , and nothing was put , or left out of joint . the late king had no reason to depart from our constitution with relation to his people ; because they had so chearfully returned to it with relation to the crown : and of all others he had the least ob●igation on him , to his next neighbours , tho they were likewise his most immediate kimed ; and that the chief occasion of our miseries , came from councils that were inspired from thence . as this blessing was procured to us immediately , by a management at home , so the calm and the unanimity , with which it was brought about , had such a stamp of the goodness and mercy of providence in it , as is perhaps without example in history . those who know the transactions of that time , cannot reflect without amazement , on the unaccountable change of the dispositions of the nation towards the royal family , that happened from the year 1640 , to the year 1660. and all this was brought about by a turn over the whole nation . arguments or speculations seldom have such effects . if the greater part had brought in the less , the event had been still great and amazing , but it was all over wonderful when the whole changed so entirely , that the few who were engaged by their interests and fears , as well as by their notions , to oppose it , were brought under such a consternation , broken into such divisions , which the ambition and heat of some , and the the mistrust and jealousie of others had sowed among them , that none of those men of might found their hands , but seemed to be cast into a dead sleep . so great an army , so long trained , so well disciplined , and so oft victorious , might have raised such an opposition as could not have been easily resisted , if at all . it had appeared in the year 1648 , what feeble things popular and tumultuary insurrections were , when in almost all the quarters of england the people rise and desired to be rid of the army , to have that blessed king , set at liberty , and on his throne , and to have the nation again settled : but so little concert and union , so little method and order , appeared in all those motions , that they only served to promote that which they were affraid of : the army was flushed with victory and success , and carried every thing before it : which brought on the black and fatal 30 th of ianuary . but now when the time was come , in which god was to restrain their force , as he does the seas , hither shalt thou come and no further : here shall thy proud waves he stopt : when god arose to judgment , the earth feared and was still . it appeared by the violence in which a small number of them studied to overturn this happy change after it was wrought , what greater numbers of them , if united might have done to have hindred it . so that the giddiness with which they were struck , and their want of council and spirit , upon so great an occasion , was a greater indication of an over-ruling providence , than if they with the rest of the nation , had really changed their minds , and gone into the stream . they both meant to oppose it , and might have done it to a great degree ; had not god taken from them at once , both head , heart , and hand : and thus when we observe all the methods of the providence of god , in bringing this about , we must adore the wisdom , but most particularly the goodness of them , both towards the royal family and towards the whole nation . from what confusions were we then freed , and what a scene of blood and misery had this nation probably been , if the turn had not been so entire as it was : and how little soever , many may either apprehend or value the blessing of a legal government , tempered between the extreams of lawless tyranny on the one hand , and of wild and enthusiastical frensies , on the other , yet they must conclude that in this respect we were restored at that time to a government that is much the happiest of any now in the world , and is so particularly fitted for us , that nothing else could make us either safe or happy . but all the blessings of that time did not terminate in that day , or in the restoration of the royal family at that time : what was done then , made way to what we enjoy at present : without that we could not have expected the happiness we do now live under , and look for . i will not reflect on the gloom that has come between : the unhappy things which have come since : but whatever we have been , or whatever we were like to have been , we do now see a better prospect , not only the crowns flourshing at home , but the laws and liberties of the people happily revived ; not only our religion secured , and our church protected , but that from us other churches are in hope to receive protection and strength , and the rest of europe a just ballance , and a quiet security : that now england is not only recovering the interest and share that naturally belongs to her , but is at present the great instrument of giving all europe a happy escape from a vast danger , that had threatned it all over . in this audience , i shall not enlarge further on this subject . i need say the less , because we do all feel and hope so much from it . the subject indeed speaks so much , that i may be well allowed to say the less . this is the compleating of that happy change , which is now to be reflected on , with so much the more joy , because we have reason to hope that we are near , very near , all that a nation can wish for , to make it both great and happy , prosperous and safe . but as we have thus let our thoughts run out upon the wonderful works , that god on this day did for us , so we ought not to forget the iudgments of his mouth , his laws and his gospel : that are the much greatest of all his blessing , that render all other things to be blessings indeed to us ; they being chiefly intended to secure this to us , and to engage us to improve it to the best purposes . for as the psalm ends , all gods mercies to the jewish nation , were given them , on this design that they might observe his statutes , and keep his laws ; so what answers to this among us , but is indeed a great many sizes beyond it , is the purity of the christian religion , which we have now enjoyed above an age and a half , with advantages beyond any church under heaven , and in a course of temporal blessings beyond any that we ever knew since we were a people : england is more encreased at home and abroad , in the soil cultivated at home , and in the colonies sent abroad , in the numbers of the people , in force and shipping , in wealth at home , and trade all the world over , and in the resinings of solid learning , or useful arts , in this period , since the reformation , than for ought appears to us , it ever was before , since we were a nation : and it now possesses all this under a civil government , that is the wonder as well as the envy of the world : for while other nations have either foolishly thrown up and abandoned their liberties , or have been forcibly deprived of them , and see no remedy ; we have ours not only preserved , but secured by fresh explanations and provisions : all this put together ought to make us consider the great value of that unspeakable blessing which god is so signally recommending to us , by those happy providences which accompany it . if we could examin it in it self , without those blessed consequences , we should see cause enough to value it highly , or if we could compare our own condition with either the heathen nations that are utter strangers to it , or those degenerated christians that have corrupted it , so as to be but little better than heathenism it self , then we might be able to form a truer judgment of that happiness , which we enjoy in it . i confess , as the far greater part use it , there is no great account to be had of it : if it is only a set of notions , how true soever they may be , and a circle of some forms , in which we go always round , without making any progress , then tho our religion may be less burdensome and imposing than some others , yet after all , it can be no great matter it self : but if this gospel , and these laws of god are means intended by him for the greatest ends , fitted for them , and capable of procuring them to us , if they by their own efficiency are capable of making us not only happy in another world , but even happy in this life , happy in our selves , and happy in another , if they tend to make a nation great in general , and every individual of it , both great in himself , and great in his usefulness to mankind , then we may justly glory in our religion and in those judgments of his mouth , with which god hath blessed us : and whatever advantages the iews had reason to reckon themselves under , by their laws , beyond the nations round about them , these will appear to belong much more eminently to us , when we compare our selves with the corrupted state of christianity , that prevails in so many kingdoms not far from us . the iews were by the laws of moses , delivered from all that idolatry and magick , those superstitious and barbarous rites that had over-run heathenism : from the cruelty of offering up humane sacrifices , nay , and their own children too , to those false gods , whom they served : they worshipped the host of heaven , sun , moon , and stars , high hills , great stones , ancient oaks , the founders of nations , and inventers of arts : they had images and statues to resemble the divinity , and believed , that a company of extravagant rites , had in them , by the charms they used with them , strange and sublime vertues . those deities they appeased with a variety of oblations , which they believed were acceptable to them : these were managed with much pomp , and at a vast charge : an exactness in them they thought pleased the deity , as much as a failure therein provoked it : and they had a variety of gods for several countries and professions ; a special deity belonged to every occasion : how happy then might the iews reckon themselves , who saw through all those vain imaginations , and knew that there was but one only god , the supream lord of all things ; a pure mind , and therefore capable of no bodily representation , and so sublime a being , that what sacrifices ▪ and rites soever he appointed , yet admitted of no humane sacrifices , and had limited his appointments within such bounds , that all superstition was cut off . now if these characters of the heathenish and jewish religion are applied to the present state of christendom , it will appear that we have the same reason to value our religion , that the iews had to value theirs . there is a communion of christians , whose churches are full of corporeal representations , of that which they adore : those statues have all such ornaments about them , and such adorations paid them as the heathens were accustomed to : many created beings have all the acts of worship , such as prayers , praises , incence burnt , bodily adoration , churches built , sacraments used for their honour ; and even that sacrament which is no less than the immediate object of the highest degrees of worship among them . thus if ever there was , or if there can be idolatry in the world , they are guilty of it . all those pretended vertues , that by their benedictions they give out , that they put on holy water , agnus dei's , with all the train of those consecrated things , with which they entertain the credulity and the misled devotion of their people , is either imposture , or charm. in the cost of these , and of the other invented parts of worship , particularly their processions , another rite of heathenism , there is no measure put to the pomp and magnificence with which they study to adorn them . it is true they have no humane sacrifices in the strictest sense : but no religion ever taught the shedding so much human blood , nor made that so main a piece of religion , of such merit , so certainly and so highly rewarded , as they have done : of which both the last and the present age have received too sensible and too demonstrative a conviction . what reason then have we to value our religion , which has so entirely freed us from such excesses and corruptions : since idolatry does vitiate religion in its source and fountain : it debasing the idea of god , and bringing us to fancy him to be something like our selves . we own him to be a pure mind ; that can be represented by no bodily figure : we worship him in a sp●ritual manner : in acts and forms suitable to his nature . we worship him only , and pay no adorations to angels or saints : nor have we invented any parts of worship , besides those of his own appointment : we teach and practice charity to enemies ▪ even to those who hate us , and who we kn●w would persecute us , if it were in their power . another consideration , on which the iews had just reason to value their religion , was because it was fixed and stated , in the books of moses : no additions could b● made to it , unless god had sent a prophet on a special commission , with particular credentials : their priests had not , as the heathens , books in their hands , that were kept as secrets , which the people might not see , and which they might vouch for any additions , with which they loaded them , as oft as it served their ends . a written law which every man might read as well as the priests , was a vast security against fraud and impositions . upon the same account , we have just reason to set a high value upon our religion , since it can be neither more nor less than what is contained in the scriptures ; we have no article in reserve , for which , as oft as we please tradition may be vouched : we have no infallible tribunal , to coin new articles , or impose new doctrines upon the pain of anathemas and extirpation : how great that tyranny is and how unbounded is easily enough imagined ; when a man must believe a blank , and the church has the filling up that blank : and when the more implicit and blind men are in their faith , they are thereby esteemed the truer sons of the church , which will have none enquire into what she dictates . nor dispute her commands : whereas in ours , the officers of the church are only considered as men appointed to minister in holy things , to serve and instruct the people , in the things of god , without being the masters of their faith and conscience , we pretend to no other authority : and leave to the people entire , all the liberties of humane nature . a 3 d. consideration that did very particularly recommend the mosaical religion to the iewes , was its purity : the justice and probity , the freedom from luxury , simplicity of life , the restraint of appetite and passion , and the modesty of deportment , that it enjoyned : these were great and noble characters of a religion that came from god , and that tended to make men in a good degree to resemble him : for tho that was an imperfect religion , yet the law of the lord was pure , and his commandments were clean . but all this in a much higher degree concurs to recommend to us , the religion that by the blessing of god is received among us . we own the gospel in the same simplicity in which christ and his apostles delivered it : we teach that men must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and live soberly , righteously and godly , and that without holiness no man shall see the lord : we offer no other conditions , or means of salvation , but faith , repentance , and new obedience : we oblige all persons to the highest degrees of purity , and warn them to avoid every sin , the wages of which is death . in a word , the main part of our doctrine is , to convince the world of the indispensible necessity of an universal holiness , which must first possess a mans thoughts , and rectifie his intentions , and then run through his whole life , and govern all his actions . we flatter no men with hopes of the after-game of a purgatory , and a redemption out of it by masses : we make no sin to be slight or venial , nor do we teach that any duty is only a council of perfection ; much less do we flatter pride and vanity by the doctrines of supererrogation : we do not pretend to supersede the obligation of loving god , or of being truly contrite for sin ; nor do we teach any methods of supplying imperfect acts of contrition , by the sacraments , as if acts of sorrow , which of their own nature could not be accepted of god , could be supplied by the sacraments , and so become the means of justifying those who are still in the habits of sin : we pretend to no other power of absolution but the absolving from the censures of the church , and the declaring men absolved according to the truth of their repentance . thus it appears , that we have much juster grounds for setting a high value on the purity of the christian religion , among us , than the iews had for esteeming their law far beyond the idolatry of the heathens . if these are the most valuable things , as indeed what can be valuable , if they are not , then how particular a reason have we , to rejoyce in them , now when we have so fair and likely a prospect of their being setled and secured to us , of their being no more undermined among us , by the practices of disguised enemies , by the engaging us into animosities , and by subdividing us into parties , and so weakening us by our own follies , that we may become an easier prey to our enemies : and while all these things grow to be safer and firmer at home , by the protection that the crown gives to those who profess the same faith abroad . while we at home , are feeling the tender hand of such a nursing father and such a nursing mother , and while those abroad , are not hoping to feel , but actually feeling , the happy effects of their favour and protection ; then it is that we may with peculiar accents of joy , commemorate the blessing of this day . when our almost withered roses begin to look fresh , and to open again , while the lillies grow pale and fade : when england begins not only to recover the figure it once made , but puts on a new lustre , and has an interest in europe beyond what former times can boast ; while our church checks the pride of her , that has so long made the earth drunk with her sorceries , and while she animates those other bodies that were either in their last agonies , or very near them ; then we have just reason , according to the words with which this psalm begins , to say , o give thanks unto the lord , call upon his name , make known his deeds among the people : sing unto him , sing psalms unto him , talk ye of all his wondrous works : glory ye in his holy name , and let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the lord. let us conclude all with our most earnest praises to god for those who do now fill the throne , with so peculiar a grace . may they live and prosper : ●ay their reign be long and glorious , that we may still have more and more reason to remember the marvellous works that god has wrought for us , by their means : his wonders in them , and the judgments of his mouth , secured to us by them . may we live so worthy of them , that we may long , long enjoy them , with all the accessions of plenty and peace . amen , amen . finis . books lately published by the lord bishop of sarum . a discourse of the pastoral care. 8o. a lent sermon before the queen , march 11th 1693 / 4 ; . on 1 cor. 1. 16. four discourses delivered to the clergy of the diocess of sarum . i. concerning the truth of the christian religion . ii. the divinity and death of christ. iii. the infallibility and authority of the church . iv. obligations to continue in the communion of the church . 8o. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30444-e230 judges 3. 30. an edict in the roman law, in the 25 book of the digests, title 4, section 10 as concerning the visiting of a big-bellied woman, and the looking after what may be born by her. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 16 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 3 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a37825 wing e160a estc r24944 08700731 ocm 08700731 41575 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a37825) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 41575) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1258:23 or 1755:33) an edict in the roman law, in the 25 book of the digests, title 4, section 10 as concerning the visiting of a big-bellied woman, and the looking after what may be born by her. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 4 p. s.n., [london? : 1688?] caption title. concerned with the belief that the son born to james ii and his queen in june, 1688, was actually not their child. attributed to gilbert burnet--his history of his own time ... 2nd ed., 1855, v. 6, p. 357. item at reel 1258:23 identified as wing e160a (number cancelled). reproductions of original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -ii, -king of england, 1633-1701. great britain -history -james ii, 1685-1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-01 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an edict in the roman law : in the 25. book of the digests , title 4. section 10. as concerning the visiting of a big-bellied woman , and the looking after what may be born by her. the pretor says thus ; § 10. de inspiciendo ventre , custodiendoque partu , sic praetor ait : si mulier mortuo marito praegnantem se esse dicet , his ad quos ea res pertinebit , procuratorive eorum , bis in mense denunciandum curet , ut mittant , si velint , quae ventrem inspicient . mittantur ( autem ) mulieres liberae duntaxat quinque ; haeque simul omnes inspiciant : dum ne qua earum , dum inspicit , invita muliere ventrem tangat . mulier in domu honestissimae foeminae pariat , quam ego , constituam . mulier ante dies triginta , quam parituram se esse putat , denunciet his ad quos ea res pertinet , procuratoribusve eorum , ut mittant , si velint , qui ventrem custodiant . in quo conclavi mulier paritura erit , ibi ne plures additus sint , quam unus : si erunt , ex utraque parte tabulis praefigantur . ante ostium ejus conclavis liberi tres , & tres liberae cum binis comitibus custodiant . quotiescunque ea mulier in id conclave , alidve quod , sive in balineum ibit , custodes , si volent , id ante prospiciant : & eos qui introierint , excutiant . custodes , qui ante conclave positi erunt , si volunt , omnes , qui conclave aut domum introierint , excutiant . mulier , cum parturire incipiat , his ad quos ea res pertinet , procuratoribusve eorum denunciet , ut mittant quibus praesentibus pariat . mittantur mulieres liberae duntaxat quinque : ita ut , praeter obstetrices duas , in eo concla● i ne plures mulieres liberae sint , quam decem , ancillae quam sex . hae , quae intus futurae erunt ; excutiantur omnes in eo conclavi , ne qua praegnans sit . tria lumina , ne minus , ibi sint : scilicet , quia tenebrae ad subjiciendum aptiores sunt . quod natum erit , his ad quod ea res pertinet , procuratoribusve eorum , ostendatur . apud eum educatur , apud quem parens jusserit . si autem ne his parens , jusserit , aut is , apud quem voluerit educari , curam non recipiet , apud quem educetur , causa , cognita constituam . is , apu● quem educabitur quod natum erit , quoad trium mensium sit , bis in mense ex eo tempore ; quoad sex mensium sit , semel in mense ; a sex mensibus quoad anniculus fiat , alternis mensibus ; ab anniculo quoad fari possit , semel in sex mensibus , ubi volet , ostendat . si cui ventrem inspici , custodirive , adesse partui licitum non erit , factumque quid erit , quominus ea ita fiant , uti supra comprehensum est . ei , quod natum erit , possessionem causa cognita non dabo ; sive quod natum erit , ut supra cautum est , inspici non licuerit . quas itaque actiones me daturum polliceor his , quibus ex edicto meo bonorum possessio data sit eas , si mihi justa causa videbitur esse , ei nondabo . § 11. quamvis sit manifestissimum edictum praeoris , attamen non est negligenda inter pretatio ejus . § 12. denunciare igitur mulierem oportet his scilicet , quorum interest partum non edi , vel totam habituris haereditatem , vel partem ejus , sive ab intestato , sive ex testamento . § 13. sed & si servus haeres institutus fuerit , si nemo natus sit : aristo scribit , hic quoque servo , quamvis non omnia , quaedam tamèn circa partum custodiendum arbitrio praetoris esse concedenda . quam sententiam puto veram ; publice enim interest , partus non subjici : ut ordinum dignitas , familiarumque salva sit . ideoque etiam servus iste , cum sit in spe constitutus successionis , qualis qualis sit , debet audiri , rem & publicam & suam gerens . § 14. denunciari oportet his , quos proxima spes successionis contingit ; ut put a primo gradu haeredi instituto ; non etiam substituto : & , si intestatus pater-familias sit , his , qui primum locum ab intestato tenent : si vero plures sint simul successuri , omnibus denunciandum est . § 15. quod autem praetor ait , causa cognita se possessionem non daturum , vel actiones denegaturum , eo pertinet , ut si per rusticitatem aliquid fuerit omissum ex his , quae praetor servari voluit , non obsit partui . quale est enim , si quid ex his , quae leviter observanda praetor edixit , non sit factum , partui denegari bonorum possessionem ? sed mos regionis inspiciendus est , & secundum eum & observari ventrem , & partum , & infantem oportet . if a woman upon her husband ' s death pretends that she is with child , she must intimate that twice every month thereafter , to those who are the most concerned in it , or to their proxies , that so they may send some , if they think fit , to visit her belly . they may send any free women ( i. e. not slaves ) to the number of five at most ; and all these together may visit her , provided that while they do it , none of them may touch her belly , without her leave : she shall be lodged in the house of some woman of an untainted reputation , such as shall be named by the pretor ; and she shall signifie to the persons concerned , or to their proxies thirty days before , when she expects to be delivered , that if they think fit , they may send such as may watch over her . the room in which she is to be brougt to bed , shall be visited , that there may be no other entries to it but one ; and if there are any other , care must be taken to nail them up with boards laid along both within and without ; and at the door of this bed-chamber three free men , with as many free women , and two servants may be set to watch ; as oft as the woman thinks fit to go into that bed-chamber , or into any other , or into a bath , which those keepers may visit , if they think fit , before she goes into it , and may also visit all that go into it at that time ; and those keepers may also , if they think fit , search all such as come within the house or the bed-chamber . when the woman falls in labour , she shall give notice of it to those concerned , or to their proxies ; that so they may send such persons who may be witnesses to the birth ; who must be free women , to the number of five at most ; and besides the two midwives , there must be no more free women in the bed-chamber , than ten ; nor more servants than six . all these who enter within the bed-chamber , shall be visited in the room , to see if any of them is with child : nor must there be fewer than three lights in the room , because a● imposture may be more easily committed in the dark . that which is born , shall be shewed to those who are concerned , or to their proxies , if they desire it . the infant is to be kept by him who is named by the father for that intent ; but if he has left no orders concerning it , or if he who was named by him , will not undertake it , the pretor having examined the matter , shall name the person to whose keeping the child is to be trusted ; whose name shall be published , and he shall be obliged to shew him , as he thinks fit twice a month , till he is three months old , and after that once a month , till he is six months old , and once in two months , till he is a year old ; and from thence once in six months , till he can speak . but if any will not suffer their belly to be visited , nor themselves to be watched , nor admit of witnesses to their delivery , or if any thing is done for hindring the execution of those things that are hereby provided , when upon the hearing of the matter that is made out , that which is born , is not to be admitted to the possession of the estate ; if it be found that the child has not been visited , according to the former regulations ; in which case the pretor promises to give over all rites and titles to those others , whom according to his edict he has put in possession , and not to the child that is so born , the justice of the cause being first made out to him . 11. altho' the pretors edict is very express , yet the explanation of it is not to be passed over . 12. the woman is bound to intimate her being with child , to all those who are concerned in it , and to all others to whom either the whole inheritance or a part of it belong ; whether by the succession in the course of law , or by the will of the dead . 13. and even if a slave is made heir by the will , there being no child , aristo writes , that the pretor ought , according to his discretion , to give him some , though not all those privileges of watching over the birth ; in which i think he is in the right : for it is of publick concern , that there should be no supposititious births ; and that the dignity of families , & of the different ranks of men , be preserved entire . and that therefore even this slave , who is put in the hope of the succ●ssion , should be heard , how mean soever his condition may be , since the publick is concerned in that which he looks after , as well as he is as to his own particular . 14. the matter ought to be imtimated to those who are the next in the succession ; but not to those who come after them in the entail : but if the father died without a will , then it must be intimated to those who succeed immediately to the defunct : and if there are many heirs portioners , it must be intimated to them all , 15. as for that clause , in which the pretor says , that upon the hearing of the cause , he will not put the child in possession , and that he will not give him leave to sue for it : by this ( of hearing the cause ) is to be understood , that if by a clownish simplicity some of those things have been neglected , that the pretor has appointed to be observed , this must not turn to the prejudice of the child ; for what reason is there , that if any of those things have been omitted , which the pretor has order'd to be slightly observed , that then the possession of the estate should be denied to the child ? but a regard is to be had to the custom of the country ; and according to that , both the big-belly , the birth , and the child , are to be visited and watched over . it seems that the abuse provided against by this law , was known among the athenians ; for it is set forth among their other disorders by aristophanes , in the following words . aristophanes in his thesmoph●riasonsai ▪ i knew another woman , who said that she was in labour , and pretended to have had her pains for the space of ten days , till she had bought a child , mean while the husband was running about to all places , buying those remedies that hastened labour . but an old woman brought in a pot a child to her , the mouth of which she had shut up carefully with wax , that so it might not cry out ; and as soo as she had made a sign to the woman , intimating what she had brought to her , she that pretended to be in labour , cried out to her husband , get you gone ; get you gone , husband ; for i am now upon the point to be brought to bed , and i feel the child , kicking with his heels ready to break out . upon this he in great joy withdrew , and presently the old woman pluck'd out of the child's mouth that wax with which she had stopped it : upon which that cursed woman that had brought in the child run out with great joy to the husband , and said , you have a son born that looks like a lyon , like a lyon ; and that is yor very image in all things . — what follows , is too immodest to be translated . concerning the interpretation of laws , and that they ought to be expounded not strictly by the words or cases put in them , but by the equity and reason of them , cicero writes thus ▪ lib. 2. de inventione . causae & rationes afferentur , quare & quo consilio , sit ita in lege : ut sententia & voluntate scriptoris ▪ non ipsa solum scriputrae causa , confirmatum esse videatur . — legis scriptorem , certo ex ordine , judices certa aetate praeditos , constituisse ; ut essent non qui scriptum ●uum recitarent , quod quivis puer facere posset , sed qui cogitationem assequi postent , & voluntatem interpretari . — nullam rem nequè legibus , neque scriptura u●a , denique ne in serm●ne quidem quotidiano atque imperiis domesticis , recte posse administrari si unusquisque velit verba spectare , & non ad voluntatem ejus qui verba habuerit accedere . judex is videtur legi obtemperare , qui sententiam ejus , non qui scripturam sequatur , — leges in concilio scriptoris , & utilitate communi , non in verbis consistere . — idcirco de hac re nihil esse scriptum , quod cum de illa esset scriptum , de hac is qui scribebat , dubitaturum neminem judicabat . postea multis in legibus , multa esse praeterita , quae idcirco praeterita nemo arbitretur , quod ex caeteris de quibus scriptum sit , intelligi possint . let the grounds and reasons be shewed , that it may appear upon what design the law was so and so made ; that so it may appear what is enacted not only from the words of the law , but from the w●ll and design of the law-giver . — the law-givers have ordained iudges to be chosen cut of a certain rank of men , and of a determined age , that so there might be persons appointed , who should not only repeat the letter of the law , which any child may do , but should be able to find out the design of the law-giver , and explain it according to his will. — if one will only have regard to the words , and not to the mind of him that uttered them , it will not be possible to order matters aright , neither by law , nor by any sort of writing , nor indeed by any sort of discourse ; and this will appear in the whole business of the world , and even in domestick matters . — that iudge obeys the law more , who pursues the design of it , than he who has regard only to the words of it . laws consist not in the words in which they are conceived , but in the intent of the makers of them ; and are to be explained by the good of the publick for which they are made . nothing is specified in the law concerning such a case , because the law-giver , who mentioned another case in the law , could not but conclude , that the one being expressed , no body could doubt of the other . for after all , there are many cases that seem to be omitted in many laws , which yet we ought not to think omitted ; because we may easily see what we ought to think of them from those cases that are mentioned in the law. the greatest part of his oration for caecinna , is to the same purpose ; and among many others , these words are remarkable . cum voluntas , & consilium , & sententia interdicti , intelligatur , impudentiam summam , aut stultitiam singularem putabimus in verborum errore versari , rem & causam & utilitatem communem non relinquere solum , sed etiam prodere . — juris igitur retineri sententiam , & aequitatem plurimum valere , oportere , an verbo ac litera jus omne torqueri , vos statuite utrum utilius esse videatur ? when we once comprehend the reasons , the design , and the intent of a law , it is either great impudence , or great folly , to let our selves be misled by any ambiguity in the words ; for this is not only to for sake but to betray the true ends of the law , and the good of the publick — do you therefore that are the iudges consider which is best : whether the design of the law ought to be observed , and to be explained according to equity , or whether iustice it self ought to be perverted by adhering to the words and letter of the law. finis . reflections on a book entituled (the rights, powers, and privileges of an english convocation, stated and vindicated) by gilbert, bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1700 approx. 62 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 18 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30402 wing b5848 estc r14762 12034878 ocm 12034878 52867 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30402) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 52867) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 861:3) reflections on a book entituled (the rights, powers, and privileges of an english convocation, stated and vindicated) by gilbert, bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 31, [1] p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : 1700. reproduction of original in huntington library. advertisement: p. [1] at end. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng atterbury, francis, 1662-1732. -rights, powers and privileges of an english convocation. church of england -government. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-02 john latta sampled and proofread 2005-02 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion reflections on a book entituled , [ the rights , powers , and privileges of an english convocation , stated and vindicated . ] by gilbert bishop of sarum . london : printed for ri. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1700. reflections on a book entituled , [ the rights , powers , and privileges of an english convocation , &c. ] it is so natural for all men to love power and authority , that it was not to be wondred at , if the book published some months ago , asserting the rights of a convocation , was received by many with great approbation , and much applause . some things indeed it had in it agreeable enough ; but there was one thing wanting , which was too evident not to appear , both in the whole contexture , and almost in every page ; that though the author pretended to plead the cause of the church , which is indeed the cause of christ himself , who is the head of the body ; yet he had so entirely laid aside the spirit of christ , and the characters of a christian , that without large allowances of charity , one can hardly think that he did once reflect on the obligations he lay under to follow the humility , the meekness , and the gentleness of christ : so far from that , he seems to have forgot the common decencies of a man , or of a a scholar . a book writ with that roughness and acrimony of spirit , if well received , would be a much stronger argument against the expediency of leaving a convocation at full liberty , than any he brings or can bring for it . a meeting of men of that temper would give but too much occasion to renew all the complaints that nazianzen made of the synods and councils in his time ; and would , i doubt , be a greater prejudice to the common concerns of the christian religion , than could be ballanced by any thing that the best men in it might promote . when such a spirit appears without doors , what might be expected from men covered by the freedom of speech , which must be allowed in all publick consultations ? if the writer had been provoked , by any thing writ on the subject in that strain , to which he lets himself loose , then the great liberties he takes had been capable of some excuse . but the attacking of men who had given him no colour of provocation in so petulant and virulent a stile , is somewhat new ; and i hope shall be so little liked , that it shall not be much followed . the scorn with which he treats my self , and the malice that he pours out upon me in such a copious manner , are things that i can very easily bear . i have been long accustomed to them , chiefly from some men of one sort . if fame sixes this book to the true author , i had no reason to look for such treatment from him ; unless the unsuccessfulness of my attempts to serve him , though managed by me with much care and zeal , oftner than once , does pass with him for so great an injury , that upon it he thinks every thing may be justified , that he can write against me . he takes some pains to colour the blackness of his spite ; but the art is so course , and the venom is so malignant , that it breaks through all disguises . it is true , i may be mistaken in the author , and for several reasons i wish i were . but certainly , since those he levels his wrath at , have put their names in the front of their books ; it had been reasonable that an answer to these should have likewise been as publickly owned by its author . he writes on the popular side ; but has many peculiar maxims ; and this may be one of them , not to engage himself past retreat . he might perhaps hope , that this performance would be more effectual for his advancement than my endeavours had been . this shewed what he could do ▪ yet still all was safe ; he might be taken off , and then altri tempi , altri castumi . but i leave him in his covert to pursue his designs by what methods he pleases , only for the church's sake , as well as for his own , i wish he would more frequently carry those words of our saviour's in his mind , learn of me , for i am meek and lowly in heart . it gives scandal enough to the world when lawyers , philosophers , physicians , and politicians , happen to write one against another with bitterness and scurrility : but it is much more scandalous when divines keep no temper in their writings , but forget all decency , and shew themselves enemies , not only to the opinions , but also to the persons of those they write against ; and that in such an open and visible contradiction to the words of our saviour : by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye have love one to another ; as if they affected a reverse of them : by this shall all men know your zeal to your party , if ye hate all those who are not of it . such practices as these do effectually obstruct the progress of religion , while an age that is too much possessed against both us , and our holy faith , fails not to make a very wicked use of all those advantages with which ambitious or ill-natur'd zealots furnish them ; to represent us to the world as a company of aspiring and factious men , who are ready to sacrifice every thing to our own humours and notions , not considering how much religion it self suffers by the management . these are things that i hope good men will lay seriously to heart , and that they will watch over their own tempers ; even after the highest provocation from those who seem to be in the gall of bitterness , and the bond of iniquity : not to return railing for railing , nor to be overcome of evil , but to overcome evil with good . but after i have taken the liberty to admonish the writer , in a strain that i think becomes me , considering both the post , that how undeserving soever i hold in the church , together with my age , and the services that i have endeavoured to imploy my life in ; i shall in the next place acknowledge what i must needs commend him for . he writes with just and due respect of the king , and of the present constitution . this has come so seldom from that corner , that it ought to be the more consider'd : i will not give that scope to jealousy , as to suspect that this was an artifice ; but accept it sincerely , and do acknowledge , that this which is so heartily express'd , ought to make abatements for the many severe reflections that are made in it on the whole bench of bishops , not excepting the head of it , and his carrying his spite back so far , as even to bishop bancroft . i confess , if he had taken a little more pains to have vindicated king charles the first and archbishop laud from that for which he falls so foully on the present administration , it had been more suitable to the respect that all the lovers of the church do pay their memory . if it does appear that we and they have acted upon the same principle , then a wound , and that a deep one too , is given to those two great names by the same persons who seem to venerate them as martyrs . dr. wake * is charged for having taxed the vices of the clergy too freely , though from the days of the apostles , all downwards , the best writers in all ages , both bishops and priests , have thought it a part of their duty to deal plainly in those matters . if the charge is false , it is highly unjust : and if it is laid upon lesser or secreter offences , it is very indiscreet ; but if there is too much ground for it , the best way of answering it , is to amend what is in our own power , and to lament what is not . but after all , a just taxing of the ill tempers of some of the clergy , for which i am sorry that this book shews there is too much occasion , has a great compass , a body of twelve or fifteen thousand men : if one of twelve chosen by our saviour , had a devil , it is nothing but what must be expected from the general corruption of human nature , that so numerous a body should have a mixed multitude in it . but an ordinary measure of caution should have taught one who found fault with this , not to be so liberal in his own reflections on bishops : for not to insist on that , which he seems resolved to forget , that they are his superiors ; they are but twenty-six in all : so his censures are more contracted : in some of them he points at his man very plainly . when i writ my history of the reformation , i had dr. collet's sermon in my hands , and once i intended to have published it as a piece that might serve to open the scene , and to shew the state of things at the first beginnings of the reformation : but i was diverted from it by those under whose direction i put that work. they thought it might have been judged that i had inserted it on design to reflect on the present , as well as on the past state of things . i submitted to their advice : but our author seems to seek out for matter of reflection with as much care as i used to avoid it . i confess where it lay in my way , either as a historian , or as a divine , to acknowledge such corruptions and disorders among the clergy , as were too visible to be denied , and too gross to be extenuated or excused , i thought it became me to write honestly and impartially : [ see pag. 90. p. 188. ] how much soever this author may rally me for it , i am not ashamed to own , that i am impartial to the abuses of clergymen . i know there are some that hate all discourses that tend to awaken clergy-men to attend on their cures , to reside much , and to labour hard ; nothing pleases them but what tends to encrease the wealth , and to raise the authority of the clergy . whereas others , who are justly sensible of the depression of holy functions , both in the narrowness of their maintenance , and the fetters that they lie under by the want of ecclesiastical discipline , do yet think the best way to recover the clergy to a just degree of ease and authority , is not to argue those points in which they are not like to be very successful , but chuse rather to set about those methods by which the church was at first established , protected and provided for . serious attempts that way , would , in their opinion , clear peoples minds of their prejudices , heighten the zeal of their friends , silence the cavils of enemies ; and , above all things , it would again draw down some of those blessings on the church , which appeared so eminently in the first ages . this is a topick that bad clergy men cannot bear ; it lays them too open , and touches in the quick. if i have gone in to these measures , i knew whose hatred i must ever after that look for : but i thank god , my labours on this head , have had such success , that i am in this even overpaid for all the censures that they have exposed me to . but let this author censure me as much as he pleases , i desire him to make no apologies for me , he may leave that to me . he says [ see the preface ] that now my high station is a bar to reply . if i have only confessed faults in order to the correcting them , i have done my duty : but if i have made any unjust charges , or have aggravated things too much , i have betrayed my trust , and am liable to just censure ; nor do i decline it . as for what i have writ in this strain , when in a lower station , he puts it in on my being a stranger ; and being unacquainted , and not touched with tenderness for the state of the clergy . my being a stranger he thought might serve a turn ; and so that was not to be forgotten . but the apology was meant to make me ridiculous ; a stranger ought to keep himself under great reserves on that very account that he is one ; he ought to apprehend that he may be mistaken , and lean rather to the other extream , unless the subject he writes on forces it : so this does rather aggravate than excuse such a presumption . there is another maxim set up by this author , and managed with much zeal ; i wish i could say with as much good nature , which is a little new , especially coming from a certain corner . it is ▪ that the supremacy is not singly in the king , but is lodged with the whole legislature . i confess i was always of this mind : but i remember among whom this passed , not long ago , for little less than herely ; and i cannot but confess , that the stile both in king henry's time , and ever since , seems to favour that : so that how much soever i may agree with this author in the notion , i cannot go along with him in the severity of his censures ; for he plainly writes in the stile of an inquisitor , to deliver him who goes in the common road to the secular arm , and oftner than once calls on a great and honourable body to execute his spite . it has passed generally among the clergy , that ecclesiastical matters could only be judged by persons deriving their power immediately from god : and as the clergy have their commission from him , so it was a received doctrine , that the king had his power likewise from god ; and that therefore the church was to be governed by the king and the convocation : and the book of canons being ratified only by the regal authority , seems to give such authority to this , that a man ought to be mildly corrected , if it should prove to be a mistake . it could never be thought that parliaments were de jure divino ; so it was a consequence suitable to their principles , who put our whole ecclesiastical constitution on the bottom of a divine right , to shut this within the hands of those who they believed acted by a divine commission . i was never of this mind . i always thought that the king was no other way head of the church , than as he was the head of the state , with whom the executive power is lodged , and who is the head of the legislative , in conjunction with the great body of his parliament . but this author knows how much the doctrine he now advances was condemned , and by whom , not long ago ; therefore a little more temper were but decent , if he thought fit to find fault with it . another of this author's maxims was not long ago as much exploded , and yet now is very heartily espoused by him ; in which i was ever of the same mind with him ; that there is just reason to explode that conceit , that the commons were not summoned to parliament before the 49th of henry iii. this was a notion once so zealously maintained by some , that he was thought an enemy who went not into it . i was so fully convinced of the contrary , both by what i had observed of the gothick constitution , and the feudal law , and by the authorities , which were brought together with great fidelity and industry by my most honoured friend mr. petyt , that i declared my sense of it plainly in my history , though that was a little mollified by a parenthesis added by a great licenser : but i was then severely censured for it . thus it is , that while men think they have a good interest in the administration , they do very naturally favour all opinions that make for it , or rather that make for themselves : but if their interest declines there , they are ready to tack about , even to that which a little while ago passed under the most odious characters possible . the world does not fail to observe this ; and is too ill-natur'd not to make unkind inferences from it : without considering that received opinions do often pass without much enquiry about them ; and that even those who depart from them , chuse for their own quiet 's sake to do it covertly and modestly . those who both held those opinions , when they were much decried as not favourable to the regal authority , and do still adhere to them while they are more favourably treated , have some advantages over those who may be supposed to retreat to them on design to vent their spleen . i turn next to the main design of this work. no man that is in any degree conversant in antiquity , can deny , that the presbyters were the bishops assistants and counsel : that good bishops governed their dioceses by their advice , as well as with their concurrence ; though it has been made a question by very learned men , whether cyprian's expressions to this purpose , were pursuant to established rules , or were the effects of his own modesty and humility . but even in this particular , such as from the beginning of their service in the church , have declared for this constitution , have some advantage over those among whom dr. hammond's notions passed long as certain , that the bishop was the sole pastor of his whole diocese ; and that his presbyters were but his assistants , as curates , who had no other authority but what was delegated to them from him : so quickly can men go from one extreme to another . but how certain soever this may be , that presbyters in conjunction with their bishops , are his counsel ; yet this may be very positively affirmed , that in no part of the ancient constitution , and in no church for many ages after the primitive times , can it be made appear , even by a conjecture , that in any national or provincial synod , the inferior clergy formed a body apart , and sate by themselves without their bishops , acting in any sort , as a co-ordinate body with them . so that whatsoever may be found of this kind among us , is no part of our ecclesiastical constitution , as we have an authority from christ that ought to be managed conform to the primitive pattern , but is meerly a temporal constitution , taken from the frame of our parliaments . therefore if men have a true zeal for the primitive times , they should turn it all another way , to procure a constitution suitable to that frame . the commons of the spiritualty sate in a chamber apart , as the commons of the temporalty did ; and were summoned by the same authority , and to the same end. but tho' with relation to the temporal concerns of the clergy , this was a good constitution ; yet it cannot be called a true representative of the church , tho' it be now a legal one . in the lower house there are of the province of canterbury 20 deans , or more , who pretend to sit there ; there are as many proctors from chapters , and 60 archdeacons , and but 38 clerks chosen by the clergy . so that the deans and chapters who had their authority at first by papal bulls , and have now their exemptions and jurisdictions continued to them only by a proviso in in the statute of 25 hen. 8. have more interest in the convocation than the whole body of the clergy : these are all made , either by the king or by the bishops . the threescore archdeacons are all of the bishops nomination , and their authority is of a late date , and but a human constitution . all this is besides the interest that the bishops have in making the returns of two only out of all those who are chosen in the several archdeacon●ies of their diocese ; so that the inferior clergy can in no sort be said to be equally represented there . i acknowledge that this is not necessary in a constitution that pretends no higher than law and custom . a practice past prescription is , in such cases , a good foundation ; and if men rise no higher in their claim for church-power than law and custom , this is enough : but if they pretend to a divine original , they must seek for another constitution . indeed , if they are contented to take up with a human authority , they may rest satisfied with this : howsoever , it is fit for men to write exactly , and upon a consistent hypothesis , and so have all the parts of it of a piece . but to enlarge a little upon this : i wish those who are full of high notions would try how to justify the jurisdiction that is exercised among us by deans and other exempted persons , who do exercise not only the archidiaconal , but the episcopal jurisdiction ; the former being of ecclesiastical creation , may without doubt be transferred to them . but if we are true to a principle , that has been received in the church of god from the apostles days downwards , and has been maintained with much zeal by this church , now for above an hundred years , that christ and his apostles have established in the church a subordination in bishops , priests , and deacons ; so that the latter are subordinate to the former ; and that in consequence to this the discipline of the church , the highest step of which is excommunication , ought to be chiefly under the bishops direction , and also the appointing of priests to cures , and by consequence the depriving them , should likewise be under their care , according to the establishment first made by the apostles : how comes it , i say , that the authority of papal bulls and royal confirmations , and a provision in a statute made in a reign that some take pleasure now to decry , should be thought strong enough to authorize deans and other exempted persons to do all the acts of episcopal jurisdiction ? if ecclesiastical authority is only of human original , indeed all this may be excused , and born with : but if our plea for a divine original is well founded , then since no human law nor custom can derogate from the divine law , let those who are concerned in these things see how they can reconcile our principles to their practices . here are presbyters acting in most parts of the episcopal functions , as bishops , without any subordination to them : if all is founded on a divine right , then by the same authority that they do invade many acts of episcopal jurisdiction , they might as well have invaded all the rest ; and if the one would be condemned as a sacrilegious attempt , it will not be easy to excuse , much less to justify the other . upon all these things i wish that men would apply their thoughts more carefully , and direct their zeal a little better ; and that they would lay all the ends of their system together , that it may appear that all is coherent , and hangs well together . and therefore it is not very fairly done to bring some authorities from ancient authors and councils , of presbyters assisting their bishops , and from thence immediately to conclude for the right of a convocation constituted as ours is . i must acknowledge this author confines himself chiefly to our own laws and customs : in which i will not trace him , but shall leave that to others , who may be more at leisure to follow him ; only i must in general remark one thing , which i find some are beginning to observe with no kind intentions . the clergy are now generally admitted as freeholders , to chuse the representatives of the commons in parliament ; and i believe they would look on it as a very unfriendly office if any doctrines were laid down that might exclude them from this . but it passes for a maxim , that those who constitute any other state or part of the parliament , how great soever their estates or freeholds may be , cannot vote in the elections to parliament ; how far the doctrine that is so much laboured by this author may have an influence in this matter , i will not determine : if it does , i doubt not , but that since mens affections do , as we have already observed , very much biass their judgments , the opinion of the world concerning this performance may come to be changed from what it is at present . i have neither leisure nor inclination to enter further into the discussion of this pretended right of the convocation's sitting and being constituted into a body , and of their preparing and proposing of matters . i will only offer some historical observations upon which it will be easy to make remarks , to shew that there is nothing new in the present administration , how heinously soever it may be complained of . i will avoid saying any thing with relation to king henry the viiith's reign , because of the prejudices that these men have against it ; and i will refer a very material part of king edward's reign to the end of these reflections . the debates with the puritans , and the disciplinarian controversy , was that which occasioned great heats during queen elizabeth's reign : but the convocation never medled with this , it was left wholly with the queen ; she appointed some bishops and others of the clergy , who were of the high-commission , to settle rules in those matters . they did it , and their decisions are printed , and may be seen in the later editions of bishop sparrow's collections . i have an edition of them printed in that reign ; so here a matter of very great consequence was settled by a few bishops and others acting by the queen's commission ; and this was the rule that the church was governed by , till the late civil wars . here was a good plea for the puritans , which this author has found for them , that none of themselves made use of . the next subject of dispute was during a great part of king james the first 's reign , and all king charles the first 's , till the war , concerning predestination : in this the calvinists appealed to the articles , and seemed to have a strong plea from them . this was a point of doctrine , and the dispute being about the sense of articles that had been agreed on in convocation , it seemed very natural to make the appeal to that body ; but yet that was not done : our kings made declarations in this matter , and gave directions to the bishops . it was generally thought that in king james's reign the much greater number of both houses were the followers of st. austin's doctrine , if not of calvin's . yet i never found this among the complaints of the angry men of that time , that the decision of the matter was not left to a convocation . and among all the remonstrances , how warm soever , that were voted in the house of commons , i do not find this is ever named . nor is archbishop laud ever charged with this , though that was a time in which all his actions were severely descanted on . there was then in the house of commons a set of men , who by reason of the ship-money , and some other disputes , had examined further into the original of our constitution , than ever was done before or since . so in this particular , a negative argument is of great force to shew that they had not those notions of our constitution which this writer suggests . after the corrections of the liturgy that were made upon the restoration of king charles the second , there was not a line published , and scarce a word muttered demanding a convocation . then the danger of popery's breaking in upon us appeared in very eminent instances ; and though some apprehended that sooner than others , yet none doubted of it after the declaration in the year 1672. but during both that , and the late reign , among all the zealous attempts that were made for securing us from it , not any one was offered at for a convocation's medling in it ; even among the indiscreet instances of ill-governed zeal , this was not so much as once mentioned . this writer names among other reasons for one now , the growth of popery . it may justly seem strange if this is a good one now , that it was not thought on when the danger was so threatning and visible . there was no want of a just and well-governed zeal in that time : but the men that managed it knew what they had a right to and what they could legally both demand and maintain . if there were any just grounds to fear that popery was beginning again to be active and insolent among us , when this book was written , i suppose the act pass'd in the last session has put such an effectual stop to it , that there will be little occasion given any more to reckon that among the reasons of calling for a convocation . thus it has appeared that for above 140 years , the crown has been in possession of a right of making use of a convocation , or of settling matters of religion without it , at discretion . queen elizabeth made use of one to settle our doctrine , and little more was done in convocation in her time . king james the first made use of one to make a body of canons , but took all other matters under his own care . king charles the first followed the same method . and though in the year 1640. some things were done that must be put on the heat of that time , yet the declaration that was made of the extent of the king's authority , as it was all managed by archbishop laud , and directed by that king ; so it shews plainly what the sense of this church was as to that matter : which had been indeed the sense and language of their predecessors for above an 100 years before that time . in king charles the second's time , the convocation was allowed to consider what alterations ought to be made in the liturgy ; and after that there was no more work given them ; only they met on wednesdays and frydays to read the litany ; which i am sure i heard many who were then required to attend , that so there might be a face of a meeting answering the great name that it bare , complain of as o● a very uneasy and troublesome attendance , that was of no sort of use . but now to come to the present reign ; a convocation was opened in it , and a secretary of state brought a license from his majesty and the late blessed queen to them to consider of such things as should be laid before them , in order to the healing the schisms and breaches that were among us . the bishops in the former reign had in that petition , upon which they suffered so gloriously , expressed a readiness to come to a just temper in all the matters of difference among us , when they should be brought before them in convocation or parliament ; and among other messages that were sent over to the king , being then prince of orange , one was , that he would use all his interest among the dissenters to hinder them from running in to the declaration , and to the design that was then promoted , of animating them against the church : of this i may be allowed to speak confidently , because it passed through my own hands ; and i drew the directions that were given to an eminent person who was employed in it . upon these reasons it was that the prince ( now king ) promised in his declaration with which he came over , that he would use his endeavours to bring about the so much desired union , between the church of england and the dissenters . so their majesties were under engagements to make the experiment . it is true it did not succeed , a formed resolution of consenting to no alterations at all in order to that union , made that the attempt was laid aside . i will not enter into any further reflections on mens behaviour at that time ; it plainly appeared it was not a proper season to try to make peace : attempts that way were more likely to create new rents than to heal the old ones . i shall only touch on one particular , which will shew that when men are disposed to be jealous , they will suspect every thing ; even that which at another time would be thought the most effectual method to prevent or to cure jealousy . princes do commonly prepare the matters which they propose to such assemblies , with the advice of their council : but upon that occasion the king and queen did create a council , by a special commission , of all the bishops who owned their authority , and of the most eminent of the clergy , gathered from the several parts of the kingdom , that they might consider and prepare such things as should be offered by them to the king and queen , that so their majesties might propose these to the convocation . this surely was done in favour of the church . but even this was cried out upon , as a limiting the convocation , with many other hard words , which i do not love to repeat . it did then appear in so many visible instances , that our wounds were then too tender to be either handled or healed ; so it was thought fit to let the matter sleep , and to give no new occasion to heat or animosity . but at the same time to keep the clergy still ready upon call , if there should be any occasion for them during the sessions of parliament ; yet not to charge them with a needless attendance , when the publick occasions put them under so many heavy taxes : it being also observed , that in a hot time all unnecessary assemblies are to be avoided ; for if they have no business one way , they commonly make it another . and now after this short but true and clear account of this matter , what is to be said of the fruitfulness of a man's imagination , who could make so great a book and such heavy complaints for no other cause but this , because by a possession of above an 140 years , founded upon a statute that has been understood at least , by both divines and lawyers , in favour of the crown , ( for i leave the examining the importance of the words of the act to those whose profession leads them to expound them best ) it is at the king's discretion , whether he will allow a convocation to treat of matters or not , and upon a trial his majesty found it not convenient , either to carry the thing further at that time , or to repeat the experiment hitherto , and since he did not intend this , he has thought fit to free them from the charge and trouble of an unprofitable attendance . what is in his discretion to do or not to do , must be left there : but since some do not rightly apprehend his care and kindness in delivering them from a fruitless trouble , it were a great pity that this should be any longer misunderstood ; but that either the clergy should understand the thing as it is truly meant , or that they should return to that toil , of which they were generally so weary not many years ago . upon the whole matter , let men vex themselves as long as they please in fixing the limits of the civil and the ecclesiastical authority , i believe no other will ever be found but this , that the magistrates authority must go to every thing that is not contrary to the law of god ; so that no bounds can be set to it , but those which god himself has set ; and this is of the same extent in spiritual as well as in civil matters ; a law in temporal concerns , that is contrary to the eternal laws of morality , of justice and truth , is void of its self : because it is contrary to a superior authority , which cannot be controul'd by a subaltern . upon the same reasons a law made contrary to any rule in the gospel , that is delivered as a perpetual law binding to all christians , is void of it self , and ought not to be obeyed ; upon this ground , that christ is the king of kings , and the lord of lords ; and no power upon earth can derogate from the authority of his laws , or oblige men to act in opposition to them . in temporal matters the legislature is free and without controul ; yet where this is prudently managed with due regards to those who are subject to it , they will take care to hear all who may be concerned , and consult such bodies whose profession it may be to study the matters that are in agitation before them . but if this should not be observed , though the legislature may be thought in such a case not to be managed with a just care , yet still laws so made must be obeyed , if the matter of them is not unjust or unlawful . in the same manner , it is a method highly becoming those with whom the legislature is lodged , to consult the clergy , either in one or more bodies , or otherwise , as they think fit ; that so all things may be well weighed and duly prepared , before any law is made relating to them ; but if this caution should not be observed , yet unless laws so made are contrary to any of the laws that were given the world by christ and his apostles , they must be submitted to and obeyed : in consequence to the general obligation that lies on all men to be subject to the government by which they are protected ; which is likewise one of the laws of our religion , let every soul be subject to the higher powers . so far i have gone over the main design of this book , and have delivered my sense very freely both of the author's way of handling his matter , and of the design it aims at . i come now in the last place to that in which i my self am more particularly concerned in . the main design of the book is levelled at dr. wake , he is of age and can answer for himself : i will not let my selt into panegyricks ; but this i am sure i may well say , that his whole course of life , since i first knew him , now for seventeen years , has been so exemplary both abroad and at home ; his labours both from the press and in the pulpit , have been so useful and edifying ; and his discharge of his great care has been so eminent , that he had upon these and many more reasons a right to be used with decency and respect , by any who thought fit to write against him . and as to his ambitious designs , i have very particular grounds to clear him of these . he needed no addition to the consideration he was already held in , to recommend him ; and was as free from all aspirings , as others seem to be full of them . the occasion that i had to know this was particular , so that i look on my self as bound in justice to own it in so publick a manner . every body understands at whom that indecent expression is levelled , that he is not the first who has been writ out of his reputation into his preferment ; and must know how unjust it is : for the diverting the town with some mirth does not destroy a reputation that has a deep and solid foundation : but some mens ambition may lead them to write themselves out of their reputation , that a good man ought to value more than all the applauses that can be given either to his industry , learning or wit ; i mean the reputation of writing as becomes an humble and a candid , a modest and a charitable christian. there is a way of writing that runs quite counter to all these , upon which i do heartily wish that this author may make serious reflections . i come now in the last place to consider the treatment that both i my self and my history have met with from him . as to what relates to my self , i let it all go without any sort of answer . i will take no pains to lay open his more disguised strokes and hints , of which there are very many , that , perhaps , few readers will apprehend . but as for my history , i think the supporting of that is of some consequence to the publick ; and therefore i am much more concerned in the pains he is at to undermine the reputation it has gained in the world. besides many very detracting passages , there is one that seems to give a character of the whole , that i will set down in his own words , and then discuss them a little : if the main facts he professes to relate , are right ; if there be no premeditated omissions or disguises of material truths ; no designed compliances with popular mistakes and prejudices ; if that air of impartiality , which at first sight seems to run through the relation , be undissembled , and not only a more artificial way of conveying false principles and characters into the minds of the reader ; if , i say , in these , which are the most essential vertues and beauties of good history , his lordship's labours will bear the test , ( which his lordship's friends do not much doubt ) — though it should after this be granted , that mistakes of a lesser size and importance abound there without number , and particularly that the digressive part of the book has little of exactness in it ; this would not however sink the reputation of the work. it is , what considering the hast of the composure , was not to be wondered at , and may easily be excused . a few lines before , he diverts himself with pretending that i had excused my self from the neglect of the transcriber , upon whom he says , he finds i lay very great blame ; which , by the by , is not to be sound in the letter he cites , but much to the contrary . to which he adds ; and indeed if he stands answerable for all the neglects that are or may be charged , i think very deservedly . and as if all this were not enough to blast that work , he gives two dashes , as intimating thereby , that he had a great et caetera in store behind . the artifice in putting the ifs to so severe a charge , is too baresaced to think it can pass on any man ; all must see what the writer intended in it ; that they should understand the whole period as simple and absolute ; so that this charge against the whole in the main parts of it , as well as against the mistakes of a lesser size , that abound without number , and against the digressive part of the work , as having little exactness in it , is very visibly meant not to be conditional , or as a supposition , but to be full and home : i have reason to take it so , because i find every body else does it ; and if he did not mean it so , the contexture of the whole period is malicious and dishonest both ; and that parenthesis ( which his lordship's friends do not much doubt ) is so poor a reserve , or rather so gross an abuse , that i have not so mean an opinion of the author's sagacity , as not to conclude , that he hoped , as well as that he intended , that his reader should understand him aright , and judge that he put in his ifs as a way of wounding with a little more decency , and to be more secure himself when called upon to justify it . upon so severe an accusation it is fit that i say somewhat in general before i descend to particulars . i confess if those of the church of rome had dealt thus by that work , or if any secret favourers of popery had given them such help , i should not have wondered at it . i have no sort of reason to suspect any thing of that kind to lie under the several attempts that have been made on that work , but very much to the contrary , if common fame sixes it right . if any person intends to write a more correct and a better history of that time , it were very natural for him to endeavour the disparaging the credit of my work , the better to prepare the world for his own . i should not much wonder in that case to see such a continued vehemence against the history of the reformation . but the studying to disgrace it , as this author and others have endeavoured to do , seems to flow from no other principle but meer spleen and ill-nature . i took great pains in writing my first volume , and much more in writing the second , when the good reception that the first had , gave me reason to hope for a more universal assistance ; i made the best use and the gratefullest acknowledgments of all the help that was given me , that i could . i invited all people to it ; almost all the eminent clergy of that time promoted the design . if it can be alledged that i either neglected or stifled any assistance that was offered me , i am then liable to just censure ; since the work was finished i have had some materials sent me in order to a review of that work ; which though they happened to be matters of very little consequence , yet i have laid them all in order by me , that when it is seasonable i may review the whole work ; i have received every thing of this kind in such a manner , as might encourage others to use me with the decencies that becomes such attempts . but if any will animadvert on me publickly without trying the kinder as well as the more christian way of beginning in private with my self , they discover a temper that i will not describe in its true characters . some years ago a rude attack was made upon me , under the disguised name of anthony harmer . his true name is well enough known , as also who was his patron ; who had set those about him , during the late reign , on the design , which one would think was an odd one , chiefly at that time . but i answered that specimen with the firmness that became me , and i charged the writer home to publish all the rest of his reflections : he had intimated that he gave them but the sample , and that he had great store yet in reserve . i told him upon that , i would expect to see him make that good , and bring out all that he had to say , otherwise that must pass for slander and detraction . he did not think fit to write any more on that subject , tho' he was as much sollicited to it by some , as he was provoked to it by my self . he is now at his rest , and therefore i will say no more on the subject . only i will add one singular thing , to teach those who survive and think they are beating out untrodden paths , to write with modesty as well as exactness . i have a whole treatise in my hands , that contains in it only the faults of ten leaves of one of his volumes ; they are indeed so many and so gross , that often the faults are as many as the lines , sometimes they are two for one . there is not only such a gross mistaking of abbreviatures , but even where the manuscript that he copied has the words at large , that no sort of account can be given how these mistakes were made ; for some of them are contrary to many of his most beloved maxims . i have made no use of this , but have it still in my hands to shew it to such as are curious . i have indeed desired the ingenious person that sent it me , to try his exactness upon my self ; and to see what defects , errors , or other faults my history can be justly charged with . from this it may appear , that those who take great liberties with others , and who perhaps think they themselves are safe , because as they have not named themselves , so they have not told where their vouchers are , and how they may be come at , and may hope that few will be at the pains to trace them ; yet they may be very justly censured for errors of another nature than those are with which they charge others ; of which i shall have occasion to give some very eminent instances in this author , but without those unkind and uncharitable comments , in which he allows himself such indecent liberties . it is three and twenty years past since i set first about my history ; i was for three years together at no small pains and charge in searching for materials ; i had no sort of practice in our records before that time . but i was conducted by men who were very knowing in those matters ; these were bishop stillingfleet , sir john marsham the younger , and mr. petyt . i went to every place as they directed me , i consulted them in all difficulties , and was concluded by them : chiefly by the first of them , whose reputation was then very high , and was very deservedly so with relation to those matters . i was indeed put under one great disadvantage : some men of this author's temper possessed that learned and noble gentleman sir john cotton , with such ill impressions of my design in writing the history , that no endeavours whatsoever could conquer them . he stood upon this , that if i could procure a letter either from a secretary of state , or from the archbishop of canterbury , desiring i might be admitted into his library , it should be open to me , but not otherwise . those who had begot the jealousie in him , knew that this was not to be obtained ; so when the present bishop of worcester had tried all his endeavours , but without success to clear this , i o●fered to deliver up all my collections to any who would undertake the work. but that was not accepted of . no care was taken to find one who should write it , but a great deal was used to hinder me from doing it . sir john marsham had free admittance into the library ; so once when the noble owner was out of town , he carried me thither , and i with my amanuenses were for some days hard at work ; but that lasted not long . another worthy gentleman , mr. cary , had the credit to borrow out some books , and i had the use of these . thus i was barred the free use of that unvaluable library , whilst i writ the first volume . indeed as soon as that appeared the honourable owner of it said , he saw ho 〈…〉 d an use i had made of that short stay i was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make there ; so he gave me ever after that , free access to it . but since the first volume was so well received , i made no more use of it with relation to the matters belonging to that time , unless when i was seeking materials for the second volume , i found them in my way . thus i was obstructed in my search by some men of the same temper , i had almost said of the same house with those who have since that time reproached me for that which was not my fault , but theirs . for they who had shut the library against me , concluded that i must have laid aside all thoughts of that work , since without help from thence it was not possible to be well furnished ; and indeed i had not the fourth part of the time that was necessary to examine every thing in it that related to my subject . it cannot be imagined that twenty years being now past since i finished that history , i can carry in my mind all the grounds i went on ; nor can the station and service i am now in , leave it possible for me to go and follow this writer in every thing that he is pleased to quarrel with me for . when he has poured out all he has laid together , i will then be better able to judge , whether it will deserve that i should be at any pains my self , or imploy any other to search after him : for he has given me great cause to conclude , that his exactness is no way to be depended upon . i will single out only one particular , because as it is of the greatest moment , so i seem in my late book on the thirty nine articles to retract what i had admitted in the second volume of my history , that in edward the sixth's time the articles of religion were past in convocation ; but own now , that they were published by the regal authority without mentioning a synodal consent : upon this he gives a long extract of a journal of that convocation that mentions a regular progress of the convocation , with relation to the catechism and articles , both which he acknowledges here and elsewhere , that they went together . he likewise urges the martyr philpot's authority , who when d. weston urged in the convocation 1 marioe , that a catechism was put forth without their consent , answered , that the house had granted an authority to make ecclesiastical laws to certain persons ▪ to be appointed by the king's majesty , and that what was set forth by them might well be said to be done in the synod of london : altho the house had no notice thereof before the promulgation . upon this the writer says , that we have lost the time and circumstances of appointing this committee . howsoever he thinks the whole thing is plain , and so leaves it with one of his usual strains of detraction . yet he did well to set this and the journal at a considerable distance from one another ; for if there is any credit due to that journal , as indeed there is none , for it is a plain forgery , this discourse of philpot's was idle and needless . here i will give a tast of this writer's way of delivering matters , without adding any sharp or aggravating words to it , but from thence his readers will see what judgment is to be made of his collections . in fox , from whom he vouches this at the beginning of philpot's speech , he leaves out those words , that the catechism beareth the title of the last synod of london before this , altho' many of them which then were present , were never made privy thereof in seting it forth . this confession of his ought not to have been suppressed . this matter was handled more particularly when cranmer was before the convocation at oxford , where weston objected to him in these words , also you have set forth a catechism in the name of the synod of london , and yet there be fifty which witnessing that they were of the number of the convocation , never heard one word of this catechism . to which cranmer answered , i was ignorant of the setting to of that title : and as soon as i had knowledg thereof , i did not like it . therefore when i complained thereof to the council , it was answered me by them , that the book was so intitled , because it was set forth in the time of the convocation . and in the interrogatories that were exhibited to him in order to his final censure , the seventh ends , that he did compile , and caused to be set abroad divers books . the last part of his answer set down to this , is thus , as for the catechism , the book of articles , with the other book against winchester , he grants the same to be his doings . this i think decides the point : so that it will admit of no more debate . this author does not know when the commission was to the 32 granted . if he had looked into king edward's journal , he would have seen it was on the 10th of february , very near the end of the year 1552. and if either the words of that journal , or rather of the statute , pursuant to which that commission was issued out , are considered ; it will appear that their power did not extend to matters of faith and worship , but was restrained to the courts , and to proceedings in them . so that it is plain that philpot alledged this , being pressed with an objection , to which he had no other answer ready : he knew there was such a commission , and so he fancied that they had prepared these books . cranmer's sincerity appears in this , as well as in all the other parts of his life ; and indeed the title with which the articles were printed , had a visible ambiguity in it . in latin it is articuli de quibus in synodo londinensi anno dom. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissensionem & consensum veroe religionis sirmandum inter episcopos & alias eruditos viros convenerat . in english : articles agreed upon by the bishops and other godly and learned men , in the last convocation at london , in the year of our lord 1552. to root out the discord of opinion , and establish the agreement of true religion . different from this is the title given to what did indeed pass in convocation ten years after : articles agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces , and the whole clergy , in the convocation holden at london in the year of our lord 1562. it is trifling and unbecoming this author , who writes more to purpose , when his cause will bear it , to prove that because divines in a convocation are in respect called learned men ; that therefore a title importing an agreement between the bishops and other learned men , can be understood as the title of an act pass'd in convocation . the popish bishops , with the rest of that party of the inferior clergy , continued all that reign opposing every thing as long as they might safely do it , but complying with every thing when it was once imposed upon them : which occasioned such stretches to be made , not only against bonner and gardiner , but tonstall , heath , and day . so there is no probability in imagining that any thing of that kind could then have passed in convocation . but in queen elizabeth's time the popish clergy were all turned out ; the act of uniformity was made , and a new sett of reformed bishops and divines was brought in ; and yet it was five years after her accession to the crown , before that convocation met . so this author had not the advantages with which he thought he was furnished to divert his reader , by exposing me on this account . this was a matter of such consequence , that i thought it necessary to give a truer view of it than this writer had done . i hope in this enough is said to oblige both himself to be more cautious and modest for the future , and his readers not to receive all he says too implicitly . i have found him as much out in several other of his allegations against me ; but if i should mention only a few of these , and not go through with them all , it would look as if i had justified my self as far as i could , and had yielded up all the rest . therefore since i cannot go through with all , i resolve to let all alone , till i see the utmost that he can bring out against me : and then i will make the best use of it i can , either to vindicate my self , or to confess mistakes as soon as i am convinced of them , how little soever of decency or of christianity there may be in the manner of offering it to me . i wish this author would reflect with some measure of impartial seriousness , as in the presence of that god by whom he must be judged for this as well as all the other parts of his life , on the temper he was in , on the end he pursued , and on the spirit that acted him while he writ his book . sudden emotions are capable of excuses , but such a continued course of spite and malice seems scarce capable of any . i pray god give him a just sense of it . and so i have done with his ill-natur'd book , with as little loss of time as was possible ; i could not meddle with it before i came hither , where my papers and references lie ; and i have been but four days at home when i end this ; so much haste have i made to get rid of an unpleasant imployment ; but it seemed necessary , and there i leave it . i pray god pour out another spirit upon his church , and teach us all in this our day , to know the things that belong to our peace : for how secure soever we may be in our present quiet , the evil day is perhaps not so far from us as some may imagine . the more we are divided among our selves , the less able will we be to bear what we must then look for . but without any other enemy , if we bite and devour one another , we shall be consumed one of another . the black view that we may justly have from the impieties , and other abominations that abound among us , seem to call upon us to put on other tempers , and act by other principles , and with another spirit , and to seek for the things that make for peace , and things wherewith one may edify another . salisbury , the 25th of may , 1700. finis . books printed for r. chiswell . bishop patrick's commentary on genesis , exodus , leviticus , numbers , and deuteronomy , in five volumes , 4o. wharton's serm in lambeth-chapel , 2 vol. 8º with his life . the 2d edit . 1700. dr. conant's sermons , in two vol. 8o. published by bishop williams . dr. wake of preparation for death . the 6th edition . 1699. dr. fryer's 9 years travel 's into india and persia , with copper-plates . fol. 1698. bishop williams , of the lawfulness of worshipping god by the common-prayer . with several other discourses mr tulley's disc of the government of the thoughts . the 3d edit 12o. 1699. the life of henry chichele , archbishop of canterbury , in which there is a particular relation of many remarkable passages in the reigns of henry v. and vi. kings of england : written in latin by arthur duck , l. l. d. chancellor of the diocess of london , and advocate of the court of honour ; now made english , and a table of contents annexed . 8o. 1699. the judgment of the ancient jewish church against the unitarians , in the controversy upon the holy trinity , and the divinity of our blessed saviour . with a table of matters , and a table of texts of scriptures occasionally explained , by peter alix , d. d. short memorials of thomas lord fairfax written by himself published , 1699. the life of john whitgift archbishop of canterbury , in the times of queen elizabeth and king james i. written by sir geo paul , comptroler of his grace's houshold . to which is annexed a treatise intituled , [ conspiracy for pretended reformation , ] written in the year 1591. by richard cosin , l l. d. dean of the arches , and official principal to arch-bishop whitgift 8º , 1699. an exposition of the 39 articles of the church of england , by dr. burnet bishop of sarum fol ▪ 1700. — his sermon to the societies for reformation of manners . mar. 25. 1700. a practical discourse of religious assemblles ; by dr. william sherlock , dean of st. pauls . the 3d edition . 1700. a treatise concerning the causes of the present corruption of christians , and the remedies thereof 1700. archbishop tillotson's eighth volume , being several discourses of repentance , viz. the necessity of repentance and faith. of confessing and forsaking sin , in order to pardon . of confession , and sorrow for sin. the unprofitableness of sin in this life , an argument for repentance . the shamefulness of sin , an argument for repentance . the final issue of sin , an argument for repentance . the present and future advantage of an holy and vi●tuous life . the nature and necessity of holy resolution . the nature and necessity of restitution the usefulness of consideration , in order to repentance . the danger of impenitence , where the gospel is preach●d . in the press . the fourth and last part of mr. rushworth's historical collections . containing the principal matters which happen'd from the beginning of the year 1645 ( where the third part ended ) to the death of king charles the first , 1648. impartially related : setting forth only matter of fact in order of time , without observation or reflection . ●●●●ed for the press in his life-time . to which will be added , exact alphabetical tables . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30402-e130 * the preface to author ▪ of christian princes , p. ult . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p 105 , 148 , 152 , 24● p. 307. p. 102. p. 243. p. 263. p. 377. p. 196. p. 197. 〈◊〉 3 vo. p. 80. fox . p. 657. the life of god in the soul of man, or, the nature and excellency of the christian religion with the method of attaining the happiness it proposes : and an account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life : in two letters written to persons of honour. scougal, henry, 1650-1678. 1677 approx. 151 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 74 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a58838 wing s2101 estc r2701 12412733 ocm 12412733 61575 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a58838) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 61575) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 292:1) the life of god in the soul of man, or, the nature and excellency of the christian religion with the method of attaining the happiness it proposes : and an account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life : in two letters written to persons of honour. scougal, henry, 1650-1678. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [19], 128 p. printed for charles smith ... and william jacob ..., london : 1677. attributed to henry scougal. cf. halkett & laing (2nd ed.). preface signed: gilbert burnet. errata: p. [19]. reproduction of original in yale university library. imperfect: "an account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life" is lacking in filmed copy. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of 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remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng christian life -early works to 1800. 2000-00 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2001-10 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2001-00 tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread 2001-11 tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion imprimatur , g. jane . aug. 18. 1676. the life of god in the soul of man. or , the nature and exceliency of the christian religion ; with the method of attaining the happiness it proposes . and an account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life . in two letters written to persons of honour . eph. 4. 18. alienated from the life of god. gal. 2. 20. i am crucified with christ ; nevertheless i live , yet not i , but christ liveth in me . rom. 8. 14. for as many as are led by the spirit of god , they are the sons of god. london , printed for charles smith at the angel near the inner-temple-gate in fleet-street ; and william jacob at the black-swan next bernards inn in holbourn , 1677. preface . this age grones under such a surcharge of new books , that though the many good ones lately published do much ballance the great swarms of ill , or at least needless ones ; yet all men complain of the unnecessary charge and trouble many new books put them to : the truth of it is , printing is become a trade , and the presses must be kept going , so that if it were but to shufle out an ill book , a man may be tempted to keep them at work . and for books of devotion and piety , we have seen so many excellent ones of late in our own language , that perhaps no age or language can shew the like ; in these the christian religion is proposed in its own true and natural colours , and rescued from those salse representations many are apt to make of it : as if it consisted either in external performances , or in mechanical heats of the fancy , or in embracing some opinions or interests . it is and can be nothing else but a design to make us like god both in the inward temper of our minds , and in our whole deportment and conversation . for this end did christ both live and dye ; this he taught by his discourses , and discovered in his life . he died that he might take away sin , not only or chiefly to procure our pardon , which was done by him for a further end ; that a universal indempnity being offered through his death , all mankind might be thereby encouraged to enter into a course of holy obedience with all possible advantages , having the hopes of endless happiness , and the fears of eternal miseries before them : having the clearest rule , and the most unblemished example proposed to them ; being also sure of constant inward supplies to support and strengthen their endeavours , and an unerring providence to direct all things that concern them . nor are there any precepts in this whole doctrine , whose fitness and true excellency , besides the authority of the law-giver , has not been fully made good . and the truth of the principles of natural religion , and of the revelation of the council of god in scripture was never since miracles ceased , demonstrated with fuller and clearer evidence then in our age , both for stopping the mouths of all daring hectors , and for silencing the secret doubtings of more inquisitive minds . and though so grave a subject should have been rather prejudiced then adorned by artificial and forced strains of wit or eloquence , yet as our language was never chaster than now , so these subjects have been handled with all the proper decencies of easie wit and good language . but after all this , into what a torrent of regrates and lamentations must me break out , when we consider the age we live in . for few do either believe or reflect on those great things . and as if there were a general conspiracy against god and religion , how does the greater part among us break loose from all the ties and bonds of that yoke that is light and casie , and inslave themselves to many base and hurtful lusts and passions : and are not satisfied with being as bad as they can be , but desire that all the world may esteem them such , and glory in their shame ; and inhance their guilt by turning factors for hell , studying to corrupt all about them . this sad prospect must needs deeply affect all that either truly love god , or have a tender compassion for the souls of men , and will certainly set them to their secret mournings and wrestlings with god to avert the heavy judgments that seem to hang over our heads ; and that he may of his great mercy turn the hearts of the froward and disobedient to the wisdom of the just . and till god arise and bless his gospel with more of this success , nothing could be such an effectual mean for convincing the world of the truth and excellence of our most holy faith , as that those who profess and embrace it did walk in all the strictness of a most holy innocent and exemplary life ; keeping the due mean between the affectation of morossness and hypocrisie , and the levities of irreligion and folly . this is the only argument that is wanting to convince the world of the truth of our religion ; all people are more wrought on by lively examples set before their eyes , than by any discourses or reasonings how strong or convincing soever . the one is more easily apprehended , and leaves a deeper impression then the other , which does not prevail on us till by frequent and serious reflections we be satisfied about them , and when we hear any one speak well , we are not assured he thinks as he says , but do often suspect he is shewing his wit or eloquence to our cost , that he may perswade us into some opinions that may prove gainful to himself : but when we see a man pursuing a constant course of holiness in the most painful instances which do most prejudice his visible interests , we have all reason to believe he is in good earnest perswaded of those truths which engage him to such a conversation . after the ages of miracles , nothing prevailed so much on the world as the exemplary lives and the painful martyrdoms of the christians , which made all sorts of people look with amazement on that doctrine that wrought so powerfully on all ranks , and did raise persons of the meanest educations and dispositions , and of the weaker sex and tenderer age ; to do and suffer beyond what their greatest heroes and most celebrated philosophers had ever done . and in those days the apologists for the christian religion did appeal to the lives of the christians to prove their doctrine holy , concluding that there could be nothing but good in that doctrine that made all its votaries such . but alas ! when we write apologies we must appeal from the lives of most that pretend to be religious , to the rules and precepts of our most holy faith , and must decline the putting the trial of christianity upon that issue ; and though thanks be to god there are beautiful and shining instances of the power of religion among us , yet alas there be too few of them , and they lie hid in a vast mixture of others that are naught . the two great prejudices the tribe of libertines and ruffians are hardned in against religion , are 1. that they do not see those that profess they believe the truths of religion , live like men that do so in good earnest : and i have known them say , that did they believe the great god governed all humane affairs , and did know all we do , and were to call us to an account for it , and reward or punish accordingly in an endless and inchangeable state , they could not live as the greater part of christians do , but would presently renounce all the vanities and follies of this world , and give themselves up wholly to a holy and exact course of life . the other prejudice is , that for those in whose deportment they find little to blame , yet they have great cause of suspecting there is some hid design under it , which will break out when there is a fit opportunity for it . and they conclude , that such persons are either secretly as bad as others , only disguising it by a decenter deportment , or that all they do is a force upon themselves for some secret end or other . and if there be some on whom they can fasten neither of these ( as it is hardly possible but one that is resolved to possess himself with prejudices , will either find or pretend some colours for them ) then at last they judge such persons are moross and sulien , and find either from the disposition of their body or their education as much satisfaction in their sour gravity , as others do in all their wanton and extravagant follies . these prejudices , especially the first , must be discussed by real confutations , and the strict conduct of our lives , as well as our grave and solemn devotions must shew we are over-ruled by a strong belief of the authority of that law which governs our whole actions . nor will our abstaining from gross immoralities be argument enough , since even decency may prevail so far ( though alas never so little as now when fools do so generally mock at the shame and sense of sin , as if that were only the peevishness of a strict and illiberal education ) but we must abstain from all those things that are below the gravity of a christian , and strengthen a corrupt generation in their vices . what signifies endless gaming , especially when joined with so much avarice and passion as accompany it generally , but that people know not to dispose of their time , and therefore must play it away idly at best . what shall be said of those constant crouds at plays ( especially when the stage is so defiled with atheism , and all sorts of immorality ) but that so many persons know not how to fill up so many hours of the day , and therefore this contrivance must serve to wast them , and they must feed their eyes and ears with debauching objects , which will either corrupt their minds , or at least fill their imaginations with very unpleasant and hateful representations . as if there were not a sufficient growth of ill thoughts ready to spring up within us , but this must be cultivated and improved by art. what are those perpetual visits in the giving or receiving of which most spend the better half of the time in which they are awake : and how trifling at best , but generally how hurtful the discourses that pass in those visits are , i leave to those who live in them to declare . how much time is spent in vain dressing , ( not to mention those indecent arts of painting , and other contrivances to corrupt the world ) and all either to feed vanity or kindle lust . and after all this , many that live in these things desire to be thought good christians , are constant to church and frequent at the sacrament . what wonder then if our libertines seeing such things in persons that pass for very religious , and having wit enough to discern that such a deportment does not agree with the belief of an account to be made for all we do , conclude they do not believe that , otherwise they would not behave themselves as they do . some failures now and then could not justifie such an inference , but a habit and course of those things is an argument against the reality of that belief which i confess i cannot answer . but when we have got so far as to escape those things that are blame-worthy , it is far from being all we must aim at ; it is not enough not to be ill ; we must be good , and express it in all the instances which our state of life and circumstances call for . doing good to all , forgeving injuries , comforting all in trouble , supplying the necessities of the poor ; but chiefly studying to advance the good of all peoples souls as much as we can ; improving whatever interest we have in any persons to this end of raising them to a sense of god and another life ; the chief motive we offer to this , being the unaffected strictness of our own deportment , which will make all our discourses have the greater weight and force in them . and for the other prejudices , it is true , there is no fence or security against jealousie , yet we ought carefully to avoid every thing may be an occasion of it , as all secret converse with suspected persons , the doing any thing that without sin we may forbear , which is singular , or may bring a dis-esteem on others , or make us be observed or talked of : and in a word , to shun all forced gestures , or modes of speech , and every thing that is not native and genuine . for let men think what they will , nothing that is constrained can ever become so natural , but it will appear loathsome and affected to others : which must needs afford matter of jealousie and dis-esteem , especially to all prying and critical observers . were there many who did live thus , the atheists would be more convinced , at least more ashamed and out of countenance then the most learned writings or laboured sermons will ever make them : especially if a spirit of universal love and goodness did appear more among christians , and those factions and animosities were laid aside , which both weaken the inward vitals of holiness , and expose them to the scorn of their adversaries , and make them an easie prey to every aggressor . there is scarce a more unaccountable thing to be imagined , then to see a company of men professing that religion , a great and main precept whereof is mutual love , forbearance , gentleness of spirit , and compassion to all sorts of persons , and agreeing in all the essential parts of that doctrine , differing only in some less material and more disputable things , yet maintain those differences with a zeal so disproportioned to the value of them , prosecuting all that disagree from them with all possible violence , or if they want means to use outward force , with all bitterness of spirit . this must needs astonish every impartial beholder , and raise great prejudices against those persons religious , as made up of contradictions , professing love , but breaking out in all the acts of hatred . but the deep sense i have of these things has carried me too far , my design in this preface being only to introduce the following discourse , which was written by a pious and learned countreyman of mine , for the private use of a noble friend of his , without the least design of making it more publick . others seeing it , were much taken both with the excellent purposes it contained , and the great clearness and pleasantness of the stile , the natural method and the shortness of it , and desired it might be made a more publick good . and knowing some interest i had with the author , it was referred to me , whether it should lye in a private closet , or be let go abroad . i was not long in suspence , having read it over , and the rather knowing so well as i do , that the author has written out nothing here but what he himself did well feel and know , and therefore it being a transcript of those divine impressions that are upon his own heart , i hope the native and unforced genuineness of it will both more delight and edifie the reader . i know those things have been often discoursed with great advantages both of reason , wit and eloquence , but the more witnesses that concurr in sealing these divine truths with their testimonies , the more evidence is thereby given . it was upon this account that the author having seen a letter written by a friend of his to a person of great honour , but of far greater worth , of the rise and progress of a spiritual life ( wherein as there were many things which he had not touched so in those things of which they both discourse , the harmony was so great , that he believed they would mutually strengthen one another ) was earnest with his friend that both might go abroad together , and the other pressing him to let his discourse be published , he would not yield to it unless he granted the same consent for his . and so the reader has both , the one after the other , which he is desired to peruse with some degrees of the same seriousness in which they were both penned , and then it is presumed he will not repent him of his pains . errata . p. 23. l. 4. for is read are . p. 76. l. 20 , for but r. when . p. 81. l. ult , after be r. as . page 5. l. 8 for love r. have . p 6. l. 19. put a point after it , p. 16. l. 7. for implored r. imployed . p. 19. l. 26. for calumnies r. calmness . p. 26. l. 5. dele as and r. it after that . p. 29. l. 25. for forced r. formed . p. 59. for of r. as . the life of god in the soul of man. my dear friend , this designation doth give you a title to all the endeavours whereby i can serve your interests ; and your pious inclinations do so happily conspire with my duty , that i shall not need to step out of my road to gratifie you ; but i may at once perform an office of friendship , and discharge an exercise of my function , since the advancing of virtue and holiness ( which i hope you make your greatest study ) is the peculiar business of my imployment : this therefore is the most proper instance wherein i can vent my affection , and express my gratitude towards you , and i shall not any longer delay the performance of what promise i made you to this purpose : for though i know you are provided with better helps of this nature , then any i can offer you ; nor are you like to meet with any thing here which you knew not before , yet i am hopeful , that what cometh from one whom you are pleased to honour with your friendship , and which is more particularly designed for your use , will be kindly accepted by you , and god's providence perhaps may so direct my thoughts , that something or other may prove useful to you . nor shall i doubt your pardon , if for moulding my discourse into the better frame , i lay a low foundation , beginning with the nature , and properties of religion , and all along give such way to my thoughts in the prosecution of the subject , as may bring me to say many things which were not necessary , did i onely consider to whom i am writing . i cannot speak of religion , but i must regrate that among so many pretenders to it , so few understand what it means ; some placing it in the understanding , in orthodox notions and opinions , and all the account they can give of their religion , is that they are of this or the other perswasion , and have joyn'd themselves to one of those many sects whereinto christendom is most unhappily divided : others place it in the outward man , in a constant course of external duties , and a model of performances , if they live peaceably with their neighbours , keep a temperate dyet , observe the returns of worship , frequenting the church , or their closet , and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor , they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves : others again put all religion in the affections , in rapturous heats , and extatick devotion , and all they aim at , is to pray with passion , and think of heaven with pleasure , and to be affected with those kinde , and melting expressions wherewith they court their saviour , till they perswade themselves that they are mightily in love with him , and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation , which they esteem the chief of christian graces . thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety , and at the best are but means for obtaining it , or particular exercises of it , frequently mistaken for the whole of religion : nay sometimes wickedness and vice pretends to that name ; i speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods ; there are but too many christians who would consecrate their vices , and hallow their corrupt affections , whose rugged humour , and sullen pride must pass for christian severity , whose fierce wrath , and bitter rage against their enemies must be called holy zeal , whose petulancy toward their superiours , or rebellion against their governours must have the name of christian courage and resolution . but certainly religion is quite another thing , and they who are acquainted with it , will entertain far different thoughts , and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it : they know by experience that true religion is an union of the soul with god , a real participation of the divine nature , the very image of god drawn upon the soul , or in the apostle's phrase , it is christ formed within us . briefly , i know not how the nature of religion can be more fully expressed than by calling it a divine life ; and under these terms i shall discourse of it , shewing first how it is called a life , and then how it is termed divine . i choose to express it by the name of life , first because of its permanency and stability : religion is not a sudden start , or passion of the mind , not though it should rise to the height of a rapture , and seem to transport a man to extraordinary performances . there are few but have convictions of the necessity of doing something for the salvation of their souls , which may push them forward some steps , with a great deal of seeming hast ; but anon they flagg and give over ; they were in hot mood , but now they are cooled ; they did shoot forth fresh and high , but are quickly withered , because they had no root in themselves . these sudden fits may be compared to the violent and convulsive motions of bodies newly beheaded , caused by the agitations of the animal spirits , after the soul is departed , which however violent and impetuous , can be of no long continuance ; whereas the motions of holy souls are constant and regular , proceeding from a permanent , and lively principle . it is true , this divine life continueth not alwayes in that same strength and vigour , but many times suffers sad decays , and holy men find greater difficulty in resisting temptations , and less alacrity in the performance of their duties ; yet it is not quite extinguished , nor are they abandoned to the power of these corrupt affections , which sway and over-rule the rest of the world . again , religion may be designed by the name of life , because it is an inward , free , and self-moving principle , and those who have made progress in it , are not acted only by external motives , driven meerly by threatnings , nor bribed by promises , nor constrain'd by laws ; but are powerfully inclined to that which is good , and delight in the performance of it : the love which a pious man carries to god , and goodness , is not so much by vertue of a command enjoyning him so to do , as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to it ; nor doth he pay his devotions , as an unavoidable tribute only to appease the divine justice , or quiet his clamorous conscience ; but those religious exercises are the proper emanations of the divine life , the natural employments of the new born soul ; he prayes and gives thanks , and repents , not only because these things are commanded , but rather because he is sensible of his wants , and of the divine goodness , and of the folly and misery of a sinful life ; his charity is not forced , nor his alms extorted from him , his love makes him willing to give ; and though there were no outward obligation , his heart would devise liberal things : injustice or intemperance , and all other vices , are as contrary to his temper , and constitution , as the basest actions are to the most generous spirit , and impudence and scurrility to those who are naturally modest : so that i may well say with st. john , whosoever is born of god doth not commit sin : for his seed remaineth in him , and he cannot sin because he is born of god. though holy and religious persons do much eye the law of god , and have a great regard unto it , yet is it not so much the sanction of the law , as its reasonableness , and purity and goodness which doth prevail with them ; they account it excellent and desirable in its self , and that in keeping of it there is great reward : and that divine love wherewith they are acted , makes them become a law unto themselves . quis legem det amantibus ? major est amor lex ipse sibi . for who can give a law to those that love ? love 's a more powerful law which doth such persons move . in a word , what our blessed saviour said of himself , is in some measure applicable to his followers , that it 's their meat and drink to do their father's will : and as the natural appetite is carried out toward food , though we should not reflect on the necessity of it for the preservation of our lives ; so are they carried with a natural and unforced propension toward that which is good and commendable . it is true , external motives are many times of great use to excite and stir up this inward principle , especially in its infancy and weakness , when it 's often so languid , that the man himself can scarce discern it , hardly being able to move one step forward , but when he is pusht by his hopes , or his fears , by the pressure of an affliction , or the sense of a mercy , by the authority of the law , or the perswasion of others : now if such a person be conscientious and uniform in his obedience , and earnestly groaning under the sense of his dulness , and is desirous to perform his duties with more spirit , and vigor : these are the first motions of the divine life , which though it be faint , and weak , will surely be cherished by the influences of heaven , and grow unto greater maturity : but he who is utterly destitute of this inward principle , and doth not aspire unto it , but contents himself with those performances whereunto he is prompted by education or custom , by the fear of hell , or carnal notions of heaven , can no more be accounted a religious person , than a puppit can be call'd a man. this forced and artificial religion is commonly heavy and languid , like the motion of a weight forced upward , it is cold and spritless , like the uneasie complyance of a wife married against her will , who carries dutifully toward the husband whom she doth not love , out of some sense of virtue or honour : hence also this religion is scant and niggardly , especially in those duties which do greatest violence to mens carnal inclinations , and those slavish spirits will be sure to do no more , than is absolutely required , 't is a law that compels them , and they will be loath to go beyond what it stints them to , nay , they will ever be putting such glosses on it , as may leave themselves the greatest liberty ; whereas the spirit of true religion is franck and liberal , far from such peevish and narrow reckoning ; and he who hath given himself intirely unto god will never think he doth too much for him . by this time i hope it doth appear , that religion is with a great deal of reason termed a life or vital principle , and that it 's very necessary to distinguish betwixt it , and that obedience which is constrained , and depends on external causes : i come next to give an account why i designed it by the name of divine life , and so it may be called , not only in regard of its fountain and original , having god for its author , and being wrought in the souls of men by the power of his holy spirit ; but also in regard of its nature , religion being a resemblance of the divine perfections , the image of the almighty shining in the soul of man : nay it is a real participation of his nature , it is a beam of the eternal light , a drop of that infinite ocean of goodness , and they who are eudued with it , may be said to have god dwelling in their souls , and christ formed within them . before i descend to a more particular consideration of that divine life wherein true religion doth consist , it will perhaps be fit to speak a little of that natural or animal life which prevails in those who are strangers to the other : and by this i understand nothing else , but our inclination and propension toward those things which are pleasing and acceptable to nature : or self-love issuing forth and spreading it self into as many branches as men have several appetites and inclinations : the root and foundation of the animal life i reckon to be sense taking it largely , as it is opposed unto faith , and importeth our perception and resentment of things , that are either grateful or troublesom unto us . now those animal affections considered in themselves , and as they are implanted in us by nature , are not vitious or blameable ; nay they are instances of the wisdom of the creator furnishing his creatures with such appetites as tend to the preservation and welfare of their lives : these are instead of a law unto the brute beasts , whereby they are directed towards the ends for which they were made ; but man being made for higher purposes , and to be guided by more excellent laws , becomes guilty and criminal when he is so far transported by the inclinations of this lower life , as to violate his duty , or neglect the higher and more noble designs of his creation : our natural affections are not wholly to be extirpated and destroyed , but only to be moderated and over-ruled by a superiour and more excellent principle : in a word , the difference betwixt a religious and wicked man , is , that in the one the divine life bears sway , in the other the animal doth prevail . but it is strange to observe unto what different courses this natural principle will sometimes carry those who are wholy guided by it , according to the divers circumstances that concur with it to determine them : and the not considering this doth frequently occasion very dangerous mistakes , making men think well of themselves by reason of that seeming difference which is betwixt them and others , whereas perhaps their actions do all the while flow from one and the same original . if we consider the natural temper , and constitution of mens souls , we shall find some to be airie , frolick and light , which makes their behaviour extravagant and ridiculous ; whereas others are naturally serious and severe , and their whole carriage composed into such gravity as gains them a great deal of reverence and esteem : some are of an humurous , rugged , and morose temper , and can neither be pleased themselves , nor endure that others should be so ; but all are not born under such sowre and unhappy stars , for some persons have a certain sweetness and benignity rooted in their natures , and they find the greatest pleasure in the endearments of society , and the mutual complacency of friends , and covet nothing more than to have every body obliged to them : and it is well that nature hath provided this complectional tenderness to supply the defect of true charity in the world , and to incline men to do something for one another's welfare . again , in regard of education some have never been taught to follow any other rules , than those of pleasure or advantage ; but others are so enured to observe the strictest rules of decency and honour , and some instances of virtue , that they are hardly capable of doing any thing which they have been accustom'd to look upon as base and unworthy . in fine , it is no small difference in the deportment of meer natural men that doth arise from the strength or weakness of their wit or judgment , and from their care or negligence in using them : intemperance , and lust : injustice and oppression , and all those other impieties which abound in the world , and render it so miserable , are the issues of self-love , the effects of the animal life , when it is neither over-powered by religion , nor govern'd by natural reason ; but if it once take hold of reason , and get judgment and wit to be of its party , it will many times disdain the grosser sort of vices , and spring up unto fair imitations of virtue and goodness : if a man have but so much reason as to consider the prejudice which intemperance and inordinate lust doth bring unto his health , his fortune and his reputation , self-love may suffice to restrain him : and one may observe the rules of moral justice in dealing with others , as the best way to secure his own interest , and maintain his credit in the world . but this is not all , this natural principle by the help of reason may take a higher flight , and come nigher the instances of piety and religion : it may incline a man to the diligent study of divine truths : for why should not these as well as other speculations be pleasant and grateful to curious and inquisitive humors : it may make men zealous in maintaining and propagating such opinions as they have espoused , and be very desirous that others should submit unto their judgment , and approve the choice of religion , which themselves have made : it may make them delight to hear and compose excellent discourses about the matters of religion ; for eloquence is very pleasant whatever be the subject : nay some it may dispose to no small height of sensible devotion : the glorious things that are spoken of heaven may make even a carnal heart in love with it : the metaphors and similitudes made use of in scripture of crowns and scepters , and rivers of pleasure , &c. will easily affect a man's fancy , and make him wish to be there , though he neither understand nor desire those spiritual pleasures which are described and shadowed forth by these : and when such a person comes to believe that christ has purchased these glorious things for him , he may feel a kind of tenderness and affection towards so great a benefactor , and imagine that he is mightily inamoured of him , and yet all the while continue a stranger to the holy temper and spirit of the blessed jesus , and so instead of a deity he may imbrace a cloud : and what hand the natural constitution may have in the rapturous devotions of some melancholy persons , hath been excellently discovered of late by several learned and judicious pens . to conclude , there is nothing proper to make a man's life pleasant , or himself eminent and conspicuous in the world , but this natural principle assisted by wit & reason may prompt him to it : and tho i do not condemn these things in themselves , yet it concerns us nearly to know and consider their nature , both that we may keep within due bounds , and also that we may learn never to value our selves , on the account of such attainments , nor lay the stress of religion upon our natural appetites or performances . it is now time to return to the consideration of that divine life whereof i was discoursing before , that life which is hid with christ in god , and therefore hath no glorious shew or appearance in the world , and to the natural spirit will seem a mean and insipid notion . as the animal life consisteth in that narrow and confined love which is terminated on a mans self , and in his propension towards those things that are pleasing to nature ; so the divine life stands in an universal and unbounded affection , and in the mastery over our natural inclinations , that they may never be able to betray us to those things which we know to be blamable : the root of the divine life is faith , the chief branches are love to god , charity to man , purity , and humility : for ( as an excellent person hath well observed ) however these names be common and vulgar , and make no extraordinary sound , yet do they carry such a mighty sence , that the tongue of man or angel can pronounce nothing more weighty or excellent . faith hath the same place in the divine life which sense hath in the natural , being indeed nothing else , but a kind of sense , or feeling perswasion of spiritual things : it extends it self unto all divine truths ; but in our lapsed estate , it hath a peculiar relation to the declarations of god's mercy and reconcileableness to sinners through a mediator , and therefore receiving its denomination from that principal object is ordinarily termed , faith in jesus christ. the love of god is a delightful and affectionate sence of the divine perfections , which makes the soul resign and sacrifice it self wholly unto him , desiring above all things to please him , and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with him , and being ready to do or suffer any thing for his sake , or at his pleasure : though this affection may have its first rise from the favours and mercies of god toward our selves , yet doth it in its growth and progress transcend such particular considerations , and ground it self on his infinite goodness manifested in all the works of creation and providence . a soul thus possessed with divine love , must needs be inlarged towards all mankind in a sincere and unbounded , affection because of the relation they carry unto god being his creatures , and having something of his image stamped upon them : and this is that charity i named as the second branch of religion , and under which all the parts of justice , all the duty 's we owe to our neighbour are eminently comprehended : for he who doth truly love all the world will be nearly concerned in the interests of every one , and so far from wronging or injuring any person , that he will resent any evil that befals to others , as if it happened to himself . by purity , i understand a due abstractedness from the body , and mastery over the inferiour appetites : or such a temper and disposition of mind , as makes a man despise & abstain from all pleasures and delights of sence or fancy which are sinful in themselves , or tend to extinguish or lessen our relish of more divine and intellectual pleasures , which doth also infer a resoluteness to undergo all those hardships he may meet with in the performance of his duty : so that not only chastity and temperance , but also christian courage and magnanimity may come under this head . humility imports a deep sence of our own meanness , with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the divine bounty , which is alwayes accompanied with a profound submission to the will of god , and great deadness toward the glory of the world , and applause of men . these are the highest perfections that either men or angels are capable of , the very foundation of heaven laid in the soul , and he who hath attain'd them needs not desire to pry into the hidden rolls of god's decrees , or search the volumes of heaven to know what 's determined about his everlasting condition , but he may find a copy of god's thoughts concerning him written in his own breast : his love to god may give him assurance of god's favour to him , and those beginnings of happiness which he feels in the conformity of the powers of his soul to the nature of god , and compliance with his will , is a sure pledge that his felicity shall be perfected , and continued unto all eternity : and it is not without reason that one said , i had rather see the real impressions of a god-like nature upon my own soul , then have a vision from heaven , or an angel sent to tell me that my name were inroll'd in the book of life . when we have said all that we can , the secret mysteries of a new nature , and divine life can never be sufficiently expressed , language and words cannot reach them ; nor can they be truly understood but by those souls that are enkindled within , and awakened unto the sense and relish of spiritual things , there is a spirit in man , and the inspiration of the almighty giveth this understanding : the power and life of religion may be better expressed in actions than in words , because actions are more lively things , and do better represent the inward principle whence they proceed , and therefore we may take the best measure of those gracious indowments , from the deportment of those in whom they reside , especially as they are perfectly exemplified in the holy life of our blessed saviour , a main part of whose business in this world was to teach by his practise what he did require of others , and to make his own conversation an exact resemblance of those unparalell'd rules which he prescribed : so that if ever true goodness was visible to mortal eyes , it was then when his presence did beautifie and illustrate this lower world . that sincere and devout affection wherewith his blessed soul did constantly burn toward his heavenly father , did express it self in an intire resignation to his will , it was this was his very meat to do the will , and finish the work of him that sent him ; this was the exercise of his childhood , and the constant imployment of his riper age ; he spared no travail or pains while he was about his father's business , but took such infinite content and satisfaction in the performance of it , that when being faint and weary with his journey he rested him on jacob's well , and intreated a drink of the samaritane woman , the success of his conference with her , and the accession that was made to the kingdom of god , filled his mind with such delight , as seemed to have redounded to his very body , refreshing his spirits , and making him forget the thirst whereof he complain'd before , and refuse the meat which he had sent the disciples to buy : nor was he less patient and submissive in suffering the will of god , then diligent in doing of it : he endured the sharpest afflictions , and extreamest miseries that ever were inflicted on any mortal , without a-repining thought , or discontented word : for tho he was far from a stupid insensibility , or a phantastick or stoical obstinacy , and had as quick a sense of pain as other men , and the deepest apprehension of what he was to suffer in his soul ( as his bloody sweat , and the sore amazement and sorrow which he profest do abundantly declare ) yet did he intirely submit to that severe dispensation of providence , and willingly acquiesced in it . and he prayed to god , that if it were possible ( or as one of the evangelists hath , if he were willing ) that cup might be removed ; yet he gently added , nevertheless not my will but thine be done . of what strange importance are the expressions , joh. 12. 27. where he first acknowledgeth the anguish of his spirit ( now is my soul troubled ) which would seem to produce a kind of demurre , ( and what shall i say , ) and then he goes to deprecate his sufferings , ( father , save me from this hour ; ) which he had no sooner uttered , but he doth , as it were , on second thoughts recall it in these words , but for this cause came i into the world ; and concludes , father glorifie thy name . now we must not look on this as any levity , or blameable weakness in the blessed jesus , he knew all along what he was to suffer , and did most resolutely undergo it ; but it shews ns the unconceiveable weight and pressure that he was to bear , which being so afflicting and contrary to nature , he could not think of without terrour ; yet considering the will of god , and the glory which was to redound to him from thence , he was not only content but desirous to suffer it . another instance of his love to god , was his delight in conversing with him by prayer , which made him frequently retire himself from the world , and with the greatest devotion and pleasure spend whole nights in that heavenly exercise , though he had no sins to confess , and but few secular interests to pray for ; which alas ! are almost the only things that are wont to drive us to our devotions : nay , we may say his whole life was a kind of prayer , a constant course of communion with god : if the sacrifice was not alwayes offering , yet was the fire still kept alive : nor was ever the blessed jesus surprized with that dulness or tepidity of spirit which we must many times wrestle with , before we can be fit for the exercise of devotion . in the second place i should speak of his love and charity toward men ; but he who would express it , must transcribe the history of the gospel , and comment upon it , for scarce any thing is recorded to have been done or spoken by him which was not designed for the good and advantage of some one or other ; all his miraculous works were instances of his goodness as well as his power , and they benefited those on whom they were wrought , as well as they amazed the beholders . his charity was not confined to his kindred , or relations ; nor was all his kindness swallowed up in the endearments of that peculiar friendship which he carried toward the beloved disciple , but every one was his friend who obeyed his holy commands , joh. 15. 4. and whosoever did the will of his father , the same was to him as his brother , and sister and mother . never was any unwelcom to him who came with an honest intention , nor did he deny any request which tended to the good of those that asked it : so what was spoken of that roman emperour , whom for his goodness they called the darling of mankind , was really performed by him , that never any departed from him with a heavy countenance , except that rich youth , mark 10. who was sorry to hear that the kingdom of heaven stood at so high a rate , and that he could not save his soul and his money too ; and certainly it troubled our saviour to see that when a price was in his hand to get wisdom , yet he had no heart to it ; the ingenuity that appeared in his first address , had already procured some kindness for him ; for it is said , and jesus beholding him loved him : but must he for his sake cut out a new way to heaven , and alter the nature of things which make it impossible that a covetous man should be happy ? and what shall i speak of his meekness , who could encounter the monstrous ingratitude and dissimulation of that miscreant who betrayed him , in no harsher terms then these , judas betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss ? what further evidence could we desire of his fervent and unbounded charity , then that he willingly laid down his life even for his most bitter enemies , and mingling his prayers with his blood , besought the father that his death might not be laid to their charge , but might become the means of eternal life to those very persons who procured it ? the third branch of the divine life is purity , which , as i said , consists in a neglect of worldly enjoyments and accommodations , and a resolute enduring of all such troubles as we meet with in the doing of our duty : now surely if ever any person was wholly dead to all the pleasures of the natural life , it was the blessed jesus , who seldom tasted them when they came in his way ; but never stept out of his road to seek them : though he allowed others the comforts of wedlock , and honoured marriage with his presence , yet he chose the severity of a virgin life , and never knew the nuptial bed : and though at the same time he supplyed the want of wine with a miracle , yet he would not work one for the relief of his own hunger in the wilderness : so gracious and divine was the temper of his soul in allowing to others such lawful gratifications as himself thought good to abstain from , and supplying not only their more extream and pressing necessities , but also their smaller and less considerable wants . we many times hear of our saviour's sighs , and groans , and tears ; but never that he laught , and but once that he rejoyced in spirit ; so that through his whole life he did exactly answer that character given of him by the prophet of old , that he was a man of sorrows , and acquainted with griefs : nor were the troubles and disaccommodations of his life rather his fate than choice , for never did there any appear on the stage of the world with greater advantages to have raised himself to the highest secular felicity : he who could convene such a prodigious number of fishes into his disciples net : and at another time received that tribute from a fish which he was to pay to the temple , might easily have made himself the richest person in the world ; nay without any money he could have maintained an army powerful enough to have justled caesar out of his throne , having oftner than once fed seven thousand with a few loaves and small fishes : but to shew how small esteem he had of all the enjoyments in the world , he choosed to live in so poor and mean a condition , that though the foxes had holes , and the birds of the air had nests , yet he who was lord and heir of all things , had not whereon to lay his head : he did not frequent the courts of princes , nor affect the acquaintance and converse of great ones , but being reputed the son of a carpenter , he had fisher-men , and such other poor people for his companions , and lived at such a rate as suited with the meanness of that quality . and thus i am brought unawares to speak of his humility , the last branch of the divine life , wherein he was a most eminent pattern to us , that we might learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart : i shall not now speak of that infinite condescention of the eternal son of god , in taking our nature upon him ; but only reflect on our saviour's lowly and humble deportment while he was in the world . he had none of those sins and imperfections ; which may justly humble the best of men ; but he was so intirely swallowed up with a deep sense of the infinite perfections of god , that he appeared as nothing in his own eyes , i mean in so far as he was a creature . he considered those eminent perfections which shined in his blessed soul as not his own but the gifts of god ; and therefore assumed nothing to himself for them , but with the profoundest humility renounced all pretences to them : hence did he refuse that ordinary compellation of good master , when address'd to his humane nature by one who it seems was ignorant of his divinity : why callest thou me good ( saith he ) there is none good , but god only . as if he had said , the goodness of any creature ( and such only thou takest me to be ) is not worthy to be named or taken notice of , 't is god alone who is originally and essentially good. he never made use of his miraculous power for vanity or ostentation ; he would not gratifie the curiosity of the jewes with a sign from heaven , some prodigious appearance in the air : nor would he follow the advice of his country-men and kindred , who would have had all his great works performed in the eyes of the world for gaining him the greater fame ; but when his charity had prompted him to the relief of the miserable , his humility made him many times enjoyn the concealment of the miracle ; and when the glory of god , and the design for which he came unto the world , required the publication of them , he ascribed the honour of all to his father , telling them , that of himself he was able to do nothing . i cannot insist on all the instances of humility in his deportment towards men : his withdrawing himself when they would have made him a king , his subjection not only to his blessed mother , but to her husband during his younger years , and his submission to all the indignities and affronts , which his rude and malitious enemies did put upon him , the history of his holy life recorded by those who conversed with him , is full of such passages as these : and indeed the serious and attentive study of it , is the best way to get right measures of humility , and all the other parts of religion , which i have been endeavouring to describe . but now that i may lessen your trouble of reading a long letter by making some pauses in it ; let me here subjoyn a prayer that might be proper when one who had formerly entertain'd some false notions of religion , begins to discover what it is . a prayer . infinite and eternal majestie , author and fountain of being and blessedness , how little do we poor sinful creatures know of thee , or the way to serve and please thee ? we talk of religion and pretend unto it ; but alas ! how few are there that know and consider what it means ? how easily do we mistake the affections of our nature , and issues of self-love , for those divine graces which alone can render us acceptable in thy sight ? it may justly grieve me to consider , that i should have wandered so long , and contented my self so often with vain shadows and false images of piety and religion : yet i cannot but acknowledge and adore thy goodness , who hast been pleased in some measure to open mine eyes , and let me see , what it is at which i ought to aim : i rejoyce to consider what mighty improvements my nature is capable of , and what a divine temper of spirit doth shine in those whom thou art pleased to choose , and causest to approach unto thee . blessed be thine infinite mercy who sent thine own son to dwell among men , and instruct them by his example as well as his lawes , giving them a perfect pattern of what they ought to be . o that the holy life of the blessed jesus may be alwayes in my thoughts , and before mine eyes , till i receive a deep sense and impression of those excellent graces that shined so eminently in him , and let me never remit my endeavours till that new and divine nature prevail in my soul , and christ be formed within me . and now , my dear friend , having discovered the nature of true religion , before i proceed any further , it will not perhaps be unfit to fix our meditations a little on the excellency and advantages of it , that we may be excited to the more vigorous and diligent prosecution of those methods whereby we may attain so great a felicity . but alas ! what words shall we find to express that inward satisfaction , those hidden pleasures which can never be rightly understood , but by those holy souls who feel them ? a stranger intermeddleth not with their joy . holiness is the right temper , the vigorous and healthful constitution of the soul : its faculties had formerly been enfeebled , and disordered so that they could not exerce their natural functions : it had wearied it self with endless tossings , and rollings , and was never able to find any rest : now that distemper is removed , and it feels it self well , there is a due harmony in its faculties , and a sprightly vigour possesseth every part : the understanding can discern what is good , and the will can cleave unto it , the affections are not tyed to the motions of sense , and the influence of external objects ; but they are stirred by more divine impressions , are touched by a sense of invisible things . let us descend , if you please , into a nearer and more particular view of religion in those several branches of it which were named before : let us consider that love and affection wherewith holy souls are united to god , that we may see what excellency and felicity is involved in it . love is that powerful and prevalent passion , by which all the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined , and on which both its perfection and happiness doth depend . the worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love : he who loveth mean and fordid things , doth thereby become base and vile ; but a noble and well-placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit unto a confirmity with the perfections which it loves : the images of these do frequently present themselves unto the mind , and by a secret force and energie insinuate into the very constitution of the soul , and mould and fashion it unto their own likeness : hence we may see how easily lovers or friends do slide unto the imitation of the person whom they affect , and how even before they are aware , they begin to resemble them , not only in the more considerable instances of their deportment , but also in their voice and gesture , and that which we call their meen and air ; and certainly we should as well transcribe the vertues and inward beauties of the soul , if they were the object and motive of our love : but now as all the creatures we converse with have their mixture and alloy , we are alwayes in hazard to be sullied , and corrupted by placing our affection on them : passion doth easily blind our eyes , that we first approve , and then imitate the things that are blameable in them : the true way to improve and ennoble our souls , is by fixing our love on the divine perfections , that we may have them alwayes before us , and derive an impression of them on our selves , and beholding with open face as in a glass the glory of the lord , we may be changed into the same image from glory to glory : he who with a generous and holy ambition had raised his eyes toward that uncreated beauty and goodness , and fixed his affection there , is quite of another spirit , a more excellent and heroick temper than the rest of the world , and cannot but infinitely disdain all mean and unworthy things , will not entertain any low or base thoughts , which might disparage his high and noble pretensions . love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of , and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthily ; it is indeed the only thing we can call our own , other things may be taken from us by violence , but none can ravish our love ; if any thing else be counted ours , by giving our love , we give all , in so far as we make over our hearts and wills , by which we possess our other enjoyments : it is not possible to refuse him any thing , to whom by love we have given our selves ; nay since it is the priviledge of gifts to receive their value from the mind of the giver , and not to be measured by the event , but by the desire ; he who loveth may in some sense be said not only to bestow all that he hath , but all things else which may make the beloved person happy , since he doth heartily wish them , and would really give them , if they were in his power : in which sense it is that one makes bold to say , that divine love doth in a manner give god unto himself , by the complacency it takes in the happiness and perfection of his nature : but though this may seem too big an expression , certainly love is the worthiest present we can offer unto god , and it is extreamly debased when we bestow it another way . when this affection is misplaced , it doth often vent it self , in such expressions , as point at its genuine and proper object , and insinuate where it ought to be placed : the flattering and blasphemous terms of adoration , wherein men do sometimes express their passion , are the language of that affection which was made and designed for god : as he who is accustomed to speak to some great person , doth perhaps unawares accost another with those titles he was wont to give to him : but certainly that passion which accounteth its object a deitie , ought to be bestowed on him who is really so : those unlimited submissions , which would debase the soul , if directed to any other , will exalt and ennoble it , when placed here : those chains and cords of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty it self ; this slavery is more noble than all the empires in the world. again , as divine love doth advance and elevate the soul , so it is that alone which can make it happy : the highest and most ravishing pleasures , the most soiid and substantial delights , the humane nature is capable of , are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection . that which imbitters love , and makes it ordinarily a very troublesom and hurtful passion , is the placing it on those who have not worth enough to deserve it , or affection and gratitude to requite it , or whose absence may deprive us of the pleasure of their converse , or their miseries occasion our trouble : to all these evils are they exposed , whose chief and supream affection is placed on creatures like themselves ; but the love of god delivers us from them all . first , i say , love must needs be miserable , and full of trouble and disquietude , when there is not worth and excellency enough in the object to answer the vastness of its capacity : so eager and violent a passion cannot but fret and torment the spirit , when it finds not wherewith to satisfie its cravings ; and indeed so large and unbounded is its nature , that it must be extreamly pinched , and straitned , when confined to any creature : nothing below an infinite good can afford it room to stretch it self , and exerce its activity and vigour : what is a little skin-deep beauty or some small degrees of goodness to match or satisfie a passion which was made for god , designed to embrace an infinite good : no wonder lovers do so hardly suffer any rival , and do not desire that others should approve their passion by imitating it : they know the scantness and narrowness of the good which they love , that it cannot suffice two , being in effect too little for one : hence love which is strong as death occasioneth jealousie which is cruel as the grave , the coals whereof , are coals of fire , which hath a most violent flame . but divine love hath no mixture of this gall : when once the soul is fixed on that supream and all-sufficient good , it finds so much perfection and goodness , as doth not only answer and satisfie its affection , but master and over-power it too : it finds all its love to be too faint and languid for such a noble object , and is only sorry that it can command no more , it wisheth for the flammes of a seraph , and longs for the time when it shall be wholly melted and dissolved into love : and because it can do so little it self , it desires the assistance of the whole creation , that angels and men would concur with it in the admiration and love of those infinite perfections . again , love is accompanied with trouble , when it misseth a suitable return of affection : love is the most valuable thing we can bestow , and by giving it , we do in effect give all that we have ; and therefore it must needs be afflicting to find so great a gift despised , that the present which one hath made of his whole heart , cannot prevail to obtain any favour for him : perfect love is a kind of self-dereliction , a wandering out of our selves , it 's a kind of voluntary death , wherein the lover dyes to himself , and all his own interests , not thinking of them , nor caring for them any more , and minding nothing but how he may please and gratifie the party whom he loves : thus is he quite undone unless he meet with reciprocal affection , he neglects himself , and the other hath no regard to him ; but if he be beloved , he is revived , as it were , and liveth in the soul and care of the person whom he loves , and now he begins to mind his own concernments , not so much because they are his , as because the beloved is pleased to own an interest in them : he becomes dear unto himself , because he is so unto the other . but why should i enlarge in so known a matter , nothing can be more clear than that the happiness of love depends on the return it meets with ; and herein the divine lover hath unspeakably the advantage , having placed his affection on him whose nature is love , whose goodness is as infinite as his being , whose mercy prevented us , when we were his enemies , therefore cannot choose but imbrace us , when we are become his friends : it is utterly impossible that god should hide his face , and deny his love to a soul wholly devoted to him , and which desires nothing so much as to serve and please him : he cannot disdain his own image , nor the heart in which it is engraven : love is all the tribute which we can pay him , and it is the sacrifice which he will not despise . another thing which disturbs the pleasure of love , and renders it a miserable and disquiet passion , is absence and separation from those we love : it is not without a sensible affliction that friends do part , though for some little time , it is sad to be deprived of that society which is so delightful , our life becomes tedious , being spent in an impatient expectation of the happy hour wherein we may meet again : but if death have made the separation , as sometime or other it must , this occasions a grief scarce to be parallelled by all the misfortunes of humane life , and wherein we pay dear enough for the comforts of our friendship . but o how happy are those who have placed their love on him who can never be absent from them : they need but to open their eyes , and they shall every where behold the traces of his presence and glory , and converse with him whom their soul loveth ; and this makes the darkest prison , or wildest desart , not only supportable ; but delightful to them . in fine , a lover is miserable if the person whom he loveth be so : they who have made an exchange of hearts by love , get thereby an interest in one anothers happiness and misery : and this makes love a troublesome passion , when placed on earth . the most fortunate person hath grief enough to marre the tranquillity of his friend , and it is hard to hold out , when we are attacked on all hands , and suffer not only in our own person , but in anothers . but if god were the object of our love , we should share in an infinite happiness without any mixture , or possibility of diminution : we should rejoyce to behold the glory of god , and receive comfort and pleasure from all the praises wherewith men and angels do extol him : it should delight us beyond all expression to consider , that the beloved of our souls is infinitely happy in himself , and that all his enemies cannot shake or unsettle his throne : that our god is in the heavens , and doth whatsoever he pleaseth . behold on what sure foundations his happiness is built , whose soul is possessed with divine love , whose will is transformed into the will of god , and whose greatest desire is that his maker should be pleased : o the peace , the rest , the satisfaction that attendeth such a temper of mind ! what an infinite pleasure must it needs be , thus as it were to lose our selves in him , and being swallowed up in the overcoming sense of his goodness , to offer our selves a living sacrifice alwayes ascending unto him in flammes of love : never doth a soul know what a solid joy and substantial pleasure is , till once being weary of it self , it renounce all propriety , give it self fully up unto the author of its being , and feel it self become a hallowed and devoted thing , and can say from an inward sense and feeling , my beloved is mine , ( i account all his interest mine own ) and i am his : i am content to be any thing for him , and care not for my self , but that i may serve him , ) a person moulded unto this temper , would find pleasure in all the dispensations of providence : temporal enjoyments would have another relish , when he should taste the divine goodness in them , and consider them as tokens of love sent by his dearest lord and maker : and chastisements though they be not joyful but grievous , would hereby lose their sting , the rod as well as the staff would comfort him : he would snatch a kiss from the hand that were smiting him , and gather sweetness from that severity : nay he would rejoyce that though god did not the will of such a worthless and foolish creature as himself , yet he did his own will , and accomplished his own designs , which are infinitely more holy and wise . the exercises of religion which to others are insipid and tedious , do yield the highest pleasure and delight to souls possessed with divine love : they rejoyce when they are called to go up to the house of the lord , that they may see his power and his glory , as they have formerly seen it in his sanctuary : they never think themselves so happy , as when , having retired from the world , and gotten free from the noise and hurry of affairs , and silenced all their clamorous passions , those troublesom guests within , they have placed themselves in the presence of god , and entertain fellowship and communion with him : they delight to adore his perfections , and recount his favours , and to protest their affection to him , and tell him a thousand times that they love him , to lay out their troubles or wants before him , and disburthen their hearts in his bosom : repentance it self is a delightful exercise when it floweth from the principle of love , there is a secret sweetness which accompanieth those tears of remofse , those meltings and relentings of a soul returning unto god , and regrating its former unkindness : the heightned endearments of lovers newly reconciled after some estrangements of their affections , are a very imperfect shadow and resemblance of this . the severities of a holy life , and that constant watch which we are obliged to keep over our hearts and ways , are very troublesom to those who are only ruled and acted by an external law , and have no law in their minds inclining them to the performance of their duty ; but where divine love possesseth the soul , it stands as sentinel to keep out every thing that may offend the beloved , and doth disdainfully repulse those temptations which assault it : it complyeth cheerfully , not only with explicite commands , but with the most secret notices of the beloved's pleasure , and is ingenious in discovering what will be most grateful and acceptable unto him : it makes mortification and self-denial almost change their harsh and dreadful names , and become easie , sweet and delightful things . but i find this part of my letter swell bigger than i designed , ( indeed who would not be tempted to dwell on so pleasant a theme ) i shall endeavour to compensate it by brevity in the other points . the next branch of the divine life , is an universal charity and love : the excellency of this grace will be easily acknowledged ; for what can be more noble and generous than a heart inlarged to imbrace the whole world , whose wishes and designs are levelled at the good and welfare of the universe , which considereth every man's interest as it 's own ? he who loveth his neighbour as himself , can never entertain any base or injurious thought , or be wanting in expressions of bounty : he had rather suffer a thousand wrongs , than be guilty of one ; and never accounts himself happy , but when some one or other hath been benefited by him : the malice or ingratitude of men is not able to resist his love ; he overlooks their injuries , and pities their folly , and overcomes their evil with good , and never designs any other revenge against his most bitter and malitious enemies , than to put all the obligations he can upon them , whether they will or not : is it any wonder that such a person be reverenced and admired , and accounted the darling of mankind ? this inward goodness and benignity of spirit reflects a certain sweetness and serenity upon the very countenance , and makes it amiable and lovely : it inspireth the soul with a noble resolution and courage , and makes it capable of enterprising and effectuating the highest things : those heroick actions which we are wont to read with admiration , have for the most part been the effects of the love of ones country , or of particular friendships , and certainly a more extensive and universal affection , must be much more powerful and efficacious . again , as charity flows from a noble and excellent temper ; so it is accompanied with the greatest satisfaction and pleasure : it delights the soul to feel it self thus enlarged , and to be delivered from those disquieting as well as deforming passions , malice , hatred , and envy ; and become gentle , sweet , and benign : had i my choice of all things that might tend to my present felicity , i would pitch upon this , to have my heart possessed with the greatest kindness and affection towards all men in the world , i am sure this would make me partake in all the happiness of others , their inward endowments and outward prosperity , every thing that did benefit and advantage them , would afford me comfort and pleasure : and though i should frequently meet with occasions of grief and compassion , yet there is a sweetness in commiseration which makes it infinitely more desireable than a stupid insensibility : and the consideration of that infinite goodness and wisdom which governs the world , might repress any excessive trouble for particular calamities that happen in it : and the hopes or possibility of mens after-happiness , might moderate their sorrow for their present misfortunes . certainly next to the love and enjoyment of god , that ardent charity and affection wherewith blessed souls do imbrace one another , is justly to be reckoned as the greatest felicity of those regions above , and did it universally prevail in the world , it would anticipate that blessedness , and make us taste of the joyes of heaven upon earth . that which i named as a third branch of religion was purity , and you may remember i described it to consist in a contempt of sensual pleasures , and resoluteness to undergo those troubles and pains we may meet with in the performance of our duty : now the naming of this may suffice to recommend it as a most noble and excellent quality : there is no slavery so base as that whereby a man becomes drudge to his own lusts ; nor any victory so glorious as that which is obtain'd over them : never can that person be capable of any thing that is noble and worthy , who is sunk in the gross and feculent pleasures of sense , or bewitched with the light and airy gratifications of fancy ; but the religious soul is of a more sublime and divine temper , it knows it was made for higher things , and scorns to step aside one foot out of the ways of holiness , for the obtaining of any of these . and this purity is accompanied with a great deal of pleasure : whatsoever defiles the soul , disturbs it too ; all impure delights have a sting in them , and leave smart and trouble behind them : excess and intemperance , and all inordinate lusts , are so much enemies to the health of the body , and the interests of this present life , that a little consideration might oblige any rational man to forbear them on that very score : and if the religious person go higher , and do not only abstain from noxious pleasures ; but neglect those that are innocent , this is not to be look'd upon as any violent and uneasie restraint , but as the effect of better choice , that their minds are taken up in the pursuit of more sublime and refined delights , so that they cannot be concerned in these : any person that is engaged in a violent and passionate affection , will easily forget his ordinary gratifications , will be little curious about his dyet , or his bodily ease , or the divertisements he was wonted to delight in : no wonder then if souls overpowered with divine love despise inferiour pleasures , and be almost ready to grudge the body its necessary attendance for the common accommodations of life , judging all these impertinent to their main happiness , and those higher enjoyments they are pursuing . as for the hardships they may meet with , they rejoyce in them , as opportunities to exercise and testifie their affection : and since they are able to do so little for god , they are glad of the honour to suffer for him . the last branch of religion is humility ; and however to vulgar and carnal eyes this may appear an abject , base and despicable quality , yet really the soul of man is not capable of an higher and more noble endowment : it is a silly ignorance that begets pride , but humility arises from a nearer acquaintance with excellent things , which keeps men from doating on trifles , or admiring themselves because of some petty attainments : noble and well educated souls have no such high opinion of riches , beauty , strength , and other such like advantages , as to value themselves for them , or despise those that want them : and as for inward worth and real goodness , the sense they have of the divine perfections , makes them think very meanly of any thing they have hitherto attain'd , and be still endeavouring to surmount themselves , and make nearer approaches to those infinite excellencies which they admire . i know not what thoughts people may have of humility , but i see almost every person pretending unto it , and shunning such expressions and actions as may make them be accounted arrogant and presumptuous , so that those who are most desirous of praise , will be loath to commend themselves . what are all those complements and modes of civility so frequent in our ordinary converse , but so many protestations of our esteem of others , and the low thoughts we have of our selves ? and must not that humility be a noble and excellent endowment , when the very shadows of it are accounted so necessary a part of good breeding . again , this grace is accompanied with a great deal of happiness and tranquility : the proud and arrogant person is a trouble to all that converse with him , but most of all unto himself : every thing is enough to vex him ; but scarce any thing sufficient to content and please him : he is ready to quarrel with every thing that falls out , as if he himself were such a considerable person , that god almighty should do every thing to gratifie him , and all the creatures of heaven and earth should wait upon him , and obey his will : the leaves of high trees do shake with every blast of wind ; and every breath , every evil word will disquiet and torment an arrogant man : but the humble person hath the advantage when he is despised , that none can think more meanly of him , than he doth of himself , and therefore he is not troubled at the matter , but can easily bear those reproaches which wound the other to the soul : and withal as he is less affected with injuries , so indeed he is less obnoxious unto them : contention which cometh of pride betrayes a man into a thousand inconveniencies , which those of a meek and lowly temper are seldom meeting with : true and genuine humility begetteth both a veneration and love among all , wise and discerning persons , while pride defeateth it's own design , and depriveth a man of that honour it makes him pretend to . but as the chief exercises of humility are those which relate unto almighty god , so these are accompany'd with the greatest satisfaction and sweetness ; it is impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which religious persons feel in the lowest prostrations of their soul before god , when having a deep sense of the divine majesty and glory , they sink ( if i may so speak ) unto the very bottom of their beings , and vanish and disappear in the presence of god , by a serious and affectionate acknowledgment of their own nothingness , and the shortness and imperfections of all their attainments , when they understand the full sense and emphasis of the psalmist's exclamation , lord , what is man ? and can utter it with the same affection : neither did ever any haughty and ambitious person receive the praises and applauses of men with so much pleasure , as the humble and religious do renounce them , not unto us , o lord , not unto us , but unto thy name give glory , &c. thus i have spoken something of the excellencies and advantage of religion in it's several branches ; but should be very injurious to the subject , did i pretend to have given any perfect account of it . let us acquaint our selves with it , my dear friend , let us acquaint our selves with it , and experience will teach us more than all that ever hath been spoken or written concerning it . but if we may suppose the soul to be already awakened unto some longing desires after so great a blessedness , it will be good to give them vent , and suffer them to issue forth in some such aspirations as these , a prayer . good god! what a mighty felicity is this to which we are called ? how graciously hast thou joyn'd our duty and happiness together , and prescribed that for our work , the performance whereof is a great reward ? and shall such silly worms be advanced to so great a height ? wilt thou allow us to raise our eyes to thee ? wilt thou admit and accept our affection ? shall we receive the impression of thy divine excellencies by beholding and admiring them , and partake of thy infinite blessedness and glory , by loving thoe , and rejoycing in them ? o the happiness of those souls that have broken the fetters of self-love , and dis-intangl'd their affection from every narrow and particular good , whose understanding ; are inlightned by thy holy spirit , and their wills inlarged to the extent of thine , who love thee above all things , and all mankind for thy sake ! i am perswaded , o god , i am perswaded that i can never be happy , till my carnal and corrupt affections be mortify'd , and the pride and vanity of my spirit be subdued , and till i come seriously to despise the world , and think nothing of my self . but o when shall it once be ? o when wilt thou come unto me , and satisfie my soul with thy likeness , making me holy as thou art holy , even in all manner of conversation ? hast thou given me a prospect of so great a felicity , and wilt thou not bring me unto it ? hast thou excited these desires in my soul , and wilt thou not also satisfie them ? o teach me to do thy will , for thou art my god , thy spirit is good , lead me unto the land of uprightness . quicken me , o lord , for thy names sake , and perfect that which concerneth me : thy mercy , o lord , endureth for ever , forsake not the works of thine own hands . i have hitherto considered wherein true religion doth consist , and how desirable a thing it is ; but when one sees how infinitely distant the common temper and frame of men is from it , he may perhaps be ready to despond , and give over and think it utterly impossible to be attain'd : he may sit down in sadness , and bemoan himself and say in the anguish and bitterness of his spirit , they are happy indeed whose souls are awakened unto the divine life , who are thus renew'd in the spirit of their minds ; but alas ! i am quite of another constitution , and am not able to effectuate so mighty a change : if outward observances could have done the business , i might have hoped to acquit my self by diligence and care ; but since nothing but a new nature can serve the turn , what am i able to do ? i could bestow all my goods in oblations to god , or alms to the poor , but cannot command that love and charity , without which this expence would profit me nothing : this gift of god cannot be purchased with money : if a man should give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned : i could pine and macerate my body , and undergo many hardships and troubles , but i cannot get all my corruptions starved , nor my affections wholly wean'd from earthly things : there is still some worldly desires lurking in my heart , and those vanities that i have shut out of doors , are alwayes getting in by the windowes . i am many times convinced of my own meanness , of the weakness of my body , and the far greater weakness of my soul ; but this doth rather beget indignation and discontent , than true humility in my spirit : and though i should come to think meanly of my self , yet i cannot endure that others should think so too . in a word , when i reflect on my highest and most specious attainments , i have reason to suspect that they are all but the effects of nature , the issues of self-love acting under several disguises : and this principle is so powerful and so deeply rooted in me , that i can never hope to be delivered from the dominion of it : i may toss and turn as a door on the hinges , but can never get clear off , or be quite unhing'd of self , which is still the center of all my motions : so that all the advantage i can draw from the discovery of religion , is but to see at a huge distance that felicity which i am not able to reach ; like a man in a shipwrack , who discerns the land , and envies the happiness of those who are there ; but thinks it impossible for himself to get ashoare . these , i say , or such like desponding thoughts may arise in the minds of those persons who begin to conceive somewhat more of the nature and excellency of religion than before : they have spy'd the land , and seen that it 's exceeding good , that it floweth with milk and honey ; but they find they have the children of anak to grapple with , many powerful lusts and corruptions to overcome , and they fear they shall never prevail against them . but why should we give way to such discouraging suggestions ? why should we entertain such unreasonable fears , which damp our spirits and weaken our hands , and augment the difficulties of our way ? let us encourage our selves , my dear friend , let us encourage our selves with those mighty aids we are to expect in this spiritual warfare , for greater is he that is for us , then all that can rise up against us ; the eternal god is our refuge , and underneath are the everlasting arms. let us be strong in the lord , and the power of his might , for he it is that shall tread down our enemies : god hath a tender regard unto the souls of men , and is infinitely willing to promove their welfare : he hath condescended to our weakness , and declared with an oath , that he hath no pleasure in our destruction : there is no such thing as despight or envy lodged in the bosom of that ever blessed being , whose name and nature is love. he created us at first in a happy condition ; and now when we are fallen from it , he hath laid help upon one that is mighty to save , hath committed the care of our souls to no meaner person than the eternal son of his love ; it is he that is the captain of our salvation : and what enemies can be too strong for us , when we are fighting under his banners . did not the son of god come down from the bosom of his father and pitch his tabernacle amongst the sons of men , that he might recover and propagate the divine life , and restore the image of god in their souls : all the mighty works which he perform'd , all the sad afflictions which he sustain'd had this for their scope and design , for this did he labour and toil , for this did he bleed and dye : he was with child , he was in pain , and hath he brought forth nothing but wind , hath he wrought no deliverance in the earth ? shall he not see of the travel of his soul ? certainly it is impossible that this great contrivance of heaven should prove abortive , that such a mighty undertaking should fail and miscarry : it hath already been effectual for the salvation of many thousands , who were once as far from the kingdom of heaven as we can suppose our selves to be , and our high priest continueth for ever , and is able to save then to the uttermost that come unto god by him : he is tender and compassionate , he knoweth our infirmities , and had experience of our temptations , a bruised reed will he not break , and a smoaking flax will he not quench , till he send forth judgment unto victory . he hath sent out his holy spirit , whose sweet but powerful breathings are still moving up and down in the world , to quicken and revive the souls of men , and awaken them unto the sense and feeling of those divine things for which they were made , and is ready to assist such weak and languishing creatures as we are in our essay's towards holiness and felicity : and when once it hath taken hold of a soul , and kindled in it the smallest spark of divine love , it will be sure to preserve and cherish , and bring it forth into a flame , which many waters shall not quench , neither shall the floods be able to drown it : when ever this day begins to dawn , and the day-star to arise in the heart , it will easily dispel the powers of darkness , and make ignorance and folly , and all the corrupt and selfish affections of men flee away as fast before it as the shades of the night , when the sun cometh out of his chambers : for the path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day : they shall go on from strength to strength , till every one of them appear before god in sion . why should we think it impossible that true goodness and universal love should ever come to sway and prevail in our souls ? is not this their primitive state and condition , their native and genuine constitution as they came first from the hands of their maker . sin and corruption are but usurpers , and though they have long kept the possession , yet from the begining it was not so . that inordinate self-love which one would think were rooted in our very being , and interwoven with the constitution of our nature , is nevertheless of forraign extraction , and had no place at all in the state of integrity : we have still so much reason left us to condemn it : our understandings are easily convinced that we ought to be wholly devoted to him from whom we have our being , and to love him infinitely more than our selves , who is infinitely better than we , and our wills would readily comply with this , if they were not disordered and put out of tune : and is not he who made our souls able to rectifie and mend them again ? shall we not be able by his assistance to vanquish and expel those violent intruders , and turn unto flight the arms of the aliens . no sooner shall we take up arms in this holy warr , but we shall have all the saints on earth , and all the angels in heaven engaged on our party : the holy church throughout the world is daily interceding with god for the success of all such endeavours , and doubtless those heavenly hosts above are nearly concerned in the interests of religion , and infinitely desirous to see the divine life thriving and prevailing in this inferiour world ; and that the will of god may be done by us on earth , as it is done by themselves in heaven ; and may we not then encourage our selves as the prophet did his servant , when he shewed him the horses and chariors of fire , fear not , for they that be with us are more then they that be against us . away then with all perplexing fears and desponding thoughts : to undertake vigorously , and rely confidently on the divine assistance is more than half the conquest : let us arise and be doing , and the lord will be with us . it is true religion in the souls of men is the immediate work of god , and all our natural endeavours can neither produce it alone , nor merit those supernatural aids by which it must be wrought : the holy ghost must come upon us , and the power of the highest must overshadow us , before that holy thing can be begotten and christ be formed in us : but yet we must not expect that this whole work should be done without any concurring endeavours of ours : we must not lye loitering in the ditch and wait till omnipotence pull us from thence : no , no , we must bestir our selves and actuate these powers which we have already received : we must put forth our selves in our utmost capacities , and then we may hope that our labour shall not be in vain in the lord. all the art and industry of man cannot form the smallest herb , or make a stalk of corn to grow in the field ; it is the energy of nature , and the influences of heaven which produce this effect ; it is god who causeth the grass to grow , and herb for the service of man ; and yet no body will say that the labours of the husband-man are useless or unnecessary : so likewise the humane soul is immediately created by god ; it is he who both formeth and enliveneth the child , and yet he hath appointed the marriage-bed as the ordinary mean for the propagation of mankind . though there must intervene a stroak of omnipotence to effectuate this mighty change in our souls ; yet ought we to do what we can to fit and prepare our selves , for we must break up our fallow ground and root out the weeds , and pull up the thorns , that so we may be the more ready to receive the seeds of grace and the dew of heaven . it is true , god hath been found of some who sought him not ; he hath cast himself in their way who were quite out of his ; he hath laid hold upon them , and stopt their course on a sudden ; for so was s. paul converted in his journey to damascus : but certainly this is not god's ordinary method of dealing with men , though he hath not ty'd himself to means , yet he hath tyed us to the use of them ; and we have never more reason to expect the divine assistance , but when we are doing our utmost endeavours . it shall therefore be my next work to shew what course we ought to take for attaining that blessed temper i have hitherto described . but here if in delivering my own thoughts , i shall chance to differ any thing from what is or may be said by others in this matter , i would not be therefore thought to contradict and oppose them , more than physitians do when they prescribe several remedies for the same disease , which perhaps are all useful and good : every one may propose the method which he judgeth most proper and convenient , but he doth not thereby pretend that the cure can never be effectuated , unless that be exactly observed : i doubt it hath occasioned much unnecessary disquietude to some holy persons , that they have not found such a regular and orderly transaction in their souls , as they have seen described in books ; that they have not passed through all those steps and stages of conversion , which some , who perhaps have felt them in themselves , have too peremptorily prescribed unto others : god hath several wayes of dealing with the souls of men , and it sufficeth if the work be accomplish'd , whatever the methods have been . again , though in proposing directions , i must follow that order which the nature of things shall lead to ; yet i do not mean that the same method should be so punctually observed in the practise ; as if the later rules were never to be heeded till some considerable time have been spent in practising the former : the directions i intend be mutually conducive one to another , and are all to be perform'd as occasion shall serve , and we find our selves inabled to perform them . but now that i may detain you no longer , if we desire to have our souls moulded to this holy frame , to become partakers of the divine nature , and have christ formed in our hearts , we must seriously resolve and carefully endeavour to evite and abandon all vitious and sinful practises . there can be no treaty of peace , till once we lay down these weapons of rebellion wherewith we fight against heaven : nor can we expect to have our distempers cured , if we be daily feeding on poyson : every wilful sin , gives a mortal wound to the soul , and puts it at a greater distance from god and goodness ; and we can never hope to have our hearts purified from corrupt affections , unless we cleanse our hands from vitious actions . now in this case we cannot excuse our selves by the pretence of impossibility ; for sure our outward man is some way in our power , we have some command of our feet and hands , and tongue , nay and of our thoughts and fancies too , at least so far as to divert them from impure and sinful objects , and to turn our mind another way : and we should find this power and authority much strengthned and advanced , if we were careful to manage and exercise it . mean while i acknowledge our corruptions are so strong , and our temptations so many , that it will require a great deal of steadfastness and resolution , of watchfulness and care to preserve our selves even in this degree of innocence and purity . and first let us inform our selves well , what those sins are from which we ought to abstain . and here we must not take our measures from the maxims of the world , or the practises of those whom in charity we account good men : most people have very light apprehensions of these things , and are not sensible of any fault unless it be gross and flagitious , and scarce reckon any so great as that which they call preciseness : and those who are more serious , do many times allow them selves too great latitude and freedom : alas ! how much pride and vanity , and passion , and humour , how much weakness and folly and sin doth every day bewray it self in their converse and behaviour : it may be they are humbled for it , and striving against it , and are daily gaining some ground ; but then the progress is so small , and their failings so many , that we had need to choose an exacter pattern . every one of us must answer for himself , and the practises of others will never warrant and secure us : it is the highest folly to regulate our actions by any other standard , than that by which they must be judged : if ever we would cleanse our way , it must be by taking heed thereto according to the word of god : and that word which is quick and powerful , and sharper then any edged sword , piercing even to the dividing assunder of soul and spirit , and of the joynts and marrow , and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart , will certainly discover many things to be sinful and heynous , which pass for very innocent in the eyes of the world : let us therefore imitate the psalmist , who saith , concerning the works of men , by the words of thy lips , i have kept my self from the path of the destroyer . let us acquaint our selves well , with the strict and holy laws of our religion : let us consider the discourses of our blessed saviour , ( especially that divine sermon on the mount ) and the writings of his holy apostles , where an ingenuous and unbyassed mind may clearly discern those limits and bounds by which our actions ought to be confined . and then let us never look upon any sin as light and inconsiderable ; but be fully perswaded , that the smallest is infinitely heynous in the sight of god , and prejudicial to the souls of men ; and that if we had the right sense of things , we would be deeply affected with the least irregularities , than now we are with the greatest crimes . but now amongst those things which we discover to be sinful , there will be some , unto which , through the disposition of our nature , or long custome , or the indearments of pleasure , we are so much wedded , that it will be like the cutting off the right hand , or pulling out the right eye , to abandon them . but must we therefore sit down and wait till all difficulties be over , and every temptation be gone : this were to imitate the fool in the poet , who stood the whole day at the river side till all the water should run by . we must not indulge our inclinations , as we do little children , till they grow weary of the thing they are unwilling to let go : we must not continue our sinful practises in hope that the divine grace will one day overpower our spirits , and make us hate them for their own deformity . let us suppose the worst , that we are utterly destitute of any supernatural principle , and want that taste by which we should discern and abhor perverse things ; yet sure we are capable of some considerations which may be of force to perswade us to this reformation of our lives : if the inward deformity and heynous nature of sin cannot affect us ; at least we may be frighted by those dreadful consequences that attend it : that same selfish principle which pusheth us forward unto the pursuit of sinful pleasures , will make us loath to buy them at the rate of everlasting misery : thus we may encounter self-love with its own weapons , and imploy one natural inclination for repressing the exorbitancies of another . let us therefore accustom our selves to consider seriously what a fearful thing it must needs be to irritate and offend that infinite being on whom we hang and depend every moment , who needs but to withdraw his mercies to make us miserable ; or his assistance to make us nothing : let us frequently remember the shortness and uncertainty of our lives , and how that after we have taken a few turns more in the world , and conversed a little longer amongst men , we must all go down unto the dark and silent graves , and carry nothing along but anguish and regret of all our sinful enjoyments , and then think what horror must needs seize the guilty soul , to find it self naked and all alone before the severe and impartial judge of the world , to render an exact account not only of its more important and considerable transactions ; but of every word that the tongue hath uttered , and the swiftest and most secret thought that ever passed through the mind . let us sometimes represent unto our selves the terrors of that dreadful day , when the foundations of the earth shall be shaken , and the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat , and the present frame of nature be dissolved , and our eyes shall see the blessed jesus who came once into the world in all humility to visit us , to purchase pardon for us , and beseech us to accept of it , now appearing in the majesty of his glory , and descending from heaven in a flaming fire to take vengeance on those that have despised his mercy , and perished in rebellion against him : when all the hidden things of darkness shall be brought to light , and the counsels of the heart shall be made manifest : when those secret impurities and subtile frauds whereof the world did never suspect us , shall be exposed and laid open to publick view , and many thousand actions which we never dreamed to be sinful , or else had altogether forgotten , shall be charged home upon our consciences with such evident convictions of guilt , that we shall neither be able to deny nor excuse them . then shall all the angels in heaven , and all the saints that ever liv'd on the earth approve that dreadful sentence which shall be passed on wicked men , and those who perhaps did love and esteem them when they liv'd in the world , shall look upon them with indignation and abhorrence , and never make one request for their deliverance . let us consider the eternal punishments of damned souls which are shadowed forth in scripture by metaphors taken from those things that are most terrible and grievous in the world , and yet all doth not suffice to conveigh unto our minds any full apprehension of them : when we have joyned together the importance of all these expressions , and added unto them whatever our fancy can conceive of misery and torment , we must still remember that all this comes infinitely short of the truth and the reality of the thing . it 's true , this is a sad and melancholy subject , there is anguish and horror in the consideration of it ; but sure it must be infinitely more dreadful to endure it ; and such thoughts as these may be very useful to fright us from the courses that would lead us thither , how fond soever we may be of sinful pleasures , the fear of hell would make us abstain : our most forward inclinations will startle and give back when pressed with that question in the prophet , who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings . to this very purpose it is that the terrors of another world are so frequently represented in holy writ , and that in such terms as are most proper to affect and influence a carnal mind : these fears can never suffice to make any person truly good ; but certainly they may restrain us from much evil , and have often made way for more ingenuous and kindly impressions . but it will not suffice to consider those things once and again , nor to form resolutions of abandoning our sins , unless we maintain a constant guard , and be continually watching against them . sometimes the mind is awakened to see the dismal consequences of a vitious life , and straight we are resolved to reform : but alas ! it presently falleth asleep , and we lose that prospect which we had of things , and then temptations take the advantage , they solicite and importune us continually , and so do frequently engage our consent before we are aware . it is the folly and ruine of most people that they live at adventure , and take part in every thing that comes in their way , seldom considering what they are about to say or do : if we would have our resolution take effect , we must take heed unto our ways , and set a watch unto the door of our lips , and examine the motions that arise in our heart , cause them tell us whence they come , and whither they go ; whether it be pride or passion , or any corrupt and vitious humour that prompteth us to any design , and whether god will be offended , or any body harmed by it . and if we have no time for long reasonings , let us at least turn our eyes toward god , and place our selves in his presence to ask his leave and approbation for what we do : let us consider our selves under the all-seeing eye of that divine majesty , as in the midst of an infinite globe of light , which compasseth us about both behind and before , and pierceth to the innermost corners of our soul : the sense and remembrance of the divine presence , is the most ready and effectual mean , both to discover what is unlawful , and to restrain us from it : there are some things a person could have a shift to palliate or defend , and yet he dares not look almighty god in the face and adventure upon them . if we look into him we shall be lightned ; if we set him alwayes before us , he will guide us by his eye , and instruct us in the way wherein we ought to walk . this care and watchfulness over our actions , must be seconded by frequent and serious reflections upon them , not only that we may obtain the divine mercy and pardon for our sins , by an humble and sorrowful acknowledgment of them ; but also that we may reinforce and strengthen our resolutions , and learn to decline or resist the temptations , by which we have been formerly foyl'd . it is an advice worthy of a christian , though it did first drop from a heathen pen ; that before we betake our selves to rest , we renew and examine all the passages of the day , that we may have the comfort of what we have done aright , and may redress what we find to have been amiss , and make the shipwracks of one day be as marks to direct our course in another . this may be called the very art of virtuous living , and would contribute wonderfully to advance our reformation , and preserve our innocency . but withall we must not forget to implore the divine assistance , especially against those sins that do most easily beset us : and though it be supposed that our hearts are not yet moulded unto that spiritual frame , which should render our devotions acceptable , yet methinks such considerations as have been proposed to deter us from sin , may also stir us up to some natural seriousness , and make our prayers against it as earnest at least , as they are wont to be against other calamities : and i doubt not god who heareth the cry of the ravens , will have some regard even to such petitions as proceed from those natural passions which himself hath implanted in us : besides that those prayers against sin will be powerful engagements on our selves to excite us to watchfulness and care , and common ingenuity will make us asham'd to relapse unto those faults , which we have lately regrated before god , and against which we have begged his assistance . thus are we to make the first essay for recovering the divine life , by restraining the natural inclinations that they break not out into sinful practises : but now i must add , that christian prudence will teach us to abstain from gratifications that are not simply unlawful , and that not only , that we may secure our innocence , which would be in continual hazard , if we should strain our liberty to the utmost point , and be always walking on the marches , but also that hereby we may weaken the forces of nature , and teach our appetites to obey ; we must do with our selves as prudent parents with their children , who cross their wills in many little indifferent things , to make them manageable and submissive in more considerable instances : he who would mortifie the pride and vanity of his spirit , should stop his ears to the most deserved praises , and sometimes forbear his just vindication , from the censures and aspersions of others , especially if they reflect only upon his prudence and conduct , and not on his virtue and innocence : he who would check a vindictive humour , would do well to deny himself the satisfaction of representing unto others the injuries which he hath sustain'd ; and if we would so take heed to our ways , that we sin not with our tongue , we must accustome our selves much to solitude and silence , and sometimes with the psalmist hold our peace even from good , till once we have gotten some command of that unruly member . thus , i say , we may bind up our natural inclinations , and make our appetites more moderate in their cravings , by accustoming them to frequent refusals : but it is not enough to have them under violence , and restraint . our next essay must be to wean our affections from created things , and all the delights and entertainments of the lower life , which sink and depress the souls of men , and retard their motions toward god and heaven : and this we must do by possessing our minds with a deep perswasion of the vanity and emptiness of worldly enjoyments . this is an ordinary theme , and every body can make declamations upon it ; but alas ! how few understand and believe what they say : these notions float in our brains , and come sliding off our tongues , but we have no deep impression of them on our spirits , we feel not the truth which we pretend to believe : we can tell that all the glory and splendour , all the pleasures and enjoyments of the world , are vanity and nothing ; and yet these nothings take up all our thoughts , and ingross all our affections , they stifle the better inclinations of our soul , and inveigle us into many a sin : it may be in a sober mood , we give them the slight , and resolve to be no longer deluded with them ; but these thoughts seldom out-live the next temptation , the vanities which we have shut out at the door get in at a postern : there are still some pretensions , some hopes that flatter us ; and after we have been frustrated a thousand times , we must continually be repeating the experiment : the leaft difference of circumstances is enough to delude us , and make us expect that satisfaction in one thing , which we have missed in another : but could we once get clearly off , and come to a real and serious contempt of worldly things , this were a very considerable advancement in our way : the soul of man is of a vigorous and active nature , and hath in it a raging and unextinguishable thirst , an immaterial kind of fire , always catching at some object or other , in conjunction wherewith it thinks to be happy ; and were it once rent from the world , and all the bewitching enjoyments under the sun , it would quickly search after some higher and more excellent object , to satisfie its ardent , and importunate cravings , and being no longer dazel'd with glistering vanities , would fix on that supream and all-sufficient good , where it should discover such beauty and sweetness as would charm and over-power all its affections : the love of the world , and the love of god , are like the scales of a ballance , as the one falleth , the other doth rise : when our natural inclinations prosper , and the creature is exalted in our soul , religion is faint , and doth languish ; but when earthly objects wither away , and lose their beauty , and the soul begins to cool and flagg in its prosecution of them , then the seeds of grace take root , and the divine life begins to flourish and prevail . it doth therefore nearly concern us to convince our selves of the emptiness and vanity of creature-enjoyments , and reason our heart out of love of them : let us seriously consider all that our reason or our faith , our own experience , or the observation of others can suggest to this effect . let us ponder the matter over and over , and fix our thoughts on this truth , till we become really perswaded of it : amidst all our pursuits and designs , let us stop and ask our selves , for what end is all this ? at what do i aim ? can the gross and muddy pleasures of sense , or a heap of white or yellow earth , or the esteem and affection of silly creatures like my self satisfie a rational and immortal soul ? have i not tryed these things already ? will they have a higher relish , and yield me more contentment to morrow than yesterday , or the next year than they did the last ? there may be some little difference betwixt that which i am now pursuing , & that which i enjoy'd before ; but sure my former enjoyments did shew as pleasant , and promise as fair before i attain'd them : like the rain-bow they looked very glorious at a distance , but when i approached , i found nothing but emptiness and vapor . o what a poor thing should the life of man be , if it were capable of no higher enjoyments ! i cannot insist on this subject , and there is the less need when i remember to whom i am writing . yes ( my dear friend ) you have had as great experience of the emptiness and vanity of humane things , and have at present as few worldly engagements as any that i know : i have sometimes reflected on those passages of your life wherewith you have been pleased to acquaint me : and methinks through all i can discern a design of the divine providence to wean your affections from every thing here below : the tryals you have had of those things which the world dotes upon ; hath taught you to despise them , and you have found by experience that neither the endowments of nature , nor the advantages of fortune are sufficient for happiness : that every rose hath its thorn , and there may be a worm at the root of the fairest gourd , some secret and undiscerned grief which may make a person deserve the pity of those who perhaps do admire or envy their supposed felicity : if any earthly comforts have got too much of your heart , i think they have been your relations and friends , and the dearest of those are removed out of the world , so that you must raise your mind towards heaven , when you would think upon them : thus god hath provided that your heart may be loosed from the world , and he may not have any rival in your affection , which i have alwayes observed to be so large and unbounded , so noble and dis-interessed , that no inferiour object can answer or deserve it . when we have got our corruptions restrain'd , and our natural appetites and inclinations towards worldly things in some measure subdued , we must proceed to such exercises as have a more immediate tendance to excite and awaken the divine life : and first let us endeavour conscientiously to perform those duties which religion doth require , and whereunto it would incline us if it did prevail in our souls : if we cannot get our inward disposition presently changed , let us study at least to regulate our outward deportment : if our hearts be not yet inflam'd with divine love , let us however own our alleagiance to that infinite majesty , by attending his service , and listening to his word , by speaking reverently of his name , and praising his goodness , and exhorting others to serve and obey him : if we want that charity and those bowels of compassion which we ought to have towards our neighbours , yet must we not omit any occasion of doing them good : if our hearts be haughty and proud , we must nevertheless study a modest and humble deportment : these external performances are of little value in themselves , yet may they help us forward to better things : the apostle indeed telleth us , that bodily exercise profiteth little ; but he seems not to affirm that it is altogether useless , it is alwayes good to be doing what we can , for then god is wont to pity our weakness , and assist our feeble endeavours : and when true charity and humility and other graces of the divine spirit come to take root in our souls , they will actuate themselves more freely and with the less difficulty that we have been accustomed to express them in our outward conversations . nor need we fear the imputation of hypocrisie , tho our actions do thus somewhat out-run our affections , seeing they do still proceed from a sense of our duty , and our design is not to appear better then we are , but that we may really become so . but as inward acts have a more immediate influence on the soul to mould it to a right temper and frame ; so ought we to be most frequent and sedulous in the exercise of those . let us be often lifting up our hearts towards god ; and if we do not say that we love him above all things , let us at least acknowledg that it is our duty and would be our happiness so to do : let us regrate the dishonour done unto him by foolish and sinful men , and applaud the praises and adorations that are given him by that blessed and glorious company above : let us resign and yield our selves up unto him a thousand times to be governed by his lawes , and disposed upon at his pleasure : and though our stubborn hearts should start back and refuse , yet let us tell him we are convinced that his will is alwayes just and good , and therefore desire him to do with us whatsoever he pleaseth whether we will or not . and so , for begetting in us an universal charity towards men , we must be frequently putting up wishes for their happiness , and blessing every person that we see ; and when we have done any thing for the relief of the miserable , we may second it with earnest desires that god would take care of them , and deliver them out of all their distresses . thus should we exercise our selves unto godliness , and when we are imploying the powers that we have , the spirit of god is wont to strike in , and elevate these acts of our soul beyond the pitch of nature , and give them a divine impression : and after the frequent reiteration of these we will find our selves more inclined unto them , they flowing with greater freedom and ease . i shall mention but two other means for begetting that holy and divine temper of spirit , which is the subject of the present discourse : and the first is a deep and serious consideration of the truths of our religion , and that both as to the certainty and importance of them . the assent which is ordinarily given to divine truths is very faint and languid , very weak and uneffectual , flowing only from a blind inclination to follow that religion which is in the fashion , or a lazy indifferency and unconcernedness whether things be so or not : men are unwilling to quarrel with the religion of their countrey , and since all their neighbours are christians , they are content to be so too : but they are seldome at the pains to consider the evidences of those truths , or to ponder the importance and tendency of them : and thence it is that they have so little influence on their affections and practise : those spriteless and paralitick thoughts ( as one doth rightly term them ) are not able to move the will , and direct the hand . we must therefore endeavour to work up our minds to a serious belief and full perswasion of divine truths , unto a sense and feeling of spiritual things : our thoughts must dwell upon them till we be both convinced of them , and deeply affected with them : let us urge forward our spirits , and make them approach the invisible world , and fix our mind upon immaterial things , till we clearly perceive that these are no dreams , nay that all things are dreams and shadows besides them : when we look about us and behold the beauty and magnificence of this goodly frame , the order and harmony of the whole creation , let our thoughts from thence take their flight toward that omnipotent wisdom and goodness which did at first produce , and doth ftill establish and uphold the same : when we reflect upon our selves , let us consider that we are not a meer piece of organized matter , a curious and well-contrived engine , that there is more in us then flesh , and blood , and bones , even a divine sparkle , capable to know , and love , and enjoy our maker ; and tho it be now exceedingly clogged with its dull and lumpish companion , yet ere long it shall be delivered , and can subsist without the body , as well as that can do without the cloathes which we throw off at our pleasure . let us often withdraw our thoughts from this earth , this scene of misery and folly and sin , and raise them towards that more vast and glorious world , whose innocent and blessed inhabitants solace themselves eternally in the divine presence , and know no other passion , but an unmixed joy , and an unbounded love : and then consider how the blessed son of god came down to this lower world to live among us and dye for us , that he might bring us to a portion of the same felicity ; and think how he hath overcome the sharpness of death , and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers , and is now set down on the right hand of majesty on high , and yet is not the less mindful of us , but receiveth our prayers , and presenteth them unto his father , and is daily visiting his church with the influences of his spirit , as the sun reacheth us with his beams . the serious and frequent considerarion of these and such other divine truths , is the most proper method to beget that lively faith which is the foundation of religion , the spring and root of the divine life . let me further suggest some particular subjects of meditation for producing the several branches of it . and first to inflame our souls with the love of god , let us consider the excellency of his nature , and his love and kindness towards us . it is little we know of the divine perfections , and yet that little may suffice to fill our souls with admiration and love , to ravish our affections as well as to raise our wonder , for we are not meerly creatures of sense that we should be uncapable of any other affection but that which entreth by the eyes : the character of any excellent person whom we have never seen will many times ingage our hearts , and make us hugely concerued in all his adventures : and what is it i pray you that engages us so much to those with whom we converse ? i cannot think that it is meerly the colour of their face , or their comely proportions , else we should fall in love with statues and pictures , and flowers : these outward accomplishments may a little delight the eye , but would never be able to prevail so much on the heart , if they did not represent some vital perfection : we either see or apprehend some greatness of mind or vigor of spirit , or sweetness of disposition , some sprightliness or wisdom or goodness which charms our spirit and commands our love : now these perfections are not obvious to the sight , the eyes can only discern the signs and effects of them : and if it be the understanding that directs the affection , and vital perfections prevail with it , certainly the excellency's of the divine nature ( the traces whereof we cannot but discover in every thing we behold ) would not fail to engage our hearts if we did seriously view and regard them : shall we not be infinitely more transported with that almighty wisdom and goodness which filleth the universe , and displays it self in all the parts of the creation , which establisheth the frame of nature , and turneth the mighty wheels of providence , and keepeth the world from disorder and ruine ; then with the faint rays of the same perfections which we meet with in our fellow-creatures ? shall we doat on the scattered pieces of a rude and imperfect picture , and never be affected with the original beauty ? this were an unaccountable stupidity and blindness : whatever we find lovely in a friend or in a saint ought not to engross but to elevate our affection : we should conclude with our selves , that if there be so much sweetness in a drop , there must be infinitely more in the fountain ; if there be so much splendor in a ray , what must the sun be in its glory ? nor can we pretend the remoteness of the object , as if god were at too great a distance for our converse or our love : he is not far from every one of us , for in him we live and move and have our being : we cannot open our eyes , but we must behold some vestige of his glory , and we cannot turn them toward him , but we shall be sure to find his intent upon us , waiting as it were to catch a look ready to intertain the most intimate fellowship and communion with us . let us therefore indeavour to raise our minds to the clearest conceptions of the divine nature : let us consider all that his works do declare or his word doth discover of him unto us , and let us especially contemplate that visible representation of him which was made in our own nature by his son ; who was the brightness of his glory , and the express image of his person , and who appeared in the world to discover at once what god is , and what we ought to be : let us represent him unto our minds as we find him described in the gospel ; & there we shall behold the perfections of the divine nature though covered with the vail of humane infirmities : and when we have fram'd unto our selves the clearest notion that we can of a being infinite in power , in wisdom , and goodness , the author and fountain of all perfections , let us fix the eyes of our soul upon it , that our eyes may affect our heart , and while we are musing the fire will burn . especially if hereunto we add the consideration of gods favour and good-will towards us : nothing is more powerfull to engage our affection then to find that we are beloved : expressions of kindness are alwayes pleasing and acceptable unto us , though the person should be otherways mean and contemptible : but to have the love of one who is altogether lovely , to know that the glorious majesty of heaven hath any regard unto us , how must it astonish and delight us , how must it overcome our spirits , and melt our hearts , and put our whole soul unto a flame . now as the word of god is full of the expressions of his love towards man , so all his works do loudly proclaim it : he gave us our being , and by preserving us in it , doth renew the donation every moment : he hath placed us in a rich and well furnished world , and liberally provided for all our necessities : he raineth down blessings from heaven upon us , and causeth the earth to bring forth our provision : he giveth us our food and raiment , and while we are spending the productions of one year , he is preparing for us against another : he sweetneth our lives with innumerable comforts , and gratifieth every faculty with suitable objects : the eye of his providence is alwaies upon us , and he watcheth for our safety when we are fast a sleep , neither minding him , nor our selves . but least we should think these testimonles of his kindness less considerable because they are the easie issues of his omnipotent power , and do not put him into any trouble or pain , he hath taken a more wonderful method to endear himself to us : he hath testified his affection to us , by suffering as well as by doing ; and because he could not suffer in his own nature , he assumed ours : the eternal son of god , did cloath himself with the infirmities of our flesh , and left the companie of those innocent and blessed spirits , who knew well how to love and adore him , that he might dwell among men , and wrestle with the obstinacy of that rebellious race , to reduce them to their alleagiance and felicity and then to offer himself up as a sacrifice and propitiation for them . i remember one of the poets hath an ingenious fancy to express the passion wherewith he found himself overcome after a long resistance , that the god of love had shot all his golden arrowes at him , but could never pierce his heart , till at length he put himself unto the bow and darted himself straight into his breast : methinks this doth some way adumbrate gods method of dealing with men : he had long contended with a stubborn world , and thrown down many a blessing upon them , and when all his other gifts could not prevail , he at last made a gift of himself , to testifie his affection , and conciliate theirs . the account which we have of our saviours life in the gospel doth all along present us with the story of his love , all the pains that he took and the troubles that he endured were the wonderfull effects and uncontrollable evidences of it . but o that last , that dismal scene ! is it possible to remember it and question his kindness , or deny him ours ? here here it is ( my dear friend ) that we should fix our most serious and solemn thoughts , that christ may dwell in our hearts by faith , and we may be rooted and grounded in love , comprehending with all the saints what is the breadth , and length , and depth , and height : and knowing the love of christ which passeth knowledge , that so we may be filled with all the fulness of god. we ought also frequently to reflect on those particular tokens of favour and love , which god hath bestowed on our selves , how long he hath born with our follies and sins , and waited to be gracious unto us , wrestling , as it were , with the stubbornness of our hearts , and essaying every method to reclaim us : we should keep a register in our minds of all the eminent blessings and deliverances we have met with , some whereof have been so conveyed that we might clearly perceive they were not the issues of chance , but the gracious effects of the divine favour , and the signal returns of our prayers . nor ought we to imbitter the thoughts of these things with any harsh or unworthy suspition , as if they were designed on purpose to enhaunce our guilt , and heighten our eternal damnation , no , no , my friend , god is love , and he hath no pleasure in the ruine of his creatures : if they abuse his goodness , and turn his grace into wantonness , and thereby plunge themselves into the greater depth of guilt and misery , this is the effect of their obstinate wickedness , and not the design of those benefits which he bestowes . if these considerations had once begotten in our hearts a real love and affection towards almighty god , that will easily lead us unto the other branches of religion , and therefore i shall need say the less unto them . we shall find our hearts inlarged in charity towards men , by considering the relation wherein they stand unto god , and the impresses of his image which are stamped upon them . they are not only his creatures , the workmanship of his hands , but such of whom he taketh special care , and for whom he hath a very dear and tender regard , having laid the designs of their happiness before the foundations of the world , and being willing to live and converse with them to all the ages of eternity : the meanest and most contemptible person whom we behold is the off-spring of heaven , one of the children of the most high ; and however unworthily he might behave himself of that relation , so long as god hath not abdicated and disowned him by a final sentence , he will have us to acknowledge him as one of his , and as such to embrace him with a sincere and cordial affection . you know what a great concernment we are wont to have for those that do any wayes belong to the person whom we love , how gladly we lay hold on every opportunity to gratifie the child or servant of a friend ; and sure our love towards god would as naturally spring forth in charity towards men , did we mind the interest that he is pleased to take in them , and consider that every soul is dearer unto him , than all the material world ; and that he did not account the blood of his son too great a price for their redemption . again , as all men stand in a near relation to god , so they have still so much of his image stamped on them , as may oblige and excite us to love them : in some this image is more eminent and conspicuous , and we can discern the lovely treats of wisdom and goodness ; and though in others it be miserably sullied and defaced , yet is it not altogether razed , some lineaments at least do still remain : all men are endued with rational and immortal souls , with understanding and wills capable of the highest and most excellent things ; and if they be at present disordered and put out of tune by wickedness and folly , this may indeed move our compassion , but ought not in reason to extinguish our love. when we see a person of a rugged humour and perverse disposition , full of malice and dissimulation , very foolish and very proud ; it is hard to fall in love with an object that presents it self unto us under an idea so little grateful and lovely : but when we shall consider these evil qualities as the diseases and distempers of a soul which in it self is capable of all that wisdom and goodness wherewith the best of saints have ever been adorned , and which may one day come to be raised unto such heights of perfection as shall render it a fit companion for the holy angels , this will turn our aversion into pity , and make us behold him with such resentments , as we should have when we did look on a beautiful body that were mangled with wounds , or disfigured by some loathsome disease ; and however we hate the vices , we shall not cease to love the man. in the next place for purifying our souls , and dis-intangling our affections from the pleasures and enjoyments of this lower life , let us frequently ponder the excellency and dignity of our nature , and what a shameful and unworthy thing it is for so noble and divine a creature as the soul of man , to be sunk and immersed in bruitish and sensual lusts , or amused with airy and phantastical delights , and so to lose the relish of solid and spiritual pleasures , that the beast should be fed and pampered , and the man and the christian be starved in us . did we but mind who we are , and for what we were made , this would teach us in a right sense to reverence and stand in awe of our selves , it would beget a holy modesty and shamefacedness , and make us very shy and reserved in the use of the most innocent and allowable pleasures . it will be very effectual to the same purpose , that we frequently raise our minds toward heaven , and represent to our thoughts those joyes that are at god's right hand , those pleasures that endure for evermore ; for every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure . if our heavenly country be much in our thoughts , it will make us as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul , and keep our selves unspotted in this world , that we may be fit for the enjoyments and felicities of the other . but then we must see that our notions of heaven be not gross and carnal , that we dream not of a mahometan paradise , nor rest on those metaphors and similitudes by which these joys are sometimes represented , for this might perhaps have a quite contrary effect , it might intangle us further in carnal affections , and we should be ready to indulge our selves a very liberal foretaste of those pleasures wherein we had placed our everlasting felicity : but when we come once to conceive aright of those pure and spiritual pleasures , when the happiness we propose to our selves is from the sight and love and enjoyment of god , and our minds are filled with the hopes and fore-thoughts of that blessed estate , o how mean and contemptible will all things here below appear in our eyes ? with what disdain will we reject the gross and muddy pleasures , that would deprive us of those coelestial enjoyments , or any way unfit and indispose us for them . the last branch of religion is humility , and sure we can never want matter of consideration for begetting it : all our wickednesses and imperfections , all our follies and our sins may help to pull down that fond and overweening conceipt which we are apt to entertain of our selves . that which makes any body esteem us , is their knowledg or apprehension of some little good , and their ignorance of a great deal of evil that may be in us : were they throughly acquainted with us , they would quickly change their opinion : the thoughts that pass in our heart in the best and most serious day of our life being exposed unto publick view , would render us either hateful or ridiculous : and now however we conceal our failings from one another , yet sure we are conscious to them our selves , and some serious reflections upon them , would much qualifie and allay the vanity of our spirits : thus holy men have come really to think worse of themselves , than of any other person in the world : not but that they knew that gross and scandalous vices are in their nature more heynous than the surprisals of tentation and infirmity ; but because they were much more intent on their own miscarriages , than on those of their neighbours , and did consider all the aggravations of the one , and every thing that might be supposed to diminish and alleviate the other . but it is well observed by a pious writer , that the deepest and most pure humility doth not so much arise from the consideration of our own faults , and defects , as from a calm and quiet contemplation of the divine purity and goodness : our spots never appear so clearly , as when we place them before this infinite light ; and we never seem less in our own eyes , than when we look down upon our selves from on high : o how little , how nothing do all those shadows of perfection then appear for which we are wont to value our selves ! that humility which cometh from a view of our own sinfulness and misery , is more turbulent and boysterous ; but the other layeth us full as low , and wanteth nothing but that anguish and vexation wherewith our souls are apt to boyl when they are the nearest object of our thoughts . there remains yet another mean for begetting a holy and religious disposition in the soul , and that is fervent and hearty prayer . holiness is the gift of god , indeed the greatest gift he doth bestow , or we are capable to receive , and he hath promised his holy spirit to those that ask it of him : in prayer we make the nearest approaches unto god , and lye open to the influences of heaven : then it is that the sun of righteousness doth visit us with directest rayes , and dissipateth our darkness and imprinteth his image on our souls . i cannot now insist on the advantages of this exercise , or the dispositions wherewith it ought to be performed ; and there is no need i should , there being so many books that treat on this subject : i shall only tell you , that as there is one sort of prayer wherein we make use of the voice which is necessary in publick , and may sometimes have its own advantages in private , and another wherein though we utter no sound , yet we conceive the expressions and form the words , as it were , in our mind , ( which i presume is most commonly used in private devotion ) so there is a third and more sublime kind of prayer , wherein the soul takes a higher flight , and having collected all its forces by long and serious meditation , it darteth it self ( so to speak ) towards god in sighs and groans and thoughts too big for expression : as when after a deep contemplation of the divine perfections appearing in all his works of wonder , it addresseth it self unto him in the profoundest adoration of his majestie and glory : or when after sad reflections on its vileness and miscarriages , it prostrates it self before him with the greatest confusion and sorrow , not daring to lift up its eyes , or utter one word in his presence : or when having well considered the beauty of holiness , and the unspeakable felicity of those that are truly good , it panteth after god , and sendeth up such vigorous and ardent desires as no words should be sufficient to express , continuing and repeating each of these acts as long as it finds it self upheld by the force and impulse of the previous meditation . this mental prayer is of all other the most effectual to purifie the soul , and dispose it unto a holy and religious temper , and may be termed the great secret of devotion , and one of the most powerful instruments of the divine life : and it may be the apostle hath a peculiar respect unto it when he saith , that the spirit helpeth our infirmities , making intercession for us , with groanings that cannot be uttered , or , as the original may bear , that cannot be worded : yet i do not so recommend this sort of prayer , as to supersede the use of the other : for we have so many several things to pray for , and every petition of this nature , requireth so much time , and so great an intention of spirit , that it were not easie therein to overtake them all : to say nothing that the deep sighs and heavings of the heart which are wont to accompany it , are something oppressive to nature , and make it hard to continue long in them : but certainly a few of those inward aspirations will do more than a great many fluent and melting expressions . thus ( my dear friend ) i have briefly proposed the method which i judge proper for moulding the soul unto a holy frame ; and the same means which serve to beget this divine temper , must still be practised for strengthning and advancing it : and therefore i shall recommend but one more for that purpose , and 't is the frequent and conscientious use of that holy sacrament , which is peculiarly appointed to nourish and increase the spiritual life , when once it is begotten in the soul : all the instruments of religion do meet together in this ordinance ; and while we address our selves unto it , we are put to practise all the rules which were mentioned before : then it is , that we make the severest survey of our actions , and lay the strictest obligations on our selves : then are our minds raised to the highest contempt of the world , and every grace doth exercise it self with the greatest activity and vigour : all the subjects of contemplation do there present themselves unto us with the greatest advantage ; and then , if ever , doth the soul make its most powerful sally's towards heaven , and assault it with a holy and acceptable force . and certainly the neglect or careless performance of this duty , is one of the chief causes that bedwarfs our religion , and makes us continue of so low a size . but it is time i should put a close to this tedious letter , which is grown to a far greater bulk then at first i intended : if these poor papers can do you the smallest service , i shall think my self very happy in this undertaking ; at least i am hopeful you will kindly accept the sincere endeavours of a person who would fain acquit himself of some part of that which he owes you . a prayer . and now , o most gracious god , father and fountain of mercy and goodness , who hast blessed us with the knowledge of our happiness , and the way that leadeth unto it , excite in our souls such ardent desires after the one , as may put us forth to the diligent prosecution of the other : let us neither presume of our own strength , nor distrust thy divine assistance ; but while we are doing our utmost endeavours , teach us still to depend on thee for the success . open our eyes , o god , and teach us out of thy law : bless us with an exact and tender sense of our duty , and a taste to discern perverse things : o that our wayes were directed to keep thy statutes , then shall we not be ashamed when we have respect unto all thy commandments : possess our hearts with a generous and holy disdain of all those poor enjoyments which this world holdeth out to allure us , that they may never be able to inveigle our affections , or betray us unto any sin : turn away our eyes from beholding vanity , and quicken thou us in thy law. fill our souls with such a deep sense and full perswasion of those great truths which thou hast reveal'd in the gospel , as may influence and regulate our whole conversation , and that the life which we henceforth live in the flesh , we may live through faith in the son of god. o that the infinite perfections of thy blessed nature , and the astonishing expressions of thy goodness and love , may conquer and overpower our hearts , that they may be constantly arising towards thee in flames of devoutest affection , and inlarging themselves in sincere and cordial love towards all the world for thy sake : and that we may cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holiness in thy fear , without which we can never hope to behold and enjoy thee . finally , o god , grant that the consideration of what thou art , and what we our selves are , may both humble and lay us low before thee , and also stir up in us the strongest and most ardent aspirations towards thee . we desire to resign and give up our selves to the conduct of thy holy spirit : lead us in thy truth and teach us , for thou art the god of our salvation : guide us with thy counsel , and afterwards receive us unto glory : for the merits and intercession of thy blessed son our saviour . amen . finis . an account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life . written at the desire of m. l. v. r. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a58838-e730 the occasion of this discourse . mistakes about religion . what religion is . it s permanency and stability . it s freedome and unconstrainedness . 1 joh. 3. 9. joh. 4. 34. religion a divine principle . what the natural life is . the different tendencies of the natural life . wherein the divine life doth consist religion better understood by actions , than by words . divine love exemplified in our saviour . his diligence in doing gods will. his patience in bearing it . his constant devotion . his charity to men . his purity . his humility . the excellency and advantage of religion . prov. 14. 10. the excellency of divine love. the advantages of divine love. the worth of the object . the certainty to be beloved again . the presence of the beloved person . that divine love makes us partake in an infinite happiness . he that loveth god finds sweetness in every dispensation . the duties of religion are delightful to him . psal. 63. 2. the excellency of charity . the pleasure that attends it . the excellency of purity . the delight it affords . the excellency of humility . the pleasure and sweetness of an humble temper . the despondent thoughts of some newly awakened to a right sense of things . act. 8. 20. cant : 8. 7. the unreasonableness of these fears . deut. 33. 27. psal. 89. 19. esay 26. ver . 19. esay 53. ver . 11. heb. 7. 24 , 25. matth. 12. 20. cant. 8 7. 2 pet. 1. 19. prov. 4. 18. psal 84 7. heb. 11. 34. 2 king 6. 16 , 17. we must do what we can , and depend on the divine assistance . i chron. 22. 16. 1 cor. 15. 58. psal. 104. 14. jer. 4. 3. we must shun all manner of sin. we must know what things are sinful . psal. 119. 9. heb. 4. 12. psal. 17. 4. we must resist the temptations to sin , by considering the evils they will draw on us . 2 pet. 3. 10. 1 cor. 4. 5. isa. 33. 14. we must keep a constant watch over our selves . we must often examine our actions . it is fit to restrain our selves in many lawful things . we must strive to put our selves out of love with the world. we must do those outward actions that are commanded . we must endeavour to form internal acts of devotion , charity , &c. consideration a great instrument of religion . heb. 1. 3. to beget divine love , we must consider the excellency of the divine nature . act. 17. 27. heb. 1. 3. lam. 3. 31. psal. 39. 3. we should meditate on his goodness and love. eph. 3. 17 , 18 , 19. to beget charity , we must remember that all men are nearly related unto god. that they carry his image upon them . to beget purity , we should consider the dignity of our nature . we should meditate oft on the joys of heaven . 1 joh. 3. 3. humility ariseth from the consideration of our failings . thoughts of god , give us the lowest thoughts of our selves . prayer another instrument of religion . the advantages of mental prayer . religion is to be advanced by the same means by which it is begun , the use of the holy sacrament . his grace the lord archbishop of canterbury's letter to the right reverend the lords bishops of his province tenison, thomas, 1636-1715. 1699 approx. 13 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-11 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a64361 wing t700 estc r23445 12068966 ocm 12068966 53455 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a64361) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 53455) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2971:8, 582:13) his grace the lord archbishop of canterbury's letter to the right reverend the lords bishops of his province tenison, thomas, 1636-1715. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. printed by charles bill, and the executrix of thomas newcomb, deceas'd printers to the kings most excellent majesty, london : 1699. caption title. imprint from colophon. the answer of gilbert sarum on p. 8. reproduction of originals in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library (582:13) and corpus christi college (university of oxford). library. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng 2003-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-08 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-08 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion his grace the lord archbishop of canterbury's letter to the right reverend the lords bishops of his province . to the right reverend the lord bishop of sarum . reverend brother , my writing to you and the rest of our brethren at this time , is occasion'd by a sensible growth of vice and prophaneness in the nation : which , to the great affliction of all good men , appears not only in the corrupt practices of particular persons ; but also in the endeavours that are used to subvert the general principles of our holy religion . and this with a boldness and openness , far beyond the examples of past times ; so that if a speedy stop be not put to such national provocations , we have just cause to fear they may bring down the heaviest judgments of god upon us ; the preventing whereof belongs more immediately to us , who are the ministers of christ ; and as such , are obliged to the utmost care and watchfulness in opposing these instruments of satan . i doubt not , but many of the parochial clergy are sufficiently sensible both of their own duty and the danger we are in : in the cities of london and westminster , and other places , i am sure the good effects of their diligence have been very evident of late years . but in some parts that are more remote , all of them may not so well understand either the arts or the industry of these enemies of religion : and therefore i thought it a duty incumbent on the station wherein providence has placed me , to desire of you and the rest of our brethren , to warn the clergy under your care , of these attempts against religion and virtue ; and to excite them to a diligence proportionable to the danger ; and to suggest to them such methods as are most likely to work a general reformation . with this request , i send you such particulars as , in my opinion , are very necessary to be pressed upon your clergy for the attaining so desirable an end. as , i. that in their own lives , and the government of their own families , they would make themselves examples of a sober and regular conversation . it is the apostles reasoning , if a man know not how to rule his own house ( and much more his own life and actions ) how shall he take care of the church of god ? the true method of working a reformation abroad , is to lay the foundation at home ; which alone can give our reproofs a just weight and authority : but till that is done , no exhortations , whether in publick or private , can either be offer'd with decency , or receiv'd with reverence . ii. to piety , they should add prudence in all their actions and behaviour : which even in private christians is a great ornament to religion ; but in publick teachers is a most necessary qualification for the due discharge of their ministry . a mildness of temper , with a gravity and calmness in their conversation , will not fail to gain them a general love and esteem among their neighbours : and a discreet caution in their words and actions , will preserve them from those little imprudences that are sometimes so sensible an obstruction to the good endeavours of well-meaning men. persons in holy orders are not only bound , in the conduct of their lives , to consider what is lawful or unlawful in it self , but also what is decent or indecent in them , with respect to their character and function : abstaining from all appearance of evil ; and giving no offence in any thing , that the ministry be not blamed . iii. while our enemies are so very industrious in seeking out objections against the christian religion ; it becomes the clergy ( who are set apart for the vindication of it ) to be no less diligent in their preparations for its defence : by acquainting themselves thorowly with the rational grounds of christianity , and the true state of such points as are the subjects of our present controversies ; together with the objections which are usually made by our adversaries of all sorts , and the effectual answers that have been returned to them by so many eminent writers of our own church : that so they may be ready , on all occasions , to do justice and honour to our religion ; and be able to expose the folly and ignorance of these gain-saying men. the cause which god has put into our hands , is undoubtedly good ; but the best cause may suffer by the weakness of its advocate : and when this happens in the matter of religion , it gives the adversary an occasion of triumph , and is apt to stagger the faith even of sincere and unprejudic'd christians . iv. it were to be wisht , that the clergy of every neighbourhood , would agree upon frequent meetings , to consult for the good of religion in general , and to advise with one another about any difficulties that may happen in their particular cures . by what methods any evil custom may most easily be broken ; how a sinner may be most effectually reclaimed ; and ( in general ) how each of them in their several circumstances may contribute most to the advancement of religion . such consultations as these , besides the mutual benefit of advice and instruction , will be a natural means to excite the zeal of some , to reduce the over-eagerness of others to a due temper , and to provoke all to a religious emulation in the improvement of piety and order within their respective parishes . and these meetings might still be made a greater advantage to the clergy in carrying on the reformation of mens lives and manners , by inviting the church-wardens of their several parishes , and other pious persons among the laity , to joyn with them in the execution of the most probable methods that can be suggested for those good ends. and we may very reasonably expect the happy effects of such a concurrence , from the visible success of that noble zeal wherewith so many about the great cities in my neighbourhood , do promote true piety , and a reformation of manners . and therefore i desire you that you will particularly excite your clergy to the procuring such assistances as these , for the more effectual discharge of their own duty . v. it would very much further and facilitate all their endeavours of this kind , to gain over the persons who have the greatest esteem and authority in their parishes , to a hearty concern for the honour of god and religion : frequently suggesting to them the obligation that god has laid upon them to be examples to others ; and the great good that it is in their power to do , by setting a pattern of regular living , and the unspeakable mischief of their irregular behaviour . for if once the better sort can be brought to such a seriousness and sobriety , the rest will more easily follow ; example being the most powerful instruction ; and experience teaching us that shame and fear , which arise from the authority of such good patterns , are commonly the most effectual restraints upon the meaner sort . vi. where any person is obstinate in his vices , and not to be reclaimed either by teaching or example , by exhortation or reproof ; the ordinary ought to be informed of it , that he may proceed to reclaim such by ecclesiastical censures : and where those are like to prove ineffectual , the civil magistrate must be applied to , and desired to proceed against them according to the laws in those cases provided . which information and request , especially in the case of such incorrigible offenders , can be made by none so properly as by the clergy ; who may best be supposed to understand the necessity there is of having recourse to the civil magistrate . and since our law-givers have enacted these temporal punishments , on purpose to assist us in the discharge of our ministry ; it would be a great failing in us , not to make use of them when all other methods have been tried to little or no effect . vii . every pious person of the laity , should , if need be , be put in mind by the clergy , that he ought to think himself obliged to use his best endeavours to have such offenders punished by the civil magistrate , as can no otherwise be amended . and that when he hears his neighbour swear or blaspheme the name of god , or sees him offend in drunkenness or prophanation of the lords day , he ought not to neglect to give the magistrate notice of it : in such a case to be called an informer , will be so far from making any man odious in the judgment of sober persons , that it will tend to his honour , when he makes it appear by his unblameable behaviour , and the care he takes of himself and his own family , that he doth it purely for the glory of god , and the good of his brethren . such well disposed persons as are resolved upon this , should be encouraged to meet as oft as they can , and to consult how they may most discreetly and effectually manage it in the places where they live . viii . as in reforming the laity , they ought to use the assistance of the civil magistrate ; so if any of their own brethren be an irregular liver , and cannot be reclaimed by brotherly admonition , the neighbouring cl●rgy should be strictly enjoyned to make it known to their diocesan , either by themselves or the archdeacon , or by some other convenient way . that so the offender may be admonisht to live suitably to his character ; and if a bare admonition will not do , he may be proceeded against by ecclesiastical censures ; for the preventing such scandals and mischiefs , as will always accompany the irregular life of a minister of the gospel . ix . and whereas the foundations of piety and morality are best laid at the beginning , in the religious education of children ; i cannot but wish that every one of the parochial clergy would be very diligent in catechising the children under their care ; and not only so , but in calling upon them afterwards , as they grow up , to give such further accounts of their religion , as may be expected from a riper age. that being thus carefully instructed in the faith and duty of a christian , they also may teach their children the same ; and so piety , virtue , and goodness , may for ever flourish in our church and nation . these directions with such others of the same nature as will occur to you , i desire may be transmitted by you to the clergy of your dioecese ; for the religious government of themselves , and their people , in these dangerous times . so commending you and them to the blessing of god , i rest lambeth . april 4 th . 1699. your affectionate brother tho. cantuar. reverend brother , i send you herewith a letter which i have received from our most reverend primate , to be communicated by you to the clergy of your archdeaconry ; and withal a copy of it for every one of our brethren . i do so perfectly agree with his grace in all the particulars that are here recommended to us and to you all , that i make it my most earnest desire to you , that you will do all that in you lies to engage all our brethren , to a zealous pursuing of the duties of their sacred function , in every one of those things that are here laid before you . if we have any regard to our selves and our profession , to our church and our holy religion , and to the honour of our god and saviour , a due sense of these will quicken our industry , and even constrain us , to apply our utmost zeal in such times as these , to watch against the wiles of satan , and to beat down his strong holds , and to advance the kingdom of christ in the hearts of our people ; that we our selves may receive a full reward in the day when the great bishop of our souls shall appear . i commend you and all my brethren to the blessing of god , and remain your loving brother gilbert sarum . april 6 th . 1699. to the reverend the archdeacons of the dioecese of sarum . london , printed by charles bill , and the executrix of thomas newcomb , deceas'd , printers to the kings most excellent majesty . 1699. a relation of the barbarous and bloody massacre of about an hundred thousand protestants, begun at paris, and carried on over all france, by the papists, in the year 1572 collected out of mezeray thuanus, and other approved authors. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1678 approx. 84 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 24 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a58432 wing r814 estc r4018 11885622 ocm 11885622 50368 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a58432) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 50368) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 508:8) a relation of the barbarous and bloody massacre of about an hundred thousand protestants, begun at paris, and carried on over all france, by the papists, in the year 1572 collected out of mezeray thuanus, and other approved authors. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 47 p. printed for richard chiswel..., london : 1678. attributed to gilbert burnet. cf. halkett & laing (2nd ed.) reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng status offenders. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a relation of the barbarous and bloody massacre of about an hundred thousand protestants , begun at paris , and carried on over all france by the papists , in the year 1572. collected out of mezeray , thuanus , and other approved authors . london , printed for richard chiswel , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1678. a relation of the massacre of the protestants , begun in paris , and carried on over all france , in the year 1572. there are no principles of morality more universally received , and that make deeper impressions on the minds of all men , that are more necessary for the good of humane society , and do more resemble the divine perfections , than truth and goodness : so that if our saviour denounced a woe against those who teach men to break the least of his commandments , what may they look for , who design to subvert these that may be justly called the greatest of them ? that the church of rome teaches barbarity and cruelty , against all who receive not their opinions ; and that hereticks are to be delivered to secular princes , who must burn them without mercy ; or if they have either bowels or conscience , so that they will not be the instruments of their cruelty , that they shall lose their kingdoms or dominions , is known to all that have read the decrees of the 4th council in the lateran . the violation of publick faith , was also decreed by another of their general councils at constance ; in which , notwithstanding the safe conduct that sigismund had granted to iohn husse and ierome of prague , care was not only taken that they should be burnt ; but they made it a standing rule for the time to come , that tho hereticks came to the place of judgment , trusting to their safe conduct , and would not have come without it ; yet the prince who granted it , was under no obligation by it , but the church might proceed to censures and punishment . by these decrees , cruelty and treachery are become a part of their doctrine , and they may join them to their creed , upon as good reasons as they can shew for many of their other additions . the nature of man is not yet sunk so low , as easily to hear these things without horror : therefore it is fit they should be kept among the secrets of their religion , till a fit opportunity appear , in which they may serve a turn : and then we need not doubt but they will be made use of . if any will be so charitable to their church , as not easily to believe this , the history of the parisian massacre may satisfie them to the full : which thuanus says , was a pitch of barbarity beyond any thing that former ages had ever seen : and if the irish massacre , flowing from the same spirit , and the same principles , had not gone beyond it , we might have reasonably concluded , that it could never be matched again . but we may be taught from such precedents , what we ought to expect , when ever we are at the mercy of persons of that religion , who , if they be true sons of the church of rome , must renounce both faith and mercy to all hereticks . i shall give the relation of this massacre from that celebrated late writer of the french history , mr. de mezeray , only adding some passages out of thuanus , davila , and others , where he is defective . but i shall premise a short representation of the civil wars of france , which are made use of as the arguments for justifying that cruelty , and by which they do still blemish the protestant religion , as teaching rebellion against princes . during the reign of francis the 1st , and henry the 2d , the protestant religion got great footing in france ; the usual severities of the church of rome were then employed to extirpate it ; yet tho their numbers were very great , and the persecution most severe , they made no resistance . but upon the death of henry the 2d , catherine de medici , the queen mother , with the cardinal of lorrain , and the duke of guise , took the government in their hands ; pretending that the king ( francis the 2d ) was of age , being then sixteen . the princes of the blood on the other hand alleadged , that the kingdom ought to be under a regency till the king was at least 22 years of age : since charles the 6th had been admitted at that age to the government , as a particular mark of their esteem of him : so that tho the age of majority was at 25 years , and that was a singular exception from a general rule , yet at furthest , it shewed that the king could not assume the government before he was two and twenty . it was also an undoubted right of the princes of the blood to hold the regency , during the minority of their kings : and to administer it , by the direction of the parliaments , and the assembly of the states . upon these points , many things were written on both sides . the princes of the blood pretended , they were excluded from the government , against law , and upon that were projecting how to possess themselves of the power ; which , with the person of the king , were violently kept from them . but the prince of conde being advised to it , by coligny then admiral of france , did also declare for mitigating the severities against the protestants . this being the case , that the point was truly disputable , no man can blame the protestants for joining with their friends against their enemies . and yet this plot was driven no further , than an endeavour to take the king out of the hands of his mother , and the brothers of lorrain , who were all foreigners . the chief promoter of it was a papist , renaudy , and it was discovered by avennelles ; who tho he was most firm to his religion , being a protestant , yet having an aversion to all plots , revealed it out of scruple of conscience . soon after this discovery , francis the 2d died ; and his brother that succeeded him , charles the 9th was without dispute under age , he not being then full eleven years old . and according to the resolution of many great lawyers , in the case of his brother , the kingdom ought to have been under a regency , during all the wars that preceded the massacre , for he was then but two and twenty . at first it was agreed to , that the king of navarre , as the first prince of the blood , ought to be regent ; but he being wrought on , by the queen mother and her party , and drawn over to them , the lawyers were again set to examine , how far the power of the regent did extend : many published their opinions , that the other princes of the blood ought to have their share in the regency , and that the regents might be checkt by the courts of parliaments , and were subject to an assembly of the states . the chief point of state , then under consideration , was , what way to proceed with the protestants , whose numbers grew daily , and were now more considerable , having such powerful heads . a severe edict came out against them in iuly 1561 , condemning all meetings for religious worship , except those that were celebrated with the rites of the church of rome , banishing all the protestant ministers , and appointing the bishops to proceed against hereticks ; with this only mitigation of former cruelties , that banishment should be the highest punishment . but the nation could not bear the execution of this : so next ianuary there was a great assembly called of the princes of the blood , the privy counsellors , and eight courts of parliament , in which the edict that carried the name of the month , was passed . by it , the free exercise of that religion was tolerated , and the magistrates were required to punish all who should hinder or interrupt it . not long after that , the duke of guise did disturb a meeting of protestants at vassy , as he was on his journey to paris ; his servants began with reproachful words , and from these they went to blows . it ended in a throwing of stones , one of which hurt the duke ; but that was severely revenged , about 60 were killed , and 200 wounded , no age or sex being spared . upon this he encouraged the violation of the edict every where ; so that it was universally broken . the king of navarre joined with him in these courses ; but the prince of conde , that was next to him in the royal blood , declared for the edicts : many great lawyers were of opinion , that the regents power was not so vast as to suspend , or break the edict , and that therefore the people might follow any person , much more the next prince of the blood , in defence of it . this plea was yet stronger , before the year ended , for the king of navarre being killed , the prince of conde was then by the law of france the rightful regent : so that all the wars that followed afterwards , till the year 1570 , had this to be said for them , that in the opinion of very learned men , the king was all that while under age , that the edicts were broken , the kingdom governed by a woman , and foreigners , against law , and that the lawful regent was excluded from the government ; which made king iames , whose judgment is not to be suspected in this case , always justify the protestants in france , and excuse them from rebellion . this is a piece of history little understood , and generally made use of to blemish the reformation ; therefore i thought it necessary to introduce the following relation , with this just account of these wars , that were the pretended grounds with which the house of guise covered their own ambition , and hatred of the family of burbon . after france had suffered all the miseries which a course of civil wars , for ten years together , carries after it , the king was advised to set on foot a treaty of peace ; not so much out of a design to quiet matters by a happy settlement , as to ensnare the protestants into some fatal trap , in which they being catched , might be safely and easily destroyed . the chief authors of this advice , were the queen mother , the cardinal of lorrain , the duke of nevers , the count of rets , and birague ; the last three were italians , and so better fitted both for designing and carrying on so wicked a council , to which the duke of anjou , afterwards henry the third , was also admitted . they said the extirpation of heresy might be done much cheaper than by a civil war. it was fit first to grant the protestants what conditions they desired , then to treat them with all possible kindness ; by which their jealousies were to be once extinguished ; and a confidence being begotten in them ; then to draw the chief heads of the party to court , upon some specious attractive , and there they were sure of them . the first bait to be offered , was the marriage of the king's sister to the king of navarre , and if that succeded not , they were to invent still a new one , till they found that which would do the business . all the danger of this council was , that the pope and the king of spain would be much provok'd by it ; and there might be some hazard of tumults , among the zealous people of france , if the king seemed to favour the hereticks too much . but they reckoned , that when the design took effect , all who might be discontented with the appearance of favour shewed to them , would be well satisfied , and the more the pope and spaniard complained of it , it would advance their chief end , of creating a confidence in the protestants more effectually . thus were their councils laid . the room in which this was first projected , was the council-chamber of blois , where 16 years after the duke of guise was killed , by henry the third's orders . and it was more fully concluded in that chamber at st. glou , where the same henry the third was murdered by a dominican . the design being agreed on , the queen-mother made some of her spies , among the protestants , assure them , that she hated the king of spain mortally , both on her daughters account , that was his queen , and as was universally believed , had been poysoned by his orders ; as also upon the consideration of her own family of florence , to which the spaniard was then an uneasy neighbour : and designed to take the territory of siena out of their hands . it was reasonable enough to believe , that upon such motives , a woman of her temper would set on a war with spain . the king did also express a great inclination to the same war , and to undertake the protection of the netherlands , which were then under the tyranny of the duke of alva's government . this wanted not a fair pretence , flanders having been formerly subject to the crown of france . he also seemed weary of the greatness of the duke of guise and his party , which a civil war did still encrease . the king and the queen-mother employed also in these messages , biron , momorancy , cosse and others , who were men of great integrity , and had much friendship for the queen of navarre and the admiral , that were the heads of the protestant party . the queen of navarre was sensible of the great advantages her son would receive from such an alliance . an army was also promised her , for the recovery of her kingdom from the spaniard ; which had been easily regained , if the crown of france had assisted her ; since the southern parts of france were almost all protestants , who would have willingly served her against spain . only she being a most religious woman , had great apprehensions of the unlawfulness , at least the extream danger of matching her son to one of a different religion ; therefore she took some time to consider of that part of the proposition . the admiral was very weary of the civil war , it both ruined his countrey , and slackened the discipline of war , which he had formerly observed with a roman severity . he thought the conquest of the netherlands would be an easy and a great accession to the crown ; he knew there was none so likely to be employed in it as himself , and he was resolved to carry all the souldiers of the religion with him . and being admiral , he also designed to raise the greatness of the crown both at sea , and in the new-found world , which was then sending over an incredible deal of wealth to spain ; in which the spaniards who had landed in florida , and killed a colony of the french , that was setled there , had given just cause to make war upon them . therefore as he had often expressed his being so averse to a civil war , that he could no longer look on and see the miseries it brought on his country ; so he was made believe , the king did in good earnest intend to assist the flemings , which being , both against the spaniard , and in defence of those of the same religion , he would by no means hinder . upon these considerations , there was a peace concluded between the king and the protestants , by which the free exercise of their religion was granted : some cautionary towns were also put in their hands , to be kept by them two years , till there were a full settlement made of the edicts , and the other things agreed to , for their security . the king acted his part with all the artifice possible , he became much kinder to the family of momorancy and the rest of the admirals friends , and seemed to neglect those of lorrain . he threatned the parliament of paris , because they made some difficulty in passing the edict in favours of the protestants . he went secretly to meet with lewis count of nassaw , and treated with him about the wars of the netherlands . he married the emperors daughter , who was thought a protestant in his heart . he entred in a confederacy with q. elizabeth : and the cardinal of chastilion ( the admirals brother , who had renounced his red hat , and turned a protestant ) being then in england , was employed to set on foot a treaty of marriage between the duke of anjou and the queen : a peace was also made with the princes of the empire . and tho both the spanish ambassador and the legat did all they could to hinder the peace , and the marriage of the king of navarre , yet they seemed to make no account of that at court : only the king gave the legat great assurances of his fidelity to the apostolick see , and that all that he was doing , was for the interest of the catholick religion . and taking him one day by the hand : he desired him to assure the pope , that his design in this marriage , was that he might be revenged on those that were enemies to god , and rebels against himself , and that he would either punish them severely , and out them all in pieces , or lose his crown . all which he would do in compliance with the advices he had received from the pope , who had continually set him on to destroy them ; and he saw no way of doing it so securely , as by getting them once to trust him , having tryed all other methods in vain . and for a pledg of his faith , he offered him a ring of great value ; which the legate refused to take , pretending that he never took presents from any prince , and that the word of so great a king , was a better security than any pledge whatsoever . upon all these demonstrations of friendship made to the protestants , it was no wonder if persons of such candour , as the queen of navarre , and the admiral , were deceived . the admiral went first to court , where he was received by the king with the greatest shew of kindness and respect that was possible . he embraced him thrice , laid his cheek to his , squeezed his hands , called him father , and left nothing undone that might possess him with a firm opinion of his friendship . nor was the queen-mother less officious to express her kindness to him . he was allowed to keep fifty armed gentlemen about him . an hundred thousand franks were sent him , for furnishing his houses that had been spoiled during the wars . and which was more than all the rest , when complaints were carried by him to the king , of some who violated the edicts , great insolencies being committed in many places ; the king ordered them to be exemplarily punished . so that there was a general repining over all france , at the king's kindness to him . the king had also told him , that now he had got him near him , he would never suffer him to leave him any more . the design succeeding so well on the admiral , the proposition of the marriage was also carried on ; and the queen of navarre was next brought to court , but soon after died ( as was generally believed ) of poison , that was given her in some perfumed gloves ; to conceal which , the chirurgeons that opened her , would not touch her head , but pretended she died of an imposthume in her side . the cardinal of chastilion was also at that time poisoned , which tho afterwards confessed by him that had done it , yet was not then so much as suspected . the king seemed more and more set on the war in flanders . he sent both to england , and germany , to consult about the preparatious for it , and had agreed with the prince of orange , about the division of the netherlands : that all on their side of antwerp should come to the crown of france : and what lay on the other side of it , should belong to the states . he sent a protestant his ambassadour to constantinople , to engage the grand signior unto a war with spain . he also furnished the count of nassaw with mony , and sent some of his best captains with him to try , if they could surprize any towns near the frontier , who did their part so dextrously , that mons was surprized by the count of nassaw , and valenciennes by la noiie , according to mezeray ; tho he seems to be mistaken as to valenciennes , for thuanus and davila say nothing of it , but mention mons only . and veremundus frisius , who wrote the history of that massacre the year after , says , that they missed their design in surprising valenciennes , upon which they went to mons and carried it . upon this all reckoned that the king was now engaged , and the war begun . so the king of navarre , and the prince of conde , were brought to court , and received with all the marks of a firm friendship , that could be invented . a dispensation was obtained from the new pope for the marriage . veremundus says , pope pius the 5th had always opposed it , but upon the cardinal of alexandria's return to rome , who went to assist in the conclave , where gregory the 13th was chosen , the new pope , easily granted the bull , which was believed to have flowed from the information he received from that cardinal , of the king's design in this marriage , which to be sure his holiness would neither obstruct nor delay . so the bull being sent to the cardinal of burbon , the day was set , and the chief heads of the protestants were all drawn into paris , partly to assist at the solemnities of a marriage , which they hoped would put an end to all their troubles ; partly to get charges in the army , which all people believed would be commanded by the admiral . only many of the hottest of them had followed ienlis and la noiie into flanders , where it was intended to abandon them to the cruelty of the duke of alva , who had intercepted and cut off a great body of them commanded by ienlis . the admiral pressed the king , to declare the war immediately ; foreseeing that unless it followed suddenly , his friends that had surprized these towns , would be destroyed , and the whole design spoiled . but the king put him off with delays , in which he expressed much confidence in him , by telling him the secret grounds he had to distrust almost every person about him : and that therefore he must of necessiity settle his court and councils first , before he could enter upon such a war. but now the design being ripe , the duke of guise , to whom it had also been communicated , was employed to gather many desperate men about him , who might be fit to execute all orders ; and the thing getting into more hands , took wind , so that they at rochel being informed of some suspicious passages , wrote to the admiral , to disabuse him , and desired he would leave the court , and trust no more to the fair appearances he saw there ; since these were only the masks of some great mischief that was a framing . to them he wrote a long answer , and assured them , that the king's heart was wholly changed , that there was never a better prince in the world , and that for his own part , he would die a thousand deaths , rather than suspect him capable of so base a design . then he laid before them all the reasons which induced him to believe the war with spain was really intended , and theresore he desired , that they would lay down their groundless jealousies . and when some that were about him , pressed the same things upon him ; he told them plainly , he would rather be destroyed , than make a new rupture ; and would be dragged at horse-heels through paris , rather than begin another civil war. his authority was so great , and his experience so approved , that the whole party submitted to his judgment : and he got some cautionary towns , that were by the treaty of peace to be restored at the end of two years , to be delivered up three weeks before the time was elapsed : only the rochellers were a little more apprehensive , and would not receive a garrison . on the 17th of august was the king of navarre married , and four days were spent in all the gallant diversions , that are usual on such occasions , but were now performed with more than ordinary magnificence and joy. hitherto the mine was working under-ground , and now it was time for it to play . there was nothing could be blamed in the conduct of the protestants , but too much candour and too great confidence . they knew they designed nothing , but the quiet of their country , and the greatness of the crown . they were cajol'd with the most engaging tokens of friendship , that ever were shewed on any such occasion ; they thought the king was sincere , and being then but coming to be of age , was taking new measures . and he had so covered the cruelty of his temper , with a shew of good nature , that they expected they should be most happy under him . and for the queen-mother , tho they knew her too well to put any confidence in her ; yet her passion for her family , and her revenge for the poysoning of her daughter , made them think they were also well assured of her . and indeed so deep and so refin'd a dissimulation was perhaps never before acted . there was but one part of the kings deportment that could give any ground for jealousie , the horrid and blasphemous oaths and imprecations , which he made use of on all occasions to persuade them of the reality of his professions ; which always raise suspicion in sober and wary persons . these the king used so frequently , that the writers of that time , say , that he seldom spoke three words without some terrible oath , or blasphemous expression , which from his ill example , was so spread over all france , that none but the protestants , spoke in any other strain . but now when it fell under consideration , how their designs should be executed , the queen with her two italian confidents , the count de rets , and birague , who , next to the protestants , hated the house of guise beyond all the world , yet dissembling it most artificially ; intended that the business should be so managed , as to ruine both the protestants , and that family at once : therefore they thought , that if some of their followers would assassinate the admiral , the protestants would turn their revenge on them , and they knew the parisians would be easily moved to rise against the protestants ; and so they reckoned , that if an attempt was made upon the admiral , by any of the duke of guise's creatures , his party would presently take a severe revenge on the head of the house of guise , and the parisians would be soon brought out to destroy them . they concealed this part of their design , and in the cabinet-council only proposed , that the duke of guise would find some person to kill the admiral , which should pass like an act of private revenge ; and they said , they did not doubt , but the whole party would upon that take arms , and thereupon , there would be a good colour given , to bring out the city of paris upon them . the duke of guise being young and hot , and boiling with revenge for his father's blood , undertook it , not considering that himself might perish in the first heat of action , as the queen hoped he should . he pitch'd on maurenel , who had formerly assassinated another person , and placed him in the house of one that had been his tutor , near st. german of auxerre , where the admiral used to pass , as he went or came from the louvre . it was now necessary to execute their design quickly , for the protestants were beginning to apprehend some danger . they saw the king was resolved , to let those who had surprized the towns in flanders perish , without sending them any relief . the admiral was resolved to take leave within a few days : his friend , the duke of montmorency , tho no protestant , yet saw the storm coming , and retired to his house : and many little circumstances occurred , which gave them all just cause of fear : so the other party had no time to lose . therefore on the 22d of august , about noon as the admiral was going home from the court , reading a paper that he had in his hand , the assassinate that was laid for him , shot him from the house , where the duke of guise had placed him ; his fuzee was charged with three bullets , that were believed to be poysoned . one of these carried away part of the fore-finger of his right hand ; the other stuck in his left arm , and the third missed him . he received it with great presence of mind , and pointed to the house from whence it came ; he also sent one to the king to give him notice of it , and then ordered his arm to be bound up , and so went home leaning on his servants . some run to the house and broke into it , but found none there , save a lacquey , and a maid , and the fuzee , which the murderer left behind him , when he made his escape . the king was in the tenis-court when the news were brought him : he personated a deep resentment , and said in a tone that seemed full of affliction , and with a terrible oath , shall i never have quiet ! and so threw away his racquet , and went out in a rage . the duke of guise did also counterfeit some surprise . but they missed their designs , both ways , for neither was the admiral killed , nor did the protestants fly out into any disorder . the king of navarre and the prince of conde , came upon this to the king to complain , and desired leave to go out of town , since men were not safe so near the court. the king seemed to resent it , more than they did , and with the horriblest oaths he could think of , swore he would execute such a revenge on all that were found guilty of it , whoever they were , that it should never be forgotten ; and desired them to stay and be witnesses of it . the queen-mother made also shew of inflaming his rage with most vehement expressions , so that they were persuaded to stay . the king ordered the murderer to be pursued , the two servants to be examined , and all the gates of paris ( except two ) to be kept shut . the admirals carriage on this occasion , was suitable to the rest of his behaviour , and equal to what the greatest heroe's had ever shewed . ambrose parè , the famous surgeon , dressed his wound , he made the incision into his arm , that he might take out the bullet , and did cut off his finger for fear of a gangreen : but his scissars not being sharp enough , he put him to extream pain , and did not cut it off but at the third reprise : during all which , the admiral expressed no impatience nor anger . but as parè told thuanus , he said to mr. maur a minister that stood by , now i perceive that i am beloved of god , since i suffer these wounds for his most holy name . and during the operation , he often repeated these words , o my god , sorsake me not , and withdraw not thy wonted favour from me ! and whispered one that was holding his arm , in the ear , that he should distribute an hundred crowns among the poor of paris . next day danivil , cosse , and villars , came to visit and comfort him , but confessed it was needless , for he expressed great resolution of mind and readiness to die , only he desired to see the king , and speak with him before he died . damvil and teligny ( the admirals son in law ) carried this message to the king , who very readily yielded to it . the queen-mother apprehending the great genius of the admiral , and fearing lest he should turn her son to better councils , would needs go with the king. his two brothers , with twelve of the chief persons in the court , waited also on him , to make a shew of putting the more honour on the admiral , but really to watch the king , that he might have no opportunity of speaking with him alone . when the king came to his bed-side , he expressed the greatest tenderness possible , and in his looks , and the tone of his voice counterfeited a most profound sorrow , and said to him , you , my father , have received the wound , but i feel the smart of it , and will punish it in so severe a manner , that the like was never seen . the admiral thanked him , and told him , by his wound , he might well perceive , who were the authors of the troubles of france . he pressed him earnestly to go on with the war in flanders , and not leave all those gallant persons to the duke of alva's insolence and cruelty , who had trusted to his protection . he complained of the violation of the edict in several parts of france ; and desired the king , to consider how much it concerned him both in honour and interest , to keep his faith inviolated . the king gave him full assurances of this , but avoided the discourse of flanders , and with repeated oaths told him , he would punish this fact against him , as if it had been done against himself . then the admiral desired to speak privately with the king , which lasted not long ; for the queen-mother , apprehending what the subject of his discourse might be , came to the bed-side and told the king , that so long a conversation would much endanger the admirals health , and so broke it off . yet it seems , as short as it was , it made some impression , for when she asked the king , what it was that he had said to him ? he answered , he had advised him to reign himself , and he was resolved to follow it . when this was over , the king asked the admirals friends , and the physicians many questions about his health , and proposed for his greater security , the carrying him to the louvre . but the physicians said , he could not be safely removed . so after he had staied an hour he left him , during which time he acted the part , he intended to play , so well , that all the witnesses were satisfied with the sincerity and passion he expressed . the court of parliament examined the maid , and lackquey , that were taken in the house from whence he was shot , about the murtherer : and many presumptions appeared against the duke of guise , whose servants , they found , had brought him to that house , and had provided an horse for his escape . the king wrote that same day both to his ambassadours in forreign parts , and to the governours of the provinces , shewing them what had befallen the admiral , and how much he resented it . the next day being the 23d , the duke of guise and his uncle the duke of aumale , came and desired leave to go out of town . the king by his looks and carriage seemed to abhor them ; and said , they might do what they pleased ; but as they went away , he said , they might go whither they would , but he should find them out , if they appeared to be guilty of that fact. and so they mounted on horse-back and rode to the port st. anthony , as if they had intended to go out of town , but came back to guise-house : and began to raise a great stir in paris . they called many about them , and sent their agents all over the town , and sent arms to divers places . when news of this was brought to the admiral , he sent to the king to desire a guard , so 50 were sent under the command of cosseins , one of his bitterest enemies . but to cover the matter better , some of the king of navarres swisses , were sent to guard within his house . the king did also order all the papists that lay near his house , to remove their lodgings , that the protestants might have conveniency to be about him , and gather together if there should be any tumult . he also desired the king of navarre , and the prince of conde would gather about them their best friends , that they might be prepared to defend themselves , in case the duke of guise should raise any disorders . all this seemed not only sincere , but kind ; and by these arts were the protestants , not only secured from their fears , but had great hopes raised in them : and thus the greatest part of them were brought within the net , that was laid for their ruine . only the vice-lord ( or vidam ) of chartres saw through the disguise : and a council of their party being held in the admirals chamber , he spoke freely , and told them , the admirals wound was the first act of the tragedy , and more would soon follow . therefore he proposed , that he might be carried to chastilion , ill as he was , in which there was less danger , than to stay in a place where they and all their friends would be suddenly destroyed . teligny and others , that were fully perswaded of the kings good intentions , opposed this much , and said , it would shew such a distrust of the king , as might for ever lose him , that was then beginning to favour their party . but the vidam answered , that stay who would , he would not stay longer than to morrow , for he was assured their stay would be fatal to themselves , and all their friends . there was a perfidious person in that assembly , one bouchavannes , who was an intelligencer to the queen-mother , and carried presently an account of their consultation to her . she and her party were now pressed with time , therefore the execution of their design could be no longer delayed than the next night . so the council met and resolved , that not only the persons of quality of the religion should be killed , but that every one of what condition soever , that were of that profession should be massacred . it was debated long , whether the king of navarre and the prince of conde , should perish with the rest ? for the duke of guise his party had a great mind to destroy the whole family of bourbon : but as for the king of navarre , it was thought contrary to the laws of nations , of hospitality and of nature , to murder a king , that had come under trust to the court , and was now so nearly allied to the king : and was guilty of no crime , but what he had from his education . so it was resolved , he should be spared , and made change his religion . but for the prince of conde , he was naturally fierce , and that temper , joined with the memory of his father , made them less inclined to save him ; only the duke of nevers , who had married his wifes sister , interposed vigorously for him , and undertook that he should become a good catholick , and a faithful subject : and he prevailed , tho with great difficulty , that he should be spared . but for the rest , it was agreed on , to raise the town of paris , and set them upon them , who were inflamed into such a rage against that party , that they knew it would be an easy work to engage them in any sort of cruely against them . the conduct of it was committed to the duke of guise , who undertook it very chearfully . he did first communicate it to the guards , and ordered them to keep a strict watch , both about the louvre , and the places where the admiral and his friends were lodged , that none might escape ; then he desired the provost ( or major ) of paris , and the chief magistrates and officers of the city , would meet at midnight in the town-house , where they should receive their orders . they met accordingly , and it was intimated to them , that the king was now resolved to destroy the hereticks , who had so long distracted his kingdom : that therefore every one should go to his quarter , and have all people in readiness , with the greatest secrecy that might be , and that they should have many torches and flambeaus ready , to light out at their windows . the sign should be a white linnen sleeve on their left arm , and a white cross in their caps : and at the tolling of the great bell of the palace , which should be done near the break of day , they should light their torches and march . the king in the mean while , was under great irresolution . the horror of the fact , the infamy that would follow it , and the danger he might be in , if it either miscarried , or were not fully executed , could not but fill him with confusion . but the queen , who had overcome all the impressions of tenderness and pity , that are natural to her sex , hearing of it , came to him , and studied to confirm him in his former resolutions , representing to him all the trouble they had given him in the former wars , and that he might expect yet worse , if he would let go this opportunity , of securing the quiet of his whole reign . she knew how to work upon him so well , that in end she prevailed , and the king swore deeply he would go through with it . upon that , she being impatient , and fearing a new turn in the kings thoughts , made the bell of st. germans be tolled , which was the warning for tolling that in the palace . this fatal signal was given the morning of the 24th of august , st. bartholomews day , being sunday ; and was followed with a general rising of the whole city of paris . the march of souldiers , the noise of their arms ; and the lightning of so many torches , awakened the poor protestants , who now saw visibly that their ruine was both near and inevitable . some of them went out to the streets , and asked what the matter might be , of so great a concourse , and so many torches and armed men , at such an hour ? some answered , as they had been instructed to say , till all things should be ready , that there was to be a mock-siege of a fort in the louvre , for the kings diversion . so they went forward to satisfy their curiosity , but quickly found it was a real massacre , and not a mock-siege that was intended , and they were the first sacrifices of that bloody festivity . there were now about threescore thousand men brought together . the duke of guise , which his uncle aumale , resolved first to satisfie their revenge on the admiral , and therefore went to his gate , where cosseins kept guard , on design to betray him the more effectually . he called to open the gate ; which being done , they killed the porter and broke into the court. but the king of navarr's swisses barricado'd the next gate , and made some resistance . this dismal noise awakened the admiral , who at first apprehended , it might be some tumult of the populace , which he hoped the king's guards would easily disperse . but when he perceived it encreased , then he saw he was to be destroyed . so he took his night-gown and got up : those that were about him were amazed at the constancy of his mind , his minister merlin prayed ; and when that was ended , he said to those that were about him , i see now what this will end in , but i am prepared to meet death , which i have often looked for , but was never afraid of : i account my self happy since it is so near me , having in this my death , through the grace of god the hope of eternal life . i need no more the help of men , therefore farewel , my friends , and try how you can save your selves , that you be not involved in my ruin , lest by my death i make more widows than one : i have help enough in the presence of god , into whose hands i commit my soul , which is soon to be discharged out of this body . all this he spoke without the least commotion or appearance of fear . then those about him left him , and got up to the roof of the house . by that time the murderers had brook in , and seven of them being all in armour , came into his chamber . besme , that had been one of the duke of guises grooms , advanced towards him ; to whom he said , young man , you ought to reverence my gray hairs , but you cannot shorten my life much . they all stood a while amazed at such undaunted courage , and so composed a behaviour , which as one of them told thuanus , was the most extraordinary thing that ever he saw his whole life . besme did first thrust him into the belly , and then cut him over the face : at which he fell , and the others struck at him , till he was quite dead . the duke of guise being below in the court , heard the noise , and called to them to throw him out at the window , which besme and another did . and either the duke , or the count of angoulesme ( for it is differently reported ) wiped his face , which was disfigured with blood , to know if it was he indeed , and perceiving it was so , trampled on his belly , and went away . an italian cut off his head , and carried it first to the queen-mother , and then embalmed it , and sent it to rome , ( not only as the protestants say , which is disingeniously added , by mezeray , for thuanus affirms it ) : then all the ignominy and barbarity possible , was exercised about the dead carcase , his fingers and hands were cut off , his body dragged about the streets , thrown in the sein , and hanged up in chains his feet uppermost : and a fire was set under to burn it , but it only dried it and did not consume it . some days after monmorancy caused it to be taken down secretly , and buried it in his chappel at chantilly . thus fell the admiral , that for all noble qualities necessary , either to a great captain , or a compleat statesman , may be equalled to any of the ancient greeks or romans ; and for piety and other christian vertues , was the wonder of the age he lived in . but the cruelty of the duke of guise and his party , was rather kindled than satiated with his blood. so he and his company went out to the streets , and cried aloud , it was the king's command they should go on , and finish what they had begun . and so the multitude was let loose , to murder all that were of the religion , and the plunder of their houses was to be their reward . this was followed with the most enraged and cruel massacre that ever was heard of . it exceeded all that either the heathens had done , or their poets had feigned . every man seemed a fury , and as if they had been transformed into tigres and wolves , out-did the very cruelty of beasts of prey . the bare relation of matters of fact , is beyond all that eloquence can invent , by which it may be aggravated : and indeed a strict narrative of what was really done , will appear some ages hence , as a tragical description of an imaginary cruelty , rather than a true history . five hundred persons of quality were murdered , and in all 4000 according to thuanus and mezeray . perefixe the late b. of paris says , there were twenty lords of note killed , and twelve hundred gentlemen , and between three and four thousand others . but veremundus says , they were ten thousand . no age nor sex was spared ; husbands and wives were killed in one anothers arms , after they saw their children murthered at their feet . one butcher'd an innocent babe , as it was playing with his beard . men of fourscore were not left to the course of nature , but hewen down . nor did a single death satisfie their brutal rage , but they made them die many deaths , before death relieved them . one would cut off the nose , another the ear , a third the hands , and a fourth the arms of the same person , before they would be so merciful as to kill him out-right . those that fled up to the tops of their houses , were made leap over to the streets , where they were knocked down with halberts . such as ran out to escape through dark passages , were either instantly killed , or driven to the sein , where they took pleasure to kill and drown them with much art . dead bodies floated all along the seine , and were lying in heaps thorough the streets . in many places the kennels ran blood. there was nothing to be heard but the howlings of mangled and dying persons ; or the horrid blasphemies of their accursed butchers . they searched all the corners of their houses , as hounds pursuing for prey . no man delivered his friend ; no host had pity on his guest : only one brave man saved his enemy . the louvre it self was full of blood , and the dead corpes of those whom the king of navarre and prince of conde had brought about them for their security : but where they expected a sanctuary , they found a massacre . it is needless to reckon up the names of those noble persons who were then destroyed , for the memory of rochfoucant , teligny , renel , piles , pluvial , baudine , guerchy , lavardin , nompar or la force , and five hundred more will be ever sacred ; yet in this nation where these families are not known , the recital would be tedious and useless . of all those guerchy alone died with a sword in his hand , but could hurt none of those that assaulted him , they having armour on them . this horrible confusion , gave the allarm to those who lay in the suburbs on the other side of the seine to make haste and be gone ; and they , having no suspicion of the king himself , were thinking to have gone over and sheltred themselves within the louvre . the parisians had now lost all order , and were fallen to plunder , so that they could not be brought together : therefore the duke of guise sent over some of the swisse guards in boats to kill them , and himself followed with some horse ; and had it not been for the mistake of him who brought the wrong keys of the gate , thorough which he was to pass , they had been all surprized before they had resolved what course to take . but day appearing , they saw enough to convince them , it was not time to delay any more : so in the greatest confusion possible , they got on horseback , and fled away . the duke of guise pursued them , but they were out of his reach , and not being strong enough to defend themselves , and keep in a body , they dispersed and escaped . but the fury that they fled from , continued in paris all that day , and the two following days : in which nothing was left undone that ingenious and desperate cruelty could suggest . six hundred houses were pillaged . and after such a glut of blood , mens minds becoming savage , they fell to revenge private enmities , even upon their fellow papists ; many of whom were in the end also murdered , but those were chiefly monorancy his friends , who were thought cold in the matter of religion . the most enraged of their blood-hounds were tanchou , pesou , and crosier a goldsmith ; the two former drove many to the mills , and forced them to leap from thence into the river . pesou boasted to the king himself , that he had made an hundred and fifty leap that night . and thuanus says , he often heard crosier say , that with that hand he had killed 400 : by which it seems he was thought so sanctified , that he would live no longer a common life , but as a sacred person went to an hermitage ; where yet his cruelty left him not ; for during the warrs of the league , he drew a flemish merchant into his cell and murdered him there . thus were the protestants destroyed in paris , with a treachery and cruelty that the uncivilized nations had never shewed to one another , nor had the heathens been ever guilty of any thing like it towards the christians . the precedent which the church of rome had formerly given in the massare of the albigenses , was the likest thing in history to it for barbarity ; but never had treachery and cruelty met together in such a manner before this execrable day . at court all those generous impressions which follow noble blood , seemed extinguished . men threw off humanity , and women had neither compassion nor modesty . the queen-mother and her ladies took pleasure to look upon the most detestable objects , and greedily beheld some obscene and indecent sights ; but it is not fit to write all that was then done . about nine of the clock , the king sent for the king of navarre and the prince of conde , and told them he was forced to use that severe remedy to put an end to war and rebellion , and had therefore destroyed those , whom he could not induce to obey : and for them , tho he had good reason to hate them mortally , since they had led on a rebellion against him , yet in consideration of their blood and alliance , he was resolved to spare them if they would change their religion , otherwise they must look for no better usage than their servants had met with . the king spake this with great rage , so that the king of navarre being terrified , said , that if the king would save their lives , and leave them their consciences free , they should in all other things be commanded by him . but the prince of conde answered more boldly , that he might dispose of his life and estate as he pleased , but for his religion , he owed an account of it to god alone , from whom he had received the knowledg of it . this resolute answer put the king in such a rage , that after he had treated him with most abusive language , he swore , that if he did not change within three days , he should hang for it . and so ordered them to be strictly guarded . at the same time there were expresses dispatched over all france , to set on the people both in the towns and country , to imitate the example of the parisians , and destroy the hereticks . yet the king either out of some remorse or shame , wrote to his ambassadours and the governours of the provinces , that same day : that the duke of guise , and others that adhered him , having a great interest in the city of paris , and apprehending that the admirals friends were resolved to revenge his wound , had therefore , both to secure themselves , and to prosecute their former quarrels , raised the city of paris : and had broke through the guards set to defend the admiral , and killed him , and many other persons of quality ; the rage of the people being such ; that the king's guards could do nothing to repress it : therefore he was forced to keep himself within the louvre , but had , as soon as was possible , quieted the town ; so that all things were put in order again ; and he was resolved still to maintain his edict , made for the free exercise of their religion . veremundus has printed the copies of the letters , directed to the governours of burgundy and tourain , and to the town of bourges , with the memorial sent to the swiss cantons , all to the same purpose , bearing date the 24th of august . and in another letter the king wrote , that he had made up a new agreement with the king of navarre and the prince of conde , and was resolved to run the same hazard with them , for revenging the death of his cousin the late admiral . but the house of guise would not bear this , and made the king own , that all was done by his express orders . so on the 26th of august , the king went to the court of parliament , and after an invidious repetition of all the troubles of his reign , which yet he said , he intended to have quieted by the late treaty of peace , he discovered that the admiral had conspired to kill him , his brothers , and the king of navarre , and to set up the young prince of conde , whom he also designed afterwards to kill , that so the whole royal family being destroyed , he might make himself king : and since extream diseases required extream remedies , he was forced to do what he had done ; and concluded , that all was done by his express order and command . thuanus the father , tho he abhorred the thing , yet out of fear and compliance , made a base flattering speech , of the necessity of dissimulation in princes , and did much commend that saying of lewis the 11th . he who knows not how to dissemble , knows , not how to reign . and pibrac the attourney general ' moved the king , that the declaration he had made ' might be entred in their registers , and that strict orders might be given , to put an end to the blood and confusion with which the city was filled : both which the king ordered to be done . the declaration which was thereupon published on the 28th , is printed by veremundus . by it the king charged all persons , under pain of death , through the whole kingdom , to do no injury to the protestants . and at the same time declared it capital , for the protestants to have any assemblies . this was believed to be done rather on design to destroy , than save the hugonets : that they being out of apprehension of danger , might stay all at home , and so be more easily massacred . on the 28th of august , a jubilee was granted to all , who had been in this butchery ; and they were commanded to go every where to church , and bless god , for the success of that action . so little relenting had they , after all these black crimes , that they imagined they had done god good service : and to that height did their impudence rise , that they presumed to address to that merciful being , who abhors cruel and blood-thirsty men , and that with hands not only defiled with blood , but boasting of it as a sacrifice offered to god , which had been a fitter oblation to him that was a lyar and a murderer from the beginning , than the god of truth , and father of mercies . one remarkable passage fell out , which occasioned much discourse , and was variously constructed by the several parties . on the day of the massacre , about noon , a white thorn in the church-yard of the innocents , that was almost dead , and had no leaves on it , flourished all of a sudden . this was published through the streets of paris , as a sign , that heaven approved their actions , and was made use of to animate them to new heats in their cruelty : for every one was set on to kill one or other , that he might be honoured with the sight of so unusual a thing . some thought it might come from the nature of the tree , and it was said , such things were not extraordinary in trees of that kind , a little before they became quite dead . others believed it might be the trick of some monk , who pouring either hot water , or some prepared water at the root of it , might have done the feat . but the rable did universally ascribe it to some miraculous cause , only they differed about that to which it referred . the protestants said , it signified their innocence , and that a new troop of innocents were sent to heaven , and therefore the tree in the church-yard of the innocents flourished afresh . the papists said , is signified the joy in heaven at that days work , and that the church was to flourish again by the death of the hereticks . but leaving these discantings on this seeming miracle , morvillier that was lord-keeper , advised , that for justifying , or at least mitigating the censures that might be made on these proceedings , there should be a process carried on , against the dead admiral to prove him guilty of a conspiracy against the king and the royal blood ; and there were some few protestants kept prisoners , who had been taken out of the english ambassadors lodgings , who to save themselves , they hop'd might be brought to accuse the admiral . but while this mock-process was making , there was a real prosecution of the like cruelties in many other parts of france . at meaux , a little town not far from paris , they began on the 25th of august , being monday , and spent the whole week in shedding more blood. they killed two hundred ; many of those were women , whom they forced before they murdered them . at troye in champaigne , about the same number was killed . at orleans , a thousand were also killed . six or seven hundred at roan , tho the governour did what he could to hinder it . at bourges , nevers , and charite , all they found were killed . at tholouse two hundred were killed . at burdeaux , they were for some time in suspence , being afraid of the rochellers ; but the priests did so inflame the multitude , that the governour could not restrain their rage longer , than the beginning of october ; so then they massacred all that they could find . this beginning , was followed by all the towns on the garvinne . but next to paris , lions was the place where the most barbarous cruelties were acted . the governour had a mind to save the protestants , and gathered together about six or seven hundred of them , whom he lodged in several prisons , that so he might preserve them : and to give the people some content , he granted them the pillage of their houses . but they were so heated by the clergie , and by some that were sent from the court , to promote the massacre every where , that they broke open the prisons and murdered them all , dragged their bodies through the streets , and opened the bellies of the fattest of them , to sell their greese to apothecaries . and when they could do no more , they threw them into the river of rhosne , which was coloured with the blood , and filled with the carcases of the slain . these examples were followed in many more places , but detested by others , who were not papists enough , to overcome nature and all morality . the governours in some places restrained the people ; and in many places the souldiers , tho more inured to blood , defended the protestants from the rable , that were set on by the priests . the answer the governour of bayonne made , deserves to be remembred , who wrote to the king in these words . sir , i have communicated your majesty's command to the inhabitants of the town , and the souldiers of the garrison . i find many good citizens , and brave souldiers , but never a hangman here : and therefore in their name and my own , i humbly beg your majesty would employ our arms , and lives in things , which are possible for us to do , how dangerous soever they may be , and we will spend the last drop of our blood in your service . this gave great offence at court , and soon after , both he and the count of tendes , governour of provence , who had also given orders , that there should be no massacre made within his jurisdiction , died very suddenly : and it was believed they were both poisoned . in all there were , as thuanas says , thirty thousand massacred over france , tho he believes they were not quite so many . mezeray estimates them at five and twenty thousand . but perefixè says , that over all france , near an hundred thousand were butchered . and veremundus says , that besides , those who were killed , an hundred thousand persons were set a begging , most of those being widows and orphans . many of them fled to the places of strength in france , and great numbers went out of the kingdom . for when they had escaped the first rage of the massacre , they clearly perceived the design of their enemies , was to extirpate them root and branch . and tho the king at first declared he would observe the edict inviolably , they had learned from sad experience , how little his faith was to be depended on , and they were further convinced of it by fresh proofs . for the king pressed the king of navarre , and the prince of conde very hard , to change their religion : the former was tractable and hearkned to instruction ; but the latter continued resolute and would hear nothing . this put the king once into such a rage , that he called for his arms , and was going in person , either to kill him , or see him killed ; had not his vertuous queen , who had been instructed by her father , to abhor all cruel proceedings about religion , cast her self at his feet , and with many tears diverted him from so ignominious an action . but he sent for him and said only these three words to him , mass , death , or the bastil . yet he generously resolved to suffer death , or perpetual imprisonment , rather than go to mass , had they not found out a tool fit to work on him . one sureau-des rosiers , that had been minister of the protestants at orleans , had now to save his life , changed his religion ; but to have some reputation in it , pretended that he had resolved to have done it sooner , tho when that fear was over , he returned to them again , but was never much considered after that . he was therefore employed to perswade the prince of conde : and what by his endeavours , and what by fear of death , both the king of navarre and he went to mass , and wrote letters full of submission and obedience to the pope ; tho they were no sooner out of that snare , than they declared , that what had been obtained of them , was extorted by force . this being done , the king sent his orders over all france , bearing date the 22d of september , to turn all persons out of any considerable imployments , that would not renounce their religion , and a long form of abjuration was sent with it , which was to be the test : both which are printed by veremundus . the process against the admiral was carried on before the parliament of paris , and ( without any proofs that ever were published ) they on the 27th of october , judged him guilty of a conspiracy against the king and his crown : and therefore ordained his body to be hanged , if it could be found ; or if not , that he should be hanged in effigie : his house of chastilion to be razed , and a pillar set up with an inscription to defame his memory , his blood was also attainted , and his children declared ignoble and incapable of any priviledges in france . and the sentence concluded with an order , for celebrating st. bartholomews day in all time coming , with processions and publick thanksgivings for the discovery and punishment of that conspiracy . there were also two other persons of quality , cavagnes and briquemaut who had been dealt with to accuse the admiral , but they would not save themselves by so base a ransom ; so they were both condemned as complices with him . but when the sentence was pronounced against them , thuanus , that was an eye-witness , says , briquemaut cried out , when that part of the judgment was read that concerned his children ; ah innocents ! what have they done ? and then he , who for 50 years together had served in the warrs , with a high and approved valour , being then 70 , what for fear of death , what out of pity to his children , would have done any thing , to have saved himself . he sent the king word , first that he would put rochel in his hands , if he would spare his life : but that being rejected , he offered to accuse the admiral , to preserve himself . but neither was that considered . all that while , his fellow-sufferer cavagnes continued most serious in his devotions , and for three hours together , was either praying or reciting some psalms : and expressed no concern for his life ▪ his thoughts being wholly employed about eternity . he encouraged briquemaut to die as he had lived , and to turn himself to god , and not to stain so honourable a life , as he had led , with an ignominious end . and he seeing , he must die , recollected his thoughts , and seemed ashamed of his former abject behaviour , and composed and prepared himself for death . they both were carried to the place of execution in hurdles , where they not only suffered the reptoches of the multitude , as they went along ( who threw filth and clay at them with their most scurrilous language ) but death it self with much christian patience and magnanimity . they were hanged at the greve , and their bodies , after they were dead , were barbarously mangled by the cruel multitude . with them the brave admiral was hanged in effigie , whose innocence , as well as their own , they did to their last breath assert . the king who delighted in such bloody spectacles , did not only look on himself , with the queen-mother , and the court ; but forced the king of navarre likewise to be a witness of it . it is needless to say much , for evincing the admiral 's innocence , for all the writers of the time acknowledg , the process was only to cover the infamy of the massacre . and thuanus has so fully demonstrated it , that none can so much as doubt of it . if the admiral had any such design , why came he to court ? why to paris , where he knew he had few friends , and a vast number of mortal enemies ? and why did he desire a guard from the king ? but since they could not find a better colour for so foul a business , they must make use of the best they had . they took another course to stop the queen of englands resentments , who , besides the common cause of religion , had a particular esteem for the admiral , for they shewed a memorial , which he had given the king to perswade the war of flanders , to walsingham ( the ever renowned secretary of state ) then her ambassador in france ; in which one of the reasons was ; that if the king would not receive these oppressed provinces into his protection , they would throw themselves into the queen of englands hands ; and if the english made themselves masters of them , or of any considerable ports in them , they would be again uneasy and formidable neighbours to france , which would thereby lose the great security they had in taking calice out of their hands . when walsingham read this , and was asked , what he thought of the admirals friendship to his mistress ? he answered , as became so great a man. that he could not say much of his friendship to the q of england , but he was sure , it appeared from that , what a faithful subject he was to the king of france . a week after this was done , the king compleated the treachery of this precedure : for by his letters directed to the governours of the provinces , bearing date the , 3d of november , he declared he would tollerate no religion , but the roman catholick in all his dominions . upon which the following civil wars began , and in excuse of them , i shall only say , that besides the barbarous and persidious treatment the protestants had now received , they had this legal warrant for standing on their own defence , that by the former treaty the king granted them cautionary towns , for pledges of the observation of the edict . and it is certain , that if a prince grants his subjects cautionary towns for their security , he does thereby relax their alleagiance to him , and gives them a right to defend themselves , if the agreement upon which these pledges were given , should come to be broken . this is the true and just account of that foul and treacherous massacre , even as it is represented by the historians of that age and church , who can neither deny nor excuse the infamy of it ; tho some rejoyced at it , and others wrote in defence of it . the king gloried so much in it , that three meddals were struck , to perpetuate the memory of it . in one , hercules is both with his club , and a flambeau , fighting against the seven-headed serpent , with this motto . ne ferrum temnat , simul ignis obsto . on the reverse , the king with his hand , supports two crowned pillars , ready to fall , with this motto . mira fides , lapsas relevat manus una columnas . hereby intimating , that heresy was the serpent , which was to be destroyed by main force , and by fire : and that by this act , the king had supported religion and justice . in the second , the king sits in his chair of state , with a sword in his right hand , and an hand on the head of a scepter in his left . and many heads lying about his feet , with this motto . virtus in rebelles . on the reverse , were the arms of france , between two pillars and two lawrel branches , with this motto , virtus excitavit iustitiam . the third had , on the one side , a woman environed with rays , and a book open in one hand , and a palm in the other , and at her feet many heads in flames , with this motto , subducendis rationibus . the reverse was the same with the first . the signification of this , was , religion triumphing over heresy . but this was only a false shew of joy , for he was ininvardly tormented with the horrours of a guilty conscience , which the effusion of so much blood did justly raise in him ; so that being often troubled with visions , he was frequently heard say , ah! my poor subjects , what had you done ? but i was forced to it . the strange manner of his death , looked like a signal judgment from heaven for that bloody day ; for after a long sickness , which was believed the effect of a lent poison given him by the queen-mother , blood not only came out through all the conduits of his body , but through the very pores , so that he was sometimes found , all bathed in his own blood. and he that had made his kingdom swim with blood , died thus wallowing in his own . all the servile pens of the lawyers , and the bitter ones of enraged priests , were also set on work , to appear in defence of it ; of whose writings thuanus gives a full account . one mercenary protestant was also hired , to excuse , if not to defend it . i have never been able to meet with any of these books , only rosseus that wrote in defence of the holy league , calls it the iustice of st. bartholomews day . and andreas eudemon iohannes does also commend it . the arguments they used , have been formerly glanced at . the late civil wars ; the pretended conspiracy of the admiral ; the necessity of using desperate remedies in extream cases ; and the sovereign power of kings , were what the lawyers could pretend . but the divines had a better plea , that by one general council , all hereticks were to be extirpated . and by another , faith was not to be kept to them . and it cannot be denied , but this is unanswerable , according to the principles of the roman church . the protestants were not wanting to their own cause , but answered these books , and sufficiently discovered the impudent allegations of those shameless persons , who hired themselves out to defend so horrid an action . maximilian the 2d , the emperor , is the person whose judgment we have least reason to suspect . he was the king of france his father-in-law , and both by blood and alliance was joined to the crown of spain , yet he in a private letter , writing to scuendi his chief minister in hungary , has delivered his sense of this matter so sincerely and fully ; and that whole letter is so excellently well written , and shews so much true piety , and so rare a temper of mind , that i shall not fear the reader 's censure for inserting it at its full length . it is but in one book that i know , and that is very scarce . dear scuendi , i received your letter , and took in good part your christian and friendly condoleance for my late sickness . the eternal god , in whose hands are all things , do with me according to his will. i bless him for every thing that befalls me . he only knows best what is healthful and profitable , and what is hurtful to me : i do patiently and chearfully acquiesce in his divine pleasure . and indeed matters go so in this world , that a man can have little pleasure or quiet in them : for every where there is nothing to be found but trouble , treachery , and foul dealing . god pity us , and deliver his church from these mischiefs . it were no wonder , if from such a prospect of affairs , a man should become stupid or mad ; of which i could say much to you . i begin to recover , and am now so strong , that i walk about with a stick . god be blessed in all his works . for that strange thing which the french have lately acted , most tyrannically against the admiral and his friends , i am far from approving it : and it was a great grief to me , to hear that my son-in-law had been perswaded to that vile massacre ; tho i know that others reign rather than he ; yet that is not sufficient to excuse him , nor to palliate such a wickedness . i would to god he had asked my advice , i should have given him faithful and fatherly counsel , and he should never have had my consent to this crime , which has cast such a blemish on him , that he will never wash it off . god forgive them that lie under such guilt . i apprehend within a little while , they shall perceive what they have gained by this method . for indeed , as you observe well , the matters of religion are not to be handled or decided by the sword : and no man can think otherwise , that is either pious or honest , or desirous of publick peace and happiness . far otherwise did christ teach , and his apostles instruct us ; their sword was their tongue , their doctrine , the word of god , and a life worthy of christ. their example should draw us to follow them , in so far as they were followers of christ. besides , that mad sort of people might have seen after so many years trials , and so many experiments , that by their cruelties , punishments , slaughters and burnings , this business cannot be effected . in a word , their ways do not at all please me , nor can i ever be induced to approve them , unless i should become mad or distracted which i pray god earnestly to preserve me from . and yet i shall not conceal from you , that some impudent and lying knaves , have given out , that whatever the french have done , was by my knowledg and approbation . in this i appeal to god , who knows how deeply i am injured by it ; but such lies and calumnies are no new things to me . i have been often forced to bear them formerly : and in all such cases , i commit my self to god , who knows in his own good time , how to clear me , and vindicate my innocence . as for the netherlands , i can as little approve of the excesses committed there . and i do well remember how often i wrote to the king of spain , advices far different from those they have followed . but what shall i say ? the councils of the spaniards relished better than mine . they now begin to see their error , and that they themselves have occasioned all the mischief that hath since followed . i had a good end be-before me , that these noble and renown'd provinces might not be so miserably destroyed . and tho they would not follow my counsel , so that i may well be excused from medling any more , yet i do not give over , but am sincerely pressing them all i can to follow another method . god grant i may see the wished-for effect of these endeavours , and that men may be at last satisfied with what they have done , and may use no more such violent remedies . in a word , let the spaniards or the french do what they will , they shall be made to give an account of their actions to god , the righteous and just judg. and for my part , by the help of god , i shall carry my self honestly , christianly , and faithfully , with all candour and uprightness ; and i hope god will so assist me with his grace and blessing , that i may approve all my designs and actions , both to him and to all men. and if i do this , i little regard a wicked and malicious world. how the rest of the world looked on this action , may be easily gathered from the inclinations and interests of the several parties . that all protestants did every where abhor it , and hold the remembrance of it , still in detestation , needs not be doubted . all that were noble or generous in the roman church were ashamed of it , but many extolled it to the heavens as a work of angels ; and others did cast the blame of it on the protestants . the court of spain rejoiced openly at it . they delighted in the shedding of protestant blood , and were also glad to see france again embroil'd , and to be freed of the fears they had of a war in flanders . in which if the french king had engaged , he had in all appearance conquered in one year , that for which his successors have been since fighting a whole age. but let us next examine how the tidings of this massacre were received at rome by which we may judg how fitly that part of antichrist's character , of being drunk with the blood of the saints , agrees to it . the news was brought thither the 6th of september , upon which a consistory of the cardinals was presently called , and the legate's letter , that contained a relation of the massacre , being read , they went straight in a procession to st. mark 's church , where they offered up their solemn thanks to god for this great blessing to the see of rome , and the catholique church . and on monday following , there was another procession made by the pope and cardinals to the minerva , where they had high mass , and then the pope granted a jubilee to all christendom : and one of the reasons was , that they should thank god for the slaughter of the enemies of the church , lately executed in france . two days after that , the cardinal of lorrain , had another great procession of all the clergy , the ambassadours , cardinals , and the pope himself , who came to st. lewis chappel , where the cardinal celebrated mass himself . and in the king of france his name he thanked the pope and the cardinals , for their good councils , the help they had given him , and the assistance he received from their prayers , of which he had found most wonderful effects . he also delivered the king's letters to the pope , in which he wrote , that more heretiques had been destroyed in that one day , than in all the twelve years of the war. nor did the pope think there was yet blood enough shed , but that which all the world condemned as excessive cruelty , he apprehended was too gentle . therefore he sent cardinal ursin his legate in all haste to france , to thank the king for so great a service done the church , and to desire him to go on , and extirpate heresie root and branch , that it might never grow again . in order to which , he was to procure the council of trent to be received in france ; and as the legat passed through , in his journey to paris , he gave a plenary absolution to all that had been actors in the massacre . the best picture-drawers , and workers of tapistry , were also put to work to set off this action with all possible glory , and a sute of these hangings are to this day in the pope's chappel . so well do they like the thing , that they preserve the remembrance of it still , even in the place of their worship . such a representation does indeed very well agree with their devotion , whose religion and doctrine led on their votaries to the thing so expressed . by this we may easily gather what is to be expected from that court , and what we ought to look for , when-ever we are at the mercy of men , whose religion will not only bear them through , but set them on to commit the most treacherous and bloody massacres . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a58432-e120 can. 3. sess. 19. thuanus . the abstract of the books written upon the head , is in the voluminous but anonymous historian of these wars , printed at paris , an. 1581. thuanus , lib. 16. thuanus . mezeray . davila . lib. 3 thuanus lib. 49. caten . vita de pio quinto . printed at edinburgh , 1573. mezeray . hist. hen. the 4th . comingii collectio p. 278. historie de france , an. 1581. a letter to a bishop concerning the present settlement and the new oaths comber, thomas, 1645-1699. 1689 approx. 66 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a34073) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 43388) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1328:9) a letter to a bishop concerning the present settlement and the new oaths comber, thomas, 1645-1699. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 36 p. printed for robert clavel, london : 1689. a letter to gilbert burnet on the validity of the succession of william and mary which is attributed by wing to thomas comber. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion whitehall , june 3. 1689. let this letter to a bishop , &c. be printed . shrewsbury . a letter to a bishop concerning the present settlement , and the new oaths . london : printed for robert clavel at the peacock in st. paul's church-yard , 1689. a letter to a bishop concerning the present settlement , and the new oaths . my lord , i have consider'd the matter you mentioned to me with all the care and attention that my other necessary affairs would allow , and i account it indeed , as your lordship does , a great unhappiness , that any protestants are dissatisfied with our present settlement , but especially , that some of those bishops are of this number , who were so lately made confessours for the protestant religion . it is not without great injustice , that some of those gentlemen , who have put pen to paper in defence of the new oaths , take the liberty of charging these bishops as if their present dissatisfactions did spring from pride , interest , humour , obstinacy , or a fear of having their wings clipt in this new settlement : i am confident that they , which charge any of these things upon those venerable and excellent men do not know them , and they write as if they had never heard any thing of them before this unhappy rupture . undoubtedly they who could go to a jayl , and were ready to be ruin'd in their estates , and to sacrifice themselves for the two best things in the world , the church of england , and the laws of the land , do deserve no such character . i am persuaded , that what their lordships , and many others with them , do in this respect , proceeds purely from conscience ; and that if themselves were so happy , or others for them , to satisfie their consciences about the present settlement , and the new oaths , they would as heartily comply with the present settlement , and act in it , as any other of their majesties subjects . but tho' , my lord , this is my judgment concerning their dissatisfactions , that they proceed from conscience , yet i am persuaded that there are misapprehensions and mistakes , which , if rectifi'd , would make an alteration in their opinions ; that too great stress is laid upon some things , that do not deserve it , and too little upon others , that are of much greater moment . i say this , with reverence of them that are so much my superiors , not taking upon me to judge what the reasons of their dissatisfaction may be : but for those of my own rank , whom i am more conversant with , i may pretend to know most of their reasons ; and , as far as i can recollect , all their doubts and dissatisfactions may be reduced into a very narrow compass . your lordship requir'd me to contract my thoughts into as small a discourse as i could ; i will not forget your lordship's command : i think that all may be reduced to these two points ; one is , the scruple concerning the oaths of allegiance and supremacy taken to king iames the second : and the other , about the new oaths to their present majesties , requir'd of all persons who sit in parliament , or are in any office civil or military , or in ecclesiastical preferments . now if i could prove , that the oaths to king iames have ceased to oblige us , and that the new oaths to king william and queen mary may be lawfully taken ; i presume that this will be allow'd sufficient to remove the scruples , and will give satisfaction to such as will do me the right not to carp at , or be angry at any single reason , but to consider them all together . in relation to oaths in general , i need not spend much time to enquire how they may cease to oblige those who have taken them ; that they cease to bind when the government of that person to whom they were taken is at an end , i think no body will deny . this is all i will desire to be granted me concerning the oaths to king iames. and in relation to government , that may be said to cease several ways ; as when the person entrusted with it dies ; or when he will govern no longer , and so withdraws himself from it voluntarily ; or when he is conquered , and forced thereby to withdraw himself involuntarily , and can give no longer protection to those who were his liege subjects . these are the chief instances , whereby the government of any particular person may cease . there is no doubt concerning the first of them , but all our present dispute will be about the rest ; that is , whether any one , or all of them are applicable to the government of king iames ; whether he would govern no longer ; and whether he did withdraw himself from , and leave his government voluntarily ; or lastly , whether he was driven out of it by a fair and just conquest . i think , my lord , that the proof of any one of these three instances were sufficient to satisfie all honest men , that the obligation of the oaths to the late king iames is superseded by it : and i believe such a proof to be no difficult task . for to begin with the first of them ; the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were taken to king iames as king , and oblige no further nor longer than he continued to be king , that is , to govern as king of england : now that the late king ceased to govern as king of england a good while before the prince of orange either landed here , or , i believe , thought of coming hither , may i think be made plain by these following considerations . i need not examine curiously here , my lord , into the nature of government , and the diversities of it ; my business only is to have it agreed what sort of government our english one is . that it is a mixt sort of government is plain from our constitution , whereby every one of the three estates in parliament are necessary to the making any laws whatever for the nation as well as the king 's le roy le veult . it is the king , the lords spiritual and temporal , and the commons in parliament assembled , that make laws ; and not the king alone , or the lords alone , or the commons alone ; nor the king himself with any one or two of the states of parliament . and as the king cannot here make laws alone for the nation , so he is , according to our constitution , obliged by a most solemn oath and promise , at his coronation , to govern according to the laws made by lawful authority . this i am assured is the essence of a king of england , that he is one sitting upon the throne , and governing , not by his own will , or his own edicts , but by the known laws of the land. these being , my lord , the two main hinges of our government , that all the laws the people of england can be governed by are made in parliament , and that the government it self be administred according to these laws ; if either the king alone , or any one , or both , of the houses of parliament take upon them to make laws , the one hinge is broken off ; and if the government it self be not administred , that is , if the king do not govern according to the laws , the other hinge is broken off also , and then the constitution is at an end , and our legal government does cease , whatever new , or better one be pretended to be set over us instead of it . having premised this state of our government and constitution , i think it will not be deny'd me , that where-ever there has been a direct contravention to either of those fundamental supports of our government , it hath caused a subversion of the government it self . i must now apply what i can of this to the late king , and see whether one or both of those fundamental supports of our english government were not sorely shook or subverted by him. as to the first , that all the laws the people of england are governed with be made in parliament , it is as plain as the sun at noon-day , that this was subverted by the late king : notwithstanding at his first taking his chair at the council-board , upon his brother's death , he declar'd he would govern by law , and that the laws of the land had made the king as great as he desir'd to be ; yet he did certainly change his mind within less than six months , and set up for an arbitrary power over the laws , by dispensing with them . now that dispensing with the laws of the land is to all intents and purposes the making of laws by his own authority without the concurrence of parliament , is what your lordship heard so learnedly and so clearly prov'd at the seven bishops tryal by your councel , and what may be shewn in a very few words . i will instance only in the recusants , who were not only made uncapable by the laws of the realm of civil and military commands , but of keeping their conventicles here : this was the recusants condition by the laws , and they could not be deliver'd out of this condition but by a law which should annul the former laws against them , and make them as capable of places of trust as any of the members of the church of england : now did not the late king by his dispensing power and his sole authority make such a law for them ? did he not annul all the laws in force against them , and qualifie the recusants and put them into places of trust ? what could any law made by the true legislative authority , a king with his parliament , have done more for them , than the king himself without a parliament's concurrence did ? i think , my lord , this instance sufficient to shew , that the dispensing power which king iames used was to all intents and purposes a legislative power ; since , as i have prov'd it , no law could have done more for any persons aggrieved , than this power ; and therefore that this was a direct subversion of our government , the chief fundamental of which was , that the laws should be made by the king and parliament . and if our constitution was subverted , i cannot see how his legal kingly power was not subverted with it , nor that our oaths to him were not at an end , when the constitution we swore to was dissolved , and he had of himself divested himself of , and laid aside , that authority , which we only swore to submit to and defend . if your lordship should ask me when this dissolution of government happen'd , i think i should be able to fix the time : your lordship does remember , that upon the duke of monmouth's rebellion , the late king gave commissions to several popish officers ; this was the forerunner of it : but when upon the sitting down of the parliament in october afterwards , he not only in his speech told his parliament , that he had done it , but that he was resolved to stand by it , and thereupon dismist his parliament for their opposition to it , he finisht his design , and our ruin ; and from that moment , i look upon the english constitution to be altered , and must lay my finger upon this as the compleat subversion of our legal government . i know some will be offended at my urging this practice of a dispensing power so far as to make it a subversion of our government , and will not endure to hear , that a king of england can forfeit or fall from his authority ; i am very ready , my lord , to beg these gentlemens pardon , if they would but allow me one satisfactory argument to prove , that a dispensing power is not of that fatal consequence to the legal power of legislature that i have suppos'd it to be : but till that is proved to me , i think i should deserve very great blame , if i did not make the dispensing power to be what in reality it is , a subversion of our constitution . and for a forfeiture , i would only know , why such a thing must be lookt upon as monstrous , intolerable , nay , impossible in england ? suppose the late king , ( besides his letting papists into all places of trust , against the plainest and the severest laws , and his subverting all the laws made in defence of the church and government of england , by laying them aside for the dissenters sakes ) had been pleased to impose what taxes he pleased upon his subjects , and had levyed them either by his own army , or by dragoons borrow'd from france ; and had for the future annull'd all the laws made in defence of the church of england , or the rights and properties of the subject ; and had laid every other law aside by his royal edicts which all men should obey without reserve , as much as he had done those made for the security of the church of england by his declaration ; i would only know by what name to call such practices , and whether our business in such a case is only with patience to suffer a king wholly to alter the frame of the government , and to make bondslaves of those who were his freeborn-subjects , born to the protection and priviledges of laws . this is , my lord , no wild or unreasonable supposition , i am afraid , that we should have been able , had the late king continued but a year or two longer upon the throne , not to have been put to the trouble of making these supposals , but to have instanced in them , as we now do in the declaration for liberty of conscience . one would think that such practices , which seem to be the plainest instances of the subversion of a government , should be so most especially of his share in it , who was guilty of them ; and he that will not allow any forfeiture or destruction of a king's share in a government by such a subversion of it , will find it hard to maintain that a government subsists tho' it be destroy'd , and that a king hath not destroy'd his own power , tho' he hath quite ruin'd that government in which and by which he enjoy'd it . my lord , i am not willing to aggravate the faults of any , nor to make the consequences of them look more gastly than they are of themselves , much less would i be guilty of such a thing towards crowned heads ; however , i am not able to alter the appearance of this , that the publick safety and happiness can never be secured in any constitution whatever , and that the ends of governments are quite lost , if that person who subverts any particular government , do not at the very same time destroy or forfeit , let men call it what they please , his own share in it . to this argument from the dispensing power , it may be answer'd , that the practice of it , as to the instances which i have been able to mention , does not amount to a subversion of our government , if those laws were unjust and void in themselves , which the king dispensed with . as for the laws about offices civil and military , from which papists were excluded , they say the observator has prov'd it often enough , that they were null and void , since no laws can preclude a king from making use of his subjects . and for all the laws against conventicles , the author of a paper , publish'd very lately , and licens'd too , call'd , the case of the protestant dissenters represented and argued , p. 2. tells us very roundly , that they are void also , and that the dissenters must be excused if they have in their practice exprest less reverence for laws made by no authority received either from god or man : and complains , that they are injuriously reflected on , when it is imputed to them , that they have , by the use of their liberty , acknowledg'd an illegal dispensing power . we have , says he , done no other thing herein , than we did when no dispensation was given or pretended , in conscience of duty to him that gave us breath . nor did therefore practice otherwise , because we thought those laws dispens'd with , but because we thought them not laws . so that the result is , that the late king ought not to be accus'd of subverting the government , by setting aside those laws which were void of themselves . but i need not trouble your lordship with any answer to such an objection , since i know your lordship , nor any of those for whose sakes i write this , do not believe a word of what these two do so dogmatically , and yet most unjustly assert . i suppose the observator will not be fond of standing by his assertions , and that the author of the dissenters case ought to have shewn some more manners , than to cast such saucy and bold slanders upon our parliaments , while one is actually sitting . it is sufficient for my vindication , that the present parliament believes those laws which the late king dispensed with , not only to be true , but necessary laws , whatever these two gentlemen with so much confidence have said to the contrary . i will pass now to the other fundamental of our constitution , which is , that the government be administred according to the laws of the land. it is equally evident , that this fundamental was subverted by the late king , as well as the former ; for so far was he from governing according to law , that his whole government , from the time of his claiming his dispensing power , seems to be a downright opposition to the laws . he was pleas'd to make privy-councellours against law , judges against law , sheriffs against law , lord-lieutenants and their deputies against law , and justices against law ; to have men hang'd up for deserting in time of peace against law ; to have popish chappels , jesuits schools , and the conventicles , open'd against law : in a word , his resolution , as well as his practice , did shew , that the laws were not intended to be made the rule of his government . this is the true state of king iames's government , and this is inconsistent with that essential of our constitution , of governing according to law. now if , my lord , it be the essence and the definition of the king in our government , that he is one who governs the people committed to his charge according to law , how can we reckon in this rank the late king from the time he was so resolutely set upon governing against law ? in our constitution , he that does not govern by law , does not govern at all ; and he that does not , nor will not govern at all , cannot nor will not be king ; but ceases to be such from the time he makes his own will , or his evil councellors advices , the rule of his government , and not the laws . i had almost forgot another instance of the late king 's dispensing power , and that was his laying aside those oaths of allegiance and supremacy , which yet are the grounds of most mens scruples . how can this be lookt upon otherwise than as a condemnation of the oaths as unlawful ; and if they were so , we have the late king's judgment also against the obligation of these two oaths ; for if he to whom the oaths were taken , thought them unlawful , then they are certainly fallen as to him. this is as if a person who had a bond from another , which he lookt upon as unjust , should give it him up , and consent to the cancelling of it . so that , my lord , if the breaking one of our fundamentals , by not governing according to law , do not make such a person cease being king , yet that breach of the other , the assuming a legislative power , which quite alters and tears up the whole frame of our constitution , cannot do less than shake his right to the government , who was so solicitous to destroy it . he that will not govern as king of england , will not govern at all ; and if he continue in this humour , as the late king did , from the time of assuming his arbitrary dispensing power , how can he be longer king ? and if he ceased to be king by his leaving off to govern ; the oaths to him were as much at an end , as if he had ceased at the same time to live . and as the oaths could certainly have no further obligation to him , when he had divested himself of his kingly power , by destroying that very government whereby , and in which he was king , so did the declaration about taking up arms upon no pretence against the king fall with them . that declaration every one will grant me , was made for the preservation of the government , which the late king took such indefatigable care to destroy . that declaration was never intended for the destruction and ruin of our government : and yet it must be the ruin of the government , if it puts it into a king's hands , to turn tyrant without controul , and to subvert our legal constitution and undo a nation without gainsaying : and therefore that declaration was intended for the security of , and was to be made to , a king governing by law , and therefore did not concern the late king from the hour he set up his own will against the laws , and his own power against that of the whole kingdom in parliament . this , my lord , is the first case whereby a king ceases to govern , or to be a king , for they are synonymous . i think by the instances i have produc'd , and the arguments i have offered , it may reasonably appear , that the late king had subverted our government , and destroyed his own share of enjoying the kingly authority in it , and thereby ceased to be king : and if once he ceased to be such , no body will deny that the obligation of all oaths to him as king did expire at the same time . but since , my lord , we have commonly receiv'd a very transcendant notion of our monarchy , which will not allow the destructive practices i have now mentioned , nor worse than these , to make a forfeiture of the kingly power here , or to be the subversion of our monarchs rights , whatever they be of the peoples , i shall wave the insisting further upon this head. let it then be supposed for that opinion's sake , that the king does not destroy his own right , or the exercise of his royal authority , tho' he does destroy our constitution by ruling directly against the laws , and making laws by his own power . the next enquiry is , whether a king can lay down his government , and divest himself of all authority , and whether king iames did not voluntarily leave his government by withdrawing himself out of the kingdom , and making no provision for the publick . no body will dispute with me , that a king cannot lay down his government : the case of the emperour charles the fifth , and , which comes nearer our own concern , that of the queen christina of sweden , are instances of it , beyond opposition . and i think it would be as little disputed , that the late king iames did by a voluntary withdrawing himself out of the kingdom recede as fully from his government , if these few things were fairly consider'd . first , that he was at that time of withdrawing himself actually upon a treaty with the prince of orange , and had three lords commissioners with him , who gave the king such an account of their negotiation , in a letter brought to him the very night he withdrew , that he himself could not but give this just character of the prince's proposals , as to say of them , that they were fairer than he could or did expect ; so that the king had no reason then to be afraid of his person , but might have continued with security in his palace , and taken care of the government , and called such a parliament as both himself and the prince desired , which might have quietly and effectually setled this nation , and prevented all ill consequences to his person or to his affairs . secondly , that it was the design of the popish party to persuade him to withdraw himself ; their end in it being to put us thereby into confusion . this they did not boggle to speak out ; the lord dover and mr. brent made no secret of it , but said it more than once , that the king would withdraw himself out of the kingdom , above a fortnight before he did it . nor were these two the only persons in this secret and of this opinion . in the letter that was sent down to the king , while he was at salisbury with his army , and can be produced , he was told , that it was the unanimous advice of all the catholicks here at london , that he should come back from thence , and withdraw himself out of the kingdom , and leave us in confusion , assuring him , that within two years or less we should be in such confusions , that he might return , and have his ends of us , as their phrase was . now if the king was pleas'd to take such desperate councellors advice , and thereupon to withdraw himself out of the kingdom , and command his army to be let loose upon the people by disbanding them at such a juncture , i can see nothing herein to make his going away involuntary . if then his withdrawing himself out of the kingdom was done out of design and willingly , he did as effectually divest himself pro tempore of the government , as if he had left a formal resignation of the kingdom behind him , attested by all his privy-councellors hands ; and our allegiance to him did fall with it , and our oaths did no more oblige now , than the oaths taken to christina queen of sweden did , when she resign'd , and went to rome ; since in both cases the government of these two princes was equally at an end , but our condition the worse of the two , since queen christina left the government to her kinsman , but our king left us to the rabble , and his disbanded army . there is one objection , my lord , which i have often heard made against this , that tho' the late king , out of a groundless fear , or for any other reason or design whatsoever , did voluntarily withdraw himself out of the kingdom , yet this ought not to be accounted a compleat cession or dereliction of the government , unless it could be proved withal , that there was not animus revertendi , that he never intended to return to us more . but this objection is of no weight in the case of a kingdom . for , whether the king intended to return back any more , or no , signifies nothing herein ; since the withdrawing himself , and making no manner of provision for the government and safety of the nation , did actually put an end to his government at least for that time ; and our constitution can no more than any other government in the world be left in such a condition , or can be said to subsist in such a case ; and it is against all the sence and reason of mankind to think that any nation either will or ought to continue without a settlement till the governor , who hath left it unawares and in confusion , will be pleased to think of returning . does any one believe , that if the late king ( when he withdrew ) intended not to return these ten years , that we of this nation should have continued in the anarchy he left us , and have no government till he would come back ? among all our discontents , i hope none can be found so weak to imagine this ; and the same reason i am sure holds as fully against his leaving us one month as ten years . so that whether the late king intended to return or no , when he went away , he ceased to govern us ; and the very same moment he was pleas'd to leave off governing , by withdrawing himself , he cancell'd the obligation of all oaths and allegiance to him as king. but beyond all this , i can grant , my lord , that the late king , from the very time of his withdrawing , nay , from the very minute of resolving to do it , had animum revertendi , did intend to return to us . i do believe , that those papists which advised him to withdraw , did design that he should return ; and that he himself did concur in both resolutions . but what was he to return for ? was it not to have his ends of us ? what those ends are , i suppose no protestant needs be told ; none of those who make this objection , can doubt of it since his late coming to ireland . should we have waited then till the late king could return with his borrowed forces from france , to destroy our protestant establisht religion , and our civil constitution , because he had animum revertendi ; and therefore not have setled and provided for the nations safety ? was the king's government not at an end , tho' he had withdrawn himself from us , and left no provision , because he was resolved to come back to destroy our religion , and to be reveng'd of the nation ? my lord , i think such an animus revertendi to be so far from making the dereliction lame and void , that it is as good a proof of making the late king's action a compleat dereliction , as if he had left it attested under his hand and great seal , that he would never return to us , or this government more . for my own part , i am persuaded , that the late king withdrew himself voluntarily , and by the advice of popish counsels out of this kingdom ; i am persuaded that he went off with an animus revertendi ; and i am as fully persuaded that the intention of his returning was to ruin our properties and laws , and to destroy our reformed religion , or , to put it into the popish dialect , to have his ends of us : from the first of these , to wit , his withdrawing voluntarily , i am satisfied that the late king iames's government and our allegiance to him are fallen ; and the last of them , the intention of his return , will i hope satisfie all others as much as it has done me , that we have no tempting reasons either to wait for the late king's return , or to accept of his government , if he should get back . i must now , my lord , go on to another consideration , for there are some who are little satisfied , notwithstanding all the evidence that can be offered , about the king 's voluntary withdrawing himself , as they were at his misgovernment , being urged as the destruction of his royal dignity : and tho' these gentlemen have not agreed with me hitherto , yet in this last consideration they must concur with me ; and that is , that the late king was conquered by the prince of orange , and driven away involuntarily at least : so that if by this conquest he was put out of the condition of governing and protecting us , we were as much depriv'd of the liberty of paying obedience to him , who was now driven from us . the business to be examin'd here is , what sort of a conquest this was , and whether it was a just one , such a one as by reason of which the people of england might lawfully submit to the conquerour of their king. to begin with the expedition of his ( then ) highness the prince of orange , there appears to be all the reasons in it that could justifie such an invasion , or make a conquest just and good . the prince was no subject of england , but a soveraign prince , who made this descent into our nation against our late king in defence of his own rights as well as of ours : and therefore his action could upon no account be stil'd a rebellion . but the cause of his expedition is above all other things to be enquired after , for that must be the chief thing that can justifie the revolution here , and ought to be highly reasonable , and such as can give satisfaction to all wise and indifferent men ; since tho' the prince of orange were never so much a soveraign prince , yet if he had not a very justifiable reason of coming hither with an army , his expedition had been altogether a most unaccountable action , and his conquest unjust . now , to give all the satisfaction requisite to this justest scruple , the prince's reasons for coming hither in that manner , appear to be as just and as good , as his success was great ; and if ever one prince's invasion of another prince's kingdom were to be justified , the prince of orange's was . for , to instance in one or two of these reasons , he himself , as well as his princess , had most undoubted right to the succession of the crown of england , and the dominions belonging to it , after the death of the late king iames. this right was notoriously set aside , or made wholly useless to them , by the arts and counsels of those papists who were about the king , and did influence him . the imposture of a pretended prince of wales was thought of and pitcht upon as the most effectual bar to either of their titles , and did set them as well as her royal highness the princess ann of denmark aside , and deprive all three together of their rights of succession , and provide effectually against a protestant successor , the only person the people then in power at court were afraid of . but to wave the instance of the setting up a pretended prince of wales betwixt these protestant princes and their right of succession , because the proof of that imposture has not been laid open as it might have been to the world , and therefore cannot so strictly be insisted upon ; tho' most people , even those who are dissatisfied about the present settlement are satisfied of the imposture : the right of succession , which was in the two royal princesses , and the prince of orange , was made wholly useless to them , by the late king 's putting the government of part of the dominions of the crown of england into such hands as would not deliver them up or submit to any protestant successour . ireland is an evident proof of this , where all offices civil and military , contrary to the laws of the land , were put into popish hands , and such a bigotted irish papist was made their governor , as that whatever rogueries or violences the papists should be guilty of towards the british protestants among them , they should never need to fear being call'd to account , being certain that his own management of the government as well as his religion would keep him from ever delivering up ireland to any protestant , while he had the sword in his hands , and such a throughly popish army at his command . now in this case , when ireland was wholly given up into such hands , and scotland was almost in the same condition , and england ready to be put into the same , it was high time for the prince of orange to assert his own and his princesses right ; and it was most reasonable for him by all justifiable ways and means to prevent their being debarr'd their right of inheritance of these kingdoms , by bringing the late king to reasonable terms , or by depriving him of the power of doing them or their right any further mischief herein . this therefore , together with the princes concern for our religion and our laws , which were violated in so high a degree by the late king , and with which his own right of succession was interwoven , was a most just reason for the prince of orange's coming with an armed force ; and if the king would rather put things to the hazard of battels , than the decision of a free and legal parliament , no body else could help it : and if his army would neither fight for , nor stand by him , but suffer him to be driven out of his dominions , it was because he had taken sufficient care to let all of them , as well as the rest of the nation , know how very unjust the war would be on his part , and how very unreasonable it would be for them , who were the greatest part of them protestants , to assist him in depriving his children of the hereditary rights of succession , and ruining the church of england , and the happy constitution of our english government . such considerations as these made the late king's army so useless to him , and the prince's victory so easie to him , whose business was not to conquer here , but to do himself and his princess right , and to preserve our government in church and state ; which if he had tamely lookt on , and suffer'd to be destroy'd , his own right would most infallibly have sunk with them , being so entirely linkt with them . here some will be ready to call upon me , and tell me , that if the prince was a conquerour , then all our rights and our possessions are in his hands , and at his disposal ; and that our condition is far from being mended , since we are by this conquest in that state which the late king was labouring to bring us to , subjected absolutely in our persons and fortunes to the arbitrary will of a conquerour . but it is very easie to answer this fearful suggestion , by shewing them , that the king alone was conquered , and not the nation with him . the prince in his declaration had assured the nation , that his only design of appearing in arms here , was to secure his own and their rights , and he did thereupon conjure them to assist him in so good and so just a design ; which the nation did , either by not aiding the king , or by rising up in several parts of the kingdom for him : so that here was a true contract betwixt the prince of orange and the nation , which hath been faithfully observed , the rights of the nation being entirely preserv'd to them , and not one of them invaded , nor the least pretence to a conquest over the nation made by him. thus , my lord , we see our rights are secure , notwithstanding the late king lost his , by bringing upon himself the necessity of being driven out of his dominions and conquer'd , rather than he would do the prince and the nation that right which he was obliged to by the laws and by his coronation-oath . now since the late king did lose his kingdom by these means and upon these accounts , and was put out of the capacity of either governing or protecting those who were his subjects , it is become as impossible for us to perform allegiance to him , as it is for him to govern us ; and since the prince and princess of orange , by reason of this conquest of the king , and by vertue partly of their own hereditary right , and partly of the consent of the nation assembled in convention , are in possession of the crown of england , and do protect and govern the nation according to the laws of the realm , and have taken the coronation-oath , that they will always continue to do so ; the only question is , whether our allegiance in such a case is not transferr'd from the late king , who was justly conquered , who does not govern us , and can no further protect us , unto those persons who are now invested with the regal power , and in possession of the government , and do protect the nation . the resolution of this case would have been very readily made by any of us , had providence placed us upon the continent , in those countries which have lately been , and now are like to be , the seat of war , and not in an island so happily secured from the sudden descent of enemies . had we lived in germany or flanders for example , we should have learnt how far allegiance is necessary , and when it may be transferr'd from the prince conquered to the conquerour . no prudent man thinks the people of any town in flanders perjur'd , because , notwithstanding their former oaths to their hereditary prince the king of spain , the fortune of war necessitates them to take new oaths of allegiance to a conquerour . and i think men ought to make the very same judgment of things here , that since the government of king iames is at an end , the oaths to him have no further force ; and that since he was fairly conquered by that prince , whom he was endeavouring to deprive of his right of succession to the crown of england , and is by that altogether incapacitated from governing and protecting us , our allegiance either wholly ceases , or is superseded as to him , and we may in our circumstances give security to the government , and pay allegiance for that protection we enjoy from it . this , my lord , is agreeable to the laws and practice of all countries , to the laws of our own nation , to reason , and , which is more , unto scripture it self . i need not trouble your lordship much with shewing its agreement with the laws of nations , since almost every day's practice doth give instances of it ; whereby people and countries that were under their own soveraign prince , and had taken oaths of fealty to him , are by the fortune of war made another prince's subjects , and may lawfully according to the law of nations transfer their allegiance to their new lord. the reason of all this is founded upon the nature and end of government it self , upon that mutual obligation which is supposed to be betwixt a prince and his people , who upon his power and his promise of protecting them in their lives and in their properties , do engage to perform allegiance , and to bear faith to him : now this stipulation does naturally fall , when such a prince is no longer able or no longer willing to protect them ; and the same reason which obliged them to pay their allegiance to that prince , does direct them now to transfer it from him who is by the fortune of war disabled from affording protection , to the conquerour , who will engage to protect them , and does preserve them in their persons and their estates and in all their ancient legal securities . and as this cannot be denied to be the practice and the law of all countries abroad , so the laws and customs of our own kingdom do not only countenance such a transferring of allegiance to a conquerour , but do indempnifie the paying allegiance to a meer king de facto who may be an usurper , and the defending him in his government : thus in the statute made the eleventh year of henry vii . chap. 1. it is declared to be against all laws , reason , and good conscience , that subjects going with their soveraign lord in wars , attending upon him in his person , or being in other places by his commandment within the land or without , any thing should lose or forfeit for doing their duty and service of allegiance ; and it is enacted by the king , by the advice and assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons in parliament assembled , that from henceforth no manner of person or persons whatsoever he or they be , that attend upon the king , and soveraign lord of this land for the time being , in his person , and do him true and faithful service of allegiance in the same , or be in other places by his command in his wars within this land or without : that for the said deed , and true duty of allegiance , he or they be in no wise convict or attaint of high-treason , ne of other offences for that cause , by act of parliament , or otherwise , by any process of law , whereby he , or any of them shall lose or forfeit life , lands , tenements , rents , possessions , hereditaments , goods , chattels , or any other thing : but to be for that deed or service utterly discharg'd of any vexation , trouble or loss . this law doth authorise any subject to pay his allegiance to the king in being ; and does secure him against all penalties for the same ; and therefore reaches our case , where there is not a bare possession , but all the right that conquest can give . and in the famous act of parliament concerning treasons , the 25th of edward iii. my lord coke says , that by the king , against whom treason is committed in that statute , is meant the king in possession of the throne , whatever his right to it be . these , my lord , are his own words , this act is to be understood of a king in possession of the crown and kingdom : for if there be a king regnant in possession , although he be rex de facto & non rex de jure , yet is he seignior le roy within the purview of this statute . and the other that hath right and is out of possession is not within this act. nay , if treason be committed against a king de facto & non de jure , and after the king de jure cometh to the crown , he shall punish the treason done to the king de facto : and a pardon granted by a king de jure , that is not also de facto , is void . this is sufficient to shew the sence of our laws in this case , and for its being agreeable to reason to transfer our allegiance in the circumstances mentioned , i have already in part proved this , and i think it may be fairly deduced further from the writings of that great and excellent casuist bishop sanderson , whom all will allow to be a very competent judge of the dictates of reason . whoever will read his case of the engagement , may find a great deal to this purpose , but i intend only to insist on what he hath delivered in his fifth praelection concerning the obligation of conscience , where he disputes for , and gives several reasons for the paying obedience to the laws , and submitting to the government even of an unlawful usurper ; and he puts this very case , that where any one , having driven away by violence the lawful prince and true heir of the kingdom , or having opprest him so far as that he is unable to stand up for his own right , doth , while the other is still living , take the government upon him , and act as king , when he is in reality rather an usurper than a king , and it is past doubt that downright injury is done [ to the oppressed prince ] . if it be askt , ( says he ) what i think a good subject should do in this case , who hath taken an oath of fealty to his lawful prince , or if he have not taken such an oath , yet is as much obliged to the prince , as if he had sworn it ; my opinion is , that it is not only lawful for a good subject to pay obedience to the laws made by him that has the supreme power only de facto , and not de jure , and to do what other things are commanded by him , ( so that nothing base or unjust be commanded ) but that it is necessary oftentimes for him to do these things , and that he should be wanting to his own duty if he did not x . what i would gather from this case , put by the great bishop is , that if such obedience be lawful , and very often necessary to one who is a meer usurper by unlawful violence , the least he would have determined in our circumstances , must have been , that obedience might lawfully be paid to our present king and queen , who come to the throne either by its being left empty by the last king , or by a lawful and just conquest . and what the bishop has afterwards urged in the case of his violent usurper , that , notwithstanding the obedience to him , the fealty due to the lawful prince must be preserved inviolate , and nothing done in prejudice of his right , can have no place here ; since the late king fell perfectly from all soveraigny here by deserting his government , and the prince of orange had a most just cause of war against him , and made as plain a conquest over him , neither of which can be brought within the bishop's case : and therefore , if subjects may , ( to keep to the bishops reasons upon the case ) for their own sakes , for the preservation of their lives and estates , and for the protection they receive under those who have possession of the government , and for the publick sake , for the trade and commerce of the nation upon which the publick must subsist , live quietly under , and pay obedience to an usurped power ; every one of these reasons is more foreible upon us to pay our obedience to their present majesties , who have right of just conquest , right of lawful succession , and the consent and recognition of the nation in convention on their side . and as reason has directed in such circumstances to transfer obedience to the conquerour , under whom we can live safe and in quietness , so does the scripture it self , the best rule we can desire in our case . as the scripture commands , under the greatest penalties , subjection to the supreme power , so it does not pur men upon the rack about the right of governours , or upon examining who has or who has not the true right to a crown ; but directs obedience to the powers in being , to those who are in possession of the supreme power , how small soever their claim to it may be . this i can make evident , my lord , from the instances of some in the old testament , and of those to whom our lord iesus himself and his apostles did so strictly command obedience in the new. upon the death of iosiah king of iudah , the people of iudah took iehoahaz , who was the fourth and youngest son of iosiah , and anointed him , [ which was done by the chief priest ] and made him king in his father's stead , setting aside the right of his three elder brothers , 2 kings 23. 30. now that iehoahaz was shallum no one will doubt , that will compare this place out of the 2d book of kings with ieremiah 22. ver. 11. and that shallum was the youngest son of four he can no more doubt that will consult 1 chron. 3. 15. in this instance we do not find the scripture condemn the peoples paying allegiance to this prince thus set up ; but on the contrary , god calls upon them by the prophet ieremiah , ( ierem. 22. 10 , 11 , 12. ) to weep sore for him that goeth away , who was to return no more nor see his native countrey , that is to lament for their king shallum or iehoahaz , who was carried by pharaoh nechoh into egypt , and was to die there . after the deposition of shallum , pharaoh nechoh , who was his conquerour , made eliakim king , whom he called by the name of iehoiakim , tho' he was but the second brother : and no notice is taken of the eldest brother iohanan , who , if he was then living ; was certainly the true heir to that crown . this iehoiakim reign'd eleven years , 2 kings 23. 36. in the third whereof he was conquer'd by nebuchadnezzar king of babel , dan. 1. 1. who afterward took him away , and set up his son iehoiachin or ieconia or conia in his stead . but he continued on the throne but three months , for nebuchadnezzar came again and besieged ierusalem , to whom iehojachin surrendred himself , and was by him carried into captivity . then nebuchadnezzar made his unkle zedekiah king , who was the third of those four brothers , 1 chron. 3. 16. and he reigned near eleven years as king of iudah , while the eldest brother iohanan was living , and the second brother perhaps iehoiachim in the babylonian's hands ; without all doubt , if iehoiakim was dead , his son iehojachin the right heir and the true king was living , for we find him releas'd out of prison after 37 years , 2 kings 25. 27. during all which time we never find god complaining of the peoples submitting and paying allegiance to this king zedekiah that was set up by nebuchadnezzar ; but we meet with ieremiah's lamentation taken up for this very king , whom he calls , the breath of our nostrils , the anointed of the lord , ( lamentations 4. 20. ) tho' he was made king , while the true king and heir of that crown was alive . here we have a subject made king , and set up against the true king by the conquerour , whose power herein god did so far approve as to call zedekiah's defection from his fealty to nebuchadnezzar x ( whose power over iudah was no more than what a conquest and an unjust one too did give ) a rebellion , and to give him and all that belonged to him up to destruction and captivity for it . whoever will reflect upon these examples , will see how far the people were from being condemned , or discouraged from transferring their allegiance to these four kings : the first of which iehoahaz , was set up by the people against the right line and before his three elder brethren ; the second iehoiakim , was by a conqueror made king before his elder brother iohanan ; the third iehoiachin , was set up against his own father ; and the fourth was of a subject made a king , while the true king and rightful heir was still in being . there is another thing very observable here , and that is about the oaths taken to kings , who were such meerly by conquest . it was the manner of the subjects of israel and iudah to take oaths of obedience to their kings , as one may very justly collect from that passage in ecclesiastes 8. 2. where the preacher advises to keep the king's commandment , and that in regard of the oath of god , that is , of the oath of obedience which the subject had taken to the king. now this oath was sworn , not only to king 's of god's own appointment , or to their hereditary successors , but to those who had no other title or right than that of conquest , when such conquerours requir'd it of them , tho' their own princes were still living . thus nebuchadnezzar made zedekiah swear by god ( 2 chron. 36. 13. with ezekiel 17. 13. ) to be faithful to him , while his own prince iehojachin was yet alive ; and zedekiah took authority from nebuchadnezzar to reign as king under him , which he continued to do according to his oath for some years , but afterwards rebell'd against the conquerour . this oath god did approve as lawful , and calls it mine oath , ( ezek. 17. 19. ) and held himself obliged to punish the breach of it , as he should have done if zedekiah had taken it to iehojachin himself , and had broke it , as he did the oath in this case . this is plain from ezek. 17. 15 , 16 , 18 , 19. and for those kings in the new testament to whom allegiance is so strictly commanded to be paid , it is most evident , that augustus , and those after him , were direct usurpers upon the people and senate of rome , having gained the supreme power into their hands by craft and arts , and chiefly by the assistance of the soldiery , whose right to dispose of the supreme power over the people and subjects of rome i cannot hear that any man does maintain : and this was more particularly plain in the advancement of nero to the throne by the soldiery , whom his mother agrippina had tampered with against britannicus the last emperour's son ; and yet this is the very emperour to whom st. paul teacheth obedience , under pain of damnation , for whom he exhorts the christians to put up prayers and supplications , that under him ( who had no better right to that government than what i have just mentioned ) they might lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty . whoever , my lord , will compare our present case in england , with the instances i have produc'd out of scripture , cannot deny me , that scripture does allow the transferring of allegiance in the case of conquest from one prince to another ; some of the instances do reach further , which shew the command for , and the practice of obedience to , those who had meerly the possession of the government , but no manner of right or title to it . and now , my lord , i have dispatch'd the consideration of all your lordship's commands , and of all i have been able to say in so narrow a compass , and amidst so many other necessary avocations , upon this subject ; and yet i cannot conclude without examining a little their reasons and their intentions , who are so little satisfied with ours , or with the present settlement . if the present settlement of this nation under their majesties does not give them satisfaction , and is such as they cannot with a conscience submit to ; it must be because they have sworn allegiance to another person , to whom they believe it to be still due , because he is still alive . if they find themselves under such an obligation , then their endeavours or at least their wishes ought to be , that the late king might be recalled to his government ; or that , if he be unfit for government , a regency might be setled by the consent of the nation in parliament , he still retaining the title of king. these methods are the only ones that either themselves , or any one for them thinks can salve their allegiance . but examin them singly and see whether they can . if the late king should be recalled , either it must be upon terms and conditions , or it must be without them . to recal him to his government without conditions , i never yet met , nor heard of one protestant that was for it ; but they all cry out , upon terms , or not at all ; upon conditions , or we are all ruin'd in our properties , and ruin our religion . one question then i have to make to these gentlemen , and it is , by what branch of their oath of allegiance they are impower'd to make conditions with the king ; and which of the laws is it , that gives the subjects such an authority over the king as to offer them ? they are absolutely against recalling or receiving the late king back without conditions . if so , then i will suppose that equitable conditions were offered the late king : and i can suppose very easily , that he will not be so obliged ; but requires to be admitted into the possession of his crown without any other terms than the oath he took at his coronation , and the promises he then made of defending our church and governing us by law. in this case , upon their own grounds , these gentlemen must resolve to resist his resuming his government , and must never admit him , if he will never condescend to conditions ; and then i would know of them what is become of the whole oath of allegiance , or the obligation their consciences were formerly under by it . this matter is too plain to need more words . but suppose conditions for his return were offered by the nation , and accepted by him , and that as soon as he was secure of his throne , he forgot them all , as much as he did his first promise at council-board , and his coronation-oath ; what must be done in this state , when the nation will be in ten times worse condition than it was this time twelvemonth , when his dispensing power , and arbitrary government were at the height ? no man can suppose conditions of any worth , that have no security in them ; and the least they can have in this case must be , that if the king breaks them , then he forfeits the benefit of them , to wit , his restitution to his government ; and we , as well as he , should immediately be in the very condition we were in upon his leaving or losing the government . that such would be our condition inevitably , is the easiest thing in the world to prove . for 1st , no conditions made for the securing property to the subject , and the protestant religion to the nation , can signifie any thing to him who is governed wholly in all his affairs by french counsels , and by the jesuits , who are not truer enemies to our reformed religion , than french counsels to the liberty and property of subjects . but 2dly , his religion is wholly inconsistent with our safety either in our properties or in our religion ; and this we have had experience enough of , one would think , already ; too much , to make us fond of trying the experiment over again . let it but be considered , that by his religion and by such power , he is obliged upon pain of forfeiting his kingdoms , to extirpate hereticks , to destroy every protestant in england ; and that by the conditions made he will be at least obliged to secure the nation in their protestant religion and in their properties ; and then i would ask such a person , what the best and the safest conditions can avail in these circumstances ? if an obligation to destroy us , and an obligation to preserve us , be inconsistent ; and no man in the world can perform both ; i think the talk about conditions ought to be at an end , since there is no way to bring these contradictions to agree . the wisest part , my lord , of those who are dissatisfied do very easily see into the vanity and inconsistency of this project about conditions , and grant that they would be useless . and therefore since conditions are vain , and that the late king was unfit for government , they were for having a regency set up during the late king's life , he retaining only the title of king ; and this they thought would salve their oaths to him , and their consciences . but this cannot do the business , since it is plain that such a regency would have been as much against the oath of allegiance , as the present settlement ; and a submitting to that would have been as direct a violation of the oath of allegiance , as they suppose a submission to the present settlement is . to prove this then ; by a regency the king would have been divested of all power , which the regent must have been entrusted with ; of the revenue too , which must be annext to the power whereever that is lodg'd , because by it the regent must have been supported in the exercise of his power ; he would have had no command nor authority left him , nothing but the bare title of king , and to have all business run in his name , though he have nothing to do with it . now is not this as directly against the oath of allegiance as a thing can be ? by the oath , as long as it obliges , every one is bound to preserve to the king and maintain his crown and dignity . by a regency the king is divested of all his power and authority of making laws , of having the militia in his hands , and of the administration of the government , which are the chief , if not only branches of royalty of his crown and dignity . and yet these gentlemen think that a regency and their oaths of allegiance to the late king are consistent ; whereas by a regency he is deprived of every thing but his bare title , and by their oaths of allegiance they are bound to preserve to him every thing else as well as his title . i can see no more opposition in the present settlement to the oath of allegiance , than would have been in their regency , since the kingly power of k. iames is equally destroy'd by both ; and oaths do concern matters of substance and not meer shadows , such as the bare title of a king is , where there is not the least jot of power left . so that there is not any considerable difference betwixt the present settlement , and their regency , upon the oaths account ; and i wonder that so much ado should be made , and so much insisting upon leaving to the late king the bare title of king , whereas a title is a thing of no worth ; and if the laws of st. edward the confessour might but be heard , this controversie about the meer title would have fallen ; since by them a king by misgovernment , verum nomen regis perdit , forfeits the title of king as well as the power . but i will suppose further , that this project of a regency had taken , and that a regent had been chosen for the late king's life , i must now ask what they would done with the king himself ? either they must have had him kept in safe custody , or let him , as he did , escape away . if they would have had him secured , i would fain know whether it had been consistent with that oath of allegiance which they took to king iames , and think themselves obliged still by . but if he was to be let go whither he would , and should have got back into england with the same assistance by which he is now got into ireland , i ask them whether they should not look upon themselves as obliged to defend that regency which was set up for the absolute good of the nation , and to which they had sworn allegiance ; and whether this would not have obliged them to oppose king iames , who was come to break the regency ; and , tho' all had judg'd him and knew him unfit for government , was yet for regaining it by force . either they must , notwithstanding his unfitness for our government , have quietly submitted because of their former oath of allegiance to him , or they must in defence of the regency have fought against the late king himself , notwithstanding that former oath to him. my lord , if those dissatisfied gentlemen who were for the regency will but reflect upon what i have been able to say about it , i do not fear their being any longer of opinion that a regency was the only way could settle the nation in safety , and secure mens consciences in peace ; and i hope they will for the future not be so sharp and severe against the present settlement , as contrary to our oaths of allegiance ; since i have shewn , that their own regency is every iot as much . i humbly beg of them , that they would examine things impartially , and lay by all prejudices upon other accounts , and then i am confident that they which did desire and contend for a regency notwithstanding their late oaths of allegiance , will see reason to submit to the present settlement under their majesties , notwithstanding those very oaths , which i am sure are no more against the present settlement than against their regency . i am afraid i have tired your lordship , and must beg pardon for this tedious letter ; which , tho' it should be so unhappy as to do no service to any of those persons for whom it was design'd , yet will do my self a great one , in being a witness for me , how ready i am to obey your lordship's commands , and in giving me this further opportunity of assuring your lordship how much i am , my lord , your lordship 's most obedient and most humble servant . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a34073-e180 t●on est rex , ubi dominatur voluntas , & non lex . bracton . ☞ see the laws of k. edw. the confessor , sect . 17. rex autem ad hoc est constitutus , ●t regnum terrenum & populum domini — & regat , & ab injuriosis defendat , — quod nisi fecerit , nec nomen regis in eo constabit . coke's institutes , part 3. ch . 1. of high-treason . x praelectio 5ta de oblig . conscientiae . xvi . p. 176. x 2 chron. 36. 13. rom. 13 1 , 2. 1 tim. 2. 1 , 2. charitable reproof a sermon preached at the church of st. mary-le-bow to the societies for reformation of manners, the 25th of march, 1700 / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1700 approx. 38 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 16 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30327) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101250) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:5) charitable reproof a sermon preached at the church of st. mary-le-bow to the societies for reformation of manners, the 25th of march, 1700 / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. societies for the reformation of manners. [2], 28, [1] p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : 1700. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -o.t. -proverbs v, 6 -sermons. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion charitable reproof . a sermon preached at the church of st. mary-le-bow , to the societies for reformation of manners , the 25th of march 1700. by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . published at the request of the said societies . london : printed for ri. chiswell at the rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard . 1700. 27 proverbs 5 , 6. open rebuke is better than secret love . faithful are the wounds of a friend ; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful . self-love is so natural to us , that as it makes us apt to flatter our selves on all occasions , so it inclines us to accept too easily of the flatteries of all others ; even those flatteries which decency makes us turn away from , and seem to dislike , are hearkned to by us : we open our ears to them ; we lay them up in our memory , and do often please our selves with vain reflections on them . but we are so little accustomed to find fault with our selves , or to reflect on our errors and follies , that when thoughts of that kind break in upon us , we fly from them ; we impute them to vapours , to fits of the spleen and melancholly . our unwillingness to know our own faults , or to be humbled under the sense of them , makes us uneasy when any venture on the most charitable , but often the most unacceptable act of friendship , the telling us of our faults . if it is possible , we will either deny or extenuate them : or if sense and good breeding makes us civil to such friends , yet we will feel a sharpness arise , we will love them the less for it ; and if we can , we will be ready to revenge our selves by returning some admonitions to them ; perhaps not without some acrimony of look or stile . all this arises from the partiality and injustice with which we treat our selves , which must incline us to love others the better , who treat us in the same manner . but as long as we have faults , it is very fit that we be made acquainted with them : and since we are too much blinded in our own favour , it is a great happiness to fall into the hands of such friends as will not spare us : it is better that we should hear of them even from enemies , than to be kept in an ignorance that must be fatal . there are few in the world who do not commend friendship as the chief happiness of life , and are not ready to run out upon the advantages of having found a true and faithful friend ; and yet even those who are very copious upon so common a theme , do not much care for the best offices of friendship . no man can perform this act of friendship , without some force put upon himself ; unless there is a great mixture of roughness and superciliousness in his temper . few love to touch a tender part , or to grieve a person who is dear to them . therefore the harder it is to reprove another , it ought to be the more valued , and the better received . caresses and congratulations pass easily among friends : these are the common and natural vents of friendship . reproofs and admonitions go against the grain ; therefore friends ought to encourage them , let their friends know , that they expect them , and by the good entertainment that they give the first essays made of this kind , to secure themselves of a continuance of the like freedom . solomon understood well the happiness of having an ancient , and as it were a hereditary friend made sure of ; therefore he says a little after the words of my text , thine own friend , and thy father's friend , forsake not . and in the words i have read , he sets out the best use and effect of friendship . in the preceding words he had set out the mischiefs that may arise from wrath and anger , which are cruel and outragious : to which he adds , but who can stand before envy ? wrath and anger are commonly provoked by ill usage , or injury ; so innocence may protect a man from them : but envy is an ill-natur'd passion , that is raised without any provocation . the vertues , or the reputation , the prosperity and happiness of others , set men on to detract from their fame , or undermine their happiness , without any prospect of advantage to themselves . men therefore whose qualities , as well as their condition , expose them to envy , though they must expect their share in it , yet are by my text directed to the best methods to prevent the advantages that spiteful men may take ; for if their friends are before-hand with their enemies in their reproofs , and if they themselves are so wise as to be corrected by their means , then envious men will not find much matter to work on . their friends see their faults while they are yet secret , before they break out into open observation ; so by the kind severity of their rebukes , they save them that shame , which the discoveries that envy will soon make , may bring upon them . open rebuke is better than secret love . a friendship that carries a man to rebuke another plainly and roundly , with a due measure of severity , is better then secret love ; that is , a fond , tender , and indulgent love , that may be sincere and deep , but is so blind and feeble , as either not to see faults in their friends ; or if they see any , not to be able to disturb their quiet by seasonable reproofs . another sense is given to these words ; open , that is , publick rebuke , is better than secret love ; that is , rebuke in secret . some can bear reproofs in secret , but are not the better for them ; therefore in such cases , though we ought always to begin our admonitions in private , according to our saviour's rule ; yet when these do not prevail , we ought to rebuke before all , that if the offender is not reclaimed by it , yet that others may fear . this is chiefly to take place when mens sins are so publick , that they go before to judgment , and do as it were extort it . such wounds , when given by a friend with a good design , and in a proper method , are faithful , that is , they are sincere , they are proofs of his fidelity to the ties of friendship , they will also attain their end ; and as the incisions of a skilful surgeon are faithful , and do quickly heal again , so such rebukes will have a good effect . others render the word , beautiful ; there is nothing more amiable in true friendship , than so exact and just a freedom , as makes a man neither to overlook nor to neglect the faults of his friend . on the other hand , the kisses or caresses of an enemy , who covers his hatred with the shews of friendship , and with a dissembled behaviour , who kisses on design to betray , as iudas did his master ; these are deceitful ; they are false in them ; they flatter persons to their faces , for those very faults for which they will censure them severely in corners : they are also deceitful , while they see people commit faults which they hope will be their ruin ; and yet lest they should find that out , and prevent their ruin by seasonable correction , they study to humour them in them , that they may become incorrigible , and be infallibly ruined by them . but the word may be also rendred frequent and earnest , or hard and pressing , as well as deceitful . the sense will then be , the kisses or caresses of an enemy will be redoubled ; they will be officious in them both in season and out of season . flatterers , when they perceive that their base obsequiousness is acceptable , they follow close upon that scent ; they are assiduous and abject in it . and whereas friends are cautious , and must wait fit opportunities to reprove , flatterers find access at all times , and are ever applauding every thing that is either said or done by him , whom they hope either to subdue or ruin by their mean compliances . nor is it easy to shake off that servile crew ; their kisses are hard ; they strike against a weak part ; few men are wise enough to find them out , or strong enough to resist them . some are so course in their flatteries , that they must quickly be nauseated ; but men of design , who have the art to season their flattery , to hit right in it , and are dextrous in the methods of offering it , are often too hard for men , who in all other respects may be very valuable , but in this only do really lessen themselves , by suffering others to magnify them too much . thus i have opened the various rendrings of the words of my text ; all amount to the same sense in general , that we do then express our friendship in the best manner , when we do plainly and openly reprove our friends for their faults , which will be much more useful to them than any fondness , how deep or tender soever , when it makes us excessively indulgent to them . such reproofs may be as wounds , and give a very painful uneasiness : but even that will be medicinal ; it will bring our faults into view , and into our remembrance ; when we see that others observe us , it will bring us into a habit of looking more carefully to our selves , and of observing all our words and actions with due attention : whereas on the other hand , enemies , who have no other regards but for their own ends , or perhaps for our ruin , they will by frequent flatteries , well timed , and skilfully infused , so corrupt our minds , that as they will render us more uneasy to the rebukes of our true and faithful friends , so they will feed our self-love to such a height , that we shall be thereby exposed to errors that may end very fatally , and make us perish unpitied , as well as live inexcusable . the words thus opened , do lead us to examine our obligations to this duty of reproving others : that will be soon setled , if we do consider the zeal that we owe to god and to his honour . if the zeal of his house does as it were eat us up , then the reproaches of those who do as it were attack and defy him , will fall on us . we will feel a lively concern in us for the honour of religion ; and when we see it dishonoured , we will interpose , if it were but to express a just indignation at impiety and vice. if we have any regard to the concerns of other men , whether with respect to this life , or to the next ; and more particularly if we are under strict ties of kindred , friendship , or any other relation to them ; but chiefly if we watch over their souls , and must give an account of them ; then certainly we will not so far hate our brother in our heart , as to suffer sin upon him , but will in one way or another reprove him , lest by such a vicious feebleness we bring his blood on our own head ; that is , entitle our selves to a share in the judgments that those sins which we connived at may bring down both on him and on us . eli had a large share of punishment for his remisness to his sons : we have sins enough of our own , we need not therefore take an additional load of partaking in other mens sins ; and indeed , if we desire to keep our selves pure , and to maintain in our minds a just abhorrence of sin , we ought never to contract so easy a neighbourhood and familiarity with it , even in others , as to let it pass without feeling an indignation at it , and expressing that in the properest methods we can fall on . we owe it to the society we live in , and to the next generation that is growing up before us , to take care that sins , especially open ones , and such as are apt to spread and infect others , should be either repressed by secret reproofs , or the sinners be brought to open shame and punishment , that such as see the one , may likewise see or hear of the other . if sins grow national , and are avowedly practised without shame or check , they will probably be put to the account of the whole nation , and so they may draw down national judgments , from which we have no reason to expect an exemption , if we do not except our selves , by doing our duty in order to their correction : but when that is done , we may expect a distinction , even in a common calamity ; or at least we shall have this comfort , even if we are overwhelm'd in it , that we were not wanting in our endeavours to stave it off , by putting a stop to those sins that brought it on . i will dwell no longer on this ; for how little soever some may like reproof , as generally those who need it most , like it least ; yet all will agree in the general , that it is absolutely necessary for the preserving the order and peace of society , that there should be both reprovers to admonish , and magistrates to punish offenders . it is therefore more necessary to shew how this ought to be managed to the best advantage , and with the most probable hopes of succeeding in it . the first and most necessary rule , is that given by our saviour , that no man should offer to reprove another , who is eminently and notoriously faulty himself ; he who having a beam before his eye , does not remove that , but goes about to take a small chip of wood out of his neighbour's eye , does justly lay himself open , according to our saviour's words , to the imputation of hypocrisy . the aversion that is in every man to the being subject to the corrections of others , will then rise up into a just indignation , when he finds that he is thus set on , by a man who is known to be more guilty than himself . it is an impudent thing to make that pass for a crime in another , which we know we are practising every day our selves . nor is it enough to authorize a man to be a monitor , that he does not offend just in that sort and manner for which he blames others . he must be a man of integrity in all respects ; education , age , habits , and the different circumstances of life , may make a great diversity with relation to particular sins ; yet both virtue and vice are complicated things ; and if a man is in some parts of his life irregular , especially if he lives in those sins that carry a train along with them , his reproofs cannot have a great effect . let a man be ever so sober and temperate , yet if he is false and deceitful , if he is unjust and spiteful , those things which require thought and study , and in which men do pursue a design , and where they are not convinced of their faults , nor redress them by restoring or repairing that in which they have wronged others ; all this man's reproofs will be thrown off , as soon as it is known how crafty or false he is : they will be reckon'd among the arts of hypocrisy , by which he studies to gain some credit and authority , that it may help him to go on in his other wicked practices , and may at least keep him long from being suspected of them , or discovered in them ; for a man who passes for a grave admonisher of others , seems to be thereby covered from all black imputations . i am afraid some discoveries of this sort that have been made , may have brought a scandal upon all pretenders to religion : for as there is no principle nor party in religion that can support men in those deceitful practices ; so no man is guilty of them , but he himself knows it , he goes into them with deliberation and study , and he lives in them still , till by as full a restitution as he can possibly make , he has compleated his repenting of them . after all , it is not enough to qualify a man to rebuke with authority , that he cannot be charged with as bad things as those are for which he blames others ; he must shine as a light in the world ; there must be something eminent and exemplary in his whole deportment . his candor and integrity , his humility and meekness , his modesty and charity , must be so conspicuous , that his light may thereby shine before others ; and then he may more reasonably hope , that others may be wrought on both by his example and influence to glorify his father which is in heaven . another rule to be observed in reproving is , to do it in such a manner , that it may appear we are their friends whom we reprove , and that we correct them for their own good. some by indulging too much to a sharp and morose temper , reprove with an acrimony and heat , that is liker to provoke than to gain upon any : we ought to reprove in kindness ( for so the words of the psalm may be rendred ) and then those smitings will be as an excellent oil that will not break their heads whom we reprove . the tenderness we express will enforce our admonitions , and it will raise the spirits of those , whom freer reproofs might otherwise repress too much : as therefore we ought ▪ chiefly when we begin to deal with any in this way , to address our reproofs in the softest manner possible , and shew while we reprove others , a readiness in our selves to submit to the like reproofs from them , so we ought to watch all occasions in which it may be in our power to do acts of kindness to them ; that having by this means got some interest in their affections ▪ we may have thereby the more credit with them . we ought to be ready to own how near we our selves may have been in other parts of our life to those very faults for which we blame them . we ought to make our first essays at fit times and in the likeliest way to succeed , in private , or in a letter ; thus to make our approaches in the properest manner , that so we may conquer and gain him whom we take to task ; and we must be sure to join with the severity that may be necessary , such mollifying strokes as may secure to us a ready access for the future , if there is occasion to return again to the like admonitions ; but then tho we must rise in the severities of our stile , yet we ought never to sink in the expressions of our affection , as long as we have any hopes of succeeding in the way of private admonition . but the most comprehensive rule in the management of reproofs , is to order them with discretion and prudence ; otherwise all we can do that way will have no effect ; we will pass either for hypocritical , morose , supercilious , or fantastical men. this is a thing of great extent , and may be so much diversified , that it will not be easy to bring it all under clear and certain rules ; but some few of the more obvious are to be considered . first , with relation to the things for which we find fault with others , they ought to be of some importance : in trifles it is not worth the while to reprove . to stand too nicely upon small matters , may give others such a mean opinion of our understanding , that our admonitions on greater occasions will make no impression , because they have been often applied to such inconsiderable things . the insisting too much on a peculiar cut of the hair , as was too common in the last age , or on modes of dress , is a sure way to bring our reproofs into such contempt , that all we can offer at , will look like affectation or singularity . we ought not to lay too much weight on small or disputable things , but should proportion our zeal to the importance of the matters we are concerned for . we ought also to have some good reason to believe men to be guilty of those things for which we deal roundly with them . it is hard enough to submit to reproof even when men know that they do deserve it , but if they know they are innocent , they will very naturally justify themselves , they will accuse their reprovers as credulous and uncharitable , and will not fail to put them in mind at another time when reproved , though they know themselves guilty , how that upon another occasion they were unjustly suspected and blamed ; therefore when we do reprove , we ought to make just allowances for the false reports that go in the world , and be ready both to be disabused by them , or at least to make all the just abatements that in reason can be supposed , and be ready rather to lessen than to aggravate the offence . another measure of discretion is with relation to the persons to whom we may address our reproofs ; generally speaking , junior or inferior persons ought not to reprove those who are above them in age and rank ; yet some exceptions must be made even to this , for old men are not always wise. our saviour after he had given the rule which i named first of all , of correcting our own greater faults before we presume to blame others for lesser ones , adds another that will require great attention , give not that which is holy unto the dogs , neither cast ye your pearls before swine , lest they trample them under their feet , and turn again and rend you . some men are of so boisterous and insolent a temper , that we can have no reason to believe they will be the better for reproof , or that they are capable of bearing it . they will probably turn upon us with fury , and ask us , what right we have to tell them of their faults : perhaps to revenge themselves , they will treat us opprobriously and charge us falsely with gross faults for no other reason , but because we have offered some charitable reproofs to them : these are the persons meant by our saviour under the figure of dogs , who will turn upon us and rend us , by all the injuries they can think on . others are as swine so brutal and impudent , so depraved and stupid , that they despise all that can be laid before them . when it appears that our admonitions are like either to have no effect at all , or to have bad ones , we may reckon that we are not under the common obligations of reproving , if there are no probabilities of our succeeding in them . another measure of discretion to be used in reproving , is to chuse the time of doing it as nicely as we can ; but even in this , caution must be used : commonly speaking , afflictions bring men into a temper fit for being the better for admonition ; but some may sink so much under their burthen , that it may be too severe to lay more load upon them . in sickness , as the danger may be greater , so the obligation is more indispensable : but in all those cases it will be necessary to use a due mixture of skill , as well as fidelity , that we may not add affliction to the afflicted , more than is absolutely necessary both for the good of those concerned , and for the discharge of our own consciences . a prudent method in addressing reproof , we see in nathan , who though he acted upon an immediate commission from god , yet introduced that severe message he had to david by a parable , which engaged him before he saw into the prophet's design , to pronounce his own condemnation . a man may furnish himself with many stories of what passes daily in the world , by the telling of which he may prepare a person to bear with his freedom : in some of those stories a guilty person may find both his faults and the consequences of them so plainly set forth , that if he does not feel that , he would not feel , or at least he would not bear a closer application . but the last and chief rule in managing reproof , is to order it so , that it may not pass barely as a finding fault with another upon some general and popular notions , which will have no great operation , but that it may carry with it so full a conviction , that he who is reproved may see that there is great and just causes for such admonitions . i shall in this descend to instances of two sorts , which relate to some of those things , the correcting of which is chiefly designed by these societies . when we reprove any for entring into that lewd commerce of forbidden pleasure , at which the corruption of youth does commonly begin ; we ought to let them see , that if they break through the measures of modesty , their appetites will grow more and more violent and unruly . these will be for some time resisted by the checks of conscience ; but when by ill practices often repeated , those are blunted , and young men free themselves from stricter rules , this will involve them in ill designs , these will draw them into much lying , and many base methods to support the expence of a vitious course of life . they will become slothful in all their affairs , and thus their care and industry being once slackned , they have no reason to hope that they can succeed in their business , as they can have none to expect a blessing from god upon their endeavours . nor can they go long or far in those unlawful pleasures , but they will be discovered , and by that they must suffer much in their reputation ; for though men may take too much pleasure in lewd company , yet few care to deal with such persons , or put any confidence in them : and this is all evident , besides the ill effects that such a course of life may have on their persons and families ; for if the banks of modesty are once cut through , they are seldom made up again ; such a course of life must strangely agitate the mind between the violence of passion , and the fear of a discovery : this must let in such a black train of base and cursed thoughts upon a man's mind , and must set him at such a distance from god and all religious exercises , that the setting this in a true light before one , with such stories as may be easily pick'd up to confirm from daily experience what is thus to be set out ; all this , i say , may through the blessing of god , make a deep impression , and raise stedfast resolutions of keeping this sin at the greatest distance , by not entring into those liberties , into that conversation , and into those nearnesses to it , which may be fatal , and must certainly be so , where nature is so strong on the side of sin , that it ought not to be too much trusted to . another instance of managing reproofs shall be given in the sin of swearing . it is a common , but a very unbecoming answer , when men are told of their swearing , i ask you pardon , i did not think on 't : as if the offence were against a mortal like our selves , and not against the sovereign lord of heaven and earth : much as if a subordinate magistrate finding fault for a high offence committed against the king , should be so answered . alas ! how small is the offence committed against us in comparison of the dishonour done to god! and it aggravates the sin when a man is so habituated to it , that he falls into it without reflection , or so much as knowing that he had so transgressed . but if a man who has unhappily accustomed himself to this cursed dialect , will be so far calm as to hearken to what may be offered to him , it may be fit to shew him that the root of all religion is a veneration for the deity , and that nothing weakens this more , than a custom of thinking and speaking slightly of god ; nothing is more unbecoming the dread that ought to possess us , and the awe of god under which we ought to live , than this profane practice ; which is so contrary to all decency and just respect : besides , no man goes into the habit of common swearing , but he will be very apt to support falsehoods with repeated oaths ; and the more he sees he is suspected , he will study to fortify his credit by whole peals of them ; though such as do not believe a man upon his word , are seldom convinced by the frightfullest oaths he can bring forth , which do rather serve to increase than to lay jealousy . now if we have any right notions of god , we must conclude that an oath being an appeal to him , a false oath is an appeal to him as it were to vouch for our lies : and if no honest man could with patience hear another appeal to him to give credit to a lie , what do we think of the god of truth , if we can imagine that false oaths will go unpunished ? this matter may be carried yet further , to shew what dismal consequences arise from the habit of common swearing : nothing tends more visibly to the perverting the course of justice , and the dissolving our whole government , which turns much upon swearing , than a vicious habit that takes away the fear of an oath . he who never swears but upon great and just occasions , comes to it full of dread , and full of the impressions that arise from a belief of the attributes of god : whereas he to whom common practice has made oaths become familiar , cannot have that fear of an oath that is necessary to strike the sense of an obligation from it deep into his conscience . england is the nation of the whole world that has studied the most to secure it self by oaths . all employments are entred upon by peculiar oaths ; many of these are very large and comprehensive . how great is the extent of the oath of a grand jury ? does not all matters of life and death , as well as of property , turn upon the regard that jurors have to their oath ? so that blood-shed , or property , given unjustly by their verdict , must lie heavy on them ; and to bind it the heavier , they take the oath of god upon them to give a just verdict . the evidence given upon oath , is that which must direct both judge and jury . a man must have strangely subdued his conscience that dares prevaricate and go against it , when he is under the quick sense of an oath newly taken . when men are once corrupted to such a degree , there is an end of all justice and order . how far are we got into this ? what loud complaints do we hear every where of sets of suborned witnesses , and of partial juries ? the obligations to justice and equity ought to be strong of themselves , nothing can force them more than these sacred bonds of a solemn appeal to god. but can men , whose common dialect is made up of oaths and imprecations , consider an oath so much as to be under any deep impressions of dread and horror from it ? oaths of magistrates , or men in other employments , are very comprehensive , and too soon let go out of their minds . it were a good method to enter such oaths as one takes , in a book that comes often in view , that so it may be frequently considered as a powerful motive to engage him to the faithful discharge of his duty . it were to be wished , that the oaths of magistrates were more explicite ; but men of conscience will consider oaths well before they come to take them , that so they may make a true judgment whether they think they can or will keep them , and accordingly they will either avoid the occasions of being entangled by them , or if they do take them , they will be governed exactly by them . upon the whole matter , when all this is laid together , it will appear that the cursed habit of common swearing , has so many ill tendencies and effects , that there being nothing on the other hand to recommend it , but a depraved custom , every one will soon see , what need there is to watch over himself , till he wears out of that profane and impious stile ; and if he is not watchful enough over himself , he will easily be convinced , how much he is obliged to those to help him to be more careful ; when all he suffers by it , is that at the expence of a little trouble and shame , and a small forfeit , he is taught to keep his tongue with more caution . and now i have done with all that i intend to say from my text : it remains that i say somewhat with relation to the occasion of our meeting together at this time . we have enjoyed a long continuance of peace and plenty ; even a long and devouring war has made no great impression : we have been safe and quiet at home , when all the world about us was in a flame . nor has the great expence of the war altered the face of plenty every where : i am sorry to say it , our luxury and vanity , the symptoms of an overflowing plenty , have not lessened upon all that charge ; i wish it were not too visible , that they increase upon us . we may remember how near we were to great dangers ; it is not so long since we saw a cloud gathered and set over our heads , that we had reason to fear was to burst out in storms and tempests ; and must have thrown us into terrible convulsions , if not into utter ruin. all this went over with so little disturbance that we scarce felt our danger , till we were delivered from it ; and after a war that gave so melancholy a prospect , in a course of many years , we are now at peace with all the world abroad : but , alas ! are we at peace with god or among our selves ? does not impiety and atheism , that walk abroad without either fear or shame , seem to dare and defy god even to his face ? this is such a plain revolt from god , and a rising , as it were , up against him , that we have no reason to think that he will not at last arise and visit for all these things . how soon can he withdraw his defence ? and then how easily may that which we rely on be blasted ? storms may shatter our fleets , and if god should for our sins deliver us so far to an enemy that they should but once land upon us , how naked and defenceless are we ? how soon must all be over-run ? and what a scene of confusion and pillage , of desolation and ruin would quickly open upon us ? but we need not another enemy than our selves ; we are going into such strong and deeply rooted animosities , our hatred to one another , our jealousy of one another , our quarrels and factions , do so increase , and are growing to such a height , that if no temper can be found , and if there is no interposition from the goodness of god , or the wisdom of men , to put a stop to the progress of all these evils , they must end fatally at last ; we may go on to bite and devour one another , till in conclusion we are consumed one of another . what can put a stop to all these sad things that we may justly fear ? a general reformation is too great a blessing to be soon hoped for . in these matters men seldome go all of the sudden from one extreme to another . god knows how near we are the extreme of an universal depravation . it gives us some small beginnings of hope , that in and about this great city , from which the nation is apt to take its ply , whither to good or bad ; there has been for some years past a spirit stirring , that looks like a reviving , as if even our dry bones could live : a spirit of true devotion , a seriousness in the service of god , a frequency at sacrament , with a zeal for religion and against vice , shew themselves upon many eminent occasions , as if by a noble opposition the more that the men of impiety shew themselves , and enter into clubs and confederacies to advance their wicked designs , the spirit of zeal should take fire from thence , and be fortified by the joint endeavours of those , who while many say , it is vain to serve god , and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance ? those who fear the lord speak often one to another . their words how secret soever are heard by god , and all is entred in a book of remembrance written for them that fear the lord , and that think of his name , for they shall be his ; and in that day when he makes up his jewels , he will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him . blessed be god for this door of hope which he is thus opening to us ! and blessed be they of the lord who have offered themselves so willingly before him and before all the people ! their name shall be of a good savour in the present and in the succeeding generations , who have begun the first to set forward so noble a design , to put a stop to so many vicious practices , and to raise a true spirit of piety and virtue among us . these are the salt of the earth , the pillars of it , and the light of the world . go on you noble christians , shine more and more as patterns of those virtues which you endeavour to recommend to others . your enemies wait for your halting , that by your errors they may bring up a scandal upon religion and godliness . the publick crimes of some who pretended highly , brought within our memory such an ill reputation upon religion , that we have laboured under the ill effects of those prejudices ever since . this we hope will make you the more watchful and diligent , lest by your means the name of god should be agains blasphemed . go on and see to the execution of the laws , but do it with a zeal becoming the gospel , and not with a pharisaical or bitter zeal . be not discouraged , neither by the slow progress that you can make , nor by the contradiction and slanders that you may meet with . go on and prosper , for great is your reward in heaven ; and while you study to repair the breaches that are made in the house of god , you may hope that god will build up houses for you and your posterity , and will at last receive you into everlasting habitations . to whom be glory for ever . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30327-e160 ver. 10. 18 s. matth. 15. 1 tim. 4. 20. 24 verse . 69 psal. 9. 19 lev. 17. 33 ezek. 6. 1 sam. 2. 13. 1 tim. 5 22. 7 matth. 3 , 4 , 5. 2 phil. 15. 5 matth 16. ps. 141. 5. matt. 7. 6. 2 sam. 12. malac. 3. 14 , 16 , 17. the unreasonableness and impiety of popery: in a second letter written upon the discovery of the late plot.. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1678 approx. 66 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30477 wing b5935 estc r7487 11632923 ocm 11632923 47937 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30477) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47937) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:41) the unreasonableness and impiety of popery: in a second letter written upon the discovery of the late plot.. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 36 p. ; 20 cm. printed for r. chiswell, at the sign of the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard,, london : 1678.. attributed to gilbert burnet, bishop of salisbury. cf. mcalpin coll., halkett & laing. "imprimatur c. alston, nov. 12. 1678." last line on p. 1 has "endless". reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng popish plot, 1678. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-12 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the unreasonableness and impiety of popery : in a second letter written upon the discovery of the late plot . imprimatur c. alston , nov. 12. 1678. london , printed for r. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1678. the unreasonableness and impiety of popery , in a second letter written upon the discovery of the late plot . sir , you are pleased to tell me that my last letter has had some good effect ; and that many who were before carried away with the false colours of the romish religion , are now a little awakned , and seem not unwilling to examin things , which they took formerly upon trust : and therefore you desire me , since you are not master of so much spare time your self , to set down the most material and convincing reasons , and in as few words as may be , that are most likely to open the eyes of honest and simple persons , that have been hitherto misled , and are now willing to be instructed . in all such cases i first consider the temper of the persons to be dealt with : such as take up their religion out of interest or humour , and think it point of honour to continue in it , and so will examine nothing are not to be spoken to . others that are naturally superstitious and credulous , are very hard to be wrought on ; for they believe every thing that is said on the one hand , and distrust all that is told them by any body else . some of those have a vanity in coming to talk with divines , but it is an endless labour to deal with them ; for at every time one must begin of new . but the only persons to be dealt with , are those that are sincere and inquisitive , that having been bred in that religion , or brought over to it by some specious pretences , are now willing to hear reason , and resolved to follow it wherever they find it . and therefore in the first place , their minds must be disingaged from these unjust prejudices , that they conceive of our religion : and such just prejudices must be offered them against the romish religion , as may at least beget in them some jealousies concerning it , by which they may be brought so far , as to think the matter suspicious . if then there be such reasons offered them , for susspecting foul dealing from their priests and church , as would make them suspect an attorney , physician , or any other person with whom they were to deal , they will be prepared to hear reason ; which is all that we desire : and upon this head these following considerations may be laid before them . 1. all people that pretend to great power and dominion over our consciences , are justly to be suspected . if any man designed to make himself master of any of our other liberties , we would examine his title , and suspect all his other motions , when we see they tend to subject us to him : therefore a church that designs to keep all her votaries under an absolute obedience , is justly to be suspected : and our church that pretends to no such power , is more likely to deal fairly . 2. a church that designs to keep her members in ignorance , is more to be suspected , than a church that brings every thing to a fair trial. a church that denies the use of the scriptures in a known tongue , except to a few , and wraps up their worship in a language that is not understood , is reasonably to be suspected , more than a church that gives the free use of the scriptures to all persons , and worships god in a language , which the people understand . 3. a church whose opinions tend to engross the riches of the world to its officers , is more to be suspected , than a church that pretends to nothing but a competent maintenance of the several officers in it . the redeeming souls out of purgatory , and the enriching the shrines , or reliques of saints , pardons , jubilees , and many more tenets of the church of rome , are so calculated for enriching their societies ; that every cautious man must needs suspect some design in it : which he cannot charge on a church that has none of these arts to get money . 4. a church that has carried on its designs , by the most dishonest methods possible , the forging of writings , and deeds , of miracles , visions , prophesies and other things of that nature , is more justly to be suspected , than a church that cannot be charged with any such practices . the forging so many epistles for the popes of the first ages , which are now by themselves confest to be spurious , with many other forgeries , were the engines by which the papal power was chiefly advanced . the legends and extravagant fables of which they are now ashamed , were the chief motives of devotion for many ages . and by these , saints and images were so much magnified , and monasteries so enriched . a noted liar after a discovery is no more to be trusted . 5. any that considers the present state of rome , the manner of electing popes , the practices of that court , and the maximes they move by , must see that every thing there is secular , corrupt , and at best directed by rules of policy . but to fansie the holy ghost can come upon any election so managed , as their own books shew that is , is the most unreasonable thing that can be devised . therefore a church that neither pretends so high , nor can be charged with such proceedings , is more likely to be the true church . 6. a church that teaches cruelty against poor innocent people , that differ in opinion ; and sets on plots , conspiracies , and rebellion against princes , that are judged hereticks , is more likely to be corrupted , than a church that is so merciful , as to condemn all capital proceedings for difference of opinion , and teaches an absolute submission to the soveraign power , even when it persecutes and oppresses them . 7. a church that is false to her own principles , is not so likely to instruct her members aright , as a church that is in all things consistent to her self . the great foundation of their doctrine , is , that there must be a speaking judg to decide all controversies : now they have no such judg , for it is not of faith , that the pope is this judg , or is infallible : and for a general council , they have had none these 112. years , nor are they like to see another in hast . so they have no speaking infallible judg among them . and thus they deceive people by a false pretence : whereas we appeal to nothing , but what we really have among us , which are the scriptures . 8. a church that appeals to marks , which are not possible to be searcht out , is more likely to mislead people , than a church that pretends to nothing but what can be certainly proved . the great thing they appeal to ▪ is the constant succession of the bishops of rome , and their other pastors . this cannot be known , no not by a probable conjecture . but there are on the contrary , as great grounds for history to deny it in the see of rome , as in any other ancient see whatsoever : but though they have it , both the greek church , and our church has it likewise . these are such plain things , and the truth of them is so notoriously known , that i should ask any of that communion , whether upon the like reasons he would not be jealous of any person or sort of persons whatsoever ? and if these grounds of jealousie would work in other matters , it is much more reasonable , that they should take place in matters of religion ; in which as an error is of far greater importance ; so impostors in all ages have studied to make gain by religion . therefore it is most just upon these violent presumptions , to look about us , and take care we be not cheated . but before i would descend to particulars , there is one general prejudice that works most universally , on weaker minds to be removed , which is , that the true church cannot erre . if then it be made appear unanswerably , that the true church may erre , and that in a most weighty point , all these arguments fall to the ground . that the church of the iews , in our saviours days was the true church , cannot be denied ; for our saviour owned it to be such . he joyned with them in their worship , he sent the lepers to the priest , he commanded them to hear the doctors that sate in moses chair , and himself acknowledged the high priest. this is sufficient to prove that it was the true church , and yet this church erred , in a most important point , whether jesus christ ▪ was the true messias , in whom the prophecies were fulfilled or not ? they judged falsly : the high priests with all the sanhedrim , declared him a blasphemer , and condemned him guilty of death . here the true church expounds the scriptures falsly , and erred in the foundation of religion . and it is well known , that the chief arguments which they of the romish party bring to prove , that a church cannot err , do agree as well to the iewish , as the christian church : the one being the true church , under that dispensation , as well as the other is now . if then this decision made by the true church in christs time , did not oblige all in that church , to go on in that error , but private persons might have examined their sentence , and depart from them upon it ; then upon the same reasons , though we acknowledge the church of rome a true church , yet we may examine her doctrines , and separate from her errors . this grand prejudice being thus removed , there are two things in the next place to be laid before them . one is , that the scriptures , being acknowledged to come from divine inspiration , on all hands , can only decide the controversies among us : and the places i shall make use of , shall be cited according to the doway translation , to which , being made by themselves , they cannot except . another is , that a man must judg of things as they appear plainly to his reasonable faculties . it is against all reason to say that because it is possible for a man to be mistaken , therefore he ought to doubt his judgment in things that are clear to him . this must turn a man sceptical both to all religions , and all the concerns of human life : therefore every man must follow his judgment , when after a diligent inquiry , any thing appears plain to him . and now to come up close to those of that perswasion , they are to consider , that the chief parts of religion are , first , articles of faith : secondly , rules of life : thirdly , the worship of god chiefly in the sacraments : and fourthly , the government of the church . if then in every one of these heads , the church of england agrees clearly with the scriptures , and the church of rome does either manifestly contradict them , or differs matterially from them , in all these points , in which we and they differ ; then the resolution of the question , whether a man ought to joyn himself to our church , or theirs ? will be easily made . for articles of faith , if either the apostles creed or the creeds of the first 4. general councils , contain a just abstract of the faith ; then we who receive every article in these creeds , do agree more exactly to the apostolical doctrine , than they who have added many new articles to their creed . the chief article of faith , is , the covenant made between god and man through iesus christ , by which upon the account of his merits and intercession , all who follow the rules of the gospel , may expect the blessings of it , both here , and hereafter . pennance toward god , and faith towards our lord iesus christ , being the conditions upon which we hope for eternal life . this we plainly teach , without addition or change : but in how many things have they departed from this simplicity of the gospel ? first , in teaching people to address to god , for the merits and by the intercession of the saints : from whom these things are asked , for which the scriptures direct us only to god and christ. and in the very words pronounced after absolution , the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints , are joined with the passion of christ ; as the grounds on which we obtain pardon of sin , grace , and eternal life . secondly , in perswading people , that a simple attrition with the use of the sacraments , without any real conversion of the soul or change of life , is sufficient to salvation . thirdly , in perswading people , that there is a communication of the merits of saints to other persons , though the scriptures mention only the communication of christs merits . fourthly , by teaching that tho our sins are pardoned thorough christ ; yet , there are terrible and long lasting torments to be endured in another state. fiftly , that saying masses , and going of pilgrimages can redeem from these . now in all these , the two chief designs of the gospel are plainly contradicted : which be ; first , to change our hearts and lives : secondly , to perswade us to a humble dependance upon christ , and an high acknowledgment of him : but these doctrines of theirs as they shew us a way to be sure of heaven , without a real conversion ; so they take off so much from faith in christ as they carry us to trust to somewhat else . these are errors of great importance : since they corrupt the fountain , and overthrow the chief design of the christian religion . they are also late devices brought in , in the dark and ignorant ages . no mention is made of praying to saints , in any ancient liturgie . there is a great deal against it in the most ancient authors . and though in the fourth century , upon the conversion of many heathens to the christian faith , to humour them in their conceit , of some intermedial agents , between the divinity and us mortals , there was a reverence for the saints set up , to drive out the worship of those secondary deities ; yet , this was no direct adoration , though they then began to use rhetorical addresses to saints like prayers : yet , even in gregory the great his time ( in the beginning of the seventh century ) we find no prayers made to them in all his liturgies . and for the belief of a simple attrition being sufficient with the sacrament , no body ever dreamed of it , before the schoolmen found out the distinction , between attrition and contrition in the later ages . for the communication of the merits of saints , the whole fathers in one voice , speak only of the merits of christ being communicated to us . the fryers first invented it , to invite people at least to die in their habits , by perswading them , that all the merits of the saints of their order , were shared among the whole order . and for redeeming out of purgatory , the first four ages knew nothing of it . in the beginning of the fifth century st. austin plainly speaks of it as an opinion which some had taken up without any ground , and that it was no way certain , nor could we ever be sure of it . and though in gregory the great 's time , the belief of it was pretty far advanced ; yet , the trade of redeeming out of it , by saying masses for departed souls was not even then found out . so that all these are both gross errors , and late inventions . the next branch of religion , is the rule of human life : which one would think could be taken from no other standard so certainly , as the 10. commandments : and the expositions given of these in scripture , chiefly our saviours sermon on the mount. let malice it self appear , to declare wherein our church strikes at any of these : or teaches men to disobey even the least of them . if then our rule of life be exactly the same ; with that which the scriptures prescribe , we are safe as to this , which may be well called , the most important piece of religion . for it is to be considered that god making man after his own image , the end of his creation was , that he might be made like god. the attributes of god to be imitated , are goodness , mercy , justice , wisdom and truth . and it is certain that the design of revealed religion was to give men clearer notions of these moral perfections , to press them by stronger arguments , and encourage cur endeavours by suitable rewards and punishments . so that if any religion contradict these moral duties , we are sure it is false ; for the revelation of god's will must be designed to make us better than we would otherwise be , following barely the light of nature , and not worse . if then the church of rome over throws morality , and contradicts any of the ten commandments we are sure it is not of god. and how far it has done this , they may judge by these particulars . first , whatever church offers cheap and easie pardons for sin , does take off so much from our sense of the evil of sin . we cannot have a very ill opinion of any thing that is easily forgiven . now what are the popes pardons , indulgences , jubilees , priviledged altars , the going of pilgrimages , the saying of some collects , the wearing of agnus dei's , peebles , or other such like trash , but so many engines to root out of mens minds any deep horrour or great sense of sin . is not this the very thing which the people of the iews of old offered at , to bring thousands of rams , ten thousand rivers of oyl , their first born , or the fruit of their body , to offer for their sins ? all which were rejected in the name of god in these words , i will shew thee o man what is good , and what our lord requireth of thee : verily to do iudgment , and to love mercy , and to walk solicitous with thy god. this is a moral matter and unchangable ; therefore whoever go to beat down the sense of sin , by the offer of pardon , on any other terms , but the sincere change of a mans life , destroy morallity , which is the image of god in man. if from this general consideration we descend to examine the commandments in particular , we shall find matter enough for a severe charge against their church . is not the first commandment broken when devotions are offered to saints which import their being omniscient , omnipresent and almighty ; that are the incommunicable attributes of the god-head : and when pardon of sin , preservation , grace against temptations , and eternal life , are immediately begged from saints . it is true , they say the sence of these prayers , is only that we desire their assistance at gods hands for these blessings . but the words of their offices import no such matter . and though for above one hundred and sixty years these things have been complained of ; and in the correction of their offices , some of them were cast out ; yet , many of them do still continue : in which the plain sence of the words of their offices is idolatrous : only they make a shift with another and forced sence put on them , to defend themselves from that charge . and for such devotions they can shew no warrant for the first thousand years after christ. the second commandment is so openly and confessedly broken by them , that many of them maintain , it does not all oblige christians : but belonged only to the jewish dispensation . and in all their catechisms it is left out , which was done very wisely ; ( with what honesty let them answer ) for it was not fit the people should look on that as a commandment , which they saw so notoriously broken throughout their whole church : a great trade being also driven by the breach of it . that this was not in the primitive church , themselves confess : all the books the fathers wrote against the idolatry of the heathens , demonstrate this . nor were images so much as set up in churches before the sixth century . and then care was taken that they should not be worshipped : and not before the eighth century were they worshipped in any place of the christian church . the doctrine of the popes power of relaxing of oaths , and discharging men from the obligation of them , joyned with the practice of their popes for above 800 years , is as formal an opposition to the third commandment as can be imagined . this was also begun in the eighth century . the vast multiplication of holy-days , made the observation of the lords day of necessity slacken . they have destroyed the order of societies , established in the fifth commandment ; by the power they allow the pope to depose princes , and absolve subjects from their alleageance . they teach the murdering and burning all hereticks , that is to say , all that will not submit to their tyranny : by which infinite numbers of innocent persons have been murdered , against the sixth commandment . and these two doctrines of deposing princes , and putting hereticks to death , were abhorred by the church for the first eight ages , and were brought in by the popes since that time . the frequent practice of the court of rome , in granting divorces , on the pretence either of spiritual kindred , or of degrees not forbidden , either by the law of nature , or the word of god , and allowing second marriages to both parties , upon such divorces , is an avowed breach of the seventh commandment . the setting on , some princes to invade other princes in their just rights , is the doctrine , as well as it has been the practice of their church for some ages . and as their popes have wrested many territories from temporal princes , so for many ages they set on publick robbery against the eighth commandment . the doctrine of equivocating , both taught , and practised , the breaking of safe conducts , and publick faith decreed by their general councils , is also against the ninth commandment . for the tenth i shall say nothing of it , because the meaning of it is not so generally agreed on . but thus we see all the rules of morality are contradicted by that church . it might be justly added to swell up this charge ; that of late there have been doctrines published to the world by the approved casuists of that church , with licence , which subvert all justice , destroy all security , and take away the most sacred ties of mankind . by the doctrines of probability , and of ordering the intention aright , there is no crime how black soever ▪ but a man may adventure on it with a good conscience . these things were long and openly taught amongst them , without any censure . and when many of the french clergy complained of these at the court of rome ( perhaps more out of spite to the jesuits , than zeal for the truth ) it was long before these so just remonstrances , were heard . and in conclusion a trifling censure was past on them : by which they were declared scandalous ( neither impious , nor wicked ) and all were forbidden to teach them any more , but they stand yet , in the books formerly published with licence . after all these particulars , is it to be wondered at , if the morals of the men of that church be vitiated , when their doctrine is so corrupted , for peoples practices are generally worse than their opinions . and thus the second point is made good , that in our church , we teach the same rules of living that are in the scriptures , which are grosly corrupted by their doctrines . the third branch of the christian religion is the worship of god and that chiefly the use of the sacraments . for the worship of god , let it be considered that we pray to god , and praise him only , for all these things about which the scriptures command us to address to him . our worship is in a language that all the people understand , and so are edified by it according to st. paul , who has enlarged so much on this matter , in a whole chapter , that it is strange , how any who acknowledg the authority of that epistle , can deny it . our liturgies are such , that the romanists cannot except to any part of them : our ceremonies are few , and these be both decent and useful : so that in all the parts of our worship , we do so exactly agree to the rule of the scriptures , and the primitive church , that they cannot blame us for any one rubrick or collect in it . but for their worship , it is in a language not understood by the people : who to be sure can receive no edification , from that they understand not ; nor can they say amen to such devotions . this is as it were in spite to st. paul , who took special care that as long as his authority was in any esteem in the church , such an abuse should never creep into it . nor is there a shadow of authority for such a practice , from the primitive church , in which for many ages , the worship was still in the vulgar tongues . next their worship is so overcharged with many rites and ceremonies , that the seriousness of devotion must needs be much alloyed by them . a great part of the worship is so whispered , as if they were muttering spells . their books of exorcisms are the most indecent things that can be : full of charms and other ridiculous rites . and for the pontifical and ceremonial of their church , they may match with heathenism for superstition . their offices are so various , and numerous , and the rubricks seem so full of disorder , that a man may as soon learn a trade , as know all the several parts of them . how this can be reconciled to the simplicity of the gospel , or the worshipping god in spirit and truth , may be easily judged by those who can compare things . for the sacraments , we have the two that christ instituted , baptism , and the lords supper ; and for pennance , confirmation , ordination and marriage , we have them also among us , as they were appointed by christ and his apostles : though we do not call these sacraments . for extream unction we find no warrant at all for it , as a sacred ordinance : and we are sure the church for many ages did not think of it . for baptism it is done among us , in the very form our saviour appointed : and this they do not deny . but among them they cannot be assured that they are at all baptized : since according to the doctrine of the necessity of the intention of the priest , to the being of a sacrament , they cannot be assured of it : for an atheistical priest can spoil their baptism , so that unless they can be certain of that , which is impossible for them to know , i mean the intention of the priest , they are not sure that they were ever truly baptized . but for the lords supper , if any person will so far trust his own reason and senses , as to compare all the warrants we have in scripture for that ordinance , with the practice of our church and theirs , they will soon see who agree most to them . christ took bread which he blessed and gave , saying , this is my body which is given for you . he also took the chalice and said , drink ye all of it , &c. all this we doe , and no more , so that it is indeed a communion among us : and those who have read the account that iustin martyr gives us of the rites in the communion in his days , would think he were reading the very abstract of our office. but in the church of rome , besides the less material things , of the form of the bread , the consecration of altars and vessels , with the numberless little devices in the canon of the mass , that they seem not of such importance let these considerable changes they have made be looked into . 1. they have brought in the doctrine of transubstantiation , against the clearest evidence both of sense and reason , against the nature of a sacrament , and its being a memorial of christs death , and that by the very words of consecration , the bread and wine are christs body and blood , as the one was given for us , and the other shed for us , on the cross : and not as he is now at the right hand of god. the belief of this crept in by degrees , from the eighth century , in which it was first set on foot , but much contradicted both in the eastern and western church : and was not fully setled till the 13th century . we are sure it was not the doctrine of the churches of rome , constantinople , asia , antioch , nor africk in the 5th and 6th centuries , by express testimonies from the most esteemed authors of that time , gelasius , chrysostom , ephrem , theodoret , and st. austin . 2. they deny the chalice to the laity against the express words of the institution ; and contrary both to the doctrine and tradition of the church for 1300 years . 3. they have declared the priests saying mass , to be an expiatory sacrifice for the dead , and the living , though the scripture plainly says , that christ was once offered for us . it is true the primitive church used the words sacrifice and oblation as our church yet does , but their meaning by that , was only in the general sense of these terms , as prayers , praises , and alms are called sacrifices . 4. they have brought in a new piece of worship , which is the hearing of mass , without receiving the sacrament : and it is now the great devotion of their church . though by the institution , it is as express as can be , that the consecration is only in order to its being a communion . and by the apostolical canons , which some in their church believe to be the work of the apostles , and are by them all acknowledged to be a collection of the rites of the first ages , all persons that were present at the worship , and did not communicate were to be severely censured . 5. the adoring the sacrament , the exposing it on the altar , and carrying it about in solemn processions , to be worshipped , as they are late inventions ; so if transubstantiation be not true , they are by their own confession the grossest idolatries that ever were , and are not these considerable variations from the first institution of this sacrament ? as for their own sacraments , though there is no reason to equal them , to either of these that were instituted by christ ; yet some of them we use , as they were at first appointed . persons baptized , are confirmed with imposition of hands , the only ceremony used by the apostles . we allow the use of confession , and do press it in many cases ; and give the benefit of absolution : but we do not make this an engin to screw peoples secrets from them . for which there is no warrant in scripture ; nor was it thought necessary for many ages after the apostles . confession of publick scandals was enjoyned , and for private sins it was recommended : but this latter was not judged simply necessary for obtaining the pardon of sin . and what noise soever they make of the good that confession , and the enjoyning of pennance , may do , if well managed , we need only appeal to some of their own best writers , now in france , whether as they have been practised , they have not rather driven all true piety out of the world . if these abuses had been only the faults of some priests , the blame could not have been justly cast on their church ; but when the publick rules given to confessors , printed with licence , are their warrants for so doing , then their church is in fault . so that nothing is more common among them , than for persons after a confession made of their sins , with a slight sorrow ▪ and some trifling pennance undergone , together with the priestly absolution , to fancy themselves as clean from all sin , as if they had never offended god. and this being the doctrin of their church , it both lessens the sense of sin , and takes men off from making such earnest applications to god through christ , as the gospel commands . for orders they are among us with the same rites that christ and the apostles gave them first : and a learned man of their own church has lately published the most ancient forms of ordinations he could find : from which it appears , that all the ceremonies in their ordinations , for the want of which they accuse us , were brought in since the eighth century : so that even by their own principles these things cannot be necessary to ordination , otherwise there were no true orders in the church for the first eight ages . for marriage we honour it as gods ordinance ; and since the scriptures declare it honourable in all , without exception , we dare deny it to none who desire it . st. paul delivers the duty of clergy-men towards their wives , with rules for their wives behaviour , which had been very impertinent if clergy-men might have no wives . we find a married clergy in the first ten centuries : and we know by what base arts the caelibate of the clergy was brought in ; and what horrid ill effects it has produced . neither do we allow of any devices to hinder marriage , by degrees of kindred not prohibited in the law of god , or the trade that was long driven in granting dispensations in those degrees , and afterwards annulling these , and avoiding the marriages that followed upon them , upon some pretences of law. thus it appears , how they have corrupted the doctrine of the sacraments , together with the worship of god. the last head of religion is government ; and as to this , we can challenge any to see what they can except to us . first in reference to the civil power , we declare all are bound for conscience sake to obey every lawful command of the supream authority , and to submit when they cannot obey . we pretend to no exemption of clarks from the civil jurisdiction , but give to caesar the things that are caesars . we do not obey the king only because he is of our religion : much less do we allow of conspiracies or rebellions upon our judging him an heretick , so that we deliver no doctrin that can be of any ill consequence to the society we live in . and for the ecclesiastical government we have bishops , priests , and deacons , rightly ordained , and in their due subordination to one another ; every one administring these offices due to his function , which has been the governemnt of the christian church , since the times of the apostles . so that we have a clear vocation of pastors among us , from whose hands every person may without scruple receive all the sacraments of the church . but for the church of rome , how unsafe is the civil government among them ? not to mention the doctrin of deposing princes , for which i refer you to my former letter ; what a security does the exemption of clerks from the civil courts in cases criminal , give to loose and debauched church-men ; and what disturbance must this breed to a common wealth ? the denying the civil magistrate power to make laws that concern religion , or oblige churchmen , takes away a great deal of his rights ; for scarce any law can be made but wrangling and ill-natur'd churchmen , may draw it within some head of religion . and that this was frequently done in former ages , all that have read history know . the quarrels that were in the beginning of this century between the pope and the republick of venice were a fresh evidence of it . but for the ecclesiastical government , they have spoiled it in all the parts of it . the pope has assumed a power of so vast an extent , and so arbitrary a nature , that all the ancient canons are thrown out of doors by it . we know that originally the bishops of rome were looked on by the rest of the church , as their colleagues and fellow bishops . the dignity of the city made the see more remarkable ; and the belief of st. peters having founded it , with his suffering martrydom there , with st. paul , made it much honoured : so that when the empire became christian , then the dignity of the imperial city made the bishop of rome be acknowledged the first patriarch . from this beginning they arose by many degrees to the height of pretending to a supremacy both civil and spiritual : and then they not only received appeals , which was all they at first pretended to , but set up legantine courts every where , made the bishops swear obedience and homage to them , and the arch-bishops receive the pall from their hands , in sign of their dependance on them : exempted monasteries , and other clarks from episcopal jurisdiction , broke all the laws of the church by their dispensations : so that no shaddow of the primitive government does now remain . and though gregory the great wrote with as much indignation against the title of vniversal bishop , as ever any protestant did ; yet his successors , have since assumed both the name and thing . and to that height of insolence , has this risen , that in the council of trent , all the papal party opposed the decree that was put in , for declaring bishops to have their jurisdictions by divine right . the court party not being ashamed to affirm , that all jurisdiction was by divine right only in the pope ; and in the other bishops , as the delegates of the apostolick see ; and they were in this too hard for the other party . so that now a bishop , who by the divine appointment ought to feed the flock , can do no more in that , then as the pope gives him leave . the greatest part of the priests have no dependence on their bishops . the monks , fryars , and iesuits , being immediately subordinate to the pope ; so that they do what they please , knowing they can justifie any thing at rome , and they fear no censure any where else . from this so many abuses have crept in , and the canonists have found out , so many devices to make them legal , that there is no hope of reforming these at rome . the whole state of cardinals is one great corruption , who , from being originally the parish priests of rome , and so under all bishops , have raised themselves so high that they do now trample on the whole order ; and pretend to an equality with princes . the giving benefices to children , the unlimitted plurality of benefices in one person ; the comendam's , the reserved pensions , with many other such like , are gross , as well as late corruptions . and no wonder if all men despair of reforming the court of rome , when these abuses are become necessary to it , by which the greatness of the cardinals and the other officers , or ministers there , is kept up . i need not mention the gross simony of that court , where all the world knows , every thing may be had for money . the popes themselves , are often chosen by these arts : and if their own rules be true , such elections , with every thing that follows on them are void . the infinite swarmes of the inferiour clergy , do plainly drive a simoniacal trade , by the masses they say for departed souls , for money . and for publick pennance , they have universally let it fall , in stead whereof private pennance is now in use . and if their own writers say true , this is made an engine to serve other ends , when by enjoyning slight and easie pennances , they draw the people after them ; upon which the jesuites have been loudly accused , these forty years last past . in sum , all the corruptions or rather defects , that are in the government of our church , are only such as they brought in and have not met yet with such effectual remedies , as must cure the church of these inveterate distempers , their ill conduct did cast her into . if any of that party will review these particulars , and so far trust their own reasons , as to judge according to the plainest evidence , they cannot resist the conviction that they must needs meet with : when they see the simplicity of our faith , the morality of our doctrine , the purity of our worship , and our primitive government ; and compare it with their vast superfetation of articles of faith , the immorality of their rules of living , the superstition , if not idolatry of their worship , and the most extravagant innovations in government , that are in the church of rome . and indeed these things are so clear that few could resist the force of so much plain truth , if it were not for some prejudices , with which they are so fettered that they cannot examine matters with that freedom of mind , that is necessary . therefore much care must be taken , to clear these , in the most familiar and demonstrative manner that is possible . they may be reduced to these five chief ones . first , that the true church cannot err. secondly , that out of the true church there is no salvation . thirdly , that the case of the church of rome is much safer than ours is ; since the church of england acknowledges a possibility of salvation in the church of rome ; which they on the other hand deny to the church of england . fourthly , that unless there be a supreme judg set up , we can be sure of nothing in religion , but must fall into many factions and parties . and fiftly , that the reformation was but a novelty begun in the former age , and carried on in this nation , out of an ill design ; and managed with much sacriledge . the first of these seemed necessary to be cleared in the beginning of this discourse , and i am deceived if it was not done convincingly . and for the second we agree to it , that out of the true church there is no salvation . but then the question comes , what makes one a member of the true church ? the scriptures call the church the body of christ , of which he is the head. so then whoever are joined to christ according to the gospel , must be within the true church . but the deceit that lies hid under this , is , that from hence they fancy that the unity of the church , does consist in an outward communion with the see of rome . and upon that they calculate , that there must be an unity in the body of the church : and that cannot be , except all be joined to the see of rome . now , we grant there is but one church , but this unity consists not in an outward communion , though that is much to be desired , but consists in an unity of belief , about the essentials of christianity . there is nothing more evident , than , that even according to their own principles , other churches are not bound upon the hazard of damnation to hold communion with the see of rome ; for it is not an article of faith , nor certain according to their own doctrine , that the pope is infallible : and except that were certain , we cannot be obliged to hold communion under such a sanction with that see. for if it be possible that a pope may become an heretick or schismatick ( which many of them confess , and all agree that the contrary is not of faith , ) then other churches are not in that case obliged to hold communion with that see. if therefore the possiblity of error in that see be acknowledged , then holding communion with it , cannot be the measure of the unity of the church . so we bring it to this issue , it is not heresie to say , the pope may err : therefore this is no just prejudice against our church , because we have departed from communion with him , when he imposed his errors on us . so all the high things they boast of that see , come to nothing , except they say , this proposition is of faith , that the pope is infallible . and for these meetings that they call general councils ; they were at best but the councils of the western patriarchate artificially packt , and managed with much art ; as appears even from cardinal pallavicini's history of the council of trent . for the third prejudice , it is the most disingenuous thing that can be ; because our church is charitable , and modest in her censures , and theirs is uncharitable , and cruel in her judgments ; therefore to conclude , that communion with them is safer , than with us . if confidence , and presumption , noise , and arrogance , are the marks to judge a church by , we must yield to them in these : but if truth , and peace , charity and holy doctrines , be the better standards , then we are as sure , that our communion is much safer . let this rule be applied to the other concerns of human life , and it will appear how ridiculous an abuse it is to take measures from so false a standard . if a man were sick , the question comes , whether he shall use an approved physitian , or a montebanks . on the one hand , the montebank says , he will certainly cure him , and the doctors will undoubtedly kill him . on the other hand , the doctor modestly says , he will undertake nothing , but will do the best he can ; and for the montebank he tells him , it is very dangerous to trust to him , though he will not deny but sometimes great cures are done by them . the insolence of the montebank will never carry it against a doctors modesty , but among weak and credulous people ; and such must they also be , who are taken with this montebankry in religion . but if this be taken to pieces , the folly of it will yet appear more manifest . for first , the reason we give for a possibility of salvation in the church of rome , is , because we look on such and such things as the essentials of christianity , which are yet retained in that church : and either this reasoning is true or false . if it be true , then it is as true , that we may be saved , who retain these essentials of christianity : if it is false , then no inference can be drawn from it . secondly , though we yield a possiblity of salvation in that church , we declare that they are in great danger , by many opinions among them , which if fully understood and believed , do even vitiate the essentials of christanity ; particularly that foundation of religion , the covenant between god and man thorough christ , formerly insisted on . so that we declaring a certainty of salvation to those who sincerely follow the rules of our church , and a great danger in their church , the preferring their communion to ours , upon this account , is , as unreasonable , as to sleep without shutting our doors , because it is possible we shall not be robbed , in so doing : or when we are at sea to prefer a cock-boat to a good clean ship. these are such absurdities , that an ordinary measure of weakness cannot swallow them down . thirdly , we are not so forward as they imagine in yielding a possibility of salvation in their church . for our concession amounts rather to this , that we do not deny it , than that we positively affirm it : and therefore they have no reason to draw these advantages from it . 4. a great difference is to be made between what god in the infiniteness of his mercy may do , and what he is bound to by the covenant made with man in the gospel ; for the former we acknowledg , it is impossible to fix the limits of that mercy which is as far above our thoughts , as the heavens are above the earth . and how far it extends to all sincere minds , we are not so presumptuous as to define ; therefore we will not damn at pleasure , as they do , but we do assert , their church is guilty of such gross corruptions , by which the vitals of religion are vitiated , that they have not that reason to claim the mercies of the gospel due by that covenant . 5. the church of rome has a dark and fair side ; the dark side is , what the true consequence of their opinions is , the fair side is , what some witty men have devised to palliate these corruptions with , and to deceive the vulgar by . we know many of that communion , either do not at all know these corrupt doctrines , or have such a fair representation made of them , that they are thereby both more easily and more innocently misled . from hence it is that we are inclined to hope more charitably concerning some , that are abused by them . but for those that have examined things more fully , or that having been bred among us , yet reject the truth , and go over to them , we are not so much enclined to have so good hopes of them , as they imagine : so this is a weak and ill grounded conceit in all the parts of it . the fourth prejudice , is concerning the necessity of submitting to some common judg , of distrusting our own reasons , and believing the church , without which there must be many sects and divisions : and this they aggravate from the many different parties that are among us . but these are only specious pretences to deceive weak people by . for first , if-it is necessary that there be a common judg , it is most necessary that it be known , who this judg is , otherwise it is to no purpose to talk of a judge , if they cannot point him out . this is like him that came to discover a huge treasure that he knew was hid under ground ; but being asked in what place it was ? he answered he did not know that : and he believed no body else knew . some say the pope is the judge , others as confidently , that the council is judge even without the pope , others think it is sure work to say , the pope and council together : and others say the body of the church spread over the world. for the popes , some of them have been condemned for heresie , and others for making schism ; many of them have been most horrid men : they are generally ignorant in divinity , being for most part bred to the law : so that a great part of their own church rejects the popes infallibility . for councils , they have had none these 115 years , and the last was so over-ruled by the popes , that no other has been desired since : so that if either a council without the pope , or with him , be the infallible judge they have lost their infallibility ; and except a council were constantly sitting , they can shew no living and speaking judg. so that either this is not necessary to a church , or otherwise they are not a compleat church . and for the body of the church , how shall a man find out their sense , unless gathered together in some assembly ? or must a man go over christendome , and gather the suffrages of all the pastors of the church ? upon the whole matter it is plain that after all their canting about the church , they must say , that it is of faith that the pope is infallible , otherwise they have no infallible judg , and since a council cannot be called but by the pope , what ever authority the council has it can never be exercised , but by the popes leave . and for all the sad consequences they say , follow the want of a common infallible judg , it appears they are under them as well as we ; but with this difference , that we plainly acknowledg , we have none , but do the best we can without one : but they , as they have none , no more than we , yet are under the tyranny of one , and though they are not bound to believe him infallible , yet are as much enslaved to him , and obliged to obey him , as if he were really exempted from all possibility of erring . so that in short , they are slaves and we are freemen . and for these ill consequences , they are , we confess , unavoidable ; for which we have very good authority , from his words , who on all sides is acknowledged to be infallible , that said , wo be to the world for scandals , for it is necessary that scandals do come . but to discuss this objection , which works much on ignorant people , let it be considered that sin and error are the two things , that do chiefly cross the design of the gospel : and of these two , sin , is the more dangerous and destructive : since there is great reason to hope that error cannot be so fatal , when it infects a mind that is otherwise sincere , as sin , which clearly defaces the image of god in the soul. we ought not therefore to expect that the gospel , should give any further security against error , than it gives against sin : on the contrary we should rather expect a further security from sin , because it is most hurtful . but all the provision made against sin , is this , that in the scriptures we are warned of the evil of it , and are directed to such methods , and have the promises of such assistance , that if we use our endeavour , we shall not be overcome by sin , nor perish in it : so as to error , we have the same security . the gospel affords us a very clear light for directing our belief in the most important things , which if we study with due humility , and sincerity , imploring god for the grace of his holy spirit , for our instruction , we shall be preserved from error . and thus the same provision is made against error , that is against sin. and we have no reason to expect more . and as it were not fit , that salvation should be offered without obliging men to use their utmost endeavours , so it were not fit to give such an easie remedy against error , as that a man should not need to employ his reason to discover truth , and avoid mistakes . if our gospel be also hid , it is hid in them that perish . therefore that our searches after truth , may be both encouraged and rewarded , god sets it before us in such a light , that it is our own fault if we do not see and follow it . but if men will either blindly give themselves up , to the conduct of such guides , whose interest it is to mislead them , which is the case of the church of rome ; or out of humour , or other base ends , will invent or follow some erroneous tenets , as other hereticks do , they have themselves to blame ; and shall bear their own iniquity : but they have nor reason to cast the fault upon god , or accuse the scriptures , of darkness , or defectiveness , in these things that are necessary to salvation . i come now to the last prejudice , which will require a fuller discussion , because it relates to matter of fact : which as it is better understood , so it makes deeper impressions on people , that are not so much wrought on by speculative points , as by these things that fall under their senses . they first except to the novelty of our reformation , and always insult with this question , where was your religion before luther ? to this , these things are to be opposed . first , we turn back the question and ask them where was their religion the first six hundred years after christ ? where was the worship of images , the doctrine of the corporal presence , of redeeming out of purgatory , of deposing princes , and of the worshipping saints , before the eighth century ? if the reformation be now to be condemned , because of its novelty , these things were then to be as much condemned , because they were then novelties . secondly . if the reformation had brought in any new doctrine , its novelty were indeed a just prejudice against it : but it was only the throwing out of these corruptions which had been brought in , in some dark and ignorant ages . thirdly . the doctrine of the reformed church , is no other than what christ and his apostles taught ; and what the church believed for many ages after them . and as to the positive part of it , it has been still held by the church of rome , and is yet acknowledged by them : but with so many additions , that there was a necessity of reforming these : and this is often to be inculcated in them , that there is no article of faith , nor any other material point of religion , among us that is condemned by the church of rome . they only blame us because we do not in many other points believe as they do : and this we ought not to do , unless we could see an equal authority binding us to all alike . another exception is , that in the reformation we made a schism , and broke the unity of the church , whereas if there had been any things amiss in the church , they say the reformers should have endeavoured to remove them , without tearing the body of christ in pieces . but in answer to this , we acknowledg if the things complained of , could have been continued without sin , they ought not to have departed from the communion of other churches : but when the publick liturgies and the worship was found to be full of such corruptions , that without idolatry and superstition , they could be no longer kept up , then it was not time to stay for the leisure of their neighbouring churches . yet if there had been any probable hopes , that the see of rome , would have concurred in such a reformation , it had been worth staying for , as long , as was possible . but when it was on the contrary , apparent , that all the most just remonstrances made to that court , were answered at best with delays and excuses if not with excommunications and other censures ; they had no reason to expect any concurrence from thence . so the case being thus put , that they discovered such corruptions in the worship of god , with which they could not comply any longer ; either they were obliged to worship god against their consciences , or to lay aside all publick worship , or else to cast out these corruptions by a reformation . let any man of good reason judge , whether the last of these was not to be chosen ? there was no obligation lying on this church to wait for the pleasure of the court of rome , or our neighbouring churches in this matter . we are a free and independent church : we owe a charitable and neighbourly correspondence to forreign churches ; but we are subject to none of them . and according to the express decision of one of the first general councils , in the like case , we were no way subordinate to the see of rome , even as it was the patriarchate of the west . themselves do confess that it is no heresie to say , that see is fallible : and therefore we were not obliged to dance attendance at that court , when we discovered the corruptions , with which it had deceived the world ; but might in our national or provincial synods at home , examine and reform whatever errors were among us . and the multitude of those who held these errors , could be no just ground for delaying any advances towards a reformation ; no more than in the ancient church , the orthodox bishops when chosen into a see corrupted with arrianism , were obliged because that contagion was generally spread , to make no attempts toward reformation . they except further , that the reformation was begun here by a vitious prince , king henry the eighth , who partly out of revenge , because the pope would not grant his desire about the divorce of his queen , and partly to enrich himself and his courtiers with the sale of abbey-lands did suffer these doctrins first to take head here : and therefore they can have no good opinion of any thing that came from so wicked a man , and upon such ill motives . if this be a good argument against the reformation , it was as good against christianity upon constantine's turning christian ; for the heathen writers represent him with as black a character as they can do king henry . but we must not think ill of every thing that is done by a bad man , and upon an ill principle : otherwise if we had lived in iehu's days , the same plea would have been as strong , for keeping up the idolatry of baal : since iehu had in a very unsincere manner destroyed it : and yet god rewarded him for what he had done . but whatever might have been king henry's secret motives , his proceedings were regular and justifiable . he found himself married to her that had been his own brothers wife , contrary to the express words of the law of god. the popes legat , and his own confessor and all the bishops of england ( except one ) thought his scruples were well grounded . upon which according to the superstition of that time , he made his applications to the court of rome for a divorce : which were at first well received , and a bull was granted . afterwards some defects being found in that , a more ample one was desired , which was also granted : and legats were appointed to try the matter . but the pope soon after turned over to the emperors party , whose aunt the queen was : and was thereupon prevailed with , to recal the legats commission , destroy the bull , and cite the king to appear at rome , where all things and persons were at the emperors devotion . upon all this , the king did expostulate with the pope , that either his business was just , or unjust : if it was just why did he recall what he had granted , and put him off with such delays . if it was not just , why did he at first grant the bull for the divorce . this was unanswerable , but the pope did still seed him with false hopes , yet would do nothing . upon which he consulted the chief universities , and the most learned men in christendom , about his marriage . twelve famous universities , and above an hundred learned doctors , did declare under their hands and seals ( some writing larger treatises about it ) that his marriage was against the law of god. and that in that case the popes dispensation , which had allowed the marriage , was void of it self . so after the king had been kept in suspence from december 1527 till february 1533 / 4. above six years , he set his divines to examin what authority the pope had in england , either by the law of god , or the practice of the primitive church , or the law of the land , and after a long and accurate search , they found he had no authority at all in england , neither by the laws of god , of the church , nor of the land : so this decision was not made rashly , nor of a sudden . the popes authority being thus cast off , it was natural in the next place to consider , what doctrines were then held in england , upon no other grounds-than papal decrees . for it was absurd to reject the popes power ; and yet to retain these opinions , which had no better foundation than his authority . upon this many of the things , which had been for some ages received in the church of rome , fell under debate : and , a great many particulars were reformed . yet , that king was so leavened with the old superstition , that the progress of the reformation , was but slow during his reign . but it was carried on to a further perfection , under king edward , and queen elizabeth . in all their methods of proceeding , there is nothing that can be reasonably censured : if it be confessed that the pope is not infallible , and the whole church of rome , acknowledges that it is no heresie to deny his infallibility . and for the sale of the abby-lands , they only spoiled the spoilers . for the monks , and fryers , had put these publick cheats on the nation , of redeeming souls out of purgatory , going on pilgrimages , with the worship of saints , and images , which were infused in the vulgar , by many lying stories , pretended apparitions , the false shew of miracles , with other such like arts. and the credulous and superstitious multitudes were thereby wrought on , to endow these houses with their best lands , and adorn their churches with their plate and richest furniture . it was not to be expected that when their impostures were discovered , they should enjoy the spoil they had made by them : nor was it for the publick interest of the nation , to give such encouragement to idleness , as the converting all these houses to foundations for an unactive life would have been . many of them were applied to good uses , bishopricks , cathedral and collegiat churches , hospitals , and free schools : and more of them ought indeed to have been converted to these ends . but the excesses of king henry , and his courtiers must not be charged on the reformers ; who did all they could to hinder them . and thus all these prejudices with which the vulgar are misled , appear to be very unjust , and ill grounded . in conclusion , if by these or such like considerations , any that are now of that communion , can be brought to mind religion in earnest , considering it , as a design to save their souls , by making them truly pure and holy ; and so reconciling them to god through christ : and if they will examine matters without partiality , seeking the truth and resolving to follow it , wherever they find it ; and joyn with their enquiries , earnest prayers to god , the father of lights , to open their eyes , and grant them his holy spirit , to lead them into all truth ; there is little doubt to be made , but the great evidence that is in truth , will in due time appear so clear to them as to dissipate all these mists , which education , implicite faith , and superstition have raised , by which they have hitherto darkened . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30477-e170 acts 20. 21. micha 6. 8. 1 cor. 14. matt. 28. 19. matt. 26. 26 , 27. 28. ver . heb. 9. 26 , 28. acts 8. 17. morinus . heb. 13. 4. 1 tim. 3. 2. 4. 11. eph. 1. 22 , 23. matt. 18. 7. 2. cor. 3. 3. a sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor and aldermen of the city of london, at bow-church, september 2, 1680 being the anniversary fast for the burning of london / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1680 approx. 64 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30417) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65703) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:4) a sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor and aldermen of the city of london, at bow-church, september 2, 1680 being the anniversary fast for the burning of london / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [6], 32 p. printed for richard chiswel ..., london : 1680. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng fast-day sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-11 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached before the right-honourable the lord-mayor and aldermen of the city of london , at bow-church , september 2. 1680. being the anniversary fast for the burning of london . by gilbert bvrnet . london , printed for richard chiswel , at the rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard , 1680. to the right honourable sir robert clayton , lord-mayor of the city of london . my lord , the publishing this sermon , was no easie part of my obedience , to your lordships commands , and to the desires of the court of aldermen : for i have no reason to expect it should be so favourably received , when it is brought under the eyes and censures of the world , as when it was first delivered . since the good temper the auditory was in , upon the remembrance of that great conflagration , made it pass more acceptably at first hearing , than is to be hoped for upon a stricter review of it . and some persons of high worth and eminence , have been of late , treated so unsutably , either to their merit , or their designs in what they preached , that it may justly give such a one as i am , apprehensions of ill usage , for touching our sores , which are so tender , that some cannot bear the handling them in the softest manner . but having observed that what i said on these heads , was not unacceptable to your lordship , who are so great a iudge ; i do the more freely adventure on making it publick . since the iustice , prudence , and moderation of your government , has given your lordship so great an interest in the esteem and affections , not only of this great city , but of the whole nation ; that as those who are to succeed you in that high trust , will be valued and loved , as they follow the pattern you have set them ; so there are few things that can recommend such a discourse , more , than that i may , by your lordships permission , say , it was approved of by one of so great an understanding , and so excellent a temper , as yours is generally known to be . god grant this may have some good effect on those that heard it , or may read it , and that the sad prospect now before us , may by the mercy of god , upon our unfeigned repentance , be changed unto a serene and happy calm : wherein that your lordship may be a great instrument , both in this city , and in the publick councels of the kingdom , is the earnest prayer of my lord , your lordships most humble , and most obedient servant , g. burnet . amos , chap. 4. vers . 11 , 12. i have overthrown some of you , as god overthrew sodom and gomorrah ; and ye were as a firebrand , pluck'd out of the burning : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the lord. therefore thus will i do unto thee , o israel : and because i will do this unto thee , prepare to meet thy god , o israel . the remembrance of that dismal day , which brings us now together , grows too soon stale and cold ; and perhaps passes rather as a doleful tale , that we are to hand down to the next age , than as a subject by which our repentance and humiliation are wrought on . we rather glory in our wealth , and the great splendor of london rebuilt , than are humbled , when we remember how she was laid in ashes . the largeness and evenness of the streets , the regularity and beauty of the houses , the magnificence of the churches , halls , gates , the exchange , the canal , the monument , with the other glories of the city , do perhaps so much amuse us ; that , seeing now no other marks , by which we can know what places were burnt , and what escaped that spreading and devouring flame , but the meanness of the one , compared to the pomp of the other , we are apt to think , why should so disastrous a day be had in such constant remembrance ? which might be more suitable when the wound was green , the ashes and rubbish were not removed , when the impression was deep , and men were more sensible of their losses , which in a succession of fourteen years , they have either digested , or being quite broken by them , have made way for new inhabitants , that had no share of the former calamity . but now it may seem too long , to perpetuate the memory of these black days , and bright nights , that so many of you looked on then with amazement , and must still reflect on with horror . yet if we consider , that , how instrumental soever the hand of hell was in it , certainly the hand , or rather the breath of heaven was visible , both in spreading it over so many regions of this populous city , and in stopping it of a sudden , when the fire had executed its commission ; we cannot but think it fit , after so long an interval , still to remember what may be supposed to have bin the procuring causes of such an unheard-of burning , which seems since , by a sort of contagion , to have spread into many other cities of the nation : and whereas in former times , a fire that carried away a few houses was thought dismal ; now except it burn down whole towns , or streets at least , we think it gentle and merciful . if we also reflect upon the time when it broke out , that it followed a long and an unhappy war , and a raging pestilence , our miseries returning so thick upon us , as iob's messengers did ; all these things concurring with the sad and gloomy prospect now before us , it is surely meet to be said unto god , i have born chastisement , i will not offend any more ; if i have done iniquity , i will do so no more . and joining that we have seen and felt , with that which is almost all visibly before us , we must conclude , it is fit to turn to him , who did some years ago afflict us so severely , but has since given us a long interval of peace and plenty , and seems now to be bending his bow , whetting his sword , and preparing against us the instruments of war. the words in the text , pronounced upon the like occasion , offer to us , both the reflection on what is past , the consideration of what is present , with the prospect of what we may look for . of which i shall first speak a little in general , before i apply them . this prophecy was given in commission to amos , one of the herdsmen of tekoa , a town distant twelve miles from ierusalem , and six from bethlehem ; so that he lived in the tribe of iudah , tho he was sent to the ten tribes , that still continued in the idolatry of ieroboam . iehu having rooted out the sidonian idolatry of the baalim , he and his family , as a blessing , even upon that imperfect reformation , reigned over these tribes 104 years ; but the period of it was now near an end , and with it , of the peace and liberty of that kingdom : for ieroboam's son , zacharias , reigned only six months ; and his murderer , shallum , but one month. menahem , who conspired against him , reigned ten years ; yet against him came up the king of assyria , the conquering empire of that age ; and tho menahem redeemed his present quiet , by the tribute of a thousand talents , that procured them only a whiles respite . his son , pekahiah , being a wicked prince , pekah conspired against him , and killed him , in the second year of his reign . then tiglath-pileser , another assyrian king , came , and perhaps pretended to revenge the death of menahem their allie's son , and carried away most of the land of galilee into captivity . and the total captivity of these tribes followed under their next king. so that from the days of this prophecy , what by the revolutions of government at home , what by the impressions the proud assyrians made on them , they had a succession of grievous calamities , which ended in the total subversion of that state. and they were so dispersed in their captivity , that except some straglers that might have returned with zorobbabel , they were never again gathered together ; so that it is now only matter of conjecture what is become of them . amos was one of the last messengers , that was sent to invite them to repentance . god had before spoken to them in the dismal language of his judgments , by famine , by the blasting of their harvest , and binding up the clouds , that it did not rain ; by such mildew , and vermine , as had consumed all their fruits , their vines , olives , and figs ; by war , and the plague , to such a degree that their dead were not buried , but lay in the fields , to infect the air , and to offend the living . the stink of your camps came into your nostrils . which are all mentioned in the verses before my text. and finally , that some of their cities had been burnt down by the hand of heaven . two years after this another calamity came on them , from such an earthquake , mentioned by zechariah , that the people , terrified with it , thought of flying out of the land ; for this time being contemporary to that of vzziah , the earthquake there mentioned , which became a proverb , seems to be the same spoken of in the first verse of this prophecy . so that this honest shepherd was called from his flocks , to see , if the simplicity and plainness of the man , and of his stile , which is the lowest of any of all the prophets , could be a mean to awaken them out out of their impieties . the sins he accuses them most for , were their irreligion , desiring to stop the mouths of the prophets , saying , prophesy not . and tho they observed the returns of their festivities , their new-moons , and sabbath-days ; yet they were weary of them , observing them only for forms sake , and longed to have them over . he also charges them for their luxury : they had rebuilt their burnt and wasted cities with hewen stone , and had planted pleasant vineyards and olive-yards ; they drank wine in bowls , something like healths now a-days ; they anointed themselves with rich ointment , had their beds of ivory , and rich couches about their tables , feasted high , and had excellent musick at their entertainments , were guilty of great iniquity and oppression , so that there was no truth nor justice among them . and they were become so bare-faced and impudent in their vices , that good and prudent men thought fit to keep silence in that time , because it was an evil time. for all these reasons the prophets threaten with them a captivity , and other severe judgments ; and that because god had known them only of all the families of the earth , therefore he would punish them for their iniquities . in the words i have read , he says , i have overthrown you , ( some is not in the hebrew ) as god did sodom and gomorrah . as , does not import in the scripture-phrase an exact resemblance , but only some similitude in general . so that it does not necessarily import , that fire came down from heaven on them , but that they were overthrown totally , perhaps by fire , thundring , or lightning . the chaldee paraphrast understood it more generally , and rendred it thus : the word of the lord abhorred them , as he did sodom and gomorrah . you were as a firebrand , pluck'd out of the burning . a proverbial form of speech , either expressing the great danger they had run , with the extraordinary deliverance they had met with , god rescuing them on a sudden ; as also the despicableness of their present condition , since nothing looks worse than a firebrand snatch'd out of the fire . yet have you not returned unto me , saith the lord. they continued in their impieties , and irreligious worship , in their separation from their right way of worshipping god at ierusalem , in their luxury , sensuality , and injustice : and all the judgments they had felt , which perhaps might have a little awakened them , when they lay under them , had not any such effect , as to turn their hearts , or to change the course of their lives . therefore thus will i do unto thee , o israel ; and because i will do thus unto thee . thus , may either relate to the former judgments , as if they were to be repeated upon them ; or to what follows of the captivity threatned in the beginning of the next chapter , the virgin of israel being fallen , and not able to rise ; ten being left of an hundred , and a hundred of a thousand . prepare thee to meet thy god , o israel . this is either an ironical alarm to them , to see what they could do to resist that god , the god of hosts , that formed the mountains , created the wind , knew the secret of mens hearts , could bring darkness on the earth in a bright sun-shine , and tread upon the high places of the earth , the great powers and mighty empires , at his pleasure : they were to try how they were able to resist his thunders , to bind up the clouds , or the winds of heaven , or to disperse those armies that he was to send against them ; whom he would inspire with great courage , when they should be struck with pannick fear , and such sorrow and dejection of mind , that all their songs should be turned to lamentations . or this , prepare thee to meet thy god , is an invitation to repentance , as that which could only avert those judgments that were ready to break forth on them , and dissipate the clouds ; so that instead of the storms they had reason to look for , they might be bless'd with a serene calm , and entire peace , upon their returning to god. having thus opened the scope and intention of the prophet in the text , i shall now speak to these four particulars . i. when we have met with judgments , signal , both in their kind , and in the deliverance out of them , we ought to remember god's hand in them , and to consider , for what ends he both laid them on , and took them off . ii. we ought to consider , what effect these have had on us ? whether they have made us turn to god , or not ? iii. we are to consider , how much severer judgments we may reasonably look for , if those that have already come upon us , have not prevailed to make us return to god. iv. upon all this , we ought to look unto god , and to endeavour to prevent that which we cannot otherwise avoid or resist , by an unfeigned repentance . for the first of these : if we believe , that the world is governed by a supreme providence , we must conclude , that more astonishing and extraordinary events , not only fall not out by chance , but are directed for some great ends , proportioned to such means . if either an accident , or a combination of cursed men , first kindled this fire , yet the wind that waited on it , and drive it forward with such violence , that neither the many hands that were employed to quench it , the neighbourhood of so much water , the engines used , and all the other means that could be thought on , were effectual to stop its rage , till it had done its work , was a manifest indication of the hand of god it . and how much soever mens thoughts may be now blunted on this subject , yet then , as i have understood from those that saw it , there were few that look'd on , that seemed not touched with the apprehensions of god's displeasure . many that were not immediatly concerned in it , yet smote on their breasts , and said , this is of god , let us return to him. i shall not enlarge on the description of it , or of the unexpected stopping of it in many places , even in the midst of very combustible matter ; so that the quenching of it had almost as manifest characters of a divine appointment on it , as the conflagration it self . it would very ill become one that saw it not , to spend much discourse about it to those that saw it , and as it is to be presumed , will never forget it , but will tell it to the succeeding age ; as god commanded the israelites to convey down to posterity , the remembrance of the captivity they had groaned under in egypt , with the signal deliverance out of it : for things of so extraordinary a nature ought never to be forgotten . i know it is not sit , upon every calamity to enter into the secrets of god's providence , nor to determine what were , and were not the procuring causes : or what were the more principal ones . in these cases men of several parties , have always found out somewhat in which they thought themselves least concerned , and have been willing to load that with the whole burthen of god's indignation ; and so upon this occasion , men have not been wanting to assign such causes , as might make those from whom they differed more hateful . but who has said , what have i done ? and indeed , tho we may err in saying , one thing more than another drew down this judgment on us , and in the enumeration of the causes of it , may fail in the account ; yet it is certain , that when we lay them all together , and more particularly reflect on such of them , wherein we find our selves most concerned , we are in the readiest way to prevent the like , or heavier judgments , from coming on us for the future . it were also a vain and bold presumption in any , to enquire into this secret , why this city more than others , or these parts of it more than others , were burnt down ? our saviour , by his answer upon the like occasion , concerning those whose blood pilate mixed with their sacrifices , or those on whom the tower of siloah fell , takes all men off from such curiosities , suggesting to them a more profitable meditation : i tell you , nay ; but except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish . in general , we are certain that god afflicts us not willingly ; and so , without a more particular enquiry , we may conclude , that there were great reasons for this awakening dispensation . and therefore , instead of looking backward any longer , i now proceed to the second point , to examine , what effects this or the like providences have produced upon us ? and whether we have returned to the lord , or not ? i shall confine my discourse to those three heads on which the prophet founds his charge , irreligion , luxury , and vnrighteousness ; and shall desire you to bear with the plainness , which becomes such a subject and sombere occasion . i cannot say upon the first head , of religion , that the chief part of the prophet's accusation 〈◊〉 us : for the sins of dan and bethel do not belong unto us ; we have not set up a new way of religion , different from that appointed by god ; we have not bin guilty of any open idolatry , in worshipping the works of mens hands , or of making any resemblance of that invisible being , whom we adore . but in the head of religion , i shall name other things , wherein we have bin as far from returning to god , as the ten tribes were . first ; they minded nothing but the external pageantry , the musick , and other outward performances , and were weary often of these , so that their solemn days were abominations to god. and now , if we look among our selves , tho there may be perhaps more care in this great city , than in any of the world , about the decent observation of the sabbath ; this is the magistrates glory , who do so carefully restrain the violation of that holy time ; yet many of those , who in compliance with custom go to church , do it meerly for form. but if we examine what these assemblies amount to , for the greatest part , we cannot think but god abhorrs and despises them . many go to them only for custom ; others , to shew their vain apparel , and dress themselves with such gawdy pomp , as if it were a play , rather than the worship of god , they went to bear a share in . i speak not against modest decency and cleanness ; but the vanity of many peoples dress is no small scandal to our churches , who not only gratify their own pride , but do all they can to distract and tempt others . in the worship of god , how little serious are we in all the parts of it ? we confess our sins without contrition , we pray without devotion , we praise god without affection , we hear the scriptures without faith : so in a word , all is but form , and even of that we grow soon weary . any excuse serves us , either to be absent , or to come late . the too visible coldness of most people behaviour shew , their hearts join not with their bodies or their lips in the worship of god. for sermons , they are hearkened to , as other discourses are , which we either censure or commend , as we see cause , or perhaps sleep all the while : but if we do mind them , it is for most part rather to furnish our selves with some notion , to maintain discourse , and to gratify our vanity , than to be truly edified by them . and what we hear that more immediatly concerns our selves , we put off , perhaps , with a slight groan , and may be say within our selves , god be merciful to us , we are all sinners . do we think god is pleased or can be delighted with such assemblies ? for the two sacraments , the devotion of the one is almost quite gone , it becomes a matter of entertainment , and is used as a ceremony that brings much cost with it ; the sponsors considering more the fees they are to give , than the vows they make ; and these being so slightly made , no wonder they are slightly performed . it is true , the other sacrament is kept up with a little more seriousness , some more preparation and devotion , but because people are a little apprehensive of this , many take the best course they can to ease themselves of it , and do not receive in many years , unless the law of the land make it necessary , which is by too many more considered than the laws of christ in his holy gospel . if we sum all these together , and reflect on the coldness and deadness we are all guilty of , in our religion and religious worship , can we think that we have yet returned to the lord ? can such a dead lifeless way of serving him , be acceptable to him , that knows how far our hearts are from him , when we draw near to him with our lips ? can he take pleasure in these assemblies , which , as all forms must be , that are not enlivened by an internal devotion , grow burdensom to our selves ; and are only kept up as a compliance , either to custom , or some remainder of a natural religion , that we have not been able to extinguish quite in our consciences , after many attempts made to fear them ? but to all this it may be opposed , are not we zealous for the reformation ? sure all this heat and flame must rise from true religion ? i deny not , but this great city has been on all occasions very forward in expressing their zeal for the reformation ; but even upon this head , god has not a few things to charge us with . st. paul tells us of a zeal of a far higher strain , than i am afraid ours rises to , even of giving ones body to be burnt ; which yet would profit nothing , if it flowed not from true charity . so if our heat about religion rise not from a true and internal love to it , god may make it useful to others , but it shall avail us nothing . the corruptions of true religion , in all times , have risen from this , that those who would not submit to the necessary , but hard and difficult parts of it , have studied to cheat themselves , and if they could , to bribe god , by setting up in room of these , some more easy and pompous things , which their circumstances qualified them for , and they have spent much of their wealth and heat upon these . some have adorned churches , and adulterated several parts of religion , by the splendor they have added to them : some have been very exact in external performances ; others have taken pleasure even in rigors on themselves ; and others have been active and zealous in that cause , which they took to be the cause of god. according to the difference of mens constitutions , so they have chosen various ways , that did most sute with their tempers , and by a great zeal about these , have pacified those clamors , which otherwise are apt to arise in a guilty conscience . the sanguine love pageantry ; the flegmatick , the dull return of their forms ; the melancholy affect severities ; and the cholerick are peevish and passionate , and think those heats that are natural to them , are sacrifices of great value with god. but will he accept of these from such defiled hands ? i know , those that are inwardly possessed with the love of god and their neighbour , and have a just sense of the love their redeemer hath shewed them , must have a very lively concern in those things that relate to his glory , and the salvation of our souls . but if we only put on a heat , and counterfeit a zeal , where there is no good principle under it , this is but to mock god , and think to pay him with false coin , because it has the superscription of the true . if our zeal is only passion or faction , then to offer this up to god , is to bring wild-fire , and kindle it on his altar . there are two sad indications , that declare the zeal of the greatest part is no better : the one is , that the rest of their lives are not of a piece with their zeal . it is an impudent thing for any to pretend , that he is concerned that others should glorify god , when he is so ready to dishonour him himself ; or that the sincere belief , or pure way of worship , may be preserved , when he so cares , as if he neither believed in his heart , nor worshipped god in his spirit . god is not mocked , but discerns through all our disguises , the secret thoughts and intents of our hearts . i speak not this to cool or lessen your zeal for the reformation , but to direct it aright , that it being fixed on a better principle than either passion or interest , may have a deeper root , and a stronger operation , may be more acceptable with god , and more effectual by his blessing : which cannot be expected to hypocritical pretences , or at best , the fermentation of revenge or interest . another sad symptom , that shews our zeal about religion is not what it ought to be , appears in these unnatural heats , that grow every day among our selves , for things , of which , to speak modestly , a man must say , they deserve not that warmth which we bestow on them . if a man is so far free from the contagion which most are infected with , by being of a party , as to consider the things themselves , he cannot but stand amazed , to see men , who agree in all the substantials of religion , quarrel so violently about some external and less important matters , when the enemy is at the gates . it was one of the clearest demonstrations of the wrath of god on ierusalem , that during their last siege , the factious were so high within , that as they had any respite from the enemy without , they were destroying one another . they would not know the things that belonged to their peace in time , and so they were hid from their eyes in the day of their visitation . when the african churches were ready to be devoured by the vandals , who besides the barbarity of their tempers , were arrians by their religion ; the schism of the donatists did so rage , and was managed with such heat , too much of both sides , as st. austin laments , that it was a manifest sign of their approaching ruine ; yet that holy father , with the other bishops of that time , made great offers for comprehending the donatists within the unity of the church ; one was , to take them into a share of their functions , and that the surviver should be the sole pastor . but secular men enflamed the differences , and the governors punished the donatists so severely , that st. austin wrote often to them , to stop these violent proceedings . but that holy man died , while hippo was besieged , and the prop of these churches being removed , they soon became a prey to their cruel enemies , who brought them all under a most terrible and undistinguish'd persecution . when the mahometan impiety , and saracen empire , was spreading in the east , the greek empire fell into such divisions and animosities about the will of christ , and the use of images , that disjointed them one from another , and made way for the growth of mahometanism . shall we follow these patterns so carefully , as if we were afraid to miss such calamities as fell on them ? are we so little sensible of the advantages we give our enemies , and the weakning we bring upon our selves , by such jealousies and heart-burnings . st. paul , when the corinthians following their just law-suits before unbelievers , brought thereby a scandal on christianity , charged them rather to suffer wrong , than that a brother should go to law with a brother . if such things , which had a foundation in justice and property , were to be forborn for their indecency ; o how much more reasonable is it now for those who publish the glad tidings of peace , to lift up their voices as a trumpet , to sound a retreat from this ungodly war in our church , and to call men off from their unseasonable heats , to a greater calm and temper , when the effects of them are like to be so fatal . it has been the device of the church of rome , both to keep unity within her self , and to foment differences among others , ever since the reformation . they have differences among them of a far higher nature than any we have among us . the most material differences in matters of doctrine , that have raised the greatest animosities in this island , have been about the nature of divine grace , and the order of the decrees of god : but those have been carried as high , if not higher , in the church of rome . i need not mention the many differences among the several families of the schoolmen , who have invented various explanations of almost all the mysteries of their religion , and have defended their sentiments with as little modesty of language , as many of our writers do ; yet all this has not broken their church . in that which is to them the fundamental point of their religion , where the supreme power of judging controversies infallibly is lodged ; tho they all agree against us , that there must be a living infallible judg , yet they do not agree in whom this power is placed . many set up the pope ; others are so ashamed of this , that they are for the council , without the pope ; and others chuse a middle way , and are for ascribing it to the pope and council together : and yet if the council has either the infallibility entirely , or has any share in it , so that it is no-where without its concurence , then they have no infallible judg , it being 115 years since they had a general council , and 't is like to be much longer before mother comes . i need not enlarge on their other differences , either the ancienter contests concerning the immaculate conception of the b. virgin , which were not only supported by ordinary reasonings , but by pretences to visions aud revelations ; and the later contests , that are yet depending at the court of rome , concerning the morals of the jesuits , and other modern casuists : all these shew the varieties among them in matters of doctrine . those who have travelled among them , and narrowly observ'd their customs , see that there are no small diversities in the rites and forms of their worship . every nation , and every religious order , has some rites that are peculiar to them ; and tho the roman office is now used most commonly , yet as the ambrosian continued long at millain , and the mozarabick in some parts of spain ; so here in england , the southern parts followed the use of sarum ; the northern , the use of york ; south-wales , the use of hereford ; and north-wales , the use of bangor ; besides a peculiar use that lincoln had for that large diocess . all which shew how willing they were to knit all people to their communion , indulging them some peculiar rites , either different from , or added to the rest . so well have they studied the policy of keeping their whole strength united together , against those they call hereticks , and their common enemies ; tho they have not been able to bring all their votaries to an uniformity , either in points of doctrine , or the forms of worship . they have no less industriously blown upon and improved all the differences among the reformed , to break them among themselves . could so small a matter , as the difference about the presence of christ in the sacrament , ( which was only a speculative part , since their worship did not differ , ) have so divided the lutheran and helvetian churches , if some secret practices of theirs had not wrought on the weakness and passions of some angry men ? the papists saw this as well on the one hand , as the princes and soberer divines perceived it on the other . at one publick conference , appointed by the diet of the empire , between papists and protestants , for setling religion , the papists knowing their weak side , and desirous to throw a bone among them , proposed , that they should first agree to condemn the helvetians . melancthon perceived what this aimed at , and so studied to divert it ; but other peevish divines grew so hot about it , that they broke up the meeting , to the no small joy of the popish party . how far they may have practised among us to inflame our differences , i shall not determine : but i am sure there is nothing we can possibly contrive , more both to their advantage and satisfaction , than this is . the heathen philosophers had different schools , but worshipped in the same temples . the primitive christians differed in many customes , both about the observation of easter and lent , with many other various rites ; but they never broke that bond of peace and perfection , the unity of the church , till the bishops of rome began to lay their yoke upon the other churches . it were a great happiness to be exactly of the same mind : and such as differ from the publick constitution , ought certainly to examine the ground of these differences , with calm and unprejudiced minds : and , to pronounce my own opinion freely , and without reserves , i am very confident if that were done , with the care and application that is requisite , the truth would soon appear to be of our church's side : and if there be yet any defects in our constitution , or any thing that requires amendment or improvement ; as , no doubt , none ever was since the apostles dayes that needed it not ; then let clear reason , and calm , but steady endeavours be used for compleating or ordering what is wanting or amiss among us ; which his late glorious majesty offered to redress , for setling this church . and it will seem strange , if any who glory so much , and so justly , in the honour the church received by so great a testimony , as his martyrdom gave it , should not follow those thoughts , which he , after a long course of sufferings , and deep and devout study about them , had taken up ; a due difference being made between the things that he offered in compliance to the heat of that time , and the more retired reflections himself had . but if so great a happiness , as a compleat , unity cannot be attained to , let us , at least , lay aside our unnatural , unchristian , and unpolitick animosities ; condescending to the infirmities of the weak , and pitying them rather than insulting over them : let such mutual allowances be given as humane infirmity , the weakness of many mens reasons , the strength of their passions , and the force of prejudice and education require . and if we will so order our zeal , that its first and chief operation be on our selves , reforming our lives , and purifying our hearts , and then apply it proportionably to other things , giving to every part of religion such a share of it as the importance of the thing requires ; then a great deal of our heat would be soon allayed . but to speak plainly ; is it a christian zeal to disseminate lies and scandals ? to expose men that have deserved highly , for some supposed mistakes ? these things ought not so to be . if those that run about with the greatest violence , blowing on such sparks , would examine themselves , as in the presence of god , what is the secret cause or spring of all their motions , i am sure much of it will be found to flow from bitter envy and strife , which bring on confusion and every evil work : and not from the wisdom that is from above , and is first pure and then peaceable , and easie to be entreated . and as we ought in meekness instruct those oppose themselves ; so others should not express too great uneasiness at the instructions we offer them . if we will reflect on the high value our saviour set on our loving one another , that thereby all men should know that we are his disciples , it would soon change our temper ; so that being ashamed of our former contests , if we could not of a sudden come to think the same things ; yet the same spirit of meekness , humility and charity dwelling in us , we should soon grow up into one body : from which we are not kept , so much by the differences themselves that we dispute about , as by that alienation of mind , which hath so violently rent us from one another . and this makes that for all the evils which we have either felt , or do still fear , instead of accusing or condemning our selves , we lay the blame wholly upon others . the city blames the country , and the country the city : we of the church blame those of the separation , and they of the separation blame us of the church : but alas ! who look into their own consciences , and humble themselves before god! this evil is of the lord , therefore let us turn to him with our whole heart : and we shall certainly feel , that as a spirit of true and real holiness rises in us , we shall grow above these contests for small matters . for god seems to punish us with this division of language and heart , as he did the builders of babel , for our other sins ; since without a stroke from heaven , a common measure of infatuation could not carry this so far . and now i go to the next particular charged by the prophet on these tribes , wherein they had not returned unto the lord : that was luxury . they had rebuilt their houses , furnished them gloriously , and surfeited themselves with their plenty : which they abused by their excessive intemperance , both in eating , drinking , and in other jollities ; being insensible of the judgments of god , that had either fallen on them , or were hanging over them . and in this , how parallel are our sins to theirs ? this city is rebuilt with an increase of luxury , as well as order and beauty : how many do exceed their rank and condition , the many breakin gs do too manifestly declare : few are contented to live in that moderate frugality and decency that their ancestors used ; and complain of want and decay of trade , because there comes not in enough to supply their vanities , or to serve their luxury . the intemperance that abounds is too notorious to be much insisted on : as if those liquors which god hath blessed us with , for refreshing and restoring our spirits , were to be used either for the inflaming of our lusts , the depressing our reasons , impairing our healths , and the profuse wasting of our time and estates . inventions also must be fallen on for the decent forcing others to the like excesses , by setting healths about . a practise so ridiculously brutal , that it were a loss of words to go to expose it : hereby men are not satisfied to gratifie their own intemperance , but most lay snares for others . and how studiously do these agents for vice , endeavour to corrupt all that are so unhappy as to fall in their ill company ; training them on by degrees , till they have raised them to the like pitch of impiety with themselves . to this is joyned the excess and curiosity of entertainments , which has been long accounted one of the special vices of this city . our bodies when nourished in the most moderate manner , and kept down with exercise , yet are apt enough to raise many temptations in us : which we ought not to cherish , by laying in a too plentiful provision for the flesh , with its lusts and affections . when people give themselves up to all the incentives to lust , and by jollities , musick , balls , drinking and feasting , have laid themselves out to so many temptations , and prepared so much fewel within for these impure flames to work on ; it is no wonder that all excess of riot and wantonness should follow such disorders . the indecencies of both sexes going to taverns , the corruption of a defiled stage , the gross liberties which many take , have now run us into such a mire of filth and sensuality , that it is scarce decent to rake in that kennel : and to speak of the things that are done , alas , not in secret , but in the sight of the sun ; shall not god visit for these things ? have we yet returned unto him ? or do we not go on to dare heaven , and work all manner of abominations with greediness . and while such vices abound , and so many judgments hang over us , who is betaking himself to fasting and prayer ? who hath cut off any of his former excesses , or is accusing himself ? sin and lewdness are still growing , and its like will go on , till , as the prophet threatens , god shall make your sun to go down at noon , and darken the earth in the clear day . poetical expressions for unlook'd for miseries . then he will turn your feasts unto mourning , and all your songs unto lamentations : and instead of the vanities of your apparel , and the costly dresses on your heads , will bring sackcloth on all your loyns , and baldness on all your heads , and make your mourning to be like the mourning of an only son. the third thing for which the prophet accuses the ten tribes , is , that which luxury must carry with it , to support it ; their injustice and oppression . a man that spends profusely on himself , as he disables himself from giving the poor such a share of his wealth as he ought to do ; so he grows unable to perform those stricter duties of justice and equity to his neighbours with whom he deals . men that will live high , must maintain it by all possible means : if the cheating , even a friend , the sophisticating corrupted goods , the defrauding creditors , by covering one with some protection , or pretending he breaks to force abatements of just debts , or perhaps the profuse wasting both his own stock , and the stocks with which others have trusted him , become necessary to furnish out his luxury and vanity , he sticks at none of them . i do not doubt but the regulations made in this great city are as exact and well considered as in any such city in the world ; but as long as the high way of living continues , many unrighteous things must be invented for defraying that expence . justice and righteousness are among the first elements of virtue , which nature does so early teach all men ; and are so necessary to the peace and government of the world , that we do very impudently pretend to the high things of religion , if we have not begun with these , which are the lowest steps to it . if trade is carried on by lying , cheating , sophisticating , extortion , and unregulated usury , can a blessing be expected from heaven , on wealth so acquired ? if men make their weights small , and falsifie their balances by deceit , so that they sell the poor bread , shall god forget these things ? shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein ? if the mystery of some trades consists in the cheats of them ; if retailing is manag'd by lying , if debts are paid by cousenage and fraud , if bargains are made after too much wine hath nummed or overheated the spirits of the one party , of which the other takes advantage ; if men have ever so much wealth and cunning both in acquiring and preserving it ; yet according to the prophetical expressions in the ninth chapter , though they dig unto hell god will take them thence , and though they climb up unto heaven he will bring them down , though they hide themselves on the tops of mountains , he will search and take them out from thence , and if they should lie as close as in the bottom of the sea , he will command a serpent to bite them . in these points we ought on such days of humiliation , if we intend not to add the mockery of these to our other sins , to examine our selves , as in the presence of god , and see whether we have either departed from our old sins , or instead of doing that , do not only continue in them , but contract new guilt . if we will break the yokes of oppression and injustice , if we convert what formerly went to our luxury and vanity , and apply it to the necessity of our poor brethren ; and if instead of these forms ( in the repeating which we have too long placed all our religion ) and of our bitter heats , we do follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the lord : then when we pray to him , he will hear our prayers , our light shall shine out under all that darkness , that now covers us ; god shall guide us continually , and so satisfie our souls , that we shall delight our selves in him and his service . but if we will still continue in our sins , and satisfie our selves with so slight a way of serving god , then we may look for either the like , or heavier judgments : which is the third thing i proposed to speak to ; therefore thus will i do unto thee . all the corrections that god lays on us , are to amend us , but if these prevail not , then other severer means must be used for the same end , more searching medicines when gentler ones cannot raise or carry off the humours ; and in conclusion , god often makes those nations on whom he had bestowed the most discriminating marks of his favour , the most publick instances of his justice , as he did the iews of old , for their idolatry , and the roman empire , after they had so strangely corrupted the christian religion : more signal judgments being perhaps the only means left to work on some , whom indulgent providences do not prevail with ; who indeed can be awakened by nothing , but thunder and lightning . in the government of the world , the methods of divine providence are so mysterious , that it very ill becomes us , to take on us to judge how things shall fall out : yet since solomon has observed that there is nothing new under the sun , and by what has been , we may collect what may be ; there are two things threatned by this prophet ; a famine , not of bread , nor a thirst for water , but of hearing the word of the lord : so that they should wander from sea to sea , and run to and fro to seek it , but should not find it . the other was , that they should go unto captivity before their enemies , where god should command the sword that it should slay them , and he would set his eyes on them for evil and not for good. it is worth our time to consider what we may expect either of these ways . as for a famine of the word of the lord , whether it shall come upon us , from that religion , which openly professes its design to be to take the scripture out of the hands of the people , or from any other hand ; we have reason enough to look for it , when we consider how horridly we have neglected and abused it . the greatest part never trouble themselves about it , and , perhaps , since their first education and child-hood , have never looked on it ; others have read it , and fixed it more carefully in their memories , but rather that by talking in that stile , they may conceal their villanies ; and by the misapplication of it , excuse their errors and faults : but how few read it with a plain simplicity of mind , to receive instruction and light from it , and to kindle greater warmth of affection in them , from the many excellent passages in it : which , what effect soever they may have on vulgar readers , are , to those that read them , with a well disposed mind , strong and sharp as a two edged sword. it cannot be denyed but religion , among us , has lost much of its force and authority , and many , seeing thorough the hypocrisie of one sort , and the formality of another , have come to imagine , that there is nothing in it but either custom or interest . and i wish the great scandals that our contests have given to all men of clear and disengaged reasons , may not have occasioned or encreased this in a great measure . universally the gospel is preached and heard without that sense , which a thing of such high consequence deserves ; for certainly , it must be acknowledged , that either christianity is a contrivance or dream , or that it is the most important thing in the world. how farr other accidents may deprive us of this , of which the force and efficacy is , in a great part , gone , we do not know : whether downright atheism , or the disbelief of all revealed religion , which has got such footing among us ; or other extravagant conceits of extirpating a gospel-ministry , as the decentest introduction to these , may not bring us within this curse , i shall not play the diviner : but the great rage by which many endeavour to make the clergy hateful and contemptible , with a concurrence of some other things , seems to give just apprehensions , that we may live yet to see such days . i confess , on the other hand , the appearances seem more probable and threatning , that we shall be brought under the tyranny of that church , that can never hope to advance her interests , but by suppressing this light , by prohibiting the scriptures , and persuading the world to deliver up their faith and conscience to the keeping and governing of their priests ; for who can go over to them , till his mind is so loaded with prejudices , that he dares not use his understanding and reason ? can any man believe that a bishop , chosen with all the craft and intrigue that can be used among the cunningest statesmen in the world , should be presently the head of the church , the universal pastor , st. peter's successor , and the supreme judge of all controversies ? who though he understand no divinity , and practises as little morality , yet must decide all controversies of religion ; and that in his sentence all must acquiesce . he that can believe this , is well enough prepared to go over to them , and to believe the onely thing i know , which is more incredible ; that a priest , by vertue of a character given him , which is every whit as unintelligible as this great effect of it , can , by pronouncing of five words , make a piece of bread and a little wine , become the whole and entire substance of the body and blood of christ ; so that it is all in every crumb and drop of it . these are things to which men must be long and well prepared , before they can think they believe them : for it may be justly made a question , whether they do , or indeed can believe them ? this religion must of necessity , for its own support , extinguish the light of the scriptures : in which , the part that came more immediately , than any other , from god himself , has not escaped their expurgation : i mean , the ten commandments ; of which , the second , one of the fullest and most copious of them is left out of their catechismes : because it must have cleansed the churches of images , and the many other monuments of idolatry , with which they had defiled it . and in the new testament , that part of it on which they have built most , is yet so contrary to one of their devices , that it was fit for them not to let the people understand it . i mean the institution of the eucharist , in which christ said , drink ye all of this , when he gave his disciple the cup. they had also made their worship so ridiculous , by the many strange legends read on the saints dayes , to which both the collects and anthems for these offices do relate , that it had been hard to have brought the pople to hear these things gravely : therefore it was very fit , for these ends , to have their worship in an unknown tongue : though st. paul has written so copiously on that subject , that it is not easie to imagine how their minds are composed , who believe that he was inspir'd , and yet approve of a worship , in a language not understood by the people . but after all these corruptions of theirs , why should we not think it reasonable to believe , that since we have given our selves up to some of the worst effects of popery , god should abandon us so far , as to suffer us to come again under that yoke , from which , by a mighty hand , he delivered our fathers ? while we worship him merely out of form , what difference is there between that and the telling of beads ? if we think a loose life may , by a few touches of sorrow , be so expiated , that these shall carry us to heaven , is not this almost as bad as to believe attrition is sufficient to salvation ? if we think our coming to church , or sacrament , will save us , is it not as bad as their opus operatum ? if we blindly deliver our selves up to a party , and follow all its interests , what better is this than their implicit obedience ? and if we allow our selves in that rage and violence , by which many carry on their opinions , seeking the ruin of all who differ from them , and spare no methods , how false or cruel soever they be ; this is not far from their extirpating of hereticks , and saying , there is no faith to be kept to them . if by these and many more particulars , we examine how much the spirit of popery doth still leaven us , many of these who seem most heartily opposite to it , will be found deeply tinctured with it : and if we are secretly corrupted with some of the worst principles of that religion before we are aware of it , the other parts will more easily follow . our doctrine and worship are reformed : that we owe to the last age , and to our educations : but if our hearts and lives are vitiated by the same ill principles , under another disguise , it will not be so great a leap as some men imagine to get over that gulf. here is one danger before us : it is a great one indeed , and perhaps the very methods some may use to secure us from it , may precipitate us headlong unto it . caiaphas advised the iews to kill our saviour , fearing that upon his pretending to be a king , the romans might come and take that place : but this did so provoke god , that what they feared came upon them : so whether some by overbending their zeal and fervour , may not overthrow a church , which has been , ever since the reformation began , the greatest bulwark against popery , and drive things much farther than at present they intend or imagine , i leave it to the thoughts of wiser men . the other thing threatned by the prophet , is , their being led unto captivity , and given up to the sword. our present wealth and plenty , the situation of our countrey , the strength of our fleets , and the natural bravery of the nation , may seem perhaps to raise us beyond the fear of it : england never having been higher in trade , our plantations never stronger and better peopled , our dominions never more extended and our shipping going from under one end of heaven to another . but alas ! if god blast our publick counsels , and strike us at home with such a division of heart , that we cannot agree in things that are necessary for common safety ; all our wealth makes us but a more inviting prey , either for a tyre or sidon , that may be near us , who would gladly carry our trade from us ; or for a great conquerour that hovers over any of his neighbours , to spye from whence he can receive an addition to his empire and glory . and if god intends to give us up to captivity , he will take away the heart from our councellors , and spirit and courage from our armies and fleets ; as the prophets threatned the israelites often , that those to whom god was to deliver them up , should come upon them with so unresistable a force , and meet with so faint an opposition , that they should easily fall into their hands . there is nothing in which the overruling force of divine providence , shews it self more than in the rising and falling of empires ; in which we find often , great kingdoms subdued by a small force , while the one were elevated with more than ordinary courage , and the other side , by a series of odd accidents , as much depressed : so that vast treasures and great armies have melted to nothing ; and sometimes without any visible fault in the conduct ; where no rational account can be given , but that heaven was on the one side . if god is against us , he needs no instruments to chastise us with , he can either by binding or opening the clouds or winds of heaven , blast all the fruits of our industry or trade : he can bring out of the dust of the earth , swarms of vermine to plague us ; he can discharge his arrows , and again send the plague or a fire among us , or so give us up to madness and disorder , that we shall again fall in unnatural wars at home , and destroy one another . some of these dangers are not so remote , as to be look'd upon as the dark dreams of melancholy men , or the speculations of a disturbed fancy ; what has been may be , and is , perhaps , nearer than we imagine . i shall not encrease your horror at the return of such things , by a pompous and tragical description of them ; you need but reflect on what you have seen and known of many of them : and what if these shall return upon us again ? what if this fruitful and peaceable land , be again made a field of blood , and be watered on both sides , by the blood of englishmen , brother fighting against brother , till being thus weakned at home , we become an easie acquisition , to those who long for such a breach among our selves ? and does not the prospect of these things affect us ? what remains then , but that i conclude with the fourth particular , of which i proposed to speak , that our turning to god , is that which only can prevent those judgments that we cannot resist . there is no council nor divination against god , he makes the diviners mad , and brings the councils of the heathen to nothing ; he makes the devices of the people , of none effect : we can neither withstand his power , defeat his wisdom , nor escape his hand ; we can only humble our selves before him , and turn to him with our whole hearts ; and thereby avert all that storm of heavy wrath , that is ready to burst out upon us . if there were a general turning from the evil of our ways , from the intemperance , uncleanness , injustice , and impieties , that have so long prevailed among us ; then how soon would all these dreadful symptomes of god's displeasure fall off ? upon the repentance of nineveh , those judgments which were so near , that the short period of forty dayes were prefixed to them , were put off to a longer time : the external , but feigned humiliation of ahab , procured to him a reprieve of that sentence the prophet had denounced . so if there were but a ceslation from these horrid impieties by which god is so highly dishonoured , and of those publick and avowed vices which no christian nation practises now more openly than we do ; and which have , in a great measure , taken our spirit and sense from us ; we might hope for a longer continuance of that tranquillity , which we still enjoy . but if no warnings will prevail , if neither past calamities , nor threatned miseries , nor the sense which some , who have gone in the same excess of riot , have expressed of it when they were near death , will work on a wicked generation , it seems such are already under that curse given in commission to esaias , make the heart of this people fat , and make their ears heavy , and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears , and understand with their hearts , and convert and be healed : and that this shall last till the cities be wasted without inhabitants , the houses without men , and the lord be utterly desolate . words expressing the highest indignation possible against such sinners , who had long abused the patience of god , and had mocked him , by drawing near to him with their lips when their hearts were far from him . but if the greatest part will still go on in their sins , till they perish by them ; yet if there were but a small number that would seriously set themselves to turn to god , by prayer , fastings , supplications , and engaging in a course of strict and fervent devotion , would stand in that breach which our sins and divisions have opened ; and instead of looking after news , or expecting much from humane councils , till gods anger were appeased , would cry mightily to him ; these might be the happy preservers and deliverers of their countrey , at least from present danger . or if the sins of england are such , that god will not be entreated , even of these , but will give such evidences of his displeasure , that all shall say , verily there is a god that iudges in the earth , yet such mourners shall not lose their labour : their tears and prayers shall return upon themselves ; they shall at the least have their own souls for a prey , and may be blessed instruments of gaining some few about them ; who , though they may be involved in the common calamity , yet shall find mercy in the day of the lord. god grant there may be many such among us , and that for their sakes , he may raise up the tabernacle of his anointed , and close up the breaches of it , and build it up as in the former times : and so establish us in this good land , which he hath given us , that we may still enjoy the blessings of his pure religion and holy word , with the continuance of our peace and plenty : and that if evil be determined to come upon the land , that we may not see it , but may be gathered to our fathers in peace . to god the father , the son , and the holy ghost , be all honour and glory , for ever and ever . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30417-e270 iob 43. 31. psal. 9. 12 , 13. compare 2 kin. 10. 36. & 13. 1 , 10. & 14. 23. 2 kin. 15. 19. 2 kin. 15 29. 2 kin. 17. 6. zach. 14. 5. chap. 2. 21. chap. 8. 5. chap. 5. 11. chap. 6 , 4 , 5 , 6 chap. 5. 7. chap. 5. 13. chap. 3. 2. zech. 3. 2. iude 23. luk. 13. 3 , 5. 1 cor. 13. 2. lib. 1. con parm. cap. 7. lib. 3. con petil . c. 49 , 50. epist. 60 , 127 , 158 , 159 , 160. 1 cor. 6. 5 , 6. hist. of the council of trent . lib 5. anno 1557. iames 3. 16. 17. 2 tim. 2. 25. iohn 13. 35. 8 ch . 9 , 10 , ver . 8 ch . 5 , 6 , 8 , ver . 9 ch . 2 , 3 , ver . eccl. 1. 9. 8 ch . 11. 12. 9 ch . 4. 1 cor. 14. 〈…〉 . ch . 9. v 11. animadversions on the reflections upon dr. b's travels burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 59 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 28 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30320) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 40696) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1199:15) animadversions on the reflections upon dr. b's travels burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 57 p. s.n.], [amsterdam? : printed in the year 1688. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng europe -description and travel. europe -description and travel -early works to 1800. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 jonathan blaney sampled and proofread 2003-12 jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion animadversions on the reflections upon dr. b's travels . printed in the year 1688. animadversions on the reflections upon dr. b's travels . when we were made believe that reflections upon dr. b's travels would quickly appear , somewhat that was considerable was both promised and expected , and even dr. b's friends apprehended that in such a number of particulars , with which he had filled his letters , some few might have been found that had been ill warranted : for no body could have imagined , that a book which had been so much read , and so well received , should have been reflected on with so much malice , and with so little judgment , that after a preface full of dull spite , there should not have been one single article among fourscore and two that are pickt out , that should in the least shake the credit , in which the book and its author are held . some have fancied that either dr. b. or the printers of his book , have hired the reflecter to this perfotmance , for raising the credit of those letters of travels , and for giving them the advantage of selling another edition of them : sure such reflections cannot possibly have any other effect . if we had a party of men of our side , that had learned to put in practise the modesty and other morals of the jesuits , one should have imagined that this book might have been such an imposture as was discovered about thirty years ago , among the iesuits at paris , who hearing of a severe book that was coming out against them from the cabal of the iansenists , imployed one of their own fathers to write a book , which as it had the same title , so seemed to pursue the same design ; but was writ in so poor and contemptible a manner , that it could have no effect , but to render the party from which it was believed to come , ridiculous : and the press wrought so hard , that this mock-book prevented the true one ; so that upon its appearance , and its passing for that which was expected , the party was much deceived , till a little time laid open the imposture ; which had covered the society with a just confusion , if their being accustomed to such practices had not rendred them insensible of the shame that the discovery brought upon them . so upon this occasion i staid a while to see if there might not be some foul play here , though our side has no reason to be so much as suspected of such legerdemain . i confess i do not know what judgment to make of the author , or his translator : for as report , and the title-page , call him a foreigner ; so the gross errors , and the coarseness of the stile are capable of no excuse but that of a translator's being tied to his author , though a liberty of changing such phrases as , that his breath should fail , and the most polite nation of the english , is practised by all that have a right notion of giving a true translation . i do not know which is the most polite nation of the english : i hope he does not mean the irish ; and i am sure whatever that nation is , he is not of it : his helvetia , sorbierius , and amelottius houssarus , shew that the translator knows not how these names ought to be writ in english. there are some very few touches that look like wit , and that by consequence are so little of a thread with the whole , that i am apt to believe these have been drop't in by a once famous poet , who , as is said , review'd it : and perhaps he had some remnants in his common-place ▪ book of wit , that were not yet imployed by him ; so as he found that this book wanted garnishing extreamly , he was so bountiful as to afford some ; but that was done so sparingly , as not to exhaust his own stock , which is now low . our reflecter shews his good tast of wit , by giving us that gross clinch of asinitas set against patavinitas as due to asinius pollio , for reproaching livy with the other : and this he seems to think a flower . his accusing of plutarch of dullness , and want of spirit , shews , that his taste is as correct concerning the authors whom he despises , as concerning those whom he esteems : and dr. b. has no reason to be troubled to see himself attack't by a man that had the confidence to disparage the greatest of all the ancient authors , in whose simplicity and seeming carelessness , there is a beauty that far exceeds all the painting of a laboured stile . the other parts of the preface shew how little he either understands books or men : but as he seems not capable of correction , so he is too inconsiderable to need that a warning should be given to the world for preventing the mischief that his pen may do it . this essay is warning enough . he warns us of his choler against dr. b. and thinks that he has used him severely , which injury , he says , ought to be redressed : but , i dare say , he cannot raise any choler in the doctor , or make him complain , either of the injuries he does him , or of his severe usage of him : such a writer as he is , can do injuries to none but himself . he makes a fair parallel between learning and vertue ; and to shew us how well he knows the history of the last age , he gives us the constable momorancy for a pattern of great vertue . in conclusion , he fancies dr. b. is little concerned in the esteem that the world may have of his vertue , so long as he maintains the character of a learned ▪ man ; but i do not know in which of the doctor 's actions or writings he has discovered this : to be sure our reflecter has found nothing like it in these letters of his travels : for though he pretends to say somewhat on those points which relate to learning , yet he has not mentioned any one thing that can in any manner lessen the opinion that any may have of the doctor 's vertue : so that all this discourse is , besides the malice of it , absolutely impertinent . he reckons up some who have writ of the commonwealth of venice , among whom he names amelotius houssarus , as the last , which shews how little he knows the books writ concerning that state , since mr. st. didier , a man of another sort of force , as well as of greater probity , who was secretary to the count of avaux while he was ambassador at venice , has given an account of that commonwealth , that is both more faithful and more exact than the other . i do not love to tell personal things that may be to a third man's prejudice ; but since the reflecter opposes his houssarus to dr. b. i must tell him , that de la houssarie is too well known in france to build much on his credit : the accidents of his life have been too publick , and his attempt on the memory of mr. ablancourt , has been turned upon him in so vigorous and so severe a manner , that few things will pass upon his authority . the reflecter's calling an extract drawn from a record , the fable of the monks of bern , is a beauty of stile peculiar to him : if he had proved , that dr. b. had falsified the record , he might justly have called it a fable , and have also bestowed on the doctor all the good words that he could invent . his raillery concerning the women is too coarse to deserve an answer . he censures the dr. for setting francis the 1st before charles the 5th : this he thought so remarkable an error , that not contented with the reflection that he bestows on it , he sets it in the preface , as one of his most conspicuous faults ; though if such an error had been committed in a letter , which does not require an exactness of stile , it had been no great matter : but dr. b. was speaking of the wars of millan ; so to observe the order of the history , he ought to have mentioned francis the 1st in the first place , because he had conquered millan , and was in possession of it for some years before either charles the 5th was chosen emperor , or before he began to meddle in the matters of that dutchy : so all his discourse of the precedence due to the emperor , is meer fooling here , where the order of time was only considered , without any regard to the dignity of the persons : and the order in which the doctor put the three religions that had their exercises in the church of the concord at manheim , had no relation to their dignity or precedence , but meerly to the order of time , the calvinists having their exercise first , the lutherans next , and the papists last . the reflecter studies to infer from dr. b's promise , to write an account of those things that he saw , which pleas'd him most : that therefore the misery which he observed in france , and with which he begins his letters , was a thing that pleased him mightily . but the dr. might be pleased with the observation that he made , without delighting in the misery which he saw : for to a man that loves a legal government , and a religion free of superstition , it is no small pleasure to be confirmed in that , by the observation of the effects that these things have upon civil society ; which are never so sensibly felt , as when one sees the effects that flow from a contrary constitution of government and religion : so the doctor might have had all the tenderness with which such objects ought to have moved him , and yet be pleased to think of the happiness of other nations and churches . i dare say the doctor is very well pleased to find such a book writ against him , without being pleased with the impertinences that are in it ; so he might find a real pleasure in observing the difference between england and france , and yet have all the compassions that became him for the oppressions under which the french groan . he finds matter of censure in the doctor 's making a difference between the publick iustice of geneva , and the private ; for that which he says relating to their arsenal , is too much honoured by being mentioned , it being so excessively impertinent . the publick iustice is fully explained by the doctor , by which he means the iustice of the government , and the court of iudicature , which may be highly commendable in a state , in which there may be too great a mixture of double dealing in private transactions ; and an author that fancies there is a contradiction in saying , that the switzers are heavy witted , and yet conduct their matters with much dexterity and address , has , it seems , studied logick to good purpose , wit flowing from a lively imagination , and dexterity from a solidity of judgment : those that have a small share of the one , may be that very defect be so much the more eminent in the other . and it seems the reflecter's knowledge of manuscripts , is of a piece with his other qualities , since he quarrels with dr. b. for saying , that the manuscripts in st. mark 's library are modern , and not above five hundred years old . those manuscripts are the works of the old greek philosophers , and the fathers ; and nothing but an ignorance equal to his , could except to the calling the manuscripts of those writers modern , since they are not above five hundred years old . but it seems he is so ignorant as to think they lived but five hundred years ago ; and upon that supposition the manuscripts cannot be modern , if they are as ancient as the authors themselves are . there is but one part of this preface in which i am of the reflecter's mind , which is , that he confesses he expects no praise from the work : and in that i dare answer for it , his hopes will not fail him . he adds , that there is no need of ingenuity in it ; and indeed he has writ like one that thought the smallest measure of it would have quite spoiled his performance : therefore he has put in none of that mixture which would have been very foreign to his design . but if what he adds is true , that a man of a mean capacity was proper for it , then his , which is of the lowest form , will scarce be allowed to rise up to the size of a mean capacity . he avoids the saying any thing of switzerland , though if he had found matter for reflections , he who to the reproach of his countrey , is said to be a switzer born , should have insisted most upon matters that he may be supposed to know . but to supply that defect , he pretends that he is informed by a friend , that a learned man of zurich is about a work to expose the insipid errors of the doctor . this would make one think that he is a protestant , though his reflections shew the contrary . if he has had any correspondence at zurich hitherto , he must expect that will soon fail him , that canton being too severe to the principles of their religion , to endure such a rotten member long ; and from what canton soever the doctor may apprehend some severity , certainly it cannot be from zurich , of whom he has given so just and so high a character , that he can look for no sharpness from any of that body . so far i have gone over our reflecter's preface , and have found faults enough in my way , for so short a discourse : but i go next to the book it self . i am indeed ashamed to write against such an author ; and if it were not that i intended to discover by a fresh instance , the spirit of impudence and imposture that appears even in the most inconsiderable things that pass through the hands of a certain sort of men , i would not have put pen to paper . for as i do not find that dr. b's reputation is concerned in any thing that is contained in these reflections ; so if it were , these gentlemen know sufficiently well , that he is of age , and can answer for himself . i cannot easily imagine why the reflecter has set down the abstract , which the learned men of leipsic gave of the doctor 's travels , unless it was to let the world see how many matters were treated of in his letters , to which the reflecter has not a word to say : for he touches on a very small number of those which are mentioned in those contents which he produces . the only reason i can imagine , is , because it is an easier thing for the reflecter to copy than to compose : so he found a shift to swell his book nine and twenty pages more by that means , which in a book of one hundred and sixty four pages was no small article . it was fit to make a show with a book of some bigness , since bulk makes an impression on some people : yet these gentlemen might have known by this time , that how implicite soever the multitude may be on their side , yet on our side the world is not so tame , but that people will both read and consider , before they can be brought to believe , especially a set of men who have entertained them with imposture upon imposture for some years past . i confess , i believe few will be carried so far on this occasion , as to read and consider these reflections , since the things appear so trivial at first view : and with relation to the doctor 's travels , it is of no small credit to them , that he having adventured to publish so particular an account of many things so soon after he had seen them , there has not been the least attempt made to discover the falshood of any one thing in that book . it was too much read in england , for them to pretend that they despised it : for though our reflecter says , that presently upon its appearing in england , it was suppressed , we all know the contrary ; and that no book of that nature has had in our time so great and so quick a sale as it had . the chief matters in it were of that nature , that if the doctor had abused the world , it had been easie to have discovered it in an authentical manner . it is known , that his book has been seen in the chief cities of italy now above a twelve-month ; and the persons concerned , have had it in their power to undeceive the world. it is also no secret , that any discovery that had been much to the doctor 's prejudice , would have been made a matter of no small merit ; and the things that he has told us of those parts , were too sensible , and have made too great an impression on the nation , to have been let alone so long , if the clear evidence of truth had not maintained the book hitherto . but one would be tempted to think , that the reflecter thought it was necessary to give it a new lustre , by making so feeble and so unsuccessful an attempt upon it . it has gained credit enough already , and wanted not this addition ; but some men seem to lie under a curse , and in every thing that they undertake to work counter to the true interest of their cause ; which if it is bad of it self , it is certainly in as bad hands ; and is managed as if its enemies gave secret directions for every step that is made in it . dr. b. had given an account of that famous silver shield at lions , of two and twenty pounds weight , that seemed to represent that famous action of scipio , in restoring a fair captive to a celtiberian prince . upon this our author bestows . three reflections : first , he says , mr. spon , who has writ a discourse concerning that piece of plate , calls it but one and twenty pounds . secondly , the doctor ought to have called it not simply a shield , but a votive shield , since otherwise a reader has great reason to doubt of it : for no man can use a shield of that weight for the defence of his body . and to beautifie this reflection , he cites some authorities of the ancients , to prove that they had such votive shields ; and because a print makes a deep impression on weak people , he gives us one . now , the reader must know that he cites not these from his own reading , but though in other places he dares not tell us out of what modern author he drew his quotations , yet here he is so honest as to tell us , that he gives his authorities from mr. spon and mr. saumaise . thirdly , he excepts to dr. b's saying , that the bas reliefs of this shield , seemed to represent scipio's generous action , as if in this the doctor claimed the honour of this conjecture ; and because the word seems was doubting , our author gives us one citation out of livy , three pages long , containing an account of scipio's action , and another of mr. spon's , and to all he gives us a print of the shield , and so here ends his first reflection . but if the doctor writ down in his table-book two and twenty for one and twenty , here is no designed error at least ; and i have been told by those who have seen the great print of that shield , made by mr. mey , its owner , that it calls it at the bottom two and twenty pounds weight . 2. the doctor choosing to write true english , he could not call it a votive shield , because votive is not english. all readers , except such as our reflecter , must know , that it was a shield intended for a memorial in some temple , and could not be intended for defence . and it is plain that dr. b. knew that mr. spon had writ so learnedly of it , that he thought fit only to name it , and so he did not stay to explain it ; for he does not seem to be so much in love with copying as the reflecter is . 3. the account that the doctor gives of that which is represented in it , plainly shews , that he rather goes in to the opinion of others , than that he pretends to give one of his own : and if our reflecter is angry at the doctor 's reservedness , in not being positive , but saying only , it seems ; he ought to know , that though such men as he is , are apt to determine very readily , yet men of more learning and judgment bring themselves to an habit of speaking of most matters with a due reserve in their expressions . i acknowledge that conjecture which mr. spon gives , seems so well grounded , that few things of that nature are better . but since history is so defective , who knows but some other roman general might in imitation of scipio , have done somewhat like that in gaule , the memory of which is preserved in this shield ; and this might have fallen out in provence , and so the shield might have been found at avignon ? i do not say that this is true , but to be sure it is possible : and therefore since there is no inscription to be seen on the plate , it cannot be denied but that the dr. writ with due caution , when he said , that it seemed to represent that action . so if our author is not more successful in his following reflections than in this first , on which he bestows ten pages , i do not see that the reputation of the doctor 's learning or vertue is like to suffer much by the attempt he has made upon it . he reflects on the doctor for saying , that this shield is invaluable ; and yet for adding , that if there were an inscription upon it , to put us beyond doubt , or conjecture , it were yet more inestimable , as if here were an accumulation of infinites , invaluable , and yet more inestimable . but the most that this can amount to , is a carelesness of stile , which in an epistolar work is thought to have a peculiar grace ; and if the reflecter understood the prices at which things of that nature go , he would know that the general phrase concerning them , is , that they are invaluable ; for they having little of intrinsick value , the price is set on them rather according to the wealth and the curiosity of the buyer , than by any certain standard ; so though the value of this piece of plate is such , that one does not know to what price it ought to be raised , yet after all , an inscription would still carry this indeterminate notion of its vast value much higher . the doctor gives us a conjecture upon an odd expression in an inscription at lions , with the modesty that became him in so doubtful a thing ; and in this the reflecter may differ from him as much as he thinks fit ; but to be sure his exposition is the most ridiculous thing that is possible : quae cum nimia , pia fuit : facta est impia ; who while she was great ( not to dispute with him about nimia ) was pious , she became impious . there is nothing here to knit the one to the other , or to imply , in opposition to ( nimia ) her riches , that made her pious , what it was that made impious . but here our author produces many capitals , and some inscriptions : this he thought was great , and might look like a man of learning to those who do not know how easily these things are pick't up from second hand . yet our reflecter is willing to make a christian of the man , founded upon this reason , because the inscription ends & sibi vivo ponendum curavit . this , according to what is common in many inscriptions , is to be translated thus , and he ordered this ( tombstone ) to be placed for himself during his life-time . but our author puts a weighty scruple here : he cannot think that he was to have gone in alive to the tomb ; and that it was some vault , to which he intended to retire as to a catacomb . i do not envy our author the glory of this learned conjecture : but he forgets that this was dedicated , d. m. that is , diis manibus . now , though perhaps a sort of christians of later date , would make no scruple to use dedications of this nature , yet that did not agree with the strictness of the primitive christians . as for his denying that the inscription is vivo , and pretends , from gruter , to say it is vivus , and from his own happy invention , that it must be vivas ; in this case i take leave to believe the doctor , who saw it , and says , he copied it , better than gruter , who saw it not , but had it sent him from another ; or our author , whose fruitful imagination is not yet of credit enough with me to ballance an eye-witness . the doctor gave us a correction of a passage in vegelius , which does not please our reflecter , who assures us , that the reading that the doctor explodes , instead of being common , was only in that edition of paris , when a certain author writ , that was made in the year 1511. at which time i believe there were very few different editions of that author ; but , though i do not love to reckon up editions , yet all the modern ones that i have seen , are according to that which is censured by the doctor ; so it seems the paris edition , though it was at first singular , yet has carried it since in all the succeeding editions . but the reflecter seems to have some advantage , since the common cubits , according to vitruvius's measure , are only a foot and an half , and therefore the reading of three cubits must be false , since the next line says , that the soldiers height was to be of six foot , or very near it , and by consequence , they could not be of three cubits height , which is but four foot and an half . i perceive our author has , at least , read dictionaries , if he has not read good authors ; and , in particular , that most learned and ingenious discourse of dr. cumberland's , concerning the ancient measures . now if he had examined the different sorts of cubits , either in that noble essay , or in other good authors ; or if he had sought for it in greek or latin dictionaries , he would have found , that as the common cubit was indeed only a foot and an half , so there was another cubit that was two foot : and thus this reflection sinks to the ground , and here the reflecter's learning ends ; for though a variety of books could furnish him a few quotations , yet where a little judgment was to come in , and furnish him with matter , he runs so low , that my corrections hereafter will be much shorter . the doctor had said , that the bailiages of bern were courted , perhaps , with as much intrigue as was ever used among the romans in the distribution of their provinces ; upon which the reflection made , is , that the romans spared no wicked plots , and other practices , for obtaining their provinces ; therefore he thinks it is extream ridiculous to compare the practices in bern to these . but if the doctor had said , that the citizens of bern had used as much intrigue and violence as the romans did , the reflection had been just : yet there is no room for it , since the doctor speaks only of intrigue , which signifies only refined practices , and the arts of management , which may appear as remarkable in small as in great matters . dr. b. had said , that some new fishes appearing of late in the lake of geneva , was imputed to divers reasons , which he names : but the reflecter tells us , that the rusticks , which dwell near the lake , are at a certain time of the year obliged to fling in certain vessels full of sundry sorts of fishes . here indeed the doctor appears extreamly to blame that he did not keep more company with the boors ; and one would judge by our author's breeding , and way of writing , that he had spent much of his time among them . but after all , unless these boors are obliged to go to the neighbouring lakes , and to bring fish from them , it does not appear how the fish of lakes , at a considerable distance , should be brought into the lake of geneva . dr. b. had corrected a vulgar mistake , that represents the rhasne , as running through the lake unmixt , at which the reflecter is very angry ; and to confute the doctor , he cites a long passage out of mr. spon , which says indeed , that at the entry of the rhasne into the lake , and at its issue out of it , the course of the rhasne appears clearly ; yet he plainly confirms what the doctor said , which is , that through almost the whole length of the lake one cannot distinguish the rhasne from the lake , neither by its motion nor its colour , which is the very thing that the doctor said , that it did not run through it unmixed , as some travellers had fondly imagined ; for through it imports from the one end of it to the other . the doctor had commended the real charity of those in zurich , who took care of their poor , without building magnificent palaces for them , which he represents as a vanity that is too generally affected elsewhere . and here the reflecter flies out into great anger , and thinks that no good man can pardon such malignity . here is a common place on which he thought to shew his force ; and i dare say the poor man has done his best ; and so i leave him . but as i had enough to do to read what he writ on this head , so i can assure him i will not venture on answering such stuff . dr. b gave us an account of some lettters he saw at zurich , from england , concerning the disputes in the beginning of queen elizabeths reign , relating to the habits of the clergy , in which it is said , by some of the bishops , that cranmer and ridley intended to procure an act for abolishing the habits ; on which our author bestows this judicious reflection , that cranmer died before queen elizabeth came to the crown ; as if those letters that were writ ten years after his death , might not have mentioned an intention which he had , though he died before he could execute it . our author finds fault with the doctor 's saying , that the observation which he made on the various readings of that verse in st. iohn's epistle , may may seem too learned , as if this were his setting an high value on his own learning . yet since books of travels are writ for all sorts of readers , it seemed necessary to make some excuse for setting down some observations that belonged more properly to a treatise of divinity . but the malice of our reflecter is too heavy , and his raillery is too dull to stand on either of them . our author has a long discourse concerning that passage , the meaning of which i do not understand . it is certain from st. ierome's preface , that he restored it , having found it struck out in the copies that the arrians had vitiated ; and therefore those bibles which have his prefaces , but have not that passage , must owe that defect only to the negligence of the copiers , since , if they copied his bible truly , they must have copied that passage , which , according to that preface was certainly in it . all our author's reflection seems to amount to this , that st. ierome was exact , that so he might discover the cheat of the arrians , but not that he had actually done it : and so he seems to conclude that the passage was not in his bible . this is stuff worthy of our author , and i leave him the honour of it . the doctor had said , thus will i finish my account of zurich ; and three or four lines after that , he ends his letter in these words , and so ▪ i will break off . here comes an heavy reflection on the doctor 's pride and haughtiness , and his maintaining of falsities ; and that he neither believes nor desires that any other should credit what he says , unless he twice repeat it . but if one asks , why so much wrath ? it amounts all to this , that the doctor first says , he will finish his account of zurich , and then , that he will put an end to his letter . and this to him seemed so nauseous a repetition , that it stirred up all this choler in him . certainly he is the tenderest stomached person that ever was . but i leave him to the physitians ; for such stuff as this shews how much he needs their help . the doctor dated his letter from zurich , as he did the others from millan , florence , rome and nimegu●n , at which our author is extream uneasie : for if you but tread hard near a sick man , you discompose him quite . he finds some passages in some of the letters , that shew , that the doctor had seen the places which are mentioned in his following letters , when he wrote the former . and indeed if the doctor had cast his observations into so many letters , and had made the dates only at pleasure , i do not see any great mischief in it . he might also have writ the letters in those places from which he dates them , and yet have added passages that belonged to the things which occurred to him , in other places , and i see no great hurt in all this . the doctor had mentioned the switzers throwing off the austrian and german yoke ; upon which our reflecter triumphs , as if the doctor had represented the switzers as oppressed at the same time by two nations . but though the archdukes of austria were their immediate lords , yet they were likewise members of the german empire ; and the switzers having not only shaken off the tyranny of the austrians , but having likewise separated themselves from the german empire , and formed themselves into a free and independent commonwealth , the doctor had not fully expressed that matter , if he had not made mention of the german yoke , as well as of the austrian . and thus i have examined all that is reflected on in the doctor 's first letter , and have found , that as every one of the particulars is ill-grounded , so if every one of them were acknowledged to be well grounded , there is not one of them all that leaves the least reflection on the doctor 's vertue and sincerity ; the uttermost to which they can amount being to discover some neglect in the doctor 's way of expressing himself . but even in that i have made it clear , that the doctor writ with more exactness than at first view , perhaps , every reader might imagine . dr. b. had said , that the remnants of st. emerita's veil , which were shewed him at coire , that are pretended to have been saved out of the fire , looked as if the burning had not been a month old ; at which the reflecter laughs , as very ridiculous , since by this the doctor seems to judge of ashes , how long ago they were burnt : but the doctor only speaks of the pieces of linnen : and certainly it is no hard thing , by looking on a piece of linnen-cloth , that is burnt all about the edges , to judge whether it seems fresh and lately burnt , or not . he concludes this article , after some coarse raillery , that he fears that it will be said , both of him and the doctor , that too much learning had made them both mad . i dare say every body will be of opinion , that he is not far from being mad . but unless he gives other proofs than appear in this book , i am very confident no body will ascribe the cause of it to too much learning . the doctor had mentioned the archdukes of inchspruck , upon which the reflecter runs division , according to his talent of raillery , as if there were no such archduke . one should have expected , that if the reflecter knew any thing , it should have appeared in matters that relate to germany , where the branches of the great families , though their dignity is really no other than that of the great family from which they are derived , yet they carry their title in common compellation from the principality which falls to their share : so all the branches of the family palatine , are known by the titles of zweyburg , simmeren , vilden , &c. so the dukes of lunenburg are distinguished by the titles of cell and hanover : so the present regnant family of austria was distinguished sixty years ago by that of the archduke of grats and leopold : this emperor's uncle was known by the distinction of the archduke of inchpruck , though the dignity in it self was that of austria , with the distinction of inchpruck . the seventeenth , eighteenth , and nineteenth articles , are such strains that i will not meddle with them . he who thinks it worth his while , to see to what a degree the stupidity of the author can carry him , may consult the reflections themselves , and he will soon see , that what reason soever there may be to conclude the reflecter mad , there is no reason to think that it flows from too much learning . our author cannot comprehend why the french concerned themselves with the passes of the alps ; and he thinks , that though the venetians were concerned in it , yet the french had nothing to do with it . but if he does not know , that the french did interpose in that matter , he is as ignorant of the history of this age , as he is of all other things : and if he does not apprehend how they were concerned in that matter , it is not to be wondered at , if a man of his size of capacity should not understand how the maximes of holding the ballance , of weakening an enemy , and of a superior power 's being always ready to run to the aid of an inferior , should have governed the councils of france . certainly a man that cannot comprehend this , should meddle with somewhat else than politicks . the rest of the reflections , on to the thirtieth , which comprehend all the doctor 's second letter , are strains so worthy of their author , that it were too great an abuse of the reader 's patience to examine them . the doctor tells us , that the venetians are willing to keep up the quarrels among the nobility of the conquered cities ; and in opposition to this our author very judiciously cites la houssarie , to prove that the venetians study to keep down all factions among their own nobility ; as if the nobles of venice , and the nobles of the conquered cities , were the same . the two and thirtieth and three and thirtieth articles are left to the reader . the doctor had said , that the arsenal of venice , was the only one that they had : whereas the reflecter says , they have two others in the city it self ; but he is only at the pains to name that of st. mark 's palace , which is indeed called the little arsenal , and is only a repository of some few arms , that is of no considerable moment ; but since the reflecter named two in venice , besides the great one , he should have told us where the other was . the five and thirtieth and six and thirtieth articles , are remarks of so great solidity , that i leave them to the reader , who will see how weightily he contradicts the doctor , particularly in the six and thirtieth . the doctor had told us , that an eminent man at venice said to him , that he did not think the greeks believed transubstantiation : but in opposition to this , the reflecter tells us , that he saw a letter of olearius's , which asserts , that they do believe it . but what is this to the doctor ? what he says may be very true , though olearius was of another mind : nor is olearius of such authority in matters of this nature , that his opinion must determine the point : but the reason is considerable that the doctor 's author gave him , which was the want of respect in the greeks to the sacrament , since their not adoring it seemed a great evidence that they could not believe transubstantiation . this reason seems much more convincing than olearius's authority . the eight and thirtieth article is left entire to the reader , to judge of the reflecter's strength from it . the doctor , after he had mentioned that unequal match of one of the cornara's , goes on to speak of the greatness and pride of that family in general . but the reflecter , to give us a taste of his sincerity , knits these two together , as if the pride of the cornara's was by reason of the mothers birth , which plainly belongs to another matter . besides that , the doctor tells us , that cornara piscopia was none of the great families of that name . the doctor had shewed the inconveniences of the honour of the doge of venice , which were such , that some of the greatest families declined it ; and yet the grandeur of it was such , that the greatest part of the best families courted it extreamly : upon which the reflecter accuses him , as having contradicted himself : but it must be a degree of dullness or malice peculiar to him , that made him find a contradiction between these two assertions , that the greatest part courted it , though some declined it . the doctor had said , that when a duke is chosen , all his family must retire out of the senate : but the reflecter lays a judicious note on this , and says , this is only true , with relation to the brothers and children . so if the doctor meant the word family , in that which is its natural sense , then here is no difference at all : but if family is to be taken in the larger sense , for the whole tribe , even thus supposing that amelol is to be believed against the doctor , amounts to no more , but that the doctor did not distinguish the sense of the word family critically . the reflecter , without citing his author for it , pretends , that no dogess can be crowned , and that the inquisitors made a decree against it . but when this is acknowledged to be true , it does not contradict that which the doctor had said , and only proves , that he did not know all the constitutions of that republick . the three and fortieth article is left to the contempt of the reader ; and in the four and fortieth the reflecter runs out into a commendation of the german nation , in which i know no man that will contradict him . i am sure dr. b. says nothing to the contrary , though all the world knows , that the general character of the german women , is , that they are good house wives , and that they do not amuse themselves with a general conversation , as the french and english women do ; for which the doctor is so far from censuring them , that he commends them for it . the doctor had shewed upon what reasons he judged that the secular inquisitors of venice , was a great advantage to that body , against which the reflecter argues . but as the doctor gave his opinion , so it is free for the reflecter to give his ; and it is also free for the reader to pass a judgment on both . the reflecter is resolved to let the world see in so short an essay , that he is equally unhappy in all the subjects which he undertakes . any reader , unless he is as dull as our reflecter , will clearly perceive the difference that the doctor puts between the court of inquisition , and the secular inquisitors of venice , but nothing is clear to one whose talent is a composition made of dulness and malice . the seven and fortieth , eight and fortieth , and nine and fortieth articles , are left to the readers judgment . the doctor had said , speaking of ferrara , that one might conclude it was extream poor , by the meaness of its churches , and their want of ornaments ; and that one might take the measure of the wealth of any place in italy from the churches . upon this the reflecter finds a contradiction between this and the remark that the doctor made on the poverty of millan , notwithstanding of the vast riches that appear in the churches : but on the one hand , according to the doctor 's observations , one may conclude where he sees poor churches , that the town is poor ; yet it does not follow , that where the churches are rich , the town must be rich : on the contrary , it must be poor , in proportion to the excessive wealth that is found in the churches . the doctor had taken notice of the meanness of the libraries of italy , and yet the reflecter finds that he mentions four good ones ; and this he thinks a contradiction ; but it is plain , the doctor is speaking of the libraries in the monasteries , and three or four is so small an exception , that in such a number they deserved not to be named : and though the doctor mentions several italians with much respect , as men of learning , yet that does not contradict what he says in general of the decay of learning among them , though there are some exceptions to be made , and even these owe the reputation in which they are , perhaps to the ignorance of those about them , at least in a great measure . the doctor mentions the reflection that magliabecchi made on the library-keeper of st. laurence's at florence , which puts the reflecter all in fire against the doctor , as base , disingenuous , and ingrateful ; whereas the doctor says nothing of himself , but only repeats what another had told him . the three and fiftieth article is not medled with , as a great many others are passed over , for a reason that is not too much to the advantage of the reflecter , among whom the four and fiftieth article is also to be reckoned . if any has a mind to see how well the reflecter understands politicks ; he may be at the pains to read this article ; for i dare say no body will be at the pains to prove against him , that an elective prince ought not to be absolute . and for his learned performance , in proving , that the popedom ought not to be hereditary , i dare say , that he is the first man who ever thought that it was a point that needed so much proof ; for his invention is so copious here , that he bestows six or seven arguments making out that wise aphorism of his . he quarrels with the doctor for saying , that the pope has an insatiable desire of heaping up wealth ; and thinks that the doctor contradicts himself , since he owns , that he has not enriched his family , and that he has sent great sums to support the war against the turk . but sixtus the fifth laid up a vast treasure , though he gave none of it to his family ; and why may not the present pope be of the same temper ? and his laying out money may well consist with his laying up of wealth besides . upon the doctor 's naming the vacant caps , the reflecter tells us what all the gazetts told us long ago , how these are now disposed of : and after such a confutation , who can suppose that the doctor can ever shew his face any more ? the doctor told us of a pasquin that appeared upon molinos's business , upon which the reflecter passes this censure , that he has found the same pasquin in a book printed one hundred and forty years ago . but does that shew , that it is impossible that the same pasquin might have appeared again upon a new occasion ? the doctor had , from the freshness of the painting that is in the catacombs of naples , concluded , that the paint could not have been done while the place was imployed for burying . but the reflecter cannot comprehend , why the painting , which the doctor believes may be six hundred years old , may not be much ancienter . yet if he knew any thing of the remains of antiquity , he would know , that though there are many pieces of painting of six hundred years old , there are none of the time of the ancient romans . but the chief reason that the doctor gives , that the painting could not have been done while bodies were buried there , is , that the steams , occasioned by the corruption of so many bodies , must have dissolved both plaister and colours : this seems convincing ; but our reflecter thought not fit to take notice of it . his conjecture concerning the letters which the doctor saw on those walls , shews how happy a critick he is , and what great discoveries may be expected from him , if he would be at the pains to write upon old inscriptions ; for a man that will make a sentence that plainly ends in greek , begin in latin , is like to afford us many new readings . the sixtieth and sixty first articles , are left to the reader 's censure . the doctor 's inference from pope martin's confirming the council of constance , seems well grounded ; for if he was not infallible , his successors , to this day , are not ; and if he was , then from that infallibility we must conclude , that the confirmation which condemns the infallibility , is likewise an infallible decision : but our reflecter , after a little heavy raillery , in which he is always unhappy , thinks to turn the matter thus , either pope martin was fallible or infallible ; if fallible , then the decision is of no force ; if infallible , then so were all his predecessors . but though the pope was fallible , the decision is strong against that see , and against his successors , though it does not make the decision infallible , by vertue of any authority that he could give it . so that this makes clearly against the pretensions of that see. the sixty third article is very material . the reflecter tells us , that the person whom the doctor calls the pope's steward , was his major domo . now when he gives us a more proper english word for major domo than steward , he may censure the doctor as defective in our tongue . the sixty fourth article pretends to find a contradiction between the doctor 's calling the pope's government severe , and his commending the regularity that is now at rome , as if vice could not be punished , and the subjects be oppressed at the same time . the sixty fifth article is left to the reader , so is the sixty sixth ; for they are strains so well becoming our reflecter , that i confess i can say nothing to them . the sixty seventh is pretended to be a contradiction to what the doctor had said of the queen of sweden , as having the best court of strangers in rome ; and yet he says of the dutchess of bracciano , that the best assembly of strangers that is to be found in any of the palaces of the italians , is in her court. now except the reflecter can prove , that the queen of sweden is an italian , here is no contradiction ; for it is plain , that the doctor means , that the queen of sweden's court is the best assembly of strangers that is in rome ; and that the dutchess of bracciano's is the best of all the assemblies that is to be found in any of the palaces of the italians in rome . the sixty eighth , sixty ninth , and seventieth articles , are again left to the reader 's censure ; only in the seventieth article an error of the press , places being by all appearance , instead of palaces , seemed to give him some small colour for fixing a little censure , though even without that correction , the sense will appear clear enough . our reflecter doubts if cannon was brought before morat ; by which he shews how well he knows the history of gunpowder and cannon , since he does not think they were found out in the end of the fifteenth century . the seventy second article is a worthy one , i mean , worthy of the reflecter . the reflecter laughs at the doctor for telling the world , that the lutherans pay no sort of religious respect to the images that they have in their churches , as if this was so well known , that it was needless to tell it . but though the doctrine of the lutherans , in that point , is well known , yet it was not impertinent to inform the world , that the people followed that point of their doctrine , since we know , that in the fifth century , the worship of images was as much disowned as it can be by the lutherans ; and yet we see , that in gregory the great 's time , the people in many places began to worship them . the doctor describing spire , tells us , that one of the prebendaries was , according to the german custom , a man of greater quality than learning ; upon which the reflecter falls on him in great wrath , as if he had reproached the german nation for want of learning ; and with an equal measure of ignorance and impudence , he spends several pages in refuting this calumny . but the doctor left no reproach on that great nation ; he reflects only on the constitution of their chapters in all the great sees of germany , in which , birth is the most necessary and indispensable of all other qualifications . the doctor is most solidly confuted in the seventy fifth ▪ article . the doctor had said , that the elector palatine was as absolute as any prince of the empire ; upon which the reflecter labours to prove , that other princes are as absolute as he is ; but this does not contradict the doctor , unless he proves , that some other princes are mo●e absolute ; for that is all that the doctor ▪ denies . besides , many princes of the empire are bound to govern their countries by the assembly of the states , to which the elector palatine is not subject . the reflecter does not believe that the elector palatine is designed in the publick prayers their soveraign ; since , besides other sad stuff , he says , there is no word in the german language that imports that . but the french have a church in heidelberg , where the doctor might well have heard the elector prayed for , and named their soveraign , which , as i am told , is the common form there . for the seventy eighth and seventy ninth article , that relate to the golden bull , they are the only errors that i know in all the doctor 's letters ; for it is certain , that the original of the golden bull in latin , is in francfurt . there is also a great parchment that contains a translation of it into dutch ; and that is commonly shewed to the german travellers . but men who are more curious , may also see the original . so it seems the doctor 's guide in francfurt , knew not of any other copy but that great parchment , which is in high dutch : so that in this point the dr. was not at pains enough to be rightly informed . the eightieth article runs on the same mistake that appeared in the seventy sixth , where the dr. had not said , that the elector palatine was more absolute , but only as absolute as any prince in germany : and so this is not contradicted by his saying , that the elector of mentz is an absolute prince . the eighty first article is another strain of the reflecter's malice . the dr. found , having been in the palaces of four of the electors , that there was much form , and a great deal of a-do to come within their courts . but in contradiction to this , the reflecter tells us of the magnificence , and easie access that one finds in the courts of brandenburg and lunenburg : yet the dr. notwithstanding this , might have made his remark , though perhaps he had done better to have restricted it to these courts which he saw . and now we are come to the last , which is no small comfort , when one is engaged to deal with so much weakness and folly . the reflecter quarrels with the dr. for telling us , that the medals found at bon , were believed to be made about four or five hundred years ago ; and he cannot fancy how that could be known . but in this the dr. affirms nothing himself ; he only tells us what he had from others ; and i do not see why this should offend the reflecter , unless he was beforehand resolved to take every thing amiss that should come from the dr. the conclusion has nothing in it that is good , but that it is short . the reflecter makes an excuse for the flatness of his book , which was no less than was needful , if he could have found a good one ; but he comforts himself with this , that he had rather that wit should be wanting to truth , than truth to wit ; but i can assure him , both are equally wanting here . and if he yeilds that there was wit in the doctor 's book , i am sure he has not brought any one article against him , in which he has so much as pretended to shew any want of truth . so that it must be confessed , that since he yeilds the doctor wit , truth belongs also to him in as eminent a degree as it is wanting to the reflecter . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30320-e60 1. art. 2. art. 3. art. 4. art. 5. art. p. 35. 6. art. p. 37 , 7. art. p. 38. 8 art. ● 4● . 9. art. p. 43. 12. art. p. 45. 12. art. p. 49. 13 art. p. 50. 14. art. p. 52 ▪ 15. art. p. 57. 16. art. p. 59. 20. art. p. 62. ●1 . art. 80. ● . art. 84. 37. art. p. 86. ●9 . art. ● . 89. ●0 . art. ● . 90. 41. art. p. 91. 42. art. p 93. ●5 . art. ● . 97. 46. art. p. 103. 50. art. p. 108. 51. art. p. 110. 52. art. p. 113. 55. art. p. 121. 56. art. p. 125. 57. art. p. 127. 58. art. p. 128. 59. art. p. 129. 62. art. p. 134. p. 136. p. 139. 71. art. p. 147. 73. art. p. 149. 74. art. p. 149. 76. art. p. 155 ▪ 77. art. p. 157. 82. art. p. 163. the last words of lewis du moulin being his retractation of all the personal reflectins he had made on the divines of the church of england (in several books of his) / signed by himself on the 5th and the 17th day of october, 1680. du moulin, lewis, 1606-1680. 1680 approx. 20 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 10 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a36839 wing d2542 estc r25015 08715330 ocm 08715330 41654 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a36839) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 41654) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1256:24) the last words of lewis du moulin being his retractation of all the personal reflectins he had made on the divines of the church of england (in several books of his) / signed by himself on the 5th and the 17th day of october, 1680. du moulin, lewis, 1606-1680. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 19 p. printed for rich. royston, london : 1680. text indicates that the statement signed by du moulin was written by gilbert burnet. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -apologetic works. church of england -clergy. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-11 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the last words of lewis du moulin : being his retractation of all the personal reflections he had made on the divines of the church of england , ( in several books of his ) signed by himself on the 5 th and the 17 th of october , 1680. london , printed for rich. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty . an. dom. mdclxxx . the last words of lewis du moulin : being his retractation of all the personal reflections he had made on the divines of the church of england , &c. among all the news that is daily published , and cried about the streets , none can be so welcome to truly good men , as to hear of any sinner that repenteth : for that is the thing , which alone can mend all that is amiss among us . and though it be but a late repentance , and not so compleat and entire , as it might have been ; yet it is of great use , and does much service : because it gives glory to god , does honour to religion , checks those that go on fearlesly in their evil waies : and admonishes them-to persist in that course , which , if they have any conscience , they will condemn at last ; but to take up betime , amend their lives , and make their repentance as notorious , as their crimes . that still adds much to the sincerity , and the usefulness of it ; when he that gives a publick offence , takes away the scandal , as much as in him lies ; by making a publick acknowledgement of his fault , and declaring openly he will offend so no more . such , in part , was the penitent confession of this person : the true relation whereof follows . lewis du moulin dr. of physick ( a person so well known by his writings , that it is needless to give any other character of him , than is publickly read there ) was taken very ill in the end of last september : and being in the seventy seventh year of his age , did not expect he should recover ; but set himself seriously to prepare for the account he thought he was shortly to give to god. on the fourth of october , he desired a visit from dr. burnet : who very kindly came to visit him , and was as kindly received by him . after the discourses fit to be used to a dying man , the doctour spake to him of his books : and told him though he would not trouble him ( in the condition wherein he then was ) with any discourse about his opinions , yet he must admonish him of his falling foul in those books , upon so many worthy men , viz. dr. stilling fleet dean of s. pauls , dr. durell dean of windsor , dr. patrick dean of peterburgh , and several others : of whom he ought to ask forgiveness , and to make them all the reparation , that was in his power to doe . he was soon convinced , that he had been carried too much from his duty , by the heat of his temper and passion : and therefore desired dr. burnet to ask their pardon in his name . and when he spake of the dean of s. pauls , he expressed much sorrow and shed some tears . after dr. burnet had prayed with him ( in which he joyned with great devotion ) he left him , and went and acquainted the dean of s. pauls herewith : who very freely sent by him , a very kind remembrance ; with assurance that the said dr. du moulin should have both his forgiveness and his prayers . the dean of peterburgh also was acquainted by the same person , ( but the dean of windsor was not in town ) that dr. du moulin desired a visit from him , being in his parish , and having a mind to ask his pardon , for what he had wrote against him . who going to him immediately , the evening of the same day ( octob. 4. ) was entertained with many expressions of great affection to him , and such high esteem of him , upon several accounts , that the dean doth not think fit to have them here set down particularly ; lest they should be thought to be as extravagantly said on the other side , as those things were which he wrote to defame him . but he confessed he had been much disgusted at some passages about faith , in a book of the dean's , called the parable of the pilgrim : which he could not reade without indignation . to which the dean replied , that it should not have transported him , so far , and so hastily , as it did . but he ought , before he had so much as written against him , to have gone to his house , ( as he had done upon some other occasions ) and made his exceptions , and given him leave to explain himself : which if he had done , he was confident , the doctour would not have thought his notion to be popish ; much less have put him down among the corrupt party , which he fansied was advancing towards rome . for he would have shown him , in the best reformed divines , as zealous expressions , as he uses , against an idle , naked faith : and besides would have turned him to a chapter in that very book ( the last but one ) where he would have found that he was far from taking men off from depending on christ , and upon christ alone for salvation : for he directs them there how to doe it safely ; and onely told them , they must do something else , before they can come to this high act of faith , to trust that by christ's merits and god's mercy , they shall be justified . this he told him he should have read ; and not thrown away the book , when he met with one passage which offended him . to which dr. du moulin assented ; and earnestly begg'd his pardon , praying him also to beg of god pardon for him , which the dean promised he would doe ; but said that he must first put him in mind , that this offence against him ( which he easily forgave , because he knew his cholerick temper , disposed him to be incensed upon small occasions ) was very inconsiderable ; in comparison with that against the church of england in general ; which he had wrong'd intolerably , to the great gratification of its enemies , at such a time when all sober men should be its friends ; and that without any real cause for such imputations , as he had endeavoured to fasten on it . here dr. du moulin laboured to make some defence for himself ; and said , that he thought there was a cause , and that greater men than he had thought so too : from whom he had long agoe imbibed this opinion , of a corrupt party in the church ( as he expresses it in his writings ) leaning towards popery , nay making several advances towards rome . and then mentioned the names of some of them , sir benjamin rudyer , the then lord digby , &c. who in the beginning of the long parliament laid the same things to the charge of the great church-men , that he did now . to this the dean of peterburgh replying , that as some of those persons lived to see how they were abused ; so he could not but have observed how effectually this calumny had been confuted by those whom he called bishop laud's faction ; who remained constant to our religion in the late confusions , and could not be moved to turn papists , when they were turned out of all they had by pretended protestants , and had no hope of seeing the church restored ; and therefore that he ought not to have renewed this ungrounded charge against so manifest a demonstration of its falsity : dr. du moulin made no answer at all , but yielded thus far , as to say , well doctour , pray to god to pardon me all my sins , especially my want of charity . accordingly the dean , kneeling down by his bed-side , began with the lord's prayer , and so proceeded to the other prayers , which are appointed by the order in the common-prayer-book for the visitation of the sick. in all which the sick man joined with lifting up his hands often , and other expressions of devotion : especially at that passage ( in the prayer , when there appears small hopes of recovery ) give him unfeigned repentance for all the errours of his life past , &c. he gave more then ordinary signs of his fervent desire . and when the dean had done , gave him most hearty thanks , and renewed his expressions of extraordinary affection to him , and esteem of him . the next day dr. burnet made him another visit ; and having given him an account what the dean of s. pauls said concerning him ( which he received with great sense of his kindness , and return of thanks to him for it ) told him it was fit he should do something for the repairing the injuries he had done , in as publick a manner as they were committed . to which he readily assented ; and as he promised never to be guilty of the like again if he should recover , so he said he would subscribe a paper that should give publick satisfaction to all he had offended , and desired dr. burnet to put him in mind of it . who wrote a paper , and left it with dr. du moulin's wife : who carrying it to her husband , he said before witnesses , after he had considered the contents , that he was ready to sign it with his blood ; and presently subscribed the same . a true copy whereof followeth . as for my books , in which i mixed many personal reflections , i am now sensible i vented too much of my own passion and bitterness , and therefore i disclaim all that is personal in them , and am heartily sorry for every thing i have written to the defaming of any person . i humbly beg god , and all those whom i have so wronged , pardon for jesus christ his sake ; and am resolved , if god shall spare my life , never to meddle more with such personal things : and do earnestly exhort all people as a dying man , that they will study more love and mutual forbearance in their differences ; and will avoid all bitter and uncharitable reflections on one anothers persons . and as i earnestly pray those worthy men of the church of england to have charity and tenderness for the dissenters from them ; so i beg of the dissenters that they would have a due regard and respect to those of the church of england : of many of whom i say now , let my soul be with theirs . and that all true protestants among us may heartily unite and concur in the defence and preservation of the holy reformed religion , now by the mercy of god settled among us . and that men of all sides may according to s. paul's rule , cease to bite and devour one another , lest we be destroyed one of another : and that whereunto we have already attained , we may walk by the same rule ; hoping that if any man is otherwise minded , in some lesser things , god shall either reveal that to them , or mercifully forgive it , through jesus christ , into whose hands i commend my spirit , and desire to appear before god , in and through him : who gave himself for me ; and therefore do now study to learn of him , to be meek , and lowly in heart , and to love all the brethren , as he hath loved me . this in sincerity of heart i sign lewis du moulin . octob. 5. 1680. after he had signed this writing , he continued very seriously to prepare for his death ; and told dr. burnet ( next time he came to visit him ) that he had signed the paper with ink , but if it had been needfull , he would have done it with his blood. and said , he would have some copies written out fair , and sign some more : that these his last words might be published to the world after his death . and professed also , that he felt great joy and quiet in his mind , from his being thus reconciled with those whom he had offended . and accordingly , the dean of peterburgh coming a little while after , to see him again , he was so affected with his kindness in giving him a new visit , that he said , are you come again sir ? o how charitable are you ! this is indeed to return me good for evil . and after some discourse with him , desired him to pray with him again ; for your prayers , said he , were very comfortable to me the last time . and accordingly he did , in the same form of words he had used before : with which he was so much affected , that when the dean had solemnly commended him to god's blessing , in that excellent form ; unto god's gracious mercy and protection we commit thee . the lord bless thee and keep thee , &c. he laid hold upon his hand ( which he held up over him ) and kissed it with an unusual passion . at the same time , having repeated his thanks to him , he told him of the paper before mentioned , and desired his wife to show it him , promising a copy of it should be sent him , signed with his own hand . it must be confessed that when the dean had read it , he wished it had been more full ; and so ordered as to have given satisfaction to the whole church , as well as to particular persons : but this being the form he had already signed , it was not easy to alter it . and he often called upon his wife to get three or four copies of it transcribed , for him to sign according to the first draught : which when she had done , and brought them to him , and askt him whether he had well considered it , and was well satisfied to sign these : he answered , he was ready to doe it , with all his heart , if they were the same with that he had already signed . then he heard them examined , and corrected with his own hand , where there was a fault ; signing three copies with his own hand , in these words . viz. to all these things above set down , i heartily assent and consent . octob. 17. 1680. lewis du moulin . if any one doubt of this , they may be fully satisfied by dr. patrick , the dean of peterburgh : to whom , according to his promise , and by his order , a copy was sent , so signed , in his own hand-writing . and he gave a charge the same should be published after his death , which followed on the twentieth day of the same month : and on the twenty second of the same month , the said dean of peterburgh , expressed his charity to him , in performing the funeral rites himself . i have perused this relation , and , as far as i am concerned in it , do hereby attest the truth of it . s. patrick , d. p. i have perused this relation , and , as far as i am concerned in it , do hereby attest the truth of it . g. burnet . would to god that they who still persist in their invectives , and have since this doctour's death published under his name an additional account of the church of england's advances towards popery , without the knowledge of his wife and other relations , would be pleased to consider this narrative , and lay it to heart , before they be arrested by death ; that grave , that wise and faithfull counseller , which deceives no man , but sets a glass before their eyes which flatters not ; and represents the truth so plainly and sincerely to their minds , that did they but take frequent advice of this counseller , and before they venture upon any action , would but consider how it would appear , were they going to answer for it to god almighty , they would find themselves irresistably restrained in the pursuit of their fiercest passions and desires . for even they , who can be wrought upon no other way , are moved by the approach of death to alter their resolutions . the obstinately inflexible , who could not be turned out of their way ( in which they ran with a violent heat ) by any obstacle , have in a moment been cooled , and made to yield , when they saw death coming to call them before the judgment-seat of god. upon which account there cannot be more profitable counsel then that of the son of sirach , which was read in the church afew days after the doctour was buried . ecclus. 7. 36. whatsoever thou takest in hand , remember the end , and thou shalt never do amiss . therefore if dr. du moulin hath left in any bodies hand , and they intend to publish an ecclesiastical history , the design of which he hath already published ; i beseech those persons , whosoever they are , before they begin to put it to the press , to consider whether it be such as he would have approved of upon his death-bed , or they will be willing to answer for unto almighty god : and to weigh well those words , wherewith the famous sir walter raleigh concludes his history of the world. where , inquiring after the reason of the boundless ambition which still continues to reign in the breasts of mortal men , notwithstanding the sad fates of those that have gone before them , gives an answer , which may serve for a reason of all other passions wherewith men are madly transported ; which is this , that they lay before them the actions , but not the ends of those that preceded them . and then follow these memorable words . they are alwaies transported with the glory of the one , but they never mind the misery of the other , till they find the experience in themselves . they neglect the advice of god , while they enjoy life , or hope of it ; but they follow the counsel of death , upon the first approach . it is he that puts into man all the wisedom of the world , without speaking a word , &c. death which hateth and destroyeth man , is believed ; god , which hath made him , and loves him , is always deferred . i have considered ( saith solomon , all the works that are under the sun , and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit : but who believes it till death tells it us ? it was death which opening the conscience of charles the v. made him enjoyn his son philip to restore navarre ; and king francis the first of france , to command that justice should be done upon the murtherers of the protestants , in merindol and cabrieres , which till then he neglected . it is therefore death alone that can suddenly make man to know himself . he tells the proud and insolent , that they are but abjects , and humbles them at the instant ; makes them cry , complain , and repent ; yea , even to hate their forepast happiness . he takes account of the rich , and proves him a beggar , a naked beggar , which hath interest in nothing , but in the gravel that fills his mouth . he holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautifull , and makes them see therein their deformity and rottenness , and they acknowledge it . o eloquent , just and mighty death ! whom none could advise , thou hast perswaded ; what none dared , thou hast done ; and whom all the world hath flattered , thou onely hast cast out of the world and despised . thou hast drawn together all the far stretched greatness , all the pride , cruelty , and ambition of man , and covered it all over with these two narrow words , hic jacet . the end . the libertine overthrown, or, a mirror for atheists wherein they may clearly see their prodigious follies, vast extravagancies, notorious impieties and absurdities : containing a compendious account of the ... life and ... death of that the whole ... abstracted from the remarks of the right reverend d. gilbert burnet ... and the reverend mr. parsons ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 27 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30380 wing b5826 estc t18235 12330767 ocm 12330767 59668 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30380) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 59668) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 206:3) the libertine overthrown, or, a mirror for atheists wherein they may clearly see their prodigious follies, vast extravagancies, notorious impieties and absurdities : containing a compendious account of the ... life and ... death of that the whole ... abstracted from the remarks of the right reverend d. gilbert burnet ... and the reverend mr. parsons ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. parsons, robert, 1647-1714. 16 p. printed and sold by j. bradford ..., london : [1690?] date of publication from wing. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng rochester, john wilmot, -earl of, 1647-1680. conversion -early works to 1800. 2005-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-08 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2005-08 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the libertine overthrown : or , a mirror for atheists ; wherein they may clearly see their prodigious follies , vast extravagancies , notorious impieties and absurdities : containing a compendious account of the egregious vicious life , and eminently and sincerely penitent death , of that great states-man , eminent poet , and learned scholar , john earl of rochester , who deparrted this life the 26th of july , mdclxxx . wherein is briefly recited not only his disputes and arguments against god and religion , as the same were used in conferences with divines , and at several atheistical meetings ; but also the chief of his notorious pranks , such as his turning mountebank , his disguising himself in the shapes of beggars , his amours , revels , &c. to all which is added , the plain manner of his wonderful conversion , which was by hearing read the 53d . chapter of isaiah , his christian deportment and godly expressions during his last sickness ; as also his dying remonstrance left in writing , and signed and attested by eminent witnesses . the whole , for the use of the meanest capacities , abstracted from the remarks of the right reverend d. gilbert burnet , now bishop of sarum , and the reverend mr. parsons , chaplain to ann countess of rochester . licens'd according to order . london , printed and sold by j. bradford , without bishopsgate . a mirror for atheists . the daily growth of impiety and athe●●● amongst the meaner sort , obliges me to publ●shing the ensuing compendious abstr●●● wherein will appear the emptiness , shallowness and significany of the greatest and wisest arguments , aga●●● the being of an omnipotent jehovah ; in hand● of which , i shall transcribe the remarkable pass●●● of the life of john earl of rochester , a great m●●● a greater sinner , but at the last by divine mercy , a 〈◊〉 eminent and zealous penitent . one who had for ●●veral years , made it his business to argue against 〈◊〉 and religion , and plac'd his bliss and happiness , 〈◊〉 summum bonum , in carnal pleasures and sensual 〈◊〉 lights ; but to be methodical , i shall give a short deser●●tion of his birth , parentage and education . as for his family , on both sides , from wh● he was descended , they were some of the 〈◊〉 famous in their generations . his grandfat●●● was that excellent and truly great man , 〈◊〉 lord wilmot , viscount athlone in ireland . 〈◊〉 his father , who inherited the same title , 〈◊〉 greatness , was by his late majesty king 〈◊〉 the i. created baron of adderburg in oxfords●●●● and by king charles the ii. the earl of roches●●● his mother , of whom many worthy things 〈◊〉 be spoken , was the relict of sir francis 〈◊〉 lee of ditchly , in the county of oxford , baron 〈◊〉 daughter of that generous and honourable ●entleman sir john , st. johns of lyddiard , in the ●ounty of wilts , baronet . he was born in april 1648. and as for his e●ucation , it was in wadham-college in oxford , un●er the care of that wise and excellent gover●our dr. blanford , the late right reverend bishop 〈◊〉 worcester ; there it was he laid a good founda●●on of learning and study , tho he afterwards ●uilt upon that foundation hay and stubble ●●ere he first suck'd from the breasts of his mother ●●e university those perfections of wit , elo●●ence and poetry , which afterwards by his own ●●rrupt stomach , or some ill juices after were 〈◊〉 into poyson to himself and others . leaving the university , he betook himself to ●ravel , from which he return'd in the 18th year 〈◊〉 his age , and appear'd at court with as great ●dvantages as most ever had , greatly signalizing 〈◊〉 valour at sea in the year 65. when he went ●ith the earl of sandwich , &c. he had so entirely 〈◊〉 down the intemperance that was growing on 〈◊〉 before his travels , that at his return he ha●●d nothing more . but falling into company that 〈◊〉 these excesses , he was , tho not without ●●fficulty ; and by many steps , brought back to it ●●ain . and the natural heat of his fancy being ●●flamed by wine , made him so extravagantly ●●easant , that many , to be diverted more by that ●umour , studied to engage him deeper and deeper 〈◊〉 intemperance ; which at length did so entirely ●●bdue him , that ( as he told the reverend dr. ●●rnet now bishop of sarum ) for five years to●●ther he was continually drunk ; not all the while under the visible effects of it , but his bloo● was so inflamed , that he was not in all that time cool enough to be perfect master of himself . thi● led him to say and do many wild and unaccountable things . there were two principles in hi● natural temper , that being heightened by tha● heat , carried him to great excesses ; a violen● love of pleasure , and a disposition to extravagant mirth . the one involved him in great sensuality ; the other led him to many odd adve●tures and frolicks , in which he was oft in hazar● of his life . the one being the same irregula● appetite in his mind , that the other was in hi● body , which made him think nothing divertin● that was not extravagant . and tho' in col● blood he was a generous and good natured man yet he would go far in his heats , after any thin● that might turn to a jest , or matter of diversion and so he came to bend his wit and divert hi● studies and endeavours to support and strenghten these ill principles both in himself and others . an accident fell out after this , which confirm'● him more in these courses : ( i shall relate it in th● very words of the reverend d. burnet ) whe● he went to sea in the year 1665. there happened to be in the same ship with him mr. mou●tague , and another gentleman of quality ; these two , the former especially seemed perswade● that they should never return into england mr. mountague said he was sure of it , the othe● was not so positive : the earl of rochester , an● the last of these , entered into a formal engagement , not without ceremonies of religion , tha● if either of them died , he should appear , an● give the other notice of a future state , if there was any . but mr. mountague would not enter into the bond. when the day came that they thought to have taken the dutch fleet in the port of bergen , mr. mountague , though he had such strong presage in his mind of his approaching death , yet he generously staid all while in the the greatest danger : the other gentleman signaliz'd his courage in a most undaunted manner , till near the end of the action ; when he fell on a sudden into such a trembling , that he could scarce stand ; and mr. mountague going to him to hold him up , as they were in each others arms , a cannon ball killed him out-right , and carried away mr. mountague's belly , so that he died within an hour after . the earl of rochester ( says the doctor ) told me , that these presages had in their minds made some impression on him , that there were separated beings ; and that the soul either by a sagacity or some secret notice communicated to it , had a sort of divination : but that gentleman never appearing was a great snare to him during the rest of his life . as to the supream being , he had always some ●mpressions of one , and profest often that he never knew an entire atheist who fully believ'd there was no god : yet when he explain'd this notion of his being , it amounted to no more than a vast power , that had none of the attributes of goodness or justice , we ascribe to the deity : these were his thoughts about religion . for morali●y , he freely own'd to me ( saith the reverend dr. burnet ) that tho he talked of it , as a finething , yet this was only because he thought it a decent way of speaking , and that as they went always in cloaths , tho' in their frolicks they would have chosen sometimes to have gone naked , if they had not feared the people : so tho' some of them found it necessary for humane life to talk of morality , yet he confessed they cared not for it , further than the reputation of it was necessary for their credit , and affairs ; of which he gave many . instances , as their professing and swearing friendship , where they hated mortality ; their oaths and imprecations in their addresses to women , which the intended never to make good : the delight they had in making people quarrel ; their unjust usage of their creditors , and putting them off by any deceitful promise they could invent , that might deliver them from present importunity ; of all which he afterwards sincerely repented . he would often go into the country , and be for some months wholly imployed in study , or the sallies of his witt ; which he came to direct chiefly to satyre . for his other studies they were divided between the comical and witty writings of the antients and moderns , the roman authors , and books of physick , which the ill state of health he was fall'n into , made more necessary to himself : and which qualified him for an odd adventure which i shall but briefly mention . being under an unlucky accident which obliged him to keep out of the way , he disguis'd himself , so that his nearest friends could not have known him , and set up in tower-street for an italian mountebank , where he had a stage , and practised physick some weeks not without success . in his latter years , ●e read books of history more . he took pleasure ●o disguise himself as a porter , or as a beggar , ●ometimes to follow some mean amours , which ●or the vaniety of them , he affected . at other ●imes meerly for diversion , he would go about in ●dd shapes , in which he acted his part so natural●y , that even those who were on the secret , and ●aw him in these shapes , could perceive nothing ●y which he might be discovered . besides the derision calumnies and jeers he put ●pon religion in his lampoons satyrs , &c. it was too frequent a custom with him to meet with several dissolute persons , purposely to ridi●ule and dispute against religion , &c. of which i ●hall give one memorable instance related by mr. parsons , as the earls own words , one day at an atheistical meeting , at a person of qualities , i ●ndertook to manage the cause , and was the principal disputant against god and piety , and for my perfor●ances received the applause of the whole company ; up●n which my mind was terribly struck , and i immediate●y reply'd thus to my self ; good god! that a man , ●hat walks upright , that sees the wonderful works of god , and has the use of his senses and reason , should ●se them to the defying of his creator ! but tho' this ●as a good begining towards my conversion , to find my conscience touch'd for my sins , yet it went off again ; ●ay all my life long i had a secret value and reverence ●or an honest man , and lov'd morality in others : but i ●ad form'd an odd scheme of religion to my self , which ●ould solve all that god or conscience might force upon ●e ; yet i was not ever well reconciled to the business of ●hristianity , n●r had that reverence for the gospel of ●hrist as i ought to have , p. 23. of e. of rochesters ●uneral sermon . in this antheistical state of mind , denying 〈◊〉 power of the almighty : and despising his m●●●sters , he continued till by a most wonderful p●●vidence , the lord was pleased to open his 〈◊〉 blinded eyes : and it was thus , as he gave the 〈◊〉 count to the reverend dr. burnet . mr. parsons in order to his conviction , read him the 53. chapter of our saviour's passion , t●● he might there see a prophecy concerning it , writ● many ages before it was done ; which the je●●●● that blasphemed christ , still kept in their han● as a book divinely inspired : he said it to me , 〈◊〉 mr. parsons , that as he heard it read , he felt an ●●●ward force upon him , which did so enlighten his 〈◊〉 and convince him , that he could resist it no longer : 〈◊〉 the words had an authority which did shoot like 〈◊〉 or beams in his mind ; so that he was not only convin●● by the reasonings he had about it , which satisfied 〈◊〉 understanding , but by a power which did so effectu●●● constrain him , that he did ever after as firmly believe his saviour , as if he had seen him in the clouds . 〈◊〉 had ( said my author ) made it be read so often 〈◊〉 him , that he had got it by heart : and 〈◊〉 through a great part of it in discourse with 〈◊〉 with a sort of heavenly pleasure , giving me 〈◊〉 reflections on it ; some few i rememb●● who hath believed our report ? h● he said , was foretold the opposition the gospel was meet with from such wretches as he was . 〈◊〉 hath no form nor comliness , 〈◊〉 when we shall see him , there is no bea● that we should desire him. on this he said , 〈◊〉 meanness of his appearance has made vain and fo● people desparage him , because he came not in suc● 〈◊〉 coat as they delight in , thus for his own ●ords . having thus far trac'd his life , in several consi●●rable and valuable passages . i shall now com●ndiously incert some of his chief atheistical ar●●ments , used in defence of his immorali●ies , and ●●●tious practices , as the same were urg'd to , and ●●swer'd by the right reverend dr. burnet , as ●ake it ; upon their first acquaintance . the three chief things they talked about were morality , natural religion , and revealed religion , ●hristianiy in particular : for morality ( saith my ●uthor ) the earl confessed , he saw the necessity 〈◊〉 it , both for the government of the world , 〈◊〉 for the preservation of heath , life , and ●●iendship , and was much a shamed of his former ●●actices , rather because he had made himself a ●east , and had brought pain and sickness on his ●ody , and had suffered much in his reputation , ●an from any deep sense of a supream being or ●●other state : but so far this went with him , ●●at he resolved firmly to change the course of his ●●fe , which he thought he should effect by the 〈◊〉 of philosophy , and had not a few no less 〈◊〉 than pleasant notions concerning the folly 〈◊〉 madness of vice : but he confessed he had no ●●morse for his past actions , as offences against 〈◊〉 , but only as injuries to himself and man●●nd . upon this subject ; saith the reverend doctor ●hew'd him the defects of philosophy for reform●●g the world : that it was a matter of specu●●tion , which but few either had the leisure or ●●pacity to enquire into . but the principle that must reform mankind , must be obvious to 〈◊〉 man's understanding . that philosophy in mat●●● of morality , beyon the great lines of our d●●● had no very certaind fixed rule ; but in the 〈◊〉 offices and instances went much by the fancie●● men , and customs of nations and conseque●●● could not have authority enough to bear do the propensities of nature , appetite or passi●● for which ( saith the doctor ) i instanced in 〈◊〉 points , the one was about that maxim of 〈◊〉 stoick , to extirpate all sort of passion and con●●● for any thing , &c. the other was upon the straint of pleasure how far that was to go . u●●● this saith my author , he told me the two ma●●● of his morality then were , that he should do 〈◊〉 thing to the hurt of any other , or that might p●●judice his own health : and he thought that 〈◊〉 pleasure when it did not interfere with these 〈◊〉 to be indulged as the gratification of our natu●● appetites . it seemed , continued he , unreasona●●● to imagine these were put into man only to be 〈◊〉 strained , or curbed to such a narrowness : 〈◊〉 he applied to the free use of wine and women . to this , saith my author , i answered , tha● appetites being natural , was an argument for indulging them , then the revengful might as 〈◊〉 alledge it for murder , and the covetous for st●●●ing ; whose appetites are no less keen on those ●●jects ; and yet it is acknowledg'd that these ap●tites ought to be curb'd . if the difference is 〈◊〉 from the injury that another person recei●●● the injury is as great , if a man's wife is 〈◊〉 or his daughter corrupted ? and it is impossible a man to let his appetites loose to vagrant 〈◊〉 not to transgress in these particulars . i ●●ther urged , saith the doctor , that morality ●●●ld not be a strong thing , unless a man were ●●termined by a law within himself ; for if he 〈◊〉 measured himself by decency , or the laws of 〈◊〉 land , this would teach him only to use such 〈◊〉 in his ill practices , that they should not ●eak out too visibly ; but would never carry him 〈◊〉 an inward and universal probity : that virtue ●s of so complicated a nature , that unless a ●●●an came intirely within its discipline , he could 〈◊〉 adhere stedfastly to any one precept ; for ●●●ces are often made necessary supports to one ●●other . that this cannot be done , either steddily 〈◊〉 with any satisfaction , unless the mind dos in●●rdly comply with , and delight in the dictates 〈◊〉 virtue . and t●at could not be effected , ex●●●t a man's nature were internally regenerated and ●●anged by a higher principle : till that came ●●out , corrupt nature would be strong , and phi●●sophy but feeble : especially when it struggled ●●th such appetites or passions as were much kin●ed , or deeply rooted in the constitution of ones ●●dy . this , said the earl , sounded to him like ●●thufiasme , or canting : he had no notion of it , ●●d so could not understand it . he comprehended the dictates of reason and ●●ilosophy , in which as the mind became much con●●rsant , there would soon follow , as he believed , greater easiness in obeying its precepts : i told 〈◊〉 on the other hand , that all his speculations philosophy would not serve him in any stead , to 〈◊〉 reforming of his nature and life , till he ap●●●ed himself to god for inward assistances . it was certain , that the impressions made in his reason governed him , as they were lively presented to him : but these are so apt to slip out of our memory , and we so apt to turn our thoughts from them , and at some times the contrary impressions are so strong , that let a man set up a reasoning in his mind against them , he finds that celebrated saying of the poet. video meliora proboque deteriora sequor . i see what is better and approve it : but follow what i● worse . to be all that philosophy will amount to . where as those who upon such occasions apply themselves to god , by earnest prayer , feel a disengagement from such impressions , and thems●lves en●●ed with a power to resist them . so that thos● bonds which form●rly held them , fall off . this he said must be the effect of a heat in nature : it was only the strong diversion of th● thoughts , that gave the s●eming victory , and h● did not doubt but if one could turn to a problem i● euclid , or to write a copy of verses , it would have the same effect . to this i answer , that 〈◊〉 such methods did only divert the thoughts , there might be some force in what he said : but if they not only drove out such inclinations , but bega● impressions contrary to them , and brought 〈◊〉 into a new disposition and habit of mind ; the●● he must confess there was somewhat m●re than 〈◊〉 diversion , in these changes , which were brough● on our minds by true devotion . he further said sometime after that he did no● understand the business of inspiration ; he believe● the pen-men of the scriptures had heats and honest●● , and so writ : but could not comprehend how ●●d should reveal his secrets to mankind . he could ●●t apprehend how there should be any corruption 〈◊〉 the nature of man , or a lapse derived from ●●am — the incoherences of stile in scriptures ●●e odd transitions , the seeming contradictions , ●●efly about the order of time , the cruelties en●●ned the israelites in destroying the canaanites , cir●●mcision , and many other rites of the jewish ●orship seemed to him infutable to the divine na●●re : and the first three chapters of genesis , he ●●ought could not be true unless they were parables ●his was the substance of what he excepted to re●●●led religion in general , and to the old testament 〈◊〉 particular . ●ut in all these things ( said the reverend b. burnet ) ●old him he was in he wrong way , where he ex●mined the business of religion , by some da●●●rts of scripture : therefore i desir'd him to con●●der the whole contexture of the christian religi●● , the rules it gives , and the methods it pr●scibes , ●●othing can conduce more to the peace , order and ●appiness of the world than to be govern'd by 〈◊〉 rules , nothing is more for the interest of every ●an in particular : the rules of sobriety , tem●erance and moderation were the best preservers of ●ife , and which was perhaps more , of health , ●umility , contempt of the vanities of the world , ●●d the being well employed , raised a man's mind 〈◊〉 a freedom from the follies and temptations that ●aunted the greatest part . nothing was so gene●ous and great as to supply the necessities of the ●oor , and to forgive in●●ries : nothing raised and ●aintained a man's reputation so much , as to be exactly just and merciful , kind , charitable an● compassionate : nothing opened the powers of 〈◊〉 man's soul so much as a calm temper , a seren● mind ; free of passion and disorder : nothin● made societies , families , and neighbourhoods 〈◊〉 happy as when these rules which the gospel prescribes , take place , of doing as we would have other● to do to us , and loving our neighbours as our lseve● ▪ the christian worship is also plain and simple , suitable to so pure a doctrine ; the ceremonies of 〈◊〉 few and significant . the issue of all this discourse was , he told th● reverend d. burnet , that he saw vice and impiety were as contrary to humane society , as wild beasts let loose would be ; and therefore he firmly resolved to change the whole method of his life to ▪ become stricty just and true , to be chast and temperate , to forbear swearing and irreligiou● discourse , to worship and pray to his maker . and that tho' he was not arrived at a full perswasion of christianity , he would never employ his wit to run it down or corrupt others ; this hopeful bud of grace , by the blessing of god so fructified , that in a short time he became not an almost , but a● ●ltogether christian. some instances i shall compendiously give . and i. his hearty concern for the pious education of his children , wishing that his son might never be a wit , that is , ( as himself explained it ) one of those wretched creatures , who pride themselves in abusing god and religion denying his being , or his providence , but that he might become an honest and a religious man , which could only be the support and blessing of his family ; complaining , what a vicious and naughty world they were brought into , and that no for●unes or honours were comparable to the love and favour ●f god to them , in whose name he blessed them , pray'd for 'em , and committed them to his protection . and here i must not pass by his pious and most passionate exclamation to a gentleman of some character , who came to visit him in his last sickness : o remember that you contemn god no more , he is an avenging god , and will visit you for your sins ; will in mercy i hope , touch your conscience sooner or later as he has done mine ; you and i have been friends and sinners together a great while , therefore i am the more free with you ; we have been all mistaken in our conceits and opinions ; our perswasions have been false and groundless , therefore god grant you repentance . and seeing him the next day again , he said to him , perhaps you were disobliged by my plainness yesterday ; i spake the words of truth , and soberness to you , and ( striking his hand upon his breast ) said , i hope god will touch your heart . to this may be added , his comfortable perswasions of gods accepting him to his mercy , saying three or four days before his death , i shall die , but oh ! what unspeakable glories do i see ! what joys beyond thought or expression ; am i sensible of ! i am assured of god's mercy to me through jesus christ. oh how i long to die and to be with my saviour . the time of his sickness and repentance was just nine weeks ; in all which time , he was so much master of his reason , and had so clear and understanding , ( saving 30. hours , about the middle of it , in which he was deli●ious ) that he never dictated or spoke more composed in his life : and therefore if any shall continue to say , his piety was the effect of madness or vapours ; let me tell them it is h●●●ly disingenuous , and that the assertion is as sill● it is wicked . nor was this thing done in a corn● nmbers visited and attended him ; and surely , 〈◊〉 any , the learned physicians , that were convers●● with him in the whole course of his tedious sickne●● are competent judges of a phrensy or delirium . to conclude these remarks , i shall incert his dying rem●strance , sufficiently attested and sign●d by his own hand , as truest sence , ( which i hope may be useful for that good end design'd it , ) in manner and form following for the benefit of all those whom i may have drawn sin by my example and encouragemnet , i leave to world this my last declaration , which i deliver in presence of the great god , who knows the secrets of hearts , and befor whom i am now appearing to be judged ▪ that from the bottom of my soul i detest and ab●●● the whole course of my former wicked life ; that i thi● can never suffiently admire the goodness of god , who haven me a true sense of my pernicious opinions and vile p●●●tices , by which i have hitherto lived without hope , 〈◊〉 without god in the world ; have been an open enem● jesus christ , doing the utmost despite to the holy spir●● grace . and that the greatest testimony of my chari●● such is , to warn 'em in the name of god , and as they re●●●● the welfare of their immortal souls , no more to deny his ●●ing , or his providence , or despise his goodness ▪ no mo●●● make a mock of sin , or contemn the pure and excellent ●●ligion of my ever blessed red●emer , thro' whose merits a●●● i one of the greatest of sinners , do yet hope for mercy 〈◊〉 forgiveness amen . declared and sign'd in the presence of anne rochester . robert parsons . f. rochest●● jun. 16 , 1680. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30380-e280 vers. 1 vers. 2. the royal martyr, and the dutiful subject in two sermons / by g. burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1675 approx. 110 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 47 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30414 wing b5869 estc r22925 12622757 ocm 12622757 64571 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30414) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64571) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:10 or 2345:5) the royal martyr, and the dutiful subject in two sermons / by g. burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. royal martyr lamented. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. subjection for conscience-sake asserted. [4], 46, [2], 39 p. printed by r. royston ..., london : 1675. each sermon also has special t.p. and separate paging. the second sermon, "subjection for conscience-sake asserted" also issued separately as wing b5928, and found at reel 760:9. "the royal martyr lamented" filmed separately as wing b5869a on reel 2345. reproduction of originals in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng charles -i, -king of england, 1600-1649 -sermons. sermons, english. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-11 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the royal martyr , and the dutiful subject , in two sermons . by g. bvrnet . london , printed for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty , at the angel in amen-corner , 1675. the royal martyr lamented , in a sermon preached at the savoy , on king charles the martyr's day , 1674 / 5. by gilbert burnet . london , printed for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty , at the angel in amen-corner , 1675. the royal martyr lamented , in a sermon preached at the savoy , on king charles the martyr's day , 1674 / 5 2 sam . 2. 12. and they mourned and wept , and fasted until even for saul and for ionathan his son , and for the people of the lord , and for the house of israel , because they were fallen by the sword . there is no maxim so general , or so constant , but that it may allow of some exception ; and therefore though the wiseman after all his experience , his most searching observations , and the great prospect he had of the order of second causes , and the temper of mens minds , does pronounce , there was nothing new under the sun : yet this day , and that never-enough-lamented villany we now remember , must put in for an exception from that rule , which did indeed exceed all the common measures of wickedness so far ; that as there is nothing in any history like it , so when the world is some ages older ( if such an action be not an omen that its end is near ) this will scarce gain credit , but be looked on as the tragical contrivance of some deeply-melancholy wit. some princes have been by their prevailing conquerors put to death , others have been assassinated by their own subjects . but to see a soveraign prince brought to the pageantry of a mock-trial , and by a court made up of his own subjects on a pretence of justice sentenced to lose his life ; not in the corner of some private prison , but in the chief city of his dominions , and in the most eminent place of it , is an evidence of the degeneracy of the age we live in , that would dare to act what in former ages none would have thought on . what phocas did to the emperour mauritius is the nearest parallel to it which history offers , but comes far short of matching it ; for neither were the rights of the roman emperours derived by so clear a title , nor so long a descent as our royal martyr's were ; and so no wonder if those who rose by the sword did also fall by it . nor did phocas so far affront justice as to pretend to put his master to a trial , and mauritius had by so base an avarice exposed so many of his soldiers to be cut off , and used the rest so ill , that no wonder they in their fury against him were guilty of so foul a conspiracy . but how much more exquisitly wicked was the crime we now remember , when a prince ( whose rights were devolved on him , by so many titles , the british , the saxon , the norman , and the scotish races , having all united in him , ( who had also in his whole government shewed that deep sense of religion with a most tender regard to the good and quiet of his subjects ) was against all the rules of justice , and yet upon some colours of it brought to so publick a death . but as phocas as basely treacherous and wicked as he was , was most ignominiously and shamefully courted by pope gregory the great , who writes to him in a stile of so mean and servile flattery , that it justly stains all the other good qualities of that prelate . and his successor boniface did yet more meanly comply , and got himself declared by him the universal bishop of the church . from which we may judg of that see , by vvhat arts they are resolved to rise and to make use of the worst of men if they can but serve their turn . so in this regicide , religion was vouched , and god appealed to . and indeed it was no wonder that these treated his vicegerents so coarsely , that made so bold with god himself , as to pretend he was their patron and warrant in what they did . and perhaps if these actors had as fully complied with him that pretend to be christs vicegerent as phocas did , he had as plainly justified their actions as gregory and boniface did , which might have been far rather looked for now , after all the opinions some of their emissaries have broached , of murdering princes , then at that time when their corruptions were but a-forming , and their ambition was beginning to fly at supremacy and universal jurisdiction . but is all our work only to reflect with some horrour on this infamous action ? have we no other concern in this day ? the collect tells us , that the sins of this nation have been the cause which hath brought this heavy judgment upon us . we also pray , that this our land be freed from the vengeance of his blood . and indeed had not our sins been great , so that the cup of our iniquities was quite full , it could not have run over in a tract of a long civil war , which brought along with it so much bloodshed , rapine and contempt of all things sacred and humane ; and all was compleated in this crime , beyond which wickedness could go no higher . those who were so nobly and generously loyal as to serve his late majesty of most blessed memory , do with a just glorying rejoyce in the reflection on their past services ; yet let me crave leave to offer even to them how far they ought to be concerned in mourning and fasting on this occasion . it was our contempt of god and religion , our being purely formal in our religious worship , our forgetting to acknowledg god the author of our peace and plenty , our abusing these by excess and riot , that brought on those sad and unheard-of judgments . among the much-abused words of the late time were incendiary and incendiarism ; but those were the great incendiaries that kindled gods wrath , and it is from such that we may justly fear the like , or rather severer judgments , if our sins now be greater than they were then : therefore the lamenting and repenting of these sins , by which what is past may be forgiven , and what may be feared be prevented , being the proper work of this day ; i come now to consider my text , and what reflections may be drawn from it , though in a case so much without a precedent as this is , it is not to be imagined that a text wholly pertinent can be pickt up . but we shall make the most of this we can , and consider three things in it . first , this king whose death was so much lamented , and in what particulars he was a parallel , and in what not , of our royal martyr . secondly , what reason david with the rest of the people of israel had to mourn for his death , and how far that agrees with our case . thirdly , how they expressed their sorrow , and how far their example calls on us to imitate it . for the first , it was saul the son of kish , whom god had by the hands of samuel designed to be king of israel , for whom david had that respect , that even when he was most unjustly hunting his life , yet he would not stretch forth his hand against him , seeing he was the anointed of the lord. and in this our royal martyr was his parallel , since he was , by a tract of an undisputed succession , that which saul was by immediate revelation , the lord 's anointed . and indeed he looked on himself as having his authority from god , as will appear from the following instances , ( which before i mention i must preface with this ) that i will not enlarge on the whole field of that murdered princes vertues ; for that were both endless , they being so many , and needless , they being so well known : but having by a great happiness seen not a few ( i may add hundreds of ) papers under his own royal pen ; i shall only now offer divers passages drawn out of those that vvill give some characters of his great soul. and as in the indies the art of painting is only the putting together little plumes of several colours in such method as to give a representation of vvhat they design ; vvhich though it be but coarse vvork yet the colours are lively ; so i can promise no exact vvork , but true and lively colours i vvill offer , being those mixed by our martyr himself , though perhaps unskilfully placed by me . and as the popish legend tells of tvvo pictures of our saviour done by himself , one particularly vvhich he left in veronica's handkercher vvhen he vviped his face vvith it ; so from the svveat of our royal martyr some lineaments of his face shall be offered . and to return to make good the character of our late soveraign , he ovvned all his authority to be derived from god ; and therefore in one of his papers i find these vvords , vvhen he is acknovvledging the great blessings , and eminent protection he had received from the hands of the almighty , he adds ; to whom we know we must yield a dear account for any breach of trust , or failing of our duty towards our people . and in another paper reflecting on the demand concerning the militia , he gives the reason vvhy he could not consent to it as it vvas proposed ; because thereby he wholly divested himself ( as he conceived ) of the power of the sword intrusted to him by god and the laws of the land for the protection and government of his people , thereby at once disinheriting his posterity of that right and prerogative of the crown , which is absolutely necessary for the kingly-office , and so weakening monarchy in this kingdom , that little more than the name and shadow of it will remain . in another paper he expresses his zeal to preserve the lavvs , as became gods vicegerent , in these vvords : if we wanted the conscience we cannot the discretion , to tempt god in au unjust quarrel , the laws of our kingdom shall be sacred to us , we shall refuse no hazard to defend them , but sure we shall run none to invade them . and that paper vvhich is very long , he thus concludes , god so deal with us and our posterity , as we shall inviolably observe the laws and statutes of our kingdom , and the protestations we have so often made for the defence of the true reformed protestant religion , the laws of the land , and the just priviledges and freedom of parliaments . from these evidences it will appear what severe thoughts he had of the obligations he lay under to almighty god , from whom he had his power , and to whom he knew he was to give account of his administration . 2. we find it is said of saul , that after he was anointed , god gave him another heart , and that meeting a company of prophets he prophesied to the astonishment of those that beheld him . how much of this divine spirit rested on our blessed martyr , all those meditations which were his exercises in his retirement do abundantly declare . if by saul's prophesying be meant the foretelling what was to come , i meet somewhat very near it from his royal pen , anno 1642 , in a letter , wherein he writes these words ; i have set up my rest on the justice of my cause , being resolved that no extremity or misfortune shall make me yield ; for i will either be a glorious king , or a patient martyr ; and as yet not being the first , and at present not apprehending the other , i think it now no unfit time to express this my resolution to you . a very overly observer will see much in these words , even without a commentaty . or , if by prophesying be to be understood an elevated way of trusting in god , and adoring him , then i shall add what i find under the same sacred pen , when he was at newcastle , in a letter to one of his subjects : know that i rather expect the worse than the better event of things ; being resolved ( by the grace of god and without the least repining at him ) to suffer any thing that injury can put upon me rather than sin against my conscience . and in another letter , now for the sad consequences i know no so good antidote as a good conscience , which by the grace of god i will preserve whatever else happen to me . a third character we have of saul is that he was very careful to protect his subjects when in danger ; as appears both by his haste to relieve iabish-gilead when sore pur to it by the king of ammon , and by his engaging against the philistines with so much personal danger to himself and his family . now what our martyrs zeal for protecting his subjects was , ( i speak not of his care in protecting the oppressed protestants in germany and france , which i leave to the historians ) i shall make appear from the following evidences . what vast concessions he made to his native kingdom every body knows ; and therefore he concluded a paper he signed on his pacification with them in these words : and as we have just reason to believe that to our peaceable and well-affected subjects this will be satisfactory ; so we take god and the world to witness that whatever calamities shall ensue by our necessitated suppressing of the insolencies of such as shall continue in their disobedient courses , is not occasioned by us , but by their own procurement . and in a letter to one of his commissioners , there he writes : but if the madness of our subjects be such , that they will not rest satisfied with what we have given you power to condescend to ; which notwithstanding all their insolencies we still allow you to make good to them ; we take god to witness that what misery soever fall to that country hereafter , it is no fault of ours but their own procurement . and in another letter at that same time : we take god to witness we have permitted them to do many things for establishing of peace contrary to our own judgment . how far he complied with their most unreasonable desires to the very great diminutions of his royal authority is well enough known . when he saw them inclined to engage in the civil war in this kingdom , he left no mean unessayed to satisfie even all their jealousies and fears ; and therefore in a paper under his own pen he writes these words : we do conjure all our good subjects of that our native kingdom , by the long happy and uninterrupted government of us and our royal progenitors over them , by the memory of these many large and publick blessings they enjoyed under our dear father , by these ample favours and benefits they have received from us , not to suffer themselves to be misled and corrupted in their affections and duty to us by the cunning malice and industry of these incendiaries . and when he heard these dismal news of that most barbarous rebellion in ireland , with what zeal he set about the sending relief to them may appear from the following words of one of his letters to one in his native kingdom after he had lamented the miseries and afflictions , to which his good subjects in ireland were reduced through the inhumane and unheard-of cruelties of the rebels there ; and had regrated the delays of sending supplies to them through the distractions of england ; he adds : so that if some extraordinary course be not taken for their present supply , it is not like their miseries will end sooner their days . therefore he required them to haste the sending over their forces , assuring them , that if the parliament of england did not punctually pay them , he would engage his own revenue , rather than delay so good and so necessary a work ; and that he would issue out such warrants under the great seal of england , and grant all their other desires which in reason could be demanded for the advancement of it . and after that , seeing that work went on slowly , he was resolved to have gone in person to have carried it on more vigorously , and to have hazarded himself that he might preserve his people . but finding that resolution gave great jealousies to those who censured him whatever he did , he gave it over . how careful he was to prevent a rupture in this nation , not only his great concessions prove , but his constant offers of treaty , even when things went prosperously with him , do demonstrate , therefore reflecting on this in a paper ( under his own pen ) he writes ; we denied not any thing , but what by the known law was unquestionably our own , we earnestly desired and pressed a treaty , that so we might but know at what price we might prevent the miseries and desolations that was threatned ; but this was absolutely and scornfully refused and rejected . and in a message , which though it was never sent , yet remains under his hand , he writes these words : and now he conjures his two houses of parliament as they are englishmen , christians , and lovers of peace , by the duty they owe their king , and by the bowels of compassion they have towards their fellow-subjects , that they will accept of these offers , whereby the joyful news of peace may be again restored to this languishing kingdom . and thus far the parallel of saul and our martyred king hath held good , but now they must depart from one another ; and it shall appear how our late soveraign was on many accounts hugely preferable to the king lamented in my text ; yet i shall name one particular in which saul had the better of him . saul had by his rash oath endangered ionathan's life , which he seemed resolved to execute , but the earnest intercessions of his people prevailed on him to change these his severe and cruel resolutions . but alas ! our martyr having firmly resolved to save a person he judged innocent , and clear of the treason charged on him , did to comply with the most pressing desires of his people , consent to the putting him to death : we have seen his fault and the specious colours that led him to it , next let me lay before you his repentance , expressed by himself in a letter , anno 1642. one thing more , which but for the messenger were too much to trust to paper , the failing to one friend hath indeed gone very near me ; wherefore i am resolved that no consideration whatsoever shall ever make me do the like upon this ground . i am certain that god hath either so totally forgiven me , that he will still bless this good cause in my hands , or that all my punishment shall be in this world , which without performing what i have resolved i cannot flatter my self will end here . and he ends that letter thus : beside generosity , to which i pretend a little , my conscience will make me stick to my friends . how deep his sense of that sin , how great his apprehensions of the judgments of god , and how true his notion of repentance was , cannot but easily appear upon the first hearing these words . but for this one advantage , the king in my text had of the king of the day , we shall find many great and noble characters in which he excelled him . and first , saul pretended some zeal for god , he built an altar for him ; he honoured samuel his prophet , he went and destroyed the amalekites ; but when it might serve his turn he did not stick to disobey god , he saved agag , and much of the spoil of the amalekites , pretending it was preserved for offering sacrifices . he had not patience to stay for samuel , but did sacrilegiously offer the sacrifice himself . but our martyr did not only express great regard to god in his prosperity by many high marks of his zeal and constant attendance on the worship of god ; his great esteem of all worthy and deserving churchmen , and his royal bounty to the advancing all pious and religious purposes : but by his constant and firm adhering to those rights of the church , and to all he judged himself bound in conscience to maintain ; therefore it was that he did choose to bear the greatest dangers rather than sin against his conscience . when the violence of his native subjects against the order of bishops had brought things to that pass that it could not be maintained without much blood and confusion , he judged that god loved mercy better than sacrifice , did give way to their fury ; but with that tender care that became a man of so severe and exact a conscience ; and this shall appear by some evidences i go to mention . having signed a paper of concessions , wherein he had used the word , it pleased him , reflecting on the importance of that , he wrote the following words in a letter to him that had the managing of that business : i must desire you to alter one word , that i should not be thought to desire the abolishing of that in scotland , which i approve and maintain in england . now the word content expresses enough my consent to have them surcease for the present . but the word , pleased , methinks imports as much as if i desired them to take them away , or at least that i were well pleased they should do so : but i leave it to your ordering , so that you make it be clearly understood that though i permit , yet i would be better pleased they let them alone . and in the instructions he gave his commissioner for consenting to the abolition of the order of bishops , he wrote thus : carry the disputes so , that the conclusion seem not to be made in prejudice of episcopacy as unlawful , but only in satisfaction to the people , and for setling the present disorders , and such other reasons of state. and he likewise ordered him to take care , that episcopacy should not be abjured as a point of popery , contrary to gods law , or the protestant religion . and at the same time in a letter to the primate of that church he wrote thus : we do assure you that it shall be still one of our chiefest studies , how to rectifie and establish the government of that church aright . and he adds a little after , you may rest secure , that though perhaps we give way for the present to that which will be prejudicial , both to the church and our own government , yet we will not leave thinking in time how to remedy both . after god in his wise and holy , though to us unaccountable counsels , suffered the rebellious arms of his enemies so far to prevail , that nothing did promise any hopes of his being re-established on his throne , but the consenting to all the demands of these in whose hands he had cast himself , then did the strict care he had to keep a good conscience appear , by his hazarding all things rather than endanger his inward quiet ; and therefore he told them : that when he was satisfied in his conscience with the lawfulness of what they desired , then , but not till then , could he grant their demands ; and was willing to enter in conference with any they would appoint about these two points , the one being the divine appointment of bishops , and the other his being obliged to defend them by his oath of coronation . and the account of one of his discourses i have seen , is thus : that he would run the hazard of all his crowns below , rather than endanger that above ; and that though the quiet of his kingdoms , and the settlement of his throne were very valuable , yet the peace of his conscience must be preferred by him to all things . and in a discourse he had , which he wrote with his own pen , he used these words : not to stay you too long upon so unpleasing a subject ; i assure you that nothing but the preservation of that which is dearer to me than my life , could have hindered me from giving you full satisfaction ; for upon my word all the dangers and inconveniences which you have laid before me do not so much trouble me , as that i cannot give full satisfaction to the desires of my native country ; especially being so earnestly pressed upon me : and yet here again i must tell you ( for in this case repetitions are not impertinent ) that i do not give you a denial ; nay , i protest against it , and remember it is your king that desires to be heard . and in another paper he sent to those that governed then in his native kingdom , he writes these words : if it be so clear , as you believe , that episcopacy is unlawful , i doubt not but god shall so enlighten mine eyes , that i shall soon perceive it ; and then i promise you to concur with you fully in matters of religion ; and therefore he subjoyns , he hopes they would not press him to do that which was yet against his conscience , until he might do it without sinning . and he concluded that paper with a postscript to the ministers : that he hoped they , as ministers of gods word , would not press upon him untimeously the matter of church-government , until ( he adds ) i may have leisure to be so perswaded , that i may comply with what they desire without breach of conscience ; which i am confident they , as church-men cannot press me to do . and in these conscientious resolutions he was so firm , that in a private letter he writes thus : for gods sake do not so much as expect , much less linger after any other or further matter from me ; for upon the faith of a christian you shall have no more than what is now laid before you . and in another letter : as for your covenant , when , and not before , that i shall be satisfied in my conscience that i may allow it , i will. he going on grounds so strict and well-pleasing to god , it was no wonder he maintained that serenity of mind , that when he got letters that told him how he was to be used , being engaged at chess , he continued to play after he had read his letters , without shew of any commotion or disturbance , which i have seen under the hand of an eye-witness . and in the moneth of march before his martyrdom , when he was almost out of all hopes ; yet he would not depart from these christian resolutions , which i find thus expressed by his own pen : for any enlargement concerning church-affairs i desire you not to expect it from me , for such expectations have been a great cause of this my present condition , which i assure you i am still resolved rather to suffer than to wrong my conscience or honour , which i must do if i enlarge my self any thing in these points . these are some of the true characters of a defender of the faith ; of one that did approve himself to be under god and christ , the supreme over the church , and of one that was indeed fitted to bear all things , rather than sin against god or his conscience . 2. another character of saul is his cruelty , which was so enraged that he spared neither son-in-law nor son , but threw his darts at them to have killed them , and his cruelty against david was also joined with perfidy and breach of trust ; for after he had given him the most sacred assurances , he still continued to pursue him , and caused to be murdered fourscore and five priests for the pretended fault of one which he believed upon the delation of an edomite . this was a fact both so cruel and so impious , that he could find none to execute it , but that uncircumcised alien , and all this was the effect of that evil spirit was let loose upon him , when by his sins he had driven away the good spirit of god. but our royal martyr did daily shew more and more evidences of a truly divine and christian spirit : what full indemnity and oblivion did he offer his enemies ! even though they would not allow any indemnity to his friends . and how much he was against all cruel or severe practices may appear from these evidences ; one is under his own hand , in these words : the present distractions about religion are so great , and of that nature , that perswasion as well as power must be used to restore that happy tranquillity which the church of england hath lately and miserably lost ; for certainly violence and persecution never was nor will be found a right way to settle peoples consciences . and this went so far with him , as to give him a strong aversion to the excuting sanguinary laws against even the emissaries of rome , which i find he thus expresses in a paper written with his own pen : concerning goodman the priest , the reason why i reprieved him is , that , as i am informed , neither queen elizabeth , nor my father , did ever allow that any priest in their times was executed meerly for religion ; which to me seems to be this particular case ; yet seeing i am pressed by both houses to give way to his execution , because i will avoid the inconvenience of giving so great a discontentment to my people , as i perceive this mercy may produce , i remit this particular case to both houses ; but i desire you to take unto your serious consideration the inconveniences which , as i conceive , may upon this occasion fall upon my subjects and other protestants abroad ; especially since it may seem to other states to be a severity with surprize ; which i , having thus represented , do think my self discharged from all ill consequences , that may ensue upon the execution of this person . for his fidelity in observing his treaties , i have already in another branch of this discourse mentioned some passages that shew how religiously he resolved to observe them ; and his refusing to serve his interests by promises , which how useful soever they might have been to him , yet since he could not with a good conscience observe them , he would not make them , shews how sacred he accounted all his promises ; and his offering to quit the command of the militia , either for a determinate number of years , or for his whole life , shews how carefully he intended to observe all he promised ; since he was willing to give such a security , which as it was strong , so it diminished his authority in the most tender and most sacred part of it . i shall to these add only one instance . when he saw those of his native kingdom engaging in the war against him , in this kingdom , it is obvious enough how much the securing berwick might have advanced his service , and his armies in the north could easily have done it ; yet since by the treaty with that kingdom it was not to be garrisoned ; so religiously did he observe the treaty , that he would not put a garrison in it : but that fidelity was not minded by those who conspired against him , who did , notwithstanding the treaty , garrison the place ; upon which occasion he wrote what follows : no industry hitherto could have so far prevailed with us as to have gained any belief that our scotch-subjects would countenance , much less assist this bloody rebellion in england ; yet we know not how to understand the levying forces both foot and horse within our native kingdom , and their entering the town of berwick in a hostile manner . our most malicious enemies must bear us witness , how religiously we have observed these articles on our part ; whereas if we had not been more tender , than the advisers of this breach have been , of the publick faith , it is obvious to any how easily we could have secured that town from all rebels . and after he had refuted the pretence they made use of , he adds : such then as shelter themselves under that pretext , will find from thence but a slender warrant before god , who knows the integrity of our heart , and how inviolably we intend to preserve all that we have granted that kingdom , so long as they suffer themselves to be capable of our protection , and those favours . he likewise wrote in another letter at that same time these words : such high indignities to us , and to our authority make us believe they have forgot they have a king , and their oaths in preserving us in our just power , as their king. but god will discover and punish such undutiful thoughts , how closely soever they be clouded with pretences of safety to religion and liberty , which they know will be ever dearer to us than our own preservation . 3. and to close up this parallel , saul when in danger , betook himself to the basest arts , and went to the witch at endor , to ask responses about the event of that battel he was to give the philistines , not considering how he had provoked god to withdraw his protection from him , and that all the powers of hell , and evil spirits were no longer able to preserve him ; and having got a sad answer to his over-curious question , ( the common fate of all who will by these forbidden arts thrust into the secrets of the divine councels ) , we find him wofully faint-hearted , sore afraid , fall flat on the ground and refuse to eat . and after that fatal battel he had neither the courage to out-live it , nor the strength to finish his desperate design upon himself ; but after he had fallen on his own sword , he called an amalekite to compleat that self-murder , which he begun by his falling on his sword , and finished by these cruel orders he gave . but nothing of all this belongs to our royal martyr , who depended on god , and submitted to his will in the course of all his councels , both of peace and war ; and when it pleased god for the punishment of his people , to expose him to the malice and cruelty of his enemies , even then he proved more than conquerour ; and according to the prospect he had of it long before , he was a patient martyr : nor did he express the least meanness of spirit when brought lowest , he would neither give up the rights of the church nor the crown , of people nor parliaments , to their insulting pride , who trampling on all laws sacred and humane , had made themselves the sacrilegious masters of his person and power . and as he was not cowardly or languid under all his misfortunes , so he maintained his authority as long as he was able , and did not faintly despond , nor abandon his own rights , or the protection of his people . but this leads me to the sad part of my discourse , wherein i am to compare the reasons we have for mourning , with these david and the people of israel had on this occasion , and it will be easily allowed , ours must be by so much the greater , by how much our royal martyr did exceed their king , which hath been demonstrated in the parallel i have given . first , this kings death was his own deed ; and though the victory his enemies got , drave him to that despair , yet none of the people were of accession to it : and for the amalekite ( if his relation was true ) as it was an alien from their commonwealth that did it ; so saul was well served for not destroying the amalekites , as samuel had commanded him ; therefore they had no particular reason to be sorry , but only because they had lost a king , who as he was none of the worst , so he was far from being one of the best princes . perhaps david had some more reason to fast and mourn , and as his conscience did before accuse him for cutting off the hem of his garment ; so now the arms he bare against him did trouble his conscience . for though much may be said for david in that case , he was the designed heir of the crown by gods appointment ; he was very unjustly and perfidiously used by saul ; he had kept himself on a pure defensive , and saul's being frenetick and possessed with an evil spirit , are great justifications of david's little army , or rather guard ; and his being a man according to gods heart , ought to possess all with that esteem for him , as not easily to find fault with him , or with any of his actions ; yet his army being made up of men distressed , in debt , and discontented , is a shrewd indication , that the cause was not over-good when he had such a following . besides , his going to live at gath with the uncircumcised , his cutting off the amalekites , and pretending to achish that he had destroyed his own people by an unjustifiable deceit ; and finally his going out with the armies of the philistines , and professing a great desire to fight against the enemies of achish , who were no other but saul , his natural liege-lord , and the armies of israel ( wherein he either acted a very unsincere part , or did really resolve to have engaged against them ) are things so manifestly contrary to the laws of god , that they give a strong presumption , that the whole business of his taking armes was contrary to law and religion . but i shall not enter further into the dispute , and so leave it ; inclining rather to believe , that david's conscience did accuse him , of having failed in his duty to saul . but after all this our case is much more justly deplorable , who did not lose our king by the prevailing power of a hostile invasion , but by the unnatural hands of his own subjects , who were ( both by the tye of subjection , by their oaths of allegiance , which many of them had sworn , and by their constant professions of fighting for the king , and in defence of his authority , as they gave it out , for training in the multitude by so deceitful a bait ) , tyed to the preservation of his person , and yet did wash their hands in his blood ; and by their pretending religion and justice , in a fact so contrary to both , did ( as much as in them lay ) bring the foulest imputations on both that could be . how did this open the mouths of the adversaries of our religion , ( whom we had justly charged for their seditious and treasonable doctrines ) to insult over us ; but without all cause : for as all the reasons pretended , were but upon the matter the same with those their doctors have published , allowing but a small change ; so those of our true and soundly reformed church did abominate so foul a crime , with all possible horrour ; and , as was most just , did both in publick and private declare against it ; and with a generous and truly christian constancy , endured sequestrations , imprisonments , and every thing which that insulting power put them to , rather than comply with so vile an action and its vile actors . but to all this it may be said , let these mourn who were of accession to it , that concerns not us . to which i must answer , that such publick crimes leave a guilt upon the whole nation , which therefore must be expiated with a publick universal repentance . and if in the law of moses god declared , that blood was a crying sin which called to heaven for vengeance , and therefore when a murder was discovered , and the murderer was not known , there was to be a sacrifice for the whole people to expiate the guilt ; how much more in a crime , attended with so many foul and black circumstances , ought we by earnest prayers to study to avert these judgments , which we may but too justly apprehend ! and to this let me add , that there are not so many innocent as those perhaps imagine ; for as david here did ( it is probable ) charge himself for arming against the lords anointed ; so what reason have these who engaged in opposition , and arms to our royal martyr , to charge and judg themselves , that they be not judged of the lord ; who not being satisfied with those great and large concessions , he freely and willingly offered , did pursue his person and life in the field ; after which it was no wonder others learned to pursue him to the scaffold . may not the one be said to have killed the king that robbed him of his revenue , power and authority , and every thing was necessary for the maintenance of the royal dignity ; whereas the other did but murther charles , after he was spoiled of his royal power , and the government taken out of his hands : though in a formal pageantry writs were issued in his name . and thus we find the grounds of our mourning grow larger , and take , or rather call in , more mourners . but in fine , by another advance , a great many more will be comprized within this duty , even all those who did not with the most vigorous opposition was possible prevent this barbarous regicide ; which made a foreign historian , giving account of it , say , it was a wonder how englishmen could look on and behold so barbarous and unexampled a crime : where were the hearts and hands of the brave english , whose loyal and noble valour appearing on this occasion , had been a subject to be celebrated by all the highest and most grateful remembrances posterity could dedicate to so glorious an action ? did a pusillanimous fear freez their courage , when their head was thus struck at ? did the care of their fortunes prevail , when they could expect no longer to live secure in the possession of any of their rights , when all was in this one act unhinged ? did the atrocity of the fact astonish them so , that they were not recovered out of this amazing surprize till it was too late ? or did the suddenness of the crime prevent their diligence ? or were they so charitable to their country-men as not to think any could be capable of committing this crime , till they were convinced of it by an unanswerable argument ? yet all these palliations or excuses will not serve turn , they should have put all to hazard when they saw the case so desperate , and all like to be lost . and thus it appears many are concerned to mourn on this occasion , who perhaps think themselves far from any guilt . finally , there be yet others concerned , who ( may be ) do not so much as imagin how it may come to their door , and these be the present generation , who either were not born then , or at least of that age that nothing could be expected from them ; but even they must consider that god visits the sins of the fathers upon the children ; and though no child is guilty of his fathers fact , unless he concurred in it , or did afterwards approve it , yet many times the judgments of god in temporal things do overtake them for their fathers faults ; which is no more unjust than for the law to deny the child any of the privileges of subjects for the fathers faults . from all this then it will appear how much more reason we have to mourn , than the people of israel had on this occasion , who have ( to the scorn and insultings of our enemies ) been one way or other so generally guilty in the death of so religious and pious a prince . 2. but the people of israel had this great allay to their grief that they had a prince designed by god for the succession , who had given such approved evidences of his great piety , wisdom , valour and conduct , that their government was presently to take a settlement ; though it is true abner set up ishbosheth , saul's son , who was followed by all israel , only iudah , davids own tribe , adhered to him : but this was after two years war decided , and all israel received david for their king ; and still the government was steady and even , and therefore they had not that reason to afflict them which we had on the occasion we now remember . it is true the right of succession was clear and undisputed , but those who killed the father continued their crimes by pursuing the son , and not only driving him from his rights , but when one of the tribes of our israel , even that which justly glories in a nearer interest in our soveraigns person , had adhered to him , and crowned him , though with very unjustifiable reserves , then did that party , bathed in the fathers blood , thirst likewise for the son 's , and carried the war into that kingdom ; and when the righteous heir of our murthered martyr came into this , then again did carnal wisdom , and the care of mens lives and estates prevail over those strong tyes of loyalty and subjection ; god having reserved the establishing him on his fathers throne to his own immediate arm ; wherein there should be a clear declaration of his wise and wonderful providence , in turning about the hearts of the nation to him ; so that to posterity it will be a problem , which of the two is the more astonishing , either the rebellion against the father , or the recalling the son , and that some of the very same persons should have been instrumental in both , by the latter action expressing their true and sincere repentance for the former . but alas ! the interval was long ; it was not only a two-years war , like that betwixt saul's son and david , but a ten-years thraldom ; wherein those that had complained of some small incroachments on liberty before , did totally overturn all the freedoms both of parliament and people ; but to colour this a little , gave a large and unrestrained liberty in matters of religion , by which all sense of order and regular government being quite cast off , many by the custom of an unbounded lawlesness , became habitually sons of belial ; and as heifers unaccustomed to the yoke , cannot again be brought under these necessary restraints and regularities of religion and law. nay , which is worse , though but the effect of the former , many youthful and extravagant spirits being once delivered from all obligation to any piece of religious worship , come by degrees to lose all sense of it ; and seeing those irregular and ungoverned practices of many pretenders to religion , who were visibly advancing their own designs under the colours of piety , they came to imagin religion was only a pretence by which ambitious men carried on their own ends ; and the many subdivisions and different parties they observed about matters of religion , made them also judg there could be no certainty where there was so much debate and dispute . and to all this may be added , that by oaths and counter-oaths , which they often took , ( having passed from the oath of allegiance to the covenant , and from that to the engagement ) their consciences became seared , and past feeling ; or , being much wounded by such swearing , to avoid the smart of that , they took themselves to these cursed arts of getting quiet in their impious practices , by throwing off all sense of god and religion , and setting up professedly for atheism ; which is so natural a result of what has been said , that i think it cannot be doubted to have sprung from it . and hitherto i suppose it is unquestionably clear , that we have much more reason to lament the matter now before us , than those had who are in my text. 3. and now i advance to the third and last part of my discourse , to consider what this mourning was , and what ours ought to be ; they upon so sad news and so great a loss , were both very tenderly affected for the death of a king that had so many good qualities , that he being dead they had reason to forget his bad ones ; the loss also of so noble a prince as ionathan , ( who may justly pass for one of the bravest hero's , and the most generous friends that ever was ) could not but be very sad , especially to david , whose friendship with ionathan was beyond what is either in history or romance : and as hitherto all the generous parts of the friendship were on ionathans side , though we find david's returns were as tender , and rather more ; for at their parting when their mutual friendship set them both a-crying , it is said , david exceeded . but now when david was to have made returns suitable to what he had received from ionathan , he is snatched away by the sword of the philistines , they had also many brave country-men that were killed : to this was to be added the sad condition the house of israel was in by so great a defeat ; all which concurring , could not but make a deep impression on the hearts of david , and the people with him , which did set them to their tears and prayers , both for their own sins , and perhaps they reckoned their arming against saul one , and with these they also mourned for the sins of israel , praying god to avert his judgments , to prevent the mischief might follow , and to recover his people from the ignominy of so bad a loss , and in the end to settle david so on the throne of saul , that their might be under his reign , justice and truth , plenty and peace , both at home and abroad . this is a clear fair account of the work of those with david in my text. and after this the application will be easie ; from which i shall not digress by proving the lawfulness and fitness of anniversaries , that being so well done by others , but refer my hearers to zachary , by whom we find the people of god fasted during the seventy years of the captivity , the fifth and 7th month ; he also mentions their fasts of the 4th & 10 month ; though it is plain there are no such fasts commanded in the old testament ; and yet the prophet is so far from blaming these stated returns that he only blames their being formal and regardless of god in them , and gives them directions how they should have ordered them . but leaving this unreasonable objection , which is made by none but those who have the chief reason to mourn and fast on this occasion ; i go next to propose what the nature and ends of our mourning and fasting should be , which i shall lay open briefly in two points . 1. the one is to mourn before god for the guilt of this atrocious sin , that if any of us have been ( as was before laid open ) involved in the guilt , we may wash off the stain of this sin , which is of so deep a dye , and if we our selves be on all accounts clear of it , at least we are to pray for pardon to those who were guilty , that god may open their eyes , so as to confess and mourn for their sins ; and in this we follow the example of our royal martyr , who looking to jesus the author and finisher of his salvation , who endured the cross , despising the shame , and prayed for his enemies , did with patience run the race set before him , and humbly imitate his king and saviour in pardoning and praying for his enemies . we are also on our own accounts to pray god to deliver the whole land from this guilt , lest when god shall come and make inquisition for this innocent blood , we be involved in the common judgments , which cannot fall on the land so , but all concerned in it must bear their share . but we must not only mourn for this particular crime , though it be so foul as to need the expiation of many tears and prayers , but we must go higher , and look to the first beginnings of the late troubles ; and see what provoked god then to plague us so sadly , and whether we have not re-acted these very abominations which then stirred up gods wrath against us . i need not enter into a particular enumeration of our sins before the year 40 , and compare them with these that now abound ; the comparison would be as invidious as it is obvious . let every one then call himself to an account , how guilty he is of undervaluing gods mercies , and the great deliverance he gave to his anointed , and by that to his whole people ; how he abuses our peace and plenty into licentiousness , profanity , and brutal ungoverned and avowed impiety ; and how he abuses the protection and security law gives to insolence , faction and boldness ; how he despises the gospel , affronts religion , and the worship of god , either by an impious contempt of it , a factious separating from it , or a bare formal coming to it , without any serious or devout consideration of that majesty he scorns , by a pretended drawing near him with his lips , when in his heart he is far from him . these and a great deal more of that nature ( with which our consciences will certainly charge us , if we return our thoughts , and call our selves to a severe account for what is past ) ought to be now mourned for ; otherwise the formal observing these annual returns does but add to our other sins , and enhance our guilt , when we mock god by a pretended mourning and fasting . 2. and the only evidence of the sincerity of our mourning is , our departing from these sinful courses which may provoke gods wrath , and from all seditious inclinations which may be fewel for new or worse calamities ; for we may with good reason apprehend , if the late wars and other plagues have not taught us to repent of our sins , and amend our ways , that according to the gradation we find always used in scriptures , when judgments are denounced , the next shall be much sadder than any we have seen or heard of . but god is merciful and gracious , slow to anger and ready to forgive , if we turn to him with all our hearts ; let us therefore from the deep sense of our sins , and the just apprehensions of the deserved judgment , turn unfeignedly to god , who hath both by the gentler methods of love , and the severer executions of judgments been calling on us to repentance ; let us throw off our impious and debauching practices , by which we make war against heaven , daring god by unparallel'd wickedness , and defying him by our unheard-of stoutness against him : but do we think to prevail against god , are we stronger than he ? can we resist his thunders or his plagues , fire and famine ? and though we were strong enough to resist the impressions and injuries of all our neighbours , yet how easily can god plague us with a division of hearts , & such disjointed affections , that as a body paralytick we fall to ruin and misery with our own weight , & without any enemy . and for the avoiding this , next to the appeasing the divine displeasure , let us express our horrour of this fact by a constant , humble and dutiful obedience and loyalty to his majesty who new reigns , and study to abstain from ( not only all these disloyal and unchristian courses , which ended so tragically , but even from ) the first beginnings of these disorders , which as sparks of fire blown on by some seditious incendiaries , did set us all in a flame ; and a serious review of the late times , will demonstrate , that the wicked designs of those enemies to monarchy could never have become so strong , if they had not wrought on the more innocent , the inconsiderate zeal of some ( who afterwards proved both good subjects and faithful patriots ) , who complaining over-severely of some errors of government , did ( though as afterwards it appeared contrary to their designs ) give both strength and credit to a faction which did soon scornfully disdain them , whom at first they owned to be their leaders . so dangerous it is to nourish factions , which will quickly pass all bounds . this , i hope , will teach all in the time to come , how carefully and religiously they ought to guard against the cherishing of discontents , or the possessing the subjects with jealousies and fears , and a contempt of their governours , or their government ; and as no man can guard against any sin , without he consider well all these subtle temptations that lead him to it , and all the smaller and less discerned , or observed beginnings of it ; so if we truly mourn and fast for the sin committed this day , we must consider and watch against all these lesser and more unheeded motions , jealousies , fears , undutiful discourses and censures , which do insensibly make way and prepare men to all manner of sedition and disloyalty , at least , so weakens their dutiful respect to governours , that faint services are to be expected from so cold affections . but i hope past experience will teach us more wisdom , and that this nation which with so religious a zeal designs to expiate what is past , will with the same care study the preventing every thing may lead to the re-acting these sad calamities , of which we have still among us many doleful remembrances , besides this day of mourning and fasting . in which god of his infinite mercy grant we may so repent , that he may deliver us from blood-guiltiness , and from all other judgments our sins have most justly deserved . to this god be glory for ever & ever . amen . finis . subjection for conscience-sake asserted : in a sermon preached at covent-garden-church , december the sixth , 1674. by gilbert burnet . london , printed for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty , at the angel in amen-corner , 1675. subjection for conscience-sake asserted : in a sermon preached at covent-garden-church the sixth of december , 1674. rom . 13. 5. wherefore ye must needs be subject , not only for wrath , but for conscience-sake . it is the great and just glory of our most holy faith , that it is no less the interest than the duty of all men to embrace it , and live according to its precepts : for if we examine either the complex of the whole christian religion in gross , or the several parcels of it , and the duties it enjoyns ; we must confess all the laws of solon and lycurgus , of greece and rome come infinitely short of the excellent provisions it gives for the peace of mankind , and the order of societies : so that it plainly appears , the author of it was a lover of men. what rule of justice can match that of doing to others what we would have others do to us , which is so home , so easily remembred , and readily applied , that no wonder the very heathens admired it ? but , not content with the strictest rigors of justice , our saviour hath also obliged us to the supererogatings ( if i may so speak ) of charity , and hath commanded us to love one another as brethren ; nor must our brotherly love be confined within the narrow bounds of a party , but extend it self to all men whom it takes within its verge , forgiving injuries and loving enemies . and for the security of order and government , what means are like those our religion offers ? this is even confessed by its declared enemies , who charge it as the contrivance of designing men for securing their power and authority ; and indeed all the arts of statesmen , the cunnings of policy , the closeness of councils , the exactness of intelligence , the strength of armies or navies , the strictness of guards , regular fortifications , great treasures and vast magazines , are but ineffectual means , compared to this which religion offers for the security of a state , by setting up conscience as a sentinel to watch in every man's breast , that shall not let pass through it one thought contrary to the peace of the society . wise statesmen hold it for a maxim , that the chief security of a sovereign is in his being master of the hearts and affections of his subjects , which will draw with them their hands and purses as need shall require . but mankind being so subject to a variety of passions , which by an unruly vicissitude possess the minds , especially of the giddy multitude , there can be no assurance in this , unless somewhat that is more fixed and better grounded , tye subjects to the duty they owe the sovereign power . and therefore those who have attempted god and designed to discharge men of the sense of a deity , or the apprehensions of another life , are the greatest enemies to authority : their bloud and extraction may perhaps entitle them to honour and a high quality , but their maxims destroy all honour , and would quickly bring on a levelling of all qualities . he were , by the confession of all , highly criminal , who would question the king's title to the crown , or offer to void his right ; and yet this is the crime of those insulting hectors : for if there be no god , then that sacred and royal reputation of sovereign power , which princes derive from him , who is the original of it , by whom kings reign , is out of doors : this levels the prince with the subject , and gives the usurper as good a title as the lawful sovereign can claim . i shall not now engage in a long discourse of policy , nor examine the original of power , nor the measures and limits of it , nor the nature and extent of the subjection we owe authority ; much less run out in a long digression of the obligation of conscience : but shall limit my discourse to one single point , that conscience is the great security of a state , the spring of obedience , and the sure basis of submission . and in opening up this i shall , 1. shew that conscience doth choak and stifle the occasions and causes of commotions in their first conceptions . 2. that it drives the sense of duty and the obligation to obedience deeper on our minds than any other consideration whatsoever . 3. that it gives the strongest arguments for convincing our reason , and the most engaging motives for prevailing on our affections , to pay the duties of subjection to those god hath set over us . and , 4. i shall encounter and put out of the way a formidable objection , which may offer it self in prejudice of what i am to deliver . for the first , it is certain , that as the great diseases of our bodies are not so much the effects of outward accidents as of bad humours , to which a crisis may be given by some foreign impression , which may put them in a ferment , and so endanger our health : thus the distempers of the body politick owe their beginnings and growth to some ill humours in it , and the real causes of commotions are seldom the same with these that are pretended for training in and engaging a multitude ; for , from whence come wars and fightings among us , but from our lusts that war in our members ? i shall therefore consider some of those lusts and distempered affections from which commotions may arise , that i may shew how religion , and it only , can secure government from their bad effects . time will not allow me to make good all i am to say from history ; but those who know mankind will easily see the dependence of these effects from the causes i go to name , and such as have read history will find the confirmation of it so clear , that i may well be excused the labour of adducing particular proofs in so plain a case . 1. but to stand no longer on generals : one great occasion of commotions is an unbounded and aspiring ambition which makes many swell big in their own conceit , and they measuring themselves by what they appear in the glass of their own inchanted imagination , which both multiplies and magnifies all that is eminent in them , expect that all the world should court them with the same admiration which they pay themselves . now it is a hard thing to satisfie the pretensions of all these lofty aspirers , nor can any state be able to gratifie them all ; since nothing falls , to which many several competitors do not put in a claim : and though there be many corrivals , only one carries the prize , the rest being all big with a good opinion of themselves , and provoked at the unjust preference , as they imagine it , do upon that think how to make themselves considerable at their cost , who they judge consider them too little , and set up for some pretence to draw a party , and make a faction . but those mighty men in their own conceits are not at quiet when they have gained what they did at first pretend to , as that which would terminate their ambition , but make use of it as a step to mount them higher ; and thus creep up through all degrees ; and perhaps when they are as high as can consist with the character of a subject , do not rest there , but when they are become first ministers , will next design to justle their master from his throne . for ambition is as the grave unsatisfied , but ever says , give , give . this being so great an evil , let us see what curb can be found for stopping its career . it will soon appear , that all the arts of government cannot do it ; religion is that alone which teaches us to discharge our selves of this tympany , whose swellings are so incurable . our saviour hath commanded us to learn of him , who was lowly in heart ; his apostles charge us , that in lowliness of mind we esteem others better than our selves , that we humble our selves in the sight of god , and be clothed with humility as with a garment . and indeed this blessed doctrine does no sooner prevail on us , but it changes that blind value and fondness we have for our selves , into a profound unaffected humility , that represents our faults and defects as clear to us , as our former vanity did our supposed excellencies ; and instead of vast towerings , brings us under great contrition , deep self-denial , and an humble mistrust of our selves ; and thus conscience obliges us to be subject , by setting out of the way this great provocation to disorder . 2. another cause to which not a few of the distempers of societies owe their rise and growth , is the heat and fury of mens passions , which being once kindled by their pride , and blown on by many outward accidents , at length become so fierce and violent , that no banks can resist their torrent , but they sweep all before them . some are born under the disadvantage of ill nature and a cholerick disposition ; and if these meet any provocation ( which must needs fall out often ; for as a tender body doth soon feel pain , so an ill disposed mind is quickly disquieted ) their heated spirits are all in a fever , and they either swell with rage , fret with envy , or boil with revenge : and thus are their thoughts set to work , how to drudge happily under the severe bondage of their tyrannical passions . one perhaps to be revenged on some triumphing favorite , whom he can overtake no easier way , will be ready to drive all to confusion , to comply with his disquieting malice : another that is not so much in bondage himself to those ill-natured passions , yet being captivated with the charms of a fair , but imperious and spiteful mistress , must give himself up as the instrument of all her ill nature , and , being distracted with the extravagant notions of knight-errantry , thinks himself bravely gallant , when he has sacrificed all things to her wicked resentments . private animosities are known to have had a larger share in publick distempers , than any will willingly own ; and this must needs be so still , if there be no assured means for qualifying the heat , and tempering the passions of men : for no government can be so well ballanced , but that many will find themselves aggrieved by it , or by those who manage it ; and if upon these irritations we ask counsel at our blinded and misled passions , we may be well assured they will ever drive us into all the excesses of fury and confusion . how excellent then must this divine discipline be , which tames the wildness , and smooths the roughness of our unpolished natures , teaching us to put off wrath , anger , malice , blasphemy , and evil communication out of our mouths ; and , instead of those , moulds us into a divine temper , like our meek master , obliging us to forbear one another , and forgive one another , as he has done us : for that divine wisdom which he taught the world , is first pure , then peaceable , gentle and easie to be entreated . it no sooner gets into our breasts , but it dulcifies our choler , qualifies the bitterness of our gall , and gives us the possession of our minds , out of which nothing can turn us ; and transforms us from that ravenous temper into a dove-like disposition , and , instead of these boiling thoughts , which do ferment , gives the quiet serenities of a good conscience and fervent charity ; so that we are no more sons of thunder , but children of love , and do no more bluster out in passion , but from the calm of a cool spirit do breathe out soft and gentle affections : and if of a sudden a storm arise within us , our consciences will at once both arraign , condemn and kill these passions that raise it , and thus teacheth us to be subject , by destroying these passions that do both marre our own quiet , and endanger the publick peace . 3. another occasion that hath engaged many into seditious courses , hath been the narrowness of their fortunes ; to which they , not understanding the philosophy of contracting their desires , which is the safer and easier course , studied by all means whatsoever to enlarge them so as to satisfie the vanities and prodigalities of an undiscreet expence . as the turbulent youth of athens advised his uncle , finding him busied to prepare his accounts , rather to study how to make none at all . those people think they drive a sure trade , for they can lose little , and may gain much ; therefore are ready to embark in the most desperate designs , hoping to fish some advantage from troubled waters . their small fortunes joyned with their gaping desires , are ever setting a new edge on their ulcerated spirits , and none are so furious as these , who pinched with want and cold , and armed by despair , must do or die : if the ordinary course of law and justice go on , they are undone ; but the disordering these , does both reprieve them from ruine , and feed them with some hopes . now no treasure can answer the demands of all ravenous devourers , who cannot dig , and are ashamed to beg ; nor can the greatest exactness of care reach every individual of a state ; or oblige them to an expence proportioned to their fortune , much less to limit their desires to it ; but still there be many prodigals , who out-run themselves , and those are often men of brisk tempers and ungoverned appetites : in what disorder then must government be , if this cannot be repressed ? perhaps in an evener tract of peace and plenty , when order and authority maintain their reputation , such dissolute wasters of their fortunes cannot prove so considerable , as to disturb the peace of a nation : but all states are subject to accidents that weaken them , and the censures of an unruly multitude will often blast the reputation of the best government . and at some such disadvantage these untoward male-contents may catch an opportunity of doing much mischief ; how great a happiness then is it to any nation to embrace and obey that religion which teaches us , not to take thought what we shall eat , drink , or put on , that disbands the solicitudes about to morrow , and the anxious cares that oppress weaker minds ; our holy faith teaching us , that we are pilgrims on earth , as all our fathers were , calls up our thoughts above the depressions of sense , to seed our selves with the assured hopes of approaching glory and happiness in another state , which does so entirely swallow up the sense of any present trouble , that it leaves no other impression on us , but to make us long to be gone beyond these shadows of mortality and false appearances of happiness , which do now impose on our bewitched minds , and seduce us into a thousand errors and follies . and thus again we see how conscience stifles the very first motions of disorder , and teaches us to be subject . 4. a fourth occasion of disorder , is a busie medling temper , that cannot contain its self within its own limits and sphere , but will engage in things beyond its understanding , and above its reach : some cannot stay at home and do their own business , but must ramble abroad , and insinuate themselves on all affairs and company , and are ever gaping for some change , hoping it may make way for their appearing in another figure : these are ever sucking in ill reports , which they are sure to belch up again in all companies , not without additions . they delight to asperse governours and government , and either to find or make faults in every thing that is done , and a volatile unfixedness of disposition makes them weary of established laws and customs , and gape for changes through a fond affectation of novelty . now these vermine creeping into all companies , must certainly weaken the nerves and sinews of government : and most attempts for repressing this humour make it boil with the greater vehemence : but , as the wiseman instructed us of old , to fear god , and honour the king , and not to meddle with those that were given to change ; and not to say , why were the former days better than these , for we do not enquire wisely concerning that matter : so the doctrine of the gospel commands every man , to do his own business , to stay at home , not to be a busie-body , nor meddle in other mens affairs , but to pay tribute to whom tribute is due ; fear , to whom fear ; and honour , to whom honour is due . these being the rules of religion , i may appeal all the world to shew anything can so settle order and authority , as this which guards against the first appearances of clouds and storms . but as conscience doth meet the earliest beginnings of disorders in their less discernible and more plausible colours , so it ties a man to that severe conduct of himself , that he cannot embark in designs which must be managed with so much fraud and dissimulation , as the contrivers of wicked courses must needs carry along with them in all their practices : pretending the highest respect , when they mean worst , lying , and forswearing , and sometimes assassinating , as it may serve their ends , and never meaning what they say , nor saying what they mean , but shuffling and warping as interest carries them . nor can wicked projects appear at first barefaced , lest they should be entertained with horrour by all to whom they are proposed , but must go masked , till they be so strong , as to dare to throw off the disguise : nay , religion will be perhaps called in to serve a turn , and scriptures wrested to a favourable construction ; all this base and foul dealing will so wound a tender and sincere conscience , that it will either contract a hardness and callus , and become proof against all these awakenings ; or pull a man out of these base courses that must be carried on by so bad methods ; for there is nothing so candid as conscience , and therefore s. paul chargeth us not to lye one to another , since we have put off the old man with his deeds , and have put on the new man ; for he that does all things as in the sight of god , can do nothing that he fears should be seen or known of men . and thus i have dispatched the first part of my design , that conscience obliges us to subjection , by resisting all the first motions that lead to disorder or confusion . 2. nor does it only put out of the way those dangerous stumbling-blocks , but it drives the sense of duty deep into our minds . law and government can only watch over the actions and words of subjects , but can neither discover nor over-rule their thoughts , which a cautious man wrapping up within himself can reserve to a fit opportunity ; but conscience insinuates the duty we owe the sovereign power upon our secretest thoughts ; and religion obliges us not to curse the king in our thoughts ; and has made the duty we pay authority a part of its self , and of these returns of the holy fear and humble obedience , we owe the great king of kings . but this must not be so far carried , as if those who are vested with the sovereign power , had authority to command us to embrace whatever religion they enjoyn , according to the pestiferous spawn of that infernal leviathan , who by this assertion doth at once destroy both religion and government . for that base flatterer of princes , pretending to offer them more than was due to them , hath struck at the root of their authority , and at once robbed them of all their rights : for we are either bound to obey the sovereign by some obligation the law of god brings on us , or not ; if not , then all the sacredness of authority is gone , and the prince has nothing but force to maintain his right , and every usurper that masters him shall have a better right , by how much more power he has to strengthen his ambitious pretensions . but if we be bound by the laws of god to obey the supreme power , then these laws had a prior title to our obedience , and infer the duties of subjects as a particular effect of their doctrine : therefore these laws having the first right to our obedience must oblige us . nor can we be allowed to pick out that one , of obeying the magistrate , and leave the rest behind us ; for all the laws of god being enacted by the same authority must equally bind us ; and as no deputed magistrate can void the laws of the supreme power , so neither can princes void the laws of god without sopping the foundations of their own authority . but none of these magnifyings of magistracy are necessary to make it great ; it being by god himself exalted to so culminating a height , and the rendring to god the things that are god's , does not prejudice caesar in the things that are caesar's : but religion ingages us to so full an obedience to the laws , that our violating them , when they contradict no command of god's , makes us guilty in his sight ; and though we disguise what we do with so much cunning , that the secular power can fix no censure on us , yet our consciences will accuse us before god for those secret transgressions which no humane care can discover . there is a tribunal set up by god for the magistrate in all our breasts , which will pass sentence severely , and not be put off by the tricks of law , the boldness of denials , the cunning of excuses , or any other arts that may impose upon , or abuse such judges , who must proceed upon clear evidence , and not on dubious conjectures : but when a man is retired inward , and his conscience takes him to task , then all these visors are pulled off , and he must needs appear in the foul colours of guilt . another method by which conscience binds on us the sense of duty and subjection to those set over us , is the obligation to pray for them , according to that great rubrick of prayer s. paul gives , i exhort therefore that first of all supplications , prayers , intercessions , and giving of thanks be made for all men , for kings and all that are in authority , that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty : which whosoever is a christian must needs observe . this then must every day awaken and keep alive the sense of duty to those over us , so that if we have been prevailed on to undutiful courses , when we retire to our devotions , this must certainly open our eyes to discern and repent of our faults ; for if we pray , and act contradictions , then we either mock god , by praying for that we do not desire , and which we study to destroy ; or we act most impiously in opposition to that we judge our selves bound to pray for : and every man , whose conscience is not strangely asleep , will soon discover this double dealing in himself , if he pray against what he acts , and be acting against his prayers . thus it appears , that conscience brings the sense of our duty to the sovereign power nearer us , and to closer conflicts with our daily thoughts , and forceth upon us a frequent review of them . nor is this a blind and brutish subjection to which conscience ties us , but it binds it on us with the fullest evidence of reason . 3. and this is the third particular , to which my design now leads me , wherein i am to lay-out those arguments that conscience and the doctrines of christianity offer for this subjection we must pay the magistrates . i shall not meddle with those reasons that may be drawn from the rules of humane policy , the nature of societies , the origine and ends of magistracy , but shall confine my discourse to those which natural and revealed religion do offer for obliging us to subjection to the higher powers . 1. and first of all , we are taught that these powers are of god , that they are the ordinance of god , his deputies , ministers and vicegerents , that have the sword of iustice put in their hands by him , for the punishment of evil doers , and the encouragement of those that do well ; and he himself hath said , they are gods ; a strain of speech , that , if divine authority did not warrant it , would pass for impudent and blasphemous flattery : though then the powers that are over us be clothed with our natures , and are subject to like passions and infirmities with us , and live and die like men , yet for all that we must look on them as sacred and divine by their character . the severe respect that conscience enjoyns us to pay authority appears in the instance of david , who , though pursued by saul with all the violence and injustice of oppression and cruelty , yet when he had him in his hands , and offered him the small affront of cutting off the hem of his garment , his heart smote him for it : this was a character of a man according to god's heart , deputed powers are only accountable to those from whom they derive their authority ; so the higher powers , being deputed by god , must indeed render to him a severe account of their administration , but not to others ; we are therefore to obey them for the lords sake , and to be , subject to them for conscience-sake . 2. another consideration that obligeth to subjection , which religion offers , is the steady and firm belief of the government of the world , by that unerring providence that wisely maintains that great fabrick and vast frame of beings , which it self raised out of nothing . we are apt upon the first appearances of things to judge rashly , even before we have seen all the sides and secrets of humane counsels , which would often alter our thoughts very much from our over-forward judgments : but the secrets of the divine counsels lie hid from all the living , and yet the long experience which the oeconomy of the world offers us , may justly convince us , that we are not to pass sentence hastily , and that often those things which did look most cloudy , and threatned some dismal consequences , did by the secret governings of that supreme mind , produce effects very different from those that not without great probabilities were feared : this therefore must clear the melancholy of our discouraged and dejected minds , and dissipate those thick mists of fears and jealousies which might otherwise damp and dishearten us . he that gave the laws to day and night , and can reverse these when he will ; that taught the whole frame of nature those motions they observe , and yet can force the sun both to stop and to give ground when he will ; and can make the sea to rise up in hills , is able to extricate the darkest and most involved ravelings of second causes . we are therefore secure , knowing , that all things work together for good to them that love god , believing that his providence watcheth over his church , and all that trust in him , so that not a hair of their head falls to the ground without his care , and that he hath given his angels charge to encamp about and minister to the heirs of salvation ; and this may well supersede our fears , and throw off the anxieties of all perplexing thoughts , and compose our minds to an humble subjection to those god hath brought us under . i know some may think i plead here the stupidity of fate , which must needs dishearten and slacken all good intentions and designs ; but we are to consider the order god hath fixed in the government of the world , and the particular station wherein he hath placed and posted us , out of which we are not to stir on the pretence of heroical excitations ; which , when examined , will be found the heats of a warm fancy , or the swellings of an elevated mind that distrust the providence of god , as if he were not able to compass his designs , and therefore he must stretch out his hands to help him , labouring under too great a load ; which is indeed the language of all those who pretending zeal for his service , do step out of their station , and meddle with matters that are too high for them . the fate of uzzah should have taught us both more wisdom and religion , who seeing the ark of god shake , and considering how dismal an omen the overturning that sacred repository had been , and how disgraceful and impious it would be to see those precious symbols of the divine presence laid in the dust ; and , not remembring that none but the family of aaron might touch those holy mysteries , put out his hand to hold them , but was struck dead on the place . we are rather to look on and adore the hidden traces and methods of the divine counsels , and patiently to wait for that issue of things , which notwithstanding of all the disorders may at any time appear in humane affairs , the eternal wisdom of that architectonical mind will in due time bring forth , and in the mean while rest satisfied in all he does , commending things in our prayers to him , and doing every thing that befits our condition for preserving peace , order and religion , but going no further , for the wrath of man doth not work out the righteousness of god. and thus conscience , fixing our subjection on the unshaken basis of our faith and confidence in god , binds us by the strongest ties to our duty . 3. a third argument conscience offers to oblige us to be subject and quiet , is the servent and extended charity it possesseth us with to all mankind , which must needs hold us from engaging in courses that will prove destructive to a great part of it : where we consider what the mischiefs of rebellion and civil war are , what dissolution of government and confusion of justice it brings after it , how much bloud and rapine , oppression , plunder and profanation of the most sacred things , are the certain effects of commotions , if they be long-lived , what lover of mankind or person truly charitable will engage in courses so black , whose catastrophe may prove so tragical , and run far beyond what was at first designed , and produce effects far more mischievous than those that were complained of ? how many dispeopled cities , depopulated and burnt villages ; what tears of widows and orphans , and of aged persons bereft of their children , who were the comfort and support of their age must follow on such courses , when the fields are covered with the carkases of the dead , and the scaffolds smoak with the bloud of innocents , and that not only with common gore , but royal and sacred bloud ? a pathetick and florid eloquence could easily manage this theme with those advantages , as to raise horror in all at courses so barbarous and unchristian , which the common sentiments of humanity will make those of softer and relenting tempers hate , much more the meek and peaceable christians . and that these are not the melancholy representations of a troubled fancy , a little reflexion on what we have seen and known , and a penetrating prospect into what may be before us will easily make out to all considering minds : therefore strong and fervent charity to mankind will prove a certain curb to repress new attempts at those disorders , the effects whereof are not yet old , nor out of mind . and here again conscience obliges us to be subject . 4. the last consideration which i shall propose , by which conscience binds us to subjection , is the practice and example of our great master , who was made perfect through sufferings ; the whole course of his life was a perpetual tract of doing good and bearing ill ; he paid the tribute , when demanded , and charged the iews to render to caesar the things that were caesars : and when he was to lay down his life for us , he submitted himself patiently , not only to the will of his heavenly father , but to the civil powers which then governed in iudaea : though he , as the heir of all things , might have claimed the empires of the world as his right , yet since he humbled himself so as to be born in the low character of a subject , he in that , as in all other things , became a perfect pattern to us of all righteousness . when the accursed band came out against him , though he could have brought down legions of angels for his relief , yet he not only submitted himself to them , but both rejected and reproved s. peter's too forward zeal , and told him , that such as drew the sword should perish by the sword ; and when the ill-guided fervour of that great apostle had misled him to the excess of smiting with the sword , our saviour expressed his displeasure at it , by his miraculous piecing the ear again with the maimed head. and when he was accused to pilate of being an enemy to caesar , and pretending to set up another kingdom , he did in the plainest stile was possible condemn all practisings against government upon pretence of religion , by saying , my kingdom is not of this world ; if my kingdom were of this world , then would my servants fight , that i should not be delivered to the iews , but now is my kingdom not from hence : this doth so expresly discharge all busling and fighting on the pretence of religion , that we must either set up for another gospel , or utterly reject what is so formally condemned by the author of this we profess to believe . and never cause of religion was of so great concern , as the preserving the head and author of it , whom with equal mixtures of injustice and violence his enraged enemies were against all colours of equity , and contrary to law and religion , dragging to that death , which , though it proved the happiest thing to mankind , yet on their part who acted it , was the foulest crime the sun ever saw . the blessed apostles followed their masters steps in this , as in all other things ; and therefore having learned of our saviour that lesson of bearing the cross , and suffering patiently , when injustly persecuted , counted it their glory to be conformable to him in his sufferings ; and indeed , if we examine the nature and design of that holy religion our saviour delivered , we will find nothing more diametrically opposite to all its rules , than the distempered fury of these misguided zealots , who being carried on by the fierceness of their ungoverned passions , have , upon colours of religion , filled the world with bloud and confusion . otherwise does s. paul teach the romans in this chapter , though then groaning under the severest rigours of bondage and tyranny ; and s. peter doth at full length once and again call on all christians to prepare for sufferings , and to bear them patiently ; and though the bondage of the slaves was heavy and highly contrary to all the freedoms of the humane nature , yet he exhorts them to bear the severities , even of their froward and unjust masters , with this argument , that christ suffered for them , leaving them an example , that they should follow his steps . from these unerring practises and precepts must all true christians take the measures of their actions , and the rules of their life : and indeed the first converts to christianity embraced the cross , and bore it not only with patience , but joy ; and as long as christianity continued pure and unallayed , this doctrine of patient suffering was not only a big and empty boast , but gave proofs of its reality , by the unexempled patience and sufferings of the christians in a succession of three ages and ten persecutions . these blessed witnesses of our faith were burning and shining lights , as well by the purity of their lives , as by the stakes and flames of their martyrdom . nero unpalled them , and clothing them with pitch-coats , made burn them as torches in the night ; but these fires scattered the darkness of that night of idolatry in which rome lay buried , and both enlightned and inflamed many that lay freezing in darkness . it was the astonishment of the world to see such numbers of all ages , sexes , and qualities , with that alacrity and chearfulness of submission , offer up their lives for the faith ; and neither the cruelty of their unrelenting persecutors , nor the continued tract of their miseries , which did not end but with their days , prevailed on them either to renounce the faith , or do that which is next degree to it , throw off the cross , and betake themselves to seditious practices for their preservation , but continued stedfast both in their faith and patience , by which they inherited the promises . nor was christianity endamaged by all that fury ; on the contrary , the bloud of the martyrs was the seed of the church , whose field being thus fatned , did spring up thirty , sixty and a hundred sold ; so that for every new harvest of a persecution , there was a plentiful crop of christians . and there is no reason to think these blessed martyrs endured all their sufferings , constrained by necessity , because they could do do no other ; for as we find in the inspired history , that at two sermons there were eight thousand converts , so profane as well as ecclesiastical writers assure us , the numbers of the christians became very soon so vast , that nothing but the conscience of the duty they owed the supreme powers obliged them to be subject . pliny , who lived a hundred years after our saviour wrote to trajan , that in pontus and bithynia there were great numbers of christians of all ranks , both in cities and villages , so that the temples of their gods were by the prevailing growth of christianity , left desolate . a little after him marcus aurelius had a legion of christians in his army , of whom he gives this character in his edict , that they carried god in their consciences ; and when there were so many in the army , we may on a fair computation reckon their numbers to have been very great . not long after that does tertullian plead for those in his days , in his admired apologetick , and tells the romans , that if they would stand to their own defence , they wanted not the strength of numbers and armies , that neither the moors nor parthians , nor any other of the nations that fought with the romans could match them , who filled the whole world , all their places , towns , islands , castles , villages , councils , camps , tribes , senate and market-places ; only they abandoned their temples to them ; adding , that to what war were they not both fit and ready , even though they were less numerous , who were butchered so willingly , if their discipline did not allow them rather to be killed than to kill ? and elsewhere he vindicates the christians , that none of them were ever found guilty of conspiracies against the emperors , whom they acknowledged to be set up by god , and therefore judged themselves bound to love , reverence and honour them . but as the christian religion continued to spread by a vast and prodigious increase , so did the spite of the infernal furies grow fierce against it by the same proportion ; and in the last persecution , which continued about twenty years , we find the martyrs of one province ( egypt ) reckoned to be betwixt eight and nine hundred thousand ; and yet no tumults were raised against all this tyranny and injustice : and though after that the emperors turned christian , and established the faith by law , yet neither did the subtil attempts of iulian the apostate , nor the open persecutions of some arrian emperors , who did with great violence prosecute the orthodox , occasion any seditious combinations against authority . these are the great precedents this holy doctrine of the cross hath in the first and purest ages , and though religion suffered great decays in the succession of many ages , yet for the first ten centuries no father or doctor of the church , nor any assembly of church-men , did ever teach , maintain or justifie any rebellions or seditious doctrines or practises . 4. and thus i have made good what i undertook to evince , that conscience doth with the greatest evidence of reason and authority , bind us to an absolute subjection to the higher powers ; and have observed what was the path our blessed saviour himself followed , the traces whereof are to be known by those bloudy steps he hath left behind him for our example and instruction . we have also seen a glorious cloud of witnesses following him in the same way he both opened up and consecrated to them . but after all this , it may be perhaps objected , that all christians , at least all pretenders to it , have not followed the same rule , and that some divisions of christendom , which in all other things run very wide from one another , yet meet in this doctrine of resisting the supreme authority , and not only so , but they vouch religion for their warrant and their quarrel both , and pretend a zeal for god , his church , and his cause in all they do : this is the last part of my discourse , to which i obliged my self in the beginning ; and i will handle it with the round plainness that such a point , how tender soever some may think it , requires . it is true , about the end of the eleventh century this pestiferous doctrine took its rise , and was first broached and vented by pope gregory the seventh , commonly called hildebrand , the first pope of that name ; though a far better man had basely and shamefully courted the cruel and perfidious phocas , and treated him in a stile of mean and sordid flattery that misbecame any man , much more so great a bishop . but the pope i now speak of went more briskly to work , and begun that insolent and bold pretension of the temporal power of the popes over all kings and princes ; that they being christ's vicars on earth , must have all power in heaven and earth deputed to them , and that as s. peter's successors they had the two swords , the spiritual and the temporal put in their hands . upon this he aspired and exalted himself above those whom the scripture calleth gods. nor did this rest in a bare speculation , but any that will read his epistles , and knows the history of his life , will see what dismal confusions he brought on germany and italy , and laid the foundations of those bloudy wars which followed and continued for some ages : then did the factions of the guelphs and gibellins divide nations , towns and families , and fill all places with bloud and confusion . how other popes did afterwards set the same pretensions on foot , both in france , england , and in many other places , is well enough known to all that are acquainted with history ; and for two or three ages the tyranny of this was so heavy , that any insolent church-man was able to disturb government , by carrying complaints to rome of some pretended incroachments on the ecclesiastical immunity ; upon which monitory breves and bulls were dispatched from rome , and every prince was either to obey these , how much soever they might prejudice his government , or to look for the thunders of excommunication , deposition , absolving his subjects from their oaths of fidelity , and the transferring his dominions on some other more zealous votary of that see. and any that will read the decretals , bulls and breves of many of the aspiring popes , will find that these were not only ambitious and disclaimed practises , the guilt of which being personal , died with themselves ; but they founded them on the rights of the see of rome , and in the stile of an universal pastor imposed the belief of that on the world. now i would presume to ask any of that communion , if they believe these popes were infallible in those decisions and instructions they imposed on the world , or not ? if any say they were infallible in them , they are without more ceremony of words , traitors , who subject our sovereign's rights , which he derives from god only , to a foreign superior power : if they were not infallible in these decisions , then what is become of the pope's infallibility ? for the present pope can have no more than his predecessors had ; and if they erred , he may likewise erre . but i must advance this a little farther , to shew that those of that communion , though they reject the popes infallibility , yet if they submit to the infallibility of their general councils , are still in the same hazards of being rebels : for the council of lateran , which in the roman church is held general and oecumenical , that first decreed transubstantiation , did also by the third of its canons decree , that all temporal princes should exterminate ( i shall not critically examine that word which must amount to banishment at least ) all hereticks ; adding , that if any temporal lord , being admonished by the church , did neglect to purge his lands , he should be first excommunicated , and if he continued in his contempt and contumacy , a years notice was to be given of it to the pope , who thenceforth should declare his vassals absolved from the fidelity they owed him , and expose his lands to be invaded by catholicks , who might possess it without any contradiction , having exterminated the hereticks out of it , and preserve it in the purity of the faith. this is so plain , that i suppose without any hesitation it may be called a down-right conspiracy against all sovereign princes ; and this being decreed by a general council , must either be infallibly true , or the foundation on which they have raised all their superstructure of the infallibility of their general councils , is overturned . but the same equality of justice and freedom , that obliged me to lay open this , ties me to tax also those who pretend a great heat against rome , and value themselves on their abhorring all the doctrines and practises of that church , and yet have carried along with them one of their most pestiferous opinions , pretending reformation when they would bring all under confusion , and vouching the cause and work of god , when they were destroying that authority he had set up , and opposing those impowred by him : and the more piety and devotion such daring pretenders put on , it still brings the greater stain and imputation on religion , as if it gave a patrociny to those practises it so plainly condemns . this is iudas-like , to kiss our master when we betray him , and to own a zeal for religion when we engage in courses that disgrace and destroy it . but , blessed be god , our church hates and condemns this doctrine from what hand soever it come , and hath established the rights and authority of princes on sure and unalterable foundations , enjoyning an entire obedience to all the lawful commands of authority , and an absolute submission to that supreme power god hath put in our sovereign's hands . this doctrine we justly glory in , and if any that had their baptism and education in our church have turned renegades from this , they proved no less enemies to the church her self , than to the civil authority . so that their apostasie leaves no blame on our church , which glories in nothing more than in a well-tempered reformation from the later corruptions which the dark ages brought in , to the pure and primitive doctrines which our saviour and his apostles taught , and the first christians retained and practised for many ages . to resume all then : let us adorn our holy profession with a life suitable to it , and let us shew to the world , that we take not up , nor maintain our religion upon interest , but found it on sure and unmoveable foundations , which , being the same always , will ever oblige us to the same duties and practises . let us study to empty our selves of all big self-conceiting thoughts , of all hot and inflamed passions and appetites , of all unruly and unbounded desires , of all levity and unstayedness of mind ; that with humble hearts , calm minds , contented spirits , and steady thoughts , every one may follow the duties of his station , and contain himself within it as becomes a christian , paying inwardly in our very thoughts that reverence we owe the higher powers , and offering up to god the constant tribute of our prayers for them ; considering they are god's vicegerents , and by his own warrant are called gods : and if the conduct of affairs do not suit our wishes or desires , yet for all that we are to trust to and depend on god's providence , not daring once to think of attempting against the lord's anointed , nor to engage in courses that may bring on so much mischief and confusion , but let us ever set before our eyes our blessed saviour , who endured the cross and despised the shame ; who when he was reviled , reviled not again , and when he suffered , he threatned not , but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously : and let us also consider that cloud of witnesses that followed him ; that so we may run with patience the race that is set before us , and not look to or imitate the later practises of some distempered and degenerated christians . and then we shall be an honour to our profession , and give a credit to that church wherein we were born , baptised and instructed ; when we shew that we are subject , not only for wrath , but for conscience-sake . and to end as i begun ; let us with astonishment and wonder , contemplate the shining glories of our most holy faith , which tends to raise mankind to the highest pitch of true greatness that his limited nature can ascend to , and as far excels all the attempts of philosophy , or any other religion whatsoever , as the bright splendor of the day doth the fainter shinings of the night . for nothing can be more the interest of all men , than the receiving this faith , which both secures a man in all his rights , and obliges all others to pay him what ever is due from the relations they stand in . does a father desire dutiful children , or children an affectionate father ? make them good christians , and they are sure of what they desire . do husband and wife expect the fidelity and sacred performance of the ties of wedlock ? this must certainly follow on their being good christians . do masters desire honest and careful servants , and servants a just and gentle master ? make them good christians and they will prove such . do all men desire to live by honest well-natured and affectionate neighbours ? their being good christians will certainly make them such . do subjects desire a good king ? let them pray that he be a good christian , and then he shall certainly govern well ; and do kings desire good and obedient subjects ? let them take care that they be good christians , and then they will be subject , not only for wrath , but for conscience-sake . now to the king of kings , and lord of lords , be all honour , praise and glory , for ever and ever . amen . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30414-e2580 matth. 7. 12. s. jam. 4. 2. the case of the duke of guise in henry the thirds time , s. matth 11. 29. phil. 2. 3. 1 s. pet. 5. 5. col. 3. 8. col. 3 13. s. jam. 3. 17. s matth. 5. 25 , 34. prov. 24. 26. eccles. 7. 10. 1 thess. 4. 11. 1 s. pet. 4. 15. col. 3. 9. eccles. 11. 20. 1. tim. 2. 1 , 2 , ver. 1 , 2 , 3. psal. 82. 6. 1 sam. 24. 4 , 5 , 6. 1. s. pet 2. 13. rom. 8. 28 2 sam. 6 7 s. jam. 1. 20. heb. 2. 10. s. matth. 22. 21. s. matth. 26. 5. s. john 18. 36. 1 s. pet. 2. 13. ver . to the end , and 3. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. verses . lib. 10. ep. 97. cap. 37. ad scap. c. 2. a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist about the present distempers of scotland now in seven dialogues / by a lover of peace. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1669 approx. 217 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 76 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30390) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 44658) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1378:10) a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist about the present distempers of scotland now in seven dialogues / by a lover of peace. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. the second edition. [11], 100, 32 p. s.n.], [edinburgh? : 1669. "published by order." attributed to gilbert burnet--wing and british museum catalogue. reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -england. scotland -church history -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist , about the present distempers of scotland . the second edition . now in seven dialogues . by a lover of peace . gal. 5.15 . but if ye bite and devour one another , take heed ye be not consumed one of another . published by order . printed anno dom. 1669. the stationer to the reader . reader , all the account i can give of this book , or the author , is in the following letter which came to my hands a few dayes after i received these sheets , and is prefixed to them in stead of a preface . for the stationer . though these dialogues were brought to you by another hand than my own , yet since it is upon my motion that they came to be published , contrary to the authors design , and truly without his order : i think my self oblidged to say somewhat of the author and the book , and the rather that the author , not being forward to the publishing of it , will say nothing of preface himself ; but withall , i am resolved you shall be as ignorant of the writter of this , as of the author of the book . the author is a person of extraordinary moderation and peaceablness : he can allow any difference of opinion , but such as is incompatible with the peace and quiet of the church . and though there be some expressions in these dialogues that would appear tart ; yet it is meerly occasioned by the zeal he hath against that uncharitable spirit , which can allow of nothing that is not exactly of their own way . the occasion of writting in this way , was , that a book of the same title and nature , printed in england , came to the author's hands ; and he , being pleased with that familiar way of writting , thought presently of composing dialogues suitable to our differences here , as that was to the differences of that nation : if there be any thing in this coincident with that book , it is in such things as the humours of that unquiet spirit in both nations are the same . and the author designs not vanity by these few sheets , written , to my knowledge , in as few houres as they could hardly be transcribed ; but wisheth every one to see the weakness of those grounds upon which such specious structurs are built ; which when they come to be examined , prove but painted sepulchres . the great design of the author in this small book , is , to let some well-meaning people , who have a love to godlinesse , see that religion is not at all concerned in things wherein they do concern themselves very much , and that in contending for the shell we are like to loose the kernell of religion . the language and manner of writting , is accommodated to these meaner capacities , who are most apt to be abused , by such as care not , nay , which is very sad , but too true , wish not religion nor godliness to prosper in the hands of those who differ from them in opinion about externall things , vvhich are not of great moment : as may appear from their persvvading poor souls to take for a mark of zeal that which in al christian nations is lookt on as a very great mark of impiety , to wit , not going to church : by which people do shew , in the most signal manner they can , their not owning the worship and adoration of god. the author meaned no prejudice to any person in vvritting of it , nor is it published upon any such design , but in hopes that it may inform sincere people . and whoever reads it without prejudice , will i hope judge so of it . farewel . a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist , about the present distempers of scotland . in six dialogues . dialogue i. con. you are welcome from the west . how are all things there ? non. never worse ; the glory is departed from that people : and the power of godlinesse is gone there . god pity that poor place , which was once so glorious . c. i perceive by your manner of speaking , that you are much concerned in these matters : but i pray you tell me wherein things are turned so much to the worse among you ? n. alas ! are you such a stranger in israel , as not to know these things ? are not our gracious ministers taken from us ? so that the work of god is much born down : the brave dayes of communions , preachings , prayers , are away ; and in stead of the fire was once there , there remain but a few sparks in some secret corners : for , the precious ordinances are gone . c. what you say upon the matter , i know well enough : but do not apprehend it to be of such importance , as you seem to do . n. what! do not you think it sad , that christ is not preached ? c. god forbid but he be ? i do not know how it is in your country , but i am sure with us christ is preached very faithfully , but i fear you consider not well what it is to preach christ ; do you think to tell us only of his death , is to preach him ? n. no , no , but oh how doth my heart melt within me , when i remember how sweetly i have heard the ministers there , clear up my interest in christ ? c. may be it was more sweetly then sincerly ; for to tell you of an interest in him , while you are strangers to his laws and gospel , is to deceive you : since you can have no interest in the blood of christ , till you have his spirit dwelling in you . n. blessed be god , i know no name to be saved by , but the name of christ : and i renounce mine own righteousnesse , and accept of his righteousnesse . c. it is very true , that we are saved by the blood of christ : but it is as true , that we must be purified by his spirit , else we are none of his . if by renouncing your own righteousnesse ; you mean , what you naturally can perform without grace , you are in the right , but if you lean so to christs righteousnesse , as to neglect to be righteous your self , you with iudas , kiss your master , while you betray him . and i fear your ministers studied more to convince you of the need of christs righteousnesse , then of having any of your own : for indeed it is a cheap religion , to lean so intirely to christ , that we do nothing our selves . n. we are far from thinking there is no need of good works : we only exclude them from justification , which is by faith only . c. truly your practices tell , you think there is as little need of them to salvation , as to justification , remember the gospel is plain and simple , and came not to teach men sophistry or logick : therefore i shall not contend with you about words or phrases : for as i believe , that christ came to lay down his life a ransome for our sins ; so if you believe , that without holinesse we shall never see the face of god , we are agreed in this matter . but i wish we all studied to live better , and then our differences would quickly end . n. yes , i hear some of you are still talking of holiness and peace , but you forget truth : which is so necessary , that without it holiness is but hypocrisie . c. i acknowledge that , if you speak of the fundamental articles of our faith. but all truths are not of equal certainty , nor of equal importance : now it is a certain and important truth , that there should be an unity in the catholick church ; which is not to be broken , but upon a matter of greater certainty and weight . n. one precious truth is worth all the world : therefore i will not quite one truth for the love of all men . not a hoof , said moses . c. if you were required to condemn or deny any thing you judged truth , i confesse you ought to obey god rather than man. but it is another case to quite the communion of the church ; because they are not , as you think , in the truth : unlesse that truth be of greater importance than is the article of your faith , the catholick church , and the communion of saints . and when you are as sure of your call to contend for these truths , as moses was of the will of god , you may use his words . let me then examine you a little , how do you know your opinions are truths ? n. who can doubt of it ? are they not the cause and interest of christ , his kingdom and crown , his glorious work , to which we are all bound by the oath of god taken in the covenant , whereinto even the children unborn are oblidged . c. if big words prove truths , you are full of them : but remember of whom the apostle gives this character , they speak swelling words of vanity . and there is no party but have the same language in their mouth : these are fine contrivances to lead away silly women captive , who would be ready to judge your blustering confidence , an evidence of truth , when a modester way of speaking is suspect of diffidence : whereas in right scales , the one looks like arrogant pride , and the other like the modest spirit of jesus christ. n. how can you deny , that what is now cried down , was the work of god ? c. i confesse it was so the work of god , as the prophet said , is there any evil in the city , and the lord hath not done it : but in the sense you take it , it was as far from it , as darknesse is from light . n. how can you speak so , was not sin strangely born down in our dayes ? c. i confesse you studied to represse some sins : so did the pharisees . but remember the apostle divides filthinesse , in that of the flesh , and of the spirit : and indeed , the latter proves a much subtiller and stronger opposition to the gospel , than the former . it is true , some of these were repressed by you ; though i must add , in a way , scarce suitable to the gospel : but for other sins , you were very gentle to them , nay , were guilty of them your selves : for they mingled in all you did . n. now you begin to rail , and i cannot endure to hear those glorious dayes so spoken of . is this the moderation you so much pro●esse ? c. i love moderation as much as any can , and declare to you once for all , that i have no quarrel at any , for their opinions in these matters : nor shall i labour to disgrace the leaders of your party , by searching into their private escapes ; a practice much used by you against us , your mouthes being ever full of bitter reproaches against some of our way : but it is directly contrary to the spirit of christ and his gospel , wherein we are put in mind to speak evil of no man. i shall therefore from your publick and avowed actions , and printed papers , shew how far you are out of the way of god. and first , what think you of your rebellion ? this was the soul of your whole work , and your covenant was a bond to cement you in this . n. call you fighting for god and his cause , rebellion ? c. it is yet under debate , whether it be the cause of god : suppose it were , shew me one place in either testaments , that warrands subjects fighting for religion ? you know i can bring many against it ; yea , though the old dispensation was a more carnal and fiery one , than the new one is ; yet , when the kings of iudah and israel made apostacy from the living god , into ●eathenish idolatry , some of the kings of iudah polluting the temple of ierusalem , as did ahaz and mannasseh , so that god could not be worshipped there , without idolatry , yet where do we find the people resisting them , or falling to popular reformations ? neither do the prophets that were sent by god , ever provoke them to any such courses . and you know the whole strain of the new testament runs upon suffering . n. the law of nature teacheth us to defend our selves , and so there is no need of scripture for it ? c. this is marvelous dealing , in other things you alwayes flee from reason , as a carnal principle , to scripture ; but here you quite scripture and appeal to it : but it seems you are yet a stranger to the very design of religion , which is to tame and mortifie nature : and is not a natural thing , but supernatural . therefore the rules of defending and advancing it , must not be borrowed from nature , but grace : the scriptures are also strangely contrived , since they ever tell us of suffering under persecution : without giving your exception , that we resist when we are in a capacity . and i appeal to your conscience , whether it be a likelier way to advance religion , fighting or suffering ? since a carnal man can do the one , but not the other . n. how can we neglect the interests of christ , and let them ruine , when we are in a capacity to defend them ? c. if there were not a god who governs the world , your reasoning might have force : but do you think that god cannot maintain his own right , but the wrath of man must work his righteousnesse ? nay , we see the contrary , for from the beginning , till this day , god hath made the sufferings of his people , the chief mean of propagating religion ; whereas fighting hath been ever fatal to it . and christ did begin the gospel with his suffering , though he could have commanded legions of angels for his defence . n. christ knew it was the fathers will that he must suffer . c. this shews how little you understand when you speak so : are not christs injunctions our rule . since then he forbade his disciples to draw a sword for him , with so severe a threatning , as whosoever will draw the sword , shall perish by the sword , this must binde us , and what he sayes to pilate on this ●ead , my kingdom is not of this world , &c. is so plain language , that i wonder how it doth not convince all . i know there are some pitifull answers made to those places : but they are so irrational , that they deserve not a serious reply , and i am not of an humour to laugh at them : only take notice of this , that if an ingenuous man speak plainly , much more must the god of truth : judge then whether these unworthy glosses , make christ likeer a nibling logician , then the true and faithfull witnesse . n. then you condemn our first reformation carried on by fighting . c. since you go to examples , rather begin with the ages that immediatly followed christ , in which for three hundred years the gospel was preached and propagated by sufferings , but never by fighting , though their number enabled them to it , and they were irritated by the cruellest provocations and persecutions : and it is to be supposed , that they who saw and conversed with the apostles , understood their meaning better than these who lived at so great a distance from them : i acknowledge there was force used in our reformation ; but so much the worse for that : and you know the enemy sowes his tares , even in that field , wherein the wheat is sowen . but never alledge to me the president of men , against the expresse word of god. n. what say you then to these who died sealing their opinion , fighting for religion , with their blood ? c. you put me to a hard lock , to rake amongst the ashes of the dead : as for those who died , i had that compassion for some of them , that i could willingly have redeemed their lives at the rate of mine own : and i doubt not but many sincerely followed their conscience in it . but i am far from thinking the better of the cause , because some died handsomly for it , otherwise i should be reconciled to atheism , and all heresies , who want not their pretended martyrs . but i need go no further then england , at his majesties restauration , where the murderers of the late king , died gallantly , ow●ing what they did as the cause of god. so the seal of a martyr's blood , is not alwayes the seal of god. n. well , but why do you remember bygones ? we are now all good subjects , and do bless god for his majesties restauration , and do pray for him more then you do . c. may be so , that he may be of your way ; but , if that be not , i doubt your love to him is very cool . i do not remember bygones to bring an odium upon you , but to shew that a course which was managed by a spirit of rebellion , was none of gods. as for your rejoycing at his majesties restauration , i scarce believe it , since you will not keep a day of thanksgiving for it . n. it is not that we scruple the thing , but because you make it a holy day . c. this is very nice , for by holy day we mean ●ot that the twenty ninth of may is a more sacred time , then other dayes : but that the day shall be devoted to holy exercise . n. this should not be enjoyned by the magistrate , but by the church , who ought only to order the worship of god. c. i shall not against this alledge the commands of david and solomon , since you may alledge they were extraordinary persons ; but you cannot say that esther and mordecai were such , who enjoyned the observation of purim , and call that feast a good day ; and the odds betwixt holy and good is not very great . and although there be no divine order for the feast of dedication , yet our saviour was at the feast , and in the temple : though you will not come to church on the twenty ninth of may. n. well then , all you can charge upon us is a little disloyalty , but for all that , our way may be the cause of god : for even the saints have their infirmities . c. truly this is so great a one , that i dare pronounce none a saint , who hath been guilty of it , till he repent of it : but i am far from being at the end of your faults , having but begun with this . the next thing perswades me of your evil way , is , your cruelty and rigour : did you not force all to take the covenant , severely punishing such as would not ? and did you not cruelly persecute all those who opposed you ? truly this hath so confirmed my aversion from your way , that i hope never to be reconciled to this part of it . n. that was a fault too , and many of us are very sensible of it . c. let not my soul enter into the secrets of bloody men : your very leaders , who if they had known any thing of the meek spirit , should have opposed these severities ; not only countenanced , but drave them on , and rejoyced in them . and if they think it a fault , how comes it that none of them offers to disclaim it ? yea , some of you in your confessions of sins , and causes of wrath , rather tax your courses of too great lenity . n. whoever may object that , you may be silent ; for what severity have we felt ? how many ministers are turned out , and people oppressed for not owning you ? c. i must in so far justify the rigour you have met with , as to show it is far short of yours . people are required to do nothing , but live peaceably , and joyn in worship ; whereas you made them swear to you : and the ministers are not made swear to maintain the present establishment , and to root out the contrary , as you did ; they are only required to concur in discipline , and to promise submission to episcopacy . n. do you not wonder at my patience , who hear you inveigh so bitterly against us ? but i let you see , a presbyterian can be calm : i hope you have done . c. not yet indeed ; i am not trying your calmness , but your conscience , and what i speak , is not to irritat , but to convince you . i shall next take notice of the great insolence and height was among you : i speak not of personal pride , though i coul● say enough on that head : i only tax your public actings . what insolence was it , to assume bi● names , of the godly party , and the people of god ●nd to call your way , the cause and kingdom o● christ ? whether looks this like the pharisees an● hypocrites , or not ? and in this you were punished with your own weapons : for the protester● wrung that from the rest of you , and the independants assumed it from you both . n. i am sure we were the godly party , compared to those we had to do with . c. this bewrayes your arrogance : though it were so , you ought not to bear witness to your selves , nor assume such titles . remember the pharisee , who said , i thank the lord that i am not like this publican . you know the loudest pretenders have not alwayes the justest title . n. i hope now you have done with your scolding . c. this is like all guilty persons , who take every modest representing of their faults to them , as scolding and bitterness ; so did the jews use st. paul. it shews the sore or disease is desperate , when the patient cannot be touched . i have not yet begun to scold , but i have not done with admonishing . next , how did your leaders complain of bishops their medling in matters of state : and yet when the scene turned , how absolutely did they govern ? church-men grew the advisers of all businesses , juntoes held in their houses . and how impudently did the church countermand the state , anno 1648. even in civil matters ? as were the levying of armies , and the paying of taxes . and after the tragical catastrophe of the unlawfully called unlawful engagement , they barred the nobility from their priviledges as peers , till they must be satisfied . n. all that was done in order to religion , which is in the churches care . c. this is the very plea of the pope : and indeed in politicks , the pope and the presbyterians agree in moe things than you think on . by this maxime all civil matters must come under ecclesiastical cognizance ; since every action can be reduced to one of the tables of the law. but particularly to medle with war , and matters of blood , hath been ever judged directly contrary to the pastoral duty , which obligeth to feed , and not to kill . but i shall add one thing more , which was your superstition . n. i had resolved to have objected that to you , and i am sure we cannot be guilty of it , since there is nothing we hate more ? c. you know not the true notion of it , and so are guiltier then you are aware of . superstition is an over-rating of things , as if god were more pleased with them , than indeed he is : and therefore to lay too great weight upon any thing , is superstition . he then that judgeth a thing of it self indifferent , to be necessary : and he that condemns it as unlawful , are equally superstitious . it were a long and tedious story , to let you see how great weight you laid upon many small matters , both in doing and forbearing . but i will leave particulars to your conscience ; and i protest in all i hav● said , i have no other design , but to teach you no● to have mens persons or wayes too much in admiration . n. you have now run out in a long and furiou● career against us : hear me next , reckon the excellent things were amongst us , and i doubt not yo● shall confesse our good did far preponderat ou● evil . c. i shall hear you with all my heart , but in th● mean time let us take a little refreshment an● respite . n. be it so . dialogue ii. ● . now let us again resume our discourse , and tell me what great goodnesse was it , which ●o commended your party ; for i love what is good , ●e where it will : and therefore though i be none ●f your party , yet i shall heartily rejoyce to hear ●ood of them . n. i fear you are either so carnal , as not to re●ish things that are spiritual , or so byassed , as not ●o set the due value upon us : but who can doubt we were the people of god , who remember how we bore down sin and wickednesse ? how much good preaching there was amongst us ? what fer●our was on peoples mindes , when they heard sermons ? what heavenly prayers we poured out to god ? but when i remember our fasts , and dayes of communion , my very heart breaks to think these sweet dayes are now gone : then what delight in scripture had we , that all our vulgar were acquainted with it ? how well was the sabbath observed amongst us ? and what order was there in families , morning and evening ? all this is now gone . alas for poor scotland ! that had once the light of the gospel so brightly shining in it ! but now , ah , ah , for the darknesse that hath overspread it ! had you but seen what i saw , your very heart would have been ravished with it . c. truly , i expected to have heard some great matter from you , of the self-denial , contempt of the world , resignation , humility , meeknesse , patience , obedience , charity , abstraction of minde , and the other great heights of christian religion ; but you tell me only of their external devotion , which how good soever it be , yet is far from being the character of a christian ; since the very pharisees were eminent in those things . n. i told you , you were carnal , and savoured not the things of god ; you look after morality , as the great matter : but we look after true christianity . c. if by morality , you mean the affecting a vertuous behaviour , without a dependance on god and christ , i have as low an account of it as any can have ; but if by morality , you mean a pure and holy conversation , i doubt it is the greatest and best part of religion : without which , the other parts are but hypocrisie and formality . but i shall examine all these things which seem to knit your hearts so much to that way : and shall begin with their diligence in repressing sin . i confesse they had a kind of discipline : but it was wholly different from the rules of the gospel , and far short of the ancient bishops discipline . n. i see you undervalue every thing we did , but i am sure you have no reason for it . c. first then , were not your church-sessions like birla-courts , where every one came and complained of wrongs , which belonged to the magistrate : for the church should only meddle with sins , as they are scandals , and not as they are injuries . next , dilations , according to our lords rule , should not be received , till the person be first privately admonished by the party offended ; next , by two or three ; and if he be obstinat , the church should be told : but you observed no such rule . next you imposed and exacted fines , which was the magistrate's work , whereas the church should take no money , but what is offered in charity . you also forced people to stoop to your discipline , for if they refused , you threatned them with the temporal sword : which by the unhappinesse of the times , was too much at your dispose . and this sheweth , that you did not carry on the gospel , by a gospel-spirit , though that was ever in your mouthes , but by secular wayes : for , offenders should come and offer themselves to discipline , and not be driven to it . the time wherein your pennance lasted , was also short : the ancient bishops did separate offenders , as many years , as you did weeks . it is also clear , you used discipline to put a temporal shame upon offenders : for you set them in a high place to be gazed upon , whereas they should have been rather set without the doors of the church . and to conclude , how wretchedly did you abuse this ? subjecting people to censure , for your triffling matters , when you knew they were acting a mock-penitence : and were more zealous to preach against oppositions to your courses , than against the oppositions to the everlasting gospel . n. now you tax us for what we were very free of : was ever sin so boldly reproved , as in our pulpits ? our ministers sparing no rank nor quality . c. i confesse some things , i say not sins , you reproved boldly enough : not sparing the lords anointed , whose pretended faults , you , like so many unnatural hams , were ready enough to publish , when your so doing , could have no other effect , but to irritate his subjects against him . how often was that sacred prince charged with popery , tyranny , and the massacre of ireland ? and that royal family termed , the bloody-house ? yea , after his accursed enemies had murdered him , when common humanity should have oblidged you to let the dead alone , and christianity should have taught you to have had more reverent thoughts of one who died so piously and devoutly ; yet you ceased not to persecute and tear his memorie , which in spite of your malice , will be glorious to all posterity : and that with the height of insolence and barbarity , in the very hearing and presence of his son , who now reigneth . this was your bold reproving of faults . but how little were you in secret reproving faults ? when you got to the pulpit , there indeed you triumphed , because you knew none were to oppose you . now it is certain , reproofs should be begun in private , and not brought to publick ; but upon the obstinate rejecting of private admonitions . and for what end were you often so bitter to absents ? this , and such other things could be upon no other design , but either maliciously to disgrace them , or to get a following among your party , and the name of faithfull , free , and zealous preachers . n. you speak with very great heat and passion , against better men then your self , and better preachers than ever any of your way will be . c. may be so , i wish both they and their gifts had been seven-fold better than they were : but if i shall judge of them , either by their printed sermons , or those i have heard , they are no extraordinary things . and first , the half of their sermons were upon publick matters : and what did these concern the souls of the poor people ? was not this for bread , to give them a stone ? next , for the solid practises of a christian life , i scarce ever heard them named , except overly . whom heard you preach against the love of the world , seeking of esteem , quarrelling , seeking of revenge , anxiety and passion ? vertue was little preached , and far lesse practised . n. i am sure we heard much spiritual doctrine from them ; for , these are common matters . c. read our saviours sermons , particularly , his longest upon the mount , and you shall finde these to be the great subjects of his discourse : i confesse they are common , but remember the commonest things are often most usefull . as for your spiritual doctrine , the true heights of spirituality were as little preached , as the living much in abstraction , silence and solitude , the being often in the still contemplations of god and christ , the becoming dead to all things else , spending dayes and nights in secret fastings and prayers , how seldom were these things spoken of ? n. what then make you of them , since you d● not allow them to be spiritual doctrine ? c. i shall not deny but they were spiritual , bu● i add , they were of a very low size and degree , an● such as could never carry on the auditors to an● great perfection , and most of them were practise● by the pharisees . you know they read the scrip● ture , and knew it so exactly , as no christians do their bibles : they observed the sabbath severly ▪ they prayed many and long prayers . so that these external things , are but the fringes of true religion . n. we heard christ and him crucified preached much . c. it was well if ye did , but let me tell you , i● christ was so preached , as to cry up a bare relying on him , without obedience to his gospel , as i fear too many did , this was a very antichristian● way of preaching christ. next , you got amongst you a world of nice subtilties , which you called cases of conscience , and these were handled with so metaphysical curiosities , that i know not what● to make of them : and the people that should ▪ have been driven out of these , into the great practices of a christian life , were too much flattered and humoured in them . i am sure our saviour , and the penmen of scripture had no such stuff . n. this still discovers your carnal heart : god help you who understand not the wayes of the spirit . c. never tell me of other wayes of the spirit , but holinesse , charity , and humility , &c. i do not deny but some devout people will be under doubtings and fears , but this is a weaknesse which ought not to be fed and humoured in them , and such scruples are to be satisfied in private . but to hear people , who lead but common lives , talk of such things , is unsufferable . i shall not here take notice of their strange methods , which they so much admired in preaching : though i could tell you how our saviour and the apostles used none of these : but i shall be sparing in this , it not being of so great , or necessary concernment . n. o but what powerfull sermons were theirs ! they made my very heart shake . c. i am glad it was so , but see that by power you do not mean a tone in the voice , a grimace in the face , or a gesture and action , or some strange phrases , these indeed affect the vulgar much : but considering people see through them , and value them little . the voice of god was a still voice , and christ was not heard in the streets . n. but there were many converted by the preachings , and then there was a great love to the word , people running far to hear it . c. truly i am so far from envy , that i wish from my soul , where one was converted by you , a thousand had been . but see that by conversion you do not mean only , a change in opinion , or outward behaviour , which might be done upon interest : and remember that there was a kind of proselytes , even to the service of god , who thereby became more the children of the devil , than they were . and see that you do not mistake every hea● in the fancie for a conversion ; one thing i mu● challenge you of , that you call alwayes you● preachings , the word of god , for to term them so and yet to confesse , you may be mistaken in them is a contradiction , since gods word is infallible ▪ your texts indeed are the word of god , but you● glosses on them , are but the words of fallibl● men : now this was a great art to conciliat ● hudge veneration and authority to your preachings ; for you called them the words of the lord and applied all the places of scripture that belonged to the inspired and infallible preachers , unto your selves , that so you might be rabbies in deed . n. i , but their lives was preaching , and the● looked like the gospel indeed . c. i am far from denying that there were ver● good men among you , and there are some of the● whom i know to have the fear of god before thei● eyes : but i must say , they seem to be little advanced above babes in christ. for your grea● men , how strangely did they involve themselve● in all businesses ? and truly a medling temper , look not like a devout one : but , what great spirituality appeared amongst most of them ? leaders o● churches and parties should be alwayes commending god and religion to people , and truly hear there is little of this in their mouthes ; shrewd presumption that there is not too much o● it in their hearts . n. alas ! you know us not , we seldom meet but , we expound scripture , and have spiritual exercise amongst us . c. i confesse you have enough that way , but that looks more artificial and formal , but in your discourse , how few of your words are seasoned with salt , ministring grace to the bearers ? which is a more genuine and native , and so a more convincing way of commending godlinesse to people . but what great things of devotion , or holinesse , appear amongst you ? who of you despise the world ? give away your goods to the poor ? who bear injuries without resentments and revenge ? who are willing to be set at nought ? who are mortifying themselves even in the lawfull pleasures of sense ? who bear crosses without murmurings ? and for the devotional part , who of you seem to live only to god , and consecrat your time and strength to divine exercises ? truly these things are as little among you as any party ● know : nay , one thing i cannot passe by , that you generally seem so desirous of being noticed i● your religion ; this is far from our saviour practice . n. this is all your prejudicat opinion again● us , but had you been ever with us at our communions , you would have been forced to confes● that god was amongst us . c. i never denied it , for i am far from being ● hidebound , as to affix god to a party , as you to confidentlie do . but for your communions , i a● not like to be much convinced by them , i cann● like your running so many miles to them , this ●umultaurie and disorderlie ; for if it be the sacrament it self you value , you may have it neare● hand : but this shews , you idolize men too much ● next , at your communions , all your businesse i● to hear and talk , whereas the truest preparation for that work , is , an inward stillnesse and recollection of mind ; and certainly much talk at that time particularly in the very action it self , doth bu● draw out , and disturb the mind : and by reason o● your crouds , you cannot have occasion of such retirement as is necessary at so solemn a time . and to speak plainly , i cannot think persons very devout , who love rather to hear one talk , were it never so good purposes , than to retire inwardly and commune with their own hearts , and with god. some of you will be many hours in publick worship , and perhaps not a quarter of an hour in secret devotions . it would look like● christ , to be many hours secret in prayer , and very short in publick . n. i see nothing among us pleaseth you , but we are never the worse for all that . c. truly i cannot admire what i judge but simple and mean. but another fault about your communions , was , that you had them so seldom , against the expresse practice of the apostles , who continued daily breaking bread : and the whole church in all ages and places , were frequent in this , which you brought to once a year . and who taught you to separate it from the rest of the solemn worship , and not have it every lords day ? n. that was , that by the unfrequency of it , it ●ight be the more solemn . c. then at length you confesse , you use your ●wn devices , to make the worship of god more ●lemn . but it had been much liker the apostles , ●o have celebrate frequently , but withall to have ●oticed well such as did receive . n. did you never observe the great devotion ● our worship ? c. truly i am sorry , i saw so little of it : what ●rreverence is it , that when prayer is in the ●hurch , most of you ●it on your breeches ? is this ●o approach unto god with the reverence be●omes dust and ashes ? notwithstanding of the ex●resse command of scripture , o come let us wor●hip , and bow down , and kneel down before the lord ●ur maker , and you cannot say this was one of moses rites . n. god looks not to the outward man , it is ●he inward bowing and kneeling of the soul he regards ; and it is your superstition to stand much ●t these outward things . c. but we are commanded to glorifie god , as ●ell with our bodies , as with our spirits . and ●ow unhandsome is it , that we will not testifie that reverence to god , we would shew to a man , were ●he but a few degrees above us ? beside , you who alwayes call for scripture , ought quickly to be convinced here ? most scripture-prayers being ●aid , either to be in that posture , or in that which comes next in reverence to it , to wit , standing . our saviour kneeled when he prayed to the father . st. paul , both at miletus and tyre knee● ed down , and prayed with the people : though ● tyre , it was upon the shore , a pretty inconvenie● place for kneeling . you know how much scri● ture i can bring , for kneeling or standing . n. but it is written , david sate before th● lord , and prayed . c. but is not this strange ; that you will brin● one practice , and follow that rather than the co● stant and universal practice registrated in scripture● beside , the word there doth not import that h● sate , but rather that he sifted himself before th● lord. and then you do not consider that praye● was private , and it is undoubted , more solemnit● is necessary in publick , than in the private worship . why then do you not kneel or stand in churches● since you do so in secret , and in your family-wor● ship ? and why not as well , if not rather in the one nor in the other ? truly this bewrayes both grea● weaknesse , and great irreverence . and beside th● irreverence of that wretched posture of ●itting it is so convenient for your ease , that we see mo● sold themselves to sleep in the prayers : and suc● as do not so , seem to listen to the prayer , as the● do to the sermon , without thinking they are t● joyn in it . and indeed to fit , is so grosse an abus● in prayer , unlesse some bodily infirmity impos● it , that i rather not see you come to our church● es , than come to them thus to give a bad example . n. but since you named family-worship , take but notice what order was amongst our families they looking like little churches : our masters of families praying , praising , and expounding scripture , with their families ; what , was not this a heavenly thing ? c. i do approve of a part of it , and think it a pious and a christian custome , to have families worshipping god together , providing the way of it be grave and regular : of which i shall speak afterwards . but for masters of families , their expounding scripture , it is intollerable , unlesse they be very intelligent persons . how patent a way otherwise may this prove , for venting and broaching errours , and heresies ? but i would not have you value this too much : otherwise i shall send you to the religious houses in the church of rome , where they have worship seven hours a day , in a word , those external things make not men good of themselves . n. but i hope you will not condemn private meetings , especially when a minister is with us for spiritual conference . c. truly the thing in it self looks fair and well , but since these secret assemblings have been much scandalized , since also they may be a cloak for hatching mischievous practices , and for debauching peoples minds into schism and faction , and to a contempt of the publick worship , they are not to be used . let people meet as oft as they will in church for worship : and what is not fit to be said in a church , is not fit to be said in a chamber full of people . such persons as desire resolution for their scruples , ought to ask it in private , and not in these thronged conventicles . since in su● matters the more private one be , the more li● he is to the lowly spirit : and the more talking be , he looks liker one that affects a name , and be thought somewhat . the gospel is a humbl● simple thing , whereas formal affected stuff , loo● like the spirit of pride , and pharisaical vanity , a● least it gratifies it too much . n. i see you will not allow us the praise w● truly deserve , but it is no matter , our record i● on high . the men in the world alwayes set a● naught the children of god , but at least you can● not deny us this glory , that were long in grea● unity . c. i love not the spirit of detraction , but i con● sess i wonder to see a party cryed up to the hea● vens for nothing ; since i can speak it with grea●● sincerity , i could never see any thing amongst you that could raise in me any great veneration so● you . and i am sure , what ever do it , your unity will never do it . it is true , as long as you had to● do with these , whom you most unchristianly , and malicióusly called the malignants , you were one , as simeon and levi were : but when ever that was done , you quickly broke amongst your selves and to let see how keen you were upon your contention , even though the ground of your first breach was soon taken out of the way ; yet you kept up your differences , with as much heat , as if they had been the great matters of christian religion . how fierce were you one against another , in your papers , sermons , and prayers ? ●ou had so inured the pulpit to scolding , that in ●any places it was the vulgar dialect of that place ; ●nd this you did publickly in the sight of the sun. ●ea , so hot were you on both sides , that you ●ould listen to no accommodation , nor to any ●lew ( they were very few ) who would have brought ●hings to a temper . n. this was our fault , but you exaggerat the ●natter too much . c. i do it but with truth , and to shew that the spirit moved among you , was so contentious , that when you had no bodie to contend with , you fought amongst your selves . yea , upon the happie revolution ; how hot was the partie among you which prevailed against the other , and was beginning snaply to depose them , till you were allarm'd that the bishops were coming in , and so left it to them ? n. now you are malicious , to inveigh so against us , you know i can repay you in your own coin . i will then go to , and examine your way next . c. i never doubt , but you can scold well , but we have had a sharp bout of it , we will therefore draw breath a little . dialogue iii. n. by all you have hitherto said , one shou● expect there were some extraordina● sublime thing among you ; but he that looks o● must consess , that all these defects you charge● us , are far more amongst you ; besides , you con● short of us , in what you acknowledge was go● amongst us . so that you have all our evil , a● none of our good : and you dare not deny , but our dayes scotland looked liker a christian churc● than it doth at this day . c. do not mistake me , as if i were so ingage● to any interest , or party , as blindly to defend i● which most of you commit . i am so far episc●● pal , as to love the order , and to live in peac● and submission under it . but i never swore sea● ty to any sect. my hearty wish , and daily earne● prayer to god , is , that all these distinguishin● names were buried , and out of head , that ● with united force we may all joyn to advance th● true and everlasting designs of the gospel . as fo● the sins many among us are guilty of , i abhor th● thought of patronizing them ; and , may be , som● of us , though we love not in publick to be eve● speaking of the times , whereby peoples mind are easily bribed to a contempt of the gover● nours ; a sin little noticed by you : yet in secre● mourn for these things as bitterly as any of you ●o . but remember you your selves are guiltier ● the present loosness , than perhaps you think . n. how can that be , since for as bitter as you ●re against us , you dare not charge us with coun●enancing of vice . c. but you make religion such a cloak to so ●any state-designs , that this makes too many ●mpiously to suspect religion to be but a design ●f it self . beside , you drove people to an out●ard compliance with you , in many of your forms , against their hearts , which hath made them nauseat ●t all religion : not being able to judge betwixt religion and these mistakes . but that which is of greatest weight , is , that our saviour knits the abounding of iniquity , with the waxing cold in love ; now , how faulty you are in this , i shall easily demonstrate . n. no peace , saith my god , to the wicked ; you ever charge our hating of sin , as uncharitableness : whereas this is but zeal for god and his truth . c. these are the false glosses you put on things , but take notice of the humour of your people , you are apt to judge us in these matters which are doubtful disputations , and think a man no good christian except he be of your party . next , you are ever listening to , and spreading a great many tattles of us , which are the great subjects of your discourse ; and what can be more uncharitable than this is ? you also carry sourly , and unkindly to us , as if we were of another religion , and shun all converse or friendship with us : you likewise cast very odious aspersions upon us , as apostates , changlings , time-servers , and th● like . and some of you rail at us , most petulantly : now whereas you alwayes talk of persecutio● truly it is more on our side than yours : for , t● an ingenuous spirit , if he be not much above a● these things , such usage chiefly when it is universal , is a far greater trial , than to suffer a little i● the world . n. truly i do not deny , but too much of tha● you speak is true , and i wish there were more charity on all sides . but , are not most of you apostates , changlings , and time-servers ? c. what invidious work is it for you to faste● that brand , which the christian church only stained those with , who fell off from christianity to heathenism , upon the leaving of a party ? looks not this like the spirit of the devil ? just as if one should apply all the places in the epistles against the horrid heresies and crimes of the gnosticks , to every little errour , which you are ready enough to do . and as for changing , except you make it a reproach for a man to grow wiser , it can be none for a man to see he was once mistaken . this generation was engaged by you , ere they could well consider things , to your way , and your oaths , and then you strive to keep them alwayes in a non-age , by telling them they must be stedfast , and that it is a snare after vowes to make enquiry . and what strange doctrine is it , to tax an obedience to the laws of the kingdom ( when in our consciences we can so do ) as time-serving ? nay , perhaps as i hinted before , you are the greater time-servers . n. well , though i owe charity to your per●ons , yet i owe none to your wayes , and i call what ●s black , black , therefore i can never be reconci●ed to your episcopacy . c. this head falls asunder in two things ; the one is , a general consideration of that government ; the other is , supposing it were as you think it , how far you ought to separate from what is ●misse . now , tell me what are your quarrels at episcopacy ? n. i cannot think that church-men should be called lords , and be great persons . c. this belongs not to the thing it self , but is an addition of the christian magistrates ; and , sir , ●or lord , and gentleman , and nobleman differ but in degree : since then a minister , were he never so meanly born , gets the temporal honour of a gentleman put upon him , why may not the temporal honour of a lord , be as well put upon a bishop ? surely this must not be considered by you . n. but they should not lord over gods heritage : therefore away with your lord bishop . c. if you understand all scriptures as you do this , you may write excellent commentaries : for , by lording , is meant a tyrannical domination , as the word clearly imports , and not a title . next , gods heritage , which you apply to the clergy , is not in the text. all in the greek , is ▪ not tyrannizing over your lots or divisions : and with whatever reason you put down bishops from being as noblemen , that same will prove , you ministers ought not to be gentlemen , excep● they be born such ; and i sear your leaders wi● have no minde to this . n. but this is not all : my chief quarrel again● bishops is , that they are a function of mans de● vising , and no where instituted by god. c. truly you may speak soberly here , for be● fore i meddle with this , i will shew in a few things that however you talked bigly of jus divinum yet you minded it as little as any could . you● lay-elders , though i deny them not to be a good institution , are founded on no scripture , as no● the most judicious of your party own : for whe● you urge , that because the apostle gives rules on● ly for bishops and deacons , that the other orde● of diocesan bishops must be shuffled out ; how a● that same time did you not see , that ruling elder● were not there ? and the places you alledge fo● them , are so abused , that it appears you fir● resolve to maintain them , and next to seek scrip● ture-proof for them . the brethren in the council of the apostles , proves too much , that the● are judges of doctrine ; which yet you will no● own . beside , it is absurd to think that was ● church judicature , as shall soon appear . tha● of ruling with diligence , is fond ; for there , is mad● an emuneration of christian duties , and if you mak● an office for all there , we shall i have more ranks o● church-men , then they of rome have . and it i● palpable , that by helps and governments , are meant● some extraordinary gifts . who would not pity men who build upon such sandy foundations ? n. but what say you to the elders that rule well ? c. truly this is far from instituting an office ; for , this speaks of an office then in being ; so , by some other place , you must prove their institution . there are five or six several glosses put on these words , but i protest , i think any of them appears more genuine then yours . that which i conceive the true sense of the words , is , let such among you as are fixt to rule particular charges , be doubly honoured : but especially those evangelists , who have no medling with rule , but labour in word and doctrine . thus you see how ●ill grounded your elders are . next , how want you deacons ? n. it seems you know our discipline ill , that know not we had deacons . c. i know very well you had somewhat called deacons , but this was only a name to deceive the people , who otherwise might have been startled , to have found deacons in their bibles , and not in your churches ; but i tell you , your deacons are ●o scripture-deacons , who were not as yours are , lay-persons , but ecclesiastick , and separate by the ●mposition of hands for that function , and so were ●o continue . beside , where was it ever heard of , ●hat a church-office was taken from any , without ● fault ? whereas you yearly altered your elders ●nd deacons . next , why wanted you diaconesses , ●nce the scripture is so particular about them , telling of their order , of their being received to it , of their qualifications , of their age , and of their imployment ? n. truly i have heard many of our ministers say , the want of them was a fault . c. next , why wanted you evangelists , since there are still men who have peculiar eminencies in preaching ? why should they be confined to one charge , and not to be made to preach over a countrey , as they shall be called ? n. that was an extraordinary thing , which was in the dayes of the apostles . c. this is well asserted : any thing in scripture that makes for you , call it ordinary , and what doth not please you , is extraordinary . but truly , since it is impossible to get a whole church served with such a ministery , as were to be desired , it seems to be necessary , even in those dayes , to have an office of evangelists . but further , in what place of scripture read you your classical subordination of sessions to presbyteries , & c ? this i acknowledge is rational and orderly , but founded upon no divine right . n. how did they of antioch send up to these at ierusalem ? and are not the spirits of the prophets subject to the prophets ? c. by the last place , it is clear , he is speaking of parochial churches , which subjection none deny ; but for the former , it is ridiculous to urge it , since it is certain they of antioch sent not up to ierusalem , either as to a church superior to it , or as to an oecumenick council , but to men there , who were immediatly inspired by god : as the iews consulted the high priest his u●im and thummim ; and if that was a council , then all councils may speak in their stile , which none but a papist can say . for to preface our acts , with , it seems good to the holy ghost , and yet to say , we are subject to error , is a contradiction . and thus the subordination of your courts was a meer humane device ; so that if the jus divinum be the rule , the independants had the better of you . but as for your discipline , what warrand of scripture have you for it ? n. the excommunicating the incestuous person , and the noting those that walk disorderly , &c. c. i do not deny , but there are clear grounds for separating scandalous persons from our worship ; but , why so many dayes ? and why in a place of repentance ? and why the use of sack-cloath sometimes ? is not this the device of men ? bring scripture for it ? n. sure the church hath power to do in these things , as shall tend most to order : and the dayes , place , and habit , are but external things . c. now i have you at a great advantage , though you understand it not . why may the church impose such dayes of penitence , and not as well order all for the sins of the year to be in penitence all the time of lent ? and why is one place made a part for penitents to be in , and may not another with as good and better reason be made the proper place for communicating ? and why may not a church-man officiat in a surplice , as well as a penitent put on sack-cloath ? since the one is a ceremony expressive o● repentance , as well as the other is of innocence : and both were equally practised under the law. n. i confesse , i did not think on these things , but i believe our ministers have answers to them . c. you may well believe , for you shall never see it , for there is no imaginable difference betwixt them : one thing i confesse , that a man once resolved not to believe a thing , if he have any subtiltie of spirit , will make a shift to say somewhat upon any thing . but i have not done with shewing your difformity with the scripture-pattern ; since then we were just now speaking of the council at ierusalem , why do you not observe that law ? n. because that was only to bury the synagogue with honour , and as for the meats offered to idols , st. paul takes that away . c. this is like you , still to devise fancies against expresse scripture ; where sayes the scripture , that was done to please the jews ? as for st. paul , consider that he wrote his epistle before he went to ierusalem , and yet st. iames tels him these things were still observed there ; which shews , that a thing may be obligatory in one place , and not in another : and so , that in these externals , commands are not intended for lasting obligations . next , why use you not washing of feet , since there is no sacrament set down more punctually in scripture ? the element is , water , the action , washing the feet , the institution , as i have done , so do ye , and ye ought to wash one anothers feet , and the spiritual use of it , is humility . why do you not therefore use this rite ? n. why do not you use it , since you cannot refuse the scripture more than we ? c. for all such matters , i have a clear answer , that in these externals , god intended no perpetual obligation ; and therefore in them i follow the practice of the catholick church . next , in your worship , why do you not kisse one another with a holy kisse ? why do you not anoint the sick with oyl , as st. iames commandeth ? n. it is clear , that was extraordinary , for he promises recovery upon the anointing . c. no such matter , it is upon the prayer of faith , that he promises recovery , he also promiseth forgivenesse , and since you pray by all , and do not say that it is more then a mean for their being raised up and forgiven ; why do you not as well anoint , since the scripture commands it ? but all this shews , that however , with women , and simple people , you talk much of your sticking to the word , and by your grave nods , and big words would perswade them , that it is so ; yet you are as far from it as any . i shall end all this with an instance of great importance , who taught you the change of the sabbath ? i am far from speaking against the church that did so , but you will read the bible long ere you finde it there ; that of their meeting on the first day of the week , sayeth not , that they antiquated the saturnday ; that of the lords day , saith yet lesse for it . n. well , what make you of all this ? it may well prove , our church was not perfect ; it never justifies you . or , do you mean to lay aside the scriptures ? c. it once checks your insolence , who pretend so big , upon so light grounds ; and it is certainly a directer opposition to scripture , to neglect what is expresly enjoyned , as you do , than to add in some lesser matters . all i say upon the whole matter , is , that the scriptures were designed by god , for the purifying the hearts and conversations of men ; and therefore it was not necessarie they should contain direct rules ; for the church-policy , which being a half civil matter , needs not divine warrands ; and therefore the common rules are in scripture , that there should be church officers , that those should be separate for that function , that they should be obeyed , that things should be done to order , edification , and peace . these are everlasting obligations , because the reasons of them are perpetual : but the other rules were accommodat to the then state of things ; which altering , they alter likewise . and this is so rational , that i can see nothing to be excepted against it , with any shew or colour of reason . nay , this looks like the christian liberty , for , whereas the old dispensation was bound up , and limited to the smallest matters , christ hath delivered us from that law of ordinances , and hath made us free . n. this is to take the crown off christs head , and to pull him off his throne , and to deny him king , which was the good confession he witnessed before pilate , and for which he came into the world ; this also makes him unfaithful , and inferiour to moses . c. these are fine devices to terrifie simple people , and with such talk you triumph among women , and in your conventicles . but , how little reason will suffice to let a man see through that canting ? i say then , christs crown , his throne , and kingdom , is an inward and spiritual one , and not of the world , nor as the kingdoms of the world : and a great part of his kingdom , is , the liberty whereto he hath called us , freeing us from the yoke of the former slavery and pedagogy . and since no allegory holds , it is ridiculous to argue , because offices in a kingdom are named by the king , therefore it must be so in the church ; since you may as well say , there must be coin stamped by christ. beside , what king will think his prerogative lessened , by constituting a corporation , to whom he shall leave a liberty to cast themselves into what mould they please , providing they obey the general lawes , and hold that liberty as a thing depending upon him ? christs faithfulnesse consisted in his discharging the commission given him by the father ; of which , whosoever doubts , let him be anathemae maranathae . but , who told you , it was in the fathers commission ? if you argue from moses , it will say more than you will grant , that all particulars must be determined : since then , as moses determines the dayes of separation for a legal uncleannesse , why doth not the gospel determine the separation ●o● spiritual uncleannesse ? nay further , consider moses instituted no church-government , in the way we use it ; for that of the tribe of levi , and house of aaron , was only typical , and to wait on the temple , and the worship to be performed there . beside which , they had synagogues all the land over , and wherever they had colonies in the world , and in these they had their rabbies , their scribes , and their rulers , and their chief ruler of their synagogues , which read their law , performed such worship as was not tyed to the temple at ierusalem , and they inflicted discipline upon offenders : and these might have been of any tribe , not only of that of levi ; and yet our saviour never challengeth this , but went in to the rulers of their synagogues ; the like you finde done by his apostles , and they never declame against it , as an humane invention . whence it must follow , that you must grant , either what they did , was founded on divine tradition ( which no christian will grant ) or that a form of government was devised by men , and yet no unlawful thing . and if the jews had such liberty , certainly the christian church is at least more free , as to these externals . and after all , since christ is the head of the world , as well as of the church , why did not he determine the order of the one , as well as of the other ? n. the odds is very great , for his church is dearer to him than all the world . c. why then doth he not determine how his church should be governed , as to the civil matter , since justice is a part of his law , as well as devotion ? and the civil peace , i hope , you will grant , is more necessary to the very being of the church , than is order in discipline ; and so it was determined in the old law , but yet it is left at liberty in the new . and though i should grant , the church , as church , is dearer to christ , then as they are men , a foolish and childish nicety : yet a king , though he looks most to what is dearest to him , he will have his authority acknowledged in all his dominions : whence it will , with the same parity of reason follow , that since christ is the king of the earth , there should be no offices in it , but of his appointment . n. i never loved this carnal reason , it is an enemy to religion : our ministers bring us to the bible for every thing they say , but you come on with your reason . c. truly you have good cause to be against reason , for it and you cannot both prevail . if by carnal reason , you mean a sober examining things , by the dictates of nature ; see that you condemn not that , which is indeed the voice of god in us , and therefor is to be received . and if you make this contrary to religion , you bring as great a stain upon religion , as an atheist could devise : but if by reason , you mean little pittiful nibling with some ill understood , and worse applied distinctions , out of aristotle and ramus , as is very frequent among you , that is justly called vain philosophy . and for scripture , do not think they build surest upon it , who are ever quoting it fastest ; the devil did that , and so do all sects . and thus if you can rightly weigh things , i have said enough to convince you , that in matters of government , the church is at liberty : but if you will still go to scripture , i can positively say , though in it nothing amounts to a demonstration ; there are fairer likelihoods for bishops , from that of the angels of the churches , than ever you shall find in it for presbytery : but i will not say more of this . next , let me tell you how soon this government was in the church . n. i will not deny , tares sprung very early in gods husbandry , but that will never convince me . to the law , and to the testimony ; for from the beginning it was not so . c. you do well to possess your self with a prejudice against these churches ; but think soberly , whether is it likelier , that those who lived so nigh the sacred time , understood the mind of the apostles better then we do , at the fagg end of an thousand and six hundred years ? as also , whether is it liker , that the church then , alwayes in the fire of persecution , was purer then she is now ? god bless me from the pride of comparing my self with these worthies , who were honoured to convert the world , and to die for the truth ? n. but bishops were not in the two first centuries , as our ministers say . c. they are grossly ignorant , or disingenuous , who say so , all history being against them : ignatius epistles are plain language . the apostolical canons ( a work of very venerable antiquity , at least the first 50 of them , though none of theirs perhaps ) all over , shew the difference was then betwixt bishops and presbyters , particularly the 40. can. the presbyters and deacons shall finish nothing without the bishop's sentence : for , he is intrusted with the people of god , and shall be required to give account of their souls . and the same thing was also enjoyn'd , syn. azel . can. 19. and in cyprian's time it is undenied , that their power was then well regulate and settled . for though that great saint and martyr tells , lib. 3. epist. 10. that he had decreed in the beginning of his bishoprick to do nothing without the advice of his presbyters , yet , ep. 9. of that book to rogatian a bishop , who had asked his advice concerning an affront he had received from a deacon , he sayes , that by his episcopal vigour and authority of his chair , he had power presently to punish him : and towards the end of that ep. he sayes , these are the beginnings of hereticks , and the rise and designs of shismaticks , to please themselves and contemn their bishop with insolent pride . and it is clear , presbyters at that time , even in the vacancy of a see , did not judge themselves sufficiently impowred for ecclesiastical administration , by what the presbyters and deacons of rome write to cypr. lib. 2. ep. 7. saying , that since a bishop was not at that time chosen , in place of the deceased fabian , there was none to moderate all things amongst them , who might with authority and advice take account of matters : sure they thought little of presbyters , being equal in power to their bishop , who write so of a church wherein the episcopal power might seem devolved on them . but , i believe , few of you know these writings . in the council of nice , speaking of the power of metropolitans , which was an additional thing to that of bishops over presbyters : the canon sayes , let the ancient customs be in force . now , how this excressing power should have crept into the whole church , and no mention when it came in , no temporal princes , nor universal councils to introduce it , and that at a time of persecution , when the church was least to be suspected of pride , no secular consideration being to flatter this power ; nay , on the contrary , they alwayes bore the first brunt of the persecution ; and how none opposed it , if this was not introduced by apostles , or apostolical men , passeth my divination . neither can any thing be alledged against this , but some few or disjoynted places of some authors , which at most prove , that they judged not the origine of bishops to be divine ▪ but none except aerius ( branded upon that account with heresie , both by augustine and epiphanius ) ●id ever speak against the difference was betwixt bishops and presbyters . and for the few places they alledge , should i reckon up all that from these same authors may be brought for it , i should grow too tedious . ierom is he for whom they triumph , but upon very small ground : for , beside that he being but a presbyter , might have exalted his own dignity to the height , and his fervent ( i had almost said fiery ) spirit , drives him along in every thing to an excesse ; as may appear from , not only his ingadgements with iovin . vigilan . and ruffin . but even with the incomparable st. austine : all can be drawen from his words , is , that the difference betwixt bishop and presbyter , was only of degree and not of office , and that the difference was not of divine , but ecclesiastical authority : but even he expresly confesseth , that presbyters did not ordain , and that the origine of the exercising power was in the dayes of the apostles , to prevent schisms ; for , he sayes , that from the dayes of st. mark , till denis and heraclas , there were constantly bishops in alexandria ; and he compares the bishop , presbyters and deacons in the church to aaron the high-priest , his sons the priests and the levites in the temple , and sayes that it was decreed through the whole world , that one presbyter should be set over the rest ; and to root out the seeds of difference , the whole care was laid upon one : for all this , see ier. ad euag. and upon titus : and from this you may see how little shew of ground there is from him or any other church-writter to reject the episcopal authority . n. but these bishops were not such as ours are . c. i confess they were better men , than either bishops , or presbyters alive are : but he knows little church-story , who knows not , that the presbyters did nothing without them , and that particularly , presbyters could never ordain without a bishop . n. well then , as it was good then , so it may be ill now , and there is our present case . c. i say still , it is a rational , just , and a most necessary thing , that the senior , and most approven church-men , be peculiarly incharged , as well with the trial of intrants , as with the inspection of the clergy : since no order of men needs so much to be regulated , as that of church-men . and therefore unless they be all equal in gifts , and parts , they ought not to be equal in power and authority . if the power of bishops be at any time abused , it is but that to which all humane things are lyable : nor can presbytery be freed of that , but let the common maxime in such cases be applyed to this , remove the abuse , but retain the use . dialogue iv. n you have said , i confess , a great many things , that i cannot well answer ; yet my conscience still tells me , that episcopacy is no good government ; and i cannot act against my conscience . c. you must remember , this is the plea of all hereticks , who still pretend conscience . i confess there is nothing in the world , wherein i desire to be more tender , than in offering the least violence to conscience , there not being a wider step to atheism , than to do any thing against the conviction of conscience . but see it be not humour , and wilfulness , that you scorn to change your opinion , or love to your party : whom you dare not displease : or vanity , that you may be noticed ; or faction ; or simple and blind following of your leaders , without clear convictions in your own mind ; all which , for most part , are the true reasons of schisms , though conscience be ever pretended . and remember , that god will not hold them guiltless , that take his name in vain , so you shall not pass unpunished , if you pretend conscience , and be not acted by it . n. how then must i examine any perswasion , to know if it be conscience , or not ? c. if you find in your heart a serious desire to please god in all things , together with a desire of obeying the laws of the kingdom , and of complying with the church , in what you judge lawfull , but out of grounds which appear to you founded upon the will of god , you are led to a perswasion , this is conscience : provided there be joined with it , a modest distrust of your self , with a charitable opinion of those that differ from you . and such as are of this temper , were their judgements never so bemisted , i reverence , and love : weigh the matter therefore in just scales , and i doubt you shall see , that at best , you are led by a blind and implicite obedience , for i will not uncharitably censure you as guilty of worse . n. you are so proudly blown up , with an opinion of your self , that you think all who are not of your mind , are ●lind and ignorant at best : whether is not this arrogance in you ? c. consider my grounds , ere you give a judgement against me . i say then , private persons have nothing to do with matters of government ; your business is , to submit in these things , and not to judge : for , whether think you , god in the great day , will call you to answer at his tribunal , if you were episcopal , or presbyterian ? as also , since the great design of the gospel is , to purify the heart ; these things which have no tendency to the purifying ▪ or blotting of the soul , are not matters of conscience : and these are two easie rules , whereby private persons might well examine their consciences . n. but if we think you are wrong , can we joyn with you ? c. first , i say , you can have no rational ground to think us wrong , in matters of religion : and since it is not a matter of religion , and salvation , you cannot without being schismatical , separate from us . but further , even every errour in religion , ought not to unty the bond of the unity of the catholick church , unless the errour be of greater importance , than the communion of saints is : a consideration which you never seem to weigh . how did the apostle st. paul become a iew to the iews ? though he tells us to do these things , out of an opinion of necessity in them , was to antiquat the crosse of christ. and let all men judge , whether to circumcise , and purify in the temple , were not greater compliances , in matters more justly to be scrupled , than what we contend about . nay , the free spirit of christianity , made st. paul see well that these externals were of themselves nothing ; so that either doing , or forbearing in them , might be acceptable to god ; as he clearly sheweth in his fourteenth chapter to the romans . yea , he carrieth this liberty further , even to an instance , which i confess , i should never have yeelded to , had not he determined in it ; that is , the eating in the idols temples , of their feasts , and eating meat offered to idols . now , if st. paul did this freely , both to jew and gentile , are not you bound to more obedience , when not only charity , but duty to the laws exact it ? this sheweth how far you are , both from the free and charitable spirit of st. paul. n. it is true , he complied in these things , but it was freely , and not when it was exacted , as you do of us . next , he avoided to do these things , when they occasioned scandal , which is our case . c. you in this bewray great simplicity ; for st. paul did not refuse compliance , because they were commanded by authority , which you do : but because certain false brethren came to spy out his liberty , to whom he gave place by subjection , no not for an hour . if therefore any require your compliance , as if it were necessary of it self , you have reason to stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made you free . but it is unsufferable peevishness , to say , if the magistrate enjoyn a thing , declaring that it is still free in it self , and only necessary , because it is commanded , upon that score , to refuse obedience . and may not offenders as well refuse to undergo the discipline you enjoyn them , and say , though the thing be lawful , yet it is but indifferent , and therefore they cannot obey you , because you command things indifferent , which , as you reason , makes them necessary . as for the point of scandal , do not mistake it , as if the displeasing your party , were a giving of scandal , as many of you weakly think ; to give scandal then , is , to stretch your liberty , when that freedom of yours , may draw others to follow your practice , though they have not the same clearness in their mind . and hence it appears , that to avoid scandal , is only an abridging your liberty , for the good of your brother . if therefore you be not at liberty , but already restrained in it by the lawful command of authority , you ought not in that case to be disobedient , upon a pretence of avoiding scandal . but i shall yet examine the matter of conformity , more closly . and , first , why do not your ministers join with our courts for church-discipline ? n. they cannot do it , because they are no legal courts , the law that established them being taken away , so that now they are but the bishops deputies . c. i have before studied to convince you , that all that is divine in discipline , is , that scandalous persons be noted , and separated from worship ; but how this shall be administered , can be no matter of religion ; since , wherein are souls concerned , whether a court , acting in a parity , or with one over them , do this ; providing it be done ? but waving this , whether judge you the presbyters power for discipline is founded upon a divine law , or upon the act of parliament ? no doubt , you will say , the first : well then , can the abolishing that act of parliament take away your power ? if not , you ought to sit in these courts , and still do your duty . n. but this is to sit in a bishops court , which acknowledgeth his authority . c. i pray you , suppose the case , that the king should abrogate all laws for the worship of god , and declare , that all that assemble to worship god , shall be understood to worship mahomet , and thereupon oblidge all to meet ; though you meet not upon that command , yet i hope you will still meet to worship god ; let them interpret that as they please . so , i say , since a power of jurisdiction , is that to which presbyters lay claim , by a divine right , they ought to meet in these courts , let the law call it what it will. n. but the bishop is over them , and over-ruleth them as he pleaseth . c. but , suppose this were true , and that episcopacy is a tyranny in the church ; why ought you not to submit to them , as well as you did to the late tyrants in the state ? and why , as your ministers say , they will be content to take churches , and preach , but let discipline alone ; which is a quiting of some of their rights , that they may retain the greater ? may they not as well exercise discipline , though they cannot do it with all the liberty they desire ? sure , there is nothing but peevishness in this . n. do you think our ministers would quite their churches , and liberty of preaching the gospel , which is dearer to them than all the world , for any thing but conscience ? c. i am not so severe as to doubt , but in most of them it is conscience ; but i must adde , it is ill informed conscience . but what can you pretend , for your peoples withdrawing from our churches ? since our religion , in doctrine , worship and discipline , is the same : only a small alteration in the point of government is made . n. i am not for separating from you , as my practice tells , but much may be said for it ; therefore i will judge none that do it . c. truly i desire to be as sparing in passing judgements on people , as any can be : but since separation must be either a necessary duty , or a very great sin , being a forsaking the unity of the church : it can be no light matter to tear the body of christ , when there is scarce a colour of pretence for it . now , the schismatical humour among you , appears palpably in this , that you come sometimes to church , but seldom ; this seems indeed to be time-serving , that you may both evite the punishment of the law , and also retain your interest with your party ; for , if you come once in three moneths , you may come every lords day ; and if you may come , you ought to come ; otherwise you forsake the assemblings of the saints , and contemn what you call the ordinances . others of you also joyn with some of us , but not with others . now as to our publick transgressions ( if they be such ) we are all equally guilty , why then make you a difference ? others of you come to churches in the countrey , but do not so in the city : what doth this look like , but that you have freedom for the thing , but will not do it , for fear of being noticed ? which is to prefer the pleasing of men , to the pleasing of god. and finally , some of you joyn with us in the ordinary worship , but will not communicat with us , which bewrayes great solly ; for if you may pray and praise with us , which is the spiritual communicating : why do you not joyn in the eucharist , which is but solemn praise ? n. how can we acknowledg them our pastors , who are intruders , and are in the places of our faithful shepherds , whom you have torn from us ? c. supposing it were as you assert , yet that will never warrand your separating from them : since , although by the law of moses , the eldest of the house of aaron was high priest ; and the romanes by force driving them from their right , exposed this most sacred function to sale , so that the high priests not only invaded the right of others , but also obtained their office by the most horrid simony imaginable ; yet caiaphas , as high priest , prophesied ; our saviour also answered at his bar , and gave confession , when he authoritatively adjured him , in the name of the living god. st. paul also acknowledged annanias . and though the pharisees were wretched teachers , guilty both of greater crimes and heresies , than you dare charge on us ; yet our saviour saith , hear them , for they sit in moses chair . this is so convincing , that nothing in reason can be alledged against it : yea , it was the doctrine of your own teachers . finally , what cruelty is it , if a minister be put from his place , be it justly or unjustly , that the people should be starved ? it shews your ministers can have no love to their flocks , if they desire it should be so . n. but your curats are naughty men and weak preachers . c. this is an excellent piece of religion in you , to take up , and use reproachful names of your pastors . for though the name curat , be a designation , no minister ought to be ashamed of ; it signifying one that hath the care of souls ; yet ye use it as a term of contempt : and this is your obedience to st. pauls rule , honour them that are over you in the lord : which , as he addes , is for their works sake , and not for their persons sake , as you do . as for their persons and gifts , where is christian charity , that should make you slow to take up a bad impression upon slight grounds ? but if your grounds be good , where is your charity to the church ? since you do not make it known , that they may be cast out . beside , it will open a very wide door to separation , if you say , that upon the personal failings , much more weaknesse of a preacher , you may separate . this is to ty the good of church worship to him that mannageth it . and further , it seems , you think to hear sermon , all you go to church for : but the chief reason of our meeting , is solemnly to acknowledge god , and that we are members of his church : which we can do , be the minister what he will ; and hear good scriptures read , and sing good psalms . besides , let me tell you , you are not so zealous for good preachings , as you would make the world believe . for , are there not many of your preachers , who , while they were in place , were of no esteem , nor following ; and are undoubtedly men of weak gifts , yet now are crouded to by you ? and the church sermons are deserted , and their conventicles frequented . all the reason for this is , because they rail against the church and state ; which is the only way to make a man popular amongst you . n. you have pretended to answer a great many things , but one thing remains , wherein our chief strength lieth , and that you shall never be able to unbind ; which is , the covenant : wherein the whole nation , and the generations to come in their loins are engaged ; and , can such sacred and solemn vowes be broken , without shameful perjury ? c. this you alwayes bring out as your goliah , to defy the armies of the living god. but as sampson's strength lay in his hair , without which he was as other men ; so upon a full survey , it appears that the covenants strength consisted in the armies that fought for it , and not in any inward or innate vigour . and , first , what a ridiculous fancy is it , to say , children can be bound by their fathers oath ? is not this to make us the servants of men , and to give them authority over our consciences ; which is gods peculiar power ? alas , what kind of souls have you , that can be led into such conceits ! n. doth not the fathers debt oblidge the son ? why not also his oath ? c. a mans debt affects his estate , which if the son get , he is bound to pay the debt . but if the son get no estate by his father , then i hope you will not say he is bound to pay his fathers debt . and this shews that the fathers promises binde nothing upon the sons conscience . n. but are not we bound to duty to the king , because of the allegeance our fathers swore , even though we never swear it our selves ? c. not at all , because they swore allegeance , but because the right of the crown is in the kings person , and therefore we are born his subjects . n. but how was adam oblidged for his posterity , if parents cannot binde their children ? c. this is strange dealing , to apply a mysterie of our faith , which we cannot well comprehend , to your triffling matters . but take notice , that adam did not binde his children , by his undertaking for them , but by a secret transaction of gods ; who covenanted with him , as with the common head of mankind . and if parents can bind duties upon their children , they may as well bind sins upon them . and this is new doctrine unheard-of in the church , which never acknowledged any original sin , but that derived from adam . n. how then do parents vow for their children in baptism ? and are not they bound by the baptismal vow , taken by the father , in their name ? c. the parent binds for the childe , as a tutor in legal matters for his pupil : that is , they bind for their interest . the childe is indeed tyed by his baptism , not as it was his fathers vow , but because by the command of god , he was baptized into the likenesse of christ. n. how then is saul charged , and his children punished for killing the gibeonites ? c. it was not because he had falsified the oath , the princes swore : which is no where said but these gibeonites , by that oath , got a right to their lives ; and so were excepted , when god ratified it , from the general command of cutting off the canaanites : therefore , to kill them , wa● cruelty , and not perfidy . and saul is not taxe● of perjury , but of blood . for although the second of samuel make mention of the oath swor● to them , that is , only to reminde the reader o● the history set down in joshuah : but doth not at all say , the oath was still binding , as appears from the words . thus i have taken more pains tha● was needful , to shew the ridiculous fondnesse o● this absurd notion : and have met with all ca● be said for it . n. well , for all this , ye cannot deny but th● covenant binds these who took it . c. i will , ere i come to that , let you see ho● little noise you made in the breaking it in som● things . when then the tyrant had murdere● the king , enslaved this nation , antiquated th● covenant , discharged general assemblies , inhibited praying any more for the king , who the● stood up for the covenant ; or clamoured , a● you now do , of apostacy , tyranny , and perjury i know , a few spoke somewhat , but it was so se●dom , so faintly , and so disguisedly , that it was fa● from the thundering that was in some of you● pulpits before you were silenced , and as at thi● day is in your conventicles . the true reason was ye knew the tyrant would made no bones of ma●king heads fly , or sending you in shipfuls to barbadoes : but you presume upon the king's clemency . and you know what a trip some made , when upon a threatning of taking their stipends ●rom them , they passed from what , in a printed paper , they had owned as their duty , both from scripture and their covenant . n. it is uncharitably done of you , to rake into these things : but if we were faulty in some particulars , that is ill corrected , by becoming so gross , as to renounce all . c. i medle with none of your private escapes , but such as were publick : and do it not , as i have often said , to reflect upon you ; but to let you see , you are but as other men , and not such wonders , as you would have the world believe . i shall next tell you , what monstruous faults you committed in exacting the oath , not returning upon what was hinted , dial. 1. that it was a bond of rebellion , against the lords anointed . as for your national covenant , what a cruel imposing upon consciences was it , to make a nation swear an oath , which they could not understand ? for you made them therein renounce all the articles of popery ; amongst the rest , opus operatum , a latine word , and abstruse conceit ; with many other niceties , which you could not but know , your women and simple people did not understand . and was it not a contradiction , to make them swear against worship in an unknown tongue ; and yet in that very oath so to use it ? for swearing is an act of worship . yea , you made them preface all this with a gre● lye , that it was after full and mature considerat●on of all particulars ; when you knew they we● not capable of considering them . and wha● strange tyranny over consciences was it , t● make people swear in these matters , some wher● of might be disputable ; so that a man could no● be of your communion , except he were in you● opinion in all things ? a rigour never befor● practised but in trent . then , what a tr●pane was it , to make the nation swear the cov●nant , and by an after-game to declare that epi●copacy was abjured in it ? next , what violen● used you to oblidge all to bow to this idol● church-men were not only deposed , who refuse it ; but both church-men and lay-men were ex●communicated , if they did not submit to you● tyranny . what man of common sense can thin● this was the cause of god , which had such mo●struous errours in its first conception ? n. all you can say upon this head , may we● prove , there were some faults in imposing it but it still doth bind , since he shall dwell in go● holy hill , who swears to his own hurt , and chan●eth not . c. i confess , oaths , when the matter is lawfull , do oblidge : but if the nature of thing● change , so the matter grow unlawful , you th● cannot say the oath binds . in a word , a man , or society can only bind themselves , in things tha● are left to their power , and are in their own 〈◊〉 : but if the matter be not in their power , ●hen their oath cannot bind them . n. that is not our case , since you acknow●edge the thing to be of it self indifferent . c. i confess , if you take the thing abstractly in ●t self , it is indifferent : but as the case now ●tands , it is not so : for , by the command of god , we are oblidged to obey the magistrate in all things lawful : so that all just laws oblidge our consciences : and this is a tye before all oaths . and as by no act of ours , we can be bound to break the commands of god ; so , no more can we oblidge our selves to do any thing in prejudice of anothers right ; such as is the soveraign's authority . therefore , no covenant can bind us to deny obedience to the king's laws , because they are in a measure , the laws of god ; ●nd it is his right to command us , from which , ●o act of ours can exclude him . therefore , since the king and parliament have annulled the covenant , and required us to submit to episcopacy , it can no more bind us . n. this is good doctrine , to teach that we should obey man , rather than god. c. this is gross ignorance in you , it is , that we should obey god rather than our selves : for , the just laws , are the mediate commands of god ; whereas our oaths were a voluntary deed of our own , to which we were not bound by any command of god. now , if you comprehend not this clear demonstration , it is because you are a stranger to common sense . n. wherein could episcopacy have been mor● for the good of scotland ? or what could th● kings reason be , for preferring it to presbytery at least for judging it fitter for us ? c. this is like all mutinous subjects , to b● judging and censuring the actions of their princes , unlesse they be on all their secrets , and kno● what all their reasons , and designs are . go● hath given kings the authority to command● and hath left us the glory of obedience ; whic● we ought to do without further inquiry : provided what they enjoyn be against no comman● of god. but we need not seek to rifle the ca●binets of the king , and his councellors , ther● being many apparent cogent reasons , to have en●forced the change . you know what work you● leaders occasioned , both to his royal grandfather , and father , and to himself . you had in●volved the nations in blood ; and not satisfie● with this , after you got all the security yo● could demand , you engaged with his enemie● in england , against him ; you opposed the de●sign of delivering his father , anno 1648. in word , what jealousies had you justly raised in th● hearts of princes , of your government ? an● your tyranny ( 1649. ) against the nobility , ha● justly irritated them against you . next , you ha● divided shamefully amongst your selves , on● great party amongst you , being such , that you● selves sound it necessary to turn them out ; the● maxims being inconsistent with all order and government . and of these that are outed , i● ●s clear , that more than three parts of four , are of that party . why then are ye so blind as to ●sk a reason for the change was made , as if at ●oon one should ask where were the sun ? n. sure you are an enemy to godlinesse , who ●ave an heart so to rail at us . c. i am such a lover of true piety , that for ●ll this drosse that is amongst you , such of you , ●s live well , and walk conscientiously , i still love ●nd value ; and the searcher of hearts knoweth , ●hat i daily pray he may finde a way to re-unite ●s all again ; and to bring such of your leaders , ●s are sensible of their errours , in these great ●scapes , to a capacity of serving him in the church . but it is strange you should take such ● liberty , both in discourses , conventicles , and ●rinted writings , or rather libells , to inveigh ●gainst us ; and then , if we but say a little for ●ustifying the king , the lawes , and our consci●nces , and for undeceiving the people of these ●ists you would cast over their eyes , then you ●●ry out , that we are uncharitable , bitter and malicious . sure you who are so much for de●enfive arms , may , at least , allow us to defend the truth , the law , and our selves , with our tongues and pens . dialogue v. n. i confesse you have much shaken me in the matter of the bishops , though i never find in my heart to love them . but one thing stil● sticks , they are great friends to the common ▪ prayer-book , which i cannot think upon in patience ; and therefore i cannot joyn with them . c. truly if that be your chief quarrel agains● them , it is as well grounded as the rest . n. how ! do not you think it a great matter , to take from us the pure and spiritual worship of god , and in stead thereof , set up a dea● and formal liturgy ? c. i perceive you are still abused after on● manner , your leaders put big words in you● mouthes to make you stick stiffl●y by them ; you● government , they taught you to account the interest and kingdom of christ ; they also woul● make you believe your worship to be the onl● spiritual one , and all others but carnal . now , ● will let you see the great fallacy of this prayin● by the spirit , as you understand it . to pra● by the spirit , is , when out of a deep sense of ou● misery and need , and firm confidence in god , w● draw near to him , to offer up our prayers , an● praises to him , through jesus christ. our heart● being moulded in this frame , we pray by th● spirit ; use we words , or not , the same , or di●ferent expressions . nay , it will appear , w● are carnal , when we need to have our devotion tickled , and provoked with new words . n. now , i clearly see the rottennesse of your heart , and your superstitious cold formality . c. this is great arrogance for you thus to judge of things ye understand not . consider then , the will is the supream power of the soul , and the fancy is a lower faculty ; the true and spiritual devotion therefore , must be that which lies in the will , and not in the fancy : now , the varying of one thing into several shapes , is only a gratifying of fancy : and all the devotion can be raised by such chimes , is only sensible , whereas one of a deep and stedfast spirit , is equally affected with a thing , though still in the same dress . since then , for instance , our petition for pardon of sin , is fully comprized in this , have mercy upon me , o god , doth it not shew , that the thing , and not the words , affect him , who with the newnesse of affection , can make that prayer , though an hundred times repeated , at every return , new ? whereas he must have a lower minde , who needs a new phrase to renew his servour . and thus you see , it expresseth a more spiritual temper , to be able to worship god in simple and constant forms . n. i never thought to have heard the liturgy-worship called spiritual , and the conceived one , carnal . you that are schollers make any thing of any thing with your logick , but you will never make me think but our ministers prayed by the spirit . c. it needs but a very little knowledge of our selves , and none of logick , to make you comprehend this : for , do you think , the heating of the fancy cannot make wicked men pray without the spirit , as to appearance very spiritually ? finally , words , and all the heat begot by words , gesture , voice , or phrases , or the like , are but a false fire in the natural powers of the soul , which may well heat the brain , draw forth tears , seem to wring the heart ; and all this , is but a sensible fervour , which ( as the temper raised by musick ) amounts to nothing , but to a present tickling ; whereas the true devotion of the heart , is , an inward , still , humbling and melting thing , and so equable , that it is above these frisking fits of the fancy . and it is certain , to pray by the spirit , must be the immediat work of the spirit of grace : since then we see , that the praying in words depends most upon memory , fancy , eloquence , confidence and custome ; he that abounds in these , is like to excel in it ; whereas one , defective in all these , so that he cannot pray in a variety of words , yet may understand interior prayer and spiritual converse with god , better than any other . n. this is new doctrine to me . and i cannot understand nor believe it . c. consider then , that the sublimest way of prayer , is in the simplest acts : such as these ; thou art my god , and i am thine . and in such breathings , a devout minde will persist long , with great sweetnesse : and in this , god hath strangely shapt religion , so that the highest strain of it , is , what the simplest minde can most easily reach . nay , perhaps multiplicity doth lead out the minde from pure and still devotion . and thus extemporary prayer , cannot be called praying by the spirit , except by spirit you understand the animal or natural spirits : for , if it be by the spirit , it must be infallible , since all that is dictated by the spirit of god is so : yet your people do not assert their prayers as such . further , let one with a short-hand , follow that mans prayer , who you say prayes by the spirit ; then , may not that prayer be read and used over again ? or , is the spirit in the prayer so volatile , that it evaporats in the saying , and the prayer becomes carnal when it is repeated ? finally , if praying by the spirit , be a praying in new words , then only he that conceives the prayer , prayes by the spirit : since they who hear and joyn with him , are tyed to his words . n. the words were dictated by the spirit to him that conceives them . c. then to the people it is not necessary , the words be new : since to them it is all one , if it were once dictated by the spirit . but why do you not believe the prayer composed by the church , to be of the spirits dictating , as well as that of your ministers ? and , since the people can joyn and pray by the spirit , though the words be not of their framing ; why may not the minister pray in the spirit , though he use words framed by others ? all this shows how weak and ill grounded a notion , that of praying by the spirit , in the sense you understand it , is . and it clearly appears , that the dresse of the prayer in words , and the life begot by them , is but sensible and low . n. but doth not the spirit help our infirmities , and teach us to pray ? c. if you consider the words aright , they speak out a thing very far different from what you would draw from them . the spirit teacheth us to pray , for what we ought , that is the matter of our prayers ; and as we ought , that is the manner , to wit , the temper of our hearts . for , that words are not meant , appears from what follows , and maketh intercession for us with groannings that cannot be uttered : or literally , which cannot be worded . n. but though the renewing of words were a lower way of devotion ; yet , we in this inbodied state , need to have our souls stirred up by the commotion of our fancies . c. then at least , this must convince you , that such a way of praying , is not so sublime , and therefore ought not to be called praying by the spirit . and you must acknowledge , such as can worship god devoutly in a set form , to be of a higher size : as being above these gratifications of nature and fancy . i will next convince you of the evil of extemporary forms . in such then , i must long exercise my attention to consider what he who prayes , intends ; that i may judge , whether i can joyn with him or not : now this strangely draweth out the minde from devotion : for , two powers of the soul cannot be vigourously acted at one time . the attention therefore must put great stops to the progresse of the devotion : and the mind being so prone to wander in worship ; this opens a wide door to it . but he who knoweth already what the prayer is , runs along in his devotion , without anxiety , or wavering . hence i have heard devout men say , they were ever much troubled , while they joyned in extemporary worship , to keep their minde from distraction ; which they found wholly remedied , when they were where god was worshipped in set forms . n. what sort of devout men could these be ? sure they knew not what devotion meant . c. this is like all weak people , to censure what is above them , and they do not understand . but judge whether it be fit , i blindly join with one in the worship of god , when i know not how he is to mannage it : and you cannot deny , some may pray things you dare not join in . shall i not trust a man in any matter , without understanding how he will discharge it ? only in my devotions to god i will blindly trust so great a concernment , to one who saith he doth not know how he will mannage it himself . it is not enough to say , you join not in these things to which you cannot say amen ; for , at least to others you seem so to do . and this will keep you still in some anxiety , when in your heart you may say amen , and when not : and indeed this way of praying , was the best could have been devised , for spreading of errour , or sedition : for ministers prayed over their sermons ; so that what in the discouse seemed the words of man , in the prayer was called the dictate of the spirit . and this was an excellent device , to make all go down , had it been of the worst stuff . n. all things may be abused , but by your own rule , this should not strike against their use . c. things of themselves good , falling into abuse , ought not for that to be taken away ; except the abuse be greater than the goodness of the thing : but , if a thing , not of it self good , be grossly abused , then there is ground to change the use of it . now , since we speak of abuses , i might run out in a long career , and tell of the redious length , the scurrilous expressions , the involved periods , the petulant and wanton affectations , and other great abuses in extemporary prayer : with which , no doubt , you your self hath been often much troubled ; but i bear that tender respect to every thing that hath any relation to god's service , that i love not so to scoff at any thing looks that way : but you know these are sad truths . whether then , is it not necessary to redress these abuses by a regular form ? n. you know we had a directory of the things we should pray for . c. and why may not you have a directory for words , as well as things ? since the spirit rather helps in things than in words . but it was clear you brought up that directory meerly to cozen the world ; which otherwise might have been startled , to have seen you without all form , or rule for worship : for , even your leaders quickly wearied of it , and regarded it not . and one thing clearly followed , that the preaching was the great matter of the worship : all the prayers and psalms relating to it . but the constant acts , wherein the church should adore god , were thought too homely . to conclude , the least evil of extemporary forms , is , that a minister is ready to pour out his soul to god , in such devotions as are then most in his own spirit : suppose he be mourning for sin , under affliction , rejoicing in god , or the like ; he is apt to pray in these strains . but these being his private exercises , are not fit for publick worship , which , as it ought to be grave and solemn ; so , it should be general and comprehensive . n. i see you are for set-forms : but what reason have you for them ? sure the apostles used them not . c. you are not so sure as you imagine , for i cannot doubt but they used our saviours prayer , he taught them ; for whereas , at first , in his sermon on the mount , he had given it as a pattern of prayer , they afterwards , as is clear by the series of the gospel , came and asked a form of him , as st. iohn had given his disciples : and then he doth not say , as he formerly said , after this manner pray , but when you pray , which clearly sheweth , he intended it as a practice , as well as a pattern . nay further , the jews at that time had a liturgy , and their hours of prayer , which our saviour never reproves , as a formal thing : but , on the contrary , he takes his prayer , word for word , out of it , as may be seen , if you will read their liturgy . and this shews how foolish that exception against the liturgy of england is , that some of its prayers are translated out of the roman missall or breviary . but though the apostles and persons immediatly inspired , might pour out extemporary prayers , thence it will not follow , that every one may assume the same liberty . beside , you see by the worship of the corinthians , they used hymnes of their composing , as well as prayers : now i could never comprehend why you will allow the spirit to be restrained in praising , as to words , and not in praying , since both are duties equally spiritual ; nay , perhaps praising , is the most sublime of the two . n. because the plalms are a collection of praises dictated by the spirit of god for worship . c. this is all you can say upon the matter , but never were more absurdities crouded in less bounds . and first , it is clear , we may worship in the spirit , and yet be restrained as to words ; since you acknowledge god hath done it in praising . next , the psalms are full of acts that are prayers , as well as thanksgivings ; why may we not use these for constant prayers , as well as the other for constant praises ? nay , since we use to sing these prayers , why may we not for instance use the 51. psalm , in plain words , with a plain voice , as prayer , as well as in hobling ryme , with a tune ? sure you will find no difference in this , since you cannot say we are bound to use the psalms in meeter , or with tunes : for nothing proves we ought to use them with vocal tunes , but will conclude as strongly for all davids instruments . besides , who told you that all david's psalms were to be constantly used in worship ? it is clear , most of them was not intended for constant use : they relating to particulars of david's history and victories , which belongs not to us . and it is hard to say , we ought to sing his imprecatory psalms : as also , many things are in the psalms which we cannot sing , because we do not understand them : and it is clear , we ought to praise god with our understandings ; and not above twenty of the psalms were used by the jews in worship . to conclude , why may not the christian church compose new hymns , as they of corinth did ? for which they are approven by st. paul. and this is the more necessary , because from david's psalms , we are not furnished with such full and clear hymns , upon the great mysteries of the christian belief , as were needful . and what kind of reasons can you have , who plead so much for a liberty in prayer , and yet allow none in making of hymns ? why then do not ye use the glory to the father ? n. because it is not in the scripture , and is but a device of men . c. who would not be sick with such pitiful folly ? show me a reason why you may make prayers , and not praises ? beside , are not your meeter psalms a device of men ? and they recede from the text , as i can trace it in an hundred places , as much as the doxology doth from scripture words . and you understand musick little , if you do not know that the psalms in prose may be sung as well , and as musically , as they can be in ryme . besides , since the mystery of the s.s. trinity , is not so clearly in the old testament , nor in any psalm , why may not the church use an acknowledgement of it , in the end of their singing , as well as in the end of prayer , is ordinarily said , to the father , son , and holy ghost , be glory for ever and ever ? such childish weakness makes me sometimes doubt whether your rational faculties be not troubled : since what difference can you pretend betwixt singing and saying ? but i will return to prayer . consider next , how hosea the prophet prescribes a form , when he saith , take with you words , and say , &c. our saviour also prayed thrice , and though the third time was more fervently , yet it was in the same words : which shows , that fervour consisteth not in a varying of the phrase next , it is clear , that in the church they used forms very early ; since in the council of laodicea , it was decreed , that the same liturgy of prayer should be used morning and evening . it● is true , there was not an universal liturgy then agreed to , but bishops had their several liturgies : so we have the liturgies of st. basile ▪ st. chrysostome , and st. ambrose ; not to mention those of st. iames , and st. mark. but never were extemporary heats used in the church : and all the reformed churches have their liturgies ; so we had ours at our first reformation . n. but we are a purer church than any of them : and therefore we are not to learn of them . c. i know you were made believe , that all the world were wondring at you , but this was a cheat upon you , like that of your alledged prophetess ; for , i can assure you , there was no such thing true . one thing is strangely inconsequential amongst you , you will not pray in a liturgy , and yet you alwayes bless the people in a set form . do you think prayer for a blessing , is not a prayer ? or do you think , the spirit is not stinted when the form is short , but only when it is long ? sure these things shew you are not governed by reason . n. what then conclude you from all this ; is it that the english liturgy be brought in ? c. it is , that you consider better how you ought to worship god. as for the english liturgy , i do not say any thing is absolutely perfect , but god ; yet till i see a better liturgy compiled , which i never hitherto did , pardon me to think it an excellent rule for worship , although your deep , but groundless prejudices against it , have rendred you so uncapable of receiving good by it , that such is your soveraign's princely tenderness , and your superiours discreet prudence , that they do not obtrude on you while you are but babes this stronger food , but are willing to let you be doing with your milk . n. this is easie way for men to read their prayers off their books ; god keep us long from it . c. truly , if by easiness , you mean what is pleasant to a man , it is far from it ; for certainly the natural man would be much better pleased , to be running out with his own conceptions , and to have all the worship depending upon his lips this is indeed to be rabbi . but to use the form of the church is a more simple , and a more humble way of worship . n. i begin to think you can have no piety , who are so in love with that dead and dull worship . c. would to god you and i had more of it than we have : but it is perhaps your stupidity , that makes you dead and dull in it . and i know godly people , who protest , they never in their lives worshipped god with more pure and simple devotion , than when they joined in the english liturgy-worship : therefore in such matters speak more modestly . n. but what vain repetitions are in the liturgy ? how often redouble they , lord have mercy upon us ? c. i have not yet asserted , that it is in all things perfect ; but truly , i can think that no fault , except you will also quarrel with the psalms , particularly with the 136. in which is repeated 26. times , for his mercy endureth for ever , it being in every verse . but in the true sense of vain repetitions , i fear there is ground to say , many of ●our prayers may be censured for them . n. but what a confusion is it , that all say some of the prayers together , and use amen ? c. it seems you have read the scripture well , else you would have found , acts 4. how a whole company there , lifted up their voice to god with one accord , and said , &c. and st. paul plainly intimates that there was a custome of saying amen , at the giving of thanks . why then do you not in this follow the express scripture-rule ? and what imaginable ground is there that the people shall all with their voice join in the psalms , and not also in the prayers ? n. well , i see you are zealous for that service-book , but should you speak till to morrow , you should never perswade me to join in it : but are you as keen for the ceremonies ? c. i verily believe , your prejudice against it , though ill grounded , yet is so deep , that no reason will overthrow it : but perhaps , if you saw that worship gravely managed , you should be more reconciled to it . as for the ceremonies , i will medle with none , but such as were commanded here , well known by the name of the five articles of perth . and for these , if you can hear ●nd understand reason , i doubt not to convince ●ou , they were both lawful , and most of them ●oth useful and necessary . i begin with confirmation . n. well , is not this a popish sacrament which you would bring into the church ? c. i confess , if it had been introduced as a sacrament , you had reason to except against it but you know no such thing was ascribed to it , and it was only designed for a solemn renovation of the baptismal vow . now since children are baptized , and so in baptism do not ingage fo● themselves ; can any thing be more rational , than that when they come to the years of discretion , they do it themselves ? and this rite wa● very ancient in the church , and with great show of reason , the laying on of hands mentioned wit● baptisms , heb. 6. was expounded of it : and yo● know most reformers were for it . n. but why must it be done only by a bishop ▪ as if it were beyond baptism ? c. that was only to conciliat the more veneration for it , by making it the more solemn and therefore it hath been generally appropriated to the bishop . yet i shall not contend about that , since st. ambrose , or rather hilary saith that in egypt , the presbyters in the bishop's absence did confirm . and st. ierom saith , that ● bishop did nothing , except the ordination , whic● a presbyter did not likewise . the next articl● was private baptism . n. this was another piece of popery , to mak● the sacraments necessary to salvation . c. it is rather gross superstition , to confir● the sacramental actions to the walls of a church for it is the assembly of the faithful that makes ● church . our saviour said , where two or three are gathered together in my name , i will be in the midst of them . as for the necessity of the sacraments , none calls them simply necessary to salvation ; but since they were commanded , they ought to be used , unless some more cogent reason stop the use of them , than is the want of a dedicated house . and who should expect , that they who are so much against reverence to sacred houses , should likewise be against private sacraments ? as for baptism , what a cruel thing is it , to oblidge children ; especially when they are tender , to be brought , perhaps in the coldest season , many miles , rather than go and baptize at their houses ? this looks liker heathenish barbarity , than the christian tenderness . and for communion , why should not sick persons receive on death-bed , when all the reasons of receiving are most strong ? their faith and love needs then to be most quickened ; never is the death of christ more to be remembred , than when they are to pass through the valley and shadow of death ; and never is it more fit , that they declare their communion with the church , and their love to the brethren , than when they are entering upon their last pangs : and it is well known how early a practice this was in the church of god. iustin martyr tells , that they sent of the eucharist to them that were absent : and by the famous story of serapion , about the 200. year , it is apparent how necessary the christians then thought it was to be guarded with this holy viaticum . private sacraments then are not proposed as necessary , but as highly expedient : which i think i have made appear they are . n. but what can you say for kneeling in receiving ? sure this looks like superstition and idolatry . c. i confess this is the article of them all , i have the least fondness on : but it is great uncharitableness to call it idolatry , when such as do so , declare they neither believe christ to be corporally present , nor do they intend any worship to the bread and wine , but direct their worship to god and christ , for that death which is therein shewed forth . n. but why do not you sit ? since our saviour did institute this rite in the table-gesture ? c. since you do not exactly follow christ , you ought not to stand at this : none therefore should alledge this , but such as communicat leaning , and after supper , and in an upper room . and though the passover was ordained to be eaten by the jews standing with their loins girt , and their shooes on their feet , yet without any written warrand , they changed that posture into the ordinary eating posture , and did eat the passover leaning , in which our saviour conformed to them . and if the jews , against an expresse● precept , without any countermand , may chang● the posture ; sure the christians who are lesse restrained as to outwards , may change the gesture● especially there being no command for it : and but a lame example , since our saviour did not sit , but lean . and perhaps more veneration is due to that action , now that our saviour is exalted , than he could have allowed of in his humiliation . n. what can you say for holy dayes ? can any man make dayes holy ? c. if by holy dayes you mean , portions of time so sacred , that in these dayes , our services are more acceptable to god than on other dayes ; or that of their own nature they are holy , so that of it self it is a sin not to be particularly devout on these dayes , you have reason to say , none can make a day holy . and this was never asserted . but it is another thing to keep peculiar dayes of thanksgiving , for the great and signal mercies of the gospel-dispensation . i confesse i am so dull , as not to be able to apprehend what evil can be in such customs . and it is undoubted , that in all ages and places of the church , christians have had a peculiar veneration for these dayes . st. paul saith of the legall holy dayes , he that regardeth a day , to the lord he doth regard it ; and , if moses his feasts might have been kept holy to the lord , much more may these be which the church hath instituted . beside , you know the observation of easter and pentecost , are according to clear history derived from apostolical practices . and it appears , st. paul hasted to be at ierusalem to keep the feast of pentecost there . and , from all this i may assume , that your dislike of these festivals and the other articles of perth , is ill grounded . dialogue vi. n. i see we have no reason to hope for any good from you , who are so fierce against u● ▪ ●u● god be thanked , an ill-willed cow hath fro●●●orns . c. if by fiercenesse you mean a desire to see you ●uined and destroyed , you mistake me quite ; since there is none living , mo●● a verse from fierce and violent ●ourses than my self . i love all christians , who live according to the rules of the gospel ▪ and i pity such as i judge mistaken , knowing how subject i am to errour my self . i quarrel with no man for his opinion in these matters ▪ which are , as the 〈◊〉 incomp●rable king in his divine work call● them , but the ski●● and suburbs of religion . and as all the thoughts of that divine book bew●ay an augustnesse , which spe●ks the author a king indeed ▪ so his mode●a●ion in these matters looks like the paternal clemency which becomes the father of a countrey ; he then adviseth his son , our gracious sovereign , thus , beware of exasperating any factio●s , by the crossnesse and asperity of some men● passions , humours , or private opinions , imployed by you , grounded only upon the differences in lesse● matters , which are but the ski●s and suburb● of religion : wherein a charitable connivance● and christian-●oller●tion often dissipa●● their strength , wh●●●ougher opposition fortifies ; and puts the despised and oppressed party into such combinations , as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their persecutors , who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of religion . and a little after , take heed , that outward circumstances and formalities of religion , devour not all , or the best incouragements of learning , industry , and piety . thus that great and glorious prince . n. by this it seems you are a latitudinarian , and i have heard much ill of these new sort of people . c. truly i own no name , but that of jesus christ , in which i was baptized ; and these are invidious arts , to coyn names of parties , and to affix them on such as disown them ; i am , and desire to be a sincere christian , but of no party nor sect. but if by latitude , you mean charity , truly i must tell you , i glory in it , which is no newer way , than the new commandment which our saviour gave to his disciples , to love one another , as he loved them . n. i confesse they say you live very good lives , but you have dangerous and loose principles . c. are you not strange people , who fasten such characters on men whose conversations you cannot disprove ; for , what can you call an atheist , but a man of dangerous and loose principles ? these are uncharitable aspersions , as if not to be so hidebound and starcht on every trifle as you are , were to be loose and dangerous men . n. some say you are strong witted people , and so they suspect you of atheism . c. it seems they are weak witted people who talk so ; since though some foolish pretenders to wit , are atheists , yet no sort of men discover their folly , as well as wickednesse , so much as these do . and that cursed pest is hated by none more than us , who perhaps can give better and more convincing accounts of these principles of religion , that there is a god , a life to come , and that the scriptures are the word of god , than these who so charge us . but what unchristian work is it , thus to disgrace us ? n. many of you are suspect of socinianism , for you all magnifie reason , and are often telling how rational a thing christian religion is , which they also do . c. indeed if to call religion a rational worship , or reasonable service make a socinian , w● are such , and so was st. paul : but as for the horrid errours of socinus his school , touching th● trinity , christs satisfaction , gods prescience , & ● ▪ these we condemn and anathematize : and w● judge it most suitable to reason , that in these sublime mysteries , divine revelations should b● our rule . but notwithstanding of this , we wi●● be very loath to deny that christian religio● both in its articles of belief , and precepts ● practice , is highly congruous to the dictates ● right reason : and we judge to propose them s● shall be a convincing way to commend them all clear-witted men . and certainly , god having created man rational , the highest accomplishment of his nature , which is religion , must not be contrary , but suitable to his supreme faculty . n. it seems you are sound here , but i fear you latitudinarians are papists , at least cassandrians . c. you are resolved to charge us with one heinous thing or another , and when one fails you , you catch hold on another . we are far from that height of uncharitablenesse which some of you own , of damning all papists ; since they hold the foundation jesus christ , though they build upon it wood , hay and stubble : neither will we stifly say , that all things controverted betwixt the reformed churches and them , are matters of salvation ; yet in the greater controversies with them , we condemn them : such as are the popes supremacy , the churches infallibility , the corporal presence , the worshipping images , saints , angels , purgatory , prayer for the dead , withholding the chalice , worshipping in an unknown tongue ; these with many moe we disprove and dislike as much , and perhaps on clearer grounds than you do . yet we are such lovers of the unity of the catholick church , that we much honour and esteem all who have studied to bring things to a temper , though they have not come up to the desired length . n. but how comes it , that amongst all the articles of popery , you never reckon the merits of good works , nor justification by them ; since these are their chiefest errours ? c. i have not given a full enumeration of all that is wrong in that church ; but , for good works , though many of them , particularly the j●suits , have written very harshly in that matters ; and before the reformation , generally all the preachers did intollerably extol , not so much morally good works , as the superstitious and tyrannical injunctions of the stepdame of rome ; yet now it is clear , the more sober of them expound merits , in a sense which no protestant can disown , to wit , that they are actions so acceptable to god , that he who is faithfull in his promises , will certainly reward them . though i have no fondnesse on the term merit , which way soever expounded , it still sounds somewhat too high for a creature in reference to his creator , much more heartily do i reject the term condign . n. what ●ay you of justification by faith only ? sure this is a fundamental matter . c. there is nothing in scripture more clearly set down than the doctrine of justification ; but as it is generally explained , there is nothing more nice or subtill : justification and condemnation are two opposite legal terms , relating to the judgment shall be given out at the last day ; for though we are said to be now justified , as the unbelieving are said to be condemned already , this is only that we are now in the state of such as shall be solemnly justified or condemned . now at ●he great day we must give 〈◊〉 ●●ount of our actions , and we must be judged accordingly ▪ but since all must be condemned , if god enter in judgement with them , therefore god gave his son to the death for us , that thereby we might obtain ▪ salvation ; and all iudgement is by the ●●ther committed to the son : and jesus christ hath proposed ●ife through his death to as many 〈◊〉 receive his gospel , and live according ▪ ●o it . and as that which gives us ●●title to the ●●vour of god , is the blood of christ , so that which gives us an interest in his death , is faith , with ● life conform to the rules of his gospel , and the ●oo● of this new life , is a fai●h , which worke●h by love , purifyeth the heart , and ! overcom●●● the world ; and therefore justification is ascribed ●o● it in scripture . now , judge but a little what 〈◊〉 is to have a righ● apprehension of things ▪ si●●e ● have in a few plain words told you ●hat which with much nice●y swells amongst you to volume● ▪ and as this ascribes all to christ , through● whom it is that our sins are pardoned , our services ●●cepted , and grace and glory conveyed to us● ▪ so also the necessity of a holy life is clearly declared ▪ as being that whereupon we shall be solemnity judged , justified and absolved at the last day . n. i think this is very clear , but why do not you use the terms of the protestant● church ? this looks like a humour of singularity amongst you , that you will not speak like other men . c. whether do you think it fitter in the mysteries of ●aith to keep close to ●●rms of scripture or not ? since these , as they are the truest , so are the fittest and most expressive : but if we will speak in the language of men , i think the stile of the catholick church is to be chosen , rather than modern and scholastical expressions , which are too too horridly abused , as well by antinomians , as by carnal christians , who love well to hear of salvation by the death of christ , provided they be bound to do nothing themselves , that they may be saved . n. you have sufficiently vindicated your self of popery , but are you not arminians ? c. truly i believe both you and i may be good christians , and not understand a word of these controversies . and certainly the great itch of multiplying and canvassing subtile questions in matters of religion , hath proven one of the chief pests of the church ; it is good to be sober-minded . as for gods soveraignty in all things , but more especially in the conversion of souls , and the gracious influence of his spirit , i do firmly believe it : i as firmly believe , that god is infinitly good and holy , and think i may well take his own oath for it , that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners : but how to reconcile these his attributes , i confesse is beyond my capacity . god is an unfathomable abysse , and imperscrutable to any but himself : therefore as i do not doubt there are three persons in one god , though i cannot reconcile that to aristotles logick ; so i believe , god is soveraign and absolute , as well as holy and just , though i cannot answer all objections . in a word , let this whole matter be thus transacted , and no article of faith is violated ; let none of our good be ascribed to our selves , and none of our evil be imputed to god. n. i see if you have any errours , you have so much legerdemain , that you are not easily discovered . but , our ministers are more jealous of some of this new way of the latitude , than of any body ; for , often in our conventicles they bid us beware of wolves in sheeps cloathing : and this is meant of you . c. iudge of the tree by its fruits , said our saviour ; do not therefore upon jealousies and misrepresentations passe judgments ; for , who art thou that judgest another mans servant ? but i am now weary with wrangling , it being a thing much against my genius ; i will therefore leave these dry and arid matters , and talk a little with you on better subjects . n. i will hear you in these with all my heart ; for though you have said many things that do much displease me , yet as uncharitable as you think me , i am full of kindness for you ; and i love to hear good spoken by any body : therefore we will dispute no more . c. ah , how strangely is the world mistaken in matters of religion ! some placing it wholly in debates , others in external forms ; others in some private devotions , and others in a regulation of the outward man ; but true religion is power and life , and far above all these shadows . the kingdom of god is not meat and drink , but righteousness and peace , and joy in the holy ghost ; it doth not level at externals only , but secretly insinuats it self into the soul ; whereas a divine seed it propagates , diffusing its vertue through the whole man : in a word , religion was given of god to transform a man into the divine likeness , and to a real participation of the divine nature . n. what then is the great scope and design of christian religion ? c. god's method in clearing up this day of salvation was indeed wonderful : many ages after the creation , the world was overspread with darkness , and wrapped up in blind idolatry , only as the 〈◊〉 reflection of the moon , with the twinklings of a few stars , do give some radiance in the furthest absence of the sun , so these darkest ages had still some of the remains of natures light ; and the holy patriarchs were burning and ●hi●ing lights : but darkness still covered the face of the earth . at length there was a dawning ●p●●ed by moses , whose greatest splendor was c●ast upon it , by the approaching sun , the messia●s : indeed the old dispensation was a great ●idd● for all was managed then with great ●errour , po●p and state : their call out of egypt , and the pro●ulging of the law were dreadfu● , their temple , worship and ceremonies were majesti●k and solemn ; but by none of these the doer could be made perfect : at length came the sun of righteousness , as a light to lighten the gentiles , and the glory of his people israel , and brought to light life and mortality through his gospel ; the great designs whereof are , to beget in a man such apprehensions of the divine majesty as might both possess him with the holy reveren●● becomes his great name , and inspire him with a love and delight in him , that so man might be brought to a more free converse with god , and might be swallowed up in divine contemplations . the next thing in the gospel , is to propose to us that stupendious contrivance of the redemption of the world through jesus christ , that we may adore him as the author and finisher of our faith . beside , the gospel came to mould us into such a lively conformity to jesus christ , that we may imitate him in all things , chiefly in his holiness , meekness , and humility : and further , the gospel was designed as a cement and bond of perfection , to unite us all more clossly , even beyond the natural tyes , with those of brotherly-kindness and charity . n. what then are the methods to be used by one that would lead a spiritual life ? c. this ought to be the great design of our lives ; for , wherein shall it avail us , if we shall gain the whole world , and lose our own souls ? the way then to purify our souls , is , not barely to affect a little vertue , or morality , but to apply our minds to god , that by frequent and deep contemplations of his glory , his excellent perfections may be derived into our souls . be therefore much in stillness and abstraction of mind , that you may become of a thinking temper : give up with passions , designs , and humours , and use much inward recollection ; this at first will prove ●inful to you , but when once you have brought your mind into a serene and not easily agitated temper , you shall after that enjoy great quiet in divine converse . n. what mean you by this converse with god ? c. you shall feel such a belief and sense of the divine perfections in your soul , as shall make the thoughts of god familiar and easie to you : your converse with him shall not only consist in prayers , and acts of worship , but you shall be often admiring him in his attributes of power , wisdom , and goodness , and chiefly his love to you in christ ; which sense of god shall be as a fountain of living waters , ever jetting up divine thoughts into your mind : and these will not be crabbed , curious , or subtill speculations , but humble adorations , and divine imbraces , in such acts , as , thou art my god , my good god , i am thine , i will love thee above all things , and none but thee ; thou art my joy and only delight . thus the more you converse with god , your acts will grow the simpler and the purer : it will not only be at some returns , morning or evening , or in publick worship , that such thoughts will stir in you ; but your heart will be full of them , and swiming in them , and they will rise natively in you . hence will gush in upon your soul much inward sweetness of mind ; you will be ever well pleased , because you will see god in all things , and you will see all he doth is good ; you will therefore not only practise submission , but complacency and delight in all his wayes ; you will also rejoyce in the divine attributes , and glory in your interest in heaven . oh , how sweet will your hours then grow to you ! but debates and opinions and every thing that leads out the mind from that inward stillness , will become sapless to you . n. wherein consists that sweetness you say is to be found in divine converse ? c. in the stillness wherewith the mind is overflowed , the clearness in the judgement , the stedfastness of the will , and calmness of the passions ; and then indeed a man lives in the perfection of his nature . but , beside these , there are some divine touches , wherein the soul is carried , as it were , out of her self , into most sublime heights , which cannot be uttered . but as for the affections of the sensible part , these may be very high in an impure mind ; for the natural devotion , especially if the person be melancholick , a woman , or histerical , will mount very high , but this devotion doth not humble nor purify the minde . now , persons so divinly acted , are nothing in their own eyes , and willing to be nothing in the account of all the world , and all the world is nothing to them , their god is their all : they resign all to him , and are willing he dispose of them , and every thing else , as seems good in his eyes ; so they are not sollicitous , nor disturbed , however squares go in the world . finally , by the elevation of this spiritual life , they are made to think not only placidly and serenly of death , but to long for it , accounting that the worst office death can do them , is to free them of a vile body , and to give them enterance into their heavenly kingdom , this is the union of the soul to god. n. but how must we enter into that state of divine union ? c. truly the gate is low , and the passage strait , we must be dispossessed of self-love , and of all intense affections to created objects ; we must ●now and abhor our bygone escapes , we must by the humble applications of our souls to jesus christ , presse in by violence into this heavenly state ▪ to which the passage is so narrow , that we must be stript of all the bulksome farthingales and trains of vanity ere we can enter : but when we shall be divested of these , the path of life will prove easie . oh! how shall these pangs be recompensed , when we have broke thorow , and got into the blessed shades of the garden of god ? and , how infinitely more shall they be swallowed up , when getting beyond the dark regions of mortality , we shall arrive at the uncreated light , which without a cloud or vail , shines above ? then our glorified bodies , with our no lesse purified souls , being made like unto angels , yea , unto a greater than angels , shall be incessantly imployed in exercises , services and adorations , so far elevated beyond , and disproportioned to our highest a●chievements and enjoyments here , that in this imperfect state we cannot so much as frame suitable apprehensions of that unconceived glory ! now we who have the possession of so great a joy , and the hope of a greater blesse●nesse proposed to us , have we not all reason vigorously to set about the duties of a christian life , not intangling our selves with thorny and harsh debates , which will but retard our progresse to sublimer states , and higher and undisturbed regions ? n. is this all then that is required to accomplish a christian ? c. this is but the basis and roo● of a christian life , which is never barren nor unfruitfull : he then whose heart is thus fixed on god , his life and actions quickly declare that he hath not only the form but the power of godlinesse in him : he lives above the world , in such a contempt of it , as discovers he hath greater riches and treasures in his design , than these a●e ; he hates the base and impure pollutions that abound in the world through lust , and underva●●●eth even the lawfull pleasures and enjoyments off sense : he sets no value on things in themselves , riches and poverty , shame and contemp●a●e equally welcome to him , the one doth not sink him , nor can the other swell him : his actions and discourses have that candor , ingenuity and goodness in them , as convince all , that the fear of god is before his eyes . finally , he li●es in the world , as out of the world , and above the world ▪ his humility also testifieth , that in no●hing the doth , he seeks or regards himself ; he doth not hang out his piety nor good actions to publick view , but wraps them up in unaffected self-denial . he courts not applause , nor is he fretted with contempt , but is willing that none but god , for whom he doth all , know his actions , and with a virginal modesty shuns and rejects the praises which are undesired , as well as undeserved : he flyes the crouds and publick scenes , that in corners he may find that which by venting in a throng , is often evaporat and lost . and as he doth not cowardly stoop to mean things , so he doth not stubbornly refuse the poorest office god calls him to : he peaceably obeyeth the publick father of his countrey , and the ghostly fathers of his soul : he undervalueth none but himself , neither are his ears pained with applauses given to others , nor itching for them to himself . his charity also appeareth in his readiness to do good to all men , looking on that as one of the greatest conformities to the divine nature : he relieveth the poor with his goods , the perplexed with his advice , the oppressed with his assistance , the disconsolat with his sympathy ; and all with his prayers . he judgeth rashly of none , he doth not easily believe , but quickly pardoneth an injury : he is not soon irritated , but readily pacified : he confineth not his charity to a party , but extendeth it to all christians . this is a rude character , containing some of the fairer lines of a christian-life ; by which you may see wherein christian religion consists , and how far even those who pretend most loudly to it , recede from it . n. what say you of his devotions , both private and publick ? c. in his secret retirements he often revieweth and examineth his actions , that discovering what hath been defective and amiss in him , he may be humbled for it , and quickened to new vigour and alacrity in divine services : he begs the divine love through jesus christ , by whom he makes all his addresses to the throne of grace ; he offers up himself to god by pure and free resignations , that he may dispose of him as pleaseth him ; he imploreth the divine grace , and assistance for mortifying all sins , overcoming all temptations , and advancing in every thing that is acceptable and well-pleasing to god : he also offers up his praises to god for all his mercies , chiefly for that unvaluable one of the redemption of the world through jesus christ : he prayeth also for the catholick church , his king , countrey , and friends . this he performs not as an homage or vassalage which he must do , but out of pure delight in god and divine exercises : neither doth he rest on these , as all he owes god ; but besides , he orders all he doth for his glory , and is often bending his minde to an application to god in all his wayes : and this is his secret and inward devotion . he worships god in publick , that he may avowedly own his dependance on him , and his union with his church : he goeth to the holy place , not out of custome or formality , but that he may jointly with others , acknowledge and adore his maker and his redeemer ; and gives no● only an external concurrence with the worship in voice , gesture , or presence , but his hear● saith amen to his lips and profession . n. i confesse i finde it much more pleasing and edifying to talk on these heads , than on ou● doubtful disputations ; and therefore i will bi● an endlesse farewell to them . c. i was to have desired that of you : fo● though my affection to you hath at presen● drawn from me a great deal of contentious discourse ; yet i finde no pleasure in it ; and therefore as i seldom in my thoughts remind● these matters , so here i put a point , and wil● never resume them again . let us therefore provoke one another to charity and good works ● we have a better exercise for our tongues , wit● them we are to blesse god even the father ; le● us not therefore utter any thing with them that may seem to curse man , that was made after the similitude of god. n. yet your pains are not wholly lost : fo● though i am not altogether changed as to 〈◊〉 principles ; yet you have brought me to a grea● temper in things wherein i must confesse i wa● unmeasuredly furious : but i will henceforth study to draw in my minde from every distraction , and more vigorously pursue the great en● of my being . c. if this be your temper , you and i cannot disagree , did our thoughts , as to other things , differ never so widly : and i pray god keep you and me both in this temper long , but now we must part for a while , it is like we may shortly meet again , if not on earth , at least in heaven : so i bid you heartily adiew . postscript . these dialogues were the hasty product of some idle hours , wherein the author thought fit to gather in a few words , the matters which now creat us so much trouble , and to represent the arguments of both parties candidly ; which he hopes he hath done . he protests he hath no design to wrong either party or person , but meerly to propose these matters to others , in the same light wherein they appear to himself : had his design been to disgrace persons or wayes , he would have done it at another rate ; but he abhorreth such a thought . if these papers grow publick , and be of use to any , he desires no thanks as he expects no rewards : and for the censures of persons concerned , he will shroud himself from these with the vail of one unconcerned . finis . a pindarick ode upon contentions in matters of religion , by a friend of the authors , and a zealous promoter of all designs for peace and love. i. shall that which was design'd to end our toils , increase our flames , and raise new broils ; and must we triumph in our brethrens spoils ? women are said by contraries to walk , so now religion which heaven intends to quiet minds , all hearts to quarrel bends ; and to contentious talk . and as the feuds of brethren hottest are , ( where concords ought to be , there harshest proves the jarr ) so nations christned into unity , and twisted in fraternal tyes , yet do these sacred bonds despise : and the endearing names of brethren all bely . ii. great were disorders which at babel sprang , each did his mothers tongue forget ; brother to brother spake a stranger dialect , and new coin'd words only the ear did wound . in vain it was to speak , and all grew mutes , and man seem'd to descend to rank of bruits . the gospel came to heal this breach , and canaans hallowed stile mankind did teach : at first all seem'd made of a piece ; one heart and soul them did inspire , free was the peaceful company from warlike ire , when charity was all their fire . the heavenly dew still moistened the fleece . while they sought only how to propagate their kind , ' midst all their hymns no discord could one find . but when the wretched arts of humane policy , mingled with primitive integrity , they by unhallowed tools began to build their fabriques , and by laws of state religion did adulterate . then did incensed heavens 'gainst them rage , and put an early period to the golden age : all in disorder ravel'd out , the church grew a tumultuous rout . and all with cloven tongues did speak : fierce wrath prevail'd , and gospel force grew weak ▪ and all its harmony died in a groan : oh strange ! even paradise becomes a to●ride zone . iii. iesus blest names were not their only stiles , they left his standart , and were rang'd in files , vnder the banners of dividing names , and quench't in angry heats were divine flames , some quarel'd only about doubtful words , but to decide the matter , used swords : others 'bout logick niceties did contend , yet such poor stuff put to their love an end : and while some plea'd the practice of small forms , did their unformal pleas occasion storms . wondrous metamorphose ! st. james counts lust the source of warre , but now religion proves the cause of jarre . inverted chymistry ! which turns the gold to base allay . must rome be damn'd as antichrist , because it to unerring chair pretends ; and forth as oracles its dictates sends ? while each 'mong us to that height raise their creast , and do expect that all to them submit , conceiting that to errour proof's their wit. but once a woman did usurp that chair , that stain wipe off could never any care : yet now 'gainst us that sex conspires , and to our crown with insolence aspires . each dame a sybill grows , and doth refuse to stoop to wisest sort , and our just yoke abuse . the names of factions are infus'd in harmless infancy , which early thus abus'd , retains the venome it from breast derives , all roads are block't by which the truth arrives , fond prejudice doth so bemist , trepaning custome doth so twist their minds to errour , that it vain and bootless labour proves them to regain . iv. disputing is as oyl to raging flame ; they glory in their sufferings pompous name , and by resisting do increase their fame . all gentleness they think a cheat , and dread the enemy most when he doth treat . god bless me , what disease is this , whose cure all medicines do miss ! they 'r wanton if we cordials use , sure , goodness they abuse ; or if to abate the feverish heat , some noisome blood we would let out ; then grows the madness of the frantick rout . if fines as medicines their bowels drain , then they aloud of grinding do complain . this strange distemper doth all skill defy ▪ physicians hopes still falsify . but as a joynt which gangrene doth corrupt , must be cut off from the sound lump● better the body grow a stump , than by such members bankerrupt . yet often doth this hydra multiply when cropt , one head to seven will fructify . or as a tree which with new force doth spring , when lopt by pruner is its over spreading wing ; so doth this poysonous weed still further spread , and as the camomine , grow the more it's tread . the cockle still with wheat will blend , till winnowing flames to mixture put an end . good grains with tares may chance to be pull'd up , delay their doom till brimfull be their cup. then chaffed justice shall the chaff devour , and angel-reapers bring the just to heavens floor . finis . a continuation of the former conference . dialogue vii . c. i am heartily glad of this opportunity of meeting with you again , and will be more glad to find our last conference producing the effect design'd by it ; which was to beget in you a true sense of religion , that you may walk worthy of your high and holy calling ; for , i can have no greater joy than to see you walking in the truth . n. i thank you for being so concerned in the welfare of my soul : and , by the grace of god , i shall make it my daily work to be perfecting holinesse in his fear : but , i must be on my guard when i converse with you ; since you publish our private discourses , which i do not take kindly ; for , you take advantage from my weakness , and , by running me down , make the whole party suffer . c. the true reason why i consented to the publishing of our conference ( for i candidly assure you , i did no more but give my consent to him , who , being pleased with the written account of it , desired to make it publick ) was , since i thought i had allayed a great deal of the heat i met with in you upon these matters , i presumed it might produce the like good effect in others . if in any thing i seem to take too great advantage against you , it is with reason : neither is it an humour of drolling or insulting , that makes me sometimes a little pleasant ; since in all dialogues you will find the transitions sweetned with somewhat of that , even when the gravest matters are treated of . n. some charge you with socinianism , others with popery , others with arminianism , and others with quakerism . i confesse their grounds seem'd to me , very slender , but they say it is very clear , and tell their followers to shun you as a pest . c. god forgive their malice , i pray god it be not laid to their charge at the last day , that they so falsly and injuriously reproach me . i know the arts of some well , they will tell their people that we are unsound and heterodox , and back their hard words with grave nods and wry faces ; and the poor people , too inured to implicit faith , give an undoubted credit to what they say : but do they understand things , who charge a man with socinianism , who believeth that christ is the eternal son of god , and hopes for salvation only through his blood ? and they are as well versed in popery , who charge me with it ; for , can he be heretical in justification , who ascribes all we receive in this life and in that to come , to the love and grace of god through jesus christ ? and you know all that calvin and his followers aim at in the matter of arminius his points , is , that all ou● good be ascribed to god : how then can he be erroneous in this matter , who asserts that ? but as for quakerism , the grounds on which they tax me of that , are so ridiculous , that i am ashamed to name them ; and , i assure you i am so far from inclining to quakers , that i look on that sect , as one of the subtillest devices yet broached for the overthrow of christian religion . but , if that spirit be not the womb , from whence all these sects and errours have sprung amongst us , let all that look on , judge ; none falling to them in this country but such as were formerly most violent in their way . and though i am sure , they are far enough from being quakers , yet their principles have a natural tendency that way : whence , think you , have they suckt their rejecting of all forms and order ( under ● pretence that the spirit is not to be prelimited ) but from your notions against liturgies and for extemporany heats ? next , the liberty you take to medle in matters too high for you , and judge of every thing , without thinking you are bound to reverence either the present or antient church , ( i plead not for implicit faith ) opens a wide door for their pretensions to a liberty of the spirit ; which at once renounceth all modesty and humility . next , your humour of separation , begets that giddiness in people , that , no wonder , they , being shaken from the unity of the church , also stagger through unbeleef . as also , many of you cherish in your followers a dejection of mind too much , as if religion , which gives a man a right to the purest joyes , should become a life of doubting , and this introduceth a spirit of melancholy , which clearly makes way to that pretended enthusiasm . and thus you may see who are to be blamed for the progresse that way makes amongst us , you having prepared the people so to it . but still i assure you , though i cannot but see the faults , too many amongst you are guilty of , i am far from hating or despising you , god knowes i pity and love you with all my heart . n. but every one doth not judge so favourably of you ; in a word , you are called ● petulant profane and malicious person , and ● scoffer at true piety ; under a pretence of it labouring to defame the cause and work o● god , which shall have a sweet savour to al● posterity , when your memory will rot : yo● pretend to moderation , but art the most immoderat of any : this is the vulgar sense 〈◊〉 that book , and of its concealed author , who , they adde , doth well to conceal his name from such a work of darknesse . c. i hope you know my temper better , than to think these things will much move me : i will learn to live through good report and ill report , and am so far from being angry with those who thus traduce me , that if i knew how to do them a good office i would infallibly do it . yea , if my heart deceive me not , i could die to do them service . i have no anger , god knoweth , at their persons nor their wayes , further than i think they are destructive of the unity of that body , whereof christ is the head : and consequently obstruct the advancement of religion . i alwayes classe them in two divisions , the one is , of such as are indeed differing from us in their opinion , but withall are sober and modest , not rash in their censures , nor bitter in their passions : and such i honour and love , and doubt not but there are grave and pious persons of that persuasion , whom i also honour the more , because of their first founder calvin ( take not this as a jeer ; for , i assure you , the first being ever presbytry had , was in calvius brain . ) but others , besides their opinion in the matter of church-government , are of foure tempers , condemning such as differ from them , judging all who are not as violent as themselves , placing salvation in these matters , and thus confining their charity within the narrow circle of their own opinion : as for such , they get but their true name , when they are called fanaticks , and though i will be loath to judge them as to the state of their souls ; yet , whatever good christians they might prove in a cell , or in a desart , i assure you , they are not shap't for societies ; their maximes being inconsistent with peace , order and unity : and they are as unfit to govern , as uncapable of being governed ; and , for these do not quarrel me , if i speak severly of them : but remember what one of your own deservedly esteemed preachers sayeth ( it is like occasioned by the differences then , when they were forced to represse the insolence of the protesting party ) on iob 17. verse 10. doct. 4. albeit godlinesse teach men modesty and sobriety , and to be tender of the reputation of others ; yet that doth not hinder them to tell men , what they are , when they are called to it in the defence of truth : and that they may give a check to their proud conceit of themselves : these words are so clear and comprehensive that they need no further explication , and serve as a compleat apology for any sharpnesse i might have used . i should indeed be very injurious to the presbyterian party , did i charge them with all the humours and follies that are among you : the english presbyterians are far beyond you in their moderation , as is notour to all that know them , and may appear from mr. baxter's disputations on church-government : yea , in the late treaty , all they desired , was , to be conjoined with the bishops in the exercise of discipline , which you refuse , though it be offered and pressed upon you . next , before the late disorders , all the presbyterians in scotland , did fit in the courts for church-discipline , and why may you not as well do the like ? n. the odds is very great ; for , then presbyteries stood by the legal establishment ; the act for them being still in force , which was rescinded at the restoration of bishops , anno 1662 : so that the old foundation being razed , they are no more presbyteries . c. you may remember what i said to you at our fourth meeting upon this head : but one thing i must adde , which will surprize you , it is truly very strange how matters of fact are so confidently asserted , and so tamely believed , without consideration : you give it out to every body , that the law for presbyteries , was in force till the year 1662. and this is in all your mouthes , and i confesse , i never doubted the matter of fact to be true , till of ●ate i was undeceived by a person of great honour , who shew me the act parliament 21. iacob . ch . 1. where it is expresly said , annulling and rescinding the 114 act of his majesties parliament , holden anno 1592. and that is the act which setled presbytery ; and now , what can i think ? god forbid i suspect this of disingenuous forgery ; and yet perhaps , if you catched us in such a trip , it would be told us on our deafest ear ; but it cannot be denyed to be intolerable ignorance and supinnesse , to take such a matter upon ●rust ; and since you make this the chief ground why you differ from your predecessors in this matter , how can you answer to god who have made a schisme from the church , without examining the grounds upon which you did it ? but i hope now that you see upon what sandy and slender foundations you have been building , you will consider your way better hereafter , and return into union with us : for i am still desirous and willing to hope well of you . n. truly you are in the wrong to many of them , for few of them are so bitter against you as you seem to be against them : and i assure you they pray often for you , though you i doubt seldom pray for them . c. i tell you again and again , i have no quarrel with such of them as are calm and modest , only i regrate they are too few . as for the others love to us , wo should it be to you and me , if the love of god to us ( which ought to be our measure of love to the brethren ) did appear in such effects as theirs doth . if they pray for us , it is in the most invidious strain imaginable , that god would bring us down and destroy such of us as are incorrigible , and shew the rest of us the evil of our apostacy and defection : this you know is the universal strain of their prayers concerning us . but , how would they take it , if we should pray that god would destroy their party , and shew them the evil of their cruelty , rebellion and other wicked courses ? now this is the true character of an insolent , who takes a liberty with all the world , but cannot be touched himself . and you know , we alwayes pray , that god would unite this poor church , and heal our breaches ; which shews the healing and peaceable spirit is on our side : our prayers being such , that none can refuse to say amen to them : and upon all occasions , we declare we are not only ready to unite with them , but are extreamly desirous of it . and if you will believe me , i assure you , i daily pray for them in this strain most cordially : whereas there is nothing they fear more than an accommodation ; nay , in their books they directly own , that all that can be done , ought to be done for keeping life in our differences : and who could ever have expected to have heard this doctrine in the school of christ ? and let all men judge , if there be not a bitternesse in the preface to mr. rhetorfort's letters , the apologetical narration , and naphtali , which is unsampled in any satire , not to say grave and christian writing . and what cursed doctrine is it naphthali broacheth concerning private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinnesse of the magistrate ? for , ransack all the provincial letters , escobar or the other profane casuists of that wicked school , you shall not find a more impious and detestable opinion among them ; and what cursed effects this produced , all the nation saw : when in the sight of the sun a vilain with a pistol invaded the persons of two of the fathers of the church , and that in the chief street of our royal city . and though the providence of god shielded the one totally from his fury , and preserved the life of the other , though with the losse of his arm , all shattered with the wound ; yet his malice was not to be blamed , for that asassinations were only wanting to compleet the parallel betwixt that spirit and the iesuits , which is indeed the same spirit moving in different characters . i do not charge the fact on that party , but acknowledge , i never spoke with one who did not express their abhorrency of it ; but , without all uncharitableness , i may charge it on the author of naphthali . n. but one thing ever sticks with me : i confesse at our last discourse , you gave me good rules in order to a christian life , but still you design to make me regardlesse of the state of the church , which is , that i be only self-concerned , and neglect the interests of christ , whereas , what ought to be dearer to me then the glory of god ? and surely when that suffers , all that love him will be tenderly affected , so was david and ieremiah , for the desolations of their times ; and it is a strange piece of religion to be unconcerned in gods glory , which is to be like gallio , to care for none of these things . c. all things have two sides ; so this doctrine of resignation , if you look to it on the wrong one , seems like unconcerned stupidity ; yet , rightly considered , it is one of the highest pieces of christianity : for , if you believe ( which you must believe , else you are no good christian ) that christ governes his church , you must also believe that he doth all things well : since he hath all power in heaven and earth committed to him ; and in him are all treasures of wisdom and of knowledge ; and he loved his church so , that he died for it . now since his power enables him to do what he pleaseth , and his goodness inclines him to please what is best , and his wisdom cannot erre in the choice , where is there rowm for any miscarriage in the government of the world ? why then are we to vex our selves with any anxiety ? doth not that tacitly accuse god , as if he did not mind his church as he ought ? or doth it not imply if we were of his council , we could adjust things better ? therefore , as in all our personal concernments , we ought to go about our duty with diligence , leaving events wholly to gods care ; so , in the publick conce●nments of his church , we are to commit the management of them to him , on whose shoulders the government was laid by the father ; and rest securely in this perswasion , that all things cooperat in promoting the grand designs of eternal wisdom and goodness : but still we are to concern our selves in the good of the church above all things , next to the salvation of our own souls : but this is to be expressed , as in our most servent solliciting of god in behalf of his church ( to which we are oblidged as well as to pray for our selves , we thereby expressing to god our zeal for his glory , and our servent charity to the brethren ) so also we are to let no opportunity slip , that god puts in our hands of doing good : but , as we are called , we are to do good as far as our station reacheth , and that upon all hazards ; yet , even in that , we are with david , not to meddle in matters too high for us , and with st. paul , not to stretch our selves beyond our own measure and line ; but withall , we are to let no inward dejecting melancholy possess our souls , which is contrary to the end of religion , wherein we are called to rejoyce evermore ; it being contrived of god to beget in us joyes , which cannot be taken from us ; and nothing marrs the souls inward joy in god more than such sorrowes . n. but all this is still contrary to the holy men of god : what sad complaints are in the psalms and prophets , and chiefly in the lamentations ? and certainly , we , in the new dispensation , enjoying a clearer manifestation of the love of god , ought to be so much the more zealous for his glory . c. it seems you consider little the difference of the two dispensations : for , that of moses was carnal , chiefly made up of temporal promises of an external prosperity ; so these outward desolations were then signes of gods displeasure against them , and therefore they did lament because of them : but now the scene is wholly altered , and these outward afflictions and persecutions , are so far from being curses , as they were of old , that our saviour hath pronounced them blessings ; yea , he hath made these trials the badges of our conformity to our head , who was made perfect through sufferings . and therefore we are to glory and rejoyce in our sufferings , as did the apostles ; and in the primitive church , though they were made havock of , in the most cruel manner , some torn by lyons , and other wilde beasts , some killed by the sword , some burnt in the fire , some roasted on gridirons , some thrown in boy●ing caldrons , some had their flesh torn off by pincers , some were starved to death by hunger and cold ; in a word , all the crueltie that diabolical malice could devise , was exercised upon them ; yet not only the martyrs themselves bore all , singing in the midst of their tortures , but the churches also rejoyced in it : and the dayes of their death , were festivals , called naetalitiae martyrum , they counting their martyrdom their most glorious birth . and by the epistles eusebius inserts in his history , we see they were far from complaining because of their sufferings . but you ( because the lawes are altered , and the magistrate hath denied you further encouragement , and punished you , not for your conscience , of which you cannot brag much , since none hath suffered because he was for presbytery , or against episcopacy , but for your unruly humours and practices ) make such complaints to god as if heaven and earth were mixed , and adapt all the lamentations of ieremiah to your sorrie matters , as if the overthrow of presbytery were to be compared to the babylonish captivity ; and see if the conclusion of the apology , and all your other writtings run not in this stile . now were your way what you imagine it to be , you should rejoyce , that you are called to suffer for it , and not to make such tragical complaints . and i am sure , your bitterness against those whom you call your enemies , looks nothing like the mildnesse of christ or the primitive sufferers , who carried with all gentlenesse towards their persecutors , in meeknesse instructing those that opposed them ; and this doth too palpably declare , you are strangers to the serene and dove-like spirit of the gospel . n. you alwayes run to the primitive christians ; but far fowles have fair feathers , and if you examine the practice of the reformers , they universally resisted the magistrate , and carried on the reformation by arms ; and how then dare you charge the doctrine of resistance with rebellion , since you thereby stain that glorious work ? c. i assure you , i have a great veneration for the reformers , and look on them as persons sent of god , to rescue his church from the grosse superstition and idolatry had overspred it ; but for all that , you must pardon me still to prefer the primitive christians to them : as for casting reproaches on them , it shall quickly appear whither of us be the more guilty in it . i will therefore from undeniable evidence of history convince you of the falshood of that vulgar errour , that the reformation was carried on by restistance ; and shall begin with the waldenses , who resisted not the king of france , as is clear in the history , notwithstanding of their unparallelled persecutions , when they were destroyed by thousands : belle forrest tells , that 60000 were killed in one town of beziers ; spond . ad an . 1209. tells of seven thousand , being murdered at once in one church . it is true there were wars betwixt the count of monfort and the count of tholouse ; but the count of tholouse was a peer of france ; and the peers , by the constitution of hugo capit , were rather vassals then subjects to the king : besides , he only sought against monfort . so petrus vallisarnensis , hist. albig . and in the counc . of monpellier , the dominions of tholouse were given to simon monfort , but not by the king , neither was the legate well pleased , that the kings son came and took the crosse , lest he might thereby pretend some right in these dominions , which the pope pretended were his : simon monfort therefore was a bloody emissary of the popes , and not authorized by philip august . then king of france , who gave no other concurrence to the war , save that he permitted his subjects to arm in it : so , here was no resistance of subjects against their soveraign . n. but did not the bohemians , under zisca , fight and resist when the challice was denied them ? c. in the general , consider that the crown of bohem , is elective : in which case , certainly the states of a kingdom share more largely of the soveraign power : besides , he from whom we have the best account of the bohemian churches , comenius ( in ordine unitatis bohemicae ) gives but a slender character of zisca and his bussinesse , extolling him chiefly as a good souldier . besides , the justifiers of the late bohemian wars , never run upon this strain of subjects resisting their soveraign , upon the account of religion , but upon the lawes and liberties of that elective kingdome . neither were the protestants too well satisfied with the last bohemian-bussinesse ; yea , king iames , notwithstanding of his interest in the elected king , was no way cordial for it : these two i have joined together , because the scene was the same , though the interval was great . n. but you know there was fighting in germany upon the account of religion . c. this showes how overly you read history , when you bring this as a president . when luther rose , the duke of saxe , being moved of god , did receive the reformation peaceably into his principalities , without any force ; and his example was followed by other princes and free cities : but , in the year 1524. and 1525. there arose a war in germany , fomented by some troublesome preachers , as saith the historian , who pretended the liberty of the gospel for their chief quarrell ; and this was called the war of the rusticks . and they appealing to luther's judgement , he wrote again and again to them , condemning what they did , as an execrable and cursed rebellion . he saith indeed , it was a great wickednesse in their princes to force their consciences , but that did not at all excuse them ; and tells how far he himself had been ever from such courses : and he calles those that somented the rebellion , vilains ; and not content with this , he stirred up the protestant princes against them , who fought them and broke them . and in this i desire you will not consider the tatles of some ignorant persons , but read the history it self , and those excellent papers of luther : for which i refer you to sleidan , lib. 5. and he will give you full satisfaction . afterwards the duke of brunsuick , and some other princes of germany , did invade their neighbour protestant princes , and combined in a league for the destruction of lutheranisme : whereupon the duke of saxe , the langrave of hessen , and other princes and free cities , met at smalcald , to unite among themselves : but luther was dissatisfied with this , till their lawyers shewed him how by the bulla aurea , and other constitutions of the german empire , it was lawfull for them to defend themselves : whereupon he consenting , they entered into that famous league . and every one who knowes any thing of that empire , knowes well that the princes are soveraigns within themselves , and that the emperour is only the head of the union . as for the war that afterwards followed betwixt charles the 5th , and the duke of saxe , besides , that the duke of saxe , was free to defend himself , as i have told , charles the 5th , declared it was not for religion he fought , whatever his design was : neither did all the princes of the religion join against him . the electors of cullen and pallatine , both protestants , lay neuters ; and the elector of brandenburg , and maurice , afterwards elector of saxe , armed for the emperour : so you may see , what pitifull historians they are , who alledge the precedent of germany . in sweden , king gustavus , anno , 1524. with the states of that kingdom , peaceably received the reformation ; neither were their any broils about it , till about seventy years after , that sigismond , king of polland ( whom notwithstanding of his being papist , they received for their king , he being the son of the former king of sweden , and peaceably obeyed him ) was by force entring the kingdom , resolving to root out the protestant religion : whereupon ( vide decret . in comitiis lincop . anno , 1660. ) they deposed him , and choosed his uncle charles king ; no strange thing in the swedenish history , that being an elective crown , before the year , 1644. that the states received gustavus then reigning for their hereditary king ; but still the states retained the supream authority , as may appear by all their writs . nor was it any wonder , if they , who had but a while before , crept out of an elective kingdom into an hereditary , could not brook sigismond his tyrannical invasion . and if this serve not to vindicat the swedes ; at least , the reformation was not introduced by wars among them , neither were ever the actions of that state , lookt upon as a precedent to others . in denmark , frederick the first , with the states of that kingdom , received the reformation peaceably , nor was there any violence used . n. but you cannot deny , there was force used in helvetia and geneve . c. this shews what a superficial reader of history you are . in switzerland , the reformation was peaceablie received by zurich ( the first and chief canton of that state ) and other towns. but other cantons maligning them for this , at the instigation of the pope and his instruments , injured them ; so that at length it broke out into a civil war : wherein they of zurich , as they were surprized by them , so continued to be purely defenders , vide sleid. lib. 8. but you know helvetia ill , if you know not that the cantons , are no way subject to one another , and are free states , only united in a league , as are the seven provinces : so that in their treaties with france and other princes , they often treat sever'dly , vide siml . de rep. helv. as for geneve , the bishop fled from it , out of a pannick fear , when the reformation was received : but no force was used to drive him out . sleid. lib. 6. and beside , geneve was a free town , neither subject to the bishop nor the duke of savoy ; vide siml . de rep. helv. lib. 10. de geneve . n. what say you to the war in the netherlands ? c. i say still , it was not for religion they sought , papists and protestants jointly concurring ; and c. egmond and c. horn who were beheaded by the duke of alve , as the chief instruments in it , died both papists ; yea , the state by a placart , declared it scandalous to say they fought for religion ; the true ground of the quarrel ( as you may read in all the histories ) was , that their prince was not an absolute soveraign , but limited in his power , and that by expresse compact , they might use force if he transgressed his limits : which he did most notoriously and tirandically : and for all this , i refer you to grotius , de antiquitate bataviae & in lib. ann. who yet is one of the strongest pleaders for subjection to magistracy . n. but nothing of this can be alledged to palliat the french civil wars ? c. the first civil wars were mannaged by the princes of the blood , who by the laws of that crown , are not ordinarie subjects . besides , the wars were begun in the minority of the king ; in which case the powers of the princes is greater : i do not for all this deny their following wars , were direct rebellion ; but consider the fierce spirit of that nation ( ready to fight for any thing ) and you must confesse , it was not religion , but their temper that was to be blamed ; but now many of the eminent men of that church are fully convinced of the evil of these courses : and do ingenuouslie condemn them . yea , in the wars of the last king , one of the glories of our nation , cameron , at mountowban directly preached against their courses , and taxed them of rebellion . n. but if that was rebellion , how did the late king of britain give assistance to the rochellers in the last wars ? c. there was a particular reason in that , as appears from the account the illustrious duke of rohan gives of it : for the king of britain had interposed in the former pacification , and had given surety to the protestants , that the french king should religiously observe the agreement : but the king of france violating this , the king of britain thereby receiving so publick an injurie and affront , was oblidged in honour to assist them : which for his part was most just , whatever the subjects of france their part in it might be . and thus i have cleared the churches abroad of that injurious stain you brand them with : and by this let all men judge whether you or i do them the best office . but to come to our own britain , you know it is the glory of the english reformation , that it was stained with no blood , save that of martyrs , which was its chief ornament : yea , though a popish and persecuting queen interveened betwixt the first reformation of king edward , and the second of queen elizabeth ; yet , none rebelled : for that of wyat , was not upon the account of religion ; but in opposition to the matching with king philip of spain . it is true scotland hath not that glory : but as we were long allyed to france ; so we have too much of their temper : so that it passeth as a common saying , of scots-men , praefervida scotorum ingenia . and all that travelled the world , can witnesse that we were not approven in our late rebellion abroad . i shall not instance what diodati , spanhem , rivet , salmasius , blondel , amerald , de moulin , and many of the greatest and most famed forreign divines , have publickly expressed against it . some in print , others in publick discourses and sermons . one thing i will not passe by , that in the consistory of charrenton , they made an act , that no man should be barred the communion for the scots excommunication , except it were for a crime ; and so told the late bishop of orkney then of galloway , that the pretended excommunication of scotland , should no way hinder their receiving him to their communion ; and this was a loud declaration of their disowning and condemning the scots practices . n. but tell me ingenuously , are there no precedents in history for subjects fighting upon the account of religion ; and have none of the writters of the church asserted it ? c. yes , there have , and i will deal ingenously with you upon this head . the first i know is pope gregory the seventh , who armed the subjects of germany against henry the fourth emperour , upon the account of religion ; because the emperour laid claime to the investitures of bishops , they being then secular princes . and this prospering so well in the hands of hildebrand , other popes made no bones , upon any displeasure they conceived , either against king or emperour , to take his kingdom from him , and free his subjects from their obedience to him ; alwayes pretending some matter of religion , as you may read particularly in the history of frederick the first , frederick the second , lewis of baviere , emperours , philip le bell and lewis the 12th of france , henry the second , and iohn of england , conradine of naples , and charles of navarre . these are the eldest precedents i meet with in history , for your bussinesse ; and the latest is the holy league of france , from which our whole matter seems transcribed . the authors who plead for this , are only courtiers , cannonists and iesuits . now how are you not ashamed in a matter of such importance to symbolize with the worst gang of the roman church , ( for the soberer of them condemn it ) yet fill heaven and earth with your clamours if in some innocenter things the church of england seem to symbolize with them ? n. no , you still retain the papacy , you only change the person from the pope to the king , whom you make head of the church , and swear to him in these termes . c. this is so impudent a calumny , that none but such as have a minde to reproach would use it : which i shall clear by giving an account of the whole matter . in england , you know the pope , beside his general tyranny , exercised a particular authority , after king iohn had basely resigned the crown to him , vide matth. paris . ad an. 1213. when therefore the reformation was introduced in england , and the papal yoke shaken off , the oath of supremacy was brought in to exclude all forreign jurisdiction , and to reinstate the king in his civil authority over all persons and in all causes , as well ecclesiastical as civil . i confesse henry the eight , did directly set up a civil papacy , but you know the reformation of england was never dated from his breach with the bishop of rome : but the oath of supremacy was never designed to take away the churches intrinsick power , or to make that the power of ordination , giving sacraments , or discipline , flowed from the king , to which he only gives his civil sanction and confirmation . however , because the words being general , might suggest some scrouples , they are clearly explained in an act of parliament of queen elizabeth ; and in one of the 39 articles , and more fully by the incomparable and blessed bishop vsher , to whom , for his pains , king iames gave thanks in a letter . now this oath being brought from england to scotland , none ought to pretend scrouples , since both the words in themselves are sufficiently plain , and the meaning affixed to them in england , is yet plainer : and we having it from them , must be understood to have it in their sense . n. but this clearly makes way for erastianism . c. this is one of your mutinous arts , to find out long and hard names , and affix them to any thing that displeaseth you . in the old testament , you find the kings of iudah frequently medling in divine matters ; and the sannedrim , which was a civil court , determined in all matters of religion ; and you are very ignorant in history if you know not , that the christian emperours still medled in matters of religion . the first general councils , were called by them , as appears by their synodical acts and epistles . and by the accounts all the historians give , they also preceeded in the councils ; so constantine at nice , theodose at constantinople , earl candidianus in name of theodose the second at ephesus , and martian at chalcedon . it s true in preceeding , they only ordered matters , but did not decide in them , as particularly appears from the commission given to earle candidianus , inserted in the acts of the ephesin council . they also judged in matters of schisme ; so constantine in the donatist bussinesse , even after it had been judged , both by miltiades and marcus , bishops of rome and millan , by the synod of arles , and by the council of nice ; yea , the code and basilicks , and the capitolers of charles the great , shew , they never thought it without their sphere , to make lawes in ecclesiastick matters . the bishops also were named by them , or , at least , their elections were to be approven by them , not excepting the roman bishop , though he was the proudest pretender of all , who after the overthrow of the western empire , was to send to constantinople or ravenna , to get his election ratified : and when the western empire was reasumed by charles the great at rome , it was expresly provided , that the emperour should choose the roman bishop . so kings medling in ecclesiastical affaires , was never contraverted till the roman church swelled to the height of tyranny , and since the reformation , it hath been still stated as one of the differences betwixt us and them . n. well then , i hope you who are so much for the kings supremacy , will not quarrel at this indulgence , which is now granted to us . c. we are better subjects then to criticize upon , much lesse condemn our soveraigns pleasure in such things , neither do we as you did , carry all these matters to the pulpit . but , i pray , how would you ( anno 1641. ) have received such a proposition from the king in favours of the doctors of aberdeen , or other worthy persons , whom you drove away by tumults , not by lawes : i doubt , all your pulpits should have rung with it . and we may guesse at this by the opposition many of you made to the receiving of suspected persons into the army , for the necessary defence of the countrey , then almost overrun by the enemy : so that you have now got a favour which you were never in a capacity to have granted to us when you governed : and yet you see with what cheerfull obedience we receive his majesties pleasure , even in an instance , which may seem most contrary to all our interests : or , if any have their jealousies , they stiffle them so within their breast , that none whisper against authority . n. this sayes it is against your will , and therefore your compliance to it is forced , not voluntary . c. so much the greater is our vertue , when we obey and submit to things against our inclinations , which you never dream of : but we are so inclined to peace , that if you abuse not this liberty you have got , we shall never complain of it ; nay , if it produce the effects which we desire , and for which we are assured it is designed , we shall rejoyce for it : which are to bring you to a more peaceable temper , to make you value and love more one of the noblest and most generous princes that ever ruled , and to dispose you to a brotherly accommodation with us , which the fathers of the church , are ready to offer to you on as fair terms as could be demanded by any rational person ; whereby , if you listen not to them , it will appear to the world , that you are truly schismatical : and to encline you more to union , i intend , at our next meeting , to give you a full prospect of the state of the antient church , both in their government , worship , and discipline ; whereby i doubt not to convince you , that their frame was far better suited for promoting all the ends of religion , then ever presbytery could be . but though i have made considerable observations in this , besides what is in various collectors ; yet , i cannot at present give you so particular a plann as i design ; but shall reserve it till another meeting . mean-while do not abuse our soveraigns royal goodness , nor the tenderness of these he sets over you . but let us all jointly pray , that god , in whose hands all our hearts are , may incline us all to peace , love and charity : i shall therefore sum up all in the words of scripture , which if they weigh not with you , there is no hope man shall prevail on you ; if there be therefore any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies : fulfill ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind . let nothing be done through strife , or vain glory , but in lowlinesse of mind , let each esteem others better then themselves . who is a wise man , and endued with knowledge among you ? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meeknesse of wisdom ▪ but if you have bitter zeal ( for that is the word in the original ) and strife in your hearts , glory not , and lie not against the truth : this wisdom descendeth not from above , but is earthly , sensual and divelish : for where zeal ( the word is still the same ) and strife is , there is confusion and every evil work . but the wisdom that is from above , is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , and easy to be intreated , full of mercy , and good fruits , without partiality , and without hypocrisy ; and the fruit of righteousness is sowen in peace , of them that make peace . put on therefore ( as the elect of god , holy and beloved ) bowels of mercies , kindnesse , humblenesse of mind , meeknesse , long-suffering , forbearing one another , and forgiving one another , if any man have a quarrel against any : even as christ forgave the church , so also do ye : but above all these things , put on charity , which is the bond of perfectness ; and let the peace of god rule in your minds , to the which also you are called in one body : and be ye thankfull . let the word of christ dwell in you richly , in all wisdom , ●eaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns , and spiritual songs , singing with grace in your hearts to the lord. n. in all this i agree with you , and heartily wish these words were more deeply infixed in our minds : for , i confess , i am weary of the janglings of divines , and long for peace as much as any can ; and indeed there is nothing makes converse grow more wearisome to me , then that i meet with very few who love peace ; but , generally , the minds of all are so fretted , that i often remind and repeat davids groan , oh! that i had wings like a dove , for then would i flee away and be at rest ; i would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest . and indeed the farther i see into the great businesse of religion , i am the more convinced of the necessity of a serene and placide temper , which so qualifies the soul for divine converse . c. oh! how have these words you dropt last united my heart to you ? my soul hath too long dwelt amongst them that hate peace ; and the thick foggs and mists of contention , have rendered the air of this valley of tears the more noisome : but my releef is in divine contemplation , whether , as to the mountain of god , i flee for sanctuary , that being above this atmosphere of contentions and passions , i may take that rest in god , which is denied me here below : whether whoso arrive , finde that placide tranquillity and joy unspeakable , that they must needs heartily compassionat all such who are strangers to this peace of god which passeth understanding : for , i assure you , there are no joyes comparable to these purer solaces . this is the secret of gods presence , where you may be hid from the pride of man , and kept , as in a pavilion , from the strife of tongues . let us therefore flee from this evil world , and flee into the blessed and refreshful shades of the almighty , avoiding foolish and unlearned questions , knowing that they do gender ●●rife ; for , the servant of the lord must not strive . i shall therefore leave you with these thoughts , hoping they shall be daily more deeply infixedin your mind . farewel . finis . of charity to the houshold of faith a sermon preach'd before the right honourable the lord mayor, the aldermen, and governors of the several hospitals of the city, at st. bridget's church on easter-monday, 1698 : being one of the anniversary spittal-sermons / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1698 approx. 37 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30397 wing b5841 estc r15438 12651506 ocm 12651506 65286 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30397) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65286) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 346:9) of charity to the houshold of faith a sermon preach'd before the right honourable the lord mayor, the aldermen, and governors of the several hospitals of the city, at st. bridget's church on easter-monday, 1698 : being one of the anniversary spittal-sermons / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 27, [1] p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : 1698. advertisements: p. [1] at end. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -n.t. -galatians vi, 10 -sermons. charity -sermons. christian giving -sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the bishop of salisbury's easter sermon , 1698. edwin mayor . cur ' special ' tent ' apud domum mansional ' jacobi collett mil ' un ' vic' , die mercur ' xxvij . die aprilis in hebdomada paschae 1698. annoque r. rs. wilhelmi tertii angliae , &c. decimo . this court doth desire the right reverend father in god , the lord bishop of sarum , to print his sermon preached on monday last at the parish-church of st. brides , before the lord mayor , aldermen and governours of the several hospitals of this city . goodfellow . of charity to the houshold of faith. a sermon preach'd before the right honourable the lord mayor , the aldermen , and governors of the several hospitals of the city , at st. bridget's church , on easter-monday , 1698. being one of the anniversary spittal-sermons . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarvm . london : printed for ri. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . 1698. gal. vi. 10. as we have therefore opportunity , let us do good unto all men , especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith. or according to the old translation , while we have time , let us — while we are receiving the greatest blessings of heaven , it is very seasonable to put us in mind of the most proper returns that we can make for them . when we have the pledges of the pardon of sin and of a happy immortality given us , it becomes us also to bring our gift , and to leave it on the altar . what can we render unto god ? our goodness extendeth not to him : but it may reach him in his members , for he reckons that what we do to the least of those whom he calls his brethren , we do it unto him . as this season of the year is the most proper for calling on those whom god has bless'd with a full measure of the good things of this life , to give a portion to seven , and also to eight ; that is , to give not only according to regular proportions , but even beyond them , to lend a little to the lord , for all the good things that he has given to them , and after such a harvest of spiritual things , as they have been reaping , to call on such as want that with which they overflow , to let them reap of their worldly things : so this time or season , in a larger sense , seems to provoke us to love and to good works . we have pass'd through great and threatning dangers ; as well those of a long and slothful peace , with all the surfeits of luxurious plenty , as the more critical turns of a devouring war , with all the charge and losses that have accompanied it : while great numbers of wicked men engaged in a most desperate conspiracy at home , were at work in the corrupting our coin , to undermine us , or to blow us up . we have got through all this , though perhaps the scars that remain , and the ill effects that follow it , will not be so easily worn off . we are now like a man recovering out of a long sickness , that had a great variety of symptoms with it ; these will hang about him , even after the happy crisis is past ; and the seeds of life , being much weakned , they , in that tenderness , will soon take a new ill ply , and contract diseases , as dangerous as those were , out of which he thinks he is delivered . it may seem a very improper time to call on a city to a new harvest of charity , that is yet struggling with great difficulties . the losses that many have suffered , the taxes that all are charged with , and the stop in the gains of most , are such discouragements , that unless the strength of the argument for charity were to be trusted to , one could scarce hope to succeed in it , where the objections are so many and so sensible . but if the sinner will remember , that he may redeem his iniquities by giving alms to the poor ; if even the covetous will consider how certain a fund he deals in , when he trusts his wealth to god ; both will conclude , that the surest way to secure to us those blessings that we still enjoy , as well as to procure new additions to them , is to make the best use of what we do possess , and so form the most generous resolutions upon what further increases god may bless us with . as we have opportunity , or while we have time ▪ we ought to do good , and that in the most extended and largest manner , to all men ; but with this specialty , that the fullest measure of it , and the tenderest care in it , ought to go to the houshold of faith : that is , to the christians , who in those days were but a small and select number . now indeed all pass for such ; but if we may judge of those of the houshold of faith , either by him who is the author of it , or by that rule which he has made the measure of it , we shall soon find , that among those who carry the name of christians , and pass for the domesticks of this houshold , there are few , very few , who deserve the name , or that answer the obligations that belong to it . 1. here , in general , beneficence is charged on us , let us do good . 2. we see the extent of it , to all men . 3. we have here a more particular restriction , especially to the houshold of faith. 4. this we ought to pursue , as oft as we have opportunity , or as long as we have time ; for the word signifies either a fit and proper season , or time at large ; that is , as long as we live , and can do good . it is needless to dwell long on the character of beneficence in general . nothing makes a man so truly great , for nothing makes him so like god as to do much good . nothing is more useful and amiable to all the rest of mankind , than a chearful and diffusive bounty : nothing gives a man a more solid joy , a truer title to what he has , and a better relish of what he enjoys , than a large and bountiful heart , with an open and liberal hand . this is the best use wealth can be put to , and is the noblest part of the distinction between the rich and the poor ; that the one must submit to the humility of receiving , while the other has the blessing as well as the glory of giving . in a word , he that does not feel the manly pleasure that arises from doing good , or that needs to be pressed to it , has a soul of a very degenerate make , and is not like to be moved much by argument . vanity or interest may draw somewhat from him , but if he has not this principle of charity within him , though he should give all his goods to the poor , yet he is nothing in the sight of god , and he has nothing , he has no reason to expect the rewards of true charity , if what he does is only to be seen of men , or to trade and truck with god. to be good , and to do good , is the greatest perfection of the human nature , as it carries in it the highest idea that we can form of the divinity . but though the characters of this noble and heroical temper of mind seem very inviting , yet the extent that is here given to it , may justly affright us . to do good to all , is too great a compass for any goodness that is not infinite . it is certainly a peculiar character to which no creature can arrive , that god's goodness is over all his works . we are limited beings , and have a narrow sphere as well as a short time. it is true , the charity of our affections , of our good wishes and our prayers , of our bowels , and our compassions , ought to be enlarged to all mankind : we ought to pray for the whole race , and to be tender when any object is before us that may be either relieved by us , or at least comforted by our sympathy . we ought to exclude none by prejudices , aversions , or passions ; but must carry about us a constant disposition to do all the good we can , and that to as many persons , and upon as many occasions as it is possible for us to overtake . the iews thought they owed a great deal to all the race of abraham , and to the strangers that sojourned among them , by whom they understood such proselites as came under the obligations of their law. there was a liberal provision made of a whole tenth , with the gleanings in harvest which were copious , for the poor , the widow , the fatherless , and the strangers , besides the community that was every seventh year of all that sprung out of the earth . but this was confined to their country , or to their religion , to such as were strangers to both , they were so sullen , as not to do them the most common favour ; to shew travellers the way , or tell them where a spring of water might be found . this inclosure is pulled up by the christian doctrine ; we are not to confine our charities to any religion , or country , or to any form or division in religion ; every man has a right to some share in them . for though in the larger effusions of our bounty , we may prefer some to others , yet in the supplies of pressing necessities , none ought to be excluded , all have the human nature in them , and some degrees of the image of god on them . the more enlarged our inclinations and dispositions are , it argues the greater extent and elevation of goodness . we have indeed a small proportion of help to afford ; but there are several channels in which that may flow . those of great talents may subdue the world by their reason , they may triumph over men by argument , and overcome them by persuasion : instruction , conduct , and advice , are charities that cost little to him that gives them , and yet may be more beneficial to those who receive them , than the profusest liberalities . men of authority can protect and encourage the oppressed , and that often at a small cost : a little countenance and some distinction of behaviour may be of more use than a large distribution . so there are great varieties of doing good according to mens different capacities and stations . he who studies to do all the good he can to the neighbourhood , by setting a good example in it , and maintaining love and peace among men , by observing order , and living regularly , is a great benefactor , how narrow soever his fortunes , and how small soever his capacity may be of doing great charities . besides all this , such as abound in wealth , chiefly if they have not a numerous posterity to share it to , most particularly those whose wealth has been of their own acquisition ; that is , the effect of the blessings of providence , favouring their endeavours , ought to be , of all others , the most forward in the largesses of charity . those who see many who did set out with them , and that perhaps upon great advantages beyond them , and who have been both as skilful and industrious as themselves , and yet have long struggled with great difficulties , and have at last sunk under them , ought , when they reflect on their own happier circumstances , think who it is that has made the difference ? and for what end has he made it ? they ought to consider , that in all accounts , a balance must be stated between receipts and disbursements . they must give an account , not according to what others have received , but according to what they themselves have received ; and to the charge they stand under , and the circumstances they are in . much will be required of them , to whom much is given ; and if we expect a full reward , a measure shaken together and press'd down , we must abound in the riches of our liberality . the liberal man deviseth liberal things , and by liberal things he shall stand . these may seem at present to dissipate his stock , but they bring large returns . there cannot come a nobler meditation into the mind of a man whom god has eminently bless'd , than to think often within himself , what shall i render unto god for all his benefits towards me ? our first returns ought to be praise and thanksgiving : but our next ought to be , to lay out our plenty in the best manner , and to the best uses we can . many have such an abundance , that it is a trouble to them either to keep it , or to use it . they might ease themselves of the trouble , and trust it to god's keeping ; who will either return it to them again , or preserve it to set it to their account , in that great reckoning that all must come to . happy they who to their strength , yea and beyond their strength , are ever imployed in doing good. the heighth of charity , is to give not only of our abundance , that is , out of that which is over and above what we need , but to give out of our penury ; to abridge a narrow condition , and study to be without many things that we thought we needed , but find we can live without them ; that so shortning even a scanty allowance , we may give some relief to those who languish under the extremities of want. after all the good we can do to any that are oppressed with misery , there is a strain of doing good that is far above it : and to this the charity to their persons may be a great furtherance . the greatest charity is the delivering men from the extreamest dangers : if to save a life is a noble piece of charity , how much more to save a soul ? if we can be the happy instruments of bringing those who have gone astray , to love the truth , and to follow it ; if we can allarm an impenitent sinner , or reclaim one that is engaged in ill courses ; if we can help men to live religiously , and to die comfortably , then we may reckon that we are exalted to the greatest honour that our natures are capable of , in being instruments of the greatest good , that either we can do , or that others can receive . this is indeed to be managed with discretion , and without affectation ; with zeal , but without heat . happy those who find out the best methods , and the properest times for it ! this is both the greatest charity and the noblest employment we are capable of . but since our capacities as well as our fortunes , and our strength as well as our time , are limited , we ought to see what objects , as well as what acts of charity we must prefer to all others . that proportion of our time , of our talents and our fortunes , that we can bestow on others , ought to be so well managed , that it may be applied both to the best persons and the best purposes that may be . while therefore all mankind have title to such a share , as extream misery may give them a right even to demand of us , there is still a great distinction to be made . there is somewhat of the image of god on all men ; but there is a more peculiar measure of it on those who are made conformable to christ. all men have the same common nature ; but the regenerate have in them , besides that , a participation of the divine nature . we who are christians , are born again , and in that we acquire a new relation : we are all brethren , joint-heirs of the same common salvation : we are members of the same body ; we have one head , and ought also to have one heart . we are all sharers in one common baptism ; the bread that we break is the communion of his body , and the cup that we bless , is the communion of his blood , by whom we are called . we hope to live to all eternity together , partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light . these are relations of so close a nature , that as they tie us much more firmly to one another , so they ought to give us a more particular concern in one another , and therefore there is a peculiar strain of charity that ought to be reserved to such as we have reason to believe are of this houshold . in the beginnings of christianity the number was small , but their zeal and their charity was then in its first fervour . then the widows and the fatherless were supplied by a daily ministration : such was the zeal of their charity , and such were the necessities of that time , that the rich sold their lands and possessions , and laid the price of them down at the apostles feet . that seems peculiar to that time and place , for in the epistles to the other churches , mention is oft made of the rich that were among them . the enemies of our faith made this a part of their satyr against it , that the bounty with which the rich supplied the poor , made that the poor seemed as hired to come among them . they acknowledge the charity of the christians was not restrained to those of the same faith , but was extended even to strangers and enemies . if the carrying the name christian , or the being baptized into it , makes all to be of the houshold of faith , then we have no more this restriction to our charity . all , or almost all , among us are of this sort . but this is more the effect of law or custom , than of choice : therefore we must now take other measures , for judging who are of the houshold of faith. can those who are a reproach to it by their most unchristian lives , and who seem weary of the very name , which they are ready to throw off , if they could do it without hazard to their worldly interests , be esteemed a part of this houshold ? if they are , then this is fulfilled , that a mans enemies are those of his own houshold . oh , the venom that is daily thrown out by them against that faith which would reform form and save the world , if it were sincerely believed and follow'd by it ! they judge of it by the effects it has on themselves , and on such as themselves : and having never felt more in it than a form of words , or a set of rites and performances , they call it foolishness : but let them blaspheme that worthy name as much as they will , christ is to all who are called of god , both the power and the wisdom of god. they discern a wisdom in his doctrine , and they feel a power in it , overcoming their hearts , subduing their appetites , changing their natures , and governing their actions . those of this houshold do not only wear its livery , and carry its outward appearances ; they are faithful to their trust , zealous for the honour of their master , and careful of every thing that concerns the good , either of the whole , or of any particular member of it . they study to keep it in peace , and to maintain the honour and dignity of their profession . they endeavour to resemble the master whom they serve , and to walk in all things , even as he walked . in a word , whensoever we see these characters in any that calls himself of this houshold , even though they are yet but defective , we ought to judge charitably , and to conclude that such a person either already is , or may become truly one of this houshold ; and that therefore he has a right to the more endearing specialties of our love. we ought not to judge too severely of any , nor quite to exclude them , though we may see good reason still to give others the preference , and a double portion in our charity . if we love our brethren from the motive of the love of god , and from principles of true charity , we will feel the consideration of a higher measure of god's image , and a nearer conformity to his nature , the strongest of all ties . this will melt and overcome every devout mind ; and that the rather , because such persons are not clamorous and importunate : they do not publish their necessities till the last extremity forces it . nor do they attack us with violence . they are patient and modest , hardly brought to trouble others , and soon dashed when they do it : and indeed a great deal of what of right should be reserved for them , is oft intercepted by the noise and importunity , the affected looks and voices of a sort of people , that go about , with too much success , while others are starving at home in silence . this is one of the justest reproaches of our nation , that notwithstanding all the authority that law gives to magistrates for correcting it , yet a false compassion , and a feebleness of good nature , proves too hard , even for the law , in its execution . it is the honour of magistracy to be vigilant and severe in executing laws , that how unacceptable soever the first prosecution of them may seem to be , yet are as charitable as they are just. there are tender mercies that are cruel , as well as severities that have charity and kindness in them . among all the objects of charity , as there are none that are more helpless , or more crying than young children , who are initiated into this houshold , and have not yet forfeited that innocence to which the sacred rites have restored them ; so there are none from whom we may so reasonably expect the returns of thirty , sixty , or an hundred-fold : a child well educated may become an industrious , vertuous and religious man. his education may follow him down through the whole course of his life , and go to his posterity after him . this is always the most hopeful and most fruitful application of charity . next to these , the most pressing are those who are under the double misery both of poverty , and of sickness or pain : who may be near the giving their last accounts ; and therefore need more than at any time , to be freed from temptations , and every other burden except that which the ill state of their body brings them necessarily under ; and even in that , need most of all to be so supplied , that they may be either quite relieved , or at least that their burden may be lightned , and their last agonies made less dreadful and more tolerable to them . the reducing ill people by the severity of discipline to a better course of life , is a charity well becoming that religion which regards the good of the soul in the first place . and the care of the lunaticks and franticks has so much of a just compassion in it , that humane nature is at first sight struck with it . the pious provision , and royal and noble endowments for these ends , are to be reckoned among the chief securities , as well as the fairest ornaments and glories of this great city . but the overflowings of charity here , which support these foundations in an expence far beyond their certain revenues , is the peculiar glory of the present inhabitants , as well , as it is the city's chief preservative . what but some such acts of love could cover such a multitude of sins , secure us so long from the returns of sweeping plagues and consuming fires ? what has preserved us from all that train of mischief , both from within and without , that had long ago wrought our ruin , if the happy interpositions of providence had not been always at hand to give us a fresh deliverance , as often as we were threatned with a new mischief ? what could resist so loud a cry of so much impiety , such bold attempts against our god and his christ , as are too common ? what else could keep off those judgments , which our adding new and unheard-of abominations to the old stock of our former crying sins , must have brought down upon us , even in fire and brimstone ? in opposition to all these , by which we are filling up the measure of our iniquities , we have still the tears and prayers of many in and about this great city , which support and preserve it , more than even the trade and industry of the citizens . we have the noble charities of those whom god has bless'd among us , which ascend before the throne as a sweet-smelling savour ; we have the grateful prayers and thanksgivings of such as having no other returns to make for what they receive , may be supposed to offer these up heartily for their benefactors , and for this city in which they find such mighty comfort and relief . these do still keep off the judgments that otherwise we should long ago have smarted under ; and therefore here is a proper place to make a stand , and to set before you what the worthy governors of those endowments have done for this last year , that so those whom god has eminently bless'd , may see what is reserved for them yet to do . a true report , &c. it remains now to consider the measure by which we ought to pursue our charity : as we have opportunity , or according to the other reading , while we have time . every time of our receiving special blessings from god , whether in our spiritual or temporal concerns , chiefly when unlook'd for , and great successes in our affairs , do as it were surprize us , we ought to reckon a special opportunity for doing good : we have then a new capacity put in our hands . if those who meet with particular blessings are yet so straitned , that they having nothing to spare , express their willingness to give liberally if it were in their power , even that will be accepted by him who in such a case does certainly take the will for the deed ; but that is never to be expected , when it is in our power to do as well as to will : then not to do , and only to pretend to will , is but to mock god. when fit occasions and proper objects come in our way , at a time when we feel we have it in our power to do good , we ought to look upon that as a determination of providence , to lodge the good that we are disposed to do , on such objects : when at any time we re-double our prayers with more than ordinary vehemence , for any deliverance or blessing , we ought to proportion some overplus in our charity , to the grace that we then beg from god. we may expect that our prayers shall be best heard , when we open our ears and our hands to those who call to us . as we would desire that god should prevent us with his favour , we ought to seek out the necessitous , chiefly the domesticks of this family , to prevent them with our liberality . we ought not to shake off pressing occasions , that call for present help . in such cases often a delay is a denial ; the opportunity may be lost for ever . the invitations of providence , in some happy encounters , are to be tenderly received as special favours , and to be carefully managed . so far we ought to be from letting them slip from us , that we ought to seek them out , and to wait for them . the improving these , is as it were the putting god in our debt , or rather the putting us out of his . we ought to reckon it a favour when he sends any of his family to us in his name . we ought to receive them well , and to dismiss them the better for his sake , in whose name they come . under all our plenty , we cannot have a surer indication , that it is sent to us , and bless'd of god , than that we have it in our will as much as it is in our power , or rather more than our power reaches to , to do all the good with it that possibly we can . this is one article in making up our accounts , which we may then do with joy , when we feel a heartiness in our bounty ; that we part with it , not only easily , but cheerfully ; that it is not extorted from us by importunity or decency , but is given with a willing heart ; and that in the measure of it , we feel a disposition to give rather more than less than our condition can afford . nor are we to complain that opportunities return too thick upon us ; but are rather to rejoice , that when we have dispersed abroad , a new harvest returns soon after that sowing . after all , there is prudence and discretion even in this , and bounds must be set to it , within which we ought to restrain our selves : but so few are apt to exceed on this hand , that there is little occasion to insist much upon it . the other reading of the word is , while we have time : as long as we live , and have the free use of that plenty with which god blesses us . death will quickly come upon us , and then perhaps a fraudulent man or an usurer , when he can enjoy his wealth no longer , will think of redeeming his iniquities by some endowment , in which he may intend both to gratify his vanity , and to quiet the horrors of his conscience ; but restitution were the better and the more necessary cure , since it is as it were a calling god to share with them in their unlawful gains , when they offer him some part of them , before they have endeavoured to make restitution to the righteous owners , whom they had defrauded . such endowments coming from defiled hands , will not be accepted . it is true , if a special restitution , after a life of numberless and small injustices , cannot be made , a liberal distribution will be accepted of god , if made without the superstitious conceit of compounding with him : yet that which is made by men in health , who outlive their parting with it , looks liker a willing sacrifice , than that which is only let go to pious uses , when they can hold it no longer . it savours too little of charity , and too rankly of vanity , to hoard up and to give nothing during one's life , that he may have wherewith to leave some splendid piece of magnificence at his death . while we have time therefore , that is , while we live and are in health ; while we see objects that call aloud upon us , and that perhaps perish for the want of that which is in our power to give them ; let us shew a pleasure as well as a zeal in good works ; for this is the only part of our wealth that we may be said in some sort to carry along with us into another world ; our works will follow us ; and the friends whom we have made by our mammon , will be ready to receive us into their eternal habitations . another view of the word while we have time , is , in this our day , knowing the time . we are now again in peace , and all things considered , in a high degree of plenty . we do not know how long the present quiet shall continue , or how soon the clouds shall return after all the rain that is fallen . whatsoever our dangers or difficulties have been , they are now over , and we forget them , and take little care to provide for the evil day , which may be much nearer than we will suffer our selves to think it is . a shaking may come that may drive us from our seats and our wealth : it is not hard to apprehend from what accidents , and by what hands the evil day may come . the best way to prevent it , is to think often that it may come ; and instead of hoarding up a great deal , which may prove only the heaping up of treasure , both to invite and to glut our enemies , instead of the profusion of waste and riot , of luxury and vanity , to be laying it up in such acts of charity as will stand us in more stead in the evil day , than the best secured wealth we have ; we will then the more easily bear want if we use our present abundance well . have other national churches been plucked up by the roots , and scattered all about in strange countries , and why may not we expect some such dreadful sentence , cut it down , why cumbreth it the ground ? it will be the easier to us to encounter some such calamity , if while we have now both time and plenty , we use it prudently , and bestow it charitably : we may then with confidence trust that god will raise up , even in strange countries , benefactors to us , if we do now deal our bread to the hungry , and hide not our selves from our own flesh . in a word , it will be the more easy to part with the remnants of our wealth when we have accustomed our selves before-hand to make liberal distributions out of it , and to live upon a small part of it , especially for those who have secured the best part of it , where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt , nor thieves break through and steal ; and so have the promises both of this life , and of that which is to come . to conclude with the words that go before my text , whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap . for he that soweth to his flesh , shall of his flesh reap corruption : but he that soweth to the spirit , shall of the spirit reap life everlasting . therefore let us not be weary in well-doing , for in due season we shall reap , if we faint not . finis . books printed for ri. chiswell . bishop patrick's commentary on genesis , exodus , and leviticus . in three volumes . quarto . — on numbers , is in the press . archbishop tillotson's first , second , third , fourth volumes of sermons . published from the originals . by dr. barker . — a fifth volume is in the press . dr outram's twenty sermons . published by dr. gardener , now lord bishop of lincoln . the second edition . dr. hezek . burton's sermons and discourses . published by archbishop tillotson , with an account of the author . in two volumes . octavo . dr. conant's sermons . in two volumes . 8vo . published by bp. williams . dr. william wake 's sermons and discourses . octavo . dr. henry bagshaw's diatribae , or discourses upon select texts against the papist and socinian . octavo . mr. henry wharton's fourteen sermons preach'd at lambeth chappel before archbishop sandcroft , in the years 1688 , and 1689. with an account of the author's life . — a second volume containing his remaining sermons , is in the press . the fathers vindicated , or animadversions on a late socinian book , [ the iudgment of the fathers touching the trinity , against dr. bull 's defence of the nicene faith ] by a presbyter of the church of england . the bishop of sarum's sermon before the king on christmas day , 1696. on gal. iv. 4. — his lent-sermon before the king , 1696 / 7. on ephes. v. 2. — his thanksgiving-sermon for the peace , before the king , on december 2. 1697. on 2 chron. ix . 8. a new account of india and persia , in eight letters , being nine years travels , begun 1672 , and finished 1681. containing observations made of the moral , natural , and artificial estate of those countries : namely of their government , religion , laws , customs . of the soil , climates , seasons , health , diseases . of the animals , vegetables , minerals , jewels . of their housing , cloathing , manufactures , trades , commodities . and of the coins , weights , and measures , used in the principal places of trade in those parts . illustrated with maps , figures , and useful tables . [ this is in the press , and will shortly be published ] scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria , facili & perspicuâ methodo digesta . pars altera quae plusquam dc scriptores novi , tam editi quam manuscripti recensentur prioribus plurima adduntur ; breviter aut obscure dicta illustrantur ; rectè asserta vindicantur . accedit ad finem cujusvis soeculi conciliorum omnium tum generalium tum particularium historica notitia . ad caelcem verò operis dissertationes tres , ( 1. ) de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis incertae aetatis . ( 2. ) de libris & officiis ecclesiasticis graecorum . adjecti sunt indices utilissimi scriptorum & conciliorum alphabetico-chronologici . studio & labore gulielmi cave . s. t. p. canon . windesoriensis . fol. * this book will be finished in trinity term next , and is intended to be published by subscription , with advantage to the buyer . proposals will shortly be published . or some time before the book will be extant . the prince of orange his declaration shewing the reasons why he invades england : with a short preface, and some modest remarks on it. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 90 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a66131 wing w2331 estc r3225 12630782 ocm 12630782 64751 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a66131) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64751) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 678:16) the prince of orange his declaration shewing the reasons why he invades england : with a short preface, and some modest remarks on it. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. william iii, king of england, 1650-1702. 32 p. published by randal taylor ..., london : 1688. "the declaration of ... william ... prince of orange" p. 4-14. "his highnesses additional declaration" p. 16-18. "animadversions upon the declaration of his highness the prince of orange" p. 19-32. burnet was responsible for the text of william's declaration. cf. dnb. reproduction of original in bristol public library, bristol, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -revolution of 1688. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the prince of orange his declaration : shewing the reasons why he invades england . with a short preface , and some modest remarks on it. london : published by randal taylor , near stationers-hall , mdclxxxviii . the prince of orange's declaration , shewing the reasons , why he invades england , with a short preface , and some modest remarks on it . there having been various ▪ discourses about the reasonableness and iustice of the dutch invasion , the prince's great love and special care of the protestant religion , and english protestants , set forth in the most charming manner , and the desperateness of the protestant state and condition painted in the blackest and most frightful colours ; our natural leige lord , notwithstanding his unparallel'd grace to all , represented as designing the greatest cruelty against his own subjects : : strange stories of ill things whispered , and nothing less than a secret l●●gue between ▪ his majesty of great britain , and the french king , to extirpate all protestants entred into : these reports are with so much art and cunning spread , as to startle the most considering protestants of all persuasions , whence nothing could be more eagerly desired , than a sight of the prince of orange's declaration ; for the expectations of most men are , that some extraordinary secrets , some hidden works of darkness should be reveal'd , and brought to light ; as generally those , who yet never saw the prince's declaration , do still believe ; but there not being one word of any such treaty , we cannot see why it is that the prince comes over ; and if others impartially peruse the declaration , we doubt not but 't will convince them , that they give no reason powerful enough to iustifie so bloody an enterprise , as this , in the issue must needs be . we will therefore give you a true copy of the prince's declaration , word for word , as it runs in the west . the declaration of his highnes william henry , by the grace of god , prince of orange , &c. of the reasons inducing him , to appear in armes in the kingdome of england , for preserving of the protestant religion , and for restoring the lawes and liberties of england , scotland and ireland . it is both certain , and evident to all men , that the publike peace and happines of any state or kingdome , can not be preserved , where the lawes , liberties , and customs established , by the lawfull authority in it , are openly transgressed and annulled : more especially where the alteration of religion is endeavoured , and that a religion which is contrary to law is endeavoured to be introduced : upon which those who are most immediatly concerned in it , are indispensably bound , to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established lawes , liberties and customes : and above all the religion and worship of god , that is established among them : and to take such an effectual care , that the inhabitants of the said state or kingdome , may neither be deprived of their religion ▪ nor of their civill rights . which is so much the more necessary because the greatnes and security both of kings , royall families , and of all such as are in authority , as well as the happines of their subjects and people , depend , in a most especiall manner , upon the exact observation , and maintenance of these their lawes , liberties , and customes . upon these grounds it is , that we cannot any longer forbear , to declare that to our great regret , we see that those councellours , who have now the chieffe credit with the king , have overturned the religion , lawes , and liberties of those realmes : and subjected them in all things relating to their consciences , liberties , and properties , to arbitrary government : and that not only by secret and indirect waies , but in an open and undisguised manner . those evil councellours for the advancing and colouring this , with some plausible pretexts , did invent and set on foot , the kings dispencing power , by vertue of which , they pretend that according to law , he can suspend and dispence with the execution of the lawes , that have been enacted by the authority , of the king and parliament , for the security and happines of the subject , and so have rendered those laws of no effect : tho there is nothing more certain , then that as no lawes can be made ; but by the joint concurrence of king and parliament , so likewise lawes so enacted , which secure the publike peace , and safety of the nation , and the lives and liberties of every subject in it , can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority . for tho the king may pardon the punishment , that a transgressour has incurred , and to which he is condemned , as in the cases of treason ▪ or felony ; yet it can not be with any colour of reason , inferred from thence , that the king can entirely suspend the execution of those lawes , relating to treason or felony : unless it is pretended , that he is clothed with a despotick and arbitrary power , and that the lives , liberties , honours and estates of the subjects , depend wholly on his good will and pleasure , and are entirely subject to him ; which must infallibly follow , on the kings having a power to suspend the execution of the lawes , and to dispence with them . those evill councellours , in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable maxime , have so conducted the matter , that they have obtained a sentence from the judges , declaring that this dispencing power , is a right belonging to the crown ; as if it were in the power of the twelve judges , to offer up the lawes , rights , and liberties , of the whole nation , to the king , to be disposed of by him arbitrarily and at his pleasure , and expressly contrary to lawes enacted , for the security of the subjects . in order to the obtaining this judgment , those evill councellours did before hand , examine secretly , the opinion of the judges , and procured such of them , as could not in conscience concurre in so pernicious a sentence , to be turned out , and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the chances which were made , in the courts of judicature , they at last obtained that judgment . and they have raised some to those trusts , who make open profession of the popish religion , though those are by law rendred incapable of all such employments . it is also manifest and notorious , that as his majestie was , upon his coming to the crown , received and acknowledged by all the subjects of england , scotland , and ireland , as their king without the least opposition , tho he made then open profession , of the popish religion ; so he did then promise , and solemnly swear , at his coronation , that he would maintain his subjects , in the free enjoyment of their lawes , and liberties , and in particular , that he would maintain the church of england as it was established by law : it is likewise certain , that there have been at diverse and sundry times , several lawes enacted for the preservation of those rights , and liberties , and of the protestant religion : and among other securities , it has been enacted that all persons whatsoever , that are advanced to any eccles●astical dignity , or to bear office in either university , as likewise all other , that should be put in any imployment , civill or military , should declare that they were not papists , but were of the protestant religion , and that , by their taking of the oaths of allegance , and suprermacy and the test , yet these ●vill councellours have in effect annulled and abolished all those lawes , both with relation to ecclesiasticall and civill employments . in order to ecclesiasticall dignities and offices . they have not only without any colour of law , but against most expresse lawes to the contrary , set up a commission , of a certain number of persons , to whom they have committed the cognisance and direction of all ecclesiasticall matters : in the which commission there has been and still is , one of his majesties ministers of state , who makes now publike profession of the popish religion , and who at the time of his first professing it , declared that for a great while before , he had believed that to be the only true religion . by all this , the deplorable state to which the protestant religion is reduced is apparent , since the affairs of the church of england , are now put into the hands of persons , who have accepted of a commission that is manifestly illegal ; and who have executed it contrary to all law ; and that now one of their chieffe members has abjured the protestant religion and declared himself a papist ; by which he is become incapable of holding any publike imployment : the said commissioners have hitherto given such proof , of their submission to the directions given them , that there is no reason to doubt , but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most aggreable to them . and those evill councellours take care , to raise none to any ecclesiasticall dignities ; but persons that have no zeal for the protestant religion , and that now hide their unconcernedness for it , under the specious pretence of moderation . the said commissioners have suspended the bishop of london , only because he refused to obey an order , that was sent him to suspend a worthy divine , without so much as citing him before him , to make his own defence , or observing the common formes of processe . they have turned out a president , chosen by the fellows of magdalen colledge , and afterwards all the fellows of that colledge , without so much asciting them before any court that could take legall cognissance of that affair ; or obtaining any sentence against them by a competent judge . and the only reason , that was given , for turning them out , was their refusing to choose for their president ; a person that was recommended to them , by the instigation of those evill councellours . tho the right of a free election belonged undoubtedly to them . but they were turned out of their freeholds , contrary to law , and to that expresse provision in the magna charta ; that no man shall l●se life or goods , but by the law of the land . and now these evill councellours have put the said colledge wholly into the hands of popists , tho as is abovesaid , they are incapable , of all such employments , both by the law of the land , and the statutes of the colledge . these commissioners have also cited before them all the chancellours and archdeacons of england , requiring them to certifie to them the names , of all such clergymen , as have read the kings declaration for liberty of conscience , and of such as have not read it : without considering that the reading of it , was not enjoined the clergy , by the bishops , who are their ordinaries . the illegality and incompetency of the said court of the ecclesiasticall commissioners , was so notoriously known , and it did so evidently appear , that it tended to the subversion of the protestant religion , that the most revernd father in god , william archbishop of canterbury , primate and metropolitan of all england , seeing that it was raised for no other end , but to oppresse such persons as were of eminent vertue , learning , and piety , refused to sit or to concurre in it . and tho there are many expresse lawes against all churches or chapells , for the exercise of the popish religion , and also against all monasteries and convents , and more particularly against the order of the iesuites , yet those evill councellours have procured orders for the building of severall churches and chappels , for the exercise of that religion : they have also procured diverse monasteries to be erected , and in contempt of the law they have not only set up severall colledges of iesuites , in diverse places , for the corrupting of the youth , but have raised up one of the order , to be a privy councellour and a minister of state. by all which they do evidently shew , that they are restrained by no rules of law whatsoever ; but that they have subjected the honours and estates of the subjects , and the establisht religion , to a despotick power and to arbitrary government : in all which they are served and seconded by those ecclesiasticall commissioners . they have also followed the same methods with relation to civill affairs : for they have procured orders , to examine all lords lieutenants , deputy lieutenants , sheriffs , justices of peace , and all others that were in any publike imployment , if they would concurre with the king in the repeal of the test and penal laws : and all such , whose consciences did not suffer them , to comply with their designes , were turned out ; and others were put in their places , who they believed would be more compliant to them ; in their designes of defeating the intent and execution of those laws ; which had been made with so much care and caution , for the security of the protestant religion . and in many of these places they have put professed papists , though the law has disabled them , and warranted the subjects not to have any regard to their orders . they have also invaded the priviledges , and seised on the charters of most of those towns that have a right to be represented by their burgesses in parliament : and have procured surrenders to be made of them , by which the magistrates in them have delivered up all their rights , and priviledges , to be disposed of , at the pleasure of those evill councellours : who have thereupon , placed new magistrates in those towns , such as they can most entirely confide in : and in many of them , they have put popish magistrates , notwithstanding the incapacities under which the law has put them . and whereas no nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartiall justice , upon which mens lives , liberties , honours , and estates , doe depend ; those evill councellours have subjected these to an arbitrary and despotick power : in the most important affairs , they have studied to discover before hand , the opinions of the judges ; and have turned out such , as they found would not conform themselves to their intentions : and have put others in their places , of whom they were more assured , without having any regard to their abilities . and they have not stuck to raise even professed papists , to the courts of judicature , notwithstanding their incapacity by law , and that no regard is due to any sentences flowing from them . they have carried this so far , as to deprive such judges , who in the common administration of justice , shewed that they were governed by their consciences , and not by the directions , which the others gave them . by which it is apparent that they designe to render themselves the absolute masters of the lives , honours and estates of the subjects , of what rank or dignity soever they may be : and that without having any regard either to the equity of the cause , or to the consciences of the judges , whom they will have to submit in all things , to their own will , and pleasure : hoping by such waies , to intimidate those who are yet in imployment , as also such others , as they shall think fit , to put in the rooms of those whom they have turned out ; and to make them see , what they must look for , if they should at any time act in the least contrary to their good liking : and that no failings of that kind , are pardoned , in any persons whatsoever . a great deal of blood has been shed in many places of the kingdom , by judges governed by those evill councellours , against all the rules and forms of law ; without so much as suffering the persons that were accused , to plead in their own defence . they have also , by putting the administration of justice , in the hands of papists , brought all the matters of civil justice into great uncertainties : with how much exactness and justice soever that these sentences may have been given . for since the laws of the land do not only exclude papists from all places of judicature , but have put them under an incapacity , none are bound to acknowledge or to obey their judgements , and all sentences given by them , are null and void of themselves : so that all persons who have been cast , in trials before such popish judges , may justly look on their pretended sentences , as having no more force , then the sentences of any private and unauthorised person whatsoever . so deplorable is the case of the subjects , who are obliged to answer to such judges , that must in all things sti●● to the rules , , which are set them by those evil councellours , who as they raised them up to those imployments , so can turn them out of them at pleasure ; and who can never be esteemed lawful judges ; so that all their sentences are in the construction of the law , of no force and efficacy . they have likewise disposed of all military imployments , in the same manner : for tho the laws have not only excluded papists , from all such imployments , but have in particular , provided that they should be disarmed ; yet they in contempt of these laws , have not only armed the papists , but have likewise raised them up to the greatest military trusts , both by sea and land , and that strangers as well as natives , and irish as well as english , that so by those means , having rendred themselves masters both of the affairs of the church , of the government of the nation , and of the course of justice , and subjected them all to a despotick and arbitrary power , they might be in a capacity to maintain and execute their wicked designs , by the assistance of the army , and thereby to enslave the nation . the dismal effects of this subversion of the established religion , laws and liberties in england appear more evidently to us , by what we see done in ireland : where the whole government is put in the hands of papists , and where all the protestant inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended , from the arbitrary power which is set up there : which has made great numbers of them , leave that kingdom , and abandon their estates in it , remembring well that cruel and bloody massacre , which fell out in that island in the year 1641. those evil councellours have also prevailed with the king to declare in scotland that he is clothed with absolute power , and that all the subjects are bound to obey him without reserve : upon which he has assumed an arbitrary power both over the religion and laws of that kingdom , from all which it is apparent , what is to be looked for in england , as soon as matters are du●ly prepared for it . those great and insufferable oppressions , and the open contempt of all law , together with the apprehensions of the sad consequences that must certainly follow upon it , have put the subjects under great and just fears ; and have made them look after such lawful remedies as are allowed of in all nations : yet all has been without effect . and those evil councellors have endeavoured to make all men apprehend , the losse of their lives , libertys , honours , and estates , if they should go about to preserve themselves from this oppression , by petitions , representations , or other means authorised by law. thus did they proceed with the archbishop of canterbury , and the other bishops , who having offered a most humble petition to the king , in termes full of respect , and not exceding the number limited by law , in which they set forth in short , the reasons , for which they could not obey that order , which by the instigation of those evil councellors , was sent them , requiring them to appoint their clergy to read in their churches the declaration for liberty of conscience ; were sent to prison and afterwards brought to a triall , as if they had been guilty of some enormous crime . they were not only obliged , to defend themselves in that pursute , but to appear before professed papists , who had not taken the test and by consequence were men whose interest led them to condemn them : and the judges that gave their opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out . and yet it can not be pretended , that any kings ; how great soever their power has been , and how arbitrary and despotick soever , they have been in the exercise of it , have ever reckoned it a crime for their subjects to come , in all submission and respect , and in a due number , not exceeding the limits of the law , and represent to them the reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their orders . those evil councellours have also treated a peer of the realm as a criminall , only because he said that the subjects were not bound to obey the orders of a popish justice of peace : tho it is evident , that they being by law rendred incapable of all such trusts , no regard is due to their orders . this being the security which the people have by the law for their lives , liberties , honours and estates , that they are not to be subjected to the arbitrary procedings of papists , that are contrary to law , put into any employments civil or military . both wee our selves , and our dearest and most entirely beloved consort , the princesse , have endeavoured to signify in terms full of respect , to the king , the just and deep regret which all these proceedings have given us ; and in compliance with his majesties desires signified to us , wee declared both by word of mouth , to his envoy , and in writing ; what our thoughts were touching the repealing of the test and penal lawes ; which we did in such a manner , that we hoped we had proposed an expedient , by which the peace of those kingdoms , and a happy agreement among the subjects of all persuasions , might have been setled : but those evil councellours , have put such ill constructions on these our good intentions , that they have endeavoured to alienate the king more and more from us : as if wee had designed , to disturb the quiet and happiness of the kingdome . the last and great remedy for all those evils , is the calling of a parliament , for securing the nation , against the evil practises of those wicked councellours : but this could not be yet compassed , nor can it be easily brought about . for those men apprehending , that a lawful parliament , being once assembled , they would be brought to an account , for all their open violations of law , and for their plots and conspiracies against the protestant religion , and the lives and liberties of the subjects , they have endeavoured under the specious pretence of liberty of conscience ; first to sow divisions among protestants , between those of the church of england and the dissenters : the design being laid to engage protestants , that are all equally concerned , to preserve themselves from popish oppression ; into mutual quarrellings ; that so by these , some advantages might be given to them to bring about their designs ; and that both in the election of the members of parliament , and afterwards in the parliament it selfe . for they see well that if all protestants , could enter into a mutual good understanding , one with another , and concurre together , in the preserving of their religion , it would not be possible for them to compasse their wicked ends . they have also required all persons in the several counties of england , that either were in any imployment , or were in any considerable esteem , to declare before hand , that they would concur in the repeal of the test and penal laws ; and that they would give their voices in the elections to parliament , only for such as would concurre in it : such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all imployments : and others who entred into those engagements , were put in their places , many of them being papists : and contrary to the charters and priviledges of those burroughs , that have a right to send burgesses to parliament , they have ordered such regulations to be made , as they thought fit and necessary , for assuring themselves of all the members , that are to be chosen by those corporations : and by this means they hope to avoid that punishment which they have deserved : tho it is apparent , that all acts made by popish magistrates are null , and void of themselves ; so that no parliament can be lawful , for which the elections and returns are made by popish sheriffs and majors of touns ; and therefore as long as the authority and magistracy is in such hands , it is not possible to have any lawful parliament . and tho according to the constitution of the english government , and immemorial custome , all elections of parliament men ought to be made with an entire liberty , without any sort of force , or the requiring the electors to choose such persons as shall be named to them , and the persons thus freely elected , ought to give their opinions freely , upon all matters that are brought before them , having the good of the nation ever before their eyes , and following in all things the dictates of their conscience , yet now the people of england can not expect a remedy from a free parliament , legally called and chosen . but they may perhaps see one called , in which all elections will be carried by fraud or force , and which will be composed of such persons , of whom those evil councellours hold themselves well assured , in which all things will be carried on according to their direction and interest , without any regard to the good or happiness the nation . which may appear evidently from this , that the same persons tried the members of the last parliament , to gain them to consent to the repeal of the test and penal lawes , and procured that parliament to be dissolved , when they found that they could not , neither by promises nor threatnings , prevail with the members to comply with their wicked designs . but to crown all , there are great and violent presumptions , inducing us to beleeve , that those evil councellours , in order to the carrying on of their ill designs , and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them , for the encouraging of their complices , and for the discouraging of all good subjects , have published that the queen hath brought forth a son : tho there have appeared both during the queens pretended bigness , and in the manner in which the birth was managed , so many just and visible grounds of suspicion , that not only we our selves , but all the good subjects of those kingdoms , do vehemently suspect , that the pretended prince of wales was not born by the queen . and it is notoriously known to all the world , that many both doubted of the queens bigness , and of the birth of the child , and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfy them , or to put an end to their doubts . and since our dearest and most entirely beloved consort , the princesse , and likewise we our selves , have so great an interest in this matter , and such a right , as all the world knows , to the succession to the crown , since also the english did in the year 1672. when the states general of the vnited provinces were invaded , in a most unjust warre , use their utmost endeavours to put an end to that warre , and that in opposition to those who were then in the government : and by their so doing , they run the hazard , of losing both the favour of the court , and their imployments ; and since the english nation has ever testified a most particular affection and esteem , both to our dearest consort the princesse , and to our selves , wee cannot excuse our selves from espousing their interests , in a matter of such high consequence , and from contributing all that lies in us , for the maintaining both of the protestant religion , and of the laws and liberties of those kingdomes , and for the securing to them , the continual enjoyment of all their just rights . to the doing of which , wee are most earnestly solicited by a great many lords , both spirituall and temporall , and by many gentlemen and other subjects of all ranks . therefore it is , that wee have thought fit , to goe over to england , and to carry over with us a force , sufficient by the blessing of god , to defend us from the violence of those evill councellours . and , wee being desirous that our intentions in this , may be rightly understood , have for this end prepared this declaration , in which as wee have hitherto given a true account of the reasons inducing us to it , so wee now think fit to declare that this our expedition , is intended for no other designe , but to have a free and lawfull parliament assembled , as soon as is possible : and that in order to this , all the late charters by which the elections of burgesses are limited contrary to the ancient custome , shall be considered as null and of no force : and likewise all magistrates who have been injustly turned out , shall forthwith resume their former imployments , as well as all the borroughs of england shall return again to their antient prescriptions and charters : and more particularly that the antient charter of the great and famous city of london , shall again be in force : and that the writts for the members of parliament shall be addressed to the proper officers , according to law and custome . that also none be suffered to choose or to be chosen members of parliament but such as are qualified by law : and that the members of parliament being thus lawfully chosen they shall meet and sit in full freedome ; that so the two houses may concurre in the preparing of such lawes , as they upon full and free debate , shall judge necessary and convenient , both for the confirming and executing the law concerning the test and such other lawes as are necessary for the security and maintenance of the protestant religion ; as likewise for making such lawes as may establish a good aggrement between the church of england , and all protestant dissenters , as also for the covering and securing of all such , who will live peaceably under the government as becomes g●od subjects , from all persecution upon the account of their religion , even papists themselves not excepted , and for the doing of all other things , which the two houses of parliament shall find necessary for the peace , honour , and safety of the nation , so that there may be no more danger of the nations salling at any time hereafter , under arbitrary government . to this parliament wee will also referre the enquiry into the birth of the pretended prince of wales , and of all things relating to it and to the right of succession . and wee for our part will concurre in every thing , that may procure the peace and happines of the nation , which a free and lawfull parliament shall determine ; since wee have nothing before our eyes in this our undertaking , but the preservation of the protestant religion , the covering of all men from persecution for their consciences , and the securing to the whole nation the free enjoyment of all their lawes , rights and liberties , under a just and legall government . this is the designe , that wee have proposed to our selves , in appearing upon this occasion in armes : in the conduct of which , wee will keep the forces under our command , under all the strictnes of martiall discipline : and take a speciall care , that the people of the countries thro which wee must march , shall not suffer by their means : and as soon as the state of the nation will admit of it , wee promise that we will send back all those forreigne forces , that wee have brought along with us . wee doe therefore hope that all people will judge rightly of us , and approve of these our proceedings : but wee chiefly rely on the blessing of god , for the successe of this our undertaking , in which wee place our whole and only confidence . wee do in the last place invite and require all persons whatsoever , all the peers of the realme , both spirituall and temporall , all lords lieutenants , deputy lieutenants , and all gentlemen , citisens and other commons of all ranks , to come and assist us , in order to the executing of this our designe ; against all such as shall endeavour to oppose us ; that so wee may prevent all those miseries , which must needs follow upon the nations being 〈◊〉 vnder arbitrary government and slavery : and that all the viole●ces and disorders , which have overturned the whole constitution of the english government , may be fully redressed , in a free and legall parliament . and wee do likewise resolve that as soon as the nations are brought to a state of quiet wee will take care that a parliament shall be called in scotland , for the restoring the ancient constitution of that kingdom , and for bringing the matters of religion to such a settlement , that the people may live easy and happy , and for putting an end to all the injust violences , that have been in a course of so many years committed there . we will also study to bring the kingdom of ireland to such a state , that the settlement there may be religiously observed : and that the protestant and british interest there , may be secured . and we will endeavour by all possible means , to procure such an establishment in all the three kingdoms that they may all live in a happy union and correspondence together ; and that the protestant religion , and the peace , honour , and happiness of those nations , may be established upon lasting foundations . given under our hand and seal , at our court in the hague , the tenth day of october in the year of our lord 1688. william henry , prince of orange ▪ by his highnesses special command . c : huygens. thus you have an exact and full account of the prince of orange's declaration : and can you find one word of a treaty with france , to extirpate all protestants ? or can you imagine that if they had the least reason for such a talk , they who aggravate every little thing , would let this declaration pass without the least mentioning of what is so momentous and important ? and is there any thing more than a violent presumption suggested about the prince of wales ? and is the very noise of such a presumption reason enough to justifie a real war ? as for the other things urg'd , are they not redressable by a parliament , and so far as it 's possible without one already redressed ? 't is a parliament then that is the main thing to be insisted on , which , though chosen as the last was , would be too feeble an argument to clear the present invasion from the charge of being injust and unrighteous . the great men of this kingdom ever thought a parliament irregularly chosen more eligible than either a war , or a rash enquiry into the manner of the choise . did queen elizabeth's parliament admit of a words being spoken to bring queen mary's parliament into doubt ? did they not look on it as most dangerous to do so ? and although by the triennial bill the long parliament in the late kings reign , was actually dissolved nine months before it thought on the repeal thereof , yet even after 't was destroy'd by it , the dissolved parliament sate and repealed the dissolving bill , and made the conventicle-act , the test-laws , repealed the writ de haeretico comburendo , and pass'd the habeas corpus bill into a law. but was the assembly that acted thus irregularly , ever call'd to an account for it , or any of their laws declared void and null ? or was it ever esteemed a good reason for a war ? and yet this is much more than hath been ever done by his present majesty . besides , 't was the late king that took away the charters , and those , who were entring on violent courses for their restauration , were proclaimed traytors , and several executed for it , whilst all the pulpits throughout england sounded of the horridness , blackness , vileness , devilishness of that conspiracy ; and is what was black and horrid then , become noble , great , generous , and glorious now ? thus much was also a part of the late duke of monmouth's declaration , and yet a parliament chosen by the garbled corporations proclaim'd him a traitor , and attainted him ; but doth the blood of monmouth as well as of the forementioned conspirators , and of all those in the west lye on the iudges , iuries , nobility , and other gentry of the church of england , that had a hand in condemning such as by violent methods would have restor'd the charters . if these things could not vindicate the presbyterian plotters in the late king's reign , or monmouth's rebellion , it cannot excuse the present undertaking , for this doth infinitely exceed these , and the late civil war too , for neither of them brought in a foreign power upon us as now is done . but it must be observed , that how great soever our grievances have been , yet now , all that relief can reasonably be desired is granted us . the ecclesiastical commission actually broken up , the bishop of london , the master and fellows of magdalen colledge , and the ancient charters of cities and burroughs actually restored , all things on the ancient bottom , for the calling a free parliament , which his majesty would have done before this time , had not the prince of orange hindred him , and as soon as the prince of orange departs the king will call one , whereby all the prince's pretensions are taken away , and nothing more remains for him to do , but to return home , or contend for the crown . yet the prince would have us believe , that though he is not satisfied with this , yet he intends no such thing as the crown , or a conquest of us , as appears by his highnesses additional declaration . his highnesses additional declaration . after we had prepared and printed this our declaration , wee have understood , that the subverters of the religion and lawes of those kingdomes , hearing of our preparations , to assist the people against them , have begun to retract some of the arbitrary and despotick powers , that they had assumed , and to vacate some of their injust judgments and decrees . the sense of their guilt , and the distrust of their force , have induced them to offer to the city of london some seeming releefe from their great oppressions : hoping thereby to quiet the people , and to divert them from demanding a re-establishment of their religion and laws under the shelter of our arms : they do also give out , that we do intend to conquer and enslave the nation , and therefore it is that we have thought fit to adde a few words to our declaration . we are confident , that no persons can have such hard thoughts of us , as to imagine that we have any other designe in this undertaking , then to procure a settlement of the religion and of the liberties and properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation , that there may be no danger of the nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter . and as the forces that we have brought along with us , are utterly disproportioned to that wicked design of conquering the nation , if wee were capable of intending it , so the great numbers of the principal nobility and gentry , that are men of eminent quality and estates , and persons of known integrity and zeal both for the religion and government of england , many of them being also distinguished by their constant fidelity to the crown , who do both accompany us in this expedition , and have earnestly solicited us to it , will cover us from all such malicious insinuations : for it is not to be imagined , that either those who have invited us , or those that are already come to assist us , can joyn in a wicked attempt of conquest , to make void their own lawful titles to their honours , estates and interests : wee are also confident that all men see how little weight there is to be laid , on all promises and engagements that can be now made : since there has been so little regard had in time past , to the most solemne promises . and as that imperfeit redresse that is now offered , is a plain confession of those violations of the government , that we have set forth , so the defectiveness of it is no lesse apparent : for they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure : and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned , their claimes and pretences to an arbitrary and despotick power ; which has been the root of all their oppression , and of the total subversion of the government . and it is plain , that there can be no redresse nor remedy offered but in parliament : by a declaration of the rights of the subjects that have been invaded : and not by any pretended acts of grace , to which the extremity of their affairs has driven them . therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare , that we will refer all to a free assembly of the nation , in a lawful parliament . given under our hand and seal , at our court in the hague , the 24. day of october in the year of our lord 1688. william henry , prince of orange ▪ by his highnesses special command . c : huygens. this addition doth very fully unfold the design , the prince will abide amongst us with a foreign power , and make the choice of a parliament impracticable , and therefore the call of one a weak and foolish thing , and yet oblige us to distrust every promise the king makes us , lesning what is done , and insinuating that all things shall be soon undone . and why all these insinuations , but to help us to unravel the whole intreague , which , if it be not for the crown , must be thus . the dutch knowing how the prince hath ravished from them their liberties and priviledges , and what danger they are in of being utterly undone , if liberty of conscience be settled amongst us in england , precipitate the prince on this hazardous undertaking , not doubting but they shall be either delivered from the princes exercise of a despotick power over them , or spoil our liberty , to the continuance and advance of their own trade ; which may be the reason why in the entrance into the declaration , what relates to religion is so worded as to gain the bishops over to them , the more e●sily to effect their design , for says the declaration , the alteration of religion is endeavoured , and that a religion which is contrary to law is endeavoured to be introduced ; it is not said , that the popish religion , but a religion contrary to the law , and , it 's well known , that the laws are against the religion of the dissenters , and the prince's endeavour shall be to preserve and maintain above all the religion and worship of god , that is established amongst us , which cannot be understood of the worship the dissenters use , but of the hierarchical way , that is as contrary to the prince's own religion , as 't is to that of the dissenters in england . and to perswade the church men to close with him , he declares , that he was most earnestly solicited to come over by the lords spiritual , not doubting , but that , if the belief thereof prevail amongst the mobile , they 'll be all of an opinion that the prince's grounds are most iust and reasonable , so that though it cannot be made out by any thing particularly known , yet this general carrying a thousand unheard-of arguments in its bowels cannot fail of success . but what if this prove not true ? may we afterwards venture to believe his highness in any thing , which under a violent temptation , he may be , as now , moved to declare ? the prince insists on it , that many of the lords spiritual did most earnestly sollicite him to invade us , and yet the lords spiritual do not only declare , that they look on this invasion to be sinful , but , that they never sollicited his coming ; and , it must be acknowledged , that they could do no such thing without acting most contrary to their avowed principles , and contrary to most solemn oaths , and declarations ; and men should take heed , how they receive this report against the right reverend bishops ; the design in which they are said to embarque being founded on that very principle , in pursuance of which the head of charles the blessed martyr was brought to the block ; and embarque they cannot , but by joyning with a foreign army , the chief part of which is made up of those who though they would willingly enough ensnare our bishops , cannot be reasonably supposed to be true in the promises they make about supporting their hierarchical grandeur ; the utmost they must expect in the long-run can be no more than a turning their lands into money , that , to the end their dependance on the government may be the more effectually secured , in stead of their present lands , leases , &c. they may have an yearly salary answerable to their worth and desert , which as 't will be uncertain , so it cannot be hop'd that its utmost heighth shall arise to the state and degree of a baron , for baronies go with their lands . by this you may see , how unlikely any sort of englishmen should by this invasion gain any thing but misery . animadversions upon the declaration of his highness the prince of orange . the great preparations for war in holland , were long talk'd of here as very unconcerning news . besides the perpetual assurances of their embassador , that they were not designed this way , every body knew the influence which his highness the prince of orange has upon that country ; and it could not sink into their heads , that he , who was born of one daughter of england , and married to another , would ever suffer the peace of a country to be disturbed , for which nature sollicited a feeling tenderness . even they who reflected , that politicks sometimes sway more than nature , as possible as they thought it that he might be moved to suffer it to be done by some body , in whom it would shew less shocking , thought it absolutely impossible he should ever be moved to bring fire and sword into england himself , and personally fight against his father-in-law , and uncle . when we found our incredulity had deceived us , we cast about to discover what unsufferable provocations he had receiv'd , what injuries beyond satisfaction , what affronts to be reveng'd with no less than the ruin of a nation ; in fine , what just cause of war there could be . and we impatiently waited for the declaration of his highness , in which we expected to find all this . now it is come , we are more at a loss than before . war must shed a great deal of blood ; make numberless widows and orphans , whose tears will go up to heaven , and cries be heard ; desolate the nation ; change our plenty into beggary ; and bring a thousand calamities . this blood , and these miseries will one day be required from the authors . and we perceive nothing in the world to justifie all this , but the very stories which we hear from those who make it their business to slander the government , and incense the people , of whom there are too many in every nation , and to whom we little thought his highness would have afforded the countenance of his name . since he has thought fit to do it , i shall , in respect , forbear to contest it with his highness , as much as i perceive he is misinformed , farther than is just necessary for our own resolutions and actions . his declaration sollicits us to joyn with his arms , and i conceive we ought to be very well assured the reasons offer'd will justifie us to god and man , before we break our natural and sworn allegeance , and forfeit our honour in this world , and interest in the next , by deserting , or fighting against our king , and gods anointed , before we tear out the bowels of our mother country with our own hands , and do things for which his highness himself shall always think us , and if he prevail , one day treat us as traytors and rebels . for a traytor is sure to be hated , even by him who loves the treason . the declaration begins with telling us , that the publick peace cannot be preserved , where the laws are openly transgressed , and a religion contrary to law endeavoured to be intr●du●ed . and that th●se who are most immediately concerned , are indispensably bound to preserve them . this may be as true as it will for any concern which england or his highness has in it . england , whatever be , is not the country in which these things are done . the ●xecution indeed of some laws is suspended , laws it seems not necessary to the publick peace , since the declaration inform us , his highness intends they should be taken away● ; and this suspension , by those who should know , is thought to be warranted , not forbidden by law , and his highness , i fancy , would be of their opinion himself , if the case were his own . happy we , if nothing would subvert our peace , and transgress our laws more than this suspension . but to make these things the ground of an invasion , which must intirely subvert our peace , and , if it prevail , our laws , and leave us none , but at the mercy of an arbitrary sword ; which cannot begin without notoriously transgressing the laws of god and nations ; nor be abetted without undisguisable transgressing the laws of the land ; has palpably some other aim , than the care of our peace and laws . what endeavours to introduce popery his highness means , i cannot tell . the king , to my thinking , has bounded his favour to that religion , with the single desire of seeing his papist subjects in the same condition with the rest , and is pleas'd to bate even of that . had he design'd to introduce their religion , he would certainly never have made it impossible to be introduc't . for an universal liberty unites the interest of every religion , against the prevailing of any one , and excludes popery from all hopes of ever domineering in england . but let the designs of papists be never so irreligious , booted missionaries , i take it , are no ministers of the gospel in the reformed religion , nor bare endeavours to do b●d actions , a warrant actually to do bad actions , and the worst of them . after all , were our case as bad as the declaration represents it , how comes his highness to be concern'd in it ? it is in his own words , certain and evident to all men , that sovereign states , whether monarchies , or commonwealths , are independent , and have no right to interpose , otherwise than by friendly offices , in one anothers affairs , but violate the laws of nations as often as they do . every government holds within itself , all those who are concern'd in the redress of abuses , when they happen , and the laws inform us who they are . nor is any thing more inconsistent with government , than the interposition of foreign powers , nor more deeply resented by the laws of all nations , than abetting of it . turn the tables , and let all these dismal stories , as som perhaps are , be told of holland , and be never ●o true ; i refer it to all mankind , to holland , to his highness himself , whether the king of england would not pass for a very bad neighbour , and a very bad man , if he should take the cognizance from the states , and himself compose their disorders by war : the immediate concern insinuated , relates , i suppose , to the prospect of succession , to which , if the calamities of war , be the proofs of his tender affection to our nation , it will soon wish the right of his highness were farther removed , than it is ; thô it has now pleased god , the right should not be immediate , even in his royal consort . but the most immediate right to succeed , is no right to intermeddle before the succession falls . i am successor to my father , but cannot therefore dispose of his estate , chuse his tenants for him , and appoint what covenants he shall make in his leases , any more than a stranger to his bloud . and yet it follows , that upon these ground ; his highness can no longer forbear to declare , that counsellors , in chief credit with the king , have openly overturned religion and the laws , and subjected them in all things relating to conscience , liberty and property , to arbitrary government , if these were the true grounds of his highness , he could as little forbear to declare against many , perhaps all nations , in which there are more rational , and more real causes of complaint to be found , by one who would look after them . but put it to mankind , and all mankind must declare , that these grounds are no grounds , and which no party will allow to justify another which disturbs them . put it to the nation , and all the nation must declare , that every man enjoys his conscience , his liberty , and his property , even to the envy of their less happy neighbours , and that there has been no proceeding against a single man , but for his single misdemeanor , and this not by arbitrary , but legal , power . and then to asperse his majesty with overturning all laws , under the name of evil counsellors ! why ? let his counsellors be never so bad , they are worse , whose service his highness has used in penning this declaration . men , whose brains reach no farther , than to copy from their rebellious ancestors of 41 , by whose example it is too sadly known , whom they meant by evil counsellors , and what they intended to do with him. and yet his highness leads his name to such men , and giving credit to such counsellors himself , talks of evil counsellors in credit with the king. to these general premises , the declaration adds a list of particulars ; whereof the first is , the dispensing power . and this his highness takes the pains to moot , and tell us how far it goes , and where it must stop , and that a sentence has been obtained for it from the judges . those judges should in reason understand the matter better , than those , on whose information his highness has thought fit to relye . as i take it for a parliamentary business , i leave it untoucht , to the wisdom of a parliament , believing , all i can say , will be said and considered there , and resolving to acquiesce in their determination . in the mean time , how does this justifie foreign arms ? here is the case . kings are not bred at the inns of court , but must trust lawyers for law , as well as physicians for physick . the oppression of conscience-laws , deafens his majesties ears with perpetual complaints , and his tenderness of his subjects prompts him to relieve them . he adviseth with those of the profession , and they inform him , he may , by his dispensing power , relieve them legally , and he does it . every body is not content , and he refers the whole to a publick legal tryal . pray what better , or other advice could his highness have given ? what could he do more himself , if it had been his own case ? and if i may be so bold , does he always do so much ? unfortunate majesty ! and unfortunate mankind ! if every nation must be justly liable to the calamities of war , in which a king happens to have a counsellor , who in point of a law of his own country , differs in opinion from a prince of another . upon this point it is further declared , that these evil counsellors secretly examined the opinions of the iudges , and procured such to be turn'd out , as could not in conscience concur in their pernicious sentence . why ? then those bad counsellors were not bad enough to desire men should act against their conscience , and the pernicious sentence was given according to conscience . but this again is his highnesses case . he has the nomination of men to employments , as well as the king : and i humbly refer it to his conscience , whether before he nominate , he do not satisfy himself that his nominê be a man on whom he may rely , for the service which he expects from him . is it justice to fall out with the king for doing what he does himself , and all princes in the world , and all private men , who have employments at their disposal ? after minding us that we have a crowned king , and have had laws enacted in england for preservatiou of our rights , liberties and religion : the declaration repeats again , that evil counsellors have in effect annulled all those laws , contrary to the kings promise and oath . strange descant upon this short plain song , the king has dispenc'd with one law , and that in the interval of parliament , from which he promises himself , it will be taken away , and which the parliament design'd by his highness , as free as it shall be , we find by the declaration , must take away , and this upon information which he had reason to trust , that he might , according to law. will the rhetorick of his highnesses pen-men , make this pass for a breach of promise and oath , for annulling and abolishing all laws , when we see with our eyes , the establisht religion actually maintained , and assist every day at the divine service of it ; when we see the judges sit , and suitors obtain effectual decrees and sentences from them , and effectual execution elsewhere ; when we see no dispensation , nor inclination to it in any thing , save in relief of an oppression , which the whole nation , as far as i perceive , consents should not be continued ? we humbly pray his highness , in stead of the liberty held forth by his invasion , to afford us the liberty of believing our own eyes , before the repetitions of his historical pen-men , and to think we actually enjoy our religion , and our laws as much as they would persuade us , there is no such thing in england , but thô our case were as deplorable , as their frightful idea would make it , what remedy can we hope from the declaration ? all human affairs are subject to the miscarriages inseparable from human nature . when they happen among us , the wisdom of our nation has always thought the best way of redress is by parliament . but we could never think knocking out mens brains a proper remedy for miscariages about religion , nor plundring and burning apt to set right the sway'd law. and we again pray his highness , rather to let us alone in our misery , than make us happy this way . for as we are made , the happiness would be incomparably the more unsupportable misery . after all , what would his highness have done in the case ? and what can be done more , than to leave none of those things in being , of which he complain'd ? and so much his highness owns was done before he set sail from holland . the ecclesiastical commission was broken ; the suspension of the bishop of london taken off ; magdelene college restored ; chancellors and archdeacons discharged of their attendance ; lord-lieutenants , deputy-lieutenants , and the rest replaced ; and charters returned . as it is palpable , that his highness comes not to redress things , which he knew were redress'd already , it is palpable that we have reasons of his coming alledged which are not his reasons , and too much ground to argue from one to all , and , conclude , we have not one true reason offered , but are amused with pretences apt to work upon us , but which no way move his highness . there is mention besides of popish chappels , and schools , and commissions , all three consequences of liberty of conscience . people cannot exercise their religion , without places in which to exercise it , neither is there any complaint of the meeting places of their fellow dissenters , nor can i understand why his highness excepts against their chappels , who declares , he will not except them from the liberty of conscience . again , parents always breed up their children in their own way : and if papists be not allow'd schools at home , they will be sent abroad , to spend there , what it were more for the benefit of the nation should be laid out here , and besides , be train'd up to foreign customs , and perhaps , foreign principles , not so grateful to the nation , whereas here they might be watcht . but cannot the king and parliament compose this matter without bloodshed ? is the question , whether a boy shall go to school in england or flanders , so very material , and so very intricate , that nothing but arms can decide it ? as for their commissions , it stands not with nature , that a king should not chuse some of his own way to trust with commissions , when he is persuaded he lawfully may . with all my heart i wish , that the greater readiness , and greater fidelity of others in the defence of their prince and country , may convince him , and all the world , that he has made an ill choice . but to see whither exaggeration will go ! all matters of civil iustice , according to the declaration , are brought to great vncertainties : evil councellors ●●ndered masters of the affairs of the church , the government of the nation , and the course of iustice , and all by these commissions to papists : and yet all this signifies barely three or four judges at most , some justices of peace , and some officers in the army . can a few , and those puny judges , ( for there are no other ) master the courts of justice ▪ can a few officers , most subalterns , with soldiers , not one to fifty of their religion , master the affairs of the church ▪ and enslave a nation ? in which , if all the papists were armed , and the rest naked ▪ their pikes and muskets could not defend them against a volley of stones . can matters of civil justice be brought to great uncertainties by the incapacity of papists , who have no incapacity upon them ? the law indeed forbids them to be employed , but if they be , there is no invalidity laid upon their acts. and for military incapacity , if the law had put it , his highness has dispens'd with it ; for an invasion capacitates every body to save his country , as fire breaking out , to save his house . but 't is incomprehensible , that the irish should be mentioned , and the danger in which the nation is of slavery from them , who , if his highness had not brought them in , had never been here to fright us . at worst , the king's subjects sure may be as safely here , as absolute foreigners ; and if strangers , tho' subjects , be inconsistent with our freedom , 't is certain , that whatever be the business of his highnesses army , our freedom is not . and this appears the more , the farther we go . all his majesties dominions are taken presently after into the care of his highness , and 't is represented as a dismal matter , that papists are employed in ireland , and that the king's power is in scotland declared absolute , and subjects to obey without reserve . now these are the very words of a law enacted in scotland , by a very free parliament , held under a commissioner , upon whom , there never sell any imputation of popery . his highness is sparing in this point . it is said farther by the parliament , that the blessings of scotland● are , next to god , owing to the uninterrupted line of the kings , and to that solid absolute authority , and that their kings are invested with it by ▪ the first and fundamental laws of their monarchy . but parliaments , it seems , must exercise no freedom , but according to the pleasure of a supervising foreign sword , though i should think it somthing early to declare it . in ireland , the laws exclude not papists from employments ; and 't is again referr'd to the conscience of his highness , whether he would think it reasonable , his neighbours should exclaim and inflame the people against him , for disposing employments as the law allows , and themselves resolve the matter to be so heinously unjust , that any of them has right to revenge it upon his country with the miseries of war ? who shall hope to please his highness , when he thinks fit , at once , to dislike breaking laws in england , making them in scotland , and keeping them in ireland ? but these unsufferable oppressions , have put the subjects under just fears , and made them look after such lawful remedies , as are allow'd of in all nations . i hope , his highness does not mean , rising in arms against their king , and calling in foreign enemies , by lawful remedies . whatever other nations do , ours allows this for nothing but treason , and rebellion , nor , i much suspect , any nation in the world besides : and yet those lawful remedies must sure be remedies not authorized by law ; for the declaration makes such means barr'd by evil counsellors : the instance is in the bishops petition . now as unquestionably legal as a petition is , there may be an illegal petition ; whether this were so , or no , the king desired should be legally tryed : and a tryal there was , in which , the direct point ( as i am informed ) came not to issue , but not guilty found upon no proof of matter of fact ▪ a peer too is mentioned to be treated as a criminal , for saying the orders of a popish justice were not to be obeyed . and all his criminal treatment was to refer him to the ordinary course of law , where he likewise waved the direct point by collateral exceptions ; where may the oppression be , and where the frightful apprehensions of loss of life , liberty , honor , and estate , in all this ? are judicicial proceedings already threatned , and barr'd ? and must we have an army to revenge the wrongs of the bishops , and a peer , who , i believe , themselves complain of none done them ? nor can , without complaining that the law has wrong'd them , even when it acquitted them . what significations have been made , and what expedients proposed by their highnesses to his majesty , is not come to my knowledge . but if the same advisers were used in their suggestions , which have been in this declaration , it is very likely the king might be sensible , they were too ill informed of the affairs of england , to take their advice . if evil counsellors have endeavoured to perswade the king , that his highness design'd to disturb the quiet and happiness of the kingdom , i am infinitely sorry he would be at all this pains to justifie them . for 't is impossible to believe he actually came hither , without design to come , or that the war he brings with him will not disturb our peace , and the miseries of it our happiness . what follows is past my understanding . the last and great remedy for all our evils is the calling of a parliament . so indeed all englishmen think , and so his majesty thought , who call'd one. happy we , if his highness had been of the same opinion ! but to our misery , he is not , who when one was call'd would not let it sit , but instead of it brought in evils past the remedy even of a parliament . for votes are not cannon proof . but a parliament could not yet compassed , nor can it be easily brought about . too sadly true : for it is neither easy , nor possible , to bring about a parliament , when defenceless people must break through a foreign army to meet and elect . before , it was so possible to compass , that it was compast ; writs were actually gone out , and elections begun , which were not stopt by evil counsellors . but these evil counsellors apprehended , they should be brought to an account , for their plots and conspiracies against the protestant religion , and have endeavoured , under the specious pretence of liberty of conscience , to sow divisions among them , between the church of england , and dissenters , that , by their natural quarrellings , they might bring about their designs , both in the election of members , and in the parliament it self . why then they design'd a parliament should sit , as evil as they were , and as much as they feared to be called to account . but if liberty of conscience be a plot against protestants , his highness must needs be of it himself , who declared for it . must we believe the same thing , practised by his majesty , will divide protestants , and by his highness establish a good agreement ? then the asking people their opinion beforehand , the charters , popish sheriffs and mayors , are brought in again , only to conclude at last , that no parliament can be lawful , for which the elections and returns are made by papists ; and therefore , as long as the authority and magistracy are in such hands , it is not p●ssible to have any lawful parliament . how ill do they understand the law of england , who penn'd this declaration ? every body knows , that elections are made by freeholders and freemen , not by sheriffs and mayors , and that a papist may elect as legally as any body , and make a return , if he be in office , as valid . had his highness suffered the elections to go on , we should have thought the parliament very lawful ; but shall not think so of a parliament made by the law of arms , where we are chosen , and sit with the sword at our throats , we think , there is neither legality nor freedom ; and that , when for a remedy of the impossibility of a lawful parliament , there is prescribed an impossibility that it should be lawful , very ill state-doctors have been called to council . the declaration crowns all with the birth of the prince of wales , of which , it says , that great and violent presumptions induce his highness to believe , that these evil councellors have published , the queen hath brought forth a son , in order to their ill designs ; and that not only his highness himself , but all the good subjects of these kingdoms , do vehemently suspect , that the pretended prince of wales was not born by the queen . such things to come abroad , with the name of the prince of orange to them ! and yet it is but too true , that there is a great deal of violence and vehemence in these presumptions and suspicions ; so true , that there is in reality nothing else , neither presumption , nor suspicion , indeed . and this violence , and this vehemence , must needs be infinitely great ; which can pretend suspicions , not only utterly void of all reason , but so palpably against it , that , quite contrary to what the declaration avers , there is neither a good subject , nor a sensible man , who harbours any doubt in the case . and this consideration , i suppose , has so long delayed doing any thing for publick satisfaction . as it was not indeed very proper for the king to regard idle fictions , invented and spread by purely obstinate malice : but now he has caused the business to be scanned , if we should take toy , and suspect without reason . i believe , it would trouble his highness , to clear his own or the princesses birth , as the birth of the prince of wales is cleared : and guess , they would entertain the slightest suspicion with an impatient scorn , and not allow the greatest vehemence in the world to suspect them into the children of other mothers , than the princess of orange , and duchess of york . but , as much to seek as we were , for a reason in all alledg'd before , this questioning the birth of the immediate successor , speaks plain . we know now , what brought his highness hither ▪ and can give a shrewd guess at what will follow on his success : for if they be the only good subjects , who believe not we have a prince of wales , they are like to be in a bad condition , who have either sense enough to perceive plain truths , or conscience enough to boggle at perjury , or memory enough to remember , they have sworn fidelity to the king , and his lawful successors . beginning now to wind up , his highness minds us of the great interest which the princess royal and himself have in this matter , and of their right to the succession , such as all the world knows : of the endeavours we used for the vnited provinces , when they were invaded , in a most unjust war in 1672 : of the particular esteem and affection , which the english nation has ever testified to both their highnesses : and therefore cannot excuse himself from espousing our interests ; to the doing of which , he is earnestly solicited by a great many lords , both spiritual and temporal , by many gentlemen , and subjects of all ranks . in all which , the only thing we can understand , is , the succession , to which , their highnesses do severally stand i● that degree , which all the world knows . but there is not a man in the world , who can understand , how those , who espouse the interest of another , because they have an interest of their own , espouse any interest but their own ; nor could his highness have told us more plainly , that he comes for himself , not us ; that all alledged besides , is only for fashion-sake ; and that we might sink or swim , for any care of his , if he had not been concerned himself . again , because we did what we could for the dutch , when they were unjustly invaded , no body can understand , how gratitude obliges them to invade us unjustly themselves ; nor how the particular affection and esteem , which we have ever testified to their highnesses , should deserve , that he should become our enemy , and ruine us for our pains . as much esteem and affection , as the great qualities of his highness are like to meet every where , he will please to be informed , that the strongest band of ours , is his alliance to the royal bloud ; and must pardon the english , if they love not a man who hates our king , the very king , whose sister and daughter tyed our affections to him : then , who can understand , how making war upon us is espousing our interest , our religion , our laws , our liberties and properties ; our interest , and we , beseech his highness to have a little mercy on us , and not oblige us to believe , he espouses our interest , by subjecting all we have to the mercy of a lawless sword. he must likewise pardon us , if we believe not on his word , that many lords , many of the gentry , and of all ranks , are traytors , which , if it were true , he rewards them betimes , and by exposing them to be punished by others , till it be seasonable to do it himself , informs them what they must expect at last . but the spiritual lords and their principles are well known , and his highness has experience what they are , in the first bishop near whom he approached . he is like to meet the temporal lords , whom age keeps not at home , or the king's service employs not elsewhere , with the gentry , and all ranks , in the field , and be better informed from themselves , that the english are no traytors , and will take care to wipe off this aspersion from the nation . alas ! how little does his highness know us ! many an unwary , and many a heated man , speaks treason here , who is , for all that , honest at heart , and will make it well appear he is , when there is occasion . but , therefore it is that his highness hath thought fit to go over to england , and carry with him a force sufficient by the blessing of god to defend him from the violence of evil counsellors . unintelligible language of declarations of war ! to invade us is called defending himself , and this where there is no fear of an assault , or any danger , save from that very force which he must needs bring to defend him . for without it , his single name , not guarded so much as by a footman , had found security , and veneration all england over . after this true account ●f inducing reasons , ( reasons , if it please his penmen , for nothing looks like a reason but one . viz. interest ) his highness thinks sit to declare his intentions . as if there needed a declaration to inform us what pikes and muskets intend . an army intends nothing but to master where it comes , the very same which the saxons and normans , and all invaders from the beginning of the world to this day , intended . but his design is a free and lawful parliament : and for a preparative , the annulling of new , and returning of old charters , particularly that of the city of london : restoring of former magistrates ; addressing writs a proper officers ; and suffering note to chuse , or be chosen , but such as are qualified by law. a man no wiser than i , would think , that if his highness ▪ designed nothing but this , he might very well have staid at home . for all these preparatives were , and he knew were , made , before he went aboard . and a free and lawful parliament had now been sitting , or ready of sit , if he would have let it . without more ado , it is palpably impossible his highness should come only to do over again , what he knew was done to his hand ; only to get us a parliament , which he will not suffer us to have , and this pretence must of necessity cover some design thought less taking with englishmen . this parliament his highness declares shall meet and sit in full freedom , but perhaps not act so . for the two houses must , it seems , prepare laws to confirm and execute the test ; for the security and maintenance of the protestant religion ; and for a good agreement between the church of england and all protestant dissenters ; and covering such from persecution as will live peaceably , not excepting papists . but how will his highness keep his word , if a parliament should happen to think the test needs no confirmation , nor religion more laws than are already , nor that any laws can make the church of england and dissenters agree ? however it be , they love to have it in their power to confirm , or alter , or abrogate , or let the laws alone as they are , according as the good of the nation shall require , without having their task prescribed . they take themselves for master-workmen , and who can cut out their work themselves ▪ not for bare journeymen , to make up work cut out by others . but i would gladly know , what protestant religion means in the mouth of his highness . in the language of the country where he was born and bred , right protestancy signifies presbytery , and he is said to be surrounded by men who so understand it , whereof some perhaps might have a hand in this declaration . as the religion , or church established by law , had been easily said , if it had been meant ; to my thinking the suspicion is vehement , that this free parliament , with a holland trumpet in the speakers chair , is to set up presbytery ; at least , i am very sure it must , if that trumpet sound it ; and there is but too much reason to expect it will sound here as it does at home , especially when there is not the least intimation to the contrary . the pretended invitation of the spiritual lords will be well rewarded with a good agreement with their dissenting masters , and being covered from persecution , provided they hold themselves content , and live peaceably . but the comfort is , nothing can better shew their invitation is but pretended . to this fully free parliament his highness will refer the inquiry into the birth of the pretended prince of wales , to vote him , i suppose , a prince prettyman , the son of nobody . for we know what the references of conquerors signifie , and what the freedom of their arbitrators . but it is time to leave talking , when such things are said , and think of other weapons than pens . would his highness be content to refer his own birth ? for though there be nothing of suspicion in it , yet the nothing on his side is nearer to something than on the side of the prince of wales . for one may suspect that he who talks at this rate , was not born of an english mother . but after all , there wants something still . his highness designs new laws ; but acts , barely prepared , have not the perfection of laws , suppose the king should prove resty somewhere , and advise upon it ? why , his highness has found an expedient . he will himself concur in every thing that may procure the peace ( witness his war ) and happiness of the nation , that is , just what he pleases . he will take care that a parliament shall be called in scotland . he will study to bring ireland into a state that the settlement be observed , and the protestant and british interest secured . and as soon as the state of the nation will admit , he promises to send back his foreign forces ; and , in the mean time invites and requires all peers , and all persons whatsoever to c●me and assist him , against all such as shall endeavour to ●ppose him . that is in short , he will be king of england . for none pass bills into acts by their concurrence , but kings . to take care for calling parliaments ; and for the settlement and security of the kings dominions , belongs to none but the king ; and he who means to send his forces away , certainly means to stay himself . and that we may not be ignorant in what condition he means to stay , he takes the king upon him by way of anticipation . for no body can require the assistance of all his subjects of all sorts , but the king. so many stories in the declaration of a prince , which are the entertainment of our coffee-houses , and which we now perceive from whence they came ; so many dismal idea's of our misery , who live a great deal more at ease th●n they do in holland ; so much trouble and so much charge purely in ch●●y to our neighbours , for no other design than to have a free parliament ass●mbled , sounded untowardly , and we could not forbear to suspect some de●ign ●t bottom , though we had not found it own'd . but , if he had not told us ●o himself , we should hardly have suspected , that interest could have drawn the prince of orange to dethrone the king , unprince his son , and seize the crown for himself . but now we understand his highness we will ende●vour his highness shall understand us , and our protestant 〈…〉 better than he does . we love our princes , for all we can be angry , and talk more freely than they dare in other countreys , and will sooner dye at their feet , than strangers shall injure , much less dethrone , them . we love our country , and we love our honour , and before england shall become the prey of holland , will take order they shall find nothing in it , but grass and trees , no men for them to use as they did at amboina . we profess a protestant religion , which teaches us , not to rise in arms against our king , by whomsoever we are required , but true loyalty and fidelity to him and his lawful successors , and to defend him against all attempts whatsoever against his crown , person , or dignity , and the world shall see we are no bad scholars of so good a mistress . in a word , we know and we honour william henry prince of orange , but we know not william henry king of england otherwise than for an enemy . animadversions upon the additional declarations of his highness . the premises are so very plain , that his highness thought it necessary to take notice of them himself . against the apprehensions of a conquest , he alledges the disproportion of his forces , and the joyning of english with him . that disproportion is not his fault , and would have been , tho he had brought holland it self in his fleet , and all the men in it . but can he not design a conquest for all that ? we were conquered by the normans , and bare twelve thousand suedes bid fair for the conquest of germany , as little proportion as normandy had to england , or sweden to germany . we can conquer our selves , tho holland cannot ; which if we do , we conquer for him under whom we fight . for the general wins the battel , who ever fight it . and this of necessity his highness must design , unless he design to be beaten . for victory and conquest are but two names for one thing . neither is he a man to be at all this ado to make a conquest , and not make the most of it when he was done ; neither can he do otherwise tho he would . for as he has no right to act here by law , he must of necessity act by right of conquest . and we humbly beseech him not to declare us out of common sense , and into a belief that he is not capable of intending what we see he is actually doing . but enemies to their country , of all men in the world , one would least expect should be magnified for integrity , and zeal , and constant fidelity , and who cannot joyn in a wicked attempt of conquest , to make void their own lawful titles to their honours , estates , and interests . must we believe again they cannot joyn in an attempt in which his highness himself tells us they do joyn ? nor void their titles , when they actually did void them the very moment of the first overt act , which made it known they thought of that wicked attempt ? and then the fidelity , the integrity , and zeal of treason , is unintelligible language in england . but i have already observed , that his highness speaks in the language of a protestant religion which is not established here , and in likelihood never will by a parliament truly free . the kings concessions are treated as a seeming relief ; pretended acts of grace ; an imperfect redress , upon which no weight is to be laid , because solemn promises have been broken ; a plain confession of the violation set forth in the declaration , and defective because they may again be taken up . his highness takes care that nothing shall be replyed upon breach of promise , by giving no instance where it was broken . but to my grief here is greater work in hand . it had been shorter , and not much plainer said , i am resolved at any rate to come , and be king. for as the pretence of the declaration was , that the king had taken up some things , and the pretence of the addition , that he has laid them down , 't is palpable that the expedition was unalterably resolved , without any care , or thought of the good of england , or its concerns , save only to borrow a pretence which might contribute to the success of the expedition , and to which do , or undo was all a case ; and that nothing shall satisfie him but laying down the crown , nor that neither , because it may happen to be taken up again . and yet his highness declares again , that he will refer all to a free lawful parliament . happy we , if he would . if an english parliament were to judge , whether foreign force be lawful ? whether it be integrity , zeal , and fidelity to abet it ? whether it can be without a design of conquest , and conquest without enslaving this nation to the arbitrary pleasure of the conqueror ? and twenty such things , which must needs enter into the number of the referred all. but to talk of referring all to a parliament , and at the same time refer all to the sword ; to talk of the freedom of a parliament , which cannot vote nor debate , nor so much as make a motion , but in danger of their lives , is purely talk , and not like to ingratiate his quarrel to a nation not altogether senseless , as much as his highness seems to think it is , when we see the king did call a free parliament , that is , actually did refer all to it , ( for calling one is referring all to it , which it thinks fit to take into consideration ) and that his highness would not let it sit , we need no declarations to inform us which of the two is truly willing to refer all to a parliament . two letters , said to be annexed to the declaration in holland , and addrest to the seamen and land soldiers carry likewise the name of his highness . in which they are first cajolled with the title of friend ; as if they were men to be cajolled into a friendship , with the enemies of their prince and country , and then endeavoured to be debaucht into his service , by motives the most unsuitable to english natures that were ever found out , danger from papists , duty to god , and fear of falling into his hands . i perceiv'd we were taken for fools before , must we be taken for cowards too , men to be frighted even with the sound of danger ▪ his highness is like to be informed one day , that the english fear not his arms , much less the papists , who tho they were all embodied , are not near so many soldiers ; no tho it were less by as many papists as are in it . and yet there are more holland than english papists in the field . moreover , that they know their duty to god obliges them to be true to their prince , and that there is no honour in treason . lastly , that his men may fear to fall into their hands , they fear not to fall into his . it is said besides , that papists have sworn the ruin of the protestant religion , a piece of news which his highness would much oblige the whole nation to verifie . let the wicked men be but named , and convicted , and the next gallows or tree would save the trouble of parliaments and references ▪ lastly , the soldiers ▪ that they may not be instruments to defend their prince , and save their country and themselves from slavery , are desired to believe they are the instruments to introduce popery . when they are , they will pray his majesty to dispense with their service . but they find 〈◊〉 popery in fighting for the king , their country , and the laws , against a man who usurps the crown first , and then would cajole them to fix it . for besides , what has been observed already , he writes in the style of a king , trusty and well beloved , and joyns the supporters of england to his arms , in a manner not allowable in heraldry , even tho the princess royal were queen . but where we cannot find good reasons , we must take up with bad pretences . finis . a letter occasioned by the second letter to dr. burnet, written to a friend burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 approx. 20 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30373 wing b5819 estc r7791 11635286 ocm 11635286 47949 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30373) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47949) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:34) a letter occasioned by the second letter to dr. burnet, written to a friend burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ; 20 cm. printed for richard baldwyn, [london : 1685] caption title. signed: g. burnett, dated jan. 24. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lowth, simon, 1630?-1720. -of the subject of church-power. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. -history of the reformation of the church of england. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 angela lea sampled and proofread 2004-01 angela lea text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter occasioned by the second letter to dr. burnet , written to a friend . sir , i saw another nameless paper directed to me two days ago ; and indeed it was so dull , and so little to the purpose , that i laid it aside as unworthy of an answer : but you have perswaded me once more to put pen to paper , tho not to satisfy such a trifler , who would pretend to wit , if he knew how to lay his claim to it ; but it is so course , and his good nature and candor are so conspicuous , that i did not wonder to hear a witty gentleman say , that i had certainly hired one to write it ; but i scarce know where i could have found out such another . i do not trouble my self to ask after his name ; for till he gives himself one , i must let all lie where i laid it before , since his protestations , without a name set to them , are things of as little weight as he that makes them , and must go for nothing , as certainly he that writ them , is one of the next things to nothing . but since i understand , that some who have read the papers that have passed in this mater , desire to see the whole thing fairly stated , which , in such points of fact , is of more force than all other discourses can possibly be ; i will set it in a clear light , and then it will appear what a sort of men i have to do with , who will so obstinately keep up a noise where there is no cause or colour given for it . the state of the whole thing is this : in king henry the eighth's time , the method that was taken ▪ while the points of religion were under consideration , was this : a matter was put into queries , and these were given out to some bishops , and other divines , who by a set day were required to bring in their answers to those queries under their hands ; and then these being examined and compared , they went on to determine it . so when the sacraments came to be enquired into , there were seventeen queries drawn up , and given out to a ● number of bishops and doctors , the last of these happens to be concerning extreme union . some of these relate to church-power ; as , whether the apostles lacking a higher power , as in not having a christian king among them , made bishops by that necessity , or by auhority given by god ? ; whether bishops or priests were first ? whether a bishop hath authority by the scripture to make a priest , or no ? and whether any other , but only a bishop may make a priest ? whether in the new testament be required any consecration of a bishop and priest , or only appointing to the office be sufficient ? and whether , if it fortuned , that a christian prince , having none but temporal learned men with him , conquered infidels , if it was forbid by the law of god , that he and they should preach and teach the word of god there , or no ? and also make and constitute priests , or no ? the like question is put in case that all the bishops and priests of a kingdom were dead ; whether the king of that region should make bishops and priests to supply the same , or no ? to these queries cranmer gave answers , that shew he then thought that bishops and priests derived their authority from the king , as much as officers of state , mayors and sheriffs do ; that ordination was only a decent form of admission ; that princes might dispense with it , and that no grace was given in it , any more than in the committing civil offices ; and that what the apostles did , was only by reason of the extraordinary measure of the spirit of god , that was in them ; to which the people that had then no christian prince to govern them , did freely submit , considering the apostles not as men that had any empire or dominion over them , but as good counsellors . so he thought bishops and priests were at first the same thing , and one office ; and that princes as well as bishops , might make priests ; and that consecration was not necessary by scripture to make one a bishop , or a priest , but that election , or appointing thereto was sufficient : and that in cases of necessity , christian princes might make bishops and priests . the archbishop of york differed from cranmer , and argued these points copiously , considering the nature of those papers , and proved , that the apostles had power from christ to ordain bishops and priests ; and that no other authority was required for doing that , but that which they derived from god ; and that a bishop is the overseer of the priests , who are the shepherds of particular flocks ; which distinction he said was derived from the apostles and the primitive church ; and asserted , that none but bishops or priests could make a priest : and by a great many arguments both from the old and new testament , he prove that consecration was necessary , and that appointment without it was neither convenient nor sufficient ; and that tho in cases of necessity any christian , tho a lay-man , might preach and baptize , yet he could not make a priest ; for no authority that comes from the holy ghost can be used by any man , unless he has a commission for it grounded in scripture ; tradition , or ancient use ; and that this authority was only committed by scripture to the apostles , and was from them derived to their successors ; all the other bishops and divines , except the bishop of st. davids , whose paper is lost , agreed with the archbishop of york in most of his opinions ; only some of the divines , leighton in particular , thought , that a christian prince's consent ought to have been asked by the apostles , if there had been any at that time , before they had gone , to make bishops and priests . in the point of bishops and priests being the same thing , or a distinct office at first , leighton it seems , was doubtful , for he says nothing to it . robertson thinks , that a priest may consecrate a bishop , if a bishop cannot be found . the bishop of st. davids , thirleby the elect bishop of westminster , cox and redmoyn thought that bishops and priests were all one in the beginning ; and both bonner , bishop of london , and edgeworth agreed with robertson in this , that a priest might consecrate a bishop , if a bishop could not be found . as to the necessity of consecration , robertson yields it , but thinks the office so given can never be used without the consent or permission of the magistrate ; which limitation is not added by leighton . in cases of necessity both leighton and robertson , as well as many others , think the prince may make bishops and priests . after they had all given their answer to the seventeen queries , every man , except the bishop of rochester , signed his paper ; and cranmer not only set his hand to his own paper with that modest qualification , that he did not temerariously define , but referred the judgment of it wholly to his majesty ; but set his name likewise to leighton's paper , which has given the rise to all this noise ; and set it also to robertson's , which the late scribblers have not thought fit to observe , tho they could not but see it ; for it is in the same page with the other . upon this , some have hastily inserred , that because cranmer's name is at leightoun's paper , therefore he retracted his own paper , and subscribed to his opinions . i have by other clear and unexceptionable evidences proved , that cranmer , did indeed change his opinion in those tender points : but as if there were a spirit of contradiction in some people , they will not accept of this , but will lay hold of this slight colour of his signing leighton's paper , on which i laid no weight ; and therefore tho i printed the papers to a tittle as i found them in the manuscript , yet i took no notice of this in my history : so howsoever i might be accused for passing it over in my discourse concerning it , there was no reason to accuse me for unfaithfulness in my collections : but that part of my book galls some people , as giving a credit to the whole history , and therefore they must accuse my fidelity in that , upon which the credit of the book is founded , otherwise there were no considerable service done ; and it would give a specious colour beyond-sea to disparage that work , to say , that divines of ( or rather in ) the church of england , have detected my unfaithfulness in publishing the records , for that strikes at all ; so a man that was resolved to have a coach and six horses at any rate , at last found out a journey-man to do this piece of work for him ; and he has , very probably , entred it into the particular of his merits . cranmer's subscribing these papers , cannot be understood to be his assentting to all the opinions contained in them , for they differ in several particulars from one another ; and he could not subscribe contradictions : and tho he had assented to their opinions , it does not clear him of that for which the presbyterians , or the erastians may vouch him , for in the main point that relates to presbytery , concerning bishops and priests being at first the same office , which cranmer had asserted , leightoun saies nothing to it ( see collect. p. 225. ) so cranmer retracts nothing upon this head ; and robertson thinks , that where a bishop cannot be had , a priest may consecrate a bishop , which is also a main point : he likewise thinks , that a church-man ought not to use or exercise his function , without the consent or permission of the magistrate , which is all that most erastians plead for : so if this subscription is a good argument , cranmer is theirs still ; and both robertson and leightoun think , that in cases of necessity princes may make both bishops and priests , and i know few erastians that plead for more . thus it is plain , that suppose it were granted that cranmer had by signing these papers subscribed to the opinions contained in them , he may still be cited both by presbyterians and erastians , so that is it were not for the other evidences that i gave of his changing his mind , which no person had ever observed before me , he might still be cited by them , notwithstanding these subscriptions . all that i can make of the subseriptions is , that he might according to a rule that some ministers of state have observ'd , set his hand to those papers , as a mark that they might not be altered : and as to leightoun's paper , there may be this particular reason for it , that leightoun not being in the commission , of which i take notice in my history , p. 289. cranmer , who it seems ordered him to write answers to those queries , might have set his hand to his paper , as a warrant to him for having writ them , i confess these are but conjectures ; but to guess somewhat probably , is all that can be done at this distance . i have now opened this matter so particularly , that i hope i have satisfied the desires of those who complained that the thing was left too much in the dark . as for the method in which i published them , i could make a short defence for it , since it is well known that a very eminent person took the direction of that whole work into his particular care ; but since i am not so near him as to obtain his leave for naming him , and that i will not do it without his leave , i shall tell the reasons that were suggested , for following the method in which i have published them ; the method in which they lie in the manuscript is this , first the queries are set down , then every man's paper comes , first arch-bishop cranmer's , then the arch-bishop of york's , and so forward according to the order in which they are under every query : all these papers are sign'd at the end of them , except the bishop of rochester's , but there is but one signing for all , and there are no special subscriptions to any particular articles ( as some have fancied , ) so that the subscription to the last article belongs to the whole paper , and to every article in it : after these come two papers , the one in latine and the other in english , in which the agreement or disagreement of them all is marked ; cranmer's only excepted ; so that it seems these were for his private use : now , since every paper relates to the queries without repeating them , the queries must either have been repeated to every paper , or the reader must have been always turning leaves to find them out ; and if any man had the curiosity to examine their agreement or disagreement , he could find it out much readier in the way in which they are put than if i had followed the method in which they lie in the manuscript ; and these papers in which they are already compared , come in more naturally at the end of every query ; and can be more easily examined when one has under his eye at one view all their opinion , than if they had come in at the end of all after all the papers had been set down ; so that this method very well becomes the exactness and the true judgment of him that advised it . on the margents every man's name is set over against every article of his paper ; so that if one will read a whole paper in an entire thread as it lies in the original , he has an easy work , and is only to seek canterbury , york , or any other , all through the 17 queries , and he finds it without any confusion or difficulty . and now , what is to be said to all this ? is there any thing here left out , or mangled , or disguised , or any thing else done sufficiant to justify a small part of the clamour that is raised ? the reflections made in this last letter on the dean of st. pauls , are too visible to be carried off with the good words that introduce them ; if he had writ his book after my history , it might have been pretended that i had misled him , though these gentlemen's friends know to their cost that he is not apt to mistake in his quotations ; but he who writ his book almost twenty years before mine , and had the manuscript so long in his hands , saw it as it is ; and therefore all that is said from this against the method that i took in publishing these papers , is meer fooling : but the truth is , the dean saw well enough , that there was nothing in all this matter that deserved to be taken notice of . his arguments , such as they be , is a civility that he had no reason to expect from any on this side the water . a man may differ from him both in opinion and argument ; and yet none but he that can drawcansir like , kill both friend and foe , and arraign a whole nation , would treat a man of his worth in so rude a manner : but as the devil is known by his cloven-foot , so the attacking such men is a little too early and too bare-fac'd . if i was guilty of a mistake in my last letter , i will acknowledg it as soon as the author of this gives himself a name ; and if ever he on whom i laid it , finds but half the reason to lay any paper to my charge , that i have here , i will allow him all the liberty he shall be pleased to take : but i will say nothing upon an anonymous paper . i confess i acquit him freely of any accession to this ; for i believe , though he would set about it , he could not bring his stile so low , nor write so ill . i do not trouble my self to find out the author . dull and pert are such common characters , that without a more particular mark i cannot trace him . i confess a sit of kindness he falls into upon my naming the blessed martyr , leads me a little nearer , for i remember i saw a dedication to the second peer of england , that began my dear lord ; upon which one askt if the author was married to him : but if he will be as good as his word , and pay me the ten thousand thanks in full tale for every time that he finds the blessed martyr in my writings , he will be very hoarse long before he gets through them . as for his bringing himself off from that crude , not to call it profane reflection on a whole kingdom , 't is ill nature in me to take notice of it , since i hear all cry shame on him for it ; for his contracting what he laid indefinitely on a whole kingdom , to a few persons , is a figure well becoming his wit and candor . his ranking me with a man whose face i do not so much as know , is another of his flowers ; he may perhaps hear more of him than i can tell him , from one that lodged so long at nat. thompson's , if he happened to be in his house when he printed the appeal from the city to the country , in which i have been told ferguson had a hand . as for the zeal that all this sort of men pretend for the crown , the book that is the foundation of this stir , is a good indication of it , which without any straining , falls so evidently within a praemunire , as i hear an honourable person has observed , that the writer owes his not being questioned for it to his mejesties clemency , and to the neglect that both he and his book are under . there is another sect beside presbytery , that has first degraded kings wholly from their ecclesiastical supremacy , and after that point was gained , made them reign at the mercy of the church , and at the pope's courtesy : it were too bold to attempt both at once , and it is ingeniously enough done , to seem to yield up the one wholly , till the other is gain'd . but in all this matter their honest mr. lowth is quite forsaken , since his false charging me for leaving out that passage of leighton's is not so much as pretended to be justified : it seems this writer is very scant of epithets , or thinks there are few that can fit mr. lowth , that he has no other for him in both his letters but honest , so that one would think it is a part of his christned name . epithetes are chosen with relation to the matter in hand : now , though he may be a very honest man in all other things for ought i know , yet i am sure he was neither wise nor honest in this particular ; but seems his friends that set him on , think they are bound in honour fetch him off . i confess this trifler is modester than he was , for whereas he , sir hubras like , valued himself , that the king of israel was not to go out 〈◊〉 against a flea ; this writer more humbly compares his letter to 〈◊〉 flea in my ear : but how fleas are so much in their favour , i 〈◊〉 not know ; the last was a truer figure for an animal of a higher form had suffer'd by the comparison : but , with my readers pardon i will venture to take it a little lower , and assure him it is as 〈◊〉 as if it had been shut up in a microscope a week . i do not blame him 〈◊〉 rising a little higher in another figure taken from the marble ; it 〈◊〉 his top-flight , and it were pity to see a whole sheet without 〈◊〉 touch that can be calumniated with wit. so far have i complied with your desires , in contradiction to my own inclination : i am 〈◊〉 this matter is at an end , so let the whole pack bark as long as 〈◊〉 will , i will not write one word more on this subject . i am with 〈◊〉 possible respect and duty , jan. 24. sir , your most humble servant g. burnett . london , printed for richard baldwyn , at the old-baily corner . 1685. an answer to the animadversions on the history of the rights of princes, &c. by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1682 approx. 56 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 13 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30324 wing b5761 estc r7324 11630364 ocm 11630364 47930 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30324) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47930) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:27) an answer to the animadversions on the history of the rights of princes, &c. by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 22 p. printed for richard chiswell, london : 1682. a reply to thomas comber's animadversions on dr. burnet's history of the rights of princes, 1682. another issue appears in his "a collection of several tracts", 1685. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng comber, thomas, 1645-1699. -animadversions on dr. burnet's history of the rights of princes. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2003-11 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to the animadversions on the history of the rights of princes , &c. by gilbert burnet , d. d. london , printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxii . an answer to the animadversions on the history of the rights of princes , &c. when i first met with the animadversions on my book of the regale , i was not a little surprized to find so many things laid to my charge , of which i never so much as suspected my self guilty : and thought it very strange if i had so unhappily expressed my self in that book , that i had given any just occasion to such severe accusations . i knew well my intentions were innocent and sincere , and i thought my stile was not so dark or perplexed as to lead a reader into such mistakes concerning my meaning . but what darkness soever might be in my expressions , i was very well assured i had none of those ill intentions , with which these sheets charged me . what faults soever i may be guilty of , i am sure want of integrity or ingenuity in my writings is none of them , and for false inferences , i may through weakness of judgement perhaps draw them : but i am sure i neither affirm nor suggest any thing falsly ; and do think a lie in a book is so much a greater sin than in discourse , as it may last longer , and deceive more . and upon this point , as i venture my soul in relation to another world , so i chearfully venture my reputation , which is the valuablest thing i have in this , if it can be made appear that i have shewed either in that criminal-book , or in any other i ever writ , the least disingenuity , want of integrity , or falshood . finding my self so severely accused from the press , in a way so publick , as that of two sheets sold about the streets , and with care conveyed to such persons , whose ill opinion might have a particular ill effect on me , i could not be so over-charitable as not to think that the writer or publisher of this , or both , were not acted by so charitable and candid a spirit as became men of their profession . i found these sheets first in a stationers shop , and some hours after , that i might not want the comfort of them , they were left at my house by the penny post : i wondred much to see a man that professeth a zeal for the christian religion , act so manifestly against some of the plainest precepts of it . for besides the railing and ill language in it , and the uncharitable inferences and judgements that are made to my prejudice , the manner of doing it is so directly contrary to our saviours rule of speaking to our brother first in private , and then in the presence of a few , before we proceed publickly against him ; that in charity to the animadverter or the publisher , i am bound to think that he made no reflection on that precept while he wrote or published these sheets . i speak of the writer and publisher as of two different persons , because he who is generally supposed to be the author , did very seriously protest to one of the right reverend fathers of the church , that whosoever was the author of those sheets ( which he did not directly acknowledge was himself ) he did not intend to publish them till i had first seen them , but that he had put them in the hands of another to have them communicated to me , who without his knowledge published them ; and he expressed over and over again some trouble by reason of their being printed in such a manner . this i take as it was told , without making any reflections on it . it cannot be denied , but his friend shewed an officious keenness in this matter , and it is hard to tell whether in publishing them without his leave , he shewed himself less his friend than mine , and it was a strange piece of forwardness to print such animadversions without the authors consent , especially he being here in town . i had indeed upon another great occasion , shewed how ready i was to receive corrections of such mistakes as i had made , and how willing i was not only to submit to so kind a censure , but publickly to own to the world both my own errours , and the obligations i lay under , to that friendly and learned person who discovered to me some faults in the first volume of my history of the reformation of this church . i confess the stile of these animadversions had nothing of the gentleness and good breeding which was in the other animadversions , and as much as the one exceeded the other in the matter , being really well founded , so much did it also in all respects shew the worthiness , the exactness , and the candour of the writer , which , i confess , do not appear so very evidently in this : and i must say , if it was intended i should have seen it first , and so have been gained by it to have retracted what was amiss , the stile was not well considered : for he that reproves and corrects as a brother , with design to gain ground on him to whom he offers such admonitions , ought to gild the pill , and do somewhat to temper the aversion that is too natural to all men for such discoveries . as soon as i went home , and had got among my books , i turned to the places for which i was accused , and quickly found there was no cause given for all those tragical complaints ; and that notwithstanding the discipline that was so liberally bestowed on me , there were only two places in which there was the least colour of advantage against me . the one was , that i cited a capitular of charles the great 's that was not full to the point , and forgot to refer to another that was much fuller . the other was , that i had taken zonaras's words too large , and that what he had said was neglected by the greater number of the bishops , i cited as if all the bishops had neglected it . these being the only two passages for which i could censure my self , i did take heart a little , and presently writ a particular answer to the animadversions , in which there was mixed such a sharpness of stile , that how much soever i had been provoked to it , yet i could not think it any way becoming my profession to publish it with so much acrimony , which i thought might be more easily forgiven in that paper , that was intended to be seen only by some few , and in particular by him that was supposed to be the author of them , for i was not unwilling that he might see what i could in reason and justice say in my own defence , and in answer to him , though upon other reasons i did not think it convenient to publish it to the world in that stile . in the beginning of his paper i am told that there are so many things that seem amiss in my book , that it would be extreamly tedious to set them all down , and that therefore some general hints , and a few instances are only pickt out . this , i confess , i look on as an artifice too common to work much on any person , and therefore i do believe the animadverter has done his worst : yet lest i should fall asleep upon this confidence , i am told in the end that if i do not speedily correct in a second impression what is amiss in the first , i may look for some rougher hand ; but what hand can be rougher that keeps the kings peace , and does not use a cudgel or a brick-bat , i do not imagine : for how i can be used more sharply in words , than when i am taxed with want of integrity and ingenuity , of falshood and sedition , and being an enemy to the government both in church and state , i cannot readily apprehend . but , i thank god , i have learnt to bear ill language and unjust dealing without making the ordinary returns . i will not pretend with the philosopher to say , if an ass kick , shall i kick again ; but , i hope , i may be allowed to learn of our saviour , who when he was reviled , reviled not again : and since he has commanded his disciples to pray for them that despitefully use them : i shall make no other return to all those reproaches , but to pray god to inspire both the animadverter and the publisher with a better temper , and to make them consider well when they bring their gift to the holy altar , whether before they offer or consecrate it , they ought not to do somewhat previous to it , for the satisfaction of one , whom , without any cause that i know of , they have treated not as a brother , but as an enemy . i once intended to publish no answer at all , but to rest satisfied with the vindication which i offered to a few of my friends , and to the sight of such as desired it , having laid my answer in a stationers shop , where any that were curious might find it . i was firmly resolved against saying any thing in print at all , for i thought in a time of common danger we had something else to be busied about than the engaging in personal matters , by which the enemies of the church might have the diversion of seeing us employ the press one against another , and i had some time ago freely , and of my self promised to some of my superiours , that if any thing in my book should draw forth an answer from any of the friends of the church , i should sit silent , and leave what i had written to stand or fall according to the strength that was in it . this i meant only of such a fair answer , as might have been expected from a scholar , or a divine , and therefore i did not conceive my self bound by it , when i was so openly , and violently traduced , yet i was so exact to what i had seemed to promise , that i would say nothing of this matter , till one of the right reverend fathers of the church told me it was necessary for me to free my self of those imputations ; and he undertook that my superiors should not be ill satisfied with it , if i wrote without reflection or sharpness of stile . upon this encouragement , i now publish my answer , and shall observe that caution so carefully , that i will rather give the reader cause to complain that i write flat , than sprinkle it with that salt , which is thought necessary to give some relish to this dull sort of writing . and if those that read what i wrote first , thought it too sharp , i am confident they will rather think this is too much in the other extream . i do not affect satyre , nor am i so much concerned in what censures may pass upon me , as to endeavour to redeem my self from them , by any methods which are not sutable to the gravity and gentleness that become my profession . i now come to the animadversions themselves . the first thing objected to me is , that the greatest part of the instances in the former and latter parts of my book are borrowed from de marca , and that i disguise them as if i had taken them from the originals : i do not deny that i read de marca very carefully , but he must needs know , if he has compared the quotations , that i have searched the originals themselves : and indeed i do not remember of any one quotation in that whole book , taken from second hand , which i do not cite as from that hand . for this he first cites page 27 , 28 , 29 , 30. compared to de marca , page 383. in all which there are but ten quotations , of which four are not mentiond by de marca , so that here are but six quotations that he can pretend are from him . he again cites page 205. 210. and refers me to de marca 439. and 442. page 205. there are four quotations , of which three are not cited by de marca , and for the fourth , if he will come to my closet he may see my mark on the book from which i vouch it . page 210. there are but two quotations , one is from balusius notes upon de marca , and the other is from goldastus , which though i have not by me , yet i compared it exactly , so this charge comes to nothing . his next charge is , that page 16. i had asserted with de marca , that there was no set quantity for the christians oblations ; but forgot to observe from him , that irenaeus said they exceeded the tenth part of their revenues . i assert no such thing from de marca , but from st. paul , that he set no rate on them : and it was not necessary that i should vouch irenaeus from de marca , when in that very page i cite his own words , that the christians did not give less than the iews , who gave tithes , but converted all they had to religious uses ; and i do not see how necessary it was for me to say that de marca had observed this . the second head of my accusation is of those passages , wherein i have mistaken the words or the sense : i shall not criticize about the mistaking of words , which may be miscited , but not mistaken . he tells me he could at least produce 40 examples of this , but in great tenderness for me , he gives 7 for the specimen ; so the other 33 are to be judged by these . the first is page 13. he accuses me for saying that mention is made of elections by the people in the second and sixth canons of the council of nice ; and affirms that mention is made of them in neither of those canons . i see no way of conviction , but to consider the canons themselves . in the second , mention is made of some things that were done against the ecclesiastical canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , through the urgency of men ; and they instance it in two particulars , the one is that they brought those who were newly converted from heathenisme to be baptized ; the other is , that as soon as they were baptized they used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to promote or bring , or advance to a bishoprick , or presbyterate . now though these words alone might perhaps be wrested to another sense , yet if we compare them with the history of that time , they can admit of no other sense ; especially if we compare them with the citations from nazianzen , page 32. and for the sixth canon that common suffrage of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which was to take place , notwithstanding the opposition of two or three , can only be understood of the election by the people : for that suffrage which the bishops gave , when they approved of it , and proceeded to ordain the elected person , was not determined by the majority : for the metropolitan had a negative . so that the election where the majority prevailed , must be only understood of the decree , that was made by the people . i did never deny that the bishops had a power to confirm or reject this election , but do expresly assert that they were judges of the fitness of the person chosen . page 18. he accuses me for citing cyprians words , epist. 66. wrong , and to make this pass the better he puts those words which i had set down as my own , in italica , to make it appear that i had set them down as a part of cyprians words , and had rendred quae nunc ratio & forma tenetur , instead thereof . if the scope of cyprians epistle is considered , it will appear to how little purpose these words are cited . st. cyprian is arguing against churchmens medling in secular affairs , and he brings the instance of the priests and levites among the iews , who were well provided for by tythes , that they might have no tentation lying on them , to entangle themselves with the cares of this world. which reason and form , says he , is observed in the clergy : the reason was that they being well provided for , might be freed from these distractions , and the form was their receiving their share out of the basket , as a tythe of the fruits of the earth . in the end of this paragraph , he accuses me for saying that origen affirmed that first-fruits were only to be payed under the gospel : and says that he mentions tythes as due under the gospel . by this it appears that either these animadversions were writ in hast , or that the writers thoughts went too quick , for all i said was that origen concluded that first-fruits only were to be brought to the priest. and it is certain that he does not speak one word of paying tythes to the priest ; but all along repeats that of the first-fruits : so that it does not appear that he thought it necessary to bring tythes to the priest. but i never said that he affirmed that first-fruits were only due under the gospel . there is a great difference between what was to be paid to the priest , and what christians ought to set off for charitable and pious uses . page 52. he accuses me for saying that charles the great subjected the church lands to the common services , such as building of bridges , &c. and i do not deny that the capitular there cited does not clearly prove it ; but it proves this , that those that were obliged to those services were to be required by such as the bishop and the count should name , and who these were appears by an ancienter capitular of pepins the younger an. 793. cap. 20. by which all persons were required according to ancient custom to repair churches , to make bridges and mend high-ways , and none were to pretend immunity : which is clearly a carrying on of honorius and theodosius his law cited from iustinians codex . here i confess at the first view he seems to have some advantage , but what it amounts to , i leave it to him self to judge . page 71. he quarrels with me for citing some formularies concerning the endowments of churches : and tells me those are the endowments of monasteries and not of parish churches ; but i did not name parish churches ; this was put in by him , otherwise he had lost his objection . i hope he does not deny that cathedrals are churches , though possest by monks . i cite but four of these , and of the first it does not appear what sort of church it was ; of the second it is clear it was the cathedral , where st. martins body lay ; and it mentions rectors as well as the abbot . the third and fourth that i cite , are general forms of endowment , for churches that had either abbots or rectors in them , and were to be filled up according to the constitution of the church , to which the endowment was made . page 116. what i had set down concerning abraham with a perhaps , and an it seems , he cites , as if i had positively asserted it , with this kind animadversion , that i wrest the scripture to undermine the clergy's maintenance . if to commend the princes that provided so i berally for the clergy , and to condemn as a great wickedness the taking away or detaining that which is so dedicated to holy uses , be an undermining of the maintenance of the clergy , i acknowledge my self guilty of it ; but if this imports the quite contrary , then he was too inconsiderate in his censure . nor will it serve his turn to say that some eastern kings did take tythes ; that being begun when the kings and priests were one person : for samuel that is the ancientest author cited for it , lived some ages after those two offices were divided : and st. paul heb. 7. ver . 2. after that he had said that abraham gave a tenth part of all to melchizedeck , adds , he being first by interpretation king of righteousness , and after that also king of salem ; and ver . 4. he says consider also how great this man was , unto whom even the patriarch abraham gave a tenth of the spoil . i leave it to any impartial man to consider if this will not justifie my exposition , guarded with a perhaps and an it seems . it is true st. paul argues afterwards upon the supposition of tythes being due to priests , but this was to the iews to whom he wrote : but if he had intended to bring the christian church under the like obligation , it is not very accountable why he did not say one word about it , this being so proper a place for it . page 143. he challenges me for saying that the 14. canon of the council of chalons obliged the bishops in their visitations to confirm , and not to prey upon their people , and tells me that the canon did only oblige , that when they did visit to confirm , they should not oppress their people : but the canon in general speaks cum episcopi parochias suas peragrant , & si quando peragrandae parochiae necessitas incumbit , and charges them that they should confirm , enquire what was to be amended , preach the word of god , and that they should use their industry rather in the gaining of souls , than in the robbing and spoiling of their subjects , and scandalizing of their brethren : now i am not quick sighted enough to divine what can be made out of this . page 192. he challenges me for citing zonaras , saying that there were no stewards in the east in his time , and alledges that he says that many bishops , and some abbots did not regard the canon that enjoyned the use of them . but he says that the greatest part did not observe it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in which it is true i enlarged the expression too generally , and put no for few , yet he contracts it as if it only signified many : but the whole matter is of no consequence . and now if the rest of the forty places be to be judged of by these as the sample , i shall not much apprehend the censures of learned and impartial men ; but if a man has before hand resolved to find fault , it will be no hard task to write severe strictures , on much better books than i can pretend mine to be . but now i come to the third head of this accusation , of my omissions of many passages which the animadverter thinks were as obvious to me as those i have cited ; and he judges that they were past over by me , lest they should look too favouorably on the clergies power or their right to the tythes . but he does not know if these were as obvious to me , as it seems they were to himself ; and he must know me better than he does yet , before he can judge what my intentions are . page 40. he quarrels with me for not citing a part of the 23. canon of antioch , and the 13. canon of the african code , which speak of the election of bishops . by the metropolitan and the other bishops of the province . but this was not at all necessary to be mentioned , for i had laid it down as a thing undisputed , over and over again , that the bishops had a power of judging , after the people had pitcht on the person ; nor was it ever imagined by any that i know of , that the bishops met meerly as tools for ordaining those that were nominated by the people ; though violence was sometimes used , for which see what i have said page 7 , 8 , 9 , 12 , 13. therefore having laid that down as an unquestionable truth , there was no need of accumulating more proofs : so there was no cause to charge this on me as a designed omission . page 72. he charges me for leaving out the clearest and firmest proofs for tythes , of the fathers of that age ; and yet as there are none more eminent than chrysostom , ierom and austin whom i cite ; so i do not remember to have fallen on any thing more express for them in doctor combers history of tythes . it is very strange that he does not observe a difference between the advising people to set off more than a tenth for charities , and a rule obliging them to pay in a tenth , as a rent due to the priest. and that this was never set up in the greek church , nor authorized by the roman law , seems some inducement at least to a man of no extraordinary sagacity , to believe that the divine right of tythes payable to priests , antecedently to humane laws , was not the doctrine of that age . page 119 he challenges me for not citing all the laws made by charles the great , for the payment of parochial tythes , and is not satisfied that i cite two . but my purpose was to shew it was setled by him ; and i do not see the great need of telling how oft this was repeated by him : and after that i had said that alfred had setled the payment of tythes in england , i do not see why he should object to me the not mentioning the latter laws that came afterwards : for either those were only confirmations of the former , and so they signifie nothing ; or all that could have been drawn from them was to represent the unwillingness of the people to submit to them , and who knows but he would have made this criminal in me . page 127. his next exception is that i say before caroloman and pepin , there had been no synods in france for 80 years , that is from 662. till 742. and this still holds good , notwithstanding the four he mentions ; for by synods it is plain , my meaning was assemblies for regulating the affairs of the church . some meetings indeed there were in that interval , which seem rather to have been assemblies of the estates or parliaments , than ecclesiastical meetings : for in some of them the priviledges of monasteries were confirmed , and in other bishops were condemned to be beheaded . but that which he cites from binnius at chalons is not in my edition , nor will i enter into dispute with him whether vtrecht belongs to france or germany . but for justifying what i said , boniface his letter to pope zachary is a sufficient authority , for ( cap. 2. ) he writes to him that the franrks , as ancient men then said , had had no synod for above eighty years . this serves to acquit me and hereafter he may deal with boniface as he pleases . page 129. he accuses me for passing over some words in a canon at akin which shew that charles the great believed that tythes were due by a divine right . but he cannot think i intended to disguise this matter , for page 113. where i first enter upon it , i do largely set out the churches pretending to a divine right for them ; and it was needless to repeat this at every time , though i do expresly speak of it again page 140. and 141. page 180. he accuses me for leaving out that provision made for the emperours power of annulling elections by the clergy and people , in the popes concession of the investiture to the emperour . but if this is not plainly enough insinuated in these words , that when a bishop was canonically elected by the clergy and people , he should not be consecrated till the ring and staff were given him by the emperour , i am to seek as to the true use and sense of words : for this clearly expresses that the emperour had a negative , and by consequence the power of annulling elections : and they are the very words of the popes concession . the fourth head is of the contradictions he finds me guilty of , of these he reckons up three , but with what success i now come to examine . page 52. and 169. i had affirmed that church lands in england before the conquest were subjected to the service called trinoda necessitas , for fortifying castles , building bridges , and a rate for an expedition , and yet from matthew paris i assert that they ▪ held their lands in frank almoin , and so were free from all secular service . he acknowledges i have cited right from matthew paris ; so all his quarrel must be for what i say of the trinoda necessitas . i my self have seen it in some original charters in the saxon time , which i am ready to shew him as soon as i certainly know his name . if there is a contradiction between these two things , i am not to be blamed for it , having good authority for all i affirm : and if there should fall to be a contradiction betwixt original charters , and matthew paris , who was a monk , and so ready to speak in favour of their priviledges , one would think it were not very difficult to determine the controversie . but if they can be both reconciled , then the contradiction and objection both are out of doors . they were exempted from all constant and personal services , and so were free from the bondage of the feudal tenure , yet upon great emergents they might be obliged to bear a share in the public burthens . the two other contradictions are a little odd . he tells that whereas page 117. i had made this distinction betwixt the levitical priesthood and church men under the gospel , that whereas the former had not the charge of souls , the latter had it ; and yet page 323. i say the distinction of with cure and without cure is ill grounded , and savours too much of the niceties of the canonists . now where to find out the contradiction here , is really above my skill ; i had asserted that church-men under the gospel have the care of souls ; and pursuant to this , i rejected the distinction of benefices with and without cure , ( the word benefice was left out , for it would have spoyled this imaginary contradiction . ) if the quarrel to me is , because i am displeased with those , that whatsoever be the nature of their benefice , are sure to make them sine cures , i must submit to his indignation , for i cannot easily change my mind in that particular . the next contradiction is no less strange , page 126. i blame bishops for turning souldiers ; and yet page 131. i relate how they were forced to go to the wars . now if it is impossible to force a man to do a thing unbecoming his profession ; here 's a contradiction with a witness : but he may as well call it a contradiction to blame men for apostatizing from the faith , and yet shewing how they were forced to it by persecution . having thus far examined the contradictions objected to me , i now come to consider another part of my charge that falls under the fifth head , of my odd and mistaken assertions , false reasonings , weak suggestions , which only shew ill will to the power and rights of the clergy ; and of this he gives ten instances . page 18. i tell that st. cyprian gathered 100000 sesterces for redeeming captives , and yet page 21. i seem to think it poetry in prudentius , when he mentions the christians offering thousands of sesterces : whereas i made no reflections on the quantity of the summ , but upon that acusation of the heathens , that the christians sold their lands , and brought in the prizes of them , and of this all i say , is that it 's hard to determine how much of poetry may be in it . page 65. he accuses me , that in imitation of mr. selden , i cite canons that were made to prevent abuses , and were frequently established upon one or two ill practices , to prove abuses crept into the church , which he calls a false and disingenuous way of arguing . this i had said when i began to treat of the canons of the council of chalcedon , and eight of these canons do expressly mention abuses crept in : now one would think that this might suffice to acquit me of falshood or disingenuity . the maxime is not more common than true , ex malis moribus oriuntur bonae leges , and few law-givers have the foresight to prevent abuses , though all that are good have the zeal to condemn them when they appear . page 72. he accuses me for saying that in st. chrysostome's time there was no rule set for the charities of christians , and says that my own instances prove they thought it a sin to give less than a tenth ; yet st. chrysostome expresly says he did not pretend to make a law in that matter : and there is one distinction that he seems resolved never to observe , between the setting a rate on what the christians were bound to pay into the church , and the directions that were given them for their charities . page 80. he condemns me for what i say against converting fines to secular uses , and says that since the money raised out of tythes may be applied to the maintenance of ones family , which is a secular use , why may not fines raised by leases be applied to the same purpose ? but it 's clear i was speaking of those fines that were raised to the prejudice of ones successors or of the church , so in this case i plead for the rights of the church . there is indeed no reason to blame the levying of fines , if the leases do last but ones own life ; but i cannot see why an incumbent should have a consideration for those years in which his successors may enjoy the benefice . page 113. he says i applaud the distinctions found out to diminish the payment of a full tenth part , whereas i neither applaud them nor condemn them , but barely relate matter of fact : he also accuses me for calling it the heaviest tax that any nation ever came under , as if i forgot that this is all that men give for the provision of ministers to look to their souls , which insinuates that he thinks it still too little ; and says , that i do not consider that the iewish nation was put under a double tythe by god himself . this last he knows i have considered , and shewed the difference between jews and christians : the former having their soil given them immediately by god , who might therefore lay what charge on it he pleased , which is not the case of christians . a tenth in a cold climate , upon a moderate computation , will rise to a fifth , if not to a fourth part of the revenue . now the people of this nation are estimated at six millions , and the clergy are about ten thousand ; the six hundredth part of the whole . it will be necessary therefore that the proofs be very clear , before it can be easily believed that the six hundredth part of a nation have by divine right , a title to a fourth or fifth part of its revenue . one would think that the taxes for the preservation of the state ought in reason to be much higher , the necessary expence of government being much greater ; and yet no nation in europe , unless it be france of late , has paid a half of the full tenth of the growth to the publick treasure . he also goes on confidently in one mistake , though i have taken some pains to rectifie it in my book , that the tythes are the priests portion alone , whereas i have fully proved that at first it was appointed that they should be divided between the clergy and the poor : i confess , i have great prejudices to any doctrine , which if true , puts a whole nation in a state of damnation , and brings them under so hainous a guilt as the sin of sacriledge must draw after it . he asserts the parochial right of tythes , and that he that blesses the people has a right to them ; and if this is true , then the king , and all the nobility and gentry that are impropriators , all the bishops , the cathedrals , hospitals and colledges who have impropriated tythes in their revenues , and all non-residents who farm out the blessing of their people to their curates , and yet raise the tythes , must be every one of them in a state of damnation . for the last of these i am not very sollicitous , but for the former , i will not easily drink in such a damning doctrine . page 117. he accuses me for gathering some odd pretences to give reason why tythes were easier to the iews than to us : he says , i urge the vast number of the priests , and one would think that the thirtieth part of a nation ( which was the lowest proportion of the tribe of levi ) had a right to a greater portion than the six hundredth part . he also says that i urge the fruitfulness of their land and the barrenness of ours , which , he adds , i drew from the quakers books , but i can assure him , if he will believe me , i never read one of them on this argument . i think it is no such mystery but that any man might have hit on it , that a fruitful land may pay a greater rate than a barren : but i have given no advantage to the quakers for their unjust robbery of church-men , or rather the robbing of god , in detaining that which the law provides for them ; which it might well do , tho there were no antecedent divine right making it necessary : and the law , which is the measure of property , having determined this , the denying to pay it is as much injustice , as robbing on the high-way : the sin of which is not one jot the less , tho no man can make out his title to his goods from a divine right . and the sin of this is so much the greater , as the robbing god must be greater than the robbing a private person . page 118 , he accuses me for affirming falsely concerning us and the iews , that the same rule was applied to all : tho i grant that the iews tithe was but a fifth part , and know that the christians was but a tenth . so here i lie against my conscience . i will not say this is a willful mistake in him , but i am sure it is a gross one ; for the all , to whom i say the same rule was applied , does not belong to jews and christians , but to the northern and barren climates , where the returns are not above ten , five , and in some not above three . and for the kindness of his censure , i leave it to his own conscience to consider , how far he is bound to ask god pardon for it . pag. 172. he condemns me for my criticism about the term bishoprick anno 1077 , and says , that i bring proof that it was earlier used : and yet all that proof is the title of a chapter , where it is once used ; and every body knows that titles we reset before books or chapters some ages after they were written . page 199. he accuses me for saying that kings might begin the seizure of the goods of deceased bishops , as representing the people , who before might make those seizures : and whereas the poor at first made them , he argues that the kings could not be supposed to represent the poor . but since i pretend only in this matter to proceed upon conjecture , any errour i may be guilty of , ought to be easily forgiven me : and i tell what might have fallen out in fact , and not what is to be defended in right . it is probable , as long as the bishops were poor , the poor only spoiled their goods ; but when they grew rich , it is like enough others might have mixed with the poor in these spoils , and that might have invited the officers of princes first to seize on them . page 320 , he accuses me for saying that there was nothing so dedicated under the new testament as was under the old , and cites that of ananias and saphira . but certainly great difference is to be made between a voluntary dedication , and a divine appointment , and between the laws of god , that cannot be repealed but by the same authority that first enacted them , and human laws , that are still subject to the supream legislative power . but his last instance makes amends for all the defects in the former . this nation has been under great apprehensions of popery : many expedients have been proposed , and the dangers have been much considered , and nothing has been more seriously examined by both king and parliament for some years , but none of them were so wise as to foresee one danger , with which he frights me : because i determined , that a popish prince may extend the regale to all churches in his dominions , and this he thinks an unseasonable assertion to publish here in england , as our case stands with respect to the next in succession . but if this be all the danger he apprehends , he may go to bed and sleep very securely , for the regale is already in the crownhere , and has been for some ages extended to all the churches in england . so the next prince can add nothing to what the crown is already vested with . the sixth head , for which i come under his discipline , is the many gross reflections on the clergy , both ancient and modern , which he thinks prodigiously strange , and especially in this age , and that the rather , that the ground of many of the accusations is false , and to bring this to instances he complains , that page 26 , i inveigh against the corruptions of the church in the beginning of the fourth century , and yet acknowledg that the better and sounder part did still prevail in publick synods : from which he inferrs , that if the major part was good , there was no ground for that invective : yet any that reads that passage will hardly find much of invective in it , and it 's far short of what might have been cited from nazianzen and chrysostom , whose credit he would be sure to magnify , if it made for him . the running backward and forward as they did , in the fundamental points of faith , will justify a far severer character than i give of them : and may not a church be corrupted , tho the majority continues sound ? nor can we judge of the majority of a church , by the majority of a synod , for all bishops did not come to every synod . and i may likewise add , that many will be guilty of ill practices , that have not the face to defend them , when they come to be examined . page 33 , he accuses me for calling constantius a superstitious weak man , upon the credit of marcellin a pagan writer . how judicious a writer he is , all learned men know : and that passage , i refer to , has been cited by many of the greatest men of this and the former age. nor was it quoted by me as a proof , but as an excellent saying . the law constantius made for churchmen , by which the driving of trade and merchandize among clergy-men was set on , and encouraged , was severely censur'd by st. ierome , one of the best men of that age , who saw the ill effects it had . but he says , i represent martel as a brave man , who robbed the church . do i say any thing in commendation of him for his vertues ? i only speak of his good conduct and great success in his wars ; and if this raises his spleen , i must conclude that he is very much subject to vapours . he , in the next place , accuses me for representing pulcheria as superstitious ; and cites two authors that say , she was a prudent and pious woman , but in this he shews no great judgment of church-historians . the first is zonaras , that lived almost seven ages after her time , so that he might have cited baronius , or the vvriters of this age , as well as one that lived so long after her . and for socrates , he does not bring his history down to her reign nor can i find a vvord of her in him ; tho in this i cannot be positive , having only cursorily run over his last book . if he had quoted book and chapter , i could have sought it out , but the naming the page , without he had also named the edition , helps me little : yet i do not deny that she was a very pious and prudent vvoman , nor do i call her superstitious ; but say that she was , even to superstition , set on raising the authority and greatness of the church : which is a far milder expression than that he fastens on me . page 54 he accuses me for thinking that the strength of our separatists lies in the ill lives of the clergy : but in what does he think their strength lies ? is it in their cause , or their arguments ? i am sure if i had said this , he would have charged it home upon me , and with reason . but after all i only say the chief advantages that the donatists then took , were from the corruptions of the clergy : and this he must either know to be true , or he is a great stranger to all st. austin's vvritings against them : and that discourse i conclude with this general expression : that in those prejudices , with which the vulgar are possest , from the disorders which they observe in the persons and conduct of church-men , lies the strength of all dividers from the publick constitutions : which i set down as a general maxime , without applying it to our separatists . page 59 , to shew his great exactness in chronology , he says , that before the fourth council at carthage the african churches had been lately oppressed by the vandals ; but baronius and the collectors of the councils , place this anno 398 , and the first mention of the vandals invading gaul is anno 406. nor did they invade africk till the year 427 , 28 years after this council . the other parts of this remark are not worth the answering . page 120 he says i boast of an odd discovery of the vveakness or disingenuity of the bishops , in making two contrary decrees in one day : but adds , that if we compare de marca with baluzius , both these make good sense in one law , and have no contradiction in them . baluzius speaks not a vvord of the canon , and only sets down the edict : nor does de marca offer to reconcile them , but only says that the bishops made the canon according to the ecclesiastical rules ; and that in the assembly of the states they would not strugle against the king's inclinations . but if the annulling of ordinations made by authority , without the regular way of election , which is in the canon , be not plainly contradicted by the proviso that is in the edict , for excepting from this rule those that were chosen out of the palace , i must learn again the use of the parts of speech . pag. 141 he accuses me of speaking , without any just ground , contemptibly of the divine right of tithes , and for calling arguments for it irksom stuff : and all this is , because i speak slightly of those who run it up to adam , and say that abel was a true tither , and cain a false one ; of this i shall say nothing , but refer it to every good judge . he also complains that i with satisfaction relate ( page 196 , and 200 ) that all was thought well gotten by princes , that could be got from the clergy ; tho i express no satisfaction at that , but on the contrary great regret at the scandals of church-men , which made princes and others lose that esteem that former ages had for them . page 166 he accuses me , that here and in many other places i industriously search for those canons , that may reflect most on the present bishops and clergy , and omit many that were more pertinent to the regale : when he discovers these omissions i shall be beholden to him , but till then , i must look on these as so many angry vvords ; nor are any of the bishops that i know concerned in those he refers to . but his displeasure against me rises higher in the seventh head , in which he represents me as a criminal against the state ; and the care that was taken to convey these animadversions by the penny-post to a great minister , who is known to have much goodness for me , shews well on what design this was writ . page 97 he says i enlarge the words of gregoras , but wisely adds , if his edition is right ; so he is safe till i know his edition : but let the reader take them in greek , and then see what can be objected to my translation : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . page 199 he accuses me for saying that princes do commonly assert a right for any thing which their ancestors have once practised ; and to this he answers that of late parliaments in england have done this oftner than kings . but what am i concerned in this ? i did not blame princes for building upon prescription , but was only historically shewing , that the practice of the regale was confest to be an abuse at first , but after a whiles continuance , it was claimed as a right . page 244 he shews first great unacquaintedness with french constitutions , in calling the court of parliament at paris the parliament of france : and when francis the first had delivered up the best part of the liberties of the french church to the pope ; he insinuates as if it were sedition in me to reflect on the arbitrariness of that king , and the ill effects of that temper : nor do i know what relation this has to late proceedings , except he will presume to fasten the imputations of arbitrariness upon his majesty . but as it was observed to be a mark of good times under the romans , when men might safely speak against the tyranny of former princes ; so his majestie 's mild and gracious inclinations are so well known , and his resolution to govern according to law hath been so often and so lately declared , that i am not at all afraid of incurring his displeasure by speaking against arbitrariness . page 250 , 251 he mentions a large encomium i give of stiff parliaments , which he says he needs not transcribe , nor tell what it aims at : nor need i tell what he aims at in this . but it seems he cannot tell what i aim at ; for he mistakes the thing , and does not rightly distinguish between their courts of parliament in france , which answer to our judges ; and their assembly of states , which answers to our parliaments . the ground of that contest was , whether they should deliver up their liberties to the see of rome ? and if he condemns me for commending the firmness of judges in this point , it 's plain enough what he aims at , and for a parting blow he concludes , that the whole discourse is so very partial for popular elections , and strains all places to make it seem they had more right than indeed they ever had , that it seems writ to court the favour of the people . but if he would temper his acrimony a little , he would see that i have overthrown the argument for popular elections much more effectually , than if i had entered into a long vvrangling about matter of fact. i shew that they began not upon any divine right , but upon the circumstances in which the church was during the first three centuries : and that as soon as the government became christian , the town-councils and possessors of lands took it out of the hands of the rabble ; which had not been observed by any that writ before me , that i could fall on : so that i think i have effectually overthrown any argument that can be drawn from the practices of that time. one thing i must observe that on which side soever i may seem to write , i must fall under his displeasure ; for when i assert a prince's prerogative of extending the regale to all the churches of his dominions , he tells me of the danger of a popish successour : and if i acknowledg matter of fact as to popular elections , he says i write for the people . i see i am irrecoverably lost with him ; but a man must bear his misfortunes with a patient and constant mind . the eighth head is of divers errours in chronology , which he is pleased to suppress : tho it appears by his inquiries into the history of the vandals that he has a peculiar talent in that . some men always love to be tossing great names , and therefore he is ever frighting me with the authority of dr. beveridg , whom , for his great learning and rare worth , i esteem as much as any man i know : and he , to his other excellent qualities , adds so generous and worthy a disposition of mind , that he is not at all offended with those , who cannot in every point agree with him . therefore as long as i use that liberty to which all that converse in books have a right , of following what i think best grounded , notwithstanding the learned performances of worthy and great men , i am not at all afraid of incurring his displeasure . his last exception falls on the compositors and correctors , and therefore i am little concerned in it . when he had thus performed this piece of discipline upon me , in which if i have escaped without any harm done me , i have somewhat else than him to thank for it ; he dresses up a new scene that he may fall on me again ; and as if all that had been said , were nothing , he begins anew . he leaves it to his friend to communicate it to me or not , when between them it was resolved to send it to the press . then he makes his conjectures about my temper , and says , perhaps i will despise it , and study revenge for this modest admonition . i confess i cannot admire it , but i heartily pity him for writing it , and do earnestly pray to god to inspire him and all church men with a better temper : and this is all the revenge i shall return on him . but sure he has a peculiar dictionary of english words for himself , when he calls this a modest admonition . yet , whatever he thinks of me , it 's very evident from what follows , that he thinks well of himself . but to drop some crumbs of comfort , as a little oil after a severe whipping , he saies he is loth to believe that i should directly design mischief to the church , and is willing enough to believe that this piece was writ in haste ; and then he tells me on what terms he may be confirmed in this favourable opinion : yet , lest this tenderness should make me too wanton , he adds , that if this modest admonition does not work on me , i must expect a rougher hand . but to this i gave my answer in the beginning of this paper . as for the books that he enjoyns me to read , if this is all the penance he will lay on me , i hope i may recover his favour . i have read and do much admire dr. beveridg his vindication of the apostolical canons , and am fully convinced by him , that there was an ecclesiastical rule or canon received in the church before these councils that met in the beginning of the fourth century . but if i am not yet persuaded that that was put in writing , and in the same form in which we now have it , and instead thereof think it consisted rather in a tradition , and constant practice , i hope that excellent person will be more favourable to me , than to think the worse of me for it . he next directs me to some authors that have writ of the right of tithes : but i wonder he did not name dr. comber his late celebrated book on that argument , for whose person and writings i believe he has a singular affection and esteem ; yet i can assure him that tho that book came into the world too late for instructing me before i writ concerning the regale , yet i have read it perhaps with as much care , and more impartiality than he used in reading mine ; and do look on it as a very learned work : and hope that worthy doctor will not make war with me , if i cannot be in all things of his mind . i think i have now said enough to satisfy all disinteressed persons , and even the animadvetrer or the publisher themselves , that there was no just cause given by any thing in my book , for such severe censures as he fastens on me ; and i hope he is freed from the apprehensions he seemed to be under , lest papists and others should take advantage from any faults in this book to weaken the credit of my other pieces : which honourable compellation is bestowed on some volums in folio , that have had the luck not to be ill-received in the world. but i hope the credit not only of those pieces , but even of my piece of the regale , shall not suffer much by the performance of this piece of his animadversions . so much i have thought fit to say in my own vindication . i hope all along i have not forgot the caution that was given me , of tempering my stile so , that nothing of resentment should appear in it : if any thing has escaped me , that savours of it , it has fallen from me unawares ; and i humbly beg pardon for it of the person concerned . finis . a sermon preached in the chappel of st. james's, before his highness the prince of orange, the 23d of december, 1688 by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 39 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30425 wing b5881 estc r22905 12622739 ocm 12622739 64569 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30425) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64569) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 709:11) a sermon preached in the chappel of st. james's, before his highness the prince of orange, the 23d of december, 1688 by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 33, [3] p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1689. half title: dr. bvrnet's sermon before the prince of orange. advertisement: p. [1]-[3] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -o.t. -psalms cxviii, 23 -sermons. sermons, english. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-11 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion licensed and entred according to order . a sermon preached in the chappel of st. james's , before his highness the prince of orange , the 23d of december , 1688. by gilbert burnett , d. d. chaplain to his highness . printed by his highness's special command . london ; printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . 1689. dr. bvrnet's sermon before the prince of orange . psalm cxviii . v. 23. it is the lord 's doing , and it is marvelvellous in our eyes . things do sometimes speak , and times call aloud ; and as all men are before-hand with me , in the choice of this text , at least in applying it to the present time , so that amasing concurrence of providences , which have conspired to hatch and bring forth , and perfect this extraordinary revolution , would lead one very naturally to use these words , even tho we had no such verse in scripture ; for we have before us a work , that seems to our selves a dream , and that will appear to posterity a fiction : a work about which providence has watched in so peculiar a manner , that a mind must be far gone into atheism , that can resist so full a conviction as this offers us in favour of that truth . and if a thread of happy steps of the one hand , and of mistaken ones on the other , can upon any occasion be made an argument , we have it here in its utmost force . it is the lord 's doing , not as the heavens and the earth , as the revolutions of day and night , and the whole chain of second causes are his work : the whole springs of nature are wound up by him , so that all things are in some sort his doing : he gives also a secret direction to all second causes to accomplish his eternal purposes . he knows all the foldings of our hearts , and the composition of our natures so well , that without putting us under a force , he can bring about whatsoever pleases him . he also on some great occasions does violence to nature , and puts her out of her channel in those extraordinary productions that are called miracles . but besides all these , there are times in which the great governour of heaven and earth will convince the world , that he is not an unconcerned spectator of human affairs : but because men are apt to be so partial to themselves , and to their own opinions , as to look on every favourable accident as a smile from heaven , and that sanguine people are as ready on the one hand to think themselves god's favourites , and the special objects of his care , as melancholy men on the other , in the sourness of thought that oppresses them , construe every thing that succeeds not according to their wishes , as the effect of some cross aspect on them ; it is necessary to find the true temper between flattering our selves too much , and the charging our selves too severely ; and to examine providence by such equal and just measures , that we may neither put too much on the common course of second causes , nor ascribe too much to such specialties as our partialities may incline us to imagine appear in our favours : for because we are always kind to our selves , we are very apt to believe that heaven is so too . but to come closer . 1. all signal and eminent things are by the common phrase of scripture ascribed to god ; and therefore every event that is great in its self , and may become yet much greater in its consequences , ought to be imputed to an immediated hand of heaven : some that have judged that a special direction of all things was too great a distraction to his divine being , and a trouble unworthy of it , have yet thought that its care extended to great matters . if then this may be laid down for a rule , we must conclude that this transaction now before us , is god●s doing , since the vast importance of it is so visible , that it may be perhaps lessened rather than aggravated , if one would attempt to set it forth . you all know what you both felt and feared : the over-turning this church , and the subverting of this government , must in consequence have brought on the ruine both of the protestant religion and the publick liberty all europe over . when all this is stopp'd , and a happy crisis appears , that gives us the fairest hopes not only of the securing our religion , together with our other temporal concerns , but of putting a check to the spirit of persecution , which has of late raged so furiously against our brethren in so many different places of europe , and that the persecutor of religion , and the ravisher of liberty , and the scourge of the age , after his having been so long a plague to all his neighbours , may probably be brought to feel a little of those miseries which he has laid on others ; so great a transaction as this , which is perhaps the fore-runner of a greater , may upon very just grounds be called the lord's doing , if every thing that is great is so . 2. those things in which god's honour is most particularly concerned , may be well reckoned his doing ; for if he has a providence that extends it self to all things , we have much more reason to conclude , that mankind has a more special title to it : and among men , that christians are under a particular distinction ; and of all christians , that those who have reduced christianity to its primitive purity and simplicity , are its chief care ; so that the reestablishing of that glorious work , which god in a series of many signal providences had set up in the last age , and which for the sins and the unreformed practices of those who pretended to it , was brought so low in this , may be justly ascribed to that sovereign wisdom that governs the church , which was purchased by the blood of the son of god. matters of controversy are not proper upon this occasion ; but without entring far into them , the common sense of mankind , and the general notices of truth that are impressed upon our minds , may serve to determine the greatest part of the differences between us and our persecutors . whether men ought to satisfy themselves in the points of religion , or ought to take them upon trust ? whether men ought to put the stress of their religion upon a real renovation of heart and life ? or , if it may do full as well , to hire and pay a priest for forgiving our sins in this life , or redeeming us from the punishment of them in the next ? whether we ought to believe our senses and reason in their proper objects , or not ? and not to run out too far , whether those eternal rules of justice and mercy , ought to be the measures of our actions , or if zeal for holy church , can warrant us to break our faith , and destroy our neighbours ? all these seem to be so plain , that one would think the decision should be soon made ; and indeed , if instead of that false shew of learning , and the many hard words with which these matters have been disguised and intangled , men would try them in a shorter and simpler method , truth would be sooner found out . in a word ; the truth of our religion appearing to us in so many conspicuous characters , especially after the noble and worthy endeavours of so many of the lights of this church , who have proposed all the points in dispute to the world with advantages beyond any thing that had appeared ever since the first beginnings of those contests . after all this , i say , we must conclude , that this is the lord 's doing ; since a work that is so dear to him , seems now to be again received into his protection , in so signal a manner , after he had seemed to hide himself from it . 3. those providences which seem immediately to work upon the minds of men , and to engage them into the designs of heaven , are in a more conspicuous manner the work of god. for the mind of man being a free agent , it is less accountable how vast multitudes should come all under the same impressions , unless god did by those secret and undiscernable methods of his wisdom , give them such directions . this psalm seems to be penned upon the making up of that breach that was between the house of david and the house of saul ; all israel following the latter , while only the tribe of judah adhered to the former , see 2 sam. 2. but all were afterwards united in owning of david , who was become the head stone of the corner , that joined those two great divisions in one . david had felt how little either princes or people , that is , those of the sanhedrim ; or to speak in an english phrase , the peers or commons of the jews , were to be depended upon : and therefore , vers . 9 , and 10. he says , it is better to trust in the lord , than to put confidence in man : it is better to trust in the lord , than to put confidence in princes , either numerous armies , or wise councils . the reign of saul , and the charms that were in jonathan , had , no doubt , given the family a great root . but the divine designation that was upon david , had broke through all that , and had turned the hearts of the whole nation as one man to him . david had seen a formidable opposition in his way , and he himself had passed through great and threatning dangers ; but the right hand of the lord had been of his side , and had done valiantly . and all the force that was brought against him , had vanished into nothing ; or as a fire of thorns , it had blazed and crackled a little , but was soon spent : and therefore as there was an universal rejoicing in the tabernacle of the righteous , so david went into the house . of god , this psalm being set as the hymn of his triumph : which was probably sung before him as he went into the tabernacle in mount zion ; for these words , open to me the gates of righteousness , i will go into them and praise the lord , together with the answer , this is the gate of the lord into which the righteous shall enter , seem to be set for his entring in at the gates : in a word , the centring of the whole people in him , was so particularly a work of providence , that in a most especial manner this was the lords doing . and therefore an extraordinary concurrence of all favourable accidents , and particularly , the disposing of all mens minds one way , has a character upon it , that must force us to say , this is the lords doing . i know how dangerous and deceitful an argument this form providence will ever seem to be ; and therefore i will touch it with that caution which is requisite . it is certain , that god for the punishing of nations , gives sometimes such a torrent of success to those who are the instruments of their correction , that this may be rather a mark of his displeasure against those who are to be brought low , than of his favouring those who are lifted up . there are also such mysteries in the whole conduct of the world , that though our partiality makes us apt to magnifie all that we like , yet if we carry it too far , we will be in danger to be often out of countenance , when the same argument turns against us ; therefore before we can make any comments on so doubtful a text , we must be first sure that the ground-work is well laid , and that both the cause it self , and the means used to advance it , are good . but when we are got over that , and are satisfied both in the one and the other , then we can hardly forbear to look on a chain of unlookt for and unaccountable providences , without a most sensible joy. i will not build too much on the characters that have appeared in the insensible part of the creation , i mean the winds and weather , for one does not know how far those have been the effects of the natural series of things , yet one cross wind which seemed design'd only to make us apprehend the hand of heaven , without suffering much by it , and without losing above one man in it ; and another strong and prosperons gale , which both preserved us from those who were appointed to wait for us , and brought us so near our port , but changed immediately for another to fetch us into it ; and which having executed its commission , was immediately in another corner , and the softness of the weather , in a season so far advanc'd , are things so remarkable , that we are extream insensible if they make not deep impressions on us . but , as i said before , the application of providence in the turning and bending the minds of men , is yet a most immediate work of heaven . the precipitation and folly of our persecutors in opening their ill designs so early , the impudent breach of faith , and the unrelenting cruelty that they had put in practice in the neighbouring kingdom , sent us over many thousands of witnesses , to awaken us , and to let us see what we ought to look for whensoever that bloody religion should come to prevail among us ; and of what account all promises and laws were to be , whensoever they could break through them . this coming so critically , in the very time in which the repeal of laws was to be asked in their favours , was a more sensible argument against it , than all the specious ones could ever be that were brought for it ; and so much evidence was necessary , otherwise the good nature of some , and the weakness and corruption of others , had perhaps put us to a more melancholy and troublesom after game ; but such an apparent breach of faith , and so furious a persecution as they had raised beyond sea , were arguments that every man could comprehend and manage , and out of which it was not possible to beat them . i need not enlarge on all that chain of errors and violences that have followed , since the first broaching of the design ; they were too many to be all repeated , and too visible and well known to need that it should be done . nor would i willingly say any thing that might look either like insulting or reproaching , god has seemed to have given them up to such a spirit of delusion , as if the curse of those who worship graven images , had fallen on them ; like unto them are all they that worship them : and in conclusion god put such a cup of trembling and astonishment in their hands , , that he seemed to have taken away the heart of the counsellors , and that according to another of davids expressions , none of the men of might have found their ands ; in short , the methods that god has suffered them to take for the alarming and awakning the whole nation , for the uniting of all that were so unhappily broken asunder before , and for ingaging all to center in what is now brought about , is an eminent character of a hand of god in the whole matter : why went they so fast and so barefac'd ? why grasp'd they at so much all at once ? why was the hook so ill covered when the bait was thrown out ? why was it that few were either so weak or so corrupt , but they have been so successful that they at last have set them right ? in a word , all this blasting of counsels , and defeating of their designs by their own means , was of god , and must be owned to be his doing . the errors also of the great supporter of persecution , his quarrels with the head of that mystical babylon , and his diverting his force to a new war , an unjust one , to be sure , since begun by him ; the concurrence of so many great princes , and above all , that happy union that was in those blessed provinces , that tho' compos'd of so many different bodies , seem'd to have but one head and one heart upon this occasion , are all conspicuous characters . the constitution and the interests of the states do always biass them against war , or every thing that may interrupt their trade ; and the dangers which appeared from a war in their frontier , seemed at least to engage them to secure themselves rather by a strengthning than a diminishing of their force ; and yet the universal and chearful concurrence of all among them , from the highest to the lowest , both those that were in the government , and those that were without doors , by which they put their whole strength to this design , and put all to hazard to carry it on , sparing neither their fleets , their armies , nor their treasure ; all this , i say , made every one conclude , that this was the finger of god. the concurrence of all in this nation , and especially of that great body from which the chief opposition was expected , was no less signal . their numbers , and that courage which is so natural to this noble nation , and many other considerations , concurred to give just apprehensions of a bloody scene . but how strangely did all this vanish ? and how have our hopes and even our wishes been so far prevented , that we are scarce yet recovered out of that surprize of wonder into which this threw us ? when all this is laid together , we are tempted not only to cry out , that this is the lord●s doing , but that it is such a doing of his as is beyond any thing that is in all the records of past times ; and is a scene all of wonders , but wonders of love and mercy . 4. when revolutions happen , that carry so many characters of the attributes of god on them , that we see both power , wisdom , and goodness in every step of them , then we are yet more particularly bound to adore the hand of god in them . the progress that mihomet and his followers made , which is indeed one of the most amazing things in history , carried evident marks of the power and justice of god , in suffering that scourge of the eastern christians to bring them under his cruel yoke . the progress of the roman state had in it characters both of the power and wisdom of god , in disposing the world for the christian religion , by bringing it under one empire , and such a civilized government as was a due preparation for so holy and so perfect a religion . but here we have both power , wisdom , and goodness , all concurring to set forth the glory of the author of it . so great an undertaking , and the several branches of it , all meeting so happily together , and favoured with so many prosperous accidents , shew how the power of god concurred in it . the depth , the secrecy , the prudent management and execution of it , shew the wisdom of god ; but above all , the sudden and unbloody issue to which it was so unexpectedly brought , is a character of god's goodness to us , which can never be sufficiently acknowledged : if either a slow lingering had made us languish , or a bloody decision had been the price of the victory , we should have had reason to confess , that our sins had rendred us unworthy of so great a mercy as we have now before us : but with how much admiration must we look on and see our selves prevented with so early a deliverance ? and that our deliverer , as he came detesting the imputation of conquest that was cast on him , so he was received in a way suitable to his own good intentions . and thus upon all these reasons , as we see in general what are the characters from which we may conclude what things may be called the lord's doing , so we see in particular how fitly they all belong to that which is the subject of our wonder at present . for this is marvellous in our eyes . we talk of it , both to our selves , and to one another in this style : who can cease wondring , especially those who have seen how the springs of this affair have moved all along ? we wonder at the deliverance it self , and we ought to wonder much more how such a guilty nation as this is , should have been delivered in so harmless a manner . we see what a storm has gone over , and broke out upon many of the foreign churches . a persecution that is in all its circumstances far beyond the blackest of any that are in history . if our church has advantages in her constitution , that make her the just pride and glory of the whole protestant side ; we have still so much the more to answer for , if we have not walked worthy of those blessings , that light , and those advantages with which god had honoured us . and why is it then that god has only shaken the rod over us , but has not suffered it to hurt us ? our enemies had rage enough to design it , and they had an abused authority so entirely in their hands , that they seemed to have got the government under as implicit obedience , as they have got over the faith of their votaries . how comes it then that god did not suffer this to go farther , that he did not punish our sins , and in particular and sharpness with which we had treated one another , by delivering us up to those whose tender mercies are cruel ? all this is marvellous , but whether it is so in our eyes or not , i do not know : that is , whether we make those reflections on it , which such miracles of mercy call for from us ; or if we let it pass by us without any other reflection but that of talking about it , as we do concerning all other revolutions . in a word , as this is the lord 's doing , and marvellous in it self , so it ought to be so in our eyes ; for it is certainly so in the eyes of all the world besides . we ought to make such pauses in thinking on it , as may lead us up to adore and admire the great author of it , in this his doing . 1 st , we ought in a most profound prostration , to magnify the goodness of god to us in it : to him belongs the glory of it , for his hand has wrought this salvation for us . some may mention their chariots , and some their horses , but we ought only to mention the name of the lord our god. it will not at all derogate from the honour of our great deliverer , to consider him as the instrument , whom god has so highly exalted , in bringing about so great a work by his means , and so to direct our homage and adoration to the original of this and all our other blessings . and god has imployed an instrument in●it , who desires that the acknowledgments may be wholly made to that eternal purpose , that brings about all its designs in so sovereign a manner . this is indeed in all its parts above the skill and wisdom of man : and therefore let us offer up the whole honour of it to god : and when that is done , this will lead us best of all to pay all the due returns of gratitude and esteem to him whom god has now blessed for the second time with the greatest honour that can fall on a mortal man , that he seems born to be the great blessing of the age. his first appearance in the world carried with it a deliverance to those happy provinces ; for happy they were , from the time that they came under his protection . we that saw their peace and plenty , and the order and justice that reign'd among them , and the sense that they have of that conduct that procures it , saw an earnest of those blessings that seem to be before us . and indeed the passion that they all expressed at his leaving them , was to us the truest indication of the joy and confidence with which we ought to receive him here , and of the hopes that we may promise our selves under so glorious a protection . let us therefore ponder all these providences of god so as to admire them , not only in a lazy and silent wonder , but in those true acts of praise and adoration , by which our souls , and all that is within us , may be stirred up to bless the lord , and not to forget any one of all those benefits which he has bestowed on us , upon this occasion , in which he has redeemed our life from destruction , and crowned us with his loving-kindness and tender mercies . 2 dly , if this work of god does possess us with that veneration which is due to it , we ought not to stop the course of it , till it has had its full effect ; nor to daub matters by slight and palliating remedies . we see now before us the most glorious beginning of a noble change of the whole face of affairs , both with relation to religion , and the peace of europe , that we could have wisht for . it is so far beyond our hopes , that we durst scarce let our wishes go so far : we may , if we are not wanting to our selves , and to the conjuncture before us , hope to see that which may be according to the prophetick style , termed a new heavens , and a new earth . but if a spirit of jealousy and murmuring , of impatience and faction , and of returning back to that out of which god has so signally extricated us , grows up ; so that instead of reaping the fruits that we have now in prospect , we have not souls big enough , nor hearts good enough , to carry this on to perfection , then we may justly fear our being delivered up to all those evils from which we will not be healed . but if on the other hand we raise our minds above every narrowness of thought , and all partial regards , and consider matters with such a naked impartiality as becomes christians , protestants and englishmen , and provide such remedies as are requisite , then we may hope to see this blessed morning to grow up to a perfect day . in a word , life and death are before us , and blessing and cursing . those who chuse life , and every thing that leads to it , secure a blessing to themselves , and entail it on their posterity : but if we chuse death rather than life , there is no help for it : such persons secure a curse to themselves , and do what in them lies to entail it on their posterity ; and there is scarce any indication more certain of the sins of a nation being grown up to that height , that it must be destroyed , than the miscarriage of so great a deliverance as god has wrought for us , which will be an eternal blot on the wisdom of the nation ; since , in that case the figure of our saviour must be justly applied to us , we have piped to you , but you have not danced ; or these other words of his , o jerusalem , jerusalem , how often would i have gathered thee under my wings , as the hen gathereth her brood , but thou wouldest not : or that of the prophet , that while children were in the womb , there was not strength to bring forth . 3 dly , but if we will carry on , and perfect this marvellous work of god , we must study to be such , that god may not repent him of the good which he seems to have prepared for us . while we are under such a happy influence of heaven , we must not raise up such an interposition between it and us , as may not only make us lose this happy opportunity , but turn it to a curse by the ill use we may make of it . we have not forgot the criminal excesses of the year sixty , and how that great revolution that seemed to promise all that a nation that had been so long tossed with wars and changes of government , could wish for , was so unsuccessful ; but instead of the nations receiving that with those acknowledgments that were due for such a blessing , how did all people , as it were , conspire to defeat the ends of providence in it ? the excesses of rioting and drunkenness , and the disorders of all sorts , grew not only to be practiced , but gloried in , as if those abominations had been the proper distinctions of a loyal man ; a virtuous man looked out of countenance , if he could not go in to the madness of the time ; and because the high professions of religion in the former times , had been a disguise to many ill designs , men not only laid aside all the decencies of religion , but began to think it a piece of breeding to decry it as an imposture . this went so far , that perhaps in no nation , under heaven , did men treat the religion which they professed , so familiary as we did ; and those who were not concerned any further in religion than as it might advance their ungodly designs , were willing to encourage this spirit of atheism , hoping that it would make way for a religion which in some respects is worse than no religion at all ; for tho , with relation to particular men , there is no comparison indeed to be made between popery and atheism ; yet , with relation to humane society , a religion that dissolves faith and good nature , and gives authority both to persidy and cruelty , is worse than none at all . as we reflect upon these abominations , and on the fatal consequences of them , which have been on us so long ; so in order to the preventing the return of the like evils , we must avoid the relapsing into the like sins . it is neither the union nor wisdom of councils , nor the strength of fleets or armies , that will secure us from the judgments of god , which we may expect will fall upon us with an extraordinary redoubling , according to the prophetick phrase of seven times heavier than any thing that we have yet seen or known ; if those that are filthy , will be filthy still : if the atheist will think that his standing up for the prorestant religion , is a warrant to him to laugh at all that is sacred ; in a word , if men think that their fears are over ; and that , therefore they may give themselves up to work wickedness without restraint ; then we may justly expect a return of the like , if not of greater miseries . we despised our religion , and god has threatned to take it from us ; yet it seems the prayers of the few have prevailed over the cry of the sins of the many . but we have no reason to expect that it should be always so ▪ we are certainly the happiest nation in the world , if we can but know and value it as we ought to do . our climate , though none of the best , yet is kind and fruitful : and if the sun is less favourable to us ; yet our situation as it separates us from all the world , so it lets the wealth of the whole world in upon us , and keeps danger and war at a distance from us : we have all the liberties of freemen tempered with a firm and steady government . but which is above all , we are blest with that holy religion which the son of god revealed to the world , and we are reformed from those corruptions which had defiled it , and that in so equal a manner , that we are the chief object of the roman fury , as well as the just glory of the reformation : we have had the truths of religion both in the points of speculation and practice opened to us with such advantages , that if we stumble or lose our way in the midst of so much light , we have more to answer for than any nation under heaven : and to crown all , god has put us so far into the hands of our enemies , as to let us clearly see what we were to expect from them . they had devoured us in their hopes , and seemed to be as haman's friends casting lots , and watching a fit opportunity to destroy us , when of a sudden the snare was broken , and we have escaped out of it . i hope none of those that were here will soon or easily forget how near they were to be swallowed up : and if they had then grave thoughts and serious purposes , i hope this change in their fortunes will not make them dismiss , or forget them . and for us that saw god's wonders in the deep , and that after we had past an eminent danger , languished so many daies in the harbour between hope and despair , upon which we seemed to put on firm resolutions , and make solemn vows of amendment , can we be guilty of so hainous an ingratitude and breach of faith , as to forget the engagements , into which we then entred , of a serious and universal reformation ? 4. but while we let our thoughts out to wonder at the wisdom and goodness of god , let the admiration of these produce somewhat like them in our selves : we ought to grow wise ; for our experience has cost us dear , and had almost proved a very dreadful school to us : we now see the folly of trusting to that religion , and of imagining that any weight was to be laid on all the promises that could be made us by them . it is not to be doubted but that many were so little acquainted with the depths of satan that are in that black society , as to believe it was possible for them to maintain truth , honour and good nature , notwithstanding the points of speculation that are in their schools : we resolved to make the experiment , and they have taken such pains to let us see our mistake , that it is to be hoped we will never at any time hereafter relapse into the like error . the goodness of god , that appears now in such endearing characters to us , ought likewise to form the like temper in us . our minds have been too much embittered on all hands , by reason of some inconsiderable differences which our enemies have always managed , with so much address , as to engage us to weaken our common force , by dividing our selves into parties : and by a fatal series of woful accidents , these sparks have been blown up into such a flame , that they had almost quite consumed us . but it is to be hoped that we will study to be all of one mind ; or , if we cannot arrive at so great a blessing , that at least we will love one another , and remember that we are brethren , fellow christians and fellow protestants , that must have been destroyed together , and therefore must now support and bear with one another . but as i doubt not but the happy disposition of all peoples minds will now produce a desired temper in those matters ; so we must not bound our charity within so narrow a compass : no , we are christians , and therefore we must not only love our brethren , but even our enemies and our persecutors , and so overcome their evil with good . for how hard thoughts soever we may justly have of the spirit and councils that govern that church ; yet many among them in the simplicity of their heart , and according to the impliciteness of their principles follow those opinions that have been dropt into them from their childhood ; they have not strength of thought to look narrowly into them , nor do their rules allow them in so bold a thing as to examine whether they are in the right or not : and though it is hard to imagine how any should go over to them ; yet it is easie to imagine how those who are among them should be shut up blindfold and muffled up with the awful bonds of authority and infallibility . and for such , though we are under the highest provocations that any nation can have ; yet after all , let us still remember that we are christians , and that as we have declared openly against the injustice and cruelty of our enemies , we govern our selves by the rule of doing as we would be done by . it is a presage of moderation in our whole proceedings , that even the less governable part of the nation , i mean the unruly multitude , has been so happily restrained from extravagant act of fury : for without justifying what they have done , we may well rejoyce for what they have not done , and that bloody and outragious sacrifices have not been made . it is the peculiar character and glory of this nation , that tenderness and compassion are so natural to it , that the unfortunate are always pitied by them . and if tumultuous numbers have observed so much temper in their wrath , how much more is to be expected from councils that are to be governed by justice and mercy , and under the directions of a prince who has shewed that his hatred of persecution in others , was not only because his own side suffered in it ; but from a steady and uniform principle which has made him not only just to those of that religion , but even kind too , whensoever they deserved it . we , indeed , ought to study the firm securing of our religion , even from the remotest possibilities of hurt that can come to it from that restless and violent spirit which has hitherto created us so much trouble ; this we owe to almighty god , to this glorious church , to our selves and to our posterity : but in doing this we must so govern our selves , as not to suffer our blood to boil too high , nor our thoughts to run too fast ; and while we consider what we may perhaps owe our enemies , we ought to take care not to forget what we owe our selves , that so we may look to the honour , as well as the security of our holy religion . in a word , let us resolve to be christians indeed , and to act as men that have those undefiled rules , and that bright example , which our saviour has given us , ever in our eyes , and then it is impossible for us to miscarry . but if revenge and animosity prevail over the softer and wiser councils , that reason and religion may suggest , and if in all that we do , we take not care to have god ever on our sides , it will be easie for him to blast all councils , and to defeat even the greatest and best-laid designs . we have now before our eyes , one of the signallest instances that is in any history , of the instability of all human things : on which one cannot reflect without making a full stop in his thoughts . but the subject is so speaking , that it needs not be insisted on , and there are particular circumstances in it that forbid it : but if it is not decent to speak much of it , yet i hope none are so insensible as not to think much of it . perhaps some may imagine that we are safe , because we cannot be dashed on the same rock about which we see so great a shipwrack ; but , alas , if we provoke god to hide his face , and to withdraw his protection from us , his ways are past finding out , he can bring ruine and destruction on us from that hand from which we perhaps apprehend it the least : if prosperity and success blow any up , and make them forget god and all the vows that they made to him , he will never want means and methods to make them return to themselves , and to remember him . upon the whole matter then , since god has wrought so extraordinary a deliverance for us , let us adore him , who is the true author of it ; and under him let us pay all the returns possible of respect and gratitude to that blessed instrument on whom he has laid so much glory . let us improve it to the highest and noblest ends that can be thought on ; let us live under it as becomes those who take care to do nothing that may render them unworthy of the continuance of it : and let us all , in our several stations , study to behave our selves so , that the glory as well as the safety of the nation , and the lustre as well as the establishment of our religion , may be raised up to that pitch , that the name of an englishman and a protestant may have a sound all the world over , that may give terror as well as create esteem ; and that this work , which is now brought to so great a forwardness , may in due time attain to its full perfection ; and that then we may all have reason to break forth in the triumphant words with which this psalm begins ; o give thanks unto the lord , for he is good , because his mercy endureth for ever . let israel now say , that his mercy endureth for ever . let the house of aaron now say , that his mercy endureth for ever : and let them that fear the lord say , that his mercy endureth for ever . finis a relation of the death of the primitive persecutors written originally in latin by l.c.f. lactantius ; englished by gilbert burnet, d.d., to which he hath made a large preface concerning persecution. de mortibus persecutorum. english lactantius, ca. 240-ca. 320. 1687 approx. 185 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 84 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a48024 wing l142 estc r234919 12425431 ocm 12425431 61829 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a48024) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 61829) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 944:14) a relation of the death of the primitive persecutors written originally in latin by l.c.f. lactantius ; englished by gilbert burnet, d.d., to which he hath made a large preface concerning persecution. de mortibus persecutorum. english lactantius, ca. 240-ca. 320. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 167 p. printed for j.s., amsterdam : 1687. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. errata: p. 167. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng persecution. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 tonya howe sampled and proofread 2003-12 tonya howe text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a relation of the death of the primitive persecutors . written originally in latin by l. c. f. lactantius . englished by gilbert burnet , d. d. to which he hath made a large preface concerning persecution . amsterdam , printed for j. s. 1687. the translators preface . among all the discoveries that have been made in this age , of the books that had been esteemed lost , there is none , since that of the epistle of st. clemens , that has been received with more joy than this of lactantius's book of the death of the persecutors , for which the world is beholding to the happy industry of the most learned baluzius , who having found this treasure , not only communicated it to the world , but enriched it with his learned notes : by which he has added a new essay , to the many that have already appeared , of his great sincerity , his profound learning , and of his solid judgment : it has been since that time reprinted at oxford , with shorter notes ; in which there are many happy conjectures , made both for supplying some of the words that were worn out of the manuscript copy , and for correcting some passages , which the copyer perhaps writ wrong , and it is upon that edition that this translation is made . the importance of this book will be easily apprehended , by those who consider that lactantius was the politest writer of his time , in whom one finds somewhat very like augustus's age revived ; he had also particular opportunities of being well informed of his subject , by the post to which he was advanced in constantine's court , of being his son's tutor . it is true , his eloquence carries him often into strains that become an orator , better than a historian : for he has a heat of stile , that ought not to be imitated by one that would write history . but he seems to have designed this book to be a mixed sort of writing , between a discourse and a history ; so that the figures that agree not to the one , may be allowed to the other . the account that he gives of saint peter's coming to rome , cuts off the fable of his being there for five and twenty years : but if what he sayes of things at so great a distance from his own time , is not thought so authentical , and if his authority seems not strong enough to cut off all those persecutions that are said to have risen between domitians reign and decius's , since he represents all that interval as a time of a long peace to the christians ; yet we must at least suppose him , to have been much better informed of that which ▪ fell out during the last persecution ; so that the beginning ▪ which h●… assigns to it cuts off all those legends of martyrs , that ( as is pretended ) suffered before that year , and as we cannot doubt of the time in which he tells us the persecution began , so no more ought we to call in question the limits that he sets to it ; and therefore since he tells us , that constance ordered only , that the churches in which the christians held their assemblies , should be pulled down , and that he would not carry the persecution further against the christians themselves ; and since he excepts the gaules out of those provinces that felt the fury of those edicts , we see what a number of legends there are to be cut off . for the truth is , that very soon after this persecution was over , some that loved either to make ( or at least to report ) very tragical stories concerning it , seemed to give no bounds to their invention upon a subject that was fruitful enough of it self , and so needed not to have been swelled up by such additions . the destruction of the records that the christians kept , which were so carefully searched after during this persecution , gave some colour for those pretended discoveries ; for it served turn to give them credit , to say , that such relations had been preserved from the searches of those inquisitors , and so that they were by accident found out in some corner , where very probably those that forged them , both laid them and found them : and the matter would no doubt have been received with more credit , if some dream or vision had been pretended , as that which had made the discovery . of all those legends none is more copious , nor less credible than that of the thebean legion , and that upon many accounts ; but as the silence , not only of eusebius and sulpitius severus , but of all the other writers of the fourth century , gave a just prejudice against a story that begun not to appear till the middle of the fifth century ; so the positive testimony of lactantius , who excepts the gaules from the persecution , puts an end to the fable . for tho he shews so great a disposition to speak well of constance , that this may seem to lessen the authority of one , who to make his court with the son , would naturally raise the father's character ; yet so remarkable a transaction as that was , could not have been supprest with any sort of decency , by one that must have certainly heard of it if it was true . the false appearance of a greatness of mind , that was inferred from diocletian's resigning the empire , is also taken off by this relations ; since it is plain , that both diocletian's brain was turned , and that he was forced to it ; so that his resignation was not the effect of his philosophy , but of the unnatural ambition of his son in law maximian . the subject of this discourse , and the application to which a translation of it tyed me , together with the present seene of affairs , led my mind very naturally into more general thoughts . ●… the characters of those ancient persecutors , such as these , that they had delivered themselves up to all the brutalities of sensual pleasure , that they had ruined their subjects by severe impositions for maintaining vast armies , that they had in their wars , shewed more care than was decent in preserving themselves out of all danger , that they were weak to the most excessive flatteries , the profuseness of their expence in the raising of costly buildings , their great success in a course of many years , their superstitious and fearful tempers , and to crown all , the cruelty that they practised in the persecution , to which they were uneasily drawn , and in which they begun at first with requiring all to abjure , besides many other particulars ; all these , i say , insensibly carry ones thoughts to make parallels between some modern persecutors , and those that are here set forth : but if the respect due to their sublime character , makes one drive away those less decent sallies of his mind , to which he is carried before he is aware , yet the importance of this matter leads to speculations that are more general , and by consequence less offensive . and since the melancholy state of things at present carried me in those intervals in which i discontinued the dry work of translating , to consider the grounds on which those cruel and persecuting doctrines and practices are founded , together with the motives from which they rise , the characters that accompany them , and the effects that follow them ; i thought i might be forgiven a little , if i took the liberty to swell up the bulk of this small book with a preface of some length ; in which my design is not only to expose this ill natured principle , and to shew , that where-ever it is authorised , it is a more infallible mark of an antichristian church , than all the other characters are of an infallible church , to which those pretend , that have died themselves so red in the blood of others ; but likewise to form in the minds of those who hate persecution , perhaps only because they either feel it , or are affraid of it , such a notion of this matter , as may preserve them from falling into the same excesses if a revolution in the state of affairs should put it in their power , to use others as hardly as they have been used by them . it has been often observed , that tho a plea for moderation is the sanctuary of all the unfortunate , yet their fortunes came no sooner to be changed , but that they insensibly got into that principle which was so much decried by themselves , when their affairs were in an ill condition : as if the only quarrel that they had to persecution , was because they had not the managing of it themselves . i will treat this subject with all the closeness that the matter deserves , or that i am capable of ; and will avoid the serving up what i am to propose with the garnishings of the fine sayings of others : for as that would carry me too far , so a good reason is so much a better thing , than a round period , or a laboured sentence , that the mind finds it self satisfied with the one , whereas the fancy is only pleased with the other . all persecution rises out of an impatience of spirit , which makes a man less able to bear contradiction . there is a tyranny in most mens nature , which makes them desire to subdue all others by the strength of their understandings : and such men have an implacable hatred to all that do not render themselves to their reasons ; and think that they are affronted when other men refuse to submit to them : so that he who would strike at persecution in its root , must begin here , and endeavour to soften men , especially towards those who differ from them in matters of religion . this imperious temper , when it works upon subjects of religion , finds somewhat to raise its spleen , that was of it self impetuous enough before : and that which is called fury and rage , when it is imployed in other disputes , comes to be called zeal when it is turned towards the theories that relate to another world. but when we consider what a sublime thing divine truth is , and what a poor low thing the mind of man is , we shall see cause to blunt a little the edge of our spirits , if they are too sharp in such matters . man is much governed by fancy , and fancy follows the texture of the animal spirits , which renders many more capable of apprehending objects that are some way proportioned to them , and more disposed to follow them ; so that temper prepares men for some opinions and prepossesses them against others . with th●… reater part of mankind , education is so powerful , that they are scarce able ever to overcome it ; and if education and temper have hit together , it will require a very extraordinary elevation to rescue a man from their force . men likewise receive with their impressions of religion such a respect for them , as makes them look on every thought that calls them in question as criminal : and when persons are bred up to disquiet themselves with scruples , if they have so much as made a doubt of their religion , it is not hard to see them adhere so firmly to the principles of their education , which stick so fast to the worst sort of men , that even atheists themselves after all the pains they take to get rid of them , cannot shake them off so entirely , but that they will be apt to return oft upon them . men that think much , and that reason well , that are freed from the biass that interest , honour , kindred , and custom , do give them , and that have leisure to examine matters carefully , may indeed get above all these : yet there are so few that can do this , and there are yet so much fewer that will do it ; that it is rather a wonder to see so many change their perswasions , than to see so few do it . and indeed it is so sublime a theory to think on god , and his attributes and works , or to think of another state , and of the way that leads to it , that till god furnishes out a new mission of apostles with a measure of those extraordinary gifts , which he poured out on the great pentecost , it is not easy to imagine how the conversion of heathen nations should be made . for tho the idolatry of some of these is extream gross , yet their priests have such symbolical significations for all these rites , that they do much diminish the horror which is raised by the first sight of them in the minds of strangers ; and since the chief grounds , upon which we prove the christian religion , are taken from the prophecies in the old testament and their accomplishment in the now , from the evidence that was given concerning the miracles , the death , and the resurrection of christ , which we confirm from the collateral proofs of the state of that time , of the writings of the enemies of this religion , and of that succession of authors that in all the ages that have past since , have mentioned those matters , and cited the books which we hold to be divine . all this is so evident to those who can make the enquiry , that it is strange to find how any one can withstand it ; but to barbarians , who know nothing of it , and who have no way of informing themselves concerning it , all this can signify nothing . so that in order to the convincing their understandings , ( for i do not treat of gods secret methods in touching their consciences ) i do not see how we should expect that they should yield easily , unless there were a new power of working miracles conferred on those who labour in this work . and what noise soever the missionaries may make with their miracles in those remote parts , it is plain , these are all impostures ; for the most necessary of all other miracles for the conversion of strange nations , being the gift of tongues , with which the apostles were so wonderfully furnisht at first , and since they all are forced to acknowledge , that this is wanting to them , we have all possible reason to conclude , that god would not change his methods , or qualify men to work wonders , and not give them that which is both the most sensible and the most useful of all others , towards that end for which he authorises them . but to return from this digression , a man is scarce the master of his own thoughts : habit , constitution , and other things do so concur , that he cannot open his eyes to new objects , nor see them in a new light other than that in which he has been accustomed to view them ; and a man can no more change his notions of things , because a set of new opinions would accomodate him better , than he can change the relish that his senses , his ear or his tast has in their objects ; a man may prevaricate , but he still thinks as he thinks ; and cannot think otherwise , because he would have himself do so : but if a man is not the master of his own mind , much less is any other man the master of it . no man has that superiority over any other mans reason , as to expect , that it should alwayes accomodate it self to his : and the severest exercise of tyranny must still leave the thoughts at liberty : the forcing a man to say , or do otherwise than he thinks , by threatnings , the execution of which is above his force to endure , is only the delivering over such a person to the rack of his own conscience here , and to all those miseries hereafter , which must be the portion of hipocrites , and of dissemblers with god or man. nor is there such an infallible distinction in one mans nature from another , that the one is more like to be in the right than the other : since therefore , among all those that differ , some must be in the wrong , those that have the power in their hands , may possibly be of the wrong side , and in that case all their severity is turned against the truth , and those who believe it . and since god makes the sun to shine , and the rain to fall on the just as well as the unjust , gideons reasoning may be applyed to this matter if baal is a●… god , let him plead for himself ; and the force of gamaliels argument , that if it is of men , it will come to nought ; and if it is of god , we must not fight against him . as it silenced an assembly of very fierce persecutors , so it is full as strong now , as it was then : for reason is eternal , and changeth not . it seems also plain , that those actions which concern humane society , belong indeed to the authority of the magistrate ; but that our thoughts , with relation to god , and such actions as arise out of those thoughts , and in which others have no interest , are gods immediate province ; and can belong to no other jurisdiction . god only knows our thoughts , as he alone can change them ; so that a magistrate by encroaching upon them , breaks in upon gods propriety , and upon that essential right of humane nature , of worshipping god according to our conviction , which is in us antecedent to all humane government , and can never become subject to it . but if the general theories from the nature of man , give a very favourable view of what is now advanced , the characters of the christian religion , and the many express texts that are in it should determine this matter more positively . the religion revealed by moses consisted in temporal promises , an earthly canaan , and all the blessings of this life ; so that since the iewes had all these things by vertue of that covenant , it was very reasonable that a violation of that law should infer a forfeiture of all those rights , that the iews held by vertue of it ; and therefore it was as just , that a iew should have been put to death for the violation of those laws , as it is lawful for us to put a man to death , that coins or clips money : yet as for opinions the case was different , even among the iews : and therefore , tho the doctrines of the sadducees struck at the foundations of all religion , the pharisees , when they had the upper hand , never carried the matter so far as to proceed to extremities against them . but what severities soever might have agreed with the mosaical dispensation , they seem to be all out of doors under the christian religion ; which gives us no earthly canaan , no temporal blessings , nor the rules for civil society : but having found the world in the possession of their temporal rights , it only came to superadd to those the doctrines and rules of a divine discipline , upon which the happiness or miseries of another state do depend . now it seems to be an uncontested rule in justice , that in whatsoever society one is engaged , the violation of the laws of that society can only inser a forfeiture of all that one had or might have expected by vertue of it : but this cannot be carried so far , as to make one forfeit all that he holds by vertue of any other society , to which he belongs ; and therefore , since we hold our temporal estates and liberties , not by vertue of our christianity , but as we are the members of the state or kingdom to which we belong , our doing any thing that is only contrary to our religion , may well make us forfeit all that belongs to us by vertue of our baptismal covenant ; but this ought not to be carried so far as to cut off those rights that we have antecedent to our christianity , as we are men , and the subjects of a civil government . our saviour confirmed all this by saying , that his kingdom was not of this world ; that he came not to destroy , but to save ; and by giving this rule of justice , of doing to others that which we would have others do to us : which would soon let all persecutors see how differently they act to it : but above all , our saviour has made the doctrines of meekness and charity , such main ingredients in his gospel , that he has made them the characters by which his disciples may be every where known ; and this spirit of love is so diffused thro the whole writings of the n. testament , that how hard soever it may be to understand some of the other passages that are in them , yet there is no ambiguity at all in those that set this forth ; we are not only restrained from ruining those who differ from us , but we are required to love them , to bear with them , and to deal with them in the spirit of meekness : there are some of the epistles that do not mention several of the duties incumbent on christians , yet there is not one , how short soever , in which this of love is not proposed , in terms that are both strong and tender ; and while the church of corinth was almost rent asunder by a variety of opinions , and by the different parties that followed the several teachers that had been among them ; st. paul does not enter much into the grounds of their disputes , but recommends love and charity to them , in terms that shew how much he himself was inflamed while he writ them ; and he is carried into all the raptures of a divine eloquence that so transporting a subject could inspire : s. iohn , lived so long as to see a great deal of the first fer vour of the christian religion slacken ; but when he writ to revive that spirit , the argument upon which he dwells chiefly , is to persuade all to love one another , and he does that in the softest and most melting terms that can be imagined . the controversy concerning the obligation that lay on the gentiles for obeying the mosaical law , was judged by the apostles against the iudaisers , and the inferences that depended on that controversy were such , that saint paul shews , they went so far as to make void the death of christ ; yet the same apostle is gentle to those that without seeing the extent of these consequences , were carried away by those iudaisers ; so that he acknowledges , that in their observing them from a good motive , they were acceptable to god ; and that as the kingdom of god , or the gospel , consisted not in those scrupulous distinctions of meats and of drinks , but in righteousness , peace , and ioy in the holy ghost ; so he adds , that every man was to endeavour to be fully persuaded in his own mind , and was not to judge his brother in such matters , but to leave him to the judgment of god. this way of managing a controversie , that was of such importance , and that was maintained with so stiff an opposition , even to that extraordinary authority that was lodged in the apostles , ought to have been the measure upon which all the succeeding ages of the church , ought to have formed themselves ; and when the apostles , that had an infallible assistance , and so might have spoken in a strain of a higher authority than any that have come after them , yet thought fit to treat of those matters in such an humble and softning stile , those who cannot pretend to such a direction , ought not to take upon them to dictate , and to threaten and destroy those who differ from them . it is indeed an amasing thing , to see how much the christian church has departed from that pattern : and when one considers the first beginnings of the christian and the mahometan religion , he is not a little surprised to see the changes that have befallen both . the blessed author of our holy religion , as he was a pattern for humility and charity , so he was made perfect thro sufferings : and his religion , as it contains precepts suteable to the example that he gave , which are set down in the plainest and most persuading expressions possible , so it gained its first glory in the world , and obtained its chief triumphs over it , by the meekness and gentleness , and the love and charity of those who embraced it : on the contrary , the mahometan religion began in the person of that impostor , with all the fierceness of rage , and was carried on by the sword , by which mahomet pretended that he was sent of god to convert the world : the nations that have received the mahometan religion , are by their constitution rough and barbarous : and yet how shameful a reverse of the first beginnings of the two religions is but too visible to the world : the mahometans in a course of several ages are so much softned , that instead of that cruelty with which their religion appeared at first , they are now so gentle , that those of a religion , which believes theirs to be only an imposture , live secure under them , and know the price that the liberty of their conscience must rise to : and that being payed , they enjoy in all other respects the protection of the government , together with the publick exercise of their religion : whereas on the other hand , that part of the christian church , that pretends the highest , has so far departed from the meekness of its author , and of his first followers , that notwithstanding all the polishings of learning and civility that are in it , it is now the cruellest and the most implacable society that has ever yet appeared in the world : if there were no other evidences but this single one , it is enough to demonstrate , how much that body has departed from its first institution : and if our saviour has given us a short abridgment of the character of the devil in these two qualities , that he is a lyar and a murderer , then any body of men , that has decreed , that faith is not to be kept to hereticks , and that has also decreed the murder of so many innocent persons , who have done nothing against that civil society to which they belong , that deserves a forfeiture of their lives ; such a body , i say , if we may take our saviours character for a rule , looks more like the followers of that fallen spirit , than the body of which the lamb of god is the head. and when we consider the plain and express words , in which the great duties of a holy life are delivered in scripture , but most particularly those of love and charity , and the darkness that are in many other passages of which the meaning is more disputable , it looks like an unaccountable perverseness to see men , who still pretend to make that book their rule , yet to be so visibly faulty in executing the one , and so excessively severe in imposing the other , of which i shall content my self to give one single instance . pope leo the tenth in the reformation that he set out , with the concurrence of the lateran council , order'd a severe prosecution to be made of all hereticks , and that all the laws against them should be put in execution : but at the same time , he order'd such slight punishment against those that should wilfully and publickly blaspheme god and christ , even tho they relapsed in it over and over again , that it is plain he had no mind to deter men with too much severity from the practice of that which was so common in his own court : a small fine , or the forfeiture of the profits of a benefice , is all the punishment that he laid on the one , even when clergy men relapsed in it . this may serve to shew , that tho naturally one is apt to think blasphemy a much more heinous crime than heresy , yet a pope , together with a council , which they pretend was general , made a distinction in the punishing of them , which is very little for their honour . the christians did , during the first ages , declare highly against all cruelty on the account of a difference of persuasion in matters of religion : and tho their interest naturally led them to this , yet we pass a very hard judgment on those times , if we think that they were only of that mind , because the power was then in the hands of their enemies . when the empire turned christian , the very heathen worship was not only tolerated for above a whole age together , but the heathens themselves continued to be in the chief imployments of the empire : and it is pleasant to see how the heathens , that had so long persecuted the christians , and that had contrived the severest of all the persecutions under iulian , which very probably had been put in execution , if he had returned victorious from his persian expedition , saw the state of things no sooner altered , than they began to imploy all their eloquence in the behalf of toleration ; as if liberty of conscience had been an essential right of mankind , from which they ought never to be cut off : and they carry'd this so far , as to pretend , that a difference in religion tends more to the honour of god , than a uniformity in it could do : and so they fancied , that a variety in it was acceptable to god. the first severity that christians practised upon one another , was the banishing of arius , and a few of his followers : it must be acknowledged , that this seems to be the utmost extent of civil authority in those matters : for certainly a government may put such persons out of its protection , that are enemies to its peace , and so banish them upon great occasions , giving them leave to sell their estates , and to carry away with them all that belongs to them ; yet this being all that any humane government can claim , it ought not to be applied too easily nor rashly , till it is visible , that all other remedies are ineffectual , and that the publick safety can be no other way secured : but tho this severity against arius had no great effects , yet the arians had no sooner the power in their hands , than they put in practtice first all the contrivances of craft and fraud , together with many less crying violences , under constance , and they carried this afterwards to a more open persecution under valens : and after that , both in spain and africk it appeared , that a cruel spirit was so inherent in that party , that it shewed it self as oft as ever they had it in their power : but while valens persecuted in his division of the empire , it is observed , that valentinian his brother thought it was enough to support the orthodox , without persecuting the other ; gratian carried the matter further , and tolerated both almost equally . and in the happy turn under theodosius , at what pains was s. gregory nazianzene to restrain the orthodox from retaliating upon the arians the ill treatment that they had suffered from them : and not only the novatians , but even the arians , continued to have their churches in the imperial cities . the first instance of the imploying the secular arm against hereticks , that was set on by any of the orthodox , was under the reign of that bloody tyrant maximus , and it was managed by two such scandalous bishops , that their ill lives is no small prejudice against every thing that was carried on by such instruments . this was condemned by the best bishops of that age , and the ill effects of that severity are very copiously marked by the historian . one is unwilling , for the sake of those ages , to reflect on the rigour that appears in some laws that are in the code ; yet the mild behaviour of atticus , proclus , and some other bishops , is marked with the praises that were due to it : and it is probable , that those laws were rather made to terrify , than that they should be executed . the donatists , after a contest of above 120 years continuance , that was managed at first more gently , grew at last so fierce and intolerable , that not being contented with their own churches , they broke in upon the churches of those of the unity : and committed many outrages on the persons of some of the bishops , putting out the eyes of some , and leaving others for dead : the bishops upon that consulted , whether they ought to demand not only the emperour's protection , but the application of the laws made against hereticks to the donatists . s. austin and some bishops opposed this for some time ; but they yielded at last : and these laws were so severely executed , that not only the donatists themselves complained heavily of them , but s. austin in several letters that he writ to the magistrates upon this occasion , made the same complaints ; he interceded very earnestly for the donatists , and said , that it detracted much from the glory of the church , that had received so much honour from the sufferings of the martyrs , to see others suffer upon the account of the church : and he told them plainly , that if they did not proceed more moderately , the bishops would suffer all that could come upon them from the rage of the donatists , rather than complain any more to those who acted so rigorously . yet tho s. austin condemn'd the excesses of the civil magistrates in some particulars , he set himself to justify severity in general , when it was imployed ▪ upon the account of religion , and all the moderate pleadings for liberty , that are to be found either in tertullian , cyprian , and more copiously in our author lactantius , with relation to heathens , and the like reasonings that are to be found in athanasius , hilary , and lucifer , with relation to the persecutions of the arians , were in a great measure forgot ; saint austin had a heat of imagination , that was very copious , which way soever he turned it : and this was imployed chiefly in allegorising scripture , so as to bring together a vast number of proofs for every cause that he undertook ; without troubling himself to examine critically what the true meaning of those passages might be : and he is so apt to run out in all his reasonings into excessive amplifications , and into all the figures of copious and uncorrect eloquence , that it is no wonder to find that passage of our saviour in the parable , compel them to enter in , with some other places misapplyed on this occasion . with that father the learning of the western church fell very low , so that his works came to be more read in the succeeding ages , than the writings of all the other fathers : and in this , as in other things , men that knew not how to reason themselves , contented themselves with that lasie and cheap way of copying from him , and of depending on his authority . the incursion of the northern nations , that overthrew the roman empire , and those polishings of learning and civility that fell with it , brought on a night of ignorance , that can scarce be apprehended , by those who have not read the writings of the following ages : superstition grew upon the ruins of learning , and eat up all . the fierce tempers of the northern people being mufled up in ignorance , and wrought on by superstition , were easily leavened with cruelty : perhaps the holy wars , and what they observed in the rage as well as in the successes of the saracens , heightned this further : at last heresy came to be reckoned the greatest of all crimes ; and as it condemned men to everlasting burning so it was thought that those might be well anticipated by temporary ones of the inquisitors kindling . it is true , the church pretended that she would shed no blood : but all this was insufferable jugling : for the churchmen declared who were obstinate or relapsed hereticks ; and the secular arm was required to be ever in readiness to execute their sentence . this was not only claimed by the bishops , but it was made a part of their oath at their consecration , that they should oppose and persecute hereticks to the utmost of their power : nor were they contented to proceed by the common rules of justice upon accusations and witnesses ; but all forms were superceded , and they by vertue of their pastoral authority , ( as if that had been given them to worry their sheep , and not to feed them ) objected articles to their prisoners upon suspition , and required them to purge themselves of them by oath : and because bishops were not perhaps all so equally zealous and cruel , some of them being persons of great quality , so that some remnants of a generous education , and of their lay pity , might still hang about them ; that bloody man dominick took this work to task , and his order has ever since furnished the world with a set of inquisitors , compared to whom all that had ever dealt in tortures in any former times were but bunglers . so far has this melancholy speculation of the degeneracy of the church of rome carried me : they at last came to extol a zeal against heresie as the highest act of piety towards god : and since heresie is reckoned by s. paul among the works of the flesh , it seemed as just to punish it in the severest manner , as it was to punish any of the other works of the flesh : and since all hereticks , were looked on as persons damned , all tenderness towards them , and pity for them , was as far exinguished as it was possible . for a false religion will not easily have the better of good nature so entirely , as to root it quite out ; tho it must be acknowledged that the roman religion has done more towards that , than any other that has ever yet appeared in the world. all the room that was left for good nature , was the favourable definition that was given of heresy : by which obstinacy was made its peculiar character , that distinguished it from error , which lies in a more innocent mistake concerning divine matters : and as many have explain'd this obstinacy , it amounts to a continuing in errour after one is convinced of it . this notion of heresy , which has been received by many of the greatest men even in the church of rome it self , seems to agree well with that of st. paul's ranking heresy among the works of the flesh ; for if it is meerly a mistake in the judgment , in which one continues , because he cannot overcome his persuasion , nor see reasons that are strong enough to oblige him to change his mind , such an adhering to error may be called any thing rather than a work of the flesh. but if a man from a principle of interest , pride , or discontent , either throws himself into ill opinions , or continues in them after his mind is better enlightned , so that he stisles and denies that inward conviction , then the reason is very plain , why such an ill temper of mind should be reckoned a work of the flesh , because it plainly arises out of a depraved nature . i will not here enter into so troublesome an enquiry as it would be , to examine how far an erroneous conscience acquits one before god ; for that must be left to him , who will judge every man according to his works , and who best knows how far he will accept of a general repentance of unknown sins , and of a general act of faith , even of truths that are yet unknown ; but as for the judgments of men , certainly when the other parts of ones life make it clear , not only to a judgment of charity , but even to that of discretion , that he is sincere , and that he means well , it is hard to know when he is obstinate , and when his errors become heresies , that is to say , works of the flesh. so far have i been led upon the consideration of the spirit of persecution , that is not only warranted by custom , and a long continued practice ; but is by the authority not only of popes , but even of general councils , established into a law on the church of rome . i am carried next into a scene of thoughts that are more particularly suted to the doctrines of the reformed churches : and here it must be acknowledged , that persecution is a more justifiable thing according to the principles of the church of rome , than it is according to our tenets ; for the church of rome , that pretends to be infallible , has a better right to demand a blind submission from all its subjects , and to treat those roughly who refuse to grant it , than a church that pretends to nothing but a power of order and government ; and that confesses , she may be mistaken . our being subject to error , is unreasonably urged , when men would carry it so far as to make us doubt of all things : yet it ought at least to have this effect on us , as to keep us from being too ready to judge hardly of those who are of another mind , or to use them roughly for it ; since it is possible , that they may be in the right , and that we may be mistaken ; at least , they may have very probable reasons for their opinions , which if they do not quite justify their mistakes , yet do very much excuse and lessen them . it is likewise visible , that all severe proceedings upon the diversity of opinions , how effectual soever they may be on base-minded men , who will alwayes make shipwrack of a good conscience , when it comes in competition with the love of this present world , yet work quite contrary wise on men of awakned understandings and generous souls ; instead of gaining on such persons , these inspire them with horror at a sort of men who go about to ruin companies of people , that never did them hurt . it is from this , that those violent hatreds arise among men of different persuasions . every man is not capable to understand an argument , or to be much disturbed at it : and tho divines , that carry their speculations further into the consequences of opinions , whether real or imaginary , grow hot and angry at one another upon those heads , yet the people understand them little , and feel them less : but every man feels an injury , and nature makes her inferences very quick upon it : and concludes , that those who use us ill , hate us : and there must be a great degree of regeneration to keep men from hating those that hate them : upon this arises all the animosity that is among the several parties : for every one reckoning himself a member of that body to which he associates himself , thinks that he is obliged to resent all the injuries that are done to his fellow-members , as much as if they were done to himself in particular : and by the same natural logick , he casts the guilt of the wrongs done his own party , not only on those individuals of the other party , from whom they did more immediately arise , but upon the whole body of them : and so here a war is kindled in mens breasts , and when that is once formed within , it will find some unhappy occasion or other to give it self a vent . those who are ill used , are in a state , like that of a mass of humours in the body , which roul about less perceived , till some unlucky accident has weakned any part of it ; and then they will all discharge themselves on the part that suffers . men that are uneasie , naturally love changes : for these are like the shifting of postures , they give some present ease , and they slatter the patient with the hope of more to follow . the advice that the old man of samnium sent his son , was certainly very wise ; he had intercepted the whole roman army in the hills , shutting up the passages so that they could neither go backward nor forward : the father advised him first to dismiss them all without any injury , since that would probably oblige the romans ; or if that were not followed , to cut them all off ; for that would weaken them considerably : whereas the middle method , which the general took , of letting them all go , having first put a publick affront on them , enraged the romans without weakning them . according to this advice it seems evident , that all considerable bodies of men , that are in any state , are to be set at ease , or to be quite rooted out ; and there is nothing wise in this severe method , but an extream and an unrelenting persecution , and in this point , if the church of rome has forgot the innocence of the dove , yet it must be confessed , that she has retained the wisdom of the serpent . persecution is not only hurtful to those that suffer many hard things by it , but is likewise mischievous to them , by the aversion that it inspires in them to those at whose hands they suffer , by the ill habit of mind into which it throws them , and by those violent projects and convulsions which do very naturally come into the heads of those , who as they feel much , so they fear yet more . those that do persecute , tho they seem to triumph for a while , with the spoils of their enemies ; yet will soon feel how this sinks their credit extreamly among those that were more indifferent spectators , while the debate was managed with the pen or tongue ; but they will certainly take part at least in their compassions with the miserable ; and will be disposed to think ill , not only of those men that are heavy upon their harmless neighbours , but even of the cause it self , that is supported by such methods . the multitude even of the lowest order of men has a remnant of good nature left , which shews it self in the sad looks that all put on at the executions even of malefactors : but if a false religion has not quite extinguished humanity in its votaries , this will make a more sensible impression , when men that have done nothing amiss , and are only in fault because they cannot help thinking as they do , are made sacrifices to the rage of others , that perhaps have little more to say for themselves , but that they are in possession of the law ; which in the next revolution of affairs that may fall out , will be an argument so much the stronger for using themselves in the same manner , because it is a just retaliation on them for that which they made others to suffer . the men of persecution do also naturally engage themselves into the intrigues of courts , and all the factions of parties : they enter into dependances upon ministers of state , who drive them on to execute all their passions , and to serve all their ends : and who have too good understandings themselves not to laugh at the officious forwardness of those who are perhaps more eager than is intended , in the doing of that for which those very persons , whose blind instruments they are at one time , will reproach them at another . in short , persecution does extreamly vitiate the morals of the party that manages it . the worst men , so they are furious and violent , are not only connived at , but are even courted : and men otherwise of severer morals , will insensibly slacken , by reason of their engagments with vicious men , whom they will find themselves forced to cherish and imploy : and if those who have persecuted others , fall under a reverse of fortune , and come to suffer themselves a little of that which they made others feel , as their ill behaviour will deprive them in a great measure , of those compassions that would otherwise work towards them , so it will raise within them many uneasy reflections upon their own actings , which will prove but melancholy companions to them in their afflictions : and these will force them to conclude , that because they shewed no mercy , therefore they now meet with the requital of iudgment without mercy ; which how unjust soever it may be , in those by whom they suster , yet they will find it meet to look up to god , and to confess , that just and righteous are all his wayes : and it may be reasonably apprehended , that it may have contributed not a little to fill up the measure of the sins of a church , and to bring down severe strokes upon them , when the visible danger , which was apparent from a formidable enemy , could not turn their thoughts to that side , but that instead of using legal and just precautions for their own security , they let themselves loose to all the rages of a mad prosecution of some poor undiscreet and deluded people ; and all this to gratify their own revenges , or to insinuate themselves into the favours of those who do now justly laugh at them , when the turn that they intended is served by their means : and those who would prepare themselves for those hard things which they have reason to expect from a church that has alwayes delighted to bath her self in blood , ought seriously to profess their repentance of this fury in instances that may be as visible and edifying as their rage has been publick and destructive . but there remains yet one point , without which i am sensible that this discourse will appear defective ; i know it is extream tender in our present circumstances , yet that does not defer me from venturing on it ; it is , how far protestants ought to tolerate papists . it seems at first view the most unreasonable thing in the world , for those to pretend to it , who we are sure must destroy us , as soon as it is in their power to do it . i say , they must do it ; since by those councils , which they themselves hold to be general , the extirpation of hereticks and the breaking of faith to them , has been so formally decreed , that it is a foolish piece of presumption to imagine that they can ever lay down those principles . infallibility is the bottom upon which their church is built , and she must be as infallible in the rules that she gives of morality , as she is in her decisions in points of faith : for all the reasons that are given for private persons depending on the church for the rule of their faith , do bind as strongly to depend likewise on the church for the rule of life and manners . if we are in danger of forgetting , what was decreed in that church so long ago , they take pains from time to time to refresh our memories , not only by their cruelties in the last age , for which there was so much more to be said , than for later barbarities , because the reformation was lookt on as a revolt then made from established laws : and if persecution can be at any time excused , it is in the first beginnings of heresies , before the evil has spread it self into greater numbers of men : the heats that were raised in the first formation of that breach , may some way take off from the guilt of the sacrifices that they made : for men in the first surprises of anger do seldom reason true , or act wisely ; but when a whole age has passed , and those first heats are in a great measure laid , and when all the securities that could possibly be demanded have been given , and while these have been enacted into the most obligatory laws that could be contrived , which were confirmed by solemn well to my self ; yet the body of the people , that are bred up to the other points of popery , and that know nothing of these , which their priests keep as mysteries from them , and either deny them quite , or disguise them so that they shew in other colours to those who believe implicitly , and who do not give themselves the trouble to enquire into such matters ; but think it is safer , as well as easier , to take things upon trust ; they i say , are not so formidable as to raise our fears and jealousies to so high a pitch : and secular priests are naturally a softer sort of men , who have not the sourness that seems to belong to all the orders that are among them ; nor are they so far possessed with the ill-natured and dangerous opinions that belong to that church , as to be past cure : and as a softning of rigour towards such , would lay the apprehensions that self-preservation does naturally raise in all people , so it would at least make the utmost degree of severity , that seems reconcilable to the common principles of humane society , or of christianity , appear more justifiable , if a restlesness under such easie circumstances should afterwards drive a government to it . but the returning of the severities that our brethren have suffered at the hands of the men of that religion on the papists of england , is a practice so contrary to the christian religion , and to the principles of the protestant religion , that i do not stick to say it , that i had rather see the church of england fall under a very severe persecution from the church of rome , than see it fall to persecute papists , when it should come to its turn to be able to do it . the former will only serve to unite us among our selves , and to purge us from our dross ; and in particular from any of the leaven of the doctrine of persecution , that we have not yet quite thrown out ; but the other would very much stain the purest and best constituted church in the world ; and it would be too near an approach to the cruelty of that church , which we cannot enough detest : but how much soever we must hate their corruption , we must still remember , that they are men and christians , tho perhaps of a course grain , and that we our selves are reformed christians , who in imitation of our blessed master , must not render evil for evil , but overcome evil with good . gilbert burnet . the persecutors here mentioned , whom the judgments of god did so visibly pursue and overtake , and whose death 's were so signally remarkable , are in order thus . nero. domitian . decius . valerian . aurelian . diocletian . maximian , surnamed the herculian . galerius maximian . severus . daia or daza , to whom galerius maximian gave the name of maximin , so that he was thereafter stiled maximinus daza , or simply maximin . maxentius , the son of maximian the herculian . a relation of the death of the primitive persecutors . written by lucius caecilius firmianus lactantius ; addressed to donatus the confessor . i. god has at last heard you ( my dearest donatus ) in those prayers which you offer up daily to him , as well as our other brethren , who by the vertue of their faith , and of the glorious consession that they have made , have acquired to themselves an eternal crown of glory . to these prayers god has hearkned ; and has delivered us from our enemies : and a blessed peace being now again re-established upon earth , the church of god , that was lately laid so low , begins to flourish again : and thro the mercy of god , his house , that was laid in ruins by his enemies , is now rebuilt with a new magnificence . god has raised up to us princes , who have repealed all the wicked and bloody edicts of the late tyrants ; and have so setled the peace of mankind , that instead of the clouds and storms of the late times , there is now an universal calm every where : and after all those hurricans of fury and violence are now blown over , we enjoy a serene air , and the happy quiet which we had so much long'd for . now gods anger is turned away , and he hearkning to the prayers of his servants , has by the interposition of his divine aid , raised up their afflicted and broken spirits : now he has wiped away all their tears , and has put an end to the conspiracies of their enemies . those who had set themselves in opposition to god , are now laid in the dust : those who had rased the temples of god , are now become spectacles to the world ; and they who had exercised so much cruelty on the servants of god , have received at his hands a severe return of their rage , and have breathed out their defiled souls after they had undergone a great many dismal strokes , that were laid on them by the hand of god. their punishment was for some time delay'd , but at last it was signal : and in them all succeeding ages ought to observe the justice of god in punishing such proud and impious persecutors suteably to their crimes . in the manner of their death , god calls likewise on all at what distance soever , either of time or place , to observe the greatness and majesty of his providence in destroying the enemies of his truth . and this will appear yet more evident to us , if we call to mind who have been the porsecutors of the church from its first beginning , and if we observe the severity of the divine justice , that has appeared in their punishment . ii. towards the end of tiberius's reign , in the consulate of the two gemini , our lord iesus christ was crucified by the iews on the 23. of march. he rose again on the third day , and brought together his disciples , whom the fear of his sufferings was beginning to disperse , and he continued with them for the space of 40 dayes on earth , opening their hearts , and expounding the scriptures to them , which till then had appeared dark and involved . he ordained and instructed them to go and preach this new doctrine over the world ; and he left them a scheme for their conduct , and for the government of this new dispensation . when he had finished his ministry , a cloud received him , and carried him up into heaven : and then his eleven disciples having assumed into their number matthias and paul , dispersed themselves over the world for the preaching of the gospel , as their master had commanded them : and during the space of 25. years ▪ till the beginnings of nero's reign , they continued founding many churches in a great many different cities and provinces . during nero's reign , s. peter came to rome , and made a great many converts there , having thro the power of god , that rested on him , wrought several miracles , and ▪ so he formed a church in this place of empire . this was brought to nero's ears , who finding that great multitudes , not only in rome , but in all other places , were daily falling oft from idolatry , and were turning to this new religion , and being carried by his brutal tyranny to all sorts of cruelty , he set himself first of all to destroy this religion , and to persecute the servants of god : so he both ordered s. peter to be crucisied , and s. paul to be beheaded . but he did not escape unpunished : for god had regard to the sufferings of his people . the tyrant , as he was dispossessed of the empire , so he disappeared all of the sudden , nor is there so much as the least remembrance left of the burial place of that brutal prince . but some have from hence taken up a very foolish imagination , of his being translated , and of his being preserved alive in some other region ; which they found on some words of the sybil , that mentions a murderer of his mother that had fled away , but that should return again : and they fancy , that as he was the first who persecuted the christians , so he shall be likewise the last of their persecutors ; and that he is to appear again immediately before the coming of antichrist : and they judge , ( tho very unreasonably ) that as there were two of the antient prophets who were translated , and who before the last revolution of time are to appear as the fore-runners of christ , when he is to be come again , accompanied with his saints , to begin his holv and endless reign ; so likewise that nero shall appear as the fore-runner of the devil , who must make way to him , who is to bring a strange desolation upon earth , and a destruction upon all mankind . iii. after nero , and the interval of some few more years , there arose another tyrant , domitian , not much inferior to him : who tho he acted in a most tyrannical and arbitrary manner , being heavy to his people , and no less hated by them , yet he reigned in peace and safety for several years , till be began to set himself against god. but as soon as he was set on by the instigation of the devil to persecute the holy seed , then was he delivered up to the hands of his enemies . nor was his being stabbed thought punishment enough for his crimes , but care was taken that no memory should be left of him to posterity ; for tho he had raised many magnificent buildings , & that there were many monuments of his empire , both in the capitol and in other places , yet the senate did express such a detestation of him , that they ordered that there should remain no statue for him , nor so much as the traces of any inscription that made mention of his name : and by a most severe decree , which they past for this effect , they branded his memory with eternal infamy . thus all the acts and edicts of this tyrant being repealed , the church did not only recover its former quie●… , but became much more flourishing under a succession of many worthy princes , who as they governed the roman empire very happily , so the church suffered no hardships under them : and she being thus freed from the rage of her enemies , dilated herself both in the eastern and western parts , so that there was no corner of the world so remote , nor any nation of it so wild , that was not visited by this divine light , and that was not tamed by its discipline . but this long peace came at last to an end . iv. for after many years the execrable decius persecuted the church , and who but so vile a man would have set himself against so holy a doctrine . it seems he was raised up to the imperial dignity for this very end , that as soon as he began to rage against god , he might be immediately thrown down : for having marched against the carpi , who had possessed themselves of dacia and m●…sia , he was surrounded by the barbarians , and both he and a great part of his army was cut off : nor had he so much as the honours of a funeral , but as well became one that had set himself against god , his carcass was exposed as a prey to the beasts of the earth , and to the fowls of the air. v. not long after decius the emperour , valerian was inflamed with the like rage , and stretched forth his hands against god. in a very little while he shed a great deal of the blood of the saints ; but god plagued him with a new and unusual sort of judgment ; and in his person there was a new remembrance lest to posterity of gods severity in punishing his enemies according to their merit . he was taken prisoner by the persians , and so he not only lost the empire , which he had governed so insolently , but as he had robbed many others of their liberty , so he likewise lost his own at last , and fell under a most infamous slavery . for as oft as sapores the king of persia , who took him , had occasion either to mount on horseback , or to go into his chariot , he made the roman emperour stoop down , that he might make his back his step to get up ; and whereas the romans had made some representations of the persians being deseated by them , sapores used to rally valerian , and to tell him , that the posture in which he lay , was a more real proof to shew on whose side the victory went , than all the pictures that the romans could make ▪ valerian being thus led about in triumph , lived for some time , so that the barbarians had in him occasion given for a great while , to treat the very name of a roman with all possible indignity and scorn . and this was the heightning of his misery , that tho he had a son , upon whom the empire had devolved by his misfortune , yet no care was taken by the son either to rescue the father , or to revenge his ill usage . after he had ended his infamous life , his skin was flead off his . body , and both it and his guts being tinctured with a red colouring , they were hung up in one of the temples of the persian gods , to be a perpetual remembrance of so remarkable a : triumph , by which they might always put such roman ambassadours as should be sent among them in mind of it , and from so unusual a sight , warn them not to presume too much upon their own strength , but to remember valerian's fall . but how strange a thing was it to find , that notwithstanding such remarkable judgments of god upon former persecutors , there should : arise any that should dare so much as to project , much more to re-act , such crimes against the majesty of that god that supports and governs all things . vi. aurelian , that was naturally violent and furious , seemed to forget what had befallen valerian , or if he remembred his captivity , he did not seem to reflect on his crimes , or to consider that as the punishment of them , and so he likewise drew down the divine displeasure on himself by his cruelty : but he lived not long enough to execute what he had designed , and he ended his days in the beginnings of his rage . for before his edict against the christians was sent over all the provinces of the empire , he himself was killed at caenophrurium , a town in thrace , by some of his own domesticks , upon some ill-grounded suspitions that they had conceived of him . it might have been expected , that the succeeding emperours should have been restrained by so many and such signal examples : but they were so far from being terrisied by them , that they acted yet with a more daring boldness against god. vii . diocletian , that was the contriver of all our late miseries , as he ruined the empire by his ill administration , so he could not be kept in from acting likewise in opposition to god. his avarice and his cowardise joined together , had produced great mischiefs . he assumed to himself three partners in the empire , having divided it into four parts ; and he did so encrease the number of his troops , that every one of the four had a greater army than the former emperours had , who alone governed the whole empire ; and the number of those who received his pay , growing greater than that of those who payed him taxes , there was such an increase of new impositions , that those who laboured the ground being exhausted by them , they deserted the empire , and by this means the best cultivated soils were turned to deserts and woods ; and so severe was his government , that he erected a great many new charges and imployments ; the provinces were divided into many separated jurisdictions : many new presidents and courts , auditors , and other magistrates were set up both in towns and countrys , who took little care of the administration of justice , their time being all imployed in condemnations and attainders ; and they laid so many taxes upon all sorts of things , that as the burdens under which the people groaned were encreased every day , so in the levying of them great violences were likewise committed . all this had been more tolerable , if the mony so raised had circulated among the souldiers : but the emperours avarice was such , that he could not endure to see his treasure any way diminished ; and therefore he was always contriving new ways of raising money , that so his exchequer might be always full : and that tho his expence was great , yet his income might so answer it , that he should never lessen that stock of mony which by his exactions he had brought together . after that the many oppressions which he put in practice had brought a general dearth upon the empire , then he set himself to regulate the prices of all vendible things . there was also much blood shed upon very slight and trifling accounts ; and the people brought provisions no more to markets , since they could not get a reasonable price for them : and this encreased the dearth so much , that at last , after many had died by it , the law it self was laid aside . to all these diocletian added an inclination to build great fabricks , and this brought a new charge on several provinces both for furnishing of labourers , and artisicers , and of wagons for carriage . he built palaces for himself , for his wife , and for his daughters : and to these he added a hippodrome , an arsenal , and a mint house : so that in a little while a great part of nicomedia being filled with those buildings , many of the inhabitants were forced to leave the town with their wives and children , as if it had been taken by an enemy : and when he had finished a piece of building at the cost of ruining some of the provinces by it , he found some fault or other in it , and then he pulled all down , and gave orders to rebuild it in another manner : nor was this second building secured from a new caprice , upon which it might be likewise perhaps levelled with the ground . so madly expenceful was he in the design that he took into his head of making nicomedia equal to rome it self . i pass over the ruin of many , who were brought under severe judgments , that so a colour in law might be found for seising on their estates : for this was become such a common practice , that the frequency of committing it had almost authorised it . and this was certain , that wherever a man was the master of a rich piece of soil , or of a noble building , that seemed to be crime enough ; and a pretence was quickly sound out for condemning the owner , as if it had not been enough to seise his estate , without taking away his life likewise . viii . his colleague in the empire , maximian , surnamed the herculian , was not unlike him . nor could they have been cemented into so entire a friendship , if they had not been both of the same mind , the same thoughts , the same inclinations , and the same designs . in this they differed , that maximian had more courage as well as more avarice than diocletian ; who as he was fearful , so perhaps from that principle he was less ravenous . yet maximian's courage consisted rather in a daring to commit crimes , than in a generous nobleness of mind . and tho his share comprehended not only italy it self , the seat of empire , but likewise those rich provinces of africk and spain , yet he was not so careful in the management of his treasure as was necessary : but as oft as he wanted mony , the richest of the senators were accused by some witnesses , that were suborned to swear against them of some practices for the empire , and thus every day there were new arts set on foot to get rid of the eminentest men of the senate , so that the ravenous exchequer was often full of this ill-acquired wealth . that accursed man did also let loose his appetites not only in those unnatural and hateful disorders with boyes , but likewise in the debauching the daughters of some that were of the first rank . for whensoever he was in any journey , as he past he had instruments at hand , to bring virgins to him by force in the very sight of their parents . it was on these things that he built his happiness ; and he reckoned the chief felicity of empire to consist in this , that he denied himself in nothing to which either his vitious appetite or his lusts carried him . i say nothing of constantius , because he was so very unlike the rest ; and did indeed deserve that the whole empire should fall into his hands . ix . but the other maximian who married diocletians daughter , was not only worse than the two formerly mentioned , but did exceed the wickedness of the worst princes that ever were : there was a barbarous brutality in his temper , together with a cruelty not known to those that were of a roman extraction : and no wonder ; for his mother was born beyond the danube : and when some of those nations crossed that river , she came along with them , and had setled her self in that part of dacia which was formed into a province by aurelian . his body was suteable to his mind : he was very tall , and most excessively corpulent : and there was a sierceness in his looks , his words , and in his whole behaviour , that gave a very formidable idea of him . his father in law , diocletian , dreaded him extreamly upon this following account : narses king of persia , being encouraged by the success that his grandfather sapores had against valerian , resolved to extend his empire , and to drive the romans out of the east : upon which diocletian , who was naturally very fearful , quite desponded , and searing a fate like valerians , he durst not undertake that war , but sent maximian into armenia , and stayed behind himself , that so he might see what was like to be the issue of this war : maximian took his measures so well , that finding the persian army exceeding numerous , and that they were much encumbred with a vast equipage , that they drew along with them , their wives having followed them in this expedition according to the ancient persian custom : he , i say , got such advantages against them , that without any considerable loss , he defeated their whole army . narses himself escaped , but maximian took all their baggage , and so returned with great glory , which encreased his insolence , as much as it did his father-in-law's apprehensions of him . for upon so great a victory ▪ he thought it below him to carry only the second rank of honour , and to be only called cesar ; and when at any time he received letters addressed to him , with the inscription cesar , he used to cry out in his brutal way , must ▪ i be still cesar ? he grew at last to that pitch of insolence , as to give it out , that mars was his father ; so that he ought to be lookt on as another romulus , not considering the prejudice he did to his mothers honour , of which he made small account , desiring only to be lookt on as begotten by a god. but i will not now enter into the particulars of his life , that so i may not confound the order of things : for it was after his assuming the imperial dignity , of which he forced his father-in-law to strip himself , that he broke loose into all the excesses of insolence and fury ; in the mean time , tho diocletian by his own ill conduct , and that of the two maximians , whom he had taken co-partners into the government , ( the first as emperor , and the second as cesar ) had brought great disorder upon the whole state of the empire , and tho his private crimes were very crying , yet matters prospered in his hands in a very unusual manner , till he came to defile them with the blood of the saints ; and this carries me to give you an account of the occasion that led him to persecute them . x. while he was in the east , he being excessively desirous to know what was to be the event of things , offered many sacrifices , and in their livers the diviners searcht for those indications , upon which they pretended to foretell things to come : but some of his courtiers , that were christians , being near him , made the sign of the cross on their fore-heads , at which the devils being frighted away , they were all put in a great confusion . the diviners being likewise in disorder , could not find the ordinary marks that they lookt for in the intrails of the sacrifices ; tho they offered up many , one after another , pretending that the divinity was not yet appeased ; but all the number of their sacrifices was to no purpose , for no signs appeared : upon which tages that was set over the diviners said , either upon some conjecture or upon knowledge , that their rites did not succeed , because there were some prophane persons that had thrust themselves into their assembly . upon which diocletian being enraged , commanded , that not only all those who were present , but that all the rest of his courtiers should come and sacrifice to their gods , and ordered those to be whipped who should refuse to do it . he likewise sent orders to his military officers , to require all the souldiers to sacrifice , and to dismiss such as would not . but this was all that he thought sit to do at first , nor did he suffer his rage to carry him to farther extremities against god or his true religion , till after some time had past , that he came to winter in bithinia : and there galerius maximian , who was likewise inflamed against the christians , met him , & engaged the vain old man to go on with the persecution , which he had already begun , concerning whom i have received this account of the grounds of his fury against our religion . xi . his mother was a superstitious woman , and was particularly addicted to the devotion of the gods of the mountains , so that she offered sacrifices to them daily , and feasted her officers with the meat of those oblations . the christians would not assist at those entertainments , but gave themselves to fasting and prayer , while she and her company were at those feasts . upon this she conceived a hatred of them , and she set on her son , who was no less superstitious than she her self , by her spiteful complaints to contrive their destruction . diocletian and his son-in-law had many secret consultations during a whole winter , to which as no body was admitted , so it was generally thought that they were treating about matters of the greatest consequences . the old man withstood maximian's fury long , and shewed him how pernicious the council would prove , and how great a disturbance it would bring upon the empire : much blood would be shed ; for the christians were observed to be very willing to dye . therefore he proposed this expedient , that none of that religion should be suffered to continue in the court , or in the army : but all this could not divert the rage of that furious man. therefore he proposed the asking the opinions of those in whom they consided ; for he had this piece of ill nature , that when he was about to do any thing that was acceptable , he did it of himself , without taking the advice of others , that so the praise of it might belong wholly to himself : but when he undertook any thing that was lyable to censure , he called for many persons to deliver their opinion upon it , that so others might be charged with the blame of that in which he was chiefly in fault . some few iudges , and some few military men were called upon , and according to the order of their dignity they were repuired to tell their minds ; some that had a particular spleen to the christian religion , opined that all the christians were enemies to god and to the established worship , and that therefore they ought to be destroyed . those that were of another mind , perceiving what was maximian's design , and being either affraid of him , or desirous to make their court with him , agreed to the rest in opinion ; yet all this did not prevail on diocletian ; so he resolved to consult the gods themselves , and sent a diviner to consult with apollo , who answered as might have been expected from an enemy of the christian religion . upon this diocletian yielded ; and as he would not oppose himself to that which not only his friends and maximian , but even apollo had advised , yet he endeavoured to maintain this moderation , that the design might be composed without the shedding of blood : whereas maximian moved , that all those who refused to partake in the sacrifices , should be burnt alive . xii . a proper and an auspicious day for beginning this work was next sought for ; and choice was made of the festivity of the god terminus , which was within five days of the end of february , that was the conclusion of their year : implying by this , that an end was to be put to this religion . this was the first day of their executions , and the beginning of those miseries that not only fell on them , but on the whole empire . in the morning of that fatal day , in the seventh and eighth consulate of the two ancient emperours , the prefect accompanied with some officers , and some of the receivers , went to the church , and having forced open the door , they searched for the image of god : * all the books of the scriptures that were there found were burnt , and the spoil that was made was divided among all that were present : this struck a terror into many , and many withdrew them . selves from the storm . the two princes , who from convenient places viewed all that was done ( for that church stood upon a heighth , so that it was within the prospect of the palace ) were long in debate , whether they should order fire to be set to it : but in this diocletians opinion prevailed ; for he was affraid lest if the church had been set on fire , that might have spread it self into the other parts of the city : for it was environed on all hands by a great many noble buildings ; so that instead of setting fire to , it there was a considerable body of the guards , sent with axes and mattocks , who in a few hours time levelled that lofty building with the ground . xiii . the day after this an edict was published , by which the christians were declared incapable of all honours and imployments ; and that they should be liable to torture whatsoever might be their rank and dignity ; all actions were to be received against them , and they were put out of the protection of the law , and might not sue neither upon injuries done them , or adulteries committed against them , nor for thefts or robberies ; and they were to loose both their liberties and their right of voting . when this was affixed , one that shewed more of courage than discretion in it , took it down and tore it , and rallied the emperours , who had put among their titles , that they had triumphed over the goths and the sarmatians , that they acted like those whom they pretended that they had subdued ; he was presently seised on , and after he had endured several sorts of torture ; he was burnt at last , but suffered all with admirable patience . xiv . but maximian was not satisfied with the severity of this edict , so he resolved to draw on diocletian to consent to further rigour by this artifice ; he set on some of his creatures to raise a fire in the palace , that so he might engage him to an unrelenting persecution : some parts were burnt down , and the christians were presently accused as the common enemies ; and this fire , that consumed the palace , raised a most implacable rage against them . for it was given out , that they had entred into consultation with some of the eunuchs for the destruction of their princes , and that two emperours were well nigh burnt alive in their own house . diocletian who affected the reputation of being a wise and crafty man , could not be brought to give any credit to this : but being excessively enraged upon it , he ordered many of his domesticks to be put to death in a most terrible manner . so many innocent persons were brought before him , and were burnt . all the judges and all the officers of his household being authorised thereunto , put all people to torture , and seemed to vie with one another who should be the first that should discover the bottom of this matter . but nothing could be found out ; for none of maximians family was put to the torture . he came and stood by diocletian , and continued still to inflame him more and more , that so his anger might no way be abated . and a fortnight after the first burning , fire was a second time set to the palace : but this was observed in time , yet neither could the author of it be found out . and then maximian , tho it was in the midst of winter , left nicomedia on the same day in which this second fire was raised , protesting that he went away fearing lest he should be burnt alive . xv. the emperour was now set all on fire , and upon this he forced not only all that were of his household , but all persons whatsoever , to defile themselves with their sacrifices ; beginning with his daughter valeria , and his wise prisca . some of the eunuchs that were in the greatest credit , and by whose directions the whole affairs of the palace had been conducted before this edict , were now put to death ; some presbyters and deacons were seised on , and without any proof against them , they were condemned and executed . persons of all ages , and of both sexes were burnt , not singly one by one , but by reason of their numbers , whole companies of them were burnt all in the same fire : and their servants were cast into the sea , millstones being tied about their necks . nor was this persecution less violent in all other places : for the judges were sent to all temples , and they forced all people to joyn in the sacrifices . the prisons were every where full . unheard of kinds of torture were invented ; and that no man might have the benefit of the law that was not a heathen : they placed altars in the very courts of iustice , and in the publick offices , that so all who came to sue before them might be put to it first to offer sacrifice , before they could be admitted to plead : so that men came before their judges as before their gods. nor was this all , letters were also sent to the other emperour and to constance , inviting them to concur in this matter , tho their opinions had not been before asked , notwithstanding the great importance of it . the old maximian did comply very willingly in italy ; for he was naturally cruel ▪ but constance , that he might not seem to dissent from those that were in rank above him , did indeed give order for the pulling down the walls of the houses where the christians held their assemblies ; for these could be easily rebuilt : but he took care to preserve those true temples of god , i mean the christians themselves . xvi . the whole world was now brought under great vexation , the gaules only excepted ; those three wild beasts exercised their cruelty upon all the provinces from the east to the west . if i had a hundred tongues , and the strongest voice , i could not set out all the forms of crimes , and all the names of the tortures that the judges in the several provinces put in practice against so many holy and innocent persons : but what need i engage in this recital , especially to you , my dear donatus , who had so extraordinary a share in them . for whereas you first fell into the hands of the prefect flaccinus , who was not a small murderer , you fell next into the hands of hierocles , who from being a deputy was made a president , and had been an adviser and a promoter of the persecution : and in the last place , was brought before priscillian his successor , where , as well as before the other two , you gave an evidence of your unconquered courage : you were nine several times put to a great many tortures , and at every one of them you overcame the rage of your enemies , by a glorious confession . in those nine encounters with the devil you defeated him with his whole troop of assistants ▪ and by so many victories you triumphed over the world with all its terrors . how pleasant was that triumph in the sight of god , in which instead of white horses or elephants about your chariot , you triumphed over the emperours themselves , and seem'd to drag them after your chariot . this is true victory , when those that have conquered the world , are subdued : for they were overcome and subdued by you , who despising their impious edicts , made no account of all the pomp and terrors of their tyrannical authority . their whippings and their pincers , their fires and swords , and all the several shapes of torture had no effect upon you : no sort of violence could make you fall from the faith , and from the true worship of god ▪ this is to be a true disciple and a true souldier of christ ; whom no enemy can overcome , no wolf can carry out of gods fold , no snare can intangle , no sorrow can subdue , and no torture can break . after all those nine engagements , that proved so glorious to you , the devil finding himself always overcome by you , durst not assault you any more : for experience had shewed him , that you were not to be vanquished : and since he saw that the crown of victory was ready to be bestowed on you , he would not , by provoking you any further , give you the occasion of receiving it so soon . tho it was not given to you then , it is safely kept for you in the kingdom of god , as the recompense of your vertue and worth. but now i return to the series of the history . xvii . diocletian being now engaged into this wicked design , and having succeeded so well in the execution of it , went streight to rome , that so he might celebrate there his entring upon the twentieth year of his empire , that he was to open upon the anniversary of his coming to it , which was the twentieth of november . but as soon as that was over , he shewed how little he could bear that freedom that the romans had still retained ; at which he was so uneasy , that tho the first of ianuary was very near , in which he was to enter upon his ninth consulate , yet he could not be prevailed on to stay to that day , and so he could not bear the staying thirteen days longer at rome , but he began his consulate at ravenna . the winter was both extream cold and rainy , so that the journey did so affect his health , that it threw him into a lingring sickness , that never went off quite : and being ill all the way , he was forced to be carried for most part in a litter . his illness lay upon him all the summer long : about the end of it he continued his journey , and having come round the coast of phrygia , he got at last to nicomedia , his sickness being now come to a great height . but tho he was brought very low by it , yet he would needs appear in publick , and assist at the dedication of the hippodrome that he had built , which was done at the end of his twentieth year of empire . his sickness grew at last to such a degree , that supplications were made to all the gods for his life : but on the 13 th of december a report was spread all about the palace , that he was dead : the sad looks and the terrour that appeared in all his courtiers , and the solemn silence that was over all the court , made that the report was generally believed : the city of nicomedia believed him not only dead , but buried ; but the next day it was given out that he was yet alive ; upon which the countenances of many that were concerned , were much changed : but others believed still that he was dead , and that it was concealed for fear of the souldiery , lest they should have fallen into some dangerous consultations , and that therefore his death was to be kept up till maximian should come to nicomedia . this grew to be so universally believed , that is he had not shewed himself on the first of march , it had not been possible to have perswaded the people that he was still alive . he was strangly altered by a whole years sickness ▪ that they to whom he was very well known , could hardly believe him to be the same : he had indeed on the thirteenth of december fallen into so deep a swoon , that it was thought he was dead , and he never recovered this so entirely , as to be wholly what he had been formerly : for he had ever after this , some fits of madness , which returned at some ▪ times upon him , tho in the intervals of those fits he had his understanding very perfect . xviii . not many days after this , galerius maximian came to him , not to congratulate upon his recovery , but to force him to resign the empire : he had made the same attempt upon the elder maximian , and threatned him with a civil war if he would not resign ; so now he set on diocletian : he began at first more softly and gently with him ; telling him , that he was now become ancient and infirm , and less able to undergo the fatigue of government , and that therefore he ought to give himself some repose after so much application and toil. he set before him nerva's example , who resigned the empire to trajan : diocletian answered , that as it was not honourable for him , after he had born so sublime a character so long , to shut himself up in an obscure corner , so it could not be safe for him to do it , since during so long a reign , he must needs have made himself many enemies . the case was quite different in nerva , who had past his whole life in retirement ; so that his great age and his unacquaintendness with affairs made him less capable of bearing so great a burden , which therefore he threw off , and returned to that privacy in which he had spent the former parts of his life . but he offered to maximian to receive him to an equal dignity with himself ; so that they should be all called emperours , if that would have contented him . the other , who had now formed a project of making himse sole emperour , seeing that from this title that was offered him , little real advantage would accrue to him , pretended that the order which diocletian had begun , of having two emperours with the supream power , and two assistants to them in a lower degree of dignity , ought to be forever maintained : it was an easy thing to preserve a good correspondence between two persons , but that could not be composed if there came to be four of equal dignity : he concluded , that if the emperour would not retire , and make way for him , he would see to himself ; for he would be no longer contented with the low degree in which he had been so long held : he had been now for fifteen years as it were banished to illiricum , along the river of the danube , and engaged in constant wars with the barbarous nations ; while others were reigning quietly , and in delicious seats . the old man , that was now much broken , having heard all this , and having likewise received letters from the elder maximian , that gave him an account of what had been said to himself upon that subject , and had also heard that galerius maximian was encreasing his army ; upon this , not without tears ; he consented to that which had been proposed to him ; so that which remained was , that the cesars should be named by the concurring advices of all the four. but the other rejected this , and said , that the other two must consent to whatsoever they should resolve on : and indeed , it seemed that there was no room for choice , but that the sons of the other two must have been named for cesars . maxentius was son to the elder maximian , and had married the younger maximians daughter . he was a man of a wicked and vicious disposition , and was so proud and so willful , that he would not pay the wonted respect of adoration , neither to his father , nor to his father-in-law ; so that he was equally hated of both . constantine son to constance was a most vertuous youth , and had all the qualities that could recommend him to the highest dignity : his air and person were graceful ; his capacity for military affairs , his probity , and his obliging deportment , made that he was beloved of the souldiers , and wished for by all persons : he was then in diocletian's court , and was put by him in the chief command of the army . but maximian had his objections to both these : as for maxentius he thought he was not worthy of that dignity , and he reckoned , that he who had behaved himself so insolently towards him , while he was a private person , would become intolerable if he were raised so high . constantine was indeed so amiable a person , that it was thought he would be a better and a gentler prince than his father had been : and so he would be able to check him as he pleased : wherefore maximian resolved to have such persons promoted , who should be always in his power , who should be affraid of him , and should do nothing but by his order , so he proposed severus : diocletian excepted to him , as a mad extravagant , and drunken person , who changed the day into night , and the night into day : but the other answered , that he had deserved that dignity well , for he had taken great care of the army , and had prayed them faithfully ; and added , that he had sent him to maximian the elder , that he might receive the nomination from him ; so this was aggreed to : and when diocletian asked him , who should be the other , he presented one daia to him , a young man , that was half a barbarian by his extraction , and whom he had lately ordered to be called maximin from his own name . for diocletian had changed his own name to that , to distinguish him from the other maximian , who had alwayes maintained his fidelity to him most religiously . diocletian asked him , who that young man was ; the other said , he was his ally : but he sighed , and replied , that he did not propose to him persons that were capable of conducting the common-wealth ; the other said , that he had already tried them . diocletian insisted and said , that he who was to enter upon the empire , ought to see to it : and that for his part , he had taken his share of toil , and had studied to preserve the common-wealth in a good state during his empire , but if after his time it should fall into disorder , it should not be by his fault . all things being thus concerted in secret , on the first of may this great affair came to be declared . the eyes of all people were on constantine , not doubting but the nomination must fall on him : all the military men , as well the souldiers as the officers , lookt at him , wisht for him , and shewed much joy in the hopes that they expressed of his advancement : there was a rising ground at almost three miles distance from the city , and it was there where maximian himself had first received the imperial purple , in remembrance of which there was a pillar erected with a statue of iupiters upon it . that place was markt out for this solemnity , and the army was drawn out about it : and there the old man with tears in his eyes , told the souldiers , that he was now become infirm , and therefore he was resolved to give himself some rest after so much toil , and to deliver up the empire to those who were able to undergo the fatigue of it : and that in order to that , he would now name new cesars . upon this all mens expectations being raised , he named severus and maximin ; all people were amased ; and since constantine was standing by , some began to ask whether he had changed his name into maximin : but to the admiration of all the spectators , maximian put by constantine , and drew out daia , and shewed him to the people , having stript him of the habit that he wore as a private person : and while all men were surprised , and knew neither who he was , nor of whom he was descended , ( tho this unlookt for promotion , had so disordered them , that they testified no aversion to it ) diocletian threw his purple robe about him , and so he himself retired to a private state again , and returned to his private name of diocles , which upon his coming to the empire he had changed to diocletian , and thus the solemnity ended : and the old emperour , like a souldier that had obtained his dismission , retired , and drive thro nicomedia , and so went into his own countrey . and daia , that was raised up from following of cattle thro woods , and was first a common souldier , then an officer , after that a brigadier , and now at last got to be cesar , had the east assigned to him , tobe oppressed and ruined by him . and tho he neither understood military affairs , nor matters of state , yet he was now set to conduct armies instead of feeding cattle . xx. maximian having now effected that which he had projected , in driving out the old men , behaved himself as if he had been the sole emperour of the whole roman empire . for tho constance had the precedence , and so was to be always named before him , yet he was despised by him , both because he was naturally of a mild temper , and was now much disabled thro the indisposition of his body . he believed that either he would soon die , or that it would be no hard thing to force him to resign his share of the empire . there was about maximian one licinius , who was his ancient friend ; for they had been comerades from their first imployments in the army : and he had now the chief stroke in all affairs . maximian had not put him in the nomination of the cesars , because he would not put him in a rank so far inferiour to himself as to call him son , but he reckoned that constance would soon die , and then he was resolved to receive him to be his brother and collegue in the empire : and thus he projected to establish himself in his authority , and to be able to carry all things according to his mind ; and after he should come to his twentieth year , and celebrate the festivals of it , as his predecessors had done , he intended to resign the empire , and to put his son in his stead , who was now only nine years old : so that he intended that licinius and severus should be the emperours , and that maximin and candidianus should be the cesars : and thus he being established and secured as much as was possible , should pass the rest of his days in quiet , and great safety . these were his designs : but he having made god his enemy , all his projects came to nothing . xxi . he having attained the supream dignity , set himself to disquiet the world , that was now become subject to him . in his expedition against the persians he had observed that custom which was established among them , by which all those nations esteemed themselves the slaves of their kings : so that they reigned over them with as absolute an authority , as a master of a family does over those of his houshold . this vile man intended to establish the same method of government in the roman empire : and he was so impudent , that ever after that victory , he used to magnify it : and tho he durst not openly attempt the reducing the romans to the same state , yet he behaved himself so as if he had considered all others as his slaves : he began with the degrading those that were in honourable imployments ; for he subjected the magistrates and the chief citizens of the greatest cities , that were in the eminentest rank , to the law of torture : and upon the slightest accounts , and in matters that were meerly civil , he would put them to death as the fancy took him , and for lesser transgressions he put them in irons ; he took such women of quality as pleased him out of their own houses , and brought them by violence to his seraglio : and when any were to be whipped , he had posts struck into the ground in his stables , to which they were tied , and so stretcht out , which was done more infamously than was wont to be done to the slaves themselves . what shall i say of his diversions , and his pleasure ? he had some bears that he had chosen out in a great many years among all others , that were the biggest and the fiercest that could be found , and that were by consequence so much the liker to himself : and when he intended to divert himself , he ordered one of these to be brought out , and a man to be thrown to him , not to be killed by him out-right , but to be eat up in morsels : and as the limbs of those wretches were torn asunder , he used to burst out most indecently into laughter ; so that he seldom went to supper before he had shed some mans blood. as for those that had no dignity , he condemned them to be burnt : and tho at first he gave the christians leave to be gone , yet afterwards he not only condemned them to torture , but to be burnt in flow fires : the manner of which was this , they were first chained to a post , then there was a gentle fire set to the soles of their feet , by which all the callus of the foot was contracted , till at last it fell all off from the bones ; then flambeaux were lighted and put out , and while they were hot , they clapt them to all the parts of their body , that so they might be tortured all over : and care was taken to keep them alive as long as was possible , by throwing cold water in their faces , and by giving them wherewith to wash their mouths , lest otherwise the violence of the misery that they suffered should have quite dried up their throats , and so choaked them . thus their sufferings were lengthned out whole days , till at last their skin being quite consumed by the fire , it at last reacht to their vitals , and then a great fire was kindled , into which they were thrown , and so their bodies were burnt to ashes : and their bones that were not quite burnt , were gathered , and ground to powder , and thrown into some river , or into the sea. xxii . these practices of cruelty , that were begun upon the christians , grew in him to such a habit , that he began to exercise them upon others : he never punished any gently : he seldom banished any , nor did he condemn many to imprisonment , or to work in mines : but his daily iudgments , which past the most easily from him , were the condemning men to be burnt , to be crucified , or to be thrown to wild beasts . his domesticks , and those whom he imploied in his affairs , were also severely disciplined by him . and as to all capital matters , beheading was thought an extraordinary grace , which was granted to very few ; so that it was lookt on as a reward for past services , to have the favour of a gentle death ; yet all these were small matters . eloquence was exstinguished by him ; the advocates were destroyed , and all that were learned in the law , were either banished , or put to death ; all sort of literature were reckoned among the ill arts , and all learned men were lookt on as ill-affected to the emperour , and were both hated and ruined by him . the iudges having superceded all the lawes , had a licence given them to do whatsoever they pleased ; and military men , who had no sort of learning , were made iudges in the several provinces , without having so much as assess●…rs assigned them . xxiii . he also took care to involve the whole empire into a general calamity , and under a common grievance , by the new tax that he laid both on the cities and provinces : which was so severely levied by the taxmen that he sent every where , that the state of affairs lookt as dismall as if the empire had been over-run by some enemy , or as if it had been brought under some heavy bondage . all mens fields were measured , an account was taken of all their trees and vines , and of all cattle ; all men were likewise polled , and where those lists were made , no difference was put between those that lived in town or countrey . and as ▪ the taxing was managed in the towns , without any distinction of the antient citizens , and those that were newly come out of the countrey , so in the villages all people came with their children and slaves to be listed : and upon the slightest suspitions men were whipt or tortured ; children were hanged up in the sight of their parents ; slaves were dealt with to accuse their masters , and wives to accuse their husbands . when no sort of evidence could be found , men were forced by torture to accuse themselves ; and when any thing was thus extorted from them , then they were proceeded against as if they had been clearly convicted of those crimes . no regard was had either to mens age or infirmity : for the sick and feeble were taxed as well as the whole : and in the estimate that was made of mens age , they added years to those that were not yet of age , as they detracted some from those that were past it . all places were full of grief and sorrow . and he adventured to put in execution against the romans , and those provinces that were subjected to them , all that any conquerours had done to those who being subdued by them , were by the law of war at their mercy : as if he would have revenged the tax that trajan put on his ancestors , the dacians , which he laid on them as a punishment for their frequent rebellions . after that all men were thus listed , then so much money was laid upon every mans head , as if he had been to pay so much for his life . yet this matter was not trusted to the first taxmen , but new sets of them one after another , were sent about ; that new men might always find new matter to work upon ; and tho they could really discover nothing , yet they encreased the numbers in the lists that they made , that so it might not be said , that they had been sent to no purpose . by the means of those oppressions , the stock of the cattle was much diminished , and many men died : and yet the taxes continued still to be levied , even for those that were dead : to such misery were men reduced , that even death did not put an end to it . the beggars were the only persons that were exempted from these oppressions ; for to have nothing to pay , was the only way to be covered from those exactions : but this cursed man took care to put an end to their want ; for he gave orders to gather them all together , and to put them in vessels , and when they were at sea , he ordered them to be all drowned . so compassionate was he , that he was resolved that no body should be extreamly miserable during his reign : thus he found out an effectual expedient to keep all men from pretending poverty , as an excuse from paying the taxes ; but he at the same time , against all the rules of humanity , put a multitude of miserable persons to death . xxiv . at last the judgments of god came to seise on him : and now all that success which he had hitherto enjoyed came to be changed . while he was appyling himself to those things of which i have given you an account , he had taken no care to destroy or to dethrone constance ; for he was waiting for his death ; yet he did not apprehend that it would come so suddenly as it did . but constance being now very sick , writ to him that he might send his son constantine to him , having made the same desire often before , but to no purpose : for maximian had no mind to let him go to his father : on the contrary , he had exposed him to many dangers , hoping that he would have fallen under some of them ; he durst not make an open attempt upon him , fearing a civil war , or rather a mutiny among the souldiers : but under a pretence of exercising him , he had engaged him to encounter with wild beasts , yet all was in vain ; for as the hand of god was visible in protecting him all along , so it appeared most signally now in the last and critical moment ; for the emperour not knowing how he could deny it any longer , granted him at last a pass , which had the seal put to it , while it was late ; but he ordered him to come to him next morning to receive his commands ; and he had resolved either to find some colour for hindring his journey , or to send orders to severus , to stop him on the way . constantine had some apprehension of that which might happen , and therefore as soon as the emperour went to sleep , after supper he took journey , and in the several stages thro which he past , he carried with him all the post horses . the emperour on purpose to delay him , did not open his door next day till it was noon , and then he called for him : but he heard that he had gone last night , immediatly after supper ; upon which the emperour fell into a most violent fit of rage ; and ordered some to be sent after him for fetching him back ; but when he understood that he carried all the post horses with him , so that this could not be done , the emperour could hardly forbear weeping . constantine made all the hast that was possible , and found his . father just breathing out his last . constance recommended his son to the souldiers , and delivered over the empire to him , and so he ended his life in all points as he wished to do . constantine was no sooner possessed of the empire , then he gave the christians the free liberty of their religion , so that his first edict was the restoring the exercise of this holy religion . xxv . within a few days after this , his image with the characters of the imperial dignity upon it , was sent to maximian : he was long in suspence , not knowing what he should do , he once intended to throw both the image it self , and likewise him that brought it into the fire : but his friends diverted him from this ; for they were sensible of the inconveniences of irritating the army , who were already displeased , because that no notice was taken of them in the nomination of the cesars : and they might probably enough have declared for constantine , if they should have seen him coming against maximian at the head of an army . these advices prevailed so far upon him , that tho it was much against his heart , yet he received the statue , and sent constantine the purple , that so it might appear that he had of his own accord received him into the partnership of the empire . but this broke all his measures ; nor could he now make another emperour supernumerary : yet he fell upon this contrivance , of declaring severus , who was the antienter person , emperour , and constantine not emperour ( as had been already done ) but cesar only , in partnership with maximin , that so instead of being next to himself , he might be the last of the four. xxvi . but while he thought that this matter was quite setled , he received a new alarm , which was , that maxentius , who was his own son-in-law , was declared emperour at rome . the occasion of which was this : maximian having resolved to exhaust the wealth of the whole empire by his impositions , proceeded to that pitch of madness , that he would not so much as grant the city of rome an exemption from 〈◊〉 tax : so he named the taxmen , who should go to rome to take a 〈◊〉 of all that were in the city ; he had also at the same time made an attempt upon some of the priviledges of the pretorian bands ; so a few of those guards that were left at rome , having found a fit opportunity for it , they first killed some of the iudges , and perceiving that the people , who were now much irritated , were not ill pleased at this , they declared maxentius emperour : when the newes of this was brought to maximian , he was a little disordered with the first surprise of it , yet he was not much terrified at it . he both hated the man , and could not resolve to make three cesars all at a time . he thought it was enough to have been for once constrained to do a thing to which he had not a mind , so he sent for severus , and persuaded him to assume the empire , and he sent him against maxentius with the army that had been under his fathers command , and ordered him to march streight to rome , knowing well that those souldiers , who had tasted so often of the pleasures of that place , would not only endeavour to preserve the city , but would desire to make it their chief quarter . maxentius beginning to reflect on the boldness of his undertaking ; as on the one hand he had some reason to hope , that the army which had so long been commanded by his father , might be easily practised upon to declare for himself ; so on the other hand he apprehended , that his father-in-law , searing the same thing , might leave severus in illyricum , and might come in person with his own army to destroy him : upon this he began to contrive the means of securing himself from this danger , which was hanging over his head ; so he sent the purple to his father , who had lived in campania ever since his resignation of the empire : and he declared him now for the second time emperour . his father , who had resigned against his will , and was longing for a change in the state of affairs , accepted of it very willingly . in the mean while severus marched with his army , and came at last to the very walls of rome . but the souldiers seeing against whom they were come , did immediately abandon him , and went over to him against whom they were sent . severus being thus forsaken , was forced to fly . but he was met on his way by maximian the elder , who had now assumed the empire , so that to avoid him he went to ravenna , and with a small handful of men he shut himself up in that place : and seeing that he must needs be delivered up , he resolved to prevent that , and both rendred himself , and gave back the imperial purple to him , from whom he had received it : but all that he could obtain by this submission , was a gentle death ; for order was given to cut his veins , so that he died easily . thus did maximian persecute those that were raised up by himself . xxvii . but maximian the elder knew well the madness of maximian the younger : and did not doubt but that as soon as the news of severus his death should be brought him , he would upon the heat of anger , into which that might throw him , march immediately with his army , and would perhaps bring along with him maximins forces ; and he knew well that he was not strong enough to resist so great an army , therefore he fortified rome , and having setled matters in the best method that he could , he marched into gaule , that so he might engage constantine into his interests , by offering him his younger daughter in marriage . but the other maximian having gathered together his troops , marched into italy , and came to rome , resolving to extirpate the inhabitants , and in particular to destroy all the senators : but he found all shut against him , and well fortisied : there was no hope of carrying it by a surprise , and it was a very hard thing to besiege it , nor had he men enough for the siege : for he had never before seen rome , nor knew how great it was ; but had fancied that it was no greater than those other cities which he had seen . some of the legions began to have a horror at the unnatural war , in which the father in-law was fighting against his son-in-law , and the roman souldiers were fighting against the city of rome ; upon which they carried their colours with them , and deserted , and many others were staggering , so that fearing severus's fate , he was so sunk with the fright into which this threw him , that casting himself at the souldiers feet , he begged that they would not deliver him up to his ennemy : and what with his submissions , and what with the great promises that he made them , he prevailed over them to continue true to him ; but he would not venture more with such troops : so he marched away in all haste , and in such great consternation , that if he had been pursued by ever so small a body , it had been an easy thing to have defeated him quite , whereof being apprehensive , he sent out his army in parties on all hands , with orders to plunder and destroy the whole countrey , that it might not be possible for an army that might pursue him to find whereupon to subsist ; so that all that part of italy , thro which this destroying army had marcht , was quite ruined ; all was spoiled , women were forced , virgins were ravished , and all men were tortured , that they might discover where their wives , their daughters or their treasures were concealed ; and the flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were driven before them , as they used to do the spoils that they took from the barbarians ; and thus he , who instead of being the roman emperour , was now become the plunderer of italy , retired back into his own division , after he had in this hostile manner destroyed the whole countrey . he had indeed long before this , at the time of his receiving the empire , declared himself such an enemy to the very name of a roman , that he once intended to have changed the very designation of the empire , so that instead of the roman , it should have been called the dacian empire . xxviii . after that he had left italy in this manner , the other maximian returned out of gaule , and he & his son were masters of that part of the empire , but the son was much more considered than the father , both because he had given the first rise to this revolution , and that he had invited his father to his share in it . the old man grew uneasy when he saw that he was not in all points the master , and by an emulation unworthy of a man , he envied his son that respect which he saw was payed him . this went so far with him , that he resolved to drive away his son , that so he might reign alone ; this he thought would be easily effected , and that the souldiers , who had abandoned severus , would stick firmly to him . upon which he called together an assembly of the people , and the souldiery , as if he had some matter of great consequence to be communicated to them . he harangued to them long upon the miseries that lay on the commonwealth , and at last he pointed out to his son , and said , he was the cause of all those miseries , and the chief occasion of all the calamities that lay upon the common-wealth : and thereupon he tore the imperial purple from him . he being thus stript of that badge of dignity , leapt down from the bench on which the emperour sat , and was well received by the souldiers , who expressed upon this occasion so much anger and fury , that the old man being asfrighted at it , fell into great disorder , and was driven out of rome almost as ignominiously as tarquin the proud had been . xxix . he retired first to gaule , and after that he had staid there for some time , he went to the other maximian , knowing him to be his sons inveterate enemy : he pretended that he went to concert with him some things relating to the state of the commonwealth ; but his true design was , that he might under this pretence of reconciliation , seek an occasion to murder him , and so possess himself of his share of the empire , since he was now thrust out of his own . diocles was then with the other maximian , for he had been sent for by him , that so his presence might give some more authority to his installing of licinius in severus's stead . so that both the old emperours happned to be present on that occasion : and now there were all at once six emperours . but maximian the elder finding that there was a distraction in the councils , and that he could not compass his designs , fled again for the third time ; and withdrew into gaule , with new projects no less wicked than the former had been : for tho both constantine and his father constance had married two of his daughters , yet he laid a design against his life , and in order to his effecting it , he laid aside his imperial habit. the franks were then in armes , so that constantine was obliged to march against them . but his father-in-law perswaded him , who as yet was in no distrust of him , that it was not necessary to carry his whole army with him : and that a small body would be sufficient for defeating those barbarians ; that as he might have the army that was left behind in his own power , so constantine having so few troops with him , might be infallibly over-whelmed by the franks . he was easily wrought on by his father-in-law , whose long experience gave great authority to his advices . so after that some dayes were past , and that maximian believed his son-in-law was now engaged among the barbarians , he again assumed the purple , brake in upon the publick treasure , and as he was wont to do , he distributed a large donative among the souldiers ; and gave out false reports concerning constantine : but all this was quickly turned upon him : for constantine was soon advertised of all that had past , and came back with almost incredible diligence , so that maximian had not time enough to settle himself in his new usurpation , but was surprised , and was also abandoned by the souldiery ; upon which he fled to marseilles , and shut himself up within it . constantine did quickly invest that place ; and having demanded a personal conference with him from the walls , he neither reproached nor threatned him , but only asked him , what he himself had done , and what was in maximians mind , that had pushed him on to act so indecently as he had done ? the other answered him very scurrilously : but those about him set open the gates to constantines souldiers : so this rebellious emperour and treacherous father-in-law , was now in constantines power ; who satisfied himself with laying his crimes before him , and so chiding him for them , he stript him of his imperial purple ; but carried his resentments no further ; and left him both his life and liberty . xxx . but maximian having lost both the dignity of an emperour , and the regard that was payed to him as a father-in-law , and not being able to bear this lowness of fortune , fell to contrive new plots : and such ill use made he of constantine's forgiving him , that he set on his daughter fausta , soliciting her , what with caresses , and what with entreaties , to contrive her husbands ruine , and promised her a better husband when that should be once done ; so he besought her to leave their bed-chamber door sometimes open , she undertook to do all that he begged of her , but revealed all to her husband : thus a train was laid for discovering his treasons , in an undeniable manner ; there was an eunuch put in constantines place , to suffer what was projected against him . maximian rose in the dead silence of the night ; and all things seemed favourable to him : he saw some few guards , that were at some distance from the bed-chamber ; he told them , that he was going to give his son-in-law an account of a strange dream that he had dreamt . so he went in armed , and having killed the eunuch , and fancying that he had executed his project , he came out boasting of what he had done . but he was not a little confounded when he saw constantine coming towards him with some souldiers about him . the dead body of the eunuch was drawn out , so that he was manifestly convicted of the murder : and he was so confounded with this discovery of his treachery , that he was , as it were struck dead with it , nor had he any sort of excuse or defence ready . the choise of the manner of his death was left to him , and he made choice of hanging . thus this great emperour , that in the long course of 20 years reign , had governed the roman empire with so much glory , was now forced to this most ignominious end of his execrable life . xxxi . the judgments of that god , who is the avenger of his truth and of his people , were in the next place no less visible upon the other maximian , that had been indeed the chief contriver of this persecution . he was now thinking to celebrate the festivals of the twentieth year of his reign , and tho he had promised that upon that occasion he would restore some of those severe exactions by which he had ruined so many of the provinces ; yet now instead of performing it , he made use of this solemnity to lay new taxes upon them . it is not easy to set forth the severity of these impositions that he raised upon this occasion , chiefly of those which were laid on the corn. there were souldiers , or rather hangmen , that waited on all the taxmasters : and men did not know whither to turn them . the officers came with their unreasonable demands , and those who had not wherewith to satisfy them , were subjected to great variety of tortures from which they had no way to save themselves , but by doing that which was impossible for them : men were beset with such numbers of souldiers , that they could hardly breath for them : there was little or no cessation in the trouble to which they were put all the year round ; the very iudges and the souldiers that attended upon them , fell into many quarrels amongst themselves : there was not a barn nor a vineyard that was not severely visited ; nor indeed was there enough left to preserve men alive . but tho this may seem a very intolerable thing thus to snatch out of mens mouths that bread which they had earned by their labour , yet all this was softned by the hopes that were given of what the emperour was to do in his twentieth year . it was expected that men should appear in rich clothes , and bring much gold and silver along with them , but it was not possible to provide this , except by the sale of the product of the ground ; and when this mad tyrant destroyed all that , so that all men were ruined in order to the raising of that treasure , which was designed to be laid out when the twentieth year should come ; yet the emperour lived not long enough for that . xxxii . when licinius was declared emperour , maximin resented it extreamly , and would neither be contented any longer with the title of cesar , nor allow licinius the precedence : upon this maximian sent many messengers to him , to induce him to submit to the order that he had setled ; and to pay the respect that was due to licinius's age , and to his gray hairs . but maximin stood upon his terms , and very boldly said , that he to whom the purple had been first given , ought alwayes to be considered as the ancienter emperour : and so he would neither yield to maximians intreaties , nor to his commands . the tyrant was extreamly troubled at this , and in his brutal way he complained of maximins ingratitude , whom he had raised from so mean a state to so great a dignity ; of which the other was now so unmindful as to reject all his orders , and his most earnest desires . but when he saw that nothing could prevail on him , he resolved to put an end to this second rank of dignity , and so to extinguish the title of cesar ; therefore as he declared himself and licinius the emperours , so he declared maxentius and constantine the sons of the emperours , ( by which maximin was quite shut out . ) but he not daunted with this , writ to him that upon the last occasion of a great assembly that met in the field of mars , he had been saluted emperour by the army . maximian received this with great regret , but yet upon it he declared all the four emperours . xxxiii . in the eighteenth year of his reign , he was visited by god with an incurable stroke : an ulcer bred in his secret parts , which daily grew and spread . the phisitians used both incisians , and other medecines ; but tho they brought it to a cicatrice , and seem'd to have healed it , yet it festred , and broke out again , and the humour did so corrode the vessels , that a vein burst , upon which he lost so much blood , that it had almost cost him his life ; for it was very hard to stop it . a new cure was carried on with that success , that the wound was again brought to a cicatrice . but upon a little shaking of his body , the vein broke again , and he lost at this second time more blood than he had done at first . he became pale , sunk , and wasted to nothing . so that the low estate of his body made that he lost no more blood. but now his wound became more dangerous , outward applications had no effect any more upon it : the cancer spread it self still further , and the more it was cut , it seemed to grow so much the faster ; all the most famous phisitians that were every where searcht for , began to lose hopes . and while all humane means became ineffectual , recourse was bad to their false gods , and prayers were made for his recovery to apollo and esculapius . and some relief was pretended to have come from apollo . but he grew still worse and worse . his death seemed very near , for the cancer had consumed all the bottom of his belly ; his guts were laid open , and were likewise rotting , and his whole breech was over-run with the putrifaction ; some bold , but unhappy phisitians would not for all this give over , and tho they had no hope of success , yet they were still trying new remedies . those drove the evil inwards , even thro his bones to the very marrow , and now worms began to breed within him . the smell that came from him was so noysome , that it was felt not only over all the palace , but in the very city likewise ; and the passages of his urin and excrements were now mixed , all the membranes being corroded that separated them . he was eat up by vermine , and the whole mass of his body turned into an universal rottenness . with all this , he had most intolerable pains , so that he often bellowed out , as if it had been a bull wounded . some living animals , and others that were boild , were applied to the putrified parts , to try if the heat would draw out the vermine : and this indeed opened as it were a vast hive of them : yet a second imposthumation discovered yet a much greater swarm , so that his gutts seemed to dissolve all into worms . a hydropsy joyned to all his other ills , did strangely disfigure his body : all his upper parts were exhausted quite , and dried like a meer skeleton , covered with a dead-like skin : but at the same time all his lower parts were swelled up like bladders , so that the shape of his feet was scarce to be seen any more . in all this misery did he languish a full year . his conscience was at last awakned , and he was forced to give praise to god : so that in the intervals of his pains , he cried often out , that he would rebuild the church of nicomedia , and that he would repair the mischiefs that he had done : and being in his last agonies , he published this following edict . xxxiv . * among our other cares , for the profit and advantage of the common-wealth , one was to reduce all people to observe the ancient lawes , and the puplick discipline of the romans ; and in particular to oblige the christians , who had forsaken the religion of their fathers , to return to a better mind : having observed , that they , by what reasons so ever moved to it , had been guilty of the wilfulness , and even madness of forsaking the ancient institutions of the first christians : and that according to their different humours and fancies , they were framing new lawes , by which they might govern themselves , and were falling into divisions , and forming many separated assemblies : upon this , we gave out our edicts , obliging them to return back to their first institutions ; which had great effects on many ; but while great numbers continued still firm to their rules , and as on the one hand they did not offer that worship , and that devotion to the gods that is due , so on the other hand they did not adore the god of the christians . we therefore having regard to all these things , and being moved by our princely compassion and our constant custom of gentleness towards all men , have thought fit to extend this our grace and pity even towards the christians : and therefore we do not only suffer them to continue in their religion , but suffer them to hold assemblies for their worship ; provided always that they do nothing contrary to the established discipline . by another ordinance we will signify our pleasure to our iudges , for their direction . in the mean while we expect that the christians , in return to this our clemency , shall pray to god for our health , and for the continuance of the prosperity of the common-wealth ; and so they may still hope to enjoy our protection in their respective dwellings . xxxv . this edict was published at nicomedia , the last of april in maximian's eighth consulate , and maximin's third . then when the prison doors were set open , were you , my dear donatus , with the other prisoners set at liberty , after you had been for the space of six years shut up . yet all this did not turn away the judgments of god from maximian : his putrefaction went on still , till it had quite wasted his whole substance ; so that not many days after the publication of this edict , he breathed out his last , having recommended his wife and his son to licinius , and having put them into his hands . this came to be known in nicomedia before the end of may , so that he did not attain to his twentieth year of empire , which was not to begin before the first of march following . xxxvi . as soon as ever maximin had heard the news of his death , he being then in the east , made all the hast that was possible to take into his possession all those provinces : and as licinius lingered , he possessed himself of all to the straits of thrace : and when he came into bithinia , he took care to recommend himself to the favour of the people , by discharging them of the tax that was laid on them . by this means the two emperours were now in ill terms , and almost engaged in a war : for they lay with their armies on the opposite shores . but expedients were found out for the making up of all their differences ; and they had an enterview upon the sea , in which they were not only reconciled , but they entred into an alliance : maximin went back , reckoning that he was now secure , and so he governed syria and egypt just as he had done formerly : and tho the christians were now received under the protection of the government , yet he broke all this , and he set on underhand the procuring addresses from the several cities to be made to him , for hindring the christians to build meeting houses within their bounds ; that he might seem to be in some sort forced to do that which he had resolved on of his own accord . so having granted the demand of those addresses , he made the chief of the priests in the several cities out of those who were of the government of the city , which had not been practised in any former time , and he ordered them to offer every day sacrifices to all the gods , and to call in the assistance of all the ancient priests , for looking after the christians , that they might neither have publick meeting-houses , nor assemble themselves in secret for their worship : and required them that they should seise on them where-ever they could find them , and either force them to offer sacrifice , or deliver them to the magistrates . and not contented with this subordination that he had setled among the priests , he ordered one in every province to be over all the priests of the province ; and as he raised them up to this high degree of authority , so for adding some splendor to it , he ordered them to wear that sort of white habits edged about with gold , which might only be worn by the chief officers of the court. he was resolved to put the same things in execution against the christians in the other provinces , which he had already done in the east . for that he might seem merciful towards them , he would not suffer them to be put to death , but he ordered many other punishments against them , such as the picking out their eyes , the cutting off their hands or feet , and the cutting off their noses or their ears . xxxvii . while he was designing all these things , he received letters from constantine , which put him in such a fright , that he resolved to dissemble for some time . yet whensoever any christian was found out , he was drowned secretly and in the night ; nor did he discontinue his custom of offering sacrifices every day in the palace . he also began another custom , of ordering all the meat that was to be served up to his table , to be offered up first by the priests at some altar , and not to be killed by his own cooks ; so that nothing was presented to his table , but that which had passed thro some rites or other of their idolatry ; by which means it was that none could eat with him , without being in some manner or other polluted with those abominations . in all other things he followed the pattern that his master had set him : for if there was any thing left by diocletians or maximians oppressions , he took care to raise all that so exactly , as to be sure to leave nothing to any that should come after him : so that without any sort of shame , he robbed the people of all they had : he shut up all mens granaries and store-houses , and forced them to pay by an advance the taxes of the year to come . so that there not being seed to sow the ground , this brought on a most intolerable famine . whole droves of cattle and sheep were brought for his daily sacrifices , with which he fed his domesticks and his souldiers so copiously , that they came to despise the corn , that was brought them for their provision , so that without any care they threw it often out of doors . and as he had a vast army , so he clothed his guards very richly , and furnished them with much gold , and the commonest and rawest of his souldiers had silver in abundance given them . he was also extream liberal to the barbarians . all the praise that is due to him is , that he was like those merciful robbers , who are contented to strip men without killing them ; for if he did not put people to death , that so he might seise on their estates , yet upon every occasion he either took away all they had , or gave it to such as begged it of him . xxxviii . but there was one monstrous wickedness , that exceeded all the rest , which he carried to such a blind and brutal degree , that one cannot find words equal to it , for the indignation which this must give , carries ones thoughts further than his tongue will serve him , to set it forth as it ought to be . his eunuchs , and the other instruments of his appetites , searcht in all places , and wheresoever they found a beautiful woman , she was dragged away without any regard had of her husband or her parents : those whom he imployed in this service , stript both married women and maids , and so viewed them naked , and if any refused to submit to this , she was drowned as guilty of high treason . several married men , whose wives were thus violently taken from them , not being able to bear the grief which this gave them , murdered themselves : and under this monster , there was no other security for modesty , but ugliness . at last he carried this licentiousness to such a pitch , that no body was suffered to marry without his leave , and without his taking all liberties with the bride , before the bridegroom was admitted . he took the daughters of the men of quality , and after he himself had corrupted them , he gave them to his slaves to marry them . his courtiers were easily induced to follow his wicked example , and to defile the beds of such as depended on them : for they saw that no body durst punish it . those who were of ordinary rank , were ravished by every body at his pleasure ; and such as were of the chief rank , and so could not be ravished , were begged of the emperour as boons , and when he signed any such grant , the father durst not refuse it , but saw that he must either die , or accept of some barbarian for his son-in-law . for he had scarce any other domesticks or guards , but such as had been driven out of their countrys by the goths in the twentieth year of diocletians reign , during that festivity . all these came and delivered themselves up to maximian , and so he made use of those who had fled from being enslaved by the goths , as his instruments for enslaving the romans . maximin being environed with such guards , and depending so entirely upon them as he did , treated all the rest of the east with the utmost degree of contempt . xxxix he made this the measure of his appetites , to esteem every thing lawful to which his desires carried him ; and according to this rule , tho he had acknowledged the empress valeria , that was maximians widdow , his adopted mother , yet that did not secure her ; she had come to live in his court , reckoning that she would be safer there than in any other place , since he had a wife of his own . but nothing was sacred to him , when he was pushed on by his impure appetites ; she was yet in deep mourning , the year not being out , when he proposed marriage to her , offering to divorce his wife , if she would accept of him . her answer was such as could have been expected from her ; that she could not treat of her marriage , while she was yet in her mournings , and while the ashes of her husband , his adopted father , were not yet quite cold . she added , that it was a strange piece of impiety in him , to offer to put away his wife , who had been always faithful to him : which let her see what she herself might look for from him ; and in the last place , it seemed to her no small crime , as it was a thing without an example , for a woman of her rank to think of a second husband . all this was reported to maximin in her name : but he was so enraged at it , that his brutal desires were now changed into wrath and fury . he presently put her under a proscription , he seised on her goods , he took her servants from her , and tortured some of her eunuchs to death ; and sent her and her mother into banishment ; but not to any certain place : but ordered her to be hurried about from place to place : and he charged such women as were dearest to her , with adultery , and upon that forged pretence he condemned them . xl. there was an ancient woman of quality , whom valeria had always considered as a mother , and maximin believed that the refusal that was made of him , was advised by her ; so he ordered eratineus the president to put her to an infamous death ; with her he ordered two other women of the same quality to be likewise executed . the one was mother to one of the vestal virgins of rome , the other was the widdow of a senator and was the empresses kinswoman : but both their crime was , that as they were beautiful , so they were no less modest . they were violently seised on , not as if they had been to be carried before a court of justice , but as if they had fallen into the hands of robbers , yet there was no accuser to lay any thing to their charge . but a iew was found out , who being condemned for some other crimes , hoped to obtain his pardon by becoming a false witness against them . the judge who condemned them upon this evidence , carried them out of town to their execution with a guard ; for he was affraid that he should have been stoned by the people , this tragedy was acted at nice . the few being put to the torture , was forced to accuse the women as he had been instructed : and when they offered to say any thing for themselves , they were beaten by the tormenters ; so that notwithstanding their innocence , they were condemned . there was a great lamentation raised upon this , not only by the husband of one of them , to whom his wife was extream dear , but by all the multitude , that so unusual a spectacle had brought together : and so apprehensive were the judges of the peoples using force for rescuing those persons out of their hands , that there was drawn about them a body of archers , and others of the lightly armed souldiers : and with this guard were they led out to execution . nor was there any care taken of their burial , for their servants were forced to abandon them ; yet some of their friends , moved with compassion , came secretly and buried them . the adulterous iew had not the pardon that was promised him , so seeing that he was to be hanged , he discovered all this mystery , and with his last breath he declared to all that were looking on , that the women had suffered unjustly . xli . the empress being now banished to the deserts of syria , found a secret way of acquainting her father diocletian with her condition . he upon that sent to maximin , and desired that his daughter might be sent to him ; but tho he repeated this over and over again , all was without effect : so after all , he sent a kinsman of his own , that was an officer of the army , in a high post , and in great credit , to whom he gave in charge , to put maximin in mind of the obligations that he had received from him : but this intercession was as ineffectual as the others had formerly been . xlii . at this time constantine gave order that the statues of maximian the elder , should be every where pulled down ; and that such pictures or figures of him , as had been any where set up , should be removed . now diocletians statues and his being alwayes coupled together , the disgrace of the one drew the others likewise after it . diocletian seeing this affront put on his statues , which no emperour before him had ever seen done in his own time , and being now over-charged with this redoubling of grief , he resolved to put an end to his life . he was in a perpetual uneasiness , and could neither eat nor sleep . he was heard to sigh and groan continually , and was seen oft to weep ; and to be tumbling sometimes on his bed , and sometimes on the ground . thus he that had reigned over the roman empire for twenty years , was now so cast down and mortified , that he dyed partly of hunger , and partly thro anguish of spirit . xliii . there was only one of the enemies of god now left alive , namely maximin , whose fall and death comes to be related in the next place . he bare a great envy to licinius ever since he had been preferred by maximian to himself ; and tho he had lately entred into an alliance with him , yet when he heard that licinius was engaging himself into a straiter alliance with constantine , and was going to marry his sister , he concluded that this union of those two emperours , must certainly be fatal to himself ; so he sent secretly to rome , and writ very kindly to maxentius , desiring his alliance and friendship , which maxentius embraced very readily , as if it had been somewhat sent him from heaven ; for he had declared war against constantine , upon the pretence of revenging his fathers blood. from this some have imagined , that the father had only pretended to fall out with his son , that he might have the more credit with the other emperours ; and by that means find an occasion of destroying them all ; that so he and his son might have the whole empire between them : but this is a mistake ; for it is certain , that maximian the elder had a mind to destroy his son with the rest , and that when this was done , he intended that diocletian & he should again re-assume the empire . xliv . now the war was begun between maxentius and constantine , which maxentius managed by his generals , but would not stir out of rome himself ; having had a response , that whensoever he went out of the gates of rome , he should perish . he had much the better army : for he had not only those troops that had abandoned severus , but likewise others that he had brought together out of manritania and italy . the two armies fought , and maxentius's had the better ; yet constantine did not for that lose heart , but having resolved to put all to hazard , he marched on to the gates of rome , and posted his army at the other side of the milvian bridge : the 27 th of october was now near , which was the anniversary of maxentius's coming to the empire : and now his fifth year was almost out . constantine was warned in a dream to put the divine mark , the sign of the cross , upon the shields of his souldiers , and so to give battel ; he took care to execute this , and ordered the letter x with the letters of the name of christ mixed in a monogramme , to be drawn on all their shields ; and having made this his distinction , he drew out his army . the enemy's forces came likewise out , and crossed the bridge , but maxentius himself came not with them ; they drew up both in the same manner , and both sides fought with great courage , neither of them giving ground to the other ; in the mean while there was a sedition raised in rome , and an out-cry was made against maxentius , as if he had taken more care of himself than of the publick ; and while he was entertaining the people with the spectacles of the hippodrome , there was a universal cry raised , that constantine could not be withstood ; this put him into a great disorder , so he made the sybilline books to be searcht , in which it was found , that the enemy of the romans was to perish that day . this gave him such assured hopes of victory , that he marched out in person to his army : as soon as he had passed the bridge , it was broke behind him . upon this the battel was renewed , and the hand of god appeared over the armies . maxentius was beat , and when he thought to repass the bridge , he found it broke , and was carried by the crowd of his men , that were flying , into the tiber , and so was drowned there . an end being thus put to the war , constantine was declared emperour , with great expression of joy , both by the senate and people of rome . among maxentius's papers he found maximins letters , by which he discovered his treacherous designs against himself : he also saw the imperial statues that he had sent to maxentius . the senate did constantine the honour to order his name to be put first in order , before the other emperours ▪ tho that was claimed by maximin , who was as much struck with the news that was brought to him of romes being thus freed from tyranny , as if it had been a defeat given himself ; and as soon as he heard of the senates decree , giving constantine the precedence , he treated constantine in a most reproachful and insolent manner . xlv . constantine having setled matters at rome , went during the winter to millan : and thither did licinius come to marry his sister . maximin hearing that they were now amused with the solemnities of this wedding , marcht with his army out of syria during the bitter cold of the winter ; and having harassed his army with great marches , he got to bithinia : for the season was very severe , and both by snow and rains the wayes were very deep ; and what with cold and what with hard labour , he lost all his horse , so that all along where he had marched , he might have been traced by them ; which was but an ill omen to his men : nor did he stop within his own limits , but having crost the straits of thrace , he came with his army to the gates of bysance . there was a garrison put within that place by licinius for all events ; so he shudied first to corrupt the souldiers by presents and promises , and then to terrify them by threatning them with a siege ; but both the one and the other proved equally ineffectual : they had eleven days assigned them , for advertising the emperour , and having no return from him , they being disheartned by the smallness of their numbers , rendred themselves . from thence he advanced to heraclea ; and being stopt there in the same manner as at bysance , he lost some days there likewise . but by this time licinius having marcht as quick as was possible , had got to adrianople with a few men about him ; in the meanwhile maximin having likewise taken perinthus , which gave him a new stop , he advanced 18 miles beyond it , where he posted himself : he could go no further ; for licinius had possessed himself of the post that lay next to that , which was likewise eighteen mile distant from it ; and having drawn together as great a body as he could on the sudden , he marched on towards maximin , on design rather to hinder his progress , than to enter into action ; for as he did not intend to fight , so he had no prospect of victory ; for he had not above 30000. men : whereas maximin was at the head of an army of 70000 : for licinius's army was scattered over a great many provinces , and he could not bring all his troops together in so short a time . xlvi . while the two armies were thus so near one another , that it was expected that the matter should come to a speedy decision , maximin made a vow to iupiter , that if he got the victory , he would utterly extinguish the very name of a christian. the next night an angel appeared to licinius in his sleep , and ordered him to rise immediately , and joyn with his whole army in calling on the great god , and promised him an assured victory in case he should do this . licinius dreamt , that after this he rose , and that the angel dictated to him the very words in which he should osser up his prayers . and as soon as he was awake , he called for one of his secretaries , and ordered him to write down the words , which were these , we pray to thee , o great god ; we pray to thee , o holy god ; we commit the iustice of our cause to thee ; we commit our lives to thee ; we commit this our empire to thee . it is by thee that we do live ; our conquests and our happiness come from thee : o thou great and good god , hear our prayers ; we stretch out our hands to thee : hear us therefore thou holy and great god ▪ many copies were quickly made of this prayer , which were sent about to all the ossicers , and all were required to make their souldiers get it by heart . this raised the courage of the whole army , who now lookt on the victory as assured , since it was so divinely fore ▪ told . maximin resolved to give battel on the first of may , which was the anniversary of his coming to the empire , this being now the eighth year compleat since he was raised to that dignity : and thus it happened , that as maxentius was defeated at rome on his anniversary , so maximin run the same fortune on his ; only maximin would needs anticipate his own ruin ; for he would needs sight the day before it , that so he might celebrate his anniversary with the more pomp , when he had defeated his enemy . when licinius heard that maximin's army was advancing , he likewise drew out his , so that they were in view one of another . there lay between them a great and barren plain , called serenum . licinius's men laid down their shields , and took off their head pieces , and with hands lifted up to heaven , they said their prayer , the emperour himself beginning , and the officers and souldiers following him in it ; which was pronounced so loud , that the other army that was to fall before them , heard the noise of it . the prayer was three times repeated , and that being done , the souldiers being now wonderfully animated , put on their head-pieces , and took up their shields . the emperours themselves parlyed a little ; maximin would hearken to no propositions of peace ; for he despised licinius , and fancied that all his souldiers would have deserted him , because he was more sparing in his bounty to them ; whereas maximin was extreamly prosuse ; and as he had begun with licinius , not doubting but that his army would without giving any stroke come over to him , so when he had thus doubled his forces , he resolved to go against constantine . xlvii . the two armies drew at last so near one another , that the signals were given , and the ensigns on both sides advanced ; licinius's men gave the charge with great vigour ; but the others were so disordered and terrified , that they could neither draw their swords nor throw their darts : maximin run about on all hands , perswading licinius's men to turn over to him , what with presents , what by intereaties ; but all was to no effect ; and being charged in person , he was forced to retire . his army fell before the enemy without being able to make any resistance ; and that vast body of men was mowed down by a handful . they seemed to have forgot their rank , their courage , and their former exploits ; and the hand of god was visible in delivering them over to have their throats cut by their enemies , as if they had come into the field for an execution , and not for a battle . when maximin saw that the matter went far otherwise than he had lookt for , and that great numbers of his men were killed , he threw away his purple , and put on the habit of a slave , and so crossed the straits ; for now the one half of his army was destroyed , and the other half either fled or rendered it self . and since the emperour had deserted his army , the souldiers were not at all ashamed of deserting his interests : he made great hast ; for in a night and a day he sled to nicomedia ; and got thither the first of may in the night , which was an hundred and theerscore miles distance from the place where the battel was fought : he staied not long there , but having taken along with him his sons and his wife , and some few of his domesticks , he went to the east ; yet he stopt in cappadosia , and there he took the purple again , having gathered together some souldiers partly of his own straglers , and partly of some troops that came to him from the east . xlviii . licinius , after he had distributed a part of his army into quarters , crossed the straits , and went over to bithinia with the rest . when he entred into nicomedia , he offered up his thanksgivings to god , by whose aid he had obtained the victory : and on the thirteenth of iune , constantine and he being now in their third consulate , the following edist was sent to the president . whereas both i constantine the emperour , and i licinius the emperour , had a very succesful congress at millan , in which we treated of all things that related to the profit and safety of the publick ; among other matters we thought that nothing could be of greater advantage to our people , or concern our selves more , than the setling of those matters , in which the worship of the deity consisted ; and therefore we judged it meet to allow to all christians and others , free liberty to follow that religion which they should like best : that by this means that supream deity , which dwells on high , might be gracious and favourable to us , and to all our subjects : therefore upon due deliberation and weighty reasons , we have thought sit , that no man may be denied the liberty of professing either the christian religion , or any other , as he shall judge it best ; that so the great god , whom we worship with free minds , may in all things bless us with his gracious favour and protection . therefore we will have you to know , that we have thought fit to annull all those restrictions , that might seem to be in our former edict addressed to you , relating to the christians : and we do now ordain , that every one that is disposed to adhere to that religion , shall be suffered to continue in it with all freedom , and without any disquiet or molestation : and we have explained this the more copiously to you , that so you might understand that we have given a free and absolute liberty to the said christians to profess their religion . and since we have allowed this liberty to them , you will likewise understand , that we allow the like free and full liberty to all those who profess any other religion ; that só according to the quiet to which we have brought the empire , every man may enjoy the free exercise or that religion of which he shall make choice ▪ for we will do nothing by which any man may suffer any prejudice either in his honour , or upon the account of his religion . with relation to the christians , we have thought it sit likewise to add this particular ; that the places in which they used to hold their assemblies , and concerning which there were some rules set in a former edict addrest to you , that have been purchased either from our exchequer , or from some particular persons , shall be restored to them , without any excuses or delayes ; and without either asking or taking of any money from them upon that account . we order likewise restitution to be made by all that have obtained grants of them ; and that all such as may have either purchased them , or obtained grants of them , shall in order to their being repaired by us for their loss , go to some magistrate , that so we , according to our clemency , may relieve them . in the mean while , we order you to take care , that without any further delay , restitution be made to the christians . and whereas the christians had besides those places in which they used to hold their assemblies , others likewise that belonged to them as a body corporate ; that is to say , to their churches in common , and not to any particular persons among them ; we comprehend all these under the same law ; and order them also to be restored to the corporations or assemblies of the christians , and that without any fraud or dispute , upon the fore-mentioned terms ; that those who restore them freely , may hope to be recompensed by us according to our bounty . in all which matters you are required to give your most effectual assistance to the bodies corporate of the christians , that so our pleasure may be the more speedly executed ; and by which we shall the more effectually secure the publick peace . and we will be hereby assured , that the divine favour , of which we have had hitherto such proofs , shall always watch over us , and that we our selves shall be always succesful , as well as the publick happy . and that the tenor of this our gracious edict may be universally known , we order you to affix attested copies of it in all places , that so no man may pretend ignorance . when the edict was published , licinius did likewise by word of mouth entreat all persons , to see the meeting-houses of the christians restored again to them : and thus from the first beginning of the persecution , and from the destruction of the church of nicomedia , to the rebuilding of it , there were ten years and about four moneths . xlix . but while licinius was pursuing after maximin , he still sled before him , and possessed himself of the narrow passages of mount taurus , where he built forts to stop them up , that so it might not be possible for licinius to pass them ; but he took a compass to the right hand : and when maximin saw that there was now nothing to stop him , he fled to tarsus ; but being like to be shut up there , both by sea and land , and seeing no possibility of escape , the anguish of his spirit and his fear , made him fly to death , as the only way to escape from those evils with which god was pursuing him . he first eat and drunk to a great excess , as is ordinary for those to do who reckon that it is their last meal that they eat , and then he took poyson ; but his stomach being so over-charged , made that the poyson had not a present operation on him ; but instead of killing him out-right , it threw him into a lingering torment , not unlike the plague ; by which his life was so far lengthned out to him , that he felt his misery long : the poyson began now to work violently on him , it burned his vitals so much , that his insufferable pains threw him into a phrenesy ; so that for four days time he eat earth , which he dug up with his hands , and swallowed it up very greedily . the rages of his pain were so intolerable , that he run his head against a wall with such force , that his eyes started out of the eye-holes ; but as he lost the sight of his eyes , a vision represented himself to his imagination , as standing to be judged by god , who seemed to have hosts of ministers about him all in white garments ; at this sight he cried out as if he had been put to the torture , and said , that it was others , and not he , that were to blame ; yet afterwards he confessed his own guilt , being as it were forced to it by the torments that he suffered : he called upon iesus christ , and with many tears he begged that he would have pity on him ; he roared and groaned as if he had been inwardly burnt up : and thus did he breath out his defiled soul , in the most dreadful manner that can be imagined . l. thus did god destroy all the persecutors of his great name , both root and branch : for licinius being now setled in the empire , gave order to put both valeria and caudidian to death . valeria had been still preserved by maximin , who notwithstanding all his rage against her , and tho he saw now his own end approaching , yet had not the boldness to put her to death . caudidian was her adopted son , for his mother was a concubine of maximians ; but valeria being barren , had adopted him . she had no sooner got the news of maximins death , then she came to his court in disguise , that she might see what would become of caudidian ; but he appearing publickly in nicomedia , and fancying that respect would be shewed him because of his birth , and apprehending nothing less than what befel him , was put to death : upon which valeria fled away immediately . licinius ordered likewise severian to be put to death . he was severus's son , and was now grown up to a mans age , and had accompanied maximin in his slight ; but it was pretended , that he was aspiring to the empire , and for that he was condemned . all these had great apprehensions of licinius , looking on him as an ill man ; only valeria , who had refused to resign her pretensions to maximin , had resolved to do it in his savour . licinius ordered likewise maximins eldest son , who was then eight years old , and his daughter that was only seven , and had been contracted to caudidian , to be put to death . and before that was executed , their mother was drowned in the river orontes , where she had made many chast women to be drowned formerly . and thus thro the just and righteous judgment of god , all those wicked persons came to suffer the same things that they had done to others . li. valeria her self wandred about in the habit of a peasant , during the space of eighteen moneths ; but was at last discovered at thessalonica , where both she and her mother suffered . the two empresses were led to the place of execution thro a vast multitude of spectators , who were struck with the compassion that was raised by so lamentable a sight : their heads were cut off , and their bodies were cast into the sea , so fatal did their dignity and valeria's chastity prove to them . lii . i have given you this recital upon the credit of persons that were well informed of those matters : and i have thought sit to write them just as they were transacted , that so the true account of those great revolutions might not be lost ; and that it might not be in the power of any , who intended to write the history of that time , to corrupt the truth , or to suppress either their sins against god , or gods judgments upon them . it is to his insinite mercy that we owe our thanksgivings ; who has at last visited the world , and has gathered together and recovered his flock , that was partly scattered abroad , and partly torn by ravenous wolves ; and who has destroyed those beasts of prey , that had wasted the pastures of his flock , and had broken their folds . where are now those once glorious and renowned names of iovins and herculins , that were assumed with so much insolence by diocletian and maximian , and that were afterwards derived by them to their successors ! god has blotted them out , and rased them-out of the world. let us then celebrate gods triumph over his enemies with all the elevations of joy : let us sing of his victories , and praise him for them ; and let us beg of him by our most earnest prayers , repeated day and night , that he will forever establish that peace which he has given to his people after ten years of war. and you in particular , my most dear donatus , who deserves that god should hear your prayers , intercede earnestly with him , that he may alwayes shew mercy to his servants ; that he may be gracious and favourable to them ; that he may protect his people from all the snares and assaults of the devil ; and that the present flourishing estate of his church may be always preserved safe and undisturbed . finis . errata . pag. 8. lin . 4 dele if. p. 12. l 11. read greater . p. 17. l. 6. for as r. a. pag. 49 l. 5. after be r. purchased by . p. 61. l. 26. the , r. she . p. 62. l. 17. mepsia r. moesia . p. 86. l. 3. after place r. you . p. 90. l. 6. after sickness r. so . p. 92. l. 12. composed r. compassed . p. 104. l. 4 were r. was . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a48024-e5790 * not that the christians had any images in their temples , as lactantius himself testifies , de origine erroris , lib. 2. pag. 65 , 66 , 67 , 107 , but the heathens having images in all their temples , were ready to conceive the like of them . * vide euseb. eccles. hist. lib. 8. cap. 1. an exhortation to peace and union a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury, at the election of the lord-mayor of london, on the 29th of september, 1681 / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1681 approx. 74 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a69658 wing b5787 estc r20821 12047039 ocm 12047039 53102 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a69658) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 53102) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:9, 861:2) an exhortation to peace and union a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury, at the election of the lord-mayor of london, on the 29th of september, 1681 / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 35, [1] p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1681. wing formerly listed this work as b5877 (cancelled in wing cd-rom, 1996) under title: a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury at the election of the lord-mayor of london on the 29th of september, 1681. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york, and huntington library. advertisement: p. [1] at end. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -n.t. -matthew xii, 25 -sermons. peace -religious aspects -early works to 1800. peace -biblical teaching -early works to 1800. sermons, english -17th century. 2007-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-04 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-06 robyn anspach sampled and proofread 2007-06 robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ward mayor . curia specialis tent ' in festo s. michaelis archang . anno regni regis caroli ii , angliae , &c. xxxiii . this court doth desire doctor burnet to print his sermon , preached this morning at st. lawrence church , before the lord-mayor , aldermen , and citizens of this city . wagstaffe . an exhortation to peace and vnion . a sermon preached at st. lawrence-jury , at the election of the lord-mayor of london , on the 29th of september , 1681. by gilbert burnet , d. d. london ; printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxi . mat. 12. 25. and jesus knew their thoughts , and said unto them , every kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided against it self , shall not stand . there are some truths so clear in their own evidence , that tho they give us light to prove other things , yet they themselves admit of no proof , but are to be reckoned amongst those notices that the mind naturally has , which she can neither shake off , nor dispute . among those this in my text is to be numbred ; for union and peace in society , as it is the chief end and design of all those combinations of men that run together ; so it is the main support of every state. and tho governments have differed in almost all other maxims ; some being founded on vertue , others on vice ; some intended to carry on justice , and others set up on robbery and piracy ; yet all agree in this , that they must have peace at home : and tho many have differed in the premises , how to compass it ; yet all agree in the conclusion , that it must be purchased at any rate . a government that admits of hostility at home , must soon turn felo de se ; for this is as a disease that consumes the vitals , and when they are wasted , the exhausted carcase will be exposed to every beast of prey that seeks to devour it . a man inwardly sound can resist many accidents , and live after many wounds , and a great loss of blood and spirits ; whereas he that is vitiated within , is feeble in every thing that he undertakes , and easily overthrown by any impression made upon him : so the mightiest states , when broken within themselves , are too weak for a much less power that is entire . these things are so plain , that it were a loss of time and words to dwell upon them . and so our saviour refers to them , being to answer the most malicious and unreasonable cavil that ever was , by which the pharisees endeavoured to take off the conviction which his miracles had left on all that saw them , representing him an impostor , and in confederacy with the prince of darkness , so that these marvellous effects followed upon that agreement . this they at this time only whispered amongst themselves , perhaps they only thought it ; but christ , to give them a further discovery of that divine power that dwelt in him , shewed that he had another of god's attributes communicated to him , his omniscience , as well as his omnipotence , for he knew their thoughts . and being to confute this , so as it should not be possible to reply upon him , he begins with the words in my text , as a maxim so certain , that all constitutions , good or bad , must agree in it , all that are associated into any body must take care not to destroy themselves . and therefore since his whole doctrine tended to the advancement of the glory of god , to the bearing down of all vice , immorality , and mischief , which are the strong-holds of satan , and of that ridiculous and impious way of worship , and idolatry , which was set up by the devil's means , the inference was as certain , as any proposition in euclid is , that therefore there was no secret compact between them . i shall say no more on the occasion that led our saviour to speak these words , but shall come to consider them in themselves ; i shall not enter into a panegyrick of unity , or a declamation aganst discord , a man may as well praise light , or commend health , or shew his eloquence in disparaging the gout or stone ; these things are such , that every hearer is before hand convinced of them . i shall therefore handle this subject wholly with respect to religion , that so it may become this place and occasion , and shall speak to these heads . i. there is nothing that defeats the ends of religion more , and does more naturally lead to all manner of sin and impiety , which must end in temporal as well as eternal ruin , than intestine heats and divisions about it . 2. the beginnings of heats are often very inconsiderable , but by a confluence of unhappy circumstances they soon grow to be almost incurable ; a division will end in destruction . and therefore the first motions towards them ought to be watched over , and stopp'd , otherwise these bodies so divided cannot long stand . 3. i shall shew the weakness of all those pretences that are used to justify factions and divisions . 4. i shall propose to you the remedies , to which the gospel directs us , for the preventing and curing this mischief . and , 5. i shall plainly apply all to our present circumstances , and the business of this day . to return , 1. there is nothing that defeats the ends of religion more , and does more naturally lead to all manner of sin , immorality , and vice , which must bring on ruine in conclusion , than intestine heats and divisions . if we have a right notion of religion , we will not consider it only as a systeme of opinions , or a circle of some forms , much less as an engine to raise the credit and interest of a sort of men that dispense it ; but as an internal principle and discipline , which tames and governs the mind , and all its motions and appetites , and directs the course of ones life . now the irregular propensities that are in every one , some being of one sort , and some of another , are so violent and sudden , that the first performance of religion is to qualify and break these . this cannot be done without much thought , and great recollection ; and in order to that a serene and calm temper is the best disposition possible ; of which the philosophers were so aware , that they began their instructions at those purgative doctrines , before they carried on their auditors to their sublimer speculations . and the quiet of a society is not more necessary to the happiness and advancement of it , than quiet thoughts are to make a man wise or good . therefore every thing that raises disturbances within is to be guarded against , as that which not only produces the mischiefs that visibly attend it , but really puts a man quite out of order , slackens the watch he ought to have over himself , and sets him on to , or at least very gently excuses him to himself , in many unjust and violent things , which seem often almost necessary to the support of an interest or party . these heats are bad enough , if grounded upon civil matters ; but in those there is still some check from the thoughts of religion , or the return of a sacrament-day , which will in some measure bring a man into tune , and will at least let him see he is out of the way . but if they are grounded on differences of religion , the evil is less curable , if the light that is in us be darkness , how great is that darkness ! that which will moderate our other quarrels , encreases this , when we imagine we are doing god good service ; and so the more strict we are , we become the more hot and peevish ; in which we will not only be applauding our selves , but instead of being reproved for it by those , who would perhaps chide us for animosities in other things , we will be cherished and encouraged by them , as persons zealous in their matters , or as many call them , in the concerns of religion . in this we will by degrees become so corrupted , that one of the worst vices will carry the name of one of the best vertues , our wrath and malice will be called zeal . the ill effects that this will have on our selves will be , that as this temper grows upon us , all our inward seriousness will in a great measure abate , and turn meerly to a form ; and with that many other sins will creep in upon us ; yea , we will perhaps grow to that degree , that we will imagine , that by our rage and heat we offer up some acceptable sacrifice to god , to compensate for our other disorders . we will bear with many ill things in others , because they are of our party , whom otherwise we would detest for their ill lives ; and by conversing much with them , we will contract at least a familiarity with their vices . and it is very likely the contagion will not stop at that , there will follow a train of the most unjust and malicious things possible ; such as the making and spreading lies and calumnies , and the supporting them by oaths and villanies . and if this humor goes on , it will carry those that are corrupted with it to persecution , if they have power , and to rebellion if they have not . and oppression will make a wise man mad , but much more one that is weak and mis-led . and thus a man suffers mightily in the peace and purity of his mind , by admitting those soure and ill-natured passions into it . and societies suffer no less : the private affections of relations , the kindness of neighbour-hoods , the order of corporations , and the strength of a nation , are dissolved by nothing so much , as by those peevish and ill-temper'd humors : so that the publick peace , and the security of the whole , is sacrificed to those domestick heats , whilst every party is more concerned to ruine the other , than even to preserve themselves by a common defence . and those heats once kindled , burn longer , and deeper , and are apt to break out after they seem to be quenched , when ever a new opportunity blows upon them . that this temper is certainly followed with those effects , will easily appear to every one that has seriously observed the advances it has made upon himself , if at any time he has given way to it . and those who have looked into the histories of past times , see almost in every age the ruins that it has made ; as rocks are known by the wrecks that float about them . shall i tell you what havock this made among the jews ? what a desperate and mad sort of robbers and murderers their zealots became ? the humor was far advanced when st. paul was one of them ; for he going under the authority of that character , made havock of the church , and went from city to city , to imprison and bind all that called on the name of christ . this grew afterwards to a pitch of madness that is scarce credible , if we had not so good a voucher for it as josephus , who was an eye-witness . when the power of the roman empire , under which the whole world did bend , came against them , so that it was necessary for them , either to prevent their ruine by an early submission , or to defend themselves from it with an united strength ; the rage that was among the several parties so distracted their councels , and disordered their designs , that they could neither prudently submit , nor generously resist , but they languished away in famine , or destroyed one another in those unnatural broils within their walls . when god bless'd his church with peace and protection , and after a long trial , during three ages and ten persecutions , raised up a nursing-father to it ; soon after that two contests arose . one was about a personal thing in cecilian , bishop of carthage , whether he , or his ordainers , had denied the faith , and delivered up the sacred writings , in the former persecution ? the other was concerning a speculative and mysterious point of the eternal generation of the word , in which it is probable the difference at first was only in the manner of expression . one of these distracted the best portion of christendom , i mean the african churches ; and the other , with those questions that arose out of it , made such havock in the christian world , for above two ages , that it not only stopp'd the progress of that holy religion , and gave the heathens the greatest advantages they could possibly have wish'd ; but brought in a subtilty , and warmth concerning speculative points , that has in a great measure driven out of the world the plain simplicity of the gospel . when the orthodox party had peace and protection under theodosius , and were delivered from the cruelty of the arrian princes , then arose a new debate , whether those that had complied , and submitted in that time , and were ordained by the arrians , should be continued in their sees , or not ? the luciferians that opposed this , were so persecuted by damasus , and his party at rome , that at one time they broke into their meeting-house , and killed about seven or eight score of them . god witnessed his displeasure and severity against those violences ; and the church , both in the east , and in the west , was given up to be scourged by vast swarms of cruel and barbarous nations , who as the palmer-worm , the locust , the canker-worm , and the caterpillar , are set down figuratively by the prophet , succeeding one another , every one consuming what the other had left : so these wasted christendom to such a degree , that it was visible those astonishing judgments were not the punishments of ordinary sins . and all the evils that were among the christians flowing in a great measure from those heats about opinions , which raised bitter zeal and strife , that brought on confusion , and every evil work , i may lay the procuring cause of those plagues and desolations , in a high degree , to the charge of their divisions . when our ancestors , the saxons , received first the christian religion , tho as it was not of so pure an alloy as formerly , but much embased in that age ; so into what heats did they fall with the old britains , concerning the observation of easter , in which we now certainly know , that neither side understood the point they debated about . but they were more set on that , and other superstitious conceits , than on a real conversion of the nation . and how was this island plagued after that , by the incursions and depredations which the danes made for near two ages ? the contests between the greek and latin church ended in the ruine of the eastern empire ; and the triumphs of the crescent over the cross , were in a great measure to be ascribed unto that most unhappy breach . i shall pursue this no more ; the thing is plain to common observation , and needs not to be fortified with much proof . it is as certain as any humane thing can possibly be , that when any body of men are engaged against a common enemy , and yet divided among themselves and jealous of one another , they will rather let the enemy prevail than assist their brethren , even in the wisest and best things , if they think the honour of such actions will raise the credit of their rivals . and thus if their strength were ever so much superiour to the enemies ; yet when his force is united , and theirs disjointed , they must become a prey to him : but this will hold more certainly if the common enemy is really stronger than they are , though united . in such a case their heats among themselves are so unaccountable , that though the world is naturally foolish enough , yet it is not to be supposed that meer folly could carry such a madness so far ; there is more reason to ascribe it to the secret practices of corrupted and perfidious men , who are imployed , and may be hired , to be incendiaries perhaps on both sides . for a wise and watchful enemy , when one plot fails , will soon set up another ; and will think it an extraordinary happiness , if without the infamy of an assassination of a gun-powder plot , which they would not choose but upon extremities , they can make their adversaries so spend their strength one against another , that they shall either deliver themselves up to them , or be able to make a very faint resistance to a vigorous impression : and there is no design so certain as the inflaming of divisions among their adversaries ; and that both in church and state : which when they are once brought to that pass , that both sides have vowed revenge , either party will be so intent on their little designs , that the whole must perish : and some will perhaps come to think it safer to trust themselves to the mercy of their adversary , than to the resentments of enraged country-men . and thus will they bite and devour one another , till they are either consumed one of another , or made an easie conquest to those that both see and improve all their advantage . and so much i have adventur●● to say upon the first head . i come now to the secon●… ▪ 2. the beginnings of those heats are often very inconsiderable ; but by a confluence of unhappy circumstances , they soon grow to be almost incurable . it is but a division at first , but that will end in ruin . all our evils flow from our own ill humours ; and whatever excites or provokes these , be it how inconsiderable soever in its own nature , yet its effects will grow great and remarkable . in civil matters it is so . what a trifling thing was it among the romans to be of the faction of the veneti or prasini , that betted for matches in the cirque , which were distinguished by a livery ? yet this produced great convulsions in the imperial city ; and when the emperour hapned to be of either side , that party of which he was , thought they had an authority to exercise great cruelties on all the other faction . but this is much more dangerous , if the ground of the difference is any point of religion , though ever so indifferent in it self : what heats arose concerning the day on which easter was to be observed ? how little did it concern religion , what cecilian , or his ordainers were , especially in the age after they were dead ? and yet not only a separation and violent rage , but a great effusion of blood , with the other dismal consequences of that blind fury , followed upon this , and the africans continued quarrelling about it , till the vandals came and destroyed both the one and the other . and surely many of the contests about mysteries , began at some unwary expressions , in which the one side fastned ill sences on the words spoken by the other ; and the other , rather than yield so far for peace sake , as to explain themselves , choosed rather to justifie their words in any sense , than to retract or mollifie them : and can we think without astonishment that such matters as giving the sacrament in leavened , or unleavened bread ; or an explication of the procession of the holy ghost , whether it was from the father and the son , or from the father by the son , could have rent the greek and latine churches so violently one from another , that the latines rather than assist the other , lookt on , till they were destroyed by the othoman family , which has ever since been so terrible a neighbour to the rest of europe ! oft-times one contest beeds another ; and that which perhaps began at a speculative point ends in a practical one ; and that which begins in some rite or ceremony , grows at last to a breach in matters of faith. the contests whether christ had one or two wills , being determined by the sixth general council against the monothelites , they by their interest at court , got that assembly to be decried ; so that a picture of the fathers that sate there being hung up in a great church , was removed , and those that removed it said to excuse themselves , that no pictures or images ought to be in churches . upon this those of the other party did violently contend , that images ought not only to be set up , but worshipped ; and this produced great disorders in the east , under two or three revolutions of the court : and in conclusion , italy shook off the emperours authority by the popes instigation , because he brake the images . and this gave the rise to another question , whether the sacrament was only the image of christ as the one party asserted , or was the very substance of his body . both had councils , which in those ages past for general ones , of their side . to what has the different explications of the presence of christ in the sacrament made by luther and zuinglius , risen , though it lies merely in speculation ? it has raised such an alienation , that in many places the lutherans are no less , and in some they are more fierce , against the calvinists ; than against papists . like a strange sort of people among our selves , that are not ashamed to own a greater aversion to any sort of dissenters , than to the church of rome . but to come nearer home ; to what has a contest that began at first about hoods and surplices risen amongst us ? those points upon which it began , have been long ago yielded up as indifferent ; but new matter will soon be found out by those who have a mind to search for it . in the last age the heats about divine decrees , and the moralitie of the lords day , almost destroyed us . now as there is no difference at all remaining about the one , divines agreeing , as much to press the observation of it , as the greater part of the nation does in profaning it ; so in the other , the mysteriousness of those points being so very much enquired into , there have been such moderate methods used in handling them of both sides , that there are now no more heats concerning them : but alas , though some things fall off , i do not know how it comes that this monster shoots out always new heads , and there grow up new subjects for debate and anger ; and though at present there are no considerable contests among us about any doctrinal points , yet we are not a whit the nearer an agreement : the reason is , the alienation of our minds stands or rather grows still , and this is of late blown up to such a degree by some venemous libels and pamphlets , that in the midst of peace and plenty we seem to be in a posture of war. and what will the end of these things be ? if this fermentation goes on , it will burst out at last , and upon the first unlucky crisis it must produce dismal effects . it is not so much to be considered what are the grounds of contests in matters of religion , as what is the temper with which they are managed . things of great moment may be managed by men of prudent and calm tempers in so soft a manner , that none of their differences shall be able to divide them : and the inconsiderablest things possible , may by the ill natured sophistry of angry men , be raised up to seem matters of the greatest moment . for it is but the fastning an ill name , or an ill consequence to any opinion , that will do it ; and then since a consequence if rightly inferred , is really involved in that upon which it follows , it is given out as the sense of a whole party , which detests the consequence , and would forsake the opinion if they could but be perswaded that it really belonged to it . it is in strife as in the letting out of waters , a vent to the least measure does dilute and spread . therefore the wise man advises us to leave off contention before it be medled with . it may seem a contradiction to leave it off before it is medled with ; but we are so early to retire from all contention , that as soon as it appears , and before we have engaged in it , we must break it off . for if we are once ingaged , humour , honour and other peevish or designing men will hold us to it : it is best to break it off in time , otherwise we shall have reason to cry out often with st. james , behold how great a matter a little fire hath kindled . 3. i now go on to the third particular , which is to shew how vain and unreasonable all those pretences are , that are made use of to support this hot and bitter temper . i shall reduce them to these four. first , zeal for truth . secondly , a care to preserve our selves . thirdly , authorities from the old testament . fourthly , authorities from the new. for the first , it is true we ought to be zealously affected in a good thing ; we ought indeed to be much concerned in every thing that relates to our eternal happiness hereafter , and to those means that dispose and lead us to it here . but there is also a bitter zeal , which is reckoned among the works of the flesh , and a zeal without knowledge . that zeal which is acceptable to god , must be suitable to his nature , full of goodness , mercy and compassion . if it makes us hate , defame or persecute our brother , we are sure this is not that zeal which will commend us to god. in a word , true zeal is , when out of an inward sense of the goodness of god , and of the excellency of religion , we have an earnest concern in our minds , that other men may honour and serve him , and participate in those joyes which we feel in religion . a little reflection on our selves and our secret thoughts will soon resolve the point , whether it is malice and revenge for some injury supposed or real , whether it is some secret design and private end that we disguise with the name of zeal , or a sincere affection to religion and the souls of our brethren , that governs us . we ought also to be well assured both of the truth and importance of those things on which we imploy our zeal , and not let it run out impetuously on every trifle , and we are still to watch over our tempers , lest our heat carry us too far . and we must never forget that we ought to be zealous for peace as well as truth . can it be supposed that those who live in all sorts of debaucheries and impieties , are either zealous for the church on the one hand , or for the protestant religion , as they pretend , on the other ? if these things will scarce pass with wise men , much less will they pass with that god , who sees the heart . it is certain , zeal must never exclude charity ; for the love of god , and our neighbour is the foundation of it . whatever has not this at bottom is but the dreg of education , the sowrness of a party , and a thin disguise for black designs . the second pretence is safety . i am not to meddle with the publick security of government , that is a subject above me : i speak with relation to private persons and their deportment . all zealots apprehend themselves in some danger from those against whom they are set ; if their numbers are small , they fear that they will become greater ; and if they are great , they fear they will master them : and so they indeavour to conquer them , first in point of reputation in the battels of the tongue and pen , by defaming them , either discovering real faults , or forging calumnies to disgrace them ; and then in point of interest insinuating themselves into such as they can have access to , and indeavouring to work the ruine of those who differ from them . if there were no other measures to be taken in matters of religion , but the maximes of humane policy , this might pass for tolerably prudent : but st. james tells us , the wisdom of that bitter zeal , is not from above , it is earthly , sensual and devilish . the bonds of a man , and the cords of love are those , by which god uses to draw us ; and in imitation of that , the methods of reason , and the wayes of meekness are both more suitable to the divine nature , and more likely to work on the greater part of men : in following these which god has appointed , we may with confidence depend upon his protection and blessing ; and if the petulancies and follies of some make it at any time necessary to punish them , it should appear , that what they suffer is the correction of a father or brother , and not the wound of an enemy , or the lash of a jaylor . extream heats if not repressed will carry to extream severities . and perhaps no severities are very prudent , except they be extream , as are the inquisitions of spain ; but we may see what the church of rome has gained by their cruelties in the last age. violence alienates those further , whom we ought to gain upon , and likewise increases their party by the compassions of all good-natured people , who are thereby first inclined to pity them , then to love them , and perhaps in conclusion to go over to them : and so the sharpness of rigour instead of being a security , often proves the ruin of those who depend on it : whereas the wayes of love and meekness will work more universally and effectually , at least to mollifie if not to turn those with whom we deal ; and it draws all people who are less ingaged in their affections , to adhere to those who are moderate : the very appearances of a calm temper have a charm in them , but the effects of them in concurrence with other prudent methods , are almost irresistible . in summ , it is better to be overrun and ruined in the wayes of meekness , than to conquer all the world by cruelty ; in the one we bear the cross and suffer for righteousness sake ; in the other we triumph in the garments of anti-christ dyed red with the blood of those who though in errours , yet may be good men in the main for ought we know . the third pretence , is from the severities of the old testament , and that spirit of zeal , which was so much commended and set up for a pattern in the instances of phinehas , elijah , and others . but our saviour answered this when he was desired to suffer his apostles to imitate elijah , and to call for fire from heaven ; that was because they could not kindle it upon earth , otherwise they had begun there ; but our meek and lowly saviour rebuked them , and told them , they knew not what spirit they were of : and that the son of man came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them . that people was fierce and untractable , and as they had the land of canaan by an immediate grant from heaven ; so the civil government was kept in the hand of god ; and sharp punishments were inflicted on those that broke those laws by which they held all their possessions : but the dispensation of the gospel is wholly spiritual upon another bottom , and to be managed in another method . fourthly , the last excuse for these heats is from the practice of our saviour , who severely laid open the hypocrisies of the pharisees ; and the apostles who writ warmly against false teachers , by which a sharpness in speaking and writing seems well warranted . but if we consider that our saviour certainly knew the pharisees were hypocrites , and did by the shew of strictness mislead the people , so that they were in danger to perish by their false doctrines , and that no meekness , no reason , no nor the most wonderful miracles which he wrought , could work upon them ; it was necessary for the good of others to expose them . so if we manifestly see an hypocritical sort of people misleading the world in points that indanger their salvation ; and are well assured that what we say is true , and that fairer means cannot prevail ; we not only may but ought to discover this : but this will not excuse those who believe every story , and propagate it meerly out of hatred to others , and know in their own consciences that their chief concern is to disgrace those they hate , and not to preserve others , out of a principle of charity to them . there must be a great evidence to make us conclude a man an hypocrite , even some one ill act will not amount to it : nothing but some very heinous crime , or an ill course in some sin , which the common illumination of all christians discovers to be evil , and which they disguise with a colour of religion , ought to justifie the fastning this black imputation on any : for god knows in how ill colours many would appear , if some of their secret actions were made publick , which may seem , and indeed are , heinous ; and yet they having truly repented of them , ought not to be so branded . we ought to judge charitably , and to be ready alwayes to put the best reasonable construction on other mens actions , that upon a fair representation they will bear ; and make such allowances for the errours and failings of others , as we know in our own consciences we would desire to be made for our own , if all the secrets of our lives were known . they are known to god , and ought to be remembred by our selves ; and in those cases , he that shews no mercy in his censures , is to expect judgement without mercy . but the force of this whole objection will be better taken off by the fourth particular that i proposed , 4. which is to consider the methods that christ and his apostles have prescribed for bringing us to love and unity . the whole life of our blessed saviour was a continued course of meekness , and lowliness of mind ; and in these he proposes himself chiefly as a pattern for our imitation ; and it is scarce possible for men to quarrel much , that are under the influences of that happy temper : he hath made this the cognisance , by which all the world shall know his disciples , if they love one another : and has not only charged us to love our friends , but our enemies , persecutors and slanderers ; to bless them , to pray for them , and to do them all the good that is in our power . so that no excuse of ill usage can give us a priviledge to hate , to rail at , or revenge our selves of others . and we may see the sense he had of unity and peace among his followers , by his intercession with his father for it ; since in that prayer of his a little before he suffered for us , he in five several places prays , that they might be one , as the father and he were : that they might be one in them , and be made perfect in one . and as our saviour delivered this to his apostles , so they in every epistle did repeat the same exhortations with most vehement and mighty obtestations , as considering , that this was essential to the very being and preservation of the christian religion . a controversy arose then which raised great heats concerning the obligation which the converted gentiles lay under to observe the law of moses : and there were some zealous jews , who though they believed in christ , as the true messias , yet they adhered so fiercely to the law , that they not only separated from the apostles , but persecuted them , because they were for freeing the gentiles from that yoke . this was a question of far greater consequence than those are about which we contend so earnestly : but in this we shall observe the gentleness of the apostles , even towards those that did obstinately dissent from the determination which they made , though it proceeded from an infallible authority . st. paul writing to the romans , as he expresses his love to the jews in so high a strain , that he was willing to be accursed , that is , cast out of the communion of christians , if that would have induced them to come into it , ( a very high pitch of charity , which needs not be raised higher , as some fanciful people have done : ) he likewise gives his sense of their contests in those matters concerning the observation of their customes in two speculative maximes ; and in two practical rules , which are of general use , and on which he inlarges copiously . he first tells them , that on both sides sincere men might so follow their perswasions as to be accepted of god. he that regardeth a day , regardeth it to the lord : and he that regardeth not a day , to the lord he doth not regard it : he further sayes , that religion lay not in such trivial things ; the kingdom of god , that is the dispensation of the gospel , consisted not in meats or drinks , ( that is , in questions about clean or unclean meats ) but in righteousness and peace , and joy in the holy ghost : and that he who in these things served christ , was acceptable to god and approved of men , whatever he might think of other matters . upon these two conclusions he grafts two rules ; the one is , that every one should follow the clearest light he could have , and be fully perswaded in his own mind , and to do what he did upon an inward assurance , and without doubting : the other is , that men ought not to judge , or set at nought their brethren ; that the weaker ought not to judge the stronger , nor the stronger to despise the weaker ; and that all should follow after the things which made for peace , by which they might edifie one another . all this is plain and decisive . when he writ to the corinthians , he expresses great grief for what he had heard of their divisions : some were for paul , that is those of the uncircumcision : some for cephas or peter , that is , those of the circumcision : some were for apollo , that is , those of st. john's baptism : and some were for christ , who perhaps received christ as the messias and yet rejected the apostles : upon which he argues , that by this it appeared they were carnal and walkt as men . and that they might not think he was partial to those that set up for himself , he particularly sets himself against them . he also by an excellent simile taken from the several uses of the members of the natural body , exhorts them all , not to despise one another , but that every one in his station should be useful to the whole body , and to every member in it : and runs out into one of the greatest raptures that is in the whole scripture in commendation of charity , which he calls not only , a more excellent thing than all the extraordinary gifts that were then in the church ; without which , doing miracles , suffering martyrdom , or the giving all one had to the poor was nothing ; but preferres it both to faith and hope . writing to the galatians , though he incourages them with more than ordinary earnestness not to yield to the judaizers , yet he gives them this necessary caution , that they should by love serve one another , for all the law was comprehended in this one word , thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self : and he adds these weighty words , on which we should all reflect much , if ye bite and devour one another , take heed ye be not consumed one of another . and giving an enumeration of the fruits of the spirit , he begins with these , love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness and goodness . he also exhorts the ephesians to this , as that by which they should approve themselves as worthy of their holy calling , that they should walk with all lowliness , meekness , long-suffering , forbearing one another in love , indeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace : and the reasons he gives for it are eternally strong and binding : there is one lord , one faith , one baptism , and one god , and father of all . in his epistle to the philippians it appears , how exactly he himself followed those rules , which he gave to others ; for he being then a prisoner , some that envied his labours in the gospel , and intended to add affliction to his bonds , preached christ not sincerely , but in pretence ; yet he rejoyced that good was done by any person whatsoever , and upon what motives soever . and though men that suffer , are apt to be more touched with insultings and ill usage from their own friends , than they can be for any thing that their enemies do to them ; yet this did no way disorder him , nor did he thunder against those hypocritical and insolent teachers . upon this he goes on to recommend that temper to others which appeared so eminently in himself , and in the most tender strains of a true but moving rhetorick he obtests them , if there was any consolation in christ , if any comforts of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies , that they would fulfill his joy , and be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , and of one mind : and that nothing should be done through strife and vain glory , but that in lowliness of mind , every one should esteem others better than themselves . and in order to this he proposes to them the wonderful pattern of the humility and love of christ . how effectually does he exhort the colossians to put off all anger , wrath , malice and blasphemy , that is , reviling and reproachful words , and to put on as the elect of god holy and beloved , bowels of mercies , kindness , humbleness of mind , meekness and long-suffering , forbearing one another , and forgiving one another : if any man have a quarrel against any , even as christ forgave you , so also do you ; and above all things put on charity , which is the bond of perfection ; and let the peace of god rule in your hearts , to the which ye are called in one body . he heard the thessalonianswere eminent for their mutual love , so that it was needless to exhort them to it , yet he beseeches them to encrease in it more and more ; and since much medling or the running about , are the chief occasions by which contentions arise , or spread ; he charges them to study to be quiet , and to do their own business : to be at peace among themselves , to warn them that were unruly , to be patient to all men , and not to render evil for evil , but ever to follow that which was good . and in his epistles to timothyhe gives us the characters both of false and true teachers in relation to these things . of the former he saies , they were proud knowing nothing , but doting about questions and strifes of words , of which came envy , strife , railings , evil surmisings , and perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds ; but the reverse of this is , the servant of the lord must not strive , but be gentle unto all men , apt to teach , patient in meekness , instructing those that oppose themselves , if god peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth . insinuating , that instruction given in the spirit of meekness , was the likeliest way to bring this about . he also exhorts titus to put the cretians in mind , to be subject to principalities and powers , to obey magistrates , to be ready to every good work , to speak evil of no man , not to be brawlers but gentle , shewing all meekness to all men . the chief scope of his epistle to philemon , is to perswade him to be reconciled to onesimus , who being his servant had robbed him , and run away from him . he exhorts the hebrews to provoke one another to love and to good works ; and in order to that , not to forsake the assembling themselves together as the manner of some was , and to follow peace with all men : and to take care that no root of bitterness might spring up and trouble them , by which many might be defiled . for dissensions are the buddings of bitterness in the mind , and do both disturb and corrupt those in whom they grow up . nor was this a stile peculiar to st. paul ; though it may be supposed that one reason , which made him insist so vehemently on it , & repeat this exhortation so frequently , was , that he reflecting on his own temper , when he was a jewish zealot , knew that it was a venom which might by degrees creep even into a sincere mind , and leaven and corrupt it under the colour of the being active in the cause of religion , and so transform a man , and an honest man too , into an enraged fury , as himself was when under the power of those ill principles ; though what he did , was the effect not of designed wickedness , but of ignorance . st. james writes in the same strain against all furious zealots , who were apt to boast of their zeal , and to face down the truth with their impudence , and pretended to great wisdom for the justifying what they did . he tells them , that wisdom was not from above , but was earthly , sensual and devilish : and that where bitter zeal and strife was , there was confusion and every evil work ; but the wisdom that was from above , was first pure , then peaceable , gentle and easie to beintreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality , and without hypocrisie ; and that the fruits of righteousness were sown in peace , of them that made peace . st. peter keeps in the same path . he had formerly been under the sudden transports of ill tempered zeal , when he smote with the sword those that came to seize on our saviour , which he ought not to have done , since they were sent out by those who had a lawful authority ; but it then appeared in him , that the rages of indiscreet heat do not agree with that disposition of mind so indispensably necessary to a christian , which is a readiness to confess the truth , though the danger in doing it were ever so apparent : he therefore exhorts those , to whom he wrote , to lay aside all malice and guile , and hypocrisies , envies and evil speakings ; that they would be all of one mind , having compassion one of another ; that they would love as brethren , be pitiful and courteous , not rendring evil for evil , nor railing for railing , but contrariwise a blessing ; and that above all things they would have fervent charity among themselves , which would cover a multitude of sins ; and he exhorts all to add to their godliness , brotherly kindness and charity , as if godliness could not be compleat without these . st. john in all his epistles seems to have had nothing more in his thoughts , than to perswade those to whom he wrote to love one another , which he does with the highest and most earnest exhortations to it possible : god is love , and he that dwelleth in love , dwelleth in god , and god in him ; he that loves his brother , abideth in the light , and there is no occasion of stumbling ; he has a serene and calm mind , and is not hurried unto violent transports : whereas he that hates his brother , is in darkness , and walks in it , for it hath blinded his eyes ; it runs him on blindly to many precipices , it carries him to excessive heats , and makes him act like a mad man : and no wonder if it end in bloud and confusion ; for he that hates his brother is a murderer ; he murders him in his wishes , and will not fail to put these in execution upon the first opportunity ; and to sum up all , by this we know , says he , that we have pass'd from death to life , from the death of sin to the life of god , if we love the brethren . st. jude gives a character of the incendiaries that were then in the church , who did separate themselves , pretending to greater sanctity and strictness , and yet were sensual , and had not the spirit , which appeared in these instances , they were murmurers , complainers , who spoke great swelling words , and had mens persons in admiration for advantage ; that is , were given to canting , and did blindly follow their leaders . but as he exhorts the christians to contend earnestly for the faith , so in relation even to those grosly deluded and unruly dividers , he charges them to have compassion of some , and to endeavour to gain upon them in the mildest manner ; others whose tempers were rougher , were to be rescued by sharper methods , like the pulling one out of the fire ; and these different methods were to be applied discreetly , as the condition of the person might require it . and thus we see the apostles in all their epistles repeat these exhortations with so much earnestness , that upon the whole matter it must be concluded , either this is not the gospel , or those that differ so much from these rules are not true gospellers . i have enlarged on these things the more fully , because i must conclude , that if the authority of such words does not prevail , it is a vain thing to go about to perswade any to these duties by other topicks . nor were these only lessons given to christians as political precepts , in that infancy and weakness of this religion , which as their numbers increased , and their power grew , they might supersede : but we clearly see the ancient christians thought they were as much bound by them , after the emperors became christian , as they were before . when the last persecution ceased , and the calm and protection of constantine's reign succeeded , the christians , tho' many of them carried still the marks of the cruelty of their persecutions , in the loss of their eyes or limbs , yet endeavoured no revenge on their persecutors , no not in egypt , where so many thousands of them had suffered ; and the heathens , for above an age after that , continued to be in the chief imployments , both civil and military . and tho' this had made it easier for the empire again to turn to heathenism under julian , yet upon his death no cruelties nor violences were imployed ; nor did they think the disturbance given by arius , and the small party he then had , was to be prosecuted with a higher severity than banishment . and tho' the arians became cruel persecutors , when the court was governed by their councels , acting more politically under constantius , but violently under valens , yet the orthodox , who had complained of those severities , did not retaliate , when the empire fell into the hands of one that was so zealous for them as theodosius was : and when nazianzen saw some too much inclined to it , in the beginnings of his reign , how earnestly did he study to moderate their heats and resentments ? and tho' the donatists were after many renewed hearings condemned in constantine's time , in every one of them , yet the orthodox party studied still to gain upon them , by the ways of love and meekness , till at last they grew insupportable , and fell upon the others , and robbed and wounded them , committing such outrages , that the bishops in africk were forced to implore the emperor's protection for their own safety ; and yet the severity went no higher than banishment , or fining of the most outragious . and as st. austin was not easily brought to consent even to so much , so afterwards when the governors were punishing the donatists for their insolences , he was always interposing to mitigate the sharpness of the law , and the rigor of their proceedings . it is true , there were too great heats in the church , even then in the management of their debates , yet till damasus begun that mad prosecution of the luciferians at rome , these were not carried to violent degrees . but as the purity of the christian religion grew corrupted , and iniquity did abound , then did love wax cold , and rage grew hot , till at last it flamed out in most terrible persecutions , set on in the 12th . century against the albigenses at first . and that these might be managed with all the advantages possible , for the destruction of poor innocents , new courts were set up , and unheard of methods were found out , for facilitating processes , making a slight proof serve , and forcing the party to accuse himself by an oath ex officio ; these courts did also proceed upon secret information , without indictments or accusers . in a word : forms of procedure were invented , such as even tyrants had not used for the crimes of treason ; and all this to destroy such as could not submit to every unreasonable doctrine , or ridiculous piece of worship then set up . and they were not only satisfied with the cruelties then practised , but they made laws and canons , ( then esteemed more binding than laws ) by which all princes were for ever bound to extirpate hereticks . and because some might be better natured than easily to become the inquisitors hangmen , they were declared to have forfeited their dominions , if they should be guilty of any lenity , which upon that fell to the disposal of the pope . and lest some good natured bishops might be backward and slow in it , they were likewise bound by the oath which they took at their consecration , to prosecute hereticks to the utmost of their power . so the bishops being thus sworn to condemn them , and princes threatned with deposition if their sentences were not executed , it was scarce possible for these poor men to escape . but we have not so learned christ : we see clearly what rules the gospel gives in this matter ; we ought to love one another as brethren , and not to suffer our zeal to degenerate into rage or barbarity , but must study to gain upon those who differ from us in the spirit of meekness , by which we may in time conquer their mistakes , and at least bring them to a greater temper , through the gentleness of our deportment towards them , and incline them to have better thoughts of us , and that may prove an effectual mean to make them think the better of the truth for our sakes . for the greatest part mens affections do insensibly govern their opinions , since few examine speculative points as they lye before them , in the arguments used about them , but consider them in the lump , and generally judge of them by some prejudices which incline them to like or dislike such a sort of men . one thing is to be said for moderation , that it is the constant plea of the unfortunate : all people when depressed , take sanctuary in it , as a common place , upon which it is easie to say many popular things . but alas , how commonly is it forgotten by the very same persons when the wind and tide turns ? we hear even the papists , for all their inquisitions and burnings , plead for gentleness and favor , though in them it is scarce reconcileable to common modesty . if there were nothing but opinion in the case , if they had not such a mixture of cruel principles , with a blind dependence on a forrain power , that is bound by their own rules , never to relent till heresie is extirpated , and all hereticks destroyed , i should be as earnest to stir up compassion for them as for others : and as it is , i am sure we ought to carry so towards them , that it may appear we do not hate their persons , and do nothing against them but as we are compelled to it for self-preservation , and even in the hardest things that a prudent care of our own quiet and safety may force us to do , all personal softness and gentleness towards them , is indispensably necessary to such as would shew themselves to be truly reformed christians . others plead now for moderation , though they have forgot it shamefully where they have power , as the congregations do now in new-england , and the presbytery did in scotland . the one impose under the pains of banishment and death in case of return ; not only the religion of their state , but many speculative points of opinion , and other things that are certainly indifferent . the presbytery in scotland imposed the covenant under the pains of excommunication , upon which followed a forfeiture of the personal estate , and a sequestration of the real estate , and this all persons men and women were forced to swear , though few could understand it ; and one particular was not far from an inquisition , that every one should discover all malignants and enemies to their cause , in order to the bringing them to condign punishment , by which every man was sworn to be a spy and an informer . these are ill patterns , and as we ought not to imitate them , so we must govern our selves by very different methods , if we come under the discipline of the gospel . 4. and now i come to the last particular , to make some application of all this to this time , and the occasion you are now met about . we are now brought under one of the unhappiest circumstances that a nation or a city can be in . there have arisen amongst us such heats , so much bitterness , so violent an aversion to one another , that it must needs beget great grief and sad apprehensions in all that look on , and judge impartially . those animosities , which no wonder if , at the end of a long war , when our wounds were bleeding , and our sores were tender , did transport , especially the unhappy but worthy sufferers a little , and were by a happy revolution , and a gracious oblivion , wisely buried and seemed quite extinguished , are now breaking out again with a violence almost as great as was during the war it self : and though we are still in peace , yet such a temper appearing among us , we have no reason to expect it shall continue long . tinder will catch fire from a spark . these heats are kept up by libels and defamations , and all the methods that can blow upon them to kindle the fire the faster , and to make it flame out the more vehemently : and what must the end of these things be ? all that we now feel is but the beginning of sorrows , if we are not so wise , as in time to know the things which belong to our peace . this were an unhappiness much to be lamented at any time : but what shall be said , when we are as it were called upon from heaven , by such awak'ning providences , to lay down our contests , and to unite , for the preservation of our holy religion ? sure none believe themselves , when they say , we are not in danger of popery : and none can think it but they who desire it , and so apprehend no danger in it ; and if we come under the power of that religion , none but fools can hope that they shall escape the severities they must fall under , if they do not intend to change with the tide , and even such must resolve still to be suspected . old stories will be often remembred . what can reasonably preserve us from this , or that storm , which a mighty potentate is ready to discharge on some of his neighbors , but our joyning together in mutual unity and brotherly love ? england is a body so vast and strong , that if it is united both in church and state , it cannot only defend it self , but so steadily hold the ballance , as to preserve as well it s other allies , as the forraign churches , some of which are now exposed to the rage of their persecutors , if we do not continue dis-joynted at home till , all falls into one scale . upon this occasion i cannot forbear to set before you the deplorable state of our persecuted brethren in france , whom neither the security of irrevocable edicts , nor the great services done the crown , and that not only in the last age , but during the present king's reign in the wars of paris , nor their peaceable submission and patience amidst all the oppressions they have groaned under for several years , which has not provoked them to the least undutiful behaviour , nor their great numbers and industry , can preserve from those cruelties they now suffer meerly for their religion ; for their carriage has been such , that their enemies have not a colour for their proceedings but that only . and now the last priviledge of the miserable , liberty to complain , is denied them . thus we see what all promises , yea and laws , backed with great merit , do signifie , where that religion once takes place . i must acknowledge , that among the many sad symptomes we are under , this is one good sign , i am sorry to say it is almost the only good one , that god has raised up in us such a spirit of compassion for the poor exiles , that come and seek shelter here : that the king does so graciously receive and encourage them , and the people do so bountifully relieve them : and among the other glories of this great city , the largeness of your charities , and the tenderness of your care on this occasion , will be added to your honour here on earth , and to your rewards hereafter in heaven ; and i hope what you have already given , is but the earnest of what you will do , if the numbers of those that fly hither , continue to increase . but tho' your charity on this occasion is a thing that well becomes such a reformed church , yet it is not all the use that we are to make of so sad a calamity . we know not how soon we may be reduced to the like straits , and be brought under a famine of the word of the lord , and be exposed to the fury of that bloudy religion . let us therefore look up to god , that he may be merciful to us , and may pour out on us a spirit of repentance , to turn to him , and to forsake all our abominations , by which we have so highly provoked him , and dishonoured our holy profession ; and also a spirit of love and charity , to unite us one to another . i shall not adventure to offer at any thing towards this , which belongs to the government , or is to be the subject of publick consultations , but shall only say this to private persons ; if every one will endeavour to dispossess himself of heat and rancor , and will resolve to do all he can towards an agreement ; and if we all pray earnestly for it , there will be no such difficulty in it as may be imagined . hatred stirreth up strife , but love covers a multitude of sins . if a better temper did possess us , we would either find out expedients to accommodate our differences ; or if we could not agree them , yet we might enjoy our opinions , and still love one another ; and then there would be no great danger in the continuance of some different speculations or practices . but if we will still look backwards , and be always reflecting on every thing that may exasperate more and more , and will not look forwards to that precipice of ruine that is so near us , and to the only mean that can save us from it ; i mean , a reformation of our manners , and a composing of our heats : if libelling , and the defaming one another ; if the spreading of lyes and scandals , with design to make the breach wider , is still continued and encouraged among us , what is to be said ? this is of the lord , and is a punishment for our other sins , and the forerunner of most terrible judgments , which will come on us like an armed man ; and then when it is too late for the publick , we will be all of us ready to accuse our selves , and to condemn one another . god avert this and make us wise in time . to conclude , i shall now propose a few things wherein we ought above all things to study to be united among our selves . in the first place , let us joyn in calling upon god earnestly , and directing our aims chiesly to his glory , for the preservation of that holy religion , which by his grace is setled amongst us . let us not , by our ill lives , provoke him to deprive us of so great a blessing , and let us all resolve to spend some portion of our time , at least an hour every week , in earnest prayers to him for the peace of his jerusalem amongst us , and for continuing our religion still with us . it is his cause , and we ought chiefly to offer it up to him for his protection and defence : and if our sins do not defeat the design of our prayers , we may hope that a considerable number of such intercessors will procure great blessings to us , especially we having the assistance of the prayers of those who have taken sanctuary among us ; towards whom your bowels have been so opened , that we know we have many prayers put up by them which are set to our account . in the next place let us joyn together in all dutiful expressions of sincere loyalty to our king ; in an obedience to the laws , and a reverent submission to his government : that our enemies may not have the least pretence to say , that the zeal we express for him , and our detestation of their conspiracies , is only a disguise to as bad designs : let us go on in the wayes of submission and loyalty , and by these put to silence the ignorance of foolish men . let all insolent libels and reproachful discourses be held in detestation , and let us earnestly pray to god , the god of peace and love , to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children , and of the children to the fathers , and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; and that the happy day of an entire settlement , and the burying of all fears and jealousies may come quickly , that so one spirit may animate both the king and his subjects , and the court and the country . let this be a part of our daily prayers , and let every one do all in his power towards it , and then we may hope to see again serene and quiet times . let us also consider one another as brethren : let us bear with one anothers infirmities : let us give some allowances to the weakness of those that are misled , to the force of education , and the biass of vulgar prejudices . let us study to gain upon one another by gentleness and meekness . let us have the danger of inquisitions , fires , and forreign conquest more in our thoughts , and not contend still about some less essential or important points . let not every triffling excuse be sought out to make or keep up divisions . let not those that differ from us think , that because of some hard things which they may meet with , they are excused from all reverence to their superiours , or a disposition to be reconciled to those who may have used them ill in their opinion . let us not aggravate matters beyond measure , but judge of all things with candour and charity . in a word , let us endeavour if we can to be of one mind , and at least to have one heart , to love one another , and to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . and in the last place , and in relation to our present assembling , i humbly exhort you to proceed to the election you are now to make , with a spirit of love and brotherly kindness , without faction or animosity , clamour and confusion , that so in the choice of this great magistrate , the head of so great body under the king , you may agree in a man that fears god , that honours the king , that may be an example of a good life , an assertor of the true established religion , a maintainer of justice , and a promoter of peace and order amongst you . in which let us all pray to god to bless and direct you , and to make you still carry in your minds these words of our saviour . every kingdom divided against it self is brought into desolation , and every city or house divided against it self shall not stand . finis . books lately printed by richard chiswel . 1. dr . burnet's history of the reformation of the church of england . in two vol. folio . 2. the laws of this realm concerning jesuits , &c. explained by divers judgements and resolutions of the judges ; with other observations thereupon , by william cawley esq ; folio . 3. an apology for a treatise of humane reason , written by ma. clifford esq ; twelves . 4. mr. seller's remarques relating to the state of the church of the 3 first centuries . 5. bishop sanderson's sermons : with his life , folio . 6. fowlis his history of romish conspiracies , treasons and usurpations , folio . 7. markham's perfect horseman , octavo . 8. the history of the powder-treason , with a vindication thereof , against the author of the catholick apology , and others : to which is added a parallel betwixt that and the present plot , quarto . 9. dr. parker's demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature , and christian religion , quarto . 10. dr. william sherlock's discourse of religious assemblies , octavo . 11. a defence of dr. stillingfleet's unreasonableness of separation , octavo . 12. the history of the house of estee , the family of the dutchess of york , octavo . 13. an historical relation of the island ceylon , in the east-indies : together with an account of the detaining in captivity the author and divers other englishmen now living there , and of the author 's miraculous escape : illustrated with 15 copper figures , and a map of the island . by robert knox , a captive there near 20 years . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a69658-e250 mat. 6. 23. libell . pre. marcell . & ●au●● . joel 1. 4. 〈◊〉 9. 55. matth. 11. 29 john 13. 35. matth. 5. 44. john 17. 18 , 21 , 22 , 23. rom. 9. 3. ●om . 14. 6. 17. v. 5 , 21 , 22. 3 , 4 , 10. v. 19. v. 1 cor. 1. 10 , 11 , 12. 13. v. 12. ch. 13. ch. gal. 5. 13 , 14. 15. v. 22. v. ephes . 4. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. phil. 1. 15 , 16 , 17 ▪ 18. phil. 2. 1 , 2 , 3. col. 3. 8 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. 1 thes . 4. v. 9 , 10 , 11. 5. 13 , 14. 1 tim. 6. 3 , 4 , 5. 2 tim. 2. 24 , 25 , 26. titus 2. 1 , 2. heb. 10. 24 , 25 . heb. 12. 14 , 15. james 3. 13 , 14 , &c. 1 pet. 2. 1. c 3. v. 8 , ● . 2 s. pet. 1 ● . 1 s joh. 4. 15. ch. 2. v. 10 , 11. 1 s. joh. 3. 15. ch 3. v. 14. jude v. 19 , 16. v. 3. v. 22 , 23. 4. article . a vindication of the king's sovereign rights together with a justification of his royal exercises thereof, in all causes, and over all persons ecclesiastical (as well as by consequence) over all ecclesiastical bodies corporate, and cathedrals, more particularly applyed to the king's free chappel and church of sarum, upon occasion of the dean of sarum's narrative and collections, made by the order and command of the most noble and most honourable, the lords commissioners, appointed by the king's majesty for ecclesiastical promotions : by way of reply unto the answer of the lord bishop of sarum, presented to the aforesaid most honourable lords. pierce, thomas, 1622-1691. 1683 approx. 275 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 69 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-11 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a54862 wing p2208 estc r31798 12590229 ocm 12590229 63880 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a54862) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 63880) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 967:23) a vindication of the king's sovereign rights together with a justification of his royal exercises thereof, in all causes, and over all persons ecclesiastical (as well as by consequence) over all ecclesiastical bodies corporate, and cathedrals, more particularly applyed to the king's free chappel and church of sarum, upon occasion of the dean of sarum's narrative and collections, made by the order and command of the most noble and most honourable, the lords commissioners, appointed by the king's majesty for ecclesiastical promotions : by way of reply unto the answer of the lord bishop of sarum, presented to the aforesaid most honourable lords. pierce, thomas, 1622-1691. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [6], 98, 14, [18] p. s.n., [london : 1683] reproduction of original in huntington library. attributed to thomas pierce. cf. nuc pre-1956. index: p. [1]-[18] created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng prerogative, royal -great britain. 2003-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-07 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-09 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-09 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a vindication of the king' 's sovereign rights : together with a justification of his royal exercises thereof , in all causes , and over all persons ecclesiastical ( as well as by consequence ) over all ecclesiastical bodies corporate , and cathedrals ▪ more particularly applyed to the king 's free chappel and church of sarum . upon occasion of the dean of sarum's narrative and collections , made by the order and command of the most noble and most honourable , the lords commissioners , appointed by the king's majesty for ecclesiastical promotions . by way of reply unto the answer of the lord bishop of sarum , presented to the aforesaid most honourable lords . printed only to save the labour of transcribing several copies , and to prevent the mistakes thereby apt to be incurr'd , and meerly for the satisfaction of private friends , who either want or desire a most impartial information of that affair . a general table of the contents . the dean of sarum superstructs the ecclesiastical rights in thesi , ( to things of humane establishment ) upon the foundation of the regal , as upon a rock which cannot fail them . and also the rights of the bishop of sarum in hypothesi , upon the only sure foot which it can possibly stand upon . the moral necessity of distinguishing ( with the judicious bishop sanderson ) between an original , and derivative right : as also ( with the famous chief justice coke ) between a subordinate , and the supreme . the king in law is the founder , proprietor in chief , and advower paramount , of all arch-bishopricks , and bishopricks , cathedrals , prebends , and of all contained in them . the despotical exercise of the regality , as in all other churches , so above all in the church of sarum . the church is never so much betray'd , as by them who assert a church-man's right , with an exclusion of the king 's ; and strive to take down the stairs , to which they owe their own advancement . the dean of sarum does not ascribe an higher prerogative to the king than iudge coke himself , and bishop sanderson , the common , and statute , and civil laws ; yea no more than pope nicolas to edward the confessor , and his successors kings of england : and does but distinguish ( with the most excellent paolo sarpi , that oracle , life , and soul , of the most famous venetian senate ) between dominion , and dispensation . where any bishop is dispensator , the king is dominus . the second chapter . the king's castle at old sarum , and the king's free-chappel in it , and the dean of it , before a cathedral church was built , before a chapter was created , before the indowments of the sovereign and subordinate founders , and during all bishop herman's time , are made apparent and undeniable , by the best and first authors printed , by which the written registers can be confirmed . and that register of registers , which was cited by the dean , but cheaply slighted by the bishop , is shewed to be as authentick , as any his lordship can produce , and for all the same reasons , which any ordinary can urge for another register . florentius of worcester , eadmerus , will. of malmsbury , roger hoveden , simeon dunelmensis , ( all elder than mat. paris ) and m. paris himself , with several others , do all conspire ( in antecessum ) to prove the authority of the deans register , maugre those who disesteem it , for appearing too much in the royal cause . truth justified by its opposers ( before they are aware and against their wills ) in the very act of their opposition . two or three bishops , and many earls . , had the king's castle only as keepers , and during pleasure ; thence 't was an ambulatory trust , as is demonstrated by an induction . the castle stood on the king's soil . the lord bishops margin does only serve to confute his text. the third chapter . the dean of sarum's jurisdiction in his peculiars , and particularly in that of salisbury-close , ( which must be distinguished from the city , which is the bishops under the king ) whereof the dean is the sole immediate ordinary , was ever exempted from the bishop , by the charter of the supreme and subordinate founder of the cathedral , the king , and osmund . in comparison with which , the most unlawful composition was but a novelty . almost three hundred years younger , than the great fundamental statute . that composition was a conspiracy of pope boniface the ninth , with the then bishop , dean , and chapter , against whatsoever is great , or sacred . against the good word of god. against the supremacy and prerogative of the king . against both the common and statute law of the land. against the very foundation , whereupon the whole colledge and church are laid ; and together with which they must stand , or fall. against the souls of them that made it , and have acted according to it , both in regard of their own oaths , and the founder's curse . and ( by reason of all the nullities and inconsistences that are in it ) against common sense , and against it self . the dean of 1 sarum's jurisdiction , exclusively of the bishop's within the close , is strongly proved by the confessions of the present 2 lord bishop to the dean , before his lordship had been incensed by the dean's services for the 3 king , and by his dutiful obedience to the lords commissioners command . 't is farther proved by all decisions of authority , for the dean's evident right , against the bishop's invasion of it . an instance of it in the sentence of the lord chancellor of england , and the arch-bishop of the whole province . the mischeivous effects of the composition . of no use to its observers , unless to make them in danger of incurring a praemunire . the absolute necessity of a royal visitation to set all right , the appendix . mr. yeates , in several letters to persons of honour , and lesser quality , doth strongly assert unto himself his whole design of the four heads . he irrefragably proves the dean of sarum , not to have had an hand in , or assent to , or connivance at , or knowledge of his design , antecedently to the command of the lords commissioners , or to the first notice sent him by the lord bishop and the chapter . his two inducements to it from his right reverend diocesan ; and his none at all from the dean of sarum . a vindication of the king 's sovereign rights , as in all cathedral churches , so especially in the church both of old and new sarum , as asserted in the dean of sarum's narrative , drawn up and presented to the most noble lords commissioners . having laboured of late under the obloquy of some , and the ill-will of others , and the impotent revengefulness at least of one , for having delivered what i had found of the king 's sovereign rights , and his royal exercises thereof , as well in all causes , as over all persons ecclesiastical , all bodys corporate and cathedrals , more particularly applied unto his majesty's free chappel and church of sarum ; tho' i did nothing of my self as a voluntier , but by commission and command from the most noble and the most honourable the lords commissioners , appointed by his gracious majesty for ecclesiastical promotions , ( whom god knows i did believe it my bounden duty to obey ; ) i am induced to give the reasons of my having made so bold with my master's enemies and mine own , as to be dutifully loyal without their leave . i was loth to ask of them , by whom i was sure to be denied ; and ▪ did presume i might as pardonably assert the king's and the churches rights , now that the king is on his throne , and the church less militant , as i did safely and with success , before the great year of their restauration . sect. 1. first i was of an opinion ( before i had it from a most excellent and most noble lord commissioner ) that 't is the duty of every subject , and especially of the king's chaplains , to discover all they know of his majesties prerogative , tho' not commanded by authority , as i had been . which saying of a judicious and a most honourable lord ( in the council chamber , and elsewhere , ) is agreeable to another of two lord chancellors in their times , whereof the first was the lord bacon ; from whom 't was borrowed by the second , who used it in his speech to sir edward thurland when made a baron of the exchequer . to wit , that the subjects of england in general , as well as the iudges in particular , ( and particularly the judges of ecclesiastical courts , such as is the dean of sarum , ) are bound to maintain the prerogative , and not distinguish it from the law. the king's prerogative being law , and ( in the words of chief justice a coke , ) the principal part of the common law ; as that from which all other laws are derived , and on which they do depend . with these i compared that famous saying of a full parliament , which i found cited by my lord b coke too , that no king or kingdom can be safe , but where the king has three abilities , 1. to live of his own , and defend his kingdom ; 2. to assist his confederates , and 3 ▪ to reward his deserving subjects . from whence i thought it would follow , that to take from the great number of ecclesiastical promotions in the kings gift , is to act against the safety of king and kingdom , 't is reckoned one of those things which even a king cannot do lawfully , and which a c parliament cannot consent to . besides i thought it most unworthy , that he who had not been afraid in the worst of times , and without a warrant , and under none but god's protection , to defend the king 's rights and the whole church of england , by many arguments in print , ( when some new royalists durst not join in a petition for the kings wished return , for fear ( as they then said ) of setting their hands to their own ruine , as having reason to suspect the restauration would be general , that all usurpers must be ejected , and all ejected for their loyalty , would have their own , which passed with some for an heavy iudgement , ) should now descend unto the meanness of hiding himself behind another , and behind such another as he knew to be unqualified for such service , as i was irrationally suspected and most maliciously reported to have engaged another in . no , the pretenders to that suspicion , and the inventers of that report , did only design by such baseness to lessen the merit of my obedience to the lords commissioners injunction , and of my dutiful regard to the king himself , towards whose service it was my fault , ( as 't is my apology and excuse with a sort of men , ) that i did not go till i was sent , nor mend my pace till i was driven . sect. 2. next i had learned by my perusal of keble's statutes at large , and of chief justice coke's institutes , ( to name no more in this place ) d that the gift of all bishopricks , and nomination of bishops did ever belong to our monarchs , both before , and since the conquest , as in right of the crown . my lord coke gives the reason from this trite maxime in the law , e that all our archbishopricks and bishopricks , were and are of the king's foundation . that at first they were therefore all meerly donative , meerly by the delivery of a staff , and a ring . never elective till king iohn , who reigned not without the murdering of arthur of britain the rightful heir . f that it was again taken away by hen. 8. and ed. 6. in whose reigns all the bishops were required to take out new commissions for their bishopricks , and so to hold them onely as delegates in the king's name , and not for life absolute , but during pleasure . and archbishop cranmer gave an example to the rest. g that elections by deans , and chapters are declared by law to be no elections , but by a writ of conge d' eslire have only colours and shadows , or pretenses of elections serving to no purpose , and seeming derogatory and prejudicial to the king's prerogative royal , &c. that bishop h bonner declared under his hand , he held his bishoprick of london , of the king's bounty alone , during the king's pleasure only , and that he would again deliver it up , when it should please the king to call for it . that i all the temporalities of archbishopricks and bishopricks in all uacancies ( which our kings made when it pleased them ) ever came to the king as founder . he being patronus and protector ecclesiae in so high a prerogative incident to his crown , that he cannot part with it , no subject can have claim to it either by grant or by prescription . that k the lands of the church were all at first given by gracious princes , as may appear from the first book of iustinian's code , where laws are recorded for the conferring , and also for the conserving of them . which is also the affirmation of the most excellent paulus sarpius . that l if the king and a common person have joyned in a foundation , the king is the founder ; because it is an entire thing . for the truth of which maxime that renowed judge cited 44 ed. 3. c. 24. from when i inferred within myself , that king hen. 8. ( rather than wolsey ) was founder of christ church in oxford , tho' its well enough known , that wolsey was a co-founder : or , founder subordinate to the supreme . so william the conqueror ( rather than osmund ) was the supreme and sovereign founder of the cathedral church of old sarum ; tho' by the king's bounty , as well as leave , st. osmund built , and greatly indow'd it with such revenues , as he m held of his lord and master during pleasure and by knights service . for the conqueror's soldiers ( whereof osmund of say was one ) held all the lands which he gave them under military service , not as properly freeholders , but as lords in trust only , and according to the king's pleasure , thereby hoping to engage them to a close dependance upon the crown : as the learned selden relates of matthew paris , and his learned n annotator does give the reason . i do not say our monarchs have had the same power ever since , but the same right by law which ever any king had . nor do i say they have a right to any saecular possessions whereof the subject hath a feesimple ; but a right to confer on ecclesiastical persons such ecclesiastical dignities and revenues , as are in law of the king's foundation , which all are affirmed to be by keble , referring to the statute of 25 ed. 3. p. 121. where the holy church of england is said to have been founded by ed. 1. and his progenitors , &c. as the lords and advowers of it . and then by vertue of that other maxime in my lord coke , ( who was never more an oracle , than when he spake for the king's prerogative , to which he had never a partiality , ) that o successors are included under the name of king ; 't is plain that what right soever was in william the first , and his next immediate successors , ( especially hen. 1. and hen. 3. from whom the church of sarum had vast additions of endowment , ) our king hath now . hence it is that all our kings have been not only owned as the founders , but as patrons of our cathedral . for which i cited the address of the dean and chapter to hen. 7. in whom the two contending houses were united , wherein they called him their founder p seven times at least . their numerical expressions in their prayer to god for him , ( to whom they could not intend to lye ) was fundator ecclesiae sarum . and hen. 8. was so stiled by the famously learned and prudent q longland , after bishop of lincoln , and lord chancellor of the university of oxford , for which i might cite the exact register of harward , the authenticalness of which was never questioned . so 't is notorious that all members of christ-church in oxford , in their prayers before their sermons do commemorate hen. 8. ( not naming wolsey ) as their founder . from whence it is that the dean of christ-church is the sole governour of that cathedral , and the bishop of oxford not . as the dean of westminster , had the sole jurisdiction within the precincts of that cathedral , when there was created a bishop of it . and the dean there hath more than episcopal jurisdiction . archiepiscopal ( saith dr. heylin ) within all the liberties , as the abbots had heretofore . ever since sebert king of essex , kings and queens have been successively , and in the eye of the law the founders of the church , and of all within it . as it is now a collegiate church , queen elizabeth was the foundress , and our king at this day ( whom god preserve ) is in law the founder of it . as for all the same reasons , he is the founder of our colledge and church of sarum , as well by several acts of parliament , as in our own books . our norman kings did say of it , as will. 1. of battle abby , r libera sit sicut mea basilica capella ; and as that was exempted from the power and visitation of the bishops of chichester , so was ours from the bishops of sarum , as shall be shewn in its proper place . i end this section with that old distich in spondanus of our salisbury cathedral , and with a verse made in those very times . s rex largitur opes ; fert praesul opem ; lapicidae dant operam ; tribus his est opus ut stet opus . t regis enim virtus templo spectabitur isto . sect. 3. thirdly , altho' i do not say , with that incomparable civilian sir thomas ridley , t that the king himself is instead of the whole law , yea he is the law it self , and the only interpreter thereof , in as much as all those who govern under him , govern by him , and for him ; yet i will and do say with our acts of parliament , u that the kingdom of england is an empire ; and the king supreme head of it ; and his crown an imperial crown . he is not a precarious , but an absolute monarch , saith the learned camden in his britannia . supremam potestatem , & merum imperium habet apud nos rex . and his sovereign dominion over all ecclesiastical persons , and in all causes without exception , is confessed to be de iure , by all our clergy men in their pulpits , as well as by all in england who pay him firsts-fruits and tenths . not excepting those very persons who cannot yet pardon my most necessary distinction , ( on which doth lye the whole stress of ours and all other cathedrals ) w between an original and derivative right ; a right supreme and one suburdinate thereunto . our proprietaries in the chief of the church of saerum ; and so it is with the strictest propriety of speaking , that in all their royal mandates they use that stile , our church of sarum . for as proprietaries in chief , & bonae fidei possessores , and founders of the bishoprick , as well as of all belonging to it , i find and can prove ( against the naked and cheap denials of such as can easily deny what they cannot disprove by any artifices or strengths ) that our monarchs have acted as despotically in and over the church of sarum , as in any their mansion houses . who but our monarchs did take away the fourteen prebends i reckon'd up in my collections , and the archdeaconry of dorset , and all the dorsetshire iurisdiction from the bishops of sarum , ( not so much as one parish remaining there unto the bishop , though about forty to the dean , ) and conferred them upon others according to their wills and pleasures ? to begin with the first times , were to write a volume . let it suffice that hen. 8. gave four of them at once to the dean and chapter of windsor , as that of okeborn st. andrew , that of okeborn st. george , that of hungerford , and that of sherbourn ; but did not take from the dean of sarum the episcopal iurisdiction in any one of them : nor in that which was given by hen. 8. or ed. 6. to the earls of pembroke , to wit , the great prebend of axford , supposed to have been given by q. elizabeth , to her secretary of state , sir francis walsingham , from whom i know it came by purchase to sir francis pyle's grandfather ; the like to which he has also in the prebend of sherbourn in dorset , which hath been variously disposed of to and fro by our several monarchs , for about five hundred years together , from king stephen to king iames. and tho' sherbourn was the seat of so vast a bishoprick , that no fewer than four bishopricks were taken out of it . yet the whole jurisdiction of that , and many round about it , have still been saved intirely by all our monarchs since the conquest , to him who was then , and ever since the dean of their majesties free chappel and church of sarum . then formaliter , and ever since virtualiter , in respect of the franchises belonging to him . indeed in the prebend of bedwin , given away by ed. 6. to the earl of hertford and his heirs , the dean of sarum has but episcopal iurisdiction , and a triennial visitation ; the like to which he has in the prebend of faringdon , which is now in sir robert pye , to whom it descended from his father , by whom it was bought of the lady umpton , and given for ever from the bishop and church of sarum , by ed. 6. to wm. hening , esq. a. d. 1550. the three good prebends of uphaven , loders , and horton , were alienated from us , i know not when , or by which of our english monarchs . the prebend of shipton ( which was no more in our monarchs to dispose of , than all the rest ) was given away by king iames i. ( as to the patronage and advowson ) unto the chancellor and scholars of the university of oxford , for the use of a lay-man the king's professor of law there , and to his successors for ever , with an etiamsi laicus sit , & sacros ordines non susceperit ; and this the king gave under the great seal of england , wherein the habendum and the tenendum , is not of the bishop of sarum ( of whom there is not the least notice taken ) but of him the said king , and his successors for ever : which gift and way of giving it , was afterwards confirmed by an act of parliament , which i wonder to find alledged by the right reverend the bishop in derogation to the king 's right of giving prebends ; as if a king's act were the less regal , or legal , for being done by the king twice . first without a parliament , and a second time in it . or as if the king of england had not acted as the proprietor , because the three estates of parliament did so esteem him. nor hath any reason been given ( that i have ever read , or heard of ) why king iames might not as easily have given away any other prebend , which had been founded in that church , that of netherbury in terra for example , which he really had given to his divinity-professor , and to his successors , but that his majesty found it too little , and rather chose to give them a greater thing . nor is the king's act in parliament ( which we may no more distinguish from the king , than we may distinguish the king's prerogative from the law ) more or less the king's act , than his act in council ( although perhaps of more force : ) for the three states which make the body of a parliament , whereof the king is the head ( tho a most honourable body , and a whole kingdom in epitomy ) can but prepare matter for law , and humbly propose it to the sovereign to be ratified or rejected , as his majesty thinks sit . but the ratio formalis of legislation is fully and solely in the king ; whose fiat or le veult is the very soul and life of every law made , or to be made . and really if the king of england is not the founder , the sovereign patron , and proprietary in chief , as well of the prebends , as of the bishopricks ; the bishop of sarum can have no right to his prebend of potern ( tho installed and admitted by the dean and chapter , as other prebendaries are ; ) much less can he have right unto his other prebend of blewbery , into which he was never so installed or admitted ; and which is reckoned in the choir among the alienated prebends , because transferred from the whole chapter to the bishop of sarum , who is indeed one of the chapter , as he is prebendary of potern , but not at all as prebendary of blewbery : and so his lordship cannot have a right to it , ( tho he has possession of it , ) unless he hath it from the king , which is right enough ; and yet it is not enough , in case the king is not de jure the sovereign patron , and proprietary in chief . 't was never once held by any bishop of sarum , ( but was a distinct and good provision for one of the simplices canonici ) until the reign of hen. 8. by whom 't is pretended to have been pressed upon bishop salcot , alias capon , and that in exchange for the mannor of godalming in surrey ; which could not possibly be de jure ( if indeed 't was so de facto ) in case the king had no right to dispose of that prebend as he thought fit : i say if it was indeed so de facto , because the mannor of godalming in surrey ( with the rectory and the three copices , and the perpetual advowson of the vicaridge ) was the gift of king x hen. iii. and is the dean of sarum's corps , and held of him by lease to this very day . nor could such an exchange be made ( if it ever were ) without the king's fiat , as proprietary in chief : and i hope 't will not be said , that the king has only right to alienate what he will to the bishop from any other , but no right to give what prebend he will to any other . it is against law and reason , that one man in the same church should have two prebends at once . and therefore when hen. ii. of england gave two to one person y pope alexander the third complained of it : not at all questioning his royal right to give prebends , but the evil use of it . hence it follows , that the right of any bishop of sarum to bestow prebends ( which i shall ever assert as the only sure foot it can stand upon ) must needs be subordinate to the king 's , from whose supream right it was derived . for the king ( if he would ) z cannot legally confer a sovereign right upon any subject , much less upon a bishop , dean and chapter , who cannot hold what they have for term life absolute , being many ways subject to deprivations . amongst many other examples which might be easily given of that ; judge a coke tells us of one bishop of exeter , who fell into a praemunire , for not admitting one immediately , who was presented by the king to the church of southwell : and this was done in the prevailing times of popery ( 24 ed. 3. ) much more easily may it be done by a protestant king ( and hath been often ) who hath of right an ecclesiastical supremacy , and doth assert it without a sacriledge , or an encroachment upon the church , and that by the confession of all loyal church-men . i am sure i can name many , who once allowed much more to cromwell : and yet by b two statutes in force , 't is downright treason , for any subject of england , either to promise or pay obedience , to any other than to the king , his heirs , and successors . 't would be as endless , as it is easy , to muster up instances of the regale over churches and church-men , and their revenues , even when they were as great , as the pope could make them ; and at as high a pitch of pride , as that usurper of supremacy could raise them to . the most assuming bishop of rome that ever was , was pope hildebrand ; against whose tyrannies and encroachments , william the conqueror was a protestant ; yet he apparently so dreaded the growing power of the then bishops within this kingdom , that he confirmed his own power ( as well as shewed it ) by lessening theirs . our kings ( in a word ) are de jure kings of france : and the french king's prerogative , or propriety , cannot be greater in the gallican church , than our kings is in the church of england . nor indeed near so great . ( 't is a little thing to say in the church of sarum only . ) and yet the whole clergy of the gallican church , have lately declared their opinion by the mouth of the arch-bishop of rheims ( notwithstanding their popes pretensions ) that the king hath a clear title to the right of the regale in all the bishopricks of his kingdom ; that a general council cannot lessen it , much less a pope ; that no present king can be deprived of what a former king had ; that the king 's collating to prebends is such an act of supremacy ( so the historian does infer ) as shews the king to be lord in fee ; and by the code made in the time of hen. 4. c if a chapter refuse to install a regalist , letters are to go out to compel them to it , or else their revenues are to be seized on . briefly 't was confessed by the bishop of pamiees ( the stoutest assertor of the pope's ecclesiastical supremacy ) that the foundation of churches does prove the king 's right of patronage . all which and much more may be collected out of dr. burnet's elaborate history of the rights of princes , &c. and if the french kings prerogative is such ; who does not own an ecclesiastical supremacy in all causes , and over all persons , as our king does ; how much greater is the regale of our kings here in england , ever since the reformation ? i will conclude this comparison of the king of france with the french king , in the words of this king's procurator general in parliament , to wit , that the king can no more renounce the right of the regale in ecclesiasticis , either in whole , or in part , than he can destroy the salick law , or quit the sovereignty of any provinces in france : and further adds , they would all quit their employments , rather than consent to the least diminution of that right . there are some among us , who do not speak in that strain , though others do . sect. 4. fourthly , i observed a maxim of law in my lord coke , which did confirm me in my distinction between a supream and subordinate right . the maxim is , c that if the title of the king , and of a common person concurr , the king's title shall be preferred . for the law ( saith he ) respecteth honour and order : therefore if the king makes one man a resident , whilst the dean and chapter is choosing , and have a desire to choose another ; the dean and chapter will prefer the king's clerk , and not dispute with his majesty de jure patronatus . several instances may be given in several churches . those of sarum , and wells in especial manner . so if the king presents one to a prebend without residence , and the bishop another ; the dean and chapter will install and admit the king's man , because by express statute-law , d the king is the advower paramount immediate of all churches and prebends . and accordingly our kings , the last , and present in particular , do not only recommend , but pro imperio plane despotico , do expresly command obedience to , and compliance with them ; and that sometimes in the very same line , sometimes two or three lines lower , sometimes again in the conclusion . yes , and in variety of despotical expressions ( as great as any can be invented in law to be imperial . such as are ( for instance ) e we will. we command . we will and require . willing and requiring you . our pleasure is . our express will and pleasure is . this we will have done , any use , custome , prescription , or any other matter , or thing to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding . again , we will , and our pleasure is , that you cause these our letters to be entred in your register , to the end they may be produced when occasion requires . what french king did ever write in a more decretory , despotical , and masterly stile , than le roy le veult . car tel est son plaisir ? this was as far as heaven from hell , from expresly disclaiming a royal patronage , and right , and iurisdiction . i will add but one more , which was both ways despotical ; to wit , by a signal inhibition , and by a peremptory command . for having said , that he had given unto his chaplain dr. drake the dignity and office of chancellor in that his cathedral church of sarum , with the prebend thereto annexed ? his majesty added these signal words ; [ we hereby will and require , that no other person be admitted or elected into any residentiaries place now vacant , or that shall be vacant , until he ( the said dr. drake ) be received into the rights and profits of residence : and for so doing , this shall be your warrant . ] much more might be said of the king's mandate for dr. whitby , which yet i forbear , till occasion serves . only of this i am assured by as eminent f a lawyer , as perhaps ever was , that a false suggestion in a petition to the king , does void the king 's grant of the thing petitioned for : it being a maxim in my lord coke g ; [ the grant is void , where the king is deceived in his grant. ] besides all this , i sadly considered with my self , how often bishops temporalities have been resumed by our kings upon light displeasures . how often will. 2. did h resume his own grants . and how he at once took all the profits of the bishopricks of canterbury , winchester , and sarum . and how all bishops were threaten'd i by hen. 3. with a seizure of all they had , if they presumed to intermeddle in any thing to the prejudice of the crown . lastly , how k all our kings and parliaments ( excepting one ) even from hen. 3. until the 6. of hen. 8. have used acts of resumption , whereby to repair the low estate of the crown . the just and frequent way to do it ( said the learned sir robert cotton , in his speech to the house of commons , 1 car. 1. ) the dean of sarum , as much as any man , is for the bishop of sarum's rights ( though not exclusively of the kings ) and would have it stand safely , by standing for ever upon a rock , to wit , the prerogative of our monarchs , who , in law , can never dye . they tend to the ruin of the prelacy , and all cathedrals , who labour to make their king despotical , in the sence of the greek proverb only , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . be a family never so great , there is but one servant in it , and that is the master of the house . but the learned dr. burnet affirms the king to be despotical in a much better sense . for premising an observation , how frequently christian monarchs made paenal laws for church-men , the pains of which were suspension , or deprivation ( whereof the instances are many , both in the old roman laws , and in the capitulars ) he infers the king's l mastership , and gives a very sound reason for it . indeed the bishops of rome for several centuries of years , even in all their publick bulls , and till the death of charles the great , did own the emperors of their times , as their m lords and masters . and richard poor , bishop of sarum , did own king iohn as his n master , with greater reason ; however that king de facto made himself the pope's vassal . postulans ab eo tanquam a domino suo manus adjutrices . all agree the monarchs of england have power to suspend , or deprive a bishop ( as ours has done an arch-bishop , and that for a lesser degree of guilt , than that of opposing the king's prerogative ) as q. mary and elizabeth did : and of our kings not a few . so 't is on all hands confessed , that their royal visitations , either of all the churches of england ( as hen. 8. ed. 6. and q. eliz. by their commissioners ) may abolish old statutes , and order new ones to be made ; and this for one ( if they please ) that no prebend shall be conferred without the king 's express mandate , or permission and consent , in a conge d'eslire . this would be at once despotical , and yet according to law ; however some in the world are willing to make them inconsistent : and every statute would begin with a statuimus , ordinamus , or volumus & mandamus : which being supposed , i would ask , what hurt would there be in it ? or , what ill consequence could therebe of it ? is the king fit to be intrusted with all the greatest promotions , all the bishopricks and deaneries ? and is he not fit to bestow the least ? it is convenient , and of good use , and according to law , that he should make a bishop of sarum , as well as the dean , and all the residentiaries , ( as at this day , and in antecessum for days and years yet to come ? ) and is it illegal , or of ill consequence , that he should sometimes ( tho' seldom ) bestow some few of his own prebends , even on men of great learning , and holy life , and in full holy orders , and that for term of life only ? when his progenitors gave so many even to mere lay-men , and their heirs for ever ? the world takes notice , and 't is to be written with a sun-beam , that generally speaking , and taking one with another , no preferments are so well given as by the king , and by the lord-keeper of the great seal , and by the advice of the lords commissioners , whom his majesty hath appointed for ecclesiastical promotions . 't is certain the bishops , and the deans , and others , whose preferments are in the king 's sole disposal ( not only in his supream , for which certain bishops have a subordinate right derived ) are all exactly of this opinion : this ( i say ) is as certain , as it is certain they have a competent good opinion of themselves , and their own deservings : they would not else have accepted , much less would many of them have sought , what many others had deserved as well as they . and if 't is true that o neither the bishop , nor the church of sarum , did suffer any prejudice at all , by king iames his giving a prebend unto a mere lay-man , and to his successors for ever ; ( at which saying of a great churchman , many good secular men have wondered ) how much less can his lordship think it any prejudice at all to the bishop of sarum , or to the church , or to the whole order of church-men , if another monarch of england shall confer another prebend ( i do not say upon a lay-man , and his successors for ever , but ) upon one in holy orders , and ( without a nepotismo ) of holy life , and of excellent learning , and for term of life only , or so long as he is seen , and notoriously known , to continue to deserve the enjoyment of it ? 't is very well known what was the judgment of hen. 8. upon his death-bed , and of all his executors after his death ( whereof three were eminent church-men , to wit , arch-bishop cranmer , tonstal bishop of durham , and dr. wotton , the famous embassador , who was at once dean of canterbury and york , and humbly refused the arch-bishoprick of the great province ) and also of all the privy counsellors of ed. 6. when they decreed to the p earl of hartford , six of the best prebends at once , and three hundred pounds per annum out of the lands of the next bishoprick , which should fall to the king's disposal . after which 't was granted also ( at the said earl's suit ) that his lordship should have a deanery , and a treasurership , in lieu of two of the said six prebends : but very far was the dean of sarum from defending the alienations of ecclesiastical endowments to saecular men ( as the lord bishop of sarum does ; ) he was not so little verst in logick , as to argue a facto ad ius . for when he related matters of fact , and what our monarchs had done in the church of sarum , he added , [ quo jure , i humbly leave to the judgment of my superiors . ] he only demonstrated , that our monarchs had acted as founders , and proprietors ( which indisputably our monarchs all are ) and have a strict right ( as well as power ) to bestow all our prebends as well as bishopricks upon god's proper usu-fructuaries , deserving church-men for term of life . but whosoever shall consider , what powers were given to the lord cromwel by commission , as vicar general to hen. 8. and also shall consider those famous parliaments , composed of the clearest and deepest heads of those times , both spiritual and temporal , who made the known statutes of 27 hen. 8. cap. 4. and 13. and 27. 28. and 1 ed. 6. cap. 14. will at least excuse and pardon any man living who now believes ( and with a much greater force of reason ) that our king hath a supream and sovereign right ( from which and under which some of our bishops , as well as deans , have one subordinate and derived ) to dispose of vacant prebends now and then , when they please , in their own cathedrals . and as well may he dispose of all our residentiaries places ( as his now-sacred-majesty , and his royal progenitors have done ) yes , and return them , if he thinks fit , from six to seven , from seven to twelve , and from twelve to fifty-two ; and bind them to residences in their courses , thirteen every quarter , according to our several statutes , both old and modern . sect. 5. besides all this , i find it said to the lords commissioners , first by my brethren of the chapter , [ that his majesties power within the church of sarum appears to us to be the same , and no other than it is in all other cathedral churches in england . ] next by the king's attorney general , [ i cannot find that his majesty hath any other right in that church , than in any other cathedral churches . ] these assertions , but especially the first , because of its important monosyllable all , do seem at least to me to imply a grant , that his majesty hath the same both power and right in the cathedral church of sarum , which he hath , and ever had , in the churches of worcester , norwich , rochester , bristol , gloucester , oxford , peterborough , westminster , windsor , &c. in all which churches , as well cathedral as collegiate , every one of the prebends is in the king 's sole ( not only sovereign ) disposal , ( by himself , or lord-keeper , ) and not one in any bishop , or bishops whatsoever . yea , even in the arch-bishop's metropolitical church of cnanterbury , the king has the sole disposal of nine of the twelve prebends , and the arch-bishop of but three . tho' the primate of all england and metropolitan , should have as much power and right , ( a man would think , ) within the cathedral of his own diocess , as any one inferiour bishop , both within his grace's corrections also ; such as the bishop of sarum is . and i do sometimes ask my self , what inconvenience could there be , if the bishop of sarum , or any other who is subordinate to the archbishop , ( as the archbishop to the king , ) had no more prebends to dispose of than the archbishop hath ? or if his majesty now and then ( although but rarely , only fourteen , or fifteen , in above 500 , years , ) should give a prebend at large of sarum , to a priest every way qualified with want and worth , as well as he gives all the prebends in all the churches recited , without exception ? the church and state might stand firmly as now they do , and christian souls might be as salvable as now they are , tho' the king's power and right were as much owned by all , as it is by me . the bishops of london and of lincoln , and several others , have a most undoubted right to dispose of prebends , ( such at least as the bishop of sarum hath , ) and that right the more unquestionable , by being held of the supream , and derived from it , and subordinate thereunto . a sole and sovereign right wholly exclusive of the king 's , ( which is all i contend against , and which my lord bishop of sarum , seems to aim at , and effect , or else his lordship and i agree , ) i am verily perswaded , none of those bishops will pretend to . it cannot be said with any truth , that all the bishopricks i have named , wherein the king gives all the prebends , the bishops none , are not of old , but new foundation . for worcester , and norwich are very old ; canterbury and rochester two of the oldest we have in england . besides that , the king's power and right in the church of sarum , is greater than in many others ; not only because of his old free chappel , which i shall prove in the next chapter ( and cannot be disproved by some negatives , from some interested and passionate opposers of the prerogative , ) but also because the kings of england were the co-founders of that cathedral in a literal sence , as well as founders in the sence of our common and statute law : the co-founders at least , because osmund had his all from the bounty of will. 1. and held his all of that king's favour , under knights service during pleasure , for which i cited mr. selden and matth. paris , in the first sect. of this chapter . king hen. 1 , in one day gave 20 churches to that of sarum , besides the tithes of new forrest ; if the q record which was read by sir. tho. ridley said true , which he mentions in his view of the civil law. and ( passing by the lesser bounties of steph. and k. hen. 2. ) it is confessed , that hen. 3. gave no fewer than 20 or 21 prebends , and other things ; even all the tithes of all the kings forrests within three counties , wilts , berks , and dorset and the removal of the cathedral from old to new sarum , is owned by bishop spondanus ( as well as r others ) to have been at the king 's cost chiefly . next our kings were sole founders in the eye and sence of the law , according to the maxim cited before from iudge coke , instit. cart 2. chap. 33. upon magna charta , p. 68. & 44 ed. 3 cap. 24. and our king at this day , according to that other maxim in coke 2 inst. in statute of employments , p. 742. whatever right our former kings had , our king hath now . it seemeth strange to most men , ( who have considered the matter throughly , ) that the king who gets the right of giving every ecclesiastical possession in england , not only where church men , but where saecular men are patrons , by promoting an incumbent unto a bishoprick , should immediately loose all even in that very church where he makes the bishop : or that the king who hath all in his own disposal , during the vacancy of all the bishopricks in england , should have nothing to dispose of , ( without the bishop's good leave , ) as soon as the vacancies are filled , tho' filled up freely by himself . they are betrayers of the churches rights who go about to undermine and betray the king's ; and they tempt the king and his royal successors , to let their bishopricks lye void , as q. eliz. and her ancestors thought fit to do , even as far as for 20 , or 30 , yea , for 40 , years together . signal instances of which in the most of our churches , if not in all , 't were too easy for me to give , if it would not occasion too great a length . alas ! we may judge of the king's regale within the cathedral church of sarum , ( supposing there had been never a royal chappel in the old castle , which yet i shall shortly make apparent , ) by the exercises of it in other churches . they having ( in their pleasures and displeasures ) created some bishopricks , and supprest them soon after ; ( whereof westminster is an example : ) dissolved , and restored ; ( whereof durham is an example : ) united two into one , and again divided into two ; ( an instance of which we have in worcester and gloucester : ) taken three out of one , ( as hen. 1. took ely out of lincoln . hen. 8. oxford and peterborough out of the same : ) tho' the diocess of lincoln is still the greatest , ( ' its parishes being no fewer than 1255. ) ordered one bishoprick to be held with another in commendam ; ( as that of bristol with that of gloucester for 23 years together : ) gave the bishoprick of hexam in augmentation to the archbishoprick of york ; ( from which it was taken again in the 37. of hen. 8. ) converted canons saecular into regular , & vice versa made the prior and convent of westminster a distinct corporation from the abbot : conferred the patronage of a bishoprick upon a subject ; ( as hen. 4. that of man upon the family of the stanleys : gave temporalities , and reassumed them ; ( as in 14 ed. 3. cap. 3. ) deprived bishops for very small failings ; ( examples of which are elsewhere given . ) subjected them to the statute of praemunire , and to the judgments of saecular men ; ( as all at once to the lord cromwel , and sir io. tregonwel to that of sarum . ) made inferiour clergymen to be the judges of their superiors ; ( as the dean of st. pauls over bonner bishop of london : ) translated bishops in displeasure , from the greater bishopricks to the lesser ; ( as nevil from york to st. andrews in scotland ; and iohn buckingham from lincoln to litchfield , which was not then half so good : ) made a saecular man a dean ; ( as the lord cromwel dean of wells : ) in a word the same authority which took four bishopricks out of sherburn , and added sherburn ( with about 40 parishes about it ) to the dean of sarum's iurisdiction ; and gave away the jurisdiction of the rest of all dorsetshire from the bishop of sarum to that of bristol , ( but never gave away one from the dean of sarum , ) can give a prebend of sarum , or a residentiaries place , to any man in full orders , and that de iure ; for to a lay-man , and de facto , it has frequently been done . and if the corporation of dean and chapter is not of the king's foundation , when the bishoprick is by all confessions , and by the frequent declarations of the law ; why have our kings disposed oftener of the residentiaries places , than of the canonries at large without residence ? why should any man dispute against his kings being his founder ? can he pretend to have a better ? or will he pretend to have none at all ? 't is true that osmund was a secondary and subordinate founder of many prebends . but his founder and royal master , was worthily reckoned as the supreme , with which distinction it is as true , the dean and chapter have a right to choose their bishops as well as residents . but both in a subserviency and subordination to the supreme , wherewith their own must stand , or fall . the reverend arch-deacon s fulwood hath enough , whereby to clear the king's patronage of the whole english church ; and he cites archbishop bramhall , producing several laws for it . the assize of clarendon ; the statute of carlile ; the statute of provisors . all asserting the power and patronage to be de jure in the king , which was de facto in the pope , and by usurpation t the parliament told the king plainly , that the right of the crown is such , and the law of the land too , that the king is bound to make remedies and laws against incroachment on his prerogative . sect. 6. lastly , i must in my narrative ( in imitation of the most learned and most judicious bishop sanderson , ) assert the bishops right , as well as the chapter 's , and mine own , ( both as jointly with them , and as separate from them ) upon what i think the surest and safest ground . only i could not find in my heart to take down that scaffold , or to invalidate those stairs , unto which we all owe our own advancement . i was really afraid to betray the church , by asserting the churchmen's right with an exclusion of the kings , as i am sorry some do , to the endangering of the whole body . for 't is to expose her as an orphan to a very unkind world , sadly stripped of the patronage , and so the protection of the king , who is her guardian , and nursing father , to whom the church owes her safety , ( if not her being ; ) and without whose royal patronage she cannot comfortably subsist : the church ( in our laws ) being evermore a u minor , ever a pupil under age ; as utterly destitute of help , as ever any expositious and forsaken child was , without that guardianship and patronage , that royal right and prerogative , which some ( who live by it ) have lately attempted to undermine . in this my sentiment if i have erred , it is with the great man i just now mentioned as my exemplar , in that book which he composed by the special command of king charles the first of glorious memory , proving episcopacy in england not at all prejudicial to regal power , ( which some would make destructive of it , ) by the same way of arguing which i have used . w the shortest accompt which i can render of it is this : all episcopal power is either of order , or iurisdiction ; hereof the latter is either internal , or external ; and this last is either directive , or coercive ; the first is from god , the second wholly from the king ( as is declared by our laws , and acknowledged by the whole loyal clergy . ) yea that power which is from god , ( as that of preaching , ordaining , absolving and the like , ) is so subject to be inhibited , limited , and otherwise regulated , in the outward exercise of that power , by the customs of the land , as that the whole execution of that power does still depend upon the regal . now x all iurisdiction being confessedly from the king , it seem's to follow , that all prebends , as well as residentiaries places of the old foundation , which have a iurisdiction belonging to them , ( as those of sarum are known to have , ) are disposable by the king , when , and as often , as his majesty sees good. pope nicholas could not deny it , and therefore granted it very cunningly to edward the confessor , with a vobis & posteris committimus advocationem &c. we commit the advowson of all the churches of y england , to you and your successors , kings of england . so that if the popes grants are of any value , ( before the statutes of provisors and praemunire , ( by which the composition , in it self evil , was made much worse , as having been when those statutes had made it criminal , for the subjects of england to petition a bishop of rome for a confirmation ; the regal right i plead for has a double title , and is not questionable by the papalins , much less by the men of the church of england . now whereas i did distinguish ( with the judicious bishop sanderson ) between an original , and derivative power of jurisdiction , ( wherewith i have been twitted , in derogation to the kings honour , to whom it seems i ascribed more , than malignity will allow , tho' no more than bishop sanderson , whose loyal performance justifies mine , ) and after shewed the great extent , with the greater intensiveness , of my derivative jurisdiction as dean of sarum , which had been a most extravagant and unaccountable iurisdiction , if the first deans of sarum had not been deans of the kings free chappel , ( before the cathedral church was built , and before bishop herman was the first bishop of it , as well as during all his time , which i shall prove to be as clear as the sun at noon in a fair day , ) i will justify my self in my so magnifying my office , out of mere gratitude to the king , and to show his royal bounty as well as power , in the words of the said meek and most learned prelate . the more a derived power is extended and inlarged in the exercise thereof , ( so as to be regular ) the more it serveth to set forth the honour and greatness of that original power which granted it . since the vertue of the efficient cause is best known by the greatness of it's effect . for — propter quod unumquodque est tale , illud ipsum est magis tale ; as the warmth of the room doth not lessen the heat of the fire upon the hearth , but is a sign of it's greatness , &c. from all which it follows , that the dean who does as modestly , as he does thankfully distinguish , between his own but derivative and subordinate rights , and the rights of the king which are original and supreme , cannot magnify his office , or defend his jurisdiction ( according to his oath and bounden duty ) with too much zeal ; whilst they who hate that distinction , ( as by me it hath been used , ) and will have the sole right to dispose of this or that , exclusively of the kings , are neither so modest nor so thankful , as i sincerely wish they were : they maligning their maker's power , whereby they are what they are . i will add ex abundanti what may conduce to their conviction , ( in this great article of our religion , ) who would be thought of the church of england z it is a principle in law , that of every land there is a fee simple in some body : but the fee simple of the land of a prebend cannot be in the bishop , or in the prebendary , ( both being at most for term of life , and both subject to deprivations , for less then treason , or felony , ) therefore 't is in the king , as original a founder , whose royal right can never dye . king hen. 8. and ed. 6. did act accordingly and the b same authority which was made use of by hen. 8. and ed. 6. was declared by parliament to be in q. eliz. her heirs , and successors . c nor can any discontinuance be any prejudice to a king 's right , who therein hath this prerogative , quod nullum tempus occurrit regi . and d when a king ordains any thing for the honour of god and the church , he wills not ( saith my lord coke e that it turn to the prejudice of him or his crown ; but that his right should be saved in all points . besides the church is for ever in law a minor , ( as i observed before ) semper in custodia domini regis . and 't is unnatural that the guardian should have nothing to dispose of ( not so much as a prebend ) in the minority of his pupil , to which he is a nursing father . the king's possession and rights ( saith the same f oracle of the law ) are called sacra patrimonia , & dominica corona regis : so that 't is sacriledge to invade them . nor can he so make them away , but that at one time or other they will revert unto the crown . he is in law summus dominus supra omnes , ( still the words of chief justice coke , ) of whom are held either mediately or immediately all the free lands of england , much more all ecclesiasticals for term of life onely , or quam diu bene se gesserint possessores . lastly , the king is not only the legal founder and patron of all the bishopricks in england , and of all contained in them ; ( as causa causae is ever causa causati ) but he is himself in person , the supreme and sovereign bishop of every diocess in england . it being the true and known saying of constantine the great , ( an englishman born , and king of britain , as well as emperour of rome and constantinople , ) in his speech unto the fathers of the first nicene general council , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and every body knows , that the perpetual advocation or right patronage of is a lay fee ; as peculiar to many lay subjects , ( much more to the sovereign , qui intra ecclesiam potestatis culmen habet , say the canonists themselves , ) as institution to a subordinate bishop , or other ordinary , and induction to an archdeacon . especially when the thing presented to is without cure of souls , as prebends are . for where a parsonage is the corps of any prebendary at large , and demised for three lives to a secular man , ( as most commonly it is , ) the cure of souls is wholly devolved and incumbent upon the vicar , if at least there is a vicaridge endowed ; and if not , upon the curate . but the rector and his tenent are both exempt . briefly our monarch has a right , as well by common , as statute law ( and the deans of sarum have ever been largely partakers of it by royal bounty ) to h exempt what place he will from every bishop's jurisdiction ; and ( when he will ) from the arch-bishops ; such as pool , and other places in the possession of sir iohn webb : every ordinary in england ( such as is the dean of sarum in the close ) is an i immediate officer to the king's courts . and to the king appeals lye even from the court of arches : his majesty being in law , le dernier resort de la iustice ; yea , in places exempt , no archbishop may intermeddle , according to 25 hen. 8. c. 19. 6. and c. 21. § . 20. i and all iurisdiction ecclesiastical being both derived from , and inseparably annexed to the imperial crown of this realm , and that for ever , by k acts of parliament ; from thence it is , that a convocation cannot meet , without the king 's writ ; nor treat at their meeting , without his commission ; nor establish any thing when commissioned , without his royal assent and fiat . they who say less than this , do make episcopacy prejudicial to monarchy ( which bishop ▪ sanderson could not endure ) and set up a papal like supremacy in a protestant kingdom . a loyal subject and son of the church of england , will conscientiously distinguish , with padre paul , and the canonists l between dominion and dispensation ; and then he will dutifully concede , that where the bishop is dispensator , the king is dominus . chap. ii. what i said in my ( unprinted ) narrative of the king's castle at old sarum , and of the king 's free chappel in it before the cathedral church was built ( all which is gain-said by the present lord bishop of sarum in his answer to the said narrative ) i take upon me to prove , and to place beyond dispute , by not a few of the best historians who have written of those times , whose printed writings are extant , and do confirm what was produced out of the dean of sarum's register , which was extracted out of the registers ( for the most important part of it ) of the ancient bishops of sarum ; and which i thought had been sufficient , without the confirmations of it which now ensue . sect. 1. first , 't is plain from william of malmsbury , m that the said castle was the peculium of the king , and stood upon the king's soil . castellum salesberiae regij iuris proprium erat . sect. 2. next 't is evident from the same , and from other old authors of greatest note , such as eadmerus , florentius wigorniensis , roger hoveden , simeon dunelmensis ( all elder than matthew paris ) and matthew paris himself , and several others , that the said castle was a place of usual resort for the kings of england , and sometimes for extraordinary meetings : as for example ; a. d. 1086. n aug. 1. william the conqueror pointed his bishops , barons , sheriffs , and their milites , to meet him at saresbury , where , and when , the said milites took their oaths of fidelity to him . so saith florentius of worcester ( the ancientest writer , who hath mentioned the church of old sarum ) and roger hoveden . this precisely was the year wherein was compiled the doomsday-book ; as the same authors , and the book it self witness . a. d. 1096. w. rufus held a council in his castle at old sarum ( as the same o authors testify ) when osmund was present , and took the confession of william de alvery , before he went to execution . a. d. 1100. henry i. le beauclerc newly crowned , held his court in the same castle . arch-bishop anselm repairing thither to his majesty among the rest . so saith eadmer . p. 55 p he also held an assembly of the three estates at old sarum , which had from that time the name of parliament . a. d. 1116. the same king called a meeting of the bishops and great men of the whole kingdom at the same place , there to do their homage to his son william . so saith q eadmer . pag. 117. florentius , and hoveden . hitherto is no mention of city , town or village , but of the king's castle only : which w. malmsb. thus describes , r salesberiam , quodest vice civitatis castellum locatum in edito muro vallatum non exiguo . a. d. 1140. s the arch-bishop of roan in the council at winchester maintained , that by the canons of the church , bishops could have no right to hold castles ; and that if they were tolerated by the king's indulgence , they ought in times of danger to deliver up the keyes . here the question then rise ( as camden t tells us ) whether bishops might be the governors of such strong-holds , which was determined by a great church-man against the bishops in general ; and in particular against the then bishop of sarum , whose monstrons avarice , pride , perfidiousness , and ingratitude , are by none so well expressed , as by our excellent u bishop of hereford , de praesulibus anglicanis . sect. 3. thirdly , during the time , herman , the first bishop of sarum , in point of time ( tho' osmund was the first in point of dignity , and endowment ; and the w first who had any cathedral church , or chapter in it : ) it is agreed by all authors , both printed , and in manuscript , that there was not yet any cathedral church , or chapters either within , or without the king's castle : but only a chappel , and a dean , as now there is at whitehall . for no one author in the world did ever say , that bishop herman did build the church ; the most that is said of him , is said by bishop godwin , that herman laid a foundation ; and having so done , he dyed . x but his churches was in the air , like some men's castles ; a meer imaginary church , and the child of phantasy . nor indeed could it be more . for by the command of will. 1. he had left the two cathedral churches of sunning and sherburn to the dean , who then was formaliter ( as virtualiter ever since ) dean of the king 's free chappel only ( without a chapter or a church ; ) and in whom , as their sole ordinary , sunning and sherburn have ever since been , with many peculiars belonging to them , in berks , and dorset , in wilts , and devon ; ( to which i might have added the county of oxford , were it not that the said dean has little jurisdiction there , tho' there he has some . ) herman's time was too short to build a church at old sarum . he did rather design a church , than so much as lay the foundation of it . but all agree , that the favourite osmund ( a captain of say in normandy , who came in with the conqueror , from whom he had all he had , and in whose castle , whereof the king made him the governour , conicerge , or keeper he found no more than a royal chappel ) both y built and repaired the cathedral church there , whose steeple was burnt the next day after its being finished . how by his master 's great bounty , as well as license , he added a chapter to the dean , besides three dignitaries , four arch-deaconries , &c. hath been expressed in my narrative , and remains uncontradicted . what his lordship cites as the work of mr. bee , sir roger twisden was the chief designer of , and must not be defrauded of the honour due to him for that collection . sect. 4. fourthly , 't is acknowledged by my lord bishop himself ( so god will have it many times , that truth shall be justified by its opposers , even in the act of their opposition ) that the church of old sarum was always a cathedral ; which is as much as to say , there was not any church there , until there was a cathedral church . and 't is as evident as the sun , that no cathedral could be there , before the bishop's seat was removed thither : nor then , till it was built by the king and osmund . and therefore , sect. 5. fifthly , the king had a chappel , for himself , and his royal family , and his great council to serve god in ( as none in their way were more z religious than in those times ) before he had in that place a cathedral church . for besides the absurdity and incredibility , that in the king 's special mansion for strength and pleasure , wherein he had the great conventions of the lords spiritual and temporal , and a family in his absence consisting of souldiers as well as servants ( sometimes called ministri regis , and sometimes milites ) he should not have so much as a private free-chappel for publick worship ; i say besides this it appears as by others , so by radulphus de diceto , that the king's castles in those times had chappels in them , for the king's honour , as well as use. — ventilata autem est haec causa prius — in paschali solemnitate in capella regia quae sita est in castello . this is confirmed by what was said in the chapter 's accusation of bishop erghum to arch-bishop sudbury . a infra castrum domini regis , & in ipsius solo , nullatenus episcopi sarum , primitus extitit fundata ecclesia , ut libera capella ejus , ab omni iurisdictione diocesani exempta , plena libertate , more aliarum regiarum capellarum angliae , gaudebat , &c. which free-chappel of the king was never denyed by bishop erghum , and was owned in the sentence of the arch-bishop for the said chapter against that bishop . and as the king's chappel first , before the building of the church ; so the church , as soon as built ; and the church-men , as soon as founded , were every whit as much within the king's castle , as the old bishops of sarum's registers were able in latine to express them . b continetur in annalibus pontificum inter gesta bonae memoriae domini richardi episcopi sarum , quod antiquitus canonici ecclesiae sarum residebant infra septa castri veteris sarum , usque ad tempus supradicti pontificis . in cujus tempore orta erat persecutio , &c. ratione cujus , rex angliae praecepit omnibus vioecomitibus , & castellaneis suis , quod curarent , quatenus loca regia ubique regio usui custodirent , non obstantibus quibuscunque privilegiis ecclesiasticis . then it follows at large , that the cathedral men going out of the castle in procession , had the gates shut against them by the king's soldiers or servants at their return . sect. 6. sixthly , the church , after it was built ( as well as the chappel before there was a church ) was evidently situated within the king's castle , infra castrum domini regis , as is attested by the printed and written records of those times , which my lord bishop contradicts gratis ; but i suppose thro' their failures , whom his lordship entrusted and employed . the ancientest writer extant , who mentions that church , writes thus expresly : c osmundi searesbiriensis episcopus ecclesiam quam searesberia in castello construxerat cum adjutorio episcoporum walcelini wintoniensis , & iohannis bathoniensis , nonis aprilis , feria secunda dedicavit . others who are ancienter than matthew paris , and more authentick have the same words : to which agrees that ancient distich , which is cited by bishop godwin , and by camden in wilt. pag. 180. quid domini domus in castro , nisi faederis arca , in templo baalim ? carcer uterque locus . and this with very great reason . for all the prebendaries or canons ( two words for one thing , not two things , as the king's attorney was made beleive ) and all other church-men , except the dean ( who had an house and demeasnes by the rivers side , about half a mile below the castle , called still the dean's court , as mr. barker's house in sunning is to this day called the deanery ) were but as prisoners in the king's castle ( compared with what they are now ( for above one hundred thirty four years . and accordingly bishop poor made it the ground of his complaint both to the king , and to the pope , as that on which he then built ▪ his petition to both for a removal . — ecclesiam de castro & de d carcere regalis potestatis laborabimus aedificare , &c. posthaec autem acccessit ad regem angliae , petens ab eo licentiam , &c. — & postulans ab eo tanquam a domino suo manus adjutrices . cui rex benignissime praebuit assensum , &c. lastly , 't is confirmed by those words in the bull of pope honorius the third . e quod non patet aditus ad ecclesiam sine licentia castellani . peter of blois agrees with all these . ☞ from all the premises it is clear , that the church was not only within the precincts of the king's castle , which yet is sufficient to prove it stood on the king's soil ( however denyed by his lordship : ) but also within the castle it self , strictly and properly so called . sect. 7. seventhly , as the castle and the guard of souldiers in it , and the ground in which it stood , have been evidently proved to have been the king's ; so 't is evident that the bishop held the castle but as a keeper , or as a maistre d' hostel , or as a tenant to the king , or at most as all governors of garrison-towns and castles , do hold them pro tempore for the king ; and even so both the bishops , and earls of sarum ( the earls longer ; very much longer than the bishops ) held it only in trust , and during pleasure . whence it was they were so f often put in , and out , as our kings saw good ; and as i shall hereafter shew at large , even out of such publick monuments as are confessedly the best . this appears by the grant of it to bishop roger , as great a man with hen. 1. as osmund was with his father william , tho' of a far more contemptible and base beginning , and one who grew great by the basest means . malmsbury sets it forth thus . castellum salesberiae ( or sedberiae , as eadmer calls it ) quod regij iuris proprium esset , ab henrico rege impetratum muro cinctum , custodiae suae attraxerat . thus osmund held it as a custos , of will. 1. and will. 2. and roger as a custos , from h. 1. who found it encompassed with a wall , which wall about the castle seems to be all , which gives any colour for that saying of my lord bishop , that roger encompassed the city with a strong wall. whereas the castle so encompassed was not civitas , but only vice y civitatis , as will. of malms . precisely words it : thus the word tenet is explained in doomsday-book , episcopus tenet saresberry . and thus what follows aserted by my lord bishop's , [ that the castle it self did belong to the bishop ] does of it self fall to the ground , without any stricter examination of the proofs , which do not say any such thing , as that for which they are pretended to appear : but the contrary rather is from thence to be inferred . nor do i see to what purpose those words are added by my lord bishop in the margin , [ vid , bee. fol. 2351. ] unless it be to confute the text. the place is in henry knighton leycestrensis , who did not write till 300. years after , reaching to the death of rich. 2. about 1400. and who speaking of the king in council , commanding the removal of bishops sees , does add these words — hoc anno hermannus episcopus primus sarisburiensis obiit . cui successit osmundus regis cancellarius 24 annis , qui ecclesiam novam , not renovatam ibidem construxit . thus his lordship's citation makes quite against his own pretentions . osmund did not only repair , but first built the church , which herman at most did but design . so matth. paris in the place cited , calls it ( not the bishops , but ) the earl of sarum's castle . for will. 1. gave it to walter d' evereux z earl of rosmar in normandy , as to a keeper ; so hen. i. gave it to bishop roger , from whom it was taken by king stephen , as from a monster of ingratitude , and as from a perjured rebel . then the custody of it was given ( not to the bishops , but ) earls of sarum , and was continued in them by caeur de lion r. 1. and king iohn ; after whom it was taken by hen. 3. from the grandson of will. longespee , and given to margaret countess of sarum , whose husband being attainted , 't was resumed by ed. 2. and after given by ed. 3. to will. montacute , of whom tho' bought by bishop wivil for 2500 marks , ( not recovered by law , nor won by combat , ) 't was yet soon resumed ; and given by hen. 4. to rich. nevil , whom he made earl of salisbury . 't was after given by ed. 4. to his brother richard duke of gloucester . at last hen. 8. restored the blood of margaret , and made her countess of salisbury . after whose attainder and decapitation , ( when she was 70 years old , ) in the year 1605. king iames gave it to sir robert cecil , and his heires , in whom it is at this day , and is rented by the good relict of the most excellent bishop earl. thus we see to how few bishops , and to how great a number of earles , the custody of the said castle was concredited by our monarchs from time to time , as its keepers were esteemed more or less worthy to be entrusted . and to argue it was the few bishops soil ( two or three at the most , ) or the soil of the many earles , because our monarchs made them governours during pleasure ; is as if a man should argue , that the city of oxford ( when it was garrisoned ) was not the kings , but colonel leg's , sir arthur aston's , sir thomas glenham's , &c. because they were the governours , unto whose custody 't was committed . or that the castle of windsor is the earl of arrundel's , exclusively of the king , because the king gave him lately the honour of it . now having proved that the castle of old sarum was the kings ; and that the king's servants a were in it , for more than 130 years ; and that the cathedral church of sarum was b within the kings castle ; ( which yet was confidenly denyed to the lords commissioners ; ) and that our kings from the beginning have acted in as absolute and as despotical a manner in and over the church of sarum , as in any of their own mansion houses within these realms ; common sense will infer , and inform the most indocile , that where the king ( william the first ) had a castle and family in it , he had a chappel for god's service , and his chappel was free. how strange a thing therefore is it , for men to lessen that monarch in his prerogative , who did not only make them , but does still keep them great . how often had the hierarchy been trodden utterly under foot , if the king singly had not sustained them ? how many parliaments may be convened , who will vote down all bishops , and deans , and chapters , ( ab actu ad potentiam optime valet argumentum , ) if the king will prompt them to it , or but consent when it is done ? they who look downwards upon themselves , but neither backwards , nor forwards , on the years that are passed , and the years to come , do not consider what protections they have received from the king ( at the king 's great cost , ) or what protections for the future they may have a sad occasion to wish and pray for . and here i should have ended this 2d . chapter , but for a passage out of the annals of burton abby , ms. 1245. which shews that even then , in the time of hen. 3. ( long enough after osmund , and will. 1. ) the king of england had many free chappels , and was resolved to keep them free. indeed so many , that diverse parish churches which did but neighbour on the king's castles , were apt to pretend to that priviledge . yea the chappels in the king's castles were confirmed in their immunities , exemptions , and liberties , by popes themselves : as appears by that kings proclamation dated , at westminster march the 3d. in the 30. year of his reign . wherein he strictly commanded , that the said freedom of his chappels should be c perpetual . et ne aliquis contra praedictum privilegium aliquid audeat attemptare . nor hath any of our monarchs taken away or surrendered that glorious branch of their prerogative ; whatever subjects have attempted by joining with boniface the 9th . chap. iii. whereas 't was affirmed by the bishop of sarum to the lords , that there never was a time when either the dean and canons were exempt from all iurisdiction of the bishop of sarum . the contrary to it is confessed and strongly proved by his lordship himself in the very next words following , wherein his lordship cites the composition that was made between bishop waltham , dean montacute , and the then chapter of the said church , which was no longer since than in the year 1391. whereas the absolute exemption of the dean and all the canons from the bishops jurisdiction , was in the year 1095. between which two dates , there was an interval of almost 300 years . which composition , so called , was indeed a conspiracy of the said bishop , dean and chapter with pope boniface the ninth , by whom it was confirmed , and for which by the laws of england ( even ( c ) then in force ) they did incur a praemunire : which all the bishops ever d since are humbly conceived to have incurred , who have presumed to act according to that conspiracy , i. against the supremacy , and prerogative of the king ; ii. against the common , and statute law of the land ; iii. against the fundamental statute of our subordinate founder osmund ; iv. against their own souls in two respects , first in respect of the several oaths , which b have severally been sworn by all the bishops , deans and chapters . that they would keep , and cause to be kept ( as much as in them lay ) that fundamental statute of osmund , with all the priviledges , dignities , immunities , and exemptions therein contained ; of which oaths the said conspiracy or composition is a professed violation , as shall be shewn in its proper place . secondly , in respect of the heavy curse , which osmund denounced against all those who should dare to pervert the said fundamental constitutions in any kind . v. against its own being , by reason of its several inconsistences with it self , and of the several nullities contained in it . lastly , against the well-being , if not against the very being of the whole college within the cathedral church of sarum , by reason of its most scandalous and most mischievous effects . but of each in its order . § . 1. first , it was a conspiracy against the king of england and his prerogative , who is in law declared to be the founder as well as patron of all the archibishopricks and bishopricks in england , but took care in his original charter granted to his favourite osmund , ( sealed first with the seal of will. i. and then with the seal of will. ii. ) to exempt his dean and all his prebendaries or canons from the bishops jurisdiction in as full and as plain a manner , as latin words could express an exemption by . in words so carefully contrived against all possible affectation of jurisdiction over the college of dean and chapter in any succeeding bishop of sarum that what the present lord bishop of sarum would make an argument for himself and his affected jurisdiction , makes quite against him . for the voice and the place which the bishop has in chapter ( common to him with all the 52 canons ) he has as prebendary of pottern , not as bishop of sarum ; nor has he so much as a second voice as he is prebendary of blewbery , because he was never admitted to it by installation , nor lawfully could be . for when hen. 2. had given two prebends to one man in one church , pope alexander the third complained of it in his letter , as unlawful , and uncanonical . ( not denying the king 's right of conferring prebends , but the evil use of it . ) so that the bishop in capitulo has but one single vote , and the liberty to propose what he thinks may tend to the good of the church , or to complain of what he takes to be amiss , ( as every other prebendary has as free liberty to do , ) and to be punished or amended by the authority of dean and chapter . nor is it said to be the duty , but the e dignity of the dean and of all the canons , ut episcopo in nullo respondeant , nisi in capitulo . to which 't is added in the next words , ( what his lordship does not mention ) & judicio tantùm capituli pareant , where the word tantum excludes the bishops iudgment or definitive sentence of any matter , & limits it wholly to the body of the great chapter ( consisting of all the canons non-resident and resident ) whereof the dean is the head , and the prebendary of pottern , a worthy member ; but the bishop as bishop is neither of them . nor was this signal exemption only in the foundation of the cathedral , made at once by the supreme and the subordinate founder ; but it was repeated and confirmed by hen. iii. and bishop poor , in the removal of the same from old to new sarum , in the years 1220. and the same oaths for the due observance of it , have been ever since sworn by all the bishops , deans , and chapters without exception . all which was alledged with effect in the chapters accusation of bishop erghum to archbishop sudbury ( 1375 , ) whom they charged before his grace at once with perjury and usurpation , for affecting a jurisdiction over the canons when the dean was dead , and the deanry vacant , at a time wherein the bishop had a little colour for it , which might excuse his sin a tanto . much more might they have done whilst the dean was yet living , if such an incroachment had been attempted . besides it was against the imperial crown of this realm , by being against the decanal jurisdiction , which is e for ever and inseparably thereto annexed , and granted unto the dean under the great seal of england . § . ii. next it was against the common and statute law of the land. against the first , because the king's prerogative is law , and the principal part of the common law , as that from which our statute laws are derived ; and 't is a principle with my lord coke , the f common law disallows acts done to the prejudice of any subject of this realm ( much more of the sovereign ) by any foreign power out of the realm , as things not authentick . such was the power of boniface the ninth meerly foreign , and prohibited as such by several statutes then in force , and ever since . against the second , because there were ab antiquo ( before the petition made to the pope by the then bishop , dean and chapter for the papal confirmation of the conspiracy aforesaid , ) acts of parliament in force , against appealing to , or petitioning the bishop of rome , or any other foreign power , either for grants or confirmations of any acts , or combinations , or associations whatsoever , within these realms ; and therefore one abbot moris in the 46 of ed. 3. incurr'd the pain of praemunire , for sending to rome to h be confirmed by the pope in his election to his abby , which the pope ( forsooth ) gave him of his spiritual grace , and at the request of the king of england , as he fictitiously pretended . the bull was considered of in council , before all the judges of england , and by them all it was resolved , that this bull of the pope was against the laws of england ; and that the abbot , for obtaining it , was faln into the king's mercy ; whereupon all his possessions were seiz'd into the king's hands . the same penalty was deserved by them who made the composition we are upon , and petitioned the pope for his confirmation . and though 't is pretended to have been done at rich. 2. his intercession ; yet it is but pretended , according to the usual trick , the practise and policy of the popes , to feign requests from the kings of england , who scorned to make them ; as they did often pretend to give , what they could not deny , or durst not offer to withold , and knew they had not either a right to confer , or a power to hinder . choice examples of which are given by the learned and reverend archdeacon fullwood , in his subversion of the romanists pleas for the pope's supremacy in england ; and though rich. 2. was so incomparably careless of his every thing that was his , even to his kingdom , crown and dignity , which brought upon him his deposition , as historians are wont to call it . and although such an act of intercession to the pope , as is pretended , had had an absolute nullity in it self , had it been true ; yet hardly any man can believe it , who shall consider the statute made in the i same kings time against all papal usurpations , which to own , and to use as things of right , is to incur a praemunire . besides that rich. 2. had acted against other parliaments also , as well as against his own , and against his declaration , in case he had done , as is pretended . but that the trick i now mentioned was often used by the popes , we cannot prove by a better testimony than that of the most learned and most sincere padre paul , who speaking of the times of paul the fourth , in giving that to queen mary which was her own long before , and inherited from her father , king hen. 8. concludes with this signal observation : cosi spesso i papi hanno donato quello , che non hanno potuto levare a possessori ; & questi per suggire le contentioni , parte hanno ricevuto le cose proprie in dono , & parte hanno dissimulate di saper ' il dono , & la pretensione del donatore . add to all this , that the said conspiracy was expresly against magna charta , by which the deans and chapters liberties , exemptions , and jurisdictions , were confirmed and secured , and that by no fewer than k 32 acts of parliament . and magna charta is not only a statute law , as old as since the 17th year of king iohn , though made more full and with more solemnity in the 9th year of hen. 3. but moreover by the act of 25 ed. 1. 't was adjudged in parliament to be taken and held as the common law. ( they are the words of chief iustice coke , in the preface to his comment on magna charta . ) in a word , the application made to the pope at that time against the laws of this realm , was a strong proof of its corruption . for 't was the observation of the most wise padre l paolo , that none went to rome out of devotion , but only out of some design against the canons and customs of the church , which being unable to get approved in their own country , they fled to rome , where dispensations were vendible for every thing , and the avarice or ambition covered over with an apostolical dispensation or confirmation . so he in his treatise of the almes of the faithful in the primitive church . § . iii. thirdly , the foresaid composition was even knowingly and professedly against the great fundamental statute ( commonly called in our books magna charta osmundi , ) of the subordinate founder osmund , and by a consequence unavoidable against the sovereign founder also , whose royal seal alone was affixed to it . that 't was against the said charter and fundamental statute , and against the exemption of the dean and canons , and all inferior members also belonging to the kings free chappel , ( which any man may deny whose tongue is his own , but no man living can disprove , ) hath already been evinced , and shall be further , as occasion shall be offered . but that 't was knowingly and professedly against the same , is moreover to be proved from the conclusion of the conspiracy . for as there is a contradiction to the fundamental statute and charter both legal and episcopal , fol. 76. so in the next page of that leaf there are these bold and unexcusable words — non obstante statuto , & chartapraedicta , the king himself in parliament could not have spoken in a more imperial strain . archbishop boniface on the contrary , a. d. 1262. had most tenderly provided for the liberties of all in the church of sarum , according to the tenor of m osmund's statute ; though he was in all his time the most assuming archbishop of canterbury , even from that to this day . whereas in the conspiracy of the aforesaid pope boniface with the then bishop , dean and chapters , there is this aggravation of the astonishing design against the king ; that it hath a special salvo for the popes and his cardinals , and the dean of sarums rights , but none at all for the kings : yea , as if that were not enough to affront the king by , it takes upon it to decree the whole revenue of the deanry , decanatu vacante , to the chapter ; which , ( as well as the revenues of all the void bishopricks in england , ) belong by law to the king alone . lastly , the goods of the church ( as the chapter words it ) which osmund gave to the dean and canons , he gave them even so , as he had received them of the king , with a libere , prout ipse obtinueram ; ( meaning his master will. i. ) and adds a little after , in his repeated exemption of all the prebendaries or canons from all intermedlings of any bishop who should succeed him , habeant etiam curiam suam in omnibus praebendis suis , & dignitatem archidiaconalem , ita ut nulla omnino exigentia vel in dono , vel in assisa , aut aliqua alia consuetudine ab episcopo vel aliquo alio fiat , &c. sed ( ● contra ) omnes dignitates , & omnes libertates plenarie & pacifice habeant , quas ego osmundus episcopus in iisdem praebendis habui , aut aliquis n alius , cum ●as in nostro dominio haberemus . 't was in contempt and relation to this emphatical exemption , as well as that which was instanced in before , that the bishop , dean and chapter , conspired with boniface the ninth against the statute they were sworn to keep inviolate , with a prodigious non obstante statuto , and charta pradicta . and therefore . § . iv. fourthly , it was against their own souls . for it follows in the same charter , or the great fundamental statute , ( wherewith all after statutes must stand or fall , ) that every one of the foundation must take an oath at his admission , se dignitates & consuetudines ecclesiae sarum inviolabiliter observaturum . and if any one shall presume to violate or pervert the said statute of the foundation , perpetuo anathematizetur , is the form of the curse used by the king and bishop osmund on the transgressor . nor is it meant of the lesser , but greater cursing , which the old english festival and the articles found in st. paul's church at canterbury , a. d. 1562. o do define to be such a cursing , or vengeance-taking , that it departeth a man from the bliss of heaven ; from housel , christ , and all the sacraments of holy church ; and betaketh him to the devil , and to the pains of hell without end . such was the force of the word perpetuo , when such cursings were in use . in a due fear , and for the prevention of such a curse upon such a perjury , the chapter of sarum in their complaint to archbishop sudbury against bishop erghum , for violating his oath by usurping a jurisdiction , and by presuming to visit certain prebends whilst the deanry lay void , did present how all the privileges which had been settled in the foundation , were continued and confirmed in the removal of the cathedral , and that by a bull from pope honorius , cum hac clausula in literis apostolicis inserta , [ salvis ipsius ecclesiae sarum privilegiis , dignitatibus , & consuetudinibus . ] ad dictas etiam ordinationes , consuetudines , libertates & dignitates fideliter tenendas & inviolabiliter observandas episcopi , decani & canonici sarum praebendarii , eorum temporibus successivis , omnes & singuli , juramentis corporalibus ad sancta dei evangelia , praestitis , realiter fuerunt & sunt astricti . whereupon they prayed the archbishop of the province , so to interpose his metropolitical power as that the said bishop of sarum , for the salvation of his soul , might revoke and retract the visitation he had begun , and the chapter enjoy their own without disturbance . place at igitur paternitati vestrae taliter interponere partes vestras , ut dictus d. episcopus sarum omnia praemissa illicite attentata , & praecipue visitationem sicut praemittitur decanatu vacante de facto inchoatam , pro salute animae suae revocet , & praefatum capitulum & prebendarii omnes & singulos commodo fundationis , &c. — libere gaudere , in solidum exercere , quoad omnia praemissa in pace permittat in futurum . lastly , the fundamental statutes and customs of our church were so confirmed by hen. 8. in his regal visitation of it , an. dom. 1535 , that the bishops of sarum for ever are as much subject to them , as any other . the bishop there by name is the first bound up ; and bound up to the observance of no other statutes and customs , than do agree with the word of god , and with the laws of the land , with which the said papal composition hath been proved to disagree ; and as it professedly does oppose the royal charter , and the fundamental statute , on which our whole endowment stands ; so i set this against that , the fundamental charter and statute , against the novel composition or combination . § . v. add to this , that the composition hath several other nullities in it , arising from its several inconsistences with it self . 't is inconsistent with an episcopal jurisdiction , 1. not to be impowered to visit triennially , and 2. to be interdicted a procuration ; 3. p only once in seven years ; 4. and then q without any regard ; 5. and in the r chapter house only ; not where he will , excepting the archdeacons , whom 't is said he may visit s elsewhere : 6. a fault or default in a prebendary at large to be corrected , ( not by the bishop , but ) by dean and chapter , or by the dean alone , as is usual without a visitation ; ( fol. 66. b. ) 7. t a power is pretended , to inquire what is amiss among all the secular inhabitants of the close , and to reform , or correct , if the dean does not ; ( f. 66. ) which hath an absolute inconsistence with the salvo made before for the rights of the dean , in these words , [ visitatione & iurisdictione u decanali in omnibus , & per omnia decano & successoribus suis semper salvis . ] now when it shall be made to appear , not only by immemorial practise , but by decisions of authority , and by the confessions of this present bishop , ( yes , and by his earnest contentions for the dean against himself , ) that the close is the dean's peculiar , and not the bishops ; that the dean has all the ecclesiastical jurisdiction , and the bishop none at all ; that all persons and causes of ecclesiastical cognizance within the close , yea , within the bishops own palace , are to be tried and adjudged in the deans court alone , not at all in the bishops ; then i trow 't will be granted to be a monstrous absurdity and inconsistence , for one ordinary to be the visitor of another , who hath a co-ordinate jurisdiction with himself in many other places of wilts and berks , and a superior to him in one , and a sole jurisdiction in that very close wherein the bishop pretends to be the deans visitor ; which is to take upon him a regal , or metropolitical authority , to which two alone the dean of sarum is subordinate in his peculiars , as all others are who have episcopal jurisdiction within the province ; even abstracting from the relation the deans of sarum ever had to the king 's free chappel , whereof the privileges remain , and were ever reserved , though the formality is obscured in a great cathedral church . this last absurdity spoken of , may be made to appear by these following degrees . n. i. first , there never was a time since the foundation of the cathedral within the kings castle of old sarum , or since its removal to the close of new sarum , ( which close must be distinguished in all our discourses from the city , which no body denies to be in the bishops jurisdiction , and in the sub-deans two years in three , ) wherein the bishop was , or wherein the dean of sarum was not immediatus loci ordinarius . let them name it , and prove it , who were bold enough to say there was such a time , as the dean has named plainly , and also proved the space of time of almost 300 years , between the kings and osmund's charter on one side , and the infamous composition on the other side , by which the bishop hath pretended some jurisdiction over the close , five days in seven years , though none at all before or after so great a space as seven years : which ( by the way ) is another absurdity and inconsistence . no instance can be given of any will proved within the close by any bishop , or any letters of administration granted , or any matter of instance tryed , or any fornication punished by any bishop since the foundation : but only by the dean of sarum , who is confessedly in the statute of bishop roger himself ( though an high-flying bishop ) loci ordinarius immediatus . see the statute de testamentis decano insinuandis . now that is clearly an immemorial practice and possession of the dean which has been a tempore , & per tempus , cujus contrarii memoria hominum non existit . which allegation to the archbishop , for the chapters exemption from the bishops jurisdiction , bishop ralph erghum could not deny , and thereupon was decreed against . 2. next , the decisions of authority have been for the dean , and against the bishop , as often as authority hath been appealed unto , which has been seldom . 1. in the year 1301 , when the then bishop simon de gaunt endeavoured to invade the decanal jurisdiction over the canons and other members of the cathedral church of sarum , petrus de sabaudia then dean of sarum , did by his instrument in writing , on the third of october , prohibit the prebendaries or canons , and all other members of the said church , and discharge them from submitting to the said bishops visitation . n. ii. no longer since than in the year 1665 , iohn elliot , ll. doctor , chancellor then to dr. alexander hyde lord bishop of sarum , cited one iohn wickham , servant to mr. chafin , living then in the close of sarum , unto the bishops consistory for incontinency , &c. wickham not obeying the summons , was by the said chancellor de facto excommunicated . whereupon mr. richard kent , then prebendary of sarum and surrogate to the reverend dr. richard baily , dean of sarum , perceiving the invasion committed upon the dean's peculiar jurisdiction , by dr. elliot the bishops chancellor , in citing wickham within the close , absolves the said wickham . whereupon the bishop makes his complaint to the archbishop dr. gilbert sheldon . the business came to an hearing in st. iohn's college gallery in oxford , before the said archbishop , and edward earl of clarendon , lord chancellour of england ; ( the king then residing in oxford . ) and the issue was this ; that the bishop should not intermeddle with any ecclesiastical censures , things , or persons , out of his own palace and family ; but that the whole decision of ecclesiastical matters within the said close , did , and do purely , wholly and solely belong unto the dean . this is a true copy of the whole relation of the matter from the reverend dr. richard baily , received by me the surrogate to the said dr. richard baily , dean of sarum . it a testor ricard . kent , primo jun. a.d. 1678. sub-dec . sarum . n. iii. yea , since the present lord bishops , and the present dean's time , there was a crime committed within his lordships own pallace , and by his lordships chief domestick ; which being a crime of ecclesiastical cognizance , was by consequence to be punished by the king 's ecclesiastical laws . the bishop applied himself first by letters to the dean and chapter conjunctim , for the punishing of the chief party in that commission ; proposing the composition to them , whereby his lordship was in hopes a correction de bene esse might be favourably inflicted . the dean and chapter met on purpose in dr. drake's house , to read and to consider of the said composition . which having done , they unanimously agreed in this judgment , ( of which they sent his lordship word , ) that the whole composition ( supposing it to be valid , ) was wholly impertinent to the matter in hand : and that none but the dean alone , as the sole ordinary of the close , could summon both parties into his consistory court , and put the law in execution . the dean however made a delay , because the principal offender had committed the fact in the bishop's palace , which he was willing to esteem a place exempted from the decanal jurisdiction . and this he pleaded to the lord bishop , whom he desired to correct his own domestick in his own family , or in his own court , which the dean said , he would warrant his lordship the doing of by letters dimissory , or license under the seal of his decanal office. but his lordship urged with great strength of reason , as well as earnestness ; ( 1. ) that such a liberty in the close , was more than either the dean could give away lawfully , or the bishop receive . ( 2. ) that the party cited into his court might appeal to the arches from the bishop tanquam a non iudice , and make the very iudge of that court a criminal . ( 3. ) that the dean might summon a prebendary to appear in his court by a certain day from any part of the kingdom ; but ( 4. ) that the bishop could not cite him into his , however nearly an inhabitant . whereupon the dean of sarum , acknowledging the bishop too hard for him in the contest , was forced to own his unavoidable authority in the close , as inseparably annexed to the imperial crown of these realms , ( which is the language of w several acts of parliament , ) and not without trouble and self denial , did satisfie the law upon both the offending parties . n. iv. since which time also , no longer since than on the 15th of september 1681. the present dean was desired by mr. archdeacon woodward , then the bishop of sarum's surrogate , ( now the chancellor of this whole diocess , ) to permit and allow the people of broad-chalk in wiltshire , to ask the voluntary benevolence of persons living within the close of sarum . to whom the dean gave his leave , or permission rather , in these words following : as far as the laws of this realm permit , and being earnestly requested , as well as moved with the resentment of so many mens losses within the parish of broad-chalk , i do allow the said sufferers to try the charity of the inhabitants within my peculiar of the close of new sarum , though not in any other place under the decanal iurisdiction of tho. pierce , decan . sarum . now it is to be noted , that the parish of broad-chalk , is under the bishop's jurisdiction ; and that the lord bishop was then at home , in his palace within the close ; and that his leave had been sufficient without the deans , had he had any jurisdiction within the close ; much more had his jurisdiction been archiepiscopal , or regal , and so superior to the deans . lastly , that the bishops surrogate , knowing well that his lordship had none at all within the close , ( though his lordship and the sub-dean have all between them in the city , ) did therefore make his application , to the dean , and the dean only . in like manner the collection which was made within the close for the rebuilding of st. paul's london , the redemption of captives , and the like , was made and returned by the dean only and his officers , according to the king's order and direction . n. v. if we step as far back as to the year of our lord 1584. we shall find the great difference between a bishop of sarum , who was first dean of sarum , and a bishop who never was dean of the same church . for dr. iohn pierce , whilst dean of sarum , did in conjunction with his chapter , and by command of queen elizabeth , ( to whom he was almoner many years , ) upon the 17th of october , 1573. x begin the good work of abolishing superstitious and popish statutes , without the consent or the assistance of the then bishop edmund ghuest . ( though he so swept the church , as to leave some dust behind the door . ) but being afterwards bishop of sarum , ( as after that , archbishop of york , ) he got a commission from the archbishop of the province to visit the church upon occasion of the case of dr. zouch , and said , he was fultus iurisdictione metropolitana ; knowing well , and confessing , that , as bishop of sarum , he had no right to visit the choral vicars , much less the chapter , much less the dean ; for if he had , he would not have needed any commission from the archbishop of the whole province . n. vi. the said exemption of all the canons of the greater and lesser chapter , who make a superiour corporation whereof their dean is the head , may be yet farther proved by the exemption of all the vicars , who are an inferiour corporation , from the bishop of sarum's power and jurisdiction . for it appears by the vicars charter , which they enjoy from the crown of england , ( as the dean and chapter do theirs , ) that they are only subjected to the correction of dean and chapter , not at all to the bishops , who can neither put in , nor punish ; much less , put out a vicar , or a lay clerk , however criminal . and accordingly the vicars , ( as well as the lay clerks ) take an oath at their admission of paying obedience unto the dean , and to the dean only whilst he is present , and in the dean's absence to the deans locum-tenens , authorized under the seal of the decanal office : but none at all to the bishop , whether present , or absent ; which was eminently acknowledged by this present bishop in his own palace , when in the presence of the dean and chapter , and all the vicars , his lordship protested three several times to mr. hardwick , the vicars procurator , and prolocutor , and to his brethren then present , that if it were in his power , he would expel them every one , for their then recalcitration and opposition , both to the bishop and to the chapter , when good lawyers told the vicars , they had the law on their side . the vicars were not a little pleased at his lordship 's brutum fulmen , and confession of his no-power over the vicars within the close , three times repeated . nor could any but the dean bring those vicars to a submission and full compliance , which he soon after did with the best effect . n. vii . even since my coming to keep my residence at sarum , the 20th . of this instant iune , i find two notorious and publick confessions in effect , of the lord bishop of sarum his having no power to visit within the close , whether the dean will or no , or without the dean's leave , concurrence , and consent , under the seal of his decanal office , as well as under his own hand ; which being sought , but refused ( very honestly and prudently ) by the dean's surrogate in his absence , and without his knowledge ; the dean's locum-tenens , for the chapter , ( as the sub dean mr. kent ▪ is the dean's surrogate for his court and his peculiar jurisdiction , wherewith the chapter hath nothing to do , nor any mortal besides the king , and the arch-bishop of the great province , ) did as absurdly , as unfaithfully , clap the common seal of the dean and chapter , ( of the dean chiefly as the head , and of the chapter as his members , ) by usurping my name in it , and by counterfeiting my will , against my will , my interest , my jurisdiction , without asking my consent or permission , without so much as saying , by your leave sir , yea studiously and in haste without my knowledge , even when he and the rest knew i was but few miles from them , and even then coming ( tho' not yet come ) to my house at sarum . being come , i soon found two citations in the choir , made by a fiction of my name , and of my name only , beginning thus , thomas pierce sancta theol. professor , ecclesiae cathedralis sarum decanus , & ejusdem ecclesiae capitulum , universis & singulis , &c. finding this to be done 1. without my knowledge ; and 2. with my very great abhorrence ; 3. against my judgment ; 4. against my right of jurisdiction ; 5. against the king , of whom i hold my jurisdiction under the great seal of england , ( and unto whose imperial crown my iurisdiction is annexed by 32 acts of parliament ; 6. against my self in mine own name , and poetically brought in upon the stage , citing my self , and the bishop , as the prebendary of blewbery , but not as prebendary of pottern , ( which the bishop is also ) comically personated whether i will or no , like a puppet y moving by wires ; 7. against express statute to the contrary ; 8. against the oaths of the members of the chapter , who had an hand in the usurpation ( which i am sure but few had ; ) 9. against the trust reposed in my deputy ; and 10. against the very license or constitution , whereby i had enabled him in my absence to call chapters for the taking care of god's worship , the keeping of statutes and laudable customs of the church , as far as they agree with the word of god , and with the law of the land , and for the correction of the canons and members , but so limited , as i have said , not for the using the common seal at all , much less at his pleasure , without my knowledge , and consent , and against my self ; i say finding this , and a world of absurdities ( too many , and too great to be recounted in this pinch of time ; ) i inferred their conviction of my sole right , as dean , to cite the 52 prebendaries and all other members who had sworn obedience to me , from their conceiving themselves forced to run so great a risque , as that of z crimen falsarii , rather than set up such a citation without ▪ my name , or in any man's name but mine ; and for their false using the common seal of dean and chapter , for want of the decanal peculiar seal , which alone had been authentick . therefore under my seal of office belonging to me , and me only , as an ordinary , and judge , of the king 's ecclesiastical court within my peculiar the close of sarum , and elsewhere , i made my a protestation against that usurpation of my name , declaring it unlawful , null , and void , as shall be set forth at large in the second part of my defence , if occasion shall serve , or need require . § . 6. having shew'd the inconsistencies of the conspiracy with it self , and the monstrous absurdity of a bishop's taking upon him a regal power , or at least an archiepiscopal , whereby to visit the dean of sarum within that close which is the peculiar of the dean , not of the bishop , and whereof not the bishop , but the dean is the sole immediate ordinary , and wherein the dean has the whole ecclesiastical jurisdiction , the bishop none , and where the dean's jurisdiction which was derived from the crown is united thereunto by acts of parliament , which the said composition does grosly violate : i come to shew in the last place , that 't is against the well-being , if not against the very being of the whole college within the close and the church of sarum , by reason of its most scandalous and most mischievous effects . n. i. first , the statutes which have been made by deans and chapters without the bishops , and others made by several bishops with the permission or consent of deans and chapters , being no way obliging beyond the time of the contrivers , ( nor even then but by our monarchs having no notice of them , ) succeding setts of legislators , as good as those who went before them , and as destitute of authority to take upon them a legislation , made other statutes at their pleasure , as inconsistent with the former as light with darkness . insomuch that they who swear to keep the statutes , as they are now , ( without any distinction of good or evil , valid or invalid , loyal or disloyal , protestant or popish , made by sovereigns or by subjects without commission , obsolete or in use , ) do take an oath they will be perjured , so far forth as they are not saved by a quatenus conveniunt cum verbo dei & cum statutis hujus regni ; which is a necessary help , but not sufficient , because there is not added to it another quatenus or qousque conveniunt statut● inter se , & sibi invicem non repugnant . for standing all as they do , partly lawful but laid aside , partly unlawful but yet observed and in use , and flatly repugnant to one another , ( as shall be demonstrated by and by ) it plainly follow 's that for a man of the church of sarum to keep one statute , is ipso facto to break and violate another . n. ii. before i come to prove this , by descending to some particulars , i think it useful to premise this general observation , to wit , that the statutes which are authentick , both by law , and in themselves , as having been made by our founders , the king and osmund , and by our later monarchs of england , hen. 8. ed. 6. and q. eliz. which alone are obliging both to the bishop , dean and chapter , are of all other statutes the most neglected and out of use , ( to say no more at this time ) whilst the statutes of several popes , and of several popish bishops and deans and chapters of sarum , however selfish and presumptuous , against the law of the land , and the canons of the church , and very oppressive to posterity , and therefore fit to have perished with those that made them , have been hitherto observed ( to the hazarding of souls ) with too much strictness . n. iii. now to demonstrate the contradictions , and other mischievous effects , which have been principally caused by the infamous composition of the said boniface the ninth , with the then bishop , dean and chapter ( birds of a feather every one at that time , during the loose and weak reign of the most careless rich. 2. of whom historians give this character , that of all counsellors and councils he did constantly take the worst , ) i cannot better begin than with the words of bishop henchman , once the chantor , and a residentiary , and after bishop of sarum , and at last bishop of london ; when being consulted by dean brideoak about the compelling of certain prebendaries at large to confirm their leases by the common seal of dean and chapter , and also to pay the fifth part of their prebends for their non-residence thirteen weeks in the year , according to osmund's constitution , and the statute of bishop iewel with the concurrence and combination of the then dean and chapter , sent his b answer in these words following . you must also understand , that the great vicissitudes and changes which those c princes applied themselves unto , did require rules and statutes , fitted to the disturbed condition of church affairs then. and you may observe in your books , that continual controversies did arise , partly because they did injoyn things contrary to each other , and partly because they were adapted to those times only , and were not practicable in after times . i will give an instance . do you think that now a prebendary not admitted into residence may be mulcted at quinta parte praebendae , because he doth not reside in the close of salisbury thirteen weeks in every year ? yet this is the statute of bishop iewel . rogatu fratrum nostrorum cum consensu capituli ( the dean was absent ) statuimus veterem antecessoris nostri osmundi constitutionem , quam de ea retulit , in integrum esse restituendam ; hoc est canonicos hujus d ecclesiae nostrae omnes & singulos , nisi juxta formam veterum statutorum , adsint & resideant , quinta parte praebendae suae mulctandos esse ; pecuniam autem omnem ita collectam ad fabricam ecclesiae nostrae cathedralis conferri volumus . what think you ? can a prebendary not residentiary be compelled now so to reside ? indeed he that lives upon his own land , or farm , and not in his parsonage with cure ; nor where his residence is by law allowed , is a great offender . but if an archdeacon or prebendary take upon him to reside in sarum ( being no residentiary ) he is liable to a sore mulct upon an information in the exchequer . will you admit every one into residence that shall offer himself , and protest de residendo ? you will soon be weary of that . or will you tax a man at quinta parte prebendae , because he doth not reside , and yet you will not admit him to reside ? thus far bishop henchman exposed those statutes to ridicule , by which all the canons ( in number 52 ) are obliged to residence , yet not allowed to reside ; have a right to be residents , yet no permission to enjoy it . 't is their duty and their crime , to reside in the close and the cathedral thirteen weeks every year . they must , and yet they may not perform the will of the founder , confessed by bishop iewel to be expresly the subordinate founder's will , and by consequence the will of the sovereign founders , will. 1. and will. 2. whose seals were set to osmund's charter . men are punishable for that , for which they ought to be rewarded . not permitted to keep a residence , to which by statute they are compelled , and compelled to pay money for not doing that which they must not do . the work is incumbent on 52 canons or prebendaries ; but six of their number ingross the wages unto themselves . this absurdity is so great , that hardly any can be greater , unless it be that which follows . for n. iv. in flat contradiction to the fundamental statute , and oath of residence , and to the late repeated statute of bishop iewel with the then chapter , the present bishop and the then chapter made a new statute ( octob. 3. 1672 , sethi anno sexto ) to this effect , that if they who have taken the oath of continual residence , keep not so much as three months residence , they shall pay five pounds for each months non-residence , or 15 l. for the non-residence of the year : so that for 15 l. per annum they may be residents good enough without residing , and save 100 l. per annum ( which any mans residence will cost him , ) by paying only fifteen pounds . so as the residentiaries are tempted , ( not to keep , but ) to violate their oath of residence , ( if such a titulary statute can have any force in it , ) by compounding or commuting for breach of oath , the price of which sin is but fifteen pounds . i do not know if men are taxed for the sins by them committed at so favourable a rate in the court of rome . now considering , that the residents were shrunk and reduced long before , from 52 or 53 , ( for the prebendary of pottern was e bound to residence at first , ) to the dean and 12 , and after that to the dean and 6 , and now at last by this last statute ( so called ) to none at all , if each of the residents will redeem himself from that duty , or buy out his residence for the said sum of 15l . ( as some have done , and all may do , ) here seems to be a way made to the very dissolution of the whole college , if not in time of the whole cathedral church of sarum , notwithstanding his majesties ecclesiastical laws , which do oblige unto the residence of 90 days , or 3 months . and all local statutes have a nullity in the making , which are repugnant to the f prerogative of the king , to the law of the land , or the word of god. n. v. another statute has been made since his majesties restauration , enjoyning prebendaries to bring their leases to be confirmed by the common seal of the dean and chapter , to which they cannot be compelled , unless by the king , or an act of parliament . of whieh the aforesaid bishop henchman in his letter to the said dean , did write these words — [ and i must add , that since prebendaries and their tenants have understood , that leases demised by sole corporations ( according to the statutes of the realm ) receive no strength by capitular confirmation , you shall do well to perswade and invite the members of your church to observe the good rules lately made concerning leases ; but be not hasty to compel by censures or penalties , &c. — a little after , touching the statute enjoyning prebendal contributions , by way of tax towards the repairing of the church , the reverend bishop adds thus , — take the best and surest course you can to have the help of the prebendaries ; but take heed you adventure not to compel them , lest you meet with consequences which may to a good degree frustrate a work of so high importance . ] n. vi. all the oaths which have been administred , much more those which have been imposed , by bishop , dean and chapter upon prebendaries or vicars , in any matter not belonging to their spiritual jurisdictions , or not in a way of administring justice , have been against law , and the king's prerogative . the power to give and impose oaths being so peculiar to the prerogative royal , that 't is punishable to do it , without , or beyond the bounds of the king's commission , by way of indictment or information , as an high misdemeanor : nor can any custom legitimate such an invented oath , unless it had a lawful and just beginning . the house of commons are so sensible of the want of this power , not only to impose , but administer oaths to witnesses , ( who , being voluntary , are as ready to swear , as to appear , ) that they often accept of evidence upon bare averments . nor can the voluntary submission of the prebendaries or vicars create unlawful power in the bishop , dean and chapter conjoyned , which otherwise by law they have not , either to impose or to administer an oath , nor excuse them in so doing . for however such oaths so administred and taken , not to lett a lease upon such or such terms as the law allows , ( as for example for three lives without license , ) do bind the takers of them in conscience , yet in law they are illegal , null , and void . and so 't was declared by the late lord chancellor upon occasion of a suit in that court depending . n. vii . by a statute or a decree of the bishop , dean and chapter of sarum , made in october 1671. no lease is to be lett by any prebendary ( however he is singly a corporation , ) without three conditions , ( by law allowed , but prohibited by them , ) and all three under the pain of excommunication ; which yet ( 't is well known ) cannot lawfully be inflicted for any matter or crime which is not made to be so punishable by some statute of the land : nor can any thing less than the king or parliament de novo create , or make a thing criminal . and though the breach of such conditions in the letting of a lease ( which conditions are wholsom ) be supposed to be a crime in such as have consented to them , yet the matter being temporal it is not punishable in law by an excommunication . yet this is another of the sore mischiefs , whereof the aforesaid composition hath been the occasion of the cause . n. viii . but there are other effects of it , whereby simony seems plainly not only to be allowed , but even established by a law , ( such as a bishop and the chapter can make de facto by the aforesaid composition , which owes its chief force to pope boniface the ninth ; ) whilst men are made to pay dearly for their places of preferment , which by the king are freely granted . for no sooner have the residents in the church of sarum taken their oaths , that they neither have given , nor will give any sum or sums for those places unto which they are admitted ; but presently , by the g statute of pope eugenius the fourth , even after he was deposed by the council of basil ( when for money he would do any thing , ) there is ( besides all other payments by way of customary fees ) a great fine for entrance , finis pro introitu , to be paid in ready money , or well secured by obligation . and though at first no more was paid than forty shillings to the fabrick , ( a. d. 1319. ) yet by the statute of dean sydenham , and his then chapter , ( 1428. ) authorized at florence by the said titular pope , ( 1442. ) each resident with dignity is to pay for his entrance 105 l. and each without dignity is to pay for the same 71 l. 13s . 4d . ( besides a greater sum required by a much younger statute , of which hereafter . ) this statute is bad enough ; but the custom is worse : for besides that the fines for entrance are diverted from the fabrick , and divided among the residents of the chapter ; the custom hath violated the statute , in exacting no more from men with dignity , than without it ; so that the latter pay too much ( though less than the statute does require , ) and the former too little , because much less than is due by statute , which yet they pretend ( and that with contention ) to be in force . only the dean of all four dignities must be excepted , who pay by custom to the heighth of what the statute does enjoyn , and by custom much more . nor is this all : for tyrant custom which keeps up that statute , does beat it down at the same time in five remarkable degrees , for which no creature was ever yet able to give a reason . yet these are customs and statutes , which they who take to be obliging do swear to keep . but as if this were not enough , for a learned poor man to be beggared by in his advancement , ( as how many the most deserving have the least portion of mony , and none to spare , and often dye without re-imbursement ? ) there was another statute made by a bishop , dean and chapter , as well without the king 's as the pope's concurrence , and without the concurrence of common sense : for by force of that statute ( another effect of the composition ) every resident who is living , must fast a year from all commons ; and every resident when he is dead , must eat a years commons in his grave . at least in aristotle's sense , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what he does by his executor , he interpretatively does ; and accordingly 't is said ( with as much pithiness , as impropriety , ) to be the dead resident his annus post mortem ; that is , his unius anni proficua undecunque provenientia . 't was not the christian self-denial of those usurping legislators , who first invented this law in their own behalf . a law resented very deeply by some publick-spirited bishops of other churches , who have expressed their resentments to the now dean of sarum , with a great deal of holy indignation ; and heartily wished for a remedy of this and other impositions . n. ix . but hardly can a remedy be brought about , but by the long and mighty arm of sacred majesty , which in a royal visitation can abolish old statutes , and make us new ones ; statutes suitable to our religion , by law established . statutes not repugnant to the king's honour and prerogative . statutes agreeable with themselves , and to be sworn to the safety of all mens consciences and souls . lastly , statutes not expiring with the breath of them that make them , like those royal statutes which were made heretofore for the church of sarum : for those of edw. 6. and q. elizab. were never yet so much as entred into the statute book ; insomuch that the former and present dean could never get a sight of them . and those of king hen. 8. by one of his masters of requests , sir iohn tregonwell , ( commissioned under the great seal of england , ) were only enter'd like an old almanack , and stand as a monument of contempt , which for many years past have been put upon them ; no more regarded than the great charter both of the sovereign and subordinate founders . notwithstanding our monarchs are declared by acts of parliament to have all such h iurisdictions , privileges , superiorities , and preeminences spiritual and ecclesiastical , as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been , &c. and have full power by law to commission whom they please , and for so long time as they please , to visit reform , redress , order , correct , and amend whatsoever is amiss in any ecclesiastical state or persons , and over all to exercise all manner of iurisdictions , privileges , and preeminences , which by any manner of spiritual or ecclesiastical power , authority or iurisdiction , can or may lawfully be reformed , redressed , corrected , restrained , or amended . which right and power being united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm , and that for ever , may be extended unto the visiting even the visitors themselves , ( and that with an endless visitation , and by any mean subject commission'd under the great seal of england , ) especially such as take upon them to visit the ordinaries themselves , and that within the iurisdictions which are exempt and peculiar to them , which none can visit by law in a protestant kingdom , who is not a king , or a metropolitan . n. x. now because the dean of sarum's ecclesiastical court and jurisdiction over the close of new sarum and the liberties thereof , and elsewhere in four counties , is for ever united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm , even as firmly and as fully , as the courts and jurisdictions of any bishops . ( those of sarum , exeter , and bristol in particular ; ) it concerns the bishop of sarum , as much as all he hath in the world is worth , not to usurp the king's authority , nor to invade the metropolitan's right , by invading the dean's ; nor to attempt a new dominion ( from pope boniface the ninth ) without a new act of parliament , which none were ever yet able ( in almost 600 years ) to prevail with any king , or any parliament to endure . n. xi . upon the whole matter , all the premisses being consider'd , there can be nothing more desirable , if 't is not absolutely necessary , than that his majesty now in being , will be graciously pleased with the assistance and advice of the archbishop of the province , ( if his majesty thinks fit ) to make and authenticate such a body of statutes for his majesties free chappel and cathedral church of sarum , as king charles the first , of glorious memory , did make and constitute for the cathedral church of canterbury , with the assistance and advice of archbishop laud. the church of sarum having as much , if not a much greater need . for , the statutes there at present are partly i popish ; partly injurious to k the king's prerogative and supremacy ; partly inconsistent with the l laws of the land , and common honesty ; partly repugnant to one m another , and so a snare to their souls who are sworn to keep them ; partly impertinent and impracticable , as the state of the church now stands ; partly impossible to be observed , without a very great detriment to the service of god , and the credit of the choir , or else without a most grievous and most scandalous violation of the kings ecclesiastical laws , to wit , the canons of the church . besides that such as they , they are tumultuary , and immethodical , according to the different times wherein , the different occasions whereupon , and the different authorities whereby they were made . n some are antiquated and grown out of use , by the deans and chapters ceasing to live together , as in a college , to eat and drink together upon the common revenue , in one common refectory , or hall , ( as in oxford and cambridge those of colleges do still , ) and by converting meat and drink into mony , whereof all have their proportions , and wherewith they keep their families apart . the like change is made in the corporations of vicars choral . all occasioned ( as i suppose ) by marriage permitted to the clergy . none of our statutes can be obliging to any beyond the contriver's time , unless as made or confirmed by the law of the land , or the kings of england . but our royal statutes , which alone are authentick , are most despised , as hath been shew'd . n. xii . without a body of authentick and reasonable statutes , such as may be agreeable to the word of god , the king 's right of prerogative , the law of the land , the church of england as it is by law established , and our present metropolitans provincial letter , aug. 23. 1678 , ( the vindication of which hath cost the present dean great pains and trouble , to say no more , ) it will be hard , if not impossible to break the old popish custom of thrusting the most unqualified and most scandalous singing-men , ( not so much into holy , as ) unholy orders , because unlawfully conferred , and sacrilegiously received . the mischievous consequences of which are too many and too great , within these last twenty years , to be expressed without a volume . whereas our two universities can furnish us with men of very good learning and degrees , who have much better voices and greater skill in musick , than our illiterate and ungraduated songsters . and it is but too evident , how sadly the church is overstocked with men of learning and degrees : the universities sending out yearly many more of such men , than the church hath employments , ( i do not say preferments ) to entertain . n. xiii . we need say no worse of the composition , made on purpose to overthrow the fundamental charter and statute , than what was said by paolo sarpi of the concordat , purposely made by leo the tenth to overthrow the pragmatic sanction . if the bishop of sarum had no jurisdiction within the close , without , or before that composition , why was it not invented almost 300 years sooner ? and if he had it from the foundation , or at any time after , before and without that composition , to what purpose was the invention ? and why was it ever made at all ? and why with a salvo to the dean's right , whereof it is a violation ? and why with no salvo to the king 's right , to which it is an opposition ? and why with a non obstante statuto & charta praedicta ? these were evident confessions , that what it sought to legitimate , was illegitimate till then , and utterly unlawful for almost 300 years . lastly , why was it called a composition , or a compromise , a concord made between parties litigant ? a superior having a clear right of jurisdiction , treats his inferiors as a iudge , by executing law ; not as a party , compounding for a law , and a jurisdiction , which before he had not , the very word composition confesses novelty , and guilt , and usurpation ; from which , according to his oath , his bounden duty , and allegiance , appellat caesarem decanus ; in imitation of st. paul , and a case like his , the dean appealeth unto caesar ; and immediately after caesar , to the archbishop of the province , whose metropolitical prerogative and jurisdiction , as well as that of the o king himself , the bishop of sarum ( whilst i am writing ) is now presuming to usurp ; which i can prove he does wilfully , and against his own light , because he knows he hath earnestly , and to my face , disclaimed all pretences of jurisdiction in the close , and cast it wholly upon me , as on the p ordinary of it , ( and as having within it solely the ecclesiastical jurisdiction , ) when he refused perseveringly to punish a fornication committed in his own palace , the correction of which i sought to cast upon his lordship . his lordship knows the determination of my lord chancellor hyde earl of clarendon , and of archbishop sheldon , for dean baily , against the then lord bishop of sarum . he knows that none but the deans court could ever try or condemn any one person within the close , in any one case or cause of ecclesiastical cognizance . he knows , q an oath of obedience to the dean is ever sworn , and to be sworn , by every prebendary or canon at his admission ; and this according to the statute , ( not only of the king and bishop osmund , but ) even of bishop r roger himself . but no such oath unto the bishop ( throughout the whole statute-book ) is to be taken by any member of our cathedral . his lordship knows , that all are liable to the corrections s of the dean within the church , but not one unto the bishop . decanus omnibus canonicis & vicaries praeest , quoad regimen animarum , & correctionem morum . his lordship knows , that at morning and evening prayers , after the tolling of the bell , no t person is to be staid for , ( ne episcopus quidem ipse ) except the dean . his lordship knows , in defect of residence , the canons were to be mulct or fined u secundum consilium decani , ( not episcopi , ) and that by a statute which was confirmed ( 't is an argument ad hominem ) autoritate apostolica . his lordship knows , that the dean ( as w petrus de subaudia ) made statutes of himself , aproved of , and ratified , by the bishop and the chapter ex parte post. but never any bishop presumed to make any statute , without the concurrence of dean and chapter . his lordship knows , the dean's power x to give leave of absence , or to deny it , without the least notice ever taken of the bishop . his lordship knows , or should know , that the dean was acknowledged by bishop y iewel , to be totius collegii pater , & sanctae societatis vinculum ; that the dean , ( not the bishop ) has power by statute , to admit the clergy of the church of the higher and lower degree , to possession and commons , z suo iure , in one place , and ( in another ) sua sola autoritate ; and to receive a an ounce of gold from every canon whom he installs , though now 't is dwindled into a mark ; and to challenge for himself and his retinue b , de iure & dignitate sua , from every prebendary or canon , by whose corps he shall pass in any journey , one days plentiful entertainment , with a laute percipiet , & ad libitum . briefly , our statutes give more respect unto the dean , than the dean can desire , or look for ; and such as i am loath to mention . but it c appears by the old statute-book , lent by dean brideoak to the present d lord bishop , iuly 10. 1672 , by whom it is not yet restored , as d. brideoak left it under his hand , when he went hence to the see of chichester . that , and bishop poor's register are to this day concealed from me . i will conclude with this one signal observation , that of all the monarchs of england , who have deprived the bishops of sarum of many jewels in their mitres ; not any one of them ever took any thing from the deans , because originally the deans of their royal chapel , and virtualiter ever since . an appendix to the premisses . shewing the dean of sarum's innocence ( if not his merit ) in his services for the king , by the lords commissioners special order ; and in his obedience to their lordships express command ; and also in his perfect ignorance of mr. yeats his address to the said great lords with his four heads of information , until the lord bishop and the chapter of sarum gave the dean his first knowledge and notice of it . so that the controversie , ensuing it , might possibly have been raised by the said bishop and his adherents , before it was so much as possible to have been raised by the dean , without his knowing any thing of it , till so informed . but seeing all men are subject to be mistaken and abused by men of malice ; it is the honour and the duty of all the dean of sarum's friends ( in the number of whom i profess my self ) to convert , or to shame those fanatical enemies to the government , who do pretend to suspect him , though indeed they do not , and cannot suspect him in reality , of having dealt underhand in the design of mr. yeats , or of having acted otherwise towards any the least occasion of any controversie or difference with any creature antecedently to the command of the lords commissioners , the evidence of the contrary is so manifold and convincing . but yet they hitherto resolve to pretend suspition , ( when they have none ) whereby to justify , or excuse , their diabolical defamation of an innocent man. ( if yet it is a defamation or a crime , to prompt a pious and learned person to serve his sovereign as he is able . ) the real cause of their malignity , being too criminal to be owned ; to wit , the dean of sarum's loyalty , and love of truth , and compliance with the commands of the most noble lords commissioners , who are impowered by the king to command us all. this alone is the true ground of some mens pretending to a suspicion , whereby to revenge themselves on the said dean , for having dared to be dutiful to his superiours . these artificers and e inventors of evil things having not at all either the grace , or even humanity to consider , that they themselves must have obeyed , ( as ill-affected as they are to any commissioned by the king , ) had they been so commanded , as the dean of sarum was . but i will no longer detain the reader ( in this preface to an appendix ) from mr. yeat's his own letters , sent to several persons of honour , and to some others of lesser quality , strongly asserting unto himself the whole design of the four heads , which he addressed to the lords commissioners ; and confuting those malignants , who out of envy to his performance , would have him taken ( to his disparagement ) for another man's tool . nothing is added to the said letters , besides a few deductions thence , and some reflections thereupon . an appendix to the three foregoing chapters . § . 1. mr. yeats was so unwilling , that either the dean of sarum , or any other of that church , should have any share with him in the honour or in the blame of his project of the four articles , that he writ an honest letter to a person of quality in the countrey , ( as before to some at court , and to the lord bishop himself ) who permitted the dean's son to transcribe as much of it , as he thought would conduce to his father's service and satisfaction : and 't is as follow 's . [ i am heartily sorry that any should be so atheistical , as still to suspect the dean's privity to my design , after so much evidence and conviction to the contrary ; and therefore to shame them , i am ready to undergo whatever test shall be put upon me , to declare that the dean was neither directly nor indirectly , nec per se , nec per alium , acquainted with my design , but every way as ignorant thereof , as the child unborn ; and much less abetting me therein , than the bishop himself from whom i had indeed two inducements , but from the dean none , nay less than none ; this being the only way i had to incur the dean's displeasure , but withal to procure a favour from the bishop , or at least from the king himself . the only offence that i can charge my self herein to be guilty of , and for which i do , and must ever beg the pardon of mr. dean , is not only that i drew up those articles without his privity , or assistance , but also without his knowledge or consent , referr'd my self for proof of them to books and papers in his hands . truth is , the knowledge i had of the chief things suggested by me to the lords commissioners , was principally from a sheet of reasons whereof copies had been dispersed into several mens hands , as well of both houses of parliament , as private persons , one of which copies i have here with me , penned by the dean about six years since , which sheet was entitled , — certain memoirs of things pleadable against a bill then prepared for the taking away of all peculiar jurisdictions , &c. wherein among others , i found this very observable passage . the dean and f canons of sarum had their abode before the conquest in old castle called caesar's burg , and corruptly sarisberg , by the brittains , sorbiodunum . it was at the first the king 's free chappel , as windsor is at this day , wherein the dean ( under the king ) had more than episcopal jurisdiction . vide vetus registr . miscell . & registr . dom. richardi episc. sarum . [ 't was from this , and certain other passages there following , ( seconded by what i heard from some g persons better known , as i thought , in the affairs and records of that church , than i can be supposed to be , ) that i thought i had reason enough humbly to tender those four things to be inquired into by their lordships . but for the reverend dean of sarum , he had no manner of knowledge of my design , or of my two inducements ●o it , nor of the petition of the mayor and magistrates of marlborough , nor of those noble persons who did promote it ; and therefore as i have highly though undesignedly disobliged him , by acting as i did , without his privity , and ( as i found since ) against his will ; so i have , and do , and ever will beg his pardon ; which whether i ever obtain , or not , i will be ever his vindicator in the bottom of my heart , from his having had the least share , or so much as knowledge of my rashness and precipitancy . § . ii. thus far mr. yeats word for word ; and as truly as ever any man spake : he offered also to confirm it in open court upon oath , which makes me say , that those men are unworthy , and must not expect to be believed upon their oaths , much less upon their words , who will not believe the dean of sarum , and mr. cornelius yeats of marlborough either upon their words , or upon their oaths . mr. yeats his character is no where fitter to be seen , than in the famous petition of the mayor and magistrates of marlborough to the king , presented by the hands of the lord bruce in his behalf , whose great parts and greater piety are celebrated by them , ( both to the king , and the lords commissioners , ) who have the best experience and knowledge of him . and not yet to mention those horrid and scandalous reports , which mr. yeats his bitter enemies have laboured under , and still do labour . there are not any either of his , or of the dean of sarum's enemies , who can prove so convincingly that they had not any hand in , or assent to , or connivance at , or knowledge of the most execrable murder of sir edmundbury godfrey , ( until they had it by report , ) as the said dean hath proved , and can prove , that he had no hand in , or assent to , or connivance at , or knowledge of , mr. yeats his project of the four articles , until he was informed of it by the lord bishop of sarum , and by the chapter of the same , in a letter from mr. frome . for sir edm. godfrey being dead , can attest nothing on their behalf ; and they have nothing but their own oaths whereby to clear their own innocence , to which they have forfeited all belief with considering men . but mr. yeats is still living to clear the dean of sarum upon his oath , the which he offered in open court , and will be ever ready to take , and who will ever find belief from all who are acquainted with his unblameable conversation , which will every where have credit , where his enemies have none . nor hath he , or the dean of sarum any enemies they know of , who are not enemies at the same time , both to god , and the king , and the church of england . 't is the nature of christian charity , not to suspect others hastily , of any ill thing which it abhors ; whilst they who are wont to do injuries , suspect others of the like . nothing hitherto can be said to clear the regular and episcopal clergy from a suspition of being papists , or popishly affected , with the whole dissenting and schismatical party ; and they who suspected , or rather pretended to suspect the dean of sarum of a plot to deprive the bishop of a right to give prebends , even immediately after the bishop had promised a prebend to the dean's son , ( of his own accord , and undesired , which added most of all to the obligation , ) are like those most malitious , and unexcusable fanaticks , who pretended to suspect the king himself , not only of contriving the fire of london , but also of being in the plot against his own life and kingdom . see the excellent address to all the freeholders and freemen of england ; part . 1. pag. 45 , and 50. and part . 2. pag. 2 , 3 , 5 , 6. § . 3. but now suppose the dean of sarum had not only permitted , but perswaded mr. yeats and the magistrates of marlborough , to apply themselves unto the king for a prebend of sarum , and to plead , that the supremacy of right to give prebends is in the king , from whose original right , the bishops right to give them is but derivative , ( and therefore only a good and undoubted right , because derived from the crown , ) he had not abjured the doing of it , but rather had owned it with ambition . the only reason why he denies it , is because it is a lye ; and because he is a lover of truth and justice ; and because he will not willingly fully the merit of his obedience to the very express commands of the lords commissioners ; who finding him averse from his being a voluntier , were therefore pleased to press him for his majesties service , wherein he had not been else employed . § . 4. in compliance with the said order and peremptory command of the lords commissioners , ( to which no churchman could refuse to pay obedience , ) the dean of sarum drew up a narrative of matters of fact ▪ which he had found in old registers ; wherein he took occasion to censure mr. yeats , § . 9. and to assert the lord bishop of sarum's right to dispose of dignities , sub-dignities and prebends at large , § . 10. as well as the right of the dean singly , together with the rights of dean and chapter in conjunction . and all upon the same principle or ground , on which he humbly did conceive the several rights were all held : he did conceive , that all rights are either subordinate or supream : he thought it dangerous to assert the subjects rights to be supream , and therefore called them subordinate : and lastly , he thought their rights the firmer , for being derived from , and depending on , and standing upon so sure a bottom as the supream . he shew'd what our monarchs had done de facto in and over the church of sarum , which was not to reveal a secret ; for some of the alienations of several prebends , and one archdeaconry , from that church , are publickly written in letters of gold on the several stalls , and exposed to the reading of all mankind . but whether such alienations were , or could be de iure , the said dean left humbly to the consideration of his superiors . what more or less could have been said to that purpose , by any of the chapter , or by them all , or by my lord bishop himself , if either of them had been so commanded to speak his knowledge , or his sense , as the dean of sarum was , they themselves can best tell ; but the dean of sarum is yet to learn. § . 5. one thing is fit to be considered by those pretenders to a suspicion of persons more credible than themselves ; which suspicion 't is thought they have not , and cannot have in good earnest , against the evidence and conviction they have several times met with ; if at least they have faith and charity , and do really believe there is a god , and a devil , and heaven and hell. suppose that two of their number shall be pretended to be suspected of two grand crimes , the one of simony , and the other of incest ; and that the whispers of those suspicions shall be disseminated and spread into publick fame . will not those persons be glad to be allowed to prove the negative upon their oaths ? will they not take it extreamly ill , to get no more by their vindication , than to have the fame of perjury , superadded to the suspicions both of simony , and incest ? will they not expostulate , si accusasse suffecerit , quis erit innocuus ? will they not probably break out into the learned diatribist's exclamation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ! they cannot hope to be believed upon their own single oaths , who dare pretend not to believe honester men upon their double ones . besides that simony and incest will be accounted more scandalous , even by the whigs in these worst of times , than to be zealous for the king 's rights , or to obey the lords commissioners . and therefore , if the inventers of silly jealousies and lyes , shall at any time chance to suffer the heinous things which they have done , they will learn for the future to deal with their neighbours and their friends , as they would that their enemies should deal with them. part of mr. cornelius yeats his letter to a person of great honour , an eminent officer at court , and afterwards to another of lesser quality ; giving an account of his undertaking , after the petition of the mayor and magistrates of marlborough to the king in his behalf . besides my appearing for the king's prerogative and right , which was a principal motive to this so strange attempt of mine , i had likewise two other inducements , which i hope may in some measure take off the blame , and very tolerably account for a procedure of this nature . the one , that the bishop of sarum some years since voluntarily promised , and that with repeated asseverations , ( i do not say the next prebend , but ) whatever lay in his power to do for me ; though being since that time , again and again requested by me , and by many others , ( not considerable persons ) on my behalf , at what time there were vacant prebends many in one year , yet he never did any thing towards the augmentation of my poor maintenance : so that indeed i was weary of depending any longer upon complements . next , i did but follow ( as i was led , ) the bishops own example ; for having observed , that his lordship applyed himself to the king for a royal mandate , whereby to over rule the dean and chapter of sarum to praeelect his nephew mr. seth ward into the next place of residence which should be void , ( the only good thing which is in the gift of the dean and chapter , when the king does not oppose his original right to their derivative , ) i thought i might with greater reason apply my self ( in such a way as i did , viz. by asserting the kings original right , ) to obtain from his majesty a prebend at large of a lesser value ( not the only good thing in the bishops gift , by a derivative right , whereof the original is in the king , ) because that nephew had been before provided for by two uncle-bishops , with as much as would have served five or six worthy men , and did not want an augmentation ; as i evidently did ; nor was his task so great , as mine is very well known to have always been ; nor did his uncle want things in his particular disposal , as most of my patrons did , and do ; nor had the bishop more right derivative to bestow a prebend at large , than the dean and chapter to bestow the places of residence : and his lordships applying himself to the king for such a canonry was ( accoring to the rules of all the logick that i ever have been acquainted with ) a confession of his iudgment , that all promotions in the cathedral church of sarum are in the king by an original right , though by a derivative in the bishop partly , and partly in the dean and chapter ; and truly sir , i had a fairer opinion of his lordship than to think he would blame that in me , which he approved of in himself : nor did i imagine , but that a poor vicar might beg what he wanted of his king , as well as a great and rich bishop , who wanted nothing . sir , i have here freely and fully discovered the very sense and thoughts of my heart to you , and do humbly hope , that i may from you at least obtain a merciful and candid opinion of my proceedings . but i am afraid i have wearied you with the unusual length of this letter ; i am sure i have wearied my self in writing it , having already preached twice this day , and being also to prepare another sermon at a funeral to morrow night , which may serve to excuse what slips may have here fallen from my pen. i hope i shall always deport my self , as become him who is your most , &c. part of mr. yeats his letter of dec. 14. 1682. to the lord bishop of sarum , in vindication of the dean . my lord , no person can be more highly displeased with me , than i am with my self , for having ( under the impatience of some disappointments ) attempted a thing so far above my reach in that paper delivered to the lords commissioners ; especially since i find , that hereby i have not only provoked your lordship , but also my worthy patron the dean of sarum , ( once my friend , but now i fear made my enemy , ) as being hereby wrongfully drawn under the most unjust suspicion of his having been privy to my design : when as the truth is , ( which merely to do him right i think my self bound to declare , and if your lordship require , i will affirm it upon oath , ) he had no hand in , or knowledge of , those informations , nor ( as i verily do believe ) of any my proceedings thereabout , till my letter to him at canterbury in nov. last , which he answered with sharp reproofs , and a declaration of his absolute refusal to assist me in any thing , or to deliver what he might know of that matter : so that i was forced ( seeing my self summoned into your lordships consistory ) to use my utmost endeavours with all my friends , to procure a peremptory command to him from the lords commissioners , which i hear is now sent ; but with what effect i do not as yet understand ; only that it hath brought him to white-hall . besides , my lord , the thing speaks it self . articles so unskilfully penned , and with so many disadvantages to the cause undertaken , can never be supposed to have been drawn up by his advice , or so much as connivance , or permission , &c. this is all of that letter wherein the dean is concerned . finis . connubium regiae praerogativae , cum magnâ chartâ anglorum . an compositio ( quae vulgo dicitur ) à papa romano confirmata , a d. 1392. ecclesiae sarum fundamenta convellat penitus evertatque , an cum ijsdem nequaquam pugnet , quae sequuntur perlecturis liquidò admodum constabit . § . 1. osmundi charta in ipsa fundatione edita , ac a sigillo regis willielmi communita , b ex cujus dono & concessu de dominio suo regali tam in ecclesiis quam in terris , ecclesia cathedralis sarum originem duxit & incrementum , inter caetera , haec habet . dignitas c est decani , & omnium canonicorum , ut episcopo in nullo respondeant nisi in capitulo , & judicio tantum capituli pareant . habeant etiam curiam suam in omnibus praebendis suis , & dignitatem archidiaconi ubicunque praebendae fuerint assignatae in parochia nostra , sive in ecclesiis , vel decimis , vel terris . ita quidem quòd nulla omnino exigentia , in dono vel in assisa , aut aliqua alia consuetudine , ab episcopo , vel a quolibet alio fiat in praebendis eorum ; sed omnes libertates & omnes dignitates plenarie & pacifice habeant , quas ego osmundus episcopus in eisdem praebendis habui , aut aliquis alius , cum eas in nostro dominio haberemus . quando verò aliquis constituitur canonicus , debet coram fratribus in capitulo jurare , praesente evangelio , se dignitates & consuetudines ecclesiae sarum inviolabiliter observaturum . decanus omnibus canonicis , & omnibus vicarijs praeest , quoad regimen animarum & correctionem morum . testes sunt hi ; willielmus rex anglorum , thomas archiepiscopus , & alij multi episcopi . § . 2. virtute hujus exemptionis fundamentalis , à regibus angliae per d chartas suas confirmatae , decanus solus cum capitulo statuta authentica e confecit , quae episcopi deinde cum decanis & capitalis assistentibus conjuncti , grata & rata habuerunt . hujus rei sunt exemplis richardus poor , cùm adhuc esset decanus sarum , a. d. 1213. nec non petrus de sabaudia a. d. 1305. episcopis tunc temporum nequaquam adhibitis in concilium . denique rex henricus tertius in charta sua apud f dugdallum , translationem ecclesiae sarum de castro suo saresberiae , &c. ratam habuit , & canonicis ejusdem ecclesiae & hominibus suis omnes libertates & liberas consuetudines quas habuerunt temporibus praedecessorum suorum , &c. sicut cartae ipsorum testantur . § . 3. inde est quod decanus ( non episcopus ) ab ipsis episcopis declaratur f immediatus loci ordinarius . testamenta decano sunt insinuanda , bona tam in clauso sarum quam in praebendis sequestrari possunt per decanum . admissus canonicus per decanum , vel per ejus locum-tenentem , h jurabit , quod exit obediens decano . g dominus decanus , seu alius ab eo missus visitationem faciet , errata corriget , — correctionis stimulum apponet , dispersa recollige● , &c. — et ad libitum ipsius , unius diei procurationem laute recipiet . § . 4. jurisdictionis decanalis in clauso sarum mature habita contemplatione , aegidius brideport episcopus sarum integerrimus ( is qui ecclesiam cathedralem consecravit dedicavitque ) omne jus jurisdicendi visitandive in clauso sarum , sibi suisque successoribus ex tote corde abjudicat ; idem jus decano sarum disertè asserit vendicatque ; visitationem designatam ex certa conscientia retrectat illico , damnatque ; nec non in omnem rei memoriam , dictus praesul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( ceu cygneam probitatis pietatisque suae vocem ) seris posteris infra scriptam dulcissimè canit palinodiam . i ☞ universis h christi fidelibus praesentes literas visuris vel audituris aegidius dei patientia sarum ecclesiae minister humilis salutem in domino sempiternam . cùm nos visita tionem faciendam in capitulo nostro sarum tàm in capite quàm in membris dicimur demandasse ; ad certam & 1. plenariam deliberationem supra his revertentes ; 2. inspectis institutis beati osmundi sarum ecclesiae fundatoris , & 3. libertatibus & immunitatibus quas idem fundator in dicta ecclesia stabilivit ; 4. consideratis consuetuetudinibus quibus sarum ecclesia usque ad nostra tempora regebatur & usa fuit , tam temporibus vacationis quàm sedis ordinatae ; 5. intellecto etiam quòd nullus antecessorum nostrorum hujusmodi visitationen exercuerit , nec demandaverit ; nos dictum mandatum sub quocunque genere verborum factum ex certa conscientia penitùs 1. revocamus , & ex ulteriùs ob id quicquid sequitur 2. pronunciamus , & 3. decernimus non valere . 4. protestantes , & 5. statuentes , pro nobis , & successoribus nostris episcopis in ecclesia sarum , quantum ad nos pertinet , quod dictum capitulum sarum , tam in parsonis canonicis , vicariis , rebus , & familiis ipsorum , tam in clauso sarum , quàm in praebendis sarum ecclesiae , a visitatione episcoporum sarum perpetuis temporibus existunt 6. liberi , & immunes . maximè cùm hoc ad decani 7. officium & dignitatem ipsius statuimus pertinere . praeterea vacantes vicarias praebendarum sarum & ordinationes ipsorum tam in taxationibus faciendis , quàm in parsonis praesentandis , admittendis , & instituendis , simul & correctiones vicariorum praebendarum , nec non & ipsorum vicariorum qui in ecclesia cathedrali deserviunt , plene 8. & totaliter ad dictum decanum & capitulum 9. recognoscimus pertinere ; 10. absque omni iurisdictione & potestate episcoporum sarum pro tempore existentium . 11. salvis nobis & successoribus nostris praesentationibus vicariorum per canonicos praebendarum faciendis in nostris duntaxat maneriis . in hujus rei fidem praesentes literas sigillo nostro fecimus communiri . dat sarum die martis proximè post festum sancti michaelis anno domini millesimo ducentesimo sexagesimo secundo . hujus chartae confirmatio per decanum & capitulum capitulariter congregatos in haec verba sequitur . omnibus christi fidelibus praesentes literas inspecturis vel audituris r. decanus & capitulum ecclesiae sarum salutem in domino . sempiternam . cartam venerabilis patris aegidij dei gratia sarum episcopi inspeximus in haec verba . [ universis christi fidelibus , &c. ut suprà . ] nos igitur proescriptas revocationes , pronuntiationes , & decreta , protestationes , recognitiones , & statuta habentes & grata , unanimi consensu ea duximus confirmanda . et ad majorem rei fidem & firmitatem , sigilli nostri communis impressione praesens scriptum duximus roborandum . hiis testibus , domino [ roberto de i hartforde ] decano sarum . domino r. de hengam cancellario . domino r. de warmill thesaurario . domino simone archidiacono berks. domino nicolao archidiacono sarum . johanne subdecano . d. waltero succentore . nicolao longespe . d. waltero de merton . d. martino de halebury . roberto deswood . rho. de ripton . roberto foliat , & aliis . dat. sarum die mercurii prox . post festum s. michaelis a. d. 1262. § . 5. porrò in registro vocato hemings by conceptis verbis sic scriptum legimus . huc usque visum non extitit , quod alius quam decanus sarum offlcium visitationis exercuit in praebendarios , fol. 77. constabat enim ex statuto richardi poor , quod k quandocunque facienda fuerit generalis convocatio canonicorum , tradet decanus literas vicariis canonicorum vocandorum , & injungent iis in virtute obedientiae , quod dominis suis transmittant ad praebendas , a quibus sumptus propter hoc faciendos percipiant . neque aliter hoc fiebat , quàm per mandatum dccani , 1355. in registro corf . p. 111. & in coman . p. 73. a. d. 1387. & in pountney p. 29 , 30. a. d. 1413. § . 6. notatu dignissima est l querela archiepiscopo cant. oblata contra radulphum ergham episcopum sarum visitatorem praebendas decanatu vacante circa an. 1375. ex parte praesidentis & capituli . infra castrum domini regis , & in ipsius solo , ( nullatenus episcopi sarum , ) primitùs extitit fundata ecclesia , ut libera capella , ejus , ab omni iurisdictione dioecesani exempta ; plena libertate , more aliarum regiarum capellarum angliae , gauderet . quam beatus osmundus , tunc sarum episcopus , consensu willielmi regis patroni praedicti tunc praesentis , solenniter de certis praebendis fundavit , ac canonicas dignitates & officia primus constituit in eadem . ac per sua statuta in ipsa fundatione edita , de consensu ejusdem regis ecclesiae patroni , tam deeanum quàm canonicos sarum omnes & ab omni iurisdictione episcopi sarum exemit totaliter in haecverba . [ dignitas est decani & omnium canonicorum , ut episcopo in nullo respondeant , &c. ut suprà § . 1. p. 1. ] — ac omnes libertates & dignitates , quas idem osmundus in dictis praebendis habuit . item translata est ecclesia à dicta castro per rlchardum episcopum de consensu & licentia regis angliae patroni ejusdem cum omnibus suis dignitatibus , libertatibus , statutis , exemptionibus , & consuetudinibus , autoritate apostolica . — ad dictas etiam ordinationes , consuetudines , libertates , ac dignitates fideliter tenendas , & inviolabiliter observandas , episcopi , decani , & canonici sarum praebendarii , qui pro tempore fuerunt & sunt , eorum temporibus successivis , omnes & singuli juramentis corporalibus ad sancta evangelia praestitis , realiter fuerunt & sunt astricti . verum quòd ( reverendissime pater ) post & contra omnia praemissa , reverendus in christo pater & dominus radulphus dei gratia sarum episcopus sciens se ad praemissa omnia & singula sui juramenti debito observanda , ut praedicitur , obligatum fore & esse , praebendas nostras nonnullas de facto , cum de fundationis statutis & consuetudinibus praetactis non deberet , visitavit , & pet alios visitare fecit , & mandavit , & à quibusdam canonicis & vicariis canonicorum in praebendis , decanatu sarum vacante , asserens eos subditos suos immediatos , cum non erant , neque sunt , obedientiam juratoriam extorsit injuste , & nonnulla alia gravamina circa praemissa dicto capitulo & praebendariis , decanatu hujusmodi vacante , intulit , & inferre minatur . placeat igitur eidem paternitati vestrae , intuitu charitatis , taliter interponere partes vestras , ut dictus dominus episcopus sarum omnia praemissa illicite attemptata , & praecipue visitationem , sic ut praemittitur , decanatu vacante , de facto inchoatam , pro salute animae suae revocet , & praefatum capitulum & praebendarios omnes & singulos , commodo fundationis & liberatatem statutorum & consuetudinum praehabitarum liberè gaudere , & in solidum exercere , quoad omnia praemissia , et in pace permittat in futurum . post hanc factam apellationem & querelam , ita praefatus archiepiscopus ( simon sudbury ) partes suas interposuit , ut radulpho episcopo visitatione attemptata interdixerit ; & deinceps ecclesia sarum usque ad tempora atque tyrannidem bonifacii noni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beneficio fundationis gavisa sit . § . 7. pari modo provisum fuerat à reverendissimo bonifacio archiepiscopo cantuariensi ( ex nobilissima nascendi prosapia oriundo ) de libertatibus decani & canonicorum ecclesiae sarum . n maxime quantum ad ltbertates , instituta , & statuta , quae beatus osmundus & successores sui in eadem ecclesia statuerunt & concesserunt . iurabit etiam [ officialis archiepiscopi ] coram canonicis in civitate sarum praesentibus , quod libertates & consuetudines ecclesiae sarum pro posse suo in omnibus officium suum & iurisdictionem suam tangentibus servabit illaesas , & quod fidelis erit ecclesiae sarum , & in executione iurisdictionis fideliter se habebit , ut superius est expressum . acta est autem ordinatio verè metropolitana a. d. 1362. praesentibus waltero dei gratia wigorn. episcopo . thoma de cantelupo d. decano . d. cancellario & thesaurario sarum . waltero scamell , galfrido de mileburn canonicis sarum , & post alios complures testes ; in plenius rei testimonium & munimen , praesenti instrumento in modum chirographi confecto sigilla nostra alternatim apposuimus . et ut praesens compositio firmior habeatur , prior & capitulum cant ' ipsam expresso ratificantes consensu , presens instrumentum sigilli sui munimine roborarunt . § . 8. neque aliter res stetit dum cardinalis o raimundus decanus sarum audiebat , & cardinalis arnoldus ejusdem ecclesiae thesaurarius . uterque a. d. 1330. his horumque successoribus salvae semper & integrae libertates praedictae permanserunt . tandem vero compositio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non in alium duntaxat sensum , verum etiam in contrarium confecta est , quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( proh dolor ! ) vocare licet . inde enim videtur ingens malorum ilias effluxisse . inde regum decreta contemptim habita . inde osmundi nec institutio , nec execratio aut cordi aut curae est . inde statuta ( nomine tenus ) sibi invicem adversantia , ab episcopis , decanis , & capitulis sarum emanarunt . spretis legibus anglicanis jam p tum latis fixisque ; & in super habita magna charta , ut ut per acta parliamentorum ( triginta ad minimum ) corroborata , ipsa praefatas immunitates ab osmundo fundatas q sub ultima poena corroborante . § . 9. summatim dico . quod episcopo aegidio ejusque antecessoribus nequaquam licuit per iuramentum , per statutum fundationis , per consuetudinem ecclesiae , per magnam chartam totius angliae compluribus actis parliamentorum confirmatam ; qui fieri potest , ut ejusdem aegidii successoribus ( non obstantibus praemissis ) id ipsum liceat ? quaecunque dedit , dedit s libere osmundus , ita nimirum prout ipse eadem obtinuerat a domino rege willielmo . concessitque libertates quas t ipse habuit in praebendis , cum adhuc in suo domino essent . et coronidis loco edixit — u quisquis haec pervertere voluerit , perpetuo anathematizetur . quod anathema reformidas episcopus sarum iohannes w iewel , existimavit statuitque , non tantummodo consensu , sed et rogatu suorum fratrum , ( ab eodem anathemate sibi pariter metuentium ) ☞ veterem constitutionem antecessoris sui osmundi in integrum esse restituendam . § . 10. praemissis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc unum addo ; quòd sicut papa honorius tertius non approbavit translationem ecclesiae sarum de castro regis ad locum inferiorem , nisi clausula hac addita apostolicis literis inserta , x [ salvis ipsius ecclesiae sarum privilegiis , dignitatibus , & consuetudinibus , ] ita bonifacius nonus non omnino confirmavit ipsam compositionem toties à nobis decantatam , nisi solenniter interposita hac notabili cautione & conditione insignissima , y [ visitatione & iurisdictione decanali in 1. omnibus & per 2. omnia , decano & successoribus suis 3. semper salvis . ] si in omnibus , tum in clauso , cujus decanus est ordinarius in confesso . si per omnia . tum per ecclesiam , quae pars est clausi eminentissima . denique si semper , tum in quolibet septennio , & de septennio in septennium , sed non duntaxat . hinc aut probatur decanum eximi ab omni visitatione episcopali in ecclesia & clauso , aperta vi & virtute ipsius compositionis , aut ipsam compositionem sibi ipsi repugnare ; contra se ipsam militare ; gravissime propriis perire pennis ; & si homerico hemestichio hic uti liceat , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — § . 11. in the statute of 25 edw. 1. a. d. 1296 ▪ in confirmation of magna charta z all things done and judgments given contrary to the points of the said charter , shall be undone , and holden for nought . cap. 2. the said charter is to be sent under the king's seal to cathedral churches throughout the realm , there to remain , and is to be read before the people two times by the year . cap. 3. ( with which compare coke inst. 2. parag. 527. ) all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of excommunication against all those that by word , deed , or counsel , do contrary to the aforesaid charter , or in any point break or undo it . and the said curses twice a year are to be denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid . and if the same prelates , or any of them , be remiss in the denuntiation of the said sentences , the archbishops of canterbury and york for the time being , shall compel and distrain them to the execution of their duties in form aforesaid , cap. 4. this is over and above the curse of osmund . § . 12. in the statute of 16 rich. 2. cap. 5. the pope's assumings then in england are said to have a tendency to the open disherison of the crown , and destruction of our lord the king , his law , and all his realm , if remedy be not provided . for want of which remedy then made , 't is there added , that ) the laws and statutes of the realm would be avoided at the pope's will , in perpetual destruction of the soveraignty of the king our lord , his crown , his regality , and of all his realm , which god defend . this repeated assertion of the then house of commons ( § . 1. ) was assented to , and repeated twice by the then house of lord ( § . 2. ) , and all in reference to pope boniface the 9th , who then presumed to intermeddle in the cathedral church of sarum , and took upon him to authorize the composition there made , even the very same year wherein the said statute was made against him . unto which papal authorization king richard ii. did either consent , or he did not . if he did not , the pope hely'd him : if he did , he therein acted to the open disherison of his crown , and contributed too much to his deposition . 1 the sum and upshot of the difference between the bishop and dean of sarum , is briefly this , if there is any . the dean is of opinion , that the king and the bishop have both a right to give prebends , with this distinction . the king 's right to give them is original and supreme ; the bishop's right to give them is derivative and subordinate . of this distinction his lordship does , or does not allow . if he does , his lordship is of the dean's mind , and the difference is at an end : if he does not , the dean wonders at it ; and the more , because the greatest of lawyers , and the greatest of divines , do all agree in the said distinction . which is proved in the first chapter of the dean's vindication of the king 's sovereign rights . and all besides that , may stand or fall with that distinction ; or be as if it had never been . an index to this book . aaron , page 304 abbendone , edmund de , page 291 abendon , richard de , page 331 — william de , page 285 , 326 abingdon , john de , page 311 — william de , page 298 abney , john , page 244 abbot , robert , page 276 abraham , page 291 abyndon , john de , page 327 adam , page 288 , 304 addison , lancelot , page 332 adelelmus , page 304 aermyn , richard de , page 289 aiscough , william , page 274 akkeburne , lawrence de , page 273 st. albano , elias de , page 289 alchmund , page 270 alcock , john , page 310 alchorn , edward , page 236 aldhelm , page 269 alexander , page 294 alfar , page 271 alfius , page 270 allfftan , page 271 alfred , page 270 alfrick , page 271 alfwold , page 270 allix , peter , page 294 alleston , robert de , page 301 alnewyke , william , page 294 albert , joseph , page 138 andrews , nicholas , page 328 andrew , ric. page 296 , 321 arche , richard , page 293 arena , andreas ammonius de , page 322 arundel , francis , page 258 ... john , page 312 , 314 ashley , anne , page 57 ... francis , page ibid. ... gabriel , page ibid. ... gertrude , page 54 ... margaret , page 55 , 58 asser , .... page 270 atwater , william , page 281 atwood , thomas , page 186 aubrey , thomas , page 332 st. aubyn , anne , page 213 audley , edmund , page 274 ... richard , page 287 ... robert , page 303 axford , john , page 203 ... margery , page 203 ... mary , page 203 , 204 ayleston , robert , page 298 , 316 , 330 ayscough , robert , page 305 , 318 , 319 ... william , page ibid. b. baber , benjamin , page 245 ... elizabeth , page ibid. babyngton , henry , page 329 backs , peter , page 223 , 224 bailul , josceline de , page 272 bainbridge , christopher , page 317 , 324 , 327 balgay , nicholas , page 307 , 333 baldock , robert de , page 298 baldwin , ... page 288 banqueto , william raymond , page 314 barbo , peter , page 296 bardus , adrian de page 327 barford , tho. page 151 barkesdale , william , page 324 barlow , william , page 297 barnaby , jeremy , page 333 ... john , page 315 barne , john , page 299 barnes , bartholomew , page 210 ... hesther , page 191 ... robert , page 332 barnston , j. page 91 ... mary page 90 basing , richards page 322 bassingborne , humphrey de , page 294 bates , roger , page 329 bath , abbey church of , page 162 ... library , page 199 , 200 bave , hesther , page 196 ... john , page 202 bauf , samuel , page 194 , 195 baylie , richard , page 282 , 283 beach , edmund de la , page 301 beard , william , page 206 beauchamp , richard , page 274 beaufort , henry , page 326 beaumont , robert , page 314 beck , thomas de , page 304 belingham , edmund , page 311 ... john , page 201 bello , richard de , page 301 bellomont , lewis de , page 291 bellot , renatus , page 227 ... thomas , page 217 bennet , patience , page 46 .... william , page 305 .... walter , page 287 , 300 .... william , page 305 bere , john de la , page 327 berghes , william de , page 305 bertrard , .... page 305 bevile , elizabeth , page 227 bicovil , william , page 321 bigge , john , page 206 billesdon , nicholas , page 280 bilson , leonard , page 339 bingham , robert de , page 272 bird , elizabeth , page 58 birkhead , daniel , page 314 bisse , robert , page 317 bishopston , henry de , page 279 blackborow , frances , page 24 blanchard , james , page 183 , 185 blithe , daniel , page 328 bluntesdon , henry , page 304 , 305 .... robert , page 306 blythe , godfrey , page 292 , 296 .... john , page 110 , 274 bocton , thomas de , page 307 bone , robert , page 329 bosco , william de , page 288 boteler , thomas , page 312 bottiler , thomas , page 295 bourchier , james , page 337 .... thomas , page 337 bowles , john , page 282 bowre , robert , page 330 bowsheld , thomas , page 324 boxall , john , page 322 boxton , thomas de , page 331 boy , bishop of the choristers , page 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , &c. bradbridge , augustin , page 322 .... william , page 281 , 329 brandeston , henry de , page 273 , 279 , 304 braybrooke , robert , page 280 bremsgrove , john , page 314 brent , thomas , page 27 brereworth , stephen , page 302 bretton , thomas , page 151 brewer , lydia , page 57 .... thomas , page 209 , 250 brideoake , ralph , page 284 bridges , john , page 282 bridport , giles de , page 272 , 301 .... simon , page 301 , 304 brightwell , ralph de , page 285 brither , henry , page 309 brithrick , .... page 270 brithwin , .... page ibid. brithwold , .... page 271 bromwich , james , page 296 , 327 browne , thomas , page 280 , 302 brygon , william , page 321 bubbewith , nicholas , page 274 , 315 , 318 .... thomas , page 316 buckingham , william de , page 334 buckno , william , page 297 budden , john , page 337 burbach , thomas , page 314 burbank , william , page 324 burchet , thomasina , page 215 burd , william , page 211 burdon , walter , page 326 burnell , william , page ibid. burnet , gilbert , page 277 burton , john de , page 285 burton , john , page 326 burwardescot , roger de , page 298 bury , richard de , page 314 bush , anne , page 268 .... john , page ibid. .... judith , page 181 bushell , agatha , page 266 .... edward , page 262 , 266 .... john , page 267 .... susan , page 266 .... tobias , page 262 c. camden , william , page 328 campegius , lawrence , page 275 capella , stephen de , page 295 carew , george , page 287 , 328 , 332 carne , berkeley , page 235 .... mary , page ibid. carpenter , henry , page 342 carr , edward , page 218 carse , john , page 313 carsidony , anthony , page 332 cartwright , william , page 309 case , john , page 311 cassineto , william ruffatus de , page 279 castell , john , page 302 , 318 castleton , philip , page 258 caunton , richard , page 296 cergeaux , michael , page 305 chabaum , thomas de , page 306 chadderton , edmund , page 296 chaddleshount , william de , page 298 chambers , john , page 320 , 333 , 338 chambre , john de la , page 285 chapman , anne , page 263 .... george , page 264 .... john , page 258 .... peter , page 264 .... richard , page 265 .... robert , page 261 .... susannah , page ibid. .... william , page 262 , 263 chappell , john , page 320 chaundeler , john , page 274 , 280 , 292 chaundler , richard , page 297 , 329 chedworth , john , page 299 , 312 , 326 , 333 , 343 cheston , stephen , page 313 cheyne , edward , page 281 chichele , henry , page 289 , 294 , 305 , 312 chichester , john , page 214 .... robert , page 278 chickwell , robert , page 329 child , william , page 264 childrey , joshuah , page 297 , 342 chillingworth , william , page 290 chittern , john , page 295 , 299 , 326 clarke , roger , page 316 clayton , richard , page 110 clement , vincent , page 299 clerk , thomas , page 343 cleyton , richard , page 332 cloterbooke , giles , page 135 .... rachel , page 136 clowne , richard de , page 295 clungeon , elizabeth , page 69 cobham , thomas , page . 306 cockerell , edmund , page . 307 codeford , philip , page . 285 .... john de , page . 299 .... ralph de , page . 334 coldwell , thomas , page . 307 cole , henry , page . 343 .... thomas , page . 281 coles , dolly , page . 66 .... dorothy , page . ibid. .... margaret , page . 65 .... william , page . ibid. collibee , edward , page . 203 collins , susannah maria , page . 91 colman , anne , page . 30 .... edward , page . 32 .... elleonora , page . 39 .... frederick page . ibid. coleshull , william de , page . 335 colet , john , page . 321 combes , sarah , page . 228 cooke , mary , page . 29 cooth , john , page . 325 corbet , richard , page . 315 corner , william de , page . 273 coryndon , john , page . 310 cotterell , john , page . 306 , 322 cottington , dorothy , page . 251 cotton , henry , page . 276 , 287 , 317 , 322 , 326 coveney , thomas , page . 329 coverham , abraham , page . 323 court , mary à , page . 186 courtney , peter , page . 299 , 318 , 333 cranfeild , edward , page . 262 craven , sir robert , page . 216 crawley , thomas , page . 325 crayford , john , page . 290 , 303 , 311 , 318 creed , william , page . 300 , 329 creting , william , page . 320 crew , philip , page . 157 crofts , herbert , page . 332 crull , robert , page . 324 crump , thomas , page . 309 , 324 culpepper , martin , page . 303 curll , walter , page . 329 curteys , john , page . 313 cusacke , robert , page . 244 d. daniel , nicholas , page . 326 davenant , edward , page . 125 , 303 , 319 , 328 ... john , page . 126 , 276 , 293 davison , john , page . 315 dauntsey , dr. john , page . 257 davie , henry , page . 206 davyson , john , page . 281 deane , henry , page . 274 deel , francis , page . 290 denefrith , .... page . 269 denys , anthony , page . 342 derby , john , page . 311 dilworth , thomas , page . 307 , 322 dogett , john , page . 289 domerham , nicholas , page . 318 dove , francis , page . 158 douglass , anne , page . 219 .... charles page . ibid. dowke , john , page . 336 d'oyly , edmund , page . 206 drake , john , page . 61 .... margaret , page . 61 .... richard , page . 60 , 62 , 291 , 311 drokensford , john de , page . 320 druce , alice , page . 202 .... richard , page . ibid. duck , john. page . 296 dudley , richard , page . 331 .... william , page . 343 duke , james , page . 64 .... mary , page . 63 duppa , bryan , page . 276 , 290 durell , john , page . 311 dyer , elizabeth , page . 138 .... genevera , page . 137 e. ealshstan , .... page . 270 earle , john , page . 277 , 291 eboraco , radulphus de , page . 288 , 307 eborard , ... page . 294 st. edmunds , church in salisbury , page . 141 edmunds , john , page . 290 eedes , richard , page . 342 effington , thomas , page . 310 elmar , .... page . 270 elwold , ... page . ibid. ely , thomas , page . 332 elyon , william , page . 316 elyot , robert , page . 307 ellyott , william , page . 289 embleburne , thomas , page . 306 emwell , john , page . 287 ergham , ralph de , page . 305 erghum , ralph , page . 273 ernele , walter , page . 253 estmond , john , page . 331 ethelbald , ... page . 270 etheleage , ... page . ibid. ethelnold , ... page . 269 ethelricke , .... page . 270 ethelsius , .... page . ibid. ethelstane , .... page . 271 ethelward , ... page . 270 evans , anne , page . 247 .... lewis , page . 340 eustachius , .... page . 278 ewre , william , page . 296 eyre , sir william , page . 93 eyton , james , page . 230 f. fargis , betrand de page . 279 farley , william page . 327 farmer , edward page . 290 feak , john page . 154 ferdinandus , gondesalvus page . 322 finch , anne page . 221 , 222 ... edward page . 300 , 318 , 322 fi●er , samuel page . 309 flower , alice page . 146 .... george page . 145 .... john page . 146 fodering , william de page . 335 foliot , hugh page . 294 ford , jane , page . 191 .... john , page . ibid. fordhere , .... page . 269 fotherby , martin , page . 276 fountney , john , page . 333 fox , edward , page . 305 ..... john , page . 335 , 336 .... richard , page . 315 , 324 frampton , mary , page . 248 , 249 ... robert , page . 339 frank , thomas , page . 286 freke , edmund , page . 281 frome , jane , page . 61 frowde , sir philip , page . 245 , 246 fullborne , william , page . 315 fuller , john , page . 319 .... nicholas page . 340 .... thomas page . 327 , 332 g gandavo , iswyn de , page . 285 , 298 .... simon de , page . 273 ganstead , simon , page . 299 gandy , john , page . 339 garbrand , john , page . 319 , 331 , 344 gardiner , dorothy , page . 115 ... francisca , page . ibid. ... james , page . 338 ... margaret , page . 117 ... thomas , page . ibid. garrard , edward , page . 116 .... elizabeth , page . ibid. .... florentia , page . 116 geddes , michael , page . 291 geldewin , savaricus fitz , page . ibid. geoffrey , william , page . 290 geoffry , .... page . 294 , 301 geraldus , page . 285 geste , edmund , page . 97 gheaste edmund , page . 275 gibbes , walter page . 254 gilberd , robert , page . 286 giliis , silas de , page . 319 gilbert , robert , page . 318 glanvill , joseph , page . 247 glass , elizabeth , page . 228 .... william , page . ibid. glover , thomas , page . 134 glynn , william , page . 292 godfrey , charles , page . 180 , 218 godewyke , john , page . 316 goldwell , james , page . 280 .... john page . 276 .... nicholas page . 336 good , henry , page . 135 , 342 .... margaret page . 135 .... marmaduke page . 332 .... thomas page . 134 goodwin , william , page . 337 gordon , john , page . 99 , 107 , 282 gorges , sir thomas , page . 83 .... thomas page . 342 goth , reymund de la , page . 279 grace , john de la , page . 330 grece , roger de la , page . 298 greensil , edward , page . 233 gregor , thomasina , page . 226 gregory , john , page . 70 , 341 gresley , henry , page . 64 grey , william , page . 303 , 327 grosthead , robert , page . 298 groves , william , page . 323 gunterius , ... page . 294 gunthorp , john , page . 310 , 316 gurganny , john , page . 341 gwynn , thomas , page . 287 gyare , elizabeth , page . 187 , 188 189 h. hackluyt , giles , page . 307 hadsy , gracia , page . 153 .... john , page . 152 hakeney , john de , page . 321 , 322 hales , christopher , page . 342 hallum , robert , page . 274 , 316 hamilton , william , page . 227 hanborough , henry page . 286 harburgh , henry , page . 292 , 318 harda , henry de , page . 335 harding , thomas , page . 293 hardwick , charles littleton , page . 48 .... edward , page . 99 , 338 harewell , robert , page . 316 harris , catherine , page . 52 .... dorothy page . 53 .... gertrude , page . ibid. .... james , page . 56 .... thomas . page . 54 harrison , william , page . 233 harwell , john , page . 301 harvey , catherine , page . 24 .... edward , page . 25 hawkins , george , page . 114 hawkyns , robert , page . 341 .... thomas , page . 287 hawles , anne , page . 44 .... anthony page . 317 .... elizabeth page . 42 .... frances , page . 49 .... thomas , page . 42 hawthorne , adrian , page . 340 hay , robert , page . 42 hayman , richard , page . 315 hayward , elizabeth , page . 241 .... henry , page . ibid. .... robert , page . ibid. .... samuel , page . ibid , hearst , edward , page . 50 .... elizabeth , page . 52 .... margaret , page . 51 .... mary , page . ibid. .... robert , page . 52 .... sarah , page . 51 .... william , page . 50 heath , john , page . 208 .... william , page . ibid. hedges , henry , page . 103 hernerford , william page . 337 henchman , eleonora , page . 150 ..... humphrey , page . 277 , 287 , 325 , 339 , 344 .... thomas , page . 300 , 332 , 337 hennage , george , page . 213 , 318 henry , walter , page . 295 henry , ..... page . 278 , 284 herbert , .... page . 304 herbert , the dormitory , of the family of the earls of pembroke . page . 107 herford , robert , page . 288 herman .... page . 271 hertford , edward earl of , page . 86 , 87 , 88 ... richard , page . 89 .... thomas , page . 90 hertford , robert de , page . 279 hernewald , ... page . 269 herny , walter , page . 314 heron , anne , page . 267 heskins , thomas , page . 290 hethcott , ralph , page . 327 hethe , john , page . 315 heytham , kalph de page . 288 hicks , anne , page . 225 .... walter , page . ibid. .... william , page . 339 hilley , richard , page . 292 hill , adam , page . 287 , 309 , 325 .... gartrudis , page . 152 .... marshall , page . 148 , 149 , 150 .... richard , page . 314 .... thomas , page . 317 ........ page . 26 hinton , john , page . 340 .... william , page . 43 hispania , james de , page . 329 hobart , henry , page . 219 hobbes , william , page . 315 hobbs , anne , page . 266 .... emanuel , page . 265 hody , john , page . 305 holes , andrew , page . 289 holland , john , page . 295 .... thomas , page . 341 holles , thomas , page . 316 hollinsworth , john , page . 218 holmes , rebecca , page . 100 .... richard , page . 315 .... william , page . 101 holt , catherine , page . 49 .... john , page . ibid. hooker , richard , page . 307 , 334 horton , francis , page . 311 , 313 hoskyn , charles , page . 183 .... lydia , page . ibid. hotest , thomas de , page . 305 hotman , john , page . 328 houghton , edward , page . 46 .... john , page . 325 hubert , ..... page . 284 hulling , john , page . 307 hulton , ralph , page . 311 humbald , .... page . 294 humphrey , ... page . 294 , 298 , 304 hungerford , sir giles , page . 159 ..... margaret , page . 60 hunt , durantius , page . 70 .... edith , page . 137 .... thomas , page . 136 hutchins , edward , page . 319 hyde , alexander , page . 31 , 277 , 307 , 325 .... barbara , page . 37 .... catherine , page . 36 .... edward , page . 35 .... elizabeth , page . 30 , 33 .... henry , page . 34 , 35 .... laurence , page . 37 .... richard , page . 307 , 340 .... robert , page . 37 , 38 .... thomas , page . 288 , 328 , 338 , 339 , 343 i. james , charles , page . 235 ... john , page . 307 .... thomas , page . 293 iden , henry , page . 328 jecock , samuel , page . 66 jewell , john. page . 275 , 319 joceline , reginal fitz , page . 294 , 298 john , .... page . 288 , 291 , 306 johnson , benjamin , page . 317 johnston , father , page . 224 jordan , .... page . 278 , 291 , 294 joyner , robert , page . 309 ivelcestre , adam , de , page . 279 ivy , sir george , page . 179 .... susannah , page . ibid. .... william , page . 289 k keeling , jane , page . 151 keigwin , james , page . 190 kelsey , joseph , page . 118 , 297 kenion , thomas , page . 235 kent , elizabeth , page . 52 ... richard , page . 308 , 330 kenton , herbert , page . 100 ... susannah , page . 99 kerevil , robert de , page . 291 key , thomas , page . 338 keymer , gilbert , page . 292 killingworth , john , page . 205 king , oliver , page . 302 kingston , anthony , page . 246 .... r .... page . 318 kinnamon , henry , page . 316 kington , roger de , page . 295 kirkeby , john de , page . 305 kirkby , william , page . 331 kirkham , robert , page . 287 mr. knill , .... page . 185 dr. kymer , .... page . 124 kymer , gilbert , page . 280 l. lader , anne , page . 205 laking , nicholas de , page . 306 lambert , anne , page . 32 .... ruth , page . 112 .... thomas , page . 93 , 297 , 30 .... dionys , page . 105 lancaster , thomas , page . 293 lane , elizabeth , page . 217 langford , charles , page . 47 langrith , robert , page . 321 langton , ralph , page . 316 .... robert , page . 305 , 318 .... thomas , page . 274 lapworth , edward , page . 250 larmer , herbert , page . 146 .... rebecca , page . 147 lathom , paul , page . 341 latimer , william , page . 342 laugharne , rowland , page . 25 laurence , giles , page . 300 .... john , page . ibid. .... thomas , page . 328 lawes , thomas , page . 58 leach , thomas , page . 300 , 317 lee , edward , page . 290 , 336 .... john , page . 293 leman , dorothy , page . 197 lentwarden , richard , page . 335 lenyton , edward , page . 296 lexington , henry de , page . 291 leyett , richard , page . 280 leyott , richard , page . 325 light , susannah , page . 114 lillie , peter , page . 325 lilly , edmund , page . 300 lincoln , john , page . 312 , 330 lineden , john , page . 299 lloyd , william page . 342 lobenham , william de , page . 306 lockey , thomas , page . 310 , 313 london , barbara , page . 67 louthorp , george , page . 292 lowe , hellena , page . 33 .... john , page . 109 loyd , roger , page . 234 luffenham , robert , page . 295 lulbenham , will. de , page . 306 lundon , john , page . 336 lupset , thomas , page . 335 lupton , roger , page . 336 lushington , thomas , page . 315 luttrell , john , page . 311 lynch , aylmer , page . 338 .... john , page . 311 .... stephen , page . 218 lynewood , william , page . 315 m. mackay , aeneas , page . 214 mackworth , john , page . 305 magot , richard , page . 299 mallet , francis , page . 275 manning , thomas , page . 292 marshfeild , hugh , page . 325 maplet , anne , page . 254 , 256 mardefeld , michael de , page . 307 marler , thomas , page . 297 marsh , samuel , page . 335 marshall , george , page . 148 martinus , francis stus page . 292 martin , edmund , page . 314 .... john , page . 334 .... nicholas , page . 309 .... richard , page . 302 martival , roger de , page . 273 , 333 martyn , thomas , page . 196 , 313 masham , damaris , page . 212 , 216 mason , edmund , page . 282 .... charles , page . 313 .... robert , page . 242 , 243 .... thomas , page . 310 masters , elizabeth , page . 267 .... john , page . ibid. matrevars , alice , page . 202 matthews , tobias , page . 287 , 339 may , francis , page . 308 medeford , walter , page . 289 , 295 , 302 , 330 mepham , william de , page . 314 merick , william , page . 331 merrick , thomas , page . 219 merton , william de , page . 301 metford , richard , page . 273 mews , peter , page . 303 micham , simon de , page . 279 middelton , gilbert de , page . 326 , 333 migfred , .... page . 270 migliorveccio , james anthony , page . 192 .... peter joseph , page . ibid. millbourne , john de , page . 329 miphin , will de , page . 331 , 335 mitchell , edward , page . 309 moleynes , adam , page . 280 , 296 mompesson , barbara , page . 127 .... charles , page . 128 .... katherine , page . ibid. .... sir richard , page . ibid. .... sir thomas , page . ibid. monte sancti sylvestri , arnoldus de , page . 280 montacute , thomas , page . ibid. moreland , william , page . 313 moreton , robert , page . 327 morgan , elizabeth , page . 182 .... meredith , page . 317 .... richard , page . 182 morris , stephen , page . 67 morton , john , page . 302 , 322 , 330 , 343 morysyn , richard , page . 343 mot , samuel , page . 331 mottrum , adam de , page . 286 mountague , james , page . 238 , 239 .... sir henry , page . 217 mulcaster , richard , page . 344 mullens , thomas , page . 25 n. naish , hugh , page . 341 nassington , william de , page . 310 nevill , robert , page . 274 nicholas , matthew , page . 324 nicolls , mary , page . 252 norman , thomas , page . 312 normanton , william , page . 315 , 321 , 340 , 344 northborow , michael de , page . 329 , 332 northburgh , ralph , page . 343 norton , john , page . 289 , 295 , 302 , 314 , 326 noyes , nathaniel , page . 158 o. odo , severus , page . 271 oking robert , page . 296 oldham , hugh , page . 310 oliver , john , page . 339 onslow , edward , page . 322 osbert , .... page . 278 osborne , william , page . 317 osmund , .... page . 271 osulf , .... page . ibid. overton , william , page . 344 owen , richard , page . 302 oxeneford , henry de , page . 278 p. pace , richard , page . 305 , 320 , pade , reymund , page . 281 paine , william , page . 317 parker , thomas , page . 290 parry , henry , page . ibid. .... hugh , page . 299 pasch , thomas , page . 331 paslew , john , page . 315 , 319 paseley , john , page . 331 pate , robert , page . 229 pays , thomas , page . 305 pearce , dorothy , page . 260 .... hester , page . ibid. .... john , page . 259 .... william , page . 260 pearson , john , page . 334 peirce , anne , page . 187 .... charles , page . 188 .... elizabeth , page . 186 , 187 .... robert , page . 187 , 188 , 317 .... susannah , page . 186 .... thomas , page . 284 pelling , john , page . 237 percy , william , page . 312 perin , christopher , page . 340 periton , peter de , page . 304 petow , peter , page . 275 phelps , richard , page . 155 phelips , robert , page . 178 phillips , joseph , page . 182 .... william , page . 328 philip , .... page . 288 pickenham , william , page . 335 , 343 pickering , charles , page . 323 , 328 piers , john , page . 276 , 281 pickeover , ralph , page . 297 pinnock , john , page . 321 pitman , alicia , page . 150 .... edmund , page . 151 pocock , edward , page . 321 , 331 , 341 .... john , page . 254 pole , edward , page . 287 .... reginald , page . 335 , 343 pollard , john , page . 300 , 328 polton , thomas , page . 325 poole , hannah , page . 181 .... john , page . ibid. .... mary , page . ibid. .... nicholas , page . 309 poore , herbert , page . 272 .... richard , page . 272 , 278 potyn , william , page . 295 pouldon , richard , page . 210 powell david , page . 328 .... edward , page . 312 , 329 .... susannah , page . 133 pratty , richard , page . 289 prentys , edward , page . 286 preston , william de , page . 301 priaulx , anne , page . 111 , 112 .... john , page . 110 , 111 , 297 , 333. price , john , page . 327 prior , christopher , page . 337 proast , jonas , page . 303 proctor , george , page . 336 .... james , page . 323 .... samuel , page . 339 pye , william , page . 303 pyle , philadelphia , page . 98 pyper , granville , page . 229 q. queendon , ralph de , page . 299 querendon , ralph de , page . 307 r. randolph , joan , page . 207 .... robert , page . ibid. ranulfus , .... page . 291 rashleigh , nathaniel , page . 154 ratcliff , roger , page . 296 rawlins , henry , page . 296 , 320 , 321 , 327 rawlinson , john , page . 332 .... thomas , page . 348 rawson , richard , page . 321 raynsford , robert , page . 332 read , innocent , page . 317 reed , john , page . 257 reeve , catherine , page . 223 .... george , page . ibid. .... henry , page . 222 .... mary , page . ibid. .... spencer , page . ibid. richard , .... page . 298 richards , prudentia , page . 156 .... thomas , page . ibid. ... william , page . 157 , 297 , 303 ridley , mary , page . 201 robert , .... page . 278 , 284 robertes , christian , page . 28 .... francis , page . 28 , 29 .... jane , page . 28 .... punchardon , page . 29 robertson , thomas , page . 293 robinson , charles , page . 338 .... john , page . 307 rochefoucauld , frederick , page . 215 rodeburne , thomas , page . 327 roger , ... page . 272 , 278 , 298 , 301 rogers , john , page . 319 .... samuel , page . 328 rope , thomas , page . 319 rotherham , thomas , page . 333 roucliffe , guido , page . 326 rowthall thomas , page . 281 ruggenhall , robert , page . 305 russel , john , page . 327 .... r .... page . 338 .... william , page . 312 ryves , john , page . 303 , 323 .... robert , page . 316 s. sadler , elinor , page . 40 , 41 sadler , ursula , page . 45 salernitanus , gulielmus de , page . 302 salladin , anne , page . 147 .... herbert , page . ibid. sall , arthur , page . 312 salutus , boniface de , page . 285 .... george de . page . ibid. sambrooke , elizabeth , page . 70 .... francis , page . 69 .... john , page . ibid. ●ampson , richard , page . 293 sandys , milo , page . 44 sarisburiensis , goodwin , page . 285 sarum , roger de , page . 284 sarum prebendal corps in that church . page . 310 ... aulton , .. south , page . 310 ... aulton , .. north , page . ibid. ... axford , .... page . 311 .... bedminster & radeclyve , page . 312 .... bedwynd , ... page . 313 ... bedmister , .. prima , page . 313 .. bedmister , .. secunda , page . 314 ... bishopston , .... page . 315 .... bytton , ... page . 316 .... chardstock , ... page . 317 ... cherminster & bere , page . 318 ... chute & chesenbury , page . 319 ... combe & harnham , page . 320 ... durneford , .... page . ibid. ... faringdon , ... page . 321 ... fordington & writhlington . page . 322 ... grantham , .. north , page . 323 ... gillingham , .. major , page . 323 .. gillingham , .. minor , page . 324 ... grantham , .. south , page . 324 ... grimston & yatminster , page . 325 ... highworth , ... page . 325 ... horn , ... page . 326 ... husborn & burbach , page . 327 ... ilfracombe , ... page . 328 ... lyme & halstock , page . 329 ... major pars altaris , page . 330 ... minor pars altaris , page . 331 ... netherbury , in ecclesia , page . 332 .... netherbury in terra , page 333 .... netherhaven , page 333 .... preston , page 334 .... ramesbury , page 334 .... roscombe , page 335 .... rotesfen , page 335 ... shipton subtus whichwood , page 336 .... slape , page 337 .... strafford , page 338 .... stratton , page 338 .... teynton-regis cum yalmeton , page 339 .... torleton , page 339 .... ulfcomb , page 340 .... warminster , page 340 .... winterborn-earles , page 341 .... woodford & willsford , page 342 .... yatminster prima , page 342 .... yatminster secunda , page 343 .... yatesbury , page 343 st. barbe , francis , page 27 .... john , page 28 .... thomas , page 102 saunders , anne , page 204 .... john , page ibid. .... mary , page 205 savoy , peter de , page 279 .... thomas , page 298 sayer , joseph , page 315 sayntlesse , thomas , page 286 sayward , john , page 155 scammell , walter , page 272 , 279 , 285 , 291 , 301 scarborough , edmund , page 326 seaward , hen. page 343 securis , thomas , page 314 , 343 sedgwick , john , page 150 selby , nicholas de , page 298 selton , william de , page 343 serlo , .... page 278 seward , henry , page 309 sey , edmund , page 112 seymore , anne , page 43 sharpe , lionel , page 303 .... john , page ibid. .... richard , page 63 shaxton , nicholas , page 275 , 293 shellick , john , page 335 shepley , bartholomey , page 341 sheppard , john , page 309 sheriff , william , page 331 sherman , john , page 297 sherwood , henry , page 192 .... john , page ibid. .... mary , page ibid. shireburne , .... page 270 sidenham , simon , page 295 , 302 sigelm , .... page 270 singewike , william , page 132 , 306 siricius , .... page 271 sketley , john , page 334 skypp , john , page 306 .... william , page 306 sloan , william , page 154 slye , edmund , page 321 smedmore , johanna , page 131 smith , andrew , page 226 .... eleanor , page 227 .... john , page 331 ......... page 330 snachenburgh , helena , page 84 sommerhull , william , page 307 sotwell , william de , page 298 south , john , page 288 southam , john , page 302 .... thomas , page ibid. southouse , henry , page 230 .... thomas , page 231 sparrow , alexander , page 295 302 .... anne , page 203 spencer , edward , page 101 .... prudentia , page ibid. spinckes , nathaniel , page 330 sprint , john , page 293 , 300 , 316 stacey , richard , page 220 stafford , john , page 289 , 295 , 318 stallworth , simon , page 287 stanbridge , giles , page 307 stanford , ralph , page 330 stanley , james , page 287 , 313 .... mary , page 113 stanton , richard , page 333 staunton , thomas de , page 285 306 stephen , .... page 295 stephens , jeremy , page 328 .... john , page 309 stevens , thomas , page 293 steward , richard , page 311 stibbs , alice , page 260 .... john , page ibid. still , john , page 323 , 342 stillingdon , robert , page 302 stokesley , john , page 305 stokys , john , page 286 stopyngdon , john , page 305 stratford , ralph de , page 292 straytbarret , james , page 310 stretton john , page 312 stubbs , henry , page 239 , 240 .... john , page 324 sudbury , simon de , page 289 sugden , william , page 224 sutton , henry , page 292 , 319 , 336 swanton , anne , page 56 .... dulcibella , page 104 .... elizabeth , page 105 , 113 .... francis , page 104 , 259 , 260 .... jane , page 104 , 259 , 261 .... laurence , page 105 .... william , page 104 swayne , robert , page 185 sweit , sir giles , page 337 swindon , thomas , page 310 swineley , christopher , page 303 swithelm , .... page 270 swymmer , aune , page 233 sydenham , george , page 296 .... simon , page 280 sylvester , john , page 299 symondsburgh , john , page 292 , 299. t. talbott , edward , page 304 .... william , page 277 tanner , thomas , page 159 tatham , robert , page 335 taunton , richard , page 299 taylor , john , page 232 terrant , jeremiah , page 334 terry , .... page 330 teshmaker , william , page 220 thatcher , peter , page 159 thistlewayte , gabriel , page 339 thomas , .... page 299 thomson , john , page 331 thornborough , edward , page 334 .... giles , page 307 thorp , john , page 319 tichborne , michael , page 244 tilheto , gerald de , page 298 tingwick , nicholas , page 330 tofte , william , page 308 tonstall , cuthbert , page 281 , 320 tookie , bartholomew , page 140 tooker , william , page 331 tounson , margaret , page 125 .... robert , page 276 townsend , roger , page 290 townson , john , page 326 .... william , page 331 triplet , thomas , page 334 tryme , anne , page 197 .... elenor , page ibid. tucker , john , page 68 .... joseph , page 319 turberville , anne , page 24 , 252 .... dawbigny , page 22 , 23 tutt , robert , page 308 v. valeyns , theobald de , page 294 vannes , peter , page 281 , 313 , 324 , 336 varesio , tydo de , page 301 vavasour , john , page 257 .... katherine , page 258 vaughan , francisca , page 44 .... frederick , page ibid. .... walter , page 48 , 49 vause , nicholas , page 331 vennard , anne , page 145 .... george , page 144 .... mary , page 144 .... richard , page ibid. venner , dr. tobias , page 198 199 vesey , john , page 311 .... robert , page 310 villers , betty , page 221 vincent , john , page 334 ullerston , richard , page 312 upton , nicholas , page 286 ursinis , marinus de , page 299 ursinus , reynald , page 280 urswyke , christopher , page 300 , 313 w. wade , richard , page 314 wakeman , richard , page 240 .... theodore , page 241 walden , roger , page 315 , 326 walesby , william , page 322 walker , william , page 309 waller , jane , page 193 wallis , mary , page 183 .... william , page ibid. wally , john , page 209 walter , .... page 284 walter , hubert , page 272 waltham , john , page 273 .... robert , page 286 ward , seth , page 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 277 , 291 , 294 , 300 , 320 warlewast , robert , page 278 warner , john , page 340 warton , mary , page 153 wastell , margarett , page 64 watson , richard , page 317 , 341 webb , william , page 207 , 321 welewick , thomas de , page 285 wellborn , john , page 286 wenda , william de , page 279 284 .... francisca , page 133 wentworth , lady , page 212 westby , george , page 292 , 313 west , richard , page 303 .... william , page 309 wetenhall , anne , page 228 whitby , daniel , page 288 , 328 , 334 , 344 .... richard , page 292 white , samuel , page 214 .... thomas , page 98 , 290 , 293 , 303 , 340 , 344 whitechurch , john , page 299 , 311 , 327 whitwell , francisca , page 100 .... dulcibella , page 102 .... jana , page 103 wibert , .... page 269 wickham , nicholas , page 299 william , .... page 289 , 304 williams , henry , page 312 .... john , page 282 wilson , elizabeth , page 139 .... stephen , page 296 wilton , stephen , page 315 wimundus , .... page 306 winchelsey , john de , page 316 330 winter , thomas , page 289 , 313 winterborne , thomas , page 321 winton , richard de , page 316 wise , jane , page 132 witherig , william , page 214 wocumb , giles de , page 301 woodville , lionel , page 274 , 319 woodward , robert , page 284 , 291 , 300 worth , richard de , page 306 , 310 .... robert de , page 321 wotton , matthew , page 293 wright , walter , page 323 wyatt , thomas , page ibid. wyke , nicholas de , page 307 wykeham , nicholas , page 289 .... william de , page 312 wykehampton , robert de , page 272 , 279 wyle , henry de la , page 288 , 320 , 322 , 331 .... nicholas de la , page 285 .... walter de la , page 141 , 160 , 272 , 304 , 306 wylton , william , page 289 wyvill , robert , page 96 , 273 .... walter , page 292 y. yeate , cornelius , page 300 york , william , page 223 , 272 young , edward , page 117 , 284 , 324 younger , john , page 284 , 342 z. zouch , richard , page 322 .... william , page 337 finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a54862-e260 1 dr. peirce 2 dr. seth ward 3 k. charles the 2d . notes for div a54862-e1880 a coke instit. part. 1. sect. 648 p. 344. b inst. part. 4. c ▪ 1. p. 44. c rot. parl. 42. ed. 3. n. 7. ibid p. 14. d 25 h. 8. and 1 ed. 6. 2. e 1 inst. l. 2. c. 6. f. 94. 97. and l. 3. c. 11. sect. 648. p. 344. f dr. burnet's hist. of reformation . part. 1. p. 265. and part 11. p. 2. 7. g 1 ed. 6. cap. 2. rast 9. wingat . sect. 15. 25 h. 8. c. 10. h see the 14th . collect. to the 1st part of the hist. of refor . p. 184 , 185. i coke 2. inst. c. 6. upon magna charta p. 15. k c. de sacrosanct . eccles. & de episc. & clericis . l coke 2 inst. on magna charta . c. 33. p. 68. m selden . ianus anglorum . l. 2. c. 1. p. 48. n p. 116. o 2 inst. in statutes of employment . p. 742. p fol. 46. 47. usque ad fol. 59. q regist. harw . p. 66. 125. r eadmerus l. p. 6. seld spic . p. 165. & s spond annal ad a d. 1237. t cambden in wilt. t cambden in wilt. u view of the civil law. part . 2. c. 1. sect. 6. p. 104. w 24 h. 8. c. 12. and 1 eliz. c. 1. 2. 3. x lib. stat. ut fol. 38. y conc. imp. & sacr. l. 8. c. 22. art . 7. z coke 1. inst. l. 1. §. 1. and part 2. in stat. de westm. c. 1. p. 501. praesertim . part 4. c. 7. 287. a part 4. c. 76. p. 356. b 23 eliz. c. 1. 3. iac. c. 4. c code hen. 4. l. 7. tit. 1. art. 47. c 1 instit. l. 1. c. 5. sect. 35. fol. 30. d 29 ed. 3. stat. 6. e of many more instances , these at present may suffice . in the letters of ch. i. may 18. in the 9th year of his reign . and feb. 8. the same year of ch. ii. iul. 24. 1674. and ian. 11. 1665. and sept. 10. 1666. and mar. 8. 1676. and iun. 8. 1680. besides many more registred , and many which are not , but ought to be , and to have been . f coke 1. inst. l. 1. sect. 31. fol. 27. g stat. 14 ed. 3. cap. 4. h daniel in the life of rufus . p. 44. i lord coke out of the parliament rolls . 18 h. 3. k v. cottoni posthuma , p. 280. 281. l hist. of the rights of princes , in disposing of church lands and eccl. promotions . p. 322. m guiccard in . hist l. 4. n regist. ex annal . pontif. fol 3. o this in scriptis was the assertion of the present bishop of sarum dr. ward 's , in answer to the dean's narrative , p hist. reform . part 2. lib. 1. p. 6. 7 , 8 , & 9. q part. 3. c. 4. sect. 4. p. 190. r bishop god win in his account of rich. poor . p. 276. & spondanus supra . s the established church . c. 12. p. 144. &c. t 25 edw. 3. stat. 6. u coke inst. part. 2. upon magna charta c. 1. p 3. where fleta , bracton , glanvil and others are cited by him . w see bishop sanderson's said book , especially pag. 30. 31. to pag. 34. 35. &c. x in ibid. p. 45 where bishop sanderson cites the statute of 1 ed. 5. and makes an wholesom use of it , p. 45 , which compare with 1 eliz. c. 1. y baronius a. d. 1059. n. 23. z littleton §. 64● . & coke upon him . p. 344. a pa●lo scarpi , ubi supra . n. 77. pag. 23. b stat. 1. elizab. 1. c coke 1. inst. l. 3. fol. 344. d westm. 1. 49. & 3. ed. 1. wing . p. 378. e coke ubi supra inst. p. 3. f 1 inst. l. 1. sect. 1. & stat. de westm. c. 1. p. 501. h coke 1. inst. l. 2. c. 11. sect. 136. f. 96. — a. and f. 344. i 2 inst. c. 19. p. 298. i 2 inst. c. 19. p. 298. k 1. eliz. c. 1. § 1. ( g ) eus● in vita constantini , l. 4. c. 24. l paulus scarpius ubi supra . n. 85. 86. 87. tancredus and lindwood provin . l. 3. tit. 2. pag. 125. 126. m w. malm. hist. nov . l. 2. sub initium . flor. wig. ad an. 1086. hoveden ad eundem . an. daniel in the life of rufus . p. 48. eadmer . p. 55. & 117. n cambden in wilt. calls them all the states of england and saith that of every penny of the 3d. penny of sarum the king had 20. s. o to whom add daniel , p. 48. a good historian , tho' not an old one . p a. d. 1133. dan in his life . p. 57. q eadmer p. 187. flor. wigorn. & rog. hoved. ad an . 1116. r w. malm. de pontif. l. 2. f. 142. — b. s daniel in king stephen . p. 61. t camden in wilt. u bishop godwin in roger , the 3d. bishop of sarum . w ego osmundus notifico , ecclesiam sarisb . me construxisse , & in ea canonicos constituisse , &c mag. char. osmundi in statut. de collatione prebendarum . f. 36. — b. 37. — a. x what is said by malmsb. f. 161. ( fol. 91. edit . london ) is not said of bishop herman , but bishop roger , who being after os mund , makes it nothing to the purpose . besides , that 't was written when roger was in greatness , and flattered for it , de gestis reg. l. 5. y see h. knighton , apud . bee. fol. 2351. and bish. godwin , p. 272. & osmund's chartar . ubi supra . z will. 1. was so eminent for devotion , that 't was confessed by his haters so saith daniel in the life of will. 1. p. 43. rad. de . diceto a. d. 1072. p. 485. a registr . jo. davysone . dec. a. d. 1375. fol. 13. b regist. davysoni fol. 3. c flor. wig. a. d. 1092. with whom agrees hoveden ; & simeon dunelmensis , and petrus blesensis cited by camden in wilt. d regist. jo. davysoni . s. 3. — a. &c. inter gesta richardi episcopi sarum . e evidentiarum . tom. 20. f. 120. f camden in wilt. names but one or two bishops , whoever had it , but a long train of earles , who had part of the old castle for a dwelling house a long time after the removal of the cathedral & townsmen . y de pontif. ubi supra . malm. novel . l. 5. z castrum comitis , ( non episcopi ) matth. paris fol. 439. camden in wilts . bishop god win p. 280. a minist●● . d. regis , b inf●a castrum domini regis . c volentes privilegium illud in perpetuá firmitate manere . burton de libertate capellarum domini regis , 1245 d judge ienkins , p. 24. say , 't is treason to pay obedience to the pope , or to any other than to the king. for which he cites 23 eliz. cap. 1. and 3 jac. cap. 4. §. 22 , 23. b 25 ed. 3. c. 22. 7 rich. 2. c. 12. e dignitas est decani , & omnium can●nicorum , &c. e dignitas est decani , & omnium can●nicorum , &c. f 1 ed. 6. cap. 2. §. 3. 1 eliz. cap. 1. §. 17 , 18 , & 8 eliz. cap. 1. ( g ) cok● 1. inst. l. 2. cap. 11. 134. h 27 ed. 3. cit. praem . cap. 1. with which statute compare 25 ed. 3. cap. 22. and 7 rich. 2. cap. 12. where that king delares● against his granting any such licence as is pretended . i 16 r. 2. cap. 5. hist. concil . trident. l. 5. pag. 101. an. 1551. k of the 32 acts are those of 50 ed. 3. cap. 1. & 2. a. d. 1376. & 1 rich. 2. cap. 1. & 34 ed. 1. st. 4. cap. 4. & 4 h. 4. cap. 3. l paolo sarpi . n. 74. p. 22. m lib. statut. n that is , the conqueror himself , from whom captain osmund had all he had in the world , and did hold by knights service , or any whom ●he said osmund might have entrusted or employed . o sir t. ridley's view of the civil law , part 3. cap. §. 2. pag. 172 , 173. p de septe●nio in septennium dunta●at . q fol. 67. 2. r fol. 65. s 65. t fol 63. u fol 63. w see 25 hen. 8. 20. & 26 hen. 8. 1. & 1 eliz. 1. §. 17. n. i. & §. 18. n. 1. and other statutes recited 8 eliz. cap. 1. x testante blacker notar. publ. f. 89. y st. fol. 44. b. z d. d. longland . harwards acts. pag. 61. 125. a dated jun. 20. 1683. b from london house , may 7. 1668. c h. 8. ed. 6. and q. eliz. of whose visitations the bishop had written a little before . d subaudi residentiâ . e per stat. decani richardi & capituli , à rogero de mortival episcopo confirmati . 1214. f modò verbo dei , aut praerogativae regiae non repugnent , can. 42. g de finibus canonicorum ad residentiam receptorum . st. fol. 58 , 59. h this is a short account of the statute at large 1 eliz. cap. 1. §. 17 , & 18. compared with 25 hen. 8. cap. 19. & 26 hen. 8. cap. 1. i stat. fol. 62 , 63. bought at rome of p. boniface the ixth , 1392. and stat. fol. 59 , 60. bought of a pope and no pope , eugenius the ivth , 1442. k see §. 1. l §. 2. m §. 6 , n. 3. n e. g. those of hen. 8. stat. fol. 72 , 73 , 74. which compare with fol. 12 & 13. and with that made lately , an. dom. 1672. o nullus alius , praeter regem , potest habenti iurisdictionem episcopalem , demandare inquisitionem . a maxim somewhere in my lord coke . p stat. fol. 21 , & fol. 86. rog. st. de test. dec. insinuandis . q st. de admissione & residentiâ canonicorum . cap. 2. r stat. com. fol. 9. s vet. charta osmundi ubi supra . t fol. 12. b. u fol. 13. 2. w fol. 8. fol. 12. fol. 21. & fol. 25. b. & alibi passim . x vet. regist. fol. 3. & antiqu. st. 89. & prancisc . d. bridges , p. 175. y stat. de m●niis clausi reparand . p. 60. z reg. bridg. 172. a ibid. pag. 175. & in cod. originali fol. 3. stat. rog. fol. 9. b. 1319. b st. com. fol. 47. a. lib. statut. nigr. pag. 93. c pag. 89 d bishop ward . notes for div a54862-e28990 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rom. 1. cap. 30. comm : f note that this was an error in those memoirs . for the dean was alone before the conquest , and some while after without any chapter , as now the dean of the king's chappel at white-hall is . g n. b. he consulted with others , though not with the dean . notes for div a54862-e31380 a dugd. mon. angl. vol 3. pag. 378. b id. ib. c lib. 〈◊〉 eccl. sar. fol. 86. a & b. quicum confer . c. 39. f. 36 , 37. d v. dugd. ubi supra , & lib. stat. cap. 40. f , 38 , 39 , 40 , e confer . praes . rogeri de mortival , cum cap. 41 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 51 , 52. f in mon. angl. vol. 3. p. 376. f in mon. angl. vol. 3. p. 376. h cap. 1. f. 9. b. g lib. stat. c. 23. fol. ●1 . i cap. 52. f. 46. a , h regist. burg. evident . tom. xi . fol , 79. anno 1264. i exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis . ibid. k lib. stat. cap. 41. fol. 41. a. d. 1222. l regist. d. davyson , fol. 13. a. d. 1346 , n lib. stat eccles. sar. cap. 55. de ordinatione bonifac. archi●p . cant. p. 50. b. 51. a. o regist. hemingsby p. 42 , 43. p praesertim 16 rich. 2. c. 5. a. d. 1392. q vide stat. 25 ed. 1. cap. 4. s lib. st. c. 39. f. 36. t ibid. fol. 86. u c. 39. f. 37. w regist. holt. fol. 76. x regist. davyson f. 13. y lib. stat. cap. 63. fol 68. z compare the statute of 16 rich. ii. c. 5. a. d. 1392. with 25 edw. i. a d. 1296. aud both with the composition which made against both , 1392. 1 this was prefixed in writing to this piece by some one of its former readers . some passages of the life and death of the right honourable john, earl of rochester who died the 26th of july, 1680 / written by his own direction on his death-bed by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1680 approx. 146 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 104 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30466 wing b5922 estc r15099 11719815 ocm 11719815 48331 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30466) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 48331) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 526:3) some passages of the life and death of the right honourable john, earl of rochester who died the 26th of july, 1680 / written by his own direction on his death-bed by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [14], 182 p. printed for richard chiswel ..., london : 1680. reproduction of original in bristol public library, bristol, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng rochester, john wilmot, -earl of, 1647-1680. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-04 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-05 tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread 2002-05 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-06 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some passages on the life and death of the right honourable john earl of rochester , who died the 26th of july , 1680. written by his own direction on his death-bed , by gilbert burnet , d. d. london , printed for richard chiswel , at the rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard . 1680. r white s●●●● the r. gt honble : iohn earle of rochester baron wilmot of adderbury in england , & viscount wilmot of atholne in ireland . born ap 1648 died. 26. july . 1680 the preface . the celebrating the praises of the dead , is an argument so worn out by long and frequent use ; and now become so nauseous , by the flattery that usually attends it , that it is no wonder if funeral orations , or panegiricks , are more considered for the elegancy of style , and sineness of wit , than for the authority they carry with them as to the truth of matters of fact. and yet i am not hereby deterred from medling with this kind of argument , nor from handling it with all the plainness i can : delivering only what i my self heard and saw , without any borrowed ornament . i do easily foresee how many will be engaged for the support of their impious maxims and immoral practices , to disparage what i am to write . others will censure it , because it comes from one of my profession , too many supposing us to be induced , to frame such discourses for carrying on what they are pleased to call our trade . some will think i dress it up too artificially , and others , that i present it too plain and naked . but being resolved to govern my self by the exact rules of truth ; i shall be less concerned in the censures i may fall under . it may seem liable to great exception , that i should disclose so many things , that were discovered to me , if not under the seal of confession , yet under the confidence of friendship ; but this noble lord himself not only released me from all obligation of this kind , when i waited on him in his last sickness , a few days before he died , but gave it me in charge not to spare him in any thing which i thought might be of use to the living ; and was not ill pleased to be laid open , as well in the worst as in the best and last part of his life , being so sincere in his repentance , that he was not unwilling to take shame to himself , by suffering his faults to be exposed for the benefit of others . i write with one great disadvantage , that i cannot reach his chief design , without mentioning some of his faults : but i have touched them as tenderly as the occasion would bear : and i am sure with much more softness than he desired , or would have consented unto , had i told him how i intended to manage this part . i have related nothing with personal reflections on any others , concerned with him , wishing rather that they themselves reflecting on the sense he had of his former disorders , may be thereby led to forsake their own ; than that they should be any ways reproach'd by what i write : and therefore though he used very few reserves with me , as to his course of life , yet since others had a share in most parts of it , i shall relate nothing but what more immediately concerned himself : and shall say no more of his faults , than is necessary to illustrate his repentance . the occasion that led me into so particular a knowledge of him , was an intimation given me by a gentleman of his acquaintance , of his desire to see me . this was sometime in october , 1679. when he was slowly recovering out of a great disease . he had understood that i often attended on one well known to him , that died the summer before : he was also then entertaining himself in that low state of his health , with the first part of the history of the reformation then newly come out , with which he seemed not ill pleased : and we had accidentally met in two or three places sometime before . these were the motives that led him to call for my company . after i had waited on him once or twice , he grew into that freedom with me , as to open to me all his thoughts , both of religion and morality : and to give me a full view of his past life : and seemed not uneasie at my frequent visits . so till he went from london , which was in the beginning of april , i waited on him often . as soon as i heard how ill he was , and how much he was touched with the sense of his former life , i writ to him , and received from him an answer , that , without my knowledge , was printed since his death ; from a copy which one of his servants conveyed to the presse . in it there is so undeserved a value put on me , that it had been very indecent for me to have publisht it : yet that must be attributed to his civility and way of breeding : and indeed he was particularly known to so few of the clergy , that the good opinion he had of me , is to be imputed only to his unacquaintance with others . my end of writing is so to discharge the last commands this lord left on me , as that it may be effectual to awaken those who run on to all the excesses of riot ; and that in the midst of those heats , which their lusts and passions raise in them , they may be a little wrought on by so great an instance , of one who had run round the whole circle of luxury ; and as solomon says of himself , whatsoever his eyes desired , he kept it not from them ; and withheld his heart from no joy. but when he looked back on all that on which he had wasted his time and strength , he esteemed it vanity and vexation of spirit : though he had both as much natural wit , and as much acquired by learning , and both as much improved with thinking and study , as perhaps any libertine of the age. yet when he reflected on all his former courses , even before his mind was illuminated with better thoughts , he counted them madness and folly . but when the powers of religion came to operate on him , then he added a detestation to the contempt he formerly had of them , suitable to what became a sincere penitent , and expressed himself in so clear and so calm a manner , so sensible of his failings towards his maker and his redeemer , that as it wrought not a little on those that were about him ; so , i hope , the making it publick may have a more general influence , chiefly on those on whom his former conversation might have had ill effects . i have endeavoured to give his character as fully as i could take it : for i who saw him only in one light , in a sedate and quiet temper , when he was under a great decay of strength and loss of spirits , cannot give his picture with that life and advantage that others may , who knew him when his parts were more bright and lively : yet the composure he was then in , may perhaps be supposed to ballance any abatement of his usual vigour which the declination of his health brought him under . i have written this discourse with as much care , and have considered it as narrowly as i could . i am sure i have said nothing but truth ; i have done it slowly , and often used my second thoughts in it , not being so much concerned in the censures might fall on my self , as cautious that nothing should pass , that might obstruct my only design of writing , which is the doing what i can towards the reforming a loose and lewd age. and if such a signal instance concurring with all the evidence that we have for our most holy faith , has no effect on those who are running the same course , it is much to be feared they are given up to a reprobate sense . errata . page 15. line 14. for too read to , p. 27. l. 16. 17. dele had a stage , and p. 108. l. 18. from r. upon . some passages of the life and death of john earl of rochester . john wilmot earl of rochester was born in april , anno dom. 1648. his father was henry earl of rochester , but best known by the title of the lord wilmot , who bore so great a part in all the late wars , that mention is often made of him in the history : and had the chief share in the honour of the preservation of his majesty that now reigns , after worcester fight , and the conveying him from place to place , till he happily escaped into france : but dying before the king's return , he left his son little other inheritance , but the honour and title derived to him , with the pretensions such eminent services gave him to the kings favour : these were carefully managed by the great prudence and discretion of his mother , a daughter of that noble and ancient family of the st. johns of wiltshire , so that his education was carried on in all things sutably to his quality . when he was at school he was an extraordinary proficient at his book : and those shining parts which have since appeared with so much lustre ; began then to shew themselves : he acquired the latin to such perfection , that to his dying-day he retained a great rellish of the fineness and beauty of that tongue : and was exactly versed in the incomparable authors that writ about augustus's time , whom he read ofen with that peculiar delight which the greatest wits have ever found in those studies . when he went to the vniversity the general joy which over-ran the whole nation upon his majesties restauration , but was not regulated with that sobriety and temperance , that became a serious gratitude to god for so great a blessing , produced some of it's ill effects on him : he began to love these disorders too much ; his tutor was that eminent and pious divine dr. blanford , afterwards promoted to the sees of oxford and worcester : and under his inspection , he was committed to the more immediate care of mr. phineas berry , a fellow of wadham-colledge , a very learned and good natured man ; whom he afterwards ever used with much respect , and rewarded him as became a great man. but the humour of that time wrought so much on him , that he broke off the course of his studies ; to which no means could ever effectually recall him ; till when he was in italy his governor dr. balfour a learned and worthy man , now a celebrated physitian in scotland his native country ; drew him to read such books , as were most likely to bring him back to love learning and study : and he often acknowledged to me , in particular three days before his death , how much he was obliged to love and honour this his governour , to whom he thought he owed more than to all the world , next after his parents , for his great fidelity and care of him , while he was under his trust . but no part of it affected him more sensibly , than that he engaged him by many tricks ( so he expressed it ) to delight in books and reading ; so that ever after he took occasion in the intervals of those woful extravagancies that consumed most of his time to read much : and though the time was generally but indifferently employed , for the choice of the subjects of his studies was not always good , yet the habitual love of knowledge together with these fits of study , had much awakened his understanding , and prepared him for better things , when his mind should be so far changed as to rellish them . he came from his travels in the 18th year of his age , and appeared at court with as great advantages as most ever had . he was a graceful and well shaped person , tall and well made , if not a little too slender : he was exactly well bred , and what by a modest behaviour natural to him , what by a civility become almost as natural , his conversation was easie and obliging . he had a strange vivacity of thought , and vigour of expression : his wit had a subtility and sublimity both , that were scarce imitable . his style was clear and strong : when he used figures they were very lively , and yet far enough out of the common road : he had made himself master of the ancient and modern wit , and of the modern french and italian as well as the english. he loved to talk and write of speculative matters , and did it with so fine a thread , that even those who hated the subjects that his fancy ran upon , yet could not but be charmed with his way of treating of them . boileau among the french , and cowley among the english wits , were those he admired most . sometimes other mens thoughts mixed with his composures , but that flowed rather from the impressions they made on him when he read them , by which they came to return upon him as his own thoughts ; than that he servilely copied from any . for few men ever had a bolder flight of fancy , more steddily governed by judgment than he had . no wonder a young man so made , and so improved was very acceptable in a court. soon after his coming thither he laid hold on the first occasion that offered to shew his readiness to hazard his life in the defence and service of his country . in winter 1665. he went with the earl of sandwich to sea , when he was sent to lie for the dutch east-india fleet ; and was in the revenge , commanded by sir thomas tiddiman , when the attack was made on the port of bergen in norway , the dutch ships having got into that port. it was as desperate an attempt as ever was made : during the whole action , the earl of rochester shewed as brave and as resolute a courage as was possible : a person of honour told me he heard the lord clifford , who was in the same ship , often magnifie his courage at that time very highly . nor did the rigours of the season , the hardness of the voyage , and the extream danger he had been in , deter him from running the like on the very next occasion ; for the summer following he went to sea again , without communicating his design to his nearest relations . he went aboard the ship commanded by sir edward spragge the day before the great sea-fight of that year : almost all the volunteers that were in the same ship were killed . mr. middleton ( brother to sir hugh middleton ) was shot in his arms. during the action , sir edward spragge not being satisfied with the behaviour of one of the captains , could not easily find a person that would chearfully venture through so much danger , to carry his commands to that captain . this lord offered himself to the service ; and went in a little boat , through all the shot , and delivered his message , and returned back to sir edward : which was much commended by all that saw it . he thought it necessary to begin his life with these demonstrations of his courage in an element and way of fighting , which is acknowledged to be the greatest trial of clear and undaunted valour . he had so entirely laid down the intemperance that was growing on him before his travels , that at his return he hated nothing more . but falling into company that loved these excesses , he was , though not without difficulty , and by many steps , brought back to it again . and the natural heat of his fancy , being inflamed by wine , made him so extravagantly pleasant , that many to be more diverted by that humor , studied to engage him deeper and deeper in intemperance : which at length did so entirely subdue him ; that , as he told me , for five years together he was continually drunk : not all the while under the visible effect of it , but his blood was so inflamed , that he was not in all that time cool enough to be perfectly master of himself . this led him to say and do many wild and unaccountable things : by this , he said , he had broke the firm constitution of his health , that seemed so strong , that nothing was too hard for it ; and he had suffered so much in his reputation , that he almost dispaired to recover it . there were two principles in his natural temper , that being heighten'd by that heat carried him to great excesses : a violent love of pleasure , and a disposition to extravagant mirth . the one involved him in great sensuality : the other led him to many odd adventures and frollicks , in which he was oft in hazard of his life . the one being the same irregular appetite in his mind , that the other was in his body , which made him think nothing diverting that was not extravagant . and though in cold blood he was a generous and good natured man , yet he would go far in his heats , after any thing that might turn to a jest or matter of diversion : he said to me , he never improved his interest at court , to do a premeditate mischief to other persons . yet he laid out his wit very freely in libels and satyrs , in which he had a peculiar talent of mixing his wit with his malice , and fitting both with such apt words , that men were tempted to be pleased with them : from thence his composures came to be easily known , for few had such a way of tempering these together as he had ; so that when any thing extraordinary that way came out , as a child is fathered sometimes by its resemblance , so was it laid at his door as its parent and author . these exercises in the course of his life were not always equally pleasant to him ; he had often sad intervals and severe reflections on them : and though then he had not these awakened in him from any deep principle of religion , yet the horrour that nature raised in him , especially in some sicknesses , made him too easie to receive some ill principles , which others endeavoured to possess him with ; so that he was too soon brought to set himself too secure , and fortifie his mind against that , by dispossessing it all he could of the belief or apprehensions of religion . the licentiousness of his temper , with the briskness of his wit , disposed him to love the conversation of those who divided their time between lewd actions and irregular mirth . and so he came to bend his wit , and direct his studies and endeavours to support and strengthen these ill principles both in himself and others . an accident fell out after this , which confirmed him more in these courses : when he went to sea in the year 1665 , there happened to be in the same ship with him mr. mountague and another gentleman of quality , these two , the former especially , seemed perswaded that they should never return into england . mr. mountague said , he was sure of it : the other was not so positive . the earl of rochester , and the last of these , entred into a formal engagement , not without ceremonies of religion , that if either of them died , he should appear , and give the other notice of the future state , if there was any . but mr. mountague would not enter into the bond. when the day came that they thought to have taken the dutch-fleet in the port of bergen . mr. mountague though he had such a strong presage in his mind of his approaching death , yet he generously staid all the while in the place of greatest danger : the other gentleman signalized his courage in a most undaunted manner , till near the end of the action ; when he fell on a sudden into such a trembling that he could scarce stand : and mr. mountague going to him to hold him up , as they were in each others arms , a cannon ball killed him outright , and carried away mr. mountague's belly , so that he died within an hour after . the earl of rochester told me that these presages they had in their minds made some impression on him , that there were separated beings : and that the soul either by a natural sagacity , or some secret notice communicated to it , had a sort of divination : but that gentleman 's never appearing was a great snare to him , during the rest of his life . though when he told me this , he could not but acknowledge , it was an unreasonable thing for him , to think that beings in another state were not under such laws and limits , that they could not command their own motions , but as the supream power should order them : and that one who had so corrupted the natural principles of truth , as he had , had no reason to expect that such an extraordinary thing should be done for his conviction . he told me of another odd presage that one had of his approaching death in the lady warre , his mother in laws house : the chaplain had dream't that such a day he should die , but being by all the family put out of the belief of it , he had almost forgot it : till the evening before at supper , there being thirteen at table ; according to a fond conceit that one of these must soon die , one of the young ladies pointed to him , that he was to die . he remembring his dream fell into some disorder , and the lady warre reproving him for his superstition , he said , he was confident he was to die before morning , but he being in perfect health , it was not much minded . it was saturday-night , and he was to preach next day . he went to his chamber and sate up late , as appeared by the burning of his candle , and he had been preparing his notes for his sermon , but was found dead in his bed the next morning : these things he said made him inclined to believe , the soul was a substance distinct from matter : and this often returned into his thoughts . but that which perfected his perswasion about it , was , that in the sickness which brought him so near death before i first knew him , when his spirits were so low and spent , that he could not move nor stir , and he did not think to live an hour ; he said , his reason and judgment were so clear and strong , that from thence he was fully perswaded that death was not the spending or dissolution of the soul ; but only the separation of it from matter . he had in that sickness great remorses for his past life , but he afterwards told me , they were rather general and dark horrours , than any convictions of sinning against god. he was sorry he had lived so as to wast his strength so soon , or that he had brought such an ill name upon himself , and had an agony in his mind about it , which he knew not well how to express : but at such times , though he complied with his friends in suffering divines to be sent for , he said , he had no great mind to it : and that it was but a piece of his breeding , to desire them to pray by him , in which he joyned little himself . as to the supream being , he had always some impression of one : and professed often to me , that he had never known an entire atheist , who fully believed there was no god. yet when he explained his notion of this being , it amounted to no more than a vast power , that had none of the attributes of goodness or justice , we ascribe to the deity : these were his thoughts about religion , as himself told me . for morality , he freely own'd to me , that though he talked of it , as a fine thing , yet this was only because he thought it a decent way of speaking , and that as they went always in cloaths , though in their frollicks they would have chosen sometimes to have gone naked , if they had not feared the people : so though some of them found it necessary for humane life to talk of morality , yet he confessed they cared not for it , further then the reputation of it was necessary for their credit , and affairs : of which he gave me many instances , as their professing and swearing friendship , where they hated mortally ; their oaths and imprecations in their addresses to women , which they intended never to make good ; the pleasure they took in defaming innocent persons , and spreading false reports of some , perhaps in revenge , because they could not engage them to comply with their ill designs : the delight they had in making people quarrel ; their unjust usage of their creditors , and putting them off by any deceitful promise they could invent , that might deliver them from present importunity . so that in detestation of these courses he would often break forth into such hard expressions concerning himself as would be indecent for another to repeat . such had been his principles and practices in a course of many years which had almost quite extinguish't the natural propensities in him to justice and vertue : he would often go into the country , and be for some months wholly imployed in study , or the sallies of his wit : which he came to direct chiefly to satyre . and this he often defended to me ; by saying there were some people that could not be kept in order , or admonished but in this way . i replied , that it might be granted that a grave way of satyre was sometimes no improfitable way of reproof . yet they who used it only out of spite , and mixed lyes with truth , sparing nothing that might adorn their poems , or gratifie their revenge , could not excuse that way of reproach , by which the innocent often suffer : since the most malicious things , if wittily expressed , might stick to and blemish the best men in the world , and the malice of a libel could hardly consist with the charity of an admonition . to this he answered , a man could not write with life , unless he were heated by revenge : for to make a satyre without resentments , upon the cold notions of phylosophy , was as if a man would in cold blood , cut mens throats who had never offended him : and he said , the lyes in these libels came often in as ornaments that could not be spared without spoiling the beauty of the poem . for his other studies , they were divided between the comical and witty writings of the ancients and moderns , the roman authors , and books of physick : which the ill state of health he was fallen into , made more necessary to himself : and which qualifi'd him for an odd adventure , which i shall but just mention . being under an unlucky accident , which obliged him to keep out of the way ; he disguised himself , so that his nearest friends could not have known him , and set up in tower-street for an italian mountebank , where he had a stage , and practised physick for some weeks not without success . in his later years , he read books of history more . he took pleasure to disguise himself , as a porter , or as a beggar ; sometimes to follow some mean amours , which , for the variety of them , he affected ; at other times , meerly for diversion , he would go about in odd shapes , in which he acted his part so naturally , that even those who were on the secret , and saw him in these shapes , could perceive nothing by which he might be discovered . i have now made the description of his former life , and principles , as fully as i thought necessary , to answer my end in writing : and yet with those reserves , that i hope i have given no just cause of offence to any . i have said nothing but what i had from his own mouth , and have avoided the mentioning of the more particular passages of his life , of which he told me not a few : but since others were concerned in them , whose good only i design , i will say nothing that may either provoke or blemish them . it is their reformation , and not their disgrace , i desire : this tender consideration of others has made me suppress many remarkable and useful things , he told me : but finding that though i should name none , yet i must at least relate such circumstances , as would give too great occasion for the reader to conjecture concerning the persons intended , right or wrong , either of which were inconvenient enough , i have chosen to pass them quite over . but i hope those that know how much they were engaged with him in his ill courses , will be somewhat touched with this tenderness i express towards them : and be thereby the rather induced to reflect on their ways , and to consider without prejudice or passion what sense this noble lord had of their case , when he came at last seriously to reflect upon his own . i now turn to those parts of this narrative , wherein i my self bore some share , and which i am to deliver upon the observations i made , after a long and free conversation with him for some months . i was not long in his company , when he told me , he should treat me with more freedom than he had ever used to men of my profession . he would conceal none of his principles from me , but lay his thoughts open without any disguise ; nor would he do it to maintain debate , or shew his wit , but plainly tell me what stuck with him ; and protested to me , that he was not so engaged to his old maxims , as to resolve not to change , but that if he could be convinc'd , he would choose rather to be of another mind ; he said , he would impartially weigh what i should lay before him , and tell me freely when it did convince him , and when it did not . he expressed this disposition of mind to me in a manner so frank , that i could not but believe him , and be much taken with his way of discourse : so we entred into almost all the parts of natural and revealed religion , and of morality . he seemed pleased , and in a great measure satisfied , with what i said upon many of these heads : and though our freest conversation was when we were alone , yet upon several occasions , other persons were witnesses to it . i understood from many hands that my company was not distastful to him , and that the subjects about which we talked most were not unacceptable : and he expressed himself often , not ill pleased with many things i said to him , and particularly when i visited him in his last sickness , so that i hope it may not be altogether unprofitable to publish the substance of those matters about which we argued so freely , with our reasoning upon them : and perhaps what had some effects on him , may be not altogether ineffectual upon others . i followed him with such arguments as i saw were most likely to prevail with him : and my not urging other reasons , proceeded not from any distrust i had of their force , but from the necessity of using those that were most proper for him . he was then in a low state of health , and seemed to be slowly recovering of a great disease : he was in the milk-diet , and apt to fall into hectical-fits ; any accident weakened him ; so that he thought he could not live long ; and when he went from london , he said , he believed he should never come to town more . yet during his being in town he was so well , that he went often abroad , and had great vivacity of spirit . so that he was under no such decay , as either darkened or weakened his understanding ; nor was he any way troubled with the spleen , or vapours , or under the power of melancholy . what he was then , compared to what he had been formerly , i could not so well judge , who had seen him but twice before . others have told me they perceived no difference in his parts . this i mention more particularly , that it may not be thought that melancholy , or the want of spirits , made him more inclined to receive any impressions : for indeed i never discovered any such thing in him . having thus opened the way to the heads of our discourse , i shall next mention them . the three chief things we talked about , were morality , natural religion and revealed religion , christianity in particular . for morality , he confessed , he saw the necessity of it , both for the government of the world , and for the preservation of health , life and friendship : and was very much ashamed of his former practices , rather because he had made himself a beast , and had brought pain and sickness on his body , and had suffered much in his reputation , than from any deep sense of a supream being , or another state : but so far this went with him , that he resolved firmly to change the course of his life ; which he thought he should effect by the study of philosophy , and had not a few no less solid than pleasant notions concerning the folly and madness of vice : but he confessed he had no remorse for his past actions , as offences against god , but only as injuries to himself and to mankind . upon this subject i shewed him the defects of philosophy , for reforming the world : that it was a matter of speculation , which but few either had the leisure , or the capacity to enquire into . but the principle that must reform mankind , must be obvious to every mans understanding . that philosophy in matters of morality , beyond the great lines of our duty , had no very certain fixed rule , but in the lesser offices and instances of our duty went much by the fancies of men , and customs of nations ; and consequently could not have authority enough to bear down the propensities of nature , appetite or passion : for which i instanced in these two points ; the one was , about that maxim of the stoicks , to extirpate all sort of passion and concern for any thing . that , take it by one hand , seemed desireable , because if it could be accomplish'd , it would make all the accidents of life casie ; but i think it cannot , because nature after all our striving against it , will still return to it self : yet on the other hand it dissolved the bonds of nature and friendship , and slackened industry which will move but dully , without an inward heat : and if it delivered a man from many troubles , it deprived him of the chief pleasures of life , which rise from friendship . the other was concerning the restraint of pleasure , how far that was to go . upon this he told me the two maxims of his morality then were , that he should do nothing to the hurt of any other , or that might prejudice his own health : and he thought that all pleasure , when it did not interfere with these , was to be indulged as the gratification of our natural appetites . it seemed unreasonable to imagine these were put into a man only to be restrained , or curbed to such a narrowness : this he applied to the free use of wine and women . to this i answered , that if appetites being natural , was an argument for the indulging them , then the revengeful might as well alledge it for murder , and the covetous for stealing ; whose appetites are no less keen on those objects ; and yet it is acknowledg'd that these appetites ought to be curb'd . if the difference is urged from the injury that another person receives , the injury is as great , if a mans wife is defiled , or his daughter corrupted : and it is impossible for a man to let his appetites loose to vagrant lusts , and not to transgress in these particulars : so there was no curing the disorders , that must rise from thence , but by regulating these appetites : and why should we not as well think that god intended our bruitish and sensual appetites should be governed by our reason , as that the fierceness of beasts should be managed and tamed , by the wisdom , and for the use of man ? so that it is no real absurdity to grant that appetites were put into men , on purpose to exercise their reason in the restraint and government of them : which to be able to do , ministers a higher and more lasting pleasure to a man , than to give them their full scope and range . and if other rules of philosophy be observed , such as the avoiding those objects that stir passion ; nothing raises higher passions than ungovern'd lust , nothing darkens the understanding , and depresses a mans mind more , nor is any thing managed with more frequent returns of other immoralities , such as oaths and imprecations which are only intended to compass what is desired : the expence that is necessary to maintain these irregularities makes a man salse in his other dealings . all this he freely confessed was true , upon which i urged , that if it was reasonable for a man to regulate his appetite in things which he knew were hurtful to him ; was it not as reasonable for god to prescribe a regulating of those appetites , whose unrestrained course did produce such mischievous effects . that it could not be denied , but doing to others what we would have others do unto us , was a just rule : those men then that knew how extream sensible they themselves would be of the dishonour of their families in the case of their wives or daughters , must needs condemn themselves , for doing that which they could not bear from another : and if the peace of mankind , and the entire satisfaction of our whole life , ought to be one of the chief measures of our actions , then let all the world judge , whether a man that confines his appetite , and lives contented at home , is not much happier , than those that let their desires run after forbidden objects . the thing being granted to be better in it self , than the question falls between the restraint of appetite in some instances , and the freedom of a mans thoughts , the soundness of his health , his application to affairs , with the easiness of his whole life . whether the one is not to be done before the other ? as to the difficulty of such a restraint , though it is not easie to be done , when a man allows himself many liberties , in which it is not possible to stop ; yet those who avoid the occasions that may kindle these impure flames , and keep themselves well employed , find the victory and dominion over them no such impossible , or hard matter , as may seem at first view . so that though the philosophy and morality of this point were plain ; yet there is not strength enough in that principle to subdue nature , and appetite . upon this i urged , that morality could not be a strong thing , unless a man were determined by a law within himself : for if he only measured himself by decency , or the laws of the land , this would teach him only to use such caution in his ill practices , that they should not break out too visibly : but would never carry him to an inward and universal probity : that vertue was of so complicated a nature , that unless a man came entirely within its discipline , he could not adhere stedfastly to any one precept : for vices are often made necessary supports to one another . that this cannot be done , either steddily , or with any satisfaction , unless the mind does inwardly comply with , and delight in the dictates of virtue . and that could not be effected , except a mans nature were internally regenerated , and changed by a higher principle : till that came about , corrupt nature would be strong , and philosophy but feeble : especially when it strugled with such appetites or passions as were much kindled , or deeply rooted in the constitution of ones body . this , he said , sounded to him like . enthusiasme , or canting : he had no notion of it , and so could not understand it : he comprehended the dictates of reason and philosophy , in which as the mind became much conversant , there would soon follow as he believed , a greater easiness in obeying its precepts : i told him on the other hand , that all his speculations of philosophy would not serve him in any stead , to the reforming of his nature and life , till he applied himself to god for inward assistances . it was certain , that the impressions made in his reason governed him , as they were lively presented to him : but these are so apt to slip out of our memory , and we so apt to turn our thoughts from them , and at some times the contrary impressions are so strong , that let a man set up a reasoning in his mind against them , he finds that celebrated saying of the poet , video meliora proboque deteriora , sequor . i see what is better and approve it : but follow what is worse . to be all that philosophy will amount to . whereas those who upon such occasions apply themselves to god , by earnest prayer , feel a disengagement from such impressions , and themselves endued with a power to resist them . so that those bonds which formerly held them , fall off . this he said must be the effect of a heat in nature : it was only the strong diversion of the thoughts , that gave the seeming victory , and he did not doubt but if one could turn to a problem in euclid , or to write a copy of verses , it would have the same effect . to this i answered , that if such methods did only divert the thoughts , there might be some force in what he said : but if they not only drove out such inclinations , but begat impressions contrary to them , and brought men into a new disposition and habit of mind ; then he must confess there was somewhat more than a diversion , in these changes , which were brought on our minds by true devotion . i added , that reason and experience were the things that determined our perswasions : that experience without reason may be thought the delusion of our fancy , so reason without experience had not so convincing an operation : but these two meeting together , must needs give a man all the satisfaction he can desire . he could not say , it was unreasonable to believe that the supream being might make some thoughts stir in our minds with more or less force , as it pleased : especially the force of these motions , being , for most part , according to the impression that was made on our brains : which that power that directed the whole frame of nature , could make grow deeper as it pleased . it was also reasonable to suppose god a being of such goodness that he would give his assistance to such as desired it : for though he might upon some greater occasions in an extraordinary manner turn some peoples minds ; yet since he had endued man with a faculty of reason , it is fit that men should employ that , as far as they could ; and beg his assistance : which certainly they can do . all this seemed reasonable , and at least probable : now good men who felt upon their frequent applications to god in prayer , a freedom from those ill impressions , that formerly subdued them , an inward love to vertue and true goodness , an easiness and delight in all the parts of holiness , which was fed and cherished in them by a seriousness in prayer , and did languish as that went off , had as real a perception of an inward strength in their minds , that did rise and fall with true devotion , as they perceived the strength of their bodies increased or abated , according as they had or wanted good nourishment . after many discourses upon this subject , he still continued to think all was the effect of fancy : he said , that he understood nothing of it , but acknowledged that he thought they were very happy whose fancies were under the power of such impressions ; since they had somewhat on which their thoughts rested and centred : but when i saw him in his last sickness , he then told me , he had another sense of what we had talked concerning prayer and inward assistances . this subject led us to discourse of god , and of the notion of religion in general . he believed there was a supream being : he could not think the world was made by chance , and the regular course of nature seemed to demonstrate the eternal power of its author . this , he said , he could never shake off ; but when he came to explain his notion of the deity , he said , he looked on it as a vast power that wrought every thing by the necessity of its nature : and thought that god had none of those affections of love or hatred , which breed perturbation in us , and by consequence he could not see that there was to be either reward or punishment . he thought our conceptions of god were so low , that we had better not think much of him : and to love god seemed to him a presumptuous thing , and the heat of fanciful men . therefore he believed there should be no other religious worship , but a general celebration of that being , in some short hymn : all the other parts of worship he esteemed the inventions of priests , to make the world believe they had a secret of incensing and appeasing god as they pleased . in a word , he was neither perswaded that there was a special providence about humane affairs ; nor that prayers were of much use , since that was to look on god as a weak being , that would be overcome with importunities . and for the state after death , though he thought the soul did not dissolve at death ; yet he doubted much of rewards or punishments : the one he thought too high for us to attain , by our slight services ; and the other was too extream to be inflicted for sin. this was the substance of his speculations about god and religion . i told him his notion of god was so low , that the supream being seemed to be nothing but nature . for if that being had no freedom , nor choice of its own actions , nor operated by wisdom or goodness , all those reasons which lead him to acknowledge a god , were contrary to this conceit ; for if the order of the universe perswaded him to think there was a god , he must at the same time conceive him to be both wise and good , as well as powerful , since these all appear'd equally in the creation : though his wisdom and goodness had ways of exerting themselves , that were far beyond our notions or measures . if god was wise and good , he would naturally love , and be pleased with those that resembled him in these perfections , and dislike those that were opposite to him . every rational being naturally loves it self , and is delighted in others like it self , and is averse from what is not so . truth is a rational natures acting in conformity to it self in all things , and goodness is an inclination to promote the happiness of other beings : so truth and goodness were the essential perfections of every reasonable being , and certainly most eminently in the deity : nor does his mercy or love raise passion or perturbation in him ; for we feel that to be a weakness in our selves , which indeed only flows from our want of power , or skill to do what we wish or desire : it is also reasonable to believe god would assist the endeavours of the good , with some helps suitable to their nature . and that it could not be imagined , that those who imitated him , should not be specially favoured by him : and therefore since this did not appear in this state , it was most reasonable to think it should be in another , where the rewards shall be an admission to a more perfect state of conformity to god , with the felicity that follows it , and the punishments should be a total exclusion from him , with all the horrour and darkness that must follow that . these seemed to be the natural results of such several courses of life , as well as the effects of divine justice , rewarding or punishing . for since he believed the soul had a distinct subsistance , separated from the body ; upon its dissolution there was no reason to think it passed into a state of utter oblivion , of what it had been in formerly : but that as the reflections on the good or evil it had done , must raise joy or horrour in it ; so those good or ill dispositions accompanying the departed souls , they must either rise up to a higher perfection , or sink to a more depraved , and miserable state. in this life variety of affairs and objects do much cool and divert our minds ; and are on the one hand often great temptations to the good , and give the bad some ease in their trouble ; but in a state wherein the soul shall be separated from sensible things , and employed in a more quick and sublime way of operation , this must very much exalt the joys and improvements of the good , and as much heighten the horrour and rage of the wicked . so that it seemed a vain thing to pretend to believe a supream being , that is wise and good as well as great , and not to think a discrimination will be made between the good and bad , which , it is manifest , is not fully done in this life . as for the government of the world , if we believe the supream power made it , there is no reason to think he does not govern it : for all that we can fancy against it , is the distraction which that infinite variety of second causes , and the care of their concernments , must give to the first , if it inspects them all . but as among men , those of weaker capacities are wholly taken up with some one thing , whereas those of more enlarged powers can , without distraction , have many things within their care , as the eye can at one view receive a great variety of objects , in that narrow compass , without confusion ; so if we conceive the divine understanding to be as far above ours , as his power of creating and framing the whole universe , is above our limited activity ; we will no more think the government of the world a distraction to him : and if we have once overcome this prejudice , we shall be ready to acknowledge a providence directing all affairs ; a care well becoming the great creator . as for worshipping him , if we imagine our worship is a thing that adds to his happiness , or gives him such a fond pleasure as weak people have to hear themselves commended ; or that our repeated addresses do overcome him through our meer importunity , we have certainly very unworthy thoughts of him . the true ends of worship come within another consideration : which is this , a man is never entirely reformed , till a new principle governs his thoughts : nothing makes that principle so strong , as deep and frequent meditations of god ; whose nature though it be far above our comprehension , yet his goodness and wisdom are such perfections as fall within our imagination : and he that thinks often of god , and considers him as governing the world , and as ever observing all his actions , will feel a very sensible effect of such meditations , as they grow more lively and frequent with him ; so the end of religious worship either publick or private , is to make the apprehensions of god , have a deeper root and a stronger influence on us . the frequent returns of these are necessary : lest if we allow of too long intervals between them , these impressions may grow feebler , and other suggestions may come in their room : and the returns of prayer are not to be considered as favours extorted by meer importunity , but as rewards conferred on men so well disposed , and prepared for them : according to the promises that god has made , for answering our prayers : thereby to engage and nourish a devout temper in us , which is the chief root of all true holiness and vertue . it is true we cannot have suitable notions of the divine essence ; as indeed we have no just idea of any essence whatsoever : since we commonly consider all things , either by their outward figure , or by their effects : and from thence make inferences what their nature must be . so though we cannot frame any perfect image in our minds of the divinity , yet we may from the discoveries god has made of himself , form such conceptions of him , as may possess our minds with great reverence for him , and beget in us such a love of those perfections as to engage us to imitate them . for when we say we love god ; the meaning is , we love that being that is holy , just , good , wise ; and infinitely perfect : and loving these attributes in that object , will certainly carry us to desire them in our selves . for what ever we love in another , we naturally , according to the degree of our love , endeavour to resemble it . in sum , the loving and worshipping god , though they are just and reasonable returns and expressions of the sense we have of his goodness to us ; yet they are exacted of us not only as a tribute to god , but as a mean to beget in us a conformity to his nature , which is the chief end of pure and undefiled religion . if some men , have at several times , found out inventions to corrupt this , and cheat the world ; it is nothing but what occurs in every sort of employment , to which men betake themselves . mountebanks corrupt physick ; petty-foggers have entangled the matters of property , and all professions have been vitiated by the knaveries of a number of their calling . with all these discourses he was not equally satisfied : he seemed convinced that the impressions of god being much in mens minds , would be a powerful means to reform the world : and did not seem determined against providence ; but for the next state , he thought it more likely that the soul began anew , and that her sense of what she had done in this body , lying in the figures that are made in the brain , as soon as she dislodged , all these perished , and that the soul went into some other state to begin a new course . but i said on this head , that this was at best a conjecture , raised in him by his fancy : for he could give no reason to prove it true ; nor was all the remembrance our souls had of past things seated in some material figures lodged in the brain : though it could not be denied but a great deal of it lay in the brain . that we have many abstracted notions and idea's of immaterial things which depends not on bodily figures : some sins , such as falshood , and ill nature were seated in the mind , as lust and appetite were in the body : and as the whole body was the receptacle of the soul , and the eyes and ears were the organs of seeing and hearing , so was the brain the seat of memory : yet the power and faculty of memory , as well as of seeing and hearing , lay in the mind : and so it was no unconceivable thing that either the soul by its own strength , or by the means of some subtiler organs , which might be fitted for it in another state , should still remember as well as think . but indeed we know so little of the nature of our souls , that it is a vain thing for us to raise an hypothesis out of the conjectures we have about it , or to reject one , because of some difficulties that occur to us ; since it is as hard to understand how we remember things now , as how we shall do it in another state ; only we are sure we do it now , and so we shall be then , when we do it . when i pressed him with the secret joys that a good man felt , particularly as he drew near death , and the horrours of ill men especially at that time ; he was willing to ascribe it to the impressions they had from their education : but he often confessed , that whether the business of religion was true or not , he thought those who had the perswasions of it , and lived so that they had quiet in their consciences , and believed god governed the world , and acquiesced in his providence , and had the hope of an endless blessedness in another state , the happiest men in the world : and said , he would give all that he was master of , to be under those perswasions , and to have the supports and joys that must needs flow from them . i told him the main root of all corruptions in mens principles was their ill life ; which as it darkened their minds , and disabled them from discerning better things ; so it made it necessary for them to seek out such opinions as might give them ease from those clamours , that would otherwise have been raised within them : he did not deny but that after the doing of some things he felt great and severe challenges within himself ; but he said , he felt not these after some others which i would perhaps call far greater sins , than those that affected him more sensibly : this i said , might flow from the disorders he had cast himself into , which had corrupted his judgment , and vitiated his tast of things ; and by his long continuance in , and frequent repeating of some immoralities , he had made them so familiar to him , that they were become as it were natural : and then it was no wonder if he had not so exact a sense of what was good or evil ; as a feaverish man cannot judge of tasts . he did acknowledge the whole systeme of religion , if believed , was a greater foundation of quiet than any other thing whatsoever : for all the quiet he had in his mind , was , that he could not think so good a being as the deity would make him miserable . i asked if when by the ill course of his life he had brought so many diseases on his body , he could blame god for it : or expect that he should deliver him from them by a miracle . he confessed there was no reason for that : i then urged , that if sin should cast the mind by a natural effect , into endless horrours and agonies , which being seated in a being not subject to death , must last for ever , unless some miraculous power interposed , could he accuse god for that which was the effect of his own choice and ill life . he said , they were happy that believed : for it was not in every mans power . and upon this we discoursed long about revealed religion . he said , he did not understand that business of inspiration ; he believed the pen-men of the scriptures had heats and honesty , and so writ : but could not comprehend how god should reveal his secrets to mankind . why was not man made a creature more disposed for religion , and better illuminated ? he could not apprehend how there should be any corruption in the nature of man , or a lapse derived from adam . gods communicating his mind to one man , was the putting it in his power to cheat the world : for prophesies and miracles , the world had been always full of strange stories ; for the boldness and cunning of contrivers meeting with the simplicity and credulity of the people , things were easily received ; and being once received passed down without contradiction . the incoherences of stile in the scriptures , the odd transitions , the seeming contradictions , chiefly about the order of time , the cruelties enjoyned the israelites in destroying the canaanites , circumcision , and many other rites of the jewish worship ; seemed to him insutable to the divine nature : and the first three chapters of genesis , he thought could not be true , unless they were parables . this was the substance of what he excepted to revealed religion in general , and to the old testament in particular . i answerd to all this , that believing a thing upon the testimony of another , in other matters where there was no reason to suspect the testimony , chiefly where it was confirmed by other circumstances , was not only a reasonable thing , but it was the hinge on which all the government and justice in the world depended : since all courts of justice proceed upon the evidence given by witnesses ; for the use of writings is but a thing more lately brought into the world. so then if the credibility of the thing , the innocence and disinteredness of the witnesses , the number of them , and the publickest confirmations that could possibly be given , do concur to perswade us of any matter of fact , it is a vain thing to say , because it is possible for so many men to agree in a lye , that therefore these have done it . in all other things a man gives his assent when the credibility is strong on the one side , and there appears nothing on the other side to ballance it . so such numbers agreeing in their testimony to these miracles ; for instance of our saviours calling lazarus out of the grave the fourth day after he was buried , and his own rising again after he was certainly dead ; if there had been never so many impostures in the world , no man can with any reasonable colour pretend this was one . we find both by the jewish and roman writers that lived in that time , that our saviour was crucified : and that all his disciples and followers believed certainly that he rose again . they believed this upon the testimony of the apostles , and of many hundreds who saw it , and died confirming it : they went about to perswade the world of it , with great zeal , though they knew they were to get nothing by it , but reproach and sufferings : and by many wonders which they wrought they confirmed their testimony . now to avoid all this , by saying it is possible this might be a contrivance , and to give no presumption to make it so much as probable , that it was so , is in plain english to say , we are resolved let the evidence be what it will , we will not believe it . he said , if a man says he cannot believe , what help is there ? for he was not master of his own belief , and believing was at highest but a probable opinion . to this i answered , that if a man will let a wanton conceit posses his fancy against these things , and never consider the evidence for religion on the other hand , but reject it upon a slight view of it , he ought not to say he cannot , but he will not believe : and while a man lives an ill course of life , he is not fitly qualified to examine the matter aright . let him grow calm and vertuous , and upon due application examine things fairly , and then let him pronounce according to his conscience , if to take it at its lowest , the reasons on the one hand are not much stronger than they are on the other . for i found he was so possessed with the general conceit that a mixture of knaves and fools had made all extraordinary things be easily believed , that it carried him away to determine the matter , without so much as looking on the historical evidence for the truth of christianity , which he had not enquired into , but had bent all his wit and study to the support of the other side . as for that , that believing is at best but an opinion ; if the evidence be but probable , it is so : but if it be such that it cannot be questioned , it grows as certain as knowledge : for we are no less certain that there is a great town called constantinople , the seat of the ottoman empire , than that there is another called london . we as little doubt that queen elizabeth once reigned , as that king charles now reigns in england . so that believing may be as certain , and as little subject to doubting as seeing or knowing . there are two sorts of believing divine matters ; the one is wrought in us by our comparing all the evidences of matter of fact , for the confirmation of revealed religion ; with the prophesies in the scripture ; where things were punctually predicted , some ages before their completion ; not in dark and doubtful words , uttered like oracles , which might bend to any event : but in plain terms , as the foretelling that cyrus by name should send the jews back from the captivity , after the fixed period of seventy years : the history of the syrian and egyptian kings so punctually foretold by daniel , and the prediction of the destruction of jerusalem , with many circumstances relating to it , made by our saviour ; joyning these to the excellent rule and design of the scripture in matters of morality , it is at least as reasonable to believe this as any thing else in the world. yet such a believing as this , is only a general perswasion in the mind , which has not that effect , till a man applying himself to the directions set down in the scriptures ( which upon such evidence cannot be denied , to be as reasonable , as for a man to follow the prescriptions of a learned physitian , and when the rules are both good and easie , to submit to them for the recovering of his health ) and by following these , finds a power entring within him , that frees him from the slavery of his appetites and passions , that exalts his mind above the accidents of life , and spreads an inward purity in his heart , from which a serene and calm joy arises within him : and good men by the efficacy these methods have upon them , and from the returns of their prayers , and other endeavours , grow assured that these things are true , and answerable to the promises they find registred in scripture . all this , he said , might be fancy : but to this i answered , that as it were unreasonable to tell a man that is abroad , and knows he is awake , that perhaps he is in a dream , and in his bed , and only thinks he is abroad , or that as some go about in their sleep , so he may be asleep still ; so good and religious men know , though others may be abused , by their fancies , that they are under no such deception : and find they are neither hot nor enthusiastical , but under the power of calm and clear principles . all this he said he did not understand , and that it was to assert or beg the thing in question , which he could not comprehend . as for the possibility of revelation , it was a vain thing to deny it : for as god gives us the sense of seeing material objects by our eyes , and opened in some a capacity of apprehending high and sublime things , of which other men seemed utterly incapable : so it was a weak assertion that god cannot awaken a power in some mens minds , to apprehend and know some things , in such a manner that others are not capable of it . this is not half so incredible to us as sight is to a blind man , who yet may be convinced there is a strange power of seeing that governs men , of which he finds himself deprived . as for the capacity put into such mens hands to deceive the world , we are at the same time to consider , that besides the probity of their tempers , it cannot be thought but god can so forcibly bind up a man in some things , that it should not be in his power to deliver them otherwise then as he gives him in commission : besides the confirmation of miracles are a divine credential to warrant such persons in what they deliver to the world : which cannot be imagined can be joyned to a lye , since this were to put the omnipotence of god , to attest that which no honest man will do . for the business of the fall of man , and other things of which we cannot perhaps give our selves a perfect account : we who cannot fathome the secrets of the councel of god , do very unreasonably to take on us to reject an excellent systeme of good and holy rules , because we cannot satisfie our selves about some difficulties in them . common experience tells us , there is a great disorder in our natures , which is not easily rectified : all philosophers were sensible of it , and every man that designs to govern himself by reason , feels the struggle between it and nature : so that it is plain , there is a lapse of the high powers of the soul. but why , said he , could not this be rectified , by some plain rules given ; but men must come and shew a trick to perswade the world they speak to them in the name of god ? i answered , that religion being a design to recover and save mankind , was to be so opened as to awaken and work upon all sorts of people : and generally men of a simplicity of mind , were those that were the fittest objects for god to shew his favour to ; therefore it was necessary that messengers sent from heaven should appear with such allarming evidences , as might awaken the world , and prepare them by some astonishing signs , to listen to the doctrine they were to deliver . philosophy , that was only a matter of fine speculation , had few votaries : and as there was no authority in it to bind the world to believe its dictates , so they were only received by some of nobler and refined natures , who could apply themselves to , and delight in such notions . but true religion was to be built on a foundation , that should carry more weight on it , and to have such convictions , as might not only reach those who were already disposed to receive them , but rouse up such as without great and sensible excitation would have otherwise slept on in their ill courses . upon this and some such occasions , i told him , i saw the ill use he made of his wit , by which he slurred the gravest things with a slight dash of his fancy : and the pleasure he found in such wanton expressions , as calling the doing of miracles , the shewing of a trick , did really keep him from examining them , with that care which such things required . for the old testament , we are so remote from that time , we have so little knowledge of the language in which it was writ , have so imperfect an account of the history of those ages , know nothing of their customs , forms of speech , and the several periods they might have , by which they reckoned their time , that it is rather a wonder we should understand so much of it , than that many passages in it should be so dark to us . the chief use it has to us christians , is , that from writings which the jews acknowledge to be divinely inspired , it is manifest the messias was promised before the destruction of their temple : which being done long ago ; and these prophesies agreeing to our saviour , and to no other , here is a great confirmation given to the gospel . but though many things in these books could not be understood by us , who live above 3000 years after the chief of them were written , it is no such extraordinary matter . for that of the destruction of the canaanites by the israelites , it is to be considered , that if god had sent a plague among them all , that could not have been found fault with . if then god had a right to take away their lives , without injustice or cruelty , he had a right to appoint others to do it , as well to execute it by a more immediate way : and the taking away people by the sword , is a much gentler way of dying , than to be smitten with a plague or a famine . and for the children that were innocent of their fathers faults , god could in another state make that up to them . so all the difficulty is , why were the israelites commanded to execute a thing of such barbarity ? but this will not seem so hard , if we consider that this was to be no precedent , for future times : since they did not do it but upon special warrant and commission from heaven , evidenc'd to all the world by such mighty miracles as did plainly shew , that they were particularly design'd by god to be the executioners of his justice . and god by imploying them in so severe a service , intended to possess them with great horrour of idolatry , which was punished in so extream a manner . for the rites of their religion , we can ill judge of them , except we perfectly understood the idolatries round about them : to which we find they were much inclined : so they were to be bent by other rites to an extream aversion from them : and yet by the pomp of many of their ceremonies and sacrifices , great indulgences were given to a people naturally fond of a visible splendor in religious worship . in all which , if we cannot descend to such satisfactory answers in every particular , as a curious man would desire , it is no wonder . the long interval of time , and other accidents , have worn out those things which were necessary to give us a clearer light into the meaning of them . and for the story of the creation , how far some things in it may be parabolical , and how far historical , has been much disputed : there is nothing in it that may not be historically true . for if it be acknowledged that spirits can form voices in the air , for which we have as good authority as for any thing in history ; then it is no wonder that eve being so lately created , might be deceived , and think a serpent spake to her , when the evil spirit framed the voice . but in all these things i told him he was in the wrong way , when he examined the business of religion , by some dark parts of scripture : therefore i desired him to consider the whole contexture of the christian religion , the rules it gives , and the methods it prescribes . nothing can conduce more to the peace , order and happiness of the world , than to be governed by its rules . nothing is more for the interests of every man in particular : the rules of sobriety , temperance and moderation , were the best preservers of life , and which was perhaps more , of health . humility , contempt of the vanities of the world , and the being well employed , raised a mans mind to a freedom from the follies and temptations that haunted the greatest part . nothing was so generous and great as to supply the necessities of the poor , and to forgive injuries : nothing raised and maintained a mans reputation so much , as to be exactly just , and merciful ; kind , charitable and compassionate : nothing opened the powers of a mans soul so much as a calm temper , a serene mind , free of passion and disorder : nothing made societies , families , and neighbourhoods so happy , as when these rules which the gospel prescribes , took place , of doing as we would have others do to us , and loving our neighbours as our selves . the christian worship was also plain and simple ; suitable to so pure a doctrine . the ceremonies of it were few and significant , as the admission to it by a washing with water , and the memorial of our saviour's death in bread and wine ; the motives in it to perswade to this purity , were strong : that god sees us , and will judge us for all our actions : that we shall be for ever happy or miserable , as we pass our lives here : the example of our saviour's life , and the great expressions of his love in dying for us , are mighty engagements to obey and imitate him . the plain way of expression used by our saviour and his apostles , shews there was no artifice , where there was so much simplicity used : there were no secrets kept only among the priests , but every thing was open to all christians : the rewards of holiness are not entirely put over to another state , but good men are specially blest with peace in their consciences , great joy in the confidence they have of the love of god , and of seeing him for ever : and often a signal course of blessings follows them in their whole lives : but if at other times calamities fell on them , these were so much mitigated by the patience they were taught , and the inward assistances , with which they were furnished , that even those crosses were converted to blessings . i desired he would lay all these things together , and see what he could except to them , to make him think this was a contrivance . interest appears in all humane contrivances : our saviour plainly had none ; he avoided applause , withdrew himself from the offers of a crown : he submitted to poverty and reproach , and much contradiction in his life , and to a most ignominious and painful death . his apostles had none neither , they did not pretend either to power or wealth ; but delivered a doctrine that must needs condemn them , if they ever made such use of it : they declared their commission fully without reserves till other times : they recorded their own weakness : some of them wrought with their own hands ; and when they received the charities of their converts , it was not so much to supply their own necessities , as to distribute to others : they knew they were to suffer much for giving their testimonies , to what they had seen and heard : in which so many in a thing so visible , as christ's resurrection and ascension , and the effusion of the holy ghost which he had promised , could not be deceived : and they gave such publick confirmations of it by the wonders they themselves wrought , that great multitudes were converted to a doctrine , which , besides the opposition it gave to lust and passion , was born down and persecuted for 300 years : and yet its force was such , that it not only weathered out all those storms , but even grew and spread vastly under them . pliny about threescore years after , found their numbers great and their lives innocent : and even lucian amidst all his raillery , gives a high testimony to their charity and contempt of life , and the other vertues of the christians ; which is likewise more than once done by malice it self , julian the apostate . if a man will lay all this in one ballance , and compare with it the few exceptions brought to it , he will soon find how strong the one , and how slight the other are . therefore it was an improper way , to begin at some cavils about some passages in the new testament , or the old , and from thence to prepossess one's mind against the whole . the right method had been first to consider the whole matter , and from so general a view to descend to more particular enquiries : whereas they suffered their minds to be forestalled with prejudices ; so that they never examined the matter impartially . to the greatest part of this he seemed to assent , only he excepted to the belief of mysteries in the christian religion ; which he thought no man could do , since it is not in a mans power to believe that which he cannot comprehend : and of which he can have no notion . the believing mysteries , he said , made way for all the juglings of priests , for they getting the people under them in that point , set out to them what they pleased ; and giving it a hard name , and calling it a mystery , the people were tamed , and casily believed it . the restraining a man from the use of women , except one in the way of marriage , and denying the remedy of divorce , he thought unreasonable impositions on the freedom of mankind : and the business of the clergy , and their maintenance , with the belief of some authority and power conveyed in their orders , lookt , as he thought , like a piece of contrivance : and why , said he , must a man tell me , i cannot be saved , unless i believe things against my reason , and then that i must pay him for telling me of them ? these were all the exceptions which at any time i heard from him to christianity . to which i made these answers . for mysteries it is plain there is in every thing somewhat that is unaccountable . how animals or men are formed in their mothers bellies , how seeds grow in the earth , how the soul dwells in the body , and acts and moves it ; how we retain the figures of so many words or things in our memories , and how we draw them out so easily and orderly in our thoughts or discourses ? how sight and hearing were so quick and distinct , how we move , and how bodies were compounded and united ? these things if we follow them into all the difficulties , that we may raise about them , will appear every whit as unaccountable as any mystery of religion : and a blind or deaf man would judge sight or hearing as incredible , as any mystery may be judged by us : for our reason is not equal to them . in the same rank , different degrees of age or capacity raise some far above others : so that children cannot fathome the learning , nor weak persons the councels of more illuminated minds : therefore it was no wonder if we could not understand the divine essence : we cannot imagine how two such different natures as a soul and a body should so unite together , and be mutually affected with one anothers concerns , and how the soul has one principle of reason , by which it acts intellectually , and another of life by which it joyns to the body and acts vitally ; two principles so widely differing both in their nature and operation , and yet united in one and the same person . there might be as many hard arguments brought against the possibility of these things , which yet every one knows to be true , from speculative notions , as against the mysteries mentioned in the scriptures . as that of the trinity , that in one essence there are three different principles of operation , which , for want of terms fit to express them by , we call persons , and are called in scripture the father , son , and holy ghost , and that the second of these did unite himself in a most intimate manner with the humane nature of jesus christ : and that the sufferings he underwent , were accepted of god as a sacrifice for our sins ; who thereupon conferred on him a power of granting eternal life to all that submit to the terms on which he offers it ; and that the matter of which our bodies once consisted , which may be as justy called the bodies we laid down at our deaths , as these can be said to be the bodies which we formerly lived in , being refined and made more spiritual , shall be reunited to our souls , and become a fit instrument for them in a more perfect estate : and that god inwardly bends and moves our wills , by such impressions , as he can make on our bodies and minds . these , which are the chief mysteries of our religion , are neither so unreasonable , that any other objection lies against them , but this , that they agree not with our common notions , nor so unaccountable that somewhat like them , cannot be assigned in other things , which are believed really to be , though the manner of them cannot be apprehended : so this ought not to be any just objection to the submission of our reason to what we cannot so well conceive , provided our belief of it be well grounded . there have been too many niceties brought in indeed , rather to darken then explain these : they have been defended by weak arguments , and illustrated by similies not always so very apt and pertinent . and new subtilties have been added , which have rather perplexed than cleared them . all this cannot be denied ; the opposition of hereticks anciently , occasioned too much curiosity among the fathers : which the school-men have wonderfully advanced of late times . but if mysteries were received , rather in the simplicity in which they are delivered in the scriptures , than according to the descantings of fanciful men upon them , they would not appear much more incredible , than some of the common objects of sense and perception . and it is a needless fear that if some mysteries are acknowledged , which are plainly mentioned in the new testament , it will then be in the power of the priests to add more at their pleasure . for it is an absurd inference from our being bound to assent to some truths about the divine essence , of which the manner is not understood , to argue that therefore in an object presented duly to our senses , such as bread and wine , we should be bound to believe against their testimony , that it is not what our senses perceived it to be , but the whole flesh and blood of christ ; an entire body being in every crumb and drop of it . it is not indeed in a mans power to believe thus against his sense and reason , where the object is proportioned to them , and fitly applied , and the organs are under no indisposition or disorder . it is certain that no mystery is to be admitted , but very clear and express authorities from scripture , which could not reasonably be understood in any other sense . and though a man cannot form an explicite notion of a mystery , for then it would be no longer a mystery , yet in general he may believe a thing to be , though he cannot give himself a particular account of the way of it : or rather though he cannot answer some objections which lie against it . we know we believe many such in humane matters , which are more within our reach : and it is very unreasonable to say , we may not do it in divine things , which are much more above our apprehensions . for the severe restraint of the use of women , it is hard to deny that priviledge to jesus christ as a law-giver , to lay such restraints , as all inferiour legislators do ; who when they find the liberties their subjects take , prove hurtful to them , set such limits , and make such regulations , as they judge necessary and expedient . it cannot be said but the restraint of appetite is necessary in some instances : and if it is necessary in these , perhaps other restraints are no less necessary , to fortifie and secure these . for if it be acknowledged that men have a property in their wives and daughters , so that to defile the one , or corrupt the other , is an injust and injurious thing ; it is certain , that except a man carefully governs his appetites , he will break through these restraints : and therefore our saviour knowing that nothing could so effectually deliver the world from the mischief of unrestrained appetite , as such a confinement , might very reasonably enjoyn it . and in all such cases we are to ballance the inconveniences on both hands , and where we find they are heaviest , we are to acknowledge the equity of the law. on the one hand there is no prejudice , but the restraint of appetite ; on the other , are the mischiefs of being given up to pleasure , of running inordinately into it , of breaking the quiet of our own family at home , and of others abroad : the ingaging into much passion , the doing many false and impious things to compass what is desired , the wast of mens estates , time , and health . now let any man judge , whether the prejudices on this side , are not greater , than that single one of the other side , of being denied some pleasure ? for polygamy , it is but reasonable since women are equally concern'd in the laws of marriage , that they should be considered as well as men : but in a state of polygamy they are under great misery and jealousie , and are indeed barbarously used . man being also of a sociable nature , friendship and converse were among the primitive intendments of marriage , in which as far as the man may excel the wife in greatness of mind , and height of knowledge , the wife someway makes that up with her affection and tender care : so that from both happily mixed , there arises a harmony , which is to vertuous minds one of the greatest joys of life : but all this is gone in a state of polygamy , which occasions perpetual jarrings and jealousies . and the variety does but engage men to a freer range of pleasure , which is not to be put in the ballance with the far greater mischiefs that must follow the other course . so that it is plain , our saviour considered the nature of man , what it could bear , and what was fit for it , when he so restrained us in these our liberties . and for divorce , a power to break that bond would too much encourage married persons in the little quarrellings that may rise between them ; if it were in their power to depart one from another . for when they know that cannot be , and that they must live and die together , it does naturally incline them to lay down their resentments , and to endeavour to live as well together as they can . so the law of the gospel being a law of love , designed to engage christians to mutual love ; it was fit that all such provisions should be made , as might advance and maintain it : and all such liberties be taken away , as are apt to enkindle or foment strife . this might fall in some instances to be uneasie and hard enough , but laws consider what falls out most commonly , and cannot provide for all particular cases . the best laws are in some instances very great grievances . but the advantages being ballanced with the inconveniences , measures are to be taken accordingly . upon this whole matter i said , that pleasure stood in opposition to other considerations of great weight , and so the decision was easie . and since our saviour offers us so great rewards , it is but reasonable he have a priviledge of loading these promises with such conditions , as are not in themselves grateful to our natural inclinations : for all that propose high rewards , have thereby a right to exact difficult performances . to this he said , we are sure the terms are difficult , but are not so sure of the rewards . upon this i told him , that we have the same assurance of the rewards , that we have of the other parts of christian religion . we have the promises of god made to us by christ , confirmed by many miracles : we have the earnests of these , in the quiet and peace which follows a good conscience : and in the resurrection of him from the dead , who hath promised to raise us up . so that the reward is sufficiently assured to us : and there is no reason it should be given to us , before the conditions are performed , on which the promises are made . it is but reasonable that we should trust god , and do our duty , in hopes of that eternal life , which god who cannot lie , hath promised . the difficulties are not so great , as those which sometimes the commonest concerns of life bring upon us : the learning some trades or sciences , the governing our health and affairs , bring us often under as great straights . so that it ought to be no just prejudice , that there are some things in religion that are uneasie , since this is rather the effect of our corrupt natures , which are farther deprav'd by vitious habits , and can hardly turn to any new course of life , without some pain , than of the dictates of christianity , which are in themselves just and reasonable , and will be easie to us when renew'd , and in a good measure restor'd to our primitive integrity . as for the exceptions he had to the maintenance of the clergy , and the authority to which they pretended ; if they stretched their designs too far , the gospel did plainly reprove them for it : so that it was very suitable to that church , which was so grosly faulty this way , to take the scriptures out of the hands of the people , since they do so manifesty disclaim all such practices . the priests of the true christian religion have no secrets among them , which the world must not know , but are only an order of men dedicated to god , to attend on sacred things , who ought to be holy in a more peculiar manner , since they are to handle the things of god. it was necessary that such persons should have a due esteem paid them , and a fit maintenance appointed for them : that so they might be preserved from the contempt that follows poverty , and the distractions which the providing against it might otherways involve them in : and as in the order of the world , it was necessary for the support of magistracy and government , and for preserving its esteem , that some state be used ( though it is a happiness when great men have philosophical minds , to despise the pageantry of it . ) so the plentiful supply of the clergy , if well used and applied by them , will certainly turn to the advantage of religion . and if some men either through ambition or covetousness used indirect means , or servile compliances to aspire to such dignities , and being possessed of them , applied their wealth either to luxury or vain pomp , or made great fortunes out of it for their families ; these were personal failings in which the doctrine of christ was not concerned . he upon that told me plainly , there was nothing that gave him , and many others ; a more secret encouragement in their ill ways , than that those who pretended to believe , lived so that they could not be thought to be in carnest , when they said it : for he was sure religion was either a meer contrivance , or the most important thing that could be : so that if he once believed , he would set himself in great carnest to live suitably to it . the aspirings that he had observed at court , of some of the clergy , with the servile ways they took to attain to preferment , and the animosities among those of several parties , about trifles , made him often think they suspected the things were not true , which in their sermons and discourses they so carnestly recommended . of this he had gathered many instances ; i knew some of them were mistakes and calumnies ; yet i could not deny but something of them might be too true : and i publish this the more freely , to put all that pretend to religion , chiefly those that are dedicated to holy functions , in mind of the great obligation that lies on them to live sutably to their profession : since otherwise a great deal of the irreligion and atheism that is among us , may too justly be charged on them : for wicked men are delighted out of measure when they discover ill things in them , and conclude from thence not only that they are hypocrites , but that religion it self is a cheat . but i said to him upon this head , that though no good man could continue in the practice of any known sin , yet such might , by the violence or surprise of a temptation , to which they are liable as much as others , be of a sudden overcome to do an ill thing , to their great grief all their life after . and then it was a very injust inference , upon some few failings , to conclude that such men do not believe themselves . but how bad soever many are , it cannot be denied but there are also many both of the clergy and laity , who give great and real demonstrations of the power religion has over them ; in their contempt of the world , the strictness of their lives , their readiness to forgive injuries , to relieve the poor , and to do good on all occasions : and yet even these may have their failings , either in such things wherein their constitutions are weak , or their temptations strong and suddain : and in all such cases we are to judge of men , rather by the course of their lives , than by the errors , that they through infirmity or surprize may have slipt into . these were the chief heads we discoursed on ; and as far as i can remember , i have faithfully repeated the substance of our arguments : i have not concealed the strongest things he said to me , but though i have not enlarged on all the excursions of his wit in setting them off , yet i have given them their full strength , as he expressed them ; and as far as i could recollect , have used his own words : so that i am afraid some may censure me for setting down these things so largely , which impious men may make an ill use of , and gather together to encourage and defend themselves in their vices : but if they will compare them with the answers made to them , and the sense that so great and refined a wit had of them afterwards , i hope they may through the blessing of god be not altogether ineffectual . the issue of all our discourses was this , he told me , he saw vice and impiety were as contrary to humane society , as wild beasts let loose would be ; and therefore he firmly resolved to change the whole method of his life : to become strictly just and true , to be chast and temperate , to forbear swearing and irreligious discourse , to worship and pray to his maker : and that though he was not arrived at a full perswasion of christianity , he would never employ his wit more to run it down , or to corrupt others . of which i have since a further assurance , from a person of quality , who conversed much with him , the last year of his life ; to whom he would often say , that he was happy , if he did believe , and that he would never endeavour to draw him from it . to all this i answered , that a vertuous life would be very uncasie to him , unless vicious inclinations were removed : it would otherwise be a perpetual constraint . nor could it be effected without an inward principle to change him : and that was only to be had by applying himself to god for it in frequent and earnest prayers : and i was sure if his mind were once cleared of these disorders , and cured of those distempers , which vice brought on it , so great an understanding would soon see through all those slights of wit , that do feed atheism and irreligion : which have a false glittering in them , that dazles some weak sighted minds , who have not capacity enough to penetrate further than the surfaces of things : and so they stick in these toyls , which the strength of his mind would soon break thorough , if it were once freed from those things that depressed and darkened it . at this pass he was when he went from london , about the beginning of april : he had not been long in the country when he thought he was so well , that being to go to his estate in somersetshire he rode thither post. this heat and violent motion did so inflame an ulcer , that was in his bladder , that it raised a very great pain in those parts : yet he with much difficulty came back by coach to the lodge at woodstock-park . he was then wounded both in body and mind : he understood physick and his own constitution and distemper so well , that he concluded he could hardly recover : for the ulcer broke and vast quantities of purulent matter past with his urine . but now the hand of god touched him , and as he told me , it was not only a general dark melancholy over his mind , such as he had formerly felt ; but a most penetrating cutting sorrow . so that though in his body he suffered extream pain , for some weeks , yet the agonies of his mind sometimes swallowed up the sense of what he felt in his body . he told me , and gave it me in charge , to tell it to one for whom he was much concern'd , that though there were nothing to come after this life , yet all the pleasures he had ever known in sin , were not worth that torture he had felt in his mind : he considered he had not only neglected and dishonoured , but had openly desied his maker , and had drawn many others into the like impieties : so that he looked on himself as one that was in great danger of being damn'd . he then set himself wholly to turn to god unfeignedly , and to do all that was possible in that little remainder of his life which was before him , to redeem those great portions of it , that he had formerly so ill employed . the minister that attended constantly on him , was that good and worthy man mr. parsons , his mothers chaplain , who hath since his death preached , according to the directions he received from him , his funeral sermon : in which there are so many remarkable passages , that i shall refer my reader to them , and will repeat none of them here , that i may not thereby lessen his desire to edifie himself by that excellent discourse , which has given so great and so general a satisfaction to all good and judicious readers . i shall speak cursorily of every thing , but that which i had immediately from himself : he was visited every week of his sickness by his diocesan , that truly primitive prelate , the lord bishop of oxford ; who though he lived six miles from him , yet looked on this as so important a piece of his pastoral care , that he went often to him ; and treated him with that decent plainness and freedom which is so natural to him ; and took care also that he might not on terms more easie than safe , be at peace with himself . dr. marshal the learned and worthy rector of lincoln-colledge in oxford , being the minister of the parish , was also frequently with him : and by these helps he was so directed and supported , that he might not on the one hand satisfie himself with too superficial a repentance , nor on the other hand be out of measure oppressed with a sorrow without hope . as soon as i heard he was ill , but yet in such a condition that i might write to him , i wrote a letter to the best purpose i could . he ordered one that was then with him , to assure me it was very welcome to him : but not satisfied with that , he sent me an answer , which , as the countess of rochester his mother told me , he dictated every word , and then signed it . i was once unwilling to have publish'd it , because of a complement in it to my self , far above my merit , and not very well suiting with his condition . but the sense he expresses in it of the change then wrought on him , hath upon second thoughts prevail'd with me to publish it , leaving out what concerns my self . woodstock-park , oxfordshire . june 25. 1680. my most honour'd dr. burnett , my spirits and body decay so equally together , that i shall write you a letter as weak as i am in person . i begin to value church-men above all men in the world , &c. if god be yet pleased to spare me longer in this world , i hope in your conversation to be exalted to that degree of piety , that the world may see how much i abhor what i so long loved , and how much i glory in repentance , and in gods service . bestow your prayers upon me , that god would spare me ( if it be his good will ) to shew a true repentance and amendment of life for the time to come : or else if the lord pleaseth to put an end to my worldly being now , that he would mercifully accept of my death-bed repentance , and perform that promise that he hath been pleased to make , that at what time soever a sinner doth repent , he would receive him . put up these prayers , most dear doctor , to almighty god for your most obedient and languishing servant . rochester . he told me when i saw him , that he hoped i would come to him upon that general insinuation of the desire he had of my company ; and he was loth to write more plainly : not knowing whether i could easily spare so much time . i told him , that on the other hand , i looked on it as a presumption to come so far , when he was in such excellent hands ; and though perhaps the freedom formerly between us , might have excused it with those to whom it was known ; yet it might have the appearance of so much vanity , to such as were strangers to it ; so that till i received his letter , i did not think it convenient to come to him : and then not hearing that there was any danger of a sudden change , i delayed going to him till the twentieth of july . at my coming to his house an accident fell out not worth mentioning , but that some have made a story of it . his servant being a french-man carried up my name wrong , so that he mistook it for another , who had sent to him , that he would undertake his cure , and he being resolved not to meddle with him , did not care to see him : this mistake lasted some hours , with which i was the better contented , because he was not then in such a condition , that my being about him could have been of any use to him : for that night was like to have been his last . he had a convulsion-fit , and raved ; but opiates being given him , after some hours rest , his raving left him so entirely , that it never again returned to him . i cannot easily express the transport he was in , when he awoke and saw me by him : he brake out in the tenderest expressions concerning my kindness in coming so far to see such a one , using terms of great abhorrence concerning himself , which i forbear to relate . he told me , as his strength served him at several snatches , for he was then so low , that he could not hold up discourse long at once , what sense he had of his past life ; what sad apprehension for having so offended his maker , and dishonoured his redeemer : what horrours he had gone through , and how much his mind was turned to call on god , and on his crucified saviour : so that he hoped he should obtain mercy , for he believed he had sincerely repented ; and had now a calm in his mind after that storm that he had been in for some weeks . he had strong apprehensions and perswasions of his admittance to heaven : of which he spake once not without some extraordinary emotion . it was indeed the only time that he spake with any great warmth to me : for his spirits were then low , and so far spent , that though those about him told me , he had expressed formerly great fervor in his devotions ; yet nature was so much sunk , that these were in a great measure fallen off . but he made me pray often with him ; and spoke of his conversion to god as a thing now grown up in him to a setled and calm serenity . he was very anxious to know my opinion of a death-bed repentance . i told him , that before i gave any resolution in that , it would be convenient that i should be acquainted more particularly with the circumstances and progress of his repentance . upon this he satisfied me in many particulars . he said , he was now perswaded both of the truth of christianity , and of the power of inward grace , of which he gave me this strange account . he said , mr. parsons in order to his conviction , read to him the 53. chapter of the prophesie of isaiah , and compared that with the history of our saviour's passion , that he might there see a prophesie concerning it , written many ages before it was done ; which the jews that blasphemed jesus christ still kept in their hands , as a book divinely inspired . he said to me , that as he heard it read , he felt an inward force upon him , which did so enlighten his mind , and convince him , that he could resist it no longer : for the words had an authority which did shoot like raies or beams in his mind ; so that he was not only convinced by the reasonings he had about it , which satisfied his vnderstanding , but by a power which did so effectually constrain him , that he did ever after as firmly believe in his saviour , as if he had seen him in the clouds . he had made it be read so often to him , that he had got it by heart : and went through a great part of it in discourse with me , with a sort of heavenly pleasure , giving me his reflections on it . some few i remember , who hath believed our report ? here , he said , was foretold the opposition the gospel was to meet with from such wretches as he was . he hath no form nor comliness , and when we shall see him , there is no beauty that we should desire him . on this he said , the meanness of his appearance and person has made vain and foolish people disparage him , because he came not in such a fools-coat as they delight in . what he said on the other parts i do not well remember : and indeed i was so affected with what he said then to me , that the general transport i was under during the whole discourse , made me less capable to remember these particulars , as i wish i had done . he told me , that he had thereupon received the sacrament with great satisfaction , and that was encreased by the pleasure he had in his ladies receiving it with him : who had been for some years misled into the communion of the church of rome , and he himself had been not a little instrumental in procuring it , as he freely acknowledged . so that it was one of the joyfullest things that befel him in his sickness , that he had seen that mischief removed , in which he had so great a hand : and during his whole sickness , he expressed so much tenderness and true kindness to his lady , that as it easily defaced the remembrance of every thing wherein he had been in fault formerly , so it drew from her the most passionate care and concern for him that was possible : which indeed deserves a higher character than is decent to give of a person yet alive . but i shall confine my discourse to the dead . he told me , he had overcome all his resentments to all the world ; so that he bore ill will to no person , nor hated any upon personal accounts . he had given a true state of his debts , and had ordered to pay them all , as far as his estate that was not setled , could go : and was confident that if all that was owing to him were paid to his executors , his creditors would be all satisfied . he said , he found his mind now possessed with another sense of things , than ever he had formerly : he did not repine under all his pain , and in one of the sharpest fits he was under while i was with him ; he said , he did willingly submit ; and looking up to heaven , said , god's holy will be done , i bless him for all he does to me . he professed he was contented either to die or live , as should please god : and though it was a foolish thing for a man to pretend to choose , whether he would die or live , yet he wished rather to die . he knew he could never be so well , that life should be comfortable to him . he was confident he should be happy if he died , but he feared if he lived he might relapse : and then said he to me , in what a condition shall i be , if i relapse after all this ? but , he said , he trusted in the grace and goodness of god , and was resolved to avoid all those temptations , that course of life , and company , that was likely to insnare him : and he desired to live on no other account , but that he might by the change of his manners some way take off the high scandal his former behaviour had given . all these things at several times i had from him , besides some messages which very well became a dying penitent to some of his former friends , and a charge to publish any thing concerning him , that might be a mean to reclaim others . praying god , that as his life had done much hurt , so his death might do some good . having understood all these things from him , and being pressed to give him my opinion plainly about his eternal state ; i told him , that though the promises of the gospel did all depend upon a real change of heart and life , as the indispensable condition upon which they were made ; and that it was scarce possible to know certainly whether our hearts are changed , unless it appeared in our lives ; and the repentance of most dying men , being like the howlings of condemned prisoners for pardon , which flowed from no sense of their crimes , but from the horrour of approaching death ; there was little reason to encourage any to hope much from such sorrowings : yet certainly if the mind of a sinner , even on a death-bed , be truly renewed and turned to god , so great is his mercy , that he will receive him , even in that extremity . he said , he was sure his mind was entirely turned , and though horrour had given him his first awaking , yet that was now grown up into a setled faith and conversion . there is but one prejudice lies against all this , to defeat the good ends of divine providence by it upon others , as well as on himself : and that is that it was a part of his disease , and that the lowness of his spirits made such an alteration in him , that he was not what he had formerly been : and this some have carried so far as to say , that he died mad : these reports are raised by those who are unwilling that the last thoughts or words of a person , every way so extraordinary , should have any effect either on themselves or others : and it is to be fear'd , that some may have so far seared their consciences , and exceeded the common measures of sin and infidelity , that neither this testimony , nor one coming from the dead , would signifie much towards their conviction . that this lord was either mad or stupid , is a thing so notoriously untrue , that it is the greatest impudence for any that were about him , to report it ; and a very unreasonable credulity in others to believe it . all the while i was with him , after he had slept out the disorders of the fit he was in the first night , he was not only without ravings ; but had a clearness in his thoughts , in his memory , in his reflections on things and persons , far beyond what i ever saw in a person so low in his strength . he was not able to hold out long in discourse , for his spirits failed : but once for half an hour , and often for a quarter of an hour , after he awakened , he had a vivacity in his discourse that was extraordinary , and in all things like himself . he called often for his children , his son the now earl of rochester , and his three daughters , and spake to them with a sense and feeling that cannot be expressed in writing . he called me once to look on them all , and said , see how good god has been to me , in giving me so many blessings , and i have carried my self to him like an ungracious and unthankful dog. he once talked a great deal to me of publick affairs , and of many persons and things , with the same clearness of thought and expression , that he had ever done before . so that by no sign , but his weakness of body , and giving over discourse so soon , could i perceive a difference between what his parts formerly were , and what they were then . and that wherein the presence of his mind appeared most , was in the total change of an ill habit grown so much upon him , that he could hardly govern himself , when he was any ways heated , three minutes without falling into it ; i mean swearing . he had acknowledged to me the former winter , that he abhorred it as a base and indecent thing , and had set himself much to break it off : but he confessed that he was so over-power'd by that ill custom , that he could not speak with any warmth , without repeated oaths , which , upon any sort of provocation , came almost naturally from him : but in his last remorses this did so sensibly affect him , that by a resolute and constant watchfulness , the habit of it was perfectly master'd ; so that upon the returns of pain which were very severe and frequent upon him , the last day i was with him ; or upon such displeasures as people sick or in pain are apt to take of a sudden at those about them ; on all these occasions he never swore an oath all the while i was there . once he was offended with the delay of one that he thought made not hast enough , with somewhat he called for , and said in a little heat , that damned fellow : soon after i told him , i was glad to find his style so reformed , and that he had so entirely overcome that ill habit of swearing ; only that word of calling any damned , which had returned upon him , was not decent . his answer was , oh that language of fiends which was so familiar to me , hangs yet about me : sure none has deserved more to be damned than i have done . and after he had humbly asked god pardon for it , he desired me to call the person to him , that he might ask him forgiveness : but i told him that was needless , for he had said it of one that did not hear it , and so could not be offended by it . in this disposition of mind did he continue all the while i was with him , four days together ; he was then brought so low that all hope of recovery was gone . much purulent matter came from him with his urine , which he passed always with some pain ; but one day with unexpressible torment : yet he bore it decently , without breaking out into repinings , or impatient complaints . he imagined he had a stone in his passage , but it being searched , none was found . the whole substance of his body was drained by the ulcer , and nothing was left but skin and bone : and by lying much on his back , the parts there began to mortifie . but he had been formerly so low , that he seemed as much past all hopes of life as now ; which made him one morning after a full and sweet nights rest procured by laudanum , given him without his knowledge , to fancy it was an effort of nature , and to begin to entertain some hopes of recovery : for he said , he felt himself perfectly well , and that he had nothing ailing him , but an extream weakness , which might go off in time : and then he entertained me with the scheme he had laid down for the rest of his life , how retired , how strict , and how studious he intended to be : but this was soon over , for he quickly felt that it was only the effect of a good sleep , and that he was still in a very desperate state . i thought to have left him on friday , but not without some passion , he desired me to stay that day : there appeared no symptome of present death ; and a worthy physitian then with him , told me , that though he was so low that an accident might carry him away on a suddain ; yet without that , he thought he might live yet some weeks . so on saturday at four of the clock in the morning i left him , being the 24th of july . but i durst not take leave of him ; for he had expressed so great an unwillingness to part with me the day before , that if i had not presently yielded to one days stay , it was like to have given him some trouble , therefore i thought it better to leave him without any formality . some hours after he asked for me , and when it was told him , i was gone , he seem'd to be troubled , and said , has my friend left me , then i shall die shortly . after that he spake but once or twice till he died : he lay much silent : once they heard him praying very devoutly . and on monday about two of the clock in the morning , he died , without any convulsion , or so much as a groan . the conclvsion . thus he lived , and thus he died in the three and and thirtieth year of his age. nature had fitted him for great things , and his knowledge and observation qualify'd him to have been one of the most extraordinary men , not only of his nation , but of the age he lived in ; and i do verily believe , that if god had thought fit to have continued him longer in the world , he had been the wonder and delight of all that knew him . but the infinitely wise god knew better what was fit for him , and what the age deserved . for men who have so cast off all sense of god and religion , deserve not so signal a blessing , as the example and conviction which the rest of his life might have given them . and i am apt to think that the divine goodness took pity on him , and seeing the sincerity of his repentance , would try and venture him no more in circumstances of temptation , perhaps too hard for humane frailty . now he is at rest , and i am very confident enjoys the fruits of his late , but sincere repentance . but such as live , and still go on in their sins and impieties , and will not be awakened neither by this , nor the other allarms that are about their ears , are , it seems , given up by god to a judicial hardness and impenitency . here is a publick instance of one who lived of their side , but could not die of it : and though none of all our libertines understood better than he , the secret mysteries of sin , had more studied every thing that could support a man in it , and had more resisted all external means of conviction than he had done ; yet when the hand of god inwardly touched him , he could no longer kick against those pricks , but humbled himself under that mighty hand , and as he used often to say in his prayers , he who had so often denied him , found then no other shelter , but his mercies and compassions . i have written this account with all the tenderness and caution i could use , and in whatsoever i may have failed , i have been strict in the truth of what i have related , remembring that of job , will ye lie for god ? religion has strength and evidence enough in it self , and needs no support from lyes , and made stories . i do not pretend to have given the formal words that he said , though i have done that where i could remember them . but i have written this with the same sincerity , that i would have done , had i known i had been to die immediately after i had finished it . i did not take notes of our discourses last winter after we parted ; so i may have perhaps in the setting out of my answers to him , have enlarged on several things both more fully and more regularly , than i could say them in such free discourses as we had . i am not so sure of all i set down as said by me , as i am of all said by him to me . but yet the substance of the greatest part , even of that , is the same . it remains that i humbly and earnestly beseech all that shall take this book in their hands , that they will consider it entirely : and not wrest some parts to an ill intention . god ; the searcher of hearts , knows with what fidelity i have writ it : but if any will drink up only the poison that may be in it , without taking also the antidote here given to those ill principles ; or considering the sense that this great person had of them , when he reflected seriously on them ; and will rather confirm themselves in their ill ways , by the scruples and objections which i set down , than be edified by the other parts of it ; as i will look on it as a great infelicity , that i should have said any thing that may strengthen them in their impieties ; so the sincerity of my intentions will , i doubt not , excuse me at his hands , to whom i offer up this small service . i have now performed , in the best manner i could , what was left on me by this noble lord , and have done with the part of an historian . i shall in the next place say somewhat as a divine . so extraordinary a text does almost force a sermon , though it is plain enough it self , and speaks with so loud a voice , that those who are not awakened by it , will perhaps consider nothing that i can say . if our libertines will become so far sober as to examine their former course of life , with that disingagement and impartiality , which they must acknowledge a wise man ought to use in things of greatest consequence , and ballance the account of what they have got by their debaucheries , with the mischiefs they have brought on themselves and others by them , they will soon see what a mad bargain they have made . some diversion , mirth , and pleasure is all they can promise themselves ; but to obtain this , how many evils are they to suffer ? how have many wasted their strength , brought many diseases on their bodies , and precipitated their age in the pursuit of those things ? and as they bring old age early on themselves , so it becomes a miserable state of life to the greatest part of them ; gouts , stranguries , and other infirmities , being severe reckonings for their past follies ; not to mention the more loathsome diseases , with their no less loathsome and troublesome cures , which they must often go through , who deliver themselves up to forbidden pleasure . many are disfigur'd beside , with the marks of their intemperance and lewdness , and which is yet sadder , an infection is derived oftentimes on their innocent , but unhappy issue , who being descended from so vitiated an original , suffer for their excesses . their fortunes are profusely wasted , both by their neglect of their affairs , they being so buried in vice , that they cannot employ either their time or spirits , so much exhausted by intemperance , to consider them ; and by that prodigal expence which their lusts put them upon . they suffer no less in their credit , the chief mean to recover an intangled estate ; for that irregular expence forceth them to so many mean shifts , makes them so often false to all their promises and resolutions , that they must needs feel how much they have lost , that which a gentleman , and men of ingenuous tempers do sometimes prefer even to life it self , their honour and reputation . nor do they suffer less in the nobler powers of their minds , which , by a long course of such dissolute practices , come to sink and degenerate so far , that not a few , whose first blossoms gave the most promising hopes , have so wither'd , as to become incapable of great and generous undertakings , and to be disabled to every thing , but to wallow like swine in the filth of sensuality , their spirits being dissipated , and their minds so nummed , as to be wholly unfit for business , and even indisposed to think . that this dear price should be paid for a little wild mirth , or gross and corporal pleasure , is a thing of such imparalelled folly , that if there were not too many such instances before us , it might seem incredible . to all this we must add the horrours that their ill actions raise in them , and the hard shifts they are put to to stave off these , either by being perpetually drunk or mad , or by an habitual disuse of thinking and reflecting on their actions , and ( if these arts will not perfectly quiet them ) by taking sanctuary in such atheistical principles as may at least mitigate the sowrness of their thoughts , though they cannot absolutely settle their minds . if the state of mankind and humane societies are considered , what mischiefs can be equal to those which follow these courses . such persons are a plague where ever they come ; they can neither be trusted nor beloved , having cast off both truth and goodness , which procure confidence and attract love : they corrupt some by their ill practices , and do irreparable injuries to the rest ; they run great hazards , and put themselves to much trouble , and all this to do what is in their power to make damnation as sure to themselves as possibly they can . what influence this has on the whole nation is but too visible ; how the bonds of nature , wedlock , and all other relations are quite broken . vertue is thought an antick piece of formality , and religion the effect of cowardise or knavery : these are the men that would reform the world , by bringing it under a new system of intellectual and moral principles , but bate them a few bold and lewd jests , what have they ever done , or designed to do , to make them be remembred , except it be with detestation ? they are the scorn of the present age , and their names must rot in the next . here they have before them an instance of one who was deeply corrupted with the contagion which he first derived from others , but unhappily heightened it much himself . he was a master indeed , and not a bare trifler with wit , as some of these are who repeat , and that but scurvily , what they may have heard from him or some others , and with impudence and laughter will face the world down , as if they were to teach it wisdom ; who , god knows , cannot follow one thought a step further than as they have conned it ; and take from them their borrow'd wit and their mimical humour , and they will presently appear what they indeed are , the least and lowest of men. if they will , or if they can think a little , i wish they would consider that by their own principles , they cannot be sure that religion is only a contrivance , all they pretend to is only to weaken some arguments that are brought for it : but they have not brow enough to say , they can prove that their own principles are true . so that at most they bring their cause no higher , than that it is possible religion may not be true . but still it is possible it may be true , and they have no shame left that will deny that it is also probable it may be true ; and if so , then what mad men are they who run so great a hazard for nothing ? by their own confession it may be there is a god , a judgment , and a life to come ; and if so , then he that believes these things , and lives according to them , as he enjoys a long course of health and quiet of mind , an innocent rellish of many true pleasures , and the serenities which vertue raises in him , with the good will and friendship which it procures him from others ; so when he dies , if these things prove mistakes , he does not out-live his error , nor shall it afterwards raise trouble or disquiet in him if he then ceases to be : but if these things be true , he shall be infinitely happy in that state , where his present small services shall be so excessively rewarded . the libertines on the other side , as they know they must die , so the thoughts of death must be always melancholy to them , they can have no pleasant view of that which yet they know cannot be very far from them : the least painful idea they can have of it is , that it is an extinction and ceasing to be , but they are not sure even of that . some secret whispers within make them , whether they will or not , tremble at the apprehensions of another state ; neither their tinsel-wit , nor superficial learning , nor their impotent assaults upon the weak side as they think of religion , nor the boldest notions of impiety , will hold them up then . of all which i now present so lively an instance , as perhaps history can scarce parallel . here were parts so exalted by nature , and improved by study , and yet so corrupted and debased by irreligion and vice , that he who was made to be one of the glories of his age was become a proverb , and if his repentance had not interposed , would have been one of the greatest reproaches of it . he knew well the small strength of that weak cause , and at first despised , but afterwards abhorred it . he felt the mischiefs , and saw the madness of it ; and therefore though he lived to the scandal of many , he died as much to the edification of all those who saw him ; and because they were but a small number , he desired that he might even when dead yet speak . he was willing nothing should be concealed that might cast reproach on himself , and on sin , and offer up glory to god and religion . so that though he lived a hainous sinner , yet he died a most exemplary penitent . it would be a vain and ridiculous inference , for any from hence to draw arguments about the abstruse secrets of predestination ; and to conclude that if they are of the number of the elect , they may live as they will , and that divine grace will at some time or other violently constrain them , and irresistably work upon them . but as st. paul was called to that eminent service for which he was appointed , in so stupendious a manner , as is no warrant for others to expect such a vocation ; so if upon some signal occasions such conversions fall out , which , how far they are short of miracles , i shall not determine , it is not only a vain but a pernicious imagination , for any to go on in their ill ways , upon a fond conceit and expectation that the like will befal them : for whatsoever gods extraordinary dealings with some may be , we are sure his common way of working is by offering these things to our rational faculties , which , by the assistances of his grace , if we improve them all we can , shall be certainly effectual for our reformation ; and if we neglect or abuse these , we put our selves beyond the common methods of gods mercy , and have no reason to expect that wonders should be wrought for our conviction ; which though they sometimes happen , that they may give an effectual allarm for the a waking of others , yet it would destroy the whole design of religion , if men should depend upon or look for such an extraordinary and forcible operation of gods grace . and i hope that those who have had some sharp reflections on their past life , so as to be resolved to forsake their ill courses , will not take the least encouragement to themselves in that desperate and unreasonable resolution of putting off their repentance till they can sin no longer , from the hopes i have express'd of this lords obtaining mercy at the last ; and from thence presume that they also shall be received , when they turn to god on their death-beds : for what mercy soever god may shew to such as really were never inwardly touched before that time ; yet there is no reason to think that those who have dealt so disinguously with god and their own souls , as designedly to put off their turning to him , upon such considerations , should be then accepted with him. they may die suddenly , or by a disease that may so disorder their understandings , that they shall not be in any capacity of reflecting on their past lives . the inward conversion of our minds is not so in our power , that it can be effected without divine grace assisting . and there is no reason for those who have neglected these assistances all their lives , to expect them in so extraordinary manner at their death . nor can one , especially in a sickness , that is quick and critical , be able to do those things that are often indispensably necessary to make his repentance compleat : and even in a longer disease , in which there are larger opportunities for these things ; yet there is great reason to doubt of a repentance begun and kept up meerly by terrour , and not from any ingenuous principle . in which , though i will not take on me to limit the mercies of god , which are boundless ; yet this must be confessed , that to delay repentance , with such a design , is to put the greatest concernment we have upon the most dangerous and desperate issue that is possible . but they that will still go on in their sins , and be so partial to them , as to use all endeavours to strengthen themselves in their evil course , even by these very things which the providence of god sets before them , for the casting down of these strong holds of sin : what is to be said to such ? it is to be feared , that if they obstinately persist , they will by degrees come within that curse , he that is vnjust , let him be vnjust still : and he that is filthy , let him be filthy still . but if our gospel is hid , it is hid to them that are lost , in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not , least the light of the glorious gospel of christ , who is the image of god , should shine unto them . finis . books printed for and sold by richard chiswel . folio . speed's maps and geography of great britain and ireland , and of foreign parts . dr. cave's lives of the primitive fathers . dr. cary's chronological account of ancient time . wanly's wonders of the little world , or history of man. sir herbert's travels into persia , &c. holyoak's large dictionary , latin and english. sir baker's chronicle of england . causin's holy court. wilson's compleat christian dictionary . bishop wilkin's real character , or philosophical language . pharmacopoeia regalis collegii medicorum londinensis . judge jone's reports of cases in common law. judge vaughan's reports of cases in common law. cave tabulae ecclesiasticorum scriptorum . hobbes's leviathan . lord bacon's advancement of learning . bishop taylor 's sermons . sir dugdale's baronage of england in two vol. ravanelli bibliotheca theologica in three vol. quarto . the several informations exhibited to the committee , appointed by parliament , to enquire into the burning of london . 1667. godwin's roman antiquities . dr. littleton's dictionary . bishop nicholson on the church catechism . the compleat clerk. dr. pierce on gods decrees . history of the late wars of new england . dr. o●●●●● de s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bishop taylor 's disswasive from popery . g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de chr. mediatore . corpus confessionum fidei . sp●●●●mi dubia evangelica 2 vol. dr. gibb's sermons . parkeri disputationes de deo. caryl on job compleat , 12 parts . description and history of the future state of europe , 1 s. fowler 's defence of the design of christianity against john bunynan , 1 s. lyford's discovery of errors and heresies of the times , 4 s. dr. sherlock's visitation-sermon at warrington , 1659. 6 d. dr. west's assize-sermon at dorchester , 1671. 6 d. mr. dobson's sermon at lady farmers funeral , 1670. 8 d. directions for improvement of barren land , 6 d. 〈◊〉 discourse of the light of nature , 〈◊〉 6 d. dr. casaubon's letter to dr. du moulin , about experimental philosophy , 6 d. lord hollis's relation of the unjust accusation of certain french gentlemen charged with a robbery , 1671. 6 d. the magistrates authority asserted , in a sermon by james paston . octavo . conold's notion of schism according to the ancients , with reflections on mr. hales . the posing of the parts . elborow's rationale upon the english service . burnet's vindication of the ordination of the church of england . winchester phrases . wilkin's natural religion . hardcastle's christian geography and arithmetick . ashton's apology for the honours and revenues of the clergy . lord hollis's vindication of the judicature of the house of peers in the case of skinner . — jurisdiction of the house of peers in case of appeals . — jurisdiction of the house of peers in case of impositions . — letter about the bishops vote in capital cases . xenophont . cyropaedia . gr. lat. duporti versio psalmorum graeca . grew's idea of philological hist. continued on roots . spaniards conspiracy against the state of venice . batei elenchus motuum nuperorum in anglia . brown's religio medici . several tracts of mr. hales of eton. bishop sanderson's life . dr. tillotson's rule of faith. gregorii etymologicon parvum . pasoris grammatica grae. novi testamenti , 4 s. rossei gnomologicon poeticum . gouge's word to saints and sinners . dr. simpson's chymical anatomy of the yorkshire spaws ; with a discourse of the original of hot-springs and other fountains , and a vindication of chymical physick , 3s . — his hydrological essays ; with an account of the allum-works at whitby , and some observations about the jaundice , 1 s. 6 d. dr. cox's discourse of the interest of the patient , in reference to physick and physicians , and detection of the abuses practised by the apothecaries , 1 s. 6 d. organon salutis : or an instrument to cleanse the stomach : with divers new experiments of the vertue of tobacco and coffee : to which is prefixed a preface of sir hen. blunt , 1 s. aristotle's problems . dr. cave's primitive christianity , in three parts . a discourse of the nature , ends , and difference of the two covenants , 1672. 2 s. fuller's sermons of peace and holiness , 1672. 1 s. 6 d. lipstus's discourse of constancy , 2 s. 6 r. willis anglicisms latiniz'd , 3 s. 6 d. buckler of state and justice against france's design of universal monarchy , 1673. a free conference touching the present state of england at home and abroad , in order to the designs of france , 1673. 1 s. bishop taylor of confirmation , 1 s. 6 d. mystery of jesuitism , third and fourth parts . 2 s. 6 d. sanderson judicium academ . oxoniens . de solenni liga , 6 d. dr. samway's unreasonableness of the romanists , 1 s. 6 d. record of urines , 1 s. dr. ashton's cases of scandal and persecution , 1674. 1 s. duodecimo . farnabii index rhetoricus . ciceronis orationes selectae . hodder's arithmetick . horatius minellii . sands ovids metamorphosis . grotius de veritate religionis christianae . bishop hacket's christian consolations . vicesimo quarto . lvcius florus . lat. — — id. truth . 16º crums of comfort . valentine's devotions . guide to heaven . books lately printed . gvillim's display of herauldry with large additions . dr. burnet's history of the reformation of the church of eng. fol. dr. burlace's history of the irish rebellion . herodoti historia . grae. lat. fol. mr. jenison's additional narrative about the plot. cole's latin and english dictionary with large additions , 1679. william's sermon before the lord mayor , octob. 12. 1679. — history of the gunpowder treason . — impartial consideration of the speeches of the five jesuits executed for treason , fol. relation of the massacre of the protestants in france . trials of the regicides , 8o. dangerfield's narrative of the pretendepresbyterian plot. mr. brome's two fast. sermons . the famine of the word threatned to israel , and gods call to weeping and mourning . account of the publick affairs in ireland since the discovery of the late plot. dr. jane's fast sermon before the house of commons , april 11. 1679. dr. burnet's two letters written upon the discovery of the late plot , 4 to . decree made at rome 2d march , 1679. condemning some opinions of the jesuits and other casuists , 4 to . mr. jame's visitation sermon , april 9. 1671. 4 to . mr. cave's fast sermon on 30. jan. 79. 4 to . — his assize serm. at leicester , july 31. 79. 4 to . certain genuine remains of the lord bacon in arguments civil , moral , natural , medical , theological and bibliographical ; with a large account of all his works , by mr. tho. tenison , 8o. dr. puller's discourse of the moderation of the church of england , 8o. the original of all the plots in christendom ; with the danger and remedy of schism : by dr. william sawel , master of jesus colledge cambridge , 8o. a discourse of supream power and common right : by a person of quality , 8o. dr. bagshaw's discourse upon select texts against the papist and socinian , 8o. mr. rushworth's historical collections : the second volume , fol. — his large and exact account of the trial of the earl of strafford , with all the circumstances preliminary to , concomitant with , and subsequent upon the same to his death , fol. remarques relating to the state of the church of the three first centuries , wherein are interspersed animadversions on a book , called a view of antiquity : by j. h. written by a. s. speculum baxterianum , or baxter against baxter , 4 to . the country-mans physitian . for the use of such as live far from cities , or market-towns , 8o. dr. burnet's sermon before the lord mayor upon the fast for the fire , 1680. 4o. conversion and persecutions of eve cohan , a person of quality of the jewish religion , lately baptized a christian , 4 to . new england psalms , 12o. an apology for a treatise of humane reason . written by ma. clifford esq 12o. the laws of this realm concerning jesuits , seminary priests , recusants , the oaths of supremacy and allegiance explained by divers judgments and resolutions of the judges ; with other observations thereupon , by william cawley esq fol. in the press . dr . burnet's history of the reformation of the church of england . the second and last part , fol. bishop sanderson's sermons . fowlis his history of romish conspiracies , treasons and usurpations , fol. the tything-table , 4 to . markham's perfect horseman , 8o. robinson's phrases for winchester-school , 8o. the history of the powder-treason , with a vindication of the proceedings and matters relating thereunto , from the exceptions made against it , and more particularly of late years by the author of the catholick apology , and others ; to which is added a parallel betwixt that and the present plot , in 4 to . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30466-e460 vers. 1. vers. 2. a defense of the reflections on the ninth book of the first volum [sic] of mr. varillas's history of heresies being a reply to his answer / by g. burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1687 approx. 186 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 81 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30334 wing b5774 estc r8180 12251945 ocm 12251945 57150 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30334) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 57150) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 910:5) a defense of the reflections on the ninth book of the first volum [sic] of mr. varillas's history of heresies being a reply to his answer / by g. burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [127], 144 p. printed for j.s., amsterdam : 1687. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. advertisement: p. [3] errata: p. 144. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng varillas, -monsieur -(antoine), 1624-1696. -histoire de l'hérésie. reformation -england. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 john latta sampled and proofread 2003-12 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a defence of the reflections on the ninth book of the first volum of mr. varillas's history of heresies . being a reply to his answer . by g. burnet , d.d. amsterdam , printed for j. s. 1687. the author's advertisement . i do not think it necessary to write any thing in the way of preface to so short a book ; but since there appeared a long preface before the french translation of my reflections , to which mr. varillas has made some sort of answer . the same worthy person , having given himself the trouble to translate likewise my reply thought it necessary to say somewhat in defence of his former preface : i have translated that into english , since it gives a further discovery of mr. varillas's sincerity . the translator's preface , put in english. i had accused mr. varillas in the preface which i had set before dr. burnet's reflections , that he had in his history of heresies contradicted several things which he had affirmed some years before that , in his history of wickliaffianism : for tho the two first books of the former , are indeed the same work with the latter , as to the main parts of them ; yet several considerable alterations were observed to be between them : many things being left out in the history of heresies , which were in that of wickliffianism . to all this mr. varillas answers , in a few words ; and says , 1. that the history of wickliffianism was printed without his knowledg . 2. that his name was not prefixed to it . 3. that tho it contained indeed several things that were taken from him , yet it contained others that were none of his . 4. that he not only never owned that book for his , but that he moved to have it suppressed : and that at his instance an order of council was granted , for suppressing it , and for fining the printer in 600. livres : from all which he concludes , that he is not at all accountable for any thing that is in that book : and that no inferences ought to be drawn from it to his prejudice . it is true , that it cannot be proved that mr. varillas sold the copy to certe , the merchant of lions : but it is certain , that he pay'd dear for it ; and that the copy that was sold him , was very clean writ ; and that there were some marginal notes writ upon it , by another hand , tho these were not indeed of great consequence : the stationer was also so much scandalised , when he saw , that iohn hus was represented so advantagiously , and that the council of constance was so ill spoke of , that he intended to have altered the copy a little ; but in that he was not left to his liberty . the book was printed , and sold publickly , both at lions and grenoble , for some considerable time : and it passed generally for mr. varillas's book , both among the roman catholicks , and the protestants : the more moderate of the roman catholicks , recommended the book to the protestants , as an evidence to convince them , that there were writers in their church , that even in matters of consequence , durst say the truth very boldly . nor was it then so much as pretended by any person whatsoever , that there were any passages foisted in , which were not of the authors writing . the book was not only looked on as writ by mr. varillas , in the remoter provinces , but even in paris it self it past for his : and this report went so current , that mr. la rogue spoke of it in his iournal last year , 10 as a thing of which no doubt had been made : for he tells us , that mr. varillas begins his two first books with the history of wickliff , of john hus , and jerome of prague , which had already appeared in several impressions , under the title of the history of wickliffianism . so that it is certain , that the order of council which mr. varillas procured against the printer of lions , for suppressing that book , made no great noise at paris , otherwise the author of the iournal would have heard of it . the preface that was set before the edition at lions , is indeed writ by one , who says , that the author would not give his consent to the printing of the book : and for that reason , he does not set his name before it : but he does not say a word of any additions that are made to it ; tho he shews himself to be both so zealous for his religion , and so full of esteem for mr. varillas , that it is not probable that he would have suffered any additions to be made , especially such as those that were marked in the former preface . on the contrary , tho he says , he will not answer , but that there may be some faults in the printing , yet he affirms , that none will be found that contradict the truth of the history . i will not be so malicious , as to say , that it is probable this preface was of mr. varillas's own composing ; since it is not likely that there are many besides himself that think so well of him , as the writer of that preface does : and the artifice of printing books , by the authors themselves , and yet in the name of another , as if their consent was not obtained , is so common , that mr. varillas may think , that he escapes well , if he is not charged with fouler and more inexcusable impostures than this is . but it is certain , that all those additions , which mr. varillas does now reject , and writ in the same stile with the rest of the work , and no man that is acquainted with his way of writing , will think , that if he had intended to have said those things , which he now disowns , he would have expressed himself in other terms . and besides all this , he cannot think it is enough to say , that there are some things in the history of wickliffianism , that are taken out of his book ; since the whole body of the work is word for word the same , excepting those alterations : so that if he would express himself with any sort of sincerity , he ought to have said , that these two books weere indeed his . but since he does not think fit to own those passages , that are now struck out , he ought only to have added , that some additions were put into the former editions without his knowledge ; instead of setting this matter down so indefinitly as he has done , by which he pretends to cover himself , and to disavow whatsoever passages are abjected to him , as he shall think it convenient for him to do . but it is now a little too late , for mr. varillas to make use of this excuse : and let him say what he will , he must at least justify himself for a●l that is in his history of heresies . an ingenious author has lately shewed him , that he has now rendred himself accountable for the former book , even with all the faults that were in it . let him defend himself as he can : but let him not fancy that he will escape a second time , by casting the blame of the faults that are now in this edition , as well as they were in the former , over on the printers or book-sellers . as for the order of council , it is so far from proving , that the history of wickliaffianism was none of his , as mr. varillas pretends , that it proves the contrary very clearly ; for otherwise how could he have obtained it , but by affirming that is was a book of his , and that a copy of it was stollen from him . on what other ground could the merchant of lions have been fined : for he had obtained the licence for printing it , both of the kings advocat and his attorney , according to the custom , which is printed at the end of the preface , signed by them both : and it is certain , that such a licence as this , was sufficient to secure the stationer against all prosecution at the kings sute : nor could mr. varillas found his complaint upon any other ground , but this , that he was the author of the book ; since he could not prosecute the stationer for printing another mans book . there is another reason which mr. varillas will not easily answer , that shews him to be the author of all those retracted passages ; which is , that it is well known , that no man in france could be inclined , from any consideration of interest , to magnify iohn hus , or to decry the council of constance : on the contrary , this would have been of very ill consequence to them , and might have brought them into great trouble : so that men will be inclined rather to think , that at first mr. varillas writ his own true sentiments touching iohn hus and that council , which afterwards he thought fit to suppress , when he saw how much prejudice this might bring him : a man is easily believed when he writes against his interest , but if it appears , that a man has either a design to raise himself , or at least to preserve himself , the world is too ill-natured , not to suspect all that he can say , let him use what terms soever he will , when it once appears that these are his motives : especially if there is any other occasion given to suspect his sincerity : and in a word , all his complaints of the printer of lions , and even the order of council and fine , will pass with jealous people , but as a collusion , so that after all , i do very much apprehend , that he greatest part of his readers , will still believe him to be accountable for those suppressed passages , whether he will or not ; chiefly when they consider , that there was an effectual means , by which mr. varillas might have cleared himself of those imputations , of which he has not made any use : and that was , the refuting by good evidences all those additions , that were in the edition of lions ; and the disproving them by solid reasons . for it is not enough barely to affirm the contrary , especially in this case , in which it cannot be denied , but that there are still specious enough reasons , to induce us to believe them , not withstanding his bare denial . a defence of the reflections on the nin'th book of mr. varillas's history of heresies ; being a reply to his answer . mr. varillas has given me in his title-page all possible grounds to expect foul dealing from him ; for tho the titles of books are too publick to be falsified ; yet he that will be thought an original in so many other things , it seems resolved to begin with one that is a little extraordinary ; for common impostures are below him . i had entitled my book , reflections on his history of heresies , and more particularly on his ninth book , and he gives it a new title , as if it had been a critick on the two first tomes of his history of the revolutions that have hapned in europe in the matters of religion : this was not a failure of memory , but a studied imposture : for he represents my design as if it had been against his whole work , and upon that he charges me for having singled out only some particulars , of which he mentions a few : and adds , that tho all these were errors , his first ten books would deserve still to be believed , since his mistakes were only matters of small consequence , and in this there was nothing but that to which any man was subject . but when i undertook only to examin his ninth book , if i have discovered , that all that relates to england is a contexture of falsehoods , then i am sure i have quite overthrown one of his ten books ; and by overthrowing that , i have very much shaken the credit of all the other nine : since the faults that i charge on him , are not only some small mistakes , but a series of impostures : and the greatest of all is , that he pretends to cite vouchers which are not in being . i will not say that his errors are more than what any man is subject to : but i do not know any man that has ever committed so many : mr. varillas charges me for writing against him in so barbarous a manner , keeping none of the rules of decency : and to let the world see how little he knows the things which he cites , he says , that the two most passionate criticks of any age , scaliger and schoppius , observed these with great exactness ; but for him , he is resolved to play the part of a christian , and so he will only answer the things in which truth is concerned , without regarding those that relate to himself . i kept all the measures that i thought became a christian , with relation to his person : nor have i said one word of him , but as he is a writer . i have not sent to paris , to have a series of his life transmitted to me ; on the contrary , when some here had offered me , while i writ my reflections , some particulars that were to his prejudice , i would not hearken to them ; for i said , i would only examin mr. varillas as he was an author , but not as he was a man or a christian . i confess , the confidence with which he asserts so many impostures , gave me a just indignation against him , so that i resolved to ruin his credit as he was an historian , because i saw he deserved it so very ill , and made so bad a use of it : but if he expects , that i measure his being a christian by this answer , i will have as bad an opinion of him that way , as i have of him in the quality of an historian . he says , i have cut off and supprest , and changed his words , that so i might represent them as i thought fit : but in that i appeal to the reader . i did not think fit to reprint all he had writ , nor will i now reprint his answer , as he has done my reflections . i have indeed desired my printer to reprint it by it self , if he finds his account in it : and i think that is sufficient . i confess , i cannot enough wonder at his printing of mine , since it discovers too plainly the defects of his answer ; and i am apt to think that his printer has engaged him to it , as a thing that would have a good appearance . in this the printer did wisely : for he was sure his book would go off the better ; but mr. varillas did a greater kindness to his stationer than to himself . nor do i believe , that he intended it at first ; for there are some parts of my reflections so falsly represented by him in his answer , that i cannot believe he would have done it , if he had then intended to have printed my reflections : otherwise i must conclude , that his judgment and his sincerity are both of a piece : for instance , could a man , that had intended to have printed what i had said , concerning the lord darnley , being the next heir after queen mary to the crown of england , so that he might have been a dangerous competitor to her in that succession , he having been born and bred in england . could , i say , this man pretend that i had affirmed , that the lord darnley was a dangerous competitor to her for the crown of scotland , and his putting that in the citation he makes of my words , instead of the crown of england , would appear strange in any other , but in him such strains are so common , that i am not surprised at this ; yet he has the impudence to triumph upon it , and to spend some pages to shew that her title was undisputed . i find many more instances of the like foul dealing , which makes me conclude , that mr. varillas did not design at first to print my reflections : and besides this , he copies out sometimes half pages of my words , which he would not have done , if he had intended to have given them entire to the reader : for they are not so much to his advantage , that he had reason to desire that they should be twice read . he tells the world , that if he had a mind to imitate my passionate way of writing , and if he would write my life , ever since i was chaplain to my lady dutchess of hamilton , to this present time , that i am by my fault become a citizen of holland , he would write things so singular , that they would make his answer the most agreeable book that had been printed of a great while for this i know there have been men at work both in scotland and england , to furnish mr. varillas with materials to defame me : and because i will conceal nothing that i know that is to his honour , i was informed that he writ back to england , that he would not medle with those personal things ; and that he wisht , that instead of these , they would send him good memorials relating to the matters in dispute between him and me . this was to act like a fair enemy , i confess . but i do not say this to bespeak his favour , that so he may not print all those informations that were sent to him from a society , that having forged them , had a mind to put another on publishing them . let him print them when he will ; for i am not affraid of all the hurt they can do me : and indeed , if one may judge of this epocha of my life , by the two periods here mentioned , the writing upon such informations may very well agree with mr. varillas's other histories ; for these may be authors of as good credit , for ought i know , as his florimond de raymond was . i was never chaplain to the dutchess of hamilton ; i do not deny this , as judging it any diminution to me , if it had been true : for i do honour both her person and family so much , that i would rather value myself self upon it , if i had been ever in her family : but i never was caplain to any subject ; i was chaplain to the late king , but to no other . the last period passes my apprehension ; mr. varillas reproaches me for the meanness and flatness of my stile : for he that penetrates into so many secrets , that never were , can even judge of an english stile by a translation : yet since that he is the first who has reproached me for so very bad a stile , i ought to bear this the more patiently : but since he fancies that he has attained the sublime of stile , i would gladly know to which of all longins rules , this expression belongs , that by my fault i am become a citizen of holland . by my fault seems so odly placed here , and a citizen of holland is so strang a way of expressing my being naturalised by the states , and would intimate as if mr. varillas's ignorance went so far as to fancy that holland was a city ; that since there are two sorts of sublimes , the one of nonsence , and the other of eloquence , i will not take upon me to judge to which of these this belongs . for it is too great a presumption in one whose stile is so low as mine , to examin the flights of so elevated a writer . as for the rest of this memoire , i am very little concerned whether he print it or not . i have behaved my self so of late , as to shew that i am neither afraid of any discoveries that can be made , nor disturbed at any calumnies , by which my enemies may endeavour to blacken me : and as i had much rather have mr. varillas print all that has been sent him concerning me , than to publish it up and down paris : so whatever he thinks fit to say of me , shall be either treated by me with the silent scorn , that an ill made lye deserves , or shall be answered as the matter may happen to require it . but before i enter into any more particular enquiries , i will in general state the whole matter , as it lies between mr. varillas and my self : and then i will leave it even to the judgment of a reader that may be partial of his side . he had published two volums of the revolutions that have hapned in europe , in the matters of religion : and with relation to english affairs he had pretended in his preface , that he did found that part of his work on card. de bellay's letters , besides several other papers that he cited on the margin of his ninth book : but he had given no intimations where any of these were to be found : i had on the other hand writ the history of that time , in which i not only cited many original papers , but had likewise printed the most important of them , and had also told where they were to be found : as for those which i have cited from publick records , they are accessible to all the world , for the greatest part : and for those that are not to be come at but by a warrant under the kings hand , that is so easily had , and would be so readily granted at present , that i may with some degrees of just assurances say , that i ought to be believed till it can be made appear that i have been guilty of any imposture in those citations : and the stir that has been made of late to supply mr. varillas with matter against me , and the meanness of those objections with which they have furnished him , gives me reason to conclude , that they know they cannot accuse me of fraud or forgery , in any of my citations : as for the other original papers , that i mention , they are either in the cotton library in corpus christi colledge in cambridge , or in some other private hands : but i have cited all these so particularly , as to tell whether my vouchers were originals or copies ; and have told so exactly where those of the cotton library may be found , that a man cannot be a minute there , without being able to discover , whether i have cited sincerely or not . i had also in my history confined my self so severely to the materials with which i was furnished , that i resolved not to add one tittle to that which appeared clearly to me to be well verified : and tho mr. varillas reproaches me , for writing so superficially , and for mentioning only publick events ; yet i am not ashamed to own that where authentick proofs failed me : i would not impose upon my readers so far , as to give them my imaginations for true history ; where i am forced to guess , i warn my reader of it ; and when the grounds on i went seemd which i went seemed to me only probable , i advertised my reader likewise of it : so that i writ my history with the same scrupulous exactness , that i would have used , if i had been required to give a deposition upon oath before a judge . this being the case , i do not pretend to be believed upon my own word : i do not say , the state of the records and libraries is altered since i writ ; i do not pretend that i saw many papers in confidence , so that i cannot in honour discover where they are . i will not say , that mr. varillas proves himself to be an impostor by such pretences ; but i am sure this is the method that an impostor would use : and whenever i pretend to excuse my self in this manner , i am content to past for one . his defence of himself from the four thousand citations of du tillet , and peter du puy , that are now all found to be false , tho he says , it is as certain they were all true when those eminent authors writ , is another of his sublime strains : for if they are now false , they were false at all times : but if a man that has so low a stile as mine is , dares ofter to correct him , i crave leave to tell him , that he should have said , that tho the proofs of those citations cannot now be found , yet there is good reason to believe that those authors cited them sincerely . this i guess to be his meaning , tho his sublime wants sometimes a little clearness : but it is very probable , that if those authors had been called to an account for their citations , they could have answered for themselves in another manner than mr. varillas has done . i confess , when i heard that he was writing an answer to my reflections , i could not imagin where he could attack me : i knew i had authentick proofs for all that i had laid to his charge ; yet i fancied he might have seen some letters of that time , in which those matters had been represented as he relates them : for false newes are writ at all times , and from all courts : and if he had been able to justify himself by such vouchers , this would have saved his own reputation , tho the proofs i had given to the contrary , would have had still force enough to discredit his history : i fancied at least that he would have cited some of cardinal de bellay's letters : but i was surprised when i received his answer , and saw , that instead of all these authorities , of which he had boasted , that the only two authors that he cites , are florimond de raimond , and himself ; the two worst writers that he could find : if in his preface he had owned that he had done nothing , but copied florimond de raimond ; that he was his warrant ; that his testimony was the authentick proof of what he affirmed ; and that he himself was only florimond de raymond's eccho ; if , i say , he had owned in his preface all this , then i acknowledg , that i had no reason to complain of him , since he justifies himself by so many pages cited from that author , that they make the half of his answer ; but since he pretends to write upon original papers , and yet does not cite any one , i leave it to all indifferent men to conclude , what account is to be hereafter made of all the histories that either has come or can come from him : let him print his vouchers , or at least , let him tell where they may be found ; otherwise i will take the liberty to tell him , that all his histories are romances , which he has drawn as to the matters of fact out of the worst authors , and the most decried of any that had writ in the last age ; and to which he adds a refining of policy , such as his own invention could furnish ; so that without the least aggravation , i do affirm , that one may seek the history of alexander the great , or of augustus , in the romances of cassandra or cleopatra , with as much assurance as the history of the reformation in mr. varillas : all the difference between him and those romantick writers being , that they built indeed on good authors , upon which they grafted their own fictions , yet in such a manner that no body could be deceived by them : whereas mr. varillas had founded his romance on very bad authors , and he delivers his fictions with such an air of sincerity , as may very probably deceive those who believe too easily . so that i see nothing that is left for him , to preserve that small remnant of reputation that it seems a coquelin , or some few of his friends , retain yet for him ; but to own that he intended not to write true histories , but only to amuse the world with a new sort of nouvelles : in which the point at which he aimed , was not to tell truth ; but that as the writers of plays or romances , think the best way to work upon the passions , is to dress up known storys with moving circumstances , since men are not so apt to be affected when all is fiction ; so he fancied , that he could not raise a rage against heresy , and an admiration of that conduct that has driven it out of france , by any other method so successfully , as by this that he has taken . if , i say , he will betake himself to this defence . i will pursue him no further ; but till he is so sincere as to confess his impostures , i will take the pains yet once more to unmask him , and after i have laid him open for this answer , as well as for the second volum of his history , then i shall take leave of him : and will promise him , that for ought i know , i will never write more against him ; for this one good reason , which is , that i will never read one word of his writings any more ; and now i doubt no but i shall make him to be so well known , that to turn his approver in mr. coquelins words a little altered , his works will need no more to be decried ; for the bare name of the author will be beyond all that a can be said for their disparagement . i confess , i cannot imagin what a sort of a man mr. coquelin is , whose approbation accompanies all mr. varillas's late works ; for it seems he cannot find another that is so complying , and therefore he does not change his man. i fancy mr. coquelin must be profoundly learned in the oriental tongues , or in the mathematicks ; for these are the studies in the world , that are most opposite to that of history ; therefore i conclude , that mr. varillas comes to him as to the person in the whole sorbon , that is the most unacquainted with late transactions : and perhaps he finds him resolving some probleme , or reading some arabick manuscript ; and as all men , tho addicted to one sort of study , yet are willing to be thought universal ; so no doubt mr. coquelin hopes to pass for a good judge in history , by approving mr. varillas's books : but he will do better to go on in the course of his other studies , in which he may be very eminent for ought i know ; but i am sure he is a very ill judge of the history of the last age. i shall not take the pains to examin all that recital that mr. varillas makes of the pensions that have been offered to him ; and that have been refused by him . i will believe them all for once : and this is a great matter for me to do , since he himself is the only author of this piece of his own history ; for his credit is not very authentical with me ; but all that can be made out of this , is , that he had once gained some reputation , as a man that had discovered many secrets , and that had penetrated into many intrigues ; all which he has made a shift now to lose ; for as long as he went about the ruelles of paris , those things might perhaps pass with less exact judges ; but now that he will carry his visions further , he is not like to be solicited on all hands by the offers of pensions any more : so he must now try to keep up the value of his books ; for the sale of them , being perhaps the only revenue that is left him ; he must maintain their credit better than he has done , otherwise both they and he will sink in their price . it is not the dedicating his books to a great monarch , that will support their reputation . it seems he fancies , that those poor flateries that he has offered up at that altar , give him such a pretension to a protection from thence , that he may boldly invite that prince to be a witness to this dispute of his with me ; not considering how much it is below the sublimity of such a monarch , to be appealed to on so mean an occasion : it is a forgetting the respect due to crowned heads , to run to them with every trifle : but mr. varillas will needs engage the king in the quarrel , and represent himself as his champion , not doubting but that this his zeal for his glory will receive some eminent reward ; yet if the reward is proportioned to the service that is done , it will not go far : and as it seems the iesuites have desired mr. varillas not to meddle with the concerns of their order ; for they are too good judges not to know that the services of so decried an author , are injuries rather than favours ; so it is not to be doubted , but those two eminentmen , who have consecrated their pens to their princes honour , will be moved with a just indignation when they see how poorly it is defended by mr. varillas ; and that they will procure an order , prohibiting him to medle with subjects that are so far above him . but it is very likely , that this precaution will be needless : and that he will quickly bring himself as low in the esteem of the world , as it seems he is high in his own . for not contended to tell the world , that he rises above the vulgar , and that he has studied to imitate the antients , leaving , as in a region below him , such poor writers as i am , to be reckoned among the historians of the lower form , as if all this were too little , he will carry his own commendations further : and since this ingrateful age does not pay him the esteem it owes him , he will make all that up in a most superlative value that he puts on himself . he is not satisfied to compare himself to tacitus , but thinks the characters that he gives are even superiour to those of tacitus . i will not disturb him in the peaceable possession of those good thoughts that he has of his own productions , in which i believe he has few rivals : but as for that small disposition that i once had to think well of them , with which he reproaches me sometimes , he has so fully convinced me of my mistake , that he has quite cured me of it ; i had softned a severe censure i put on his works , by saying , that his writings wanted none of the beauties of history , but that of truth ; where the incense that i gave in the former part of the period , was intended to carry some mitigation to the sharpness of the latter part of it ; but as one that is extreamly in love with himself , misrepresents even the reproofs given him , as if they had been praises ; so he turns this as if i had said , that he wanted none of the qualities of a good historian , without adding any expression of that of truth ; yet because i confess my words gave some occasion to this mistake , and since i would not be willingly guilty of any thing that may encrease his distemper , i do now acknowledg , that i writ these words too carelesly , and that i shewed more good breeding than exactness in them . but to let him see how apt i am to confess my faults , and to retract them , i do acknowledg that he has so fully convinced me of my error , that i am now like to fall into the other extream , and to allow him none of the beauties of history , unless it be a smooth way of telling his dreams ; for there is as little judgment as there is truth in what he writes . i hope he is now satisfied with my sincerity in this confession ; and to shew him how sensible i am of my former error , i shall take great care in all time coming , not to commend him beyond what i think is due to him , and then i am sure i shall be very sparing , and will praise his works as little as those learned men at paris do , who begin now to speak out to the world that which they said to me in discourse , while i had the honour to see them . mr. hosier's letter is no great sign of his admiring mr. varillas , as much as it seems he himself does ; and tho i do not think fit to name the persons that gave me those ill impressions of his works , for which he reproaches me , yet i do not doubt but some of them will name themselves too soon perhaps for his honour . a man is indeed tempted by the confidence with which mr. varillas proposes his fictions to the world , to express his indignation in terms that are perhaps sharper than is fitting : and this carried me into a smartness in my reflections upon him , that had never appeared in any of my other writings : the cause , the present conjuncture of affairs , and the reputation that mr. varillas had gained , seemed to require it : but now i do assure him , that how much raillery or contempt soever he may find in my reply to him , he shall meet with no mixture of anger . i must put a little salt and seasoning in a writing of this nature : for it is a dull business to go on in a flat strain like his , and only to say this is false , and that is impudent , and to sprinkle here and there a course piece of raillery . i will therefore make my self and my reader a little merry with him : for a very bad entertainment must be set off with guarnishings : and mr. varilla's errors and his ignorance exposed to the world , would make but an ill regale , if they were not quickned with a little humour . a very short answer carrys off all that is material in this book ; for the only authority that is brought being florimond de raymond ; as soon as i have shewed how little credit is due to him , then the substance of his whole answer is examined : he lived at bourdeaux far from england , and from the knowledg of english affairs : he had no sort of instruction relating to our matters , but what he drew from sanders , whose eccho he was , as much as now mr. varillas is his . so that since sanders was the text upon which both he and all the other writers of the roman communion had only enlarged , i had reason to conclude , that the overthrowing sander's credit , did at the same time refute all the other authors that had copied him . and i had done this so effectually , that no man has since that time pretended to justify sanders . i do not think every man is bound to read my book ; yet i may say , that every man that goes to write upon those matters , is bound to read it , and either to discover that the authorities upon which i have founded my history , are false , or to forsake those common mistakes that forreigners had taken up on sander's authority . it is no excuse for a man that has followed those authors to say , that such a man had said those things before him ; unless it appears , that the voucher was both well informed , and that he was a sincere and dispassionate man. now as florimond de raymond had no particular informations of our affairs , so a man sees in every period of his history , so much of a malignant spirit against the reformation , that this gives a just prejudice against all that he says : and if i have proved beyond a possibility of contradiction , that the relations that he gives must be false , they will not become true because a florimond , or a varillas from him , have affirmed them . as for that part of florimond's history , which relates to the affairs of england , it is not so much as pretended to be writ by him : for the contrary is expresly intimated in the preface , & his son seems to claim the praise of that to himself . but upon the whole matter , it is first very much doubted , whether he was at all the author of those books that passed under his name . for many have said , that f. richeome a iesuite writ them , and borrowed the name of a councellour of parliament to give his work the more credit : perhaps it was thought necessary to set a writer of some name in opposition to mr. de thou , whose history was writ with too much sincerity to be acceptable to that order . peter mathieu in his history says positively , that it was believed that f. richeome was the author of the books that went under the name of florimond de raimond . viguier in his theater of antichrist , and rivet in his answer to the iesuite , say the same thing : and these were men that writ soon after florimond's books appeared . blondel was also of the same mind ; and tho he aggreed with the pretended florimond concerning the falsehood of the story of pope ioan , upon which he had also writ a book ; yet he spends forty pages towards the end of his book , to shew how poorly florimond had disproved it , and lays him open in a vast number of errors , that he had committed , of which some are extream absurd . it is true , some of the writers of the church of rome have magnified him highly : a man that writ so passionatly for them , could not fail of this : so no wonder if possevin and gretzer cry him up : and we see by a letter of card. baronius , ( published by mr. colomies ) writ to florimond de raimond , how highly he valued him , and that he looked on him as a most extraordinary person . but all this will not prevail much on those who knew the genius of those writers , and how apt they were to magnify every one that was passionate in their cause . yet these praises given him by strangers , could not raise his reputation in france , where he never passed for a writer of any note , either for judgment or sincerity : and he was as little esteemed in the quality of a judge , as he deserves to be for his writings ; for the character that was given of him , was no less severe than pleasant : iudicat sine conscientia , libros scribit sine scientia , & aedificat sine pecunia : he judges without conscience , he writes books without knowledge , and builds without money . and now this is the hero of mr. varillas , upon whose testimony he triumphs : and he who perhaps a year ago , would have resented it , as the greatest indignity that could have been done him , if it had been said , that he did nothing but copy such an author , and that he was only his eccho , is now glad to fly to so poor a shift ; for which he is , as i hear , so much censured in paris , that it is perhaps too great a cruelty in me to urge this matter too far . yet mr. varillas has a sublim tour in every thing , so that instead of setting before us the reasons that led him to depend upon such an author , which might pass with the world , such , as that he was well informed , and that he was free of passion : he gives one , which indeed no man besides himself would ever have thought on : he tells us , that he had a wife and children : now it is not easy to find out the force of this argument : but a man must rise above the vulgar as much as mr. varillas , to comprehend his lofty strains . if to have wife and children makes a man a good writer , one may conclude without any further enquiry , that mr. varillas has neither . here is also a new argument for he marriage of the clergy , that has never been yet thought on , yet an ordinary capacity like mine , cannot comprehend why this should have made florimond de raimond a good writer , and why it had not the same effect on mr. de thou . so i think i have said enough concerning this councellour of bourdeaux , and his wife and children . there are two other general considerations , which i will propose before i enter into the more particular review of his answer : he argues in several places against matters that i had proved by the most authentical evidences possible ; and from some improbabilities he pretends to overthrow what i had said : and in one place he thinks he argues strongly , when he says , i cannot shew him an instance that the like ever fell out before : an impossibility is indeed a very good answer to all the proofs that can be brought : and such are the evidences by which i overthrow the calumnies thrown on anne bullen : but improbabilities ought never to be set against positive proofs : for men are so apt to be guided by humour and caprice , and are sometimes so blinded by passion and interest , that they do often depart from all the rules both of prudence and decency : nor is it a reason to be alledged by any , but mr. varillas , that such things cannot be true , because i cannot shew the like instance in any other history . for supposing that were true , every age , as it produces originals , so affords new subjects of amasement : for instance , it may seem incredible that a man could have writ so many books of history as mr. varillas has done , in which he mentions nothing less than letters , instructions , and other original papers ; and this in an age in which men are not easy nor implicit , but love to examin matters , and that also upon subjects of religion , in which it was probable , that some men might call him to an account ; and that yet this man , when called to an account , should not cite one of all these papers , but should build only on a doubted and despised author : and that when he had reason to think , that this other writings might be critically examined , he went on in the same careless and bold strain ; a man may argue very strongly , that this cannot be true ; and it is certain , that mr. varillas cannot give an instance that the like ever fell out before ; yet after all , the thing is true ; so that improbabilities may be justly set against probabilities ; but they are unreasonably urged against positive proofs . truth is truth still , tho it had never fallen out but once ; as mr. varillas is an original ; for there was never an author before him that carried on impostures in matters of history so impudently as he has done . mr. varillas cites likewise many passages out of his other books , to shew that he was not ignorant of those things for which i charge him , and which contradict what he has writ in his history of heresies : but first , i do assure him , i have not read his other books with so much exactness as to remember all that is in them . i was indeed at first surprised , with the many discoveries that he seemed to make ; but i very quickly made another discovery , that destroyed them all : and found , that he was a writer of romances , and not of true histories , unless it be in that sense in which lucian uses that title : so i am nothing concerned in his other books , but intend only to destroy his credit , which , i think my self as much obliged to do , as to discover a false coyner : if he has writ differently in his other books , from what he writes in this , i am not bound to receive or bear all his contradictions : and from this very thing , by which he pretends to justify himself , he destroys his own credit ; for if he had writ upon good instructions , all would have been uniform : for truth is ever the same , and does not change faces : but a man that writes his own visions , cannot carry always along with him all his dreams : and therefore he fits them to the present occasion ; so that his having reported them in another manner in some of his other books , does not at all justify him , but gives a further discovery of his romantick impostures . i now come to a more particular enquiry , and shall hereafter follow him more closely ; but i will represent only the most eminent of the impertinencies that are in his book , and strike the eye ; for to search after all , were both endless and needless . i. he will needs justify his view of heresy , delivered in a prophetick stile , from titus livius's beginning ; who only tells what he intended to do himself : which any writer besides mr. varillas may very well do ; for those who write upon true information , know what they go about ; but an author of romances cannot so easily fore-tel this : i do not quarrel with him for telling what he intended to do himself , but for representing the progress of heresy in a fore-telling stile . it seems his acquaintance among the roman authors is equal to his knowledg of manuscripts ; otherwise he could have found others that had begun their works as livy does , without going so far down as to st. ierome ; and if that father had not done the church more service in writing on the scriptures , than he did in the writing of lives , his authority would be as small as mr. varillas ought to be . ii. i tell him once for all , that i do not believe a title of the negotiation of mr. de noailles , that he cites , nor of any other upon his word , unless he tells where they may be found ; and if mr. de noailles was instructed to go to the duke of northumberland , when edward the sixth was but thirteen year old ; then the paper must be false : for dudley was not created duke of northumberland before edward the sixth was fifteen years old : there is a great difference between governing a prince , and being his governour : all the world believed , that cardinal de richelieu governed lewis the thirteenth ; yet no body called him his governour . iii. he denies , that in the two editions of his book printed at paris , the epithet simple is added to the quality of gentleman , with which he had honoured the lord darnley ; in this i must refer my self to those who have the french editions ; but all who have read the impression of amsterdam , see that he does me wrong in saying , that i have added it . no , i leave such practices to mr. varillas . i have taken some pains to find a book of the paris edition in this countrey , but have not been able to do it : yet as for his answer , and his second volum , i have them before me of the paris edition , so there shall be no more room for any such dispute for the future ; but it is strange , that this word simple should have been soisted into the dutch impression , if it was not in the paris edition : words are left out , but seldom added in those impressions , that do only copy another . the series of the narration makes me believe , that mr. varillas denies this , with the same sincerity that he affirms other things , why did he call him a gentleman without adding any other description of his quality ; for let him say what he will , of the honour of that title , yet all the world knows , that when a man is upon such an occasion qualified barely as a gentleman ; that it is understood , that he has no higher rank , nor any particular distinction : and that which comes after this , that by this marriage the queen grew contemptible to all her subjects ; shews , that even tho simple were not to be found in the paris editions , yet it must be understood . but because mr. varillas will pretend to know the scottish story , he offers to recriminate . in short , those who sent him that story of my life , have also furnished him with some . errors for which he charges me in such heinous terms as to call them faults of vast importance , which the meanest of all the little schollars at edinburgh would have avoided . i ought to fall a trembling here ; for i know there would be no quarter for me if i fell into mr. varillas's hands : yet all these dreadful words come only to this , that she whom i called the lord darnley's grandmother , proves to be his great grandmother ; and that she whom i call isabel , was margaret . and are not these justly to be aggravated with such severity , as to say , that these were faults of the grossest sort , against the first elements of the history of my countrey . i forgive mr. varillas for magnifying those mistakes , since he can meet with no other : and i do not find my self a whit troubled , if writing in holland , where i had not the requisites of books or papers , i did not carry the race of the family of lennox so exactly in my memory , but that i might mistake so far as to call a great grandmother a grandmother ; and there having been a famous lady isabel dowglas , if i mistook isabel for margaret , this is no great matter . but he charges me with a third , because i said , that the branch of the lennox's came out of the family of the stewards , before the crown came into it by marriage ; whereas he tells me , i should have said at the same time , since the first of the family of lennox was brother to him that married the heir of the crown . if i had said , long before , he might have challenged me for it ; but the younger brother being born before that marriage , and not being descended from it , i used all necessary caution in my words , my design being only to shew , that the house of lennox , by the paternal descent , had no relation to the crown : after this our author , to make some reparation to the royal family , reckons up the honours that some branches of the house of lennox had in france , as that they were marquisses , counts of aubigny , viceroys of naples , admirals of sicily , and mareshals of france : tho to make up this catalogue of honour , the same man runs charles the fifths fate , to be subdivided into two or three dignities . but mr. varillas ought to know , that the dignity of the k. of england's birth is too great a thing to receive any addition by the imployments that those of the family of lennox might have merited in france : so mean a man as mr. varillas , who has nothing in his thoughts but the smiles of versailles , fancies he gives a lustre to one of the greatest kings in europe , when he says , that some of his family served in france , which rather lessens his race than exalts it . as for his impudence in putting the crown of scotland instead of the crown of england , and his making me say , that the lord darnley might have been a dangerous competitor to mary queen of scots for that crown , when not only my words , but the whole series of the discourse , shews , that i meant only of the crown of england , was already observed . it will indeed bear a repetition ; for it is a remarkable instance of mr. varillas's sincerity , and shews how safely the world may rely on his word . he shews his ignorance again in saying , that his marriage of the queen of scotland , was the first cause of the change of religion in scotland . the change of religion was made before the queen came out of france , and so was setled some years before this marriage ; and this was rather a step towards the subverting of the religion then established , since the lord darnley lived and died a roman catholick . iv. what he says to shew , that the greatness of queen maries spirit does not contradict the character that he gives of her , is so poor , that i will not examin it ; the subject is too tender to admit of it , as well as what he says is too dull to deserve it . v. he gives a long citation of his own words , by which it does not appear that i supprest any thing that needed to be told by me ; if this book had been printed two years sooner than it was , i should have believed , that mr. varillas was in pension to some body else , than the king of england , by the pains he is at to justify the putting a bastard into the succession of the crown : for i do not believe , that at this time any body thinks him considerable enough to be corrupted . 2. his alledging that i had accused him as if he had said , that the king had composed whole volums on this subject , is another mark of his sincerity ; for it is visible , i had said no such thing . 3. the proofs he brings to justify what he had said of the baseness of the race of the tudors from some strangers , and harpsfield , one of the worst of our writers , are not to be put in the ballance either with polider virgil's testimony , or the more authentick evidences that i had given , particularly in my appendix , to which he says not a word . 4. there is a great difference between saying , that the tudors were not gentlemen , and the denying that he was a fit match for a queen-dowager . and tho mr. de courteney is perhaps of a higher degree of nobility , than i pretend that the tudors are , yet i believe he would be thought an unequal match to a queen dowager of france : so tho the tudors might perhaps drive up their pedigree to cadwaller , yet they had been for some ages reckoned only as one of the best families of w●les : and this puts an end to all that trifling of his , when he pretends to argue against his birth , by saying , that if he was so descended , he was an equal match to the queen dowager . 5. there might be very good reasons that might make the queen conceal her marriage all that was possible , even tho tudor had been ever so good a gentleman : for she being a queen-mother , and having a son newly born , which gave the prospect of a long share in the government , she had reason to hide her marrying a gentleman , had he been ever so nobly born . the dowager of france , that was king henry's sister , had none of those considerations for hiding her marriage with brandon ; and the other sister the queen dowager of scotland , had no reason at all to hide her marriage ; for she made it to secure her in the government , dowglas earl of angus being then the greatest subject in the nation : so the keeping this marriage with tudor secret , does not at all prove that he was no gentleman . 6. but mr. varillas does not pretend to answer the main thing that i laid to his charge , which was , that he speaks of the tudor that married into the family of the plantagenets , as a mean man , when he was the kings uterine brother ; so that i shewed , that when he writ his history , he knew nothing of that marriage , since it is not to be imagined , that any man who knew it could pretend to reckon up the race of the tudors , without mentioning its chief dignity . 7. if i had thought so slight a fault , which mr. varillas magnifies so much in me , of calling a great-grand-mother a grand-mother , worth mentioning , here i have proved him guilty of it ; for he calls the tudor that married the plantagenet , great-grand-father to king henry the viii . whereas he was only his grand-father . 8. he tells us in his justifying the succession of bastards , that the rank of the king's bastard was much higher than owen tudors was ; but tho the french have so far flattered the lewdness of their kings , as to esteem their bastards princes born , yet in england they have no rank at all , till the king gives them a title , and then their rank is only according to the degree and the date of their creation . vi. he confess here the very words that i cited out of him , and yet he pretends , that i had accused him falsely . but that he may have some colour for this , he charges on me words that are not in my reflections . he had said , the four principal cantons had suffered themselves to be seduced in less than a year ; whereas this was ten years work : and now he thinks to save this by saying , that a great part was abused in less than a year ; but even this belonged only to zurich ; whereas he had said , that the four cantons suffered themselves to be seduced : besides that , what he speaks thus of the cantons in general , cannot be meant of some individuals , but must be understood of the magistracy ; and yet now he confesses , that they were ten years a considering this matter before it was generally received by the government , to whom only the name of the cantons belongs : and as the bigness of the town of basil does not hinder its being one of the little cantons , so the pensions that france might pay an age ago to schaffhouse , will never change its rank among them : nor does he say a word to justify his mustring up of the seven popish cantons among the small ones ; or his raising appensel and glaris to be among the middlesised . vii . here he remembers me of my fault of having said , that his way of writing wanted none of the beauties of history , except that of truth ; which he thus repeats , according to his ordinary sincerity , that i my self had avowed , that he wanted none of the qualities proper for writing history ; without putting in my exception of that of truth : that even by this citation he might justify my accusing him of want of truth : but he tells us , that by his copyers fault his preface to his third book was lost ; so he was forced to make that up the best he could ; and then he comforts himself with his meditation , that the books of authors are subject to fortune as well as other human things : but i was not bound to know the secrets that past between him and his copyer , no more than i am bound now to believe what he says of it . the books of authors are subject to fortune ; for by a great chance his were once in some esteem ; but as we say of the dead , that they are beyond the reach of fortune ; so his books very likely may be soon exempted from fortune in that sense . in short , he seems to confess , that the preamble he sets before luthers affair is impertinent , and i said no more of it . viii . he gives me an advice how i should have begun my history : with the indignation that the english nation had to the papacy ever since king john had subjected his crown to the holy see , and had established the peterpence , that this was encreased because a pope had made them lose guienne , by binding one of their kings to levy the tenths on the church lands : that king henry the eighth's lewdness gave him a great byas to schism , which he pursues in a full career : and repeats those absurd calumnies concerning anne bullen , which i had to copiously refuted : and at last he adds , that king henry raised mean persons to great imployments ; that these by the laws and government of england , could not enrich themselves but moderatly , and in many years ; and therefore since they resolved they would be rich all of the sudden , they saw they must do it at the churches cost . i do not wonder that mr. varillas should advise me to have made up a preface in this manner , that so i might write in his own way ; but i think i have sufficiently convinced him , that i have not such an esteem of him as to be much inclined to follow his councel . 1. it was king ina , and not king john , that setled the peter-pence 2. k. john's action was a personal baseness in him , which did not at all affect the kingdom ; so that there was scarce any notice taken of that meanness of his , unless it was to make him that was guilty of it contemptible ; for a king of england can neither alienate nor subject his crown to any forreign power . 3. what he says of guienne seems to be one of his discoveries ; for it is not mentioned by any of our historians , that i know of . 4. at the time that guienne was lost , the popes by residding at avignon , and being considered as in the power of france , had so little credit in england , that as there were many laws made all that while against the papal pretensions , so a bull at that time could not have been so much as executed in england , without the kings leave , much less could it have obstructed the subsidies levied upon the clergy . 5. he understands the interest of england as little as he does other things , that fancies the nation was much troubled for the loss of guienne : which lay at so great a distance , and was defended at so vast a charge , that the nation that received no profit by it , in an age in which there was little trade , was glad of getting out of this necessity of giving the king so many subsidies . if he had apply'd that which he says of guienne to normandy , it had been more pertinent ; but mr. varillas is as wanting in judgment , as he is fruitful in invention . 6. he ought not to awaken the memory of the pretensions that england has upon guienne ; for if the rights of crowns are so sacred , that no prescription cuts them off , and that no treaties can alienate them , a time may come when a chamber may be set up at westminster , as well as we have seen one at metz , to examine the pretensions of the crown of england to guienne , which will be found less ancient and better made out , than some that have been carried up to king dagobert . 7. but i would gladly know what law of england has prescribed the measure and the number of years in which the kings ministers may enrich themselves : but mr. varillas has found out laws that we have not , as he is ignorant of those we have : and now i think i have given him good reasons , why i do not think fit to follow his advice in the making of prefaces . ix . he is so much in love with his maxim concerning the slavery to which he fancies religion carries men , in not suffering them to examin , whether what they say is true or false , that he repeats it twice so copiously , that he bestows ten lines upon it in every one of these two pages . 2. he cites a famous calvinist , that commended him for his sincerity in setting forth the handsome actions of those of that party ; and who owned , that he had not seen any of his side , commend those of the other party with the like sincerity ; but since i give so little credit to mr. varillas's citations , even when he names all particulars , he cannot expect that i will consider this much . 3. but what sincerity soever he might have affected in his history of charles the ninth , which he did perhaps to gain him some reputation , that he might be the less inspected in what should come afterwards , i am sure no calvinist will make him great complements for the future . 4. mr. varillas's defence of his theory of the power of religion is wonderful ; he says , it seems i thought he meant only that true religion had this power over the conscience ; whereas he is convinced by experience , that false religions have as much power over mens minds as the true has . if mr. varillas were not of so singular a composition as he is , the excuse that he ought to have made , was , that he only meant of false religions , or of mens perswasions in matters of religion : but to say that religion does this , and now to own so plainly that the true religion does it as well as false ones , is an expression that is so contrary to all religion , that i do not see how mr. coquelin can answer to the faculty for his licensing such a book : for tho the good man is utterly unacquainted with historical matters , yet he seems to have read tertullian , and he ought to understand a little divinity : now tho his competence in that is probably very small , as appears by his way of treating me , yet even the catechism will inform him , that true religion instead of making us unconcerned in what we write , whether it is true or false , binds us to the greatest strictness of truth . 5. his second excuse is of the same force : he says , that according to the principles of the catholick religion , after the authority of the church is once interposed , there is no need of any ones troubling himself , whether what she decrees is true or false , since the decision must certainly be true . but the occasion that led mr. varillas to deliver this wonderful apothegme , was concerning historical matters of fact , in which points of doctrine are not concerned , except he will conclude , that when one is assured in matters of doctrine , he may support them with lyes , which he has indeed taken care to do , even to a degree of supererogation : and after all , it is to be reckoned among the sublimes of mr. varillas , that he expresses the assurance of the infallibility of the church , by saying , that one does not trouble himself , to examin whether what she decrees is true or false . if then this is the sense of his words , they cannot belong to those religions , that do not own that infallibility ; so that in short , the priviledge of not considering whether what one says is true or false , belongs only to roman catholicks ; in which we have no reason to pretend to a share . and if this is the priviledge of catholcisk , mr. varillas must be concluded the truest catholick in the world ; so never man used it in its full extent as he has done . x. what he says of my history's being so partial , is a reproach that he does not confirm by any one instance ; and i hope he does not expect that i will believe this upon his word . he says , if mr. maimbourg had lived five or six moneths , he had finished his confutation of my book : but if it was so near being compleated , i wonder that mr. varillas could not hear of any one of my many errors , which had been a more important thing , than the putting a grand-mother for a great grand-mother , or an isabel for a margaret . he also tells me , that it will not be impossible for him to prove , either that the papers that i have printed , are not true , or that the copies of some of them that are in the kings library , are defective . this last is so important to me , that the very apprehensions of the discovery should make me dye of fear . certainly mr. varillas has no friends that review what he writes , otherwise tho he himself is very capable of writing extravagantly , yet they could not let such things pass ; for it seems mr. coquelins judgment is of the same sise with his own . xi . he threatens me again with a conviction that shall be stronger than i look for . i confess , if any thing that is strong ; comes from his pen , it will be stronger than i look for . but some one instance had been stronger than so many threatnings : but he added here a little sprinkking of sincerity ; for he confesses ingenuously , that tho he read all the kings manuscripts that were then in the duke of orleans's hands , and were communicated to him by the late mr. de bethune , yet he has drawn no part of his history out of them , but out of the authors that he has cited , and is to cite in this answer . i assure him , i believe one part of this period , that for all his pretending to have founded his history on cardinal de bellay's letters , he has drawn nothing of it out of good papers : for then it would have been quite different from what it is : but i do not believe that he read them all over ; for how weak soever he may be , yet his weakness cannot go so far as to make him fancy that a florimond was a better warrant for his history than original papers . xii . mr. varillas will still pretend to build on cardinal de bellay's letters , which he says , were communicated to him by mr. du puy : he says , he had two negotiations in england ; and that the second did not relate to the divorce , but to the reconciling king henry to p. clement : and here he fills the page with a needless repetition of that matter . and adds , that he made use of that cardinals letters on that single occasion : and for those dangers which he represents , as if the cardinal had set them before the king ; he says , they are contained all in one letter , and that it was not strange if king henry was disposed to reconcile himself to the pope , apprehending danger to his person , since camdem reports , that queen elisabeth could not bring her self to resolve on the queen of scots death , but after she had said those terrible words , either she or i most perish : and in conclusion he says , that the manuscripts that are in the kings library , favour my history so little , that he who would undertake to refute it , page by page , would find more than enough in mr. de bethunes manuscripts alone . 1. mr. varillas had done well to have named the first negotiation of cardinal de bellay in england ; for the books that he cites mention but one . 2. the breach that the king made with the pope , being only founded on the divorce , it cannot be said that this negotiation did not relate to it . 3. i refer the readers to his preface , if they will be at the pains to take so ill a book any more in their hands , there they will find that he makes cardinal de bellay's letters the text of all that he writ of english affairs . 4. if that discourse of the cardinals with the king , of the dangers he might run of rebellions and assassinations , be all contained in one single letter . mr. varillas had obliged the publick more by printing it , than by all the rest of this book . 5. if king henry apprehended this , the more shame for that church , that has authorised such doctrines , and such practices : and in which a pope made a panegyrick on one assassinate , clement , & the iesuites have besainted another , garnet . 6. if mr. varillas intends to justify queen elisabeth's severity to the queen of scots , he does very pertinently to alledge this : for as self-preservation works strongly on all men , so it ought to make a greater impression on princes , whose live are of greater consequence , and more in danger : and if queen elisabeth had reason to say , that either the one or the other must perish , no body will wonder if she chose to let the fate fall on the queen of scots : for in such an alternative , one would not lose much time in the deliberation . 7. as for his threatning me , it is known , that is the language of cowards : i am not affraid of him , and i do not apprehend that he has so much tenderness for me , or that he thinks himself so much obliged to me , that he would not discredit my history , as much as i have done his , if he but knew how to go about it . xiii . he assures me , he has read camdem exactly , and he excuses his citing him as the historian of the revolution of england , only in the singular ; and confesses , if he had said it in the plural number , revolutions , i had some reason for my censure ; so since he writ of the revolution under queen elisabeth , this justifies him . he denys that camdem troubled mr. de thou , with the manuscript of the second part of his history ; which was an imployment below a president de mortier to be concerned in : and he adds , that he has often heard that camdem sent his manuscript to mr. du puy , who took care to print it : and then he reflects on mr. de thou's partiality in all those matters , that related to the queen of scots , and says , that king james spake so severely to his son upon it , that it threw him into a sickness of three moneths continuance : and in conclusion , he thinks i contradict my self , having said , that he had not read a paege in camdem , and yet adding , that he was displeased with him for his having discovered so many rebellions and conspiracies against queen elisabeth ; for how could he know this is he had not read him ? 1. i do not know why mr. varillas calls camden always camdem ; this tempts me still to think , that he never saw his book ; for when men hear names only mentioned in discourse , they are apt to mistake them ; but when they see them before them in print , they write them truer . 2. when mr. varillas set a preface before his first volum , and mentioned a revolution of religion in england in it , that must be understood of the revolution comprehended within the volum , and not of one that does not come in but in the third volum : so the revolution made by king henry , being all that was comprehended in that volum , i had reason to say , he had never opened camden , since he cites him as having writ concerning it . 3. he obliges me here to tell the story of camdens manuscript more particularly than i had thought necessary . mr. de thou having intended to make his history general , entred into a correspondence with the men over all europe , that were most likely to inform him right : so he was in a great correspondence with camden : and when camdens first volum appeared , he writ severely to him , finding that it was so different from what had past between them in letters , chiefly with relation to the queen of scots ; upon which camden told him the truth , that king iames would needs revise it himself , and afterwards put it in the earl of northampton's hands , who was brother to the duke of norfolk , that had been beheaded on that queens account , and that many things were struck out , and many things altered : this troubled camden extreamly , who took care , that his second part should not run the same fate : and therefore he sent it out of england , to that great man , that it might be printed faithfully after his death : this is well-known in england , and the sending the second part beyond sea to a forreigner , does very easily carry a man to believe this to have been the true reason of it . 4. i do not indeed think that a president de mortier went to the cramoisy's and the barbin's of that time , to sell the manuscripts , or to correct the impression : and if so worthy and so learned a man as mr. du puy took care to see it faithfully printed , mr. de thou , as he did nothing unworthy of his dignity in being the depositary of so valuable a piece of history , so he answered the sacredness of the trust to the full , when he put it in his kinsmans hands . 5. it is true , that king iames reproached mr. de thou's son for his father's having copied buchanan's invectives against his mother ; but mr. de thou had a very tender heart , if this gave him a sickness of three moneths . 6. it is no contradiction for me to say , that he never read camden ; and yet to add , that he disliked him for the discoveries he had made ; unless mr. varillas will prove , that it was impossible for him to know this by hear-say : now i , that tell him so oft , and which is worse , that prove that he writes upon hear-say , might well say that he had condemned camden , tho he had never read a word in him , as there are now a great many that think very ill of mr. varillas's histories , and yet are resolved never to be at the pains to read a page in him . xiv . he excuses himself for what he had said concerning mortons history , by telling us , that mr. de la vallade , a gentleman of poictou , that was of the religion , shewed him the latin manuscript of a history , that he said was mortons , which he intended to print ; this he says , he read , and drew extracts out of it : yet mr. varillas here speaks modestly , and says , that manuscript did not at all relate to the times that fall within the two first volums ; and that he will strike out of what remains any thing that is drawn out of that book , if he is informed by his friends in england , that he has been deceived in it . i have already so oft told mr. varillas , that i will take nothing on his word , that i grow weary of repeating it . 2. if this history did not relate to the two first volums , why did he speak of it in his preface to the first ? 3. i believe he needs not take great care of the volums that remain ; for i suppose , the world will be at last convinced . xv. he excuses that which he had said of sanders , whom he had brought in as one of the authors of our history , and of whom he had said , that he was so violent against the protestants , that no wonder if they forced him to dye of hunger in the mountains of the north of england . he pretends , that by calling him violent , he did not intend to reflect on his history : but since he brings him in as a historian , this character must be applied to his book : and as he makes no excuse for his having said , that he died in england , whereas it was in ireland ; so his representing the severity under which he fell , as an effect of his emportments , is a very soft way of speaking , of one that had raised a rebellion , and that upon its miscarriage had fled into woods , where he died of hunger ; but this agrees well enough with his notion of zealous catholicks . xvi . what he says of ribadeneira , is still so trifling , that i will not dwell on the examining of it : the severest things that he could say against england , must have recommended him and his books so much the more to philip the second , who considered queen elisabeth as the greatest enemy he had : so i could not imagin what the severity of the inquisition and philip the second's strictness as to the printing of books had to do here : and there were no false steps of charles the fifths to be related ; for he adhered firmly both to his aunt 's interests , and to the interests of the see of rome in this matter , and his setting on with much vigour the giving sentence at rome , would have appeared rather as a raising , than as a darkning of his glory . xvii . he tells me , that what is printed of lesley's works , is not the tenth part of his works which are preserved with great care in paris , in the scottish colledge . this is like the rest of mr. varillas's citations . it is 23. years since i took some care to be informed by the rector of the scottish colledge , f. barclay , if there were any scottish manuscripts saved in the time of the reformation ; he told me , they had none ; but they believed there were some in italy : since that time there has been pains enough taken to enquire after those grounds , upon which dempster had promised so great a work : but it seems he was a writer like mr. varillas : for it could never be known out of what instructions he intended to draw those things that he promises concerning scotland : and some have been so severe to him as to think , that he made all that pompous apparatus , as mr. varillas makes his histories , out of his own invention . in short , lesley's book has been so well received of all hands , and is so much esteemed , that it will not be easy to persuade any , that a colledge of scottish priests , would have suffered the manuscripts of so good an author , to lye above a hundred years in the dust . xviii . he charges me with a contradiction , for saying , , that there were some of cardinal bellay's letters in the kings library , that were not yet printed : and yet adding in another place , that i know no other of his letters besides those that are printed . but he must have made as great discoveries in logick , as he pretends to do in history , before he can make a contradiction out of these two expressions : some told me there were some of that cardinals letters in the kings library besides those that were printed , and that i knew of no others besides those that are printed . for i do not pretend to have searched the kings library : yet after all , i had said no such thing ; for i only said , that none of the matters , mentioned by mr. varillas , are in the printed volum of that cardinals letters , without adding , whether i knew of any other , or not : tho it is very true , that i know of no other . if i have put him oftner than once in mind of his boldness , in pretending to draw his history out of cardinal de bellay's letters : i do not wonder to see him troubled at it , since he cannot justify any one tittle of his history out of them : the thing was so important , that it deserved to be often repeated , and i used him gently in speaking of it so seldom . xix . he excuses his political . refinings by the example of guichardin . but as there is no part of history more instructing than that of the cabinet , so a man like guichardin , that knew those secrets , and had a share in affairs , obliged the world as much in delivering those so judiciously , as he did , tho perhaps a little too tediously , as mr. varillas has abused it , by so much counterfeit stuff , as he has given out instead of true politicks . but mr. varillas tells me a dreadful thing upon this , that then his friends are not clear sighted , since they have assured him , that this was that which they found to be the least amiss in his books . if mr. varillas writes long at this rate , i shall come to believe , that he has no friends at all ; and if he have any , it seems they are chosen according to martials character ( pares amici ) men of his own sise ; so that i do not now wonder if mr. varillas has been able to find a coquelin , and a few more as ignorant as himself , who may perhaps admire him ; yet he says in one thing true , that this is the part of his books , that is the least amiss ; and indeed this is all the praise that can belong to any part of his books : for tho all that is in them , is amiss ; yet some parts are less amiss than others . and is roving about political projects , are certainly less amiss than his plain and impudent falsehoods . xx. i had accused mr. varillas for saying , that all england , witout excepting any one person , professed the same religion under henry the seventh : and i shewed him , that the putting this so generally must be false , since in the second year of henry the eighth's reign there were a great many condemned of heresy : he pretends to excuse this since the spaniards boast that heresy never past the pyrenees , tho many have suffered in the inquisition for it . but if any spaniard had said , that there was never so much as one heretick in spain , i should have told him that he did not write exactly ; and because i press this no further , than to shew by it , that mr. varillas is a careless writer , and am willing to let it pass with a gentle censure , because i had greater things to lay to his charge , he , according to his usual sincerity , pretends , that i acknowledged the weakness of the objection , and abandoned it . xxi . he pretends , that i accuse him falsly for denying the consummation of p. arthur's marriage : whereas he says , he determined nothing positively concerning p. arthur's impotence . but that was never the question ; for it was never brought under debate , whether he was impotent or not : and that for which i had chiefly accused mr. varillas , was , that he affirmed , that p. arthur was then sick , and not yet recovered out of a great disease : this is all fiction , and is disproved by witnesses upon oath ; but he says not a word to justify this . 2. here the pretends to tell at what pains he was , to examin the affairs of england , that he thought the english and germans of both religions might be too partial ; that the italians were too short ; that ribadeneira might be suspected because of his orders ; and therefore he thought florimond de raimond the best author to depend upon : but if he had read sanders alone , he would have found that both his florimond and his ribadeneira was nothing but sanders over and over again . 3. he accuses me for making him say , that p. arthur died seven moneths after the marriage , whereas he had said five moneths . but in my english it was five moneths : so he has no reason to blame me for this , since i am not bound to answer for a translation ; and tho this was a good and exact translation , in which my meaning was not mistaken , as it has been too often in a translation of a late book of my letters concerning italy , yet so small a mistake was no great matter : and in a thing of this nature , mr. varillas ought to have got some who understand english , to examin my book in the language in which i writ , before he had aecused me of having put seven for five on design to deceive my readers . 4. he justifyes his false citation of the bull , by the most exact of all those who have continued baronius , in whom the words he had cited are to be found . but why then did he cite the third tome of the bullarium on his margin , and why did he not name this writer , and the place of his book : for such a way of citing , especially in mr. varillas , is very suspicious ; and if that author does not set down the bull it self , but only delivers these words as his sense of them , then this was like the rest of mr. varillas's citations , to give this on the margin as drawn out of the bull. 5. he pretends that there is no material difference between his citation and mine : but as it was enough for me to shew , that the words he cited were not in the bull , so tho mr. varillas boasts in another place how much he has studied the law , yet i must take the liberty to tell him , that he has lost his time extreamly , while he pursued that study ; if he does not know a difference between a confirmatory clause , which may have passed with less observation , and what is set forth in a preamble , which being the ground upon which the grace is granted , and set at the head of the bull , is of much more importance , and was probably much better considered , than any general clause . xxii . he accuses me for having said , that henry the eighth was educated as his brother had been , who knew only latin , and some general elements of learning ; and tells me , how learned king henry was . it appears by my words , that i spake only of his first education , and not of the improvements that followed . 2. he seems mightily concerned for the memory of king henry the seventh , as if by this affected zeal he would make some reparations to the royal family , for the injuries he has endeavoured to do them : but i will be so plain as to tell him roundly , that henry the seventh weakned the rights of the crown of england more than any that ever reigned in it : he knew that he could not found his title on his descent from the house of lancaster ; for then he could never have been more than prince of wales , since his mother , by whom he had that pretension , out-lived him a year : and he would not hold the crown by his queens title ; for then the right must have been in her , and have passed from her to her children upon her death , or to her sister , if she hapned to dye without issue : therefore he who would not hold the crown upon such a doubtful tenure , made that dangerous law , that whosoever is in possession of the crown , is to be acknowledged as the legal king. and if king henry the seventh had been so wife a king as some flatterers have made him , he would never have suffered the dutchy of bretagne , to have fallen in to the crown of france , it having been always considered , that the preserving that in a separated principality , was one of the most indispensible maxims of the english policy : yet he , tho he made use of this as a pretence to ask money of his parliament , to oppose it , no sooner had the money , than he gave way to it ; for which it was believed , that he had money from france . 3. he denies that learning w●s then esteemed among princes : and says , that the cardinal of lorrain was the first prince that valued himself upon his learning . but is it not known , that francis the first valued himself upon the protection that he gave to learning : and the glory of the houses of est and medici was not a little encreased by the care they took of learned men ; of which i could convince mr. varillas by his own anecdotes ; if i were not ashamed to cite so bad an author . xxiii . he reproaches me for my insupportable ignorance in not knowing the difference between the council and the parliament of england , and in great charity he explains it to me ; and so he says , that i confound what he had said of the council of england with the parliament . 1. if i were ignorant of this , my ignorance were indeed insupportable : or which is all one , it were as great as his own . 2. but tho he speaks indeed of the council , yet when he had the confidence to cite on the margin the petition of the parliament to the pope , i had reason to discover something else , which is in him , that is yet more insupportable than ignorance : and to prove his forging of authorities , by shewing that the parliament never medled in this matter , which i do yet more evidently in my appendix , since no parliament met at that time . 3. he affirms here , that the council of england knew that care was taken that the marriage with p. arthur could not be consummated ; which is another character of that insupportable quality for which i charge him . i clearly prove , that the privy councellors knew there was no such matter , since they deposed the contrary upon oath . 4 but at last , he betakes himself to his florimond , and there i leave him in company like himself . xiv . he accuses me of an irreparable injury , that i have done the memory of henry the seventh , in taxing him of avarice ; which he says , no historian , protestant or catholick , had done before me . this is a good discovery of his acquaintance with our historians , in particular with chancellor bacon , since that whole reign , but chiefly the last year of it , was a course of extortions ; and as the vast treasure which he left behind him shewed this , so if mr. varillas had known henry the eighths history , he would have seen , that the very day he came to the crown , he sent the two chief instruments of his fathers oppressions to prison , and that their process was made , and they were soon after executed . so certain it is , that mr. varillas read no history of that reign . 2. he excuses the impertinence with which i had taxed him , in calling henry the eighth duke of york after his brothers death , by saying , he did it to avoid a galimathias , which he thinks had followed , if he had called both the brothers princes of wales ; but having once shewed , that by the death of the elder , the younger became prince of wales , this had been no more a galimathias , than to call any successor to a crown the king , which will create no confusion in the readers mind ; or if he was too tender in this point , he might have distinguished them by their names of arthur and henry , which was both clearer and shorter . xxv . he excuses himself here , and says , he drew from a letter of the catholick king 's , that which he had asserted of their apprehensions ; and adds , that authors are not to be blamed when they write out of good memoirs . but i do not blame him for writing out of good memoirs , but for forging false ones . 2. his confidence in putting himself in the class with salustius and tacitus , is another of his insupportable qualities . 3. his spending two pages in repeating over again that for which i had charged him , as if he had read it in a letter of the catholick king 's , does not make any man believe this a whit the better . if he had told where that letter was to be found , what the date of it was , and to whom it was writ ; and if he had given it in the language in which it was writ originally , then this might have had some appearance of a proof : but he had several very weighty reasons , that kept him from doing this ; and he hoped that as downright impudence was the shortest way , so it would be the surest to make him be believed .. 4. he goes on to justify that of henry the sevenths power to alienate the crown of england , by saying , that he was a conquerour , and was the master of the kingdom , as much as william the conquerour was : and so he might dispose of it as he pleased . this is a new theory of mr. varillas's , that one who pretends to be the right heir , and is so happy as to defeat an usurper , is upon that to be accounted a conquerour : for this was the case both of william the conquerour and of henry the seventh : the one pretended a title from edward the confessor , and defeated harold , as the other did derive a title from the house of lancaster , and defeated richard ; but neither the one nor the other pretended that the nation was a conquest , no more than henry the ninth of france did when he broke the league . 5. he says , i needed not tell him that k. henry the seventh chused rather to hold the crown by his marriage with the heir of the house of york , than by his right of conquest . i told him no such thing , for i know it is false ; since for the reasons that i formerly named , he would never consent to hold the crown in his wife 's right . 6. he pretends , that i am banished england , for having been in the design of the exclusion of the present king. all this is equally false : that i was in that design , that i was banished the nation , and that it was on that account : so his sentence set in capitals , is only a more evident discovery that he makes of himself , which he has done indeed in capital letters . xxvi . he had said somewhat to purpose upon the article of p. alexander the sixth , if he had given any sort of proof , that he had refused to grant the dispensation for the marriage . xxvii . if instead of all the relations both printed and manuscripts , which he mentions so indefinitly , he had cited any one printed relation of an author that deserves credit , or any manuscript that may be examined , this had deserved an answer . mr. varillas had not said , as he would have it pais now , that ferdinand only pretended to give his daughter to the duke of calabria , but he had affirmed positively , that he intended it : and yet all the proof he brings for this , is , that there is no inconvenience in thinking , that at some time or other of his life , he might have been touched with the remorse of the injustice he had done the duke of calabria . i am not to examin the state of ferdinands conscience , nor what his secret remorses might be , tho in matters of injustice his was not very tender : but it is a new sort of proof , and well becoming our author , who being called on to make good a thing , which he had positively affirmed , tells us , there is no inconvenience in thinking it true ; but then i see as little inconvenience in thinking otherwise : it was convenient indeed for mr. varillas to have it believed ; but his conveniences do not determin me . xxviii . he pretends that i had denied , that henry the eighths parents thought of marrying him to francis the firsts sister : he tells me , it was ordinary in those days to contract marriages among children , and therefore it was not inconvenient , that the french ambassador should have proposed that marriage . and whereas i had denyed , that the french ambassadors writ relations of their ambassies , he mentions some that writ them . and whereas i had shewed the improbability of a design of the court of france's advancing the count d'angolesmes sister to the crown of england . he tells me , that lewis the twelfth never intended to cut off his cousin francis ' s right of succession ; and that his sister was of a rank fit to be a match to the heir of the crown of england ; and that the duke of lorrain married one , that was many degrees further from the crown than margaret of valois was . and now are not all these good substantial proofs , and as he calls them , discoveries of errors , that are insupportable in me ? i never deny'd that henry the eighth's parents would not think of this ; but i lookt upon the whole thing as a fiction . 2. if it was ordinary in those days to contract children , does that prove that this proposition was ever made ? 3. mr. varillas's new discoverys in logick makes him now a second time , offer to prove a thing , because it was not inconvenient . 4. it is no proof that mr. de piennes writ a relation of his embassy , because some others writ their own memoirs , and this was the thing in question ; so he should have justified that citation . 5. there is a great difference between the not cutting off of francis's succession , and the raising his interest , by giving him so powerful an ally . in short , i denied the fact , and he instead of proving it , tells me , it was not inconvenient , nor a match below henry , which i had never pretended . xxix . he tells mighty things of his performances with relation to england , and says , it is but too well known how it comes that these things appear not in his history . but if what is lost is of apiece with what appears now , the world may wellbear the loss . 2. he denys , that i have cited any passage of his book in which he had raised the power of the parliament above the king 's . tho i told him , that in this very place he had said , that the parliament being careful to maintain the authority which they had over the king , obliged him by repeated remonstrances to marry . 3. but if he has said it , he will make it good : and he tells me , that he will cite two authorities for this , which i dare not contradict : the one is of king iames the first , who in his advice to this son , says , that the parliament of england had not always kept its power within its due limits , but had often enlarged it to the prejudice of the royal authority ; to this he adds another long citation of his , that filled a page indeed , but had not one word to prove a superiority in the parliament to the king : on the contrary , it proves that it was a court assembled by the king for the great affairs of the kingdom : now tho i will not presume to dispute this authority , yet i will take the liberty to tell mr. varillas , that it makes against him ; for if parliaments have sometimes gone beyond their limits , and have carried their power to the prejudice of the kings authority ; then by our laws the parliament is not superiour to the king , but has its limits , and it exceeds those limits when it attempts to raise it self above the kingly power . 4. his second authority is taken from an italian of bologna , and he sets down in capitals his words , whereas ordinary letters served for the citation of king iames's words ; but he thought the one did him not such service as the other , and therefore he bestowed the capitals in gratitude to him , that did him the best service . the writer of bologna indeed does say , that the parliament of england has pretended a great superiority above the king of england . as for this author count majolino bisaccioni , i know nothing of him ; so whether this is one of mr. varillas's inventions or not , i will not determin : but i cannot imagin why this should be such an authority that i dare not dispute it : it is true , the author is of bologna , where men are easily assassinated ; yet i do not think , that this count or his heirs are so spiteful , as to send one to the city of holland , according to mr. varillas's geography , to murder me , if i contradict this authority ; for besides this , i cannot imagin , what should make me not dare to dispute the authority of one of bologna , in a matter relating to the government of england . but after the pains our author has been at to depress the dignity of the kings of england , and the capitals that he has bestowed upon it , i confess he needs no more deny that he pretends to a pension from thence . 5. in conclusion , he cites his florimond , tho he had the confidence to cite on the margin the articles of the parliament 1509. but now he runs to his author ; but tho he has done himself the honour as to say , he is his eccho , yet i never heard of eccho's that repeated more than had been said : some repeat over and over again , but none add : yet mr. varillas , who cited florimond , to prove that the parliament had obliged the king by reiterated remonstrances , to marry the infanta , finds neither these remonstrances nor the parliament in the citation that he gives us out of him : for he says only , that the princes , the lords , the council , and the people of england , approved of it by their consent , and made no opposition to it . xxx . for the kings five children by queen catherine : he brings again florimond , who says , she bore him three sons and two daughters : and as if this had been a solid proof , mr. varillas triumph and says , he does not know upon what principle in arithmetick i reckon , if i deny that 2. and 3. make 5. i think i may allow mr. varillas so much of arithmetick as this essay amounts to , but i will scarce allow him much more of it , or of any thing else . xxxi . he does indeed give an author here , for that which i thought was his own invention : but still it is no other than florimond . i do confess i read him very carelesly : i found sanders was transcribed by him , and that he could not pretend to any good information : but now i see one writer of legends refines upon another ; and as mr. varillas adds some few things of his own store to florimond , so the other had added a great deal to sanders ; but his voucher was an author of so little credit , that i confess i read him so superficially , that finding some strokes in mr. varillas that were new to me , i fancied that he was the author of them ; but now i see he has an author such as he is : for what he says concerning flattery , it is to so little purpose , that i use him kindly in passing over it . xxxii . he cites again florimond , for his garand ; and because he had it seems one of mr. varillas's artifices of citing boldly papers that never were ; and so cites those of cardinal campege , mr. varillas upbraids me with my not having seen them ; but i believe both their citations alike ; i have indeed printed a long letter of that cardinals , writ to the pope , in conjunction with cardinal wolsey , while he was in england , in which he asserts the justice of the kings cause , and presses him to give sentence in his favour ; he assures the pope , that nothing but conscience moved the king in the matter ; and in short , says all that even mr. varillas would have said , if he had been animated with the prospect of a good pension . xxxiii . he says , i contradict my self , in denying that the k. of scotland sought the daughter of henry the eighth , & confessing it afterwards . i denied only , that the father had ever sought it , since he was dead before she was born ; and here mr. varillas has the confidence to deny all that long scheme that he had given of the project that the king of scotland had set on for his son , so that the imposture of suppressing his text with which he charges me , lies on his side , and he leaves out all that he had said of the machines that the king of scotland was managing for his son the prince , who was no other than king iames the fifth , so the king must be king iames the fourth his father : and for that which he says of king iames the fifths going with an army to france , it fell out many years after this : so it could not be the reason that made king henry deny his daughter to the king of scotland , it being long after , even the year 1533. after which time he owns that he does not say , that the king of scotland pretended to her : and whereas he pretends , that he only said , that the scots had pressed the marriage ; that is one of his common practices , to which i will not give the name that it deserves ; for he had expresly named both the king and the prince , who he said asked her with all the submissions that were compatible with the dignity of soveraigns : whereas as the one was dead before she was born , and the other was an infant at that time . his discourse of the design of uniting the whole island into one monarchy , and his taking a start over into spain , is one of his impertinencies , to which he fly's to cover his shame : and the contradiction with which he charges me before he ends this article , is worthy of him : he says , i own that king henry was master of his parliament ; and yet i denied , that his government was tyrannical . i never denied this last ; on the contrary , i have set it out as fully as was necessary : but tho i had denied it , the saying that he was the master of his parliaments , is so far from being a contradiction to that , that it agrees exactly with it . queen elisabeth was always the mistress of her parliaments , tho guilty of no tyranny , and it was because she was not tyrant , but governed well , that she was the mistress both of her peoples hearts and purses , and likewise of her parliaments : so the triumph that he makes upon this contradiction , which he says the most able sophister of europe will not be able to set to rights , turns upon himself . xxxiv . he pretends to justify his impertinence in reckoning the emperour and the king of spain as two of the pretenders to queen mary ; by saying , that charles the fifth was for three years king of spain before he was chosen emperour , and that during all that time , he pretended to her : but tho he cites his florimond here , yet he finds no such thing in him , so that here the eccho does not repeat , but speaks of it self : and as he cannot give the least shadow of proof for this confident assertion of his , so he himself contradicts it in his own words , which he cites afterwards , in which he had said , that the emperour was the second that pretended to this princess : so then he was not only king of spain but already emperour when he began that pretension . all the digression that he makes concerning charles the fifth , is a continued impertinence to hide his shame : the only thing he had to do , was to prove that he began that pretension while he was no more than king of spain . 2. he trys how raillery will do with him , because i had only named arragon and castile , instead of the many other kingdoms that lie within spain : but he is equally sublime both in his ridicule and his serious strains ; for since the conjunction of all these titles rise out of the marriage between arragon and castile , i writ correctly in naming these two only , instead of all the rest that lay in spain . xxxv . our author will still justify what he had said concerning k. henry's rejecting the match with scotland , because the king of scotland had declared himself for france during the last war , in which k. henry had been engaged with francis : now it is to be considered , that all the propositions for queen mary that our author sets forth , fell out before the year 1527 , in which the sute of the divorce was begun ; for after that time none courted her , as he himself confesses ; therefore this war between england and france , in which scotland took part with the latter , and for which the king lost his unkles favour , must be before that time : since then there had been no war between france and england in which scotland took part , after that battel of floddon , in which k. iames the fourth was killed , and after which during the interval between the year 1513. and the year 1527. which is the only time in debate , nor indeed for many years after it ; all this is an ill-laid fiction , which destroys it self ; so what k. iames the fifth might do ten years after the year 1527. cannot be brought to excuse that which had been given for a reason of k. henry's rejecting him before that year . xxxvi . he accuses me for denying in one place that the emperour pretended next , and yet afterwards confessing it : but i only excepted to this because he says , the emperour pretended the second after the k. of scotland ; whereas i shew that the dolphin was the first that pretended , and by the contract for that marriage , which is yet extant , it appears , that his dream of charles's pretending to her while he was yet king of spain , is not only without ground , but is a downright falsehood ; for that contract bears date the ninth of november , 1518. so that during this interval , in which charles was only king of spain , she was promised to another . 2. whereas i had discovered his ignorance of those transactions by this ; that he knew nothing of charles the fifth's coming to england in person , to contract this marriage ; he tells me , that he had writ of this in his history of francis the first , where he had mentioned his coming over from flushing to kent , while k. henry was at calais : but now i tell him plainly , that i see by his citation , that neither before nor now , does he know any thing of the voyage into england , of which i had made mention : for this that he speaks of here was in the year 1520. and the enterview was at dover , and was design'd to hinder the ill effects which the emperour apprehended from the late enterview that had passed between henry and francis , that had carried him over to calais : but that which i spake of was two years after this , in the year 1522. which passed with more magnificence ; for then the emperour was install'd knight of the garter , and contracted to king henry's daughter . xxxvii . concerning card. wolsey , he tells me , that if i have seen some manuscripts that never were in his hands , he has likewise seen those that have escaped me , and he mentions a letter of lewis the twelfths , in which wolsey is so excessively commended , that it is neither sutable to the dignity of him that writ it , nor of him to whom it was writ , therefore he supresses many particulars that are in it . mr. varillas's boasting of the manuscripts that he has seen , is like the chymists boasting of the philosophers stone , which no body believes a whit the more for that . a letter writ by so good a king as lewis the twelfth , would be better received by the world than all that ever mr. varillas can print : yet since he pretends to be so good a courtier , he should have thought it enough to say , that the strain of that letter was below the dignity of him who writ it , without adding any thing else of the dignity of him to whom it was written , since unless it was to the k. of england , there is scarce any other person whose dignity ought to be named as in parallel with that kings . and since wolsey was but just entring upon the ministry , when that king died , it is not probable that he fell into raptures upon that subject ; but mr. varillas takes more care of lewis the twelfths honour in not printing it , than he does of his own . the rest of this article is in citations drawn out of florimond and out of another much worse author , who is mr. varillas himself . xxxviii . i had printed some original letters to discover his mistake concerning wolsey , and he in opposition to that cites what his florimond had said eighty years before him ; as if a falshood by a prescription of 80. years , could become true : he adds , that the proof that i had given to the contrary it not convincing . the point in question , is , whether cardinal wolsey knew of the king's design to marry anne bullen : now i had printed two of her letters to the cardinal , in one of which there is a postscript writ by king henry's hand , that speaks plainly of the thing , & they were both written while card. campege was on his journey : any man besides mr. varillas would think this is a convincing proof ; and whereas i had accused him for citing on the margin charles the fifth's letter to wolsey ; he justifies this out of florimond : if he had cited these as from him , i confess this would have justified him ; but since he cited them without any such qualification , he shews us how little credit is due to his quotations . i had called charles the fifths coming to england in person , the most important circumstance in all this affair ; and this he , according to his ordinary sincerity , turns , as if i had said , that the secret of the reformation consisted in that voyage . i was speaking of the pretenders to king henry's daughter , and had not so much as the reformation in view ; so the affair upon which i was , being the disposal of queen mary , had reason to say , that the most important circumstance of it was the emperours coming in person , and contracting himself to her . the raillery that follows here , is another proof that mr. varillas is equally happy both in iest and earnest . if i were to make my court to the spaniards , i must be as ignorant as mr. varillas is , if i think to do it effectually , by representing charles the fifth , as having advanced the reformation . xxxix . he meets me here again with another long citation of florimond , which always goes for nothing with me . after which he says somewhat himself , that is next to nothing . i had told him , that the new treaty that king francis had made with henry for his daughter , in an alternative between francis and his second son , was somewhat extraordinary : and if he had known it , it would have furnished him matter for his embelishments . but to all this he says , he could not imagin how francis , that was engaged by the treaty of madrid , to marry charles the fifths sister , could court the princess of england for himself , or his second son ; since he was a prince that valued himself extreamly on the keeping of his word . but the treaty of madrid was so ill executed by francis , that there is no part of his life to which his exactness to his word ought to be less applied than to this : yet in this he might have observed both treatys ; for since the match with england was agreed in an alternative between him and his son , it being left to himself to declare which of them should have her ; it was easy for him to observe both these treatys , by declaring that the duke of orleans should marry henry's daughter : and here our author shews his judgment in setting such conjectures as his are , against matters so authentically proved as this is . xl. a new justification from florimond comes here again , with this preface , that if he is deceived , it is after florimond : but whose fault it is that he believed him , and copied him , notwithstanding all the noise he makes with his manuscripts ? he adds two of my expressions , and fancies that there is a contradiction in them : that in this he differs from sanders , tho he copies him ordinarly ; for he says , if he invents matters , he does not copy him ; and if he copies him , he does not invent . but may he not copy sanders for the greatest part , and yet now and then invent a little without any contradiction ? there is a terrible charge against me in the conclusion of this article . in my english by a fault of the printer , the year 1529. was put instead of the year 1524. and was marked in the errata : now the translator went on with the error that he found in my book , and so the year 29. being wrong put , he triumps : but since he pretends to answer me , he ought to have examined my english , and to have compared the errata . so his accusing me of impudence falls back on himself . xli . all that he says to this article is , that he had writ it after florimond ; and to prove this , he gives me a citation of fix pages and a half long out of him . and is not this an unanswerable thing , that deserves well to be set in opposition to original papers ? xlii . here comes florimond again ; but because i had mentioned the pictures of anne bullen , which shew that what was said of her person , was false : he tells me , that painters and poets have always taken liberties : and because his good judgment made him fancy , that this wanted a proof , he gives me two storys to make it good . but after all , a painter is as well to be believed as a poet at any time : so i may set hans holben , that was a very good painter , against two such ill poets as florimond and mr. varillas ; the first saw her , and the others only heard of her ; so they copied , whereas he drew to the life . xliii . here again comes florimond as his garend for four pages : and he thought it was necessary to produce him , since here , as almost every where else , i accuse him of a want of sincerity ; but i will never give over this accusation , till he produce those manuscripts , out of which he pretends to have drawn his history . xliv . after i had refuted sanders , he tells me , this does not touch him , who had not made use of him : but if florimond does in these lines copy sanders , then by refuting him , i refute all that copy from him , whether it be at first or second hand . mr. varillas's saying , that cardinal pool is the writer of all the catholicks that has blackned henry the least , shews how carelesly he has read him , or how boldly he cites him ; pool compares henry to the wickedest princes in history , and makes a war against him to be more meritorious than against infidels . i had said , that the calumnies , by which anne bullen was defamed not being objected to her , , upon her fall , this shews , that they were not thought on in that age : to this he answers , that this shews the moderation of the catholicks ; but the not mentioning such things in history , had been a vicious moderation , and indeed their writers of that age , were as seldom guilty of any excess on that hand , as he himself is in this . he says also , that it was needless to speak of the former scandals of her life , after she was convicted to adultery and incest with her own brother . but when both she and her brother died , denying this , and that it was generally thought she suffered injustly , then former scandals should have been alledged to make the justice of her sentence appear the more evidently , therefore the silence of the writers of that time , and upon that occasion , is still a good negative argument : but he turns this matter upon me with some shew of reason , and says , that since none writ a justification of anne bullen , neither then nor afterwards , this is a just prejudice against her . but the unfortunate have seldom pens imployed for their honour : and in queen elisabeth's time it was thought below the dignity of the daughter , to examin too critically all the reports that malicious writers had set on foot against the mother . for if any impudent man would question the birth and descent of a crowned head , severer tools than refutations are thought the properest ways of answering them . he then tells me , why should i be believed more than the catholick writers ? but i ask not to be believed on my own word ; but i have shewed the impossibility of the story that sanders and our author from him , at second hand , had contrived of anne bullen ; for what is impossible , can never be true , by my logick ; but our author shews how little he ought to be believed upon his word ; for i having given for a proof of anne bullens good reputation , this , that she served claude , queen of france , which he had set down truly in one page , but in the very next page being to repeat and examin this , he turns it as if i had made her serving lewis the twelfths second queen a proof of her vertue . i knew the vertues of queen claude were as sublime as the others were questioned : therefore i had made her serving the one as an evidence of the good esteem in which she was ; and this he would turn aside in a way very lime himself : and wheras he had mentioned english authors , in the plural , and had set only sanders on the margin , i had reason to ask if he could make a plural out of him , as he had done out of charles the fifth ; he tells me , he had cited florimond de raimond ; but i do not yet find another , to justify the plural of the english ; for whatever title the king of england may have to guienne , so that florimond may be reckoned in some sort among his subjects , yet all this does not put him among the english authors ; so the sanders is still all that we have for the plural ; and all the histories that have appeared since his time by the writers of that communion , are nothing but he over and over again in different languages , and a little differently drest . xlv . he had cited a petition to p. clement the 7. for which i had accused him of forgery , and had told him , that he shewed his ignorance since , tho the matter for which he invented it , is mentioned by card. pool , yet he was not so well informed as to cite him ; now he alledges florimond as his garand for that citation , whose authority is of so little credit ; and yet he has the confidence to think , that was a more formal proof than if he had cited cardinal pool : as if an author that writ 80. years after those matters , were to be put in competition with cardinal pool , who lived and writ in that time : he tells me he had cardinaal pools book before his eyes while he was writing ; but by this way of writing it seems he did not open him ; and his lying shut before him , could not inform him much when a petition was cited and brought in question : no body besides mr. varillas would have called the citing of an author that lived about 80. year after the going to the source for it . xlvi . he gives me a notable proof of the credit due to florimond in the matters relating to the bishop of tarbes : because he had greatengagements with that bishops heirs , so that it is very probable that they communicated to him that prelate's papers . and are not these very convincing proofs ? sometines a thing is to be believed because it is not inconvenient ; at another time because it is probable : but when he comes to answer the reason i had given to demonstrate all this story to be false , which was , that it is not to be imagined , that when that bishop came to end the marriage of his masters son with the heir of the crowen of england , that he i say could have been prevailed on to let that go and to set on a new negotiation for henry's marrying francis's sister . he sayes , that wolsey cheated the bishop , and made him believe that the other marriage was sure : notwithstanding this new proposition . this is to make him resolve to accept the marriage of one that was to be declared a bastard by the divorce : and yet he act knowledged before , that the king of scotland would never ask her after that : but now he makes an ambassadour of france lesse sensible of this point of honour , and content to have both these marriages made at once . but besides all this , the great advantage of marrying the daughter of england , was because she was the heir of the crown , so then if the bishop of tarbes would have concurred to help the king to another marriage , by which that succession might have been cut off from mary , we must conclude him to be as fit a man for negotiations as mr. varillas is for histories or panegyricks : but he must be pardoned ; if he cannot alwayes carry up his fictions to a probability . all that he adds of the general powers given to ambassadours , upon which they depart sometimes from all their instructions , and act contrary to them , has nothing to do here in a matter of such vast consequence especially when a few dayes delay , could have procured him positive instructions upon any new propositions that might be made him . xlvii . i had cited his words concerning cardinal wolsey exactly , and he repeats my quotation wrong , that he might give himself a colour to reproach me . then he gives me a long citation out of florimond , and sends his reader back to another that is much longer , and so he thinks all is well proved . xlviii . he argues against a positive instrument , and thinks , that some of the probabilities that he offers , and florimond's testimony , ought to overthrow the plain proof of a matter of fact. xlix . he opposes to what i had said concerning sr. thomas wiat , his constant voucher florimond , and then he runs out in his way to argue upon this foundation of the truth of that testimony . but instead of pursuing him in such trifling stuff , i will here add a more importance discovery of the falsehood of all this matter by an original paper , which fell into my hands since i writ my history , but was not in my power when i writ my reflections on mr. varillas , yet it comes in here properly enough . it is a long account that sr. thomas wiats son writ of that matter as soon as sander's book appeared . he says , it was never so much as spoken of before that time : that his father was squire of the body to king henry , all the while that that marriage with anne bullen lasted , and for many years after , and yet neither did he in discretion retire out of the court , nor did the king seem jealous , nor the queen offended at him : and he shews further the improbability of the fiction ; for upon her fall it was very probable that as queen catherine howards ill life , as well before , as after her marriage , was examined , when she was condemned , so the like method would have been observed towards anne bullen , if there had been any room for it ; and as to anne bullen , he says , that her tryal was managed secretly in the tower : and that the evidence upon which it was pretended that she was condemned , was kept so secret among the peers that tried her , that it was never certainly known : some of the lords confessed afterwards , that her defence had cleared her entirely : and to all this he adds one remarkable particular , that there was none of all her ladies brought to swear any thing against her ; now it is certain , that no queen , especially in such a court as that of england was then , the household being the greatest in christendom , could be guilty of so many disorders as were laid to her charge , without taking some woman into the confidence , and yet none were either accused of it , or brought to witness it . he adds , that his father was afterwards ambassadour , for several years , in charles the fifth's court , where he conceived that aversion to the spaniards and to their councils , that this threw him into the rebellion that he raised against queen mary , when she was treating about the spanish match : for i must here warn the reader , that mr. varillas transforms this wiat into haviet , and makes a long story of him elsewhere . in conclusion , a man must be as ignorant of our affairs as mr. varillas is , not to know that a privy councillor thinks an ambassy no disgrace , but on the contrary , a preferment to him ; and those who know that by the forms of our court , no officer has a more free and frequent access to the king's person , than the squire of the body , tho he is but one of the second rank in the household , will see how ridiculous a contrivance all this story is , of wiats having corrupted anna bullen , and his revealing it to the privy council , and their imploying the duke of suffolk to acquaint the king with it , who was so far from believing it , that he would not accept the conviction that wiat offered to his own eye sight ; but on the contrary , disgraced him for it . l. here is a new long citation of his garand ; but at the end of it our author seems not to comprehend how more could be for the divorce , without being for the schism ; and thinks the distinction is a little too metaphisical : but the difficulty of apprehending this must lie in mr. varillas's dulness ; since there is nothing easier to be understood , than that more thought there was just reason to move the pope to annul a marriage , that had been made by vertue of a papal bull : and yet tho more would have approved of the divorce if it had been obtained in that manner ; he did not like k. henry's doing it by the authority of his own clergy , and his separating from the court of rome upon it . more 's works make a huge thick volum in folio , and were printed in queen mary's time by her positive order : nd so great a book , while printing was yet so low as it was then in england , could not be so easily carried thro the press , without some particular assistance from the court. all that understand english will see that i have cited his letters true , and mr. varillas's reasons against this is arguing against a plain matter of fact , which can make no impression upon any mans spirit , unless it be to shew the impertinence of him that undertakes it . after this there comes another impertinence of a citation of five pages out of florimond . li. before i examin what he says concerning cajetan , i will state the matter in short : he had given a long abstract of reasons , which he had pretended to have drawn out of cajetan's consultation , that had no appearance of truth in them , such as that of the blocking up of constantinople , the avoiding to mary in houses , suspect of heresy , with several other follys . i upon that concluded this must be as true as his other quotations were ; so i searcht for cajetans works , not having then by me those extracts that i had made , when i writ my history . i found only at first his great work on aquinas's summs , of which i made mention in my appendix ; but having after that found the consultation it self , set down by raynoldus , i desired the learned author of the nouvelles of the common-wealth of learning , to give notice in the moneth of april , that i owned my mistake : but it was added in that advertisement , that i had as much reason as ever to say , that mr. varilas had not cited it as he ought to have done : upon which he in his ordinary method of sincerity says , that i had retracted all , and passed a condemnation upon my self , for all that i had said concerning cajetan . if i were disposed to be angry , or to use foul language , here is a just enough provocation on his part ; but i do here repeat what i had said , that the whole abstract that he had given of that consultation in his history , is false in every one of the reasons , upon which he pretends , that cajetan founded his conclusion . the only thing that looks like an approach to truth , is yet far from it ; for he had said , that cajetan laid down this for a ground , that the high priest under the old testament could dispence with such a degree of marriage , and by consequence , that the high priest under the new testament must have the like authority . now there is not a word of this in cajetan , who knew too well that it was not the high priest , but the express letter of the law , that allowed of such a marriage under the old testament : so that cajetan did not argue with relation to this particular case , but he argued upon the general topick , that as under the old testament all hard matters were to be referred to the high priest's decision , so the like ought also to be admitted under the new. now a man must be dull to mr. varillas's degree , not to see the difference that is between these two things . and as for all the other particulars that he had given as the abstract of cajetan's consultation , there is not one word of one of them to be found in it . he argues against that which in my history i prove , that the pope ordered campana to say to the king , by telling me , that if it is true , the pope was the worst politican that ever was , since he was then so much in the emperour's power . but the politick was not so bad as mr. varillas fancies , since campana's words , tho he carried a credence with him , might have been easily disowned . yet if this were not the case , must a plain proof be laid aside , because then the pope was an ill politican ? no body besides mr. varillas would argue in this manner . his reasoning in what follows against positive proofs , is all of a piece ; but because my garand for this is not in an author like florimond , but in a letter writ by cassali an italian , who was at that time the king's ambassadour in rome , and these words he uses , are of great consequence i shall here set them down in latin , the language in which they were writ , it bears date at orvieto the 13. of ianuary . it is in the cotton library under vitellius b. 10. heri & hodie ad multum diem sum allocutus sanctum dominum nostrum de mittendo legato : insequens ordinem à reverendissimo domino eborac : suis literis 27. decemb. mihi praescriptum . pontifex ostendit se cupidissimum satisfaciendi regiae excellentiae , cui omnia se debere fatetur : & tum habuit mecum longum de hac re colloquium , ut inveniatur modus omnia bene , firme , & secure faciendi : quo facto & tueri possit . ideoque consulere voluit judicium card. sanctorum quatuor & simonetae qui excellentior & doctior auditor rotaeest : cum quibus sub sigillo confessionis egit , ut ex eorum consilio inveniatur modus ad moram tollendam , & causam secure peragendam . atque ita pontifex cum illis in hoc quod sequitur se revolvit ; videturque optimus verus & securus modus : & me rogavit ut nullo pacto dicam : hoc obtinuisse ab ejus sanctitate sicut revera obtinui : nam caesariani eum statim pro suspecto alligarent , sed quod dicam me habuisse à cardinali sanctorum quatuor & à dicto auditore . dicunt quod rex deberet committere illic causam cardinali , ratione commissionis quam attulit secretarius vel propria authoritate legationis quod facere potest : & ubi causa fuerit commissa , si rex conscientiam suam persentiat coram deo exoneratam , & quod recte possit facere quod quaerit , quia nullus doctor in mundo est qui de hac re melius discernere possit quam ipse rex . itaque si in hoc se resolverit ut pontifex credit , statim causam committat , aliam uxorem ducat , litem sequatur mittatur publice pro legato qui consistorialiter mittetur . now i think i have given him a citation in latin , that is a little more to the purpose than that he gave me out of cajetan : and let him argue against this as long as he will. he will needs justify what he had said of the blocking up of constantinople , and tells me , that pope pius the second projected it : but he had cited this out of cajetan , and i tell him positively it is not in his consultation : so he is an impostor still , tho this may have been projected at some other time . i do not think it worth the while to examin pius the seconds project for ruining the turkish empire : but i am sure , it is not in p. leo the tenths , which was made nearer this time , tho that has so many impracticable things in it , that this might have well enough accompanied the rest ; i had also said , that the princes of that time had not fleets of men of war ; and he tells me of some fleets that the republick of venice had : but tho their doge is called the prince , yet nobody reckons that state among princes . yet here he has got an occasion to digress , and to talk of the fleets of the ventians , which he does with so little judgment as to tell us of three stately fleets that perished in the design of seising the town of ferrara , and another stately fleet appeared on the lake benaccio , and made it inaccessible to all other vessels , except those of the republick . but sure mr. varillas intends to bring the scorn of all the world upon himself , since he talks of gallant fleets to come up the po , or to go upon the lago di guarda : and i would gladly know by what machines the republick conveyed their fleet into that lake . it is almost a shame to answer a man that writes at this rate . the other two particulars , concerning the peace of italy , and the keeping henry from marrying into families suspect of heresy , are also falsely cited out of cajetan ; but he does not say a word to justify , are also falsely cited out of cajetan ; but he does not say a word to justify this , and does not so much as give a shaddow of a proof that pope iulius designed to settle the peace of italy , but much to the contrary ; for that of hindring k. henry from marrying into houses suspected of heresy , he says , it is the part in which i treat him with the greatest injustice , and for which he has the justest occasion to complain of me : and yet after all , he confesses it is wrong , and lays the blame of it on his compositor , so that he would make it only an error of the press ; but yet this is so expressed , that it seems there is some other thing under it , and what ever may be in it i vehemently suspect that there is no truth at all in it , and i am neither bound to know how matters go between his compositor & him , nor to believe so unlikely a thing , as that the put heresie instead of those who were suspect to the holy see. he says , his weak sight makes him correct the proofs by the eyes of another : but if he imployed his ears , he might have corrected this , without straining his sight : in short , it had been good for the age , that both his sight and his hearing had failed him long ago , for then the world had not been troubled with such a set of impostures as he has given it . he has much more material faults to answer for than the putting squadrons for bataillions for which he makes such an excuse . lii . beauvais for belcaire is a fault of the impression in the french , and in my english it is belcaire : he sets up here again his probabilities against the positive proofs that are among the acts which i have printed that shew the truth of this concerning a bull of dissolving the marriage that was sent over by cardinal campege ; but all this is already shewed to be so ridiculous , that i will say no more of that subject . liii . he makes me guilty of a contradiction tradiction for saying , that he adds no new matters of fact to those mentioned by sanders ; and yet adding , that he had invented somewhat : but this was only a circumstance of the time , when the queen went out of the court ; so this is not to be reckoned among the matters of fact : yet after all , he shews me indeed , that florimond had said this , which i had believed was an effect of his own invention ; so that i find i judged too well of his invention , in ascribing to him those romantick tours that he gave matters : for i find he had these furnished him by another : this is all that he does in the 54. article ; for after a dull saying over and over again , that he was not guilty of those things for which i had charged him , he again justifies himself by his florimond . liv. and this is all he says likewise upon the next article , only because i had shewed him that the queens cause could not be pleaded by her advocates , after she had declined the court , this being so universal a rule , that is founded on so clear a principle , that i had thought even mr. varillas could not be ignorant of it ; that when one declines a court , he can no more plead before it , since by pleading before it he passes from his declinator ; he , after he has shewed that he took this from florimond , concludes in those dreadful words , dare i doubt , that this author did not know the forms of courts , since he was so long a councellor in a parliament , where this practice is followed with as much regularity as in any place in the world ? but i am not so soon frighted as mr. varillas fancies : for i dare do any thing that i think fit to be done : and i do not see what should appear in this , that is so terrible ; for tho i were in the hands of that parliament , i do not believe they would use me ill , for saying , that one of their body writ once impertinently concerning the forms of proceeding : but i dare not only doubt of this , but because of this i dare doubt yet much more than i did , concerning the author of this book ; and if it is not likely that a councellour of parliament could be guilty of such a mistake , which i confess i think he could hardly commit unless he was as ignorant as mr. varillas is , then this makes it more probable , that he was not the author of that book , but that f. richeome writ it , and published it in florimond's name ; for a mistake in a point of form might be justly enough supposed in the one , without any great derogation to him , but not in the other . lvi . upon the 56. article there is nothing but two short citations out of florimond . lvii . he cites again the same voucher : and because he thought it would be a little offensive to me , he runs out in an invective against king henry , in which i am no way concerned , having writ of him with all the freedom that became a sincere historian : yet in one thing i must tell mr. varillas , that his heat carries him a little too far , when he says , that for four hundred years , there had been no prince who had put to death more of his subjects than he had done , when there was neither war nor rebellion in the case . i have examined in my reflections on his second volum , a long list he had given , of all that king henry had put to death , and have shewed him , that there is not one article of all the ten that he gives , that is either ture , or so much as near truth : and that those who suffered upon the account of his supremacy , and that were not either in actual rebellion , or in conspiracies for raising one , were not above twelve persons : and i believe it is possible to find out princes within muchless than four hundred years , that have put more of their subjects to death , upon the account of religion . lviii . he gives no other justification of all he had said to blacken cranmer , but his constant voucher florimond : and yet he appeals to the publick upon this : and thinks the quotation he brings is an entire iustification : but whether he or i knew cranmer's character better , and gives it truer , will be no hard point to decide : he never saw any thing concerning him , but florimond's history : and i have perused many volums writ with his own hand , besides a vast number of letters , that were writ by him , and to him : yet as for cranmer's being made the king 's chieff minister , florimond says not a word of that , so that mr. varillas , who had asserted it , does not find an entire iustification in his florimond . lix . mr. varillas , who is ignorant of every thing , cannot bear the least imputation of ignorance ; for commonly men are tender when they know their own defects : and tho it had been no heinous matter , if he had been thought a little unacquainted with the laws of england ; for i have discovered his ignorance in other things that are less pardonable ; yet he is so uneasy at this , that he cannot bear my saying , that such matters were above men of his form : and upon that he says , he does not know whether he or i has studied the law most : and no more do i : but i am sure , if he was long at that study , he has spent both his time and his money to very little purpose : and if he is no better lawyer than he is historian , i doubt he will hardly ever recover the money that he laid out on that study . i assure him , i will not compare with him in any thing ; and i do not know a greater injury that can be done me in such matters , than to be put into a comparison with him . but to convince his reader of his learning in our law , he gives us another long quotation out of florimond , which is all the rest of this article . lx. he justifies his saying , that audley the chancellour was meanly born : he cites an author that had mentioned the mean-birth of a chancellour ; and says , this was necessary for the history , to shew what a sort of men king henry imployed ; but what needs all this ? i had only said , that the raising a man of a mean-birth to that post , ought not to be taken notice of , as a very extraordinary thing , since it is very ordinary to see men of the profession of law raised upon their merit to that dignity . if he had been to write that audley's life , i acknowledge he must have mentioned his birth , but since his hero chancellour more was of no better extraction , i am not yet convinced of the importance of this reflection ; and mr. varillas will do wisely for himself not to examin too anxiously the birth of the chancellours of europe , for this last age : but in conclusion , a quotation of florimond's comes to set all right : yet even in it , audley is not said to be a churchman ; so here the eccho did not repeat , but speak . lxi . here again , florimond is brought out , with the honorable character that mr. varillas assumes , of being his eccho , which must pass for one of his sublime strains . but here i must explain one part of my book ; for some have mistaken my reflections in one point , as if at every time , that i speak of mr. varillas's religion , i had meant of the religion of the church of rome ; but they do me wrong ; for i mean it only of his religion in particular , according to the notion that he gives us of it , that it enslaves a mans powers so far as to hinder him from examining whether what he writes is true or false . all the rest of his article is a sequel of such impertinences , that i grow weary to examin them , as well as the character that he gives his florimond , as an author that is worthy of credit , against whom the english have never excepted . but if they have always excepted against sanders , who is copied by him , than there is no reason to expect that we should have any regard to him . his excuse for his turning the affairs of amours so ill , is like himself ; this it seems went to his heart ; for tho i have destroyed his credit as a writer of history , yet there is some comfort left , if he may be still considered at least a good author of romances . lxii . he thinks , it is the chief of all the qualities necessary for the writing of history , to be able to describe the intriques of great men in the matters of amour ; and it he has not that , as he reproaches me for denying it to him , since i had allowed him all the good qualities of a historian , except that of truth , those who praise his works chiefly in this point , are much deceived : and then he justifies himself with a quotation out of florimond . i will not dispute much with him whether the quality of setting forth amours , is the principal one of a historian : tho i do not deny but in a reign of much dissolution , this is necessary : but i will add , that this is the hardest to be found out unless one has lived in the time ; for those are matters in which , as it is easy to slander , so the only persons who know those secrets , are very shye of writing them , and are generally men of pleasure themselves , and not much given to writing . i have already satisfied mr. varillas by my retracting the praises that i had undeservedly given him : but i find he would let that of truth go , and would compound the matter , if he might but have the other qualities allowed him : but now i am worse-natured , and will allow none of them to him : and i as little believe what he says of the praises that some give his works , on that account , as i do his other quotations . after this he calls me the rashest of all men ; this from any man but him , would have put me in some disorder ; but i know his way of writing now too well , to be alarmed at any thing he can say . one should have thought that i had robbed churches , or coined money , or done some very hardy thing , to deserve to be called the rashest of all men ; but all is safe : for my only crime is , that i had denied an assertion of his so modestly as only to say , i had never found it in any author ; upon which he pretends to infer , that to justify this , i must say two things ; the one , that i have read all books , whether printed or manuscripts ; the other is , that i have forgot nothing of that which i have read : which two things , says he , very gravely , are not found in any one man without a miracle . tho i should have thought , that neither the one nor the other could be found in any man without a miracle : and now is it not evidently made out , that i am the rashest of all men ? lxiii . here again comes the often named voucher ; and after that comes another piece of our authors reasoning : i had shewed him , that king henry , when he pretended to obtain his divorce , had argued upon the principle of tradition , which is so much considered in the church of rome ; and that it had been made out , that the tradition of the whole church all down to cajetans time , was clearly of the king's side : since the degrees of marriage prohibited in leviticus , had been considered in all the ages of the church as moral and indispensable laws : so i had added , that according to the principles of the church of rome , his marriage with his brothers wife was unlawful : he reproaches me for this , since i am of a religion that rejects tradition absolutely . but still it made the kings cause good against that church , which makes tradition the only sure expounder of scripture : for if the tradition was here of the king's side , then all cajetans reasoning against it , was no more to be considered than according to themselves luther's and calvin's ought to have been : besides , we of the reformed religion do not so absolutely reject all tradition , as not to accept of it according to the famous expression of vincent of lerins , when the tradition is universal in all times and in all places . lxiv . he pretends to justify cardinal de bellay's words concerning the zealous catholicks , as if by the zealous were to be understood the false zealots . but this same expression , without any such qualification , returns so often in his third and fourth tomes , always indeed when he had occasion to speak of the rebels in england , that i have reason to believe , that he adds this of false zealots now , because he dares not say otherwise , when he is forced to explain himself ; but his hardiness in denying that the sorbon in the time of the league , or that cardinal perron in his harangue to the third estate , did own that doctrine of deposing heretical princes , is no surprise to me , since it comes from him ; for i can assure him , that i am past the being amased at his ignorance , or his confidence , either in asserting or denying . if any protestants have failed in their duty of their princes , it was not an effect of their religion , as it is in the church of romes ; it being decreed by a general council , that popes may depose heretical princes , and absolve their subjects from their allegeance . so that papists when they rebel , act as good papists : whereas protestants that rebel , act against their principles , and as bad protestants . lxv . mr. varillas appeals to all those , who do him the honour to read this book . it is certain , that those who read it , do him more honour , than they do themselves . he says here , that two years had passed after king henry's marriage with anne bullen , when the cardinal de bellay was in england ; whereas it is clear , that only one year had passed ; for she was married the 14. of november 1532. and the cardinal de bellay came to london in november 1533. but so small a fault as two years for one , is inconsiderable : and tho he had himself in his history said , that she was married the 22. of november 1532. yet now , when a turn was to be served by a bold denial , he was more hardy , than to stick either at contradicting himself , or me ; but tho he will perhaps be easily reconciled to himself , yet i am not so ready to forgive such faults . he accuses me for having said , that the pope had sent a formal assurance to the king , that he would judge in his favour . i cited for this in my history an original letter of the archbishop of york's , and of tonstal bishop of duresm , that affirm positively , that the pope had promised , that he would judge for the king against the queen , if he would but send a proxy to rome , because he knew his cause was good & just : this and f. paul's history of the council of trent , are two such authorities , that i will forgive him every thing that he advances on such grounds . he ends this article with his ordinary stile of boasting his having read all the original letters of cardinal de bellay , that are in mr. de la moignon's hands ; and i believe this as i do the rest of what the affirms . lxvi . he denies he had said that for which i had cited him concerning the passages into italy being stopt by the emperour's garrisons , and he hoped his readers would believe him , when they saw a quotation of almost a page out of him , in which that is not to be found ; but he just begins his quotation , at the words that follow a whole page that he had spent upon that for which i had cited him . this is a confidence in disingenuity , that never man that i know of , assumed before himself , and i beg the readers to turn his book here , and examin this : for by this one essay they may judge of his sincerity . it is in the 287. page of the edition of amsterdam ; he begins to cite the last words of the page , and passes over the half of a page that went before ; because it contained that which i had mentioned , and which he here denies , and says , he never thought it ; and upon this single point , i desire that his sincerity may be measured . the comparing his history and my reflections , and his answer in this particular , will be no great trouble , and i promise my self , that most readers will be so complaisant as to grant me this favour ; for i cannot bring my self to submit to the labour of copying out so much impertinence . lxvii . he had set down queen catherine's death , after the session of parliament : so i reckoned that he intended to make his reader believe , that she died immediatly after : now he owns , that as i had accused him , it was two year after the parliament before the queen died , and he fancies to save all this , because he had begun a linea ; but i am not bound to guess that a linea in his stile stands for two years : all historians carry on the series of time in their narrations ; or if some remarkable circumstances makes them at any time break it , they warn their reader of it : and if warning is not given , a reader naturally reckons , that the series goes on , and that it is not discontinued by every a linea . but he neglects the main point of this article , which is , the false date that he gives with his usual confidence to that famous session of parliament , that enacted the breach between england and the see of rome . lxviii . he cites a whole page out of his own history ; for he is here his own eccho : and tho every tittle of it is false , he concludes it in these word , is there any thing here that deserves the least censure ? but is there any censure so severe , as that he gives not here so much as his florimond for his garand ? so here again the eccho speaks . i had said , that it is certain , king henry pretended not to have seen any thing that could any way disgrace anne bullen : and he fancied i had said , that he had owned this ; upon which he protests , that he neither thought it , said it , nor writ it ; and that it could not be found in any page of his books . but i can assure him , when i say , it is certain , i never think of him : for his authority and certainty are the two things in the world , that are the most opposite to one another in my thoughts . i had denied that any thing had appeared in the tilting at greenwich : but to prove the contrary of this , he gives me two arguments that are equally strong : the one is , that once at naples something like this fell , out , and the other is florimond's authority ; and if i will not believe these two , he leaves me to my incredulity . lxix . he says , i shew a very good opinion of my self , if i expect to be believed in this point , whether anne bullens father was one of her iudges , against all other writers . no , it is only that i have a good opinion of my eye-sight , and that , having seen the original record , and marked the place where any body else may see for it , i expect to be believed beyond those who write only upon hear-say : and when our author gives such marks of sincerity in his quotations , as i have done in mine ; then if i question his papers , he may use the right of reprisal upon me ; but this is the case between us . lxx . he tells me the use of the term stoical is now altered in france ; if it is so , i was not bound to know that : but this ought not to come into so high a reckoning . the term stoical is understood to be affected to that philosophy , whose character was an insensibility and a constant equality of temper ; so i had reason to say , this was ill applied to anne bullen . the little he says after this , is so slight , that i cannot dwell upon it : every reader will see , that he had a brow of a peculiar composition , that could say , that i had added nothing in those articles that are in my appendix ; and that i had only repeated those things that i had already said in my reflections : and because he knew he could answer no part of it , he thought the more dextrous way of avoiding to do it , was to send his reader back to the former parts of the book : hoping no doubt that they would not be at that pains , and so he fancied he had very artificially put all that by him ; but as my appendix contains not any one thing that was in the former part of my book , so he had not answered any one tittle in it in those parts to which he sends his reader ; yet if he does not answer that which i had said , he makes me say that , which i had not said concerning cajetan , as appears by the words which are upon the first page , of the nouvelles of the common-wealth of learning for the month of april . and now mr. varillas sees , that those great affairs , that as he tells me , are upon my hands , have not hindred me from dispatching so small a one as his is . neither this , nor the continuation of my reflections on his second volum , could hold me long . i should have had both many scruples and much uneasiness upon me , if this had required much of my time ; but i have prevailed with my self to bestow a week on each of them . if it were a matter of any importance on which i had writ , i should have thought , that the owning the hast in which it was writ , was a disparaging of it : but since it was imploy'd in so mean and so easy a performance , i think it is a justification of my self to confess the speed i made in it . it will perhaps be a little longer a digesting to mr. varillas , than it was a preparing to me . one proof will quickly appear whether the world is so satisfied with his answer , as upon that to return to any tolerable thoughts of his history ; for i have been informed from england , that a gentleman , who is famous both for poetry and several other things , had spent three moneths in translating mr. varillas's history , but that as soon as my reflections appeared , he discontinued his labour , finding the credit of his author was gone : now if he thinks it is recovered by his answer , he will perhaps go on with his translation : and this may be , for ought i know , as good an entertainment for him as the conversation that he had set on between the hinds and the panthers , and all the rest of the animals ; for whom mr. varillas may serve well enough as an author ; and this history and that poem are such extraordinary things of their kind , that it will be but suteable to see the author of the worst poem , become likewise the translator of the worst history , that the age has produced . if his grace and his wit improve both proportionably , we will hardly find that he has gained much by the change he has made , from having no religion to choose one of the worst . it is true , he had somewhat to sink from , in the matter of wit , but as for his morals , it is scarce possible for him to grow a worse man than he was . he has lately wreaked his malice on me for spoiling his three moneths labour ; but in it he has done me all the the honour that any man can receive from him , which is to be railed at by him . if i had ill nature enough to prompt me to wish a very bad wish for him , it should be , that he would go on and finish his translation : by that it will appear , whether the english nation , which is the most competent judge in this matter , has upon the seeing our debate , pronounced in mr. varillas's favour , or in mine . it is true , m. d. will suffer a little by it , but at least it will serve to keep him in from other extravagancies : and if he gains little honour by this work , yet he cannot lose so much by it as he has done by his last imployment . postscript . i have perhaps said already more than enough for laying open those histories that have appeared hitherto with so much pomp : and that have been received much more favourably than they deserved . it is perhaps a little too cruel in me , to pursue mr. varillas so closely , when he has drawn the indignation of all the world upon himself . mr. hosier was not satisfied to call him an impostor , and an author of romances , in a private letter to a friend , but was willing to let this be published , that all the world might likewise know it : and mr. larroque has laid open his errors and impostures so copiously , that he has at the same time discovered his own learning and exactness , as well as the ignorance and the falsehoods of mr. varillas , in which he has shewed himself to be the worthy son of so great a father , and has given such an essay of what may be expected from him upon greater occasions , that the world will long for more of the production of such a pen. but because mr. varillas intends to treat all nations , and all illustrious families alike ill , and to shew that he is equally ignorant and bold with them all : i will only add here one part of the remarks that those learned persons who publish the abstracts of books in leipsig have made on him , in the account of the moneth of october , 1686. in which after they have shewed , that he writes almost all names false ; that he confounds the order of time , and the persons concerning whom he writes ; that he does not know the map of germany , nor the situation of towns , or the division of the circles , nor the interests in which the princes of germany were at that time ; that he contradicts in one part of his book what he had said in another ; that he sets down the reformation of leipsig 18. years before it was done ; he who was their prince all that while , having been so noted an enemy to that work ; that the whole relation he gives of fronsberg , is false in all the parts of it , as well in the character of the man , as in his actions , and both in his own death and in the death of his children ; besides all these , in every one of which they give a great many instances , they conclude with that which is more remarkable , and in which their duty to their prince made them the more concerned , since it touches one from whom the elector of saxony is lineally descended by the maternal line . the fault is indeed worthy of mr. varillas , and in that i say a great deal : it is this , mr. varillas says , that albert of brandenburg , who from being master of the teutonick order , was made duke of prussia , did when he was 69. years old ( he adds compleat , for he loves to be exact ) marryed dorothee , princess of holstein ( tho she was indeed daughter to frederick the first king of denmark ) that she who was very young , consented to the marriage , hoping he would shortly dye , and that so she would carry away a vast fortune with her ; but she was notably deceived ; for she quickly bore him a son , which cut off her hopes of having his wealth : but which was worse , she spent 30. years of her life with him , so long did he live after their marriage . but mr. varillas might have found the falsehood of all this out of the common genealogists , and in particular out of chytraeus , whom he cites . albert was born in the year 1490. and married the daughter of denmark in the year 1525. which was in the 35. year of his age. she bore him several children , but one daughter only came to age , who was married to the duke of meklebourg . she died after they had lived 22. years together : and after that in the year 1550. when albert was now 60. year old , he married to a daughter of the house of brunswick , by whom he had the son , that succeeded him in the dutchy of prussia : he had also many daughters by her , of whom one was married to the elector of saxony , and another to the elector of bradenbourg , and the rest to other princes : and this albert died in the year 1568. in the 78. year of his age , which one would have thought was a great age : but mr. varillas must be sublime in every thing , so he makes him to have lived till he was 99. some have wisht that such hints as these are might be furnished from the men of the several nations that mr. varillas has brought into his history : for it must be confessed , that no man has ever taken so much pains to make himself be so generally decried as he has done , by giving every kingdom an act in his play ; that so all europe over he may be equally despised : and therefore all further pains concerning him may be well superseded . i am sure , i am more than weary of him . finis . errata . page 11. line 4. after library put , . p. 21. l. 28. any expression r. my excep●ion . p. 39. l. 6. was r. it . p. 49. l last , inspected r. suspected . p. 56. l. 9. besainted r. beated , p. 77. l. 14 ninth r. fourth . p. 80. l. 15. deny'd r. said . p. 91. l. 2. which r. shat . p. 102. l. 25. the r. that . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30334-e260 10 10 journal p. 170. of the amsterd . edition . notes for div a30334-e1370 p. 8. p. 5. p. 10. p. 5. p. 55 , 56 , 57. p. 6. p. 26. p. 29. ibid. p. 28. p. 265. 283. 323. 423. p. 20. p. 26. p. 90. 433. p. 30. p. 108.257 . p. 157. p. 364 , 366 , 380. p. 27 , 92 , 225 , 86 , 244 , 201 , 374. p. 44. p. 46. p. 50. p. 222. p. 53. p. 60. p. 67. p. 73. p. 70. pag. 84. p. 90. p. 94. polid. virg. lib. 4. p. 102 , 103. p. 109. p. 115. p. 117. p. 120. p. 127. p. 130. p. 134. p. 137. p. 139. p. 141. p. 144. p. 151 p. 161. ibid. p. 164. p. 167. p. 172. p. 177. p. 178. p. 180 p. 185. p. 187. p. 191. p. 193. p. 198. p. 200. p. 206. p. 211. p. 218. p. 222. p. 225. p. 233. p. 243. p. 240. p. 242. p. 250. p. 257. p. 260. p. 261. p. 263. p. 267. p. 272. p. 279. p. 285. p. 294. p. 295. p. 303. p. 306. p. 310. p. 226. p. 319. p. 324. p. 228. ex mss. gul. petyt ar. lib. 20. p. 340. p. 359. p. 484. p. 366. p. 368. p. 369. p. 373. p. 376. p. 377. p. 380. p. 385. p. 391. p. 394. p. 396. p. 398. p. 400. p. 409. p. 416. p. 419. p. 423. p. 425. p. 429. p. 432. p. 433. p. 435. p. 441. the fourth council of the lateran . p. 446. p. 451. p. 455. p. 458. p. 467. p. 468. lib. 7. p. 89. a collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by gilbert burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to dr. burnet, giving an account of cardinal pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the popish plot, 1679. selections. 1685 burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 approx. 243 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 70 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30330 wing b5770 estc r214762 12121889 ocm 12121889 54459 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30330) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 54459) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 885:19) a collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by gilbert burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to dr. burnet, giving an account of cardinal pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the popish plot, 1679. selections. 1685 burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [6], 45, [3], 36, [2], 47 p. printed for ric. chiswell ..., london : 1685. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -controversial literature. anti-catholicism -early works to 1800. popish plot, 1678. status offenders. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a collection of several tracts and dsicourses , written in the years 1678 , 1679 , 1680 , 1681 , 1682 , 1683 , 1684 , 1685. by gilbert burnet , d. d. to which are added , a letter written to dr. burnet , giving an account of cardinal pool's secret powers . the history of the powder-treason , with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon . an impartial consideration of the five jesuits dying speeches , who were executed for the popish plot , 1679. london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxv a table of the titles . mdclxxviii . 1. a letter written upon the discovery of the late plot . 2. the unreasonablness and impiety of popery in a second letter , written upon the discovery of the late plot . 3. a relation of the barbarous and bloody massacre of about an hundred thousand protestants , begun at paris , and carried on over all france by the papists , in the year 1572 , collected out of mezeray , thuanus , and other approved authors . mdclxxix . 4. a decree made at rome , the 2d of march , 1679. condemning some opinions of the iesuits , and other casuists . mdclxxx . 5. the conversion and persecutions of eve cohan , now called elizabeth verboon , a person of quality of the iewish religion , who was baptized the 10th of october , 1680. 6. a sermon preached on the fast day ; december 22. 1680. at st. margarets westminster , before the house of commons , on rev. 3. 2 , 3. 7. a sermon preached before the lord mayor and aldermen of london , on september 2. 1680. being the anniversary fast , for the burning of london , on amos 4. 11 , 12. 8. a sermon preached before the aldermen of london , january 30 ▪ 1680. being the day of the martyrdom of king charles the first , on zech. 8. 19. mdclxxxi . 9. a sermon preached at the election of the lord mayor of london , september 29. 1681. on matth. 12. 25. mdclxxxii . 10. a sermon preached at the funeral of mr. james houblon merchant , june 28. 1682. psal. 37. 37. 11 news from france , in a letter , giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french king , and the court of rome ; to which is added , the popes brief to the assembly of the clergy , and the protestation made by them. 12. an answer to the animadversions on dr. burnet's history of the rights of princes . mdclxxxiv . 13. a sermon preached at the chappel of the rolls , november 5. 1684. being gun-powder-treason day , on psal. 22. 21. 14. a letter to mr. simon lowth , vicar of cosmus-blene , in the diocess of canterbury , occasioned by his late book , [ of the subject of church power . ] 15. an answer to a letter to dr. burnet , occasioned by his letter to mr. lowth . 16. a letter occasioned by the second letter to dr. burnet . mdclxxxv . 17. a letter written to dr. burnet , giving an account of cardinal pool ' , secret powers , from which it appears , that it was never intended to confirm the alienation that was made of the abby-lands . to which is added , two breves that cardinal pool brought over , and some other of his letters that were never before printed . 18. the history of the powder-treason , with a vindication of the proceedings , and matters relating thereunto , from the exoeptions made against it ; and more particularly of late years , by the author of the catholick apology . to which is added , a parallel betwixt that and the present popish plot. 1681. 19. an impartial consideration of those speeches , which pass under the name of the five iesuits lately executed , viz. mr. whitebread , mr. harcourt , mr. gawen , mr. turner , and mr. fenwick in which it is proved , that according to their principles they not only might , but also ought to dye after that manner , with solemn protestations of their innocency . 1679. a letter , written upon the discovery of the late plot . licensed w. jane , octob. 17. 1678. london : printed for h. brome , and r. chiswell , both living in st. paul's church-yard , 1678. a letter , written upon the discovery of the late plot . sir , i heartily thank you for the news your last brought me , of the discovery of that horrid plot , both against his majesties person , and the whole kingdom . i doubt not but all good men are offering up their acknowledgments to god , for so great a blessing ; which is a fresh demonstration of his care of this church , and state : and that all our crying sins have not provoked him yet to abandon us : of which i pray god make us all sensible , that we may not continue to pull down such judgments , as the malice of wicked men would readily become instrumental in , if the providence of god did not so wonderfully and seasonably interpose . there is only one passage in your letter , that i wonder at . you tell me every body is surprized with this plot now discovered . i confess i am not of their mind ; for although i know there are persons of high honour , and untainted loyalty of the roman religion , who abominate the thoughts of all secret assassinations , much more of murdering his majesty ; yet such practices are so necessarily consequent to the principles of that church , that no member of it , who throughly understands them , can , while they continue in that communion , avoid the being involved in conspiracies , as oft as a fit occasion presents it self . these several years past they have boasted much of their loyalty , and their services and sufferings for his majesty , during the late civil wars . all this was necessary to make the government put confidence in them , that so they might more secretly lay their designs : which were to take effect , when a conjuncture was offered that seemed favourable . but i must again and again repeat , what i often told you in discourse ; that no member of that church can thorowly understand and believe the principles of it , and be a good subject even to a king of his own perswasion : but he can be much less so , to a prince whom he looks on as an heretick , who thereby lies under a general excommunication , and may be brought under a particular and formal one , before he , or any body else , but such as are fit to be entrusted with the secret , shall know it : and then the prince is at the mercy of all his popish subjects , who if they consider aright the doctrine of their own church , must depart from their allegiance to him , and be ready to do any thing that is laid on them , by those who are either directly their superiours , if they have taken religious vows ; or at least , have some authority over their consciences . this i shall open to you in as short and plain terms as is possible ; and the rather , that you may communicate it to some persons of honour of that religion , who i hope upon so fresh a discovery of these practices , may be now not unwilling to examine a point , the consideration of which they before rejected , as an imputation cast on their religion . this will now , i imagine , move them so far to demur , as to consider impartially whether such practises flow only from the ill tempers of particular persons , or from the received principles of their church . this latter i undertake to make out , from the undeniable maximes , to which all of that communion are bound to adhere . there are two principles , which i may well call the fundamental principles of the roman church : since all opinions that are not inconsistent with them , can be tollerated among them : but whatever strikes at these , must needs be abominated , as destructive of that , they call the catholick faith. the one is , the authority of the church , the other is , the certainty of tradition . if then the doctrine of deposing kings , and by consequence killing them ( for if they are justly deposed , it 's as just to kill them as to kill any usurper ) is such , that without denying the authority of the church , and the certainty of tradition , it cannot be denied ; then all men must resolve either to acknowledg it , or to renounce their subjection to a church that must needs believe it . about the authority of the church , two things are to be observed , that serve for clearing what i design to make out . the first is , that the church in any one age has as much authority as ever it had , or can have in any other age : for if christs promises , together with the other arguments they bring for the authority of the church , be good , they are alike strong at all times , and in all ages : and therefore though in writing books of controversies they muster up authorities out of the former ages , because we profess we pay little esteem to the latter ages : yet among themselves all ages are alike , and the decrees of them are of equal authority . secondly , the authority of the church is as little to be disputed in moral matters , that fall under practice , as in articles of faith that only fall under speculation , and in a word , the church must be the infallible expounder of the ten commandments , as well as of the creed . all the arguments from christs promises , from the hazard of trusting to our private reasonings , and the necessity of submitting to a publick judg , are by so much the more concluding in practical matters , as it is of more importance , that men think aright in practical than in speculative opinions . if then there arises a question about a moral matter , or the exposition of any of the commandments , the only certain decision must be expected from the church . for instance , a question arises about images , whether it is lawful to use them in the worship of god , upon the seeming opposition which the worship of them has to the 2d commandment ? since the church has once determin'd that it may be lawfully used , it is heresie to deny it , on this pretence , that we fancy it is contrary to one of the commandments . so if a controversie arise upon the fifth commandment , how far a king is to be acknowledged , if the church has determined the limits of that , it is heresie to carry it further . if also another question arise how much the sixth commandment obliges ? it must be carried so far and no further than the determination of the church allows . i confess by the doctrine of that church , even a general council may err in a point in which any matter of fact is included : because they may be deceived by a false information . but in a general rule about morality , and the extent of any of the ten commandments , the decision of the church must either be certain , and for ever obligatory , or the whole doctrine of the infallibility of the church falls to the ground . concerning the certainty of tradition , the general opinion of that party , is , that tradition is an infallible conveyance of divine truth : and that whatever any age of the church delivers to another as derived from christ and his apostles , must be received with the same veneration and obedience that we pay to the holy scriptures . and for the ways of distinguishing a tradition of the church from any imposture , or novelty : there be four of them . the first , that is the most doubtful , is , that the greatest and most esteemed doctors in any age deliver as a divine truth . nor is it necessary that they formally say , this is a tradition : but if many of them mention an opinion , and declare their own assent to it , this passes as a sufficient proof of the tradition of any age of the church ▪ so in all points of controversie between them and us , the greatest part of their writers , ( some few later and suspected ones only excepted ) think they have sufficiently justified their church , when they bring testimonies out of any of the writings of the fathers , that seem to favour their opinion : and will call it unreasonable for us to reject these , because they only deliver their own opinion , and do not call it the tradition of the church , but conclude , that many writers in any age asserting an opinion , it may well be looked on as the tradition of that age. but , because this is more liable to exception , there is another way , that is more infallible to judg of tradition : and that is , by the conveyance of the see of rome , which they judg the chief depository of the faith ; and for which they fansie they have so many proofs , from the high things some of the fathers have said about the dignity of that see. now if these conclude any thing , it must follow , that whatever has been delivered in any age by a pope , as conveyed down from christ , or his apostles , must either be so indeed , or the see of rome is not a faithful transmitter of tradition . but , there is yet a more certain way of judging of tradition , by what the chief pastors of the church have delivered , when assembled in a general council . this being the supreme tribunal in the church , there can lie no appeal from it : nor can the doctrines delivered or approved by it be questioned . for instance , if it were under debate , how the tradition about transubstantiation can be made out in the thirteenth century ; it is needless to seek any other evidence , than , that one almerick is condemned for denying it , and in opposition to that , it was formally established in a general council . this is as much as can be had , and he were very unreasonable that were not satisfied with it : so if it be asked , how can the tradition of the doctrine of deposing kings , and giving away their dominions in the same century be proved ? the answer is plain , that same very council decreed it : upon which a great prince was deposed , and his dominions were given to another . these are the common standards by which traditions are examined . but to these a new one has been lately added : which is indeed a much shorter and nearer way : and that is , whatever the church holds in any one age , as a material point of religion , she must have received it from the former age , and that age from the former , and so it climbs upwards till the days of the apostles . if this be a certain track of tradition by which we may infallibly trace it ; then for instance , if in any one age , it hath been believed , that st. peter had power from christ , which he left to the see of rome , by which his successor in it can depose kings , then this must be an apostolical tradition , and by consequence of equal authority with any thing written in the scriptures . to these general considerations about the authority of the church , and the certainty of tradition ; i shall add two other , about the nature of supreme and soveraign power : by which we may judg of what extent the popes power must be , if he have an authority to depose kings , and transfer their dominions to other persons . first , when the soveraign powers proceed in a legal way against its subjects ; if either they abscond , so that they cannot be found ; or have such a power about them , that the sovereign cannot bring them to punishment ; he may declare them rebels , and set prices on their heads ; and in that case it is as lawful for any subject to kill them , as it is for an executioner to put a condemned person to death . these being the several ways the law provides in those several cases . so when a pope deposes a prince , he may as lawfully set on private assassinates to kill him , as oblige his subjects to rise with open force against him . for if the pope has a power over him to depose him ; this clearly follows from the nature of sovereign power , and it is the course that sometimes must be followed , when the rebel can be no other way brought to deserved punishment ; and if the pope has the power of deposing , then a prince who after such a sentence , carries himself as a king , is a rebel against his supreme lord : and is also an usurper . for his title being destroyed by the sentence , he has no authority over his subjects : and therefore may be as lawfully killed as any rebel or usurper . secondly , the supreme power may in cases of great necessity , when the thing is in it self materially just , pass over such forms as ought in ordinary cases to be observed . i need not tell you , that in a great fire , subordinate magistrates may blow up houses . but doubtless the supreme power of all , as a king in an absolute monarchy ( and such is the papal power if these opinions be true ) may dispence with some forms , when the matter is in it self just ; and if the chief design of a law be pursued , the circumstantial parts of it may upon extraordinary occasions be superseded : therefore , if the pope is supreme over all kings , and has this deposing power ; then though by the canon , a king ought to be first a year excommunicated for his heresy or favouring hereticks ; and at the years end he may be deposed by the pope , ( there are also other rules for excommunications , tho the summary way in some cases may be used ) yet all these are but circumstantial and lesser matters . the design of that law , is , that no heretical prince , or favourer of heresie , be continued in his power ; the other , are but forms of law , that cannot be indispensibly necessary in all cases . besides , the very canon law teaches , that when there is both a notorietas juris & facti , summary proceedings are legal ; when then it is notorious , that the doctrines of the church ( of england for instance ) are heretical , and that the king is an obstinate favourer of these heresies , and will not extirpate them , summary and secret proceedings are justifiable . there is no hope that bulls , breves , or citations would do any good in this case : these would on the contrary , alarm the state , and bring all the party under great hazards : therefore from the nature of supreme power , it is most justly inferred , that though there have been no publick sentence of deposition ( according to the forms of the canon law ) yet all these may be dispensed with , and a secret and summary one may do as well . these positions are such , that i cannot fansie any just exceptions to which they are liable ; and from all these laid together , the inference will undeniably follow : that according to the doctrine of the church of rome , the power of deposing kings is lodged with the pope , by a divine authority ; and that , by consequence , private persons may conspire to take away the life of a king so deposed : even though there be no publick sentence given about it . but before i bring the evidence for all this , i shall desire the reader will a little reflect on the positions i have laid down : in which he will find an answer to all the exceptions , that can be made against the following evidence . by the first , the authority of the church , being the same in all ages ; he will see it is to no purpose to pretend these were dark ages : so that what was done in an ignorant time , cannot oblige the world when things are seen in a better light . but if the church has an authority from christ , that shall last till the end of the world , it must be the same in all ages . the ignorance of the age is a very good answer when made by a protestant , but can signifie nothing in a papists mouth . by the second , of the churches authority in setling moral rules for practice , it appears how fond that distinction is , which they make between a canon and a decree . it is true , a decree about a particular case , in which there is some matter of fact , may be wrong according to their principles , and yet the authority of the church remain entire . for instance , in the deposing a prince , or condemning a man for heresie , the church may either by false witnesses , or mistaking a man's words , be drawn to pass an unjust sentence , by reason of a mis-representation of the fact. but that is nothing to the purpose here , where a decree is made as a perpetual rule of practice ; this must be of the same authority of a canon about any article of faith. otherwise it will follow , that the church may mislead the people in matters indispensably necessary to salvation : for such is the obedience to the ten commandments . by the first way of judging of the tradition of the church , from what the most received writers in any age deliver , as the doctrine of the church , it will appear ; that the schoolmen and canonists are as competent conveyers of tradition from the twelfth age downward , as the fathers were from the sixth age upward ; and laying this for a principle , that the church is the same in all ages , they are really more competent witnesses than the fathers were . first , because they write more closely to the subject they have in hand ; they consider what is said for , or against an opinion in a more exact manner , than the fathers did , who being carried with the heat they are sometimes in , go off from the purpose : and generally affect eloquence , which is the most improper stile for nice matters : whereas the schoolmen write in a blunt way , only considering the purpose they are about , coyning the most barbarous words they can light on , when they think them the fittest to express their notions . secondly , they were divided into two famous schools , among whom there were great heats , the scotists and thomists : so that if either of these had asserted any thing that was not the received doctrine of the age they lived in , the other party had such emulation against them , that they would not have failed to have laid them open : as they did in the matter of the immaculate conception of the b. virgin. whereas the fathers writing only against hereticks , or other enemies to christianity , they might have mistaken somethings , without so publick a discovery as was likely to ▪ happen among the schoolmen . 3dly . the schoolmen wrote on purpose to deliver the doctrine of the age in which they lived , to those who were to succeed them . their books being generally the divinity lectures they read , either in colledges or religious houses , to their scholars , whereas the fathers wrote upon emergent occasions , either letters or treatises to private persons , regarding more the present , than the succeeding age. in which we cannot expect that exactness , that is to be looked for in a publick lecture . upon all which i assume , that allowing the church to have the same authority in all ages , the schoolmen are more competent witnesses of the tradition of the church in their ages , than the fathers were in theirs . by the second rule for judging of traditions , from the conveyance of the see of rome , it does undeniably follow , that the popes from gregory the sevenths time downward , were as sure depositories of the traditions of the church , as were the popes from gregory the first his time upward . they were both alike christ's vicars , and st. peters successors . so that all the high words that the fathers bestow on the see of rome , were either complements , in which they are not wanting , or were said because of the worth of the bishops , whom they had known in that see. but if they be to be understood in that sence in which the writers of controversy obtrude them on us , then it will follow manifestly , that as to the conveyance of tradition , p. gregory the 7th is as much to be believed , when he says any thing in the name of st. peter , or of christ , as any of the popes are . for in the preamble of bulls and breeves , the reasons are given of what follows , which are most commonly vouched from apostolical authority and tradition . so let the pope be ever so ignorant , or so corrupt in his manners , what he asserts to be apostolical tradition , must be either received as such , or the authority of that see is overthrown : therefore they must either cease to press us any more with tht authority of the see of rome , or acknowledg that all the popes declarations , which they make about traditions , are to be received . it is an answer to be made use of only to ignorant persons , to say , these depositions were the deeds of some popes , who might be ill men , and the church is not concerned to justify them . i confess , whether this or that deposition was justly or lawfully made , is a personal thing , in which only the pope who decreed it is concerned . but if he declares in the preamble , that the power of deposing upon those reasons , is grounded on an apostolical tradition , then the see is concerned in it : for either he declares true or false ; if the former , then that power of deposing comes from apostolical tradition ; if they acknowledge he declares false , then we are not any more to be urged with the authority of that see , as the certain depository of the traditions of the church . by the third mark , to judge of the tradition of any age from the decision of a general council , it appears , that the decisions of the fourth council of lateran are as obligatory as the decrees of the first council of nice : the church having the same power in all ages . if it be said , it was only a council of the western church , the like may be objected against the first general council , which were generally made up of eastern bishops , and very few of the western bishops sat in them . and if we esteem a council general , because it was received by the church , then the whole church of rome having received that council , it must be acknowledged to be general as much as any ever was . but to this , others answer , that a council is only infallible , when a thing is decreed by it according to the tradition of the church . if this be true , the whole controversie between the roman church and us , about the authority of councils , is decided on our side . for if a council has only authority to declare traditions , then it is free for every person to examine , whether this declaration be according to truth or not ? and if it be found that it is not so , they may lawfully reject such decisions . for instance in the second council of nice , the worship of images was established upon a mock-shew of tradition : and yet all the world knows , there were no images allowed in the church the first four ages after christ ; and even in the sixth age p. gregory declared , that though they might be in the church , yet they ought not to be worshipped . nor was there any contest about it , before the eighth century . this being thus examined , and found to be true , then according to the foregoing answer , that decision was of no force , though made by the second council of nice . in a word , if this maxime be true , that councils are only to be submitted to , when they decree according to apostolical tradition , then they have no authority in themselves : and their decisions can have no more force than this , that it may seem probable that they were not mistaken , and in an ignorant age , even this probability will vanish to nothing no body will reject the decision of a council , when the decrees are just and right : but if i●… be upon that score alone , that they are to be submitted to , then none are bound by them , before they have examined them : and if upon a search it appear they decreed against tradition , then their decrees are to be rejected . so it is apparent this answer does plainly , according to their principles , lay the foundation of all heresie ; since it gives every man a right to question the decrees of a general council . besides , how can those persons be assured , that the fourth council of lateran did not decree according to tradition ? the acts of that council are lost : so we cannot know upon what reasons they made their decrees . and it cannot be said , that because there is no mention made of any tradition in the decree , that therefore they considered none . it is seldom found that the reasons of any decree are put with it . but we may reasonably enough believe , that they followed the method in this council , that had been used in some former ones ( particularly in the second council of nice ) which was this , a writing was read , penned perhaps by the pope , or a patriarch , in which the tradition of the church was confidently alledged ; and some quotations were brought ; and very oft out of some later writers . the paper was no sooner read , than a loud and often repeated shout of applause followed , without any further search or canvasing about these authorities . and upon that the decree was made . this was the practice both of the second nicene , and of some more ancient councils ; whose journals are hitherto preserved ; and where the journals are lost , we have reason to believe they followed the same method : so that it is very probable there might have been some such writing read in the council of lateran . and if they did not found their decree upon tradition , they were much to blame ; for they had as venerable a tradition , as either the second council of nice , or some other councils had : a practice about 150 years standing from the days of pope gregory the vii . so that it is not to be denied but they had as good authority from tradition , to make this decree , as to make most of the other decrees , on which they insist much , in the books of controversies that are written by them . by the fourth rule of judging about tradition , the matter is yet much plainer : for if the generally received belief of any age of the church , is a good thread to lead us up to the apostles times , then there needs no more be said . for it is certain , that for near four ages together , this was the universally received doctrine of the church of rome . and the opposition that some princes made to it was condemned as heresy , rebellion , and every thing that was evil . and it is remarkable , that both o●…kam that wrote much for the emperors cause against the pope , and gerson and almain , no great favourers of papal power , are cited by cardinal perrow , as acknowledging the ecclesiastical power of deposing , if a prince were guilty of spiritual crimes . so that the controversies in this matter that were managed between the writers for the popes and emperors , were not , whether the pope in cases of heresy might depose a prince ? but were concerning two things very remote from this . the one was , whether the pope had a direct temporal power over all kings , by which as being lord of the fe●… , he could proceed upon any cause whatsoever against a king , and take his dominions from him . to this indeed gregory the 7th pretended tho more covertly , and boniface the 8th more avowedly . there was great opposition made to this by many writers ; but at the same time they all agreed on it , as an undeniable maxim , that the pope had an indirect power over princes , by which in the cases of heresy he might excommunicate and depose them ; nor was there so much as any debate about it . a second thing about which there was some controversy was , whether the particulars that fell under debate came within the head of heresy , or not ? so in the case of princes giving the investitures into bishopricks , the pope brought it in within the head of heresy , and condemned those persons as simoniacks . the writers on the other side denied this , pretending it was a civil matter , and a right of the crown . the like debates fell in , when princes were sentenced on any other account . the authority of the sentence in the case of heresy was not controverted ; all the question was ; whether the point under debate was heresy or not ? and concerning these things , any who have read the writings in the great collection made of them by goldastus , will receive an easy and full satisfaction . by which it appears , that the popes power of deposing kings in the case of heresy was the received doctrine of the church for several ages , and by consequence it must be looked on as derived down from the apostles , if the doctrine of any one age of the church can lead us backward in a certain track to discover what it was in the apostles days . by the first position about the nature of supreme power , it is apparent , that in the case of heresy , a prince deposed by the pope , if he stands out against the sentence , may be as lawfully killed as any tory or moss-trooper , or bantito , may be ; for he is a rebel against his lord , and an usurper over the people , from that day forward . and therefore tho mariana told a secret too publickly , yet it cannot be denied to be a certain consequent of their principles . it had been indeed more discreetly done to have ordered this only to be infused unto peoples consciences , by their confessors in secret . and for mariana , tho the book in gross is condemned , as they give out , yet the opinions set down in it are not censured . but a suarez writing against k. iames , tells him in plain terms , that a king , who is canonically deposed , may be killed by any man whatsoever . this was not only published with an ordinary license , but the whole university of alcala declared every thing in it to be according to the doctrine of the church . valentia , tho he disguises it a little , yet says , that an heretical prince may by the popes sentence be deprived of his life . b foulis cites ten more doctors for the same opinion of killing kings by private persons . i do not build upon the assertions of these jesuits , as binding authorities in that church , but make use of them to shew , that some of their own eminentest writers acknowledg the force of this consequence ; which is indeed so evident , that nothing but good manners , and some small care not to provoke princes too much by such bare-faced positions , keeps others from asserting it . few princes are so tame as childeric was , to go into a monastery after they are deposed . therefore this doctrine is but a lame provision for the churches security from heresie , if the lawfulness of killing does not follow that of deposing kings . and it was so generally received , that it is told of gerson , that he was at great pains to get it declared that no private cut-throat might kill a king , and that by consequence it was only the popes prerogative to order them to be destroyed . by the second position about the nature of supreme power , that in extraordinary cases forms of law may be superseded ; it is also clear , that tho we know nothing of any sentence of deposition given out against the king , yet he is not a whit the safer , for he lies under an yearly curse every maundy thursday . the notoriousness of his heresy will sufficiently justify a particular sentence , without any further process or citation , according to the maxims of the canon law. and there may be for ought we can know , as valid a deposition as parchment and lead can make it , already expeded . and if it be not yet done , we are sure it may be done very suddenly , and will be done whensoever they see any probability of success . bellarmine hath very sincerely told us the reason why heretical princes are not deposed , because the church has not strength enough to make such a sentence good , or does not think it expedient ; that is to say , they will do it whensoever they find a prince who will execute the sentence , and yet by that conquest not grow so strong , as by that means to turn the ballance . so the two considerations to which we owe our security are , the want of force , and the fear of another prince his becoming too powerful by the conquest . but i must add , that bellarmine , while he was a jesuite , had taught , that heretical princes were not to be deposed , except they endeavoured to turn their people from the faith : this was all his bounty to them of which we could not pretend to a crumb , since there were such laws made against popery among us . yet when he became a cardinal , he considered better of the matter ; so that in his recognitions he retracts that , and says therein be followed durandus his opinion , who maintains it against aquinas , but he thinks the latter was in the right , and says , even in that case they may be deposed , only the church does it not always ; either because she wants strength , or does not judge it expedient . but he concludes , if princes endeavour to draw their subjects from the faith , they may and ought to be deposed . so in our case there is no mercy to be expected , unless we repeal all laws against that religion . but after all this there is another device in the canon-law , called , ipso facto , by which a sentence is incurred immediately upon the doing of a fact. this began in the priviledges granted to monasteries or churches , in most of which this clause is to be found , that if any king or prince , &c. did any thing contrary to these priviledges , he thereby fell from his power and dignity . now that heresy is one of the things upon which a prince is ipso facto under excommunication and deposition , we have the authority of father e parsons , or creswel , who tells us , that the whole school of divines and canonists agree in it , and , that it is certain , and of faith , that a prince falling from the catholick religion , and endeavouring to draw away others from it , does immediately fall from all his power and dignity , even before the pope has pronounced any sentence , and that his subjects are free from their oaths of obedience , and may eject such an one as apostate and heretick . but there is a clearer evidence for this ; the great and famous college of the sorbon , ( seventy doctors being present ) when consulted , whether the people of france were not freed from their obedience to henry the third , upon his putting the duke and cardinal of guise to death ; they , before ever the pope had given sentence , declared , that they were absolved from their obedience , and might with a good conscience make war upon him for the defence of the catholick faith. upon which the parisians wrote to the pope to desire the confirmation of that decision . from all which it appears , that if the deposing power be in the pope , the king is not a whit the safer , because we know nothing of any such sentence pronounced against him . and thus having made good and illustrated the positions i laid down , against all the exceptions which that small and condemned party of widdrirgton's followers make use of , to cover themselves from the charge of treason , that lies against their church ▪ i go next to lay open the evidence , after which i shall leave it to every man's conscience to pass the verdict . there are in ( f ) pope gregory the great 's works , four priviledges granted ; one to the abbey of st. medard , another to the hospital , a third to the nunnery , a fourth to st. martin's church of autim . in which after the priviledges are granted , a sanction is added in these words ; if any kings , &c. shall endeavour to countervene this writing , let him lose the dignity of his power and honour . or shorter , in that of st. medard , let him be deprived of his dignity . these are to be found both in all the mss , and printed editions of that popes works . it is true , the first of these to saint medard's monastery , is looked on as a forged piece , both by cardinal perron , sirmond , and lannoy . but as it went for a true one till of late , and is still defended by others , baronius in particular , concluding from thence for the popes power over kings ; so the other priviledges are not denied to be true by any , except lannoy of late , for ought i know . these have been for above 600 years looked on as the grants of that pope . but this may seem a private writing , and not of such force . about 130 years after that , pope g gregory the 3d deposed leo ▪ the emperor , from all his dominions in italy , because he would not tolerate the worship of i mages . and if that single heresie merited such a sentence , what may we look , for , among whose many imputed errors this is but one , and none of the most considerable ? not many years after that , did his successor zacharias upon a message he received from france , absolve that nation from their oaths to childeric , and ordered boniface to crown pepin in his stead ▪ and not long after that pope adrian gave the empire of rome , and of the west to charles the great . as h bellarmine proves from above 30 of the historians of that time , and the testimony of many soveraign princes . yet these being dark ages , in which there was more of action than dispute , we do not find the grounds laid down , on which those proceedings were founded . but the constant maxim of the papacy , was , once to begin a practice , and then to find arguments to defend it , among which the practice it self was no inconsiderable one ; for he was a mean spirited pope , that would in a tittle fall short of what his predecessors had assumed . about 250 years after charles the great had assumed the empire of the west , there arose a pope ( gregory the seventh ) that resolved to make the most of his see that could be : and reckoning , that the empire of the west was the gift of his predecessors , and building on that known maxim , that none can give that which they have not , he looked on the supreme dominion of it , as one of the perquisites of the see , which he would by no means part with . and therefore in his i dictatis , in which he asserts the several branches of his prerogative , these be three of them : that the pope only may use the imperial ensigns . that he may depose emperours . and , that he can absolve subjects from their fidelity to wicked princes . and to shew he was in earnest in these doctrines , he began soon to lay about him . his first threatnings were against king philip of france , who was a vicious prince : in a letter to the bishops of france , he requires them to admonish the king for his faults , and if he did not mend them , to put the whole kingdom under an interdict : and if after all that he continued still disobedient , he swaggers out in these words , k we will have none to be ignorant , or doubtful , what we intend to do upon it ; for by the help of god we will endeavour by all means , to wrest the kingdom of france out of his possession . but upon the submission of that king , these threatnings came not to any effect : yet he went on against the emperor , hen. the 4th , at the rate he had threatned the king of france . i need not tell what all the world knows : that he first excommunicated and deposed the emperor , in the year 1076. then upon his doing of penance , he received him into his favour . but upon new provocations he deposed him a second , a third , and fourth time , in the years 1080 , 1081 , and 1083. in all which he had the concurrence of so many roman councils , and set up against him , first rodolph , after that herman : as his successors did ; first conrade , and then henry , that emperor 's unnatural sons . the prosecution of the history , is needless to my design . but in his letter to herman , bishop of mets , l we meet with that which is more considerable . for there he largely justifies his proceedings , which he grounds on the keys of the kingdom of heaven , being given to st. peter ; and the power of binding and loosing joined to them . more places of scripture he sought not , but his successor , m boniface the 8th , made use of ecce duo gladii , and the power given to the prophet ieremiah , over kingdoms , to root out , pull down , destroy , throw down , to build , and to plant : and they took it in great dudgeon , if any would compare a single prophet under the law , to christ's vicar under the gospel . but gregory goes on in his proofs , to the tradition of the church : and says , the fathers had often both in general councils , and in their particular writings acknowledged , that this power was in the see of rome ; that it was the mother and head of all other churches : that all matters were to be judged by it , from whose sentence no appeal could lye : nor could there be a review made of the judgments passed in that see. and to confirm what he had asserted , he cites some passages out of gelasius , and iulius , and that clause in the priviledges granted by gregory the great , formerly mentioned . so here he very fully and formally delivers the tradition of the church , and builds upon it . he also cites the precedent of pope zacharias , his deposing childeric , not for any fault he found in him , but because he thought him not fit to govern. from that he goes on to some reasons , ( such as they are ) for the justification of his proceedings . the pope having thus declared the tradition and doctrine of the church , it is not to be wondred at , if both the schoolmen mixt it with the instructions they gave their scholars , and the canonists made it a part of the law of the church . n hugo de sancto victore , alexander alensis , bonaventure , durand , peter of aliac , iohn of paris , almain , gabriel biel , henry of ghant , iohn driodo , iohn de terre ▪ iremata , albert pighius , thomas waldensis , petrus de palude , cajetan , franciscus victoria , dominicus a soto , and many others , ( in all 70 are reckoned by bellarmin , but foulis enlarges the number to 177 , whom he cites , who ) did formally assert it . aquinas also taught it ; tho' in some places he contradicted himself . but o boniface the 8th , thought his predecessors had proceeded in this matter too cautiously , and therefore he went more roundly to work . in the jubilee in the year 1300 , he shewed himself the first day in the pontifical habit , but the second day , he was clothed with the imperial habit , a naked sword being carried before him , and cried out with a loud voice , i am pope and emperor , and have both the earthly , and heavenly empire . this upon so publick an occasion looks very like the teaching the church ex cathedra ▪ but because words vanished into air , he left it in writing , in these terms : p we say and define and pronounce , that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane creature , to be subject to the bishop of rome . this being put into the text of the canon law , in which it is continued to this day ; we cannot think it strange that panorimitan , ostiensis , silvester , with all the other canonists assert the popes direct dominion over all the world. and what can they say less , believing him to be christs vicar on earth , to whom all power in heaven and earth was given of his father , therefore the power in heaven being judged enough for christ to manage himself , they thought all the power in earth was committed to the vicar . this passed down without contradiction among them , but was not received by the rest of the church : yet the indirect , or as they termed it , the ecclesiastical power in cases of heresie was universally agreed to : not one person opposing it , till luther and his followers came , sawcily to look into the popes title to this , and many other pretended rights of the see of rome . but because the plea for an indirect power , was not sufficient , since if a prince did not favour heresie , it was of no use : and the pretention to a direct power was of an harsh sound : therefore a title of another kind was set up . it was pretended , that all the kingdoms in the western and northern parts of europe were by formal surrenders offered up to st. peter , and st. paul ; and therefore whatever the popes did , was said to be done in defence of their rights ; which made gregory the 7th fly to them in that flanting address , with which he begins his sentences against the emperor . first of all , the donation of constantine the great was forged : by which the power of all the west , italy , sicily , sardinia , germany , france , spain , and england , were given to the pope . this was put into the text of the canon law : and was stood to , by all the canonists . it is true the civilians wrote generally against it . among whom bartholus may be reckoned , for in his preface to the digests having mentioned the opinions of some against it , when it comes to his own , he delivers it thus ; take notice that we are now in the territory of the church ( for he taught at bulloigne ) and therefore i say that donation is valid . but till valla discovered the impostures of it so manifestly , that they are now ashamed to maintain it any longer , their plea from it was never laid down . but augustinus steuchus , who undertakes the vindication of that donation against valla , does likewise alledge from some instruments in the vatican , that both the kingdoms of spain , arragon , france , england , denmark , muscovy , sicily , and croatia and dalmatia , did subject their crowns to the see of rome . b kranizius tells us , that lakold king of poland , made it tributary to rome . and for the german empire , tho steuchus says nothing of it , perhaps that he might not offend charles the 5th , yet there is both in the canon law , and the letters of popes , more to be said upon that head , than for any of the rest . they pretend the popes set up first the empire of the west : then gave the princes of germany the right of choosing the emperor , and does still give the imperial crown , upon the emperors swearing an oath of homage to them , according to the verse under that insolent picture set up by pope innocent the 2d . in the lateram r of the emperor lying prostrate at his feet , and receiving the crown from him . post homo fit papae , sumit quo dante coronam . but all these surrenders were made use of only to strengthen the great pretention they had of being christs vicars , and st. peters successours ; which from the end of the 11th century , till the beginning of the 16th . for above 4 ages together was as authoritatively asserted by popes , as positively taught by divines , and as tamely received by the whole church , emperors and kings not presuming to contradict it , as any other article of faith. and for proofs of this we need appeal to no other witnesses than those 3. great cardinals baronius , bellarmin and perron , who may be presumed to have understood the doctrine of their own church , better than any body else . the first of those , through his whole work strains his industry , to discover as many instances as he can of it : and never parts with any without expressing the particular satisfaction he had in so pleasant a discovery . i shall only set down what he says on the two 1st . occasions that he met with . when he takes notice of gregory the great 's priviledges formerly mentioned , he adds , s you see reader , that the popes can make laws , to which if kings themselves do not yield obedience , they shall lose their kingdoms . upon the first deposition made by gregory the 3d. he adds , t the faithful in the west being awakened by this thunder , do immediately fall from the obedience to leo , adhering to this apostolical pope . so this gregory left a worthy precedent to posterity , that heretical princes , be not suffered to reign in the church of christ , if having been often admonished , they continue to persist obstinately in their errors . such strains as these do so often occur afterwards , that they can scarce be reckoned . it is well known what advice he gave p. paul the 5th in the quarrel with the venetians , applying the voice to st. peter , arise and kill , to the case in hand ; and that , with his insolent paraenesis to that republick , are clear evidences of his sence in this matter . what bellarmin taught more shortly and obscur●…ly in his controversies , was afterwards made more plain both by his writings , about the translation of the roman empire , upon the interdict of venice , and against king iimes , and william barklay : and cardinal perrons eloquent speech against the bill put in by the third estate of france , for condemning those pretensions of a deposing power , shews us not only his own sense , but the sense of the whole clergy of france ; in whose name he delivered it . u he calls the contrary opinion , a doctrine that breeds schisms , a gate that leads unto all heresie , and so detestable , that he and his fellow b●…shops will choose to burn at a stake rather than consent to it . he affirming that all the parts of the catholick church , and of the church of france in particular , and all the schools of divinity , till the coming of calvin , held the affi●…mative , and says , that no where in france since the divinity schools w●…re set up , can they find any one doctor , divine , or lawyer , any decree , council , or sentence of parliament , or any one magistrate ecclesiastick , or politick , who had held that in case of heresie or idolatry , subjects might not be absolved from their oaths of fidelity to their princes . it is true , at first he spake more modestly , and pretended the thing was problematical , and so was not fit matter for an oath : but when that modester strain ( tho it tended all to depress the regal , and exalt the papal power ) had so far prevailed with the king , that he ordered the matter to be laid aside , and not to be further insisted on . they were not satisfied with this , but made a new address in the name of the clergy ; and the cardinal spake now in a higher tone , asserting formally the popes indirect power in temporal●… ; and that all who maintained the contrary were schismaticks , and hereticks , even those of the parliament it self ; and did plainly threaten the king , that if he did not raze all the proceedings out of the register , the clergy would leave the assembly , and excommunicate all who denied the popes power of deposing . and if the king would not suffer them to execu●…e these censures , they would proceed upon their hazard tho they were to suffer martyrdom for it . for which zeal , they received a brave from the pope , giving them his solemn thanks for what they had done ; desiring them to persevere in the same mind . so we have in this ●…stance , not only cardinal perrons own mind , but the s●…nse of the whole clergy of france . i do not think it necessary to enquire further into the opinion of later writers ; tho it were easie to shew , that to 〈◊〉 day , both the court of rome , the whole order of the jesuites , the writers both of controversies , and cases of conscience , and the expositors of scripture , do as oft as occasion offers , assert the power of deposing kings to be still in the see of rome . and tho some few writers of that religion , since barkelay and widdrington's time , both of the english and irish nation , have adventured to deny this power ; théy have been censured for it , and branded with heresy . this has been so notorious in the matter of the irish remonstrance , that i need say no more of it . but whether the writers of this age allow it or not , they are bound according to their doctrine about tradition , to acknowledg it ; since two of the characters of tradition are found to agree to it . for it has been delivered in several ages of the church , as true catholick doctrine by all the publick doctors in these times : so that either this is a tradition of the church , or that is not a true mark of tradition : nor is it a certain conveyance of truth , if we may be thus deceived in a clear tradition , for four ages successively . it does also appear , that if the see of rome be a faithful depositary and transmitter of church traditions , this must be one , since it is delivered to the world by so many popes in the names of st. peter and st. paul , and founded on the power of the keys , and of binding and loosing granted to st. peter . but i shall next shew how the third mark of tradition , the authority of general councils , agrees to this doctrine . when this doctrine had been so well spread over europe , then the popes found it was safe , to trust it to the judgment of such an assembly as they esteemed a general council . and they proceeded in this matter , after the same manner that they had done in the worship of images : and as they did afterwards in the points of transubstantiation , and denying the chalice in the communion . they took care first to infuse it into all the clergy , ( which god wo●…'s was no hard thing ) and then brought them together , and made up the pageant of a council , for giving it more authority . so above an hundred years after gregory the vii . had first taught this doctrine , a thing under the name of a general council sate in the later an at rome , where , upon the advantage the popes had against the albigenses and others , who were according ▪ to their opinion most pestiferous hereticks ; they first precured a decree for it . it is true , many provincial councils had concurred with gregory the vii . ( one of these is called a general one , 110 bishops being present ) and the other popes who had formerly given out these thunders : but now the matter was to be more solemnly transacted . in this council many hereticks are condemned and excommunicated ; and all that had sworn oaths of fidelity or hemage to them , are absolved from those oaths : and they are required in order to the obtaining the remission of their sins , to fight against them : and those who die doing penance in that manner , may without doubt expect indulgence for their sins , with eternal rewards . and in conclusion , by the authority of st. peter and st. paul they remit to all who shall rise and fight against them , two years penance . here the council does industriously infuse this doctrine into all people ; and calls rebellion penance ( a very easy one to a poor or discontented subject ) and assures them of a deliverance from purgatory , and that they should be admitted straight to heaven for it . in an age in which these things were believed , more effectual means than those could not be found out , to engage the people in it . by this decree , if we are guilty of the heresies then condemned , ( as no doubt we are of most of them ) without more ado , or any further sentence ▪ upon the declaring us guilty of the heresies of the albigenses , the subjects are delivered from their obligations to the king. and when they conspire or rebel against him , they are only doing penance for their sins ; and he were hard-hearted that would punish men only for doing of penance . about thirty years after that council , the pope had a mind to regulate the former law , that the deposing of kings might be declared a part of his prerogative ; and that thereby he might with authority dispose of their kingdoms to others . for hitherto the popes had only pretended to the power of deposing , and then the states of the kingdom as in an interregne , were to choose a new prince . but p. innocent the iii. thought it was half work , except he could bestow , as well as take away crowns . his predecessor celestine had in a most extravagant humour set the crown on henry the sixth his head , with his two feet , and then kickt it off again ; to shew , according to barronius his comment , that it was in his power to give , to maintain , and take away the empire . a very full assembly therefore being called of about 1200 of one sort or other to the lateran again , it was first decreed , that the aid of secular princes should be required for the extirpating of hereticks ; after that they proceed and enact thus . when the temporal lord required or admonished by the church , shall neglect to purge his territory from heretical wickedness , let him be excommunicated by the metropolitan and his suffragans . and if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year , let him be signified to the pope : that he from thenceforth may pronounce his subjects discharged from their obedience ; and expose his territory to be seized on by catholicks , who having exterminated the hereticks , shall possess it without contradiction , and preserve it in the purity of the faieh ; so as no injury be done to the right of the supreme lord , where there is such , provided he do not any way oppose himself : and the same law is to take place on them , who have no superiour lord. the deposition of the court of tholouse , being the thing then in their eye , made that the decree runs chiefly against feudatary princes , yet as the last clause takes in soveraign princes , so by the clause before , it was provided , that if the soveraign did any way oppose what was done against his vassal , he was to forfeit his right . i did in the former part of this letter , meet with all the exceptions that are commonly made to this canon . only one pretty answer which a person of honour makes , is yet to be considered . he tells us , that there were so many soveraign princes , or ambassadors from them , at this council , that we are to look on this decree , as a thing to which those princes consented . from whence he infers , it was rather their act , than an invasion of their rights made by that council . but be it so , he knows they allow no prescription against the church . if then those princes consented to it , upon which the power of deposing had that accession to fortifie it by , it can never be recalled nor prescribed against . it is true there were many ambassadors from princes there : but they were all such as either held their dominions by the popes grant , or had been either deposed by him , or threatned with depositions , or were the children of those whom he had deposed . so no wonder they stood in such fear of the pope , that they durst not refuse to consent to every thing he had a mind to . for indeed this council did only give their placet to a paper of decrees penned by the pope . henry called the greek emperor , brother to baldwin , that had seized on constantinople , had no other title to it besides the popes gift . frederick the 2d . who had been the popes ward , was then the elect emperor of germany , made so at the popes instance , who had deposed the two immediately preceding emperours , philip and otho the 4th . the last being at that time alive ; so that he durst not contradict the pope , lest he should have set up otho against him . but no emperor , except henry the 4th , ever suffered more from the popes tyranny , than he did afterwards . one sad instance of it was , that the pope having pressed his march to the holy-land much , did at last excommunicate him for his delays : upon which , he to avoid further censures , carried an army thither : which was so succesful , that the pope who hoped he should have been destroyed in the expedition , ( as the first emperor of that name was ) now being vexed at his success , complained that he should have presumed to go thither , while he lay under excommunication , and was in rebellion against him ; and went about not only to dethrone him , but to get him to be betrayed by the knights hospitallers , and templers , into the sultans hands , who abominating that treachery , revealed it to him . iohn of brenne had the kingdom of ierusalem by that same popes gift , who took it from almeric king of cyprus , and gave it him ; but almeric had no cause to complain , since he held cyprus only by the same copy of the popes gift : so they both were at the popes mercy . our iohn of england was his vassal , as he usually called him ; but his successour went higher , calling the king of england not only his vassal , but his slave ; and declared that at his beck he could procure him to be imprisoned , and disgraced . iames king of arragon , who was also the popes ward , had no less reason to be afraid of the pope , who had deposed his father for assisting the count of tholouse . philip augustus king of france , had his kingdom twice put under an interdict , worse things being also threatned . the like threatnings had been made to andrew king of hungary , but upon his submission he was received into favour . and now is it any wonder , that those princes gave way to such a decree , when they knew not how to help themselves by opposing it , which would have raised a storm , that they could not hope to weather ? anothet thing is remarkable concerning this time , by which the belief of the deposing doctrine in that age will better appear . other princes whom popes had deposed , procured some civilians to write for them ; and got synods of bishops sometimes on their side against the pope . because it was evident the pope proceeded not upon the account of heresie , but of private spite and hatred . but in the case of the count of tholouse , who was a manifest favourer of that , which was esteemed heresie , ( the opinions of the albigenses that were his subjects ) not a writer in all that age durst undertake to defend his cause , nor could he procure one bishop to be of his side . so universally was it received , that in the case of heresie , a prince might be deposed by the pope . the 3d general council that confirmed this power , was the council of lions , held by innocent the 4th against the forementioned frederick the 2d , where ( as the sentence bears ) the pope having consulted with his brethren and the holy council , being christs vicar on earth , to whom it was said in the person of st. peter , whatsoever ye bind on earth , &c. declares the emperor bound in his sins , and thereupon deprived by god of his dominions . whereupon he by his sentence does depose him , and absolves all from their oaths of fidellty to him . straitly charging all persons , to acknowledge him no more either emperor or king. declaring all that did otherwise , excommunicated ipso facto . there are in this process several things very remarkable . it is grounded on a pretence to a divine tradition ; so here the whole council concur with the pope , in asserting this power to flow from that conveyance . and thus either that tradition is true , or the councils are not to be believed when they declare a tradition . 2ly . tho this is but a decree in one particular instance , yet it is founded on the general rule ; and so is a confirmation of it , by which it is put out of doubt that the 4th council of lateran included soveraign princes within their decree . 3ly , when the emperors advocate appeared to plead for him ; he did not at all except to their jurisdiction over him , or power of deposing in the case of heresie , but denyed that the emperor was guilty of the crimes objected , namely heresie , whereby he , at least , waved the denial of their power in that case . he also desired some time might be granted for the emperor to appear and plead for himself in person . whereby he plainly acknowledged their jurisdiction . 4ly when the ambassadors of france and england , interceded that the emperors desire might be granted ; the council gave him near two weeks time to appear in : which was so incompetent a time , and all had declared themselves so prepossest , or rather so overawed by the pope that hated him mortally ; that the emperor would not appear because they were his professed adversaries . and upon that , and other grounds ( none of them touching on the power of deposing in cases of heresie ) he appealed from them , to the next general council ; upon which the pope and prelates sitting in council , with candles burning in their hands , thundred out the sentence against him . here were three very publick judgments , of three general councils on this head , within the compass of sixty years . but it may be imagined , these were councils that wholly depended on the pope ; and so their decrees are to be looked on , only as a ceremony used by the pope to make his own sentence look more solemn . but when upon the long schism in the see of rome , the power of that see was much shaken , and a council met at constance to heal that breach ; in which the bishops taking advantage from that conjuncture , to recover their former dignity , began to regulate many matters . it may be , upon such an occasion , expected , that if any party in the church had disliked these practices , they should have been now condemned ; and that the rather , since by so doing , the bishops might have hoped to get the princes to be of their side , in their contests with the pope . but it fell out quite otherwise . for as the murtherers of his late sacred majesty pretended , when the king was killed , that all his power was devolved on them , and would have even the same precedence allowed their ambassadors in forreign parts , that his had : so the council of constance reckoned , that whatever rights the popes had assumed , did now rest with them , as the supreme power of the church . for in one of their sessions , a decree was framed , made up of all the severe decrees that had ever been made against those who violated the rights of the church : and this clause often returns , that all the breakers of these priviledges , whether they were emperors , kings , or whatsoever other degree , were thereby , ipso facto , subjected to the b●…nns , punishments , and censures set down in the council of lateran . and tho they do not call it the fourth council , yet we are sure it could be no other ; for they relate to that in which frederick the 2d . was consenting to which was the fourth in the lateran and in another decree , by which they hoped to have set up a succession of general councils , at evety ten years end ; this clause is added , that if any person , whether of the papal ( for they had subjected the pope to the council , and had more reason to fear his opposing this decree , than any bodies else ) imperial or regal dignity , &c. should presume to hinder any to come to the next general council , he is declared to be first excommunicated , then under an interdict , and then to be subject to further punishment both temporal and spiritual . and in the pass they gave the king of the romans , to go to the king of arragon , they add this sanction , that whatever person , whether king , cardinal , &c. do hinder him in his iourney , he is ipso facto , deprived of all honour , dignity , office , or benefice , whether ecclesiastical or secular . so here the indirect power over princes , by which they may be both deposed and punished , is plainly assumed . it is true that same council did indeed decree , that no subject should murther his king or prince ; upon which some of our english and irish writers , who condemn these practices , think they have great advantages . that decree was procured by gersons means , who observing that by the many rebellions that had been generally set on by popes , the persons of princes were brought under such contempt , that private assassinations came to be practised : and in particular that of the duke of orleance by the duke of burgundy . therefore to prevent the fatal consequer ces which were like to follow on that , and to hinder such practices for the future , he with great earnestness followed that matter : and tho it had almost cost him his life ( it is like from some of the duke of orleance his faction , who were resolved on a revenge ) yet at last he procured it : but this was only a condemnation of private cut-throats . and the article condemned had a pretty reservation in it , for it strikes only against subjects killing their prince , without waiting for the sentence of any iudg whatsoever . so if a sentence be past by the spiritual judg , then this condemnation notwithstanding , a prince may be murthered . and the other decree of that council passed in the same session , shew they had no mind to part with the deposing power . besides the answer to this decree is clear . it is acknowledged by the defenders of the contrary opinion , that it is not lawful in any case to kill a king ; but when one that was a king is no more such , but becomes a rebel and an usurper , then it is lawful to kill him . pursuant to the decree made at constance , a council met at siena ten years after , in which all the former decrees made against hereticks are confirmed , and the favourers or fautors of heresie are delared liable to all the pains and censures of hereticks , and by consequence to the chief of them all , deposition . after that came the council of basil , which ratified the forementioned decree made at constance about general councils . by which popes , emperors , kings , &c. that presumed to hinder any from coming to the council , are subjected to excommunication , interdicts and other punishments spiritual and temporal . last of all came the council of trent , and tho met ters were at that pass , that the council durst not tread on princes , as others had formerly done , lest they should have been thereby provoked to join with the protestants ; yet they would not quite lay aside the pretence of a deposing power , but resolved to couch it so into some decree , that it might continue their claim to a right , which they would not part with , tho they knew not at that time what to make of it . so in the decree against duels , they declare , that if any emperors , kings , &c. did assign a field for a combat , that they did thereby lose their right to that place , and the city , castle , or other places about it . now it is certain , if by their decrees a prince may forfeit any part of his dominion , he may be also dispossessed of all the rest ; since his title to his whole territory being one individual thing , what shakes it in any part , subjects it entirely to him who has such authority over it . here we have found 7 general councils , as they are esteemed by that church , all either expresly asserting the deposing power , or ratifying former decrees that had asserted it . and from such a succession of councils , it is reasonable to conclude , that this third character of a tradition of the church agrees to it ; and if general councils are fit conveyors of traditions , we have as full evidence as can be desired , for proving this to be a church-tradition . this last character of a tradition is what the whole body of the church has held in any one age. upon which , they say , we may calculate that such opinions must have come down from the apostles , since it seems neither credible nor possible , that the belief of the church could be changed . with this arnold has of late made great noise . and as the new fashions that come from france do please our young gallants best , so some of the writers of controversies among us have taken up the same plea here . that the whole church received the deposing doctrine in cases of heresy , may be inferred from what had been said . the church is made up of popes , bishops , & priests : of soveraign princes , and subjects of all ranks . that the popes believed it , none can doubt . so many definitions of councils , shews us as plainly what the bishops and other prelates believed : the writing of the schoolmen and canonists shew , what the rest of the clergy believed . those princes who suffered under the sentences , give at least a tacit consent to it , since they never question it , but study only to clear themselves of the imputation of heresie . the other princes who made use of the donations of the popes , shew as plainly that they believ'd it . the great armies that were brought about their standards , must have also believed it : and the people who generally deserted the deposed prince , notwithstanding the great vertues of some of them , and the love that subjects naturally carry to their princes , shew that they believed it . so that if st. iames his question , shew me thy faith by thy works , be applied to this particular , the answer will be easie . what shall i mention the frequent depositions of charles the 1st , of henry the 4th , of his son henry the 5th , of frederick the 1st , philip , otho the 4th , frederick the 2d , and lewis the 4th in the empire . the frequent depositions in sicily and naples ; the many attempts upon france ; that terrible bull in particular of iulius the 2d , against that good king lewis the twelfth . by which , besides the sentence against the king , it appears he designed the total destruction of the nation , promising the pardon of sin to every one that killed one french man ; the frequent attempts upon england , both in hen. the 2d , and k. iohn's time ; not to mention their later bulls of deposition against k. henry the 8th , and q. elizabeth ; the many attempts in spain ; particularly , the deposing the king of navarre by p. iulius ; and the sentences against henry the 4th , then king of navarre , and the prince of conde . all these , and a great many more , with the strange effects that followed upon them , are so clear proofs of the worlds believing this doctrine , for many ages together , that if men had any remainders of shame left with them , they could not deny it . and to this day all their writers maintain it , tho perhaps now the greatest part of the laity know little of it ; but whenever the tradition of the church is laid before them , they are obliged to submit , or they fall from the catholick faith , the chief branch of which is , to believe all the traditions of the church . and since the church is the same in all ages , according to their doctrine , the traditions of any one age must be as good as the traditions of any other can be , all being grounded on the same authority . and now let all the reasons that arnold brings to prove , from the churches believing transubstantiation in any age , that she must have always believed it , be considered , and applied with a small variation of the terms to this purpose ; and we shall see if they conclude not as strongly in favour of this doctrine , as for that which he has pursued so much . how can it be imagined , says he ▪ that a doctrine so contrary to common sence and reason , could have been so universally received , if every man had not been taught it by those who instructed him in the faith ? will men easily change their faith ? or , tho particular persons would prevaricate , would the whole clergy conspire to do it ? or would the people take it easily off their hands . these and many more topicks of that sort may be so mustered up , and set off by a man of wit and eloquence , that an ordinary person would stare , and not know what to say . the premises will shew , that there is need but of very little art to change the same plea , and fit it to this purpose , with two great advantages beyond what can be fanci'd to be in the other . the one is , that the generality of mankind is naturally more concerned in the preservation of temporal things , than about nice points of speculation ; the one they see and handle every day , and are much concerned about ; the other they hear little of , and are not much touched with them . so that it is less probable there could be a change made in opinions , on which the titles of princes , and the peace of kingdoms depended , than about subtil discourses concerning mysteries . so that the plea is stronger for the tradition of deposing kings , than for transubstantiation . a second difference is , that there was a continual opposition made to the belief of transubstantiation in all ages , which they themselves do not deny , only they shift it off the best they can , by calling the opposers hereticks ; but for the deposing doctrine , there was not one person in the whole world , that presumed to bring it in question , from the first time it was pretended to , till those whom they call hereticks disputed against it ; and tho some few others , who hold communion with them , have ventured on a canvasing of that doctrine , it is well enough known what thanks they got from rome ; nor can they shew any one book , licensed according to the rules of their church , that denies it . and thus the plea for this doctrine has a double advantage beyond that for transubstantiation . upon the whole matter then , if tradition be a sure conveyance , and if we may pronounce what is truly a tradition , either from the opinions of doctors , the constitutions of popes , the decrees of general councils , and the universal consent of the whole church for some ages ; then the doctrine of deposing kings , to which all these agree , must be reckoned among church-traditions . there is but one other mark that can be devised of a tradition , which is , what the church has taught and believed in all ages ; but for a certain reason , which they know very well , they will not stand to that . they know we do not refuse such traditions , and if only such may be received , then the worship of images , the prayers to saints , the worship in an unknown tongue , the belief of transubstantiation , the sacrifice of the mass , the denying the chalice to the laity , the redeeming souls out of purgatory , with many other things of the like nature , will be soon taken off of the file . and indeed in this sence , the deposing doctrine is so far from being a tradition , that we have as undeniable evidences , that the church for the first six ages knew nothing of it , but on the contrary abhorred the thoughts of it , as we have , that their church these last six ages has set it up : from which , among many other reasons , we conclude , that these latter ages have not been acted with the same spirit , nor followed the same doctrine , that was the rule of the former ages . there is more than enough said to shew , that these doctrines are a part of their faith ; from which they can never extricate themselves , but by confessing , either that their church has erred , or that tradition is no true conveyance ; when they do either of these , they turn their backs on rome , and are in a fair away to come over to our church , with which purpose i pray god inspire them . the mean while , it is no wonder , if those of that communion , have been guilty of such horrid plots and rebellions every where , especially in england , since henry the 8th's time . there was in his reign , first a rebellion in lincolnshire , another greater one in the north , and some lesser ones after that ▪ in edward the 6th's time , there were risings , both in the north , and in the west . but these succeeded so ill , and turned only to the ruine of their own party , that they resolved to try secreter ways in queen elizabeth's time ; in whose long and blessed reign , there scarce passed one year in which there was not some plot against her life . there was not matter enough to work upon , for raising any considerable rebellion in england : but in ireland , there were more frequent attempts that way . it is true , the care and providence of god was too hard for all their plots , how closely soever laid ; and they were turned back on themselves , not so much to the ruine of the chief plotters ( who were wise enough to conveigh themselves out of the way ) as of many noble families , that were poysoned with their ill principles . all the blood which the state was forced to shed , lies at their door , who were continually giving fresh provocations . and for king iames ( not to mention the conspiracies against him in scotland , nor that plot of cobham and watson , upon his first coming to this crown ) the gun-powder treason was a thing that went beyond all the wicked designs that had been ever in any age contrived . and when his late majesty was embroiled in his affairs in this island , how did they take advantage from that conjuncture , to break out into a most horrid rebellion in ireland , joyned with a massacre of persons of whatsoever age , or sex , or condition ? which was so far set on by rome , that a nuncio came publickly to direct their councils . i will not dwell on particulars that are suffciently known , but only name these things , to shew , that no reign of any of our princes , since the reformation , has been free from the dismal effects of these doctrines . and for his sacred majesty who now reigns , ( whom god long preserve from their malice ) they have felt such signal marks of his royal clemency , that they can have no colour to complain , except it be , because they cannot bear any office in the nation . for what noise soever they make , of the severe laws yet in force , both against the clergy and laity of their religion , they cannot pretend that since his majesties happy restauration , any priest has died , or any family has been ruined for their religion . but i confess , it is enough , according to the doctrine of their church , to discharge them of their allegiance , that the king is a favourer of heresy ; and if upon this reason they will still plot and conspire against his person and government , we have no reason to wonder at it , for they act according to their principles . nor have these islands been the only scenes , in which those principles have produced such dismal effects . if we look abroad and reflect on what was done in france , we shall find , they have had the same operation there . i need not mention that perfidious and cruel massacre , that as thuanus tells us was so much extolled in rome and spain : and of which the pope has a memorial kept in the hangings , at the entrance of his chappel , to this day . the barricadoes of paris , the design of deposing henry the 3d , only because he had made pe●…ce with the king of navarre , and the prince of conde ; the whole progress of the holy league ; their taking arms against that king , when the duke and cardinal of guise were killed by his orders , and at last his being stabbed by clement , a dominican friar , are instances beyond exception . the prosecution of the rebellion against henry the 4th , the attempt made upon his person by iohn chastel , which was more successful in ravilliack's hands , shew sufficiently , that a princes turning from that , which they call heresie , over to their church , does not secure him , unless he will extirpate hereticks . for tho henry the 4th changed his religion , yet the favour he shewed the protestants , in the edict of nantes , was a thing never to be forgiven . these things were set on and encouraged from rome , and pleaded for by their writers . that the holy league was authorized from rome , that sixtus the 5th , by his bulls , declared the king of navar incapable of the succession ; that he intended to have deposed henry the 3d , and that he rejoyced at his death , and magnified the fact ; preferring it to eleazar's killing the elephant , and iudeth's killing hollofernes , and ascribed it to a singular providence and disposition of the almighty ; called it a great miracle , and appeared vain that a friar had done it , having been one himself , ( tho no doubt he had liked it better , if clement had been of his own sute ) and would have had himself thought a prophet for foretelling it , ( and so he might well do perhaps ) : and in the end concluded , that unfortunate kings favouring hereticks , to be the unpardonable sin against the holy ghost : these were all so publickly done , that it were a needless labour , to go about the proving them . francis veronne wrote a book , to justify both the facts of clement the dominican , and chastel , ( as well he might from the principles of their church ) . after all these dismal facts , was it not time for the states of france , to think of some effectual remedy , to prevent the like for the future ? and they judged aright , that without condemning the deposing power , it could not be done : to which , as was already hinted , the clergy made such vigorous opposition , that it came to nothing . if these things had flowed only from the heat of some violent spirits , the danger were not so great ; but it is the doctrine of their church , so lessius ( under the name of singletonus ) says , that if the power of deposing lies not in the pope , the church must of necessity err , which has taught it ; and to assert that , is heretical , and a more intollerable error , than any about the sacrament can be . and becanus , confessor to ferdinand the 2d , says , no man doubts , but if princes are contumacious , the pope may order their lives to be taken away . what security then can there be found out from persons , who give up their consciences to the conduct of men of such principles ; and profess an implicite obedience and belief of all that their church teaches and commands , which possesses all its votaries with such cursed rage against hereticks , that not content to adjudg them to eternal flames in another life , they must needs persecute and burn without mercy where they have the power in their hands ; and plot and conspire , kill and massacre without relenting , where they have not power to do it with any colour of law ? men of honour will not be easily drawn in to such practices . but in conclusion , when a fit opportunity appears , they must either forsake their church , or concur in the most mischievous designs , that the masters of their consciences will draw them into ; which i pray god make them see in good time , before they are involved in such snares , that repentance will come too late to do them good , or to preserve the nation from those miseries that they will bring upon it . finis . the unreasonableness and impiety of popery : in a second letter written upon the discovery of the late plot . imprimatur c. alston , nov. 12. 1678. london , printed for r. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1678. the unreasonableness and impiety of popery , in a second letter written upon the discovery of the late plot . sir , you are pleased to tell me that my last letter has had some good effect ; and that many who were before carried away with the false colours of the romish religion , are now a little awakned , and seem not unwilling to examin things , which they took formerly upon trust : and therefore you desire me , since you are not master of so much spare time your self , to set down the most material and convincing reasons , and in as few words as may be , that are most likely to open the eyes of honest and simple persons , that have been hitherto misled , and are now willing to be instructed . in all such cases i first consider the temper of the persons to be dealt with : such as take up their religion out of interest or humour , and think it point of honour to continue in it , and so will examine nothing are not to be spoken to . others that are naturally superstitious and credulous , are very hard to be wrought on ; for they believe every thing that is said on the one hand , and distrust all that is told them by any body else . some of those have a vanity in coming to talk with divines , but it is an endless labour to deal with them ; for at every time one must begin of new . but the only persons to be dealt with , are those that are sincere and inquisitive , that having been bred in that religion , or brought over to it by some specious pretences , are now willing to hear reason , and resolved to follow it wherever they find it . and therefore in the first place , their minds must be disingaged from these unjust prejudices , that they conceive of our religion : and such just prejudices must be offered them against the romish religion , as may at least beget in them some jealousies concerning it , by which they may be brought so far , as to think the matter suspicious . if then there be such reasons offered them , for susspecting foul dealing from their priests and church , as would make them suspect an attorney , physician , or any other person with whom they were to deal , they will be prepared to hear reason ; which is all that we desire : and upon this head these following considerations may be laid before them . 1. all people that pretend to great power and dominion over our consciences , are justly to be suspected . if any man designed to make himself master of any of our other liberties , we would examine his title , and suspect all his other motions , when we see they tend to subject us to him : therefore a church that designs to keep all her votaries under an absolute obedience , is justly to be suspected : and our church that pretends to no such power , is more likely to deal fairly . 2. a church that designs to keep her members in ignorance , is more to be suspected , than a church that brings every thing to a fair trial. a church that denies the use of the scriptures in a known tongue , except to a few , and wraps up their worship in a language that is not understood , is reasonably to be suspected , more than a church that gives the free use of the scriptures to all persons , and worships god in a language , which the people understand . 3. a church whose opinions tend to engross the riches of the world to its officers , is more to be suspected , than a church that pretends to nothing but a competent maintenance of the several officers in it . the redeeming souls out of purgatory , and the enriching the shrines , or reliques of saints , pardons , jubilees , and many more tenets of the church of rome , are so calculated for enriching their societies ; that every cautious man must needs suspect some design in it : which he cannot charge on a church that has none of these arts to get money . 4. a church that has carried on its designs , by the most dishonest methods possible , the forging of writings , and deeds , of miracles , visions , prophesies and other things of that nature , is more justly to be suspected , than a church that cannot be charged with any such practices . the forging so many epistles for the popes of the first ages , which are now by themselves confest to be spurious , with many other forgeries , were the engines by which the papal power was chiefly advanced . the legends and extravagant fables of which they are now ashamed , were the chief motives of devotion for many ages . and by these , saints and images were so much magnified , and monasteries so enriched . a noted liar after a discovery is no more to be trusted . 5. any that considers the present state of rome , the manner of electing popes , the practices of that court , and the maximes they move by , must see that every thing there is secular , corrupt , and at best directed by rules of policy . but to fansie the holy ghost can come upon any election so managed , as their own books shew that is , is the most unreasonable thing that can be devised . therefore a church that neither pretends so high , nor can be charged with such proceedings , is more likely to be the true church . 6. a church that teaches cruelty against poor innocent people , that differ in opinion ; and sets on plots , conspiracies , and rebellion against princes , that are judged hereticks , is more likely to be corrupted , than a church that is so merciful , as to condemn all capital proceedings for difference of opinion , and teaches an absolute submission to the soveraign power , even when it persecutes and oppresses them . 7. a church that is false to her own principles , is not so likely to instruct her members aright , as a church that is in all things consistent to her self . the great foundation of their doctrine , is , that there must be a speaking judg to decide all controversies : now they have no such judg , for it is not of faith , that the pope is this judg , or is infallible : and for a general council , they have had none these 112. years , nor are they like to see another in hast . so they have no speaking infallible judg among them . and thus they deceive people by a false pretence : whereas we appeal to nothing , but what we really have among us , which are the scriptures . 8. a church that appeals to marks , which are not possible to be searcht out , is more likely to mislead people , than a church that pretends to nothing but what can be certainly proved . the great thing they appeal to is the constant succession of the bishops of rome , and their other pastors . this cannot be known , no not by a probable conjecture . but there are on the contrary , as great grounds for history to deny it in the see of rome , as in any other ancient see whatsoever : but though they have it , both the greek church , and our church has it likewise . these are such plain things , and the truth of them is so notoriously known , that i should ask any of that communion , whether upon the like reasons he would not be jealous of any person or sort of persons whatsoever ? and if these grounds of jealousie would work in other matters , it is much more reasonable , that they should take place in matters of religion ; in which as an error is of far greater importance ; so impostors in all ages have studied to make gain by religion . therefore it is most just upon these violent presumptions , to look about us , and take care we be not cheated . but before i would descend to particulars , there is one general prejudice that works most universally , on weaker minds to be removed , which is , that the true church cannot erre . if then it be made appear unanswerably , that the true church may erre , and that in a most weighty point , all these arguments fall to the ground . that the church of ▪ the iews , in our saviours days was the true church , cannot be denied ; for our saviour owned it to be such . he joyned with them in their worship , he sent the lepers to the priest , he commanded them to hear the doctors that sate in moses chair , and himself acknowledged the high priest. this is sufficient to prove that it was the true church , and yet this church erred , in a most important point , whether jesus christ was the true messias , in whom the prophecies were fulfilled or not ? they judged falsly : the high priests with all the sanhedrim , declared him a blasphemer , and condemned him guilty of death . here the true church expounds the scriptures falsly , and erred in the foundation of religion . and it is well known , that the chief arguments which they of the romish party bring to prove , that a church cannot err , do agree as well to the iewish , as the christian church : the one being the true church , under that dispensation , as well as the other is now . if then this decision made by the true church in christs time , did not oblige all in that church , to go on in that error , but private persons might have examined their sentence , and depart from them upon it ; then upon the same reasons , though we acknowledge the church of rome a true church , yet we may examine her doctrines , and separate from her errors . this grand prejudice being thus removed , there are two things in the next place to be laid before them . one is , that the scriptures , being acknowledged to come from divine inspiration , on all hands , can only decide the controversies among us : and the places i shall make use of , shall be cited according to the doway translation , to which , being made by themselves , they cannot except . another is , that a man must judg of things as they appear plainly to his reasonable faculties . it is against all reason to say that because it is possible for a man to be mistaken , therefore he ought to doubt his judgment in things that are clear to him . this must turn a man sceptical both to all religions , and all the concerns of human life : therefore every man must follow his judgment , when after a diligent inquiry , any thing appears plain to him . and now to come up close to those of that perswasion , they are to consider , that the chief parts of religion are , first , articles of faith : secondly , rules of life : thirdly , the worship of god chiefly in the sacraments : and fourthly , the government of the church . if then in every one of these heads , the church of england agrees clearly with the scriptures , and the church of rome does either manifestly contradict them , or differs matterially from them , in all these points , in which we and they differ ; then the resolution of the question , whether a man ought to joyn himself to our church , or theirs ? will be easily made . for articles of faith , if either the apostles creed or the creeds of the first 4. general councils , contain a just abstract of the faith ; then we who receive every article in these creeds , do agree more exactly to the apostolical doctrine , than they who have added many new articles to their creed . the chief article of faith , is , the covenant made between god and man through iesus christ , by which upon the account of his merits and intercession , all who follow the rules of the gospel , may expect the blessings of it , both here , and hereafter . pennance toward god , and faith towards our lord iesus christ , being the conditions upon which we hope for eternal life . this we plainly teach , without addition or change : but in how many things have they departed from this simplicity of the gospel ? first , in teaching people to address to god , for the merits and by the intercession of the saints : from whom these things are asked , for which the scriptures direct us only to god and christ. and in the very words pronounced after absolution , the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints , are joined with the passion of christ ; as the grounds on which we obtain pardon of sin , grace , and eternal life . secondly , in perswading people , that a simple attrition with the use of the sacraments , without any real conversion of the soul or change of life , is sufficient to salvation . thirdly , in perswading people , that there is a communication of the merits of saints to other persons , though the scriptures mention only the communication of christs merits . fourthly , by teaching that tho our sins are pardoned thorough christ ; yet , there are terrible and long lasting torments to be endured in another state. f●●tly , that saying masses , and going of pilgrimages can redeem from these . now in all these , the two chief designs of the gospel are plainly contradicted : which be ; first , to change our hearts and lives : secondly , to perswade us to a humble dependance upon christ , and an high acknowledgment of him : but these doctrines of theirs as they shew us a way to be sure of heaven , without a real conversion ; so they take off so much from faith in christ as they carry us to trust to somewhat else . these are errors of great importance : since they corrupt the fountain , and overthrow the chief design of the christian religion . they are also late devices brought in , in the dark and ignorant ages . no mention is made of praying to saints , in any ancient liturgie . there is a great deal against it in the most ancient authors . and though in the fourth century , upon the conversion of many heathens to the christian faith , to humour them in their conceit , of some intermedial agents , between the divinity and us mortals , there was a reverence for the saints set up , to deive out the worship of those secondary deities ; yet , this was no direct adoration , though they then began to use rhetorical addresses to saints like prayers : yet , even in gregory the great his time ( in the beginning of the seventh century ) we find no prayers made to them in all his liturgies . and for the belief of a simple attrition being sufficient with the sacrament , no body ever dreamed of it , before the schoolmen found out the distinction , between attrition and contrition in the later ages . for the communication of the merits of saints , the whole fathers in one voice , speak only of the merits of christ being communicate to us . the fryers first invented it , to invite people at least to die in their habits , by perswading them , that all the merits of the saints of their order , were shared among the whole order . and for redeeming out of purgatory , the first four ages knew nothing of it . in the beginning of the fifth century st. austin plainly speaks of it as an opinion which some had taken up without any ground , and that it was no way certain , nor could we ever be sure of it . and though in gregory the great 's time , the belief of it was pretty far advanced ; yet , the trade of redeeming out of it , by saying masses for departed souls was not even then found out . so that all these are both gross errors , and late inventions . the next branch of religion , is the rule of human life : which one would think could be taken from no other standard so certainly , as the 10. commandments : and the expositions given of these in scripture , chiefly our saviours sermon on the mount. let malice it self appear , to declare wherein our church strikes at any of these : or teaches men to disobey even the least of them . if then our rule of life be exactly the same ; with that which the scriptures prescribe , we are safe as to this , which may be well called , the most important piece of religion . for it is to be considered that god making man after his own image , the end of his creation was , that he might be made like god. the attributes of god to be imitated , are goodness , mercy , justice , wisdom and truth . and it is certain that the design of revealed religion was to give men clearer notions of these moral perfections , to press them by stronger arguments , and encourage our endeavours by suitable rewards and punishments . so that if any religion contradict these moral duties , we are sure it is false ; for the revelation of god's will must be designed to make us better than we would otherwise be , following barely the light of nature , and not worse . if then the church of rome over-throws morality , and contradicts any of the ten commandments we are sure it is not of god. and how far it has done this , they may judge by these particulars . first , whatever church offers cheap and easie pardons for sin , does take off so much from our sense of the evil of sin . we cannot have a very ill opinion of any thing that is easily forgiven . now what are the popes pardons , indulgences , jubilees , priviledged altars , the going of pilgrimages , the saying of some collects , the wearing of agnus dei's , peebles , or other such like trash , but so many engines to root out of mens minds any deep horrour or great sense of sin . is not this the very thing which the people of the iews of old offered at , to bring thousands of rams , ten thousand rivers of oyl , their first born , or the fruit of their body , to offer for their sins ? all which were rejected in the name of god in these words , i will shew thee o man what is good , and what our lord requireth of thee : verily to do iudgment , and to love mercy , and to walk solicitous with thy god. this is a moral matter and unchangable ; therefore whoever go to beat down the sense of sin , by the offer of pardon , on any other terms , but the sincere change of a mans life , destroy morallity , which is the image of god in man. if from this general consideration we descend to examine the commandments in particular , we shall find matter enough for a severe charge against their church . is not the first commandment broken when devotions are offered to saints which import their being omniscient ; omnipresent and almighty ; that are the incommunicable attributes of the god-head : and when pardon of sin , preservation , grace against temptations , and eternal life , are immediately begged from saints . it is true , they say the sence of these prayers , is only that we desire their assistance at gods hands for these blessings . but the words of their offices import no such matter . and though for above one hundred and sixty years these things have been complained of ; and in the correction of their offices , some of them were cast out ; yet , many of them do still continue : in which the plain sence of the words of their offices is idolatrous : only they make a shift with another and forced sence put on them , to defend themselves from that charge . and for such devotions they can shew no warrant for the first thousand years after christ. the second commandment is so openly and confessedly broken by them , that many of them maintain , it does not all oblige christians : but belonged only to the jewish dispensation . and in all their catechisms it is left out , which was done very wisely ; ( with what honesty let them answer ) for it was not fit the people should look on that as a commandment , which they saw so notoriously broken throughout their whole church : a great trade being also driven by the breach of it . that this was not in the primitive church , themselves confess : all the books the fathers wrote against the idolatry of the heathens , demonstrate this . nor were images so much as set up in churches before the sixth century . and then care was taken that they should not be worshipped : and not before the eighth century were they worshipped in any place of the christian church . the doctrine of the popes power of relaxing of oaths , and discharging men from the obligation of them , joyned with the practice of their popes for above 800 years , is as formal an opposition to the third commandment as can be imagined . this was also begun in the eighth century . the vast multiplication of holy-days , made the observation of the lords day of necessity slacken . they have destroyed the order of societies , established in the fifth commandment ; by the power they allow the pope to depose princes , and absolve subjects from their alleageance . they teach the murdering and burning all hereticks , that is to say , all that will not submit to their tyranny : by which infinite numbers of innocent persons have been murdered , against the sixth commandment . and these two doctrines of deposing princes , and putting hereticks to death , were abhorred by the church for the first eight ages , and were brought in by the popes since that time . the frequent practice of the court of rome , in granting divorces , on the pretence either of spiritual kindred , or of degrees not forbidden , either by the law of nature , or the word of god , and allowing second marriages to both parties , upon such divorces , is an avowed breach of the seventh commandment . the setting on , some princes to invade other princes in their just rights , is the doctrine , as well as it has been the practice of their church for some ages . and as their popes have wrested many territories from temporal princes , so for many ages they set on publick robbery against the eighth commandment . the doctrine of equivocating , both taught , and practised , the breaking of safe conducts , and publick faith decreed by their , general councils , is also against the ninth commandment . for the tenth i shall say nothing of it , because the meaning of it is not so generally agreed on . but thus we see all the rules of morality are contradicted by that church . it might be justly added to swell up this charge ; that of late there have been doctrines published to the world by the approved casuists of that church , with licence , which subvert all justice , destroy all security , and take away the most sacred ties of mankind . by the doctrines of probability , and of ordering the intention aright , there is no crime how black soever , but a man may adventure on it with a good conscience . these things were long and openly taught amongst them , without any censure . and when many of the french clergy complained of these at the court of rome ( perhaps more out of spite to the jesuits , than zeal for the truth ) it was long before these so just remonstrances , were heard . and in conclusion a trifling censure was past on them : by which they were declared scandalous ( neither impious , nor wicked ) and all were forbidden to teach them any more , but they stand yet , in the books formerly published with licence . after all these particulars , is it to be wondered at , if the morals of the men of that church be vitiated , when their doctrine is so corrupted , for peoples practices are generally worse than their opinions . and thus the second point is made good , that in our church , we teach the same rules of living that are in the scriptures , which are grosly corrupted by their doctrines . the third branch of the christian religion is the worship of god and that chiefly the use of the sacraments . for the worship of god , let it be considered that we pray to god , and praise him only , for all these things about which the scriptures command us to address to him . our worship is in a language that all the people understand , and so are edified by it according to st. paul , who has enlarged so much on this matter , in a whole chapter , that it is strange , how any who acknowledg the authority of that epistle , can deny it . our liturgies are such , that the romanists cannot except to any part of them : our ceremonies are few , and these be both decent and useful : so that in all the parts of our worship , we do so exactly agree to the rule of the scriptures , and the primitive church , that they cannot blame us for any one rubrick or collect in it . but for their worship , it is in a language not understood by the people : who to be sure can receive no edification , from that they understand not ; nor can they say amen to such devotions . this is as it were in spite to st. paul , who took special care that as long as his authority was in any esteem in the church , such an abuse should never creep into it . nor is there a shadow of authority for such a practice , from the primitive church , in which for many ages , the worship was still in the vulgar tongues . next their worship is so overcharged with many rites and ceremonies , that the seriousness of devotion must needs be much alloyed by them . a great part of the worship is so whispered , as if they were muttering spells . their books of exorcisms are the most indecent things that can be : full of charms and other ridiculous rites . and for the pontifical and ceremonial of their church , they may match with heathenism for superstition . their offices are so various , and numerous , and the rubricks seem so full of disorder , that a man may as soon learn a trade , as know all the several parts of them . how this can be reconciled to the simplicity of the gospel , or the worshipping god in spirit and truth , may be easily judged by those who can compare things . for the sacraments , we have the two that christ instituted , baptism , and the lords supper ; and for pennance , confirmation , ordination and marriage , we have them also among us , as they were appointed by christ and his apostles : though we do not call these sacraments . for extream unction we find no warrant at all for it , as a sacred ordinance : and we are sure the church for many ages did not think of it . for baptism it is done among us , in the very form our saviour appointed : and this they do not deny . but among them they cannot be assured that they are at all baptized : since according to the doctrine of the necessity of the intention of the priest , to the being of a sacrament , they cannot be assured of it : for an atheistical priest can spoil their baptism , so that unless they can be certain of that , which is impossible for them to know , i mean the intention of the priest , they are not sure that they were ever truly baptized . but for the lords supper , if any person will so far trust his own reason and senses , as to compare all the warrants we have in scripture for that ordinance , with the practice of our church and theirs , they will soon see who agree most to them . christ took bread which he blessed and gave , saying , this is my body which is given for you . he also took the chalice and said , drink ye all of it , &c. all this we doe , and no more , so that it is indeed a communion among us : and those who have read the account that iustin martyr gives us of the rites in the communion in his days , would think he were reading the very abstract of our office. but in the church of rome , besides the less material things , of the form of the bread , the consecration of altars and vessels , with the numberless little devices in the canon of the mass , that they seem not of such importance let these considerable changes they have made be looked into . 1. they have brought in the doctrine of transubstantiation , against the clearest evidence both of sense and reason , against the nature of a sacrament , and its being a memorial of christs death , and that by the very words of consecration , the bread and wine are christs body and blood , as the one was given for us , and the other shed for us , on the cross : and not as he is now at the right hand of god. the belief of this crept in by degrees , from the eighth century , in which it was first set on foot , but much contradicted both in the eastern and western church : and was not fully setled till the 13th century . we are sure it was not the doctrine of the churches of rome , constantinople , asia , antioch , nor africk in the 5th and 6th centuries , by express testimonies from the most esteemed authors of that time , gelasius , chrysostom , ephrem , theodoret , and st. austin . 2. they deny the chalice to the laity against the express words of the institution ; and contrary both to the doctrine and tradition of the church for 1300 years . 3. they have declared the priests saying mass , to be an expiatory sacrifice for the dead , and the living , though the scripture plainly says , that christ was once offered for us . it is true the primitive church used the words sacrifice and oblation as our church yet does , but their meaning by that , was only in the general sense of these terms , as prayers , praises , and alms are called sacrifices . 4. they have brought in a new piece of worship , which is the hearing of mass , without receiving the sacrament : and it is now the great devotion of their church . though by the institution , it is as express as can be , that the consecration is only in order to its being a communion . and by the apostolical canons , which some in their church believe to be the work of the apostles , and are by them all acknowledged to be a collection of the rites of the first ages , all persons that were present at the worship , and did not communicate were to be severely censured . 5. the adoring the sacrament , the exposing it on the altar , and carrying it about in solemn processions , to be worshipped , as they are late inventions ; so if transubstantiation be not true , they are by their own confession the grossest idolatries that ever were , and are not these considerable variations from the first institution of this sacrament ? as for their own sacraments , though there is no reason to equal them , to either of these that were instituted by christ ; yet some of them we use , as they were at first appointed . persons baptized , are confirmed with imposition of hands , the only ceremony used by the apostles . we allow the use of confession , and do press it in many cases ; and give the benefit of absolution : but we do not make this an engin to screw peoples secrets from them . for which there is no warrant in scripture ; nor was it thought necessary for many ages after the apostles . confession of publick scandals was enjoyned , and for private sins it was recommended : but this latter was not judged simply necessary for obtaining the pardon of sin . and what noise soever they make of the good that confession , and the enjoyning of pennance , may do , if well managed , we need only appeal to some of their own best writers , now in france , whether as they have been practised , they have not rather driven all true piety out of the world . if these abuses had been only the faults of some priests , the blame could not have been justly cast on their church ; but when the publick rules given to confessors , printed with licence , are their warrants for so doing , then their church is in fault . so that nothing is more common among them , than for persons after a confession made of their sins , with a slight sorrow , and some trifling pennance undergone , together with the priestly absolution , to fancy themselves as clean from all sin , as if they had never offended god. and this being the doctrin of their church , it both lessens the sense of sin , and takes men off from making such earnest applications to god through christ , as the gospel commands . for orders they are among us with the same rites that christ and the apostles gave them first : and a learned man of their own church has lately published the most ancient forms of ordinations he could find : from which it appears , that all the ceremonies in their ordinations , for the want of which they accuse us , were brought in since the eighth century : so that even by their own principles these things cannot be necessary to ordination , otherwise there were no true orders in the church for the first eight ages . for marriage we honour it as gods ordinance ; and since the scriptures declare it honourable in all , without exception , we dare deny it to none who desire it . st. paul delivers the duty of clergy-men towards their wives , with rules for their wives behaviour , which had been very impertinent if clergy-men might have no wives . we find a married clergy in the first ten centuries : and we know by what base arts the caelibate of the clergy was brought in ; and what horrid ill effects it has produced . neither do we allow of any devices to hinder marriage , by degrees of kindred not prohibited in the law of god , or the trade that was long driven in granting dispensations in those degrees , and afterwards annulling these , and avoiding the marriages that followed upon them , upon some pretences of law. thus it appears , how they have corrupted the doctrine of the sacraments , together with the worship of god. the last head of religion is government ; and as to this , we can challenge any to see what they can except to us . first in reference to the civil power , we declare all are bound for conscience sake to obey every lawful command of the supream authority , and to submit when they cannot obey . we pretend to no exemption of clarks from the civil jurisdiction , but give to caesar the things that are caesars . we do not obey the king only because he is of our religion : much less do we allow of conspiracies or rebellions upon our judging him an heretick , so that we deliver no doctrin that can be of any ill consequence to the society we live in . and for the ecclesiastical government we have bishops , priests , and deacons , rightly ordained , and in their due subordination to one another ; every one administring these offices due to his function , which has been the government of the christian church , since the times of the apostles . so that we have a clear vocation of pastors among us , from whose hands every person may without scruple receive all the sacraments of the church . but for the church of rome , how unsafe is the civil government among them ? not to mention the doctrin of deposing princes , for which i refer you to my former letter ; what a security does the exemption of clerks from the civil courts in cases criminal , give to loose and debauched church-men ; and what disturbance must this breed to a common-wealth ? the denying the civil magistrate power to make laws that concern religion , or oblige churchmen , takes away a great deal of his rights ; for scarce any law can be made but wrangling and ill-natur'd churchmen , may draw it within some head of religion . and that this was frequently done in former ages , all that have read history know . the quarrels that were in the beginning of this century between the pope and the republick of venice were a fresh evidence of it . but for the ecclesiastical government , they have spoiled it in all the parts of it . the pope has assumed a power of so vast an extent , and so arbitrary a nature , that all the ancient canons are thrown out of doors by it . we know that originally the bishops of rome were looked on by the rest of the church , as their colleagues and fellow bishops . the dignity of the city made the see more remarkable ; and the belief of st. peters having founded it , with his suffering martrydom there , with st. paul , made it much honoured : so that when the empire became christian , then the dignity of the imperial city made the bishop of rome be acknowledged the first patriarch . from this beginning they arose by many degrees to the height of pretending to a supremacy both civil and spiritual : and then they not only received appeals , which was all they at first pretended to , but set up legantine courts every where , made the bishops swear obedience and homage to them , and the arch-bishops receive the pall from their hands , in sign of their dependance on them : exempted monasteries , and other clarks from episcopal jurisdiction , broke all the laws of the church by their dispensations : so that no shaddow of the primitive government does now remain . and though gregory the great wrote with as much indignation against the title of universal bishop , as ever any protestant did ; yet his successors , have since assumed both the name and thing . and to that height of insolence , has this risen , that in the council of trent , all the papal party opposed the decree that was put in , for declaring bishops to have their jurisdictions by divine right . the court party not being ashamed to affirm , that all jurisdiction was by divine right only in the pope ; and in the other bishops , as the delegates of the apostolick see ; and they were in this too hard for the other party . so that now a bishop , who by the divine appointment ought to feed the flock , can do no more in that , then as the pope gives him leave . the greatest part of the priests have no dependence on their bishops . the monks , fryars , and iesuits , being immediately subordinate to the pope ; so that they do what they please , knowing they can justifie any thing at rome , and they fear no censure any where else . from this so many abuses have crept in , and the canonists have found out , so many devices to make them legal , that there is no hope of reforming these at rome . the whole state of cardinals is one great corruption , who , from being originally the parish priests of rome , and so under all bishops , have raised themselves so high that they do now trample on the whole order ; and pretend to an equality with princes . the giving benefices to children , the unlimitted plurality of benefices in one person ; the comendam's , the reserved pensions , with many other such like , are gross , as well as late corruptions . and no wonder if all men despair of reforming the court of rome , when these abuses are become necessary to it , by which the greatness of the cardinals and the other officers , or ministers there , is kept up . i need not mention the gross simony of that court , where all the world knows , every thing may be had for money . the popes themselves , are often chosen by these arts : and if their own rules be true , such elections , with every thing that follows on them are void . the infinite swarmes of the inferiour clergy , do plainly drive a simoniacal trade , by the masses they say for departed souls , for money . and for publick pennance , they have universally let it fall , in stead whereof private pennance is now in use . and if their own writers say true , this is made an engine to serve other ends , when by enjoyning slight and easie pennances , they draw the people after them ; upon which the jesuites have been loudly accused , these forty years last past . in sum , all the corruptions or rather defects , that are in the government of our church , are only such as they brought in and have not met yet with such effectual remedies , as must cure the church of these inveterate distempers , their ill conduct did cast her into . if any of that party will review these particulars , and so far trust their own reasons , as to judge according to the plainest evidence , they cannot resist the conviction that they must needs meet with : when they see the simplicity of our faith , the morality of our doctrine , the purity of our worship , and our primitive government ; and compare it with their vast superfetation of articles of faith , the immorality of their rules of living , the superstition , if not idolatry of their worship , and the most extravagant innovations in government , that are in the church of rome . and indeed these things are so clear that few could resist the force of so much plain truth , if it were not for some prejudices , with which they are so fettered that they cannot examine matters with that freedom of mind , that is necessary . therefore much care must be taken , to clear these , in the most familiar and demonstrative manner that is possible . they may be reduced to these five chief ones . first , that the true church cannot err. secondly , that out of the true church there is no salvation . thirdly , that the case of the church of rome is much safer than ours is ; since the church of england acknowledges a possibility of salvation in the church of rome ; which they on the other hand deny to the church of england . fourthly , that unless there be a supreme judg set up , we can be sure of nothing in religion , but must fall into many factions and parties . and fiftly , that the reformation was but a novelty begun in the former age , and carried on in this nation , out of an ill design ▪ and managed with much sacriledge . the first of these seemed necessary to be cleared in the beginning of this discourse , and i am deceived if it was not done convincingly . and for the second we agree to it , that out of the true church there is no s●…lvation . but then the question comes , what makes one a member of the true church ? the scriptures call the church the body of christ , of which he is the head. so then whoever are joined to christ according to the gospel , must be within the true church . but the deceit that lies hid under this , is , that from hence they fancy that the unity of the church , does consist in an outward communion with the see of rome . and upon that they calculate , that there must be an unity in the body of the church : and that cannot be , except all be joined to the see of rome . now , we grant there is but one church , but this unity consists not in an outward communion , though that is much to be desired , but consists in an unity of belief , about the essentials of christianity . there is nothing more evident , than , that even according to their own principles , other churches are not bound upon the hazard of damnation to hold communion with the see of rome ; for it is not an article of faith , nor certain according to their own doctrine , that the pope is infallible : and except that were certain , we cannot be obliged to hold communion under such a sanction with that see. for if it be possible that a pope may become an heretick or schismatick ( which many of them confess , and all agree that the contrary is not of faith , ) then other churches are not in that case obliged to hold communion with that see. if therefore the possibility of error in that see be acknowledged , then holding communion with it , cannot be the measure of the unity of the church . so we bring it to this issue , it is not heresie to say , the pope may err : therefore this is no just prejudice against our church , because we have departed from communion with him , when he imposed his errors on us . so all the high things they boast of that see , come to nothing , except they say , this proposition is of faith , that the pope is infallible . and for these meetings that they call general councils ; they were at best but the councils of the western patriarchate artificially packt , and managed with much art ; as appears even from cardinal pallavicini's history of the council of trent . for the third prejudice , it is the most disingenuous thing that can be ; because our church is charitable , and modest in her censures , and theirs is uncharitable , and cruel in her judgments ; therefore to conclude , that communion with them is safer , than with us . if confidence , and presumption , noise , and arrogance , are the marks to judge a church by , we must yield to them in these : but if truth , and peace , charity and holy doctrines , be the better standards , then we are as sure , that our communion is much safer . let this rule be applied to the other concerns of human life , and it will appear how ridiculous an abuse it is to take measures from so false a standard . if a man were sick , the question comes , whether he shall use an approved physitian , or a montebanks . on the one hand , the montebank says , he will certainly cure him , and the doctors will undoubtedly kill him . on the other hand , the doctor modestly says , he will undertake nothing , but will do the best he can ; and for the montebank he tells him , it is very dangerous to trust to him , though he will not deny but sometimes great cures are done by them . the insolence of the montebank will never carry it against a doctors modesty , but among weak and credulous people ; and such must they also be , who are taken with this montebankry in religion . but if this be taken to pieces , the folly of it will yet appear more manifest . for first , the reason we give for a possibility of salvation in the church of rome ▪ is , because we look on such and such things as the essentials of christianity , which are yet retained in that church : and either this reasoning is true or false . if it be true , then it is as true , that we may be saved , who retain these essentials of christianity : if it is false , then no inference can be drawn from it . secondly , though we yield a possibility of salvation in that church , we declare that they are in great danger , by many opinions among them , which if fully understood and believed , do even vitiate the essentials of christanity ; particularly that foundation of religion , the covenant between god and man thorough christ , formerly insisted on . so that we declaring a certainty of salvation to those who sincerely follow the rules of our church , and a great danger in their church , the preferring their communion to ours , upon this account , is , as unreasonable , as to sleep without shutting our doors , because it is possible we shall not be robbed , in so doing : or when we are at sea to prefer a cock-boat to a good clean ship. these are such absurdities , that an ordinary measure of weakness cannot swallow them down . thirdly , we are not so forward as they imagine in yielding a possibility of salvation in their church . for our concession amounts rather to this , that we do not deny it , than that we positively affirm it : and therefore they have no reason to draw these advantages from it . 4. a great difference is to be made between what god in the infiniteness of his mercy may do , and what he is bound to by the covenant made with man in the gospel ; for the former we acknowledg , it is impossible to fix the limits of that mercy which is as far above our thoughts , as the heavens are above the earth . and how far it extends to all sincere minds , we are not so presumptuous as to define ; therefore we will not damn at pleasure , as they do but we do assert , their church is guilty of such gross corruptions , by which the vitals of religion are vitiated , that they have not that reason to claim the mercies of the gospel due by that covenant . 5. the church of rome has a dark and fair side ; the dark side is , what the true consequence of their opinions is , the fair side is , what some witty men have devised to palliate these corruptions with , and to deceive the vulgar by . we know many of that communion , either do not at all know these corrupt doctrines , or have such a fair representation made of them , that they are thereby both more easily and more innocently misled . from hence it is that we are inclined to hope more charitably concerning some , that are abused by them . but for those that have examined things more fully , or that having been bred among us , yet reject the truth , and go over to them , we are not so much enclined to have so good hopes of them , as they imagine : so this is a weak and ill grounded conceit in all the parts of it . the fourth prejudice , is concerning the necessity of submitting to some common judg , of distrusting our own reasons , and believing the church , without which there must be many sects and divisions : and this they aggravate from the many different parties that are among us . but these are only specious pretences to deceive weak people by . for first , if it is necessary that there be a common judg , it is most necessary that it be known , who this judg is , otherwise it is to no purpose to talk of a judge , if they cannot point him out . this is like him that came to discover a huge treasure that he knew was hid under ground ; but being asked in what place it was ? he answered he did not know that : and he believed no body else knew . some say the pope is the judge , others as confidently , that the council is judge even without the pope , others think it is sure work to say , the pope and council together : and others say the body of the church spread over the world. for the popes , some of them have been condemned for heresie , and others for making schism ; many of them have been most horrid men : they are generally ignorant in divinity , being for most part bred to the law : so that a great part of their own church rejects the popes infallibility . for councils , they have had none these 115 years , and the last was so over-ruled by the popes , that no other has been desired since : so that if either a council without the pope , or with him , be the infallible judge they have lost their infallibility ; and except a council were constantly sitting , they can shew no living and speaking judg. so that either this is not necessary to a church , or otherwise they are not a compleat church . and for the body of the church , how shall a man find out their sense , unless gathered together in some assembly ? or must a man go over christendome , and gather the suffrages of all the pastors of the church ? upon the whole matter it is plain that after all their canting about the church , they must say , that it is of faith that the pope is infallible , otherwise they have no infallible judg , and since a council cannot be called but by the pope , what ever authority the council has it can never be exercised , but by the popes leave . and for all the sad consequences they say , follow the want of a common infallible judg , it appears they are under them as well as we ; but with this difference , that we plainly acknowledg , we have none , but do the best we can without one : but they , as they have none , no more than we , yet are under the tyranny of one , and though they are not bound to believe him infallible , yet are as much enslaved to him , and obliged to obey him , as if he were really exempted from all possibility of erring . so that in short , they are slaves and we are freemen . and for these ill consequences , they are , we confess , unavoidable ; for which we have very good authority , from his words , who on all sides is acknowledged to be infallible , that said , wo be to the world for scandals , for it is necessary that scandals do come . but to discuss this objection , which works much on ignorant people , let it be considered that sin and error are the two things , that do chiefly cross the design of the gospel : and of these two , sin , is the more dangerous and destructive : since there is great reason to hope that error cannot be so fatal , when it infects a mind that is otherwise sincere , as sin , which clearly defaces the image of god in the soul. we ought not therefore to expect that the gospel , should give any further security against error , than it gives against sin : on the contrary we should rather expect a further security from sin , because it is most hurtful . but all the provision made against sin , is this , that in the scriptures we are warned of the evil of it , and are directed to such methods , and have the promises of such assistance , that if we use our endeavour , we shall not be overcome by sin , nor perish in it : so as to error , we have the same security . the gospel affords us a very clear light for directing our belief in the most important things , which if we study with due humility , and sincerity , imploring god for the grace of his holy spirit , for our instruction , we shall be preserved from error . and thus the same provision is made against error , that is against sin. and we have no reason to expect more . and as it were not fit , that salvation should be offered without obliging men to use their utmost endeavours , so it were not fit to give such an easie remedy against error , as that a man should not need to employ his reason to discover truth , and avoid mistakes . if our gospel be also hid , it is hid in them that perish . therefore that our searches after truth , may be both encouraged and rewarded , god sets it before us in such a light , that it is our own fault if we do not see and follow it . but if men will either blindly give themselves up , to the conduct of such guides , whose interest it is to mislead them , which is the case of the church of rome ; or out of humour , or other base ends , will invent or follow some erroneous tenets , as other hereticks do , they have themselves to blame ; and shall bear their own iniquity : but they have no reason to cast the fault upon god , or accuse the scriptures , of darkness , or defectiveness , in these things that are necessary to salvation . i come now to the last prejudice , which will require a fuller discussion , because it relates to matter of fact : which as it is better understood , so it makes deeper impressions on people , that are not so much wrought on by speculative points , as by these things that fall under their senses . they first except to the novelty of our reformation , and always insult with this question , where was your religion before luther ? to this , these things are to be opposed . first , we turn back the question , and ask them where was their religion the first six hundred years after christ ? where was the worship of images , the doctrine of the corporal presence , of redeeming out of purgatory , of deposing princes , and of the worshipping saints , before the eighth century ? if the reformation be now to be condemned , because of its novelty , these things were then to be as much condemned , because they were then novelties . secondly . if the reformation had brought in any new doctrine , its novelty were indeed a just prejudice against it : but it was only the throwing out of these corruptions which had been brought in , in some dark and ignorant ages . thirdly . the doctrine of the reformed church , is no other than what christ and his apostles taught ; and what the church believed for many ages after them . and as to the positive part of it , it has been still held by the church of rome , and is yet acknowledged by them : but with so many additions , that there was a necessity of reforming these : and this is often to be inculcated in them , that there is no article of faith , nor any other material point of religion , among us that is condemned by the church of rome . they only blame us because we do not in many other points believe as they do : and this we ought not to do , unless we could see an equal authority binding us to all alike . another exception is , that in the reformation we made a schism , and broke the unity of the church , whereas if there had been any things amiss in the church , they say the reformers should have endeavoured to remove them , without tearing the body of christ in pieces . but in answer to this , we acknowledg if the things complained of , could have been continued without sin , they ought not to have departed from the communion of other churches : but when the publick liturgies and the worship was found to be full of such corruptions , that without idolatry and superstition , they could be no longer kept up , then it was not time to stay for the leisure of their neighbouring churches . yet if there had been any probable hopes , that the see of rome , would have concurred in such a reformation , it had been worth staying for , as long , as was possible . but when it was on the contrary , apparent , that all the most just remonstrances made to that court , were answered at best with delays and excuses , if not with excommunications and other censures ; they had no reason to expect any concurrence from thence . so the case being thus put , that they discovered such corruptions in the worship of god , with which they could not comply any longer ; either they were obliged to worship god against their consciences , or to lay aside all publick worship , or else to cast out these corruptions by a reformation . let any man of good reason judge , whether the last of these was not to be chosen ? there was no obligation lying on this church to wait for the pleasure of the court of rome , or our neighbouring churches in this matter . we are a free and independent church : we owe a charitable and neighbourly correspondence to forreign churches ; but we are subject to none of them . and according to the express decision of one of the first general councils , in the like case , we were no way subordinate to the see of rome , even as it was the patriarchate of the west . themselves do confess that it is no heresie to say , that see is fallible : and therefore we were not obliged to dance attendance at that court , when we discovered the corruptions , with which it had deceived the world ; but might in our national or provincial synods at home , examine and reform whatever errors were among us . and the multitude of those who held these errors , could be no just ground for delaying any advances towards a reformation ; no more than in the ancient church , the orthodox bishops when chosen into a see corrupted with arrianism , were obliged because that contagion was generally spread , to make no attempts toward reformation . they except further , that the reformation was begun here by a vitious prince , king henry the eighth , who partly out of revenge , because the pope would not grant his desire about the divorce of his queen , and partly to enrich himself and his courtiers with the sale of abbey-lands did suffer these doctrins first to take head here : and therefore they can have no good opinion of any thing that came from so wicked a man , and upon such ill motives . if this be a good argument against the reformation , it was as good against christianity upon constantine's turning christian ; for the heathen writers represent him with as black a character as they can do king henry . but we must not think ill of every thing that is done by a bad man , and upon an ill principle : otherwise if we had lived in iehu's days , the same plea would have been as strong , for keeping up the idolatry of baal : since iehu had in a very unsincere manner destroyed it : and yet god rewarded him for what he had done . but whatever might have been king henry's secret motives , his proceedings were regular and justifiable . he found himself married to her that had been his own brothers wife , contrary to the express words of the law of god. the popes legat , and his own confessor and all the bishops of england ( except one ) thought his scruples were well grounded . upon which according to the superstition of that time , he made his applications to the court of rome for a divorce : which were at first well received , and a bull was granted . afterwards some defects being found in that , a more ample one was desired , which was also granted : and legats were appointed to try the matter . but the pope soon after turned over to the emperors party , whose aunt the queen was : and was thereupon prevailed with , to recal the legats commission , destroy the bull , and cite the king to appear at rome , where all things and persons were at the emperors devotion . upon all this , the king did expostulate with the pope , that either his business was just , or unjust : if it was just why did he recall what he had granted , and put him off with such delays . if it was not just , why did he at first grant the bull for the divorce . this was unanswerable , but the pope did still feed him with false hopes , yet would do nothing . upon which he consulted the chief universities , and the most learned men in christendom , about his marriage . twelve famous universities , and above an hundred learned doctors , did declare under their hands and seals ( some writing larger treatises about it ) that his marriage was against the law of god. and that in that case the popes dispensation , which had allowed the marriage , was void of it self . so after the king had been kept in suspence from december 1527 till february 1533 / 4. above six years , he set his divines to examin what authority the pope had in england , either by the law of god , or the practice of the primitive church , or the law of the land , and after a long and accurate search , they found he had no authority at all in england , neither by the laws of god , of the church , nor of the land : so this decision was not made rashly , nor of a sudden . the popes authority being thus cast off , it was natural in the next place to consider , what doctrines were then held in england , upon no other grounds than papal decrees . for it was absurd to reject the popes power ; and yet to retain these opinions , which had no better foundation than his authority . upon this many of the things , which had been for some ages received in the church of rome , fell under debate : and , a great many particulars were reformed . yet , that king was so leavened with the old superstition , that the progress of the reformation , was but slow during his reign . but it was carried on to a further perfection , under king edward , and queen elizabeth . in all their methods of proceeding , there is nothing that can be reasonably censured : if it be confessed that the pope is not infallible , and the whole church of rome , acknowledges that it is no heresie to deny his infallibility . and for the sale of the abby-lands , they only spoiled the spoilers . for the monks , and fryers , had put these publick cheats on the nation , of redeeming souls out of purgatory , going on pilgrimages , with the worship of saints , and images , which were infused in the vulgar , by many lying stories , pretended apparitions , the false shew of miracles , with other such like arts. and the credulous and superstitious multitudes were thereby wrought on , to endow these houses with their best lands , and adorn their churches with their plate and richest furniture . it was not to be expected that when their impostures were discovered , they should enjoy the spoil they had made by them : nor was it for the publick interest of the nation , to give such encouragement to idleness , as the converting all these houses to foundations for an unactive life would have been . many of them were applied to good uses , bishopricks , cathedral and collegiat churches , hospitals , and free schools : and more of them ought indeed to have been converted to these ends . but the excesses of king henry , and his courtiers must not be charged on the reformers ; who did all they could to hinder them . and thus all these prejudices with which the vulgar are misled , appear to be very unjust , and ill grounded . in conclusion , if by these or such like considerations , any that are now of that communion , can be brought to mind religion in earnest , considering it , as a design to save their souls , by making them truly pure and holy ; and so reconciling them to god through christ : and if they will examine matters without partiality , seeking the truth and resolving to follow it , wherever they find it ; and joyn with their enquiries , earnest prayers to god , the father of lights , to open their eyes , and grant them his holy spirit , to lead them into all truth ; there is little doubt to be made , but the great evidence that is in truth , will in due time appear so clear to them as to dissipate all these mists , which education , implicite faith , and superstition have raised , by which they have hitherto darkened . finis . a relation of the barbarous and bloody massacre of about an hundred thousand protestants , begun at paris , and carried on over all france by the papists , in the year 1572. collected out of mezeray , thuanus , and other approved authors . london , printed for richard chiswel , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1678. a relation of the massacre of the protestants , begun in paris , and carried on over all france , in the year 1572. there are no principles of morality more universally received , and that make deeper impressions on the minds of all men , that are more necessary for the good of humane society , and do more resemble the divine perfections , than truth and goodness : so that if our saviour denounced a woe against those who teach men to break the least of his commandments , what may they look for , who design to subvert these that may be justly called the greatest of them ? that the church of rome teaches barbarity and cruelty , against all who receive not their opinions ; and that hereticks are to be delivered to secular princes , who must burn them without mercy ; or if they have either bowels or conscience , so that they will not be the instruments of their cruelty , that they shall lose their kingdoms or dominions , is known to all that have read the decrees of the 4th council in the lateran . the violation of publick faith , was also decreed by another of their general councils at constance ; in which , notwithstanding the safe conduct that sigismund had granted to iohn husse and ierome of prague , care was not only taken that they should be burnt ; but they made it a standing rule for the time to come , that tho hereticks came to the place of judgment , trusting to their safe conduct , and would not have come without it ; yet the prince who granted it , was under no obligation by it , but the church might proceed to censures and punishment . by these decrees , cruelty and treachery are become a part of their doctrine , and they may join them to their creed , upon as good reasons as they can shew for many of their other additions . the nature of man is not yet sunk so low , as easily to hear these things without horror : therefore it is fit they should be kept among the secrets of their religion , till a fit opportunity appear , in which they may serve a turn : and then we need not doubt but they will be made : use of . if any will be so charitable to their church , as not easily to believe this , the history of the parisian massacre may satisfie them to the full : which thuanus says , was a pitch of barbarity beyond any thing that former ages had ever seen : and if the irish massacre , flowing from the same spirit , and the same principles , had not gone beyond it , we might have reasonably concluded , that it could never be matched again . but we may be taught from such precedents , what we ought to expect , when ever we are at the mercy of persons of that religion , who , if they be true sons of the church of rome , must renounce both faith and mercy to all hereticks . i shall give the relation of this massacre from that celebrated late writer of the french history , mr. de mezeray , only adding some passages out of thuanus , davila , and others , where he is defective . but i shall premise a short representation of the civil wars of france , which are made use of as the arguments for justifying that cruelty , and by which they do still blemish the protestant religion , as teaching rebellion against princes . during the reign of francis the 1st , and henry the 2d , the protestant religion got great footing in france ; the usual severities of the church of rome were then employed to extirpate it ; yet tho their numbers were very great , and the persecution most severe , they made no resistance . but upon the death of henry the 2d , catherine de medici , the queen mother , with the cardinal of lorrain , and the duke of guise , took the government in their hands ; pretending that the king ( francis the 2d ) was of age , being then sixteen . the princes of the blood on the other hand alleadged , that the kingdom ought to be under a regency till the king was at least 22 years of age : since charles the 6th had been admitted at that age to the government , as a particular mark of their esteem of him : so that tho the age of majority was at 25 years , and that was a singular exception from a general rule , yet at furthest , it shewed that the king could not assume the government before he was two and twenty . it was also an undoubted right of the princes of the blood to hold the regency , during the minority of their kings : and to administer it , by the direction of the parliaments , and the assembly of the states . upon these points , many things were written on both sides . the princes of the blood pretended , they were excluded from the government , against law , and upon that were projecting how to possess themselves of the power ; which , with the person of the king , were violently kept from them . but the prince of conde being advised to it , by coligny then admiral of france , did also declare for mitigating the severities against the protestants . this being the case , that the point was truly disputable , no man can blame the protestants for joining with their friends against their enemies . and yet this plot was driven no further , than an endeavour to take the king out of the hands of his mother , and the brothers of lorrain , who were all foreigners . the chief promoter of it was a papist , renaudy , and it was discovered by avennelles ; who tho he was most firm to his religion , being a protestant , yet having an aversion to all plots , revealed it out of scruple of conscience . soon after this discovery , francis the 2d died ; and his brother that succeded him , charles the 9th was without dispute under age , he not being then full eleven years old . and according to the resolution of many great lawyers , in the case of his brother , the kingdom ought to have been under a regency , during all the wars that preceded the massacre , for he was then but two and twenty . at first it was agreed to , that the king of navarre , as the first prince of the blood , ought to be regent ; but he being wrought on , by the queen mother and her party , and drawn over to them , the lawyers were again set to examine , how far the power of the regent did extend : many published their opinions , that the other princes of the blood ought to have their share in the regency , and that the regents might be checkt by the courts of parliaments , and were subject to an assembly of the states . the chief point of state , then under consideration , was , what way to proceed with the protestants , whose numbers grew daily , and were now more considerable , having such powerful heads . a severe edict came out against them in iuly 1561 , condemning all meetings for religious worship , except those that were celebrated with the rites of the church of rome , banishing all the protestant ministers , and appointing the bishops to proceed against hereticks ; with this only mitigation of former cruelties , that banishment should be the highest punishment . but the nation could not bear the execution of this : so next ianuary there was a great assembly called of the princes of the blood , the privy counsellors , and eight courts of parliament , in which the edict that carried the name of the month , was passed . by it , the free exercise of that religion was tolerated , and the magistrates were required to punish all who should hinder or interrupt it . not long after that , the duke of guise did disturb a meeting of protestants at vassy , as he was on his journey to paris ; his servants began with reproachful words , and from these they went to blows . it ended in a throwing of stones , one of which hurt the duke ; but that was severely revenged , about 60 were killed , and 200 wounded , no age or sex being spared . upon this he encouraged the violation of the edict every where ; so that it was universally broken . the king of navarre joined with him in these courses ; but the prince of conde , that was next to him in the royal blood , declared for the edicts : many great lawyers were of opinion , that the regents power was not so vast as to suspend , or break the edict , and that therefore the people might follow any person , much more the next prince of the blood , in defence of it . this plea was yet stronger , before the year ended , for the king of navarre being killed , the prince of conde was then by the law of france the rightful regent : so that all the wars that followed afterwards , till the year 1570 , had this to be said for them , that in the opinion of very learned men , the king was all that while under age , that the edicts were broken , the kingdom governed by a woman , and foreigners , against law , and that the lawful regent was excluded from the government ; which made king iames , whose judgment is not to be suspected in this case , always justify the protestants in france , and excuse them from rebellion . this is a piece of history little understood , and generally made use of to blemish the reformation ; therefore i thought it necessary to introduce the following relation , with this just account of these wars , that were the pretended grounds with which the house of guise covered their own ambition , and hatred of the family of burbon . after france had suffered all the miseries which a course of civil wars , for ten years together , carries after it , the king was advised to set on foot a treaty of peace ; not so much out of a design to quiet matters by a happy settlement , as to ensnare the protestants into some fatal trap , in which they being catched , might be safely and easily destroyed . the chief authors of this advice , were the queen mother , the cardinal of lorrain , the duke of nevers , the count of rets , and birague ; the last three were italians , and so better fitted both for designing and carrying on so wicked a council , to which the duke of anjou , afterwards henry the third , was also admitted . they said the extirpation of heresy might be done much cheaper than by a civil war. it was fit first to grant the protestants what conditions they desired , then to treat them with all possible kindness ; by which their jealousies were to be once extinguished ; and a confidence being begotten in them ; then to draw the chief heads of the party to court , upon some specious attractive , and there they were sure of them . the first bait to be offered , was the marriage of the king's sister to the king of navarre , and if that succeded not , they were to invent still a new one , till they found that which would do the business . all the danger of this council was , that the pope and the king of spain would be much provok'd by it ; and there might be some hazard of tumults , among the zealous people of france , if the king seemed to favour the hereticks too much . but they reckoned , that when the design took effect , all who might be discontented with the appearance of favour shewed to them , would be well satisfied , and the more the pope and spaniard complained of it , it would advance their chief end , of creating a confidence in the protestants more effectually . thus were their councils laid . the room in which this was first projected , was the council-chamber of blois , where 16 years after the duke of guise was killed , by henry the third's orders . and it was more fully concluded in that chamber at st. clou , where the same henry the third was murdered by a dominican . the design being agreed on , the queen-mother made some of her spies , among the protestants , assure them , that she hated the king of spain mortally , both on her daughter's account , that was his queen , and as was universally believed , had been poysoned by his orders ; as also upon the consideration of her own family of florence , to which the spaniard was then an uneasy neighbour : and designed to take the territory of siena out of their hands . it was reasonable enough to believe , that upon such motives , a woman of her temper would set on a war with spain . the king did also express a great inclination to the same war , and to undertake the protection of the netherlands , which were then under the tyranny of the duke of alva's government . this wanted not a fair pretence , flanders having been formerly subject to the crown of france . he also seemed weary of the greatness of the duke of guise and his party , which a civil war did still encrease . the king and the queen-mother employed also in these messages , biron , momorancy , cosse and others , who were men of great integrity , and had much friendship for the queen of navarre and the admiral , that were the heads of the protestant party . the queen of navarre was sensible of the great advantages her son would receive from such an alliance . an army was also promised her , for the recovery of her kingdom from the spaniards ; which had been easily regained , if the crown of france had assisted her ; since the southern parts of france were almost all protestants , who would have w●…llingly served her against spain . only she being a most religious woman , had great apprehensions of the unlawfulness , at least the extream danger of matching her son to one of a different religion ; therefore she took some time to consider of that part of the proposition . the admiral was very weary of the civil war , it both ruined his country , and slackened the discipline of war , which he had formerly observed with a roman severity . he thought the conquest of the netherlands would be an easy and a great accession to the crown ; he knew there was none so likely to be employed in it as himself , and he was resolved to carry all the souldiers of the religion with him . and being admiral , he also designed to raise the greatness of the crown both at sea , and in the new-found world , which was then sending over an incredible deal of wealth to spain ; in which the spaniards who had landed in florida , and killed a colony of the french , that was setled there , had given just cause to make war upon them . therefore as he had often expressed his being so averse to a civil war , that he could no longer look on and see the miseries it brought on his country ; so he was made believe the king did in good earnest intend to assist the flemings , which being both against the spaniard , and in defence of those of the same religion , he would by no means hinder . upon these considerations , there was a peace concluded between the king and the protestants , by which the free exercise of their religion was granted : some cautionary towns were also put in their hands , to be kept by them two years , till there were a full settlement made of the edicts , and the other things agreed to , for their security . the king acted his part with all the artifice possible , he became much kinder to the family of momorancy and the rest of the admirals friends , and seemed to neglect those of lorrain . he threatned the parliament of paris , because they made some difficulty in passing the edict in favours of the protestants . he went secretly to meet with lewis count of nassaw , and treated with him about the wars of the netherlands . he married the emperor's daughter , who was thought a protestant in his heart . he entred in a confederacy with q. elizabeth : and the cardinal of chastilion ( the admiral 's brother , who had renounced his red hat , and turned a protestant ) being then in england , was employed to set on foot a treaty of marriage between the duke of anjou and the queen : a peace was also made with the princes of the empire . and tho both the spanish ambassador and the legat did all they could to hinder the peace , and the marriage of the king of navarre , yet they seemed to make no account of that at court : only the king gave the legat great assurances of his fidelity to the apostolick see , and that all that he was doing , was for the interest of the catholick religion . and taking him one day by the hand : he desired him to assure the pope , that his design in this marriage , was that he might be revenged on those that were enemies to god , and rebels against himself , and that he would either punish them severely , and cut them all in pieces , or lose his crown . all which he would do in compliance with the advices he had received from the pope , who had continually set him on to destroy them ; and he saw no way of doing it so securely , as by getting them once to trust him , having tried all other methods in vain . and for a pledg of his faith , he offered him a ring of great value ; which the legat refused to take , pretending that he never took presents from any prince , and that the word of so great a king , was a better security than any pledg whatsoever . upon all these demonstrations of friendship made to the protestants , it was no wonder if persons of such candor , as the queen of navarre , and the admiral , were deceived . the admiral went first to court , where he was received by the king with the greatest shew of kindness and respect that was possible . he embraced him thrice , laid his cheek to his , squeezing his hands , called him father , and left nothing undone that might possess him with a firm opinion of his friendship . nor was the queen-mother less officious to express her kindness to him . he was allowed to keep fifty armed gentlemen about him . an hundred thousand franks were sent him , for furnishing his houses that had been spoiled during the wars . and which was more than all the rest , when complaints were carried by him to the king , of some who violated the edict , great insolencies being committed in many places ; the king ordered them to be exemplarily punished . so that there was a general repining over all france , at the king's kindness to him . the king had also told him , that now he had got him near him , he would never suffer him to leave him any more . the design succeeding so well on the admiral , the proposition of the marriage was also carried on ; and the queen of navarre was next brought to court , but soon after died ( as was generally believed ) of poison , that was given her in some perfumed gloves ; to conceal which , the chirurgeons that opened her , would not touch her head , but pretended she died of an imposthume in her side . the cardinal of chastilion was also at that time poisoned , which tho afterwards confessed by him that had done it , yet was not then so much as suspected . the king seemed more and more set on the war in flanders . he sent both to england , and germany , to consult about the preparations for it , and had agreed with the prince of orange , about the division of the netherlands : that all on their side of antwerp should come to the crown of france : and what lay on the other side of it should belong to the states . he sent a protestant his ambassadour to constantinople , to engage the grand signior unto a war with spain . he also furnished the count of nassaw with mony , and sent some of his best captains with him to try if they could surprize any towns near the frontier , who did their part so dextrously , that mons was surprized by the count of nassaw , and valenciennes by la noiie , according to mezeray ; tho he seems to be mistaken as to valenciennes , for thuanus and davila say nothing of it , but mention mons only . and veremundus frisius , who wrote the history of that massacre the year after , says , that they missed their design in surprising valenciennes , upon which they went to mons and carried it . upon this all reckoned that the king was now engaged , and the war begun . so the king of navarre , and the prince of conde , were brought to court , and received with all the marks of a firm friendship , that could be invented . a dispensation was obtained from the new pope for the marriage . veremundus says , pope pius the 5th had always opposed it , but upon the cardinal of alexandria's return to rome , who went to assist in the conclave , where gregory the 13th was chosen , the new pope easily granted the bull , which was believed to have flowed from the information he received from that cardinal , of the king's design in this marriage , which to be sure his holiness would neither obstruct nor delay . so the bull being sent to the cardinal of burbon , the day was set , and the chief heads of the protestants were all drawn into paris , partly to assist at the solemnities of a marriage , which they hoped would put an end to all their troubles ; partly to get charges in the army , which all people believed would be commanded by the admiral . only many of the hottest of them had followed ienlis and la noiie into flanders , where it was intended to abandon them to the cruelty of the duke of alva , who had intercepted and cut off a great body of them commanded by ienlis . the admiral pressed the king to declare the war immediately ; foreseeing that unless it followed suddenly , his friends that had surprized these towns , would be destroyed , and the whole design spoiled . but the king put him off with delays , in which he expressed much confidence in him , by telling him the secret grounds he had to distrust almost every person about him : and that therefore he must of necessity settle his court and councils first , before he could enter upon such a war. but now the design being ripe , the duke of guise , to whom it had also been communicated , was employed to gather many desperate men about him , who might be fit to execute all orders ; and the thing getting into more hands , took wind , so that they at rochel being informed of some suspicious passages , wrote to the admiral , to disabuse him , and desired he would leave the court , and trust no more to the fair appearances he saw there ; since these were only the masks of some great mischief that was framing . to them he wrote a long answer , and assured them , that the king's heart was wholly changed , that there was never a better prince in the world , and that for his owe part , he would die a thousand deaths , rather than suspect him capable of so base a design . then he laid before them all the reasons which induced him to believe the war with spain was really intended , and therefore he desired , that they would lay dow their groundless jealousies . and when some that were about him , pressed the same things upon him ; he told them plainly , he would rather be destroyed , than make a new rupture ; and would be dragged at horse-heels through paris , rather than begin another civil war. his authority was so great , and his experience so approved , that the whole party submitted to his judgment : and he got some cautionary towns , that were by the treaty of peace to be restored at the end of two years , to be delivered up three weeks before the time was elapsed : only the rochellers were a little more apprehensive , and would not receive a garrison . on the 17th of august was the king of navarre married , and four days were spent in all the gallant diversions , that are usual on such occasions , but were now performed with more than ordinary magnificence and joy. hitherto the mine was working under ground , and now it was time for it to play . there was nothing could be blamed in the conduct of the protestants , but too much candor and too great confidence . they knew they designed nothing , but the quiet of their country , and the greatness of the crown . they were cajol'd with the most engaging tokens of friendship , that ever were shewed on any such occasion ; they thought the king was sincere , and being then but coming to be of age , was taking new measures . and he had so covered the cruelty of his temper , with a shew of good nature , that they expected they should be most happy under him . and for the queen-mother , tho they knew her too well to put any confidence in her ; yet her passion for her family , and her revenge for the poysoning of her daughter , made them think they were also well assured of her . and indeed so deep and so refin'd a dissimulation was perhaps never before acted . there was but one part of the king's deportment that could give any ground for jealousie , the horrid and blasphemous oaths and imprecations , which he made use of on all occasions to persuade them of the reality of his professions ; which always raise suspicion in sober and wary persons . these the king used so frequently , that the writers of that time , say , that he seldom spoke three words without some terrible oath , or blasphemous expression , which from his ill example , was so spread over all france , that none but the protestants , spoke in any other strain . but now when it fell under consideration , how their designs should be executed , the queen with her two italian confidents , the count de rets , and birague , who , next to the protestants , hated the house of guise beyond all the world , yet dissembling it most artificially ; intended that the business should be so managed , as to ruine both the protestants , and that family at once : therefore they thought , that if some of their followers would assassinate the admiral , the protestants would turn their revenge on them , and they knew the parisians , would be easily moved to rise against the protestants ; and so they reckoned , that if an attempt was made upon the admiral , by any of the duke of guise's creatures , his party would presently take a severe revenge on the head of the house of guise , and the parisians would be soon brought out to destroy them . they concealed this part of their design , and in the cabinet-council only proposed , that the duke of guise would find some person to kill the admiral , which should pass like an act of private revenge ; and they said , they did not doubt , but the whole party would upon that take arms , and thereupon , there would be a good colour given , to bring out the city of paris upon them . the duke of guise being young and hot , and boiling with revenge for his father's blood , undertook it , not considering that himself might perish in the first heat of action , as the queen hoped he should . he pitch'd on maurenel , who had formerly assassinated another person , and placed him in the house of one that had been his tutor , near st. german of auxerre , where the admiral used to pass , as he went or came from the louvre . it was now necessary to execute their design quickly , for the protestants were beginning to apprehend some danger . they saw the king was resolved , to let those who had surprized the towns in flanders perish , without sending them any relief . the admiral was resolved to take leave within a few days : his friend , the duke of montmorency , tho no protestant , yet saw the storm coming , and retired to his house : and many little circumstances occurred , which gave them all just cause of fear : so the other party had no time to lose . therefore on the 22d of august , about noon as the admiral was going home from the court , reading a paper that he had in his hand , the assassinate that was laid for him , shot him from the house , where the duke of guise had placed him ; his fuzee was charged with three bullets , that were believed to be poysoned . one of these carried away part of the fore-finger of his right hand ; the other stuck in his left arm , and the third missed him . he received it with great presence of mind , and pointed to the house from whence it came ; he also sent one to the king to give him notice of it , and then ordered his arm to be bound up , and so went home leaning on his servants . some run to the house and broke into it , but found none there , save a lacquey , and a maid , and the fuzee , which the murderer left behind him , when he made his escape . the king was in the tenis-court when the news were brought him : he personated a deep resentment , and said in a tone that seemed full of affliction , and with a terrible oath , shall i never have quiet ! and so threw away his racquet , and went out in a rage . the duke of guise did also counterfeit some surprise . but they missed their designs , both ways , for neither was the admiral killed , nor did the protestants fly out into any disorder . the king of navarre and the prince of conde , came upon this to the king to complain , and desired leave to go out of town , since men were not safe so near the court. the king seemed to resent it , more than they did , and with the horriblest oaths he could think of , swore he would execute such a revenge on all that were found guilty of it , whoever they were , that it should never be forgotten ; and desired them to stay and be witnesses of it . the queen-mother made also shew of inflaming his rage with most vehement expressions , so that they were persuaded to stay . the king ordered the murderer to be pursued , the two servants to be examined , and all the gates of paris ( except two ) to be kept shut . the admirals carriage on this occasion , was suitable to the rest of his behaviour , and equal to what the greatest heroe's had ever shewed . ambrose parè , the famous surgeon , dressed his wound , he madethe incision into his arm , that he might take out the bullet , and did cut off his finger for fear of a gangreen : but his scissars not being sharp enough , he put him to extream pain , and did not cut it off but at the third reprise : during all which , the admiral expressed no impatience nor anger . but as parè told thuanus , he said to mr. maur a minister that stood by , now i perceive that i am beloved of god , since i suffer these wounds for his most holy name . and during the operation , he often repeated these words , o my god , forsake me not , and withdraw not thy wonted favour from me ! and whispered one that was holding his arm , in the ear , that he should distribute an hundred crowns among the poor of paris . next day damvil , cosse , and villars , came to visit and comfort him , but confessed it was needless , for he expressed great resolution of mind and readiness to die , only he desired to see the king , and speak with him before he died . damvil and teligny ( the admirals son in law ) carried this message to the king , who very readily yielded to it . the queen-mother apprehending the great genius of the admiral , and fearing lest he should turn her son to better councils , would needs go with the king. his two brothers , with twelve of the chief persons in the court , waited also on him , to make a shew of putting the more honour on the admiral , but really to watch the king , that he might have no opportunity of speaking with him alone . when the king came to his bed-side , he expressed the greatest tenderness possible , and in his looks , and the of his voice counterfeited a most profound sorrow , and said to him , you , my father , have received the wound , but i feel the smart of it , and will punish it in so severe a manner , that the like was never seen . the admiral thanked him , and told him , by his wound , he might well perceive , who were the authors of the troubles of france . he pressed him earnestly to go on with the war in flanders , and not leave all those gallant persons to the duke of alva's insolence and cruelty , who had trusted to his protection . he complained of the violation of the edict in several parts of france ; and desired the king , to consider how much it concerned him both in honour and interest , to keep his faith inviolated . the king gave him full assurances of this , but avoided the discourse of flanders , and with repeated oaths told him , he would punish this fact against him , as if it had been done against himself . then the admiral desired to speak privately with the king , which lasted not long ; for the queen-mother , apprehending what the subject of his discourse might be , came to the bed-side and told the king , that so long a conversation would much endanger the admirals health , and so broke it off . yet it seems , as short as it was , it made some impression , for when she asked the king , what it was that he had said to him ? he answered , he had advised him to reign himself , and he was resolved to follow it . when this was over , the king asked the admirals friends , and the physicians many questions about his health , and proposed for his greater security , the carrying him to the louvre . but the physicians said , he could not be safely removed . so after he had staied an hour he left him , during which time he acted the part , he intended to play , so well , that all the witnesses were satisfied with the sincerity and passion he expressed . the court of parliament examined the maid , and lackquey , that were taken in the house from whence he was shot , about the murtherer : and many presumptions appeared against the duke of guise , whose servants , they found , had brought him to that house , and had provided an horse for his escape . the king wrote that same day both to his ambassadours in forreign parts , and to the governours of the provinces , shewing them what had befallen the admiral , and how much he resented it . the next day being the 23d , the duke of guise and his uncle the duke of aumale , came and desired leave to go out of town . the king by his looks and carriage seemed to abhor them ; and said , they might do what they pleased ; but as they went away , he said , they might go whither they would , but he should find them out , if they appeared to be guilty of that fact. and so they mounted on horse-back and rode to the port st. anthony , as if they had intended to go out of town , but came back to guise-house : and began to raise a great stir in paris . they called many about them , and sent their agents all over the town , and sent arms to divers places . when news of this was brought to the admiral , he sent to the king to desire a guard , so 50 were sent under the command of cosseins , one of his bitterest enemies . but to cover the matter better , some of the king of navarres swisses , were sent to guard within his house . the king did also order all the papists that lay near his house , to remove their lodgings , that the protestants might have conveniency to be about him , and gather together if there should be any tumult . he also desired the king of navarre , and the prince of conde would gather about them their best friends , that they might be prepared to defend themselves , in case the duke of guise should raise any disorders . all this seemed not only sincere , but kind ; and by these arts were the protestants , not only secured from their fears , but had great hopes raised in them : and thus the greatest part of them were brought within the net , that was laid for their ruine . only the vice-lord ( or vidam ) of chartres saw through the disguise : and a council of their party being held in the admirals chamber , he spoke freely , and told them , the admirals wound was the first act of the tragedy , and more would soon follow . therefore he proposed , that he might be carried to chastilion , ill as he was , in which there was less danger , than to stay in a place where they and all their friends would be suddenly destroyed . teligny and others , that were fully perswaded of the kings good intentions , opposed this much , and said , it would shew such a distrust of the king , as might for ever lose him , that was then beginning to favour their party . but the vidam answered , that stay who would , he would not stay longer than to morrow , for he was assured their stay would be fatal to themselves , and all their friends . there was a perfidious person in that assembly , one bouchavannes , who was an intelligencer to the queen-mother , and carried presently an account of their consultation to her . she and her party were now pressed with time , therefore the execution of their design could be no longer delayed than the next night . so the council met and resolved , that not only the persons of quality of the religion should be killed , but that every one of what condition soever , that were of that profession should be massacred . it was debated long , whether the king of navarre and the prince of conde , should perish with the rest ? for the duke of guise his party had a great mind to destroy the whole family of bourbon : but as for the king of navarre , it was thought contrary to the laws of nations , of hospitality , and of nature , to murder a king , that had come under trust to the court , and was now so nearly allied to the king : and was guilty of no crime , but what he had from his education . so it was resolved , he should be spared , and made change his religion . but for the prince of conde , he was naturally fierce , and that temper , joined with the memory of his father , made them less inclined to save him ; only the duke of nevers , who had married his wifes sister , interposed vigorously for him , and undertook that he should become a good catholick , and a faithful subject : and he prevailed , tho with great difficulty , that he should be spared . but for the rest , it was agreed on , to raise the town of paris , and set them upon them , who were inflamed into such a rage against that party , that they knew it would be an easy work to engage them in any sort of cruely against them . the conduct of it was committed to the duke of guise , who undertook it very chearfully . he did first communicate it to the guards , and ordered them to keep a strict watch , both about the louvre , and the places where the admiral and his friends were lodged , that none might escape ; then he desired the provost ( or major ) of paris , and the chief magistrates and officers of the city , would meet at midnight in the town-house , where they should receive their orders . they met accordingly , and it was intimated to them , that the king was now resolved to destroy the hereticks , who had so long distracted his kingdom : that therefore every one should go to his quarter , and have all people in readiness , with the greatest secrecy that might be , and that they should have many torches and flambeaus ready , to light out at their windows . the sign should be a white linnen sleeve on their left arm , and a white cross in their caps : and at the tolling of the great bell of the palace , which should be done near the break of day , they should light their torches and march . the king in the mean while , was under great irresolution . the horror of the fact , the infamy that would follow it , and the danger he might be in , if it either miscarried , or were not fully executed , could not but fill him with confusion . but the queen , who had overcome all the impressions of tenderness and pity , that are natural to her sex , hearing of it , came to him , and studied to confirm him in his former resolutions , representing to him all the trouble they had given him in the former wars , and that he might expect yet worse , if he would let go this opportunity , of securing the quiet of his whole reign . she knew how to work upon him so well , that in end she prevailed , and the king swore deeply he would go through with it . upon that , she being impatient , and fearing a new turn in the kings thoughts , made the bell of st. germans be tolled , which was the warning for tolling that in the palace . this fatal signal was given the morning of the 24th of august , st. bartholomews day , being sunday ; and was followed with a general rising of the whole city of paris . the march of souldiers , the noise of their arms , and the lightning of so many torches , awakened the poor protestants , who now saw visibly that their ruine was both near and inevitable . some of them went out to the streets , and asked what the matter might be , of so great a concourse , and so many torches and armed men , at such an hour ? some answered , as they had been instructed to say , till all things should be ready , that there was to be a mock-siege of a fort in the louvre , for the kings diversion . so they went forward to satisfy their curiosity , but quickly found it was a real massacre , and not a mock-siege that was intended , and they were the first sacrifices of that bloody festivity . there were now about threescore thousand men brought together . the duke of guise , with his uncle aumale , resolved first to satisfie their revenge on the admiral , and therefore went to his gate , where cosseins kept guard , on design to betray him the more effectually . he called to open the gate ; which being done , they killed the porter and broke into the court. but the king of navarr's swisses barricado'd the next gate , and made some resistance . this dismal noise awakened the admiral , who at first apprehended , it might be some tumult of the populace , which he hoped the king's guards would easily disperse . but when he perceived it encreased , then he saw he was to be destroyed . so he took his night-gown and got up : those that were about him were amazed at the constancy of his mind , his minister merlin prayed ; and when that was ended , he said to those that were about him , i see now what this will end in , but i am prepared to meet death , which i have often looked for , but was never afraid of : i account my self happy since it is so near me , having in this my death , through the grace of god the hope of eternal life . i need no more the help of men , therefore farewel , my friends , and try how you can save your selves , that you be not involved in my ruin , lest by my death i make more widows than one : i have help enough in the presence of god , into whose hands i commit my soul , which is soon to be discharged out of this body . all this he spoke without the least commotion or appearance of fear . then those about him left him , and got up to the roof of the house . by that time the murderers had brook in , and seven of them being all in armour , came into his chamber . besme , that had been one of the duke of guises grooms , advanced towards him ; to whom he said , young man , you ought to reverence my gray hairs , but you cannot shorten my life much . they all stood a while amazed at such undaunted courage , and so composed a behaviour , which as one of them told thuanus , was the most extraordinary thing that ever he saw his whole life . besme did first thrust him into the belly , and then cut him over the face : at which he fell , and the others struck at him , till he was quite dead . the duke of guise being below in the court , heard the noise , and called to them to throw him out at the window , which besme and another did . and either the duke , or the count of angoulesme ( for it is differently reported ) wiped his face , which was disfigured with blood , to know if it was he indeed , and perceiving it was so , trampled on his belly , and went away . an italian cut off his head , and carried it first to the queen-mother , and then embalmed it , and sent it to rome , ( not only as the protestants say , which is disingeniously added , by mezeray , for thuanus affirms it ) : then all the ignominy and barbarity possible , was exercised about the dead carcase , his fingers and hands were cut off , his body dragged about the streets , thrown in the sein , and hanged up in chains his feet uppermost : and a fire was set under to burn it , but it only dried it and did not consume it . some days after monmorancy caused it to be taken down secretly , and buried it in his chappel at chantilly . thus fell the admiral , that for all noble qualities necessary , either to a great captain , or a compleat statesman , may be equalled to any of the ancient greeks or romans ; and for piety and other christian vertues , was the wonder of the age he lived in . but the cruelty of the duke of guise and his party , was rather kindled than satiated with his blood. so he and his company went out to the streets , and cried aloud , it was the king's command they should go on , and finish what they had begun . and so the multitude was let loose , to murder all that were of the religion , and the plunder of their houses was to be their reward . this was followed with the most enraged and cruel massacre that ever was heard of . it exceeded all that either the heathens had done , or their poets had feigned . every man seemed a fury , and as if they had been transformed into tigres and wolves , out-did the very cruelty of beasts of prey . the bare relation of matters of fact , is beyond all that eloquence can invent , by which it may be aggravated : and indeed a strict narrative of what was really done , will appear some ages hence , as a tragical description of an imaginary cruelty , rather than a true history . five hundred persons of quality were murdered , and in all 4000 according to thuanus and mezeray . perefixe the late b. of paris says , there were twenty lords of note killed , and twelve hundred gentlemen , and between three and four thousand others . but veremundus says , they were ten thousand . no age nor sex was spared ; husbands and wives were killed in one anothers arms , after they saw their children murthered at their feet . one butcher'd an innocent babe , as it was playing with his beard . men of fourscore were not left to the course of nature , but hewen down . nor did a single death satisfie their brutal rage , but they made them die many deaths , before death relieved them . one would cut off the nose , another the ear , a third the hands , and a fourth the arms of the same person , before they would be so merciful as to kill him out-right . those that fled up to the tops of their houses , were made leap over to the streets , where they were knocked down with halberts . such as ran out to escape through dark passages , were either instantly killed , or driven to the sein , where they took pleasure to kill and drown them with much art . dead bodies floated all along the seine , and were lying in heaps thorough the streets . in many places the kennels ran blood. there was nothing to be heard but the howlings of mangled and dying persons ; or the horrid blasphemies of their accursed butchers . they searched all the corners of their houses , as hounds pursuing for prey . no man delivered his friend ; no host had pity on his guest : only one brave man saved his enemy . the louvre it self was full of blood , and the dead corpes of those whom the king of navarre and prince of conde had brought about them for their security : but where they expected a sanctuary , they found a massacre . it is needless to reckon up the names of those noble persons who were then destroyed , for the memory of rochfoucant , teligny , renel , piles , pluvial , baudine , guerchy , lavardin , nompar or la force , and five hundred more will be ever sacred ; yet in this nation where these families are not known , the recital would be tedious and useless . of all those guerchy alone died with a sword in his hand , but could hurt none of those that assaulted him , they having armour on them . this horrible confusion , gave the allarm to those who lay in the suburbs on the other side of the seine to make haste and be gone ; and they , having no suspicion of the king himself , were thinking to have gone over and sheltred themselves within the louvre . the parisians had now lost all order , and were fallen to plunder , so that they could not be brought together : therefore the duke of guise sent over some of the swisse guards in boats to kill them , and himself followed with some horse ; and had it not been for the mistake of him who brought the wrong keys of the gate , thorough which he was to pass , they had been all surprized before they had resolved what course to take . but day appearing , they saw enough to convince them , it was not time to delay any more : so in the greatest confusion possible , they got on horseback , and fled away . the duke of guise pursued them , but they were out of his reach , and not being strong enough to defend themselves , and keep in a body , they dispersed and escaped . but the fury that they fled from , continued in paris all that day , and the two following days : in which nothing was left undone that ingenious and desperate cruelty could suggest . six hundred houses were pillaged . and after such a glut of blood , mens minds becoming savage , they fell to revenge private enmities , even upon their fellow papists ; many of whom were in the end also murdered , but those were chiefly monorancy his friends , who were thought cold in the matter of religion . the most enraged of their blood-hounds were tanchou , pesou , and crosier a goldsmith ; the two former drove many to the mills , and forced them to leap from thence into the river . pesou boasted to the king himself , that he had made an hundred and fifty leap that night . and thuanus says , he often heard crosier say , that with that hand he had killed 400 : by which it seems he was thought so sanctified , that he would live no longer a common life , but as a sacred person went to an hermitage ; where yet his cruelty left him not ; for during the warrs of the league , he drew a flemish merchant into his cell and murdered him there . thus were the protestants destroyed in paris , with a treachery and cruelty that the uncivilized nations had never shewed to one another , nor had the heathens been ever guilty of any thing like it towards the christians . the precedent which the church of rome had formerly given in the massare of the albigenses , was the likest thing in history to it for barbarity ; but never had treachery and cruelty met together in such a manner before this execrable day . at court all those generous impressions which follow noble blood , seemed extinguished . men threw off humanity , and women had neither compassion nor modesty . the queen-mother and her ladies took pleasure to look upon the most detestable objects , and greedily beheld some obscene and indecent sights ; but it is not fit to write all that was then done . about nine of the clock , the king sent for the king of navarre and the prince of conde , and told them he was forced to use that severe remedy to put an end to war and rebellion , and had therefore destroyed those , whom he could not induce to obey : and for them , tho he had good reason to hate them mortally , since they had led on a rebellion against him , yet in consideration of their blood and alliance , he was resolved to spare them if they would change their religion , otherwise they must look for no better usage than their servants had met with . the king spake this with great rage , so that the king of navarre being terrified , said , that if the king would save their lives , and leave them their consciences free , they should in all other things be commanded by him . but the prince of conde answered more boldly , that he might dispose of his life and estate as he pleased , but for his religion , he owed an account of it to god alone , from whom he had received the knowledg of it . this resolute answer put the king in such a rage , that after he had treated him with most abusive language , he swore , that if he did not change within three days , he should hang for it . and so ordered them to be strictly guarded . at the same time there were expresses dispatched over all france , to set on the people both in the towns and country , to imitate the example of the parisians , and destroy the hereticks . yet the king either out of some remorse or shame , wrote to his ambassadours and the governours of the provinces , that same day : that the duke of guise , and others that adhered him , having a great interest in the city of paris , and apprehending that the admirals friends were resolved to revenge his wound , had therefore , both to secure themselves , and to prosecute their former quarrels , raised the city of paris : and had broke through the guards set to defend the admiral , and killed him , and many other persons of quality ; the rage of the people being such , that the king's guards could do nothing to repress it : therefore he was forced to keep himself within the louvre , but had , as soon as was possible , quieted the town ; so that all things were put in order again ; and he was resolved still to maintain his edict , made for the free exercise of their religion . veremundus has printed the copies of the letters , directed to the governours of burgundy and tourain , and to the town of bourges , with the memorial sent to the swiss cantons , all to the same purpose , bearing date the 24th of august . and in another letter the king wrote , that he had made up a new agreement with the king of navarre and the prince of conde , and was resolved to run the same hazard with them , for revenging the death of his cousin the late admiral . but the house of guise would not bear this , and made the king own , that all was done by his express orders . so on the 26th of august , the king went to the court of parliament , and after an invidious repetition of all the troubles of his reign , which yet he said , he intended to have quieted by the late treaty of peace , he discovered that the admiral had conspired to kill him , his brothers , and the king of navarre , and to set up the young prince of conde , whom he also designed afterwards to kill , that so the whole royal family being destroyed , he might make himself king : and since extream diseases required extream remedies , he was forced to do what he had done ; and concluded , that all was done by his express order and command . thuanus the father , tho he abhorred the thing , yet out of fear and compliance , made a base flattering speech , of the necessity of dissimulation in princes , and did much commend that saying of lewis the 11th . he who knows not how to dissemble , knows , not how to reign . and pibrac the attourney general , moved the king , that the declaration he had made might be entred in their registers , and that strict orders might be given , to put an end to the blood and confusion with which the city was filled : both which the king ordered to be done . the declaration which was thereupon published on the 28th , is printed by veremundus . by it the king charged all persons , under pain of death , through the whole kingdom , to do no injury to the protestants . and at the same time declared it capital , for the protestants to have any assemblies . this was believed to be done rather on design to destroy , than save the hugonets : that they being out of apprehension of danger , might stay all at home , and so be more easily massacred . on the 28th of august , a jubilee was granted to all , who had been in this butchery ; and they were commanded to go every where to church , and bless god , for the success of that action . so little relenting had they , after all these black crimes , that they imagined they had done god good service : and to that height did their impudence rise , that they presumed to address to that merciful being , who abhors cruel and blood-thirsty men , and that with hands not only defiled with blood , but boasting of it as a sacrifice offered to god , which had been a fitter oblation to him that was a lyar and a murderer from the beginning , than the god of truth , and father of mercies . one remarkable passage fell out , which occasioned much discourse , and was variously constructed by the several parties . on the day of the massacre , about noon , a white thorn in the church-yard of the innocents , that was almost dead , and had no leaves on it , flourished all of a sudden . this was published through the streets of paris , as a sign , that heaven approved their actions , and was made use of to animate them to new heats in their cruelty : for every one was set on to kill one or other , that he might be honoured with the sight of so unusual a thing . some thought it might come from the nature of the tree , and it was said , such things were not extraordinary in trees of that kind , a little before they became quite dead . others believed it might be the trick of some monk , who pouring either hot water , or some prepared water at the root of it , might have done the feat . but the rable did universally ascribe it to some miraculous cause , only they differed about that to which it referred . the protestants said , it signified their innocence , and that a new troop of innocents were sent to heaven , and therefore the tree in the church-yard of the innocents flourished afresh . the papists said , is signified the joy in heaven at that days work , and that the church was to flourish again by the death of the hereticks . but leaving these discantings on this seeming miracle , morvillier that was lord-keeper , advised , that for justifying , or at least mitigating the censures that might be made on these proceedings , there should be a process carried on , against the dead admiral , to prove him guilty of a conspiracy against the king and the royal blood ; and there were some few protestants kept prisoners , who had been taken out of the english ambassadors lodgings , who to save themselves , they hop'd might be brought to accuse the admiral . but while this mock-process was making , there was a real prosecution of the like cruelties in many other parts of france . at meaux , a little town not far from paris , they began on the 25th of august , being monday , and spent the whole week in shedding more blood. they killed two hundred ; many of those were women , whom they forced before they murdered them . at troye in champaigne , about the same number was killed . at orleans , a thousand were also killed . six or seven hundred at roan , tho the governour did what he could to hinder it . at bourges , nevers , and charite , all they found were killed . at tholouse two hundred were killed . at burdeaux , they were for some time in suspence , being afraid of the rochellers ; but the priests did so inflame the multitude , that the governour could not restrain their rage longer , than the beginning of october ; so then they massacred all that they could find . this beginning , was followed by all the towns on the garvinne . but next to paris , lions was the place where the most barbarous cruelties were acted . the governour had a mind to save the protestants , and gathered together about six or seven hundred of them , whom he lodged in several prisons , that so he might preserve them : and to give the people some content , he granted them the pillage of their houses . but they were so heated by the clergie , and by some that were sent from the court , to promote the massacre every where , that they broke open the prisons and murdered them all ▪ dragged their bodies through the streets , and opened the bellies of the fattest of them , to sell their greese to apothecaries . and when they could do no more , they threw ●…em into the river of rhosne , which was coloured with the blood , and filled with the carcases of the slain . these examples were followed in many more places , but detested by others , who were not papists enough , to overcome nature and all morality . the governours in some places restrained the people ; and in many places the souldiers , tho more inured to blood , defended the protestants from the rable , that were set on by the priests . the answer the governour of bayonne made , deserves to be remembred , who wrote to the king in these words . sir , i have communicated your majesty's command to the inhabitants of the town , and the souldiers of the garrison . i find many good citizens , and brave souldiers , but never a hangman here : and therefore in their name and my own , i humbly beg your majesty would employ our arms , and lives in things , which are possible for us to do , how dangerous soever they may be , and we will spend the last drop of our blood in your service . this gave great offence at court , and soon after , both he and the count of tendes , governour of provence , who had also given orders , that there should be no massacre made within his jurisdiction , died very suddenly : and it was believed they were both poisoned . in all there were , as thuanas says , thirty thousand massacred over france , tho he believes they were not quite so many . mezeray estimates them at five and twenty thousand . but perefixè says , that over all france , near an hundred thousand were butchered . and veremundus says , that besides those who were killed , an hundred thousand persons were set a begging , most of those being widows and orphans . many of t●●m fled to the places of strength in france , and great numbers went out of the kingdom . for when they had escaped the first rage of the massacre , they clearly perceived the design of their enemies , was to extirpate them root and branch . and tho the king at first declared he would observe the edict inviolably , they had learned from sad experience , how little his faith was to be depended on , and they were further convinced of it by fresh proofs . for the king pressed the king of navarre , and the prince of conde very hard , to change their religion : the former was tractable and hearkned to instruction ; but the latter continued resolute and would hear nothing . this put the king once into such a rage , that he called for his arms , and was going in person , either to kill him , or see him killed ; had not his vertuous queen , who had been instructed by her father , to abhor all cruel proceedings about religion , cast her self at his feet , and with many tears diverted him from so ignominious an action . but he sent for him and said only these three words to him , mass , death , or the bastil . yet he generously resolved to suffer death , or perpetual imprisonment , rather than go to mass , had they not found out a tool fit to work on him . one sureau-des rosiers , that had been minister of the protestants at orleans , had now to save his life , changed his religion ; but to have some reputation in it , pretended that he had resolved to have done it sooner , tho when that fear was over , he returned to them again , but was never much considered after that . he was therefore employed to perswade the prince of conde : and what by his endeavours , and what by fear of death , both the king of navarre and he went to mass , and wrote letters full of submission and obedience to the pope ; tho they were no sooner out of that snare , than they declared , that what had been obtained of them , was extorted by force . this being done , the king sent his orders over all france , bearing date the 22d of september , to turn all persons out of any considerable imployments , that would not renounce their religion , and a long form of abjuration was sent with it , which was to be the test : both which are printed by veremundus . the process against the admiral was carried on before the parliament of paris , and ( without any proofs that ever were published ) they on the 27th of october , judged him guilty of a conspiracy against the king and his crown : and therefore ordained his body to be hanged , if it could be found ; or if not , that he should be hanged in effigie : his house of chastilion to be razed , and a pillar set up with an inscription to defame his memory , his blood was also attainted , and his children declared ignoble and incapable of any priviledges in france . and the sentence concluded with an order , for celebrating st. bartholomews day in all time coming , with processions and publick thanksgivings for the discovery and punishment of that conspiracy . there were also two other persons of quality , cavagnes and briquemaut who had been dealt with to accuse the admiral , but they would not save themselves by so base a ransom ; so they were both condemned as complices with him . but when the sentence was pronounced against them , thuanus , that was an eye-witness , says , briquemaut cried out , when that part of the judgment was read that concerned his children ; ah innocents ! what have they done ? and then he , who for 50 years together had served in the warrs , with a high and approved valour , being then 70 , what for fear of death , what out of pity to his children , would have done any thing , to have saved himself . he sent the king word , first that he would put rochel in his hands , if he would spare his life : but that being rejected , he offered to accuse the admiral , to preserve himself . but neither was that considered . all that while , his fellow-sufferer cavagnes continued most serious in his devotions , and for three hours together , was either praying or reciting some psalms : and expressed no concern for his life , his thoughts being wholly employed about eternity . he encouraged briquemaut to die as he had lived , and to turn himself to god , and not to stain so honourable a life , as he had led , with an ignominious end . and he seeing , he must die , recollected his thoughts , and seemed ashamed of his former abject behaviour , and composed and prepared himself for death . they both were carried to the place of execution in hurdles , where they not only suffered the reptoches of the multitude , as they went along ( who threw filth and clay at them with their most scurrilous language ) but death it self with much christian patience and magnanimity . they were hanged at the greve , and their bodies , after they were dead , were barbarously mangled by the cruel multitude . with them the brave admiral was hanged in effigie , whose innocence , as well as their own , they did to their last breath assert . the king who delighted in such bloody spectacles , did not only look on himself , with the queen-mother , and the court ; but forced the king of navarre likewise to be a witness of it . it is needless to say much , for evincing the admiral 's innocence , for all the writers of the time acknowledg , the process was only to cover the infamy of the massacre . and thuanus has so fully demonstrated it , that none can so much as doubt of it . if the admiral had any such design , why came he to court ? why to paris , where he knew he had few friends , and a vast number of mortal enemies ? and why did he desire a guard from the king ? but since they could not find a better colour for so foul a business , they must make use of the best they had . they took another course to stop the queen of englands resentments , who , besides the common cause of religion , had a particular esteem for the admiral , for they shewed a memorial , which he had given the king to perswade the war of flanders , to walsingham ( the ever renowned secretary of state ) then her ambassador in france ; in which one of the reasons was ; that if the king would not receive these oppressed provinces into his protection , they would throw themselves into the queen of englands hands ; and if the english made themselves masters of them , or of any considerable ports in them , they would be again uneasy and formidable neighbours to france , which would thereby lose the great security they had in taking calice out of their hands . when walsingham read this , and was asked , what he thought of the admirals friendship to his mistress ? he answered , as became so great a man. that he could not say much of his friendship to the q. of england , but he was sure , it appeared from that , what a faithful subject he was to the king of france . a week after this was done , the king compleated the treachery of this precedure : for by his letters directed to the governours of the provinces , bearing date the 3d of november , he declared he would tollerate no religion , but the roman catholick in all his dominions . upon which the following civil wars began , and in excuse of them , i shall only say , that besides the barbarous and persidious treatment the protestants had now received , they had this legal warrant for standing on their own defence , that by the former treaty the king granted them cautionary towns , for pledges of the observation of the edict . and it is certain , that if a prince grants his subjects cautionary towns for their security , he does thereby relax their alleagiance to him , and gives them a right to defend themselves , if the agreement upon which these pledges were given , should come to be broken . this is the true and just account of that foul and treacherous massacre , even as it is represented by the historians of that age and church , who can neither deny nor excuse the infamy of it ; tho some rejoyced at it , and others wrote in defence of it . the king gloried so much in it , that three meddals were struck , to perpetuate the memory of it . in one , hercules is both with his club , and a flambeau , fighting against the seven-headed serpent , with this motto . ne ferrum temnat , simul ignis obsto . on the reverse , the king with his hand , supports two crowned pillars , ready to fall , with this motto . mira fides , lapsas relevat manus una columnas . hereby intimating , that heresy was the serpent , which was to be destroyed by main force , and by fire : and that by this act , the king had supported religion and justice . in the second , the king sits in his chair of state , with a sword in his right hand , and an hand on the head of a scepter in his left . and many heads lying about his feet , with this motto . virtus in rebelles . on the reverse , were the arms of france , between two pillars and two lawrel branches , with this motto , virtus excitavit iustitiam . the third had , on the one side , a woman environed with rays , and a book open in one hand , and a palmin the other , and at her feet many heads in flames , with this motto , subducendis rationibus . the reverse was the same with the first . the signification of this , was , religion triumphing over heresy . but this was only a false shew of joy , for he was ininvardly tormented with the horrours of a guilty conscience , which the effusion of so much blood did justly raise in him ; so that being often troubled with visions , he was frequently heard say , ah! my poor subjects , what had you done ? but i was forced to it . the strange manner of his death , looked like a signal judgment from heaven for that bloody day ; for after a long sickness , which was believed the effect of a lent poison given him by the queen-mother , blood not only came out through all the conduits of his body , but through the very pores , so that he was sometimes found , all bathed in his own blood. and he that had made his kingdom swim with blood , died thus wallowing in his own . all the servile pens of the lawyers , and the bitter ones of enraged priests , were also set on work , to appear in defence of it ; of whose writings thuanus gives a full account . one mercenary protestant was also hired , to excuse , if not to defend it . i have never been able to meet with any of these books , only rosseus that wrote in defence of the holy league , calls it the iustice of st. bartholomews day . and andreas eudemon iohannes does also commend it . the arguments they used , have been formerly glanced at . the late civil wars ; the pretended conspiracy of the admiral ; the necessity of using desperate remedies in extream cases ; and the sovereign power of kings , were what the lawyers could pretend . but the divines had a better plea , that by one general council , all hereticks were to be extirpated . and by another , faith was not to be kept to them . and it cannot be denied , but this is unanswerable , according to the principles of the roman church . the protestants were not wanting to their own cause , but answered these books , and sufficiently discovered the impudent allegations of those shameless persons , who hired themselves out to defend so horrid an action . maximilian the 2d , the emperor , is the person whose judgment we have least reason to suspect . he was the king of france his father-in-law , and both by blood and alliance was joined to the crown of spain , yet he in a private letter , writing to scuendi his chief minister in hungary , has delivered his sense of this matter so sincerely and fully ; and that whole letter is so excellently well written , and shews so much true piety , and so rare a temper of mind , that i shall not fear the reader 's censure for inserting it at its full length . it is but in one book that i know , and that is very scarce . dear scuendi , i received your letter , and took in good part your christian and friendly condoleance for my late sickness . the eternal god , in whose hands are all things , do with me according to his will. i bless him for every thing that befalls me . he only knows best what is healthful and profitable , and what is hurtful to me : i do patiently and chearfully acquiesce in his divine pleasure . and indeed matters go so in this world , that a man can have little pleasure or quiet in them : for every where there is nothing to be found but trouble , treachery , and foul dealing . god pity us , and deliver his church from these mischiefs . it were no wonder , if from such a prospect of affairs , a man should become stupid or mad ; of which i could say much to you . i begin to recover , and am now so strong , that i walk about with a stick . god be blessed in all his works . for that strange thing which the french have lately acted , most tyrannically against the admiral and his friends , i am far from approving it : and it was a great grief to me , to hear that my son-in-law had been perswaded to that vile massacre ; tho i know that others reign rather than he ; yet that is not sufficient to excuse him , nor to palliate such a wickedness . i would to god he had asked my advice , i should have given him faithful and fatherly counsel , and he should never have had my consent to this crime , which has cast such a blemish on him , that he will never wash it off . god forgive them that lie under such guilt . i apprehend within a little while , they shall perceive what they have gained by this method . for indeed , as you observe well , the matters of religion are not to be handled or decided by the sword : and no man can think otherwise , that is either pious or honest , or desirous of publick peace and happiness . far otherwise did christ teach , and his apostles instruct us ; their sword was their tongue , their doctrine , the word of god , and a life worthy of christ. their example should draw us to follow them , in so far as they were followers of christ. besides , that mad sort of people might have seen after so many years trials , and so many experiments , that by their cruelties , punishments , slaughters and burnings , this business cannot be effected . in a word , their ways do not at all please me , nor can i ever be induced to approve them , unless i should become mad or distracted which i pray god earnestly to preserve me from . and yet i shall not conceal from you , that some impudent and lying knaves , have given out , that whatever the french have done , was by my knowledg and approbation . in this i appeal to god , who knows how deeply i am injured by it ; but such lies and calumnies are no new things to me . i have been often forced to bear them formerly : and in all such cases , i commit my self to god , who knows in his own good time , how to clear me , and vindicate my innocence . as for the netherlands , i can as little approve of the excesses committed there . and i do well remember how often i wrote to the king of spain , advices far different from those they have followed . but what shall i say ? the councils of the spaniards relished better than mine . they now begin to see their error , and that they themselves have occasioned all the mischief that hath since followed . i had a good end be-before me , that these noble and renown'd provinces might not be so miserably destroyed . and tho they would not follow my counsel , so that i may well be excused from medling any more , yet i do not give over , but am sincerely pressing them all i can to follow another method . god grant i may see the wished-for effect of these endeavours , and that men may be at last satisfied with what they have done , and may use no more such violent remedies . in a word , let the spaniards or the french do what they will , they shall be made to give an account of their actions to god , the righteous and just judg. and for my part , by the help of god , i shall carry my self honestly , christianly , and faithfully , with all candour and uprightness ; and i hope god will so assist me with his grace and blessing , that i may approve all my designs and actions , both to him and to all men. and if i do this , i little regard a wicked and malicious world. how the rest of the world looked on this action , may be easily gathered from the inclinations and interests of the several parties . that all protestants did every where abhor it , and hold the remembrance of it , still in detestation , needs not be doubted . all that were noble or generous in the roman church were ashamed of it , but many extolled it to the heavens as a work of angels ; and others did cast the blame of it on the protestants . the court of spain rejoiced openly at it . they delighted in the shedding of protestant blood , and were also glad to see france again embroil'd , and to be freed of the fears they had of a war in flanders . in which if the french king had engaged , he had in all appearance conquered in one year , that for which his successors have been since fighting a whole age. but let us next examine how the tidings of this massacre were received at rome , by which we may judg how fitly that part of antichrist's character , of being drunk with the blood of the saints , agrees to it . the news was brought thither the 6th of september , upon which a consistory of the cardinals was presently called , and the legate's letter , that contained a relation of the massacre , being read , they went straight in a procession to st. mark 's church , where they offered up their solemn thanks to god for this great blessing to the see of rome , and the catholique church . and on monday following , there was another procession made by the pope and cardinals to the minerva , where they had high mass , and then the pope granted a jubilee to all christendom : and one of the reasons was , that they should thank god for the slaughter of the enemies of the church , lately executed in france . two days after that , the cardinal of lorrain , had another great procession of all the clergy , the ambassadours , cardinals , and the pope himself , who came to st. lewis chappel , where the cardinal celebrated mass himself . and in the king of france his name he thanked the pope and the cardinals , for their good councils , the help they had given him , and the assistance he received from their prayers , of which he had found most wonderful effects . he also delivered the king's letters to the pope , in which he wrote , that more heretiques had been destroyed in that one day , than in all the twelve years of the war. nor did the pope think there was yet blood enough shed , but that which all the world condemned as excessive cruelty , he apprehended was too gentle . therefore he sent cardinal ursin his legate in all haste to france , to thank the king for so great a service done the church , and to desire him to go on , and extirpate heresie root and branch , that it might never grow again . in order to which , he was to procure the council of trent to be received in france ; and as the legat passed through , in his journey to paris , he gave a plenary absolution to all that had been actors in the massacre . the best picture-drawers , and workers of tapistry , were also put to work to set off this action with all possible glory , and a sute of these hangings are to this day in the pope's chappel . so well do they like the thing , that they preserve the remembrance of it still , even in the place of their worship . such a representation does indeed very well agree with their devotion , whose religion and doctrine led on their votaries to the thing so expressed . by this we may easily gather what is to be expected from that court , and what we ought to look for , when-ever we are at the mercy of men , whose religion will not only bear them through ▪ but set them on to commit the most treacherous and bloody massacres . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30330-e1130 a a in regiam majest . b●… . l. 6. c. 4. sect . ●…0 , à quocunque privato poteris interfici . in thom. tom. 3. d●…sp . 151. q 12. p. 2. b b romish tre sons , l. 2. cap 4. the life of gerson before his works , and tom. 1. p. 375. recog . in lib. 5. de rom. pont. e e philopater p. 106 , 107. ( l ) greg. m. l. 2 post . ep. 38. lib. 11. ep. 10 , 11 , 12. siquis regum , &c. contravenire tentaverit potestatis honorisque sui dignitate careat . — in alio honore suo privetur . g g baron . a●… an. 730. n. 5. h h bellar. de trans . imperii romani . i i dictatus l. 2. post ep. 55. k k lib 2. ep. 5. ad ep. france . l l liv. 8. ep ▪ 21. m m extra . de major . & obed. cap. 1. n n bellar. de pont. rom. lib. 5. c. 151. o o cuspiman in vita albert. p p cap. de major . ut ob●…d . exter . b b in vandal l. 8. c. 2. r r chron h●…saug . in vita abb. hartiingi . s s bar. ad ann. 593. num. 86. t t bar. ad an. 730. num. 5. u u 〈◊〉 his di●…●… oevres and r●…ueil general des affaires du cierge de france . conc. late . 3. chap. 27. anno 1287. tom 28. conc. later . 4. can. 3. tom. 28. the same council that established transubstantiation . math. paris . ad an. 1253. conc. lugd. tom. 28. conc. const. tom. 29. sess. 19. sess. 15. sess. 17. sess. 15. con. sien . tom. 29. con. basil tom. 29. conc. trid. sess. 25 c. 19. bud de asse lib. 5. diseuss . decret . con. lateran . p. 46. bec. controv. angl. p. 115. notes for div a30330-e6780 acts 20. 21. micha 6. 8. 1 cor. 14. matt. 28. 19. matt. 26. 26 , 27. 28. ver . heb. 9. 26 , 28. acts 8. 17. morinus . heb. 13. 4. 1 tim. 3. 2. 4. 11. eph. 1. 22 , 23. matt ▪ 18. 7. 2 cor. 3. 3. notes for div a30330-e9630 can. 3. sess. 19. thuanus . the abstract of the books written upon the head , is in the voluminous but anonymous historian of these wars , printed at paris , an. 1581. thuanus , lib. 16. thuanus . mezeray . davila . lib. 3 thuanus lib. 49. caten . vita d●… pio quinto . printed at edingburgh , 1573. mezeray . hist. hen. the 4th . comingii collectio p. 278. historie de france , an. 1581. a rational method for proving the truth of the christian religion, as it is professed in the church of england in answer to a rational compendious way to convince without dispute all persons whatsoever dissenting from the true religion, by j.k. / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1675 approx. 140 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 57 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30400 wing b5846 estc r32583 12725301 ocm 12725301 66350 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30400) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 66350) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1031:16) a rational method for proving the truth of the christian religion, as it is professed in the church of england in answer to a rational compendious way to convince without dispute all persons whatsoever dissenting from the true religion, by j.k. / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [12], 98, [2] p. printed for richard royston ..., london : mdclxxv [1675] reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project 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will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng keynes, john, 1625?-1697. -a rational compendious way to convince without dispute all persons whatsoever. church of england -apologetic works. theology, doctrinal -early works to 1800. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a rational method for proving the truth of the christian religion , as it is professed in the church of england . in answer to a rational compendious way to convince without dispute all persons whatsoever dissenting from the true religion , by i. k. by gilbert burnet . london , printed for richard royston , bookseller to his most excellent majesty , m dc lxxv . to i. k. sir , about two or three months ago a noble lady gave me your book with a letter that addressed it to me , wherein after some civilities i was desired to peruse the book , and made hope i should reap great advantages from it ; and indeed if i had not learned from the inspired preacher that there is nothing new under the sun , or had been easily catched to believe novelties , a title and preface that promised so much should have made me apprehend i had got sent me the philosophers stone in divinity ; and truly so short , so sure , so easie and so general a method as you think you offer for curing and preventing all distempers about religion , deserved to be entertained with equal degrees of joy and astonishment . what a happiness were it to mankind after all the expence of bloud , all the toyl and sweat of care , all the speculations and labours of the learned , and the industry and endeavours of statesmen for resolving the doubts and difficulties about religion , to find a shorter and a safer way to get out of that trouble ? but as the high pretences and promises of the spagiricks make sober people afraid to meddle with them , and do oft bring disesteem and neglect on the medicines , because they are overvalued : so i am afraid your book shall have the same fate with clearer and unpossessed minds . and i must confess my self strongly prejudiced against these hudling methods , so that i always apprehend some legerdemain from them . and the title of your book did very naturally lead me to this thought , it being a form of speech we in england call a bull , a rational way to convince without any dispute , for a rational way of conviction is when upon a full hearing and considering all can be said on both sides of any debate , the evidence of reason determines our perswasion . and to form an opinion after we have only considered the grounds of one side , is as unequal and unjust , as for a judge to pass sentence when he has heard but one party . now disputing is only the considering with an even ballance what all parties say , and the suspending our verdict till they have finished their evidence . it is therefore no rational way but a blind and unreasonable one that bars disputing ; nor can it be a conviction , but only a prepossession when we are led into any opinion , before all that can in reason be said hath been examined by us . but i suppose by dispute you meant the eager and hot contests of wrangling disputants , who espousing a party do with all the tricks and disingenuities of sophistry and the petulant incivilities of rude treatment , manage debates as persons more concerned for glory and victory than for truth ; and rather than confess an escape and disclaim an error , will with all the trifling arts of their embased logick , defend every thing which either they themselves have once said , or that party they adhere to has maintained . but as i passed from your title through your preface to your book , i must freely confess i did not find in it such fair and clear reasoning as you promised ; and i saw you had a great deal of reason to avoid disputing : for nothing but a blind easie yielding to what you delivered could save your book from being rejected . and this seemed to me so obvious , that i judged it needless to engage in any answer to it , and so laid it aside . but a few days ago a worthy and learned friend of mine told me many wished some would be at the pains to answer it , and desired me to do it ; and when i told him how it was brought to my hands , he thought i was under some obligation to send you the reasons that lay in my way and kept me from yielding to this new method of conviction . i was the more easily perswaded to it , that my present circumstances did leave me at a greater freedom of disposing of my time than i have enjoyed for some years . the starched formality of dedications is as much out of esteem with me , as out of date in this freer age ; but it was natural to address this to your self though utterly unknown to me , by any other character than what your book gives of you , and so i am in no hazard of making personal reflections . i shall first give you my sense of your method in all the six points you go through , before i take any notice of what is in your preface , which i shall consider last of all , and with the same breath shall offer a rational way of managing all disputes about religion so , that after a full hearing of what may be said we may arrive at a clear and well grounded conviction in matters of religion . i hope you will consider what i go to lay before you with a mind calm and undisturbed , and believe that in this i am acting the part of one who is sincerely your friend and servant , gilbert burnet . imprimatur , guliel . wigan . feb. 27. 1674 / 5. the contents . chap. i. it is considered if j. k. does prove convincingly that there is a god. page 1. chap. ii. it is considered if j. k. proves convincingly that there must be some true religion . p. 11. chap. iii. it is considered if j. k. proves convincingly that there must be some true revealed religion . p. 17. chap. iv. it is considered if j. k. hath proved convincingly the truth of the christian religion . p. 23. chap. v. it is considered if j. k. proves convincingly that the roman catholick religion is true . p. 33. chap. vi. it is considered if j. k. proves convincingly that every thing the roman church teaches as an article of faith , must be true . p. 57. chap. vii . of the supposed inconveniences j. k. imagines in the want of a true church to judge infallibly , and of the right methods of finding truth p. 65. the introduction . nothing doth give both occasion and nourishment to error and mistake more than the being prevailed on by the heats of fancy without bringing them under the severer tryal of reason ; nor do our imaginative powers in any case more certainly impose upon us , than when they present notions to us which do at once surprise with their novelty , and delight with their apparent usefulness : and none are sooner catch'd with such a bait than men of speculative heads , accustomed to disputes and to the little tricks of logick ; for they being habituated to so many axioms which pass among them for sacred truths , think , if they can found a discourse on some received maxim , all is sure work , and have not distinguished aright betwixt the colours of truth which wit , eloquence and sophistry can by a deceiving perspective cast on the falsest propositions , and the close contextures of reason derived from the common notices of truth which dwell on the minds of all men . the subtleties of the schoolmen did well enou●h in an age that questioned nothing ; but n●w that men are throughly awake , and having thrown off the prejudices of custome and education call for a fuller evidence , they are not the proper men to deal with this age : their ignorance of mankind makes them offer many things as demonstrations , which some even of the most trifling pretenders to wit can undo and bl●w away ; and their being accustomed to their own topicks , not knowing how much they are rejected by men of severer and more searching understandings , makes them often beg the one half of the question to prove the other . therefore whoever would deal with our hectors in matters of religion , must know men as well as noti●n● and books . and as of 〈◊〉 plato thought the study of geometry a necessary preparation to the understanding the higher mysteries of his philosophy : so i have often judged an acquaintance with mathematical arts and sciences a fit and almost necessary preparation for a right understanding and managing theological debates ; since these teach us to distinguish critically betwixt truth and falshood , and practise a man into an exact considering of every thing that is proposed to him . the want of this , or at least a great overliness in it appears in j. k's late book , wherein he thinks he leads his reader in a mathematical method through a great many propositions , every one of which he imagines he has proved , beginning from a very plain unquestioned one , that something is true , and ending it in a very fruitful one , that every thing the roman church teaches as an article of faith must certainly be true. undoubtedly if his method be good , that church is infinitely beholding to him for its support , having offered an easier and clearer method for bringing the world under her authority than any yet thought on . this he concludes as firm and sure of all sides ; and by a clear way of analyticks offers a resolution of any theorem or problem in divinity even to the giving the quadrature of that circle their church is forc'd to run round in , proving her own authority from the scriptures , and the authority of the scriptures from her own testimony . i shall without any further introduction enter into a survey of the six points proposed by j. k. to be proved , without examining the unwariness of his expressions in any of them ; in which though he lies often open , yet it is of so little importance to quarrel about words or forms of speech , that i shall not stand upon them : being also careful to avoid the engaging in any debate that may be personal betwixt him and me , and therefore shall confine my discourse to the six points he has gone through . chap. i. it is considered , if j. k. does prove convincingly that there is a god. j . k. thinks he hath proved the being of a god , by this progression of reason , if something be true , then this is true , that there is something better than another ; which if any man deny he denies himself better than an ass or a block , and so is either a mad man or a fool . now if something be better than other , then there is a best of all things ; and every thing is better as it comes nearer that which is best , and this best of all things is god. des cartes is blamed by many for having left out all other arguments for the proof of a deity , setting up only one , which how strong soever it may be , it is a great injury to the cause he maintains to seem to slight all other proofs may be brought for so sacred and fundamental a truth : yet his establishing that upon a good and solid foundation doth very much qualifie any guilt , which is rather to be imputed to the over-valuing his own notions than a designed betraying the cause he undertook . but upon this occasion the reader may be tempted to sever●r c●●sure , when the foundations of so great a su●●●structure are so ill laid , and both the antecedent and consequent of this argument prove equally weak . and in the first place , how is it proved , that some things are better than other things ? or does any imagine the atheists will admit that ? on the contrary they deny there is any thing morally good or evil , and ascribe all the notions of good and evil to education , custom , the several tempers and interests of men . and indeed did they acknowledge the morality of actions , they should yield the full half of the debate , that men ought to be good ; which would clearly make way for proving all the rest . and these men , will without any hesitation acknowledge themselves no better than beasts or blocks , as to any moral goodness . they will not deny but matter is more refined in a man , the contexture better and the usefulness greater than in other animals : but as to any moral goodness they plainly disclaim it . as though wood be never so neatly wrought in a fi●e and useful cabinet , yet is no better so than when it was an undressed plank as to any moral goodness . thus it appears that i. k's ignorance of men makes him stumble in his first attempt , nor is his next more successful ; for though some things be better , it will not follow there is a best : for of every sort of beings there are some individuals better than other ; but from that it does not follow there must be a best of that rank or order of creatures : because one horse is swifter , one dog better scented , one lyon stronger , therefore must there be a horse swifter than all others , a dog the best scented of any , and a lyon stronger than any other lyon ? this may be applied to all the species of creatures : for all the goodness these people admit , being only a better temper of more nimbly agitated matter , though one thing excel another , it is not because it comes nearer the best of all beings , nor because it recedes further from the worst of all beings , but because it is more wieldy , more apt to serve the several uses and interests of men ; without rising higher to consider any or●ginal and standart goodness . nor w●ll this any more prove the being of one that is 〈◊〉 all , than because some men are sharper sighted , others stronger limb●d , others of a better digestion , and others of a better tempered health ; that therefore there must be one that h●● the sharpest sight of all men , the strongest limbs , the best d●gestion and the most constant health . besides , though an atheist did admit there were some beings morally better and worse , this does not prove there must be a best of all beings ; for he may say that as naturally as colours fit the eye and sounds the ear , so some notions of good are suitable to the minds of men , and their being better and worse is nothing but their keeping more close to these notions , discerning them more truly and following them more constantly : so that as a man sees well when his eye does present objects to him in their due colours and distances , yet this proves no deity ; in like manner a man is better or worse as he discerns and follows these common notices more or less exactly . thus far i have considered this argument , and have found it so weak on all sides , that no weight is to be laid on it at all . but all this while i have been put to act a very unpleasant part , when i did but seem to defend atheism from any objection is brought against it ; but i know nothing that does more prejudice a good cause , than when it is maintained by arguments palpably weak and unconcluding ; for it makes many overly considerers , and more particularly those that are already byassed and partial , imagine it has no more strength in it than what it receives from the arguments by which it was proved ▪ since no conclusion ( as such ) can have more truth in it than was in the premises from which it was deduced . if therefore the proving of a deity be made good , by an argument so fallacious that it must needs appear such at first view , one that is wickedly partial may from that be sortified in his accursed hopes , that there is none , because he finds that so much feared truth is so weakly asserted . but that i do not leave the atheists in a vain triumph , or seem to weaken so good a cause , by blowing away any reasons brought for it without substituting other and better ones in their room , i shall here say a little for the conviction of an atheist . first then , all men are desired to consider there is no argument that can so much as pretend to prove there is no god , or that a supreme being infinitely perfect is impossible ; for all the atheists offer at , is only to weaken those reasons from which the belief of a deity is inferred : so that still it is possible there may be a god. and from this every man will see cause to retire his thoughts inwards to consider what danger he is in , if there be a god and he continue to deny and despise him ; and if it be possible there be a god , for ought he knows there may be one , since he has no reason to be assured of the contrary . if upon this he yield so far as seriously and with even ballances to weigh what shall be offered to him , he is next desired to consider if he find not within himself the secret apprehensions of a supreme invisible being , if the fears of offending him , the desire of his assistance , the joy in the opinion of being acceptable to him , do not often spring up in his mind , and this even after all attempts to stifle and repress them . nor can this be only the effect of education , for every man finds by experience that all other things which he sucked from his breeding can by a little care and attention be so quite forsaken , that no visage of the first impression shall remain . since therefore these thoughts stick closer , there must be somewhat more than education in the case . but this will appear stronger if a man compare the thoughts and common sentiments of all nations and ages as far as either history or writings can lead us up , with these stirring within his own breast ; where finding that all mankind have agreed in the belief of a deity , he must needs be convinced there is some proportion betwixt his soul and these thoughts from which he is not to be shaken , though he meet with some few in this or former ages who have denied or doubted this truth , for these can never be set up against such vast numbers as have agreed in this belief , who have been always the most sober , most serious and considering persons , who have cultivated all arts and sciences , and advanced the good of mankind more than the whole tribe of libertines and ruffians , who having abandoned themselves to their sensual appetites and pleasures , and neglected the improving their minds in any thing that is either great or good , are not to be put in the ballance with the religious . what have they ever done to better mankind ? on the contrary their maxims dissolve all the nerves of government , and all the duties we owe one another ; and they being buried in their brutal lusts , have lost that clearness of discerning which men of more sober tempers have : nor do they ever converse with their own minds , but study to guard against serious thoughts , as effects of the spleen and melancholy ; and the dissoluteness of their lives as it depraves their understandings , so it makes them partial to those notions , that may give them ease and sleep in their licentious practises . and thus he that consults his own thoughts and the common verdict of all mankind , will be made acknowledge a deity . and if he open his eyes to look on the visible world , this will furnish him with many reasons to believe an invisible power that made it . if we consider the revolutions of the heavens , the interchanges of day and night , summer and winter , the figure of the earth , its division into sea and land , by which all nations communicate what they abound in to others , the inequalities of hills and valleys , the lakes and rivers that moisten the earth , and give drink to anim●●● , the many product●o●s of the earth , the great variety of plants and vegetables with their several uses , besides the more inward riches of the earth , mines and minerals : what man of common sense can ascribe all this to fate or chance ? but the structure of animals , the organs of sense , the vessels of concoctions , the various ferments , and the skilfully disposed channels for conveying nourishment to all the parts of the body , raises our wonder higher which , is at its full height when we examine the parts of mans body , which amazed galen , and made him sing a hymn to his maker , upon so astonishing a meditation . if the brain and seat of memory and imagination be considered , what a surprizing thing is it to find such a substance the receptacle of so many various impressions as make up all the words of every language we speak , the figures of all persons , places and things we have seen or considered , and that all these be so well disposed that we can draw them out when we please in so ready and natural an order , and also that all words flow so easily through our mouths ? now this must either be the effect of fate , or chance , or of an intelligent wise being . not of fate , for beside that they cannot explain what that fate should be , every thing that flows from a natural cause must always operate the 〈◊〉 way ; but the great diversities of mens tem●ers , apprehensions and judgments , the difference of their faces , eyes , way of speaking , writing and walking shew that they are not the effects of fate . nor can so much regularity and parts so useful and well ▪ disposed , have run so together by chance , which must needs be unequal and unconstant . so that mans formation must owe its original to a wise being ; and that this is not the wisdom of the father and mother , every one knows : therefore there must be some unseen wise being that created the universe , and did not only at first set the several parts of it in those channels wherein they still run , but does continue to mould this matter according to the designs of his eternal mind . all this receives a further confirmation from the many sudden changes of the course of nature at the command of some extraordinary persons who have forced her out of her common methods and operations , which is an evident demonstration there is somewhat superior to matter and motion , which can over-rule and govern it . this having appeared often in the sight of many thousands of discerning and impartial witnesses , who have both confessed and attested the truth of what they saw and heard , we have no reason to doubt the matter of fact , and as little to question the being of a deity who is master of the world , and can do in it and with it what he will. thus far have i considered upon what true and solid grounds the belief of a deity must rest , which are indeed such that we need not the help of any little piece of sophistry to maintain them ; they require only a serious and thinking temper to examine and weigh things in a fair and rational way , without either the prejudices of education or the partialities of lust and interest . chap. ii. it is considered , if j. k. proves convincingly that there must be some true religion . the next step i. k. makes , is to prove that there must be a true religion , which he defines , a doctrine that teaches men in what manner god will be worshipped by them , and in what matters he will be obeyed by them . now he proves this , for if there be a true god , we ought to worship him in what manner he will be worshiped by , and obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us , as subjects and servants reverence and ●bey their soveraigns and masters . therefore if god be the best and greatest of all things , we are his subjects and servants , for certainly he is the supreme governour of the universe ; and this he thinks none who grant a true god can deny , and this way of worship must be assigned by god and men must know it . this is the substance of what i. k. says on this head , which is so extremely weak and ill proved that i am amazed he did not see it . for he must remember he only pretended there was a being best of all others . now though that were true , it will not follow from that , that i must worship or obey god , much less that i am his subject and servant : all that will follow being only , that i ought to esteem him the best of all beings ; but why adore or obey him , and why am i his servant or subject ? adoration and obedience can only be exacted as acts either of justice , gratitude or interest . if any have a right to my worship or obedience , they are due to him in justice ; or if he have put such obligations on me that these are but a proportioned return and acknowledgment of them , then they are due in gratitude ; or if he be able to confer extraordinary favours , or inflict most severe punishments , then the avoiding his displeasure and the procuring his favour are necessary on the account of my own interest , and so i must study to please him by worship and obedience : but nothing of all this will follow if it be only proved that there is a best of beings , which is all i. k. attempted . and hence it was that though the epicureans acknowledged such a deity as he thinks he has proved , yet they denying both creation , providence and another state , did throw off the care and thoughts of religion as the effects of fear and superstition . and i. k. defining religion to be a doctrine teaching us to worship and obey god so as he will have us do , goes to prove there must be a religion , because if there be a god , he must be worshipped and obeyed so as pleases him . now this being his definition of religion , and by consequence all one with it , he proves that if there be a god , there must be a religion , thus : if there be a true god , there must be a true religion . and how sophistical a way of procedure this is , common sense , not to say logick , does make appear . and thus he is again unhappy in this his second step . but as in the former section i judged it ne-necessary to substitute some better proofs of a deity than he gave ; so i shall now offer ●ome stronger arguments to prove there must be a religion . and first , if god be the creator of all things and the author of our beings , as was already proved ; then we are his subjects by that right of creation and owe our nature , reason and life wholly to him . therefore as in justice we ought to acknowledge this by our thankful praises and adorations ; so we ought by the same justice to give our selves up to him , and do and suffer what he will have us do and suffer . and this is confirmed by those impressions of awe and reverence which , as was before proved , the greatest and best , nay and often the worst part of mankind feel on their hearts . which with the checks and pangs of conscience for sins , shews how religion is natural to the soul , and proportioned to our faculties . again , if god created the world and all things in it , he must uphold , preserve and govern his own workmanship , which the regular course of nature , with the dayly productions of it , do demonstrate . and it is no less clear from the extraordinary and miraculous interruptions and changes , which by his great power are given to the common course of second causes . now if there be a supreme providence that watcheth over all humane things , and from whose care all the blessings o● this life flow upon us ; then we ought to make returns sutable to such favours , and likewise implore the continuance of them . finally , if there be a god that made and governs all things , ●e must be both so good and so just as to protect and reward all who trust in him and serve him , this being the natural result of justice and goodness ; and there must be some discrimination between those that worship and obey him , and those that do not so . now this is not done in this life ; for often those who fear and love him are in great miseries ▪ pains and troubles , and live and die most uncomfortably , whereas those who dishonour and disobey him ▪ are often in great honour and esteem , and abound in all outward advantages ; nor is there any visible discrimination in this life : yet that being inseparable from the notion of justice and goodness , it must certainly be done at some time or other . since therefore it is not in this life , it must be in another , therefore we must believe our souls shall outlive this state . when likewise we consider , that matter in all its subtilest refinings and nimblest motions gives no discoveries of sense or cogitation , and yet we feel a thinking being within us , which we plainly perceive to be a being different from matter both in its actings and nature , we conclude there is a principle in us that must not necessarily die at the dissolution of this life . which is confirmed from innumerable stories of the apparitions of some rational beings separated from bodies which in all ages and places of the world have abounded , and are as certainly attested as ever any matter of fact hath been . which shews , that there are beings distinct from matter ; and that our souls are such , their subtle reasonings both metaphysical and mathematical do demonstrate . their surviving this body is also gathered from their frequent ascent above material figures and phantasms in their conceptions and inferences ; which shews , they do not so much depend on matter as not to outlive their union with it . in fine ; the common apprehensions which all thinking men , in all ages , have owned , and which appears in the greatest part of all both good and bad at their death , shews the belief of this is among those common notices of truth which are born with the soul. from all which i may fairly assume , that there is another state in which our souls surviving their union with our bodies shall be rewarded or punished as they have deserved well or ill at the hands of the great creator and judge of all men . and therefore if our own interests touch us or prevail upon us , and the apprehensions of future rewards or punishments work on our fears or hopes , we must carefully avoid all dishonouring , disobeying or offending this god ; and with the same care we must study to acknowledge our beings are of him and for him , and that all the blessings of this life are the effects of his bounty , for which we must thank him ; and adoring his blessed attributes and perfections we must dedicate our whole lives to his service : that so we may still enjoy his favour here , and in the next life receive the rewards of good and faithful servants . and thus upon good and solid foundations i have built up this proposition , that there must be some true religion . chap iii. it is considered if j. k. proves convincingly that there must be some true revealed religion . j. k. goes on to prove this religion must be revealed , which he performs thus : how can we know gods will unless he reveal it to us either immediately or mediately ? for natural religion teaches only in general that we ought to worship and obey god , but does not teach the particular manner or matters of this worship and obedience : therefore there is a necessity of this revelation . yea , if god had left this to the choice of every one , yet at least that must be revealed . in this reasoning i. k. hath forgot a very necessary distinction of revelation , into that which is communicated naturally to the soul , and that which is superadded by some extraordinary manifestation or inspiration . in the former sence it cannot be denyed , but it is necessary there be a revelation of religion : but that is not what i. k. drives at . now he must be very ignorant if he does not know that the greatest part of the philosophers believed there were on the souls of all men such inscriptions of truth , that if all should purifie their minds from the defilements lust superinduced upon them , they should then clearly discern every thing that the deity enjoyned them ; and therefore they looked upon inspiration as a degree of madness , which was only incident to weaker minds , whose imaginative powers were too hard for their reasons . and indeed they knew so much of the juglings of their oracles , that no wonder they studied to detract from their authority all they could . now i desire i. k. will review his discourse , and see what strong or good reasons it offers for the conviction of those of this perswasion . so that his argument proving only that god must reveal how he will be worshipped and obeyed , if it be replyed that it is done to all men by those common notices of truth that are born with their souls , he hath furnished us with nothing to prove a further revelation necessary . to make good this therefore against the philosophers , it is not to be denied but if mankind had continued in the purity wherein god did create our natures , their reasons were strong , but they themselves complained of a great depravation of their natures , which they found were much prevailed on by senses and sensible objects , by education , custome , corporeal pleasure , and the power of fancy . and for clearing of this they apprehended another prior state wherein our souls for some trespass had lost their wings and plumes , and so were degraded into bodies . this shews they found some corruption on their nature from which they studied to emerge ; and did indeed attempt most gloriously the recovering themselves to their first original . this being then confessed that our minds are much darkned , and that our bodies , appetites and fancies are too strong for them , it will thence very naturally follow , that as our reasons cannot discover all things to us , so that our way of apprehending of divine things may carry along with it much of a body and gross phantasms . this was evidently demonstrated in that numberless variety of opinions into which all nations were divided about religion ; a great mixture of bodily phantasms , and gross pleasures appearing both in their opinions and practises about religion . nor was this only the fate of the rabble , but both tully and varro have given us an account of the great diversity was among philosophers about the very notion and nature of a deity . and if they differed so much in their thoughts of that primitive and first truth , into how many divisions may we imagine they must have run about the other truths to be deduced from that ? since therefore men did so grope after all the disputes and speculations of philosophers in which there was no certainty , nor had any of them such plenary authority as to oblige others to submit to their decision ; thence i infer the necessity of some clear and certain way for satisfying all mankind in things of so great and universal concern . the speculations of philosophers were neither certain nor ( such as they were ) evident to men of weaker understandings ; the only way therefore to avoid this , was either to make such plain and glorious manifestations of god's presence and pleasure as the iews had on mount sinai and in their most holy place , or to authorize some men by divine inspirations to reveal god's will to mankind now there is no impossibility in the notion of an inspiration . for if we make known our thoughts to one another , either by forming such a ●ound , or writing such characters as shall convey into the ears or eyes of others corporeal impressions from which they may judge of our thoughts , which is a great way about and much more unintelligible ( though we are very sure it is true ) then that a spirit shall communicate its thoughts to our understandings , which it may either do by such outward impressions on our senses as bring the thoughts of other men to our knowledge , or without these outward objects may make the same impressions on our brain . and like to this , are the impressions made on us in sleep , in which we imagine we converse with the objects of sense . or finally , without the means of any corporeal phantasms , a spirit , especiaally the supreme and soveraign spirit , may immediately convey to our understanding its pleasure , as well as our understandings do receive hints from gross phantasms , which is a great deal harder to conceive than this . thus the atheist can propose nothing that will prove there can be no inspiration : but there is great necessity of guarding this both from the juglings of impostors and the more innocent though no less hurtful deceits of our heated fancies , which may obtrude their notions on us as divine ; especially in some in whom the spleen or hysterical distempers may produce strange effects : therefore this must be well proved , and warranted before others are bound to acknowledge or submit to it , nor must the great heats and divine raptures of the inspired person ingage our belief . we know how the sibylls were said to be inspired , and with what bacchick fury many heathen priests delivered some of their impostures ; and it is dayly seen what strange appearances of inspiration are in hysterical persons . therefore it must be accompanied with such other extraordinary characters as can neither be the forgeries of juglers nor the vapours of the spleen or mother ; and these are miracles or prophecies which are certain indications of some extraordinary and supernatural presence with the inspired persons . and thus far i have helped i. k. to prove the necessity of revelation for the ascertaining mankind of the worship and obedience that god requires , and have met with the great objections which deists and other enemies to revelation bring against it . but i now follow him to his fourth proposition about the truth of the christian religion . chap. iv. it is considered if j. k. hath proved convincingly the truth of the christian religion . j. k. goes on in his series of truths , and his next attempt is to prove the truth of christian religion . and indeed the atheism that hath of late broke out in the world and in upon us , hath engaged so many excellent pens of all the parties and divisions of christendom to stand up in vindication of our most holy faith with so much closeness of reason , that it may be justly a problem , whether that pestiferous contagion hath not occasioned as much good to christian religion , by the many admirable treatises have been writ for it upon that account , as it hath done hurt by its own venome . but to see i. k. manage so glorious a cause so poorly and so faintly , after all that light which these books offer , does justly raise indignation ; and it is plain he was afraid to bring out the strongest proofs for it , lest it should appear there was much more to be said for the verity of the christian religion , than can be for the roman : but i. k. being resolved to prove there was no more to be said for the one than for the other , and therefore would manage this cause faintly , that he might maintain the other more strongly , and so it seems cares not with how slender evidence ●e assert the truth of christianity , so that the truth of the roman religion be but as undisputed . his great argument for its truth is , that it hath been miraculously propagated , which could not have been without true and real miracles , and these are manifest proofs of that truth which they confirm . now since christian religion , though it contains mysteries far above the reach of humane reason , and severities contrary to humane inclinations , yet has been propagated without the help of arms or humane enticements , by men of themselves unfit for so great a work , and hath overcome other religions which were both well established and preached liberty and pleasures . then this was either done with miracles or without them ; if with them , it is confessed there were miracles ; if without them , such a propagation must be confessed to be a miracle . this is the substance of what i. k. brings for the proof of the christian religion . but this alone cannot satisfie a considering mind . for it is acknowledged by all who believe any religion , that the power of evil spirits is very great , and far above ours ; so that miracles cannot determine my belief , since there must go somewhat previous to that . therefore moses told the people of israel , that though a prophet by a sign or wonder did amuse them , and upon that perswaded them to go after other gods , they should not hearken to that prophet , but put him to death . and s. paul tells us , that if an angel from heaven should preach another gospel , he must be anathematized . so that miracles or other extraordinary apparitions do not prove a prophet . therefore the first and great argument for the proof of the christian religion is , the purity of the doctrine , and the holiness of its precepts , which are all so congruous to the common impressions of nature and reason ; and this must prove , ( as our saviour himself taught us ) that his miracles were true ones , and not wrought by the prince of devils , since his doctrine is opposite and destructive of his interest and kingdom . and our saviour also asserts the truth of what he said , most commonly from this topick , that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him , that he sought not himself nor his own honour , but his father's . again our saviour asserts his authority from the prophecies of moses and the other inspired persons of that dispensation , whose predictions of the messias did all agree to him and receive completion in him . and from these our saviour often silenced the iews ; and this is to us still a strong argument , that these books which the enemies and blasphemers of our religion have still kept as sacred , and had among them for some thousands of years , do give such clear and evident characters of our saviour as their messias , as must needs convince every serious and sober enquirer . these are the chief and great proofs of the authority of our saviour , by which we are assured that all the mighty works he did , were by the presence and wonderful assistance of a divine spirit . and for the miracles themselves i. k. would resolve all our certainty concerning them into a miraculous propagation of christianity . so that if there be no other certain way to prove them , then if christian religion had not been so propagated as it was , it could not have been made out that it was true ; and if so , what must have been the strong arguments used for it before it was so propagated ? either these were convincing or not ; if they were not convincing , then it being propagated by weak and unconcluding arguments , we cannot be bound to submit to it or believe it ; if these arguments were convincing , we either know them , or we know them not ; if we know them not , how can we judge they were convincing ? if we know them , then we may be as well convinced by them as those were to whom they were at first proposed . the great argument the apostles offered was , that our blessed saviour wrought many miracles in the sight of the iews , and that he being dead and laid in the grave was raised from the dead , and after a long stay with them on earth they saw him ascend with great glory to heaven ; of all which they were witnesses . now these being matters of fact so positively attested by so many eye-witnesses who were men of great probity , ( that could not be cast on the pretence of their being hired or bribed , there being no interest could lead them to give that testimony but only truth , all other considerations deterring them from it ) there was good reason then , and remains so still to believe this true , whether the world had embraced it or not . and i will ask i. k. what if the gentiles had rejected their testimony as well as the iews did ? yet if these sacred writings had been with a most religious care conveyed down to us , had we not been bound to believe the gospel ? certainly we had , for the apostles were men , who upon the strictest tryal of law must be admitted as competent witnesses ; they were well informed of what they heard , and saw for a tract of three or four years ; they were plain simple men who could not in reason be suspect of deep designs or contrivances ; they in the testimonies they gave do not only vouch private stories that were transacted in corners , but publick matters seen and known of many hundreds ; they all agreed in their testimony , so that the fumes of melancholy could not lead so many into such an agreement of mistakes . their testimonies if false might have been easily disproved , the chief power being in the hands of their enemies , who neither wanted power , cunning nor malice . and in fine , the truth of their testimony appears in their constant adhering to it , from which neither imprisonments , whippings , tortures , no not death it self could divert them . from all which it is as evident as is possible any matter of fact can be , that their testimony was true , and this discourse must hold good whether the world had received and believed their report or not . which was the more fully confirmed by the miraculous operations of the apostles in the name of christ , by which they did cast out devils and cure all manner of diseases ; and to this they appeal in their epistles and acts which were published at that time wherein had the matter of fact not been true , they had been branded as bold and impudent impostors . we have also a series of books in all ages citing the writings wherein these testimonies are contained ; by which we know they were written at that very time . and the apologists for the christian faith in their apologies appeal to the wonders that were still wrought for confirmation of the faith ; nor can we imagine , that men of common sense , not to say modesty and ingenuity , would have appealed to proofs that were slender and false in matter of fact. thus we see that great confirmation of our saviour from his miracles is made good by another way of proof than by the propagation of it , which i do not deny doth very strongly make out the truth of all , yet is rather a consequent confirmation of what hath been said , than an antecedent argument for proving it . so though it be far from my thoughts to weaken this way of confirming christian religion , yet it is plain that an extraordinary propagation will not infer the truth of the doctrine , though it be allowed it was done by miracles ; since we cannot be assured these miracles are wrought by a good spirit till we first consider the doctrines they confirm , whether they be good or not . it doth also appear that the truth of these miracles is made out abundantly to us , abstracting from the way of propagating them . but in end we must a little examine what this way of propagating them was , and we shall find that notwithstanding all the calumnies and lesser persecutions of the iews , of the derision of the philosophers , of the prejudice carnal lusts and appetites laid in the way ; and above all , of the violent oppositions given it by the roman emperors who spared no cruelty for a succession of three ages and ten persecutions that hell or hellish men could devise for destroying it : yet it prevailed , and in a few years did spread to the astonishment of the world ; and all other religions were not only overthrown by the many converts were daily flocking in to the christian church , but by the ruine of these very religions . judaism fell to the ground by the subversion of their temple , and the total ruine and dispersion of their state begun by vespasian and titus , and compleated by trajan and hadrian ; nor could their attempts though cherished by an apostate emperour succeed for the rebuilding their temple , heaven and earth combining to break off the work . heathenism did also receive a mortal blow , by the silencing the oracles upon the beginnings of christianity , which were the great supports of that religion with the vulgar . and the exemplary lives , the heavenly doctrines , the mutual charity , and the noble constancy of the first witnesses and martyrs of the christian faith , wrought not a little on all that beheld th●m , even on such as were very partial and byassed against them . and the christian religion being thus universally received , as it is a very full demonstration that these miracles were no forgeries , but known and approved truths : so also it confirms in us a belief , that there was an extraordinary presence of god in these beginnings of christianity , assisting and animating those converts of all ages , sexes and qualities to adhere to it under all the discouragements and sufferings they were to pass through , whether occasioned by the irregular appetites of their own carnal lusts , or by the outward oppositions they met with . and thus far i have considered how the truth of christian religion can be made out against the opposition of atheists , infidels or deists . hitherto i have waited on i. k. in the survey of these truths about which we are agreed , and i hope , upon a review of what we have both performed , he will not deny but i have strengthened his positions with the accession of many more , and better arguments than any he brought . so that if he be in earnest zealous for these four great truths , he will rejoyce to see such a supplement , to what he had so scantly proposed . but i am afraid ( and perhaps not without reason ) that he knowing how weak his arguments must needs be for the two positions that follow , and yet designing to impose on the reader all the six as equally certain , he would needs disguise the first four , and propose them so weakly guarded , that the proofs of all the six might be of a piece . but i have hitherto helped i. k. henceforth i quit that part , and go to enter in a down-right opposition to him in what remains . chap ▪ v. it is considered , if j. k. proves convincingly that the roman catholick religion is true . j. k. now comes to that which he drove at all along and proves it thus : if christian religion be true , then that religion which has the same proofs that it hath , at least any of them that are solid , must needs be true . since then the miraculous propagation of christianity is a common , solid and evident proof of its truth , therefore the roman catholick religion must be true since it is solidly proved by the like propagation ; for though it contains very hard mysteries in it above the reach of humane reason , as transubstantiation , and some very hard precepts and counsells , as vows , fasts , confession , prohibition for priests to marry , &c. yet it hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of arms or humane enticements , by strangers who have converted nations from paganism to embrace the christian faith , as s. austin the monk did in england , and xaverius in the indies , and many others in other places , which can be manifestly proved from history , nor can any exception be made against it , which the enemies of christianity may not make against the same pro●f brought for the christian religion . and to use s. austin's dilemma , this propagation of roman catholick religion was either with or without miracles : if with miracles , it must be true , since confirmed by miracles ; if without them , then no miracle is greater than this propagation . by which it appears , we have as good ground to be roman catholicks , as we have to be christians . by this time i suppose it is clear enough why i. k. would bring no better proofs for the truth of the christian religion ; and now he thinks he has gained his design : but what i said in the former section has undermined this fabrick , since it is made out that the miraculous propagation is neither the only nor the chief proof of christianity , but that before we believe even the miracles of our saviour to be of god , two things were to be made out ; the one that his doctrine was all holy and such as tended to the glory of god ; the other was , that all he said and delivered agreed with the prophecies had gone before . so by the same rule of proceeding we must first see that all the parts of the roman religion are holy and such as tend to the glory of god , and then , that they 〈◊〉 as fully with both the testaments , as our saviours doctrine did with 〈◊〉 and the prophets . if this method be taken i am afraid i. k. will find it a hard task to prove the holin●●s of all the roman doctrines . what a sanctuary for all manner of vice and impiety is the 〈◊〉 ▪ power of dispensing , pardoning and giving indulgences for all sins upon such trifling accounts ? witness the present year with all the favours and indulgences to such as go to the thresholds of the apostles ? what a patrociny to impenitence is their opinion , of a simple attrition being sufficient for the sacrament ? and the whole trade of their penances and absolutions looks like a design to quiet all mens consciences , let them lead as bad lives as they will. besides , who can believe that to be a true religion , that has tolerated a great many casuists who have found out distinctions to excuse men from all the duties they owe god and their neighbour ? and have studied to satisfie men in the most impious and immoral practises ? a woman that entertains common and avowed prostitutes will never be thought an honest woman , though none could prove her self guilty of any base act . so that church that not only entertains but cherishes those who have studied to discharge mankind of all sense of religion and vertue , can never pass for a pure church . nor does the doctrine of that church tend wholly to the glory of god as our saviours did ; for what greater dishonour can be done him than to worship him in a way which himself has so often condemned , and never since allowed , by the representations of pictures and images ? and that instead of addressing their adorations and prayers to him by his son , have found out a great many other mediators both angels and saints and the blessed virgin ? surely this is highly to the dishonour of god , when the souls of people are turned off from their faith , and dependence on him and his blessed son into a trusting to and calling on creatures ; and when instead of that plain simple and rational worship that is sutable to the divine nature and pleasing to him , the mimical pageantry of a thousand little apish practises and an unknown worship are brought into his church . if we likewise consider and measure the roman religion by the second great topick by which our saviour cleared himself , which was his appealing to the scriptures , we will quickly find good reason to suspect them guilty there , since they study nothing more than the suppressing and concealing the scripture , and by all means labour to prove it an incompetent rule to decide controversies by : and yet i am sure , i. k. will give me no reason to prove the scriptures an unproper rule for deciding controversies , and that we must submit to the verdict and decree of the church , that might not with more strength been made use of by the iews against our saviour . and if i carry this consideration as far as it will go , it must necessarily lead me to compare all the doctrines of the roman religion with the scriptures ; and as if our saviours doctrine had been contrary to the law of moses , there had been no reason to have believed him for all his mighty deeds , which in that case might justly have been imputed to evil spirits ; so now should an angel from heaven teach any thing contrary to this doctrine and gospel , he must be anathematized , even though he wrought mighty wonders . therefore we are with the bereans to examine all new doctrines , by their conformity to the scriptures , and till that appear , we are not to look on any thing they do as miraculous . and thus far , i hope , i have said enough to convince i. k. that though what he says of the miraculous propagation of the roman religion were true , it does not from that follow that the religion it self must be true . but i go next to convince him how much he mistook himself in his account , when he asserted that the christian and the roman religion were propagated in the same manner , and shall first examine his grounds . his first branch of the comparison is , that as the christian religion contains some high mysteries in it above the reach of humane reason , so does the roman religion in holding transubstantiation . he did well to distinguish this from the mysteries of the christian religion , for it is indeed none of them ; nor is it above humane reason as he calls it , but contrary to it and not at all to be compared to the mysteries of christian religion , as the trinity , the incarnation and the resurrection . the last of these contains nothing in it that may not be rationally enough conceived as very possible and easy to divine omnipotence ; for the other mysteries that concern god , it is no wonder those be above our understandings , since the divine nature is so vastly exalted above all our depressed notions of things , and therefore is not a proper object for our faculties . so no wonder we cannot frame such clear conceptions of his nature , as to give a distinct account of it to our reasons . but a material object proposed to our senses , is proportioned to our faculties . and therefore we must either believe the clear evidence our faculties give us of the bread and of the wine , after the consecration , or turn scepticks for ever , since full evidence to our faculties is all can possibly be offered for our conviction ; and if that in any case fail , it is in no case certain . so that if our senses fail in this , we have no reason to receive any thing upon their testimony ; for a noted liar in one thing is to be believed in nothing , even though his lie had been discovered by a divine revelation . now if we weaken the evidence of sense , all the authority of the christian religion which it received from the miracles will be weakned , for these were only known by the senses of the spectators . and so far of the first branch of the parallel . the second branch of the parallel is , that as the christian religion enjoyns diverse severities , to embrace crosses , to love our enemies , and to mortifie our passions ; so also the roman teaches very hard precepts and counsels , as vows , fasts , confession , prohibition for priests to marry , to which i. k. adds an &c. the christian religion does indeed command diverse duties contrary to our natural appetites , but those are things of themselves morally good and such as do highly perfect our natures : but the roman religion has made a shift to find means for voiding all these sacred obligations , and to set a great many little trifling performances instead of them which have no tendency to the purifying of our natures or the bettering of mankind . how much they have detracted from the obligation to all the severer , and unalterably moral duties of christianity hath been already ( and shall be more fully ) laid open , if it be called for , though that be needless , it being so clearly done by many better pens ; but for those they have substituted in their room , let us a little consider these i. k. mentions , and to begin with vows . we do not deny that the first design of monasteries in the primitive church was excellent , but it quickly began to degenerate into idleness and superstition , which s. ierome though inclined enough to the severities of that course of life , hath fully told us . but how they did afterwards sink into all the corruptions imaginable , all histories inform us . and whatever may be said for such houses , as either seminaries for the church , or sanctuaries for those that are no more able to labour in it ; yet certainly the entanglements of vows is a yoke which none can be assured he shall be able to bear . we ought to vow and pay our vows unto god , and therefore should be sure to vow nothing but that whereof the execution is in our power . now when we vow to serve god , which we do in the sacraments , we are assured of the aid of the divine grace to assist us in the performance . but to vow things which we are not sure to perform , our tempers being so liable to change , that what agrees with them at one time , becomes an intolerable burden and snare at another , is certainly to cast our selves headlong into many temptations . and what unnatural and brutal lusts have abounded in these houses , we read a great deal more than i am willing to repeat . what a cheat is the pretence to poverty in those orders which have got such vast riches that they are become the envy of the world , as the benedictine , the ca●●husians , and the iesuits ? and for the beg●ing orders , it is both against the rules of chris●i●n religion and all good government to allow , much more to encourage such swarms of idle fellows , who shall always go rambling and begging about , and do not work that they may eat . and for their obedience what a rack it may be under a tyrannical superiour , and what an engine it may prove for sedition and disturbance , i leave to all to judge . in a word , all such severities as tend to the subduing our lusts and passions are good and sutable to the spirit of christianity ; but for overcharging men with new burdens ( which signifie nothing but to create a perpetual trouble and constant scrupulosity ) is to abridge them of their christian liberty without cause , and tends to swell them up with pride , and a lofty opinion of their meriting by such practises and a contempt of others , who though they bear none of these voluntary assumed burdens , yet are more meek , more humble , and more charitable , and in all things more conformable to the life and doctrine of our blessed saviour . and if voluntary severities be a character of a true religion , the priests of baal , the worshippers of diana taurica , the ebionites , the montanists , the e●cratites , and many other heresies might have put in a fair claim since they abounded in them from your vows i go to your fasts . god forbid we should disclaim fasting which our saviour did so much recommend , both by his example and commands : we acknowledge it a powerful mean , both for mortifying all bodily lusts , and for disposing the mind to prayer , and all other spiritual exercises ; and therefore we do not allow these to the roman church as peculiar to them . and i do not believe any of them will justifie the corruptions they are palpably guilty of in the observance of their fasts , which are generally only a change of diet , wherein no severity nor strictness is to be seen . wine is liberally drunk , the most delicate fishes with the most exquisite way of dressing them are sought for , and no other mixtures of higher devotion appear on these weekly or annual returns . for confession , i know no christians that deny the usefulness of it ; but the setting up the necessity of auricular confession , as it hath driven out of their church the primitive and publick confession with all the ancient discipline which was indeed the great glory of those ages , and the chief preservative of piety , and good manners ; so , as they have it among them , it hath been one of the greatest engines of hell for driving out of the minds of men all sense of the duties of a holy and good life . i do not deny but some priests among them make good use of it ; but those being very few , it does give but a small allay to the gross corruptions which even many grave and pious writers of their own communion complain of and condemn . shall i here mention the giving absolution , and admitting to the sacrament upon confession before any part of the penance be performed , the trifling penances are often enjoyned , the taking confessions from persons unknown , the receiving it when it is apparent they are only reciting their sins without any compunction ? and for contrition they confess it is not necessary . now the generality of that church being perswaded that if they confess with a little attrition , and be absolved and receive the sacrament , they stand clear and innocent in the presence of god ▪ whatever their former life have been , or their present temper may be ; is not here a very sure way to defeat the whole design of religion and holiness , when men are taught so ea●ie a way of getting into the favour of god without repenting of and forsaking their sins ? and thus it appears that in the roman church confession is no severity , but a thing very grateful to flesh and blood . the last particular i. k. instances , is the prohibition of priests to marry . truly if to reckon that impure , which the holy spirit of god hath declared honourable in all without exception , be a great sublimity , they may well glory in it . our saviour recommended cellbate only to those who were able to receive it ; but the roman church will force all in orders to receive it whether they can or not . and though s. paul makes it one of the characters of a person fit to be a bishop , that he has been married and educated his children well ( which i shall not stretch so far as either the greek or the russian churches do now ) and does not at all command him to abandon her , and has elsewhere condemned that in all persons without exception , except it be for a time in order to fasting and prayer , and conform to this the primitive church did not require the clergy to abandon their wives , but on the contrary did condemn such as did : yet the roman church has most tyrannically imposed this on all the clergy . and although we read that god will judge whoremongers and adulterers , but no where that he will judge the married ; yet they have been very gentle to these crying scandals which continue to this day , and have allowed the concubinate when they condemned the marriage of the clergy . by which they shew they prefer the traditions of men to the command of god. and thus far i have examined this branch of the parallel i. k. makes between the roman and the christian religion , wherein i have been longer than i intended , but as short as the particulars he named did allow . when he brings the rest of his &c. i doubt not it shall appear they are a sequel of such things which the same or the like considerations will clear . but i must follow his next step , that the roman religion hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of arms or humane enticements , by strangers who converted many from paganism ( that allowed liberty ) to their religion , that teaches severities and mortification . to all which i reply , that since the roman church is still christian , i deny not but god may bless the honest endeavours of a great many of that communion , so that their labours may have great success on infidels in converting them to christianity ; herein god blessing them as he did the hebrew midwives whose charitable tender hearts god rewarded , building them houses , passing over their lie . but i. k. must not insist on this as a good argument , otherways he will be driven into great absurdities . did not the arrians by ulphilas his means who was a stranger to the goths ( that were a barbarous cruel and yet vastly numerous people ) convert them both to christianity and arrianism at once ? from whence we find the whole roman empire very soon overrun by arrianism upon the incursion of the goths , vandals , and longobards . philostorgius does also inform us that theophilus an arrian converted the indians to the christian faith. did not the greek church when it was broke from the roman , convert many nations , the bulgars , the muscovites and many other northern kingdoms ? in fine , what will i. k. answer according to his own argument to the great progress of the doctrine of luther and zuinglius , who notwithstanding all the opposition they met , and all the persecutions their followers suffered , yet did so strangely propagate their doctrine , that before half an age went about , the greater half of the roman church fell off from the obedience of that see , to their doctrine which holds all the mysteries of the christian religion , and there was no need of more , and instead of all the juglings the roman priests had brought in , teaching men an easie way to heaven , did preach all the severities of a holy life which our saviour and his apostles taught ? and as they taught a severer course of life to all christians ( i do not speak of the particular severities of some orders in the roman church , but what must be the necessary conditions upon which all may hope for salvation ) so they advanced this without arms ▪ and under great persecutions . and here i. k. must think how he will answer his own dilemma , that either this was done with miracles , or without them : if with them , the doctrine must be true that was confirmed by miracles ; if without them , that propagation was a great miracle : and thus i. k. will find it hard to avoid the dint of his own argument . besides when i. k. speaks of the propagation of the roman religion , he must not prove that from the propagation of christianity by persons of that religion , though the same instruments might at the same time have engaged their new converts to the particular conceits of that church . for ( as it was observed before ) god blessing the sincerity of their labours so that they made converts to the christian doctrine , that has so much to be said for it that it is a wonder all the world did not receive it , it was not strange if those so converted seeing the foundation of the divine mission of iesus christ to be true , did either in humble gratitude to their charitable instructors pay them all the returns of acknowledgment and obedience , or being ignorant of that doctrine which was wholly new to them , did easily receive and imbibe any particular opinions they might infuse in them , and so at the same time became votaries to christ and to rome . but if i. k. will deal fairly and satisfyingly , he must shew us how their religion , as it is distinct from the commonly received truths of christianity , was so miraculously propagated , and that in the points which we chiefly challenge , as the supremacy of the bishop of rome , with his being the universal bishop of the church , the forbidding the use of the scripture to the laicks , and the worship in an unknown tongue , the use of images in the worship of god , the invocating of saints and angels , the belief of transubstantiation , the sacrifice of the mass and the taking the chalice from the people , the belief of purgatory , the treasure of the church and indulgences , with a long &c. i. k. knows well that many have given very particular and full histories of the rise and progress of these abuses with which we charge the roman church , and for which she having obstinately refused to reform them , on the contrary binding them on the consciences of all with new and heavier anathema's , we have separated our selves from her communion . that those are not in the scripture it is plain enough , and we will not decline a tryal upon all hazards by the verdict of the first four ages . it is true , in the fifth century the incursion of the goths and vandals did very much change the face of things , and bring on a black night of ignorance on the greater part of christendom , which made way for gross superstition , and the bold pretences of the bishops of rome : and i. k. is very much out in his accounts , that says the propagation of the roman religion was without arms. was not that dearest part of it , the authority of the popes , the occasion of many long and bloody wars in germany and italy ? and for their conversion of hereticks , the third decree of the council of lateran , and the practises of the inquisitions were the surest means of effectuating it . and what humane enticements were wanting to draw men into their religion ? the cherishing of such kings as were firm to them , and the making over to them the rights of their neighbouring princes , were pretty enticing baits . witness their getting pipin into the throne of france , their inviting him and his son to the conquest of the lombards , with many other instances . and was there ever found out such an enticement for men of carnal tempers , who yet retained some belief of religion , as the power of pardoning , indulging and exchanging of penances ? so that this whole account of i. k's fails him when put to the issue of a severe tryal , though it looked pretty smooth and fair to an overly considerer . but in end i will add a few considerations of the methods of the first propagation of christianity , and from these it will appear how different those were from any thing the roman church can pretend to . first , the propagators of christianity went witnessing the truth of what was publickly seen and known without any other design of their own , either to engross power or riches . now whether this be the method of the roman church i refer it even to their own histories , if their great care hath not always been to get ambassadors sent to rome with the offer of their obedience and great submissions , of which nothing appears in the first conversion of the world to christianity . secondly , the first converters of the world studied to draw mankind to a great acknowledgement of the inestimable blessings we received by iesus christ , and to the making sutable returns by addressing our selves to the father by him and living according to his gospel . now the greatest care of most of the apostles of the roman church was to propagare the worship of creatures , to give patrons to whole nations , and teach them to build churches to those , and above all to the blessed virgin , of which no footsteps appear in the first conversion to christianity : and instead of the strictness of a holy life and an humble charitable temper , they have set up a vast multitude of little observances , which may be received , and yet the life of sin remain still strong and in vigour . thirdly , the first propagators of christianity studied by all possible means to wean people from all kind of idolatry , and to make the● serve the living god , and worship him in spirit and in truth . now how far the roman church hath declined from this is apparent , and that they have studied rather to change than overthrow their idolatry , giving them little pictures , medals and agnus dei's and reliques for their worship . fourthly , those that laboured first to convert the world to the christian religion studied to make all understand what they taught them , gave them the scriptures in their own tongue , and forms of worship which they understood and could well make use of : but the emissaries of rome deny their converts these helps , and so would hood them into a blind receiving of all they shall propose to them , and keep them still under their authority , and so teach them prayers in a tongue they do not understand . fifthly , those that first converted the world did by many miracles wrought in the sight of all convince and convert them to the faith , and these miracles were grave useful actions , as the curing of diseases , the casting out of devils , the procuring them good seasons and other temporal blessings , and all this was done in the name and to the honour of jesus christ. but the roman agents wanting these real miracles have betaken themselves to the shameful forgeries of strange visions and apparitions , and of ridiculous miracles , with so vast a superfetation of them , that few even of their own communion can read these legends of their grand apostles ●ithout a just disdain at such palp●●●● impostures . ●●xthly , the first propagation of christianity was when there was no secular power to support it or those who laboured in it ; so that they exposed themselves to all the dangers of hunger and cold , of scorn and reproach ; being assured of no supply not assistance from men : and yet god appeared so ●xtraordinarily with them , that their success was plainly the work of heaven . but the bishops of rome becoming great princes , sent out agents to make new conquests well furnished and powerfully supported , so that they went like ambassadors from one prince to another to treat an alliance , wherein there was little hazard and great hope of success by the advantageous terms were offered on both sides . and therefore after charles the great had conquered germany , and was become a terror to the northern kings , the bishops of rome sent their agents to labour in their conversion , which was an easie matter and had no difficulty in it . and seventhly , the first conversion of the world to christianity was signally the finger of god ; since though it met with the greatest opposition from the secular powers and was persecuted every where and for many ages , yet it prevailed : and though the first converts were poor mechanical and simple persons , yet great wisdom and constancy appeared in them , to the amazement of the philosophers and other persons of eminence and authority . but this hath not been the method of the roman conversions which begun in a kind of alliance with the prince , who being convinced of his advantage in the change did upon that oblige his subjects to it , not without severely punishing sometimes such as refused it ; so far were they from being persecuted for it . if any one were by a fury or tumult killed , that does not alter the case nor make it a persecution . and thus it is apparent that for all the noise the roman church makes of their conversions , they have managed them in a method very different from the way of the primitive christians . how basely and barbarously it hath been carried on in the west indies the bishop of guatimala did inform the world ; and the bishop of angelopolis did within these few years inform the pope how wretchedly the jesuits continue to manage it to this day . and though we have little reason to believe the accounts given us from the indies , since we see those who publish them are guilty of such impostures in things nearer us and easily discovered , that we have no reason to credit them in things at so great a distance where the forgeries of their account cannot be found out ; yet even from these a great many of the observations made upon the methods of the emissaries of the roman church may be proved . but as for austin the monk i. k. cannot sure be so ignorant as to think we owe our conversion to him ; for whatever truth may be in the story of glastenbury , it is undoubted we received the faith at farthest in the second century ; and that it did overrun our island farther than the roman conquest tertullian witnesses . the rites of our observing easter do also prove we had not the christian faith by any sent from rome ; so that long before the time of avstin the monk this island was converted . and that famed story of the monks of bangor as it proves what footing christianity had then , so it shews how proud and insolently cruel that pretended apostle was . and it is apparent he was a man of an ambitious temper , his great design on those of bangor being to engage them to a subjection to the pope and to comply with their rites in the observation of easter . but if what is delivered by ancient historians of his setting on the king of the northumberlands to destroy these monks be true , he is to be looked on as an emissary of hell rather than an apostle of christ. besides , the king of kent to whom he came was so favourable to the christian faith , that as he had married a christian queen , so he allowed the christians a church near canterbury . and so it is no wonder if a prince so prepared was soon prevailed on . but austins first coming to him with all that pomp of crosses carried before him , has nothing primitive in it , and the fabulous legends of the monks are little to be credited . thus far i have examined i. k's proofs for the truth of the roman religion ; and i doubt not upon a sober review of what hath been said , he himself will acknowledge he must see for other and better arguments , before he can oblige any to believe the roman religion to be the true catholick and apostolical religion . chap vi. it is considered if j. k. proves convincingly that every thing the roman church teaches as an article of faith , must be true . j. k. advances to his last attempt which is the finishing of the whole contrivance to perswade the belief of every thing the roman church delivers as an article of faith ; for if that religion be a true religion , then it is free from all fundamental errors , and does erre against no fundamental point of religion : and if that be acknowledged ▪ then it does not erre against this point that god is not the author of any error or corruption whatsoever , that being unquestionably a fundament●l point . now if the roman religion does not e●re against this , it does not teach that god is the author of any error or corruption ; and if it do not that , then it teaches nothing as an article of faith which is either error or corruption : for whatever it teaches as an article of faith , is teaches as that which hath been delivered by god. this then may be applied to every particular article of faith which the roman church teacheth ; for if that be either error or corruption , it teaching god to be the author of it , makes him to be the author of error or corruption , which is to erre against a fundamental point , and by consequence that religion shall be no true religion . if by true religion i. k. understands a religion that has no mixture of error or corruption in it , then it is needless to prove that if the roman religion be true it hath neither error or corruption in it ; for the proving it a true religion must carry the other along with it . but if by true religion be only meant a religion that holds all the fundamentals of christianity , so that salvation may be had in its communion ; then it is a most wretched inference that it must be true in all it● ▪ definitions of faith. and to confute this i shall for once turn the tables on i. k. and become an advocate for the roman church , to shew they may be still a true church and a true religion , though they have a large mixture of errors and corruptions . and this i do not so much out of love to them , but from a general principle of charity to overthrow this unmerciful opinion that damns all men , as erring fundamentally , for believing any error in a matter of faith. and let me first ask i. k. whether he takes the church of corinth to have had a true religion when s. paul wrote to ▪ it ? this sure he cannot deny if he read but s. pauls first salutation ; and yet in that church there were various parties , some for cephas , some for apollo , some for paul and some for christ , and great difference of opinion there was whether moses law did oblige or not . now these questions concerning circumcision and the law were matters of faith , and in all contradictory opinions one must be true , another false ; those therefore that were of the false side must by i. k's doctrine be all irrecoverably lost , as being in a fundamental error , for each side believed his opinion was of god. but s. paul taught another doctrine , that whoso builds on the foundation jesus christ , shall be saved , though he build upon it wood , hay and stubble . and the distinction he there makes between those who build gold , silver and precious stones , and wood , hay and stubble , can only relate to sound and unsound doctors , the one building good and useful superstructures upon the foundation , the other teaching trifling doctrines that will not bear the tryal ; and yet that both may be saved , is a plain demonstration against i. k. the same apostle also tells us that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availed any thing , and that in the new creature there was neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but christ was all in all , and that one god did both justifie the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith ; from all which it is evident that those of the circumcision might be saved , and by consequence that their religion was a true religion ; and yet that their doctrine of circumcision was an error , can be disputed by none who read the epistles of s. paul ; and it is no less clear that they held it an article of faith delivered to abraham by god. so here it is plain that s. paul in one breath both condemns this opinion as erroneous , and yet allows salvation to such as believed it . with how many errors doth s. iohn charge some of the seven churches ? yet they were still the churches of christ. the church in the second century did generally believe the millennium as a thing revealed by god , which the roman church now calls an error ; yet i hope i. k. will not condemn that church as holding a false religion . the african churches held it necessary for infants to receive the eucharist , from these words , except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man , you have no life in you , and this was approved by p. innocent , and was continued many ages in the roman church , as appears from the ordo romanus , and yet that church has declared that not to be necessary , by which the opinion the former ages had of its necessity is declared an error : but it were a strange thing from that to condemn these as holding a false religion . the franciscans , and dominicans had hot contests about the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin , and both pretended divine authority and revelations , so that one of those must have held an error . the dominicans and iansenists believe predestination and grace efficacious of it self , this the molinists deny ; both vouch scriptures and the definitions of the church . the canonists courtiers of rome and iesuits have asserted the popes infallibility from scripture and councils , the sorbon hath always rejected this . now of all these different opinions the one must be true and the other false , since they stand in the terms of a contradiction ; and they have all vouched god and scriptures for them : therefore those who hold the false side of the contradiction according to i. k's reasoning must be of a false religion ; which i believe when he considers more maturely , he will find he mistook his measures in this . and in fine , his argument will also hold as strong to prove that every individual of a true religion must be exempt from all errors in every opinion whereof he takes god to be the author ; for i. k's argument will be as strong for every thing whereof god is believed the author , as for articles of faith. so that every mistaken sense of scripture will turn one to be of a false religion , since every mistaken exposition is an error ; and yet that being thought the meaning of the place , god is believed the author of that meaning , and by i. k's consequence of the error it self . from all which i may ( i hope even by i. k's leave ) infer the necessary distinction between things that are believed to be errors , and those that are believed to be truths . for the former , to vouch god the author of what we know to be an error and corruption , is certainly so criminal that none of the true religion can be guilty of it . but there be many things which ( though errors , yet ) any one may very innocently mistake for truths . i do not say the mistake does quite excuse the error ; if the error be fundamental the mistake must be so too : but if the error be in a lesser matter , it is a lesser error ; and it will never be made out , that , if one apprehending an opinion true , embrace it , as come from god , and as an article of faith , if he is mistaken , in that he strikes at the divine veracity : for among men , who thinks that any wronged his veracity if another mistook his meaning , and understood his words in a different sense from what he intended and expressed ? certainly he who so mistakes , after the true meaning is cleared , cannot be understood to have fastned any reproach upon the candor of him whose words he mistook , all the blame being to be cast only on his want of right understanding . this were indeed a hard case if all our mistakings of divine revelations did infer a charging god with error or corruption . but the thing is so clear that i am afraid i have spent too many words about it , and this argument of i. k's cannot but upon first reading appear to all that are accustomed to weigh and examine truth ▪ to be a piece of crude ill digested and ill palliated sophistry . thus far have i followed i. k. through those six points he imagines he has demonstrated , and have shewed how true the first four were , but how little reason there was to account them such for any thing he said for their proof , and how false the other two are . and i suppose he will acknowledge that if what is already set down hold true and be founded on good reason , i need not follow him through the rest of his book , it being only a direction to his gentle courteous reader how to manage this method of arguing so as to convince all persons that dissent from the true religion , which he thinks is a mathematical and sure way of proceeding , and such as no man can decline or avoid , and in end must be either convinced by it , or be forced to confess himself no better than an ass or a block , which concludes him a mad man. i will not follow this with a railery that is as obvious as severe ; but i love not to mix matters of sport with such serious purposes : therefore i follow i. k. no more through the rest of his book . but come next to consider the great support of that cause which he manages both in his preface and through the rest of his book , that there can be no certainty neither about the true books of scripture , the decrees of councils or writings of fathers , without there be a true church and religion agreed on , which shall both declare to us what books are true and what not , and shall deliver their true meaning to us : otherwise endless confusions must follow , which plainly appears in the many divisions of the protestants and the uncertainties they are in about all controverted points . from which the necessity of a true church appears , as much as in a well ordered state there is not only a necessity of clear and good laws , but of judges to expound them . chap. vii . of the supposed inconveniencies j. k. imagines in the want of a true church to iudge infallibly , and of the right methods of finding truth . there is nothing about which those of the roman church make more noise than the necessity of an infallible judge , and of the great and visible inconveniencies that appear from the want of it in those churches that have departed from the roman communion . i have not long ago proposed a great many queries to one of i. k's brethren , in which i have set before him , the many difficulties they must needs be involved in by clearing who this infallible judge must be ; and i shall here repeat nothing of what i said then , but shall go on to shew upon what clear and certain grounds we may rest our perswasions about articles of faith and divine truths . all arts and sciences must be acquired by some rules and methods by which a progress may be made from plainer things to those that are more involved and difficult ; and if any would desire to understand any theorem or problem in geometry without beginning at the elements and advancing by euclid or some other such methods , he labours in vain : so also if any would without more ado study to know a secret in chymistry having neither learned to know the terms of art nor the course of a process , he shall not be the wiser though one deliver him their best secrets . in like manner if a man will enter into the knowledge of divine truth without any of those preparations which are necessary , he is in a wrong way ; and the further he engages , he is the more out of the way ; nor can he be ever in the right way till he begin afresh . it may justly seem strange that christian religion was so plain a thing when the apostles first delivered it ; that mean simple people , poor women , and an illiterate company should have understood it , and that it subdued a great part of the roman empire , before men of great learning were converted to the belief of it : and all the knowledge they then had of it was by the sermons and epistles of the holy apostles which remain to this day . and though at this distance from that time , we may have lost the true meaning of some phrases , and we have not so particular a history of the state of the first churches as might help us to understand many passages that seem very dark to us : yet for the main of those books they seem very easie and plain . we have also still so perfect a knowledge of the greek tongue as clearly to understand them . but after all this , christian religion is now become such a strange kind of secret , that men with all their learning and study can scarce understand it . certainly we must have either changed religion from what it was at first , so that it hath now put on a new face ; or we are much mistaken in our methods of enquiring into it , and examining what things are revealed to us by god. s. paul tells us , the natural man receives not the things of god , neither indeed can be for they are spiritually discerned . from which it appears that a renovation of the mind from its natural mould , and its being transformed into a spiritual temper are necessary , as well for the understanding and discerning , as the obeying the things of god. now all natural men may be divided into three classes ; either they are so immersed in senses and sensible things , that all their apprehensions are tinctured with the figures and phantasms which their senses and imaginations present to them , or they rise a little above this , but are so governed by the heats of nature and passion , that either their minds are rendred quite incapable of all serious thoughts , or so distorted in them that they do not discern them truly . but the highest elevation of the natural man is reason , which hath a fairer appearance , and if rightly managed would certainly advance him to a spiritual temper : but being fed only with dry notions and trying them by a false touchstone , does strenghthen our errors , fortifie our prejudices and swell us with pride , and fret us with the itch of an unsatisfiable and useless curiosity . now it will not be ungrateful , it is hoped , to propose the great hinderances all these several modifications of the natural man have given to the right understanding divine truths , and to begin with those of the lowest form . one whose mind is immersed in sense , either believes nothing but what his senses propose to him , or at least tinctures all his notions with sensible objects . thus the atheist believes no god , because he cannot see him ; and those of the heathens over whom the power of their senses was strong , yet not such as to overcome the impressions of a deity left on their souls , did believe the sun , moon and stars were gods , being both dazled with the brighter splendor of the day and delighted with the fainter shinings of the night . and finding both the pleasant lightsomness , the warm benignity and fruitful usefulness of their beams , they did adore them as gods , and seeing strange effects answering some of their positions and aspects , they came to imagine all humane things were governed by them , and so framed an entire theory ( if so ill grounded a thing can deserve that name ) of astrology . others much taken with the greatness and glory of brave commanders and princes , and having some notion of the souls immortality on their minds , did think that after their death they governed this inferiour world ; and to those heroes they assigned stars to dwell in , and those gods they represented either by some ▪ symbols , the chief whereof was fire , or by some statues , pillars or other pieces of sculpture , which at least represented that deity to their senses , if it had not some strangely magical and divine influence united or affixed to it . they did also prognosticate all future things either by the flight or feeding of birds , or by the inwards of animals . here then a religion entirely framed from the conceptions of the natural man , in its lowest depression ; and their gross notions of religion made them both prejudiced against the iews who worshipped nothing but a celestial deity , and more against the christians whom they called atheists because they had none of those sensible representations or ways of worship , but their faith was plain and simple . but as the natural man did thus corrupt the notices of natural religion , it did no less embase the christian religion . when many natural men were engaged in the profession of it , either by education , custom or interest , who loathing its simple purity did study so to dress it up that it might gratifie their natural minds by bringing in the worship of deceased men , and by worshipping them by images , pictures , reliques , and at length making pictures for the deity it self , and by dressing up all the parts of religious worship so as to amuse and delight the senses , by affecting an outward grandeur in processions and other festivals , and in the greatness of their priests , chiefly of their high priest : all which were visibly the effects of minds deeply engaged in sensible things , to whom nothing appeared sacred or solemn without it had been adorned with all the exquisite deckings of art and industry ; and judging of piety by some heats which were raised in the fancy by outward objects presented to it , studied to fill all the parts of worship with such rites as might make either a glorious shew for amusing the worshippers , or some melting tender impressions for cozening them into an opinion of their being divinely elevated . but after that by the blessed providence of god religion was in many parts of the world refined from that dross , yet the sensitive part of the natural man did not give over its attempts for embasing religion ; many still continued to place all their religion in forms , and bestowed that zeal which should have gone to the advancing true piety , holiness of life and brotherly charity , to the adorning and maintaining those . others thought they had pretty well escaped this whole danger , being got into an extream very opposite to it of vilifying all forms ; but the natural man did act in their sensitive powers though in another method : for though they had emerged out of the dominion or influence of their outward senses in matters of religion , yet their inward senses and imaginations , ( which are the rebound of sensible impressions upon the understanding ) prevailed much on them . these therefore came to think a voluble way of pouring out soft words with great heavings of the natural mind , was a mighty thing , and gave themselves wholly to this , so that the conceiving and hearing long prayers and sermons , especially if accompanied with tenderness in the thoughts and great meltings in the fancy , was thought the highest feat and elevation of religion : though it plainly appears to a man of a severe and discerning reason , that all this is but an illusion of the fancy heated by some fervours of the mind . and yet they upon these deceits of their fanciful thoughts have separated themselves from all regular forms of worship , because that gratification of new words was necessary to feed their devotion . another great mischief of this distemper is , that such persons judge that as long as they enjoy these heats , all is as they would have it ; and this will readily continue as long as they are put to do nothing displeasing to them : so that whatever they do , be it never so contrary to the laws of religion ; yet if with that they can but keep up these heats , they judge either that what they do , is not at all a sin , or at most such a sin as being a branch of necessary infirmity , may consist well enough with grace , because it can live with those fervours ; and if any thing quench them , ( which it is like every thing that displeases them may do ) then they throw it off as carnal . thus they measure all things by these fluctuating and inconstant motions , and as that temper is volatile and of all others the most subject to change ; so the inequalities they are in , are looked on as the flowings and ebbings of the divine spirit ; and the heats they feel sometimes being ascribed to the divine spirit , every thought which drops into their minds when under these actuations is taken for a divine revelation , and followed and given out for such ; and the coldness and dulness which must of necessity follow these heats , is thought a withdrawing and desertion of the divine spirit . whence follow sad melancholy and perplexing scrupulosities , which do often mightily afflict some devout but weak minds , and bring up an ill report on religion , as if it were sullen and morose , and led men into dejection , and perpetual anxiety . and this humor as it swells up the mind into a mighty conceit of its own eminent and exalted piety and to a contempt of others , so it doth often carry on those who are imposed on by it , into strange conceits , making them apprehend they are obliged to nothing but as they are inwardly moved to it . and thus they would supersede reason and give themselves up to their fancies under a conceit that they are acted by a divine spirit ; whereas it is but an impulse of some vapours of the grosser and more terrene parts of the natural man rarified by the heats of the brain , and the fumes of melancholy into a thin and nimble agitation . the next power of the natural man , is in his passions and appetites , which being suited to the contexture of his bloud , brain and spirits , have a mighty influence on all his thoughts , and chiefly on those that relate to religion . and first these carrying him with a strong impetus to many irregular desires to which religion if believed must give a stop , he is from that made first to question , then to doubt , and at last to deny there is a god , because his appetites are too dear to forgoe them for the belief of a superiour power or the hopes of another state . and it is an easie thing for any man to bribe his reason to believe what he has a great mind to perswade himself of , either by diverting his thoughts from seriously considering the thing proposed , or by looking only at the oppositions may be made to this belief without examining what may be said for it , and by living in a perpetual disorder , which both darkens the mind and keeps out all serious thoughts from it ; upon all which there may by the just judgment of god follow a searing of the conscience and a blinding of the mind but if the power of religion and the witness god hath in our breast , prove too hard for all this opposition , then the next attempt of passion and lust is to misshape these notices of truth into such a figure as may best agree with their desires . and thus the heathens corrupted all the evidences of natural religion , and set up such deities as were guilty of the most furious passions , and the most ungoverned lusts of all sorts ; and this being once done , no wonder the worship of those gods was of a piece with the opinions they had of them , and that they devised such sacrifices and services as might agree best with those deities . it was also a very natural result of this opinion that they should conform their lives to their gods , and so they were secure of patrociny and protection when they were to commit the basest villanies . and no wonder this prejudiced them at christianity which they saw taught all its converts to be severely vertuous and pious ; and therefore they complained that christians came to disgrace their gods , and to turn them from the religion they had received from their fathers . but afterwards when the world rushed into the church , the passionate and lustful parts of the natural man finding nothing in that faith for their shelter , yet studied to doe the best they could for their own preservation . therefore insensibly men were turned from minding the great things for which christ died , and rose again to place all their care on other thing● which might well be maintained without overcoming a passion or mortifying a lust . some did set up highly for opinions , others for forms , and by a curious improving those hoped that their other faults should be more easily forgiven , both by god and man. afterwards a great many notions were found out , if not for a direct defence of those disorders , yet for palliating them , and allaying the grief for them . a devotion to saints was one great engine ; the opinion of many sins being expiated in purgatory , together with the belief of the popes power of redeeming from it , was an universal medicine for all diseases of conscience . then the dispensing with vowes , covenants , and most of all duties was a great ease to the natural man. there were also some new coined duties of religion which did agree well with their passions , such as fighting for religion against infidels , hereticks and others that were excommunicated by the pope , and a violent persecuting of all , who in any point departed from the received opinions : and their auricular confessions , easie penances , and ready absolutions were sure and infallible means to reconcile them to religion after it was so debased as to meet them more than half way . but when a great part of europe was delivered from those more apparent impostures , the natural man did not for all that give over his practising upon religion to frame it to his own taste ; and a fondness on some reformed opinions , with a reverence for the persons of the teachers , came to be set up by many as all they drave at . but cunninger arts were also found out and some sacred truths did insensibly become so abused as to be made the excuses of sins , especially as they were stretched by the corruptions of men , which were much encouraged by many unwary expressions of some hot divines , who in the eagerness of dispute had said many things that were not to be justified . hence it was that the doctrine of christs dying for sinners , and being their sacrifice , by which the guilt of their sins was expiated and they reconciled to god , was used by many for a security for men to sin as pleased them , so they but trusted to christ ; and because perfection was not attained in this life , it was held unattainable and sin insuperable . nor could men be much afflicted for sin nor guard diligently against it , who believed they were inevitably led and determined to it , especially when that was thought done by god himself ; and fighting for religion against the supream authority was also by many made a great demonstration of their zeal for god and religion , and a surious bitter zeal against all who departed from their opinions whether to the one hand or to the other , was looked on as a great evidence of grace and love to god. and it is plain in many persons religion does not so much mortifie their passions and lusts as palliate and disguise them , or at most change their object but not their nature . men of cholerick dispositions placing all religion in an eager , violent , yea and if need be , a bloody maintaining all their opinions about matters of faith. the melancholy men put it all in abstraction and recluseness , valuing themselves much upon it , and undervaluing others that were not so retired . others of a more sanguine complexion finding either great excuses for all their levities and follies , or if more serious , turning all their thoughts to the dressing up some pretty notion . and thus men not forming their minds by the dictates and precepts of religion , but framing it according to their own tempers , so as might best suit their inclinations , did hold the truth in unrighteousness . and thus again the natural man did adulterate the notions of religion which are spiritually discerned . but the last and greatest ( because both strongest and subtilest ) assault that nature made upon religion was by the misguidings of ill directed and ill managed reason . the former prejudices were more visible and could not be so well defended ; but this was managed with a deeper cunning . and first the great value that the masters and pretenders to learning and reason had of themselves , made them scornfully reject all instruction , stiffly maintain all they had once asserted , and despise every one that differed from them . hence it was that the philosophers broke into so many divisions , being as is apparent mightily swelled in self-conceit , so that they scorned to yield to one another , but employed all their wit and eloquence to justifie their own notions , how absurd soever . now this is the temper in the world the most incapable of instruction ; and this their pride they carried higher , laughing at all inspiration as a kind of madness , which therefore they despised and thought that their reason was able to penetrate into the deepest and secretest mysteries . and as this occasioned a numberless variety of opinions , so it made them despise the first preachings of christianity , in which as there was none of their metaphysical canting ; so poor illiterate men delivering it , they who valued themselves on their learning and their noble generous tempers , rejected it with scorn , which was fed with the contempt they had for the first converts , who were either such as they called barbarians , or men of mean education and employments . but after an age or two many of those were by the prevailing progress of christianity converted to the faith , and did for some ages very good service to it . but diverse of their successors retaining the old temper of the philosophers , the debates about religion begun to be managed with an unyielding ambition , and anathema's were the common sanctions with which they imposed their opinions . and at length one of the bishops assumed to himself and successors the absolute authority of judging and deciding all controversies , which ( though the most unreasonable opinion in the world , and that which destroys the free and right use of reason : yet ) was brought in on the highest pretences of reason , as the only mean to end all disputes . and when a great many errors were visibly got into their church , and some rose who with all the evidence of reason imaginable laid open these and pressed them to disown and reform them , they continued in their stubborness , multiplied their anathema's , and wreathed all their errors in one chain , as s. iames had done the law of god , and imposed all without mercy . and for doing this they brought their janizaries , whom they had educated in nurseries at fencing , cudgelling , and the other discipline of pen-slaughter and ink-shed . these schoolmen who had been well trained to dispute about every thing , and stubbornly to maintain every position how trifling or how false soever with all confidence and earnestness , were brought to give battel , and they as mercenaries who expected good preferments did fight it out most obstinately ; nothing was too disingenious for their confidence , no author was so spurious but they would vouch his testimony , no place of scripture sounded favourably to their opinions but ( though it had been never so plain that it was to be understood in a different sence ) was brought as a certain proof , no maxim of the schools , no old fustian distinction was left out to maintain the fight ; and as some after the greatest defeats have impudence enough to pretend a victory , so that art was not omitted by them , but loud acclamations of victory were made , when all free discerners saw they were quite routed ; and the rudeness they had learned in their cells was brought out with them , for they managed their disputes with all the roughness of expression , the most petulant insultings and the most barbarous railings . nor does this charge fall only on one side of christendom , though one church be most notoriously guilty ; but the disputants of all sides have for the greatest part managed their debates with that acrimony of stile , those severe invectives and the catching up some escapes of inconsiderate pens , as if they were more concerned for glory than for truth . besides that every one swallows down an entire system of that party to which he hath offered up himself ; and all must be defended without that ingenuity which becomes inquirers into divine truth . nor do most men take their opinions from the sacred oracles , but from their educations , and the catechisms and confessions they have been accustomed to ; and being thus prepossessed go to the scriptures to seek proofs for their opinions , being resolved before-hand to defend them and to make the scriptures serve their turns ; which if they will not do easily , they will so stretch them upon the rack by their forced criticisms or consequences , as to make them confess any thing though never so plainly contrary to the clear meaning of the words . and it is evident that men thus blown up with pride are resolved to justifie all they have ever said , though to the cost of throwing off all candid and fair dealing , saying things that no man of common sense would say if he were not strangely byassed . and indeed we dayly see things brought for the proof of many opinions which are so visibly weak and unconcluding , that it is scarce possible to think those believed them that said them ; but that being resolved to stand to what they once asserted , some mist must be raised for keeping up their reputation , and imposing on weaker and more credulous disciples . and thus it must continue as long as men are led by their pride to be stubborn in all their reasonings about religion . another great abuse of reason is a needless curiosity about things that either are of no great importance , or are wrapped in mysterious darkness ; into which if men will penetrate , their conjectures and discourses must turn to impertinent cantings and nonsense . thus the philosophers disputing about the nature of the deity and of the soul , do fall into unintelligible niceties and cabalistical conceits of numbers , of which no account can be given , but that they would seem to say somewhat where they could say nothing . and this curious subtilising carried along another mischief with it , that they rejected every thing of which they could not give a distinct account , and therefore called s. paul a babler when he told them of the resurrection . but when some of the philosophers became converts to christianity , both these effects of this curiosity did appear ; some studying to make out the high mysteries of the faith from their metaphysicks , and to reconcile them to the platonical notions , in which any discerning reader will see a great deal of needless and very ill proved and worse applyed curiosity . this appearing both too curious and ill grounded to others , was no small occasion of their rejecting those mysteries , or at least framing them so as to agree with their conceptions of things ; and both seem to have had too la●g● a share of this oversearching humour , and of not believing any thing but what was made out to their reasons : the one party pretending they did understand the mysteries , and the other denying them because they could not understand them . what subtleties were used in explaining those incomprehensible doctrines any that hath conversed in those writings must needs know , and how they were opposed with the like subtleties . whereas had all sides adored the divine revelations without engaging into these discantings , they had held the simplicity of the gospel , and acted more like true christian philosophers ; since it agrees with the strictest reason to acknowledge our faculties are limited , and so not fit to comprehend the divine nature , nor the operations or the communications of that supream being ; and therefore we must believe with all humility what himself hath been pleased to reveal to us concerning himself , without either doubting the truth because we understand not what is so far above us , or engaging into over curious searching into that which it appears from our limited understandings , and the general terms of revelation god intended should be still a mystery to us . but indeed the schoolmen have thought it below the height of their ●ouring minds and great learnings to stick at the explaining all mysteries , and as far as hard words and unconceivable niceties will go , they have given us a very satisfying account of all mysteries , by which we know neither more nor less than we do without them . whether this may not have led many over curio●s enquirers into the contrary extream , i shall not determine , but this is plainly an abuse of reason on both hands . the humour of enquiring into all subtleties did quickly bring into the church a superfetation of unconceivable mysteries . for every bold conceit that any ( who had so much authority as to be well followed ) took up was presently given out for a mystery , and then it was sacred and must not be touched ; and if any did offer to examine it , he was scared with the bugbear of a mystery . so that transubstantiation , the treasure of the church , the way of the popes infallibility , together with a thousand devised mysteries in all the pieces of divine worship , were cramm'd down the throats of all christians , and many being justly provoked by these pretended mysteries , and seeing the other great mysteries made the engines of obtruding these on the world , were thereupon by an unjustifiable and an immoderate use of the counterpoise led to the other extream of denying all and with how great nicety of argument have even the reformed managed many high mysterious points , as the derivation of adam's sin , the order o the divine decrees , with the nature of the aids and assistances of grace , which have been canvassed with a very searching curiosity ? and as dark as these must be confessed to be , yet they are delivered with as much dictating and imperious authority , as if these authors had been caught up to the third heavens . many other niceties are also found out to exercise their curiosity ; yet if it rested there the hazard were not so great , but these are all made articles of faith , and all who are not satisfied about them , are barred the communion of the church , and so no wonder there be endless heats and debates . the occasion of this curiosity and itch of disputing may be perhaps not unjustly derived from the contentions and endless wranglings of the schools in matters of philosophy ; in which men being accustomed to that game of disputing and subtilising about nothing , and going from those studies to divinity , and carrying that same temper , and fiery edge along with them , they made all that work about it which hath now so long divided the world . they being also by a long practice habituated to many maxims and axioms which were laid down for rules not to be enquired into or denyed , came really to believe those were true , and to carry them along with them to all their theological debates . all which will appear very evident to any that compares their philosophical and theological works , from which many of their strange inferences and positions did take their rise , and i am afraid do still receive their nourishment . thus far i have discoursed of the several prejudices the powers of the natural man do lay in the way of our apprehending and judging aright of divine truths ; and the common notions of the moral philosophy will concur to teach all men that before their minds can be rightly qualified for the understanding any intellectual truth , but most chiefly divine truth , we must abstract from all those figures of things , which our senses present to us , and rise above all grosser phantasms . it is no less necessary that our thoughts be serene , and free of passion , that we may freely and at leisure consider what lies before us , without the byass of preconceived opinions or interests . and it is equally rational with these that we have modest minds not vainly puffed up with an opinion of our own knowledge , but tractable and docile , such as will not stick after clear conviction , to confess and retract an error , and that we proceed in our reasonings closely and on sure grounds , not on vain conjectures and maxims taken up meerly on trust , but by a clear progress advance from one truth to another as the series of them shall lead . a man who is thus prepared must next consider all was said in the first four sections , with a great deal more to the same purpose ; that he be on good grounds perswaded there is a god ; that there is a true revealed religion , & that the christian religion is the true religion . these things being laid down he is in the first place by earnest prayers to beg god's direction to go along with him in all his enquiries , which certainly will not be wanting if he bring with him a sincere & well prepared mind , not byassed nor prepossessed ; and of this we may be well assured both from the divine goodness and veracity . for as he hath promised that whoso seek shall find ; so it is a necessary consequent of infinite goodness to assist all that sincerely seek after life and happiness : but if any come to this study without he be duly prepared , he has himself to thank if he fall into errors and mistakes . the next thing an exact searcher into religion must labour in , is once to observe the nature of christianity and the great designs of it ; and in this he is not to follow the small game of some particular and obscure passages , but to observe through the whole new testament what was the great end of all our saviour spoke and did , and his disciples testified and wrote . if once we comprehend this a right , it will be a thread to carry us through particular disquisitions . for as there be many natural truths of which we are well assured , though philosophy offers us some arguments against them , in the answering which we are not able to satisfie our reasons ; so there may be some divine truths very certainly made out to us , and yet there may be places of scripture which seem so to contradict those truths that they cannot be well answered . again , a serious enquirer will see good reason to believe the scriptures must be plain , evident and clear , since they were at first directed to men of very ordinary parts and of no profound understandings and learning ; therefore he may well conclude those strange superstructures some have reared up for amusing the world , can be none of the articles of faith necessary to be believed . and as the first converts were honest simple men , so our saviour and the apostles spoke in a plain easie stile , therefore all these forced criticisms and inferences by which some more ingenious than candid writers would expound them in a sence favourable to their opinions , a●e not to be received , since these do often represent the divine discourses rather like the little tricks of double-dealing and sophistry for which an honest tutor would severely chide his pupil : words are to be understood in their plain meaning , and not as logick or a nicety of criticism may distort and throw them . if then a man will in this method ( which no honest man can except against ) go to the search of the scriptures with a mind prepared , as hath been already said , he cannot fail of finding out all that is necessary for his salvation . nor is he to be doubtfully anxious concerning the true books ; for none denies but the churches care in all ages hath been the great conveyance of this ; the many various translations of all ages and languages ( nay and different religions ) agreeing in all material points , and the citations out of those books which we find in a series of authors who have lived in the several ages since they were written agreeing likewise with the books themselves , together with many ancient manuscripts which do yet remain of a great many languages , may abundantly satisfie even the most severe inquirer , that these be the very books which the apostles delivered and were universally received by all christians . the matter of fact being thus cleared without any necessity of running to the authority of the church , all those scruples which i. k. with the rest of his brethren would needs raise , do vanish , since they never distinguish exactly between a witness and a judge . for the former nothing is required but honesty and good information , and we have the agreeing suffrages of many witnesses that do all agree in their testimony of these books , who though they differed very much in their expositions of them , yet concurred in their verdict about the books , and were checks on one another in the faithful preserving and transcribing them . in this sence we do receive the churches testimony as the necessary means of conveying these books to us . but an authority sacred and solemnly declared is required in a judge , and this no church can so much as pretend to but from the scriptures . therefore the scriptures being received as divine cannot depend on the sentence of the church as a judge , since all its jurisdiction is derived from scripture , which therefore must be acknowledged before it can be believed . but because there be persons of a meaner condition and not educated so as to make all the inquiry which is necessary in so important a business , there is therefore a shorter method for such , which yet is as morally certain as any thing can be . let then the simplest man in england provide himself of two new testaments , one published by the church of england , another by the church of rome as was that of rheims : now he knows well what animosities be betwixt the divines of these churches , and that they are engaged so hotly one against another , that they agree in nothing , but where the evidence of truth especially in matters of fact does bind them . and yet he comparing these new testaments will find , that though the phrase , the position of words , and in some few places perhaps the sence varies , but upon a survey of the whole he finds that they do plainly agree in all matters of moment . so that from this he is perswaded that both have the same true book which the apostles did deliver to the church ; and the iews agreeing with us as to the old testament , is the same evidence to him that we have those very books which were held sacred by the iews in our saviour's time . and thus by i. k's leave a man may be satisfied what be the true books , without being assured which is the true church or the true religion . being then assured about the books and studying them in the method already set down , he shall be certainly directed by god to find out every thing necessary to salvation ; and this is far from setting up a private spirit to lead us enthusiastically , but is an appeal to the reason and ingenuity that is common to all men . for let me ask i. k. how the decrees and canons of the council of trent are to be understood ? he himself says , the meaning of those is plainly and certainly to be known , yet every reader must expound them to himself in that easie and clear sence which best agrees with the words . is this therefore to set up a private spirit to enterpret these canons ? i know he will say ( and with good reason too ) that it is far from it ; and with the same warrant do i assert that the considering of scripture according to the method proposed , is not to interpret it by a private spirit , but by the clear conduct of our understandings directed by the divine grace which is freely given to all that ask it . if after all this it be replyed , how is it then that there are such different expositors and expositions of scripture ? the answer is plain , by sending back the reader to what hath been said of the corruption of mens minds ; and as long as men live so ill as they do , it is to no purpose to expect they shall think or understand aright . besides , there be a great many things in the scriptures which are not articles of faith , which every man is not bound to know and conceive aright under the hazard of damnation , and about which there may be disputings and different opinions without any hazard . if any set up particular opinions in matters justly controvertible and of less moment , and impose these on all with severe sanctions , and if he have authority to cast all out of the church society that do not agree with him , or if he have not that authority , if he do separate from the communion of the church because they will not receive or hearken to his conceits , he is a schismatick ; for a dogmatizing and dictating spirit , if strengthned with power , doth always lead to persecution , and if it want it , to separation . and thus i think enough is said for proving that the way to salvation is not at all uncertain in our church , since it is no other but that new and living way which our saviour did consecrate through his flesh . but in this we are strongly confirmed , when we find the ancient martyrs , fathers and doctors of the church going in the same method , and by it converting the nations , enduring martyrdome and giving glory to their most holy faith and to its most holy author , whose decrees , when met in councils , and doctrines delivered in their writings do so agree with ours in all matters of faith , that we decline not to put the whole debates between us and them to this tryal . i. k. thinks we cannot know what fathers or what councils to receive , but by first acknowledging a true church which must tell what fathers and councils to receive . but this being a matter of fact , we are to judge of it as of all matters of fact that were transacted some ages ago , and by the evidence of testimonies are to find out the truth concerning the fathers and councils , and their writings and decrees . we have good reason to decline the writers of the latter ages , since we plainly see that upon the overthrow of the western empire by the goths and vandals and other northern nations , and of the eastern empire by the saracens and other mahometans , religion and learning were quickly brought under sad and lasting decays , which is confest by writers on all sides . and what i. k. says , that we may as well expect the whole gospel in the first chapter of s. matthew , as all faith of the church in the first four general councils , is very impertinently alledged . did we ask for all the definitions of the church in the first canon of nice , his comparison might well take place ; but it cannot be fitly used in our case who say we are the true catholick apostolick christians , because we in all things agree with the churches of god , as they were during their greatest purity both in the persecutions , and after those for two ages . certainly if we hold all that faith they then held , and if they were saved , we may be so too ; and you cannot pass a severe sentence on us which will not likewise take hold of them . i. k. cannot deny but they stated the christian faith in very formal creeds , and one of them expresly decreed that no new addition should be made to the creed ; and so we who receive that creed , though at all this distance from them , are really in communion with them , from which those have departed , who have made such vast additions to the creed . and thus it appears we are in the same way which our saviour first opened and in which that glorious cloud of witnesses followed him , and are still in communion with rome as she was when her faith was spoken of through the whole world , and therefore we are in a safe way to salvation . but because christians must live together in unity and charity , and in order to that end must associate together in the worship of god in mutual councils and other necessary parts of government and some external rites for maintaining the visible acknowledgment of the faith , therefore we have rules given in scripture no less express for obeying the civil powers in all their commands that are not plainly contrary either to natural or revealed religion , which is a clear and constant rule by which we may be satisfied if our minds be right prepared and qualified , as was before set down . and if by the disorder of our understandings , through the corruptions of the natural man , we be brought under errors , we have our selves to blame . next to this we are to associate our selves with all who worship god as long as there is not some great corruption in it , so that we can no longer continue in it without sin . if others be formal or guilty in it , that is none of our fault , and can never warrant our departure from that communion of saints in worship . therefore the particular forms of worship are to be agreed on by the guides and pastors of the church , which must still be received by all till they put us to act or assist in somewhat that is evil , or be defective in some necessary part of divine worship . and the great rule by which the guides of the church ought to compose these forms , is the constant and universal practice of the churches of god in their best times ; calculating these as near as may be to the present constitutions and tempers of men , so as to avoid all unnecessary scandal , and to edifie the people by them . therefore we dare appeal to all just and impartial judges , if our church have not observed this rule in all the parts of our worship , to bring things as near as could be to the primitive forms ; and if in some particulars we have departed from them , such as the not commemorating expresly the dead , or receiving gifts in their names in the holy communion , the not using the chrism in confirmation , nor the sign of the cross on all occasions , or if we kneel in churches on sundays , and betwixt easter and pentecost , which are the most considerable things that now occurr to me , in which we are not exactly conform to the primitive church ; these are both things of less importance , and by the following superstition and other abuses were very much corrupted . and it is certain that all things not necessary when much abused , how innocent , nay how useful soever they may be , yet may very reasonably be left out and laid aside as the pastors of the church see cause . if after all this evidence there be great divisions among us , we owe these , next to the corruption or manners , to the daily practises of such as i. k. who ( as is offered to be made out by many ) have under all disguises laboured the renting us to pieces , and our sins are such that these wicked designs prove daily but too successful . but after all the mist and dust any may study to raise , i doubt not but to serious considerers it will appear , that we of this church are in a clear and safe way , and that our doctrine is no other than what our saviour and his apostles delivered , and what the first christians and their successors for many ages believed ; and that we are in the same method of finding out the true faith which they followed : all which i shall conclude with these excellent and divinely charitable versicles of our litany : that it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace , to hear meekly thy word , and to receive it with pure affection , and to bring forth the fruits of the spirit . that it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived , and that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men . we beseech thee to hear us good lord. the end . a brief catalogue of books newly printed and reprinted for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty . the works of the reverend and learned henry hammond , d. d. containing a collection of discourses chiefly practical , with many additions and corrections from the author 's own hand ; together with the life of the author enlarged , by the reverend dr. fell , dean of christ-church in oxford . in large folio . a paraphrase and annotations upon all the books of the new testament , briefly explaining all the difficult places thereof . the fourth edition corrected . by h. hammond , d. d. in folio . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or , a collection of polemical discourses addressed against the enemies of the church of england , both papists and fanaticks , in large folio , by ier. taylor , chaplain in ordinary to k. charles the first of blessed memory , and late lord bishop of down and conner . antiquitates christianae , or , the history of the life and death of the holy jesus , as also , the lives , acts , and martyrdoms of his apostles . in two parts , the first part containing the life of christ , written by ieremy taylor , late lord bishop of down and conner . the second , containing the lives of the apostles , by william cave , d. d. chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . the second part of the practical christian , consisting of meditations and psalms illustrated with notes , or paraphrased ; relating to the hours of prayer , the ordinary actions of day and night , and several dispositions of men. by r. sherlock , d. d. rector of winwick the royal martyr , and the dutiful subject , in two sermons : by gilbert burnet . new. the christian sacrifice , a treatise shewing the necessity , end and manner of receiving the holy communion , &c. the devout christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to god : or , a book of devotions , &c. both written by the reverend s. patrick , d. d. in 12. a serious and compassionate enquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england , &c. considerations concerning comprehension , toleration , and the renouncing the covenant . in octavo new. animadversions upon a book , entituled , fanaticism fanatically imputed to the catholick church : by dr. stillingfleet , and the imputation refuted and retorted by s. c. the second edition . by a person of honour . in octavo . reflections upon the devotions of the roman church . with the prayers , hymns and lessons themselves , taken out of their authentick authors . in three parts . in octavo . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30400-e1450 deut. 13 1. gal. 1. 8 , 9. s. mat. 12. 24 , to 31. notes for div a30400-e1900 1 thess. 2. 11. 2 thess. 3. 10. 1 cor. 7. 4 , 5. the ill effects of animosities among protestants in england detected and the necessity of love unto, and confidence in one another, in order to withstand the designs of their common enemies, laid open and enforced. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 85 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 12 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30357 wing b5802 estc r11786 11998183 ocm 11998183 52139 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30357) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 52139) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 558:5) the ill effects of animosities among protestants in england detected and the necessity of love unto, and confidence in one another, in order to withstand the designs of their common enemies, laid open and enforced. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 23 p. s.n.], [london? : 1688. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and 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guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -england. dissenters -england. great britain -church history -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-11 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the ill effects of animosities among protestants in england detected : and the necessity of love unto , and confidence in one another , in order to withstand the designs of their common enemies , laid open and enforced . every kingdom divided against it self , is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided against it self , shall not stand . matth. xii . 25. dum pugnant singuli , universi vincuntur . tacit. printed in the year 1688. it is long since the court of england , under the authority of the late king and his brother , was embarked in a design of subverting the protestant religion , and of introducing and establishing popery . for the two royal brothers being in the time of their exile seduced by the caresles and importunities of their mother , allured by the promises and favours of popish princes , and being wheedled by the crafts and arts of priests and jesuits , who are cunning to deceive , and knew how to prevail upon persons , that were but weakly established in the doctrine , and wholly strangers to the practice and power of the religion they were tempted from ; they not only abjured the reformed religion , and became reconciled to the church of rome , but by their example , and the influence which they had over those that depended upon them both for present subsistence and future hopes , they drew many that accompanied them in their banishment , to renounce the doctrine , worship , and communion of the church of england , though in the war between charles i. and the parliament , they had pretended to fight for them in equal conjunction with the prerogatives of the crown . so that upon the restoration in the year 1660. they were not only moulded and prepared themselves for promoting the desires of the pope and his emissaries , but they were furnished with a stock of gentlemen out of whom they might have a supply of instruments both in parliament and elsewhere , to cooperate with , and under them , in the methods that should be judged most proper and subservient to the extirpation of protestancy , and the bringing the nation again into a servitude to the triple crown . and besides the obligations , that the principles of the religion to which they had revolted , laid them under for eradicating the established doctrine and worship , they had bound themselves unto it , by all the promises and oaths , which persons are capable of having proscribed unto and exacted of them . nor can any now disbelieve his late majesties having lived and died a papist , who hath either heard what he both said and did , when under the prospect of approaching death , and past hope of acting a part any longer on the present stage , or who have seen and read the two papers left in his closet , which have been since published to the world , and attested for authentick by the present king. and had we been so just to our selves , as to have examined the whole course of his reign , both in his alliances abroad , and his most important counsels and actions at home , or had we hearkned to the reports of those who knew him at collen and in flanders , we had been long ago convinced of what religion he was . nor were his many repeated protestations of his zeal for protestancy , but in order to delude the nation , till insensibly as to us , and with safety to himself , he had overturned the religion which he pretended to own , and had introduced that which he inveighed against . and while with the highest asseverations he disclaimed the being what he really was , and with most sacred and tremendous oaths professed the being what he was not , his religion might in the mean time have been traced through all the signal occurrences of his government , and have been discerned written in capital letters , through all the material affairs wherein he was engaged from the day he ascended the throne , till the hour he left the world. his entring into two wars against the dutch , without any provocation on their part , or ground on his , save their being a protestant state ; his being not only conscious unto , but enterposing his commands , as well as encouragements , for the burning of london ; his concurrence in all the parts of the popish plot , except that which the jesuits , with a few others , were involved in against himself ; his stifling that conspiracy , and delivering the roman catholicks from the dangers into which it had cast them ; his being the author of so many forged plots , which he caused to be charged upon protestants ; his constant confederacies with france , to the dissobliging his people , the betraying of europe , the neglect of the reformed in that kingdom , and the encouraging the design carried on against them for their extirpation ; his entailing the duke of york upon the nation , contrary to the desires and endeavours of three several parliaments , and that not out of love to his person , but affection to popery , which he knew that gentleman would introduce and establish : all these , besides many other things which might be named , were sufficient evidences of the late kings religion , and of the design he was ingaged in for the subversion of ours . so that it would fill a sober person with amazement , to think that after all this there should be so many sincere protestants and true englishmen , who not only believed the late king to be of the reformed religion , but with an insatiableness thirsted after the blood of those that durst otherwise represent him . and had it not been for his receiving absolution and extreme unction from a popish priest at his death , and for what he left in writing in the two papers found in his strong box , he would have still passed for a prince who had lived and died a cordial and zealous protestant , and whosoever had muttered any thing to the contrary , would have been branded for a villian and an execrable person . but with what a scent and odour must it recommend his memory to them , to consider his having not only lived and died in the communion of the church of rome , in contradiction to all his publick speeches , solemn declarations and highest asserverations to his people in parliament , but his participating from time to time of the sacrament , as administred in the church of england , while in the interim he had abjured our religion , stood reconciled to the church of rome , and had obliged himself by most sacred vows and was endeavouring by all the frauds and arts imaginable to subvert the established doctrine and worship , and set up heresie and idolatry in their room . and it must needs give them an abhorrent idea and character of popery , and a loathsom representation of those trusted with the conduct and guidance of the consciences of men in the roman communion , that they should not only dispence with , and indulge such crimes and villanies , but proclaim them sanctified and meritorious from the end which they are calculated for , and levelled at . and for his dear brother , and renowned successor , who now possesseth the throne , i suppose his most partial admirers , who took him for a prince , not only merciful in his temper , and imbued with all gracious inclinations to our laws , and the rights of the subject , but for one orthodox in his religion , and who would prove a zealous defender of the doctrine , worship , and discipline of the church as established by law ; are by this time both undeceived , and filled with resentments for his having abused their credulity , deceived their exspectations , and reproached all their gloryings and boastings of him . for as it would be now the greatest affront they could put upon the king , to question his being of the roman communion , or to detract from his zeal for the introduction of popery , notwithstanding his own antecedent protestations , as well as the many statutes in force for the preservation of the reformed religion ; so i must take the liberty to tell them , that his apostacy is not of so late a date , as the world is made commonly to believe . for though it was many years concealed , and the contrary pretended and dissembled ; yet it is most certain that he abjured the protestant religion , soon after the exilement of the royal family , and was reconciled to the romish church at st. germains in france . nor were several of the then suffering bishops and clergy ignorant of this , though they had neither the integrity nor courage to give the nation and church warning of it . and within these five years there was in the custody of a very worthy and honest gentleman , a letter written to the late bishop of d●●by a dr. of divinity , then attending upon the royal brothers , wherein the apostacy of the then ▪ duke of york to the sea of rome is particularly related , and an account given how much the duchess of tremoville ( who without being her self observed ) had heard the queen mother glorying of it , bewailed it as a dishonor to the royal family , and as that which might prove of pernicious consequence to the protestant interest . but tho the old queen privately rejoiced and triumphed in it , yet she knew too well what disadvantage it might be both to her son , and to the papal cause in great britain , to have it at that season communicated and divulged . thereupon it remained a secret for many years , and by vertue of a dispensation , he sometimes joyned in all ordinances with those of the protestant communion . but for allthe art , hypocrisie and sacrilege , by which it was endeavoured to be concealed , it might have been easily discerned , as manifesting it self in the whole course of his actions . and at last his own zeal , the importunity of the priests , and the cunning of the late king , prevailing over reasons of state , he withdrew from all acts of fellowship with the church of england . but neither that , nor his refusing the test enjoyned by law for distinguishing papists from protestants , tho thereupon he was forced both to resign his office of lord high admiral , and to stand excluded from the house of lords ; nor his declining the oath which the laws of scotland for the securing a protestant governor , enjoyn to be taken by the high commissioner ; nor yet so many parliaments having endeavoured to get him excluded from succession to the crown , upon the account of having revolted to the sea of rome , and thereby become dangerous to the established religion , could make impression upon a willfully deluded and obstinate sort of protestants , but in defiance of all means of conviction , they would persuade themselves , that he was still a zealot for our religion , and a grand patriot of the church of england . nor could any thing undeceive them , till upon his brothers death he had openly declared himself a roman catholick , and afterwards in the fumes and raptures of his victory over the late duke of monmouth , had discovered and proclaimed his intentions of overthrowing both our religion and our laws . yea , so closely had some sealed up their eyes against all beams of light , and hardened themselves against all evidences from reason and fact , that had it pleased the almighty god to have prospered the duke of monmouth's arms in the summer 85. the present king would have gone off the state , with the reputation among them of a prince tender of the laws of the kingdom , and who notwithstanding his own being a papist , would have preserved the reformed religion , and have maintained the church of england in all her grandeur and rights . and tho his whole life had been but one continued conspiracy against our civil liberties and privileges , he had left the throne with the character and under the esteem of a gentleman , that in the whole course of his government would have regulated himself by the rules of the constitution , and the statutes of the realm . now among all the methods fallen upon by the royal brothers , for the undermining and subverting our religion and laws , there is none that they have pursued with more ardor , and wherein they have been more succesful to the compassing of their designs , than in their dividing protestants , and alienating their affections , and imbittering their minds from and against one another . and had not this lain under their prospect , and the means of effecting it appeared easie , they might have been papists themselves , while in the mean time they had been dispensed with to protest and swear their being of the reformed religion , and they might have envied our liberties , and bewailed their restriction from arbitrary and despotical power ; but they never durst have entertained a thought of subverting the established religion , or of altering the civil government , nor would they ever have had the boldness to have attempted the introducing and erecting popery and tyranny in their room . and whosoever should have put them upon reducing the nation to the church of rome , or upon rendring the monarchy unlimited and iudependent on the law , would have been thought to have laid a snare for exposing the papists to greater severities , than they were obnoxious unto before , and to have projected the robbing the crown of the prerogatives which belong unto it by the rules of the constitution , and to which it was so lately restored . and the despair of succeeding , would have rendred the royal brothers deaf to all importunities from romish emissaries , and court minions . neither the promises and oaths which they had made and taken beyond sea to introduce popery , nor their ambition to advance themselves beyond the restraint of laws , and the controll of parliaments , would have prevailed upon them to have encountred the hazards and difficulties , which in case of the union of english protestants , must have attended and ensued upon attempts and endeavours of the one kind and of the other . or should their beloved popery , and their own be biggottedness in the romish superstition , have so far transported them beyond the bounds of wisdom and discretion , as to have appeared possessed with an intention of subverting the protestant religion , and of enslaving the nation to the superstition and idolatry of rome , they would have been made soon to understand . that the laws which make it treason to own the jurisdiction of the pope , or to seduce the meanest subject to the church of rome , were not enacted in vain , and that those as well as many more made for the security of the protestant religion , and to prevent the growth and introduction of popery , were not to be dallied and plaid withal . or should they have been so far infatuated and abandoned of all understanding , as out of a foolish and haughty affectation of being absolute , to have attempted the alteration of the civil government , they would have been immediately and unanimously told , that the people have the same right to their liberties , that the king hath to the prerogatives of the crown . and if they would not have been contented with what belongs unto the prince by the common and statute laws of the realm , but had invaded the priviledges reserved unto the subject : they would have been made to know , that they might not only be withstood in what they strove to usurp contrary to magna charta , petition of right , and other laws of the kingdom , but that thereby they forfeited , and might be disseized of what either appertained unto the crown by fundamental agreements , or hath been since settled upon the monarch by statute laws . nor could any thing have emboldned his late majesty and the present king , to enterprises of the one kind or the other , but the prospect of begetting a misunderstanding , jealousie , and rancour among protestants , and thereby both of making them instrumental to the ruin of one another , and contributary to the loss of english liberty and the reformed religion , which they equally value and esteem , and to the setting up popery and tyranny , which the one detesteth and abhorreth no less than the other . though all english protestants have ever been at an accord in all the essentials and vitals of religion , yet from the very beginning of the reformation , there have been differences among them concerning ecclesiastical government and discipline , and about forms , rites , and ceremonies of worship . and had they consulted either their duty to god , or the common interest of religion , they might have found ways either for removing the occasions of them , or they ought to have lived together as brethren , notwithstanding the differences which were among them in those things . but how much wiser are the children of this world , than those of the kingdom of god and of jesus christ. for though the differences amon the papists do far exceed ours , both in their number and in the importancy of those things wherein they disagree , yet they do mutually tolerate and bear with one another . the matters wherein they differ , are neither made the terms of their church communion , nor the grounds of mutual excommunications and persecutions . but alas ! one party among us hath been always endeavouring to cut or stretch others to their own size , and have made those things which themselves stile indifferent , both the qualifications for admission to the pastoral office , and the conditions of fellowship in the ordinances of the gospel . nor is it to be expressed , what advantages were hereby administred all along to the common enemy , and what sufferings peaceable and orthodox christians were exposed unto from their peevish and angry brethren . and tho these things , with the heats begotten among all , and the calamities undergone by one side , were not the cause of that funestous war betwixt charles the first , and the parliament , yet they were an occasion of diverting thousands from the side which the persecuting church men espoused , and of engaging them in the behalf of the two houses , in the quarrel which they begun and carried on against that prince , for defence of the civil liberties , privileges , and rights of the people . but some of the mitred clergy were so far from being made wise by their own and the nations sufferings , as upon their restoration to hearken to moderate counsels , and to decline their former rigors and severities , that they became the tools and instruments of the court , not only far reviving , but for heightning and enflaming all the differences , which had formerly been among english protestants . for the royal brothers finding nothing more adapted and subservient than this , to their design of altering the government , and subverting religion , they animated those waspish and impolitick ecclesiasticks , not only to pursue the restoration of all those things which had given rise and occasion to former dissentions and persecutions , but to lay new snares for alienating many persons of unspotted lives and tender consciences from the church , and of rendring them obnoxious to suffer in their names , persons , and estates . and what a satisfaction was it to the late king and his brother , to find the old episcopal clergy prepared through principles of revenge , as well as from love of domination , ambition , and covetousness to fall in with the design not only of increasing divisions among protestants , both by making the conditions of entring upon the pastoral function narrower and for screwing conformity with the church in her forms and ceremonies of worship , into tests for admission to magistracy and civil trusts , but of obtaining severer laws against dissenters , whereby the penalties to which they foresaw that people would become liable , were rendered greater than they had been before , and their sufferings made more merciless , inhuman and barbarous . for tho his late majesty had by a declaration dated at breda , promised indulgence to all protestants that would live peaceably under the civil government ; yet it was never in his thoughts to perform it , and the previous obligations which he was under to the church of rome , had a vertue to supercede and cancel his engagements to english hereticks . and all he intended by that declaration was only to wheedle and iull those into a tameness of admitting his return into his dominions , whom a jealousie of being afterwards persecuted for their consciences , might have awakened to withstand and dispute it . and to give him his due , he never judged himself longer bound to the observation of promises and oaths made to his people , than until without hazard to his person and government he could violate and break them . accordingly he was no sooner seated in the throne of his ancestors , and those whom he had been apprehensive of resistance and disturbance from , put out of capacity and condition of attempting any thing against him , but he thought himself discharged from every thing , that the royal word and faith of a prince had been pledged and laid to stake for in that declaration , and from that day forward acted in direct opposition to all the parts and branches of it . for having soon after his return obtained a parliament moulded and adapted both to his arbitrary and papish ends , he immediately set all his instruments at work for the procuring such laws to be enacted , as might divide and weaken protestants , and thereby make us not only the more easie a prey to the papists , but afford them an advantage through our scuffles , of undermining our religion with the less notice and observation . how such persons came to be chosen and to constitute the majority of the house of commons , who by their actings have made themselves infamous and execrable to all ages , were a matter too large to penetrate at present into the reasons of : but that which my theme conducts me to observe , is , that as they sacrificed the treasure of the nation to the profuseness and prodigality of the prince , and our rights and liberties to his ambition and arbitrary will , so they both reintroduced and established those things which have been a means of dividing us , and by many severe and repeated laws , they subjected a great number of industrious english men and true protestants , to excommunications , imprisonments , rigorous and multiplied fines , and all this for matters only relating to their consciences , and for their obedience to god in the ordinances of his worship and house . and notwithstanding the late kings often pretended compassions to the fanaticks , it will be hard to discern them , unless in effects which proceed from very different and opposite principles . the distance which hekept them from his person and favor ; the influencing these members of both houses that depended upon him , to be the authors and promoters of severities against them ; the enjoyning so often the judges and justices of peace to execute the laws upon them in their utmost rigor ; the instigating the bishops and ecclesiastical courts , if at any time they relented in their prosecutions , to pursue them with fresh citations and censures ; the arraigning them not only upon the statutes made intentionally against dissenters , but upon those that were originally and solely enacted against the papists ; these and other procedures of that nature are the only proofs and evidences which we can find , of the late kings bowels , pity , and tenderness to the fanaticks . and whereas the weak church-men were imposed upon to believe , that all the severity against the nonconformists , was the fruit of his zeal for the protestant religion , and for the security of the worship and discipline established by law ; they might have easily discovered , if passion , prejudice , wealth and honor , had not blinded them , that all this was calculated for ends perfectly destructive to the church , and inconsistent with the safety and happiness of all protestants . for as his seeking oftner than once to have wriggled himself into a power of superceding and dispensing with those laws , and suspending their execution , plainly shews that he never intended the support and preservation of the church by them ; so his non-execution of the laws against papists , his conniving at their encrease ; his persuading those nearest unto him to reconcile themselves to the sea of rome , as he did among others the late duke of monmouth ; his countenancing the roman catholicks in their open and intolerable insolencies , and his advancing them to the most gainful and important places and trusts , sufficiently declare that he never had any love to protestants , or care of the reformed religion ; but that all his designs were of a contrary tendency , and his fairest pretences for the protection and grandeur of the church of england adapted to other ends . thus the royal brothers having obtained such laws to be enacted whereby one party of protestants was armed with means of oppressing and persecuting all others , neither the necessity of their affairs at any time since , nor the application and interposure of several parliaments for removing the grounds of our differences and animosities by an indulgence to be past into a law , could prevail either upon his late majesty or the present king to forego the advantage they had gotten of keeping us in mutual enmity & thereby of ministring to their projection of supplanting our religion , & of reestablishing the faith , & worship of the church of rome . hereupon the last king not only refused to consent to such bills as diverse late parliaments had prepared for indulging dissenters , & of bringing them into an union of counsels , & conjunction of interest , with those of the church of england , for resisting the conspiracies of the papists against our legal government & established religion ; but he rejected an address for suspending the execution of the penal laws against fanaticks , which was offered & presented unto him by that very parliament which had framed & enacted those cruel & villanous laws . and as the royal brothers have made it their constant business to cherish a division & rancour among protestants , and to provoke one party to persecute & ruine an other , so nothing could more naturally fall in with the design of arbitrariness , or be more subservient to the betraying the nation to papal idolatry & jurisdiction . for severe penal laws against a considerable body of the people , do either expose them against whom they are enacted , to be destroyed by the prince with whom the executive power of the law is trusted and deposited , or they prove a temptation to such as are obnoxious , of resigning themselves in such a manner to the will and pleasure of the monarch , for the obtaining his connivency at their violation of the laws , as is unsafe and dangerous for the common liberty , and good of the kingdom . for in case the supream magistrate pursue an interest distinct from and destructive to that of his people , they who the law hath made liable to be oppressed , are brought under inducements of becoming so many partisans for abetting him in his designes , in hopes of being thereupon protected from the penal statutes , the execution whereof is committed to him . and as it is not agreeable to the wisdom & prudence which ought to be among men , nor to the mercy & compassion which should be among christians , for one party to surrender an other into the hands & power of the soveraign to be impoverished & ruined by him at his pleasure , especially when those whom they give up to be thus treated & entertained , are at agreement with them in all the essentials of religion , equally zealous as themselves for the liberties of their country , & who for sobriety in their lives , industry in their callings , & usefulness in the common-wealth , are inferior to none of their fellow subjects : so it is obvious to any who give themselves leave to think , that the king would long ere this have been stated in the absoluteness that is aspired after , & both church and state reduced to ly at the discretion of the monarch , provided the nonconformists , for procuring his favour in non-execution of the laws , had suffered themselves to be prevailed upon , and drawn over to stand by and assist him in his popish and despotical designs . but those people , tho hated and maligned by their brethren , rather than be found aiding the king in his usurpations over the kingdom , have chosen to undergoe the utmost calamities they could be made subject unto , either through the execution of those laws which had been made against them , or through our princes & their ministers wrecking their malice upon them in arbitrary and illegal methods . but what the royal brothers could not work the afflicted and persecuted side unto , they found the art to engage the other side in , tho not only excepted from all obnoxiousness to those laws , but strenthened & supported by them . for as soon as the court begun to despaire of prevailing upon the fanaticks , to become their tools & instruments of enslaving the nation , and of exalting the monarchy to despotical absoluteness , they applyed to some of the church of england , whom by gratifying with a vigorous execution of the laws upon dissenters , they brought to abett , applaud , and justify them , in all those counsels and ways which have reduced us into that miserable condition wherein we now are . the clergy being advanced to grandure and opulency , things which many of them are fonder of , and loather to forego , than religion and the rights of the nation , the court made it their business to possess them with a belief , that unless the fanaticks were suppressed and ruined , they could not enjoy with security their dignities and wealth . whereupon not only the lesser levites , but the superior clergy having their lesson and cue given them from whitehall and st james , fell upon pursuing the nonconformists with ecclesiastical punishments , and upon exciting and animating the civil officers against them . and under pretence of preserving and defending the church , they gave themselves over to an implicit serving of the court , and became not only advocates but instruments for the robbing of corporations of their charters , for imposing sheriffs upon the city of london who had not been legally elected , and of fining and punishing men arbitrarily for no crime , save the having asserted their own and the nations rights in modest and lawful ways . posterity will hardly believe that so many of the prelatical clergy , and so great a number of members of the church of england , should from an enmity unto , and pretended jealousie of the panaticks , have become tools under the late king for justifying the dissolution of so many parliaments , the invasion made upon their priviledges , the ridiculing and stifling of the popish plot , the shamming of forged conspiracies upon protestants , the condemning several to death for high treason who could be rendred guilty by the transgression of no known law , and finally for advancing a gentleman to the throne , who had been engaged in a conjuration against religion and the legal government , and whom three several parliaments would have therefore excluded from the right of succession . and being seduced into an espousal of the interests of the court against religion , parliaments , and the nation , it is doleful to consider what doctrines both from pulpit and press , were thereupon belched forth and divulged . such as monarchy's being a government by divine right ; that it is in the princes power to rule as he pleaseth ; that it is a grace and condescention in the king to give an account of what he does ; that for parliaments to direct or regulate the succession borders upon treason , and is an offence against the law of nature ; and that the only thing left to subjects in case the king will tyrannise over their consciences , persons & estates , is tamely to suffer , and as they absurdly express it , to exercise passive obedience . so that by corrupting the minds & consciences of men with those pestilent and slavish notions , they betrayed the nation both to the mischiefs which have already overtaken us , & to what further we are yet threatned with . nor did these doctrines tend meerly to the fettering & enfeebling the spirits of men , but they were a temptation to the royal brothers to put in execution what they had been so long contriving and travelling with , and were a kind of reprimanding them for being ignorant of their own right and power , and for not exerting it with that vigour and expedition which they might . i do acknowledge that there were many both of the sacred order , and of the laick communion of the church of england , who were far from being infected with those brutish sentiments and opinions , and who were as zealous as any for having the monarchy kept within its ancient limits ; parliaments maintained in their wonted reverence and authority ; the subjects preserved in the enjoyment of their immemorial priviledges ; and who were far from sacrificing our religion and laws to popery & arbitrariness , and from lulling us into a tameness and lethargy , in case the court should attempt the abolishing the established doctrin and worship , and the subverting and changing the civil government . but alas ! besides their being immediately branded with the name of conformable fanaticks , and registred in the kalender with those that stood precluded the kings favour & merited his animadversion ; their modesty was soon drownd and silenced in the loud noise of their clamorous brethren , and their retiredness from conversation , while the others , frequented all places of society and publick concourse , deprived the nation of the benefit of their example , and the happiness of their instructions . not have i mentioned the extravagancies of any of the ecclesiasticks and members of the church of england , with a design either of reproaching and upbraiding them , or of provoking and exasperating the fanaticks to resentments , but only to shew how fatal our divisions have been unto us , what excesses they have occasioned our being hurried and transported into , and what mischievous improvement our enemies have made of them to the supplanting and almost subverting of all that is valuable unto us as we are englishmen , christians , and protestants . and as our animosities through our divisions gave the court an advantage of suborning that party , which they pretended to befriend and uphold , into a ministration to all their counsels and projections against our religion and laws ; so by reason of the unnatural heats wherewith protestants have been enflamed and enraged against protestants , many weak , ungrounded , and unstable souls , have been tempted to question the truth of our religion , and to apostatise to the church of rome , and thereupon have become united in inclination , power , and endeavours with the court and our old enemies the papists , for the exstirpation of protestancy and the alteration of the government . as it hath been matter of offence and scandal to all men , so it hath been ground of stumbling and falling unto many , to see those who are professedly of the same religion , to be mutually embittered against one another , and so far transported with malice and rage , as to seek and pursue each others destruction . for such a carriage and behaviour are so contrary to the spirit an principles of christianity , and to the genius and temper of true religion , that it is no mervaile , if persons ignorant of the holy scriptures , and strangers to the converting and comforting vertue of the doctrine of the gospel asserted in our confessions , and insisted upon by our divines ; should suspect the orthodoxy of that religion which is accompanied with so bitter fruits , even in the dispensers of the word as well as in others , and betake themselves to the communion of that church , where how many and important soever their differences be one with an other , yet they do not break forth into those flames of excommunicating and persecuting each other ; that ours have done . how have some among us through having their spirits fretted and exasperated by the craft and cunning of our enemies , not only loaded and stigmatised their bretheren and fellow protestants with crimes and names , which were they true and deserved , would justly render us a loathing and an abomination to mankind , but have libelled and branded those whom god had honored to be instruments of the reformation , with appellations and characters fit to beget a detestation of their doctrine , as well as their memory . the worst that the papists have forged and vomited out against luther zwinglius , calvin &c. hath been raked up and repeated to the disparagment of the reformation , and to the scandalising the minds of weak men against it . and as the jesuites and priests have improved those slanders and calumnies to the seduction of diverse from the church of england , and to a working them over to a reconciliation with the church of rome ; so the court hath there by had an increase of their faction and party against our religion aud liberties , and have been inabled to muster troops of janisaries for their despotical and unlimited claim . nor have our divisions with the heats , animosities , revilings , & persecutions that have ensued thereupon , proved only an occasion of the seduction of several from our religion , and of their apostacy to popery , but they have been a main spring & force of the debauchery , irreligion and atheisme , which have overspread the nation , & have brought so many both to an indifferency and unconcernedness for the gospel and all that is vertuous and noble , and have disposed them to fall in with those that could countenance and protect them in their impiety and prophaneness , & feed their luxury and pride with honor and gain . what a woful scheme of religion have we afforded the world , and how shamefully have we painted forth and represented the holy doctrin of the blessed jesus , while we have not only lived in a direct opposition to all the commands of meekness , love and mutual forbearance , which our religion lays us under the authority off , but have neglected to practice good manners , to observe the rules of civility , to treat one another with common humanity & to do as we would be done unto . while we have been more offended at what seemed to supplant our dominations & grandures than at what dishonor'd god & reproached the gospel ; while we weighd not so much whether they whom we took into our sacred communion as well as into our personal friendship , were conformable in their lives to the scripture , as whether they comply'd with the canons of the church ; while we reprobated all that were not of our way , tho never so vertuous & devout , and sainted all that were , tho never so wicked & prophane ; while we branded such for fanaticks , whom we could justly charge with nothing , save the not admiting that into religion which came not from the divine author of it , & hugged those for good and orthodox believers , that would sooner consult the statute book for their practice in the worship of god , than the bible ; while we haled those to prison & spoiled them of their estates , to whom nothing could be objected except their being too precise and conscientious in avoiding that through fear & apprehension of sinning , which others had a liberty & latitude to do as judging it lawful , and in the mean time esteemed those worthy of the chiefest trusts in the church & commonwealth , whose folly & villanies made them unfit for civil societies ; while they who lived most agreeably to the laws of god , & the example of christ , were persecuted as enemies to religion and the pests of the kingdom , and in the interim too many of the very clergy were not only countenancers of the most profligate persons as their best friends , but joined and assisted in scandalous debaucheries , under pretence of sustaining the honor of their tribe , & doing service to the church . i say while these were unhappy but too obvious fruits of our divisions & of the bitter heats that accompanied them , how was the reverence for the sacred order lessened & diminished , the veneration for religion weakned and lost , the shame & dread of appearing profane & wicked removed and banished , & such who took the measures of chistianity from the practices of those that were stiled christians , rather than from the immaculate and holy scriptures , tempted to think all religion a juggle , & priesthood but an artifice & craft to compass honor & wealth . and tho nothing but a shortness of understanding , and an immoderate love to their lusts , could occasion the drawing such a conclusion from foregoing premisses , yet i must needs grant that there was too just ground administr'd to them of saying that many did not believe that themselves , the faith whereof they recommended to others . but that which i would more particularly observe , is , that it is from among those who by the foregoing occasion have been tempted to debauchery & irreligion , that the romish emissaries have made the harvest of proselytes & converts to the church of rome . for as they who fear not god , will be easily brought to imitate caesar , & such who are of no religion , will in subserviency to secular ends assume the mask and profession of any ; so popery is extreamly adapted to the wishes and desires of wicked and profane men , in that it provides for their living as enormously as they please here , & flatters them with hopes & assurances of blessedness hereafter . they who can be ascertained of going to heaven upon the confessing their sins to a priest , and their receiving absolution , the encharist and extreme unction , need not look after repentance toward god , conversion to holiness , nor a life , of faith , love , mortification , and obedience , which the protestant religion , upon the authority of the gospel obligeth them unto , in order to the obtaining of eternal happiness . and as the late apostates to popery in england , are chiefly such who were notorious for loosness , prophaness and immorality , and were the scandal of our religion while they professed it , and while in our church were not properly of it , so it from among men of this stamp & character that his late majesty and the present king have found persons assisting and subservient to their despotical and arbitrary designs . for whosoever takes a survey of the court faction , & considereth who have been the advocates for encroachments upon our liberties , and abetters of usurpation over our right , they will find them to have been principally the profligate and debauched among the nobility and gentry , the mercenary , ignorant & scandalous among the clergy , the offscouring and such as are an ignominy to humane nature among the yeomanry and pesants . and it was in order to this villanous end , that the royal brothers have endeavoured so industriously to debauch the nation , & have made sensuality & profaneness the qualifications for preferment , & the badges of loyalty . and if among those that appear for the preservation of the liberties of their country , there be any that deserve to be stiled enemies to religion and vertue , as i dare affirm that they owe their immoralities to court education , converse & example , so i hope that though they have not hitherto been all of them so happy as to have left their vices where they learned them , yet that they will not continue to disparage the good cause which they have espoused with an unsuitable life , nor give their adversaries reason to say , that while they pretend to seek the reformation of the state , they are both the deriders of sobriety & virtue , without which no constitution can long subsist , & guilty of such horrid oaths , cursing , imprecations , blasphemies and uncleanesses , which naturally as well as morally and meritously dispose nations to subversion and extirpation . finally being through the bitter effects which have ensued upon our divisions , made apprehensive & jealous one of another , it hath from there come to pass , that while the care of the conformists hath been to watch against the grouth of the dissenters , & the solicitude of the nonconformists hath been how to prevert the rage of the bigotted church men , the papists in the mean time without being headed or observ'd have both incredibly multiplied , & made considerable advances in their designs of ruining us . for whensoever the court was to take a signal step towards popery & arbitrary power , there was a clamor raised of some menacing boldness of the fanaticks . and if the nation grew at any time alarm'd , by reason of the favor shewn to roman catholicks , & of some visible progress made towards the kings becoming despotical , all was immediatly husht with a shout and cry of the government and churches being in eminent hazard from the dissenters . yea whensoever the papists & their royal patrens stood detected of having been conspiring against our religion & civil liberties , all was diverted & stiffled by putting the kingdom upon a false scent , and by hounding out their beagles upon the nonconformists . so that the eyes & minds of protestants being employed in reference to what was to be apprehended & feared from one anoother , the workings of our popish enemies either escaped our observation , or were heeded by most only with a superficial and unaffective glance . and while our church men stood prepossessed by the court with a dread and jealousie of the fanaticks , all that was said and written of a conspiracy carried on by the papists against our laws and religion , was entertained and represented by the prejudiced clergy , as an artifice only of the dissenters for compassing an indulgence from the parliament , which in case such a plot had obtained the belief that a matter of so great danger and consequence required , would have been easily granted , being the only rational expedient for the preservation of the established religion and the legal government . nor did our enemies question but that having enflamed our divisions and raised our animosities to so great a height , rather than the one party would lay aside their severities , and the other let fall their resentments , we would even be contented to lye at their mercy , and submit our selves to the pleasure and discretion of the court and papists . and there have not wanted some peevish , foolish , and ill men of both parties , who rather than sacrifice their spleen and passion , and abandon their particular quarrels for the interest and safety of the whole , would be inclined to expose the protestant religion and english liberties , to the hazards wherewith they are apparently threatned , and to suffer all extremities , meerly to have the satisfaction of seeing those whom they respectively hate , involved with them under the same miseries . but as this is such a degree of madness and infatuation , as can proceed from nothing but brutish rage , and argues no less than a divine nemesis ; so i hope they are but few that stand infected with these passionate sentiments and inclinations , and remain thus hardned in their mutual prejudices . and to those i have nothing to say , nor the least advice to administer , but shall leave them to their own follies , as persons to whose conviction no discourse tho never so rational can be adapted , and whom only stripes can work upon . 't is to such therefore as are capable of hearkning to reason , & who are ready to embrace any counsel that shall be found adjusted to the common interest , that i am to address what remains to be represented and said in the following leaves . for all parties of protestants having seen , how far our enemies have improved our divisions and rancours to the compassing their wicked and ambitious designs , and the robbing us of all , that good & generous men account valuable , they are at last convinced of the necessity we are reduced unto , of altering the measures of our acting towards one another , and both of laying aside our persecutions , and of exchanging our wranglings among our selves , into a joint contending for the faith of the gospel , & the rights of the nation . for what the gentleman now in the throne intends and aims at , is not any longer matter of meer suspicion & jealousie , but of demonstrable evidence & unquestionable certainty . his mask & vizor of zeal for the preservation of the church of england , and of tender regard for the laws of the land are laid by & put off , and his resolutions of governing arbitiarily , & of introducing popery , are become obvious to all men whom reason and sense have not forseken & left . the papists whom it was thought much a while ago to see connived at in the exercise of their worship in private houses , are allowed now to practice their idolatry openly in our chief towns , and in the metropolitan city of the neighboring kingdom to usurp the publick churches & cathedarals . those catholick gentlemen whom heretofore it was matter of surprise , to see countenanced with the private favor of the prince , are now advanced to the supream commands in the army , & the principal trust in civil affairs . the recusant lords whose enlargement out of the tower , we could not but look upon as an unpresidented violation both of laws of the land & of the rights & jurisdiction of parliament , being committed thither by the authority of the house of lords upon a charge & impeachment of high treason by the commons of england in parliament assembled , are now honored to be members of the privy council , and exalted to be chief ministers of state. they whom the statutes of the realm make subject to the severest penalties for apostacy to rome , are not only protected from the edge of the law , but maintained in parochial incumbencies & headships of colledges . our orthodox clergy are not only inhibited to preach against popery , but are illegally reprimanded , silenced , & suspended , for discharching that duty , which their consciences , offices , oaths , and the laws of the kingdom oblige them unto . and such whom neither the ecclesiastical nor westminster courts , can arraign & proceed against , we have a new court of inquisition erected for the adjudging & punishing of them . so that it is not the fanaticks who are the only persons to be stuck at and ruined , but the conformists are to be treated after the same manner , and to share in the common lot whereunto all honest & sincere protestants are destined & designed . even they who were the darlings of whitehall & st. iames's , & recompenced with honors and titles for betraying the rights and priviledges of corporations , persecuting dissenters , & heading addresses , wherein parliaments were reproached , the course of justice against popish offenders was slandered , the illegal & arbitrary procedures of the court applauded and justified , & all that were zealous for our laws and liberties stigmatised with the names of villains and traitors , are now themselves , for but discouraging popish assemblies & attempting to put the laws in execution against priests who had publickly celebrated mass , not only checkt and rebuked , but punished with seisure and imprisonment . nor are our religion and civil liberties meerly supplanted and undermined by illegal tricks glossed over with the varnish of judicial forms , but they are assaulted & battered in the face of the sun , without so much as a palliation to give their procedures a plausible figure . and the king being brought to a despair of managing the parliament to his bare-faced purposes of popery & arbitrariness , & of prevailing with them to establish tyranny & idolatry by law , notwithstanding their having been as industriously packt & chosen to answer such a design ▪ as art , bribery & authority could reach , & notwithstanding their having been obsequious in their first session to an excess that hath proved unsafe to themselves & the nation , he seems resolvd not to allow them to meet any more , but to set up a la mode de france , and to have his personal commands , seconded with the assent of his durante beueplacito judges to be acknowledged and obeyed for laws . so that they who were formerly seduced into a good opinion of him , are not only undeceived , but provoked to warm resentments for having had their credulity & easmess of belief so grosly abused . and as the converting so vast a number of well meaning but wofully deluded people , who had suffered themselves to be hoodwinked and fatally hurried to betray their religion , country , & posterity , to the ambition & popish bigottry of the court , was a design becoming the compassion , mercy and wisdom of god ; so the methods & means whereby they are come to be enlightned & proselyted , are a signal vindication of the sapience & righteousness of god in all these tremendous steps of his providence , by which our enemies have been emboldned to detect & discover themselves . for tho their continuing so long to have a good opinion of the present king , and their abetting him so far in the undermining our religion and invading our liberties , may seem to have proceeded not so much from their ignorance is from their obstinacy & malice ; yet god who penetrates into the hearts of men , may have discovered some degrees of sincerity in their pretensions & carriages tho accompanied with a great deal of folly & unmanliness . nor are the lords ways like to outs , to give persons over us unteachable and irreclaimable , upon their withstanding every measure of light , and the resisting even those means which were sufficient and proper for their conviction ; but he will try them by new and extraordinary methods , & see whether feeling & doleful experience may not convert those , upon whom arguments and moral evidence could make no impressions . and their being among those formerly missed and deluded protestants , many who retained a love for their country , a care for their posterity , and a zeal for the gospel and reformed religion , even when their actions imported the contrary , & seem'd to betray them ; the singling and weeding out such from among the court faction & party , is a compensation both for the defeatment of all endeavours for the prevention of the evils that have overtaken us , & for the distresses & calamities under which we do at present lye & groan . and if there be joy in heaven upon the conversion of a sinner , with that thankfulness to god , & joy in themselves , should they who have so many years wrestled against the encreachments of popery & arbitrariness , & who have deeply suffered in their names , persons and estates upon that account , welcome & embrace their once erring & misled but now enlightned , reclaimed and converted brethren . and instead of remembring or upbraiding them with the opposition and rancour ▪ which they expressed against our persons , principles , & ways , let there be no language heard from us , but what may declare the joy we have in our selves for their conversion , and the entire trust & confidence which we put in them . for tho as to many things which might have been hindred , had they not been lulled into deep delusions , they may seem born out of due time , yet there is season enough left both for giving obstruction to what we are farther threatned with , & for recovering out of the jaws of the enemy what he thinks he hath irretrievably swallowed and devoured . the first duty incumbent therefore upon dissenters towards those of the church of england , is to believe that notwithstanding there having been many of them so long advocates & partizans for the court through ignorance of what was aimed at & intended , they are nevertheless as really concerned as any others , and as truly zealous for the preservation of the protestant religion , & for maintaining the legal rights & liberties of the subject , & when occasion shall offer will approve themselves accordingly . 't is a ridiculous as well as a mischievous fancie , for one party to confine all religion only to themselves , or to circumscribe all the ancient english ardor for the common rights of the nation to such as are of their particular fellowship & persuasion , there being sincere christians , & true englishmen among those of all judgments , & societies of protestants , & among none more than those of the communion of the church of england . it were the height of wickedness as well as the most prodigious folly , to imagine that the conformists have abandoned all fidelity to god. & cast off all care of themselves and their country , upon a mistaken iudgment of being loyal & obedient to the king. they know as well as any , that the giving to cesar the things that are cesars , lays them under no obligation of surrendring unto him the things that are gods , nor of sacrificing unto the will of the soveraign the priviledges reserved unto the people by the fundamental rules of the constitution , ●●d by the statutes of the realm . and they understand as well as others , that the laws of the land are the only measures of the princes authority and of the subjects fealty , and where they give him no right to command , they lay them under no tye to obey . and tho here & there a dissenter have written against popery with good success , yet they have been mostly conformable divines who have triumphed over it in elaborate discourses , and who have beaten the romish scriblers off the stage . nor can it be thought that they who have so accurately related and vindicated the history , and asserted an desended the doctrine of the reformation , should either tamely relinquish , or be wanting in all due and legal ways to uphold and maintain it . and tho one or two fanaticks have with sufficient strength and applause brandished their pens against arbitrariness and in detecting the designs of the royal brothers , yet they who have generally and with greatest honor appeared for our laws and legal government against the invasions and usurpations of the court , have been theologues and gentlemen of the church of england . nor in case of further attempts for altering the constitution and enslaving the nation , will they shew themselves unworthy the having descended from ancestors , whose motto in the high places of the field was nolumus leges angliae mutari . they who have so often justified the arms of the united netherlands against their rightful princes the kings of spain , and so unanswerably vindicated their casting off obedience to those monarchs , when they had invaded their priviledges , and attempted to establish the inquisition over them , cannot be ignorant what their own right and duty is in behalf of the protestant religion and english libertles ; for the security whereof , we have not only so many laws , but the coronation oaths and stipulations of our kings . and those gentlemen of the church of england , who appeared so vigorously in three parliaments for excluding the duke of york , from the succession to the crown , by reason of a jealousie of what , through being a papist , he would attempt against our religion and priviledges , in case he were suffered to ascend the throne ; cannot be now to seek what becomes them towards him , tho actually regnant , having seen and felt what before they only apprehended and feared . for if the law that entalleth the succession upon the next of kin , and obligeth the subjects to admit and receive him , not only may but ought to be dispensed with , in case the heir , through having imbib'd principles which threaten the safety , and are inconsistent with the happiness of the people , hath made himself incapable to inherit ; we know by a short ratiocination how far we stand bound to a prince on the throne , who by transgressing against the laws of the constitution , hath abdicated himself from the government , and stands virtually deposed . for whosoever shall offer to rule arbitrarily , does immediately cease to be king de jure , seeing by the fundamental , common and stature laws of the realm , we know none for supream magistrate and governor , but a limited prince , and one who stands circumscribed and bounded in his power and prerogative . and should the dissenters entertain a belief that the conformists are less concerned and zealous than themselves for the protestant religion and laws of the kingdom , they would not only sin and offend against the rules of charity , but against the measures of justice , and daily evidences from matters of fact. for neither they not we owe our conversion to god , and our practical holiness to the opinions about discipline , forms of worship , and ceremonies , wherein we differ , but to the doctrines of faith and christian obedience , wherein we agree . 't is not their being for a liturgy , a surprize , or a bishop , that hath heretofore influenced them to subserve the court in designs tending to absoluteness , but they were seduced unto it upon motives whereof they are now ashamed , and the ridiculousness and folly of which they have at last discovered . nor is the multitude of profligate and scandalous persons with which the church of england is crowded , any just impeachment of the purity of her doctrine in the vitals and essentials of religion , or of the virtue and piety of many of her members . for as it is her being the only society established by law that attracts those vermin to her bosom , so it is her being restrained by law from debarring them , that keeps them there to her reproach , and to the grief of many of many of her ecclesiasticls . neither is it the fault of the church of england , that the agents and factors for popery and arbitrary power , have chosen to pass under the name of her sons ; but it proceeds partly from their malice , as hoping by that means to disgrace her with all true englishmen , as well as with dissenters , and partly from their craft , in order thereby the better to conceal their design , and to shrowd themselves from the censure and punishment , which had it not been for that mask ▪ they would have been exposed unto , and have undergone . and i dare affirm , that besides the obligations from religion , which the conformists are equa●ly under with dissenters , for hindering the introduction of popery , there are several inducements from interest , which sway them to prevent its establishment , wherein the fanaticks are but little concerned . for tho popery would be alike afflictive to the consciences of protestants of all perswasions , yet they are gentlemen and ministers of the church of england , whose livings , revenues , and estates are threatened in e●se it come to be established . nor wou'd the most loyal and obsequious levites , provided they resolve to continue protestants , be willing that their parsonages and incumbencies , to which they have no less right by law , than the king hath to the excise and customs , should be taken from them and bestowed upon romish priests , by an act of dispotical power , and of unlimited prerogative . and for the gentlemen , as i think sew of them would hold themselves obliged to part with their purses to high-way padders , t●ough such should have a patent from the king to rob whomsoever they encountred upon the read ; so there will not be many inclined to suffer their mannors and abbey-lands , to which they have so good a title , to be ravished from them either by monks or janizaries , tho authorized thereunto by the prince's commission . even they who had formerly suffered themselves to be seduced to prove in a manner betrayers of the rights and religion of their country , will now ( being undeceived ! not only in conjunction with others withstand the court in its prosecution of popish and arbitrary designs , but through a generous exasperation for having been deluded and abused , will judg themselves obliged in vindication of their actings before , to appear for the protestant religion and the laws of england , with a zeal equal to that wherewith they contributed to the undermining and supplanting of them . for they are not only become more sensible than they were of the mischiefs of absolute government so as for the future to prize and assert the priviledges reserved unto the people by the rules of the constitution , and chalkt out for them in the laws of the land ; but they have such a fresh view of popery both in its heresies , blasphemies , superstitions and idolatries , and in the treachery , sanguinariness , violence and cruelty , which the papal principles mould , influence , and oblige men unto , that they not only entertain the greatest abhorrency and detestation imaginable for it , but seem resolved not to cherish in their bosom , a thing so abominable to god , execrable to good men , and destructive to humane as well as to christian societies . nor are the dissenters merely to believe that the conformists are equally zealous as themselves for the reformed religion and english rights , but they are to consider them as thy only great and united body of protestants in the kingdom , with whom all other parties compared bear no considerable proportion . for tho the nonconformists considered abstractedly make a vast number of honest and useful people , yet being laid in the scale with those of the episcopal communion , they are but few and lie in a little room . and whosoever will take the pains to ballance the one against the other , even where the fanaticks make the greatest figure , and may justly boast of their multitude , they will soon be convinced that the number of the other doth far transcend and exceed them . and it be so in cities and corporations , where the greatest bulk of dissenters are , it is much more so in country parishes , where the latter bear not the proportion of one to a hundred . nor doth the church of england more exceed the other parties in her number , than she doth in the quality of her members . for whereas they who make up and constitute the separate societies , are chiefly persons of the middle rank and condition , the church of england doth in a manner vouch , and claim all the persons of honor , of the learned professions , and such as have valuable estates , for her communicants . and though the other sort are as necessary in the common-wealth , and contribute as much to its strength , prosperity , and happiness , yet they make not that figure in the government , nor stand in that capacity of having influence upon publick affairs : for not only the gentlemen of both the gowns , who by reason of their calling and learning are best able to defend our religion and vindicate our laws and privileges with their tongues and pens , but they whose estates , reputation , and interest , recommendeth them to be elected members of the great senate of the nation , as well as they who by reason of their honors and baronages are hereditary legislators , are generally , if not all , of the communion of the church of england : so that they who conform to the established worship and discipline , are to be look'd upon and acknowledged as the great bulwark of the protestant religion in england , and the hedge and fence of our civil liberties and rights . and though it be true that this great breach , made upon our religion and laws , is fallen out under their hand , while the poor dissenters had neither accession to , nor were in a condition to prevent it ; yet seeing their own consciences do sufficiently load and charge them for it with shame and ignominy , it were neither candid , nor at this juncture seasonable , to upbraid it to them , or improve it to their dishonor and reproach . for as they have tamely look'd on and connived till our religion and liberties are so far undermined and supplanted , so it is they alone who are in a condition of stemming the inundation of idolatry and tyranny with which we are threatned , and of repairing our breaches , and reducing the prerogative to its old channel , and making popery sneak and retreat into its holes and corners again . and should the church of england he overthrown and devoured , what an easie prey would the fanaticks be to the romish cormorants . and could the king , under the conduct of the iesuits , and with the assistance of his myrmidons , dissolve the established worship and discipline , they of the separation would be in no capacity to support the reformed religion , nor able to escape the common ruine and persecution . 't is therefore the interest as well as the duty of the dissenters , to help maintain and defend those walls , within the skreen and shelter whereof , their own hutts and cottages are built and stand ; and the rather , seeing the conformists are at last , tho to their own religion's and the nations expence , become so far enlightned , as to see a necessry of growing more amicable towards them , and if not to enlarge the terms of their communion , yet to grant an indulgence to all protestants that differ from them . and as we ought to admire the wisdom of god in those providences , by which protestants are taught to lay aside their animosities , and to let fall their persecutions of one another ; so it would be a contradiction both to the principles and repeated protestations of dissenters , to aim at more than such a liberty as is consistent with a national ecclesiastick establishment . yet it were to proclaim themselves both villains and hypocrites , not to allow their fellow protestants the exercise of their judgments , with what farther profits and emoluments the law will grant them , provided themselves may be discharged from all obnoxiousness to penalties and censures upon the account of their consciences , and be admitted a free and publick practice of their own respective modes of discipline , and be suffered to worship god in those ways which they think he hath required of and enjoyned them . and were england immediately to be rendered so happy as to have a protestant prince ascend the throne , and to enjoy a parliament duesy chosen , and acting with freedom , no one party of the reformed religion among us , must ever expect to be established and supported to the denyal of liberty to others , much less to be by law empowered to ruin and destroy them . should it please almighty god , through denying male issue to the king , to bring the princess of orange to the crown , tho the church of england may in that case justly expect the being preserved and upheld as the national establishment , yet all other protestants may very rationally promise themselves an indulgence , and that not only from the mildness and compassionate sweetness of her temper , but from the influence which the prince her husband will have upon her , who as he is descended from ancestors , whose glory it was to be the redeemers of their country from papal persecution and spanish tyranny , so his education , generosity , wisdom , and many heroick v●rtues , dispose him to embrace all protestants with an equal tenderness , and to erect his interest upon the being the head and patron of all that profess the reformed religion . had the late duke of monmouth been victorious against the forces of the present king , and inabled to have wrested the scepter our of his hand ; tho all protestants might thereupon have expected , and would certainly have enjoyed an equal freedom , without the lyableness of any party to penal laws for matters of religion , yet he would have been careful , and i have reason to believe that it was his purpose , to have had the church of england preserved and maintained , and that she should have suffered no alteration but what would have been to her strength and glory , through an enlargement of the terms of her communion , and what would have been to the praise of her moderation and charity , through her being perswaded to bear with such as differed from her in little things , and could not prevail with themselves to partake with her in all ordinances . upon the whole , it is both the prudence and safety of dissenters , as they would escape extirpation themselves , and have religion conveyed down to posterity , to unite their strength and endeavours to those of the church of england , for the upholding her against the assaults of popish enemies , who pursue her subversion . as matters are now circumstanced and stated in england , there is not an affront or injury offered or done unto her by the court , which do not at the same time reach and wound the fanaticks . 't is not her being for episcopacy cerimonies , and imposed set forms of worship , the things about which she and the nonconformists differ , that she is maligned and struck at by the man in power and his popish juncto ; but it is for being protestant , reformed , and orthodox , crimes under the guilt whereof dissenters are equally concerned and involved . being therefore in opposition to the common cause of religion , that the late court of inquisition is erected over her ecclesiasticks , all protestants ought jointly to resent the wrongs which she sustains , and not only to sympathise with those dignified and lower clergy , which are called to suffer , but to espouse their quarrel with the same warmth that we would our own . and as we are to look upon those of the episcopal communion , to be the great bulwark of the protestant religion and reformed interest in england ; so it is farther incumbent upon dissenters towards them , and a duty which they owe to god , the nation , and themselves , not to be accessary to any thing , through which the legal establishment of the church of england , may by any act of pretended regal prerogative be weakned and supplanted . i am not counselling the fanaticks to renounce their principles , nor to participate with the prelatical church in all ordinances on the terms to which they have straitned and narrowed their communion , for while they remain unsatisfied of the lawfulness of those terms and conditions , they cannot do it without offending god and contracting guilt upon their souls ; nor will they of the church of england in charity , justice , and honesty , expect it from them : for whatsoever any man believeth to be in , it is so to him , and will by god be impured as such , till he be otherwise englightned and convinced ; nor are the fanaticks to be falie and cruel to themselves , in order to be kind and friendly to them . but that which i would advice them unto , is that after the maintaining the highest measure of love to the consormable congregations as churches of christ , and the esteeming their members as christian protestant brethren , notwithstanding the several things wherein they judge them to err and to be mistaken , that they would not by any act and transaction of theirs , betray them into the despotical power of this popish king , nor directly nor indirectly acknowledge his being vested with an authority paramount unto , and superceding the laws , by which the church of england is established in its present form , order , and mode of jurisdiction , discipline , and external worship . whatsoever ease arriveth to the dissenters , through the king 's suspending the execution of the penal laws , without their address and application , they may receive it with joy and humility in themselves , and with thankfulness to god ; nor is there hereby any prejudice offered on their part to the authority of the law , or offence or injury given or done to the conformable clergy . nor is without grief and regret that the church-men are forced to behold the harassing , spoiling , and imprisonment of the nonconformists , while in the mean time the papists are suffered to assemble to the celebration of their idolatrous worship without censure and controul . and were it in their power to remedy it , and give relief to their protestant brethren , they would with delight and readiness embrace the occasion and opportunity of doing it . but alas ! instead of having an advantage put into their hand , of contributing to the relief of the fanaticks , which i dare say many of them ardently wish and desire , they are compelled , contrary to their inclination as well as their interest , to become instrumental in persecuting and oppressing them , nor does the king covet a better and a more legal advantage against the conformists , than that they would refuse to pursue dissenters , and decline molesting them with ecclesiastical censures and civil punishments : so that their condition is to be pitied and bewailed , in that they are hindred from acting against the papists , though both enjoined by law , and influenced thereunto by motives of self-preservation , as well as by ties of conscience ; while in the mean time they are forced to prosecute their fellow protestants , or else to be suspended and deposed , and put out of their offices and employs . and though i do believe , that they would at last have more peace in themselves , and be better accepted with god in the great day of their account , should they refuse to disturb and prosecute their protestant brethren , and scorn to be any longer court tools for weakning and undermining the reformed cause and interest ; yet i shall leave them to act in this as they shall be persuaded in themselves , and as they shall judge most agreeable to principles of wisdom and conscience . in the interim , the fanaticks have all the reason in the world to believe , that the proceedings of the clergy and members of the church of england at this season and juncture against them , are not the results of their election and choice , but the effects of moral compulsion and necessity . not will any dissenter that is prudent and discreet , blame them for a matter which they cannot help , but bear his misfortune and lot with patience in himself , and with compassion and charity towards them , and have his indignation raised only against the court , which forceth them to be instrumental in their oppression and trouble . and instead of being thereby provoked to petition the king to suspend the execution of the penal laws , or that he would by an act of his prerogative dispense with their meetings for religious worship in defiance of them ; they ought to consider that is what the court aims at , by commanding their conformable brethren to molest and pursue them . for a power paramount and transcendent to the law is what the king is usurping , and which he would fain work his subjects one way or another to acknowledge . the fanaticks cannot be so far void of sense , as to think that the person now in the throne bears them any good will , but his drift is to screw himself into a supremacy and absoluteness over the law , and to get such an authority confessed to be vested in him , as when he pleaseth he may subvert the established religion , and set up popery : for by the same power that he can dispense with the penal statutes against the nonconformists , he may also dispense with those against the roman catholicks : and whosoever owneth that he hath a right to do the first , doth in effect own that he hath a right to do the last ; for if he be allowed a power for the superceding some laws made in reference to matters of religion , he may challenge the like power for the superceding others of the same kind : and then by the same authority that he can suspend the laws against popery , he may also suspend those for protestancy : and by the same power that he can in defiance of law indulge the papists the exercise of their religion in houses , he may establish them in the publick celebration of their idolatry in churches and cathedrals . yea whereas the laws that relate to religion are enacted by no less authority than those that are made for the preservation of our civil rights , should the king be admitted to have an arbitrary power over the one , it is very like that by the logick of whitehall he will challenge the same absoluteness over the other . nor do i doubt but that the eleven iudges who have gratified him with a despoticalness over the former , will , when required , grant him the same over the latter . i know the dissenters are under no small temptations , both by reason of being hindred from enjoying the ordinances of the gospel , and because of many grievous calamities which they daily suffer for their nonconformity , of making applications to the king for some relief , by his suspending the execution of the laws ; but they must give me leave to add , that they ought not , for the obtaining of a little ease , to betray the kingdom , and sacrifice the legal constitution of the government to the lust and pleasure of a popish prince , whom nothing less will serve than being absolute and despotical . and were he once in the quiet possession of an authority to dispense with the penal laws , the fanaticks would not long enjoy the benefit of it . nor can they deny him a power of reviving the execution of the law , which is part of the trust deposited with him as supreme magistrate , who have granted him a power of suspending the laws , which the rules of the government preclude him from . and as he may , whensoever he pleaseth , cause the laws to which they are obnoxious , to be executed upon them , so by virtue of having an authority acknowledged in him of superceding the laws , he may deprive them of the liberty of meeting together to the number of five , a grace which the parliament thought fit to allow them , under all the other severities to which they were subjected . nor needs there any further evidence that the prince's challenging such a power is an usurpation , and that the subjects making any application by which it seems allowed to him , is a betraying of the ancient legal government of the kingdom ; than to consider that the most obsequious and servile parliament to the court that ever england knew , not only denied this prerogative to the late king , but made him renounce it by revoking his declaration of indulgence , which he had emitted anno 1672. and as it will be to the perpetual honor of the dissenters to have chosen rather to suffer the severities which the laws make them liable unto than by any act and transaction of theirs , to undermine and weaken either the church or the state ; so it will be a means both of endearing them to future parliaments , and of bringing them and the conformists into an union of counsels and endeavours against popery and tyranny , which is at this season a thing so indispensably necessary for their common preservation : especially when , though a new and more threatning alliance and confederacy with france than that in 72 , the king hath not only engaged to act by and observe the same measures towards protestants in england , which that monarch hath vouchsafed the world a pattern and copy of in his carriage towards those of the reformed religion in france ; but hath promised to disturb the peace and repose of his neighbors , and to commence a war in conjunction with that prince against foreign protestants . for as the kings giving liberty and protection to the algerines to frequent his havens , and sell the prizes which they take from the dutch , is both a most infamous action for a prince pretending to be a christian , and a direct violation of his alliance with the states general ; so nothing can be more evident , than that he thereby seeks to render them the weaker for him to assault , and that he is resolved ( if some unforeseen and extraordinary providence doth not interpose and prevent ) to declare war against them the next summer , in order whereunto great remises of mony are already ordered him from the french court. so that the indulgence which he pretends to be inclinable to afford the dissenters , is not an effect of kindness and good will , but an artifice whereby to oblige their assistance in destroying those abroad of the same religion with themselves . which if he can compass , it is easie to foresee what fate both the fanaticks and they of the communion of the church of england are to expect . who as they will not then know whither to retreat for shelter , so they will be destitute of comfort in themselves , and deprived of pity from others , not only for having through their divisions made themselves a prey to the papists at home , but for having been accessary to the ruine of a reformed state abroad , and which was the asilum and sanctuary of all those that were elsewhere oppressed and persecuted for religion . finis . the story of jetzer, taken out of dr. g. burnet's letters with a collection of miracles wrought by popish saints, during their lives, and after their deaths, out of their own authours, for information of all true-hearted protestants : with a prefatory discourse, declaring the impossibility and folly of such vain impostures. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 138 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30470 wing b5927 estc r7486 11632779 ocm 11632779 47936 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30470) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 47936) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 484:40) the story of jetzer, taken out of dr. g. burnet's letters with a collection of miracles wrought by popish saints, during their lives, and after their deaths, out of their own authours, for information of all true-hearted protestants : with a prefatory discourse, declaring the impossibility and folly of such vain impostures. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 39 p. printed, and are to be sold by r. taylor, london : 1689. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng jetzer, johann, 1483-1514? miracles. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2003-12 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the story of jetzer , taken out of dr. g. burnet's letters : with a collection of miracles wrought by popish saints , during their lives , and after their deaths , out of their own authours , for information of all true-hearted protestants . with a prefatory discourse , declaring the impossibility and folly of such vain impostures . london printed , and are to be sold by randal taylor , 1689. the epistle to the reader . reader , the grand design of this collection of popish miracles , i●●o inform thee of the absurdities and wickedness of the church of rome , in compelling her members to believe such ridiculous stories , as are here related out of popish authours , set out and own'd by their church ; and some of them very lately published to the world by mr. cressy , in his church-history , printed 1668. who has raked together out of bede , capgrave , and others , such stuff , as i am sure must needs fill thee with admiration . as for ignatius , the character given of him in his life denotes him to be little better than a lunatick person , for pag. 146. this is related of him , but that he had regard to the good of his neighbour , ( for which it was necessary for him to uphold himself and his authority ) he would have walked the streets half naked , in a contemptible manner , that so he might have been held and reputed a mad-man . and pag. 80. we have an account of the devil 's appearing to him , endeavouring to fright and distract him in his prayers , and was often with a little stick chased away by him . and pag. 48. we have this vision , at such time as he composed the constitutions of his society , having one day consecrated the holy host , and offered to almighty god the rules of his society , god the father appeared most gratiously unto him , insinuating by some mystical signification , that it would be a thing pleasing to his divine majesty , that the mother of god should offer up her prayers unto him for him ; whereupon the blessed virgin suddenly appeared , recommending st. ignatius to the eternal father ; and demonstrating , that her own flesh was there present in the eucharist , in the flesh of her son. at one time we have account , that both father and son appeared to him ; and at another , the holy spirit : and many such extravagant passages , which are more probable to be the frenzies of a mad-man , than the visions of a saint : for god says , exod 33. 20. there shall no man see me and live . but it is in vain to bring scripture against those , that both deny the scriptures to be the iudge of controversie , and likewise make it their business to derogate from it . in a spanish catechism , entituled , caton christiano , composed by , geronimo de rosales , a jesuit , and printed at sevil , 1670. this plainly appears ; for instead of citing scripture to confirm the doctrins of the roman church , he brings in forged miracles for examples : as to instance only in one : to prove the lawfulness of praying to the virgin mary , he tells this wonderfull story : a great sinner put himself into a religious order , and being grosly ignorant he was not able to learn the christian doctrin , no not so much as the ave maria throughout , but only these words , hail mary full of grace , which he repeated many times . this man died , and afterwards there grew on his grave a very handsome tree , on whose leaves were these words written , hail mary full of grace : the miracle was divulged , the bishop came and caused the tree to be digg'd up , and they found that the root of this tree came out of the man's mouth . this is their way of proving their doctrins , as may be seen throughout this catechism . that most of these miracles were invented by the romish priests and monks , to make the ignorant laity have a more venerable esteem for them , ( than which nothing has more contributed thereto , ) and to distribute their riches amonst them for pardons , masses , for freeing their souls from purgatory , &c. needs no other proof , than the impossibility and impertinency of the things related , and the doctrins they maintain , viz. invocation of saints , worshipping of images , &c. which ▪ are quite contrary to the revealed will of god , and the practice of the holy apostles : and therefore if some things of this nature have been miraculously acted , it is not to be attributed to our most holy god since it tends to the violating his commands , by setting up ne● doctrins contradictory thereto , but rather to the subtilty and power of the devil , who in all ages has made it his business to seduce men to the most abominable sin of idolatry , and for that end did work many miracles in the temples of the heathen ; so that it is no new thing for him to work miracles , when it is to gain himself proselytes ; and that the church of rome has been so far deluded by him , as to break the second commandment , in giving divine worship to images , is learnedly proved by dr. moore , dr. stillingfleet , and others in their books of the idolatry of that church . by this ▪ they may see what danger they are in , whilst they communicate with a church , that imposes such not orious lies on her members to support her false doctrins . god give them grace to see their errours , that so they may withdraw themselves from that idolatrous church , and cast anchor in the true protestant , grounded on scripture , and the practice of the primitive christians ; which is the hearty desire of the publisher . miracles wrought by popish saints . about the beginning of the 15th century , a franciscan happened to preach in francfort , and one wigand a dominican coming into the church , the cordelier seeing him , broke out into exclamations , praising god that he was not of an order that prophaned the virgin , or that poysoned princes in the sacrament , ( for a dominican had poysoned the emperour henry the vii . with the sacrament , ) wigand being extremely provoked with this bloudy reproach , gave him the lye , upon which a dispute arose , which ended in a tumult that had almost cost the dominican his life , yet he got away . the whole order resolved to take their revenge , and in a chapter , held at vimpsen in the year 1504. they contrived a method for supporting the credit of their order , which was much sunk in the opinion of the people , and for bearing down the reputation of the franciscans . four of the juncto undertook to manage the design ; for they said , since the people were so much disposed to believe dreams and fables , they must dream of their side , and endeavour to cheat the people as well as the others had done . they resolved to make bern the scene in which the project should be put in execution ; for they found the people of bern , at that time apt to swallow any thing , and not disposed to make severe enquiries into extraordinary matters . when they had formed their design , a fit tool presented it self ; for one ietzer came to take their habit as a lay-brother , who had all the dispositions necessary for the execution of their project : for he was extreme simple , and was much inclined to austerities , so having observed his temper well , they began to execute their project the very night after he took the habit , which was on lady-day 1507. one of the fryars conveyed himself secretly into his cell , and appeared to him as if he had been in purgatory , in a strange figure , and he had a box near his mouth , upon which as he blew , fire seemed to come out of his mouth ; he had also some dogs about him , that appeared as his tormentors . in this posture he came near the fryar , while he was a bed , and took up a celebrated story that they used to tell all their fryars , to beget in them a great dread at the laying aside their habit , which was , that one of the order , who was superiour of their house at soloturn , had gone to paris , but laying aside his habit , was killed in his lay-habit . the fryar in the vizard said , he was that person , and was condemned to purgatory for that crime ; but he added , that he might be rescued out of it by his means , and he seconded this with most horrible cries , expressing the miseries which he suffered . the poor fryar ( ietzer ) was excessively frighted , but the other advanced , and required a promise of him to doe that which he should desire of him , in order to the delivering him out of his torment . the frighted fryar promised all that he asked of him ; then the other said , he knew he was a great saint , and that his prayers and mortifications would prevail , but they must be very extraordinary . the whole monastery must for a week together discipline themselves with a whip , and he must lie prostrate in the form of one on a cross , in one of their chapels , while mass was said in the sight of all that should come together to it ; and he added that if he did this , he should find the effects of the love that the b. virgin did bear him , together with many other extraordinary things ; and said , he would appear again accompanied with two other spirits ; and assured him , that all that he did suffer for his deliverance , should be most gloriously rewarded . morning was no sooner come than the friar gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent , who seemed extremely surprized at it , they all pressed him to undergo the discipline that was enjoyned him , and every one undertook to bear his share ; so the deluded fryar performed it all exactly in one of the chapels of their church : this drew a vast number of spectatours together , who all considered the poor fryar as a saint , and in the mean while the four fryers that managed the imposture , magnified the miracle of the apparition to the skies in their sermons . the fryar's confessor was upon the secret , and by this means they knew all the little passages of the poor fryar's life , even to his thoughts , which helped them not a little in the conduct of the matter . the confessor gave him an hostie , with a piece of wood ; that was , as he pretended , a true piece of the cross , and by these he was to fortify himself , if any other apparitions should come to him , since evil spirits would be certainly chained up by them . the night after that , the former apparation was renewed , and the masqued fryar brought two others with him in such vizards , that the fryar thought they were devils indeed . the fryar presented the hostie to them , which gave them such a check , that he was fully satisfied of the vertue of this preservative . the fryar , that pretended he was suffering in purgatory , said so many things to him relating to the secrets of his life , and thoughts , which he had from the confessor , that the poor fryar was fully possessed with the opinion of the reality of the apparition . in two of these apparitions , that were both managed in the same manner , the fryar in the masque talked much of the dominican order , which he said was excessively dear to the b. virgin , who knew her self to be conceived in original sin , and that the doctors who taught the contrary were in purgatory : that the story of s. bernard's appearing with a spot on him , for having opposed himself to the feast of the conception , was a forgery : but that it was true , that some hideous flies had appeared on st. bonaventure's tomb , who taught the contrary . that the b. virgin abhorred the cordeliers for making her equal to her son ; that scotus was damned , whose canonization the cordeliers were then soliciting hard at rome ; and that the town of bern would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within their walls . when the enjoined discipline was fully performed , the spirit appeared again , and said , he was now delivered out of purgatory , but before he could be admitted to heaven he must receive the sacrament , having died without it , and after that he would say mass for those , who had by their great charities rescued him out of his pains . the fryar fancied the voice resembled the prior's a little ; but he was then so far from suspecting any thing , that he gave no great heed to this suspition . some days after this , the same fryar appeared as a nun all in glory , and told the poor fryar , that she was st. barbary , for whom he had a particular devotion , and added , that the b. virgin was so much pleased with his charity , that she intended to come and visit him : he immediately called the convent together , and gave the rest of the fryars an account of this apparition , which was entertained by them all with great joy ; and the fryar languished in desires of the accomplishment of the promise , that st. barbara had made him . after some days the longed-for delusion appeared to him , clothed as the virgin used to be on the great feasts , and indeed in the same habits : there were about her some angels , which he afterwards found were the little statues of angels , which they set on the altars on the great holy days . there was also a pulley fastned in the room over his head , and a cord tied to the angels , that made them rise up in the air , and flie about the virgin , which encreased the delusion . the virgin , after some endearments to himself , extolling the merit of his charity and discipline , told him that she was conceived in original sin , and that pope iulius ii. that then reigned , was to put an end to the dispute , and was to abolish the feast of her conception , which sixtus iv. had instituted , and that the fryar was to be the instrument of persuading the pope of the truth in that matter : she gave him three drops of her son's bloud , which were three tears of bloud that he had shed over ierusalem , and this signfied that she was three hours in original sin , after which she was by his mercy delivered out of that state : for it seems the dominicans were resolved so to compound the matter , that they should gain the main point of her conception in sin ; yet they would comply so far with the reverence for the virgin , with which the world was possessed , that she should be believed to have remained a very short while in that state . she gave him also five drops of bloud in the form of a cross , which were tears of bloud , that she had shed while her son was upon the cross. and , to convince him more fully , she presented an hostie to him , that appeared as an ordinary hostie , and of a sudden it appeared to be of a deep red colour . the cheat of those supposed visits was often repeated to the abused fryar ; at last the virgin told him , that she was to give him such marks of her son's love to him , that the matter should be past all doubt . she said that the five wounds of st. lucia , and st. catharine were real wounds , and that she would also imprint them on him ; so she bid him reach his hand ; he had no great mind to receive a favour in which he was to suffer so much : but she forced his hand , and struck a nail through it ; the hole was as big as a grain of pease , and he saw the candle clearly through it ; this threw him out of a supposed transport into a real agony ; but she seemed to touch his hand , and he thought he smelt an oyntment , with which she anointed it , though his confessour persuaded him , that that was onely an imagination ; so the supposed virgin left him for that time . the next night the apparition returned , and brought some linen clothes , which had some real or imaginary virtue to allay his torment : and the pretended virgin said , they were some of the linens in which christ was wrapped ; and with that she gave him a soporiferous draught , and while he was fast asleep , the other four wounds were imprinted on his body , in such a manner that he felt no pain . but in order to the doing of this , the fryars betook themselves to charms , and the subprior shewed the rest a book full of them ; but he said , that before they could be effectual , they must renounce god , and he not onely did this himself , but by a formal act put in writing signed with his bloud , he dedicated himself to the devil ; it is true , he did not oblige the rest to this , but onely to renounce god. the composition of the draught was a mixture of some fountain-water and chrism , the hairs of the eyebrows of a child , some quicksilver , some grains of incense , somewhat of an easter wax-candle , some consecrated salt , and the bloud of an unbaptised child . this composition was a secret which the subprior did not communicate to the other fryars . by this the poor fryar , ietzer , was made almost insensible : when he was awake , and came out of this deep sleep , he felt this wonderfull impression on his body , and now he was ravished out of measure , and came to fansie himself to be acting all the parts of our saviour's passion : he was exposed to the people on the great altar , to the amazement of the whole town , and to the no small mortification of the franciscans . the dominicans gave him some other draughts that threw him into convulsions , and when he came out of those , a voice was heard , which came through that hole which yet remains , and runs from one of the cells along a great part of the church : for a fryar spoke through a pipe , and at the end of the hole , there was an image of the virgins , with a little jesus in her armes , between whom and his mother the voice seemed to come ; the image also seemed to shed teers , and a painter had drawn those on her face so lively , that the people were deceived by it . the little jesus askt why she wept ; and she said , it was because his honour was given to her , since it was said that she war born without sin : in conclusion , the fryras did so over act this matter , that at last even the poor deluded fryar himself came to discover it , and resolved to quit the order . it was in vain to delude him with more apparitions ; for he wellnigh kill'd a fryar that came to him , personating the virgin in another shape with a crown on her head : he also over-heard the fryars once talking amongst themselves , of the contrivance and success of the imposture , so plainly , that he discovered the whole matter , and upon that , as may be easily imagined , he was filled with all the horrour with which such a discovery could inspire him . the fryars fearing that an imposture , which was carried on hitherto with so much success , should be quite spoiled , and be turned against them , thought the surest way was to own the whole matter to him , and to engage him to carry on the cheat. they told him in what esteem he would be , if he continued to support the reputation that he had acquired , that he would become the chief person of the order ; and in the end they persuaded him to go on with the imposture : but at last , they fearing lest he should discover all , resolved to poyson him : of which he was so apprehensive , that once a loaf being brought him , that was prepared with some spices , he kept it for some time , and it growing green , he threw it to some young wolves whelps that were in the monastery , who died immediately . his constitution was also so vigorous , that though they gave him poyson five several times , he was not destroyed by it ; they also prest him earnestly to renounce god , which they judged necessary , that so their charms might have their effect on him ; but he would never consent to that : at last they forced him to take a poysoned hostie , which yet he vomited up soon after he had swallowed it down ; that failing , they used him so cruelly , whipping him with an iron chain , and girding him about so strait with it , that to avoid farther torment he swore to them , in a most imprecating stile , that he would never discover the secret , but would still carry it on ; and so he deluded them till he found an opportunity of getting out of the convent , and of throwing himself into the hands of the magistrates , to whom he discovered all . the four fryars were seised on , and put in prison , and an account of the whole matter was sent , first to the bishop of lausanne , and then to rome ; and it may be easily imagined , that the franciscans took all possible care to have it well examined , the bishop of lausanne , and of zion , with the provincial of the dominicans , were appointed to form the process . the four fryars first excepted to ietzer's credit ; but that was rejected : then being threatned with the question , they put in a long plea against that ; but though the provincial would not consent to that , yet they were put to the question ; some endured it long ; but at last , they all confessed the whole progress of the imposture . the provincial appeared concerned ; for though ietzer had opened the whole matter to him , yet he would give no credit to him ; on the contrary , he charged him to be obedient to them , and one of the fryars said plainly , that he was in the whole secret , and so he withdrew ; but he died some days after at constance , having poyson'd himself , as was believed . the matter lay asleep some time , but a year after that a spanish bishop came , authorized with full power from rome , and the whole cheat being fully proved , the four fryars were solemnly degraded from their priesthood , and eight days after , it being the last of may 1509 , they were burnt in a meadow , on the other side of the river , over against the great church ; the place of their execution was shewed me , as well as the hole in the wall , through which the voice was conveyed to the image . it was certainly one of the blackest , and yet the best carried on cheat , that has been ever known ; and no doubt had the poor fryar dyed before the discovery , it had passed down to posterity , as one of the greatest miracles that ever was ; and it gives shrewd suspition , that many of the other miracles of that church , were of the same nature , but more successfully finished . miracles wrought by ignatius , as they are related in ch. 16. and 17. of the glory of the blessed father st. ignatius , printed at roven , 1633. after the copy compiled at cracovia . miracles wrought by st. ignatius , in his life time . ignatius , founder of the society of iesus , is reported to have done these following miracles in his life time . it fell out at barcelona , that two brothers , about their patrimony , had long sued one another , and he , in fine , whose fortune it was to lose the suit , falling through too vehement apprehension into despair , hung himself with a halter upon a beam in his chamber : the bruit of which came no sooner to the ears of st. ignatius , but suddenly he betook himself to the place , and cutting asunder the halter from that unfortunate rafter , gave order that the dead body should be laid upon a bed ; which done , falling apart upon his knees , he began with many tears to demand the safety of that miserable creature at the hands of almighty god ; but whilst ignatius ( being at that time but a student in the grammar-school ) was thus earnest in his prayers , they who were there present standing in suspence , with their eyes fixed upon the bed , ( a thing full of miracle ) the dead man returned suddenly to life , and had the use of his voice so long , till calling for a ghostly father , he had confessed his sins and received absolution , and then at last gave up the ghost , lately redeemed from out the jaws of hell into the hands of his creator . he recovered immediately a certain man called bastida , who had been many years sick of the falling-sickness , by casting up his eyes and prayers for him to heaven . he often chased the devil out of possessed persons , by the sign of the cross. he restored a woman to health , who lay half dead of a consumption . he delivered one simon rodriguez , being also at death's door , from his disease , by a pious embrace . iohn baptista coco , who by accident one evening had so burnt his hand , that it became utterly unserviceable , and disabled for any manual function , the next day by his prayers had his hand healed and restored . returning sick into his own countrey of a quotidian ague , and preaching often in the open fields , ( because the churches were not capable of the concourse of people , ) howbeit his weakness would not permit him to raise his voice aloud , yet every word of his sermon was perfectly and distinctly heard and understood by all men for the space of more than 300 paces . coming once to visit one alexander petronio , who lay sick in a dark and close chamber and bed , in regard the windows and doors were kept shut to keep out the light , he replenished the room with the supernatural splendour of his face , and recovered the sick person . he freed one elutherio pontano , who had been grievously molested for the space of more than two years , with certain foul temptations of the devil , by his only seeing and discoursing with the party . the college of loretto being fearfully haunted with spirits , appearing in sundry foul shapes of men and beasts , and the ordinary exorcisms , and other ceremonies , usually having been applied , and those fearfull apparitions nevertheless not ceasing , the rector of the college addressed himself by letters to st. ignatius , commending the business to his holy sacrifices and prayers , who no sooner received news of it , but he absolutely freed the house from those haunts of ill spirits by his prayers and letter , not for the present only , but for ever after . st. ignatius his linen , being washed with devotion by a certain devout woman , restored life and motion to her withered and dead arme. one isaac , a jew , refusing with a passionate obstinacy to become a christian , and contemning courtesies , and all other courses taken with him by others , was by saint ignatius soon satisfied , appeased , and persuaded to be baptized , by the only uttering of these three words , mane nobiscum isaac . a certain person of note , being of a more turbulent spirit than was fit longer to be endured , and st. ignatius not being able by gentle persuasions to cure his diseased mind , changing at last his style , and beginning to call upon the justice of god , and represent unto him the vengeance of heaven , he did it with such a feeling , and expression of fervour , that the walls and house appeared to him to tremble and shake with horrour ; with the sight of which the standers by , being stricken , immediately fell upon their knees , imploring the mercy of god by their prayers and vows ; and the delinquent , prostrating himself at the feet of st. ignatius , and with a voice of confusion begging pardon for his offence , promised from thence forward an amendment of himself . father leonard kesselius , residing at colen , had a vehement desire to see st. ignatius , then at rome , above 300 leagues distant from thence ; and having besought the b. father by . letters , that it might be lawfull for him to travel on foot to rome ; he made answer , that his presence was necessary at colen for the good of others , enjoining him besides not to stir from thence , for that almighty god peradventure by some other course might so provide , that he might see him without the pains and toil of so tedious a journey ; the father therefore being one day at his prayers , st. ignatius appeared unto him , being yet alive and breathing , and discoursed long with him , to his infinite contentment . the b. father lying often sick , if in the mean time any difficulty hapned , for the solving of which his vertue and wisdom was required , he seemed in a manner to be perfectly recovered , and his mind guiding his body , appeared a sound man ; so that it became familiar to them of the houshold , as often as he fell sick , to desire that some business of consequence might happen , for the facilitating of which st. ignatius might rise , and be quit of his disease . miracles wrought by st. ignatius after his decease . in the processes for the canonization of st. ignatius , commenced by the authority of the ordinaries first , and afterwards by that of the see apostolick , more than 200 miracles are related , wrought by the merits and intercession of st. ignatius after his decease ; besides which , there are divers others as authentical , not yet published , ( because those former for his canonization were more than sufficient ) confirmed nevertheless by the grave testimonies of men beyond exception , and printed at rome , and other parts of italy , in spain , and in germany and other places , by the approbation of them whom it concerneth to approve them : here only i will relate some few , because my brevity promised will not permit many . when the body of st. ignatius lay exposed upon the bier , for the performance of his funeral rites , one bernadina , a roman , had a vehement desire to bring a daughter of hers , who had been long troubled with the hemorrhoids , so grievously , that no art of physick could cure her , to kiss the hands of his dead body , assuring her self the recovery of her daughter by that touch ; but the daughter , transported oftentimes by the press of people , not being able for the throng to approach near the body , her mother laid hold of a piece of his garment , and had no sooner applied it to her daughters body but she was quit of her disease . father nicholas bobadilla , having been long sick of an ague , was recovered by lying in the bed of st. ignatius . at manresa , a certain lady of quality feeling no living motion of her child in her womb , for the space of three hours before she was brought to bed , at last was delivered of a dead child ; the unfortunate success of which , being much lamented by the standers by , the rather because the child had not been christened ; the midwife about half an hour after the delivery of the woman , implored with confidence the help of st. ignatius , and had scarce begun her prayers , but the child , before pale and black , returned now to life . st. ignatius being besought for the life of a little dead infant of an indian woman , restored the child to life . he restored many blind men their sight , deaf men their hearing , lame men their limbs , cured men stricken with the palsie , others given over by the physicians and lying at death's door , he restored perfectly to their health . he appeared to many after his decease , either delivering them from grievous tentations , or freeing them from their diseases or other dangers , or giving them good counsel , or foretelling things to come , or comforting such as served him with divine consolations ; and in his journey to heaven , at the very instant of his decease at rome ( as afterwards appeared by computation of hours ) he appeared in glory to that noble and religious lady margareta de lilus , commending the society to her , as a principal benefactress of the college of bolonia . many devils have been cast out of possessed persons , and out of houses which they haunted ▪ by the relicts of the holy father , or by hanging up his picture . the oil of the lamp which burns before his body , hath wrought many strange cures . he hath eased many women who have called upon him in the extremity of their child-bearing labours , and bestowed children upon barren women . at carpentras a certain woman being delivered of a child without motion , and of the complexion of a blackmoor , so that it was doubtfull what course was to be taken in this prodigious accident , whether the child ought to be christened or no , or whether it were to be deferred till some motion were discovered in it ; at last , by the persuasion of a certain canon , they implored the aid of st. ignatius , by which the child was suddenly not recovered only , but so recovered that his countenance became chearfull and fair . he cured divers of the pleurisie . he protected many men from the fury of their enemies ; others , being fallen head-long from some dangerous precipice , were defended from all hurt by invoking his name . at cesenza one angelo lopez , upon the eve of st. ignatius , in expression of his affection , had filled his windows with many paper-lanthorns , adding to each lanthorn the picture of the saint , and with infinite demonstrations of gratulation , repeated often these words , io loyola , b. pater io ! but in the midst of this triumph , by chance it came to pass , that by the greatness of the wind the fire had taken hold of his lanthorns , which when it was observed by some rascality of the vulgar , they began to scoff at his devotion , upbraiding the man for his superstition , and with a bitter allusion to his motto of triumph , invert the words of it thus ; at , at , beatus uritur : at , loyola crematur ! at which the man growing infinitely out of patience , out of his sense of this irreligion used to st. ignatius ; and i for my part , quoth he , have so high an esteem of the sanctity of the b. father , that i believe him to be able to protect his singed picture from the fire : neither was he deceived in his belief , for the flame having consumed the paper round about it , forbore to touch the picture , either in demonstration of the sanctity of the b. father , or in observancy of the zeal of him who desired it . at braga a certain woman having been lately brought to bed , was so much weakened , for many days after , with a continual flux of bloud , that life could hardly be kept in her from following the course of the flux ; who drinking of the water into which her child had been dipped , having been wrapped immediately before in the garments of saint ignatius , her flux suddenly stopped , and she recovered her accustomed strength . in the town of gumarent a certain woman having lost the use of her sight and hearing , and received the holy oil and other rites of the church , lay utterly out of her senses ; and whilst some about her , out of devotion , were endeavouring to put her in mind of her last words , a certain woman , who in courtesie came to visit her , called to remembrance , that a little piece of the girdle st. ignatius used in his life time , having lately been sent to her by a son of hers of the society ; which she with great confidence , and reverence towards god , presently applied to the sick woman ; which done , she began to recover her senses by degrees , to breath , to stretch out her hands , and make signs for meat , to the admiration of the physicians , for the suddenness of the cure. all which things were afterwards confirmed by the attestation of sworn witnesses . at caglari a certain elder brother snatching up a knife at dinner time , hurt his younger brother in the eye ; and at the same time the daughter of a certain gentlewoman , carving at the table , was sorely hurt in like manner , in one of her eyes ; both which calling upon the aid of saint ignatius , were delivered from danger , beyond expectation . another woman had been so weakned , for the space of four months , with continual pains , that she was utterly deprived of the use of her feet ; but the feast of st. ignatius drawing near , she , desirous to partake of the common jollity that day expressed in our church , was not frustrated of her desire ; for her pain ceasing , and her feet being restored to their wonted strength , she came thither with joy , to have a share in the devotion . in the same place , upon the eve of st. ignatius , the artillery playing round , a little infant who could not speak , and who had never heard the name of st. ignatius , cryed out , to the admiration of all standers by , to morrow is the day of b. ignatius . but they who were present , hearing a thing so full of wonder , for experiment sake , demanded again of the child , what was to be done to morrow , who answered as before . at majorca dwelt a certain woman , who through the contraction of her sinews , was become so lame , that she could not go without crutches ; the whole town therefore being filled with the noises of trumpets , voices , and other musical ▪ instruments , almighty god inspired her with a desire of visiting our church ; who put her self in readiness to go , notwithstanding the dissuasions of her sister , who feared she might miscarry by the press of people , she nevertheless gave no ear to her dissuasions , but put her self upon the way , and was suddenly cured , and recovered strength in her feet ; and throwing away her crutches , without any help betook her self to the church , where in thanks-giving she caused a mass of the b. sacrament to be said . another woman , who some years past had received her sight by the means of this b. father , lying now again desperately sick , and being given over by four physicians , not forgetfull by whom she had received light before , now again reposed all her hopes and confidence in the same physician : one night therefore she called out upon one of the women , who were accustomed to watch with her make haste , quoth she , come hither with speed and behold this glorious splendor ! o if thou hadst come sooner , thou shouldst have beheld my st. ignatius visiting me ! for i am now recovered , and perfectly well . and the event confirmed it to be true ; for the physicians themselves could not deny , but that she was cured by some secret power . at monte in gallicia a great fire raging for many days together , and consuming a certain wood , gathered still new forces , dispersing and spreading it self far and near , there being no humane means to stop or restrain it , to which the wind rising upon a sudden , drove the flames towards the barns and bordering town , so that the fire was now advanced within three or four paces of the corn and houses ; a certain person therefore , taking the picture of st. ignatius , which he had about him , and falling to his prayers , threw it into the midst of the flames , there where the fire raged most , and threatned greatest ruine , and immediately the fury and rage of it ceased , the flames which flew highest descended and vanished , and the whole fire returned upon a sudden from whence it began : and , which is worth admiration , a certain woman , who had observed the throwing in of the picture , leaping into the midst of the smoaking brands , raked away the ashes with her fingers , and being unhurt , brought away the picture from the midst of the burning coals . at friburg a little child of three years of age by chance had broken his arme , the mother of whom fearing the displeasure of her husband , being then absent , invoketh the help of st. ignatius , but she had scarce ended her prayers , when , to her infinite contentment , she found her child before her eyes , whole and without hurt . st. ignatius being invoked , wrought a present cure upon divers who had been sorely wounded , whose cure would otherwise have exacted a long time . many men by the presence of st. ignatius his picture , or by the presence , or by the application or touch of his relicks , have cured the plague when it raged most sorely and consumed multitudes . a certain nobleman at placa perceiving the sky to be overcast with thick clouds , and fearing a great spoil of his corn , lying yet open in the field , made a vow to st. ignatius for the preventing of the tempest , so that when all the adjoyning territories swell'd with flouds of rain , not a drop had touched or fallen upon his fields . at naples one vincentio pagano having prepared certain artificial fires for the celebration of the feast of st. ignatius , had dangerously through his own folly scorched his hand , upon which accident certain women of his acquaintance began to flock about him , applying to his burnt hand a note or superscription of st. ignatins his hand-writing , the touch of which presently eased his pain , and the raging of the burnt part , which usually ceaseth not till a certain day , was out of hand appeased . at catanzaro a certain pious woman , having a son by one gasper mariscano , ( her husband , ) out of her devotion to st. ignatius , had a desire to have him christened by the name of ignatius , howbeit her husband ( in regard the relicks of irenaeus were preserved in that city ) had rather the child should have been called irenaeus ; but in conclusion , after much debate about the business , they concluded the child should be named ignatius irenaeus ; but this contention occasioned many differences betwixt the man and wife , for the wife ever after called her child ignatius , and gave a strict command to them of her houshold to do the like ; and gasper on the other side , commanded them to call him irenaeus : the difference had continued thus betwixt them almost three months , when arguing the business one morning , they both grew somewhat hot , till the father , at last , in jest , well , quoth he , let the strife be put to the arbitrement of the child it self ; to which the mother was contented to agree ; whereupon the father , in merriment , demanded of his child , at that time but three months old , by what name he would have himself called ; when , behold ! the child miraculously received the use of his tongue , distinctly pronouncing the name of ignatius ; which voice so took his father with admiration of the miracle , that from thence forward he gave order his child should be called ignatius , dedicating him to the service of st. ignatius . in the territory of peru in the west-indies , one christopher martinez de peredes , for the space of four years together , was forced through the lameness of his feet to make use of one crutch in the beginning , and afterwards of two ; who hearing , upon the feast of st. ignatius , the triumph of the people , and shall i , quoth he , upon this day , when all men are in jollity , remain as it were an unbidden guest ? shall i alone remain destitute ? which words he had scarce uttered , when his feet recovered forces , and he found himself so strong , that early the next morning , without any other help , he betook himself to the college . one benedicto lopez , prefect of the silver mines , pursuing a certain ethiopian fugitive , was set upon by five others at unawares , who stabbing and butchering him in sundry places dragged him from his horse in a most barbarous manner : in which his extremities he implored the aid of st. ignatius , who presently presented himself to him in these exigents , and laying hold of his cloak , bore off , with both hands , the blows of his enemies , so that at last ( his enemies being departed , and the b. father vanished ) he found himself safe , and without hurt , saving that his hat and other garments were pierced . a certain lady at avignon had a son much afflicted with a violent continual fever , who besides the disease it self , with the violence of it had one of his hands disjoynted , and in a deformed manner turned the wrong side outward , so that in the opinion of the physicians he was in danger of the loss of his hand , if not of his life with it ; which lamentable case a certain religious woman , allied to the sick youth , compassionating , vowed three masses , and as many wax candles to st. ignatius , for the health of her kinsman ; which done , the youth immediately recovered , and for a more infallible confirmation of the miracle , his hand was replaced in the right place . at barcelona one elizabeth rebelles , a religious woman , being in some high place busie about her work , upon a sudden unfortunately tumbled headlong to the ground , and received so sore a blow , that her thigh-bone , which is the solidest bone of the body , was utterly broken ; the physician and chirurgion were immediately called , who for more than forty days together , with what diligence was possible , applied all the remedies their arts afforded , howbeit to little purpose ; in conclusion , the sick woman was brought to those terms , that in all mens judgments she was past recovery , and as it was conceived , could not last longer than that day ; yet notwithstanding , as soon as a relick of st. ignatius was applied to her heart , she presently recovered . one hierome humphrey , a boy of ten years of age , upon one of his eye-brows , near the temples , had received a mortal wound , which occasioned an inflammation in his eye , and cast him into a fever ; for which the chirurgion had him in a cure a month , not being able to help him , for the wound did not only not heal , but grew so wide , that it received a tent of a finger long , and voided so much filth as amazed the chirurgion : the mother of the child made a vow to st. ignatius , commending her child to him ; and behold ! when ( another chirurgion in the mean time having been called , for the better consulting about the cure ) the bands of the sore were unfolded , they found the wound perfectly healed , closed up , and sound . one ferdinando pertel having fallen into a tertian ague , which afterward proved to be a double tertian , and at last a pestilent fever , with a kind of raving and fearfull horrour of his senses , was forsaken by the physicians , and lay in his last extremity ; being prepared with all the rites of the church , and invoking st. ignatius , whose picture he held in his hand , he began suddenly to recover , and was cured of his disease . one anne barzellona , a wom●● of sixty years of age , having for about the space of two years been so miserably strucken with the palsie , that she was unfit for any labour , and unable without crutches to go up and down stairs , and with her crutches also seemed rather to creep than go ; which when the application of remedies would not help , and she besides was taken with an apoplexy in her other side , so that she became impotent , and was confined to her bed ; finding her self thus void of all humane help , by the assistence of her crutches and one margaret her sister , she betook her self to a chapel of st. ignatius , two hours travelling distant from her lodging , where making a vow in honour of st. ignatius , immediately she began to find her self better , and was able to bow her knee , which before was grown stiff ; and having ended her devotions , arose full of contentment , and returned a joyfull woman nimbly to her lodging . a bone and superscription of st. ignatius being applied to the eyes of a certain widow of majorca , called iane clara noguera , who was blind , restored her to sight . divers other miracles of st. ignatius are related in a late life of his , set forth by father pedro ribadeneira in spanish , printed at madrid in the year 1601 , and translated by others into latin , greek , italian , the polish , and other languages , and published in the chief cities of italy , spain , france , germany , and other places , where such as are curious to peruse them , may find them . miracles wrought by saint francis xaverius and saint philip nerius , taken out of chapt. 18 and 20. of the fore-mentioned book . upon the frontiers of piscaria he raised a boy , who for many hours together had lain drown'd in a well . in the town of mutan in like manner he raised another boy , who dying of a pestilential fever , had remained dead four and twenty hours . at comire he rais'd a third body , which had lain buriedunder the earth a a whole day together . near the promontory of comori he rais'd a girl ; not far from that place , a certain married woman . in the island of vaccare near zeilan , the son of a certain infidel . at malaca the daughter of one who had been lately converted . at bembari a certain boy : another at comari . at punical he raised a man who had lain dead a whole day . near manapar he raised one antoni miranda . at malaca a certain man's daughter who had been three days buried and overwhelmed with earth . he restored to life in like manner the son of one mahomet serangio , who had lain three days under water ; to omit others raised by him in his life time . after his death he restored almost as many to life . in the processes of his canonization mention is made of above five and twenty persons raised by him from death to life . he often restored blind men to their sight ; dispossessed possessed persons ; cured many lying desperate , and given over by the physicians ; healed lepers ; calmed tempestuous seas ; preserved ships from wrecks ; restored the lame to their limbs ; and recovered men stricken with the palsie . he foretold infallibly many things to come ; penetrated mens concealed thoughts ; had a certain knowledge of secrets and things absent . he appeared in divers places far distant at one and the self-same time ; he spake several languages which he had never learned , as readily , congruously , and eloquently as if he had been born and bred among those nations . and it fell out oftentimes , that at such times as he preached to multitudes of people men of several nations , at the same time heard him utter their own language ; and with one and the self-same answer he often satisfied the demands of several infidels . he was so ravished and transported with the desire and love of god , that he was often and miraculously raised from the ground , with a countenance inflamed , eyes sparkling and fixed upon the heavens ; and being surcharged with celestial joy , was forced to exclaim , sat est , domine ! sat est . by the sign of the cross he turned salt water into fresh , in several vessels at sea. having dipped a brazen crucifix which he wore about his neck into the sea , to appease a tempest , and by accident lost it , walking the next day upon the shoar , he espied a sea-crab miraculously bringing him his crucifix in his claws , which having delivered it , suddenly returned back into the sea , from whence it came . he ended his life at sancion , near china , in the year 1552. famous for many miracles . his body was found entire long after his death , howbeit it was neither bowelled nor balmed , but buried in quick-lime ; and it appeared many months after its decease , lively , full of juce and fresh colour , soft and tractable , sending forth an admirable sweet savour , and many times bleeding , for which he was honoured , and reputed a saint immediately after his death . it appeareth by the process of his canonization , that many dead bodies were raised by him , after his death ; that many lamps burned before his body with water onely put into them , as clearly as if they had been onely filled with oil ; which being oftentimes extinguished , took fire again of themselves without humane help : that divers were cured by him , or by his relicks , or pictures , of leprosie , palsie and other incurable diseases . saint philip nerius preserved his virginity untouched , and he discerned in chaste persons the perfume of chastity , and in others the rankness and stench of unchastity . he arrived to the knowledge of many things concealed from him , such as are the most intimate secrets of mens hearts . he restored one dead man to life , in his life time ; another after his own decease . he was seen raised from the ground in the time of his masses . miracles of some others , taken out of their lives . pope iohn , when he came to corinth , a gentleman lent unto him a horse whereon his wife used often to ride , and when the horse was sent back , he could never abide that the woman should come on his back ; so that it seemed , that beast which had carried the greatest man of dignity and authority in the world , disdained to be checked and ruled by a woman ; the gentleman marking it , and holding it for a very strange thing , ( as it was indeed , ) sent the horse tobe given unto the pope . pag. 147. a ship , wherein were three hundred persons , being in a storm , and in danger to be cast away , they recommended themselves to st. iuvenal , and they saw him walk on the waves of the sea , and the tempest ceased . see his life , p. 60. st. anthony was a corpulent man , but the devil , displeased with his good life , molested him , and one night would have strangled him , and had already set his hands to his throat , so that he was in danger of death ; but recommending himself to the glorious virgin , and saying the hymn , o gloriosa domina , the devil left him , and vanished away . see his life , p. 193. st. anthony had the gift of tongues , with a pleasant , clear and ringing voice ; and though there was at his sermons many thousand persons of different languages , yet they all understood him . as at rome , where the people of sundry nations listening unto him , and he preaching in the italian tongue , yet they all understood him . preaching one time in france , near bruges , in the field , because of the multitude of people , ( it was summer , ) and whilst he preached it began to thunder and lighten grievously , wherefore the people doubting to be throughly wet , began to haste away to shelter ; st. anthony bid them be quiet , for they should not be wet ; all the people gave credit to his words , and none stirred out of his place , then it began to rain very much throughout all the countrey , but upon the people that heard his sermon there fell not one drop . it hapned in the same province in france , that a devout woman was desirous to go to the sermon of st. anthony , but her husband would not suffer her because she was sickly ; she went up unto the top of her house , looking toward the place where he preached , and though she was two miles off , yet she heard the words of the preacher as if she had been hard by . of this the husband of the good woman was witness , who calling her , and she answering , that she stayed there to hear the sermon ; he scoffed and derided at her words , and with some pain he went up to the place where his wife was , and he also heard the words as plain as if he had been hard by . one time st. anthony preaching , he saw a traveller approach unto a noble lady which was at the sermon , and speak unto her ; the saint seeing her much troubled , and change her countenance ; bid her ( as he stood in the pulpit ) not to believe that false messenger , who brought her news that her son was dead , for it was a lye without doubt , and said withall , that he that told it her was the devil . the wicked fiend would by this lye have disturbed the sermon , but seeing himself discovered , he vanished away in all their sights . st. anthony being in padua , it was revealed to him that his father was in danger of death at lisbon , being accused of man-slaughter , whereof he was innocent ; wherefore he asked leave of his guardian , and having obtained it , he was carried in one night onely ( by an angel ) from padua unto lisbon . being come thither he spoke with his father , and brought to pass , that the judges caused the dead body to be brought before him ; st. anthony before much people asked him if his father had killed him ; the dead body spake , and said no , and that he was falsly accused thereof . the judge , having seen the strange miracle , set free the father of st. anthony , who remained in his company all night , and the next day he was carried back from lisbon unto padua , as he had been brought thither . one time st. anthony preaching at the funerals of a rich man , and among other things discoursed upon these words , where thy treasure is , there is thy heart ; to confirm these words , the father said , that the former words be true , it is evident in this rich man , who was covetous , for his heart was to be found in his chest , where his money lieth ; forthwith some went and opened it , and there they found the heart of the covetous man indeed , as fresh as if it had been taken out of the breast of a man. it happened often at the end of the sermons of st. anthony , that the people departed with such desire to be confessed , that the confessours of his order , and of the other orders also were not sufficient to satisfie them . he also heard confessions ; among others he also heard the confession of a paduan , who told him that he had kicked his mother ; st. anthony reproved him sharply , and told him that the foot that had struck his mother was worthy to be cut off : the words of st. anthony were of such force in the mind of him that was confessed , that when he came home , he himself cut off the same foot ; st. anthony being advertised thereof , caused him to be brought unto him , and restored him his foot again , with the sign of the cross , all these stories that follow are taken out of cressy's church-history . st . winwaloc and his disciples , being not content with their habitation , prayed to god that he would direct them to a more convenient one ; he shewed them a place remote in the sea ; but wanting a ship , he renewed his prayers , and having done this he said to his brethren , be courageous and firm in a strong faith , and as you see me lead this brother by the hand , so do every one of you 〈◊〉 his next fellow's hand , and follow one another . then invoking the name of our lord , with his pastoral staff he struck the sea , upon which it opened a passage for them ; so that taking one another by the hand , and himself marching in the front , they walked securely over the dry sands , the waters on both sides standing like walls . cres. pag. 183. st. benignus discovered to st. patrick the motives of his journey to a solitary place , who exhorted him to pursue his purpose , saying , go brother , take only your staff with you , and when you shall be arrived at the place for your repose , wheresoever having fixed your staff in the ground you shall see it flourish and grow green , there know you must make your abode . st. benignus , being accompanied only with a youth named pincius , began his journey through woody and marish places , but as soon as he was arrived in an island where he saw a solitary place , he presently fixt his staff in the ground , which without delay wonderfully grew green , and brought forth fresh leaves , and to this day the same tree remains flourishing with green boughs : yet one incommodity it had , that there was no water near , whereupon ▪ st. benignus gave his staff to young pincius , commanding him to go to a certain place full of reeds , and there striking the ground with his staff , he should without doubt find water so earnestly desired by them ; the child obeyed , went to the place , and struck the ground three times , making three holes in it with the end of his staff , which he had no sooner done , but immediately a fountain gusht forth , from whence to this day a brook is supplied , which is good for fishing , and healthfull for many infirmities . cr. p. 194. st. piran fed ten irish kings and their armies with three cows ; rais'd to life dead pigs , and dead men. cr. p. 195. at the church of st. almedha one especial thing usually happening on the solemnity of this virgin , seems to me very remarkable ; for you may oftentimes see there young men and maids , sometimes in the church , sometimes in the church-yard , and sometimes , whilst they are dancing in an even ground , encompassing it , to fall down on a sudden to the ground ; at first they lie quiet , as if they were rapt in an ecstasie , but presently after they will leap up , as if possessed with a frenzy , and both with their hands and feet before the people they will represent whatsoever servile works they unlawfully performed upon feast-days of the church ; one will walk as if he were holding the plough , another as if he were driving the oxen with a goad , and both of them at the time time singing some rude tune , as if to ease their toil ; one will act the trade of a shoe-maker , another of a tanner , a third of one that were spinning . here you may see a maid busily weaving , and expressing all the postures usually in that work : after all which , being brought with offerings unto the altar , you would be astonished to see how they would return to their senses again . cr. p. 217. the manner of st. kentigern's birth . a certain king of britarmy , who was a pagan , begot of his wife a very beautifull daughter , she having been a frequent hearer of sermons , became a christian , and though she had not been baptized , yet she was addicted to the duties of ecclesiastical discipline , as much as the fear of incensing her father would permit : she bore so great devotion to the fruitfull virginity of the blessed virgin , that , mov'd with womanish presumption , she begg'd that she might imitate her in her conception and birth . at length , as she thought , she obtained her desire , for she found her self with child . now it is not to be conceived that this happened without the embraces of a man , notwithstanding who that man was , or in what manner , or when this was done , she oft protested , and with oaths confirmed it , that she was utterly ignorant . her father perceiving this , and not being able by fair speeches or threatnings to wrest from her , who was the father of the child , for she seriously protested , that she had never suffered the unlawfull embraces of any man ; hereupon in a rage he determined to execute upon her the law established by his ancestors , by which it was enacted , that whatsoever young maid should be with child by fornication in her father's house , should be thrown down headlong from the top of an high mountain , and the person corrupting her should lose his head . in conformity therefore to this law , the young woman was placed on the highest point of a mountain in that countrey , called dunpelder , from thence to be thrown down , and torn in pieces : she therefore with deep sighs , looking up to heaven , implored mercy : after this , she was cast down ; but by the fall was neither bruised , nor received the least harm , but sliding down easily and slowly , came safe to the bottom . the pagans ascribed this to the magical enchantments of christians , therefore they carried her several miles into the sea , and there left her , destitute of all humane help , in a small boat made of leather without oars , but the boat was carried to a far distant haven with great swiftness ; being arrived there , the young lady went out of the boat , and presently after was brought to bed of a son , without the assistence of a midwife . the next morning st. servanus came to the place , and seeing the mother with her infant , he took them into his care , and baptized them , and called the mother thanen , and the child kentigern . cr. p. 231. st. iustinian having reproved his servants for idleness , and mispending their time , they were enflam'd with fury against him , insomuch as rushing upon him they threw him to the ground , and most cruelly cut off his head : but in the place where his sacred head fell to the ground , a fountain of pure water presently flowed , by drinking of which in following times , many were miraculously restored to health . but miracles greater than these , immediately succeeded his death ; for the body of the martyr presently rose , and taking the head between the two armes , went down to the sea shoar , and walking thence on the sea , past over to the port called by his name , and being arrived to the place where a church is now built to his memory , it fell down , and was there buried by st. david . cr. p. 234. st. david being enjoined to preach , he commanded a child which attended him , and had lately been restored to life by him , to spread a napkin under his feet , and standing upon it he began to expound the gospel and the law to the auditory . all the while this oration continued , a snow white dove descending from heaven , sate upon his shoulders ; and moreover the earth , on which he stood , rais'd it self under him , till it became a hill , from whence his voice , like a trumpet , was clearly heard and understood by all , both near and far off . on the top of which hill a church was afterward built , which remains to this day . cr. p. 235. st. david when priest , went to paulens , who in a certain island lived a holy life , with him st. david lived many years ; now it fell out that his master paulens fell blind , hereupon calling his disciples together , he desired that one after another they would look upon his eyes , and say a prayer or benediction on them . when they had done this , and that he received no ease or remedy , david said thus to him , father , i pray you do not command me to look you in the face , for ten years are passed since i studied with you , and in all that time i never had the boldness to look you in the face . paulens admiring his humility said , since it is so , it will suffice , if by touching my eyes thou pronounce a benediction on them . presently therefore , assoon as he touched them , sight was restored to them . cr. p. 238. st. iohn , a british priest , avoided the sight of men , confining himself to a little cell , where in a little orchard , cultivated by himself , he had planted a few laurel trees , which are now so increased that they afford a very pleasing shade ; his custome was , under these to sit , read , or write , as he thought fit . after his death , among the said trees there was one which through age was withered ; then he to whom the care of the place was committed digg'd up the roots of the said dry tree , and of the body of it hewed out a seat or bench , upon which he used to sit . after he had used the seat for the space of above two years , a thought of remorse coming into his heart , he said , alas , sinner that i am ! why do i for my own conveniency make use of a seat framed of the tree which so holy a priest planted with his own hands ? having said this , he presently took a spade , and digging a deep hole in the ground , he put the seat into it , after he had cut off the feet which supported it , and then covered it with earth . now behold a great wonder ! the very next spring , this dry bench , thus buried , sprouted forth into green branches as the other trees did , which prospered so well , that at this day there are proceeded from it several young trees , five or six foot high , and some higher , which every year do more and more flourish . cr. p. 246. here mr. cressy brags ▪ that the centuriators took notice of this saint , and of the orchard , but conceal'd this wonder . the miracle of st. ivo's translation . st. ivo's body remained several ages in the place of his burial , insomuch that his memory was lost in that place ; but at last , in the year 1001. a certain husbandman , as he was plowing the ground , lighted upon his tomb , which being taken up and opened , the body of a bishop in his pontifical ornaments was seen in it ; whereupon the pastor of that village being sent for , they , with his advice , carried the body to the church , and with great reverence pl●ced it near the altar ; the night following st. ivo appeared in a very reverend form , and with great brightness , to a carpenter called ezi , and told him who he was , commanding him to signifie to ednoth abbat of ramsey , that he should translate his and his companions bodies from thence to his monastery ; but the poor man , not having the boldness to relate this vision , he appeared to him the second time , repeating the same commands ; which he still neglecting to perform , at the third apparition the bishop smote him on the side with his crosier , telling him , that the pain of that stroke should remain till he had performed what he had enjoined him . the man awaking , presently after found as grievous a pain in his side as if a sword had pierced it . thus was he compelled to declare his vision to the abbat , which assoon as he had done he was freed of his pain : but the abbat would give no credit to what the man told him , but calling him clown and fool , said , must we translate and venerate the ashes of i know not what cobler ? the night following the bishop appeared to the abbat , and said , rise quickly , for i whom thou scornfully call'st cobler , have brought thee here a pair of boots that will last a good while , these thou must put on and wear for my sake . having said thus , he seemed to draw on his legs a pair of boots , with care to make them sit smooth and handsome : presently the abbat waking felt such horrible pain in his legs , that he was not able to walk or stand ; and fifteen years did he remain in this infirmity . by this miracle , the sanctity of the bishop was approved , and his body translated to ramsey , to whose honour the abbat ednoth built a church ; in which he placed his tomb in such manner , that half of it appeared within , and half of it without the wall , to the end , that a fountain of water that flowed thence might be ready for the use of every one who came in devotion , whether the church was shut or not ; which water , by the merits of the bishop , had the virtue to cure many diseases . one great miracle wrought there was on a monk troubled with a dropsie , his skin was strangely swell'd , and his breath so noisome , none could approach him , and his drought was so excessive , that he thought he could drink whole barrels ; on a time , by admonition received in his sleep , he went to saint ivo's monument , where after he had taken three draughts of the water , he cast up all the superfluous humours within him , and was restored to perfect health . cr. p. 293. king sebert having built st. peter's church at westminster , and endowed it with many possessions ; now on the night before the day designed for the dedication of this church , st. peter appearing to a certain fisherman in the habit of a stranger , on the other side of the river of thames , demanded to be wafted over , which was done ; being gone out of the boat , he entred into the church in the sight of the fisherman , and presently a heavenly light shone so clear , that it turned the night into day . there was with the apostle a multitude of heavenly citizens , coming out and going into the church , a divine melody sounded , and an odour of unexpressible fragrancy shed abroad . as soon as all things pertaining to the dedication of the church were performed , st. peter return'd to the poor fisherman , who was so affrighted with his divine splendor , that he almost lost his senses , but saint peter kindly comforting him , brought him to himself . thus both of them entring into the boat , st. peter asked him if he had any provision ; who answered , that partly being stupified with seeing so great a light , and partly detained by his return , he had taken nothing , being withall assured of a good reward from him : hereto st. peter replied , let down thy net , the fisherman obey'd , and immediately the net was filled with a multitude of fishes , they were all of the same kind , except one salmon of a wonderfull largeness . having then drawn them to the shoar , st. peter said , carry from me this great fish to mellitus the bishop , and all the rest take for thy hire ; and moreover be assured , that both thou all thy life time , and thy children after thee for many years ▪ shall be plentifully furnished with these kind of fishes ; only be carefull you fish not on our lord's days . i who speak now with thee am peter , and i my self have now dedicated this church , built to my fellow-citizens , and to my honour , so preventing by my own authority the episcopal benedicton . acquaint the bishop therefore with the things thou hast seen and heard , and the sign yet marked on the wall will confirm thy speeches . let him therefore surcease from his design of consecrating the church , and only supply what i have omitted , the celebration of the sacrament , and the instruction of the people . let him likewise give notice to all , that i my self will oftentimes visit this place , and be present at the prayers of the faithfull ; and will open the gates of heaven to all that live soberly , justly and piously in this world. as soon as he said this , he presently vanisht from his sight . the next morning , as the bishop mellitus was going in procession to the church , with an intention to dedicate it , the fisherman met him with the fish , and related to him whatsoever st. peter had enjoyn'd him : at which the bishop was astonished , and having unlockt the church doors , he saw the pavement mark'd with letters and inscriptions both in greek and latin , and the wall anointed in twelve several places with holy oil ; he saw likewise the remainders of twelve torches sticking to as many crosses , and the church every where yet moist with aspersions . all which being observ'd by the bishop and people , they gave thanks . a farther testimony of this miracle is afforded by the whole progeny of this fisherman , for his children , according to the command from their father , brought the tithes of all their gains by fishing , and offered them to st. peter , and the priests attending divine service in his church . but one among them having presumed to defraud the church of this oblation , presently was deprived of the wonted benefit of his trade , till having confess'd his fault , and restored what he had reserv'd , he promised amendment for the future . and moreover , the fisherman , who was very simple , and as yet not a christian , described to the bishop very exactly the shape and lineaments of st. peter , well known to the bishop by his picture at rome . cr. p. 308. st. lawrence found the son of a man who had kindly entertained him , dead , and the parents in great sorrow , who with a loud voice cryed to him , o holy man ! restore our son to us , that we may more firmly believe in christ. hereupon the bishop having offered up his prayers , said to the child , arise , who presently rose up , and withall testified , that being dead , his soul was violently drawn by horrible spirits to the flames of hell ; but upon the prayers of st. lawrence it was by angels , shining with brightness , brought back to the body . cr. p. 327. a miracle wrought at king oswald's cross. bothelm , a monk of hagulstad , walking unwarily by night upon the ice , fell suddenly and broke his arme ; one morning having heard that one of his brethren was to go that day to the place of the holy cross , he desired him to bring him a small portion of that sacred wood , for he said he was confident it would cure him by god's help . the brother performed what he desired , and gave him a little of the moss which covered the outside of the wood , which he put into his bosome ; when he went to bed , forgetting to lay it by , it remained in his bosome all night , but waking about midnight , he felt something that was cold lying against his side , and searching for it with his hand , he perceived that both his hand and arme were become perfectly whole . cr. p. 347. a certain woman who had a long time been deprived both of her sight and hearing , to her it was suggested by revelation , that she should repair to the bishop birinus for her cure , she delayed not therefore , but took with her a guide to conduct her : the bishop therefore seeing the womans piety , immediately made the sign of the cross upon her eyes and ears , whereupon both her sight and hearing were restored to her . cr. p. 351. st fursey's wonderfull visions . on a certain time he was rapt from his body , and in that ecstasie , which continued from evening to cock-crowing , he was favoured with the sight of troops of angels . three days after , being again in an ecstasie , he saw yet more glorious apparitions of angels . moreover there were discovered to him very earnest contentions of wicked spirits , who by many accusations of a certain sinner , lately dead , endeavoured to stop his passage to heaven , but by reason the holy angels protected him , they could not effect their desire . on a certain time , being elevated in spirit , he was commanded by the angels which conducted him to look down upon the earth ; whereupon , bowing his eyes downward , he saw as it were a dark valley under him , in a very low bottom : he saw likewise in the air four fires , not much distant one from another , and asking the angels what fires those were , he was told , that those were the fires which now enflamed the world , and would in the end consume it , viz. the fire of lying , the fire of covetousness , the fire of dissention , and the fire of iniquity . now these four fires increasing by little , at last joyned together , and became an immense flame ; and when they approached near them , fursey was affraid , and said to the angel , sir , behold , the flames come close to us ; but the angel answered , fear not , for since thou didst not kindle this fire , it will not burn thee ; for though this flame seems to thee great and terrible , yet it tries every one according to his merits , so that the concupiscence which is in any one , shall burn in this fire ; for accordingly as every one being in the body is enflamed by unlawfull pleasures , so being loosed from his body shall he burn by condign torment . then he saw one of the three angels , which in both visions had been his conductors , go before the other and divide the flame , and the other two flying on each side of him , which defended him from the danger of the fire . he saw likewise many devils flying through the fire , and kindling war against the just : these malign spirits pursued him likewise with accusations , but the good angels defended him : and after this , he saw great numbers of blessed spirits , among which some were of his own nation , priests who had well discharged their office , as he had heard by report ; by these he was informed of many things , very profitable , both to himself and all who are willing to attend them . when they had finished their speeches , and were returned to heaven with the rest of the angels , there remained onely with st. fursey the three angels mentioned before , who were to restore him to his body . and when he came close to the foresaid great fire , one of the angels divided it as before ; but when the man of god was come to a door which stood open among the flames , the unclean spirits snatching up one of those whom they were tormenting in the flames , and casting him against him , touched him , and burnt his shoulder and one of his cheeks . he knew the man , and remembred when he was ready to die he had received from him a garment : but the angel , laying hold of him , cast him back into the fire ; but the devil answered , do not cast him back , since you have once received him ; for as you have taken the goods belonging to a sinner , so you must be partakers of his punishment ; but the angel replied , he took not that out of covetousness , but for saving the man's soul. after this , the burning ceased , and the angel turning himself to st. fursey , said , the fire that thou hast kindled has now burnt thee , for if thou hadst not received money from this man who is dead in his sins , thou hadst not tasted of his torments . st. fursey , being afterwards restored to his body , carried visibly in his shoulder and cheek , all his life time , the marks of the burning which he had suffered in his soul. cr. p. 354. st. eanswitha's monastery being seated on the top of high rocks , they found this incommodity in their retirement , which was a penury of sweet water : the holy virgin was sensible of this inconvenience ; and after she had by prayer sollicited our lord , she went to the fountain , more than a mile remote from the monastery , and striking the water with a staff , commanded it to follow her ; the deaf element heard and obey'd the sacred virgin 's voice , and against the inclination of nature followed her steps , till overcoming all the difficulties of the passage , it mounted up to the monastery , where it abundantly served all their uses . one particular more increased the admiration of the event ; for this rivulet in the way being to pass through a pool , flowed notwithstanding pure and free from all mixture . cr. p. 357. st. cuthbert , when a child , saw st. aidan's soul carried into heaven . and likewise on a certain day , as he was journeying alone , about the third hour , he turned aside into the house of a certain matron , being desirous to repose there a while , and to get food not for himself but his horse : the woman received him kindly , and earnestly desired that she might make something ready for his refection ; but he refused , telling her , that he could not eat , because it was a day of fast , for it was indeed friday ; she notwithstanding persisted in her desire , and told him , that all the rest of his journey he would find no habitation , therefore i desire you would eat , lest you should faint if you fast all day ; notwithstanding out of love to fasting , he would not be overcome by the woman's importunity , but fasting as he was he continued his journey till evening ; when st. cuthbert saw he could not finish his journey that day , neither was there any lodging near , as he was riding he saw certain cottages , which in the summer time the herdsmen had built for their present use , but then the winter approaching , they were left empty ; thither he went with an intention to stay all night , and tying his horse to the wall , he gathered up a bundle of hay which the wind had blown from the house-covering , and gave it him to eat , and himself passed his time in prayer . but on a sudden he saw the horse lift up his head , and with his teeth biting somewhat that was on the house-roof , and presently after he drew down a linen cloth wrapped up ; being desirous therefore to know what that was , he took up the linen , and found wrapped up in it half a loaf of bread warm from the oven , and so much flesh as would suffice himself for one refection ; he blessed god , who vouchsafed to provide a supper for him and his companion ; half of the bread therefore he gave to his horse , and the other half he eat himself . cr. p. 366. a secular priest foolishly adventured to make a tryall whether st. ethelreda's body yet remained uncorrupted , fastening therefore a candle to the end of a rod , he passed it through a hole which the danes had made in the sepulchre , and looking in as curiously as he could , searched round about the tomb. and not content with this , with the end of a forked stick he endeavoured to draw to him the cloths in which her body was enwrapped , and some part of the body he discovered ; when the h. virgin , having indignation that a vile person should presume to look upon her naked body , with great violence drew back the cloths , insomuch as he striving against her fell backwards , and was forcibly dashed against the pavement ; by which fall he became lame all his life , and afterwards was struck with madness . cr. p. 383. a doubt entring into the minds of some touching the incorruption of st. withburga , sister to st. ethelreda , 55 years after her death , when the bodies of these two virgins were translated , that doubt was put to the tryall . as touching saint ethelreda , considering the ancient proofs of her incorruption , none durst presume to touch her body ; but they discovered the body of st. withburga as far as her breasts , and she was seen perfectly entire , more like to one asleep than dead , with a silk cushion under her head , her veil and vestments shining as if they had been new , her countenance chearfull , with a rosie blush ; her teeth white , her lips a little opened , and her breasts exceeding small . one of the monks adventuring to touch her body , a lively blush coloured her cheeks , as if she still had breath in her . cr. p. 385. it happened on a certain sunday , when st. winefrid's parents were gone to church , some necessary occasions detained her at home ; at which time a certain young man named caradoc , the son of alan , prince of the countrey , entred the house , where he found the virgin alone sitting by the fire ; she knowing the prince , hastily rose up , and desired to know his pleasure . his answer was , you are not ignorant who i am , and how i abound in riches and honour ; all these riches and honours you shall partake if you will yield to my will. the virgin perceiving his intent , held down her head and blushed extremely : at first she seemed as if she were much troubled that he should find her unadorned and she told him , sir , you being a prince , there is no doubt but you are able to heap upon me all worldly happiness in abundance , if i were your wife ; however he pleased to expect here a while till my father's return , in the mean time i have some business in my chamber , and i will return presently . this she said to gain a little time , for she saw the young man burning with lust ; with much adoe he permitted her to go to her chamber , having hopes she would return as soon as she was dressed ; she therefore entred hastily her chamber , and as hastily went out at the other door , and ran towards the church . as soon as the young man perceived this , he drew his sword , ran after her , and soon overtaking her , with a stern countenance struck off her head ; and immediately in the place where it fell to the earth , a most pure and plentifull spring gushed forth , which flows to this day , and by the holy virgin 's merits gives health to a world of diseased persons . it being in the steep descent of a hill when the virgin 's head was cut off , it lightly running down to the bottom slid into 〈◊〉 church , whereas the body remained in the place where it first fell . the congregation were wonderfully astonished to see the head tumbling among their feet , they all went out ▪ and found the murtherer near the lifeless body , wiping his sword on the grass ; st. bueno therefore seeing his pride , and having in his hand the virgin 's head , looked on him and said , impious villain ! hast thou no shame of the stain wherewith thou hast defiled thy high birth ? and shewest thou no repentance of this horrible crime ? thou hast disturbed the peace , thou hast polluted the church , thou hast provoked god : since therefore it is so , i beseech him without delay to inflict on thee a just punishment for this thy detestable crime . as soon as he had ended these words the young man fell to the ground , gave up the ghost , and , which was more wonderfull , his body presently disappeared , and many say it was swallowed up by the earth , and with the wicked soul sunk into hell : but bueno kissing the head which he had in his hand , joyned it to the body , covering it with his mantle , celebrated mass at the altar , preached , and prayed that the virgin 's soul might return to her body ; this prayer being ended the virgin rose up as from sleep , and cleansing her face from the dust and sweat , filled the congregation with wonder and joy . now in the place where the head was rejoyned to the body there appeared a white circle compassing the neck , small as a white thread , which continued all her life ; and from that white circle she had the name of winefrid ; and after her death when she appeared to any , that white mark was always visible . the place where her bloud was shed is at this day called st. winefrid's well . the stones likewise both where the spring gusheth forth , and beneath in the current , having been sprinkled with her bloud , retain the redness to these times ; which colour neither the length of many ages , nor the continual sliding of the water over them , has been able to wash away . and moreover a certain moss , which sticks to the said stones , renders a fragrant odour like incense . cr. p. 389. st. clare , an hermit , when come to years of maturity , was by his parents affianced to a beautifull virgin ; but when the time wherein the marriage was to be solemnized approached , the young man withdrew himself from his parents house , and out of britanny passed over into france ; but there a noble woman dwelling near him , enflamed with lust , impudently attempted his chastity ; but saint clare resolutely resisted the shameless lady ; notwithstanding which resistence , when her sollicitations still more and more encreased , he was forced to forsake his monastery ; the lascivious lady desperately enraged with his departure , sent two murtherers in search of him , who at last found him in a poor cottage , where they set upon him with opprobrious speeches , and at last drawing out their swords they cut off his head : st. clare presently after arose , and with his hands taking up his head , by the assistence of angels , carried it to a fountain not far distant , into which he cast it , and then carried the same back to the oratory of his cell , and going on a little farther towards a village near the river epta , he there consummated his course . cr. p. 411. two kentish princes , ethelred and ethelbert , being murthered , and buried under the seat where the king was wont to sit , the murther was most miraculously discovoured ; wherefore taking up the bodies , and honourably putting them into coffins , the arch-bishop theodorus commanded to carry them to christ-church in canterbury , but in vain they attempted this , for with all the force they could use they could not remove them out of the place ; whereupon , changing his purpose he advised to transport them to the church of st. augustin , but with as little success as before ; at last it was agreed they should be carried to the monastery of wering , of great renown in those days , which being resolved upon , the bodies were as easily removed as if they had no weight at all ; being arrived at that place , the bodies were buried near the great altar , where many wonderfull miracles are daily wrought . cr. p. 412. st. wilfrid entring into a village called tiddafrey , there met him a great multitude of women , offering their children to be confirmed by him . amongst them , one woman mingled her self , craftily carrying in her armes her dead child , pretending that he should be catechised , but inwardly persuaded that by the bishop's sanctity he should be restored to life ; the bishop therefore uncovering the child's face , to the end he might perform the due rites , found that he was dead ; then the woman , perceiving that her fraud did not succeed , betook her self to prayers , earnestly beseeching him for god and his holy mothers sake , if he had any faith or pity , to restore life to her child ; saying this , she cast her self at his feet , and would not be removed , thus offering an importunate violence toward him : all this while the bishop continued doubtfull , whether he should seem rash in attempting the miracle , or reject the tears and prayers of the disconsolate woman , but a charitable pity at last got the victory ; therefore , after he had with a low voice repeated certain devout passages out of the psalms , he laid his right hand upon the dead body , whereupon immediately the soul was restored , for by gasping , moving his eye-lids , and stirring his whole body , he gave proof that he was alive . the child was called ethelwald , who was afterward a monk at rippon . another miracle wrought by st. wilfrid on a monk , who , falling from the top of the church , whilst it was a building at the cost of king egbert , broke all his bones , and tore asunder all his members , was restored to health by the prayers of the bishop and his covent . cr. p. 422. st. ositha's head being cut off by a danish pirate , at the very place a clear fountain broke forth , which cured several kinds of diseases ; moreover as soon as her head was off , the body presently rose up , and taking up the head in the hands , by the conduct of angels walked firmly the streight way to the church of st. peter and paul , about a quarter of a mile distant from the place of her suffering ; and when it was come there , it knocked at the door with the bloudy hands , as desiring it might be opened , and thereon left marks of bloud ; having done this , it fell there down to the ground . cr. p. 424. the miracles of st. wereburga's driving away wild-geese . at chester there was near the walls of the town a farm belonging to the monastery , the corn whereof was much wasted by flocks of wild-geese , which the steward of the place endeavoured , but in vain , to chase away ; of which incommodity he made complaint to st. wereburga , whereupon she commanded him , saying , go your ways and shut them all up in a house . he wondring at so strange a command , thought the saint spoke those words in jest : but when she renew'd the same injunction constantly , and in a serious manner , he returned among the corn , where seeing great numbers of such fowl devouring the grain , he with a loud voice commanded them in his mistresses name to follow him ; hereupon immediately they all in one drove followed him , and were shut up together in a house . now it happened that a certain servant privately stole one of the said birds , which he kill'd , and hid , with intention to eat it . the next morning early ▪ the holy virgin went to the house , where after she had in a chiding manner reprehended the birds for usurping that which belonged not to them , she commanded them to flie away and not return : immediately the whole army of them took wing ; but being sensible of the injury done them , they flew not away , but hovering over the holy virgins head , with wonderfull noise made complaint of their loss . she hearing their importunate clamours , understood by inspiration the cause thereof ; and after search made , the offender confessed his theft ; whereupon she commanded the bird to be restored to her companions ; after which they all with one consent flew away , so as not any bird of that kind was afterward seen in that territory . cr. p. 427. after st. wereburga was dead her body was carried to the church of trickingham , where it was most diligently kept , the doors of the church being carefully barred , and a watch moreover set upon it : but one night a deep sleep suddenly seised on those which watched ; and at the same time great multitudes of the inhabitants of hambury coming on them , all the doors of the monastery became opened , the locks and bars , without any violence offered , falling to the ground . whereupon they took away the body , not any one resisting , and with great joy carried it to hambury , where it was honourably buried . in which place sick persons recover health , sight is restored to the blind , hearing to the dumb , the leprous are cleansed , and persons oppressed with several other diseases do there praise god for their recovery . cr. p. 427. st. milburga rests at we●lock : in antient times her memory was celebrated by the inhabitants , but after the coming in of the normans , by reason that the place of her scpulchre was unknown , she became forgotten : but of late a covent of cluny ▪ monks monks having been established there , whilst they were busie in erecting the fabrick of a new church , a certain child running earnestly over the pavement , the vault of her sepulchre broke under him , by which means the body of the h. virgin was discovered , which being taken up , a most odoriferous vapour , as of a most pretious balsam , perfumed the whole church : and such a world of miracles were wrought by her intercession , that wonderfull multitudes flock'd thither , both rich and poor , insomuch as there was scarce room in the open fields to receive them ; so strong a faith they had to find remedy there for their maladies : neither did they fail of their expectation , for none departed away without a cure , or at least a mitigation of their diseases . and particularly the king's-evil , incurable by physicians , was through the merits of the holy virgin , healed perfectly in several persons . cr. p. 429. a wonderfull miracle , shewing the efficacy of the holy sacrifice of the mass. in a battel where prince elwin was slain , among others there was one of the prince's souldiers , named imma , slain , ( at least in opinion . ) this soldier all that day and the night following lay among the other dead bodies , as if he had been slain ; but at last his spirit returning he sate up , and as well as he could , bound up the wounds he had received ; then resting himself a while , he raised himself on his feet , and began to walk away , with an intention to find out , if possible , some friends , who might take care of him . as he was going away , he was met with and taken by some of the enemies , the mercians , and brought to their captain , a principal officer of king ethelred , who examined him what he was : the poor man was afraid to acknowledge himself a soldier , therefore he answered that he was a poor country-man , who had a wife , and was come in this expedition with several others of the like quality , to bring provision to the army . upon this answer the officer commanded that care should be taken of his wounds , and when they began to be almost cured , he made him every night to be put in chains , to prevent his running away ; but no chains could hold him , for after they were gone which had put the chains upon him , they presently fell off ; and the cause of this wonder was this : he had a brother named tunna , a priest and abbat of a monastery in a certain town which at this day from his name is called tunnacestir : this abbat having heard that his brother was slain in the late battel , came himself to search for his body ; and having found another in all regards very like to his , he carried it to his monastery , and there buried it honourably . moreover he took care that several masses should be said for the pardon of his sins ; and by virtue of those masses it came to pass that no bands could hold him , but they presently fell loose from him . in ●●e mean time the officer , whose prisoner he was , began to ask him , how came it to pass that he could not be bound ? whether he had about him certain charms , which , as some think , have a power to untie all bands ? his answer was , that he was utterly ignorant of such unlawfull arts ; but , said he , i have a brother in mine own countrey , and i am assured that he thinking i am slain , says frequent masses for me ; so that if i were now in the other world , i doubt not but my soul by his intercession and prayers , would be absolved from all pains . after he had continued a good space a prisoner to the said officer , those who guarded him observed by his countenance , gesture , and speeches that he was no countrey-peasant , but a person of quality . thereupon the officer calling him aside privately , enquired more diligently who he was ; withall promising him that if he would simply declare his condition , he would not use him any thing the worse . he then plainly manifested to him that he was a servant of the king of the northumbers . whereupon the officer replied ▪ i did assure my self by the manner of thy speech , that thou were not of a base condition : and now thou deservest to die , in revenge of all my brethren and kinsmen who have been slain in the battel : but because i will not break my promise , i will not kill thee . as soon therefore as he had recovered health and strength the officer sold him to a certain man at london , called freson : but neither could he be bound by his new master ; for after tryall of several sorts of bands and chains , they became all unloosed . when he therefore who had bought him perceived that he could not be restrained by fetters , he gave him permission to redeem himself , if he could : for commonly after nine of the clock in the morning , the usual time of masses , his bands were 〈◊〉 . upon this offer the prisoner was suffered to depart , having first given his promise by oath , that he would either send the money agreed on for his ransome , or return and yield himself a prisoner again . he went therefore from london into 〈◊〉 , to king lothere , nephew to the famous queen ethelreda by her sister , who likewise had formerly been a servant to the said queen ; and from him the prisoner received the money appointed for his ransome , which according to promise he sent to his master . being thus free , after some time he returned to his countrey , and coming to his brother the abbat , he related to him particularly all the accidents , both good and bad , which had befaln him ; and then perceived that his chains for the most part had been loosed precisely at the hours in which masses had been celebrated for him , and moreover that many other commodities and comforts had befaln him from heaven in his dangers , by his brothers prayers , and the oblation of the saving sacrifice . cr. p. 439. on a certain day st. cuthbert came to the village of a certain count , whose wife at that time lay sick at the point of death ; the count himself met him in the way , and conducted him into his house , and acquainted him with the desperate state of his wife , beseeching him that he would give his benediction to water for sprinkling her ; the bishop assented to the man's request , and water being brought , he blessed it , and gave it to a priest , commanding him to sprinkle the sick lady with it ; who thereupon entred into her chamber , where she lay like one deprived of sense and life , and both sprinkled her face and bed , yea withall , opening her mouth , distilled a few drops into it ; the holy water had no sooner touched her , but , o wonderfull ! though she was utterly ignorant of what had been done , she presently recovered a perfect health of body and mind , and without delay rising up , she her self came to doe service to the bishop , being the first of the whole family which presented to him a cup of refection cr. pag. 469. the divine disposition being pleased to demonstrate in how great glory st. cuthbert lived after his death , gave this testimony : eleven years after his burial his brother monks , opening his sepulchre to take up his bones , found his body perfectly entire , with a lively freshness , and all his limbs as flexible as if he had been alive , so that he appeared like a person rather asleep than dead ; moreover all his vestments were not only undecayed , but appeared in their primitive freshness , and also with the addition of a wonderfull lustre . cr. p. 473. a coffin of stone was prepared for entombing the body of king sebbe , but when they endeavour'd to put the body into it , they found that it was by a hands breadth too long for the coffin ; whereupon paring away as much of the stone at each end as they could , they thereby lengthened it about the measure of two fingers breadths , yet after all it would not receive the body , whereupon finding so great a difficulty to interr him , they intended , either to seek out a new coffin , or to endeavour , by hewing the body , to shorten it so much as to make it enter into the coffin ; but by a wonderfull accident , which could proceed from no less than an heavenly power , both these designs of theirs were prevented ; for presently , in the sight of the bishop , and sighard , son to the said king and monk , who , together with his brother seofrid ▪ reigned after him , a great multitude of others being likewise present , the coffin was found of a convenient length , insomuch that there was room enough to lay a cushion under his head , and yet at the feet there remained four fingers breadths beyond the body . cr. p. 486. the wonderfull story of a man revived , and recounting his visions . a certain man , who had been a good while dead , was restored to the life of his body , and related many notable things which he had seen : this man was an honest house-keeper , who with his family lived a religious life in a religion of the northumbers , called incuningum ; who having been struck with a disease , the same goowing more and more violent upon him , it brought him to extremity , so that on a certain day towards evening he died ; but the day following early he came to life , and suddenly raising himself up in his bed , all those who mournfully watched the body , were terribly affrighted and ran away , only his wife , whose love to him was excessive , though she trembled at the sight , staid still by him . the man seeing his wife , bid her be of comfort : fear not , said he , for i am truly restored to life ▪ from death which had seiz'd me , and permission is given me to live a while longer among men ; but my conversation thereafter must be quite otherwise than formerly it has been . having said this , he presently rose ▪ and went to an oratory of that village , where he remained a good while in prayer : afterward having divided his whole substance into three portions , one portion he gave to his wife , a second to his children , and the third he distributed to the poor . not long after , having thus freed himself from all worldly cares , he went to the monastery of mai●os , where having received tonsure he entred into a religious life . now the account which he gave of his visions , was on this manner : a certain person brightly shining in his 〈◊〉 and vestments , conducted me , and we walked together silently , as it seemed to me , towards the place where the sun rises in high summer . thus walking together , we came to a place where there was on our left hand a valley of a vast depth and breadth , and the length of it seemed infinite ; one side of this valley was terrible with its burning flames , and the other no less intolerable for the cold blasts , hail , and snow , driving through it ; and both these places were full of mens souls , which seemed to be forcibly tossed from one side to the other , for those which were in the fire , not being able to endure its scorching , leaped into the horrible cold , and not finding ease there , they leaped back into the unquenchable flames . having observed an infinite number of deformed souls thus tormented , with an interchangeable vicissitude of tortures , without any respite of ease , i began to think that this place was surely hell , of whose intolerable torments i had oft heard preachers speak : but my conductor , who went before me , answered these my thoughts , saying , do not entertain such an imagination ; for this is not hell , as thou thinkest . but when he saw me affrighted with so horrible a spectacle , he conducted me leisurely somewhat farther , where i saw all places round about me become obscure , and at length filled with utter darkness : into which when we were entred , the darkness was so thick , that i could see nothing but the shape and vestment of my conductor . and as we went on farther in this shady darkness , on a sudden there appeared before us frequent globes of hideous flames , ascending out of a deep pit , and again falling down into it . when i was come thither , presently my guide vanished out of sight , leaving me alone in the midst of this darkness and horrid spectacle : but when the said globes of fire without any intermission mounted up , and again fell down , i perceive that they were full of humane souls , which , like sparks of fire carried up by the smoak , were sometimes cast upward , and then drawn back by the vapours , of fire . moreover an unexpressibly noisome stink , belched out by those vapours , filled all the dark spaces round about . as i was thus standing still in a terrible fright , being uncertain what to doe , whither to go , and what would be the end of all this , i heard behind my back a most horrible noise , as of persons wailing in unutterable misery ; and also at the same time i heard others loudly and scornfully laughing , as the rude vulgar people are wont to do , when they insult over their captive enemies . when this noise came nearer to me , i perceived a troup of wicked spirits haling into the midst of that darkness the souls of men which woefully cryed out , whilst the others burst forth into laughters . and among these souls i could distinctly see one that was shaved like an ecclesiastical person , another was a lay-man , and a third was a woman . these unhappy souls , thus haled along by those spitefully malitious spirits , at length were plunged into the midst of that burning pit . into which after they were descended a good way , i could no longer distinctly hear the wailing of men , and laughing of devils , but only had in mine ears remaining a confused promiscuous sound . in the mean time certain obscure spirits ascended out of that fire-vomiting pit , which approached me on all sides , and with flaming eyes and stinking fire issuing out of their mouths and nostrils vexed me grievously . moreover , with fiery pincers , which they held in their hands , they threatened to catch me ; but for all that , though they frighted me , they had not the boldness to touch me . being thus on all sides encompassed with darkness and enemies , i turned my eyes every way to see if there were any one to deliver me : at last there appeared by the way which i had passed something that shone like a star , which increasing and approaching nearer and nearer , as soon as it came to me , all those hatefull spirits which had endeavoured with their fiery pincers to lay hold on me , were dispersed and fled . now he whose coming drove away these spirits was the same who at first had been my conductor , who presently after turning his steps more southerly toward the east , led me out of that darkness into a clear and lightsome air ; in which after we had walked a while , i saw before us a mighty wall , of the length and highth whereof every way i could see no end ; i began then to marvel to what purpose we should go to that wall , in which i could discover neither door , window , nor any other passage ; but being come to it , presently , i know not by what means , we found our selves on the top of it . and there appeared to me a most large pleasant field , so replenished with all sorts of odoriferous flowres , that the sweet fragrancy of them immediately took away all the former stench of the dark fiery fornace ; and so great was the light there on all sides , that it far exceeded the brightness of mid-day . moreover there were in that field innumerable assemblies of men in pure white garments , all rejoycing and singing . now as he led me among these happy choires , i began to think , that this might be the kingdom of heaven , which i had oft heard preached of ; but he again answered to my thought , no ; this is not heaven , as thou supposest . and as we passed on in our progress , i saw before mine eyes a far greater and more pleasant light than we had seen before , and in that light i heard most sweet melody of persons joyfully singing , and so wonderfull a fragrancy of a most sweet odour issued from thence , that the former sweetness , which before seemed excessive to me , now i very meanly esteemed ; as likewise the former light , compared with this , appeared almost obscure . now , when i was in a hopefull expectation that we should enter into this blessed place , my guide made a stop ; and presently turning his steps , he led me back again the way that he had come . and when in our return we were come to the joyfull mansions of those inhabitants clothed in white garments , he said to me , dost thou know what these things are which thou hast seen ? i answered , no. he replied , that valley which thou sawest so terrible by the scorching flames and horrible frosts , is the place in which those souls are to be tried and afflicted , which having delayed to confess and amend their sins , at the very point of death retire for safety to repentance , and so depart out of the body : these , because even in the last moment of their lives they confessed , and were contrite for their sins , they shall at least in the day of iudgment come to the kingdom of heaven ; and many of them before that day are eased and delivered by the prayers , fasting , and alms of the living , and especially by the celebrating the most holy sacrifice . moreover , that flame-vomiting and stinking pit which thou sawest , is the very mouth of hell , into which whosoever once falls , he shall never come out of it for all eternity . as for this pleasant flowry ▪ field here before thine eyes , in which thou seest such multitudes of youth making merry , and clothed with white raiment , this is the place which is the receptacle of such souls as have continued to their death in the exercise of vertue , but yet their works have not been of such perfection , as to deserve their present admission into the kingdom of heaven ; yet all these in the day of iudgment shall arrive unto the vision of our lord , and the joys of his heavenly kingdom : but as for those who in their words , works , and thoughts , have attained to perfection , such , as soon as they have left the body , shall enter into that blessed kingdom : to the confines of which kingdom , that place pertains where thou sawest so great a light , and heardest so sweet harmony , and wast refreshed with so admirably sweet-smelling odours : thou therefore having seen all these things , must presently return to thy body , and again , as formerly , live among men . if then hereafter thou wilt be diligent to examine all thine actions , and to observe uprightness and simplicity in thy conversation and speeches , thou also after death shalt receive a mansion among these joyfull troups of happy spirits . for i , having departed for a time from thee , did it to this end , that i might see what would in the end become of thee . when he had spoken thus to me , i had a horrible aversion from returning to my body , being extremely delighted with the sweetness and beauty of that place which i saw , and the happy society of the persons living in it . notwithstanding i had not the boldness to make any such request to my guide . and whilst i was busie in these thoughts , i know not how , i presently perceived that i was again alive among men . cr. p. 500. saint decumanus , when his head was cut from his body , the trunk raising it self up , took the head , which it carried from the place where it was slain to a spring not far off , which flowed with a most chrystalline water , in which with the hands it washed the bloud away ; which spring , in reverend memory of the saint , is to this day called st. decumanus's spring ▪ near to which place the body , together with the head , was buried . cr. p. 526. in those days there was in the territory of worcester a certain place wholly uncultivated , and almost unpassable , by reason of thorns and briers growing thick there . this place formerly called homme , was in succeeding times named eovesham , for the reason which i shall now declare . st. egwin had appointed four sheepherds to feed their flocks about the said wood for the sustenance of his monks . now on a certain day it happened that one of the said sheepherds , named eoves , entring deeply into the midst of the wood , there appeared before him a certain most glorious virgin , attended by two others , her splendour darkened that of the sun it self , and her beauty incomparably exceeded all worldly features : she held in her hand a book , out of which she , with the other two virgins , sung hymns of praise to god. the poor man , dazled with this splendour , upon which he durst not fix his eyes , stood a while silent and trembling , and presently after in great fear retired home , and repairing to the bishop acquainted him with this vision . the holy bishop considering the matter advisedly with himself , on a certain day after he had fasted and prayed , taking three companions with him , went toward the place described by the sheepherd , walking all the way bare-foot , praying and singing psalms ; and commanding his attendents to stop at a distance , he himself passed farther into the wood , and being come to the place , he fell prostrate on the ground , where , with many sighs and tears , he remained a good space , imploring a mercifull regard from our lord. after which he rose up from prayer , and immediately there appeared to him the three virgins , with the same majesty and glory as before ; among whom she who stood in the midst seemed more tall and resplendant than the other , in pure whiteness infinitely excelling lillies , and in freshness roses , and from her proceeded a celestial and inestimable odour : she held in her hand a book , together with a golden cross , casting forth bright beams of light . now whilst he thought within himself , that surely this was the mother of our lord , the said glorious virgin as it were approving such his inward pious cogitation , stretching forth the said cross , gave him a benediction with it , and presently with that farewell disappeared . the holy man with great joy rendring thanks to god for this favour , understood thereby that it was god's will that the same place should be consecrated to his service , and dedicated to the honour of the blessed virgin , mother of our lord. for during his former afflictions and persecutions he had made a vow , that if god would vouchsafe to give a prosperous end to his desires , he would build a church to his service . hereupon without delay he cleansed the place , began the work , and shortly brought it to perfection . cr. p. 528. st. egwin , bishop of worcester , undertook a painfull pilgrimage to rome , thereby to satisfie for the offences of his people , and withall to doe a rigorous penance for some faults committed in his youth : and to render his pilgrimage more painfull , he , in the presence of a great multitude , bound about his legs certain iron chains , and cast the key , which locked them together , into the river of avon , publickly protesting , that he would never esteem himself secure of the pardon of his sins , till either the key were restored to him ▪ or the chains unloosed by a power supernatural . having with great pain performed his voyage , he at last arrived at rome , where , whilst he was performing his devotions in the church of st. peter , his servants going to the river's side to buy provision for their master , they found in a fish's belly the key which had formerly locked the chains about his legs , which being brought to him , he in the presence of a great multitude unlocked the said chains . so that he who before was looked upon as a sinner , was afterwards honoured as a saint . cr. p. 528. in the year 711. when st. swibert went into a certain village to celebrate mass , a certain rich man who had been a pagan , but converted , and called peter , conducting a cart laden with materials for building a monastery ; in the way , by the malice of the devil , peter fell from the cart under the wheels , and was taken up dead , having his head and other members grieviously wounded ; by occasion of which , there assembled a great concourse of people , when preparation was making for his funerals , st. swibert came to the place , and commanded the body to be carried to his cell , which being done , he with many sighs and tears poured forth his prayers to restore to life the said peter , who was a servant of his monastery , then rising up , and kissing the body , immediately the dead man revived , and rose up perfectly whole , insomuch as there was not left on his body the least marks of any wounds , nor no settling of any bloud . cr. p. 538. in the same hour st. swibert died , his soul appeared to st. willebrord , requesting him that he would be present as his funerals in werda ; whereupon he presently took boat , and with several others made haste to werda ; where all these , as they were the day following , according to custome , singing the vigile of the dead , a young man was brought among them , who had been made blind by lightening , and with his clamours interrupting the psalmody , and calling to the saint to have his sight restored , as soon as he had touched the coffin he immediately recovered his sight . another , who was raging mad , being brought in , and kissing the cover of the same coffin , was presently restored to his senses . a third also , who was possessed of the devil , by the same means was freed from the wicked spirit . cr. p. 556. st. boniface one morning celebrating mass in st. michael's church in ordorf ; after which , he commanded that dinner should be made ready ; but being told that there was no meat , is it so ? answered he , how many thousands did god feed in the wilderness , forty years together ? cannot he provide for his servant , how unworthy soever , nourishment for one day ? having said this , he commanded the table should be covered , and presently a great bird flew thither , bringing in her mouth a fish , sufficient to satisfie all their hunger , this fish he bid should be dressed , which having eaten , the remainder was cast into the river . cr. p. 569. a certain devout lady , named irmgardis , attended only by two maids , and her son gocellin , a child of little more than eight years of age , came to see the solemnity of the canonization of st. swibert , ( the first saint that was solemnly canoniz'd , ) and to demand the pope's benediction . now it happened that whilst the boat in which they came , was amongst others turn'd about for landing , the young child who then stood near his mother , by reason of the rushing of the boats one against another , not being able to keep his standing , fell into the river ; which his mother seeing , would have thrown her self after him , if she had not been held back by such as were present . this happened about five of the clock at even . presently one of the maids ran in hast to acquaint the archbishop with this calamity ; who came and found the lady in the church , shrieking out , and almost mad with grief ; he with much adoe conducted her to his lodging , and endeavoured to assuage her grief , but all in vain ; for the whole night she spent in weeping , groaning , and praying to st. swibert , by his accustomed piety to succour his afflicted servant ; vowing withall , that if she might have her child restored , she would consecrate him for ever to god's service in his church . the day following about eight of the clock in the morning the dead body was found and taken up out of the river : which being presented to his mother , she became pale and fell into a swoon ; but being recovered , she took the body in her armes , and attended with a great troup of men and women weeping with her , she carried it into the church , and laid it before the sepulchre of st. swibert . after which the whole company betook themselves to their prayers ; and within a very short time the child's spirit returned into him , so that he opened his eyes , and standing upon his feet he looked about with wonder on so great a multitude , and spoke some tender and kind words to his mother . cr. p. 687. the pagans having cut off st. edmond's head , they cast it into a secret place in a thicket of the wood adjoining , there it remained a whole year's space ; after which the said pagans retiring out of the countrey , the first care of the christians was to honour their holy king and martyr . assembling themselves therefore together out of their lurking places , they reverently took his body out of the unclean place where it had been cast , and then with all diligence sought for the head ; and whilst every one of them with equal affection searched each corner of the wood , there happened a wonder not heard of in any age before : for whilst they dispersed themselves in all parts , and each one demanded of his companions , where it was that the danes had cast the head , the same head answered them aloud in their own tongue , here , here , here ; neither did it cease to cry out in the same words , till it had brought them to the place . and to add to the wonder , there they found a mighty and fierce wolf , which with its fore-feet held the head , as if appointed to watch and defend it from other beasts . when they were come , the wolf quietly resigned it to them . so with joyfull hymns to god they carried and join'd it to the body , the wolf in the mean time following them to the place where they buried it , after which , the beast returned into the wood ; in all which time , neither did the wolf hurt any one , neither did any one shew the least intention to hurt the wolf. cr. p. 736. a certain scotchman , buried in the church at rhemes , lay many years there unknown , till the ground being afterwards digged for the burial of another , his coffin was found , but could by no force of men be opened , till the pastour of the place , whose name was hildegarius , coming , opened it a little , and was infinitely ravished , with the odoriferous smell issuing out of it ; within the coffin he saw a body entire , cloathed with priestly vestments ; therefore not daring farther to violate the sepulchre , but laying boards over it , upon these boards he placed the other dead body : the night following his uncle , who had been dead many years , and was a priest , appeared to him , telling him , that he had much offended god in violating the sepulchre of a holy man. the like did the holy man himself make known to another , commanding him to signifie to the priest , that unless he removed from out his grave the stinking carcase , he should quickly receive from god a severe punishment . whereupon without delay he caused a new grave to be made for the newly dead person 's body . afterward the same holy man in a vision required a husbandman , and again a priest , to advise him in his name to remove his body from without into the church , withall signifying , that he was of the scottish nation , that his name was merilolan , and had been murthered in his way towards rome on the river aisne ( axona . ) and lest he should forget the name , he commanded him to write it with chalk , which he seemed to give him upon the cover of a chest standing by ; which he accordingly did , and writing it false , was corrected by the holy man. the next morning he found the name written in so perfect a manner , that he could not write so well , though waking , and in the light . cr. p. 813. a debate happening between the secular canons and the monks , about their revenue and possession ; the canons pretensions were supported by the queen , &c. on the monks side stood king edward , saint dunstan , &c. when the debate was in the assembly , st. dunstan was silent , and holding down his head , he debated in his mind what might be the best course to proceed in this affair . a great silence was observ'd by the whole assembly , every one expecting the archbishop's answer and resolution ; when on a sudden an image of our lord upon the cross , which was fastened aloft in the room , in the hearing of all that were present , spake these words distinctly ; it must not be , it must not be ; you have ordered things well , you shall doe ill to change them . this struck a terrour into the whole assembly , and thereupon st. dunstan said , my brethren , what would you have more ? you have heard the present affair decided by a divine sentence ; they answered , we have heard it . and upon this the monks of winchester remained secure . cr. p. 883. st editha , daughter to king edgar , a little before her death built a church to the honour of st. dionysius ; at the consecration whereof by st. dunstan he observed how the virgin frequently with her thumb made the sign of the cross upon her forehead ; at which being much delighted , he said , may that thumb never be corrupted . thirteen months after her death , st. dunstan in a vision of sleep saw st. dionysius holding the virgin by the hand , who commanded that her memory should be celebrated on earth ; the virgin her self likewise admonished him to take up her body ; withall telling him that he should find her upper parts , her eyes , and hands , all corrupted , because in her childish age she had employed them lightly and vainly ; but her thumb , which she had frequently used in signing her self with the cross , and all her lower parts remained uncorrupted , in as much as she had been always free from impurity and gluttony ; hereupon st. dunstan went to wilton , and taking up her sacred relicks , found all she had said to be true . but canutus , the danish king , who made small account of english saints , was wont to say in jest , he could never believe that a king so licentious and cruel as k. edgar , could have a saint to his daughter . and when archbishop ednot defended the sanctity of s. editha , the king being then at wilton , in a passion commanded her sepulchre to be opened ; which being done , the holy virgin was seen to sit up , with a veil before her face , in a posture as if she intended to assault the king ; at which he terribly affrighted started back , and fell half dead to the ground ; but coming to himself , he ever held the holy virgin in great veneration ; and once being endangered by a tempest at sea , he implored her assistence ; upon which the tempest immediately ceased , and he came safe to land. cr. p. 895. in the year of grace one thousand and twelve , the people of a town of saxony named colewiz ( or colbec ) being assembled in the church dedicated to the holy martyr magnus . on the vigil of our lord's nativity , the priest , named robert , according to custome , began the first solemn mass. at the same time there were fifteen men and three women in the church-yard dancing and singing profane songs , and they made such a noise that they hindred the priest , for their voices were louder than the choire which sung at mass : the priest therefore sent to them once and again to be quiet , but they contemned his command ; whereupon in great indignation he said , may it please god and st. magnus , that you may continue singing thus till a year be passed . now what followed ? this imprecation of the priest had such force , that azo , a son of the same priest , taking his sister , called ava , by the arme to draw her from the rest , and she not being able to leave them , he pulled her arme from her body , and yet not a drop of bloud was seen : she therefore with the rest remained singing a whole year . no rain fell upon them ; neither cold nor heat , hunger nor thirst , nor weariness troubled them . their cloths and shoes were not worn out , but they continued incessantly , like mad people , their singing . they by dancing so wore away the ground , that they sunk into the earth , first to the knees , and afterward to the middle , the trench became so deep . there was by their friends a kind of pent-house raised over them , to defend them from the foul weather ; but there was no need of it . at last , when the year was ended , herebert , archbishop of colon , came to the place , and absolved them from their bonds , and bringing them before the altar of st. magnus , he there reconciled them . the priest's daughter , with two others , presently gave up the ghost ; the rest slept three days and three nights without waking . some of them dyed shortly after ; but some remained many years alive , and by a trembling of all their members published to the world their sin and punishment . cr. p. 919. iudith , wife of count tosti , desiring of agelwin , bishop of durham , to bestow on her some portion of the relicks of that glorious martyr , st. oswin , king of the deiri , received from him a large lock of his hair , altogether incorrupted . and being desirous to confirm in faith certain incredulous persons , she caused a great fire to be kindled in the midst of her hall , into which she cast the same hair , which received no prejudice at all , but on the contrary a great lustre . whereupon the countess , by the bishop's order , laid up the said relick in a pretious repository . cr. p. 988. a certain church being to be consecrated to the honour of saint iohn the evangelist , devout king edward the confessour attended the procession thither ; when upon a sudden a person in a stranger's habit pressing near the king , earnestly begged an alms of him for st. iohn's sake , the king having charitably given away all the money he brought thither , took a rich ring from off his finger and gave it to the stranger , who returning him many thanks , presently disappeared . it happened afterward , that two englishmen went to adore the sepulchre of our saviour at ierusalem , who at their return lost their way , and the night coming on them , they were in great pain what would become of them . being in this perplexity , they saw passing by them a company of beautifull young men in white shining garments , before whom went two carrying torches in their hands , which took away all the obscurity of the night . after them followed a comely old man , attended by two on each hand , who looking aside , and spying the two pilgrims , he stay'd , asking them , who and whence they were , what religion they professed , who was their king , and what was the cause of their journey thither ? they told him they were englishmen , and christians , that their king's name was edward , that they came to visit the holy places of our lord's passion and resurrection , and that the same day having wandred out of their way , they knew not where to find lodging or entertainment . then the venerable old man with a chearfull countenance bid them follow him , conducting them into a most beautifull city , where they were most delicately nourished and lodged . in the morning the same old man brought them on their way , and being out of the city , he said to them , my brethren , doubt not but god will give you a prosperous journey homeward ; i am john the apostle and the evangelist ; your king i affectionately love for his chastity , salute him in my name ; and to take from him all doubt , restore him this ring which at the dedication a church to my name he gave , being then disguised in the habit of a pilgrim ; tell him withall that the day of his death approaches , and that six months hence i will visit him , and conduct him after the lamb , who is always attended by pure chast souls . as soon as he had said these words , they presently found themselves in their right way ; and with great joy returned home . whither being come , they presented the ring to the king , acquainted him with the oracle , and taking him aside discovered to him what was told them of his death . as soon as they had mentioned the name of st. iohn , the king burst forth into tears , and after he had diligently enquired of them touching the things they had seen and heard in their journey , he dismissed them with thanks . cr. p. 988. an irish priest preaching lately at dublin on these words , take no thought for to morrow , what ye shall eat , nor what ye shall drink , &c. brings in the example of the prophet daniel , daniel , saith he , was cast into the lyons den in babylon , just then habakkuk had prepared a dinner for his reapers , comes an angel to habakkuk , and tells him , habakkuk , this dinner thou hast prepared for thy reapers , thou must carry to daniel which is in the lyons den in babylon . lord , said habakkuk , i know not daniel , neither do i know where babylon is ; whereupon the angel took up habakkuk by one single hair of the head and carried him to babylon to daniel in the lyons den. babylon being three hundred miles from the place . a priest preaching in a nunnery in dublin , just after the birth of the p. of w. chose this text , knock and it shall be opened unto you : he told the nuns what mighty miracles were done by knocking ; nay , saith the priest , by knocking we have got a p. of w. the nuns fell a laughing , the priest observing it ; hold , saith he , i do not mean such knocking as you mean. thus have you some miracles of ignatius , s. anthony , &c. and a few of mr. cressy's many stories of the miracles of our english saints ; if these gain your acceptance , you will oblige me farther to prosecute this collection from more of their legends , and present you with another small book of the like nature . finis . reflections on the relation of the english reformation, lately printed at oxford burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 168 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 52 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30406) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 60978) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 272:2) reflections on the relation of the english reformation, lately printed at oxford burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 96 p. printed for j.s., amsterdam : 1688. a reply to: church government. part v. a relation of the english reformation. oxford, 1687. attributed generally to obadiah walker, but written by abraham woodhead [i.e., r.h.]. cf. jones, t. catalogue ... of tracts for and against popery. pt. 2 (p. 39-96) has special t.p. with title: reflections on the oxford theses, relating to the english reformation. attributed to gilbert burnet. cf. halkett & laing (2nd ed.). reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng r. h., 1609-1678. -church government. -part v. -relation of the english reformation. church of england -government. reformation -england. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-11 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion reflections on the relation of the english reformation , lately printed at oxford . part i. amsterdam : printed for i. s. 1688. reflections on the relation of the english reformation , &c. the first part. the introduction . we have been long in expectation of some extraordinary productions of the eminent convert of oxford . his age , his learning , and the present conjuncture hath raised that expectation very high ; and tho the ill success of his discourses concerning the presence in the sacrament , and the adoration of it , hath sunk his reputation to a great degree ; it having appeared that he neither writes exactly , nor sincerely , which hath lessened him much in the opinion of those , who expected great things from him . yet it was thought that matters of history would succeed better in his hand ; for it hath been long believed , that he had examined those transactions very critically ; so that when i heard that he had undertaken this subject , i expected great discoveries from him , and fancied that instead of extracts out of fuller and heylin , we should have found records , originals , papers , and the cotton-library , often cited . so it may be easily apprehended how much i was surprised , when i found a book of such a volume , in which there was not the least discovery of any new matters of fact ; and that there was nothing in it , but a tedious repetition ( very ill expressed in rough english ) of arguments that have been over and over again , both made and refuted ; together with a representation of the state of affairs in the last age , that was partly defective , and partly false . it seemed strange to me at first view , to see so large a book writ and printed eight years after that dr. burnet's history of the reformation had appeared , without its taking the least notice of that work , which hath been so well received , so much read , and which seems to be so well confirmed by the proofs that accompany it , that few books of history have gained a more general reputation than it hath done ; and as none of the roman-communion have been able hitherto , to say any thing for the disparagement of that work , except mr. varillas ; so he hath been so severely exposed by the dr. that this attempt hath raised its credit , instead of lessening of it . it is true , this book seems to be a part of a great work , and to have been writ many years ago . for as this appears in many parts of it , so more remarkably in one passage , that shews it was written in the interval between his late majesties being re-established in his throne , and the restauration of bishops ; and therefore , when this book was writ , the author could not vouch other historians , than such as had then appeared : yet , since the printing of it was delayed so long ; and since it is believed , that the author and the publisher is the same person , he might have given himself the trouble to have reviewed his work , or at least to have added some appendix relating to that more copious and authentical account which dr. burnet hath given us of our reformation . for if the dr. hath deceived the world by a false representation of matters ; yet it must be confessed , that he hath done it with so good a grace , and with such appearances of sincerity , and of proving what he relates , and that both our countrymen and forreigners have read that work so much ( as appears by the several impressions at home , and the several translations that have been printed beyond sea ) that it was too great an omission in the author of this recital , if he be still alive , that he hath never mentioned that history , nor said any thing to ruin the reputation it hath gained . i am , i confess , much inclined to believe , that he who hath published this book , could not have writ it . for as there is nothing in it that answers the reputation he hath in the world ; so the time of writing it , seems a demonstration that he cannot be the author of it . for what opinion can we have of a mans conscience , of his probity , or his honour , that could write such a book against the reformation , and the church of england in the year 1660. and yet could continue in the communion of our church , concurring not only in the acts of our daily worship , but mixing with us in the holy sacrament twenty five years after this ! such a criminal compliance hath so many foul characters upon it , that after all the charity to which a man can carry his thoughts , he can scarce know how to have one good thought of a person capable of so black and such a long continued dissimulation , both towards god and man. whether oaths and subscriptions have not come in wise to enhance the guilt of so horrid a dissimulation , i do not know ; but even tho that hath not been in the case , god and man hath been sufficiently mocked . this is that which makes me very unwilling to believe that the author of this book could continue in all the acts of visible communion with this church , so many years after he writ it ; tho i confess he speaks so softly , and with so little detestation of the compliance of the popish clergy in edward the 6th's time , that this looks too like a man that was resolved to venture on the same guilt ; for he tells us in his harsh stile , that the perpetual outward compliance of some other bishops contrarily affected , since there preceded before it penalties and fears , and the seeing of the prime bishops to be imprisoned and ejected for standing out , is far from an authentical consent , and unjustly reckoned as such . for tho none can know mens hearts , but by their outward appearances , yet where mens votes are asked , after penalties , imprisonments of others , threats , &c. which are so strong motives of dissimulation . now all that conform in these , are to be presumed compliers , and none free voters . and afterwards without expressing any horror at it , he owns , that many of the inferior clergy remained still of the old religion ; which he goes about to prove by several reasons . and yet after all this , there was nothing to be apprehended in k. edward's days , by such of the clergy as would not receive the reformation , but the loss of their benefices ; which ( if we are not mistaken in the man ) our author felt to be such a strong motive of dissimulation , that he resolved to be overcome by it . if a single act of impious worship against a mans conscience , was thought so heinous a crime by the primitive church , that it could not be expiated , but by a penitence of many years continuance ; then certainly , the same sin repeated in the course of so many years , against such clear convictions of conscience , must be confessed to be so heinous a transgression , that according to the spirit of the primitive times , such an offender could have expected no other grace , but to obtain the peace of the church in his last agonies . to see a man change , is natural , especially where a present interest is the motive ; but it is a degree of impiety , of which one would hope there are few men capable to lye so long , and so solemnly both to god and man. but i come now to look a little more narrowly into the matter of this treatise . i will not at all engage my self to examine a great many passages that are cited in it , out of some of our authors , and in particular out of dr. heylin , and mr. thorndike : when we object to those of the church of rome some things out of erasmus or cassander ; or for historical matters , when we cite p. paul or thuanus ; we know with how much neglect they put by these authorities , as if they were not concerned in them ; tho these persons lived and dyed in the visible communion of their church . and i do not see why we may not take the same liberty with such writers , that tho they have been in communion with our church , yet have it seems continued in it with some difficulty . and it will not appear very strange if at the end of our civil wars those persons , who saw the ill effects of some ill principles very apparently were carried by the impressions which those confusions made upon them , to oppose those disorders by an over-bending of their notions to the other extream . for this is an excess to which the humane nature is so liable , that it were a wonder if all writers , especially men of warm tempers , that had been sower'd by ill usage , had been preserved from it ; so that i will wholly wave all that he cites from these or any others of our authors , and will come to the matters themselves . chap. i. of the importance of those matters objected to the reformation , supposing them all true . the disputes that we had with the church of rome were at first managed with more sincerity by our adversaries , than they have been of late ; they justified their church in those points for which we accused her , and objected the strongest things they could to ours ; but when they felt their cause too weak to be maintained by fair methods , then they betook themselves to others that were indeed less sincere , but yet were more apt to make impressions on weak minds . in france , and among us , three new methods have appeared of late years . the first was to take off men from entring into the merits of the cause , and to prepossess them with such prejudices against the reformation , as might lead them to condemn it without examining : to a discerning mind this method furnishes the strongest of all prejudices against those who use it ; this shews such a distrust of the cause it self , and it discovers it self so plainly to be a trick , that it gives every man a just ground of indignation against those who fly to it : besides , that it affords a good plea to all men to continue in the religion in which they were born and bred , without hearkning to any new discoveries ; for if the grounds upon which the reformation was made , were good , it signifies little to an enquirer into truth , whether this work was set on foot , and managed with all the exactness and regularity that might have been desired , or not . truth is always truth , from what hand soever it comes ; and the right way to find it out , is to free our minds from all prejudices , that so we may examine matters with unprepossessed understandings . a second method is to perswade the world that we have not yet understood one another ; that popery hath only appeared odious , because it was misrepresented to the world in false colours , but that it will be found to be quite another thing if it is truly represented . the bishop of meaux had the honour to begin this piece of legerdemain ; our men of the mission here have too slender a stock of their own , and therefore they give us the french mode in controversie , as well as our gallants do it in cloaths ; so they have thought to do wondrous feats with this method of representing ; but the want of sincerity of that prelate , in this as well as in other things , hath been so evidently made out , that if some men had not a secret that makes them proof against all discoveries , he would be a little out of countenance ; and our representers here are so exposed , that nothing is wanting for their conviction , but a sense of that shame with which they have been covered ; it is indeed a strange piece of confidence in men , to come and offer to convince the world , that after disputes of 150 years continuance , neither side hath understood the state of the controversie : and tho the same decrees of councils , and the same forms of worship are still received ; yet all these things must of a sudden so change their nature , that in defiance of all that , which upon other occasions , they say in behalf of tradition , a new discovery should be made , giving us new senses of all those things ; but whatsoever success that book may have had , where a plundering army managed the argument , yet it is become now as ridiculous here , as it is pretended to have been successful beyond sea. a third method is the setting up the credit of oral tradition , not upon the authority of some passages of scripture , but upon this general topic , that one age must needs have delivered the same faith to the succeeding age , that it had received from that which went before it ; and by consequence , that we must have in the present age , the same doctrine which the apostles delivered at first , 17 ages ago . it was found , that the authority of the church could not well be founded on passages of scripture , for then we must be allowed first to believe the scripture , and its authority and genuineness , and then to inquire into the meaning of those passages , and to examine to which of all the different churches that are in the world , they do belong : now it was apparent , that if it were once allowed , that we may carry our enquiries so far as to be able to settle our selves in these points , then this infallible authority is not so necessary to us , as they would make us believe , since we are supposed to have found good proofs for believing the scriptures , and for discovering the true meaning of the hardest passages in them , without its help . now this would spoil all , and throw out those arguments that perswade us of the necessity of an infallible judg , both for our finding out , and for our expounding the scriptures ; they are now sensible of all this , and see that it is a very false method of arguing to prove the scriptures by the church , when the church must be first proved by the scriptures ; and therefore they do betake themselves to the infallibility of oral tradition , founding it upon this general topic , that all the men of one age must needs have instructed the following age in the same faith that they had received from the former age , and upon this a great many imaginary impossibilities are reckoned up to shew , that this could not fail , and so they infer the certainty of this method of conveyance . now this is so extravagantly ridiculous , and so contrary to the common experience of all mankind , that all that can possibly be said to support it , signifies no more but to shew how many fine things a man of wit can say to prove the impossibility of a thing which yet every man of sense knows is not only possible , but is so certain an effect of such an oral conveyance , that it is rather impossible it should not fail . how was the first oral tradition of the religion delivered to adam , corrupted ? tho the long lives of the first patriarchs is a much stronger argument for proving the impossibility of such a corruption , than any that these gentlemen can alledg . how was the jewish religion corrupted in our saviour's time , tho the only scene of their solemn worship being at ierusalem , and the assembling of their whole nation in their temple , three times a year , are much stronger inducements to make us conclude that it was impossible for an oral conveyance to miscarry among them , than any that can be pretended to amongst christians . do we not see that the most common transactions are so diversified after they have passed through a few hands , that truth is very soon lost , when it hath no better standard than fame and chat ? do not all languages change so much in a course of some ages , that those who lived here 500 years ago , would be no more understood , if they were now among us ; and yet it were easie to point out the infallibility of the conveyance of a language with much livelier colours than these men can lay on here . if oral tradition hath any pretension to certainty , it must be chiefly with relation to such things as are sensible and visible , and that fall under the observation of all men ; for in matters that are speculative , it is natural for every man to dress them according to those explications with which he cloaths them ; and if his reputation either for piety , learming , or a true understanding of matters is established , it is so probable , that these will be so well received , that what was believed in one age in some general words , will be believed in another , with the addition of those new explications , that it were indeed a wonder if it were otherwise , especially in ages of ignorance and superstition : if it is found that in things which are sensible , this oral tradition is so certainly changed , that we are as sure of it as we ean possibly be of any matter of history ; then it is a vain thing to go about to perswade us , that this is an infallible conveyance in matters of doctrine , since it is plain , that the one is much more like to be sure , than the other can ever be supposed to be . if in the worship of god the adoration of images and saints , and an infinity of new rites are brought in ; if in the sacrament , the adoration of it , the denying the cup to all except the priest , the denying the sacrament to infants ; if in the government of the church the popes have not only brought the other bishops to become subject to them , but have broke through the authority of metropolitans , and the equality that was setled between themselves and the other patriarchs , tho these things were enacted by the first general councils ; if popes have got possession of an authority over princes , when they were either hereticks , or were favourers of hereticks , and have maintained this possession these last 600 years ; if , i say , all these things , which are not only sensible , but are very contrary to those inclinations and interests , that are the powerful springs of human nature , have yet been brought into the world so manifestly , is it any wonder , if in dark ages ( in which a blind obedience , and an unreserved submission to church-men were looked on as the chief branches of catholick religion ) a great many new doctrines , that were infinitely for the advantage of a corrupt and designing clergy were introduced and received : instead of wondring at the success of all these innovations , we should have had much more reason to wonder if they had not prevailed . but upon the whole matter , all these new methods shew us , that those who manage them , see the weakness of the old ones , and that their cause cannot be maintained on that bottom , on which the writers of controversy had at first put it ; and that therefore they must a little change their way ; and this being an age , in which wit and fine thoughts are highly valued , those who fancied they were masters in those , hoped to raise a sunk cause ; which how successful soever it may be , when it is managed by dragoons , yet hath never appeared more naked and despicable , than it hath done of late years . therefore they have given this new air and turn to the common subjects of the authority of the church , and of tradition , and have betaken themselves to the certainty of oral tradition , as their last retrenchment ; and after all those declamations that have been made of late , against those who pretended not to carry the assurance of our religion beyond a moral certainty , they now fly to a plea , which if it were true , is but at most a moral certainty ; but is so far from being true , that we have as much certainty as we can have for a negative proposition , that it is and ever must be false . the author of this treatise offers us a new essay of one of these late methods ; for instead of attacking our reformation in any of its essential parts , he goes about only to prove that it was not canonical ; and all this , when it were granted to be true , amounts to no more than this , that the corruptions of the church of rome having been extreamly advantageous to the clergy , the greater part of them were too much locked up in ignorance , and too much addicted to their interests to admit of any change ; and that therefore the lesser part was forced to make use of the civil-power to support them in reforming those abuses . but this must be acknowledged to be lawful ; otherwise all national-reformations from received errors , are no more to be thought on . for , suppose an error hath overspread a national church , which is a supposition that none can deny , since how infallible soever the catholick church may be supposed to be , it is past dispute , that every particular church may be so over-run with errors , that the greater part may be infected ; and if this falls to be in a conjuncture , in which a general council cannot be called ; and if the heresy is new , such , as for instance the pelagian was , when it first appeared ; so that it had spread far before it had been condemned by a general council ; what must be done in such a case , if the prince may not support the sounder , tho the lesser part ? so that according to this supposition , if those doctrines and forms of worship that were reformed in the last age , were erroneous or idolatrous , than any supposed irregularities that might be in the way of managing it , can never blemish that work. it is certain , that all rules are only for quiet times ; in the days of peace and order , the transgressing of established rules , is without doubt a very censurable thing ; but this must not be applied to all times . for , tho in a setled time we know how much respect we owe to judges and ministers of state ; yet if these very persons will go to set on a rebellion , and authorize it , all that respect ought presently to be thrown off . chap. ii. some general considerations upon what is alledged of the uncanonical proceedings in the progress of our reformation . it hath a very ill grace to see a man of the roman communion talk so highly of the obligation to obey the canons of the church , so as almost to vnchurch us , upon some supposed irregularities in our reformation . for what is the whole constitution of the papacy , but one continued contradiction to all the ancient cannons ? and what is the whole modern canon law , but the exaltation of the papal authority , above all the canons of the church ? is there any thing clearer in the primitive times , than the establishing the authority of metropolitans , that was confirmed by the council of nice ; the equalling the bishops of constantinople to the bishops of rome , which was done by the 2d and 4th general council ; the establishing the independency of those churches that were in possession of it , and so freeing them from all subordination to other sees , which was done by the 3d general council ? and yet , tho here we see the four first general councils , all concurring to establish this form of government , the papal-power is no other than a breaking in upon all these canons . what is more uncanonical than the establishing legatine courts , the receiving of appeals , the obliging of bishops to sue for their bulls in the court of rome ; the dispensing with all the canons of the church , the exempting all the regulars from obedience to their bishops , which is not only contrary to the express canon of the council of chalcedon , but is plainly contrary to that authority that bishops derive from christ to govern the flocks committed to their care . in short , the whole system of the church and court of rome , is so direct a revolt from all the primitive canons , that it is a degree of confidence , which i do not envy in our author , for him to talk of uncanonical proceedings . canons are rules established , either by provincial synods , or more general councils , which import no more but that they ought to be commonly observed ; for it is plain , that there is no church in the world , that hath looked on the canons of the former times , as things so sacred and unalterable , that they could never be dispensed with . the schism of the two popes at rome and avignon , and all that was done in consequence of it , was uncanonical with a witness ; and yet how was all that buried by the council of constan●● ? and tho one of the two obediences was certainly in a state of schism , yet all that was passed over , and without any submission of either side , all was healed up . the whole constiution of metropolitans with their provincial synods , which was the ancientest and clearest of all the primitive rules , arises only out of the several divisions of the provinces of the roman empire ; when then the civil constitution of all europe is so much altered from what it was then ; all that fabrick subsists now rather upon a respect to ancient rules , than from the authority of those canons , which can no more remain , the ground upon which they were built , being now removed . and one may as well pretend that we are bound to obey the old roman law , or the feudal law , because those laws were once received amongst us ; as to tell us , that we are bound to obey all the ancient canons , especially those that had a visible relation to the constitution of the roman empire . therefore the subordination of churches , of synods , and metropolitans , and patriarchs , that was only the knitting into one body , and under several degrees of subordination , a church that was all under one civil society and empire , hath sunk with the roman empire . so that the tearing that empire in pieces , hath quite put an end to all that ecclesiastical subordination . and if there is any thing of that yet kept up amongst us , it is rather for the preserving of order , than that we are under any obligation of conscience to submit to such constitutions . and therefore , as oft as a great conjuncture of affairs carries along with it considerations that are of more weight , than the adhering to ancient forms , then all these may be well superseded . for all rules are temporary things , and made according to several emergences and occasions , which altering frequently , it were a very unreasonable thing to expect that every church should at all times conform it self to them . and tho we condemn that dissolution of all the canons which the church and court of rome hath brought into the world , yet on the other hand we cannot acknowledg any such binding authority in them , that they can never be dispensed with . the methods of those men with whom we deal , are wonderful . now they reproach our church with a violation of ancient canons ; and yet when we lay to their charge some of the canons that their councils have made in these later ages , such as those of the lateran , for the extirpation of hereticks , and for the pope's power of deposing heretical princes ; they tell us , that great difference is to be made between the decisions of the church in the points of faith , and the decrees that are made in matter of discipline ; since , tho they assert an infallibility in the one , yet the other are transient things , in which we ought not to admit of so absolute an authority . this is false with relation to decrees , that declare a christians duty , or a rule of morality : for decrees in such matter do import an article of faith or doctrine upon which they are founded . and therefore a church may indeed , even in the opinion of those who believe her infallible , err in a particular judgment against such or such a heretical prince ; for that being founded on a matter of fact , she may be infallible still , even tho she were surprised in matters of fact. but she cannot be infallible , if in declaring the duty of subjects towards heretical princes , or of the popes authority in those cases , she hath set rules contrary to the word of god. in such matters as these are , i do acknowledg the decrees of the church are for ever obligatory upon all those who believe her infallible . therefore , since our author urges so much the authority of the canons , i would gladly know what he thinks of these , which are not , i confess , ancient , yet they were enacted by the supream authority of that body which they account infallible . it is true , some have thought they could get out of this difficulty by denying these to be the acts of that council . but if our author be the same person with him that writ concerning the adoration of the eucharist , he is of another mind , and doth acknowledg , that those canons are the true acts of that great assembly , and not only the designs of the pope . it is true , he saith , the sense of the canon concerning the secular powers , is by protestants mistaken . but he hath not yet given himself the trouble of laying before us the true sense of that canon ; and one would think that he who writ the treatise that is now under examination , had very favourable thoughts of the doctrine of subjects shaking off an heretical prince ; for he reckons up the many risings that were in k. edwards days , chiefly for matter of religion , as a proof that the body of the clergy went not into that change . which rising ( saith he ) of the laity in such numbers for their former way of religion , would not have been , had not their clergy justified it unto them . rising is a soft word for rebellion , and one would think , that it would have afforded no small matter of reproach against us , if we brought in a company of rebels to make up a muster of our religion . but to own that the clergy justified it to them , without adding the least word expressing our author's dislike of this , shews plainly enough , that how good a subject soever our author may be to a prince of his own religion , yet he thinks a catholick clergy may be able to justifie to the laity , a rising against a heretical prince upon the account of religion . and it seems our author had a great mind to make a huge appearance of his catholick rebels in k. edwards days . for , besides that he speaks of risings in many more counties then are mentioned by the books of that time ; he also represents all those risings to have been upon the account of religion ; tho the history makes it clear that the risings over england , were chiefly occasioned by parks and enclosures , and that it was a rage of the peasants against the gentry in most places ; chiefly in the northfolk-rebellion , where religion was not at all pretended ; nor doth it appear that any pretended religion , except those of devonshire ; so that our author would make his party and the clergy more rebellious than indeed they were . in this whole period he seems to have been forsaken of common sense . chap. iii. some general considerations on the regal supremacy , that was raised so high at the reformation . our author hath brought together many acts of parliament with their pompous preambles , that seem to carry the kings power in ecclesiastical matters to a very indefinite degree , and upon all this he triumphs often , as if this was so improper , that it alone is enough to blast the whole reformation . our author is much more concerned to justifie all papal bulls , than we can be to justifie all the words of our laws ; especially , the rhetorick that is in their preambles . if he believes the pope infallible , the general parts of bulls that set forth the doctrine of the church , are such solemn declarations , that he must be determined by them . but at lowest he believes the popes to be the centers of the catholick unity , and all bishops are bound by oath to obey all their decrees and ordinances . now , when our author will undertake to justifie all the preambles of bulls that are in the bullarium , then we may undertake to justifie all the flourishes that may be in any act of parliament . when any authority is asserted in general and indefinite terms , these are always to be understood with those restrictions and limitations that the nature of things require , to be supposed even when they are not expressed . st. paul expresses the obedience of wives to their husbands in terms so extreamly extended , that as the church is subject unto christ , so ought the wives be to their own husbands in every thing . he expresses also the duty of children in as comprehensive terms . children obey your parents in all things . now if one would draw inferences from the extent of these words , he might , taking the liberty that our author takes upon some of the expressions that are in our acts of parliament , represent the authority that st. paul vests both in husbands and parents , as a very boundless , and a very extravagant thing . this is enough to shew that in all those large phrases of obedience , there are some necessary reserves and exceptions to be understood ; and if this qualification is necessary , even in writings that were inspired , it is no wonder if some of the rhetorick of our acts of parliament wants a little of this correction . it is a very unreasonable thing to urge some general expressions , or some stretches of the royal supremacy , and not to consider that more strict explanation that was made of it , both in k. henry the 8th's time , and under q. elizabeth ; that were so clear , that if we had to do with men that had not resolved before-hand not to be satisfied , one would think there could be no room for any further cavilling . in k. henry's time , the extent of the kings supremacy was defined in the necessary erudition of a christian man , that was set forth as the standard of the doctrine of that time ; and it was upon this that all people were obliged to take their measures , and not upon some expressions either in acts of parliament , or acts of the convocation , nor upon some stretches of the kings jurisdiction . in this then it is plainly said , that with relation to the clergy , the king is to oversee them , and to cause that they execute their pastoral office truly and faithfully , and especially in those points , which by christ and his apostles was committed to them : and to this it is added , that bishops and priests are bound to obey all the kings laws , not being contrary to the laws of god. so that here is expressed that necessary reserve upon their obedience , it being provided , that they were only bound to obey , when the laws were not contrary to the laws of god. the other reserve is also made of all that authority which was committed by christ and his apostles , to the bishops and priests ; and we are not ashamed to own it freely , that we see no other reserves upon our obedience to the king besides these : so that these being here specified , there was an unexceptionable declaration made of the extent of the kings supremacy ; yet because the term , head of the church , had something in it that seemed harsh , there was yet a more express declaration made of this matter , under q. elizabeth , of which indeed our author hath taken notice ; tho i do not find he takes notice of the former , which he ought to have done , if he had intended to have represented this matter sincerely to the world , ( which i confess seems not to have troubled him much . ) the explanation made by q. eliz. is so express , that even our author cannot find any advantage against the words themselves , but acknowledges that they are such general terms , that the article it self may be subscribed by all sides . since then the declared sense of those general and extended expressions that are in some acts of parliament , is such , that there lies no just exception against it ; and since this sense was not only given by q eliz. who allowed such as took the oath to declare that they took it in that sense ; but it was afterwards enacted both in convocation and in parliament , and put into the body of our confession of faith. this explanation must be considered as the true measure of the kings supremacy ; and the wide expressions in the former laws must be understood to be restrained by this ; since posterior laws derogate from those that were at first made . so that according to all this , the kings supremacy doth not give to our princes the ministring either of gods word , or of the sacraments . — but that only prerogative , which we see to have been given always to all godly princes in holy scriptures by god himself ; that is , that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by god , whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal , and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and the evil-doers . this is all that supremacy which we are bound in conscience to own ; and if the letter of the law , or the stretches of that in the administration of it , have carried this further , we are not at all concerned in it : but in case any such thing were made out , it could amount to no more than this , that the civil power had made some encroachments on ecclesiastical authority ; but the submitting to an oppression , and the bearing it till some better times may deliver us from it , is no argument against our church ; on the contrary , it is a proof of our temper and patience , and of that respect we pay to that civil authority which god hath set over us , even when we think that it passeth its bounds . but all that we are bound to acknowledg in the kings supremacy , is so well limited , that our author hath nothing to object to it . our men of the mission have always made a great noise of the kings supremacy , as if it were the most absurd thing that can be imagined ; without considering , that as the supremacy is explained by the article of our church , it is practiced by almost all the states and princes of europe : it hath been clearly made out by many of our writers , that the kings of england before the reformation , were in possession of his supremacy , and that they really exercised it , even before they pretended so formally to it . i will not enter into this enquiry , which is so well laid open by sir roger twisden , that a man must have a great stock of confidence to deny it , after he hath read him . in france all ecclesiastical causes are carried before the courts of parliament by appeals from the ecclesiastical courts , and are finally judged there : now the supremacy is always where the last appeal lies , and we may see both in godeau , and many other modern writers , how much they complain of this as a servitude under which their church is brought , and as an infraction of all the ancient canons . the court of parliament at paris examines all the bulls that come from rome , and condemns and tears them as oft as they see cause : so that tho all the bishops of france are bound by oath to obey all the popes decrees and ordinances , yet this can take no effect till the parliament hath confirmed them . how easie were it to carry this matter far , and to shew that by this , the popes power , either as he is st. peter's successor , and thereby vested with a universal authority over the flock of christ , or as he is the patriarch of the west , and the center of the catholick unity , is subjected to the judgment of a secular court , who will not suffer the sheep to hear his voice , till they have first examined it . and what is the whole concordat , but a bargain made between the popes , and the crown of france , to divide the spoils of that church and its liberties between them ; for whereas the pragmatick sanction had established the clergy in the possession of its ancient rites , lewis the 11th , and after him francis the 1st , saw well how much this lessened that unbounded degree , to which they intended to carry their authority , and therefore they consented to give the popes their share , so they would warrant their enslaving that church . it is known what complaints , and what opposition the french clergy have made upon this matter ; yet at last they bear it , and submit to it ; so that here the last appeal , the check upon the papal authority , and the nomination of all the bishops and abbots of france , are wholly in the civil courts and in the king. if it is said , that in some particulars the supremacy of our kings goes further ; tho that were acknowledged to be true , yet since the more or the less does not alter the nature of things , it must be confessed , that according to our author's principles , the whole gallican church is in an uncanonical state as well as we are : but tho they do not stick to confess , that they are in a state of oppression by reason of the concordat , and of the unbounded authority of their parliaments , yet they do not think that this makes them irregular or uncanonical as to the constitution of their church . i might upon this likewise shew how not only the republick of venice , but even the crown of spain , notwithstanding all its bigotry , exercises still so great a supremacy in ecclesiastical matters , that there is only some difference of degrees between that which belongs to the crown of england by law , and that which is practiced elsewhere . the court of the monarchy in cicily is well known , in which by virtue of a forged bull ( which is made out to be a forgery beyond all contradiction ) that declares the kings of cicily the popes vicars ; there is a lay-man that is the kings vicar-general , who is the judg of that court , and to whom all spiritual causes are brought , and who judges them all , as a spiritual person , and that hath the titles and outward respect that is given to the pope , likewise paid to him . this is the carrying an imposture very far ; yet , since it is done in the virtue of a pretended bull , which the crown of spain will still maintain to be a true one ; none hath ever opposed this to such a degree , as to pretend that the whole clergy of sicily are become irregular , because they submit to this court , and appear before it . so that upon the whole matter , if the great and unmeasured extent of the papal authority , made our princes judg it necessary to secure themselves from those invasions , by stretching their jurisdiction a little too much ; on the other hand , those who have submitted so tamely to the one , have no reason to reproach us for bearing the other servitude ; even , supposing that we granted that to be the case . and if in the time of our reformation , some of our bishops , or other writers have carried the royal supremacy too far , either in acts of convocation , or in their writings , as those things are personal matters , in which we are not at all concerned , who do not pretend to assert an infallibility in our church ; so their excess in this , was a thing so natural , that we have all possible reason to excuse it , or at least to censure it very gently . for as all parties and persons are carried by a bias very common to mankind , to magnify that authority which favours and supports them ; so the extreams of the papal tyranny , and the ecclesiastical power that had formerly prevailed , might have carried them a little too far into the opposite extream , of raising the civil power too high . but after all we find , that when theodosius came to the empire , he saw the eastern half of it over-run with arrianism ; and as the arrians were in possession , and were the more numerous ; so they had synods of bishops that had met oft , and in vast numbers , and had judged in their favours . their synods were both more numerous than that of nice , and were a more just representative of the catholick church , since there were very few of the western bishops in that which was held at nice . and as for the frauds and violences that were put in practice to carry matters in those synods , it is very like the arrians both denied them , and were not wanting to recriminate on the orthodox . so when there was a pretence of general councils on both hands ; here was a very perplexed case . but theodosius found a short way to get out of it ; and therefore , instead of calling a new general council , or of examining the history of the several pretended councils , which ought to have been done according to our authors system ; he pass'd a law , which is the first law in iustinians code , by which he required all persons to profess that faith which was profess'd by damasus bishop of rome , and peter bishop of alexandria ; and yet this law which was a higher invasion on the ecclesiastical authority , than any that was committed in our reformation , was never so much as censured ; on the contrary , theodosius was highly magnified for it . there is no reason to imagine , that he paid any particular respect to the see of rome in this ; for his joining peter of alexandria with damasus , shews that he made the faith of these bishops the measures of that doctrine which he resolved to protect , not because of the authority of their sees , but because he believed their faith was orthodox . the case was almost the same in england , in which it was pretended that the independent authority of our metropolitans ought to be asserted , which was established by the council of nice ; and that many corruptions in the worship , as for instance , the worship of images that was condemned by two very numerous general councils , one in the east at constantinople , and another in the west at francfort , ought to be reformed . if upon all this the supreme civil authority of this nation , had enacted such a law as theodosius had done , commanding all to follow the doctrine profess'd by the two arch-bishops of this church , it had been no other , but a copying after that pattern , which theodosius had set us with the approbation of all antiquity ; and yet it cannot be pretended , that our kings and parliament acted in so summary a way ; for they went much more slowly and maturely to work. upon the whole matter , the civil authority hath a power to command every thing that is just and lawful ; and in that case , the laws that flow from it ought to be obeyed . and if the matter of the laws is sinful , we must not indeed obey in that case , but we must submit and bear what we do not like , and suffer where we cannot obey . so that lawful or unlawful seem to be the only measures that ought to govern our obedience . and as in the matters of natural religion and morality , no body can deny that the civil authority hath a full scope , tho that is still limitted by this , that there ought to be no injustice , immorality , or turpitude in the actions that are commanded ; but where this is not , we are bound to obey all the laws that relate to those matters ; and where it is , we are bound to submit and to bear our burden , without giving our selves the trouble to enquire , how far the civil authority ought to be carried in such matters . we set the same measures to our obedience in matters of revealed religion . if the king passes laws contrary to scripture , we cannot indeed obey them , because of that higher authority to which we are subject , and in obedience to which we pay all submission to those who god hath set over us ; but if they are lawful , and conform to the scripture , we ought to obey them without examining , whether the king hath proceeded in the passing such laws by the rules that become quiet and regular times . and if a hezekiah or a iosias should rise up , and finding the greater part of his subjects , the priests as well as the people , engaged in idolatry ; if he should reform them , and suppress that corrupt way of worship , we ought instead of examining critically the method or steps by which he had brought about that change , rather to rejoyce in the goodness of god for blessing us with such a prince . so that let men men write and dispute as long as they will on these matters , the whole cause must be brought to this short issue ; either the things that our princes and legislators enacted at the reformation were in themselves just and good , and necessary , or not ; if they were , then they having an authority over us in all lawful things , as they did well to enact these laws , so we do well to obey them . but if they were neither just nor good , nor necessary , then we acknowledg , that as it was a sin in them to enact them , so it were a sin in us to obey them : and all other reasonings upon this subject are but illusions , by which weak minds may perhaps be wrought upon ; but they will appear to be such evident fallacies to men of sense , that without entring into a strict enquiry of what may be alledged for them , they will easily shake them off . in short , if the reformation appears to be a good thing in it self , then all arguing against the manner of it , is but meer trifling ; and looks like men , who lie in wait to deceive , and to mislead people by false colours of truth . chap. iv. reflection on the eight theses , laid down by our author . upon the grounds that have hitherto been opened , it will not be hard to make a very clear judgment of all these positions which are laid down as the foundation of this work. the first is , that the two principal offices , which the clergy have received from christ , are , ( 1. ) to determine controversies in pure matters of religion , and to judg what is truth , and what are errors , in faith and worship . ( 2. ) to teach and promulgate this truth , and to execute church-censures on those who receive it not . all this is true ; but since our author doth not prove that the clergy are infallible in their decisions , which is not so much as pretended by any , with relation to national churches , this only proves , that it is the duty of the clergy to declare and publish the truth ; but as the body of a national clergy may err , so in case it should actually err , can it be supposed that the people and the prince are bound to err with it ? synods are of great use for the unity of the church , and a vast respect is due to their decisions ; but since our author names the synods of the arrians , the many synods that they had , which were very numerous , and were gathered from all parts , gave them all the advantages from this authority that could be desired ; so that if the council of nice had not had truth of its side , i do not see why the visible authority should not rather be thought to lye on the arrian side . the princes authorizing a synod , or his opposing it , is to be justified or condemned from the decisions that are made by it ; if they are good , he ought to support them ; and if they are bad , he ought to oppose them ; and in this he must judg for himself , as every other man must do , the best he can , as knowing that he must be judged by god. the second is , that the clergy cannot make over this authority to the secular governour , being charged by christ to execute it to the end of the world. upon which he arraigns two things ; ( 1. ) the clergies binding themselves never to make any decisions in matters of faith or worship , till they had first obtained the consent of the secular governour . ( 2. ) the clergies authorizing the secular governour , or those whom he should nominate to determine those matters in their stead . it is certain , no clergy in the world can make any such deputation ; and if any have done it , it was a personal act of theirs , which was null of it self , and did not indeed bind those who made it , it being of its own nature unlawful , but much less can it bind their successors ; but if the church of england never did neither the one nor the other , what a prevaricator and false accuser is he , who as he lied long to god and man , when he pretended to be of this church , so resolves now to lye concerning this church as much as ever he did to it ? the submission of the clergy related only to new canons and constitutions , as the other act empowering a select number to be nominated by the king to form a body of a canon-law , related only to the matters of the government of the church ; the religion and worship had no relation to it ; so a compromise as to matters of government is very unjustly stretched , when this is made a surrender of the authority of determining and declaring matters relating to doctrine and worship , which no church-man without breach of the most sacred of all trusts can deliver up ; but in the matters of ecclesiastical policy , all states in the world have felt enough from the yoke of the papacy to give them just reason to assure themselves against any more of such ecclesiastical tyranny ; besides , that in all the engagements tho made in terms that are general , such as are all oaths of obedience ; and in particular , those that are made by prelates to the popes , exceptions are still understood , even when they are not expressed : as long then as the church enjoys a protection from the civil authority , she is bound to make returns of all engagements , not only of submission , but of obedience : but tho the one is perpetual , the other has its limits ; and when the church finds its oppressions from the civil power really to over-ballance the protection that she receives from it , in that case she must resolve to fall into a state of persecution ; and all the engagements that any body of the clergy have made , relating only to the maintaining a peacable correspondence with the civil powers , they do not at all bind up church-men from doing their duty , in case the civil authority sets it self to overthrow religion : besides , when both religion , and the worship , and the constitution of a church is once established , the adding new canons may perhaps be of great use to a church ; but yet it cannot be supposed to be so indispensably necessary , but that rather than give any distaste to the soveraign , they may content themselves with what they have without asking new canons ; and a church under a body of canons may likewise resign up the compiling of these into a new system , and the leaving out such as are found inconsistent with the publick peace , to such persons as shall be nominated by the prince ; but all this , how general soever the words may be , hath still a tacit exception in it , which all that know the principles of law will grant . the third thesis is , that the prince cannot depose any of his clergy , without the consent of the major part of the clergy , or their ecclesiastical superiors , and in particular of the patriarch . in this the matter must still be reduced to the former point ; either the grounds of such a deposition are in themselves just , or not ; if they are just , the prince may as lawfully hinder any church-man from corrupting his subjects , while he is supported by a publick authority , or a setled revenue , as he may hinder a man that hath the plague on him , from going about to infect his people ; for his deposing such a one is only the taking the civil encouragement from him ; but when this is done unjustly , it is without doubt an act of high oppression in the prince ; and as for the person deposed , and those over whom he was set , they are to consider according to the rules of prudence , whether the present case is of such importance , that it will ballance the inconveniences of their throwing themselves into a state of persecution ; for it is to be confessed that church-men have by their office an indefinite authority of feeding the flock , which cannot be dissolved by any act of the princes ; but the appropriating this to such a precinct , and the supporting it by civil encouragements , is a humane thing , and is therefore subject to the soveraign power . the princes of iudah notwithstanding an express law of god which appropriated the priesthood , and the high-priesthood , to such a family and race of men , did turn them oft out ; and iehosaphat sent to his princes to teach in the cities of iudah ; and with them he sent about also priests and levites , who went about and taught the people : he did also set up in ierusalem a court made up of levites , priests , and the chief of the fathers of israel , for the iudgment of the lord , and for the controversies among the people ; and appointed amariah the chief-priest , to be over them in the matters of the lord : hezekiah when he came to reign , commanded the priests and the levites to sanctifie themselves in order to the reforming the worship , in which he went on , tho a great many of the priests were not very forward in doing it , but he made use of those who had sanctified themselves ; and as he bore with those that did this slowly , so no doubt he would have turned out any that had been refractory ; and finding that the priests could not be ready to keep the passover in the first month , he with his princes , and the whole congregation , put off the feast from the 1st to the 2d month. now the distinction of days , and the observance of those festivities , being so great a part of that religion , and it having been so expresly regulated by the law of god , that it should be kept on the first month , a provision being made only for such as were unclean , or such as were on a iourney , that they might keep it on the 2d month ; yet here the civil authority makes a law , appointing the passover to be entirely cast over to the 2d month , because of the uncleanness of some of the priests . ezra took a commission from artaxerxes , impowering him to set up magistrates and iudges , who might judg them that knew the laws of his god , and teach them who knew them not ; and one of the punishments on the disobedient , is separation from the congregation ; to which our excommunication answers . and we see what a reformation ezra made in the virtue of this commission . nehemiah by virtue of such another commission , turned out a priest for having married a strange woman . these were all as high stretches of the civil power , as any that can be objected to our reformation . but in the next place , it ought to be consider'd , that , suppose this turning out of the clergy had been an illegal and unjustifiable thing , yet that doth not strike at the constitution of our church . the high-priesthood among the iews by the law of god , was setled on the eldest branch of the family of aaron , and it went so during the first temple , and likewise for some considerable time under the second temple ; and yet , tho afterwards this sacred function came to be set to sale , so that dr. lightfoot hath reckoned up fifty three that purchased it for money , by which prophane merchandize one might infer , that those mercenary high-priests were no more to be acknowledged ; yet our saviour , and after him st. paul , owned them to be high-priests . our saviour answered to caiaphas , when he adjured him upon oath ; and it is said by st iohn , that caiaphas , as high-priest for that year , prophesied : from all which it is clear , that tho these wretched men were guilty of the highest profanation and sacrilege possible , yet that was a personal sin in them ; but since they were in possession of the dignity , and adhered still to the law of moses , and performed the offices of their function according to his institution , the solemn yearly expiation was still made by them , which was the highest act of the whose jewish worship ; and they were to be submitted to , and acknowledged as high priests by the people , for which our saviour's practice is an undisputed warrant . now , if all this was lawful under the old testament , in which all the smallest parts of that religion were marked and enacted , much more expresly than they are under the new , then it will be a hard performance for any to perswade us , that the civil authority may not make such reformations in the christian church , as the kings of iudah did in the jewish . in this matter , i have not so much as mentioned the orders and regulations made by david and solomon , tho they are very clear precedents for justifying all that supremacy to which our kings have pretended . but , since i know some have endeavoured to set all this aside , by saying , that they being assisted by immediate inspirations , acted in those matters not as kings , but as prophets . tho it were easy to shew the falshood of this allegation ; yet , since i would shorten matters all i can , i will not digress into a controverted point . under the protection that the christian church received from the emperors that became christians , we see that they appointed triers to examine the matters that were objected to bishops ; and these under constantine judged in cicilian's matter upon an appeal made by the donatists , after it had been already judged in several synods . constantine did likewise by his own authority put eustathius out of antioch , athanasius out of alexandria , and paul out of constantinople . it is true , these matters were much complained of , as unjust , and as flowing from the false suggestions of the arrians : but it is as true , that it was not so much as pretended , that the emperor had no just authority to do it . for the disputing the justice of the exercise of an authority , is very different from their disputing the authority it self . it was afterwards a common practice of the christian emperors to have a court of some selected bishops , who waited on them , and to whose cognizance most causes relating to bishops were left , who acted only by commission from the emperor . i have enlarged a little upon this point , because it seemed necessary to dissipate many of those prejudices , which arise out of it . the 4th thesis is , that a provincial or national synod cannot lawfully make definitions in matters of faith , and concerning heresies or abuses in gods service , contrary to the decrees of former superior synods , or to the iudgment of the vniversal church in the present age , shewed in her publick liturgies . this is founded on the supposion of the infallibility of the church ; so if that is not true , then this falls to the ground , and that is not pretended to be proved by our author , who seems only to proceed upon the subordination that is in the ecclesiastical body . but if the majority of this body is not infallible , then that obligation to submit to it , must be only a matter of order ; and by consequence , it hath its limits . if this had been the rule of the church in theodosius's time , how could the several provinces have reformed themselves from arrianism , after so many general councils had declared for it , or at least had rejected the word consubstantial ? but in our condemning the papal authority over us , we had both the council of nice for us , that had established the independent authority of the metropolitans , with the bishops of their province , for all matters relating to their province ; and the decree of the council of ephesus , which appointed all churches to continue in the possession of that independence upon any other superior sees , which was past prescription . we had likewise superior councils justifying us in many of the branches of our reformation . if we must seek the sense of the universal church in her publick liturgies , then we have the liturgies of the greek church for us in many other points ; and the corruptions of the liturgies of the roman church were so gross , that they themselves have been ashamed of a great many of them , and have thrown them out , tho a great many more remain still to be reformed : and if the publick liturgies are to be considered as the standards of the sense of the present church , as no doubt they are , then all those expositions and representings that are now obtruded on us , are to be thrown out of doors , and we must seek the doctrine of the church of rome in her publick liturgies . the 5th thesis , that a synod wanting part of a national clergy unjustly deposed or restrained , and consisting partly of persons unjustly introduced , and partly of persons who have been first threatned with fines , imprisonments and deprivation , in case of their non-conformity to the prince's injunctions in matters merely spiritual ; is not to be accounted a lawful national synod , nor the acts thereof free and valid . all this falls to the ground , if the reasons upon which such persons were turned out , were just . and in that case , such vacancies may be justly filled . but it is an impudent thing to found much on this , when the number of those who were turned out , was so very inconsiderable , as it was in k. henry's , and k. edward's time ; and if such a small terror as the loss of a benefice is thought by our author so dreadful a thing , as it may be well judged by the operation it had upon himself for 25 years , so that this derogates from the freedom of an assembly ; then there never was any free , even that at nice not excepted . for it is the same fear whether one is threatned with it before such a decision is made , or if they knew that it must follow upon it : now this formidable business of losing a benefice , and a banishment upon the back of it , was really the case of the council of nice , since this was the condition of those who refused to subscribe their definition : so the principle laid down by our author , taken from fear , must either be false , or this will annul all the ecclesiastical meetings that ever were . the sixth thesis is , that the iudgment of the smaller part of the clergy , even tho the metropolitan were of that number , cannot be called the iudgment of the clergy of that province ; and a prince that follows the directions of a few of his clergy , cannot be said to be guided by his clergy , but to go against it . this is very true ; but yet theodosius thought fit to give his sanction to the faith of two bishops , upon which all the arrian party might have as justly said that he acted against his clergy , for they were then by far the more numerous : the civil power is bound to follow those whom they think are in the right ; and tho in common matters , and in setled times , it is fit to leave things to the majority ; yet if it is visible , that the greater number is both ignorant and corrupt , and that the matters under dispute are chiefly such things that are of great advantage to the clergy , both for encreasing their wealth , and for advancing their credit , then the secular power hath just reason to be jealous of the greater number of the clergy , since interest gives a mighty byass , and their following the lesser number in such a case is very justifiable ; for humanely speaking , it were impossible to find the greater number willing to go into such a change . the seventh thesis is , that tho secular princes had a decisive power in such matters of faith as are no ways formally determined , yet in such points as have been formerly determined , no secular prince can define any such things contrary to those councils , or contrary to a national synod . it is not so much as pretended , that a secular prince hath any power to decide in matters of faith , whether they are already determined or not ; but as for the giving the sanction of a law , and all secular encouragements , a prince must have a judgment of discretion , by which he ought to determine himself ; for when he hath given his sanction , he hath made no sort of decision in the matter , which is neither more nor less to be believed than it was before ; but it is now become legal ; and all princes must proceed in this matter according to the conviction of their consciences : it is not long since some of this gentleman's friends thought to have carried the king of the abyssens to change the doctrines and rites of that church upon the private suggestion of a few missionaries , against the whole body of his clergy , upon which that kingdom became a scene of rebellion and bloodshed , till the king himself grew to conceive a horror against those who had push'd him on so violently to overthrow the laws and establish'd customs of that church : so that a reformation effected by the king's authority , tho managed with ever so much fury and violence , is yet driven on by these men , when it is on their side , and for their advantage . the eighth thesis is , that neither national synod nor secular power can make any new canons concerning the government of the church , contrary to the ecclesiastical constitutions of former superior councils , nor reverse those formerly made by them . this is such a crude assertion , that one would think that he who made it , knew neither the history of councils , nor the nature of canons and constitutions , which are all variable , and are made upon such particular occasions as required them to be put in practice ; and another scene of affairs may make it as necessary to reverse them , as ever it was to establish them : the main subject of the ancient canons are , penitentiary rules relating to the censure of offenders , the subordination of churches founded on the division of the roman empire , and the duty and behaviour of church-men : of these , the first is quite laid aside in the church of rome , and by their means we were so accustomed to be without that yoke , that we have not been able to bring the world to it . but we have never repealed these , only we let them sleep too long . the second , relating to the constitution and the subordination of churches , is quite sunk with the fall of the empire ; for if a town that was the center of a province , to which it was easie to have recourse by letters , and to which the road and carriages were regularly laid , and where the civil government was also exercised , should after many ages either be separated from the rest of the province , falling under another master , or should become a poor and neglected town , it is a needless adhering to ancient custom , to affert still the priviledges of such a see , when all those reasons which at first procured to it those priviledges , come to cease : as for the third , which are more perpetual , we pay them all respect , and have never changed them ; but the dispensations of the church of rome hath so destroyed them all , that it is a peculiar degree of confidence for any that are in communion with that church , to assert such an immutability in the ancient canons , that a national synod may not be suffered to alter any of them ; and yet that one single bishop , whom all antiquity considered but as a collegue , and fellow-bishop to all the rest of the order , should be alloweed an authority to break and dissolve them all . this may serve to shew how weak all those foundations are upon which our author builds . i come in the next place to examine his defective and false account of the matters of fact , which will engage me into a tedious opening of many particulars that will be little for our author's honour ; but no discoveries will affect a man that could stifle his conscience for 25 years , and that now hath the impudence to own it . finis . reflections on the oxford theses , relating to the english reformation . part ii. amsterdam : printed for j. s. 1688. reflections on the oxford theses , relating to the english reformation . in the former part of these reflections , the general grounds on which our reformation was attacked , were examined ; the matters of fact come now to be considered ; but before i enter upon these alledged by our author , i thought it fitting to begin with an enquiry into a very important matter , relating to that time , that hath been lately objected to our church , by one of the church of rome , which as it is new , so it is likewise of great consequence . a sheet has appeared that was well and decently writ , and with a very specious appearance of reason , to prove that q elizabeth was a bastard , not upon the common pretence of the nullity of k. henry the eighth's marriage with her mother , because his former marriage with q. katherine , was still in force ; but upon a precontract , in which ann bullen was engaged before her marriage to k. henry , which being confessed by her self , the marriage was null of it self , and was judged to be so by arch-bishop cranmer , whose sentence was confirmed by the subsequent parliament . so that here is a nullity , and by consequence a bastardy . it is true , this assertion is new ; so , tho it may raise the credit of him that hath discovered it since it must be confessed , that it looks very like good reasoning ; yet on the other hand , it is some prejudice against it , that it doth not appear it was ever objected to us before now ; and no mention being made of it while the whole matter was fresh in mens memories , and while that queen reigned , whose title this seems to weaken , much more than all the other things that were alledged to shake it , is a great presumption , that the men of that time knew there was no force in it . so that , tho the novelty of it may please , yet it is really a strong prejudice against it . but after all , it must be confessed , the thing is specious , and it is of great consequence , not only with relation to the credit of our church , and of its first reformation , but with relation to our present establishment . for tho the writer of that sheet makes no other use of it , but to blemish our church , as guilty of sedition and disloyalty , for owning a bastard against the queen of scots , who was the next lawful heir ; yet it will bear another consequence that is more important in our present circumstances . for as a precontract infers a nullity of the marriage , and disables all the issue of it ; so an ill title in a queen infers a nullity upon all her laws , all her acts of government , as flowing from an usurper ; and therefore this strikes not only at the honour of our church in the last age , but at its settlement in the present ; and i believe this last is chiefly aimed at . for , as to the former , it may serve in a great measure to justifie our church , that q. elizabeth was put in possession of the crown by the nation , while it was yet popish , and by the body of the clergy that were of that religion ; so that all that those of our church did , was to maintain her in that possession , in which we found her , and in which our enemies had put her. and it must be acknowledged , that an anxious weighing of titles , is not so necessary , after one is in a legal and peaceable possession , acknowledged by all parties within the kingdom , as well as by all princes without it . i do not pretend to say , that a possession will justify a bad title , tho there is older law relating to the possession of the crown of england , passed by king henry the vii . but an undisputed possession does certainly very much excuse those who acknowledge and submit to one that is bonoe fidei possessor . which was plainly q. elizabeth's case . but because it may be with great colour of reason alledged , that right is right still , and that possession or prescription are only pretences of law , which may have perhaps weight before a judg ; yet these are not sufficient to extinguish a just title , when matters are examined in themselves , and abstracted from those pleadings that may perhaps be legal , yet as some will alledg , are scarce rational . so i will examine this matter as fairly , as , i must confess , it is stated by that gentleman , and will first propose the matter of fact , as dr. burnet hath put it , who is the only author that is cited , and therefore he must be supposed to have some credit here . queen ann bullen was attainted of treason upon some pretended proofs of adultery , and so judgment was given , that she should be either burnt ( which is the death that the law prescribes for the traitors of that sex ) or beheaded . two days after the sentence , she is prevail'd on to confess a precontract before arch-bishop cranmer , and so her marriage with the king is declared void and null , and in consequence of that the issue is illegitimated ; yet this was so secretly carried , that one of the iudges of that time writes of it as a thing that was only reported ; and in the subsequent act of parliament , no mention is made of a precontract , tho no doubt she had confessed it with the circumstances of time and person . yet in the act of parliament , it is only said , that she had confessed some just and lawful impediments , by which it was evident , that her marriage with the king was not valid . it cannot be now known , how this matter was expressed in the sentence given by cranmer , all these records being burnt . but it is most probable , that the matter was more distinctly specified . now the only reason we can give of those general words in the act of parliament , is , that this pretended precontract , being with the earl of northumberland , he had by a solemn oath , and by his receiving the sacrament upon it , in the presence of the duke of norfolk , and some others of the privy council , denied any such precontract . of which dr. burnet assures us he saw the original attestation under that earl's own hand . this had so far invalidated the queens confesssion , that it seems the parliament would not descend into the specifying of her confession . dr. burnet hath also given several evidences of her being at that time so much disordered by vapours , that this doth in a great measure weaken the credit of her testimony , even against her self . upon this whole matter then , there are three important considerations , which arises out of the fact , and any one of these seems , strong enough to overthrow all the inferences that can be drawn from that part of our story . 1. she was a person condemned ; now all the examinations of persons condemned , are by the laws of all nations , only presumptions , but not proofs ; the terrors of death , and the hardiships of a prison , are such just abatements , that confessions so made , can never have that credit given them , as to found any sentence upon them ; but in that queens case , there are two things which give this general consideration yet more force as to her particular : the one is , that it being in the king's power to order her either to be burnt or beheaded , the terror of the former might carry her to say any thing , that might procure her the softer death : but the other was yet stronger , it was a natural-enough temptation to her , to lead her to confess a pre-contract , since by that confession she might hope so far to extinguish the crime for which she was condemned , as to obtain her life by that means : she was condemned for adultery ; now the confession of a pre-contract might be drawn from her , as a thing that dissolved the marriage , and by consequence acquitted her of the adultery for which she was condemned , since if she was never the kings true wife , she could not be guilty towards him : so that this matter was perhaps represented to her , as that which must certainly save her life . and thus this confession being grounded on the fears of death , and carrying in it the hopes of life , can be of no force in law. 2. the bare confession of a pre-contract without any other adminiele or evidence to confirm it , cannot be supposed a just ground to dissolve a marriage ; otherwise married persons when they grow weary of one another , may dissolve their marriage by taking a false oath . it 's true , in other cases the parties own confession is strong enough in law against themselves , but in this case both the married persons being equally concerned in the tie that follows upon it , the confession of the one cannot dissolve the right that accrued to the other upon the marriage ; and since two witnesses are necessary in all such cases , the confession of one of the parties is , at most , but the single evidence of one witness ; and therefore ann bullens confession could not make the marriage void : this is further confirmed by the denial of the person with whom the pre-contract was preteneded to be made ; if her confession gave such a credit to the matter , as to annul her subsequent marriage with the king , it ought likewise to have annulled the earl of northumberland's marriage ; therefore it could not be received in law. the other circumstances of it do also concur to weaken its credit ; it was so secretly carried , that one of the judges of that time , tells us only that it was reported , that she had confessed a pre-contract ; so that it was not managed with the necessary forms of justice ; and it being probable that some general promise of marriage had passed between her and the earl of northumberland , it is not likely that she understood the difference between a promise and a contract ; so she might , especially in such a hurry , and under so much disorder , mistake the one for the other . 3. but in the last place it is to be considered , that here was an innocent child in the case , whose legitimacy and right could not be cut off by her mothers extorted confession ; infants are more particularly under the protection of the law , and therefore acts passed against them in that state of feebleness have such flaws in them , that they have always a right to reverse them ; so a single witness in such circumstances as her mothers were , could not be sufficient to disgrace and disinherit her , and the confirmation of the act of parliament that followed afterwards might have been a forcible bar in law to her , but could be no just one ; for as a bastard is still a bastard , even tho he were legitimated by act of parliament ; so a lawful child is still what 't is , notwithstanding a sentence of bastardy confirmed in parliament ; and this is so true , and was so evidently the practice of that time , that even king henry in his suit of divorce with queen catherine , was willing to have his daughter mary declared legitimate ; because children begat in a marriage , are begotten bona fide , and so they ought not to suffer , because of the secret fault of their parents . and if this was yielded in a marriage where both parents were according to the kings pretensions guilty of incest , it was much more just in this case of ann bullen , even supposing her precontract true ; for her secret fault ought not to blemish , nor ruin her innocent child . another instance that fell out at this time in the royal family , is very considerable , and because it is little known , i fancy the reader will not be displeased to have it particularly opened to him ; henry the 8th's sister that was queen of scotland , did after her husband king iames the 4th's death , marry the earl of angus , and by that marriage she had a daughter lady margaret douglas . some time after her marriage she fell to be in ill terms with her husband , and discovered a pre-contract he had given to another ; and upon this she sued him in the spiritual court ; and it being proved , the marriage was annulled ; but her daughter was still held to be legitimated , and was entertained by king henry , as his niece , and given by him in marriage to the earl of lenox , of whom descended the lord darnly , that was king iames the 1st of england's father ; and since he was considered to be the second person in the succession to the crown of england , after the queen of scots ; this shews that by the practice of that time , a pre-contract even legally proved , yet did not illegitimate the issue that were begotten bona fide by one of the parents . and thus i hope enough is said to overthrow the objection that is made to the first constitution of our church under q eliz ; it was strangely put , and decently and weightily writ , and therefore i have answered it with the like decency of stile ; so that if i treat the author that i am a going to examine , a little more familiarly , i hope the reader will not impute it to any roughness of temper in me ; for the examining of matters of fact or arguments from reason , calmly and softly , without any mixture of sharpness , is a thing so becoming a man and a christian , that it is not without some pain to my self , that i find i must sometimes say things that seem too severe : but on the other hand , when one finds he hath to do with much unjust malice , he is carried to an indignation that even forces him to a style that would appear too flat , if it were not a little sharpned , when the provocation is so just : yet i am so sensible that this smartness of expression is a thing that is rather to be excused than justified , that i shall watch over my self , lest i be carried too far towards it ; for i see there is occasion enough given me by my author to tempt me to it . but before i enter upon the matters of fact , i will take the liberty to set down a period of our author's , which shews him as great an apostate from loyalty to the king , as he is from the other doctors of the church of england . he states the matter indeed as doubtful ; but the bringing of our allegiance to the king to be disputable , will be according to our law , a matter of premunire at least : his words are , whether in case that a prince use his coactive iurisdiction in spiritual matters , against the definitions of the church , then the pope hath not also virtually some temporal coactive power against the prince , namely , to dissolve the princes coactive power , or to authorize others to use a coactive power against such a prince in order to the good of the church . this they bring in question ; but then as this last is affirmed by some of the roman doctors , so it is opposed by others of them . this is in plain english , that it is disputable , whether a pope may not depose an heretical prince , and give his dominions to another ; some doctors of the church of rome holding the affirmative , and others the negative ; so that according to the doctrine of probability , every man may follow the affirmative with a good conscience ; and this being so invidious a matter , our author 's proposing it as doubtful , without declaring himself against it , is a strong , and even a violent presumption , that he himself is for it . and yet these men boast of their loyalty . our author insinuates the nullity of ann bullens marriage , to which i have already given a full answer : but he supports it by two arguments of his own making . ( 1. ) he says the act of parliament ( 28. hen. 8. ) says , that the king was conscious of some impediments why he could not lawfully marry her . from which he seems to infer , that the reports of the kings familiarity with her sister , were true : but the act of parliament mentions only the queens confession , and doth not say a word of the king 's knowing any such reasons . ( 2. ) he cites a clause of a dispensation pretended to be granted by p. clement the 7th , giving him leave to marry again to any person , tho in the first degree of affinity , and tho she were unlawfully begot ; and to make this gain the more credit , he cites the words in latin. but there was no such dispensation either asked or granted , and this pretended dispensation was afterwards forged by q. elizabeths enemies to defame her . the bull of dispensation , that the king asked , is set down by dr. burnet , among the records that he gives us , in which there is no such clause ; and it is plain , that whatever the king 's secret intentions might be with relation to ann bullen , that yet he had not declared them , much less moved to have any such extravagant clause put in the bull : for in the letter that the two legates writ to the pope , pressing him to grant the bull , they reject that imputation that was cast on the king , as if he proceeded in this matter out of an aversion to the queen , or that he was engaged in it by the charms of the person that he intended to marry , who , perhaps , was not yet known to him . this way of writing shews , at least , that it is false , that before this time the king had owned his design for ann bullen , much less that he had confessed acts of leudness with her sister ; otherwise it had been too impudent a thing for the legates to have writ in this strain : so that i had reason to say , that these were arguments of our author 's making ; and in matters of fact , this is the softest word i can find for them . ii. our author falls into the common error of card. woolsey's concurring with the king at first , in his suit of divorce , and becoming afterwards averse to it , when he discovered his inclinations to ann bullen ; but her two letters to the cardinal , printed by dr. burnet , shew manifestly the falshood of this imagination . iii. he says a 100000 pounds charges was demanded by the king from the clergy , for the expence he had been at in obtaining so many instruments from the foreign universities , that had decided this matter ; and for the sums that were given , he cites no better authors , than some testimonies produced by sanders . but the falshood of this imputation is so manifest , that it appears by dr. crooks letters and accounts , that are yet extant , that he had scarce money enough allowed him for his own subsistence ; and as the small presents he made were inconsiderable , being oft a crown or two ; so in a letter to the king , he writes in these words , vpon pain of my head , if the contrary be proved , i never gave any man one half penny , before i had his conclusion to your highness , without former prayer or promise of reward for the same . by this way of writing it is plain , that instead of his being instructed and furnished with money to corrupt divines , he had positive orders to the contrary ; nor is there any mention in the act of parliament , that contains the grant of the subsidy of any expence that the king had been at , how boldly soever it is asserted by our author . but the citing of an act of parliament had an air of truth in it , which might deceive an unwary reader . iv. he pretends to lessen the credit of the decisions of the universities , since they had supposed that the first marriage with p. arthur was consumated ; of which he doubts , and proposes the common objections against it , of p. arthur's age , and of his dying soon after his marriage . he also saith , that tho the first marriage had been consummated , many learned men ( of whom he names only fisher and tonstal , and takes the rest on sander's words ) thought the pope might dispence with it ; and in conclusion , he cites the act of parliament passed in the beginning of queen maries reign , condemning her mothers divorce , in which mention is made of the corruption of the foreign universities . ( 1. ) it is true , all the world believed that the first marriage was consummated , as appears by what cajetan saies upon it : but ( 2. ) since our author cites lord herbert's history of king henry 8th , he must needs have seen in him , as clear proofs of a consummation , as a thing of that nature is capable of . ( 3. ) prince arthur's early death was generally imputed to his too early marriage ; and the care that was had of the princess after his death , the delay of giving the title of prince of wales to the younger brother , and the mention made of the consummation of that marriage , dubiously indeed in the bull for the second marriage , but more positively in the suspected brief , are all as strong presumptions , as could be brought , for proving a thing of that nature . ( 4. ) tonstal concurred with the king in the divorce , and in all that followed upon it ; so that our author had need find better proofs of this , than sander's word , otherwise he 'l hardly gain credit . ( 5. ) the learned men he mentions , come within a very small compass . for as cajetan was the first author of that opinion , so he had very few followers in that age ; tho the consequences of this dispute hath drawn the current of the authors of the roman communion since that time , to follow his opinion . ( 6. ) an act of parliament made by gardner and others , in the beginning of queen maries reign , who were the chief managers of the suit against her mother , and who by this act intended to make their peace , and their court with her , is indeed a very venerable authority , and may very fitly come into the same paragraph with sanders . v. he pretends that cranmer and cromwell were the authors of the advice of the king 's obliging the clergy in their submission to own him for the supreme head of the church . it is true , he cites antiqui britt . for this , and for another thing , that whereas the clergy desired to have qualified that title with these words , in so far , as it is lawful by the law of christ ; the king refused this , and the clergy granted it without that restriction . here an author is pretended ; but if the writer of this treatise had examined these matters exactly , he would have found by a letter of king henry's to the convocation of york , that the king had accepted of this limitation ; and indeed the nature of things puts it in , whether it had been set down in so many express words or not ; and as for what is said here of cranmer , it is without ground , for he was then beyond sea , imployed in disputing concerning the divorce . vi. he says , warham arch-bishop of canterbury was a favourer of queen katherines cause . this agrees ill with his owning that he saw the lord herbert's history , in which he might have found warham's deposition upon oath , in which he acknowledges , that he thought the marriage was neither honourable , nor well-pleasing to god , that therefore he had opposed it much . and warham did set forward the divorce with so much zeal , that he procured a writing to be signed by all the bishops of his province , declaring that they thought that the kings marriage was vnlawful ; and in this he was so earnest , that when fisher refused to sign it , he pressed him vehemently unto it ; but the other said still , that it was against his conscience , so he made another person subscribe in fisher's name , and set to his seal to the paper , and pretended that he had fisher's leave to do it ; which he affirmed before the legates , when the matter came to be examined . so false is it , that warham favoured the marriage . vii . he pretends , that the next step of the reformation , was the submission of the clergy , by which they bound themselves not to assemble without the kings writ , nor to make or execute any canons , unless the king should by his royal grant command them to make or to execute them . but the proof he cites for this , discovers his prevarication evidently . it seems he thought a careless reader , seeing an assertion and a citation following after it , would without reading the long citation take it for granted , that it agreed with the assertion , and without being at the pains to read it , would run on to new matter . the clergy did not bind themselves never to meet without the kings writ . they only said , that the convocation had ever been , and ought always to be assembled by the kings writ , which only shews what is the regular method of their assembling themselves . but tho this obliges them to meet always , when they are required to do it by the kings writ ; yet it doth not bind them up from meeting , in ease the necessities of the church do require it , and that the king refuses his writ ; for then they are reduced to these prudential considerations in the managing of their matters in a case of persecution . nor did they bind themselves up from executing the old canons , but only from the enacting of new ones ; which is very different from the view that our author gives of it , as was made out in the first part of these reflections . viii . he fastens a very strange inference on some words of an act of parliament , as if they had amounted to this , that no laws of the land , nor the prerogative assumed by the king , had any thing of heresy in them . if by this is only meant , that the laws then in being were not heretical , there is nothing extraordinary in such a pretention . for a body in which the legislative power resides , will very naturally after its own orthodoxy ; and the bare asserting it , will hardly be thought a criminal attempt : but if our author meant , as probably he did , that by this a declaration was made for all time coming , that the laws of the land should be for ever the standard of heresy , or sound doctrine ; then this conclusion will hardly be found in the authority that he gives us for it ; which is an act , declaring , that the speaking against those laws made by the authority of the see of rome , by the policy of man , which were repugnant to the laws of the realm , or the king's prerogative , should not be judged heresy . this is an inference worthy of the sincerity of its author . in the body of the canon-law , there are many laws made that destroy all civil-government whatsoever , and that subject princes wholly to the pope . there are also many laws made relating to civil matters , in ordine ad spiritualia ; but all to be sure for advancing the interests of that court from which they came . now the civil courts in england , were already in possession of giving a check to the spiritual courts , and of granting prohibitions upon their judgments , even in cases of heresy , when the spiritual courts had judged men hereticks for articles that were not heresy ; as appeals lie for the like cases in france ; so that the parliament made only a regulation in this matter , which is at this day practiced in most of all the states of christendom . otherwise civil government were a very feeble thing , if it could not preserve its members from the arbitrary proceedings of ecclesiastical courts . and indeed , if the canons and rules made by the popes , and such synods as were absolutely at their disposal , were the measures of heresy , so that judgments ought to pass upon them , and that states might not cover themselves from them by laws ; we know where this must carry us , and how many bonfires must be quickly made in england . but god be thanked , it is not come to that . i must also add one thing , that if the judgment of heresy had carried with it nothing but the ecclesiastical censures of excommunications and anathema's , the church might have pretended that the state ought not to meddle too much in it . but since heresy not only drew after it an infamy in law , but likewise a writ de heretico comburendo , according to another canon acknowledged to be in force by our author ; then a state ought to have made such regulations in this matter , as were necessary to protect its members from such a butchery . for since the civil government is bound to secure the subjects , while they continue innocent and obedient , from the rage of all their enemies ; our legislators had betrayed their trust , if they had not put an effectual stop to the tyranny of the clergy . and thus it is plain , that this declaration made by the parliament , was nothing but a securing to the subjects their lives and fortunes , to which they had formerly a very doubtful tenure , since they held them only at the discretion and mercy of the clergy . ix . but because our writers have often alledged the laws made in former times , chiefly the statute of premunire made by richard the 2d , against all bulls and provisions from the see of rome ; our author answers this very weightily , as he thinks , by shewing us , that those laws related only to some special matters that were temporal things ; such as the titles to benefices , or the translation of bishops out of england , without the kings consent ; by which , both the king might be deprived of their counsel , and the treasure of the kingdom carried away out of it . but all this is trifling . for a contest being raised concerning the extent of the popes power , the pope claims a degree of authority to be committed to him by christ , and that the whole pastoral work belonged to him . upon this the king and parliament set bounds to it . now the question arises out of this , whether the same authority that warranted them to determine against the pretensions of that court in that one point , did not warrant them likewise to do it in other points . to a man of a clear understanding , the matter will appear to be past dispute . for if in one point a parliament may contradict the popes declarations and canons , sure it may do it in another ; and the only question then to be examined , will be concerning the matter of such laws . for if the matter of those laws is good , the authority is certainly good ; and if the matter is not good , it is confessed that an act of parliament cannot change the nature of things . but because this matter is better understood by some breves printed by dr. burnet , it will be worth the while to examine it a little more fully . that vigorous act of parliament came out indeed in the reign of a feeble prince , but the popedom at that time was in a more feeble state ; and the adherence of england to the pope , who sat at rome , was in that time of schism so valuable a support , that those at rome ( it seems ) thought it fit to take no notice of it . but the council of constance had no sooner heal'd that wound , then the popes were resolved to have that law repealed , and england falling again under a new feebleness in henry 6th minority , and factions at home , and losses in france , having sunk the reputation of the government extreamly , the pope laid hold of that conjuncture ; and in his letters both to the arch-bishops and clergy , and to the king and parliament , he annuls the statute , and requires the clergy to give it no obedience , declaring all persons that obey it , to be ipso facto excommunicated , and they should not be relaxed by any but himself , unless it were at the point of death ; and he ordered the clergy to preach this doctrine to all the people . he required the parliament under pain of damnation to repeal it , and he founds his right in the commission that christ gave to st. peter to feed the flock . here sure , if ever , the pope speaks ex cathedra ; yet for all this , the parliament would neither repeal nor explain the former statute . by all which it is plain , that our parliament did not think themselves bound to be born down by big words , and high pretensions . in this dispute then , between the spiritual and temporal power , we see the parliament judged the matter ; and by the same right that they judged one point , they may judg other points ; and if the matter of their judgment was good , their judgment was as valid under henry the eighth , as under richard the second , or henry the sixth . for the point being once yeilded , that the civil authority may examine the decisions of the church , then this may be certainly carried to other particulars , or applied to a greater extent of matter , as further discoveries of truth , and new provocations may arise . x. the affinity of the matter leads me here to make a leap over several particulars , which i will afterwards review , and to examine that which our author hath thought fit to say concerning the burning of hereticks ; only by the way i must take notice of the unfaithful recital that he makes of the two statutes made against hereticks under henry 4th and henry 5th ; which he represents as if they had merely left the judgment of hereticks to the ordinary or diocesan , without any thing else ; by which the repeal of them must appear to be the taking away that judgment from the spiritual courts ; but there were other and more important clauses in those acts , which gave the parliament just reason to repeal them . in the former , the civil magistrates are required to be personally present at the giving of sentence against hereticks ; and after the sentence was passed , they were to receive them , and there before the people , in a high place to be brent . here was the poysonous sting in that act , which our author was not faithful enough to mention ; and in that past by henry 5th , all magistrates were required to take an oath when they entred upon their employments , that they should use their whole power and diligence to destroy all heresies and errors called lollards , and to assist the ordinaries and the commissaries in their proceedings against them ; and all convict of lollardy were to forfeit all the lands that they held in fee-simple , as well as their goods and chattels to the king. these were the true motives of repealing those bloody laws ; which our author ought to have mentioned if he had not designed to deceive his reader ; but when he comes to examine the matter of burning hereticks , he does it so softly , that it is plain he would rather lay us asleep than quiet us . first he begins with that trifling answer , that the secular laws , and not the ecclesiastical , do both appoint and execute it ; but if the secular arm is threatned by the ecclesiastical , not only with lower censures , but even with deposition , and that by a council , which he acknowledges to be general , in case they do not extirpate hereticks , then this extirpation is still the act of the church , enforced upon the civil power with a dreadful sanction , which the church was able to execute in those ages of superstition ; and thus the guilt of all the blood-shed upon the account of heresie lies at the door of that church . in the next place he reckons up several instances of severe executions against hereticks both in england and elsewhere , which were practiced not only in henry the eighth's time , but also under edward the sixth's ; and were carried on chiefly by cranmer's authority : executions made under queen elizabeth and king iames , are also mentioned ; to which is added a law made by king iames , adjudging men traytors for being reconciled to the pope , or see of rome ; which is putting men to death for pretended heresie , and to a death worse than burning . but to all this i will only say , that the reformation being a work of time , as men did not all at once throw off all the corruptions of the church of rome , so this being the received doctrine of the western church for many ages , that all hereticks ought to be extirpated ; if our reformers did not , so soon as were to be wished , throw of this remnant of popery , it is rather to be excused and pitied in them , than to be justified their practice : cranmer did also soften the notion of heresie as much as he could , by reducing it to a plain and wilful opposition to some of the articles of the apostles creed ; and if the constant clamours that the men of the church of rome raised against the reformation , as a subversion of the christian religion , because some that had been among the reformers , advanced some monstrous opinions ; if these , i say , carried our reformers to such a way of justifying themselves of this imputation by some publick executions , they who gave the occasion to this severity , which i do not pretend to justifie , ought not to reproach us for that to which they drove our ancestors . as for king iames's law , i will not examine whether the death of traitors , or the burning of hereticks , is the more dreadful ; it is certain , fire , especially when it is slow , is the most terrible of all deaths , and that which gives the most formidable impression ; but if the provocation given to the king and parliament at that time by the gun-powder treason , be considered , it will not appear strange , if the king and parliament , after they had escaped so narrowly the greatest of all dangers , took a little more than ordinary care to secure themselves against the like attempts in time coming . and if the severe canons of the council of lateran against hereticks had lain as so many dead letters in the body of the laws of their church , as that law hath done in our book of statutes , they had had much less blood to answer for , and less guilt than lies upon them at present . after these softnings , our author comes to pass his own censure on the burning of hereticks ; but the common rules of prudence should have led him in the present juncture of affairs to have condemned it roundly , and so to have laid our apprehensions a little ; yet he saw so plainly , that this was a practise so clearly authorized both by law and custom in their church , that he durst not disown it in express words ; and indeed he understands so little , how a tender point ought to be touch'd , that by all the rules of prudence , he ought not to have medled with it . his discourse in this is an original ; and because i 'le do him no wrong in the manner of representing it , i will set it down in his own words . but whether this law in it self be just ; and again , if just , whether it may be justly extended to all those simple people put to death in queen maries days , ( such as st. austin calls hereticis credentes ) because they had so much obstinacy , as not to recant their errors , for which they saw their former teachers sacrifice their lives , especially when they were prejudiced by the most common contrary doctrine and practice in the precedent times of edward the 6th ; and had lived in such a condition of life , as neither had means , nor leasure , nor capacity to examine the churches authority , councils or fathers , ordinarily such persons being only to be reduced ( as they were perverted ) by the contrary fashion and course of the times , and by example , and not by argument , either from reason or from authority ; ( and the same that i say of these laity , may perhaps also be said of some illiterate clergy ) ; whether , i say , this law may justly be extended to such , and the highest suffering death be inflicted ( especially where the delinquents are so numerous ) rather than some lower censures of pecuniary mulcts or imprisonment , these things i meddle not with , nor would be thought at all in this place to justifie . here is a long period of 208 words , before the verb comes to close it ; but there is small comfort in all this ; for even after our author hath put the case with all possible abatements , and as soft as may be , of the ignorances , the strong prejudices , and the numbers of the delinquents , and intimated his merciful inclinations only towards the laity , and some of the illiterate clergy , and that only with relation to death ; fines and imprisonments , being left out of the grace that he would shew us ; yet in conclusion he only tells us , he will not meddle with this matter , nor would he be thought at all to justifie it in this place ; for he is only concerned what we think of him , and whether he justifies it or not ; he only tells us he would not be thought to do it ; and yet lest that seem too much , he adds a further qualification , that he would not be thought to justifie it in this place : so that he hath fully reserved all his rights entire to a fitter opportunity , and then he well may , without the least reproach , justifie that in another place , which he doth not think fit to do at present : yet it seems he hath a very narrow heart in matters of grace ; for this same scanty measure of favour that he had clogg'd with so many reserves , is yet retrenched considerably in the following words . tho some among those unlearned lay-people , i confess to have been extremely arrogant , and obstinate , and zealous , beyond knowledg ; and tho they had suffered for a good cause , yet suffering for it on good or reasonable grounds , as neither themselves , being any way learned , nor pretending the authority of any church , nor relying on any present teachers , but on the certainty of their own private judgment , interpreting scripture as you may see . and here some instances are given ; but if this period will close it self it may ; for our author , who seldom takes care of such small matters , leaves it in this unfinished condition . i will not examine the truth of this maxim , but will only take notice , that since all protestants agree in this , that the ground of our faith is that which appears to us to be the sense of the scripture , our author hath by this limitation of his former gentleness towards us , delivered us all over to the secular arm ; and so god have mercy on our souls , for it is plain he will have none upon our bodies . xi . he quarrels with the privy-council , for imprisoning of bonner , because he said he would observe the injunctions that were sent him , if they were not contrary and repugnant to gods law , and to the statute and ordinance of the church ; the fault imputed here to him , i suppose , being that he refused to obey any injunctions of the king , when repugnant to the statute and ordinance of the church : but since he had a mind to blacken that time , he might have as well said , that they found fault with him because he promised to obey the injunctions , if they were not contrary to gods law ; and that thereby it appeared , that they preferred their injunctions to the laws of god , as well as to the laws of the church ; and by our author 's taking no notice of the first branch of bonner's exception , it may be inferred , that all his concern is about the laws of the church , and so they be secured , he troubles himself little what becomes of the law of god : but if he had weighed this matter as he ought to do , he would have found that this exception is very ill grounded . when a form of a subscription is demanded , there is no government in the world , that will accept of one that indeed signifies nothing at all ; for it is visible , that a subscription made with those reserves , signifies nothing ; therefore if bonner had acted as became his character , he should have directly refused the subscription of such injunctions , as he found to be contrary to the laws of god , or to such laws of the church as he thought bound his conscience : but the protestation he made , gave a very just ground to the government to proceed against him according to law. xii . our author intending to aggravate the proceedings against gardiner , shews his great judgment in setting down the article relating to the kings supremacy at full length , whereas he had only named the others ; for he could have invented nothing that must needs render all his exceptions to the king's supremacy more visibly unjust , than this doth , which is in these words : that his majesty as supreme head of the church of england , hath full power and authority to make and set forth laws , injunctions , and ordinances concerning religion and orders in the said church , for repressing all errors and heresies , and other enormities and abuses ; so that the same alteration be not contrary or repugnant to the scriptures or law of god. this was no other than what gardiner had over and over again both by his oaths and his writings advanced ; and the restriction set on it was so just , that one would think there lay no possible exception to it . here there is no claim to the declaring what were errors and heresies , but only to the repressing them ; and this is done by the secular arm , even where men are burnt for heresie : besides , the power , that according to our author , belongs to the pastors of the church , is either founded on the scriptures , or it is not ; if it is not founded on the scriptures , there is no great regard to be had to it ; but if it is founded on it , then it it clearly excepted by the words of this article ; so it is hard to see of what use this is to our author , unless it be to shew him his injustice . xiii . he tells us , that all that which had been done under king henry and king edward , was annulled by an equal authority under queen mary . but tho i acknowledg he was both the soveraign , and the parliament ; yet there was neither justice nor moderation in the charge now made , equal to what had been done before . a great deal might be said concerning the election of the members of parliament , and the practices upon them , and of the turning out a multitude of the clergy before the laws were changed . the disorders and irregularities in the disputes had nothing of that fair dealing in them that had appeared in king edward's time ; and whereas all the severity of king edward's days , was the imprisoning of three or four bishops , and the turning out some of the other clergy ; he knows well how matters went under queen mary . so that we cannot be denied this glory , that a spirit of justice and moderation appear'd at every time that the reformation prevail'd . whereas things went much otherwise in this sad revolution , in which our author glories so much . so that if the good or ill behaviours of the several parties , as they had their turns in the administration of affairs , furnishes a just prejudice , even in favour of the cause it self , we have this on our side as fully as we can wish for . xiv . he tells us , that the bishoprick of durham was first kept void in king edward's days , and last of all it was by act of parliament dissolved to increase the kings revenue . if our author had examined the records of parliament , he would have found that the act that related to the bishoprick of durham , did not at all propose the increase of the kings revenue , but the dividing of one bishoprick into two ; and the raising and endowing of a new cathedral church , all which must have risen to about four thousand marks of old rents , which considering how long lands were let near the borders , did certainly very near exhaust the whole revenue of that see. this is indeed of no great importance to the main cause . for if sacrilegious men went into the reformation , hoping to enrich themselves by it , this is nothing but what falls out in all great revolutions . and it is plain our author took up general reports very easily , that so he might make a clamour with them against our church . but if some that gave an outward compliance to the doctrine of our church , were really a reproach to it ; he of all men for a certain reason , ought not to insist on it . since we are no more accountable for the duke of northumberland's actions , than we are for his own . xv. he tells us , that the bishops turned out by queen mary , were ejected , because the greater part of them were married ; upon which he gives some grounds to justifie that sentence . i will not here examine the point of the unlawfulness of the marriage of the clergy . it is not so much as pretended to be founded on scripture ; and the discipline of the church hath been , and is to this day very various in that matter . but this is certain , that a law being made in king edward's days allowing the marriage of the clergy , the queen upon the repeal of that law , granted a commission to some bishops to examine four of king edward's bishops , and to try if they were married , and upon that to deprive them . this was an act of the queen civil power ; so that the deprivation , according to our author 's own principles , was done by virtue of that commission , and was by consequence void . it was also most unjust with relation to the civil power . for these bishops having been married under the protection of a law that warranted it , that law must still justifie them for what was passed ; and the repeal of it , tho it might impower the queen to proceed for the future against those of the clergy that should contract marriage , yet it was against all the rules of justice to deprive them by virtue of a commission from the queen , for an action that was warranted by a law then in being . but there was another more extravagant commission by which three other bishops are represented as not having behaved themselves well , and that as the queen credibly understood , they had both preach'd erroneous doctrines , and had carried themselves contrary to the laws of god , and the practice of the universal church . and therefore she orders these persons to proceed against them , either according to the ecclesiastical canons , or the laws of the land , and declare their bishopricks void , as they were indeed already void . now our author will shew his great reading in an instance that cannot be disputed , if he can find a president for such a commission as this is , in all history , or a warrant for it , among all those canons for which he pretends so much respect and zeal . and thus he hath , a deprivation of seven bishops done by the civil authority , and without so much as the colour of justice . xvi . the second reason he gives for their deprivation , was their not acknowledging of any supremacy in the roman-patriarch ; and here , as elsewhere , he seems to plead for no higher authority to the pope , but that of a patriarch . but not to repeat what was said upon this in the general considerations , the acknowledging of that power in the pope , would not have served turn . it was never demanded of the clergy , and would certainly not have been accepted . xvii . another reason was their refusing to officiate according to the liturgies received , and used by the whole catholick church , for near a 1000 years . there is some modesty in this pretension , which carries up the abuses no higher than a 1000 years . tho , as to the greater part of them , and the greatest of them all , which is the adoration of the host , there is no just claim to the half of that antiquity . yet if the church of rome will give us the first 500 years , we will not be much concerned in the 1000 that comes next . our author spake too wide , when he named the whole catholick church , he should have said the western-church , if he would have spoke exactly : and for this pretension to a 1000 years , any that will compare the missals that have been printed by card. bona , and f. mabillon , with the present roman missals , will soon find that the roman missal of the last age , was far different from what it had been or a 1000 years before . there is one particular in which indeed they seem both to agree , and yet by which the change of the doctrine of the church is very conspicuous in the so much disputed point concerning the presence in the sacrament . after the 5th century , that a sort of an invocation of saints was received , by which , tho they were not immediately prayed to , yet prayers were put up to god to hear us , upon the account of their intercession . there are some prayers in some ancient missals that mention the offering up of that sacrifice to their honour , and that pray god to accept of it on the account of their intercession . now in the opinion of the church of england , that considers the communion , as a commemorative sacrifice of the death of christ , and as a sacrifice of praise that is offered up to god upon it ; these words bear a good sense , which is , that to honour the memory of such saints , their holy-days were days of communion ; and this action is prayed to be accepted of god , on the account of their intercession . in which there is nothing to be blamed , but the superstition of praying to god with regard to their intercession . but one sees a good sense in those collects . yet these very collects are nonsense , or down-right blasphemous in the present state of the roman church , in which the sacrifice of the mass is believed to be the very body and blood of christ , which are there offered up , so as to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead , and the living . now to say , that this is offered up to the honour of a saint , or to pray that it may be accepted by virtue of their intercession , is the most extravagant and impious thing that can be imagined . so that this change of doctrine hath rendred the canon of the mass , even in those things for which they can pretend to some antiquity , both impious and blasphemous in the opinion and sense which is now generally received in that church . xviii . our author censures a clause in an act passed in the beginning of queen elizabeths reign , in which it is declared , that in all time coming , doctrines are to be judged and determined to be heresies , by the high court of parliament , with the assent of the clergy in their convocation ; as if by this the clergy could not pass a judgment of heresy , without the concurrence of the parliament . but heresy being declared a crime , that inferred a civil punishment , the parliament had all possible reason to make their own concurrence necessary to a judgment upon which many civil effects were to follow . if the judgment of heresy went no further than spritual censures , then this limitation upon the clergy might be blamed a little . what is this , but what is practiced at present in france , in which the censure that the present pope passed in may 1679. condemning some of the impious opinions of the modern casuists , was declared to be of no force , because it flowed from the pope with the court of the inquisition , which is not received in that kingdom . and neither the bulls of popes , nor the decrees of council are of any force there , but as they are verified in parliament , tho their parliaments come far short of the authority of ours . xix . our author excepts to king henry the eighth's abrogating those laws that were established by the authority of the bishops of rome ; as if this included all those laws that were passed by the councils , in which popes presided ; since the canon-law is composed of synodal , as well as of pontifical laws . in this we will freely own to him , that since the time that the popes have so far enslaved the bishops , as to make them swear obedience to them , we look upon all the laws that have been made in synods , composed of men so pre-engaged , as papal laws ; but this doth not at all touch those laws that passed before that authority was claimed . and indeed there never was a grosser abuse put on the world , than the whole canon law. for , as for the first and soundest part of it , which is gratian's decree , it was only a common-place book drawn up by a man that was indeed , considering the age in which he lived , of great learning and good judgment . but he was at that time so ill furnished with all necessary helps to make him judg a right of his matter , that it is an impudent thing in the ages of more knowledg , to pretend to keep up the credit of a book that was compiled in so dark , and so corrupt a time. the rest is yet worst , made up of papal constitutions , or the decrees of those ignorant and packt assemblies , that had met for the three ages preceding the reformation . if king henry had abrogated the ancient canons , our author might have had some colour for his complaints . but the total abrogating of that course compilation of the canon-laws , which never was founded on any good authority , was so just a thing , that there are very few learned men in the roman communion at present , that will not say it were well for the church if it were quite laid aside , since now all men but such as our author are ashamed of it . xx. our author writes as if he intended to do honour to the memory of king henry . for he cites these words out of his preface to his injunctions ; which agreement of the clergy for as much as we think to have proceeded of a good , right and true iudgment , and to be agreeable to the laws and ordinances of god ; he thereupon ordered it to be published . an ordinary man would be upon this induced to approve mightily of the king's method . first to authorize the clergy to examine those matters , and after that , to review their determinations himself , before he gave his civil sanction to them . would our author have a prince rely blindly on a national clergy , which is subject to error , as is acknowledged by all the world ? what judgment then can he follow but his own ? the civil power must be applied in matters of religion , as is acknowledged on all hands , upon the judgment of the prince . for he can follow no other , even in the principles of the church of rome , except when he is determined by an infallible court , which is only in a general council . xxi . among the other exorbitances of the king's supremacy , one reckoned up by our author is his taking away the pope's authority as patriarch , in confirming the metropolitan , and his requiring his clergy , under the pains of premunire , to consecrate into bishopricks any that he shall nominate : it is great ignorance , or somewhat worse in our author , if he will pretend that the authority of the patriarchs over metropolitans , was of primitive antiquity ; for by the council of nice , every province was an intire body within it self ; if the clergy is under some servitude as to the promoting those nominated by the king , the pope is under the same to the king of france by the concordate ; and our subjection in this point , does not bind our consciences , but lies only on our persons and benefices ; and therefore when a case of persecution comes , we must resolve to venture on a premunire , and worse things too , if we are pressed hard . xxii . he adds to this another gross mistake in history , intimating that the suppression of monasteries was done by virtue of this supremacy ; upon which he runs out into a long deduction of many particulars relating to that affair ; but this is all so false , that the supremacy was not so much as once pretended in it ; it went all upon acts of parliament , and the surrenders of the monks : if the king acted violently and unjustly in this matter , it doth not at all concern the reformation , and much less his supremacy ; and as for all the topicks of sacriledg and profanation , and the alienation of things , and the violation of persons ( sacred ) , these are general and dreadful words , which lose their horror , when it is considered , that the vast endowments of monasteries were the effects of the superstition of those ages , in which the belief of the redemption out of purgatory , by the saying of so many masses , together with many false miracles , had prevailed so far on the ignorance and credulity of the world , as to draw the best part of the wealth of europe into those houses ; when , i say , not only the scandalous lives of many monks , which were indeed but personal things , but their false miracles and relicks , and above all , the falshood of redeeming men out of purgatory by their means , were discovered , no doubt it was lawful to dissolve all those endowments , and to turn their wealth to better uses ; and if the king did not enough that way , it was so much the worse for him ; but that doth not at all blemish the reformation . so that all the long digression he makes upon this head , is impertinent to the business in hand , which is the supremacy . xxiii . he says , that the pope pretends no such power , as to alienate the church-revenues for to spend them himself , or to dispose of them in what manner , or to what persons he pleases ; but only for some just cause , that is , in a prudential arbitration , for an equal or greater benefit accruing to the church , or christianity . i do not know , if the d's of parma , or a great many other princes , that have been raised out of the patrimony of the church , would judg this to be good doctrine ; and if the church is always a minor , so that the bargains made in her name may be ever recalled , it would be hard to find what benefit hath arisen to the church or christianity , out of the robberies that popes have made to raise their families ; and it is a strange piece of impudence in these men , who are always reproaching us with what some of our princes did in the time of the reformation , when all that put together , doth not amount to the injustices that have been committed in one single pontificate of those whom they would have us look on as god's trustees , and as christ's vicars ; if they are not concerned in those who are the spiritual heads of their church , much less are we bound to justifie all the actions of those who are only the civil and temporal heads of our church . xxiv . he tells us that the monks could not give away that which they had only for term of life . i know not how this comes to be delivered by our author , at a time when the surrender of so many charters to the king hath been judged legal , though it was made by men who had no title to these , and who were so far from having a right to them for term of life , that they had only the administration of them in an annual magistracy ; so that our author had best consider how he advances such positions , lest he doth as much hurt one way , as he thinks to do service another . in a word , our author hath pleaded the cause of the monasteries , and hath arraigned the suppression of them severely , tho as he said concerning the burning of hereticks , he would not be thought to plead for it in this place . xxv . he accuses king henry for giving dispensations in matters of marriage against ecclesiastical canons , and because he declared all marriages to be lawful , that were not against gods law : here , if in any thing , the perverseness of the church of rome appears , or rather their design to oblige the world to have oft recourse to them , to pay them well , and to depend much on them ; they have prohibited marriage in many degrees , that were not forbid by the law of god ; and to ballance this , they have suffered marriages to be contracted in the degrees forbid by god ; for the pope's power of dispensing is promoted both ways ; they have added a new contrivance of spiritual kindred ; and as the prohibitions that they have set up were unknown to the ancient church , so the degrees that they have declared dispensable , were believed by the ancient church to be moral and indispensable : and yet after all this corruption of ecclesiastical discipline they are in great wrath at the reformers , because they thought it was fit to return to the degrees forbid by the law of moses , and to cut off these superadded prohibitions , which were inventions to bring grist to that mill , where all things were to be had , so men will come up to the price . there follow here a great many instances , in which king henry exercised his supremacy , which our author aggravates all he can : but the considerations that were proposed in the first part , seem fully to satisfie all the difficulties that can be thought to arise out of them . xxvi . he tells us , that such of the privy council , as complied not with the changes made in king edward's days , were turned out after some time ; and names bishop tonstal , wriothesly the chancellor , and the earl of arundel : and he adds , that the king had but one parliament , continued by prorogation from session to session , till at last it ended in the death of the king. here are matters of no great consequence , i confess : but these shew how careless our author was in examining the story of our reformation : and how easy he was to take up any reports that might blast it . it will not appear a very extraordinary thing to see privy counsellors turned out , that do not concur with the designs that prevail . some such things have possibly fallen out in our own time ; and men have no great cause to complain of a severe administration , when this is all the rigour that is shewed to those who oppose themselves to the tide . but our author was misinformed in all these particulars . tonstal went along with all that was done , and was contented to protest in parliament against some laws ; but as soon as they were made , he gave a ready obedience to them ; and continued to be still in the council , during the duke of somerset's ministry . wriothesly was not turned out till after some time ; but immediately upon king henry's death , he had past an illegal patent , upon which to prevent a severer sentence , he resign'd his place ; but he continued still to be of the privy council . and the earl of arundel continued to be of the privy council for many years , and long after fell to be in ill terms with the duke of northumberland ; and upon that an enquiry was made into his administration , and he was fined 12000 pounds . but it is no wonder to find our author mistaken in matters of this nature , when in so publick a thing as that king edward had but one parliament in his whole reign , he hath not been at the pains to turn over the book of statutes ; for there he would have found , that king edward's first parliament was dissolved the 15th of april 1552 ; and a second parliament was called , and opened the first of march following , and was dissolved the last day of that same month. so that there were two parliaments in this reign , and the second was dissolved by an act of the king 's , and not by his death . i do confess these are not great matters ; yet this may be drawn out of them , that our author , who pretends to have examined the transactions of that time , with so much exactness , took things upon trust , without giving himself the trouble to enquire into them so critically , as was necessary for one that was resolved to pass a judgment upon them . xxvii . he expostulates upon the inhibition of preaching put upon the bishops , except in their own cathedrals ; which agrees ill with the censure that fox passes upon them , as dumb prelates . and after this there was a general inhibition on the whole clergy , hindring them to preach , till a uniform order of doctrine should be set out ; in which some bishops , and other learned men , were then employed by the king's order . as for this inhibition upon bishops to preach , except in their cathedrals , it is a fiction of our author's , for which he can give no voucher ; they were not so much as restrained from giving licences to preach , much less to preach themselves over their diocess . the second and general restraint , as it was but for a very short while , so the thing is very doubtful , and stands only on fuller's credit , who was too careless a writer to be appealed to in any matter of consequence . xxviii . our author cites here the discourse of communion in one kind , which by all appearance is that lately writ by the bishop of meaux . this shews that the author and the publisher is the same person ; though others pretend that the author is dead many years ago . but it seems the publisher thought fit at least to add some new touches ; and since he did that , he might have thought it worth the while to have examined at least the records published by dr. burnet ; and his history it self might have been considered , as well as mr. fullers and dr. heylins . but since it seems our author thought the discourse of the communion in one kind fit to be recommended by him , i will take the liberty to recommend the answer to it in french by monsieur larroque , and that lately writ in english , in which the disingenuity of the discourse mentioned by our author , is laid open beyond all possibility of replying . xxix . he tells us , that the veneration of images was defined in a general council , the second nicene , which council also justifies it by antiquity . that council hath been lately sufficiently exposed by a learned and judicious pen. it was neither a general council , nor did it justify what it defined by antiquity . the falshood of some of their allegations , and the impertinences of the rest , and the inferences drawn from those pretended authorities , are all such extravagant things , that they give a just prejudice against every thing that was defined by men that were equally void of sincerity , and of common sense . xxx . there follows from this to the end of the chapter , a long and laborious vindication of the clergy in king edward's time , in which our author endeavours , by many instances , of which some were mentioned in the first part , to make it appear that the clergy at that time gave only an outward compliance , that they acted against their consciences ; that the severity of that time , tho it went no further than to the ejecting them out of their benefices , who refused to comply ; and to the imprisoning of a very few , yet wrought so much upon their weakness , and their love of mony , that against their perswasions , they complied , both in subscribing , swearing , and officiating in the divine service . this shews our author's sound and good judgment , that leads him to fancy , that he hath by this plea done any thing but blackned them in the most infamous manner that can be imagined . it had been much less scandalous upon them to have owned that many of them were weak and easy men , ignorant and tractable , and so were apt to be seduced ; but that in q. mary's time they return'd again to their old persuasions . but this would not have served our author's turn , who wanted somewhat to excuse his own treacherous compliance against his conscience for so many years , even after he had all that conviction , which he owns in his book . but if he hopes to excuse his crimes , by shewing that his own church hath produced in former times , men as black and as criminal as himself , we do not envy him this apology . he might perhaps have another design in it , but of the same size of sincerity and good judgment with the other . he no doubt fancied , as many more perhaps did , that the church of england had many more such false brethren as himself in her bosom , who wanted only good colours and a fair occasion to declare themselves , and so as he had been preparing many books , with which he hoped to overthrow us , when ever the time of publishing them should come ; he fancied this representation that he gives of the complyance of the popish party might offer to others like himself some excuse for their dissembling so long with god and man , only that they might enjoy the profits of a benefice ; since it cannot be so much as pretended , that there was any other temptation in the case . but god be thanked he hath had few companions in his apostacy or treachery , let him choose which he will. xxxi . our author cites a passage out of a letter of q. mary's , written in her brother's time to the privy-council , in which there is a period that overthrows a great many of his assertions . she says that she was well assured , that the king her fathers laws were all allowed and consented to without compulsion by the whole realm , both spiritual and temporal . now if the former part of the citation he produces makes a little against the changes in king edward's time , the latter part is as strong in the justification of that which was done under k. henry . i cannot leave this without taking notice of our author's way of citing , which gives the justest cause of suspicion that can be . the words he cites are , i have offended no law , unless it be a late law of your own making , for the altering matters of religion , which is not worthy to have the name of a law , both for , &c. and for the partiality used in the same . now did ever man before our author put an &c. in such a place ? i have not fox by me , from whom this is cited , but i am sure this way of cutting a sentence doth not look fair . xxxii . i pass over many particulars , which are repetitions of things that have been already considered , relating to the instances in which the king's supremacy was exercised . only where he complains of the restoring the cup to the laity , as contrary to the injunction of the council of constance , i must acknowledg his sincerity in not pretending to carry the violation of our saviour's institution of the sacrament higher than the 15th century . we are not ashamed to own that our reformers thought it better to follow the first 14 centuries , especially since our lord's institution was at the head of them , then so late and so treacherous an assembly , that had overthrown all the confidence that can be among men , as well as it had sacrilegiously robbed the people of a right that was derived to them by our saviour's express words . xxxiii . he quarrels the form of ordination set out in edward the sixth's time , because in contradiction to all antiquity that part was cast out , by which a bishop gives to priests a power to offer up sacrifices , and to say masses for the dead and the living . it seems our author knows antiquity , as well as he doth the history of our reformation ; otherwise he had never pretended that a form that is no elder than the 8th century was the practice of all antiquity . this is so clear to all , who have examined this matter , that it is needless to urge it farther . the silence of all ancient authors , the form mentioned by the 4th council of carthage , by the apostolical constitutions , and by denis the areopagite , and the ancient rituals , printed by morinus , are such clear proofs in this matter , that i may well save my self a farther labour . xxxiv . he gives another exception against our book of ordinations , that instead of the oath of submission to the patriarch , there was another oath prescribed to the temporal prince . our author must needs know , that the oath which was formerly sworn to the pope , was a plain oath of homage , such as subjects swear to their princes , by which all bishops were bound to the popes , and to the regalities of st. peter as to their leige lord , in the same form of words , in which vassals swore homage to their superiour lords , and it was no wonder to see our legislators change that into an oath of supremacy to our temporal prince . in the primitive times there was no such thing as either oath or promise of obedience to superiours in ordinations , and it was not before the end of the 7th century , that a promise of obedience was requir'd , yet charles the great found ill effects of this , and so got it to be condemned by the unanimous consent of the second council of chalons : and radulphus glaber tells us , that in the 11th century an ill custom was creeping in , that none was ordain'd deacon , till he had first sworn obedience to his bishop . among the rituals published by morinus in the 4th , there is only mention of a promise of submission and obedience to the see , in the 9th ritual , which he believes to be about 700 years old ; there is an oath of obedience indeed to the patriarchal see , but this is far from any claim to antiquity , since it is plain it did not begin to be exacted , till the popes began to raise their pretensions far beyond that of a patriarch ; and so this oath was soon formed to so high a strain , that no temporal prince whatsoever had his subjects more strictly bound to him , than all bishops were subjected to the pope as their temporal as well as their spiritual head , which will appear to every one , who will give himself the trouble of reading it . xxxv . he quarrels our liturgy for leaving the oblation to god of the holy eucharist , as propitiatory or impetratory of any benefits for the living or to the dead ; contrary to the belief of former churches and councils . if by former he means the ages of darkness , that had preceded the reformation , this we esteem no reproach ; but if he will carry this matter higher , it is easie to shew they had no other notion of a sacrifice in the eucharist , than such as we still retain , which is a commemoration of that one sacrifice , by which we were reconciled to god , and a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving upon it , which we still retain , and according to the spirit of the ancient church we use the term sacrifice . and here our author betrays that malignancy of spirit , which he bears our church in accusing us for some changes that our reformers made in the liturgy , as if these had been such heinous things . whereas the changes that the roman church hath made have been of another nature , and they have so altered all their books of divine offices , that if any will compare the ordo romanus , which was a ritual of the 10th or 11th century , with the missals at present , it will appear how inconsiderable the changes that our reformers made , are , when compared to those of that church . if any will take the pains to examine the books of ordination , that are collected by morinus , he will see that the prayers , which in one age were esteemed the forms of ordination , came to be considered in another but as preparatory devotions . and that the prayers which in one time were only blessings after orders given , were at another time looked on , as the formal words by which they were given since then all churches , chiefly that of rome , have so often changed their divine offices , it is a very unreasonable thing to reproach the church of england for having done it once or twice in the beginning of the reformation . xxxvi . our author it seems thinks he hath a privilege to reproach our church , in spite of the clearest discoveries that can be made ; so though that worthy and learned person that answered his two discourses concerning the real presence , and the adoration of the sacrament , had from the light given in dr. burnet's history , answered the objection he had made from the alteration in the article of the sacrament concerning the presence , a great deal of the explanation that was made in edward the sixth's time , being left out under queen elizabeth . yet it is clear , by the original subscription , which i my self viewed in bennet colledg library , that all the clergy were of the same mind with those of king edward's time ; only upon a prudential consideration it was not thought necessary to publish it ; so that it was not cast out , but suppressed . common decency should have obliged our author not to have mentioned this any more , or to have answered that which had been said upon it . but it seems with the new religion he hath got , he hath received a most indelible degree of impudence . xxxvii . our author engages into a long enquiry concerning the articles of religion that were printed in king edward the sixth's time ▪ and hath indeed offered some things , that seem to leave it doubtful , whether they were agreed to in a convocation , or not . but all this is a matter of very small importance , if these articles were not passed in convocation in king edward's reign , we are sure they were agreed too in convocation in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign . and it is no great matter to us , whether they are ten years older or later , that is , whether they were agreed to in the year 1552 , or in the year 1562. it is more likely they were agreed to in king edward's time , for they were printed then with that title ; and though impostures are but too ordinary to be determined by the baldness of a title page , yet things are seldom printed , as flowing from such a publick authority , when it is known that they are the projects of a few heads that would impose upon the world ▪ it cannot now be known from the records of the convocation , they being all burnt ; but it is certain , that soon after in queen elizabeth's time ▪ these articles were ever looked on as the work of the convocation in king edward's time. nor is there any reason to think otherwise , for by that time , 〈…〉 said they 〈◊〉 made , the bishopricks were so filled , and the clergy were every where so compliant , that there is no reason to think that the regular way was not taken in a matter of this nature . as long as the popish party was the majority , our reformers were obliged to carry matters by some selected bishops and divines , whose propositions were enacted by the civil authority : but when the clergy was by degrees wrought to give a more universal concurrence in the reformation , which was done before the year 1552. we have no reason to think that the regular method was neglected . but it is to very little purpose to spend many words concerning a matter of small consequence , and in which there is so little certainty . xxxviii . our author shews how dry all his concessions are in favour of the civil authority in opposition to the papal pretensions not only for deposing , but even for assassinating heretical princes , in these words . it shall here be granted ( as being the opinion of several catholicks ) that no general council hath any authority to make any ecclesiastical law , which any way intrenches upon any civil right : nor any foreign prelate hath authority to use a temporal power over princes ( when judged heretical ) to kill or depose them , or absolve their subjects from their allegiance . the king is certainly much obliged to our author , who hath given him such an assurance , of enjoying his crown and his life . for he grants it here as he said elsewhere he would not be thought to justify the burning of hereticks in this place . so here while he is in england , he will condemn these treasonable doctrines . the ground upon which he condemns them is also suitable to the condemnation it self . for he says that this is the opinion of several catholicks . this was modestly expressed . for tho it is true , that several of those he calls catholicks , are of this mind , yet all catholicks are not of it . so that the doctrine of murdering kings , is at least a probable one , and since the decrees of the church of rome for the deposing of princes , fall not only on those that are hereticks themselves , but even on the fautors and favourers of hereticks , i do not see how his majesty's life is secured . for besides the protection and liberty that he grants to hereticks of his own dominions , he hath received and encouraged the refuges of another prince , which is to be a favourer of heresy of the worst sort . so that if innuendoes were in fashion , i do not see how our author could defend himself against an indictment of treason , or at least against an information . our author to let us see how wary he is in his concessions , as he calls them , ends the paragraph with another , it shall be granted here . for it is plain , he will not loose an inch of all the papal pretensions , but will preserve them entire to a better time . xxxix . our author pretends that q. elizabeth's supremacy was carried much higher , than had been granted by the former clergy under k. henry the 8th . the allegation is false , for the supremacy was carried much higher under king henry , than it was under queen elizabeth , who , as she would not accept of the title of head of the church , so she explained her supremacy , both in her own injunctions , and in the acts of convocation and parliament that followed , in so unexceptionable a manner , that our author himself hath nothing to object to it . he seems also to infinuate , as if the king's supremacy were asserted by us , as a grant of the clergy ; whereas we pretend to no such thing . the civil supremacy that we ascribe to our princes , is founded on the laws of god , on the rules of humane society , on the laws of england , and on the practice of the church for many ages ; and king henry receiv'd no new strengthning of his title by the act of the clergy , which did not confer any new authority on him , but only declared that which was already inherent in him . xl. our author enters into a long discourse to prove the invalidity of orders granted in our church , which he doth so weakly , and yet as he doth all other things so tediously , and with so much confusion , that i have no mind to follow him in all his wandrings . he seems to question the authority of suffragan bishops , who though they were limited as to their iurisdiction , yet as to their order , they were the same with the other bishops . the proceedings in queen mary's time , were too full of irregularity and violence , to be brought as proofs , that the orders given by king edward's book , were not valid . in a word , the foundation of that false opinion of some of the church of rome , was that ever since the time of the council of florence , the form in which priests orders were conferred , was believed to be the delivering the sacred vessels , with a power to offer sacrifices for the dead and living . so they reckoned , that we had no true priests , since that ceremony was struck out of our ordinal . but the folly of all this is apparent , since men began to examine the ancient rituals ; and those which have been published by morinus , shew , that as this rite is peculiar to the roman church , so it was not received before the ninth century . and since all ordinations , during the first eight centuries , were done by the imposition of hands and prayer , then there can be no reason to question our orders , since we retain still all that the ancient church thought necessary . as for the common observation of our ordinals not being enacted by queen elizabeth , before the eighth year of her reign , it hath been so oft made and answered , that i am 〈…〉 see our author urge it any further . would he that hath disputed so much against the civil authorities medling in matters sacred , annul our orders , because the law was not so clearly worded , with relation to that part of our offices ? the most that can possibly be made out of this , is , that the ordinations were not quite legal ; so that one might have disputed the paiment of the fruits . but this hath no relation to us , as we are a church ; in that the book of ordinations having been annexed to the book of common-prayer in king edward the sixth's time , the reviving of the book of common-prayer in queen elizabeth's time was considered , as including the book of ordinations . though it s not being expresly named , this gave occasion to bonner to question the validity of them in law. upon which the explanatory act passed , declaring that it had been the intention of the parliament to include that in the book of common-prayer . so that this act only declared the law , but did not create any new right . i have now gone over all that i judged most material in this tedious book . the darkness of the stile , the many unfinished periods , the frequent repetitions , the many long quotations to very little purpose , above all the intricate way of reasoning , made it a very ungrateful thing to me to wrestle through it . in it one may see how much a man may labour and study to very little purpose . for how unhappy soever the author hath been in his pains , it cannot be denied but he hath been at a great deal to compass it . but a man that neither sees things distinctly , nor judges well of them , the more he toils about them , he entangles himself and his reader so much the more . so that never was so much pains taken to less purpose . if our author gives us many more books of this size , both as to sincerity and good reasoning , he will quickly cure the world of the mistake in which they were concerning him . he passed once for a learned man , and he had passed so still , if he had not taken care to let the world see , by so many repeated essays , how false a title he hath to that reputation which had fallen upon him . but it seems his sincerity and good judgment are of a piece . otherwise as he could not obtrude on the world the falsehoods concerning latter times , and the ignorance of antiquity that appears in all his books ; so when so many have been at the pains to discover both his mistakes , and his impostures ; he would either have confessed them , or some way excused them . but it is no wonder to see a man that dissembled so long with god , and that lied so oft to him , serve the world now , as he did his god for so many years . i pray god touch his heart , and give him a repentance proportioned to the heinousness of his sins , by which he hath given so much scandal to the atheistical sort of men , who from him must be tempted to draw strange consequences . and he hath certainly brought a greater reproach on that church to which he hath gone over , than all the services he can ever render them in his useless and confounded writings , will be able to wipe off . but to whom sovever he hath been a reproach , our church hath no share in it , since of him , and of such as he is , we must say ; they went out from us , but they were not of us : for if they had been of us , they would no doubt have continued with us ; but they went out , that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30406-e90 p. 82. ad finem . from p. 140. page 141. adorat of the euchar. p. 28. p. 139. ephes. 5. 24. col. 3. 20. page 87 , 88. 2 chron. 17. 7. 2 chron 9. 5 , 8. v. 11. 2 chron. 29. 5. v. 34. 2 chron. 30. 23. numb . 9. 10. ezra 7. 25. nehem. 13. 28. ludolph . notes for div a30406-e3660 p. 20. lin . 12. p. 21. hist. reform . p. 1. re● . bo. 2. n. 10. ibid n. 24. nam qui reginae odio vel speratae , sec dum forsan notae , futurae conjugis illecib● , & titillatione regem agi putant ij ex cordes plane , & toto , quod aiunt , coelo errare videntur . ibid. p. 22. cott. lib. vit. b. 13. p. 23. ● . 25. printed in the cabala . p. 26. p. 28. p. 39. 25 henry 8th n. 14. p. 41. hist. reform . rec. b. 2. n. 37 , 38 , 39. p. 51. p. 78 , 79. p. 57. p. 58. p. 64. p. 68. p. 71. p. ibid. p. 72. p. 84. p. 90. p. 93. p. 9● ▪ p. ibid. p. 108. p. 110. p. 111. p. 119. p. 127. p. 134. p. 135. p. 142. p. 157. p. 160. ibid. tolet. can . 10. §. 75. c. 13. 1040. vita gul. abb. dijon . c. 4. p. 162. p. 176 , 273. p. 187. p. 208. p. 120. p. 2. the life and death of sir matthew hale, kt sometime lord chief justice of his majesties court of kings bench. written by gilbert burnett, d.d. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1681 approx. 178 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 122 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30381) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 34723) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2088:10) the life and death of sir matthew hale, kt sometime lord chief justice of his majesties court of kings bench. written by gilbert burnett, d.d. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [20], 218 p. printed for william shrowsbery, at the bible in duke-lane, london : 1681. with engraved portrait of math. hale on a1v. with errata on b2v. caption title on p. 1: the life & death of sir matthew hale, kt. late lord chief justice of england. includes catalogue of hale's books "to be sold by william shrowsbury", pp. 188-190, catalogue of his manuscripts, pp. 190-193, and catalogue of "books given by him to lincolns-inn," pp. 197-210. copy cataloged imperfect; lacking pp. 135-140. reproduction of the original in the harvard university law school library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng hale, matthew, -sir, 1609-1676 -early works to 1800. judges -great britain -biography -early works to 1800. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the life and death of sir kt. sometime lord chief iustice of his majesties court of kings bench . written by gilbert burnett , d.d. london , printed for william shrowsbery , at the bible in duke-lane , 1681. the preface . no part of history is more instructive and delighting , than the lives of great and worthy men : the shortness of them invites many readers , and there are such little and yet remarkable passages in them , too inconsiderable to be put in a general history of the age in which they lived ; that all people are very desirous to know them . this makes plutarch's lives be more generally read than any of all the books which the ancient greeks or romans writ . but the lives of hero's and princes , are commonly filled with the account of the great things done by them , which do rather belong to a general , than a particular history ; and do rather amuse the reader 's fancy with a splendid shew of greatness , than offer him what is really so useful to himself ; and indeed the lives of princes are either writ with so much flattery , by those who intended to merit by it at their own hands , or others concerned in them : or with so much spite , by those who being ill used by them , have revenged themselves on their memory , that there is not much to be built on them : and though the ill nature of many makes what is satyrically writ to be generally more read and believed , than when the flattery is visible and course , yet certainly resentment may make the writer corrupt the truth of history , as much as interest : and since all men have their blind sides , and commit errors , he that will industriously lay these together , leaving out , or but slightly touching what should be set against them , to ballance them , may make a very good man appear in very bad colours : so upon the whole matter , there is not that reason to expect either much truth , or great instruction , from what is written concerning hero's or princes ; for few have been able to imitate the patterns suetonius set the world in writing the lives of the roman emperours , with the same freedom that they had led them : but the lives of private men , though they seldom entertain the reader with such a variety of passages as the other do ; yet certainly they offer him things that are more imitable , and do present wisdom and virtue to him , not only in a fair idea , which is often look't on as a piece of the invention or fancy of the writer , but in such plain and familiar instances , as do both direct him better , and perswade him more ; and there are not such temptations to biass those who writ them , so that we may generally depend more on the truth of such relations as are given in them . in the age in which we live , religion and virtue have been proposed and defended with such advantages , with that great ▪ force of reason , and those perswasions , that they can hardly be matched in former times ; yet after all this , there are but few much wrought on by them , which perhaps flows from this , among other reasons , that there are not so many excellent patterns set out , as might both in a shorter , and more effectual manner recommend that to the world , which discourses do but coldly ; the wit and stile of the writer being more considered than the argument which they handle , and therefore the proposing virtue and religion in such a model , may perhaps operate more than the perspective of it can do ; and for the history of learning , nothing does so preserve and improve it , as the writing the lives of those who have been eminent in it . there is no book the ancients have left us , which might have informed us more than diogenes laertius his lives of the philosophers ; if he had had the art of writing equal to that great subject which he undertook , for if he had given the world such an account of them , as gassendus has done of peiresk , how great a stock of knowledge might we have had , which by his unskilfulness is in a great measure lost ; since we must now depend only on him , because we have no other , or better author , that has written on that argument . for many ages there were no lives writ but by monks , through whose writings there runs such an incurable humour , of telling incredible and inimitable passages , that little in them can be believed or proposed as a pattern : sulpitius severus and jerom shewed too much credulity in the lives they writ , and raised martin and hilarion , beyond what can be reasonably believed : after them , socrates , theodoret , sozomen , and palladius , took a pleasure to tell uncouth stories of the monks of thebais ; and nitria : and those who came after them , scorned to fall short of them , but raised their saints above those of former ages , so that one would have thought that undecent way of writing could rise no higher ; and this humour infected even those who had otherwise a good sense of things , and a just apprehension of mankind , as may appear in matthew paris , who though he was a writer of great iudgement and fidelity , yet he has corrupted his history with much of that alloy : but when emulation and envy rose among the several orders or houses , then they improved in that art of making romances , instead of writing lives , to that pitch , that the world became generally much scandalized with them : the franciscans and dominicans tried who could say the most extravagant things of the founders , or other saints of their orders , and the benedictines ; who thought themselves possest of the belief of the world , as well as of its wealth , endeavoured all that was possible still to keep up the dignity of their order , by outlying the others all they could ; and whereas here or there , a miracle , a vision , or trance , might have occurred in the liv●s of former saints ; now every page was full of those wonderfull things . nor has the humour of writing in such a manner , been quite laid down in this age , though more awakned and better enlightned , as appears in the life of philip nerius , and a great many more : and the jesuits at antwerp , are now taking care to load the world with a vast and voluminous collection of all those lives that has already swelled to eleven volumes in folio , in a small print , and yet being digested according to the kalender , they have yet but ended the month of april : the life of monsieur renty is writ in another manner , where there are so many excellent passages , that he is justly to be reckoned amongst the greatest patterns that france has afforded in this age . but while some have nourished infidelity , and a scorn of all sacred things , by writing of those good men in such a strain , as makes not only what is so related to be disbelieved , but creates a distrust of the authentical writings of our most holy faith ; others have fallen into another extream in writing lives too ●ejunely , swelling them up with trifling accounts of the childhood and education , and the domestick or private affairs of those persons of whom they write , in which the world is little concerned : by these they become so flat , that few care to read them , for certainly those transactions are onely fit to be delivered to posterity , that may carry with them some useful peece of knowledge to after-times . i have now an argument before me , which will afford indeed only a short history , but will contain in it as great a character , as perhaps can be given of any in this age ; since there are few instances of more knowledge and greater virtues meeting in one person . i am upon one account ( beside many more ) unfit to undertake it , because i was not at all known to him , so i can say nothing from my own observation , but upon second thoughts i do not know whether this may not qualify me to write more impartially , though perhaps more defectively , for the knowledge of extraordinary persons does most commenly biass those , who were much wrought on by the tenderness of their friendship , for them , to raise their stile a little too high when they write concerning them : i confess i knew him as much as the looking often upon him could amount to . the last year of his being in london , he came always on sundays , ( when he could go abroad ) to the chappel of the rolls , where i then preached : in my life i never saw so much gravity tempered with that sweetness , and set off with so much vivacity as appeared in his looks , and behaviour , which disposed me to a veneration for him , which i never had for any , with whom i was not acquainted : i was seeking an opportunity of being admitted to his conversation ; but i understood that between a great want of health , and a multiplicity of business , which his imployment brought upon him , he was master of so little of his time , that i stood in doubt whether i might presume to rob him of any of it , and so he left the town , before i could resolve on desiring to be known to him . my ignorance of the law of england , made me also unfit to write of a man , a great part of whose character as to his learning is to be taken from his skill in the common law , and his performance in that ▪ but i shall leave that to those of the same robe : since if i engaged much in it , i must needs commit many errors , writing of a subject that is foreign to me . the occasion of my undertaking this , vvas given me first by the earnest desires of some that have great power over me , vvho having been much obliged by him , and holding his memory in high estimation , thought i might do it some right by writing his life ; i was then engaged in the history of the reformation , so i promised that , as soon as that was over , i should make the best use i could of such informations and memorials as should be brought me . this i have now performed in the best manner i could , and have brought into method all the parcels of his life , or the branches of his character , which i could either gather from the informations that were brought me , or from those that were familiarly acquainted with him , or from his writings : i have not applied any of the false colours with which art , or some forced eloquence might furnish me in writing concerning him ; but have endeavoured to set him out in the same simplicity in which he lived : i have said little of his domestick concerns , since though in these he was a great example , yet it signifies nothing to the world , to know any particular exercises , that might be given to his patience ; and therefore i shall draw a vail over all these , and shall avoid saying any thing of him , but what may afford the reader some profitable instruction : i am under no temptations of saying any thing , but what i am perswaded is exactly true , for where there is so much excellent truth to be told , it were an inexcusable fault to corrupt that , or prejudice the reader against it by the mixture of falsehoods with it . in short as he was a great example while he lived , so i wish the setting him thus out to posterity , in his own true and native colours , may have its due influence , on all persons ; but more particularly on those of that profession , whom it more immediately concerns , whether on the bench or at the barr. the reader is desired to correct the book by the following errata , before he reads it over , especially the first fault , pag. 15. l. 9. that being the most considerable . pag. 15. l. 9. read indiscreet men called obstinacy . pag. 39. l. 8. for r. but. pag. 44. l. ult . to highly so r. so highly to . pag. 50. l. 3. after county r. of . pag. 101. l. 8. assignat as salurem , r. assignatus salutem . pag. 147. l. 10. was r. were . pag. 168. l. 20. eternal r. external . pag. 172. l. 17. dearlier , r. earlier . pag. 200. l. 15. foresta , r. forestae . the life & death of sir matthew hale , kt. late lord chief justice of england . matthew hale , was born at alderly in glocestershire , the first of november , 1609. his grandfather was robert hale , an eminent clothier in wotton-under-edge , in that county , where he and his ancestors had lived for many descents ; and they had given several parcels of land for the use of the poor , which are enjoyed by them to this day . this robert acquired an estate of ten thousand pound , which he divided almost equally amongst his five sons ; besides the portions he gave his daughters , from whom a numerous posterity has sprung . his second son was robert hale , a barrister of lincolns-inn ; he married ioan , the daughter of matthew poyntz , of alderly esquire , who was descended from that noble family of the poyntz's of action : of this marrage there was no other issue but this one son. his grandfather by his mother was his godfather , and gave him his own name at his baptism . his father was a man of that strictness of conscience , that he gave over the practise of the law , because he could not understand the reason of giving colour in pleadings , which as he thought was to tell a lye , and that , with some other things commonly practised , seemed to him contrary to that exactness of truth and justice which became a christian , so that he withdrew himself from the inns of court to live on his estate in the country . of this i was informed by an ancient gentleman , that lived in a friendship with his son for fifty years , and he heard judge iones ▪ that was mr. hales contemporary , declare this in the kings-bench . but as the care he had to save his soul , made him abandon a profession in which he might have raised his family much higher , so his charity to his poor neighbours , made him not only deal his alms largely among them while he lived , but at his death he left ( out of his small estate which was but 100 l a year ) 20 l. a year to the poor of wotton , which his son confirmed to them with some addition , and with this regulation , that it should be distributed among such poor house-keepers , as did not receive the alms of the parish ; for to give it to those , was only as he used to say , to save so much money to the rich , who by law were bound to relieve the poor of the parish . thus he was descended rather from a good , than a noble family , and yet what was wanting in the insignificant titles of high birth , and noble blood , was more than made up in the true worth of his ancestors . but he was soon deprived of the happiness of his fathers care and instruction , for as he lost his mother before he was three years old , so his father died before he was five ; so early was he cast on the providence of god. but that unhappiness was in a great measure made up to him : for after some opposition made by mr. thomas poyntz , his uncle by his mother , he was committed to the care of anthony kingscot , of kingscot esquire , who was his next kinsman , after his uncles , by his mother . great care was taken of his education , and his guardian intended to breed him to be a divine , and being inclined to the way of those then called puritans , put him to some schools that were taught by those of that party , and in the 17 th . year of his age , sent him to magdalen-hall in oxford , where obadiah sedgwick was his tutor . he was an extraordinary proficient at school , and for some time at oxford . but the stage players coming thither , he was so much corrupted by seeing many playes , that he almost wholly forsook his studies . by this he not only lost much time , but found that his head came to be thereby filled with such vain images of things , that they were at best improfitable , if not hurtful to him ; and being afterwards sensible of the mischief of this , he resolved upon his coming to london , ( where he knew the opportunities of such sights would be more frequent and inviting ) never to see a play again , to which he constantly adhered . the corruption of a young man's mind in one particular , generally draws on a great many more after it , so he being now taken off from following his studies , and from the gravity of his deportment , that was formerly eminent in him , far beyond his years , set himself to many of the vanities incident to youth , but still preserved his purity , and a great probity of mind . he loved fine clothes , and delighted much in company : and being of a strong robust body , he was a great master at all those exercises that required much strength . he also learned to fence , and handle his weapons , in which he became so expert , that he worsted many of the masters of those arts : but as he was exercising himself in them , an instance appeared , that shewed a good judgment , and gave some hopes of better things . one of his masters told him he could teach him no more , for he was now better at his own trade than himself was . this mr. hale lookt on as flattery ; so to make the master discover himself , he promised him the house he lived in , for he was his tenant , if he could hit him a blow on the head : and bad him do his best , for he would be as good as his word : so after a little engagement , his master being really superiour to him , hit him on the head , and he performed his promise ; for he gave him the house freely : and was not unwilling at that rate to learn so early , to distinguish flattery from plain and simple truth . he was now so taken up with martial matters , that instead of going on in his design of being a scholar , or a divine , he resolved to be a souldier : and his tutor sedgwick going into the low-countries , chaplain to the renowned lord vere , he resolved to go along with him , and to trail a pike in the prince of orange's army ; but a happy stop was put to this resolution , which might have proved so fatal to himself , and have deprived the age of the great example he gave , and the useful services he afterwards did his country . he was engaged in a suite of law with sir william whitmore , who laid claim to some part of his estate , and his guardian being a man of a retired temper , and not made for business , he was forced to leave the university , after he had been three years in it , and goe to london to sollicite his own business . being recommended to serjeant glanvill for his councellor , and he observing in him a clear apprehension of things , and a solid judgement , and a great fitness for the study of the law , took pains upon him to perswade him to forsake his thoughts of being a souldier , and to apply himself to the study of the law : and this had so good an effect on him , that on the 8 th . of november , 1629. when he was past the 20 th . year of his age , he was admitted into lincolns-inn : and being then deeply sensible how much time he had lost , and that idle and vain things had over-run and almost corrupted his mind , he resolved to redeem the time he had lost , and followed his studies with a diligence that could scarce be beleived , if the signal effects of it did not gain it credit . he studied for many years at the rate of 16 hours a day : he threw aside all fine clothes , and betook himself to a plain fashion , which he continued to use in many points to his dying day . but since the honour of reclaiming him from the idleness of his former course of life , is due to the memory of that eminent lawyer serj. glanvil , and since my design in writing is to propose a pattern of heroick virtue to the world , i shall mention one passage of the serjeant which ought never to be forgotten . his father had a fair estate , which he intended to settle on his elder brother , but he being a vicious young man , and there appearing no hopes of his recovery , he setled it on him , that was his second son. upon his death , his eldest son finding that what he had before looked on , as the threatnings of an angry father , was now but too certain , became melancholly , and that by degrees wrought so great a change on him , that what his father could not prevail in while he lived , was now effected by the severity of his last will , so that it was now too late for him to change in hopes of an estate that was gone from him . but his brother observing the reality of the change , resolved within himself what to do : so he called him , with many of his friends together to a feast , and after other dishes had been served up to the dinner , he ordered one that was covered to be set before his brother , and desired him to uncover it ; which he doing , the company was surprized to find it full of writings . so he told them that he was now to do , what he was sure his father would have done , if he had lived to see that happy change , which they now all saw in his brother : and therefore he freely restored to him the whole estate . this is so great an instance of a generous and just disposition , that i hope the reader will easily pardon this digression , and that the rather since that worthy serjeant was so instrumental in the happy change that followed in the course of mr. hale's life . yet he did not at first break off from keeping too much company with some vain people , till a sad accident drove him from it , for he with some other young students , being invited to be merry out of town , one of the company called for so much wine , that notwithstanding all that mr. hale could do to prevent it , he went on in his excess till he fell down as dead before them , so that all that were present , were not a little affrighted at it , who did what they could to bring him to himself again : this did particularly affect mr. hale , who thereupon went into another room , and shutting the door , fell on his knees , and prayed earnestly to god , both for his friend , that he might be restored to life again ; and that himself might be forgiven for giving such countenance to so much excess : and he vowed to god , that he would never again keep company in that manner , nor drink a health while he lived : his friend recovered , and he most religiously observed his vow , till his dying day . and though he was afterwards prest to drink healths , particularly the kings , which was set up by too many as a distinguishing mark of loyalty , and drew many into great excess after his majesties happy restoration ; but he would never dispense with his vow , though he was sometimes roughly treated for this , which some hot and indiscreet led obstinacy . this wrought an entire change on him : now he forsook all vain company , and divided himself between the duties of religion , and the studies of his profession ; in the former he was so regular , that for six and thirty years time , he never once failed going to church on the lords day ; this observation he made when an ague first interrupted that constant course , and he reflected on it , as an acknowlegement of god's great goodness to him , in so long a continuance of his health . he took a strict account of his time , of which the reader will best judge , by the scheme he drew for a diary which i shall insert copied from the original , but i am not certain when he made it ; it is set down in the same simplicity in which he writ it for his own private use . morning . i. to lift up the heart to god in thankfulness for renewing my life . ii. to renew my covenant with god in christ. 1. by renewed acts of faith receiving christ , and rejoyceing in the height of that relation . 2 ▪ resolution of being one of his people doing him allegiance . iii. adoration and prayer . iv. setting a watch over my own infirmities and passions , over the snares laid in our way . perimus licitis . day imployment . there must be an imployment , two kinds . i. our ordinary calling , to serve god in it . it is a service to christ though never so mean. colos. 3. here faithfulness , diligence , chearfulness . not to overlay my self with more business than i can bear . ii. our spiritual imployments : mingle somewhat of gods immediate service in this day . refreshments . i. meat and drink , moderation seasoned with somewhat of god. ii. recreations . 1. not our business . 2. sutable . no games , if given to covetousness or passion . if alone . i. beware of wandring vain lustful thoughts , fly from thy self rather than entertain these . ii. let thy solitary thoughts be profitable , view the evidences of thy salvation , the state of thy soul , the coming of christ , thy own mortality , it will make thee humble and watchful . company . do good to them . use god's name reverently . beware of leaving an ill impression of ill example . receive good from them , if more knowing . evening . cast up the accompts of the day . if ought amiss , beg pardon . gather resolution of more vigilance . if well , bless the mercy and grace of god that hath supported thee . these notes have an imperfection in the wording of them , which shews they were only intended for his privacies . no wonder a man who set such rules to himself , became quickly very eminent and remarkable . noy the attorny general , being then one of the greatest men of the profession , took early notice of him , and called often for him , and directed him in his study , and grew to have such friendship for him , that he came to be called young noy . he passing from the extream of vanity in his apparel , to that of neglecting himself too much , was once taken when there was a press for the kings-service , as a fit person for it ; for he was a strong and well built man : but some that knew him coming by , and giving notice who he was , the press-men let him go . this made him return to more decency in his clothes , but never to any superfluity or vanity in them . once as he was buying some cloath for a new suit , the draper with whom he differed about the price , told him he should have it for nothing , if he would promise him an hundred pound when he came to be lord chief justice of england ; to which he answered , that he could not with a good conscience wear any man's cloath , unless he payed for it ; so he satisfied the draper , and carried away the cloath . yet that same draper lived to see him advanced to that same dignity . while he was thus improving himself in the study of the law , he not only kept the hours of the hall constantly in term-time , but seldom put himself out of commons in vacation-time , and continued then to follow his studies with an unwearied diligence ; and not being satisfied with the books writ about it , or to take things upon trust , was very diligentin searching all records : then did he make divers collections out of the books he had read , and mixing them with his own observations , digested them into a common-place book ; which he did with so much industry and judgment , that an eminent iudge of the kings-bench , borrowed it of him when he was lord chief baron : he unwillingly lent it , because it had been writ by him before he was called to the barr , and had never been throughly revised by him since that time , only what alterations had been made in the law by subsequent statutes , and judgments , were added by him as they had happened : but the iudge having perused it said , that though it was composed by him so early , he did not think any lawyer in england could do it better , except he himself would again set about it . he was soon found out by that great and learned antiquary mr. selden , who though much superiour to him in years , yet came to have such a liking of him , and of mr. vaughan , who was afterwards lord chief justice of the common-pleas , that as he continued in a close friendship with them while he lived , so he left them at his death , two of his four executors . it was this acquaintance that first set mr. hale on a more enlarged pursuit of learning , which he had before confined to his own profession , but becoming as great a master in it , as ever any was , very soon ; he who could never let any of his time go away unprofitably , found leisure to attain to as great a variety of knowledge , in as comprehensive a manner as most men have done in any age. he set himself much to the study of the romane law , and though he liked the way of judicature in england by juries , much better than that of the civil law , where so much was trusted to the iudge ; yet he often said , that the true grounds and reasons of law were so well delivered in the digests , that a man could never understand law as a science so well as by seeking it there , and therefore lamented much that it was so little studied in england . he looked on readiness in arithmetick , as a thing which might be useful to him in his own imployment , and acquired it to such a degree , that he would often on the sudden , and afterwards on the bench resolve very hard questions , which had puzled the best accomptants about town . he rested not here , but studied the algebra both speciosa and numerosa , and went through all the other mathematical sciences , and made a great collection of very excellent instruments , sparing no cost to have them as exact , as art could make them . he was also very conversant in philosophical learning , and in all the curious experiments , and rare discoveries of this age : and had the new books written on those subjects sent him from all parts , which he both read and examined so critically , that if the principles and hypotheses which he took first up , did any way prepossess him , yet those who have differed most from him , have acknowledged , that in what he has writ concerning the torricellian experiment , and of the rarefaction and condensation of the air ; he shews as great an exactness , and as much subtilty in the reasoning he builds on them , as these principles to which he adhered could bear . but indeed it will seem scarce credible , that a man so much imployed , and of so severe a temper of mind , could find leisure to read , observe and write so much of these subjects as he did . he called them his diversions , for he often said when he was weary with the study of the law , or divinity , he used to recreate himself with philosophy or the mathematicks ; to these he added great skill in physick , anatomy and chyrurgery : and he used to say no man could be absolutely a master in any profession , without having some skill in other sciences ; for besides the satisfaction he had in the knowledge of these things , he made use of them often in his imployments . in some examinations he would put such questions to physitians or chyrurgeons , that they have professed the colledge of physitians could not do it more exactly ; by which he discovered great judgment , as well as much knowledge in these things : and in his sickness he used to argue with his doctors about his distempers , and the methods they took with them , like one of their own profession ; which one of them told me he understood , as far as speculation without practice could carry him . to this he added great searches into ancient history , and particularly into the roughest and least delightful part of it , chronology . he was well acquainted with the ancient greek philosophers , but want of occasion to use it , wore out his knowledge of the greek tongue ; and though he never studied the hebrew tongue , yet by his great conversation with selden , he understood the most curious things in the rabinical learning . but above all these , he seemed to have made the study of divinity the cheif of all others , to which he not only directed every thing else , but also arrived at that pitch in it , that those who have read , what he has written on these subjects , will think , they must have had most of his time and thoughts . it may seem extravagant , and almost incredible , that one man in no great compass of years , should have acquired such a variety of knowledge ; and that in sciences that require much leasure and application . but as his parts were quick , and his apprehensions lively , his memory great , and his judgements strong ; so his industry was almost indefatigable . he rose always betimes in the morning , was never idle , scarce ever held any discourse about newes , except with some few in whom he confided entirely . he entered into no correspondence by letters , except about necessary business , or matters of learning , and spent very little time in eating or drinking ; for as he never went to publick feasts , so he gave no entertainments but to the poor ; for he followed our saviour's direction , ( of feasting none but these ) literally : and in eating and drinking , he observed not only great plainness and moderation , but lived so philosophically , that he always ended his meal , with an appetite : so that he lost little time at it ; ( that being the only portion which he grudged himself ) and was disposed to any exercise of his mind , to which he thought fit to apply himself , immediately after he had dined : by these means he gained much time , that is otherwise unprofitably wasted . he had also an admirable equality in the temper of his mind , which disposed him for what ever studies he thought fit to turn himself to ; and some very uneasy things which he lay under for many years , did rather engage him to , than distract him from his studies . when he was called to the barr , and began to make a figure in the world , the late unhappy warrs broke out , in which it was no easie thing , for a man to preserve his integrity , and to live , securely , free from great danger and trouble . he had read the life of pomponius atticus , writ by nepos , and having observed , that he had passed through a time of as much distraction , as ever was in any age or state , from the wars of marius and scilla , to the beginnings of augustus his reign , without the least blemish on his reputation , and free from any considerable danger , being held in great esteem by all parties , and courted and favoured by them : he set him as a pattern to himself , and observing that besides those virtues which are necessary to all men , and at all times , there were two things that chiefly preserved atticus , the one was his engaging in no faction , and medling in no publick business , the other was his constant favouring and reliveing those that were lowest , which was ascribed by such as prevailed to the generosity of his temper , and procured him much kindness from those on whom he had exercised his bounty , when it came to their turn to govern : he resolved to guide himself by those rules as much as was possible for him to do . he not only avoided all publick imployment , but the very talking of news , and was always both favourable and charitable to those who were deprest , and was sure never to provoke any in particular , by censuring or reflecting on their actions ; for many that have conversed much with him , have told me they never heard him once speak ill of any person . he was imployed in his practice by all the kings party : he was assigned council to the earl of strafford , and arch bishop laud ▪ and afterwards to the blessed king himself , when brought to the infamous pageantry of a monk ▪ tryal , and offered to plead for him with all the courage , that so glorious a cause ought to have inspired him with , but was not suffered to appear , because the king refusing , as he had good reason , to submit to the court ▪ it was pretended none could be admitted to speak for him . he was also council for the duke of hamilton , the earl of holland , and the lord capel : his plea for the former of these i have published in the memoires of that dukes life . afterwards also being council for the lord craven , he pleaded with that force of argument , that the then attorney general , threatned him for appearing against the government , to whom he answered , he was pleading in defence of those laws , which they declared they would maintain and preserve , and he was doing his duty to his client , so that he was not to be daunted with threatnings . upon all these occasions he had discharged himself with so much learning , fidelity , and courage , that he came to be generally imployed for all that party ; nor was he satisfied to appear for their just defence in the way of his profession , but he also relieved them often in their necessities ; which he did in a way that was no less prudent than charitable , considering the dangers of that time : for he did often deposite considerable sums in the hands of a worthy gentleman of the kings party , who knew their necessities well , and was to distribute his charity according to his own discretion , without either letting them know , from whence it came , or giving himself any account to whom he had given it . cromwell seeing him possest of so much practice , and he being one of the eminentest men of the law , who was not at all affraid of doing his duty in those critical times ; resolved to take him off from it , and raise him to the bench. mr. hale saw well enough the snare laid for him , and though he did not much consider the prejudice it would be to himself , to exchange the easie and safer profits he had by his practice , for a iudges place in the common-pleas , which he was required to accept of , yet he did deliberate more on the lawfulness of taking a commission from usurpers ; but having considered well of this , he came to be of opinion , that it being absolutely necessary , to have iustice and property kept up at all times : it was no sin to take a commission from usurpers , if he made no declaration of his acknowledging their authority , which he never did : he was much urged to accept of it by some eminent men of his own profession , who were of the kings party , as sir orlando bridgeman , and sir geoffery palmer ; and was also satisfied concerning the lawfulness of it , by the resolution of some famous divines , in particular dr. sheldon , and dr. henchman , who were afterwards promoted to the sees of canterbury and london . to these were added the importunities of all his friends , who thought that in a time of so much danger and oppression , it might be no small security to the nation , to have a man of his integrity and abilities on the bench : and the usurpers themselves held him in that estimation , that they were glad to have him give a countenance to their courts , and by promoting one that was known to have different principles from them ; affected the reputation of honouring and trusting men of eminent virtues , of what perswasion soever they might be , in relation to publick matters . but he had greater scruples concerning the proceeding against felons , and putting offenders to death by that commission , since he thought the sword of justice belonging only by right to the lawful prince , it seemed not warrantable to proceed to a capital sentence by an authority derived from usurpers ; yet at first he made distinction between common and ordinary felonies , and offences against the state , for the last he would never meddle in them ; for he thought these might be often legal and warrantable actions , and that the putting men to death on that account was murder ; but for the ordinary felonies , he at first was of opinion that it was as necessary even in times of usurpation to execute justice in those cases , as in the matters of property ; for after the king was murthered , he laid by all his collections of the pleas of the crown , and that they might not fall into ill hands , he hid them behind the wainscotting of his study , for he said there was no more occasion to use them , till the king should be again restored to his right , and so upon his majesties restoration he took them out , and went on in his design to perfect that great work. yet for some time after he was made a iudge , when he went the circuit , he did sit on the crown side , and judged criminals : but having considered farther of it , he came to think that it was at least better not to do it ; and so after the second or third circuit , he refused to sit any more on the crown side , and told plainly the reason , for in matters of blood , he was always to choose the safer side : and indeed he had so carried himself in some tryals , that they were not unwilling he should withdraw from medling farther in them , of which i shall give some instances . not long after he was made a iudge , which was in the year 1653 , when he went the circuit , a tryal was brought before him at lincoln , concerning the murther of one of the townsmen , who had been of the kings party , and was killed by a souldier of the garrison there . he was in the fields with a fowling piece on his shoulder , which the souldier seeing , he came to him and said , it was contrary to an order which the protector had made , that none who had been of the kings party should carry armes , and so he would have forced it from him ; but as the other did not regard the order , so being stronger than the souldier , he threw him down and having beat him , he left him : the souldier went into the town , and told one of his fellow souldiers how he had been used , and got him to go with him , and lie in wait for the man that he might be revenged on him . they both watched his coming to town , and one of them went to him to demand his gun , which he refusing , the soldier struck at him , and as they were strugling , the other came behind , and ran his sword into his body , of which he presently died . it was in the time of the assizes , so they were both tried : against the one there was no evidence of forethought felony , so he was only found guilty of man-slaughter , and burnt on the hand ; but the other was found guilty of murther : and though collonel whaley thatcommanded the garrison , came into the court and urged , that the man was killed only for disobeying the protectors orders , and that the soldier was but doing his duty ; yet the iudge regarded both his reasons and threatnings very little , and therefore he not only gave sentence against him , but ordered the execution to be so suddenly done , that it might not be possible to procure a reprieve , which he believed would have been obtained , if there had been time enough granted for it . another occasion was given him of shewing both his justice and courage , when he was in another circuit ; he understood that the protector had ordered a iury to be returned for a tryal in which he was more than ordinarily concerned : upon this information , he examined the sheriff about it , who knew nothing of it , for he said he referred all such things to the under sheriff , and having next asked the under sheriff concerning it , he found the iury had been returned by order from cromwell ; upon which he shewed the statute , that all iuries ought to be returned by the sheriff or his lawful officer ; and this not being done according to law , he dismissed the iury , and would not try the cause : upon which the protector was highly displeased with him , and at his return from the circuit , he told him in anger he was not fit to be a iudge , to which all the answer he made was , that it was very true . another thing met him in the circuit , upon which he resolved to have proceeded severely : some anabaptists had rushed into a church , and had disturbed a congregation , while they were receiving the sacrament , not without some violence ; at this he was highly offended , for he said it was intolerable for men , who pretended to highly so liberty of conscience , to go and disturb others ; especially those who had the incouragement of the law on their side : but these were so supported by some great magistrates and officers , that a stop was put to his proceedings ; upon which he declared , he would medle no more with the tryals on the crown-side . when penruddocks tryal was brought on , there was a special messenger sent to him requiring him to assist at it . it was in vacation time , and he was at his country-house at alderly : he plainly refused to go , and said , the four terms , and two circuits , were enough , and the little interval that was between , was little enough for their private affairs , and so he excused himself ; he thought it was not necessary to speak more clearly , but if he had been urged to it , he would not have been affraid of doing it . he was at that time chosen a parliament-man , ( for there being then no house of lords , iudges might have been chosen to sit in the house of commons ) and he went to it , on design to obstruct the mad and wicked projects then on foot , by two parties , that had very different principles and ends . on the one hand , some that were perhaps more sincere , yet were really brain-sick , designed they knew not what , being resolved to pull down a standing ministry , the law , and property of england , and all the ancient rules of this government , and set up in its room an indigested enthusiastical scheme , which they called the kingdom of christ , or of his saints ; many of them being really in expectation , that one day or another christ would come down , and sit among them , and at least they thought to begin the glorious thousand years , mentioned in the revelation . others at the same time , takeing advantages from the fears and apprehensions , that all the sober men of the nation were in , lest they should fall under the tyranny of a distracted sort of people , who to all their other ill principles , added great cruelty , which they had copied from those at munster in the former age , intended to improve that opportunity to raise their own fortunes and families . amidst these , iudge hale steered a middle course ; for as he would engage for neither side , so he with a great many more worthy men came to parliaments , more out of a design to hinder mischief , than to do much good ; wisely foreseeing , that the inclinations for the royal family were daily growing so much , that in time the disorders then in agitation , would ferment to that happy resolution , in which they determined in may , 1660. and therefore all that could be then done , was to oppose the ill designs of both parties , the enthusiasts as well as the usurpers . among the other extravagant motions made in this parliament , one was , to destroy all the records in the tower , and to settle the nation on a new-foundation ; so he took this province to himself , to shew the madness of this proposition , the injustice of it , and the mischeifs that would follow on it , and did it with such clearness , and strength of reason , as not only satisfied all sober persons ( for it may be supposed that was soon done ) but stopt even the mouths of the frantick people themselves , thus he continued administring justice till the protector died , but then he both refused the mournings that were sent to him and his servants for the funeral , and likewise to accept of the new commission th●● was offered him by richard , and when the rest of the iudges urged it upon him , and imployed others to press him to accept of it , he rejected all their importunities , and said he could act no longer under such authority ▪ he lived a private man till the parliament met that called home the king , to which he was returned knight of the shire from the county glocester . it appeared at that time how much he was beloved and esteemed in his neighborhood , for though another who stood in competition with him had spent near a thousand pounds to procure voices , a great sum to be imployed that way in those days , and he had been at no cost , and was so far from solliciting it , that he had stood out long against those who press'd him to appear , and he did not promise to appear till three days before the election , yet he was preferred . he was brought thither almost by violence , by the lord ( now earl of ) berkeley , who bore all the charge of the entertainments on the day of his election , which was considerable , and had engaged all his friends and interest for him : and whereas by the writ , the knight of a shire must be miles gladio cinctus , and he had no sword , that noble lord girt him with his own sword during the election , but he was soon weary of it , for the imbrodery of the belt , did not sute well with the plainness of his clothes : and indeed the election did not hold long , for as soon as ever he came into the field , he was chosen by much the greater number , though the poll continued for three or four days . in that parliament he bore his share , in the happy period then put to the confusions that threatned the utter ruin of the nation , which contrary to the expectations of the most sanguine , setled in so serene and quiet a manner , that those who had formerly built so much on their success , calling it an answer from heaven to their solemn appeals , to the providence of god , were now not a little confounded , to see all this turned against themselves , in an instance much more extraordinary than any of those were , upon which they had built so much . his great prudence and excellent temper led him to think , that the sooner an act of indemnity were passed , and the fuller it were of graces and favours , it would sooner settle the nation , and quiet the minds of the people ; and therefore he applied himself with a particular care to the framing and carrying it on : in which it was visible he had no concern of his own , but merely his love of the publick that set him on to it . soon after this , when the courts in westminster-hall came to be setled , he was made lord cheif baron ; and when the earl of clarendon ( then lord chancellor ) delivered him his commission , in the speech he made according to the custome on such occasions , he expressed his esteem of him in a very singular manner , telling him among other things , that if the king could have found out an honester and fitter man for that imployment , he would not have advanced him to it ; and that he had therefore preferred him , because he knew none that deserved it so well . it is ordinary for persons so promoted to be knighted , but he desired to avoid having that honour done him , and therefore for a considerable time declined all opportunities of waiting on the king , which the lord chancellor observing , sent for him upon business one day , when the king was at his house , and told his majesty there was his modest chief baron , upon which , he was unexpectedly knighted . he continued eleven years in that place , managing the court , and all proceedings in it with singular justice . it was observed by the whole nation , how much he raised the reputation and practice of it : and those who held places , and offices in it , can all declare , not only the impartiality of his justice , for that is but a common virtue , but his generosity , his vast diligence , and his great exactness in tryals . this gave occasion to the only complaint that ever was made of him , that he did not dispatch matters quick enough ; but the great care he used , to put suits to a final end , as it made him slower in deciding them ; so it had this good effect , that causes tryed before him , were seldom if ever tryed again . nor did his administration of justice lie only in that court : he was one of the principal iudges that sate in cliffords-inn , about setling the difference between landlord and tenant , after the dreadful fire of london . he being the first that offered his service to the city , for accommodating all the differences that might have arisen about the rebuilding it , in which he behaved himself to the satisfaction of all persons concerned ; so that the suddain and quiet building of the city , which is justly to be reckoned one of the wonders of the age , is in no small measure due to the great care , which he and sir orlando bridge-man , ( then lord cheif iustice of the common-plea's afterwards lord keeper of the great seal of england ) used , and to the judgment they shewed in that affair : since without the rules then laid down , there might have otherwise followed such an endless train of vexatious suits , as might have been little less chargeable than the fire it self had been . but without detracting from the labours of the other iudges , it must be acknowledged that he was the most instrumental in that great work ; for he first by way of scheme , contrived the rules upon which he and the rest proceeded afterwards ; in which his readiness at arithmetick , and his skill in architecture were of great use to him . but it will not seem strange that a iudge behaved himself as he did , who at the entry into his imployment , set such excellent rules to himself , which will appear in the following paper copied from the original under his own hand . things necessary to be continually had in remembrance . i. that in the administration of iustice , i am intrusted for god , the king and country ; and therefore , ii. that it be done , 1. uprightly , 2. deliberately , 3. resolutely . iii. that i rest not upon my own understanding or strength , but implore and rest upon the direction and strength of god. iv. that in the execution of iustice , i carefully lay aside my own passions , and not give way to them , however provoked . v. that i be wholly intent upon the business i am about , remitting all other cares and thoughts , as unseasonable and interruptions . vi. that i suffer not my self to be prepossessed with any iudgment at all , till the whole business and both parties be heard . vii . that i never engage my self in the beginning of any cause , but reserve my self unprejudiced till the whole be heard , viii . that in business capital , though my nature prompt me to pity ; yet to consider , that there is also a pity due to the country . ix . that i be not too riged in matters purely conscientious , where all the harm is diversity of iudgment . x. that i be not biassed with compassion to the poor , or favour to the rich , in point of iustice. xi . that popular , or court applause , or distaste , have no influence into any thing i do in point of distribution of iustice. xii . not to be sollicitous what men will say or think , so long as i keep my self exactly according to the rule of iustice. xiii . if in criminals it be a measuring cast ▪ to incline to mercy and acquittal . xiv . in criminals that consist merely in words , when no more harm ensues , moderation is no injustice . xv. in criminals of blood , if the fact be evident , severity is iustice. xvi . to abhor all private sollicitations , of what kind soever , and by whom soever , in matters depending . xvii . to charge my servants , 1. not to interpose in any business whatsoever , 2. not to take more than their known fees , 3. not to give any undue precedence to causes , 4. not to recommend councill . xviii . to be short and sparing at meals , that i may be the fitter for business . he would never receive private addresses or recommendations from the greatest persons in any matter , in which iustice was concerned . one of the first peers of england went once to his chamber and told him , that having a suite in law to be tryed before him , he was then to acquaint him with it , that he might the better understand it , when it should come to be heard in court. upon which the lord cheif baron interupted him , and said he did not deal fairly to come to his chamber about such affairs , for he never received any information of causes but in open court , where both parties were to be heard alike , so he would not suffer him to go on : whereupon his grace ( for he was a duke ) went away not a little dissatisfied , and complained of it to the king , as a rudeness that was not to be endured . but his majesty bid him content himself that he was no worse used , and said , he verily believed he would have used himself no better , if he had gone to sollicite him in any of his own causes . another passage fell out in one of his circuits , which was somewhat censured as an affectation of an unreasonable strictness , but it flowed from his exactness to the rules he had set him self : a gentleman had sent him a buck for his table , that had a trial at the assizes ; so when he heard his name , he asked if he was not the same person that had sent him venison , and finding he was the same , he told him , he could not suffer the trial to go on , till he had paid him for his buck ; to which the gentleman answered , that he never sold his venison , and that he had done nothing to him , which he did not do to every iudge that had gone that circuit , which was confirmed by several gentlemen then present : but all would not do , for the lord cheif baron had learned from solomon , that a gift perverteth the ways of iudgment , and therefore he would not suffer the trial to go on , till he had paid for the present ; upon which the gentleman withdrew the record ; and at salisbury the dean and chapter having according to the custom presented him with six sugar loaves in his circuit , he made his servants pay for the sugar before he would try their cause . it was not so easie for him to throw off the importunities of the poor , for whom his compassion wrought more powerfully than his regard to wealth and greatness , yet when justice was concerned , even that did not turn him out of the way . there was one that had been put out of a place for some ill behaviour , who urged the lord cheif baron to set his hand to a certificate , to restore him to it , or provide him with an other : but he told him plainly his fault was such that he could not do it ; the other pressed him vehemently and fell down on his knees , and begged it of him with many tears ; but finding that could not prevail , he said he should be utterly ruined if he did it not ; and he should curse him for it every day . but that having no effect , then he fell out into all the reproachful words , that passion and despair could inspire him with , to which all the answer the lord cheif baron made , was , that he could very well bear all his reproaches , but he could not for all that set his hand to his certificate . he saw he was poor , so he gave him a large charity and sent him away . but now he was to go on after his pattern , pomponius atticus , still to favour and relieve them that were lowest ; so besides great charities to the nonconformists , who were then as he thought too hardly used , he took great care to cover them all he could , from the severities some designed against them , and discouraged those who were inclined to stretch the laws too much against them : he lamented the differences that were raised in this church very much , and according to the impartiality of his justice , he blamed some things on both sides , which i shall set down with the same freedom that he spake them . he thought many of the nonconformists ; had merited highly in the business of the kings restauration , and at least deserved that the terms of conformity should not have been made stricter , than they were before the war. there was not then that dreadful prospect of popery , that has appeared since : but that which afflicted him most was , that he saw the heats and contentions which followed upon those different parties and interests , did take people off from the indispensable things of religion , and slackned the zeal of other ways good men for the substance of it , so much being spent about external and indifferent things . it also gave advantages to atheists , to treat the most sacred points of our holy faith , as ridiculous , when they saw the professors of it contend , so fiercely , and with such bitterness , about lesser matters : he was much offended at all those books that were written , to expose the contrary sect to the scorn and contempt of the age in a wanton and petulant style ; he thought such writers wounded the christian religion , through the sides of those who differed from them : while a sort of lewd people , who having assumed to themselves the title of the witts ( though but a very few of them have a right to it ) took up from both hands , what they had said , to make one another shew ridiculous , and from thence perswaded the world to laugh at both , and at all religion for their sakes . and therefore he often wished there might be some law , to make all scurrility or bitterness in disputes about religion punishable ▪ but as he lamented the proceedings too rigourously against the nonconformists , so he declared himself always of the side of the church of england , and said those of the separation were good men , but they had narrow soules , who would break the peace of the church , about such inconsiderable matters , as the points in difference were . he scarce ever medled in state intrigues , yet upon a proposition that was set on foot by the lord keeper bridgeman , for a comprehension of the more moderate dissenters , and a limited indulgence towards such as could not be brought within the comprehension , he dispensed with his maxime , of avoiding to engage in matters of state. there were several meetings upon that occasion . the divine of the church of england that appeared most considerably for it , was doctor wilkins , afterwards promoted to the bishoprick of chester , a man of as great a mind , as true a judgment , as eminent virtues , and of as good a soul , as any i ever knew . he being determined as well by his excellent temper , as by his foresight and prudence , by which he early perceived the great prejudices that religion received , and the vast dangers the reformation was like to fall under by those divisions ; set about that project with the magnanimity that was indeed peculiar to himself ; for though he was much censured by many of his own side , and seconded by very few , yet he pushed it as far as he could : after several conferences with two of the eminentest of the presbiterian divines , heads were agreed on , some abatements were to be made , and explanations were to be accepted of . the particulars of that project being thus concerted , they were brought to the lord cheif baron , who put them in form of a bill , to be presented to the next sessions of parliament . but two parties appeared vigorously against this design , the one was of some zealous clergy-men , who thought it below the dignity of the church to alter laws , and change setlements for the sake of some whom they esteemed schismaticks : they also believed , it was better to keep them out of the church , than bring them into it , since a faction upon that would arise in the church , which they thought might be more dangerous than the schism it self was . besides they said , if some things were now to be changed in complyance with the humour of a party , as soon as that was done , another party might demand other concessions , and there might be as good reasons invented for these as for those : many such concessions might also shake those of our own communion , and tempt them to forsake us , and go over to the church of rome , pretending that we changed so often , that they were thereby inclined to be of a church , that was constant and true to her self . these were the reasons brought , and cheifly insisted on against all comprehension ; and they wrought upon the greater part of the house of commons , so that they passed a vote against the receiving of any bill for that effect . there were others that opposed it upon very different ends : they designed to shelter the papists from the execution of the law , and saw clearly that nothing could bring in popery so well as a toleration . but to tolerate popery bare-faced , would have startled the nation too much ; so it was necessary to hinder all the propositions for union , since the keeping up the differences was the best colour they could find , for getting the tolleration to pass only as a slackning the laws against dissenters , whose numbers and wealth made it adviseable to have some regard to them ; and under this pretence popery might have crept in more covered , and less regarded : so these councils being more acceptable to some concealed papists then in great power , as has since appeared but too evidently , the whole project for comprehension was let fall , and those who had set it on foot , came to be looked on with an ill eye , as secret favourers of the dissenters , underminers of the church , and evey thing else that jealousie and distaste could cast on them . but upon this occasion the lord cheif baron , and dr. wilkins , came to contract a firm and familiar friendship ; and the lord cheif baron having much business , and little time to spare , did to enjoy the other the more , what he had scarce ever done before , he went sometimes to dine with him . and though he lived in great friendship with some other eminent clergy-men , as dr. ward , bishop of salisbury ; dr. barlow , bishop of lincoln ; dr. barrow , late master of trinity colledge ; dr. tillotson , dean of canterbury ; and dr. stillingfleet , dean of st. pauls , ( men so well known and so much esteemed , that as it was no wonder the lord cheif baron valued their conversation highly , so those of them that are yet alive will think it no lessening of the character they are so deservedly in , that they are reckoned among iudge hale's friends ) yet there was an intimacy and freedom in his converse with bishop wilkins that was singular to him alone : he had during the late wars , lived in a long and entire friendship with the apostolical primate of ireland bishop usher : their curious searches into antiquity , and the sympathy of both their tempers led them to a great agreement almost in every thing . he held also great conversation with mr. baxter , who was his neighbour at acton , on whom he looked as a person of great devotion and piety , and of a very subtile and quick apprehension : their conversation lay most in metaphysical and abstracted idea's and schemes . he looked with great sorrow on the impiety and atheism of the age , and so he set himself to oppose it , not only by the shining example of his own life , but by engaging in a cause , that indeed could hardly fall into better hands : and as he could not find a subject more worthy of himself , so there were few in the age that understood it so well , and could manage it more skilfully . the occasion that first led him to write about it was this . he was a strict observer of the lords day , in which , besides his constancy in the publick worship of god , he used to call all his family together , and repeat to them the heads of the sermons , with some additions of his own , which he fitted for their capacities , and circumstances , and that being done , he had a custome of shutting himself up for two or three hours , which he either spent in his secret devotions , or on such profitable meditations as did then occur to his thoughts : he writ them with the same simplicity that he formed them in his mind , without any art , or so much as a thought to let them be published : he never corrected them , but laid them by , when he had finished them , having intended only to fix and preserve his own reflections in them ; so that he used no sort of care to polish them , or make the first draught perfecter than when they fell from his pen : these fell into the hands of a worthy person , and he judging , as well he might , that the communicating them to the world , might be a publick service , printed two volumes of them in octavo a little before the authors death , containing his contemplations , i. of our latter end. ii. of wisdome , and the fear of god. iii. of the knowledge of christ crucified . iv. the victory of faith over the world. v. of humility . vi. iacobs vow . vii . of contentation . viii . of afflictions . ix . a good method to entertain unstable and troublesome times . x. changes and troubles , a poem . xi . of the redemption of time . xii . the great audit. xiii directions touching keeping the lords day , in a letter to his children . xiv . poems written upon christmass-day . in the 2 d. volume . i. an enquiry touching happiness . ii. of the chief end of man. iii. upon 12 ecles . 1. remember thy creator . iv. upon the 51. psal. v. 10. create a clean heart in me , with a poem . v. the folly and mischeif of sin. vi. of self denial . vii . motives to watchfulness , in reference to the good and evil angels . viii . of moderation of the affections . ix . of worldly hope and expectation . x. upon 13. heb. 14. we have here no continuing city . xi . of contentedness and patience . xii . of moderation of anger . xiii . a preparative against afflictions . xiv . of submission , prayer , and thanksgiving . xv. of prayer and thanksgiving on psal. 116.12 . xvi . meditations on the lords prayer , with a paraphrase upon it . in them there appears a generous and true spirit of religion , mixt with most serious and fervent devotion , and perhaps with the more advantage , that the stile wants some correction , which shews they were the genuine productions of an excellent mind , entertaining it self in secret with such contemplations . the stile is clear and masculine , in a due temper between flatness and affectation , in which he expresses his thoughts both easily and decently : in writing these discourses , having run over most of the subjects that his own circumstances led him chiefly to consider , he began to be in some pain to chuse new arguments ; and therefore resolved to fix on a theam that should hold him longer . he was soon determined in his choice , by the immoral and irreligious principles and practices , that had so long vexed his righteous soul : and therefore began a great design against atheisme , the first part of which is only printed , of the origination of mankind , designed to prove the creation of the world , and the truth of the mosaical history . the second part was of the nature of the soul , and of a future state. the third part was concerning the attributes of god , both from the abstracted idea's of him , and the light of nature ; the evidence of providence , the notions of morality , and the voice of conscience . and the fourth part was concerning the truth and authority of the scriptures , with answers to the objections against them : on writing these he spent seven years . he wrote them with so much consideration , that one who perused the original under his own hand , which was the first draught of it ; told me , he did not remember of any considerable alteration , perhaps not of twenty words in the whole work. the way of his writing them , only on the evenings of the lords day , when he was in town , and not much oftner when he was in the country , made , that they are not so contracted , as it is very likely he would have writ them , if he had been more at leisure to have brought his thoughts into a narrower compass , and fewer words . but making some allowance for the largeness of the stile , that volum that is printed , is generally acknowledged to be one of the perfectest pieces both of learning and reasoning that has been writ on that subject : and he who read a great part of the other volumes told me , they were all of a piece with the first . when he had finished this work , he sent it by an unknown hand to bishop wilkins , to desire his judgment of it ; but he that brought it , would give no other account of the authour , but that he was not a clergy man. the bishop , and his worthy friend dr. tillotson , read a great deal of it with much pleasure , but could not imagine who could be the author , and how a man that was master of so much reason , and so great a variety of knowledge , should be so unknown to them , that they could not find him out , by those characters , which are so little common . at last dr. tillotson guessed it must be the lord cheif baron , to which the other presently agreed , wondring he had been so long in finding it out . so they went immediately to him , and the bishop thanking him for the entertainment he had received from his works , he blushed extreamly , not without some displeasure , apprehending that the person he had trusted had discovered him . but the bishop soon cleared that , and told him , he had discovered himself , for the learning of that book was so various , that none but he could be the author of it . and that bishop having a freedom in delivering his opinion of things and persons , which perhaps few ever managed both with so much plainness and prudence , told him , there was nothing could be better said on these arguments , if he could bring it into a less compass , but if he had not leisure for that , he thought it much better to have it come out , though a little too large , than that the world should be deprived of the good which it must needs do . but our iudge , had never the opportunities of revising it , so a little before his death , he sent the first part of it to the press . in the beginning of it , he gives an essay of his excellent way of methodizing things , in which he was so great a master , that whatever he undertook , he would presently cast into so perfect a scheme , that he could never afterwards correct it : he runs out copiously upon the argument of the impossibility of an eternal succession of time , to shew that time and eternity are inconsistent one with another ; and that therefore all duration that was past , and defined by time , could not be from eternity , and he shews the difference between successive eternity already past , and one to come ; so that though the latter is possible , the former is not so ; for all the parts of the former have actually been , and therefore being defined by time , cannot be eternal ; whereas the other are still future to all eternity , so that this reasoning cannot be turned to prove the possibility of eternal successions , that have been , as well as eternal successions that shall be . this he follows with a strength , i never met with in any that managed it before him . he brings next all those moral arguments , to prove that the world had a beginning ; agreeing to the account moses gives of it , as that no history rises higher , than near the time of the deluge ; and that the first foundation of kingdoms , the invention of arts , the beginnings of all religions , the gradual plantation of the world , and increase of mankind , and the consent of nations do agree with it . in managing these , as he shews profound skill both in historical , and philosophical learning , so he gives a noble discovery of his great candor and probity , that he would not impose on the reader with a false shew of reasoning by arguments , that he knew had flawes in them ; and therefore upon every one of these , he adds such allays , as in a great measure lessened and took off their force , with as much exactness of judgment , and strictness of censure , as if he had been set to plead for the other side : and indeed sums up the whole evidence for religion , as impartially as ever he did in a tryal for life or death to the iury ; which how equally and judiciously he always did , the whole nation well knows . after that , he examines the ancient opinions of the philosophers , and inlarges with a great variety of curious reflections in answering that only argument , that has any appearance of strength for the casual production of man , from the origination of insects out of putrified matter , as is commonly supposed , and he concluded the book , shewing how rational and philosophical the account which moses gives of it is . there is in it all a sagacity and quickness of thought , mixed with great and curious learning , that i confess i never met together in any other book on that subject : among other conjectures , one he gives concerning the deluge is , that he did not think the face of the earth and the waters , were altogether the same before the universal deluge , and after : but possibly the face of the earth was more even than now it is : the seas possibly more dilated and extended , and not so deep as now ▪ and a little after , possibly the seas have undermined much of the appearing continent of earth . this i the rather take notice of , because it hath been since his death , made out in a most ingenious , and most elegantly writ book , by mr. burnet of christ's colledge in cambridge , who has given such an essay towards the proving the possibility of an universal deluge , and from thence , has collected with great sagacity what paradise was before it , as has not been offered by any philosopher before him . while the iudge was thus imploying his time , the lord ch. iust. keyling dying , he was on the 18 th . of may 1671 , promoted to be lord cheif iustice of england . he had made the pleas of the crown one of his cheif studies , and by much search , and long observation , had composed that great work concerning them , formerly mentioned : he that holds the high office of iusticiary in that court , being the cheif trustee , and assertor of the liberties of his countrey ; all people applauded this choice , and thought their liberties could not be better deposited than in the hands of one , that as he understood them well , so he had all the justice and courage , that so sacred a trust required . one thing was much observed and commended in him , that when there was a great inequality in the ability and learning of the councellors that were to plead one against another : he thought it became him , as the iudge , to supply that ; so he would enforce what the weaker council managed but indifferently , and not suffer the more learned to carry the business by the advantage they had over the others in their quickness and skill in law , and readiness in pleading , till all things were cleared in which the merits and strength of the ill defended cause lay . he was not satisfied barely to give his judgment in causes , but did especially in all intricate ones , give such an account of the reasons that prevailed with him ; that the council did not only acquiesce in his authority , but were so convinced by his reasons , that i have heard many profess that he brought them often to change their opinions ; so that his giving of judgment was really a learned lecture upon that point of law : and which was yet more , the parties themselves , though interest does too commonly corrupt the judgment , were generally satisfied with the justice of his decisions , even when they were made against them . his impartial justice , and great diligence , drew the cheif practice after him , into whatsoever court he came : since , though the courts of the common pleas , the exchequer and the kings-bench , are appointed for the tryal of causes of different natures , yet it is easie to bring most causes into any of them , as the council or attornies please ; so as he had drawn the business much after him , both into the common pleas , and the exchequer , it now followed him into the kings-bench , and many causes that were depending in the exchequer and not determined , were let fall there , and brought again before him in the court to which he was now removed . and here did he spend the rest of his publick life and imployment : but about four years and a half after this advancement , he who had hitherto enjoyed a firm and vigorous health , to which his great temperance , and the equality of his mind , did not a little conduce , was on a sudden brought very low by an inflammation in his midriff , which in two days time broke the constitution of his health to such a degree , that he never recovered it : he became so asthmatical , that with great difficulty he could fetch his breath , that determined in a dropsie , of which he afterwards died. he understood physick so well , that considering his age , he concluded his distemper must carry him off in a little time ; and therefore he resolved to have some of the last months of his life reserved to himself , that being freed of all worldly cares , he might be preparing for his change : he was also so much disabled in his body , that he could hardly , though supported by his servants , walk through westminster-hall , or endure the toile of business ; he had been a long time wearied with the distractions that his imployment had brought on him , and his profession was become ungrateful to him ; he loved to apply himself wholly to better purposes , as will appear by a paper that he writ on this subject , which i shall here insert . first , if i consider the business of my profession , whether as an advocate , or as a iudge , it is true i do acknowledge by the institution of almighty god , and the dispensation of his providence , i am bound to industry and fidelity in it : and as it is an act of obedience unto his will , it carries with it some things of religious duty , and i may and do take comfort in it , and expect a reward of my obedience to him , and the good that i do to mankind therein , from the bounty and beneficence and promise of almighty god ; and it is true also that without such imployments , civil societies cannot be supported , and great good redounds to mankind from them , and in these respects the conscience of my own industry , fidelity and integrity in them , is a great comfort and satisfaction to me . but yet this i must say concerning these imployments , considered simply in themselves , that they are very full of cares , anxieties and perturbations . secondly , that though they are beneficial to others , yet they are of the least benefit to him that is imployed in them . thirdly , that they do necessarily involve the party , whose office it is , in great dangers , difficulties , and calumnies . fourthly , that they only serve for the meridian of this life , which is short and uncertain . fifthly , that though it be my duty , faithfully to serve in them , while i am called to them , and till i am duly called from them , yet they are great consumers of that little time we have here , which as it seems to me , might be better spent in a pious contemplative life , and a due provision for eternity : i do not know a better temporal imployment than martha had , in testifying her love and duty to our saviour , by making provision for him , yet our lord tells her , that though she was troubled about many things , there was only one thing necessary , and mary had chosen the better part . by this the reader will see that he continued in his station upon no other consideration , but that being set in it by the providence of god , he judged he could not abandon that post which was assigned him , without preferring his own private inclination to the choice god had made for him ; but now that same providence having by this great distemper disengaged him from the obligation of holding a place , which he was no longer able to discharge , he resolved to resign it : this was no sooner surmised abroad , than it drew upon him the importunities of all his friends , and the clamour of the whole town to divert him from it , but all was to no purpose ; there was but one argument that could move him , which was , that he was obliged to continue in the imployment god had put him in for the good of the publick ; but to this he had such an answer , that even those who were most concerned in his withdrawing , could not but see , that the reasons inducing him to it , were but too strong ; so he made applications to his majesty for his writ of ease , which the king was very unwilling to grant him , and offered to let him hold his place still , he doing what business he could in his chamber ; but he said , he could not with a good conscience continue in it , since he was no longer able to discharge the duty belonging to it . but yet such was the general satisfaction which all the kingdom received by his excellent administration of justice , that the king , though he could not well deny his request , yet he deferred the granting of it as long as was possible : nor could the lord chancellor be prevailed with to move the king to hasten his discharge , though the cheif iustice often pressed him to it . at last having wearied himself , and all his friends , with his importunate desires , and growing sensibly weaker in body , he did upon the 21 th . day of february , 28. car. 2. anno dom. 1675 / 6. go before a master of the chancery , with a little parchment deed , drawn by himself , and written all with his own hand , and there sealed and delivered it , and acknowledged it to be enrolled , and afterwards he brought the original deed to the lord chancellor , and did formally surrender his office in these words . omnibus christi fidelibus ad quos praesens scriptura pervenerit , matheus hale , miles capitalis iusticiarius domini regis ad placita-coram ipso rege tenenda assignatas salu●em in domino sempiternam , noveritis me praefatum matheum hale , militem jam senem factum & variis corporis mei senilis morbis & infirmitatibus dire laborantem & adhuc detentum . hâc chartâ mea resignare & sursum reddere serenissimo domino nostro carolo secundo dei gratià angliae scotiae franciae & hiberniae , regi , fidei defensori , &c. predictum officium capitalis iusticiarii ad plac●ta coram ipso rege tenenda , humillime petens quod hoc scriptum irrotaletur de recordo . in cujus rei testimonium huic chartae meae resignationis sigillum meum apposui , dat vicesimo primo die februarii anno regnidict . dom. regis nunc vicesimo octavo . he made this instrument as he told the l. chancellor for two end● , the one was to shew the world his own free concurrence to his removal : another was to obviate an objection heretofore made , that a cheif iustice being placed by writ , was not removable at pleasure , as iudges by patent were ; which opinion , as he said , was once held by his predecessor the lord cheif iustice keyling , and though he himself were always of another opinion , yet he thought it reasonable to prevent such a scruple . he had the day before surrendered to the king in person , who parted from him with great grace , wishing him most heartily the return of his health , and assuring him that he would still look upon him as one of his iudges , and have recourse to his advice when his health would permit , and in the mean time would continue his pension during his life . the good man thought this bounty too great , and an ill precedent for the king , and therefore writ a letter to the lord treasurer , earnestly desiring that his pension might be only during pleasure , but the king would grant it for life , and make it payable quarterly . and yet for a whole month together , he would not suffer his servant to sue out his patent for his pension , and when the first payment was received , he ordered a great part of it to charitable uses , and said , he intended most of it should be so employed as long as it was paid him . at last he happened to die upon the quarter day , which was christmas day , and though this might have given some occasion to a dispute whither the pension for that quarter were recoverable , yet the king was pleased to decide that matter against himself , and ordered the pension to be paid to his executors . as soon as he was discharged from his great place , he returned home with as much chearfulness , as his want of health could admit of , being now eased of a burthen he had been of late groaning under , and so made more capable of enjoying that which he had much wished for , according to his elegant translation of , or rather paraphrase upon , those excellent lines in seneca's thyestes . act. 2. stet quicunque volet potens , aulae culmine lubrico : me dulcis saturet quies . obscuro positus loco , leni perfruar otio : nullis nota quiritibus , aetas per tacitum fluat . sic cum transierint mei , nullo cum strepitu dies , plebeius moriar senex . illi mors gravis incubat , qui notus nimis omnibus , ignotus moritur sibi . let him that will ascend , the t●ttering seat of courtly grandeur , and become as great as are his mounting wishes : as for me , let sweet repose and rest my portion be ; give me some mean obscure recess , a sphere out of the road of business , or the fear of falling lower ; where i sweetly may my self and dear retirement still enjoy : let not my life or name be known unto the grandees of the time , to'st too and fro by censures or applause ; but let my age slide gently by , not overthwart the stage of publick action , unheard , unseen , and unconcern'd , as if i near had been . and thus , while i shall pass my silent days in shady privacy , free from the noise and bustles of the mad world , then shall i a good old innocent plebeian die. death is a mere surprise , a very snare to him , that makes it his lifes greatest care to be a publick pageant , known to all , but unacquainted with himself , doth fall ▪ having now attained to that privacy , which he had no less seriously than piously wished for , he called all his servants that had belonged to his office together , and told them , he had now laid down his place , and so their imployments were determined ; upon that , he advised them to see for themselves , and gave to some of them very considerable presents , and to every one of them a token , and so dismissed all those that were not his domesticks : he was discharged the fifteenth of february , 1675 / 6 ; and lived till the christmas following , but all the while was in so ill a state of health , that there was no hopes of his recovery : he continued still to retire often , both for his devotions and studies , and as long as he could go , went constantly to his closse● , and when his infirmities encreased on him , so that he was not able to go thither himself , he made his servants carry him thither in a chair . at last , as the winter came on , he saw with great joy his deliverance approaching , for besides his being weary of the world , and his longings for the blessedness of another state , his pains encreased so on him , that no patience inferiour to his could have born them without a great uneasiness of mind ; yet he expressed to the last such submission to the will of god , and so equal a temper under them , that it was visible then what mighty effects his philosophy and christianity had on him , in supporting him under such a heavy load . he could not lie down in bed above a year before his death , by reason of the asthma , but sat , rather than lay in it . he was attended on in his sickness , by a pious and worthy divine mr. evan griffith , minister of the parish ; and it was observed that in all the extremities of his pain , when ever he prayed by him , he forbore all complaints or groans , but with his hands and eyes lifted up , was fixed in his devotions : not long before his death , the minister told him , there was to be a sacrament next sunday at church , but he believed he could not come and partake with the rest ; therefore he would give it to him in his own house : but he answered , no ; his heavenly father had prepared a feast for him , and he would go to his fathers house to partake of it : so he made himself be carried thither in his chair , where he received the sacrament on his knees , with great devotion , which it may be supposed was the greater , because he apprehended it was to be his last , and so took it as his viaticum and provision for his journey . he had some secret unaccountable presages of his death , for he said , that if he did not die on such a day , ( which fell to be the 25 th . of november ) he believed he should live a month longer , and he died that very day month. he continued to enjoy the free use of his reason and sence to the last moment , which he had often and earnestly prayed for during his sickness : and when his voice was so sunk that he could not be heard , they perceived by the almost constant lifting up of his eyes and hands , that he was still aspiring towards that blessed state , of which he was now speedily to be possessed . he had for many years a particular devotion for christmas day , and after he had received the sacrament , and been in the performance of the publick worship of that day , he commonly wrote a copy of verses on the honour of his saviour , as a fit expression of the joy he felt in his soul , at the return of that glorious anniversary . there are seventeen of those copies printed , which he writ on seventeen several christmas days , by which the world has a taste of his poetical genius , in which , if he had thought it worth his time to have excelled , he might have been eminent as well as in other things ; but he writ them rather to entertain himself , than to merit the lawrel . i shall here add one which has not been yet printed , and it is not unlikely it was the last he writ ; it is a paraphrase on simeon's song ; i take it from his blotted copy not at all finished , so the reader is to make allowance for any imperfection he may find in it . blessed creator , who before the birth of time , or e're the pillars of the earth were fix't or form'd , did'st lay that great design of man's redemption , and did'st define in thine eternal councels all the scene of that stupendious business , and when it should appear , and though the very day of its epiphany , concealed lay within thy mind , yet thou wert pleas'd to show some glimpses of it , unto men below , in visions , types , and prophesies , as we things at a distance in perspective see : but thou wert pleas'd to let thy servant know that that blest hour , that seem'd to move so slow through former ages , should at last attain its time , e're my few sands , that yet remain are spent ; and that these aged eyes should see the day , when jacob's star should rise . and now thou hast fulfill'd it , blessed lord dismiss me now , according to thy word ; and let my aged body now return to rest , and dust , and drop into an urn ; for i have liv'd enough ▪ mine eyes have seen thy much desired salvation , that hath been so long , so dearly wish'd , the ioy ; the hope of all the ancient patriarchs , the scope of all the prophesies , and mysteries , of all the types unvail'd , the histories of jewish church unridl'd , and the bright and orient sun arisen to give light to gentiles , and the joy of israel , the worlds redeemer , blest emanuel . let this sight close mine eyes , 't is loss to see , after this vision , any sight but thee . thus he used to sing on the former christmas-days , but now he was to be admitted to bear his part in the new songs above ; so that day which he had spent in so much spiritual joy , proved to be indeed the day of his jubilee and deliverance , for between two and three in the afternoon , he breathed out his righteous and pious soul. his end was peace , he had no struglings , nor seem'd to be in any pangs in his last moments . he was buried on the 4 th . of ianuary , mr. griffith preaching the funeral sermon , his text was the 57 of isa. 1 verse . the righteous perisheth , and no man layeth it to heart ; and merciful men are taken away , none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come . which how fitly it was applicable upon this occasion , all that consider the course of his life , will easily conclude . he was interred in the church-yard of alderly , among his ancestors ; he did not much approve of burying in churches , and used to say the churches were for the living , and the church-yards for the dead . his monument was like himself , decent and plain , the tomb-stone was black marble , and the sides were black and white marble , upon which he himself had ordered this bare and humble inscriptian to be made , hic inhumatur corpus matthei hale , militis ; roberti hale , et ioannae , uxoris ejus , filii unici . nati in hac parochia de alderly , primo die novembris , anno dom. 1609. denati vero ibidem vicesimo quinto die decembris , anno dom. 1676. aetatis suae , lxvii . having thus given an account of the most remarkable things of his life , i am now to present the reader with such a character of him , as the laying his several virtues together will amount to : in which i know how difficult a task i undertake , for to write defectively of him , were to injure him , and lessen the memory of one to whom i intend to do all the right that is in my power : on the other hand , there is so much here to be commended , and proposed for the imitation of others , that i am affraid some may imagin , i am rather making a picture of him , from an abstracted idea of great virtues , and perfections , than setting him out , as he truly was : but there is great encouragement in this , that i write concerning a man so fresh in all peoples remembrance , that is so lately dead , and was so much and so well known , that i shall have many vouchers , who will be ready to justifie me in all that i am to relate , and to add a great deal to what i can say . it has appeared in the account of his various learning , how great his capacities were , and how much they were improved by constant study : he rose always early in the morning , he loved to walk much abroad , not only for his health , but he thought it opened his mind , and enlarged his thoughts to have the creation of god before his eyes . when he set himself to any study , he used to cast his design in a scheme , which he did with a great exactness of method ; he took nothing on trust , but pursued his enquires as far as they could go , and as he was humble enough to confess his ignorance , and submit to mysteries which he could not comprehend , so he was not easily imposed on , by any shews of reason , or the bugbears of vulgar opinions : he brought all his knowledge as much to scientifical principles , as he possibly could , which made him neglect the study of tongues , for the bent of his mind lay another way . discoursing once of this to some , they said , they looked on the common law , as a study that could not be brought into a scheme , nor formed into a rational science , by reason of the indigestedness of it , and the multiplicity of the cases in it , which rendered it very heard to be understood , or reduced into a method ; but he said , he was not of their mind , and so quickly after , he drew with his own hand , a scheme of the whole order and parts of it , in a large sheet of paper , to the great satisfaction of those to whom he sent it . upon this hint , some pressed him to compile a body of the english law ; it could hardly ever be done by a man who knew it better , and would with more judgment and industry have put it into method ; but he said , as it was a great and noble design , which would be of vast advantage to the nation ; so it was too much for a private man to undertake : it was not to be entred upon , but by the command of a prince , and with the communicated endeavours of some of the most eminent of the profession . he had great vivacity in his fancy , as may appear by his inclination to poetry , and the lively illustrations , and many tender strains in his contemplations ; but he look't on eloquence and wit , as things to be used very chastly , in serious matters , which should come under a severer inquiry : therefore he was both , when at the bar , and on the bench , a great enemy to all eloquence or rhetorick in pleading : he said , if the iudge or iury had a right understanding , it signified nothing , but a waste of time , and loss of words ; and if they were weak , and easily wrought on , it was a more decent way of corrupting them , by bribing their fancies , and biassing their affections ; and wondered much at that affectation of the french lawyers in imitating the roman orators in their pleadings . for the oratory of the romans , was occasioned by their popular government , and the factions of the city , so that those who intended to excell in the pleading of causes , were trained up in the schools of the rhetors , till they became ready and expert in that luscious way of discourse . it is true , the composures of such a man as tully was , who mixed an extraordinary quickness , an exact judgement , and a just decorum with his skill in rhetorick , do still entertain the readers of them with great pleasure : but at the same time , it must be acknowledged , that there is not that chastity of style , that closeness of reasoning , nor that justness of figures in his orations , that is in his other writings ; so that a great deal was said by him , rather because he knew it would be acceptable to his auditors , than that it was approved of by himself ; and all who read them , will acknowledg , they are better pleased with them as essays of wit and style , than as pleadings , by which such a iudge as ours was , would not be much wrought on . and if there are such grounds to censure the performances of the greatest master in eloquence , we may easily infer what nauseous discourses the other orators made , since in oratory as well as in poetry , none can do indifferently . so our iudge wondred to find the french , that live under a monarchy , so fond of imitating that which was an ill effect of the popular government of rome : he therefore pleaded himself always in few words , and home to the point : and when he was a iudge , he held those that pleaded before him , to be the main hinge of the business , and cut them short when they made excursions about circumstances of no moment , by which he saved much time , and made the cheif difficulties be well stated and cleared . there was another custom among the romans , which he as much admired , as he despised their rhethorick , which was , that the iuris-consults were the men of the highest quality , who were bred to be capable of the cheif imployment in the state , and became the great masters of their law : these gave their opinions of all cases that were put to them freely , judging it below them to take any present for it ; and indeed they were only the true lawyers among them , whose resolutions were of that authority , that they made one classis of those materials out of which trebonian compiled the digests under iustinian ; for the orators or causidici that pleaded causes , knew little of the law , and only imployed their mercenary tongues , to work on the affections of the people and senate or the pretors : even in most of tullies orations there is little of law , and that little which they might sprinkle in their declamations , they had not from their own knowledg , but the resolution of some iuris-consult : according to that famous story of servius sulpitius , who was a celebrated orator , and being to receive the resolution of one of those that were learned in the law , was so ignorant , that he could not understand it ; upon which the iuris-consult reproached him , and said , it was a shame for him that was a nobleman , a senator , and a pleader of causes , to be thus ignorant of law : this touched him so sensibly , that he set about the study of it , and became one of the most eminent iuris-consults that ever were at rome . our iudge thought it might become the greatness of a prince , to encourage such a sort of men , and of studies ; in which , none in the age he lived in was equal to the great selden , who was truly in our english law , what the old roman iuris-consults were in theirs . but where a decent eloquence was allowable , iudge hale knew how to have excelled as much as any , either in illustrating his reasonings , by proper and well pursued similies , or by such tender expressions , as might work most on the affections , so that the present lord chancellor , has often said of him since his death , that he was the greatest orator he had known ; for though his words came not fluently from him , yet when they were out , they were the most significant , and expressive , that the matter could bear : of this sort there are many in his contemplations made to quicken his own devotion , which have a life in them becoming him that used them , and a softness fit to melt even the harshest tempers , accommodated to the gravity of the subject , and apt to excite warm thoughts in the readers , that as they shew his excellent temper that brought them out , and applied them to himself , so they are of great use to all , who would both inform and quicken their minds . of his illustrations of things by proper similies , i shall give a large instance out of his book of the origination of mankind , designed to expose the several different hypotheses the philosophers fell on , concerning the eternity and original of the universe , and to prefer the account given by moses , to all their conjectures ; in which , if my taste does not misguide me , the reader will find a rare and very agreeable mixture , both of fine wit , and solid learning and judgment . [ that which may illustrate my meaning , in this preference of the revealed light of the holy scriptures , touching this matter , above the essays of a philosophical imagination , may be this . suppose that greece being unacquainted with the curiosity of mechanical engins , though known in some remote region ofthe of the world , and that an excellent artist had secretly brought and deposited in some field or forest , some excellent watch or clock , which had been so formed , that the original of its motion were hidden , and involved in some close contrived piece of mechanism , that this watch was so framed , that the motion thereof might have lasted a year , or some such time as might give a reasonable period for their philosophical descanting concerning it , and that in the plain table there had been not only the discription and indication of hours , but the configurations and indications of the various phases of the moon , the motion and place of the sun in the ecliptick , and divers other curious indications of celestial motions , and that the scholars of the several schools , of epicurus , of aristotle , of plato , and the rest of those philosophical sects , had casually in their walk , found this admirable automaton ; what kind of work would there have been made by every sect , in giving an account of this phenomenon ? we should have had the epicurean sect , have told the by-standers according to their preconceived hypothesis , that this was nothing else but an accidental concretion of atoms , that happily fallen together had made up the index , the wheels , and the ballance , and that being happily fallen into this posture , they were put into motion . then the cartesian falls in with him , as to the main of their supposition , but tells him , that he doth not sufficiently explicate how the engin is put into motion , and therefore to furnish this motion , there is a certain materia subtilis that pervades this engin , and the moveable parts , consisting of certain globular atoms apt for motion , they are thereby , and by the mobility of the globular atoms put into motion . a third finding fault with the two former , because those motions are so regular , and do express the various phenomena of the distribution of time , and of the heavenly motions ; therefore it seems to him , that this engin and motion also , so analogical to the motions of the heavens , was wrought by some admirable conjunction of the heavenly bodies , which formed this instrument and its motions , in such an admirable correspondency to its own existence . a fourth , disliking the suppositions of the three former , tells the rest , that he hath a more plain and evident solution of the phenomenon , namely , the universal soul of the world , or spirit of nature , that formed so many sorts of insects with so many organs , faculties , and such congruity of their whole composition , and such curious and various motions as we may observe in them , hath formed and set into motion this admirable automaton , and regulated and ordered it , with all these congruities we see in it . then steps in an aristotelian , and being dissatisfied with all the former solutions , tells them , gentlemen , you are all mistaken , your solutions are inexplicable and unsatisfactory , you have taken up certain precarious hypotheses , and being prepossesed with these creatures of your own fancies , and in love with them , right or wrong , you form all your conceptions of things according to those fancied and preconceived imaginations . the short of the business is , this machina is eternal , and so are all the motions of it , and in as much as a circular motion hath no beginning or end , this motion that you see both in the wheels and index , and the successive indications of the celestial motions , is eternal , and without beginning . and this is a ready and expedite way of solving the phenomena , without so much ado as you have made about it . he took that extraordinary care to keep what he did secret , that this part of his character must be defective , except it be acknowledged that his humility in covering it , commends him much more than the highest expressions of devotion could have done . from the first time that the impressions of religion setled deeply in his mind , he used great caution to conceal it : not only in obedience to the rules given by our saviour , of fasting , praying , and giving alms in secret ; but from a particular distrust he had of himself , for he said he was affraid , he should at some time or other , do some enormous thing , which if he were look't on as a very religious man , might cast a reproach on the profession of it , and give great advantages to impious men , to blaspheme the name of god : but a tree is known by its fruits , and he lived not only free of blemishes , or scandall , but shined in all the parts of his conversation : and perhaps the distrust he was in of himself , contributed not a little to the purity of his life , for he being thereby obliged to be more watchful over himself , and to depend more on the aids of the spirit of god , no wonder if that humble temper produced those excellent effects in him . he had a soul enlarged and raised above that mean appetite of loving money , which is generally the root of all evil. he did not take the profits that he might have had by his practice : for in common cases , when those who came to ask his council gave him a piece , he used to give back the half , and so made ten shillings his fee , in ordinary matters that did not require much time or study : if he saw a cause was unjust , he for a great while would not meddle further in it , but to give his advice that it was so ; if the parties after that , would go on , they were to seek another councellor , for he would assist none in acts of injustice : if he found the cause doubtful or weak in point of law , he always advised his clients to agree their business : yet afterwards he abated much of the scrupulosity he had about causes that appeared at first view injust , upon this occasion : there were two causes brought to him , which by the ignorance of the party or their attorny , were so ill represented to him , that they seem'd to be very bad , but he enquiring more narrowly into them , found they were really very good and just ; so after this he slackned much of his former strictness , of refusing to meddle in causes upon the ill circumstances that appear'd in them at first . in his pleading he abhorred those too common faults of misreciting evidences , quoting presidents , or books falsly , or asserting things confidently ; by which ignorant juries , or weak judges , are too often wrought on . he pleaded with the same sincerity that he used in the other parts of his life , and used to say it was as great a dishonour as a man was capable of , that for a little money he was to be hired to say or do otherwise than as he thought : all this he ascribed to the unmeasurable desire of heaping up wealth , which corrupted the souls of some that seem'd to be otherwise born and made for great things . when he was a practitioner , differences were often referr'd to him , which he setled , but would accept of no reward for his pains , though offered by both parties together , after the agreement was made ; for he said in those cases he was made a iudge , and a iudge ought to take no money . if they told him , he lost much of his time in considering their business , and so ought to be acknowledged for it ; his answer was , ( as one that heard it told me , ) can i spend my time better , than to make people friends , must i have no time allowed me to do good in . he was naturally a quick man , yet by much practise on himself , he subdued that to such a degree , that he would never run suddenly into any conclusion concerning any matter of importance . festina lente was his beloved motto , which he ordered to be ingraven on the head of his staff , and was often heard say , that he had observed many witty men run into great errours , because they did not give themselves time to think , but the heat of imagination making some notions appear in good coolours to them , they without staying till that cooled , were violently led by the impulses it made on them , whereas calm and slow men , who pass for dull in the common estimation , could search after truth and find it out , as with more deliberation , so with greater certainty . he laid aside the tenth penny of all he got for the poor , and took great care to be well informed of proper objects for his charities ; and after he was a judge , many of the perquisites of his place , as his dividend of the rule and box-money , was sent by him to the jayls to discharge poor prisoners , who never knew from whose hands their releif came . it is also a custom for the marshall of the kings-bench , to present the judges of that court with a piece of plate for a new-years-gift , that for the cheif justice being larger than the rest : this he intended to have refused , but the other judges told him it belonged to his office , and the refusing it would be a prejudice to his successors , so he was perswaded to take it , but he sent word to the marshall , that instead of plate , he should bring him the value of it in money , and when he received it , he immediately sent it to the prisons , for the releif and discharge of the poor there . he usually invited his poor neighbours to dine with him , and made them sit at table with himself : and if any of them were sick , so that they could not come , he would send meat warm to them from his table : and he did not only releive the poor in his own parish , but sent supplies to the neighbouring parishes , as there was occasion for it : and he treated them all with the tenderness and familiarity that became one , who considered they were of the same nature with himself , and were reduced to no other necessities but such as he himself might be brought to : but for common beggars , if any of these came to him , as he was in his walks , when he lived in the country , he would ask such as were capable of working , why they went about so idly ; if they answered , it was because they could find no work , he often sent them to some field , to gather all the stones in it , and lay them on a heap , and then would pay them liberally for their pains : this being done , he used to send his carts , and caused them to be carried to such places of the high-way as needed mending . but when he was in town , he dealt his charities very liberally , even among the street-beggars , and when some told him , that he thereby incouraged idleness , and that most of these were notorious cheats , he used to answer , that he beleived most of them were such , but among them there were some that were great objects of charity , and prest with greivous necessities : and that he had rather give his alms to twenty who might be perhaps rogues , than that one of the other sort , should perish for want of that small releif which he gave them . he loved building much , which he affected cheifly because it imployed many poor people ; but one thing was observed in all his buildings , that the changes he made in his houses , was always from magnificence to usefulness , for he avoided every thing that looked like pomp or vanity , even in the walls of his houses ; he had good judgement in architecture , and an excellent faculty in contriving well . he was a gentle landlord to all his tenants , and was ever ready upon any reasonable complaints , to make abatements , for he was merciful as well as righteous . one instance of this was , of a widow that lived in london , and had a small estate near his house in the country ; from which her rents were ill returned to her , and at a cost which she could not well bear : so she bemoaned her self to him , and he according to his readiness to assist all poor people , told her , he would order his steward to take up her rents , and the returning them should cost her nothing . but after that , when there was a falling of rents in that country , so that it was necessary to make abatements to the tenant ; yet he would have it to lie on himself , and made the widow be paid her rent as formerly . another remarkable instance of his iustice and goodness was , that when he found ill money had been put into his hands , he would never suffer it to be vented again ; for he thought it was no excuse for him to put false money in other peoples hands , because some had put it in his : a great heap of this he had gathered together , for many had so far abused his goodness , as to mix base money among the fees that were given him : it is like he intended to have destroyed it , but some thieves who had observed it , broke into his chamber and stole it , thinking they had got a prize ; which he used to tell with some pleasure , imagining how they found themselves deceived , when they perceived what sort of booty they had fall'n on . after he was made a iudge , he would needs pay more for every purchase he made than it was worth ; if it had been but a horse he was to buy , he would have out-bid the price : and when some represented to him , that he made ill bargains , he said ; it became iudges to pay more for what they bought , than the true value ; that so those with whom they dealt , might not think they had any right to their favour , by having sold such things to them at an easie rate : and said it was sutable to the reputation , which a iudge ought to preserve , to make such bargains , that the world might see they were not too well used upon some secret account . in sum , his estate did shew how little he had minded the raising a great fortue , for from a hundred pound a year , he raised it not quite to nine hundred , and of this a very confiderable part came in by his share of mr. selden's estate ; yet this , considering his great practice while a counsellour , and his constant , frugal , and modest way of living , was but small a fortune : in the share that fell to him by mr. selden's will , one memorable thing was done by him , with the other executors , by which they both shewed their regard to their dead friend , and their love of the publick ; his library was valued at some thousands of pounds , and was believed to be one of the curiousest collections in europe : so they resolved to keep this intire , for the honour of selden's memory , and gave it to the university of oxford , where a noble room was added to the former library for its reception , and all due respects have been since shewed by that great and learned body , to those their worthy benefactors , who not only parted so generously with this great treasure , but were a little put to it how to oblige them , without crossing the will of their dead friend . mr. selden had once intended to give his library to that university , and had left it so by his will ; but having occasion for a manuscript , which belonged to their library , they asked of him a bond of a thousand pound for its restitution ; this he took so ill at their hands , that he struck out that part of his will by which he had given them his library , and with some passion declared they should never have it : the executors stuck at this a little , but having considered better of it , came to this resolution ; that they were to be the executors of mr. selden's will , and not of his passion ; so they made good what he had intended in cold blood , and past over what his passion had suggested to him . the parting with so many excellent books , would have been as uneasie to our iudge , as any thing of that nature could be , if a pious regard to his friends memory had not prevailed over him ; for he valued books and manuscripts above all things in the world : he himself had made a great and rare collection of manuscripts belonging to the law of england ; he was forty years in gathering it : he himself said it cost him about fifteen hundred pounds , and calls it in his will , a treasure worth having and keeping , and not fit for every mans view ; these all he left to lincoln's inn , and for the information of those who are curious to search into such things ; there shall be a catalogue of them added at the end of this book . by all these instances it does appear , how much he was raised above the world , or the love of it . but having thus mastered things without him , his next study was to overcome his own inclinations : he was as he said himself naturally passionate ; i add , as he said himself , for that appeared by no other evidence , save that sometimes his colour would rise a little ; but he so governed himself , that those who lived long about him , have told me they never saw him disordered with anger , though he met with some tryals , that the nature of man is as little able to bear , as any whatsoever . there was one who did him a great injury , which it is not ncecssary to mention , who coming afterwards to him for his advice in the settlement of his estate , he gave it very frankly to him , but would accept of no fee for it , and thereby shewed both that he could forgive as a christian , and that he had the soul of a gentleman in him , not to take money of one that had wronged him so heinously . and when he was asked by one , how he could use a man so kindly , that had wronged him so much , his answer was , he thanked god he had learned to forget injuries . and besides the great temper he expressed in all his publick imployments , in his family he was a very gentle master : he was tender of all his servants , he never turned any away , except they were so faulty , that there was no hope of reclaiming them : when any of them had been long out of the way , or had neglected any part of their duty ; he would not see them at their first coming home , and sometimes not till the next day , least when his displeasure was quick upon him , he might have chid them indecently ; and when he did reprove them , he did it with that sweetness and gravity , that it appeared he was more concerned for their having done a fault , than for the offence given by it to himself : but if they became immoral or unruly , then he turned them away , for he said , he that by his place ought to punish disorders in other people , must by no means suffer them in his own house : he advanced his servants according to the time they had been about him , and would never give occasion to envy among them , by raising the younger clerks above those who had been longer with him . he treated them all with great affection , rather as a friend , than a master , giving them often good advice and instruction . he made those who had good places under him , give some of their profits to the other servants who had nothing but their wages : when he made his will , he left legacies to every one of them ▪ but he expressed a more particular kindness for one of them robert gibbon , of the middle temple , esq in whom he had that confidence , that he left him one of his executors . i the rather mention him , because of his noble gratitude to his worthy benefactor and master , for he has been so careful to preserve his memory , that as he set those on me , at whose desire i undertook to write his life ; so he has procured for me a great part of those memorials , and informations , out of which i have composed it . the iudge was of a most tender and compassionate nature ; this did eminently appear in his trying and giving sentence upon criminals , in which he was strictly careful , that not a circumstance should be neglected , which might any way clear the fact : he behaved himself with that regard to the prisoners , which became both the gravity of a iudge , and the pity that was due to men , whose lives lay at stake , so that nothing of jearing or unreasonable severity ever fell from him . he also examined the witnesses in the softest manner , taking care that they should be put under no confusion , which might disorder their memory : and he summed all the evidence so equally when he charged the jury , that the criminals themselves never complained of him . when it came to him to give sentence , he did it with that composedness and decency , and his speeches to the prisoners , directing them to prepare for death , were so weighty , so free of all affectation , and so serious and devout , that many loved to go to the tryals , when he sate iudg , to be edified by his speeches , and behaviour in them , and used to say , they heard very few such sermons . but though the pronouncing the sentence of death , was the peece of his imployment , that went most against the grain with him ; yet in that , he could never be molified to any tenderness which hindred justice . when he was once pressed to recommend some ( whom he had condemned ) to his majesties mercy and pardon ; he answered he could not think they deserved a pardon , whom he himself had adjudged to die : so that all he would do in that kind , was to give the king a true account of the circumstances of the fact , after which , his majesty was to consider whether he would interpose his mercy , or let justice take place . his mercifulness extended even to his beasts , for when the horses that he had kept long , grew old , he would not suffer them to be sold , or much wrought , but ordered his men to turn them loose on his grounds , and put them only to easie work , such as going to market and the like ; he used old dogs also with the same care : his shepherd having one that was become blind with age , he intended to have killed or lost him , but the iudge coming to hear of it , made one of his servants bring him home and fed him till he died : and he was scarce ever seen more angry than with one of his servants for neglecting a bird , that he kept , so that it died for want of food . he was a great incourager of all young persons , that he saw followed their books diligently , to whom he used to give directions concerning the method of their study , with a humanity and sweetness , that wrought much on all that came near him : and in a smiling pleasant way , he would admonish them , if he saw any thing amiss in them : particularly if they went too fine in their clothes , he would tell them , it did not become their profession : he was not pleased to see students wear long perriwigs , or attorneys go with swords ; so that such young men as would not be perswaded to part with those vanities , when they went to him laid them aside , and went as plain as they could , to avoid the reproof which they knew they might otherwise expect . he was very free and communicative in his discourse , which he most commonly fixed on some good and useful subject , and loved for an hour or two at night , to be visited by some of his friends . he neither said nor did any thing with affectation , but used a simplicity , that was both natural to himself , and very easie to others : and though he never studied the modes of civility or court breeding , yet he knew not what it was to be rude or harsh with any , except he were impertinently addressed to in matters of justice , then he would raise his voice a little , and so shake off those importunities . in his furniture , and the service of his table , and way of living ; he liked the old plainness so well , that as he would set up none of the new fashions , so he rather affected a courseness in the use of the old ones : which was more the effect of his philosophy than disposition , for he loved fine things too much at first : he was always of an equal temper , rather chearful than merry . many wondered to see the evenness of his deportment , in some very sad passages of his life . having lost one of his sons , the manner of whose death had some grievous circumstances in it ; one coming to see him and condole , he said to him , those were the effects of living long , such must look to see many sad and unacceptable things ; and having said that , he went to other discourses , with his ordinary freedom of mind ; for though he had a temper so tender , that sad things were apt enough to make deep impressions upon him , yet the regard he had to the wisdome and providence of god , and the just estimate he made of all eternal things , did to admiration maintain the tranquility of his mind , and he gave no occasion by idleness to melancholly to corrupt his spirit , but by the perpetual bent of his thoughts , he knew well how to divert them from being oppressed with the excesses of sorrow . he had a generous and noble idea of god in his mind , and this he found did above all other considerations preserve his quiet . and indeed that was so well established in him , that no accidents , how sudden soever , were observed to discompose him : of which an eminent man of that profession , gave me this instance : in the year 1666 , an opinion did run through the nation , that the end of the world would come that year . this , whether set on by astrologers , or advanced by those who thought it might have some relation to the number of the beast in the revelation , or promoted by men of ill designs , to disturb the publick peace , had spread mightily among the people ; and iudge hale going that year the western circuit , it happened , that as he was on the bench at the assises , a most terrible storm fell out very unexpectedly , accompanied with such flashes of lightning , and claps of thunder , that the like will hardly fall out in an age ; upon which a whisper or a rumour run through the crowd , that now was the world to end , and the day of iudgment to begin , and at this there followed a general consternation in the whole assembly , and all men forgot the business they were met about , and betook themselves to their prayers : this added to the horror raised by the storm looked very dismally ; in so much that my author , a man of no ordinary resolution , and firmenss of mind , confessed it made a great impression on himself . but he told me , that he did observe the iudge was not a whit affected , and was going on with the business of the court in his ordinary manner ; from which he made this conclusion , that his thoughts were so well fixed , that he believed if the world had been really to end , it would have given him no considerable disturbance . but i shall now conclude all that i shall say concerning him , with what one of the greatest men of the profession of the law , sent me as an abstract of the character he had made of him , upon long observation , and much converse with him : it was sent me , that from thence with the other materials , i might make such a representation of him to the world , as he indeed deserved , but i resolved not to shred it out in parcels , but to set it down entirely as it was sent me , hoping that as the reader will be much delighted with it , so the noble person that sent it , will not be offended with me for keeping it entire , and setting it in the best light i could ; it begins abruptly , being designed to supply the defects of others , from whom i had dearlier and more copious informations . he would never be brought to discourse of publick matters in private conversation , but in questions of law , when any young lawyer put a case to him he was very communicative , especially while he was at the bar : but when he came to the bench , he grew more reserv'd , and would never suffer his opinion in any case to be known , till he was obliged to declare it iudicially ; and he concealed his opinion in great cases so carefully , that the rest of the iudges in the same court could never perceive it : his reason was , because every judge ought to give sentence according to his own perswasion and conscience , and not to be sway'd by any respect or deference to another mans opinion : and by this means it hath happened some times , that when all the barons of the exchequer had delivered their opinions , and agreed in their reasons and arguments ; yet he coming to speak last , and differing in iudgment from them , hath exprest himself with so much weight and solidity , that the barons have immediately retracted their votes and concurr'd-with him . he hath sat as a iudge in all the courts of law , and in two of them as cheif , but still where-ever he sat , all business of consequence followed him , and no man was content to sit down by the iudgment of any other court , till the case were brought before him , to see whether he were of the same mind ; and his opinion being once known , men did readily acquiesce in it ; and it was very rarely seen , that any man attempted to bring it about again , and he that did so , did it upon great disadvantages , and was always lookt upon as a very contentious person ; so that what cicero says of brutus , did very often happen to him , etiam quos contra statuit aequos placatosque dimisit . nor did men reverence his iudgment and opinion in courts of law only : but his authority was as great in courts of equity , and the same respect and submission was paid to him there too ; and this appeared not only in his own court of equity in the exchequer chamber , but in the chancery too , for thither he was often called to advise and assist the lord chancellor , or lord keeper for the time being ; and if the cause were of difficult examination , or intricated and entangled with variety of settlements , no man ever shewed a more clear and discerning iudgment : if it were of great value , and great persons interested in it , no man ever shewed greater courage and integrity in laying aside all respect of persons : when he came to deliver his opinion , he always put his discourse into such a method , that one part of it gave light to the other , and where the proceedings of chancery might prove inconvenient to the subject , he never spared to observe and reprove them : and from his observations and discourses , the chancery hath taken occasion to establish many of those rules by which it governs it self at this day . he did look upon equity as a part of the common-law , and one of the grounds of it ; and therefore as near as he could , he did always reduce it to certain rules and principles , that men might study it as a science , and not think the administration of it had any thing arbitrary in it . thus eminent was this man in every station , and into what court soever he was call'd , he quickly made it appear , that he deserved the cheif seat there . as great a lawyer as he was , he would never suffer the strictness of law to prevail against conscience , as great a chancellor as he was , he would make use of all the niceties and subtilties in law , when it tended to support right and equity . but nothing was more admirable in him , than his patience : he did not affect the reputation of quickness and dispatch , by a hasty and captious hearing of the councell : he would bear with the meanest , and gave every man his full scope , thinking it much better to lose time than patience : in summing up of an evidence to a iury , he would always require the barre to interrupt him if he did mistake , and to put him in mind of it , if he did forget the least circumstance ; some iudges have been disturbed at this as a rudeness , which he always looked upon as a service and respect done to him . his whole life was nothing else but a continual course of labour and industry , and when he could borrow any time from the publick service , it was wholly employed either in philosophical or divine meditations , and even that was a publick service too as it hath proved ; for they have occasioned his writing of such treatises , as are become the choicest entertainment of wise and good men , and the world hath reason to wish that more of them were printed : he that considers the active part of his life , and with what unwearied diligence and application of mind , he dispatched all mens business which came under his care , will wonder how he could find any time for contemplation : he that considers again the various studies he past through , and the many collections and observations he hath made , may as justly wonder how he could find any time for action : but no man can wonder at the exemplary piety and innocence of such a life so spent as this was , wherein as he was careful to avoid every idle word , so 't is manifest he never spent an idle day . they who come far short of this great man , will be apt enough to think that this is a panegyrick , which indeed is a history , and but a little part of that history which was 〈◊〉 great truth to be related of hi● ▪ men who despair of attaining such perfection , are not willing to believe that any man else did ever arrive at such a height . he was the greatest lawyer of the age , and might have had what practice he pleased , but though he did most conscientiously affect the labours of his profession , yet at the same time , he despised the gain of it , and of those profits which he would allow himself to receive , he always set apart a tenth penny for the poor , which he ever dispensed with that secrecy , that they who were relieved , seldom or never knew their benefactor : he took more pains to avoid the honours and preferments of the gown , than others do to compass them . his modesty was beyond all example , for where some men who never attained to half his knowledge , have been pufft up with a high conceit of themselves , and have affected all occasions of raising their own esteem by depreciating other men ; he on the contrary was the most obliging man that ever practised : if a young gentleman happened to be retain'd to argue a point in law , where he was on the contrary side , he would very often mend the objections when he came to repeat them , and always commend the gentleman if there were room for it , and one good word of his was of more advantage to a young man , than all the favour of the court could be . having thus far pursued his history and character , in the publick and exemplary parts of his life , without interrupting the thread of the relation , with what was private and domestick , i shall conclude with a short account of these . he was twice married , his first wife was anne daughter of sir henry moore , of faly in berkshire , grandchild to sir francis moore , serjeant at law ; by her he had ten children , the four first died young , the other six lived to be all married ; and he out lived them all , except his eldest daughter , and his youngest son , who are yet alive . his eldest son robert married frances the daughter of sir francis chock , of avington in berkshire , and they both dying in a little time one after another left five children , two sons matthew and gabriel , and three daughters , anne , mary , and frances , and by the iudges advice , they both made him their executor , so he took his grandchildren into his own care , and among them he left his estate . his second son matthew , married anne the daughter of mr. matthew simmonds , of hilsley , in glocestershire , who dyed soon after , and left one son behind him named matthew . his third son thomas , married rebekah the daughter of christian le brune , a dutch merchant , and died without issue . his fourth son edward , married mary , the daughter of edmund goodyere , esq of heythorp , in oxfordshire , and still lives , he has two sons , and three daughters . his eldest daughter mary , was married to edward alderly , son of edward alderly , of innishannon , in the county of cork in ireland , who dying , left her with two sons , and three daughters ; she is since married to edward stephens , son to edward stephens , esq of cherington in glocestershire . his youngest daughter elizabeth , was married to edward webb , esq barrister at law , she died , leaving two children , a son and a daughter . his second wife was anne , the daughter of mr. ioseph bishop , of ealy in berkshire , by whom he had no children ; he gives her a great character in his will , as a most dutiful , faithful , and loving wife , and therefore trusted the breeding of his grand-children to her care , and left her one of his executors , to whom he joyned sir robert ienkinson , and mr. gibbon . so much may suffice of those descended from him . in after times , it is not to be doubted , but it will be reckoned no small honour to derive from him ; and this has made me more particular in reckoning up his issue , i shall next give an account of the issues of his mind , his books , that are either printed , or remain in manuscript ; for the last of these by his will , he has forbid the printing of any of them after his death , except such as he should give order for in his life : but he seems to have changed his mind afterwards , and to have left it to the descretion of his executors , which of them might be printed ; for though he does not express that , yet he ordered by a codicill , that if any book of his writing , as well touching the common law , as other subjects ; should be printed ; then what should be given for the consideration of the copy , should be divided into ten shares , of which he appointed seven to go among his servants , and three to those who had copied them out , and were to look after the impression . the reason , as i have understood it , that made him so unwilling to have any of his works printed after his death , was ; that he apprehended in the licensing them , ( which was necessary before any book could be lawfully printed , by a law then in force , but since his death determined ) some things might have been struck out or altered ; which he had observed not without some indignation , had been done to a part of the reports , of one whom he had much esteemed . this in matters of law , he said , might prove to be of such mischievous consequence , that he thereupon resolved none of his writings , should be at the mercy of licensers ; and therefore because he was not sure , that they should be published without expurgations or interpolations , he forbid the printing any of them ; in which he afterwards made some alteration , at least he gave occasion by his codicill , to infer that he altered his mind . this i have the more fully explained , that his last will may be no way misunderstood , and that his worthy executors , and his hopeful grand-children , may not conclude themselves to be under an indispensible obligation , of depriving the publick of his excellent writings . a catalogue of all his books that are printed , and are to be sold by william shrowsbury at the sign of the bible in duke-lane . 1. the primitive origination of mankind , considered and examined according to the light of nature . fol. 2. contemplations moral and divine , part 1. octavo . 3. contemplations moral and divine , part 2. octavo . 4. difficiles nugae , or observations touching the torricellian experiment , and the various solutions of the same , especially touching the weight and elasticity of the air. octavo . 5. an essay touching the gravitation , or non-gravitation of fluid bodies , and the reasons thereof . octavo . 6. observations touching the principles of natural motions , and especially touching rarefaction , and condensation ; together with a reply to certain remarks , touching the gravitation of fluids . octavo . 7. the life and death of pomponius atticus , written by his contemporary and acquaintance cornelius nepos , translated out of his fragments ; together with observations , political and moral thereupon . octavo . 8. pleas of the crown , or a methodical summary of the principal matters relating to that subject . octavo . manuscripts of his not yet published . 1. concerning the secondary origination of mankind . fol. 2. concerning religion , 5 vol. in fol. viz. 1. de deo , vox metaphysica , pars . 1. & 2. 2. pars 3. vox naturae , providentiae , ethicae , conscientiae . 3. liber sextus , septimus , octavus . 4. pars 9. concerning the h. scriptures , their evidence and authority . 5. concerning the truth of the h. scripture , and the evidences thereof . 3. of policy in matters of religion . fol. 4. de anima , to mr. b. fol. 5. de anima , transactions between him and mr. b. fol. 6. tentamina , de ortu , natura & immortalitate animae . fol. 7. magnetismus magneticus , fol. 8. magnetismus physicus , fol. 9. magnetismus divinus . 10. de generatione animalium & vegetabilium , fol. lat. 11. of the law of nature , fol. 12. a letter of advice to his grand-children . quarto . 13. placita coronae , 7 vol. fol. 14. preparatory notes concerning the right of the crown , fol ▪ 15. incepta de iuribus coronae , fol. 16. de prerogativa regis , fol. 17. preparatory notes touching parliamentary proceedings , 2 vol. quarto . 18. of the iurisdiction of the house of lords , quarto . 19. of the iurisdiction of the admiralty . 20. touching ports and customs , fol. 21. of the right of the sea and the armes thereof , and customs , fol. 22. concerning the advancement of trade , quarto . 23. of sheriffs accounts , fol. 24. copies of evidences , fol. 25. mr. seldens discourses , octa. 16. excerpta ex schedis seldenianis . 27. iournal of the 18 and 21 iacobi regis , quarto . 28. great common place book of reports or cases in the law , in law french , fol. in bundles . on quod tibi fieri , &c. matth. 7.12 . touching punishments , in relation to the socinian controversy . policies of the church of rome . concerning the laws of england . of the amendment of the laws of england . touching provision for the poor . upon mr. hobbs his manuscript . concerning the time of the abolition of the iewish laws . in quarto . quod sit deus . of the state and condition of the soul and body after death . notes concerning matters of law. to these i shall add the catalogue of the manuscripts , which he left to the honourable society of lincolns-inn , with that part of his will that concerns them . item , as a testimony of my honour and respect to the society of lincolns-inn , where i had the greatest part of my education ; i give and bequeath to that honorable society the several manuscript books , contained in a schedule annexed to my will : they are a treasure worth having and keeping , which i have been near forty years in gathering , with very great industry and expence : my desire is , that they bekept safe , and all together , in remembrance of me ; they were fit to be bound in leather and chained , and kept in archives : i desire they may not be lent out , or disposed of : only if i happen hereafter , to have any of my posterity of that society , that desires to transcribe any book , and give very good caution to restore it again in a prefixed time , such as the benchers of that society in councill shall approve of ; then , and not otherwise , only one book at one time may be lent out to them by the society ; so that there be no more but one book of those books abroad out of the library at one time . they are a treasure that are not fit for every mans view ; nor is every man capable of making use of them : only i would have nothing of these books printed , but intirely preserved together , for the use of the industrious learned members of that society . a catalogue of the books given by him to lincolns-inn , according to the schedule annexed to his will. placita de tempore regis iohannis , 1 vol. stitcht . placita coram rege e. 1. two vol. placita coram rege e. 2 , one vol. placita coram rege e. 3 , three vol. placita coram rege r. 2 , one vol. placita coram rege h. 4. h. 5. one vol. placita de banco , e. 1. ab anno 1 , ad annum 21. one vol. transcripts of many pleas , coram rege & de banco e. 1. one vol. the pleas in the exchequer , stiled communia , from 1 e. 3. to 46 e. 3 , five vol. close rolls of king iohn , verbatim , of the most material things , one vol. the principal matters in the close and patent rolls , of h. 3. transcribed verbatim , from 9 h. 3. to 56 h. 3. five vol. velome marked k. l. the principal matters in the close and patent rolls , e. 1. with several copies and abstracts of records , one vol. marked f. a long book of abstracts of records , by me . close and patent rolls , from 1 to 10 e. 3 , and other records of the time of h. 3 , one vol. marked w. close rolls of 15 e. 3. with other records , one vol , marked n. close rolls from 17 to 38 e. 3. two vol. close and patent rolls from 40 e. 3. to 50 e. 3. one vol. marked b. close rolls of e. 2. with other records , one vol. r. close and patent rolls , and charter rolls in the time of king iohn for the clergy , one vol. a great volum of records of several natures , g. the leagues of the kings of england , tempore e. 1. e. 2. e. 3. one vol. a book of ancient leagues and military provisions , one vol. the reports of iters , of derby , nottingham and bedford , transcribed , one vol. itinera forest de pickering & lancaster , transcript ex originali , one vol. an ancient reading , very large upon charta de foresta , and of the forest laws . the transcript of the ite● foresta de dean , 1 vol. quo warranto and liberties of the county of glocester , with the pleas of the chace of kingswood , one vol. transcript of the black book of the admiralty , laws of the army , impositions and several honours , one vol. records of patents , inquisitions , &c. of the county of leicester , one vol. muster and military provisions of all sorts , extracted from the records , one vol. gervasius tilburiensis , or the black book of the exchequer , one vol. the kings title to the pre-emption of tin , a thin vol. calender of the records in the tower , a small vol. a miscellany of divers records , orders , and other things of various natures , marked e. 1 vol. another of the like nature in leather cover , 1 vol. a book of divers records and things relating to the chancery , one vol. titles of honour and pedigrees , especially touching clifford , one vol. history of the marches of wales collected by me , 1 vol. certain collections touching titles of honour , one vol. copies of several records touching premunire , 1 vol. extract of commissions tempore , h. 7. h. 8. r. and the proceedings in the court military , between ray and ramsey , one vol. petitions in parliament tempore , e. 1. e. 2. e. 3. h. 4. three vol. summons of parliament , from 49 h. 3. to 22 e. 4. in three vol. the parliament rolls from the beginning of e. 1. to the end of r. 3. in 19 volums , viz. one of e. 1. one of e. 2. with the ordinations . two of e. 3. three of r. 2. two of h. 4. two of h. 5. four of h. 6. three of e. 4. one of r. 3. all transcribed at large . mr. elsings book touching proceedings in parliament , 1 vol. noye's collection touching the kings supplies , 1 vol ▪ stitcht . a book of various collections out of records and register of canterbury , and claymes at the coronation of r. 2. one vol. transcript of bishop ushers notes , principally concerning chronology , three large vol. a transcript out of dooms-day-book of glocester-shire and hereford-shire , and of some pipe-rolls , and old accompts of the customs , one vol. extracts and collections out of records touching titles of honour , one vol. extracts of pleas , patents and close-rolls , tempore h. 3. e. 1. e. 2. e. 3. and some old antiquities of england , one vol. collections and memorials of many records and antiquities , one vol. seldeni . calender of charters , and records in the tower , touching gloucester-shire . collection of notes and records of various natures , marked m. one vol. seldeni . transcript of the iters of london , kent , cornwall , one vol. extracts out of the leiger-books of battell , evesham , winton , &c. one vol. seldeni . copies of the principal records in the red-book , in the exchequer . one vol. extracts of records and treaties , relating to sea-affairs . one vol. records touching customs , ports , partition of the lands of gil. de clare , &c. extract of pleas in the time of r. 1. king iohn , e. 1. &c. one vol. cartae antiquae in the tower , transcribed , in 2 vol. chronological remembrances , extracted out of the notes of bishop usher . one volume stitched . inquisitiones de legibus walliae . one vol. collections or records touching knighthood . titles of honour . seldeni . 1 vol. mathematicks and fortifications . one vol. processus curiae militaris . one vol. a book of honour stitched . one vol. extracts out of the registry of canterbury . copies of several records touching proceedings in the military court. one vol. abstracts of summons and rolls of parliament , out of the book dunelm . and some records alphabetically digested . one vol. abstracts of divers records in the office of first fruits . one vol. stitched . mathematical and astrological calculations . 1 vol. a book of divinity . two large repositories of records , marked a. and b. [ all those above are in folio . ] the proceedings of the forrests of windsor , dean , and essex , in quarto . one vol. [ those that follow , are most of them in velome or parchment . ] two books of old statutes , one ending , h. 7. the other , 2 h. 5. with the sums . two vol. five last years of e. 2. one vol. reports tempore , e. 2. one vol. the year book of r. 2. and some others . one vol. an old chronicle from the creation to e 3. one vol. a mathematical book , especially of optiques . one vol. a dutch book of geometry , and fortification . murti benevenlani geometrica . one vol. reports tempore e. 1. under titles . one vol. an old register , and some pleas ▪ 1 vol. bernardi bratrack peregrinatio . one vol. iter cantii and london , and some reports , tempore e. 2. one vol. reports , tempore , e. 1. & e. 2. one vol. leiger book , abbatiae de bello . isidori opera . liber altercationis , & christianae philosophiae , contra paganos . historia petri manducatorii . hornii astronomica . historia ecclesiae dunelmensis . holandi chymica . de alchymiae scriptoribus . the black-book of the new-law , collected by me , and digested into alphabetical titles , written with my own hand , which is the original coppy . matthew hale . the conclusion . thus lived and died sir matthew hale , the renouned lord cheif justice of england : he had one of the blessings of virtue in the highest measure of any of the age , that does not always follow it , which was , that he was universally much valued and admired by men of all sides and perswasions . for as none could hate him but for his iustice and virtues , so the great estimation he was generally in , made , that few durst undertake to defend so ingrateful a paradox , as any thing said to lessen him would have appeared to be . his name is scarce ever mentioned since his death , without particular accents of singular respect . his opinion in points of law generally passes as an uncontroulable authority , and is often pleaded in all the courts of justice : and all that knew him well , do still speak of him as one of the perfectest patterns of religion and virtue they ever saw . the commendations given him by all sorts of people are such , that i can hardly come under the censures of this age , for any thing i have said concerning him ; yet if this book lives to after-times , it will be looked on perhaps as a picture , drawn more according to fancy and invention , than after the life ; if it were not that those who knew him well , establishing its credit in the present age , will make it pass down to the next with a clearer authority . i shall pursue his praise no further in my own words , but shall add what the present lord chancellor of england said concerning him , when he delivered the commission to the lord chief iustice rainsford , who succeeded him in that office , which he began in this manner . the vacancy of the seat of the chief iustice of this court , and that by a way and means so unusual , as the resignation of him , that lately held it , and this too proceeding from so deploreable a cause , as the infirmity of that body , which began to forsake the ablest mind that ever presided here , hath filled the kingdom with lamentations , and given the king many and pensive thoughts , how to supply that vacancy again . and a little after speaking to his successor , he said , the very labours of the place , and that weight and fatigue of business which attends it , are no small discouragements ; for what shoulders may not justly fear that burthen which made him stoop that went before you ? yet i confess you have a greater discouragement than the meer burthen of your place , and that is the unimitable example of your last predecessor : onerosum est succedere bono principi , was the saying of him in the panegyrick ; and you will find it so too that are to succeed such a chief iustice , of so indefatigable an industry , so invincible a patience , so exemplary an integrity , and so magnanimous a contempt of worldly things , without which no man can be truly great ; and to all this a man that was so absolute a master of the science of the law , and even of the most abstruce and hidden parts of it , that one may truly say of his knowledge in the law , what st. austin said of st. hieroms knowledge in divinity , quod hieronimus nescivit , nullus mortalium unquam scivit . and therefore the king would not suffer himself to part with so great a man , till he had placed upon him all the marks of b●unty and esteem , which his retired and weak condition was capable of . to this high character , in which the expressions , as they well become the eloquence of him who pronounced them , so they do agree exactly to the subject , without the abatements that are often to be made for rhetorick ; i shall add that part of the lord chief justices answer , in which he speaks of his predecessor . — a person in whom his eminent virtues , and deep learning , have long managed a contest for the superiority , which is not decided to this day , nor will it ever be determined i suppose , which shall get the upper hand . a person that has sat in this court these many years , of whose actions there i have been an eye and ear witness , that by the greatness of his learning always charmed his auditors to reverence and attention : a person of whom i think i may boldly say , that as former times cannot shew any superiour to him , so i am confident succeeding and future time will never shew any equal : these considerations heightned by what i have heard from your lordship concerning him , made me anxious and doubtful , and put me to a stand , how i should succeed so able , so good , and so great a man : it doth very much trouble me , that i who in comparison of him am but like a candle lighted in the sun-shine , or like a glow-worm at mid-day , should succeed so great a person , that is and will be so eminently famous to all posterity : and i must ever wear this motto in my breast to comfort me , and in my actions to excuse me , sequitur , quamvis non passibus aequis . thus were panegyricks made upon him while yet alive , in that same court of justice which he had so worthily governed . as he was honoured while he lived , so he was much lamented when he died : and this will still be acknowledged as a just inscription for his memory , though his modesty forbid any such to be put on his tomb-stone . that he was one of the greatest patterns this age has afforded , whether in his private deportment as a christian , or in his publick employments , either at the bar or on the bench . finis . the infallibility of the church of rome examined and confuted in a letter to a roman priest / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1680 approx. 58 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30359 wing b5805 estc r15581 12652303 ocm 12652303 65291 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30359) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65291) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 346:6) the infallibility of the church of rome examined and confuted in a letter to a roman priest / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [3], 35 p. printed by m. clark, and are to be sold by h. brome and b. tooke ..., london : 1680. errata: p. 35. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -infallibility. catholic church -controversial literature. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2004-01 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the infallibility of the church of rome examined and confuted . in a letter to a roman priest , by gilbert burnet . london : printed by m. clark , and are to be sold by h. brome and b. tooke in s. paul's churchyard . 1680. a letter to a priest of the roman church , wherein the grounds of their pretended infallibilities are called for and examined , in some queries . sir , whatever our differences be in many points of religion , we agree in this , that it is the great concern of mankind to examin well the grounds that lead him to his belief in matters of so high a nature . you always tell me , that out of the true catholick church there is no salvation ; adding , that this catholick church is the roman : though this seems to be a bull as plainly as a general particular . indeed so severe a certificate makes me look to my self : i confess this method of dealing with me seems not so fair nor rational . for if any man study to draw me into a design , by telling me , that as i must ingage in it all i am master of ; so i must surrender up the conduct of it to others , of whose honesty , industry , and discretion i must not doubt ; i presently apprehend a trappan , and you will not dispute it much that he deserves to be cosened , who suffers himself to be imposed upon so grosly . but certainly if my soul be more valuable than my estate , and if eternity be preferrable to the vanishing shadows here below , then i have great reason to be strongly prejudiced against those , who would oblige me to hazard my soul in a tame and blind subjection to the dictates of any man , or society of men ; reason being the only part of our nature that was born to liberty , and can defie all the severe rigours of tyranny . you will easily believe i cannot be induced on slight grounds to forgo this dearest and most essential piece of my brother-right . and believe me it was enough that the roman church for a succession of some ages was mistris of the crowns and empires of her vassals , and had the dispose of the lives and goods of the better part of europe . this was highly severe though conscience had been left free . the law makes my house my sanctuary , but if i stir abroad i must be at my hazard : so whatever power the civil magistrates , or the guides of the church may have over my actions , or profession of my faith , yet as long as it keeps within my head and breast , its natural dwelling place , it is a violation of the sacredness of that sanctuary to invade it there , or make it prisoner . and when i further consider that reason is nothing but a communication of divine light , to make me understand those propositions , of which some hints were born with my soul , and the rest are offered to me in sacred writings ; if i throw off this , and betake my self to the dictates of others , i exchange the sun for the moon , and the day for the twilight ; and renounce the liberty of the servants of god for a bondage that excludes the freedom of a thought . and , at least , if i were to come under so heavy a yoke , i must before-hand be well assured of the sacredness of the masters of my faith. no man can be wheedled to trust himself to any , of whose fidelity and good conduct he is not well assured ; but he that commits himself to noted and known impostors , is the object of all mens scorn . he must therefore have a great opinion of his own rhethorick , and of my easiness that attempts to perswade me to subject my belief to the verdict of a succession of men , who do not so much as pretend to high learning , much less to be eminent saints ; and in whom i can discern no great characters , but of temporal authority , and high pretensions to an uncontrouled jurisdiction ; and neither of these can with any reason determine my belief for one unerring judg. but since i observe both from my own knowledg , and what i hear by others , that you of the mission place your greatest strength in the authority and infallibility of your church , and ply every body most with it , i have therefore considered this with all the application of mind i am master of , as the fundamental article of your belief . for if your church be priviledged from error , all her decrees must certainly pass for oracles , and there is no disputing them : but if she be subject to error , she is the boldest imposturess that ever appeared in the world , who dares pretend to an unerring assistance in all her decisions , without good ground . suffer me therefore to offer you a few queries , of which when i am satisfyingly resolved , i will be brought so much nearer a belief , from which as long as these difficulties lie in my way , i must confess my self at a great distance . 1. and first let me ask you , what necessity there is of an infallible iudg , to whose decrees all must yield absolute obedience ? if you convince me this is necessary , i shall without difficulty yield to you that there is such a judicatory , since i am perswaded our blessed saviour who loved his church so dearly as to die for her , would certainly provide her with all that was necessary for her preservation . but here i know you triumph in the supposed necessity of such a judg , without whom there is no preserving either truth or peace : for if there be not a court to whose award all must stand , then every man is at liberty to believe as he will , and there is no end of errors : which appears plainly in the churches that have thrown oft the roman authority , but are subdivided into many fractions , which are the natural results of their opinions ; for if every man must search the scriptures , and believe what he thinks is the sense of them , then , according to the variety of mens complexions , educations , or inclinations , there shall be a numberless variety of opinions . and if none have authority over the perswasions of others , they cannot be blamed , much less condemned for their opinions . this seems such an inconvenience , that the church must be in a very bad condition , if there be no remedy for it . this , sir , i suppose is in short the strength of all you will alledge on this head : but all this does not prevail with me to acknowledge an infallible iudicatory : for to live well is the chief end of religion , and to think and believe aright is a necessary mean for that end : from which i infer , that if there be no necessity of an infallible power to make men live well , neither is there any for making us think aright ; and certainly vice and immorality is as opposite to the designs of the gospel as error : now it is confessed there are no certain and infallible ways of restraining vice . and if it must needs be a defect in the constitution of the church , if there be no infallible means to restrain error , what must i conclude if there be no infallible restraint on vice ; but that the church wants a main and necessary complement , without which she cannot be perfect , and well secured ; and you know st. paul reckons heresies among the works of the flesh. now what reason is it , that of all the works of the flesh , provision should only be against heresie ? therefore i freely acknowledge , that as god has left the will at liberty , that so the glory of his saints might be the greater , serving him not by constraint , but willingly ; so he hath also left our reasons free to judge of things proposed to us , whether they be true or false . nor indeed can we believe but as our reasons are convinced , for we cannot put a force on our perswasion . and since our saviour told us it was impossible but that offences must come , so i allow it impossible but that errors should come for the greater trial of sound and true believers . and i must add , that religion consists in a few plain things , in which if a man bring along with him a sincere and pure mind , he is sure not to err mortally . he may be mistaken in some particular opinions , which though they pass for matters of religion , yet are as extrinsick to it as the various hypatheses in philosophy are . i acknowledge every body ought to have that humble mistrust of themselves , and reverence to the church wherein they were born , as not to be easily engaged in new opinions , and ought to be very well assured both of the truth and importance of any new doctrine , before they receive it ; and much more before they broach and vent it , to the disturbance of the peace of the society they live in . and who so without a very clear assurance , after the diligent application of his thoughts , having purified his mind in the exercise of mortification and self denial , doth obtrude new doctrines on the world is highly guilty in the sight of god , for renting the body , and breaking the unity of the church : but if one after a severe inquiry , and all due preparation be clearly convinced of any truth , how generally soever it be either unknown , or derived , he may , nay , cannot chuse but must believe it . but though this assurance may warrant his private departing from the received opinion , yet his assurance must be full , and his call clear before he offer his opinion to others . but in that case i acknowledge the guides of the church may , and ought to consider such opinions , and pass a censure on them according to the scriptures ; which ( flowing from persons whose character makes them both more particularly devoted to god , and more conversant in sacred writings ; and , as it is to be supposed , are by the purity of their minds qualified for a higher sense of divine truth , and by their exemplary lives are possessed of the esteem of those over whom they are set ) will undoubtedly have great influence on all serious and sober persons , yet such as are convinced that their decisions are contrary to the scriptures must still believe god rather than man. but in that case the magistrate may secure the peace of the society , by obliging them either to rest quiet with their opinions , or to go out of his dominions . the church may also by excommunicating them preserve others from being infected by their misperswasions . and thus , except you give me better proof , i am not convinced there is a necessity of any infallible iudge for deciding controversies ; and neither for the salvation of souls , nor for the peace of the society of christians . not for the first , since no proposition is clearer than this , that every christian who studies to be well informed in divine matters , and sincerely follows his conscience , shall certainly be saved . nor is this infallible iudge necessary for the society since those who have the legislative power , whether civil , or ecclesiastick , may govern a society well though they be not infallible , so that the church may have an authority , though not infallible , and yet sufficient to secure her peace . 2. my second question shall be , whether there be really such an infallible iudge on earth ? for though this be not necessary , yet i shall not deny but our saviour , according to that overflowing love he bears his church , may have provided her with this security against error . but herein i must crave your pardon to tell you , i am very apt to think there is no such court on earth , for in all extraordinary things , to which our assent is craved , the means of conveying , or rather imposing , such belief ( since no man of a strong mind will easily credit an extraordinary thing , especially that which subjects to it the very freedom of his thoughts ) must have an evidence and authority proportioned to the greatness and importance of that they recommend to our faith. and therefore when god sent moses to deliver his people , and be their guide , he gave him a power of working such mighty works , which , being done in the sight of both egyptians and israelites , might convince both one and t'other that there was an extraordinary authority communicated to him , he also told the israelites to demand a sign or wonder from every pretender to prophesie , or divine mission ; and because the power of evil spirits is undoubtedly far beyond ours ; so that many extraordinary things may be performed by magick and evil arts , therefore moses ( deut. xiii . ) allows even the people of israel a previous judgment of the doctrine of any pretender to prophesie , before they acknowledged his authority , or were wrought on by his sign or wonder . we find also the prophets , either by miracles or predictions , proving their divine authority . and though the history of all the prophets is not so full , as to give us an account of the signs or wonders of each of them , yet we have no reason to doubt but they did follow the rule prescribed by moses , which indeed natural religion teacheth all men . therefore when our saviour appeared , as he proved himself the messias , by the completion of the prophesies in his person , he made it also appear by the purity of his doctrine , and the authority of his miracles , wrought in the sight of his enemies as well as followers . the same method was observed by the apostles , as appeared from their acts and epistles . and it is certain that as no man can be witness in his own cause , so no mans , or company of mens pretence to an infallible jurisdiction , must engage me to believe it , otherwise there were no end of impostors . therefore i must conclude , that except you can shew me a succession of men who , by some clear demonstrations of an unerring spirit and divine authority , prove themselves infallibly directed , and uncontroulably assisted by god , i am not obliged to submit my self to any as such . nor is it to any good purpose to say , that because there was a succession of high priests under moses law , who , by the oracle in the pectoral , did authoritatively decide all controversies , therefore we may be well assured that under the clearer illumination of the gospel , we are not left to the uncertainties of our own conjectures . but there must be a great high priest of christendom for judging all controversies . but if this be well considered it will not advance your pretences a whit ; for the jews were in all their political affairs , in their commerce and treaties with foreiners , in their government at home , and in the matters of peace and war , to be determined by the judiciary laws moses gave them ; and as they enjoyed the land of canaan by that law , which was then magna charta , so they were in all civil matters to be judged by the law of moses . now since no law can give provisions for all emergents , there was a necessity of a constant exposition of that law in all dubious cases . and therefore god was pleased to continue this among them by the urim and thummim . their worship was also made up of a multitude of particular rites , and many cases occurring in these of great intricacy , god continued that extraordinary presence among them . but nothing of this was necessary under the gospel , in which the policy of the several states is left to be determined according to the laws of nature , and the several humors , customs and interests of nations . our belief is also plain , and our worship simple , so that none of these things remain that made an infallible decision necessary under the old testament . and besides , the mysteriousness of the communication , and the plain express words of the institution , do shew the difference betwixt that , and any thing can be pretended to under this new and more perfect dispensation . moses plainly told them what that series of men should be , and of whom descended ; he also declared how they were to inquire counsel from god , and how all must submit to their sentence . nor was the high priest by his character vested with this authority , but when he put on the ephod , and went in before the cloud of glory , and brought back the sacred response . now the exactness moses observed in delivering , that seems convincing , that when god intended to bring any part of mankind under that subjection , he delivered his commission to these so impowred , in so formal and solemn a manner , that it was not to be disputed but by one that rejected the law of moses . from which i presume i may infer , that if god had set up such anthority in the christian church , the institution had been express , the persons clearly designed their succession as plainly pointed out , to have put so great a matter beyond dispute . so that the manner of the divine emanations of unerring direction had been as clear as it was of old . now since i meet nothing of this in the whole new testament , i see no reason to make me believe it is as you pretend : for what you infer from our saviours words to st. peter from his saying , tell the church , and from his promises of the holy ghost , will never conclude that you pretend to : for before you can oblige me to believe any thing from these premises , you must allow me to acknowledge the sacredness of the books wherein these words are , so that my belief of the scriptures shall not depend on the decision of the church , but shall rather lead me to acknowledge its authority . you must also allow me to believe these scriptures are to be so expounded , before i own the authority of the church to be absolute ; since from them you bind me to believe it . therefore i must expound them so as may agree best both with the plain literal sense of the words , and the design on which they are set down , by all which you allow me the exposition of scripture . now if i may expound it in some places , why not in all that is indispensably necessary to salvation ? and your churches claiming that authority to her self must not oblige me to believe it a whit the more , unless by some other cogent reasons i be bound to it : for none must be both judg and party , and no mans assertion must pass for proof in his own case ; and yet the very places you alledg come far short of what seems requisite on such an occasion : for whatever may be said of st. peter , which i shall not now inquire into , where have we any formal account who shall be his successors , what shall be necessary to make any such , and by what means they shall come by these infallible directions . and indeed i can see no reason to think that had there been such an institution in the gosspel , the same goodness which moved our blessed saviour to provide so well for his church , should not likewise have drawn from him such an explicit account of it in all circumstances , as was necessary for setting the thing beyond dispute , and securing any such court in their authority by an express constitution of it in its members , and a declaration of their power , such as moses gave the people of israel in the obedience due to the responses of urim and thummim . 3. my third question shall be , supposing an infallible church , how shall i be directed in my search for it , so as to find it out ? for the several societies that name the name of christ , being so broken off from one another , to which of all these must i address my self for a decision in all articles of faith ? when i consider the beginings of christianity , that it first arose in ierusalem , and did spread most in the east : when i also consider that the eastern churches had most confessors and martyrs in the ages of persecution ; and had also the greatest interest in the four first and best general councils , as appears from the subscriptions , where the western bishops were scarce the twentieth part . when i add to this how undisputed their succession is , and how long they have kept the prosession of the christian faith , amidst all the severities and cruelties of the saracens and mahometans , under whose bondage they continue to this day , i am tempted to seek this judge there : but when i see in what ignorance they live , and how the pressures they groan under , though they have not prevailed on them to renounce the name of christ , yet have brought them to a degenerate means , which i love not to dwell on , nor aggravate , since the circumstances they are in plead pity rather than scorn or disdain ; i am forced to turn away from them : but if i look western , i see a church triumphing indeed in outward splendor , their worship is solemn and magnificent , their priest in great esteem , and their high priest culminates in glory and power ; but after all this i cannot see what must oblige me to an implicit belief to every thing this church imposes on me , since the piety to which she pretends , is either immured in her cloysters , or appears only in faces and outward postures of devotion : but after my most impartial inquiries , i can see no reason to esteem the head of this church a saint , or such a clerk , that i must adore his person , and submit to his decrees . and if there be not some strange charm in his chair , i cannot force on my self a belief of his being inspired . how then i must be directed to find this infallible umpire of all differences ? if you send me to a succession , you give me a hard task to labour in , and when i have found it , it is no more but what all must allow to be in the greek church . and i cannot see any thing in the scriptures of the bishops of rome : so i am at a loss for want of some good directions and clear characters of this infallible iudge . 4. my fourth question is , in what person or persons of the roman church this infallibility doth rest ? if you tell me in a council , then i must ask you , where this council is to be found ? for all your arguments perswade the necessity of a living speaking judg ; therefore i would gladly be satisfied in what city or corner of the world this council sits ; for if you send me to the decrees of the councils , this overthrows all your own grounds , from which you plead against the authority of the scriptures ; and if i go to any writings , why not to the scriptures , rather than the decrees of councils : for every one that has compared them will find a plain simplicity in the one , and much of the subtlety of metaphysicks , and the nicety of school terms in the other . 5. my fifth question is , what grounds there are for believing this supposed infallibility , tied to the collective body of the church , and that it is not rather spread over the whole diffusive body of the christian world ? for if the church be only infallible when gathered in a council , then as there was no infallibility in the church for three ages , so it was afterwards subject to the pleasure of the emperors , who called councils when they would , and is now wholly in the popes hands : and as it was in the power of the emperor , so it is now in the popes , to suppress this infallible authority , which is thus subject to outward accidents ; and must live or die at the pleasure of the popes and emperors . and indeed the popes have taken up such jealousies of general councils , that the world is not like to be troubled with more of them . 6. if this infallibility be spread among all christians , i am not a whit nearer the resolution i desire ; for when they differ in so many opinions , how shall i know which of them are in the right ? must i travel all the christian world over to examine of which side the greatest number is ? this is our endless labour , therefore i must have a shorter way to work . 7. who of all the societies of christians must have the interest to meet and give vote in a council ? must all the lays be excluded , and only the clergy be admitted ? i must tell you i see no reason for throwing out the laity . you know the epistles wherein st. paul gives the rules for the order and government of the churches , are directed to all the saints and faithful in the churches : by which it seems they were to have an interest in the government , as well as their pastors . we are sure among the jews the sanhedrim that judged in all things civil and ecclesiastical , was not only made up of priests , and that the high-priest himself was no member of it by his office , unless he were chosen to be of the number : nor can i find any thing in the new testament , that excludes the laity . on the contrary , the promises of the holy ghost are made to all that believe without exception , and all christians are called a royal priesthood : and in the first council at ierusalem , the brethren concur'd in the decision and synodal epistle , with the apostles and elders . 8. supposing none but these in orders be admitted to a general council , then what interest must they have there , shall all be alike , or must the bishops only have a suffrage ? you must give good authority for this before all must submit to it . it is not determined in scriptures , in the council of ierusalem the presbyters had a suffrage ; so it continued in the first ages of the church . we find the presbyters subscribing in many provincial and national councils : why must they be allowed there , and excluded in a general council , it being only an assembly of all national councils ? but if bishops only must vote in councils , by what warrant do cardinals as such vote in your general councils , since as cardinals they are only the presbyters and deacons of rome . abbots also , though but priests , get a vote in the western councils : for as abbots they cannot pretend to a divine character or institution , and if as priests they vote in your councils , why are not all priests allowed the same privilege . 9. how shall i be assured a council thus constituted is infallible , especially if i see or be told by the historians of both sides , that all things are managed in this council by factious parties and intrigues ? each party studying to wait opportunities when they may carry a vote , and bringing all of their faction to the council . this was plainly the case at trent , as even pallavicini represents it . and you will hardly prevail on any who has considered a little what the direction of the holy ghost is , to make him believe that in a packt meeting , where all is full of cunning and design , the holy ghost must be ever ready to direct them when they go to the vote , and that this shall only be when the bishops are in their formalities at a session , and not in a congregation , which is the council resolved in a grand committee . i know , sir , our house of commons understands this distinction ; but what grounds have you to pretend to it , where all are acted by an infallible direction . 10. whether must the whole council agree in a decision , or the major part determine ? i know you choose the latter ; but it is not easie to make any body hope that the greater part of any assembly must be the better and wiser part , since we see it is most commonly otherwise . i know this must be the rule in a court , that determines any thing by equal suffrages ; but if a jury must all agree in the disposal of my life , it were but reason that all should also agree in the determining my faith , which upon the matter is the disposal of my soul. and i know no reason to believe the holy ghost will certainly assist the major part more than that he will assist every person that is allowed a suffrage in the council . 11. how shall i know what is a general council , what not ? for i find great numbers of bishops have run together , and flatly contradicted one another . the nicene council decreed , the son was of the same substance with the father : this was rejected by many other councils , some decreeing he was of a like substance with the father , others that he was of a different substance from the father ; how shall i know to which of these decisions i must submit my self . the histories give account of these councils as called by the same authority , for all were summoned by the emperors writ , all are represented to have been general councils , and we are told of a greater appearance of bishops in some of them than were at nice : which of these must therefore determin my faith ? 12. what reason have i to believe any council is general , from which all the greek and eastern bishops are excluded upon so slight a pretence , as that they believe the holy ghost proceeds from the father by the son , and not from the father and the son , and that in their rooms then are substituted a great many mock bishops , who are neither canonically elected for these places , nor perform any part of the pastoral charge in their pretended diocesses , but are onely named by the popes , and brought to councils to make so many votes ? 13. suppose the pope give out a general summons for all bishops , can this be more than a meeting of all within his patriarchate ? for on what grounds can he pretend a right to summon his fellow patriarchs , who by the councils of nice , constantinople , and chalcedon are declared equal to him : and therefore since the emperors in the primitive times summoned their whole empire to a general council , they did it by their own authority , as appears by all the acts and synodal epistles of the first general councils . what power then hath the pope to call this great meeting of the church . and even these general councils the emperors called seem onely to have been the councils of the roman empire , called oecumeneal , as the romans called their empire , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for the christians of india , and the more remote parts of asia were called to none of these councils , nor could the emperours writ reach them . 14. suppose the popes writ goes over all christendom , must all the bishops come to the council or not ? or what number is necessary ? if we examine the subscriptions of the first councils , what ever reverence we justly have for their decisions , we cannot call them oecumenical , since there were so few bishops from the western churches in them . nor do i see a reason to convince me that a whole province or nation can depute a few to represent them ; such plenipotentiaries may do well in political matters , but in a judicatory that pretends to infallibility , you must give me a good warrant before i believe such a deputation can inspire one with more degrees of infallibility . the bishops of a province can indeed send their decisions by any of their number , but this is not the method of councils , where every bishop hath but one suffrage , though but one from a nation , though another method was used at basil. but in the case that a prince is so dissatisfied with the pope , that he will suffer none of his bishops to appear at the council , as it was in the translation of the council of trent to bologna , to which the emperour would suffer none of his bishops to go ; and after that in the next session at trent , to which the french king would permit none of his bishops to go ; whether can such a meeting be called a general council , or not ? no man can be obliged to that which is not in his power , and he cannot forfeit his right because of a force on his person : nor can it be a free council to which all have not free access . those also who live at a great distance from the place where the council sits , and either through infirmity , or poverty , cannot perform the journey , are in a hard case : for that which is morally impossible cannot be overcome . if then the meeting must be of all the bishops , i do not see such a constitution is practicable , or how all the bishops can be brought together . and if the infallibility be spread among all , no reason can perswade me that a packt meeting can have the power of the whole because the writ was general . 15. the bishops in their decisions either go upon immediate inspiration , or judge , as men , according to the premises laid before them . i know you do not pretend to the former , but if you did , i would ask you what grounds there were to believe this ? for if you gave any good ones i should submit to the suffrage of every single bishop , since every person inspired must be master of my belief . and why should this inspiration rest on some , and not on all , since all bear the same character ? but i insist no longer on this , because i know you reject it . if then they judge as rational men from the reasons that are laid before them , why may not other persons examine those reasons as well as they ? if an inspired person speak to me in the name of god , i must submit to him ▪ but if he speak not by commandment , but by permission , then it is not the lord , but he that speaks : and though i owe great reverence to him , as to one that has obtained grace to be faithful , yet i may examine what he says in that stile . therefore if they proceed according to the rules of discourse and reason , i presume i may make bold to examine both the truth of the premises , and the conclusions they drew from them : since as there can be no more strength in the conclusion than was in the premises , so the light of nature and reason directs me to know what is a well deduced conclusion . 16. whether can that be called a free council where the bishops have sworn obedience to the bishops of rome , contrary to their liberties , and the primitive practice ? in which time all the bishops pretended an equality in their character , and called the bishops of rome their colleagues , their brethren , and fellow-bishops , and treated them as equals in their freedom with them , as appears from the instances of irenius , cyprian , and the contest of the affrican bishops concerning appeals to the see of rome . nor did they yield him any other subjection but what practice had brought in by reason of the eminence of that city , which was then mistris of the world ; and because they also believed st. peter and st. paul had founded it with their labours and bloud . but these bishops who have so sordidly and meanly given up their rights to that high pretender , and have sworn obedience to him , cannot be the proper judges and representatives of a church , whose liberties they have abandoned , i had almost said betrayed . 17. whether must i believe the decrees of a general council before they are approved by the pope , or not ? if the council be infallible in her decrees , then i am bound to submit to them , for all the popes rejecting them : but if the council be fallible , then the popes ratification cannot make the decrees of the council infallible . for things cannot change their natures , and if the vote of the council was by an infallible direction , then there is no absolute necessity of a ratification ; and if it was fallible , the authority of the decree must be resolved simply into the popes insallibility . for the ratification that is subsequent to the councils vote puts no more authority in the council than it had when it passed the vote . it is true in matters of policy i know there be such constitutions , which is the case of the votes of our two houses of parliament , that have no force without the le roy le veut ; but if the council be infallibly directed , then it is not in the popes power to reject their decisions . and if the council be fallible , then the infallibility rests in the pope alone , and who shall expect i can think the council of constance infallible in taking the chalice from the laity , and fallible in subjecting the pope to the council . certainly , the authority was the same in both , but because the pope was a party in the one particular , he was sure not to ratifie it . 18. who must be the infallible expounder of the decrees of councils ? if you will leave this to every private person , then all these inconveniences will follow that you object against private persons expounding scripture . for they may be drawn to several meanings and opinions . and we know that at trent , when the divines differed in many points of religion , the great business was to find a temper , and to contrive the decree in such general terms , as might displease neither party . and thence it was that two of the divines that were in the council , and disputed in the points defined , but differed in their opinions , after the council had passed the decree , did publish treatises for their opinions , both of them pretending the council decreed of his side : and though this was done before the dissolution of the council , yet the council took no notice of it . by which it seems they designed their decrees should be oracles , as well for their misterious ambiguity , as for their authority . where then shall we find a judge of controversies concerning the true meaning of the decrees of councils ? if you put this in the popes hands , you give all up to him , and so the decrees of the council shall signifie no more than he is pleased to allow them . 19. when new controversies arise among christians , to whom must they go for decision ? must they rest on the popes definition ? then all the power is in his person . or must they stay for a decision from the council ? if this last be setled on , then i am afraid you romanists are in as great a hazard as we are to have your controversies endless . for ever since the council of constance the popes have such mortal jealousies of councils , that the world is not like to see more of them . we have seen none now above a hundred years , and the very thoughts of one are laid to sleep ; and yet this is not for want of reason to call a council : for there be great controversies that do very much divide you , but in these you must not expect a decision . as whether the infallibility rest in the diffusive church , or in the council , or in the pope , which is a great thing to be resolved in , and hot contests have been about it . it is also of great concern whether grace be efficacious of it self , or only when the will chuses to make good use of it ; and about this there have been sharp disputes . great complaints are also made by men of much learning and worth in your church , against a corruption of morals , and all political government , which approved doctors and casuists in your church have publickly taught and printed , with licence : which deserves to be condemned by publick authority as well as confuted by private doctors , and censured by some civil judicatories . but for all these reasons we are not like to see another general council in this age. suffer me therefore to ask you in this long interval of councils , whether there be any infallible judge of controversies , or not ? if not , then all your high pretences vanish ; if there be one , he can be no other than the pope , and if you make the popes infallible in the interval of councils , as there is no necessity of them , since we have already an infallible judge , so it were an inexcusable folly in the popes to call a council if the world acknowledge them infallible . 20. i must ask one question more about this general council : you tell me , none but bishops have a decissive vote in it ; how then shall i know when there is a general council ? for the intention of the priest is by your doctrines necessary to the sacrament , how then shall i know if the pretended bishops were baptized by one that intended to do it , or not ? and how shall i know that they received orders from one that gave them with a right intention ? and yet all this is necessary before i can acknowledge them bishops : nor must this be known only in this one instance , though even that depending on the sacred thoughts of the priest , which are known to god alone , is a thing wherein i can never hope to arrive at any certainty ; but i must drive up the same question through the whole succession to the very days of the apostles , for if one link of the chain fails , the whole falls asunder : since any one that was either baptized , or had orders from any who did not intend it is neither a christian , nor a bishop , by your doctrines . and all who are either baptized , or ordained , by one who is neither christian , nor bishop , are neither christians nor clergy men . here is a difficulty in my way , that were all the other removed , i cannot see how it can possibly be cleared . 21. having now tried your patience with some troublesome questions about your church in general , i came to be satisfied in some particulars that stick with me concerning the pope , to whom i see you must either yield an absolute authority , or be without an infallible judge of controversies . and let me first apply my last question to the pope , and ask how you know that all your popes have been christians , priests , and bishops ? since this depends on the intention . so that for ought appears to me you may acknowledge for the head of your church , one who is neither a christian , nor in orders . if then my faith must be resolved into the popes authority i am sure it rests on a sandy foundation , since i cannot be assured he is truly pope . and let me ask you , do you think that with any colour of reason it can be doubted , that there was never an atheistical priest or bishop in the christian church , whose intention went not along with the sacrament ? i am told that in spain many pretended priests are discovered to be jews ; and sure these when they baptise will be far from joyning their intention with that sacrament . so here i stick in the first step , and must do so still except you can help me forward . 22. how shall i know who is canonically elected ? the canon law declares all symoniacal ordinations to be null ; and pope iulius the second , by a bull de symoniaca papae electione , declares him no pope that is so elected . how then shall i know that in the elections there was no symony ? for except i be sure there was none , i cannot be sure the pope is canonically elected . now the secret transactions of the conclave cannot be so clearly known as to free all people from scruples in this particular . on the contrary , we have the shrewdest grounds can be , for suspecting foul dealings in these elections . does not all the world know what interest the factions of the two crowns , of the nephews , and the squadrone volante have in the election of the popes ? and all have seen the intrigue of that affair , so that the very pretence of any infallibility after such an election is baffled out of the world. shall any body that understands mankind imagine these elections go upon any other grounds but interest , faction , expectation , or some such base thing ? and that after the pope is thus chosen , to imagine the holy ghost is tied to all his decrees , is such a monstrous piece of impudence that i cannot have so little charity for you as to think any of you believe it . 23. how shall i know in the case of a schism who is canonically elected ? many of those schisms there have been , and all the pretenders have put in a fair plea for themselves . how then shall i be satisfied to which of them i must offer up my obedience ? and you know there are not three ages past since for above forty years the church of rome was a monster of two or three heads . the several states of europe being as divided in their obedience , as the cardinals were in their elections . and it is little to be doubted but in many other counter elections , had the anti popes been as strongly supported as the popes at avignon were , they had been longer lived than they were . let me also ask you , what right have the cardinals to the election of the pope ? which by the primitive constitution should belong to the presbiters of rome , and the bishops of the province . but that bishops of other nations shall be made titulars to the churches of rome , and so carry the election , as it is a very recent constitution , so can it pretend to no divine warrant . and if the election belong to the cardinals , you can give no reason why two thirds are necessary to make a pope ; for in such cases either the whole must agree , or the major vote carry it ; and if the last be true , then many a pope is cast who is canonically elected , having the majority of the votes for him . i confess in political constitutions men may mould matters as they will ; but in divine things , especially in choosing the head of the church and the infallible judg , i must expect a better warrant . 24. the popes , if infallible , must either be such by immediate inspiration , or by a direction of the divine grace , in considering what is proposed to them . to the former they do not pretend , nor do they wait for enthusiasms , but proceed as other men upon all emergents . now how can i be perswaded that a man who is wholly possest with affairs of state , who minds nothing more than intrigues , who has no education in any part of litterature , but the canon law , can upon a slight hearing a controversie , which puzles the most refined speculative heads , judg exactly and truly , when i plainly see he does not understand the points in debate . and that this must be expected at rome , i remit to all who know that court : and it was truly the case of the propositions of iansenius , which p. innocent condemned , though he confessed he understood not the matter , and never gave the iansenists a hearing but once : nor can any body read the bulls of the popes , but he must see the grossest misapplications of scripture , the falsest conclusions , and the weakest reasons imaginable . it were easie to instance this in a thousand particulars , which must needs occur to every one that reads them . now a man may as soon believe day is night , and night day , as think that man infallible in his decisions , whom he finds plainly mistaken in many easie obvious things . 25. what reason have i to think he has the holy ghost certainly going along in all his decrees , who seems plainly to have little or no sense of piety or vertue in all his actions and whole deportment . the divine spirit purifies as well as enlightens : it is true in immediate inspirations this is not a constant maxime ; but in one who expects the direction of the holy ghost by prayers , fastings , applications of mind , and other such means , which is acknowledged to be the popes case , he must have prepared his mind to a right sense of divine things by the previous purifying his soul , otherwise a false judgment is to be expected from a corrupt mind . and the prayers of the wicked and their fastings too are abomination to god. now what men many of your popes have been , i rather refer you to your own historians than rake such a puddle : and since it is not to be disputed , but vices of all sorts have been eminently lodged in the persons of not a few popes , who can force himself to think them a race of men that hold so near and close correspondence with almighty god , as to have his spirit alway at command , and yet have not by all that intimacy learned to escape the grosser and more common pollutions of the flesh . though st. peter tells us that is the way to become partakers of the divine nature . 26. how can i think the popes infallible , when it is certain , if any thing in history be so , that many of them have been guilty of opinions which general councils have condemned and anathematised ? the stories of liberius and honorius are too well known to be much contested , the one having consented to semi-arrianism against the nicene creed , the other being anathematised by a general council ( where another popes legats were consenting ) for a heretick . i suppose you are acquainted with the history , and therefore give but a hint of these passages , which are well known to learned men . i name not many other popes whom historians accuse of heresie , but stand upon these two as more noted and signal : and if one pope be a heretick the whole infallibility falls to the ground : and when i see pope innocent the first , and pope innocent the tenth differing so widely in their decrees , the one confirming st. austin's doctrin in the matter of grace , and the other condemning propositions , which all who ever read st. austin , and are ingenious , must see to be plainly consonant to his opinions ; i cannot forbear thinking neither one nor the other infallible ; for of two that contradict other , i am sure one is in the wrong , and if either of them be in the wrong , neither of them is infallible . 27. is the pope infallible in all he says , or onely when he gives out of his chair his decision of controversies ? i know you choose the latter : but then let me ask you what is necessary to put him in his chair , must the cardinals concur , then you share the infallibility among them , without any colours either from scripture or antiquity : nor do i believe your popes will allow this in their decisions , what ever they may do in the political government of the ecclesiastical state : by what means therefore shall i be assured the pope speaks from his chair , that so i may acknowledg him infallible : and if in any thing i must submit to his sentence , then most especially when he according to the decree of a council , takes care to publish a bible , which must be by all christians submitted to as the rule of faith , and set up as the standard by which all other translations , copies , nay , and the originals of the hebrew and greek are to be compared . this is a weighty and considerable business as any can be , and yet we have seen sixtus the fifth publish a bible with all the assurances could be , that it was an authentical and true edition , requiring all christians to receive it as the rule of their faith ; but upon this he dies , and his successor clement the eighth gives the world another edition of the bible , and imposes it with the same authority sixtus did , and took all care to suppress the copies of the former edition , yet some escaped his industry . the difference of those two editions is such , that the catalogue of them makes up a book ; and any that has compared them will find that in many places the whole sense is varied in these editions . this is as clear an evidence as may be , that the chair cannot make them infallible , who do so flatly contradict one another , and that in a matter of so high and so general concern . 28. what reason have i to believe the bishops of rome infallible , or that they have an absolute jurisdiction over christendom , since i can find no traces of this in the beginning of christianity , though the defining it was then of great necessity ? i find the apostles all acting by an equal commission , as indeed it must be where all were inspired with infallible illumination : and why must i think that st. peter left none of this infallibility at antioch , or alexandria , but brought it all entire with him to rome ? and why was he so sullen as not to name his successor , when our saviour shewed him that he was to put off his tabernacle shortly ? certainly it is hard to imagine that when he was writing his second epistle as his last will and testament , that though he had concealed till then who must succeed him , he should not then have named him . i deny not but the faith of the roman church was spoken of throughout the whole world , and that a series of blessed and glorious martyrs governed that see ; yet even then , what ever reverence the eminence of the imperial city , and their own more eminent qualities , procured them , the absolute submitting all things to their decision , was not thought of . it is true the fathers gloried much in the first founders of that see , and in the worthy succession derived down from them , but thought of nothing less then subjecting christendom to their authority : nor did the other patriarchs pay any homage or subjection to them , but still pleaded an equality of jurisdiction , yielding them nothing but a bare precedence . it is a thing i will not here attempt to shew by what steps that see did degenerate from its first purity ▪ nor how it mounted to that height of authority in which it glories at present : but any who is acquainted with the histories and writings of the first six ages , must needs confess that the scene of the church is quite altered from what it was then in this obedience which the world does now pay the bishops of rome . 29. what reverence can i pay a succession of men who have plainly trampled on all laws divine and humane ? who have pretended to an absolute temporal power , who have deposed as well as excommunicated emperours , kings , and other princes , who have animated their subjects to rebel against them , who have set on their neighbouring princes to invade their dominions , which they had rent by civil wars and rebellions , and did for a succession of many ages fill christendom with war , and cover it with blood ? nor are these excesses to be onely charged on some particular popes as their personal faults , but they founding them on a pretence to an absolute temporal authority to which they laid claim , either they erred in that decision , or not ; if they erred , then they are not infallible ; if they erred not , then though the reformation has made them a little more cautious , yet still they are vested with the same power , and all these decretals of pope gregory the seventh are still in force , so that the princes of cristendome are at the popes mercy for their crowns and dominions , and are more obliged to the reformation than they apprehend or acknowledg for the peaceable possession of their rights . but it is apparent the popes still retain the same high thoughts , and onely wait an opportunity of executing them , as appear'd from the attempts of pope paul the fifth on the state of venice . 30. in the interval of the sede vacante , who is head of the church ? is it a dead body without a head , or is it a monster of many heads ? does the authority li edivided among the cardinals , or have they none at all ? you know the conclave have been sometimes very tedious in their elections , the last continued divers months , and others have been shut up much longer ; pray then satisfie me who has the supreme power of the church all that while ? if you vest the cardinals with it , then you set up a presbytery to govern the church : for the cardinals as such are the presbyters of rome : and thus before we are aware geneve is translated to rome , and the scottish presbytery culminates in the vatican , and governs the whole world. 31. if after these difficulties about the authority of pope and council , you tell me the infallibility of the church rests in the whole body , and is to be taken from the universally received opinions , then what had become of me if i had lived when the whole world was become arrian , and athanasius alone withstood the stream ? certainly , i must have run with the current , and may be should not have known what to have answered those who should have asked me , where was your faith before alexander and athanasius ? 32. but upon the whole matter how shall i know what is either decreed by councils , or popes , or received by the body of christians ? it is not to be expected i can go over the world to examine the belief of all christians : nor can i examine all the canons and decrees of councils , much less all the popes decretals : into what therefore must i resolve my faith ? you tell me , a living speaking judge is necessary : but such a one is not to be had in every part of the world , therefore i must languish under great and constant uncertainties ; otherwise i must resolve my faith into the testimony of my priest and confessor . and thus all these pompous high sounding expressions of the infallible catholick church do at length dwindle into this , that every one of your communion must in all things believe what their priest tells them , without inquiry . and in what a perplexity must they be when one priest assures them one opinion is the doctrine of the church , another tells them the plain contrary is the doctrine of the church . and this has fallen out in not a few cases betwixt the molinists and iansenists . so that upon the whole i cannot see how private persons can be satisfied what is the belief of the church . and now , sir , after i have led you through a great many thickets and inclosures , i am afraid i leave you in a labyrinth , out of which i protest i cannot help you , but by advising you to break through or leap over these banks and hedges within which you have intangled your self . and therefore you must forgive me if i cannot follow you , unless i see you furnished with some thread to lead you out of that intricate maze of difficulties , that must follow on your opinions in these particulars . and i choose rather than ingage in so dangerous a passage to take the sacred writings which you and i both acknowledge to be divine , and ▪ peruse them with all serious care , hoping that god will so direct me , that if i be not wanting to my self , i shall not err in any matter of salvation . you will find i have treated these opinions i have considered with all possible fairness and modesty of stile ; and indeed , the sad prospect i have of christendom , which is abused by such colours into so many and great mistakes , raises in me thoughts full of pity and commiseration , and not of insulting and scorn . if you send me any return to this , i shall expect the like fair dealing from you ; and if you give me satisfying answers to these difficulties , you shall find that you deal with one over whom reason hath more power , than either education , humour , or interest . and so i bid you farewell . finis . errata . page 1. line 3. read infallibility . pag. 2. l. 6. birth ▪ right . pag. 3. l. 9. for one r. an . pag. 6. l. 3. for derided r. decried . pag. 9. l. 6. for then r. their . pag. 12. l. 13. for means r. meanness ; l. 17. r. westward . l. 19. r. priests . p. 24. l. 8. for sacred r. secret . l. 25. r. come . six papers by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1687 approx. 187 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 35 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30455 wing b5912 estc r26572 09501955 ocm 09501955 43333 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30455) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 43333) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1326:15) six papers by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 63 [i.e. 65] p. s.n.], [s.l. : 1687. "containing i. reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test, humbly offer'd to the consideration of the members of both houses at their next meeting, ii. reflections of his majesties proclamation for a toleration in scotland, together with the said proclamation, iii. reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience, dated the fourth of april, 1687, iv. an answer to a paper printed with allowance entitled a new test of the church of england's loyalty, v. remarks on the two papers writ by his late majesty king charles ii, concerning religion, vi. the citation togethar [sic] with three letters to the earl of midleton." reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -apologetic works. freedom of religion -england. great britain -church history -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-12 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion six papers containing i. reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test . humbly offer'd to the consideration of the members of both houses , at their next meeting . ii. reflections on his majesties proclamation for a toleration in scotland , together with the said proclamation . iii. reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience . dated the fourth of april , 1687. iv. an answer to a paper printed with allowance , entitled , a new test of the church of england ' s loyalty . v. remarks on the two papers , writ by his late majesty king charles ii. concerning religion . vi. the citation , togethar with three letters to the earl of midleton . by gilbert burnet , d. d. printed in the year , 1687. reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test humbly offered to the consideration of the members of both houses , at their next meeting . i. if the just apprehensions of the danger of popery gave the birth to the two laws for the two tests , the one with relation to all publick employments in 73. and the other with relation to the constitution of our parliaments for the future in 78. the present time and conjuncture does not seem so proper for repealing them ; unless it can be imagined , that the danger of popery is now so much less than it was formerly , that we need be no more on our guard against it . we had a king , when these laws were enacted , who as he declared himself to be of the church of england , by receiving the sacrament four times a year in it , so in all his speeches to his parliaments , and in all his declarations to his subjects , he repeated the assurances of his firmness to the protestant religion so solemnly and frequently , that if the saying a thing often gives just reason to believe it , we had as much reason as ever people had to depend upon him : and yet for all that , it was thought necessary to fortifie those assurances with laws : and it is not easie to imagin , why we should throw away those , when we have a prince that is not only of another religion himself , but that has expressed so much steadiness in it , and so much zeal for it . that one would think we should rather now seek a further security , than throw away that which we already have . ii. our king has given such testimonies of his zeal for his religion , that we see among all his other royal qualities , there is none for which he desires and deserves to be so much admired . since even the passion of glory , of making himself the terrour of all europe , and the arbiter of christendom ( which as it is natural to all princes , so must it be most particularly so to one of his martial and noble temper ) yields to his zeal for his church ; and that he , in whom we might have hoped to see our edward the third , or our henry the fifth reviv'd ; chooses rather to merit the heightning his degree of glory in another world , than to acquire all the lawrel● and conquests that this low and vile world can give him : and that , instead of making himself a terrour to all his neighbours , he is contented with the humble glory of being a terrour to his own people ; so that instead of the great figure which this reign might make in the world , all the news of england is now only concerning the practises on some fearful mereenaries . th●se things shew , that his majesty is so possessed with his religion , that this cannot suffer us to think , that there is at present no danger from popery . iii. it does not appear , by what we see , either abroad or at home , that popery has so changed its nature , that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present , than we had in former time . it might be thought ill nature to go so far back , as to the councils of the lateran , that decreed the extirpation of hereticks , with severe sanctions on those princes that failed in their duty , of being the hangmen of the inquisitors ; or to the council of constance , that decreed , that princes were not bound to keep their faith to hereticks ; tho it must be acknowledged , that we have extraordinary memories if we can forget such things , and more extraordinary understandings if we do not make some inferences from them . i will not stand upon such inconsiderable trifles as the gunpowder-plot , or the massacre of ireland ; but i will take the liberty to reflect a little on what that church has done since those laws were made , to give us kinder and softer thoughts of them , and to make us the less apprehensive of them . we see before our eyes what they have done , and are still , doing in france ; and what seeble things edicts , coronation oaths , laws and promises , repeated over and over again , proved to be , where that religion prevails ; and louis le grand makes notso contemptible a figure in that church , or in our court , as to make us think , that his example may not he proposed as a pattern , as well as aid may be offered for an encouragement , to act the same things in england , that he is now d●ing with so much applause in france : and it may be perhaps tho rather desired from hence to put him a little in countenance , when so great a king as ours is willing to forget himself so far as to copy after him , and to depend upon him : so that as the doctriue and principles of that church must be still the same in all ages and places , since its chief pretension is , that it is infallible , it is no unreasonable thing for us to be afraid of those , who will be easily induced to burn us a little here , when they are told , that such servent zeal will save them a more lasting burning hereafter , and will perhaps quit all scores so enttirely , that they may hope scarce to endure a singeing in purgatory for all their other sins . iv. if the severest order of the church of rome , that has breathed out nothing but fire and blood since its first formation , and that is even decryed at rome it self for its violence , is in such credit here ; i do not see any inducement from thence to persuade us to look on the councils that are directed by that society , as su●h harmless and inoffensive things , that we need be no more on our guard against them . i know not why we may not apprehend as much from father petre , as the french have felt from pere de la chaise , since all the difference that is observed to be between them , is , that the english iesuite has much more fire and passion , and much less conduct and judgment than the french has . and when rome has expressed so great a jealousy of the interest that that order had in our councils , that ● . morgan , who was thought to influence our ambassadour , was ordered to leave rome , i do not see why england should look so tamely on them . no reason can be given why card. howard should be shut out of all their councils , unless it be , that the nobleness of his birth , and the gentleness of his temper , are too hard even for his religion and his purple , to be mastered by them . and it is a contradiction , that nothing but a belief capable of receiving transubstantiation can recoucile , to see men pretend to observe law , and yet to find at the same time an ambassadour from england at rome , when there are so many laws in our pook of statutes , never yet repealed , that have declared over and over again all commerce with the court and s●e of rome to be high treason v. the late famous judgment of our judges , who knowing no other way to make their names immortal , have found an effectual one to preserve ●hem from being ever forgot , seems to call for another method of proceeding . the p●esident they have set must be fatal either to them o●●ns . for if twel●e men , that get into scarlet and fu●s , have an authority to dissolve all our laws , the english government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much scorn , as it has hitherto drawn admiration . that doubtful words of laws , made so long ago , that the intention of the lawgivers is not certainly known , must be expounded by the judges , is not to be question'd ▪ but to infer from thence , that the plain words of a law so lately made , and that was so vigorously asserted by the present parliament , may be made void by a decision of theirs , after so much practice upon them , is just as reasonable a way of a●puing , as theirs is , who because the church of england acknowledges that the church has a power in matters of rites and ceremonies , will from thence conclude , that this power must go so far , that tho christ has said of the cup , drink ye all of it , we must obey the church when she decrees that we shall not drink of it : our judges for the greater part , were men that had past their lives in so much retirement , that from thence one might have hoped , that they had studied our law well , since the bar had ●alled them so seldome from their studies : and if practice is thought often hur●ful ●o speculation , as that which disorders and hurries the judgment , they who had practised so little in our law , had no byass on their understandings : and if the habit of taking money as a lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt judge , they should have been incorruptible , since it is not thought , that the greater part of them got ever so much money by their profession as pay'd for their furs . in short , we now see how they have , merited their preferment , and they may yet expect a further exalcation when the justice and the laws of england come to be in hands , that will be as careful to preserve them , as they have been no destroy them . but what an infamy will it lay upon the name of an english parliament , if instead of calling those betrayers of their countrey to an account , they should go by an after-game to confirm what these fellows ha●e done . vi. the late canferences with so many members of both houses , will give such an ill-natured piece of jealousy against them , that of all persons living , that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their votes , the world will believe , that threatnings and promises had as large a share in those secret conversations , as reasoning or persuasion : and it must be a more than ordinary degree of zeal and courage in them , that must take off the blot , of being sent for , and spoke to , on such a subject and such a manner . the worthy behaviour of the members in the last session , had made the nation unwilling to remember the errors committed in the first election : and it is to be hoped , that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind . for if a parliament , that had so many flaws in its first conception , goes to repeal laws , that we are sure were made by legal parliaments , it will put the nation on an enquiry that nothing but necessity will drive them to . for a nation may be laid asleep , and be a little cheated ; but when it is awakned , and sees its danger , it will not look on and see a rape made on its religion and liberties , without examining , from whence have these men this authority ? they will hardly find that it is of men ; and they will not believe that it is of god. but it is to be hoped , that there will be no occasion ▪ given for this angry question which is much easier made than answered . vii . if all that where now asked in favour of popery , were only some gentleness towards the papists , there were some reason to entertain the debate , when the demand were a little more modest : if men were to be attainted of treason , for being reconciled to the church of rome , or for reconciling others to it ; if priests were demanded to be hanged , for taking orders in the church of rome ; and if the two thirds of the papists estates were offered to be levied , it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless : but now the matter is more barefaced ; they are not contented to live at ease , and enjoy their estates ; but they must carry all before them : and f. petre cannot be at quiet , unless he makes as great a figure in our court , as pere de la chaise does at versailles . a cessation of all severities against them , is that to which the nation would more easily submit ; but it is their behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like compassion in another reign . if a restless and a persecuting spirit were not inherent in that order , that has now the ascendant , they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present advantages ; as to have made our divines , that have charged them so heavily , look a little out of countenance : and this would have wrought more on the good nature of the nation , and the princly nobleness of the successors whom we have in view , than those arts of craft and violence , to which we see their tempers carry them even so early , before it is yet time to show themselves . the temper of the english nation , the heroical vertues of those whom we have in our eyes , but above all , our most holy religion , which instead of revenge and cruelty , inspires us with charity and mercy , even for enemies , are all such things , as may take from the gentlemen of that religion all sad apprehensions , unless they raise a storm against themselves , and provoke the iustice of the nation to such a degree , that the successors may find it necessary to be iust , even when their own inclinations would rather carry them to shew mercy . in short , they need fear nothing but what they create to themselves : so that all this stir that they keep for their own safety , looks too like the securing to themselves pardons for the crimes that they intend to commit . viii . i know it is objected as no small prejudice against these laws , that the very making of them discovered a particular malignity against his majesty , and therefore it is ill manners to speak for them . the first had perhaps an eye at his being then admiral : and the last was possibly levelled at him : though when that was discovered , he was excepted out of it by a special proviso , and as for that which past in 73 , i hope it is not forgot , that it was enacted by that loyal parliament , that had setled both the prerogative of the crown and the rites of the church , and that had given the king more money than all the parliaments of england had ever done in all former times . a parliament that had indeed some disputes with the king , but upon the first step that he made with relation to religion or safety , they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past : as appeared by their behaviour after the triple alliance . and in 73 , though they had great cause given them to dislike the dutch war , especially the strange beginning of it upon the smirna fleet : and the stopping the exchequer , the declaration for toleration , and the writes for the members of the house , were matters of hard digestion ; yet no saoner did the king give them this new assurance for their religion then , though they had very great reasons given them to be jealous of the vvar , yet since the king was engaged , they gave him 1200000 pounds for carrying it on ; and they thought they had no ill penniworths for their money , when they carried home with them to their countries this new security for their religion , which we are now desired to throw up , and which the reverend judges have already thrown out as a law out of date . if this had carried in it any new piece of severity , their complaints might be just ; but they are extream tender , if they are so uneasie under a law that only gives them leisure and opportunities to live at home , and the last test , which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the legislative body , appears to be so just , that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing , than that it was done at last ; and since it is done , it is a great presumption on our understandings to think , that we should be willing to part with it . if it was not sooner done , it was because there was not such cause given for jealousie to work upon but what has appeared since that time and what has been printed in his majesties name , shews the world now , that the jealousies which occasion'd those laws , were not so ill grounded , as some well meaning men perhaps then believed them to be . but there are some times in which all mens eyes come to be opened . ix . i am told , some think it is very indecent to have a test for our parliaments , in which the king's religion i● accused of idolatry ; but if this reason is good in this particular , it will be full as good against several of the articles of our church , and many of the homilies . if the church and religion of this nation is so formed by law , that the king's religion is declared over and over again to be idolatrous , what help is there for it ? it is no other , than it was when his majesty was crowned , and swore to maintain our laws . i hope none will be wanting in all possible respect to his sacred person ; and as we ought to be infinitely sorry to find him engaged in a religion which we must believe idolatrous , so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his person , or calling him an idolator : for as every man that reports a lye , is not for that to be called a lyar ; so that tho' the ordering the intention , and the prejudice of a misperswasion are such abatements , that we will not rashly take on us to call every man of the church of rome an idolater ; yet on the other hand , we can never lay down our charge against the church of rome as guilty of idolatry , unless at the same time we part with our religion . x. others give us a strange sort of argument , to perswade us to part with the test ; they say , the king must imploy his popish subjects , for he can trust no other ; and he is so assured of their fidelity to him , that we need apprehend no danger from them . this is an old method to work on us , to let in a sort of people to the parliament and government , since the king cannot trust us , but will depend on them : so that as soon as this law is repealed , they must have all the imployments , and have the whole power of the nation lodged in their hands ; this seems a little to gross to impose , even on irish-men . the king saw for many years together , with how much zeal both the clergy , and many of the gentry appeared for his interests ; and if there is now a melancholy damp on their spirits , the king can dissipate it when he will ; and as the church of england is a body that will never rebell against him , so any sullenness under which the late administration of affairs has brought them , would soon vanish , if the king would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised , not only in publick but in pivate ; and would be contented with the exercise of his own religion , without imbroiling his whole affairs , because f. petre will have it so : and it tempts englishmen to to more than ordinary degrees of rage , against a sort of men , who it seems , can infuse in a prince , born with the highest sense of honour possible , projects to which without doing some violence to his own royal nature , he could not so much as hearken to , if his religion did not so fatally muffle him up in a blind obedience . but if we are so unhappy , that priests can so disguise matters , as to mis-lead a prince , who without their ill insluences would be the most glorious monarch of all europe , and would soon reduce the grand lauis to a much humbler fgure , yet it is not to be so much as imagined , that ever their arts can be so unhappily successful , as to impose on an english parliament , composed of protestant members . some reflections on his majesties proclamation of the twelfth of february , 1686 / 7 for a toleration in scotland , together with the said pro-proclamation . i. the preamble of a pr●clamama●ion is fst writ in hast , and is the flourish of some wa●t●n pen : but one of such an extraordinary 〈◊〉 as this is , was probably more severely examined ; there is a new designation of his majesties authority here set forth of his absolute power , which is so often repeated , that it deserves to be a little searched into . prerogative royal and soveraign authority , are terms already received and known ; but for this absolute power , as it is a new term , so those who have coined it , may make it signifie what they will. the roman law speaks of princeps legibus solutus , and absolute in its natural signification , importing the being without all ties and restraints ; then the true meaning of this seems to be , that there is an inherent power in the king , which can neither be restrained by laws , promises , nor oaths ; for nothing less than the being free from all these , renders a power absolute . ii. if the former term seemed to stretch our allegiance , that which comes after it , is yet a step of another nature , tho one can hardly imagine what can go beyond absolute power : and it is in these words , which all our subjects are to obey without reserve . and this is the carrying obedience many sizes beyond what the grand seigneur ever yet claimed : for all princes , even the most violent pretenders to absolute power , till lewis the great 's time , have thought it enought to oblige their subjects to submit to their power , and to bear whatsoever they thought good to impose upon them ; but till the days of the late conversions by the dragoons , it was never so much as pretended , that subjects were bound to obey their prince without reserve , and to be of his religion , because he would have it so . which was the only argument that those late apostles made use of ; so it is probale this qualification of the duty of subjects was put in here , to prepare us for a terrible le roy le veut ; and in that case we are told here , that we must obey without reserve ; and when those severe orders come , the privy council , and all such as execute this proclamation , will be bound by this declaration to shew themselves more forward than any others , to obey without reserve : and those poor pretensions of conscience , religion , honour , and reason , will be then reckoned as reserves upon their obedience , which are all now shat out . iii. these being the grounds upon which this proclamation is founded , we ought not only to consider what consequences are now drawn from them , but what may be drawn from them at any time hereafter ; for if they are of force , to justify that which is inferred from them , it will be full as just to draw from the same promises an abolition of the protestant religion , of the rights of the subjects , nor only to church-lands , but to all property whatsoever . in a word , it asserts a power to be in the king , to command what he will , and an obligation in the subjects , to obey whatsoever he shall command . iv. there is also mention made in the preamble of the christian love and charity , which his majesty would have established among neighbours ; but another dash of a pen , founded on this absolute power , may declare us all hereticks ; and then in wonderful charity to us , we must be told , that we are either to obey without reserve or to be burnt without reserve . we know the charity of that church pretty well : it is indeed fervent and burning : and if we have forgot what has been done in former ages , france , savoy , and hungary , have set before our eyes very fresh instances of the charity of that religion . while those examples are so green , it is a little too imposing on us , to talk to us of christian love and charity . no doubt his majesty means sincerely , and his exactness to all his promises , chiesfly to those made since he came to the crown , will not suffer us to think an unbecoming thought of his royal-intentions ; but yet after all , tho' it seems by this proclamation , that we are bound to obey without reserve , it is hardship upon hardship to be bound to believe without reserve . v. there are a sort of people here tolerated , that will be hardly found out : and these are the moderate presbyterians : now , as some say , that there are very few of those people in scotland that deserves this character , so it is hard to tell what it amo●nts to ; and the calling any of them immoderate , cuts off all their share in this grace . moderation is a quality that lyes in the mind , and how this will be found out , i canot so readily guess . if a standard had been given of opinions or practices , then one could have known how this might have been disti●g●ished ; but as it lyes , it will not be easy to make the discrimination ; and the declaring them all immoderate , shuts them out quite . vi. another foundation laid down for repealing all laws made against the papists , is , that they were enacted in king iames the sixth's minority : with some harsh expressions , that are not to be insisted on , since they shew more the heat of the penner , than the dignity of the prince , in whose name they are given out ; but all these laws were ratifyed over and over again by king iames , when he came to be of fall age : and they have received many confirmations by king charles the first , and king charles the second , as well as by his present majesty , both when he represented his brother in the year 1681 , and since he himself came to the crown : so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first formation of those laws , they have received now for the course of a whole hundred years , thet are lapsed since king iames was of full age , so many confirmations , that if there is any thing certain in human government , we might depend upon them ; bat this new coyned absolute power must carry all before it . vii . it is also well known , that the whole settlement of the church lands and tythes , with many other things , and more particularly the establishment of the protestant religion , was likewise enacted in king iames's minority , as well as those penal laws : so that the reason now made use of , to annul the penal laws , will serve full as wel for another act of this absolute power , that shall abolish all those ; and if maximes that unhinge all the securities of human society , and all that is sacred in government , ought to be lookt on with the justest and deepest prejudices possible , one is tempted to lose the respect that is due to every thing that carr●es a●royal stamp upon it , when he sees such grounds made use of , as m●st shake all settlements whatsoever ; for if a prescription of 120 years , and confirmations reiterated over and over again these 100 years past , do not purge some defects in the first formation of those law , what can make us secure : but this looks so like a fetch of the french prerogative law , both in their processes with relation to the elict of nantes , and those concerning dependences at mets , that this seems to be a copy from that famous original . viii . it were too much ill nature to look into the history of the last age , to examine on what grounds those characters of pious and blessed given to the memory of q. mary are built , but since k. iames's memory has the character of glorious given to it , if the civility of the fair sex makes one unwilling to look into one , yet the other may be a little dwelt on . the peculiar glory that belongs to k. iames's memory , is , that he was a prince of great learning , and that he imployed it chiefly in writing for his religion : of the volume in folio in which we have his works , two thirds are against the churh of rome , one part of them is a commentary on the revelation , proving that the pope is antichrist ; another part of them belonged more naturally to his post dignity ; which is the warning that he gave to all the princes and states of europe , against the treasonable and bloody doctrines of the papacy . the first act he did when he came of age , was to swear in person with all his family , and afterwards with all his people of scotland , a covenant , containing an enumeration of all the points of popery , and a most solemn renunciation of them , somewhat like our parliament test : his first speech to the parliament of england was copious on this subject : and he left a legacy of a wish on such of his posterity as should go over to that religion , which in go●d manners is suppressed . it is known , k. iames was no conquerour , and that he made more use of his pen than his sword : so the glory that is peculiar to his memory must fall chiefly on his learned and immortal writings : and since there is such a veneration expressed for him , it agrees not ill with this , to wish , that his works were more studied by those who offer such incense to his glorious memory . ix . his majesty assures his people of scotland , upon a certain knowledge and long experience , that the catholicks , as they are good christians , so they are likewise dutiful subjects : but if we must believe both these equally ▪ then we must conclude severely against their being good christians ; for we are sure they can never be good subjects , not only to a heretical prince if he does not extirpate hereticks ; for their beloved council of the lateran , that decreed transubstantiation has likewise decreed , that if a prince does not extirpate hereticks out of his ●ominions , the pope must depose him , and declare his subjects absolved from their allegeance , and give his dominions to another : so that even his majesty , how much soever he may be a zealous catholick , yet cannot be assured of their fidelity to him , unless he has given them secret assurances , that he is resolved to extirpate hereticks out of his dominions ; and that all the p●omises which he now makes to these poor wretches are no other way to be kept , than the assurances which the great lewis gave to his pr●testant subjects , of his observing still the edict of nantes even after he had resolved to break it ▪ and also his last promise made in the edict , that repealed the edict of nantes , by which he gave assurances , that no violence should be used to any for their religion , in the very time that he was ordering all possible violences to be put in execution against them . x. his majesty assures us , that on all occasions the papists have shewed themselves good and faithful su●jects to him and his royal predecessors ; but how absolute soever the king's power may be , it seems his knowledge of history is not so absolute , but it may be capable of some improvement . it will be hard to find out what loyalty they shewed on the gunpowder plot , or during the whole progress of the rebellion of ireland ; if the king will either take the words of king iames of glorious memory , or k. charles the first , that was indeed of pious and blessed memory , rather than the penners of this proclamation , it will not be hard to find occasions where they were a little wanting in this their so much boasted loyalty : and we are sure , that by the principles of that religion , the king can never be assured of the fidelity of those he calls his catholick subjects , but by engaging to them to make his heretical subjects sacrifices to their rage . xi . the king declares them capable of all the offices and benefices which he shall think fit to bestow on them , and only restrains them from invading the protestant churches by force : so that here a door is plainly opened for admitting them to the exercise of their religion in protestant churches , so they do not break into them by force ; and whatsoever may be the sense of the term benefice in its antient and first signification , now it stands only for church preferments ; so that when any churches , that are at the king's gift , fall vacant , here is a plain intimation , that they are to be provided to them ; and then it is very probable , that all the laws made against such as go not to their parish churches , will be severely turned upon those that will not come to mass. xii . his majesty does in the next place , in the vertue of his absolute power , annul a great many laws , as well those that established the oaths of allegeance and supremacy , as the late test , enacted by himself in person , while he represented his brother : upon which he gave as strange an essay to the world of his absolute justice in the attainder of the late earl of argile , as he does now of his absolute power in condemning the test it self , he also repeals his own confirmation of the test , since he came to the crown , which he offered as the clearest evidence that he could give of his resolution to maintain the protestant religion , and by which he gained so much upon that parliament , that he obtained every thing from them that he desired of them ; till he came to try them in the matters of religion . this is no extraordinary evidence to assure his people , that his promises will be like the laws of the medes and perfians , which alter not ; nor will the disgrace of the commissioner that enacted that law , lay this matter wholly on him ; for the letter , that he brought , the speech that he made , and the instructions which he got , are all too well known to be so soon forgotten : and if princes will give their subjects reason to think , that they forget their promises , as soon as the turn is served for which they were made , this will be too prevailing a temptation on the subjects to mind the princes promise as little as it seems he himself does and will force them to conclude , that the truth of the prince , is not so absolute as it seems he fancies his power to be . xiii . here is not only a repealing of a great many laws , and established oaths and tests , but by the exercise of the absolute power , a new oath is imposed , which was never pretended to by the crown in any former time , and as the oath is created by this absolute power , so it seems the absolute power must be supported by this oath : since one branch of it , is an obligation to maintain his majesty and his lawful successors in the exercise of this their absolute power and authority against all deadly , which i suppose is scotch for mortals : now to impose so hard a yoke as this absolute power on the subject , seems no small stretch ; but it is a wonderful exercise of it to oblige the subjects to defend this : it had been more modest , if they had been only bound to bear it , and submit to it : but it is a terrible thing so far to extinguish all the remnants of natural liberty , or of a legal government , as to oblige the subjects by oath to maintain the exercise of this , which plainly must destroy themselves : for the short execution by the bow-strings of turkey , or by sending orders to men to return in their heads , being an exercise of this absolute power , it is a little too hard to make men swear to maintain the king in it : and if that kingdom has suffered so much by the many oaths that have been in use among them , as is marked in this proclamation , i am afraid this new oath will not much mend the matter . xiv . yet after all , there is some comfort ; his majesty assures them , he will use no violence nor force , nor any invincible necessity to any man on the account of his perswasion : it were too great a want of respect to fancy , that a time may come in which even this may be remembrad , full as well , as the promises that were made to the parliament after his majesty came to the crown : i do not i confess , apprehend that ; for i see here so great a caution used in the choice of these words , that it is plain , very great severities may very well consist with them : it is clear , that the general words of violence and force are to be determined by these last of invincible necessity , so that the king does only promise to lay no invincible necessity on his subjects ; but for all necess●ies that are not invincible , it seems thy must expect to bear a large share of them ; disgraces , want of imployments , fines and imprisonments , and even death it self are all vincible things to a man of a ●irmness of mind : so that the violences of torture , the furies of dragoo●s , and some of the methods now practised in france , perhaps may be included within this promise ; since these seem almost invincible to humane nature , if it is not fortified with an extraordinary measure of grace : but as to all other things , his majesty binds himself up from no part of the exercise of his absolute power by this promise . xv. his majesty orders this to go immediately to the great seal , without passing through the other seals : now since this is ●●unter-signed by the secretary in whose hands the signet is , there was no other step to be made but through the privy seal ; so i must own i have a g●eat curiosity of knowing his character in whose hands the privy seal is at present ; for it seems his conscience is not so very supple , as the chancellors and the secretaries are ; but it is very likely , if he does not quickly change his mind , the privy seal at least will very quickly change its keeper ; and i am sorry to hear , that the lord chancellor and the secretary have not another brother to fill this post , that so the guilt of the ruin of that nation , may lie on one si●gle family , and that there may be no others involved in it . xvi . upon the whole matter many smaller things being waved , it being extream unpleasant to find fault , where one has all possible dispositions to pay all respect ; we here in england see what we must look for . a parliament in scotland was tryed , but it proved a little stubborn ; and now absolute power comes to set all right ; so when the closetting has gone round , so that noses are counted , we may perhaps see a parliament here ; but if it chan●●s to be untoward , and not to obey without reserve , then our reverend judges will copy from scotland , and will not only tell us of the king 's imperial power , but will discover to us this new mystery of absolute power , to whch we are all bound to obey without reserve . these reflexions refer in so many places to some words in the proclamation , that it was thought necessary to set them near one another , that the reader may be able to iudge , whether he is deceived by any false quotations or not . by the king. a proclamation . iames r. james the seventh by the grace of god , king of scotland , england , france & ireland , defender of the faith , &c. to all and sundry our good subjects . whom these presents do or may concern , greeting . we have taken into our royal consideration the many and great inconveniencies which have happened to that our ancient kingdom of scotland of late years , through the different perswasions in the christian religion , and the great heats and animosities amongst the several professors thereof , to the ruin and decay of trade , wasting of lands , extinguishing of charity , contempt of the royal power ; and converting of true religion , and the fear of god , into animosities , names , fractions , and sometimes into sacrilege and treason . and being resolved as much as in us lyes , to unite the hearts and affections of our subjects , to god in religion , to us in loyalty , and to their neighbours in christian love and charity . have therefore thought fit to grant , and by gur souveraign authority , prerogative royal , and absolute power , which all our subjects are to obey without reserve ; do hereby give and grant our royal toleration ; to the several professors of the christian religion after named , with , and under the several conditions , restrictions , and limitations after-mentioned . in the first place , we allow and tolerate the moderate presbyterians , to meet in their private houses , and there to hear all such ministers , as either have , or are willing to accept of our indulgence allanerly , and none other , and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the well and peace of our reign , seditious or treasonable , under the highest pains these crimes will import ; nor are they to presume to build meeting-houses , or to use out-houses or barns , but only to exercise in their private houses , as said is : in the mean time , it is our royal will and pleasure , that field-conventicles , and such as preach , or exercise at them , or who shall any ways assist or connive at them , shall be prosecuted according to the utmost severity of our laws made against them , seeing from these rendezvouzes of rebellion , so much disorder hath proceeded , and so much disturbance to the government , and for which after this our royal indulgence for tender consciences there is no excuse lef● . in like manner , we do hereby tolerate quakers to meet and exercise in their form , in any place or places appointed for their worship . and considering the severe and cruel laws made against roman catholicks ( therein called papists ) in the minority of our royal grand father of * glorious memory , without his consent , and contrary to the duty of good subjects , by his regents , and other enemies to their lawful soveraigns our royal great grand mother queen mary of blessed and pious memory , wherein ●nder the pretence of religion , they cloathed the worst of treasons , factions , and usurpations , and 〈◊〉 these laws , not as against the enemies of god , but their own ; which laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them , or any of them ad terrorem only , on supposition , that the papists relying on an external power , were incapable of duty , and true allegeance to their natural soveraigns , and rightful monarchs ; we of our certain knowledge , and long experience , knowing that the catholicks , as it is their principle to be good christians , so it is to be dutiful subjects ; and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves good and faithful subjects to us , and our royal predecessors , by hazarding , and many of them actually losing their lives and fortunes , in their defence ( though of another religion ) and the maintenance of their authority against the violences and treasons of the most violent abettors of these laws : do therefore with advice and consent of our privy counc●l ▪ by our soveraign authority , prerogative royal , and absolute power , aforesaid , suspend , stop , and disable all laws , or acts of parliament , customs or constitutions , made or executed against any of our roman catholick subjects , in any time past , to all intents and purposes , making void all prohibitions therein mentioned , pains or penalties therein ordained to be inflicted , so that they shall in all things he as free in all respects as any of our protestant subjects whatsoever , not only to exercise their religion , but to enjoy all offices , benefices and others , which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming : nevertheless , it is our will and pleasure , and we do hereby c●mmand all catholicks at their highest pains , only to exercise their religious worship in houses or chappels ; and that they presume not to preach in the open fields , or to invade the protestant churches by force , under the pains aforesaid , to be inflicted upon the offenders respectively ; nor shall they presume to make publick processions in the high-streets of any of our royal burghs , under the pains above mentioned . and whereas the obedience and service of our good subjects is due to us by their allegiance , and our soveraignty , and that no law , custom , or constitution , difference in religion , or other impediment whatsoever , can exempt or discharge the subjects from their native obligations and duty to the crown or hinder us from protecting , and employing them , according to their several capacities , and our royal pleasure ; nor restrain us from conferring heretable rights and priviledges upon them , or vacuate or annul these rights hereable , when they are made or conferred ; and likewise considering , that some oaths are capable of being wrested ●y men of sinistrous intentions , a practice in that kingdom fatal to religion as it was to loyalty ; do therefore , with advice and consent aforesaid , ●ass , annul and discharge all oaths whatsoever , by which any of our subjects are incapac●●ated , or disabled from holding places , or offices in our said kingdom , or enjoying their hereditary rights and priviledges , discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming , without our special warrant and consent , under the pains due to the contempt of our royal commands a●d authority . and to this effect● we do by our roya● authority aforesaid , stop , 〈◊〉 , and di●pense with all laws enjoyning the said oaths , t●sts , or any of them , particularly the first act of the first session of the first parliament of king charles the second ; the eleventh act of the foresaid session of the foresaid parliament , the sixth act of the third parliament of the said king charles ; the twenty first and twenty fifty acts of that parliament , and the thirteenth act of the first session of * our late parliament , in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the oaths or tests therein prescribed , and all others , as well not mentioned as mentioned , and that in place of them , all our good subjects , or such of them as we or our privy council shall require so to do , shall take and swear the following oath allanerly . i a. b. do acknowledge , testifie and declare , that james the seventh , by the grace of god , king of scotland , england , france and ireland , defender of the faith. &c. is rightful king and supream governour of these realms , and over all persons therein ; and that it is unlawful for subjects , on any pretence , or for any cause whatsoever , to rise in arms against him , or any commissionated by him ; and that i shall never so rise in arms , nor assist any who shall so do ; and that i shall never resist his power or authority , nor ever oppose his authority to his pers●n , as i shall answer to god ; but shall to the utmost of my power assist , defend , and maintain him , his heirs and lawful successors , in the exercise of their absolute power ▪ and authority against all deadly . so help me god. and seeing many of our good subjects have before our pleasure in these matters was made publick , incurred the guilt appointed by the acts of parliament above-mentioned , or others ; we , by our authority , and absolute power and prerogative royal above-mentioned , of our certain knowledge , and inna●e mercy , give our ample and full indemnity to all those of the roman-catholick or popish religion , for all things by them done contrary to our laws , or acts of parliament , made in any time past , relating to their religion , the worship and excercise thereof , or for being papists , jesuits , or traffickers , for hearing , or saying of mass , concealing of priests or jesuits breeding their children catholicks at home or abroad , or any other thing , rite or doctrrine , said , performed , or maintained by them , or any of them : and likewise , for holding or taking of places , employments , or offices , contrary to any law or constitution , advices given to us , or our council , actions done , or generally any thing performed or said against the known laws of that our ancient kingdom : excepting always from this our royal indemnity , all murders , assassinations , thefts , and such like other crimes , which never used to be comprehended in our general acts of indemnity . and we command and require all our judges , or others concerned , to explain this in the most ample sense and meaning acts of indemnity at any time have contained : declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned , as if they had our royal pardon and remission under our great seal of that kingdom . and likewise indemnifying our protestant subjects from all pains and penalties due for hearing or preaching in houses ; providing there be no treasonable speeches uttered in the said conventicles by them , in which case the law is only to take place against the guilty , and none other present ; pr●v●ding also that they r●veal to any of our council the guilt so committed ; as also , execpting all fines , or effects of sentences already given . and likewise indemnifying fully and freely all quakers , for their meetings and worship , in all time past , preceeding the publication of these p●esents . and we doubt not but our protestant subjects will give their assistance and concourse hereunto , on all occasions , in their respective capacities . in consideration whereof , and the ease those of our religion , and others may have hereby , and for the encouragement of our protestant bishops , and the regular clergy , and such as have hitherto lived orderly , we think fit to declare , that it never was our principle , nor will we ever suffer violence to be offered to any man's conscience , nor will we use force , or invincible nec●ssity against any man on the account of his perswasion , nor the protestant religion , but will protect our bishops and other ministers in their functions , rights and properties , and all our protestant subjects in the free exercise of their protestant religion in the churches . and that we will , and hereby promise , on our royal word , to maintain the possessors of church-lands formerly belonging to abbeys , or other churches of the catholick religion , in their f●ll and free possession and right , according to our laws and acts of parliament in that behalf in all time coming . and we will imploy indifferently all our subjects of all perswasions , so as none shall meet with any discouragement on the account of his religion , but be advanced , and esteemed by us , according to their several capacities and qualifications , so long as we find charity and unity maintained . and if any animosities shall arise , as we ho●e in god there will not , we will sl●e● the severest effects of our royal displeasure against the beginners or fomenters chereof , seeing thereby our subjects may be deprived of this general ease and satisfaction , we intend to all of them , whose happiness , prosperity , wealth and safety , is so much our royal care , that we will leave nothing undone which may procure these blessin●s for them . and lastly , to the end all our good subjects may have notice of this our royal will and pleasure , we do hereby command , our lyon king at arms , and his brethren heraulds , macers , pursevants and messengers at arms , to make timous proclamation thereof at the mercat-cross of edinburgh ; and besides the printing and publishing of this our royal proclamation , it is our express will and pleasure , that the same be past under the great seal of that our kingdom per saltum , ●* without passing any other seal or register . in order whereunto , this shall be to the directors of o●r chancellary , and their deputies for writing the same , and to our chancellor for causing our great seal aforesaid , to be appended thereunto , a sufficient warrand . given at our court at whitehall the twelfth day of febr. 1686. and of our reign the third year . by his majesties command melfort . god save the king. a letter , containing some reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience , dated the fourth of april , 1687. sir , 1. i thank you for the favour of sending me the late declaration that his majesty has granted for liberty of conscience . i confess , i longed for it with great impatience , and was surprised to find it so different from the scotch pattern ; for i imagined , that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune : nor can i see why the penners of this have su●k so much in their stile ; for i suppose the same men penned both . i expected to have seen the imperial language of absolute power , to which all the subjects are to obey without reserve ; and of the cassing , annulling , the stopping , and disabling of laws set forth in the preamble and body of this declaration ; whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here : for instead of repealing the laws , his majesty pretends by this only to suspend them ; and tho in effect this amounts to a repeal , yet it must be confessed that the words are softer . now since the absolute power , to which his maj●sty pretends in scotland , is not founded on such poor things as law ; for that would look as if it were the gift of the people ; but on the divine authority , which is supposed to be delegated to his majesty , this may be as well claimed in england as it was in scotland : and the pretentions to absolute power is so great a thing , that since his majesty thought sit once to claim it , he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his language ; especially since both these declarations have appeared in our gazettes ; so that ●s we see what is done in scotland , we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts , and what we may expect in england . ii. his majesty tells his people , that the perfect injoyment of their property has never been in any case invaded by him since his coming to the crown . this is indeed matter of great incouragement to all good subjects ; for it lets them see , that such invasions , as have been made on property , have been done without his majesties knowledge : so that no doubt the continuing to levy the customes and the additional excise ( which had been granted only during the late kings life , ) before the parliament could meet to renew the grant , was done without his majesties knowledge ; the many violences committed not only by soldiers , but officers , in all the parts of england , which are severe invasions on pr●perty , have been all without his majesties knowledge ; and since the first branch of property is the right that a man has to his life , the strange essay of mahometan government , that was shewed at taunton ; and the no less strange proceedings of the present lord chancellour , in his circuit after the rebellion ( which are very justly called his campagne , for it was an open act of hostility to all law ) and for which and other services of the like nature , it is believed he has had the reward of the great seal , and the executions of those who have left their colours , which being founded on no law , are no other than so many murders ; all these , i say , are as we are sure , invasions on property ; but since the king tells us , that no such invasions have been made since he came to the crown , we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his privity . and if a standing army , in time of peace , has been ever lookt on by this nation as an attempt upon the whole property of the nation in gross , one must conclude , that even this is done without his majesties knowledge . iii. his majesty expresses his charity for us in a kind wish , that we were all members of the catholick church ; in return to which we offer up daily our most e●rnest prayers for him , that he may become a memebr of the truly catholick church : for wishes and prayers do no hurt on no side : but his majesty adds , that it has ever been his opinion , that cons●ience ought not to be constrained , nor people forced in matters of meer religion . we are very happy if this continues to be always his sense : but we are sure in this he is no obedient member of that which he means by the catholick church : for it has over and over ag●in decreed the extirpation of heriticks . it encourages princes to it , by the offer of the pardon of their sins ; it threatens them to it , by denouncing to them not only the judgments of god ; but that which is more sensible , the loss of their dominions : and it s●ems they intend to make us know that part of their doctrine even before we come to feel it , since tho some of that communion would take away the horror which the fourth council of the lateran gives us , in which these things were decreed , by denying it to be a general council , and rejecting the authority of those canons , yet the most learned of all the apostates that has fallen to them from our church , has so lately given up this plea , and has so f●rmally a●knowledged the authority of that council , and of its canons , that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing of w●rning us before hand of our danger . it is true bellarmin says , the church does not always execute her power of deposing heretical princes , tho she always retains it : one reason that he assigns , is , because she is not at all times able to put it in execution : so the same reason may perhaps make it appear unadviseable to extirpate hereticks , because that at present it cannot be done ; but the right remains inti●e , and is put in execution in such an unrelenting manner in all places where that religion prevails , that it has a very ill grace , to see any member of that church speak in this strain : and when neither the policy of france , nor the greatness of their monarch , nor yet the interests of the empero●r joyned to the gentleness of his own temper , could withstand these bloody councils , that are indeed parts of that religion , we can see no reason to induce us to believe , that a toleration of religion is proposed with any other design but either to divide us , or to lay us asleep till it is time to give the alarm for destroying us . iv. if all the endeavonrs , that have been used in the last four reig●s , for bringing the subjects of this kingdom to a unity in religion have been ineffectual , as his majesty says ; we know to whom we owe both the first beginnings and the progress of the divisions among our selves ; the gentleness of q. elizabeth's government , and the numbers of those that adhered to the church of rome , made it scarce possible to put an end to that party during her reign , which has been ever since restless , and has had credit enough at court during the three last reigns , not only to su●p●rt it self , but to distract us , and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them , by fomenting our own diff●rences , and by setting on either a toleration , or a p●rsecu●i●n , as it has happened to serve their interests it is not so very long since , that nothing was to be heard at co●rt but the supporting the church of england , and the extirpating all the nonconformists : and it were easie to name the persons , if it were decent , that had this in their mouths ; but now all is turned round again , the church of england is in disgrace ; and now the encouragement of trade , the quiet of the nation , and the freedom of conscience are again in vogue , that were such odious things but a few years ago , that the very mentioning them was enough to load any man with suspicious as backward in the king's service , while such methods are used , and the government is as in an ague , divided between hot and cold fits , no wonder if laws so unsteadily executed have fa●led of their effect . v. there is a good reserve here left for severity , when the proper opportunity to set it on presents it self : for his majesty declares himself only against the forcing of men in matters of meet religion : so that whensoever religion and p●licy come to be so interwoven , that meer religion is not the case , and that publick safety may be prete●ded then thi● declaration is to b● no mo●e claimed : so that the fastning any thing upon the protestant religion , that is inconsistent with the publick peace , will be pretended to shew that they are no persecuted for meer religion . in france , when it was resolved to extirpate the protestants , all the discourses that were written on that subject were full of the wars occasi●ned by those of the religion in the last age , tho as these was the happy occa●●ons of bringing the house of b●u●bon to the crown , they had been ended above 80 years ago , and there had not been so much as the least tumul● raised by them these 50 years past : so that the french who have smarted under this severity , could not be charged with the least infraction of the law : yet stories of a huddred years old were raised up to inspire into the king those apprehensions of them , which ●ave produced the terrible effects that are visible to all the world. there is another expression in this declaration , which lets us likewise see with what caution the offers of favour are now worded , that so there may be an occasion given when the time and conjuncture shall be favourable to break through them all : it is in these words , so that they take especial care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them , which may any ways tend to alienate the hearts of our people from us or our goverment . this in it self is very reasonable ; and could admit of no exception , if we had not to do with a set of men , who to our great misfortune have so much credit with his majesty , and who will be no sooner lodged in the power to which they pretend , then they will make every thing that is preached against popery pass for that which may in some manner alienate the sabjects from the king. vi. his majesty makes no doubt of tthe concurrence of his two houses of parliament , when he shall think it convenient for them to meet . the hearts of king are unsearchable , so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into his hajesties secret thoughts : but according to the judgments that we would make of other mens thoughts by their actions , one would bet●mpted to think , that his majesty made some doubt of it , since his affairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse , if it appeared that there were a perfect understanding between him and his parliament , and that his people were supporting him with fresh supplies ; and this house of commons is so much at his devotion , that all the world saw how ready they were to rant every thing that he could desire of them , till he began to lay off the mask with relation to the test , and since that time the frequent prorogations , the closetting , and the pains that has been taken to gain members , by promises made to some , and the disgraces of others , would make one a little inclined to think , that some doubt was made of their concurrence . but we must confess , that the depth of his majesties judgment is such , that we cannot fathom it , and therefore we cannot guess what his doubts or his assurances are . it is true , the words that come after unriddle the mistery a little , which are , when his majesty shall think it convenient for them to mett : for the meaning of this seems plain , that his majesty is resolved that they shall never meet , till he receive ; such assurances , in a new round of closetting that he shall be pat out of doubt concerning it . vii . i will not enter into the dispute concerning liberty of conscience , and the reasons that may be offered for it to a session of parliament ; for there is scarce any one point , that either with relation to religion , or politicks , affords a greater variety of matter for reflection : and i make no doubt to say , that there is abundance of reason to oblige parliament to review all the nal laws , either with relation to papists , or to dissenters : but i will take the boldness to add one thing , that the kings suspending of laws strikes at the root of this whole government , and subverts it quite : for if there is any thing certain with relation to english government , it is this , that the executive power of the law is entirely in the king ; and the law to fortifie him in the management of it has cloathed him with a vast prerogative ▪ and made it unlawful on any pretence wh●● oev● to resist him : whereas on the other hand , the legislative power is not so entirely in the king , but that the lords and commons have such a share in it , that no law can be either made , repealed , or which is all one suspended , but by their consent : sh● that the placing this legislative power singly in the king , is a subversion of this whole government , since the essence of all governments consists in the subjects of the legislative authority , acts of violence or injustice , committed in the executive part , are such things that all princes being subject to them , the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill administrations , in which as the law may be doubtful , so the facts may be uncertain , and at worst the publick peace must always be more valued than any private oppressions or injuries whatsoever . but the total subversion of a government , being so contrary to the trust that is given to the prince who ought to execute it , will put men upon uneasie and dangerous inquiries : which will turn little to the advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate issue . viii . if there is any thing in which the exercise of the legislative power seems indispensable , it is in those oaths of allegeance and tests , that are thought necessary to qualifie men either to be admited to enjoy the protection of the law , or to bear a share in the government ; for in these the security of the government is chiefly concerned ; and therefore the total extinction of these , as it is not only a suspension of them , but a plain repealing of them , so it is a subverting of the whole foundation of our go-government : for the regulation that king and parliament had set both for the subjects having the protection of the state by the oath of allegeance , and for a share in the places of trust by the tests , is now pluckt up by the roots ; when it is declared , that these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken or subscribed by any persons whatsoever : fot it is plain , that this is no suspension of the law , but a formal repeal of it , in as plain words , as can be conceived . ix . his majesty says , that the benefit of the service of all his subjects is by the law of nature inseparably an nexed to and inherent in his sacred person . it is somewhat strange , that when so many laws , that we all know are suspended , the law of nature , which is so hard to be found out , should be clted ; but the penners of this declaration had best let that law lie forgotten among the rest ; and there is a scurvy paragraph in it concerning self-preservation , that is capable of very unacceptable glosses . it is hard to tell what section of the law of nature has markt either such a form of government , or such a family for it . and if his majesty renounces his pretensions to our allegeance as founded on the laws of england ; and betakes himself to this law of nature , he will perhaps find the counsel was a little too rash ; but to make the most that can be , the law of nations or nature does indeed allow the governors of all societies a power to serve themselves of every member of it in the cases of extream danger ; but no law of nature that has been yet heard of will conclude , that if by special laws , a sort of men have been disabled from all imployments , that a prince who at his coronation swore to maintaiu those laws , may at his pleasure extinguish all these disabilities . x. at the end of the declaration , as in a postscript , his majesty assures his subjects , that he will maintain them in their properties , as well in church and abbey lands , as other lands : but the chief of all their properties being the share that they have by their representatives in the legislative power ; this declaration , which breaks thro that , is no great evidence that the rest will be maintained : and to speak plainly , when a coronation oath is so little remembred , other promises must have a proportioned degree of credit given to them : as for the abbey lands , the keeping them from the church is according to the principles of that religion sacriledge ; and that is a mortal sin , and there can no absolution be given to any who continue in it : and so this promise being an obligation to maintain men in a mortal sin , is 〈◊〉 and void of it self : ch●rch lands are also according to the doctrine of their canonists , so immediately gods right , that the pope himself is the only administrator and dispeneer , but is not the master of them ; he can indeed make a truck for god , or let them so low , that god shall be an easie landlord : but he cannot alter god ' s property , nor translate the right that is in him to sacrilegious laymen and hereticks . xi . one of the effects of this declaration , will be the setting on foot a new run of adresses over the nation : for there is nothing how impudent and base soever , of which the abject flattery of a slavish spirit is not capable . it must be confest , to the reproach of the age , that all those strains of flattery among the romans , that tacitus sets forth with so much just scorn , are modest things , compared to what this nation has produced within these seven years : only if our flattery has come short of the refinedness of the romans , it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed fulsomne●s : the late king set out a declaration , in which he gave the most solemn assurances possible of his adhering to the church of england , and to the religion established by law , and of his resolution to have frequent parliament ; upon which the whole nation fell as it were into raptures of joy and flattery : but tho he lived four years after that , he called no parliament , notwithstanding the law for trien●ial parliaments : and the manner of his death , and the papers printed after his death in his name , having sufficiently shewed , that he was equally sincere in both those assurances that he gave , as well in that relating to religion , as in that other relating to frequent parliaments ; yet upon his death a ●ew let of addresses appeared , in which all that flattery could invent was brought forth , in the commendations of a prince , to whose memory the greatest kindness can be done , is to forget him and because his present majesty upon his coming to the throne give some very general promise of maintaining the church of england , this was magnified in so extravagant a st●ain , as if it had been a securiry greater than any that the law could give : tho by the regard that the king has both to i● and to the laws , it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally : since then the nation has already made it srlf sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding ages ; it is time that at last men should grow weary , and become ashamed of their folly. xii . the nonconformists are now invited to set an example to the rest : and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their oppositian to popery , and that have quarrelled with the church of england , for some small approaches to it , in a few ceremonies , are now solicited to rejoyce , because the laws that secure us against it , are all plucked up : since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together . it is natural for all men to love to be set at ease , especially in the matter , of their consciences ; but it is visible , that thos who allow them this favour , do it with no other design , but that under a pretence of a general toleration , they may introduce a religion which must persecute all equally : it is likewise apparent how much they are hated , and how much they have been persecuted by the instigation of those who now court them , and who have now no game that is more promising , than the engaging them and the church of england into new quarrels : and as for the promises now ma●e to them , it cannot be supposed that they will be more l●sting than those that were made some time ago to the church of england , who had both a better title in law and greater merit upon the crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to . the nation has scarce forgiven some of the church of england the persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cosened ; tho now that they see popery barefaced , the stand that they have made , and the vigorous opposition that they have given to it , is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past , and raises again the glory of a church that was not a little stained by the indiscretion and weakness of those , that were too apt to believe and hope , and so suffered themselves to be made a property to those who would make them a sacrifice . the sufferings of the nonconformists , and the fn●y that the popish party expressed against them , had recommended them so much to the compassions of the nation , and had given them so just a pretension to favour in a better time , that it will look like a curse of god upon them , if a few men , whom the court has gained to betray them , can have such an ill influence upon them as to make them throw away all that merit , and those compassions which their sufferings have procured them ; and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them , that they may destroy both them and us . they must remember that as the church of england is the only establishment that our religion , has by law ; so it is the main body of the nation , and all the sects are but small and stragling parties : and if the legal settlement of the church is dissolved , and that body is once broken , these lesser bodies will be all at mercy : and it is an easy thing to define what the mercies of those church of rome are . xiii . but tho' it must be confessed , that the nonconformists are still under some temptations ▪ to receive every thing that gives them present ease , with a little too much kindness ; since they lie exposed to many severe laws , of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily , and as they are men , and some of them as ill natured men as other people , so it is no wonder if upon t he first surprises of the declaration , they are a little delighted , to see the church of england , after all its services and submissions to the court , so much mortified by it ; so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some follies upon this occasion . yet on the other hand it passes all imagination , to see some of the church of england . especially those whose natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of persecution , chiefly when it is levelled against the dissenters , rejoyce at this declaration , and make addresses upon it . it is hard to think that they have attained to so high a a pitch of christian charity , as to thank those who do now despitefully use them , and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them . this will be an original , and a master-piece in flattery , which must needs draw the last degrees of contemption such as are capable of so abject and sordid a compliance , and that not only from all the true members of the church of england , but likewise from those of the church of rome it self ; for every man is apt to esteem an enemy that is brave even in his misfortunes , as much as he despises those whose minds sink with their condition , for what is it that these men would the king ? is it because he breaks those laws that are made in their favour , and for their protection : and is now striking at the root of all legal settlement that they have for their religion ? or is it because that at the same time that the king professes a religion that condemns his supremacy , yet he is not contented with the exercise of it as it is warranted by law , but carries it so far as to erect a court contrary to the express worps of a law so lately made : that court takes care to maintain a due proportion between their constitution and all their proceedings , that so all may be of a piece , and all equally contrary to law. they have suspended one bishop , only because he w●uld not do that which was not in his power to do : for since there is no extrajudiciary authority in england , a bishop can no more proceed to a sentence of suspension against a clergy-man without a tryal , and the hearing of parties , than a judge can give a sentence in his chamber without an indictment , a tryal , or a jury , and because one of the greatest bodies of england would not break their oaths , and obey a mandate that plainly contradicted them , we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried . i will not anticipate upon this illegal court , to tell what judgments are coming ; but without carrying our jealousies ton far , one may safely conclude , that they will never depart so far from their first institution , as to have any regard , either to our religion , or our laws , or liberties , in any thing they do . if all this were acted by a owed papists , as we are sure it is projected by such , there were nothing extraordinary in it : but that which carries our indig , nation a little too far to be easily governed , is to see some pretended protestants , and a few bishops , among those that are the fatal instruments of pulling down the church of england and that those mercenaries sacrifice their religion and their church to their ambition and interests ; this has such peculiar characters of misfortune upon it , that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity , since we fall by that hand that we have so much supported and fortified , but we must become the scorn of all the world , since we have produced such an unnatural brood , that even while they are pretending to be the sons of the church of england , are cutting their mothers throat : and not content with iudas's crime , of saying , hail master , and kissing him , while they are betraying him into the hands of othnrs ; these carry their wickedness f●rth●r , and say . hail mother , and then they themselves murthe● her . if after all this we were called on to bear this as christians , and to suffer it as subjects , if we were required in patience to possess our own souls , and to be in charity with our enemies ; and which is more , to forgive our false brethren who add trea●●ery to their hatred ; the exhortation were seasonable , and indeed a little necessary : for humane nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion : but to tell us that we must make addresses , and offer thanks for all this , is to insult a little too much upon us in our sufferings : and he that can believe that a dry and cautiously worded promise of maintaining the church of england , will be religiously observed after all that we have seen , and is upon that carried so far out of his wits as to address and give thanks , and will believe still , such a man has nothing to excuse him from believing transubstaetiation it self ; for it is plain that he can bring himself to believe even when the thing is contrary to the clearest evidence that his senses can give him . si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur . postscript . these reflections were writ soon after the declaration came to my hands , but the matter of them was so tender , and the conveyance of them to the press was so uneasie , that they appear now too late to have one effect that was designed by them , which was , the diverting men from making addresses upon it ; yet if what is here proposed makes men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done , and is a means to keep them from carrying their courtship further than good words , this paper will not come too late . an answer to a paper , printed with allowance , entitled , a new test of the church of englands loyalty . 1. the accusing the church of england of want of loyalty , or the putting it to a new test , after so fresh a one , with relation to his majesty , argues a high degree of confidence in him who undertakes it . she knew well what were the doctrines and practices of those of the roman church , with relation to hereticks ; and yet she was so true to her loyalty , that she shut her eyes on all the temptations that so just a fear could raise in her ; and she set her self to support his majesties right of succession , with so much zeal , that she thereby not only put her self in the power of her enemies ; but she has also exposed her self to the scorn of those who insult over her misfortune . she lost the affections even of many of her own children ; who thought that her zeal for an interest , which was then so much decry'd , was a little too fervent : and all those who judged severely of the proceedings , thought that the opposition which she made to the side that then went so high , had more heat than decency in it . and indeed all this was so very extraordinary , that if she was not acted by a principle of conscience , she could make no excuse for her conduct . there appeared such peculiar marks of affection and heartiness , at every time that the duke was named , whether in drinking his health , or upon graver occasions , that it seemed affected : and when the late king himself ( whose word they took that he was a protestant ) was spoke of but coldly , the very name of the duke set her children all on fire : this made many conclude , that they were ready to sacrifice all to him , for indeed their behaviour was inflamed with so much heat , that the greater part of the nation be lieved they waited for a fit opportunity to declare themselves , faith in jesus christ was not a more frequent subject of the sermons of many , than loyalty ; and the right of the succession to the crown , the heat that appeared in the pulpit , and the learning that was in their books on these subjects , and the eloquent strains that were in their addresses , were all originals , and made the world conclude , that whatever might be laid to their charge , they should never be accused of any want of loyalty , at least in this king's time , while the remembrance of so signal a service was so fresh . when his majesty came to the crown , these men did so entirely depend on the promise that he made , to maintain the church of england , that the doubting of the performance appeared to them the worst sort of infidelity . they believed , that in his majesty , the hero , and the king , would be too strong for the papists , and when any one told them , how weak a tie the faith of a catholick to hereticks must needs be , they could not hearken to this with any patience : but looked on his majesties promise as a thing so sacred , that they imploy'd their interest to carry all elections of parliament-men , for those that were recommended by the court , with so much vigour , that it laid them open to much censure . in parliament they moved for no laws to secure their religion ; but assuring themselves , that honour was the kings idol , they laid hold on it , and fancied , that a publick reliance on his word , would give them an interest in his majesty , that was generous , and more suteable to the nobleness of a princely nature than any new laws could be : so that they acquieseed in it , and gave the king a vast revenue for life : in the rebellion that followed . they shewed with what zeal they adhered to his majesty , even against a pretender that declared for them . and in the session of parliament , which came after that , they shewed their disposition to assist the king with new supplies , and were willing to excuse and indemnifie all that was past ; only they desired with all possible modesty , that the laws which his majesty had both promised , and at his coronation had sworn to maintain might be ex●cuted . here is their crime , which has raised all this out-cry ; they did not move for the ex●cution of ●evere and penal laws but were willing to let those sleep , till it might appear by the behaviour of the papists , whether they might deserve that there should be any mitigation made of them in their favour . since that time , our church-men have have been constant in mixing their zeal for their religion against popery , with a zeal for loyalty against rebellions because they think these two are very well consistent one with another . it is true , they have generally expressed an unwillingness to part with the two tests ; because they have no mind to trust the keeping of their throats to those who they believe will cut them , and they have seen nothing 〈◊〉 the conduct of the papists , either ●●thin or without the kingdom , to make them grow weary of the laws for their sakes , and the same principle of common sense , which make it so hard for them to believe transubstantiation , makes them conclude that the author of this paper , and his friends , are no other , than what they hear , and see , and know them to be . ii. one instance in which the church of england shewed her submission to the conrt , was , that as soon as the nonconformists had drawn a new storm upon themselves , by their medling in the matter of exclusion , many of her zealous members went into that prosecution of them , which the court set on foot . with more heat , than was perhaps justifiable in it self , or reasonable in those circumstances ; but how censurable soever some angry men may be , it is somewhat strane to see those of the church of rome blame us for it , which has decreed some unrelenting severities against all that differ from her , and has enacted that not only in parliaments but even in general councils . it must needs sound odly to hear the sons of a church , that must destroy all others as soon as it can compass it , yet complain of the excesses of fines and ●mprisonments , that have been of late among ●s . but if this reproach seems a little strange when it is in the mouth of a papist , it is much more provoking ▪ when it comes from any of the court. were not all the orders 〈◊〉 late severity sent from thence ? did not the judges in every circuit , and the favourite justices of peace in every sessions , imploy all their eloquence on this subject ? the directions that were given to the justices and the grand iuries were all repeated aggravations of this matter : and a little ordinary lawyer , without any other visible merit , but an outragious fury in those matters , on which he has chiefly valued himself , was of a sudden taken in his majesties special favour , and raised up to the highest posts of the law. all these things , led s●me of our obedient clergy , to look on it as a piece of their duty to the king , to encourage that severity , of which the court seemed so fond , that almost all people thought , they had set it up for a maxime , from which they would never depart . i will not pretend to excuse all that has been done of late years : but it is certain , that the most crying seve●ities have been acted by persons that were raised up to be judges and magistrates for that very end : they were instructed , tr●sted and rewarded for it , both in the last and under the p●esent reign , church-preferments were distinguished rather as recompences of this devouring zeal , than of a real merit ; and men of more mode ate tempers were not only ill lookt at , but ill used . so that it is in it self very unreasonable to throw the load of the late rigour on the church of england , without distinction : but it is worse than in good manners it is fit to call it , if this reproach comes from the court. and it is somewhat unbecoming to see that ; which was set on at one time , disowned at another ; while yet he that was the chief instrument in it is still in so high a post ; and begins now to treat the men of the church of england , with the same brutal excesses , that he bestowed so lately and so liberally on the dissenters ; as if his design were to render himself equally odious to all mankind . iii. the church of england may justly expostulate when she is treated as seditinus ; after she has rendred the highest services to the civil authority , that any church now on earth has done , she has beaten down all the principles of rebellon , with more force and learning than any body of men has yet done ; and has run the hazard of enraging her enemies , and losing her friends , even for those , from whom the more learned of her members knew well what they might expect . and since our author likes the figure of a snake in ones bosom so well ; i could tell him , that according to the apo●ogue , we took up and sheltred an interest , that was almost dead , and by that warmth gave it life , which yet now with the snake in the bosom , is like to bite us to death . we do not say , that we are the only church that has the principles of loyalty , but this we may say , that we are the church in the world that carries them the highest ; as we know a church that of all others sinks them the lowest . we do not pretend that we are inerrable in this point , but acknowledge that some of our clergy miscarried in it upon king edwards death : yet at the same time others of our communion adhered more ftedily to their loyalty in favour of q. mary , that she did to the promises that she made to them . upon this subject our aurhor by his false quotation of history , forces me to set the reader right , which if it proves to the disadvantage of his cause , his friends may thank him for it . i will not enter into so tedious a digression , as the justifying queen . elizabeths being legitimate , and the throwing the bastardy on queen mary must carry me to ; this i will only say , that it was made out , that according to the best sort of arguments , used by the church of rome , i mean the constant tradition of all ages , king henry the eighth marrying with queen catherine , was inces●uous , and by consequence q. mary was the bastard , ●●d queen elizabeth was the legitimate issue . but our author not satisfied with defaming queen elizabeth , tells us , that the church of england was no sooner set up by her , than she enacted those bloody cannibal laws , to hang , draw and quarter the priests of the living god : but since these laws disturb him so much , what does he think of the laws of burning the poor servants of the living god , because they cannot give divine wership to that which they believe to be only a piece of bread ? the representation he gives of this part of our history , is so false , that tho upon q. elizabeths coming to the crown , there were many complaints exhibited of the illegal violences that bonner and other butchers had committed , yet all these were stifled , and no penal laws were enacted against those of that religion . the popish clergy were indeed turned out ; but they were well used , and had pensions assigned them ; so ready was the queen and our church to forgive what was past , and to shew all gentleness for the future . during the first thirteen years of her reign , matter went on calmly , without any sort of severity on the account of religion . but then the restless spirit of that party , began to throw the nation into violent convulsions . the pope deposed the queen , and one of the party had the impudence to post up the bull in london ; upon this followed several rebellions , both in england and ireland , and the papists of both kingdoms entred into confederacies with the king of spain and the court of rome the preists disposed all the people that depended on them , to submit to the popes authority in that disposition , and to reject the queens ; these endeavours , besides open rebelion , produced many secret practices against her life . all these things gave the rise to the severe laws , which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her raign . a war was formed by the bull of deposition , between the queen and the court of rome , so it was a necessary piece of precaution , to decleare all those to be traitors who were the missionaries of that authority which had stript the queen of hers : yet those laws were not executed upon some secular priests who had the honesty to condemn the deposing doctrine . as f●r the unhappy death of the queen of scotland , it was brought on by the wicked practices of her own party , who fatally involved her in some of them ; she was but a subject here in england ; and if the queen took a more violent way , than was decent for her own security , here was no disloyalty nor rebellion in the church of england , which owed her no sort of allegeance . iv. i do not pretend that the church of england has any great cause to value her self upon her fidelity to king charles the first , tho● our author would have it pass for the only thing of which she can boast : for i confess , the cause of the church was so twi●●ed with the king`s , that interest and duty went together : tho` i will not go so far as our author , who says , that the lavs of nature dictates to every individual to fight in his own defence : this is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time . the laws of nature are perpetual , can never be cancelled by any special law : so if these gentlemen own so freely , that this is a law of nature , they had best take care not to provoke nature too much , lest she fly to the reliefe that this law may give her , unless she is restrained by the loyalty of our church our author values his party much upon their loyalty to king charles the first : but i must take the liberty to ask him of what religion were the irish rebells ; and what sort of loyalty was it , that they shewed either in the first massacre , or in the progress of that rebellion ? their messages to the pope , to the court of france , and to the duke of larrain , offering themselves to any of these , that would have undertaken to protect them , are acts of loyalty which the church of england is no ways in clined to follow : and the authentical proofs of these things are ready to be produced . nor need i add to this , the hard terms that they offered to the king , and their ill usage of those whom he imployed . i could likewise repress the insolence of this writer , by telling him of the slavish submissions thattheir party made to cromwel , both father and son . as for their adhering to king charles the first , there is a peculiar boldness in our authors a●●ert●on , who says , that they had no hope nor interest in that cause : the state of that court is not so quite forgot , but that we do well remember what credit the queen had with the king , and what hopes she gave the party ; yet they did not so entirely espouse the kings cause , but that they had likewise a flying squadron in the parliaments army , how ●oldly soever this may be denyed by our author , for this i will give him a proof , that is beyond exception , in a declaration of that kings , sent to the kingdom of scotland , baring date the 21 of april 1643. which is printed over and over again , and as an author that writes the history of the late wars , had assured us the clean draught of it , corrected in some places with the king 's own hand , is yet extant : so that it cannot be pretended , that this was only a bold assertion of some of the kings ministers , that might be ill affected to their party . in that declaration the king studied to possess his subjects of scotland with the justice of his cause , and among other things , to clear himself of that imputation that he had an army of papists about him , after many things said on that head , these words are added : great numbers of that religion have been with great alac●ity entertained in that rebellious army against us : and others have been seduced , to whom we had formerly denyed imployments ; as appears by the examination of many prisoners , of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one troop or company of that religion . i hope our author will not have the impudence to dispute the credit that is due to this testimony : but no discoveries , how evident soever they may be , can affect some sort of men ; that have a secret against bl●shing . v. our author exhorts us , to charge our principles of loyalty , and to take example of our catholick neighbours , how to behave our selves towards a prince , that is not of our perswasion : but would he have us learn of our ●ish neighbours , to cut our fellow subjects throats ; and rebel against our king , because he is of another religion ? for that is the freshest example that any of our catholick neighbours have set us : and therefore i do not look so far back , as to the gunpowder-plot , or the league of france in the last age. he reproabhes us for failing in our fidelity to our king. but in this matter we appeal to god , angels and men ; and in particular to his majesty : let our enemies shew any one point of our duty , in which we have failed : for as we cannot be charged for having preacht any seditious doctrine , so we are not wanting in the preaching of the duties of loyalty , even when we see what they are like to cost us . the point which he singles out is , that we have failed in that grateful return , that we owed his majesty for his promise , of maintaining our church as it is established by law ; since upon that we ought to have repealed the sanguinary laws , and the late impious tests : the former being enacted to maintain the usurpation of queen elizabeth ; and the other being contrived to exclude the present king. we have not failed to pay all the gratitude and duty that was possible , in return to his majesties promise ; which we have carried so far , that we are become the object even of our enemies scorn by it . with all humility be it said , that if his majesty had promised us a farther degree of his favour , than that of which the law had assuered us , it might have been expected , that our return should have a degree of obedience beyond that which was required by law ; so that the return of the obedience injoyned by law , answers a promise of a protection according to law : yet we carried this matter farther ; for as was set forth in the beginning of this paper , we went on in so high a pace of compliance and confidence , that we drew the censuers of the whole nation on us : nor could any jealousies or fears give us the least apprehensions , tell we were so hard pressed in matters of religion , that we conld be no longer silent ; the same apostle that taught us to honour the king , said likewise , that we must obey god rather than man. our author knows the history of our laws ill ; for besides wha has been allready said , touching the laws made by queen elizabeth , the severest of our penall laws , and that which troubles him and his friends most , was past by k. iames after the gunpowder-plot ; a provocation thut might have well justified even greater severities . but tho our author may hope to impose on an ignorant reader , who may be apt to believe implicity , what he says concerning the laws of the last age , yet it was too hold for him to assert , that the tests , which are so lately made , were contrived to exclude the present king : when there was not a thought of exclusion many years after the first was made , and the duke was accepted out of the second by a special proviso . but these gentlemen will do well never to mention the exclusion ; for every time that it is named , it will make people call to mind , the service that the church of england did in that matter , and that will carry with it a reproach of ingratitude that needs not be aggravated . he also confounds the two tests , as if that for publick imployments , contained in it a declaration of the kings being an idolater , or as he makes it , a pagan : which is not at all in it , but in the other for the members of parliament , in which there is indeed a declaration , that the church of rome is guilty of idolatry ; which is done in general terms , without applying it to his majesty , as our author does : upon this he would infer , that his majesty is not safe till the tests are taken away : but we have given such evidences of our loyalty , that we have plainly shewed this to be false , since we do openly declare , that our duty to the king is not founded on his being of this or that religion ; so that his majesty has a full security from our principles , tho the tests contiune , since there is no reason that we , who did run the hazard of being ruined by the excluders , when the tide was so strong against us , would fail his majesty now , when our interest and duty are joyned together : but if the tests are taken away , it is certain that we can have no severity any longer ; for we shall be then laid open to the violence of such restless and ill-natured men , as the author of this pap●r and his brethren are . vi. the same reason that made our saviour refuse to throw himself down from the roof of the temple , when the devil tempted him to it , in the vain confidence , that angels must be assistant to him to preserve him , holds good in our case . our saviour said , thou shalt not tempt the lord thy god. and we dare not trust our selves to the faith and to the mercies of a society , that is but too well known to the world , to pretend , that we should pull down our pales , to let in such wolves among us . god and the laws hath given us a legal security , a●d his majesty has promised to maintain us in it : and we think it argues no distrust , either of god , or the truth of our religion , to say , that we cannot by any act of our own , lay our selves open , and throw away that defenee . nor would we willingly expose his majesty to the unwearied solicitations of a sort of men , who , if we may judge of that which is to come , by that which is past , would give him no rest , if once the restraints of law were taken off , but would drive matters to those extremities , to which we see their natures carry them headlong . vii , the last paragraph is a strain worchy of that school that bred our author ; he says , his majesty may withdraw his royal protection from the church of england which was promised her , upon the account of her constant fidelity , and he brings no other proof to confirm so bold an assertion but a false axiome of that despised philosophy , in which he was bred : cessante causa tollitur effectus this is indeed such an lndignity to his majesty , that i presume to say it with all humble reverence , these are the last persons whom he ought to pardon , that have the boldnels to touch so sacred a point as the faith of a prince , which is the chief security of government , and the foundation of all the confidence that a prince can promise himself from his people , and which , once blasted , can never be recovered : equivocations may be both taught and practised with less danger by an order that has little credit to lose ; but nothing can shike thrones so much , as such treacherous maxims i must also ask our author , in what point of fidelity has our church failed so far , as to make her forfeit her title to his majesties promises ? for as he himself has stated this matter , it comes all to this . the king promised that he would maintain the church of england as established by law. upon which in gratitude he says , that the church of england was bound to throw up the chief security that she had in her establishment by law ; which is , that all who are intrusted either with the legislative or the executive parts of our government , must be of her communion ; and if the church of england is not so tame and so submissive , as to part with this , then the king is free from his promise , and may withdraw his royal protection ; though i must crave leave to tell him , that the laws gave the church of england a right to that protection , whether his majesty had promised it or not . of all the maxims in the world , there is none more hurtful to the government , in our present circumstances , than the saying , that the kings promises and the peoples fidelity ought to be reciprocal ; and that a failu●e in the one , cuts off the other : for by a very natural consequence the subject may likewise say , that their oaths of allegeance being founded on the assurance of his majesties protection , the one binds no longer than the othir is observed : and the inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible , if the loyalty of the sos mueh decryed church of england , does not put a stop to them . a letter , containing some remarks on the two papers , writ by his late mai●sty king charles the second , concerning religion . sir , i thank you for the two royal papers , that you have sent me : i had heard of them before , but now we have them to well t●ested , that there is no hazard of being deceive by a false copy : you expect that in return , i should let you know , what impression they have made upon me . i pay all the reverence that is due to a crownd head , even in ashes ; to which i will never be wanting : far less am i capable of suspecting the royal attestation that accompanies them ; of the truth of which i take it for granted no man doubts ; but i must crave leave to tell you , that i am confident , the late king only copied them , and that they are not of his composing : for as they have nothing of that free air , with which he expressed himself ; so there is a contexture in them , that does not look like a prince ; and tho beginning of the first shewes it was the effect of a conversation , and was to be communicated to another : so that i am apt to think they were composed by another , and were so well relished by the late king , that he thought fit to keep them , in order to his examining them more particularly : and that he was prevailed with to copy them lest a paper of that nature might have been made a crime , if it had been found about him writen by another hand : and i could name one or two persons , who as they were able enough to compose such papers , so had power enough over his spirit to engage him to copy them , and to put themselves out of danger by restoring the original . you ought to address your self to the learned divines of our church , for an answer to such things in them as puzzle you , and not to one that has not the honour to be of that body , and that has now carried a sword for some time , and imploys the leasure that at any time he enjoyes , rather in philosophical and mathematical enquiries than in matters of controversie . there is indeed one consideration that determined me more easily to comply with your desires , which is , my having had the honour to discourse copiously of those matters with the late king himself : and he having proposed to me some of the particulars that i find in those papers , and i having said several things to him , in answer to those heads , which he offered to me only as objections , with which he seemed fu●ly satisfied , i am the more willing to communicate to you , that which i took the liberty to lay before his late majesty on several occasions : the particulars on which he insisted in discourse with me , were the uselessness of a law without a judge , and the necessity of an infallible tribunal to determine controversies to which he added , the many sects that were in england , which seemed to be a necessary consequence of the liberty that every one took to interpret the scriptures : and he often repeated that of the church of englands arguing , from the obligation to obey the church , against the sectaries , which he thought was of no force , unless they allowed more authority to the church then they seemed willing to admit , in their disputes with this church of rome . but upon the whole matter i will offer you some reflections , that will , i hope , be of as great weight with you , as they are with my self . i. all arguments that prove upon such general considerations , that there ought to be an infallible judge named by christ and clothed with his authority , signify nothing , unless it can be shewed us , in what texts of scripture that ●omination is to be found ; and till that is shewed , they are only arguments brought to prove that christ ought to have done somewhat that he has not done . so these are in effect so many arguments against christ , unless it appears that he has authorised such a judge : therefore the right way to end this dispute , is , to shew where such a constitution is a●thorised : so that the most that can be made of this is , that it amounts to a favourable presumption . ii. it is a very unreasonable thing for us to form presumptions , of what is , or ought to be , from inconveniences that do arise , in case that such things are no●●● for we may carry this so far , that it will not be easie to stop it . it seems more sutable to the infinite goodness of god , to communicate the knowledge of himself to all mankind , and to furnish every man with such assistances as will certainly prevail over him . it seems also reasonable to think , that so perfect a saviour as jesus christ was , should have shewed us a certain way , and yet confident with the free use of our faculties , of avoiding all sin : nor is it very easy to imagine , that it should be a reproach on his g●spel , if there is not an infallible preserv●tive against errour , when it is acknowledged , that there is no infallible prese●vative against sin : for it is certain , that the one damns us more infallibly , than the other . iii. since presumptions are so much insisted on , to prove what things must be appointed by christ ; it is to be considered , that it is also a reasonable presumption , that if such a court was appointed by him , it must be done in such plain terms that there can be no room to question the meaning of them : and since this is the ●●●ge upon which all other matters turn , it ought to be expressed so particularly , in whom it is vested , that there should be no occasion given to dispute , whether it is in one man or in a body ; and if in a body , whether in the majority , or in the two thirds , or in the whole body ●●animously agreeing ; in short , the chief thing in all governments being the nature a●d power of the judges , those are always distinctly specified ; and therefore if these things are not specified in the scriptures ; it is at least a strong presumption , that christ did not intend to authorise s●ch judges . iv. there were several controve●sies raised among the churches to which the apostles writ , as appears by the epistles to the romans , corinthians , ga●atians and colostians , yet the apostles ●ever make use of those passages that are pretended for this authority to put an end to these controversies ; which is a shrewd presumption , that they did not understand them in that selfe in which the church of rome does now take them . nor does st. paul in the directions that he gives to church-men in his epistles to timothy and titus , reckon this of submitting to the directions of the church for one , which he could not have omitted , if this be the tr●e meaning of those disputed passages : and yet he has not one w●rd sounding that way , which is very diffe●ent from the direction which one possessed with the present , view that the church of rome has of this ma●er must needs have given . v. there are some things very expresly taught in the n. testament , such as the rules of a good life , the vse of the sacraments , the addressing our selves to god , for mercy and grace , thro the sacrifice that christ offered for us on the cross , and the worshipping him 〈◊〉 god , the death , resurrection and ascention of iesus christ , the resurrection of our bodies and life everlasting : by which it is apparent : 〈◊〉 we are set beyond doubt in those matters ; if then there are other passages more obscure concerning other matt●rs , we must conclude , that th●● are not of that consequence , other wise they would have been a● plainly re●ealed as others are ; but above all , if the authority of the church is delivered to us in disputable terms , that is a just prejudice against it , since it is a thing of such consefluence , that ●t ought to have been revealed in a way so very clear and past all dispute . vi. if it is a presumption for particular persons to judge concerning religion , which must be still referred to the priests and other guides in sacred matters , this is a good argument to oblige all nations to continue in the established religion , whatever it may happen to be ; and above all others , it was a convincing argument in the mouths of the iews against our saviour . he pretended to be the messias , and proved it both by the prophesies that were accomplished in him , and by the miracles that he wrought : as for the prophesies , the reasons urged by the church of rome will conclude much stronger , that such dark passag●s as those of the prophets were , ought not to be interpreted by particular persons , but that the expos●ion of these must be referred to the priests and sanbedrin , it being expresly provided in their law ( deut. 17. 8 ) that when controversies arose , concerning any cause that was too intricate , they were to go to the place which god should choose , and to the priests of the tribe of levi , and to the iudge in those days , and that they were to declare what was right , and to their d●cision all were obliged to submit , under pain of death : so that by this it appears , that the priests in the iewish religion were authorised in so extraordinary a manner , that i dare say , the church of rome would not wish for a more formal testimony on her behalf : as f●r our saviours miracles , these were not sufficient neither , unless his doctrine was first found to be good : since moses had expresly warned the people ( deut. 13. 1. ) that if a prophet came and taught them to follow after other gods , they were not to obey him . tho he wrought miracles to prove his mission , but were to put him to death : so a iew saying , that christ , by making himself one with his father , brought in thk worship of another god , might well pretend that he was not oblig'd to yield to the authority of our saviours miracles , without taking cognisance of his doctrine , and of the prophesies concerning the messias , and in a word , of the whole matter . so that , if these reasonings are now good against the reformation , they were as strong in the mouths of the iews against our saviour : and form hence we see , that the authority that seems to be given by moses to the priests , must be understood with some restrictions ; since we not only find the prophets , and ieremy in particular , opposing themselves to the whole body of them , but we see likewise , that for some considerable time before our saviour's d●ys not only many ill-grounded traditions had got in among them , by which the v●go● of the moral law was much enervated , but likewise they were universally possessed with a selfe notion of their messias ; so that even the apostles themselves had not quite shaken off those prejudices at the time of our saviour's ascention . so that here a church , that was still the church of god , that had the appointed means of the expiations of their sins , by their sacrifices and washings , as well as by their circumcision , was yet under great and fatal errors , from which particular persons had no way to extricate themselves , but by examining the doctrine and texts of scripture , and by judging of them according to the evidence of truth , and the force and freedom of their faculties . vii . it seems evident , that the passage ( tell the church ) belongs only to the reconciling of differences : that of binding and lo●sing , according to the use of those terms among the iews signifies only an authority that was given to the apostles , of giving precepts , by which men were to be obliged to such duties , or set at liberty from them : and ( the gates of hell not prevailing against the church ) signifies only , that the christian religion was never to come to an end , or to perish : and that of ( christs being with the apostles to the end of the world ) imports only a special conduct and protection which the church may always expect , but as the promise , i will not leave ●●ee nor forsake thee ; that belongs to every christian , does not import an infallibility : no more does the other , and for those passages concerning ( the spirit of god that searches all things ) it is plain , that in them st. paul is treating of the divine inspiration , by which the christian religion was then opened to the world , which he sets in opposition to the wisdom or philosophy of the greeks ; so that as all those passages come short of proving that for which they are alledged , it must at last be acknowledged , that they have not an evidence great enough to prove so important a truth , as some would evince by them ; since 't is a matter of such vast consequence , that the proofs for it must have an undeniable evidence . viii . in the matters of religion two things are to be considered first , the account that we must give to god , and the rewards that we expect from him : and in this every man must answer for the sincerity of his heart , in examining divine matters , and the following what ( upon the best enquiries that one could make ) appeared to be 〈◊〉 : and with relation to this , there is no need of a judge : for in that great day every one must answer to god according to the talents that he had , and all will be saved according to their sincerity ; and with relation to that judgment , there is no need of any other judge but god. a second view of religion , is as it is a body united together , and by consequence brought under some regulation : and as in all states , there are subalterne judges , in whose decisions all must at least acquiesce , tho they are not infallible , there being still a sort of an apperl to be made to the sovereign or the supream legislative body ; so the church has a subalterne jurisdiction , but as the authority of inferiour judges is still regulated , and none but the legislators themselves have an authority equal to the law ; so it is not necessary for the preservation of peace and order , that the decisions of the church should be infallible , or of equal authority with the scriptures . if judges do so manifestly abuse their authority , that they fall into rebellon and treason , the subjects are no more bound to consider them ; but are obliged to resist them , and to maintain their obedience to their soveraign ; tho in other matters their judgment must take place , till they are reversed by the sovereign . the case of religion being then this , that iesus christ is the sovereign of the church ; the assembly of the pastors is only a subalterne judge : if they manifestly oppose themselves to the screptures , which is the law of christians , particular persons may be supposed as competent iudges of that , as in civil matters they may be of the rebellion of the judges , and in that case they are bound still to maintain their obedience to jesus christ. in matters indifferent , christians are bound , for the preservation of peace & unity , to acquiesce in the decisions of the church , and in matters justly doubtful , or of small consequence , tho they are convinced that the pastors have erred , yet they are obliged to be silent , and to bear tolerable things rather than make a breach but if it is visible , that the pastors do rebel against the sovereign of the church , i mean christ , the people may put in their appeal to that great judge , and there it must lie . if the church did use this authority with due discretion , and the people followed the rules that i have named with humility and modesty , there would be no great danger of many divisions ; but this is the great secret of the providence of god , that men are still men , and both pastors and people mix their passions and interests so with matters of religion , that as there is a great deal of sin and vice still in the world , so that appears in the matters of religion as well as in other things : but the ill consequences of this ; tho they are bad enough , yet are not equal effects that ignorant superstition , and obedient zeal have produced in the world , witness the rebellions and wars lot establishing the worship of images ; the croissades against the saracens in which many millions were lost ; those against hereticks , and princes deposed by popes , which lasted for some ages ; and the massacre of paris , with the butcheries of the duke of alv●in the last age , and that of ireland in this : which are , i suppose far greater misch●●●s that any can be imagined to 〈◊〉 out of a small divers●● of opinions : and the present 〈◊〉 of this church , notwithstanding all those unhappy rents that are in it , is a much more desirable thing , than the gross ignorance and blind superstition that reigns in italy and spain at this day . ix . all these reasonings concerning the infallibility of the church signify nothing , unless we can certainly know , whither we must go for this decision : for while one party shewes us , that it must be in the pope , or is no where , and another party sayes it cannot be in the pope , because as many popes have erred , so this is a doctrine that was not known in the church for a thousand years , and that has been disputed ever since it was first asserted , we are in the right to believe both sides ; first , that if it is not in the pope , it is no where ; and than , that certainly it is not in the pope ; and it is very incongruous to say , that there is an insallible authority in the church , and that yet it is not certain where one must seek for it ; for the one ought to be as clear as the other , and it is also plain , that what primacy so ever st. peter may be supposed to have had , the scripture sayes not one word of his successors at rome ; so at l●st this is not so clear , as a matter of this consequence must have been , if christ had intended to have lodged such an authority in that see. x. it is no less incongruous to say , that this infallibility is in a general council : for it must be somewhere else , otherwise it will return only to the church by some starts , and after long intervals : and as it was not in the church , for the first 320 years , so it has not been in the church these last 120 years . it is plain also , that there is no regulation given in the scriptures ; concerning this great assembly , who have a right to come and vote , and what forfeit this right ▪ and what number must concur in 〈…〉 infalli●●lity of the judgment . it is certain , there was never a general council of all the pastors of the church : for those of which we have the acts , were only the councils of the roman empire , but for those churches , that were in the south of africk , or the eastern parts of asia , beyond the bounds of the roman empire , as they could not be summoned by the emperours authority , so it is certain none of them were present : unless one or two of persia at nice , which perhaps was a corner of persia belonging to the empire ; and unless it can be proved , that the pope has an absolute authority to cut off whole churches from their right of coming to councils , there has been no general council these last 700 years in the world , ever since the bishops of rome have excommunicated all the greek churches upon such trifling reasons , that their own writers are n●w ashmed of them ; and i will ask no more of a man of a competent understanding , to satisfy him that the council of trent was no general council , acting in that freedom that became bishops , than that he will be at the pains to read card. pallavicins history of that council . xi . if it is said , that this infallibility is to be sought for in the tradition of the doctrine in all ages , and that every particular person must examine this : here is a sea before him , and instead of examining the small book of the n. testament , he is involved in a study that must cost a man an age to go thro it ; and many of the ages , thro which he carries this enquiry , are so dark , and have produced so few writers , at least so few are preserved to our dayes , that it is not possible to find out their belief . we find also traditions have varied so much that it is hard to say that there is much weight to be laid on this way of conveyance . a tradition concerning matters of fact that a●l people see 〈◊〉 less apt to fail than a tradition of points of speculation : and yet we see very ne●r the age of the apostles , contrary traditions touching the observation of easter , from which we must conclude , that either the matter of fact of one side , or the other , as it was handed down , was not true , or at least that it was not rightly understood . a tradition concerning the use of the sacraments , being a visible thing , is more likely to be exact , than a speculation concerning their nature ; and yet we find a tradition of giving infants the communion , grounded on the indispensible necessity of the sacrament , continued 1000. years in the church . a tradition on which the christians founded their joy and hope , is less like to be changed , than a more remote speculation , and yet the first writers of the christian religion had a tradition handed down to them by those who saw the apostles , of the reign of christ for a thousand years upon earth ; and if those who had matters at second hand from the apostles , could be thus mistaken , it is more reasonable to apprehend greater errors at such a distance . a tradition concerning the book of the scriptures is more like to be exact , than the exposition of some passages in it ; and yet we find the church did unaimously bel●eve the translation of the 70. interpreters to have been the effect of a miraculous inspiration . till s. ierome examined this matter better , and made a new translation from the hebrew copies . but which is more 〈◊〉 all the rest , it seems plain , that the fathers before the council of nice believed the divinity of the son of god to be in some sort inferiour to that of the father , and for some ages after the council of nice , they believed them indeed both equal , but they considered these as two different beings , and only one in essence , as , three men have the same humane nature in common among them ; and that as one candle lights another , so the one flowed from another ; and after the fifth century the doctrine of one invidual essence was received . if you will be farther informed concerning this , father peta● will satisfie you as to the first period before the council of nice , and the learned dr. cudworth as to the second . in all which particulars it appears , how variable a thing tradition is . and upon the whole matter , the examining tradition thus , is still a searching among books , and here is no living judge . xii . if then ●he authority that must decide controversies , lies in the body of the pastors scattered over the world , which is the last retrenchment , here as many and as great scruples will arise , as we fo●nd in any of the former heads . two difficulties appear at first view , the one is , how can we be assured that the present pastors of the church are derived in a just succession from the apostles : there are no registers extant that prove this : so that we have nothing for it but some histories , that are so carelesly writ , that we find many mistakes in them in other matter ; and they are so differen● in the very first links of that chain , that immediately succeeded the apost●es that the utmost can be made of this is , that here is an historical religion somewhat doubtful ; but here is nothing to found our faith on : so that if a succession from the apostles tim●s , is necessary to the constitution of that church , to which we must submit our selves , we know not where to find it : besides that , the d●ctrine of the necessary of the intention of the minister to the validity of a sacrament , throws us into inextricable difficulties . i know they generally say , that by the intention they do not mean the inward acts of the minister of the sacrament , but only that it must appear by his outward deportment , that he is in earnest going about a sacrament , aud not doing a thing in j●st ; and this appeared so reasonable to me , that i was ●orry to find our divines urge it too much : till turning over the rubricks that are at the beginning of the m●ssal , i found upon the head of the intention of the minister , that if a priest has a number of hosti●● before him to be consecrated , and intends to consecrate them all , except one , in that case that vagrant exception falls upon them all : it not being affixed to any one , and it is defined that he consecrates none at all . here it is plain , that the secret acts of a priest can defeat the sacrament : so this overthrows all certainty concerning a succession : but besides all this , we are sure , that the greek churches have a much more uncontested succession than the latines : so that a succession cannot direct us . and if it is necessary to seek out the doctrines that are universally received , this is not possible for a private man to know . so that in ignorant countries , where there is little study , the people have no other certainty concerning their religion , but what they take from their curate and confessor : since they cannot examine what is generally recei●ed . so that it must be confessed that all the arguments that are brought for the necessity of a constant infallible iudge , turn against all those of the church of rome , that do not acknowledge the infallibility of the pope : for if he is not infallible , they have no other iudge , that can pretend to it . it were also easie to shew , that some doctrins have been ●s un●versally received in some ages , as they have been rejected in others ; which shews , that the doctrine of the present church is not always a sure measure . for five ages together , the doctrine of the popes power to depose heretical princes was received without the least opposition : and this cannot be doubted by any that knows what has been the state of the church since the end of the eleventh century : and yet i believe few princes would allow this , notwithstanding all the concurring authority of so many ages to fortifie it . i could carry this into a great many other instances , but i single out this because it is a point in which princes are naturally extream sensible . upon the whole matter , it can never enter into my mind , that god , who has made man a creature , that naturally enquires and reasons , and that feels as sensible a pleasure when he can give himself a good account of his actions , as one that sees , does perceive in comparison to a blind man that is led about ; and that this god that has also made religion on design to perfect this humane nature , and to raise it to the utmost height to which it can arrive , has contrived it to be dark , and to be so much beyond the penetration of our faculties , that we cannot find out his mind in those things that are necessary for our salvation : and that the scriptures , that were writ by plain men , in a very familiar stile , and addrest without any discrimination to the vulgar , should become such an unintelligible book in these ages , that we must have an infallible iudge to expound it : and when i see not only popes , but even some bodies that pass for general councils , have so expounded many passages of it , and have wrested them so visibly , that none of the modern writers of that church pretend to excuse it , i say i must freely own to you , that when i find that i need a commentory on dark passages , these will be the last persons to whom i will address my self for it . thus you see how fully i have opened my mind to you in this matter ; i have gone over a great deal of ground in as few words as is possible , because hints i know are enough for you ; i thank god , these considerations do fully satisfie me , and i will be infinitely joyed , if they have the same effect on you . i am yours . this letter came to london with the return of the first post after his late majesties papers were sent into the countrey ; some that saw it , liked it well , and wished it to have it publick , and the rather , because the writer did not so entirely confine himself to the reasons that were in those papers , but took the whole controversy to task in a little compass , and yet with a great variety of reflections . and this way of examining the whole matter , without following those papers word for word , or the finding more fault than the common concern of this cause required , seemed more agreeing to the respect that is due to the dead , and more particularly to the memory of so great a prince ; but other considerations made it not so easie nor so adviseable to procure a license for the printing this letter , it has been kept in private hands till now : those who have boasted much of the shortness of the late kings papers , and of the length of the answers that have been made to them , will not find so great a disproportion between them and this answer to them . the citation of gilbert burnet , d. d. to answer in scotland on the 27th . june o'd stile , for high treason : together with his answer ; and three letters , wri● by him , upon that subject , to the right honourable the earl of midletoune , his majesties secretary of state. i know the disadvantages of pleading ones innocence , especially when he is prosecuted at the suit of his natural prince , to whom he owes so profound a duty : and this has kept me so long in a respectful silence , after i had seen my name in so many gazettes , aspersed with the blackest of all crimes : but there is both a time to be silent , and a time to speak : and as hitherto i have kept my self within the bounds of the one , so i do now take the liberty which the other allows me : but i was not hitherto silent where i ought to speak ; for i have made many humble addresses to his majesty by the earl of midletoune his secretary of state ; hoping that my innocence , joyned with my must humble duty , would have broke through all those prejudices and false informations , with which my enemies had possessed his majesty against me . upon the first notice that i had of his majesties having writ to the privy-council in scotland , ordering process to be issued out against me for high-treason , i writ my first letter : in that i could enter into no particulars ; for in the advertisement that was sent me , it was said , that there was no special matter laid to my charge in the king's letter . some days after that , i received a copy of my citation , to which i presently writ an answer , and sent that with my second letter to the same noble person ; to both these letters i received no answer : but i was advertised , that some exceptions were taken at some words in my first letter , and this led me to write my third letter , for explaining and justifying those words . i have kept my self thus within all those bounds that i thought my duty set me ; and am not a little troubled , that i am now forced to speak for my self . i have delayed doing it as long as i had any reason to hope , that my justification of my self was like to produce the effect which i most humbly desired , and which i expected : but now the day of my appearance being come , in which it is probable sentence will pass against me , since i have had no intimations given me to the contrary , i hope it will not shew either the least impatience , or the want of that submission , which i have on all occasions payed to every thing that comes to me from that authority , under which god had placed me that i publish these papers for my own vindication . if it had been only in defence of my life and reputation , that i had been led to appear in such a manner , i could have more easily rest●ained my self : and have lest these to be sacrifices to the unjust rage of those , who have so far prevailed on his majesties readiness to believe them , as to drive this matter so far : but the honour of that holy religion which i profess , and the regard i bear to that sacred function to which i am dedicated , lay such obligations on me , that i am determined by them , to declare my innocence to the world , which i intend to do more copiously within a little while : but in the mean time , i hope the following papers will serve to shew how clear i am of all the matters that are laid to my charge . there is one particular , which is come to my knowledge since i writ my answer , that will yet more evidently discover my innocence : i have receiv'd certain informations from england , that both sir iohn cochran and his son , and mr. ba●ter , have declared upon many occasions , and to many persons , that they cannot imagin how they come to be cited as witnesses against me ; that they can scarce believe it can be true ; since they know nothing that can be any way to my prejudice ; and that they must clear me of all the matters objected to me in this citation , and the two witnesses , that as it seems are citkd for that article that relates to holland , have solemnly declared , that they know nothing relating to me , or to the matters specified in this citation , which one of them has signifyed to my self in a letter under his hand ; so that the falsehood of this accusation is so evident , that it serves to discover the folly , as well as the impudence of those who have contrived it . but it is yet too early to set on a persecution for matters of religion , therefore crimes against the state must be pretended , and fastned on those whom these men intend to destroy . and as foul and black scandals are invented to defame me , and put in the mouths of those who are ready to believe and report every thing that may disgrace me , without considering that they do a thing that is as unbecoming ●hem , as it is base and injust in it self , so all arts are used to destroy me ; but i trust to the protection of that great god , who sees the injustice that is done me , and who will in his own time and way vindicate my innocence : and under him i trust to the protection of the high and mighty states of holland and west-friesland . my first letter to the earl of midletoune . may it please your lordship , the affairs of these provinces belonging to your lordship's share in the ministry , leads me to make this most humble address to you , and by your lordship to his majesty . i have received advertisements from scotland , that the king has writ to the privy council , ordering me to be proceeded against for high treason against his person and government : and that pursuant to this , the king's advocate has cited me to appear there ; if any thing in this world can surprise or disorder me , this must needs do it : for as few have writ more , and preacht oftner against all so●ts of treasonable doctrines and practices than my self , so all the discoveries that have been made of late years , have been so far from aspersing me , that though there has been disposition enough to find fault with me , yet there has not been matter given so much as for an examination . it is now thirteen years since i came out of scotland : and for these last five years , i have not so much as mentioned the commonest news in any letter i have writ to any in that kingdom : i do not mention acts of indemnity , because i kn●w that i do not need the benefit of them . i went out of england by his majesties approbation : and i have stayed out of it because his majesty expres●ed his d●slike of my returning to it . i am now upon the point of marrying in this countrey , and am naturalized by the sta●es of holland : but though by this , during my stay here , my allegiance is translated from his majesty to the soveraignty of this province , yet i will never depart from the profoundest respect to his sacred person , and duty to his government : since my coming into these parts , i have not seen any one person either of scotland or england that is outlawd for treason ; and when the king took exceptions at the access i had to the prince and princess of orange , there was not any thing of this kind objected to me . so i protest unto your lordship , i do not so much as imagine upon what it is that those informations , which it seems are brough to his majesty , are founded . my lord , as i am not ashamed of any thing i have done , so i am not afraid of any thing that my enemies can do to me : i can very easily part with a small estate , and with a life of which i have been long weary ; and if my engagements in this countrey could dispence with it , i would not avoid the coming to stand my tryal : but as this cannot be expected in the state in which i am , so i humbly throw my self at his majesties feet , and beg , that he may not condem me so much as in his thoughts , till i know what is the crime t●at is objected to me , that so i may offer a most humble justification of my self to him . i shall be infinitely sorry if any iudgment that may pass on me in scotland , shall oblige me to appear in print in my own defence : for i cannot betray my own innocence so far as to suffer a thing of his : nature to pass upon me , without printing an apology for my self ; in which i will be forced to make a recital of all that share that i have had in affairs these twenty years past : and in which i must mention a vast number of particulars , that i am afraid will ●e displeasing to his majesty : and as i will look on this as one of the greatest misfortunes that can possibly befall me , so with all the duty and humility in the world , i beg i may not be driven to it . i will not presume to add one word to your lordship , nor to claim any sort of favour or protection from you . for i address my self only to your lordship as you are the kings minister for these provinces . my lord , i am with all possible respect ▪ may it please your lordship your lordships , &c. hague , may , 10. 1687. the criminal letters at the instance of the lord advocate , against doctor gilbert bvrnet . james , &c. to our lovi●s , &c. herauls , pursevants , macers and messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constitute , greeting . forsame●kle as it is humbly meaned and complained to us be our right trustie and familiar councellor , sir iohn dalrymple the younger , of stair , our advocate for our interest , upon doctor gilbert burnet , that where , notwithstanding by the laws and act of parliament , and constant practique of this our kingdom , the venting of slanderous , treasonable and advised speeches and positions , and the reproaching our person , estate and government , and the r●cept●ng , supplying , aiding , assisting , intercomoning with , & doing favours to denounced rebels , or forfaulted traitors , are punishable by forfaulture of life , land and goods , and particularly by the 1. 3. 4. act of 8. p. k. ja. 6. it is statute ordain●d that non of our subjects , of whatsoever degaee , estate or quality , shall presume or take upon hand , privatelie or publicklie , in sermons , declamation , or familiar conferences , to utter any false , slanderous or untrue speeches , to the disdain , reproach , or contempt of us , our council or proceedings , or to the dishonour , hurt or prejudice of us , or to meddle in our affairs or estate by-gone , present , or in time coming , under the pain of death , and confiscation of moveables : and be the 10 act 10 p. k. ja. 6. it is statue and ordained , that all our subjects contain themselves in quietness and dutiful obedience to us , our government and authority , and that non of them presume nor take upon hand publicklie to declame or privatelie to speak or write any purpose of reproach or sclander against our person , estate or government , or to deprave our laws and acts of parliament , or misconstrue our proceedings , whereby any dis-like may be moved betwixt us , our nobility and loving subjects in time coming , under the pain of death ; and that thes that do in the contrair shall be repute as seditious and wicked instruments , enemies to us and the common-weel of this realm , and that the said paine of death shall be inflicted upon them with all rigour in example of others . and be the second act 2. sess. of the first parliament of k. ch. 9. we and our estates of parliament do declare , that thes positions , that it is lawful for subjects upon pretence of reformation , or any other pretence whatsomever , to enter into leagues or covenants , or to take up arms agaiust us , or thes commissionat by us , or to putt limitations upon their due obedience and allegeance , are rebellious and treasonable ; and that all persons who shall by writing , preaching or other malitious and advysed speaking , express thes treasonable intentions , shall be proceeded against and adjudged traitor● , and shall suffer forfaulter of life ▪ lands and goods , lyke as by the third act 1. p. of k. ja. 1. and 37. act of his second parliament , and be the 9. act of 13. p. k. james 2. and 144. act 12. p. k. james 6. and diverse and sundry other law● and acts of parliament of this our kingdome . it is declared high treason for any of our subjects to recept , supply or intercomon with declared or forfaulted traitors , or give them meat , drink , hous , harbour , or any relief or comfort , and if they do in the contra●r . they are to undergo the same pains the ●aid traitors or rebels ought to have sustained , if they had be in ap●rehended . nevertheless , it is of verity , that the said doctor gilbert burnet , shaking off all fear of god. conscience and sense of duty . allegeance ●nd loyalty to us his so●eraign and n●●ive prince , upon the safetie of whose person and maintainance of who●e soveraign authority and princely power , the happiness , stabili●●e and quyetness of our subjects do depend , 〈◊〉 most perfidiously and treasonably presumed to commit , and it guilty of the crimes above mentioned in 〈…〉 archbald campbel , sometime earl of argyle ; iames stewart , sone to sir iames stewart , sometime provost of edinburgh ; mr. robert ferguson , sometime chaplain to the late earl of shaftsbury ; thomas stewart of cultness ; willi●●n denhol● , sometime of west-sh●ls ; master robert martin , sometime clerk to our justice court ; and 〈…〉 rebells and traitors , being most justly by our high courts of parliament , and justice court , forfaulted for the crimes of treason , and fled to our kingdom of england , and to holland , flanders , geneva , and several other places . the said dr. gilbert burnet did upon the first , second , and remanent days of the moneths of ianuary , february , and remanent months of the year one thousand six hundred eighty two , one thousand six hundred eighty three , one thousand six hundred eighty four , or ianuary , february , march , or april , one thousand six hundred eighty five ; converse , correspond , and intercomon with the said archbald late earl of argyle , a forfaulted traitor , and that within the said doctor burnet his dwell●● 〈◊〉 in lincolns inn-fields , near the plew-inn in our city of london , or suburbs thereof , or some other part or pl●●e within our kingdom of england , defamed , slandered , and reproached , and advisedlie spoke to the dis●ain and reproach of our ●erson , government and authority , wrote several letters , and rece●ved answers thereto from the said forefaulted traitor when he was in holland , or elsewhere , expressely contrary to his duty and allegeance to us his soveraign lord and king. and suklik upon the first , second , and third dayes of the moneths of may , iune , iuly , august , september , october , november and december , one thousand six hundred eighty five , and upon the first , second , and third days o● the moneths of ianuary , february , and remnant moneths of the year one thousand six hundred eighty ●ex , and first , second , and third days of the moneths of ianuary , february , march , one thousand six hundred eighty seven , or ane or other of the days of ane or other of the said moneths or years ; the said doctor gilbert burnet did most treasonabile recept , supplied , aid●●d , assisted , conversed and intercomoned with , and did favour● to the said iames steward , mr. robert-ferguson , thomas stewart , william den●olin , and mr. robert martyn , forfaulted traitors and rebels in the cities of r●terdam , amsterdam , leyden , breda , geneva ; or some other part or place within the netherlands , or elsewhere ; publickly and avowedly uttered several speeches and positions , to the disdain of our person , authority and government ; continues and persists in such undutiful and treasonable practises against us and our government ( we being his soveraign lord and prince ) expreis contrair to his allegeance and duty . by committing of the whilk crimes above specifyed , or either of them , the said doctor burnet is guilty and culpable of the crime of high treason , and is art and part thereof , which being found to be one inqu●ist● he ought and should to suffer fortaulture of life , land and goods to the terror and example of others to commit the like hereafter . our will is , hearfor , and we char●e you straitlie , and command , that incontinent this our letter seen , yee pass , and in our name and autho●ie , c●mmand and charge the said doctor gilbert burnet , above complained upon , be sound of trumpet with 〈…〉 , and using other solemnitie● necessar , to come and find sufficient caution and sovertie afte● in our books , of adjournal , that he shall compeir b●fore our lords justice general . justice cl●●●k and 〈◊〉 of ●●sticiary , within the t●●baith or criminal court house of edinburgh ; the twentie sevinth day of iune next to come , in the hour of caus , ther● to underlye the law for the crimes above-mentioned , and that 〈…〉 paines contained in the new acts of parliament ; and that yee charge him personally , if he can be apprehended and falizeing thereof at his dwelling at his dwelling-house , and be open pro●●mation at the 〈…〉 of the head burgh of the shyre , stewartie , regalitie , and other jur●sction where he dwells , to come and find the said sovertie acted in maner forsaid within six dayes , if he be within this our kingdome , and if he be cut with the samyne , that ye command and charge him in maner forsaid be open proclamation at the mercat croce of edinburgh . p●er and shoar as leith , to come and find the said sovertie within threescore dayes next after he be●s charged charged be you thereto under the pain of rebellion , and putting of him to our horn whilk six and threescore dayes respectively being by past , and the said sovertie not being found , nor no intimation made by him to you of the finding thereof , that ye incontinet hereefter denounce him our rebel , and put him to our horn escheat , and in ●ring all his moveable goods and geir to our use for his contemption and disobedience . and if he come and find the said sovertie , in●imation always being made be him to you of the finding thereof , that summoned and assyse hereto not exceeding the number of 〈…〉 five persons , together with such 〈◊〉 who best know the veritie of the premises , whose names shall be given you in roll subscribed by the said complain●● . ●●k person under the pain of ane hundred merks . and that ye within fift●●n dayes after his 〈◊〉 for not sin●ing of caution , caus registrate thi● our 〈◊〉 with your execution thereof , 〈…〉 justice as ye will answer to us thereupon , the whilk to do commits to you conjunctly and severallie our full power be thir our letters delyvering them be yow duelie execute and indor●●t again tot he bearer . given under our seal at edenburgh the nyneteinth day of april , and of our reign the third year , 1978. ex deliberatione dominorum commissionariorum iusticiarii sic subscribitur signed 19. apryle 1687. tho. gordonne . the witnesses against doctor gilbert burnet are , sir iohn coohran of o●kll●ree , iohn cochran of watersyd . mr. robert vvest , lawyer , englishman . mr. zachary bourne , brewer , englishman . mr. vvilliam carstalres , preacher . robert baird , merchant in holland . mr. richard baxter , preacher . an answer to the criminal letters issued out against me . i look upon it as a particular misfortune , that i am forced to answer a citation that is made in his majesties name , which will be ever so sacred with me , that nothing but the sense of an indispensable duty could draw from me any thing that looks like a contending with that sublime character . i owe the defence of my own innocence and of my own reputation and life to my self : i owe also to all my kindred and friends , to my religion as i am a christian and a protestant , and to my profession as i am a church-man , and above all , to his majesty , as i am his born-subject , such a vindication of my loyalty and integrity , as may make it appear , that my not going to scotland , according to the tenour of this citation , does not flow from any sense of guilt or fear , but meerly from those engagements under which i am in holland . i hope my contradicting or refuting the matters of fact set forth in this citation , shall not be so maliciously perverted by any , as if i meant to reflect either on his majesty for writing to his council of scotland , ordering this citation to be made , or on his advocate for forming it , and issuing it out . but as i acknowledge , that upon the information that it seems was offer'd of those matters here laid against me , it was very reasonable for hs majesty to order justice to be done upon me ; so his advocate , in whose hands those informations it seems are now put , had all possible reason to lay them against me , as he has done ; and therefore i will not pretend to make an exception to the laws and acts of parliament , set forth in the first part of this citation ; but i will only answer the matters of fact laid to my charge ; and whatsoever i say concerning them , does only belong to my false accusers ; and therefore i hope they will not be lookt on as things in which even his majesties advocate , but much less his sacred majesty is any ways concerned . i am first accused for having seen conversed with , and held correspondence with the late earl of argyle : and to make this appear the more probable , the place is marked very critically , where i lived ; and where , as it is pretended , we met , but as it is now almost two years since the late argyle was taken and suffered ; and that a full account was had of all his secret practices , in all which i have not been once so much as mentioned , tho' it is now a year since i have lived and preacht openly in these provinces . the truth is , that for nine years before the late earl of argiles forfeiture , i had no sort of correspondence with him , nor did i ever see him since the year , 1676 after his escape out of prison i never saw him , nor writ to him , nor heard from him , nor had i any sort of commerce with him , directly nor indirectly : the circumstance of my house , and the place in which i lived , is added , to make the thing look somewhat probable : but tho' it is very easy to know where i lived , and i having dwelt in lincolns-inn-fields the space of seven years , it was no hard matter to add this particular ; yet so inconsiderate is the malice of my enemies , that even in this , it leads them out of the way ; for soon after argile's escape , and during the stay that as is believed he made in london , i had removed from lincolns-inn-fields into brook-buildings ; this makes me guess at the informer , who saw me often in the one house , but never in the other : and yet even he , who has betrayed all that ever past between us , has not impudence enough th charge me with the least disloyalty , though i concealed very few of my thoughts from him . with this of my seeing argile , the article of the scandalous and treasonable words pretended to be spoken by me to him , against his majesties person and government , falls to the ground ; it is obvious that this cannot be proved , since argile is dead : and it is not pretended that these words were uttered in the hearing of other witnesses : nor is it needful to add , that his majesty was then only a subject , so that any words spoken of him at that time cannot amount to treason : but i can appeal to all those with whom i have ever conversed , if they have ever heard me fail in the respect i owed the king : and i can easily bring many witnesses from several parts of europe , of the zeal with which i have on all occasions expressed my self on those subjects , and that none of all those hard words , that have been so freely bestowed on me , has made me forget my duty in the least . i am in the next place accused of correspondence with iames stewart , mr. robert ferguson , thomas stewart , william denholm , and mr. robert martyn , since my coming out of england , and that i have entertained and supplied them in foreign parts ; particularly in the cities of amsterdam , rotterdam , leyden , breda , geneva , or in some other parts within the netherlands . this article is so very ill laid in all its branches , that it shews my enemies have very ill informations concerning my most general acquaintance since ; tho' there are , among those that are condemned for treason , some that are of my kindred and ancient acquaintance ; they have here cast together a company of men who are all ( iames stewart only excepted ) absolutely unknown to me , whom i never saw , and with whom i never exchanged one word in my whole life , as far as i can remember ; one of them mr. robert martyn , was as i ever understood it , dead above a year before i left england , as for iames stewart , i had a general acquaintance with him twenty years ago , but have had no commerce with him now for many years , unless it was that i saw him twice by accident , and that was several years before there was any sentence past on him : my accusers know my motion ill , for i have not been in breda these twenty three years . i se●led in the hague upon my coming into holland , because i was willing to be under the observation of his majesties envoy : and i chose this place the rather , because it was known , that none of those that lay under sentences come to it . i have never gone to amsterdam or roterdam in sccret : and have never been there but upon my private affairs , and that never above a night or two at a time ; and i have been so visible all the while that i was in those places , that i thought there was no room left even for calumny . in the last place it is said , that i have publickly and avowedly uttered several speeches and positions to the disdain of his majesties person , authority and government , and that i continue and persist in those treasonable practises this is so generally afferted , that it is enough for me to say , that it is positively false : but i have yet clearer evidence to the contrary of this : i have preached a whole sermon in the hague against all treasonable doctrines and practises ; and in particular against the lawfulness of subjects rising in arms against their sovereign , upon the acc unt of religion : and i have maintained this so oft , both in publick in private , that i could , if i thought it convenient , give proofs of it that would make all my enemies be ashamed of their ●njustice and malice . the witnesses cited against me are first , sir iohn cochran , whom i have not seen above this four years last past , and with whem i have had no sort of commerce since i saw him it is almost two years since he had his pardon , so it is probable he then told all that he has ever told concerning me : and it is not likely , that the matter would have been let lie asleep all this while , if he had said any thing to my prejudice . i confess i have been long acquainted with him , i look upon him as a man of honour ; and i reckon my self so safe in his honour , and in my own innocence , that i do very freely release him from all the obligation of frindship and confidence , and with that he may declare every thing that has past between us : for then i am sure he will do me the right to own , that as oft as we talkt of some th●n●s that were complained of in scotland , i took occation to repeat my opinion , of tie duty of subjects to submit and hear all the ill administrations that might be in the government , but never to rise in armt upon that account . the next witness is his son , whom i never saw but once or twice , and with whom i n●v●r entered into any discourse , but what became a man of my profession to so young a person , exhorting him to the duties of a christian. the next two are mr. west and mr. bourn , whose faces i do not know . after them come mr. carstaires and mr. , baird . whose faces i know not neither , it seems these are the witnesses to be led against me for the article relating to the netherlands ; but as i am wholly a stranger to mr. carstaires , so i do not so much ar know if there is such a person in being as robert baird , merchant in holland . and for the last , mr. baxter , i have had no correspondence at all with him these two and twenty years ; unless it was that once or twice i have met him by accident in a v●sit in a third place , and that once about six years ago i went to discourse with him concerning a matter of history in which we differ'd ; but as all our conversation at that time was in the presence of some witnesses so it was not at all relating to matters of state. and now i have gone over all the matter that is laid against me in this citation , and have made such reflections both on the facts that are alled●ed , as and the witnesses that are named , as will i hope satisfie even my enemies themselves , of the falsehood and injustice of these informations . so that i presume so far on his majesties justice , as to expect that all the indignation which is kindled against me , will be t●r●ed upon my false 〈◊〉 . to all this i will add one thing further for my justification , tho i am fully satisfied it is that which i am not obliged to do , and which if i were in other circumstances i would not do my self ; as i would advise no other man to do it , for it is a part of that right that every man has to preserve himself by all lawful ways , that he do not accuse himself , and by consequence , that he do not purge himself by oath of matters objected to him : and i do not so well approve of the courts of inquisition , as to give countenance to a practice which was first set on foot by them , of requiring men to answer upon oath to matters objected to them . if i were not a churchman i would not do this which i am about to do ; as i declare i will never do it again , let my enemies lay to my charge what they please . but the regard i have to this sacred function to which i am dedicated , makes me now once for all . offer this solemn purgation of my seif . i attest the great god , the searcher of all things , and the iudge of all men , that all the matters of fact laid to my charge in this citation , are utterly groundless , and absolutely false . this i am ready to confirm with my corporal oath , and to receive the sacrament upon it . and now i hope i have said enough to satisfie his majesty concerning my innocence , so that i am confident he will not only discharge all further proceedings against me , upon this accusation , but that he will express his royal displeasure against my false accusers . but if the power of my enemies , and their credit with his majesty is still so great , that this matter shall be carried further , and that advantage shall be taken from my not appearing in scotland , to proceed to a sentence against me , which some brutal men now in the hague are threatning before hand , that they will execute it : i then make my most humble appeal to the great god , the king of kings , who knows my innocence , and to whom my blood will cry for vengeance , against all that may be any way concerned in the shedding of it . he will at the great day judge all men righteously , without respect of persons ; it is to him i fly , who i am sure will hear me . judge me o god , accoraing to the integrity that is in me . at the hague , may , 17. 1687. gilbert burnet . my secerd letter to the earl of midletoune . may it please your lordship , the copy of the citation against me , has been sent me out of scotland , since i took the liberty to write last to your lordship ; this puts me on a second ▪ address to you , for conveying the enclosed answer , which i most humbly lay down at his majesties feet . i am confident that the falsehood of the matters objected to me , will appear so evident to his majesty , as well as to all the world besides , that he will not only order the proceedings to be quite discharged , but that he will also order some reparation to be made to me , for so publick a blemish , as even a citation for so high a crime amount●s to . i confess the many hard things that have been of late cast on me , and in particular to young and old , and forraifners as well as english men , that have been coming into these darts , make me see that my enemies have possessed his majesty with thoughts of me , that i must crave leave with all humility to say , that they are as undeserving as hard . what have i either done or said , to draw on me so heavy and so long a continued displeasure ? but my comfort lyes in the witness that i have within me , of my own innocence : so that i dare appeal to god , as i do new to his vicegerent . since this matter is now become so publick , and that my name is now so generally kn●wn ; i must not be wanting to my own innocence ; especially when not only my life and reputation are struck at , but the religion that i profess is wounded through my sides : therefore till i have put in order my m●meirs for a larger work , i f●nd it in some sort necessary to print the citation , together with this answer . but i had much rather have all this prevented , by an effect of his majesties iustice , in ordering an end to be put to this accusation , and that by some act that may be as publick as the citation it self was , which may hear his majesties being satisfied with my innocence , as to these matters ; but if i have still as melancholy an answer to this , as i have had to all the former applications i have made , i must maintain my innocence the best way i can , in which i will never forget that vast duty that i owe his majesty , whatsoeuer i may meet with iu my owu particular . if there is any thing either in the iuclosed papen , or in this letter , that seems a little too vehement , i hope the provocation that i have met with will be likewise considered ; for while my life and reputation are struck at , and while some here are threatning so high , a man must be forgiven to shew that be is not quite unsensible ; and tho my duty to the king is proof against all that can ever be done to provoke me , yet i must be suffered to treat the instruments and procurers of my disgrace , who are contriving my destruction , with the plainness that such practices draw from me . i will delay printing aay thing for a fortnight , till i see whether your lordship is like to receive any orders from his majesty relating to him , who is , may it please your lordship , your lordships , &c. hague , may. 17. old st. 1687. my third letter to the earl of midletoune . may it please your lordship , i venture once more to renew my addresses to your lordship , before i print the paper that i sent you by my last of the seventeenth of may , together with the two lettes that i writ you : for i find it necessary to add this , and that it go with the rest to the press . i am told , that great advantages have been taken upon an expression in my first letterr , in which i writ , that by my naturalisation during my stay here , my allegeance was translated from his majesty to the sovereignty of this provence ; as if this alone was crime enough ; and i hear that some who have been of the profession of the law are of this mind . i indeed thought that none who had ever pretended to study law , or the general notions of entercourse among nations , could mistake in so clear a point . i caution'd my words so , as to shew that i considered this translation of my allegeance only as a temporary thing during my stay here . and can any man be so ignorant as to doubt of this ? allegeance and protection are things by their nature reciprocal : since then naturalisation gives a legal protection , there must be a return of allegeance due upon it . i do not deny the root of naturali allegeance remains , but it is certainly under a suspension , while the naturalised person enjoys the protection of the prince or state that has so receiv'd him . i know what a crime it had been if i had become naturalised to any state in war with the king : but when it was to a state that is in alliance with him , and when it was upon so just a ground as my being to be married and settled in this state , as it could be no crime in me to desire it , so i having obtained it , am not a little amased , to hear that any are so little conversant in the law of nations , as to take exception at my words . our saviout has said , that a man cannot servs two masters : and the nature of things say , that a man cannot be at the same time under two allegeanees . his majesty by naturalising the earl of feversham and many others of the french nation , knows well what a right this gives him to their allegeance , which no doubt he as well as many others have sworn , and this is a translating thesr allegeance with a witness : that lord was to have commanded the troops that were to be sent into flanders in 1678 against his natural prsnce : and yet though the laws of france are high enough upon the points of soveraignty , it was never so much as pretended that this was a crime . and it is so much the interest of all princes to assure themselves of those whom they receive into their protection by naturalising them ( since without that they should give protection to so many spies and agents for another prince ) that if i had not very good grounds to assure me , that some have pre ended to make a crime out of my words , i could not easily believe it . my lord , this is the last trouble that i will give your lordship upon this subject , for it being now a month since i made my first address to you , i must conclude , that it is resolved to carry this matter to all extremities ; and mr. d' albevilles instances against me , and the threatnings of some of his countrymen , make me conclude , that all my most humble addresses to his majesty are like to have no other effect but this , that i have done my duty in them ; so that it seems i am to be judged in scotland . i am sorry for it , because this will engage me in a defence of my self , i mean a justification of my own innocence , which i go to much against my heart : but god and man seee that i am forced to it : and no threatnings of any here with frighten me ; for i will do that which i think fit for me to do to day , though i were sure to be assassinated for it to morrow : but to he last moment of my life i will pay all duty and fidelity to his majesty . my lord , i am with a profound respect your lordships , &c. hague , iune 6. old st. 1687. advertisement . when i had resolved on the printing these papers , and was waiting till the day should come to which i was cited , i received a new advertisement , that the first citation was let fall , and that i was cited of new to the 15th . of august , to answer to the crimes of high treason , upon the account of two heads in my first letter to the earl of midletoune : the one is . that i say that by my naturalization i am loosed from my allegeanee to his majesty ; and the other is , that i threaten his majesty with the printing and discovering of secrets that have been long hid . if after what i have hither to met with , there were room lest for new surprises , this would have been a very great one . those who have advised the king to this way of proceeding against me , shew that they consider very little the reputation of his majees justice and so i be but sacrificed , they do not care how much the king's honour suffers in it : for first , after a citation of high treason , which has made so much noise , that is let fall : which is plainly to confess , that there is no truth in all those matters that were laid to my charge ; and then , where is the justice of this way of proceeding , to summon a man to appear upon the pretence of crimes , of which they know him to be innocent ? but this new matter is of such a nature , that it is not easie for me to find words soft enough to speak of it with the decency that becomes me . this is now more the cause of the states of holland and west-friezland than it is mine . it is indeed the cause of all the sovereigns in the world , and so it is his majesties own cause , who has so often call'd the naturalised french his subjects , and by consequence they owe him an allegeance , and so here must be at least a temporary translation of their allegeance made to him from their natural prince : and either this must be the same as to those who are naturalised by the states here , or they are not a sovereign state , and by consequence this cause is theirs , and not mine ; since the crime of which i am now accused is the acknowledging my self to have become their subject during my stay here , upon their having granted me the benefit and protection of naturalisation ; so that either his majesty was much mistaken in calling the french that are naturalised , his subjects ; or it can be no crime in me to have owned my self to have become a temporary subject to the statet . and if those who have studied the roman law will reflect a little on the effects that belonged to the ( ius civitatis ) or the rights that followed on the being made a roman citizen , which are the same in all sovereign states , and that naturaluzation is with regard to a prince or state , that which adoption was by the roman law with regard to private families , they will see that my enemies do not reflect enough on the principles of law when they pretend to make me a criminal upon such an account . if i had been charged for having desired to be naturalised , i confess there had been some more colour for it : but since it is now a received practice over all europe for the subjects of one state to procure their being naturalised in another ; it is unaccountable how any can call in question that tie of allegeance that he who is naturalised owes his new masters . not have my enemies considered how much this way of proceeding against me , must si●k the credit of his majesties naturalising strangers ; for how can they expect a constant protection from him , if it is made apparent that the king does not think he has a right to their allegeance ? and into what a consternation must it throw them when they find by my case that the king looks upon them as so many traitors for becoming his subjects , and for swearing allegeance to him ? for that oath is sworn in terms that are plain and full , and that have not the qualification that i put in my words of during my stay here ; so that they are much more criminal than it can be pretended that i am . the other article is no less injurious to his majesty , since they would make a crime out of my words , that mention my fear that he may be displeased at some things that may be in the apology , that i will be obliged to make for my self , to the writing and printing of which a sentence against me will drive me . if these men who have advised this , had the regard to his majesty which they owe him , they would not have presumed to infer , that it was a threatning of his majesty when i say , that i must justifie my self : or that any history of past transactions can be a want of duty to him , this consequence of theirs intimates that his life , or the late king his brothers , cannot bear a true history , otherwise where is the threatning ? but how great a crime this is , will i hope appear to his majesty ▪ when he has the leisure to reflect upon it ; yet there may be many particulars that i must necessarily bring in , in the history that i am writing , which have such a connection with what relates to my self , that i cannot pass them by ; which yet if it could be avoided , may not be fit for publick view . now if my enemies fancy , that it is a crime for me to justifie my self , because they have piss●ssed his majesty against me , i could answer this with some famed sayings of tacitus ' s , that would disturb 'em a little ; and if in a humble groan that i make before his majesty , i mention this as a consideration that may be of some weight with him , they who can turn this expression of my duty and respect into a crime , and are successful in the attempt , have a talent for which i do not envy them , though i my self come to feel the weight of it . hague , iun. 27. old st. 1687. g. burnet . a sermon preached before the king at whitehall, on the second of december, 1697 being the day of thanksgiving for the peace / by gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1697 approx. 52 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 8 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30452) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 46078) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1418:10) a sermon preached before the king at whitehall, on the second of december, 1697 being the day of thanksgiving for the peace / by gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 15 p. re-printed by the heirs and successors of andrew anderson, london ; edinburgh : 1697. "published by his majesty's special command." imperfect: pages stained and torn, with print show-through and loss of print. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-01 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2005-01 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached before the king , at whitehall , on the second of december , 1697. being the day of thanksgiving for the peace . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert , lord bishop of sarum , published by his majesty's special command . printed at london , and re-printed at edinburgh , by the heirs and successors of andrew anderson , printer to his most excellent majesty , anno dom. 1697. 2 chron. ix . 8. blessed be the lord thy god , which delighted in thee , to set thee on his throne to be king for the lord thy god : because thy god loved israel , to establish them for ever , therefore made he thee king over them , to do judgment and justice . these are the words of an arabian queen , who was so moved with a noble curiosity , raised by the fame of solomon's wisdom , that she undertook a journey from the utmost parts of the earth , furnished herself both with an equipage and presents suitable to her rank , and also with questions , by which she might judge whether fame had not too much heightned this great king's character . she could not believe the half of what she had heard ; and having probably a good opinion of her own understanding , she resolved to try his with those questions that puzzled her self . but when she came , and found that report , instead of magnifying matters , had been very defective , when she observed the compass of his knowledge , with the depth of his mind , and that he applied his speculations to the arts of government , as well as to the contemplations of nature ; when she saw his vast designs of buildings ( his own as well as gods house ) so wonderfully executed ; the treasures he was heaping up , and the methods of trade he was setting on , for procuring constant and fresh supplies ; and that he could join the magnificence that belonged to his character , with the more real greatness of his own comprehensive mind : so that while he employed his thoughts in the sublimest enquiries , he did not neglect even those lesser ones , of external grandeur , which how inconsiderable soever they may seem , to a soul capable of vaster things , yet are necessary to maintain those impressions of awe and respect which give authority to government ▪ when she saw the state in which he was served , the pomp of his retinue , and his glorious processions to the temple , she was overcome with wonder ; she despised her own dignity and kingdom : and thought that the subjects and servants of such a prince , were happier than the soveraigns of other nations . her admiration of this being above all ordinary expressions , she vents it in those raptures that i have read . she adores the great jehovah of the jews , who had taken pleasure in advancing one who so well deserved it , and who imployed it so worthily , in raising the honour of that god who had so eminently exalted him . from hence she concluded , that certainly god loved that nation , whom he had blessed with such a prince , by whose wisdom and conduct they were in all probability to be established on the firmest basis : the best principles and measures of government , which would make them sure and lasting . establish them for ever . for she could not think but that so extraordinary a blessing must be designed for great ends. such a king would certainly govern them both with judgment and justice . two words that seem to signify the same thing ; yet the masters of that language put this difference , that the former relates to the rewarding , and the latter to the punishing part of justice ▪ so wise a king would maintain a severe execution . of law against offenders , and be no less careful to find out the men of merit , and to trust , advance , and reward these ▪ certainly such a prince , and such an administration are so great blessings , and so much the greater , because so little common , so few instances of them occurring either in the observation of the present age , or the records of past times ; that wheresoever we meet them , we ought to acknowledge they are the special favours of heaven , and the most distinguishing marks of god's loving a nation . the blessings we now enjoy , and that great one which at this time we do particularly acknowledge , do so naturally carry us to devotions like those in my text , that all my hearers must be beforehand with me in the application . but in our case there are some specialities that give it a peculiar exaltation ; solomon had his crown , his treasures and armies transmitted down to him ; conquests were made for him , he himself had gone through none of those scenes of horror , but had an easy inheritance conveyed from his father , without battels or blood , fatigue or danger : he was bred up to the maxims of government , and acqu●inted with all his fathers secrets , his designs as well as his conduct ; so that he began upon great advantages . david's long and glorious reign before him , had prepared peoples hearts to ●ove and obey him , who was god's choice as well as his father's . the building so magnificent a temple in the beginnings of his quiet and auspicious reign , made him the delight and wonder of his people . thus the causes of his being so great and prosperous , were very visible . if then the queen of sheba was so struck with seeing solomon in all his glory , with how much lou●er accents ought we to carry on the hallelujahs of this day , who see a prince raised and conducted by such a special train of amazing providences , without any of those supports , that every step he has made , carries in it characters of a particular direction from heaven ! he has , indeed , the blood of soveraigns in ●im , but his crowns are the gifts of heaven . the two great heroes of the last age , the defenders of religion , and the patrons of liberty , were proper sources to give life and descent to one , in whom their characters were to be exalted , as well as their dignity was to be raised . they were both of a race of sovereigns , one was of the first form ; but what might be wanting in the extent of their territories , and the lustre of their coronets , was fully made up in those truly royal accomplishments of their minds . they were capable of the greatest things , and acted in a sphere suited to their capacity : they talked little , but did wonders : they had all the gravity , as well as all the virtues of religion in them , without the affectations of shew or hypocrisy : they had none of the arts of flattery or insinuation , yet could bring vast multitudes to depend on them , to trust to them , and to obey them . they had souls of so peculiar a make , that they seemed born to animate whole nations to a pitch of their own courage , to a like zeal for religion , and a like love of liberty . they lived great , but died greater ; the greater for the conjunction of their descent , the mixing those noble qualities of their minds , as well as their blood. the issue of which an union was designed to perfect the work which they had begun ▪ that seemed buried with them , but was to have a second and nobler revival in one , whose composition from such principles gave a just hope to expect all that we do now see ▪ one character belonged to them both so equally , that no wonder if in the conjunction it is carried to a further perfection . they wrestled through great difficulties , and as great misfortunes , but with so firm a constancy , that no cross adventures could ever damp them , or sink them even to the hearkning to any propositions , other than what they had pretended to in their most prosperous condition . so little power had fortune over their minds , unless it was to animate them with so fresh a courage , that they rose by misfortunes : they never had better armies about them , than soon after they had met with such checks , that their enemies look'd on them as lost , without a possibility af recovery . the two greatest powers then in europe , after they had found them too hard for them in the galanter methods of war , were not ashamed to betake themselves to the baser ones of treachery and assassination . souls so brave and so candid as theirs , were not capable of believing their enemies so black , as they , or rather as their friends , felt them to be . but so entire was their love to religion and their countrey , that as they both perished in the cause , so one of them in the agony into which the fatal bullet put him , having but a minute for one single thought , he ended his life as he had led it ; he died praying for that people for whom he had lived so long : feeling he could live no longer , he expired with this word in his mouth , have mercy on this people . yes , great soul , thy prayer was heard ; and from thee one springs , in whom god signalizes his mercy , not to that people only , but to a great many others , who share with them in this extraordinary grace ; the more extraordinary for this , that it is not restrained to one single nation , but is a deliverance to mankind . these advantages meeting in one person , set him indeed above the common level . a greatness that passed down through three successors , who maintained the lustre of the first raiser of that estate , with a glory suitable to its wonderful beginnings , was at last brought under a cloud , that so the favour of heaven might shine the brighter on him in whom it was to be revived the accession of royal blood had indeed exalted the race , and seemed to bring it nearer to that imperial dignity , with which it had shined some ages ago ; but it raised jealousey , as much as it advanced their scutcheon . the ruins of monarchy here , helped to draw down a family allied to it ; but the restauration of it did not contribute to its recovery . that was to be the immediate care and work of heaven . an in●ndation of conquest and calamity , forced a sinking state to seek for shelter to the issue of that race to which it owed its first rise . an ordinary courage would have sunk at the undertaking . it look'd like the raising one up only to bear the burthen and reproach of their ruin. the prospect was on all hands so black , that posterity will reckon their recovery with that of the romans after cannae . if it were proper for this places , it were easy to shew that theirs was the much more desperate state of the two : the turn was signal , the effects of it were soon visible , though the conclusion may seem to have come on but slowly ; for now we see a career run of almost six and twenty years , to which we may challenge the histories of all ages to give a parallel . a mighty power , great armies , well commanded , an uncontroul'd authority , full of treasure , and accustomed to victory , was an enemy , as it were marked out to raise the character of him , who with unequal forces , and feebler assistances , put a stop to a progress that amazed the world ; and made the greater part even of princes to conclude , it was in vain to maintain the struggle any longer ; it was better to prevent the violence of conquest , by submitting to what terms could be got , none being thought worse than what was like to be the issue of the war. no ●ife could be of more importance than this , which seemed the soul of the whole alliance ; and yet none was more freely exposed , not only in the constant fatigue of perpetual journeys and voyages , in the worst seasons , with such an uninterrupted continuance of lengthen'd campaigns , that these alone might have worn out the firmest stock of health and strength ; but in all the adventures of war , in the greatest heat of action , and in the most desperate posts . this was a fair offering himself to danger : gallant men knew where to find him . in this only he seemed to forget the great concern that others had in him , and exposed them all too much , while with a noble intrepidity , as one insensible of danger , he past through many new scenes of them ; but in which heaven shewed so particular a watchfulness , that the single relation of them all , with deliverances out of them , would make a history . the surest as well as the swefted messenger of death , attacking him in the view of of two armies , and on the eve of a deciding day , seemed to be sent on purpose to let so many witnesses see what an invisible guard was about him ; and that how near so eyer the greatest of all dangers might come to him , yet it was to him no other hurt , than to leave so slight an impression , as seemed only made to prove the truth of so unusual an accident ; that without an uncontested evidence , it could not easily be believed . but whil angels kept guard about him on all honourable occasions , they were no less watchful in discovering and disappointing blacker methods , and baser designs . those who thought not fit to venture on him in the day of battel , betook themselves to the most infamous practices ▪ designs of assassination were pursued with such unrelenting eagerness , that as soon as one failed , another was set on foot . a mind not capable of these , was almost as little capable of believing them in others , as of practising them himself . there was no extraordinary caution used , neither for penetrating into such secrets , nor of keeping so strict a guard , as appeared afterwards was necessary . discoveries were made by a particular hand of heaven : men who were thought capable of executing the worst designs , could not bear the horror that this gave them . those who were appointed to be the instruments of our ruin , proved the means of our preservation : i say , our preservation , because we owe it to the influence of that sacred life . and now at last , after so hard a struggle , such a lengthned war , so vast a consumption of men and treasure , we celebrate the happy peace and tranquility that we , and the greatest part of europe do now enjoy , through his means . have we not reason to conclude that this is the day which the lord has made ; that this is the man whom he has made strong for himself , whom he has delighted to set on his throne ? it is his doing , and it is wonderful in our eyes . the characters of gods care of his affairs have been no less signal , than those relating to his person . good seasons and favourable winds have attended constantly upon him . the critical turns of those winds that brought him first hither , were so amazing , that those who observed them , can never reflect on it without a constant freshness of admiration . all the many passages that he and his forces have since that time made on the seas , have been not only successful , but smooth and quick . on two great occasions ▪ nature seemed to go out of its course to cover us from invasion . in the first , the calmest moneth in the year was a coutinued storm , till we were ready to make use of fairer weather , and then we had it ; and by a great variety of circumstances , as happy to us as cross to our enemies , we had the most glorious day that ever the channel saw ; beacons of a new form ; fires from the sea carried the dismal tidings to the adverse shores , and scattered the army lying ready to invade us . that seemed to put an end to all dangers from that element ; we were restored to our empire on this sea , which recovered and established our then sinking reputation . we found at another time , a no less unusual reversing of seasons ; we had a winter that seemed to anticipate the spring ; the wind stood all the while in the warm corner , and broke the designs of sending a great part of our naval strength from us . we little knew our danger , and that all this was stopt by a watchful interposition , to cover us from a second design of invasion ; we were uneasie to see the season so obstinately good , so contrary to our intentions , and to what was to be expected at that time ; but we afterwards had large opportunities to observe the kind direction of heaven that made the seasons wait on us , and as it were conspire to break their own laws , rather than suffer a breach to be made upon us. other favourable circumstances shewed us also how god delighted to maintain him on the throne , under whose shadow we are all to sit safe . plenty at home made us easie under all the charge of the war ; and while our neighbours ( for we have now no more any enemies ) were much pressed with even the extremities of want , under those vast impositions that lay on them , we had enough and to spare ; to furnish the rest of the world , and to supply that great waste of treasure , which came back in some years faster than it went out . and after all the unconceiveable expence of the war , with all the losses we made in it , yet if it had not been for the wicked practises of those corrupters of our coin at home , with all the train of mischievous consequences that have followed upon them , which was an evil of our own growth , and that had no relation to the affairs abroad , we had gone through it without feeling any uneasie pressure by it . but that we have been able to provide effectual remedies to the one , while at the same time we have so gloriously maintained , and now so happily finished the other , is a secret indication of the power and riches of the nation , in this reign , of which perhaps the most sanguine could not have been convinced , if they had not seen it . add to all this , the noble triumphs of liberty . one of the common topicks of the enemies of publick liberty , is , that upon great occasions , the divisions in councils , and the length of debates that do naturally arise in free assemblies , bring such a backwardness and slowness on their deliberations , that the best opportunities of acting are lost while they are consulting . here the publick interest was so visible , that a concurrence beyond all former examples , has appeared in supporting undertakings that seemed above the strength and wealth of the nation . nor could such a treasure have been raised by all the efforts of arbitrariness ; for nothing but the certainties of the faith given by the body of the nation , could have created the credit that was necessary in such unsual supplies . these went on with that unanimity and heartiness , that we have reason to put this among the great articles of that over ruling providence that has watched over us . if at any time insuperable difficulties made the publick consultations go heavily , the season was stopt , the course of nature seem'd to stand still , till we were ready for it . so wonderfull a conduct has appeared both at home and abroad , and in all the elements , as if every thing had been set at work , either to do us good , or at least to shelter us from evil. i reckon not among the happy instances of god's care of us , our being preserved from the restless attempts of some wretched incendiaries among our selves , those betrayers of religion and their countrey . they are too inconsiderable , to be ranked among the occasions for which we do now celebrate the blessings of heaven . if their power and skill had been equal to their malice ; we should indeed have had great reason to rejoyce that we have been preserved from a race of men , whose tongues have been set on fire , while the poyson of asps seemed to lie under their lips : but the one has proved as contemptible , as the other was odious . they ought not to be mentioned in a time of rejoycing , in which , objects that give horror , ought to be kept out of sight ; yet , how little reason soever we may have either to value , or to love them , we ought still to pity them , and to pray for them , that if possible , they may be recovered out of the gall of bitterness . and the bond of iniquity let us turn to nobler objects , and rejoyce in the glory of god , and in our own happiness , while we see who is the man whom god delights to honour . whom by a concurrence of many providences he first led to his throne ▪ and whom he has hitherto maintain'd on it by as many more : and has now given him as full an establishment upon it , as humane things are capable of . he has made his enemies to be at peace with him : and while the much greater half of europe own him to be its recoverer and restorer , the rest do now unanimously call him that , which he is , independent on all foreign acknowledgments , the rightful and lawful king of these realms . and to make the parallel to my text run exactly , a much greater king , lying at a vaster distance , leaves his throne and dominions in the midst of war , struck with the fame , and amazed at the actions of this prince . in stead of a little southern queen , a mighty northern emperour , covered with laurels , and us'd to victories , resolving to raise his nation , and enlarge his empire , comes to learn the best methods of doing it , and goes away full of wonder , possessed with truer notions of government : but while we humbly adore those instances of the good pleasure of our god towards his anointed ; let us also with the same holy gratitude observe how he has shewed that he loved us , as well as that he delighted in him , who now sits on the throne . we are separate from the continent ; and were cut off from the great affairs of the world , till navigation and trade brought us into them , with the more advantage ; because our situation keeps us at a distance from the confusions of war , and secures us from the inroads and depredations of enemies ; while the sea that covers us , gives us also a passage to let in their wealth among us , and to pour out our force upon them . our seas and our fleets are both our fences and our mines : which others seem to work for us , and give us no other trouble about them , but that of a safe conveyance . all this , how flourishing soever , yet gave us but a melancholy prospect , while we saw a mighty rival so near us , rising up to an equality with us , in that which was our strength as well as our glory . the counsels at home were then employ'd in designs of another nature : they were laying down methods to subvert our constitution , to corrupt our senate , and destroy such as were above their practice . the laws of england , the charters of our towns , as well at the great charter of the nation ▪ our religion and liberty , were all the conquests that were then projected ▪ while the safety of the whole at home , and the security of our neighbours about us , were abandoned . so the beloved design prospered , it seemed to be laid down for a maxim , that it was better to reign at the discretion of a mighty prince , than under the restraint of laws , which was called the reigning at the discretion of subjects . so infatuated we were , that a competition , or rather a superiority , in that which hitherto we claimed as a property , gave us no jeulousie ; we seemed pleased with it , and were glad to promote it . we had so far retir'd our selves from that share which we ntaurally ought to have in the publick concerns of europe , that we seemed to forget them : we had so much work at home , that there was no room for foreign speculations . we had been engaged once and again into wars with those , who as they are our near neighbours , so have been in all ages our faithfullest allies : we fell into contentions at home , by the direction of our enemies , who plaid us so dexterously one against another , that we hoped to have done the best half of their work , by making us first hate and then destroy one another ; while they were ever ready to support those , whose passions and circumstances might contribute the most for carrying on their design . all this seemed too slow , to those who thought they lost time ; and therefore began to quicken their pace , and make a little more haste in destroying us . then it was fit for god to interpose , when all was struck at . there was no prospect of deliverance , but from one single corner , and even that seemed doubtful . it was the reverse of elijah's vision ▪ one hand-breadth of a cloud in a clear sky gave him the welcome hopes of the rain he pray'd for : here the whole sky seemed set for storms and thunder , while but one speck of blue appeared in the whole horizon : who could have thought that this should have conquered all the clouds , and have given the heavens and the earth a new face ? all eyes turned that way , because it was plain there was no other hope left us : yet many thought it was too great an attempt to be expected from the cold and cautions counsels of a state , naturally slow , and apprehensive of danger . the interpositions of providence were not wanting in this extremity ; many favourable accidents concurr'd ; popular assemblies agreed then so unanimoufly together , that there was not opposition enough made to create delays . the states seemed to rejoyce , that an opportunity offer'd is self in this age , for them to repay what they had been owing to england ever since the last . and they were willing to perish with us , if we could not both flourish together . an advanced season made the sea less practicable : all was to be put to hazard ; because all lay at stake . a long course of cross winds and rough weather in the beginning , looked like the frowning of heaven . the first attempt was unprosperous : this would have shaken any mind less firm than that which animated the whole undertaking . a constancy was then observed so steady and inflexible , that not so much as an inequality of temper could be discovered . the unsuccessfulness of the first step would have damped a mind that was either feeble or superstitious ; tho' our returning all safe after three days tossing in a strom , was an earnest of a particular care even in that seeming disappointment . but after the roughness of the season had continu'd long enough , to teach us all to depend a little more on providence , and to apply our selves more carnestly to him that rules the seas , and the winds at his pleasure , and after there was a full and visible experiment made of the steadiness of him , on whose mind seas nor storms could make no impression , then god commanded the winds , and rebuked the seas , and after that first rub , all our affairs were so conducted , that every thing succeeded beyond our hopes , i had almost said , beyond our wishes . an orderly march of a friendly tho' foreign army , an unslained victory , an overturning of that which had design'd all our ruine , by their own counsels and practices , a sinking of heart and a giddiness of head among them , made the way smooth . then we saw that success , in its turn . had as little power to exalt , as misfortunes had to depress a soul , raised above both . an abandon'd nation sought for shelter to him , to whom the chief of them had before sought for relief . all men were left to the freedom that became such important deliberations , without any disturbance . neither violence nor threatnings were used , no not so much as the secret arts of practice or insinuation . some thought there was a coldness of behaviour express'd on that occasion , that seemed too indifferent : but the directions of providence were depended on ; men were left to themselves , or rather to that invisible chain which encompasses and governs all things here below . we pass'd from the extremities of danger , to an entire establishment , without those intervals of confusion , that may be well look'd for in so great a turn . when we reflect on all this , and on what has happened since , which must be too present to our thoughts to need any further enlargement , have we not reason to conclude , that god loved our nation ; and that because he has loved us , he has set such a king over us ? indeed it is much easier to observe , how god has loved us , than to find out the reason of his doing it . when we look at our selves , at what we were then , and what we have been ever since , and continue still to be , we can hardly give our selves any good account of those distinctions of providence , in which we have had so large a share . it is true , our religion , our doctrines , our worship ▪ and our constitution are pure ; but those we owe to the last age , and to the laws then made about them . all that belongs to us from them , is the reproach of corrupting our selves under such advantages : and our refining upon the immoralities that are but too common to mankind at all times , by the profanations and impieties of the present age. a new species of wickedness , that perhaps has never appeared with such impudence , and in such bold instances as among us ; and yet god has loved this nation . we must without any compliment acknowledge , it is not for our sake , for any worth or previous merit in us ▪ but we may allow our selves to hope , that tho' we have no title to this love , and that it did not find us worthy of it , yet it will have those effects on us , that may engage us to answer its design , so far at least that we may not quite forfeit it . who knows the secrets of gods counsels , or what lies hid under all that train of extraordinary circumstances that we have seen ? whether we are at last to be reformed by them , and to be made the instruments of spreading the light of the gospel in its purity , to other nations , as we have been already honoured to be the instruments in this gloirous reign , to give the affairs of europe another face , a truer balance , and the prospect of a firmer establishment ? for let the men of envy and ill-nature look thro' our whole history , and see where they can find , in any age since we were a nation , that we appear'd with so much glory , and made so great a figure not only over our neighbourhood , but over the whole world , as we do in this re'gn . this disposes a man to hope , that the whole designs of heaven are not yet accomplished : but that what we have seen is a noble pledge of somewhat further , that is yet hid in the counsels of god , but is to break out in due time . there is no need of great meditation , of much searching into history , and a depth of thought ▪ to comprehend this , that good and bad princes are among the chief instances , in which the love or anger of heaven do discover themselves . what greater blessings can be hoped for on earth , than from the reign of princes , that have in them the true elevations of greatness , tempered with the bowels and compassions of good nature ; that are faithful observers of their promises , and are severe lovers of truth ; that not only maintain the sacred regards that are due to equity and justice , but do generously reward those whom merit distinguishes , how little soever they may press forward themselves , being as modest as they are deserving prince● , i say , who treasure up the services of their people , and surprise them with such rewards as become royal minds : so that the fortunes of their subjects are owing to the value they set on them , without those abatements that will always be made in the acknowledgments , when importunity or intercessions are thought to have a large share in the success . a prince , who observes well , and thinks much , who descends oft to the equalities of friendship with his subjects ; who hears the petitions of the oppressed , and hearkens to the suggestions of the wise and good ; a prince , who has the just and noble ambition of meriting fame and glory , without the troublesome vanity of shewing it : who deserves all the returns of duty and gratitude from his people , without being fond of hearing or seeing it express'd , tho' in the highest forms of a just magnificence ; who is satisfied with this , that it is apparent what all men most think , tho' it is not easie to them to find out the properest methods of setting that forth ; which sometimes may shew greater , when surprizes does so fill the mind , that men must be silent , because they feel that language is not copious enough to furnish suitable expressions to such an overcoming joy ; such a prince as this , will still be owned as one of the best gifts of heaven . forced rhetorick , and hired panegyricks lie thick in the lives of some princes who have deserved them the least . perhaps commodus had as many flatterers , as his incomparable father had silent admirers . the best princes are those who feel the pleasure of making their people happy most sensibly and yet are uneasie and in pain , when in compliance with what is not only decent , but almost necessary on solemn occasions , they submit to hear it acknowledged , tho' in strains far below the dignity and majesty of the subject . but the happiness of good government is then best felt , when set in opposition to all that train of blood and cruelty , of injustice and rapine , of a dissolution of morals , and a scorn of religion that blacken a bad reign , princes who have a wrong set of mind , wrong notions of government , and worse of religion , who are corrupted by their own principles , and more by the power that they suffer others to have over them , are apt to grow to excesses that are as insufferable to mankind , as they themselves are incapable of cure. accidents , how unusual soever , cannot reform them , they grow rather the worse for them . justinian the second , delivered himself up to tyranny and to favourites to whom he gave up such unbounded authority , that his nearest relations felt a large measure of it , and that in barbarous instances . he was carried so far , as to deliver constantinople to them to be a scene of horrour and massacre . such a pitch in cruelty animated the world against him : he was judged incapable of government . he had a mark set on him indeed , but he was sent to live in exile , where he continued ten years . two emperours reigned in that interval ; discontents arose at last , and a proper season appear'd for him to attempt again . a great party of justinianites was formed in constantinople , who invited him over ; when he crossed the sea , a storm had well nigh saved that effusion of blood that was occasioned by his restoration . one about him ventur'd in that extremity , to suggest to him that he should now , that if god would deliver him from that imminent danger , he would pardon all his enemies : but so fierce a thing is a savage tyrant , that even under all those fears , he could not be softned for one single minute , but said , may i perish in this storm , if i ever pardon one of them : he was as good as his word . after his party had made him master of the empire , he discharged his first fury on those who had possessed the throne : he made two of them to be brought to him ; he had the brutality to trample on their necks , repeating these words of the psalmist , thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder : and after some other inventions of infamous usage , he put them cruely to death ; tho' they had let him live , when he was in their power . next , he gave scope to his rage against all those who had been concern'd in the revolution ; both they and their children were destroy'd , without either mercy or the forms of justice : and because he had been ill used in the place of his exile , the countrey now inhabited by the crim-tarters , he resolved to destroy , or to use a modern word , to execute the whole country . his army thought they had obeyed his cruel commands , when they had murdered all , both men and women : they ; indeed spared the children ; they thought they could not be within their orders they might be sold for slaves , or trained up to war. they were bloody enough , but not to the pitch of a tyrant's cruelty . he resolv'd to satiate his revenge , even with the b●ood of innocents ; and ordered them all all to be shipt and brough● to him . they were upwares o● seventy-thousand . a storm fell upon them , they all perished in the euxine , where they found a milder fate than was prepared for them : this gave him great joy , because they had all perished ; it had been greater , if he had glutted his own eyes with so inh●mane 〈◊〉 sight but the pleasure lasted not long , he had now raised all mankind against him his own army abhorr'd him . the second revolt ended more tragically ; they were not contented to stigmatize him as before , both he and his son , were cruely put to death . this meditation may seem to go too far from the joyfulness of the present occasion ; but perhaps nothing can make us feel it so sensibly , as the remembring that we have been deliver'd from , and the considering what might have been the consequences of a fatal relapse . it remains that we look at the ends of government as they are expres'd by the queen in my text. the two great ones are in these words , with relation to god , to be king for the lord thy god , and with relation to the people , to establish them for ever : then follows the standing maxims of a good king , in the course of his administration , to do judgment and justice ; to execute law , to punish and reward , leaving the severer part to just and impartial judges , and taking the nobler one of rewarding , under his own care and management . to be king for the lord his god , is plainly to govern in god's stead : to consider power and authority as a derivation from him , which will be then best applied , when the first and chief of the princes cares is , to maintain and raise the honour of religion . solomon began his reign with the executing david's designs , and the employing his treasures in building a temple of that glory and magnificence , that it may be justly reckoned among the wonders of the world. this was suitable to natural religion , and more particularly to that dispensation then instituted by god ; which was to have its last finishing , in this great structure , and in the exact observance of all those rules and orders that had been settled by david . in all this , he was to reign for the lord his god , to reduce the people that was so fond of outward state and solemnity , that they were thereby much disposed to idolatry , and to make them delight the more in the worship of god , by such a compliance with th●ir inclinations . but the chief instances in which he was to rule for the lord hi● god , were the recommending piety and holiness by his own example , and the encouraging it by his authority . his ●rayer in dedicating the temple , gives a noble instance of the impressions that religion had made upon his own mind . certainly those who reckon the title of defender of the faith one of the peculiar glo●ie● of the crown , will apply their thoughts with a particular zeal to every thing that may promo●e religion , both in their own dominions , and out of them . the decencies as well as the solemnities of the worship of god , will not be thought below their care but above all things , the contempt and scorn of sacred matters , is that against which they will turn their indignation with the warmest zeal , and against those who do , as it were attack heaven , and make war upon it , who study to render religion as contemptible to others , as they have made it to look to themselves . what prince could suffer a subordinate magistrate under him , who should bear with all the affronts put on majesty , as long as the lower respects due to himself were observed . this may teach them with how just a zeal they should punish those bold attempts against heaven , tho' made by some who pretend to zeal and affection to themselves . such persons instead of sup porting the throne , pull it down , by engaging heaven against all that they undertake it is a degree of compliance with their wickedness , to be pleased with them to trust them , or to shew them favour . but it is not enough not to seem to be of the side of those who fight against god , or to abett them . princes who rule for god , enter into all the true concerns of religion , tho' not indeed into the passions and violences of those who espouse it : while they check these , they will promote the other in the most effectual manner . an unblemish't pattern set by themselves in the purity and probity of their own deportment , will give the fullest authority to all their other designs . next to their persons , their chief care will be the reforming of their court and houshold , and the letting it appear that vertue and religion are reckoned among the first and most indispensible qualities of those who may pretend to favour : and that vice and impiety are insuperable barrs in the way to it . princes who govern so , that they rule for god , may justly expect that he will watch over them , ane protect them . that he will make their crown sit sure and easie , and their thrones safd and fix'd under them . the second design for which such kings are raised up , is , because god loves their people that by their means they may be established for ever , that is , in the jewish phrase for a long time . a happy tempering of government at home , a subduing of enemies abroad , and a ballancing of neighbours so equally , that none of them may grow beyond their pitch , are the surest methods for arriving at a fixed establishment . we were so shaken at home , that the foundations of our government seem'd to be undermined ; not only by open and violent attacks upon liberty and property , but likewise by the more cover'd , tho' no less dangerous invasions , made under the pretences of law , but against the plainest intentions of it . colours were oft given to excuse that , which in it self carried such a face of injustice , that without those masks , i● could not have passed upon a free people . success in some of these attempts encouraged the contrivers to a further prossecuting of them ; so that there was scarce any part of our law left , which those harpie had not touch'd , and by touching defi●'d . the happiness of this reign is that in it all those attempts made on law and liberty , have been stigmatiz'd , as they well deserv'd to be , but with such mildness towards those who had offended , hurried on in the croud , or betray'd by their fears , that those who understand not how boundless a thing royal clemency ought to be , have , from thence , pretended to infer , that the not punishing offenders , was a confession , that their actings were legal and innocent : but a government that was merciful as well as just , was as gentle in punishing past offences , as it intended to be exact to provide against the like for the future . the laws have been fortified by new explanations , which assure us of their true meaning . these have deliver'd us for the future , from the ractices of those corrupters of justice , and enemies to liberty ; nor is this all , but where our ancient constitution seem'd defective , and had not guarded enough against the fraud of sycophants , it has been fortify'd by the addition of further securities , which as buttresses were judged necessary to support the fabrick . the bringing matters on the other side of the sea , to juster proportions , the raising of some depressed princes , and the limiting others that were over-grown ▪ has laid the fears that the world had fall'n under , of being over-power'd by a new monarchy , and has provided for our own quiet , by stopp●ng the progress that was made upon our neighbours , by which we have secured to our selves , all the returns of gratitude , acknowledgment , and dependency , that can be expected in such cases both ancient and modern writers have thought that the●dsius conquering m●ximus , and restoring valentinian the second , not only his own share of the empire , but to gratian's likewise , was a subject fit for rhetorick : yet that cost him but one campaign , and in it there were only two days of action , neither the charge nor the danger were extraordinary besides , that it was a just gratitude to grat●●ns memory , who had raised him to a partnership with him in the empire , to revenge his death , and to restore his brother . how much 〈◊〉 is the panegyrick ! when we see a prince in a course of many years carry on a war into infinite dangers , and at an inestimable charge , and that only to preserve the states of neighbouring princes , without any other advantage , but the pleasure of having protected the oppressed , and of having secured the neighbourhood ; not reserving any one place , either as a pledge upon his allies , or an encrease of dominion to himself . in all ages princes have been ready to assist their neighbours with auxiliary troops , and sometimes with hired armies ; but it is the peculiar glory of this age , that we see a king , who has maintain'd a long war , led the armies , and exposed himself to innumberable hazards , only to maintain others in their right . if this adds nothing to his crown , yet as it makes it sit the firmer , so it must be acknowledged , that it makes it shine the brighter : the gems of it have a peculiar luster , a glory of which former ages cannot boast . this is indeed to answer that character to which all princes pretend , how few soever of them study to deserve it , of being god's representatives , and vicegerents , who takes pleasure in delivering the oppressed , setting him at liberty from him that puffeth at him . thus we see what are the two great ends of government , as they are set forth by this southern queen : next let us view the measures to be kept in the admistration ; to do judgment and justice . the generosities as well as the severities of government , are believed to be implyed in these two . the rigour of punishment being the harder part , not so natural to minds of the best mold , is to be left to persons of that robe , who ought to be so chosen , that they be men fearing god , hating gifts , and eschewing covetousness . they minister in the less acceptable part ; and to them it ought to be left , except when the interposition of a just mercy softens the rigour of strict justice . i say a just mercy , for there are mercies that are cruel . when upon false suggestions , blood is cover'd , or encouragement is given to enormous criminals , when they have the hopes of favour , especially when they see that it may be purchased , this will soon dissolve the strength as well as the order of societies . princes , by so doing , render themselves , in some sort , accessary to all the crimes that happen to be committed afterwards , by those whom , thro' a feebleness of grace , they have rescued from deserved punishment . judgment is the more acceptable part . the branches of this are the distributing of trusts and rewards , the delivering tho oppressed , and the relieving the necessitous , beginning at those who are brought low by a heavy share in common calamities , especially those of war , which entitle them to more special degrees of the prince's favour and bounty . there is in all this such a shadow of divinity , that in it lies the noblest part of a king's prerogative it is not he , but the law that punishes the bad ; but the distingushing the employing , the honouring and rewarding of those who deserve well of him and the publick , is singly in him . all must owe this only to the bounty of the prince ; yet the whole is a trust from heaven ; and those who rule for god and the good of their people , will manage this , as knowing that they must answer it to the king of kings . this subject is too tender to be enlarged on by any person below that high dignity , let us then hear the resolutions of a good , as well as a warlike king , when he found himself setled on the throne , to which his son had no doubt , a particular regard . psalm 101. i will behave my self wisely in a perfect way : i will walk within my house with a perfect heart : i will set no wicked thing before mine eyes , a froward heart shall depart from me : i will not know a wicked person . who so privily standereth his neighbour , him will i cut off , him that hath a high look , and a proud heart , will i not suffer : mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land , that they may dwell with me : he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me : he that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house : he that telleth lies , shall not tarry in my sight . i add not the words that follow , for they seem too severe for the milder state of the gospel . i will early destroy all the wicked of the land : there would be little occasion for this , if the former resolutions were exactly maintained : kings have a dialect peculiar to themselves ; they will understand one anothers language , and penetrate into their thoughts , therefore i will not presume to add to these words either paraphrase or inferences . but now having looked over all that compass of thoughts , to which this noble devotion of the royal traveller led us : it remains that we conclude , in turning the whole to solemn adorations , and to the celebrating the goodness of god both to king and kingdoms . our hearts are now so full of joy , and our mouths so full of praise , that these will inflame us to hallelujahs , equal , if not to the occasion , for what can rise up to that ! yet to our strength , which will naturally carry us to the highest transports , the loudest acclamations , and the perfectest harmony that we are capable of . this will go easily ; we can hardly restrain our selves from it : our thanksgiving must go further . we must study to express them in more valuable , as well as more lasting instances . let us remember and pay all the vows that we made to god in our days of fasting and prayer : let us now resolve to live as a nation deliver'd and redeem'd of god , and blessed with the most special favour of heaven : let us walk suitably to that light , and to those advantages that we enjoy beyond all other nations . under god , the fountain of our life , as well as the giver of our peace , let us make all the humblest returns of duty and gratitude , of fidelity and zeal , to our great deliverer : let us continue our most earnest prayers , as well as our highest thanksgiving to god for him . i will not suggest to melancholly a thought , as the change in solomon's reign : the difference between its bright beginning and dark conclusion . none , how great , or how wise soever , are so established in the ways of vertue , as to be above prayers , and beyond temptations . let us all therefore pray that god may long preserve the king whom he hath set over us , and the peace that by his means is procured to us . may his reign of peace be as glorious , as his course in war has been , but of a 〈◊〉 longer continuance ▪ may he be long the delight of his people , the arbiter of europe , the patron of justice , and the maintainer of right all the world over . may the nation still flourish , and the church be ever glorious , by his conduct and care : and may he be as happy in the love of his subjects , as he has made them safe under his protection . to conclude , in a devotion dictated by a royal , as well as an inspired author . the lord hear thee in the day of trouble , send thee help from his sanctuary , grant thee according to thine own heart , and fulfil all thy counsels . the lord fulfil all thy petitions . we will rejoice in thy salvation . now we know that the lord saveth his anointed : he will hear him from his holy heaven . and we will remember the name of the lord our god , for we are risen , and stand upright . o lord save the king. and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30452-e170 william prince of orange , gaspar de coligny , admiral of france . una morientis ad deum vox , miserere populi , grot. annal. lib. 4. rhinotmel cedrenus , theophanes . psal. 21. the case of compulsion in matters of religion stated by g.b. ; addressed to the serious consideration of the members of the church of england, in this present juncture. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 31 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30326 wing b5765 estc r32597 12725500 ocm 12725500 66364 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30326) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 66364) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1522:6) the case of compulsion in matters of religion stated by g.b. ; addressed to the serious consideration of the members of the church of england, in this present juncture. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [1], 15 p. printed by t.s. ..., london : 1688. attributed by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints to burnet. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng religious tolerance. liberty of conscience. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 andrew kuster sampled and proofread 2004-11 andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the case of compulsion in matters of religion stated . by g. b. addressed to the serious consideration of the members of the church of england , in this present juncture . licensed august 21. 1688. london , printed by t. s. in the year 1688. the case of compulsion in matters of religion stated . all persecution rises out of an impatience of spirit , which makes a man less able to bear contradiction ; there is a tyranny in most mens nature , which makes them desire to subdue all others by the strength of their understandings , and such men have an implacable hatred to all that do not render themselves to their reasons , and think that they are affronted when other men refuse to submit to them ; so that he who would strike at persecution in its root must begin here , and endeavour to soften men , especially toward those who differ from them in matters of religion . this imperious temper , when it works upon subjects of religion , finds somewhat to raise its spleen , that was of it self impetuous enough before , and that which is called fury and rage , when it is imployed in other disputes , comes to be called zeal when it is turned toward the theories that relate to another world . but when we consider what a sublime thing divine truth is , and what a poor low thing the mind of man is , we shall see cause to blunt alittle the edge of our spirits if they are too sharp in such matters . man is much governed by fancy , and fancy follows the texture of the animal spirits , which renders many more capable of apprehending objects that are some way proportioned to them , and more disposed to follow them ; so that temper prepares men for some opinions , and prepossesses them against others . with the greater part of mankind education is so powerful , that they are scarce ever able to overcome it ; and if education and temper have hit together , it will require a very extraordinary elevation to rescue a man from that force . men likewise receive with their impressions of religion such a respect for them as makes them look on every thought that calls them in question as criminal ; and when persons are bred up to disquiet themselves with scruples , if they have so much as made a doubt of their religion , it is not hard to see them adhere so firmly to the principles of their education ▪ which stick so fast to the worst sort of men , that even atheists themselves , after all the pains they take to get rid of them , cannot shake them off so entirely , but that they will be apt to return oft upon them . men that think much , and that reason well , that are freed from the byass that interest , honour , kindred , and custom do give them , and that have leisure to examine matters carefully , may indeed get above all these ; yet there are so few that can do this , and there are yet so much fewer that will do it , that it is rather a wonder to see so many change their persuasions , than to see so few do it . and indeed it is so sublime a theory to think on god , and his attributes , and works , or to think of another state , and of the way that leads to it , that till god furnishes out a new mission of apostles with a measure of those extraordinary gifts which he poured out on the great pentecost , it is not easie to imagine how the conversion of heathen nations should be made , for though the idolatry of some of these is extreme gross , yet their priests have such symbolical significations for all these rites , that they do much diminish the horror which is raised by the first sight of them in the minds of strangers : and since the chief grounds upon which we prove the christian religion are taken from the prophecies of the old testament , and their accomplishmene in the new ; from the evidence that was given concerning the miracles , the death , and the resurrection of christ , which we confirm from the collateral proofs of the state of that time , of the writings of the enemies of this religion , and of that succession of authors , that in all ages which have past since , have mentioned those matters , and cited the books which we hold divine . all this is so evident to those who can make the enquiry , that it is strange to find how any one can withstand it ; but to barbarians who know nothing of it , and who have no way of informing themselves concerning it , all this can signify nothing , so that in order to the convincing of their understandings , for i do not treat of gods secret methods in touching their consciences , i do not see how we should expect that they should yield easily , unless there were a new power of working miracles conferred on those who labour in this work . but to return from this digression , a man is scarce the master of his own thoughts : habit , constitution , and other things do so concur , that he cannot open his eyes to new objects , nor see them in a new light , other than that in which he has been accustomed to view them , and a man can no more change his notions of things , because a set of new opinions would accommodate him better , than he can change the relish that his senses , his ear or his taste have in their objects ; a man may prevaricate , but still he thinks as he thinks , and cannot think otherwise because he would have himself do so . but if a man is not the master of his own mind , much less is any other man the master of it . no man has that superiority over any other mans reason as to expect that it should always accommodate it self to his ; and the severest exercise of tyranny must still leave the thoughts at liberty ; the forcing of a man to say or do otherwise than he thinks , by threatnings , the execution of which is above his force to endure , is only the delivering over such a person to the rack of his own conscience here , and to all those miseries hereafter , which must be the portion of hypocrites , and of dissemblers with god or man. nor is there such infallible distinction in one mans nature from another , that the one is more likely to be in the right than another ; since therefore among all those that differ , some must be in the wrong , those that have the power in their hands may possibly be of the wrong side , and in that case all their severity is turned against the truth , and those who believe it . and since god makes the sun to shine , and the rain to fall on the just as well as on the unjust , gideons reasoning may be applied to this matter , if baal is as god let him plead for himself ; and the force of gamaliels argument that , if it is of men it will come to nought ; and if it is of god we must not fight against him ; as it silenced an assembly of very fierce persecutors , so it is full as strong now as it was then : for reason is eternal , and changeth not . it seems also plain that those actions which concern humane society belong indeed to the authority of the magistrate ; but that our thoughts , with relation to god , and such actions as arise out of those thoughts , and in which others have no interest , are gods immediate province , and can belong to no other jurisdiction ; god only knows our thoughts , as he alone can change them ; so that a magistrate by encroaching upon them , breaks in upon gods propriety , and upon that essential right of humane nature of worshipping god according to our conviction , which is in us antecedent to all humane government , & can never be subject to it . but if the general theories from the nature of man give a very favourable view of what is now advanced , the characters of the christian religion , and the many express texts that are in it should determine this matter more positively . the religion revealed by moses consisted in temporal promises , an earthly canaan , and all the blessings of this life ; so that since the jews had all these things by vertue of that covenant , it was very reasonable that a violation of that law should infer a forfeiture of all those rights that the jews held by vertue of it ; and therefore it was as just that a jew should have been put to death for the violation of those laws , as it is lawful for us to put a man to death that coins or clips money . yet as for opinions the case was different even among the jews ; and therefore though the doctrines of the sadducess struck at the foundations of all religion , the pharisees when they had the upper-hand never carried the matter so far as to proceed to extremities against them . but what severities soever might have agreed with the mosaical dispensation , they seem to be all out of doors under the christian religion , which gives us no earthly canaan , no temporal blessings , nor the rules for civil society . but having found the world in the possession of their temporal rights , it only came to superadd to those the doctrines and rules of a divine discipline , upon which the happiness or miseries of another state do depend . now it seems to be an uncontested rule in justice , that in whatsoever society one is engaged , the violation of the laws of that society can only inser a forfeiture of all that one had or might have expected by vertue of it ; but this cannot be carried so far as to make one forfeit all that he holds by vertue of any other society to which he belongs ; and therefore since we hold our temporal estates and liberties not by vertue of our christianity , but as we are the members of the state or kingdom to which we belong , our doing any thing that is only contrary to our religion may well make us forfeit all that belongs to us by vertue of our baptismal covenant ; but this ought not to be carried so far as to cut off those rights that we have antecedent to our christianity , as we are men , and the subjects of a civil government . our saviour confirmed all this by saying , that his kingdom was not of this world , that he came not to destroy but to save ; and by giving this rule of justice , of doing to others that which we would have others do to us ; which would soon let all persecutors see how differently they act to it ; but above all , our saviour has made the doctrines of meekness and charity such main ingredients in his gospel , that he has made them the characters by which his disciples may be every where known ; and this spirit of love is so diffused through the whole writings of the new testament , that how hard soever it may be to understand some of the other passages that are in them , yet there is no ambiguity at all in those that set this forth ; we are not only restrained from ruining those who differ from us , but we are required to love them , to bear with them , and to deal with them in the spirit of meekness . there are some of the epistles that do not mention several of the duties incumbent on christians , yet there is not one , how short soever , in which this of love is not proposed in terms that are both strong and tender ; and while the church of corinth was almost rent asunder by a variety of opinions , and by the different parties that followed the several teachers that had been among them , st. paul does not enter much into the grounds of their disputes , but recommends love and charity to them , in terms that shew how much he himself was inflamed while he writ them ; and he is carried into all the raptures of a divine eloquence that so transporting a subject could inspire . st. iohn lived so long as to see a great deal of the first fervor of the christian religion slacken ; but when he writ to revive that spirit , the argument upon which he dwells chiefly , is , to persuade all to love one another , and he does that in the softest and most melting language that can be imagined . the controversie concerning the obligation that lay on the gentiles for obeying the mosaical law was judged by the apostles against the judaizers , and the inferences that depended on that controversie were such , that st. paul says , they went so far as to make void the death of christ ; yet the same apostle is gentle to those that without seeing the extent of those consequences were carried away by those judaizers ; so that he acknowledges that in their observing them from a good motive they were acceptable to god , and that as the kingdom of god , or the gospel , consisted not in those scrupulous distinctions of meats and of drinks , but in righteousness , peace and joy in the holy ghost ; so he adds , that every man was to endeavour to be fully persuaded in his own mind , and was not to judge his brother in such matters , but to leave him to the judgment of god. this way of managing a controversie that was of such importance , and that was maintained with so stiff an opposition , even to that extraordinary authority that was lodged in the apostles , ought to have been the measure upon which all the succeeding ages of the church ought to have formed themselves ; and when the apostles that had an infallible assistance , and so might have spoken in a strain of higher authority than any that have come after them , yet thought fit to treat of those matters in such an humble and softning stile ; those who cannot ▪ pretend to such a direction ought not to take upon them to dictate , and to threaten and destroy those who differ from them . the christians did during the first ages declare highly against all cruelties on the account of a difference of persuasion in matters of religion ; and though their interest naturally led them to this , yet we pass a very hard judgment on those times , if we think that they were only of that mind because the power was then in the hands of their enemies . when the empire turned christian , the very heathen worship was not only tolerated for above a whole age together , but the heathens themselves continued to be in the chief imployments of the empire ; and it is pleasant to see how the heathens that had so long persecuted the christians , and that had contrived the severest of all persecutions under iulian , which very probably had been put in execution if he had returned victorious from the persian expedition , saw the state of things no sooner altered than they began to imploy all their eloquence in the behalf of toleration ; as if liberty of conscience had been an essential right of mankind , from which they ought never to be cut off ; and they carried this-so far as to pretend , that a difference in religion tends more to the honour of god , than an uniformity in it could do , and so they fancied that a variety in it was acceptable to god. the first severity that christians practised one upon another was the banishing of arius , and a few of his followers : it must be acknowledged that this seems to be the utmost extent of civil authority in those matters : for certainly a government may put such persons out of its protection that are enemies to its peace , and so banish them upon great occasions , giving them leave to sell their estates , and to carry away with them all that belongs to them ; yet this being all that any humane government can claim , it ought not to be applied too easily or rashly , till it is visible that all other means are ineffectual , and that the publick safety can be no other way secured : but though this severity against arius had no great effects , yet the arians had no sooner the power in their hands than they put in practice first all the contrivances of craft and fraud , together with many less crying violences under constance ; and they carried this afterwards to a more open persecution under valens ; and after that , both in spain and africk , it appeared that a cruel spirit was so inherent in that party , that it shewed it self as often as they had power ; but while valens persecuted in his division of the empire , it is observed , that valentinian his brother thought it was enough to support the orthodox without persecuting the other . gratian carried the matter further , and tolerated both almost equally . and in the happy turn under theodosius , at what pains was st. gregory nazianzen to restrain the orthodox from retaliating upon the arians the ill treatment that they had suffered from them ; and not only the novatians , but even the arians continued to have their churches in the imperial cities . the first instance of imploying the secular arm against hereticks that was set on by any of the orthodox , was under the reign of that bloudy tyrant maximus , and it was managed by two such scandalous bishops , that their ill lives is no small prejudice against every thing that is carried on by such instruments . this was condemned by the best bishops of that age , and the ill effects of that severity are very copiously marked by the historian . one is unwilling for the sake of those ages to reflect on the rigour that appears in some laws that are in the code , yet the mild behaviour of atticus , proclus . and some other bishops , is marked with the praises that were due to it ; and it is probable , that those laws were rather made to terrifie , than that they should be executed . the donatists , after a contest of above 120 years continuance , that was managed at first more gently , grew at last so fierce and intolerable , that not being contented with their own churches , they broke in upon the churches of those of the unity , and committed many outrages on the persons of some of the bishops , putting out the eyes of some , and leaving others for dead . the bishops upon that consulted whether they ought to demand , not only the emperors protection , but the application of the laws made against hereticks to the donatists . st. austin and some bishops opposed this for some time , but they yielded at last , and these laws were so severely executed , that not only the donatists themselves complained heavily of them , but st. austin in several letters that he writ to the magistrates upon this occasion made the same complaints ; he interceeded very earnestly for the donatists , and said , that it detracted much from the glory of the church , that had received so much honour from the sufferings of the martyrs , to see others suffer upon the account of the church ; and he told them plainly , that if they did not proceed more moderately the bishops would suffer all that could come upon them from the rage of the donatists , rather than complain any more to those who acted so rigorously . yet though st. austin condemned the excesses of the civil magistrates in some particulars , he set himself to justify severity in general , when it was imployed upon the account of religion ; and all the moderate pleadings for liberty that are to be found either in tertullian , cyprian , and more copiously in lactantius , with relation to heathens , and the like reasonings that are to be found in athanasius , hillary and lucifer with relation to the persecutions of the arians , were in a great measure forgot ; st. austin had a heat of imagination that was very copious which way soever he turned it , and this was imployed chiefly in allegorizing scripture , so as to bring together a vast number of proofs for every cause that he undertook ; without troubling himself to examine critically what the true meaning of those passages might be : and he is so apt to run out in all his reasonings into excessive amplifications , and into all the figures of copious and uncorrect eloquence , that it is no wonder to find that passage of our saviour in the parable , compel them to enter in , with some other places misapplied on this occasion . with that father the learning of the western church fell very low , so that his works came to be more read in the succeeding ages than the writings of all the other fathers ; and in this , as in other things , men that knew not how to reason themselves , contented themselves with that lazy and cheap way of copying from him , and of depending on his authority . the incursion of the northern nations that overthrew the roman empire , and those polishings of learning and civility that fell with it , brought on a night of ignorance that can scarce be apprehended , by those who have not read the writings of the following ages ; superstition grew upon the ruins of learning , and eat up all . the fierce tempers of the northern people being mufled up in ignorance , and wrought on by superstition , were easily leavened with cruelty , till at last heresy came to be reckoned the greatest of all crimes ; and as it condemned men to everlasting burnings , so it was thought that those might be well anticipated by temporary ones of their kindling . zeal against heresy was extol'd as the highest act of piety toward god ; and since heresy is reckoned by st. paul among the works of the flesh , it seemed as just to punish it in the severest manner , as it was to punish any other works of the flesh ; and since all hereticks were looked on as persons damned , all tenderness toward them , and pity for them , was as far extinguished as was possible . for a false religion will not easily have the better of good nature so entirely as to root it quite out ; all the room that was left for good nature , was the favourable definition that was given of heresy ; by which obstinacy was made its peculiar character that distinguished it from error , which lies in a more innocent mistake in divine matters . and as many have explained this obstinacy , it amounts to a continuing in error after one is convinced of it . this notion of heresie , which has been received by many of the greatest of men , even of the church of rome it self , seems to agree well with that of st. paul's ranking heresie among the works of the flesh ; for if it is meerly a mistake in the judgment in which one continues because he cannot overcome his persuasion , nor see reasons strong enough to oblige him to change his mind , such an adhering to error may be called any thing rather than a work of the flesh. but if a man from a principle of interest , pride , or discontent , either throws himself into ill opinions , or continues in them after his mind is better inlightned , so that he stifles and denies that inward conviction ; then the reason is very plain why such an ill temper of mind should be reckon'd a work of the flesh , because it plainly arises out of a depraved nature . i will not here enter into so troublesom an enquiry as it would be to examine how far an erroneous conscience acquits one before god ; for that must be left to him who will judge every man according to his works , and who best knows how far he will accept of a general repentance of unknown sins , and of a general act of faith. even of truths that are yet unknown ; but as for the judgments of men , certainly when the other parts of ones life make it clear , not only to a judgment of charity , but even to that of discretion , that he is sincere , and that he means well , it is hard to know when he is obstinate , and when his errors become heresies , that is to say , works of the flesh. so far have i been led upon the consideration of the spirit of persecution , that is not only warranted by custom , and a long continued practice , but by laws , councils , &c. i am carried next into a scene of thoughts that are more particularly suited to the doctrines of the reformed churches ; and here it must be acknowledged that persecution is a more justifiable thing according to the principles of the church of rome , than it is according to our tenets ; for the church of rome that pretends to be infallible , has a better right to demand a blind submission from all its subjects , and to treat those roughly who refuse to grant it , than a church that pretends to nothing but a power of order and government ; and that confesses , she may be mistaken . our being subject to error is unreasonably urged , when men would carry it so far as to make us doubt of all things ; yet it ought at least to have this effect on us as to keep us from being too ready to judge hardly of those who are of another mind , or to use them roughly for it ; since it is possible that they may be in the right , and that we may be mistaken ; at least they may have very probable reasons for their opinions , which if they do not quite justifie their mistakes , yet do very much excuse and lessen them . it is likewise visible , that all severe proceedings upon the diversity of opinions how effectual soever they may be on base-minded men , who will always make shipwrack of a good conscience when it comes in competition with the love of this present world , yet work quite contrariwise on men of awakened understandings and generous souls ; instead of gaining on such persons , these inspire them with horror at a sort of men who go about to ruin companies of people that never did them hurt . it is from this that those violent hatreds arise among men of different persuasions . every man is not capable to understand an argument , or to be much disturbed at it ; and though divines that carry their speculations farther into the consequences of opinions , whether real or imaginary , grow hot and angry at one another upon those heads , yet the people understand them little , & feel them less ; but every man feels an injury , & nature makes her inferences very quick upon it , & concludes that those who use us ill hate us ; & there must be a great degree of regeneration to keep men from hating those that hate them . upon this arises all the animosity that is among the several parties ; for every one reckoning himself a member of that body to which he associates himself , thinks that he is obliged to resent all the injuries that are done to his fellow-members as much as if they were done to himself in particular ; and by the same natural logick he casts the guilt of the wrongs done his own party , not only on those individuals of the other party from whom they did more immediately arise , but upon the whole body of them ; and so here is a war kindled in mens breasts ; and when that is once formed within , it will find some unhappy occasion or other to give it self a vent . those who are ill used ▪ are in a state like that of a mass of humors in the body , which ●●●ul about less perceived till some unlucky accident has weakened any part of it , and then they will all discharge themselves on the part that suffers . men that are uneasie naturally love changes ; for these are like the shifting of postures , that give some present ease , and they flatter the patient with the hope of more to follow . persecution is not only hurtful to those that suffer many hard things by it , but is likewise mischievous to them by the aversion that it inspires in them to those at whose hands they suffer , by the ill habit of mind into which it throws them , and by those violent projects and convulsions which do very naturally come into the heads of those , who as they feel much , so they fear yet more . those that do persecute , though they seem to triumph a while with the spoils of their enemies ; yet will soon feel how this sinks their credit extreamly among those that were more indifferent spectators , while the debate was managed with the pen or tongue ; but they will certainly take part at least in their compassions with the miserable , and will be disposed to think ill not only of those men that are heavy upon their harmless neighbours , but even the cause it self , that is supported by such methods . the multitude even of the lowest order of men has a remnant of good nature left , which shews it self in the sad looks that all put on at the execution even of malefactors : but if a false religion has not quite extinguished humanity in its votaries , this will make a more sensible impression , when men that have done nothing amiss , and are only in fault because they cannot help thinking as they do , are made sacrifices to the rage of others , that perhaps have little more to say for themselves but that they are in possession of the law ; which in the next revolution of affairs that may fall out will be an argument so much the stronger for using themselves in the same manner , because it is a just retaliation on them for that which they made others to suffer . in short , persecution does extreamly vitiate the morals of the party that manages it ; the worst men , so they are furious and violent , are not only connived at , but are even courted , and men otherwise of severer morals will insensibly slacken , by reason of their engagements with vitious men , whom they will find themselves forced to cherish and imploy ; and if those who have persecuted others fall under a reverse 〈◊〉 fortune , and come to suffer themselves a little of that which they made others feel , as their ill behaviour , will deprive them in a great measure of those compassions that would otherwise work towards them , so it will raise within them many uneasie reflections upon their own actings , which will prove but melancholy companions to them in their afflictions ; and these will force them to conclude , that because they shewed no mercy therefore they now meet with the requital of judgment without mercy ; which how unjust soever it may be in those by whom they suffer , yet they will find it meet to look up to god , and to confess that just and righteous are all his ways . and the returning the severities we have suffered at the hands of any , is a practice so contrary to the christian religion , and to the principles of the protestant religion , that i do not stick to say it , that i had rather see the church of england fall under a very severe persecution , than fall to persecute others ▪ when it should come to its turn to be able to do it . the former will 〈◊〉 serve to unite us among our selves , and to purge us from our dross , and in particular , from any of the leaven of the doctrine of persecution that we have not yet quite thrown out ; but the other would very much slain the purest and best constituted church in the world ; and it would be too near an approach to that cruelty which we cannot enough detest ; but how much soever we may hate their corruption ▪ we must still remember that they are men and christians , though perhaps of a course grain , and that we our selves are reformed christians , who in imitation of our blessed master must not render evil for evil , but overcome evil with good . g. b. finis . a vindication of the sermons of his grace john archbishop of canterbury concerning the divinity and incarnation of our b. saviour : and of the lord bishop of worcester's sermon on the mysteries of the christian faith, from the exceptions of a late book, entituled, considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the trinity : to which is annexed, a letter from the lord bishop of sarum to the author of the said vindication, on the same subject. williams, john, 1636?-1709. 1695 approx. 282 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 66 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a66436 wing w2742 estc r10240 12927205 ocm 12927205 95552 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a66436) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 95552) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 991:31) a vindication of the sermons of his grace john archbishop of canterbury concerning the divinity and incarnation of our b. saviour : and of the lord bishop of worcester's sermon on the mysteries of the christian faith, from the exceptions of a late book, entituled, considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the trinity : to which is annexed, a letter from the lord bishop of sarum to the author of the said vindication, on the same subject. williams, john, 1636?-1709. nye, stephen, 1648?-1719. considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the trinity. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [8], 102, [2] p. printed for ric. chiswell ..., london : 1695. reproduction of original in huntington library. attributed to john williams. cf. nuc pre-1956. half title: a vindication of the archbishop tillotson's sermon, concerning the divinity and incarnation of our b. saviour, &c. errata: p. [8] created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng tillotson, john, 1630-1694. stillingfleet, edward, 1635-1699. -mysteries of the christian faith asserted. jesus christ -divinity -early works to 1800. trinity -early works to 1800. incarnation -early works to 1800. 2005-01 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-05 melanie sanders sampled and proofread 2005-05 melanie sanders text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a vindication of the archbishop tillotson's sermons , concerning the divinity and incarnation of our b. saviour , &c. imprimatur , lamb. nov. 17 , 1694 . ra. barker . a vindication of the sermons of his grace john archbishop of canterbury , concerning the divinity and incarnation of our b. saviour : and of the lord bishop of worcester's sermon on the mysteries of the christian faith : from the exceptions of a late book , entituled , considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the trinity . to which is annexed , a letter from the lord bishop of sarum to the author of the said vindication , on the same subject . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxcv . to his honoured friend , james chadwick , esq. the present i here make you being a vindication of my late lord of canterbury , and the cause he seasonably appeared in , and successfully defended , the dedication of it seems of right to belong to you , who besides the happiness of a near alliance and a long and inward acquaintance , had a just esteem and veneration for him. it was not without his grace's direction and encouragement that i entred upon this work ; and had he lived to have perus'd the whole , as he did a part of it , ( a few days before his last hours ) it had come with greater advantage into the world , and much more to my own satisfaction , as having passed the trial of that exact and impartial judgment which he was wont to exercise in matters of this nature . but however it may fall short in that particular , such as it is , i here present it to you , not doubting ( though it may not deserve it for its own sake ) but you will accept it in remembrance of so excellent a friend , and as a testimony of all due respect from , sir , your affectionate servant , j. williams . the preface . the subject which the author of the considerations undertakes , is a prime article of the christian faith , and so requires seriousness and decorum in the management of it : and the persons to whom he declares himself an adversary , are not only of an eminent order and station in the church , but also such as have approved themselves in their writings to be of that learning and judgment , that temper and moderation , that their adversary cannot but pay some reverence , in expressions at least , to their persons for it . but notwithstanding this , as if he had a distrust in his cause , and durst not venture it abroad into the world upon the strength of its own reason and authority , he soon endeavours to prepossess his unwary readers with such insinuations as he thinks will make them , if not of his own party , yet suspect the sincerity of the other . for would you know who those are that he proclaims war against ? they are one while a poor sort of weak people at the best , that , he saith , neither have nor can defend their cause , but have given it up to the socinians : but if you would indeed know who they are , in their proper colours ; they are the great pensioners of the world , that are bribed with great rewards . they are of a church , whose fears and aws are greater than their bribes . another while they are great men indeed that defend the doctrine of the trinity against them , but 't is that they must maintain it , p. 44. so that set aside preferments , fears and aws , and without doubt these great men , and the whole church and nation ( as he would have it believed ) would socinianise , and become their proselytes . would one think that this person had ever read the character his grace has given his predecessors in that controversy , who used generally to lay aside unseemly reflections , & c. ? would one think this to be the person that in the page before said , that the archbishop instructed the socinians themselves with the air and language of a father , not of an adversary or judge ? or rather , has he not given us reason to think he would have these doubtful expressions construed to the disadvantage of him whom he therein pretends to commend ? or does he think , that after all , he has wiped his mouth , and comes off with some decorum , that he asks pardon , if there be any thing here said , not respectful enough . solomon saith , as a mad man who casteth firebrands , arrows , and death , so is the man that deceiveth ( or as the septuagint reads it , traduceth ) his neighbour , and saith , am i not in sport ? for can any thing blacker be said , than that because of the preferments on one side , and the fears and aws on the other , these great men defend the doctrine of the trinity , and defend it because they must . all that can be said is , that in his opinion these are fatal biasses ; in his opinion , i say , who after all his pretence to a freedom from these biasses which the great pensioners of the world are under the power of , cannot so smother it , but upon occasion it will break forth : o , saith he , let the church-preferments be proposed as the reward of only learning and piety , and then mighty things shall be done , and it shall be soon seen how many eyes this liberty would open . surely he must have too fatal an inclination this way himself , that can think so ill of mankind , and of such who are known to have been tried when time was , but despised his sort of bribes and fears too , when armed with power and authority ; when they , with a bravery becoming their learning and integrity , dar'd to own ( in his phrase ) not only an inconvenient but a dangerous truth , p. 65. surely this is a sort of treatment that these venerable persons might not have expected from one of that denomination , that used to argue with decency . but what may not be expected from him , who has the confidence to tell the world , that the ancient unitarians did generally reject the gospel , and other pieces now attributed to st. john , and said they were written by the heretick cerinthus ? p. 50 , &c. and because he thought himself obliged rather to vindicate those beloved predecessors of his ( as he would have it ) than those divine books ; he pretends particularly to set down their reasons in order ; of which matter , though ( as he tells us ) he will affirm nothing ; yet , saith he , i should be glad to see an answer to their exceptions . after which , i hope these great men will think it no disparagement to suffer the utmost indignity in such company as that of the divine evangelist . but of this more in its proper place . but why doth our author thus lead up the van , and bring up the rear of his answer to these venerable persons , with this popular topick of church-preferments , and church-fears ? was there never a time when the church of god professed the same tenets which our church defends , without any of those great rewards to bribe them ; and when on all sides they were beset with the aws and fears of a furious and embitter'd adversary ? was there not a time when his unitarians possess'd some of the greatest preferments , when ( as our author tells us ) they had their paulus patriarch of antioch ; and photinus metropolitan of illyricum ; and that their followers abounded every-where , & c. ? p. 53. and i may tell him as a secret , was there not a time when the power of these fatal biasses was abroad , that their metropolitans were not wont to treat the trinitarians with the air and language of a father , but of an adversary , and a tyrannical judge ? what else was the meaning of the commotions , violences , and outrages us'd in those days , when fire and faggot were even among them in fashion ; when bishops were deposed , exiled , slain , and the whole empire in a combustion by those infamous practices ? surely ( as our author saith of his adversaries ) if those persons had believed as they said , they could never think it necessary to use the precaution of such mighty aws and draconick sanctions , to maintain a truth so obvious , as they pretend , to every unprejudiced , and every honest man , p. 54. this , i doubt me , is in his words a thorny and ungrateful subject . and he may thank himself for giving the occasion ; and me for not tracing it further . for which , as i am not conscious to my self of having done them any wrong ; so i don't think it fit to conclude my preface , as he doth his , with asking his pardon . errata . page 6. l. 28. dele from and to perswasion . p. 12. l. 25 : r. uncouth . p. 13. l. ule . r. paraphrase . p. 18. l. 16. r. what if . p. 26. l. 15. for usually r. really . p. 71. l. 15. after place make a ( , ) l. 16. for and r. and , l. 17. after created make a ( t ) a vindication of the sermons of his grace the archbishop of canterbury , concerning the divinity and incarnation of our b. saviour , &c. sect . i. of the deity of our saviour . the author of the considerations having taken a liberty of dispersing the matter before him without any just order , doth accordingly often repeat things of the same kind ; making some ventures upon a point in one place , and taking it up again in another ; so that his reader is often rather amused than satisfied . tho withal , he takes occasion to quicken his matter ( which would otherwise have proved nauseous and heavy ) with several part remarks and reflections . but being my design is not like a man of mystery ( as he scoffingly represents it ) to darken the cause , or to cast a mist before the eyes of the reader ; i shall gently lead him by the hand , and endeavour to put what i have to say , into that order , that whatever force is in it , the reader may soon discover ; or what defects may be in it , he may be able to detect . this author allows his grace to be open and ingenuous in declaring his opinion of the trinity ; and is pleased to allow him a right to alledge particular scriptures to prove the divinity of our saviour . and whether he has proved it or not , is the point in controversy . before i proceed to which , i shall briefly state the point , and shew what are the distinct opinions of the orthodox , the arians , and socinians , concerning it ; for into one of these , is the whole to be resolved . the orthodox hold , that christ the word , and only begotten of the father , was truly and really god from all eternity ; god by participation of the divine nature and happiness together with the father , and by way of derivation from him , as light from the sun ; and that he made all creatures , and so could no more be a creature , than it is possible for a creature to make it self . thus a. bp. p. 23 , 37 , 38. the arians conceive , that sometime before the world was made , god generated the son after an ineffable manner , to be his instrument and minister in making the world. and this son is called god in scripture , not in the most perfect sense , but with respect to the creatures whom he made . so our author , p. 46. a socinus held , that the son was not in being till he was the son of the virgin ; and that therefore he was a god , not in nature , but by way of office , mission , or representation , as moses , and others , are called god in scripture . so our author , p. 48. b against these two last , his grace directed his discourse , and took them up in order ; and in the first place founded his argument upon the first chapter of st. john's gospel . here his adversary labours with all his might to put by the force of those arguments . doth the archbishop reason from the context ? if you will believe this author , this text is alledged impertinently by him for the trinitarians , which it doth not favour , no , not in the least . that his grace can raise the expressions no higher than arianism , p. 46. that as for the historical occasion assigned by his grace , there is no historian ( he is sure , no ancient historian ) assigns it . and that many of the ancients did believe that cerinthus was the true author of the gospel imputed to st. john ; and that the ancient unitarians did reject the gospel , epistles , and revelation now attributed to him , p. 49 , 50. this is the sum of what he has said ; all of which will be comprehended under the following heads . 1. i shall consider the authority of st. john's gospel , and other writings ascribed to him . 2. i shall consider the authority of those vnitarians who , he saith , rejected those writings . 3. if st. john proves to be the author of the gospel , i shall consider the occasion upon which he is said to have written that book . 4. i shall defend the orthodox explication of it , given by the archbishop . 1. i shall consider the authority of those writings , which are usually ascribed to st. john , viz. the gospel , three epistles , and the revelation . it 's much , that we should be put upon the proof of this at this time of day , and by one that professes himself to believe the christian religion ; of which inconsistency , i think it 's much more difficult to give an account , than of the writings of that apostle , called in question by his dear friends , the ancient vnitarians . it is certain , that there was not the least occasion given him from the point in dispute to enter upon this matter , where both sides agreed , or would be thought to be agreed about the authority of the book they reason from : and which he saith , is with great colour alledged for the arian doctrine , p. 46. and that socinus's explication of it , would perfectly agree to the lord christ. but i must confess , he has given too great reason to suspect , that he is in this point of the same mind with the ancient vnitarians ; and would allow cerinthus , or simon magus , or any of the like rabble , to be author of those writings , rather than that divine apostle . but as he wisely observes , that those ancient vnitarians that had rejected them ; yet , because they saw it begun to grow into credit among the other denominations of christians , many of which had been seduced by the platonick philosophers that came over to christianity ; therefore they were careful to show them , that it was capable of a very allowable sense ; and that it doth not appear , that either st. john , or cerinthus , intended to advance a second god , p. 53. a that is , in plain and honest english , they themselves did not at all believe those to be the works of st. john ; but because there was no going against the stream , and that among the other denominations of christians these were universally received , they would then swim with it ; and then whoever was the author , whether st. john or cerinthus , was no trinitarian . and if they could have made this out to the satisfaction of the adverse party , and there had been nothing wanting but their approbation of the aforesaid works to have made the christians of other denominations intirely theirs ; then they that at first held , that cerinthus , and not st. john , was the author ; and towards an accommodation , came so far , as to say for convenience sake , st. john , or cerinthus , to remove all rubs out of the way , and to have compleated the design , would without doubt have intirely come over so far to them , whatever they themseves thought ; and they would have consented that st. john , and not cerinthus , was the author . but alas ! that was too hard a task , for st. john himself would not bend and comply , and could not be made a vnitarian . in the beginning was the word , and the word was with god , and the word was god , &c. was as stable as a rock ; and therefore if st. john would not be for them , they would not be for him . and then all the vnitarians with one consent reject the gospel , epistles , and revelation , and give the honour from st. john to cerinthus , who should be said to write them , to confirm this heretick's cabalastick and platonick notions about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or word , and his jewish dreams about the millenary kingdom , p. 50. now which part our author will take to , whether that of the ancient vnitarians , who , he saith , were contemporaries to the first fathers of the church , and were older than any of those fathers whose works are now extant ( if we will believe him ) ; whether , i say , he will take to them and reject these books , or whether forsake his friends , and side with those fathers whose works are now extant , and the rest of the catholick church in receiving them , i am not able positively to determine ; for he holds us in suspence and saith , he will affirm nothing in the matter , but should be glad to see a good answer to the exceptions against these books , which we receive as st. john ' s , that were made by the ancient unitarians . i do not think my self obliged to enter into the merits of that cause , unless he will yield those books of st. john to be for the trinitarians , and therefore calls their authority in question : but when he professes st. john not to favour , no not in the least , the trinitarian doctrine , and to be wholly socinian , what need is there to prolong the time and postpone the consideration of the main cause , and that i must be put upon the proof of this , and hew my way through all those formidable arguments of the unitarians against st. john's writings , before i must be admitted to argue the point in debate ? which is , as if when his grace had said , that the first chapter of genesis might as well be interpreted of a new moral creation , as the first chapter of st. john ; before he would allow me to proceed to the proof of this , he should require me to shew that moses wrote the book of genesis , and oblige me to answer all the arguments of abenezra against it . but how impertinent soever this may be , yet to shew my self a fair adversary , i will return him his complement ( since i have time for it ) that he shall not ( as he saith to his grace ) put that question , which i will not satisfy , if i can , and reasonably may . let us then see ( for he has undertaken to shew us them ) what were the allegations of the unitarians out of eusebius , but especially out of st. epiphanius , who hath written very largely of this matter ( as he saith ) . for these arguments this author refers us to eusebius and epiphanius , but as for eusebius , he says nothing of these arguments our author cites him for ; and as for what are in eusebius , they are not the allegations of the unitarians , but of some of the otherwise orthodox against the apocalypse , as i shall shew . as for epiphanius , our author saith , he hath written very largely of this matter : but if he has , it had become him to have observ'd that it was because of the answer he has given to the arguments which the alogi ( in our author 's english , the unitarians ) alledged against st. john's writings , in which that historian is very particular ; and not to propose them as if they had stood the shock of several ages , and to this day wanted a reply ; for after this manner he introduces them , i should be glad to see a good answer to the exceptions of the unitarians , against the books which we receive as st. john's . but perhaps in his esteem what epiphanius hath said , is not a good answer ; and as impertinent and ridiculous as that he makes for him in the case of thyatira , of which more anon . it 's time now to examine them . object . 1. the unitarians said , that it was the current opinion and general tradition , that cerinthus , and not st. john , was author of the gospel , epistles , and revelation , that go under st. john's name : for as to the revelation , it was scarce doubted by any to be the work of cerinthus ; and as such , was wrote against by divers learned men of the catholick persuasion , as 't is now called . a. the answer epiphanius gives to that clause about cerinthus , is , how could cerinthus be the author of that which was directly opposite to him : for cerinthus would have christ to be a meer and late-born man , whereas st. john saith , the word always was , and came from heaven , and was made flesh . now i conceive this answer of epiphanius to be good , unless they would have cerinthus to contradict himself . as to the other clauses of our author's objections , ( for they are not in epiphanius ) nothing is more false , than that it was the current opinion and general tradition that cerinthus was the author of all those writings ; and that the revelation was scarce doubted by any to be his , and was wrote against , as such by divers of the catholick persuasion : for , 1. there were some books of st. john , of which there never was any question in the christian church , which eusebius calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such is his gospel , which irenaus , and eusebius from him , say he published , while at ephesus , at the instance of the asian bishops , and as such is often quoted by the fathers . this sandius , a late author of the unitarians acknowledges , who saith , the gospel was always accounted canonical . such again is the first epistle of st. john , which , saith eusebius , is admitted by the present as it was by the ancient christians without dispute . so st. jerom ; upon which grotius saith , that it was never doubted to be st. john's . so sandius again . 2. those books that were not so generally receiv'd as st. john's , were yet for the most part receiv'd as canonical . such were the 2 d. and 3 d. epistles ; of which some would have another john , call'd john the presbyter , to be the author , as st. jerom saith , and grotius from him ; but for the most part it was believed to be st. john the evangelist * : against which ( it seems ) the ancient unitarians had nothing particularly to object ; for else we should have learn'd it from our author . of this sort is the apocalypse ; of which , saith our author , it was scarce doubted by any to be the work of cerinthus . eusebius indeed saith , some do question it : but who and how many were they on the other side that did not doubt of either its authority or author , even such as justin martyr , irenaus , tertullian , &c. † some of which interpreted it , ( as st. jerom saith ) and say that st. john wrote it when in patmos . but i shall refer our author for the rest to grotius and sandius ; the latter of which charges them with blasphemy that would attribute it to cerinthus . lastly , saith our author , the revelation was as the work of cerinthus , wrote against by divers learned men of the catholick persuasion . a. dionysius alexandrinus was of the number of those that questioned whether st. john the evangelist were the author ; and for this indeed he offers several reasons , but of so little force , that if our author hath seen them , as he has not so he could not have the confidence to propose them in behalf of his ancient unitarians . but whatever that father thought of the author , he allowed the book to be divine . there were indeed some others of the catholick persuasion , that dionysius spoke of in the same book , ( as eusebius eccles. hist. lib. 5. cap. 24. relates ) that would have the apocalypse wrote by cerinthus ; but they were few , and such as were troubled with a sort of millenaries , followers of nepos an egyptian bishop , ( of repute for his learning , faith , and knowledge of the scripture ) who for their opinion quoted the apocalypse . and it seems , as the ancient unitarians rejected st. john's writings , because they favour'd the divinity of our saviour ; so those ( otherwise orthodox ) would , it 's likely , have rejected the apocalypse , because it favoured ( as they thought ) the cause of the millennium . upon the whole it appears , that it was the current opinion and general tradition , that st. john , and not cerinthus , was the author of the works attributed to that evangelist . object . 2. they objected , he saith , ' that this gospel is wholly made use of by the cerinthians and valeminians , the two chief sects of the gnosticks , and for this he quotes irenaeus , as well as epiphanins . a. what is this brought to prove ? will it prove cerinthus to be the author of that gospel ? then it may as well prove valentinus to be the author of it , as cerinthus , since the valentinians wholly made use of it , as well as the cerinthians . or will it prove that the gospel is a valentinian , a cerinthian , or gnostick gospel ? then so would the other scriptures be such as the sects were that quoted them , that corrupted and wrested them , to serve their purpose . and thus irenaeus tells us the gnosticks did , as he gives instances enough , haer. l. 1. c. 15 , 16 , 17. nay , cerinthus himself owned the gospel of st. matthew , at least part of it ; will it therefore follow that the doctrine of cerinthus was favoured in that gospel , or might be proved from it ? but his grace saith , this gospel was wrote against cerinthus ; and then , saith our author , how came the cerinthians to use it ? a. they used it as the other hereticks used that and other scriptures . and irenaeus applies this to another purpose ; for , saith he , by this means they give testimony to us . and this they might so much the rather do , as the evangelist makes use of several terms of theirs ( as his grace and grotius have shewed ) such as life , light , fulness , which the followers of cerinthus ( who were willing to catch at any thing , as appears from irenaeus ) finding there , would challenge for theirs ; and this our author himself intimates , when he thus expounds irenaeus , that they , the gnosticks , greedily used this gospel as a proof of their eons . object . 3 : ' the other three evangelists suppose all along that our saviour preached but one year , and therefore they reckon but one passover ; but ( the pretended ) st. john counts three years , and three passovers ; which , saith our author , ' seems to me an unaccountable contradiction ; and yet it is granted on all bands , some finding a 4 th year and passover . answ. it is an unaccountable contradiction indeed , if the other three evangelists had said , that our saviour preached but one year , and that there was but one passover , when st. john saith there were three passovers , and consequently three years , or thereabouts . but the question is , whether the three evangelists gave any such account ; i am certain they do not . and if one will but consider the occurrences in the time of our saviour's preaching , as it 's impossible ( morally speaking ) it should all be done in one years time ; so he that will but consider the way of computation , as epiphanius hath done haer. 51.22 . will see that what st. john saith must needs be true . but what then will become of the other evangelists ? must they be excluded out of the number of the canonical ? no surely . but we are to consider when each evangelist begins , and what he takes in hand to pursue , of which epiphanius gives a very good account . and if we take this course , we shall find the latter evangelists often to supply the omissions of the preceding . and so st. john , who lived the longest , and wrote last of them , doth in the case before us , and distributes the time of our saviour's ministry into annals , or passovers , after the jewish way of computation , beginning his account from our saviour's baptism , and connecting it to john the baptist's imprisonment ( where the other evangelists begin ) by which means the history is made compleat , and the evangelists are found to agree , as eusebius , and st. jerom observe . the omission of which , by the other evangelists , makes it no more a contradiction , than when st. matthew begins the genealogy of our saviour with abraham , st. luke carries it to adam , and st. john makes him to exist before the world. omissions are no contradictions , and such as these no unaccountable omissions . and as for that single passeover , the other three speak of , it was not , as that was a chronological character of time , circumscribing the whole space of our saviour's ministry ; but a remarkable point , denoting the special season he suffer'd in , with relation to the great type under the law , and for which he is sometime called our passover . this , i say , no more describes the compleat time of his ministry , than it will follow that because pontius pilate was then said to be governor of judea , that he was governor but one year only . object . 4. ' the other evangelists agree , that immediately after his baptism our lord was led into the wilderness to be tempted forty days . but cerinthus , who knew not the series or order of our saviour's life and miracles , says in the gospel , which he has , say they , [ viz. the ancient unitarians ] forged for st. john , that the next day after his baptism , our saviour spake with andrew and peter , and the day after went to galilee , and on the third was at a wedding in cana , and after this departed with his mother and brethren to capernaum , where he abode some time . a. our author saith , the next day after our saviour's baptism , he spake with andrew , &c. i answer , 1. there is no mention at all of our saviour's baptism in that chapter , but the history of that being particularly relalated by the other evangelists , st. john supposes it , and refers to it , v. 15. john bare witness — this is he of whom i spake , that is , formerly ; and when that was , st. matthew 3.11 . shews , which was just before his baptism . 2. accordingly , all the way there is an observable difference of phrase between st. john and the other evangelists . matthew saith , he it is that cometh after me , that is , he that is to come . st. john saith , ver. 26. there standeth one among you , he it is that coming after me , [ as i have said . ] so ver . 29 john seeth jesus coming ; — he spake of him , as one then known to himself , but that was not till his baptism , ver . 33. so again , ver . 30. this is be , of whom i said , [ formerly ] ver. 32 , 34. john bare record , saying , i saw the spirit , — and it abode upon him . the phrases , said , saw , bare record , abode , do shew that it was a certain time past , which he refers to . from whence it appears , ( 1. ) that the phrase , the next day , has no reference to our saviour's baptism ( for that st. john is not relating ) but to the discourse then in hand ; as the same phrase , ver. 29. had . ( 2. ) that there was a distance of time between our saviour's baptism , and that time that john the baptist had the discourse with the pharisees at bethabara , ver . 19 , 24 , 28. which was the day before he met andrew , ver . 35. 3. it 's not at all unreasonable to suppose , that our saviour's temptation in the wilderness , &c. did fall in with that time ; for after his baptism he immediately went into the wilderness , mark 1.12 . and john the baptist may well be supposed to have spent that time in preaching and baptizing near to jordan , and in the parts adjoyning to it ; all which st. john omits , as having been before recorded by the other evangelists , as well as our saviour's baptism . but the learned reader may consult epiphanius , haer. 51.13 , &c. and petavius's notes upon it . and i will refer our author to schlictingius's note on john 1.26 . object . 5. ' he has feigned an epistle , as from st. john , to the bishop and church of thyatira , &c. but it 's certain and notorious , say the unitarians , that there was no church at thyatira , till a long time after st. john's death . 't is a very ridiculous answer made to this by epiphanius , who being sensible ( because he was of asia ) of the truth of this objection , is forced to be content with this vain elusion , that st. john writes prophetically of this church . a. 1. it 's far from being certain , that there was no church , and if st. john be of any authority , it 's as certain there was a church there , as in the other six cities , for it 's in the same stile ; and it may be as well said , there was no church at ephesus , as at thyatira , if the way of writing is to be regarded . 2. it 's not probable that there should be no church there , when churches were planted all about , and that it 's granted all the other six were churches then in being . 3. if i understand epiphanius , he is far from granting it : all that he saith , is , ( 1. ) supposing it to be so * , what will follow ? why , ' these very persons are forced from the things which they object against it , by their own confession , to assent to the truth ; that st. john foretold things to come by divine inspiration , concerning the corruption of that church , and those false prophetesses that should arise in it ninety three years after our lord's ascension . ( 2. ) he positively saith , there was a church there in st. john's time ; for saith he , st. john foresaw that after the time of the apostles , and of st. john , the church would fall from the truth into error , even that of the cataphryges , of which were the pretended prophetesses , priscilla , maximilla , and quintilla . so again , he wrote by prophecy to those christians , that then were there in thyatira , that a woman , who would call her self a prophetess , should arise among them . so that our author is as wide of the sense of epiphanius , as his unitarians were of the truth , that would so many years after affirm there was no church at thyatira in st. john's time . i suppose our author took it up at the second hand ; for i perceive pererius , and perhaps others , mistook epiphanius . it seems that the church there had been either destroyed by persecution , or corrupted by the cataphryges , out of which condition it having recovered a hundred and twelve years after , ( as epiphanius saith ) the alogi ignorantly concluded there never had been a church there till that time ; or however , made use of this pretence to countenance their impious design of overthrowing the authority of that book : a design that our author hath shewed himself too great a well-wisher to , by so formal a repetition of those sorry , and so often baffled objections ; and by adding what force he ( under the name of the ancient unitarians ) could to support them . which brings into my mind an unhappy passage in serm. 2. of the archbishop , concerning the doctrine of socinus , and his uncoucht way of managing of it . it was only to serve and support an opinion which he had entertained before , and therefore was resolved one way or other to bring the scripture to comply with it : and if he could not have done it , it is greatly to be fear'd , that he would at last have called in question the divine authority of st. john's gospel , rather than have quitted his opinion . it was evidently so in the case of the alogi or ancient unitarians ; and what doth our author want of it , that thus rakes into the dirt of that generation , and would have them the best part of the christian church ? but that remains to be consider'd . ii. who are the ancient unitarians , that our author at all times speaks so venerably of , and that thus rejected the books usually ascribed to st. john ? this name of the unitarians and ancient unitarians , is a title much made use of , of late ; and it is a term of latitude , that to those that know not the difference , adds much to the number ; for under that , they would comprehend all that deny a trinity , or think not alike of it with the catholick church , whether arians , or photinians and socinians ; though at the same time they disagree , as well among themselves , ( as i shall shew ) as with us , and particularly in the point in question , viz. the authority of st. john's gospel , &c. our author often speaks of the ancient unitarians ; and if we would know how ancient they are , he tells us , they were contemporaries to the first fathers of the church , and were older than any of those fathers whose works are now extant , p. 50. that is , st. clemens himself contemporary to st. paul. now whom should we so soon fix upon for his ancient unitarians , as cerinthus and ebion , for they were ancient , as contemporaries with the first fathers of the church ; and were both of them unitarians , as they both held that our saviour was a meer man ? but here our author interposes , and because he confesses he has met with these two names in the church history ; and when he did , to be sure finds no passable character of them ; therefore he will not have ebion a person , nor cerinthus a unitarian ; and for the proof of the latter , offers no testimony ( the way for proving matter of fact ) but an argument of his own ; for , saith he , if cerinthus held the unity of god , and denied the divinity and pre-existence of our saviour ( as his grace and the moderns suppose ) neither it should seem , would the unitarians have reckoned him a heretick , nor have rejected the books which they supposed to be his ; namely , the gospel , epistles , and revelation , now attributed to st. john. as if a person might not be orthodox in one point , and heretical in others ; and the unitarians might not reckon cerinthus a heretick ( who held jesus was not born of a virgin , but was the real son of joseph and mary , and that christ descended upon jesus after his baptism , and leaving him again , returned to heaven ; and so it was jesus , and not christ that died ; with more of these whimsical dreams ) though he agreed with them in denying the divinity and pre-existence of our saviour . the matter of fact is beyond all contradiction , that cerinthus was a unitarian , as church-history would have informed any smatterer in it , ( as irenaeus , eusebius , epiphanius , &c. abundantly testify ) but it is his own argument that is , in his pharse , obscure and puzzling . but he is not so willing to part with ebion , the name i mean , and will have it given by some to the first christians , because of their poverty ; and then because the ebionites were unitarians in one sense , therefore they must be hereticks in none . but herein he is as unsuccessful as in his former attempt ; for besides their agreement with the unitarians in denial of christ's divinity , they held the observation of the law of moses necessary , were circumcised , and rejected st. paul as an apostate , &c. both of these then must be unitarians , and ancient unitarians ; but then comes a very obscure and puzzling part of his history ; for whatever cerinthus himself thought , yet our author tells us , that the gospel of st. john was wholly made use of by the cerinthians , his followers . and then though these were unitarians , yet being not of the number of those that wholly rejected st. john's writings , we are much at a loss to find out those of them that were older than any of those fathers whose works are now extant . i doubt we must come a step lower , and from being older than those fathers of the church , whose works are now extant , they will prove at the most contemporaries with , if not after several of them , about the close of the 2 d. century , as is computed . our author himself points to them , and they were the alogi . so termed by epiphanius , because they denied christ to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word , and the son of god ; and would have him a meer man. but now though these are unitarians , and the most like to the socinians of all the ancient unitarians , if not the only ones that are so ( as sandius would have it , p. 146 , 147 , &c. ) though they agree with his character again , that they rejected all the works commonly ascribed to st. john ; yet they seem to be the only unitarians that did anciently agree in disowning the authority of all those books ; and then it will follow , that the unitarians were not more ancient than those fathers , whose works are now extant ; though he saith , it is certain and confess'd by them all , that the ancient unitarians from the apostolick times to the nicene council , or thereabouts , did reject them . so that i see no remedy , but if he will be positive in it , that he must be contented to let the cerinthians as well as the ebionites , pass for unitarians , to make his sect thus ancient as the apostolick times : but how he will do to find out those that did thus professedly reject all those writings of st. john before them , and from the apostolick times to them ; and yet were older than such fathers of the church , as clemens romanus , polycarp , ignatius , &c. some of whose works are now extant ; i must leave to his consideration . thus much shall suffice to have said about the authority of st. john's writings , and particularly of his gospel . but there is another point yet to be debated ; which is , iii. to consider what was the occasion upon which st. john wrote his gospel . this is one of the first things his grace doth take into consideration ; as the knowledge of this seem'd to him to be the only true key to the interpretation of this discourse of st. john and the neglect of which was one of the grounds of socinus's great and fatal mistake , as he saith . how ! socinus mistake ! rather let st. john's gospel , and all his other works , labour and sink under the exceptions of the ancient unitarians ; and lye by the walls till the world can give a good answer to them . rather let st. john take up words by chance ( as our author saith , p. 49. ) and use the words life , fulness , only begotten , as they came in his way , without any design , than the great socinus should be blamed . st. john , indeed , may be said to use words by chance ; but sociinus , formed , and thought , and concluded , and understood ; and according as he formed , and thought , and concluded , so it must be meant . he was the man that saw plainly , ( as he words it again , p. 48. ) and if his grace , in vindication of st. john , and in compliance with the ancient historians , will adventure to interpret him from the occasion of his writing , he deserves to be treated with contempt . the serene republick owns none of these titles , bishop and archbishop , &c. thus scoffingly and boyishly doth he introduce this serious argument . o he ! says his grace , how strangely has this man [ socinus ] mistook for want of the light of ancient history ! thus he interprets scripture by scripture , and by reason and wit , not by the fathers and the old historians of the chruches party , &c. i could find in my heart to transcribe what his grace has wrote upon this case ; his words are these : it was the great and fatal mistake of socinus , to go to interpret scripture merely by criticising upon words , and searching into all the senses that they are capable of , till he can find one , though never so forced and foreign , that will save harmless the opinion which he was resolved beforehand to maintain , even against the most natural and obvious sense of the text which he undertakes to interpret . just as if a man should interpret ancient statutes and records , by mere critical skill in words , without regard to the true occasion upon which they were made , and without any manner of knowledge and insight into the history of the age in which they were written , p. . 18. and that this was the way socinus took , our author 's own account of it will manifest , 〈◊〉 , where he chalks out the method his great master observed , in interpreting that evangelist , and that is , by laying down certain propositions , which he resolved to accommodate all to ; such was the unity of god : and therefore , saith he , when the word is called god , it must be meant in a sense of office : and whereas it is said , all things were made by him ; those things must be the spiritual world , &c. and then farewell fathers , and historians , occasions , and scripture too , rather than the reason and wit of socinus be called in question . well , but supposing that our author is content to have the historical occasion of st. john's writing inquired into ; yet , as for that assign'd by his grace , it was , he saith , below the gravity of the apostle to confute the wild gnosticks , &c. and if you will take his word for it , he adds , i am of opinion , that there is no historian ( i am sure there is no ancient historian ) who assigns that historical occasion of st. john's writings , even the gnosticks and their eons , mentioned by his grace . in short , he hath not very justly blamed socinus , for not knowing an historical occasion , which is mentioned in no historian , p. 49. this is very positive , no historian , no ancient historian , and mentioned in no historian . we have gained before ( if it be worth the while to prove it ) that cerinthus and ebion ( supposing him for the present a person ) did deny the divinity of our saviour , according as his grace represented it . the next thing is to shew , that these their opinions was an occasion which st. john took for the writing his gospel , in the judgment of the ancient historians , and fathers of the church . here our author interposes , and saith , the account given of this matter by the ancient , is very different from this of his grace . for they say , according to our author 's antique translation , that the other evangelists having committed to writing only the gests of our saviour , during one years space : therefore the apostle john , being thereto requested , declared in a gospel according to him , the time that was passed over by the other evangelists , and what was done by our saviour therein * . it is very true , that the one of these is different from the other ; but tho they are different , they are not contradictory and inconsistent . for then , not only the archbishop would contradict himself , who elsewhere gives the same account , and tells us from eusebius that st john wrote his gospel last , and that on purpose to supply the omissions of the other evangelists † ; but the fathers also would contradict one another , and often themselves ; who sometimes give the one , and sometimes the other , and sometimes both as the reasons of st. john's writing , ( as i shall presently shew ) . by which way of arguing , epiphanius , eusebius , and st. jerome , &c. will closh one with another ; when the first of these saith , st. john wrote his gospel * by the impulse of the holy ghost ; and the other says , it was at the instance of the asian bishops . but now , as these two may well be accommodated , and are consistent ; so it is in the account given by the ancients of the occasion of st. john's writing the gospel ; therefore st. jerom † joyns them together , and after he had said , that st. john wrote it in confutation of cerinthus , and other hereticks ; adds , there is also another cause , and then falls in with eusebius . so irenaeus expresly * so epiphanius . and thus sandius doth acknowledg , that against the heresy of cerinthus and ebion , , st. john ( as we have it by tradition ) wrote his gospel . thus far then we are safe , and have the suffrage of antiquity on our side , that st. john wrote his gospel against the heresies of cerinthus and ebion . and indeed , by our author's reply to this part , we may guess , that when he met with these two names in the church-history , he met with nothing against it . for thus he goes on . first , as to ebion , concerning him , it is , saith he , doubted by the criticks , whether there was any such man : nay , a little after , he is got above the criticks , and positively affirms , that ebion never was . now , supposing his modern opposers , and among them the archbishop , for want of consulting the indexes of names in church history , had mistaken ; yet , how will that confute his modern opposers , who use to quote irenaeus , epiphanius , &c. for their assertion , that st. john wrote against the ebionites ? for tho ebion never was , yet the ebionites were an early sect , and as early as they make him . but saith he , this name was given to the first christians , because of their poverty , according to the signification of the word . a. then indeed st. john was in the wrong for writing against these first christians , whom st. paul refers to , as our author would have us understand , 1 cor. 1.26 . or at least , all those fathers were mistaken that would have st. john write against the heresy of the ebionites , or that reckon that among the number of heresies . for what heresy is there in simple poverty ? but if they that would have the name an appellative , say it was not because of their poverty , but because they thought , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , poorly and meanly of our saviour , as they would have him the son of joseph and mary , as some of them ; or of mary , as others ; but all of them agreeing that he was a mere man. so eusebius . what if ebion at last is found to be a person ? so it 's affirmed by tertullian , praescript . c. 33 , &c. hieron . in isai. c. 1 , & 3. hilarius epist. de trin. l. 1. origen in matth. 5 , &c. so epiphanius expresly , ebionites were so called from ebion ; whose followers , saith he , would be so called from their being poor like the apostles : but , saith that father , this is a fiction of their own ; for ebion was a proper name . as for cerinthus , all that he has to say , is , that the gospel of st. john could not be wrote against cerinthus , because cerinthus was said to be author of it . but this is to reason about matter of fact. it 's plain , the ancients , to whom our author appeals , did assert , that it was written against cerinthus ; and it 's as plain , that cerinthus held these opinions , against which st. john is supposed by them to have written . to which he has nothing to reply , but that cerinthus is said to be the author of it ; but that i have already consider'd before . thus far then , i hope , 't is pretty evident , that there are historians and ancient historians , that do assign the same historical occasion of st. john's writings , as is assigned by his grace . but it 's likely he will reply , that these words of his , no historian , and to be sure no ancient historian ever assigns that occasion mentioned by his grace , are to be limited to the gnosticks . whatever he may say , yet i doubt few readers will suppose it ; for he has so artificially mingled all these together , that what he affirms may be applied to all ; and yet , it examined , he can restrain it to this or that particular . and therefore , that i may shew how little he is acquainted with this argument , or how little he consults truth and candor in it , i shall consider it with respect to the gnosticks . he cannot deny , but that the terms , word , light , fulness , only begotten , are the phraseology of the gnosticks , or else he must never have read irenaeus ; which also are used by st. john. now the question will be , whether st. john hath used them by chance , as our author imagines ? or that in opposition to these dreams , st. john shews all these titles did truly belong to our saviour , and to which there is a perpetual allusion , as his grace affirms . i verily believe , that if a gnostick had accidentally light upon that chapter , as the platonick amelius is said to have done , he would no less have been convinced there was this allusion to their hypothesis , than that philosopher was that the evangelist did platonize . hence it was , that the following gnosticks would have confirmed their conjugations and eons from thence . but saith he , it was below the gravity of the apostle to confute the wild gnosticks , and their chimerical eons . why so ? when this sect so far prevailed , that during the lives of the apostles , it grew to a great height , to the great prejudice and disturbance of the christian religion , as his grace observes ; for whose purity and preservation it became even this great evangelist to be concerned . and tho our sage philosopher may call them , chimaera's and sickly dreams , ( as in truth they were ) and so too trivial a subject for the apostolical pen to write of ; yet , when we consider how far those heresies spread , how long they continued , and what mischief they did ( as may be seen in irenaeus , tertullian , epiphanius , &c. ) we may agree to what epiphanius saith upon this occasion . neither , saith he , let any one contemn these dogmata , as full of folly ; for foolish people are perswaded by foolish things . nay , prudent persons may decline from the right way , if the mind be not exercised in the way of truth ; as that father gives an instance of himself , when likely to be perverted by the gnosticks . but lastly , saith our author , i am of opinion , that there is no historian , i 'am sure no ancient historian , who assigns the historical occasion of st. john ' s writings , even the gnosticks and their eons , mentioned by his grace . i answer , that what has been before said is sufficient , when there is a perpetual allusion to the phrase and opinions of the gnosticks ; and very often in the apostolical epistles , as has been observed by many learned persons . but to put this past dispute , besides what is elsewhere , let our author turn to irenaeus , and he will find that ancient author expresly affirming , that st john wrote his gospel against the error of cerinthus ; and a little after , that st. john took away all ground of dissention ; and by the words , the world was made by him , he confuted the gnosticks . so that if our author was of that opinion , it was without any ground . iv. it 's high time we now proceed to enquire into the sense of st. john. the ancient unitarians finding ( as i have observed ) the gospel of st. john not reconcilable to their opinion of christ's being a meer man ; like alexander , at once cut the gordian knot , which they could not fairly untie ; and rejected this and other pieces now attributed to that evangelist , as uncanonical and heretical . but an after-generation ( whom our author dignities also with the same title of ancient unitarians ) more wary than the former , seeing that author , whoever he was , to grow into credit among the other denominations of christians , were careful to shew them , that it was capable of a very allowable sense , as our author saith , p. 53. a. and this seems to be the case of socinus and this his defender , who must not quit st. john , and with the ancient unitarians , call his gospel the fiction and forgery of cerinthu , ( as our author saith they did ) for it has been too long in credit with the other denominations of christians , to admit of such despiteful usage and violence : and therefore they will undertake to shew them it 's capable of a very allowable sense ; but by such pitiful and wretched shifts , by such precarious and arbitrary suppositions , ( as his grace rightly terms them ) and an invention which no indifferent reader of st. john , that had not been prepossessed and biass'd by some violent prejudice , would ever have thought of , p. 58 , 65 , &c. and this will appear , if we try it by any of those ways by which the sense of an author is to be obtained ; such as the occasion , the phraseology , the scope , design and context . as for the occasion , if the authors alledged above , are of any authority , it 's so far unquestionable . as for the phraseology , that is to be understood by the common use of the words , or the subject , or science they relate to ; and accordingly were these phrases in st. john applied in their proper and ordinary signification , as not only the orthodox christians , but even the arians , and amelius the platonist did understand them , ( as his grace observes from eusebius ) and our author is forced to confess as much ; for in the account he gives of the historical occasion ( viz. of socinus's new project ) he thus introduces it , socinus finding it to be the first of all god's declarations , i am the lord thy god. &c. he understood in the beginning , to be in the beginning of the gospel state ; and the word was a god in a sense of office ; and the world he made , a spiritual world. now what is this , but to carry off the words from a plain literal to a figurative sense , and so to acknowledge their doctrine is not favoured by the phraseology of it ? but supposing it to be so , yet , saith our author , socinus observed , that the scriptures abound with such metaphors and figures even when they speak of god , as when god is said to have eyes , arms and bowels , &c. to denote the sight , power and mercies of god. p. 49. a. it 's granted ; but withal , as he saith , the scriptures therein trust to the judgment of the most common readers , and question not but the most ordinary capacity will so understand them . but then how comes this to pass , that from the time of st. john downwards , not the most common and ordinary , nay , the most accurate readers , and extraordinary capacities , were ever so happy as to make this discovery before the fortunate socinus ? and why were not they as well able to find out in this discourse of st. john the ministerial deity of our saviour , the beginning of the gospel state , and the spiritual world , ( the only key , it seems , to unlock the sense of that divine writer ) as they were by the hands , eyes and bowels of god , to understand his power , sight and mercies ? it 's evident that the most ordinary capacities did , generally speaking , by these corporeal members , understand the abovesaid attributes of the deity to be described . and it is also evident that for socinus's explication of that evangelist , the most famed expositors , and much more common readers , no more thought of it , than the ancient navigators did dream of that new world , which columbus two ages ago was so happy as to discover . so that it evidently appears , that there is not the same reason to interpret the phrases , in the beginning , and the word was god , and all things were made by him , in a metaphorical and figurative sense , as there is for the understanding the corporeal organs of speech and action , &c. after that manner , when applied to god : but that rather they must be understood properly and literally , as the orthodox , the arians , and all others have understood , and his grace has expounded them . but hold , saith our author , ' his grace himself , when he comes to interpret the particular expressions , can raise them no higher than arianism , ( viz. that the son was generated some time before the world ) though he alledged them to prove trinitarianism . p. 46. b. well , supposing this , yet if his exposition hold so far good , the socinian hypothesis , that will not allow our saviour to have any existence before his nativity of the virgin mary , will then be utterly overthrown . but what doth our author mean ? when he affirms or denies , as he pleases , what irenaeus , eusebius and epiphanius say ; they are books few understand , and fewer have : but methinks he should be a little more cautious when he uses the same liberty in a book published but the last year , and that has the good hap to be generally well received and read . how then can he say that his grace can raise the expressions no higher than arianism ? when it 's the first of his corollaries , viz. the word here described by st. john , is not a creature . and then follows , this conclusion is directly against the arians , who affirmed that the son of god was a creature . p. 39. and there is not a branch of those verses which the archbishop doth not alike interpret . thus he saith of christ the word , that is , the eternal son of god. p. 6 , 59. in the beginning , that is , he did exist before any thing was made , and consequently is without beginning , and eternal . p. 19 , &c. was god , that is , from all eternity . p. 24 , &c. but perhaps , he will say , this his grace has attempted , but not prov'd . that remains to be tried by what he has to object against it ; and then he only offers somewhat as a reply to his graces's exposition of the phrase , in the beginning , leaving all the rest that was said in exposition and defence of the other phrases of the evangelist , to continue as they were ; and if we may judge of what he could have said of the rest , by what he has said of this , it must needs have been very insignificant : for thus he argues . 1. in the beginning , is interpreted without beginning , which two are distinctly contrary . p. 48 b. a. i answer ; this is not directly laid down as the interpretation of that phrase , but is rather the consequence of what his grace had said just before , as the preceding quotation shews , in the beginning , that is , he did exist before any thing was made , and consequently is without beginning , and eternal . 2. granting he had thus explain'd the phrase , in the beginning , to be without beginning , yet they are not directly contrary . to have a beginning , and to be without beginning , are directly contrary , and more than so , a contradiction . but to be in the beginning , and to be without beginning , are so far from being contrary , that they are very well consistent , for else god himself would not have been in the beginning . thus it is , gen. 1.1 . in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . by which phrase is shewed , that the heaven and earth had a beginning , and so were not in the beginning , ( for then they had been before they began to be ) and so it could not be said , in the beginning were the heavens and the earth ; for then they had , as god , been without beginning . but it 's said , in the beginning god created them , that is , he that himself had no beginning gave a beginning to them . after this manner doth the wi●●man express it , in the place quoted by his grace , on this occasion , the lord possessed me [ wisdom ] in the beginning of his way , before his works of old . i was set up from everlasting , from the beginning , or ever the earth was , prov. 8.22 , 23. so that to be in the beginning , was to be before his works of old ; to be without a beginning , and from everlasting . 2. he objects , though he [ archbishop ] cannot find the coeternity in the words of st. john , yet he can interpret his own interpretation of his words , so as to make out the coeternity : for he saith , in the beginning , that is , the son-already was , when things began to be ; and by consequence , the son was without a beginning ; for that which was never made , could have no beginning of its being . and then he smartly returns upon him , how , sir , is that a good consequence , or any consequence at all ? for supposing the son was when the world began to be , which is not yet six thousand years ago , will it follow , that therefore he was absolutely without a beginning , or was never made ? &c. answ. if his grace had left this consequence to stand upon its own foot , without offering any proof for it ; yet any one but competently acquainted with the scripture-phraseology , would not have questioned the reason and force of it ; and if not with respect to his adversary , yet for a salvo to his own ignorance , would have forbore his how , sir , is that a good consequence , or any consequence at all ? but i much question his ignorance ; for his cautious adversary , that had been us'd to write with a due guard as well as strength , took care to prevent this objection , and fortify his consequence with the best authority , that of scripture . for thus he goes on immediately after the words quoted by this author , ( and so he is the more inexcusable ) the son already was when things began to be , and consequently is without beginning , &c. and so the jews used to describe eternity , before the world was , and before the foundation of the world , as also in several places of the new testament . and so likewise solomon describes the eternity of wisdom , the lord , says he , possessed me in the beginning of his way , before his works of old , &c. so that if the consequence be not good , or if it be no consequence at all , the scripture is to be blamed , and not his grace for following it in a line of argumentation . according to the scripture way of speaking , that which was before the world , is accounted eternal : and therefore what was in the beginning had no beginning ; and so the whole cause of arianism , that would have christ to be part of the creation , though before the world was , must unavoidably miscarry ; which was the case in hand , and what his grace undertook to prove . but this was fit to be conceal'd ; for otherwise our author would have had as little to say to the archbishop's explication of the phrase , in the beginning , as he has to the other phrases of the evangelist . therefore he chuses rather to wind off with a bare repetition or two , to the socinian hypothesis , to try whether he can with better success encounter his adversary upon his own principles , than upon those of the arian . p. 47. a. b. socinus being a person of a sharp and piercing wit , soon perceived that the arian scheme was not consistent with st. john ; for since there was nothing in the world but creator and creature , that which was the creator ( as the arians did admit the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or word to be , and as st. john's words , if literally understood , do import ) could not be the creature . and therefore , either he must , with our author's ancient vnitarians , forgo st. john's authority , or find out some other explication than had yet been thought of ; and that constrain'd him to fly to a ministerial god , and a spiritual world , as the archbishop had shewed , sermon ii. all that our author has to say upon the socinian account , is with reference to a double charge brought against it ; and that is , the unreasonableness and the novelty of this explication . as to the first of these , his grace saith , sermon ii. p. 75. according to this rate of liberty in interpreting scripture , it will signify very little or nothing , when any person or party is concerned , to oppose any doctrine contained in it ; and the plainest texts for any article of faith , how fundamental and necessary soever , may by the same arts and ways of interpretation be eluded and rendred utterly ineffectual for the establishing of it . for example , if any man had a mind to call in question that article of the creed , concerning the creation of the world , why might he not , according to socinus his way of interpreting st. john , understand the first chapter of genesis concerning the beginning of the mosaical dispensation ; and interpret the creation of the heaven and the earth , to be the institution of the jewish polity and religion , as by the new heavens and the new earth , they pretend to be understood the new state of things under the gospel , &c. it is certain that it was not phrase of st. john misled socinus , or gave him any occasion for his novel interpretation , but a pre-conceived principle ( as has been before observed ) ; for indeed the phrase of st. john bears such a conformity to that of the first of genesis , that one seems to be a key to the other ; and in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth , is so like to in the beginning was the word , — and all things were made by him ; that one is naturally led to think that as they in words seem to relate to the same state of things , so that the word that thus was in the beginning , and made all things , was truly god ; and that the whole phraseology of it is as properly and literally to be understood in st. john , as in genesis ; and that the one can no more admit of a moral and allegorical interpretation , than the other . this is so pertinently alledged by his grace , and the parallel so lively represented by the bishop of worcester , in a discourse there referred to , that our author seems perfectly at a loss whether to grant or deny it ; and so from admitting the case as it is proposed , would advance another scheme of it ; for thus he saith , ' let his grace put the case , as it usually is , and i am content to join issue with him upon the instance he hath here given . the first chapter of st. john speaks of a certain person , namely of the lord christ , who is confess'd to have been a man , and yet it saith of him , all things were made by him , — so if the first chapter of genesis imputed the creation there spoken of to moses ; if it said , in the beginning moses created the heavens and the earth , it would be not only absurd , but absolutely necessary , to interpret the chapter allegorically and figuratively ; and to say that the heavens and earth are the jewish polity and religion , the church and the discipline thereof , &c. now this answer of his contains somewhat absurd , somewhat untrue , and is also besides the case . 1. it contains somewhat absurd , which is , to conceive that it 's possible for moses an inspired writer , to have delivered himself after that manner ; and that when he was to write of the first institution of the jewish polity and religion , he should thus describe it , in the beginning moses created the heaven and the earth ; and the earth was without form , &c. and moses said , let there be light and there was light , &c. and yet our author , to salve socinus's wild interpretation of st. john , is contented to grant this ; we , saith he , say it , we affirm it , that if the first chapter of genesis imputed the creation to moses , it ought to be so interpreted . 2. it contains somewhat untrue , as when to make out his parallel , he saith , the first chapter of st. john speaks of a certain person the lord christ , who is confessed to have been a man , and yet it saith of him , all things were made by him . for he knows very well , that the person there spoken of , is not confessed by any of his adversaries to have been a man , when that is spoken of him , that all things were made by him . for then he was the logos , the word , the only begotten son of god ; and was not a man , or made flesh , till about four thousand years after the creation . 3. the case as he puts it , is not the case put by the archbishop ; which was to this effect , supposing such a one as spinosa , that would have the world not to be created , but to have been ab aeterno , finding the book of genesis to be in such credit with his countrymen the jews , and the several denominations of christians , that it was not to be gainsaid ; he is therefore careful ( as our author saith some of the ancient unitarians were in the case of st. john's gospel ) to shew that it is capable of another and an allowable sence ; and so in order to their satisfaction expounds it , of the jewish polity and religion , of spiritual heavens , and an intellectual light ( in our author's phrase ) . now the question upon this is , whether spinosa might not as speciously thus expound the first of genesis for the advantage of his hypothesis , as socinus did the first of john to serve his design ? and that any one that compares the one with the other , genesis and st. john , will be able to discern . indeed as absurd as the supposition of his concerning moses is , it might as allowably be said of him , as christ the word have that said of him in st. john , if the word was no more than moses , a ministerial and temporary god , and had no more been in the beginning than moses . and then the book of genesis might as well have begun in the same phrase with moses , as st. john with the word ; after this manner , in the beginning was moses , and moses was with god , and moses was god [ or a god , as he will have it ] . the same was in the beginning with god. all things were made by him , and without him was not any thing made that was made . such pitiful and sorry shifts are those drove to that first resolve upon an hypothesis , and then are to seek how to maintain and defend it . the only point remaining with our author is , that the evangelist , who was a jew , speaks here of the messias , in the usual stile and language of the jews , who were want to say , and say it in almost all their ancient books , that the messias should make a new world , he should abolish paganism and idolatry from among the nations ; and thereby ( as the prophets also speak ) create a new heaven and a new earth . answ. i acknowledge the scripture sometimes calls a political or moral change in a church or people , by the term of new heavens and new earth : but , in our author's way of speaking , it trusts to the reader 's judgment and common sense , in a matter that it 's not well possible for him to doubt in , or to question what are the heavens and earth there spoken of , as isaiah 65.17 , 18. 66.22 . 1 peter 3.13 . &c. but here is no intimation given in the evangelist , that the phrases should be translated from a natural to a spiritual sence ; nor can it possibly be without great violence , as their own explication of it will shew : for they are forced to understand christ to be personally the word in one clause , and the gospel to be the word in the other , as socinus doth , in the beginning was the word , christ ; and the word , that is the gospel , was with god. or for the avoiding of that difficulty , others of them make christ to ascend actually , personally , and bodily into heaven before his ministry ( though the scripture speaks not one word of it ) that they may put a colour upon the phrase ; the word was with god , as his grace has shewed sermon ii. p. 62. of which more anon . but now if we take the words in their natural and proper sence , there are several other places to confirm it , as his grace has shewed , p. 101 , &c. and which it shall suffice for the present to refer to . the next thing to be considered is , the novelty of this exposition of st. john by socinus , of which saith the archbishop , it is quite to another sense , and such as by their own confession was never mentioned , nor i believe thought of by any christian writer whatsoever before him . sermon ii. p. 57. which he more largely prosecutes , p. 64 , &c. what saith our author to this ? suppose this ; why may we not own that time and long consideration do improve all sorts of sciences , and every part of learning , whether divine or humane ? i do not think it to be any diminution of socinus , that it may said of him , and of this context , he hath rescued it from that darkness in which it long lay . a. this observation of his had in reason been prevented , if he had well weighed what his grace had said upon it , who thus pursues his argument . 1. that the literal sense was so obvious , that the orthodox , and even the arians and platonists ( as amelius ) agreed in it . but here our author , like a flying tartar that dares not in a pursuit look behind him , throws a spiteful dart at his adversary . as to friend amelius , i think it sufficient to say , that the credit of the trinitarian cause runs very low ; when an uncertain tale of an obscure platonist , of no reputation either for learning or wit , is made to be a good part of the proof that can be alledged for these doctrines . this is spoke at all adventures ; for if he had read eusebius * upon it , he would have found the platonist to have deserv'd a better character , and neither the person to be so obscure , nor the relation of it such an uncertain tale , as he would represent it † . but he that can make historical occasions out of propositions , and will prove matter of fact by reasoning upon it without authority , may be allowed to make characters at his pleasure , and stamp what he will upon a quotation . let him however take or refuse friend amelius , it 's a small part of the proof depends upon that tale ; the use made of that in concurrence with the judgment of the orthodox and arians , was , that not one of them ever imagined that there was any other world alluded to in that place , than the natural and material world , nor other beginning than that of the creation . 2. his grace goes on ; surely it ought to be very considerable in this case , that the most ancient christian writers , ignatius , justin martyr , &c. and even origen himself , are most express and positive in this matter , &c. and if this interpretation of socinus be true , it 's almost incredible that those who lived so very near st. john's time , and were most likely to know his meaning , should so widely mistake it . and then that the whole christan world should for so many ages together be deceived in the ground of so important an article of the faith ; and that no man did understand this passage of st. john aright before socinus . this very consideration alone , if there were no other , were sufficient to stagger any prudent man's belief of this misrepresentation . 3. and as his grace goes on , that which makes the matter much worse , is , that the religion which was particularly design'd to overthrow polytheism , and the belief of more gods , hath according to them been so ill taught and understood by christians for so many ages together , and almost from the beginning of christianity , as does necessarily infer a plurality of gods. an inconvenience so great , as no cause , how plausible soever it may otherwise appear , is able to stand under the weight of it , p. 73. and which the reader may there see admirably enforced . for which reasons it cannot well be suppos'd , that either time or long consideration , would place a man in so advantagious circumstances , that he should beat out that track , which all christians for 1500 years together , were not able before him to descry . but after all , this shall be no diminution to socinus , as our author will have it . but tho in words he will not allow it a diminution , yet he in fact betrays it ; and after all , is not willing to own the charge . for thus he argues , why doth his grace say , that not only all the fathers , but all christians have for this fifteen ages , agreed in his interpretation of this context ? have there been no christians in the world for 1500 years , but only the arians and trinitarians ? this is a little too gross , for he knows full well , that this is not asserted by the archbishop ; therefore he makes another attempt . or was socinus the first ( for that ( it may be ) was his grace's meaning ) who departed from the arian and trinitarian sense of the context ? what an obscure writer doth he make his grace to be , when he is , as it were , forced to come again and again upon the enquiry , and at length to conclude with , it may be it was his meaning ? and yet at last he is so unfortunate as to mistake it . for his grace doth no more say , that socinus was the first man that departed from the arian and trinitarian sense of the context , than he saith , that not only the fathers , but all christians have for fifteen ages agreed in it . for he knew full well , that there were cerinthians , and ebioniter , and photinians , and others , that went under the general name of christians , that differ'd as well from the arians as the orthodox , and would allow our saviour no other existence , than he had as the son of mary , and so could not with consistence to their principle , expound st. john , as the orthodox and arians expounded him . but let his grace speak for himself , viz. not only all the ancient fathers of the christian church , but , so far as i can find , all interpreters whatsoever for fifteen hundred years together did understand this passage of st. john in a quite different sense , [ from socinus ] namely of the creation of the material , and not of the renovation of the moral world. and however our author would evade and molify it , his grace had proved it beyond contradiction by the confession of his great oracle socinus , and his advocate schlictingius , that own the true sense of these words was never before rightly explained * . and indeed , what our author himself alledges , is a tacit confession of it ; for he produces nothing from paulus or photinus , or the ancient vnitarians , of the word that was god by office , or of the beginning of a gospel state that word did exist in , or of a spiritual world he made , or of the word 's being with god in the revelation of the gospel , or of the personal word 's being with god before his ministry to receive that revelation : but on the contrary , he tells us that according to them , the word was god , as his generation was divine , and was from the beginning with god , in god's decree and intention ; and that the world was not made by him , but for him ; a quite different explication from that of socinus . thus far then it 's evident , that his grace has sufficiently shew'd the novelty of the socinian explication of st. john's gospel . this was a tender point , and what our author had no mind to touch upon , but something must be said , for else the cause would have suffer'd , and he had lost the opportunity of shewing his reading about their patriarch paulus , and their metropolitan photinus , ( titles , it seems , owned in their commonwealth of learning ) and the whole provinces possessed by their followers , p. 53. but if our author is of any credit , they did not only possess whole provinces , but ages too , the two first undoubtedly ( as he suggests ) . and saith he , we are ready to dispute it in the presence of the learned world , that the fathers mentioned by his grace were less of the mind of the trinitarians , than of ours . they held the doctrine that was afterwards called arianism , p. 52. b. 54. a. the first false step he makes , is , that he takes it for granted , that his grace allows the two first ages of christianity to be for the socinians , or at least not against them . for , saith he , if of seventeen ages , we have ( as we have undoubtedly have ) the two first , much good may do his grace with the other fifteen . he must not deny us the two , nay , the three first , generally speaking . it seems his grace must not , nor indeed can deny him if he insists only upon the last fifteen ages as his period , for then he quits the two first . but now any indifferent reader will soon see , that when his grace speaks of fifteen hundred years , it 's with respect to the ages intercurrent from the apostles to the time of socinus , whose exposition he charges with novelty . [ so p. 64 , 73 , &c. ] and who lived in the last century . the second false step , is his way of proof , which is this , we will [ saith he ] wrest it from all the world , that the apostolick creed , which was the only creed of the three first ages , is wholly vnitarian , and perfectly contradicts that interpretation of the beginning of st. john's gospel , which his grace seeks to advance , p. 52. how that is , we must seek further , viz. p. 53. b. where he takes it up again . in the apostles creed , the lord christ is uncontestably spoken of , as having no existence before he was generated in the womb of the blessed mary , by the spirit of god. not to insist upon that , that it was the only creed of the three first ages , it will require a more than an obstinate resolution to wrest it out of the possession of the trinitarians , who both from the distribution of the creed under its three general heads , do assert a trinity , and from the character given to our saviour of being the only son of god , do maintain his divinity . but for this , being he has offer'd no proof , i shall refer him to bishop pierson upon that point , which he has at large explained and defended . 3. his next false step is , that whereas his grace particularly names ignatius , justin , athenagoras , irenaeus , tertullian , and origen , as of the same mind with himself ; this author affirms , that contrariwise they held the arian doctrine ; where yet he fails in his main point , which was to clear socinus's explication , and his doctrine , from novelty : but instead of that , all he attempts is to shew that the ancient fathers were for the arian doctrine ; which is to say they were not for the socinian : and yet even there he fails again ; as has abundantly been proved by dr. bull ; and which i shall look upon as unanswerable , till i see the book he promises us in answer to it . having all this while been employed in vindication of the authority of st. john's gospel against the ancient vnitarians that questioned it , and our author that proposes their arguments ; and in vindication of the orthodox exposition of it , against the arian on one side , and the novel one of socinus on the other ; i shall now proceed to the consideration of those texts of scripture which the archbishop occasionally made use of for the explication of st. john ; and they are , heb. 1.1 . and col. 1.15 . his grace has alledg'd heb. 1.2 . several times in his sermons , twice in his first , for the explication of st. john , and col. 1.16 . and thus far our author goes along with him in the bare quotation ; but he manifestly wrongs him , when he thus triumphs as he goes off from the text ; would a man build the belief of more gods than one , contrary to the whole current , and most express words of the rest of scripture , on a text so uncertain as this is ? p. 51. b. i say he manifestly wrongs him ; for he knows very well , that his grace agrees with the current and express words of scripture , in asserting the unity of the godhead ; and so could never attempt to build the belief of more gods than one , upon any text whatsoever , unless he would contradict himself . what is it then his grace alledges this text for ? why , it is to justify st. john , when he saith , that all things were made by the word ; and consequently the word that made all things must be god. the proposition is st. john's , the consequence is indeed his grace's , but what will necessarily follow , as he has proved it from heb. 1.2 . i perceive our author needs to be remembred upon occasion : for tho this is the use his grace makes of that quotation in sermon first , yet our author is to know there is a second sermon , where his grace doth not criticise upon words , and shew how they may be expounded this way and that way , and leave it , in our author's phrase an uncertain text ; but fully shews , that this verse , and col. 1.16 . must necessarily be understood of the old creation of the natural world and not of the moral world , and the renovation and reformation of the minds and manners of men by the gospel . and this he not only at large confirms , but also gives a particular answer to the comment of schlictingius and crellius upon it ; sermon ii. p 103 , 106 &c. now our author in reason should have interposed to the behalf of these his deserted friends , and have given a just reply to their adversary ; but his business is rather to propose , and repeat , and make some sudden fallies , than grapple with his opponent , and come to downright blows . the first adventure he makes is , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we render worlds , more usually and properly signifies ages ; and it s so translated by st. jerom ; and therefore divers of the most learned criticks understand this text of the gospel ages ; of which the lord christ is ( under god ) the undoubted author . a. it seems the learned criticks go different ways , and our author dares not lay too much on their side , that understand this of the gospel-ages ; for he saw that the phrase , he made the ages , was harsh , and as unusual as it is usual for the greek word to signify ages : and which is worse , that the word ages in the jewish and scripture-stile , ordinarily signifying the age before and the age under the messias , it must follow , that the lord christ must be the undoubted author of both the ages ; of that from the foundation of the world to the gospel , as well as that from the gospel to the end of the world : and if so , he must have been existent before the ages ; for else how could he be the author of them ? this he that has been so conversant in the learned criticks of the trinitarians , cannot be ignorant of : and because i have not a list of them at hand , i shall for the present refer him to dr. hammond on luke 1. p. &c. whether he foresaw this or no , i cannot divine ; but however , he has another answer in reserve . for thus he goes on ; but , saith he , let us say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is world , yet grotius gives very good reasons why we ought to render the word thus , for whom he made the worlds ; i. e. god made the world for the messias , or with intention to subject it to him in the fulness of time . a. but supposing it may be so rendred , yet there is no such salvo for verse 10. where it 's said of christ , ( as the archbishop hath unanswerably proved ) thou , lord , in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth , &c. 2. the greek phrase , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is the very same with what is used , john 1.3 . all things were made by him ; where the ordinary translation is allowed ; and as far as the phrase will go , it may as properly be applied to our saviour , as the efficient , as the final cause , i. e. that the world was made by him , as for him : and that it is here to be understood of the former , his grace has shew'd . 3. the apostle , col. 1.16 . uses these two distinctly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for him . but to this our author has somewhat to say . for the archbishop having made use of that place of st. paul to confirm what he had before produced out of st. john , the opponent thinks himself bound in honour to attack him : but in his usual way : for whereas his grace had spent about twelve pages in both his sermons upon the explication of this text , and in answer to the most considerable objection against it ; our author replies , he urgeth that text. — he observes moreover , that in the foregoing verse the lord christ is called the first-born of every creature . and he seeks to prove , i think he has proved it , that first-born here is as much as to say heir or lord of every creature . p. 51. b. a. he speaks as coldly , as if he durst not trust his reader with his adversary's arguments , or so much as suggest for what reasons or upon what grounds the archbishop urged that text. only he grants , that when his grace had shewed that by first-born was principally meant an heir , he softly answers , i think he has proved it . and if he has , he has so far wrested none of the least of the texts produced both by the arians and socinians , out of their hands . arebb . p. 33 , 34. but he goes on , if i may call omitting so . i will omit , that the greater number of criticks and more learned interpreters , of his grace's own party , and among them , athanasius himself , translate and interpret that text , not of real creating , but of the modelling of all things . a. 1. i hope he will admit those to be criticks that are in the critici sacri , or those whom mr. pool has inserted into his synopsis ; but if we may pass a judgment upon the learned i●erpreters by them , we shall be far from finding a number , and i believe it will be a number of one , if he will be so favourable to us as to allow grotius to be one of his grace's party . as for athanasius , i had the curiosity to consult him ( though it 's too hard a task to put upon his reader to turn over two folios to search for a quotation ) but could find no such explication of the apostle , as he suggests . but on the contrary , from that place he shews that all things were created by him , and so he could not be a creature . so in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and his synod . nicenae decret . a. 2. he saith he will omit this , that is , as i thought , give it up ; but i find rather it is that he will not be obliged to defend it : he finds the archbishop had made the point of a moral creation a little too hot to be maintain'd ; but being it 's what he himself has a great liking to , he goes on to say all he can say , in hopes his reader may think as favourably of it as himself . but he comes off as to himself , as i said , i will not insist on this concession . he therefore comes to another retrenchment , and that is the account given of it by st. chrysostom ( as he will have it ) in the opus imperfectum , who reads it thus ; for him were all things created . so saith he , the sense is , all things were originally created by god for the lord christ ; namely , to subject them , in the fulness of time , to him , and his law. a. as for what he saith of the opus imperfectum of st. chrysostom , whoever was the author of it , it 's granted by the learned that it is not st. chrysostom's . but let it be whose it will , i am pretty confident that there is no such exposition of that phrase in the book ( though it consists of 54 homilies . ) and besides the turning it over , i am confirm'd in it from what is said there , homil. 30. upon that , who is my mother , &c. i , who before the constitution of the world , created the world , know no such worldly parents , &c. indeed this version of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for him , is merely to serve the hypothesis that he is advancing . for when he can apply it to a moral creation , he admits it , as john 1.2 . and so it 's necessary to be understood here , v. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by him to reconcile all things to himself . and accordingly as the apostle begins , so he ends the verse with the same phrase ; by him were all things created ; and as one would think to prevent all cavil , uses phrases as distinct as the efficient and final cause , for so he closes the verse , all things were created by him , and for him ; by him , as the efficient ; and for him , as the final cause . but here our author would fain find out an evasion , and that is by translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to him ; and then it shall be , all things were created for his use , and to his service . and if any one should ask what is the difference ? he answers immediatly , that the latter , to his service , is exegetical and explanatory of the former , for his use . this , he saith , is probably design'd by the greek , and yet he knows how ( by a peculiar rule of logick ) to crowd more into the conclusion than is in the premisses , and out of what , in his own opinion , is but probable , to infer a necessity ; for thus he concludes , the greek word being probably design'd as exegetical : therefore the sense of necessity is , for him , and to him , i.e. for his use , and to his service . just as if i should say , it 's probable that he never read the opus imperfectum , that calls it st. chrysostom's ; and therefore it 's certain he has not . to conclude , tho he would as to this text fairly , if he can , get rid of this moral creation , and athanasian spiritual modelling of things , for a reason he knows ; yet he is still within the inchanted circle ; for at the last his probable explication leaves him there ; and what was it else when he says , all things were originally created by god for the lord christ , namely , to subject them in the fulness of time to him , and his laws ? and how doth that differ from the modelling and changing all things in heaven and earth , to a new and better estate ? on the earth , by abolishing paganism , and idolatry , &c. and in heaven , angels and heavenly powers being put under his direction , &c. as he tells us in the column of those things that are omitted . lastly , it 's not probable that his is the just explication of this place , and that for a reason or two . 1. because the apostle discourses this afterwards , v. 20. having made peace through the blood of his cross , by him to reconcile all things to himself ; by him , i say , whether they be things in earth , or things in heaven . for the clearer understanding of which , i shall take liberty to set before the reader the connexion of a few verses . the apostle , v. 14 speaking of our saviour , in whom we have redemption through his blood , &c. proceeds to shew who this redeemer was , and that in a two-fold capacity . first , in respect of his divine nature , who is the image of god , the first-born or heir of the whole creation : and then gives the reason of such his preheminence , and why he bestows so great a title upon him ; and that is v. 16 , 17. for by him were all things created , &c. from thence he proceeds to discourse of him as to his human nature , and the station he is in , v. 18. and he is the head of the body &c. and this done v. 20. he returns to the point where he set forth , v. 14. and accordingly his lordship's explication is very easy and natural , p. 34. who is the image of god , the heir and lord of the whole creation ; for by him all things were created . 2. this author's account of this place is not probable ; for christ's being the head over all things , was not till his death and resurrection , when his mediatory kingdom began ; whereas our author says , that all things were originally created by god for the lord christ ; and without doubt as for his use and to his service , so for the advantage of them that were under his government and direction . but what a v●st solitude was there , a chasm of 4000 years before his birth and being ? and in what a condition was the whole world of intelligent beings , till our saviours resurrection and ascension ? what service could he challenge from them , when he himself lay in the embrio of nothing ? and what advantage could they have from him that was to come into the world for the redemption of mankind 4000 , 3000 , &c. years after ? where was the paganism and idolatry he in that dismal interval abolished ? where the angels and heavenly powers that were put under his direction , and by him employed in defence and succor of the faithful ? what was it to those unhappy souls , born so many ages before his time , under the constellation of paganism and idolatry , that some thousands or hundreds of years hence should arise the lord christ , who in the fulness of time was to be actually set above all thrones and dominions , &c. and in whom as in their head , all things should be united and consist ? as our author words it . of the pre-existence of our saviour . that the word described by st. john had an existence before his incarnation , and his being born of the virgin , was a conclusion his grace inferred from the phrase , in the beginning . serm. 1. this he confirmed by several texts of scripture , which he ranked under the two following heads . serm. 2. p. 84. 1. those which expresly assert the son of god to have been , and to have been in heaven with god , and partaker with him in his glory , before his incarnation and appearance in the world. 2. those which affirm that the world and all creatures were made by him . of the first sort are joh. 3.13 . 6.62 . 8.58 . 13.3 . 16.27 . 17.5 . 1 joh. 1.1 . in which it 's said of our saviour , that he came down from heaven , was with god , was before abraham ; that he had a glory with the father before the world was . to those which say our saviour was in heaven , and came down from heaven , our author returns some general answers , ( as for method's sake i shall consider them . ) first , he answers in general , that these texts , in their most literal sense , amount to no more than this , that the lord christ is a messenger , really come forth from god to men . as much is true of every prophet , and the very same is used concerning st. john baptist , joh. 1.6 . there was a man sent from god , whose name was john. answ. 1. if these texts amount to no more than this , that the lord christ is a messenger from god to men , then can no more be concluded from thence , than that he was no more a prophet , and no more with god , and no more sent from god , than other prophets , or than john the baptist. and if as much as this is true of every prophet , then it may be said of every prophet , and of john the baptist as well as our saviour , that he ascended into heaven , and came down from heaven , and was with god , and had a glory with him before the world was , &c. but where do we find the scripture to express it self after this manner of any but our saviour , no not of moses , as much a friend of god , and conversant with him , as he is affirmed to be ? 2. if these texts amount to no more than this , that christ is a messenger from god to men , then how will our author be able to make use of any of these texts for that new doctrine of theirs , concerning christ's ascension into heaven , before he began his ministry ? for if as much is true of every prophet , then our saviour no more ascended than other prophets ; and then what becomes of his express proof for such an assertion ? secondly , he answers again , how little these texts are to his grace's purpose , would have been obvious to every reader , if he had set down some few of the many texts which so plainly expound to us what is meant thereby . joh. 7.28 . i am not come of my self . joh. 5.43 . i am come in my father's name . joh. 8.42 . i came not of my self , he sent me . joh. 7.16 . my doctrine is not mine , but his that sent me , &c. a. these texts would have not been to his grace's purpose , if they prove no more than that our saviour was a messenger sent from god to men , and which is as true of every prophet . for if our saviour no more came from god than other prophets ( as far as these texts will then signify ) he was no more pre-existent than they . but these texts are to his purpose if they expresly say , that christ actually came down from heaven to declare the will of god to men ( as our author in the next paragraph , forgetting himself , doth affirm . ) for if that be allowed , then all the difficulties his grace has urged against their imaginary doctrine of our saviour's ascension into heaven , before his ministry , will return upon them , and require an answer . as for what he adds from these latter texts , would our saviour have said he came from god , is sent by god , to deliver a doctrine which is not the messenger 's , if he had himself pretended to be god ? a. this , i am sure is nothing to the purpose ; for what is this to the pre existence of our saviour , the present subject of the discourse ? but however , what inconsistence is there in this , for our saviour to say , the doctrine is not mine , but his that sent me , tho he himself be god , and partake of the same nature with the father , when he is the only begotten of the father , and was also man ? why is this any more inconsistent , than to have it said , that he is god , and yet the man christ jesus ; that he was in the beginning with god , and yet born in the fulness of time ; that he knew all things , john 16.30.21.17 . and yet knew not the time or day of judgment ? mark 13.32 , &c. these things are consistent upon the principles of the orthodox or trinitarians , that hold the word to be god and man ; but not upon theirs that hold , that he is man and not god. 3. he answers again in general , that his grace propounded to prove the pre-existence of our saviour , by the texts that expresly say our lord christ ascended into heaven before he began his ministry , and then came down from heaven to declare the will of god to men. that is , be propounds to prove the trinitarian doctrine , but really proves the doctrine of the unitarians . a. 1. if this be so , his grace was mightily mistaken , to attempt the proof of this point by such texts as expresly say the contrary . a great and inexcusable over-sight , if it were true . but where are those texts that expresly say , that our saviour ascended into heaven before his ministry ? it was a prejudice socinus would infuse into his reader , that there is but that one text of st. john 1. to prove the pre-existence of our saviour before his incarnation , which the archbishop has disproved , p. 81. but here it holds ; for his texts that he saith expresly prove what he asserts , shrink all into one , viz. no man hath ascended into heaven , but he that came down from heaven . 2. where is it expresly said in that , or any other text , that our saviour ascended into heaven before his ministry ? it is not so expresly said , that our saviour ascended into heaven , but that servetus understood it spiritually , and saith that it was so express'd , because his spirit was from the beginning in heaven , and that his words were heavenly . but it 's neither there , nor any where expresly said , that our saviour ascended into heaven before his ministry , and then came down from heaven to declare the will of god to men. that is wholly a fiction of a case , as his lordship has sufficiently proved . our author , indeed , would represent it , as if his grace had only found fault with them for this their opinion ; and after the having bestowed a few hard words upon it , and call'd it an arbitrary and precarious supposition , ( tho he himself understands the text in a literal sense ) should then give it up . but that this is a fiction of their own , i may say again , his lordship has sufficiently proved ; and so much the more reason have i now to say it , as his adversary has not dared so much as to take to task any one argument or paragraph relating to it . for with what strength doth his grace argue against it from the exact history of our saviour's life , from the importance of the matter ( if true ) , from the silence of the evangelists , and especially of st. john ? how doth he argue against it from the weakness of the socinian attempts to prove it , and for which in effect they have nothing to say ? how from the inconsistency of it with scripture ? and that whereas st. john saith , the word was in the beginning , and then was made flesh : they say , that he was first made flesh , and then a great while after was in the beginning with god. how , lastly , doth he argue from the disagreement in the several parts of this their interpretation ; as it may be worth the reader 's while himself to observe * ? all this our author has prudently pass'd over ; but that he may seem to say something , and have a fair opportunity to complement where he wants a reply ; he forms a question for his grace , ( for it 's a charge , and not a question , archbishop , p. 92 , 93. ) he demands , saith he , when did this ascension of our saviour into heaven happen ? his grace had indeed charged it upon them , that they themselves cannot agree precisely when ; and without doubt he wanted a fair account of it . but our author unfortunately pitches upon that time for it , which his adversary had beforehand prevented . for thus he answers , st. john hath resolved this question in these words of his gospel , [ in the beginning the word was with god ] i. e. in the beginning of his ministry , just before be enter'd thereon ; the lord christ was with god by ascending ( as himself expresly and often saith ) into heaven . this account of it is very precise . but to this his grace had already made two exceptions . 1. that this is not consistent with their own explication of the phrase , in the beginning , that is to say , when the gospel first began to be published ; which was by authority from him ( he having ascended into heaven , and came from thence to declare the will of god to men , as our author saith ) but that was not began to be published , till after he had been with god ( in their sense . ) and therefore if the word was at all with the father , so as to ascend from earth to heaven , it must not have been in the beginning , but before the beginning . 2. he sheweth , this is not reconciliable to another opinion of theirs , which is , that christ was not god but by office and divine constitution , and that he was not so constituted and declared till after his resurection , and his being advanced to the right hand of god ; but if in the beginning , is in the beginning of the gospel-state , then the word was god in the same beginning that he was with god , and so must be god by office , before he enter'd upon his office of publick ministry , and consequently long before his resurrection . but if he was so constituted not till after his resurrection , he was not god in their sense of the beginning , and so consequently was not with god , nor did ascend into heaven before he began his ministry . so that there is no manner of proof , either for the matter , or the time of this legendary doctrine of theirs , concerning our saviour's ascension into heaven before he began his ministry , if the aforesaid arguments hold good . but that which our author presses most , ( without regarding the arguments against it ) is the literal sense of the phrase , no man hath ascended , &c. in which , he saith , the archbishop doth understand it . but this is no more true that his grace so understands it , than that it 's expresly and often said in scripture , that our saviour ascended into heaven before his ministry , ( as our author affirms ) unless it be when his grace undertakes to prove that such an ascension never was . but supposing it were literally to be understood , yet will it not serve their purpose . for then , according to the letter of it , our saviour must have come down from heaven before he ascended thither . if it had been worded , that no man hath come down from heaven , but he that hath ascended into heaven , then he would have ascended first , and after that have descended : but when it 's said , no man hath ascended into heaven , but he that came down from heaven , ( if the manner of speaking is to be our guide ) then he must have came down before he ascended , after the way the apostle speaks , ephes. 4.9 , 10. now that he ascended , what is it , but that he also descended first , &c. i say , the order of words then shews , that his descent must have been before his ascension ; which is diametrically opposite to the socinian hypothesis , and is not to be accommodated but by the orthodox sense of it , viz. that he that in the beginning was with god , and had a glory with the father before the world was , in the fulness of time was made flesh , and came down from heaven , to fulfil and declare the will of god to men . and then it orderly follows , no man hath so ascended into heaven , and no man hath been there to understand the will of the father , but he that first came down from heaven , and is in due time to ascend thither ; as if he had said , ( to transcribe the paraphrase of a very learned person ) from me alone are these things to be learned , for none can go up to heaven to fetch the knowledge of them from thence , but i came down from heaven to reveal the will of god * , &c. the second sort of texts which speak of our saviour's existence before his incarnation , are these , father glorify thou me with thine own self , with the glory which i had with thee before the world was , john 17.5 . and before abraham was , i am , &c. john 8.58 . to the first our author replies , that according to st. austin and grotius , this is to be understood of god's decree , after this manner , let me now actually receive that glory with they self , which i had with thee in thy decree and purpose before the world was . and if we may take his word , he saith , that he has sufficiently confirmed this interpretation in the second edition of his brief history of the unitarians . he very seasonably refers us to his second edition , ( which i have not seen ) for in the first it exceedingly wants some confirmation . all that he has to say there , is , that we in scripture are sometimes said to have that which we have in god's decree . from whence he infers , therefore so also we may understand , that christ had glory before the world was . an inference very cautiously worded , therefore we may understand , &c. and it was not without reason , as i shall immediately shew . a. 1. i grant that the scripture doth often represent things after this manner , so that that which is to be hereafter , is spok●n of as if it was actually present and existent , as isaiah 53.3 . he is despised and rejected of men . and in like manner we are reputed to have that which we have by promise , as in the place he quotes , 2 cor. 5.1 . we have a building of god , &c. but then as decrees and promises do in the nature of them respect the future , so there must be some reason for this manner of speaking , which without such reason would be absurd . now , the reason of such forms of speech , is to represent the certainty of the thing , that it being thus appointed and promised by almighty god , it shall as certainly be fulfilled in its season , as if it was now actually present . but set aside such reason , and such forms of speech will be absurd ; as for example , if i should say , all generations that shall be to the worlds end are now in being , and have been ever since the world was . but there is no such reason for such an interpretation here , for this respects the time past . 2. tho we should be said to have that which we are decreed to have , yet we cannot be said to have it before the world was ; as for instance , we cannot be said to have a building of god before the world was ; for that is to have it before we were . we may be said by the foresaid prophetical scheme of speech to have what we that are in being , shall have in its proper time ; but we are not said to have it , or to have had it before the foundation of the world. god indeed may be said to give before the world , by virtue of his decree and intention so to do , because he always was , is , and ever will be , and to him all things are present in their causes , over which he has an absolute power . but tho we may be said to have , with respect to the time to come , as well as present ( in the cases aforesaid ) yet we cannot properly be , nor are in scripture said to have it before the world was , because we are born in the world. thus god may be said to give us grace or salvation before the world began ; in the place he cites , 2 tim. 1.9 . but we are not said to have a building of god before the world was . and so when it 's said , father , glorify me with thine own self , with the glory which i had with thee before the world was ; as it doth suppose our saviour to have been in being , and to have had a glory with the father before the world , so he cannot be said to have it in decree before the world was . 3. and that the words are not capable of such an interpretation will further appear from the phrase , with thee , which answers to that which went before , with thine own self ; and if the latter doth signify the actual enjoyment of that glory , then so doth the former . indeed , the phrase with thine own self , and with thee , ( for they are both one ) doth suppose the person that is with god to be in being . as it was when god is said to be the god of abraham , isaac , and jacob ; thereby is implied , that those holy patriarchs are alive , according to our saviour's reasoning , god is not the god of the dead , but of the living , matth. 22.32 . and if to be the god of abraham , did imply that abraham was in being ; then surely , if it had been said of abraham , that he was with god , it must also imply that abraham actually was . for he could no more be said to be with god , and not be ; than god could be said to be his god , and he not alive . and accordingly it might as well be said of abraham , that god was his god in decree and intention , as abraham might be said to be with god , and yet be no otherwise so than in god's decree . so absurd is it , with our author , to allow our saviour to have had no being before the world was , and yet to say he was with god before the world , which is in the same breath to say he was not , and yet he was . a difficulty our author , with those he follows , found to be so great , that they chose rather to give a new interpretation of the phrase , in the beginning , john 1.1 . ( as has been before shew'd ) and so to allow the word to have then been actually with god ; rather than to maintain , as some others before did , that the word was with god in his decree , contrary to the plain and evident meaning of that phrase . 4. i may add , if the sense of this prayer of our saviour is , father , glorify me with thine own self , with the glory which i had with thee in thy decree and promise before the world was ; then ( according to what our saviour saith , ver . 22. the glory which thou hast given me , i have given them , the like glory being promised to and decreed for all the faithful ) every good man may use the same prayer with our saviour , and say , father , ●lorify me with thine own self , with the glory which i had with thee before the world was . but i suppose st. austin , ( who our author saith was for this decretal sense ) would not have presumed to do so . i confess i have done more than in strictness i was obliged to , when he refers us to another book of his , and to another edition of that book ; but i am apt to think this answer will serve for either meridian . the second text produced by the archbishop , is john 8.58 . before abraham was , i am : the obvious sense of which words ( saith his grace ) is , that he had a real existence before abraham was actually in being , p. 86. but on the contrary , the socinians say , that he was before abraham was , in the divine foreknowledge and decree . this his lordship took to task , and shewed , that this is nothing but what might have been said of any other man , and even of araham himself ; and that our saviour had then no preference or advantage above abraham . and then argues from the words i am , as the proper name of god , whereby is signified the eternal duration and permanency of his b●ing . which he confirms by several other places . to this our author has nothing to reply ; but would insinuate as if his grace had only proposed the place , without any manner of proof ; for after this ridiculous manner doth he represent it : his grace will not hear of this [ about the decree ] ; we cannot help it ; but we know the reason to be , because he taketh it as a ground of his interpretation of this text , that our saviour was ( not only in god's decree , but ) in actual existence before his progenitor abraham ; but that is the point which his grace had to prove , not to suppose as a ground of interpretation . this person writes , i perceive , for a party , and presumes his readers will never consult the books he pretends to answer ; for else he would not so boldly venture thus to impose upon the world , and to tell us that his grace only supposes , but does not prove what he proposes ; and accordingly he himself slips over the argument , and runs from it as far as he can . 2. he replies , here again i must mind his grace , that none of his proofs , in their utmost stretch , run higher than arianism . a. proofs : he should have call'd them suppositions , if he had not forgot himself . but what if those proofs run no higher than arianism ? they are sufficient : for all his grace was under any obligation at this time to prove , was our saviour's pre-existence , against the socinians , serm ii. p. 56 , &c. ( having in his former sermon maintained the point of our saviour's deity , against the arians , &c. ) and if he has proved that , he has gained the point under consideration . all that our author has further to say , is , to give us his opinion of this text over and over , and ushers it in with a magisterial authority : but if we can , let us make both arians and trinitarians sensible what is the meaning of these words , before abraham was , i am , from the circumstances and context . but if i may not too much incur his displeasure , by laying aside his supposals for the present , i will venture to propose the case as the evangelist relates it , and then discourse with him upon it . in vers. 48. our saviour replied upon the jews , your father abraham rejoiced to see my day ; and he saw it and was glad . to this they captiously object , thou art not yet fifty years old , and hast thou seen abraham ? that is , was 't thou coexistent with him , and born in his time , who has been so long dead ? whom makest thou thy self ? [ ver . 52 , 53. ] to this our saviour answers , verily , verily , i say unto you , before abraham was , i am . which text , according to our author , is elliptical and imperfect , and wants somewhat to supply it : which he thus attempts , i was long before abraham ' s time in the decrees and promises of god. now supposing it so to be , why must it thus be supplied ? o , saith he , it cannot be true in any other sense , being spoken of a son and dependant of abraham . supposing that to be spoke of such a one , why may it not as well fall upon the former as latter part of the clause , and so be read , before abraham was the father of the gentiles , ( signified in isaac ) i am , or i was in the world ? or why may it not be said , before abraham was , i was in being ? for though our saviour was a descendant of abraham according to the flesh , yet he was the begotten son of god ( as none of abraham's posterity was ) that was in the beginning , and before the world with god ; and so he might literally say before abraham was , i was or am . but supposing we admit his explication , that before abraham was , i was in god's decree . would this prove what was to be proved , that he that was not fifty years old , had seen abraham , or that he was co-existent with abraham ? suppose we take it as he would have it , independent of what it was to p●●●● what a mean 〈◊〉 was it for our saviour to alledge , i was 〈◊〉 abraham , namely , in god's decree ? for , might not the jews then reply , so abraham was before adam , and so both abraham and adam were before the world ? might they not say , so were we then before abraham ; abraham before himself , and we before we were they , might they not say , is any thing before another 〈◊〉 art thou before abraham , or abraham before us , since all would then be co-existent alike in decree , being the decrees are alike eternal ? might not our saviour as well have said , i have seen abraham , reserving to himself , in the book of genesis ; as say , before abraham was , i was , reserving to himself , in the book of god's decree ? lastly , if our saviour had said , before abraham was , i was in god's decree , or had been so understood , where was the blasphemy for which the jews would have stoned him ? it is apparent that the jews presently understood him being a title known to all , and known to belong only to god , as well known ( by reason of that noted place it relates to in exodus ) as jehovah , and so immediately they took up stones to cast at him . but his grace hath not so done with this text , but goes on to fortifie it with other parallel places , as to the phrase and signification , p. 100. as hebr. 13.8 . the same yesterday , to day , and for ever . and revelat. 1.8 , 17. i am alpha and omega , the beginning and the ending , which is , and which was , and which is to come , the almighty , rev. 22.13 , 16. this our author declines , and instead of proposing it as it lay in his grace's sermon , he takes up the latter of these places in the close of his discourse upon this head after this manner , the last of his grace ' s texts to prove the pre-existence and divinity of our saviour , is rev. 1.8 . p. 58. b. though out of its place , i am content to take it as he proposes it ; and especially because i may hope now , if ever , to make a convert of him ; for thus he answers , when his grace proves that these words are spoken , not of god , but of christ , i will thank him , and give him the cause . fairly offered , and fit to be accepted . in the first place , i take it for granted , that i need not remind him of what his grace has observed , that these expressions are the common description which the scripture gives of the eternity of god , whose being is commensurate to all the several respects of duration , past , present , and to come . for this is the reason why our author denies this to belong to our saviour , since that would be to ascribe such a being to him , as is commensurate to all these durations . therefore with his usual assurance , he affirms , that they are not spoken of our lord christ , seems to me as clear as meridian light , from what is said v. 4. from him which is , which was , and which is to come , and from jesus christ. where we see plainly , that jesus christ is distinguished as a different person from that almighty who is , and who was , and who is to come ; therefore he cannot be intended in the description , v. 8. answer . i suppose that he intends this as a general answer to the several places of the revelation quoted by his grace ; and then it 's as much as to say , that since jesus christ is distinguished from him who is , and was , and is to come , v. 4. therefore he cannot be intended at v. 8. nor 17. nor ch. 22.13 , 16. that is , that these expressions , which are the common description the scripture gives of the eternity of god , are never applied in any of those places to our saviour : but if it appears that they are at any time applied to our saviour , his argument is utterly ruined , and it will unanswerably follow , that if jesus christ is , and was , and is to come , then he is alike eternal as the father , and partaker of one and the same nature with him . 2. how doth it follow that jesus christ is distinguished as a different person from him who is , was , and is to come ; therefore he cannot be intended in the description at ver . 8. ? for he may be a different person from the almighty father , who is described by that character , v. 4. and yet as the son have the same property essential to the divine nature ascribed to him . this we contend for , and this i shall endeavour to prove . i shall begin with v. 8. i am alpha and omega , the beginning and the ending , saith the lord , which is , and which was , and which is to come , the almighty . all the question is , who is the lord that thus saith of himself , i am alpha and omega , & c ? for this we must consult the context , and then the character will appear to be his that cometh with clouds , v. 7. that made us kings and priests unto god and his father , v. 6. the first begotten of the dead , the prince of the kings of the earth , that loved us and washed us in his blood , even jesus christ , v. 5. so that he is no less the alpha and omega , than he is the prince of the kings of the earth . but let us go on with that divine writer , whom we find after the same manner describing our saviour , v. 11. i am alpha and omega , the first and the last . and that it 's given as a character belonging to him , is evident , for he is the same that commanded st. john to write , and whose voice he heard , the son of man that he saw in the midst of the seven candlesticks , v. 12 , 13. so again , v. 17. he that saith of himself , i am the first and the last , is the same with him that saith of himself , v. 18. i am he that liveth and was dead , and behold i am alive for evermore . so again , he saith of himself , chap. 2.8 . these things saith the first and the last , which was dead and is alive . and as st. john begins , so he ends this prophetical book , cap. 22.13 . i am alpha and omega , the beginning and the end , the first and the last ; viz. the same with him that saith , ver . 12 , & 20. behold , i come quickly ; — jesus that sent his angel to testify these things , v. 16. from all which laid together it is very manifest , and as clear as the meridian light , that these phrases are applied to our saviour , that he is the beginning and the ending , which is , and which was , and which is to come , the almighty . but how can the being of a creature be commensurate to all the several respects of duration , past , present , and to come ? and what a presumption would it be in a creature that had a beginning , to say of himself , i am alpha and omega , the first and the last ? so that our author must in the conclusion side with his antient vnitarians and deny the revelation to be canonical ; or be as good as his word , and give his adversary the cause , and write a retractation . the last place our author touches upon ( omitting several other material texts cited by his grace ) is 1 job . 1.1 , 2. that which was from the beginning , which we have heard , &c. which he thus expounds ( calling into his aid grotius and vorstius , in his opinion two the ablest interpreters the church has yet had . ) 1. the word of life , that is , the gospel . 2. eternal life , i. e. the immortality therein promised . 3. from the beginning , that is , they were always intended and purposed by him , but not manifested till reveal'd in the gospel . 4. we have seen and handled , is to signifie their knowledge of it was most assured and absolute . for the hebrews are wont to declare the certainty and clearness of things by terms borrowed from the senses . ans. though the hebrews are wont to express the certainty and clearness of things after that manner ; yet i don't find that the scripture is wont to speak thus of the gospel , viz. the gospel which was from the beginning , which we have seen with our eyes , and our hands have handled , and which was with the father . but i find that saint john in his gospel speaks of our saviour in the like terms , for thus he saith of him , in the beginning ( which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here , as his grace observed p. 19. and grotius before him ) was the word , and the word was with god , v. 4. in him was life , v. 14. we beheld his glory , and he is said to be manifested , joh. 14.21 , 22. and 1 joh. 3.5 , 8. now what can be more evident than that when the author is the same , the phrase the same , and more agreeable to the subject under consideration , that it should be alike understood in one book as the other , and so that which we have heard , and seen , and looked upon , and handled , and was with the father , should be the son , and not the gospel of god ? but saith our author , grotius and vorstius think otherwise ; and he goes on , i know not why his grace overlook'd this interpretation of two of the most learned and judicious criticks of this or any other age . answer , i answer in his phrase , i marvel much how our author should know that his grace overlook'd it , for it 's likely that he might not have the same opinion with this writer of these two great men , so as to think them the ablest interpreters the church has yet had : vorstius for many reasons , and grotius for his posthumous notes ( i should rather call them adversaria ) come not up to that character . besides his grace knew very well what both the antient and learned and judicious criticks of latter ages , thought of this text. in the number of the former is tertullian , adv . praxeam . c. 15. amongst the latter is erasmus ; and even grotius is inconsistent with himself , when he goes off from the gospel to the miracles that attested it , in his explication of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we have looked upon . before his grace leaves the argument of our saviour's deity , he takes notice of a usual plea of the socinians , that they glory they have reason clearly on their side in this and the other point of the b. trinity ; and that the difficulties and absurdities are much greater and plainer on our part than on theirs , a.b.p. 115. to each of these his lordship made a distinct reply , and shew'd particularly as to the doctrine of the trinity , that tho' it was above , yet it was not contrary to reason ; that though there were difficulties , yet no absurdity in it . this our author thought fit to pass over in silence . as to the latter , his grace undertook to prove that the opinion of our adversaries hath greater difficulties in it , and more palpable absurdities following from it , than any they could charge upon the orthodox . as when they say , that the son of god is a meer creature , not god by nature , and yet truly and really god by office , and by divine appointment and constitution ; to whom the very same honour and worship is to be given which we give to him who is god by nature . p. 123. in which his grace observes two difficulties and absurdities . 1. that they hereby bring idolatry by a back-door into the christian religion , as they give divine worship to a mere creature , and as they willingly admit two gods , the one by nature , and the other by office. 2. that they cannot vindicate themselves in this point in any other way , than what will in a great measure acquit both the pagans and papists from the charge of idolatry . this our author saith , is not an uncommon imputation on the socinian doctrine , and thus far he is in the right , for besides modern writers , the stream of the fathers charge the arians with idolatry as they worship christ , whom they suppose to be a meer creature . thus athanasius , gregory naz. and nyssen . st. basil , epiphanius , &c. and this charge our author doth rather avoid than deny ; for which purpose he divideth the vnitarians into two sorts : such as give christ no divine worship : of these he saith , it is certain we have wrote no book this seven years , in which we have not been careful to profess to all the world , that a like honour or worship ( much less the same ) is not to be given to christ-as to god. and then he will by all means have this charge of worshipping our saviour , to be a soul calumny thrown on them by the trinitarian preachers . do the trinitarians think , saith our hussing controvertist , they may devise a religion for us , and then come up into their pulpits to declaim against the schemes that are purely of their own invention ? in good time we shall have a pulpit socinianism , as there was in the late reign a pulpit popery ; for this author writes in the very way and phrase of misrepresentation and representation . but after all , is this a misrepresentation ? did never any vnitarians or socinians give honour and worship , a like and even the same to christ as to the father ? is that charge a device of the trinitarians ? our author will undertake for himself , for that is the we in this book , the author of the history of the vnitarians , the author of the criticisms on mr. milbourn , &c. and so for seven years backwards . we , saith he , have wrote no book this seven years , in which we have not been careful , &c. but were there no years before the last seven , that can be looked into ? he knew what the arians , and what socinus and his followers held and do hold . but he and his , for whom we want a name , ( for they are in this neither arians nor socinians ) unless we will call them francisco-davidists , are herein very reserved and cautious , that they may not give the same nor alike honour to our saviour as to god. indeed if they were of another mind before the seven years past , they have done well to change it , to ease themselves of a troublesome charge of giving divine worship to a mere creature , as did the arians and socinians ; and of as troublesom adversaries as socinus found franciscus david to be , that would not allow divine worship to be given to christ , because he was a creature , and that by so doing they should be guilty of idolatry . but after all his suming , and his talk of a devised religion , and declaiming pulpits , and schemes purely of their own invention , he is forced to own that there is a second sort of vnitarians that give divine worship to our saviour ; and that 's an objection in his way . but his grace will say perhaps , why ? do you not pray to christ ? and to close the objection , do you not then give the like , nay the same honour to christ as to god ? his answer to this is well worthy our observation . 1. there are indeed some vnitarians who pray to the lord christ. but why some ? did not the numerous arians , and did not socinus , and generally all called after his name do so ; and did they not think themselves obliged so to do , inveighing against those that did not ? 2. he adds by way of excuse , they pray'd to him indeed , but it was to him , as that mediatory king , who is ( say they ) appointed by god to succour us in all our straits and wants . but is not this to equal him with god , to whom alone we are taught to direct our prayers ? nay , is not this to attribute to him the divine properties of omniscience and omnipotence , when he is supposed to know and succour us in all our straits and wants ? no , saith he , for they own that his knowledge either of our wants or prayers is only by revelation from god ; and his power by which he relieves us , is wholly of god's giving . but is not prayer a part of divine worship , and peculiar to god ? and don't they then equal him to god , when they pray to him ? and is not that idolatry , to give to a creature the worship belonging to the creator ? and can any divine appointment make that not to be idolatry , which in its nature is so ? ( as the protestants use to maintain against the church of rome ) . and besides , don't those socinians that worship our saviour , affirm that they worship him as god ? thus socinus himself pleads , vt pro deo ac domino suo venerentur , tom. 2. p. 631. that they worship him as their god and lord. and much more to the same purpose . and what is it to worship him as god , but to give him divine worship ? the second difficulty and absurdity his grace charges upon them , is a plurality of gods , the one by nature , the other by office , a creature-god , a god merely by positive institution . all that he has to say to this , is , will he deny positively and directly , that the lord christ is a god by representation and office ? and then steals off with , let his grace give it under his hand , that the lord christ is not a god in these senses . a. this is much as if when charged with idolatry for giving divine worship to christ , if a mere man , he should say , will his grace deny positively and directly , that christ is a man ? for though he denies not christ to be a man , yet he affirms , that christ , if no more than a man , is not to be worshipped with divine honour . so tho he should not deny christ to be a god by representation and office , yet he affirms that one who is so and no more , cannot be the true god , nor be worshipped as god ; for that would establish a plurality of gods. but his grace on the other hand took not himself concerned , nor doth the case require , that he should positively assert , that christ is a god by representation ; for that is more than our author himself dares to do , who faintly enough concludes , that as moses is called a god , so also christ may be called a god by mission , representation , and office. now how unreasonable a thing is this , that he should put it so hard upon his grace , to deny positively and directly , what this author himself dares not positively and directly affirm ? for he cautiously saith ( for fear a proof should be required ) , so also may christ be called a god. but our author is too sparing and modest in his expressions , for the socinians are not backward to acknowledge , that our saviour is true god , and that there are more true gods than one ; and that to say there is one only supreme independent god , and to worship one god by nature , is judaical , and a renouncing of the christian religion . vid. smalcius exam. cent. err. & refutatio smig . de novis monstris , &c. to conclude , his grace had said , that the socinians cannot vindicate themselves in this point any other way , than what will in great measure acquit both the pagans and the papists from the charge of idolatry . this our author calls a thunder-clap ; and truly by his own pleas he makes good the imputation . for , 1. he saith , they pray to christ as a mediatory king , who is appointed by god to succor us in all our straits : and of this kind were the dii medioxumi among the heathens ; and so are the mediators of intercession , the saints and angels , in the church of rome , who they say are appointed by the supreme god to hear and succour us . 2. he saith , that the knowledge our saviour hath either of our wants or prayers , is only by revelation from god ; and his power is wholly of god's giving . so the romanists say , that the saints have their knowledge of our state , either by revelation , or in speculo trinitatis , in the glass of the trinity ; which is much the same . 3. our author saith , the worship given to christ is not the same which is given to god. so the church of rome hath their superior worship , latria , which they give to god ; and an inferior , dulia , which they give to saints . 4. our author saith , though these socinians pray to christ , yet they don 't hereby equal him to god. this is the very plea made by the church of rome for the worship they give , and the prayers they offer to saints and angels . from all which we see how much modesty as well as truth there is in what his grace observes , that they cannot vindicate themselves in this point any other way , than what will in a great measure acquit both the pagans and the papists from the charge of idolatry . sect . ii. of the incarnation of our blessed saviour . after a discourse of several pages , which our author declines , his lordship proceeded to the most usual and considerable objections of his adversaries against the doctrine of christ's incarnation . as , object . 1. they say , that this union of the divinity with the humane nature , is , if not altogether impossible , yet very unintelligible . to this his grace replies , that there is no impossibility , is evident from the union between the soul and body of a man , p. 147 , and 158. against this our author makes two exceptions . except . 1. in a personal vnion of a soul with a body , the vnion is between two finite and commensurate things ; which is not only possible , but very conceivable . but in the pretended personal vnion of god to man , and man to god , the vnion is between finite and infinite . answer . here our author over-runs the point , when he considers the personal union of a soul and body , merely as a union between two finites ; for instances between such , the world is full of : whereas the difficulty is , as the union is between soul and body , that is , spirit and matter , which are two extreams , and so incommensurate ; and yet notwithstanding they are not only vitally united , but they both retain their distinct natures and properties , as his grace observes . under which notion , the personal union between two such unequals is as difficult to conceive ( were it not that we are sure that it is ) as the personal union between the divine and humane natures in our saviour . but our author pursues his point . for , saith he , the personal union of god to man is between finite and infinite ; which cannot be without admitting one of these things ; either that finite and infinite are commensurate ; which every one knows is false : or , that the finite is united only to some part of the infinite , and is disjoyned from the rest of it ; which all trinitarians deny and abhor ; because if so , jesus christ should not be perfect god , but only god in part . answer . by this way of arguing our author may as well undertake to prove , that there is no such thing as a personal vnion between the soul and body ; for , that cannot be imagined without admitting one of these two things ; either that soul and body are commensurate and equal , and alike extended , which every one knows is false : or , that body and soul are united as to some part only , which is disjoyned from the rest , and that is of a spirit to make it material . what more plain , if his argument be true , than that there can be no personal union between the soul and body , such distant extremes ? so that you may as soon expect that the soft and impalpable air should be united to a thunderbolt , or a speculative thought to a milstone , as that there can be a union between things so incommensurate and unequal , as a body and a soul are . but if notwithstanding such conceived difficulties , soul and body are thus found to be united ; then is it alike consistent that the two natures in our blessed saviour be united in one person . again , by the same way he may go on and prove that immensity is no perfection of the divine nature ; and that it 's impossible god should be every where , and essentially present . for immensity ( if it be ) has a relation to place , that is , infinite to finite : but such a relation cannot be in god , without one of these two things , that finite [ place ] and infinite [ immensity ] are commensurate , which every one knows is false : or , that the finite [ place ] has a relation to some part of the infinite , and is disjoyned from the rest of it ; and so the divine essence is particle and divisible , which all deny : the difficulty we see presses as hard upon the personal union of soul and body , and god's immensity , as upon the union of the divine and humane natures in our saviour ; and which he must deny , or give up his argument . indeed it is not for us to talk metaphysically of the divine nature , till we understand our own ; nor of the nature , kinds and modes in higher matters , till we understand the connexion and union of parts in a pebble or a bubble : left by such an attempt we run our selves into heresie , a dangerous and inevitable rock , as our author represents the case ; or into his downright nonsense , of uniting two understandings , or persons , by the abolition of one of them . except . 2. the vnion of soul and body may be personal , that is , may constitute or make one person : because it is not the vnion of two persons , but only of one person ( the soul ) to a thing which is otherways without life , reason , memory , or free-will — but in the ( pretended ) vnion of god with man , there are two distinct , and very different lives , reasons , memories and free-wills , which utterly destroy the notion of a personnl vnion . for a personal vnion supposes but one life , one reason , one memory , one free-will . because if these things which constitute a person are found more than once , there is no longer one person but two , and consequently no personal vnion in the sense in which we are arguing . answer . i deny that two lives , or two understandings , or two free wills , do necessarily make two different persons or beings , when there is a subordination between them ; for then they receive their denomination or title from the supreme . as we usually say there are three sorts of life , vegetation in plants , animality in brutes , and rationality in men ; now if one of these is alone , that gives denomination to it , as a plant is called a vegetable . but when the vegetative life is united to the animal , it loses that character , and the creature then is called an animal , and is so called as if there was no principle in it of vegetation . and the rational ( though there be vegetation and animality ) is so called , as if there was no vegetation or animality . that is , when there are several powers one in subordination to another , they make not several beings ( as they would do if alone ) but the supream gives the denomination to the whole . and thus it is in the case before us , where there are two natures , the divine and humane ; two lives , the immortal and mortal ; two understandings , an infinite and a limited ; two wills ; and yet not two persons : because the understanding and will of the inferior ( the humane nature ) is subordinate to the superior ( the divine ) and so the person is as much one , as if there had been but one nature , one life , one understanding , and one will. as to our author's history of apollinarius , nestorius , and eutyches , ( were i disposed to make excursions ) i could present him with the rhapsody and bedrole of the opinions of those he calls vnitarians , from cerinthus and ebion downward to socinus , and of the violences and outrages of the arians against the photinians and orthodox ; and of the rancour of the photinians against the arians and orthodox : but that i shall refer to a more proper occasion . object . 2. 't is a thing incongruous , and much beneath the dignity of the son of god , to be united to humane nature . to this his grace makes a large reply , and amongst other things saith : the lower any being , be he never so high , condescends to do good , the glory of his goodness shines so much the brighter . to this passage alone our author returns an answer , if i may call a representation so , and in requital i shall return him the reverse of his comparison , mutatis mutandis . if christ by the just interest he has in the favour of his father , procures the pardon of sinners , and to keep them for the time to come from the like bad courses , should obtain the grant of eternal happiness , and then give them such counsel and precepts , as might best dispose them to a new course of life ; — would not this care and benignity be sufficient , unless the son of god himself came , and be content to be cloathed with the rags of humanity , and to be bound and buffetted , imprisoned , arraigned , condemned and crucified for them ? in his judgment , such a scene would have more of folly than goodness . and he concludes , therefore much less is it to be supposed of god , than of a wise man. this needs no farther animadversion , the impiety of it is a sufficient reply . object . 3. the incarnation is not necessary , saith he . for our opposers grant this , that the pardon of sin might have been offer'd to mankind by a prophet in the name of god ; so that there was no apparent cogent necessity , no extraordinary and indispensable cause for it ; and so must be allowed an unaccountable , causeless debasement of the divine majesty ; and seeing no such cause is assigned , saith he , we have leave to believe it never was . a. the objection is of our author 's own forming ; and there are two uses he makes of his adversary's concession ( which for the present we will take as he represents it . ) 1. that if there was no apparent cogent necessity , no indispensable cause for the incarnation , it must be an unaccountable and causeless debasement . 2. seeing no such cause is assigned , therefore they have reason to believe it never was . as to the first , it 's a gross mistake ; for there may be a good and sufficient cause for that , which there is no cogent and indispensable , and much more no apparent necessity for : he tells us , that the gospel and pardon of sin might have been offer'd to mankind by a prophet in the name of god , and so there was no apparent and cogent necessity for christ's incarnation . and surely if the offering pardon by a prophet was sufficient , there was no apparent , cogent , and indispensable necessity for christ's coming into the world ; and then ( according to our author's way of arguing ) christ's coming into the world is as unaccountable , and causeless , as he would have his incarnation to be . 2. as to the second : seeing no such cause is assigned , therefore the son of god was never incarnate . a. i answer , by this way of arguing , christ was never crucified , any more than he was incarnate . for if there was no indispensable cause for it , it might have been omitted ; and there was no indispensable cause for it , where the teaching of a prophet was sufficient . and without an indispensable cause , our author has taught us the wisdom of god would not stoop to such a humiliation ; and consequently , our saviour was no more crucified than he was incarnate , if our author argues right . under the covert of this objection , our author takes to task the reasons which his grace offers for our saviour's being incarnate ; and excepting the case of mysteries ( which i shall reserve for another place ) our author frames one general answer to them all , viz. ' that these considerations do not prove the incarnation expedient in the age of augustus ; for they were much more forcible in the time of adam , than of augustus . for in the last , god could propound only to reclaim men from their idolatries , errors and impieties ; but if he had been incarnate in the age of adam he had prevented them . and if these are good arguments , 't is morally impossible , either that there was in the age of augustus , or ever shall be an incarnation . he concludes , i think i may say , this is an accurate and just reasoning : it being founded on this maxim of common prudence , that what was more expedient to be done at first than afterwards , would have been at first , if it had been at all expedient to be done . a. the reasons given of christ's incarnation , viz. the reclaiming mankind from their idolatries , errors and impieties , are the same with the reasons for christ's coming into the world : and where the reasons are the same , they are to be tryed in the same way . let us therefore put christ's coming into the world , into the room of his being incarnate ; and we shall find it as requisite ( if our author's argument be of any force ) that he should have come into the world from the beginning , as that he should have been incarnate from the beginning ; and as morally impossible he should have been born in the age of augustus , as that he should have been incarnate in his time . for these reasons were much more forcible in the age of adam than of augustus . for by so late a nativity as the age of augustus , god could propound only to reclaim men from their idolatries , &c. but by being born in the very time of adam , he had prevented the idolatries of 4000 years . — if these be good arguments for christ's nativity , ' t is morally impossible , either that there was in the age of augustus , or that there ever shall be a saviour born into the world. the same argument will also affect the gospel , and make it necessary , that it should have been as completely published in the age of adam as of augustus . this is a home charge indeed , a charge of a great overfight and neglect in almighty god , for want , it seems , of attending to a maxim of common prudence , viz. of doing what was more expedient to be done at first than afterwards . for according to our author , the whole design of salvation by christ was mis-timed , and the fulness of time for it was in the age of adam , and not of augustus . this he accounts acurate and just reasoning ; and i suppose the next news we hear , will be amendments upon the gospel ; and a set of chronological tables to rectifie us in these matters . and to that work i leave him . for i suppose he will not expect from his adversaries , that they should prove to him , that the time of augustus was better than that of adam , for our lord's appearance in the world ; or to give him the reasons , why almighty god chose the time of augustus for the nativity of our saviour , and the publishing the gospel by him , rather than the time of adam . a vindication of the lord bishop of worcester's sermon concerning the mysteries of the christian faith , from the exceptions made against it , by the author of the considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the trinity . if the author of the considerations had a mind to have writ upon a noble argument , this learned adversary gave him a fair occasion to try his skill , by proposing the two different hypotheses concerning the salvation of mankind by jesus christ , and shewing the agreeableness of the one , by his assuming our nature , and suffering in our stead , to the revealed will of god. which he confirms , as it 's most plain and easie , and agreeable to the most received sense of the words ; as it suits with the scope and design of the whole new testament ; hath been generally received in the christian church ; and best agrees with the characters of those persons from whom we receive the christian faith , viz. christ jesus and his apostles . upon the last of these his lordship more particularly discourses . but instead of taking his adversary to task about this weighty subject , our author chuses rather to fall upon some other points , where he may have a greater scope for the gratifying his roving fancy ; not caring to be tyed up by the rules and measures of strict argumentation ; and therefore for the fitting to his purpose what he had to say , he passes over the other , under the character of a great many heads , too troublesome for a reader 's view , whereas the chief of all ( as he will have it ) lies in these three . 1. god may justly require of us to believe what we cannot not comprehend . 2. those who reject the mysteries of faith , do themselves advance greater mysteries than those they declaim against . 3. the manner and way of salvation the church teaches , tends more to the benefit of mankind , than the way of salvation by christ taught by the socinians . of these three propositions our author thus passes his judgment . the first is true ; but not to the purpose . the second is home to the purpose , but not true . the third is neither true nor to the purpose . when he elsewhere read this character of a certain book , without doubt he thought the cadence of it very pretty , and might be divertive for his reader , whether it were right or wrong , and fit for his purpose or not . but because i am apt to suspect the exactness of such turns of fancy , i shall make bold to examine them , and see how his character and the heads of discourse he applies it to , will agree . the first , saith he , is true , but not to the purpose . the contrary of this used to be accounted true by his predecessors in the same way ; socinus himself , as his lordship shewed [ serm. p. 21. ] denied the divine prescience , because he could not comprehend it ; and the incomprehensibleness of a doctrine used to be a mighty argument amongst the socinians , against the truth of it , as might be shewn . but our author is of another mind , as he tells us , for the present : and if his lordship could by prescience have foretold his mind , and foreseen he would have replied upon him , he might have spar'd to himself ( as he gravely observes ) the pains of these ten pages in his sermon , in which he seeks to prove , that there are many things we do not comprehend . but his lordship is not to be blamed for want of that prescience , which the acute socinus would not allow to god himself . and to say the truth of it , he thought he had wrote against a socinian point , but our author can tell him , he utterly mistakes ; perhaps his lordship had not read the notes on the creed of aibanasius , nor the trinitatian scheme of religion , nor the answer to mr. milbourn , ( books our author recommends ) nor the history of the last seven years ; for it 's likely he might there have found the index expurgatorius to socinus , and his successors ; and the alterations made in this refining age in their grosser doctrine , without which they will tell him he writes against imaginary socinianism . but our author within the compass of three pages changes his mind . in page 4. all the works of god are incomprehensible , and we cannot comprehend the least spire of grass . but pag. 7. he cannot understand why his lordship and many others are so positive , that we cannot comprehend an infinite attribute , as eternity . now i should have thought that the works of god , and a spire of grass are as comprehensible as an infinite attribute . he tells us , contradictions are by all confessed to be impossibilities ; and so i take comprehensible and incomprehensible to be ; it remains therefore upon him to shew that they are possible ; and-that while it is not possible for a spire of grass to be comprehended , that yet eternity may . he bears a little too hard upon his readers , to suppose their memory or attention will not hold out three pages together ; and that he may have the liberty to affirm and deny , and contradict himself ( as shall best serve his end ) without offence to their understanding . but perhaps , the heat of writing and controversie was the occasion of this inadvertency . the first of these , the incomprehensiblenss of god's works , is left in it's place to try its fortune , and to subsist upon its own credit . but when he maintains the comprehensibleness of an infinite attribute ( he might have said infinity , for that is a divine attribute ) because it sounds not so well , and these men that have taught the world , that to do contradictions would not be a perfection , but an imperfection in the divine nature , may have also taught them , that infinity cannot be comprehended by a finite understanding , nor god be comprehended by a creature ; because of this he takes himself concerned to make good his paradox , by setting up such a notion of comprehension as he conceives may support it : and that is , that to comprehend a thing , is to have a clear , distinct and adequate conception of it . and he adds , may we not have such a notion of an infinite attribute ? i think we may . let us suppose for the present , his definition of comprehension to be good and right ; may we not then have as clear , distinct , and adequate conception of a spire of grass , or any of god's works , as of infinity and eternity ? and then how comes he before to acknowledge the truth of that saying of his lordship's , that we cannot comprehend the least spire of grass ? but how true soever his notion of comprehending may be , he mistakes in the application , when he saith , vve may have a clear , distinct , and adequate conception of an infinite attribute . now we used to say ( till the days of discarding mysteries came on ) that only god can comprehend his own essence , and nothing less than infinite could have a clear , distinct , and adequate conception of infinite . for 't is evident we have not a clear , distinct , and adequate conception of that which we can give no adequate definition of . but we can give no adequate definition of infinite ; and therefore-are forced to speak of it by way of negation , and rather say what it is not , than what it is . thus he himself describes god's eternity , viz. 't is that duration by which he is without all beginning and end. which is by no means , a clear , distinct , and adequate definition of it . for first duration applied to eternity , is what is usually call'd a contradiction in adjecto : for saith our author , it is of the nature of a duration to consist in a succession ; but in eternity is no succession . for what succession was there before the creation of the world ? and yet there was the same eternity then as now . so that to describe eternity by duration , and to cut that indivisible into parts by succession , is to make a temporary eternity , which methinks sounds as ill as an eternal moment . secondly , it s by no means an adequate definition of eternity , because it consists of negatives , without all beginning and end. a greater proof cannot be given of the inadequateness of our conception , than thus to go through the world of beings , and assertions , and to say it is not this , and it is not that , and yet we are never the nearer to tell what the thing really is . as if i would ask , what is an infinite attribute ? and he should answer , a perfection without bounds . what is a spirit ? a being that hath no flesh and bones . what eternity ? a duration without beginning or end. do we understand infinity , a spirit , or eternity , the better for all this ? as suppose when the word spirit is applied to god , angels , and souls departed ; will the abovesaid definition give me any clear , distinct , and adequate conception of it , and assign the difference between what it is in god , and what in a creature , or what at all ? a mistake then it is in the thing , as well as a contradiction in him ; and the reason of this blunder ( next to a carping-disposition of mind , watchful to take all advantages ) is , that he was not aware of the difference between apprehend and comprehend , and confounded existence with essence , that the thing is , with what the thing is . and of both of these he himself has given us a remarkable instance . for the bishop having said , if nothing is to be believed but what may be comprehended , the very being of god must be rejected too . p. 22. our author upon it makes this observation , ' that the attributes of god are incomprehensible , i have often heard ; but never till now what his lordship adds ' in the next place , purely from himself , if nothing , saith he , is to be believed , &c. but why is this purely from himself ? for this admirable reason , subjoyned by our author , to comprehend the being or existence of god , is only this , to comprehend that god is : and if we cannot comprehend that , all religion ceases . but how came that word existence in ? to comprehend the being or existence of god is only this , &c. for his lordship has no other word than being , which plainly there refers to the nature , and not the existence of the almighty . so in the paragraph just before , it is madness to pretend to comprehend what is infinite : and in the close of the same paragraph , as long as they believe an infinite and incomprehensible being , it is nonsense to reject any other doctrine which relates to an infinite being , because it is incomprehensible . so that it 's god , as an infinite and incomprehensible being , that his lordship is discoursing of ; not of his existence , but his essence and nature . and yet we are not at an end of these difficulties , were we to consider his existence . to return to the bishop's first proposition ( as recited by our author ) viz. god may justly require of us to believe what we cannot comprehend . to what purpose is this ? for our author saith , he [ the bishop ] utterly mistakes , in thinking that we deny the articles of the new christianity , or athanasian religion [ concerning the trinity , the deity , and incarnation of our saviour , &c. ] because they are mysteries , or because we do not comprehend them ; we deny them , because they are contradictons , impossibilities , and pure nonsense , p. 4. b. surely this new christianity , this athanasian religion , is no other than babylon in the revelation , that had mystery wrote on her forehead , that was the mother of harlots , and abominations of the whole earth ; and deserves to be treated in like manner , if she vends imposture and contradictions under the name of mysteries , as he represents it . but in defect of a royal authority to consummate the sentence , there is a terrible scourge , a book wrote by a learned friend of theirs , that hath wrought wonders , and with the like success as the whips were shew'd to the sicilian slaves , to their utter discomfiture . so that the merchants of these wares have their markets spoiled , or much hindred , if he is to be believed . and yet after all , if we may guess at the book by his sample out of it , it 's as gentle as one could wish ; and falls in with his adversaries . for what doth he say , but what they have said before him ? as , 1. there are in religion some mysteries , and incomprehensible secrets . 2. we are not to give the venerable name of mystery to doctrines contrary to nature's and reason's light. 3. the ordinary meaning of mystery in scripture , is not something in it's own nature dark and obscure , but something intelligible , and kept secret in past ages , and was revealed in gospel-times . but for all this , may not the word mystery be applied to such things as are in some measure known , but in much greater unknown to us ( as his lordship saith ) ? and when our author's friend doth say , the ordinary meaning of mystery in scripture , is for what was a secret , but now made known ; it supposes that he was sensible it was also sometimes there us'd for what was in its own nature dark and obscure . i thought to have pursued this argument , but i the rather pass it , because it 's under the consideration of a learned pen. amongst the instances that are incomprehensible , his lordship begins with eternity ; and saith , that he is apt to think , there is no greater difficulty in the conception of the trinity , and incarnation , than there is of eternity . a bold saying ! and he deserves to be expos'd for it . difficulties the bishop calls them , but our author will have it contradictions , and many contradictions in the trinity and incarnation ; and insinuates that his lordship would himself have call'd his difficulties in eternity , contradictions , if he durst ; for thus his adversary goes on , he dares not call them contradictions ( though as he states them they are undeniable contradictions ) because if they were confess'd to be contradictions , he would be forced to deny an eternity . and it is not long before we are told the bishop denies that also . there are two difficuties his lordship observes in the eterternity of god. the first is , ' that if god was for ever , he must be from himself ; and what notion can we have in our minds concerning it ? our author represents this , as if it was the bishop's design to argue against god's eternity , after this manner , i am sorry an eternal god must be a contradiction . had he no way to defend his new mysteries , but by espousing the cause of the atheists ? &c. a calumny as black as hell ! for , is there any word leaning this way ? what! to prove that there are contradictions in the notion of eternity , or that an eternal god is a contradiction ! doth not his lordship both affirm there is great reason to believe the eternity of god , and in the same breath effectually prove it , and confute those atheists whose cause this slanderer would have him to espouse ? but this is his usual way of prefacing an argument ; the reason for it lies open enough . but where is the contradiction ? at last it proves one of his own making . for , saith he , what makes him [ the bishop ] say , god must be from himself , or self-originated ? for then he must be before he was . for god to be before he was , is a contradiction . but i do not see how it follows , that if he is from himself , he must be before he was ? for he may be from himself , and yet be necessarily and eternally existent . this 't is likely our author saw , and therefore to clinch his argument , he joyns an alias to the phrase , from himself , and then it is from himself , or self-originated . and now he has put a pretty varnish upon it ; for self-originated , if strictly taken , implies an origine or beginning from himself : and ( as he saith ) all origination of what kind soever is inconsistent with an eternal being . if his lordship had said , god had his beginning or origination from himself , or in his adversarie's phrase were self-originated , there had been some colour for him to have inferred , then he was in being before he was . but to be from himself , is no more liable to such an inference , than when we say he is self-existent , or in the word used by the fathers , ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , god of and from himself , that is , so as to have no cause nor beginning . the second difficulty his lordship proposed about god's eternity , is , how god should co-exist with all the differences of times , and yet there be no succession in his own being ? — and succession being not consistent with the absolute perfection of the divine nature , therefore god must be all at once what he is . this our author saith , is a great many contradictions , and proposes no less than five queries upon it , which he gives his lordship time till dooms-day to answer . for thus he closes them , the notion of the trinity , and this notion of eternity , will be vindicated both in a day . however we will try if the day for it be not already come ; and for trial's sake , i will venture to offer them again to the reader , as they stand in his treatise . q. 1. what is the difference between an eternal moment , ( which every one discerns is a contradiction in the very terms ) and between possessing eternal life all at once , which is his lordship's definition of eternity ? a. the difference is as great , as between contradiction and truth . an eternal moment is a contradiction ; for a moment is a moveable point , and passes as soon into not being , as it came into being . it was not , it is , and immediately is not ; and so nothing more opposite in the nature of it to eternity . but eternity admits no succession , no divisibility , no moments , no past , no future , no motion , no change , and consequently must be all existent together , and all at once : for there is no mean between succession , and all at once ; and since succession is imcompatible with eternity , eternity must be all at once . and if god did not possess himself all at once , he could not be eternal . q. 2. seeing it is of the nature of all duration to consist in a succession , else it were not duration but a moment , i ask whether it be not unavoidable , that if almighty god possesses eternal life all at once , he must have passed into some durations before they are ? the duration , for example , in which the day of judgment shall be , is not actually come . but if god possesses eternity all at once , he is already entred upon that duration , that is , he is entred upon it before it is . a. if it be of the nature of all duration to consist in a succession , then there can be no more duration than there is succession in an eternal being : and consequently , 't is a gross absurdity to conceive of god , as entring upon a certain duration , and passing into some duration , which is to conceive of him as a temporary being , and that began to be , ( for so it is in all succession ) and not as one that is eternal . q. 3. seeing it is a contradiction , and therefore impossible , that any being should possess a duration before such duration is ; i desire to know of his lordship , how it can be an imperfection ( as he affirms ) in the divine nature , not to do that which implies a contradiction , &c. a. 't is true , that it is a contradiction , and therefore impossible for a creature , to whom duration and succession belong , to possess a duration before such duration is . but it is a contradiction , and therefore impossible for god to possess any duration ( which consists in succession ) because he is eternal . for him to possess a certain duration and succession , would be to suppose him in duration a , before he removed to duration b , and when he is in duration b , to have left duration a. eternity in god , is with respect to time , what immensity is to place ; and so he is all at once , as he is at once in all places ; and as notwithstanding the innumerable divisions in place , god is no more divided , than he was before place was created . so , notwithstanding the manifold distributions of time , god is no more in one duration than in another , but is now the same eternal undivided being , when there is a before , a present , and an after in time , as he was before there was any time , duration or succession . q. 4. how is it more an imperfection to pass from not being , into such a duration , to such a being in it , than 't is an imperfection to pass from not operating in such a duration , to operating in it ? this last all men must confess to be true of god ; for none will dare to say , god made all his works at once . a. to pass from duration to duration , and from not being in such a particular duration to a being in it , is no other than succession which ( as has been shew'd ) is utterly inconsistent with the nature of god , who is eternal . to pass from not operating in such a duration , to operating in it , is to suppose there was a duration before god did operate in it , which is manifestly absurd . for duration is a continuance of time ; but what duration was there in eternity , before there was any time , or god began to operate and make the world ? again , to argue from the works of god to his nature , is to circumscribe him to time and place , as they are . and he may as well argue , that god began to be , when he began to operate , as to argue from succession in the creatures , or a succession of god's operation in the creatures , to a succession in himself ; and that he cannot be all at once , because he did not make all his works at once . q. 5. what shadow of imperfection is it to pass from one duration to another , when the person so passing , carries with him all perfections into every duration ? a. if this were so , the almighty would want one perfection of his nature , which is eternity . for he can no more carry his eternity with him into the various successions of duration , than he can pass from place to place , and carry his immensity with him . 't is the upshot ( i will not say the design ) of these his queries to overthrow the eternity of god , under colour of disproving the notion of the platonists and boethius , the school-men and the doctors , and professors of mysteries in our times , ( as he derives its pedigree , and is pleased to give their character ) viz. that eternity is a possession of all at once : and so turns all the bitter invectives upon himself , with which he so virulently , and without any pretext endeavours to wound his adversary . for what else is the effect of his doctrine of succession in god , and passing from one duration to another ? for where there is succession , there was a beginning , unless he will make the first moment in his succession to be eternal , which he knows is a contradiction in terms . the two remaining difficulties which his lordship offers to our consideration , and to shew how incomprehensible things are , are the spirituality of god's nature , and his prescience . to the former he makes no other reply , than to disavow ( if it is so ) what was charged upon some of their way about god's corporeity . as to the latter , nothing will serve his turn , but that the bishop opposes the vnity of god ( that envied doctrine ) by finding contradictions in his eternity and foreknowledge . but what if the bloody charge fall upon socinus , who found the difficulties , and as he thought , the contradictions in the doctrine of god's prescience to be so great , intrenching upon the freedom of humane actions , and making god the author of sin ; that he thought it the better way wholly to deny it . but this our author is very careful to suppress . 2. proposition . the difficulties , saith his lordship , are in point of reason more insuperable in the socinian way than ours ; of which he gives several instances that may be called mysteries . 1. the mystery on the part of the orthodox , is the eternal son of god's being with the father before the world was made by him . the mystery on the other side is , ' that although jesus were born six months after john baptist , yet he was in dignity before him . now this , saith the bishop , is a mystery ; forasmuch as it cannot be conceived that the evangelist should , in lofty expressions , and profound language , prove a thing which was never disputed . it is st. john that is referr'd to , and if he may be esteemed the author of that gospel , yet our author cannot find that profound language and lofty expressions in him . the sense indeed , saith he , is sometimes profound , but the expression is always mean. so little judgment had friend amelius , when at the first reading he thought the barbarian ( as he call'd that divine evangelist ) to platonize ; and in his profound language to imitate his great master . indeed our author rather thinks of a character befitting a rhetorician , orator , or poet , than a philosopher or divine writer . as if because the evangelist had not an elevation of conceit or expression , like or above the greek or roman orators , or poets , his language could not be profound , nor his expressions lofty . 2. saith he , if the language were profound , it would not follow , the sense intended must be a mystery . but it would follow , that st. john that wrote of such sublime things , after that manner , would not take pains to prove what was never disputed , viz. that although christ were born six months after john baptist , yet he was in dignity before him . at last , by head and shoulders , he brings in a paraphrase of the socinians on the beginning of st. john , which has already been consider'd ; but because i am not willing to be behind-hand with him , i shall repay it with another , borrowing some help towards it from his own exposition , viz. in the beginning of the gospel , the word jesus christ being about 30 years old , was then in being and alive : and about that time was rapt up into heaven , as st. paul was , which we are piously to believe , being the scripture is silent in it . and after a very short stay there , but so long as it may be said , he was with god , this word came down again from heaven , which we are upon the same consideration to believe , as his former ascension . and then or some time after , perhaps at his resurrection , he was constituted a god , not an eternal god , but a man god , a creature-god , a finite temporary god , that dates the beginning of his deity from the term aforesaid . and being thus a god , he made a new world , as the eternal god made the old. and though he had nothing in him of the divine nature , ( for that god could not give him ) nor any of the incommunicable attributes of the deity , omnipotence , omnipresence , omniscience , and such like . ( wherefore ' t is better to use the words christ , lord and saviour , than god , because there may be no small inconvenience with respect to the vulgar ) yet he was to have the same honour given him by angels and men , which they gave to the father , the eternal , omnipotent , omnipresent , and omniscient god. and to encourage them in this , they are to know , that faustus socinus had cause to think , that his unkle laelius had , by many prayers obtained from christ himself a very dextrous and admirable interpretation of a difficult place in st. john. now this i take to be an unintelligible mystery , and fit to be put to that , that although christ jesus were born six months after john , yet he was in dignity before him . but here he saith they have on their side the principal criticks of the trinitarians , particularly erasmus and beza , who understand the phrase , for he was before me , john 1.15 . of a priority of dignity and excellence , not of a priority of time . admit this for the present , then the sense of that place will amount to this , he that cometh after me , is preferr'd before me ; for he was preferr'd before me : or , he that cometh after me , is more excellent than me ; for he was more excellent than me . thus st. chrysostom expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is preferr'd before me , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , more excellent , more honourable . 2. the mystery on the orthodox side is , that a divine person should assume humane nature , and so the word be made flesh. the mystery on the other side is , ' that an attribute of god , his wisdom or power , is made flesh ; that is , for an accident to be made a substance . in answer to this our author saith , 1. by the word we do not understand god the son ; the rather , because no such person is once mentioned in all holy scripture . answ. if that were a reason sufficient why the word in that proposition , the word was made flesh , should not be understood of god the son ; then 't is as much a reason why the word in the first verse should not be understood of god the son : but if notwithstanding that no such person is once mentioned in scripture as god the son , yet the word in verse 1. is to be understood of a person ; then notwithstanding that , verse 10. may as well be understood in like manner of the personal word . but is no such person ever mentioned in scripture , as god the son ? what is the word but the son of god , and when the word and the son are the same , what is the difference between god the word , and god the son ? and when the son is called god in scripture , what is the difference between god the son , and the son that is god ? 2. but what do they understand by the word , when the word is said to be made flesh ? he answers , the power and wisdom of god. now if so ; where then is the fault , when the bishop charges it upon them as a mystery beyond all comprehension , that they say that an attribute of god , his wisdom or power , is made flesh ? here he comes in again with his , we do not mean hereby , as his lordship would insinuate , that the wisdom or power of god was turned into flesh , or man. now this is more than his adversary charges them with : but what do they mean ? why , we mean , saith he , as the trinitarians thereby also mean , that the word was incarnate , tabernacled in flesh , abode on the man christ jesus in more ample manner , and much larger measure , then on former prophets . answ. if they mean , by made flesh , as the trinitarians themselves also mean ; then they must mean , that the wisdom and power of god is incarnate , and took upon it the flesh and nature of man ; or else they do not mean by that phrase as the trinitarians do . but suppose we give him back again what he has granted , and allow that they do not mean as the trinitarians mean , when they say , the word was incarnate ; but that they mean , the word abode on the man christ jesus ; that is , the word , power , or wisdom , abode on the word christ ; yet how comes he from the word 's tabernacling in flesh , or was made flesh , to interpret it , abode in christ. methinks there is much of mystery in this . but i have not yet done ; for tho he saith , the language and expression of st. john is always mean , yet i apprehend st. john to be consistent with himself , and to write intelligibly . but our author brings all this into question , by a forced interpretation , and setting up his own meaning against that of st. john ; as will appear to any indifferent man , from the connection and order of this chapter ; whether it be the part before verse 14. or that which follows . before ; for thus the evangelist proceeds , in the beginning was the word , — and that word was the true light. — and the word was made flesh. so that the word that was made flesh , was the same that was the true light , and that was in the beginning . and therefore if by the word that was made flesh , is to be understood the power and wisdom of god , then so it is to be understood when the word is said to be in the beginning , after this manner ; in the beginning was the power of god , and the power of god was with god , and the power of god was god. let us consult the words following the clause , [ the word was made flesh ] and it will be yet more evident ; the word was made flesh , and dwelt among us , and we beheld his glory , the glory of the only begotten of the father , &c. john bare witness of him , and cried , saying , this was he of whom i spake ; &c. so that the same word that was made flesh , dwelt among them ; the same word that was made flesh , and dwelt among them , and whose glory they saw , was the only begotten of the father . the same word that was made flesh , and dwelt among them , was he of whom john bare witness . now if the whole tenor of that discourse , before and after , belong to the personal word , then so doth the clause between ; or else he will make st. john write so as no intelligent writer can be supposed to write . 3. the mystery on the side of the orthodox , is , that the son of god ' came down from heaven , and took our nature upon him . the mystery on the other side is , ' that christ should be rapp'd up into heaven . this mystery of theirs our author will have to be no more difficult than st. paul's being caught up into the third heaven . and so far he is in the right ; for that was no more impossible than this , and christ might have ascended before his ministry , as well as after his resurrection . but this is not the mystery that his lordship lays his hand upon ; but it is this , that in a matter of so great consequence , and so remarkable a part of history ( if it had been true ) the scripture should be wholly silent ; that when it is so punctual in the relation of moses's converse with god at the giving of the law , and of our saviour's forty days temptation in the wilderness , and his transfiguration , &c. that there should be no more said of this ascension of our saviour , than of the virgin mary's assumption , tho ( as they would have it ) it was to receive instructions in the will of god concerning the gospel-dispensation ; and when he was constituted and made a god , ( as some of them say . ) this is a mystery . but i acknowledge that the invention of this is a new mystery ; it being apparent , that it was by them thought necessary to make some tolerable sense of these words , he came down from heaven , as his lordship observes of this before . as for the mystery on the other side , we acknowledge it to be so , but not for the reason he gives , because to descend or ascend belongs only to limited and finite beings . since notwithstanding that , god in scripture is said to go down , that that is not to be understood of a local descent , but of a manifestation of the deity . and the son of god is said to come down from heaven when he became man , because he took the humane nature into union with the divine ; and where the humane was , there was also the divine . 4. the mystery on the orthodox side is , that god should become man by taking our nature upon him . the mystery on the other side is , ' that man should become god , &c. in the-former , an infinite is united to a finite ; in the latter , a finite becomes infinite . our author saith , the bishop found it necessary to misinterpret their doctrines , before he could find mysteries in it . a. but surely he doth not misreport their doctrine , when he saith , that they make a man to be god. our author is very tender in the point , and saith he may be called a god ; and saith , that it cannot be satisfactorily proved , that any authentick copies of the bible do give to him the title , god. but socinus , and his followers , are not sparing to call him a true god , and to give him divine worship as such ( as has been shewed ) ; and i question whether our author can say more about the authentick copies than sandius , which has been sufficiently confuted before he published his brief history , 2. as for what our author saith concerning the case of moses , magistrates and angels being called god : i ask , whether any of them may be called a true god. for if moses was , for example , as much a god as christ , he might have , and challenge the same divine worship as is given , and is due to christ. 5. the mystery on the side of the orthodox is , ' that christ suffered for our sakes ; as a voluntary sacrifice of expiation of the sins of mankind , and not for his own sake . the mystery on the other side is , to make him suffer as one wholly innocent ; which is , to make the most innocent persons as apprehensive of suffering as the most guilty . here our author interposes , and saith , his lordship seems not to understand the state of the question , because he had said , ' t is more reasonable to believe that jesus christ suffered for our sakes , than for his own . whereas he suffer'd for both ; for his own sake , to obtain a glorious reward , &c. answ. it is plain , that when his lordship saith , christ suffer'd for our sake , and not for his own ; he means thereby , not for his own sake , as he did for ours ; for our sins , and not for any of his own : so it immediately follows , we are all agreed , that the sufferings of christ were far beyond any thing he deserv'd at god's hands . 2. he saith , the unitarians never denied , as his lordship here fancies , that jesus christ made himself a voluntary sacrifice for expiation of the sins of mankind . answ. let us suppose this , what is it then they deny ? they deny , he saith , that this sacrifice was by way of true and proper satisfaction , or full and adequate payment to the justice of god. a. that there might be a sacrifice of expiation where there was no full and adequate payment to the justice of god , is true , because it is not possible , saith the apostle , that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins . but the case is not the same in this sacrifice , ( for that which is denied to the former , is yet granted and given to the sacrifice of christ , heb. 10.4 , 10. ) which may not improperly be called a satisfaction and payment ; and if so , in regard of the dignity of the person , may be said to be full and adequate ; since as sins are called debts , so sinners are debtors to the justice of god's law , in respect of which we are said to be redeemed by the blood of christ , as captives or condemned persons were redeemed by silver and gold , 1 pet. 1.18 , 19. but yet we are not come to the bottom of their doctrine ; for when we might reasonably have thought the controversy to be at an end ( since they grant that christ was an expiatory sacrifice for our sins ) they take all away again by an explication that makes the sacrifice no sacrifice , and the expiation no expiation . for he thus determines the point . 3. we say this sacrifice ( as all other sacrifices ) was only an oblation or application to the mercy of god. or as it follows , he suffered for our sakes , that he might recommend us to the mercy and forgiveness of god. a. i have said before , by this account of an expiatory sacrifice , the expiation is no expiation ; for the definition here given of an expiatory sacrifice , is this , that ' t is only an oblation , application , or recommendation of a person to the mercy and forgiveness of god. now that can be no definition of a thing , which is as well applicable to a thing of another nature , as to the thing defined : and that is the case here , for according to this definition of an expiatory sacrifice , intercession would be such a sacrifice . for it may be thus described , intercession is only an oblation , application , or recommendation of another to the mercy and forgiveness of god. so that in effect , an expiatory sacrifice is no other than an intercession . and then indeed we , and i think mankind ( except our author , and those of his way ) have been under a great mistake , that have been taught , that sacrifices of expiation were instead of the offender , in whose sufferings he was reputed to suffer , and upon whose sufferings and penal death , he was supposed to be in a respect discharged . 6. the mystery on the part of the orthodox is , that the son of god took upon him the form of a servant for our advantage . the mystery on the other side is , that a meer man should be exalted to the honour and worship which belongs only to god. as to the former our author replies , t is more reasonable to suppose with the unitarians , that god hath admitted us to conditions of pardon and favour , for his own mercy's sake , and in contemplation of the unblemish'd life , and voluntary sufferings and sacrifice of christ jesus ; than to suppose with his lordship , and his party , that god himself took on him the form of a servant , and suffer'd in our steads , to reconcile us to himself . answ. 1. he might as well suppose , that 't is more reasonable that god should admit us to conditions of pardon and favour , for his own mercy's sake , than for the sufferings and sacrifice of christ. for what needed such a sacrifice , and the son of god to be exposed to such extremities , when god could have pardoned men for his own mercy's sake , as well without these sufferings of christ , as without a satisfaction . 2. what he supposes is very absurd that god should admit us to conditions of pardon , upon the contemplation of the voluntary sacrifice of christ ; and yet that he did not suffer in our stead , nor to reconcile us to god. for substitution , or to die in the stead of another , is of the nature of an expiatory sacrifice : and he might as well say , christ is our intercessor without mediating for us ; as that he was our sacrifice , and not be sacrificed for us ; or be a sacrifice for us , and yet not suffer in our stead . 3. 't is not more reasonable to suppose god admitted us to conditions of pardon for his own mercy's sake , than it is to suppose that he suffer'd in our steads , and to reconcile us to god : for that is not unreasonable which hath god for its author . but will he say , the difficulty is not yet solved ; for 't is god's reconciling us to himself , and suffering for himself , and paying to himself the debt of the debtor , and satisfying the wrong done to himself ? which saith he is a mock-satisfaction , such a ridiculous so●ne , that begets laughter or contempt in considering men . surely he means such as himself , that writes considerations . our author is so used to forget himself , to leave out , put in , or alter , that he can no more flip an occasion , ( how small soever ) than those that are used to another way , can let go an opportunity , though it be but a a petty-larceny . thus he saith , his lordship and his party suppose that god himself suffer'd in our steads , as well as took on him the form of a servant . now to say the truth , his lordship had not this scene in his eye under mystery the 6 th ; for in that he is speaking of the incarnation of our saviour , when he took on him the form of a servant ; but it was in mystery the 5 th that he spoke of christ's sufferings and sacrifice . his lordships words are , the son of god took upon him the form of a servant ; so that he was so far from saying , god suffer'd in our stead , &c. that he did not so much as say , the son of god suffer'd in our stead , ( though it be true . ) but will he say , is not this all one , when he that suffer'd and died , is , in our opinion , god as well as man ? i answer no , with respect to his observations . for restore son of god to its place ( as it is in his lordship ) instead of god , and then we shall see the difference . as 1 : 't is more reasonable to suppose with the unitarians , that god hath admitted us to terms of pardon for his own mercy's sake , &c. than that his son should suffer in our stead , to reconcile us to god. 2. it 's an incomprehensible mystery , that god should rather chuse to send his son to suffer for us , than to forgive us . 3. 't is a paradox , for the son of god to pay the debt of the debtor to god , and to satisfy for the wrong done to him. how is the scene changed upon this ? and where doth the absurdity lie ? while indeed he put god in the place of the son of god , it look'd somewhat speciously ; but restore the term son of god to its place instead of god , and the pretended absurdity lies apparently at his own door . but may he urge , don't you acknowledge the son of god to be god ? and then it may be as well said , god himself suffer'd in our stead , &c. as the son of god suffer'd , &c. i answer , god ( as that signifies the divine nature in christ ) could not suffer : all that we say is , that the person that took upon himself the form of a servant was god , and not man , before such an assumption of humane nature : that when he assumed that nature , he was god as well as man ; and that person who was god suffer'd in humane nature , but the godhead or god no more suffer'd and died when christ died , than the manhood could be omnipresent and immortal , because the godhead was so ; or the soul die , when the man is said to die . 2. i answer further , that the son of god is not the father ; and that there being such an incommunicable personality , if i may so speak , those things belong to the son that could not belong to the father . and as the father was not incarnate but the son , so the son became responsible , and paid the price of our redemption to the father ; and therefore it was the act of the son that was god , and not of the godhead , as common to three persons to reconcile us to god. as to the mystery on their own side , the worship of a meer man , it has been already consider'd , only he should have had some moderation in his charge , when he saith his lordship might as well have accus'd them of sodomy or witchcraft , as of giving proper divine worship to a creature , to the man christ jesus ; when his party owns it , and he himself makes a feeble excuse for it . for , saith he , if it is a mistake , 't is simple error , not mystery , much less idolatry . now , methinks , 't is an unintelligible mystery , that there should be a proper divine worship , peculiar to god ; and yet there be no idolatry in giving the same to a creature . 't is an incomprehensible mystery again to say , the giving proper divine worship to a creature , is not idolatry . 't is a mystery again , that the church of rome should be charged with idolatry , for giving divine worship to creature-mediators , and yet in these persons 't is simple error . 't is a mystery again , that christ should be esteemed by them a god , and so constituted by god , and yet there be no small inconvenience with respect to the vulgar to have him so called . 't is a mystery again , that st. paul blames them who do service to such as are not gods : and yet if god himself had set them up , and given them the name above every name , and they had not mistook in the kind , nor exceeded in the degree of that service they did to them , they should not have been blamed . and so the saints and angels might have been made objects of worship as well as christ , and the virgin mary might have been established queen of heaven , and a hyperdulia accordingly given to her . so that he has made as pretty a defence in this part for the creature-worship of the church of rome , as their heart can wish , and as he has made for transubstantiation in the next part. d proposition is , the way or manner of saving sinners by christ , taught by the church , is more for the benefit of mankind , than the socinian hypothesis . this i shall be as short upon as he ; and till i see an answer to what his lordship has said , and was also said by the archbishop upon that argument , i shall rest contented , and not think the proposition evertheless true or pertinent , for his saying ' t is neither true , nor to the purpose . to the reverend dr. williams . reverend sir , i understand that you are now about a vindication of the late archbishop of canterbury's sermons concerning the trinity , in answer to the animadversions that were made upon them . i am very glad so great an argument is in so good a hand : but since the animadverter gave a late discourse of mine a share of the same book , i think it may be proper , that somewhat in justification of what i writ , should accompany this performance of yours : and because every man is naturally more the master of his own thoughts than another , though in other respects he may be much superior to him ; i shall therefore give you a particular account of what occurs to me , with relation to my discourse on this subject , and shall leave it to you , either to publish it with your book , in the same simplicity in which i am forced to write at this distance from my books and collections , or which will be much to the advantage of what i am to offer to you , though it may put you to a little more trouble , i leave it to you to draw such things out of this paper as seem of the greatest weight , and mix them with your own composition . by this they will appear with those solid characters of true judgment and learning , by which all your writings are distinguished . i shall without any farther preamble , enter upon the matter that is before me ; and shall in the first place offer you some general considerations , before i come to what is more particular and critical . the foreign writers of this author's persuasion , have indeed in their way of writing , set a pattern to the world : their stile has been grave and modest , free from reflection or levity . they have pursued their point with a strain that deserves great commendation . but those , who have taken great liberties with them , have said , that this was only an artifice to soften the horror that their opinions were apt to give ; and to possess the world with such favourable thoughts of their persons and doctrines , as might both remove prejudices , and dispose all men to believe well of those who seemed full of a christian spirit ; and they have been apt to suspect , that as their numbers and their hopes might encrease , they would change their stile , and raise their spirits . this writer has done what lay in him , to justify those suspicions . it seems he thinks the party is now so strong , that the hard words of nonsense , contradiction , and absurdity , may be let fly liberally ; though upon so grave a subject , modester words would have imported full as much , and would have had a much better appearance . he loves also to divert himself as oft as he can : i had in the general part of my discourse said , that since there may be mysteries in the divine essence that are far beyond all our apprehensions ; therefore if god lets out any hints of any such to us , we are to receive them in such a plain sense as the words do naturally bear . from hence he runs division upon the word hint ; and studies to make the whole appear ridiculous : though when i come to treat of the proofs that ought to be relied on in this matter , i had laid this down for a ground , that in so sublime a point , there ought to be a greater fulness of express words , than for bare precepts of morality , or more easily received notions : and that we ought not to suppose , that if god intended to reveal any thing to us that should pose our vnderstandings , he would only do it in hints , or in words and expressions of doubtful signification , and that therefore those who denied mysteries , had a right to demand full and copious proofs of them . the taking notice of this would have been more sincere , but some of the mirth into which hints led him , would have been spoiled by it . i mention no other strains of this sort , though he does often with the same candour and modesty endeavour to make those he writes against look ridiculous ; which is pursued so flatly , that one would think that the civil and more artificial words with which he begins his considerations , were writ by another pen , but were in the management spoiled by his own . to pass over his many indecent reflections , especially when nothing of that sort was used , to give a provocation or colour for such returns ; there is another imputation of a much higher nature , which deserves a severer expostulation . he frequently reflects on the aws , and other biasses , and interests , that he apprehends are the considerations which engage men to persist in the persuasions which he writes against . this is , with a slight disguise , to say , that because the law would turn men out of their benefices , if they owned the contrary doctrine , therefore to save these , they not only speak and write , but worship god in acts that are plainly against their consciences . this is often repeated , though perhaps more broadly in the other considerations , than in those that relate to my self . i reckon my self to be equally involved with my brethren in the imputation ; and will therefore answer it with the solemnity that so grave a matter requires : i call god to witness , how unjust , as well as black , this accusation is . if i did not sincerely believe this doctrine , i should think it a horrid prevaricating with god and man , to make confessions which i do not believe , and to join in acts of worship which i think idolatrous . no man of conscience can think himself clear of so criminal an imputation by holding his peace , when those confessions of faith are made ; his standing up to them , nay , his continuing in the communion of the church that uses them , is a plain avowing of them : and he must live and die in a state of damnation , who can make those professions , and continue in such solemn acts of worship , when all this is a lying both to god and man. the blackest part of the charge of idolatry which we lay on the church of rome , is a mild thing compared to this , if true . here is not only material , but formal idolatry committed in the highest instances possible , if we worship one as the great god , whom we believe to be but a mere creature . a man who can upon any consideration whatsoever , sell himself at this rate , can have neither conscience nor religion ; no sincerity , nor true piety : if this insinuation carried only a personal reflection on our selves ; though the injustice of it be very great , yet it might be more easily passed over , if it were not for the great advantage it gives to atheistical and prophane minds , who are inclined enough to think that all the professions of religion which men make , are only matters of custom or of interest : these are now fortified as much as the credit of this writer can amount to . when some persons of whom the world has not otherwise had very ill impressions , are represented as over-aw'd and biass'd by interest , to go against their conscience , and to lye daily to god , and deceive the world by false professions ; no wonder that religion it self should pass for a cheat , if things of this nature could be generally believed . men who could sell and stifle their consciences at this rate , might as well deliver themselves up to all immoralities , and should make no scruple to go over to all the corruptions of the church of rome , where they might make the better bargain , and be much less guilty than this writer would make us seem to be . god , who knows the sincerity of our hearts and of our professions , will i hope both clear us from so base an imputation , and forgive those who either lay it on us themselves , or do too easily believe it upon the suggestions of others . as in this , so in several other respects our socinians seem to be serving the designs of the atheists . this writer is not contented to weaken the credit of the books that are believed to be s. john's ; but studies to make the whole bible pass for a vitiated and corrupted book ; and that these corruptions are as ancient as epiphanius's time ; because that father speaks of some places that were found in the copies that had not been corrected ; upon which he concludes , that some have been modelling the common bibles far above twelve hundred years . this is the very plea of the mahometans , who do not deny the bulk of the christian religion , which is acknowledged in the alcoran , they only say that the new testament is much altered from what it was at first , the christians having put in and left out a great deal of it : or to use this writers word , they having modelled it anew . if this be as true , as it is boldly assorted , there is indeed very little regard due to that volume , about which he thinks there has been so much dishonest dealing ; and that for so many ages . the opening this matter , he thinks would rase the very foundations of babylon ; he might have rather said of the christian religion . for if the books that are the text of it are so mangled , what certainty is there left about any part of it ? he does not seem to design this as a service to the church of rome ; where the currant doctrine is , that no submission is due to the scriptures , but as they are attested and explained by the church ; tho' the great pains he takes to excuse transubstantiation , looks very kindly towards them . the true consequence of this must be , that the scripture may ( perhaps ) contain many good things : but that we are sure of nothing concerning it ; since it has had so strange a sate upon it for so long a time . this is to be answered only by attacking him as a downright deist , by proving that we have the scriptures genuinely conveyed down to us . the attempts of a mercenary critick on this head ought not to pass upon us ; who know how little regard he has to any religion . no doubt there was anciently great care taken to compare the manuscripts of the bible . in some copies , marginal notes and glosses might have been mixt with the text ; and copied out as a part of it : and that might be discovered by other more correct copies . this is all that can be gathered from epiphanius's words ; how much further soever an impious critick may endeavour to stretch them . there is no harm done by attacking our translation ; or by shewing the various readings of some copies , and endeavouring to establish the true reading , from ancient copies or quotations : but it strikes at the whole , to accuse all the copies now extant , as having been long vitiated by fraud , and on design . i shall offer you but one other general consideration , on that part of this writers book , in which he thinks he has the greatest advantage given him because there have been some different methods taken , in explaining , the trinity , in which some seem to have adhered so much to the vnity of the deity , that their trinity seems unconceivable ; while others have asserted such a trinity as seems inconsistent with vnity , he represents us all as so divided and broken , that we agree in nothing , but in the maintaining of some terms and phrases against them : in which we have very different apprehensions from one another . this seems to give scandal to some good minds , as well as advantage to bad ones : and therefore it ought to be well explained . there is then a great difference to be made between that which is a part of our religion , and those conceptions by which we may more distinctly set it forth , both to our selves and others . to make this more sensible by instances that are forreign to this matter : many protestants have different apprehensions concerning the manner of christ's presence in the sacrament ; some asserting consubstantiation , others a real presence , and others only a figurative one : but all agreeing , that this is a sacred institution of christ's , accompanied with a divine vertue and blessing , to those who worthily receive it , by which the benefits of the death of christ are conveyed to them ; they are all of the same religion , who do agree in this , tho' they have different methods of apprehending and explaining the matter . in like manner , as to the decrees and providence of god ; some think that all arises from the antecedent and fixed acts of god ; whereas others believe that a foresight of all future events is to be considered as antecedent to those acts : upon these two supposions , there seem to be very different ideas formed of the power , wisdom , justice , goodness , and truth of god , and yet all who confess a providence , who adore it , submit to it , and depend upon it , are of the same religion ; for in these consists religion with relation to providence . religion being the sense that we have of god and divine matters , by which our minds go towards him , in acts conform to it . therefore all those who do worthily receive the sacrament , or sincerely acknowledge providence , have the same religion upon these heads , how different soever their explanations of them may be . so as to this great point , all those who worship god as one , and who do also worship the son , and the holy ghost , together with the father , as god , have truly the same religion , the same acts of piety and adoration ; tho' some of them may have different ways of explaining either the vnity of the essence , or the trinity of the persons . if this is well weighed , i hope it will put an end to the insultings of some , and the offences of others . i confess the less men go into explanations , it will be the better , and the less liable to censure : unless it be to offer such illustrations , as rather shew how a thing may be explained , than affirm how it ought to be explained : and therefore since god is unsearchable , and past finding out , to perfection , the best method is to consider what is the clear meaning of these texts of scripture , that declare any of those depths to us , and to judge of them according to the plain importance of the words , examining that by the context , the stile and phraseology of the scriptures , and by all the other indications by which we may find out their true meaning . this leads me to the first remark that i shall make on this writer's considerations which fall on me , and on that part of my discourse that relates to mysteries in general . he yields that there may be great difficulties in some things , of the truth of which we do not doubt ; but then , says he , we are well assured that these things are truly so : whereas some ambiguous words of scripture cannot give us such an assurance concerning pretended mysteries . but all that i aimed at in this part of my discourse was , that if any such things should happen to be revealed to us in the scriptures , that then we should be bound to believe them , notwithstanding all objections to the contrary : as we believe the objects of sense and reason , tho' we cannot answer all those difficulties that arise about them ; for if we are once sure , that such books are come from god , and that they are faithfully handed down to us ; then , unless we will submit to an infallible tribunal , we must trust our own reasons with the finding out of the true and plain meaning of them : when that is found out , we are as much bound to believe it , as we can be to believe any of the objects of sense : since this is laid down for a truth , contested by none , that god is the god of truth , and cannot lie . there lies no exception against any part of this discourse ; since it runs all upon the supposition , that the thing is clearly revealed in the scripture ; and that yet there lie as unanswerable difficulties against it , as against those truths which our senses or reasons do attest to us . the excursion made by him to excuse transubstantiation , is not so much meant in favour of it , as in opposition to these ( pretended ) mysteries ; but indeed it is so little to the purpose , that it seems to me not to deserve to be examined . my words are not faithfully reported by him ; for whereas i had said , that we had the fullest evidence of sense against it , in an object of sense ; he has left out fullest , and then diverts himself by shewing how the evidence of sense may be mistaken ; as in an our that appears crooked in water , with other instances of the like force ; whereas all this had failed , if he had considered the importance of the word fullest , that is , an evidence given with all the exactness , and after all the corrections that sense can lay before us . sense it self has led us into a whole theory of refractions , according to the medium through which we see an object pass : what he says about accidents , is too slight to be remarked : we see the same objects in the same manner after their pretended transubstantiation , that we saw before it ; therefore either our senses are not infallible in their strictest application to their proper objects , or they are as true after transubstantiation as they were before it . the inference after all that he would draw from what he says upon this head , shall be easily acknowledged by me ; that where the evidence of reason is as plain and full against an object of reason , as the evidence of sense is here concerning an object of sense , that there we have very good ground to reject it . if it were pretended that god were both one and three in the same respect , the evidence of reason against this is so clear , that i acknowledge that no authority whatsoever ought to induce us to believe it : but if it is revealed that the same being is both one and three , then since the notion of vnity is capable of such difference , since also that of diversity is of the same largeness , and since the same being may be one in one respect , and more in another ; this opposition between such vnity and such trinity , is no proper object of reason , nor can reason give us a full evidence , much less the fullest against it . i think there remains nothing to be considered on this head , except the scorn with which he treats me ; which i thank god i can very easily bear , and will make no returns . he might after all , treat those matters for which so many persons of worth and learning have so particular a veneration , with more modesty . it seems he thought a boldness of expression , and a scorn of his adversaries , would have some effect on ordinary readers ; which very probably it may have ; but better judges will put another construction upon it . i wish him a better temper , and so i leave him , to come to the main argument on which i had chiefly relied . i will only say this for an introduction to it , that the best rule of criticism is to consider the whole thread , strain , and phraseology of a book , and not to descant upon the various significations that the words themselves taken severally may be capable of . the not considering this aright , seems to have given the occasion to all the odd comments of the socinians . the name jehovah was the peculiar designation that was appropriated to god in the old dispensation . this the seventy have rendred quite through their whole translation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and through the whole new testament this is the designation that is given to christ , sometimes with , and sometimes without the article , and other emphatical words : from which , since the greatest part of the new testament was particularly and in the first place addressed to the jews , great numbers of whom read the old testament at that time most commonly in greek ; this conformity of stile seems very plainly to demonstrate , that christ was the true jehovah ; or at least that the true jehovah dwelt in him . in answer to this , he denies that jehovah was the peculiar designation of god , and sets up an argument for this , of which i had made no use , and then he pretends to answer it ; for after he has quarrelled with our translation of a verse in the psalm , and has laid aside some other translations of those words , he at lasts settles on this as the true one , thou whose name is jehovah , art alone the most high over all the earth . i will at present accept of this translation ; for it yeilds all that i pretend to , that jehovah was the known name of god in that dispensation . i will not enter into the rabinical niceties concerning it , as whether it signified the essence or eternity of god , or whether it imported only god's being in covenant with them , and the truth and stability of his promises : whatsoever might be the proper signification of the word jehovah , it was at first delivered to moses in such a manner , that there was no need to go to any of the psalms to find out that it was the name by which god made himself particularly known to the jews . that whole discourse with moses in exodus , is spoken by god in the first person : i am the god of thy father , — i have seen , — i am come down , — i will send thee : here is no intimation of a message carried by an angel , but plainly the contrary : and when moses asked how he should answer them that should ask him what was his name ; god said unto him , i am that i am . these words come very near the formation of the word jehovah ; and it is plain by what is said three chapters after that , i am the lord , or jehovah ; and i appeared unto abraham , and unto isaac , and unto jacob by the name of god almighty ; but by my name jehovah was i not known to them . it is clear , i say , that by that first apparition to moses , the name jehovah was then understood : and it is expresly said , this is my name for ever , this is my memorial throughout all generations . to all this he may object , that in the beginning of that vision it is said , that an angel of the lord appeared to moses in a flame of fire : from which it may be inferred , that all that is set down there , was said by this angel , who speaks in the name of god , and assumes his person as being sent by him ; and that therefore this name may be given to any one who speaks in the name of god. but that vision of the angel will import no more , but that an angel appeared in the fire ; and by that moses was led to go towards the bush , and then god himself did immediately speak . this agrees with the whole context , and puts no force on any part of it : whereas it is a very violent strain to make an angel thus speak as if he were the great god , without any intimation given that he only spake in his name . this agrees with that general remark of the jewish writers , who observe that when ever the sheckinah appeared , angels accompanied it . this a grees also with what is said often in the new testament , that the law was given by angels , though it is said as plain as words can make a thing , that god himself appeared ; that is , that by an immediate act of his own power , he made all those glorious representations to be seen , and the voice of the ten commandments to be heard . to this also belong those words of christ concerning his appearing at the last day , in his own glory ; in his father's glory ; and in the glory of his angels : together with all that is said of angels appearing with him at the final judgment : the charge given to st. paul , before god , the lord jesus , and the elect angels , does also agree with this . so that the angel that first appeared to moses , was only one of the attendants on this sheckinah , or manifestation of god himself . any name that is given to a place , into the composition of which jehovah enters , such as jehovah isidkenu given to jerusalem , is too slight a thing to be stood upon . it is therefore plain , that jehovah was a name peculiarly appropriated to god in the old testament , which the seventy do always render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so since christ is all through the new testament called by the same name , this argument has great force ; nor is it shaken by the giving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a common compellation to other persons ; as we say sir , or lord ; which , as is not to be denied , occurs frequently in the new testament ; but the use of it in a particular discourse , where it is restricted to that person , cannot be compared to a constant stile of calling christ simply , and without limitation , lord , the lord , my lord , or our lord , as the designation that belonged properly to him . soon after the new testament was written , domitian would be called dominus simply . now this was looked on as a strain of insolence beyond what the former emperors had assumed : for though the word dominus , as applied to some particular thing , implied no more , but that such a thing belonged to such a person ; yet the term dominus without a restriction , imported that all the romans were his slaves , and that he was the master of all their properties . the same is to be applied to the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : in a limited sense it signifies not much ; but in so large and so general a sense , it must be understood to be equivalent to the common use of that word in the septuagint translation . st. paul rejects their being called the servants of men with a just indignation : and yet if christ is but a man , and at the same time the lord of all , he was no better than the servant of a man. so i think this argument is not weakned by any thing that this writer has offered against it . i had brought a confirmation of it from the prophecy of haggai , of filling the second temple with glory : nothing was built upon the addition of his glory ; so that this writer might have concluded , that there was no design , but only the want of exactness in using it . filling with glory , was that upon which the force of this argument was laid . i shall not enlarge here to shew , that by glory in the old testament , the sheckinah is generally to be understood . st. paul thought so ; for in one place reckoning up the priviledges of the jews , he says theirs is the glory , and the covenants ; and in another place describing the holiest of all , he speaks of the cherubims of glory . so that by glory with relation to the temple , that immediate manifestation of god , could only be meant : this is also confirmed from the word fill , which cannot be applied to any building or decoration , but must be meant of somewhat that was to be shed abroad in the temple . all this will appear very plain if we consider the last words of the book of exodus , where this phrase is first used . the tabernacle was set up with every thing relating to it , according to the directions that god had given to moses ; and then it is said , that a cloud covered the tent of the congregation , and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle : which is again repeated in the next verse . these words are also repeated when the history of the dedication of solomon's temple is given ; it is said , that the cloud filled the house of the lord ; and in the next verse it is repeated , that the glory of the lord had filled the house . this gives the true key to the understanding of haggai's prophecy , which must be explained according to the mosaic phrase : this gives the key likewise to understand those words of the fulness of the godhead that dwelt bodily in christ , and of our receiving of his fulness . but to apply that prophecy , as this writer does , to the rebuilding the temple by herod , agrees no ways with the words that accompany it , on which i had chiefly built ; of his giving peace in that place , and of his shaking the heavens , and the earth , and all nations : to that he has not thought fit to make any sort of answer ; and yet either these are only pompous words that signify nothing , or they must signify somewhat beyond any thing that can be ascribed to what herod did . that which is the only key by which we can be led into the sense of those words , i mean the words of exodus and kings , does in no sort belong to it : whereas the prophecy was literally accomplished by christ's coming into the mountain of the house , if the sheckinab lodged in him in a more eminent manner than it had done in solomon's temple . so , i think , no part of this argument is shaken . to this i shall add another remark , which in some sort belongs to this matter , though in his book it stands at some distance from that which i am now upon . he insults much upon the advantage he thinks he has , because in a place of the romans , it is in our bibles , god blessed for ever ; whereas he thinks god is not a part of the text. i will not at present enter upon the discussion of that , but shall only observe , that the force of the argument from that place , lies chiefly upon the word , blessed for ever . after the jews began to think that the name jehovah was so sacred , that it was not to be read , instead of it they used this circumlocution , the holy , and the blessed , sometimes both together , sometimes the one , and sometimes the other . this was a practice in use in our saviour's time : one of the evangelists says , that the high priest asked , if christ was the son of god ; the other reports it , that he asked if he was the son of the blessed : and st. paul in that same epistle speaking of the creator , adds blessed for ever ; a form of speech that among them was equivalent to jehovah ; and therefore when he says the same of christ , it was a customary form of speech , importing that he was jehovah . so whether the word god was in the original text , or not , the place is equally strong to this purpose . the next argument that i insisted on , was the worship that is paid to christ in the new testament ; which as it has in it self great force , so it seemed to have the more weight upon this account , because it must be confessed , that the jews who could not be unacquainted with the worship of the christians , never objected that to them , if we believe the apostles to have writ sincerely : they mention their other prejudices , and answer them , but say nothing of this : which shews , that if they are allowed to be candid writers , there was no such prejudice then set on foot . and yet if christ was worshipped in the arian , or socinian hypothesis , this was so contrary to the fundamental notions of the jews at that time , that we cannot imagine that they could pass it over , who were concerned on so many accounts to blacken the christian religion , and to stop its progress : therefore there being no other notion in which this worship could give them no offence , but that of the godheads dwelling bodily in him ; and since they were not offended at it , we cannot conceive that there was then any other idea of this matter , but this , which was both suitable to their doctrines , and to the practice of their ancestors during the first temple . this seems to be such a moral argument , as goes farther to satisfy a man's mind , than even stricter proofs will do : as some presumptions do convince men more effectually than the most positive evidence given by witnesses . to all this he has thought fit to say nothing but in these words ; there are abundance of exceptionable things in that discourse , to which i have neither leisure nor inclination to reply , as some others ( perhaps ) would . a man who is at leisure to write against any discourse , should give himself the leisure to consider the most important things that are in it , especially if they seem to be new. as for his inclinations , i will not be so severe as to judge of them ; though what he has said to question the authority of the new testament , as we now have it , gives a handle to a very heavy suspition , that he thought this was not to be answered , but by a more explicite attack made upon the whole new testament , than he thought fit to adventure upon at present . he goes on alledging some instances where god and creatures seem to be mixed in the same acts and expressions : the people worshipped the lord and the king. st. paul is adjured before god , christ , and the elect angels . the people greatly feared the lord and samuel ; and they believed the lord and moses . from which he infers , that both kings and prophets were worshipped and believed without any idolatry . if we had no other warrants for the worship of jesus christ , but such general words , i should easily acknowledge that there were no great force in them : the falling down to him prostrate , and worshipping him while he was here on earth , and the believing what he then said , will not infer adoration : but the prayers offered up to him now that he is in heaven , the command of honouring the son , even as the father is honoured ; the worship that angels and saints in heaven offer to him , are such evident . characters of divine honour , that we have lost all the notions of idolatry , if these things can be offered to a creature . this writer would indeed reduce all this to as narrow a point as can be ; as if christ did only in the vertue of his death , offer up on our behalf a general intercession ; for he doubts whether there is any special intercession made for us or not . the story of st. paul's conversion is plainly contrary to this : st. paul praying to him when he was in his temptation by the messenger of satan , and the answer he obtained , do very clearly shew christ's immediate hearing and answering of prayer ; which is urged by socinus himself with great force against those who did not worship the lord jesus . st. stephen died worshipping him , and praying , lord jesus receive my spirit ; and , lord lay not this to their charge . these are such express authorities of a spiritual worship , which do so fully explain the meaning of that general rule , that all men should honour the son , even as they honour the father ; that the invocating and worshipping of christ is as fully set forth in the new testament , as any one part of the christian religion whatsoever . invocation must import both omniscience , and omnipresence , as well as omnipotency . we call on him as supposing that he is near us , that he hears us , and both will and can help us . now this writer had best consider how all this can be offered to a meer creature . the honour or worship that we give to the father , is the acknowledging his infinite perfections , together with the tender of our homage to him . this cannot be offered to a creature , without manifest impiety : nor can any such worship become ever the matter of a divine precept ; because there is an essential incongruity between these acts and a created object ; and by consequence , there is an essential immorality in them . now that all idolatry should be so severely forbid in the new testament , and yet so grosly practised in it , must be indeed a very strong argument against the whole christian religion , if christ was a meer creature , which cannot be excused by any softenings whatsoever . but since this is a consideration so much insisted upon , it may be proper to open it with its utmost force : when the new testament was writ , there were four sorts of men that could only be considered by the pen-men of it ; 1 st . the jews , to whom it was to be offered in the first place . they were strongly possessed against all the appearances of idolatry ; and had never prayed to moses nor elijah , the chief of their prophets . 2 dly . the gentiles , they were abandoned to all the several sorts of idolatry , from all which they were to be reclaimed , and to be taught to serve and worship none but the living god. 3 dly . the false christians , that began early to corrupt christianity , and to suit it with judaism and paganism : they set themselves against the apostles , and studied to raise their own credit , by derogating from theirs . the 4 th . were the true christians , who were generally weak and ignorant , who needed milk , and were not capable of hard or sublime things . with respect to all these , we ought to believe that such a point , as at first view might offend the jews , and harden the gentiles in their idolatry ; as might give advantage to false christians , and be a stumbling-block to the true ones , was to be plainly and simply delivered ; not in pompous expressions , or figures that might seem to import more than was meant by them ; but in measured and severe words . the nature of man carries him too easily to idolatry ; so that this inclination was to be resisted and not complied with ; and yet st. john begins his gospel with a solemn set of phrases , that are as it were the frontispiece and introduction to it : which if the exposition of these men is to be admitted , must be only a lofty saying of ordinary matter in very high-flown expressions . such likewise must be the second chapter to the philippians , with a great deal more of the same strain . if it was meant by all this to worship christ as the true jehovah , that is , as having the eternal word , and the fulness of the godhead dwelling in him , then the matter was properly expressed , and suitably to the doctrine and practice of the old testament , and was delivered in a phrasiology agreeing with it . but if a new doctrine was introduced concerning a man that was made a god , that was so called , and was to be worshipped as such , here was such a stumbling-block laid in mens way , and so little care taken either to restrain those excesses into which humane nature is apt to run , or to explain the scruples and difficulties that must naturally arise upon it ; that it seems to be scarce conceivable how any can entertain this , and yet retain any value for that religion ; i must confess i cannot ; and it is so natural for a man to judge of others by himself , that i do not think others do it , or indeed can do it . i mentioned some other passages of the new testament , and i did but mention them , because others have examined them so critically , that nothing was left for me to say upon them . but to all these this writer opposes a very specious thing ; he says there is not one of all those passages , but some one or other of the most learned assertors of the trinity , has translated or interpreted them to another sense : upon which he takes occasion , according to the modesty of his stile , to reproach me for my confidence ; he thinks , that assuredly i will be ashamed of such rhetorications . it is certain , that when a great many passages look all one way , though every one of them singly might not come up to a full proof ; yet the combination of them all shews such a phraseology running through the scriptures , that the conjunction of them all together , gives a much fuller satisfaction to the mind , than any one of them , or indeed all of them taken severally could do : many circumstances about a fact concurring , grow up to a proof ; which any one , or indeed all of them , in their own nature , could not amount to : and therefore if such a stile runs through the scriptures , that at every step a man feels himself straitned , and that he must disintangle himself by the subtilties of criticism , and these often very much forced ; a book full of such passages , may be called a book of riddles , darkly writ to puzzle ordinary readers : but it will be hard to maintain a reverence for such writings , to esteem them inspired by god , and delivered to plain and simple readers as a lamp , or light for their instruction , that by them the man of god may be made perfect . the concurrence of those passages , the thread of them , and the stile of the whole , has a force beyond what is in every one of them apart . if therefore all criticks have not been equally certain of the force of every one of them , this will not weaken the argument from them all together . criticks are like other men , apt to overvalue their own notions , and to affect singularities ; some to raise the strength of those arguments which seem clearest to them , may be willing to make all others look the weaker ; others may study to lessen the credit of such writers , against whom they may have , on other accounts , some secret resentments ; and so they may undermine those arguments on which they had chiefly built . the first great critick that begun the weakning of most of the arguments drawn from texts of scripture on this head , i mean erasmus , did not understand the hebrew so well as he did the greek ; so that he considering the greek phraseology more than that which had arisen from the hebrew and siriack , might often mistake . therefore the diversities among criticks concerning particular places , does not weaken the force of those inferences that are drawn from them ; much less the evidence that arises out of the whole , when laid all together . he thinks i would have done a generous thing if i had acquainted the english reader with the doubtfulness of that passage in st. john ' s epistle , of the three that bear witness in heaven . i cannot oblige any man to read all that i have writ , and so do not charge him for not doing it : i have done that more fully than any that i yet know of , and that in a book , which of all those that i have yet writ , was the most universally read by the most different sorts of people : nor has my doing that so copiously , and in a book of such a nature , scaped some severe , but unjust censures . i will not lye for god , nor suppress a truth that may become an honest man to own . thus i have gone over all that seemed material , and to need explanation , on the first head concerning the divinity of the son of god. i must only explain one thing , with which he concludes those his considerations . i had illustrated this matter by the indwelling of the cloud of glory , and had explained from that , the fulness of the godheads dwelling bodily in christ : from thence he fancies this to be nestorius's doctrine , and that it is also theirs , who own that god ( by his spirit or energy ) was in the lord christ in a very especial and powerful manner : and so he pretends that they submit to my doctrine . i can assure him , that both the spirit with which he writes , and the doctrines which he espouses , are such , that i reckon this the heaviest of all the imputations that he has laid on me ; but it is as just and true as the rest are . we do not certainly know what nestorius's doctrine was , if it was no more than that he did not allow the term of the mother of god to be due to the blessed virgin , as some pretend ; and that all that was further charged on him , was only a consequence drawn from that ; this was no heinous thing : but whatever nestorius himself might be , the opinion charged on him , and condemned by the church , was , that the eternal word in christ , was only of the nature of an assisting power , like the spirit of prophecy in the prophets ; but that it was not so united to him , as to make one person with his human nature . in this sense i have fully condemned that doctrine ; for as the soul is united to the body , and dwells in it , in another manner than a man dwells in a house ; and as the soul actuates the body , in another manner than a man actuates such tools as he works by ; so the union of the human and divine nature in christ is represented in scripture as the compounding one person , as much as in other men the union of soul and body makes one man. if he submits to this doctrine , i shall be glad of it ; for then he submits to a doctrine which , i think , is very expresly revealed in scripture : but for any indwelling , like that of the spirit of prophecy , even in the eminentest degrees imaginable , the epistle to the hebrews does so plainly carry this so much higher , to a thing of quite another nature ; and states such an opposition between christ and all prophets , even moses himself , like that of a son and a servant , that i think the reading that with due attention , will soon satisfy a man , that this indwelling is a vital one , like that of the souls dwelling in the body , and not an assisting one , like inspiration , or the gift of tongues , or of miracles . when christ commanded all to be baptized in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost ; he plainly mentioned three : if therefore i , to adhere to scripture terms , had avoided the frequent use of any other word but the three , i thought how much soever this might offend others , who might apprehend that i seemed to avoid mentioning of trinity , or persons ( which yet i shewed flowed from no dislike of those words , but merely that i might stick more exactly to scripture-terms ) yet i had no reason to think that men of the other side would have found such fault with this . father , son , and holy ghost , are the three of whom i discourse ; so instead of repeating these words at every time , i shortned it by saying the blessed three : now it is a strain particular to this writer to enlarge on this . i go now to the second head , concerning the death of christ : here this writer affirms that , which if it flows from ignorance , as in charity to him i hope it does , then certainly he ought not to have writ concerning a matter , to the history of which he was so great a stranger . he says , that the doctrine which i propose concerning the propitiation by the death of christ , as an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world , has been the very doctrine of the socinians , which they have owned from the beginning in all their books . to seem to justify this , he sets down some of my words , leaving out , with his usual candour , those that were most critical ; for whereas i had said , that christ had suffered on our account and in our stead ; he leaves out these last words , and in our stead ; which are the very words on which the controversy turns , as is well known to those who have studied it to any degree ; the turn being whether christ died nostro bono , or nostro loco : and whereas i had added , that upon the account of christ's death , god offered the world the pardon of sin ; he leaves out that which was most critical here , upon the account of it ; nor does he mention that with which i concluded the period ; and he ( god ) will have us in all our prayers for pardon , or other favours , claim them through that death , and owe them to it . such an unfaithful recital of my words , gives no advantageous character of the rest . it is indeed a strange degree of assurance to make us believe , that the socinians have at all times owned this doctrine ; since not only all their first writers denied it , and the racovian catechism is express to the contrary ; but after grotius had managed the controversy merely in order to the asserting the expiatory vertue of the sacrifice of christ's death , without insisting on the metaphysical notions which had been brought into it ; yet crellius not satisfied with this , endeavoured to answer that whole book , and adhered still to the first notions of socinus . i do not deny , but that since that time some of their followers have come off from them , and have acknowledged the expiatory vertue of that sacrifice : therefore though i have no mind to encrease the number of controversies ; and am very glad when any do forsake their errors , especially such heinous ones ; yet it is a peculiar strain of confidence to say , that this was their doctrine from the beginning . as for the niceties with which the primitive church was not acquainted , and which were not started before anselm's time in the end of the xi th . century , concerning the antecedent necessity of a satisfaction , and the subtleties that the schoolmen did afterwards devise concerning equivalents ; i do not think they belong to this matter , as it stands revealed to us in the scriptures , and therefore i did not insist on them . it is no part of the doctrine of our church ; and dr. outram's learned performance on this subject , has been so universally applauded and acquiesced in , that i thought all men were satisfied from thence , what is the doctrine generally received among us . our articles are the only standard to judge of our doctrine , as far as they go ; but they have determined nothing in this matter , but rest in the general notions of expiation and of reconciling us to god. i have now done with all that part of the late book which falls to my share ; and have made those explanations and reflections upon it , that seemed necessary . i have said this once for all , and shall no more return to it , upon any new provocation whatsoever : such crude and bold attempts , are oftener to be neglected than answered . these men are at best the instruments of the deists , who design by their means to weaken the credit of the christian religion , and of those books that are the standards of it . i hope they do not know whose work they are doing , nor what ends they are serving . i pray god give them a better discerning , and more serious tempers . i wish you may be happily successful in your attempts to undeceive them , as well as in all your other labours , in which you lay out your time and studies so worthily for the service of the church ; for which great is your reward in heaven . i pray god to bless and prosper you in them ; and am with a very particular esteem , reverend sir , your affectionate brother , and most humble servant , gi . sarum . westminster , 2 feb. 1693. the contents . of the authority of st. john's writings . pag. 3 an answer to the objections of our author's ancient unitarians , against the authority of st. john's writings , particularly the gospel and the revelation . 6 of the name unitarians . 13 of ebion and cerinthus . 13 , 18 of the alogi in epiphanius . 14 of the occasion of st. john's writing his gospel . 15 of socinus's exposition of the beginning of st. john's gospel . 21 the unreasonableness and novelty of that exposition . 25 the archbishop's exposition of hebr. 1.1 . and col. 1.16 . vindicated . 33 of the pre-existence of our saviour . 39 of christ's coming down from heaven ; and the modern socinian exposition of christ's personal ascent into heaven before his ministry . ibid. a vindication of his grace's exposition of john 17.5 . john 8.58 . revel . 1.8 . and john 1.1 . 47 of the difficulties and absurdities in the socinian hypothesis . 53 of the incarnation of our saviour . 57 of the argument for the incarnation , taken from the personal union of soul and body . ibid. of the humility of our saviour in his incarnation , and of the fulness of time for it . 60 a vindication of the bishop of worcester's sermon . 63 of things incomprehensible . 64 of the author's self-contradiction . ibid. of god's eternity , and his being of himself , and possessing all at once . 68 several queries about god's possessing all at once , answer'd . 70 socinian mysteries . 73 the bishop of sarum's letter to j.w. of the socinian way of managing controversies . 81 of this author's way of calumniating . 83 his charge of the corruptions in the sacred text consider'd . 84 of the different opinions concerning the trinity ; and that the trinitarians may notwithstanding be said to be of the same religion . 87 the name jehovah peculiarly appropriated to god , and yet given to our saviour . 89 of the name lord ; and of the shechinah among the jews . 91 haggai a. 6 , 7. and rom. 9.5 . explain'd and vindicated . ibid. of the worship given to our saviour . 92 of some modern criticks . 97 of nestorius's doctrine . 99 of the end for which christ died . 100 books lately printed for richard chiswell . memoirs of the most reverend thomas cranmer , archbishop of canterbury . in three books collected chiefly from records , registers , authentick letters , and other original manuscripts . by john strype , m. a. fol. 1694. dr. john conant's sermons . published by dr. williams . 1693. 8 vo . of the government of the thoughts . by geo. tully , sub-dean of york . the second edition . 8 vo . 1694. a commentary on the first book of moses called genesis . by simon lord bishop of ely. 4 to . 1695. the history of the troubles and trial of the most reverend william laud , lord archbishop of canterbury ; wrote by himself during his imprisonment in the tower. to which is prefixed , the diary of his own life faithfully and entirely published from the original copy ; and subjoyned a supplement to the preceding history ; the archbishop's last will ; his large answer to the lord say's speech concerning liturgies ; his annual accounts of his province delivered to the king , and some other things relating to the history . published by henry wharton , chaplain to archbishop sancroft , and by his grace's command . folio . bishop of sarum's sermon at the funeral of archbishops tillotson 1694. — his sermon preached before the king at st. james's chappel on the 10th of february , 1694 / 5 being the first sunday in lent , on 2 cor. 6.1 . the possibility , expediency , and necessity of divine revelation . a sermon preached at st. martins in the fields , january 7. 1694. at the beginning of the lecture for the ensuing year founded by the honourable robert boyle , esq ; . by john williams , d. d. ( the second sermon is in the press ) . a sermon of holy resolution , preached before the king at kensington , december 30. 1694. by his grace thomas , lord archbishop of canterbury , elect. advertisement . feb. 25. 1694 / 5. there will be published several sermons and discourses of the most reverend dr. john tillotson , late lord archbishop of canterbury , by order of his administratrix ; faithfully transcribed from his own papers , by dr. ralph barker , chaplain to his grace ; which are disposed of to richard chiswell , and his assignees . if any person pretend to publish any other , except those already printed , they are to be lookt upon as spurions and false . the first that will be published , are his sermons of sincerity and constancy in the faith and profession of the true religion . which are in the press , and will be finished in easter term next . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a66436-e1190 eccles. hist. l. 3. c. 24. & 25. iren. l. 3. c. 1. euseb. l. 5. c. 8. hieron . eccles . script . sandius de script . eccles . * euseb. l. 7. c. 24. † iren. l. 4. c. 37. & 50. euseb. l. 5. c. 8. tertull. advers . marcion . c. 4. hieron . script . eccles. origen . homil. in principio . ephiphan . haer. 28.5 . philostrius ●ar . haer. 51.5 , 6. v. wolzegen in loc . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . which the latin translator has not reached . * euseb. l. 3. c. 24. † serm. 2. p. 94. * haer. 51.12 . † script . eccles. * advers . haer. l. 3. c. 11. v. epiphan . haer. 51.2 , 12 , 13. haer. 30. iren. l. 1. c. 1. l. 3. c. 11. haer. 27.7 . adv. haer. l. 26. c. 17. adv. haer. l. 3. c. 11. * praepar . p. 540. † v. sandius , p. 115 , 119. * v. archb. serm. 2. p. 69. * serm. 2. p. 93 , &c. * lightf . third part of the harm , in loc . p. 90. cons. p. 20 , 21. p. 109. cons. p. 15. cons. p. 19 , 23. cons. 29.30 . cons. p. 18. cons. p. 19 , cons. p. 21 , 22. p. 94. p. 93. cons. p. 23 , 24. ps. 83.18 . ex. 3. from v. 2. to the end . v. 6 , 7 , 8 , 10. v. 13 , 14 , 15. ex. 6.2 , 3. ex. 3.2 . 7 acts 38. 3 gal. 19. 2 heb. 2. 16 mat. 27. 25 mat. 31. 8 mark 38. 9 luke 26. 13 mat. 41. 24 mat. 31. 1 tim. 5.21 . jer. 33.16 . cons. p. 24. suct . in dom. 1 gal. 10. cons. p. 24 , 25. 9 rom. 4. 9 heb. 5. 40 ex. 34. 1 kings . 8.10 , 11. 2 hag. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. 2 col. 9. 1 john 16. 9 rom. 5. cons. p. 29. 26 mat. 63. 14 mark 61. from p. 121. 2 coll. 9. cons. p. 26 ibid. 1 chron. 29.20 . 1 tim. 5.21 . 1 sam. 12.18 . 14 ex. 31. ibid. 9 acts 5.17 . 2 cor. 12 , 8 , 9. 7 acts 59 , 60. cons. p. 29. ibid. cons. p. 32. 3 heb. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. 28 mat. 19. cons. p. 17 , 32. cons. p. 31. in lib. cur deus homo . a sermon preached at the funeral of the right honourable anne, lady-dowager brook, who was buried at breamor, the 19th day of february, 1690/1 by the right reverend father in god gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1691 approx. 42 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30437 wing b5895 estc r21611 12683255 ocm 12683255 65709 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30437) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65709) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:10) a sermon preached at the funeral of the right honourable anne, lady-dowager brook, who was buried at breamor, the 19th day of february, 1690/1 by the right reverend father in god gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 34 p. printed for ric. chiswell ..., london : 1691. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng brook, anne, -lady, d. 1691 -sermons. funeral sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2004-11 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the bishop of sarum's sermon at the funeral of the right honourable the lady brook . imprimatur , feb. 21. 1690 / 1 , z. isham , r. p. d. henrico episc. lond. à sacris . a sermon preached at the funeral of the right honourable anne , lady-dowager brook . who was buried at breamor , the 19th day of february , 1690 / 1. by the right reverend father in god , gilbert , lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxci . prov . xxxi . 30 , 31. favour is deceitful , and beauty is vain : but a woman that feareth the lord , she shall be praised . give her of the fruit of her hands , and let her own works praise her in the gates . the general lamentations which the sad occasion of this present assembly has raised over this whole countrey , as in a common calamity , where every one bears a share , because so many do feel it , have so far prevented me in all that can be said to the praise of her , whose remains are now to be laid up in the belief of the resurrection of the iust , at which time they are to be restored to her again , that i am very sensible it is not necessary to say any thing concerning her , for the raising among you the esteem that is due to her memory , which is , and must be long very dear to you all . but as there is some disadvantage in speaking what is proper on this subject , before those who knew her well , and so will think that i am as reserved in commending her , as she her self was in hiding her own worth , and in concealing those works which do now praise her ; yet on the other hand i speak with the more assurance , because it is in the countrey where she spent so many of her years . i should be afraid to say all that i have resolv'd on , if it were in the audience of such as had been strangers to the course of her life : it is a nice and tender thing to praise , especially in this vicious and corrupted age , in which so many are concerned to keep themselves in countenance , and to decry a virtue that must needs make their vices shew more foul and odious ; and who cannot bear what is due to others , because they know that it does not belong to themselves . and it must be confessed , that excessive commendations on these occasions , in compliance with custom , and the tenderness that seems then decent , where flattery is thought more excusable , because the person commended does not receive it ; these , i say , have given but too much reason to disregard what is said in discourses of this kind , in which it passes for a sort of rudeness not to exceed , and for an unkindness to the friends of the dead , not to praise out of measure . but i am less in pain to enlarge upon this subject , when i have so many vouchers before me , and when i am to speak of things that have been so long the observation of all these parts . i will use as little art in speaking , as she did in living ; and will study to dress up a memorial for her , with such a decent simplicity , as she used in the dressing her person , which as she did in haste , so i will be as short as may be . i will for some time interrupt my speaking of her , and consider the text i have read to you , that so i may return with the more advantage to prosecute what i have now begun . this chapter is a poetical composure ; it is an accrostick in the hebrew , according to the custom of that time , for the help of the memory . every verse , from the 10th to the end , begins with a new letter of the alphabet in their order . it is to little purpose to examine , whether the king , called lemuel , to whom it is addressed , be solomon under a disguised designation , or not ; and whether it was a poem made by his mother , directing him how to chuse a wife , and giving him a full character of the excellencies of a good one , suitable to the simplicy of those ages and places , in which women of the highest rank , and even queens themselves , managed their own domestick concerns ; or if it was a composition of solomon's , setting forth , with many enlargements of poesy , the advices that his mother had given him ; or if he only brings in the person of his mother , to make his poetry look more natural . it is to very little purpose to enquire into all this , and not possible to determine any part of it : certain it is , that we have here a very noble and elegant description , of a faithful and affectionate , a discreet and an industrious wife ; who as she applied her chief care to the concerns of her husband and children , so neglected not any of her houshold-affairs ; she rise early , and sate up late ; wrought with her own hands , and looked to the ways of her houshold ; she took care that her whole family should be well imployed ; she was an honour as well as a help to her husband : her whole behaviour was both prudent and obliging ; she opened her mouth with wisdom , not to evil speaking , nor idle talking ; and in her tongue was the law of kindness ; an exact , but engaging decency . all this is concluded with a short song , in which her husband and children should celebrate her praises , which , as it is probable , was to be sung among them by turns , according to the way of the eastern musick : the first might begin , many daughters have done vertuously ; and to this another might answer , but thou excellest them all : then one might sing , favour is deceitful ; another , beauty is vain : and both together , but the woman that feareth the lord , she shall be praised . then one might sing , give her , and another answer , of the fruit of her hands ; and then both together , and let her own works praise her in the gates . there is a plain intimation given of the custom that was among the jews to sing this song by turns , on two of their great solemnities in the misna * . by favour , is to be meant all that is insinuating in a womans humour , manner , and conversation , by which a husband may be charmed : this is often deceitful , and under it a great deal of disloyalty and treachery is both hid and managed ; these arts being so many practices upon the easie husband , to deceive and blind him , to impose any thing upon him , and to obtain every thing from him . therefore , tho a lively air , a graceful behaviour , a soft manner , a pleasantness of humour , and an entertaining conversation , are very valuable qualities , and have powerful charms in them , yet all this may be deceitful ; much baseness and falshood may be under them ; so that this singly cannot make a good character . beauty is vain ; this which strikes the eye , as the other does the imagination , is yet slighter , it is often false , especially in the east where beauty is as oft the work of art , as of nature , and it had been well if that practice had remained in the east still , and had not come into these western parts ; but suppose the beauty to be both true and exact , it is vain in many other respects : it does not always lodge a pure soul , which does often contract the more deformity , because it dwells within a beautiful figure , that but too often feeds pride , and is set off with vanity , which both draws admiration and delights in it : it does insensibly dissolve the mind into voluptuousness , and in the end intangle it into many snares , and expose it to much sin. it is vain in another respect , it is subject to many accidents which may blast it , and if it escapes these , yet it must yield at last and fade with age , if by the precipitated wastings of nature and other disorders , it does not fall sooner . these words run thus in the hebrew , favour , falshood , beauty , vanity , and perhaps every one of these was to be sung by turns as the answer to the other . these are the two things by which that sex is chiefly recommended to those who make slight and hasty judgments , and that do often perceive their error when it is too late to correct it : but that upon which a true one can only be formed , lies in the words that follow — but the woman that feareth the lord , she shall be praised . the fear of a discovery , and of shame ; the fear of a husband , and the apprehensions of his displeasure , are but feeble principles : they may restrain one at some times , and from some temptations , but it is only the fear of god that subdues the heart , that shoots its influence into the secretest springs of our actions , that overcomes the strongest inclinations , even in their first and invisible motions : this sets a law , not only to one's actions , but to his very thoughts : the conduct of the outward part of life , when that is contradicted by the wishes and desires which are allowed a free range within , is but a constraint , and the acting of a part which is not natural ; and nothing that is an affected force upon nature can be either easy or lasting . nature will be always at some time or other too hard for rule and form. and even a firm resolution will soon grow heavy and will at last be forgotten , if there are not principles formed within , that give it a root , and afford it nourishment : therefore vertue can have no settled basis nor foundation , unless its bottom be the true fear of god , a secret sence of a supream and perfect mind , that sees all we do , and that will judge us at last according to all that we have done . when this is lodged in the most retired corners of our hearts ; when the sense of it returns often upon us , to acquit or to condemn us ; when we measure our selves and all our actions by our conformity to this eternal being ; when we reckon it our supreme and only happiness , to become like unto it , and accepted of it ; when no exercises become more delighting to us , than our meditating of its perfections , and of all the discoveries that it has made of it self ; and when upon these contemplations the mind grows to love and adore that being , and to prostrate it self often before it , and dedicate it self entirely to serve and please it in all things , then virtue has a true fastning within , to which it cleaves , and which will support and strengthen it : and indeed virtue , and the fear of god do so mutually maintain one another , that these who are equally enemies to both , know that the rooting out the one , will soon draw the other after it . the prophane tribe of libertines does chiefly hate religion , because virtue does ever accompany it ; they find it often in their way , and wish there were as little of it in the world , as they feel in their own breasts : but it were too barefaced a thing to endeavour to strike both at virtue and religion at once . there is a sound in vertue that carries majesty with it , and commands the esteem of the whole world , so such as hate it , know that they must take care not to discover that too soon , lest they should draw a general indignation upon themselves . but religion they think may be more safely struck at ; the diversities about it , the scandals given by many that have pretended to it , the invisible objects to which it relates ; the distance we live at from the ages in which the miracles that confirmed it were wrought , and the many impostures that have been put upon weak and credulous multitudes , do all afford some plausible appearances , which set off with boldness and scorn , and served up with mirth and gaiety , have been fatally successful in poysoning weak minds that cannot lay many things together , and cannot distinguish between truth and the varnish of it . but while these do thus undermine religion , they seem to be mightily in love with virtue , and pretend that it has had great force on minds upon whom religion had none at all ; and that it may maintain its power very well in the souls of men , tho they were not over-awed with secret terrours . whereas in truth , they only hate religion for the sake of that virtue , which it commands and secures : and they could well look on , and let religion bear full sway in the world , if it consisted only in some dark speculations , and outward performances , and contented with these , left men at liberty to do what they pleased ; they know , and all the world has observed it too often , that as soon as the impressions of religion are defaced , the strength of virtue is gone : for why should men restrain their inclinations , bridle their passions , and deny themselves any pleasures or advantages , if there is no sovereign mind over us , to whom obedience is due , who will reckon with us , and reward or punish us eternally according as we lead that course of life here , which he has assigned us as our passage to eternity . if there is nothing in virtue , but decency , interest , or humour , as these are all weak principles , not able to bear much weight on them ; so when both pleasure and advantage are in the other scale , they will certainly downweigh them . hence it is , that all those who go off from a religious education , and from the principles and practises that must support it , do soon forsake all the strictness of virtue . the fear of god is that principle alone that can sanctify and perfect our nature ; the having our minds full of high and sublime thoughts of that supream being that made and governs the world , together with a just sense of his authority over us , of our obligation to obey all his laws , and to conform our very thoughts to his nature and will , and the framing our whole lives , and the laying out our whole time , so as we may be ever accepted of by him , is the just and true notion of the fear of god. if any imagine that it consists only in the having some terrible thoughts of god , and of sin , the performing some duties to god as a homage that will please him , and the looking over past sins with some sad thoughts ; and when that is done , if men return to them , and continue in them , and are only now and then a little troubled when they reflect on them , which is all the notion that the greatest part , even of those who pass in the world for religious , entertain of it , it is no wonder that great advantages are taken to decry religion it self , when this is believed to be all the effect and power that it has . but the true fear of god is a much deeper principle , and has a more noble effect on all the powers of the soul ; it charms as well as reforms them , and elevates as well as it fortifies them ; it follows a man to his retirements , and there if at any time it humbles him , it does quickly raise him up again : it gives him solid joys , when he perceives that he carries god's image upon him , and is reconciled to him ; it follows him through the whole business , and even through the diversions of life : it governs his mind , and guides his actions , and though the sound of the word fear carries terror in it , yet how severe soever the operation of it must be upon some occasions , it generally gives it such a noble sense of the goodness , as well as of the greatness of god , that it becomes a fear of reverence tempered with love , and not a dread full of guilt that strikes horror . those good minds that give up themselves to the conduct of this fear , and come under its discipline , feel both a strength in it to govern them , and a calm in it to settle them . if they do truly fear god , it exalts them above all base and dispiriting fears ; so that they fear nothing else ; all the accidents of life and death it self can give no terror , where this has once had its true effect . for a man that fears god , and feels himself to be so governed by this fear , that he has all reason to conclude he is in his favour , and under his protection , is thereby raised far above all other depressions ; nothing can disturb him but his apprehensions of having offended that goodness which he fears : and sometimes a great tenderness of mind , joyned with a deep sence of duty , will raise sad reflections in those who have the justest cause of rejoycing always in god. but such cloudy thoughts , though they may at sometimes disquiet them a little , yet have a good effect on them ; they oblige them to great watchfulness , and beget in them a particular application to their duty : and that very anxiety which was the effect of their tenderness , and that raised some melancholly distrust in them concerning their own condition , shews plainly how deep a root this fear has in them , when such apprehensions prove so painful . these are the happy souls that rise above the world , and all its vain hopes and fears , and settle their minds on god , whom they fear and serve with their whole hearts . a woman that fears the lord , has in her constitution and method of life , some advantages that help her forward to this disposition of mind ; and she hath at the same time other things that ballance this in her . the affections of that sex are more tender , they are less hardy and bold ; they are under a greater regularity of form ; decency and modesty are great defences : they are not so much exposed to the temptations that are in the world ; they live at home , and do not range abroad ; their children , especially those of their own sex , give them a constant entertainment , and do commonly carry away much of their hearts and time ; so that they are out of that loose ramble , which is the great corruption of mankind . but to ballance all this , their education is not so studied , nor so laboured , that thereby great notions , and strong reasonings may be formed in them , which give a foundation to knowledge and religion ; all which is more commonly laid in the youth of our sex. the affections of women are laid deep in their natures , so that the common afflictions of life , especially of a married state , from the loss of children , or of their husbands , go farther into their minds , and sink , and shake them more violently ; to which the decencies of their griefs , that do , as it were , stake them down to it , contribute not a little ; which do not allow them the diversions to which custom gives men a freer and earlier admittance . these are the advantages and disadvantages that they have , with relation to a religious course of life . upon the whole matter , it must be acknowledged , from the observation of all ages , that this sex has produced the eminentest , the most exact , and unblemished , the most charitable and bountiful , and the most serious and devout fearers and servers of god , that the world has yet had , and that religion has never shined brighter than in their whole deportment . and therefore such women , especially if they happen to be in an age in which libertinism and impiety has not only corrupted our sex , but has even broke through the modesty of theirs , and almost made a rape upon it ; and in which all the exactness of vertue , and the strictness of a regular life , has been laughed at , and despised , as the stiffness of form. i say , in such an age as ours , women of rank and birth , of quality and fortune , that in spite of a torrent of vice , that had got credit by great examples , and had lost the sense of shame by the multitude of those that went into it , will still own and practice religion and vertue in the strictest and exactest manner ought to be celebrated with just praises : and if the example is set by them in such a manner , as not to frighten any from religion , by the mixture of morose sourness , or by the affectation of singular or superstitious practices : if it , on the contrary , is shewed in instances that must needs recommend religion by the excellent effects it has , and by the soft and gentle manner with which it is managed , then the memory of such a woman ought to be precious , it ought to be honoured with such deserved commendations , as are one part , though it be indeed one of the smallest , of the rewards that are due unto vertue . when this is so done , that it is visible flattery has no share in it , that it cannot corrupt the person that is praised , into vanity or haughtiness of mind , and when the chief intent of such praises is to set forth to the world a fresh instance of the power of religion , and of its happy influence upon whole neighbourhoods , for the incouragement and instruction of such as chuse to follow good patterns , then such commendations as they , are a piece of natural equity and justice ; so they may give occasion to a noble emulation , and may offer a more familiar and sensible direction than can be given in rules or precepts . i need not add to all this , that no custom has been more ancient , nor more universal among all civilized nations than the setting forth the praises of the dead at their funerals : but indeed these have been generally given out so lavishly , and often so unjustly , that all discourses of this kind appear with great prejudices against them , and therefore they ought to be severely weighed . the following words in my text give such measures , that if these be observed , all errors and excesses will be prevented . — give her the fruit of her own hands ; that is , let her not be praised by a pompous setting forth of those things that were not her own , such as her birth and fortune , which are only the distinctions of divine providence , by which persons of noble minds are set in a higher sphere , and are made capable of giving a more conspicuous example , and of being a more general and publick good to mankind . therefore the shewing what were the real instances , and the good effects of her religion , is the most proper way of praising her : and the less pomp of eloquence , or art of disposition and expression , that accompanies such a description , it comes the nearer the rules that are here given — let her own works praise her in the gates . among the jews , their courts of judicature , and other solemn assemblies , were at their gates : it being judged much safer for a city , that the chief place of concourse should rather be at and about its gates , than in its heart and center : so that by gates we are to understand the gathering of the people ; and there it was that her works were to praise her , every one having somewhat to say , that had either fallen under his own observation , or that had come to his knowledg : there was no need of an orator to recite them , of a poet to adorn them , or of hired mourners to sing them out in doleful tunes , which were the methods of those times : all these might well be spared , when the universal sense of the town , and the groans of the neighbourhood agreed in the same character , and that a general lamentation followed a common loss . this is a panegyrick that can never be suspected ; for no man misdoubts those tears that fall upon a real loss . when the widows came to mourn over dorcas , who had been full of good works , and alms-deeds , and shewed the coats and garments , which she had not only given them ' but had made for them while she was with them : here was a more powerful strain of rhetorick than the most studied composures . the reciting the names , the vertues and the sufferings of the primitive christians and martyrs , was in the first ages of christianity a great part even of the office of the communion it self ; and the striking the names of any out of those registers and memorials , was reckoned to be one of the severest acts of the discipline of the church . it is true , the abuses that were ushered in by this , do well excuse us , though in this particular we do not conform our selves to so ancient a custom ; yet when singular instances come in our way , as we ought to rejoice to see that religion has not yet lost its force , but can even in this degenerate age , give noble instances of the power it has , and of the effects that follow it , so we ought to set it out in its true and natural colours . we are not indeed to follow the steps of a church , that as she is made up of lies , so lies more impudently in nothing than in dressing up the legends , and setting forth the excellencies of those who have contributed to her enriching , or to her exaltation , and that does plainly shew no regard either to what is true , or to what is so much as likely in the lives , or rather the fables that are given out of her saints : in which it is visible , that no care is had to tell things truly as they were , but as they think they ought to have been done ; and that is managed in such a manner , as may most powerfully work on the credulity or superstition of the age in which they write : they varying the performances of their saints according to the taste of the several ages in which they happen to write ; and by these means they serve their ends of deceiving the world by this exchange of sophisticated ware , for the wealth and advantages that it brings to them . but we have not so learned christ , we know no other arts but the plain simplicity of the gospel ; we dare not lye for god , and much less for the best person upon earth . and now i am brought back to the subject with which i began . if we have here before us the earthly tabernacle of a woman that feared the lord , then it is just and reasonable for us to praise her ; but in the praising her , i shall strictly observe the direction of my text , i will only give her those commendations that are due to her , that are the fruit of her hands , and will set before you some of her works , and leave them to praise her by an eloquence , that will have more force and beauty in it , than can be possibly put in words . i will say nothing but that which i have good reason to believe to be true : for though i had not the honour of so particular a knowledge of her , as to be able to form out of it an entire character , yet what i saw in her , shewed so sincere and so profound a piety , so severe and scrupulous a vertue , so pure a conscience , and such an exact conduct , that from thence i have good reason to believe other particulars , which i have received from those who have been long the nearest witnesses to the whole course of her life . this i must say , and you all know it to be true , that both in the neighbouring city , which is the chief part of my care , and in this whole countrey , she hath had this character , to have been the greatest example , and the instrument of the most good , of any person that has been in these parts within the memory of man. i will not lessen what i am to say concerning her , by any account of her birth , of the nobleness of her own family , or of that into which she married , nor of the greatness of the fortune that descended to her ; if i should speak of these , i should not give her the fruit of her own hands ; only it is no small part of a character , that such things can neither swell a mind to pride , nor dissolve it into vanity or sensuality : her descending to the concerns of the meanest persons ; her going so oft about to the poorest houses , where her charity or assistance was necessary ; her constant care of the sick ; her supplying them so plentifully with medicines from that vast store that she provided for them ; her sending oft for physicians and surgeons to them ; her frequent handling and dressing their sores herself , when surgeons could not be had , which as she never affected to do , so she never declined it where it was necessary ; her kneeling so oft down , and treating ulcers which were so loathsome , that no charity less than hers , could have endured so odious a sight ; her not being afraid even of contagious diseases , except that of the small pox , in which her care of her children obliged her to more caution : all these particulars of which i appeal to you that are before me , how many instances you have seen and known , do fully shew that her rank and fortune were only considered by herself as so many engagements upon her , to be rich in good works , and to be cloathed with humility . but to give you her character in that which according to my text gives a just title to praise , she feared the lord greatly , she had so deep a sense of religion , that she spent a great part of her time both in studying the holy scriptures , which she had laid well up in her memory , and in reading books both of devotion and of instruction in matters of religion , which she did carefully : those who have attended on her many years , have assured me , that she would not lose quite that time which was set off for her dressing , and which the far greatest part make to be a studied and lengthened vanity , but she used then , either to read herself , or imploy another to do it , that so her mind might have some share of that time , and that it might not go all to her person . she made extracts out of many books , but in short-hand , since they were only intended for her own or her childrens use ; she also used her short-hand in taking the edifying parts of sermons , which she went over in private afterwards with her children ; she was frequent and constant in secret prayer , which had been , as she owned to me , the chief joy and support of her life ; in that it was that she found strength to bear the loss of six sons , one after another , all she ever had , and a dear husband that was more than all : who was so dear to her , that with this single consideration she quieted her mind , after the loss of one son which happened soon after her lord had recovered of a great sickness , that she could not complain of any thing which god did to her after he had granted her so great a blessing . she was a religious observer of the lord's-day , but without superstition or affectation ; she never fail'd in a course of many years while in health , to lay hold of every opportunity of receiving the sacrament , and was always retired a day or two before it , and did rise ever very early on communion-days , that she might be for a considerable time retir'd before she went to church : she observed the daily returns of religious performances in her family in a most regular manner , the prayers of the church being never discontinued , nor so much as put off . she was constant in the communion of our church , and had so hearty an affection to it , that when she saw the danger of our being over-run with popery , she exprest her sense of it in the tenderest manner , and told her children that she had much rather go with them to a stake , than see them defile themselves with the idolatry of the mass ; yet her zeal for her religion did not transport her to any uncharitable excesses , and therefore she had a due regard to vertue and goodness wheresoever she saw it . but though all about her saw how much religion possessed her thoughts , yet she shewed it as little as was possible , except where the obligations of a mother , or of a mistress of a family required it . she took care to have all her family know and fear god , such as could not read , she allowed them both time and books , and other necessary helps for it , and she furnished all about her , not only those of her houshold , but of the countrey quite round her , with such books as might instruct and direct them ; and as her modesty made that she would not assume to herself to be a reprover of those that were not under her authority , so the way she took , where she saw any occasion for it , was to send them such books , in which they might find the reproofs that they needed . when she reproved her servants , those who have been twenty years about her , have assured me she never did it in words of reproach or anger , but in the way that she believed was the most proper to have a good effect on them . she said , she was naturally passionate ; but she came to be early under the power of religion , and broke herself so entirely from it , that those who have known her the longest , do affirm they never saw her at any one time under the power of it : she was more particularly gentle to those who were immediately about her , so that neither her grief for those great afflictions , with which it pleased god to visit her , nor the sharp pains , nor lingring disease of which she died , ever drew an indecent expression from her . her religion as it gave her much joy , so it gave her some trouble , while by an exactness that carried her into too scrupulous a jealousy of her self ; she was too apt to censure her own defects and coldnesses . she chose a proper guide , to whom she gave frequently an account of the various scenes of thoughts that passed in her mind ; her choice of one of my reverend brethren shewed how well she could judg of a person fit for such a confidence , and she had found , as she told me , great benefit and comfort in his conduct . her soul was so wholly dedicated to god , that she seemed to have no other concern upon her , but how to know and to do her duty upon all occasions ; and it made even the burden of her sickness a redoubled affliction to her , because it depressed her spirits , so that she could not raise them up to god , with that chearfulness and joy that she had felt on other occasions ; and that she did not fly towards death with so entire a willingness , as had often formerly inflamed her thoughts : she thought that even the desire of seeing the last part of her care setled and entred into the world , was a concern below that elevation of soul with which a christian ought to entertain the approaches of death . with all this deep sense of religion she had no sort of affectation , singularity , censoriousness , or sourness of temper ; she had all the decent chearfulness about her that became her , tho always governed with a stay'd gravity , she affected nothing that made any extraordinary shew , so that in all indifferent things she lived like those of her rank . she never placed religion in little and assumed severities , but studied in the whole course of her life , to practise that pure religion and undefiled with god and the father , which is to visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction , and to keep her self unspotted from the world. she was free from that spirit of censoriousness , to which even good people are too prone ; perhaps through the sharpness of their zeal against sin : but when the occasions of observing the evil that was in the world came in her way , she made the right use of them in proper reflections on them , to those who were under her care. she loved the privacies of the countrey , much more than the diversions and disorders of the town : she loved to be at quiet , and to be either improving her own mind , or to be doing good to others : she had attained to a great understanding in the matters of religion , and the scriptures ; and was not only conversant in the practical , but even in the speculative parts of it . so much study as she used , with so true a judgment as she had , carried her a great way : next to that she studied physick most ; as that by which she found she had the greatest opportunities of doing the most good ; and in this she set no bounds to her care and labour , and to the expence it drew with it : and in her later years the extent of her charity and the zeal and tenderness of it grew upon her very sensibly ; she had observed one constant practice , upon any special blessing that she received from god , to make a particular largess of charity , besides her ordinary givings : but this of late encreased to great sums , that walked round the jayls of london , as well as amongst the miserable in these parts ; besides that riches of her liberality with which she relieved the french and irish protestants : so that she seemed to be making haste to do all the good that was possible for her , as if she had had a secret intimation that there was but a small portion of time now before her . a slow decay came to seize on her , while she was yet a great way from old age , being but fifty when she died . she quickly apprehended that it would make an end of her , and so she set her self diligently to prepare for it . i must add one part of her character , which i think so bright a one , that i am not afraid to rank it among those i have already mentioned : she had so great a sense of the goodness of god to the nation in the late happy revolution , that she said her nunc dimittis with the more joy , because she had seen that salvation which god hath wrought for us : she paid one tax to the government , with so hearty a zeal , in offering up many earnest prayers to god for its establishment , that if many made so many free-will offerings of that kind as she did , we might hope for a better account of all the other taxes ; and a speedy end put to them all : and as she had so true an affection to this government her self , so she declared an unalterable resolution of not bestowing that dear part of her care , which she did not live to finish , to any but such as she believed were faithful and zealous to it . but now the melancholy part is yet before me , i unwillingly go to it , but as the discourse leads me , so i may well speak of it , since it was such as agreed with all that had gone before : she felt the decays of nature come so fast on her , that she prepared her self to meet her god : she had quite overcome all that unwillingness which so just a desire , as was formerly intimated , had raised in her : she rejoiced in the will of god , and expressed so much satisfaction and chearfulness even in her looks , that it plainly appeared all was calm within : she was no more depressed with uneasy reflections on her self , but had the joy of a good conscience , and the assurance of the love and goodness of god through jesus christ , to so high a degree , that she felt not now those unjust censures with which she alone had sometimes punished her self : for she was the only person , that , as far as i have been informed , ever thought hardly of herself . since i could never hear that she had an enemy , or that ever a considerable injury was done her by any person ; her prudent , grave and unmedling temper kept her out of the way of making enemies , and to this was joyned a special blessing of god , that preserved her from unjust malice : thus for meer want of occasion i could not learn how her charity would have wrought towards an enemy that had injured her in any sort : she continued during the course of her sickness , not only to have the prayers of the church said by her , but was very often , indeed almost constantly , observed to be raising up her soul to god : she had resolved to fit her self for her last passage , with the great viaticum of christians , but nature sunk all at once , and so fast that she could only communicate inwardly ; yet though she could not end her life with that most solemn act of church-communion , she desired that character of dying in the churches peace , that is given in absolution , which she received with much devout joy : at last she broke prison , and left a feeble and exhausted body , and is now entered into the joy of her lord , into that rest to which she was so long aspiring , and of which she had felt so many ravishing fore-tastes in her way to it . there she is now , in the fellowship of angels , and in the presence of god , where she will remain , till the restitution of all things , that this her now forsaken body shall be changed and be made meet for her to return to it , and to dwell in it for ever . and for her memory , let her own works praise her , and make her name to be as ointment poured forth . may all in these parts , that have either observed her deportment , or felt the effects of her charity , honour her , or rather religion that made her to be what she truly was , even a publick blessing to the whole countrey . look through all the companies of the gay libertines , and see what you can find among them all compared to that which religion wrought in her , and then acknowledge that this is the salt of the earth , and the light of the world. may all that hear of her , rise up and call her blessed ; and by a noble emulation , study to imitate the vertues that shined so fair in her : may the great family that is to succeed to her seat , so far follow her steps , that they may dry up the tears which do now flow so plentifully for her loss : may her noble children answer the honour of being hers , and the obligations that lie on them by the example that they saw in her , and the education that they received from her : and may he whom she loved and esteemed so highly , carry still with him so tender a sense of all the excellent things that he observed and admired in her , that according to her last words to him , though they are now parted , since it was the will of god that it must be so , yet they may meet again never to be separated , but to live eternally happy in that fulness of ioy , and in those pleasures which are for evermore : and in conclusion , may the example she has set , and the good she has done , be ever celebrated ; may it recommend true religion to the world ; mark the upright , and behold the perfect , for their latter end is peace . to which god in his mercy bring us all in his good and appointed time. amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30437-e280 * treat of ●●sts , c. 4. n. ● . acts 9. 39. the lord ●●●●●p of worcester . a sermon preached at bow-church, before the court of aldermen, on march 12, 1689/90 being the fast-day appointed by their majesties / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1690 approx. 67 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30433 wing b5891 estc r21653 12683292 ocm 12683292 65712 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30433) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65712) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 682:8) a sermon preached at bow-church, before the court of aldermen, on march 12, 1689/90 being the fast-day appointed by their majesties / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 34, [2] p. printed for richard chiswell, london : 1690. advertisement: p. [1]-[2] at end. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -sermons. repentance. fast-day sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the bishop of salisbury's sermon preached at bow-church , on the fast-day . march 12. 1689 / 90. pilkington mayor . martis xviiio. martii 1689 / 90. annoque regni regis & reginae willielmi & mariae , angliae , &c. secundo . this court doth desire the right reverend father in god , the lord bishop of sarum , to print his sermon preached at st. mary le bow , on wednesday the 12th instant , before the aldermen and citizens of this city . wagstaffe . a sermon preached at bow-church , before the court of aldermen , on march 12. 1689 / 90. being the fast-day appointed by their majesties . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxc . luke xix . 41 , 42. and when he was come near , he beheld the city , and wept over it , saying , if thou hadst known , even thou , at least in this thy day , the things which concern thy peace . objects that raise compassion , and beget sorrow , cannot be look'd on with indifferent eyes by those who have a right prospect , and a just sense of things . to an ordinary spectator , ierusalem must have appeared one of the glories of the world , especially as it was beautified and fortified by herod . it s temple standing on an eminence , was so august in it self , and so sacred in its use , as being dedicated to the service of the living god , that the very sight of it must have begot a reverence ; and to a born iew must have given all the pride which the native of any countrey may be apt to feel in himself , when he sees the capital city full both of people and of wealth , shining with a fresh lustre , and adorned with all the beauties of art , as well as hallowed by the special marks of the favour and presence of god. but all this must have appeared as a vain pageant to one that could see through that false varnish , and that likewise by reason of the treasures of wisdom and knowledg that were in him , saw their approaching fate ; he saw that misery , which tho it fell not on them till almost forty years after this yet did then to him represent ierusalem as a heap of stones , the temple on fire , and the inhabitants destroyed by famine , or by the sword ; nor could so divine a mind find any ease in so dismal a prospect , from this , that the iews rejecting of him , and the cruel treatment that he was to reeeive from them , was to be revenged in so terrible a manner . this to a spiteful mind would have afforded some content ; but he that was so full of universal love and goodness , could not entertain such ill-natur'd thoughts . nor could , on the other hand , all the glory to which he himself was to be advanced long before the effusion of the wrath of god upon this city , make him less sensible of this misery , because neither he nor his followers were to share in it . it was true pity and compassion that were his motives , which both drew tears from his eyes , and also the sad wish that follows . his sense of their sins was from the same pure and disinteressed motives , for he had none of his own to return into his mind , when he considered theirs , to make the sorrow more melting . and tho that bloody scene which he himself was so soon to go through , might , according to such measures as we act by , have so entirely possessed his thoughts , that no room should have been left for the compassionating others ; yet even in this nearness to that bitter cup which he was so soon to drink , he considered their miseries that were more remote , with all the tendernesses of hearty sorrow and compassion . in imitation then of the author of our faith , it does much more become us to look on this great city that has risen out of its ashes with so much glory , that is now the treasure as well as the pride of the nation , that has so many characters of greatness , as well as wealth in every corner of it ; but that at the same time has contracted so much guilt , is covered with so much defilement , luxury , and excess ; is agitated with such factions , and these acted with so much animosity ; but not to view all this without feeling a tenderness run through all our powers , and give us many sad and melting thoughts , which ought to affect us so much the more sensibly , when we find how great a share we our selves have in these sins , which we lament in others ; so that the words of our saviour , weep not for me , but weep for your selves , may be applied to us in another sense , since upon strict enquiry , we shall find that we are not pure enough our selves , to be capable of such a disinteressed sorrow , while we weep over london : we must first begin and lament our selves , while we remember in how many places of this city , and in how many several ways we have dishonoured god , and contributed our proportion towards the kindling the wrath of god against us . our melancholly thoughts also must have another mixture in them , since if this place is to be made as great a scene of the judgments of god , as it has been hitherto of his mercies , we must be all involved in it . this thought does indeed render our compassion for the publick , less generous ; but it will perhaps make it more sensible to us . in a word , as there is nothing that shews that a man has truly repented of his own sins , more than a tender sense of the wrath of god ; so nothing proves a man to be possessed with a spirit of love and charity , more than a feeling sense of the sins and miseries of others ; and to weep over ones countrey or city , as it is the most important service that can be done the publick , which may delay , if not quite divert the judgments of god ; so this is that which is in every ones power to do : wealth is not necessary for this aid ; yet perhaps there is scarce any one duty that is more universally neglected , than this is ; ill men do not so much as once think of it ; men of a low degree of goodness , have not elevation of soul enough for it ; and the only men that are capable of doing this service to their countrey , have so much modesty and humility , and are so depressed with the sense of their own sins , that they are tempted to think it is an over valuing themselves , and a sort of a presumption for them to intercede for others , or for their countrey . but we are members of one political body , and must all bear a share in the prosperity , or the misfortunes of the nation ; so that if a nobler principle does not engage us to this duty , yet at least self-love should work on us ; since we cannot flatter our selves so far , as to fancy , that if any general calamity should overtake the land , or city , that we our selves should be exempted from it . we are also joined into a nearer relation as we are become members of one body , of which christ is the head ; and by this union the same spirit of love and charity will be spread over the whole body ; so that we will rejoice with them that do rejoice , and weep with them that weep . since then the present state of things , and the commands of authority , our common interests , as well as our christian charity , do all concur to engage us , first of all to weep for our sins , and then to look over our countrey , and this the city of our solemnities , and mourn over them ; let us go over the several branches of the moving and emphatical words of our saviour , and apply them as far as the parallel goes , to the present state of things : in which let us consider , 1. the importance of this redoubling the word , thou , even thou . 2. the importance of these words , at least in this thy day . 3. what are the things that concern the peace of a nation , and how they may be known . and 4thly , what are the happy effects of a nation 's knowing them : this , tho not expressed , yet is implied in the wish in which the period is laid , without being regularly closed . i have not read the last words of this verse , neither will i speak to them , for they might seem to carry too dismal a sound with them ; yet , i hope , all that hear me , will so seriously reflect on them , that by their so doing , they may come not to belong to us . for though perhaps in the present unhappy posture in which we are , it is but too true that now they are hid from our eyes ; yet if we will seriously attend to those things of which i am to treat , then we shall be delivered from so heavy a sentence as is imported in them . to return . 1. if thou , even thou ; the words carry plainly a weight in them , which to comprehend aright , we must consider the state in which ierusalem was at that time , and that with respect to both the good and bad of it . it was the capital of that nation , that god had chosen out of all the families of the earth to be his own inheritance : it was the place where his name was called upon , and to which the worship of god was appropriated . it was now so enriched by herod , who having heaped up treasures like another solomon , had laid them out in the rebuilding the temple , which in a course of 46 years was carried on to so vast a magnificence , that it was become indeed one of the wonders of the world : it was also so well fortified , and had within it such a number of inhabitants , who had such a violent love to their countrey , and so much zeal for it , that one might have thought they were in no danger of being besieged ; but that they were strong enough to have gone out and fought any enemy that could have gone against them : and that no siege could have signified any thing , but to have ruined the army that should have attempted it : so that by this thou , even thou , in one view we may understand a city dedicated to god , and under his protection ; a city well fortified , full of wealth , and full of people , and yet to such a city it was necessary to know the things that belonged to their peace . here , before we go farther , reflections offer themselves to us in abundance : this our city has been under signal characters of the protection of god ; it has been preserved from violent concussions , and from the hand of an enemy , when all the rest of the nation has had their turns in the accidents of war : it is true , two signal strokes from heaven that came one after another , a wasting pestilence , and a devouring fire that seemed to threaten it with ruine , shewed that god corrected them , tho he would not deliver them over to the will of their enemies ; the quick recovery of the city , carries the marks of a particular car of heaven ; and the haste that has been made to raise up so many of these holy and beautiful houses , in which god is worshipped , may be reckoned among the glories , and the defences of this place . it s vast wealth , the increase of the inhabitants , the prodigious extent of it , and the zeal with which all seem to be heated for preserving the honour of the city , bring us so near a parallel to ierusalem , that in this , thou , even thou , we may find the characters of a city , hitherto highly blessed of god , and full of the good things of this life ; yet in the midst of all this wealth , and abundance , there is great need of preparing for a storm . 2dly , if we consider the state of ierusalem with relation to religion ; the iews who had shewed so violent an inclination to idolatry before they were carried captives to babylon , were there so absolutely cured of that , that ever after they expressed the strictest zeal possible against every step towards idolatry , or the least appearance of it . we see how they resisted the kings of syria in their attempts for profaning the temple , and defiling their worship : and not long after our saviour's death , when caligula ordered his statue to be set up in the temple , they were all in so great a commotion upon it , that an embassy was sent to him , to shew that they could not bear any thing that looked like a departure from the god of their fathers , which was urged by philo that went on the embassy , in terms full of zeal , that expressed a firm resolution of suffering every thing , rather than endure such an affront to be done to their religion . to this zeal against idolatry , they added a most punctual observation of all the rituals of their religion ; and not satisfied with those which moses had appointed , they had added many new ones , which they reckoned the setting a hedge about the law ; securing the observance of the commanded rites by those , which , according to the tradition of the elders , had been for some ages observed among them ; so here was a city that was both free from idolatry , and exact in obeying the laws of god , that yet is warned of a great danger in these words , thou , even thou . i do not know whether our conformity to them , as to these particulars , goes so high , or is so universal , yet something like it we have . great zeal has appeared against the idolatry of the church of rome , with a constancy in the matters of religion , that has amazed all the world : the steps made towards that , alarmed the nation , and this city in particular : and it appeared that you could not bear those who called themselves the church of god , but that are the synagogue of satan . you have shewed also such firmness to the church of england , and to the established religion , as not to bear any thing that declined from it , either to the right hand , or to the left . yet after all this , we may have cause to apprehend the wrath of god , notwithstanding it all , if our religion goes no farther , than the cleansing the outside , or the tything the mint and anise . if we have idols in our hearts , tho we have purged our churches of them ; if we forget god at the same time , that we do not worship images ; and if while we are zealous in lesser matters , we neglect the great things , of righteousness , mercy and faith , then all our negative religion , our no popery , and all our zeal for the church , when it does not oblige us to conform our selves to her dictates , and rules , as well as to be hot and eager in her defence , will not secure us , but that this thou , even thou , may belong to us . 3dly , the iews at this time had so fallen from all the true principles of religion , that even their religion had embittered their spirits , so that they were rather the worse for it , than the better . the pried and affectation of the pharisees , that had no real worth under it to support it , set them on all the methods of slander and injustice , of falshood and cruelty : so that when they found they could not stand before the true worth of our saviour , and his apostles , they then fell upon the blackest calumnies , and most violent rage for destroying those before whom they could not maintain their ground upon an equal foot : their morals were universally depraved , and their tempers so vitiated , that under the appearance of an adhering strictly to their religion , there never was a nation that did more totally fall from the power and life of godliness , than they did : they were both cruel and barbarous , and not satisfied with shedding the blood of christ , they filled up the measure of their iniquities by persecuting his followers every-where : so that under a shew of preserving their law , they had entirely lost all the true and good principles of religion ; and so had contracted a vast guilt , besides that heavy load of the blood of him that was the heir of the vineyard , whom they killed , that the inheritance might be their own . and thus the view of a nation that was both so corrupted , and that lay under so heavy a load of guilt , leads us to the full importance of this , if thou , even thou ; that even after all their sins , and all their guilt , there was still room for repentance . if this nation has brought it self into the like state of having the knowledge of the truth , and seeming zealous about it , and yet falling from all that is pure and excellent in religion , into a fierceness about some inconsiderable matters ; if while we seem to have a great concern for our religion , we have none at all for our morals ; if malice and ill-nature , if fury and cruelty , do not only transport us to all excesses , but make us cover and justify them with pretexts of religion ; if our cities and countrey have been defiled with all the brutalities that humane nature is capable of ; if , instead of mutual love and forgiveness , we hate , and study to destroy one another ; if , instead of truth , there is nothing but injustice ; and instead of righteousness , there is nothig but violence and deceit , then we will find our selves under the worst part of that which is intimated in this , if thou , even thou . yet after all , there is somewhat that gives comfort in this ; for if a city charged with all the blood that was shed from abel down to zacharias , was even after all that , admitted to a possibility of escaping the judgments of god , by a true repentance , then we see that we who have reason to hope that we are not near so guilty as they were , are not yet quite desperate . 2. from this , i go next to consider the importance of these words , at least in this thy day . in scripture this word of the day , or time of a nation , stands in a double sense : sometimes for a time of mercy and kindness , an acceptable time , and day of salvation : sometimes for a day of trial , or visitation , as it is in the following words . the meaning of the first is , that when god receives nations into his protection and favour , he not being as a man , inconstant and changeable , does not easily repent of the good that he shews them , nor change his methods towards them : and therefore till their sins become so high , and crying , that it does not agree with the honour of his providence not to shew his anger against them , he bears with their offences ; or , if he corrects them for them , he does it not in anger ; he will chastise them , as he said with relation to david's posterity , if they sin against him , but he will not quite cast them off ; he will visit their transgressions with the rod , and their iniquity with stripes ; nevertheless he will not take his loving kindness utterly from them . and thus we find it was often said of the iewish nation in the old testament , that god would have cast them off , if he had not remembred abraham , israel and iacob ; so in this sense the iews were still god's people , and in covenant with him . to them were the first offers of the messias to be made ; and therefore if while that covenant lasted , and they were still under the privileges of it , they could have applied themselves to know the things that belonged to their peace , they might still have maintain'd their title to his favour . the second sense of this thy day , imports that there is a time of trial and repentance granted by god , even to guilty nations , in order to their preventing the last strokes of his wrath , and the final calamity that is threatned . when god was provoked by the sins of the old world to bring a flood upon the whole earth , he gave them the space of 120 years for a time of warning , in which noah continued as a preacher of righteousness , denouncing to them the judgments that were to be poured out upon them : even niniveh had 40 days given to them for a time of repentance , by which their final destruction might be respited , as in fact it proved to be . we find upon three great occasions , that god granted to the people of the iews a time of 40 years : when they rebelled against him at kadesh-barnea , and would not go in and possess the land ; he declared that none of them except two , should enter into it , but that they should fall in the wilderness ; yet they were to wander in it 40 years ; for so long does the psalm say , that he was grieved with that generation . next , when manasses had so defiled ierusalem with both idolatry and bloodshed , that it is said that god would not pardon it ; yet upon iosiah's serious repentance , and purging the temple , which he began in the 12th year of his reign , god granted to the iews 40 years reprieve ; for it was just so long between the 12th of iosiah , and zedekiah's captivity : and the third 40 years was from the first year of our saviours preaching , to the final destruction of ierusalem : they were then in the day of their visitation , which grew gradually upon them ; the roman yoke becoming every day more and more intolerable , and their humors growing more and more boisterous . towards the conclusion of this time of their trial , the alarms grew higher ; many prodigies , and other extraordinary things appearing , that seemed to warn them of the wrath to come . cestius gallus came with an army against them four years before their destruction , and took the lower city ; and tho he did retreat with some loss , yet they had all reason to conclude that the romans could not bear such a repulse : after this , galilee was conquer'd and destroy'd : all these were warnings to ierusalem , and were the last immediate forerunners of its final destruction . this being then the full extent of the meaning of these words , in this thy day , it will not be uneasie to see how they may belong to us . it is still with us a day of mercy ; and when we consider the whole state of christendom , particularly of many parts of it , ever since the reformation was established , we must acknowledg that it has been of a very long continuance ; we had 80 years of peace and plenty , prosperity and victory , as well as of the purity of the gospel , from the year 1558 , to the year 1638 ; a thing without example in modern history . in all that time , unless it were a few months plague at two several times , we had not any one national stroke , to be set against the many publick blessings we enjoyed ; but when we were so happy that we had no enemies that could hurt us , we became our own enemies , and then the sword raged among us ; but even that was so allayed , that we fell not under the fury that commonly attends civil wars . and both sides in their mutual heats , did yet so far remember that they were englishmen , that neither of them brought over strangers , nor gave them footing among us . we have now enjoyed an age of peace and plenty , and with that have had the gospel among us , with that clearness and fulness , that no age has produced more light , better explanations of divine matters , and fuller proofs of their truth . and though we have seen many storms gathering thick and black over our heads , so that we had reason to look for most terrible confusions ; yet all these have gone over us in so inoffensive a manner , that perhaps many do not enough feel the blessings of our deliverance , because we only saw , but did not feel what our enemies had designed against us ; and this being a thing which some had not opportunities , and others had not capacity enough to apprehend ; we despise , or perhaps even loath our deliverance ; because we neither value the gospel which is preserved among us , nor understand how near we were the losing it . the quiet we now enjoy , and the security we live in while , all the world about us is on fire , is no ordinary indication of a particular favour of heaven to us ; and after so long a course of goodness , we have reason to conclude that god will not change his methods , if our sins do not call aloud for it . we have likewise reason to think we are now in a day of visitation , and that terrible calamities are not far from us , if in this our day , we are not wise nor good enough to prevent it . we have seen the cup of god's wrath , going round all the protestant churches , which having fallen from their first love , and forsaken their first purity , mixing into the vanities of the world , and corrupting their manners notwithstanding the purity of their doctrine and worship , have been severely visited by god : some fatally broken and extirpated , as the churches of france and piedmont ; others brought near utter ruin , as the churches of hungary and the palatinate , and others ; though not visited so heavily , yet were brought very low ; so were the churches of the netherlands 18 years ago , and many churches in germany . but when all these things have been set before our eyes , and when the visitation is brought into our galile , if i may so speak , i mean into ireland , and has cast that island , and all its inhabitants , into such convulsions , that we cannot yet form a clear judgment how far they may be consumed by this fire , which now devours them , before they come out of it ; while these things have gone round about us , why should we think that we can escape ? are we better than the others who have suffered ? or , can we think that god is partial to us ? and when god suffered them so far to break in upon us , that we saw an idolatrous worship openly , and in contempt of the laws both of god and of the land , set up among us ; and an open treaty set on foot for bringing us under the tyranny of rome : when we were under the ministry of a jesuit , and the influences of france ; when we saw breaches made upon the most sacred of our laws , and the subversion of the whole attempted : this was certainly such a day of visitation , as cestius gallus his shewing the roman army was to ierusalem . the iews did not any more fear that enemy , because they had strength enough once to stand it out against so faint an attempt ; but the next return of the romans was more formidable , and proved in conclusion fatal to them . if we either grow to have milder thoughts of our enemies the modern romans , and fancy they are not quite so bad as our fears may have pictured them to us ; or if we despise their forces , and fancy that we have not so considerable an enemy in them as we were made believe ; we may be soon undeceived of both errours , when it will be too late for us upon the discovery to correct them . in sum , we must not think that such extraordinary providences as have of late occurred both at home and abroad , are matters that deserve no reflections to be made upon them : they are essays , and perhaps the last essays that are to be made upon us , to try if our dangers , or our neighbours fates , can make us wiser or better . iii. and this leads me to the third particular , what are those things which concern the peace of a nation , and how they may be known . the obvious division of this is unto those things that belong to our peace with god , those things that may preserve the whole nation , and its peace as it is a complicated body ; and the things which belong to our peace among our selves , one with another . we cannot make any reflections on our condition with relation to god , without observing that he has been offended in a most eminent manner ; while religion has been so visibly neglected by those who have pretended the most to it ; while not only vices of all sorts have abounded among us , and have been acted with so high a hand , as if the actors had equally despised the judgments of god and the reproaches of men ; but what do i say , reproaches ! men have been so far from being out of countenance for their sins , that they have valued themselves upon them , and gloried in them . how loud is the cry of the luxury , the injustice , the fraud , the violence , and the impieties of this place ? how have they gone up into the ears of the lord of hosts ? and will he bear with us for ever ? but as if the abominations of others age and countries had not been enough to provoke him to anger , we have found out and added new ones to those of past times . perhaps in no age or nation the religion that men pretend to believe , has been so openly not only attacked and questioned , but laughed at and rejected with all the indignities of impious scorn , as it has been among us : others who had more modesty and decency in their natures , and so could not rise up to that pitch of insolence , yet have been generally corrupted into infidelity ; so that perhaps scarce any nation now under heaven believe less of the religion that is professed in it , than we do . now this is as much beyond all other sins , as high treason is beyond all other legal offences . this strikes at the majesty and authority of god , and at every article of religion , since it overturns the foundation upon which all is built . and to what a height is the cry of our iniquities risen , when there is scarce a leud company that get together , that do not make the most solemn and sacred things in the world , the subjects of their mirth and diversion ? shall not i visit for these things , saith the lord ? shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this is ? besides this that dissolves all sense of religion , this age has produced another that has as much dissolved all morality , which is the open affronting the state of marriage : other ages have perhaps produced high offences against it , and publick breaches of that faith ; but to see an open and avowed contempt of it done in the sight of the sun , and as it were in spite of that state , is what no christian nation has so publickly owned as ours has done . whilst god has been so highly provoked , and when we saw our selves in such a desperate state , as that under which we lately groaned , who were then repenting of their sins , and turning to god ? who were putting from them the evil of their ways ? who were cleansing themselves from their impieties and impurities , from their injustice and oppression ? such a preparation as this had made us both more fit for a deliverance , and more capable of improving it to all those ends for which god had bless'd us with it , if this great work sticks in the birth so long , it is because men have not repented of their sins , but have returned to them , or rather have openly continued in them : and while our divisions make us sharp-sighted to find out one anothers faults , we make no other use of the discovery , but to reproach others for them , and to represent them more odious to our selves and others , upon that account . but who considers these things as a christian ought to do , who animated with the spirit of christ , mourns over them , and humbles himself before god for them ? as ezra did , who finding that the people of the iews after their return out of the captivity , were beginning to fall back into their old disorders , rent his clothes , and sat astonished ; he was ashamed , and blushed to lift up his face to god : and in words full of tender sense , he laments their sins . now for a little space grace hath been shewed us , to give us a little reviving . and now lord , what shall we say after this ? for we have forsaken thy commandments . and after all that is come upon us for our our evil deeds , seeing that thou our god hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve , and hast given us such a deliverance as this , should we again break thy commandments , wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us , so that there should be no remnant nor escaping ? o lord god of israel , thou art righteous : for we remain yet escaped , as it is this day : behold , we are before thee in our trespasses , for we cannot stand before thee , because of this . such acts of sorrow as these , rising from a sense of the dishonour done to god , and of the danger the nation is in by it , were a service to the publick , beyond all that can ever rise from that false heat , with which any of us may be animated . other services require good heads , or great credit , and much wealth ; but this is that which every person of a pure & devout mind can offer up for their country . but alas , can it be expected that those who do not mourn for their own sins , should mourn for the sins of others ? which will perhaps appear an unreasonable piece of melancholy to those who do not consider that we being all one body in christ , the communion of the saints , of which this is a main part , is established by god , by which we are obliged to mix our tears and prayers together as one body , not doubting but that these have their effect before god ; at least they shall return into our own bosom , and our charity shall not want its reward ; for though the sins of a nation were grown to that height , that though noah , iob , and daniel , were among them , and interceding for them , they could only deliver their own souls , by their righteousness , yet still that is a happy reserve . those who mourn in sion , shall be marked on their fore-heads : and when the destroying calamity shall have a commission to march over the land , beginning even at the sanctuary , at that order of men , who should have been the intercessors for others , but that have rather heightned the provocation by their sins , than those who carry that mark , shall be exempted , and either be quite preserved from the common calamity , or at least shall have a distinguished fate in it , for they may hope for an easier fall and gentler circumstances . this is then the chief thing that belongs to our peace , our reconciliation with god ; so that he turns from the fierceness of his anger , and lifts up upon us the light of his countenance . the 2d thing that concerns our peace , is the falling upon proper and effectual means for preserving our selves , and the nation , for this is our peace . we who have been accustomed to ease and fulness , who cannot bear the lessening any one article either of our luxury or of our vanity , have mean notions of what belongs to our peace , if we think that any thing is too much which secures it to us . we have an enemy in head of us , who has ever looked on the prosperity and plenty of this island , as that which stood most in the way of his glory : and though he could more easily bear with it , when our princes were under his conduct , and guided by the measures that he gave them , yet now prince and people are both equally odious to him . if we have any regard either to our selves , our families or posterities , to our religion or our country , to the present or the succeeding generations , we must now unite our whole strength , and turn our whole forces against those enemies of humane nature , who wheresoever they come , turn the richest soil to a barren wilderness ; and after they have gratified their revenges with unheard-of and studied cruelties , their appetites with the most defiling rapes , their avarice with the most exquisite plunder , finally destroy all that cannot be any way serviceable to themselves . these are things which we cannot easily believe ; since warrs formerly were managed by rules , and a faith that was held sacred even in the hottest rages of war ; but those beasts of prey gave themselves no restraints ; or if they themselves were capable of any , yet the terrible orders that are given them , of executing whole nations and provinces , leave no room for any remnant of humanity that is perhaps not quite extinguished in them . men of gentle and peaceful natures cannot form to themselves a just idea of the miseries which must follow on our falling under such an enemy . if while things are in this state , every one will look on , and fancy , that this lies on the government , and not on himself ; if men will neither with their persons nor their purses contribute what is in them to our preservation , if some small distastes do alienate them from one another , and from the publick ; this gives us yet a more terrible prospect than the jews had . for tho' they had whetted their spirits one against another beyond imagination , yet all agreed in opposing the romans . and when they attacked them , they went all to their common defence : but if we will throw up all , because we cannot carry every things , if because we cannot revenge or subdue those who differ from us , or because some things do not please us , we come to have softer thoughts of our enemies , and imagine that we can make terms with them and trust them ; and if some fancy that by reason of some managements they have been in , their fate will be milder , not to say better , this is an error , that they will not perhaps ever see , because they are not like to outlive it . to such as can so deceive themselves , i will only tell what the pope's legate , that commanded the army that besieged beziers , said ▪ when , as they were going to storm the town , some told him , that there were many good catholicks among the hereticks or albigenses , and therefore askt orders what to do with them . kill all , said he , god knows them that are his : being resolved that what share soever , they might have in the mercies of god , they should have none of his . under the price of our being both papists and slaves , there can be no redemption ; and when they have destroyed with so much unrelenting and treacherous fury whole countries of their own religion , not sparing neither churches nor monasteries , for which even savage nations have had some regard ; what can hereticks expect from him who has vowed their destruction , and reckons the persecution that he has set on foot against them , the top of his glory ? if after all this , men will not apprehend their danger , or will fancy that they can secure themselves by acting in a different interest , let these see if among the protestants of france , those that shewed at all times the most submissive compliances with all the inclinations of the court , found when the fatal decree was given , any other distinction than that a very few of them were suffered to go out of the kingdom ; and even this cruelty was to be magnified , as an extraordinary favour and gratitude of the court. we are now upon the greatest crisis of any age : the greatest that is in our history , and much the greatest that has been since the reformation began : if we can get through this war with success and victory , we have before us the happiest prospect that any nation can have in view ; of securing our own peace and happiness , our religion and our government : and of being the nation that shall give a deliverance to europe , and a security to the procestant religion , and of setting bounds to the great abaddon the destroyer and enemy to mankind . if we value either our own happiness or the honour of our country , will we think it a heavy thing to lessen our expence , to cut off from prodigality and luxury , and reduce our selves to a narrow compass ; that we may preserve the whole , when a few years frugality may support a chargeable war ; and bring us into habits that may make the succeeding peace prove a double blessing to us ? can we think any thing is too much when our religion , our countrey , our lives and liberties are the price that is to be fought for : and when the issue of the present scene and war must be our being , either the happiest or the miserablest nation upon earth . the fate of constantinople was terrible , and ought to be set before us : they were besieged by the turks , whom they knew to be a most cruel enemy , and a most barbarous master . they could hope for nothing if they fell into their hands , but to become a prey to them : yet they would neither assist their unfortunate emperor with their persons nor their purses . he had none to preserve both him and them , but some hired troops , who for want of pay were mutinying upon all occasions , he coined all his own plate , even the sacred vessels were not spared ; he went in person among the rich citizens , and with tears in his eyes , desired their assistance towards the preservation of the empire and city ; but by a fatal stupidity , they either did not see their danger , or took no care to prevent it : for though there was an inconceivable treasure found among them in the sack of constantinople , yet they seemed to take care to preserve it all for the enemy ; and would imploy none of it for their own defence . this was such a degree of infatuation , that if the historian who relates it , had not lived in the time , and had his information from eyewitnesses , we could scarce give credit to it . god grant such examples may make us wise . the poor emperor resolved not to outlive his glory , and so in a desperate sally that he made he fell before the enemy , who after that found so faint a resistance , that they quickly carried the place and became masters of all that wealth , which its former owners had so carefully preserved for them . if we had a sute for our whole estate with one that spared no cost , we should not out of an ill timed frugality let him carry it , rather than be at the charge of maintaining our right ; we should rather save it , out of every thing else , than let all go . our enemy leaves his subjects as well as his enemies nothing : so he finds spoil enough to support his ambition and lust of conquest . when then all is struck at , all must concur in so just and so necessary a cause . but i come in the last place to those things that belong to our mutual peace , among our selves : the common peace and safety will be ill preserved , if we are biting and devouring one another ; we shall need no enemy to destroy us , if this continues , for we shall be consumed one of another . we have nothing so conspicuous in the history of the destruction of the iews , as their cruel intestine feuds and wars , which made them an easie prey to the romans . they were at first divided into three great sects , that of the sadduces , who were plain atheists and libertines , that denied the being of spirits , and a future state , and that by consequence could lie under no restraints from their religion . they struck in to herod , and afterwards fell under so general an odium , that they grew more inconsiderable towards the end of that state. the second sect was that of the essens , who were men of excellent morals , and of a sublime piety , who retained their ancient simplicity , they retired from the world , lived in common , at work , and in constant devotion : these did likewise disappear , and probably they became christians , to which their holy dispositions and their strict lives did so much prepare them , that it is scarce possible to think that men of such tempers could resist such a religion . but the third sect , that swallowed all the rest up , was that of the pharisees , of whom so much is said in the gospels , that it is not necessary to enlarge upon their character : they were a sort of people that under an outward appearance of great strictness were the falsest , the violentest , the cruellest , and the most revengeful ; they were the least moral , and the most hypocritical and diabolical sect that ever was : these , by the appearance of exactness and of zeal , had so possessed themselves of the opinion and the affections of the people , that they could turn them which way they pleased ; but among them there were subdivisions . the zealots were those who from the example and the rewards of phinehas , came to think , that when magistrates were too slack in punishing offenders , private persons might do it . st. paul had been one of these , and as such , he not only persecuted the church from house to house , but having got a company of men of the same fury to follow him , he went to persecute them even to strange cities . now , towards the end of the history of the iews , we see this became a matter of meer rage ; and companies assuming this name , got together , and run about executing whatsoever their own fury inspired them with , as a revenge of sin , in the name of god. these first murdered all the romans every where , and so engaged themselves in a war with them , that required either a most mighty resistance , or that must in conclusion end in their own utter ruin : they also murdered all that inclined or moved at any time to treat with the romans . but men of this sort seldom agree long together : so these were soon subdivided into those who were headed by eleazar , who were the masters of the inner courts of the temple ; and those who were headed by iohn , that possessed themselves of the outer courts : and when those within opened the gates at the feast of the passover , that so the people might come in and offer their lambs , some of iohn's party went in and killed eleazar , and so he became master of the whole temple . but this was not all : for there was another party among them that were called the robbers , that did the same thing that the zealots did , for it is scarce possible to think they could do worse : but it seems they did not cover it with the pretence of zeal for the law , and so were the more honest robbers of the two ; who owned that they robbed for robbing sake . these were at first commanded by minahem the son of iudas of galilee ; but he being killed by eleazar's means , they were after that headed by one simon , who being called into ierusalem , drove iohn out of the city , and had many engagements with him and his zealots , in one of which they burnt the common store of provisions , which if preserved , would have served to maintain a long siege . thus were they fighting with one another ; when titus came before them with an army that consisted only of four legions , besides auxiliaries : a small force against so vast a multitude of men , of an enraged courage , and a city of such extent and defence . in this extremity it was plain , that they must either treat and submit , or unite and resist vigorously : there was but one thing that was both desperate and foolish , to perish within their walls by hunger , and to be destroying one another as oft as the enemy gave them leisure to go about it : and this was precisely the course they took . if any spake of treating with the romans , he was presently the object of the common fury ; yet they did not sally out upon them till it was too late . from the 14. of april that titus sate down before them , the account of those that died by famine was kept by mannoeus , who had the charge of carrying out the dead bodies to the 1st . of iuly , and it swelled up to an hundred and fifteen thousand and eight hundred : this was besides those who were carried out by their friends . after that he fled to the romans , and those who were appointed still to take care of the dead , told that the number was grown up to six hundred thousand . and thus the greatest , and once the best , but then the worst city in the world , perished in so terrible a manner , that the history of it would pass for a melancholy aggravating of matters beyond the possibilities of truth , if he that wrote it had not been an eye-witness , and a person of so true a judgment , of so much probity , and so full of affection to his country , that there is no reason to suspect the relation that he has made of it ; which as it is by much the saddest piece of history , so it is that which can never be enough read ; for it will alwaies leave a very good impression upon the reader 's mind . but this is not to be read meerly as a signal transaction that pass'd 1600 years ago , but as a standing monument of the severity of the justice of god against an impenitent and rebellious nation : and if these things were done in the green tree , what shall be done in the dry ? if the seed of abraham , isaac , and iacob were so used , why should others hope to escape , if they become guilty of the like ingratitude ? and since the immediate cause of their ruin was that mutual fury that transported them into the most extravagant excesses , and which blinded them in all they did , and made them neglect the most obvious and certain methods for their preservation , either in the way of treaty or of defence ; what a melancholly prospect does this set before us , who have such a mighty enemy to deal with , that all our heads , hands , and purses united against him , will find work enough , and yet are reviving with the old and once extinguished names our old animosities , to so high a degree , that this puts every thing to a stand , even the thoughts of good and wise men . it was once hoped , that all past errors had been forgot , especially in those who in a time of danger , when they saw the tendency of some steps into which they had been engaged , made so generous a resistance , and stand against the common enemy , which shewed the sincerity of their hearts , and their firmness to the religion and laws of england ; and that former errors had been the effects of a too great easiness to believe and to think well of others . but when this city was so much united in so noble a resistance to barefac'd popery and tyranny ; who could have thought that upon such a deliverance as we have been blest with , we should not have improved it much further than we have done , for those great ends for which we have reason to believe , that god has sent it to us . if some years agoe , when all were under those fears , out of which god has brought us , and were joyned together in that struggle for our most holy faith , out of which if we had not all escaped , we must all have perished together ; any one had said , that either differences of opinion , or any former errours would have made us fall out again , if god should again have blest us with the return of religion , and of our laws in their ancient force ; he would have been looked on by all as a melancholy presager of evil things . but we are now just in this , or rather in a worse condition : a violent aversion , and a mortal jealousie appears on all hands , we fancy we are not safe from one another ; and by our fancying it , we render our selves indeed unsafe . if this should have come upon us after we had got entirely out of all our difficulties and dangers , it had been bad enough ; but in a state of calm we could have better born such concussions , and should have had time to look out for proper remedies ; but while we are yet in so much danger , while union is so necessary to all our common preservation , that we should now embroil our selves , and the publick ; as it is just that very madness which our enemies would wish to us , so it carries in it so terrible a character of god's casting us off , and giving us up to the counsels of our own hearts , that if by the earnest prayers of those who mourn in secret , and the hearty endeavours of such as are fitted for such healing work , we cannot cure this disease , we must give our selves for a lost nation . if attempts this way prove unsuccessful , then every man must prepare himself the best he can , to bear the share that he himself must expect in the miseries of his countrey . and if through our passions and follies , god does deliver us up into the hands of our implacable enemies , as we must expect that they will take care , that we shall never be in a condition to shake off the yoke again : so to every one whose passions have transported him into those excesses which are like to be fatal to us , the remembrance of this will be one of the most insupportable ingredients in his misery , that he had procured it to himself . o israel thou hast destroyed thy self ! will carry in it a terrible sound , when the application will be so just . suffer me then in the words of st. paul , to say , is there not a wise man among you ? i speak this to your reproach . is every man so soured with the leaven of a party , that he cannot see himself , or make others observe the tendency of all this ? were the wrongs done so great that they cannot be forgiven ? are the differences so wide that they cannot be healed ? is there no balm in gilead , and is there no physician there ? have we no sense of all that god has done for us ? will we quite defeat , and disappoint it ? have we no sense of god's forgiving us our many hainous sins ? have we no regard to the great example of the holy jesus , who here mourned over that city , which was in a few days to cry out against him , crucifie , crucifie ? and do we not consider the unexampled gentleness of him whom god has set over us , whom perhaps some may think merciful to an excess : but it is a happy state for subjects when this is one of their chief complaints . he to whom under god we owe our present peace and happiness , does both by his own practice , and his advices recommend this temper so earnestly to us , that if none of all these considerations of religion , reason , example and interest can work upon us , we must conclude , that this is one of the heavy judgments of god , which is already poured out upon us ; that is not only heavy in it self , but is chiefly heavy on this account , because it will most certainly draw a great many heavier ones than it self after it . if our differences were of so strange a nature , that no expedient could be offered that were proper to compose them , nothing in such a case should remain , but to cry out , the wound of the daughter of my people is greater than that it can be healed . but as it is a strange reproach to a physician , if one should die under his hand , of one of the slightest evils that could possibly affect the body of man ; so to see the peace of a city , or of a nation disturbed , not to say lost , upon such matters , must prove either that the humours are very bad , or that the wound has been but slightly cured , by those who perhaps instead of using lenitives to allay the heat , do rather inflame it . upon the whole matter , the right way of procuring fit remedies to all our evils , is to search and try our ways and to turn again unto the lord , to lift up our hearts with our hands unto god in the heavens , and to acknowledge that we have transgressed and rebelled : and that hither to god has not pardoned : that he covered us with his anger , and himself with a cloud : that fear and a snare is come upon us , that therefore our eye should run down without any intermission , till god look down and behold from heaven : and then we might see that god would hear our voice , and not hide his ears from our cry ; that he would draw near to us in those days that we call upon him , and say unto us , fear not : that he would plead our cause and redeem our life who sees the vengeance of our enemies , and all their imaginations against us ; and would render them a recompence according to the works of their hands , and persecute and destroy them in his anger from under the heavens . there remains little to be said to the last particular that i proposed , which is that which is implied in this period , that is in the form of a wish , or rather supposition : if thou hadst known , and so it is broken off abruptly , without adding any words , that import what should have followed upon it . but this is a figure natural enough to every language , without going to search for a hebraism : there being something in this way of expression , that is so tender and languishing that it exceeds any thing that could have come to give it a more regular conclusion . in a word , it imports that all that is great or good , all that they could wish for or desire , either with relation to the publick , or in their own particular , all the preservations and deliverances , all the felicities and prosperity of a nation , might be justly expected from so happy a discovery , and such a change in their tempers ; as first to find out , and know , and then to seek after the things that belonged to their peace . they could not indeed have continued to have been as they had been formerly the people of god , with the exclusion of all others ; but they would still have retained this priviledge that the gospel was to be offered to the jew first , and then to the gentiles ; so that they would have been always the first-born of the churches of god : and if they had received the messias , they might have continued to be the head of all nations . but it was otherwise appointed in the wise and holy councils of god , for reasons which we do not now perfectly understand . this only we know , that god's rejecting them was the calling of the gentiles . and indeed the tenderness of the expression here used , seems to import this that there was no hope of this supposition 's proving real : so the words that follow may be considered as the closing the period . i need not here enlarge to set before you the blessings that without flattering our selves too much , we may reasonably expect upon our setting our selves to find out , and to pursue the things that belong to our peace : they are both so visible in the natural consequences of things , and so eminent and great in themselves , that i cannot imagine how any one that loves his religion or countrey , himself , or his posterity , can think of them without feeling in himself all the emotions of joy , and all the fervency of desire upon so glorious and so amiable a prospect , that we shall be blessed in the city and blessed in the country , that the lord shall cause our enemies that rise up against us to be smitten before our face : and that he shall bless us in all that we set our hand to , and shall establish us to be a holy people to himself ; so that all the people of the earth shall see that we are called by the name of the lord , and shall be afraid of us , and that we shall lend to many nations , and not borrow . i will not offer to you the dismal reverse of all this , in the curses that are denounced upon a people that shall not hearken to the voice of the lord , nor observe his commandments to do them . i hope for better things from you , and such as accompany salvation , for which let us look up to him who can give us grace both to will and to do , to whom be glory and honour for evermore . amen . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswell . the fifteen notes of the church , as laid downby cardinal bellarmin , examined and confuted , by several london divines , 4o. with a table to the whole , and the authors names . an exposition of the ten commandments , by dr. simon patrick , now lord bishop of chichester . the christians's obligation to read the holy scriptures , by dr. stratford now lord bishop of chester . the texts which the papists cite out of the bible for proof of the points of their religion , examined , and shew'd to be alledged without ground . in twenty five distinct discourses , by several london divines , with a table to the whole , and the authors names . taxes no charge : in a letter from a gentleman to a person of quality : shewing the nature , use , and benefit of taxes in this kingdom ; and compared with impositions of foreign states . together with the improvement of trade in time of war. the case of allegiance in our present circumstances considered , in a letter from a minister in the city , to a minister in the country . 4o. a breviate of the state of scotland in its government , supream courts , officers of state , inferiour officers , offices , and inferiour courts , districts , jurisdictions , burroughs , royal , and free corporations . fol. some considerations touching succession and allegiance , 4o. reflections upon the late great revolution : written by a lay-hand in the country , for the satisfaction of some neighbours . the history of the desertion ; or an account of all the publick affairs in england , from the beginning of september 1688. to the twelfth of february following . with an answer to a piece call'd , the desertion discussed , in a letter to a country gentleman . by a person of quality . k. william and k. lewis , wherein is set forth the inevitable necessity these nations lie under of submitting wholly to one or other of these kings ; and that the matter in controversie is not now between k. william and k. iames , but between k. william and k. lewis of france , for the government of these nations . two sermons , one against murmurin● , the other against censuring : by simon pat ick , d. d. now lord bishop of chichester . an account of the private league betwixt the late king iames the second , and the french king. fol. mr. tully's sermon of moderation , before the lord mayor , may 12. 1689. an examination of the scruples of those who reiuse to take the oath of allegiance . by a divine of the church of england . a dialogue betwixt two friends , a iacobite and a williamite ; occasioned by the late revolution of affairs , and the oath of allegiance . the case of oaths stated . 4o. markam's perfect horseman , in fifty years practice , 8º hodder's arithmetick , 12o. an account of the reasons which induced charles the second , king of england , to declare war against the states-general of the united provinces in 1672. a letter from a french lawyer to an english gentleman , upon the present revolution . 4o. the advantages of the present settlement , and the great danger of a relapse . the interest of england in the preservation of ireland . a short view of the unfortunate reigns of these kings , william the 2d . henry the 2d . edward the 2d . richard the 2d . charles the 2d . and iames the 2d . dr. sherlock's summary of the controversies between the church of england and church of rome . the plain man s reply to the catholick missionaries . dr. wake 's preparation for death . — his tracts and discourses against popery , in 2 vol. 4o. — his twelve sermons and discourses , on several occasions . 8o. the devout communicant , assisted with rules for the worthy receiving : together with meditations , prayers , anthems , for every day in the holy week . valentine's private devotions , digested into six litanies , with directions and prayers for the lord's-day , sacrament , day of death and judgment . bishop burnet's sermon before the king and queen on christmas-day , 1689. — his sermon of peace and union , nov. 26. 1689. some remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the ancient churches of piedmont . by p. allix . dd. 4o. geologia : or , a discourse concerning the earth before the deluge . wherein the form and properties ascribed to it , in a book intituled [ the theory of the earth ] are excepted against : and it is made appear , that the dissolution of that earth was not the cause of the universal flood . also a new explication of that flood is attempted . by erasmus warren , rector of worlington in suffolk . a private prayer to be used in difficult times . a thanksgiving for our late wonderful deliverance : [ recommended chiefly to those who have made use of the prayer in the late difficult times ] a prayer for perfecting our late deliverance by the happy success of their majesties forces by sea and land. a prayer for charity , peace and unity , to be used in lent. dr. tenisou's sermon of discretion in giving alms , 12o. his sermon concerning doing good to posterity . preached before their majesties at whitehall , on feb. 16. 1689 / 90. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30433-e280 23 luk. 28 isa. 49. 8. vers. 43. psal. 89. 30 , 31 , 32 , 33. 6. gen. 3. 3. jonas 4. 14. numb . 33 , 34. 2 kings 24. 4. ierem. 5. 29. ezrah 9. 3 , 4. ver. 8. ver. 10. ver. 13. ver. 14 , 15. ezek. 14. 16. ezek. 9. 4 , 7. ranaldus's continuation of baronius . gal. 5. 15. 2 cor. 6. 5. lam. 3. 40. v. 56 , 57 , 58. v. 64. 66. rom ; 11. deut. 28. 3 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 1● . a sermon preached at white-hall before the king and queen on the 29th of april, 1691, being the fast-day by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1691 approx. 43 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30438 wing b5896 estc r4095 13677484 ocm 13677484 101262 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30438) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101262) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:13) a sermon preached at white-hall before the king and queen on the 29th of april, 1691, being the fast-day by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [4], 32 p. printed for ric. chiswell ..., london : 1691. half title: the bishop of sarum's fast-sermon before the king and queen, april 29, 1691. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng fast-day sermons. great britain -history -william and mary, 1689-1702 -sermons. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion published , by their majesties special command . a sermon preached at white-hall , before the king and queen , on the 29 th of april , 1691. being the fast-day . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert , lord bishop of sarvm . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxci . the bishop of sarvm's fast-sermon before the king and queen . april 29. 1691. psal. xii . 1. help , lord , for the godly man ceaseth ; the faithful fail from among the children of men . the unlooked-for turns of david's life afford us one of the most diversified and noblest scenes of history ; from the lowest condition of following the ewes great with young , which yet was the most innocent , as well as perhaps the happiest part of his life ; he was advanced to be the glorious champion and deliverer of his countrey ; he was raised to be the people's favourite , as well as the king's son-in-law : he had a secret intail of the crown setled on him by a divine appointment ; and saw the affections of his countrey concurring with the prophet's designation : he was by their indiscreet applauses , set so far above saul , as to give him just cause of jealousie ; and he found , that blessing and success followed him in every thing that he went about . but a reverse of fortune quickly overtook him ; he was pursued by a violent and a jealous tyrant ; forsaken by his friends and informed against by flatterers ; and at last forced to secure himself , by entertaining about him such a company as ran to him for shelter and protection ; who when they found themselves in grea● distress , were sometimes talking of stoning him ▪ only the great and generous ionathan , who of all others was the most concerned to have destroyed him , gave upon this occasion , the perfectest pattern of heroick friendship , and was ready even to sacrifice himself for him , whose fortunes and family could not rise , but upon the ruins of his own . in this cloudy revolution of david's affairs , it is probable that this psalm was penned , when all the prospect that he once had , seemed to fail ; which obliged him to flye to the divine help , since he found neither piety nor truth left among men , to which he could trust . it was no faintness of heart , nor want of courage , that brought him under this dejection of mind : his heart was as the heart of a lion ; yet he could expect little from a body of men , that had neither religion nor virtue among them : it is true , they flattered him , and boasted perhaps both of their zeal and valour ; they spake vanity wit● flattering lips , and with a double heart did they speak prou● things ; boasting , perhaps , their mighty performances and their great services . whatsoever they might do with their hands , they were sure , that with thei● tongues they would prevail : they were also liberal in their discourses , they thought their lips were their own , and they said , who is lord over us ? for tho their persons might be under his authority , they resolved their tongues should be under no restraint : his enemies were insolent and fierce , oppressing the poor and needy , adding the haughtiness of scorn , to the cruelty of malice : but the poor , while thus oppressed , sighed and cried to god , who as david believed , would at last arise , and set them at safety from 〈◊〉 that puffed at them ; and in conclusion , he was neither terrified with the strength of his enemies , nor with the weakness of his own party ; he trusted to the promises of god , which he knew had not that allay of dross , that was in the words of men ; they were pure words , free from all mixture , exactly true ; ●●ke silver after it has passed through the severest refinings ; and therefore since god had promised to ●aise him up to reign over his people , he was confident this would be performed ; and sure the promise was made to him , and to his posterity ; he was persuaded he should not only be preserved from that generation of his enemies , but that his posterity should be preserved for ever . this he concludes with a dark phrase , the wicked walk on every side , when the vilest men reexalted ; which is capable of this sense , that when david and his followers , who were then under much scorn , should be exalted , according to the promi● that god had made , this should so confound t●● wicked , that had both despis'd them and their hope that they should be struck with admiration and gi●diness upon it , like men that are staring at a strang● sight , and going round it , to view it on all sides . i now come to consider more closely my tex● which is a prayer of david's to god for help , on th● ground , that there was little or no religion or ●●●nesty left among men ; and that therefore he had n● reason to trust to them , or to expect a blessing 〈◊〉 such instruments ; on the contrary , he had all reaso● to expect heavy judgments from god upon them and therefore he prayed to him for help . in speaking to this , i shall consider , 1. what is the importance of the two characters here given , godly and faithful men . 2. the reasons that he might then have , an● that we now have , to lament , that there are men of that character to be found . 3. the sad consequences that are justly to be apprehended to a nation or interest , that is under suc● a destitution of religious and honest men. and 4 thly , the only remedy to all this , which is an earnest prayer to god for help . follow me in these things , with that closeness of thought , and that fixt seriousness of mind , which the importance of the matter , and the solemnities of the day do require . to return to the two characters of men in my text. the word rendred godly , in its strict signification imports a benign , gentle , and good-natured man ; but this has such a relation to religion , and is such a disposition to it , that among the iews this word was in common use extended to a man that was exact to all the duties of religion , and strict in the performance of them . a godly man is not one that places his religion in many assumed practices , that look solemn perhaps , but in their own nature do not tend to make him better ; that are matters of mere shew and pomp , which do begin with superstition , that is an over-doing and over-valuing indifferent things , and end in hypocrisie , faction , and ill-nature . a godly man is not he that understands his religion well , that can write , speak , and argue closely for it , and that can make both himself and others very angry about it , which is the true name for the greatest part of that which the world calls zeal . in a word ; a godly man is not he that is very regular in all outward rules , and matters of form , and that places his religion in the exact performance of such a circle of things , which are the external acts of religious worship , and in which a man may go the round very punctnally , through a course of many years , and yet never deserve the character of a godly man. he that is truly the godly man , is he that has an inward sense of a supreme power that is over him , that made and governs the world , and all things in it ; that is infinitely wise and good , and perfectly pure and holy ; that sees all things , and that will judg all men for every thing they do , at a great tribunal , where there shall be no respect of persons ; where all men , even the greatest , shall be set on the level with the meanest ; and where every one shall give an account of himself to god , and shall receive according to what he hath done in this life . a godly man is he on whose mind the sense of these things has so deeply seized , that he studies , above all things , to resemble that being as much as he can , and to raise his nature to be as perfect , as wise , and as good , as he can make it ; he endeavours to govern all his actions in a conformity to the will and laws of god ; he rejoices when he does those things that he knows are well pleasing to him ; and is much troubled , when the frailties of his nature , and the force of temptations , carry him to any thing that offends god. a godly man is he that does so firmly believe , that god by his providence warches over all things , that he does in all his ways resign himself up to his will , and submits to every thing that comes to him from that hand : and in sum ; a godly man is he that does always acknowledg god ; that rays to him for every good thing that he desires , and chiefly for the inward assistances of his grace , to reform and purifie his nature , and that blesses god for every good thing that he receives : when this godly man prays to god either in private or publick , he does it with so serious a temper of mind , and such a bent of thoughts , that he plainly perceives in himself , that what he does , is not the effect of habit or custom , but rises out of an apprehension of his own necessities , and of the fulness and goodness of god : this is the character of him that is truly godly ; who considers not religion as an engine to impose fears or hopes on the weaker part of mankind , as the most effectual way of governing them ; nor does amuse himself with speculations or disputes about it , as a notional and dry matter ; that does not consider it as the cement of parties , to form and advance low or base interest , but considers it as a design to form in a man new principles , out of which a new nature may grow ; but such a nature as will make him the best , the amiablest , the usefullest , and the perfectest creature that he can possibly be in this life , and that puts him in a certain way to be vastly more pure and perfect in another state . this man directs all his studies and practices in religion , to the advancing of these principles within himself ; and he gives the world so lovely a view of his religion , by what they see in him , that he does thereby promote it more effectually , than all the most learned disputers , or most eloquent persuaders can possibly do . and to advance this character to the next branch of it , a godly man is certainly a faithful man ; for he that has a true sense of religion in him , knows that god is true , and that in him there is no lye nor deceit ; that he abhors the deceitful man , and will destroy him that speaks lies . his religion , when it is true and unsophisticated , works him up to such a purity of mind , that he always speaks the truth as it is in his heart . his belief of the eye of god that sees through him , to which all things are naked and opened , and that will bring every secret thing to judgment , obliges him to a severity in the matters of truth , that will shut out not only plain downright lying and falshood , but that will raise him above all little and disingenuous arts and practices , to such a pitch of candor and sincerity , that every man who has any concerns with him , will soon see what he is to trust to , or to depend on . a faithful man is he that hates both lies and liars , and scorns those base and unworthy methods of slander and calumny ; he deceives no man ; he may and often ought to use decent and prudent reserves ; but in what he says and professes , he is exact often to keep within the truth , but never to go beyond it : he is true in his actions , as well as in his words ; he is just in all the commerce of life , upright in all dealings , punctual in performing agreements and promises , but slow in making many , because in these he may often forget ; but the world , that cannot know that to be true , will be apt to impute that failure rather to a want of sincerity , than of memory ; for when any thing is liable to two sorts of judgments , the one mild , and the other severe ; the ill natured and false part of mankind , which is always by much the greatest , will ever pass the worst construction that can be made . a man that has either the sense of truth in himself , or the sense of the absolute necessity of it to all human societies , for maintaining the commerce and confidence of mankind , will upon other principles besides those that arise out of religion , soon see the beauty of truth , and find the indispensible obligations that lie on him to love , and to practise it : yet all these are but seeble ties , in comparison with those that arise out of true religion , which has a deeper and more certain operation for the belief of the allseeing eye of god , and of the judgments to come ; are restraints of another nature , than all those which arise out of other considerations ; a man may be true and faithful , i confess , tho he has not much religion ; but he must be true and faithful if he has it : besides that , a religious man will be always true and faithful ; whereas he that is not so , will be , perhaps , true in the ordinary and more obvious parts of his life ; but when he thinks art and management a little necessary , and that he can avoid a discovery , he will dispense with all obligations , and allow himself great liberties . here we have in two words the character of such men in whom princes might well trust , and from whom they might expect a good account of all their affairs . a truly godly , and a sincerely honest man , is the support of a throne , and the security of a state ; and as there is a secret blessing about him watching over him , directing and prospering him in all his ways ; so there are charms in him which attract the esteem and love of all that know him : they see in him a foundation of confidence , and they look for every thing that is good from him when it goeth well with the righteous , the city rejoiceth ; as well as when the wicked perish there is shouting . set in the same light with this , the best drawn pictures of hero's and conquerors that are void of religion and vertue , who are the plagues and scourges of mankind , and you will soon see how ghastly and deform they look , compared to those bright characters with which the godly and the faithfull men shine . i go next to a more melancholly subject , which is to be the second part of my discourse ; david's complaint that the godly ceased , that the faithful failed from among the children of men . upon this subject we find another psalm that lies very near this , which carries the matter much further . not only godly men ceased , but the ungodly grew to that pitch , as to say in their heart , that there was no god ; they were corrupt , they had done abominable works , there was none that did good ; by a poetical figure he represents god as looking down from heaven , to see if there was any that did understand and seek after god. it is some comfort , to hope that even in a general corruption , there are some men in corners that have have kept their garments clean , and that stand in the breach , and keep off god's wrath from breaking in . now these words shut out that secret reserve of hope ; for after god is represented as thus surveying that nation , the account of the enquiry is , they are all gone aside , they are altogether become filthy , there is none that doth good , no not one . not only they did not call on god themselves , but they trod upon the poor , and oppressed them ; eating them up as one-eats bread ; they also reproached the poor because they trusted in god , which is thus expressed ; you have shamed the counsel of the poor , because the lord is his refuge . i will go on further into david's story , to examine upon what grounds it was , that he made the complaint in my text : he had the most reason to know it best , and was the most concerned at it . that nation was god's chosen people , upon whom he had bestowed many signal blessings ; they were the only nation , then in the world , that was in covenant with god ; they had past under much severe discipline , for their many revoltings from god ; they were often delivered up into the hands of their enemies , and were as often upon their repentance redeemed from them ; god raising up many deliverers , by whom he wrought upon many occasions a mighty salvation for them : and very lately god had delivered them out of the hands of the philistines , and had by a happy and well directed cast of a sling , delivered them from the terrour of a mighty champion , that according to the way of war in those times , was to be first fought with , that defied the armies of israel ; and was so formidable , that no man could be found that was thought an equal match to him , till the pen-man of this psalm , being animated and assisted by god , did both undertake and succeed in it . the people of israel had at this time none of the best kings indeed ; but ionathan was their prince : ionathan the wonder and the charm of all succeeding ages : ionathan , that shewed that true friendship could live in a court ; and that even the jealousie and rivalry of a crown could neither interrupt nor cloud it . ionathan the greatest of men , because the best and noblest of friends . next ionathan , in the eye of the people , tho before him in the divine designation , was david , in whom there appeared even then the most heroical piety , and the most shining vertues : tho afterwards the prosperities of an established reign corrupted even these : so hard a thing it is for piety and vertue to maintain their force in a flourishing court : yet at this time , and during the course of those struglings , through which he past , he was the most extraordinary example that any age had produced ; his skill in government , and his conduct in war , his successes and victories , gave him all the reputation of which a great prince was capable : but his piety is even beyond wonder ; which appears in his turning himself upon all occasions to god , and in his composing the greatest collection of inspired hymns that ever was made : in which the flights of raised thoughts , and the tenderness of melting devotions , have made a mixture , that has been the constantest and the pleasantest entertainment of the pious in all ages . no part either of the iewish story , or of his own , and no accident of his life , none of the depressions or elevations of his fortune have scaped him ; but upon all these a soul that was ever on the wing , takes its flights towards heaven , and in these he has left us the chief helps of raising all that have come after him thither-ward ever since . that nation that had so many advantages , and such helps , such laws , and such patterns , as it had much to answer for , so it had much to apprehend when it fell under so general a corruption . and now i leave the history of that nation to come and observe the present state of our own . ah , tell it not in gath ! where are the godly and the faithful men ? are they all gone into the generations of their fathers ? or are they as invisible as the seven thousand men were in elijah's time ; who tho they had not bowed their knee to baal , yet were so hid , and so little known , that even the prophet thought he was the only man that was left that had not defiled himself with that idolatry ? are we without a remnant ? are there not ten righteous men left , for whose sake god may be moved to spare and deliver us ? is there not a man among us according to ieremy's words ? are all gone aside ? is there none that doth good , no not one ? where is the piety and devotion , the zeal for religion , and the holiness becoming it , that was was once the strength , as well as the glory of this nation ? where is the truth and honesty , the common morality and probity that must be the strength of every nation ? have these things all left us ? and have we only a name , that we live , while we are truly dead ? we are now pretending to fast and pray ; and to humble and afflict our souls before god ; but are any of us looking inward , and saying within our selves , what have we done ? are we those that have troubled our israel ? it is a very easie thought , which will give us no pain at all , to accuse the sins of the nation in general , and more particularly the sins of others : these we may be apt enough to aggravate both in our thoughts and discourses : for naturally all men are partial to themselves , and sharp upon others . but then do we truly humble our selves before god , when we search our own hearts and ways , when we confess our own sins , with all the grief of heart and confusion of face that belongs to us for them ; with the firmest resolutions , and the most solemn vows of forsaking them . and that we may the better be directed to make a severe enquiry , let us reflect a little on the two characters in my text , and ask our own hearts , which will answer us truly if the question is right put , whether are we of the small and despised number of those that are truly godly and faithful or not ? have we a sense of god dwelling much upon our hearts ? is his fear much before our eyes ? does this principle make us do or forbear many things , that we would not do or forbear without it ? do we accustom our selves often to reflect on the works and ways of god ? do we acknowledge his providence , depend upon it , and in all things submit to it ? do we often consider that he sees and observes all we do , and that he will call us to give an account of it at the last day ? do we often pour out our souls before him in earnest prayer ? are we so sensible of our frailty and misery , that we cry mightily to god for mercy and grace ? do we often implore the assistances of his holy spirit , and bless him for all the good things that we receive at his hands ? do we often in our prayers to him intercede for all mankind ; and more particularly for the church and nation to which we do belong ? do we in our secret addresses to the throne of grace , make mention of those whom god in his merciful providence has set over us ? do we implore a blessing upon their persons and government , upon their counsels and undertakings ? do we upon these solemn days join our secret devotions with the publick offices ? and are we seriously affected with the state and the dangers of our religion ? do we rejoice in the publick acts of religious worship ? do we assist in them with our hearts , as well as with our persons ? have we a witness within us that can answer all these questions ? or must not we , to deal truly with our selves , acknowledge that we are strangers to them all ; and that tho religion is a name of so decent a sound , that we dare not directly attack it ; yet in our hearts we wish there were no such thing in the world : we are weary of it , and if we cannot conveniently throw off the very name and appearances of it ; yet we take care to let all the world see , that in our account it is no more than a name . if then the much greater part of mankind live as if there were no such thing as religion in all their thoughts , unless it be to abuse and profane it . if the whole course of their lives shew , that they have said in their hearts that there is no god ; then we have but too much reason to cry out , help , lord , for the godly man ceaseth . and alas there is but too much reason to add , and the faithful faileth from among the children of men : and that the whole charge of the prophet belongs too truly to us , that there is no mercy , no truth , nor knowledge of god in the land , while every man is ready to cheat and deceive his neighbour , to flatter him with the shews and professions ; and perhaps the oaths and protestations of kindness ; while in his heart he hates him , and endeavours to undermine him ; while calumny and slander are the most common heads of discourses ; while no trust can be given to what is said , and almost as little regard to what is sworn ; while it is one of the arts of conversation to affirm things which are known to be false , and to promise things which are not intended to be observed ; while all these things are so common among us , where is that truth in the inward parts which god loves ? where is the probity and fidelity that is practised among many heathen nations , with so religious a simplicity , that the very name of christianity is blasphemed among them ? when the christians that go from us , and carry with them those qualities that they had learned in these parts , are for this very reason thought to have a false religion , because they are so impudent in the practises of falshood and dissimulation . and while we reproach the church of rome with the doctrines of equivocation , as the arts and disguises of falshood , the greater part among our selves practise these things in so bare-faced a manner , as if they were angry only at the dressing up and disguising of them , and resolved to practise a more honest falshood , would avowedly practise that which the others teach us to do covertly . ah , if according to the threatning , god would cut off all lying lips , under what a desolation should our cities and countries , our courts and camps be quickly brought ; it would destroy us faster than famines , plagues , or wars could do . and this leads me to the third part of my discourse ; which is to consider the dangerous and almost desperate state of a nation , in which godly and faithful men do fail . it is dangerous by reason of the natural effects that must needs follow on such a corruption , besides the judgments of god that it must draw down upon a nation . where men are no more restrained by the principles of religion , they naturally give themselves up to their pleasures or interests : this makes them both feeble and effeminate , base and treacherous . when inward restraints are taken off , nature must break out , and undisciplined appetites and passions must work the dissolution of society and government ; especially where liberty is preserved , and law bears sway . absolute governments may be restrained and maintained at the pleasure of a severe prince : but a legal and free government cannot stand long against an inundation of vice and impiety . so that here religion becomes indispensably necessary , even for the preservation of the constitution : for how can men live long together in any tolerable order and quiet , if neither the fear of god , nor the awe of man restrains them . the censures of the law fall only upon some enormous crimes , but the corruption of mens morals and principles , cannot be reached in a government that is exactly legal . therefore such a constitution must either be fortified by religion , otherwise it must turn feeble and fall into decay , and in fact we see that no free government was over-run with tyranny , till the minds of the people , by the abuse of their liberty , were corrupted with sensuality . this blunts industry , and raises the expence beyond the income , which must quickly bring ruin after it . the expence of vice must be supported with extortion and oppression , corruption and bribery . the ravenous men of pleasure , as they do little for the publick , so they think they can never rob it enough . the love of the publick , and of ones country , which is the root of the most generous actions , of which the nature of man is capable , sinks in a man dissolved into pleasure , or sold to interest . a noble contempt of life , which gives an heroical courage , that is the chief instrument of the preservation of a nation , has no true foundation but in religion . not to fear death , in one that has reason to believe there is a black immortality that comes after it , is madness , and an unthinking extravagance , and not a true and setled courage . whereas to him that has a good conscience , that trusts in god and serves him , and that has reason to believe that he shall be for ever happy in another world , death cannot be terrible , but may be thought on , and ventured on with an undaunted firmness of mind . the want of truth destroys all confidence and kindness among men , without which societies are but as ropes of sand. men can neither trust a false man , nor love him ; and what strength can there be in any government , where there are no foundations for these ? it would be too invidious to bring all these things , that have been said in general , nearer us ; and to observe how far they belong to us . alas , the matter is but too plain , and needs no enlargement . what pains has been taken among us , to laugh out of our minds the sense both of religion and vertue ? these have long pass'd for things of the old world , that are now out of fashion . and it is but too visible , that the heat which many shewed some time ago for preserving their religion , flowed from any principle rather than affection to it , or zeal for it ; since they do now shew so little concern for it , and live so little suitably to it . ah , have we our religion for no other end , but to be laugh'd at and despised by some , while it is made by others only matter of passion and faction ? where are the most common vertues of ordinary heathens ? are honesty and truth , sobriety and chastity , mercy and charity , generosity and good nature , only so many splendid names of qualities that are to be admired in the men of former ages , while they are despised in the present ? and what can we think of our selves , when that which is the root and spring of all other political vertues , the love of our country , and a zeal for the publick , is so visibly sacrificed to private interests and passions ? these things do as certainly dissolve the strength of a nation , as palsies or gouts do the strength of a body . but as so universal a degeneracy does by its own operation weaken a nation , so it draws down heavy judgments from heaven upon it . every man's indignation against faulty persons , encreases in proportion to the favours that have been shewed , but despised by the offenders . the judgments of god upon the jewish nation , and upon the roman empire , are things so generally known , that i presume it is not necessary to enlarge much upon them : the instances of past-times are perhaps at too great a distance from us to affect us as they ought to do . but in our own age , do not we see how god has arisen to shake the whole earth terribly , and that his judgments have been going round the whole compass of europe , while we , as if we had been the priviledged corner of the world , have indeed heard of these things , and seen them at a distance , but have not yet felt them ? how many protestant churches have been plucked up by the roots ? how terribly have many others been shattered and next to ruined ? what scenes of blood and destruction , of burning and vastation , have the netherlands , the rhine , and hungary , been now in a course of twenty years , with very little interruption ? and not to go out of the precincts of this crown , what a field of blood , of death and desolation , has ireland been , and alas still is ? and yet all this while none of these dreadful things have broke in upon us . we do indeed feel them a little in our purses ; but ah , how light is this burden compared to that which others bear , whose persons and houses , their estates and whole stock , are every day exposed , not only to the fury of their enemies , but even to the violences of those that ought to be their friends ; for in all wars it is but too common , that countries suffer almost equally from both sides . and if one should judg of that easy share of taxes which we bear in so terrible a convulsion of all europe , by the prodigality and luxury , the gaming , the playhouses , and the other extravagant expences that are still among us , one would conclude that men are not much pinched , when there is so much left for vanity and pleasure . a moderate frugality would do more than pay taxes . and when men grudg their religion and their country , the sacrificing that to it which they had better be without , tho that were not in the case , it must be concluded that they have no great regard for either the one or the other . but while we see that god's judgments are abroad in the earth , why should we flatter our selves so far as to think that they should never come near us ? or rather on the other hand , why should we not conclude , that the seeming partiality of his providence hitherto to us-ward , will be fully cleared by the severity of his judgments , when he shall think fit to let them loose upon us ? for certainly , the longer they are delayed , they will fall the heavier at the last : if neither the light we enjoy , nor the deliverance that has been almost as miraculously , tho more slowly carried on and maintained amongst us , as it was at first given to us ; if neither the miseries of others , nor our own extream dangers ; if neither the great instructions that are given us , nor the shining examples that are set before us can reclaim us , but that we will still go on , and sin with a high hand , then what remains for us but to cry , help lord , for the godly man ceaseth , the faithful fail from among the children of men ? the more reason that we have to apprehend judgments from god for our own sins , we have still the more reason to redouble our most earnest prayers to him , help lord : if god do not help us , for his own great name's-sake , and for the sake of that small number of intercessors that we hope are still among us , the cry of whose prayers may be more effectual , than the loud cries of the multitudes of sinners ; we see before our eyes , all that can be formidable to men , who have any regard , either to their souls or bodies , to their estates or their posterity ; if god should now withdraw his help , and abandon us , there is nothing that the most melancholy and afrighted imagination can set before us , that can rise up to the miseries that we shall most certainly fall under . that small but much-boasted earnest of burning upon our coast last year , was the true sample of what we may then look for : wasting and destruction must walk over the land as a flood sweeping all before it . and as we have no defended cities , nor passes to stop the fury of a enraged enemies , if they can but once break in upon us ; so the interest they have to make this nation a heap of ruins , and the particular rage with which their spirits are whetted against us , and the fury of their priests , the outragiousness of their souldiery , and above all the barbarity of the counsels that direct them , give us the certainest grounds of apprehending utter destruction . if they have used the countries of their own religion so as they have done , where there has been neither faith kept , nor mercy shewed ; then we may justly apply these words of our saviour to our selves , if these things be done in the green tree , what shall be done in the dry ? if ever god for our sins deliver us up to such a devouring calamity , then these will be the only happy men of the nation , who are now thought the most impardonable ; for they will quickly fall sacrifices to the rage of their enemies , and will not endure the lingring torment of seeing and feeling the miseries of their country , in which all must perish at last ; for late instances , but feeble ones in comparison to those dismal things that are before us , if those black days should come upon us , may have taught those unnatural protestants and unnatural englishmen , that would be at first insulting upon the ruin of their country , that they would be very soon looked on as the worst of enemies , if they should afterwards pretend but to think of preserving the religion and the laws . this is but a small part of that dismal catastrophe which we must look for , if god should deal with us as our sins have deserved at his hands . and are not all these powerful arguments to press us to call on god mightily for his help ? can we look on tamely when so much is at stake ? can we be indifferent , when no less than the destruction of our country , the loss of our religion , and the ruin of the whole reformed side all europe over , is the judgment which threatens us , if god is not appeased , and his wrath turned away by a serious repentance and a true reformation , without which the utmost fervour of our prayers is but the heat of imagination , and can signify nothing ? the barbarous hatred which we lie under , from those who pretend to be of the same religion with us , is somewhat extraordinary ; but the stupid and unconcerned indifferency of those who are , or at least seem to be , with us , is yet in some respects more amazing , who perhaps look on all that is doing as if it were other mens work and not their own ; as if it were only done for the establishing of the throne of our princes , and not for the preservation and happiness of the nation ; and as if the quarrel were personal and not national . we have princes who shew us but too often how regardless they are of their own persons , and how much they consider the publick : and who can neither be kept from the danger nor the fatigue of campagnes ; when , to the lasting reproach of the youth of the nation , so many choose to loiter it away at home in luxury and effeminacy , rather than go and learn how to defend their country , and shew that they have the zeal and affection for their religion , their king and their country , which becomes their blood , and the rank that they hold in it . they deceive themselves , who think that the present quarrel is any other than religion and england . while then all is struck at , why are not all concerned , since every man must bear his share in the issue ? shall those that go out in our armies and fields ; and with all dutiful reverence be it said , shall his majesty alone carry away the whole honour of preserving and saving the nation ? have we who stay at home no ambition to share with them in it ? if we go on in our sins , we are fighting against them behind them , while they have a powerful enemy in head : but if we are fasting and praying while they are marching and fighting , there will be in this a strong reserve , and a mighty supply sent to them . we have on our side the justest cause that ever any nation engaged in : we have also on our side the sighs of many poor and needy persons , who have been made miserable by the treachery and cruelty of our enemies : so that according to the words of this psalm , we may hope that for the oppression and sighing of the poor and needy , god will now arise and set him in safety from him that puffeth at him . the cry of all that innocent blood that has been shed in a course of many years unjust wars , and cruel persecution , does all stand of our side . if then we join to these true repentance and earnest prayers , we may justly hope that they shall be heard , that god will arise , lift up his strength , and come and save us . it will be but a very light part of the war , if we lay upon our selves an obligation of offering up every day some petitions to god with relation to it , if we raise our fervor a little higher once a week , and if we observe the monthly fast with that solemn strictness which becomes so important an occasion , this will upon the whole matter bear a greater share in our preservation than our prophane libertines can understand . god is a hearer of prayer , and this will be a continuance in it , and a watching thereunto ; according to the apostle's phrase , that our prayers may go up before god as incense , we must cleanse our hearts , and wash our hands : we must put away from us the evil of our ways , and entertain nothing within us , by which our prayers may be hindred : for as the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous avail much , so the prayers of the wicked are sin. if we regard iniquity in our hearts , god will not hear us , but both we and our prayers shall be an abomination to him . let us then pray , and pray earnestly to god , that he may go forth with our fleets and armies ; and above all , that he may direct and bless , preserve and restore to us him that is the light of our eyes , and the breath of our nostrils , the only visible support , not only of these nations , but of religion and liberty in general : and that has hitherto been in so peculiar a manner the care of heaven , that nothing but our sins can make us doubt but that angels will still encamp about him , and watch over him . let us also pray , that the partner of his crown and throne may have the same gracious protection hovering over her , enlightning and prospering all her counsels ; and that this present separation that our common preservation makes necessary , may be of a short continuance , and have a glorious conclusion ; that this our fast may end in days of joy and thanksgiving , that we may be quiet and safe at home , and his majesty glorious and victorious abroad ; that instead of wars , and rumours of wars , which do so often endanger that life , which is the best part of ours , we may see those desirable and happy days , in which according to the prophetick phrase , the wolf shall dwell with the lamb , and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion shall lie down together , and a little child shall lead them . that so our princes being no more distracted with the more pressing and necessary care of our preservation , may be able to attend more entirely to that which they do so earnestly desire , the raising up the true lustre of this church and state , by reviving all those vertues which were the ancient glories of this nation ; and reforming all those abuses and disorders which the luxury of latter times have let in among us . may they live and prosper , and may every year be a new scene of glory to them , an encrease of triumph , and a progress of victory , and let all the people say , amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30438-e260 psal. 5. 6. psal. 15. 2. eccle. 12. 14. prov. 11. ●0 . psal. 14. hosca 4. 1. isa. 11. 6. a sermon preached at white-hall, on the 26th of novemb. 1691 being the thanksgiving-day for the preservation of the king, and the reduction of ireland / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1691 approx. 58 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-11 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30439 wing b5897 estc r19828 12115848 ocm 12115848 54301 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30439) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 54301) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 760:8) a sermon preached at white-hall, on the 26th of novemb. 1691 being the thanksgiving-day for the preservation of the king, and the reduction of ireland / by the right reverend father in god, gilbert lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [3], 35 p. printed for ric. chiswell ..., london : 1691. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -sermons. bible. -o.t. -proverbs xx, 28 -sermons. kings and rulers -duties. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-09 melanie sanders sampled and proofread 2004-09 melanie sanders text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the bishop of salisbury's thanksgiving sermon before the king and queen . printed , by his majesty's special command . a sermon preached at white-hall , on the 26 th of novemb . 1691. being the thanksgiving-day for the preservation of the king , and the reduction of ireland . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert lord bishop of sarum . london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxci . a sermon preached before the king and queen , at white-hall , &c. prov . xx. 28. mercy and truth preserve the king ; and his throne is upheld by mercy . there is no properer nor usefuller way of praising god for the repeated blessings with which ●he crowns every year , and by which he is establishing and perfecting that great deliverance which he wrought for us three years ago , than to observe the dependance of these blessings upon the following of those rules which he himself has prescribed : by this , we are preserved from the false opinion of a partiality of the divine providence towards our selves or others ; or the supposing that it will still favour us , let us be or do what we please . and by this we are taught , that we ought not to expect the continuance of gods favour to us , any longer than we continue true to those laws and rules that he has given us . and therefore in psal. 107. where the blessings that god grants to those who in their extremities call upon him , are set forth with much variety , and in a very poetical strain ; the conclusion of all is , who is wise , and will observe these things , even they shall understand the kindness of the lord. if we are full of the sense of the goodness of god both to our king and to our selves , in the preserving the king's person , and in the maintaining the throne , which are the two subjects of the present thanksgiving ; it is fit and proper for this occasion , to observe what may be supposed to be the conditions upon which such blessings are granted , and upon the continuance in which , we may hope for the continuance and encrease of them . since then solomon was the wisest of men , as well as of kings , and that his wisdom was , without doubt , chiefly applied to that which was his proper business ; we may very certainly depend upon his observation , tho' there had not been a special inspiration accompanying it . he , in the words of my text , makes the preservation of kings , to depend upon their mercy and truth : but he plainly insinuates , that mercy had in this , the largest share ; and therefore in the redoubling of the period , mercy is only named ; so that the weight and stress of his observation , and by consequence of this discourse , must lye upon mercy , tho truth and fidelity must likewise have its share . the chief glory of princes , and the chief of their titles , tho they should swell them up with all the loftiness of the eastern courts , is , that they are god's deputies and vicegerents here on earth ; that they represent him , and by consequence , that they ought to resemble him . the outward respect paid them , carries a proportion to that character of divinity which is on them , and that supposes an imitation of the divine perfections in them . every man is made after the image of god ; and in the right of that , he hath a dominion over this earth , and all its productions ; over all the beasts of the field , the fowls of the air , the fishes of the sea : but as much as men are preferable to all these , so much ought those who have dominion over them , to excel all others in this resemblance . it is a noble thought in plutarch , that there are three things for which we adore the deity , and in which we desire to resemble it ; eternity , power , and goodness ; for eternity , we all know we are mortal , and cannot live for ever ; the elements and frame of things last much longer ; power is a gift of fortune , nor is it in it self any great matter ; storms and thunders have more force , than the most mighty potentates : but virtue and goodness , which lye within all mens reach , are the resemblances of the supream being , which make every man shine ; and render those that are in power and authority , truly divine . the famous panegerick has exprest this , not more nobly than truly : what greater , or usefuller gift can the divinity bestow upon mortals , than a prince that is virtuous and holy , and that resembles the gods themselves ? ( pardon this ill-sounding expression of his heathenism ) who governs so as to remember , both that he himself is a man , and that they are also men over whom he is set ; and that considers that his own innocence is his best defence , and his surest guard. crowns and scepters when ill-placed , discover the defects of those whose minds are not equal to their fortunes , and make them more conspicuous and sensible : but when those whom they adorn , have the inward ornaments of real worth and goodness , they give them all possible advantages , and set them in a true light : for the brightness of majesty , when not tempered with the softness of mercy , is like a scorching sun , who destroys every thing upon which his beams do fall . the simplest notions which all men have of god , as well as the discoveries which inspired writings give us of him , represent him as a being , in which truth and goodness do dwell in perfection ; which are the attributes that we need the most , and to which we trust chiefly ; in which we rejoyce daily ; and for which we offer up our most solemn adorations . therefore whatever other characters of glory may appear upon princes , be they ever so wise and vigilant , so brave and generous ; let them have all the arts of government , all the oeconomy and conduct , all the magnificence and lustre possible ; the vastest treasures , the strongest frontiers , and the most victorious armies ; yet where mercy and truth are wanting , where they are perfidious and cruel , they are rather the representatives of him that was a lyar and a murderer from the beginning , than of that god , who is just and true in all his ways , and merciful and gracious towards all his works . if these are wanting , the greater they are in all other respects , they are the juster resemblances of those apostate spirits , the princes of the power of the air , who have great dominions , and a vast activity , but it is all imployed to mischief and ruine ; and as their worshippers in some barbarous nations , reckon that nothing works so powerfully for appeasing their anger , or procuring their favour , as rivers of gore ; and that they are then best pleased when their altars swim in humane blood ; so those who delight in blood , in innocent blood , and especially in the blood of their own subjects , shew what is the original after which they copy , and the pattern upon which they form themselves . a true picture of the deity , is a prince , that loves his people , and is tender of them ; that renders them safe by his protection , and happy by his justice : that is true to his promises , and careful of his laws : and that how severe so ever he may be in punishing offences against others , and in maintaining the peace and order of the community , yet is gentle to offences against himself : except when his care of the publick obliges him to let the law take its course : and even then , private revenge is so far from being his motive , that he is forced to do violence to his own inclinations , which are always gentle and compassionate . a prince so tempered puts a temptation upon his people , ( if they are not under the conduct of a religion that guides them by surer lights ) to suspect that he is allied to the divinity it self ; and is something of a god in humane appearance : and therefore no wonder if after his death they follow him with divine adorations . and as this in barbarous ages gave the rise to almost all the idolatry of the greeks , so even in more polite times the roman historian observes , that no man made any shews of mourning or lamentation at marcus aurelius's funeral , all men holding it for certain , that as he had been lent to the world by the gods ; so he was then gone back to take his place again among them . to us who know better things , this is certain , that a bad king is one of the severest instances of gods anger against a nation : a plague heavier than either famine , sword , or pestilence . for how sensible or afflicting soever these may be , they are no sooner over than all their ill effects go off with them : whereas a prince whose ill example has corrupted a nation , or whose ill designs have divided and distracted it ; leaves behind him a ferment which will be working perhaps for some ages after he is asleep in his grave : on the other hand a prince that is just and true , gracious and merciful , shines with so benigne an influence that as a good season not only gives us warm and healthful air while it lasts , but does also ripen those fruits of the earth , upon which we must subsist after it is gone ; so by his good government that is duly tempered between rigorous severity and too indulgent goodness , he no ● only makes his subjects happy , during so blest a reign , but lays the foundations of a felicity which will be more lasting then the princes themselves , who tho they are called gods , yet must die like men . there is no need of the art and eloquence of a studied paneygrick to set forth the happiness of such a government : it speaks it self , and is well perceived , tho it may neither be decent nor indeed scarce possible to set it out in words . it argues a defect in the subject , when art and skill must be imployed to raise it . pompous figures , big words , and a laboured method are false lights which are only necessary for counterfeits : and as the arts of juglars can impose no belief when every one is before hand perswaded , that their performances are only the sleights of hand , so it is as vain an attempt to perswade men that they are happy when they know they are not so ; as it is a needless one to enlarge upon that which all men feel better then any one can describe . it becomes this place and this day better to observe what god has made the means of preserving the persons and upholding the throne of our kings , that so by adhearing steadily to these we may secure the blessings that we have in hand and promise our selves such a progress in them that the next return of a day of this kind , may be to celebrate an entire deliverance from all our enemies ; a peace abroad as well as we have it now at home , of which the advances made this year are to us a good pledge , if our relapses do not retard and set it back . we sent away our king with fasting and prayer : we seemed then all sensible how great a hazard every one of us run , in all those dangers to which we knew he would be ready to expose himself : it is to be hoped that many continued to send their most earnest prayers after him . we wished to hear of action , but we wished and trembled at the same time : we knew he was not like those princes who never fail to take care of themselves , whatever they may do of their people : and will keep themselves at a sure distance , when by a very unjust division they leave the danger wholly upon others , while they assume the honour intirely to themselves . we trembled , for as davids men said , not more truly than we might do upon this occasion , that his life was worth ten thousand of us , so we were sure that danger could have no other effect upon him , but to make him run the deeper into it , till he should break through it : our wishes for action , and our fears for his person were things so interwoven that it heaven has not granted us that we wished for , it was that we might be saved from what we feared , since an entire victory with that loss had been our ruine . god has now brought him back to us in safety , and with this fresh lustre on him , that as the enemy by their extravagant rejoycing last year , upon his supposed death , shewed how much they apprehended his life ; so this year by their constant declining of all actions , how much soever invited and provoked to it by him , and by the attack that was made just after his leaving the army , shewed that they considered him as an army alone : or as the soul that gave life and spirit to all the rest . but they found that he had been so long among them and was so newly gone from them , that the powerful influence wrought still in his absence . we have had many instances , in every season , and in both elements how watchful providence has been about that life , that secures all ours , and renders them comfortable and happy to us : had it not been for this , the second gunpowder plot had proved as fatal as the first was intended to be . in defeating the first the good nature of the discoverer , and the sagacity of the prince had their share , but here providence interposed without an instrument : the train was fired and had its first effect , but the invisible direction appeared in that critical minute next to a miracle , the dismal treachery was defeated , and the traytors were discovered . can we but open our thoughts a little to measure all the terrible effects of one dreadful moment , the destruction of a great part of the army , and but too probably the loss of that sacred life , which if it had escaped the first violence of the fire , must have perished in the fatal train of consequences that would have followed upon it : who is so fond of life as to desire to have outlived the fate of religion , of england and of europe ; with which that black night seemed big ; after that darkness who would have desired to have enjoyed the light any more ; or to have beheld those scenes of horrour and spectacles of misery that must have followed , and have seen europe divided between its eastern and western devourers . but that a train so dextrously laid , and so successful in its first operations , should have no farther effect but to shew at once both the greatness of the danger , and the yet greater care of heaven , to teach more precaution , and to discover the blackness of our enemies , looks , as if every year were to produce a new and unlookt for wonder ; and that the cannon ball upon the boyne , and the bombs upon the eure , are instances vying one with another , both in the nearness of the danger , and in the greater nearness of that favour which compasses the king about as with a shield : such an extraordinary preservation may justly swallow up ones thoughts so entirely , that other things may be forgot by the transport it raises yet upon due recollection tho this is enough to fill us with deep acknowledgments ; we have another scene of wonders before us . our neighbouring island had been long in a most terrible convulsion , the seat of war and rapine : the fire and the sword , had gone over the breadth and the length of it , and had turned it to a heap of ruines and ashes . the inhabitants reduced on the sudden , from a full plenty , to the extremities of misery ; multitudes of all ranks and ages , and of both sexes , were forced to fly hither , and sink under the heavy load of want. it is true , they found relief both from the royal bounty , and the charity of this nation : but after all , as charity is a word of hard digestion to a generous mind , so their numbers made , that every ones share must be small where so many wanted . our enemy had created to us a vast distraction on that side , which supported the spirits and hopes of our secret , and perhaps , our most malicious enemies here at home . the slow motions at the beginning of the summer , together with some other accidents , made all people apprehend that the miseries of that kingdom were like to lie upon it yet one year longer . but the unexampled courage of our army , and the great zeal and fidelity of those that commanded it , broke through all obstacles ; in a series of actions , every one of which will pass down to posterity among the wonders of military valour , and the prodigies of gallantry and success ; and , in conclusion , when relief was so near , when they were pressed with no necessities , but those which their own fears or disorders threw them into , so that there was all possible reason to fear another cruel winter , as well as a fourth bloody summer ; that kingdom is intirely reduced , and in that , the civil war is at an end , and our kings are possessed of the love and duty , or at least , of the fear and dread of all their subjects . here we have all that can work , either on our compassion for our brethren , or our care of our selves to raise and fill our hearts with joy and gladness . our miserable brethren , who for a great while never lay down without looking for a dreadful alarm of flames about them , or of enemies no less merciless than these , and , next to the fury of their cruel enemies , were most affraid of some of their unruly friends ; they do now lie down and sleep in peace , and are setting about the cultivating of their wasted fields , and the re-building their ruinated cities . we are delivered from the danger , as well as the charge of that devouring war , and being now quiet at home , we are more at leisure , and in a better capacity to look abroad into the world , and to reassume that which is the true honour , as well as the interest of this government , ( how much and how fatally soever it may have been , not only neglected , but betrayed for almost a whole age ; ) of adjusting the scales , and maintaining the ballance of europe . these are such signal blessings , that it may seem a diminution of them , to bring lesser matters into the account , which yet deserve well to be remembred : every one of them carries shining characters upon it of gods care of us , and his goodness to us . all that related either to our selves , or our allies , has been visibly under that protection ; our concerns have been every where safe , and in many places glorious and triumphant . our enemies have failed in their undertakings , and most of ours have succeeded : our wealth and trade has been preserved , and our fleets have returned with this glory , that no enemy durst look upon them . we are now in peace and safety , in plenty and abundance : and let us look abroad , and see if there is any nation under heaven that has half the blessings to answer for that we have . thus it is plain , that our king has been wonderfully preserved , and his throne no less wonderfully upheld . our next enquiry must be , what share mercy and truth , but more eminently mercy , may have in this . mercy is that divine temper that makes us both pity the miserable , and forgive the injurious ; the former of these is more universal and natural to mankind , the second is more heroical and divine , it works in opposition to the sense of injuries , and the resentment which arises out of that , which if not check'd by better thoughts , and a nobleness of soul , raises a ferment that works strongly in ungoverned nature . the elevation of princes , as it raises them above the common miseries of mankind , so it very often makes them insensible of those calamities which their subjects suffer often by their means ; they are so accustomed to be slattered by others , that by degrees they come to slatter themselves , as if they ought to take no share in other mens troubles . but as the divine goodness extends to all , and his tender mercies are over all his works ; so princes that pity the miserable , and provide for them , that give both access and redress to their complaints , that protect them by their justice , and relieve them by their mercy , and that with the roman emperour , reckon that day lost in which no occasion has been given them of doing good , of making a sad heart glad , and a miserable family easie ; such princes , i say , by imitating the supream being in one of its fairest and lovliest perfections , come under its particular care . they have also instead of other taxes , the praises and prayers of great multitudes ascending up continually as incense before god : these according to daniels advice to a very bad king , are a redeeming their iniquiries , and do procure a lengthning of their tranquillity : and if they could have such effects in favour of an idolatrous tyrant , what may princes that are good and religious expect from them ? what may they not expect from them ? they by such acts of mercy , procure to themselves many affectionate and zealous subjects . even those who do not need this instance of their mercy , yet must love them for it ; they know they may need it , so they have that reserve for misfortune . in a word , this forces the love of mankind , and draws down the favour of heaven : yet , after all , a good and generous nature finds no difficulty in such acts of mercy . treasure is not much exhausted by them , and the true pleasure that they give a noble mind , seems to be reward enough : therefore we must next look to acts of mercy of another sort , where nature is more heated , and has a biass another way . mercy to the injurious is certainly the harder performance : where the dignity of the person exalts one to so high a sublimity , the insolence of an injury gives a particular sharpness , which is heightned if done with scorn , and delivered in opprobrious words ; if there is black ingratitude as well as deliberate malice in it ; if there is a venom in the spite that makes it both restless and poisonous ; and if it has ill effects at present , and may probably have worse afterwards . when all these concur in offences against princes , it must be acknowledged , that acts of mercy , done after such provocations , carry so very near a resemblance to that infinite goodness , which is kind to the unthankful and the evil : that , all things considered , mortals can scarce rise up to a higher pitch of conformity . david found in himself , that if an enemy had reproached him , he could have born it ; but it was his equal , ( one whom he had made so by his friendship , ) his guide , and his acquaintance : and this was too hard for him , his heart burnt within him : and he broke out into such complaints and wishes upon it , that it is not easie to know how to explain or justifie them . it is a consideration apt to beget rage even in the mildest breasts , of those against whom the injury does not work immediately , to see a sort of men who live safe under the justest and gentlest of all governments , go about with a restless fury , endeavouring to overturn it , to corrupt the minds of the nation , and to debauch them from the duty and gratitude that they owe to princes , who seem born for the good of mankind , for the protection of religion , and for raising the honour of the nation , that was sinking into such a shameful degeneracy , that a mighty influence and great examples were necessary to restore us to that from which we had fallen . if these were only the practices of those of a different religion , we might the better bear them , because we could expect no other from them : but the reproach is more sensible , as well as the danger is greater , from false brethren , who like the men of smyrna that called themselves jews , but were not , and were of the synagogue of satan , may call themselves english men and protestants , but are of the synagogue of the great enemy ( for that is the signification of the word satan ) of our nation , of our religion , and of mankind . they seem to have persuaded themselves and study to persuade all others , that what we may have heard of his cruelty , are only tragical stories aggravated far above the truth ; that we need fear nothing , tho' we should fall under the heaviest of all plagues , even his tyranny ; but might be safe and happy under his protection , and in his friendship : and tho' the best soils of europe , even those of his own religion , no sooner become a prey to him than they are immediately fields of blood and bones , and scenes , of horrour and cruelty ; yet we have an unnatural race among us , that are so far in love with him , that even this dismal prospect cannot cure it . it cannot be denied , but that in all this there is great and just ground of provocation : but those who are called up to the higher regions of human nature , the elevation of whose souls is proportioned to that of their condition , as they have a greater compass in their prospect , so they have another pitch of sublimity in their minds . they know that mercy does then shew its utmost force , when it is the most provoked . natures stampt upon with the divine image , feel more pleasure in pardoning than the most spiteful can do in revenging injuries . the interest they have in their people makes them reckon it a real diminution of their own strength ; when any member of the body is cut off : they feel the force of a generous action upon themselves , as they scorn the terrours of dreadful things , and are apt to make such experiments upon others to see how far the ingenuity of mankind can be wrought on ; and their courage makes them despise danger from a forgiven enemy . for tho' the trial succeeded ill with caesar , yet they do highly esteem that great saying of his , that it was better once to die , than to live always in fear . the princes whose names shine the brightest in history , are those whose clemency shewed it self , in the greatest instances , and after the highest provocations . saul , while under the influence of the divine spirit , and of that new heart that was given him at his exaltation , how much soever he degenerated afterwards , when he forsook that conduct and was forsaken by it , set a noble pattern in his first advancement , which is remarkable in all its circumstances . he was told by the prophet samuel , that god had designed him to be king of israel , and he felt the earnest of that in a prophetical spirit that rested on him . soon after , the whole nation fell into a great fermentation , and a hot canvassing for the crown : he who knew where all must end , yet would not make one step towards it ; he did not go about to manage intrigues and render himself popular , but withdrew and shut himself up all the while : at last the matter was put to a decision by lots , and the lot fell on him . he did not upon that rush out with any unbecoming joy , but staid till he was addressed to for it . then he was received and proclaimed king. immediately upon that he went into the country , probably without any great affectations of pomp or state : he considering his new dignity as a trust from god , a tie to his people , and an authority vested in him , not to make himself look big , but to make his people truly great and really happy : they whose heart god touched followed him : they distinguisht aright between the forms of majesty , and that true sublimity of mind , which makes kings great in themselves . but the men of belial who could not bear the yoke , nor be kept within the bounds of law and justice , who had a notion of a king , as a creature of pomp and pageantry , of vice and luxury , and of pride and insolence ; that should have authorized rapine and have dissolved law ; and who knew well that they would make a figure about such a prince , and were the only proper instruments that he could imploy ; now when they saw a new scene , and a court that could not be for them , they resolved they would not be for it : they said , how shall this man save us ? and they brought him no presents . in that infancy of kingship among the jews , the crown had no other revenue , but the free gift of the people : not given in a body , for every one brought his benevolence apart . and then some of those ungovernable men , who perhaps had been among the first and hottest of those who desired a king , when they had one , intended to keep him low , and not to furnish him with that which was necessary to support the government . upon all this saul held his peace ; he not only overcame , but quite supprest his resentments : and tho' he resolved that his mercy should triumph over their perverseness , yet he staid till he might do that with advantage : some perhaps imputed his silence to coldness and insensibility , others to a sense of his seebleness , but no doubt they thought that he laid up in all his mind , and resolved to take severe revenges as soon as he durst adventure on it ; but very few could imagine that he resolved to connive at all , till some great occasion should be offered him to shew his care of his people , and his zeal for the publick ; after which , he might with a better grace extend his clemency , to those who deserved it so little : this was so great a thought , that few could suspect it , because few were capable of it . but a prince , whose soul is raised to a level with his fortunes , has a nobler sence of things , far above the fretful peevishness of little and angry minds . a remarkable occasion gave saul the advantage , that he looked for . nahash king of ammon , a cruel and an idolatrous tyrant , pushed on with a desire of glory , and of enlarging his frontier , did , against the faith of treaties , invade the country , and besiege jabesh gilead : the poor inhabitants , struck with terrour , offered to capitulate ; he who was sincere , though brutal , not like those who offer any conditions , that they may be once possessed of a place , though they do not intend to observe them , told them he must make sure of them ; and since the way of war in those days was chiefly in archery , in which nothing can be done without the direction of the right eye , he told them he must thrust out all their right eyes . to this condition , hard as it was , the besieged agreed , if they should not be relieved within seven days : they gave notice of their extremities to their country-men on the other side of the water ; who upon that wept , they broke out into feeble mournings and complaints . saul was then looking after his cattel , and perhaps some thought him capable of no higher cares : but upon the news , he gathered together as great an army as was possible on the sudden , and in great marches came to jabesh in time , and did so entirely defeat the ammonites , that two of them were not left together : and then it appeared , that saul , for all his coldness and silence , had all the flame in him that became his great post , and that urgent occasion : upon this the men of belial looked a little out of countenance , and began to be afraid for themselves ; if the people had seen them , probably they would not have staid for the forms of justice , but in the first rages of their fury , have taken the shorter way , and have run upon them without order . the body of the nation , full of resentment , move samuel , that a search might be made for those that had said , shall saul reign over us , that they might be brought out , and then they would put them to death ; they would ease their king both of the trouble of prosecuting , and of the reproach of a severe execution ; they would both impeach and execute . but the hitherto well kept silence , was now broke through : saul would not be so much as passive , when so much blood was in danger to be shed ; and since his people had not temper and union enough to sue to him for an indemnity ; he prevents the applications of the guilty , and the intercession of their friends , by an act of grace , prononunced in these words , there shall not a man be put to death this day , for to day the lord hath wrought salvation in israel : samuel saw well how this must needs end , and that so eminent an act of mercy , would both settle and uphold his throne ; therefore he diverts the people from their zealous , but ill-governed heat ; and directs them to go to gilgall , the place of their publick assemblies , and to renew the kingdom there ; which was done with that solemnity , that both saul and all the men of israel rejoiced greatly : upon all this , i shall make no other remark , but that the thing which hath been , is that which shall be , and there is no new thing under the sun. another eminent act of mercy meets us in david's story ; who when he was in one of the lowest ebbs of fortune , was affronted by shimei , who followed him with the insolence of flinging stones , as well as curses at him ; but neither at that time , when the freshness , as well as the unusualness of the injury , might have justified the utmost rigour , nor afterwards upon his re-establishment on the throne , would he give way to the demands of justice against him . he bore the injury decently at first , and forgave it graciously at last . the reason that he gave for it , agrees with the maxims in my text , do not i know that i am this day king over israel ? there was no need of acts of severity to bring him to the throne , but of acts of mercy to uphold him in it ; and therefore he reckons those that called for justice in so unseasonable a time , his adversaries . augustus began his reign with great severities , which were extorted from him by mark anthony ; who , no doubt , had often pressed caesar , tho' in vain , to the same courses , and could not fail to persuade the nephew from his uncle's fate , that there was but one sure way to be safe from his enemies . such counsels well became a creature of vice and pleasure ; who , intending to abandon himself to his luxury , knew he could not be secure as long as so many brave romans were left alive . but as soon as augustus got out of his conduct , he shewed how well he deserved power , that could use it as he did . a remarkable instance of this is related by seneca . cinna that was descended from the great pompey , as well as from the famous roman , whose name he carried , conspired against him , after he had received large accessions both of wealth and honour from him , and was in high favour with him . all was discovered , and in the first emotions of anger , augustus resolved on extreme severities . his friends were brought together to consult about it , for he honoured some of his court with that familiar title ; but his heart , nobler than theirs , turned him to softer councils . he broke out into those memorable words , life is not worth all this , that it should be preserved by the destruction of so many persons . he communicated the matter to the empress livia , who was upon that occasion more governed by the tenderness , than the fearfulness of her sex : she told him he had tried severity enough , and that therefore he had best do , as physicians , who when one sort of medicines do not succeed , change their course , and try another : this advice suiting with his own inclinations , prevailed . so he sent for cinna , and in a conversation of two hours , he set before him the kindness he had shewed him , and the baseness and blackness of his crime , the folly as well as the ingratitude of it , in such terms , that after he had almost killed him with his discourse , which he drew out to the greater length , that being all the punishment to which he had condemned him ; he revived him , in conclusion , with so entire a pardon , that he kept him still about him , and found him ever after that both faithful and affectionate . and thus he not only gained him , but all the romans likewise , who were forced to confess , that he deserved to govern the whole world , who had learned to govern his own passions and resentments . upon this seneca observes truly , that princes become safest by their gentleness ; that severities may perhaps chastise the insolence of a few , but they provoke mankind , and make that hatred become general , which was before particular only to a few : and that for rendring princes universally amiable , it must appear , that their mercy flows from the want of will to punish , and not from the want of provocation . it is hard to set forth any of the vertues that become princes , without some memorable instance out of the life of marcus aurelius , whom all writers represent as the compleatest pattern of a perfect prince . in his time avidius cassius assum'd the empire ; probably displeased with the vices of the emperour's brother , whom he had made his partner of the empire : tho he found it more easy to give him a share of his throne than of his vertues . cassius was a man of great probity , and highly esteemed by marcus aurelius upon that account . his brother wrote him a vehement letter , setting forth the danger of this revolt , and how fatal it might prove to himself and his children , if not check'd in time : and to sharpen him the more , he said , that cassius called himself a vitious fool , and him a learned fool. for the truth was , cassius had publickly complained , that tho marcus himself was a good man , that led an exemplary life , yet he gave way to the vices of others , and did not imploy his authority enough to repress them : which is the single blemish that lies on his memory . marcus answer'd his brother's letter very coldly , he said it was writ in too earnest and too anxious a stile ; neither suitable to his brother's dignity , nor to his own times . upon the head of his children he writ , may my children perish , if avidius deserves the love of his country more than they ; or if it is the interest of the commonwealth that he live rather than they . the love of marcus was indeed every-where so great , that cassius had no other way to work against it , but to give out that he was dead . at last , cassius was forsaken , and killed : upon that faustina the empress writ most vehemently to the emperour , pressing him to order a severe inquiry after all the complices of the revolt , that so he might secure himself and his family . to this he answered , that she writ as became her , to be concerned for him and his children ; but he would do what became him , he would pardon all cassius's friends , and write to the senate to proceed gently in that matter . nothing became a roman emperour better than clemency . as for her apprehensions of danger , she might depend upon it , that god would protect him , and have regard to his piety . he writ also to the senate , and descended to the language of praying them most earnestly , that they would do nothing that might rob him of his piety and clemency : that no man's life might be taken , but that such as they had already banished might be recalled : he wished he could restore life to those who had been killed on that occasion ; and professed that if cassius himself had fallen into his hands , he would have only reproached him a little for his errours , and then have preserved him : he desired therefore that no hurt might be done to any of his friends or relations , but that they might live safe , knowing that they lived under marcus. and for his complices , he desired that no further enquiry might be made about them , that no person might fall under any diminution of his fame , or any hardship or reproach whatsoever upon that account : and concluded all in these few , but weighty words , detisque hoc meis temporibus , grant me this in return to what you enjoy by my reign : words that carry an air of pride in them , but it is of the noblest and best sort ; and that could scarce have been said by any but him that had a right to say them . these are shining passages in the lives of those princes , that have rendred them famous to all posterity , and make them still live fresh and glorious , when the memory of tyrants gives horrour and detestation : for , as the panegyrick has it , this is the true and lasting glory of a prince ; these are the honours that outlive them , which neither length of time , envious successors , nor the flames themselves can deface . shine then , great princes , with your own glory , which makes you look brighter now , than you did in all the attire of majesty at your coronation : this is a lustre that you give your selves , and borrow not from ceremony . triumph in the hearts of your people by your vertues , and over your enemies by your mercy : this will cover them with shame , and you with honour ; and tho it may not be due to them , yet it is due to your selves . this shews that you were born for crowns , that you well deserve those you wear , but that greater ones are reserved for you : this gives you the love of your people , which to you will be always instead of treasures , fleets and armies : for it will always supply you with every thing you need . may the greatness of your own minds be your constant guides , rather than the peevishness of spiteful men , who may , as parmenio did , suggest what was sit for parmenio to do ; but your royal hearts will always move you to do what becomes an alexander , or , to speak truer english , what becomes william and mary . thus i have considered how the king is preserved , and the throne is upheld by mercy . if this is a sure fence , and a good bottom , we may all conclude that we are very safe . this speaks so much , that i may may well say nothing upon a head , which is capable of no censure on the one hand , how much soever the narrowness of some angry and impatient minds may have blamed the excesses on the other . but little people must have low thoughts ; whereas exalted souls have a compass of mercy far beyond their measure : and tho it is not to be denied , but that too great an easiness to forgive , may have some mischiefs attending it ; yet happy is the nation that is under princes , who may be too good on some occasions , but can be cruel on none : especially , when that flows not from a feeble easiness , but from true principles , and a real firmness and strength of mind . but after all , mercy hath its bounds : and it is often fit , and sometimes necessary , that those who have long abused it , and have presumed much upon it , should feel the weight of the law , and the burden of their own crimes : if mercy has its limits , the next fence in my text has none at all . truth does also preserve the king , and that does at all times , and upon all occasions , bind equally . the notion of truth is so plain , and the necessity of it is so visible , that all mankind seem to agree almost equally , both in commending and in neglecting it ; all men claim it from the rest of mankind , but almost every man pretends here to a dispensing power for himself . the common notion of truth is an opposition to all manner of falshood , doubleness or deceit : this is the foundation of all confidence , and the cement of all society ; and it is not only the honour , but both the chief strength and the best treasure of princes : this makes their subjects depend upon them , and their allies trust to them : the pressures and the fears of men of low degree , force them sometimes to make lies their refuge , they escape to it from a present mischief , which to them is more sensible than a lasting inconvenience , that a discovery which often comes and is always to be feared , will bring upon them . but princes are exalted far above all those occasions that poorer men may have for a lie , as long as their designs are noble and good : when these grow bad , they must indeed betake themselves to as bad shifts , but those will soon be found out ; and then though their condition will free them from the injuriousness of a discovery , yet the inconveniencies of it will hang upon them as long as they live : and therefore solomon reckoned lying lips in a prince one of the greatest incongruities that could be thought on . happy those , who how hard soever it may be to have the word , or obtain the promise of a prince , yet when they have it , know that they can trust to it , and depend upon it . truth stands sometimes for integrity , in opposition to corruption and bribery ; this is that to which princes in their own persons are little subject , unless it be to betray a confederate , or sell an alliance ; accidents that happen but seldom : but the best courts and the worthiest princes are subject to corruption by proxy , to have their favour , and often their justice too , and the protection and security of their people , set to sale , and that sometimes so grosly , as if an auction were proclaimed to him that bids most . men of vanity , avarice and luxury , that design both to live profusely , and to raise vast fortunes , cannot compass all this with regular appointments , and fair purchase ; but rather than fail in it , they will prostitute themselves , and , as much as in them lies , the honour of the prince likewise : by this means a king suffers not only in the esteem and love of his people , but all his affairs do likewise suffer sensibly , especially in critical times . no man thinks so much how to serve him , as how to rob the publick ; and every one reckons that he owes neither gratitude nor duty when he comes in as a purchaser : the first duty he thinks is to himself and his family , to recover once what he laid out , that so he may live afterwards on clear gains . one emperor nailed to the bench the skin of a judg that sold justice ; and another ordered a favourite to be smoaked to death , for selling the credit he had with him , and said , it was fit that he should die by air , who had sold it : if this death was too witty , yet certainly it was not too severe . corruption is so apt to return to courts , as a plant that grows in its proper soil , that many and great examples will be necessary to root it out . even samuel's sons took bribes , and neither the vertues of their father , nor the fall of eli's family , which was ruined for the sake of two bad sons , could keep them from corruption : and so indulgent are even good governours to those they love , that samuel , who had good reason to know how dear eli's indulgence to his sons stood him , was yet too remiss himself in looking narrowly to his own sons , which brought on him that publick affront , that the people did openly reproach him with it , and for that very reason desired a change of government . this evil is so common and so natural to men of power , and the poison of it is so pernicious , that princes who desire to preserve themselves and their people , cannot use care enough to watch over it . there is yet a third sense in which truth stands frequently in scripture ; we find it often both in the psalms and in this book , signifies true religion , and not only the profession , but the practice of it : of all men princes are those who owe most to god ; for as he has raised them to high degrees of earthly glory and happiness , so he has put it in their power to do the greatest good to mankind , and to make the world happy both in them and in one another : and as their zeal for truth in this highest and noblest sense , is that which gives them the clearest title to the favour and blessing of god ; so true and unaffected piety has a beauty in it that strikes the greater as well as the better part of mankind ; even men that are resolved to be bad themselves , are sorry to see their prince so ; for they do clearly perceive the ill effects which that may have upon the community , and that it may end in their own ruin at last : and all considering princes will have many occasions to observe , that impiety and vice are as hurtful to their affairs , as to the greater , the vastly greater concerns of religion . what fidelity or zeal , what duty or affection can be expected from men , who will be always truer to their interests and lusts , than to their own honour , or their masters service ? that are slaves to pleasure , and whose spirits are enervated , and their hours , as well as fortunes , devoured by luxury . it is an observation so obvious , that none can scape it , which gives one much regret , but yet with it some satisfaction , that our chief misfortunes are owing to those vices and excesses , which have not been yet severely enough repressed and punished . but as you , great princes , have begun to shew your dislike and hatred at these , and not contented to teach your court and subjects by your example , are resolved to imploy your authority , in obliging them at least to the decencies of vertue and religion : go on and prosper in these noble designs . what are conquests and triumphs , the wasting and dispeopling of cities and provinces , which make such a figure in the false estimate of the world , compared to the more real and solid honours of reforming vitious courts , luxurious cities , and degenerated countries ? this is so hard , and will be such a decried undertaking , especially by those who need it most , and who ought to promote it chiefly , that no small degree of courage and resolution is necessary to support those that set about it . suffer me to repeat to you the words with which god himself animated joshua on the like occasion ; be thou strong and very couragious , that thou mayst observe to do according to all the law which moses my servant commanded thee : turn not from it to the right hand or to the left , that thou mayst prosper whither-soever thou goest . this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth ; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night ; that thou mayst observe to do according to all that is written therein ; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous , and then thou shalt have good success . have not i commanded thee ? be strong and of a good courage , be not afraid , neither be thou dismayed , for the lord thy god is with thee whithersoever thou goest . these words were said to joshua , after he had shewed his military courage upon great occasions ; and import , that besides the magnanimity of affronting danger , there is a courage in the mind , necessary to repress sin , and to maintain vertue and religion , that must compleat and perfect the other . happy you , that have it in your power to be such blessings to mankind ! may your will equal your power , and may all things bend to your authority : may it be ever imployed in advancing the honour of god , and the kingdom of his dear son ! may your persons be ever safe under his protection , and your government happy under his influence ! and may we at the conclusion of every year have fresh matter to rejoice in god , both on your account and on our own , who hath done great things for you , and for us all , both in you and by you . and let us all study that our thankfulness to god , may at least bear some proportion to his goodness to us : let us pay the vows that we made to him in our days of fasting and prayer : and as we desire another happy year to conclude what is so far carried on in this , let us make such a right use of our present advantages , and such decent returns for the blessings that we have in hand , as may give us a title to expect the compleating them in another season . we are now almost in sight of land , and the prospect is so fair , that nothing but our sins and our divisions can stop a course of success and glory , that is near its last and highest point . may no corrupt nor misguided humours , no unjust jealousies nor peevish resentments , no faction nor animosity in our councils , retard or defeat those great designs which have been hitherto under such a visible conduct and blessing from above . suffer me to sum up all in the words of samuel , upon an occasion not much unlike this : now therefore this is the king and queen that you have desired ; and behold , the lord hath set them over you ; if you will fear the lord and serve him , and obey his voice , and not rebel against the commandment of the lord , then shall both you and the kings that reign over you continue following the lord your god. and a little after he redoubles the exhortation : only fear the lord , and serve him in truth with all your heart , for consider how great things he hath done for you : may they be compleated ! may they be lasting ! and may they produce amongst us , all that for which they are intended ! may our princes still triumph ! may their councils be always wise ; and their forces ever prosperous ! and may we and our posterity after us rejoice long in our kings ! may they live long , and may their names live for ever ; and may all nations call them blessed ! may religion and vertue prevail and flourish , and the church be established under them ! may they ever preserve mercy and truth , that so they may be ever preserved , and their throne always upheld by them ! may justice and righteousness ever flow from them , and such an abundance of peace , as may make us both safe and rich , great and happy under their protection : so that both we and all round about us , when we reflect on the 88 of this age , may almost forget the 88 of the former , and that our second 5 th of november may wear out the remembrance of the 1 st . and to conclude all , for i can rise no higher ; may the happy and glorious days of queen elizabeth be darkned and eclipsed by the more happy and more glorious reign of king william and queen mary . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswell . some remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the a ●olent churches of piedmont . by peter allix , d. d. a vindication of their majesty's authority , to fill the sees of the deprived bishops , in a letter out of the country , occasioned by dr. b — 's refund of the bishoprick of bath and wells . 4to . v. cl. gvlielmicamdeni , & illustrium vi ●erum ad g. gamutnum epistolae . cum appendice varii argumenti . accesseruit a ●ndli ●● regni regis jacobi i. apparatus , & commentarius de antiquitate , dignitate , & officio comitis marescalli angliae . praemittitur g. camdeni vita . scriptore thoma smitho s.t.d. ecclesiae anglicanae presbytero . 4to . memoirs of what past in christendom from the war begun 1672 , to the peace concluded 1679. 8vo . remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the ancient churches of the albigenses . by peter allix , d. d. treasurer of the church of sarum . 4to . advertisement . proposals will be shortly published by richard chiswell , for subscription to a book ( now finished ) intituled , angliae sacrae , pars secvnda ; sive collectio historiarum , antiquitus scriptarum , de archiepiscopis & episcopis angliae , à prima fidei christianae susceptione , ad annum mdxl. plures antiquas de vitis & regni gestis praesulum anglicorum historius sine certo ordine congestas complexa . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30439-e160 in arts ●●de . plin ●inlr ●● quod enim pr ●●stabilius aut pulchrius munus deorum quam cistus & sanctus & dii ● simillimus princeps ? — qui nec minus hominem se quam hominibus prae ●●se meminit . — sid ●lissuna custo ●li ● principis ipsius ●ano ●●ncia . jul. capit. nemo illum plaugendum censuit : oertis omnibus quod a diis comodatus ad deos rediisset . 2. sam. 18. 3. 4. dan. 27. luke 6.35 . psalm 55. 12 , 13. rev. 2. 9. 1 sam. 10.9 , 10. 1 sam. 10.1 . chap. 1 ● . 24 , 26. verse 27. 1 sam. 17.3 . verse 12. v. 13. v. 14. 2 sam. 19 22. non est tami vita , ut si ego non periam cum mul ●i perdendi sunt . lib. de clem , regibuscertior est , ex mansuetudine securitas : quia frequens vindicta paucorum odium reprimit , omnium irritat . voluntas oportet ante saeviendi quam causa deficiat . liberi mei pereant , si magis amari merebitur avidius quāilli : & si magis reipublicae expediat cassium vivere quam liberos marci . oro atque obsecro ut censura vestra deposita , meam pietatem clementiamque servetis . vivant igirur securi , scientes sub marco se vivere . scis enim ubi vera principis ubi sempiterna sit gloria , ubi sint honores , in quos nihilflammis , nihil senectuti , nihil successoribus liceat . 1 sam. 3.11 . 1 sam. 8.5 . josh. 1. 7 , 8 , 9. 1 sam. 12 , 13 , 14 , 24. the letter writ by the last assembly general of the clergy of france to the protestants, inviting them to return to their communion together with the methods proposed by them for their conviction / translated into english, and examined by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1683 approx. 242 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 105 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a48243) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 55745) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 605:15) the letter writ by the last assembly general of the clergy of france to the protestants, inviting them to return to their communion together with the methods proposed by them for their conviction / translated into english, and examined by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. catholic church. assemblée générale du clergé de france. [20], 179, [9] p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1683. includes bibliographical references. advertisement: p. [2]-[9] at end. "the letter writ by the assembly of the clergy to the calvinists in france.": p. 1-14. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the 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nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church. -assemblée générale du clergé de france. protestants -france. calvinism -france. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-12 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the letter writ by the last assembly general of the clergy of france to the protestants , inviting them to return to their communion . together with the methods proposed by them for their conviction . translated into english , and examined by gilbert burnet , d. d. london , printed for richard chiswell at the rose and crown in s. paul's church-yard . m dc lxxxiii . the preface . the fate of most that answer any particular book or treatise , is such , that , one may be justly discouraged from undertaking it : for besides the great trouble the answerer is put to , in following his author in all his digressions , and perhaps impertinences , and the small game he is often engaged in , about some ill-sounding expression , or some misunderstood period ; the issue of the whole business in matters of controversies , comes at best to this , that it may be confest his adversary has been too unwary in some assertions , or unconcluding in some of his arguments : but still men retain their old perswasions : and if one whom they had set up for their champion , should happen to be baffled , they will only say that they mistook their man ; and be being made quit the stage , another is set in his room . so that at most their engagement proves to be of the nature of a single combate , in the issue of which only two individuals , and not two parties are concerned . but when a whole body speaks in one voice , here the undertaking of a single person , in opposition to them , may be thought indeed too hardy and bold ; but yet the debate becomes of more consequence , at least to the one side , because the credit of those against whom he writes , is so well established , that a satisfactory answer to what they offer as the strength of their cause , must needs have great effect on these who examine those matters critically , and judge of them impartially . the world hath been filled with the noise of the conversions lately made in france ; but it has been generally given out that the violences of monsieur de marilliac and the souldiers , and the payments dispensed by monsieur pellisson , have been the most prevailing arguments hitherto made use of . that great king has indeed interposed in this matter , with a zeal , that if it were well directed , might well become one who reckons these to be his most esteemed titles , that he is the most christian king , and the eldest son of the church . but amidst all this noise of conversions , we have heard more of the temporal than spiritual sword ; and except in the violences and out-rages of some of the clergy , we have not heard much of any share they have had in this matter . it is true , the celebrated explication of their faith , written some years ago by the then bishop of condom , now of mea●x , has made a great shew , and most of the conversions are esteemed the effects of that book : and the eminent vertues of the author , joined with that great gentleness , by which he insinuates himself much into the hearts of all those that come near him , have perhaps really wrought much on some , whose consciences were by other motives , disposed to be very easily perswaded . soft words and good periods , have also had some weight with superficial enquirers . but that explication of his , which may be well called a good plea , managed with much skill and great eloquence for a bad cause , has been so often , and so judiciously answered , that i am confident such as have considered these answers , are no more in danger of being blinded with that dust , which he has so ingeniously raised : for it must be confessed , that his book deserves all the commendations that can be given it , for every thing except the sincerity of it , which ( i am sorry to say it ) is not of a piece with the other excellent qualities of that great prelate . but now we have before us a work of much more importance , in which we may reasonably conclude the strength of the roman cause is to be found : since it is the unanimous voice of the most learned and soundest part of that communion : for while the spaniards have chiefly amused themselves mith the metaphysical subtilties of school-divinity , and when the italians have added to that , the study of the canon law , as the best way for preferm●nt ; the french have now for above an age been set on a more solid and generous pursuit of t●ue learning : they have laboured in the publishing of the fathers works , with great diligence , and more sincerity than could be expected in any other part of that church ; where the watchful eyes of inquisitors might have prevented that fidelity which they have observed in publishing those records of antiquity : so that the state of the former ages of the church is better understood there than in any other nation of that communion . nor has the secular clergy , or laity , only laboured with great faithfulness in those enquiries , such as albaspine , de marca , godeau , launnoy , huetius , rigaltius , valesius and balusius ; to name no more ; but even that order , which is not so much admired over the world for great scrupulosity of conscience , has produced there several great men , that are never to be named but with honour , such as fronto ducaeus , and petavius ; but above all , sirmondus , through whose writings there runs such a tincture of candour and probity , that in matters of fact , protestants are generally more enclined to acquiesce in his authority , than those of his own perswasion are ; which made them afraid at rome to give him free access to their manuscripts . nor is the learning of the gallican church that for which they are chiefly to be esteemed : it must also be acknowledged , that from the study of the ancient fathers many of them seem to have derived a great measure of their spirit , which has engaged diverse among them to set forward as great a reformation as the constitution of their church can admit of . they have endeavoured not only to discover the corruptions in morality and casuistical divinity , and many other abuses in the government of the church , but have also infused in their clergy a greater reverence for the scriptures , a deeper sense of the pastoral care , and a higher value for holy orders , than had appeared among them for divers ages before . some of their bishops have set their clergy great examples : and a disposition of reforming mens lives , and of restoring the government of the church according to the primitive rules , hath been such , that even those who are better reformed , both as to their doctrine and worship , must yet acknowledge that there are many things among them highly imitable , and by which they are a great reproach to others , who have not studied to copy after these patterns they have set them . the world will be for ever bound to honour the names of godeau , paschall , arnauld , and the author of the essays of morality ; and those thoughts which they have set on foot are so just and true , that though their excellent bishops are now almost all gone off the stage , and are not succeeded by men of their own tempers , yet it is to be hoped , that these seeds so sown do still grow where they find a soil disposed for them . for though such notions are not very grateful to some whose interests biass them another way , or to others whose ill lives make them look on all books of a severe piety , and that design a strict discipline , as so many satyrs writ against themselves ; yet to such as are not prepossessed nor corrupted , nothing does so easily enter , and continue so fixed as those maximes which they infuse ; particularly those of the necessity of a vocation of the holy ghost before one enters into holy orders , and a strict application to the care of souls , after one has engaged in them . truth and goodness are in their natures so congenial , that there is no way so certain to lead men to the knowledge of the truth , as to form their minds inwardly to such a sense of piety and goodness , as may make them fit receptacles of truth . thus did the heathen philosophers begin at the purging their auditors minds , by their cleansing doctrines before they communicated to them their sublimer precepts . among the jews , the sons of the prophets were long prepared in a course of mortification and devotion , that so they might become capable of divine illapses ▪ and our saviour began his instructions with the correcting the ill morals of his followers and hearers ; and did not communicate the higher mysteries of his doctrine to them till they were well prepared for it ; since , as he said himself , the way to know his doctrine , whether it was of god or not , was to do his will , which makes the sense of the soul become as exact in judging of its object , as a sound state of health makes the organs of our bodily senses fit to represent their objects distinctly to us . and therefore that church that has advanced so far in the reforming the morals of the people , and the conduct of the clergy , may be very justly esteemed the best , as well as the most learned part of the roman communion : though it is not to be denied , but the iealousie that those men of better notions have fallen under , what by the interest the jesuites have gained both at court and in the sorbonne , what by the willingness that is in the greatest part of men , particularly of corrupt ecclesiasticks , to love looser principles , and what by the odious names of innovators , of men enclined to heresie , schism or faction , is such , that as on the one hand they are lookt at with an ill eye , as a sort of men that are neither good subjects to the king nor to the pope ; so they on the other hand , to free themselves from these imputations , have perhaps departed too much from these sincere principles which they had at first laid down , and have betaken themselves to some arts and policies that do not become men so enlightned as they are . but i will not enlarge more on this , because i honour them so much , and have learned so much from them , that i will rather bewail , than insult over their failings . but though they themselves are thus suspected , yet such is the force of truth , and the evidence of those maximes which they hold , and the world is so possessed with them , that even their greatest enemies are forced to yield to them , rather perhaps because they dare not scandalize the world , by keeping up abuses , of which all people are convinced , than out of any inward affection they bear to a severe or primitive discipline . by this means it is that there is now nothing more common in all the parts of france , than to talk of a reformation of abuses , even in those places where the prelates example is perhaps one of the most conspicuous of all the abuses . to what has been said this may be added , that their glorious and conquering monarch being now possessed with this maxime , that he will have but one religion in his dominions , every one there looks on the reducing many of those they call hereticks , as a sure way to obtain his favour , and so to attain to great dignities in the church . it is certain , the most refined wits there are now set on work to bring out the strength of their cause with the greatest advantage that is possible . therefore the assembly general of their clergy being called together , ( and being so much the more engaged to shew their zeal against heresie , that they might cover themselves from the reproaches of some that are more bigotted , for their compliance with the king in the matter of the regale , ) hath now made an address to all the calvinists of france , inviting them to return to their communion ; to which they have added directions to those that shall labour in these conversions ; which they call methods , by which their minds are in general to be wrought upon , without entring into the detail of these arguments , by which the controversies have been hitherto managed . i confess , when i read these first , i was astonished at most things in them , and could have almost thought that a veron or a maimbourg had published their visions in the name of that august body ; but i know the press there is so regulated , and the constitution of that kingdom is such , that so gross an abuse could not be put upon the world. besides , when i had over and over again laid all these methods together , i found that indeed all the strength of their cause lay divided among them : so that if there is no extraordinary force in them , it is because the cause can bear nothing that is more solid or more convincing . i doubt not but the letter , and these methods will be examined in france , with that clearness and exactness that may be expected from the many extraordinary pens that are there . but i being earnestly desired to write somewhat concerning it , have adventured on it , i have first begun at home , and since here we have the concurring voice of so great and so learned a church concerning the methods of converting protestants , i hope it will be no unacceptable thing to this nation to put these in english , together with such reflections on them as may be more easily apprehended by every reader that has but a due measure of application and iudgement , though ●e has not amused himself much with deep studies of divinity . i shall hold in the general and to the rational part as they do , without going further in any particular enquiry , than shall seem in some sort necessary . i ought to make great apologies for so hardy an enterprize , but i cannot do that without giving the reasons that determined me to it , which is not at present convenient . therefore i must only in general beg the readers charity , and that he will not impute this attempt to any forwardness of mine , or to any extravagant opinion i may have of my self , as if i were fit to enter the lists with such great persons , to whom i pay all that reverend esteem which becomes both to their characters and qualities , and to whom i know better what is due , than to presume to say any thing in contradiction to them , if i were not led to it by that which i owe to truth , and to the god of truth : after i have examined both their letter , and the methods added to it , i will venture further , and offer on the other hand such considerations as are just and lawful prejudices against that communion , and are such as ought , at least , to put all men in doubt that things are not right among them , and to dispose them to believe that matters in controversie between them and us ought to be examined more exactly and impartially , and that upon a general view , the prejudices lie much stronger in our favours , than against us . the letter writ by the assembly of the clergy , to the calvinists in france . the arch-bishops , bishops , and the whole gallican clergy , assembled at paris by the kings authority , wish to their brethren of the calvinist sect , amendment , and a return to the church , and an agreement with it . brethren , the whole church of christ does now of a great while groan , and your mother being filled with holy and sincere tenderness for you , does with regret see you rent from her belly , her breasts , and her bosome , by a voluntary separation , and continue still to stray in the desart . for how can a mother forget the children of her womb , or the church be unmindful of her love to you that are still her children , though you have forgot your duty to her ? the infection of errour , and the violence of the calvinistical separation having drawn you away from the catholick truth , and the purity of the ancient faith , and separated you from the head of the christian unity . from hence is it , brethren , that she groans and complains most grievously , but yet most lovingly , that her bowels are torn : she seeks for her sons that are lost , she calls as a partridge , as a hen she would gather them together , as an eagle she provokes them to fly ; and being again in the pangs of travel , she desires to bear you a second time , ye little children , that so christ may be again formed in you , according to truth , in the way of the catholick church . therefore we the whole gallican clergy , whom the holy ghost has set to govern that church in which you were born , and who by an uninterrupted inheritance hold the same faith , as well as the same chairs , which those holy bishops held , who first brought the christian religion into france , do now call on you , and as the embassadors of christ , we ask you , as if god did beseech you by us , why have you made separation from us ? for indeed , whether you will or not , such are your circumstances , that you are our brethren , whom all our common father did long ago receive into the adoption of children , and whom our common mother , the church , did likewise receive into the hope of our eternal inheritance . and even he himself who first bewitched you , that you should not obey the truth of the gospel , the standard-bearer of your profession , did at first live amongst us as a brother , in all things of the same mind with us . were we not all of the same houshold ? did we not all eat of the same spiritual meat ? and did not he perform among us the mutual offices of brotherly charity ? see if you can find any excuse either to your father , your mother , or your brethren , to take off the infamy of so wicked , so sudden , and so rash a flight ; of this dividing of christ , the renting the sacraments of christ , an impious war against the members of christ , the accusing the spouse of christ , and the denial of the promises of christ ? excuse and wash off these things if you can : but since you cannot do it , then confess that you are fallen under that charge of the prophet , an evil son calls himself righteous , but he cannot wash off his departure . wherefore then , brethren , have you not continued in the root with the whole world ? why did you break the vows and the wishes of the faithful , with the altars on which they were offered ? why did you intercept the course of prayer from the altars , from whence was the ascent to god ? why did you then with sacrilegious hands endeavour to remove the ladder that came down to those stones , that so prayers might not be made to god after the customary manner . other sectaries hitherto have indeed attempted that , not that they might overthrow the altar of christ , but that they might raise up their own altar , such as it was , against the altar of christ. but you , as if you had designed to destroy the christian sacrifice , have dared to commit a crime unheard of before these times . you have destroyed the altars of the lord of hosts , in which the sparrow ( christ ) had chosen to himself an house , and the turtle ( the church ) a nest , where she might lay her young . it was this schismatical fury that brought forth these things , and allhat has followed since , either of wars against the church , or of errours against the ancient doctrine : nor would we have those things ascribed so much to your inclinations as to the nature of schism . but this is that upon which we expostulate with you in particular , and which we ask of you without ceasing , why have you made the schism ? and unless you answer this , how well soever you may speak or write of other things , it is all to no purpose . we do not doubt , but in answer to this , you will make use of that old and common defence of all schismaticks , and that you who upon trial , know that it is not possible to shake the doctrines believed by us , will begin to inveigh against the morals of our men , as if holier persons , who love severer laws , could not hold it creditable for their reputation , or safe to their consciences , to live with such men . these are the things forsooth , brethren , for which the unity of christ is rent by you , the inheritance of your brethren is blasphemed , and the vertue and truth of the sacraments of the church are despised : consider how far you have departed from the gospel in this . these things that you object were less considerable both for number and weight , or perhaps unknown , and may be not at all true . but if they had been true , and acknowledged , and worse than they were , yet those tares ought to have been spared by christians , for the sake of the wheat : for the vices of the bad are to be endured , because of the mixture of the good . moses endured thousands that murmured against god. samuel endured both eli's sons and his own , that acted perversly christ himself , our lord , endured iud●s that was his accuser , and a thief , and also his betrayer . the apostles endured false brethren , and false apostle● that opposed them and their doctrine ▪ and s. paul , who did not seek his ow● things , but the things of jesus christ conversed with great patience among those that sought their own things , an● not the things of iesus christ. but you ▪ dear brethren , not only have not endured the church , your mother , and th● spouse of christ , but have rent , torn and violated her unity : and that yo● might thus rend , tear and violate he● ▪ you have charged the blemishes of private persons on her , whom christ has cleansed with the washing of water through the word of life , that he might present her glorious to himself , without either spot or wrinkle , or any such thing . what remains then , brethren , but that for your sakes we follow that advice of the holy ghosts , blessed are the peace-makers , for they shall be called the sons of god. and that by the bowels of mercy , which you have hitherto torn ; by the womb of the church , your mother , which you have burst ; by the charity of brethren , which you have so oft violated ; by the sacraments of god , which you have despised ; by the altars of god , which you have broken ; and by every thing , sacred or divine , that is worshipped either in heaven or earth ; we exhort you with the hearts of brethren to amend , to return , and to be reconciled . and what indeed remains , but that you , forgetting the schism , and remembring your mothers breasts , should again come home , where there are so many hired servants that have bread enough , while you cannot gather up crumbs for satisfying in any sort your spiritual hunger , being in a dry and untrodden desart . why then do you delay or withstand this ? are you ashamed to be reckoned children with those , among whom the eldest son lewis is daily erecting new trophies to the church his best mother : who , by reason of your wilfulness , is in this only not entirely happy , that although he is daily decreeing many things both religiously and piously for maintaining christianity , yet he sees some of his own subjects , who have of their own accord , forsaken the religion of their country , and have betaken themselves to foreign rites , being apostates from religion , and deserters of the ancient warfare , to continue still in their errour . and this most christian king did lately in our hearing say , that he did so earnestly desire to see all those broken and scattered parcels brought back to the unity of the church , that he would esteem it his glory to compass it with the shedding of his own royal blood , and even with the loss of that invincible arm , by which he has so happily made an end of so many wars . will you then , brethr●n , envy that palm of victory to this most august prince , and your king that has subdued so many and such mighty enemies , that has taken so many strong towns , and has conquer'd such great provinces , and is eminent in his triumphs of all sorts , and yet would prefer this victory to all the rest ? but , brethren , while we thus call upon you , and exhort you to the counsels of peace , do not you say , seek us not , for this is the language of iniquity , by which we are divided , and not of charity , by which we are christians . remember that the spirit of truth and peace has commanded us by the prophet not to cease to say to those who deny that they are our brethren , you are our brethren . what time can offer it self more fitly for calling you back to the roman communion than this , in which pope innocent governs the roman church ; whose life and manners being formed according to the ancient and severe discipline , present a perfect pattern of holiness to the christian world : so that it will be both for your honour as well as for your happiness , and a mark of great vertue in you , to joyn your selves to him who is such an eminent cherisher of all vertue . therefore as for you that need a physician , that are the members of christ , and noble ones too , bought with the same price , but are torn from the head and body of the church , through the wicked fraud of all our common enemy , we pray you by the eternal god suffer your selves to be healed , receive this admonition , and this humble prayer of ours : for such is our gentleness and compassion towards you , that we can confidently use the lowest expressions possible . and do you in a brotherly manner take hold of this occasion , that we offer you with such brotherly love , that so at last , through the grace of our god , the night of stupifying errour being dissipated , the light of divine truth may shine daily more and more ; suffer nor the weak and ignorant part of the christian flock to perish , because of some jealousies that you have rashly taken up against our faith ▪ do you think it unseemly to discover your disease to the physician ? give place both to repentance and physick ▪ and address your selves humbly to god , and esteem this to be that which is chiefly , and only honourable in christians . but if you will with obstinate minds refuse to do this while we thus exhort you , if you will not be overcome by prayers , nor bended by charity , nor wrought on by admonitions to a reconciliation , the angels of peace will weep bitterly ; but yet for all that we will not leave you to your selves , though that were but just to be done to persons so excessively obstinate ; we will not give over our seeking for the sheep of christ among the hedges and thorns ; and when we have done all by which your minds ought to have been reconciled to us , at last our peace , which is so earnestly and sincerely offered to you , when it is rejected by you , shall return to us : nor will god any longer require your souls at our hands . and as this your last errour will be worse than your former , so your last end will be worse than any thing you have formerly felt . but brethren , we hope better things , and things which accompany salvation . francis arch-bishop of paris , president . charles maurice arch-bishop and duke of rheims . charles arch-bishop of ambrun . iames arch-bishop and duke of cambray . hyacinth arch-bishop of alby . mi. phelipeaux arch-bishop of bourges . iames nicholas colbert arch-bishop of carthage , coadjutor of rouen . lewis of bourlemont arch-bishop of bourdeaux . gilbert bishop of tournay . nicholas bishop of riez . daniel bishop and earl of valence and die. gabriel bishop of autun . william bishop of bazas . gabriel bishop of auranches . iames bishop of meaux . sebastian bishop of st. malo. l. m. ar. de simiane bishop and duke of langres . fr. leo bishop of glandeves . lucas bishop of frioul . i. b. m. colbert bishop and duke of mountauban . charles bishop of montpellier . francis bishop of mande . charles bishop of la vaur . andrew bishop of auxerre . francis bishop of troyes . lewis bishop and earl of chalons . francis bishop of triguier . peter bishop of bellay . gabriel bishop of conserans . lewis bishop of alet . humbert bishop of tulle ▪ i. b. d' estampes bishop of marseilles . fr. de camps designed coadjutor of glandeves . de st. george designed bishop of m●scon . paul phil. de lusignan . lud. d' espinay de st. luc , c. leny de coadelets . la faye . cocquelin . lambert . p. de bermund . a. h. de fleury . de viens . f. feu . a. de maupiou . le franc de la grange . de senaux . parra dean of bellay . de boshe . m. de ratabon . clement de pouudeux . bigot . de gourgues . de villeneuve de vence . i. f. de l' escure . peter le roy. a. de soupets . a. argoud dean of vienna . gerbais . de bausset . g. bochart de champigny . courcier . cheron . a. faure . f. maucroix . de la borcy . de francqueville . armand bazin de besons , agent-general of the clergy of france . i. desmaretz agent-general of the clergy of france . remarks on the former letter . the tender expressions with which this letter begins , give the world some hopes that the gallican clergy have bowels of compassion , for those they call their brethren and little children , though the figures of a partridge or an eagle are too forced to flow from affections much moved . but the severities now exercised in mos● parts of france look like esau's hands , while the clergy speak with iacob's voice . the many terrible edicts that come out daily against those of that perswasion , and the much greater severity with which they are executed , do not very well agree with this melting language . perhaps some may think those edicts are civil things , and that the intendants or other officers who execute them , being of the laity , therefore the clergy are no way concerned in it . but if the blame of this is taken off from them , it must be laid somewhere else . it is notoriously known that the king himself is not at all of a bloody disposition , but is merciful and gentle : so that for all the hard measure that many of those who are forced to fly hither for refuge , feel , yet they do acknowledge that they owe it to the kings tenderness to his people , and aversion from cruelty , that it is not worse with them ; and that they are not massacred and destroyed to be the effect of his clemency and protection . and of this he has lately given the world a double assurance , both in the letters he sent to the bishops of france , and in those he sent with them to the deputies in the several provinces , printed together with this letter of the clergy . in the first are these words , recommending to you above all things the managing the spirits of those of that religion with gentleness ; and to use no other force but that of reason , for the bringing them again to the knowledge of the truth , without doing any thing against the edicts and declarations , by the vertue of which the exercise of that religion is tolerated within my kingdom . this is a little varied in the second letter thus , i recommend to you above all to manage the spirits of those of that religion with gentleness , and to hinder the doing of any thing that may be an invasion on that which is granted them by the edicts and declarations made in their favours . we will not have so criminal a thought of so glorious a prince , as to suspect his sincerity in this : and therefore when it ●is as visible as the day , that those edicts are broken almost in every branch of them , we must conclude that either the king is not well informed of the nature of those edicts , or is not acquainted with the violation of them : and since no king , how great soever , can see but with other mens eyes , and that it is not to be imagined that a prince so employed , as he is , can have read and examined the edicts granted by his ancestors in favour of that religion , it must be concluded , that those who have procured the passing those late edicts that contradict the former , have either flatly imposed on him , by making him believe they were not contrary to them , or have found out some slight equivocation in the words of the former edicts , upon which that great king has been induced to pass those edicts , which have come out of late so frequently against them . in this whole matter no political consideration is so much as pretended , the interests of state lie clearly against it . the design is well enough understood . a zeal for extirpating heresie , and the advancement of the kings glory is all that we hear given out for warranting those severities , which lie so heavy on such great numbers of the best subjects that france has . the interest that some of that assembly , the president in particular , has in the management of the affairs that concern the spirituality , and the high panegyricks which that body both offer to the king , and give of him for his proceedings in that affair , shew that as some of them set them on , so the rest approve of them : so that upon the whole matter , all the hard usage the poor protestants meet with , lies at their door . it is hard to perswade the world that they can have such bowels , while they thus tear those they call their little children with their paws : suppose their children were mistaken , and in errours , yet they should be fathers still , and not starve them to death , because they cannot either change their thoughts , or become so impious as to joyn in a worship which they think is not only superstitious but idolatrous . mens opinions are not in their own power , their understandings are necessary agents , and are determined by the evidence of things set before them : our wills can indeed engage our understandings to make enquiries with more application : they can also biass us with some partiality , for that in which we find our interests ; they can likewise command our actions , so that we may disguise and dissemble our opinions : but their dominion goes no further . it is not to be doubted but a small part of that hard usage which those oppressed french-men have met with , has more than determined them to enquire narrowly into those opinions , which were infused in them by their education : and has wrought so effectually on them , as to make them wish they could be of another mind ; but after all , if they see nothing but force to work on them , and manifestly discern the weakness of those reasons that are offered for their conviction , what remains but that either they must do violence to themselves , and so joyn in that monstrous idolatry of a worshipping as a god , that which they believe to be only a piece of bread ; or that they must still groan under those miseries to which they see themselves condemned ; which must needs possess them with such an opinion of the cruelty of those that call themselves their fathers , that all the tender expressions they read in this letter cannot root it out : for deeds are much surer evidences of mens affections than words . the title of a father agrees ill with the rage of an enemy . the members of this assembly pretend they go in the traces of those who first brought the christian religion into france ; and that they hold the same faith , as well as they possess the same chairs . it were to be wished , that they were also acted with the same spirit of meekness and gentleness towards those who differ from them , and that they had the same aversion to cruelty that we find among the ancients . i shall not here alledge what tertullian and cyprian have said in general against cruelty on the account of religion , nor what lactantius has more copiously enlarged on . but since they mention those that first established the christian religion in france , i shall offer to them what the first of the gallican bishops ( who had an occasion given him to write of such matters , hilary of poictiers ) said against the arians , who were persecuting the orthodox under constantius ; though their greatest severities were not equal to those that the protestants are now made to suffer . it will be unreasonable to alledge that what hilary said against that persecution cannot quadrate with the present case , the one being done by an heretical emperour , and the other by a most christian king. i shall avoid the making any odious comparison in this matter ; but this must be acknowledged , that it is to beg the question to say , the one persecuted to advance an errour , whereas the other does it to suppress errour ; and it will appear that he wrote not sincerely , if he did not condemn that way of proceeding in what cause soever it were employed : for he plainly says , the bishops would have opposed such methods even to advance truth . * hilary addressed himself to constantius , that he would slacken his severities , and suffer the people to hear those preach , and celebrate the holy mysteries , and pray for his safety and success , whom they liked best , and esteemed most , and had made choice of ; then he promises that all things would be quiet , and that not only there would be no sedition , but not so much as any murmuring . and as a reason for enforcing this , he says a little after ; god has taught , but not imposed on us the knowledge of himself , and conciliated authority to his commands by the miracles that were wrought ; but he despises that confession that flows from a compelled mind . if such force were used to draw men to the true faith , the episcopal doctrine would interpose and say the earth is the lords , and he needs not an enforced obedience , nor does he require a constrained confession . he is not to be deceived , but his favour is to be desired , and he is to be worshipped for our caus● , not for his own . i could not receive any but such as were willing , nor hear such as did not entreat me , nor confirm such as did not profess ( the faith. ) to this he adds , " but what is this that priests are forced by chains to fear god , and commanded by the terrour of punishments ? that priests are kept in prisons , and the people are delivered over to the jaylors ? and upon this he runs out more largely than is necessary to transcribe . but let us also hear how he addresses himself to those bishops that were the chief procurers and instruments of all the sufferings of the orthodox : and indeed , what he says to them does serve as so apposite an answer to a great part of this letter , that i hope it will not be irksome to translate a large quotation out of it . the name of peace ( saith he ) is specious , and the opinion of unity is beautiful : but it is past all doubt , that that peace only which is the peace of christ is the peace of the church and the gospels : we have desired to recover that same peace that is now lost , of which he spake to his apostles after his glorious sufferings , and which he being to leave them , recommended to them as a pledge of his eternal laws . and we have desired to compose the disorders now made in it , and having again recovered it , we have also desired to maintain it . but so prevalen● have the sins of this age been , and the sore-runners and ministers of antichrist that is approaching , have been so active , that we could neither procure this peace , nor partake of it : while those who boast of the unity of their peace , that is , of their impiety , behave themselves not like the bishops of christ , but like the priests of antichrist . but that we may not be blamed for using reproachful words , we will not conceal the cause of this common ruine , that so none may be ignorant of it . we know from what s. iohn the apostle has delivered , that there are many antichrists , and whosoever denies christ , as he was preached by the apostles , is an antichrist . it is the property of antichrist , marked by the very name , to be contrary to christ. now by the opinion of a mistaken piety , and under the pretence of preaching the gospel , this is effected or endeavoured , that the lord jesus christ while he seems to be preached , is denied . in the first place , we must pity the labour of this age , and lament the foolish opinions of those times , in which god is thought to be protected by men , and by secular ambition the church of christ is laboured to be defended . i pray you , o you bishops , who believe your selves to be such , what were the assistances which the apostles made use of in preaching the gospel ? by what earthly powers were they supported when they preached christ , and converted almost all nations from idols to god ? did they derive any authority from the palace , when they were singing hymns to god , in prison , in chains , and after they were whipped ? did paul gather a church to christ by vertue of royal edicts , when he himself was exposed as a spectacle on a theatre ? did he secure himself by the protection of a nero , a vespasian or a decius , by whose hatred of us the confession of that divine preaching did flourish ? they maint●ining themselves by their own handy-work , and assembling in upper rooms and secret places , went over all countries , both villages and strong places , through sea and land , notwithstanding the decrees of senates and royal edicts against them . and i suppose it will not be denied , that they had the keys of the kingdom of heaven . did not the divine power exert it self manifestly against the hatred of men , when christ was preached so much the more as the preaching of him was prohibited ? but now , alas , humane aids are employed to recommend our divine faith , and christ is accused as having lost his former power , while his name is promoted by ambition . the church now terrifies others by banishments and imprisonments : she depends on the favour of her communicants , who was consecrated by the terrour of her persecutors . she banishes priests who was propagated by the banishment of her own priests : and now boasts that she is beloved of the world , who yet could never have been christs , if the world had not hated her . the present state of affairs , which is in all mens eyes and discourses , gives us this parallel of the condition of the church , as it was anciently conveyed down to us , and as it is now ruined in our days . there needs no application of these words to the present purpose , they express the plea of those persecuted men so fully , that it may be well concluded that the spirit that acted in hilary , is not the same with that which now inspires the reverend prelates of that church . to this i might add the known history of the priscillianists that fell out not long after . i shall not presume to make a parallel between any of the gallican church , and ithacius , who persecuted them ; of whom the historian gives this character , that he was a vain , sumptuous , sensual ▪ and impudent man , and that he grew to that pitch in vice , that he suspected all men that led strict lives , as if they had been inclined to heresie . and it is also to be hoped , that none will be so uncharitable as to compare the priscillianists with those they now call hereticks in france ; whether we consider their opinions , that were a revival of the blasphemies of the gnosticks , or their morals , that were brutal and obscene , even by priscillian's own confession . now ithacius prosecuted those in the emperours courts , and went on in the pursuit , though the great apostle of that age , martin , warned him often to give it over . in conclusion , when ithacius had set it on so far that a sentence was sure to pass against them , he then withdrew from it : sentence was given , and some of them were put to death , upon which some bishops excommunicated ithacius , yet s. martin was wrought on to communicate with him very much against his mind ; being threatned by the emperour maximus that if he would not do it , troops should be ordered to march into spain , to destroy the rest of them . this prevailed on that good man to joyn in communion with those that had acted so contrary to the mercifulness of their religion , and to the sacredness of their character . but no arts could work on s. martin to approve of what they had done . the effects of this were remarkable , for when s. martin went home , if we will believe sulpitius , an angel appeared to him , and reproved him severely for what he had done ; upon which he with many tears , lamented much the sin he had committed by his communicating with those men , and would never after that communicate with any of that party : and during the sixteen years that he survived that , sulpitius who lived with him , tells us that he never went to any synod , and that there was a great withdrawing of those influences and graces , for which he had been so eminent formerly . and thus if s. martin's example and practice is of any authority , the cruelty of that church that has engaged all the princes of europe , as much as was in their power , to do what maximus then did , and the present practices of the bishops about the court , might justifie a separation from them . but we do not proceed upon such disputable grounds . to this i shall only ●dd the a●thority of another father , who t●o●gh he was none of the gallican bishops , 〈◊〉 since he is more read and esteemed in that church than any other of all the ●athers , it is to be hoped that his authority may be somewhat considered . it is s. austin . he was once against all sorts of severity in matters of religion , and delivered his mind so pathetically and elega●tly on that subject , that i presume the reader will not be ill pleased to hear his own words , writing against the manicheans , whose impieties are too well known to be enlarged on ; so as to shew that even in the account which the church of rome makes of things , they cannot pretend that the protestants are as bad as they were . he begins his book against them with an earnest prayer to god that he would give him a calm and serene mind , so that he might study their conversion ▪ and not seek their ruine ; to which purpose he applies those words of s. paul to timothy , the servant of the lord must not strive , but be meek towards all men , apt to teach , patient , in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves : to which he adds these words , let them exercise cruelty upon you , who do not know with what difficulty truth is found out , and how hardly errours are avoided : let them exercise cruelty upon you , who do not know how rare and hard a thing it is to overmaster carnal imaginations with the serenity of a pious mind . let them exercise cruelty upon you , who do not know with what difficulty the eye of the inward man is healed , that so it may behold its sun. let them exercise cruelty upon you , who do not know with what groans and sighs we attain the smallest measure of the knowledge of god. and in the last place , let them exercise cruelty upon you , who were never themselves deceived with any errour like that with which you are now deceived ▪ it is true , it may be pretended , that he became afterwards of another mind , but that will not serve to excuse the severities now on foot , the case being so very different . the donatists in his time very generally fierce and cruel , one sort of them , the circumcellionists , acted like mad men : they did lie in wait for s. austin's life ; they fell upon several bishops with great barbarity , putting out the eyes of some , and cudgelling others till they left them as dead . upon this , the bishops of africk were forced to desire the emperours protection , and that the laws made against hereticks might be executed upon the donatists , and yet even in this s. austin was at first averse . it is true , he afterwards in his writings against the donatists justified those severities of fining and banishing , but he expresses both in his own name , and in the name of all those churches , great dislike not only of all capital proceedings , but of all rigour ; and when the governours and magistrates were carrying things too far , he interposed often and ●ith great earnestness to moderate their severity : and wrote to them , that if they went on with such rigour , the bishops would rather bear with all the violences of the donatists , than seek to them for redress ; and whole synods of bishops concurred with him in making the like addresses in their favours ; and though there were excesses committed in some few instances , yet we may easily conclude how gentle they were , upon the whole matter , from this that he says that the fines imposed by law had never been exacted , and that they were so far from turning the donatists out of their own churches , that they still kept possession of several churches which they had violently invaded , and wrested out of the hands of the bishops . it is plain then , since he justified those severities only as a necessary restraint on the rage to the donatists , and a just protection of the bishops , that this has no relation to the hardships the protestants now suffer , it not being pretended that they have drawn it upon themselves by any tumultuary or irregular proceedings of theirs . so much seemed necessary to shew how different the spirit of the present clergy o● france is from that which animated the church in the former and best ages . the reverend prelates say in their letter , that they hold the same faith with their predecessors . if this were true in all points , it were indeed very hard to write an apology for those that have separated from them : i shall not engage in a long discussion of the sentiments of the ancient bishops of the gallican church ; yet that the reader may not be too much wrought on by the confidence and plausibleness of this expression● , i shall only give a taste of the faith of the first of all the gallican clergy , whose works are yet preserved , and that is irenaeus : i shall instance it in two particulars , the one is the hinge upon which all our other controversies turn ; that is , whether the scriptures or oral tradition is to be appealed to , for determining matters of controversie : the other is the most material point in difference among us , concerning the presence of christ in the sacrament , whether in it we really receive the substance of bread and wine , or only the accidents . as to the first , he directly appeals to the scriptures , which he says were the pillar ●nd ground of truth ; and adds , that the valentinians did appeal to oral tradition , from which he ●urns to that tradition that was come from the apostles ; on which he insists very copiously , and puts all the authority of tradition in this , that it was derived from the apostles : and therefore says that if the apostles had delivered nothing in writing , we must then have followed the order of tradition : and after he has shewed that the tradition to which the valentinians pretended was really against them , and that the orthodox had it derived down from the apostles on their side , he returns to that upon which he had set up the strength of his cause , to prove the truth from the scriptures . now the scriptures being the foundation on which the protestants build , and oral tradition , together with the authority of the church , being that on which the church of rome builds , it will be easie to every one that considers those chapters referred to in irenaeus , to gather upon which of those he grounded his belief . as for the other particular , he plainly calls the sacrament that bread over which thanks have been given ; and says , our flesh is nourished by the body and blood of christ ; and concludes that our flesh by the sacrament has an assurance of its resurrection and incorruptibility . more particularly he says , our blood is encreased by the blood of christ , and that he encreases our body by that bread which he has confirmed to be his body , and that by these the substance of our body is encreased ; and from thence he argues , that our bodies receive an encrease not by any internal or invisible way , but in the natural way of nourishment ; and so concludes , that our bodies being nourished by the eucharist , shall therefore rise again . every one that considers the force of these words , must conclude that he believed our bodies received in the sacrament a real substance which nourished them , and not bare accidents . if then upon this essay it appears , that the first writer of all gallican bishops does agree with the protestants , both in that which is the foundation upon which they build their whole cause , and also in that particular opinion which is believed to be of the greatest importance , then the reader has no reason to believe that the present bishops of france hold the same faith which their predecessors taught who first preached the christian religion in that kingdom . but now i come to answer the main question , which is indeed the whole substance of the letter , why have they made the schism ? if such a letter with such a demand in it , had come from the abassin or armenian churches , or perhaps from the greek churches , whose distance from us is such , and the oppressions they groan under are so extreme , that they have little heart and few opportunities to enquire into the affairs or opinions of others , it could not have been thought strange ; but to hear it from these : among whom those live , who have so often both in writings and discourses answered this question so copiously , is really somewhat unaccountable : yet this is not all , but it is added , that the protestants , upon trial finding they could not shake their doctrine , have charged them only for their ill lives , as if that were the ground of the separation . this it must be confessed , had better become the affected eloquence of a maimbourg , than the sincerity of so many eminent men ; of whom the mildest censure that can be past in this particular is , that some aspiring priest being appointed to pen this letter , that was better accustomed to the figures of a clamorous rhetorick , than the strict measures of truth , gave it this turn , hoping to recommend himself by it , and that the bishops signed it in haste , without considering it well . who of all the protestants have made that experiment , and found that the faith of the church of rome was not to be attackt , and that she can only be accused for the ill lives of some in her communion ? if this were all we had to object , we do not deny but that all that the fathers retorted on the schismaticks , particularly the donatists , did very justly fall on us ; and that we could neither answer it to god , to the world , nor our own consciences , if we had separated from their church on no other account : and this is indeed so weak a plea , that the penner of the letter shewed his skill at least , if he was wanting in his sincerity , to set up a pretence which he knew he could easily overthrow , though the reasons he brings to overthrow it , are not all pertinent nor convincing : but this in conclusion , is so managed as to draw an occasion from it to complement the present pope , some way to make an amends for their taking part with their king against him . all that is to be said on this head is , that protestants are not so unjust as to deny the pope that now reigns , his due praises ; of whose vertue and strictness of life they hear such accounts , that they heartily wish all the assembly of the clergy , from the president , down to the secretaries would imitate that excellent pattern that he sets them . a zeal for converting hereticks does not very well become those whose course of life has not been so exemplary , that this can be imputed to an inward sense of religion , and to the motives of divine charity . but in this point of the corruption of mens lives , we may add two things more material : the one is if a church teaches ill morals , or at least connives at such casuistical doctrines as must certainly root out all the principles of moral vertue and common goodness out of the minds of men , then their ill morals may be improved to be a good argument for a separation from them . how much the casuistical doctrine of those who are the chief confessors in that communion has been corrupted of late , we may learn from what has been published by many among themselves , particularly by their late address to the present pope , and by the articles condemned both by pope alexander the seventh , and by the pope that now reigns . but yet how faint those censures are , every one that has read them , must needs observe . this is not all : the dissolving of oaths and vows , the dispensing with many of the laws of god , the authorizing subjects to shake off their princes yoke , if he does not extirpate heresie and hereticks , the butcheries of those they call hereticks , and that after faith given to the contrary ; having been for some ages the publick practices of the court of rome ; in which several general councils have also concurred with them , are things both of such a nature , and have been so openly avowed as well as practised in that church , that this argument from the corruption of their morals , may be well fastened on their whole church . if likewise many opinions are received among them , which do naturally tend to slacken the strictness of holiness , and give the world more mild ideas of sin , and make the way to the favour of god accessible even without a real reformation , then there will be more weight in this argument than may at first view appear . the belief of the sacraments conferring grace , ex opere operato , the vertue of indulgences , the priestly absolution , the communication of merits , the vertue supposed to be in some pilgrimages , in images and priviledged altars , in fraternities , and many consecrated things , together with the after-game of purgatory , and of redemption out of it by masses ; these with many more devices , are such contrivances for enervating the true force of religion , and have such effects on the lives of men , who generally are too easie to hearken to any thing that may make them hope well , while they live ill ▪ that when we complain of a great dissolution of mens morals that live under the influences of that religion , this charge is not personal , but falls on their church in common . in the next place , that vast corruption of ecclesiastical discipline , and of all the primitive rules , occasioned chiefly by the exorbitant power the popes have assumed , of dispensing with all laws , the gross sale of such graces at rome , the intrigues in the creation of the popes themselves , the universal neglect of the pastoral care among the superiour orders of the clergy , do give men just and deep prejudices against a church so corrupt in her ruling members , and do raise great dislike of that extent of authority which the bishops of rome have assumed , that have cut all the banks , and let in such an inundation of ill practices on the world. and if once in an age or two a pope of another temper , of better morals , and greater strictness arises , we are notwithstanding that , to judge of things not upon rare and single instances , but upon their more ordinary and natural effects . thus laying all these things together , it will appear that our exceptions to that church upon the account of their morals , is not so slight as the penner of that letter has represented it ; and that his instances for living among ill men have no relation to this matter . but this is the weakest plea we have for our separation , and as strong soever as it may be in it self , we build upon solider foundations . in order to the opening this , i shall premise a little of the true end and design of religion , which is to beget in us so deep a sense of the divine nature and perfections a● may most effectually engage us to become truly holy. there are two inclinations in the nature of men , that dispose him to corrupt the ideas of god ; the one is an inclination to cloath him in some outward figure , and present him to our senses in such a manner , that we may hope by flatteries or submissions , by pompous or cruel services to appease him : and the other is a desire to reconcile our notions of religion to our vicious habits and appetites , that so we may some way pacifie our consciences in the midst of our lusts and passions : and thus the true notion of idolatry is the representing of god to us so as that we may hope to gain his favour by other methods than our being inwardly pure and holy : and the immorality of this consists not only in the indecency of such representations , and their unsuitableness to the divine nature , but likewise in this , that our notions of god which ought to be the seeds of vertue and true godliness , by which our natures are to be reformed , are no more effectual that way , but turn only to a pageantry , and spend themselves in dressing up our worship , so as we think will better agree with one that is like our selves : now we find the chief design of the gospel was to root this out of the world , and to give us the highest and perfectest ideas of the purity and goodness of the divine nature , that might raise in us that inward probity of soul , comp●ehended in the general name of charity or love , which is the proper character of the christian spirit : we have also the divine holiness so presented to us , that we can never hope to attain the favour of god here , or eternal happiness hereafter , but by becoming inwardly and universally holy . now our main charge against the church of rome is , that this which is the great design of the christian religion is reversed among them , and that chiefly in four things . 1. in proposing visible objects to the adorations of the people , against not only the current of the whole scriptures , but the true idea and right notion of god ; and this not only by precept in the images of our saviour and the saints , but by a general tolerance in the images of the blessed trinity it self . thus the senses having somewhat set before them on which they may work , do naturally corrupt the mind , and convert religion , which is an inward and spiritual work , into an outward gross homage to these objects . 2. in setting up the intercession of saints , as if either god had not a capacity of attending to the whole government of the world , or were not so merciful or good , but that as princes are wrought on by the interposition of their courtiers , so he needed to have such importunities to induce him to be favourable to us : the very plea commonly used for this from the resemblance of earthly courts , is the greatest debasing of the divine nature that is possible : and when the addresses made to these saints in the publick offices of the church , are the very same that we make to god or our saviour , that they would pardon our sins , give u●●race , assist us at all times , and open the kingdome of heaven to us ; and when after those things have been complained of for above an age , and that upon a general review of their offices , they are still continued among them , we must conclude that the honour due to the creator is offered to the creature . i need not bring instances of these , they are so well known . 3. in ●the many consecrations that are used among ●hem of images , crosses , habits , water , salt , oyl , candles , bells , vessels ▪ agnus dei's , and grains ; with a vast deal more , by which those things are so consecrated , as to have a vertue in them for driving away devils , for being ▪ a security both to soul and body , and a remedy against all temporal and spiritual evils . this way of incantations was one of the grossest pieces of heathenism , and is now by them brought into the christian religion : and the opinion , that upon these consecrations a vertue is conveyed to those things , is infused into the people by their authorized offices : in which if in any thing it is not to be believed that the church lies and deceives her children : this is plainly to consider god as the heathens did their idols , and to fetch down divine vertues by charms , as they did . and 4. their worshipping with divine honour , that which by all the indications that we can have of things , we know is no other than what it appears to be , even bread and wine in its substance and nature : thus divine adoration is offered to those elements , contrary to the universal practice of the christian church for 1200 years ; and this passes among them as the most important piece of their worship , which has almost swallowed up all the rest . thus the true ideas of god , and the chief design of the christian religion is overthrown in that communion ; and what can we think of a church that in the most important of her offices , adds this prayer to the absolution of sinners , the passion of our lord iesus christ , the merits of the blessed virgin , and all the saints , and whatever good thou hast done , and whatever evil thou hast suffered be to thee for the pardon of sin , the increase of grace , and the reward of eternal life ; where we see clearly what things they joyn in the same breath , and in order to the same ends with the passion of christ. when they have cleansed their churches of these objects of idolatry and superstition , and their offices of those impious addresses to saints , and that infinite number of enchantments , then they may upon some more advantage ask , why have we made the schism ? it is because they have corrupted the doctrine of christ and the gospel ; and if those things upon which the separation subsists were removed , it could no more subsist than accidents can do without a subject . the next thing upon which we ground our separation is , that not only the church of rome would hearken to no addresses nor remonstrances that were made to her for reforming those abuses , but that by anathema's and the highest censures possible , all are obliged to believe as she believes in those very particulars , and are bound to joyn in a worship in which those things which we condemn , are made indispensable parts of our publick devotions : so that we must either mock god , by concurring in a worship which we believe impious and superstitious , or we must separate from them . none can be admitted to benefices of cure or preferment , without swear●ng most of these opinions which we think are false : nor can any eminent heretick be received among them , without swearing that he in all things receives the doctrines of the church of rome , and that he thinks all that do not receive them worthy of an anathema . if the errours of the church of rome had been only speculative opinions , or things of less moment , we could have better born with them , or if they had only held to their own customes without imposing them on us , we could have held in several things a sisterly communion with them , as we do with the greek churches ; but when they have not only brought in and obstinately maintained those corruptions , but have so tyrannically imposed them on the world , it is somewhat strange to see men make such grimaces , and an appearance of seriousness , while they ask this question , of which they know so well how to have resolved themselves . one thing is likewise to be considered , that in the examination of the corruptio●s of that communion , it is not sufficient to say somewhat to sweeten every one of them in particular , but it is the complication of all together that we chiefly insist on , since by all these set together we have another view of them , than by every one of them taken asunder . this then is our answer to the question so often repeated : we have not made the schism from the church of christ , as it was setled by the apostles , and continued for many ages after them , but they have departed from that , and have refused to return to it . on the contrary , they have condemned and cursed us for doing it : upon this , all that they obj●ct against the first reformers , as having been once of their communion , falls to the ground : for if these things which we object to them are true , then since no man is bound to continue in errours , because he ▪ was bred up in them , this is no just prejudice against those men . all the flourishes raised upon this ground are but slight things , and favour more of a monastick and affectate eloquence , than of the weight and solidity of so renowned a body . what is said of pulling down the altars , and of that elegant figure of christs being the sparrow , and the churches being the turtle , that loved to make their nests in them , is really very hard to be answered ; not for the strength that is in it , but for another reason , that in reverence to that assembly i shall not name . the sacrifice of the death of christ we acknowledge , as that only by which we come to god , and in a general sense of that term , the commemoration of it may be also called a sacrifice , and the communion table an altar , and such we still retain : and for any thing further , either of altar or sacrifice , till they give a better authority for it , than a fanciful allusion ●o an ill-understood verse of a ●salm , we shall not be much concerned in it . if wars and confusions have followed in some places upon the reforming those abuses , they were the effects of the rage and cruelty of those church-men , that seemed never like to be satiated with the blood of those that had departed from them . and if the specious pretence of edicts , princes of the blood , the preserving the house of bourbon , the defending france from foreigners , joyning with that natural appetite that is in all men to preserve themselves , engaged some in wars under the minority of their kings , it is nothing but what is natural to man : and these who condemn it most , yet ought to pity those whom their predecessors , in whose steps they now go , constrained to do all that they did . and the rebellions in england and ireland , in king henry the eighth , edward the sixth , and queen elizabeth's time , when no persecutions provoked them to them , and no laws gave them any colour for them , are a much stronger prejudice against their church , chiefly since these were set on by the authority and agents of rome , so that they may well give over the pursuing this matter any further . as for the argument set before them from the greatness and glory of their king , and his zeal to have all again re-united into one body , how powerful soever it may be to work upon their fears , and to touch them in their secular concerns , it cannot be considered as an argument to work on their reasons . they expressed their zeal for their king in his greatest extremity , while he was under age ; and after all the heavy returns that they have met with since that time , they have continued in an invincible loyalty and submission in all things , except in the matters of their god : if the heroick greatness , glorious success , and the more inherent qualities of a princely mind , are good arguments to work on subjects , they were as strong in the times of a trajan , a decius , or a dioclesian , to perswade the christians to turn heathens : but it is very probable this is the strongest of all those motives that have produced so many conversions of late , while men , either to make their court , or to live easie , are induced to make shipwrack of the faith , and of a good conscience . and i shall not add , that it seems those who are so often making use of this argument , feel the mighty force it has on themselves , and so imagine it should prevail as much on others , as they find it does on their own consciences , or rather on their ambition and covetousness . i will prosecute the matter of this letter no further , and therefore shall not shew in how many places the secretary that penned it has discovered how much he is a novice in such matters , and what great advantages he gives to those who would sift all the expressions , the figures , and the periods in it . but the respect i pay to those that subscribe it , as well as the importance and gravity of the subject stop me : so from the reviewing this letter , i go next to consider the methods laid down by the assembly for carrying on those conversions . a memorial , containing diverse methods , of which very great use may be made for the conversion of those who profess the pretended reformed religion . the first method is that which cardinal richelieu used for reducing , either in the way of disput● or conference , those of the p. r. r. and to perswade them in an amicable manner to re-unite themselves to the church . this method is to attack them by ● decree of a synod of theirs tha● met at charenton , 1631. by which the● received to their communion those of th● ausbourg confession , who hold the rea● presence of the body of iesus christ in the eucharist , together with diverse other articles that are very different from the confession of faith of those that are the p. reformed . vpon which the minister dailee in his apology says , that if the church of rome had no other errour besides that , they had not had a sufficient reason for their separating from her . it is certain , that none of all the other points of our belief that are controverted , are either of greater importance , or harder to be believed than this which has been ever esteemed even by themselves one of the chief grounds of their separation , and is that by which the people are most amused . as for that which the minister dailee says for eluding the force of this objection , that the lutherans do not adore iesus christ in the sacrament : it is altogether unreasonable , since calvin himself reproves the lutherans for that , and is forced to acknowledge that adoration is a necessary consequence of the real presence . what is more strange ( says he ) than to put jesus christ in the bread , and not to adore him ? and if he is in the bread , then he ought to be adored under the bread. thus since , according to the calvinists in the same synod , one does not overthrow the grounds of salvation by the belief of the real presence , and the other points of their confession concerning which they dispute , that cardinal thought he could convince them of their errour , in separating faom the communion of the church of rome , in which , according to their own maximes , one could be saved . it was by the like reasoning that the african fathers convinced the donatists , called the primianists , that they had unjustly separated themselves from the catholick church , because it received cecilian i●to its communion , since they had made a decree of vnion with the maximianists , whom they had formerly condemned . it was in the council of carthage , held under anastasius , that the fathers used this against those hereticks , and in the fourth canon they set this before them , * that they might see if they would but open their eyes a little to the divine light , that they had as unjustly ●ut themselves off from the unity of the church ; as the maximianists according to what they said , had separated themselves from their communion , remarks . if cardinal richelieu had not ●een an abler states-man , than as it appears by this argument , he was a divine , the princes of europe would not have such cause as they have at present , to dread the growth of the french monarchy , of which he laid the best and strongest foundations . it is a common maxime , that no man can excel but in one thing ; so since his strength lay in the politicks , no wonder he had no great talent for divinity : but if this at first view seemed to him to have somewhat in it to amuse weak minds , especially when it surprized them with its novelty ; yet it is a little unexpected to find it taken up by so great a body , and set in the front of their methods for making proselytes , after the weakness of it has been so evidently discovered . 1. great difference is to be made between a speculation that lies in the mind , and is a mans particular opinion , and that which discovers it self in the most solemn acts of worship ; for the former , unless it is such as subverts the foundations of religion , we can well bear with it : these are errours in which the person that holds them is only concerned , whereas the other errors become more fruitful , they corrupt the worship , they give scandal , and infect others . therefore we will without scruple own , that whether a man believe consubstantiation or transubstantiation , so long as that lies in his brain as a notion , we may conclude him a very ill philosopher , and a worse divine , for holding it ; but still we will receive him to our communion , that being a solemn stipulation of the new covenant made with god through christ : and therefore since such a person acts nothing contrary to that covenant , we ought to admit him to it : but idolatry being contrary to the laws upon which that covenant is grounded , we cannot receive an idolater , though we do admit such as are in errours , that produce no other effect but mistaken apprehensions and judgements . it is unreasonable to say that if the presence is acknowledged , adoration ought to follow ; for we will excommunicate none for a consequence , were it never so well deduced , so long as they hold not that consequence : and if calvin argued as he did from that absurdity , it was not that he thought they ought to adore , because they believed consubstantiation ; but rather to let them see how unreasonable it was to believe it , since they did not adore it ; and yet it must be confessed the argument is not unanswerable : for it may be said , that as princes when ●●ey are in any place incognito , even though they are known , yet their being incognito shews that they will not have that respect paid them which is otherwise due to them : so that christ being present in an invisible manner is not to be adored . i shall not determine whether the argument or the answer is stronger , yet this must be confessed , that upon so dubious a consequence , it were a very unreasonable cruelty to deny the holding communion with those that believed such a presence , though we refuse to communicate with those that joyn adoration to it . 2. there is a great difference to be made between the receiving men that hold erroneous tenets , to our ●ommunion that we believe is pure and undefiled , and the joyning our selves to a communion in which we must profess those very errours which we condemn ; and by solemn acts of worship must testifie before god and the world that we believe that which inwardly and in our consciences we think false . the former is only a tolerating or conniving at the errours of others , without any sort of approbation of them ; whereas the other is the fullest and most publick contradiction to our consciences that is possible . 3. as long as any errours do not strike against the foundations of the christian religion , we own that we will bear with them , at least not oblige others , especially the laity , in whom there is not that danger of spreading them to renounce them , before we admit them to the sacraments : but the case of the church of rome is very different , among whom this opinion is but one of very many opinions , that we think reverse the whole nature and design of christianity , of which some short hints were given in the remarks upon the letter of the assembly general . 4. it is a very ill inference to conclude , because that we think a man can be saved that believes the corporal presence , therefore we have done amiss to separate from their communion . we may think men may be saved though they are in some errours , that in us were damnable , after the illumination we have had ; especially if we should profess that we believe them when we do not believe them , and therefore if we cannot continue in their communion without professing that we believe those errours , they were to blame for imposing them on us , and not we for separating from them , when they had imposed them . 5. that which the african fathers objected to the donatists was very pertinently urged against them , who grounded their separation only upon this , that there were some corrupt members in the communion of the church : and this was very justly cast back on them , upon their receiving the maximianists , whom they had formerly condemned as schismaticks , to their communion . but it has no relation to us who have not separated from their church upon any such personal account : therefore since the chief grounds of our separation are the corruptions in their worship , and our being obliged to bear a share in those corruptions , it is clear that our receiving to our communion those who have not corrupted their worship , and come to joyn with us , has no relation to that dispute b●tween the african fathers and the donatists . 6. there is one thing in the method which we freely confess to be true , that there is none of the controverted points that are harder to be believed than this of the real presence . it is no wonder it should be so , since it has the strongest evidences both of sense and reason against it : but if it is so hard to be believed , it is very severe to prosecute those who cannot bring themselves to believe it , in so extreme a manner as that church has done and still does . upon the whole matter , this method is so weak in all the parts of it , that its being set first , gives no great hopes of any thing extraordinary to follow . the second method is to lay this before them , that according to the light of nature , and their own confession , in the matters of our salvation , which is the one thing that is needful , we ought always to chuse the surer side : now it is certain , that according to that decree of the synod of charenton , it is indifferent to them whether one believes the real presence , or whether they believe it not ; and we hold it necessary to believe it , therefore it is the surer side to believe it : and if they could but disengage themselves a little from their prejudices , they would follow this way . the same may be said of all the other points in dispute . mestresat the minister , in his treatise of the church , says that things necessary to salvation are only those that are so expressly set down in the scriptures , that no doubt can be made of them . such as are the articles of the apostles creed . if there is any thing that is obscure ( says he ) then i assert it is not necessary , and therefore one may be a very good christian without it , and may have both faith , hope and charity . it is evident that the points in dispute which they maintain against us are not so clearly expressed in the scripture , that one cannot doubt concerning them : since we maintain on good grounds , that they are not there : so that according to their own doctrine , one can disbelieve them , without endangering his salvation . but we say that it is necessary , under the pain of damnation , to believe the contrary opinion , and therefore if they will take the surest side , they ought to submit to us . remarks . 1. it is something odd to see so great a body use this logick , that because we think an errour is not damnable , and such as obliges us to excommunicate all that hold it , therefore we think it indifferent to believe it or not . we judge it an errour , and while we think it so , it were a lie for us to say that we did believe it , and this , especially in such publick acts of worship of god , which are grossly idolatrous , by their own confession , while we hold this persuasion , is so far from being a thing indifferent , that we know nothing more damnable ▪ for this were to lie every day to god and the world , and to commit idolatry in a manner more absurd , than the most barbarous nations have been guilty of , which is to worship that as a god which we do believe is only a piece of bread. 2. in this very article it is plain that our opinion is the surer side : for as to the spiritual efficacy of the sacrament and due preparation for it , which is all that we hold concerning it , by their own confession there can be no sin in that : whereas if their opinion is false , they are guilty of a most horrid idolatry . so there is no danger in any thing we do , whereas there may be great danger on their side ; all the danger that is possible to be on our side , is , that we do not adore christ if he is present , which may be thought to be want of reverence : but that cannot be reasonably urged , since we at the same time adore him , believing him to be in heaven ; and if this objection against us had any force , then the primitive church for twelve hundred years must have been in a state of damnation , for none of them adored the consecrated elements , nor has the greek church ever done it . 3. it is clear this general maxime of taking the surer sid● is against them . there is no sin in not worshipping images , whereas there may be a sin in doing it . they confess it is not necessary to invocate the saints , and we believe it is sinful . they do not hold that it is necessary to say masses for redeeming souls out of purgatory , and we believe that it is an impious profanation of the sacrament . they do not hold it is necessary to take away the cup in the sacrament , we think it sacrilegious . they do not think those consecrations , by which divine vertues are derived into such a variety of things to be necessary , we look on them as gross superstitions . they do not think the worship in an unknown tongue necessary , whereas we think it a disgrace to religion . so in all these , and many more particulars , it is clear that we are of the surer side . 4. we own that maxime , that nothing is necessary to salvation but what is plainly set down in the scriptures ; but this is not to be carried so far , as that it should be impossible by sophistry , or the equivocal use of words , to fasten some other sense to such passages in scripture ; for then nothing can be said to be plain in any book whatsoever : but we understand this of the genuine meaning of the scriptures , such as a plain well-disposed man will find out , if his mind is not strongly prepossessed or biassed with false and wrong measures . 5. the confidence with which any party proposes their opinions , cannot be a true standart to judge of them ; otherwise the receipts of mountebanks will be always preferred to those prescribed by good physicians ; and indeed the modesty of one side and the confidence of the other , ought rather to give us a biass for the one against the other , especially if it is visible that interest is very prevalent in the confident party . the third method is to confer amicably with them , and to shew them our articles in the scriptures and tradition , as the fathers of tbe first ages understood both the one and the other , without engaging in reasonings , or the drawing out of consequences by syllogisms , as cardinal bellarmin , and perron , and gretser , and the other writers of controversie have done ; which ordinarily beget endless disputes . it was in this manner that the general councils did proceed , and thus did s. austin prove original sin against julian : to this end ( says he ) * o julian , that i may overthrow thy engines and artifices by the opinions of those bishops who have interpreted the scripture with so much glory . after which he cites the passages of the scripture , as they were understood by s. ambrose , s. cyprian , s. gregory nazianzene , and others . remarks . 1. we do not deny but amicable conferences , in which matters are proposed without the wranglings of dispute , are the likeliest ways to convince people : and whenever they shew us their doctrines directly in the scripture and tradition , we will be very unreasonable if we do not yield upon that evidence . when they give us good authorities from scripture and tradition for the worship of images and saints , for adoring the host , for dividing the sacrament , for redeeming souls out of purgatory , for denying the people the free use of the scriptures , for obliging them to worship god in a tongue not understood by them , we will confess our selves very obstinate men if we resist such conviction . 2. the shewing barely some passages , without considering the whole scope of them , with the sense in which such words were used , in such ages , and by such fathers will certainly misguide us , therefore all these must be also taken in for making this enquiry exactly . allowances also must be made for the heats of eloquence in sermons or warm discourses , since one passage strictly and philosophically expressed is stronger than a hundred , in which the heat of zeal and the figures of rhetorick transport the writer . and thus if the fathers disputing against those who said that the humane nature of christ was swallowed up by his divine nature , urge this to prove that the humane nature did still subsist , that in the sacrament after the consecration , in which there is an union between the elements and the body and blood of christ , they do still retain their proper nature and substance ; such expressions used on such a design le●d us more infallibly to know what they thought in this matter , than any thing that they said with design only to beget reverence and devotion can do . 3. the ancient councils were not so sollicitous as this paper would insinuate , to prove a tradition from the fathers of the first ages . they took great care to prove the truth , which they decreed , by many arguments from scripture ; but for the tradition , they thought it enough to shew that they did innovate in nothing , and that some fathers before them had taught what they decreed . we have not the acts of the two first general councils , but we may very probably gather upon what grounds those at nice proceeded , by what s. athanasius wrote as an apology for their symbol , in particular for the word consubstantial , which he proves by many consequences drawn from scripture , but for the tradition of it he only cites four fathers , and none of those were very ancient : they are theognistus , denis of alexandria , denis of rome , and origen ; and yet both that a father , b hilary , and c s. basil acknowledge that denis of alexandria wavered much in that matter ; and it is well known what advantages were taken from many of origen's expressions . so here we have only two undisputed fathers that conveyed this tradition . we have the acts of the third general council yet preserved , and in them we find a tradition indeed alledged , but except s. cyprian and s. peter of alexandria , they cite none but those that had lived after the council of nice ; and pope leo's letter to flavian , to which the council of chalcedon assented , is an entire contexture of authorities drawn from scripture , without so much as any one citation of any father . it is true , there is added to the end of that letter a collection of some sayings of six fathers , hilary , ambrose , nazianzene , chrysostome , austin and cyril , who had all except one , lived within sixty years or a little more , of that time . so it is certain they founded their faith only on the scripture , and not on tradition , otherwise they had taken more pains to have made it out , and had not been so easily satisfied with what a few late writers had said : and thus it may be presumed , that all the end for which they cited them , was only to shew that they did not broach new and unheard of opinions . and s. austin could no● think that s. cyprian's opinion al●ne was a sufficient proof of the doctrine of the first three centuries for original sin , and yet he cite● no other that lived in those ages . no● could s. ambrose , and nazianzene that had lived in his own time , be cited t● prove the tradition of former ages and whereas it is insinuated that he cited others , one would expect to fin● a catalogue of many other father● wrapt up in this plural , whereas al● resolves into hilary alone . and we have a more evident indication of s. austin's sense , as to the la●t resort in matters of controversie , than this they offer in that celebrated saying of his , when he was writing against maximinus the arian bishop . * but neither may i make use of the nicene council , nor you that of arimini , as that which ought to pre-judge us in this matter ; for neither am i held by the authority of the one , nor you by the authority of the other . let the one side and cause , and their reasons , be brought against the other from the authorities of the scriptures , that do not belong to either side , but are witnesses common to both . the fourth method is to tell them that their ministers can never do this , nor shew in the scriptures any of their articles that are controverted , and this is very true . for example , they can never bring any formal text to prove that original sin remains , as to the guilt of it after baptism , that we receive the body of iesus christ only by faith ; that after the consecration , the sacrament is still bread ; that there is no purgatory , and that we do not merit any thing by our good works . and to this it may be added , that among all those passages that are on the margent of their confession , there is not one that says that which they cite it for , either in express or equivalent terms , or in the same sense . this is the method of mr. veron , which he took from s. austin , who says to the manichaeans , shew me that that is in the scripture ; and in another place , let him shew me that that is to be found in the holy scripture . we must then boldly tell them , that they cannot prove any of their articles that are in dispute , nor dispute against any of ours by any passages of scripture , neither in express terms , nor by sufficient consequences , so as to make their doctrine be received , as the faith , and ours pass for errour . remarks . the first part of this article proceeds upon veron's method of putting us to prove our doctrines by express words of scripture , but some more cautious person has added in the conclusion a salvo for good consequences drawn from them ; upon which we yield that this is a very good method , and are ready to joyn issue upon it . if they intend still to build upon that notion of express words , we desire it may be considered , that the true meaning of all passages is not to be taken only from the bare words , but from the contexture of the discourse , and the design upon which they are made use of ; and that rule of logick being infallibly true , that what things soever agree in any third thing , they do also agree among themselves , it is certain that a true consequence is as good a proof as a formal passage . thus did our saviour prove the resurrection from the scriptures by a very remote consequence , since god was said to be the god of abraham , isaac and jacob , and was the god of the living and not of the dead . so did the apostles prove christ's being the promised messias , and the obligation to observe the mosaical ceremonies to have ceased upon his coming , by many consequences , but not by the express words of scripture . all the arguings of the fathers against the hereti●ks run on consequences drawn from scripture , as may appear in all their synodical letters , more particularly in that formerly cited of pope leo to flavian , to which the fourth general council assented . this plea does very ill become men that pretend such reverence to antiquity , since it was that upon which all the ancient hereticks set up their strength , as the most plausible pretence by which they thought they could cover themselves . so the a arians at arimini give this reason for rejecting the word consubstantial , because it was not in the scriptures . the b macedonians laid hold of the same pretence . c nestor●us gives this as his chief reason for denying the virgin to be the mother of god : and d eutyches covered himself also with this question , in what scripture were the two natures of christ to be found ? and his followers did afterwards insist so much on this plea , that theodoret wrote two large discourses on purpose to shew the weakness of this pretence . so that after all the noise they make about the primitive church , they follow the same tract in which the hereticks that were condemned by the first four general councils , went ; and they put us to do the same thing that the hereticks then put on the orthodox : but we make the same answer to it which the fathers did , that the sense of the scriptures is to be considered more than the words : so that what is according to the true sense , is as much proved by scripture , as if it were contained in it in so many express words . and yet this plea had a much greater strength in it , as it was managed by those hereticks ; for those contests being concerning mysteries which exceed our apprehensions , it was not an unreasonable thing at first view to say , that in such things which we cannot perfectly comprehend , it is not safe to proceed by deductions or consequences , and therefore it seemed safer to hold strictly to scripture phrases , but in other points into which our understandings can carry us further , it is much more absurd to exact of us express words of scripture . 2. most of the points about which we dispute with the church of rom● , are additions made by them to the simplicity of the christian religion . so much as we own of the christian religion they own likewise . in the other particulars , our doctrine with relation to them is made up of negatives , and theirs is the affirmative ; and since all negatives , especially in matters of religion prove themselves , it falls to their share to prove those additions which they have made to our faith , and to the doctrine contained in the scriptures . 3. though this is a sure maxime , yet our plea is stronger , for there are many things taught by them against the express words of scripture ; as their worshipping images , their no● drinking all of the cup , their worshipping of angels , their not worshipping god in a tongue which the unlearned understand , and to which they can say , amen ; their setting up more mediato●● between god and us than one : whereas s. paul exhorting us to make prayer● to god , tells us there is one m●di●tor , which shews that he spake there his single intercession with god on our behalf . 4. we do not only build our doctrine upon some few passages of the scripture , in which perhaps a critical writer might easily raise much dust , but upon that in which we cannot be so easily mistaken , which is the main scope of the whole new testament , and the design of christianity , which we believe is reversed in their church by the idolatry and superstition that is in it . 5. as for the particulars which they call on us to prove , as they are very few , so scarce any of them is of the greatest consequence . the first is a speculative point , about which we would never have broke communion with them . for the second , that we receive christ only by faith , if the third is true , that the sacrament is still bread , then that must be also true : now s. paul calls it so four several times , as also our saviour calls the cup the fruit of the vine . as for our denying purgatory , it is a negative , and they must prove it . nor should we have broken communion , for their opinion concerning it , if they had not added to that , the redeeming souls out of it with masses , by which the worship is corrupted , contrary to the institution of the sacrament . and for the last , in the sense in which many of them assert it , we do not raise any controversie about it , for we know that god rewards our good works , or rather crowns his own grace in us . the fifth method is the peaceable method , and without dispute founded on the synod of dort , which all the pretended reformed churches of france have received , and which has defined according to the holy scripture , that when there is a dispute concerning any controverted article between two parties that are both within the true church , it is necessary to refer it to the judgement of the synod , and that he who refuses to submit himself , becomes guilty of heresi● and schism . now if we will run back to the time in which the dispute began concerning any article , for instance that of the real presence , both the parties in th● debate , as well the ancestors of those of the p. r. religion as ours , were in th● same church , which was the true church ; for there was no other before the s●paration , which was not then made : then their ancestors , who would not submit to the iudgement of the church , and have separated from her on no other account but because she had condemned their sentiments were schismaticks and hereticks : and those who at this day succeed them are in the same manner guilty , since they follow their opinions : and to this they can make no other answer , but that which the hereticks that have been condemned in all ages might have made . this method is proved in all its parts in the little treatise that has been made about it . remarks . it is not unwisely done to call this a method that is to pass without dispute , for it will not bear one : and 1. there is this difference between the principles of protestants and those of the church of rome , that whereas the latter are bound to justifie whatever has been decreed in a general council as a rule either of faith or manners ; the sormer are not so tied , and much less are they bound by the decision of a national council , though never so solemn . it is natural for all judicatories to raise their own authority as high as they can , and so if any synod has made any such declaration , it lies on them to justifie it , but the rest of those who have separated from the corruptions of the church of rome are not concerned in it . 2. the principle of protestants , with relation to the majority even in a general council , is , that when any doctrines are established or condemned upon the authorities of the scriptures , those who differ from them , and do think ●hat the council misunderstood the scriptures are bound to suspect themselves a little , and to review the matter with greater application , and not to adhere to their former opinions out of pride or obstinacy : they are also bound to consider well of their opinions , though they appear still to be true , yet if ●hey are of that importance that the publishing them is necessary to salvation ; for unless it is so , the peace of the church is not to be rent by them : yet if they are required to profess that they believe opinions which they think false , if t●ey were never so inconsiderable , no man ought to go against his conscience : but if a man after his strictest enquiries , is still persuaded that a council has decreed against the true meaning of the scriptures , in a point necessary to salvation , then he must prefer god to man , and follow the sounder , though it should prove to be the much lesser party : and if any company or synod of protestants have decreed any thing contrary to this , in so far they have departed from the protestant principles . 3. difference is to be made also between heresie and schism in a legal and a vulgar sense , and what is truly such in the sight of god. the sentence of a supream court from which there lies no appeal , makes one legally a criminal : but if he is innocent , he is not the less innocent because a hard sentence is past against him . so heresie and ●chism may take their denominations from the sentence of a national or general council : but in that which is the sense of those words that makes them criminal , heresie is nothing but an obstinate persisting in errours , contrary to divine revelation , after one has had a sufficient means of in●truction : and schism is an ill grounded separation from the body of the church : so it must be the divine revelation , and not the authority of a synod that can prove one who holds contrary opinions to be an heretick , and the grounds of the separation must be likewise examined before one can be concluded a schismatick . 4. though the conclusions and definitions made by the synod of dort are perhaps generally received in france , yet that does not bind them up to subscribe every thing that was asserted in that synod : nor do they found their assent to those opinions on the authority of that synod , but upon the evidence of those places of scripture from which they deduced them . 5. since those of that communion object a national synod to the protestants , this may be turned back on them with greater advantage , in some points established by councils , which they esteem not only general but infallible . in the third council of the lateran it was decreed , that all princes who favoured hereticks did forfeit their rights , and a plenary indulgence was granted to all that fought against them . in the fourth council at the same place it was decreed , that the pope might not only declare this forfeiture , but absolve the subjects from their oaths of obedience , and transfer their dominions upon others . in the first council at lions they joyned with the pope in thundring the sentence of deposition against the emperour frederick the first , which in the preamble is grounded on some places of scripture , of which if they were the infallible expositors , then this power is an article of faith. and in the last p●ace the council of constance decreed , that the faith of a safe-conduct was not to be kept to an heretick , that had come to the place of judgement relying on it , even though he would not have come without it . when cruelt● , rebellion and treachery were thus decreed in courts , which among them are of so sacred an authority ; it is visible how much gre●ter advantages we have of them in this point than any they can pretend against us . 6. for the synod of dort i will not undertake the apology neither for their decrees nor for their assertions ▪ and will not stick to say that how true soever many of their conclusions may be , yet the defining such mysterious matters as the order of the divine decrees , and the influences of gods grace on the wills of men , in so positive a manner , and the imposing their assertions on all the ministers of their communion , was that which many as sincere protestants as any are , have ever disliked and condemned , as a weakening the union of the protestant church , and an assuming too much of that authority which we condemn in the church of rome . for though they supposed that they made their definitions upon the grounds of scripture ▪ so that in this sense the authority of the synod was meerly declarative ; yet the question will still recur , whether they understood the passages which they built on , right or not ? and if they understood them wrong , then according to protestant principles , their decrees had no such binding authority , that the receding from them could make one guilty either of heresie or schism . the sixth method is to shew them that the roman church , or that church which acknowledges the pope or the bishop of rome , the successor of s. peter , to be her head all the world over , is the true church : because there is no other besides her that has that undoubted mark , which is a perpet●al visibility without interruption , since christ's time to this day . this is a method common to all the catholicks , and is very well and briefly set forth in the little treatise of the true church , joyned to that of the peaceable method . this is that of which s. austin makes most frequent use against the donatists , and chiefly in his book of the vnity of the church ; and in his epistles , of which the most remarkable passages relating to this matter , are gathered together by the late arch-bishop of rouen , in the first book of his apology for the gospel , in which he handles this matter excellently well . one may add to this method the maxims , of which tertullian makes use in his treatise of prescriptions against the hereticks , and also vincentius lyrinensis in his advices . it is enough to say on this occasion that those two treatises may satisfie any that will read them without prepossession , in order to their forming a just iudgement of the true church of iesus christ , and of all those societies that would usurp that name ▪ remarks . this method is so common that there was no reason in any sort to give mr. maimbourg the honour of it , unless it was that the assembly intended to do him this publick honour to ballance his disgrace at rome : but let us examine it . 1. this asserts that no other church has a perpetual succession without interruption , but that which derives it from rome , which is so contrary to what every one knows , that mr. maimbourg was certainly inspired with the spirit of his order when he writ it . do not all the greek churches , and all the churches that have their ordination from them , all from the northern empire of muscovy to the southern of the abassines , together with all those in the east , derive from the apostles by an uninterrupted series ? for till the authority of the church of rome is proved , which is the thing in question , their being declared schismaticks or hereticks by it , does not interrupt this succession . 2. the church of england has the same succession that the church of rome had in gregory the great 's time ( to wave the more ancient pretensions of the brittish churches ) and the bishops of this church being bound by one of their sponsions made at their consecration , according to the roman pontifical , to instruct their flock in the true faith according to the scriptures , they were obliged to make good this promise . nor can it be pretended that they have thereupon forfeited their orders , and by consequence their succession . 3. the succession of the church of rome cannot be said to be uninterrupted , if either heresie or schism can cut it off . it is well known that felix , liberius , and honorius , to name no more , were hereticks ; and if ordinations by schismaticks or unlawful usurpers be to be annulled , which was judged in the case of photius , and was often practised at rome , then the many schisms and unjust usurpations that have been in that see ▪ will make the succession of their orders the most disputable thing that can be , especially during that schism that lasted almost forty years ; all the churches of that communion having derived their orders from one or other of the popes : and if the popes at avignon were the usurpers , then let the gallican churches see how they can justifie the series of their ordinations : to all which may be added the impossibility of proving a true succession in orders , if the vertue of the sacraments depends on the intention of him who officiates , since secret intentions are only known to god. 4. the ground on which the donatists separated from the orthodox churches being at first founded on a matter of fact , which was of the pretended irregularity of those who ordained cecilian , which they afterwards defended upon this , that the church could be only composed of good men , and that the sacraments were of no vertue when dispensed by ill hands ; all that s. austin says is to be governed by this hypothesis , against which he argues : and it being once granted that the church was not corrupted neither in doctrine nor worship , we are very ready to subscribe to every expression of his ; and do freely acknowledge that the making a rent in a church , that is pure both in doctrine and worship , upon any particular or personal account , is a sin that cannot be sufficiently detested and condemned . i shall not enter into a particular discussion of every passage of s. austin's , but if in some he seems to go too far for the authority of the church , i shall only offer two general considerations concerning these . the first is , that it is a maxime with lawyers , that general words in laws are to be restricted to the preambles and chief design of these laws : and if this is true of laws that are commonly penned with more coldness and upon greater deliberation , it is much more applicable to warm discourses , where the heat of contradiction , and the zeal of a writer , makes that things are of●en aggravated , and carried too far ; but still all those expressions are to ●e molli●ied and restricted to that which was the subject matter of the debate ; therefore those expressions of s. austin's , supposing that the church was still sound in her doctrine and worship , are to be governed by that hypothesis . the second is , that many of those who urge these passages on us , do not deny but s. a●stin in the disputes about grace and original sin was carried too far , though those were the subjects on which he employed his latest years with the greatest application : if then it is confessed that he wrote too warmly against the pelagians , and in that heat advanced some propositions that need a fair construction , is it unreasonable for us to say that he might have done the same , writing against the donatists ? 5. as for tertullian , he that might have conversed with many that could have known s. pol●carp , who was both instructed and ordained by the apostles , so that he might have been the third person in the conveyance of the sense of what the apostles had left in writing , could reasonably argue as he did against the hereticks ; but certainly no man that considers the distance we live at from those ages , and the many accidents that have so often changed the face of the church , can think it reasonable to argue upon that ground now . and yet it were easie to bring many citatious out of that very book of tertullians , to shew that he grounded his faith only on the doctrine of christ , delivered in the scriptures , how much soever he might argue from other topicks against the hereticks of his time , who indeed were bringing in a new gospel into the world. we willingly receive the characters that vincentius lyrinensis gives of tradition , that what the church has at all times and in all places received , is to be believed , and are ready to joyn issue upon this , and when they can prove that the church at all times and in all places has taught the worshipping of images , the invocation of saints and angels , the adoring the sacrament , and the dividing of it , with many more particulars ; we will yield the whole cause , and confess that we have made a schism in the church . the seventh method is to let them see that those who at first pretended to reform the church in which they were amongst us , neither had nor could have any mission , either ordinary or extraordinary , to bring us any other doctrine but that which was then taught ; and that by consequence none ought to believe them , since they had no authority to preach as they did . how can they preach if they are not sent . this is the ordinary method that puts the ministers to the necessity of proving their mission , which is a thing that they can never do . this cuts off all disputes , and is one of the methods of cardinal richelieu . remarks . 1. if the first reformers had delivered a new doctrine which was never formerly taught , it had been necessary for them to have had a very extraordinary mission , and to have confirmed it by very extraordinary signs , but when they grounded all ●hey said upon that very book , which was and is still received as the unalterable law of all christians ; then if every man is bound to take care of his own salvation , and is in charity obliged to let others see that same light that guides himself , then i say an extraordinary mission was not necessary when the thing in dispute was not a new doctrine , but the true meaning of those writings which were on all hands acknowledged to be divine . 2. if notwithstanding the necessity of not raising war in civil government , without an express commission from the prince or supream authority , yet in a general rebellion , when the ways of intercourse with the prince are cut off , if it be not only a lawful but a commendable action for any subject , even without a commission , to raise what force he can for the service of the prince : then if it be true , that the western churches had generally revolted from the rules of the gospel , that was a sufficient warrant for any person to endeavour a reformation . 3. the nature of the christian religion is to be well considered , in which all christians are a royal priesthood : and though it be highly necessary for all the ends of religion to maintain peace and order , and to convey down an authority for sacred administrations in such a way as tends most to advance those ends ; yet this cannot be lookt on as indispensable and absolutely necessary . among the iews , as there were many services in which none but priests and levites could officiate , so the succession went in the natural course of descent . but in the christian church there are no positive laws so appropriated , and therefore in cases of extream and unavoidable necessity every christian may make use of that dormant priviledge of being a royal priest , and so this difficulty must be resolved , by examining the merits of the whole cause , for if the necessity was not extream and unavoidable , we acknowledge it had been a sacrilegious presumption for any that was not called in the ordinary manner to meddle in holy things 4. it is but a small part of the reformed churches that is concerned in this . here in england our reformers had the ordinary mission ; and in most places beyond sea the first preachers had been ordained priests : and it will not be easie to prove that lay-men , yea , and women may baptize in cases of necessity , when that is often but an imaginary necessity , and that yet priests in a case of real necessity may not ordain other priests . for all the rules of order are superseded by extraordinary cases , and in moral as well as in natural things , every individual has a right to propagate its kind , and though it may be reasonable to regulate that , yet it can never be wholly cut off . the eighth method is to tell them , you do not know that such or such a book of the scripture is the word of god but by the church in which you were before your schism : so that you cannot know what is the true sense of those passages that are in dispute , but by that same church which conveys it to you . this is s. austin's method in many places , but above all in his book de utilitate credendi , and in his book contra epistolam fundamenti : in which he says , i would not believe the gospel , if the authority of the church did not oblige me to it . this method is handsomely managed in the treatise of the true word of god , joyned to the peaceable method . remarks . 1. great difference is to be made between the conveyance of books and an oral tradition of doctrine . it is very easie to carry down the one in a way that is morally infallible : an exact copying being all that is necessary for that : whereas it is morally impossible to prevent frauds and impostures in the other , in a course of some ages , especially in times of ignorance and corruption , in which the credulity of unthinking people , has made an easie game to the craft and industry of covetous and aspiring priests . few were then at the pains to examine any thing , but took all upon trust , and became so ready of belief , that the more incredible a thing seemed to be , they swallowed it down the more willingly . 2. if this way of reasoning will hold good , it was as strong in the mouths of the iews in our saviours time ; for the high priest and sanhedrim might have as reasonably pretended that since they had conveyed down the books in which the prophecies of the messiah were contained , they h●d likewise the right to expound those prophecies . 3. a witness that hands a thing down without additions , is very different from a judge that delivers things on his own authority . we freely own the church to be such a witness that there is no colour of reason to disbelieve the tradition of the books , but we see great cause to question the credit of her decisions . 4. in this tradition of books we have not barely the tradition of the church for it . we find in all ages since the books of the new testament were written , several authors have cited many and large passages out of them : we find they were very quickly translated into many other languages , and diverse of those are conveyed down to us . there were also so many copies of these books every where , that though one had resolved on so sacrilegious an attempt as the corrupting them had been , he could not have succeeded in it to any great degree . some additions might have been made in some copies , and so from those they might have been derived to others , but these could not have b●en considerable , otherwise they had been discovered and complained of , and when we find the church engaged in contests with hereticks and schismaticks , we see both sides appealed to the scriptures , and neither of them reproached the other for violating that sacred trust. and the noise we find of the small change of a letter in the a●ian controversie , shews us how exact they were in preserving these records : as for the errours of transcribers that is incident to the nature of man , and though some errours have crept into some copies , yet all these put together do not alter any one point of our religion ; so that they are not of great consequence . thus it appears how much reason we have to receive the scriptures upon the credit of such a tradition . but for oral tradition , it is visible how it might have been so managed as quickly to change the whole nature of religion . natural religion was soon corrupted when it passed down in this conveyance , even during the long lives of the ancient patriarchs , who had thereby an advantage to keep this pure , that after ages , in which the life of man is so shortned , cannot pretend to . we also see to what a degree the iewish tradition became corrupted in our saviours time , particularly in one point , which may be called the most essential part of their religion , to wit , concerning their messias , what the nature of his person and kingdome were to be . so that they all expected a great conquerour , a second moses , or a david ; so ineffectual a mean is oral tradition , for conveying down any doctrine pure or uncorrupted . the ninth method is to tell them the church in which they were before they made the separation , was the true church , because it was the only church ; so that they could not reform the doctrine without making another church : for then she must have fallen into errour , and by consequence the gates of hell must have prevailed against her , which is directly contrary to the promise of iesus christ that cannot fail , * the gates of hell shall not prevail against her remarks . 1. a church may be a true church , and yet be corrupted by many errours , for a ●rue church is a society of men , among whom are the certain means of salvation , and such was the iewish church in our saviours time : for their sacrifices had still an expiatory vertue , and the covenant made with that people stood still , and yet they were over-run with many errours , chiefly in their notions of the messias . and thus as long as the church of rome acknowledges the expiation , made by the death of christ , and applied to all that truly believe and amend their lives , so long she is a true church . so that those of that communion who adhere truly to that which is the great fundamental of the christian religion may be saved : but when so many things were added to this , that it was very hard to preserve this fundamental truth pure and entire , then it was necessary for those who were better enlightned , to call on others to correct the abuses that had crept in . 2. it is hard to build a great super-structure on a figurative expression , of which it is not easie to find out the true and full sense : and in this that is cited there are but three terms , and about every one of them great and just grounds of doubting do appear . 1. it is not certain what is meant by the gates of hell , which is an odd figure for an assailant : if by gates we mean councils , because the magistrates and courts among the iews sate in the gates , then the meaning will be , that the craft of hell shall not prevail against the church , that is , shall not root out christianity : or if by gates of hell , or the grave , according to a common greek phrase , death be to be understood , it being the gate through which we pass to the grave , then the meaning is this , that the church shall never die or be extinguished . nor is there less difficulty to be made about the signification of the word church : whether it is to be meant in general of the body of christians , or of the pastors of the church , and of the majority of them . the context seems to carry it for the body of christians , and then the meaning will be only this , that there shall still be a body of christians in the world. and it cannot be proved that any thing else is to be understood by the word church in that place . a third difficulty may be also raised upon the extent of the word prevail , whether a total overthrow , or any single advantage is to be understood by it ; or whether this prevailing is to be restrained only to the fundamentals of christianity , or is to be extended to all sorts of truth ; or whether it is to be understood of corrupting the doctrine , or of vitiating the morals of christians ? thus it is apparent how many difficulties may be started concerning the meaning of those words . so that at best the sense of them is doubtful , and therefore it will be a strange and rash adventure to determine any thing in matters of great moment upon the authority of such a figurative expression . 3. though the roman church had been corrupted , that will not infer that the gates of hell had prevailed against the church , for that being but the center of the union of some of the western nations , a corruption in it does not prove that the whole church was corrupted , for there were many other churches in other parts of the world besides those of that communion . the tenth method is that of the bishop of meaux , lately of condom , in his book entituled , the exposition of the doctrine of the catholick church . in which he does in every article distinguish between that which is precisely of faith , and that which is not so ; and shews that there is nothing in our belief that may give distast to a reasonable spirit , unless they will look on the abuses of some particular persons which we condemn , as our belief , or impute errours to us falsely , or charge us with the explications of some doctors that are neither received nor authorized by the church . this method is taken from s. hilary in his book of synods . * let us ( says he ) altogether condemn false interpretations , but let us not destroy the certainty of the faith. — the word consubstantial may be ill understood , but let it be established in a sense in which it may be well understood . — the right state of the faith may be established among us , so as we may neither reverse that which has been well establishedpunc ; nor cut off those things that have been ill understood . remarks . somewhat was said in the preface , with relation to this , which shall not be here repeated . it is not to be denied but in the management of controversies the heat of dispute has carried many too far , and some have studied to raise many imaginary controversies , which subsist only upon some misunderstood terms and expressions of the contrary party : and things have been on all hands aggravated in many particulars out of measure : so that they have deserved well of the church that have brought matters as near a reconciliation as may be . but after all this , it were a strange imposition on this and the preceding age to persuade the world that notwithstanding all the differences of religion , and the unhappy effects that have followed upon them , that they really were all the while of the same mind , but were not so happy as to find it out till that excellent prelate helpt them to it , by letting them see how near the concessions of both sides are to one another ; so that a little conversation and dexterity i● putting the softest construction that may be on the contrary persuasion might bring them to be of the same mind . but if in order to this , the sense of both sides is so far stretched , that neither party can own it for a true account of their sentiments , then this must be concluded to be only the ingenious essay of a very witty man , who would take advantage of some expressions , to perswade people that they have opinions which really they have not . i shall not enter into a particular disquisition of those things which have been already so fully examined , but refer the reader to the answers that have been given to that famous book . 2. the received and authorized offices of the church of rome , and the language in which they do daily make their addresses to heaven is that on whi●h the most unanswerable and the strongest part of our plea for our separation is founded , and it is not an ingenuous way of writing to affix some forced senses to those plain expressions , because they being so gross as they are , all wise or learned men are ashamed to defend them , and yet know not how to get them to be reformed , or thrown out : therefore it is that they set their wits on work to put some better construction on them . but this is a clear violence to the plain sense of those offices , extorted by the evidence and force of truth , and gives us this advantage , that it is plain those that so qualifie them , are convinced that their church is in the wrong , and yet for other ends , or perhaps from a mistaken notion of unity and peace , they think fit to continue in it . 3. it is to be hoped , that those who have cited this passage out of s. hilary , will consider those other passages cited out of him against persecution , though a great errour made in the translation of this citation , makes me fear that they who rendred it had read him very cursorily . the eleventh method is drawn from those general arguments which divines call the motives of credibility : it is that made use of by tertullian , in his book of prescriptions ; and by s. austin , * who reckons up the motives that held him in the catholick church . remarks . 1. as for the case of tertullian and s. austin , a great deal was said formerly to shew the difference between the age they lived in , and the grounds they went on ; and the present state of the western church . 2. when it is considered that a course of many ages , which by the confession of all were times of ignorance and superstition , has made a great change in the world , that the gross scandals and wonderful ignorance of those that have governed the see of rome , that the dissolution of all the rules of ecclesiastical order and discipline both among clergy and laity , that the interest the priests , particularly the popes and the begging orders that depended on them , had to promote those , was so great and undisput●d , that it is notorious , all the worst methods of forgeries , both of writings to authorize them , and of miracles and legends to support them , were made use of . when , i say , all these things are so plain to every one that has lookt a little into the history of former ages , it is no wonder if the church of rome is so much changed from what it was formerly , that the motives made use of by tertullian and s. austin do not at all belong to the present state of the churches of that communion : but on the contrary , instead of motives to perswade one to continue in it , there appear upon a general view , a great many just and well-grounded prejudices to dispose a man to forsake that communion . the twelfth method is both very short and very easie : it is to catch them in this dilemma . before wickliff , luther and calvin ( and one may say as much of the waldenses that lived in the twel●●h century ) the church of those of the p r. religion was either made up of a little number of the faithful , or was not at all in being . if it was not at all in being , then theirs is a false church , since it is not perpetual , as the true church ought to be , according to the promise of iesus christ , * the gates of hell shall not prevail against her , and † i am with you even to the end of the world. if their church was in being , it must have been according to their own principles corrupted and impious : because they cannot shew that little number of the pretended faithful , who before the reformation did condemn , as they now do , * all the assemblies of the popish churches , as over-run with idolatry and superstition . they behaved themselves , at least as to outward appearance , as others did . and thus their church which was composed of that small unknown flock , was not holy , and by consequence was not the true church . remarks . 1. to the greatest part of this , answer has been already given : we acknowledge the church of rome was a true church , and had in it the means of salvation though it was over-run with errours , and christ is truly with his church as long as those means of salvation do remain in it . so was the iewish church a true church after she was in many points corrupted in her doctrine . 2. in those dark ages many might have kept themselves free from the defilements of their worship , though no account is given of them in story . so seven thousand had not bowed their knees to baal in elijah's time , who were not so much as known to that prophet , though it might have been expected that they would all have willingly discovered themselves to him : and since he knew nothing of them , it is very probable they concealed themselves with great care from all others . 3. all good men have not all the degrees of illumination , for there might have been great numbers that saw the corruptions of their church , but were so restrained by other opinions concerning the unity of the church , that they thought it enough to infuse their notions into some few disciples , in whom they confided : and on some perhaps that which elisha said to naaman the syrian , being wrong understood by them , had great influence . others observing that the apostles continued to worship at the temple , and offer sacrifices , which s. paul and those with him that purified themselves must have done , might have from that inferred that one might comply in a worship , though they disliked many things in it ; which , if i am not much misinformed , is a maxime that governs many in the roman communion to this day . i do not excuse this compliance , but it is not so criminal as at first view it may appear to be : if it is truly founded on a mistake of the mind , and not on a baseness in the will , or a rejecting of the cross of christ , especially in men that had so faint a twilight as that was which they were guided by in those blind times . 4. but to make the worst of this that can be , and should we grant that through fear they had complied against their consciences , this only must make the conclusion terrible to them , if they did not repent of it . but god might have ordered the conveyance of truth to be handed down by such defiled hands , and their not being personally holy , must not be urged too far , to prove that they could not be the true church . this will come too near the doctrines of the donatists , and many of s. austin's sayings which they unreasonably object to us , may be turned upon them . and it will very ill become a church that acknowledges the succession of the bishop of rome to have been the chief conveyance of tradition , which is a much greater matter in their principles than it is in ours , to urge the holiness of the members to be essential to the being of a church , when it is acknowledged what a sort of men the heads of their church have been for diverse ages . the thirteenth method is taken from the nature of schism , which one ought never to make , what reasons soever may be pretended for it , for according to the minister ▪ ●hemselves , no other reason can be given for their separation , but the errours which they pretend had crept into the church . but those who were in it as well as th●y were , did strongly assert , as we do to this day , that these were no errours at all but truths . and it is certain that of opinions which are so different , the one must be the true doctrine , and the other must be errour and falshood ; and by consequence the one must be the good grain , and the other must be the tares . now it does not belong to particular persons by their private authority to pluck up that which they pretend to be tares . there is none but god , who is the true father of the family , that has this authority , and can communicate it to others . it is he who appoints the reapers , that is the pope and the bishops , who are represented by the angels , to separate the cockle from the wheat , and to pluck out the one without touching the other till the time of harvest , that is in a council , or by the common consent of the whole church , and in that case a council is not necessary . * wilt thou then that we go and gather them up ? but he said , nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares , ye root up also the wheat with them , let both grow together until the harvest . therefore one ought never to s●parate upon what pretence soever it be , but he must bear with that which he thinks is an abuse and errour , and stay till the church plucks up the cockle . * this is one of the methods of s. austin in his treatises against the donatists , in which he shews from the examples of moses , aaron , samuel , david , isaiah , jeremy , s. paul , who tolerated even the false apostles , that we ought never to separate from our brethren , before the solemn condemnation of the church . he says purs●ant to this , that the donatists were intolerably wicked for having made a schism , for having erected an alta● against an altar , and for having separated themselves from the inheritance of jesus christ , which is stretched ou● over all the earth , according to the promise that was made to it . he add● ▪ that if they thought that was but a sm●● matter , they had nothing to do but to s● what the scripture teaches us by the examples we find in it of the punishment of s● great a crime ; for says he , those that made an idol of the golden calf were only punished by the sword , whereas those who made the schism were swallowed up by the earth : so that by this diversity of the punishments , one may know that schism is a greater crime than idolatry . we may likewise see how upon the same subject he exhorts the donatists to renounce their wicked schism in his ●71 epistle , in which among other things he has those excellent words . * why will you tear the lords garments ? and why will you not with the rest of the world leave that coat of charity entire , that is all woven of one thread , which even his persecutors themselves would not rend ? and a little after this , you pretend that you would avoid that cockle , that as you alledge , is mixt among us , and that before the time of harvest ; whereas indeed it is you your selves that are this cockle , for if you were the good grain , you would bear with it , and would not separate your selves from the corn of jesus christ. we need only change the name donatists into calvinists : this is it that shews to what degree the church ever was and ever must be acknowledged to be infallible , since we must submit to its decisions ; and the fathers have established this so strongly that one ought never to separate from her , and that one is by so much the more obliged to continue united to her , because she never refuses to hear the remonstrances made to her by her children . remarks . 1. it was observed before how unreasonable it was to build much on ●n allegory , but on this occasion the allegory is so clearly forced , that it gives just cause of suspicion that the cause is weak that must be supported by such arguments . for our saviour makes it so plain that the harvest is the end of the world , that the reapers are angels , and that upon his last coming they shall gather together the wicked , and cast them into hell , and that the righteous shall shine in heaven : that the applying this to a general council , in which heresie shall be condemned , is such a fetch , that it must be confessed they have as easie consciences as they have warm fancies , that are wrought on by it . 2. as for that which s. austin drew from this against the donatists who justified their separation on the account of the sins of those who were in the communion of the church , it was as pertinent as this is strained ; for the ground of the schism being only the mixture of the cockle with the wheat , nothing could be more strongly urged against them . but it is quite out of the present controversie between them and us , who do not separate for this mixture , but finding the wheat it self so much corrupted , took care to cleanse it . 3. we freely acknowledge the great sin of schism , and the severe punishment due to it , but for all the severity of the punishment inflicted on corah and his partners , we do not doubt but when the temple was so defiled by idolatry , under the kings that polluted the altar and the courts of the lords house with idols , it was not only no sin , but a commendable piece of religion in such cases to have withdrawn from so impious a worship . this is our present case , and if what we object to their worship is true , then our separation from it is as necessary a duty as is the preserving of our lives from poysons or infectious diseases . 4. the true scope of that parable seems to be a reproof to the violence of such church-men as are too apt to condemn and pluck up every thing that they think to be cockle ; and when the declaring what is cockle is lodged with them , they will be sure to count every thing such that does not please them . and then that same heat that makes them judge those opinions to be cockle sets them on to root them out with such violence , that much good wheat is in danger to be pluckt up . therefore to repress this , our saviour commands them under that figure , to let both grow till the end of the world , that is , not to proceed to extremities and to rigorous methods , but to leave that to god who will judge all at the last day . if this were well considered , it would put an effectual stop to that spirit of persecution which ferments so violently in that church : the language of which is always this , let u● go and pluck up the tares , or that of the two disciples who would have called for fire from heaven ; and because heaven will not answer such bloody demands , they try to raise such fires on earth as may burn up those whom they call the tares : not knowing what the true spirit of christianity is , and that the son of man came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them : and forget that our saviour commanded them to let the tares grow till the harvest . but this is one of the mischiefs that follows the humour of expounding the scriptures fancifully . that the plain meaning of clear texts is neglected , while forced and allegorical expositions are pursued . 5. when it is clearly proved that the majority of the pastors of the church is infallible , then we shall acknowledge that all separation from them is simply unlawful : but till that is done we can no more think it a sin , when in obedience to the rules of the gospel we withdraw from such false teachers as corrupt it ; then it were for common subjects to refuse to obey the subordinate magistrates when they clearly perceive that they have revolted from their duty to their supream authority . and since we are warned to beware of false teachers , we know no other way to judge of them , but the comparing their doctrine with that which is delivered to us in scripture . the fourteenth method is for the confirmation of the former : in order to which we must ask the calvinists upon all their articles , that which * s. austin asked of the donatists , when the church reconciled to her self hereticks that were penitent without re-baptizing them : for example , whether was the church still a true church or not , when before the schism was made , iesus christ was adored in the holy eucharist ? if she was the true church , then none ought to have separated from her for any practice that was authorized by her . † if she was not the true church , from whence came calvin , out of what soil did he grow , or out of what sea was he cast , or from which of the heavens did he fall ? from whence are these reformers come ? from whom have they received their doctrine , and the authority to preach it ? * let those who follow them consider well where they are , since they can mount no higher than to those for their original . for us we are secure in the communion of that church , in which that is to this day universally practised that was also practised before agripinus 's time , and also in the interval between cyprian and agripinus : and afterwards he subjoyns these excellent words that are decisive , * but neither did agripinus , nor cyprian , nor those that have followed them , though they had opinions different from others , separate themselves from them , but remained in the communion and unity of the same church with those from whom they differed . that is to say , they waited till the church should have decided the difference ; and after he had resumed a little of what he had formerly said , he concludes thus , † if then the church was lost for holding that the baptism of hereticks was good , they cannot shew the original of their communion . but if the true church did still subsist , they cannot justifie their separation , nor the schism that they have made . one may say all this against the waldenses , the lutherans , the calvinists , and the other hereticks who cannot mount higher than to waldo , to luther , to calvin , or their other heads . this method of s. austin's is most excellent . but if our brethren , the pretended reformed , will defend themselves by saying , as in effect they do say in some of their books , that it was not they who made the separation , but rather that it came from us , and that we have cut them off from our communion . to this it must be answered , that there are two sorts of s●paration , the one is criminal , the other is iudicial . in the first , one separates himself from his pastor by a manifest disobedience ; in the second , the pastor separates him from the flock who is making a party , and refuses to submit to the orders of the church . the one is a sin , and the other is the punishment . the one is a voluntary departure , the other is the being cut off by a s●ntence , even as the iudge pronounces a sentence of condemnation against one that has killed himself . the proof of those two different separations is to be found in the thirty eighth letter of s. cyprians , where he speaks of one augendus , who had gone over to the party of felicissimus the deacon , and it appears that that great saint had suspended and excommunicated him for having withdrawn himself from his obedience , and for having engaged others in the same separation . * let every one , says he , that has folfollowed his opinions and faction , know that he shall communicate no more with us in the church , since of his own accord he has chosen to be separated from the church . in his seventy sixth epistle he says the same thing of novatian , and those who had joyned with him in his revolt ; because they leaving the church by their rebellion , and breaking the peace and unity of jesus christ , have endeavoured to establish their authority , and to assume a supreme jurisdiction to themselves , and to usurp power to baptize , and to offer sacrifice . this distinction is also clearly stated in the fourth action of the council of chalcedon , where those two ancient canons of the council of antioch that were drawn out of canons of the apostles , were cited . the first is concerning those that were separated , the other is concerning those who of their own accord did separate themselves . the greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * it was thought proper for this purpose to transcribe here those two canons , which are the fundamental laws of the practice of the church , with regard to hereticks and schismaticks whom she throws out of her bosome , and who have separated themselves from her . these canons are the fourth and fifth of the council of antioch , and the twenty seventh and thirtieth of the apostolick canons , and the pretended reformed cannot reject their authority , since they observe among themselves the same discipline , when any particular persons , whether ministers , or others of their communion , will not submit to the decisions of their synods . remarks . 1. for the first branch of this method the reformed are not at all concerned in it , for they do not deny the church of rome to be still a true church ; and that her baptism and ordinations are valid , and that they are not to be repeated , and therefore though it was very pertinent to urge the donatists as s. austin did , who held that the sacraments in an ill mans hands had no vertue at all , and that the church had every where failed , so that there was no church but that which was among them . yet all this is foreign to the state of the controversie between us and the church of rome , and we do freely acknowledge that in such a matter as the re-baptizing hereticks , it had been a very great sin to have broken communion with the rest of the church . 2. yet upon this very head p. s●ephen did excommunicate s. cyprian , who yet for all that did not depart from his former opinion or practice : so here was such a schism as they object to us , s. cyprian thought the rebaptizing hereticks was well grounded ; stephen thought otherwise , and did excommunicate him . if upon that a lasting schism had followed in the church , s. cyprian might have been held the fountain of it by those who condemned his opinion , but if his opinion was true he could be no schismatick : so we desire the grounds of our separation may be examined : if they will not bear such a superstructure , we confess we deserve the severest censures possible ; but if they are solid , then the guilt of the rent that is in the church , must lie somewhere else than on us . 3. we do not deny but there are two sorts of separation which are here very well distinguished ; and without seeking for any proof in so clear a matter , we confess that when any separates himself from the church , upon any unjustifiable account , those canons , and the highest severities of church-censures ought to be applied ●o them : but all this is upon supposition that the departure is ill grounded , and therefore all those rules that have been ●aid down in general against heresie and schism must still suppose the church to ●e pure and uncorrupted . 4. it is plain by these very canons , how much that power of the church may be and was abused . the council of antioch , being composed of the favourers of arius , deposed athanasius , and resolved to silence him , and such other church-men as receiv'd the nicene doctrine , in such a manner that they should be no more able to withstand their designs : and therefore they made those canons according to former customes , which in the stile of that age was called the canon or rule ( for none that has considered things , will believe that the canons that are called apostolical , were made by the apostles ) and their chief design was levelled against athanasius and the orthodox party . but at that same time as the orthodox in the east did not submit to this ▪ so nei●her did the bishops 〈◊〉 the west take any notice of it ; an● chrysostome , who was bred up at a●tioch , and so could not but know in what esteem those canons were held , did not look on himself as bound by them , an● made no account of them when they were objected to him . thus , though i● general these are goo● rules ▪ and such a● ought to be obeyed where the synod or the bishop do not abuse their power , yet when the power of the church is used not to edification but to destruction , then the obligation to obedience is not to be too far extended . and as in laws that oblige subjects to obey inferiour magistrates , a tacite exception is to be supposed , in case they should become guilty of treason , so there must be supposed likewise in this case the like exception , in case a synod deposes a bishop , or a bishop censures his clergy , for asserting the true faith. and as a separation from an uncorrupted church is a very great wickedness , so the separating from a corrupted church , in whose communion we cannot continue without being polluted in it , is but a part of that care which we ought to have of our own salvation . the fifteenth method . to all the former methods a fifteenth may be added , by letting our p. reformed see that many articles are to be found in their confession of faith , in their catechisms , in the articles of their discipline , in the decisions of their synods , and in the books of their chief ministers who have writ upon the controversies ; from which , arguments may be drawn against them to prove the truth of our belief , even by their own confession : for example , their discipline allows the communion in one kind only , to such as cannot drink wine : from which one may infer that the communion under both kinds is not an article of necessity , and that they are in the wrong , to alledge that as they do , to be a lawful ground for their separation . the minister dailée , and many others confess , that in the time of s. gregory nazianzene , s. chrysostome and s. jerome , the invocation of saints was received in the church : john forbes adds to this , that the tradition of the church was uniform concerning prayer for the dead : and since he denies that the books of the maccabees are canonical , he says the scripture speaks nothing of it . but without engaging into the difficulty concerning the books of the maccabees , in which they have no more reason on their side , than in the rest ; it is easie to conclude from their own principles , that it was no ways to be allowed to separate themselves for matters , that according to themselves , were established by so great an authority , and so constant an union of all ages . remarks . 1. it is not an equal way of proceeding , to object to the protestants what some particular writers have said , or to strain inferences too far , at a time when the celebrated book of the bishop of meaux is in such high esteem . the chief design o● which is to set aside all the indiscretions of particular writers , and to put the best colours on things that is possible . now tradition being of such authority among them , whatsoever passes down through many of their approved writers , has a much greater strength against them , than it can be pretended to have against us : and therefore though particular writers or whole synods should have written or decreed any thing against the common doctrines of the reformed , they ought not to object that to us : if they will allow us the same liberties that they assume to themselves . 2. it is not a consequence becoming so great an assembly to infer , that because in some few extraordinary cases the general rule of gods desiring mercy and not sacrifice is carried so far , as to give weak persons so much of the sacrament as they can receive , and not to deny that to them because a natural aversion m●kes them incapable of receiving the wine : that therefore a church may , in opposition to christs express command , drink you all of it , and the constant practice of thirteen centuries take this away . it is not of necessity for salvation that every one drinks the cup , but it is of necessity to the purity of a church that she should observe our saviour's precepts . 3. it is confessed that some fathers used the invocation of saints ; yet that being but a matter of fact , it is of no consequence for the decision of any point of doctrine : for we found our doctrine only on the word of god , and ●ot on the practices of men , how eminent soever they might otherwise be . but in relation to these fathers , these things are to be observed , 1. they lived in the end of the fourth century : so this is no competent proof for an oral tradition , or conveyance of this doctrine down from the apostles days . 2. figures and bold discourses in panegyricks are rather to be considered as raptures and flights of warm affections , than as composed and serious devotions . therefore such addresses as occur in their funeral orations , are rather high strains of a daring rhetorick , than instructions for others , since in their expositions on scripture , or other treatises of devotion , they do not handle these things by way of direction or advice . iohn forbes is mis-cited for william forbes , bishop of edenburgh : iohn was not of such yielding principles . it is true , william though he was a man eminently learned , and of a most exemplary life , yet he was possessed with that same weakness , under which grotius , and some other great men have laboured , of thinking that a reconciliation with the church of rome might be obtained by an accommodation on both sides ; and this flowing in him from an excellent temper of soul , he is to be excused if that carried him in many things too far : but he is a writer that has been taxed by all men , as one that had particular notions . and we may object erasmus to those of the church of rome , as well as they may argue against us from bishop forbes . 5. if the church of rome used only a general commemoration of the dead , with wishes for the compleating their happiness by a speedy resurrection , and went no further , we might perhaps differ in opinion with them about the fitness of this , but we would not break communion with them for it . but when they have set up such a merchandize in the house of god , for redeeming souls out of purgatory , and saying masses for them ; this is that we except to , as a disgracing of the christian religion , and as a high profanation of the holy sacrament . and it is plain that the fathers considered the commemoration of the dead rather as a respect done to their memory , and an honourable remembrance of them , than as a thing that was any way useful to them in the other state ; which may appear by this single instance : s. cyprian was so much offended at a presbyter , when it appeared after his death that he had left another presbyter guardian of his children ; that he gave order that no mention should be made of him in the commemoration of the dead that was used in the holy eucharist ; because , by the roman law , such as were left guardians were under some obligations to undertake the trust : and that saint thought such a trust might prove so great a distraction to a man that was dedicated to the holy ministry , that no honour ought to be done to the memory of him that had so left it by his will. certainly if that commemoration was believed to be of any advantage to the dead , this had been an unreasonable piece of cruelty in him to deny a presbyter that comfort for so small a fault : and therefore we may well infer from hence , that by this remembrance , and the thanksgivings they offered to god for such as had died in the faith , they intended only so far to celebrate their memories as to encourage others to imitate those patterns they had set them . 6. i shall not engage in any dispute concerning the canonicalness of the books of the maccabees , only as this general prejudice lies against all the books called apocryphal , that the council at laodicea , which was the first that reckoned up the c●non of the scripture , does not name them : so as to the book of the maccabees , it is hard to imagine that one who professes that he was but an abridger of iason's five books , and gives us a large account of the difference between a copious history and an abridgement , could be an inspired writer . the sixteenth method . to conclude , one may solidly confute our innovators by the contradiction that is in their articles of faith , shewing ●hem the changes that they have made in the ausburg confession , as also in all the different expositions of their faith which they have received and authorized since that time ; which shews that their faith being uncertain * and wavering , cannot have the character of divine revelation , which is certain and constant . there is nothing but the faith that admits of no reformation . tertullian made use of this argument in many of his books , and hilary handles it excellently well against the emperour constantius , upon the occasion of the new symbols , which the arians published every day , changing their faith continually , while the catholick church continued firm to that of nice . one may likewise use another method , which is to make it appear that there is a conformity between the roman and greek churches , in the chief articles of faith , that are in dispute between us and the p. reformed , and that in these the roman church does likewise agree with those soci●ties which separated themselves from the church , for errours which the p. reformed condemn with her , such as the nestorians and eutychians . to these methods it will be necessary to add particular conferences , solid writings , sermons and missions , and to use all these means with a spirit of charity , without bitterness , and above all , without injuries . remembring that excellent saying of s. austin's , * i do not endeavour to reproach those against whom i dispute , that i may seem to have the better of them , but that i may become sounder by convincing them of their errour . and following the canon of the council of africk , that appointed that though the donatists were cut off from the church of god by their schism , yet they should be gently dealt with , that so correcting them with meekness , as the apostle says , god may give them the grace of repentance to know the truth , and to retire themselves out of the snare of the devil in which they are taken captives . remarks . 1. if we did pretend that the first reformers , or those who drew the ausburg confession were inspired of god , in compiling what they writ there were some force in this discourse : but since we build upon this principle , that the scripture is the only ground on which we found our faith , then if any person , how much soever we may honour his memory on all other accounts , has misunderstood that , we do not depart from our principle when we forsake him , and follow that which appears to be plainly delivered in the scriptures . 2. we freely acknowledge that the faith admits of no reformation , and that we can make neither more nor less of it than we find in the scriptures ; but if any church has brought in many errours , we do not think it a reforming the faith , to throw these out . the faith is still the same that it was when the apostles first delivered it to the church ; nor was it the faith , but the church that was pretended to be reformed : and if after a long night of darkness and corruption , those that began to see better , did not at first discover every thing , or if some of the prejudices of their education , and their former opinions did still hang about them ; so that others who came after them saw further and more clearly : this only proves that they were subject to the infirmities of the humane nature , and that they were not immediately inspired of god , which was never pretended . 3. great difference is to be made between articles of faith and theological truths . the former consists of those things that are the ingredients of our b●ptismal vows , and are indeed parts of the new covenant , which may be reduced to the creed and the ten commandments . the other are opinions relating to these , which though they are founded on scripture , yet have not that influence either on our hearts or lives , that they make us either much better or much worse . among these we reckon the explanation of the presence of christ in the sacrament , and the influence of the divine grace upon our wills. if some of the confessions of faith among the protestants differ much in these matters ▪ that is not concerning articles of faith , but theological truths : in which great allowances are to be made for difference of opinion . and as particular churches ought not to proceed too hastily to decisions in matters that are justly disputable , so the rigorous imposing of those severe definitions on the consciences of others by oaths and subscriptions , and more particularly all rigour in the prosecution of those that differ in opinion , is both disagreeing to the mildness of the christian religion , and to the character of church-men ; and in particular , to the principles upon which the reformation was founded . 4. as for the greek churches , together with the other societies in the east , we do not deny that many of those corruptions for which we condemn the church of rome , are among them , which only proves that the beginning of these is elder than the ninth or tenth century : in which those churches began to divide , such is the worshipping of images , the praying to saints , and some other abuses . 5. to this it must be added , that for diverse ages the oppression under which those churches have fallen , and the great ignorance that has overspread them , have be●n such , that no wonder if those greeks that have been bred up in the states of the roman communion , and so were leavened with their opinions , have found it no hard task to impose upon their weak and corrupt countrey-men , whatsoever opinions they had in charge to infuse into them : so that we may rather wonder to find that all those abuses for which we complain of the church of rome are not among them , than that some have got footing there . 6. but after all this , the main things upon which we have separated from the church of rome , are not to be found among those churches : such as the adoring the consecrated elements , the denying the wine to the people , the saying masses for redeeming souls out of purgatory , the having images for the trinity , the immediate invocation of saints for the pardon of sin , and those blessings which we receive only from god : besides an infinite variety of other things . not to mention their denying the popes authority . and to turn this argument on them , those parts of their worship , in which they differ so much from the eastern churches , do afford us very good arguments to evince that they are innovations , brought in since these ages , in which those churches held communion with the roman church : and do prove that at the time of their separation they were not introduced in the western church : for when we find such a keenness of dispute concerning one of the most indifferent things in the world , as whether the sacrament should be of leavened or unleavened bread ; can we think that if the latines had then worshipped the sacrament , they had not much rather have objected to the greeks their irreverence upon so high an occasion , than have insisted on the matter of unleavened bread ? as for the conclusion , we do acknowledge it is such as becomes an assembly of bishops . but whether it becomes men of their characters , of their birth and of their qualities , to pretend to such gentleness and meekness , when all the world sees such notorious proofs given to the contrary , i shall not determine ; but will leave it to their own second thoughts to consider better of it . we find both the king and the clergy of france , expressing great tenderness towards the persons of those they call hereticks , togetherwith their resolutions of gaining them only by the methods of persuasion and charity , and yet the contrary is practis●d in so many parts of france , that considering the exact obedience that the inferiour officers pay to the orders that are sent them from the court , we must conclude these orders are procured from the king , without his being rightly informed concerning them : and since we must either doubt of the sincerity of the kings declarations or of the assemblies , we hope they will not take it ill , if we pay that reverence to a crowned head , and to so illustrious a monarch , as to prefer him in the competition between his credit and theirs ; and they must forgive us if we stand in some doubt of the sincerity of this declaration , till we are convinced of it by more infallible proofs than words or general protestations . the conclusion . thus i have made such remarks on these methods as seem both just and solid : i have advanced no assertion either of fact or right concerning which i am not well assured , and which i cannot justifie by a much larger series of proofs than i thought fit to bring into a discourse , which i intended should be as short as was possible . but if that be necessary , and i am called on to do it , i shall not decline it . i have with great care avoided the saying any thing meerly for contentions sake , or to make up a muster of many particulars ; for i look on that way in which many write for a cause , as some advocates plead for their clients , by alledging every thing that may make a shew , or biass an unwary hearer , as very unbecoming the profession of a divine , and the cause of truth which we ought to assert : and there is scarce any thing that shews a man is persuaded of the truth he maintains , more evidently than a sincere way of defending it : for great subtilties and deep fetches do naturally incline a reader to suspect that the writer was conscious to himself of the weakness of his cause , and was therefore resolved to supply those defects by the quickness and nimbleness of his parts . but having now said what i think sufficient in the way of rem●rks upon the letter , and the methods published by the late assembly general of the clergy of france : i now go on to some methods which seem strong and well grounded for convincing those in communion with the church of rome , that they ought to suspect the ground they stand on . in which i shall observe this method : first , i shall offer such grounds of just suspicion and jealousie , as may dispose every considering man to fear and apprehend that their church is on a wrong bottom ; from which i shall draw no other inferences , but that they are reasonable grounds to take a man a little off from the engagement of his former education and principles , and may dispose him to examine matters in dispute among us with more application and less partiality : and then i shall shew upon more demonstrative grounds how false the foundations are , on which the church of rome is established , both which i shall examine only in a general view , and in bulk , without descending by retail unto the p●rticulars in controversie between us . 1. and first , it is a just ground to suspect any church or party of men , that pretend to have every thing pass upon their word or authority ; and that endeavour to keep those who adhere to them in all the ignorance possible ; that divert them from making enquiries into religion , and do with great earnestness infuse in them an implicite belief of whatsoever they sh●ll propose or dictate to them . the world has found by experience that there is nothing in which fraud and artifices have been more employed than in matters of religion : and that priests have been often guilty of the basest impostures . and therefore it is a shrewd indication that any sort of them that make this the first and grand principle which they infuse into their followers , that they ought to believe every thing that the majority of themselves decree , and do therefore recommend ignorance and implicite obedience to their people , and keep the scriptures out of their hands all they can , and wrap up their worship in a language not understood by the vulgar , are not to be too easily believed : but that they may be justly suspected of having no sincere designs , since truth is of the nature of light : and religion was sent into the world to enlighten our minds , and to raise our understandings . 2. it is a just ground of jealousie of any church , if she holds many opinions which have a mighty tenden●y to raise the empire and dominion of the clergy to a vast height . a reverence to them for their works sake is due by the light of nature : but if priests advance this further to such a pitch that every one of them is believed qualified by his character to work the greatest miracle that ever was : the change of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ , besides all the other consecrations , by which divine vertues are brought down on such things as they bless : if it is also believed necessary to enumerate all secret sins to them ; and if their absolution is thought to have any other vertue in it , than a giving the peace of the church , with a declaration of the terms upon which god pardons sinners : if the vertue of the sacraments , upon which so much depends , according to their principles , is so entirely in the priests power , that he can defeat it when he pleases with a cross intention ; so that all mens hopes of another state shall depend on the priests good disposition to them , by which every man must know how necessary it is to purchase their favour at any rate : if likewise they pretend to an immunity from the secular judge ; and do all enter into oaths which center in him whom they acknowledge their common head , whose authority they have advanced above all the powers on earth , so that he can depose princes and give away his dominions to others : it must be confessed that all these have such characters of interest and ambition on them , and are so little like the true spirit of christianity , or indeed the common principles of nat●ral reason and religion , that a man is very partial who does not think it reasonable to suspect such proceedings , and a church that holds such doctrines . 3. it is likewise reasonable to suspect any church that holds many opinions that tend much to a vast encrease of their wealth , and to bring the greatest treasures of the world into their hands . the power of redeeming souls out of purgatory has brought more wealth into the church of rome , than the discovery of the indies has done to the crown of spain . such also was the power of pardoning , and of exchanging penances for money , by which the world knew the price of sins , and the rates at which they were to be compounded for . the popes power of granting indulgences , the vertue of pilgrimages , the communication of the merits of orders to such as put on their habits ; and in a word , the whole authority that the c●●r● of rome has assumed in these latter ages , that tend so much to the encrease of their revenue , are all such evident indications of particular ends and private designs , that he must be very much wedded to his first impressions , that does not upon this suspect that matters have not been so fairly carried among them , that nothing ought to be doubted which is defined by them . 4. it is a very just cause of suspecting every thing that is managed by a company of priests , if they have for several ages carried on their designs by the foulest methods of forgery and imposture ; of which they themselves are now both convinced and ashamed . when the popes authority was built on a pretended collection of the letters , which the popes of the first ages after christ were said to have writ ; and their assumed jurisdiction was justified by those precedents which are now by themselves acknowledged to be forgeries . when the popes temporal dominion was grounded on the donations of constantine , of charles the great , and his son lewis the good , which appear now to be notorious forgeries : when an infinite number of saints , of miracles , visions , and other wonderful things were not only read and preached to the people , but likewise were put into the collects and hymns used on their festivals , which wrought much on the simplicity and superstition of the vulgar ; many of which are now proved to be such gross impostures , that they are forced to dash them out of their offices , and others against which there lyes not such positive proof , yet depend on the credit only of some legend , writ by some monks . when many books past over the world as the writings of the most ancient fathers which were but lately writ , and many of their genuine writings were grossly vitiated . when all those things are become so evident , that the most learned writers amongst themselves , particularly in the gallican church , have not only yielded to the proofs brought by protestant writers in many of these particulars , but have with a very commendable zeal and sincerity , made discoveries themselves in several particulars , into which the others had not such advantages to penetrate . there is upon all these grounds , good cause given to mistrust them in other things , and it is very reasonable to examine the assertions of that church with the severest rigour , since an imposture once discovered , ought to bring a suspicion on all concerned in it , even as to all other things . 5. there is likewise great reason to suspect all that are extream fierce and violent ; that cannot endure the least contradiction , but endeavour the ruine of all that oppose them . truth makes men both confident of its force , and merciful towards such as do not yet receive it : whereas errour is jealous and cruel . if then a church has decreed that all hereticks , that is , such as do not submit to all her decisions are to be extirpated ; if she has bound all her bishops by oath at their ordinations to persecute them to the utmost of their power . if princes that do not extirpate them , are first to be excommunicated by their bishops , and after a years contumacy , are to be deposed by the popes , and their kingdomes to be given away . if all hereticks upon obstinacy or relapse are to be burnt ; and if they endeavour in all places as much as they can , to erect courts of inquisition with an absolute authority , in which church-men , forgetting their character , have vied in inventions of torture and cruelty with the bloodiest tyrants that have ever been : then it must be confessed , that all these set together present the church that authorizes and practises them with so dreadful an aspect , so contrary to those bowels and tendernesses that are in the nature of man : not to mention the merciful idea's of god , and the wonderful meekness of the author of our holy religion ; that we must conclude that under what form soever of religion such things are set on foot in the world , such a doctrine is so far from improving and exalting the nature of man , that really it makes him worse than he would otherwise be , if he were left to the softness of his own nature : and certainly it were better there were no revealed religion in the world , than that mankind should become worse , more cruel , and more barbarous by its means , than it would be if it were governed by nature or a little philosophy . upon all these grounds laid together , it is no unreasonable thing to conclude , that a church liable to such imputations ought justly to be suspected , and that every one in it ought to examine well on what grounds he continues in the communion of a society of men , against which such strong prejudices lie so fairly , without the least straining or aggravating matters too much . i proceed now to the second part of my undertaking , which is to shew , that the grounds upon which that church builds , are certainly weak if not false . and 1. they boast much of a constant succession , as the only infallible mark to judge of a church , and as that without which we can never be certain of the faith. but if this is true , then into what desperate scruples must all men fall ? for the resolution of their faith turns to that which can never be so much as made probable , much less certain . the efficacy of the sacraments depending on the intention of the priest , none can know who are truly baptized or ordained , and who are not : and it is not to be much doubted but that many profane priests may have , in a sort of wanton malice , put their intention on purpose cross to the sacrament : for the impiety of an atheistical church-man is the most extravagant thing in the world. beside this , what evidence can they give of the canonical ordination of all the bishops of rome ? the first links of that chain are so entangled , that it is no small difficulty to find out who first succeeded the apostles : and it is not certainly known who suceeeded them afterwards ; for some few catalogues gathered up perhaps from report by historians , is not so much as of the nature of a violent presumption . if we consider succession only as a matter of order , in which we go on without scrupulosity , i confess there is enough to satisfie a reasonable man : but if we think it indispensable both for the conveyance of the faith , and the vertue of the sacraments , then it is impossible to have any certainty of faith ; all must be sounded on conjecture or probability at most . it is but of late that formal instruments were made of ordinations , or that those were carefully preserved and transmitted . in a word , difficulties can be rationally enough proposed concerning succession , that must needs drive one that sets up his faith on it to endless scruples , of which it is impossible he should be ever satisfied . there is one thing of great consequence in this matter , that deserves to be well considered : under the mosaical law god limited the succession to the high priesthood , so that the first-born was to succeed ; and the great annual expiation for the whole people was to be performed by him . yet when in our saviours time this was so interrupted , that the high priesthood was become annual , and wassold for money , god would not suffer the people to perish for want of such expiation ; but the sacrifice was still accepted , though offered up by a mercenary intruder : and caiaphas in the year of his high priesthood prophesied : so that how great soever the sin of the high priest was , the people were still safe in him that was actually in that office . and if this was observed in a dispensation that was chiefly made up of positive precepts and carnal ordinances , it is much more reasonable to expect it in a religion that is more free from such observances , and is more spiritual and internal . 2. another ground on which those of the roman church build is this , that a true church must hold the truth in all things : which is so sophistical a thing , that it might have been expected wise and ingenious men should have been long ago ashamed of it . it is certain the iewish church was the true church of god in our saviours time , for their sacrifices had then an expiatory vertue in them : so that they had the certain means of salvation among them ; which is the formal notion of a true church : and yet in so great a point as what their messias and his kingdome were to be , we find they were in a very fatal errour . the opinion of his being to be a temporal prince had been handed down among them so by oral tradition , that it had run through them all , from the priests down to the fisher-men : for we find the apostles so possessed with it , that at the very time of christs ascension , they were still dreaming of it : and yet this was a gross errour , and proved of most mischievous consequence to them : of this they were so persuaded , that the supream judicature or representative of their church , the sanhedrim , that had much more to shew for its authority , than a general council can shew in the new testament , erred in this fundamental point , and condemned christ as a blasphemer , and declared him guilty of death . so that while they continued to be the true church of god , yet they erred in the point which was of all others the most important ; upon which it is evident , that it is no good inference to conclude , that because a church is a true church , therefore it cannot be in an errour . 3. another pretence in that church , on which they build much , and which makes great impression on many weak minds , is the churches infallibility in deciding controversies , by which all disputes can be soon ended , and they conclude that christ had dealt ill with his church , if he had not provided such a method for the end of all disputes . but it is certain they have lost this infallibility if they ever had it , unless it be acknowledged that it is lodged in the pope ▪ against which the gallican clergy has so lately declared : and yet it can be no where else , if it is not in him ; for as they have had no general council for about one hundred and twenty years , so they cannot have one but by the popes summons ; and if the pope is averse , they cannot find this infallibility : so at best it is but a dormant priviledge , which popes can suspend at pleasure . in the intervals of councils where is it ? must one go over europe , and poll all the bishops and divines to find their opinions ? so in a word , after all the noise about infallibility , they can only pretend to have it at the popes mercy : and indeed he that can believe a pope , chosen as he generally is , by intrigues and court factions , to be the infallible judge of controversies ; or that a council managed by all the artifices of crafty men , ( as that at trent appears to have been , even by cardinal pallavicini's history ) was infallibly directed by the holy ghost , is well prepared to believe the only thing in the world that is more incredible , which is transubstantiation . there was as good reason for lodging an infallible authority among the iews as among christians ; for their religion consisting of so many external precepts concerning which disputes might rise , it seemed more necessary that such an authority should have been established among them , than under a dispensation infinitely more plain and simple . and the supream authority was lodged with the sanhedrim in much higher expressions under the old testament than can be pretended under the new , as will appear to any that will read the fore cited place in deuteronomy . there was also a divine inspiration lodged in the pectoral , by which the high priest had immediate answers from the cloud of glory ; and when that ceased under the second temple , yet , as their writers tell us , that was supplyed by a degree of prophecy ; which is also confirmed by what s. iohn says concerning caiaphas's prophecying ; and yet after all this , th●t in●allibility was not so obstinately lodged with them , that a company of lewd and wicke● prie●ts could not mis-lea● the people , a● they did in the doctrine concerning the messias . from all which it may be well inferred , that how large soever the meaning of those disputed passages that relate to the authority of the church may be supposed to be , yet a tacite condition must be still implyed in them , that while church-men continue pure and sincere , and seek the truth in the methods prescribed by the gospel , they shall not err in any point of salvation . and it is not reasonable to expect that our saviour should have left a more effectual provision against errour than he has done against sin ; since the latter is certainly more pernicious and destructive of those ends for which he came into the world ▪ so that as he has only left sufficient means for those who use them well to keep themselves from sin , in such a manner that they shall not perish in it ; so has he likewise provided a sufficient security against errour , when such means of instruction are offered that every one who applies himse●f to the due use of them , shall not err damnably . 4. another foundation on which they build is oral tradition , which ●hey reckon was handed down in every age since the apostles days . this some explain so as to make it only the conveyance of the exposition of the scriptures , though others stretch it further , as if it might carry down truths not mentioned in scripture : and for finding this out two methods are given : the one is presumptive , when from the doctrine of the church in any one age , it is presumed from thence , that those of that age had it from the former , and the former from those who went before them , till we run it up to the apostles days . the other method is of particular proof , when the ●onveyance in every age appears from the chief writers in it . i shall not here run out to shew upon either of these hypotheses , the unfitness of this way of conveying doctrines , nor the easie door it opens to fraud and imposture ; but shall only shew that they cannot prove they have a competent evidence of oral tradition among them . and first , it is certain that we have not handed down to us a general exposition of the scriptures , and that almost all the ancient expositors run after allegories , according to the way of the greek philosophers ▪ for some whole ages we have not above two or three writers , and those lived very remote ; and what they say , chiefly in the passages that are made use of in the later disputes , fall in oft on the by , and seem rather to have dropt from them , than to have been intended by them ; so that this cannot be thought decisive . and when it is likewise confessed , that in their disputes with the hereticks of their days , they have not argued so critically from those places of scripture , which they considered more narrowly ▪ it will not be reasonable to conclude too positively upon those things that rather fell in their way occasionally , than were the designed subjects of their enquiries . so that it is not possible to prove an oral tradition by the instances of particular writers , in all the ages and corne●s of the church : for almost an age and a half we have not one copious latine writer but tertullian and cyprian , that both lived in carthage : and it is not very clear of what persuasion the former was when he wrote the greatest part of his treatises : that he was a heretick when he wrote some of them is past dispute : now can one think ●hat if god had intended that the faith should have passed down by such a conveyance , there would have been such uncertain prints left us by which we might trace it out ? as for the other method of presumption or prescription , it is certainly a false one ; for if in any one particular it can be made appear that the doctrine of the latin church has been in these latter ages contradictory to that of the primitive times , then this of prescription is never to be any more alledged ; and of this i shall give two instances that seem demonstrative . the first is about the worshipping departed saints or martyrs , which has been the practice of the l●tin church for several ages : and yet in the second century we have the greatest evidence possible that it was not the doctrine of that age ; and that not in any occasional word let fall by some single writer , but in a letter writ by the church of smyrna , concerning the martyrdom of their late biship s. polycarp : in which there appears that warm affection for his person , and honour for his memory , that we cannot think they would have been wanting in any sort of respect that wa● due to the ashes of so great a saint . and what they say to this purpose is deliberately brought out ; for it being suggested by the iew that had set on the heathens against that martyr , that it was necessary to destroy his body , lest the christians should worship him ▪ they reject that imputation in these words : they being ignorant , say they , that we can never forsake christ who died for the salvation of the world , nor worship any other , for we adore him as the son of god. but for the martyrs , we do worthily love them , as the disciples and followers of our lord , for their unconq●ered love to their king and master , and therefore d●s●re to be their partne●s and disciples . to this i shall add another instance that is no les● evident ▪ which is concerning the presence of christ in the sacrament . the tradition of the church can be best gathered from the liturgies , which are the publickest , the most united and most solemn way in which she expresses her self . in s. ambros●'s time , or whosoever else was the author of the book of the sacraments that goes under his name , we find that the prayer of consecrations , as it is cited by him , differs in a very essential point from that which is now in the canon of the mass : in the former they called the sacrifice that they offered up in it , the figure of the body and blood of christ ; but since that time they have changed that phrase , and instead of it they pray , that it may be to us the body and blood of christ. we cannot tell in what age this change was made , but we may certainly conclude that the latin church in s. ambrose's time , had a very different opinion concerning the presence of christ , from that which is now received among them ; and that then she only believed a figurative presence . and thus it is certain that the presumptive method for finding out oral tradition is a false one , and that the particular proof of tradition by enquiring into the doctrine of every age is impossible to be made . 5. i shall enlarge a little further upon one particular instance , which is concerning one of those propositions lately condemned by the assembly g●neral : in which i intend to shew that they have departed from the tradition of the church , much more evidently than they can pretend that we have done : and this is concerning the popes power o● deposing kings , which they who live under so mighty a monarch have very prudently renounced : but whether they have not more plainly contradicted the tradition of the church than the reformers did , shall appear by the sequel of this discourse . in order to which i shall lay down two grounds that seem undeniable in their own principles ; the one is , that the tradition of any age or ages of the church , when it is universal and undisputed , is of the same authority with the tradition of any other age whatsoever : for the promises made to the church last continually , and have the same force at all times : and therefore a tradition for these last six hundred years is of as strong an authority as was that of the first six ages . the second is , that a tradition concerning the measures of mens obedience and actions , is of the same authority with a tradition concerning the measures of their belief . the one sort are practical , and the other are speculative points ; and as more are concerned in a practical truth than in a speculative point , so it has greater effects and more influence on the world ; therefore it is as necessary that these be certainly handed down as the other : and by consequence a tradition concerning any rule of life is as much to be received as that concerning any point of belief ; for the creed and the ten commandments being the two ingredients of the positive part of our baptismal vow ; it is as necessary that we be certainly directed in the one as in the other ; and if there were any preference to be admitted here , certainly it must be for that which is more practical , and of greater extent . upon these two grounds i subsume , that all the characters of oral tradition , by which they can pretend to find it out in any one particular , agree to this doctrine of the popes power of deposing princes that are either hereticks , or favourers of them . the way sof searching for tradition are these four : first what the writers and doctors of the church have delivered down from one age to another . the second is what the popes have taught and pronounced ex cathedrâ , which to a great part of that communion is decisive , their authority being held infallible ; and to the rest it is at least a great indication of the tradition of such an age. the third is , what such councils as are esteemed and received as oecumenical councils have decreed as general rules . the fourth is , the late famous method of prescription , when from the received doctrine of any one age we run a back-scent up to the apostles , upon this supposition that the doctrine of the church , chiefly in a visible and sensible thing , could not be changed . these are all the ways imaginable to find out the tradition of past ages ; and they do all agree to this doctrine . all the writers for five or six ages , both commentators on scripture , the school-men , the casuists and canonists agreed in it ; so that cardinal perron had reason to challenge those of the contrary persuasion to shew any one writer before calvin's time , that had been of another mind . we do not cite this as a proof , because cardinal perron said so , but because the thing in it self cannot be disproved ; and in the contests that fell in between the popes and those princes against whom they thundred , no civilian nor canonist ever denied the popes power of deposing in the case of heresie . it is true , when the popes pretended to a temporal dominion , and that all princes were their vassals , some were found to write against that ; other princes contended about the particulars laid to their charge , and denied that they were either hereticks or favourers of hereticks . but none ever disputed this position in general , that in a manifest case of heresie the pope might not depose princes ; and it is too well known what both the sorbonne determined in the case of henry the third , and likewise how the body of the clergy adhered to cardinal perron in the opposition he made to the condemnation of that opinion . the next mark of tradition is the popes pronouncing an opinion ex cathedrâ , that is , in a solemn judiciary way , founding it on scripture and tradition . if popes had only brutally made war upon some princes , and violently thrust them out of their dominions , this indeed were no mark by which we could judge of a tradition : but when we find gregory the seventh , and many popes since his time , found this authority on passages of scripture , as that of the keys being given to s. peter , jeremiah the prophet's being set over kingdomes to root out , to pluck up and destroy , and that all power in heaven and earth was given to chr●st ; and his bidding his disciples to buy a sword , we must look on this as the declaring the tradition of the church . so that it must eit●er be confessed that they are not faithful conveyers of it , or that this is truly the tradition of the church . and this has been done so often these last six hundred years , that it were a needless imposing on the readers patience to go about the proving it . the third indication of tradition is the declaration made by synods , but chiefly by general councils . i need not here mention the many roman synods that have concurred with the popes in the depositions which they thundered out against kings or emperours , since we have greater authorities confirming it . the third council of lateran declared that all princes that favoured heresie fell from their dominions , and they granted a plenary indulgence to all that fought against them . the fourth council of the lateran vested the pope with the power of giving away their dominions , if they continued for a year obstinate in that their merciful disposition of not extirpating hereticks . the first council of lions concurred with the pope in the deposition of the emperour frederick the second , which is grounded in the preamble on the power of binding and loosing given to s. peter . after these came the council of constance , and they reckoning themselves superiour to the pope , lookt on this as a power inherent in the church , and so assumed it to themselves ; and therefore put this sanction in many of their decrees , particularly in that for maintaining the rights of the church , and in the passports they granted , which had been often added in the bulls that confirmed the foundations of monasteries , that if any , whether he were emperour , king , or of what dignity soever he might be , opposed their order , he should thereby forfeit his dignity . the council of sienna confirmed all decrees against hereticks , and the favourers of them , that had been made in any former councils , and by consequence those of the third and fourth councils in the lateran . the council of basil put that threatening clause of forfeiture , used by those of constance , in their decree for a general council : and at trent it was declared , that if any prince did suffer a duel to be fought in his dominions , he was thereupon to forfeit that place in which it was fought . now by the same authority that they could declare a forfeiture of any one place , they could dec●are a for●eiture of a princes whole dominion ; for both those sentences flow from the same superiour jurisdiction : and thus we see seven of those councils which they esteem general , have either decreed , confirmed , or assumed this right of deposing kings , for heresie , or indeed for breaking their orders and writs . 4. the fourth mark o● tradition is ●hat which has been of late so famous by mr. arnauld's endeavours to prove from thence that the belief of the corporal presence in the sacrament is a doctrine derived down from the apos●les days , which is this : if any one age has universally received an opinion as an article of faith , it must be concluded that that age had it from the former , and that from the preceding till we arrive at the apostles days : and this he thinks must hold the stronger , if the point so received w●s a thing obvious to all men , in which every one was concerned , and to which the nature of man was inclined to make a powerful opposition . i shall not examine how true this is in general , nor how applicable in fact it is to the doctrine of the corporal presence ; but shall only say that allowing all these marks to be the sure indications of apostolical tradition , the doctrine of deposing princes for favouring heresie , has them all much more indisputably than the other has . take any one age from the eleventh century to the sixteenth , and it will appear that not only the popes , the bishops , and all the ecclesiastical order received it , but that all the laity likewise embraced it : though this was a matter obvious to sense , in which many were much concerned . it might have been hoped that princes upon their own account for fear of an ill precedent , would have protected the ●eposed prince : but on the contrary , they either entred into the croisades themselves , or at least gave way to them : vast armies were gathered together to execute those sentences , and the injured princes had no way to keep their people firm to them , but by assuring them they were not guilty of the matters objected to them , which shewed that had their people believed them guilty , they had forsaken them : and yet as it was , the terrour of a croisade was such , and the popes authority to depose princes was so firmly believed , that they were for the most part forced to save themselves by an absolute submission to the popes pleasure , and to what conditions or penances a haughty pope would impose on them . so certain it is that this doctrine was universally received in those ages . and thus it appears that all the characters by which it can be pretended that an apostolic●l tradition can be known , agree to this doctrine in so full and uncontestable a manner , that they cannot bring such evidence for the points in dispute between them and us . so that the assembly general by condemning this doctrine , have departed from the tradition of their own church more apparently than it can be pretended that either luther and calvin did in any of those doctrines which they rejected ; and therefore they ought not any more to complain of us for throwing off such things as they found on tradition , when they have set us such an example . from which i shall only infer this , that they themselves must know how weak a foundation oral tradition is for divine faith to build upon , and that it must be established upon surer grounds . finis . erratvm . page 85. line 21. for first read second . books printed for , and sold by richard chiswell . folio . speed's maps and geography of great britain and ireland , and of foreign parts . dr. cave's lives of the primitive fathers , in 2. vol. dr. cary's chronological account of ancient time. wanley's wonders of the little world , or hist. of man. sir tho. herbert's travels into persia , &c. holyoak's large dictionary , latine and english. sir rich. baker's chronicle of england . wilson's compleat christian dictionary . b. wilkin's real character , or philosophical language . pharmacopoeia regalis collegii medicorum londinensis . judge iones's reports in common law. cave tabulae ecclesiasticorum scriptorum . hobbs's leviathan . lord bacon's advancement of learning . sir will. dugdale's baronage of england in two vol. hooker's ecclesiastical polity . winch's book of entries . isaac ambrose's works . guillim's display of heraldry with large additions . dr. burnet's history of the reformation of the church of england , in 2. vol. — account of the confessions and prayers of the murtherers of esquire thynn . burlace's history of the irish rebellion . herodoti historia gr. lat. cum variis lect. rushworth's historical collections the 2 d. part in 2. vol. — large account of the tryal of the earl of strafford , with all the circumstances relating thereunto . bishop sanderson's sermons , with his life . fowlis's history of romish conspir . treas . & usurpat . dalton's office of sheriffs with additions . — office of a justice of peace with additions . keeble's collection of statutes . lord cook 's reports in english. sir walter raleigh's history of the world. edmunds on caesars commentaries . sir iohn davis's reports . judge yelverton's reports . the laws of this realm concerning jesuites , seminary priests , recusants , the oaths of supremacy and allegiance explained by divers judgments , and resolutions of the iudges ; with other observations thereupon , by will. cawley esq . william's impartial consideration of the speeches of the five jesuits executed for treason . 1680. iosephus's antiquities and wars of the jews with fig. qvarto . dr . littleton's dictionary , latine and english. bishop nicholson on the church catechism . the compleat clerk : precedents of all sorts . history of the late wars of new-england . dr. outram de sacrificiis . bishop taylor 's disswasive from popery . spanhemii dubia evangelica , 2 vol. dr. gibbs's sermons . parkeri disputationes de deo. history of the future state of europe . dr. fowler 's defence of the design of christianity against iohn bunnyan . dr. sherlock's visitation-sermon at warrington . dr. west's assize sermon at dorchester 1671. lord hollis's relation of the unjust accusation of certain french gentlemen charged with arobbery 1671. the magistrates authority asserted , in a sermon , by iames paston . cole's latine and english dictionary . mr. iames brome's two fast-sermons . dr. iane's fast-sermon before the commons . 1679. mr. iohn iames's visitation sermon april . 9. 1671. mr. iohn cave's fast-sermon on 30. of ian. 1679. — assize sermon at leicester iuly 31. 1679. dr. parker's demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature and the christian religion . mr. william's sermon before the lord mayor 1679. — history of the powder treason with a vindication of the proceedings relating thereunto , from the exceptions made against it by the catholick apologist and others ; and a parallel betwixt that and the present popish plot. speculum baxterianum , or baxter against baxter . mr. hook's new philosophical collections . dr. burnet's relation of the massacre of the protestants in france . — conversion and persecutions of eve cohan a jewess of quality lately baptized christian. — letter written upon discov . of the late popishplot . — impiety of popery being a second letter written on the same occasion . — sermon before the lord mayor upon the fast for the fire , 1680. — fast serm. before the house of com. dec. 22.80 . — sermon on the 30. of ianuary 1681. — sermon at the election of the l. mayor . 1681. — sermon at the funeral of mr. houblon . 1682. — answer to the animadversions on his history of the rights of princes , 1682. — decree made at rome 1679. condemning some opinions of the jesuites and other casuists . published by dr. burnet , with a preface . — a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french k. and the court of rome . bibliotheca norfolciana , sive catalogus libr. manuscript . & ●mpress . in omni arte & lingua , quos hen. dux norfolciae regiae societati londinensi pro scientia naturali promovenda donavit . octavo . elborow's rationale upon the english service . bishop wilkin's natural religion . hardcastle's christian geography and arithmetick . dr. ashton's apology for the honours and revenues of the clergy . lord hollis's vindication of the judicature of the house of peers in the case of skinner . — jurisdiction of the h. of peers in case of appeals . — jurisdiction of the h. of peers in case of impositions . — letters about the bishops votes in capital cases . duporti versio psalmorum graeca . dr. grew's idea of philological history continued on roots . spaniards conspiracy against the state of venice . dr. brown's religio medici : with digbies observations . dr. salmon upon the london dispensatory . brinsley's posing of the accidence . several tracts of mr. hales of eaton . bishop sanderson's life . dr. tilletson's rule of faith. dr. simpson's chymical anatomy of the york-shire spaws ; with a discourse of the original of hot springs and other fountains . — his hydrological essays , with an account of the allum-works at whitby , and some observations about the jaundice . 1 s. 6. d. dr. cox's discourse of the interest of the patient , in reference to physick and physicians . organon salutis : or an instrument to cleanse the stomach . with divers new experiments of the vertue of tabaco and coffee : with a preface of sir hen. blunt. dr. cave's primitive christianity , in three parts . a discourse of the nature , ends , and difference of the two covenants , 1672. 2 s. ignatius fuller's sermons of peace and holiness . 1 s. 6 d. a free conference touching the present state of england , at home and abroad , in order to the designs of france . 1 s. mystery of jesuitism , third and fourth parts . doctor sanway's unreasonableness of the romanists . record of urines . doctor ashton's cases of scandal and persecution . cole's latin and english dictionary . the tryals of the regicides in 1660. certain genuine remains of the lord bacon in arguments civil , moral , natural , &c. with a large account of all his works , by dr. tho. tennison . dr. puller's discourse of the moderation of the church of england . dr. saywel's original of all the plots in christendom . sir iohn munsons discourse of supream power and common right dr. henry bagshaw's discourses on select texts . mr. seller's remarks relating to the state of the church in the three first centuries . the country-mans physician ; for the use of such as live far from cities or market-towns . dr. burnet's account of the life and death of the earl of rochester . — vindic. of the ordinations of the church of engl. — history of the rights of princes in the disposing of ecclesiastical benefices and church-lands . — life of god in the soul of man. markam's perfect horseman . dr. sherlock's practical disc. of religious assemblies . — defence of dr. stillingfleet's unreasonableness of separation . — a vindication of the defence of dr. stillingfleet in answer to mr. baxter and mr. lob about catholick communion . the history of the house of estée , the family of the dutchess of york , octavo . sir rob. filmer's patriarcha , or natural power of kings . mr. iohn cave's gospel to the romans . dr. outram's 20. serm. preached on several occasions . dr. salmon's new london dispensatory . lawrence's interest of ireland in its trade & wealth stated . dvodecimo . hodder's arithmetick . grotius de veritate religionis christianae . bishop hacket's christian consolations . the mothers blessing . a help to discourse . new-englands psalms . an apology for a treatise of human reason , written by m. clifford esq . the queen-like closet , both parts . vicesimo qvarto . valentine's devotions . guide to heaven . pharmacopoeia collegii londinensis reformata . books lately printed for richard chiswell . an historical relation of the island of ceylon in the east-indies : together with an account of the detaining in captivity the author , and divers other english-men now living there , and of the author 's miraculous escape : illustrated with fifteen copper figures , and an exact map of the island . by capt. robert knox , a captive there near 20 years , fol. mr. camfield's two discourses of episcopal confirmation , octavo . bishop wilkin's fifteen sermons never before extant . mr. iohn cave's two sermons of the duty and benefit of submission to the will of god in afflictions , quar. dr. crawford's serious expostulation with the whiggs in scotland , quarto . a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the french king and the court of rome ; to which is added , the popes brief to the assembly of the clergy , and their protestation . published by dr. burnet . alphonsus borellus de motu animalium , in 2 vol. quarto . dr. salmon's doron modicum , or supplement to his new london dispensatory , octavo . sir iames turner's pallas armata , or military essayes of the ancient , grecian , roman and modern art of war , fol. mr. tanner's primordia : or the rise and growth of the first church of god described , octavo . a letter writ by the last assembly general of the clergy of france to the protestants , inviting them to return to their communion ; together with the methods proposed by them for their conviction . translated into english and examined by dr. gilb. burnet , octavo . dr. cave's dissertation concerning the government of the ancient church by bishops , metropolitans , and patriarchs : more particularly concerning the ancient power and jurisdiction of the bishops of rome , and the encroachments of that upon other sees , especially constantinople , octavo . — his history of the lives , acts , death , and writings of the most eminent fathers of the church that flourished in the fourth century : ( being a second volumn ) wherein amongst other things is an account of arianism , and all other sects of that age. with an introduction containing an historical account of the state of paganism under the first christian emperours , folio . books in the press . doctor iohn lightfoot's works in english , fol. mr. selden's ianus anglorum englished , with notes : to which is added his epinomis , concerning the ancient government and laws of this kingdom never before extant . also two other treatises written by the same author : one of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdiction of testaments ; the other of the disposition or administration of intestates goods ; now the first time published , fol. mezeray's history of france , rendred into engl. fol. gul. ten-rhyne med. doct. dissertat . de arthritide , mantyssa schematica , & de acupunctura . item orationes tres de chemiae ac botaniae antiquitate & dignitate . de physiognomia & de monstris . cum figuris & authoris notis illustratae , octavo . d. spenceri dissertationes de ratione rituum iudaicorum , &c. fol. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a48243-e2970 * ad const. permittat lenitas tua populis ut quos voluerint , quos pu●averint , quos elegerint , audiant docentes , & divina mysteriorum solennia concelebrent & pro inco●umita●e & beatitudine tua offeran● preces . non quisquam perversus aut invidus maligna loquatur . nulla quide● suspicio eri● non modo sedi●ionis , sed nec asperae murmurationis . — deus cognitionem sui docuit potius quam exegit , & operationum coelestium admiratione praecep●is suis concilians au●hori●a●em , coactam confitendi se aspernatus est , voluntatem . si ad fidem veram istiusmodi vis adhiberetur , episcopalis doctrina obviam pergere● , dicer●●que , deus universitatis est , obsequio non eg●t necessario , non requirit coactam confessionem . non fallendus est sed promerendus ; nostr● potius non sua causa venerandus est . non possum nisi volentem recipere , nisi orantem audire , nisi profitentem signare . — at vero quid istud quod sacerdotes timere deum vinculis coguntur , poenis jubentur ; sacerdotes carceribus continentur , plebs in custodiam catenati ordinis disponitur ? idem contra a●ian●s in prin●i●i● . sp●ciosum quid●m nomen est pacis , & pulchra est opinio unitatis ; sed quis ambigat eam solam ecclesiae atque eva●geliorum unicam pacem esse , quae christi est ? quam ad apostolos post passionis ●uae gloriam est locutus , quam ad mandati sui aeterni pignus abiturus commendavit . hanc nos , fratres dilectissimi , ut amissam quaerere & turbatam componere & repertam t●nere curavimus . sed hujus ipsius fieri nos v●l participes ●el authores n●c temporis nostri pecca●a meruerunt , nec imminentis antichris●i pr●● vii ▪ ministrique sunt passi : qui pace su● , id est impietatis suae uni●ate se j●ctant ▪ agen●es se non ut christi episcopos sed 〈◊〉 ●ntichristi sacerdotes . ac ne maledicis verborum in eos uti convitiis arguamur , cau●am perditionis publicae ne cuiquam ●gnorata sit , non tacemus ▪ antichristos plures etiam apostolo joanne praedicante cognovimus . quisquis enim christum qualis ab apostolis est praedicatus , negavit , antichristus es● . nominis antichristi proprietas est . christo esse contrarium . hoc nunc sub opinione falsae pietatis efficitur , ho● sub specie praedicationis evangelicae laboratur , ut dominus jesus christus dum praedicari creditur denegetur . ac●primum mis●reri licet rostrae aetatis laborem , & praesentium temporum stul●as opin●ones congemiscere , quibus patrocinari deo humana creduntur , & ad tuendam christi ecclesiam ambitione seculari laboratur . oro vos episcopi qui hoc vos esse creditis , quibusnam suffragiis ad praedicandum evangelium apostoli usi sunt ? quibus adjuti potestatibus christum praedicaverunt , gentesque fere omnes ex idolis ad deum transtulerunt ? anne aliquam sibi assumebant è palatio dignitatem , hymnum deo in carcere inter catenas & post flagella cantantes ? edictisque regiis paulus cum in theatro spectaculum ipse es●et christo ecclesiam congregabat ? nerone se credo aut vespasiano aut decio patrocinantibus t●ebatur , quorum in nos odiis confessio divinae predicationis eff●oruit ? illi manu atque opere se alentes , intra coenacula secretaque coeuntes , vicos & castella gentesque fere omnes terra ac mari contra senatus consulta & regum edicta peragrantes . claves credo regni coelorum non habebant ? aut non manifesta tum dei virtus contra odia humana porrexit , cum tanto magis chris●us praedicaretur , quanto magis praedicari inhiberetur ? at nunc , proh dolor ! divinam fidem suffragia terrena commendant , inopsque virtutis suae christus , dum ambitio nomini suo conciliatur , arguitur . terret exiliis & carceribus ecclesia , credique sibi cogit , quae exiliis & carceribus est credita : pendet à dignatione communicantium , quae persequentium est consecrata terrori . fugat sacerdotes quae fugatis est sacerdotibus propagata : diligi se gloriatur à mundo , quae christi esse non potuit nisi eam mundus odisset . haec de comparatione traditae nobis ollm ecclesiae , nunc quam deperditae , res ipsa quae in oculis omnium est atque ore , clamavit . sulp. sev. l. 2. sacr. hist. & dial. 2. de vita martini . illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quo cum labore verum inveniatur , & quam difficile caveantur errores . illi i● vos saeviant qui nesciunt quam rarum & arduum si● carnalia phan●asmata piae mentis fere●itate superare . illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt cum quanta difficultate sa●ietur oculus interioris hominis ut possit intueri solem suum . illi in v●s saeviant-qui nesciunt quibus suspiriis & gemitibus fiat ut ex quantulacunque parte possit intelligi deus . postremo , illi in v●s saeviant qui nullo tali errore decepti sunt , quali vos deceptos vident . contra epist. fund . cap. 1 , & 2. ep. 48. & ep . ●0 . lib. 3. cont . ●etil . c. 47. & 50. ep. 60 , 127 , 158 , 160. lib. cont . don lib. 1. cont . parm. cap. 7 contra haeres . lib. 3. cap. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , & 5. ●ib . 4. cap. 34. & lib. ● . cap. ● . notes for div a48243-e5090 cal. lib. de vera participatione co●poris . christi in coena . * ubi eis divinitus demonstratur si attendere veli●t , tam inique illos ab ecclesiae unitate praecisos , quam inique clamant maximianistas à se schisma fecisse . concil . carth. sub anast . can. 4. * ut senrentiis episcoporum qui scripturas ●acras ingenti g●oria tractaverunt , tua , juliane , machinamenta subvertam . lib. 2. contr . iul. c. 1. lib. de decret . conc. nic. a ath. epist. de senten . dion . alex. b lib. de syn. c epist. 41. conc. eph. act . 1. * sed nunc nec ego nicenum , nec tu debes ariminense tanquam praejudicaturus proferre concilium ; nec ego hujus authoritate , nec tu ●llius detineris . scripturarum authoritatibus non quorumque propriis sed utriusque communibus testibus , res cum re , causa cum causâ , ratio cum ratione concerter . lib. 3. co●t . max. cap. 14. a athan. de syn. arim. & sel●uc . hilary de synod . aueust . lib. 3. cont . maxim. cap. 3. & ep. 74 , & 78. b nazianz. orat . 37. c act. syn. eph. action 1. d act. 6. syn. const. in act. 2. syn. chalced. ego vero evangelio non crederem , nisi me ecclesiae catholicae moveret authoritas cont. epist. fund . cap. 5. * portae inseri non prae●aleb●nt adv●rsus eam . ma●th . 1.16 . * damnemus in commune vitiosam intelligentiam , non auferamus fidei securitatem . — sed homoousion potest male intelligi , constituatur qualiter possit bene intelligi . — potest inter nos optimus fidei status condi , ut nec ea quae bene sunt constituta vexentur , & quae male sunt intellecta resecentur . hil. lib. de syn. pag. 394 , & 396. of the paris edition . 165● . * contr. epist. fund . cap. 45 , paris ▪ edit . * portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus ●am . † ego vobiscum sum usque ad consummationem seculi . * art. 31. of their confessio● of fait● . * vis imus & colligimus ea ? non ; ne forte eradicantes zizania , eradicetis & triticum ; sinite utraque crescere usque ad messem . * lib. de unitate ecclesi●e , & psal. con . par . don. & epist. 162 & 171. non enim nobis displicent quia tolerant m●los , sed quia intolerabiliter mali sunt propter schisma , propter altare contra altare , propter separationem ab haereditate christi toto orbe diffus● , f●cut tanto an●e promissa est . a●g . ep. 162. diversirate poenarum , diversitas agnoscitur meritorum . ibid. * quare divisores vestimentorum domini esse vultis ? & tunicam illam charitatis desuper tex●am , quam nec persecutores ejus diviserunt , terere cum toto orbe non vultis ? — fingi●is vos ante tempus messis sugere permixta ziz●nia , quia vos es●is sola zizania : nam si frumenta essetis , permixta zizania tolerare●is , & à segete christi non vos divideretis . aug. e● . 171. * si autem tunc non erat ecclesia , quia sacrilegi heretici sine baptismo recipiebantur , & haec universali consu●tudine tenebatur , unde donatus apparuit ? † de qua terrâ germinavit ? de quo mari emersit ? de quo coelo cecidit ? lib. 5. de bapt. cap. 2. * ipsi considerent ubi sint qui neque unde propagati sint , possunt dicere . sed nos in ecclesiae communione securi sumu● , per cujus universitatem ●d nun● agitur , quod & ante agripinum , & inter agripinum & cyprianum , per ejus universitatem similiter agebatur . ibid. * et cujus universitatem neque agripinus deseruit , neque cyprianus , neque illi qui iis consenserunt , quamvis aliter quàm caeteri saperent , sed cum iis ipsis à quibus diversa senserunt , in eadem unitatis communione manserunt . ibid. † quapropter si temporib●s cypriani perdidit ecclesia malorum communionem , non habent isti suae communionis origin●m . si autem non perdidit , non hab●nt praecisionis suae aliquam desensionem . ibid. lib. 3. co●tra donatista● de bapti●mo . * interim cum felic●ssimus comminatus sit non communicaturos in morte secum qui nobis obtemperassent , id est , qui nobis communicârint , accipiat sententiam quam prior dixit , ut abstentum se ● nobis sciat quisquis se inspirationi & factioni ejus se adjunxerit . sciat se in ecclesia nobiscum non esse communicaturum , qui sponte maluit ab ecclesia separari . cypr. ep. 38. quod nunc hi ecclesiam scindentes , & contra pacem atque unitat●m christi rebelles , cathedram sibi constituere , & primatum assumere , & baptizandi atque off●rendi licentiam vindicare conantur . idem ●p . 76. * concil . chal. ●ct . 4. can. 83. si quis epis●opus à 〈◊〉 deposi●us , 〈◊〉 pr●s●●ter , 〈◊〉 diaconus , 〈◊〉 omnino qui est sub regu●● ▪ à proprio episcopo , ausus suerit amplius aliquid sacri ministerii ge●●re , sive episcopus juxta superiorum consuetudinem , sive presbyter , sive diaconus , postea non liceat ei , ne in altera quidem synodo , spem restitutionis nec satisfactionis locum habere : sed & omnes qui ●i communicent , ●jiciantur ex ecclesiâ , & maxime si postqaam cognoverint sententiam in praedictos latam , iis communicate ausi fuerint . can. 84. de iis qui seipsos separant , si quis presbyter aut diaconus contemp●o proprio episco ●o , se ab ecclesiâ segregaverit , aut seorsim congregationem habuerit , & altare constituerit , si commonenti episcopo non acqu●everit , nec consentire vel obedire voluerit , semel & iterum , ac t●r●ium vocanti , is omnino deponatur , nec ultra remedium consequi , ●ec proprium honorem recipere possit : quod si perseveraverit tumultuari & ecclesiam perturbare , per potestatem externam tanquam seditiosus . corrigatur . these two can●ns were read and reported in the fourth 〈◊〉 of the council of chalcedon , in the process of those two monks caroze and dorothee , that had made a schism , and having joyned themsel●es to eutyches , did separate from the church , as luther and calvin , and thos● who have followed them , have separated themselves in these latter ages . e● . 34. * regula quidem fidei una omnino est , sola immobilis & irreformabilis , caetera jam disciplinae & conversationis adm●ttunt novitatem ▪ tertull . de virg. ●el . c. 1. lib. 1. adv●rsus marc. c. 21. and almost in his whole book of prescriptions . * non ago ut efficiar homini convitiando superior , sed errorem convincendo salubr●or . notes for div a48243-e11330 see the oath in pontif. rom. see deu● . 17. from 8 , to 14. ambro● . ●o . 4. de sa●ram . c. 5. fac nobis h●nc oblationem as●riptam , rationabilem , accept●bilem ▪ quod est figura corporis & s●nguinis domini nostri ●esu chr●sti 〈◊〉 pridie ●●am 〈…〉 the same prayer 〈◊〉 thus varied in the canon of the mass. quam oblationem tu deus in omnibus quaesumus benedictam , ascriptam , ratam , ration●bilem accep●abilemque facere digneris , ut nobis corpus & s●nguis fiat dilectissimi ●lii tui domini nostri jesu christi . lib. 8. ep. 21● extravag . d● major . & obed . cap. 1. later . 3. c. 28. later . 4. cap. 3. const. s●ss 11 , 13 , 17 , 19. tid . 〈◊〉 ●● . c. 19. observations on the first and second of the canons, commonly ascribed to the holy apostles wherein an account of the primitive constitution and government of churches, is contained : drawn from ancient and acknowledged writings. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1673 approx. 180 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 66 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30396 wing b5840 estc r233638 18570235 ocm 18570235 108034 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30396) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 108034) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1647:10) observations on the first and second of the canons, commonly ascribed to the holy apostles wherein an account of the primitive constitution and government of churches, is contained : drawn from ancient and acknowledged writings. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 126 p. printed by robert sanders ..., glasgow : 1673. attributed to gilbert burnet by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. contains errors in pagination. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 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text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion observations on the first and second of the canons , commonly ascribed to the holy apostles . wherein an account of the primitive constitution and government of churches , is contained . drawn from ancient and acknowledged writings . glasgow , by robert sanders , printer to the city and university , 1673. the first canon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a bishop shall be ordained by two or three bishops . a bishop . this word is sometime taken for a spy , so estathius ad homeri k. sometime for a defender ; so hector was called bishop of troy by homer , iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . there was among the athenians a publick office so called : and in this sense , it was also used among the romans ; so cicero ad atticum , lib. 7. epist. 11. tells , that pompey would had him to be , quem tota compania & maritima ora habeant episcopum , ad quem delectus & summa negotii referatur , ff . de mun . & hon . leg . ult . parag . item episcopi sunt , qui praesunt pani & caeteris rebus vaenalibus . this term is sometime in the old testament . and clemens romanus epist. ad rom. proves bishop and deacon to be no new terms , from isai. 60.17 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in our edition , we find : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( where , on the way , mark how different the present edition of the septuagint is , from that which clemens made use of ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is also psalm 109.8 . among the iews , he who was the chief of the synagogue , was called chazan hakeneseth , the bishop of the congregation ; and sheliach tsibbor , the angel of the church . and the christian church being modelled as near the form of the synagogue as could be , as they retained many of the rites , so the form of their government was continued , and the names remained the same . but more of this afterward . clemens romanus in his epistle , speaks only of bishops and deacons . polycarp again in his epistle , speaks only of presbyters and deacons ; where some object that it would seem , that both in the church of corinth , to which clement wrote , and in that of philippi , to which polycarp wrote , there were but two orders of churchmen , whom the one calls bishops , the other presbyters . but if polycarp's epistle be genuine , then these of ignatius , which he there mentions , must be so too , and in them the matter is past controversie . epiphanius lib. 3. baer . 75. tells , that at first there were only bishops and deacons , which he saith he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and that ubi episcopi erant jam constituti , scripsit episcopis & diaconis . non enim omnia statim potuerunt apostoli constituere . presbyteris enim opus est & diaconis , per hos enim duos ecclesiastica compleri possunt ; ubi vero non inventus est quis dignus episcopatu , permansit locus sine episcopo . ubi autem opus fuit , & erant digni episcopatu , constituti sunt episcopi ; cum autem multitudo non esset , non inventi sunt inter ipsos , qui presbyteri constituerentur , & contenti erant solo episcopo in loco constituto . verum sine diacono impossibile est esse episcopum . so it seems , that from these profound histories which he had read , it appeared , that in some villages there were only presbyters and no bishops , because in those places none were found worthy of it . but certainly these places were obliged to depend upon some place where there was a bishop constitute : for if none were worthy to be bishops , much less were they worthy to constitute a church within themselves , and independent . it also appears , that in some places at first , they had no presbyters : and indeed where the number of christians was so small ( as no doubt it was in many places at first ) a bishop alone might well have served a whole city : but where the christians were more numerous , there were need of more hands , to assist the bishop in his work . as for that of polycarp's naming no bishop , but only presbyters and deacons , perhaps he wrote in the vacancy of the see : so we find many letters of cyprian's ad clerum romanum , when there was no bishop . besides , it is known that at first the names of bishop and presbyter were used promiscuously . presbyters were so called , not from their age , as they were men , but from the age of their christianity : for a neophite was not to be ordained , and the presbyters did jointly with the bishop , both rule and feed the flock . but some do stretch this too far , as if always the eldest presbyter had been chosen bishop . the commentaries upon the epistles , commonly called ambrose's , but truly hilary , the deacons ( of which i shall say nothing , it being now agreed among the criticks , that they are his ) upon the 4th of the eph. after he hath at length shewn the difference which was betwixt the churches in the apostles times , when they were not fully constitute , and the ages that succeeded , he tells how at first all in the clergy baptized and preached , and that on any day , or where they had opportunity . but afterwards deacons were restrained in this , and things were astricted to certain times and places . hinc est ergo ( saith he ) unde nunc neque diaconi in populo praedicant , nec clerici , nec laici baptizant . — ideo , non per omnia conveniunt scripta apostolica ordinationi , quae nunc in ecclesiâ est , quia haec inter ipsa primordia sunt scripta . nam & timotheum à se creatum presbyterum , episcopum nominat , quia primi presbyteri , episcopi appellabantur , ut recedente eo , sequens ei succederet . denique apud aegyptum presbyteri consignant , si praesens non sit episcopus : sed quia coeperunt praesentes episcopi indigni inveniri , ad primatus tenendos immutata est ratio , prospiciente concilio , ut non ordo , sed meritum crearet episcopum . multorum sacerdotum judicio constitutum , ne indignus temere usurparet , & esset multis scandalo . and like to this is , what he saith on 1 tim. 3. from which words , it would appear , that he thought the elder presbyter , without any election or ordination , succeeded unto the chair of the deceased bishop . but this is directly contrary even to what ierome himself saith : neither do we find any such constitution as that he mentions , either in the acts of the council of nice , or of any other . it is true , clemens romanus saith , that the apostles ordained their first fruits , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be the bishops and deacons of them who should afterward believe : but he adds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , trying them by the spirit ( that of discerning spirits being among their extraordinary gifts ) and though they ordained no neophyte , yet there is no reason to believe , that either they made the eldest christians , presbyters , or the eldest presbyters , bishops . the choice of matthias , and of the seven deacons , shews that it went not simply by age . st. iames the younger was bishop of ierusalem , and timothy was but young , when ordained . yet the difference of bishop and presbyter seems not to have been unknown to clemens , as appears from these savings of his , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praepositis vestris subditi & seniores inter vos debito honore prosequentes . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . qui nobis praesunt revereamur , seniores inter nos honoremus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . which by the words that follow , must certainly relate to some ecclesiastical constitution among themselves , to which he accommodates the terms of the temple hierarchy . all which i propose without any peremptory decision in this matter , submitting it to the judgment of the impartial reader ; for i know there are exceptions against these words , yet they do clearly imply a difference and subordination betwixt the presbyters , and their presidents : and what he saith of the ranks of the high priest , the priests , the levites , and the laicks , hath certainly a relation to the orders of the church . the next opinion about the origine of episcopacy , is that of ierome , and he hath given it very fully , both in his epistle to evagrius , and on the epist. to titus , cap. 1. he holds , that all things at first were governed in the church , communi presbyterorum consilio , and that the bishops were above the presbyters , non ex dispositione dominicâ , sed ex ecclesiae consuetudine ; and by divers arguments from scripture , he proves , that bishop and presbyter are one and the same , acts 20. they who v. 17. are called presbyters , are v. 28. called bishops . titus 1.5 . he left him to ordain elders , and v. 7. it is added , for a bishop , &c. whence he infers , that bishop and presbyter are one and the same . as also phil. 1. the apostle writes only to bishops and deacons . and 1 tim. 3. he gives the rules only to bishops and deacons . s. peter also called himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and s. iohn designs himself the elder . but he adds , after there arose schisms , and one said , i am of paul , &c. toto orbe decretum est , ut unus caeteris super imponeretur ad quem omnis ecclesiae cura pertineret , & schismatum semina tollerentur — ut schismatum plantaria evellerentur ad unum , omnis sollicitudo est delata . and ad evagrium , he tells how alexandriae à marco evangelist â usque ad heraclam & dionysium , presbyteri semper unum ex se electum , in excelsiori gradu collocatum episcopum nominabant . — quid enim excepta ordinatione facit episcopus , quod presbyter non facit . — et , ut sciamus traditiones apostolicas sumptas de veteri testamento ; quod aaron , & filii ejus , atque levitae , fuerunt in templo , hoc sibi & episcopi , & presbyteri , & diaconi vendicent in ecclesia . and from these words we may observe , that he accounted the difference of bishop and presbyter , an apostolical tradition , which came in place of the difference that was betwixt aaron and his sons : as also , that this began from the time of the apostles , and of mark the evangelist : that it was done to evite schism , and that it was appointed through the whole world : as also , that the whole care and chief power was in the hands of the bishop , of which he saith further , dial adv . luciferianos . ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate pendet , cui si non exors quaedam , & ab omnibus eminens detur potestas , tot in ecclesiâ efficientur schismata , quot sacerdotes . it may seem likewise probable , from him , that presbyters choosed their bishop out of their own number , and that in alexandria they made him bishop without any new ordination . and of this eutychius patriarcha alex. who was not very long after ierome , speaks more plainly , for he in his origines ecclesiae alexandrinae , published by selden , pag. 29.30 . tells , that there were twelve presbyters constitute by s. mark , and when the see was vacant , they did chuse one of their number to succeed , and to be their head , and the rest laid their hands upon him , and bless'd him : yet this cannot hold true , as shall afterwards appear . but all ignatius his epistles , are full of the subordination of presbyters to bishops , not without very hyperbolical magnifications of the bishops office. it is true , in the vulgar editions these expressions are much more frequent ; but in the medicean codex ( published by vossius , which agrees not only with the old latin one published by usher , but also with the citations of theodoret , and athanasius , and other ancient writers which they have taken out of them ) there is a great deal of the subordination of presbyters to bishops . ep. ad tral . he saith , necessarium est , quemadmodum facitis sine episcopo nibil operari . — omnes revereantur episcopum ut iesum christum existentem filium patris , presbyteros autem , ut concilium dei , & conjunctionem apostolorum . to the ephes. he bids them be subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and concludes that they should obey these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in his epist. to the magnesians , he saith , quantum episcopum quidem vocant , sine ipso autem omnia operantur : wherefore he adviseth them , ut omnia operentur praesidente episcopo in loco dei , & presbyteris in loco confessionis apostolorum . and there he speaks of the age of damas their bishop , who was but a young man , which he calls according to the vulgar edition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but in the medicean codex , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from which some will infer , that episcopacy was then newly invented , but suppose that were the true reading , which some question , who in this prefer the vulgar reading , it is clear from the whole epistle that he is speaking of the bishops age , and not of episcopacy . and from 2 tim. 2.22 . we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly youthful , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is new . and what tho ignatius , who lived so near the apostles time , did call episcopacy a new order ? many other places to the same purpose of the difference among these offices occur through all his epistles , neither is there any room for debate : but if these epistles be his , the difference of bishop and presbyter hath begun in the apostolical times . but that debate would prove too long a digression here ; therefore i refer the reader , if he desire a full discussion of that question to the incomparably learned and exact defence of them , lately published by doctor pearson , whose harvest is so full , that he hath not so much as left work for a gleaner . that of the angel in the revelation , is brought by many , and that not without ground , to prove that there was some singular person in these churches to whom each epistle was directed , and we have a great deal of reason to believe that polycarp was then bishop of the church of smyrna . iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. and apud euseb. lib. 4. cap. 13. tells that polycarp was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . now irenaeus tells how he was polycarp his hearer and disciple , and had conversed with him in his youth , and had often heard him teach . and as it were great uncharitableness to suspect the truth of his narration in a matter of fact , so we cannot think he could have been mistaken in a matter of that importance . but whatever jealousie may fix upon irenaeus , there is no shadow of ground , for suspecting either the veracity , or good information of the church of smyrna , who ( giving an account of his martyrdom in an epistle inserted by euseb. in his history , lib. 4. cap. 14. ) call him bishop of the catholick church of smyrna . all that can be alledged against this , is , that in their stile bishop and presbyter were one and the same thing . but the contrary of this is clear from iranaeus , who speaks always of bishops as distinct from presbyters : and tho he sometimes call bishops presbyters , yet he never calls presbyters , bishops ; which is also the stile of these few writers of that age , who sometimes call bishops , presbyters . eusebius tells from the testimony of the church of lions , how he was first a presbyter in lions under pothinus : after whose martyrdom he succeeded him in the chair , and died bishop there . and if we will hear himself , lib. 3. cap. 3. when he is reckoning up the tradition of the faith from the apostles , he deduceth it by all the bishops who did sit in rome from the apostolick times : whence two things will follow ; one , that he judged there had been still bishops in that church . the other , that he looked on the bishop , as the chief depositary of the faith . further , euseb. lib. 5. cap. 24. sets down his epistle to victor bishop of rome , wherein he chides him for excommunicating the eastern bishops ; and there he lays the whole blame upon victor , without sharing it among the presbyters , and also commends the former bishops of rome for their greater gentleness ; whereby it plainly appears , that he judged that the power of discipline lay chiefly in the bishops hands . polycrates also ( apud euseb. lib. 5. hist. cap. 23. ) vindicates the practice of their church about the day of easter , not only from the example of the apostles among them , but of the seven bishops who preceded him in his see. from which we may not only infer , that there was but one bishop in a city , from the days of the apostles ; but that his authority was great , since what they did , passed for a precedent to their successors . and indeed the difference of bishop and presbyter , is so evpress in irenaeus , that the most learned assertors of parity , confess the change was begun before his time , which was in the end of the second century . now how this change could have been introduced , when there was neither council , nor secular prince to establish it , when churchmen were so pure ( polycarp an apostolical man , having died but about thirty years before ; besides many other apostolical men who had long survived ) when the church was in the fire of persecution , and so less dross could be among them ; when there was no secular interest to bait them to it : for on the contrary this subjected them to the first fury of the persecution , seems strange . and it is not easie to be imagined , or believed , how this could have been so suddenly received through all the churches , both eastern and western , and that there was none to witness against it ; and that neither the sincerity of some presbyters , nor the pride of others , should have moved them to appear for their priviledges against this usurpation : and how neither heretick , nor schismatick , save one , and that about two hundred years after , should have charged the church with this : on the contrary , all of them having their own bishops ; and how this government continued in so peaceable possession through the succession of so many ages , till of late , that even fundamentals are brought under debate ; if this superiority were either so criminal , as some hold it to be , or had not been introduced at least by some apostolical men , if not by the apostles themselves , will not be easily cleared . in the next century we have tertullian speaking clearly of the difference of bishops , presbyters and deacons , lib. de bapt . dandi quidem jus habet summus sacerdos , qui & episcopus , dehinc presbyteri & diaconi , non tamen sine episcopi authoritate , propter ecclesiae bonum . idem de praescript . advers . haer . cap. 32. caeterum si quae ( praescriptiones ) se audent inserere aetati apostolicae , ut ita videantur ab apostolis traditae . — edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum , evolvant ordinem episcoporum suorum , ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem , ut primus ille episcopus , aliquem ex apostolis , vel apostolicis viris , qui tamen cum apostolis perseverarent , habuerit authorem & antecessorem ; hoc enim modo ecclesiae apostolicae census suos deferunt , sicut smyrneorum ecclesia habens polycarpum , à ioanne collocatum refert : sicut romanorum à petro clementem ordinatum edit . proinde utique & caeterae exhibent , quos ab apostolis in episcopatu constitutos apostolici seminis traduces habeant ; confingant tale aliquid baeretici . he also lib. 4. cont . marcionem , cap. 5. saith , ordo tamen episcoporum ad originem recensus , in joannem stabit authorem . by which we see that he both judged bishops to be of an apostolical origene , and that he counted them different from presbyters . a little after him was clemens alex. who 6. strom. p. 667. speaking of the constitution of the christian churches , saith , there were among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which he thinks was taken from the angelick glory , and from their oeconomy and administration . we shall also find through all cyprian his epistles this disparity so clear , that it cannot be denied , that yet we find him as condescending as any . epist. 6. writing to his clergy : he saith , solus rescribere nihil potui , quando à primordio episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine consilio vestro , & sine consensu plebis meae , pivata gerere sententia . but even this looks like a yielding to a diminution of that plenitude of power to which he might have pretended , epist. 65. writing to , rogatian , who had advised with him concerning a deacon that had carried insolently toward him , he writes : pro episcopatûs vigore , & cathedrae authoritate , haberes potestatem , qua posses de illo statim vindicari . ( and about the end ) haec sunt enim initia baereticorum , & ortus atque conatus schismaticorum male cogitantium , ut sibi placeant , ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant , sic de ecclesiâ receditur , sic altare profanum foris collocatur , sic contra pacem christi , & ordinationem , atque unitatem dei rebellatur . likewise we find epist. 31. written to cyprian , by the clerus romanus , the seat being then vacant , what sense they had of the bishop's power , when they say : post excessum nobilissimae memoriae fabiani , nondum est episcopus propter rerum & temporum difficultates constitutus , qui omnia ist a moderatur , & eorum qui lapsi sunt possit cum authoritate & consilio habere rationem . and if in any case we receive a testimony , it should be from the mouth of those who can only pretend to be injured . my next witness shall be dionysius of alexandria , whose same and authority was inferiour to none of the age he lived in . i do not bring his words to prove there were bishops in the church in his time , since that is denied by none : but to prove how full and absolute the authority of the bishops was then , and that the presbyters were simply determined by their commands . great care was used to keep the christian assemblies pure ; and therefore such as fell in scandalous sins , chiefly these who apostatised in the persecution , were not admitted to the communion of the faithful , but after a long and heavy penitence : and a question rising , what should be done with those who died before they finished their penitence : he in his letter to fabius bishop of rome , telling that signal story of serapion , shews that in his diocese the presbyters sent the eucharist to the sick who desired it , though they died before they had compleated their penitence : and he adds how this was by his authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . where from the stile of ● command given by him , which was the rule of his presbyters , and the rest of that epistle , it is as clear as any matter of fact can be , that the authority of bishops over their presbyters was then full , absolute , and undisputed . if we will believe eusebius , who certainly hath been a diligent and great collector , as any of all the ancients , the whole tract , both of his history and chronology , runs fully in this strain ; and he gives us the catalogues of the bishops of the patriarchal sees , from the days of the apostles to his own time . and tho it is not to be denied that he hath been too credulous in some instances ; yet it is hard to think he could have been mistaken in such a tract of so many particulars . and we see from the sixth canon of the council of nice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that the power of metropolitans over bishops , was then accounted by that council an ancient custom ; neither was there ever any opposition made to this before aërius , who upon that account is reckoned an heretick by epiph. lib. 3. haer . 75. and also by augustin ad quod vult deum , haer . 53. epiphanius adds , that he was an arrian , and gives the account of his opinion in this matter , thus : aërius being a presbyter in sebastia , was offended when eustathius was preferred before him to that bishoprick : and tho eustathius took all ways to gain him , and committed the xenodochium that was there to his inspection , yet aerius too deeply irritated at the preference , said : quid est episcopus ad presbyterum ; nihil differt hic ab illo , unus enim est honor , unus ordo , & una dignitas . imponit munus episcopus , ita etiam presbyter ; lavacrum dat episcopus , similiter & presbyter . dispensationem cultûs divini facit episcopus , facit & presbyter similiter ; sedet episcopus in throno , sedet etiam presbyter . by which he deceived many , and had divers followers : but it seems they have died with their author , for we hear no more of them . medina in the council of trent , numbred with aerius , jerome , ambrose , augustine , chrysostom , theodoret , primasius , and sedulius , as if they had been of the same mind , wherein he certainly spoke rashly , and was either ignorant or indeliberate . we have already considered both jerome and ambrose , or rather hilary the deacon , their opinions in this matter . all that is gathered from augustine , is , ep. ad hieronymum , where he saith : quanquam secundum honorem vocabulorum , quae jam usus obtinuit , episcopatus presbyterio major fit , multis tamen in rebus augustino hieronymus major est . whence some would infer that the difference of these was only in words , and brought in but by custom : but how thin and weak this is , it being but a smooth complement , will appear to all , especially if they set it in the balance with the great evidence that stands upon the other side . chrysostom . hom . ii. on i tim. when he is giving the reason , why the apostle passeth from bishops to deacons , without giving rules to presbyters , saith , the reason was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and a little after , he taxeth what that little betwixt them was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but this is far from saying that they were all one ; and that there ought to be no difference betwixt them . chrysost. also in his first homily on the phil. i. cap. on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith , quid hoc rei est ? an unius civitatis plures erunt episcopi ? nullo modo . verum sic presbyteros vocavit , tunc enim nomina invicem communicabant , & diaconus dicebatur episcopus . and there he shews that bishop and presbyter were taken promiscuously ; for which he cites that of timothy's being ordained by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery , which he saith is to be understood of bishops . quia presbyteri episcopum non ordinassent . ( and a little after ) etiam presbyteri olim appellabantur episcopi , & diaconi christi , & episcopi christi , unde nunc etiam multi presbyteri & diaconi scribuntur episcopi . but he adds , that in process of time , each had their proper names appropriated to them . oecumeneus and theophylact , in this , and all other things , follow chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . as also primasius , who on i tim. 3. gives the reason , why the presbyters are not named . eos in episcoporum ordine comprehendit , quia secundus , imo pene unus est gradus . sedulius scotus on the i. of titus , saith verbatim , that which jerome hath on the same place , and so it is to be considered as all one with him on the matter . but theodoret's opinion is a little more perplext , who on i tim. tells , that the same persons were called sometimes presbyters , sometimes bishops : but these who are now called bishops , were then called apostles , and that in the progress of time they left the name of apostles , and the name of bishops was appropriated to them who were first called apostles . thus he . these words it seems dropped from him without consideration , for there is no shadow of ground to believe it was so ; otherwise how came it , that the apostle gave no rules for them , under that name . but these words are sufficiently tossed by petavius and wallo messalinus . and thus far we have an ingenuous account of the various sentiments of the fathers , about the disparity of bishops and presbyters . the next thing in this canon to be consider'd is , what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it is unquestionable , that by this is understood ordination by imposition of hands , for all the ancients use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promiscuously : but criticks judge that by the former we are to understand all that pertained to the ordination , and the whole office of it , and that the latter is to be restrained to that particular rite of imposition of hands given in the ordination . nor do i remember of any place , where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stands for the election of churchmen , except in the fifth canon of laodicea , which discharges it to be in the presence of the hearers : and if we compare that with the 13th canon of the same council , which discharges the popular elections , we shall see the reason why they likewise forbid the elections to be in the peoples hearing , which was for avoiding tumults . balsamon on this canon refutes their mistake , who understood it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who founded their gloss on that canon of laodicea , ( which zonaras and aristenus doth ) quae enim fit in ecclesia ordinatio per preces mysticas peragitur , etiamsi fiat coram multis . and he proves his gloss from the 4. canon of nice , which appoints the elections of the bishops to be by the whole bishops of the province , or by three at least . therefore this canon cannot be meant of the elections of bishops , since two suffice by this rule for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and by the recurring of this same word in the next canon , he confirms his assertion , since presbyters and deacons were not ( according to him ) elected by suffrages . whence we see , how groundless a nicety theirs is , who would distinguish them , as if the former had been the election , the latter the ordination . it is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the greek authors almost constantly taken for the election of magistrates , which was ordinarily done in greece by the extention or elevation of the hand ; so budaeus upon the word , and cicero pro flacco speaks of their psephismata porrigenda manu , profundendoque clamore concitata . but that distinction is not observed in sacred writings , in which these minute critical modes of speaking are not attended to , and since , before they were to lay on hands , they were to stretch forth their hands on the head of the person , this word is not improperly used for that action : and therefore , acts 14. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used of paul and barnabas their ordaining of elders , where it is clear , it cannot be meant of the election by the people , but of their ordination of pastors . this word in scripture is also used for an appointment , or election , acts 10. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken for god's election ; and 2 cor. 8.19 . it is applied to these who were chosen to carry a message . as for the ordination of churchmen , it is nothing else but a solemn ceremony of blessing them , by laying on of hands . we find of old , that all who were called out for any divine service , were solemnly separated for it , so were both kings , priests , and prophets . and the law of nature saith , that to all functions for which a great veneration is due , there should be a solemn inauguration . the laying of the hand upon the head , was the rite of benediction , gen. 48. 14. jacob blessing joseph's children doth it with that ceremony : in like manner , deut. 34. 19. did moses bless joshuah . we see also by the sinners laying on their hands on the head of the sacrifice , that is was a ceremony used in the devoting of things to god , whence might rise that phrase among the latins caput devovere . and upon these accounts , this was appropriated to the ordination of churchmen , who are to be both blessed , and devoted to god. we find this ceremony also used in the new testament on many and different occasions ; sometimes when they healed diseases , mark 16. 8. they shall lay their hand on the sick , and they shall recover . and our lord usually touched the sick with his hand . acts 28. 8. s. paul lays his hands on publius . likewise , when they conferred the holy ghost on any who were baptized , they used this ceremony , so acts 8.17 . and 19. 6. and farther , when they appointed any for the ministery of the gospel , they separated and blessed them , by the laying on of hands ; so 1 tim. 4.15 . and 5.22 . and 2 tim. 1.6 . deacons were also ordained by this ceremony , acts 6. 6. as also when they sent any on a particular mission , though already sanctified for the work of the gospel , they laid hands on them : so acts 13. 3. paul and barnabas were ordained for the ministery of the gentiles . from all which it is clear that they used imposition of hands , as the constant ceremony of benediction , and as a concomitant of it , and not as a ceremony of it self significant and sacramental . among the ancients , imposition of hands was used not only in confirmation , which is undoubted , and is by many founded on that of hebrews 6.2 . where laying on of hands being joined with baptism , and reckoned among foundations , seems to be common to all christians . but they also used it in the receiving of penitents : so 19th canon of laodicea . as for the form of ordaining bishops , we see here it was to be done by bishops , which is agreed to by all , only eutychius seems to say , that in alexandria presbyters ordained the bishop . but as for the number of the bishops who were to ordain , this seems to be later , and more sutable to the state of the churches after they were constituted , than while they were under persecution . the number of three was appointed , conc. arel . 1. can. 21. nic. can. 4. arel . 2. can. 5. carth. 2. can. 12. and see more of this gratian dist . 64. this seems to have been founded on timothy's ordination , which is said to have been done by the presbytery , which chrysostom understands of a company of bishops . but it is not probable , that in the time of persecution , when bishops neither durst leave their own flocks , nor meet in any number , this was then observed ; and divers accounts are given of ordinations , where we hear only of one bishop ordaining . gregory thaumaturg was ordained by fidimus bishop of amasia , who went to the wilderness to seek him . and there are many instances among the lives of the solitaries , of such as were brought to a bishop , and ordained by him , without any other assisting him . so synesius epist. 67. tells how siderius was ordained a bishop , only by philo bishop of cyrene ; and tho he call that a transgression of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and confesseth it was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , since he was neither ordained in alexandria , nor by three bishops ; yet he justifies it from the necessity of the times wherein such freedom of assemblies was not safe . and gregory the great allowed augustine to ordain alone in england ; who upon that did ordain some bishops alone , as beda relates . dionysius the areopagite cap. 5. de eccles. hierar . giving the account of the ordination of bishops , represents it as done by one person . anno 555 after vigilius bishop of rome his death , pelagius who got himself made his successor , being suspected of accession to his death , could only get two bishops , to wit , joannes perusinus , and bonus ferentinus , who with andreas presbyter of ostia , laid hands on him . and here is a presbyter laying hands on a bishop . the church of rome , at this day , ordinarily dispenseth with this , so that one bishop and two abbots do often ordain bishops . the areopagite loc . cit . gives the account of the bishops ordination , whom he always calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , thus : he who was to be ordained , was brought to another bishop , and kneeling before the altar , the gospels were laid on his head , and the bishops hand , and so he was consecrated with a holy prayer , and then marked with the sign of the cross ; and last of all , saluted by the bishop , and whole holy order . his theory on this is : their coming to the altar , shews the subjecting of their whole life to god. laying on of hands , is as a father's blessing of his child . the sign of the cross signifies , that they are to follow christ , even to the cross . their salutation signifies their union one with another : and the gospel is laid on the bishops head , because he being the head of the hierarchy , is to illuminate the rest . with this agrees the fourth council of carthage , where the rules are at length set down for the tryals and qualifications of bishops : and canon first , at the end , we have , cum in bis omnibus , examinatus , fuerit inventus plene instructus , tunc cum consensu clericorum & laicorum , & conventu totius provinciae episcoporum , maximeque metropolitani vel authoritate vel praesentiâ , ordinetur episcopus . and canon second : episcopus quum ordinatur , duo episcopiponant & teneant evangeliorum codicem super caput & cervicem ( aliter verticem ) ejus , & uno super eum fundente benedictionem , reliqui omnes episcopi , qui adsunt , manibus suis caput ejus tangant . and of this see gratian dist . 23. & 77. where we find a bishop was to be five years a lector or exorcist , fourteen years an acoluth or subdeacon , and five years a deacon , ere he be a presbyter , and then he may hope for the highest degree . but in another chapter it is said , he must be ten years a presbyter , ere he can be a bishop . and in another chapter , none could be a deacon under twenty five years of age . but by the civil law , the age both of bishop and presbyter is the same ; to wit , thirty five . these previous degrees were introduced , and the years of tryal in them were appointed , that all might be prepared and rightly formed before they were admitted to the government of the church . among other ceremonies in the ordination of bishops , in some places they were anointed with the chrisma . nazianz . orat. 20. tells , that his father had so anointed basile : and orat. 5. tells , that himself was so ordained : but it seems that that was a custom peculiar to that country , since we meet not with it so early elsewhere . as for the elections of bishops , we have seen from ierome and eutychius , how the presbyters did choose the bishop . but in africk , the synod with the clergy , and the people did it ; of which we have a full account from cyprian , epist. 68. de traditione divinâ & apostolicâ observatione tenendum est , & observandum quod apud nos quoque , & fere per provincias universas tenetur , ut ad ordinationes rite celebrandas , ad cam plebem cui praepositus ordinatur , episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant , & episcopus delegatur plebe praesente , quae singulorum vitam plenissime novit , & uniuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexerit . and a little before , he saith , plebs ipsa maxime habet potestatem vel elegendi dignos sacerdotes , vel indignos recusandi . and from that of numb . 10. where moses stript aaron , and clothed eleazer before all the congregation , he proves that it was of divine authority , that the sacerdotal ordinations should not be , nisi sub populi assistentis conscientiâ , ut plebe praesente , vel detegantur malorum crimina , vel bonorum merita praedicentur , & sit ordinatio justa & legitima , quae omnium judicio & suffragio erit examinata . and this course , he saith , held in the ordination both of bishops , priests and deacons . and epist. 33. he excuseth himself , that he had ordained one a lector without the consent of his people , though he had been a confessor in the persecution . the epistle is directed to the presbyters , deacons , and the whole people , and begins : in ordinationibus clericis solemus vos ante consulere , & mores ac merita singulorum communi consilio ponderare . all that we meet with concerning this in scripture , is the chusing of the deacons by the people , acts 6. for that of acts 14.23 . is clearly misapplied . 1 tim. 3. a deacon should be first approved , and titus 1.6 . a bishop must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and thereby it appears , that certainly some enquiry was to be made into his conversation , which at least must have been a promulgation before-hand . so we find conc. chalc. can . 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and lampridius in the life of alexander severus tells , that he used such a course before he made any governor of a province . dicebatque grave esse non fieri in provinciarum rectoribus , cum id christiani & fudaei facerent in praedicandis sacerdotibus , qui ordinandi sunt . but there were frequent disorders in these elections , which occasioned the 13. canon of the council of laodicea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and by the canon goeth before that , the election of bishops is committed to the bishops of the province , which was also established by the council of nice , fourth and sixth canon . likewise justinian , nov. 123. cap. 1. excludes the people from the election of the bishop , but leaves it to the clergy , and the primores civitatis , to name a list of three , out of which the metropolitan was to choose one . the bishops were to be ordained in the presence of the people , where every one might propose his exceptions , why he might not be ordained , which were to be examined before they proceeded to the ordination . so conc. antioch . canon 19. and carthag . canon 49. and iustinian tit . 1. nov. const. 1 , 2.17 . according to photius in nomocan , tit . 1. cap. 8. yet these popular elections were not wholly taken away , and at least the peoples consent was asked : but there were great disorders in these elections . nazianz. orat. 14. at his father's funeral instanceth them in two cases at cesarea , where his father was present ; in which there were factions at the election of the bishop : in one of them it was that basil was chosen . ammian mercellin tells what tumults were at rome in the elections of their bishops , of whom he saith , supra modum humanum ad rapiendam sedem episcopalem ardebant : so that at the election of damasus the faction betwixt his electors , and those that were for urcisinus , brake out into such a tumult , that there were in basilicâ sicinini , ubi ritus christiani est conventiculum , centum triginta septem peremptorum cadavera reperta , lib. 27. and he adds , it was no wonder they struggled so about it , because id adepti futuri sunt ita securi , ut ditentur oblationibus matronarum , procedantque vehiculis insidentes , circumspecte vestiti , epulas curantes profusas , adeo ut eorum convivia regales superent mensas , qui esse poterant beati revera , si urbis magnitudine despecta quam vitiis opponunt , ad imitationem quorandam provincialium antistitum viverent , quos tenuitas edendi potandique parcissimè , vilit as etiam indumentorum & supercilia humum spectantia perpetuo numini , verisque ejus cultoribus , ut puros commendant & verecundos . because of those disorders in elections , it was that nazianz. orat. 19. wished , that the elections were only or chiefly in their hands who served at their altar . sic enim nunquam ecclesiis male esset . therefore he desires they should no more be committed iis qui opibus ac potentiâ pollent aut plebis impetui ac temeritati , atque etiam plebeiorum vilissimo aut contemptissimo cuique , as had been before . adding , that the disorders which were in such elections , made him loath his life , and long to be in a wilderness . one effect of these confused elections was , that some who were not presbyters , nay not so much as christians , were chosen bishops : for orat. 20. on basil , when he tells how basil was first ordained a presbyter , he regrates that many bishops oft-times leaped into the chair without any preceding degree , which was contrary to nature and reason , since among saylors none is made at first a pilot : nor is there any at first made a general among soldiers . nunc autem periculum est , ne ordo omnium sanctissimus , omnium maximè sit ridiculus : non enim virtute magis , quam maleficio , & scelere sacerdotium paratur , nec digniorum , sed potentiorum throni sunt . adding , that none is called a physician , before he understand diseases , nor a painter before he can mix colors . antistes contra facile invenitur , non elaboratus , sed recens . — uno die sancto fingimus , eosque sapientes & eruditos esse jubemus , qui nihil didicerunt : nec ad sacerdotium quicquam prius contulerunt quam velle . and orat. 19. he tells how in cesarea at an election of a bishop , his father and other bishops being present , there arose a great sedition about it , which could not be easily composed , partly thorow the peoples fervor about the faith , partly thorow the eminence of the chair , which made the contentions greater . but at length the whole people with one consent made choice of a person of great quality , but not yet baptized , to be their bishop : from which he was very averse , but they took him by force , and by the assistance of some soldiers then in the city , haled him to the church , and desired the bishops , not without threats , to ordain him : whereupon they overawed by fear and force , first purified him , and then set him upon the throne ; but more with their hands than with their heart . chrysost . also lib. 3. de sacerdotio , cap , 15. shews the evil of these popular elections , and that in them they looked more to riches and honor , than to true worth . but where the synodical elections were set up , the people were not wholly excluded from their interest in the choice , as we see particularly in the churches of milan and hippo. neither were these synodical elections so regular as nazianzen hoped , which appears from two famous instances of nectarius and ambrosius . nectarius came to the council of constantinople in the company of diodorus bishop of tarsus : and then it was , that upon some differences ( as you shall see afterwards ) nazianzen retired from constantinople . and nectarius thinking to go home to his country , came to his bishop diodorus to ask his blessing , and receive his commands . but at that time all diodorus thoughts were , how a fit person might be found for constantinople , and looking on nectarius , considering his gravity , his gray hairs , and sweet temper , he thought ( it seems by a divine inspiration ) what if he were made bishop . and thereupon pretending another errand , he took him to the bishop of antioch , and whispering him in the ear , bid him consider how fit a person nectarius might prove for the bishoprick of constantinople . meletius laughed in his heart at diodorus his simplicity , who should think of nectarius , when so many famous men had been named for that see by their bishops . after that , theodosius the emperor commanded the synod to give him in writing a list of such persons as were judged fit for that chair , which being laid upon miletus to draw , he to gratifie diodorus , puts nectarius among them . the emperor at first reading began to think of nectarius : but at second reading , positively concluded that he must be the bishop . the synod was amazed , and began to enquire about him , and found that he was but a catechumen , whereupon they desired the emperour to change his mind ; but he continuing resolute , the synod yielded : and after they had baptized him , they ordained him bishop . and by this we see that the synod made the list , but the emperour named the person . near of kin to this is the story of ambrose . after auxentius the bishop of milan his death , valentinian the emperor called a council of bishops , and appointed them to chuse some holy and fit person to be bishop there , cujus authoritati & nos subjiciamur , cujusque reprehensiones ferre non dubitemus . etenim ut imperatores nos simus , & rerum potiamur , homines tamen esse nos , & humanis lapsibus obnoxios fatendum nobis est . but the synod referred the election back to him , that he might name the person , yet he refused it , and told them , it was their business , adding , ego vero , id & viribus meis majus & ab officio meo alienum judico . but as they went to consult about this , the people of milan did all run together to the church to chuse their bishops , some of them were arrians , and others orthodox , and each party was contending to have the bishop chosen of their own side . at that time ambrose a noble roman of the consular order , was prefect there , to whom valentinian , when he sent him to that charge ; said , vade , age non ut iudex , sed ut episcopus . he fearing that the concourse of the people might end in a tumult , came among them to prevent that , and with great sweetness exhorted them to calmness and unity ; whereupon they much taken with his speech , cryed out with one accord ; let ambrose be bishop . but he resisted this as much as he could , and did chide them for their indeliberate choice of a secular person , who was a stranger to ecclesiastical affairs , and not so much as initiated into the faith , for he was not then baptized . yet the synod approving of their election , he was first baptized , and then ordained bishop . but paulinus adds , that after his baptism , he past in order through all the ecclesiastical degrees , and on the eighth day was ordained bishop there . thus went the synodical elections : but it was a great while before that , even in the elections of the bishops of rome , the people were wholly barred from their priviledges . and of all this see at large antonius de dominis , lib. 3. de repub. eccles. cap. 3. metropolitans were chosen by the patriarchs , and the patriarchs by the emperours : but in some cases , the emperours took the elections simply to themselves ; at other times , they reserved only the ratification of them to themselves : and so for a great while , the elections of the bishops of rome were to be ratified , either by the emperors of the east , or by their exarchs at ravenna . and after that charles the great assumed the empire of the west , it was decreed in a synod at rome , that the election of the roman bishop belonged to him : and accordingly he was in possession of it , though his successors did simply slip from it . now the elections are in the hands of the canons and prebends , which is an art to make the election go what way the superior will. but the chapters chusing the bishop , was not known to the ancients , it belonging to the whole college of the presbyters without distinction . and all who desire the restitution of church discipline , think , that the erecting of provincial synods , and giving the power of electing bishops to them , is both the best method , and most agreeable to all antiquity . a see was not to lie vacant over three months , nor the ordination of a bishop delayed , except upon an inexcusable necessity , otherwise the metropolitan was liable to censure , conc. chalc. can. 25. and in the council of sardice , can. 10. osius proposed , that none should be bishop till he had passed through all the inferior degrees , and had finished the ministery of a lector , deacon , and presbyter ; and to this all the bishops there present gave their consent : but by the instances already marked , we see that this order was not universally observed . nov. 123. it is decreed , that a bishop be at least three months among the clergy , before he be ordained , that he may be instructed in the ecclesiastical ministery and service . another custom there had been of bishops ordaining successors for themselves : so euseb. lib. 7. cap. 26. or according to the greek division , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . tells how theotecnus bishop of cesarea , ordained anatolius to be his successor , and that for some time they were both bishops together . in other places they did not ordain , but only design their successors . yet augustin was ordained bishop of hippo by his predecessor valerius ; but he apologizes for this , epist. 110. and saith , that he did not know that it was contrary to the council of nice , which decreed that there should be but one bishop at once in a city . and from that epistle we see it was ordinary for bishops to design their successors , which was done to prevent the tumults were usually in elections . and augustin tells us of a disorder which had been in a neighbor town , because the bishop , though he had designed his successor , yet had not published it . therefore he to evite that hazard , designed eradius to be his successor , to which all the people assented . yet lest this might have opened a door for bishops to have transmitted their sees to their kindred or friends , it was decreed in the council of antioch , can. 23. that any such designation of successors made by bishops , should be declared null , and that the election of the bishop should be in the hands of the bishops of that synod where the see lay . there might be but one bishop in a city for unities sake , yet sometimes there were coadjutors : so nazianzen was coadjutor to his father . and augustin in his second conference with the donatists , offered that if the donatists overcame , then they should yield their bishopricks to them ; but if the donatists were overcome by them , and so should return to the community of the church , they should admit them to be conjunct bishops with them . so was the schism in antioch betwixt the meletianists and the paulianists setled , that both should be bishops together , and all should obey him that survived ; to this they all agreed , confirming it by oath . yet flavianus , one of miletus his disciples , after his death , got himself chosen bishop , but was in that condemned by all . it is true , that the novatians in divers sees had distinct bishops , but these were schismaticks . yet in the beginning of christianity , it would appear that there were more bishops in one place : for tertullian and epiphanius assert , that clemens was ordained bishop of rome by s. peter . and yet all reckon linus to have succeeded him . so also evodius is generally reckoned to be the first bishop of antioch ; thus eusebius , origen and ierome . yet chrysostom and theodoret say , that ignatius was ordained there by s. peter . if there be any authority in clemens his constitutions , they offer a clear account of this , that evodius was appointed bishop of the circumcision , and ignatius bishop of the uncircumcision ; and that after evodius's death , both churches grew in one . the same also is applied to the difference about linus , and clemens by others , as if linus had been bishop of the circumcision , and clemens of the uncircumcision ; and that after cletus's death they all grew in one , and submitted to clemens . however , it is clear that in every church there was but one bishop : and accordingly was decreed , conc. nic. can. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . by which stile we see they guarded against the disorder of two bishops in a city , as a thing undoubtedly irregular , which hath been accounted so before that time : so that this of one bishop in a city , is not to be accounted an act of that council ; but a reference to some former act , or at least an universally received practice . yet the first succession of the bishops of rome , tho always perplexed , is much more so , from the most learned vossius ( his observations in his letter to rivet , subjoined to doctor pearson's vindiciae of ignatius his epistles : ) who from all the manuscripts of damasus his lives of the popes , informs us , that s. peter did ordain both linus and cletus bishops of rome : and after some enquiry into the matter , he concludes , that at first there were three bishops in rome at once , linus , cletus , anencletus . in the next succession , he places cletus , anencletus and clemens ; but anencletus surviving both the other , sate alone at rome : after whom there was but one bishop there . yet i know not if damasus ought to have such authority , that upon his testimony we are bound to believe a thing so different from the accounts given by elder and more unquestioned writers . all ambitus was condemned in bishops ; but it seems that in nazianzen's time it was too common : for he in his apologetick regrates how some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tanquam non virtutis exemplum , sed victûs parandi occasionem & subsidium hunc ordinem esse judicantes : ac non munus referendis rationibus obnoxium , sed imperium ab omni censurâ immune . and a little after : prius fere quam primam comam abjecetimus , puerilique more balbutire desierimus . — si duo aut tria pia verba didicerimus , eaque non ex lectione , sed ex sola auditione bausta , an t davidi paulum operae dederimus , aut pallium scite contraxerimus , aut zonâ tenus philosophati fuerimus , pietatis quandam speciem nobis illinentes , ô praefecturam ! ô elatum animum ! justinian . const. nov. 137. cap. 1. complains , that absque examinatione , atque honestatis vitae testimonio ordinantur episcopi , presbyteri , & diaconi , &c. and there divers places out of nazianzen's apologetick are cited , to shew that ordination should be gone about cum omni diligentiâ atque rigore , cad . de epis. & cler. leg . 31. tantum ab ambitu debet esse sepositus , ut quaeratur cogendus , rogatus recedat , invitatus effugiat , sola sibi suffragetur necessitas excusandi . profecto enim est . indignus sacerdotio , nisi fuerit invitatus , invitus . chrysostom in his third book de sacerdotio , cap. 10. among the qualifications of a bishop , reckons for a chief one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . nam si ad eum principatum adipiscendum vehementi animi affectu rapietur , eo adepto impotentiorem sane suae ambitionis flammam incendet : ac vi tandem captus , ut sibi adeptum honorem stabiliat , nulli non peccato serviet : seu adulandum , seu servile quidpiam atque indignum sustinendum , seu res magno pecuniae sumptu tentanda : nam quod nonnulli caedibus ecclesias compleverint , contaminarintque tum ejus honoris gratiâ depugnantes , civitates aliquot funditus everterunt dicere hic praetermitto , ne quibusdam videar ea in medium afferre quae fide majora sunt . and to preoccupy the objection from 1 tim. 1.3 . he adds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and among other advantages of one who wants this too forward desire , he reckons this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and with a great deal of ingenuity , he confesseth how strong that unlawful desire was in himself , which frighted him from entering in holy orders . how far nazianzen was from all ambitus , the whole tract of his life doth fully discover . he was no sooner ordained a presbyter , than he with his friend basile , at that time likewise ordained , fled to pontus , where they lived a great while , purifying their souls in the exercise of prayer and mortification . after which they returned home . nazianzen out of compassion to his father who pressed his return , and basile out of zeal to religion , and the church then out of zeal to religion , and the church then over-run with arrians ; s. basile by the means of old nazianzen , was chosen and ordained biship of cesarea , and he ordained nazianzen bishop of sasime : but he , what through his love of retirement , what because sasime being a stage of the waggoners , was full of stirs and disorders , immediately left that place , in which he was set against his heart . and some say that he never ordained any in it , nor consecrated the eucharist while he was there : neither could ever his father obtain of him to return to it . and when his father dealt earnestly with him , not without threatning of imprecations , that he would accept the charge of nazianzen in his old age , he with great aversion yielded to his entreaty , declaring he would stay no longer there than his father lived . during which time , he managed that see with a great deal of success and applause : but after his father died , which was in the hundred year of his age , he continued a little longer there , till his mother who survived her husband sometime , died also . and then he retired to a house of holy virgins in seleucia , that in his absence they might chuse another bishop ; but returning thither a little after , he found they had chosen none ; yet he continued stiff as an oak , and neither prayers nor tears could prevail with him . afterward constantinople was in great disorder through the heresies of was in great disorder through the heresies of apollinaris and macedonius lately sprung up , beside the arrian , which was there before : and he being inwardly called of god to go thither , and prompted by his friend basile , and invited by many bishops , and honourable citizens , went and laboured among them : not behaving himself as their bishop , but as a temporary overseer . and though all the churches were then possess'd by the hereticks , none remaining for the orthodox , save only anastasia ; yet through his labours the face of affairs was quickly altered in constantinople . when theodosius came to constantinople , he possessed him of the great church : and all the people desired that he might be enthroned , the emperour concurring with them in that : but he declined it : and though the emperour took great pleasure in him , yet he went seldom to the palace . then was the second general council called to constantinople , and he was by the authority of miletus bishop of antioch ( of whom we made mention before ) confirmed in the bishoprick of constantinople by the council . but after this , there arose some contention by timotheus bishop of alexandria , who came later to the council , and alledged upon the prerogative of his see , that that matter should not have been decided without him . upon this , hot and sharp contentions arose among the bishops , not so much out of any displeasure they had at nazianzen , as out of their mutual jealousies , though he that writes his life , faith , that this was occasioned by miletus his death . but therein he was mistaken ; for miletus out-lived not only this action , and gave the lift to theodosius of those who were designed to succeed him ( sozom. lib. 7. cap. 8. ) but he also out-lived the council , and subscribed its acts , and died a little after that in constantinople . upon this contention , nazianzen finding many of those who had before established him , beginning to resile , told them how at first he had refused that government , tho the church there had been by his labours and pains setled , and enlarged ; but for that he expected his reward from god : yet it seemed strange to him , that after he had been forced to accept of it , out of his love to the flock , and pressed to it with their united suffrages , they should now think of undoing what themselves had done . this he said , not that he desired riches , or the nobleness of that seat , and to be called bishop of the imperial city : but he confessed , the loss of his children could not but affect him : besides , he feared they might seem to proceed out of envy or lenitv . however , if they desired it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — mihi quidem solitudo & olim chara fuit & nunc eft : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . whereupon he went out , and retired from the house wherein he dwelt , to one more secret . but many of the people flocked about him , and with tears besought him to have compassion on them : yet he finding the dissention about him growing hotter among the bishops , went again to the council , and charged them by the holy trinity , that they would compose their differences peaceably , adding : but if i seem the occasion of any dissention among you , i am not more worthy than the prophet jonas : throw me in the sea , and these raging billows shall quickly be calmed , since i shall choose any thing you please , so if i be innocent , for drawing you to agreement on my account . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . after which he went to the emperor , and with great earnestness begged his permission to retire : which having obtained , he called the clergy and people together , and with many tears took leave of them , charging them to continue stedfast in the faith . this being done , he retired to arianze , a village of cappadocia , which belonged to him by inheritance , and continued in his retirement , giving himself to his poetry , till he died in an old age . that which next occurs to be considered is , in what places bishopricks were founded , and bishops setled . we find in all cities where the gospel was planted , and churches constituted , that bishops were also ordained . among the jews , where ever there were an hundred and twenty of them together , there did they erect a synagogue . compare with this acts i. 15. where the number of those that constituted the first christian church , is the same . so it is like where ever there was a competent number of christians together , that a church was there setled . yet in some villages there were churches and bishops ; so there was a bishop in bethany : and s. paul tells of the church of cenchrea , which was the port of corinth . it is true , some think that the church of corinth met there . so these of philippi went out of the city by a river side to prayer , acts 16.13 . but we find acts 18. that there was a synagogue in corinth , and that s. paul stayed in the house of justus , near the synagogue : and therefore there is no reason to think that the christians should have had their meeting without the city , since there was no persecution then stirring : and neither in the acts , nor in any of the epistles , is there mention made of their going out to cenchrea . therefore it is probable that the church of cenchrea was distinct from corinth : and since they had phebe for their deaconness , it is not to be doubted but they had both bishops and deacons . from the several cities the gospel was dilated and propagated to the places round about . but in some countries we find the bishopricks very thick set . they were pretty throng in africk , for at a conference which augustine and the bishops of that province had with the donarists , there were of bishops two hundred eighty six present , and one hundred and twenty absent , and sixty sees were then vacant , which make in all four hundred sixty and six : there were also two hundred seventy nine of the donarists bishops . sozom. lib. 7. hist. cap. 19. speaking how differently constituted some churches were , he tells how in scythia , though there were many cities , yet there was but one bishop . but in other nations there were bishops even in their villages , as he knew to be among the arabians and cyprians . theodoret tells , that there were eight hundred parishes within his diocese , epist. 113. but it is to be observed , that in those places where the gospel was latest of planting , the bishopricks are fewer , and consequently larger . it is reported that in the vast tract of the abyssin churches , there is one only bishop at abuna . balsamon on the 57. canon of laodicea tells , that at that time in some churches of the east , it was neither safe nor expedient for them to have bishops : and they were supplied by visiters , sent them from other bishops , so that they had no bishops of their own : which was occasioned both by their poverty , and the smalness of their number , yet they were under the care and charge of other bishops . some churches lay long vacant and without bishops . in carthage , when hunnerick invaded them , they wanted a bishop twenty four years : and he offering them one , providing the arrians might have the free exercise of their religion among them , they answered , that upon these terms ecclesia non delectatur episcopum habere , so victor lib. 2. pers . v and. when miletus was driven out of antioch , for ten years together diodorus and flavian two presbyters ruled that church , theodor. lib. 4. hist. cap. 23. some places are alledged to have had the gospel long before there were bishops among them , and particularly scotland , for major lib. 2. cap. 2. faith , per sacerdotes & monachos , sine episcopis scoti in fide eruditi erant . the time of our conversion to the faith is reckoned to have been an. 263. and palladius reckoned the first bishop came not for an hundred and seventy years after that in the year 430. fordown in his chronicle , lib. 3. cap. 8. faith , ante palladii adventum habebant scoti fidei doctores , & sacramentorum administratores , presbyteros solum , vel monachos ritum sequentes ecclesiae primitivae . these were called culdes , though in some bulls they be celli dei. boethius thinks it is culdei , quasi cultores dei : but others judg that it is from the cells wherein they lived , which were held in great esteem , and after their death were turned into churches : and from thence they think the name kil is to this day so much used , as kilpatrick , kilmarnock , kilbride , &c. of these boethius saith , that by common suffrage , they made choice of one of their number to be chief over them , who was called episcopus scotorum : so lib. 6. fol. 92. this is contradicted by buchanan lib. 5. who faith , that before palladius his coming , ecclesiae absque episcopis per monachos regebantur , minori quidem cum fastu , & externâ pompâ , sed majore simplicitate & sanctimoniâ . but all our old manuscripts being gone , it will not be easie to come to a decision about this matter . the gothick churches are said to have been planted and constituted before ulphilas their first bishop came unto them for seventy years together . in the beginning the bishop's whole charge was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and by the strain of ignatius his epistles , especially that to smyrna , it would appear , that there was but one church , at least but one place , where there was one altar and communion in each of these parishes : for he saith , there was one bishop , one church , and one altar . and cyprian phraseth the erecting of a schism , by the erecting of an altar against an altar : which seems to import , that there was but one altar in the bishops parish . while the number of the christians was but small , they might well have all met together in one place ; but as they increased , and the persecutions grew upon them , they must have had several meeting places , and consequently several persons to preside and officiate in these meetings . but damasus and platina reckon , that evaristus who was bishop of rome about the 106 year , was the first , qui titulos in urbe româ presbyteris divisit : so that before his time , the presbyters have all officiated here or there indefinitely according to the bishop's appointment . and evaristus seems to have given them assignments to particular places . as for the meaning of the word tituli , it is to be considered that the christians met about the places where the martyrs were buried , and so their meeting places were called memoriae martyrum . now upon burials some title or inscription being usually made , it followed that the place of the burial or gravestone was called titulus among the latins : so gen. 35.20 . jacob's erecting a pillar upon rachels grave , is rendred by the vulgar latin , erexit titulum super sepulchrum : and gen. 28.18 of jacob's stone at bethel , it is said , erexit in titulum , and 2 sam. 18. absalom his pillar is called titulus : hence it is that evaristus his dividing of the titles is to be understood of his giving particular assignments of several churches to presbyters . the next thing to be examined is , what were the actions appropriated to bishops . if we believe ierome , the bishop did nothing which presbyters might not do , except ordination : by which we see , that he judged ordination could not be done without the bishop . athanasius in his second apology inserts among other papers , an epistle of the synod of alexandria , mentioning that ischyras his ordination by coluthus being questioned and examined , and it being found that coluthus had never been ordained a bishop , but that he had falsly pretended to that title and character , all the ordinations made by him were annulled : and ischyras with such others who were so ordained , were declared laicks . which is an undeniable instance , that at that time , it was the general sense of the church , that none but a bishop might ordain . neither in any author do we meet with an instance of any that were ordained by presbyters , save one , that cassian , who was about the 500. year , collat. 4. cap. 1. gives of one paphnutius a presbyter in the desert of scetis , who delighting in the vertues of one daniel , ut quem vitae meritis & gratiâ sibi parem noverat , coaequare sibi etiam sacerdotii ordine festinaret . — eum presbyterii honori provexit . but what a few devout solitaries might do in a desert and undiscerned corner , will be no precedent for a constituted church : else we may allow of baptism with sand , for that was once done in a desert . but socrates had another opinion of this , who lib. 1. cap. 27. tells , that ischyras did a thin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and in the third council of toledo , set down by gratian , dist . 23. cap. 14. this canon was made . quorundam clericorum dum unus ad presbyterium duo ad levitarum ministerium sacrarentur , episcopus oculorum dolore detentus , fertur manum suam super eos tantum imposuisse , & presbyter quidam illis contra ecclesiasticum ordinem benedictionem dedisse , sed quia jam ille examini divino relictus , humano judicio accusari non potest , ii qui supersunt gradum sacerdotii vel levitici ordinis quem perverse adepti sunt , amittant . by which we see how far they were from allowing of any ordination , wherein a bishop had not intervened . it is further clear , that the bishop was looked upon as the pastor of the flock , who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that presbyters or deacons could finish nothing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that he was to give an account of the souls of the people : and indeed in these days a bishoprick was onus more than honos . the common treasury of the church was also committed to his care , so infra can. 4. and as the offerings of the faithful were laid down at the apostles feet , acts 4.3.4 . so were the collectae , and the other goods of the church laid in their hands . for all the goods os the church and collectae , were at first deposited in the bishop's hand , and distributed by him , tho afterwards there was an oeconomus appointed for that work . ignatius epist. ad magnes . tells , that they were to do nothing without their bishop . and ad smyrn . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and 5. canon of laodicea , they might no nothing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . idem . can. 19. arel . 1. as for baptism , tertull , de bapt . saith , dandi quidem jus habet summus sacerdos , qui & episcopus , dehinc presbyteri & diaconi , non quidem sine episcopi authoritate , propter ecclesiae bonum , quo salvo salva pax est , alioquin laicis etiam jus est . firmilian ad cyprianum , which is reckoned the 75. among cyprian his epistles , faith , majores natu ( and by what is a little after , where he calls these bishops , it is clear he means not of presbyters ) in ecclesiâ praesidebant , & baptizandi , & manum imponendi , & ordinandi , potestatem possidebant . pacian . serm . de bapt. lavacro peccata purgantur , chrismate spiritus super funditur , utraque , purgantur , chrismate spiritus super funditur , utraque , vero ist a manu & ore antistitis impetramus . and even ierome himself contra luciferianos , saith , sine chrismate & episcopi jussione , neque presbyter , neque diaconus jus habent baptizandi . by all which we see , that baptism was chiefly the bishop's work , and that the presbyters did not baptize without his order . as for the eucharist , ignatius ad smyrnenses , saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . iustin in his second apol. giving the account of their eucharist and whole service , reckons all to have been managed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and tert. de cor . mil. non de aliorum quam praesidentium manibus sumimus . but all this is very unjustly applied by such as would pretend to the whole ecclesiastical authority ; but would exempt themselves from the great labor of it . for it is clear , that according to the primitive constitution , the bishop was the immediate pastor of the flock , and the presbyters were assumed by him in partem sollicitudinis : the greatest of the load still lying on his own shoulders , and this might have been some way managed by him , where the dioceses were smaller . but the enlarging of the dioceses hath wholly altered the figure of primitive episcopacy . all that the bishop can now do being to try entrants well , and oversee these that are in charge ; which ought not to be performed either by these overly visitations in synods , or by a pompous procession through the diocese , but by a strict and severe examen both of their lives and labors , performed in such visitations , as are sutable to the simplicity and humility of the gospel . as for preaching , it was ordinary at first , even for persons not ordained to preach , not to mention that of the corinthians , where every one brought his psalm , his interpretation , or his doctrine to the meeting , which may be called extraordinary ; under which notion , most reject everything in scripture that doth not please them . but this continued longer in the church . euseb. lib. 6. hist. cap. 20. tells , that origen before he had gotten the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( mark how this word stands here for the order and degree of presbyterat ) was invited earnestly by the bishops not only to dispute , but also to expound the scriptures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the publick assembly of the church . for the vindication whereof alexander bishop of ierusalem , and theoctistus bishop of cesarea , wrote to demetrius bishop of alexandria thus : quod autem in literis adjunxeris nunquam antea auditum , neque jam usurpatum , ut laici praesentibus episcopis disputarent , scripturásve exponerent in eo mihi , nescio quo modo , videris falsa dixisse : nam ubi idonei & habiles reperiuntur , qui fratribus in verbo dei adjumento sint , à sanctis episcopis rogantur , ut populum dei instituant in verbo , sicut larandis euelpis à neone , iconii paulinus à celso , & apud synadas theodorus ab attico , qui omnes beati ac pii fratres crant : ac verisimile est , quamvis nobis obscurum & minime cognitum sit , illud idem in aliis locis fieri . tert. in his apologetick cap. 39. tells , that post aquam manualem & lumina , quisquis ut de scripturis sanctis , vel de proprio ingenio potest provocatur in medium deo hymnum canere . and of this remember what was before cited from hilary the deacon on the 4th of the ephesians . sozom. lib 7. cap. 19. saith , that at rome neither the bishop , nor any other taught in the church : but that in alexandria the bishop alone taught , that not being allowed to any presbyter , after arrius broached his heresie . it remains only to be enquired who was the proper minister of confirmation . but because this whole matter of confirmation comes not in so properly upon any of the other canons , i shall therefore examine all that relates to it here , and shall consider upon what grounds it was used , how early it was practiced , with what rites it was administred , who was the proper minister of it , and for what end it was introduced , and continued in the church . from acts 8.15 . and 19.6 . all the fathers have pleaded for this rite : for there we have the laying on of hands practiced , as a rite clearly distinct from baptism : and tho we find the holy ghost conferred by that imposition of hands , thence it will not follow that that action was extraordinary , and so to have expired with the apostles : for we find extraordinary effects following upon their ordinary actions , such as ordination , excommunication , & c. and yet none will plead that these actions are now to be disused , because they are no more attended with such effects . but heb. 6.2 . speaks most plainly for this , where among the foundations of religion , the laying on of hands is joined with baptisms : and this seemed so clear to calvin commenting on that place , that he judges this to have been a rite derived from the apostles . the constant ceremony of it was that which is often mentioned in scripture , imposition of hands . but besides this , they began very early to use a chrisma of consecrated oil , with which they anointed them in the brow . this it seems hath been taken from the mention that we find made of anointing , 2 cor. 1.21 . where some think the whole rites of confirmation are set down in these words : now he which stablisheth us with you in christ , and hath anointed us , is god , who hath also sealed us , and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts . and 1 ioh. 2.27 . we are told of an unction from above , and a holy anointing . but that in these words no material anointing , but the extraordinary conferring of the holy ghost is meant , seems clear from the text : and so christ is said to be anointed with the oil of joy above his fellows , tho we hear nothing of a material anointing . it is true , james 5.14 . there is clear mention made of an anointing with oil , in which certainly there is no metaphor , but that relates nothing to our purpose . however , it is like from these places it was that the ancients used the chrisma , for we find that this was very early practised in the church . theophilus alexandrinus , who flourished about the year 170. lib. 1. ad antolycum , saith , we are for this reason called christians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . et quis mortalium est , qui vel ingreditur in hanc vitam , vel certat in arenâ & non oleo inungitur . iren. lib. 1. cap. 18. tells , that valentinus used both confirmation and anointing in the receiving of his disciples , and tells , that he used a mixture of water and oil with opobalsamum . and this seems to imply that to have been the practice of the church ; for he tells , that valentinus had adapted and transformed the rites of the church into his character . tert. de bapt . cap. 7. makes mention of the unctio benedicta , qua egressi de lavacro perunguntur . and cap. 8. dehinc manus imponitur per benedictionem advocans & invitans spiritum sanctum , idem de refur . carnis , cap. 8. saith , caro abluitur — caro ungitur — caro signatur , caro manus impositione adumbratur , ut & anima spiritu illuminetur . and lib. de praescript . cap. 36. aquâ signat , spiritu sancto vestit , eucharistiâ pascit . yet tert. de cor. mil. cap. 3. when he recounts these ceremonies which he judged to have been of apostolical tradition , doth not reckon this for one . cyprian epist. 73. ad iubaianum , speaking of s. peter and s. iohn their laying on of hands at samaria , shews it was no new baptism : sed tantummodo quod deerat id à petro & ioanne factum esse , ut oratione pro iis habitâ , ac manu impositâ , invocaretur & infunderetur super eos spiritus sanctus : quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in ecclesiâ baptizantur praepositis ecclesiae offerantur , & per nostram orationem & manus impositionem spiritum sanctum consequantur , & signaculo divino consummentur . and epist. 70. after he hath spoken of baptism , he adds , ungi quoque necesse est cum qui baptizatus sit , ut accepto chrismate id est unctione esse unctus dei , & habere in se gratiam christs possit . and he tell , that both the eucharist & oleum unde unguntur babtizati , in altari sanctificatur . cyril of ierusalem his third mistagogical catechism is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wherein he describes the anointing we have from god ; and the consecrated oil , which was the rite expressive of the former , comparing it to the dove that descended from christ , and was his spiritual anointing . which is also done by optatus , lib. 4. cont . paramenianum , and the areopagite de eccles. hier . cap. 4. where he at length describes the rites used in the consecrating of the chrisma . yet this chrisma was not so peculiar to confirmation , but that it was also used upon other occasions . nazianzen tells ( as is above cited ) that such as were ordained , were also anointed . it was also used in baptism , so both tertullian , cyprian , and ierome , and the 48. canon of the council of laodicea decrees , that the illuminati post baptisma should be anointed with this unguentum coeleste . but by the i. can. of the council of orange , it was decreed , that he who was not anointed at baptism , should receive the chrisma at his confirmation : by which it seems they did not repeat the ceremony of anointing , to such as had received it at baptism . likewise these who returned from heresie , by the 7. can. of the second general council were to be anointed & fronte , & oculis , & naribus , & ore , & auribus , & signantes eos dicimus donum spiritus sancti . and like unto this is the 7. can. of laodicea . and author resp. ad orthod . that goeth under iustin's name , ad quoest . 14. cum hoereticus ad veram fidèm accedit , corrigitur lapsus falsae opinionis , sententiae , mutatione : baptismi , sancti chrismatis unctione ; ordinationis , manum impositione : nihilque quod prius erat , indissolutum manet . now by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which he mentions , is not meant a new ordination , which was not given to these that returned from heresie . for as appears by the council of nice , the orders which they got among the hereticks were held valid , and not to be renewed : but this is meant of the ceremony ordinarily given in the absolution and receiving of penitents . august . cont . donatist . lib. 5. cap. 23. confesseth , that the baptism of hereticks was valid , but denies that they conferred the holy ghost , and therefore imposition of hands was given to those who returned from heresie . besides this chrisma , they used also in confirmation the sign of the cross , of which that phrase of tertullian is to be understood caro signatur . and aug. in psal. . 141. speaking of the sacraments , saith , quaedam sicut nostri ore accipimus , quaedam per totum corpus . and a little after , tegat frontem crux domini , which words are to be understood of the eucharist , baptism and confirmation . he calls this also sacramentum chrismatis , lib. 2. cont . petilianum , cap. 104. applying to it that of the ointment on aaron's beard , psalm 133. but elsewhere he calls that bread which was blest , not with the eucharistical and sacramental benediction , but with that lower degree , called eulogy , which might be given to the catechumens , sacramentum catechumenorum ; using this term largely , as he saith epist. ad marcellinum . signum cum ad rem sacram applicatur , sacramentum appellatur . of this sign of the cross , is likewise to be understood that of the signaculum dominicum , mentioned by cyprian , ep. 73. the next thing to be enquired after is , who was the minister of confirmation ? in the western church the bishop did only administer it . so ierome adv . luciferianos , brings in the luciferian in the dialogue . an nescis ecclesiarum hunc morem esse , ut baptizatis postea manus imponantur , & ita invocetur spiritus sanctus ? exigis ubi scriptum est ? in actibus apostolorum . etiamsi scripturae authoritas non subesset , totius orbis hanc in partem consensus , instar praecepti obtineret . then he makes the orthodox to answer : non equidem abnuo hanc esse ecclesiarum consuetudinem , ut ad eos qui longe in minoribus urbibus per presbyteros & diaconos baptizati sunt , episcopus ad invocationem sancti spiritus excurrat . and asking why the holy ghost was not given , but by the bishop ? he answers , that was potius ad honorem sacordotii , quam ad legis necessitatem . aug. de trin. lib. 15. cap. 16. speaking of the apostles conferring of the holy ghost , saith , orabant , ut veniret spiritus sanctus in eos quibus manum imponebant , non enim ipsi cum dabant , quem morem in suis praepositis etiam nunc servat ecclesia . but in the greek church , presbyters might confirm : so the above cited hilary on the 4 of the ephes. denique apud aegyptum presbyteri consignant , ubi praesens non sit episcopus : and lib. quaest . in vet. & nov. test. called augustin's , but believed to be the same hilary's , quaest . 101. faith , in alexandriâ , & per totam aegyptum si desit episcopus consecrat presbyter . by the comparing of which places , it appears , that it is the same thing which is exprest by these various names of consecration and consignation : but what is meant by it , is not agreed to . it is absurd to think that ordination can be meant by it . for that decision of the case of ischyras shews that in alexandria they were far from allowing presbyters to ordain without a bishop . some think that because consecration is more usually applied to the blessing of the eucharist ; therefore both it and consignation , is so to be understood here . and whereas it is objected that in the cited places some custom peculiar to alexandria seems to be mentioned ; but it was universally allowed in the bishop's absence for the presbyter to consecrate the eucharist : therefore some other thing must be there meant . it is answered to this , that in other places presbyters might not consecrate sine episcopi jussione ; according to what was cited out of ignatius ; and that the custom in alexandria hath been , that the presbyters without any such express mandate , might have consecrated in the bishop's absence . but the general practice of the greek church inclines me to think , that confirmation is meant by the cited places , which was usually phrased by consignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , only the consecrating af the chrisma and oil , was peculiar to the bishop , as his work ; so that the greeks seem to have made a difference betwixt the hallowing and applying of the chrisma . the first could only be done by the bishop , but the second was not denied to the presbyters . even as in the eucharist none might consecrate but presbyters , , yet laicks of both sexes , in case of necessity , might have carried and given it to the absents . of confirmation administred by presbyters , some instances do meet us in the latin church . the first canon of the council of orange , permits the use of the chrisma to the priests , who are appointed to carry some of it always about with them . conc. epaunense , cap. 16. permits the presbyters to give the chrisma to such hereticks as were converted on their death beds . and the second canon of the council of orange is : haereticos in mortis discrimine positos , si catholici esse desiderant , si episcopus desit , à presbyteris cum chrismate & benedictione consignari placuit . and the council of toledo permits a presbyter to do it in the bishops absence , or in his presence , if commanded by him . but both east and west , it was agreed , that the chrisma could not be sanctified by presbyters . conc. romanum sub sylv. cap. 5. decreed it . but as that council is much suspected , so the reason there given is a very poor one . quia christus dicitur à chrismate . but canon sixth , cod. afric . is more authentick , ut chrisma à presbyteris non fiat . and synod tolet. can. 20. quamvis pene ubique custodiatur ut absque episcopo nemo chrisma conficiat , tamen quia in aliquibus locis vel provinciis dicuntur presbyteri chrisma consicere , placuit ex hoc die nullum alium nisi episcopum hoc facere . and the areopagite , as he at length describes it , and descants upon it , so he appropriates it to the bishop . gregory the great , lib. 3. epist. 9. writing to ianuarius bishop of caralis in sardinia , discharges presbyters to anoint with the chrisma on the brow , appointing that to be reserved to the bishop : for sardinia , and the other isles , had observed the customs of the greek church : but gregory epist. 26. writing to that same person , tells , that he heard how some were scandalized , because he had discharged presbyters the use of the chrisma , which he therefore takes off in these words : et nos quidem secundum usum veterem ecclesiae nostrae fecimus , sed si omnino hac de re aliqui contristantur , ubi episcopi desunt , ut presbyteri etiam in frontibus baptizatos chrismate tangere debeant concedimus . but 200 years afterwards , nicolaus first bishop of rome , observed not that moderation . for the bulgarians who were converted by the greeks , receiving the chrisma from the presbyters according to the custom of that church ; nicolaus sent bishops to them , and appointed such as had been confirmed by presbyters to be confirmed again by bishops . but upon this , photius , who was then patriarch of constantinople , called a synod , it which it was decreed , that the chrisma being hallowed by a bishop , might be administred by presbyters . and photius in his epistle contends , that a presbyter might , unguento signare , sanctificare , consummatos angere , & expiatorium donum baptizato consummare , as well as he might either baptize or offer at the altar . but nicolaus impudently denied , that this had ever been permitted , and upon this account it is , that many of the latins have charged the greek church , as if there were no confirmation used among them . but this challenge is denied and rejected by the greeks . and so much of the minister of confirmation . it is in the last place to be considered , what value was set upon this action , and for what ends it was practised in the church . we have already heard augustin call it a sacrament . it is likewise so termed by cyprian epist. 72. and in the records of the council held by him for the rebaptizing of hereticks . but as was marked before , they took that term largely for an holy rite or symbolical action : whereas a sacrament strictly taken is a holy rite instituted by christ for a federal stipulation , by which the promises of the gospel are sealed , and grace conveyed to the worthy receivers . now in this sense it is visible , that confirmation is no sacrament : it neither being instituted by christ , nor having any grace appended to it . neither is it so totally distinct from baptism , being but a renovation of the baptismal vow , joined with prayer , and a solemn benediction . some have thought , that confirmation was only used by the ancients , as an appendix , or a consummatory rite of baptism , which mistake is founded upon this , that some of the riper age being baptized , got this imposition of hands after baptism . for the clearing of which some things must be considered : first , the ancients used an imposition of hands before baptism , to such as were admitted to be catechumens , who were in the christian church , like the proselytes of the gates among the iews : for they having renounced idolatry , were admitted to some parts of the christian worship , and instructed in the faith for some time , before they could commence christians . and an imposition of hands was used , when any were admitted to this order : so it is express in the 39. canon of elib . and in the greek euchology there is a prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . where it is said , inflat signat & manum imponit . and in the liturgy called s. marks , quotquot ad baptismum dispositi estis accedite , ac manus impositionem & benedictionem accipite , dem manum imponit sacerdos . and euseb. de vitae const. lib. 4. faith of constantine ; confessione factâ precum particeps factus est per impositionem manuum . the areopagite makes mention also of this as done twice before baptism ; and aug. de mer. & remis . pec . lib. 2. cap. 26. catechumenum secundum quendam modum suum per signum & orationem manuum impositionis puto sanctificari . and cyprian ad steph. makes baptism a superaddition to that imposition of hands : which he draws from the example of cornelius , upon whom the spirit falling first , he was afterward baptized . it is true , he is there speaking of such as turned from heresie , who he judged should be rebaptized , after an imposition of hands first given them . but as the 39. canon of elib . speaks of an imposition of hands given before baptism , so the 7. canon of that same council , mentions another given after it . si quis diaconus regens plebem sine episcopo , vel presbyteris , aliquos baptizaverit , eos per benedictionem perficere debebit . and by the 33. canon of that council , any laick that was baptized , and was no bigamus , might baptize a catechumen if sick . ita ut si supervixerit , ad episcopum cum perducat , ut per manus impositionem perficere ( or as others read it perfici ) possit . if the first be the reading , it will relate to confirmation ; if the second , it will relate to the compleating of the baptism . the 48. canon of laodicea is , illuminatos post baptisma unguento caelesti liniendos esse . to infer from that , that confirmation was immediately to follow upon baptism is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doth not imply that it was to be done immediately after , but only that baptism was to go before it : and we find that same phrase in the canons immediately preceding this , applied to such as had been of a great while baptized . but tho such as were of riper years had been confirmed immediately after they received baptism , it will no more prove that confirmation was an appendix of baptism , than that the eucharist was so likewise , which was also given to them at the same time . so the areopagite tells , how such as were baptized , were carried by the priest to the bishop . ille vero unguento consecrato virum ungens sacrosanctae . eucharistiae participem esse pronunciat . and tho even children were confirmed immediately after baptism , that doth not prove the one but a rite of the other : for we find that not only in the african churches , but also in the roman church , the custom of giving children the eucharist immediately after baptism , continued long : for the ordo romanus , held by some a work of the eleventh century , appoints , that children be permitted to eat nothing after they are baptized , till they received the eucharist . that same practice is also mentioned by hugo the s. victore , lib. 1. cap. 20. in the twelfth century . and all the greek writers assert the necessity of childrens receiving the eucharist , and yet none asserted the eucharist to be but a rite of baptism . cornelius tells of novatian ( apud eusebium , lib. 6. hist. cap. 35. ) how he was baptized clinicus , and being recovered nec reliquorum particeps factus , quae secundum canones ecclesiae obtinere debuerat , nec ab episcopo obsignatus est . ( it is true , it is in the greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if it were explicative of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which in the former words he said he wanted ; whence some infer , that confirmation was but one of the baptismal rites . but it is clear that the true reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so nicephorus hath read it ) quo non impetrato , quomodo spiritum sanctum obtinuisse putandus est . yet from the story it appears that confirmation was judged only necessary ad bone esse , and not to the esse of a christian ; since notwithstanding the want of this , fabian bishop of rome ordained novatian a presbyter . the greek euchology shews , that such as were baptized , were after their baptism anointed , and so to be confirmed : and it subjoyning that the eucharist was to be given to them , proves no more the one to be a rite of baptism than the other . the whole current of the fathers runs , that in confirmation the holy ghost was conferred . august . de bapt. cont . donatistas , lib. 3. cap. 16. spiritus sanctus in solâ catholicâ , per manus impositionem dari dicitur , which he derives from the apostles , tho these extraordinary effects of speaking of tongues , or the like , did not follow upon it : sed invisibiliter & latenter per vinculum pacis , est eorum cordibus charitas divina inspirata . and concludes , quid enim est aliud nisi oratio super hominem . and certainly , were confirmation restored according to the apostolical practice , and managed with a primitive sincerity , nothing should give more probable hopes of a recovery of the christian church , out of the darkness and deadness in which it hath continued so long . it might quicken persons more seriously to consider to what they were engaged in baptism , when they were put to so solemn a renovation of it . but the more denuded it were of all unnecessary rites , such as oil , and the like , it might be more sutable to the evangelical spirit . and we see likewise from antiquity , that there is no reason for appropriating this action wholly , or only to the bishop . it should not be gone about till the person were ripe in years , and not only able by rote to recite a catechism , but of a fitness to receive the eucharist immediately after . but i shall conclude this whole matter with calvin's words , lib. 4. instit. cap. 19. sect . 4. & sequentibus : where after he hath laid out the primitive practice of confirmation , he subjoins : haec disciplina , si bodie valeret , profecto parentum quorundam ignavia acueretur , qui liberorum institutionem , quasi rem nihil ad se pertinentem , negligunt ; quam tum sine publico dedecore omittere non possent . major esset in populo christiano fidei consensus , nec tanta multorum inscitia , & ruditas , non adeo temere quidam novis , & peregrinis dogmatibus , abriparentur ; omnibus denique esset quaedam velut methodus doctrinae christianae . a supplement about the rural bishops , called chorepiscopi . it hath been already marked , that the extent of the dioceses was not all of one proportion : and generally the villages which lay adjacent to cities , having received the gospel at first from them , continued in subjection to the city , as to their mother church : whereby the bishops parish was not limited to the city , but did also include the adjacent villages . the inscription of clemens his epistles insinuates this : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . by which we see , that the churches of rome and corinth were made up not onely of such as inhabited the towns , but also of such as dwelt about them : and this is yet clearer from ignatius his inscription of his epistle to the romans ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . neither did they judg it fit to ordain bishops in smaller or lesser cities , as appears by the council of sardis , can. 6. where it is decreed , that a bishop should not be ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . adding , that it was not necessary that bishops should be ordained there , lest the name and dignity of a bishop should be vilipended . but before this , it was decreed in the council of laodicea , can. 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( for so reads the manuscript of oxford , dionysius exiguus , isidore mercator , hervetus , and iustellus ; and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vel , as binius ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : who were to do nothing without the knowledg of the bishop of the city , whom the learned beverigius observes ( on this canon ) to have been distinct from the rural bishops ; which he makes out both from the civil law , and a place of gennadius , where the orders of churchmen being reckoned , these circular visitors are set in a middle rank betwixt the rural bishops and presbyters . frequent mention is also made of these visitors in the acts of the council at chalcedon . this course therefore they took for these villages to send presbyters from the city , who were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and because the bishop could not immediately over-see them himself , he did therefore substitute a vicar and delegate who was generally called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the first time that we meet with any of these , is in the beginning of the fourth century , in the councils of ancyra , neocesarea , and antiochia . these differed from presbyters , in that they got an ordination distinct from theirs , called by the council of antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they also might have ordained subdeacons , lectors , and exorcists , and given them commendatory letters . but they differed from bishops in these things : first , that they were ordained but by one bishop , as appears by the tenth canon of the council of antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and therefore it is true that balsamon calls them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . now we have already seen , that a bishop must be ordained by two bishops at least . next , these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith zonaras . and therefore in their subscriptions of the councils , they only design themselves chorepiscopi , without mentioning the place where they served , as the bishops do . now bishops could not be ordained but with a title to a particular charge and see. thirdly , their power was limited , and in many things inferior to the power of bishops . so pope leo the first , in his 88. epist. quamvis , cum episcopis plurima illis ministeriorum communis sit dispensatio , quaedam tamen ecclesiasticis regulis sibi prohibita norint , sicut presbyterorum & diaconorum consecratio . they might in general do nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and both the council of ancyra : , canon 13. and that of antioch , canon 10. discharge them the ordaining of presbyters or deacons . the words of the council of antioch are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which words clearly import , that the bishop must have intervened in the ordination , and so are wrong rendered by an old latin edition , praeter conscientiam episcopi . as if they had heen only limited not to ordain unless the bishop gave warrant . and thus these bishops of the villages and lesser cities were reduced from the degree of bishops , to an inferiour and limited office , and were undoubtedly of the episcopal order , tho their authority was much abridged . in the council of neocesarea their relation to the bishop , is compared to that of the seventy disciples to the apostles , and they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and that which is there marked as their chief work , is their care of the poor . but by the canon of antioch , they might have ordained lectors , sub-deacons , and exorcists . and yet basil in his 181. epist. saith , that they might not have ordained , even these inferiour ranks , without having first advertised the bishop , and sent their testimonies , and the suffrages of their election to him : which is observed by aristenus in his gloss on the 13. canon of ancyra : and by mattheus blastares in his syntagma , cap. 31. but damasus , who was about the year 370. writes his whole fourth epistle against them , telling that he found it decreed by his predecessors , that they should be abolished , prohibititam ab , hac sacrâ sede , quam à totius orbis episcopis . — nam ( ut nobis relatum est ) quidam episcoporum , propter suam quietem , eis plebes suas committere non formidant . and falls severely on these bishops , and compares them to mercenaries and whores , that give out their children to others to suckle . he proves they were not bishops , because not ordained by three bishops , and descants upon the canons of neocesarea and antioch , which seem to import , as if they had the ordination of bishops ; adding , cesset ergo , cesset tot vicibus damnata praesumptio . and yet pope leo ( as we have already cited ) who was bishop of rome about 70. years after him , makes mention of them . and notwithstanding all he saith against them , of their being condemned , it doth not appear when or where it was so done . express mention is made of them in the council of nice , canon 8. as of a rank distinct from presbyters . it being there provided , that such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as returned to the unity of the church , should continue in that same order of the clergy , wherein they were before , only such of them as were bishops might not continue bishops of a city , where there was already a bishop placed : because there could not be two bishops in one city : but if it pleased the bishop , they might either retain the bare name of a bishop , or be made chorepiscopi , or continue among the presbyters . mention also is made of them in the 2. canon of the general council of chalcedon , which shews , that at that time they were not wholly taken away : but the latest accounts we have of them is in france , where it seems they continued longest . conc. paris . an. 829. they are cap. 27. compared to the 70 disciples , according to that of neocesarea , and bishops are appointed to see that they did nothing beyond what was permitted to them by the canons . the like is decreed conc. meldensi , an. 845. cap. 44. and it is expressed there , that they might neither give the holy chrisma , nor the holy ghost , nor confer any order above that of a subdeacon , nor consecrate churches . conc. metensi , anno 888. cap. 5. it was decreed , that churches consecrated by them were to be again consecrated by a bishop , and any thing they did which was proper to a bishop was declared null , and they are reckoned all one with presbyters ; and here we lose sight of them , hearing no more of them : for as they arose insensibly , so they vanished in the like fashion . so much of them and upon the first canon . the second canon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a presbyter shall be ordained by one bishop , so likewise a deacon , and the rest of the clergy . we find most of the fathers , even ierome himself , drawing the subordination among churchmen from what was under the law ; and therefore deacons were ordinarily called levites . but there is more ground to think , it was immediately taken from the form of the synagogue , tho that constitution might have had its rise from the model of the temple-service . i shall not here engage in a large examen of the first origine and rise of the synagogues , or of the worship performed in them , or debate whether they began before the captivity , in it , or after it . nor what ground there may be from the word synagogue used psalm 74.8 . to assert their early date . but certain it is , that the temple worship was merely typical , in which the whole people were to assist , but as a few returns of the year . and beside this , the law of nature dictates , that god is to be frequently and solemnly worshipped by such as acknowledge his great name , which will plead for an early rise to these assemblies . but be in that what may be , two things are certain . the one is , that synagogues were constitute in our saviour's time , and that there were rulers , and chief rulers in these synagogues , that in them prayers were said , the law was read , expounded , and exhortations made upon it , and discipline was used , and such as were faulty were cast out of these synagogues . all this is evident from the new testament : and much more than this can be gathered out of iewish writings . now our saviour's going into these synagogues , reading the law , and preaching in them , doth abundantly evince , that this constitution was not unlawful . another thing is as clear from the old testament , that there was neither written command , nor warrant for such assemblies ; and the contrary of this none can undertake to make out . from which positions , both of them equally clear and certain , a great step might be made for the calming and composing of debates about government , were heats and prejudices out of the way . it being apparent , that there was an entire frame of church government , and worship among the iews , which was not unlawful , though not of divine institution . in the synagogues there was ( as is marked before ) first , one that was called the bishop of the congregation . next , the three orderers , and judges of every thing about the synagogue , who were called tsekenim , and by the greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . these ordered and determined every thing that concerned the synagogues , or the persons in it . next them , were the three parnassin or deacons , whose charge was to gather the collections of the rich , and to distribute them to the poor : and these were called septem viri boni civitatis . the term elder , was generally given to all their judges : but chiefly to these of the great sanhedrin , so we have it , matth. 16.21 . mark 8.31 . 14.43 . and 15.1 . and acts 23.14 . and for a fuller satisfaction to this , i must refer you to such as have given an account of the synagogue out of the iewish writers . next , a great deal might be said , to prove that the apostles in their first constitutions , took things as they had them modelled to their hand in the synagogue : and this they did , both because it was not their design to innovate , except where the nature of the gospel dispensation obliged them to it . as also , because they took all means possible to gain the jews , who we find were zealous adherers to the traditions of their fathers , and not easily weaned from these precepts of moses , which by christ's death were evacuated : and if the apostles went so great a length in complying with them in greater matters , as circumcision , and other legal observances , ( which appears from the acts and epistles ) we have good grounds to suppose , that they would have yielded to them in what was more innocent and less important . besides , there appears both in our lord himself , and in his apostles , a great inclination to symbolize with them , as far as was possible . now the nature of the christian worship shews evidently , that it came in the room of the synagogue , which was moral , and not of the temple-worship , which was typical and ceremonial . likewise , this parity of customs betwixt the iews and christians , was such , that it made them be taken by the romans , and other more overly observers , for one sect of religion : and finally , any that will impartially read the new testament , will find , that when the forms of government , or worship are treated of , it is not done with such architectonical exactness , as was necessary , if a new thing had been instituted , which we find practiced by moses . but the apostles rather speak , as these who give rules for the ordering , and directing of what was already in being . from all which it seems well grounded and rational to assume , that the first constitution of the christian churches , was taken from the model of the synagogue , in which these elders were separated , for the discharge of their imployments , by an imposition of hands , as all iewish writers do clearly witness . so the presbyters of the christian church were ordained by an imposition of hands . their power was not only to preach , which ( as i shewed already ) was common to others , but also to administer sacraments ; so that it is true which ierome saith , communi consilio presbyterorum res gerebantur . we have already considered , how necessary it was judged , that no ordination of presbyters might be gone about without the presence and concurrence of the bishop , as the principal person , which was judged necessary ( as i suppose ) more upon the account of unity and order , than from the nature of the thing in its self : for taking things in themselves , it will follow , that whatever power one hath , he may transmit to another ; and therefore there seems to be small reason , why one who hath the power of preaching the gospel , and administring sacraments , may not also transmit the same to others : and it seems unreasonable so to appropriate this to a bishop , as to annul these ordinations which were managed by presbyters , where bishops could not be had . maimonides saith , every one regularly ordained , hath power to ordain his disciples also . there remains nothing to be cleared about this from antiquity , save the 13 canon of the council of ancyra , which runs thus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( others read ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . others read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . now the difficulty raised about this canon is this , that if the reading be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then it will follow , that the presbyters of the city might have ordained without the bishops presence , if they had his warrant in writing . yea , they also infer , that it is probable that before that , they ordained even without the bishops warrant , to which they were limited by this canon : and upon this wallo messalinus triumphs not a little . but blondel chused rather to read the canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; as if the meaning of it were , that the chorepiscopi could not have ordained either presbyters or deacons ; nor the presbyters of the city without the bishops warrant in writing ; which will infer , that they might have done it being so warranted . it is true , binnius hath read it so ; so also hath gentianus hervetus , as appears by his latin version of this council . the arabick manuscript also favors this . and it is directly asserted by zonaras on this canon , and aristenus . but it is contradicted by the whole tract of antiquity , whom we find all concurring in this , that the chorepiscopi might neither ordain presbyters , nor deacons without a bishop , as was cleared in its due place . fut for that of wallo messalinus , it will appear to be ill grounded : for first , it is certain that the chorepiscopi were a dignity above presbyters . it will be therefore unreasonable to think that presbyters could do that which was unlawful to the other . besides , how bad an inference is it from one canon of a provincial council , of which there are such various readings , to argue for a thing which is not only without any other ground , but also contrary to the whole current of antiquity ? and it was but few years after this , that in alexandria the ordinations given by colutbus , who was but a presbyter , and only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were annulled . now ancyra being in asia the lesser , and divers bishops out of syria being there , in particular the bishops of antioch and cesarea , who subscribed first ; how came it that there was no notice of this had at alexandria , to have prevented their severe sentence in the case of colutbus ? but to consider the readings of the canon , binius reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so iustellus : it is true , he hath on the margin ( aliter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) hervetus hath translated it , in alienâ parochia . now if this be the true reading , the meaning of it will run thus . whereas by a great many other canons , presbyters were so tied to their bishop , that no bishop was to receive the presbyter of another bishop , without his bishops warrant and licence , and his literae pacificae , and dimissoriae . so here the presbyters of the city are discharged to go and assist at ordinations , in other parishes , without a written licence from their own bishop . but as this canon is read ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) by some , so they seem to have added to it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so that the meaning of it is , that the presbyters of the city might do nothing without the bishop's warrant and licence in writing : thus have both isidorus mercator , and dionysius exiguns read it , as appears by their latin versions which are , sed nec presbyteris civitatis ( licet ) sine episcopi praecepto , aliquid amplius imperare , vel sine authoritate literarum ejus ' in unaquaque parochiâ aliquid agere . and this is according to binius's edition of them . but in another edition of dionysius exiguus by iustellus , he seems to have read it simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without any supplement . another old latin edition published by iustellus hath , sed neque presbyteris civitatis licere , sine jussione episcopi , sed cum ejusdem literis eundi ad singulas parochias . ioannes antiochen in his collectio canonum , reads it simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ferrandus in his breviatio canonum , canon 92. cites this part of the canon thus : ut presbyteri civitatis , sine jussu episcopi , nihil jubeant , nec in unaguaque paroeciâ aliquid agant . alexius aristinus in his synopsis , hath the first part of the canon , but wants the second part . ( and in his gloss agrees with zonaras , as was before observed . ) and so doth simeon logotheta , in his epitome canonum . and by this diversity of reading , it will appear how little ground there is for founding any thing upon this canon alone , especially when that alledged from it , is contradicted by undeniable evidences . but as presbyters might not ordain without bishops , so neither could bishops ordain without the advice , consent , and concurrence of their presbyters conc. carth. 4. canon 22. ut episcopus , sine concilio clericorum suorum , clericos non ordinet , ita ut cirvium testimonium & co●●iventiam quaerat . and it was laid to chrysostone's charge , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and in the roman council held by sylvester ( if credit be due to the registers of that council , which are indeed justly questionable ) it was decreed , cap. 11. that one was to be ordained a presbyter , cum omnes presbyteri declararent & firmarent , & sic ad ordinem presbyterii accederet . and none was to be made a bishop , nisi omnis clerus expeteret uno voto perenni . it is likewise certain , that all things were done by the joint advice of bishop and presbyters . neither were these wretched contests , of the limits of power , much thought on , or tossed among them . the bishops pretending to no more , than presbyters were willing to yield to them ; and presbyters claiming no more than bishops were ready to allow them . their contentions lay chiefly with these that were without ; those intestine fewds and broils being reserved for our unhappy days . but as we find cyprian amply declaring , how he resolved to do nothing without the consent of his clergy , and people : so in the african , churches , that course continued longest in vigor . divers instances whereof appear in the 4. council of carthage ; one i have already cited , to which i shall add three more , can. 23. episcopus nullius causans audiat , absque praesentiâ clericorum suorum , alioquin irrita erit sententia episcopi , nisi clericorum praesentiâ confirmetur . can. 34. episcopus in quolibet loco sedens , stare presbyterum non patiatur . and can. 35. episcopus in ecclesiâ , & in consessu presbyterorum , sublimior sedeat ; intra domum vero , collegam prebyterorum sese esse cognoscat . there were two ranks of presbyters , as clearly appears from the 13. canon of neocesareo , to wit , the presbyters of the city , and the presbyters of the country . the former were the more eminent , in so far that the latter might not consecrate the eucharist within the church of the city in their presence , which appears from the cited canon . over the presbyters of the country were the chorepiscopi , of whom already ; but the presbyters of the city being next at hand , were the bishops counsel , and advisers in all matters . the bishop and they had the oversight of the souls within the city . they were also to be maintained out of the treasury of the church , and were called canonici or praebendarii . the reason why they were called canonici , was either , because of their regular observing of the course of worship , and hours of prayer : or because of the distributions that were made among them , according to the canon or rule , and from the share that was assigned to them , called praebenda , they got the name praebendarii . this consessus or collegium presbyterorum , was afterwards designed by the barbarous word capitulum . the chief over them , or the vice praeses next to the bishop was called archipresbyter , or decanus , idem quod decurio , qui decem militibus praeerat : and insensibly the whole ecclesiastical jurisdiction crept into their hands . the presbyters of the country either neglecting it , or being neglected in it . but without the capitulum , nothing that the bishop did was valid . however , when the first servor and vigor of church discipline slacken'd : avarice and ambition creeping in apace into the hearts of churchmen , these chanoins or praebends not contented with their allowances out of the church of the city , which were too small for their growing desires , got churches in the country annexed to them : and for most part serv'd them by substitutes , except at the return of some solemn festivities : and by this means it was , that church discipline fell totally into the bishops hands ; and the ancient model being laid aside , new courts which were unknown to antiquity , were set up . as these of the arch-deacons , chancellors , officials , surrogates , &c. however the praebends , though they had deserted their interest in church-discipline , yet two things they stuck to , because of the advantage and power that followed them . the one was the capitular elections of the bishop , and the other was the meddling with , and disposing of the church revenues , and treasure . but it was a gross contradiction to the ends of government , that the bishop alone might manage the spiritual part of his charge , but must be limited to the advice of his presbyters for the governing of the temporality . yet this was a farther proof of that saying , religio peperit divitias , & filia devoravit matrem . and thus far we have seen what interest presbyters had within their own parish , ( mark that at first the bishops precinct was called parish , and not diocese ) neither was the meeting of the bishop with his presbyters called a synod : by which we see how weak that allegiance is , that there were no diocesan bishops in the first centuries , it being merely a playing with the word diocess . but let us next consider what interest presbyters had in provincial or national councils . if that of the acts 15. was a synod , in it we have presbyter subscribing with the apostles . brethren are also there added , not as if there had been any laicks elected out of the laity , such as these are who are now vulgarly called lay-elders , but some more eminent christians , whom as the apostles call'd then , so the bishops continued afterward to consult and advise with in ecclesiastick matters . but that presbyters sate in provincial synods in the first and purest ages , is undeniably clear . when victor held the council at rome about the day of easter , damasus tells that it was collatione facta cum presbyteris & diaconibus . likewise in the council that cyprian held , about the rebaptizing of hereticks , there were present , episcopi plurimi ex provinciâ africanâ , numidiâ , mauritaniâ , cum presbyteris & diaconibus , praesente etiam plebis maximâ parte . and his contemporary firmilian , whose epistle is the 75. among cyprian's , tells us , how there were yearly synods of bishops and presbyters , quâ ex causâ , saith he , necessario apud nos sit , ut per singulos annos seniores & presbyteri , ( by which it is clear , that he can mean none , but presbyters and bishops ) in unum conveniamus , ad disponenda ea , quae curae nostrae commissa sunt . eusebius lib. 6. cap. 35. tells , that upon the account of novatus's schism , there was held at rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which consisted of sixty bishops , and many more presbyters , and deacons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . he likewise tells , lib. 7. cap. 27. how that upon samosatenus's heresie , there was a great synod held in antioch : and after he hath set down the names of some bishops there present , he adds , that there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and their synodal letter is written in the name of the bishops , presbyters and deacons . in the council of eliberis in spain , there were 19. bishops , residentibus originta sex presbyteris , abstantibus diaconibus & omni plebe . in the provincial council at arles , which judged in the matter of donatus's schism , constantine the emperor being present , where were about two hundred bishops from divers nations , from italy , france , spain , sicily , sardinia , africk , numidia , and britain , the canons of that council are subscribed by many presbyters and deacons . and if the story of the council of rome under sylvester be true , it is subscribed by 284. bishops , 45. presbyters , and 5. deacons . now all these being before the council of nice , evince that in the first and best ages , presbyters voted and judged in provincial councils , and if in provincials , why not in general ones ? the council of nice is subscribed by some chorepiscopi , and one chorepiscopus subscribes in the council of ephesus , and if chorepiscopi be ( as it is the opinion of some ) in their natural dignity only presbyters , then we have presbyters also subscribing general councils . besides that in the council of constantinople , and ephesus , divers bishops subscribed by presbyters : from all which it is clear , that there is no ground from antiquity to exclude presbyters from a suffrage in national and general councils : and it is but a frivolous distinction that they may have a consultative , tho not a deliberative suffrage , since we see them subscribing both the decisions of faith and canons of discipline . the next thing to be examined , is the qualification , election , and ordination of presbyters . for their qualification , great care was used to train them up long in an abstracted and devote life , that so they might be well prepared for that holy function . and therefore it was , that many of the primitive bishops lived in monasteries among them , whom they were educating for holy orders , as appears from the lives of basil , augustine , and martin : neither was one to be ordained a presbyter , but after a long probation and tryal , and all these degrees , of which we shall speak afterward , were so many steps and preparations through which all were to go , before they could be initiated . and indeed it seems against reason , at first step to ordain a man presbyter , and commit the care of souls to him , before a long previous probation had of him . therefore the ancient monasteries , as they were sanctuaries for such as designed to leave the world , and live devoutly , so they were also colleges for the education of churchmen . it is true , the years of probation may seem too too many ; but they ordinarily dispensed in that , as they found persons worthy and qualified . but none might be presbyter before he were thirty years of age , according to the council of neocesarea , even tho he were highly worthy ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) and the reason given for this , is , because christ was thirty years of age before he entred upon the discharge of his holy function . likewise a clinicus , that is , one baptised in sickness , by the twelfth canon of neocesarea , could not have been a presbyter , because he was not a christian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and this was not to be dispensed with , but upon his following faith and diligence , or that others could not be had . and in the canon law , dist . 77. cap. siquis , among other prerequisites for a presbyter , one is : si poenitentiam publicam non gesserit , holding that any gross scandal committed after baptism , should be a bar upon a man from being ordained a presbyter . as also dist. 56. cap. 1. the children of presbyters are discharged to be ordained : presbyterorum filios à sacris altaris ministeriis removemus , nisi aut in coenobiis , aut in canonicis religiose probati fuerint conversari . it is like , this was either to discourage the marriage of churchmen , or to obviate the scandal might have been taken , if they had been partial to their own children . yet this was neither old nor universal ; for nazianzen was both a presbyter and a bishop , though a bishop's son. and in the next chapter of that same dist. many instances are alledged by damasus to the contrary . further , none who had been soldiers , and were curiales , and obstricti curiae , could have been ordained without a dimission , and that they had been fifteen years in a monastery , and three parts of four of their estate were adjudged to the fisk ; so dist. 53. and iustinian 123. nov. now this might be first , left any weary of the service to which they were obliged , should upon that pretence shake it off , and run from their colors , or other employments . but next , that men who had been much involved in the world , and particularly men of bloud , might not enter into holy orders , without a long precedent change of the course of their life ; it not being easie to pass of a sudden from a course of secularity , to that sublimity of holiness which is necessary for such a sacred function . and finally , all ambitus was condemned in presbyters , as well as in bishops , though we see both from chrysostom's books de sacerdotio , and nazianzen's apologetick , that there was enough of it among both kinds . yet many there were who resisted the calls given them to church-offices with great earnestness , some flying from them to the wilderness , as from a persecution : some cutting off their noses , and other members , that they might be thought unworthy of it ; some continued to the end in their refusal : others were not ordained without being haled even by force ; many receiving this sacred imposition of hands with trembling and many tears . and indeed were the greatness of the charge more weighed , and the secular advantages less looked at , it is like there might be yet need of some force to draw men to accept of it ; whereas all are so forward to rush toward it , blown up with pride , or provoked by covetousness . we saw already how averse nazianzen was from entring in sacred orders : but no less memorable is the history of chrysostome , who ( with his friend basil ) having engaged in a monastick life , was struck with fear when a rumour rose that they were both to be ordained presbyters . ( and by the way observe , that he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) but chrysostome was silent , lest the expressing of his aversion should have deterred basil ; and his his silence was judged by basil a consent , and so proved one of his chief inducements to accept of orders . but when the day came wherein chrysostome knew that the bishops designed to ordain them , he withdrew privately , so that he could not be found : yet the bishops upon another pretence , carried basil to the church , and there ordained him , much against his mind . but when he first met with his friend chrysostome , he melted down in tears , challenging him severely for his withdrawing from him ; whereof chrysostome gives his apology at large in these six excellent books of his de sacerdotio ; wherein by way of dialogue betwixt him and his friend , he layeth out the great dignity and weight of that charge , chiefly in the third book , where he shews , that a priest should be like one of the angels of god , cap. 4. and he blames these elections that were rashly made , cap. 10. upon which he charges most of the disorders that were then in the church . and cap. 11. he confesseth how guilty himself was of that unlawful ambitus for church employment ; which being yet unmortified in him , did frighten him from entring in holy orders . cap. 14. he saith , episcopum convenit studio acri & perpetuâ vitae continentia tanquam adamantinis armis obseptum esse . in the fourth book he speaks of the great caution was to be used in elections and ordinations , complaining that in these , regard was rather had to riches and honor , than true worth . through the fifth book he shews the great evil and hazard of popular applause , and the sin of being much pleased with it . and lib. 6. cap. 2. he hath that excellent saying , that the soul of the priest should be purer than the very beams of the sun themselves . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and cap. 12. he accuses himself of his vain desires and other faults , whence it was that he had so great a horrour of attempting at that for which he knew himself so unworthy : preoccupying that objection , that a man in that is to submit to the judgment of others , by the examples of one who hath no skill in physick , and knowing himself ignorant , is not to administer physick , though all the world should desire him to undertake a cure , declaring their opinion and confidence of his skill : for if upon another mans opinion of his skill he should offer to meddle in it , and give physick , he might as well kill as cure . so neither one unacquainted in military affairs , was to undertake the leading of an army , knowing his own unfitness , though never so much solicited to it : whence he subsumes more strongly , that none should undertake the leading of souls , as long as he knew his own unfitness , were the importunities and solicitations of others never so many . and so far of the qualifications of those who were to be ordained presbyters . their election hath been touched already , for it went the same way with the elections of bishops , and so was partly popular , at least was to be ratified by the approbation , and consent of the people . possidius in vita augustini , tells how he was chosen a presbyter by the people . we have the ordination of the presbyters set down thus , conc. carth. 4. canon . 3. presbyter quum ordinatur , episcopo eum benedicente , & manum super caput ejus tenente , etiam omnes presbyteri , qui praesentes sunt , manus suas juxta manum episcopi super caput illius teneant . dionysius the areopagite in the forecited place tells , that the presbyter whom he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was ordained in the same form that a bishop was ordained , save only that the gospel was not laid on his head . from which simplicity of the primitive forms , we may see , how far they were from all these superstitious fopperies now used in the romish church in ordination . and so much concerning presbyters . deacons are next to be treated of . the original of them is by the general current of the ancients taken from the levites under the temple , and therefore in not a few of the antient councils , they go under that designation . but as was formerly observed , it is more probable , that the christian church took its immediate model from the synagogue , tho that might have been taken from the temple . now in the synagogue , as there was a bishop and presbyters , so there were also deacons called parnasin . there were three of them in each synagogue , two were to gather the collections , and all the three together did distribute them . the first origine of them in the christian church is set down , acts 6. where their primitive institution shews , that their first design was for looking to the necessities of the poor , who had been neglected in the daily distribution of the charity , and there they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it is true , that term luke 4.20 . is used in another sense , for there the minister of the synagogue , to whom christ delivered the book , could be no other , than their chazan or bishop , whose office it was to call out any to read the law in the synagogue . but since all church-office is for service , and not for domination , christ himself not coming to be ministred unto , but to minister , it is no wonder , if that term should then have been promiscuously used . we also find s. paul applying to himself ( 1 cor. 4. a term equivalent to this . ) but though the primitive institution of deacons import only their looking to the necessities of the poor : yet from the levites ministring to the priest in the sacrifices , it came to be generally received and used , the deacons should serve the bishops and presbyters in the administration of the sacraments . the institution of them doth also discover , that they were persons to be separated for that holy service , and consecrated for it by an imposition of hands ; and so were to be no more secular , but ecclesiastical persons : and the usual practice of the church was to account that office a step , degree and probation , in order to ones being made a presbyter . and therefore our mungrel lay-deacons differ vastly , both from the first institution of the scripture , and current of all antiquity . the arcopagite gives the account of their ordinations thus : that the deacon being brought to the bishop , kneeled down on one knee , and so received imposition of hands . the fourth canon of the fourth council of carthage is : diaconus quum ordinatur , solus episcopus , qui eum benedicit , manum super caput illius ponat ; quia non ad sacerdotium , sed ad ministerium consecratur . as for their election , at the first institution they were chosen by the whole body of the people , so acts 6. and tho the people were barred their suffrage in the choice of other church officers , yet there might be good reason why they should still chuse the deacons , their office being almost wholly temporal , to receive and distribute the peoples alms . but whatever right people might pretend to in this , it will never be proved that by divine right , the people should chuse those who had the charge of their souls . for reason would infer , that none could make a choice , who were not able to give a judgment of the qualifications , and worth of a churchman , that being peculiar to the clergy . and hence it is that more than a consent cannot be justly pretended to by the people . but after all this , if this place prove anything , it will prove in favor of the whole body of the people , and not of a few selected lay-elders . all the deacons were in their degree and order inferiour to presbyters , which will appear from these canons of the 4. council of carthage , canon 37. the deacon is declared to be the minister of the presbyter , as well as of the bishop . canon 39. he might sit in the presence of a presbyter , if desired by him . canon 40. in conventu presbyterorum diaconus interrogatus , loquatur ; so that he might not speak , except desired . it is therefore a disorder in church-discipline , that the archdeacon should not only be a presbyter , but also exercise jurisdiction over presbyters . and therefore petrus blesensis , epist. 123. hath well observed , how turbato ordine dignitatis , archidiaconi bodie sacerdotibus praeeminent , & in eos vim ac potestatem suae jurisdictionis exercent . jerome is the first that makes mention of these arch deacons , telling how the deacons did chuse one of their number to be over them , quem archidiaconum vocabanst : and in the same epistle to evagrius , he severely inveighs against those deacons , who pretend to an equality with , or preference over presbyters , saying : quid patitur mensarum & viduarum minister , ut supra eos tumidus sese esserat , ad quorum preces corpus sanguisque christi conficitur . because of the first number seven , the custom was to have but seven deacons in a city were it never so great : so it was decreed in the council of neocesarea 14. canon . their office was chiefly to look to the poor , and to serve in the administration of the sacraments . just in martyr in the end of his second apology tells , that the eucharist was sent by the deacons to such as were absent . cyprian lib. 3. epist. 15. reckons it as a part of the deacon's office to wait upon the martyrs , and epist. 17. of that same book , he tells , that where there was no presbyter , & urgere exitus coeperit . the deacon might receive the exhomulagesis of penitents , and absolve them by imposition of bands . optatus lib. 2. calls them the defenders of the holy table ; telling how the donatists had broken through the roof of a church , and had killed and wounded some of the deacons , who preserved the holy elements from their sacrilegious attempt . the deacons distributed the eucharist , and sometime they did give it to the presbyters , but that was forbidden by the 18. can. of the council of nice . yet in the fourth council of carthage , can. 38. diaconus , praesente presbytero , eucharistiam corporis christi populo si necessitas cogat , jussus eroget . cyril of jerusalem in his 17. catechism , counts the deacon the minister of baptism , as well as the bishop or presbyter . and certain it is , that generally baptism was administred by the deacons , as well as by the presbyters . some parts of the publick worship were also discharged by the deacons . chrysostome hom . 14. ad rom. tells , that the deacons offered prayers for the people ; and hom . 17. ad heb. he tells , that the deacons stood in a high place at the administration of the eucharist , and calling with a terrible voice , as heraulds , invited some , and rejected others from these holy mysteries . and thus far i have given an account of the sense which the ancients had of the offices of bishop , presbyter , and deacon , which three were the only ones they accounted sacred and divine . and this held good even at the time , that the areopagites's pretended books were written ( i call them pretended , because there is none now so simple as to believe them his ) for he reckons the ecclesiastical hierarchy to consist in these three degrees . to this account given of deacons , i shall add somewhat of deaconesses , of whom mention is made , rom. 16 1. where phebe is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deaconess ●f the church of cenchrea . they are likewise so called in the 15. canon of chalcedon ; but more ordinary in ancient writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ijerome on that place to the romans , speaking of phebe , understands her to have been a deaconess : and adds , etiam nunc in orientalibus diaconissae mulieres in suo sexu ministrare videntur , in baptismo , sive in ministerio verbi , quia privatim docuisse foeminas invenimus sicut priscillam . he likewise understood the widows mentioned , 1 tim. 5. to be diaconesses : tales eligi voluit diaconissas quae omnibus essent exemplum vivendi . origen likewise takes it as undoubted , that phebe had a particular office in the church of cenchrea : and saith on that place , hic locus apostolica authoritate docet etiam foeminas in ministerio ecclesiae constitui , in quo officio positam phaeben apud ecclesiam quae est cenchreis . chrysostome likewise understood it to be an office : and saith on that place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . if any credit be due to the apostolical constitutions , they tell us many things of their office , tho with a great alloy of much idle stuff . they tell , that no woman might come to a bishop or presbyter , except in the company of a deaconess , lib. 2. cap. 26. and that they were to go to womens houses to instruct them , which had been scandalous for churchmen , lib. 3. cap. 15. they did likewise receive them in baptism , cap. 16. and kept the gates by which women entred into the church , lib. 8. cap. 28. so it seems their office was to instruct and teach women . and so s. paul , phil. 4.3 . speaks of women who laboured with him in the gospel . and rom. 16. we find mention not only of priscilla , but of tripbona , triphosa and persis , who laboured in the lord. and it is like their office was also to minister to the necessities of churchmen : and therefore when s. paul speaks of leading about a sister and a wife , as well as other apostles , he may be well understood to speak of one of those who might both have supplied his wants , and assisted him in the conversion of women ; but for eviting scandal , they were not to be under sixty years of age . mention is made of them by pliny , lib. 10. epist . 97. who writing to trajan , of the enquiry he was making of the christians , saith , necessarium credidi ex duabus ancillis quae ministrae dicebantur quid effet veri & per tormenta quaerere . they were received by an ordination in tertullian's time : for he speaking of them , saith , ( de castit . cap. 13. ) ordinari in ecclesia solent . and ad uxorem , lib. 1. cap. 7. viduam allegi in ordinationem nisi univiram non concedit . the 19. canon of the council of nice , reckons the deaconesses among those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but saith that they had no imposition of hands , so that in all things they were reckoned among the laicks ; but hints that they had a particular habit , calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . balsamon's gloss on this is , that the virgins who dedicated themselves to god , continued in a laical habit till they were forty years of age ; and were then , if found worthy , ordained deaconesses , by a particular imposition of hands . to this zonar as adds , that the virgins in the twenty fifth year of . their age , got a particular habit from the bishop . the 74 canon of nice , according to the arabick edition , appoints the office of a deaconess to be only the receiving of women in baptism . epiph. baeres . 79. after he hath proved that a woman is not capable of the publick service of the church , adds , that the order of the deaconesses was instituted out of reverence to that sex , that when the womans body was naked in baptism , they might not be so seen by the priest. and with this agrees the 12th canon of the fourth council of cartbage : vidue vel sanctimoniales quae ad ministerium baptizandarum mulierum eliguntur tam instructae sint ad officium , ut possint apto & sano sermone docere imperitas & rusticus mulieres tempore quo baptizandae sint , qualiter baptizatori interrogatae respondeant , & qualiter accepto baptismate vivant . this is also confirmed by the 6. chap. of the 6. novel , which appoints the age both for virgins and widows to be fifty years : sicque sacram promereri ordinationem . and their office is denied to be adorandis ministrare baptismatibus , & aliis adesse secretis quae in venerabilibus ministeriis per eas rite aguntur . and the rest of that chapter gives divers other rules concerning them . the 15. canon of chalcedon , appoints a deaconess not to be ordained till she were forty years of age ( it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the canon ) and it is appointed that it be done after a strict examination ; but that after she was ordained , and continued some time in the ministery , if she gave her self in marriage , she ( as one that had reproached the grace of god ) was to be anathematized with her husband . zonaras reconciles this age with the apostle , that the apostle speaks of widows , and this canon of virgins , tho it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the canon . yet it seems some of these deaconesses have given scandal in the church , and perhaps proved like the females among the pharisees , whom the rabbins reckoned among these who destroyed the world : and so we find the western church being scandalized at some miscarriages in this order , they are discharged to be ordained by the first council of orange , can. 26. diaconissae omnimodo non ordinandae , si quae jam sunt benedictioni quae populo impenditur , capita submittunt . and in the beginning of the sixth century , it seems they gave great scandal ; for canon 22. council epaun. they are simply discharged : viduarum consecrationem quas diaco●as vocant ab omni regione nostra penitus abrogamus , solam eis poenitentia benedictionem si converti ambiant imponendo . and anno 536. con. aurel. 2. c●● . 17. benedictio diaconatus , is said to be given to the women contra interdicta canonum . and the next canon of that council is , placuit etiam ut nulli postmodum foeminae diaconalis benedictio pro conditionis hujus fragilitate credatur . yet they are mentioned in the council of worms in the year 868. canon 73. where the 15. canon of chalcedon is wholly insert . one scandal we find occasioned by these deaconesses , was , that they presumed to distribute the elements in the eucharist ; which gelasius blames in his ninth epistle written to the bishops of lucani● , quod foeminae sacris altaribus ministrare ferantur . and this it seems hath continued longer : for we find ratherius of verona in the tenth century , appoints in his synodal epistle ( which in the tomes of the councils is printed as a sermon of pope leo the fourths ) nulla foemina ad altare domini accedat . and matthaeus blastaris in his syntagma , lit . 1. cap. 11. concludes it to be unknown what the office of the deaconesses was . some judged that they ministred to women , who being in age received baptism , it being accounted a crime for a man to see a woman naked . others thought that they might enter to the altar , and exercise the office of deacons , who proved this from many things , particularly from some words of nazianzen's oration at his sisters funeral , but that was afterwards forbidden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; yet he doubts much the truth of that , it not agreeing with reason , that women who were not suffered publickly to teach , should be admitted to the office of a deacon , whose duty it was by the ministery of the word , to purifie these who were to be baptized . and after that he gives an account of the form of their ordination . mention likewise is made of them in the council in trullo , canon 14. a deaconess was not to receive imposition of band 's , before she was forty years of age . which is more expressly appointed in the 40. canon , where they decree , that though the apostle made the age 60. yet the canons had allowed their ordination at 40. because they found the church was become firmer in the grace of god , and had advanced forward : and by the 48. canon of that council , a bishop's wife , when separated from her husband by consent , was to live in a monastery , and if found worthy might be made a deaconess . basil by his 18. canon allows virgins to be received at the sixteenth or seventeenth year of their age , but by his 24. he reckons it a fault to receive a widow into the order under 60 : yet it seems that was not peremptorily observed . for in his 44 canon he speaks of deaconesses found in fornication , who might not be allowed to communicate before seven years had been past in penitence . whence this order failed in the greek church , we know not ; but balsamon on the 15. canon of chalcedon tells . that in his time deaconesses were no more ordained , and his reason is , because no woman was suffered to enter unto the altar , though ( saith he ) some women were abusively so called . as for the inferiour degrees of subdeacon , acolyth , &c. as they were only iuris ecclesiastici , so they were not designed for any sacred performance , nor had they any holy character upon them : but were intended as steps for those whom they were training up to sacred employments , and were but like the degrees given in universities . no mention is made of them in the first two centuries : ignatius is express that there is no intermedial step betwixt the laick , and the deacon , which stile we also meet in all the fathers before cyprian's time . he , epistle 24. speaks of the lectors and subdeacons , telling how he had ordained saturus a lector , and optatus a subdeacon , quos jam communi consilio clero proximos feceramus . and of the lectors , he saith , epist. 34. caeterum presbyterii honorem nos illis designasse sciatis . and by what follows , it is clear he means of a share in the maintenance of the church . epistle 28. he speaks of the subdeacons and acolyths , shewing how they likewise had a share in the divisions of the offerings made to the church . epistle 33. he tells of one aurelius , who had been twice a confessor in the persecution , whom he had ordained a lector , apologizing that he had done it without the consent of his clergy and people . in ordinationibus solemus vos ante consulere , & voces ac merita communi consilio ponderare ; sed expectanda non sunt testimonia humana , cum praecedant suffragia divina . and after he hath laid out the merits of the person , he adds , placuit tamen ut ab officio lectionis incipiat , quia & nihil magis congruit voci quae dominum gloriosâ praedicatione confessa est , quam celebrandis divinis lectionibus personare . of the same strain is his following epistle concerning celerinus , who had refused to be ordained a lector , until he was persuaded to it by a divine revelation in the night . likewise in his 76. epistle , he makes mention of exorcists : who are also mentioned by firmilian in his epistle , which is reckoned the 75. among cyprians . and at the same time cornelius , the bishop of rome , in his epistle ( insert by eusebius , lib. 6. cap. 43. ) wherein he gives account of the clergy were then at rome ; tells , that there were 46 presbyters , 7 deacons , 42 acolyths , 50 exorcists , lectors , and porters . these inferiour orders we see were then in the church . and since we have no earlier accounts of them , we may conclude their rise to have been about this time . a short account will suffice for their several employments , which will be best gathered from the several canons of the 4th council of carthage . canon 5. subdiaconus quum ordinatur , quia manus impositionem non accipit , patinam de episcopi manu accipiat vacuam , & calicem vacuum . de manu vero archidiaconi urceolum cum aquâ , & mantile , & manutergium . so his office was to look to the vessels for the eucharist , and to serve the deacons in that work . canon 6. acolythus quum ordinatur ab episcopo quidem doceatur , qualiter in officio suo agere debeat . sed ab archidiacono accipiat ceroferarium cum cereo ut sciat se ad accendenda ecclesiae luminaria mancipari , accipiat & urceolum vacuum , ad suggerendum vinum in eucharistiam sanguinis christi . as for these cerei , they shall be spoken of upon the next canon . the work of acolythus was to light the candles , and provide the wine : and from the ratio nominis , we may believe their office was particularly to wait upon the bishop , and follow him . canon 8. lector quum ordinatur , faciat de illo verbum episcopus ad plebem , indicans ejus fidem ac vitam , atque ingenium . posthaec spectante plebe tradat ei codicem , de quo lecturus est , dicens ad eum : accipe , & esto lector verbi dei , habiturus , si fideliter & utiliter impleveris officium , partem cum eis , qui verbum dei ministraverunt . and by what hath been already cited out of cyprian compared with this , it appears , that the office of the lector was judged that of the greatest importance of them all . canon 9. ostiarius quum ordinatur postquam ab archidiacono instructus fuerit , qualiter in domo dei debeat conversari , ad suggestionem archidiaconi , tradat & episcopus claves ecclesiae de altario , dicens : sic age , quasi redditurus deo rationem pro bis rebus , quae his clavibus recluduntur . canon 10. psalmista , id est , cantor potest absque scientia episcopi , solâ jussione presbyteri , officium suscipere cantandi , dicente sibi presbytero ; vide , ut quod ore cantas , corde credas ; & quod corde credis , operibus comprobes . now the psalmistae were these that were the singers , for it was appointed in the council of laodicea , that none might sing in the church , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , those of the suggestum , or pulpit . but because the 7. canon will afford more matter of question , i have reserved it last . exorcista quum ordinatur , accipiat de manu episcopi libellum , in quo scripti sunt exorcismi , dicente sibi episcopo : accipe , & commenda memoriae , & habato potestatem imponendi manum super energumenum , sive baptizatum , sive catechumenum . but for examining this of the exorcist , we must run a little back . the iews under the second temple were much addicted to magick . in the talmud it is given as a necessary qualification of one that might be of the sanhedrin , that he should be skilled in all magick doctrines and charms . and in the inner court of the temple , called the court of israel , there was a chamber said to have been built by one parva a magician , by the art of magick , from whom it was called happarva : and much of what they say of the bath-col , seems to hint that it was an effect of magick . many places are also cited out of the talmud , of their rabbies killing one another by that art ; and so highly do they extol it , that many of them thought that all miracles were wrought by the exact knowledg of the cabbalistick arts , and it is well enough known how that abounded among the heathens . ulpian made a law against these physicians who cured diseases by exorcisms . we see our lord triumphed over the powers of darkness , who were then raging through the world : and that the oracles were silenced at this time , is confessed by heathens . neither did this gift of casting out devils , conferred by our lord on his disciples , die with them , but remain some ages in the church . tertullian speaks of it as a gift communicated to all christians . de coronâ mil. he tells , that some soldiers did exorcismis fugare spiritus malignos : and de idololatriâ , cap. 11. quo ore christianus thurarius ( this is one that offered incense to idols ) si per templa transibit , fumantes aras despuet , & exsufflabit , quibus ipse prospexit : quâ constantiâ exorcizabit alumnos suos , quibus domum suam cellariam praestat . so that he hath understood this power of exorcizing to have been the effect of every sincere christian's prayer . origen in his 35. tract . on matth. condemns the form of doing it , by adjuring the devils , saying that christ hath given us power to command them . est enim iudaicum adjurare daemonia . cyprian speaks of an exorcism ordinarily preceding baptism ; but prefers the vertue of baptism to that of exorcism , epist. 76. hodie etiam geritur , ut per exorcist as voce humanâ & potestate divinâ flagelletur , & uratur , & torqueatur diabolus ; & cum exire se & dimittere homines dei saepe dicat : in eo tamen quod dixerit , fallat — cum tamen ad aquam salutarem , &c. and ad demetrianum , he saith , o si audire eos velles , & videre , quando à nobis adjurantur & turquentur spiritalibus flagris , & verborum tormentis , de obsessis corporibus , ejiciuntur ; quando ejulantes & gementes voce humanâ , & potestate divinâ flagella , & verbera sentientes , venturum judicium confitentur . and much of this nature is to be met with among the primitive writers , which shews that the power of exorcising was an authority over devils . yet if this had been a formal office , reason will say it should rather have been among the highest than lowest orders , the work being so great and miraculous . but from the areopagite , and others , we are told , that before baptism there was used a renunciation of the devil , with a prayer for casting him out : and there is some probability that these called exorcists were only catechists , who had some formuls , whereby they taught , such as they instructed , to renounce the devil : and this with the prayer that accompanied it , was called an exorcism . nazianz. orat. in bapt. ne exorcismi medicinam asperneris , nec ob illius prolixitatem animo concidas , nam vel ut lapis quidam lydius est , ad quem exploratur , quam sincero quisque pectore ad baptismum accedat . cyril of ierusalem , praefat. in catech. festinent pedes tus ad catecheses audiendas , exorcismos studiose suscipe , etiamsi exorcizatus & inspiratus jam sis , salubris enim est tibi res ista . the council of laodicea , can. 26. discharged all to exorcize either in churches or houses , except these appointed for it by the bishops . and by the tenth canon of antioch , the rural bishops are warranted to constitute exorcists , from which we see they could not esteem that a wonder-working office. and balsamon in his sholion , makes them one with the catechists , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and on the canon of laodicea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and towards the end of his gloss on that canon , he saith , that an exorcist though appointed by the chorepiscopus , and not by the bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and beveregius cites harmenopolus to the same purpose on the tenth canon of antioch . from these evidences it is most probable to think , that the exorcists at first were nothing but catechists ; but afterwards , as all things do in any tract of time degenerate , they became corrupt , beyond perhaps either these of the iews or the gentiles ; so that the books of exorcisms now in the roman church , are so full of bombast terms , and odd receipts , that they are a stain to the christian church . and it is the most preposterous thing can be imagined , that what was given in the new testament for the greatest confirmation of the christian faith , should be made a constant office , and put in so mean hands . and to this i need not add the base arts and cheats discovered among that sort of people . i shall conclude this long tedious account of the sense the ancient church had of the several officers in it , with some words of tertullian , which i shall barely set down , without any descant on them , tho they have occasioned much perplexity to divers good antiquaries . tertullian in exortatione ad uxorem , cap. 7. saith : nonne & laici sacerdotes fumus ? scriptum est regnum quoque nos & sacerdotes deo & patri suo fecit . differentiam inter ordinem & plebem constituit ecclesiae authoritas , & honor per ordinis consessum sanctificatus . ideo ubi ecclesiastici ordinis non est consessus , & offers , & tingis & sacerdos es tibi solus , sed ubi tres sunt , ecclesia est , licet laici . but others read these words differently , their copies having them thus : sanctificatus à deo . ubi ecclesiastici ordinis est consessus , & offert , & tingit , sacerdos qui est ibi solus : sed ubi tres , ecclesia est , licet laici . finis . polyhistor to basilius . your desire , and my own promise , have engaged me to send you the enclosed papers : for the trouble the reading them may give you , my apology lies in my obedience ; and yet i have contracted things as much as i could , and perhaps have exceeded in my abridging : for had i let loose my pen in a descant on every particular , these few sheets had swelled to a volume . and my design was not to act the critick , but to be a faithful historian . these gleanings were intended partly for my own use , and partly for the direction of some under my charge in the study of antiquity ; and were written some years ago , when i had no thoughts of making them more publick , than by giving a few transcripts of them . but now i leave the midwifry of them to you , that you may either stifle this embryo , or give it a freer air to breath in . i have here only given you what related to the constitution and modelling of churches , referring to my observations on other canons , matters that come to be treated more properly upon their texts , as of the administration of all the parts of the pastoral charge , of all their forms in worship , and church-discipline , of their zeal against heresies and schisms , together with the methods used for reclaiming them ; and of the poverty , simplicity , abstraction from secular affairs , and sublime sanctity of the primitive bishops and presbyters . these with many other particulars , if well examined , as they will make the work swell to a huge bulk , so they will bring pleasure , as well as advantage , to such as desire a better acquaintance with the state of the church of god in her best times ; but what through the entanglements of affairs , and other avocations , what through their want of books , are not able to engage in so laborious an enquiry by searching the fountains themselves . i assure you , i have not gone upon trust , having taken my observations from the writings themselves , that i have vouched for my warrants . i once intended to have cited all the testimonies i brought in english ; and so to have avoided the pedantry of a babylonish dialect , as the french begin now to write . but observing that the foul play many have committed , hath put a jealousie in most readers of these citations , where the author's words are not quoted , i chused rather to hazard on the censure of being a pedant , than of an unfaithful wrester in my translations . only to save the writer the labour of writing much greek , which i found unacceptable , i do often cite the latin translations of the greek authors . i shall only add , that as i was causing write out these papers for you , there came to my hands one of the best works this age hath seen , beveregius his synopsis canonum . i quickly looked over these learned volumes , that i might give these sheets such improvements as could be borrowed from them , which indeed were not inconsiderable . i detain you too long , but shall importune you no more . i leave this to your censure , which i know to be severely critical in all such matters . your judgment being the wonder of all who know you , especially who consider how little your leisure allows you , to look unto things so far without the orb you move in : though nothing be without the vast circle of your comprehensive understanding , if you let loose these papers to a more publick view , let this paper accompany them , which may some way express the zeal of your faithfullest servant , who humbly bids you adieu . a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england in which it is demonstrated that all the essentials of ordination, according to the practice of the primitive and greek churches, are still retained in our church : in answer to a paper written by one of the church of rome to prove the nullity of our orders and given to a person of quality / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1677 approx. 308 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 123 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30479 wing b5939 estc r21679 12683329 ocm 12683329 65714 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30479) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65714) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 683:1) a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england in which it is demonstrated that all the essentials of ordination, according to the practice of the primitive and greek churches, are still retained in our church : in answer to a paper written by one of the church of rome to prove the nullity of our orders and given to a person of quality / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [64], 181 p. printed by e.h. and t.h. for r. chiswel ..., london : 1677. "an appendix: about the forms of ordaining priests and bishops in the latin church": p. 107-181. in reply to "arguments to prove the invalidity of the orders of the church of england," which is reprinted p. 1-10. errata: prelim. p. [64]. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -clergy -appointment, call, and election. church of england -clergy -appointment, call, and election. ordination. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-12 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england . in which it is demonstrated that all the essentials of ordination , according to the practice of the primitive and greek churches , are still retained in our church . in answer to a paper written by one of the church of rome to prove the nullity of our orders ; and given to a person of quality . by gilbert burnet . london : printed by e. h. and t. h. for r. chiswel at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , 1677. imprimatur hic liber , cui titulus ( a vindication of the ordinations , &c. ) guil. iane r. p. d. hen. episc. lond. à sacris domesticis . the preface . the agents of the church of rome studying to accommodate their religion to every man's taste and inclinations , use their endeavours with all persons , in those things wherein they think they may most likely succeed . if they find some that love to live at their ease , and to reconcile their hopes of pardon , and heaven with a lewd life , then they offer to secure them by slight confessions , easie penances , cheap pardons , and indulgences , and the communication of the merits of other persons : if they fall on others of a sowrer composition , the severities of some religious orders and unmerciful penances are laid before them : if they meet with those that can easily believe every thing that is told them with much assurance , then many miracles and other wonderful stories are mustered up : if others seem not so tractable and credulous , then they study to shew them there is no certainty at all about religion ; if all their traditions be not believed : and so they can but shake them from our church , they car●… not whither such doubts may drive them , were it headlong to atheism : if they fin●… others that are fanciful and enthusi●…stical in their religion , then they tell the●… of visions , raptures , and ecstasies , with out number : or if they fall on other that love the order and gravity of th●… church , then they think the game is eas●… and sure , they tell them of the antiqu●…ty , universality , and continued succe●…sion of their church , and of the novelt●… the narrowness and want of succession i●… ours . and though the fallaciousness these objections have been so oft laid pen , that by this time it might have be●… reasonably expected , men of ingenuity a●… probity should have been ashamed of co●…tinuing them ; yet these gentlemen 〈◊〉 proof against all discoveries . the reader will easily discern h●… guilty the writer of the following paper 〈◊〉 of going in the beaten tract of asserti●… things confidently , which , if he be a man of learning , he must needs know they have no strength in them : and if he be not acquainted with ecclesiastical learning , ( which in charity to him i am bound to believe ) it is very presumptuously done of him to give out papers of this importance , in a point that no man ought to engage in but he that has studied antiquity to some competent degree . for to charge any person , much more a whole church , with the basest sacriledg and forgery , unless one be well assured in his conscience that he is able to make it good , is such a piece of uncharitableness and high presumption , that i know no excuse it can admit of : and if our church be bringing souls to christ in the method proposed in the gospel , how much has the writer of this paper , or any other that manages these arguments to answer for , that study to raise such scruples as tend to cross and defeat so good a design ? but this paper , weak as it is , was thought fit to be copied out , and given about , and was brought to a person of quality , that had been educated under a deep sense of the reverence due to the church and churchmen ; so that they hoped if such a one could be once induced to believe that we had no orders , nor church-men duly called , among us , it had been easie to have prevailed further . but that person being sincerely pious and devout , and not easily shaken with every story that was made , and being desirous to be fully satisfied in this matter , conveighed the paper into my hands , and i was put upon the answering it . i quickly saw that the arguments were so weak and trifling , that they were very easily answered ; yet since i was to engage in such a subject , i resolved to do it with as much care and industry as the importance of the matters required : and finding that , for all that had been written on this controversie , there remained a great deal to be said , i have so fully considered it , as i hope no scruple will remain with discerning persons , and for the endless doubtings of weaker minds , and the restless endeavours of busie emissaries , nothing can satisfie or silence those . it may seem too great a presumption in one that is a stranger in this church to engage in a question that so much concerns it . but though i had not my orders in this church , yet i derive them from it , being ordained by a bishop that had his ordination in this church ; so that i am equally concerned in the issue of the question : and i am confident no body shall have cause to imagine that i engage in it with design to betray or give it up . among the many unjust and spiteful calumnies , with which the clergy of the roman communion , study to asperse and disgrace the reformation , there are none more frequently made use of , than these , that there are no pastors lawfully called or ordained among us , that we have not the power of making god present on our altars , as they have , nor the power of absolving from sins , much less of redeeming souls from the miseries they are under in another state . they tell their credulous followers , that we were all at first no better than a company of tub-preachers , and that all the disorders we saw of that sort during the late wars , were as justifiable as the first beginnings of the reformation . and tho the ridiculous fable of the nags-head , be so manifest a forgery , supported by no good evidence and overthrown by the authority of so many publick records , besides many other clear presumptions from the state of things , and the time in which that was said to be done , that one might very reasonably expect that all sober or discreet persons should be ashamed of so foul an imposture ; yet it serves them still for many a good turn , and so they will never lay it down : tho i dare boldly say there is no matter of fact of which there are no surviving witnesses , that can be demonstrated with clearer evidences than the regularity and canonicalness of the ordination of arch bishop parker . others , that are not so lost in impudence , yet say that tho we have a shadow of a succession among us , yet we shew how little regard we have to orders , when we acknowledg the protestant churches beyond the seas to be true churches , tho many of them do not so much as pretend to a continued succession of pastors . for the foreign churches , they are able to speak for themselves ; nor is it needful for me here to shew what grounds there are for our churches holding communion with them . but it must be acknowledged to be a high pitch of boldness and injustice to charge us , as if we did not ascribe all due honour to holy orders and the succession of pastors . we know and assert , that no man can take this honor ( of priesthood ) to himself , but he that is called of god as was aaron : so also christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest ; but he that said unto him , thou art my son , this day have i begotten thee . we reject the extravagant and bold pretences of hot-headed or factious enthusiasts , and have learned out of the gospel , that a publick calling was necessary , even to those who had the most extraordinary gifts of the holy ghost . our savionr sent his disciples as his father had sent him ; and laid his hands on them and gave them the power of binding and loosing . and tho god had by his spirit called saul and barnabas , to the apostleship of the gentiles , yet they did not enter upon the discharge of that function , till by the direction of the holy ghost , ( whether by a voice formed in the air , or by a secret inspiration , it matters not , ) they were separated , for the work of the ministry by prayer and imposition of hands . and tho timothy was by some prophesies marked out as a sacred person , yet he was received into that function by the imposition of s. pauls hands . from these sacred authorities , backed with the constant doctrine and practice of the churches of god , in all ages , we do hold a visible vocation and ordination of pastors necessary in the church . but whether the roman pontifical , or our ordinal comes nearer the rules and instances in scripture , and the forms of the primitive times , for at least eight hundred years , any that will compare them , will easily discern , and it is the chief subject of the following work , fully to evince the advantage of our forms beyond theirs . it is true , we do not extol the office of priesthood to that height as to say , the priest can by a few words work the greatest miracle that ever was , and can make god present , ( as they love to phrase it ) this we think is the honouring the creature more than the creator . nor do we exalt the priest above gods vicegerent on earth our lawful soveraign , whom ( according to the doctrine of the primitive church , even when persecuted by their emperours , ) we honour as next to god and one who is inferiour to god only . and therefore we reject the seditious comparing of the dignity of the priestly office , with the kingly , which has not satisfied the ambition of the romish clergy since hildebrands days , but the one must be preferred to the other . nor do we pretend that our character gives us an immunity to commit crimes , and an exemption from the civil courts , when they are committed . this were to make the altar a sanctuary for the most criminal , and the house of prayer a den of thieves and robbers . it is true christian princes granted these immunities at first that church-men might not be disturbed in their callings , nor vexed with troublesome sute●… . but afterwards that would not suffice , but the doctrine of ecclestastical iurisdiction and immunity , was set up , as a thing most sacred : and no wonder was it that men durst not presume to lay hands on him , who could bring down not only legions of angels , but god himself with a word . and in the beginning of this century , italy had almost been imbroiled in a war of the popes making ; for which he pretended this for one cause , that the state of venice had apprehended two notoriously l●…ud and flagitious priests , and were proceeding against them according to law. but he saw other princes were not very ready to second him , and yet he did not lay down the quarrel till the frocess of the priests was discharged , and they were set at liberty . such exemptions are very profitable for a corrupt clergy , but if any such be among us , we claim no such protection , being willing to leave them to the law. we know as little ground for thinking the priest , by his saying mass can bring souls out of purgatory , the scriptures have made no discoveries either of purgatory , or the ways to escape from it , or get out of it : the primitive church continued still as ignorant as the holy pen-men had been ; but in the darkest ages , ( the night being a fit time for dreams , ) this other world was discovered , which has brought greater returns of power and riches to that prince , under whose protection the discovery was made , than the world columbus discovered , has sent to the crown of castile . and tho the trade is not of that advantage that it was , yet in gratitude for past services it must never be neglected , or as when the vein of a mine fails , they dig on through the hardest rocks till they find it again , for the works must still go on . but we , poor souls , have nothing to do with that gainful traffick , and therefore the glory of the discovery and the monapoly of the trade , we freely resign up to them , and acknowledg the profits of new inventions , by the rules of all government , are only due to the inventors ; so that they have no reason to quarrel with us for leaving this entirely to them . for the power of binding and loosing , we do assert that as our saviour vested his disciples with it , so it is still in the church : but if the vigor and exercise of it be much weakened , we have none to blame for it but the church of rome : who have now in a course of many ages , laid down all open and publick penance . so that the world being once delivered from that which to licentious men seemed a heavy bondage , it is not to be wondred at , if the primitive strictness could not be easily retrieved . 't is true , this is a defect in our church , it is confessed by her in the office of commination , and she wishes it may be restored ; but the decay and disuse of it begun in the church of rome ; and every body knows that what is severe and uneasy to flesh and blood , is not soon submitted to , when the practice of it is for any considerable time intermitted . but the clergy of that communion , thought they had made a good bargain , when the necessity of auricular confessors , and private absolution was received : to which the laity did more easily submit , that they might be freed from the shame of open penance : and they knew how to deal with their priests , when the penance was secret , none knew either the heinousness of their sins , or the nature of the penance : so it was more safe for the priest to enjoyn what he listed , and give absolution on what terms he pleased . and then because it was painful to have the absolution delayed , till the penance was fulfilled , which was the rule of the primitive church , absolution was granted immediatly upon con●…ession , without more ado : as arnaud has fully discovered to the world . certainly every body that considers these things must discern what merchandise the roman clergy have made of the power of the keys , to make themselves masters of all mens secrets , and of their consciences , then was the necessity of secret confession set up ; tho there be nothing in scripture that favours it : any places that look that way , being only meant of confessing our faults to those against whom they are committed , or of a publick confession in the cases of publick offences . nor can it be pretended with any colour of truth or reason , that the primitive church did set up or authorise confession , in any other way than as our church does , recommending it only as an excellent mean , towards the quieting the conscience and the avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness . penitence is also a mean for humbling the sinner more , for possessing him with deeper apprehensions of the guilt and evil of sin , and of the iustice of god , and for ingaging him to more diligence and watchfulness for the future , and by these rules all the primitive discipline was contrived and managed ; that it might be a wholsome medicine for the reforming the world : and every honest priest ought to consider these as the end he must drive at in all his dealings with penitents , and for this end the absolution is to be withheld till it appears that the person is truely penitent : and that both for the priests sake that he may not give the comforts of the gospel , nor make use of his ministerial power of loosing sins without good grounds : and also for the sinners sake that he may be kept under the fear of the wrath of god ; and be excluded from the comfortable priviledges of the christian church , till he had given some convincing proofs , that he is a penitent indeed . for if he be freed from these fears by a hasty absolution , it is very like he will be slight in his repentance . there must be also some proportion between the penance and the sin committed ; such as fasting for sins of intemperance , bodily severities for inordinate pleasures , alms-giving for sins of covetousness , great and frequent devotions for sins of omission , that so the penance may prove medicinal indeed , for purging out the ill humours , and recovering the sinner , and to make the sin more odious to him . therefore such slight penances as saying the penitential psalms , and abstaining from some meats , with other trifling things of that nature , are a betraying the power of the keys , which was given for edification and not for destruction , and tend to an exposing of religion and the priestly function to contempt . these practices are common , and avowed in that church , and by these and such like have the iesuites got all the world to make their confessions to them : of which such discoveries have been made by the writers of the port-royal , that we need say nothing but only look on with astonishment , and see the impudent partiality of the court of rome , and how obstinately they are resolved to reform nothing , for tho the practice of the whole church in all the councils that were held for many ages , be clearly of the side of the iansenists , yet they must be condemned , their books censured , and the practices of the iesuites encouraged and supported . after all this of what undanted consciences must they be , who charge our church as opening a sanctuary for vice and impurity : because we retain not the necessity of secret confession , and absolution . which ( whatever they may prove if well managed , ) are according the practices of that church , and the casuistical divinity that is in greatest credit there , and by which their priests are directed , engines for beating down all religion and common honesty . but our church owns still the power of the keys , which is not only doctrinal , when the mercies of god are declared , or his iudgments denounced ; but is also authoritative and ministerial , by which all christians are either admitted to , or rejected from the priviledges of church-communion , and their sins are bound or loosed . with this we assert the pastors of the church are vested . for the rites of our ordinations , we still retain those which are mentioned in the scriptures , which are imposition of hands and prayer . as for the forms of prayer , the catholick church never agreed on any , nor decreed what were to be used . every church had their own forms . and though the church of rome did unmercifully enough impose divers things on the greek churches , and because they would not yield to her tyranny , she left them to be a prey to the turk , and did not interpose her authority with the princes of the west , over whom she was then absolute , to arm them for the assistance and defence of the greeks ; yet amidst all this desire of rule , they were never so unreasonable as to impose their liturgies , rituals , or missals on them , but in these they left them to their own forms , and so continue to do to this day . anciently they had no more iurisdiction over the british churches than over the greek churches . so that by the division of provinces confirmed by general councils , and by a particular decree of the council of ephesus , no new authority over any other churches was to be assumed by any see , but all were to be determined by the former practices and customs of the church . it is certain that before that time the bishops of rome had no patriarchal iurisdiction in britain ; so that if the decrees of general councils will bind them , they ought not to claim any authority over us . but if the popes build new pretentions on austin the monk's being sent hither by pope gregory the great . we are ready to refer this matter to his decision , and will stand to his award , for he being consulted by austin about some particulars , one of these was . since there is one faith , how comes it that the customs of the churches are so different , and that one form of missals is in the roman church , and another is in the churches of the gaules or of france . from this question it appears that even france , which was undoubtedly within the patriarchat of rome , had forms different from those used in rome : but let us now hear what answer is given by pope gregory , which may be reasonably believed ex cathedra , and so of great authority , with all who acknowledg the infallibility of that see. you know the custom of the church of rome in which you were educated , but my opinion is , that whatever you find either in the holy roman , the gallican , or any other church that may be more pleasing to almighty god , you shall diligently choose out that : and infuse in the english church , which is yet but young in the faith by careful instruction , what you can gather from many churches ; for we ought not to love things for the sake of a place , but places for the sake of good things ; therefore choose from all churches the things that are pious , religious and right , and gather all these in one bundle and leave them with the english , that they may become familiar to them . it will be hard for the agents of that church to find out a reason why austin bishop of canterbury might make such changes in the liturgies by gathering out of the several rituals that were then in the world what he thouhgt fit , and yet to deny the same power to arch-bishop cranmer and the bishops in king edward's days , why might not they as well as austin the monk , compare the rituals of the church of rome with other more ancient forms , and gather together what they found most pious , religious , and right , not loving things for the sake of a place ( whether rome or sarum ) but loving places rather for the sake of good things . so that in this we have on our side the decision of a pope who was both more learned and more pious than any of all his successors ; but this is not the only particular in which they will decline to be tryed by his iudgment . and in the changes that were made , i●… is very clear that our reformers did no●… design to throw out every thing that was in the roman rituals right or wrong ; but made all the good use that was possible o●… the forms that were then received in th●… western church ; and in this our church followed our saviours method , who thoug●… he had the fulness of the godhead dwelling in him , and was to antiquate the jewis●… religion , and to substitute his more divine precepts to those of moses ; yet he did accommodate his institutions as near a●… could be , to the customs of the jews , not only in lesser matters , but even in those two great sacraments by which his church is knit together ( as hath been fully made out by many learned writers . ) if then the customs of a religion that was ready to perish , were made use of , and by new and more sacred benedictions were consecrated to higher ends ; our church shewed her prudence and moderation , in not destroying root and branch , but reserving such things as were good , and by being cleansed from some excrescencies might prove still of excellent use . this though it has given some colour to many peevish complaints , yet is that in which we have cause still to glory . this care and caution does eminently appear in our ordinal , the ceremonies which were invented by the latter ages we laid aside , the more ancient and apostolical are retained . and for the formal words used in the imposition of hands , though the saying receive the holy ghost was a latter addition without any ancient authority ; yet because this comes nearer the practice of our saviour , it was retained as the form of giving orders . for since it is consest on all hands that the form of orders is in the power of the church , we had good reason to prefer that which our blessed saviour made use of to any other , and it had been a sullen and childish peevishness to have changed this , because it was used in the church of rome . so that i cannot imagine what should move them to shew so much dislike to our forms , except it be the old quarrel of hating them , because they are better and their own are worse ; and so because their deeds are evil they envy and revile us . in this whole matter we are willing to be tryed both by the scriptures and the first eight ages , even of the roman church , by the greek church to this day , and by the doctrine that is most commonly received even in their own church . there is but one objection that may seem to have any force in it , which can be made from the practices of the primitive church against the ordinations in this church , which is , that we have not the inferior degrees of subdeacons , acolyths , exorcists , readers and porters in our church ; and indeed if the popes infallibility be well proved , this will be of force sufficient to invalidate our orders . the case of photius patriarch of contantinople , is well known , whom pope nicolaus denyed to be lawfully ordained , because he was suddenly raised up from being a layman to be made a patriarch , and though he passed through the ecclesiastical degrees , yet that was not thought sufficient by that pope , who certainly would have been more severe to us who have none of these degrees among us . but these orders cannot be looked on as either of divine or apostolical institution , the scripture mentions them not , st. clemens , st. ignatius , and st. polycarp , say nothing of them , justin martyr , and irenaeus , are as silent about them ; so that , till the third century we find no footsteps of them , the first mention that is made of them is in the canons and constitutions called apostolical ( of whose antiquity i shall now say nothing ) in the canons mention is oft made of the rest of the clergy , as distinct from bishops , priests and deacons , and particularly they mention readers , subdeacons , and singers . in the constitutions there are rules given about th●… ordination of subdeacons and readers . and though there is mention made of exorcists , yet it is plainly said there , that they were not ordained , but were believed to have that power over spirits by a free gift of god , and that they were then ordained when they were made bishops and priests . firmilian who lived in the midst of the third century , speaks of exorcists , but it does not appear from his words , if they were a distinct or an inferior order of church-men , and they may be well enough understood of such as had an extraordinary power over spirits . yet in the beginning of the fourth century we find in the greek church more inferior orders for the council of laodicea reckons up servants ( who it is like were acolyths ) readers , singers , exorcists , porters , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who were it seems , monks , or some persons that were imployed in servile works , such as the diggers of craves . and by the council of antioch the chorepiscopi might ordain subdeacons , readers , and exorcists ▪ and if the epistle to the church of antioch , said to be writen by ignatius , was forged in the same century , by it it appears that there were then in the greek church , subdeacons , readers , singers , porters , and exorcists , for all these are saluted in that epistle , from which it appears that all these orders were then in the church of antioch . but there is no small difficulty about these orders in the greek churches , for in all their rituals we find no inferior orders but subdeacons , and readers , to whom in some churches they have added singers ; upon which it is that morinus confidently pronounces there were never any other inferior orders in the greek church , but these two ; but it does not appear that he had considered well those canons of laodicea and antioch which mention other orders . abraham ecchellensis , according to his usual way of flattering the court of rome in all his writings , is not a little puzzelled with this , he confesses that in the greek church they have no other inferior orders but subdeacons and readers , but says , some thought those other lower degrees were included in the order of readers , but he thinks they were included in the subdeacons orders , and strains all the wit he had to give some colours for this conceit of his . in summ it is clear , exorcists were an inferior office in the greek church once , and afterwards it was laid aside . it were an impertinent digression here to give an account of their office : but in a word they were catechists , who prepared the catechumens for baptism ; and by the catechisms in the church , all that came from heathenism to be christians were often adjured to renounce the devil and all heathenish idolatry . which adjurations were call'd exorcisms , and from these the catechists were called exorcists : of which he that desires further satisfaction may be directed to it by what he will find in the margin . but when , or upon what occasion this office fell in disuse in the greek church , does not appear . i shall only suggest that it is reasonable to conclude that upon the general suppression of heathenism in the greek empire , when there were no more catechumens , there being no further use of exorcists the function was no longer continued . it appears likewise from the name acolyth , that it was begun in the greek church , from whence it is probable , the latin church had that order . in the latin church st. cyprian is the first that speaks of these inferior orders , and we find them frequently mentioned in his epistles , he speaks of a subdeacons , b acolyths , c readers , and d exorcists , and contemporary with him was cornelius , who e giving an account of the clergy of rome , says there were forty six priests , seven deacons , forty two acolyths , fifty exorcists , readers , and porters . so it seems , there were no subdeacons then in rome , nor does st. cyprian mention the porters . so that in that century all these these orders were not looked on as necessary in the western church , much less was there a certain number of years determined for every one of them , as was afterwards done by the popes , who appointed that before any might be made a priest , he should be five years a reader and exorcist , and fourteen years an acolyth and subdeacon . in the fourth council of carthage we have the full catalogue of the sacred functions ( as they are called in the apostolical canons ) with the rules and forms of ordaining them , and there a subdeacons , b acolyths , c exorcists , d readers , e porters , and f singers , are set down . but besides these we find another order of fossarii , or the diggers of graves , mentioned by st. jerome , who calls them the first order of the clergy ; they are also mentioned in that supposititious letter of st. ignatius to the church of antioch , and are spoken of by epiphamus , by which it appears they were reckoned among the clergy both in the greek and latin churches . but there is no mention of them in any latter writers . we find mention of another office in an author , to whom indeed little credit is due , who are called the keepers of the martyrs , who had the keeping of the vault or burying-place , where the martyrs bodies were laid up in those churches that were built to their honor , but we meet with these no where else . and though the order of singers continued for several ages in the western church , and is mentioned by most of the writers on the roman rituals in hittorpius his collection , and also in the ordo romanus , yet is now left out in the roman pontifical . from all which it appears , that there was no settled order agreed on or received in the catholick church about these inferior degrees ; some of them that were received in some churches were not in other churches , and what was generally received in one age was laid aside in another , and therefore there is no obligation lying on us to continue those still . but as the number of these orders was different , so the ways of ordaining were not the same . in the eastern church they were ( and are to this day ) conferred by imposition of hands , which was perhaps taken from the custome of the jews among whom all offices were given with that rite . but in the western church they were conferred by the delivery of a book , vessel , or instrument that related to their function , which perhaps was taken from the roman custom of granting offices by the tradition of somewhat that belonged to it , as trajan made the prefects by giving them a sword. the occasion of setting up all these inferior offices was certainly very just and good , that there might be taken in them a long and full probation of all such as were to be admitted to the offices that were of divine institution , and so none might be admitted to any of them before there had been a full tryal and discovery made of their merit and good behaviour , and were indeed like degrees in universities . but after that constantine granted such immunities and exemptions to churchmen , then it is probable that many who desired to share in these , and yet had no mind to be initiated in the offices of divine appointment , came and entered in these lower degrees : to regulate which , justinian made a law that none who had been souldiers or had any offices about their courts ( curiales and obstricti curiae ) might be ordained , till they had got their dimission and had been fifteen years in a monastery ; and perhaps some of these offices were laid aside , because of the complaints the prefects made of the interruption of iustice by the great numbers of the clergy , who pleaded the exemptions that were granted to them . upon the whole matter it is clear that all these orders were only of ecclesiastical institution . so that the want of them cannot be charged on our church as an essential defect , and our church had as good authority to lay all these aside , as other churches had to lay down sometimes one , sometimes more of them . and in the church of rome , though these are still kept up , yet all except the subdeacons are meerly for forms-sake , for acolyths , exorcists , readers , or porters , never discharge any part of the service that belongs to their office , and the exorcisms are quite taken out of the hands of the exorcists , and are made only by priests . so that this whole objection comes to nothing . but we have much more material objections against the church of rome upon this head . for whereas by divine institution and the practice of the primitive church , all bishops were equal both in order and iurisdiction . they have robbed the bishops of the greatest part of their iurisdiction ; of which i shall give some instances . monks by their original were laymen and were under the iurisdiction of the bishop of the diocess , this at first was not so much as disputed ; but when they grew insolent and factious , it was declared by the general council of chalcedon that they were and ought to be subject to their bishops ; and so it continues in the greek church to this day . the same was also decreed in some western councils , but when the order of the benedictines grew very considerable , and many persons of quality retired into it , and it became a great piece of religion to build and inrich abbeys ; then the founders moved their kings to obtain priviledges for them from their bishops ; for the most ancient of these that i have met with , is the exempof the abbey of st. denis , granted by the bishop of paris ; the next to that is the exemption of the abbey of corbie granted by the bishop of amiens , which presidents were soon followed by a great many others . by these grants the bishops did renounce their share of the revenues of the abbey , of which , according to the ancient division , the fourth part did belong to the bishop : and for the further quiet of those religious houses , the bishops did exempt them from all visitations , and gave up the power they had over them wholly to the abbot ; and these exemptions , which at first were only for the monasteries , were afterwards extended further to all the lands and churches that belonged to the abbeys , of which some were exempted from the visitations of the arch-deacons , and the bishops vicars ; others were also exempted from the bishops visiting in person . but the popes from the 8th . century downwards , finding how much abbeys wese enriched , and it being a grateful thing in all places , to favour the monks , they granted them fuller and larger priviledges , they gave many abbots a right to a miter and a staff , and declared them prelates . and the truth of it was , the secular clergy were for the most part both so ignorant and so corrupt , that it was no wonder if all the world favoured the monks , whose vices being committed within their cloysters , were not so notorious , and did not occasion so much scandal as the disorders of the clergy did , which were more publick . and the very name religious or regular , which the monks took to themselves , and the name secular , with which they loaded the clergy , did them great service ; for in ignorant ages specious titles and ill sounding names affect the vulgar mightily . and the monks of the order of st. austin being also possest of most of the prebends , from whence they were called canons regular , those chapter●… had exempted iurisdictions given them . from hence sprung all the peculiar exemptions that are among us , for in the suppressing of the monasteries , the bishop●… were not fully restored to their ancient iurisdiction ; so that those exemption●… do still continue , from whence the most scandalous disorders in our clergy have risen . so much are they mistaken who complain of the episcopal jurisdiction , since the foulest enormities among us flow from the want of it , and from a corruption brought in by the popes , which is not yet sufficiently purged out . these monasteries were so many separated and independent congregations which did chose their own pastors , and this only difference in the point of government , is between our modern independents , and them ; that these will depend on none in the rules of their policy , but upon christ alone , without acknowledging any superior iurisdiction or subordination , and those did depend on christ's vicar , without submitting to any other authority . but the popes designing to subject the episcopal authority wholly to themselves , used another method toward that end , which was to raise the dignity of the abbots very high , and whereas by the primitive a canons three bishops were to concur in the consecration of a bishop , the pope●… brought in a custom of allowing two mitered abbots to assist a bishop in those consecrations , which is acknowledged both by b binnius and c bellarmine . and this with the title prelate , and the use of the miter and the pastoral staff , raised them to an equality with the bishops . this was not all , they were next brought to sit in general councils . originally abbots were but laymen , but now they must all be priests ; yet it was never before heard of , that priests did sit in oecumenical councils . it is true , the rural-bishops ( or chorepiscopi ) did subscribe the canons of the council of nice and other general councils ; but whatever morinus and some others have said , to prove that they were no more than priests , yet if it were not an impertinent digression , ●… think it could be easily made appear that they were bishops ; so that it is most certain that no priests did subscribe and si●… in general councils for many ages in their own names , for what they did by proxy from their bishops , has no relation to this matter . but when the popes were setting up their monarchy in the west , they resolved to ballance the votes of the bishops by bringing in abbots to vote in their general councils , who were obliged by their interest to support the exaltation of the papal power , and suppressing of episcopal iurisdiction . in the first general council that was held by calistus the second , in the lat●…ran , sugerius , who was present , says , there were 300 and more bishops , but pandulphu●… says , there were present 997. partly bishops , partly abbots ; so that above 600. of these must have been abbots . in the third council of lateran we hear of none but bishops , but to make amends for that , the writs that summoned the fourth council of lateran , were sent to abbots as well as to bishops , and a vast number of them came . the writs for the second council of lions , were issued out , not only to abbots , but to inferior prelates by pope gregrory the tenth , and aquinas , and bonaventure , being then in great esteem , were also called to that council , though they were only friers . but pope clement the fifth took care to have a full assembly , when he called the general council at vienna , for the writs were not only to patriarchs , primates , metropolitans , arch-bishops , bishops , and abbots , as had been done before , but to all priors , deans , provosts , archdeacons , archpriests , and all other prelates of monasteries and churches exempted , and non-exempted . and thus the popes were sure to carry things in such assembles as they pleased . and it is no unpleasant thing to observe what were the contests between the popes and the bishops , which are plainly the same , and have been managed by the same arts and intrigues , that the contests in political matters between prerogative and privilege have been . for near five ages the matter was contested by the prelates , but the power of the abbots , and the other exemptions of the deans and chapters did much weaken the bishops authority ▪ and the secular princes did joyn with the popes to bear down the bishops , who having great revenues , did generally joyn with the people for the asserting of publick liberty . but the popes gave them up as sacrifices to their princes , till they forced them afterwards to seek to them for shelter from the severity of their princes , and then the tables were turned . all this was not a little set forward by the credit which the begging friers got every where in the 13th . century , for the monks were then become as scandalous as the secular clergy had ever been , and were generally very ignorant ; so that they could not serve the ends of the papacy any more , but the austere lives of the franciscans , their poverty and coarse garments girt about with ropes , their bare legs and seeming humility gained them great esteem ; and the zealous dominicans , whose course of life was not so severe , yet were as poor ▪ and preached much ; and aquinas , scotus , and bonaventure , brought in among the friers the learning of the school●… which was then in great esteem in the world , all which concurred to dispose the people to receive them with great veneration . these were also imployed by the popes every where , and were also exempted from episcopal visitation , and had priviledges to build churches , and seminaries , to preach , hear confessions , and administer the sacraments every where , and by these means the episcopal iurisdiction was quite overthrown , and the papacy became absolute and those orders of mendicant friers were clearly a presbytery , they being a company of priests that acknowledged no episcopal iurisdiction over them , and their great chapter was their general assembly , and their annual , or triennial generals and provincials , who are chosen by them , were like the elected moderators of provincial and national assemblies . in this only did that presbytery differ from the geneva form , that it was subject only to christ's pretended vicar , the other claims to be only subordinate to christ himself , but both did equally rebel against their bishops . yet the schism of the papacy had almost overturned all , for the bishops met in a general council at constance ( i call all those councils general , according to the style of the church of rome , for i know there was not a conncil truly general among them all ) and there they thought to retrieve their authority , and to be quit with the popes for bringing in abbots and other inferior prelates , they brought in deputies from universities , to sit and judg with them , and they thought they had made sure work of all by their acts , that regulated the popes election , restrained his power , subjected him to the judgment of a general council , and above all , by their act for a decennial general council , with such provisions in it , that one would think the act for triennial parliaments was copyed from that original : but alas , all this proved to no purpose , for as aeneas sylvius wisely said , that since all preferments were given by the pope , and none by the council , he must certainly have the better of it at long run , which as it made himself turn about , so it brought off many more ; and at length the pope became master of all , and at the council of florence the generals of orders were brought in to have votes there . there was another great engine also made use of , by which all the rules of the primitive church was overturned , which was the popes assuming a power to hear , and judg all causes originally . all that the popes pretended to for many ages was to be the highest tribunal to which the last appeal did lie . and this was not only never yielded to by the eastern churches , but even the african churches , though a part of the latin church , would never submit to it , and yet the receiving an appeal had a very favourable plea , that a person who had been oppressed by a faction , perhaps in his own countrey , might find relief and protection elsewhere : but after the 8th . century , and that the forged and now universally acknowledged spurious decretals were received , they set up a new pretension of iudging causes originally , taking matters out of the hands of the iudg ordinary , and bringing the cognizance of them to rome , and setting up many reserved cases which could only be judged by the pope ; and the canonists that were a servile sort of people , who wrote chiefly for preferment , did upon all occasions find new distinctions for enlarging the popes power . but because it was intolerable tedious and expensive to carry all such matters to rome ; therefore that it might not be too heavy a burden to the world , legantine courts were every where set up , where all those tryals were made . by all these ways were the primitive rules broken , and such a confusion was brought in upon all ecclesiastical offices , that no ancient landmark or boundary was thought so sacred , that they did not either leap over or change it . i will not enlarge further on this subject , and having already transgressed the bounds of a preface , i will not lay open the other violations of the sacred offices at the full length , but as the value of every thing is no less prejudiced by exalting it too high , than by depressing it too much , for a string over bended must crack ; so the popes did as much wrong these functions by exalting them out of measure , as they had done by encroaching ▪ so far upon them . and this was done by the croissades , indulgences , privileged places , iubilees and redemptions from purgatory , with other things of that nature , which the monks and friers did every where preach and proclaim ; these things did savour of interest so palpably , that it was no wonder if most people were so alienated from them , that the first reformers found all persons disposed to forsake the communion of a church that had so long deceived them by such gross impostures . many had groaned long under all these corruptions , and of such the greater part received the reformation , others hoping to have got things brought about to a better pass , continued still in that communion ; but how little either erasmus , 〈◊〉 , c●…ssander , or many more such could prevail , the event shewed ; for in the council of trent ( which was not obtained , but after many years sute ; frequent addresses not without threatnings , at length extorting it ) how little could be carried appears even from cardinal pallavicini's own history , two grand points , upon which the bishops that had honest designs , intended to raise the reformation of discipline and manners were the declaring the episcopal iurisdiction to be of divine right ; and that the residence of all ecclesiastical incumbents , was also of divine right , but these could not be carried . lainez the general of the jesuits , and the whole court party , appearing with great vehemence against the first of these , asserting that all ecclesiastical iurisdiction was wholly and only in the pope . and from this one thing it may appear how little iustice or fair-dealing was to be expected from that council , towards those whom they called hereticks , when the bishops themselves being iudges , in a thing in which they were also parties , i mean about the divine right of their own iurisdiction , they could not carry it , for it was never heard of before , that where 〈◊〉 was both iudg and party , he was cast . and in the other trifling reformations that were enacted there , what care was taken by distinctions and reservations , chiefly that grand and general one of saving the dignity of the apostolical see , to leave a door open by which those very corruptions which they seemed to condemn and cast out , might be again taken up as most of them have been since . so that the issue of that assembly was to establish the papal authority , to cut off all possible hopes of abating an ace of the errors of that church ( when all controverted points were turned to articles of faith , and the contrary opinions condemned by anathematisms ) to disover how in possible it is to get the abuses of that church effectually reformed ; and in fine , to cure all people of their expectations of any great good from such meetings for the future ; and this has since appeared very visibly . for as it is not to be expected that the popes should call any general councils , ex motu proprio , so no christian princes have thought i●… worth the while to solicite that court for a new council . and thus i have hinted at several particulars from which it may appear how much the church of rome has confounded those holy functions , how she has robbed some of them of the power and iurisdiction which they have from christ , and ▪ has put a power in the hands of others which they never had from christ. and if the vigour of ecclesiastical discipline is not set up among us as it ought to be , we owe it for the greatest part to those corruptions which they brought in , and being once received , are not easily to be rooted out of the minds of the people . but to a great many all that can be said of the disorders that have been brought in or kept up in that church by the popes , will seem sleight and of no force : for they will plainly tell us , that they do not all believe the pope is infallible , but are satisfied there are many things done by him that are amiss , and need to be amended : they only adhere to the catholick church , to whose definitions and decrees they submit and resign themselves : and yet no body writes more sharply against the reformation and the protestant churches than these men do , charging them with heresie and schism , and every thing that is hateful to mankind . this way of writing was begun in the sorbon , and never more pompously than at this time , by the writers of the port ▪ royal , and has been taken up here by some whom their adversaries call blackloists , who speak almost with equal indignation of the court of rome , and the reformation . this i know works great effects on some , and has a very specious appearance ; therefore i hope the reader will pardon me if i hold him yet a little longer in the preface , to unmask this pretension of some which otherwise may impose upon him . i shall then make it appear that the maintainers of these principle must either be men of no conscience at all , and suc●… as stick not at mocking both god and man at perjury and the foulest kind of equivo●…tion ; or if they be true to these principles they must on many occasions do the sam●… things for which they condemn us , an ▪ count us hereticks and schismaticks . an ▪ this i shall instance in three things whic●… are of the greatest consequence to a church namely , doctrine , worship , and government . for the first of these , when the po●… makes a decision in any controverted poin●… if i do not think him infallible , i retai●… still my own freedom to judge as i am con ▪ vinced , and so i may perchance be of another mind ; but if the pope will have 〈◊〉 churchmen , or all bishops ( as was late●… done in the case of the five proposition of jansenius ) to condemn the contrary opinions , or subscribe formularies about i●… they must either do what is commanded and so act against their conscience , ●… quivocate and be perjured : or if they do it not , they must be proceeded against , first for contempt and contumacy , and next for heresie ; and then they shall be hereticks as well as we are : and if in one point a man reserves his private sentiments , notwithstanding the popes decision , why not in a great many ; and if it be no fault to have different opinions , then , since a mans actions must be governed by his persuasions , it will be no fault to maintain and teach them , if they be of great importance , at least it is a great sin to renounce and deny them . therefore if pope leo the x. was not infallible , luther was no heretick , though condemned by him , especially a great many of the articles for which he was condemned , having never been decided by any of their pretended general councils : nor do these men think that the present practice of the church is a forcible argument , for those of the port-royal have both complained of it , and studied to change it in the matter of pennance and absolution ; so that it will not be easie , nay not possible for them to prove that luther was a heretick , since he was never condemned by any infallible power : therefore it is not the authority of the condemnation , but the merit of the cause , that makes one a hereti●…k , which is what we plead for . from which it is evident , that , let the pope decree what he will , all of that communion must either acquiesce in it , or they shall become hereticks . this to such as believe the pope is infallible , is no matter of difficulty , for if i be once perswaded of that , all his decisions do captivate my reason , but if i am not , i must either subdue my conscience to my interest , or be that monster which is called an heretick . it is true , both civil and ecclesiastical government punishes all obstinate and refractory persons , who stand out against publick conclusions , but still the subject , if these laws be injust , has a clear conscience amidst his sufferings ; therefore this is not parallel to their doctrine , who make all that comply not with their decisions , hereticks , which is a matter of great guilt before god. let them give an argument that will make a protestant a heretick , which will not infer the same against a jansenist . and if they go to the merits of the cause , it is a tryal we have never declined ▪ so till these men learn to trie all their reasonings together , there is no great account to be made of them . the second particular in which i shall shew the fallaciousness of these mens reasonings , is in the matter of divine worship , which of how great consequence it is , needs not be made out , it must be a sin of a high nature , either to prophane the name of god by any piece of worship which i judg sinful , or to use any devotions about which i am not at all or at least not fully perswaded . now the whole worship of their church coming originally and onely from the popes , who have given authority to what offices they will , have made saints and added devotions to them as they pleased ; all persons in that communion must either by a blind resignation accept of every thing in their worship which the pope imposes , believing him infallible ; or if they are not of that perswasion , but give themselves leave to examine the offices whether they do it by the scriptures , the fathers and tradition , or by the rules of reason , they must needs see there are many injustifiable things in their offices , many saints are in the breviary , about whose canonisation they are not at all assured : and in a word , one shall not speak with one of these principles , but they will acknowledg there is great need of reforming their offices ; yet they must worship god according to them , as they are , otherwise they are schismaticks , and fall under that same condemnation , for which they are so severe upon us . therefore it must either be the merits of the cause that makes a schismatick , or if a condemnation for separating from authorised offices does it , then they must resolve to be guilty of it , or worship god , contrary to their consciences : they have no rules for their offices , but the popes pleasure , for councils never made any ; and indeed it is the most unreasonable thing that can be , to put the direction of the whole worship of god in one man , or a succession of mens power , unless they be believed infallible . the last thing i shall mention to shew how unreasonable they are , who deny the popes infallibility , and yet condemn the reformation so severely , is in the point of government , which though it be not of so high , nor so universal a nature as the two former are ; yet it must be acknowledged to be of great importance . and that the prelates of that church are fast tied to the pope , without any reserves or exceptions , unless it be that ( of saving my order ) the sense whereof is not fully understood , will appear from the oath they make to the pope before they are ordained : from the consideration of which it was that king henry the 8th . laid it out to his parliament that they were but half his subjects , and by the oath then taken by the bishops of england , as is set down by hall ; it appears that since that time there are very considerable additions made to that oath , which any that will compare them together , will easily discern . if men make conscience of an oath , they must be in a very hard condition that believe the pope to be infallible , and yet are so bound to him by such a bond. if the superior be infallible , the subject may without any trouble in his conscience , swear obedience in any terms that can be conceived . but when the superior is believed subject to error and mistake , then their swallow must be very large that can swear to preserve , defend , increase , and promote the rights , honours , priviledges , and authority of the holy roman church of our lord the pope , and his successors foresaid . — the decrees , orders , or appointments , reservations , provisions , or mandates apostolical ; i shall observe with all my strength , and make them to be observed by others . — and i shall according to my power , persecute and oppose all hereticks , schismaticks , and rebells , against the said our lord and his successors . — and i shall humbly receive , and diligently execute the apostolical commands . which words being full , and without those necessary and just reserves of the obedience promised to ecclesiastical superiors , in all things lawful and honest all the prelates of the roman communion are as fast tied to the pope , as if they believed him infallible ; for if they believed him such , they could be tied to nothing more than absolute and unlimited obedience . therefore they are in so much a worse estate than others be , which hold that opinion , because they have the sa●… ▪ obligation bound upon them by oath . and let the pope command what he will , the●… must either obey him , or confess themselve●… guilty of breach of oath and perjur●… ▪ and i hope the reader will observe wh●… mercy , all , whom they account hereticks , schismaticks , and rebels , again●… their lord the pope , are to expect at their hands , who make their bishops swear 〈◊〉 persecute all such according to their power ; so that we may by this be abundantly satisfied of their good intention●… and inclinations , when ever it shall be i●… their power to fulfil the contents of thi●… oath ; for let any of them speak ever 〈◊〉 softly or gently , if he comes to be consecrated a bishop , he must either be perjured ▪ or turn a persecuter of all protestants , wh●… are in their opinion the worst sort of hereticks and schismaticks . and certainly it is much more reasonble to calculate what in reason we ought to expect from the prelates of that church , if ever our sins provoke god to deliver us over to their tyranny , from the oath they swear at their consecration , than from all the meek and good natured words with which they now study to abuse some among us , which is so common an artifice of all who aspire to power and government , that one might think the trick should be tried no more ; but some love to be cheated a hundred times over . from these instances it is apparent , that the pope has every whit as much authority in that church , and over all in it , as if he were believed infallible , since both the doctrine , worship , and government of their church are determined by him , to whose award all must not only submit , but be concluded by it in their subscriptions , worship , and other practices . so that the opinion of the popes being fallible , gives such persons no ease nor freedom ( except it be to their secret thoughts ) but brings them under endless scruples and perplexities by the obligations and oaths that are imposed upon them ▪ which bind them to a further obedience and compliance than is consistent with a fallible authority . and therefore their principles being so incoherent that they cannot maintain both their charge against us of heresie and schism , and their opinion of the pope●… fallibility , and keep a good conscience withal : there is one of three things to be expected from men of that principle , either that they shall quite throw off th●… popes tyrannical yoke , and assert their own liberty , reserving still their other opinions , as was done in the days of king henry the eighth , or that they shall joyn●… in communion with us , or that they shall continue as they are , complying with every thing imposed on them by the court o●… rome , preferring policy to a good conscience , studying by frivolous distinctions to reconcile these compliances with their principles , which any man easily see are inconsistent . that those of the port-royal have done the last , is laid to their charge , both by calvinists and jesuits ; and as i am credibly informed by some of their own number , who do complain of their subscribing formularies , and every thing else sent from rome , which they have opposed as long as they could ; but when the court o●… rome gets their conquering king on their side , so that they can withstand no longer unless they will suffer for their conscience , then they subscribe as formally and fully as others do . and this compliance is to be looked for from all the men of those principles , if they do not prefer their conscience to their interest ; and god knows there be many such , for either they must comply , though against their conscience , or retire themselves from that communion ; and if they do this last , then all that they accuse us for , and all those common topicks , with which they ply the vulgar , against separating from the catholick church , the setting up of private iudgments against publick , the multiplying new errors by appealing to scriptures , or other books , which is the way of all hereticks : these i say , with many more of the like nature , will all fall as heavily upon themselves . nor is there any reason to think they will throw off the pope , as was done under king henry the 8th . for though a great and high spirited king was able to bring that about ; yet is it possible that a few priests , though they had the honesty and boldness to design such a thing , could ever compass it : their followers would look upon them , if they should but set about it , as hereticks , and hate them no less ( if not more ) than they do us ; so that it seems a weak and too sanguine an imagination , to think such a design can ever come to any thing ▪ therefore these persons must either turn ▪ over quite to the intrigues of the court o●… rome ( with what conscience let them se●… to it ) or joyn themselves to us . and of this last there is no great cause to have any hope , since we see none write more bitterly against us than they do , as if they would thereby redeem their credit ▪ either with the court of rome , or with their party here , who being possest withsome suspitions of them , they to clear these ▪ use the common shift of railing foully 〈◊〉 those , with whom it is insinuated they have some correspondence . this style mr. arnaud has thought fit to write in more than any body , which was the more unseemly in him , considering both his noble education , and his other excellent and gentile qualities ; and indeed i am heartily glad to find the grows ashamed and out of love with that way of writing , in which none has more grosly exceeded all the bounds of moderation than he has done . they having declared themselves so fully and formally concerning the reformation , there is no reason to expect they should ever joyn with us , and they are neither so numerous nor so considerable , as to be able ●…o form themselves into a society distinct from rome . therefore what is it o●… be looked for from them , but that for the most part shall herd in with the rest , and comply even against their consciences , with all the corruptions of the papacy . and as a noble and ingenious person said , the long whip of rome must bring in all these straglers ; and if two or three will stand out and lie under their censures , they shall have little credit , and small interest with their own party . so that there is nothing to be expected from any thing they can do or signifie . and therefore all the noise some make of the difference between the court and church of rome , is only a pretty notion , by which such as are speculative , and consider not the world , may be taken a little , but when they examine it further , they must see that it will be nothing in practice . the interest , favour , and preferments , lie wholly the other way , and the greatest part is led by these ; and such honest men as despise these , are either thought fools or knaves ; some further design being suspected , as the reason of why they pursue not present advantages . but preferments being bountifully given by the court of rome to their creatures ; others who are loaded with their censures , can never be imagined so considerable , as either to have great interest at home with their party ( which being generally made up of ignorance , and zeal , hates those moderate men a●… tamperers , and love none so much as the thorough-paced papist . ) much less can they ever have any power in the seminaries and nurseries beyond sea : so that all that come over in the mission shall be well leavened before they come among us , with the high principles of the court of rome . therefore i cannot apprehend any advantage that can be reasonably looked f●…r from the cherishing the men of those principles , though i am very well satisfied some of them are honest men ; but as they be very few who will openly own and stick to them , so i doubt not but if the owning these maxims turned to a matter of advantage , and ease , abundance that are not honest would pretend to be of the same perswasion . we see that generally ( a few inst●…nces only excepted ) they joyn together in the same intrigues and designs , and why we should think it possible to draw off any considerable party from the rest , i see no reason ; for as it were undoubtedly both wise and good to cherish any motions that might disjoynt them one from another ; so a few individual persons , how deserving soever they may be , cannot be of that importance , that for their sakes a settlement should be altered , and colour given for a great many to deceive and abuse us . and i freely acknowledg that the plain dealing papists , who owns the popes infallibility and absolute authority , as he speaks , and acts most sutably to the other principles of their church , so is less to be suspected and feared , since he goes roundly to work , than others who speak more softly , and yet are in the same designs , and so may more safely and cunningly catch unwary persons , who either are not much on their guard , or are not well acquainted with their artisices ; but the other are more open and less dangerous . it is now high time for me to quit this digression , and to wind up a preface that is already too long . i shall only , before i make an end , lay before the reader , a few of the arts of the missionaries among us , in the dispersing their papers and books . they write them with great confidence , and swell up the arguments they offer , with the biggest words and severest expressions that are possible , which works mightily upon the gentle reader , for tho modesty in writing has great art in it to work upon an ingenuous mind ; yet that to the weak and credulous , is a feeble and dispirited thing , and they are never so apt to believe any thing as when it is confidently averred with great pomp and much vehemence . if their books be well written , they want not printing presses neither beyond sea nor in england , and we shall soon hear of them ; if they find themselves so baffled ( as they have been of late by some great writers in this church ) that they cannot answer with any tolerable shew of learning and honesty , then they spread it about that there is an answer ready , but the visitors of the press are so careful , that nothing can escape their diligence . but if either their papers be too barefaced to be owned , or if they know them to be so weak that they dare not put them to a tryal , then instead of printing them , they copy them out and give them about . of the former sort , the world has got a good evidence in the discourses lately published about the oath of allegeance , which they intended to whisper in corners , but are now proclaimed openly . and of the latter sort is the following paper , which begins and ends with the highest confidence that is possible , but is so extreamly defective in the point of argument , that they did very wisely , not to adventure on publishing it . but they must write and do somwhat to keep spirit in their party ; and since the defending their own church , has succeeded so ill with them , they do wisely to change the scene , and carry in the war to our own church , and make her the scene of it , but they are as ill at attacquing , as defending ; and if we be but safe from their mines , we need not fear their batteries , but their under-ground work is a better game , and if they cannot wast us with destruction at noontide , nor make their arrows fly by day , then they study to infect us with a pestilence that walketh in darkness , and by secret contrivances and concealed papers , to compass that which they know can never be brought about by fairdealings and avowed practices . but truth is great ( and the god of truth is greater ) and will prevail over the fraud of the serpent , as well as the force of the lion. and if we study to adorn our profession , and walk worthy of our holy calling , we need not fear our cause , nor all the endeavours of those that study to defame us . without this the most laboured apologies will not signifie much to support our credit ; for the world is more affected with lively instances and great examples , than with the most learned composures . every man's understanding is wrought on by the one , the other only prevail on considering and judicious persons . and any charge that is put in against the pastors or orders of a church , will be but little regarded , when those that bear office in it , chiefly in the highest degrees , are burning and shining lights , few will then stumble or be shaken with any thing that can be said to eclipse their brightness . 't is for the most part want of merit in churchmen , that recommends any arguments that are levelled at their persons or functions , to the world. and though malice , and spite ferments with the more rage , the worthier the persons are against whom it works ; yet all attempts must needs be , not only unsuccessful , but fall back with shame on the authors , when all the world sees the unjustice of them . the contents . arguments to prove the invalidity of the orders of the church of england , page 2. a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england , in answer to the former paper , p. 19. an appendix about the forms of ordaining priests and bishops in the latin church , p. 107. errata . the first paper is printed exactly according to the copy that was sent me , but these that follow seem to be the errors 〈◊〉 the transcriber . page 3. line 24. for such a form , read to such a powe●… , p. 8. l. 27. for 1662. r. 1558. page 28. l. 19. dele and , p. 29. l. 26. for of r. for , p. 38. l. 4. for are r. were , p. 87. l. 15. for too soon r. too late , p. 105 ▪ l. 25. after ground r. for , p. 112. l. 19. for leges r. legis , l. 22. for divum r. deum , p. 123. l. 12. for sanctifica r. sanctificat●… ▪ p. 126. l. 8. for novis r. novei , p. 133. l. 26. dele as . arguments to prove the invalidity of the orders of the church of england . first then i prove that the ministers of the church of england are no priests , through the defect of the form of ordination , which was this , pronounced to every one of them when they came to be ordained : receive the holy ghost , whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven , whose sins thou retainest , they are retained ; and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of god , and his holy sacraments , in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost , amen . after which the bishop delivers a bible to him , saying , take thou authority to preach the word , and minister the holy sacraments , in the congregation where thou shalt be so appointed . and my first reason is , because this form wants one essential part of priesthood , which is to consecrate the most holy sacrament of christs body and blood , giving only power to administer this sacrament , which any deacon may do . that to consecrate and make present christs body and blood is necessary , dr. bramhal the bishop of derry , one of the chief abettors of the protestant ordination , grants , in his book of the consecration and succession of protestant bishops , saying , the form of words whereby men are made priests , must express power to consecrate or make present christs body and blood : and a little after , they who are ordained priests ought to have power to consecrate christs body and blood , that is , to make it present , page 226. which it is evident by the very terms themselves that this form expresses , nor gives not , having not one word expressing that power which it cannot give without expressing it . secondly , because it wants another essential part , which is , to offer sacrifice , which the apostle requires , heb. 5. 1. saying , every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to god , that he may offer both gifts and sacrifice for sins . even according to the protestant bible , and which cannot be meant only of christ , as some protestants would have it ; for in the 3. verse he says , and by reason hereof he ought as for the people , so also for himself to offer for sins : whereas christ had no sins of his own to offer for . thirdly , because those words , whose sins , &c. at most gave power to forgive sins , and not to consecrate and offer sacrifice , having nothing to signifie that which is the chief office of priesthood . fourthly , because none could institute the form of a sacrament to give grace and power to make present the body and blood of christ , but the author of grace , and who had power over that sacred body and blood : but those that instituted this form , were neither authors of grace , nor had power over the sacred body and blood : therefore they could not institute such a form. that they who instituted this protestant form had no such power is proved by the act of parliament , the 3. 4. of edward the vi. cap. 12. ( which could not pretend such a 〈◊〉 ) in these words , forasmuch as to concord and unity to be had within the kings majesties dominions , it is requisite to have one uniform fashion and manner for making and consecrating bishops , priests , &c. be it therefore enacted by the kings highness , with the assents of the lords spiritual and temporal , and the commons of this present parliament assembled , and by the authority of the same ( mark by which authority they are made ) that such form and manner of making and consecrating of archbishops , bishops , priests , &c. as by six prelates and six other men of this realm , learned in gods law by the kings majesty ( who was but a child ) to be appointed and assigned , or by the most number of them shall be devised for that purpose , and set forth under the great seal of england , before the first day of april next coming , and shall by vertue of this present act ( see what vertues ) be lawfully exercised , and used , and none other , any statute , law , or usage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding . by authority whereof those prelates , and me●… learned in the law invented and made th●… form before mentioned , never heard of before either in scripture or church of god. from which i thus argue and prove my minor . they that instituted the form were th●… king and parliament , 3. 4. edward vi. bu●… that king and parliament were neither authors of grace , not had power over the body and blood of christ : therefore they that instituted this form , were neither authors o●… grace , nor had power over the body and blood of christ , nor consequently could make it present . fifthly , they are no true priests , because the bishops that made them were no true bishops , nor so much as priests ; and no man can give power to another which he hath not himself . that they were no true bishops nor priests who pretended to make these priests ( which shall be the second part of my discourse ) i prove thus . protestant bishops no bishops , nor so much as priests . first , they are no priests , because made by the same form which other english ministers were , which i have clearly proved to be null . that they are no true bishops , i prove , first out of this very principle already laid ; because they are no true priests ; for as master mason , a chief champion of theirs says , epist. ded. ad episcop . paris . seeing he cannot be a bishop who is not a priest , if it can be proved we are no priests , there 's an end to our english church . and the great doctor of the church st. jerom , dial. cum lucifero , cap. 8. says . ecclesia non est quae non habet sacerdotem , it is no church that hath no priests . the protestant bishops therefore being no priests can be no true bishops , nor their church a church at all . secondly , they are no bishops , because their form of ordination is essentially invalid and null , seeing it cannot be valid , ( no more than that of priesthood ) unless it be in fit words , which signifies the order given ; as mr. mason says in his vindiciae ecclesiae anglicanae lib. 1. c. 16. n. 6. in these terms , not any words can serve for this institution , but such as are fit to express the power of the order given . and the reason is evident , because ordination being a sacrament ( as the same author says , lib. 1. n. 8. and doctor bramhal , page 96. of the consecration of protestant bishops ) that is a visible sign of invisible grace given by it . there must be some visible sign or words in the form of it , to signifie the power given , and to determine the matter ( which is the imposition of hands of it self a dumb sign , and common to priests and deacons , confirming , curing , &c. ) to the grace of episcopal order ; otherwise it were sufficient to say at the imposition of hands be thou a constable , or god make thee an honest man. but there is no such visible sign or words in the protestant form , expressing this episcopal power given ; therefore no such power is given . that there is no such sign or words in the protestant form , i prove out of the form it self , which is this ( made in king edward the vi. time , and continued till the happy restauration of his majesty that now is ) take the holy ghost , and remember that thou stir up the grace of god that is in thee by imposition of hands ; for god hath not given us the spirit of fear , but of power , and of love , and soberness . in which is not any word signifying episcopal power or ordination ; and therefore for this defect in their form they are no true bishops . against what has been said you will object first , that i prove them to be no priests , because they are no bishops that made them : and on the other side i prove them no bishops , because they are no priests ; which is a vicious circle . but i easily answer this , because i first prove à priori , that is , from the essential which ought to give being to each of them tat they are severally null ; and each of them being null for that reason , it is evident , that it is a cause of invalidity in the other : for as he can be no bishop who is proved to be no priest , so he can make no priest , who is proved to be no bishop . secondly , you will object and salve up all the defects afore-mentioned in one word , to wit , that although the form used in the church of england were invalid in king edward ' s , queen elizabeth's , king james ' s , and king charles the first 's time , for want of a valid form of ordination , yet now it is valid in our sovereign king charles the second's , with whom the parliament now sitting hath appointed a true form : enacting , that for the future , to wit , after st. bartholomew's day , 1662. the form of ordaining a priest should be , receive the holy ghost for the office of a priest : and of a bishop , receive the holy ghost for the office and work of a bishop . but to this i 'le answer you in another word , that the salve is worse than the sore ; because by this change of the form before established , they acknowledge it to be null ; for why else need they change it . secondly , by it they in effect acknowledge all their bishops and priests till that time to be null , because ordained by a form that was null , and could not give power it had not , nor signified . thirdly , because being no bishops already , they cannot ordain validly by any form whatsoever ; for no man can give what he has not , as has been said before . lastly , whatsoever power this act gives to ordain , is from the parliament , and not from christ ; which is what i first undertook to show , and destroys their orders root and branch . now although the bishops of the church of england , and their ministers grant this change of their form of ordination , yet if any one should deny it , you need only look upon the form of making bishops , and priests , made 〈◊〉 . and which was only used in the church of england for an hundred years , to be found in every booksellers shop , authorized and commanded in the act of uniformity , made 1662. to be only used to st. bartholomew ' s day of that year ; and that other enacted to be only used from thenceforward , and printed in the common-prayer-books of cathedral churches , out of which i have found it hard to be got ; the bishops , as most think , suppressing it for shame , and leaving it only in those places where it was necessary to be made use of , and not permitting it to be otherwise dispersed abroad , although the act of uniformity which made it , commands upon forfeiture of 3 l. for every month after st. bartholomew's day , 1662. that every church , chappel , collegiate church , college , and hall should have a true printed copy of it . thus i hope i have fully proved that the church of england has no true priest or bishop for want of ordination . now i shall also show that they have no iurisdiction or authority to teach , preach , exact tythes , inflict censures , to be pastors , or to exercise any ecclesiastical function whatsoever from christ , but only from the parliament : and my third conclusion is , that protestant ministers and bishops have no power to preach , &c. from christ , but only from the parliament . this i prove , because they have no more power than the first protestant archbishop of canterbury , matthew parker had , who was the chief , and from whom ( as it were the conduit of all ) iurisdiction was derived to the rest . that he had no such power or iurisdiction i prove , first ▪ because they that confirmed and consecrated him had no such power to confer upon him of themselves , to wit. william barlow , late bishop of bath and wells , now elect of chichester , john scory , late of chichester , now elect of hereford ; miles coverdale , late of exeter , and john hodgskins bishop suffragan , who were none of them actual bishops of any see , but two elect only , and another quondam only , and so had no actual iurisdiction at all , the fourth only suffragan to canterbury , and who had no iurisdiction , but what he had from the arshbishop of canterbury , much less authority to give him iurisdiction over himself , and all the bishops in the land , as the other three had no power at all to give him , much less so transcendent an one , because none can give what he has not . secondly , because they had their sole power from the queen , and she ( besides the incapacity of her sex ) had no power of her self , but only according to the statutes in that case provided , as appears by her letters patent yet extant , and to be seen in the rolls in these words , elizabetha regina , &c. elizabeth queen , &c. to the reverend father in christ , william , &c. whereas the archiepiscopal see of canterbury , being lately void by the natural death of my lord reginal pool cardinal , the late and immediate archbishop and pastor of it , at the humble petition of the dean and chapter of our cathedral and metropolitan church in canterbury , called christs church , we did by our letters patents grant licence to them to choose to themselves another for archbishop and pastor of the see aforesaid , and they have chosen matthew parker , &c. we have given our royal assent and favour to the said election ; and we signifie this to you by the tenor of these presents , requiring , and by the fidelity and love wherein you are bound to us , firmly enjoyning , commanding you , that you , or four of you effectually confirm the said matthew parker , archbishop and pastor elect of the said church , and confirm the said election , and consecrate him archbishop and pastor of the said church , and do all other things which in this behalf are incumbent on your pastoral office , according to the form of the statutes in this case made and provided . out of which words , first , i note that the queen here , and all the clergy with her , acknowledge cardinal pool the true and rightful archbishop of canterbury , by which they own catholic ordination and iurisdiction to be valid , lawful , and good . secondly , i note ( and confirm the main assertion ) that the queen knowing the common law , and ancient laws of the kingdom , required the authority , consent , and commission ( or bull ) of the pope , to empower the confirmers and consecrators of the archbishop of canterbury as the only superior of that see ; and withal that he would not grant and give it to make a protestant archbishop ; she by her supreme authority as head of the church of england not only authorized them that were to confirm and consecrate him , but also ( pope-like ) supplied all defects , whether in quality , faculty , or any other thing wanting and necessary in the consecrators for that performance by the laws of the church or kingdom : for so it followed in the same patent , supplying nevertheless by our supreme regal authority , if any thing in you , or any of you , or in your condition , state , or faculty , to the performance of the premisses is wanting of these things , that by the statutes of our realm , or the ecclesiastical laws in this behalf are requisite or necessary ( which she therefore supposed and knew well enough to be necessary and wanting , for otherwise it had been in vain for her to supply them ) the condition of the time and necessity of things requiring it . by which you see they could do neither of these acts of confirming or consecrating him archbishop of canterbury without her commission , which was not only necessary to empower them , but also to dispense with them , and make their acts valid non obstante , notwithstanding the laws of the land. that these letters patents authorized them is clear out of the instrument of his confirmation , to be seen in the records at lambeth in their own words following . in the name of the lord , amen . we william barlow , iohn , miles , &c. by the queens commissional letters specially and lawfully deputed commissioners , &c. by the supreme authority of the queen to us in this behalf committed , confirm the said election of matthew parker , &c. supplying by the supreme authority of the queen to us delegated , if any thing be wanting in us , or any of us , or in our condition , state , or faculty to the performance of the premisses of these things , that by the statutes of the realm , or the ecclesiastical laws in this behalf are requisite or necessary , &c. as above . and whereas the popes commission ( or bull ) used to be produced , by authority of which all archbishops of canterbury were consecrated , and their election confirmed . now in place of that , says the act of it upon parker's records , proferebatur regium mandatum pro ejus consecratione . the queens mandate or commission for consecrating him , was produc'd as the authority for what they did . lastly , i prove that the queen had her authority from the parliament . first , from the statute 25. henry 8. cap. 20. where the parliament repeats out of another act made that present parliament , that if any elected by the king , and presented to the see of rome to be archbishop or bishop should be delayed , then he should be consecrated by two bishops appointed by the king : and then in the same statute grants further , that all recourse be forbidden to rome , and archbishops and bishops be confirmed and consecrated by bishops to be assigned by the king. secondly , out of the act of 8. eliz. 1. made purposely to set forth the authority next under god , by which matthew parker and the other first protestant bishops in the beginning of the queens reign were made , by reciting how they were made by the authority of her majesty , and how she was authorized to that end by the aforesaid statute of henry viii . and the statute of 1. eliz. 1. in these words , first , it is well known to all the degrees of this realm , that the late king henry the eighth was as well by all the clergy then of this realm in their several convocations , as also by all the lords spiritual and temporal , and commons in divers of his parliaments justly and rightfully recognized and acknowledged to have the supreme power , jurisdiction , and authority over the ecclesiastical state of the same , and that the said king did in the twenty fifth year of his reign set forth a certain order of the manner and form , how archbishops and bishops should be made , &c. and although in the reign of the late queen the said act was repealed , yet nevertheless at the parliament 1. eliz. the said act was revived , and by another act they made all jurisdiction , priviledges , &c. spiritual and ecclesiastical , as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority hath hitherto been , or lawfully may be used over the ecclesiastical state of this realm is fully and absolutely by authority of the same parliament ( mark by what authority ) united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm ( mark here how she is made pope ) and by the same statute there is also given to the queen ( mark given ) power and authority by letters patents to assign and authorize such persons as she shall think fit ( whether clergy-men , lawyers , merchants , coblers , or any other , so they be naturally born subjects of the realm , for the statute requires no more ) to exercise under her all manner of jurisdiction in any wise touching or concerning any spiritual jurisdiction in this realm . whereupon the queen having in her order and disposition all the said jurisdictions , &c. hath by her supreme authority caused divers to be duly made and consecrated archbishops and bishops , according to such order and form , and with such ceremonies in and about their consecration , as were allowed and set out by the said acts , &c. and further , her highness hath in her letters patents used divers special words whereby , by her supreme authority she hath dispensed with all causes and doubts of imperfections or disability , &c. as is to be seen more a●… large in the same act. in which you see declared by the queen , matthew parker himself , and the whole parliament : that matthew parker the first protestant archbishop of canterbury was made archbishop ( as all the other protestant bishops in her time were ) by authority of the queen , and that she had her authority for it from the statutes , 25. henry 8. 20. and 1. eliz. 1. from whom all our protestant bishops since spring and descend , and derive all the power and authority that they have . from which you see clearly that protestant bishops have no authority to teach , preach , or to be bishops , but what originally they have from the parliament . which is still more evidently confirmed by this parliament now in being , which in the year 1662. by the act of uniformity , annulled the forementioned forms of ordination of priests and bishops ( as being deficient ) and appointed new ones by their own authority . so from the first to the last , all the protestant priests and bishops both heretofore and at this present , are only parliamentary priests and bishops , and not so from christ and his church , but only from their kings , queen , and parliaments . i must confess this present parliament may easily answer the parliaments of edward the vi. and queen elizabeth , why it hath lately altered the form of ordination , instituted and used by them ; to wit , because their forms were null and invalid , but what authority either of them had to make , alter , or use any form of ordination , or to give power to teach , preach , minister sacraments , or the like , of themselves , without authority from christ our saviour , there i must leave them to answer him . from the premisses i infer , first , that they being no priests nor bishops , theirs is no church ; as mr. mason and st. jerom grant . secondly , if no church , no part of the catholic church , out of which , and without whose faith kept entire and inviolate , no man can be saved ; as their own common-prayer-book affirms . thirdly , they can never eat the flesh of christ our lord , nor drink his blood , without which they cannot have life in them , john 6. 54. fourthly , they commit a most hainous sacriledge as often as they attempt to consecrate or minister the most holy sacrament , having no such power . fifthly , they commit the like sacriledge in presuming to hear confessions , or forgive sins . sixthly , all that communicate with them , and follow the same religion , are involved in the same sins , so that the blind leading the blind they must necessarily both fall into the ditch of eternal perdition , foretold by our saviour , matth. 15. 14. lastly , it is to be noted , that although i conceive i have clearly proved the ordination and iurisdiction of their priests and bishops to be invalid by every argument i have used to those ends , yet to my purpose it is sufficient to have proved it by any one : for as to prove a man to be a thief or forger , it is sufficient to prove he has stoln one horse , or forged one deed , to hang him for the one , or set him on the pillory for the other ; so to prove by one argument alone that they are no priests , nor bishops , nor have any iurisdiction , is sufficient to prove them guilty of sacramental forgery , and by that means of deluding and stealing away innumerable souls . a vindication of the ordinations of the church of england , in answer to the former paper . this paper which you sent me being only a repetition of those objections which were long ago refuted by master mason , with great learning and judgment , and more lately by the most ingenious lord primate of ireland , d. bramhall , there needs nothing else be said to it , but only to refer the reader to those learned and solid writings on this subject . the same plea was again taken up by the writers of two little books published since his majesties restauration , entitled erastus senior and erastus iunior ; which was thought so unreasonable even to some of that communion , that one of the learnedst priests they had in england did answer them ; and though he did not adventure on saying our ordination was good and valid , knowing how ingrateful that would have been to his party , yet he did overthrow all those arguments against it that are brought in this paper , and shew'd they were of no force . this writing of his has not been yet printed , but i have perused it in the manuscript . yet that this may not seem to be a declining of the task you have invited me to , and because the books i have mentioned are not perhaps in your hands , i shall say as much in answer to it as i hope may fully satisfy you or any impartial reader . the substance of the first argument to prove that our ministers are not priests , is , that by the form of our ordination the power of consecrating the sacrament of christs most holy body and blood , is not given : the words only importing a power to dispense the sacraments which any deacon may do : therefore the power of consecrating or making christ's body and blood present , being essential to the priesthood and our form not expressing it , and by consequence not giving it , it wants one essential requisite to the priesthood , and therefore those that are ordained by it , are not true priests . to which i answer , 1. if our form be the same in which christ ordained his apostles , we may be very well satisfied that it is good and sufficient . now when our saviour ordained them , s. iohn tells us that he said , receive the holy ghost , whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them , and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained : this being that mission which he gave them ( as the preceding words do clearly import ; as the father hath sent me , so send i you ) we can think no form so good and so full as that he made use of . it is true , we do not judg any form so essential as to annul all ordinations that have been made by any other , for then we should condemn both the ordinations of the primitive churches , and of the eastern churches at this day . and this is the reason why even according to the ancient and most generally received maxims of the schools , orders can be no sacrament ( tho in the general sense of the word sacrament , it being no term used in scripture , but brought into the church , we shall not much dispute against its being called so ) for by their doctrin both matter and form of the sacrament must be instituted by christ , and are not in the power of the church * . now they cannot but acknowledg that the form of giving orders in their church , was not instituted by christ , nor received in the church for divers ages , which made pope innocent say that the forms of ordination were ordered and invented by the church , and were therefore to be observed , otherwise it was sufficient in giving orders , to say , be thou a bishop , or be thou a priest ; therefore though we do not annul orders given by any other form , yet we have all reason to conclude that used by our saviour , to be not only sufficient , but absolutely the best and fittest . it is without all colour of reason , that the writers of that church will have the words our saviour pronounced , after he had instituted the eucharist , this do in remembrance of me , to be the form by which he ordained them priests ; for this do , must relate to the whole action of the sacrament , the receiving and eating , as well as the blessing and consecrating ; therefore these words are only a command to the church to continue the use of the holy sacrament in remembrance of christ. nor do those of the church of rome think these were the words by which christ ordained them priests , otherwise they would use them and think them sufficient ; but they use them not , but instead of them , say , receive thou power to offer sacrifice to god , and to celebrate mass both for the living and the dead . 2. if this be ane essential defect in our ordination , then there were no true priests in the primitive church for divers ages , and there are no true priests at this day in the greek church ; and yet neither of these can be acknowledged by the church of rome , for if they annul the ordinations of the primitive church , they likewise annul their own which are derived from them . they do also own the orders of the greek church to be valid , as appears by their receiving them into their communion at the council of florence , and by their practice ever since ; which morinus hath in the first part of his work so fully proved from the decrees of popes and councils , that the thing can no more be doubted ; and at this day there are greek churches at rome , maintain'd at the popes charge , in which orders are given according to the greek pontificals , as he informs us . that in the primitive forms there were no express words of giving power to consecrate the sacrament ; i appeal to the collection of the most antient forms of ordination , that morinus a priest of that church , and a penitentiary in great esteem at rome , has made , where it will be found that for many ages this power was not given expresly , or in so many words . the most ancient rubrick about this , is in the 4th . council of carthage , if those canons be genuine , when a priest is ordained , the bishop blessing him and laying his hand on his head , all the priests that are present shall likewise lay their hands on his head about the bishops hand : where we see that the imposition of hands and the bishop's blessing , was all the matter and form of these orders . denis ( called the areopagite ) tells us that the priest that was to be ordained , kneeled before the bishop , who laid his hand on his head and did consecrate him with a holy prayer , and then marked him with the sign of the cross ; and the bishop and the rest of the clergy that were present , gave him the kiss of peace . here we find nothing but imposition of hands and prayer . now there being no general liturgies nor ordinals then in the world , but every countrey ( or perhaps every diocess ) having their own forms , it was never defined in what form of words this prayer and benediction should be used ; but was left indifferent , so the substance of the blessing were preserved . it is true , the author of those constitutions that are ascribed to the apostles , sets down the prayer of ordination , for which he vouches saint iohn author ; which is , that the priest might be filled with the spirit of grace and wisdom to help and govern the flocks with a pure heart , that he might meekly teach the people , being full of healing operations and instructive discourses , and might serve god sincerely with a pure mind and willing soul , and might through christ perfect the sacred services for the people , in which there is nothing that gives in express words , the power of consecration . in the most ancient ritual that morinus could find , which belonged to the church of poictiers , and has been composed about the middle of the 6th . century ; there is no mention in the prayer of consecration of any such power . the same prayer of consecration is also in another ritual which he believes 900 years old : and also in another , that he believes 800 years old . it is true , in these rituals there is a blessing added , in which among other things the consecrator prayes , that by the obedience of the people the priest may transform the body and blood of thy son by an undefiled benediction ; but here is no power given , nor is this prayer essential to the orders so given , but a subsequent benediction : therefore the want of it cannot annul orders . and in another mss. ritual belonging to the abbey of corbey , written about the middle of the 9th . century , there is nothing but the prayer of the consecration of a priest , which is the same with what is in the other rituals , but the blessing which mentions the transforming of the body of christ , is not in it , by which it appears that it was not looked on as essential to orders . and in another ritual compiled for the church of england , now lying in the church of roüen , believed to be about 800 years old , the form of consecration is the same that it is in the other rituals . the ancient ritual of the church of rhemes , about the same age , and divers other ancient rituals agree with these . but the first mention of this power of saying mass , given in the consecration of priests , is in a ritual believed to be 700 years old , compiled by some near rome , in which the rite of delivering the vessels , with these words , receive power to offer sacrifice to god , and to celebrate masses , &c. is first set down ; yet that is wanting in a ritual of bellay , written about the thousandth year , so that it was not universally received for near an age after it was first brought in . now in all these rituals the prayer of consecration is that which is now in the pontifical only one of the prayers of the office * , but is not the prayer of consecration , from which two things clearly follow ; first , that no form of ordination is so essential , but that the church may change it and put another in its room , and if the other be apposite and fit , there is no fault committed by the change , much less such a one as invalidates the orders so given . secondly , it is clearly made out , that in the ordinations of the primitive church for 900 years after christ , there was no power of consecrating christ's body and blood expresly given in the forms and words of ordination . so that if the want of such words annuls our ordinations , it will do the same to theirs ; the consequence of which , will be ; that there were no true orders in the church of god till the latter rites in the roman pontifical were invented ; and if that be true , then the orders of the roman church which have descended from them , are not true , since they flow from men not truly ordained . and at this day the greek church ( as is set down by the learned and pious bishop of vence treating of the matter and form of orders ) when they ordain 〈◊〉 give no such power , but the bishop lays on his right hand on the priest's head , and says , the grace of god that always heals the things that are weak , and perfects things that are imperfect , promotes this very reverend deacon to be a priest : let us therefore pray for him that the grace of the most holy spirit come upon him . then those that assist , say thrice for him , kyrie eleison . then the bishop makes the sign of the cross , and prays for the grace of god on the priest thus ordained , holding his hand all the while over his head ; then he puts the priestly vestiments on him , and gives him the kiss of peace , which is also done by the rest of the clergy there present . and habert a doctor of sorbonne , who has published the greek pontifical with learned observations on it , gives us this same account of their ordinations which morinus has confirmed by the several ancient greek mss. which he has published one of them being 800 years old , which agrees with it ; and neither in the first prayer , nor second ( during both which the bishop holds his hands over the head of him that is to be consecrated ) is there any mention made of this power of consecrating christ's body and blood. and in the rituals of the maronites , nestorians , and copthites ( all which morinus proves are held good and valid by the church of rome ) there is no such power given in the words of consecration : their forms being almost the same with those used in the greek church : so that we generally find imposition of hands with a prayer of grace , and a blessing , were looked on as sufficient for ordination : and this was taken from the practices of the apostles , who ordained by prayer and imposition of hands , as appears from the places cited in the margent ; and that these prayers were , that god might pour out the gifts and graces of his spirit on them : both the nature of the thing and some of the cited places do fully prove . from all which it appears , that either our ordinations are valid , or there are no true orders in the whole christian church ; no not in the church of rome it self . 3. the very doctrine and practice of the church of rome shews , that the essentials of ordination remain still with us . by the maxims of the schools there must be matter and form in every sacrament ; the matter is some outward sensible action or thing ; the form are the words applyed to that action or thing which hallow it , and give the character , when ( as they say ) the indelible character is impressed ( which they believe is done by orders ) the imposition of hands is held to be the matter by almost all their doctors , as is acknowledged by bellarmine , vasques , and most of the schoolmen are of this mind . it is true , eugenius in his instruction to the armenians , set down in the council of florence , declares that the giving the sacred vessels , is the matter in orders ; but the council of trent ( which was a far more learned and cautious assembly than the other was , in which there was nothing but ignorance and deceit ) determined that priests have their orders by the imposition of hands ; for treating of extream unction , they decreed that the minister of it was either the bishop or priests lawfully ordained by them , by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery . and bellarmine both from the scriptures and the fathers , proves that the imposition of hands must be the matter of this sacrament , since they speak of it , and of it only . now if this be the matter of this sacrament , then the form of it must be the words joyned with it in their pontifical , receive the holy ghost . and the council of trent does clearly insinuate , that this is the form of orders in these words ; if any man say that in ordination , the h. ghost is not given ; and therefore that the bishop says in vain , receive the h. ghost , or by it a character is not impressed — let him be an anathema . it is true , their doctors to reconcile the disagreement of those two councils , have devised the distinction of the power of sacrificing and of the power of jurisdiction in a priest : the last they confess , is given by the imposition of hands ; the former , they say , is given by the delivering of the sacred vessels . and indeed , as morinus doth often observe , the school-men being very ignorant both of the more ancient rites of the church , and of the practice of the eastern churches , and looking only on the rituals then received in the latin church , have made strange work about the matter and form of ordination ; but now that they begin to see a little further than they did , then they are of a far different opinion ; so vasques , whom the school-men of this age , look on a●… an oracle , treating of episcopal orders , says in express words , that the imposition of hands is the matter , and the words uttered with it , are the form of orders , and that the sacramental grace is conferred in and by the application of the matter and form. it is true , he joyns in with the commonly received doctrine of the schools about the two powers given to priests by a double matter and form , yet he cites b bonaventure ; and a petrus sotus , for this opinion that the imposition of hands , and the words joyned with it , were the matter and form of priestly orders ; and though vasques himself undertakes to prove the other opinion , as that which agrees best with the principles of their church , yet it is visible he thought the other opinion truer ; for when he proves orders to be a sacrament , he lays down for a maxim , that the outward rite and ceremony , the promise of grace , and the command for the continuance , must be all found in scripture before any thing is to be acknowledged a sacrament : and when pursuant to this , he proves that the rite of orders is in scripture , he assigns no other but the imposition of hands : so that according to his own doctrine , that is the only sacramental rite or the matter orders . and cardinal de lugo says , the giving the bread and the wine we know is not determinately required by any divine institution , since the greeks are ordained without it ; therefore it is to be confessed that christ only intended there should be some proportioned sign for the matter of orders , either this or that . and it is now the most commonly received oponion , even amongst the school-men ; that christ neither determined the matter nor the form of orders , but left both to the church . and habert proves that the greek form of ordination is sufficient to express the grace of god then prayed for , which is the chief thing in ordination ; and though the greek fathers do not mention these words that are now used as the form in their days , yet he cites many places out of their writings , by which they seem to allude to those words , though the custom then received of speaking mystically and darkly of all the rites of the church , made that they did not deliver themselves more plainly about it ; but he concludes his second observation in these words : in those sacraments where the matter and form are not expressed in scripture , it must be supposed that christ did only in general institute both to his apostles , leaving a power with the church to design , constitute , and determine these in several ways ; so that the chief substance , intention , and scope of the institution , were retained with some general fitness and analogy for signifying the effect of this sacrament . and if both the eastern and western churches have made rituals , which though they differ one from another , yet are good and valid ; it seems very unreasonable to deny the church of england , which is as free and independent a church as any of them , the same right ; for it is to be observed that the catholick church did never agree on one uniform ritual , or book of ordination , but that was still left to the freedom of particular churches ; and so this church has as much power to make or alter rituals , as any other has : therefore the substantials of ordination being still retained , which are imposition of hands with fit prayers and blessings . it is most unreasonable to except against our forms of ordination . let it be also considered , that it is indeed true , that the last imposition of hands , with the words , receive the holy ghost appointed in the pontifical , is not above 400 years old , nor can any ancienter mss be shewed in which it is found ; yet that is now most commonly received in the church of rome , to be the matter and form of ordination ; for all their doctors hold , that either the delivering the vessels , and saying , receive power to offer sacrifice , &c. or the imposition of hands , with the words , receive the holy ghost , &c. is the matter and form of orders . agains●… the former , morinus has said so much that i need add nothing ; for by unanswerable arguments , he proves that i●… not essential to orders , since neither th●… primitive church , the eastern churche●… ▪ nor the roman rituals ; or the writers o●… the roman offices , ever mention it ti●… within these 700 years , and at first i●… was only done in the consecration o●… bishops , and afterwards ( by custom , no●… decree of council or pope being to b●… found about it ) it was used in the ordination of priests . the same author doth also study to prove , that the imposition of the bishop●… hands , with the words , receive the holy ghost , is not essential to ordination , bu●… is only a benediction superadded to it ▪ and shews that it was not used in the primitive church , nor mentioned by any ancient writer ; and therefore he is o●… opinion that the first imposition of hands gives the orders in which both bishop●… and priests lay on their hands , and pray that god would multiply his gifts o●… those whom he had chosen to the sunction o●… a priest , that what they received by hi●… savour , they might attain by his help ▪ through christ our lord. if this b●… true , then two things are to be well observed . first , that the prayer , which according to his opinion , is the prayer of consecration , was not esteemed so by the ancient rituals , in which it is only called a prayer for the priests that were to be ordained ; after which , the prayer of consecration followed ; from which it appears that there was no constant rule in giving orders ; and that what the church once held to be but a preparatory prayer , was afterwards made the prayer of consecration ; and that which they esteemed the prayer of consecration , was afterwards held but a prayer of benediction . secondly , that in the formal words of consecration ( if his opinion be true ) there is no power given of consecrating the sacraments . but morinus is alone in this opinion , and it is certain that the general doctrine of the church of rome , is , that the last imposition of hands is the matter of these orders , and parallel to this is the imposition of hands in the consecration of a bishop , with the words , receive the holy ghost , which is undoubtedly the matter of episcopal orders : therefore that same rite with these words , is also the matter of the priestly orders . and it is a foolish and groundless conceit , to pretend there are two distinct power●… essential to the priesthood to be conferred by two several rites ; for then a●… who 〈◊〉 ordained by one of these rite●… without the other ( as were all th●… priests of the christian world , till within these 700 years ) had not the priestly office entire and compleat . and further , according to their own principles ▪ the character is an indivisible thing , an●… inseparably joyned to the sacrament ; therefore that which gives the character , gives the sacrament . now according to their doctrine , the character is given by the imposition o●… hands : therefore the sacrament consists in that . and all the other rites are only ceremonies added to it , which are not of the essence of it ; from which i●… follows that we who use imposition o●… hands , with the words , receive the holy ghost , &c. use all that according to the doctrine of that church is necessary to it ; and therefore they have no reason to except against the validity of our orders , even according to their own principles . fourthly , if by consecrating , o●… making present christ's blessed body , they understand the incredible mystery of transubstantiation , we very freely confess there is no such power given to our priests by their orders : but i shall not digress from this subject to another ; therefore i may confine my discourse to it ; i acknowledg that we do receive by our orders , all the power of consecrating the sacraments which christ has left with his church . first , when we are ordained to be priests , there is given us all that which our church declares , inseparable to the priesthood ; and such is the consecrating the eucharist : therefore it being declared and acknowledged on all sides ; what functions are proper to the priesthood if we be ordained priests , though there were no further declaration made in the form of ordination , yet the other concomitant actions and offices , shewing that we are made priests , all that belongs to that function is therein given tous ; this made pope innocent define that , be thou a priest , was a sufficient form in it self . secondly , the great end of all the priestly functions , being to make reconciliation between god and man ; for which cause saint paul calls it the ministery of reconciliation ; whatever gives the power for that , must needs give also the means necessary for it ; therefore the sacrament being a mean instituted by our saviour for the remission of sins , which he intimated in these words . this cup is the new testament in my blood for the remission of sins ; and the death of christ being also the great mean in order to that end the power of forgiving sins ministerially , must carry with it the power of doing all that is instituted for attaining that end . thirdly , the power of consecrating the sacraments , is very fully and formally given in our ordination , in these words . be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of god , and of his holy sacraments ; where they bewray great inconsideration , that think dispensing is barely the distributing the sacrament , which a deacon may do ; the word is taken from the latin , and is the same by which they render those words of saint paul , stewards of the mysteries of god ; or according to the style of the church of rome , which translates mystery sacrament ; dispensers of the sacraments of god ; therefore this being a phrase wherein st. paul expressed the apostolical function , one might think it could serve to express the office of a priest well enough , so that dispensing is more than distributing ; and is such a power as a steward hath , who knows and considers every ones condition , and prepares what is fit and proper for them ; therefore the blessing of the sacraments being a necessary part of the dispensing of them , they being blessed for that end and the dispensing them , including the whole office in which the church appoints the sacraments to be dispensed , of which consecration is a main part ; these words do clearly give and manifestly import the power of consecrating the sacraments . now the question comes to this ? what is meant by the word dispensing ; they say it is only to distribute the elements ; we say it is to administer the sacrament according to the office. if what we say be the true signification of it ; then the power of consecrating the elements , is formally given with our orders . and that this is the true meaning of it , appears both from common use ; which makes it more than barely to distribute ; and from the declared meaning of those who use it , which is the only rule to judg of all doubtful expressions : now the declared meaning of our church in the use of this word being so express and positive ; from thence it follows , that by dispense must be understood , to give the sacrament according to the whole office of the church . the same is also to be said of the words , take thou authority to preach the word of god , and to minister the holy sacraments ; for tho minister and serve in the greek tongue , be the same ; yet minister in our common acceptation , is all one with administer , only minister is more usual when the thing ministred is sacred or holy ; therefore this takes also in it the whole office of the sacrament : and as in the former words the power is given ; so in these words it is applyed and restrained in its exercise to a due vocation , to cut off idle it inerant and for the most part , scandalous priests . and thus far i have considered this first argument at great length , both because it is that of which they make most use to raise scruples in the thoughts of unlearned persons ; and the clearing of it will make way for answering the rest . therefore leaving this , i go to the second argument ; which is , that the offering of sacrifice is an essential part of priesthood . so heb. 5. 1. and 3. therefore we having no such power conferred on us , cannot be true priests . to this i answer . first , it is strange inconsideration to argue from the epistle to the hebrews , that the pastors of the christian church ought to be priests in the sense that is mentioned in that epistle ; the scope of which is to prove , that christ is the only priest of this new dispensation : and the notion of a priest in that epistle , is a person called and consecrated to offer some living sacrifice , and to slay it , and by the shedding of the blood of the sacrifice slain , to make reconciliation : this being the sense in which the iews understood it ; the apostle among other arguments to prove the death of christ to be the true sacrifice , brings this for one , that there was to be another priesthood after the order of melchisedeck . for proving this , he lays down in the first four verses of the 5th . chapter , the jewish notion of a priest ; then he goes on to prove that christ was such a priest called of god and consecrated ; this he prosecutes more fully in the 7th . chapter , where he asserts that christ was that other priest after the order of melchisedeck , and v. 15. he calls him another priest , and v. 23. and 24. makes this plainer in these words ; and they truly were many priests , because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death ; but this man , because he continueth ever , hath an unchangeable priesthood : from which it is apparent that the apostles design in these places , is to prove that there is but one priest in that sense mentioned chap. 5. v. 1. under the new testament . and had the writer of this paper read over that epistle , he must needs have seen this , but this is one of the effects of their not reading the scriptures carefully , that they make use of places of scripture , never considering any thing more than the general sound of some words , without examining what goes along with them . but as it is clear from that epistle , that there is but one priest in the strict notion of it ; so it is no less clear that there is but one propitiatory sacrifice among christians in its strict notion , for having mentioned the frequent oblations to take away sins under the mosaical law , chap. 5. v. 3. he makes the opposition clear , chap. 7. v. 27. in these words . who needeth not daily as those high priests , to offer up sacrifice , first for his own sins and then for the people ; for this he did once when he offered up himself . and chap. 9. v. 7. having mentioned the high priest's annual entring into the most holy place ; he sets in opposition to it v. 12. christ's entring in once to the holy place , having made redemption for us by his own blood. and v. 22. he says , without shedding of blood there was no remission ; by which he does clearly put down all unbloody sacrifices that are propitiatory : and v. 28. he says , christ was offered once to bear the sins of many . and chap. 10. v. 2. he says , that when the worshippers are once purged , then would not sacrifices cease to be offered ? to prove that the sacrifices of the law had not that vertue : therefore we being purged by the blood of christ , must offer no more propitiatory sacrifices ; and all this is made yet clearer , v. 11. and 12. and every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins . but this man after he had offered up one sacrifice for sins for ever , sate down on the right hand of god. from all which you may see it is as plain as can be , that there is but one priest and one propitiatory sacrifice under the new testament , for the places i have cited , are not some ambiguous or dark expressions , but full and formal proofs , by which in a long series of discourse and argument , the thing is put out of doubt . therefore those of that church do very unwisely ever to mention that epistle , or to say any thing that may oblige people to look upon it ; so that , except to such as they are sure will read no more of it than they will shew them or cite to them , they had best speak of it to no body else . secondly , though we deny all propitiatory sacrifices , but that which our blessed saviour offered for us once on the cross ; yet we acknowledg that we have sacrifices in the true strict and scriptural notion of that word ; for propitiatory ones are but one sort of sacrifice , which in its general notion stands for any holy oblations made to god ; and in this sense , thank-offerings , peace-offerings , and free-will offerings , were sacrifices under the law ; so were also their commemorative sacrifices of the paschal lamb , which were all sacrifices , though not propitiatory . and in this sense * our prayers and praises ; a broken heart , and the dedicating our lives to the service of god , are sacrifices , and are so called in scripture ; so also is the giving of alms. and in this sense we deny not but the holy eucharist is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ; and it is so called in one of the collects . it is also a commemoration of that one sacrifice which it represents , and by which the worthy receivers have the vertue of that applyed to them . the oblation of the elements of bread and wine to be sanctified , is also a kind of sacrifice ; and in all these senses we acknowledg the sacrament to be a true sacrifice , as the primitive church did . but as we do not allow it to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the living , much less can we believe it such for the dead ; or that the priests consecrating and consuming of it , is a sacrifice for the people ; it being a sacrifice as it is a sacrament , which is only to those who receive it . and in these three points ; first , that it is no propitiatory sacrifice : 2. that the dead receive no good from it : 3. that the priests taking it alone , does no good to the people who receive it not : we are sure we have all antiquity of our side . but to digress upon that , were to go too far out of the way ; and the writers of controversies have done it fully . therefore the power of dispensing the word of god and of his holy sacraments gives all the authority that is in the christian church for offering of sacrifices . and if they deny this , they must deny the validity of all the ancient ordinations , for they can shew no such form in any of their ordinals . thirdly , what was said before of the doctrine of the church of rome about the matter and form of orders , as they are a sacrament , shews that the power they give in the ordination of priests , of offering sacrifices , is not essential to it , but only a rite they have added to it ; the want whereof can be no essential defect , and so can never annual our orders : what was said before in answer to the first argument , is again to be remembred here , that in all the ancient rituals there is no power of offering propitiatory sacrifices given in the form of ordination . it is true in the m ss . which lies in the monastery of st. german ; there is a new rite set down of delivering the priestly vestments , in which among other words these are added : and do thou offer propitiatory sacrifices for the sins and offences of the people , to almighty god. which words are now omitted in that part of the roman pontifical , and made a part of the final blessing given at the end of the office , but this at most is but 800 years old ; and therefore cannot be essential to orders since there were true priests in the christian church 800 years before this was used . and to this day in the greek church there is no power given by the consecration to offer propitiatory sacrifices ; for though in the second prayer said in ordinations in which god's holy spirit is prayed for upon the priest , that he may be worthy to stand before the altar of god without blame , and may preach the gospel of his kingdom , and holily administer the word of his truth : it is added , and may offer to thee gifts and spiritual sacrifices , but there is no reason to gather from these words that they give power for offering propitiatory sacrifices . we acknowledg that we offer gifts and sacrifices in the holy eucharist ; but we reject propitiatory ones , and these words do not at all import them . and the truth of it is when the writers of the roman church are pressed with the arguments before mentioned , that the eucharist can be no propitiatory sacrifice : since 1. there no blood shed in it : 2. no destruction is made of the sacrifice ; for it is only the accidents and not the blessed body of christ that the priest consumes : 3. that christ's cross is called one sacrifice once offered : 4. that his being now exalted at the father's right hand , shews his body can no more be subject to be sacrificed or mangled ; when these with many authorities from the father's are brought , they are forced to fly to some distinctions by which their doctrine comes to differ little from ours ; but still those high and indecent expressions remain in their rituals and missals , which they are forced to mollifie , as they do those prayers in which the same things , and in the same manner and words are asked of the blessed virgin and the other saints , which we ask of god. and though they would stretch them to a bare intercession , which the genuine sense of the words will not bear , yet they will never change them , for it is the standing maxim of that church never to confess an error , nor make any change to the better . the third reason against our orders of priesthood , is a repetition of the first , and is already answered . the fourth argument is , that none can institute the form of a sacrament , to give grace and make present christ's body and blood , but the authors of grace , and those that had power over his body and blood ; but they that instituted this form , had only their authority from the parliament ; as appears by the act it self , by which some prelates and other learned men being impowered , did invent the form before mentioned , never before heard of either in scripture or the church of god. to this i answer . first , it is certain the writer of this paper did never think it would have been seen by any body that could examine it , but intended only to impose on some illiterate persons ; otherwise he would never have said that a form which christ himself used when he ordained his apostles , and which is used in their own church as the proper form of ordination , was never before heard of in the scripture or the church of god. secondly , those who compiled the liturgy and ordinal , had no other authority from the parliament than holy and christian princes did before give in the like cases . it is a common place and has been handled by many writers ; how far the civil magistrate may make laws and give commands about sacred things ? 't is known what orders david and solomon , iehosaphat , hezekiah and iosiah , gave in such cases , they divided the priests into several courses , gav●… rules for their attendance , turned out ●… high priest and put another in his stead ▪ sent the priests over the cities to teach the people ; gathered the priests and commanded them to sanctifie themselves , and the house of the lord , and offer sacrifices o●… the altar . and gave orders about the forms of their worship , that they should praise god in the words of david and asaph : and gave orders about the time 〈◊〉 observing the passover , that in a case o●… necessity it might be observed on the second month ; though by their law it w●… to be kept the first month. and for the christian emperors , let the code or the novels , or the capitulars of charles the great , be read , and in them many law●… will be found about the qualification●… ▪ elections , and consecrations of church-men made by the best of all the roman emperors , such as constantine , theod●… ▪ sius , &c. they called councils to jud●… of the greatest points of faith , which met and sate on their writ , whose determinations they confirmed , and added the civil sanction to them . and even pope leo , though a higher spirite●… pope than any of his predecessors were did intreat the emperor martian to annul the second council of ephesus , an●… to give order that the ancient decrees of the council of nice should remain in force . now it were a great scandal on those councils to say , that they had no authority for what they did , but what they derived from the civil powers ; so it is no less unjust to say , because the parliament impowered some persons to draw forms for the more pure administration of the sacraments ; and enacted that these only should be lawfully exercised in this realm , which is the civil sanction ; that therefore these persons had no other authority for what they did : let those men declare upon their consciences if there be any thing they desire more earnestly than such an act for authorizing their own forms and would they make any scruple to accept of it , if they might have it : was it ever heard of that the civil sanction which only makes any constitution to have the force of a law , gives it another authority than a civil one ; and such authority the church of rome thinks fit to accept of in all states and kingdoms of that religion . thirdly , the prelates and other divines that compiled our forms of ordination , did it by vertue of the authority they had from christ , as pastors of his church which did empower them to teach the people the pure word of god , and to administer the sacraments and perform all other holy functions according to the scripture ; the practice of the primitive church , and the rules of expediency and reason ; and this they ought to have done though the civil powers had opposed it ; in which case their duty had been to have submitted to whatever severities or persecutions they might have been put to for the name of christ , and the truth of his gospel . but on the other hand , when it pleased god to turn the hearts of those that had the chief power , to set forward this good work , then they did ( as they ought ) with all thankfulness , acknowledg so great a blessing , and accept and improve the authority of the civil powers for adding the sanction of a law to the reformation , in all the parts and branches of it . so by the authority they derived from christ , and the warrant they had from scripture and the primitive church , these prelates and divines , made those alterations and changes in the ordinal ; and the king and the parliament , who are vested with the supream legislative power , added their authority to them to make them obligatory on the subjects . which is all that is imported by the word lawful in the act of parliament ; the ordinary use whereof among lawyers , is , a thing according to law. the ●…th . argument against the validity of our priestly orders , is , that we have them from those that are not bishops ; which carries him to the next conclusion , that our bishops are not bishops . but before i follow him to that , i must desire you would consider with how much disingenuity this paper is framed , that would impose on the easy reader the belief of our first reformers not being true bishops , when the writer cannot but know that arch bishop cranmer was a bishop as truly consecrated and invested , as any of the roman church were , and was confirmed by the pope , who sent him the pall , and to satisfy you that they knew him to be such , they degraded him with the usuall ceremonies before his martyrdom . so that he being the fountain of our clergy that succeeded him , and being truly consecrated himself , all those he ordained , are by the doctrine of the church of rome , bishops or priests , since orders according to their doctrine leave an indelible character , which can never be taken away . so that by their principles no following sentence could deprive him of the power of ordaining . it is true , there were many disorderly practices of some popes in the latter ages , in annulling orders and re-ordaining those ordained by others ; for pope urban the second appointed those who were ordained simoniacally , to be re-ordained . and stephen the 4th . in a synod , decreed that all the ordinations his predecessor pope constantine had made , were null and void , because he from a layman was chosen a pope , and though he passed through the intermedial degrees of priest and deacon , yet he stopt not so long in them , as was appointy by the canons , and upon the same account it was also judged , that photius ( the learned patriarch of constantinople , who in six days went through all the ecclesiastical decrees , from a layman to a patriarch ) had no power of ordaining lawfully , and all the orders he gave , were annulled by pope nicolaus . and to mention no more , the orders given by pope formosus , were annulled by his successor pope stephen the 6th . upon the pretence of some crimes and irregularities with which he was charged ; these practices as they gave great scandal , so they gave occasion to much disputing about the legality and canonicalness of these proceedings , for the canonists and schoolmen being generally very ignorant , and prepossessed with an opinion of the popes infallibility , studied to flatter the court of rome , all that was possible . yet on the other hand there was so much to be said against these proceedings , that as appears by petrus damiani , auxilius , and other writers of that time , there was great perplexity and many different opinions about them . but the ignorance and passion of those ages appears evidently in this particular , for there is nothing more manifest than that the ancient church was of another opinion ; and as in the debate between pope stephen and saint cyprian about the re-baptizing of heretiques , the constant opinion and practice of the following ages , was against re-baptizing such as were baptized by those heretiques who retained the essentials of baptism : so by the same parity of reason , and upon the same arguments they held the ordinations of heretiques valid , that retained the essentials of ordination . in the case of heretiques we have these instances , faelix was consecrated bishop of rome by the arians in the room of liberius , whose banishment they had procured , and yet he was acknowledged a righteous pope , and his ordinations were accounted valid . in the general council of ephesus the priests of the messalian heresie were appointed to be received into the church , and continue priests upon renouncing their heresie . the same was also granted to nestorians , pelagians , eutychians , monothelites , and divers other heretiques , as morinus proves at length . and at this day though the greek church is condemned by the roman , as heretical in the point of the procession of the holy ghost , yet they are received according to their orders into their communion when they renounce their heresie . and their great vasques says , that all the schoolmen and summists agree , that an heretical excommunicate or suspended bishop has still the power of giving orders , for which he cites many schoolmen ; and he likewise proves , that a bishop after degradation retains the same power : and the case of schismaticks is no less clear , for to wave the decision of the council of nice ( which seems somewhat dubious ) in the case of the novatian ordinations we find frequently in st. austins treatises and conferences with the donatists , that they offered to them , if they would return to the unity of the church , to receive them according to their orders . so that they did not think schism did take away the power of giving orders . and in the case of that long and scandalous schism of the papacy for fifty years together , when the one sat at rome and the other at avignon , though beside their schism , depositions , excommunications and censures of all sorts passed on both sides by each of those popes against the other , and it must be confessed that one of them was the schismatick , and by consequence the censures fell justly on him ; yet both their ordinations were held valid , and when the matter was setled at the council of constance , the ordinations on no side were annulled or renewed . and though petrus de lunay who was called benedict the 13th . refused to submit to them and lay down his pretensions as the others did , yet when * they gave sentence against him , there is not a word in it of annulling orders given by him . from all which it follows , that neither the pretence of heresie , schism , nor censures will according to the practice either of the primitive church , or of the church of rome even in these latter ages , be of any force to invalidate our orders . which was well seen by morinus ; and though he does not write upon this head with so much ingenuity , as he does on other points ; yet he lays this down as a maxim , that all the ordinations of a heretiques and schismatiques made according the forms of the church , and where the heretiques that gave them were also rightly ordained according to the forms of the church , are valid as to their substance , and are not to be repeated though they be unlawful ; and both he that gave , and he that received them , sinned grievously ; nor is it in any case lawful for a catholick to receive orders from heretiques or schismatiques ; therefore in those ordinations , if all other things be done according to the form of the church , and only the crime of heresie be charged on the orders given , the substance of it is not thereby vitiated , but there is a perfect and entire character begotten , only the use of it is forbidden ; yet he that neglects that interdict , though he becomes very guilty , begets a new character on the person ordained by him : therefore heretiques or schismatiques so ordained , need no new ordination , but only a reconciliation ; and what is said of heretiques and schismatiques , does hold much more of those who are ordained by persons that are excommunicated , deposed or degraded . and for those things that are essential to ordination , enough has been said already to demonstrate what they be ; to which i shall only add what that author the most learned of all that ever treated of this subject , says in the beginning of the next chapter . in the rite of holy ordination , there are some things of divine institution and tradition , which do always and in all places belong to holy orders ; such as imposition of hands , and a convenient prayer which the scripture has delivered , and the universal practice of the church has confirmed . now these our church has retained ; and therefore from all that has been said , i may with good reason conclude that all the ordinations that were derived from arch-bishop cranmer , having ( as has been already shewed ) the essentials of ordination ; and being done with the due numbers of ordainers ( as can be proved authentically from the publick registers ) must be good and valid . and though we have separated from many errors and corruptions of the church of rome , and in particular have thrown out many superstitious rites out of the forms of ordination , that we might reduce these to a primitive simplicity ; yet as we acknowledg the church of rome holds still the fundamentals of the christian religion ; so we confess she retains the essentials of ordination , which are the separating of persons for sacred employments , and the authorizing them with an imposition of hands , and a prayer for the effusion of the holy ghost ; therefore we do not annul their orders , but receive such as come from that church , and look on them as true priests by the ordination they got among them , and such were our first reformers , from whom we have derived our ordination . having followed this paper through the first conclusion , and the arguments brought to confirm it ; i come now to the second ; which is , that our bishops are not true bishops . for which his first argument is , that our bishops being no priests , they can be no bishops . this he thinks he has already proved , therefore he sets himself to prove that none can be a bishop till he be first a priest : about this i shall not dispute much ; for we acknowledg that regularly and canonically it must be so , and assert that ours were truly such ; therefore we need not contend further about this ; though he must be very ignorant of antiquity if he does not know that there are divers instances in church history of laymen , nay , and catechumens chosen bishops ; and we do not find those intermedial steps were made of ordaining them first deacons and then priests , but by what appears to us , they at once made them bishops . but i shall wave this , only i must put this author in mind of a great oversight he is guilty of , when he goes about to prove our bishops not to be true bishops , because they were not true priests : does he not know that bishop ridley , and the other bishops of king edward's days , were ordained priests by the rites of the church of rome . and this was acknowledged by themselves , when they degraded them at oxford , before they suffered ; if those then were priests , this is no argument why they might not be bishops : for in this matter , that which we ought to enquire into most carefully , is what they were ; for if they were both priests and bishops , and if the forms by which they ordained others , retained all the essential requisites , then we who are derived from them , are also true priests and bishops . his second argument is , no ordination is valid , unless there be fit words used to determine the outward rites , to signifie the order given , which he says our own writers ( mr. mason and dr. bramhall ) do acknowledg . but the words of consecration do not express this , they being only , take the holy ghost , and remember that thou stir up the grace , &c. which do not express the office of a bishop ; and having proposed these arguments , that the unlearned reader may think he deals fairly , he goes on to set down our objections , and answer them . first , it has been already made out that the form , receive the holy ghost , was that which our saviour made use of when he ordained the apostles , without adding , to the office of an apostle . for which it is to be considered , that all ecclesiastical orders being from the influence and operation of the holy ghost , which being one , yet hath different operations for the different administrations ; therefore the concomitant actions , words and circumstances must shew , for which administration the holy ghost is prayed for , since that general prayer is made for all ; but the functions being different , the same holy ghost works differently in them all . therefore it is plain from the practice of our saviour , that there is no need of expressing in the very words of ordination , what power is thereby given since our saviour did not express it , but what he had said both before and after , did determine the sense of those general words to the apostolical function . secondly , the whole office of consecrating bishops , shews very formally and expresly what power is given in these words . now though the writers of the church of rome , would place the form of consecration in some imperative words ; yet we see no reason for that , but the complex of the whole office is that which is to be chiefly considered , and must determine the sense of those words ; so that a priest being presented to be made a bishop , the king's mandate being read for that effect , he swearing canonical obedience as bishop elect , prayers being put up for him as such , together with other circumstances which make it plain what they are about ; those general words are by these qualified and restrained to that sense . we do not fly here to a secret and unknown intention of the consecrators , as the church of rome does , but to the open and declared intention of the church appearing in this : so that it is clear that the sense of those general words is so well explained , that they do sufficiently express and give the power and office of a bishop . thirdly , in the church of rome the consecration of a bishop is made with these words , receive the holy ghost . this being all that is said at the imposition of hands , which as has been already proved , is the matter or sensible sign of orders . and in the prayer that follows these words , there is no mention made of the episcopal dignity or function , and all the other ceremonies used in the consecration of a bishop , are but rites that are added for the more solemnity , but are not of the essence of ordination according to what is now most generally received , even in their own church . and vasques does set down this very objection against the form of their episcopal ordination , as not sufficient , because it does not specify the episcopal power ; to which he answers , that though the words express it not , yet the other circumstances that accompany them do it sufficiently ; by which it appears that this argument is as strong against their ordination as ours ; and that they must make use of the same answers that we give to it . fourthly , the ancient forms of consecrating bishops , differing so much one from another , and indeed agreeing in nothing but in an imposition of hands , with a convenient prayer ; it has been already made out that there is no particular form so necessary , that the want of it annuls orders , and that the church has often changed the words of these prayers upon several occasions , and it was ever thought that if the words do sufficiently express the mind of the church , there was no more scruple to be made of the validity of the orders so given ; for if the episcopal character were begotten by any of those rites which the church of rome has added of late such as the chrism , the giving the gospels , the ring , the staff , or any other set down in the pontifical , then there were no true bishops in the church for many ages . in the most ancient latin ritual now to be found , there is nothing in the consecration of a bishop , but the prayer which is now marked for the anthem after the consecration in the pontifical . in a ritual believed to be 800 year old , the anointing is first to be found , but there is no other rite with it in another ritual somwhat later than the former ; the giving the ring and the staff , were used , which at first were the civil ceremonies of investiture , and in the greek church , none of those rites were ever ▪ used , they having only an imposition of hands , and saying with it , the divine grace that heals the things that are weak●… and perfects the things that imperfect ; promotes this very reverend priest to be 〈◊〉 bishop : let us therefore pray that the grace of the holy ghost may come upon him , then all that are assisting , say thrice , kyrie eleison . then the consecrato●… lays the gospels on the head and neck of him that is consecrated , having before signed his head thrice with the sign of the cross ; and all the other bishop●… touch the gospels , and there is a prayer said . and thus it is clear , that if those rites in the pontifical be essential to episcopal orders , neither the primitive church nor the greek churches gave them truly , which are things they cannot admit : therefore it is most dising●…nuously done of them to insinuate 〈◊〉 unlearned persons , that our orders an●… not good , when in their conscience●… they know that they have all those requisites in them , which by the principle●… of the most learned men of their ow●… church , are essentially and absolutely necessary to make them good and valid . but i go next to see what ingenuity there is in the objections which he sets down in our name against the former arguments . there is nothing in which any man that writes of controversie , shews his candor and fair dealing more , than in proposing the arguments of the adverse party with their full and just weight in them : and it is a piece of justice and moral honesty , to which men are obliged , for to pretend that one brings what may be objected against his opinion , and then not to set down any strong and material arguments ; but on the contrary , to bring some trifling and ridiculous things that no learned persons did ever make use of , is to lye : and really i cannot think the writer of this paper has common honesty in him , that will pretend to set down our objections , and yet passes them over every one . our arguments are drawn , 1. from christ's own practices . 2. from the practice of the apostles and the primitive church . 3. from the practice of the greek church at this day . 4. from the doctrine and the practice of the church of rome . these are the arguments on which our cause does rest , and upon these authorities we are ready to put the thing to an issue . but he was wiser than to mention any of those , for he knew he could not get of●… them so well ; and therefore that he might deceive those that are ready to take any thing off his hands upon trust , he brings objections which he knows none of us will make . to the first i need say nothing , having ▪ i presume , said enough already , to shew that both our priestly and episcopal orders are good and valid . but his second , is such a piece of fo●… dealing , that really he deserves to be very sharply reproved for it . in it he makes us object , that though the form of our ordination since king edward the 6th ▪ his days , till his majesties happy restauration was invalid ; yet that is s●…lved by the parliament that now sits , that appointed the words of ordination to be , receive the holy ghost , for the office of a priest or for the office of a bishop . and having set up this man of straw , he runs unmercifully at him , he stabs him in at the heart , he shoots him through the head , and then to make sure work of him , he cuts him all to pieces that he shall never live nor speak again ; and all this out of pure chivalry to shew his valour . he tells us the salve is worse than the sore , that by the change , the form used before is confessed to be invalid , else why did they change it ? he tells us , secondly , by this we acknowledg all our bishops and priests till that time to be null . thirdly , that they not being true bishops , cannot ordain validly , for no man can give what he has not . and fourthly , the power that act gives , is only from the parliament and not from christ ; and this destroys our orders , root and branch . so there is an end of us , we are all killed upon the spot , never to live more . yet there is no harm done , nor blood spilt , all is safe and sound . but to satisfie any person whom such a scruple may trouble . let it be considered , first , that we pretend not that there is any greater validity in our orders since the last act of uniformity , than was before ; for those words that are added are not essential to the ordination , but only further and clearer explanations of what was clear enough by the other parts of these offices before : therefore there is no change made of any thing that was essential to our ordinations , an explanation is not a change ; for did the fathers of the councils of nice and constantinople change or annul the faith and creeds that the church used before , when they added explanations to the creed . therefore the adding of some explanatory words for cutting off the occasions of cavilling , is neither a change nor an annulling our former orders . secondly , the change of the form of consecration does not infer an annulling of orders given another way , for then all the ordinations used in the primitive church , are annulled by the roman church at this day , since the forms of ordination used by them now , were not used in the former ages ; and the forms used in the former ages are not looked on by them now to be the forms of consecration , but are only made parts of the office , and used as collects or anthems ; and yet here is a real change , which by their own principles cannot infer a nullity of orders given before the change made . thirdly , if the addition of a few explanatory words invalidates former orders , then the adding many new rites , which were neither used by christ nor his apostles , nor the primitive nor eastern churches , will much more invalidate former orders , especially when these are believed to be so essential as that they confer the power of consecrating christ's body and blood , and of offering sacrifices , and were for divers ages universally looked on in that church to be the matter and form of orders , as was already observed of the rite of giving the sacred vessels with the words joyned to it , which pope eugenius in express words , calls the matter of priestly orders , and the words joyned to them the form ( in his decree for the armenians in the council of florence ) and even the form he mentions is also altered now , for the celebrating masses are not in the form he mentions , but are now added to that part of the office in the roman church . let the pontifical be considered , in the ordination of priests ; we find the priestly vestiments given , both the stole and the casula , then their hands are anointed , then the vessels of the sacrament are delivered to them , with words pronounced in every of those rites , besides many other lesser rites that are in the rubrick . in the consecration of a bishop , his head is anointed , then his hands , then his pastoral staff is blessed and put in his hands ; next the ring is blessed , and put on his singer , then the gospels are put in his hands , then the mitre is blessed , and put on his head ; next the gloves are blessed , and put on his hands , and then they se●… him on his throne : besides many lesser rites to be seen in the rubrick . now with what face can they pretend that our adding a few explanatory words , can infer the annulling all orders given before that addition , when they have added so many material ceremonies in which they place great significancy and vertue . is not this to swallow a camel and to strain at a gnat , and to object to us a mote in our eye , when there is a beam in their own eye . fourthly , this addition was indeed confirmed by the authority of parliament , and there was good reason to desire that , to give it the force of a law , but the authority of these changes is wholly to be derived from the convocation , who only consulted about them and made them and the parliament did take that care in the enacting them , that might shew they did only add the force of a law to them ; for in passing them , it was ordered that the book of common-prayer and ordination should only be read over ( and even that was carried upon some debate , for many as i have been told , moved that the book should be added to the act , as it was sent to the parliament from the convocation without ever reading it ; but that seemed indecent and too implicite to others ) and there was no change made in a tittle by the parliament . so that they only enacted by a law what the convocation had done . as for what he adds that the book of ordination , is not to found in every edition of the common-prayer-book , with his gloss upon it , that most think the bishops for shame suppress it . really the writer of this paper must pardon me , to say , it seems he has no shame , that can set down in writing such a disingenious allegation : pray who are these most that think so ? [ most ] in our language stands for the [ greater part ] now how many can he find that agree with him in this gloss ? i doubt , very few ; for i am sure , not all his own party , and not one of ours . so that upon a calculation those most think will be found to be no more but himself and a very few ignorant persons on whom he has imposed this conceit . every body knows that when a book is once printed by publick authority , and universally sold in the shops , those in authority cannot out of shame study to suppress it . but the use of the book of ordination not being so universal as are the other offices of the church ; the stationers and printers , who do chiefly consider their interest in the ready sale and vent of books , do not print so many of them as of the other , there being at least 500 that use the common-prayer , for one that needs the other , and a common-prayer-book without it , will sell cheaper than with it ; therefore a great many copies have it not . this is not as most think , but as every body knows , the true reason why in many copies of the common-prayer-book , the ordinal is wanting . let him name one bishop that would not permit it to be dispersed abroad or let him be looked on as a bold and impudent slanderer . thus far i have followed this paper in the two first conclusions ; and now i come to the third ; which is , that protestant ministers and bishops have no power to preach , &c. from christ , but only from the parliament . and this he proves , because they have no more power than the first protestant arch-bishop of canterbury , matthew parker had , from whom all jurisdiction was derived to the rest ; now he had no power from christ ; for first , they that consecrated him had no such jurisdiction , being no actual bishops , two of them were only elect and not actual bishops , and a third only a quondam bishop , but had no actual jurisdiction , and a fourth was a suffragan bishop to canterbury , who had no jurisdiction but what he had from the arch-bishop of canterbury , much less authority to give him jurisdiction over himself and all the other bishops of the land , because none can give what he has not . this i must confess is such a piece , that no man can read it but he must conclude the writer of it has no sort of ecclesiastical learning , or else has very little moral honesty . i need not tell him that matthew parker was not the first protestant arch-bishop of canterbury ; he knows arch-bishop cranmer was both a protestant and arch-bishop of canterbury ; but this may be easily passed over , there being more material errors in this period . and first , does he believe himself , when he says that none can instal a bishop in a jurisdiction above himself ? pray then who invests the popes with their jurisdiction ? do not the cardinals do it , and are not they as much the popes suffragans as hodgskins was canterburi●… . so that if inferiors cannot invest one with a superior jurisdiction , then the popes can have none legally , since they have theirs from the cardinals that are inferior in jurisdiction . this also holds in all the patriarchal consecrations . for instance , when iohn commonly called chrysostome , a priest of antioch , was chosen patriarch of constantinople , and consecrated by the bishops of that province according to the canons , if there be any force in this argument , it will annul his orders as well as arch-bishop parker's , for the writer must needs see the case is parallel . secondly , or if he insists upon their being elect to others sees , and that one of them had no see at all . let me ask him , if when st. athanase was banished out of alexandria , and others thrust in his place ; or when liberius was banished out of rome , and felix ( whom they acknowledg a righteous bishop ) put in his place , they had ordained priests and bishops had these orders been null , because they were violently thrust out of their sees ? certainly persecution and violence rather makes the glory of ecclesiastical functions shine more brightly , but cannot be imagined to strip them of their character , and to disable them for exercising the offices of their function . thirdly , there are two things to be considered in the consecration of a primate , the one is the giving him the order of a bishop , the other is the investing him with the jurisdiction of a metropolitan , for the former , all bishops are equal in order , none has more or less than another : therefore any bishop duly consecrated , how mean soever his diocess be , is no less a bishop than the greatest ; the bishop of man is a bishop as well as the arch-bishop of canterbury ; so that the consecrators of matthew parker being bishops by their order , they had sufficient power and authority to consecrate him . by which it appears there can be no question made of his being truly a bishop . and as for his jurisdiction : two things are also to be considered ; the one is , the jurisdiction annexed to that see. the other is his being rightly cloathed and invested with it . for the former it cannot be denied but the jurisdiction of metropolitans , primates , and patriarchs , has no divine institution : for all that any bishop has by divine institution , is to seed the flock of his own diocess , but the canons and practice of the church and the civil laws , have introduced a further jurisdiction over the bishops of a district or province ; this did rise by custom upon the division of the provinces of the roman empire , and was settled over the world before any general council did meet to make decrees about it : and therefore the councils of nice , constantinople , ephesus and chalcedon , only approved what they found practised , and confirmed some new divisions of provinces , that were made by the emperors ; and so the kings in the western church did first give those preheminences to some towns and sees ; for the original dignity of sees rose out of the dignity of the towns , which appears clearly in all the patriarchats , chiefly in that of rome and constantinople . this is a thing so fully inquired into by many , but chiefly by the most learned petrus de marca arch-bishop of paris , that i need say no more of it . and the dignity of the see of canterbury was from king ethelbert , who first erected that see. it is true , the popes did afterwards usurp a new jurisdiction over all churches ; they took upon them to judg of the dignity of all sees , to send the pall , to have reserved cases , to grant exemptions to the regulars , with many other encroachments on the episcopal jurisdiction , which has been very fully inquired into , not only by protestant writers , but by many of the roman communion , chiefly those of the gallicane church , and many of the bishops at the council of trent , studied to recover their liberties that were troden under foot by the court of rome , but the intrigues and cunning of that court were too hard for them . the other thing in episcopal institution , is the installing or inthroning the metropolitan , that this was always done by the bishops of the province , is a thing so clear in antiquity , that i am sure no man ever questioned it . was not the famous decision of the council of ephesus in the case of the cypriotic bishops a full proof of this , when upon the pretension of the patriarch of antioch , the thing was examined , and it was found that he had never used to ordain bishops there ; and therefore the rites of the bishop of constantia the metropolitan were confirmed to him by that general council : nor can one instance be shewed in the first three ages of a metropolitan coming to be ordained by a patriarch , as was afterwards for orders sake appointed . and this appears more evidently by a canon of the council of orleans , where it was decreed , that in the ordination of metropolitans the ancient custom should be renewed , which was generally neglected and lost , that a metropolitan being elected by the bishops of the province with the clergy , and the people , should be ordained by all the bishops of the province met together ; this was anno 538. by which we see they thought not of any bull or confirmation from rome , but that bishops , though subject to the metropolitan's jurisdiction , might ordain him . it is true , afterwards the patriarchs chose the metropolitans , but the patriarchs were either chosen , or at least confirmed by the emperor ; and though they sent circulatory letters to the pope and the other patriarchs to confirm their elections ( which the bishops of rome did likewise to them ) this was only for keeping up the unity of the church , and for a more friendly and brotherly correspondence , but was not of necessity or as an homage which they owed the pope ; much less did they delay their consecrations till they obtained his mandate , or abstain from any act of jurisdiction till they had his confirmation , as is now appointed by the pontifical , till they get the pall. i have not given you the trouble of enlarging on many proofs for making these things out , for they are so clear and uncontested , that i am confident no man is so disingenuous as to deny them under his hand , whatever some may whisper among illiterate persons who cannot contradict them . and though there has been so much already written to make those particulars out , that more needs not , and indeed cannot be said ; yet if these things be questioned by any body , i shall make them out fully . and now i come to his second argument ; which is , that matthew parker ( and all the other protestant bishops since his days ) had his power of jurisdiction only from the queen , as appears by the queens letters patents , and the form of his ordination , which was done upon the queens mandate without any bull from the pope ( in which she acknowledges cardinal pool to have been a righteous arch-bishop ; and so confesses catholick ordination and jurisdiction to be lawful , valid , and good ) which was necessary by the laws of england ; as appears from her mandate in which she supplies any defects they might have been under . now all the authority the queen had , flowed from the parliament , which annexed all jurisdiction spiritual or temporal over the ecclesiastical state of this realm to the crown , by which they made her pope : so that by the very words of the act , matthew parker had his jurisdiction from the queen , and she hers from the parliament : therefore the protestant priests and bishops are only parliamentary priests and bishops , and are not from christ and his church , but from their kings , queen , and parliaments . here is such a heap of things so unjustly and weakly said , that it must needs grieve all honest men to see a company of priests going up and down the kingdom studying to abuse weak and unlearned persons with such disingenuous stories or writings . which i hope will appear more fully if you consider the following particulars . first , it is certain that king and parliament have the supream legislative authority in this realm ; and this they have from the laws of god , nature , and society , confirmed by the gospel which commands us to be subject to the higher powers . therefore whatever they enact that is within the limits of their jurisdiction , is law ; and if it be not sinful , is to be obeyed ; if it be sinful , it is to be submitted to . for instance , if they set up a false religion by law , it does not make it a true religion , but adds the sanction of law , and is the civil warrant and security for the subject , therefore the civil power cannot change the nature of things to make good evil , or evil good ; but only gives authority and security ; and in this they are restrained in things civil as well as spiritual , for if they make unjust laws in civil things , the case is the same with their unjust laws about spirituals . therefore it is to be concluded as the fundamental maxim of civil government , that whatever may be done lawfully and without sin , ought to be done when the supream civil authority commands it , and that the subjects ought to obey . secondly , whosoever is empowered by the king and parliament to execute this their supream authority , has a full right and title to apply that power so given or committed to him , having the execution of that law put in his hands ; and if any shall without their warrant or authority from them usurp , or assume any sort of power or jurisdiction within this kingdom , they are intruders and usurpers , and the success they have in it does no more justifie that force than a robber's does his title to goods unjustly taken . and although some weak princes in hard times did yield it up to the pope ; yet both the clergy themselves and the parliaments , did often assert their own authority , which was most eminently done by king edward the first , and king edward the third ; so that the popes power here had no just title but was a violent invasion ; for that they neither had it from christ nor saint peter , nor by any decree of general councils ; and that for 800 years after christ it was never allowed them : that they never had it in the eastern churches , and that what they had in the western churches was only extorted by force and fraud from the princes and states of europe , and that they had no law for it in england , are things so certain , that for proof of this , i shall refer my self to the writers of their own church , de marca , launoy , and balusius , with many others . and at this very day the pope has neither more nor less power in the other kingdoms of europe , than the connivence of princes or the laws give him : therefore the pope had no power in england but what was unjustly usurped from the king and parliament . thirdly , when the supream authority the king and parliament have long endured an encroachment upon them , that gives no just title to it , nor hinders them from asserting their own rights when they find a fit opportunity for it , and neither devests them of their authority nor the subjects of their due rights and freedoms : therefore the government of the kingdom and all the exercise of coercive jurisdiction being inseparably annexed to the supream authority ; it was incumbent on them to shake off all forrein jurisdict : they should have done it sooner but could never do it too soon . fourthly , the king and parliament asserting their authority in this particular , and condemning the popes usurpations , they might commit the execution of it to whom they would : therefore they putting it into the queens hands and her successors , she had a good right to exercise it , having a law for it . this then being annexed to the imperial crown of the realm by the supream authority of king and parliament , the king hath the power of exercising it fully and only in his hands , and is to be obeyed in all his injunctions ( that are not sinful ) by the laws of the supream authority in this kingdom which comes from god , and is confirmed by the gospel . fifthly , though the power of the ministers of the gospel comes only from christ , yet the exercise of that power and this or that person being put in this or that living or preferment , and having the right to the tythes , and all the jurisdiction of the spiritual and prerogative courts , being things not appointed in the gospel , the king having the supremacy over the ecclesiastical state , does not exceed his limits when he reserves to himself such power that no person shall be vested with the legal authority for those things , but by his knowledg or upon his order . it is true , he cannot make a man a bishop or a priest , nor can he take away orders , for if bishops should ordain or consecrate without or against his pleasure , he may proceed against both the ordainers and ordained , and can hinder their exercising any function in his dominions by banishing or imprisoning them , but ●…he cannot destroy or annul their orders . so that the power of ordination comes from christ , and has a spiritual effect , whatever opposition the king may make , but the exercise of that power must be had from him . if the king commands an heretick or a scandalous person to be elected or ordained , churchmen may well demur and offer their reasons why they cannot give obedience , not for the want of authority in the king , but because the matter is morally evil : as they must also do , if the king should command them , to commit theft or murther . so that all consecrations in this land are made by bishops , by the power that is inherent in them , only the king gives orders for the execution of that their power : therefore all that the queen did in the case of matthew parker , and the kings do since , was to command so many bishops to exercise a power they had from christ in such or such instances , which command was just and good , if the persons to be ordained were so qualified as they ought to have been according to the scriptures . sixthly , though the command were unjust , yet that cannot be imagined a sufficient ground to annul the ordination , for otherwise all the ordinations appointed by the anti-popes of avignon were null , since done upon mandates from a false pope who had not power , which will annul all the ordinations of the gallicane church which did submit to these popes . and yet this cannot be admitted by the church of rome . unless they also annul all the eastern bishops ; for the patriarch of constantinople is made by order from the grand signior , and is upon that installed . if this therefore invalidates our ordinations , it will do theirs much more , except they will allow a greater power to the turk than to the king. so that this at most might prove the church to be under an unjust violence , but cannot infer an invalidating of acts so done : therefore if matthew parker was duely consecrated , though it was done upon the queens mandate , he was a true and lawful bishop . for let me suppose another case parallel to this : if the clergy should resolve they will no more administer the sacraments upon the pretence perhaps of interdicts , censures , or some such thing . and the prince or state commands them to administer the sacraments ( as was done by the venetians in the time of the interdict , and by many kings in the like cases ) can it be pretended that the sacraments they administer upon such commands are not the sacraments of christ , but only of the king. so in like manner orders given upon the kings mandate by persons empowered to it by christ and the church , are true orders , even though the mandate for them were unjust , tyrannical , and illegal . seventhly , besides all that has been said , it is to be considered , that the power of choosing bishops was in all ages thought at most a mixed thing in which laymen as well as church-men , had a share . it is well enough known , that for the first three centuries , the elections were made by the people , and the bishops that came to assist in those elections did confirm their choice and consecrate the person by them elected . now whatever is a right of the people they can by law transfer it on another . so in our case the people of this realm , having in parliament annexed the power of choosing bishops to the crown , by which their right is now in the king's person ; consecrations upon his nomination must either be good and valid , or all the consecrations of the first ages of the church shall likewise be annulled , since he has now as good a right to name the persons that are to be consecrated , as the people then had . it is true , the tumults and other disscandal orders in those elections , brought great scandal on the church , and so they were taken away and synodical elections were set up ; but as the former ordinations were good before these were set up , so it cannot be said that these are indispensibly necessary , otherwise there are no good ordinations at at this day in the church of rome ; these being all now put down , the pope having among his other usurpations taken that into his own hands . eighthly , it is also known how much christian princes , emperors and kings , in all ages and places , have medled in the election of bishops ; i need not tell how a synod desired valentinian to choose a bishop at millan when saint ambrose was chosen , nor how theodosius chose nectarius to be patriarch of constantinople , even when the second general council was sitting . nor need i tell the law iustinian made , that there should be three presented to the emperor in the elections of the patriarch , and he should choose one of them . these things are generally known , and i need not insist on them . it is true , as there followed great confusions in the greek empire till it was quite over-run and destroyed ; so there was scarce any one thing in which there was more doing and undoing than in the election of the patriarchs , the emperors often did it by their own authority ; synodal elections were also often set up , at length the emperors brought it to that , that they delivered the pastoral staff to the bishop by which he was invested in his patriarchat ; but it was never pretended neither by the latin church nor by the contrary factions in the greek church that orders so given were null . and yet the emperors giving the investiture with his own hand , is a far greater thing than our king 's granting a mandate for consecrating and investing them . for proof of this about the greek church , i refer it to habert who has given a full deduction of the elections in that church , from the days of the apostles to the last age. for the latin church , the matter has been so oft examined , that it is to no purpose to spend much time about it . it is known and confessed by platina , that the emperors authority interveened when the popes were created . and onuphrius tells , that by a decree of vigilius the custom had got in , that the elected pope should not be consecrated till the emperor had confirmed it , and had by his letters patents given the elect pope leave to be ordained , and that licence was either granted by the emperors themselves or by their lieutenants [ or exarchs ] at ravenna : and one and twenty popes were thus consecrated , pelagius the second only excepted , who being chosen during the siege of rome , did not stay for it , but he sent gregory ( afterwards pope ) to excuse it to the emperor , who was offended with it : it continued thus till the days of constantine , called pogonatus , who first remitted it to benedict the second , and the truth of it was , the power of the greek emperors was then fallen so low in italy , that no wonder he parted with it . but so soon as the empire was again set up in the west by charles the great , pope adrian with a synod , gave him the power of creating the pope ( as is set down in the very canon law it self ) and of investing all other arch-bishops and bishops and an anathema was pronounced against any that should consecrate a bishop that was not named and invested by him . this is likewise told by platina out of anastasius . it is true , though some popes were thus chosen , yet the weakness of charles the great 's son , and the divisions of his children , with the degeneracy of that whole race served the ends of the growing power of the papacy . yet lewis laid it down not as an usurpation , but as a right of which he devested himself , but his son lothaire re-assumed it , and did confirm divers popes , and anastasius tells that they durst not consecrate the pope without the imperial authority , and the thing was still kept up at least in a shadow till hadrian the third , who appointed that the emperors concurrence or licence should not be thought necessary in the creating of a pope . and from hadrian the first , who dyed anno 795. till hadrian the third , there were 89 years ; and from vigilius his days , who dyed anno 555. there were 330 years . so long were the popes made upon the emperors mandates . nor did the emperors part easily with this right , but after that the otho's and the henry's kept up their pretension , and came oft to rome and made many popes , and though most of the popes so made were generally reckoned anti-popes and schismaticks , yet some of them , as clement the second , are put in the catalogue of the popes by baronius and binnius , and by the late publishers of the councils labbee and cossartius : there was indeed great opposition made to this at rome ; but let even their own historians be appealed to , what a series of monsters and not men , those popes were ; how infamously they were elected , often by the whores of rome , and how flagitious they were , we refer it to barronius himself , who could not deny this for all his partiality in his great work. but in the end pope gregory the seventh got the better of the emperors in this particular . and now let the ingenuity of those men be considered , who endeavour to invalidate our orders , and call our priests and bishops parliamentary priests and bishops , because they are made upon the king's mandate according to the act of parliament . when it is clear that for near 500 years together , their own popes were consecrated for the most part upon the emperors mandate . and it is certain the kings of england have as much power to do the same here , as the emperors had to do it at rome . the emperors were wont also to grant the investitures into all the bishopricks by giving the ring and the staff , which were the ceremonies of the investiture , and so they both named and invested all the bishops and abbots . this pope gregory the seventh thought was no more to be suffered than their creating the popes , both being done by the same authority : therefore he resolved to wring them out of the emperors hands , and take them into his own ; and it was no wonder he had a great mind to bring this about , for the bishopricks and abbeys were then so richly endowed , that it was the conquest of almost the third part of the empire , to draw the giving of them into his own hands . therefore he first disgraced these laical investitures by an ill name to make them sound odiously , and called all so ordained , simoniacks , as he also called the married clergy , nicolaitans . now every body knows how much any thing suffers by a scurvy nick-name raised on it . but he went more roundly to work , and deposed the emperor , and absolved his subjects from their obedience . what bloody wars and unnatural rebellions of the children against the father , followed by the popes instigation , is well enough known . in the end , his son that succeeded him was forced to yield up the matter to the pope . in spain it appears both from the 12th . and 16th . councils of toledo , that the kings there did choose the bishops , which baronius does freely confess . and gregory of tours through his whole history , gives so many instances of the kings of france of the merovinian race , choosing and naming the bishops , that it cannot be questioned ; all the writers of the gallicane church do also assert that their kings gave the investitures from the days of charles the great . but the popes were still making inroads upon their authority , for securing which charles the seventh caused the pragmatic sanction to be made . it is true , afterwards , pope leo the tenth got francis the first to set up the concordate in its place , against which the assembly of the clergy at paris did complain and appealed to a general council , and yet by the concordate the king retains still the power of naming the bishops . in england there are some instances of the saxon kings choosing bishops , and though so little remains of the records or histories of that time , that it is no wonder if we meet but few . yet it is clear that king william the conqueror and both his sons , did give the investitures to the bishops , and though upon a contest between king henry the first and anselm about them , the king did yield them to him ; yet upon anselm's death he did re-assume that power : i need not say more to shew what were the rights of the crown in this matter , nor how oft they were asserted in parliament , nor how many laws were made against the incroachments and tyrannical exactions of the court of rome ; these are now so commonly known , and have been so oft printed of late , that i need add nothing about them . only from all i have said i suppose it is indisputably clear ; that if ordinations or consecrations upon the kings mandate , be invalid , which this paper drives at ; then all the ordinations of the christian church are also annulled , since for many ages they were all made upon the mandates of emperors and kings . by all which you may see the great weakness of this argument . i shall to this add some remarks on a few particulars of less weight that are insinuated in this argument . first , the writer of it would infer from the queens , calling cardinal pool the late and immediate arch-bishop and pastor of canterbury , that we acknowledg catholick ordination valid , lawful , and good . if by valid , lawful , and good , be understood that which retained the essentials of ordination , and was according to the then law , there is no doubt to be made of it , but if he mean that all the forms and ceremonies of their ordination are acknowledged to be good , he will never draw that inference from these words . secondly , from the clause of the patents , that is for supplying all defects , considering the necessity of the times , he would infer , there was somwhat wanting in them , which was thereby supplyed . if by that [ want ] he means an essential defect , there was none such , for they were true bishops . if he means only that some things were not according to what the law required , it is of no force , for whoever makes a law , can also dispense with it : therefore the execution of these laws being put in the queens hands , she might well dispense with some particulars ; all which the parliament did afterwards confirm , and any defect in the point of law might make them liable to the civil powers , but it can by no means be pretended that this should annul the ordinations , though illegally gone about . thirdly , he would infer from the act of parliament , that the queen is made pope , when he knows that both by one of the articles of the church and another act of parliament , it is declared otherwise express words as follows , where we attribute to the queens majesty , the chief government , by which titles we understand the minds of some slandrous folks to be offended ; we give not to our princes the ministry either of god's word or of the sacraments ; the which thing the injunctions also lately set forth by elizabeth our queen , do most plainly testifie : but that only prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly princes in holy scriptures by god himself ; that is , that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by god , whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal , and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil doers . so that there is nothing of the spiritual , much less of the papal and tyrannical power given to the king by the law. fourthly , from the power given to the queen to authorize such persons as she shall think fit to exercise that jurisdiction , he infers , they may be either clergymen , lawyers , merchants , or coblers , since the statute requires no more but that they be born subjects of the realm . but this is as well grounded as all the rest , for though that statute does not name the qualification of the persons , yet the other statutes that enacted the book of common-prayer and the ordinal , do fully specifie what sort of persons these must be , and it is not necessary that all things be in every statute . fifthly , he in the end of this paper pretends that the reason why this present parliament altered the ancient forms ; was , because they were null and invalid . the weakness and injustice of which was before shewed ; so that nothing needs to be repeated . and in fine , it has been also proved , that as both the greek and latin churches have made many alterations in their rituals , so the church of england which made these alterations , had as good an authority to do it by , as they had : to which i shall only add the words of the council of trent concerning the power of the church for making such changes when they give the reason for taking away the chalice . the church has power in the sacraments , retaining the substance of them to change or appoint such things which she shall judg more expedient both for the profit of the receivers , and for the reverence due to the sacraments , according to the variety of things , times , and places . where , by their own confession it is acknowledged , the church may make alterations in the sacraments * : so that it is a strange confidence in them to charge on us an annulling of former orders , because of a small addition of a few explanatory words . and so much for his paper . now having sufficiently answered every thing in it ; i hope i may be allowed to draw a few conclusions in opposition to his . and first , we having true priests and true bishops , are a true church , since we believe all that christ and his apostles delivered to the world. secondly , we being thus a part of the catholick church , every one that lives according to the doctrine professed a mong us , mayand shall be saved . thirdly , we do truly eat the flesh of christ , and drink his blood , having the blessed sacrament administred among us according to our saviour's institution . fourthly , we have as much power to consecrate the holy sacrament as any that were ordained in the church for near a thousand years together . fifthly , we have the ministerial power of giving absolution , and the ministry of reconciliation , and of forgiving sins , given us by our orders . sixthly , all men may ( and ought to ) joyn with us in the profession of the faith we believe , and in the use of the sacraments we administer , which are still preserved among us according to christ's institution ; and that whosoever repents and believes the gospel , shall be saved . seventhly , all and every of the arguments he has used , are found to be weak and frivolous , and to have no force in them . and thus far i have complied with your desires of answering the paper you sent me , in as short and clear terms as i could . but i must add , that this ransacking of records about a succession of orders , though it adds much to the lustre and beauty of the church ; yet is not a thing incumbent on every body to look much into , nor indeed , possible for any to be satisfied about : for a great many ages , all those instruments are lost ; so that how ordinations were made in the primitive church , we cannot certainly , know , it is a piece of history and very hard to be perfectly known . therefore it cannot be a fit study for any , much less for one that has not much leisure . the condition of christians were very hard , if private persons must certainly know how all ministers have been ordained since the apostles days ; for if we will raise scruples in this matter , it is impossible to satisfie them , unless the authentick registers of all the ages of the church could be shewed , which is impossible ; for tho we were satisfied that all the priests of this age were duly ordained ; yet if we be not as sure that all who ordained them had orders rightly given them , and so upward , till the days of the apostles , the doubt will still remain . therefore it is an unjust and unreasonable thing to raise difficulties in this matter . and indeed if we go to such nice scruples with it ; there is one thing in the church of rome that gives a much juster ground these , than any thing that can be pretended in ours does ; which is , the doctrine of the intention of the minister being necessary to make a sacrament . secret intentions are only known to god , and not possible to be known by any man : therefore since they make orders a sacrament , there remains still ground to entertain a scruple whether orders be truly given . and this cannever becleared , since none can know other mens thought or intentions . therefore the pursuing nice scruples about this , cannot be a thing indispensably necessary otherwise all people must be per plext with endless disquiet and doubtings . but the true touchstone of a church must be the purity of her doctrine and the conformity of her faith with that which christ and his apostles taught . in this the scriptures are clear and plain to every one that will read and consider them sincerely and without prejudice , which that you may do , and by these may be led and guided into all truth , shall be my constant prayer to god for you . an appendix . about the forms of ordaining priests and bishops in the latin church . because the decision of all the questions that can be made , by those of the church of rome , about the validity of our orders must be taken from the ancient forms of ordination , as hath been fully made out in the foregoing papers , therefore i hope it will not be unpleasant to the reader , to see what the forms of ordinations were in the latin church , for many ages , which he will more clearly understand , when he sees them at their full length ; then he can do by any quotations out of them . morinus has published sixteen of the most ancient latin rituals he could find , composed from the end of the fifth century ; at which time he judges the most ancient of them was written , till within those last four hundred years , so that he gives us a clear view of the ordinations of seven succeeding ages of the western church . his book is scarce to be had , and therefore i shall draw out of it , what relates to the ordination of priests and bishops , only as he has printed these forms strictly as the manuscripts were written , without altering some things that are manifestly the faults of the transcribers ; so i shall set them down exactly , as he has published them , with the emendations on the margin from other manuscripts , and adde a translation of them in english. but i shall begin with the three first canons of the fourth council of carthage , in which we have the fullest and earliest account of the ordidinations of bishops and priests , in the latin church : and from the simplicity of these and the many pompous rites that are added in the latter rituals , the reader will both perceive how the spirit of superstition grew from age to age ; and will be able to judge , whether the church of england ; or the church of rome , comes nearest the most primitive forms . these i set down according to the mss. published by morinus , and collationed on the margin , with a mss. belonging to the church of salisbury , that is judged to be six hundred year old , and also with that published by labbée in the tomes of the councils . sacrarum ordinationum ritus . ex concilio carthaginensi quarto depromptus . canon i. qui episcopus ordinandus est , antea examinetur , si natura sit prudens , si docibilis , si moribus temperatus , si vita cast●…s , si sobrius , si semper suis negotiis * cavens , * si humilis , si affabilis , si misericors , si literatus , si in lege domini instructus , si in scripturam sensibus ca●…tus , si in dogmatibus ecclesiasticis exercitatus ; & ante omnia , si fidei documenta verbis simplicibus asserat * id est , patrem , & filium , & spiritum sanctum unum deum esse confirmans , totamque * trinitatis deitatem coessentialem , & consubstantialem , & coaeternalem , & coomnipotentem praedicans : si * singularem quamque in trinitate personam plenum deum , * & totas tres personas unum deum . si incarnationem divinam non in patre , neque in spiritu sancto factam , sed in filio tantum credat , ut qui erat in divinitate dei patris , ipse fieret in homine hominis matris filius : deus verus ex patre , homo verus ex matre , carnem ex matris visceribus habens , & animam humanam rationalem ; sim●…l in eo * ambae naturae , id est , deus & homo , una persona , unus filius , unus christus , unus dominus , creator omnium quae sunt & autor , & * dominus , & rector cum patre & spiritu sancto , * omnium creaturaram qui passus sit vera carnis passione ; mortuus vera corporis sui morte , resurrexit vera carnis suae * resurrectinoe , & vera animae resumptione , in qua veniet judicar●… vivos & mortuos . quaerendum etiam ab eo , si novi & veteris testamenti , id est , leges & prophetarum , & apostolorum unum eundemque credat autorem & ev●…m . si diabolus non per conditionem , sed per arbitrium , * sit malus . quaerendum etiam ab eo si credat hujus quam gestamus , & non alterius , carnis resurrectionem . si credat judicium futurum , & recepturo●… singulos pro his , quae in * carne gesserunt , vel poenas vel * gloriam . si nuptias non improbat ; si secunda matrimonia non damnet ; si carnium per●…eptionem non culpet ; si poenitentibus reconciliatis communicet ; si in baptismo omnia peccata , id est , tam illud originale contractum , quam illa quae voluntate admissa sunt , dimittantur ; si extra ecclesiam catholicam nullus salvetur . cum in his omnibus examinatus , inventus fuerit plene instructus , tunc cum consensu clericorum , & laicorum , & conventu totius provinciae episcoporum , maximéque metropolitani vel authoritate vel praesentia , ordinetur episcopus . suscepto in nomini christi episcopatu non suae delectationi , nec suis motibus , sed his patrum definitionibus acquiescat . [ in cujus ordinatione etiam aetas requiritur , quam sancti patres in praeeligendis episcopis constituerunt . ] dehinc disponitur , qualiter ecclesiastica officia ordinantur . can. ii. episcopus cum ordinatur , duo episcopi ponant , & teneant evangeliorum codicem supra caput , & cervicem ejus ; & uno super eum sundente benedictionem , reliqui omnes episcopi qui adsunt , manibus suis caput ejus tangant . can. iii. presbyter cum ordinatur , episcopo eum benedicente , & manum super caput ejus tenente , etiam omnes presbyteri qui praesentes sunt , manus suas juxta manum episcopi super caput illius teneat . in english thus . can. i. let him that is to be ordained a bishop ; be first examined if he be naturally prudent , and teachable , if in his manners he be temperate , if chast in his life , if sober , if he looks to his own affairs , be humble , affable , merciful and learned , if he be instructed in the law of the lord ; and skilful in the sense of the scriptures ; and acquainted with ecclesiastical doctrines : and above all things , if he assert the articles of faith in simple words : that is to say , affirms that the father , son , and holy ghost are one god : and teaches that the whole deity of the trinity , is coessential , consubstantial , coaeternal , and coomnipotent : and that every person of the trinity , is fully god : and all the three persons are one god. if he believes that the holy incarnation , was neither of the father , nor the holy ghost ; but of the son only : that he who was the son of god the father by the godhead , becoming a man , was the son of his mother , very god of his father , and very man of his mother who had flesh of the bowels of his mother , and a human reasonable soul. and both natures god and man , were in him one person , one son , one christ , one lord the creator of all things that are , and the author , lord and governour of all creatures with the father , and the holy ghost . who suffered a true passion in his flesh , and was dead by a true death of his body , and rose again with a true resurrection of his flesh , and a true re-assumption of his soul , in which he shall come to judge the quick and the dead . it must likewise be asked if he believes , that one and the same god , was the author of the old and new testament ; of the books of the law , the prophets and the apostles . if the devil be not wicked by his will and not by his nature . and if he believes the resurrection of this flesh , which we now carry and not of any other , and the judgment to come , and that every one shall receive either punishment or glory , for what they have done in the flesh. if he does disapprove marriage , or condemn second marriage , or blames the eating of flesh. if he communicates with penitents , being reconciled . if he believes that in baptism all sins , both that which is originally contracted and those which are willingly committed are pardoned , and that none is saved out of the catholick church . when being examined in all these things , he is found fully instructed , then let him be ordained bishop , with the consent of the clergy , and laity , and the meeting of the bishops of the whole province ; and chiefly in the presence or by the authority of the metropolitan . and he having undertaken the bishoprick in the name of christ , must acquiesce in the definitions of the fathers , and not in his own pleasure or inclinations . and in ordaining him , that age is necessary which the holy fathers appointed in the choosing of bishops . after this it is appointed how all ecclesiastical offices are ordained . can. ii. when a bishop is ordained , two bishops shall lay and hold the book of the gospel , upon his head , and neck ; and one saying the blessing over him , all the other bishops that are present , shall touch his head with their hands . can. iii. when a presbyter is ordained , the bishop blessing him , and holding his hand upon his head , all the presbyters that are present , shall hold their hands beside the bishops hand upon his head. the most ancient of the rituals morinus proves was written some time between the year 511. and 560. in which the ordination of the priests is in this fashion : it begins with an exhortation to the people , to tell what they know of the person to be ordained , and to make a publick election of him. then follows the collect with this rubrick . oratio ad presbyteros ordinandos . oremus , dilectissimi , deum patrem omnipotentem , ut super hunc famulum suum quem ad presbyterii munus eligit , coelestia dona multiplicet , & quae ejus dignatione suscipiunt , ejus exequantur auxilio ; per dominum . item alia . exaudi nos , deus salutaris noster , * ut super hunc famulum tuum benedictionem spiritus sancti & gratiae sacerdotalis effunde virtutem , ut quem tuae pietatis suspectibus offerimus consecrandum , perpetua muneristui largitate persequaris ; per dominum . in english thus , a prayer for the priests that are to be ordained . let us pray beloved to god , the father almighty , that he may multiply heavenly gifts on this his servant , whom he has chosen to the office of priesthood , that what they receive by his favour , they may execute through his help ; through our lord. and another . hear us , o god our saviour , and pour upon this thy servant the blessing of the holy ghost and the vertue of priestly grace , that thou maist follow ▪ him with a perpetual largeness of thy gift , whom we offer up to thy holy eyes to be consecrated ; through our lord. consecratio . domine sancte pater omnipotens aeterne deus , honorum omnium dignitatum quae tibi militant , distributor , per quem cuncta firmantur , amplificatis semper in melius naturae rationalis incrementis per ordinem * congruam rationem dispositum , unde sacerdotalis gradus & officia levitarum sacramentis * mystici instituta ▪ creverunt , ut cum * pontifice summos regendis populis praefecisses ad eorum societatis & operis adjumentum † sequentes ordines viros , & secundae dignitatis elegeris , sic in eremo per septuaginta virorum prudentium , * mentis moysi spiritum propagasti , quibus ille adjutoribus usus in populo , innumeras multitudines facilè gubernavit . sic & eleazaro & ithamar filiis aaron paternae plenitudinis abundantiam transfudisti , * & ad hostias salutaris , & frequentiores officii sacramenta sufficeret merétum sacerdotum . hac providentia domine , apostolis filii tui doctores fidei comites addedisti quibus illi orbem totum secundis praedicatoribus impleverunt . quapropter infirmitati quoque nostrae , domine , quaesumus haec adjumenta largire , qui quanto magis fragiliores sumus , tanto his * plurius indigemus . da quaesumus , omnipotens pater , in hoc † famulo tuo ill presbyterii dignitatem : innova in visceribus ejus spiritum sanctitatis : acceptum à te , deus , secundi meriti munus obtineat , censuramque morum exemplo suae conversationis insinuet . sit † providus cooperator ordinis nostri , eluceat in * eum totius forma justitiae , ut bonam rationem dispensationis sibi creditae redditurus , aeternae beatitudinis praemia consequatur . the consecration . o lord , holy father , almighty and eternal god , the distributer of all honors and dignities that fight for thee , by whom all things are strengthned , the improvements of the rational nature being always enlarged by thee to the better , through a settled order and congruous reason , from whence the priestly degrees and the offices of the levites , which were instituted by mystical sacraments did grow up ; so that when thou set the high-priests to govern the people , thou didst choose for the help of their society and work , men of an inferiour order and a second dignity : so also in the wilderness thou didst propagate the spirit that was in moses into seventy prudent men , whom he using as helpers with him over the people , did easily govern innumerable multitudes . so thou didst transfuse into eleazar and ithamar the sons of aaron , abundance of the fulness that was in their father , that the ministry of the priests might be sufficient for the expiatory sacrifices , and the sacraments that were more frequent . by the same providence thou , o lord , didst add companions to the apostles of thy son , who were teachers of the faith , with which preachers of a second rank they filled the whole world. wherefore , o lord , we beseech thee grant likewise those helps to our infirmity , who by so much the weaker as we are , do need these the more . grant we beseech thee , almighty father , to this thy servant , the dignity of priesthood . renew in his inward parts the spirit of holiness , and let him obtain the office of the second merit received from thee , o god , and make him insinuate by the example of his conversation a censure of manners . let him be a provident fellow-labourer with our order , and let the form of all righteousness shine forth in him , that when he shall render a good account of the dispensation trusted to , he may obtain the rewards of eternal blessedness . consummatio presbyteri . sit nobis , fratres , communis cratio , ut * his qui in adjutorium & utilitatem vestrae salutis eligetur , presbyteratus benedictionem divini indulgentia muneris consequatur , & s. spiritus sacerdotalia dona privilegio virtutum , ne impar loco deprehendatur , obtineat per suum . per. the consummation of a priest. brethren , let us joyn in one prayer , that he who is chosen for the help and profit of your salvation , may obtain the blessing of the office of priesthood by the divine indulgence , and the priestly gifts of the holy ghost , by the priviledg of his vertue , lest he be found unfit for his place . item benedictio . sanctificationum omnium autor , cujus vera consecratio , plena benedictio est , tu domine , super hunc samulum ill . quem * prebyterii honore dedicamus , * manum tuae benedictionis eum insunde ut gravitate actuum , & censura vivendi probet se esse † seniorem , his institutus disciplinis quas tito & timotheo paulus exposuit , ut in lege tua die ac nocte , omnipotens , meditans , quod † elegerit , credat ▪ quod crediderit , doceat ; quod docuerit * meditetur : justitiam , constantiam , miscricordiam , fortitudinem in se ostendat , † exemplum probet , * admonitionem confirmet , ut purum atque immaculatum † ministerii tui domum custodiat , & per obsequium plebis tuae * corpus & sanguinem filii tui imma culata benedictione transformet , & inviolabili caritate in virum perfectum , in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis christi , in die justitiae aeterni judicii , conscientia pura , side plena , spiritu sancto plenus persolvat . per dominum . the benediction . thou the author of all sanctifications , whose true consecration is a full benediction ; thou , o lord , lay the hand of thy blessing upon this thy servant , whom we have dedicated to the honor of priesthood , that by the gravity of his actions and the rule of living , he may prove himself to be an elder instructed in those disciplines which saint paul delivered to titus and timothy : that meditating in thy law , o almighty god , day and night , he may believe what he reads , and teach what he believes , and follow what he teaches : and may shew forth righteousness , constancy , mercy , and courage in himself , and approve himself a pattern , and confirm his admonitions , and may preserve the gift of thy ministry undefiled ; and through the obedience of thy people , may transform the body and blood of thy son with an undefiled blessing , and may finish all by an inviolable charity in a perfect man ; in the measure of the statute of the fulness of christ in the day of the justice of eternal judgment , with a pure conscience and a full faith , being full of the holy ghost . the follows the consecration of their hands in these words . consecratio manus . consecrentur manus istae , & sanctificentur per istam unctionem & nostram benedictionem , ut quaecunque benedixerint , benedicta sint , & quaecunque sanctificaverint , sanctificentur . per dominum . item alia . ungantur manus istae de oleo sanctifica ; & chrismate sanctificationis , sicut unxit samuel david in regem & prophetam , ita unguentur & consummentur in nomine dei patris & filii & spiritus sancti , sacientes imaginem sanctae crucis salvatoris domini nostri iesu christi , qui nos à morte redemit & ad regna coelorum perducit . exaudi nos , pie pater omnipotens aeterne deus & praesta quod t●… rogamus & orames . per dominum . in english thus . let these hands be consecrated and sanctified by this unction and our blessing , that whatsoever they bless , be blessed , and whatsoever they sanctifie be sanctified through our lord. and another . let these hands be annointed with the sanctified oyl ; and the chrism of sanctification , as samuel annointed david to be both king and prophet ; so let them be annointed and perfected in the name of god the father , the son , and the holy ghost , making the image of the holy cross of our saviour the lord iesus christ , who redeemed us from death , and brings us to the kingdome of heaven . hear us o holy father , almighty and eternal god , and grant what we desire and pray for , through our lord. there is neither more nor less in that ritual about the ordination of a priest. for this last of the annointing the priests with oyl , it cannot be called essential to the priesthood , for the greek church never used it , and tho nazianzen tells us that his father had anointed st. basil , and that himself was also annointed , yet neither the apostolick constitutions , nor dionystus the areopagite , nor simeon of thessalonica , nor cabasilas , tho they have delivered to us the rites of ordination in the greek church , ever mention it . and it is in no greek ritual ; so that what ever places are found in any greek author of annointing in ordination must be understood allegorically and mystically , of the effusion of the holy ghost . so both elias cretensis and nicetas the scholiasts on nazianzen expound his words , and there are some passages near the end of his fourth oration , that shew these other places of his are to be understood metaphorically . this rite is not mentioned by the council of carthage , and it seems was not received in spain a great while after the age of this ritual , for isidor tho very particular in other things ( as the staff and ring ) does not mention it , neither when he speaks of the ordination of priests , nor bishops . nor do the councils in spain mention it ; and alcuine speaks nothing of it , but it was only as seems used in the gallicane church , and the first that i find clearly mention it , is amalarius , but gildas intimates it , for he speak of the benediction , qua initiantur sacerdotum manus , by which the priests hands are initiated . pope nicolas the first expresly says , that at rome neither priests nor deacons were annointed . his words are ; praeterea sciscitaris utrum solis presbyteris , an & diaconibus debeant cum ordinantur , manus chrismatis liquore perungi , quod in sancta hac romana cui , deo auctore , deservimus ecclesia , neutris agitur . sed & quia sit à novis legis ministris actum , nusquam nisi nos fallat oblivio , legimus . you ask me further if only the priests or the deacons likewise , when they are ordained should have their hands anointed with the chrism , this is done to neither of them , in this holy roman church ; where by gods appointment we serve , and if our memory fails us not , we no where read that this was done by the ministers of the new law. the second ritual published by the same author , is as he believes , nine hundred year old , and has been compiled for the church of rome ; being that which is commonly called sacramentarium gelasianum , in which the rubricks and prayers are the same with the former , only the annointing is not mentioned in that part of it that relates to the ordination of priests , but the transcriber after the office of the ordination of the subdeacon adds the rite and collects for the annointing the priests , which morinus believes he did to accommodate it to the french rites . the third ritual is as morinus believes , antienter than eight hundred years , in which the rites and collects are the same with the former , only the consummation and blessing is wanting , and a new rite is added of giving the vestiments , with these words which are in stead of the blessing . hic vestis & casulam . benedictio patris , & filii , & spiritus sancti descendat super te , ut sis benedictus in ordine sacerdotali , & offeras placabiles hostias pro peccatis atque offensionibus populi omnipotenti deo. cui sit honor & gloria in saecula saeculorum . in english thus . the blessing of the father , the son , and the holy ghost , descend upon thee , that thou maist be blessed in the priestly order , and may offer acceptable ( or expiatory ▪ ) sacrifices , for the sins and offences of the people , to almighty god. to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever . the fourth ritual , is the same with that which angelus rocca published among gregory the great 's works , where are the two first collects and prayer of consecration ; as in the first : with the annointing of the hands , as is there : and the giving the vestments , with the words in the third ritual . the fifth ritual , which he sets down has nothing relating to the ordination of priests ; but the two first collects and the prayer of consecration before set down , which upon that account he judges defective . the sixth ritual , about eight hundred year old , composed for the church of england , has all that is in the first ritual , with these additions . it begins with the canon of the council of carthage , about the ordination of a priest. then follow the collects and prayer before set down . then there is added this blessing , before the annointing of the hands . benedictio vel consecratio manuum sacerdotis ante unctionem chrismatis . benedic , domine , & sanctifica has manus sacerdotis tui ill . ad consecrandas hostias quae pro delictis atque negligentiis populi offeruntur , & ad caetera benedicenda quae ad usus populi necessaria sunt , & praesta , quaesumus , ut quaecunque benedixerint , benedicantur , & quaecunque sacraverint sacrentur , salvator mundi qui vivis & regnas . bless , o god , and sanctifie these hands of thy priest , for consecrating the sacrifices which are offered for the sins and negligences of the people , and for blessing of all other things , that are necessary for the use of the people , and grant we beseech thee , o saviour of the world , who livest and reignest , that whatsoever they bless may be blessed , and whatever they consecrate may be consecrated . then follows the annointing of the hands as before . then is added the annointing of the head , with this prayer : consecratio capitis cum oleo . ungatur & consecretur caput tuum coelesti benedictione in ordine sacerdotali , in nomine patris , & filii , & spiritus sancti . let thy head be annointed , and consecrated with a heavenly benediction in the priestly order , in the name of the father , the son , and the holy ghost . then the vestments are given as in the third ritual , with a little variation in the collect , and then follows the consummation and blessing ; as was in the first ritual before set down . the seventh ritual , which morinus reckons likewise eight hundred years old , has the same collects , consecration , and benediction with the first , with the delivery of the vestment and prayer , as is in the third ritual , and the annointing of the hands , as in the first , without any further rite . the eight ritual , is near the same age with the former , the two first collects and prayer of consecration , are in it as in the first , and the giving the vestment , as in the third , and the consecrating of the hands as in the first , and there is no more in that ritual . the ninth ritual , which he believes is seven hundred years old , has the first collects and the prayer of consecration as in the first . there is a little inconsiderable variation in the giving of the vestments , from what is in the third . the hands are annointed as in the first . the head is annointed as in the sixth , and the hands are bless'd as in the sixth , the consummation and benediction are according to the first . then some collects and blessings are added , relating to their fasting and abstinence . the tenth ritual , about the same age has the two first collects , and the prayer of consecration according to the first , then follows the giving the vestments according to the third . then is the annointing of the hands according to the first , and the blessing of them according to the sixth . there is no more in that ritual . the eleventh ritual , about the same age , has the exhortation to the people , and the two first collects , with the prayer of consecration as in the first . then these additions follow . he puts one of the vestments called orarium on him and says , accipe jugum dei , jugum enim ejus suave est & onus ejus leve . take the yoke of god , for his yoke is sweet , and his burden is light. then the casula is put on him with these words . stola innocentiae induat te dominus . let the lord cloath thee with the robe of innocence . then follows the blessing as in the first , and the annointing the hands , with a small variation in the collect from the words of the first . this being done , the paten with the hosties , and the chalice , with the wine , is given with these words . accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium deo missamque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis , in nomine domini . receive thou power to offer sacrifice and to celebrate the mass ; as well for the living as for the dead , in the name of the lord. then follows the blessing as is in the third ritual . the twelfth and thirteenth rituals , the one being about six hundred and fifty year old , the other a hundred years later have the first collects , and prayer of consecration as the first had . and the blessing that is in the third , with the consecration of the hands that is in the first . the fourteenth ritual , about five hundred year old has the two collects and prayer of consecration as in the first . then the orarium is given as in the eleventh , with an addition in giving the casula . accipe vestem sacerdotalem per quam charitas intelligitur ; potens est enim deus ut augeat tibi charitatem , qui vivit . receive the priestly vestment by which charity is understood , for god is able to increase thy charity , who lives . then follows the consummation , and benediction as in the first , then the bishop makes a cross in their hands with the oyl and chrism ; and uses the words as in the eleventh ritual , then he gives the sacred vessels as in that same ritual . then follows the blessing in the third ritual , and then the bishop is to kiss them . the fifteenth ritual , is about four hundred and fifty years old , and has very near the same rubricks that are in the former , only upon the margin , where the words are to be pronounced in the delivering the sacred vessels , is written , accipe spiritum sanctum ; quorum remiseritis peccata , &c. receive the holy ghost ; whose sins ye remit , &c. the sixteenth ritual , about three hundred years old , agrees with the former , in the forementioned rites and collects ; but has this addition that the bishop lays on his hands on the priests and says , receive the holy ghost ; whose sins ye remit , they are remitted to them , and whose sins you retain they are retained . but in two other pontificals which morinus believes are of the same age ▪ these words and that rite are wanting . in the ordo romanus , which some believe is a work of the ninth century , others that it is of the eleventh century , there are set down first some questions and answers to the priests to be ordained , then the two collects with the prayer of consecration follow , as in the rituals before set down , only it is marked in the rubrick that the bishop and priests lay on their hands at the first collect , then follow all the other rites of giving the vestments , annointing and delivering the sacred vessels ; but the last imposition of hands with the words , receive the holy ghost , are not in it . from all which it clearly appears what must be essential to ordination , and what not ; none of those rites that are only found in later rituals are essential : for the ordinations were good and valid before these were added . but that in which all these rituals agree must be acknowledged of greatest weight and chief importance , and that is the prayer of consecration with the two collects that go before it . for in those they all agree , but vary in every thing else ; and therefore morinus thinks the former of these collects , is now the form of priestly orders , for which he has another strong argument , which is , that as he proves both by the ancient canons , and even by the doctrine of the council of trent ; the imposition of the priests hands with the bishop is necessary in these ordinations , and they only lay on hands with the bishop when that collect is pronounced , from which he infers that then the priests orders are conferred . but it is clear from all those rituals that these collects were preparatory to the prayer of consecration which only is the form of these orders according to those rituals . and thus far of the office of ordaining priests , i shall next set down from those rituals the office , rubricks , rites , and prayers used in the consecration of a bishop . the office begins with an exhortation to the people , declaring the necessity of substituting one pastor to another , and that therefore upon the former bishops death , there is another chosen by the priests and the whole clergy , with the advice of the citizens and people , who is well qualified for it ; therefore they are desired to approve of the choice by their voices and to declare him worthy of it . then follows , oratio & * precis de ordinandis episcopis . oremus , dilectissimi nobis , ut his viris ad utilitatem ecclesiae * providendis , benignitas omnipotentis dei , gratiae suae tribuat largitatem ; per dominum nostrum iesum christum . alia : benedictio episcoporum . exaudi , domine , supplicum preces , ut quod nostrum gerendum est ministerium tua potius virtute firmetur . per dominum nostrum iesum christum . alia . propitiare , domine , supplicationibus nostris : & * inclinatus super hos famulos tuos cornu gratiae sacerdotalis , benedictionis tuae in eos effunde virtutem . per dominum nostrum iesum christum . coll. sequitur . deum totius sanctificationis ac pietatis actorem , qui placationem suam & sacrificia & sacra constituit , fratres dilectissimi , deprecemur , ut hunc famulum suum quem ex altari in ecclesia , & seniorum cathedra concordibus sua inspiratione judiciis , & effusis super plebem suam votis fidelibus , ac vocum testimoniis voluit imponi , collocans eum , cum principibus populi sui , ad eorum nunc precim universam eundem summum sacerdotium debita honoris plenitudine charismatum gratia , sanctificationum ubertate hac , praecipue humilitatis virtute locupletet , ut rector potius non extollatur , sed in omnibus se quantum est major humilians , sit in ipsis quasi unus ex illis , omnia judicii domini nostri non pro se tantum , sed & pro omni populo qui solicitudinis suae creditur contremiscens , ut qui meminerit de speculatorum manibus omnium animas requirendas pro omnium salute pervigilet , pastorali erga creditas sibi oves domini diligentiae ejus semper se flagrantissimum adprobans . te dilectorum adigitur praefuturus ex omnibus electus , ex quibus universis sacris , sacrandisque idoneus fiat sub hac quae est homini per hominem postrima benedictio confirmata atque perfecta suae consecrationis nostrae supplecationis adtentissime concordissimisque omnium precibus adjovemur , omnium pro ipso oratio incumbat , cui exorandi pro omnibus pondus imponitur . impetret ei affectus totius ecclesiae virtutem , pietate sanctificationem , & caeteras summi sacerdotii sacras dotes universae ecclesiae profuturas , domino deo nostro qui sacrorum numerum profluus fons est , qui dat omnibus affluenter quod sacerdoti pro affectu poscitur , ad exundandam in omnibus sanctificationem suorum omnium promptissimè ac plenissimè conferentem . per dominum nostrum . a collect and prayers for the bishops to be ordained . beloved , let us pray that the bounty of almighty god may give of the fulness of his grace to those men who are to be provided for the use of the church , through our lord. hear , o lord , the prayers of thy supplicants , that the ministry which we are to bear may be confirmed by thy power , through our lord iesus christ. be favourable to our supplications , o lord , and put upon these thy servants the horn of thy priestly grace , and pour upon them the vertue of thy blessing , through our lord iesus christ. beloved brethren , let us pray to god who is the author of all holiness and piety , who appointed sacrifices and holy offices , by which he is pleased , that he would , upon the prayer of all his people , enrich this his servant whom he has appointed by the agreeing voices according to his inspiration and the faithful desires which he has infused in the people , and the testimony of their voices , to be raised from the altar in the church , and the seat of the elders placing him with the princes of his people : with the fulness of the honour of the high-priesthood , and the grace of sanctifying gifts in great measure , and chiefly with the vertue of humility , that being a governour , he be not lifted up , but that in all things he humble himself the greater he grows , and be among others , as one of them : trembling at all the judgments of god , not only for himself , but for all the people trusted to his care , remembring that all their souls shall be required at the hands of the watchmen : and therefore may watch for all their safety , approving himself always most inflamed with pastoral diligence about the lord's sheep trusted to him . i cannot make sense of the rest , for this collect is in no other ritual , and the copy out of which it is printed , as it is very ancient , so it has been most uncorrectly written . consecratio . deus honorum omnium , deus omnium dignitatum , quae gloriae tuae * sacris samulantur honoribus : deus qui moysen samulum tuum secreti samiliaris * affectu inter caetera coelestis documenta culturae , de habitu quoque indumenti sacerdotalis instituens , electum aaron mystico amictu vestire inter sacra jussisti , ut intelligentiae sensum de exemplis priorum caperet secutura posteritas , ne eruditio doctrinae tuae ulli deesset aetati , cum & apud veteres reverentiam ipsam significationum species obtineret , & apud nos certiora essent experimenta rerum quam aenigmata figurarum . illius namque sacerdotii anterioris habitus nostrae mentis ornatus est , & pontificalis gloriae non jam nobis * honorem commendat vestrum sed * splendorem animarum . quia & illa quae tunc carnalibus blandiebantur obtutibus , ea potius quae ipsis erant intelligenda poscebant . et idcirco famulis tuis , quaesumus , quos ad summi sacerdotii * sacerdotium elegisti , hanc quaesumus , domine gratiam largiaris , ut quidquid illa velamina in fulgore auri , in nitore gemmarum , & multimodi operis varitate signabant , hoc in horum moribus claresoat . *** comple , domine , in sacerdotibus tuis mysterii tui summam , & ornamentis totius glorificationis * instructum coelestis unguenti flore sanctifica . *** hoc , domine , copiosè in eorum caput influat , hoc in oris subjecta decurrat , hoc in totius corporis extrema , descendat , ut tui spiritus virtus & † interiorum ora repleat , & exteriora circumtegat . abundet in his constantia fidei , puritas dilectionis , sinceritas pacis . [ sint speciosi munere tuo pedes horum ad evangelizandum pacem , ad evangelizandum bona tua . da eis , domine , mysterium reconciliationis in verbo , & in virtute & * signorum , & prodigiorum . sit sermo eorum & praedicatio non in persuasibilibus humanae sapientiae verbis , sed in ostensione spiritus & † virtutis . da eis , domine , claves regni coelorum : utantur ne●… glorientur potestate quam tribuis in aedificationem , non in destructionem . quodcunque * legaverint super terram sit † legatum & in coelis , et quodqunque solverint super terram sit solutum & in coelis . quorum detinuerint peccata , detenta sint , & quorum * demiserint , tu † demittas . quibenedixerit eis sit benedictus , & qui maledixerit eis , maledictionibus repleatur . sint servi fideles & prudentes quos constituas tu , domine , super samiliam tuam , ut dent illis cibum in tempore necessario , ut exhibeant omnem hominem perfectum . sint solicitudine impigri , sint spiritu serventes , oderint superbiam , diligant veritatem , nec eam unquam deserant aut lassitudine aut timore superati . non ponant lucem ad tenebras , nec tenebris lucem ; non dicant malum bonum , nec bonum malum . sint sapientibus & insipientibus debitores , & sructum de prosectu omnium consequantur . ] tribuas eis , domine , cathedram episcopalem ad regendam ecclesiam tuam , & plebem universam . sis eis autoritas , sis eis potestas , sis eis firmitas . multiplices super eos benedictionem , & gratiam tuam , ut ad exorandam semper misericordiam tuam munere idonei , tua gratia possint esse devoti ; per dominum nostrum , &c. the consecration . o god of all the honours , o god of all the dignities , that serve in the holy offices to thy glory , o god who when thou instructedst moses thy servant with a secret and familiar affection , among other instructions of the heavenly ornaments , didst teach him the priestly garments and commandedst him to cloath aaron thy chosen , when he did officiate , that the following ages might be instructed by those who went before them , that the knowledge of thy doctrine might be wanting in no age , the appearance of the things signified being reverenced among the ancients , but among us the real experiments are more certain than the riddles of figures . for the habit of the former priesthood in us is the ornament of our minds , and it is not the shining of our cloaths , but of our souls that commends in us the honour of the priestly glory ; because they did more desire those things that pleased their carnal eyes than the things they should have understood by them . and therefore we beseech thee , o lord , grant this grace to those thy servants whom thou hast chosen to the ministry of the high priesthood , that whatever those garments signified in the shining of the gold , in the brightness of the gems , and in the curiousness of the workmanship , all that may appear in their manners . ** accomplish , o lord , in thy priests the fullness of thy mystery , and having adorned him with all the ornaments of glory : sanctifie him with the flower of the heavenly oyntment . ** let that , o lord , fall plentifully on their head , and run down the rest of their face and descend to the extremities of their body , that the vertue of thy spirit may fill them inwardly , and compass them about outwardly . let the constancy of faith , the purity of love , and the sincerity of peace abound in them . [ let their feet through thy favour be beautiful to preach peace and to preach thy good things . give them , o lord , the ministry of reconciliation , in word and in power , in signs and wonders . let their discours●… and preaching be not in the perswading words of human wisdom , but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power . give them , o lord , the keys of the kingdom of heaven . let them use , but not glory in their power which thou givest them , to edification and not to destruction : whatsoever they shall bind on earth , let it be bound in heaven , and what they shall loose on earth , let it be loosed in heaven ; whose sins they retain , let them be retained , and whose they remit , do thou remit . who blesses them , let him be blessed , and who curses them , let him be filled with curses ; and let them be faithful and wise servants , whom thou shalt appoint over thy houshold to give them meat in due season , that they may present every man perfect . make them diligent in business and fervent in spirit . make them hate pride and love truth , and let them never forsake it either through weariness or fear . let them not put light for darkness , nor darkness for light , nor call evil good nor good evil . let them be debtors both to the wise and unwise , that they may gather fruit from the profiting of all men . ] give them , o lord , an episcopal chair for the governing of thy church and whole people . be thou to them authority , power , and strength . multiply upon them thy blessing and grace , that being fitted by thy gift always to implore thy mercy they may be devout by thy grace : through our lord iesus christ. there follow some collects that are called in the rubrick super oblata , which belong to the office of the communion , and are prayers for the bishop ; and this is all in that ritual , that relates to the ordination of a bishop . the second ritual , in all things agrees with the former . the third ritual , begins that office with the second canon of the fourth council of carthage , about the consecration of bishops then follow the collects , oremus , adesto , and propitiare , as in the first ; then the prayer of consecration , deus honorum omnium . and at the word comple the bishop takes the chrism , and at the words hoc domine he pours it on the head of the person to be consecrated , but all from sinceritas pacis , to tribuas ei domine , is left out , then follow the collects super oblata , there is no more in that ritual . for the annointing of bishops , tho it was neither used in the eastern nor african churches , yet both pope a leo and gregory the great mention it as a rite then received in the roman church . b amalarius gives an accout of it , but cites no ancienter author for it than c beda , for some other authorities that are brought to prove the greater antiquity of this rite , are either allegorical or relate to the chrism , with which all were annointed at their confirmation . the fourth ritual , has first the questions that are put to the bishop that is to be ordained , which has begun , it seems , from the time of the fourth council of carthage , where by the first canon the bishop was to be examined , both about his faith and manners . i shall only set down two of these , the one is . vis ea quae ex divinis scripturis intelligis , plebem cui ordinandus es & verbis docere & exemplis ? wilt thou both by the words and example instruct the people , for whom thou art to be ordained , in those things which thou dost understand out of the holy scriptures ? to which he answers , i will. and this alone were there no more , may serve to justify those bishops , who got orders in the church of rome , and afterwards received the reformation ; since by the very sponsions given in their ordination , they had engaged themselves to instruct their flocks according to the scriptures . another question is , vis esse subditus huic nostrae sedi atque obediens ? wilt thou be subject and obedient to this our see. which was no other than what every metropolitan demanded of all the bishops under him , and yet this is all the obedience then promised to the pope ; far different from the oaths which were afterwards exacted . but i go on to give an account of the rest of the office according to this ritual . in the rubrick , the second canon of the fourth council of carthage is set down , to which is added . hoc facto accipiat patinam cum oblatis & calicem cum vino , & det ei , dicens , accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium , &c. which being done he shall take the paten , with the hosties and the chalice with the wine , and shall give him , saying , receive power to offer sacrifice , &c. so that this was used in the consecration of bishops , long before it was in the making of priests , then follow oremus , adesto , and propitiare as they are before set down , then two new rites are set down , the rubrick is . ad annulum dandum . memor sponsionis & desponsationis ecclesiasticae , & dilectionis domini dei tui in die , qua assecutus es hunc honorem , cave ne obliviscaris illius . accipe ergo annulum discretionis , & honoris fidei signum , ut quae sign●…nda sunt , signes : et quae aperienda sunt prodas : quae liganda sunt , liges : quae solvenda sunt , solvas : utque credentibus per fidem baptismatis , lapsis autem sed poenitentibus , per mysterium reconciliationis januas regni coelestis aperias : cunctis verò de thesauro dominico nova & vetera proferas , ut ad aeternam salutem omnibus consulas , gratia domini nostri iesu christi , cui cum patre & spiritu sancto est honor & gloria in saecula saeculorum , amen . for giving the ring . being mindful of the sponsion and ecclesiastical wedding , and of the love of the lord god , in the day in which thou hast attained this honour , beware least thou forget it : receive therefore the ring the seal of discretion , and of the honour of faith , that thon maist seal the things that are to be sealed , and maist open the things that are to be opened , and maist bind the things that are to be bound , and maist loose the things that are to be loosed , and maist open the gates of the heavenly kingdom to the believers , by the faith of baptism : and to those that have fallen , but are penitent , by the mysterie of reconciliation , and that thou maist bring forth to all men out of the treasure of the lord , things new and old , and that thou maist take care of all their eternal salvation , through the grace of our lord iesus christ , to whom , &c. ad baculum dandum . accipe baculum sacri regiminis signum , ut imbecilles consolides , titubantes confirmes , praves corrigas in viam salutis aeternae , habeasque potestatem a●…trahendi dignos , & corrigendi indignos , cooperante domino nostro iesu christo , cui cum patre in unitate spiritus sancti est virtus & imperium , per omnia saecula saeculorum . amen . for giving the staff. receive the staff , the sign of the sacred government ; that thou maist strengthen the weak , confirme them that stagger , correct the wicked in the way of eternal salvation , and may have power to attract the worthy and correct the unworthy , through the assistance of our lord iesus christ , to whom , &c. then follows the prayer of consecration , and at the words hoc domine , the rubrick appoints the chrism to be put on his head , and what is left out in the former ritual , is also left out in this , after that prayer follows the collect super oblata . and there is no more in that ritual . for these rites of the ring and staff , the first i find that mentions them is a ●…dore , who both speaks of them and 〈◊〉 sets down some of the words used in the former ritual . yet b alcuinus speaks not a word of it , tho he entitles his chap●…er ; the manner in which a bishop is ordained in the roman church . but i●… seems he has only lookt on some more antient rituals , in which there was no such rite ; for it is most certain that it was used in his time . c amalarius tho he does at a great length insist on the annointing of the bishop ; yet speaks not a word of the staff or ring . but d rabanus maurus who lived in that time does mention it , or rather sets down isidores words without citing him , but whether these were foisted in or not , i cannot judge . now these rites were afterwards a ball of contention ; for the emperours and kings did give the investiture by them which had they been given with our such words , they might have more easily kept up their pretension ; but the words joyned with them , relating wholly to spiritual things , were no doubt made a great argument for taking them out of their hands : since it seemed very incongruous for a secular and lay person , to pronounce them or perform a rite to which such words were added . the fifth ritual has only the collects , adesto , and propitiare , and the prayer of consecration , ( without the rubrick for giving the chrism , ) and the collects super oblata ; leaving out in the prayer of consecration what is left out in the two former rituals . the sixth ritual has the collects adesto and propitiare with the prayer of consecration , as in the first ( in which the rubrick about putting the chrism on the head is also ) then follows a new prayer , that is in no other ritual , for the bishop thus ordained , after which there is a blessing called de septiformi spiritu , for the sevenfold grace of the holy ghost , then are the hands of the bishop consecrated with holy oyl , and the chrism , with these words . consecratio manuum episcopi ab archiepiscopo , oleo sancto & chrismate . ungantur manus istae & sanctificentur & in te deo deorum ordinentur . ungo has manus oleo sanctificato & chrismate unctionis purificato , sicut unxit moyses verbo oris sui manus s. aaron germani sui , & sicut unxit spiritus sanctus per suos flatus , manus suorum apostolorum , ita ungantur manus istae & sanctificentur , & consecrentur , ut in omnibus sint perfectae , in nomine tuo , pater , filiique tui atque aeterni spiritus s. qui es unus ac summus dominus omnium vivorum & mortuorum , manens in saecula saeculorum . let these hands be annointed and sanctified and ordained for the god of gods. i annoint these hands with sanctified oyl , and the purified chrism of annointing ; as moses by the word of his mouth annointed holy aaron his brother , and as the holy ghost by his breathings did annoint the hands of his apostles , so let these hands be annointed , sanctified and consecrated , that they may be perfect in all things in thy name , o father , and in thy sons , and thy holy spirit 's , who art the only and great god of the quick and of the dead for ever and ever . amen . then his head is annointed with the following words . hic mittatur oleum super ejus . ungatur & consecretur caput tuum coelesti benedictione in ordinem pontificalem , in nomine patris & filii & spiritus sancti . let thy head be annointed and consecrated with a heavenly blessing for the pontifical order , in the name of the father , the son and the holy ghost . then the staff is blessed in these words in verse : tu baculus nostrae , & rector per saecula vitae . istum sanctifica pietatis jure bacillum , quo mala sternantur , quo semper recta regantur . thou who art the staff of our life , and our guide , for ever sanctify this staff , by which ill things may be beaten down and right things always guided . then the staff is given and after that the ring , almost with the same words that are in the fourth ritual , then follows a prayer that he may ascend the episcopal chair , then he is put in the chair and a prayer is made for him that he may resemble the patriarchs , prophets , apostles and saints , and in the end he is blessed in these words . benedictio ejusdem sacerdotis . populus te honoret , adjuvet te dominus , quidquid petieris praestet tibi deus , cum honore , cum castitate , cum scientia , cum largitate , cum charitate , cum nobilitate . dignus sis , iustus sis , humilis sis , sincerus sis , apostolus christi sis . accipe benedictionem & apostolatum qui permaneat in die ista & in die sutura . angeli sint ad dexteram tuam , apostoli coronati ad sinistram : ecclesia sit mater tua & altare , sit deus pater tuus , sint angeli amici tui , sint apostoli sratres tui & apostolatus tui gradum custodiant . confirmet te deus in iustitia , in sanctitate , in ecclesia sancta . angeli recipiant te , & pax tecum indiscrepabilis , per redemptorem dominum nostrum iesum christum , qui cum patre & spiritu sancto vivit & regnat in saecula saeculorum . amen . may the people honour thee , may god assist thee and grant thee whatsoever thou shalt ask of him , with honour , chastity , knowledg , bounty , charity , and nobility . be thou worthy , just , humble , sincere , and an apostle of christ. receive a blessing and an apostleship which shall continue for this time and that which is to come . let angels be at thy right hand and crowned apostles at thy left . let the church and the altar be thy mother , and god thy father . let the angels be thy friends , and the apostles thy brethren , and guard the degree of thy apostleship . may god strengthen thee in justice ▪ in holiness , and in the holy church , and may angels receive thee , and inseparable peace be with thee , through our lord iesus christ , who with the father and the holy spirit reigns and lives for ever and ever . amen . the seventh ritual has first the second canon of the fourth council of carthage , then the exhortation to the people , then the collects , oremus , adesto and propitiare , then the prayer of consecration , and then the annointing of the hands , then follows the communion service . the eighth ritual , begins the office of consecrating a bishop with the collect adesto . then follows a new rite of giving the gospel with these words : accipe hoc evangelium , & ito , doce omnes gentes . receive this gospel , and go , and teach all nations . then follows the propitiare , and the prayer of consecration , and the giving the staff , and ring without any more . this rite of delivering the gospels , it seems was never generally received , for it is in none of the other rituals published by morinus , but is now in the roman pontifical . the ninth ritual begins this office with the form in which the kings of france did then choose their bishops , then follows an oath of obedience to the patriarchal see ( no mention being made of the pope or see of rome , ) then the ring is blessed with a particular benediction , and it is given with the words in the fourth ritual . the staff is next blessed as in the sixth ritual , and given as in the fourth ritual . then follow the collects oremus , adesto , and propitiare , then the prayer of consecration as in the first ritual , then follows another long prayer , after which follows the annointing of the hands and head , and the blessing for the sevenfold grace of the holy ghost . then follows the communion service . the tenth ritual , has only the collects adesto , and propitiare , and the prayer of consecration with the collects super oblata . and on the margin , the giving of the ring and staff is set down , but with a very different and much later hand . the eleventh ritual , begins with some rites that are not in the roman pontifical , tho by it all is to be done in the popes name , by a bishop commissioned , by him called dominus apostolicus , or perhaps the pope himself , that being the common way of designing the pope in those ages ; the dean or arch-presbyter and the clergy of the see , ask the pope or his delegate their blessing three times , then they are asked some questions about the elect bishop , among which those are considerable . it is asked , if he be of that church ? to which it is answered , yes . then , what function he is of ? answ. of the priestly . quest. how many years has he been a priest ? ans. ten. quest. was he ever married ? answer , not. after these questions are put , then the decree of electing him , which is addressed to the pope , is read , by which they desire he may be ordained their bishop . this must be signed by them all . then it is asked , if any simoniacal promises be made ? they answer , no. then the bishop elect is brought to the popes delegate , who first puts the same questions to him that were before put to the dean , and he answers them in the same manner . then the introitus is sung , after which follows the collect adesto , then the questions that are in the pontifical are put to him , and whereas in the former rituals there was only a general promise of obedience to the metropolitan , put to the elect bishop , instead of that the two following questions are put to him . wilt thou reverently receive , teach , and keep the traditions of the orthodox fathers , and the decretal constitutions of the holy and apostolick see ? answer , i will. wilt thou bear faith and subjection to st. peter , ( to whom the lord gave the power of binding and loosing , ) and to his vicars and successors ? answer , i will. but these words not being thought full enough , they have since added ( to faith and subjection , ) and obedience in all things , according to the authority of the canons , then the elect bishop is examined about his faith , the questions being taken out of the three creeds . after which he is blessed and cloathed with the episcopal vestments , and the epistle is read , 1 tim. 3. cap. then his sandals and gloves are put on with prayers at each of these rites , then the bishops laying the gospels on his head and shoulders , and their hands on his head ▪ the ordainer says the collects adesto , oremus and propitiare , then follows the prayer that in former rituals is called the consecration , but has no such rubrick here , it has all that is in the first ritual , only after the words coelestis unguenti flore sanctifica , the rite of annointing the head with the words joyned to it in the sixth ritual , is inserted , after which follows the rest of that prayer : next the hands are annointed , and words somewhat different from those in the sixth ritual are pronounced . then follows a new rite of putting the chrism on his thumb , with a blessing joyned to it , then the ring is blessed and given , and so is also the staff ; then the kiss of peace is given , and he is set down among the bishops , and the ordainer , sits down and washes his hands and puts incense in the censer , and gives the blessing , then follows the service of the communion . to this ritual morinus had added an ancient piece of a ritual which he found in a mss. at tholose about the election , examination , and ordination of bishops in the roman church , which in all things agrees with the former except in an addition which is also mentioned by alcuinus . i shall set it down in latin without a translation , which in modesty i ought not to give : by it the reader will see what the roman church gained by pressing the celibate of the clergy so much since they were suspected of such horrid crimes , and were to be tryed about them . the words are : inquirat illum de quatuor capitulis secundum canones , id est , de arsenoquita , quod est coitus cum masculo : pro ancilla deo sacrata quae à francis nonna dicitur , pro quadrupedibus & muliere alio viro conjuncta , aut si conjugem habuit ex alio viro , quae à graecis dicitur deuterogamia : & dum nihil eorum ipse vir conscius suerit , evangeliis ad medium deductis jurat ipse electus archidiacono & posthaec traditur subdiacono & pergit cum praesato electo ad aulam sanctae matris ecclesiae , ibique supra ejus sacratissimum corpus confirmet , quod non cognovisset superius nominata capitula . and thus , if they were free of these crimes which are not to be named , no other act of uncleanness was to be inquired after or stood upon : only the pharisaical spirit of that age is to be observed , in that they reckon a church-mans having been married to another mans wife , which is forbidden by no law of god or nature , in the same predicament with those abominations which god punished with fire and brimstone from heaven . the twelfth and thirteenth rituals have not the office of consecrating bishops in them . the fourteenth ritual begins with the decree of election , directed to the metropolitan without that previous examination that is in the eleventh ; then follows the examination of the faith and manners of the bishop elect , then the people pray he may be ordained , after which two bishops begin the litany ( this is in no ancienter ritual , ) then the hymn veni creator is begun ( which is also new being in no other ritual , ) after which they lay the gospels on his head and lay on their hands , and the metropolitan says the collect oremus ; then follows the propitiare , which is called the benediction , then follows the prayer deus honorum , after which there is another long prayer that is in no other ritual , for a blessing in the function to which he is ordained , then follows the blessing of the sevenfold grace , then the consecration of the bishops hands with the oyl and the chrism , then the chrism is put on his head , ( as the oyl was by other rituals put on his head in the midst of the prayer deus honorum omnium ) then follows a new rite of putting the miter on his head , but no words are pronounced with it , then the ring is blessed and given ; so also is the staff blessed and given ; then there is a prayer about the putting him in his chair ; after which he is put in his chair and a new prayer is used , and all ends with the blessing that is at the end of the sixth ritual . the fifteenth ritual has no considerable variation from the former , only in the beginning the bishop that presents the bishop elect says , reverende pater , postulat sancta mater ecclesia ut hunc praesentem presbyterum ad onus episcopatus sublevetis . reverend father , the holy church our mother desires that you may raise this priest to the burden of a bishoprick . then the consecration is made with the collects adesto , oremus and propitiare said with a middle voice . then follows the other prayer in which his head is annointed , which in this ritual is called a preface , tho in most of the former it be called the consecration , then follows the blessing of the staff ; in the end the blessing is given to the bishop . the last ritual agrees in all things with the pontifical as it now is , only the words receive the holy ghost are in none of these antient rituals which morinus saw , tho the latest of those be not above three hundred years old . to these i shall add an account of the consecration of a bishop , as it is in the ordo romanus . the office begins with the decree bearing the election of the bishop , with a desire that he be ordained as soon as may be , directed to the bishops of the province , then follows the first canon of the fourth council of carthage , after which is the metropolitans letter approving the election , and desiring the bishop elect to be brought to him ; when he is brought he is blessed in order to his consecration , then the antiphona and the introitus are said , after this follows the examination of his faith and manners : as in the eleventh ritual . then the epistle is read , after which his gloves and sandals , and his dalmatica ( a vestment in the fashion of a cross , first used in dalmatia , ) are put on , and collects are used in every one of these ; then follows the exhortation that is in the antientest of morinus his rituals : after which two bishops lay the gospels on his neck and shoulders , and all the bishops lay on their hands on his head , and the ordainer says the prayer adesto , then the oremus which in the rubrick is called praesatio , then the propitiare which the rubrick calls oratio , then follows the prayer called in other rituals the consecration , but in this it is called praesatio , which is the same that was set down in the antientest ritual ; after sanctifica the chrism is poured on the bishops head , in the form of a cross with the words in the sixth ritual . then follows the annointing of his hands , after that the putting the chrism on his thumb , then the blessing and giving the ring and staff , then follows the blessing and communion , then follow the letters that testify the bishops consecration , called literae formatae , then the popes edict to the bishop ordained , containing very wholesome admonitions ; then there is a sermon and an exhortation , which contain many excellent instructions and directions which deserve to be often read and well considered . from all the premisses it clearly appears , that the church of rome did never tye these offices to any constant unalterable forms , but that in all ages there very great alterations were made . and what was more antiently the prayer of consecration , was of later times called [ praesatio ] a preface , and what was in the antient rituals only a prayer for the bishops that were to be ordained , is now the prayer of consecration ; for now in the roman pontifical , all that is said in the consecration of a bishop when they lay hands on his head , is receive the holy ghost , and then follows the collect propitiare . so that it is very unreasonable and an impudent thing , in the emissaries of that church , to raise scruples about our ordinations , because we have changed the forms , since they have made many more and greater alterations of the more primitive and antient forms . with this i should end this appendix , which already grows too big , but i will only add one particular more about the oath that is in the pontifical , to be sworn by all bishops . it is in none of all these antient rituals , nor ever mentioned by morinus , so that it seems though it was at first made by pope gregory the seventh , yet it was long before it was generally received or put into the rituals . for the readers further satisfaction , i shall here set down all i can find about oaths made to popes . at first there was nothing exacted but a promise of obedience , such as all inferiours gave to superiours . then there was a particular vow made by such as the popes sent in missions . the first instance of this is an oath which boniface bishop of mentz , ( who is called the apostle of the germans , ) swore to pope gregory the second , about the beginning of the eighth century , which follows as it is among his epistles . in nomine domini dei & salvatoris nostri jesu christi , imperante domino leone à deo coronato magno imperatore , anno sexto , post consulatum ejus anno sexto , sed & constantino magno imperatore ejus filio , anno quarto , indictione sexta . promitto ego bonifacius , gratia dei episcopus , vobis beato petro apostolorum principi , vicarioque tuo beato papae gregorio , successoribusque ejus , per patrem & filium & spiritum sanctum . trinitateminseparabilem , & hoc sacratissimum corpus tuum , me omnem fidem & puritatem sanctae fidei catholicae exhibere : & in unitate ejusdem fidei , deo cooperante , persistere : in qua omnis christianorum salus , sine dubio esse comprobatur : nullo modo me contra unitatem communis & universalis ecclesiae , suadente quopiam , consentire : sed ut dixi , fidem & puritatem meam atque concursum tibi & utilitatibus tuae ecclesiae , cui à domino deo potestas ligandi solvendique data est , & praedicto vicario tuo , atque successoribus ejus , per omnia exhibere . sed & si cognovero antistites contra instituta antiqua sanctorum patrum conversari , cum eis nullam habere communionem aut conjunctionem : sed magis , si valuero prohibere , prohibeam : si minus vero fideliter statim domino meo apostolico renunciabo . quod si , quod absit , contra hujus promissionis meae seriem aliquid facere quolibet modo , seu ingenio , vel occasione tentavero , reus inveniar in aeterno judicio ; ultionem ananiae & saphirae incurram , qui vobis , etiam de rebus propriis , fraudem sacere , vel salsum dicere praesumpserunt . ho●… autem indiculum sacramenti ego bonisacius exiguus episcopus , manu propria scripsi , atque positum supra sacratissimum corpus tuum , ut superius leguntur , deo teste & judice , praestiti sacramentum , quod & conservare promitto . in the name of god and our saviour iesus christ , in the sixth year of leo the great , crowned by god emperour , the sixth year after his consulat , and the fourth year of constantine the great , emperour , his son , the sixth indiction . i boniface , by the grace of god bishop , promise to you st. peter , princ●… of the apostles , and to thy blessed vicar pope gregory , and his successors , by the father , the son , and the holy ghost , the inseparable trinity , and by this thy most sacred body , that i shall shew forth all the faith and purity of the holy catholick faith , and that god assisting me , i shall persist in the unity of the same faith , in which the salvation of all christians does without all doubt consist : and that i shall in no sort , and upon no persuasion , concur against the unity of the common and universal church : but that as i have said , i shall shew forth my faith and purity and give my concurrence in all things to thee , and the advantages of thy church , ( to whom the power of binding and loosing is given by the lord god ) and to thy vicar and his successors . and if i shall know the bishops carry themselves contrary to the antient appointments of the holy fathers , i shall have no communion nor conjunction with them ; but rather if i can , i shall hinder it , and if i cannot , i shall presently give notice of it faithfully to my apostolical lord. and if ( which god forbid ) i shall endeavour to do any thing against the contents of this my promise , any manner of way , either on design or by accident , let me be found guilty in the eternal judgment , and let me incur the punishment of ananias , and sapphira who presumed to lie and deal fraudulently , ( even about their own goods ) to thee . this breviate of an oath , i boniface , a small bishop , have written with my own hand , and having laid it on thy most blessed body , as is before mentioned , i have made my oath , god being witness and judge , which i promise to keep . but it appears from another letter written in the 26. year of the reign of constantine the emperour , two and twenty years after the taking the former oath , which was in the fourth year of constantine , that he had taken another oath eight years before that , for he begins that epistle written to pope zacharias with these words . postquam me ante annos prope triginta sub familiaritate & servitio apostolicae sedis , annuente & jubente venerandae memoriae antistite apostolico gregorio anteriore voto constrinxi , &c. almost thirty years ago i bound my self by a former vow under the observance and service of the apostolical see , by the consent and command of pope gregory of venerable memory , &c. this is all i can find before pope gregory the seventh , but he pretending to a higher title , not only over bishops , but secular princes made some princes swear allegiance to him , ( it ought to be called by no other name , ) for the first part of the oath in the pontifical , of being faithful and obedient to the pope , being in no. council against him , and assisting him to defend the papacy , and the royalties of st. peter , &c. was sworn both by richard prince of capua , and robert prince of calabria and sicily , when they received investiture from that pope in those dominions . but the oath which the bishops swore , is almost the same with that which is in the pontifical , as we find it taken by the bishop of aquileia , after the sixth roman council , in which berengarius was condemned under that same pope . afterwards the council of lateran , under pope paschal the second , appointed a more modest oath in the form of an anathematism , in these words . anathematizo omnem haeresin & praecipue eam quae statum praesentis ecclesiae perturbat , quae docet & astruit anathema contemnendum & ecclesiae ligamenta spernenda esse : promitto autem obedientiam apostolicae sedis pontifici domino paschali , ejusque successoribus , sub testimonio christi & ecclesiae : affirmans quod affirmat , damnans quod damnat sancta universalis ecclesia . i anathematize every heresie , and in particular that which disturbs the state of the present church , which teaches and asserts that an anathema is to be contemned , and the censures of the church to be despised , and i promise obedience to the apostolick see , and to our lord pope paschal and his successors , under the testimony ( or in the sight ) of christ and the church , affirming all that the holy universal church affirms , and condemning all that she condemns . this oath ( if the references which labbe and cossartius make to the fifth and sixth epistles of pope paschal , be well grounded , ) was all that was imposed by that pope , and that not on all bishops , but only on archbishops , to whom he sent the pall , and yet from the first words of these epistles , it appears that the princes and the states of christendom looked on it with amazement , as a new and unheard of thing , the one is to the arch-bishop of palermo in sicily , and the other is directed to the arch-bishop of poland , ( i suppose it was of gnesna ) and they both are almost the same , only the later has a great deal more than the former . they begin with these words . significasti regem , & regni majores admiratione permotos , quod pallium tibi ab apocrisariis nostris tali conditione oblatum fuerit , si sacramentum quod à nobis scriptum detulerant jurares . thou hast signified to me , that the king and the chief of the kingdom are amazed that the pall was offered to thee by our legates on this condition , that thou shouldst swear the oath which they brought to thee written by us . and if any body desire to be satisfied about the excellent reasonings with which the infallible chair directed his pen , he may read the rest of those epistles . the next step made in this oath , was by pope gregory the ninth , which is in the canon law , where the oath is set down to be taken by all bishops , which differs from that in the pontifical in these heads . the royalties of st. peter are not mentioned in it , nor those clauses of every bishops sending one in his name to rome , in case he could not go in person , nor is that of not alienating the bishops lands without the popes consent in it . but when these additions were made , i do not find . the importance of that oath is little considered , since few among us read the roman pontifical carefully , therefore i shall set it down with a translation of it , from which it may be easily inferred , what all princes may , or ought to expect from persons so tyed to the pope , since a fuller and more formal allegeance , can be sworn by no subjects to their prince than is sworn in it to the pope . forma juramenti . ego n. elect us ecclesiae n. ab hac hora in antea fidelis & obediens ero beato petro apostolo , sanctaeque romanae ecclesiae , & domino nostro , domino papae n. suisque successoribus canonice intrantibus . non ero in consilio , aut consensu vel facto , ut vitam perdant , aut membrum ; seu capiantur mala captione , aut in eos violenter manus quomodolibet ingerantur ; vel injuriae aliquae inferantur quovis quaesito colore . consilium vero , quod mihi credituri sunt , per se , aut nuntios suos , seu literas , ad eorum damnum , me sciente , nemini pandam . papatum romanum , & regalia sancti petri , adjutor eis ero ad retinendum & defendendum , salvo meo ordine , contra omnem hominem . legatum apostolicae sedis in eundo & redeundo honorificè tractabo , & in suis necessitatibus adjuvabo . iura , honores , privilegia , & auctoritatem sanctae romanae ecclesiae , domini nostri papae , & successorum praedictorum , conservare , defendere , augere , promovere curabo , neque ero in consilio , vel sacto , seu tractatu in quibus contra ipsum dominum nostrum , vel eamdem romanam ecclesiam , aliqua sinistra , vel praejudicialia personarum , juris , honoris , status , & potestatis eorum machinentur . et , si talia à quibuscunque tractari , vel procurari novero , impediam hoc pro posse ; & quanto citius potero , significabo eidem domino nostro , vel alteri , per quem possit ad ipsius notitiam pervenire . regulas sanctorum patrum , decreta , ordinationes seu dispositiones , reservationes , provisiones , & mandata apostolica , totis viribus observabo , & saciam ab aliis observari . hae-reticos , schismaticos , & rebelles eidem , domino nostro , vel successoribus praedictis , pro posse persequar , & impugnabo ▪ vocatus ad synodum , veniam , nisi praepeditus suero canonica praepeditione . apostolorum limina singulis trienniis personaliter per me ipsum visitabo ; & domino nostro , ac successoribus praesatis , rationem reddam de toto meo pastorali officio , ac de rebus omnibus ad me●… ecclesiae statum , ad cleri & populi disciplinam , animarum denique quae meae fidei traditae sunt , salutem , quovis modo pertinentibus : et vicissim mandata apostolica humiliter recipiam , & quam diligentissime exequar . quod si legitimo impedimento detentus suero , praefata omnia adimplebo per certum nuntiam ad hoc speciale mandatum habentem , de gremio mei capituli , aut alium in dignitate ecclesiastica constitutum , seu alias personatum habentem , aut , his mihi desicientibus , per diaecesanum sacerdotem ; & clero deficiente omnino , per aliquem alium presbyterum saecularem , vel regularem spectatae probitatis & religionis , de supradictis omnibus plenè instructum . de hujusmodi autem impedimento docebo per legitimas probationes , ad sanctae romanae ecclesiae cardinalem proponentem in congregatione sacri concilii , per supradictum nuntium transmittendas . possessiones vero ad mensam meam pertinentes non vendam , nec donabo , neque impignorabo ; nec de novo in●…eudabo , vel aliquo modo alienabo , etiam cum consensu capituli ecclesiae meae , inconsul●…o romano pontifice ; & si ad aliquam alienationem devenero ; paenas in quadam super hoc edita constitutione contentas , eo ipso incurrere volo . in. elect of the church n. from this hour forward , shall be faithful and obedient to st. peter the apostle and the holy roman church , and our lord the pope n. and his successors that shall enter canonically . i shall be in no council , consent , or fact , that they lose life or member , or be taken with any ill taking , or that violent hands be any way laid on them : or any injuries be done them on any pretended colour . and whatever council they shall trust me with , either by themselves , their nuntio's , or letters ; i shall knowingly reveal to none to their hurt . i shall help them to retain and defend the roman papacy and the royalties of saint peter against all men , saving my own order . i shall treat the legate of the apostolick see honorably , both in his going and coming , and shall help him in his necessities . i shall take care to preserve , defend , increase and promote the rights , honors , priviledges , and authority of the holy roman church of our lord the pope , and his successors foresaid . i shall neither be in council , fact , or treaty , in which any thing shall be contrived against the said our lord or the same roman church , or any thing that may be prejudicial to their persons , right , honor , state , or power . and if i know such things to be treated or procured by any body , i shall hinder it all i can , and as soon as is possible shall signifie it to the said our lord , or any other by whom it may come to his knowledg . the rules of the holy fathers , and the decrees , orders , or appointments , reservations , provisions , or mandates apostolical ; i shall observe with all my strength , and make them to be observed by others , and i shall according to my power , persecute and oppose all hereticks , schismaticks , and rebells , against the said our lord , and his successors . i shall come to a council when called , if i be not hindred by some canonical impediment ; i shall personally visit the thresholds of the apostles every third year , and shall give an account to our lord and his said successors of my whole pastoral charge , and of all things that shall any way belong to the state of my church , and the discipline of my clergy and people , and the salvation of the souls committed to my trust . and i shall on the other hand humbly receive and diligently execute the apostolical command . and if i be detained by any lawful impediment , i shall perform the foresaid things by a special messenger that shall have my particular mandate being either of my chapter or in some ecclesiastical dignity , or in some parsonage or these failing , by any priest of my diocess , or failing any of these , by any priest secular or regular , of signal probity and religion , who shall be fully instructed in all things aforesaid . and i shall give lawful proofs of the foresaid impediment which i shall send by the foresaid messenger to the cardinal of the holy roman church that is proponent in the congregation of the holy council . i shall neither sell , give , mortage , nor invest of new , nor any way alienate the possessions that belong to my table , notwithstanding the consent of the chapter of my church without consulting the pope of rome . and if i make any such alienation , i am willing to incur the penalties contained in a constitution thereupon set forth . the inferences that may be drawn from this oath are so obvious , that i shall not trouble the reader with any , knowing that every one will easily make them . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30479-e270 see the 23. art. of our church . hist. interdict . venet . lib. de fregn . comun . art. 33. act. 7. 3. inter. epist. 31. l. 12. ind. 7. can. 42. lib. 8. cap. 21. and 23. cap. 26. inter epi. cypr. ep. 75. can. 64. can. 10. not. 18. in can. nic. arab. see nazianz . orat. in bapt. cyr. pref. ad catech. balsam . in schol. in con. laod. & ant. harmen in con. antioch . a ep. 24. & 21. b ep. 28. c ep. 24. 33. & 34. d ep. 76. e apud . eus. lib. 6. cap. 43. grat. dist . 77. cap. 1. & 2. can. 14. & 62. a can. 5. b can. 6. c can. 7. d can. 8. e can. 9. f can. 10. vit. pontif . in vita silvestri . nove. 123. cap. 15. grat. dist. 53. cap. 4. con. agath . can . 37 , 38. con. aurel . can . 19. an. 659. an. 664. a can. ●… . apost . con. nic. can . 4. con. arel . 1. can . 21. arel . 2. can . 5. carth. 2. can. 12. see grat. dist. 64. b in can. 1. apost . c bell. de notis eccl. lib. 4. cap. 8. an. 1123. tom. con. 10. pag. 893. tom. con. 11. par . 1. pag. 127. an. 1311. tom. con. 11. par . 2. pag. 1550. an. 1214. an. 1209. see pag. 176. hall fol. 205. jesuits loyalty . psal. 92. 5 , 6. notes for div a30479-e7020 s. ioh. 20. 22. * vasques in 3. parte , d. 129. c. 5. n. 71 , 72. says it is the constant opinion of the catholicks , that the sacraments consist of some things and words instituted by god , which men cannot alter or change , and that christ delivered both the words and things of which the sacraments consist . which he says are necessary in all churches , and rejects the opinion of pope innocent the 4th . and others who pretend that some things are necessary to the sacraments in some churches , which are not necessary in other churches , and disp. 239. in 3. p. c. 4. n. 36. he again resumes the same thing , and refutes tapperus who thought that in some sacraments in which christ did not determine the matter and form , he left the power of assigning these with his church . which he denies , and says , no power about the determination of the matter and form was left with the church ; but the assignation of those is believed , done by christ , for since the institution of the sacrament is by divine right , the matter and form must be assigned by the same right ; for proving which , he cites the council of ●…rent . de ord . sac. can. 3. de eccles. hierar . lib. 8. cap. 16. d●…s sanctification . discourse sur les ordres sacres . acts 6. 6. whom they see before the apostles , and when they had prayed , they laid their hands on them . acts 13. 3. and when they had fasted and prayed , and laid their hands on them , they sent them away ▪ acts 14. 23. and when they had ordained ( or literally imposed hands ) them elders in every church , and had prayed with fasting . 1 tim. 4. 14. neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy , with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery . 1 tim. 5. 22. lay hands suddenly on no man , neither be thou partaker of other mens sins . 2 tim. 1. 6. 7. wherefore i put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of god which is in thee , by the putting on of my hands . for god hath not given us the spirit of fear , but of power , and of love , and of a sound mind . bellarm. de sac. ord. cap. 9. cap. de extr . unct. de sacr. ord. can. 4. tom. 3. m. 3. disp. 24. c. 3. disp. 239. cap. 2. n. 5. b lib. de iu. sacer. lect. 5. de sacr. a in 4. disp. 24. pract . quaest . 4. disp. 235. c. 3. disp. de sacr. 5. n. 87. observ. 1. & 2. de ord . pres. tit. 8. de cons. pres. exerc. 7. cap. 1. exerc. 7. cap. 2. 1 cor. 4. 1. * psal. 142. 2. let my prayer be set forth beforethee as incense , and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice . psal. 52. 27. the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit , a broken and a contrite heart , o god thou wilt not despise . hebr. 13. 15. by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to god continually , that is the fruit of our lips , giving thanks to his name . rom. 12. 1. i beseech you therefore , brethren , by the mercies of god , that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice , holy , acceptable unto god , which is your reasonable service . philip. 4. 18. but i have all , and abound ; i am full , having received of epaphroditus , the things which were sent from you , an odor of a sweet smell , a sacrifice acceptable , well pleasing to god. 1 chro. 23. 6. 1 chro. 24. 19. ●… kings 2. 27. 2 chro. 17. 7 , 8 , 9. 2 chro. 29. 4. 5. 15. & 27. vers. 30. 2 chro. 30. 2. ep. 43. ath. ep. ad solit. bar. ad an. 355. n. 56 , 57. bar. ad an. 357. n. 63 , 64. cap. 10 , 11. exerc. 5. disp. 141. cap. 1. n. 8. collat. 2. cum donat. & ep. 50. * sect. 3●… . cap. 8. exer. 5. num . 7. 1 cor. 12. 5 , 6. disp. 240. c. 5. n. 60. deus honorum omnium 7. de concor . imp. & sacer . action . ●… can. ●… ●…e pallio . tit. 17. rit . elec. patr. in vita silverii ▪ in plat. in pelag. 2. dist. 63. in pasch. 1. in leo. 4. can. 6. can. 12. ad anno 681. numb . 60. article 37. of the civil magist. ●…ess . 21. cap. 2. * see what vasques has said of changes in the forms of the sacraments . notes for div a30479-e14000 * vacans . * si omnibus affabilis . * deest . * in trinitate . * singulam . * desunt haec in labbee . * utraque natura . * deest . * deest . * receptione . * hab. lab. factus . & cod. saris. * hac vita . * proemia ▪ * desunt haec in [ ] in mss. cod. saris. * in aliis cod. et. * in aliis mss. congrua ratione . * mysticis . * pontifices . † sequentis ordinis . * mentem . * ut ad hostias salutares & frequentioris officii sacramenta ministerium sufficeret sacerdotum . * pluribus . † hunc famulum tuum . † probus . * eo . * hic . * ad presbyterii honorem . * gratiam tuae benedictionis infunde . † omnium . † legerit . * imitetur . † deest . * admonitione . † mysterii . * corpore & sanguine filii tui immaculata benedictione transformetur ad inviolabilem caritatem . orat. 20. 4. & 5. lib. 2. de eccles. offic. cap. 5. lib. 2. c. 3. in eccles. ord. epist. 19. ad radol . bitur . c. 3. which is also in the canon law. dist. 23. c. 12. tom. 5. * preces . * providendam vel providens ▪ in other rituals thus . adesto supplicationibus nostris , omnipotens deus , & quod humilitatis nostrae gerendum est ministerio , virtutis impleatur effectu . per. * inclinato . * sacratis . * affatu . * honor. * splendor . * ministerium . *** * instructos eos . *** † interiora eorum . [ * signis & prodigiis . † virtute . * ligaverint . † ligatum . * dimiserint . † dimittas ▪ ] desunt haec in [ ] in plurimis mss. ** ** [ all this betwe●… [ ] is w●…ting in many rituals . [ a s●…rm . 8. de pass . dom. b in 1 reg. cap. 10. c lib. c. 14. lib. 3. de tab. cap. 9. see morin . ex. 6. c. 2. a de 〈◊〉 ▪ offi●… . li●… . 2. ca●… . 5. b lib. d●…●…i . offic . ●…ap . q●…aliter e●…opus or●…etur in eccles. romana . c lib. 2. de eccles. offic . cap. 14. d lib. de instit . cler. cap. 4. see pet. de marca , concor . sac. & imp. l. 8. c. 19. n. 9. li. de div. offi●… . see inter opera bernar. con. ad clerum . ●…rope ●…inem . he died ●… anno 755. post epist. 11●… . l. 1. vit . e. 19. mogunt . p. 343. mat. 16. joh. 21. ●… act. 1. 5. epist. 135. lib. 1. ep. greg. post . ep. 21. lib. 8. post . ep. 1. ann. 1079. ann. 1002. ep. 5. & 6. pasch. 2. lib. 2. decret . greg. tit. 24. c. 4. set out by him , anno 1236. a relation of a conference held about religion at london by edw. stillingfleet ... with some gentlemen of the church of rome. stillingfleet, edward, 1635-1699. 1687 approx. 309 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 37 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30412 wing b5863 estc r4009 13677333 ocm 13677333 101255 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30412) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101255) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:8) a relation of a conference held about religion at london by edw. stillingfleet ... with some gentlemen of the church of rome. stillingfleet, edward, 1635-1699. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [8], 64 p. printed and are to be sold by randal talor ..., london : 1687. written also by gilbert burnet. cf. nuc pre-1956. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng transubstantiation -early works to 1800. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 john latta sampled and proofread 2004-01 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a relation of a conference held about religion , at london , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. &c. with some gentlemen of the church of rome . london : printed , and are to be sold by randal taylor near stationers-hall . 1687. the preface . there is nothing that is by a more universal agreement decried , than conferences about controversies of religion : and no wonder , for they have been generally managed with so much heat and passion , parties being more concerned for glory and victory , than truth ; and there is such foul dealing in the accounts given of them , that it is not strange to see these prejudices taken up against them . and yet it cannot be denied , but if men of candor and calmness should discourse about matters of religion , without any other interest than to seek and follow truth , there could not be a more effectual and easie way found for satisfying scruples . more can be said in one hour than read in a day : besides that what is said in a discourse discreetly managed , does more appositely meet with the doubtings and difficulties any body is perplexed with , than is possibly to be found in a book : and since almost all books disguise the opinions of those that differ from them , and represent their arguments as weak , and their opinions as odious ; conferences between those of different perswasions do remedy all these evils . but after all the advantages of this way , it must be confessed that for the greater part men are so engaged to their opinions by interest and other ties , that in conferences most persons are resolved before-hand to yield to no conviction , but to defend every thing : being only concerned to say so much as may darken weaker minds that are witnesses , and give them some occasion to triumph ; at least conceal any foil they may have received , by wrapping up some pittiful shift or other , in such words , and pronouncing them with such accents of assurance , and perhaps scorn , that they may seem to come off with victory . and it is no less frequent to see men after they have been so baffled , that all discerning witnesses are ashamed of them , yet being resolved to make up with impudence what is wanting in truth , as a coward is generally known to boast most , where he has least cause ; publish about what feats they have done , and tell every body they see how the cause in their mouth did triumph over their enemies : that so the praise of the defeat given may be divided between the cause and themselves : and though in modesty they may pretend to ascribe all to truth and the faith they contended for , yet in their hearts they desire the greatest part be offered to themselves . all these considerations with a great many more did appear to us , when the lady t. asked us if we would speak with her husband and some others of the church of rome , as well for clearing such scruples as the perpetual converse with those of that religion had raised in the lady ; as for satisfying her husband , of whose being willing to receive instruction she seemed confident . yet being well assured of the ladies great candor and worth , and being willing to stand up for the vindication and honour of our church , whatever might follow on it , we promised to be ready to wait on her at her house upon advertisement : without any nice treating before-hand , what we should confer about . therefore we neither asked who should be there , nor what number , nor in what method , or on what particulars our discourse should run , but went thither carrying only one friend along with us for a witness . if the discourse had been left to our managing , we resolved to have insisted chiefly on the corruptions in the worship of the roman church : to have shewed on several heads that there was good cause to reform these abuses ; and that the bishops and pastors of this church , the civil authority concurring , had sufficient authority for reforming it . these being the material things in controversie , which must satisfie every person if well made out , we intended to have discoursed about them ; but being put to answer , we followed those we had to deal with . but that we may not forestall the reader in any thing that passed in the ladies chamber , which he will find in the following account , we had no sooner left her house , but we resumed among our selves all had passed , that it might be written down , what ever should follow , to be published if need were . so we agreed to meet again three days after , to compare what could be written down , with our memories . and having met , an account was read , which did so exactly contain all that was spoken , as far as we could remember , that after a few additions , we all three signed the narrative then agreed to . few days had passed , when we found we had need of all that care and caution , for the matter had got wind , and was in every bodies mouth . many of our best friends know how far we were from talking of it , for till we were asked about it , we scarce opened our mouths of it to any person . but when it was said that we had been baffled and foiled , it was necessary for us to give some account of it : not that we were much concerned in what might be thought of us , but that the most excellent cause of our church and religion might not suffer by the misrepresentations of this conference . and the truth was , there was so little said by the gentlemen we spoke with , that was of weight , that we had scarce any occasion given us of speaking about things of importance : so that being but faintly assaulted , we had no great cause of boasting , had we been ever so much inclined to it . at length being weary with the questions put to us about it , we shewed some of our friends the written account of it . and that those of the church of rome might have no pretence to complain of any foul dealing on our part , we caused a copy of it to be writ out , and on the 19. of april sent it the lady t. to be shewed to them . and one of us , having the honour to meet with her afterwards , desired her to let her husband and the others with him know , that as we had set down very faithfully all we could remember that they had said ; so if they could except at any part of this narrative , or would add any thing that they either did say which we had forgot , or should have said which themselves had forgot to say , we desired they might add it to the account we sent them . for we looked on it as a most unreasonable thing , that the credit of any cause or party should depend on their extemporary faculty of speaking , the quickness of their invention , or the readiness of their memory who discourse about it : though it will appear that in this conference they had all the advantage , and we all the disadvantage possible : since they knew and were resolved what they would put us to , of which we were utterly ignorant : save that about an hour before we went thither , we had an advertisement sent us by a third person , that it was like they would assault us about the articles of our church , particularly that of the blessed sacrament . having made this offer to the lady of adding what they should desire , craving only leave that if they added any thing that was not said , we might be also allowed to add what we should have answered if such things had been said , we resolved to publish nothing till they had a competent time given them , both to make such additions to the narrative , and to consider the paper whereby we hope we have made out according to our undertaking , that the doctrine of the church for the first seven or eight ages was contrary to transubstantiation : which we sent to the lady on the seventeenth of april to be communicated to them . and therefore , though our conference was generally talked of , and all persons desired an account of it might be published ; yet we did delay it till we should hear from them . and meeting on the twenty ninth of april with him who is marked n. n. in the account of the conference , i told him , the foolish talk was made by their party about this conference , had set so many on us , who all called to us to print the account of it , that we were resolved on it : but i desired he might any time between that and trinity sunday , bring me what exceptions he or the other gentlemen had to the account we sent them , which he confessed he had seen . so i desired , that by that day i might have what additions they would make either of what they had said but was forgot by us , or what they would now add upon second thoughts : but longer i told him i could not delay the publishing it . i desired also to know by that time whether they intended any answer to the account we sent them of the doctrine of the fathers about transubstantiation . he confessed he had seen that paper : but by what he then said , it seemed they did not think of any answer to it . and so i waited still expecting to hear from him . at length , on the twentieth of may , n. n. came to me and told me some of these gentlemen were out of town , and so he would not take on him to give any thing in writing ; yet he desired me to take notice of some particulars he mentioned , which i intreated he would write down , that he might not complain of my misrepresenting what he said . this he declined to do , so i told him i would set it down the best way i could , and desired him to call again that he might see if i had written it down faithfully , which he promised to do that same afternoon , and was as good as his word , and i read to him what is subjoyned to the relation of the conference , which he acknowledged was a faithful account of what he had told me . i have considered it i hope to the full , so that it gave me more occasion of canvassing the whole matter . and thus the reader will find a great deal of reason to give an entire credit to this relation , since we have proceeded in it with so much candor , that it is plain we intended not to abuse the credulity of any , but were willing to offer this account to the censure of the adverse party ; and there being nothing else excepted against it , that must needs satisfie every reasonable man that all is true that he has here offered to his perusal . and if these gentlemen or any of their friends publish different or contrary relations of this conference , without that fair and open way of procedure which we have observed towards them ; we hope the reader will be so just as to consider , that our method in publishing this account has been candid and plain , and looks like men that were doing an honest thing , of which they were neither afraid nor ashamed : which cannot in reason be thought of any surreptitious account that like a work of darkness may be let flye abroad , without the name of any person to answer for it on his conscience or reputation : and that at least he will suspend his belief till a competent time be given to shew what mistakes or errors any such relation may be guilty of . we do not expect the reader shall receive great instructions from the following conference , for the truth is , we met with nothing but shufling . so that he will find when ever we came to discourse closely to any head , they very dexterously went off from it to another , and so did still shift off from following any thing was suggested . but we hope every reader will be so just to us as to acknowledge it was none of our fault , that we did not canvass things more exactly , for we proposed many things of great importance to be discoursed on , but could never bring them to fix on any thing . and this did fully satisfie the lady t. when she saw we were ready to have justified our church in all things , but that they did still decline the entering into any matter of weight : so that it appeared both to her and the rest of the company , that what boastings soever they spread about as if none of us would or durst appear in a conference to vindicate our church , all were without ground ; and the lady was by the blessing of god further confirmed in the truth , in which we hope god shall continue her to her lifes end . but we hope the letter and the two discourses that follow , will give the reader a more profitable entertainment . in the letter we give many short hints , and set down some select passages of the fathers , to shew they did not believe transubstantiation . upon all which we are ready to joyn issue to make good every thing in that paper , from which we believe it is apparent the primitive church was wholly a stranger to transubstantiation . it was also judged necessary by some of our friends that we should to purpose , and once for all , expose and discredit that unreasonable demand of shewing all the articles of our church in the express words of scripture : upon which the first discourse was written . and it being found that no answer was made to what n. n. said , to shew that it was not possible the doctrine of transubstantiation could have crept into any age , if those of that age had not had it from their fathers , and they from theirs up to the apostles days , this being also since our conference laid home to me by the same person , it was thought fit to give a full account how this doctrine could have been brought into the church , that so a change may appear to have been not only possible , but also probable , and therefore the second discourse was written . if these discourses have not that full finishing and life which the reader would desire , he must regrate his misfortune in this , that the person who was best able to have written them , and given them all possible advantages out of that vast stock of learning and iudgment he is master of , was so taken up with other work cut out for him by some of these gentlemens friends , of which we shall see an excellent account very speedily , that it was not possible for him to spare so much time for writing these ; so that it fell to the others share to do it : and therefore the reader is not to expect any thing like those high strains of wit and reason which fill all that authors writings , but must give allowance to one that studies to follow him though at a great distance : therefore all can be said from him is , that what is here performed was done by his direction and approbation , which to some degree will again encourage the reader , and so i leave him to the perusal of what follows . the relation of the conference . d. s. and m. b. went to m. l. t 's , as they had been desired by l. t. to confer with some persons upon the grounds of the church of england separating from rome , and to shew how unreasonable it was to go from our church to theirs . about half an hour after them , came in s. p. t. mr. w. and three more . there were present seven or eight ladies , three other church-men , and one or two more . when we were all set d. s. said to s. p. t. that we were come to wait on them for justifying our church ; that he was glad to see we had gentlemen to deal with , from whom he expected fair dealing , as on the other hand he hoped they should meet with nothing from us , but what became our profession . s. p. said , they had protestants to their wives , and there were other reasons too to make them wish they might turn protestants ; therefore he desired to be satisfied in one thing : and so took out the articles of the church , and read these words of the sixth article of the holy scriptures ; [ so that whatsoever is not read therein , nor may be proved thereby , is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith , or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation . ] then he turned to the twenty eighth article of the lord's supper , and read these words , [ and the mean whereby the body of christ is received and eaten in the supper , is faith : ] and added , he desired to know whether that was read in scripture or not , and in what place it was to be found . d. s. said , he must first explain that article of the scripture ; for this method of proceeding was already sufficiently known and exposed ; he clearly saw the snare they thought to bring him in , and the advantages they would draw from it . but it was the cause of the church he was to defend , which he hoped he was ready to seal with his blood , and was not to be given up for a trick . the meaning of the sixth article was , that nothing must be received or imposed , as an article of faith , but what was either expresly contained in scripture , or to be deduced and proved from it by a clear consequence : so that if in any article of our church which they rejected , he should either shew it in the express words of scripture , or prove it by a clear consequence , he performed all required in this article . if they would receive this , and fix upon it as the meaning of the article , which certainly it was ; then he would go on to the proof of that other article he had called in question . m. w. said , they must see the article in express scripture , or at least in some places of scripture which had been so interpreted by the church , the councils or fathers , or any one council or father . and he the rather pitched on this article , because he judged it the only article , in which all protestants , except the lutherans , were agreed . d. s. said , it had been the art of all the hereticks from the marcionites days , to call for express words of scripture . it was well known , the arrians set up their rest on this , that their doctrine was not condemned by express words of scripture ; but that this was still rejected by the catholick church , and that theodoret had written a book , on purpose to prove the unreasonableness of this challenge ; therefore he desired they would not insist on that which every body must see was not fair dealing , and that they would take the sixth article entirely , and so go to see if the other article could not be proved from scripture , though it were not contained in express words . m. b. added , that all the fathers , writing against the arrians , brought their proofs of the consubstantiality of the son , from the scriptures , though it was not contained in the express words of any place . and the arrian council , that rejected the words equisubstantial and consubstantial , gives that for the reason , that they were not in the scripture . and that in the council of ephesus , s. cyril brought in many propositions against the nestorians , with a vast collection of places of scripture to prove them by ; and though the quotations from scripture contained not those propositions in express words ; yet the council was satisfied from them , and condemned the nestorians . therefore it was most unreasonable , and against the practice of the catholick church , to require express words of scripture , and that the article was manifestly a disjunctive , where we were to chuse whether of the two we would chuse , either one or other . s. p. t. said , or was not in the article . m. b. said , nor was a negative in a disjunctive proposition , as or was an affirmative , and both came to the same meaning . m. w. said , that s. austin charged the heretick to read what he said in the scripture . m. b. said , s. austin could not make that a constant rule , otherwise he must reject the consubstantiality which he did so zealously assert ; though he might in disputing urge an heretick with it on some other account . d. s. said , the scripture was to deliver to us the revelation of god , in matters necessary to salvation ; but it was an unreasonable thing to demand proofs for a negative in it ; for if the roman church have set up many doctrines , as articles of faith , without proof from the scriptures , we had cause enough to reject these if there was no clear proofs of them from scripture ; but to require express words of scripture for a negative , was as unjust , as if mahomet had said , the christians had no reason to reject him , because there was no place in scripture that called him an impostor . since then the roman church had set up the doctrine of transubstantiation , and the sacrifice of the mass , without either express scripture or good proofs from it , their church had good cause to reject these . m. w. said , the article they desired to be satisfied in was , if he understood any thing , a positive article , and not a negative . m. b. said , the positive article was , that christ was received in the holy sacrament ; but because they had ( as our church judged ) brought in the doctrine of the corporal presence without all reason , the church made that explanation , to cast out the other ; so that upon the matter it was a negative . he added , that it was also unreasonable to ask any one place to prove a doctrine by ; for the fathers in their proceedings with the arrians brought a great collection of places , which gave light to one another , and all concurred to prove the article of faith that was in controversie : so if we brought such a consent of many places of scripture as proved our doctrine , all being joyned together , we perform all that the fathers thought themselves bound to do in the like case . d. s. then at great length told them , the church of rome and the church of england differed in many great and weighty points ; that we were come thither to see , as these gentlemen professed they desired , if we could offer good reason for them to turn protestants , and as the ladies professed a desire to be further established in the doctrine of the church of england ; in order to which , none could think it a proper method to pick out some words in the obscure corner of an article , and call for express scriptures for them . but the fair and fit way was to examine whether the church of england had not very good reason to separate from the communion of the church of rome ; therefore , since it was for truth , in which our souls are so deeply concerned , that we enquired , he desired they would joyn issue to examine either the grounds on which the church of england did separate from the church of rome , or the authority by which she did it : for if there was both good reason for it , and if those who did it , had a sufficient authority to do it , then was the church of england fully vindicated . he did appeal to all that were present , if in this offer he dealt not candidly and fairly , and if all other ways were not shufling . which he pressed with great earnestness , as that only which could satisfie all peoples consciences . m. w. and s. p. t. said , god forbid they should speak one word for the church of rome ; they understood the danger they should run by speaking to that . d. s. said , he hoped they looked on us as men of more conscience and honesty , than to make an ill use of any thing they might say for their church ; that for himself he would die rather than be guilty of so base a thing , the very thought whereof he abhorred . m. b. said , that though the law condemned the endeavouring to reconcile any to the church of rome , yet their justifying their church when put to it , especially to divines , in order to satisfaction which they professed they desired , could by no colour be made a transgression ; and that as we engaged our faith to make no ill use of what should be said , so if they doubted any of the other company , it was s. p. his house , and he might order it to be more private if he pleased . s. p. said , he was only to speak to the articles of the church of england , and desired express words for that article . upon this followed a long wrangling , the same things were said over and over again . in the end m. w. said , they had not asked where that article was read ; that they doubted of it , for they knew it was in no place of scripture , in which they were the more confirmed , because none was so much as alledged , d. s. said , upon the terms in the sixth article he was ready to undertake the twenty eighth article to prove it clearly by scripture . m. w. said , but there must be no interpretations admitted of . m. b. said , it was certain the scriptures were not given to us , as parrots are taught to speak words ; we were endued with a faculty of understanding , and we must understand somewhat by every place of scripture . now the true meaning of the words , being that which god would teach us in the scriptures , which way soever that were expressed , is the doctrine revealed there ; and it was to be considered , that the scriptures were at first delivered ro plain and simple men , to be made use of by all without distinction : therefore we were to look unto them as they did ; and so s. paul wrote his epistles , which were the hardest pieces of the new testament , to all in the churches to whom he directed them . m. w. said , the epistles were written upon emergent occasions , and so were for the use of the churches to whom they were directed . d. s. said , though they were written upon emergent occasions , yet they were written by divine inspiration , and as a rule of faith , not only for those churches , but for all christians . but as m. w. was a going to speak , m. c. came in , upon which we all rose up till he was set ; so being set , after some civilities , d. s. resumed a little what they were about , and told they were calling for express scriptures to prove the articles of our church by . m. c. said , if we be about scriptures , where is the judge that shall pass the sentence who expounds them aright ; otherwise the contest must be endless . d. s. said , he had proposed a matter that was indeed of weight ; therefore he would first shew , that these of the church of rome were not provided of a sufficient or fit judge of controversies . m. c. said , that was not the thing they were to speak to ; for though we destroyed the church of rome all to nought , yet except we built up our own , we did nothing ; therefore he desired to hear what he had to say for our own church ; he was not to meddle with the church of rome , but to hear and be instructed if he could see reason to be of the church of england , for may be it might be somewhat in his way . d. s. said , he would not examine if it would be in his way to be of the church of england , or not , but did heartily acknowledge with great civility that he was a very fair dealer in what he had proposed , and that now he had indeed set us in the right way , and the truth was we were extream glad to get out of the wrangling we had been in before , and to come to treat of matters that were of importance . so after some civilities had passed on both sides , d. s. said , the bishops and pastors of the church of england , finding a great many abuses crept into the church , particularly in the worship of god , which was chiefly insisted upon in the reformation , such as the images of the blessed trinity , the worship whereof was set up and encouraged ; the turning the devotions we ought to offer only to christ , to the blessed virgin , the angels and saints ; that the worship of god was in an unknown tongue ; that the chalice was taken from the people , against the express words of the institution ; that transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass were set up ; that our church had good reason to judge these to be heinous abuses , which did much endanger the salvation of souls ; therefore , being the pastors of the church and being assisted in it by the civil powers , they had both good reason and sufficient authority to reform the church from these abuses , and he left it to m. c. to chuse on which of these particulars they should discourse . m. b. said , the bishops and pastors having the charge of souls were bound to feed the flock with sound doctrine , according to the word of god. so s. paul when he charged the bishops of ephesus to feed the flock , and to guard it against wolves or seducers ; he commends them to the word of gods grace , which is the gospel . and in his epistles to timothy and titus , wherein the rules of the pastoral charge are set down , he commands timothy , and in him all bishops and pastors , to hold fast the doctrine and form of sound words which he had delivered , and tells him , the scriptures were able to make the man of god perfect . if then the bishops and pastors of this church found it corrupted by any unsound doctrine , or idolatrous worship , they were by the law of god and the charge of souls for which they were accountable , obliged to throw out these corruptions , and reform the church ; and this the rather , that the first question proposed in the consecration of a bishop , as it is in the pontifical , is , wilt thou teach these things which thou understandest to be in the scripture , to the people committed to thee , both by thy doctrine and example ? to which he answers : i will. m. c. said , we had now offered as much as would be the subject of many days discourse , and he had but few minutes to spare : therefore he desired to be informed what authority those bishops had to judge in matters which they found not only in this church , but in all churches round about them , should they have presumed to judge in these matters . d. s. said , it had been frequently the practice of many nations and provinces to meet in provincial synods , and reform abuses . for which he offered to prove they had both authority and president . but much more in some instances he was ready to shew of particulars that had been defined by general councils , which they only applied to their circumstances ; and this was never questioned but provincial synods might do . m. c. desired to be first satisfied , by what authority they could cut themselves off from the obedience of the see of rome , in king henry the viii . his days . the pope then was looked on as the monarch of the christian world in spirituals , and all christendom was one church , under one head , and had , been so for many ages ; so that if a province or country would cut themselves from the body of this nation ; for instance , wales , that had once distinct princes , and say we acknowledge no right william the conquerour had , so that we reject the authority of those descended from him ; they might have the same plea which this our church had . for the day before that act of parliament did pass , after the 20. of henry the viii . the pope had the authority in spirituals , and they were his subjects in spirituals : therefore their declaring he had none , could not take his authority from him , no more than the long parliament had right to declare by any act , that the sovereign power was in the peoples hands , in pursuance of which they cut off the kings head. d. s. said , the first general councils , as they established the patriarchal power , so the priviledges of several churches were preserved entire to them , as in the case of cyprus ; that the british churches were not within the patriarchal jurisdiction of rome ; that afterwards the bishops of rome , striking in with the interests of the princes of europe , and watching and improving all advantages , got up by degrees through many ages into that height of authority , which they managed as ill as they unjustly acquired it , and particularly in england ; where , from king william the conqueror's days , as their illegal and oppressive impositions were a constant grievance to the people , so our princes and parliaments were ever put to struggle with them . but to affront their authority , thomas becket , who was a traitour to the law , must be made a saint , and a day kept for him , in which they were to pray to god for mercy through his merits . it continuing thus for several ages , in the end a vigorous prince arises , who was resolved to assert his own authority . and he , looking into the oaths the bishops swore to the pope , they were all found in a praemunire by them . then did the whole nation agree to assert their own freedom , and their kings authority . and 't was considerable , that those very bishops , that in queen maries days did most cruelly persecute those of the church of england , and advance the interests of rome , were the most zealous assertors and defenders of what was done by king henry the viii . therefore the popes power in england , being founded on no just title , and being managed with so much oppression , there was both a full authority and a great deal of reason for rejecting it . and if the maior generals , who had their authority from cromwell , might yet have declared for the king , who had the true title , and against the usurper ; so the bishops , though they had sworn to the pope , yet that being contrary to the allegiance they ow'd the king , ought to have asserted the kings authority , and rejected the pope's . m. b. said , it seemed m. c. founded the popes right to the authority he had in england chiefly upon prescription . but there were two things to be said to that ; first , that no prescription runs against a divine right . in the clearing of titles among men , prescription is in some cases a good title : but if by the laws of god the civil powers have a supream authority over their subjects , then no prescription whatsoever can void this . besides , the bishops having full authority and jurisdiction , this could not be bounded or limited by any obedience the pope claimed from them . further , there can be no prescription in this case , where the usurpation has been all along contested and opposed . we were ready to prove , that in the first ages all bishops were accounted brethren , colleagues , and fellow-bishops with the bishop of rome . that afterwards , as he was declared patriarch of the west , so the other patriarchs were equal in authority to him in their several patriarchates . that britain was no part of his patriarchate , but an exempt , as cyprus was . that his power as patriarch was only for receiving appeals , or calling synods , and did not at all encroach on the jurisdiction of other bishops in their sees ; and that the bishops in his patriarchate did think they might separate from him . a famous instance of this was in the sixth century , when the question was about the tria capitula , for which the western bishops did generally stand , and pope vigilius wrote in defence of them ; but iustinian the emperour having drawn him to constantinople , he consented with the fifth council to the condemning them . upon which at his return many of the western bishops did separate from him . and as victor , bishop of tunes tells us ( who lived at that time ) that pope was synodically excommunicated by the bishops of africk . it is true , in the eighth century the decretal epistles being forged , his pretentions were much advanced : yet his universal jurisdicton was contested in all ages , as might be proved from the known instance of hincmar , bishop of rheims , and many more . therefore , how strong soever the argument from prescription may be in civil things , it is of no force here . m. c. said , now we are got into a contest of 1700 years story , but i know not when we shall get out of it . he confessed there was no prescription against a divine right , and acknowledged all bishops were alike in their order , but not in their jurisdiction ; as the bishop of oxford was a bishop as well as the arch-bishop of canterbury , and yet he was inferiour to him in jurisdiction : but desired to know , what was in the popes authority that was so intolerable . d. s. said , that he should only debate about the popes jurisdiction , and to his question , for one particular , that from the days of pope paschal the ii. all bishops swear obedience to the pope , was intolerable bondage . m. c. said , then will you acknowledge that before that oath was imposed the pope was to be acknowledged ? adding , that let us fix a time wherein we say the pope began to usurp beyond his just authority , and he would prove by protestant writers that he had as great power before that time . m. b. said , whatever his patriarchal power was , he had none over britain : for it was plain , we had not the christian faith from the roman church , as appeared from the very story of austin the monk. s. p. t. said , did not king lucius write to the pope upon his receiving the christian faith ? m. c. said , he would wave all that , and ask , if the church of england could justifie her forsaking the obedience of the bishop of rome , when all the rest of the christian world submitted to it ? d. s. said , he wondered to hear him speak so : were not the greek , the armenian , the nestorian , and the abissen churches separated from the roman ? m. c. said , he wondered as much to hear him reckon the nestorians among the churches that were condemned hereticks . d. s. said , it would be hard for him to prove them nestorians . m. c. asked , why he called them so then ? d. s. answered , because they were generally best known by that name . m. w. said , did not the greek church reconcile it self to the roman church at the council of florence ? d. s. said , some of their bishops were partly trepanned , partly threatned into it ; but their church disowned them and it both , and continues to do so to this day . m. w. said , many of the greek church were daily reconciled to the church of rome , and many of the other eastern bishops had sent their obedience to the pope . d. s. said , they knew there was enough to be said to these things , that these arts were now pretty well discovered : but he insisted to prove , the usurpations of rome were such as were inconsistent with the supreme civil authority , and shewed the oath in the pontificale , by which , for instance , if the pope command a bishop to go to rome , and his king forbid it , he must obey the pope , and disobey the king. m. c. said , these things were very consistent , that the king should be supream in civils , and the pope in spirituals ; so that if the pope commanded a thing that were civil , the king must be obeyed and not he . m. b. said , by the words of the oath , the bishops were to receive and help the pope's legates both in coming and going . now suppose the king declared it treason to receive the legate , yet in this case the bishops are sworn to obey the pope , and this was a case that fell out often . d. s. instanced the case of queen mary . m. c. said , if he comes with false mandates he is not a legate . m. b. said , suppose , as has fallen out an hundred times , he comes with bulls , and well warranted , but the king will not suffer him to enter his dominions , here the bishops must either be traitors , or perjured . m. c. said , all these things must be understood to have tacite conditions in them , though they be not expressed , and gave a simile which i have forgot . d. s. said , it was plain , paschal the second devised that oath on purpose to cut off all those reserves of their duty to their princes . and therefore the words are so full and large , that no oath of allegiance was ever conceived in more express terms . m. b. said , it was yet more plain from the words that preceed that clause about legates , that they shall be an no counsel to do the pope any injury , and shall reveal none of his secrets . by which a provision was clearly made , that if the pope did engage in any quarrel or war with any prince , the bishops were to assist the popes as their sworn subjects , and to be faithful spies and correspondents to give intelligence . as he was saying this , l. t. did whisper d. s. who presently told the company , that the ladies , at whose desire we came thither , entreated we would speak to things that concerned them more , and discourse on the grounds on which the reformation proceeded ; and therefore since he had before named some of the most considerable ; he desired we might discourse about some of these . m. c. said , name any thing in the roman church that is expresly contrary to scriptures ; but bring not your expositions of scripture to prove it by , for we will not admit of these . m. b. asked , if they did not acknowledge that it was only by the mediation of christ that our sins were pardoned , and eternal life given to us . m. c. answered , no question of it at all . m. b. said , then have we not good reason to depart from that church , that in an office of so great and daily use as was the absolution of penitents , after the words of absolution enjoyns the following prayer to be used ( which he read out of their ritual ) [ the passion of our lord jesus christ , the merits of the blessed virgin mary , and of all the saints , and whatever good thou hast done , or evil thou hast suffered , be to thee for the remission of sins , the encrease of grace , and the reward of eternal life ] from whence , it plainly follows , that their church ascribes the pardon of all sins , and the eternal salvation of their penitents , to the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints , as well as the passion of our blessed saviour . m. c. said , here was a very severe charge put in against their church without any reason , for they believed that our sins are pardoned , and our souls are saved , only by the merits of jesus christ ; but that several things may concur in several orders or ways to produce the same effects : so although we are pardoned and saved only through jesus christ , yet , without holiness we shall never see god ; we must also suffer whatever crosses he tries us with . so that these , in another sense , procure the pardon of our sins , and eternal salvation . thus in like manner the prayers of the blessed virgin and the saints are great helps to our obtaining these : therefore though these be all joyned together in the same prayer , yet it was an unjust charge on their church to say they make them equal in their value or efficiency . m. b. said , the thing he had chiefly excepted against in that prayer , was , that these things are ascribed to the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints . now he had only spoken of their prayers , and he appealed to all if the natural meaning of these words was not that he charged on them , and the sense the other had offered was not forced . m. c. said , by merits were understood prayers , which had force and merit with god. m. b. said , that could not be , for in another absolution , in the office of our lady , they pray for remission of sins through the merits and prayers of the blessed virgin : so that by merits must be meant somewhat else than their prayers . m. c. said , that as by our prayers on earth we help one anothers souls , so by our giving alms for one another we might do the same ; so also the saints in heaven might be helpful to us by their prayers and merits . and as soon as he had spoken this he got to his feet , and said he was in great haste , and much business lay on him that day ; but said to d. s. that when he pleased , he would wait on him , and discourse of the other particulars at more length . d. s. assured him , that whenever he pleased to appoint it , he should be ready to give him a meeting . and so he went away . then we all stood and talked to one another , without any great order , near half a hour , the discourse being chiefly about the nags-head fable . d. s. appealed to the publick registers , and challenged the silence of all the popish writers all queen elizabeth's reign , when such a story was fresh and well known : and if there had been any colour for it , is it possible they could keep it up , or conceal it ? s. p. t. said , all the registers were forged , and that it was not possible to satisfie him in it , no more than to prove he had not four fingers on his hand : and being desired to read dr. bramhali's book about it , he said he had read it six times over , and that it did not satisfie him . m. b. asked him , how could any matter of fact that was a hundred years old be proved , if the publick registers , and the instruments of publick notaries were rejected ? and this the more , that this being a matter of fact which could not be done in a corner , nor escape the knowledge of their adversaries , who might have drawn great and just advantages from publishing and proving it ; yet that it was never so much as spoken of while that race was alive , is as ● an evidence as can be , that the forgery was on the other side . d. s. did clear the objection from the commission and act of parliament , that it was only for making the ordination legal in england , since in edw. 6. time the book of ordination was not joyned in the record to the book of common-prayer ; from whence bishop bonner took occasion to deny their ordination , as not according to law ; and added , that saunders , who in queen elizabeth's time denied the validity of our ordination , never alledged any such story . but as we were talking freely of this , m. w. said , once or twice , they were satisfied about the chief design they had in that meeting , to see if there could be alledged any place of scripture to prove that article about the blessed sacrament , and said somewhat that looked like the beginning of a triumph . upon which , d. s. desired all might sit down again , that they might put that matter to an issue : so a bible was brought , and d. s. being spent with much speaking , desired m. b. to speak to it . m. b. turned to the 6th chap. of iohn , vers . 54. and read these words , whose eateth my flesh , and drinketh my blood , hath eternal life , and added , these words were , according to the common interpretation of their church , to be understood of the sacramental manducation . this m. w. granted , only m. b. had said , all the doctors understood these words so , and m. w. said , that all had not done so , which m. b. did acknowledge , but said it was the received exposition in their church , and so framed his argument . eternal life is given to every one that receives christ in the sacrament . but by faith only we get eternal life ; therefore by faith only we receive christ in the sacrament . otherwise , he said , unworthy receivers must be said to have eternal life , which is a contradiction , for as such they are under condemnation ; yet the unworthy receivers have the external manducation : therefore that manducation that gives eternal life with it , must be internal and spiritual , and that is by faith. a person , whose name i know not , but shall henceforth mark him n. n. asked what m. b. meant , by faith only ? m. b. said , by faith he meant such a believing of the gospel , as carried along with it evangelical obedience : by faith only , he meant faith as opposite to sense . d. s. asked him if we received christ's body and blood by our senses ? n. n. said , we did . d. s. asked which of the senses , his taste , or touch , or sight , for that seemed strange to him ? n. n. said , we received christ's body with our senses , as well as we did the substance of bread ; for our senses did not receive the substance of bread : and did offer some things to illustrate this , both from the aristotelian and cartesian hypothesis . d. s. said , he would not engage in that subtlety which was a digression from the main argument , but he could not avoid to think it a strange assertion , to say we received christ by our senses , and yet to say he was so present there , that none of our senses could possibly perceive him . but to the main argument . m. w. denied the minor , that by faith only we have eternal life . m. b. proved it thus , the sons of god have eternal life , but by faith only we become the sons of god : therefore by faith only we had eternal life . m. w. said , except he gave them both major and minor in express words of scripture , he would reject the argument . m. b. said , that if he did demonstrate that both the propositions of his argument were in the strictest construction possible equivalent to clear places of scripture , then his proofs were good ; therefore he desired to know which of the two propositions he should prove , either that the sons of god have eternal life , or that by faith only we are the sons of god. m. w. said , he would admit of no consequences , how clear soever they seemed , unless he brought him the express words of scripture , and asked if his consequences were infallible . d. s. said , if the consequence was certain , it was sufficient ; and he desired all would take notice that they would not yield to clear consequences drawn from scripture , which he thought ( and he believed all impartial people would be of his mind ) was as great an advantage to any cause , as could be desired : so we laid aside that argument , being satisfied that the article of our church , which they had called in question , was clearly proved from scripture . then n. n. insisted to speak of the corporal presence , and desired to know upon what grounds we rejected it . m. b. said , if we have no better reason to believe christ was corporally present in the sacrament , than the jews had to believe that every time they did eat their pascha , the angel was passing by their houses , and smiting the first born of the aegyptians ; then we have no reason at all ; but so it is that we have no more reason . n. n. denied this , and said we had more reason . m. b. said , all the reason we had to believe it was , because christ said , this is my body ; but moses said of the paschal festivity , this is the lords passover ; which was always repeated by the jews in that anniversary . now the lords passover was the lords passing by the israelites when he slew the first born of aegypt . if then we will understand christs words in the strictly literal sense , we must in the same sense understand the words of moses : but if we understand the words of moses in any other sense , as the commemoration of the lords passover , then we ought to understand christs words in the same sense . the reason is clear ; for christ being to substitute this holy sacrament in room of the jewish pascha , and he using in every thing , as much as could agree with his blessed designs , forms as near the jewish customs as could be , there is no reason to think he did use the words , this is my body , in any other sense than the jews did , this is the lords passover . n. n. said , the disparity was great . first , christ had promised before-hand he would give them his body . secondly , it was impossible the lamb could be the lords passover in the literal sense , because an action that had been past some hundreds of years before could not be performed every time they did eat the lamb , but this is not so . thirdly , the jewish church never understood these words literally , but the christian church hath ever understood these words of christ literally . nor is it to be imagined that a change in such a thing was possible , for how could any such opinion have crept in , in any age , if it had not been the doctrine of the former age ? m. b. said , nothing he had alledged was of any force . for the first , christ's promise imported no more than what he performed in the sacramental institution . if then it be proved that by saying , this is my body , he only meant a commemoration , his promise must only relate to his death commemorated in the sacrament . to the second , the literal meaning of christ's words is as impossible as the literal meaning of moses's words ; for besides all the other impossibilities that accompany this corporal presence , it is certain christ gives us his body in the sacrament as it was given for us , and his blood as it was shed for us , which being done only on the cross above 1600 years ago , it is as impossible that should be literally given at every consecration , as it was that the angel should be smiting the aegyptians every paschal festivity . and here was a great mistake they went on securely in ; that the body of christ we receive in the sacrament , is the body of christ , as he is now glorified in heaven ; for by the words of the institution it is clear , that we receive his body as it was given for us when his blood was shed on the cross , which being impossible to be reproduced now , we only can receive christ by faith. for his third difference , that the christian church ever understood christ's words so , we would willingly submit to the decision of the church in the first six ages . could any thing be more express than theodoret , who arguing against the eutychians that the humanity and divinity of christ were not confounded nor did depart from their own substance , illustrates it from the eucharist in which the elements of bread and wine do not depart from their own substance . m. w. said , we must examine the doctrine of the fathers not from some occasional mention they make of the sacrament , but when they treat of it on design and with deliberation . but to theodoret he would oppose s. cyril of ierusalem , who in his fourth mist. catechism says expresly , though thou see it to be bread , yet believe it is the flesh and the blood of the lord jesus ; doubt it not , since he had said , this is my body . and for a proof , instances christ's changing the water into wine . d. s. said , he had proposed a most excellent rule for examining the doctrine of the fathers in this matter , not to canvase what they said in eloquent and pious treaties or homilies to work on peoples devotion , in which case it is natural for all persons to use high expressions ; but we are to seek the real sense of this mystery when they are dogmatically treating of it and the other mysteries of religion where reason and not eloquence takes place . if then it should appear , that at the same time both a bishop of rome and constantinople , and one of the greatest bishops in africk did in asserting the mysteries of religion go downright against transubstantiation , and assert that the substance of the bread and wine did remain ; he hoped all would be satisfied the fathers did not believe as they did . m. w. desired we would then answer the words of cyril . m. b. said , it were a very unreasonable thing to enter into a verbal dispute about the passages of the fathers , especially the books not being before us ; therefore he promised an answer in writing to the testimony of s. cyril . but now the matter was driven to a point , and we willingly undertook to prove , that for eight or nine centuries after christ the fathers did not believe transubstantiation , but taught plainly the contrary : the fathers generally call the elements bread and wine after the consecration , they call them mysteries , types , figures , symbols , commemorations , and signs of the body and blood of christ : they generally deliver , that the wicked do not receive christ in the sacrament , which shews they do not believe transubstantiation . all this we undertook to prove by undeniable evidences within a very few days or weeks . m. w. said , he should be glad to see it . d. s. said , now we left upon that point which by the grace of god we should perform very soon ; but we had offered to satisfie them in the other grounds of the separation from the church of rome : if they desired to be farther informed we should wait on them when they pleased . so we all rose up and took leave , after we had been there about three hours . the discourse was carried on , on both sides , with great civility and calmness , without heat or clamour . this is as far as my memory , after the most fixed attention when present , and careful recollection since , does suggest to me , without any biass or partiality , not having failed in any one material thing as far as my memory can serve me : this i declare as i shall answer to god. signed as follows , gilbert burnet . this narrative was read , and i do hereby attest the truth of it . edw. stillingfleet . being present at the conference , i do , according to my best memory , judge this a just and true narrative thereof . will. nailor . the addition which n. n. desired might be subjoined to the relation of the conference if it were published , but wished rather that nothing at all might be made publick that related to the conference . the substance of what n. n. desired me to take notice of , was , that our eating christ's flesh and drinking his blood doth as really give everlasting life , as almsgiving , or any other good works gives it , where the bare external action , if separated from a good intention and principle , is not acceptable to god. so that we must necessarily understand these words of our saviour with this addition of worthily , that whoso eats his flesh and drinks his blood in the sacrament worthily , hath everlasting life ; for , he said , he did not deny but the believing the death of christ was necessary in communicating , but it is not by faith only we receive his body and blood . for as by faith we are the sons of god , yet it is not only by faith , but also by baptism , that we become the sons of god ; so also christ saith , he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; yet this doth not exclude repentance and amendment of life from being necessary to salvation : therefore the universality of the expression , whoso eats , does not exclude the necessity of eating worthily that we may have everlasting life by it . and so did conclude , that since we believe we have all our faith in the holy scriptures , we must prove from some clear scriptures , by arguments that consist of a major and minor , that are either express words of scripture or equivalent to them , that christ was no otherwise present in the sacrament , than spiritually , as he is received by faith. and added , that it was impertinent to bring impossibilities either from sense or reason against this , if we brought no clear scriptures against it . to this he also added , that when d. s. asked him by which of his senses he received christ in the sacrament , he answered , that he might really receive christ's body at his mouth , though none of his senses could perceive him , as a bole or pill is taken in a syrup or any other liquor ; so that i really swallow it over though my senses do not taste it : in like manner , christ is received under the accidents of bread and wine , so that though our senses do not perceive it , yet he is really taken in at our mouth , and goes down into our stomach . answer . having now set down the strength of n. n. his plea upon second thoughts , i shall next examine it . the stress of all lies in this , whether we must necessarily supply the words of christ with the addition of worthily : he affirms it , i deny it , for these reasons . christ in this discourse was to shew how much more excellent his doctrine was than was moses's law , and that moses gave manna from heaven to nourish their bodies , notwithstanding which they died in the wilderness : but christ was to give them food to their souls ; which if they did eat they should never die , for it should give them life : where it is apparent , the bread and nourishment must be such , as the life was , which being internal and spiritual , the other must be such also : and vers . 47. he clearly explains how that food was received , he that believeth on me hath everlasting life . now having said before that this bread gives life , and here saying that believing gives everlasting life , it very reasonably follows , that believing was the receiving this food ; which is yet clearer from verse 34. where the iews having desired him evermore to give them that bread , he answers , verse 35. i am the bread of life , be that comes to me shall never hunger , and he that believeth on me shall never thirst . which no man , that is not strangely prepossessed , can consider , but he must see it is an answer to their question , and so in it he tells them , that their coming to him , and believing , was the mean of receiving that bread. and here it must be considered , that christ calls himself bread , and says , that a man must eat thereof , which must be understood figuratively ; and if figures be admitted in some parts of that discourse , it is unjust to reject the applying the same figures to other parts of it . in fine , christ tells them this bread was his flesh which he was to give for the life of the world , which can be applied to nothing but the offering up himself on the cross. this did , as it was no wonder , startle the jews , so they murmured , and said , how can this man give us his flesh to eat ? to which christs answer is so clear , that it is indeed strange there should remain any doubting about it . he first tells them , except they eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man , they had no life in them . where on the way mark , that drinking the blood is as necessary as eating the flesh ; and these words being expounded of the sacrament , cannot but discover them extreamly guilty who do not drink the blood. for suppose the doctrine of the blood 's concomitating the flesh were true ; yet even in that case they only eat the blood , but cannot be said to drink the blood. but from these words it is apparent christ must be speaking chiefly , if not only of the spiritual communicating : for otherwise no man can be saved , that hath not received the sacrament . the words are formal and positive , and christ having made this a necessary condition of life , i see not how we dare promise life to any that hath never received it . and indeed it was no wonder that those fathers who understood these words of the sacrament , appointed it to be given to infants immediately after they were baptized ▪ for that was a necessary consequence that followed this exposition of our saviours words . and yet the church of rome will not deny , but if any die before he is adult , or if a person converted be in such circumstances that it is not possible for him to receive the sacrament , and so dies without it , he may have everlasting life : therefore they must conclude , that christs flesh may be eaten by faith even without the sacrament . again in the next verse he says , whoso eateth my flesh , and drinketh my blood , hath eternal life . these words must be understood in the same sense they had in the former verse , they being indeed the reverse of it . therefore since there is no addition of worthily necessary to the fence of the former verse , neither is it necessary in this . but it must be concluded christ is here speaking of a thing without which none can have life : and by which all have life : therefore when ever christs flesh is eaten , and his blood is drunk , which is most signally done in the sacrament , there eternal life must accompany it ; and so these words must be understood , even in relation to the sacrament , only of the spiritual communicating by faith. as when it is said , a man is a reasonable creature : though this is said of the whole man , body and soul ; yet when we see that upon the dissolution of soul and body no reason or life remains in the body , we from thence positively conclude the reason is seated only in the soul ; though the body has organs that are necessary for its operations : so when it is said we eat christs flesh , and drink his blood in the sacrament , which gives eternal life ; there being two things in it , the bodily eating and the spiritual communicating ; though the eating of christs flesh is said to be done in the worthy receiving , which consists of these two , yet since we may clearly see the bodily receiving may be without any such effects , we must conclude that the eating of christs flesh is only done by the inward communicating ; though the other , that is the bodily part , be a divine organ , and conveyance of it . and as reason is seated only in the soul , so the eating of christs flesh must be only inward and spiritual , and so the mean by which we receive christ in the supper is faith. all this is made much clearer by the words that follow , my flesh is meat indeed , and my blood is drink indeed . now christs flesh is so eaten , as it is meat ; which i suppose none will question , it being a prosecution of the same discourse . now it is not meat as taken by the body , for they cannot be so gross as to say , christs flesh is the meat of our body ; therefore since his flesh is only the meat of the soul and spiritual nourishment , it is only eaten by the soul , and so received by faith. christ also says , he that eateth my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in him and he in him . this is the definition of that eating and drinking he had been speaking of ; so that such as is the dwelling in him , such also must be the eating of him : the one therefore being spiritual , inward , and by faith , the other must be such also . and thus it is as plain as can be , from the words of christ , that he spake not of a carnal or corporal , but of a spiritual eating of his flesh by faith. all this is more confirmed by the key our saviour gives of his whole discourse , when the iews were offended for the hardness of his sayings , it is the spirit that quickneth ( or giveth the life he had been speaking of ) the flesh profiteth nothing , the words i speak unto you are spirit , and they are life . from which it is plain he tells them to understand his words of a spiritual life , and in a spiritual manner . but now i shall examine n. n. his reasons to the contrary . his chief argument is , that when eternal life is promised upon the giving of alms , or other good works , we must necessarily understand it with this proviso , that they were given with a good intention , and from a good principle : therefore we must understand these words of our saviour to have some such proviso in them . all this concludes nothing . it is indeed certain when any promise is past upon an external action , such a reserve must be understood . and so st. paul tells us , if he bestowed all his goods to feed the poor , and had no charity , it profited him nothing . and if it were clear our saviour were here speaking of an external action , i should acknowledge such a proviso must be understood ; but that is the thing in question ; and i hope i have made it appear our saviour is speaking of an internal action , and therefore no such proviso is to be supposed . for he is speaking of that eating of his flesh , which must necessarily and certainly be worthily done , and so that objection is of no force . he must therefore prove , that the eating his flesh is primarily and simply meant of the bodily eating in the sacrament ; and not only by a denomination , from a relation to it : as the whole man is called reasonable , though the reason is seated in the soul only what he says to shew that by faith only we are not the sons of god , since by baptism also we are the sons of god , is not to the purpose : for the design of the argument , was to prove that by faith only we are the sons of god , so as to be the heirs of eternal life . now the baptism of the adult ( for our debate runs upon those of ripe years and understanding ) makes them only externally , and sacramentally the sons of god : for the inward and vital sonship follows only upon faith. and this faith must be understood of such a lively and operative faith , as includes both repentance and amendment of life . so that when our saviour says , he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , that believing is a complex of all evangelical graces ; from which it appears , that none of his reasons are of force enough to conclude that the universality of these words of christ ought to be so limited and restricted . for what remains of that which he desired might be taken notice of , that we ought to prove that christs body and blood was present in the sacrament only spiritually and not corporally by express scriptures , or by arguments whereof the major and minor were either express words of scripture , or equivalent to them : it has no force at all in it . i have in a full discourse examined all that is in the plea concerning the express words of scripture ; and therefore shall say nothing upon that head , referring the reader to what he will meet with on that subject afterwards . but here i only desire the reader may consider , our contest in this particular is concerning the true meaning of our saviours words , this is my body , in which it is very absurd to ask for express words of scripture , to prove that meaning by . for if that be setled on , as a necessary method of proof , then when other scriptures are brought to prove that to be the meaning of these words ; it may be asked how can we prove the true meaning of that place we bring to prove the meaning of this by ? and so by a progress for ever we must contend about the true meaning of every place . therefore when we enquire into the sense of any controverted place ; we must judge of it by the rules of common sense and reason , of religion and piety , and if a meaning be affixed to any place contrary to these , we have good reason to reject it . for we , knowing all external things only by our senses , by which only the miracles and resurrection of christ could be proved , which are the means god has given us to converse with , and enjoy his whole creation ; and evidence our senses give being such , as naturally determines our perswasions , so that after them we cannot doubt : if then a sense be offered to any place of scripture that does overthrow all this , we have sufficient reason on that very account to reject it . if also any meaning be fastened on a place of scripture that destroys all our conceptions of things , is contrary to the most universally receiv'd maxims , subverts the notions of matter and accidents , and in a word , confounds all our clearest apprehensions ; we must also reject every such gloss , since it contradicts the evidence of that which is god's image in us . if also a sense of any place of scripture be proposed that derogates from the glorious exaltation of the humane nature of our blessed saviour , we have very just reasons to reject it , even though we could bring no confirmation of our meaning from express words of scripture : therefore this dispute being chiefly about the meaning of christ's words , he that shews best reasons to prove that his sense is consonant to truth , does all that is necessary in this case . but after all this , we decline not to shew clear scriptures for the meaning our church puts on these words of christ. it was bread that christ took , blessed , brake , and gave his disciples . now the scripture calling it formally bread , destroys transubstantiation . christ said , this is my body , which are declarative , and not imperative words , such as , let there be light , or , be thou whole . now all declarative words suppose that which they affirm to be already true , as is most clear ; therefore christ pronounces what the bread was become by his former blessing , which did sanctifie the elements : and yet after that blessing it was still bread . again , the reason and end of a thing is that which keeps a proportion with the means toward it ; so that christ's words , do this in remembrance of me , shew us , that his body is here only in a vital and living commemoration and communication of his body and blood. farther , christ telling us , it was his body that was given for us , and his blood shed for us , which we there receive ; it is apparent , he is to be understood present in the sacrament ; not as he is now exalted in glory , but as he was on the cross when his blood was shed for us . and in fine , if we consider that those to whom christ spake were jews , all this will be more easily understood : for it was ordinary for them to call the symbol by the name of the original it represented . so they called the cloud between the cherubims , god and iehovah , according to these words , o thou that dwellest between the cherubims : and all the symbolical apparitions of god to the patriarchs and the prophets , were said to be the lord appearing to them . but that which is more to this purpose , is , that the lamb that was the symbol and memorial of their deliverance out of egypt , was called the lord's passover . now though the passover then was only a type of our deliverance by the death of christ , yet the lamb was in proportion to the passover in egypt , as really a representation of it , as the sacrament is of the death of christ. and it is no more to be wondered that christ called the elements his body and blood , though they were not so corporally , but only mystically , and sacramentally ; than that moses called the lamb the lord 's passover . so that it is apparent it was common among the jews to call the symbol and type by the name of the substance and original . therefore our saviour's words are to be understood in the sense and stile that was usual among these to whom he spake , it being the most certain rule of understanding any doubtful expression , to examine the ordinary stile and forms of speech in that age , people , and place , in which such phrases were used . this is signally confirmed by the account which maimonides gives us of the sense in which eating and drinking is oft taken in the scriptures . first , he says , it stands in its natural signification , for receiving bodily food : then because there are two things done in eating , the first is the destruction of that which is eaten , so that it loseth its first form ; the other is the increase and nourishment of the substance of the person that eats : therefore he observes that eating has two other significations in the language of the scriptures : the one is destruction and desolation ; so the sword is said to eat , or as we render it , to devour ; so a land is said to eat its inhabitants , and so fire is said to eat or consume : the other sense it is taken in does relate to wisdom , learning , and all intellectual apprehensions , by which the form ( or soul ) of man is conserved from the perfection that is in them , as the body is preserved by food . for proof of this , he cites divers places out of the old testament , as isa. 55. 2. come buy and eat , and prov. 25. 27. and prov. 24. 13. he also adds , that their rabbins commonly call wisdom , eating ; and cites some of their sayings , as , come and eat flesh in which there is much fat , and that whenever eating and drinking is in the book of the proverbs , it is nothing else but wisdom or the law. so also wisdom is often called water , isa. 55. 1. and he concludes , that because this sense of eating occurs so often , and is so manifest and evident , as if it were the primary and most proper signification of the word , therefore hunger and thirst do also stand for a privation of wisdom and understanding , as amos. 8. 21. to this he also refers that of thirsting , psal. 42. 3. and isa. 12. 3. and ionathan paraphrasing these words , ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation , renders it . ye shall receive a new doctrine with joy from the select ones among the iust , which is farther confirmed from the words of our saviour , iohn 7. 37. and from these observations of the learnedest and most judicious among all the rabbins , we see that the iews understood the phrases of eating and eating of flesh in this spiritual and figurative sense of receiving vvisdom and instruction . so that this being an usual form of speech among them , it is no strange thing to imagine how our saviour , being a iew according to the flesh , and conversing with iews , did use these terms and phrases in a sense that was common to that nation . and from all these set together , we are confident we have a great deal of reason , and strong and convincing authorities from the scriptures , to prove christ's words , this is my body , are to be understood spiritually , mystically , and sacramentally . there remains only to be considered what weight there is in what n. n. says . he answered to d. s. that christ might be received by our senses though not perceived by any of them , as a bole is swallowed over , though our taste does not relish or perceive it . that great man is so very well furnished with reason and learning to justifie all he says , that no other body needs interpose on his account . but he being now busie , it was not worth the giving him the trouble , to ask how he would reply upon so weak an answer , since its shallowness appears at the first view : for is there any comparison to be made between an object that all my senses may perceive , if i have a mind to it , that i see with mine eyes , and touch , and feel in my mouth , and if it be too big , and my throat too narrow , i will feel stick there ; but only to guard against its offensive taste , i so wrap or convey it , that i relish nothing ungrateful in it : and the receiving christ with my senses , when yet none of them either do , or can , though applied with all possible care , discern him ? so that it appears d. s. had very good reason to say , it seemed indeed strange to him , to say , that christ was received by our senses , and yet was so present that none of our senses can perceive him : and this answer to it is but mere trifling . here follows the paper we promised , wherein an account is given of the doctrine of the church for the first eight centuries in the point of the sacrament , which is demonstrated to be contrary to transubstantiation ; written in a letter to my lady t. madam , your ladiship may remember , that our meeting at your house on the third instant , ended with a promise we made , of sending you such an account of the sense of the fathers for the first six ages , as might sufficiently satisfie every impartial person , that they did not believe transubstantiation . this promise we branched out in three propositions : first , that the fathers did hold , that after the consecration the elements of bread and wine did remain unchanged in their substance . the second was , that after the consecration they called the elements the types , the antitypes , the mysteries , the symbols , the signs , the figures , and the commemorations of the body and blood of christ ; which certainly will satisfie every unprejudiced person , that they did not think the bread and wine were annihilated , and that in their room , and under their accidents , the substance of the body and blood of christ was there . thirdly , we said , that by the doctrine of the fathers the unworthy receivers got not the body and the blood of christ ; from which it must necessarily follow , that the substance of his body and blood is not under the accidents of bread and wine ; otherwise all these that unworthily receive them eat christ's body and blood . therefore , to discharge our selves of our promise , we shall now give your ladiship such an account of the doctrine of the fathers on these heads , as we hope shall convince those gentlemen , that we had a good warrant for what we said . the first proposition is , the fathers believed that after the consecration the elements were still bread and wine . the proofs whereof we shall divide into three branches : the first shall be , that after the consecration they usually called them bread and wine . secondly , that they expresly assert , that the substance of bread and wine remained . thirdly , that they believed the sacramental bread and wine did nourish our bodies . for proof of the first , we desire the following testimonies be considered : iustin martyr says , these who are called deacons distribute the blessed bread and wine and water to such as are present , and carry it to the absents , and this nourishment is by us called the eucharist . and a little after , we do not receive these as common bread , or common drink ; for as by the word of god iesus christ our saviour being made flesh , had both flesh and blood for our salvation , so we are taught , that that food by which our blood and flesh are nourished , by its change , being blessed by the word of prayer which he gave us , is both the flesh and the blood of the incarnate iesus . thus that martyr , that wrote an hundred and fifty years after christ , calls the elements bread and wine , and the nourishment which being changed into flesh and blood nourishes them . and saying , it is not common bread and vvine , he says , that it was still so in substance ; and his illustrating it with the incarnation , in which the humane nature did not lose nor change its substance in its union with the eternal word , shews , he thought not the bread and wine lost their substance when they became the flesh and blood of christ. the next witness is irenaeus , who writing against the valentinians , that denied the father of our lord jesus to be the creator of the world , and also denied the resurrection of the body , confutes both these heresies by arguments drawn from the eucharist . to the first he says , if there be another creator than the father of our lord , then our offering creatures to him , argues him covetous of that which is not his own , and so we reproach him rather than bless him . and adds , how does it appear to any of them , that that bread over which thanks are given , is the body of his lord , and the cup of his blood , if he be not the son of the creator . and he argues against their saying , our bodies should not rise again that are fed by the body and blood of christ : for , says he , that bread which is of the earth , having had the invocation of god over it , is no more common bread , but the eucharist , consisting of two things , an earthly and an heavenly ; so our bodies that receive the eucharist are no more corruptible , having the hope of the resurrection . tertullian ( lib. 1. adv . marc. c. 14. ) proving against marcion , that christ was not contrary to the creator , among other proofs which he brings to shew , that christ made use of the creatures , and neither rejected water , oil , milk , or hony , he adds , neither did he reject bread , by which he represents his own body . and further says , ( lib. 3. adv . marc. c. 19. ) christ calls bread his body , that from thence you may understand , that he gave the figure of his body to the bread. origen says , ( lib. 8. cont . celsum . ) we eat of the loaves set before us , with thanks giving and prayers over what is given to us , which by the prayer are become a certain holy body , that sanctifies those who use them with a sound purpose . st. cyprian says , ( epist. 76. ) christ calls the bread that was compounded of many grains ioyned together , his body , to shew the union of our people which he bore upon himself ; and calls the wine which is pressed out of many grapes and berries , his blood : he signifies our flock which is joyned together in the mixture of an united multitude . and writing against those who only put water in the chalice , ( epist. 63. ) he says , since christ said , i am the true vine , the blood of christ is not only water but wine , neither can we see his blood by which we are redeemed and quickened in the chalice when wine is not in it , by which the blood of christ is shewed . and that whole epistle is all to the same purpose . epiphanius ( in anchorat ) says , christ in the supper rose and took these things , and having given thanks , said , this is my , &c. now we see it is not equal to it , nor like it , neither to his incarnate likeness , nor his invisible deity , nor the lineaments of his members , for it is round , and without feeling as to its vertue . and this he says , to shew how man may be said to be made after the image of god , though he be not like him . gregory nyssen , ( in orat. de bap. christ. ) shewing how common things may be sanctified , as water in baptism , the stones of an altar and church dedicated to god ; he adds , so also bread in the beginning is common , but after the mystery has consecrated it , is said to be , and is the body of christ ; so the mystical oyl , so the wine before the blessing , are things of little value , but after the sanctification of the spirit , both of them work excellently . he also adds , that the priest by his blessing is separated and sanctified ; from which it appears , he no more believed the change of the substance of the bread and wine , than of the consecrated oil , the altar , or the priest. ambrose ( lib. de bened. patriarc . cap. 9. ) speaking of bread , which was asher's blessing , says , this bread christ gave his apostles , that they might divide it to the people that believed , and gives it to us to day , which the priest consecrates in his words , this bread is made the food of the saints . st. chrysostome ( homil. 24. in epist. ad cor. ) on these words , the bread which we brake , is it not the communion of the body of christ ? says , what is the bread ? the body of christ. what are they made who take it ? the body of christ. from whence it appears , he thought the bread was so the body of christ , as the worthy receivers are ; which is not by the change of their substance , but by the sanctification of their natures . st. ierom ( epist. ad hedib . ) says , let us hear the bread which christ brake and gave his disciples , to be the body of our lord. and he says , ( comment . s. mat. c. 26. ) after the typical pascha was fulfilled , christ took bread that comforts the heart of man , and went to the true sacrament of the pascha , that as melchisedeck in the figure had done offering bread and wine , so he might also represent the truth of his body and blood. where he very plainly calls the elements bread and wine , and a representation of christ's body and blood. st. austin ( as he is cited by fulgentius de baptismo and divers others ) in his exhortation to these that were newly baptized , speaking of this sacrament , says , that which you see is the bread , and the cup which your eyes witness : but that which your faith must be instructed in , is , that the bread is the body of christ , and the cup is his blood. and then he proposes the objection , how that could be ? and answers it thus ; these things are therefore called sacraments , because one thing is seen , and another is understood : what you see has a bodily appearance , but what you understand has a spiritual fruit ; and if you will understand the body of christ , hear what the apostle says to the faithful , ye are the body of christ and his members : if therefore you be the body and members of christ , your mystery is placed on the table of the lord , and you receive the mystery of the lord. and at large prosecutes this , to shew how the faithful are the body of christ , as the bread is made up of many grains ; from whence it appears , that he believed , that the conscrated elements were still bread and wine . and speaking of st. paul's breaking bread at troas , he says , ( epist. 86. ) being to break bread that night , as it is broken in the sacrament of the body of christ. he also says , ( serm. 9. de divers . ) the eucharist is our daily bread ; but let us so receive it , that not only our belly but our mind be refreshed by it . besides , in a great many places st. austin calls the eucharist , the sacrament of bread and wine . and speaking of things , made use of to signify somewhat else , he adds for one , ( lib. 3. de trinit . c. 10. ) the bread that is made for this , is consumed in our receiving the sacrament . he also says , ( lib. 17. de civ . dei. ) to eat bread is in the new testament , the sacrifice of christians . he likewise says , ( lib. cont. donat. c. 6. ) both iudas and peter received a part of the same bread out of the same hand of our lord. and thus from twelve witnesses that are beyond all exception , it does appear , that the fathers believed the elements to be still bread and wine after the consecration . we have not brought any proofs from the fathers that are less known or read , for then we must have swelled up this paper beyond what we intend it . one thing is so considerable , that we cannot forbear to desire it be taken notice of , and that is , that we see those great fathers and doctors of the church call the consecrated elements , without any mincing of the matter , bread & wine ; but when they call it the body and blood of christ , they often use some mollifying and less hardy expression . so st. austin says , ( serm. 53. de verb. dom. ) almost all call the sacrament his body . and again says , ( lib. 3. de trinit . c. 4. ) we call that only the body and blood of christ , which being taken of the fruits of the earth , and consecrated by the mystical prayer , we rightly receive for our spiritual health in the commemoration of the passion of our lord for us . and he says , ( epist. 23. ad bonifac. ) after some sort the sacrament of the body of christ is his body , and the sacrament of his blood is the blood of christ. and also says , ( serm. 2. in psal. 33. ) he carried himself in his own hands in some sort , when he said , this is my body . st. chrysostom says , ( epist. ad caesar. ) the bread is thought worthy to be called the body of our lord. and on these words , the flesh lusteth against the spirit , among the improper acceptions of flesh , says , ( comm. in epist. ad galat. c. 5. ) the scriptures use to call the mysteries by the name of flesh , and sometimes the whole church , saying , she is the body of christ. tertullian says , ( lib. 4. cont . marc. c. 40. ) christ calls the bread his body , and a little after , he names the bread his body . isidore hispal . says , ( orig. lib. 6. c. 9. ) we call this after his command the body and blood of christ , which being made of the fruits of the earth , is sanctified and made a sacrament . theodoret says , ( dialog . 1. ) in the giving of the mysteries , christ called the bread his body , and the mixed cup his blood. and says , ( dialog . 1. ) he who called his natural body corn and bread , and also calls himself a vine , likewise honoured these visible symbols with the names of his body and blood. but we now go to bring our proofs for the next branch of our first proposition ; in which we assert , that the fathers believed that the very substance of the bread and wine did remain after the consecration . by which all the proofs brought in the former branch will receive a further evidence ; since by these it will appear the fathers believed the substance of the elements remained ; and thence we may well conclude , that wherever we find mention made of bread and wine after consecration , they mean of the substance , and not of the accidents of bread and wine . for proof of this , we shall only bring the testimonies of four fathers , that lived almost within one age , and were the greatest men of the age. their authority is as generally received , as their testimonies are formal and decisive : and these are pope gelasius , st. chrysostom , ephrem patriarch of antioch , and theodoret , whom we shall find delivering to us the doctrine of the church in their age , with great consideration upon a very weighty occasion : so that it shall appear that this was for that age the doctrine generally received both in the churches of rome and constantinople , antioch , and asia the less . we shall begin with gelasius , who , though he lived later than some of the others , yet , because of the eminence of his see , and the authority those we deal with must needs acknowledge was in him , ought to be set first : he says , ( in lib. de duab . nat . christ. ) the sacraments of the body and blood of christ are a divine thing ; for which reason we become , by them , partakers of the divine nature ; and yet the substance or nature of bread and wine does not cease to be ; and the image and likeness of the body and blood of christ are indeed celebrated in the action of the mysteries : therefore it appears evidently enough , that we ought to think that of christ our lord , which we profess and celebrate , and receive in his image , that as they ( to wit , the elements ) pass into that divine substance , the holy ghost working it , their nature remaining still in its own property . so that principal mystery , whose efficiency and virtue these ( to wit , the sacraments ) represent to us , remains one entire and true christ ; those things of which he is compounded ( to wit , his two natures ) remaining in their properties . these words seem so express and decisive , that one would think the bare reading them , without any further reflections , should be of force enough . but before we offer any considerations upon them , we shall set down other passages of the other fathers , and upon them altogether make such remarks as , we hope , may satisfy any that will hear reason . st. chrysostom treating of the two natures of christ against the apollinarists , ( epist. ad caesar. monach . ) who did so confound them , as to consubstantiate them , he makes use of the doctrine of the sacrament to illustrate that mystery by , in these words ; as before the bread is sanctified , we call it bread ; but when the divine grace has sanctified it by the mean of the priest , it is freed from the name of bread , and is thought worthy of the name of the lord's body , though the nature of bread remains in it : and yet it is not said there are two bodies , but one body of the son ; so the divine nature being joyned to the body , both these make one son , and one person . next this patriarch of constantinople , let us hear ephrem the patriarch of antioch give his testimony , as it is preserved by photius , ( cod. 229. ) who says thus : in like manner ( having before treated of the two natures united in christ ) the body of christ , which is received by the faithful , does not depart from its sensible substance , and yet remains inseparated from the intellectual grace : so baptism becoming wholly spiritual , and one , it preserves its own sensible substance , and does not lose that which it was before . to these we shall add , what theodoret ( dialog . 1. ) on the same occasion says against those , who from that place , the word was made flesh , believed , that in the incarnation the divinity of the word was changed into the humanity of the flesh. he brings in his heretick arguing about some mystical expressions of the old testament , that related to christ : at length he comes to shew , how christ called himself bread and corn ; so also in the delivering the mysteries , christ called the bread his body , and the mixed cup his blood ; and our saviour changed the names , calling his body by the name of the symbol , and the symbol by the name of his body . and when the heretick asks the reason why the names were so changed , the orthodox answers , that it was manifest to such as were initiated in divine things ; for he would have those who partake of the mysteries , not look to the nature of those things that were seen , but by the change of the names , to believe that change that was made through grace ; for he who called his natural body corn and bread , does likewise honour the visible symbols with the name of his body and blood ; not changing the nature , but adding grace to nature : and so goes on to ask his heretick , whether he thought the holy bread was the symbol and type of his divinity , or of his body and blood ? and the other acknowledging they were the symbols of his body and blood : he concludes , that christ had a true body . the second dialogue is against the eutychians ; who believed , that after christ's assumption , his body was swallowed up by his divinity : and there the eutychian brings an argument to prove that change from the sacrament ; it being granted , that the gifts before the priest's prayer were bread and wine . he asks how it was to be called after the sanctification ? the orthodox answers , the body and blood of christ ; and that he believed he received the body and blood of christ. from thence the heretick , as having got a great advantage , argues ; that as the symbols of the body and blood of our lord were one thing before the priestly invocation , and after that were changed , and are different from what they were : so the body of our lord , after the assumption , was changed into the divine substance . but the orthodox replies , that he was catched in the net he laid for others ; for the mystical symbols , after the sanctification , do not depart from their own nature ; for they continue in their former substance , figure and form , and are both visible and palpable , as they were before ; but they are understood to be that which they are made , and are believed and venerated , as being those things which they are believed to be . and from thence he bids the heretick compare the image with the original , for the type must be like the truth , and shews that christ's body retains its former form and figure , and the substance of his body , though it be now made immortal and incorruptible . thus he . and having now set down very faithfully the words of these fathers , we desire it may be considered , that all these words are used to the same effect , to prove the reality of christ's body , and the distinction of the two natures , the divine and the human , in him . for , though st. chrysostom lived before eutyches his days , yet in this point the eutychians and the apollinarists , against whom he writes , held opinions so like others , that we may well say , all these words of the fathers we have set down are to the same purpose . now , first it is evident , that if transubstantiation had been then believed , there needed no other argument to prove against the eutychians that christ had still a real body , but to have declared that his body was corporally present in the eucharist ; which they must have done , had they believed it , and not spoken so as they did ; since that alone well proved , had put an end to the whole controversy . further , they could never have argued from the visions and apparitions of christ , to prove he had still a real body ; for if it was possible the body of christ could appear under the accidents of bread and wine , it was as possible the divinity should appear under the accidents of an humane body . thirdly , they could never have argued against the eutychians , as they did , from the absurdity that followed upon such a substantial mutation of the humane nature of christ into his divinity , if they had believed this substantial conversion of the elements into christ's body , which is liable unto far greater absurdities . and we can as little doubt , but the eutychians had turned back their arguments on themselves , with these answers , if that doctrine had been then received . it is true , it would seem from the last passage of theodoret , that the eutychians did believe some such change ; but that could not be , for they denied the being of the body of christ , and so could not think any thing was changed into that which they believed was not . therefore we are to suppose him arguing from some commonly received expressions , which the father explains . in fine , the design of those fathers being to prove , that the two natures might be united without the change of either of their substances in the person of christ , it had been inexcusable folly in them , to have argued from the sacramental mysteries being united to the body and blood of christ , if they had not believed they retained their former substance ; for had they believed transubstantiation , what a goodly argument had it been , to have said , because after the consecration the accidents of bread and wine remain , therefore the substance of the humanity remained still , tho united to the divine nature in christ ? did ever man in his wits argue in this fashion ? certainly , these four bishops , whereof three were patriarchs , and one of these a pope , deserved to have been hissed out of the world , as persons that understood not what it was to draw a consequence , if they had argued so as they did , and believed transubstantiation . but if you allow them to believe ( as certainly they did ) that in the sacrament the real substances of bread and wine remained , tho after the sanctification , by the operation of the holy ghost , they were the body and blood of christ , and were to be called so ; then this is a most excellent illustration of the mystery of the incarnation , in which the human nature retains its proper and true substance , tho after the union with the divinity , christ be called god , even as he was man , by virtue of his union with the eternal word . and this shews how unreasonable it is to pretend , that because substance and nature are sometimes used even for accidental qualities , they should be therefore understood so in the cited places ; for if you take them in that sense , you destroy the force of the argument , which from being a very strong one , will by this means become a most ridiculous sophisin . yet we are indeed beholden to those that have taken pains to shew , that substance and nature stand often for accidental qualities ; for tho that cannot be applied to the former places , yet it helps us with an excellent answer to many of those passages with which they triumph not a little . having so far considered these four fathers , we shall only add to them the definition of the seventh general council at constantinople , ann. 754. christ appointed us to offer the image of his body , to wit , the substance of the bread. the council is indeed of no authority with these we deal with : but we do not bring it as a decree of a council , but as a testimony , that so great a number of bishops did in the eighth century believe , that the substance of the bread did remain in the eucharist , and that it was only the image of christ's body : and if in this definition they spake not more consonantly to the doctrine of the former ages , than their enemies at nice did , let what has been set down , and shall be yet adduced , declare . and now we advance to the third branch of our first assertion , that the fathers believed that the consecrated elements did nourish our bodies ; and the proofs of this will also give a further evidence to our former position ; that the substance of the elements does remain : and it is a demonstration that these fathers , who thought the sacrament nourished our bodies , could not believe a transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of christ. for the proof of this branch we desire the following testimonies be considered . first , iustin martyr , as was already cited , not only calls the eucharist our nourishment , but formally calls it that food by which our flesh and blood through its transmutation into them are nourished . secondly , irenaeus ( lib. 5. adv . heret . c. 2. ) proving the resurrection of the body by this argument , that our bodies are fed by the body and blood of christ , and that therefore they shall rise again ; he hath these words , he confirmed that cup , which is a creature , to be his blood , by which he encreases our blood ; and the bread , which is a creature , to be his body , by which he encreases our body : and when the mixed cup and the bread , receive the word of god , it becomes the eucharist of the body and blood of christ , by which the substance of our flesh is encreased and subsists . how then do they deny the flesh to be capable of the gift of god , which is eternal life , that is nourished by the body and blood of christ , and is made his member . we hope it will be observed , that as these words are express and formal ; so the design on which he uses them will admit of none of those distinctions they commonly rely on . tertullian says , ( lib. de resur . c. 8. ) the flesh is fed with the body and blood of christ. st. austin ( serm. 9. de divers . ) after he had called the eucharist our daily bread , he exhorts us so to receive it , that not only our bellies , but our minds might be refreshed by it . isidore of sevil says , the substance of the visible bread nourishes the outward man ; or , as bertram cites his words , all that we receive externally in the sacrament of the body and blood of christ , is proper to refresh the body . next , let us see what the 16th council of toledo says in anno 633. condemning those that did not offer in the eucharist entire loaves , but only round crusts ; they did appoint one entire loaf carefully prepared to be set on the altar , that it might be sanctified by the priestly benediction , and order , that what remained after communion , should be either put in some bag , or , if it was needful , to eat it up , that it might not oppress the belly of him that took it with the burden of an heavy surcharge ; and that it might not go to the digestion , but that it might feed his soul with spiritual nourishment . from which words , one of two consequences will necessarily follow ; either that the consecrated elements do really nourish the body , which we intend to prove from them ; or that the body of christ is not in the elements , but as they are sacramentally used , which we acknowledg many of the fathers believed . but the last words we cited of the spiritual nourishment , shew those fathers did not think so ; and if they did , we suppose those we deal with will see , that to believe christ's body is only in the elements when used , will clearly leave the charge of idolatry on that church in their processions , and other adorations of the host. but none is so express as origen , ( comment . in mat. c. 15. ) who on these words , 't is not that which enters within a man which defiles a man , says , if every thing that enters by the mouth , goes into the belly , and is cast into the draught ; then the food that is sanctified by the word of god , and by prayer , goes also to the belly , as to what is material in it , and from thence to the draught ; but by the prayer that was made over it , it is useful in proportion to our faith , and is the mean that the understanding is clear-sighted and attentive to that which is profitable ; and it is not the matter of bread , but the word pronounced over it , which profits him that does not eat in a way unworthy of our lord. this doctrine of the sacraments being so digested that some parts of it turned to excrement , was likewise taught by divers latin writers in the 9th age , as rabanus maurus arch-bishop of mentz , and heribald bishop of auxerre . divers of the greek writers did also hold it , whom for a reproach their adversaries called stercoranists . it is true , other greek fathers were not of origen's opinion , but believed that the eucharist did entirely turn into the substance of our bodies . so cyril of ierusalem says , ( mystic . catech. 5. ) that the bread of the eucharist does not go into the belly , nor is cast into the draught , but is distributed thorough the whole substance of the communicant , for the good of body and soul. the homily of the eucharist , in a dedication that is in st. chrysostom's works , ( tom. 5. ) says , do not think that this is bread , and that this is wine ; for they pass not to the draught , as other victuals do : and comparing it to wax put to the fire , of which no ashes remain ; he adds , so think that the m●teries are consumed with the substance of our bodies . iohn damascene is of the same mind , who says , ( lib. 4. de orthod . fide c. 14. ) that the body and the blood of christ passes into the consistence of our souls and bodies , without being consumed , corrupted , or passing into the draught , god forbid , but passing into our substance for our conservation . thus it will appear , that tho those last-cited fathers did not believe as origen did , that any part of the eucharist went to the draught ; yet they thought it was turned into the substance of our bodies , from which we may well conclude , they thought the substance of bread and wine remained in the eucharist after the consecration , and that it nourished our bodies . and thus we hope we have sufficiently proved our first proposition in all its three branches . so leaving it , we go on to the second proposition , which is ; that the fathers call the consecrated elements the figures , the signs , the symbols , the types , and antitypes , the commemoration , representation , the mysteries , and the sacraments of the body and blood of christ. tertullian proving against marcion , ( lib. 4 cont . marc. c. 40. ) that christ had a real body , he brings some figures that were fulfilled in christ , and says , he made the bread which he took and gave his disciples to be his body , saying , this is my body , that is , the figure of my body ; but it had not been a figure of his body had it not been true , for an empty thing , such as a phantasm , cannot have a figure . now had tertullian , and the church in his time , believed transubstantiation , it had been much more pertinent for him to have argued , here is corporally present christ's body , therefore he had a true body , than to say , here is a figure of his body , therefore he had a true body ; such an escape as this is not incident to a man of common sense , if he had believed transubstantiation . and the same father , in two other places before cited , says , christ gave the figure of his body to the bread , and that he represented his own body by the bread. st. austin says , ( com. in psal. 3 ) he commended and gave to his disciples , the figure of his body and blood. the same expressions are also in bede , alcuine , and druthmar , that lived in the eighth and ninth centuries . but what st. austin says elsewhere ( lib. 3. de doct. chr. c. 16. ) is very full in this matter , where , treating of the rules by which we are to judg what expressions in scripture are figurative , and what not , he gives this for one rule : if any place seem to command a crime or horrid action , it is figurative ; and to instance it , cites these words , except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man , you have no life in you ; which ( says he ) seems to command some crime , or horrid action , therefore it is a figure , commanding us to communicate in the passion of our lord , and sweetly and profitably to lay up in our memory , that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us . which words are so express and full , that whatever those we deal with may think of them , we are sure we cannot devise how any one could have delivered our doctrine more formally . parallel to these are origen's words , ( homil. 7. in lev. ) who calls the understanding the words of our saviour , of eating his flesh and drinking his blood according to the letter , a letter that kills . the same st. austin calls the eucharist , a sign of christ's body , in his book against adimantus , ( lib. cont . adimant . manich . c. 12. ) who studied to prove that the author of the old and new testament was not the same god ; and among other arguments , he uses this , that blood in the old testament is called the life or soul , contrary to the new testament : to which st. austin answers , that it was so called , not that it was truly the soul or life , but the sign of it ; and to shew , that the sign does sometimes bear the name of that whereof it is a sign , he says , our lord did not doubt to say , this is my body , when he was giving the sign of his body . where , if he had not believed the eucharist was substantially different from his body , it had been the most impertinent illustration that ever was , and had proved just against him , that the sign must be one and the same with that which is signified by it . for the sacrament being called the type , the antitype , the symbol and mystery of christ's body and blood : the ancient liturgies , and greek fathers use these phrases so frequently , that since it is not so much as denied , we judg we need not laboriously prove it . therefore we pass over this , believing it will be granted ; for if it be denied , we undertake to prove them to have been used not only on some occasions , but to have been the constant style of the church . now that types , antitypes , symbols , and mysteries , are distinct from that which they shadow forth , and mystically hold out , we believe can be as little disputed . in this sense all the figures of the law are called types of christ by the fathers , and both the baptismal water and the chrism are called symbols and mysteries . and tho there was not that occasion for the fathers to discourse on baptism so oft , which every body received but once , and was administred ordinarily but on a few days of the year , as they had to speak of the eucharist , which was daily consecrated ; so that it cannot be imagined , there should be near such a number of places about the one as about the other ; yet we fear not to undertake to prove , there be many places among the ancients , that do as fully express a change of the baptismal water , as of the eucharistical elements . from whence it may appear , that their great zeal to prepare persons to a due value of these holy actions , and that they might not look on them as a vulgar ablution , or an ordinary repast , carried them to many large and high expressions , which cannot bear a literal meaning . and since they with whom we deal are fain to fly to metaphors and allegories for clearing of what the fathers say of baptism , it is a most unreasonable thing to complain of us for using such expositions of what they say about the eucharist . but that we may not leave this without some proof , we shall set down the words of facundus , ( desens . conc. chalced. lib. 9. ) who says , the sacrament of adoption , that is baptism , may be called adoption , as the sacrament of his body and blood , which is in the consecrated bread and cup , is called his body and blood ; not that the bread is properly his body , or the cup properly his blood , but because they contain in them the mystery of his body and blood ; and hence it was that our lord called the bread that was blessed , and the cup which he gave his disciples , his body and blood. therefore as the believers in christ , when they receive the sacrament of his body and blood , are rightly said to have received his body and blood ; so christ , when he received the sacrament of the adoption of sons , may be rightly said to have received the adoption of sons . and we leave every one to gather from these words , if the cited father could believe transubstantiation , and if he did not think that baptism was as truly the adoption of the sons of god , as the eucharist was his body and blood , which these of rome acknowledg is only to be meant in a moral sense . that the fathers called this sacrament the memorial and representation of the death of christ , and of his body that was broken , and his blood that was shed , we suppose will be as little denied , for no man that ever looked into any of their treatises of the eucharist , can doubt of it . st. austin says , ( epist. 23. ad bonifac. ) that sacraments must have some similitude of these things of which they be the sacraments , otherwise they could not be sacraments . so he says , the sacrament of the body of christ is after some manner his blood. so the sacrament of faith ( that is baptism ) is faith. but more expresly , speaking of the eucharist as a sacrifice of praise , he says , ( lib. 20. cont . faust. manich. c. 21. ) the flesh and blood of this sacrifice was promised before the coming of christ by the sacrifices of the types of it : in the passion of christ , it was done in the truth it self : and after his ascent , is celebrated by the sacrament of the remembrance of it . but he explains this more fully on the 98th psalm , where he having read , ver . 5. worship his footstool ; and seeking for its true meaning , expounds it of christ's body , who was flesh of this earth , and gives his flesh to be eaten by us for our salvation , which , since none eats , except he have first adored it ; he makes this the footstool which we worship without any sin , and do sin if we do not worship it . so far the church of rome triumphs with this place . but let us see what follows , where we shall find that which will certainly abate their joy ; he goes on and tells us , not to dwell on the flesh , lest we be not quickened by the spirit ; and shews how they that heard our lord's words were scandalized at them as hard words ; for they understood them , says he , foolishly , and carnally , and thought he was to have cut off some parcels of his body to be given them : but they were hard , not our lord 's saying ; for had they been meek , and not hard , they should have said within themselves , he says not this without a cause , but because there is some sacrament hid there ; for had they come to him with his disciples , and asked him , he had instructed them : for he said it is the spirit that quickens , the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that i have spoken to you are spirit and life . and adds , understand spiritually that which i have said ; for it is not this body which you see , that you are not to eat ; or to drink this blood which they are to shed , who shall crucify me : but i have recommended a sacrament to you , which being spiritually understood , shall quicken you ; and tho it be necessary that it be celebrated visibly , yet it must be understood invisibly . from which it is as plain as can be , that st. austin believed that in the eucharist we do not eat the natural flesh , and drink the natural blood of christ ; but that we do it only in a sacrament , and spiritually , and invisibly . but the force of all this will appear yet clearer , if we consider that they speak of the sacrament as a memorial that exhibited christ to us in his absence : for tho it naturally follows , that whatsoever is commemorated must needs be absent ; yet this will be yet more evident , if we find the fathers made such reflections on it . so gaudentius says , ( tract . in exod. ) this is the hereditary gift of his new testament , which that night he was betrayed to be crucified , he left as the pledg of his presence : this is the provision for our iourney with which we are fed in this way of our life , and nourished till we go to him out of this world ; for he would have his benefits remain with us : he would have our souls to be always sanctified by his precious blood , and by the image of his own passion . primasius ( comm. in 1 epist. ad cor. ) compares the sacrament to a pledg , which one , when he is dying , leaves to any whom he loved . many other places may be brought , to shew how the fathers speak of memorials and representations , as opposite to the truth and presence of that which is represented . and thus we doubt not but we have brought proofs , which , in the judgment of all that are unprejudiced , must demonstrate the truth of this our second proposition , which we leave , and go on to the third , which was ; that by the doctrine of the fathers , the unworthy receivers did not receive christ's body and blood in the sacrament . for this our first proof is taken from origen , ( com. in mat. c. 15. ) who after he had spoken of the sacraments being eaten , and passing to the belly , adds , these things we have said of the typical and symbolical body ; but many things may be said of the word that was made flesh , and the true food , whom whosoever eats , he shall live for ever ; whom no wicked person can eat : for if it were possible that any who continues wicked , should eat the word that was made flesh , since he is the word , and the living bread , it had never been written , whoso eats this bread , shall live for ever . where he makes a manifest difference between the typical and symbolical body received in the sacrament , and the incarnate word , of which no wicked person can partake . and he also says , ( hom. 3. in mat. ) they that are good , eat the living bread that came down from heaven ; and the wicked eat dead bread , which is death . zeno , bishop of verona , that , as is believed , lived near origen's time , ( tom. 2. spir. dach . ) says , ( as he is cited by ratherius bishop of verona ) there is cause to fear , that he in whom the devil dwells , does not eat the flesh of our lord , nor drink his blood , tho he seems to communicate with the faithful ; since our lord hath said , he that eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , dwells in me , and i in him . st. ierom on the 66th of isaiah , says , they that are not holy in body and spirit , do neither eat the flesh of iesus , nor drink his blood ; of which he said , he that eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , hath eternal life . and on the 8th chapter of hosea , he says , they eat not his flesh , whose flesh is the food of them that believe . to the same purpose he writes in his comments on the 22d of ieremy , and on the 10th of zechariah . st. austin says , ( tract . 26. in ioan. ) he that does not abide in christ , and in whom christ does not abide , certainly does not spiritually eat his flesh , nor drink his blood , tho he may visibly and carnally break in his teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of christ : but he rather eats and drinks the sacrament of so great a matter to his iudgment . and speaking of those , who by their uncleanness become the members of an harlot ; he says , ( lib. 21. de civ . dei c. 25. ) neither are they to be said to eat the body of christ , because they are not his members . and besides , he adds , he that says , whoso eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , abides in me , and i in him ; shews what it is , not only in a sacrament , but truly to eat the body of christ , and drink his blood. to this we shall add , that so oft cited passage ; ( tract . 54. in ioan. ) those did eat the bread that was the lord ; the other ( he means iudas ) the bread of the lord against the lord. by which he clearly insinuates , he did believe the unworthy receivers did not receive the lord with the bread : and that this hath been the constant belief of the greek church to this day , shall be proved , if it be thought necessary , for clearing this matter . and thus far we have studied to make good what we undertook to prove : but if we had enlarged on every particular , we must have said a great deal more ; to shew from many undeniable evidences , that the fathers were strangers to this new mystery . it is clear from their writings , that they thought christ was only spiritually present ; that we did eat his flesh , and drink his blood only by faith , and not by our bodily senses ; and that the words of eating his flesh , and drinking his blood , were to be understood spiritually . it is no less clear , that they considered christ present only as he was on the cross , and not as he is now in the glory of the father : and from hence it was , that they came to order their eucharistical forms so , as that the eucharist might represent the whole history of christ from his incarnation to his assumption . besides , they always speak of christ as absent from us , according to his flesh and human nature , and only present in his divinity and by his spirit ; which they could not have said , if they had thought him every day present on their altars in his flesh and human nature ; for then he were more on earth than he is in heaven , since in heaven he is circumscribed within one place . but according to this doctrine he must be always in above a million of places upon earth ; so that it were very strange to say he were absent , if they believed him thus present . but to give yet further evidences of the fathers not believing this doctrine , let us but reflect a little on the consequences that necessarily follow it : which be , 1. that a body may be , by the divine power , in more places at once . 2. that a body may be in a place without extension or quantity ; so a body of such dimensions , as our blessed lord's body , can be in so small a room as a thin wafer ; and not only so , but that the whole body should be entirely in every crumb and point of that wafer . 3. that a body can be made or produced in a place that had a real being before , and yet is not brought thither , but produced there . 4. that the accidents of any substance , such as colour , smell , taste , and figure , can remain without any body or substance in which they subsist . 5. that our senses may deceive us in their clearest and most evident representations . 6. great doubts there are what becomes of the body of christ after it is received ; or , if it should come to be corrupted , or to be snatched by a mouse , or eat by any vermine . all these are the natural and necessary effects of this doctrine , and are not only to be perceived by a contemplative and searching understanding , but are such as stare every body full in the face : and hence it is , that since this was submitted to in the western church , the whole doctrine of philosophy , has been altered , and new maxims and definitions were found out , to accustom the youth while raw and easy to any impression , to receive these as principles , by which their minds being full of those first prejudices , might find no difficulty to believe this . now it is certain , had the fathers believed this , they who took a great deal of pains to resolve all the other mysteries of our faith , and were so far from being short or defective in it , that they rather over-do it ; and that not only about the mysteries of the trinity and incarnation , but about original sin , the derivation of our souls , the operation of the grace of god in our hearts , and the resurrection of our bodies , should yet have been so constantly silent in those mysteries , tho they ought rather to have been cleared than the other . because in the other heads the difficulties were more speculative and abstracted , and so scruples were only incident to men of more curious and diligent enquiries . but here it is otherwise , where the matter being an object of the senses , every man's senses must have raised in him all or most of those scruples : and yet the fathers neither in their philosophical treatises , nor in their theological writings , ever attempt the unridling those difficulties . but all this is only a negative , and yet we do appeal to any one that has diligently read the fathers , st. austin in particular ; if he can perswade himself , that when all other mysteries , and the consequences from them , were explained with so great care and even curiosity , these only were things of so easy a digestion , that about them there should have been no scruple at all made . but it is yet clearer , when we find the fathers not only silent , but upon other occasions delivering maxims and principles so directly contrary to these consequences , without any reserved exceptions or provisions for the strange mysteries of transubstantiation : they tell us plainly , creatures are limited to one place , and so argued against the heathens believing their inferiour deities were in the several statues consecrated to them : from this they prove the divinity of the holy ghost , that he did work in many places at once , and so could not be a creature , which can only be in one place . nay , they do positively teach us , that christ can be no more on earth , since his body is in heaven , and is but in one place . they also do tell us , that that which hath no bounds nor figure , and cannot be touched nor seen , cannot be a body , and that all bodies are extended in some place , and that bodies cannot exist after the manner of spirits . they also tell us in all their reasonings against the eternity of matter , that nothing could be produced that had a being before it was produced . they also teach us very formally , that none of the qualities of a body could subsist , except the body it self did also subsist . and for the testimonies of our senses , they appeal to them on all occasions as infallible ; and tell us , that it tended to reverse the whole state of our life , the order of nature , and to blind the providence of god ; to say , he has given the knowledg and enjoyment of all his works to liars and deceivers , if our senses be false . then we must doubt of our faith , if the testimony of the eyes , hands and ears were of a nature capable to be deceived . and in their contests with the marcionites and others about the truth of christ's body , they appeal always to the testimony of the senses as infallible : nay , even treating of the sacrament , they say , it was bread as their eyes witnessed , and truly wine , that christ did consecrate for the memory of his blood ; telling , that in this very particular we ought not to doubt the testimony of our senses . but to make this whole matter yet plainer ; it is certain , that had the church in the first ages believed this doctrine , the heathens and jews who charged them with every thing they could possibly invent , had not passed over this , against which all the powers of reason , and the authorities of sense , do rise up . they charge them for believing a god that was born , a god of flesh , that was crucified and buried . they laughed at their belief of a iudgment to come , of endless flames , of an heavenly paradise , and the resurrection of the flesh. the first apologists for christianity , iustin , tertullian , origen , arnobius , and cyril of alexandria , give us a full account of those blasphemies against our most holy faith ; and the last hath given us what iulian objected in his own words , who having apostatized from the faith in which he was initiated , and was a reader in the church , must have been well acquainted with , and instructed in their doctrine and sacraments . he then who laughed at every thing , and in particular at the ablution and sanctification in baptism , as conceiving it a thing impossible that water should cleanse and wash a soul : yet neither he , nor celsus , nor any other ever charged on the christians any absurdities from their belief of transubstantiation . this is , it is true , a negative argument ; yet when we consider the malice of those ingenious enemies of our faith , and their care to expose all the doctrines and customs of christians , and yet find them in no place charge the strange consequences of this doctrine on them ; we must from thence conclude , there was no such doctrine then received : for if it had been , they , at least iulian , must have known it ; and if they knew it , can we think they should not have made great noise about it ? we know some think their charging the christians with the eating of human flesh , and thyestian suppers , related to the sacrament : but that cannot be , for when the fathers answer that charge , they tell them to their teeth it was a plain lie : and do not offer to explain it with any relation to the eucharist , which they must have done if they had known it was founded on their doctrine of receiving christ's body and blood in the sacrament . but the truth is , those horrid calumnies were charged on the christians from the execrable and abominable practices of the gnosticks , who called themselves christians ; and the enemies of the faith , either believing these were the practices of all christians , or being desirous to have others think so , did accuse the whole body of christians as guilty of these abominations . so that it appears , those calumnies were not at all taken up from the eucharist , and there being nothing else that is so much as said to have any relation to the eucharist , charged on the christians , we may well conclude from hence , that this doctrine was not received then in the church . but another negative argument is , that we find heresies rising up in all ages against all the other mysteries of our faith , and some downright denying them , others explaining them very strangely ; and it is indeed very natural to an unmortified and corrupt mind , to reject all divine revelation , more particularly that which either choaks his common notions , or the deductions of appearing reasonings ; but most of all , all men are apt to be startled , when they are told , they must believe against the clearest evidences of sense ; for men were never so meek and tame , as easily to yeild to such things . how comes it then that for the first seven ages there were no heresies nor hereticks about this ? we are ready to prove , that from the eighth and ninth centuries , in which this doctrine began to appear , there has been in every age great opposition made to all the advances for setting it up , and yet these were but dark and unlearned ages , in which implicit obedience , and a blind subjection to what was generally proposed , was much in credit . in those ages , the civil powers being ready to serve the rage of church-men against any who should oppose it , it was not safe for any to appear against it . and yet it cannot be denied , but from the days of the second council of nice , which made a great step towards transubstantiation , till the fourth council of lateran , there was great opposition made to it by the most eminent persons in the latin church ; and how great a part of christendom has departed from the obedience of the church of rome in every age since that time , and upon that account , is well enough known . now , is it to be imagined , that there should have been such an opposition to it these nine hundred years last past , and yet that it should have been received the former eight hundred years with no opposition , and that it should not have cost the church the trouble of one general council to decree it , or of one treatise of a father to establish it , and answer those objections that naturally arise from our reasons and senses against it ? but in the end there are many things which have risen out of this doctrine as its natural consequences , which had it been sooner taught and received , must have been apprehended sooner , and those are so many clear presumptions of the novelty of this doctrine ; the elevation , adoration , processions , the doctrine of concomitants , with a vast superfaetation of rites and rubricks about this sacrament are lately sprung up . the age of them is well known , and they have risen in the latin church out of this doctrine , which had it been sooner received , we may reasonably enough think must have been likewise ancienter . now for all these things , as the primitive church knew them not , so on the other hand , the great simplicity of their forms , as we find them in iustin martyr , and cyril of ierusalem , in the apostolical constitutions , and the pretended denis the areopagite , are far from that pomp which the latter ages that believed this doctrine brought in ; the sacraments being given in both kinds , being put in the hands of the faithful , being given to the children for many ages , being sent by boys or common persons to such as were dying , the eating up what remained , ( which in some places were burnt , in other places were consumed by children , or by the clergy ; ) their making cataplasms of it ; their mixing the consecrated chalice with ink to sign the excommunication of hereticks . these , with a great many more , are such convictions to one , that has carefully compared the ancient forms with the rubricks and rites of the church of rome , since this doctrine was set up , that it is as discernable as any thing can be , that the present belief of the church of rome is different from the primitive doctrine . and thus far we have set down the reasons that perswade us that transubstantiation was not the belief of the first seven or eight centuries of the church . if there be any part of what we have asserted , questioned , we have very formal and full proofs ready to shew for them ; though we thought it not fit to enter into the particular proofs of any thing , but what we undertook to make out when we waited on your ladyship . now there remains but one thing to be done , which we also promised ; and that was to clear the words of st. cyril of ierusalem . we acknowledg they were truly cited ; but for clearing of them , we shall neither alledg any thing to the lessening the authority of that father , though we find but a slender character given of him by epiphanius and others : nor shall we say any thing to lessen the authority of these catechisms , though much might be said . but it is plain , st. cyril's design in these catechisms , was only to possess his neophites with a just and deep sense of these holy symbols . but even in his 4th catechism he tells them , not to consider it as meer bread and wine , for it is the body and blood of christ. by which it appears he thought it was bread still , though not meer bread. and he gives us elsewhere a very formal account in what sense he thought it was christ's body and blood ; which he also insinuates in this 4th catechism : for in his first mist. catechism , when he exhorts his young christians to avoid all that belonged to the heathenish idolatry , he tells , that on the solemnities of their idols they had flesh and bread , which by the invocation of the devils were defiled , as the bread and wine of the eucharist before the holy invocation of the blessed trinity was bare bread and wine ; but the invocation being made , the bread becomes the body of christ. in like manner , says he , those victuals of the pomp of satan , which of their own nature are common or bare victuals , by the invocation of the devils become prophane . from this illustration , which he borrowed from iustin martyr his second apology , it appears , that he thought the consecration of the eucharist was of a like sort or manner with the profanation of the idolatrous feasts ; so that as the substance of the one remained still unchanged , so also according to him must the substance of the other remain . or , if this will not satisfy them , let us see to what else he compares this change of the elements by the consecration : in his third mist. catechism , treating of the consecrated oil , he says ; as the bread of the eucharist after the invocation of the holy ghost , is no more common bread , but the body of christ ; so this holy ointment is no more bare ointment , nor , as some may say , common ; but it is a gift of christ , and the presence of the holy ghost , and becomes energetical of his divinity . and from these places let it be gathered what can be drawn from st. cyril's testimony . and thus we have performed like wise what we promised , and have given a clear account of st. cyril's meaning from himself ; from whose own words , and from these things which he compares with the sanctification of the elements in the eucharist , it appears he could not think of transubstantiation ; otherwise he had neither compared it with the idol-feasts , nor the consecrated oil , in neither of which there can be supposed any transubstantiation . having thus acquitted our selves of our engagement before your ladyship ; we shall conclude this paper with our most earnest and hearty prayers to the father of lights , that he may of his great mercy redeem his whole christian church from all idolatry ; that he may open the eyes of those , who being carnal , look only at carnal things , and do not rightly consider the excellent beauty of this our most holy faith , which is pure , simple , and spiritual : and that he may confirm all those whom he has called to the knowledge of the truth ; so that neither the pleasures of sin , nor the snares of this world , nor the fear of the cross , tempt them to make shipwrack of the faith and a good conscience . and that god may pour out abundance of his grace on your ladyship , to make you still continue in the love and obedience of the truth , is the earnest prayer of , madam , your ladyship 's most humble servants . edward stillingfleet , gilbert burnet . london , apr. 15. 1676. a discourse , to shew how unreasonable it is , to ask for express words of scripture in proving all articles of faith : and that a just and good consequence from scripture is sufficient . it will seem a very needless labour to all considering persons , to go about the exposing and baffling so unreasonable and ill-grounded a pretence , that whatever is not read in scripture , is not to be held an article of faith. for in making good this assertion , they must either fasten their proofs on some other ground , or on the words of our article ; which are these , holy scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein , nor may be proved thereby , is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith , or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation . now it is such an affront to every mans eyes and understanding , to infer from these words , that all our articles must be read in scripture , that we are confident every man will cry shame on any that will pretend to fasten on our church any such obligation from them . if these unlucky words , nor may be proved thereby , could be but dash'd out , it were a won cause . but we desire to know what they think can be meant by these words ? or what else can they signify , but that there may be articles of faith , which though they be not read in scripture , yet are proved by it . there be some propositions so equivalent to others , that they are but the same thing said in several words ; and these , though not read in scripture , yet are contained in it , since wheresoever the one is read , the other must necessarily be understood . other propositions there are , which are a necessary result either from two places of scripture , which joined together yield a third , as a necessary issue ; according to that eternal rule of reason and natural logick , that where-ever two things agree in any third , they must also agree among themselves . there be also other propositions that arise out of one single place of scripture by a natural deduction ; as if jesus christ be proved from any place of scripture the creator of the world , or that he is to be worshipped with the same adoration that is due to the great god , then it necessarily follows , that he is the great god ; because he does the works , and receives the worship of the great god. so it is plain , that our church by these words , nor may be proved thereby , has so declared her self in this point , that it is either very great want of consideration , or shameless impudence , to draw any such thing from our articles . but we being informed , that by this little art , as shuffling and bare so ever as it must appear to a just discerner , many have been disordered , and some prevailed on ; we shall so open and expose it , that we hope it shall appear so poor and trifling that every body must be ashamed of it . it hath already shewed it self in france and germany , and the novelty of it took with many , till it came to be canvassed ; and then it was found so weak , that it was universally cried down and hiss'd off the stage . but now that such decried wares will go off no-where , those that deal in them , try if they can vent them in this nation . it might be imagined , that of all persons in the world they should be the furthest from pressing us to reject all articles of faith that are not read in scripture ; since whenever that is received as a maxim , the infallibility of their church , the authority of tradition , the supremacy of rome , the worship of saints , with a great many more must be cast out . it is unreasonable enough for those who have cursed and excommunicated us , because we reject these doctrines , which are not so much as pretended to be read in scripture , to impose on us the reading all our articles in these holy writings . but it is impudent to hear persons speak thus , who have against the express and formal words of scripture , set up the making and worshipping of images ; and these not only of saints , ( though that be bad enough ) but of the blessed trinity , the praying in an unknown tongue , and the taking the chalice from the people . certainly this plea in such mens mouths is not to be reconciled to the most common rules of decency and discretion . what shall we then conclude of men that would impose rules on us , that neither themselves submit to , nor are we obliged to receive by any doctrine or article of our church ? but to give this their plea its full strength and advantage , that upon a fair hearing all may justly conclude its unreasonableness , we shall first set down all can be said for it . in the principles of protestants the scriptures are the rule by which all controversies must be judged . now they having no certain way to direct them in the exposition of them , neither tradition , nor the definition of the church : either they must pretend they are infallible in their deductions , or we have no reason to make any account of them , as being fallible and uncertain , and so they can never secure us from error , nor be a just ground to found our faith of any proposition so proved upon : therefore no proposition thus proved , can be acknowledged an article of faith. this is the breadth and length of their plea , which we shall now examine . and first ; if there be any strength in this plea , it will conclude against our submitting to the express words of scripture as forcibly : since all words , how formal soever , are capable of several expositions . either they are to be understood literally , or figuratively ; either they are to be understood positively , or interrogatively : with a great many other varieties , of which all expressions are capable . so that if the former argument have any force , since every place is capable of several meanings ; except we be infallibly sure which is the true meaning , we ought by the same parity of reason to make no account of the most express and formal words of scripture ; from which it is apparent , that what noise soever these men make of express words of scripture ; yet if they be true to their own argument , they will as little submit to these , as to deductions from scripture : since they have the same reason to question the true meaning of a place , that they have to reject an inference and deduction from it . and this alone may serve to satisfy every body that this is a trick , under which there lies no fair dealing at all . but to answer the argument to all mens satisfaction , we must consider the nature of the soul , which is a reasonable being ; whose chief faculty is to discern the connexion of things , and to draw out such inferences as flow from that connexion . now , though we are liable to great abuses both in our judgments and inferences ; yet if we apply thefe faculties with due care , we must certainly acquiesce in the result of such reasonings ; otherwise this being god's image in us , and the standard by which we are to try things , god has given us a false standard ; which when we have with all possible care managed , yet we are still exposed to fallacies and errors . this must needs reflect on the veracity of that god , that has made us of such a nature , that we can never be reasonably assured of any thing . therefore it must be acknowledged , that when our reasons are well prepared according to those eternal rules of purity and vertue , by which we are fitted to consider of divine matters ; and when we carefully weigh things , we must have some certain means to be assured of what appears to us . and though we be not infallible , so that it is still possible for us by precipitation , or undue preparation , to be abused into mistakes ; yet we may be well assured that such connexions and inferences as appear to us certain , are infallibly true . if this be not acknowledged , then all our obligation to believe any thing in religion will vanish . for that there is a god ; that he made all things , and is to be acknowledged and obeyed by his creatures ; that our souls shall out-live their union with our bodies , and be capable of rewards and punishments in another state ; that inspiration is a thing possible ; that such or such actions were above the power of nature , and were really performed . in a word , all the maxims on which the belief , either of natural religion , or revealed , is founded , are such as we can have no certainty about them , and by consequence are not obliged to yield to them ; if our faculty of reasoning in its clear deductions is not a sufficient warrant for a sure belief . but to examin a little more home their beloved principle , that their church cannot err : must they not prove this from the divine goodness and veracity , from some passages of scripture , from miracles and other extraordinary things they pretend do accompany their church ? now in yielding assent to this doctrine upon these proofs , the mind must be led by many arguments , through a great many deductions and inferences . therefore we are either certain of these deductions , or we are not . if we are certain , this must either be founded on the authority of the church expounding them , or on the strength of the arguments . now we being to examine this authority , not having yet submitted to it ; this cannot determine our belief till we see good cause for it . but in the discerning this good cause of believing the church infallible , they must say that an uncontroulable evidence of reason is ground enough to fix our faith on , or there can be no certain ground to believe the church infallible . so that it is apparent we must either receive with a firm persuasion what our souls present to us as uncontroulably true ; or else we have no reason to believe there is a god , or to be christians , or to be , as they would have us , romanists . and if it be acknowledged there is cause in some cases for us to be determined by the clear evidence of reason in its judgments and inferences ; then we have this truth gained , that our reasons are capable of making true and certain inferences , and that we have good cause to be determined in our belief by these ; and therefore inferences from scripture ought to direct our belief . nor can any thing be pretended against this , but what must at the same time overthrow all knowledg and faith , and turn us sceptical to every thing . we desire it be in the next place considered , what is the end and use of speech and writing , which is to make known our thoughts to others ; those being artificial signs for conveying them to the understanding of others . now every man that speaks pertinently ; as he designs to be understood , so he chooses such expressions and arguments as are most proper to make himself understood by those he speaks to ; and the clearer he speaks , he speaks so much the better : and every one that wraps up his meaning in obscure words , he either does not distinctly apprehend that about which he discourses , or does not design that those to whom he speaks , should understand him , meaning only to amuse them . if likewise he say any thing from which some absurd inference will easily be apprehended , he gives all that hear him a sufficient ground of prejudice against what he says . for he must expect that as his hearers senses receive his words or characters , so necessarily some figure or notion must be at th● same time imprinted on their imagination , or presented to their reason ; this being the end for which he speaks ; and the more genuinely that his words express his meaning , the more certainly and clearly they to whom he directs them apprehend it . it must also be acknowledged , that all hearers must necessarily pass judgments on what they hear , if they do think it of that importance as to examin it . and this they must do by that natural faculty of making judgments and deductions , the certainty whereof we have proved to be the foundation of all faith and knowledg . now the chief rule of making true judgments , is , to see what consequences certainly follow on what is laid before us : if these be found absurd or impossible , we must reject that from which they follow as such . further ; because no man says every thing that can be thought or said to any point , but only such things as may be the seeds of further enquiry and knowledg in their minds to whom he speaks ; when any thing of great importance is spoken , all men do naturally consider what inferences arise out of what is said by a necessary connexion : and if these deductions be made with due care , they are of the same force , and must be as true as that was from which they are drawn . these being some of the laws of converse , which every man of common sense must know to be true ; can any man think , that when god was revealing by inspired men his counsels to mankind , in matters that concerned their eternal happiness , he would do it in any other way than any honest man speaks to another , that is , plainly and dinstinctly . there were particular reasons why prophetical visions must needs be obscure : but when christ appeared on earth , tho many things were not to be fully opened till he had triumphed over death and the powers of darkness ; yet his design being to bring men to god , what he spoke in order to that , we must think he intended that they to whom he spake it might understand it , otherwise why should he have spoken it to them ? and if he did intend they should understand him , then he must have used such expressions as were most proper for conveying this to their understandings ; and yet they were of the meaner sort , and of very ordinary capacities , to whom he addressed his discourses . if then such as they were , might have understood him ; how should it come about that now there should be such a wondrous mysteriousness in the words of christ and his apostles ? ( for the same reason by which it is proved that christ designed to be understood , and spake sutably to that design , will conclude as strongly that the discourses of the apostles in matters that concern our salvation , are also intelligible . ) we have a perfect understanding of the greek tongue ; and , tho some phrases are not so plain to us which alter every age , and some other passages that relate to some customs , opinions or forms , of which we have no perfect account left us , are hard to be understood : yet what is of general and universal concern , may be as well understood now as it was then ; for sense is sense still . so that it must be acknowledged , that men may still understand all that god will have us believe and do in order to salvation . and therefore if we apply and use our faculties aright , joyning with an unprejudiced desire and search for truth , earnest prayers , that god by his grace may so open our understandings , and present divine truths to them , that we may believe and follow them : then both from the nature of our own souls , and from the design and end of revelation , we may be well assured that it is not only very possible , but also very easy for us to find out truth . we know the pompous objection against this , is , how comes it then that there are so many errors and divisions among christians ? especially those that pretend the greatest acquaintance with scriptures ? to which the answer is so obvious and plain , that we wonder any body should be wrought on by so fallacious an argument . does not the gospel offer grace to all men to lead holy lives , following the commandments of god ? and is not grace able to build them up , and make them perfect in every good word and work ? and yet how does sin and vice abound in the world ? if then the abounding of error proves the gospel does not offer certain ways to preserve us from it , then the abounding of sin will also prove there are no certain ways in the gospel to avoid it . therefore as the sins mankind generally live in , leave no imputation on the gospel ; so neither do the many heresies and schisms conclude that the gospel offers no certain ways of attaining the knowledg of all necessary truth . holiness is every whit as necessary to see the face of god as knowledg is , and of the two is the more necessary ; since low degrees of knowledg , with an high measure of holiness , are infinitely preferable to high degrees of knowledg with a low measure of holiness . if then every man have a sufficient help given him to be holy , why may we not much rather conclude he has a sufficient help to be knowing in such things as are necessary to direct his belief and life , which is a less thing ? and how should it be an imputation on religion , that there should not be an infallible way to end all controversies , when there is no infallible way to subdue the corrupt lusts and passions of men , since the one is more opposite to the design and life of religion than the other ? in sum ; there is nothing more sure than that the scriptures offer us as certain ways of attaining the knowledg of what is necessary to salvation , as of doing the will of god. but as the depravation of our natures makes us neglect the helps towards an holy life ; so this and our other corruptions , lusts and interests , make us either not to discern divine truth , or not embrace it . so that error and sin are the twins of the same parents . but as every man that improves his natural powers , and implores and makes use of the supplies of the divine grace , shall be enabled to serve god acceptably ; so that tho he fail in many things , yet he continuing to the end in an habit and course of well-doing , his sins shall be forgiven , and himself shall be saved : so upon the same grounds we are assured , that every one that applies his rational faculties to the search of divine truth , and also begs the illumination of the divine spirit , shall attain such knowledg as is necessary for his eternal salvation : and if he be involved in any errors , they shall not be laid to his charge . and from these we hope it will appear , that every man may attain all necessary knowledg , if he be not wanting to himself . now when a man attains this knowledg , he acquires it , and must use it as a rational being , and so must make judgments upon it , and draw consequences from it ; in which he has the same reason to be assured , that he has to know the true meaning of scripture ; and therefore as he has very good reason to reject any meaning of a place of scripture , from which by a necessary consequence great absurdities and impossibilities must follow : so also he is to gather such inferences as flow from a necessary connexion with the true meaning of any place of scripture . to instance this in the argument we insisted on , to prove the mean by which christ is received in the sacrament , is faith ; from these words , whoso eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , hath eternal life . if these words have relation to the sacrament , which the roman church declares is the true meaning of them ; there cannot be a clearer demonstration in the world. and indeed they are necessitated to stand to that exposition ; for if they will have the words , this is my body , to be understood literally , much more must they assert the phrases of èating his flesh , and drinking his blood , must be literal : for if we can drive them to allow a figurative and spiritual meaning of these words , it is a shameless thing for them to deny such a meaning of the words , this is my body : they then expounding these words of st. iohn of the sacrament , there cannot be imagined a closer contexture than this which follows . the eating christ's flesh , and drinking his blood , is the receiving him in the sacrament ; therefore every one that receives him in the sacrament , must have eternal life . now all that is done in the sacrament , is either the external receiving the elements , symbols , or , as they phrase it , the accidents of bread and wine , and under these the body of christ ; or the internal and spiritual communicating by faith. if then christ received in the sacrament , gives eternal life , it must be in one of these ways ; either as he is received externally , or as he is received internally , or both ; for there is not a fourth : therefore if it be not the one at all , it must be the other only . now it is undeniable , that it is not the external eating that gives eternal life . for st. paul tells us , of some that eat and drink unworthily , that are guilty of the body and blood of the lord , and eat and drink iudgment against themselves . therefore it is only the internal receiving of christ by faith , that gives eternal life ; from which another necessary inference directs us also to conclude , that since all that eat his flesh , and drink his blood , have eternal life : and since it is only by the internal communicating that we have eternal life , therefore these words of eating his flesh , and drinking his blood , can only be understood of internal communicating ; therefore they must be spiritually understood . but all this while the reader may be justly weary of so much time and pains spent to prove a thing which carries its own evidence so with it , that it seems one of the first principles and foundations of all reasoning ; for no proposition can appear to us to be true , but we must also assent to every other deduction that is drawn out of it by a certain inference . if then we can certainly know the true meaning of any place of scripture , we may and ought to draw all such conclusions as follow it with a clear and just consequence : and if we clearly apprehend the consequence of any proposition , we can no more doubt the truth of the consequence , than of the proposition from which it sprung : for if i see the air full of a clear day-light , i must certainly conclude the sun is risen ; and i have the same assurance about the one that i have about the other . there is more than enough said already for discovering the vanity and groundlesness of this method of arguing . but to set the thing beyond all dispute , let us consider the use which we find our saviour and the apostles making of the old testament , and see how far it favours us , and condemns this appeal to the formal and express words of scriptures . but before we advance further , we must remove a prejudice against any thing may be drawn from such presidents , these being persons so filled with god and divine knowledg , as appeared by their miracles and other wonderful gifts , that gave so full an authority to all they said , and of their being infallible , both in their expositions and reasonings , that we whose understandings are darkened and disordered , ought not to pretend to argue as they did . but for clearing this , it is to be observed , that when any person divinely assisted , having sufficiently proved his inspiration , declares any thing in the name of god , we are bound to submit to it ; or if such a person , by the same authority , offers any exposition of scripture , he is to be believed without farther dispute . but when an inspired person argues with any that does not acknowledg his inspiration , but is enquiring into it , not being yet satisfied about it ; then he speaks no more as an inspired person : in which case the argument offered is to be examined by the force that is in it , and not by the authority of him that uses it . for his authority being the thing questioned , if he offers an argument from any thing already agreed to ; and if the argument be not good , it is so far from being the better by the authority of him that useth it ; that it rather gives just ground to lessen or suspect his authority , that understands a consequence so ill , as to use a bad argument to use it by . this being premised . when our saviour was to prove against the sadducees the truth of the resurrection from the scriptures , he cites out of the law , that god was the god of abraham , isaac , and jacob ; since then god is not the god of the dead , but of the living : therefore abraham , isaac and jacob did live unto god. from which he proved the souls having a being distinct from the body , and living after its separation from the body , which was the principal point in controversy . now if these new maxims be of any force , so that we must only submit to the express words of scripture , without proving any thing by consequence ; then certainly our saviour performed nothing in that argument : for the sadducees might have told him , they appealed to the express words of scripture . but alas ! they understood not these new-found arts , but submitting to the evident force of that consequence , were put to silence , and the multitudes were astonished at his doctrine . now it is unreasonable to imagine that the great authority of our saviour , and his many miracles made them silent ; for they coming to try him , and to take advantage from every thing he said , if it were possible to lessen his esteem and authority , would never have acquiesced in any argument because he used it , if it had not strength in it self ; for an ill argument is an ill argument , use it whoso will. for instance ; if i see a man pretending that he sits in an infallible chair , and proving what he delievers by the most impertinent allegations of scripture possible ; as if he attempt to prove the pope must be the head of all powers civil and spiritual from the first words of genesis ; where it being said , in the beginning , and not in the * beginnings , in the plural , ( from which he concludes there must be but one beginning and head of all power , to wit , the pope . ) i am so far from being put to silence with this , that i am only astonished how any man of common sense , tho he pretended not to infallibility , could fall into such errors : for an ill argument , when its fallacy is so apparent , must needs heap contempt on him that uses it . having found our saviour's way of arguing to be so contrary to this new method these gentlemen would impose on us ; let us see how the apostles drew their proofs for matters in controversy from scriptures : the two great points they had most occasion to argue upon , were , iesus christ being the true messiah , and the freedom of the gentiles from any obligation to the observance of the mosaical law. now let us see how they proceeded in both these . for the first : in the first sermon after the effusion of the holy ghost , s. peter proves the truth of christ's resurrection from these words of david , thou wilt not leave my soul in hell , nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption . now he shews that these words could not be meant of david , who was dead and buried ; therefore being a prophet , he spake of the resurrection of christ. if here were not consequences and deductions , let every one judg . now these being spoken to those who did not then believe in christ , there was either sufficient force in that argument to convince the jews , otherwise these that spake them were very much both to be blamed , and despised , for offering to prove a matter of such importance by a consequence . but this being a degree of blasphemy against the holy ghost , we must acknowledg there was strength in their argument ; and therefore articles of faith , whereof this was the fundamental , may be proved from scripture by a consequence . we might add to this all the other prophecies in the old testament , from which we find the apostles arguing to prove this foundation of their faith , which every one may see do not contain in so many words that which was proved by them . but these being so obvious , we choose only to name this , all the rest being of a like nature with it . the next controversy debated in that time , was the obligation of the mosaichal law. the apostles by the inspiration of the holy ghost made a formal decision in this matter : yet there being great opposition made to that , st. paul sets himself to prove it at full length in his epistle to the galatians , where , besides other arguments , he brings these two from the old testament ; one was , that abraham was justified by faith before the giving the law ; for which he cites these words , abraham believed god , and it was counted to him for righteousness : from which , by a very just consequence , he infers , that as abraham was blessed , so all that believe are blessed with him ; and that the law of moses , that was 430 years after , could not disannul it , or make the promise of none effect ; therefore we might now be justified by faith without the law , as well as he was . another place he cites , is , the iust shall live by faith , and he subsumes , the law was not of faith ; from which the conclusion naturally follows : therefore the just lives not by the law. he must be very blind that sees not a succession of many consequences in that epistle of st. paul's ; all which had been utterly impertinent , if this new method had any ground for its pretension , and they might at one dash have overthrown all that he had said . but men had not then arrived at such devices as must at once overturn all the sense and reason of mankind . we hope what we premised will be remembred , to shew that the apostles being infallibly directed by the holy ghost , will not at all prove , that tho this way of arguing might have passed with them , yet it must not be allowed us : for their being infallibly directed , proves their arguments and way of proceeding was rational and convincing , otherwise they had not pitched on it . and the persons to whom these arguments were offered , not acquiescing in their authority , their reasonings must have been good , otherwise they had exposed themselves and their cause to the just scorn of their enemies . having therefore evinced that both our saviour and his apostles did prove by consequences drawn from scripture , the greatest and most important articles of faith ; we judg that we may with very great assurance follow their example . but this whole matter will receive a further confirmation : if we find it was the method of the church of god in all ages to found her decisions of the most important controversies on consequences from scriptures . there were very few hereticks that had face and brow enough to set up against express words of scripture ; for such as did so , rejected these books that were so directly opposite to their errors ; as the manichees did the gospel of st. matthew . but if we examine the method either of councils in condemning hereticks , or of the fathers writing against them , we shall always find them proceeding upon deductions and consequences from scripture , as a sufficient ground to go upon . let the epistle both of the council of antioch to samosatenus , and denis of alexandria's letter to him , be considered ; and it shall be found how they drew their definitions out of deductions from scripture . so also alexander , patriarch of alexandria , in his epistle , in which he condemned aerius , proceeds upon deductions from scripture ; and when the council of nice came to judg of the whole matter , if we give credit to gelasius , they canvassed many places of scripture , that they might come to a decision ; and that whole dispute , as he represents it , was all about inferences and deductions from scripture . it is true , f. maimbourg in his romantick history of arrianism ( hist. de l. arrian . l. 1. ) would perswade us , that in that council the orthodox , and chiefly the great saints of the council , were for adhering closely to what they had received by tradition , without attempting to give new expositions of scripture , to interpret it any other way than as they had learned from these fathers , that had been taught them by the apostles . but the arrians , who could not find among these that which they intended to establish , maintained on the contrary , that we must not confine our selves to that which hath been held by antiquity , since none could be sure about that . therefore they thought that one must search the truth of the doctrine only in the scriptures , which they could turn to their own meaning by their false subtilties . and to make this formal account pass easily with his reader , he vouches on the margin , sozom. cap. 16. when i first read this , it amazed me to find a thing of so great consequence not so much as observed by the writers of controversies ; but turning to sozomen , i found in him these words , speaking of the dispute about arrius his opinions , the disputation being , as is usual , carried out into different enquiries ; some were of opinion that nothing should be innovated beyond the faith that was originally delivered ; and these were chiefly those whom the simplicity of their manners bad brought to divine faith without nice curiosity . others did strongly , or earnestly contend that it was not fit to follow the ancienter opinions , without a strict trial of them . now in these words we find not a word either of orthodox or arrian ; so of which side either one or other were , we are left to conjecture . that jesuit has been sufficiently exposed by the writers of the port-royal , for his foul dealing on other occasions ; and we shall have great cause to mistrust him in all his accounts , if it be found that he was quite mistaken in this ; and that the party which he calls the orthodox were really some holy , good men ; but simple , ignorant , and easily abused : and that the other party which he calls the arrian , was the orthodox , and more judicious , who readily foreseeing the inconvenience which the simplicity of others would have involved them in , did vehemently oppose it ; and pressed the testimonies of the fathers might not be blindly followed . for proof of this , we need but consider that they anathematized these , who say that the son was the work of the father , as athanasius ( de decret . synod . nicen. ) tells us , which were the very words of denis of alexandria , of whom the arrians ( athan. epist. de sententia dion . alex. ) boasted much , and cited these words from him ; and both athanasius ( de synod . arim. ) and hilary ( hil. lib. de synod . ) acknowledg that those bishops that condemned samosatenus , did also reiect the consubstantial , and st. basil ( epist. 41. ) says , denis sometimes denied , sometimes acknowledged the consubstantial . yet i shall not be so easy as petavius and others of the roman church are in this matter , who acknowledg that most of the fathers before the council of nice said many things that did not agree with the rule of the orthodox faith ; but am fully perswaded , that before that council , the church did believe that the son was truly god , and of the same divine substance with the father : yet on the other hand it cannot be denied , but there are many expressions , in their writings which they had not so well considered ; and thence it is that st. basil ( epist. 14. ) observes how denis in his opposition to sabellius had gone too far on the other hand . therefore there was a necessity to make such a symbol as might cut off all equivocal and ambiguous forms of speech . so we have very good reason to conclude it was the arrian party , that studied under the pretence of not innovating , to engage many of the holy , but simpler bishops , to be against any new words or symbols , that so they might still lurk undiscovered . upon what grounds the council of nice made their decree and symbol , we have no certain account , since their acts are lost . but the best conjecture we can make , is from st. athanasius , who , as he was a great assertor of the faith in that council , so also he gives us a large account of its creed , in a particular treatise ( lib. de decret . concil . nicen. ) in which he justifies their symbol at great length out of the scriptures , and tells us very formally they used the word consubstantial , that the wickedness and craft of the arrians might be discovered , and proves by many consequences from scripture , that the words were well chosen ; and sets up his rest on his arguments from the scriptures , tho all his proofs are but consequences drawn out of them . it is true , when he has done that , he also adds , that the fathers at nice did not begin the use of these words , but had them from those that went before them ; and cites some passages from theognistus , denis of alexandria , denis of rome , and origen . but no body can imagin this was a full proof of the tradition of the faith. these were but a few later writers , nor could he have submitted the decision of the whole controversy to two of these , denis of alexandria and origen , ( for the other two , their works are lost ) in whose writings there were divers passages that favoured the arrians , and in which they boasted much . therefore athanasius only cites these passages , to shew the words of these symbols were not first coined by the council of nice . but neither in that treatise , nor in any other of his works , do i ever find that either the council of nice , or he who was the great champion for their faith , did study to prove the consubstantiality to have been the constant tradition of the church : but in all his treatises he at full length proves it from scripture . so from the definition of the council of nice , and athanasius his writings , it appears the church of that age thought that consequences clearly proved from scripture were a sufficient ground to build an article of faith on . with this i desire it be also considered , that the next great controversy , that was carried on chiefly by s. cyril against the nestorians , was likewise all managed by consequences from scripture , as will appear to any that reads s. cyril's writings , inserted in the acts of the council of ephesus , chiefly his treatise to the queens ; and when he brought testimonies from the fathers against nestorius , which were read in the council , ( act. conc. eph. action 1. ) they are all taken out of fathers that lived after the council of nice , except only s. cyprian , and peter of alexandria . if then we may collect from s. cyril's writings the sense of that council , as we did from s. athanasius that of the council of nice ; we must conclude that their decrees were founded on consequences drawn from scripture ; nor were they so solicitous to prove a continued succession of the tradition . in like manner , when the council of chalcedon condemned eutyches , pope leo's epistle to flavian was read , and all assented to it : so that upon the matter , his epistle became the decree of the council , and that whole epistle from beginning to end , is one entire series of consequences proved from scripture and reason : ( act. conc. chalced. action 1. ) and to the end of that epistle are added in the acts of that council , testimonies from the fathers , that had lived after the days of the council of nice . theodoret ( theod. in dial. ) and gelasius also ( gelas. de diab . naturis . ) who wrote against the eutychians , do through their whole writings pursue them with consequences drawn from scripture and reason , and in the end set down testimonies from fathers : and to instance only one more , when s. austin wrote against the pelagians , how many consequences he draws from scripture , every one that has read him , must needs know . in the end let it be also observed , that all these fathers when they argue from places of scripture , they never attempt to prove that those scriptures had been expounded in that sense they urge them in by the councils or fathers who had gone before them ; but argue from the sense which they prove they ought to be understood in . i do not say all their consequences or expositions were well-grounded ; but all that has been hitherto set down , will prove that they thought arguments drawn from scripture , when the consequences are clear , were of sufficient authority and force to end all controversies . and thus it may appear that it is unreasonable , and contrary to the practice both of the ancient councils and fathers , to reject proofs drawn from places of scripture , though they contain not in so many words that which is intended to be proved by them . but all the answer they can offer to this , is , that those fathers and councils had another authority to draw consequences from scripture , because the extraordinary presence of god was among them , and because of the tradition of the faith they builded their decrees on , than we can pretend to , who do not so much as say we are so immediately directed , or thar we found our faith upon the successive tradition of the several ages of the church . to this i answer ; first , it is visible , that if there be any strength in this , it will conclude as well against our using express words of scripture , since the most express words are capable of several expositions . therefore it is plain , they use no fair dealing in this appeal to the formal words of scripture , since the arguments they press it by , do invalidate the most express testimonies as well as deductions . let it be further considered , that before the councils had made their decrees , when heresies were broached , the fathers wrote against them , confuting them by arguments made up of scripture-consequences ; so that before the church had decreed , they thought private persons might confute heresies by such consequences . nor did these fathers place the strength of their arguments on tradition , as will appear to any that reads but what st. cyril wrote against nestorius , before the council of ephesus ; and pope leo against eutyches , before the council of chalcedon ; where all their reasonings are founded on scripture . it is true , they add some testimonies of fathers to prove they did not innovate any thing in the doctrine of the church : but it is plain , these they brought only as a confirmation of their arguments , and not as the chief strength of their cause ; for as they do not drive up the tradition to the apostles days , setting only down some later testimonies ; so they make no inferences from them , but barely set them down . by which it is evident , all the use they made of these , was only to shew that the faith of the age that preceded them , was conform to the proofs they brought from scripture ; but did not at all found the strength of their arguments from scripture , upon the sense of the fathers that went before them . and if the council of nice had passed the decree of adding the consubstantials to the creed , upon evidence brought from tradition chiefly , can it be imagined that st. athanasius , who knew well on what grounds they went , having born so great a share in their consultations and debates , when he in a formal treatise justifies that addition , should draw his chief arguments from scripture and natural reason ; and that only towards the end , he should tell us of four writers , from whom he brings passages to prove this was no new or unheard-of thing . in the end , when the council had passed their decree , does the method of their dispute alter ? let any read athanasius , hilary , or st. austin writing against the arrians : they continue still to ply them with arguments made up of consequences from scripture ; and their chief argument was clearly a consequence from scripture , that since christ was , by the confession of the arrians , truly god , then he must be of the same substance , otherwise there must be more substances , and so more gods , which was against scripture . now , if this be not a consequence from scripture , let every body judg . it was on this they chiefly insisted , and waved the authority of the council of nice , which they mention very seldom , or when they do speak of it , it is to prove that its decrees were according to scripture . for proof of this , let us hear what st. austin says ( lib. 3. cont. max. 19. ) writing against maximinus an arrian bishop , proving the consubstantiality of the son : this is that consubstantial which was established by the catholick fathers in the council of nice , against the arrians ; by the authority of truth , and the truth of authority , which heretical impiety studied to overthrow , under the heretical emperor constantius , because of the newness of the words , which were not so well understood , as should have been : since the ancient faith had brought them forth ; but many were abused by the fraud of a few . and a little after he adds , but now neither should i bring the cou●il of nice , nor yet the council of arrimini , thereby to prejudg in this matter ; neither am i bound by the authority of the latter , nor you by the authority of the former . let one cause and reason contest and strive with the other from the authorities of the scriptures , which are witnesses common to both , and not proper to either of us . if this be not our plea , as formally as can be , let every reader judg ; from all which we conclude , that our method of proving articles of faith by consequences drawn from scripture , is the same that the catholick church in all the best ages made use of : and therefore it is unreasonable to deny it to us . but all that hath been said will appear yet with fuller and more demonstrative evidence , if we find , that this very pretence of appealing to formal words of scriptures , was on several occasions taken up by divers hereticks , but was always rejected by the fathers as absurd and unreasonable . the first time we find this plea in any bodies mouth , is upon the question , whether it was lawful for christians to go to the theaters , or other publick spectacles ? which the fathers set themselves mightily against , as that which would corrupt the minds of the people , and lead them to heathenish idolatry . but others that loved those diverting sights , pleaded for them upon this ground , as tertullian ( lib. de spect. c. 3. ) tells us in these words ; the faith of some being either simpler or more scrupulous , calls for an authority from scripture , for the discharge of these sights ; and they became uncertain about it , because such abstinence is no-where denounced to the servants of god , neither by a clear signification , nor by name ; as , thou shalt not kill , nor worship an idol : but he proves it from the first verse of the psalms ; for though that seems to belong to the iews , yet ( says he ) the scripture is always to be divided broad , where that discipline is to be guarded according to the sense of whatever is present to us . and this agrees with that maxim he has elsewhere , ( lib. adv . gnost . c. 7. ) that the words of scripture are to be understood , not only by their sound , but by their sense ; and are not only to be heard with our ears , but with our minds . in the next place , the arrians designed to shroud themseles under general expressions ; and had found glosses for all passages of scripture . so that when the council of nice made all these ineffectual , by putting the word consubstantial into the creed ; then did they in all their councils , and in all disputes , set up this plea , that they would submit to every thing that was in scripture , but not to any additions to scripture . a large account of this we have from athanasius , who ( de synod . arim. & seleuc. ) gives us many of their creeds . in that proposed at arimini , these words were added to the symbol , for the word substance , because it was simply set down by the fathers , and is not understood by the people , but breeds scandal , since the scriptures have it not , therefore we have thought fit it be left out , and that there be no more mention made of substance concerning god , since the scriptures no-where speak of the substance of the father and the son. he also tells us , that at sirmium they added words to the same purpose to their symbol , rejecting the words of substance or consubstantial , because nothing is written of them in the scriptures , and they transcend the knowledg and understanding of men. thus we see how exactly the plea of the arrians agrees with what is now offered to be imposed on us . but let us next see what the father says to this : he first turns it back on the arrians , and shews how far they were from following that rule which they imposed on others . and if we have not as good reason to answer those so , who now take up the same plea , let every one judg . but then the father answers , it was no matter though one used forms of speech that were not in scripture , if he had still a sound or pious understanding ; as on the contrary an her●tical person , though be uses forms out of scripture , he will not be the less suspected , if his understanding be corrupted ; and at full length applies that to the question of the consubstantiality . to the same purpose , st. hillary ( de synod . adv . arrian . ) setting down the arguments of the arrians against the consubstantiality , the third objection is , that it was added by the council of nice , but ought not to be received , because it is no-where written . but he answers ; it was a foolish thing to be afraid of a word , when the thing expressed by the word has no difficulty . we find likewise in the conference st. austin had with maximinus the arrian bishop , ( lib. 1. cont . max. arr. epist. ) in the very beginning the arrian tells him , that he must hearken to what he brought out of the scriptures , which were common to them all ; but for words that were not in scripture , they were in no case received by them . and afterwards he says , ( lib. 3. c. 3. ) we receive with a full veneration every thing that is brought out of the holy scriptures , for the scriptures are not in our dominion that they may be mended by us . and a little after adds , truth is not gathered out of arguments , but is proved by sure testimonies , therefore he seeks a testimony of the holy ghost's being god. but to that st. austin makes answer , that from the things that we read , we must understand the things that we read not . and giving an account of another conference ( epist. 72. ) he had with count pascentius that was an arrian , he tells , that the arrian did most earnestly press that the word consubstantial might be shewed in scripture , repeating this frequently , and canvassing about it invidiously . to whom st. austin answers , nothing could be more contentious than to strive about a word , when the thing was certain ; and asks him where the word unbegotten ( which the arrians used ) was in scripture ? and since it was no-where in scripture , he from thence concludes , there might be a very good account given why a word that was not in scripture , might be well used . and by how many consequences he proves the consubstantiality we cannot number , except that whole epistle were set down . and again , in that which is called an epistle , ( epist. 78. ) but is an account of another conference between that same person and st. austin , the arrian desired the consubstantiality might be accursed , because it was no-where to be found written in the scriptures ; and adds , that it was a grievous trampling on the authority of the scripture , to set down that which the scripture had not said ; for if any thing be set down without authority from the divine volumes , it is proved to be void ; against which st. austin argues at great length , to prove that it necessarily follows from other places of scripture . in the conference between photinus , sabellius , arrius , and athanasius , first published by cassander , ( oper. cass. ) as a work of vigilius , but believed to be the work of gelasius an african ; where we have a very full account of the pleas of these several parties . arrius challenges the council of nice for having corrupted the faith with the addition of new words , and complains of the consubstantial , and says , the apostles , their disciples , and all their successors downward , that had lived in the confession of christ to that time , were ignorant of that word : and on this he insists with great vehemency , urging it over and over again , pressing athanasius either to read it properly set down in scripture , or to cast it out of his confession ; against which athanasius replies , and shews him how many things they acknowledged against the other hereticks , which were not written ; shew me these things , ( says he ) not from conjectures or probabilities , or things that do neighbour on reason , not from things that provoke us to understand them so , nor from the piety of faith , persuading such a profession ; but shew it written in the pure and naked property of words , that the father is unbegotten , or impassible . and then he tells arrius , that when he went about to prove this , he should not say , the reason of faith required this , piety teaches it , the consequence from scripture forces me to this profession . i will not allow you , says he , to obtrude these things on me ; because you reject me when i bring you such like things , for the profession of the consubstantial . in the end he says , either permit me to prove the consubstantial by consequences , or if you will not , you must deny all those things which you your self grant . and after athanasius had urged this further , probus , that fate judg in the debate , said , neither one nor other could shew all that they believed properly and specially in scripture : therefore he desired they would trifle no longer in such a childish contest , but prove either the one or rhe other by a just consequence from scripture . in the macedonian controversy against the divinity of the holy ghost , we find this was also their plea ; a hint of it was already mentioned in the conference betwixt maximinus the arrian bishop , and st. austin , which we have more fully in st. greg. nazianz. ( orat. 37. ) who proving the divinity of the holy ghost , meets with that objection of the macedonians , that it was in no place of scripture , to which he answers , some things seemed to be said in scripture that truly are not , as when god is said to sleep ; some things truly are , but are no-where said , as the fathers being unbegotten , which they themselves believed , and concludes , that these things are drawn from those things out of which they are gathered , though they be not mentioned in scripture . therefore he upbraids those for serving the letter , and joyning themselves to the wisdom of the jews , and that leaving things , they followed syllables : and shews how valid a good consequence is ; as if a man , says he , speaks of a living creature that is reasonable , but mortal ; i conclude it must be a man : do i for that seem to rave ? not at all ; for these words are not more truly his that says them , than his that did make the saying of them necessary : so he infers , that he might , without fear , believe such things as he either found or gathered from the scriptures , though they either were not at all , or not clearly in the scriptures . we find also in a dialogue between an orthodox and a macedonian , that is in athanasius's works , but believed to be written by maximus , after he had proved by a great many arguments that the attributes of the divine nature , such as the omniscience and omnipresence were ascribed to the holy ghost . in end the macedonian flies to this known refuge , that it was no-where written , that he was god , and so challenges him for saying , that which was not in scripture . but the orthodox answers , that in the scriptures the divine nature was ascribed to the holy ghost , and since the name follows the nature , he concludes , if the holy ghost did subsist in himself , did sanctifie , and was increated , he must be god whether the other would or not . then he asks , where it was written , that the son was like the father in his essence ? the heretick answers , that the fathers had declared the son consubstantial as to his essence but the orthodox replies , ( which we desire may be well considered ) were they moved to that from the sense of the scripture , or was it of their own authority or arrogance , that they said any thing that was not written . the other confesses it was from the sense of the scripture , that they were moved to it ; from this the orthodox infers , that the sense of the scripture teaches us , that an uncreated spirit that is of god , and quickens and sanctifies , is a divine spirit , and from thence he concludes , he is god. thus we see clearly , how exactly the macedonians and these gentlemen agree , and what arguments the fathers furnish us with against them . the nestorian history followed this tract , and we find nestorius both in his letters ( act. syn. eph. ) to cyril of alexandria , to pope celestin , and in these writings of his that were read in the council of ephesus , ( action 1. ) gives that always for his reason of denying the blessed virgin to have been the mother of god , because the scriptures did no-where mention it , but call her always the mother of christ , and yet that general council condemned him for all that ; and his friend iohn , patriarch of antioch , earnestly pressed him by his letters not to reject but to use that word , since the sense of it was good , and it agreed with the scriptures ; and it was generally used by many of the fathers , and had never been rejected by any one . this was also eutyches his last refuge , ( act. 6. syn. constantin . in act. 2. chalcedon . ) when he was called to appear before the council at constantinople , he pretended sickness , and that he would never stir out of his monastery ; but being often cited , he said to those that were sent to him , in what scripture were the two natures of christ to be found ? to which they replied , in what scripture was the consubstantial to be found : thus turning his plea back on himself , as the orthodox had done before on the arrians . eutyches also when he made his appearance , he ended his defence with this , that he had not found that ( to wit , of the two natures ) plainly in the scripture , and that all the fathers had not said it . but for all that , he was condemned by that council which was afterwards ratified by the universal council of chalcedon . yet after this repeated condemnation the eutychians laid not down this plea , but continued still to appeal to the express words of scripture ; which made theodoret write two discourses to shew the unreasonableness of that pretence , they are published in athanasius his works ( tom. 2. op . athan. ) among these sermons against hereticks : but most of these are theodoret's , as appears clearly from photius ( bibl. cod. 46. ) his account of theodoret's works ; the very titles of them lead us to gather his opinion of this plea : the 12th discourse , which by photius's account , is the 16th , has this title , to those that say we ought to receive the expression , and not look to the things signified by them , as transcending all men . the 19th , or according to photius , the 23d , is , to those who say we ought to believe simply as they say , and not consider what is convenient or inconvenient . if i should set down all that is pertinent to this purpose , i must set down the whole discourses ; but i shall gather out of them such things as are most proper . he first complains of those who studied to subvert all humane things , and would not suffer men to be any longer reasonable , that would receive the words of the sacred writings without consideration , or good direction , not minding the pious scope for which they are written : for if ( as they would have us ) we do not consider what they mark out to us , but simply receive their words , then all that the prophets and apostles have written , will prove of no use to those that hear them , for then they will hear with their ears , but not understand with their hearts ; nor consider the consequence of the things that are said , according to the curse in isaias . — and after he had applied this to those who misunderstood that place , the word was made flesh , he adds , shall i hear a saying , and shall i not enquire into its proper meaning , where then is the proper consequence of what is said , or the profit of the hearer ? would they have men changed into the nature of bruits ? if they must only receive the sound of words with their ears , but no fruit in their soul from the understanding of them . contrariwise did st. paul tell us , they who are perfect have their senses exercised to discern good and evil ; but how can any discern aright , if he do not apprehend the meaning of what is said ? and such he compares to beasts , and makes them worse than the clean beasts , who chew the cud ; and , as a man is to consider what meats are set before him , so he must not snatch words stripp'd of their meaning , but must carefully consider what is suitable to god , and profitable to us , what is the force of truth , what agrees with the law , or answers to nature ; he must consider the genuineness of faith , the firmness of hope , the sincerity of love , what is liable to no reproach , what is beyond envy , and worthy of favour ; all which things concur in pious meditations . and concludes thus , the sum of all is , he that receives any words , and does not consider the meaning of them , how can he understand those that seem to contradict others ? where shall he find a fit answer ? how shall he satisfie those that interrogate him , or defend that which is written ? these passages are out of the first discourse , what follows is out of the second . in the beginning he says , though the devil has invented many grievous doctrines , yet he doubts if any former age brought forth any thing like that then broached . former heresies had their own proper errors ; but this that was now invented renewed all others , and exceeded all others . which , says he , receives simply what is said , but does not enquire what is convenient , or inconvenient : but shall i believe without judgment , and not enquire what is possible , convenient , decent , acceptable to god , answerable to nature , agreeable to truth , or is a consequence from the scope , or suitable to the mystery , or to piety ; or what outward reward , or inward fruit accompanies it ; or must i reckon on none of these things . but the cause of all our adversaries errors , is , that with their ears they hear words , but have no understanding of them in their hearts ; for all of them ( and names divers ) shun a trial , that they be not convinced , and at length shews what absurdities must follow on such a method . instancing those places about which the contest was with the arrians , such as these words of christ , the father is greater than i. and shews what apparent contradictions there are , if we do not consider the true sense of places of scripture that seem contradictory , which must be reconciled by finding their true meaning ; and concludes , so we shall either perswade , or overcome our adversary ; so we shall shew that the holy scripture is consonant to its self ; so we shall justly publish the glory of the mystery , and shall treasure up such a full assurance as we ought to have in our souls ; we shall neither believe without the word , nor speak without faith. now i challenge every reader , to consider if any thing can be devised , that more formally , and more nervously overthrows all the pretences brought for his appeal to the express words of scripture . and here i stop ; for though i could carry it further , and shew that other hereticks shrowded themselves under the same pretext , yet i think all impartial readers will be satisfied , when they find this was an artifice of the first four grand heresies , condemned by the first four general councils , and from all has been said , it is apparent how oft this very pretence has been baffled by universal councils and fathers . yet i cannot leave this with the reader , without desiring him to take notice of a few particulars that deserve to be considered . the first is , that which these gentlemen would impose on us has been the plea of the greatest hereticks have been in the church . those therefore who take up these weapons of hereticks , which have been so oft blunted and broken in their hands , by the most universal councils , and the most learned fathers of the catholick church ; till at length they were laid aside by all men , as unfit for any service , till in this age some jesuits took them up in defence of an often baffled cause , do very unreasonably pretend to the spirit or doctrine of catholicks , since they tread a path so oft beaten by all hereticks , and abhorred by all the orthodox . secondly , we find the fathers always begin their answering this pretence of hereticks , by shewing them how many things they themselves believed , that were no-where written in scripture . and this i believe was all the ground m. w. had for telling us in our conference that st austin bade the heretick read what he said . i am confident that gentleman is a man of candour and honour , and so am assured he would not have been guilty of such a fallacy , as to have cited this for such a purpose , if he had not taken it on trust from second hands . but he who first made use of it , if he have no other authority of st. austin's , which i much doubt , cannot be an honest man ; who , because st. austin , to shew the arrians how unjust it was to ask words for every thing they believed , urges them with this , that they could not read all that they believed themselves , would from that conclude , st. austin thought every article of faith must be read in so many words in scripture . this is such a piece of ingenuity as the jesuits used in the contest about st. austin's doctrine , concerning the efficacy of grace : when they cited as formal passages out of st. austin , some of the objections of the semipelagians , which he sets down , and afterwards answers , which they brought without his answers , as his words , to shew he was of their side . but to return to our purpose ; from this method of the fathers we are taught to turn this appeal to express words , back on those who make use of it against us ; and to ask them where do they read their purgatory , sacrifice of the mass , transubstantiation , the pope's supremacy , with a great many more things in the express words of scripture . thirdly , we see the peremptory answer the fathers agree in , is , that we must understand the scriptures , and draw just consequences from them , and not stand on words or phrases ; but consider things : and from these we are furnished with an excellent answer to every thing of this nature they can bring against us . it is in those great saints , athanasius , hilary , gregory nazianzen , austin , and theodoret , that they will find our answer as fully and formally as need be ; and to them we refer our selves . but , fourthly , to improve this beyond the particular occasion that engaged us to all this enquiry , we desire it be considered that when such an objection was made , which those of the church of rome judge is strong to prove , we must rely on somewhat else than scripture , either on the authority of the church , or on the certainty of tradition . the first councils and fathers had no such apprehension . all considering men , chiefly when they are arguing a nice point , speak upon some hypothesis or opinion with which they are prepossessed , and must certainly discourse consequently to it . to instance it in this particular ; if an objection be made against the drawing consequences from scripture , since all men may be mistaken ; and therefore they ought not to trust their own reasonings . a papist must necessarily upon his hypothesis say , it is true , any man may err , but the whole church , either when assembled in a council with the holy ghost in the midst of them , or when they convey down from the apostles , through age to age , the tradition of the exposition of the scriptures cannot err , for god will be with them to the end of the world. a protestant must on the other hand , according to his principles , argue , that since man has a reasonable soul in him , he must be supposed endued with a faculty of making inferences : and when any consequence is apparent to our understandings , we ought and must believe it as much as we do that from which the consequenee is drawn . therefore we must not only read , but study to understand the true meaning of scripture : and we have so much the more reason to be assured of what appears to us to be the true sense of the scriptures , if we find the church of god in the purest times , and the fathers believing as we believe . if we should hear two persons that were unknown to us , argue either of these two ways , we must conclude , the one is a papist , the other a protestant , as to this particular . now i desire the reader may compare what has been cited from the fathers upon this subject : and see if what they write upon it does not exactly agree with our hypothesis and principles . whence we may very justly draw another conclusion that will go much further than this particular we now examine ; that in seeking out the decision of all controversies , the fathers went by the same rules we go by , to wit , the clear sense of scriptures , as it must appear to every considering mans understanding , backed with the opinion of the fathers that went before them . and thus far have i followed this objection ; and have , as i hope , to every reader 's satisfaction made it out , that there can be nothing more unreasonable , more contrary to the articles and doctrine of our church , to the nature of the soul of man , to the use and end of words and discourse , to the practice of christ and his apostles , to the constant sense of the primitive church , and that upon full and often renewed contest with hereticks upon this very head : then to impose on us an obligation to read all the articles of our church in the express words of scripture . so that i am confident this will appear to every considering person , the most trifling and pitiful objection that can be offered by men of common sense and reason . and therefore it is hoped , that all persons who take any care of their souls , will examine things more narrowly than to suffer such tricks to pass upon them , or to be shaken by such objections . and if all the scruple these gentlemen have , why they do not joyn in communion with the church of england , lies in this ; we expect they shall find it so entirely satisfied , and removed out of the way , that they shall think of returning back to that church where they had their baptism and christian education , and which is still ready to receive them with open arms , and to restore such as have been over-reached into error and heresie , with the spirit of meekness . to which i pray god of his great mercy dispose both them and all others , who upon these or such like scruples have deserted the purest church upon earth ; and have turned over to a most impure and corrupt society . and let all men say , amen . a discourse to shew that it was not only possible to change the belief of the church concerning the manner of christ's presence in the sacrament ; but that it is very reasonable to conclude , both that it might be done , and that it was truly changed . there is only one particular of any importance , that was mentioned in the conference , to which we forgot to make any answer at all , which was spoken by n. n. to this purpose ; how was it possible , or to be imagined that the church of god could ever have received such a doctrine as the belief of transubstantiation , if every age had not received it , and been instructed in it by their fathers , and the age that went before it ? this by a pure forgetfulness was not answered ; and one of these gentlemen took notice of it to me , meeting with me since that time , and desired me to consider what a friend of n. n. has lately printed on this subject , in a letter concerning transubstantiation , directed to a person of honour : in which , a great many pretended impossibilities of any such innovation of the doctrine are reckoned up ; to shew it a thing both inconceivable and unpracticable , to get the faith of the church changed in a thing of this nature . this same plea has been managed with all the advantages possible , both of wit , eloquence , and learning , by mr. arnaud of the sorbon ; but had been so exposed and baffled by mr. claud , who , as he equals the other in learning , eloquence , and wit , so having much the better of him in the cause and truth he vindicates , has so foiled the other in this plea , that he seeing no other way to preserve that high reputation which his other writings , and the whole course of his life had so justly acquired him ; has gone off from the main argument on which they begun , and betaken himself to a long and unprofitable enquiry into the belief of the greek church , since her schism from the latine church . the contest has been oft renewed , and all the ingenious and learned persons of both sides , have looked on with great expectations . every one must confess , mr. arnaud has said all can be said in such a cause ; yet it seems he finds himself often pinched , by the bitter ( i had almost said scurrilous ) reproaches he casts on mr. claud , which is very unbecoming the education and other noble qualities of that great man , whom for his book of frequent communion , i shall ever honour . and it is a thing much to be lamented , that he was taken off from these more useful labours , wherein he was engaged so much to the bettering this age , both in discovering the horrid corruption of the jesuits and other casuists , not only in their speculations about casuistical divinity , but in their hearing confessions , and giving easie absolutions , upon trifling penances , and granting absolutions before the penance was performed , and in representing to us the true spirit of holiness and devotion was in the primitive church . but on the other hand , as mr. claud leaves nothing unsaid in a method fully answerable to the excellence of that truth he defends ; so he answers these reproaches in a way worthy of himself , or rather of christ and the gospel . if those excellent writings were in english , i should need to say nothing to a point that has been so canvassed ; but till some oblige this nation by translating them , i shall say so much on this head , as i hope shall be sufficient to convince every body of the emptiness , weakness and folly of this plea. and first of all , in a matter of fact concerning a change made in the belief of the church , the only certain method of enquiry , is , to consider the doctrine of the church in former ages ; and to compare that with what is now received ; and if we see a difference between these , we are sure there has been a change ; though we are not able to shew by what steps it was made ; nay , though we could not so much as make it appear probable that such a change could be made . to instance this in a plain case , of the change of the english language since the days of william the conqueror ; that there has no such swarm of foreigners broke in upon this island , as might change our language : one may then argue thus ; every one speaks the language he heard his parents , his nurses , and others about him speak , when he was a child ; and this he continues to speak all his life , and his children speak as they heard him speak : upon which , a man of wit and phancy might say a great many things , to shew it impossible any such change should ever have been made , as that we now should speak so as not to understand what was said five or six hundred years ago . yet if i find chaucer , or any much ancienter book , so written , that i can hardly make a shift to understand it , from thence , without any further reasoning how this could be brought about , i naturally must conclude our language is altered . and if any man should be so impertinent , as to argue , that could not be ; for children speak as their nurses and parents taught them , i could hardly answer him in patience ; but must tell him it is altered , without more ado . if a child were amused with such pretended impossibilities , i would tell him , that strangers coming among us , and our travelling to parts beyond the seas , made us acquainted with other languages ; and englishmen finding in other tongues , some words and phrases , which they judged more proper than any they had , being also fond of new words , there was an insensible change made in every age , which , after five or six ages , is more discernible . just so , if i find most of all the fathers either delivering their opinions clearly in this matter , against the doctrine of the roman church , or saying things utterly inconsistent with it , i am sure there has been a change made ; though i could not shew either the whole progress of it , or so much as a probable account how it could be done . if men were as machines or necessary agents , a certain account might be given of all the events in all ages ; but there are such strange labyrinths in the minds of men , that none can trace them by any rational computation of what is likely . there is also such a diversity between men and men , between ages and ages , that he should make very false accounts , that from the tempers and dispositions of men in this age , should conclude what were possible or impossible many years ago . in this age , in which printing gives notice of all things so easily and speedily , and by the laying of stages for the quick and cheap conveying pacquers , and the publishing mercuries , gazets , and iournals , and the education of almost all persons to read and write letters , and the curiosity by which all people are whetted to enquire into every thing ; the state of mankind is quite altered from what it was before , when few could read or write , but clergy-men ; so that they must be the notaries of all courts ; who continue from that , to be called clerks to this day ; and that some crimes , otherwise capital , were not punished with death , if the guilty person could but read . when people were so ignorant of what was doing about them , when neither printing , nor stages for pacquets , were in being , at least in europe , and when men were fast asleep in their business , without amusing themselves what was doing about them in the world ; it is the most unjust and unreasonable thing in nature , to imagine , that such things as are now next to impossible , were not then not only possible , but easie . so that all such calculations of impossibilities from the state and temper of this age , when applied to the ages before ours , is the most fallacious way of reckoning that can be . for instance , how improbable , or next to impossible , is this following story , that the bishops of the imperial city of the roman empire , whose first true worth , together with the greatness of that city , which was the head and metropolis of the roman empire , got them much esteem and credit in the world , should from small and low beginnings , have crept up to such a height of power , that they were looked on as the head of all power , both civil and spiritual ; and that as they overthrew all other ecclesiastical jurisdiction , the bishops of that see engrossing it to themselves : so they were masters of almost all the crowns of europe , and could change governments , raise up , and assist new pretenders , call up , by the preachings of some poor beggarly friars , vast armies , without pay , and send them whither they pleased : that they could draw in all the treasure and riches of europe to themselves ; that they brought princes to lie thus at their feet , to suffer all the clergy , who had a great interest in their dominions , by the vast endowments of churches and abbeys , beside the power they had in all families and consciences , to be the sworn subjects of these bishops , and to be exempted from appearing in secular courts , how criminal soever they were ? that all this should be thus brought about without the expence of any vast treasure , or the prevailing force of a conquering army , meerly by a few tricks , that were artificially managed , of the belief of purgatory , the power of absolving , and granting indulgences , and the opinion of their being st. peter's successors , and christ's vicars on earth . and that all this while when on these false colours of impostures in religion , those designs were carried on , the popes were men of the most lewd and flagitious lives possible ; and those who served them in their designs , were become the scandal and scorn of christendom ; and yet in all these attempts , they prevailed for above seven or eight ages . now if any man will go about to prove this impossible , and that princes were always jealous of their authority and their lives , people always loved their money and quiet , bishops always loved their jurisdiction , and all men when they see designs carried on with colours of religion , by men , who in the most publick and notorious instances , shew they have none at all , do suspect a cheat , and are not to be wheedled . therefore all this must be but a fable and a forgery , to make the popes and their clergy odious . will not all men laugh at such a person , that against the faith of all history , and the authority of all records , will deny a thing that was set up over all europe for many ages ? if then all this change in a matter that was temporal , against which the secular interests of all men did oppose themselves , was yet successful , and prevailed ; how can any man think it unreasonable , that a speculative opinion might have been brought into the church , by such arts , and so many degrees , that the traces of the change should be lost ? we find there have been many other changes in sacred things , which will seem no less strange and incredible ; but that we are assured whatsoever really has been , may be : and if things full as unaccountable have been brought about , it is absurd to deny , that other things might not have run the same fate . it is known , that all people are more uneasie to changes in things that are visible , and known to every body , than in things that are speculative , and abstracted , and known and considered but by a few : they are likewise more unwilling to part with things they are in possession of , and reckon their rights , than to suffer new opinions to be brought in among them ; and let their religion swell by additions . for it is undoubted that it is much more easie to imagine how a new opinion should be introduced , than how an ancient practice and right should be taken away . if then it be apparent , that there have been great changes made in the most visible and sensible parts of religious worship , by taking away some of the most ancient customs and rights of the people , over the whole western church , then it cannot be thought incredible , that a new speculative opinion might have by degrees been brought in . this i shall instance in a few particulars . the receiving the chalice in the sacrament , was an ancient constant custom , to which all the people had been long used ; and one may very reasonably on this hypothesis , argue , that could not be ; for would the people , especially in dark ages , have suffered the cup of the blood of christ to be taken from them , if they had not known that it had been taken from their fathers ? upon which it is easie to conceive how many speculative impossibilities an ingenious man may devise ; and yet we know they were got to part with it by degrees ; first , the bread was given dipt in the cup , for an age or two ; and then the people judged they had both together : this step being made , it was easie afterwards to give them the bread undipt , and so the chalice was taken away quite from the laity , without any great opposition , except what was made in bohemia . next to this , let us consider how naturally all men are apt to be fond of their children , and not to suffer any thing to be denied them , by which they conceive they are advantaged : upon which one may reckon , once we are sure it was the universally received custom , for many ages , over the whole latine church , that all children had the eucharist given them immediately after they were baptized . and the rubrick of the roman missal ordered , they should not be suffered to suck after they were baptized , before they had the eucharist given them , except in in cases of necessity . this order is believed to be a work of the eleventh century ; so lately was this thought necessary in the roman church . all men know how careful most parents , even such as have not much religion themselves , are , that nothing be wanting about their children ; and it was thought simply necessary to salvation , that all persons had the eucharist . how many imaginary difficulties may one imagine might have obstructed the changing this custom ? one would expect to hear of tumults and stirs , and an universal conspiracy of all men to save this right of their children ? yet hugo de sancto victore tells us , how it was wearing out in his time ; and we find not the least opposition made to the taking it away . a third thing , to which it is not easie to apprehend how the vulgar should have consented , was , the denying them that right of nature and nations , that every body should worship god in a known tongue . in this island , the saxons had the liturgy in their vulgar tongue ; and so it was also over all the world : and from this might not one very justly reckon up many high improbabilities , to demonstrate the setting up the worship in an unknown tongue , could never be brought about , and yet we know it was done . in end , i shall name only one other particular , which seems very hard to be got changed , which yet we are sure was changed ; this was , the popular elections of the bishops and clergy , which , as is past dispute , were once in the hands of the people ; and yet they were got to part with them , and that at a time when church-preferments were raised very high in all secular advantages ; so that it may seem strange , they should then have been wrought upon to let go a thing , which all men are naturally inclined to desire an interest in ; and so much the more , if the dignity or riches of the function be very considerable ; and yet though we meet in church-history many accounts of tumults that were in those elections , while they were in the peoples hands ; yet i remember of no tumults made to keep them , when they were taken out of their hands . and now i leave it to every reader 's conscience , if he is not perswaded by all the conjectures he can make of mankind , that it is more hard to conceive , how these things , that have been named , of which the people had clear possession , were struck out , than that a speculative opinion , how absurd soever , was brought in , especially in such ages as these were , in which it was done . this leads me to the next thing , which is , to make some reflections on those ages , in which this doctrine crept into the church . as long as the miraculous effusion of the holy ghost continued in the church , the simplicity of those that preached the gospel , was no small confirmation of that authority that accompanied them ; so that it was more for the honour of the gospel , that there were no great scholars or disputants to promote it : but when that ceased , it was necessary the christian religion should be advanced by such rational means as are suitable to the soul of man : if it had begun only upon such a foundation , men would not have given it a hearing ; but the miracles which were at first wrought , having sufficiently alarm'd the world , so that by them men were inclined to hearken to it : then it was to be tried by those rules of truth and goodness , which lie engraven on all mens souls . and therefore it was necessary , those who defended it , should both understand it well , and likewise know all the secrets of heathenism , and of the greek philosophy . a knowledge in these being thus necessary , god raised up among the philosophers divers great persons , such as iustin , clement , origen , and many others , whose minds being enlightned with the knowledge of the gospel , as well as endued with all other humane learning , they were great supports to the christian religion . afterwards many heresies being broached about the mysteries of the faith , chiefly those that relate to the son of god , and his incarnation , upon which followed long contests : for managing these , a full understanding of scripture was also necessary ; and that set all persons mightily to the study of the scriptures . but it is not to be denied , great corruptions did quickly break in , when the persecutions were over ; and the church abounded in peace and plenty ; not but that the doctrine was preserved pure long after that : there were also many shining lights , and great fathers , in that and in the following age ; yet from the fathers of these two ages , and from the great disorders were in some of their councils , as in the case of athanasius , and the second ephesin council , we may clearly see how much they were degenerating from the primitive purity . many contests were about the precedency of their sees , great ambition and contention appeared in their synods , which made nazianzen hate and shun them , expecting no good from them . these and such like things brought very heavy judgments and plagues on the church , and the whole roman empire , in the fifth century : for vast swarms of armies out of germany and the northern nations brake in upon the western empire , and by a long succession of new invaders all was sackt and ruined . the goths were followed by the vandals , the alains , the gepides , the franks , the sweves , the huns , and , in the end , the lombards . those nations were for the greatest part arrians , but all were barbarous and rude ; and their hatred of the faith , joyned to the barbarity of their tempers , set them with a strange fury on destroying the most sacred things . and to that we owe the loss of most of the primitive writings , and of all the authentical records of the first persecutions ; scarce any thing remaining , but what eusebius had before gathered together out of a former destruction was made of such things under dioclesian . nor did the glory of the eastern empire long survive the western , that fell before these invaders : but in europe , by the impression of the bulgars ; and in asia , by the conquests made , first by the saracens , then by the turks , their greatness was soon broken ; though it lasted longer under that oppressed condition , than the other had done . thus was both the greek and the latin church brought under sad oppression and much misery . and every body knows , that the natural effect that state of life brings over the greatest minds , when there is no hope of getting from under it , is to take them off from study and learning ; and indeed to subdue their spirits as well as their bodies . and so it proved , for after that , an ignorance and dulness did to that degree overspread all europe , that it is scarce to be expressed . i do not deny , but there might be some few instances of considerable men , giving an allowance for the time they lived in . for the laity , they were bred up to think of nothing but to handle their arms , very few could so much as read ; and the clergy were not much better ; read they could , but in many that was all ; a corrupt latin they understood , which continued to be the vulgar tongue in italy a great while after : they had heard of greek and hebrew , but understood them as little as we do the mexican or peruvian tongue . they had scarce any knowledge of the greek fathers ; a few very ill translations of some of them was all they had . the latin fathers were read by some of the more learned , but for any distinct understanding of scriptures , or the natures of things , god knows they had it not . i design a short discourse , and therefore shall not stay to make this out , which every body that has but looked a little on the writings of these ages , knows to be true . another effect of their ignorance was , that they were easily imposed on by suppostitious writings , that went under the names of the fathers , but were none of theirs . gelasius threw out a great many that were breaking out in his time ; but the trade was prosperous , and went on to that height , that it cost the criticks of these two last ages much pains to distinguish true from forged , and the genuine from what was interpolated . and indeed the popes were much beholden to the forgery of the decretal epistles , in which work a great many epistles were published by isidore in the eighth century , as the epistles of the popes of the first four centuries after christ : by which they were represented as giving orders , and making definitions over the whole church in a full form , and with the stile of an absolute authority . these were rejected by many , but mightily supported by all the flatterers of the court of rome : so that they were in the end , after some contest , generally received , and held presidents to the succeeding popes , who wrote very skilfully after that copy . many other forgeries were also much cherished , which i shall instance only in one other particular , that relates to what is now in my eye . a sermon of arnold of bonneval ( which is now proved clearly to be his ) was published in st. cyprian's works as his sermon of the supper of our lord , though this arnold lived about nine hundred years after him . now such a sermon being generally read as st. cyprian's , no wonder it gave that doctrine of transubstantiation great credit . these writings are now discovered to be such forgeries , that all considering men of their own church are ashamed of them , and disown them . so do baronius and bellarmin the decretals ; and sirmondus , launnoy , and many more , reject other forgeries . yet here is a high pitch of impudence that most of all their writers of controversie are guilty of , to cite these very writings ( which are now universally agreed to be spurious ) still under those great names , which forgery gave them . as the author of that letter about transubstantiation , cites a passage from st. cyprian's sermon de coena domini , though it is agreed to by sixtus senensis , possevin , bellarmin , raynaud , and labbe , to be none of his ; and the publishers of the office of the sacrament , in the table at the end of it , acknowledge it was written by arnold of bonneval , a friend of st. bernard's . after these authorities it is indeed strange , that such sophisticated stuff should be over and over again offered to us . and it was no wonder , such forgeries were generally received , when that church gave them such authority , as to take many lessons out of the most spurious legends and put them in their breviary . of all these dark ages , the tenth was certainly the midnight of the church : we have scarce any writer for that whole age , so that it is generally called the iron age , an age of darkness and wickedness ; and therefore a very fit time for superstition and errour to work in . and thence we may well infer , that in ages that were so exceeding ignorant , and in which men scarce thought of religion , it was no hard thing to get any errour received and established . but this is not all . these were also ages of great licentiousness and disorder ; for though the barbarous nations were afterwards converted to the orthodox faith , ( though by the way it were easie to shew these conversions had nothing like the first conversion of the world to christianity in them ) yet their barbarity remained with them , and the church-men became so corrupt and vicious , that they could not have a face to reprove them for those vices of which themselves were scandalously guilty . from the sixth century downward what a race of men have the popes been ? chiefly in the ninth and tenth century . and indeed any religion that remained in the world had so retired into cloysters and monasteries , that very little of it remained . these houses were seminaries of some devotion , while they were poor and busied at work , according to their first foundation ; but when they were well endowed , and became rich , they grew a scandal to all christendom . all the primitive discipline was laid down , children were put into the highest preferments of the church , and simony over-run the church . these are matters of fact , that cannot be so much as questioned , nor should i , if put to prove them , seek authorities for them any where else than in baronius ; who , for all his design to serve the interest of that church , yet could not prevaricate so far , as to conceal things that are so openly and uncontestedly true . now , from the darkness and corruption of these ages , i presume to offer some things to the readers consideration . first , ignorance always inclines people to be very easie to trust those , in whom they have confidence ; for being either unwilling to trouble themselves with painful and sollicitous enquiries , or unable to make them , they take things on trust , without any care to search into them ▪ but this general maxim must needs be much more certain , when subjection to the church , and the belief of every thing established , was made a very substantial part of religion , or rather that alone which might compense all other defects . secondly , ignorance naturally inclines people to superstition , to be soon wrought on , and easily amused , to be full of fears , and easie to submit to any thing that may any way overcome these fears . a right sense of god and divine matters , makes one have such a taste of religion , that he is not at all subject to this distemper , or rather monster , begotten by the unnatural commixture of some fear of god and love of sin , both being disordered by much ignorance ; hence sprang most of the idolatrous rites of heathenism , and all people so tempered are fit for the like humour to work upon . thirdly , the interests of churchmen , led them mightily to study the setting this opinion on foot . this alone set them as high , as mortal men could be , and made them appear a most sacred sort of a creature . all the wonders of the prophets and apostles were but sorry matters to it : what was moses calling fo● manna from heaven and water fromm the rock ? elijah's bringing sometimes fire and sometimes rain from heaven ? what ●●re the apostles raising the dead , giving sight to the blind , and feet to the lanie ? to the annihilating the substance of bread and wine , and bringing in their stead , not some other common matter , but the flesh and blood of the ever-blessed jesus . he who could do this , no wonder he were reverenced , enriched , secure from all danger , exempt from all civil jurisdiction , and cherished with all imaginable respect and kindness . so that it is no strange thing , that churchmen were much inclined to favour an opinion , that favoured their interests so much . fourthly , the churchmen of these ages were very likely to be easily drawn to anything , which might so much advance their designs ; that were grown very high , especially from the days of pope gregory the great . they were struggling with the civil powers for dominion , and pursued that for many years , and spared neither labour nor the lives of men to attain it . and it is not to be thought , but men who did prodigally throw away many thousands in a quarrel , would without very nice disputing , cherish any opinion that might contribute toward that end . and as this was of great use to them , so they very much needed both it , and all such like shifts ; for they had none of that sublime sanctity , nor high learning , or lofty eloquence , which former churchmen had , and by which they had acquired great esteem in the world. now the churchmen in these days , having a great mind to preserve or rather to encrease that esteem ; but wanting those qualities which on a reasonable account might have acquired it , or preserved it , must needs think of somewhat else to do it by ; and so found out many arts for it , such as the belief of purgatory , the priestly absolution upon confession , together with the reserved cases , indulgences , and the pope's power of taking souls out of purgatory . and if it be not full as unreasonable , to think the pope should be believed vested with a power of pardoning sin , and redeeming from purgatory , as that transubstantiation should have been received , let any man judge . fifthly , there was such a vast number of agents and emissaries sent from rome , to all the parts of europe , to carry on their designs , that we can hardly think it possible any thing could have withstood them . in such ages , by giving some terrible name to any thing , it was presently disgraced with the vulgar ; a clear instance of this was the fate of the married clergy . gregory the seventh , who as cardinal benno ( who knew him ) represents him , was one of the worst men that ever was born , and first set on foot the pope's pretensions to the civil authority , and the power of deposing princes , and putting others in their places ; did prosecute the married clergy with great vehemency . this he could not do on any pious or chaste account , being so vile a man as he was : but being resolved to bring all princes to depend on him , there was no way so like to attain that , as to have all the clergy absolutely subject to him : this could not be hoped for , while they were married , and that the princes and several states of europe had such a pawn of their fidelity , as their wives and children ; therefore because the persons of the clergy were accounted sacred , and liable to no punishment , that there might be nothing so nearly related to them , wherein they might be punished , as their wives and children , he drave this furiously on ; and , to give them some ill-favoured name , called them nicolaitans , which are represented in the revelation so vile and odious . this was the most unjust thing in the world : they might have called them pharisees or sadducees as well , for all the ancient writers tell us , that nicolas having a beautiful wife was jealous , and the apostles challenging him of it , he said , he was so far from ▪ it ; that he was willing to make her common , and thence some set up the community of wives , and were from him called the nicolaitans . but because women and marriage were in the case , and it was a hateful word , this was the name by which the married clergy were every where made so odious ; and though it was much the interest of princes to have had the marriage of the clergy to be left free , yet the popes were too hard for them in it . thus were the agents of rome able to prevail in every thing they set then selves to . so the opposers of this doctrine were called by the hateful names of stercoranists and panites . sixthly , when all religion was placed in externals , and splendid rites and ceremonies came to be generally looked on as the whole business of religion , peoples minds were by that much disposed to receive any thing , that might introduce external pomp and grandeur into their churches ; being willing to make up in an outward appearance of worshipping the person of christ , what was wanting in their obedience to his gospel . and now i appeal to any honest man , if upon the suppositions i have laid down , it be at all an unaccountable thing , that a great company of ignorant and debauched clergymen , should set themselves to cherish and advance a belief , which would redeem them from all the infamy their other vices were ready to bring upon them ; and they resolving on it , if it was hard for them , especially in a course of some ages , to get an ignorant , credulous , superstitious , and corrupt multitude , to receive it without much noise or ado . i believe no man will deny , but upon these suppositions the thing was very like to succeed . now that all these suppositions are true ( to wit ) that both clergy and laity in those ages , chiefly in the ninth , tenth , and eleventh centuries , were ignorant , and vicious to the height ; is a thing so generally known , and so universally confessed by all their own historians , that i hardly think any man will have brow enough to deny it . but there are many other things , which will also shew how possible , nay feasible such a change may be . first , this having never been condemned by a formal decision in any former age , it was more easie to get it brought in ; for no council or father could condemn or write against any errour , but that which was maintained or abetted by some man , or company of men , in or before their time . since then this had not been broached in the former ages , the promoters of it had this advantage , that no former decision had been made against them ; for none ever thought of condemning any heresie before it had a being . secondly , this errour did in the outward sound agree with the words of the institution , and the forms used in the former liturgies , in which the elements were said to be changed into the true and undefiled body of christ. a doctrine then that seemed to establish nothing contrary to the ancient liturgies , might easily have been received , in an age , in which the outward sound and appearance was all they looked to . thirdly , the passage from the believing any thing in general , with an indistinct and confused apprehension , to any particular way of explaining it , is not at all hard to be conceived , especially in an age , that likes every thing the better , the more mysterious it seem . in the preceding ages , it was in general received , that christ was in the sacrament , and that by the consecration the elements were changed into his body and blood. and although many of the fathers did very formally explain in what sense christ was present , and the elements were changed ; yet there having been no occasion given to the church , to make any formal decision about the manner of it , every one thought he was left at liberty to explain it as he pleased . and we may very reasonably suppose , that many did not explain it at all , especially in these ages , in which there was scarce any preaching or instructing the people . by this means the people did believe christ was in the sacrament , and that the elements were changed into his body and blood , without troubling themselves to examine how it was , whether spiritually or corporally . things being brought to this , in these ages , by the carelesness of the clergy , the people were by that , sufficiently disposed to believe any particular manner of that presence , or change , their pastors might offer to them . fourthly , there being no visible change made in any part of the worship , when this doctrine was first brought in , it was easie to innovate , in these ages , in which people looked only at things that were visible and sensible : had they brought in the adoration , processions , or other consequences of this doctrine along with it , it was like to have made more noise ; for people are apt to be startled when they see any notable change in their worship : but this belief was first infused in the people , and berengarius was condemned . the council of lateran had also made the decree about it , before ever there were any of those signal alterations attempted . and after that was done , then did honorius decree the adoration ; ( greg. decret . lib. 3. tit . 42. cap. 10. ) and urban the fourth , upon some pretended visions of eve , iulian , and isabella , did appoint the feast of the body of christ , called now generally , the feast of god , or corpus christi feast , which was confirmed by pope clement the fifth , ( lib. 3. tit . 16. ) in the council of vienna ; and ever since that time they have been endeavouring by all the devices possible , to encrease the devotion of the people to the host. so that mr. arnaud in many places acknowledges they are most gross idolaters if their doctrine be not true ; which i desire may be well considered , since it is the opinion of one of the most considering and wisest , and most learned persons of that communion , who has his whole life set his thoughts chiefly to the examining of this sacrament , and knows as well as any man alive , what is the real sense of the worshippers in that church . but to return to that i am about , it is very unreasonable to think that the people in those dark ages , did concern themselves in the speculative opinions were among divines , so that the vulgar could not busie themselves about it , but when this opinion was decreed , and generally received and infused in the laity , for almost one age together , then we need not wonder to see notable alterations following upon it , in their worship , without any opposition or contest ; for it was very reasonable such consequences should have followed such a doctrine . but that before that time there was no adoration of the elements , is a thing so clear , that it is impudence to deny it ; there was no prostration of the body , or kneeling to be made , either on lords days , or all the time between easter and pentecost , by the twentieth canon of the council of nice . none of the ancient liturgies do so much as mention it ; but the contrary is plainly insinuated by s. cyril of ierusalem . none of that great number of writers about divine offices , that lived in the seventh , eighth , ninth , and tenth centuries , published by hittorpius , so much as mention it : though they be very particular in giving us an account of the most inconsiderable parts of the divine offices , and of all the circumstances of them . honorius when he first decreed it , does not alledge presidents for it ; but commands the priests to tell the people to do it ; whereas , if it had been appointed before , he must rather have commanded the priests to have told the people of their sacrilegious contempt of the body of christ , notwithstanding the former laws and practice of the church : but it is apparent his way of enjoyning it , is in the style of one that commands a new thing , and not that sets on the execution of what was sormerly used : yet this was more warily appointed by honorius , who enjoyned only an inclination of the head to the sacrament ; but it was set up bare-faced by his successor gregory the ninth , who appointed ( as the historians tell us , ( naucler . ad an . 1240. krantz . sex . lib. 8. cap. 10. ) though it be not among his decretals ) a bell to be rung , to give notice at the consecration and elevation , that all who heard it , might kneel , and join their hands in adoring the host. so that any passages of the fathers that speak of adoration or veneration to the sacrament , must either be understood of the inward adoration the communicant offers up to god the father , and his blessed son , in the commemoration of so great a mystery of love , as appeared in his death , then represented and remembred . or these words are to be taken in a large sense , and so we find , they usually called the gospels , their bishops , baptism , the pascha , and almost all other sacred things , venerable . and thus from many particulars it is apparent , that the bringing in the doctrine of transubstantiation is no unaccountable thing . but i shall pursue this yet further , for the reader 's full satisfaction , and shew the steps by which this doctrine was introduced . we find in the church of corinth the receiving the sacrament was looked on , but as a common entertainment , and was gone about without great care or devotion , which s. paul charges severely on them ; and tells them what heavy judgments had already fallen on them , for such abuses , and that heavier ones might be yet looked for , since they were guilty of the body and blood of the lord , by their unworthy receiving . upon this the whole christian church was set to consider , in very good earnest , how to prepare themselves aright for so holy an action ; and the receiving the sacrament , as it was the greatest symbol of the love of christians , so it was the end of all penitence , that was enjoyned for publick or private sins , but chiefly for apostacy , or the denying the faith , and complying with idolatry in the times of persecution . therefore the fathers considering both the words of the institution , and s. paul's epistle to the corinthians , did study mightily to awaken all to great preparation and devotion , when they received the sacrament . for all the primitive devotion about the sacrament , was only in order to the receiving it ; and that modern worship of the church of rome , of going to hear mass without receiving , was a thing so little understood by them , that as none were suffered to be present in the action of the mysteries , but those who were qualified to receive ; so if any such had gone out of the church without participating , ( 9 apost . cnn. and 2 can. antioch ) they were to be separated from the communion of the church , as the authors of disorder in it . upon this subject the fathers employed all their eloquence ; and no wonder , if we consider that it is such a commemoration of the death of christ as does really communicate to the worthy receiver his crucified body , and his blood that was shed , ( mark , not his glorified body , as it is now in heaven ) which is the fountain and channel of all other blessings , but is only given to such , as being prepared according to the rules of the gospel , sincerely believe all the mysteries of faith , and live suitably to their belief , both the advantages of worthy receiving , and the danger of unworthy receiving being so great , it was necessary for them to make use of all the faeulties they had , either for awakening reverence and fear , that the contemptible elements of bread and wine , might not bring a cheapness and disesteem upon these holy mysteries , or for perswading their communicants to all serious and due preparation , upon so great an occasion . this being then allowed , it were no strange thing , though in their sermons , or other devout treatises , they should run out to meditations that need to be mollified with that allowance that must be given to all panegyricks or perswasives : where many things are always said , that if right understood , have nothing in them to startle any body ; but if every phrase be examined grammatically , there would be many things found in all such discourses , that would look very hideously . is it not ordinary in all the festivities of the church , as s. austin observed on this very occasion , to say , this day christ was born , or died , or rose again in ? and yet that must not be taken literally . beside , when we hear or read any expressions that sound high or big , we are to consider the ordinary stile of him that uses these expressions ; for if upon all other occasions he be apt to rise high in his figures , we may the less wonder at some excesles of his stile . if then such an orator as s. chrysostome was , who expatiates on all subjects , in all the delighting varieties of a fertile phancy , should on so great a subject , display all the beauties of that ravishing art in which he was so great a master , what wonder is it ? therefore great allowances must be made in such a case . further , we must also consider the tempers of those to whom any discourse is addressed . many things must be said in another manner to work on novices , or weak persons , than were fit or needful for men of riper and stronger understandings . he would take very ill measures , that would judge of the future state , by these discourses in which the sense of that is infused in younger or weaker capacities ; therefore though in some catechisms that were calculated for the understandings of children and novices , such as s. cyril's , there be some high expressions used , it is no strange thing ; for naturally all men on such occasions , use the highest and biggest words they can invent . but we ought also to consider , what persons have chiefly in their eye , when they speak to any point . for all men , especially when their fancies are inflamed with much servor , are apt to look only to one thing at once ; and if a visible danger appear of one side , and none at all on the other , then it is natural for every one to exceed on that side , where there is no danger . so that the hazard of a contempt of the sacrament being much and justly in their eye , and they having no cause to apprehend any danger on the otherside , of excessive adoring or magnifying it : no wonder , if in some of their discourses , an immoderate use of the counterpoise , had inclined them to say many things of the sacrament , that require a fair and can did interpretation . yet after all this , they say no more , but that in the sacrament they did truly and really communicate on the body and blood of christ ; which we also receive and believe . and in many other treatises , when they are in colder blood , examining things , they use such expressions and expositions of this , as no way favour the belief of transubstantiation ; of which we have given some account in a former paper . but though that were not so formally done , and their writings were full of passages that needed great allowances , it were no more than what the fathers that wrote against the arrians , confess the fathers before the council of nice , were guilty of ; who writing against sabellius , with too much veliemence , did run to the opposite extream . so many of s. ciril's passages against nestorius , were thought to favour eutychianism . so also theodoret , and two others , writing against the entychians , did run to such excesses , as drew upon them the condemnation of the fifth general council . the first time we find any contestor canvassing about the sacrament , was in the controversie about images , in the eighth century , that the council of constantinople , in the condenming of images , declared , there was no other image of christ to be received , but the blessed sacrament ; in which , the substance of bread and wine was the image of the body and blood of christ ; making a difference between that which is christs body by nature , and the sacrament , which is his body by institution . now it is to be considered , that whatever may be pretended of the violence of the greek emperors over-ruling that council in the matter of condemning images ; yet there having been no contest at all about the sacrament , we cannot in reason think they would have brought it into the dispute , if they had not known these two things were the received doctrine of the church : the one , that in the sacrament , the substance of bread and wine did remain ; the other , that the sacrament was the image or figure of christ ; and from thence they acknowledged , all images were not to be rejected , but denied any other images besides that in the sacrament . now the second council of nice , being resolved to quarrel with them as much as was possible , do not at all condemn them for that which is the chief testimony for us ( to wit ) that the sacrament was still the substance of bread and wine ; and damascene , the zealous defender of images , clearly insinuates his believing the substance of bread and wine remained , and did nourish our bodies . let it be therefore considered , that when that council of nice was in all the bitterness imaginable canvassing every word of the council of constantinople , they never once blame them for saying , the substance of bread and wine was in the sacrament . it is true , they condemned them for saying the sacrament was the image of christ , denying that any of the fathers had called it so ; alledging that the symboles were called antit pes by the fathers , only before the consecration , and not after ; in which they followed damascene , ( de fid. orth . lib. 4. cap. 14. ) who had fallen in the same errour before them . but this is so manifest a mistake in matter of fact , that it gives a just reason for rejecting the authority of that council , were there no more to be said against it : for this was either very gross ignorance , or effronted impudence , since in above twenty fathers that were before them , the sacrament is called the figure and antitype of christ's body ; and at the same time , that damascene , who was then looked on as the great light of the east , did condemn the calling the sacrament , the figure of christ's body . the venerable bede , ( bed. in psal. 3. & mark 14. ) that was looked on as the great light of the west , did according to the stile of the primitive church , and in s. austin's words , call it , the figure of christ's body . i shall not trace the other forgeries and follies of that pretended general council , because i know a full account of them is expected from a better pen ; only in this particular i must desire the reader to take notice , that the council of constantinople did not innovate any thing in the doctrine about the sacrament , and did use it as an argument in the other controversie concerning images , without any design at all about the eucharist . but on the other hand , the second council of nice did innovate and reject a form of speech , which had been universally received in the church , before their time ; and being engaged with all possible spight against the council of constantinople , resolved to contradict every thing they had said , as much as could be : so that in this we ought to look on the council of constantinople , as delivering what was truly the tradition of the church , and on the second council of nice , as corrupting it . about thirty years after that council , paschase radbert abbot of corbie , wrote about the sacrament , and did formally assert the corporal presence , in the ninth century . the greatest patrons of this doctrine , such as bellarmin and sirmondus , both jesuites , confess , he was the first that did fully and to purpose explain the verity of christ's body and blood in the eucharist . and paschase himself , in his letter to his friend frudegard , regrates that he was so flow in believing and assenting to his doctrine ; and does also acknowledge , that by his book he had moved many to the understanding of that mystery ; and it is apparent by that letter , that not only frudegard , but others were scandalized at his book , for he writes , i have spoken of these things more fully , and more expresly , because i understand that some challenge me , that in the book i have published of the sacraments of christ , i have ascribed either more or some other thing than is consonant to truth to the words of our lord. of all the writers of that age , or near it , only one ( and his name we know not , the book being anonymous ) was of paschase's opinion . but we find all the great men of that age were of another mind , and did clearly assert , that in the sacrament , the substance of bread and wine remained , and did nourish our bodies as other meats do . these were rabanus maurus , archbishop of mentz , amalarius , archbishop of treves , or as others say , metz , heribald , bishop of auxerre , bertram , iohn scot erigena , walafridus strabo , florus and christian druthmar . and three of these set themselves on purpose to refute paschase . the anonymous writer that defends him , says , that raban did dispute at length against him in an epistle to abbot egilon , for saying it was that body that was born of the virgin , and was crucified , and raised again , that was daily offered for the life of the world. that is also condemned by raban in his penitential , cap. 33. who refers his reader to that epistle to abbor egilon . and for bertram , he was commanded by charles the bald , then emperor , to write upon that matter , which in the beginning of his book he promises to do , not trusting to his own wit , but following the steps of the holy fathers . it is also apparent by his book , that there were at that time different perswasions about the body of christ in the sacrament ; some believing it was there without any figure ; others saying , it was there in a figure and mystery . upon which he apprehended , there must needs follow a great schism . and let any read paschase's book , and after that bertram's , and if he have either honesty , or at least , shame remaining in him , he must see it was in all points the very same controversie that was canvassed then between them , and is now debated between the church of rome and us. now that raban and bertram were two of the greatest and most learned men of that age , cannot be denied : raban passes without contest amongst the first men of the age ; and for bertram , we need neither cite what trithemius says of him , nor what the disciples of s. austin , in the port-royal , have said to magnifie him , when they make use of him to establish the doctrine of the efficacy of grace . it is a sufficient evidence of the esteem he was in , that he was made choice of by the bishop of france , to defend the latin church against the greeks ; and upon two very important controversies that were moved in that age ; the one being about predestination and grace , the other , that which we have now before us , he , though a private monk , raised to no dignity , was commanded by the emperor to write of both these ; which no man can imagine had been done , if he had not been a man much 〈◊〉 and esteemed ; and way in which he writes , is solid and worthy of the reputation he ha 〈…〉 quired : he proves both from the words of institution , and from st. paul , that the sacrame●● was still bread and wine . he proves from s. austin , that these were mysteries and figures of christ's body and blood. and indeed considering that age , he was an extraordinary writer . the third that did write against paschase , was iohn scot , otherwise called erigena , who was likewise commanded to write about the sacrament , by that same emperor . he was undoubtedly the most learned and ingenious man of that age , as all our english historians tell us , chiefly william of malmsbury : he was in great esteem both with the emperor , and our great king alfred . ( lib. 2. de gest. reg. ) he was accounted a saint and a martyr ; his memory was celebrated by an anniversary on the tenth of november . he was also very learned in the greek , and other oriental tongues , which was a rare thing in that age. this erigena did formally refute paschase's opinion , and assert ours . it is true , his book is now lost , being 200 years after burned by the c. of vercel ; but though the church of lyons does treat him very severely in their book against him , and fastens many strange opinions upon him , in which there are good grounds to think they did him wrong ; yet they no where challenge him for what he wrote about the sacrament ; which shews they did not condemn him for that ; though they speak of him with great animosity , because he had written against predestination and grace efficacious of it self , which they defended . it seems most probable that it was from his writings , that the homily read at easter by the saxons here in england , does so formally contradict the doctrine of transubstantiation . and now let the reader judge , if it be not clear that paschase did innovate the the doctrine of the church in this point , but was vigorously opposed by all the great men of that age. for the following age , all historians agree , it was an age of most prodigious ignorance and debauchery , and that amongst all sorts of people , none being more signally vicious than the clergy ; and of all the clergy , none so much as the popes , who were such a succession of monsters , that baronius cannot forbear making the saddest exclamations possible concerning their cruelties , debaucheries , and other vices : so that , then , if at any time , we may conclude all were asleep , and no wonder if the tares paschase had sown , did grow up ; and yet of the very few writings of the age that remain , the far greater number seem to favour the doctrine of bertram . but till berengarius his time , we hear nothing of any contest about the eucharist . so here were 200 years spent in an absolute ignorance and forgetfulness of all divine things . about the middle of the 11th cent. bruno bishop of angiers , and berengarius , who was born in tours , but was arch-deacon and treasurer of the church of angiers , did openly teach , that christ was in the sacrament only in a figure . we hear little more of bruno ; but berengarius is spoken of by many historians , ( sigebert , platma , antonin . sabellicus , chron. mont. cassin . sigonius , vignier , guitmond , and chiefly william of malmsbury ) as a man of great learning and piety , and that when he was cited to the council at rome , before nicolaus the second , none could resist him ; that he had an excellent faculty of speaking , and was a man of great gravity ; that he was held a saint by many : he did abound in charity , humility , and good works , and was so chaste , that he would not look at a beutiful woman . and hildebert bishop of mans , whom s. bernard commends highly , made such an epitaph on him , that notwithstanding all the abatements we must make for poetry , yet no man could write so of an ordinary person . this berengarius wrote against the corporal presence , calling it a stupidity of paschase's and lanfrank's , who denied that the substance of bread and wine remained after consecration . he had many followers , as sigebert tells us , ( edit . antwerp . 1608. ) and william of malmsbury , and matthew paris , tell us his doctrine had overspred all france . it were too long to shew with what impudent corrupting of antiquity those who wrote against him , did stuff up their books . divers councils were held against him , and he through fear , did frequently waver ; for when other arguments proved too weak to convince him , then the faggot , which is the sure and beloved argument of that church , prevailed on his fears ; so that he burnt his own book , and signed the condemnation of his own opinion at rome ; this he did , as lanfrank upbraids him , not for love of the truth , but for fear of death : which shews he had not that love of the truth , and constancy of mind he ought to have had . but it is no prejudice against the doctrine he taught , that he was a man not only subject to , but overcome by so great a temptation ; for the fear of death is natural to all men . and thus we see , that in the 9th century our doctrine was taught by the greatest writers of that time , so that it was then generally received , and not at all condemned either by pope or council . but in the 11th century , upon its being defended , it was condemned . can there be therefore any thing more plain , than that there was a change made , and that what in the one age was taught by a great number of writers , without any censure upon it , was in another age anathematized ? is there not then here a clear change ? and what has been done , was certainly possible , from whence we conclude with all the justice and reason in the world , that a change was not only possible , but was indeed made . and yet the many repeated condemnations of berengarius , shew , his doctrine was too deeply rooted in the minds of that age , to be very easily suppressed ; for to the end of the 11th century , the popes continued to condemn his opinions , even after his death . in the beginning of the 12th century , honorius of autun , who was a considerable man in that age , did clearly assert the doctrine of the sacraments nourishing our bodies , and is acknowledge by thomas waldensis , to have been a follower of berengarius his heresie . and about the 18th year of that age , that doctrine was embraced by great numbers in the south of france , who were from ther several teachers called petrobrusrans , henricians , waldenses , and from the countrey , where their number were greatest , albigenses ; whose confession , dated the year 1120 , bears , that the eating of the sacramental bread , was the eating of iesus christ in a figure ; iesus christ having said , as oft as ye do this , do it in remembrance of me . it were needless to engage in any long account of these people ; the writers of those times have studied to represent them in as hateful and odious characters , as it was possible for them to devise ; and we have very little remaining that they wrote . yet as the false witnesses that were suborned to lay heavy things to our blessed saviour . charge , could not agree among themselves ; so for all the spite with which these writers prosecute those poor innocents , there are such noble characters given , even by these enemies , of their piety , their simplicity , their patience , constancy , and other virtues ; that as the apologists for christianity , do justly glory in the testimonies pliny , lucian , tacitus , iosephus , and other declared enemies give ; so any that would study to redeem the memory of those multitudes , from the black aspersions of their foul-mouthed enemies , would find many passages among them to glory much in , on their behalf , which are much more to be considered than those virulent calumnies with which they labour to blot their memories : but neither the death of peter de bruis , who was burnt , nor all the following cruelties , that were as terrible as could be invented by all the fury of the court of rome , managed by the inquisitions of the dominicans , whose souls were then as black as their garments , could bear down or extinguish that light of the truth , in which what was wanting in learning , wit , or order , was fully made up in the simplicity of their manners , and the constancy of their sufferings . and it were easie to shew , that the two great things they were most persecuted for , were their refusing subjection to the see of rome , and their not believing the doctrine of the corporal presence ; nor were they confined to one corner of france only , but spred almost all europe over . in that age steven bishop in eduen is the first i ever find cited to have used the word transubstantiation , who expresly says , ( de sacram. altar . c. 13. ) that the oblation of bread and wine is transubstantiated into the body and blood of christ : some place him in the beginning , some in the middle of that age ; for there were two bishops of that see , both of the same name ; the one , anno 1112. the other 1160. and which of the two it was , is not certain ; but the master of the sentences was not so positive , and would not determine , ( lib. 4. dist . 11. ) whether christ was present formally , substantially , or some other way . but in the beginning of the 13th century , one amalric , or almaric , who was in great esteem for learning , did deny transubstantiation , saying , that the body of christ was no more in the consecrated bread , than in any other bread , or any other thing ; ( anno 1215. c. 1. ) for which he was condemned in the 4th council of lateran , and his body , which was buried in paris , was taken up and burnt ; and then was it decreed , that the body and blood of christ were truly contained under the kinds ( or species ) of bread and wine , the bread being transubstantiated into the body , and the wine into the blood. all the while this doctrine was carried on , it was managed with all the ways possible , that might justly create a prejudice against them who set it forward ; for besides many ridiculous lying wonders , that were forged to make it more easily believed by a credulous and superstitious multitude , the church of rome did discover a cruelty and blood-thirstiness which no pen is able to set out to the full . what burnings and tortures , and what croissades as against infidels and mabumetans , did they set on against those poor innocent companies , whom they with an enraged , wolvish and barbarous bloodiness studied to destroy ? this was clearly contrary to the laws of humanity , the rules of the gospel , and the gentleness of christ : how then could such companies of wolves pretend to be the followers of the lamb ? in the primitive church , the bishops that had prosecuted the priscillanists before the emperor maximus , to the taking away their lives , were cast out of the communion of the church ; but now did these that still pretended to be christ's vicars , shew themselves in antichrist's colours , dipt in blood . if then any of that church that live among us , plead for pity , and the not executing the laws , and if they blame the severity of the statutes against themselves , let them do as becomes honest men , and without disguise , disown and condemn those barbarities , and them that were the promoters and pursuers of them ; for those practices have justly filled the world with fears and jealousies of them , that how meekly soever they may now whine under the pretended oppression of the laws , they would no sooner get into power , but that old leaven not being yet purged out of their hearts , they would again betake themselves to fire and faggot , as the unanswerable arguments of their church : and so they are only against persecution , because they are not able to persecute ; but were they the men that had the power , it would be again a catholick doctrine and practice : but when they frankly and candidly condemn those practices and principles , they will have somewhat to plead , which will in reason prevail more than all their little arts can do to procure them favour . it was this same council of lateran , that established both cruelty , persecution and rebellion into a law , appointing , that all princes should exterminate all hereticks , ( this is the mercy of that church which all may look for , if ever their power be equal to their malice ) and did decree , ( cap. 3. ) that if any temporal lord , being admonished by the church , did neglect to purge his lands , he should be first excommunicated , and if he continued a year in his contempt and contumacy , notice was to be given of it to the pope , who from that time forth should declare his vassals absolved from the fidelity they owed him , and expose his lands to be ivaded by catholicks , who might possess them without any contradiction , having exterminated the hereticks out of them , and so preserve them in the purity of the faith. this decree was made on the account of raimond count of tholouse , who favoured the albigenses , that were his subjects ; and being a peer of france according to the first constitution under hugo capet king of france , was such a prince in his own dominions , as the princes of germany now are . he was indeed the king of france his vassal ; but it is clear from the history of that time , that the king of france would not interpose in that business . yet the popes in this same council of lateran , did , by the advice of the council , give to simon montfort ( who was general of the croissade , that the pope sent against that prince ) all the lands that were taken from the count of tholouse . so that there was an invasion both of the count of tholouse , and of the king of france his rights . for if that prince had done any thing amiss , he was only accountable to the king , and the other peers of france . this decree of the council is published by dom. luc. dachery ; ( tom. 7. spic . and tom. 11. of the council , print . anno 1672. p. 233. ) so that it is plain , that the pope got here a council to set up rebellion by authority , against the express rules of the gospel . this almost their whole church accounts a general council , a few only among us excepted , who know not how io approve themselves good subjects , if they own that a general council , which does so formally establish treasonable and seditious principles . for if it be true , that a general council making a definition in an article of faith , is to be followed and submitted to by all men , the same arguments will prove that in any controverted practical opinion , we ought not to trust our own reasons , but submit to the definition of the church ; for if in this question a private person shall rest on his own understanding of the scriptures , and reject this decree , why may he not as well in other things assume the same freedom ? it is true , the words of the decree seem only to relate to temporal lords that were under soveraign princes , such as the count of tholouse ; and therefore crowned heads need fear nothing from it : but though the decree runs chiefly against such , yet there are two clauses in it that go further ; one is in these words , saving always the right of the principal lord , provided he make no obstacle about it , nor cast in any impediment . whence it plainly follows , that if the soveraign , such as the king of france , in the case of tholouse , did make any obstacle , he forfeited his right . the other clause is in these words , the same law being nevertheless observed about those who have no principal lords . in which are clearly included all those soveraigns , who depend and hold their crowns immediately from god. now it is apparent , the design of these words so couched , was once to bring all soveraigns under that lash , before they were aware of it ; for had they named emperors and kings , they might reasonably have expected great opposition from them ; but insinuating it so covertly , it would pass the more easily : yet it is plain , nothing else can be meant , or was intended by it ; so that it is clear , that the 4th council of lateran , as it established transubstantiation , so did also decree both persecution and rebellion : therefore the reader may easily judge , what account is to be made of that council , and what security any state can have of those who adhere to it . our saviour when he states the opposition between the children of god , and the children of the devil , he gives this for the character of the latter , that they did the works of their father ; and these he mentions are lying and murdering : we have seen sufficient evidence of the murdering spirit which acted in that church , when this doctrine was set up . but to compleat that black character , let us look over to the council of constance , which decreed that bold violation of the command of christ , drink ye all of it ; by taking the chalice from the laity : and there we find perfidy , which is the basest and worst kind of lying , also established by law : for it was decreed by them , ( sess. 19. ) that all safe conducts notwithstanding , or by what bonds soever any prince had engaged himself , the council was no way prejudiced , and that the iudge competent might enquire into their errors ; and proceed otherwise duly against them , and punish them according to iustice , if they stubbornly refuse to retract their errours , although trusting to their safe conduct , they had come to the place of iudgment , and had not come without it ; and declare , that whoever had promised any such thing to them , having done what in him lay , was under no further obligation . upon which , sigismund broke his faith to iohn hus and ierome of prague , and they were burnt . so that their church , having in general councils decreed both perfidy and cruelty , it is casie to infer by what spirit they are acted , and whose works they did . if then they did the works of the devil , who was a liar and murderer from the beginning , they cannot be looked on as the children of god , but as the children of the devil . if this seem too severe , it is nothing but what the force of truth draws from me , being the furthest in the world from that uncharitable temper of aggravating things beyong what is just ; but the truth must be heard , and the lamb of god could call the scribes and pharisees , a generation of vipers and children of the devil . therefore if a church be so notoriously guilty of the most infamous violation of all the laws of humanity , and the security which a publick faith must needs give , none is to be blamed for laying open and exposing such a society to the just censure of all impartial persons , that so every one may see what a hazard his soul runs by engaging in the communion of a church that is so foully guilty : for these were not personal failings , but were the decrees of an authority which must be acknowledged by them infallible , if they be true to their own principles . so that if they receive these as general councils , i know not how they can clear all that communion from being involved in the guilt of what they decreed . thus far we hope it hath been made evident enough , that there are no impossibilities in such a change of the doctrine of the church about this sacrament , as they imagine . and that all these are but the effects of wit and fancy , and vanish into nothing when closely canvassed . i have not dwelt so long on every step of the history i have vouched , as was necessary , designing to be as short as was possible , and because these things have been at full length set down by others , and particularly in that great and learned work of albertin a french minister concerning this sacrament ; in which the doctrines of the primitive church , and the steps of the change that was made , are so laid open , that no man has yet so much as attempted the answering him : and those matters of fact are so uncontestedly true , that there can be little debate about them , but what may be very soon cleared , and i am ready to make all good to a tittle when any shall put me to it . it being apparent then , that the church of rome has usurped an undue and unjust authority over the other states and nations of christendom , and has made use of this dominion to introduce many great corruptions both in the faith , the worship , and government of the church ; nothing remains but to say a little to justify this churches reforming these abuses . and , first , i suppose it will be granted , that a national church may judge a doctrine to be heretical , when its opposition to the scripture , reason , and the primitive doctrine is apparent : for in that case the bishops and pastors being to feed and instruct the church , they must do it according to their consciences , otherwise how can they discharge the trust , god and the church commit to their charge ? and thus all the ancient hereticks , such as samosatenus , arrius , pelagius , and a great many more were first condemned in provincial councils . secondly , if such heresies be spread in places round about , the bishops of every church ought to do what they can to get others concur with them in the condemning them ; but if they cannot prevail , they ought nevertheless to purge themselves and their own church , for none can be bound to be damned for company . the pastors of every church owe a charity to their neighbour churches , but a debt to their own , which the stubborness of others cannot excuse them from . and so those bishops in the primitiue church , that were invironed with arrians , did reform their own churches when they were placed in any sees that had been corrupted by arrianism . thirdly , no time can give prescription against truth , and therefore had any errour been ever so antiently received in any church , yet the pastors of that church finding it contrary to truth ought to reform it : the more antient or inveterate any errour is , it needs the more to be looked to . so those nations that were long bred up in arrianism , had good reason to reform from that erronr . so the church of rome will acknowledge that the greek church , or our church ought to forsake their present doctrines , though they have been long received . fourthly , no later definitions of councils or fathers ought to derogate from the ancienter decrees of councils , or opinions of the fathers ; otherwise the arrians had reason to have justified their submitting to the councils of sirmium , arimini , and millan , and rejecting that of nice : therefore we ought in the first place to consider the decrees and opinions of the most primitive antiquity . fifthly , no succession of bishops how clear soever in its descent from the apostles , can secure a church from errour . which the church of rome must acknowledge , since they can neither deny the succession of the greek church , nor of the church of england . sixthly , if any church continues so hardned in their errours that they break communion with another church for reforming ; the guilt of this breach must lie at their door who are both in the errour , and first reject the other , and refuse to reform or communicate with other churches . upon every one of these particulars ( and they all set together , compleat the plea for the church of england ) i am willing to joyn issue , and shew they are not only true in themselves , but must be also acknowledged by the principles of the church of rome : so that if the grounds of controversie , on which our reformation did proceed , were good and justifiable , it is most unreasonable to say our church had not good right and authority to make it . it can be made appear that for above two hundred years before the reformation , there were general complaints among all sorts of persons , both the subtle school-men , and devout contemplatives , both ecclesiasticks and laicks did complain of the corruptions of the church , and called aloud for a reformation both of faith and manners : even the council of pisa a little before luther's days , did decree , there should be a reformation both of faith and manners , and that both of the head and members . but all these complaints turned to nothing , abuses grew daily , the interests of the nephews and other corrupt intrigues of the court of rome was always obstructing good motions and cherishing ill customs , for they brought the more grist to their mill. when a reformation was first called for in germany , instead of complying with so just a desire , all that the court of rome thought on , was how to suppress these complaints , and destroy those who made them . in end , when great commotions were like to follow , by the vast multitudes of those who concurred in this desire of reforming , a council was called , after the popes had frequently prejudged in the matter , and pope leo had with great frankness condemned most of luther's opinions . from that council no good could reasonably be expected , for the popes had already engaged so deep in the quarrel , that there was no retreating , and they ordered the matter so , that nothing could be done but what they had a mind to : all the bishops were at their consecration their sworn vassals : nothing could be brought into the council without the legates had proposed it . and when any good motions were made by the bishops of spain or germany , they had so many poor italian bishops kept there on the pope's charges , that they were always masters of the vote : for before they would hold a session about any thing , they had so canvassed it in the congregations , that nothing was so much as put to the hazard . all these things appear even from cardinal pallavicini's history of that council . while this council was sitting , and some years before , many of this church were convinced of these corruptions , and that they could not with a good conscience joyn any longer in a worship so corrupted ; yet they were satisfied to know the truth themselves and to instruct others privately in it , but formed no separated church ; waiting for what issue god in his providence might bring about . but with what violence and cruelty their enemies , who were generally those of the clergy , pursued them , is well enough known : nor shall i repeat any thing of it , lest it might be thought an invidious aggravating of things that are past . but at length , by the death of king henry the eight , the government fell in the hands of persons well affected to the reformation . it is not material what their true motives were , for iehu did a good work when he destroyed the idolatry of baal , though neither his motives nor method of doing it are justifiable : nor is it to the purpose to examine , how those bishops that reformed could have complied before with the corruptions of the roman church and received orders from them . meletius , and felix , were placed by the arrians , the one at antioch in the room of eustatbius , the other at rome , in liberius his room , who were both banished for the faith : and yet both these were afterwards great defenders of the truth ; and felix was a martyr for it , against these very hereticks with whom they complied in the beginning . so whatever mixture of carnal ends might be in any of the secular men , or what allay of humane infirmity and fear might have been in any of the ecclesiasticks ; that can be no prejudice to the cause : for men are always men , and the power of god does often appear most eminently , when there is least cause to admire the instruments he makes use of . but in that juncture of affairs the bishops and clergy of this church seeing great and manifest corruptions in it , and it being apparent that the church of rome would consent to no reformation to any good purpose , were obliged to reform , and having the authority of king and parliament concurring , they had betrayed their consciences and the charge of souls for which they stood engaged , and were to answer at the great day , if they had dallied longer , and not warned the people of their danger , and made use of the inclinations of the civil powers for carrying on so good at work . and it is the lasting glory of the reformation , that when they saw the heir of the crown was inflexibly united to the church of rome , they proceeded not to extream courses against her ; for what a few wrought on by the ambition of the duke of northumberland were got to do , was neither the deed of the nation , nor of the church , since the representatives of neither concurred in it . but the nation did receive the righteous heir : and then was our church crowned with the highest glory it could have desired , many of the bishops who had been most active in the reformation , sealing it with their blood , and in death giving such evident proofs of holy and christian constancy , that they may be justly matched with the most glorious martyrs of the primitive church . then did both these churches appear in their true colours , that of rome weltring in the blood of the saints and insatiately drinking it up : and our church bearing the cross of christ and following his example . but when we were for some years thus tried in the fire , then did god again bless us with the protection of the rightful and lawful magistrate . then did our church do as the primitive church had done under theodosius , when she got out from a long and cruel persecution of the arrians under those enraged emperours constantius and valens . they reformed the church from the arrian doctrine , but would not imitate them in their persecuting spirit . and when others had too deep resentments of the ill usage they had met with under the arrian tyranny , nazianzen and the other holy bishops of that time did mitigate their animosities : so that the churches were only taken from the arrians , but no storms were raised against them . so in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign , it cannot be denied that those of that church were long suffered to live at quiet among us with little or no disturbance , save that the churches were taken out of their hands . nor were even those who had bathed themselves in so much blood made examples , so entirely did they retain the meekness and lenity of the christian spirit . and if after many years quiet , those of that religion when they met with no trouble from the government , did notwithstanding enter into so many plots and conspiracies against the queen's person and the established government , was it any wonder that severe laws were made against them , and those emissaries who under a pretence of coming in a mission , were sent as spies and agents among us to fill all with blood and confusion ? whom had they blame for all this but themselves ? or was this any thing but what would have been certainly done in the gentlest and mildest government upon earth ? for the law of self-preservation is engraven on all mens natures , and so no wonder every state and government sees to its own security against those who seek its ruine and destruction : and it had been no wonder if upon such provocations there had been some severities used which in themselves were uniustifiable : for few take reparation in an exact equality to the damage and injury they have received . but since that time they have had very little cause to complain of any hard treatment ; and if they have met with any , they may still thank the officious insolent deportment of some of their own church , that have given just cause of jealousie and fear . but i shall pursue this discourse no further , hoping enough is already said upon the head that engaged me to it , to make it appear , that it was possible the doctrine of the church should be changed in this matter , and that it was truly changed . from which i may be well allowed to subsume , that our church discovering that this change was made , had very good reason and a sufficient authority to reform this corruption , and restore the primitive doctrine again . and now being to leave my reader , i shall only desire him to consider a little of how great importance his eternal concerns are , and that he has no reason to look for endless happiness , if he does not serve god in a way suitable to his will. for what hopes soever there may be for one who lives and dies in some unknown error , yet there are no hopes for those that either neglect or despise the truth , and that out of humour or any other carnal account give themselves up to errours , and willingly embrace them , certainly god sent not his son in the world , nor gave him to so cruel a death , for nothing . if he hath revealed his counsels with so much solemnity , his designs in that must be great and worthy of god : the true ends of religion must be the purifying our souls , the conforming us to the divine nature , the uniting us to one another in the most tender bonds of love , truth , justice and goodness , the raising our minds to a heavenly and contemplative temper , and our living ●s pilgrims and strangers on this earth , ever waiting and longing for our change . now we dare appeal all men to shew any thing in our religion or worship , that obstructs any of these ends ; on the contrary , the sum and total of our doctrine is , the conforming our selves to christ and his apostles , both in faith and life , so that it can scarce be devised what should make any body that hath any sense of religion , or regard to his soul , forsake our communion , where he finds nothing that is not highly suitable to the nature and ends of religion , and turn over to a church that is founded on and cemented in carnal interests : the grand design of all their attempts being to subject all to the papal tyranny , which must needs appear visibly to every one whose eyes are opened . for attaining which end they have set up such a vast company of additions to the simplicity of the faith and the purity of the christian worship , that it is a great work even to know them . is it not then a strange choice ? to leave a church that worships god so as all understand what they do and can say , amen ; to go to a church where the worship is not understood , so that he who officiates is a barbarian to them : a church which worships god in a spiritual and unexceptionable manner ; to go to a church that is scandalously ( to raise this charge no higher ) full of images and pictures , and that of the blessed trinity , before which prostrations and adorations are daily made . : a church that directs her devotions to god , and his son jesus christ ; to go to a church that without any good warrant not only invocates saints and angels , but also in the very same form of words , which they offer up to god and jesus christ , which is a thing at least full of scandal , since these words must be strangely wrested from their natural meaning , otherwise they are high blasphemies : a church that commemorates christ's death in the sacrament , and truly communicates in his body and blood , with all holy reverence and due preparation ; to go to a church that spends all her devotion in an outward adoring the sacrament , without communicating with any due care , but resting in the priestly absolution allows it upon a single attrition : a church that administers all the sacraments christ appointed , and as he appointed them ; to go to a church that hath added many to those he appointed , and hath maimed that he gave for a pledge of his presence when he left this earth . in a word , that leaves a church that submits to all that christ and his apostles taught , and in a secondary order to all delivered to us by the primitive church ; to go to a church that hath set up an authority that pretends to be equal to these sacred oracles , and has manifestly cancelled most of the primitive constitutions . but it is not enough to remain in the communion of our church ; for if we do not walk conform to that holy faith taught in it , we disgrace it . let all therefore : that have zeal for our church , express it chiefly in studying to purify their hearts and lives , so as becomes christians , and reformed christians , and then others that behold us , will be ashamed when they see such real confutations of the calumnies of out adversaries , which would soon be turned back on them with a just scorn , if there were not too many advantages given by our divisions , and other . but nothing that is personal ought to be charged on our church : and whoever object any such things , of all persons in the world , they are the most inexcusable , who being so highly guilty themselves , have yet such undaunted brows , as to charge those things on us which if they be practised by any among us , yet are disallowed ; but among them have had all encouragement and authority possible from the corruptions both of their popes , and casuists . but here i break off , praying god he may at length open the eyes of all christendom that they may see and love the truth , and walk according to it . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30412-e4340 more nevochim par. 1. c. 30. notes for div a30412-e5720 apolog. 2. lib. 4. adv . her. c. 34. notes for div a30412-e9840 * boniface the 8th , extrav . lib. 1. c. 1. de majoritate & obedientia . after he had studied to prove that the temporal and material sword , as well as the spiritual , was in the power of st. peter , from these words , behold two swords , and our saviour's answer , it is enough . in the end he concludes whosoever therefore resists this power thus ordained of god , resists the ordinance of god : except with manichee he make two beginnings , which we define to be false and heretical : for moses testifies , that not in the beginnings , but in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . therefore we declare , say , define and pronounce , that it is of necessity to salvation to every human creature , to be subject to the pope of rome : and it is plain this subjection must be , that he had been pleading thorough that whole decretal , which is the subjection of the temporal sword to the spiritual . notes for div a30412-e13990 ord. rom. in pascha . greg. nazian . orat. 1. apol. & 20. orat. chrisost. l. 2. de sacr . c. 10. a continuation of reflections on mr. varillas's history of heresies particularly on that which relates to english affairs in his third and fourth tomes / by g. burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1687 approx. 189 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 81 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30331) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 53298) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 85:3) a continuation of reflections on mr. varillas's history of heresies particularly on that which relates to english affairs in his third and fourth tomes / by g. burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [5], 152 p. printed for j.s., amsterdam : 1687. errata: p. [1] and [5]. reproduction of original in yale university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng varillas, -monsieur -(antoine), 1624-1696. -histoire de l'hérésie. reformation -england. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a continuation of reflections on mr. varillas's history of heresies . particularly on that which relates to english affairs in his third and fourth tomes . by g. burnet , d. d. amsterdam , printed for j. s. 1687. preface . all that is necessary to be said in the way of a preface to these reflections , is , that the references made here to mr. varillas's history , are according to the paris edition ; these reflections were writ before the dutch edition appeared , otherwise the pages should have related to both , according to the one and the other : this will be some inconvenience to those who have only the latter : but since i was resolved to attack mr. varillas in an edition , for which he was accountable ; and to do it with such expedition , that his book might have as little time to do mischief as was possible . i hope the reader will forgive me the trouble to which he is put , in seeking out the places on which i make my reflections . g. burnet . errata . page 32. line 24. days read dates . p. 44. l. 9. surrendess r. surrenders p. 129. l. 25. any r. many . reflections on that which relates to english affairs , in the third and fourth volum of mr. varillas's history of heresies . mr. varillas thinks , that all his imaginations are matters of such importance , that they deserve to be presented to the king ; and because panegyricks are things acceptable to princes as well as to all other men , he it seems has projected one ; and that we may judge of the piece by a pattern , he lets the king of france know , that he has found out two extraordinary subjects for the enriching that master-piece of his eloquence , which perhaps he has in design , that when the quality of an historian fails him , yet his appointments may be continued to him as the kings panegyrist . but if one expects common things , he is much mistaken : for as mr. varillas has told us , that he loves to rise above the vnlgar ; so he has found out a topick for his masters praise , on which no man would ever have thought besides himself : some have compared the king to alexander the great , and others to augustus ; some to trajan , and others to charles the great : in short , all that is most eminent in ancient or modern history , has been brought forth to raise his glory : but no body before mr. varillas thought , that it would raise the kings character much , to give him the preference to a woman : yet since he thought that stroke was wanting to make a compleat panegyrick , one would have expected to have seen some of the chief of the sex brought out , a semiramis , a zenobia , or for all her heresy a queen elisabeth , had made the comparison less odious : but to set the short and despised reign of a princess , that drew on her self the aversion of her husband , and the contempt of all her people , in any sort of comparison with lewis le grand , is a sublime becoming our author . but as the comparison and the preference is a strain a little too humble for the present reign , so the two points on which this part of his piece of oratory is to be enlarged , are mistakes of such a nature , that i do not know how a man could contrive it to put two such conspicuous ones in so remarkable a part of his book . the one is , that queen mary satisfied her self with the re-establishing of the catholick religion in her dominions , without endeavouring to destroy the calvinists : whereas his majesty has not stopt half way , as that princess did : and here he trys the full strength of his sublime to set forth the kings glory in his extirpating heresy . but one would be tempted to ask mr. varillas , whether he has ever read the history of that queens reign or not : for by his way of writing , one is disposed to believe , that he knows not yet what her reign will be when he comes to write it : he has not yet made her character : he thought softness became the sex ; so it seems he will represent her gentle and feeble in all her actings : and it must be so , otherwise the panegyrick will be quite spoiled ; but what will our author say when he finds there were two hundred eighty four burnt by her : that she was not satisfied with all the laws that had been anciently made against herefy , nor with executing them with a rigour that had nothing of the softness of her sex in it : bishops and other churcbmen being put in prison long before those severe laws were made , and kept there till there should be colour in law to make them sacrifices to the zeal of the priests : she was apt enough to shew mercy on all other occasions , but was never guilty of any towards hereticks : she gave commissions that came very near the courts of inquisition ; and besides the evidences of those that i have given in my history , i have since that time seen a register of the earl of sussex's letters , and in it there is a secret article of the directions that the queen sent him , in which he is ordered to have two or three spies in every parish , who should be engaged by oath to observe and discover every mans behaviour , and upon whose informations men were to be examined and punished , without discovering the informers : this was to act in the spirit of an inquisition ; all the difference was , that lay-men had still the management of it , who have naturally bowels and compassions , which is defaced by the indelible character . the queen set on the persecution with so much rigour , that she herself writ letters to animate even the bloodiest of all the bishops , bonner , if at any time compassion softned his spirit a little . there were eight , ten , and thirteen sometimes burning all in one fire , neither age nor sex made any difference , and the cripple and the blind were burnt at the same stake . now i do not deny but galleys and dungeons , and a butcher-like de rapine of valence , are really dreadfuller things , than a quick end of ones misery , tho by fire ; yet so many fires had more lustre , and lookt more terrible ; so this part of the panegyrick will fail mr. varillas , and he will find that queen mary had the better of his monarch . it is true , great numbers seemed to comply in q. mary's time , as well as they have lately done in france , and as we find by pliny's letter to trajan , the christians of those days did upon the first threatning of a persecution ; and when this fell out , while the apostles were but newly dead , and while so much of an extraordinary spirit remained still in the church , it is not to be wondred at if in our days too many have preferred this present world to the faith , and to a good conscience ; but as that forced compliance had no other effect besides the giving those who had not the courage to stand firm , so much the more horrour at their persecutors , so it very quickly turned the spirits of the whole nation to a detestation of a religion that had signalised it self with so much cruelty . i will not take upon me to play the prophet as to the effects that the present persecution in france may have , tho the numbers that come every day out of that babylon , and the visible backwardness of the greatest part of those who have fallen , are but too evident signs that this violence is not like to have those glorious effects which mr. varillas may perhaps set forth in his panegyrick : one thing cannot be denied , that this persecution has contributed more to the establishing the protestant religion elsewhere , and to the awakening men to use all just precaution against the like cruelty , than all that the most zealous protestants could have wished for or contrived ; and of this some princes of that religion are sufficiently sensible , and do not stick to express their horrour at it in terms that they may better use than i repeat . in a word , queen mary in this point will be found to have the better of the french king : she found her people protestants , and yet in eighteen months time she overthrew all the settlement that they had by law ; she turned them out of their churches , and began to burn their teachers and bishops : whereas the french king had not of that religion above the tenth part of his subjects , and yet the extirpating them out of his dominions , has cost him as many years as it did queen mary moneths . the other article of the preference that mr. varillas gives his monarch to queen mary is , that whereas she could not do it without marrying the prince of spain , the king has been able to effect it without the aid of strangers . if this were true , the praise due upon it will not appear to be very extraordinary , since he who has so vast an army , and is in peace with all the world , has been able to crush a small handful without calling in forreign aid ; but on the other hand , queen mary had neither troops nor fleets , and very little treasure , so that her imploying strangers would appear to be no great matter ; yet so unhappy is mr. varillas like to be in all that he writes , that it seems his panegyricks and his historys will be suteable to one another . queen mary indeed married the prince of spain , but she was not much the better for it ; for she took such care to preserve the nation from falling under his power , that as she would receive none of his troops , so she neither gave him nor his mininisters any share in the government of england ; of this he became soon so disgusted , that seeing no hope of issue , and as little probability of his being able to make himself master , he abandoned her ; and she to recover his favour , engaged her self into a war with france , which ended so fatally for england , that calais was lost ; so that upon the whole matter , she lost much more than she gained by the spanish match : but as for her administration at home , if some money that she had from spain , helped a little to corrupt a parliament , that was the only advantage that she made by it : and thus if varillas's panegyrick is not better raised in its other parts than in this , it will be an original ; but i doubt it will not add much lustre to that monarch , nor draw the recompences on the author to which he may perhaps pretend . and if the kings parchment and wax , which he says procured an obedience from two millions of persons , that were prepossessed against it by the most powerful of all considerations , which is that of religion , had not been executed by dragoons in so terrible a manner , it is probable that edict would have had as little effect upon the consciences of the protestants , as it seems the edict of nantes had upon the king 's , tho he had so often promised to maintain it , and had once sworn it . i would not willingly touch such a subject , but such indecent flattery raises an indignation not easily governed . mr. varillas in his preface to his third volum mentions no author with relation to english affairs , except the archbishop of raguse , who , as he says , writ the life of card. pool . i do not pretend to deny that there is any such author , only i very much doubt it ; for i never heard of it in england ; and i was so well pleased with the discoveries that i made relating to that cardinal , that i took all the pains i could to be well informed of all that had writ of him ; so i conclude , that there is nothing extraordinary in that life , otherwise it would have made some noise in england ; and it does not appear credible , that a dalmatian bishop could have any particular knowledge of our affairs ; and if the particulars related in mr. varillas's 14. book are all that he drew out of that life , it seems the archbishop of raguse has been more acquainted with swedish than english affairs : for there is not one word relating to england in all that book , and as little of the cardinal . but mr. varillas has shewed himself more conspicuously in the preface to his fourth tome ; he pretends to have made great use of p. martys works , in his 17. book : but he gives us a very good proof that he never so much as opened them : he tells us , that p. martyr delivered his common-places at oxford , where he was the kings professor , and that one masson printed them at london some years after his death ; he tells us , that an ambition of being preferred to melancton had engaged him to that work : in which he adds , that if he is to be preferred to melancton for subtilty , he is inferiour to him in all other things ; upon which he runs out to let his reader see , how well he is acquainted both with p. martyrs character and history . all men besides mr. varillas take at least some care of their prefaces , because they are read by many who often judge of books , and which is more sensible , they buy them or throw them by as they are writ : now since mr. varillas reproaches me with my ignorance of books , i will make bold to tell him , that the apprentices to whom he sends me for instruction , could have told him , that p. martyr never writ any such book of common places , but that after his death , mr. masson drew a great collection out of all his writings , of passages that he put in the method of common places : so that tho all that book , that goes by the name of p. martyrs common places , is indeed his , yet he never designed nor dictated any such work : and this mr. masson has told so copiously in his preface , that i have thought it necessary to set down his own words : ergo quemadmodum in amplissima domo , & rebus omnibus instructissima , non omnia in acervum unum indistincta cumulantur , sed suis quaeque locis distributa seponuntur ; ut in usus necessarios proferri possint : ita in tantis opibus quas sedulus ille dei oeconomus , ecclesiae dei comparaverat , operae pretium me facturum existimavi si ordine aliquo , omnia disponerem notisque additis indicarem ; unde à studiosis quibusque suo tempore depromi possint : hoc autem meum judicium multo magis mihi probatum est cum in eadem sententia ipsum d. martyrem fuisse intellexi . sic enim à d. ioanne gravilla — qu● tempore d. p. martyris domesticus , una cum multis aliis ejus consuetudine & colloquiis frueretur , ab illo quaesitum aliquando fuisse , quare locos communes uno volumine collectos , cudendos non curaret : hoc enim ecclesiae dei fore utilius ; & a piis quibusque magnopere desideraxi ; cum iis quae dicta fuerunt annuisse : idque si per otium liceret , se aliquando facturum recepisse quod utinam illi prestare dedisset dominus ; neque enim dubium quin & limae labore addito & multarum rerum accessione longe cumulatiores opes ecclesia dei habitura fuisset : id autem cum ipsi minime licu●rit . and if after all these discoveries , mr ▪ varillas can find men that will still read his books and believe them , it must be said , that the age deserves to be imposed upon . there is another particular set forth in this preface , that is of a piece with the former : he tells us , he has drawn that which is most curious in his twentieth book out of commendons negotiation in england , of which he gives us this account ; pope iulius the third writ to cardinal dandino , ordering him to send some able man secretly over to england , to confirm the queen in her resolution of reconciling england again to the see of rome . he upon that sent over commendon , who went to london in disguise ; but by accident found one iohn lee , a privy councellor , who procured him a secret audience ; he had many conferences with the queen , who trusted him with her secret , which was , that she believed she could never re-establish the catholick religion , unless she married the prince of spain , and by that means engaged the house of austria to assist her with their troops : but tho commendon could not doubt that the popes intention was , that she should marry cardinal pool , and not raise spain too much by so great an accession ; yet he had been sent over in hast , and had no instructions relating to that matter ; so he complied with the queens inclinations for the spanish match , of which she spoke to him every time that she gave him audience ; so that he saw into that sectret , and had credit by that means to soften most of the articles , which would otherwise have been of great prejudice to the court of rome . mr. varillas can pretend no warrant for this part of his history but gratians life of commendon ; and if this be the most curious part of his 20. book , we may conclude what judgment we ought to make of the rest . commendon was in london when the duke of northumberland was executed , which was the 22. august : he had been sent from brussels some days before that ; and by consequence he was sent by cardinal dandino of his own motion , as gratian represents it . for king edward died the sixth of iuly , and it was 10. dayes after that before queen mary was in possession : so here there will not be time enough for sending notice to rome , and receiving orders from it . 2. lee was a servant of the queen's , and no privy councellor . 3. the queen never mentioned the spanish match to commendon ; on the contrary , she rather intimated to him her design for cardinal pool : for she asked him , if the pope could not dispence with his marrying , since he was only in deacons orders ; which is confessed elsewhere by mr. varillas . 4. it does not appear by gratian , that commendon saw the queen often ; for as the thing was a great secret , and by consequence many audiences given by a lady , that was so scrupulous as she was , could not be long concealed : so on the other hand , no doubt commendon pressed a dispatch all that was possible , knowing what a step such a piece of news must be to the making his fortune in rome . 5. nor does it appear , that there was the least motion yet made in the match with spain ; and the first proposition that i could find of it , was in a letter writ by the q. of hungary in the emperours name , and subscribed by him , for he was then lame of the gout , and dated in the beginning of november . 6. mr. varillas represents queen mary very ready to discover her greatest secrets , when she would trust an unknown man , sent to her by the legate in the emperours court , with a matter of such consequence . there was no danger in trusting him with her design of reconciling her self to the court of rome ; for he that was a creature of that court , was not to be suspected in that matter ; but it had been a strange loosness of tongue in her to have blobb'd out such a secret to such a person ; so that the preference he gives his king to so weak a woman , will lose much of its grace . and thus by this essay it appears , that mr. varillas holds on his method of writing , and that he does not so much as take care to write his prefaces correctly . i. mr. varillas will shew , that he knows genealogies as well as he does the other parts of history ; for he tells us , that henry the sevenths queen , that was the heiress of the house of york , had no kinswoman of that family nearer to her , than her cou●●n-german margaret . this is strange ignorance ; for she had a sister that married to courtney earl of devonshire , who was mother to the marquis of exeter , that was executed under henry the eighth . now he should have known this , that so he might have given a stroke upon it against the memory of that prince . ii. he sets out cardinal pools great vigour in speaking so freely to the king , against his divorce , that he once intended to put him to death : but he pardoned him in consideration of the compliance of his mother and brethren , and so he was sent by his family to study at padua . all this is a fiction , that was not so much as thought on , till many years after the persons concerned were dead : that cardinal in his book had no regard neither to k. henry's royal dignity , nor to the relation in blood that was between them ; but treated him as a pharaoh , and a nebuchadnezzar : yet he upbraided him with no such thing : tho it had been a very natural apology for all that freedom that he then took , if he could have alledged , that he had expressed himself first so plainly to him in private . but so far was the cardinal from such a behaviour , that ●e complied with the clergy in acknowledging the king to be the supream head of the church of england : for pool in his book tells the king , that ●e was in england when that submission was made ; and adds , that the king would not accept of the present ●hat was offered him by the clergy , un●ess they would likewise give him that title . now it is agreed on by all , that ●is submission was past by the whole convocation unanimously ; fisher●eing ●eing the only man that stood out a ●hile , but even he at last concurred ●ith the rest . and pool was at that 〈◊〉 dean of exeter , and so he was a ●ember of the convocation : he also ●●joyed his deancy several years after ●is ; so that it cannot be imagined , ●●at the king would have let him go 〈◊〉 of england , and have allowed 〈◊〉 a good benefice for supporting 〈◊〉 in his studies , if he had set him●●●f so vigorously to oppose him in a ●●●ter that touched him so near . iii. mr. varillas tells us , that in the 〈◊〉 1536. the king made a law , obliging his subjects to continue firm in the six principal points , which the hereticks disputed most : and to put his reader out of doubt as to this matter , he cites the acts of parliament for that year : but chronology is a study too low for so sublime a writer : and therefore since he thought the fable would go on the better if this law were pu● in this year , he would needs anticipate● three years , and put a law that pas● not before the year 1539. in the yea● 1536. but in this he followed his sanders , or which is all one , his florimon●● de raimond exactly . iv. he reckons up the six articles it seems as others had done before him ; but it is certain , he never looked into our acts of parliament for as they would have set him righ● as to the year , so they would hav● shewed him , that the sixth article di● not at all mention the seven sacrament● and as to auricular confession , it 〈◊〉 only decreed , that it was expedient 〈◊〉 necessary , and that it ought to be reta●ned in the church : for upon this the●● was a great dispute , most of the cle●gy endeavouring to carry the matl●● so far as to declare confession necessary by the law of god : but king henry would not consent to that ; and there is a long letter yet extant , all writ with his own hand , in which he argues this matter liker a learned divine than a great king. v. he tells us , that arch-bishop cranmer conferred all benefices in the quality of vicar general of the church of england , and that he disputed with jesus christ the institution of four sacraments . but neither the one nor the other is true ; for he gave no benefices , but those of his own diocess : and as for his expression of disputing with iesus christ the institution of four sacraments , i pass it as a sublime of our author 's ; yet even the thing is false : all the ground for it is , that in the first part of the erudition of a christian-man , that was set out this year , no mention was made of these four sacraments ; but they were all set forth some years after this , when that work was finished . vi. he says , that upon this the zealous catholicks of england concluded , that the king himself leaned to heresy , and that the provinces of lincoln and northumberland , cambridge-shire , york-shire and durresm , were the first that revolted , and made up a body more than 50000. men . here mr. varillas shews us still how well he likes rebellion , by giving those rebels no worse name than that of zealous catholicks ; and here he gives us the accomplishment of the cardinal de bellay's threatnings : but one would have thought , that a writer , who resolved to dedicate his book to the king , should have softned this part a little ; otherwise a zealous protestant may be naturally carried to make the inference , that if the fears of the change of religion in england , might carry catholicks to rebel , on whom no worse character is bestowed than that of zealous ; why may not protestants , oppressed and ruined , contrary to the faith of irrevocable edicts , claim the same priviledge . his laying of lincoln-shire and northumberland together , and then returning to cambridg-shire , and going back to york-shire , shews how well he knows the situation of our ●counies ; and he instead of lanca-shire and westmorland , has out of his store put northumberland and cambridge-shire in the rebellion ; he also represents this rising only as a beginning , whereas these were the only counties that rebelled : nor did they ever joyn together ; for those of lincoln-shire were suppressed within that county , before the rising in york-shire . vii . he says , the king ordered the dukes of northfolk and suffolk to go to the rebels , and to promise them all that they demanded ; upon which these dukes undertook this message , and went to the rebels camp , with all the shews of humility that could have been expected from the most abject of the vanquished ; they desired them to put their complaints in writing , and when they saw them , they thought them very just , and signed a treaty with them in the kings name ; by which they obliged him to redress all the innovations that had been made in matters of religion : and with this they satisfied those who were in arms , who were so foolish as to lay down their arms upon the faith of this treaty : yet the king , after he had thus dispersed them , did not trouble himself much with the keeping of his word to them ; but as he knew the names of the chief instruments of this sedition , so he put them all in prison at several times , upon some pretended crimes with which they were charged ; and soon after they were proceeded against , according to the forms of law ; and not one of them escaped death , either in secret or in publick . by this relation of this affair , one would think , that the king sent those dukes as supplicants to the rebels : but they went both of them at the head of the kings troops , and both to different armies . 2. they were so far from promising every thing in the kings name , that the kings answers to their demands are yet extant , in which he treats them as brute beasts , that medled themselves in things that they did not understand : the king told them , their duty was to obey , and not to command ; and that he would not at all be advised by them . he did indeed promise a pardon of what was past , to those who should return to their duty : but lie would not alter any thing at their sute . 3. our author did not know , that this rebellion was after the suppression of the lesser monasteries , and that this was one of the chief of their grievances : otherwise he had embelished it , no doubt . 4. he taxes them of imprudence , for trusting the kings promises ; but one would have expected , that in a reign of so much submission as this is , he should have rather shewed their fidelity and loyalty , that made them so easily believe a kings word : but it seems mr. varillas thinks it is a piece of imprudence to rely too much on that . 5. a prince's breaking his faith , is a thing that needs no aggravation ; yet for certain reasons that our author may guess at , if he will , he should not enlarge too much on this , even tho the promise had been given both frequently and solemnly ; for this awakens ill ideas in peoples minds : and makes them conclude with the ecclesiastes , that the thing which hath been , is that which shall be . 6. king henry excepted many out of the general pardon ; others were presently seised on for engaging into new conspiracies : and against all these he proceeded upon no pretended crimes , but upon that of high treason , for having been in actual rebellion against him . 7. all that suffered by form of law for those rebellions , were only two peers , six knights , and the wife of one of them , six abbots , and a monk , and sixteen men of a meanner rank : now considering what a formidable rebellion that had been , this will not appear to have been a very extraordinary severity ; and without running too far back , to things past the memory of man , it were possible to instance rebellions that were not so dreadful , and yet that have ended in many more sacrifices . 8. he tells us of some that died in secret ; if he means that died in their beds in prison , the thing may be very true : but then it is not extraordinary ; but if he means the putting them to death secretly , and the using them so barbarously , that they languished and died under the hands of their tormentors : he must know , that these are things which the english nation knows not ; they may be practised by courts of inquisition , or where dragoons , and de rapines have the execution of the kings parchment and wax put in their hands ; but all tryals and executions in england are open and publick ; which is too gentle a nation to bear the cruelty of torture . viii . mr. varillas would needs have an extraordinary stroke of providence appear here ; for he tells us , that the last of those who suffered under the hand of the hangman , was no sooner dead , then the kings beloved son the duke of richmond , whom he had designed to make his successor , died suddenly of a malignant feaver . but i had warned our author of the necessity of buying a chronological table ; for i saw what would come on it , if he would not be at that charge : the duke of richmond died the 22. of iune 1536. and the first of all the tumults that was begun in lincoln-shire , did not fall out before the october following : so here is a lovely stroke of the poem spoiled . 2. it does not appear that the king had any such design on this son of this : for as he gave him none of the titles of the royal family , so he did not raise him up to any such degree of lustre as must have naturally followed on such a design . ix . he joyns to this edward the sixths birth , and says , that his mother not being able to bring him forth , king henry ordered her belly to be opened ; saying , that he could find another wife , but that he was not sure to find another son : and that he began presently after her death to think on a fourth marriage . again it appears that mr. varillas wants a chronological table ; for he joins king edward's birth to the duke of richmond's death ; tho there was sixteen moneths between them ; for king edward was born the twelfth of october 1537. and that was nine moneths after all the executions were over . 2. king edward was born in the ordinary way , and the queen was as well a day after as any woman in her condition could be : of this there are many good proofs extant ; for her council writ letters over all england , giving notice of her safe delivery , and of her good health , and two days after , others say three days after , she was taken with a distemper ordinary to women in her condition , of which she died . 3. our author should have considered the decorum of his fable better , than to make the king speak of a son before he was born : it had been more natural to make him speak of a child indefinitly . 4. this queens death affected k. henry so much , that he let two years pass before he entred into any treaty for a new wife . 5. he puts this in the year 1538. tho it fell out in the year 1537. x. he opens upon the death a project for reconciling england to the court of rome : and says , that in order to the satisfying that court , it was not doubted but the parliament of england would annual king henry's second marriage , and declare elisabeth a bastard . he adds , that a marriage of king henry with margaret , daughter to francis the first , was projected : and here he shews , how great a resemblance of humours there was between them . he adds , that pope paul the third was much pressed by the colledge of cardinals , to fulminate against henry , since the cardinals hat , which he had sent to fisher , had only served to precipitate his death : upon which the pope was bound both in honour and interest to revenge that contempt that was put on the purple ; for if the persons of cardinals were not esteemed sacred , this would very much slacken their courage upon dangerous occasions : the pope therefore very dexterously resolved to shew his thunder without discharging it . so tho a new sentence was past , yet it was not published , in hopes that the king , for the safety of his person , that was always exposed to the resentments of zealous catholicks , or for the securing himself from those seditions which broke out in one place , as soon as they were quieted in another , would at last reconcile himself to the holy see. the only project that was ever set on foot after the breach , for reconciling england to the court of rome , was almost two years before this , upon anne bullens fall : for then the pope proposed it to cassali , that had been the kings ambassador at rome , but the king rejected it with so much scorn , that in his next parliament he past two laws against all commerce with that court , severer than any of the former . 2. there was no need of asking an act of parliament for annulling the kings marriage with anne bullen , and for illegitimating the issue ; for that was already done , upon a confession of a pre-contract that was drawn from her : of which it is plain mr. varillas knew nothing , tho it is in our statute books , and these were then printed both in french and english. 3. it does not appear that there was ever the least motion of a marriage between king henry and margaret of france , muchless that it was believ'd concluded . 4. our author does not observe the decency of the cardinals pressing the pope to severity , when he expressed it by his revenging the contempt put upon the purple . it must be confessed , that this is too haughty a stile for him that pretends to be the vicar of christ : the language of revenge does not agree with the meekness of the lamb of god. 5. but if he makes the cardinals speak a little too high with relation to the popes resentments , he makes them as abject as can be in their own particulars ; since they own , that the ground of their courage in serving the holy se● on dangerous occasions , was the sacredness of their persons , which must be maintained , otherwise it could not be expected that they would expose themselves any more . there is no courage when a man knows he is invulnerable . it seems mr. varillas thinks , that the colledge of cardinals have not the spirit of martyrdom among them : now tho it is very likely that this may be true , yet mr. varillas had shewed more respect if he had suppressed it . 6. the sentence which mr. varillas represents , as past at this time , but not pronounced , was passed two years before this , the first of september 1535. so little is he exact , that he does not examin the days of printed bulls . 7. mr. varillas represents this present negotiation as in the year 1538. which he sets on his margin , yet the final publishing of the sentence was on the 17. of december 1538. so that all this delay of the sentence , and that which follows , could not belong to this year ; but it must come in here for amours giving a lustre to romances ; our author thought , it was necessary to make them have a large share in all his relations , and if the dates of matters will not agree , there is no help for it , he must pass over such inconsiderable things . 8. zealous catholicks again for rebels . xi . he goes on to dream , and fancies , that since the daughter of france was christned by king henry , both francis and he would be obliged to send to rome for a dispensation ; and that the pope resolved not to grant it , but after that england should be reconciled to the holy see. therefore to facilitate this matter , the pope sent for pool , who was then at padua , and he made him a cardinal , and sent him to france , to set on that design : which pool , who loved his countrey to excess , undertook with all possible zeal . but the king of england by a fatal blindness rejected all this . and here he pretends to tell what might be the secret reasons of it , in his way , that is to say , very impertinently . he adds , that king henry sent to francis , to demand cardinal pool as a fugitive and a traytor , and that he cited the examples of charles the fifth , and of his father , who had delivered up princes of the house of york to the kings of england ; and in conclusion , that henry threatned francis , that if he did not grant his desire , he would break the league in which he was with him , and would make one with the emperour against him . if mr. varillas had seen card. pools book against king henry , which he pretends to have lying before him , he would have known that it was printed in the year 1536. in which he had used the king in a stile that no crowned head in the world could al ow of : but the conclusion of it was beyond all the rest ; for he conjured the emperour to turn his arms rather against the king than against the turk ; and it was known in england , that he had obtained this commission to be sent to france , only that he might set on a league between the two crowns , against england ; and so it was no wonder if the king resented his being well received in the court of france . 2. it is not to be imagined , that when charles the fifth was contriving how to make war upon england , and was the person that chiefly supported cardinal pool , that , i say , king henry would be so highly displeased with the civility of the court of france to the cardinal , as to threaten upon that to join with the emperour , who was the kings chief enemy , and the spring that set pool in motion ; therefore all this whole negotiation is to be reckoned among our authors fictions , since he gives no proofs of it . xii . mr. varillas says , that king henry set fifty thousand crowns on cardinal pools head : and upon this he grafts a new fable . but in the sentence , and act of attaindor against pool , there is not a word of any sum set on his head ; so this was a small decoration that was not to be omitted by a man that does not trouble himself to examin , whether what he writes is true or not . xiii . if mr. varillas were not so excessively ignorant as he is of the history of england , he would not have passed over the great advantage he had here of reproaching king henry , with that which was indeed the greatest blemish of his whole reign , and that was first practised on the countess of salisbury , cardinal pools mother , whom by an affectation contrary to our rules , he calls princess margaret , the title princess being affected in england to our kings children ; and not being so much as given to their brothers children , who are only called ladies : this piece of tyranny was , that she was condemned without being brought to make her defence , or to be heard answer for herself . now i leave it to the reader to judge how well informed mr. varillas is , who is ignorant of that which is to be found in every one of our writers , that have given the history of that time : and which would have furnished him with the best article of his whole satyr against king henry . xiv . he tells us ; that calvin writ an apology for king henry's conduct in that matter ; upon which he makes a long excursion . but i know nothing of this matter ; i believe it not a whit the better , because mr. varillas sayes it ; and it does not appear among his printed works . he adds , that the accusation was false that was brought against card. pool , as if he had formed a design to raise troops in picardy and normandy , and to make a descent with them to assist the zealous catholicks of england : one reason that he gives to prove it false , is , that the english were at that time masters of the sea. the good opinion that mr. varillas has of the rebellions of the zealous catholicks of england returns often in this kind epithet , that he bestows on them . but for this accusation of cardinal pools , our author may very well answer it ; for i believe , it was never made by any before himself : yet so unhappy is he , that he must discover his ignorance in every page and line of his book . the kings of england had then no fleets , and so they were not masters of the sea , unless he means that the soveraignty of the four sea 's belonged to the crown of england , in which sense i acknowledg , that not only then , but at all times , the king of england is master of the sea. xv. mr. varillas , after he had carried his romance to make the round to other parts , returns back to england ; but i do not know by what ill luck it is , that there is not one single paragraph that relates to our affairs that is true : he begins here with the pretended sentence against latimer , bishop of vigorne , and scherton bishop of sarisbery , who were , as he says , not only degraded , but condemned to perpetual imprisonment , for having spoke somewhat against the six articles . 1. it is perhaps to descend too low to tell him , that he ought to have named those sees worcester and salisbury , and that the latter of those bishops was not scherton , but shaxton ; for the marking such small faults looks like a want of more material ones . 2. these two bishops were never degraded , but of their own accord they resigned their bishopricks , within three days after the act of the six articles had passed ; and it was some time after that , before they were put in prison , upon an accusation relating to the six articles , and not for latimer's having eat meat on a good fryday , as our author reports it in another place , having forgot what he had said here . for it is a very hard thing to remember lies , especially when the number of them is so excessively great . xvi . upon wolsey ' s fall he tells us , that the king cast his eyes upon thomas cromwel , to be his chief minister ; who was a gentleman of quality ; upon which he tells us , that the family of the cromwels was very antient , and had already produced some that had been raised to the chief imployments in the state ; and so he goes on to make a parallel between the late protector and king henry's minister : only he will not in this place examin whether the one descended from the other or not . one would wonder how it falls out that mr. varillas is so constantly mistaken , even in the most obvious matters : there is not one that writ in that time on those affairs , that does not take notice of the meanness of cromwel's birth ; for his father was a black-smith ; and his base extraction is particularly mentioned in the act that condemned him . 2. he is the first of his name that is spoken of in our story : for the family was so far from being antient , that it was not known before him . 3. oliver cromwel was no way related to him , and indeed not so much as by being originally of that name : being descended from an antient family in wales , of the ap william's , & at this time the welchmen beginning to take sirnames , who before went only by the name of some eminent man among their ancestors , with the addition of ap before it : this ap williams having received great obligations from cromwel , he made choice of his name . 4. our author says true here , that cromwel succeeded wolsey in the chief ministry , but yet he contradicts himself ; for he had said elsewhere , that by anne bullens means cranmer was raised at this time to the dignity of being the first minister : but he grows old , and it seems his memory decays ; all the rest of his character of cromwel , and the projects that he puts in his head are a continuation of the romance . xvii . mr. varillas will here rise above the vulgar , and give a representation of the state of the monasteries in england : he tells us , they had acquired the property of two thirds of the kingdom : and among the other effects of the power of the clergy , he mentions this , that the popes had many officers in england : for levying the peterpence , who had such an influence over the clergy , that they had the main stroak in our parliaments ; by which means it was , that tho the king of england was as to the outward appearance master of his kingdom , yet in effect he was far from it : and that as king henry had a mind to 〈◊〉 off this yoke , so cromwel suggested to him the method in which it might be done : and among other things , ●●nce the chief resistance that the crown had met with in parliament , had always come from the monks , he propos'd to the king the seising on their revenues . one would think that mr. varillas had intended to prepare an apology for king henry's seising on the abbey lands : for if they had two thirds of the kingdom , if they were influenced by italian ministers , and if they had always opposed the designs of the crown in parliament , here were very powerful reasons for suppressing them . 2. it is generally believed that the abbey lands might be one third of england : but no body ever carried the estimate of their wealth to so invidious a height before mr. varillas , as to imagin , that they were masters of two thirds of the nation . and as for that interest that he pretends that some italians have had in them , and the opposition that they gave the crown in parliament , these are either fictions of his own , or of some author as bad as himself , if any such can be found . in the times of king iohn , and of his son henry the third , the italians oppressed england severely , but they were far from doing it by the interest they had among the monasteries ; for it appears by matthew paris , how much they complained of that tyranny ; which was in a great measure repressed when england came to have kings who had more spirit : so that edward the first and edward the third made such effectual laws , that after their time we find no evidences of any great stroke that italian officers had in england . xviii . he represents the dissolution of the monasteries , as carried on by a project of cromwels , who got a great party among the monks to sign a petition to the king , for which he cites on the margin the expositive or preamble of it , in which they set forth their real unhappiness , tho they seemed to be happy , & that they could not bear the hardness of their condition , and therefore they implored the king's favour , that they might live as other englishmen , free from the constraint of vows , and the tyranny of the court of rome : and they added , that if the king would grant this petition , they prayed him to accept a free surrender of all their goods and lands . this , he says , was sent from house to house , and it was looked on as the master-piece of the reformation . mr. varillas has a mind to demonstrate to all the world , that he knows nothing of english affairs : for 1. there was never any such petition made . 2. i have published almost three hundred of the surrendess , of which the original deeds are yet extant : and these were all of one form , but were not in one writing , as he dreams : the preamble of all is the same : * that they have deliberatly , of certain knowledg , and of their own proper motion , and for some just and reasonable causes , that did especially move their souls and consciences , freely and of their own accord , given and granted to the king , &c. 3. it is plain our author knew nothing of the general visitation that was made of all the monasteries of england , and of the discoveries that were made of the most horrid of all vices , that god had punished with fire and brimstone from heaven , which reigned among them : and of the discoveries made of the instruments of coyning in several houses ; and of the false relicks and the impostures discovered in some images , of which the eyes and mouth were made to move by secret springs ; for these things , that were laid open in the publickest parts of the nation , disposed men to bear with the dissolution , which perhaps would not have been otherwise so easily brought about . 4. nor does our author know , that three years before the general dissolution , all the small monasteries were dissolved . in short , the great discoveries i had made of the progress of this matter , might have engaged a man even of an ordinary degree of carelesness , to have read what i had writ concerning it . but mr. varillas must be an original in every thing . xix . he says , this petition was no sooner read in parliament , than on the 28. of april 1539. they appointed that all the monasteries in england should be set open , and that their lands should be appropriated to the king for the encrease of his revenue ; upon this all was seised on , and there was so much wealth found among them , that out of the church of thomas becket alone , there were six cart load of plate and other things carried away ; and for such of the religious persons as would not quit their profession nor their lands , they proceeded against those who were of a meaner rank as guilty of a contempt of an act of parliament ; and those that were more considered , were attainted of treason , because some libels that had been writ upon the kings divorce , were found among their papers , in which the kings amours were painted to the life ; for these they were accused , as having not only concealed them , but preserved them to posterity : and by a new subtilty the crime of lese majesty was added to that of high treason : and here he comes over again with that of king edward's being cut out of his mothers belly , as if the frequent repeating of falsehoods would gain them the more credit . 1. dates are unhappy things for mr. varillas ; for this act did not pass before the 28. of iune . 2. this act did only confirm what was already done , but did not at all threaten any that would not surrender . 3. there were eighteen abbots present when the act was first read , and seventeen when it passed in the house of lords , and yet none of them opposed it . 4. there was no petition read in either house of parliament , that had been made by the monks ; for this act neither dissolved nor opened any monasteries , but only confirmed the kings title upon their surrenders . 5. his author sanders had raised up two chests of the plate that belonged to beckets shrine , to twenty six cart load : but it seems mr. varillas thought this a little too extravagant , so that he reduces it to a modester number of six ; but yet he should stick to his author . and here i must call to mind a passage of our author's , that had escaped me , concerning thomas beckets bones being raised and burnt ; as if the king had reviewed his process , and by a formal sentence degraded him of his saintship : whereas this matter passed without any sort of ceremony . becket did things that were of another nature than all that has been lately done in the business of the regale ; he was not content to disobey , but thundred against the king and the clergy , and the whole nation , that would not concur with him in his violences , which were such , that at this day they would not pass unpunished even in spain it self : and tho he was killed without any order of the king 's , it is known not only what pennance the king was forced to do , but what a superstition for his memory there followed upon his canonisation : there were two holy days assigned him : there was a iubily every fifty year , with plenary indulgences to all who visited his tomb , which brought sometimes an hundred thousand persons together ; and his altar was so much more valued than either christ's or the virgins , that by the old accounts yet extant it appears , that some years there were no offerings at all made at christ's altar ; and tho there were indeed some made at the virgin 's altar , yet those of becket's made a sum about twenty times more . so it was no wonder if king henry put an end to this superstition : and therefore he ordered the shrine to be broken , and the bones to be buried , as our authors say positively , tho the italians say they were burned ; for so it is specified in the bull : and indeed there had been no great fault if they had been burnt . 6. no man could be punished for refusing to surrender ; for the act of parliament required none to do it . 7. those who were attainted of treason , had been either in the rebellion , or had sent their plate to the rebels . 8. our author shews how well he understands our law , when he pretends to make a difference between high treason and the crime of lese majesty ; for they are one and the same thing : we do not use to express the highest sort of crimes against the state by the term of lese majesty , but only by that of high treason . 9. those libels of which he speaks , were only found among the carthusians ; and tho some of that order were put to death upon other accounts , yet these libels were only made use of to frighten them to surrender up their house : sure here are faults enough for one paragraph . xx. he gives us a long prospect of what cromwel thought on , and of what he should have thought on ; both being alike true and equally judicious : then he goes on to tell us the interests of the duke of cleves , and of his sister's qualities : and to shew us , how well he was informed of her greatest secrets ; he sayes , that she was fit for marriage before she was twelve year old : but that tho she had been courted by many princes , her brother was resolved to reserve her for such an alliance as might protect him against the house of austria . she was a lutheran , which did not please henry , yet at last the marriage was agreed on , and she came to england , and was married the third of ianuary 1540. 1. she had been contracted to prince of lorraine , and tho this was really of no force in law , yet it was afterwards pretended to dissolve her marriage with henry , as appears by the sentence : so much is our author a stranger to her story , tho he would make us fancy that he had memoirs concerning her from her chamber-maids , since he tells us when she was fit for marriage . 2. i have often warned our author to avoid the giving of dates ; for he is unhappy in them all : this marriage was made the 6. of ianuary , yet it is much for him to have hit the moneth right ; for he is not always so exact . xxi . he says , the king was so well pleased with this match , that immediately upon it , he made cromwel great chamberlain , and created him earl of essex , and made his son a lord. but this is so false , that the king from the time he saw anne of cleve , had an aversion for her ; and intended once to have sent her away without marrying her ; and after he had married her , he told cromwel how much he disliked her , and that he believed she was no maid , and that her person was loathsom ; so that he believed he should never be able to consummate the marriage ; so that cromwel had rather reason to apprehend , that this proving so unhappy , it would be his ruin. he was not made earl of essex till the april following ; so that as this marriage was too unlucky to do him any service , it seems it did not hurt him much neither . xxii . he shews us , how well he understands our constitutions , when he says , that the subsidy granted the king , was a tenth and the fourth part of a fifteenth : whereas it was a tenth and four fifteenths . xxiii . he says , that cromwel having met with some opposition by three members of parliament , who were the bishop of chichester , dr. wilson , and frammer , a merchant , he charged some false crimes on them , and put them in prison : but he proceeded more severely against john nevil , knight of the garter ; for he subordned false witnesses against him , so that he was beheaded . 1. the bishop of chichester comply'd with every thing that was done in parliament , as appears by the journal of the house of lords : but some correspondence that he held with the court of rome , being discovered about this time , he was put in prison ; but upon his submission he was set at liberty . 2. wilson being a clergy-man , could not be of the house of commons : and he was no bishop , so that he could not be a member of either house ; but he was clapt up as a compsice of the bishop of chichester's , and likewise set at liberty with him . frammer is not named , there is indeed one grunceter a merchant named , who was condemned of treason a year before this . 3. there was one sr. edward nevil , a knight , tho not of the garter , who was indeed condemned and executed a year before this ; but it was for being in a confederacy with cardinal pool , and more particularly for having said , that the king was a beast , and worst than a beast . god only knows whether the witnesses swore true or false against him . xxiv . he tells us , that c●omwel , to fill up the measure of his iniquities , , got a law to be made , by which he might easily dispatch all those who should oppose his designs : which was , that any man condemned in absence , without being heard to justify himself , either in person , or by proxy , should be esteemed as justly condemned as if it had been done in the common form . here is indeed the great blemish of of king henry's reign , and of cromwel's ministry : but it is told in such a manner by mr. varillas , that it appears to be no extraordinary thing as he relates it . 1. there was no law made about this , it was only practised by the parliament , as the legislative body , without giving the common courts of judicature the power of using it . 2. the condemning men in absence has been always practised by our law , when the absence was wilful : and if mr. varillas accuses the putting men to death upon such a sentence , it may probably be supposed to be an effect of his aversion to the king of england , and put here on design , to aggravate the execution of sr. thomas armstrong and the duke of monmouth , who were the two last that suffered being condemned in absence . 3. the heinousness of this matter , which our author shews he understood not , consists in this , that men who were in prison , were condemned upon the examination of witnesses against them , without confronting them with their witnesses , or bringing them to answer for themselves : now tho this was taken from the holy courts of inquisition , and was only put in practise by the parliament it self , yet i will not go about to soften , much less to justify a practice so contrary to the most indispensable rules of equity and morality . xxv . he says , k. henry being sooner disgusted at anne of cleve than he had been of his other wives , dissolved the marriage for two reasons ; the one was , that she was incapable of having children ; and the other was her heresy ; to which the english writers that favour henry add two others ; the one , that those of the league of smalcald , would not receive the english into their vnion ; and the other , that k. henry's interests were then changed : to these four reasons he adds a fifth , that she had not that engaging temper , that was necessary to charm henry . 1. it is a strange thing to see an historian mistake every thing , and that there should not be one single part of his work sound . the sentence annulling the k's . marriage with anne of cleve is printed , according to the record yet extant ; in which , as there is not one of all the reasons mentioned by mr. varillas , so there are other reasons that would have given him much better grounds to have censured this action , than those he sets up , chiefly the second , which is , that k. henry had not given an inward , clear , perfect , and entire consent to the marriage , which i had laid open with the indignation that so unjust a practice ought to raise in an historian ; since here a ground was laid down by which all faith and commerce among men is quite destroyed : so ill instructed was mr. varillas , that tho he had a mind to write a satyr against k. henry , he did not know where to take the true advantages , that a man better informed would have found if he writes panegyricks , as he does satyrs . mr. varillas will still be mr. varillas . xxvi . he pretends , that cromwell would not so far comply with the king's aversion to anne of cleves , as to concur with him in the divorce , which drew on him his ruin. his testimony was the fullest proof that the king made use of for obtaining the divoce ; but whether he consented to it or not , it cannot be known : if he refused to do it , he was so much the worthier man. xxvii . he tells us a long story of the different interests to which k. henry was leaning ; at last he says , that cromwellsigned a league in the kings name with the german princes , which some say , he did without the kings knowledge , th● others say the contrary : upon which the emperours ambassadours reproached the king with it , but the king denying it , the discovery was made : and after a dressing up of the scene with more of his visions , it ends in this , that cromwell was put in prison , yet he hoped to have justified himself for this treaty , if he had been brought to make his defence : but many other things besides this , were laid to his charge ; and the law that he had procured to be passed three moneths before this , of condemning men without hearing them , was applied to himself ; so he was condemned and executed the 6. of iuly ; his body being cut up , as is usual to traitors , and quartered . and to justify all this he cites on the margin cromwells process . but that process , or rather the act of parliament , that condemned him , is in print , taken from the record , in which there is not one word of all this business , of signing a league with forreign princes without the kings orders . 2. no such thing can be done according to our forms . amhassadours that have formal powers can sign leagues , but the ministers about the king cannot bind him , nor sign leagues without him : and no prince would have either asked or accepted any such thing 3. all that is objected to cromwell in his condemnation , is so inconsiderable , that it is plain there was no great matter against him ; some malversations and illegal warrants , some high boasting words , is all that is to be found in his attaindor 4. there was no such law ever made ; for parliaments do not make laws , with relation to their own proceedings : but this practice was indeed begun , not three moneths , but a full year before this . 5. mr. varillas is incurable in his venturing upon dates ; for cromwels execution was not on the 6. but on the 18. of iuly . 6. cromwel was only beheaded ; it is true the hangman did it in a butcherly manner ; but all the rest is fiction , and i am not much concerned whether florimond or mr. varillas is the contriver . xxviii . he says , anne of cleves was terrified with a sentence of death , as being a heretick , and that she was so far wrought on by that , as to become the chief instrument of her own degradation ; for she confessed that she had promised marriage to another before king henry had pretended to her ; upon which her marriage was dissolved , and she was sent back to germany . i have already shewed the falsehood of this from the sentence it self , that dissolved the marriage . nor did she ever go back to germany , but stayd still in england , being contented with the appointments that were set off for her , and with the honour of being made the king's adopted sister , which it seems was more supportable to her , than to return to her own countrey with the infamy of such a degradation : which she indeed bore , either with the constancy of a great philosopher , or with the insensibility of one that was extreamly stupid . xxix . he tells us of a new project of a reconciliation with the pope , in which he is so particular , as to set down the articles that were proposed , and king henry's exceptions to them : and he tells us at last , that king henry stood so much on the point of honour , that he thought it below his dignity to make any submission to the pope . all this is fiction , without the least proof : for it does not appear , that after that proposition that was made upon anne bullen's fall , there was ever the least step made by either side in this matter . our author had heard there was one made , but not knowing where to place it , his fancy rambled about . indeed the king was so much alienated from the court of rome , that gardiner and knevet being sent ambassadours to the diet at this time , one discovered to knevet some secret enterviews that had passed between gardiner and the legate : which gardiner considered as so great an injury to him , and as that which must have ruined him in the kings spirit , that he prosecuted the informer as a slanderer , and got him to be put in prison : concerning which , his letters to the king are in print : which shew clearly , that there was no such negotiation at this time on foot , otherwise those secret enterviews could not have been such offensive things . xxx . mr. varillas says , that the k. who would not submit himself so far as to confess his sins , did a much meaner thing ; for he accused his queen , katherine howard to the parliament , for her disorders , both before and after her marriage with thomas culper and francis dirham , and so her head was cut off there are few writers that do not at some time or other tell things true ; but mr. varillas must needs be an extraordinary person , and commit such errors as no other man ever did before him . catherine howard's incontinence was discovered , and proved many moneths before the parliament met : nor would the king at all appear in the business , as it is expresly mentioned in the record . it were too great an honour to our author , to insist on such small faults as that he names the persons wrong . xxxi . nor ought i to make any great account of his ignorance of our english families , since he calls catherine parre sister to the earl of essex , who was sister to the marquis of northampton ; these things might indeed be forgiven him , if it were not that he sets them down to shew how well he is informed even in the smallest matters , which no doubt will make some impression on strangers , who do not know our affairs , nor our pedigrees . xxxii . he reproaches the emperour for making a league with henry against francis , notwithstanding his schism . but why might not charles the fifth do the same thing , that francis had done for seven years together ? it is known , that francis was not so scrupulous as to decline the making of any league , that might be to his advantage , not only with schismaticks , but even with mahometans : and some have been so malicious as to say , that this is a maxim that some of his successors have thought fit to keep up and put in practise against the house of austria . xxxiii . mr. varillas tells us , that richer was appointed to set on the king of denmark against england , and that he represented to him , that king henry had taken occasion to come over to picardy , at the same time that charles the fifth entred into champaigne with a formidable army , and that k. henry had besieged bulloigne , and tahen it , therefore the k. of france resolved to make england the scene of the war : and that since he knew the great pretensions that the crown of denmark had upon england , which his subjects had formerly conquered , he thought the present conjuncture proper for the renewing these : so he invited him to share with him , and to accept the provinces that lay over against denmark , while the french king should seise on those that lay nearer him . now it is to be considered , that this was in the year 1542. as he warns us by his margin ; and all this is founded , as he told us in his preface , on richers negotiation , of whose relation he makes so great an account , telling us both that he was the first that negotiated according to form with the kings of the north , and owning that he had drawn his thirteenth book out of his memoirs , in which there are some things that by the order of time had belonged to his fifth book , but he had not seen those memoirs when he writ his first volum , therefore his reader must forgive him if there is any disorder in the recital that he gives : and now from all this one would he disposed to believe , that there is some truth in this matter , and that he has really such a book of memoirs in his hands ; but i need give no other proof to shew that all this is imposture , save that bulloign was not taken before the 18. of september 1544. so that all this negotiation of richers in 1542. must have been by the spirit of prophesy . 2. the state of denmark at that time must make this project appear very ridiculous , since they were far from being in a condition to set out great fleets , and make conquests . 3. at this time francis did indeed engage the king of scotland to make an invasion into the north of england , which was a more reasonable project : and that which our author might have more justly guess't at , tho he had known nothing of it ; for it was an easy thing to engage the scots to fall into england , but that was too true and too natural , therefore our author , who loves to elevate and surprise his reader , would needs despise the project in scotland , and so would carry it over to denmark . 4. it is also no less clear , that francis was at that time in no condition to make a descent upon england , otherwise he used the scots very ungratefully ; for tho he had engaged them in the war , yet he left them to be overrun by the english without giving k. henry any considerable diversion . 5. but our authors setting on the king of denmark to renew pretensions of five hundred year old , is of a piece with the law at metz : and when england will examin its ancient pretensions to some provinces in a neighbouring kingdom , as it needs not go so far back , so it will not be put to found them on hostile descents and depredations , which was all the pretension that the crown of denmark could ever claim , but on clear and undisputed rights : tho i confess they have been both discontinued and renounced ; but i build on the modern law , that neither prescriptions , treaties nor oaths can cut off the rights of a crown , which are sacred and inalienable . thus i have gone over his third tome , and i think i have missed nothing that relates to english affairs . i confess i may have passed over some particulars that may perhaps lie involved in other relations , as this of richers had almost escaped me . i have turned all his leaves over and over again to see for any thing that might relate to england . but i could not prevail with my self to read him all ; for i am now past the age of reading romances . xxxiv . mr. varillas begins his discourse concerning english affairs in his fourth tome , with a character of k. henry's cruelty , that deserves indeed to be put in capitals ; he says , that during his sickness , his conscience had time to reproach him , with the 2. cardinals , the 3. archbishops , the 18. bishops , the 14. arch deacons , the 500. priests , abbots , and priors , the 60. canons , and 50. doctors , 12. dukes , earles , or barons , 29. knights , 336. gentlemen , and almost an infinite number of people , whom he had put to death for establishing his primacy over the church of england . and because all this was so remarkable , he would not put the numbers in ciphers , but in words at large ; and by the exactness of his small numbers , a man that is not aquainted with his talent , would be tempted to think this might be true : but what will he say , if of all those ten items , besides the great et cetera of the infinit number , there is not one that is either true or near truth . 1. fisher was the only person that can be called a cardinal , that was put to death . 2. there was not one archbishop that suffered ; and tho the archbishop of york concurred in the yorkshire rebellion , yet the king included him in the indemnity . 3. there was not one bishop that suffered , unless he subdivides fisher , as he did charles the fifth , and makes both a cardinal and a bishop out of him . 4. there is not an archdeacon to be found among all that died in this reign . 5. for the 500 priests , abbots and priors , there were only 9. abbots , 3. priors , 18. priests , and 9. monks that suffered , which according to my arithmetick makes only 39 : but an imagination that multiplies as mr. varillas's does , can swell this up to 500. 6. there is but one among all that suffered that can be thought a canon , crofts , that is designed in the record chancellor of exeter . 7. there is but one doctor , unless fisher comes into the account again . 8. all of the nobility that were executed during this reign , were one duke , a marquis , 3. earls , and 3. lords , which make 8. but this comes the nearest his number ; yet since the marquis that suffered was k. henry's cosen german , he might have put marquises among the degrees of the peers that he reckons up , as well as the rest . 9. there were only ten knights that were put to death ; so the 19. more are of his creating . 10. there are ouly 33. others that suffered , of which some were only yeomen to make up his 336. gentlemen ; and now i have set down the list exactly of all that died by the hand of justice in this reign : so that there is not a man left for his &c. of almost an infinite number of people . but besides this , all these except only 12. persons , suffered either for being in actual rebellion , or for entring into conspiracies for the raising of one ; so small was the number of those who suffered for denying the kings supremacy , and even of these a distinction is to be considered , which i must explain , because some have fancied , that i had contradicted my self in different parts of my history , having said in some places , that none suffered for not acknowledging the kings supremacy , and having set forth in other places , that men died for denying it . but the refusing to swear the oath of supremacy was only punishable at first with a premunire , that is loss of liberty and goods , so that those who suffered were not condemned for refusing to swear that oath , but for their having spoken against the supremacy : now the refusing to swear it , and the speaking against it , are two different things ; which some have confounded . it is true , afterwards a law was made , declaring it to be high treason to refuse to swear the supremacy . but no man ever suffered upon that law ; for no man ever refused it after that law was made . and thus we see what we may expect from our author after such a beginning . xxxv . he says , king henry seemed to repent of what he had done when he was near death , and that he spake with gardiner concerning it , who upon that advised him to call a parliament . but the falsehood of this is too visible ; for there was a parliament then sitting , which was dissolved by the king 's death . xxxvi . he says , the church of the franciscans was opened in london , 25. dayes before his death ; and he had said before , that king henry was 57. years of age compleat when he dyed . this church that he represents as the cordelier's church , was indeed opened ; but it was in order to the making it an hospital , and was no more the cordeliers church . but now i will shew mr. varillas , how just i am to him ; for i think i am bound to take notice that this date is right : for tho it is of no great consequence , yet it is the first that i have found him give true : and perhaps it is true , because it is of no consequence : but he is above a full year wrong in a matter of greater importance , which is king henry's age ; for he was born the 28. of iune 1491. so on the 27. ianuary or the 28. for he dyed in the night between them 1547. he wanted five moneths of six and fifty : so natural is it for mr. varillas to mislead his reader in every thing . xxxvii . he says , the disorder of the kings marriages , and the three children that he had by three of them , gave grounds to apprehend a civil war upon his death , against which he provided by putting his only son edward first in the succession . but out of what part of our authors study of the law , did he find this , that a son of an unquestioned marriage on all hands , could receive any opposition from two sisters , both born in marriages that had been questioned . the succession had been also expresly regulated by act of parliament , and the kings power of disposing of it by his testament was only in default of all his own children , or of issue by them . xxxviii . he gives us a character of the duke of somerset , that shews how well he knew him : he says , he had an extraordinary capacity , and a penetration of spirit superiour to the greatest affairs . the d. of somerset was indeed a man of great probity ; but his capacity and penetration of spirit were far from extraordinary . mr. varillas thought those strokes were magnificent , so he did not trouble himself , whether they were true or false . xxxix . mr. varillas tells us , that somerset represented to the english nobility , the inconvenience of having 16. governours for their young king , as king henry had determined it : and that three parts of four of these were most zealous for reconciling england to the see of rome ; and so no doubt they would breed up the king in those sentiments , and by consequence as soon as the king came of age , he would annul all that his father had done , which would ruin the whole nobility : and that since it was much fitter to have only one regent , he engaged to them , that if they would pitch on him , he should take care of the kings education , and should be so far from disturbing the nobility in the possession of the church lands , that he should grant them all the ratifications that should be necessary : all this was so well received , that king henry's true testament was suppressed , and a new one was forged , by which somerset was declared regent and protector ; which surprised all those who had the chief interest to maintain the government during the minority , in the state in which king henry had left it . 1. king henry died the 28. of ianuary , upon which the young king was presently brought up to london , and upon the first of february somerset was declared protector . 2. this was not done by the interposition of the nobility , but by the consent of the major part of the sixteen governours , whom king henry had named ; and the original instrument of this under all their hands is yet extant . 3. there was no new will forged ; for that which was then published , was the same that made all the sixteen equal in power : and somerset had the title of protector given him by these only , with this express condition , that he should do nothing without the advice and consent of the rest . nor was it ever pretended , that king henry had ordered it so by his will : so all that negotiation with the nobility , is to pass for a fiction of mr. varillas's , or of some other that is about his pitch of sincerity . xl. he says , vrisly the chancellour was the only person that complained of this ; but that was made use of as a pretence to send him away from the court. 1. wriothesley the chancellour perhaps did not like somerset's advancement ; but he signed it with the rest . 2. the pretext upon which he was turned out , was the passing an illegal patent , for divolving the execution of his office , in the matters of justice to some other persons , which being contrary to law , he to redeem himself from a further censure , resigned his place . xli . he says , somerset forbad the bishops to confer orders without the kings permission , and made them come up to london to obtain it , and that he granted it only for a limited time , and during pleasure : and that he forced the new preachers to take their mission for it under the kings name : and by this means he hindred those to preach who were able to defend the catholick doctrines . and for the proof of all this he cites the ordonnances of edward the sixth . there is a particular misfortune on mr. varillas in all he writes ; for tho there was indeed an act of parliament , passed before the end of this year , that did very much subject the bishops in many things to the regal power ; yet there is a special exception in it of collations , or presentations to benefices , and of letters of orders , in which no limits were set them . 2. the licences that were given to preachers , were only civil things , being permissions to preach ; but there was nothing of mission pretended to be in them . 3. tho the king did licence some preachers , to preach in any part of england , yet the bishops retained still their authority of granting them within their own diocesses . 4. that which mr. varillas perhaps relates to , in some parts of this period , is , that under king edward , the bishops were obliged to take out new commissions from the king , such as they had taken out under king henry , for holding their bishopricks during the kings pleasure . this bonner , and some of the other popish bishops , had first set on foot under king henry , hoping by so abject a submission to gain much credit with him : but cranmer prevailed so far as to get this to be quickly laid aside . and now all these things shew that our author is still as careful as he was in his citations . xlii . he pretends , that cranmer set out at this time a catechism , which inclined more to the lutheran doctrine , upon which the protector looked down upon him , not thinking it fit to carry his displeasure farther . cranmer could not know to what the protector 's coldness was to be ascribed , but fancying that a further declaration of himself was expected , he professed himself a lutheran , and took a wife , whom he had seduced while he was in germany , and had entertained ever after as a concubine . 1. cranmer did not set out his catechism , till about two years after his . 2. somerset and he were always in a very perfect friendship . 3. he had married his wise before he came out of germany , and had owned it to king henry . it is true , upon the act of the six articles he had sent her over to germany , so that all he did at this time , was only to bring her over again , and to own her more publickly . xliii . i pass over what he says here of latimers degradation , having reflected on that formerly : he says , the duke of sommerset set two men about the king for his education ; the one was richard croc , and the other was john cheek , a libertin , that every day gave new cause of scandal . but 1. these who were trusted with the education of king edward , were no other than those that his father had set about him , ever since he was six year old , as is set down by that young king in the iournal of his own life , writ with his own hand . 2. our author it seems knows both their names and their characters alike ; for he , whom he calls croc , was cox ; and for sr. iohn cheek , he was not only one of the learnedest , but was esteemed one of the vertuousest gentlemen of his age : he was indeed prevailed on thro fear , to sign an abjuration of his religion in queen mary's days ; but that did so strike him , that he not only went out of england quickly , and made an open retractation of what he had done , but was so affected with the sense of it that he could never overcome it , but fell into a languishing , of which he soon after died . xliv . he says , that bucer avowed to the duke of northumberland , that he did not believe all that was said of jesus christ in the new testament . 1. sanders , who very probably made this story , said , it was to the lord paget ▪ that bucer said this ; but now the man is changed . 2. if this had been said to the duke of northumberland , it is very probable that when he declared his aversion to the reformed religion , and to the preachers of it , at his death , this , which was beyond all other things , would have been mentioned . 3. or at least , when bucer's process was made , and his body burnt , this would have been very probably made use of , if the lye had been then made . 4. no man of that age writ with a greater sense of the kingdom of christ , than bucer did , in the book on that subject which he writ for king edward's use . xlv . he tells us , that on the fourth of november , 1547. at london , a new form of religion was set up , which as to the doctrine was almost the same with calvinism ; but they retained the rites and the exterior of lutheranism ; they appointed all the church-lands of england to be annexed to the crown , and never to be again dissolved from it : they also appointed , that there should be a new form of administring the sacraments , different from the roman : that bishops and priests should be ordained by this form : that images , which were yet held in reverence in some places , for the miracles that had been wrought before them , should be taken away ; and the kings arms put in their stead : that the roman missal should be abolished , and that the sacrament should be given in both kinds ; and in fine , that the divine offices , and above all the canon of the liturgy , should be said only in english , tho the irish and welsh , who were almost as numerous as the english , understood that langage no more than they did the latin. and thus by a revolution that will appear almost incredible to those who know perfectly the genius of the english nation , they peaceably changed their religion , under a minority , without any opposition . here much patience is requisite to read or examin such a confusion of matters , as mr. varillas gives us all at once . but 1. the new form of religion was not set out till five year after this , in the year 1552. 2. the church-lands were never annexed to the crown ; but mr. varillas's mistake is , that those chantry-lands , that had not been suppressed by king henry , were indeed given to king edward by an act that passed not the fourth of november , but the fourteenth of december , 1547. 3. the new form of administring the sacraments was not set out till the fifteenth of ianuary , 1549. 4. the new form of ordinations was not set out before the year 1550. 5. images were ordered to be all removed by an order from the council the eleventh of february 1548. 6. there was never an order made for setting up the king's arms in the churches , tho it was done in most places . 7. our author had said , that a new form of administring the sacraments different from the roman was appointed , and now as in a new article he tells us , that the roman missal was abolished ; but this is one of the indications from which we may measure his profound judgment . 8. he puts at the end , that the sacrament was appointed to be given in both kinds , whereas this was done first of all in an act that past the twentieth of december , 1547. 9. he very learnedly makes a distinction between the divine offices , and the canon of the liturgy , tho as they are in themselves one and the same thing , they are likewise used promiscuously in england . 10. the law for the service in english did not extend to ireland , and care was taken to put it quickly into welch . 11. it seems he knows the estimate of our numbers as well as he does other things , who says , the welch and irish are as many almost as the english ; whereas they are not perhaps above the tenth man to the english. 12. thus we see his fruitful fourth of november , 1547. which he had made so productive , is stript of all , and not any one of all those great changes belongs to it . but to comfort mr. varillas a little , i will tell him , that the parliament that enacted one or two of the things he names , was indeed opened the fourth of november , 1547. but it is long after a parliament is opened , before an act is passed : and thus it appears , that all that sudden change , was a dream of our author . xlvi . he says , there were five bishops , london , winchester , duresm , chichester , and worcester , and some of the most learned in the house of commons , that opposed these things ; but yet as soon as they were decreed , they complyed , and professed the new religion . there were many of the other bishops that opposed them , as well as those five ; nor did they ever concur with that which he calls the new religion ; for they were all turned out of their bishopricks before the year 1552. in which the articles of our religion were agreed on , and set out by authority . so that if our author had known the story better , he should have valued them as confessors ; for tho they comply'd in a great many things , yet it appers that they were still true to their old perswasions ; upon which they fell in trouble , and were not only turned out illegally , but kept in prison for several years , till queen mary set them at liberty . xlvii . he says , that king henry had ordered the bible to be printed correctly , and that he had put with it erasmus's last paraphrase on the new testament ; but the duke of somerset found this translation did not agree so well with the doctrine of the sacramentary's , so he ordered a new translation to be made , that was more favorable to their figurative expressions . at which the press●s wrought so long , till there was not only a sufficient number of copies printed off for all the parish churches , but likewise for all that could read . there was no new translation of the bible thought on during this reign ; for that was done in queen elisabeth's time : so that king henry's continued all this reign . nor had king henry put erasmus's paraphrase either with the bible , or in the churches ; for that was done by the duke of somerset ; and gardiners letters to him are yet extant and in print , complaining of that paraphrase in a great many particulars . so constantly mistaken is our au●hor even in matters concerning which it had been easy for him to have found better information . xlviii . mr. varillas tells us , that the archbishop of york , and the bishops of chester , mena and sadore comply'd outwardly as sacramentaries ; but lived in the secret practice of the catholick religion : somerset was informed of this , so he ordered some to tell them , that they were the only prelates of england , that were opposite to the publick religion : and therefore the king desired to be satisfied in that matter : so the tryal that was required of them , was , that they should marry : which tho it was somewhat uneasy , to men past threescore , yet they comply'd , even in this : and somerset having by this means rendred them very contemptible , did not only banish them , but put them in prison : and he treated other bishops in the same manner for their defending the catholick religion in full parliament , tho they had done it very feebly . 1. i find mr. varillas is as ignorant in geography , as he is in chronology : for among all the bishopricks of england he will neither find mena nor sadore . 2. there is indeed an island , that lyes between england and ireland , that is a soveraignty , belonging to the earl of derby . but the island is man , or in latin mona , but was never called mena. in this island there is a bishop , who is called bishop of man , but he writes it in latin sodore : so this is wrong put by mr. varillas sadore ; yet these may be faults of the press : but the making two bishopricks out of one , and the making this bishop subject to the king of england , and receiving orders from the protector , are faults that he cannot turn over upon his compositor . 3. it does not appear that either the archbishop of york , or the bishop of chester , did ever oppose any thing in parliament : for tho many of the other bishops voted against the changes that were made in matters of religion , as appears by the journals of the house of lords , yet these two concurred in every thing : and all henry's time , holgate was considered still as one united to cranmer , and he was by his interest raised to the see of york : as for the bishop of chester , i confess , i know no particulars . 4. it is true that they were both married ; for i found a commission issued out by queen mary for turning them out , because of their marriage : but it is certain , that they were neither in disgrace , nor in prison , all king edwards reign : for the archbishop of york was all this while in high favour . 5. england is not a countrey in which the displeasure of a regent , or even letters under the cachet can either banish or imprison men , chiefly when that is founded only on some suspitions . no ; it is a countrey governed by law : but it seems mr. varillas had his head full of somewhat nearer him when he writ this . xlix . he sets out the constancy of queen mary , during her brothers reign , and that she continued firm in the religion of her ancestors : that tho somerset brought the italian divines martyr and ochin to her , to convince her , she answered all their objections with great vigor ; she spoke stoutly to somerset ; she interrupted the privy councellours , when they spoke to her of those matters ; and she would ●ever hear any of their sermons , but one only . in short , that she threatned those , that threatned her : and told them , a time would come in which they should answer for that . her constancy was such , that at last somerset desired only , that she would at least shut her chappel doors when mass was said ; but even in that she satisfied him as little as in other things . here are so many lovely strokes , that it is a great pity they are all false . 1. some letters past between the protector and her , that are in print ; but it does not appear that ever he spoke to her upon this subject . 2. she never pretended to be of the religion of her ancestors ; but by all her letters she declared , she was of the religion that her father had setled : and she always insisted on his laws , pretending that in a minority they could not be altered . 3. she spoke french well , and understood latin ; but she could neither speak italian , nor latin : so she could have no conversations neither with p. martyr , nor ochin : nor is this named among all the letters that were writ concerning this business . 4. she would never hear any one sermon ; so here the character was as much slackened , as it was raised in the other parts of this paragraph . for when bishop ridley went to her , and offered to preach before her , she told him plainly , that she would never hear any one of them . 5. the princess was too discreet to threaten her brothers ministers , or to talk of a time in which they might be called to an account for what they did : for such language never comes from collateral heirs , unless they are extream indiscreet . 6. the great dispute with the princess , fell out after somerset's disgrace , and was chiefly set on by the king her brother , who could hardly be prevailed with by the privy conncil , to consent to her having mass still said in her chappel ; and after he had talked with her himself upon that matter , he sets down these words concerning the resolution that was taken , in his journal . the bishops of canterbury , london , rochester , did consider , to give licence to sin was sin : to suffer and wink at it for a time , might be born , so all hast possible might be used . l. he says , there was no appearance that king edward could live till he should be of age , so that princess mary was considered not only as the presumptive , but as the necessary heir of the crown . but at this time the prince of spain lost his wife , and charles the fifth comforted himself with the hopes of uniting england to his other dominions by marrying his son to her ; so that emperour resolved to protect her , and sent vargas both to entreat , and if that prevailed not , to threaten somerset , in case he gave any further disturbance to her , upon which he was forced to let that matter fall . all this is so false , that the emperour set on a treaty of marriage for the princess with the prince of portugal , of which i gave an account in my history : but since that time a volum of original letters has been sent me by the heirs of sr. philip hobby , who was then ambassadour in the emperours court : in which i find more particulars relating both to this marriage , and to the princesses permission for having mass in her house . there is one letter , dated the 19. of march , 1550. signed by all the council , in which they write , that since the infant of portugal was only the kings brother , they give up the treaty for the match : yet the emperour insisted on the proposition that he had made : so there is another original letter , dated the 20. of april thereafter , in which they desire to hear all the particulars that related to the infant of portugal , and in that they write , that as for the lady mary 's mass , they had formerly connived at it , but now stricter laws were made : they had connived so long , hoping that at last she would be prevailed upon : but that a diversity of rites in matters of religion was not tolerable , therefore they would grant her no licence , yet they would connive at her a little longer : but she abused the young kings goodness , for she kept as it were open church both for her servants and neighbours . they therefore conclude , wishing that the emperour would give her good advice in this matter . this letter of which i had the original long in my hands , is signed by ten privy councellours , and will be i suppose a little better believed , than the quotation that mr. varillas sets on his margin of vargas's negotiation ; and all this was transfacted after the duke of somersets disgrace . li. he tells us a long story of the methods that the admiral used to compass the marriage of the queen dowager : and the ways he took to engage his brother somerset , to consent to it . somerset moved it to the king , who consented to it likewise , so that the marriage was made up in hast , and without any solemnity . mr. varillas knows this matter , as he does other things , notwithstanding the shew he makes , by citing on the margin the relation of that intrigue , which is another of his impostures ; for by the articles that were objected to the admiral , which are in print , and of which the original is yet extant in the council book , it appears that the admiral had first courted the kings sister elisabeth , and that failing in this design , he afterwards married the queen dowager so secretly , that none knew of it , and so indecently , that if she had become with child , soon after the marriage , there would have been a great doubt whether the child should have been accounted k. henry's or his : that he kept the marriage long secret , & he prevailed with the king to write to the q. dowager , and with his brother to speak to her in his favour : and when all this was done , then the marriage was declared . so that all his fictions of somerset's design of marrying his daughter to the king , and of the remonstrances that the admiral made to his brother , as well as his citation , are manifestly false . lii . he sets out the common story of the dutchess of somerset's disputing the place with the q. dowager : and as if it had been a great affair , he spends two pages arguing both their pretensions . he reckons up the duke of somersets dignities , 1. he was the kings governour . 2. he was regent of the kingdom . 3. he was protector of the english nation , a dignity inferiour to none of the other , which was not much inferiour to the dictatorship among the ancient romans : and on the other hand , the admiral was the second office of the crown , and a charge for life . so that here was as he thought a section fit to be copied out by those who would treat of precedence . but 1. i have shewed fully , that all this quarrel of precedence among the ladies seems a fiction ; for it is not mentioned in all that time . 2. the offices of state in england , do not communicate any honour to the wife : so that the queen dowager had either still her rank of queen dowager , or she was only a baroness , her husband the admiral being only a baron . as the dutchess of somerset had only the rank of a dutchess . 3. it is clear that the q. dowager retained her rank , and was mentioned in all the publick prayers , even before the kings sister . 4. all those three places that mr. varillas gives somerset , were but one single office , and held by one single patent ; for to be protector and regent is the same thing in england . his comparing the protectors dignity to that of the roman dictators , is another stroke of his ill-will to the crown of england ; for among the romans all other offices ceased , when there was a dictator : so if this were in the english law , here were a short way of dethroning our kings . 5. the admiral is far from being the second office of the crown ; for it only has the precedence of all those that are of the same rank ; so that the admiral was only in rank the first baron of england : and tho the great navyes that have been built since that time , have made it indeed the first office , as to the real value of it , yet it was but an ordinary elevation when there were no royal fleets . 6. the admiral 's charge is forfeitable as well as any other in england , and of this a remarkable instance appeared in the year 1673. 7. the true occasion of the quarrel between the brothers , was , that tho the protector was governour of the king's person , yet these two trusts had been sometimes divided : so the admiral pretended to be made the governour of the king's person , and this gave his brother just cause of jealousy . he had engaged all that were about the king in his interests , and had once got the young king to write a letter to the parliament , recommending it to them . the protector was twice willing to be reconciled to him , after great quarrellings ; but his ambition was incurable . now since all this process and the articles against the admiral are printed from the original records , it is like mr. varillas to falsify this matter as he does . liii . he tells a long story , of a sermon of latimers , in which he named the admiral as one that disturbed the regency : and this was done by somerset's direction ; yet he seemed offended when it was told him ; and sent for latimer , and ordered him to retract that which he had said concerning his brother . but latimer reply'd boldly , that he knew the admiral had layd a design against the kings life , which he thought himself bound to discover : upon this the duke of somerset ordered the iudges to take his deposition ; yet he threatned to proceed against him with the utmost severity , if he were found to be a false accuser latimer had his witnesses laid , and the conspiracy was proved , upon which somerset seemed to be very much troubled ; yet he said , he must prefer the king's safety to all considerations whatsoever : so he signed a warrant for his brothers imprisonment , his process upon that was made , and he was found guilty of high treason , and condemned to be quartered , which was accordingly executed the 20. of march , 1549. i do not know how it comes that in such a series of falsehoods , our author has hit the date right : but it is the only circumstance of this whole recital that is true . for 1. it is true latimer in a sermon at court reflecting on the atheism of some about the king , described the admiral , who was a man that laughed at religion : but this had nothing to do with the state , and nothing followed upon it . 2. the admiral had broke out the former year , and thought to have made a rent in the parliament : yet that had been made up , and somerset had made him a very considerable grant out of the lands of the crown ; but he laid his design next year deeper , he bought magasins of arms , and listed many men : he intended to have carried away the king , and had ordered much false money to be coined : so that all this being discovered , he was clapt in the tower : yet a moneth past before the matters against him were brought in to the parliament : and during that time , somerset tryed , if it was possible to bring him to a better mind , but all was in vain . 3. he was not tryed by a common court of peers , but was condemned by act of parliament . 4. there was not a word said in the whole process , of any design on the kings life : on the contrary , he had gained so much upon the young king , that this gave the greatest jealousy of all . 5. he was not quartered , but only beheaded : for the original warrant for his execution is yet extant in the books of council , signed by all the privy councellours , that mentions expresly , that he should be beheaded , and that his head and body should be buried in the tower. and now is not mr. varillas a very credible author ? liv. our author sets down the agony , into which the admiral 's death threw his wife , and after he had turned this as romantically as he could , he makes her to dye , so soon after her husband , that she was buried at the same time with him . but if mr. varillas had seen the articles upon which the admiral was condemned , he would have found that the queen dowager was dead long before , ( for she died in the september preceding , and as was suspected of poison ) and that after her death , he had renewed his pretensions to the kings second sister , elisabeth , which is reckoned among his crimes , as it was certainly a very great one : and is it not now a great pity to see so tender a stroke in the romance spoiled ? lv. mr. varillas tells us a long story of the earl of warwick's designs to dismount somerset : for doing which the two occasions that presented themselves were , first , the taking of several forts in the bolognese , and that as the english had often failed in observing the law of nations , so the french treated them in the same manner , and put all that they took prisoners , to the edge of the sword : that the english souldiers who came over , complained that the forts that were lost , could not be longer desended for want of provisions ; that upon this warwick advised some malecontents , to demand the calling of a parliament : and perswaded somerset likewise to agree to it . the other was a general insurrection that was among the commons of england against the nobility : upon which warwick likewise pressed somerset to call a parliament . so the members were all chosen by the earl of warwicks means . there appeared before them more accusers and witnesses against the duke of somerset , than was needful for destroying him : upon which he was put in prison the 14. of october 1549. how it comes that mr. varillas has thus given two dates one after another true , amidst so much falsehood , is that which amases me . but the rest of this section is writ in his ordinary strain . yet before i open that , i will take the liberty to set down a passage relating to king henry the seconds invading the bolognese , which i have found in an original letter of the councils , writ to sr. philip hobby , tho mr. varillas will perhaps tell me upon it , that i have done an irreparable injury , to the memory of that king. in that letter , that bears date the seventh of september , 1549. and is signed by the duke of somerset and seven other councellors , they write , that the king of france had corrupted two , that had the charge of one of the forts , which was by that means lost , and this occasioned the loss of the other forts ; they were surprised with this invasion : for on the 20. of july last , the french king had promised to their ambassadour , par la foy d'un gentilhomme , that he would not make war without giving warning first : and yet he having heard of the progress of the insurrections that were in the several parts of england , broke his word four days after he made it . that was indeed thought strange in those dayes , but in our days it would not appear extraordinary : since we have seen promises publickly made , and broken in the very time ▪ in which they were made . but now to return to mr. varillas , 1. he forgot to mention the western rebellion , that hapned a little before that rising of the commons against the gentry : tho this was not kindly done of him , since it was by his friends , the zealous catholicks , who declared openly , that the change made in religion , was the reason of their rising . 2. there was no demand made of a parliament ; nor was there any need of calling or choosing one ; for there was one then on foot , running in a prorogation . 3. those insurrections were all quieted before there was any opposition made to the duke of somerset's government . 4. he was not at all questioned in parliament ; but in council ; for the greatest part of the councellors went to london , and joyned with the city to demand the king out of his hands , whom he had carried to windsor : and he finding that he was not able to stand against so strong a party , submitted himself to them , upon which he was not only turned out of his protectorship , but was also sent to the tower. and is not mr. varillas a fit person to undertake the writing of history , who does not know the most publick and the most important transactions of those times . lvi . the next time that mr. varillas returns to english affairs , he tells us , that dudley , earl of warwick , made head against the duke of somerset , and threw him out of the government , clapt him in prison , and cut off his head , according to form . now i lookt over and over again to see if there was an a linea here , because there was an interval of two years between : for the duke of somerset came again into a share in the government , with the rest , and was not beheaded before ianuary , 1552. above two year after this . mr. varillas had excused the like error in another place , by telling me , that he had begun a linea . and so by that , i should have known that there was an interval of two years : but that being omitted here , i hope he will forgive my taking notice of it . lvii . after this he gives a long negotiation between dudley now duke of northumberland , and the court of france : which i must conclude to be all a fiction ; for i never saw the least mark of any thing like it , in all the papers of that time . there is in this a lovely dash of a pen in the character of mr. de novailles , which no doubt mr. varillas hopes will draw him some recompence from his heirs . it is the greatest that can possibly be given , but it is certain , that it is as true as the other things that our author gives out so liberally : he says , that his foresight went so far , that the first advance that those who treated with him made , was sufficient to make him discover that which lay hid in their intentions what care soever they took to disguise them . but i allow him to go on in such excessive praises , only i wish he were a little less excessive , in something else , that i will not name . lviii . he pretends here , that both king edward 's sisters , elisabeth , as well as mary , made open profession of the catholick religion . the contrary to this is so well known , that tho it was often objected to queen elisabeth , that she had dissembled her religion in her sister queen mary's time , it was never so much as once objected to her , that she had professed popery in king edward's time . lix . after a series of things that are equally true and pertinent , he tells us , that when the d. of northumberland got the marriage of jean grey for his son guilford ; her two sisters were married to the earles of pembrok and huntington . but i have warned him not to medle with genealogies : yet nothing will prevail upon him . the duke of northumberland married his second daughter to the earl of huntington , his eldest having married to sidney , the earl of leicester's ancestor , in whose arms king edward dyed . lady gray's second sister was indeed marryed to the earl of pembrok's eldest son , and her third sister that was crooked , was married to one keyes , an ordinary gentleman . lx. he says , upon this nothing remained for the duke of northumberland to do , but to forge a testament for king edward , by which both his sisters and the queen of scotland were excluded from the succession : his sisters as being both bastards ; and the queen of scotland because born out of the kingdom : so that the succession came to the dutchess of suffolk's daughters . all this with all the other particulars mentioned by mr. varillas , which are too many to be set down , are all false . in the declaration that king edward made , there is no special exclusion of his sisters , or of the queen of scots , tho they are in effect excluded , the daughters of suffolk being declared the next heirs . 2. this was not done by a testament , but by a declaration made in council , all writ with the king 's own hand ; upon which an act of council was also signed by all the board : and then letters patents were passed under the seal conform to it . 3. there was no possibility of forgery here , for it was done too solemnly to admit of that : and here i will publish the discovery that i have made in that matter , since i writ my history . the original paper all writ with k. edward's own hand , and the original act of council , signed by all the council , have come into my hands : and as i kept them long enough by me , to shew them to many persons , so i have thought fit to publish them here , as papers that are extremely curious : and i would gladly do somewhat that may be a better entertainment to the reader , than the constant discovery of a series of errors , which come so thick one upon another , that there is not any one part sound . k. edward's device for the succession . for lack of issue male of my body , to the issue male coming of the issue female , as i have after declared , to the lady francis's heirs males , if she have any ; for lack of such issue before my death , to the l. iane , and her heir's males ; to the l. katherine's heir 's males ; to the l. marie's heir 's males ; to the heirs males of the daughters which she shall have hereafter : then to the l. marget's heir 's males ; for lack of such issue to the heir's males of the lady ianes daughters ; to the heirs males of the l. katherin's daughters , and so forth , till you come to the l. marget's heir 's males . 2. if after my death the heir male be entred into 18. year old , then he to have the whole rule and governance thereof . 3. but if he be under 18. then his mother to be governess till he enter 18. year old ; but to do nothing without the advice and agreement of six , parcel of a council , to be pointed by my last will , to the number of twenty . 4. if the mother dye before the heir enter into 18. the realm to be governed by the council , provided that after he be 14. year , all great matters of importance be opened to him . * 5. if i died without issue , and there were none heir male , then the lady francis to be governess regent ; for lack of her , her eldest daughters , and for lack of them , the l. marget to be governess after , as is aforesaid , till some heir male be born , and then the mother of that child to be governess . 6. and if during the rule of the governess there dye four of the council , then shall she by her letters call an assembly of the council , within one month following , and choose four more , wherein she shall have three voices ; but after her death , the 16. shall choose among themselves till the heir come to 14. year old , and then he by their advise shall choose them . the order of king edward the sixth , and of his privy council , concerning the succession to the crown . edward ; we whose hands are underwritten , having heretofore many times heard the kings majesty , our most gracious soveraign lord's earnest desire and express commandment , touch-the limitation of the succession in the imperial crown of this realm , and others his majesties realms and dominions ; and having seen his majesty's own devise touching the said succession first , wholy written with his most gracious hand , and after copied out in his majesty's presence , by his most high commandment , and confirmed with the subscription of his majesties own hand , and by his highness delivered to certain judges , and other learned men , to be written in full order : do by his majesty's special and absolute commandment eftsoons given us , agree , and by these presents signed with our hands , and sealed with our seales , promise by our oaths and honours to observe ; fully perform , and keep , all and every article , clause , branch and matter , contained in the said writing , delivered to the judges and others , and superscribed with his majesty's hand in six several places , and all such other matter as his majesty by his last will shall appoint , declare or command touching or concerning the limitation of the succession of the said imperial crown . and we do further promise by his majesty's said commandment , never to vary or swerve during our lives , from the said limitation of the succession , but the same shall to the uttermost of our powers defend and maintain . and if any of us or any other shall at any time hereafter ( which god forbid ) vary from this agreement , or any part thereof : we and every of us do assent to take , use , and repute him for a breaker of the common concord , peace and unity of this realm , and to do our uttermost to see him or them so varying or swearving , punished with most sharp punishments according to their deserts . t. cant. t. ely cane winchester . northumberland . i. bedford . h. suffolk . w. north● . f. shrewsbury . f. huntington . pembroke . e. clynton . t. darcy . g. cobham . r. ryche . t. chene . iohn gate . william petre. iohn cheek . w. cecil . edward mountague . iohn baker . edward gryffin . iohn lucas . iohn gosnald . by these evidences it will appear that what faults soever may be charged on the memory of the duke of northumberland , this of forging king edward's testament is none of them . lxi . he says , the d. of northumberland obliged all mary and elisabeth 's friends to abandon them , and made them be kept as close prisoners in hunsden-castle , as if they had been criminals . but these two sisters were never so good friends as to live together . 2. they were both so free with their families , that princess mary was on her way to see king edward , and on the road she met the news of his death . lxii . he says , it was five moneths past from the time of northumberland 's son's marrying l. jean gray , when k. edward died on the sixth of iuly . there was but five weeks past , for they were married in the beginning of iune , but on what day of iune it is not certain , for ought i know . lxiii . he tells us , that northumberland concealed king edwards death as long as he could : and that some days after that , jean gray made a magnificent entry thro london , and then came on the war with queen mary . but this whole business lasted only nine dayes ; from whence it is thought that the english proverb of a nine days wonder , took its beginning . so he ought to manage this time a little better : indeed this phantasm of lady iean gray , as it disappeared soon , so it never had force enough to pretend to any magnificence : two dayes after king edward's death , she was conveyed secretly to the tower of london , out of which she never came ; for after a weeks pageantry of her queenship , she was kept there till her head was cut off . lxiv . mr. varillas , who will always discover the secretest springs of mens thoughts , pretends to tell us , that the ground of the hatred that the nation bore to the duke of northumberland , was his rendring of bulloigne to the french. and here he tells us in his way ( that is , with an equal measure of ignorance and presumption ) the various reflections that the english made on that ●●tter . but as for the rendring of ●●lloigne , it was indeed necessary , since 〈◊〉 forts that covered it , had been ta●●n : and this having fallen out during ●●merset's ministry , the blame of this ●●ss was laid wholly on him . 2. there ●●ere several sessions of parliament af●●r that rendition , which fell out im●ediately upon the duke of somerset's all ; and a new one was called in the ●●d of this reign , yet no complaint ●as ever made in parliament upon ●●at head . 3. the duke of northum●erland was less guilty of it than any of 〈◊〉 ministry ; for when the emperour●●efused ●●efused to assist them , the ministry 〈◊〉 , that a war with france and scot●●nd was too great a load upon them 〈◊〉 a minority , in which their only ●onsiderable ally failed them : so that ●hey resolved to make a peace by the endring of bulloigne : yet tho the duke ●f northumberland saw this could not ●e opposed , he absented himself for ●ome days from council , and so did not ●●gn the peace with the other privy councellors , who signed it , and of which the original order was long in my hands . for the original cou●●cil-book , in which all the most impo●●tant resolutions were signed by t●● whole board , had fallen into priva●● hands , and was presented to me : b●● i delivered it in to the clerks of t●● privy council to be preserved by the● with the care that is due to the mo●● authentical remain of the last ag● 4. but as mr. varillas tells a fa●● ground of the aversion that the e●●glish had to the duke of northumbe●●land , so he did not know the true one tho they are mentioned by all our a●thors . he was excessively haughty , a●●violent ; he was believed to be a man 〈◊〉 no religion : it was generally though that he had destroyed the duke of s●●merset by false witnesses ; he had no● excluded the right heirs of the crow● to set up his own son ; and which w●● beyond all the rest , in the spirits of th● people , it was generally believed th●● king edward was poisoned by his d●●rections : and here are grounds of a general dislike , that were a little bette● founded than that feigned one for th● delivering up of bulloigne , three yea● before : but a man that will needs b● writer of history , in spite of so pro●●nd an ignorance , must ramble about 〈◊〉 conjectures : and if he has as little ●●dgment as sincerity , he must make ●●ch as mr. varillas does . lxv . he tells us , that immediatly ●●n king edward's death , ●orthumberland sent a body 〈◊〉 horse to seise on queen ●ary . but here his memory failed ●n too soon ; for he had but six pa●s before said , that both she and her ●●ster elisabeth were kept close priso●●rs in hunsden : so there was no oc●sion for seising on her person . lxvi . he tells us , that petre , se●●tary to the d. of northum●●rland , who was a catholick , ●●he had pretended to be a cal●●nist , that so he might raise himself , ●as prevailed on by the same ambition , ●●w to betray his master : so he went ●●mself , as soon as king edward ex●●ed , to give queen mary notice of 〈◊〉 design , that was laid against her : ●●d he made such hast that he came to ●●nsden two hours before the body of ●orse : so he being well known to those 〈◊〉 kept her , was admitted to her , and he not only warned her of her dange● but he found a way to convey both 〈◊〉 and himself away . some body in charity to mr. var●●las should have told him , that the● was at present a iesuite , in great cred●● in a certain court of europe , that is 〈◊〉 neally descended from this petre ; yet 〈◊〉 comfort him , tho those of that orde● are not much celebrated for their gre●● readiness to forgive , i am confident 〈◊〉 petre will think him below his wrat 〈◊〉 notwithstanding this injury that he do the memory of his ancestor . i dare n●● say , his grand-father , lest he finds o●● as he did in the case of the l. darn●● that he was his great grand-father . 〈◊〉 will not call this an irreparable inju●● to use mr. varillas's terms in the case king henry the seventh ; for i do n●● think that he is capable of doing 〈◊〉 irreparable injury to any body . but 〈◊〉 return to petre , he had been long s●●cretary of state , both to king her● and king edward , and so was n●● northumberland's secretary . 2. 〈◊〉 was always esteemed a protestant , a●● was a vertuous and sincere man : if was a catholick , he was a very bad on for his family to this day feels what a great estate he made out of the abbey lands . 3. he continued stile with northumberland , and was one of those who signed the letter to queen mary , in the pretended q. iean's name , ordering her to lay down her pretensions . 4. he was removed from his office of secretary , as soon as q. mary came to the crown : and here i lose sight of him , and do not know what became of him afterwards , or when it was that the family was raised to the dignity of being peers of england 5. it was the earl of arundel , that sent queen mary the notice of her brothers death , and of the design then on foot against her ; for she was then within half a days journey of london on her way , to see her brother ; and it seems that northumberland durst not venture on so hardy a thing , as the seising on her , but he intended to make her come , as it were to see her brother , and so to get her to throw herself into his hands . lxvii . he says , northumberland had four things for him ; king edward's testament , the publick treasure , the army , and the fleet : but queen mary went to norfolk , where she knew how much he was hated for his having sold bulloigne to the french. but i have already shewed , that the settlement of the crown was not done by testament , but by letters patents . and as at that time there was no fleet , nor standing army at all : so there was scarce any money in the treasury . 2. the duke of northumberland was indeed much hated in norfolk , but not for the business of bulloigne ; but besides the general considerations , that had rendred him odious to the whole nation ; he had subbued the insurrection of norfolk of the commons against the gentry , and had been very severe in his military executions . 3. q mary did not go to norfolk : she went indeed very near it , but she staied still in suffolk . lxviii . mr. varillas tells us , that the earles of derby , essex and hastings , were not inferiour in any respect , to those who had married the lady jean gray's sisters : so they declared for q. mary , on two conditions , the one was , that she should never marry a stranger : and the other , that she should make no change in matters of religion ; but tho q. mary was absolutely resolved to observe neither of these ; yet since there are few examples of those who would lose a crown rather than not promise the things which they neither can nor will observe , she promised all that was asked of her ; upon which those three earles being perswaded that they had provided sufficiently for calvinism ; took the field with their friends , and having assured all people that they had received a full security for the established religion , they quickly brought together an army of 15000. men . our author is always unhappy , when he comes to particulars : for 1. the earl of derby was a zealous papist and had protested in parliament against all the changes that had been made . 2. he had no hand in the re-establishing of queen mary , for the business was done before there was any occasion of raising the remote counties . 3. there was no earl of essex at this time : for that title was bestowed on none from cromwels fall , till the exaltation of queen elisabeth's favorite to it . 4. there was no earl of hastings : the earl of huntingtons son carries the title of lord hastings : and our author had bestowed on him l. gray's sister . 5. the earl of sussex was the person that did the greatest service of all to the queen , who is not so much as named by mr. varillas . 6. it was the people of suffolk and norfolk , that asked those assurances of the queen in the matters of religion ; but it does not appear that any of the nobility made any such demands . 7. nor is there any mention made of their asking any assurances of her , that she should not marry a stranger . 8. the care , that our author uses here , in setting forth queen mary's dissimulation , and her granting of promises , that she never intended to observe , and the general reflection that upon that he makes on crowned heads ; looks as if he had a mind to cover the infamy of some late violations of promises and oaths , by shewing that this has been the way of crowned heads at all times : and perhaps this is to be a part of the panegyrick ; but since mr. varillas had taxed the zealous catholicks of england , as imprudent , for laying down arms upon king henry's word , why might not he have put the same censure here , on those zealous protestants , who took up arms upon queen mary's word ; since as he sets out the matter , they had less reason to trust her , than the other rebels had to trust her father ? lxix . he tells us , that northumberland marched against her with some old troops , that he had ready : fancying that she was but 15000. strong ; but he found she was 30000. strong : two parts of three of his army refused to fight , and some went over to the queen with flying colours : so he was forced to return to london , reckoning that he was still master of the city , and the fleet : but at his return he found the gates shut upon him ; and that the city had declared against him , whose example was followed by the fleet. so seeing all was lost , he rendred himself upon discretion , ten dayes after he had crowned jean of suffolk . this section is as exactly writ as the former ; for 1. northumberland had no old troops , and he marched from london with 2000. horse , and 6000. foot , such as could be brought together of the sudden . 2. iean gray was never crowned : she was only proclaimed queen . 3. northumberland never marched back to london , but seeing the queen's forces encrease , and that none came in to him , he came into cambridge , and proclaimed queen mary . 4. it was not so much the city of london , as the whole privy council that declared for queen mary . 5. there was no fleet then to change sides : for mr. varillas knowing nothing of the past age , and only hearing that at present the english fleet is the greatest in the world , he has this ever in his head , and fancies that it was so at all times . 6. nothumberland did not render himself , but was apprehended as a criminal by the earl of arundel , who was sent to seise on him . lxx . he tells us , that northumberland was presently put in irons ; but he retained so great a presence of spirit , when he came to be examined before the council , that mr. varillas thought fit to set this out with all the pomp that his sublime could furnish : he puts harangues in his mouth , by which he confounded the privy councillours , among whom he names the earl of chieresberi : but his crimes being so notorious , he with his four sons were condemned to dye as traitors . the queen pardoned three , but was inexorable to the fourth : and when northumberland saw there was no hope of life , he declared that he had been only a calvinist out of interest ; and expressed a great detestation of that religion , and of th● preachers of it : and suffered with a constancy that was admired by 〈◊〉 that saw it : those who suffered with him imitating his conversion ; this had a great effect on peoples spirits . 1. men of the duke of northumberlands quality , are never put in irons in england . 2. he shewed so little courage , that he threw himself at the earl of arundel's feet abjectly to beg his favour . 3. our author confounds his being brought to his tryal , before a lord steward , and the peers of england , with an examination before the council : and his making the council condemn him , shews that he does not know the commonest points of form in the government of england . 4. all this constancy and arguing that he puts in northumberlands mouth , is taken from two points in law that he proposed to the peers , that were his judges : the one was , whether a man acting by order of council , and by warrants under the great seal , could be esteemed a criminal : the other was , whether one that had acted so , could be judged by peers , that had given him those orders , and that were as guilty as himself . 5. tho these were points in law that 〈◊〉 have some colour in them , yet they were far from confounding any : for a council or a great seal flowing from an vsurper , is nothing : so this authority could not justify him : and as for those who were as guilty as himself , and yet were now his iudges ; they were not convicted of the guilt : and no peer can be ●et a●ide in a tryal , upon general surmises , how true soever they may be . 6. i confess it was some time , before i could find out who this earl of chieresberi was . at last i saw it must be shrewsbury , who should have been a little better known to mr. varillus : unless he has read the french story as carelesly as he has done the english ; for the illustrious ancestors of that family left such marks of their valour behind them in france , that one should think that talbot , earl of shrewsbury , should be the family of all england , in which a french writer should be the least apt to mistake . and this confirms me in my opinion , that mr. varillas has never read history . 7. there were none of northumberlands sons tryed at that time , but his eldest son the earl of warwick : for he had been called by writ to the house of lords , and so was to be tried as a peer : but the rest were commoners ; and were tryed some moneths after this . 8. he makes queen mary less merciful than she was : for it was believed she would have pardoned both iean of suffolk and her husband ; if upon the rebellion that was raised six moneths after this , it had not been then thought necessary to take to severer councils . 9. it was believed at that time , that northumberland declared himself a roman catholick , in hope to save his life by the means . 10. his constancy was not very extraordinary ; for there passed some severe expostulations between sr. iohn gates and him : who as they had been complices in the rebellion , so now being brought to suffer together , they died reproaching one another . 11. it does not appear , that any other of those who suffered , changed their religion : nor 12. is it likely that such a declaration of men , who were so odious to the nation , and who in the making of it , did likewise shew that they had made a small account of religion , could have any great effect on those who saw it . lxxi . mr. varillas will never give over his bold quotations ; for here he tells us , that charles the fifth advised queen mary , not to proceed so hastily in the change of religion ; and that he believed she would find before , long , that it would not be safe to her , to break her promise . and to confirm this , he cites on the margin , charles the fifths letters to q. mary . ● this would make one that does not know the man , fancy that there was some register or collection of those letters , which he had seen ; i have indeed seen those letters ; for the originals of them are extant ; and i shewed them once to the spanish ambassadour at london , don pedro de ronquillas , who did me the honour to desire me to accompany him to the cotton library , where i not only shewed him these letters , but as many of the other original papers , out of which i had drawn my history , as could be examined at one time : but for charles the fifths letters , they are so little legible , and the queen of hungary's hand is so little better than his , that i could not copy them out , nor print them : some little hints i took from them , but that was all . 2. it seems mr. varillas was not much concerned in queen mary's breaking her word ; for in those letters , that he makes up for charles , all that he makes him set before her , is the danger of it , and that she could not do it long safe ( impunement ) if she had a vast army in any strong places , a great fleet , and a huge revenue , then the breaking of her word would have troubled mr. varillas so little , that it would not have hindred him from making her panegyrick : tho the violation of her faith was so much the more scandalous , that those to whom she gave it , had setled her upon her throne ; and perhaps he will find somewhat parallel to this , to put in his panegyrick . lxxii . he goes on with his romance , and tells us , that queen mary writ back to the emperour a more heroical answer than can be found among all the letters of the crowned heads of the last age : she told him what wonders of providence she had hitherto met with , and that therefore she was more bound than any other not to be unthankful : and to conclude with a soft period , she said , she would be guilty of as many crimes ●s she lived minutes without acquiting her self of her duty . these effects followed on those words : she repealed by authentical acts , all that had been done by her father or her brother , to the prejudice of the catholick religion : and tho she had reason to fear the malecontents of some , who having lived long without religion , would not willingly receive again that yoke which they had thrown off , yet she reduced them all with more haughtiness , than the most esteemed and the most absolute prince that ever reigned in england : she dismissed the armed companies that were about her ; she renounced the title of head of the church of england , and re-established the exercise of the catholick religion every where . and it is to be considered , that all this was done in the year 1553. and before haviets rebellion . mr. varillas would make his reader believe , that queen mary was a heroine indeed ; and he carries the character as high as he can , that so when he comes to write his panegyrick , all the praises he has bestowed on her , may give so much the more lustre to his monarch , who after all is to be preferred to her : for tho she excelled all the crowned heads of the last age , yet she must come humbly & lay down all her glory to enrich the panegyrik of one of the princes of the present . 2. mr. varillas would make us believe , that he saw both her letters , and the letters of all the other crowned heads of the last age ; & i believe both is alike true . 3. those soft and melting periods that he gives us out of her letter , have a sort of an affected eloquence in them , that may pass from a man like mr. varillas ; but they have not that native beauty and greatness , that is the stile of those that are born to command . 4. if our author had examined queen mary's letters , he would have found some of them of a far different strain : he would have found her acknowledg king henry's supremacy ; renounce the popes authority ; confess that her mothers marriage was by the law of god and man incestuous , and unlawful : he would have found her express her sorrow for her former stubbornness , and disobedience to her father's most just and vertuous laws ; and put her soul in his hands ; vowing never to vary from his orders ; and that her conscience should be always directed by him : and when her opinion was asked of pilgrimages , purgatory , and relicks , he would have found her declare , that in all these things she had no opinion at all , but such as she should receive from the king ; who had her whole heart in his keeping , and might imprint upon it , in these and all other matters , whatever his inestimable vertue , high wisdom , and excellent learning should think convenient for her . these were her strains , while she was yet a subject , and under the yoke of a father : and of these the originals are yet extant . 4. all the change that she made the first year of her reign , was to abolish what her brother had done , and to bring things back to the state in which her father had left them : upon which cardinal pool writ her a letter full of severe expostulations ; for he said , this was to establish schism by a law. 5. our autho● represents all these changes as made of the sudden , before she dismissed the people that came up with her to london , and as if she had done all by her own authority , whereas it was the work of three parliaments one after another . 6. the queen kept still her title of supream head of the church , above a year after this , and in two parliaments that she called , she carried that among her other titles , and in the vertue of it turned out bishops , and licensed preachers , besides a great many other exercises of her supremacy : so far was she from laying it aside at first . lxxiii . mr. varillas , after he had diversified his romance with the intermixture of other affairs , returns back to england , and lets us see how little the queen was inclined to keep the promises that she had made her subjects : for the day after her coronation , it appeared to the curious , that she had made some infractions in her promises touching religion ; tho she had not yet been tempted to break the other . she ballanced indeed whether she should marry one of her own subjects or not . card. pool and courtney , earl of devonshire , were the only two that were left of the blood royal. pool had many great qualities , which are set out as romances paint their hero's , as well as courtney's : who was descended by his mother from the house of york : he was beautiful , had a good meen , and was so well bred , that at two and twenty , he was the most accomplished cavalier of great brittain . he spake the chief languages of europe , and was very learned . his mother had been queen mary's friend , that never left her day nor night : and some have said , that the queen once promised to her , that she would marry her son. but he adds , that the queen had owned her design for pool to commendon : yet after all , pool was near sixty , and courtney was very loose : so this disposed her to the match with the prince of spain , which charles the fifth , who had projected the conquest of france , desired extreamly , in order to the accomplishing of that design . a little after this , he tells us , that both pool and courtney were equally near the crown : pool was the grand-child of a sister of henry the sevenths , and so he was of the house of lancaster , but courtney was the grand-child of edward the fourth . and now here are as any faults as could be well laid together in so few words : 1. the queen was not crowned till the tenth of october , and long before that time not only the curious , but men as ignorant as mr. varillas , saw how little regard she had to her promise for preserving the established religion : most of the bishops were by that time clapt up in the tower , all preaching was prohibited , except by those who had the queen's licences ; and such as came to put her in mind of her promises , were punished as insolent persons . 2. he says , she had not been yet tempted in the point of marrying a stranger : yet in his preface he had set her forth as entertaining commendon , with her design for marrying the prince of spain , and he left her in august . 3. there were several others of the royal family , and in the same degree with cardinal pool , whose posterities are yet remaining : these were the earl of huntington's family , and that of the baringtones in essex . 4. cardinal pool , who died five year after this , was but 59. when he died . 5. courtney's mother was not of the house of york , but his grandmother , who was edward the fourth's daughter . a mother for a grandmother is as great a fault as a grandmother for a great-grandmother , with which he reproaches me so severely in his answer to my reflections . 6. courtney was so far from having any advantages of breeding , that he had been kept a prisoner thirteen years in the tower of london , ever since his father was attainted . 7. his mother was likewise all that while a prisoner , and so had not those opportunities of being with the queen . 8. cardinal pool was of the house of york , his mother being daughter to the duke of clarence , that was edward the fourths brother . 9. courtney was so far from being vicious and lewd , that he was rather too sullen , which was imputed to his imprisonment in his youth , that had made him melancholy and studious . 10. the pretence of a promise that queen mary gave to courtney's mother , to marry her son , is by all other authors put upon cardinal pool : but i believe both are alike true . 11. courtney was not grand-child , but great-grandchild to edward the fourth . 12. it was believed at that time , that the queen had really such inclinations to courtney , that if he had not by a strange coldness neglected her , applying himself more to her sister elisabeth , she would have married him : and that her hatred of her sister , was encreased when she saw to which of the two courtney gave the preference . 13. the queen had only insinuated to commendon her inclinations for card ▪ pool . lxxiv . mr. varillas tells us of one sr. thomas haviet , a zealous calvinist , one of a great family , and highly esteemed , both by the nobility and the people ( which he sets out in his romantical way very elegantly as he thinks , no doubt ) and in a word , one that had all the qualities necessary for the head of a party , except that of being of the blood royal. this haviet then resolved to hinder the match with spain , and in order to the doing of it , he found it necessary to set up the princess elisabeth : and courtney being set on by rage and iealousy , since he saw the queen disappointed him , and was treating for the spanish match , joined likewise into haviets conspiracy . most men besides our author know the names of those of whom they undertake to write ; but who would think that this haviet , that has so large a part of this story assigned him , was no other then sr. thomas wiat , that as is pretended , owned that he had corrupted anne bullen : and yet now he is made a rebel to advance the daughter , who certainly could never forgive so publick an injury as he had done her mother , if our author 's former story of him is true . perhaps mr. varillas perceived this : and therefore resolved to give him here a new name ; for tho all the printed histories make him sr. thomas wiat ; yet he will make him haviet , tho this name is not so much as known in england . but haviet may pass for wiat as well as millethon for maidston , and camdavart for southwark , and quincethon for kingston . it is true , there is some sort of affinity between millethon and maidston ; for they begin and end with a letter ; and even that is much for mr. varillas . quincethon and kingston are more remote , yet an ill pronounciation , might make a man mistake the one for the other ; for i have often taken notice of this , that mr. varillas has heard a great deal , but has read very little history : yet how camdavart could pass for southwark , is that which i cannot comprehend : and as little how haviet was put for wiat , if this last was not an artifice of mr. varillas's . but instead of following mr. varillas thro all his impertinences , i fancy it will please my reader better , if i mention some particulars of that business , which i drew from a relation of the matter writ by sr. thomas wiat's own son , of which i give an account in my reply to mr. varillas . sir thomas wiat , tho the duke of northumberland's kinsman , would not join with him in the business of l. iean gray : but proclaimed queen mary at maidston , before he knew that any others had done it : yet he did not run to her for thanks , as many others did : but she was so sensible of this service , that she sent the earl of arundel with her thanks to him , to which he appealed in his trial. but he quickly saw how matters were like to go , so he had obtained a pass to go beyond sea : which he had put in execution , if his wife 's being big with child , had not stayed him till she was brought to bed . he had observed so much of the temper of the spanish ministers , when he was ambassador in charles the fifths court , that his love to his countrey made him extream apprehensive of the misery of the nation , if it should fall under that yoke . he never so much as pretended that religion was his motive : and papists as well as protestants joined with him : and if he had designed any mischief to the queen , it was in his power to have executed it ; for when he passed by charingcross , whitehal was ill defended : and many of the earl of pembrokes men came over to him : but he marcht on to the city of london , having no other intentions but to concur with them in opposing the match : and the queen her self was so fully assured that he designed no hurt to her , that she was resolved to pardon him , if a message had not come from brussels , upon which his head was cut off . he never accused the queen's sister , tho he was once so entangled by questions , that were put to him , that he answered somewhat that reflected on the earl of devonshire , for which he afterwards beg'd his pardon : and to shew that he had alwayes vindicated queen elisabeth , he not only did it in very plain words on the scaffold , but said likewise , that she was not privy to his matters , as he had delivered in his declaration made before the privy council . this account of that matters , as it supplys some defects that are in my history , so it shews that mr. varillas had told both the name of the person , and the history it self , alike true . lxxv . he tells us , that this haviet having made himself sure of the town of millethon , put off the mask : and came up to rochester , at the head of 1200. horse and 8000. foot : and was received into it the 22. of ianuary , 1554. he intended to go on in great marches to london , but all this did not disorder the queen , who put the troops that she had about her , under the command of the duke of norfolk , and of his brother , that was admiral of england : and ordered them to march in the very minute in which she received the news of the insurrection , tho it was just at midnight on the 22. of ianuary . the two brothers marched , but four of their companies revolting , and the rest being disheartned by that , the brothers found it convenient to return back to london : where the queen left nothing undone , that was necessary to animate or encrease her army : yet she fearing lest the citizens of london should open to haviet the rochester port , sent some to treat with him , and to assure him , that if the spanish match displeased the english , she would never think on it any more ▪ but he asked such extravagant high terms , that all treaty was broke off . but 1. this haviet when he was strongest , and advanced to mr. varillas's camdavart , was but 4000. strong in all : but mr. varillas is generous , and would bestow a good army on him . 2. those who have been in maidston , will not find it a great matter to be sure of such a place . 3. mr. varillas comes pretty near ▪ the true date here , but yet does not hit it ; for it was on the 25. of ianuary , and not on the 22. that wyat came to rochester . 4. his ignorance of the map of england must be suteable to the rest of his learning ; since it is but a very short day's journey from rochester to london : and even his hearsay , which next to florimond is his chief garand , might have helped him here : since this is the part of the whole road of england , that is best known to strangers . 5. notwithstanding all the expedition that he makes the queen use , some dayes past before she sent out any troops , and so the midnight march is spoiled , which no doubt he thought a beautiful stroke , and for which he has somewhat in parallel , perhaps to enrich the panegyrick . 6. the queen had no troops about her , and all she could get together , was two troops of horse , and six companys of foot , with which the city of london furnished her : so she sent first a herald to rochester , to try if wiat ( alias haviet ) could be persuaded to return to his duty . 7. the duke of norfolk's brother was never admiral of england , nor did he go along with him at this time . 8. the queen made no such abject propositions to wiat as he pretends ; for she only sent some to see what it was that he demanded , and when he proposed very high terms , they gave over all treaty with him : here the heroine sinks a little , perhaps this must be to hide some feeble stroak that must appear in the panegyrick . 9. the queen went indeed into london , and gave the citizens very tender assurances of the love she bare to her people , and that she did nothing in the treaty for the spanish match , but by the advice of her whole council ; but she never said that she would not think on it any more . 10. for his rochester port to the city of london , he will find it in the same map , in which the suburb at the end of the bridg , on the other side of the river , is called camdavart : for he has given us all these marks of it , and perhaps he found it so in some of those manuscripts , that were communicated to him , under the confidences of friendship : and i dare answer for him , that he will keep this secret most religiously . lxxvi . he goes on , and says , that haviet stopt a little ; either to see what answer the queen would send to his propositions : or perhaps it was because his troops were weary with a long march : in the mean while the queen put matters in a most wonderful order : she sent away the spanish ambassadours , who were an eye-sore to her people : she called the nobility and chief citizens about her , and promised to them in a most pathetical harangue , to call a parliament , and not to take a husband but by its advice ; by this she prevailed so far that the citizens were contented to let all the locks of the city gates be changed , and to deliver the keys to the duke of norfolk , which was the critical thing that saved all ; so small a matter serves to preserve or to overturn monarchies , where heresy has once got in . so the queen having by the efficacy of her harangue , gained many brave men to come to encrease her troops , she placed some on the banks of the river to hinder the rebels , who were now at camdavart , from passing : and she drew up the rest at james's , which was the place where probably they would endeavour to enter the city : but haviet finding the bridg at camdavart was cut by the duke of norfolk , left his foot that were heavily armed , and marched with his light horse to quincethan , where he passed the river , having defeated 500. men that the q. had sent thither to dispute the passage . every tittle here is fiction , and the fiction is very ill contrived . 1. wiat could expect no answer from the queen to his extravagant demands ; for those whom she had sent to him , broke with him in very ill terms . 2. that treaty was at deptford , and instead of a long march from that to his camdavart , it is but a short walk of an hour or two at most . 3. the spanish ambassadours were never sent away ; here again the heroine sinks . 4. she made no promise to call a parliament : but said only , that she would do nothing but by the advice of her council . 5. it seems there is some mystery in this , that mr. varillas makes the queen as ready at all times to make promises , as she was resolved to break them : now since mr. varillas writes history , not as he finds it , but as he thinks fit to dress it , there is some reason to believe , that in his representing queen mary so little a slave to her word , he had still his panegyrick in his eye . 5. if one apprehended any had pick-locks to his house , the changing of locks , and the looking after the keys , were a very proper method ; but this is i believe the first time , that ever the security of a great city was thought to turn upon such a matter : and mr. varillas may pretend to the monopoly of this secret in fo●tification , since it is most certainly his own invention . 7. if mr. varillas is so ignorant as not to know that gunpowder was in use at that time , yet hatchets and hammers were always in use , and these are good enough against gates and locks . 8. the queen's troops could not well stand over against his camdavart , to hinder haviets passage ; unless they stood to the midle in water : for there is no key there , the buildings being continued to the rivers side . 9. the bridg of london was not cut , but only defended . 10. haviet had no foot heavily armed , but a company of countrey people brought together , and he marched with them all . 11. as our author describes s. iames's , it seems he fancies there is another bridg upon the thames there : but since haviet had not boats enough for passing , he could not cross the river lower than kingston bridg ; for the thames is not fordable in winter below that . 12 ▪ kingston bridg was indeed cut ; but that was all the opposition that he met there : yet as our author describes it , it does not seem that he knew there was a bridg there ; for he speaks only of crossing the river . lxxvii . but now to conclude the romance , he tells us , that haviet broke thro the queen's army at st. james's , and advanced to the gate of the city ; but here , the new locks and keys did mighty service : for the gates could not be opened , so he was forced to retire , but even that was no more possible for him to do , since the queens troops were in too good a● order , and she her self appeared at the head of them , and did so wonderfully animate them , that in the end poor haviet was taken , and 200 ▪ more with him , who were all led along with him to the execution . 1. there was no resistance made to wiat at all ; for he marcht straight on to the gates of the city . 2. certainly by mr. varillas's story he was the modestest rebel that ever was , who came and knockt at the gates , and then went away , because the d. of norfolk had the keys . 3. if the queen's troops had been in such order , one would think they would not have trusted so much to their locks and keys , as to have suffered wiat to go on to the city gates . 4. our author is unhappy in every thing : for he did not know that which was set out as the most extraordinary part of the queen's behaviour ; who did not come out and ride at the head of her troops , as he fancies ; but it being ashwednesday morning , she went on with the devotions of the day , and continued all the morning at prayers . mr. varillas says nothing of this , for one or two reasons , either because he knew it not , or because he had not found out what was fit to be set against this in his panegyrick . 5. it was perhaps upon some other part of the same piece , that he was thinking , when he makes 200. to be taken with wiat , and all to be carried to accompany him to his execution . for there were fifty eight persons that were attainted for the rebellion ; but there was only a small number even of those , that were pickt out to be made examples : many of those that were condemned , being reserved to be instances of the queen's mercy : and she was so far from delighting in scenes of blood , that her clemency on this occasion was much magnified . to make every one of the prisoners dye , comes nearer the severity of some later practices , than the mildnesses of that princesses reign , who except in the matters of religion , gave no cause to complain of the rigor of her proceedings : she had not chief iustices that hanged up rebels by hundreds , or that condemned them so suddenly , that they were to be led out immediatly to execution ; such things were not then known in england : but she on the contrary , when 600. prisoners were taken , was contented with their coming to beg their pardons with halters about their necks , and gave them all their lives . her council was wise : she designed to change the religion , and therefore she thought the best way to recommend her own , was to shew the greatest readiness to forgive the most dangerous rebellion that perhaps ever princess went through . the hanging up of rebels by hundreds , she knew well , would raise in the minds of her people a horror against her and her ministry , and against her religion ; as if they had delighted in blood. since cruelty in all persons has somewhat that is base as well as black . she was merciful in her own nature , and the councils of that religion were at that time better laid , than to be capable of such errors . and now i have done with mr. varillas's history , and i fancy the world will have done with it likewise very soon . i dare answer so far for the tast and the iudgment of the english nation , as to depend upon it , that none of his works will be any more asked after there . i have kept my self as much within the temper of stile , that i thought became me , as was possible . i confess , it raises nature somewhat , to see a man of his age , and that had , by i know not what chance , gained some reputation in the world , imploy his pen with so much malice to defame our nation , and our religion : but by a curse peculiar to himself , his ignorance is such an antidote to all the ill effects of his malice , that his writings can do no hurt , but to himself , and to his printers . i thought a severe correction was necessary , when he had now for a second time shewed that he was incurable : and that the discipline that i had formerly given him , had not brought him to a sounder mind . and therefore if this goes a little deeper , it was the inveteracy of the evil , that forced me to it . let men write truth as to matters of fact , let them write it decently , and let them set themselves against my history as much as they will , i will answer them with all the softness and decency , that becomes a man and a christian : and i will either confess my mistakes , if i am convinced of them , or discover theirs with that gravity of stile , that is necessary : for to handle a man without mercy , tho not without iustice , ( which was the censure that an eminent person passed upon my former reflections on mr. varillas ) is a thing so contrary to my nature , that it must be a very extraordinary provocation that can carry me to it . and i dare appeal to all men , even to those of the roman persuasion , if the venom and folly that is spread over mr. varillas's second volum , does not justify all that scorn with which i treat him . it must be confessed to be somewhat extraordinary , that in an age , such as ours is , and in a city such as paris is , a man should undertake to bring in the history of a nation , into his work , concerning which he has so little information , as neither to know the map , nor the names , the laws , nor the government , nor the most publick transactions that are to be found even in the worst and cheapest books ; and yet the most amasing part of all is , to see this man write with such an air of assurance , and to pretend to discover the profoundest secrets . he that would desire to see very ill sights , if they are but extraordinary , would he tempted to go and look upon mr. varillas , and examin his meen and his phisiognomy a little ; for certainly he is a man of the most singular composition , that the present age , or for ought i know , that any other has ever produced . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30331-e350 fx mss. d. petyt . lib. 20. p. 58. p. 59. p. 60. ibid. p. 61. ibid. ibid. p. 63. ibid. queens ibid. and p. 64 , 65 , 66. bullar . rom. tom. 2. p. 704. p. 67. answer to me . p. 305. p. 72. p. 73. ibid. p. 149. lib. 17. p. 76. ibid. lib. 9. see my reflect . p. 103. numb . 38. p. 152 , 153. p. 154. * sciatis n●s , deliberate certa scientia , & mero motu nostris , ex quibusdam causis justis & rationabilibus , nos , animos & conscientias nostras , specialiter moventibus , ultro & sponte , dedisse & concessisse domino regi , &c. p. 156. p. 83. p. 160. p. 164. p. 166. ibid. p. 166. p. 168. p. 169. p. 172. p. 176. p. 177. p. 200. p. 202. p. 203. p. 207. p. 293. p. 62. p. 63. ibid. p. 61 p. 63. p. 64. p. 65. p. 67. p. 68. p. 69. p. 77. p. 96. ibid. p. 97. p. 98. ibid p. 100 , 101 , 102. the 20th. day of march 1550. p. 103. p. 122. p. 125. p. 129. p. 131. p. 133. p. 298. p. 300. p. 301. p. 302. p. 310. ibid. * these two last paragraphs and what is printed in a different character , are dasht out , yet so as to be legible . ex m. s. d. g. petyt . p. 312. p. 313. p. 314. p. 315. p. 318. ibid. p. 320. p. 321. p. 322. ibid. p. 328. ibid. p. 352. p. 361. p. 359. p. 362. p. 366. p. 367. p. 362. p. 365. p. 367. a sermon preached on the fast-day, decemb. 22, 1680 at st. margarets westminster before the honourable house of commons / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1681 approx. 73 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 23 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30419) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 54302) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 760:7) a sermon preached on the fast-day, decemb. 22, 1680 at st. margarets westminster before the honourable house of commons / by gilbert burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], 42 p. printed by j.d. for richard chiswell ..., london : 1681. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -n.t. -revelation iii, 2-3 -sermons. fast-day sermons. sermons, english -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-02 paul schaffner sampled and proofread 2005-02 paul schaffner text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached on the fast-day , decemb. 22. 1680. at. st. margarets westminster , before the honourable house of commons . by gilbert burnet , d. d. london , printed by j. d. for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . 1681. rev. 3. 2 , 3. i have not found thy works perfect before god. remember therefore how thou hast received , and heard , and hold fast , and repent . if therefore thou shalt not watch , i will come on thee as a thief , and thou shalt not know what hour i will come upon thee . there is nothing in which men of all religions do so constantly agree , as in the duties we are now about : so that it may be justly called the voice and law of nature , which directs all people , when in great straits , or under great fears , to call on that god whom they serve , to implore his pity , and pray for his assistance . i need not tell you how all heathen nations do it : the jews practise it : christians of every perswasion have upon all great occasions , and in all ages , set about it solemnly . some , with the pageantry of heathenish processions ; and others , with the simplicity that becomes their profession , as we do this day . when the ship in which jonas endeavoured to have fled from the discharge of an uneasie commission which god had given him , was driven in a storm , and brought to great extremities , every man called upon his god : only the guilty person , whose god could only hear and help them , lay fast asleep . i need not enlarge on the too visible occasions of our calling on god at this time : a sadness that is spread over the faces , and fills the hearts of all men ; the present distractions we are under , and the greater mischiefs of which we are afraid , speak aloud , and need not be further described : so that all good men had in their secret mournings , and in their wishes for a publick humiliation of the whole nation , anticipated the address of this honourable assembly . it is well that we pay this visible homage to religion and its blessed author . in this storm we have but one god to fly to , and one lord and mediator , by whom we may address to him : if the guilty persons will sleep on still , or do worse , continue sinning while we are fasting and mourning ; yet if we cry mightily to god , we may reasonably hope that he will ease us of that load of our sins , which only can , and certainly will sink us , if it still hang on us. when we consider our present ill condition , and alas ! perhaps this is but the beginning of our sorrows ; and reflect on the signal blessings we have received from god , and that we still retain that holy religion which was revealed from heaven by jesus christ , the great high priest of our profession , we cannot be long to seek for the true causes of all those evils which we either feel or fear . truth is still the same , and of the same value with the author of it ; and the god of truth changes not . what has then separated between god and us ? and what hath raised that thick cloud that seems to be set over us , and is ready to discharge it self in fire , brimstone , and a horrible tempest ? god's hand is not shortned , that it cannot save , neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear : but it is our iniquities have separated between vs and our god , and our sins have hid his face from vs , if he will not hear . therefore those whom you command to plead with you , in the name of god on such occasions , ought to cry aloud , and not spare , but with all the plainness that becomes this place , and this time , shew you your transgressions and your sins . in order to this , i have made choice of these words , being a part of a short , but weighty epistle written by st. john , in the name of christ , to the church of sardis . of it in particular we have so little recorded in the history of the church , that we can gather nothing from thence to give us a clearer light into the meaning of these words : so i shall go no further than the epistle it self , for setting before you the state in which it was at that time . sardis had a great name among the other churches , as being one of those planted by the apostles : it had a name that it lived , yet was dead : the power and life of religion was under a great decay , the remainders of it in some few persons , that had not defiled their garments , were even ready to die : they were all that left of those who had at first sincerely embraced the christian religion ; they were but a remnant of what had been , and they were like to drop off soon : but for the rest , though they retained the outward profession of their religion , yet christ knew their works : and though in some things they might be praise-worthy , yet they were not full weight and measure ; they were not such as became their circumstances , their light , the advantages they had , nor the age they lived in , in which they ought not only to have been blameless and harmless , but to have lookt like the sons of god , and to shine as lights in the world , holding forth the word of life . in a word , their works were not perfect before god. upon this , direction is given them , how to amend what was defective or amiss among them : they were to remember what they had received and heard , from the apostles : they were to make that the standard of their actions : they were neither to frame a religion to themselves out of their own imaginations , or make up a mixture of heathenism and christianity , to which many were then enclined ; nor were they to be seduced by any false teachers from the apostolical doctrine , which was their rule ; to this they were to adhere and to hold it fast . they were to maintain it in its purity uncorrupted while they lived , and to deliver it so to their posterity at their death . they are also directed in the use of it , not to preserve it only as a matter of speculation , or as a denomination by which they were discriminated from others , but were to improve it so as to be the better for it ; to repent , to change their hearts and lives . if they were not awakned by this alarm given them from heaven , they were to look for a more terrible blow , which should surprize them in the midst of their securities , as a thief when he is least lookt for : which also insinuates the severity , as well as the suddenness of the stroke . thieves that break in in the night , commonly carry all away with them , that is worth their pains . on the other hand , the remnant , who were then but a few , that kept their garments clean , are comforted with the hopes of enjoying god in a state of more perfect holiness , expressed in the figure of walking with christ in white : and to encourage others to follow their steps , a general promise is made to all them that continued to the end in that course of life , that they should be advanced to the same state of perfect holiness : their names were now to be written in the book of life ; and at the great day , when these books should be opened , christ would before god , angels , and saints , give such a testimony to them as is recorded in the 25. chap. of st. mat. gospel , when i was hungry , ye fed me , &c. this epistle being thus explained , it will not be difficult to apprehend what the particulars are on which i shall enlarge . they are these five : 1. jesus christ observes , and will reckon with every church , according to the blessings which they have received , if they live not suitably to them . 2. the rule by which we are to examine our selves , and by which god will judge us , is the doctrine which the churches received from the apostles . 3. all those who have heard and received this doctrine , ought to keep it carefully , and to conveigh down that sacred trust committed to them to the succeeding generations . 4. the chief use we ought to make of this doctrine , is to reform our hearts and lives ; to repent , and to forsake our sins . 5. such as will not make this use of it , have reason to look for sudden and severe judgments . all these things are clearly gathered out of my text , and seem to comprehend the full sense of these words , i have not found thy works perfect before god : remember therefore how thou hast received , and heard , and hold fast , and repent . if therefore thou shalt not watch , i will come on thee as a thief , and thou shalt not know what hour i will come upon thee . to return to the first . 1. jesus christ observes , and will reckon with every church , according to the blessings which they have received , if they live not suitably to them . i have not found thy works perfect before god. perfect , the greek word is different from that which is commonly rendered perfect ; and strictly imports accomplished or filled up with such ingredients as make works acceptable with god. by this we are not to understand that absolute perfection , which excludes all sin , or all defects ; for works so perfect belong to another state ; but such a perfection as agrees to the gospel-covenant , by which all that is sincere is perfect in some sort , and will be so accounted for to us by god. wherein the works of this church were not perfect , we can only guess at it , by what we find in the other epistles ▪ in this and the former chap. and in the epistles written by s. paul to some other churches . there are three things chiefly specified and insisted on . 1. their falling from their first love , and not doing their first works , charged by st. john on the church of ephesus , and by st. paul on the galathians : they received the gospel , according to the parable of the seed with great joy : they begain in the spirit , they did run well , but the fear of persecution , or the cares of the world , and the deceitfulness of riches , made that the seed of the word of god , that had been sown among them , either withered or was choaked : their first fervour abated , their love cooled , they became lukewarm , and then quite cold and dead ; so that those who began in the spirit in a spiritual course , or had received the gifts or graces of the holy spirit , ended in the flesh , became carnal and loose men . 2. they are charged for listning to false teachers and seducers : they had heard many strange things from the apostles which were new to them , and these did raise a curiosity in them after novelties , with a disposition to receive them ; some of them are particularly named in these epistles : some brought in heathenish sorceries and idolatrous rites among them , as balaam and jesabel had done : others loosed all the tyes of modesty and wedlock , as the nicolaitans did : others were for subjecting the christian church to the yoke of all the ceremonies of the mosaical law : and by the arts which these seducers used , the churches that had received the apostles with great kindness , so that they were ready to have plucked out their very eyes for them , a phrase expressing the tenderest affection , yet were too much inclined to entertain those false apostles . 3. they were apt to divide and quarrel unreasonably about little and inconsiderable things , and carried these heats so far , that even when they assembled together to receive the holy sacrament , they met for the worse , and not for the better : so that there were divisions among them , and the several parties assumed such names as they thought would give them the most credit : some were for paul , some for apollo , some for cephas , and some for christ. and the very teachers themselves were factious and contentious , so that some at rome , when s. paul was in prison for the gospel , preached there out of contention , that they might thereby add affliction to his bonds : though in that they were disappointed ; for notwithstanding their injustice to him , he rejoyced that christ was preached by them . some one or all these had perhaps got into the church of sardis , for which s. john , in the name of christ , expostulates with them . they had much to answer for , to whom the apostles had delivered what they had seen and heard concerning jesus christ , confirming it with many miracles , and had conferred on them extraordinary gifts , so that they were made partakers of the holy ghost , and of the powers of the world to come : these seem to have been the sins of this as well as of the other apostolical churches . and now to apply all this to our own case , suffer me first in the name of god to plead with you , and to set before you the many blessings you have received from him , beyond most or rather any nation now in the world : we are born in a country that abounds not only with all that is necessary for the inhabitants , but yields us great store of very valuable goods which we exchange with other nations , and bring over such things as grow not among us ; with a vast encrease of wealth , which from all parts of the world flows unto us : our country being equally well situated for security and traffique , we have almost forgot when we were visited with the plague of famine . we are under a government so rarely tempered by law , that in it we have all the advantages of other constitutions , and avoid the mischiefs of the several forms of government , as much as is possible for any thing that is managed by mortal and sinful men to be : so that after any of the convulsions that have been among us , it has been still found necessary to return to the old channel , and observe the landmarks which our forefathers set us. these blessings we enjoy beyond any nation in the world , but these we have in common with the former ages ; they are also temporal and end with this life , we have yet much more to answer for . we have the light of the glorious gospel of christ among us , and therein the way to life and immortality hereafter , is opened to us. this we have freed from all the impure mixtures of idolatry or superstition with which it is defiled in other churches , and are delivered from the tyranny of a foreign power . we have had our religion long secured to us by law , with all the encouragements that can be expected , in a church so happily constituted between the extreams of ecclesiastical tyranny one the one hand , and enthusiastical principles on the other hand ; so that it is only our own fault if we are not the sanctuary and defence of all other reformed churches , as well as we are the chief object of the practices and designs of our enemies at rome . this we have likewise in common with the former age : but i shall next enumerate those blessings that we of this age have been more particularly favoured with : they are great and signal , and so obvious that it will be enough to name them . we were involved in a long and tragical war at home , but were not swallowed up in it . our neighbour island drank indeed of a bitterer cup , and was covered almost all over with the blood and the carcases of the slain . but here the storm was not so terrible : the conquerors were so restrained by that supream power that governs the world , that it is no small wonder there was so little mischief done , by those who had the power to do so much : when our confusions thickned so upon us that our government changed almost as oft as the weather , all things returned of a sudden to their old chanel , the king was restored , and the nation was setled in so serene and calm a manner , that it cannot be denied there was a signal hand of heaven in it . the more have we all to answer for , that have made so ill use of so extraordinary a blessing ; since that time we have had plenty and peace at home these twenty years , no breaking out nor complaining in our streets or countries . we have all this while lived under the clear light of the gospel ; and though many of the pastors have much to answer , for their great failings , yet there have been raised up among us not a few eminent and faithful labourers , who have asserted the truth and demonstrated the power of religion , with as much advantage as hath been done in any age since miracles and persecution ceased : and these have frequently given publick and free warning to the nation . many excellent books have been writ , and sermons have been published as well as preached , which will remain to the next age to testifie against that we live in . god has been calling on us aloud from heaven , both by his mercies and judgments , to turn to him and to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance , and meet for the kingdom of god ; that is , for his holy gospel . a raging pestilence , and a consuming fire came quick one after another to awaken us effectually : yet though we were then engaged in an expenceful war , god did not deliver us up into the hands of our enemies , though he corrected us so severely himself . these things did perhaps give a little stop to some persons , though others went on still publishing their sin as sodom ; but with the return of peace and the continuance of plenty , we returned to or still continued in our sins : we have been delivered from another war since , and the ill designs of wicked men were defeated and came to nothing : and now for above seven years we have slept in a profound peace , and as profound a security , when there was nothing but vastation and misery in the countries that lie next to us : but our enemies slept not , they were contriving how to make us return back again into egypt , or submit not our necks only , but our souls and consciences to that tyrannical yoke of the roman slavery ; and thought the design so well laid for rooting out that which they call a pestilent heresie , that it was upon the point of being executed . then did it appear that god was still watching over us for good , and he that saw all these secret contrivances , so closely carried and cemented with so many sacred ties , disappointed all their councils , and brought all their designs to light , when we were least aware of it ; being , though sensible of a great danger hovering over us , yet little apprehensive that it was so near us , and was to break out in such a manner . i need not run over all those steps , by which divine providence has brought out what they intended we should never have known , till we had felt it and been past the possibility of preventing or redressing it : they are well enough known , and are often in all our mouths , oh that they were as much in our hearts ! and now put all these things together , and see if it may not be said concerning us , what the prophet isaias said of the people of the jews , god has planted a vinyard in a very fruitful place , with the choicest vine , and has fenced it , and built a tower in it : in a word what more could have been done in this vinyard , that has not been done in it ? and therefore as partial as we are apt to be in our own concerns , it may be referred to our selves , to judge between god and us. we see and acknowledge what he has done for us , let us next consider what grapes we have brought forth ? what returns we have made to god ? have our works been perfect before god ? alas what do i say perfect ! have they not been on the contrary the worst , the most impious , and immoral that many could think on ? we have exceeded the sins of the jews , and the vices of the heathens . it has not been only a slackning or going back of the power of religion , but an open revolt against heaven ; in too great a part of the nation : a banner has been set up for athiesm and impiety , and all have been encouraged to come about it . the sins which our popish forefathers and our more remote heathenish ancestors were so much ashamed of , that they committed them in corners , we have seen done in the sight of the sun. the belief of a god that sees , rewards and punishes , the rules of vertue , and the doctrine of christ have been by some openly assaulted , and treated with indignities which no other nation could endure ; while others have if not directly consented to them , yet looked on as unconcerned , have laughed at and been pleased with them . advantages have been taken from the hipocrisie or euthusiasme of the last age , to throw off the very appearances of religion or vertue in this age : and it has passed for a piece of gallantry and decent breeding to be above the fears and apprehensions of a supream power , or a future state. have we forgot how publickly that great blessing of the kings restauration was abused ? it grew to that height that it was thought a scandal not to concur in all the excesses of riot and intemperance that did then defile the land. whether shall we now turn our eyes ? if on this place , luxury , immorality , and open lewdness meet us almost in every corner : if on the country , how does intemperance , injustice , and a total neglect , if not a resolved scorn of religion fill most places ? and the excesses of drinking have in many parts of the nation , not only corrupted civil conversation , but vitiated the very vitals of our government , by the ascendent that such practises have had in so essential and main a part of our security , as are the elections of this great and honourable assembly : of whom if some generously scorned such methods , too many have complied too much with so base and so ignominious a custom . if we have thus abused the earthly blessings of peace and plenty , and have much to answer for on that account : oh what can we say to excuse our selves who have not only brought no fruit to perfection , notwithstanding all that seed of the gospel that has been so plentifully sown among us , but have done what we could to defie god himself , and to drive him out of our country , being weary of that very dead form of religion yet remaining . and to bring this home to our present circumstances , though we are under great apprehensions of loosing this blessed light ; what are we doing to engage god to be on our side ? we have been now for above two years in great disorders , full of allarms , and under eminent and visible dangers ; but what lust or ill custom have we parted with ? what demonstration have we given to god or the world , that we consider religion as it is indeed the power of god to the salvation of our souls ? or what do we for our holy faith , that infidels , mahometans , jews , or papists , would not do for their perswasions ? do we continue still in our lewdness , intemperance , oppression , injustice , falshood and ill nature , while we are talking of preserving our religion , and yet are doing all we can to undermine or overthrow it ? if god is against us , all that we can do for preserving religion or our other just rights , will either by his wise and holy councils be quite blasted ; or perhaps the very methods that to us seem the most probable to secure them , may in conclusion really introduce that which we fear so much . are our works perfect before god who knows them ? to make a work perfect it must be good in it self , flow from a good principle , and be directed to a good end . the greatest part of our works are faulty in all these particulars , so that neither we nor our works can be accepted with that god , that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity . some of our works may be in themselves good , and such is a zeal for the reformed religion ; but if some do not believe that about which they make so much noise , or if others have no design but to serve base ends or private interests , which they hid with the pretence of religion , and are ready to throw it off , when they have attained that for which they are in truth only concerned , shall not god search this out ? things may be so dressed up , as to have a fair appearance , but to god they appear as indeed they are : so the true value of us and our works , is according to what we are in his sight , from whom nothing can disguise us . from all these things it is but too evident , that our works are not perfect before god. if we will consider more particularly what may be supposed to have been the ground of the expostulation in my text , with this apostolick church of sardis , we shall find the parallel betwixt it and us agrees but too well . these churches had fallen from their first love , and their first works : oh what sad decays are we come under ! and how much have we declined from that zeal and love which our fathers bore to the reformation ! there were two things that were visible in the practice of those who first embraced it among us : the one was the great pleasure they took in reading the scriptures , from whence they were in derisiion called gospellers . when the bibles were first set up in churches , and went at such rates that ordinary people could not buy them , what a running was there to churches , and what crouds gathered all day long about such as could read , to hear this blessed word , which is now in all our hands , and yet is scarce ever considered by us ? some read it only to abuse it and make themselves merry with some atheistical jests to which they wrest it : others judge that indecent , so because they will make no ill use of it , they make none at all , and never open it but for fashion : some imploy their time in searching into the abstruser parts of it , with a prying and vain curiosity : some read it meerly to acquire a faculty of talking in such a stile , and so either they pervert the scriptures by their false glosses , or only learn to defend some opinions out of it , or to discourse in that dialect , for private designs , to which that is perhaps some way necessary . but who read them with a simplicity of mind to be directed by them , and to be inwardly inflamed by the heavenly strains in them ? so that we have little left among us to entitle us to the name of gospellers . the other chief character by which the reformed were at first known , was their applying themselves only to god through jesus christ. this was intended to take men off from two fatal errors , in which they had been formerly led ; the one was relying on such external works as were really of no value at all , and were only the juglings of those deceitful guides , that had set up pilgrimages , slight penances , and the purchasing indulgences , in the room of that which our saviour had revealed to the world ; the other was their imagining that they were justified by the sacraments , upon some slight acts of sorrow or devotion : in stead of these things the reformers set up the applying to god through jesus christ according to the methods of the gospel : so that great and frequent addresses to the father through his son was the mark by which they were then known ! this begetting in them a sense of that love which their saviour had for them , could not but kindle returns of love sutable to it ; and that must needs reform the inward man , upon which purity and holiness of life will certainly follow . this was the main article of the reformation , and being that upon which the hopes of salvation depended , was indeed the thing of the greatest consequence ; though it was afterwards managed with too much metaphysical nicety . in sum this being the chief character of a true protestant , we may soon see how much we have fallen from that love which our fathers had to this truth , while they lived ; and that appeared more signally by their dying for it , when they were called to give their last testimony to it . but what is all this to us ? are we living under the influences of that love ? do our hearts burn with the sense of it ? what reverence have we for the person , or what obedience pay we to the doctrine of our crucified saviour ? if any of this remain , it is much spent , at least , and ready to dye . the second thing charged on these churches , was their being apt to be carried away by the cunning slight of those who lay in wait to deceive , and their being too easily disposed to vitiate christianity with the mixtures of judaism or hethenism or other errors . our vices have taken us off from the practice of the plain and indispensable duties of our holy religion ; and then it is no wonder we find no pleasure in that doctrine which can give no true comfort , to such as continue in their sins . this disposes people to seek that elsewhere , which they cannot have among us ; and therefore a religion made up of pomp and shew , wherein god and his saints were offered to be bribed , in which they knew the rares of sin and the price of heaven found us but too well prepared to become profylites to it . our sins have been also so visible and scandalous , that they have made our communion grow loathsom to many well disposed but weak minds , and have tempted them to separate from our assemblies , when they saw such mixed multitudes among us : so that they have run into sects , that had the appearance of greater gravity and strictness . 3. and we are no less faulty in the third particular , of contending out of measure , for things that are no way essential to salvation . things of so indifferent a nature , that succeeding ages will wonder how men could manage such long and eager contests about them . we have fallen into passions concerning them , these have grown up to a hatred , which hath broken out into most violent and dismal effects , and seems now setled into a formed rent and separation . where is that charitable , healing and compassionate temper which becomes christians , and reformed christians ? especially when they are as it were strugling for life . oh shall nothing make us wiser ? shall neither the advantages our enemies take , nor the prejudices religion suffers by our contests , dispose us to bear with one anothers infirmities , and to manage our differences , if we cannot entirely bury them , with a more christian and decent temper ! there have been extreams on all hands : neither side can free themselves from being too much exasperated : the resentment for what has been done in the several turns of affairs , has gone too far with us . it is not so much our differences that divide us one from another , as our alienation one from another which widens our differences , and makes them appear to be greater than indeed they are . so on all accounts we must acknowledge , that when our works are weighed in those just ballances they cannot be found perfect before god. i hope we are all in some measure convinced of this : the thing is alas too visible . what is then to be done ? but to set about a real reformation with all possible seriousness and sincerity . and in order to this and to direct us in it , here is a rule and standard given , by which we may govern our selves in the means or methods to it : and that is the second thing i proposed to speak to . 2. the rule by which are to examine our selves , and by which god will judge us , is the doctrine which the churches received from the apostles , remember therefore how thou hast received and heard . here is a certain fixed rule ; we are neither left to the heats of our own fancies , nor to the uncertainties of tradation , nor to the impostures of such as may pretend to the government of our consciences : but are conducted by a more certain thread . it is true , in the apostles days this doctrine was at first preached and received , before it was written . there was no great danger as long as they lived , who might be appealed to in any difficulty which could arise concerning their doctrine : so it is a vain way of arguing to infer from the mention of tradition in the epistles , that we after so many ages are past , and so many impostures have been discovered , should be obliged to receive what may be obtruded on us as apostolical tradition . tradition while the apostles lived , was what the scripture is now : and indeed so uncertain a conveyance is oral tradition , that in the very apostles days or soon after , when there were no advantages to be made by such cheats , and so there was less to tempt men to them , yet many false gospels were given out , and false doctrines were infused into some weaker people . we know how unfaithful a conveyor tradition was of natural religion among the gentile nations : the gospel tells us how the jews doted on the traditions of their fathers , and by them made the commandments of god of none effect . the uncertainty of tradition where it was not put in writing , appeared within an age after the apostles , in the contests concerning the observation of easter : both sides vouching the practice of the apostles , and that even while some were alive , that had seen them and had lived with them . but after that wealth and greatness had corrupted the church , and this holy religion was made an engine to advance the ambition and interests of designing men , then what a swarm of supposititious writings appeared every where to support some opinions or designs ; many of these were discovered and branded , but others passed without a censure ; so that it was long before criticks in this and the former age , could find out what was genuine , and what was counterfeit . the most advantagious imposture was coined and received in the 9th century ; a whole volume of the epistiles of the first bishops of rome from the apostles days downwards , was pretended to be found ; in which they were represented as governing the church in the former ages , with the same fulness of power , that their successors have pretended to since . this was rejected by some in that age , but kindly entertained by those that were more concerned for their own greatness than for truth : and by the presidents in these epistles they justified what they did , till their tyranie came to be generally submitted to : and now when these epistles are found to be spurious , they have been forced to throw them away ; but stand upon possession and prescription , tho it began at first upon this and some other impostures , not unlike it , such as the donation of constantine and many more . they well know that their cause cannot be defended if the scriptures are appealed to : these in many points are directly against them , as in the worship of images , and angels , the praying in an unknown tongue , and the denying the chalice , or saying that christs body which is now in heaven , is in the sacrament : in other things they are silent , such as the popes power , the infallibility of a general council , the praying to saints , the redeeming souls out of purgatory , indulgences , pilgrimages , with a thousand other additions , by whi●h they have vitiated the purity of that holy doctrine , which the apostles delivered to the world . this is the foundation of our whole religion , that we believe all that the apostles delivered to the churches , and no more : so we stand to this appeal in my text , remember therefore that thou hast received and heard . it were easie to instance it in many particulars , and to shew you how at first ignorance and superstition let in some customs ; and perhaps those who introduced them at first , being innocent , but weak men , meant well in it : so to draw the heathens off from their idolatry , they directed them to call on saints , instead of the gods they had formerly worshipped : and to perswade people to receive the sacrament with great devotion , they strained their eloquence and invention to recommend the value of it in high figures . many more might be named , but these may suffice : afterwards when the roman empire was over-run by the incursions of the barbarous nations , and civility , religion , and learning , were almost driven out of the world ; then some crafty and aspiring priests came to graft upon the customs of the former times , new opinions , and still to add new rites , till in the end they swelled up to what they are now at in the roman church . when these opinions were first broached , visions and dreams were given out to support them ; and if these lesser frauds did not prevail , pretended miracles were not wanting to give them credit , till they were received ; and being once received , they were enrolled among the traditions of the church , and so were no more to be contested or denied : if any presumed to do it , it was at his peril . these miracles were coined so , as to fit not only the doctrine it self , but the way of explaining it ; and as new ways of explaining were fallen upon , new miracles suitable to these new expositions were at hand . when the doctrine of the corporal presence was first received in the 9th century , it was believed that the whole loaf was an entire body of christ , so that he was sliced in pieces and eat up in gobbets ; and so they continued to understand it near 300 years . then the miracles to prove it were adjusted to that conceit ; it was given out that it did sometimes bleed , and pieces of it were said to be converted to pieces of slesh : but after that the school divinity came to be in request , this way was not found so defensible , nor so decent : and then it was said , christ was in every crumb of the host ; so that upon the breaking it , an entire christ flew off from the rest , which yet remained still as entire as it was , notwithstanding that diminution : and then as they blessed wasers instead of a loaf , so the former miracles were not so much talked of , though some ignorant priests that did not consider that these were contrary to the doctrine of their church , did in some places continue to act the former cheats ; but new ones were more generally invented , and christ was said to appear all in rayes , over or upon the host : so well practised were they in the arts of jugling , as to make their tricks always agree with their hypothesis . in opposition to all these false doctrines and lying wonders , the reformed have from the first beginning of the reformation set up the whole strength of their cause , upon this single plea , of receiving nothing as a part of their faith , but what could be found in the writings of the apostles ; that so all agreeing on a common umpire their differences might be more easily composed . the church of rome knows well what the issue must be , if this is granted , and so have put the strength of their whole cause upon the authority of the church , that is themselves , and the certainty of oral tradition , handed down by such men as themselves are : whether the one or the other seems to be the more ingenuous principle , the more certain method of trial , and the less liable to deceit , i leave it to the consciences of all wise and good men . but as we ought to remember what we have thus received and heard , so the end of this is not barely for speculation , to inform us about some notions , or to furnish us with arguments and discourse : these things are only necessary for a further end ; that our minds being well informed , and our belief rightly directed , we may govern our lives according to what the holy apostles have left to us . it is because their works were not perfect , that they are here charged therefore to remember the doctrine that they had received : what shall our knowledge , our orthodoxie , and soundness of opinion avail us , if we do not reduce it to practise ? unless it be to heighten our condemnation , and to intitle us to more stripes and severer judgements . here we will find our duties set before us , and from thence we will both know what our sins have been , and how to turn from them . oh that there were such a heart in us ! but as we ought to remember and improve the doctrine delivered to the church by the apostles , so we ought to keep it carefully . 3. and this is the third particular i am to speak to : all who have received this doctrine , ought to preserve it , and to conveigh down that sacred trust committed to them , to the succeeding generations . this is to hold-fast , what we have received and heard . the meaning of this , considering the circumstances the church of sardis was in , is either that they should preserve it pure , and keep it as it was delivered to them , or that if persecutions should arise for the faith , they should not depart from it for the love of this present world , or make shipwrack of it ; but should hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering . there were many tares sown then in the field of the church , many of the followers of simon magus were corrupting the christian religion ; it was necessary on that account to look carefully to that sacred depositum , that was put in their hands . there was also a black cloud gathering , a persecution was coming on the church : one storm had passed , that had been raised by nero , and they were now in another set on by domitian ; therefore it was necessary to put them on their guard , and to charge them to keep or hold fast the doctrine delivered to them . this was all that they could be obliged to ; but in our circumstances there is somewhat else imported in this holding fast , that we ought not only to keep our religion pure , and to be ready to suffer for it , if we are called to it , but since we enjoy the protection and security of law and lawful authority , we ought to hold that fast , and deliver it down to our posterity , as we have received it from our fathers . we are to keep it pure from the corruptions that may be introduced to vitiate the simplicity of our holy religion : we know the enemies of the church sleep not , tho the watchmen sleep too often . while we have adversaries that are so restless and industrious , that make up in their arts of insinuation and indefatigable diligence , what is wanting in the justice and goodness of their cause ; on these our eyes ought to be much set . they have corrupted religion where ever their arts have been succesful ; and have endeavoured to overthrow all governments , and broken the peace of all societies that have been so much on their guard , as to look carefully to them . for that same principle that makes them burn and destroy where they have power , makes them also incessantly plot and practise where they have it not . severities in matters of religion are indeed contrary to that humanity that is imprinted in our nature , and to those rules that are often repeated in scripture . but if any sect of religion continues to breed frequent and almost uninterrupted disturbances in any government , it is not enough to punish those that are found in the fault , but if it is evident , as it is certainly in this case , that their doctrine sets them on to , and will bear them through in such conspiracies , it seems not possible to secure the peace of a kingdom so much infested by them , as we have been now 120 years , but by delivering it entirely out of their hands , and putting an utter end to the distractions we have been in , and the mischiefs we have smarted under , by their means . they will live much better among their own friends , beyond sea , where they may freely exercise their own religion ; and i am sure we will be much the happier and quieter for being freed from the trouble they have given us . and thus we are to hold fast the apostles doctrine and to keep our selves from the infection of those who have corrupted it . but if this cannot be done , and if god either to punish us for our former sins , or to raise again the true spirit of the reformed religion , to purifie us from our dross , and to melt us into one lump , and close up those breaches which we have been rather widening than healing , will deliver us up into the hands of our merciless and implacable enemies ; then , as we know what we are to look for , so we ought to prepare our selves for it , and resolve to be faithful to the death . we know what wil be , not only by what has been , but by what is the doctrine of that church , of extirpating hereticks , decreed in their general councils : and what they have met with of late among us , has so whetted their spirits against us , that if ever we are in their power , the cruelty of their religion , being quickned by their private resentments , we can look for nothing , but either to be forced to worship a piece of bread , and to renounce that faith which we now profess , or to seal it with our blood , and that perhaps in the cruellest manner . i know it is not easie for flesh and blood so much as to think on these things without horror ; but oh , what will it be to suffer them ! it will not be our living peaceably , nor our keeping our belief to our selves that will secure us : we must in all things comply , nay , and if we should dissemble and comply , we must by an over-acting zeal procure our pardon for what is past , and beget a confidence in them for the future . i shall on this head represent a little of what you may expect , by mentioning some few passages of queen maries , never to be forgotten , bloody reign ; that are not so generally known . at first she promised the continuance of the established religion , soon after she procured it to be generally changed , even while the laws were yet in force for it ; but then it was said , none should be forced in their consciences if they would live peaceably : but when the change was fully brought about , then according to the natural genius of that religion , an open and undistinguish't persecution was resolved on . orders were then sent from the council table , to the justices of peace , to have spies in every parish to observe every mans deportment : a bare suspition was ground enough to proceed upon . persons being presented upon suspition , were imprisoned : and , without any proofs or witnesses brought against them , articles were offered to them , to which if they did not in all things answer according to the doctrine of that church , and if they could not be induced to change their perswasions , they were condemned to the fire , tho they had neither said nor acted any thing contrary to the established religion . and it went yet further . the justices of peace having been often writ to , grew more and more backward to these cruelties , especially when they saw them burn poor people single at first , then by pairs , then six , eight , ten , and thirteen , were burnt in one fire : neither the blind nor lame , aged men , nor women near their time , no nor new-born infants escaping the rage of these butchers : then to make way for the courts of inquisition , a commission was given to a selected number , of whom three was a quorum , to make enquiry over all england , not only of such as were suspect of heresie ; but of all that did not express their zeal for the popish religion , in taking holy bread , or holy water , or going in processions ; which tho they are not things to which all in that communion are obliged , yet these discovering the affections and inclinations of the people , such as did them not ▪ were to be proceeded against upon these suspitions . at first such as were burnt had their lives offered to them at the stake if they would recant , but as the persecution went on they became more barbarous , so that it was not enough for one to recant then ▪ for a sheriff was cast in , prison and fined , for staying the execution of one who did it : it was said if he recanted sincerely , it was better to burn him , than to leave him to the temptations of becoming a relapse ; and if he did it not sincerely , it was pity to spare him . so which way soever it was , dye and burn he must . and that none might escape out of their toils , care was taken to secure all the ports that none might fly beyond sea. here is a sad prospect before us ; but in what disposition are we to bear it ? we have no reason to doubt but great numbers will turn with the tide , as they did then . many who seem now to be hot and zealous for the protestant religion , will then , perhaps , be as busie to discover and accuse those whom they now censure , not only rashly but maliciously . men of ill lives and defiled consciences , want that principle which must strengthen them to bear the cross , and make it easie and comfortable to them . it is quite another thing to own this faith in our present circumstances , from what it will be to adhere to it then . it is not yet come that , and god of his infinite mercy preserve us from it . we are taught by him that knew our nature well , to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation , for though the spirit , or our sublimer powers may be forward and willing , yet the flesh is weak . we are therefore to do all that is in our power , and is consistent with that religion which we prosess , to prevent this . you of this honourable assembly are now entrusted with the keeping this doctrine , as it is a part of the law of the land ; the people have trusted you with all that is dear to them ; and it is hoped you will acquit your selves as worthy of so great a confidence . on this i shall enlarge no further , but apply to you the message which mordecai sent to queen esther , when her people were marked out for destruction : think not that you shall escape more than all the rest : for if you altogether hold your peace at this time , there may come enlargement and deliverance to us from another hand ; but you and your houses shall be destroyed : and who knows if ▪ you are come into this trust for such a time as this is . if any shall , either on the one hand , give up this holy religion , and those means which are most effectual to secure it , for private or base ends of their own ; or on the other hand shall , to gratifie their revenge , or to advance any ill design , endeavour to drive things to confusion , so that we become a prey to a formidable neighbour , where popery , with it concomitant tyrannie , shall subdue us at once ; these are the betrayers of their religion and their country , and do entitle themselves to the heaviest curses in the whole book of god. but the nation hopes better things from you : and , and as we pray for it , so are we confident they shall not be ashamed or disappointed of their hope . your maintaining the laws , or providing such new ones as our present circumstances call for , for the preservation of our religion , is not all that you are to do for it ; there are many other things besides , that come under your care , which are also necessary , that we may hold fast this our profession . i shall name two particulars . the one is , that there are so many parishes in this great and rich kingdom , in which there is so little provision left for those that labour in the work of the gospel , that it is not possible , humanely speaking , to find fit and able pastors to undertake such a charge upon so mean an encouragement : and many of these fall to be the greatest and the most populous parishes in their neighbourhood : the labourer is worthy of his hire : but in many of these the hire will not amount to the meanest and most frugal subsistance , that can consist with the decency of that function . if weak or scandalous men are cast on such places , so that the people are neither instructed nor edified by their labours , but are rather scandalised by them ; it is worth your serious consideration to find out effectual means for redressing so great an evil , by which so many souls are lost , and such a door has been opened to seducers and false teachers among us . the other is , that we will endeavour to secure the reformed religion among us , by doing all we can to maintain the outworks of it , i mean the foreign churches , some of whom are now in a most deplorable and sinking condition . the methods that julian the apostate used to extirpate christianity , not by the quick and sharp waies of persecution , but by flower steps ; being now taken to root out that which main force could not do . to these we ought to extend our compassion and assistance , as we would expect the like from others when we may be brought to drink of the like bitter cup , which how near it may be to us , god only knows . but all these means will prove ineffectual if we have not god on our side ; except he watch over us , and build up our ruines , you that build and we that watch shall labour in vain . this leads me to the fourth particular , which is , 4. that the chief use we ought to make of this doctrine , is to reform our hearts and lives , to repent of , and forsake our sins . repent . i shall not here run out into a large discourse of this , but sum up in short what is comprehended under it . the word imports more than a bare sorrowing for our sins , or an external change of our life , and does chiefly signifie the inward change and reformation of our minds : when we put on a new disposition , come under new principles , and are inwardly turned in the value and estimate we have of things , and in our practical judgements and formed resolutions . repentance is , when a man having another sense of god , and true goodness , another apprehension of vice and sin , other thoughts of a future state , other impressions of the love of christ , and the truth of the gospel ; and all these things growing into formed principles in him , his mind is turned to such a detestation of his former course of life , as engages him not only to forsake it , but to enter upon a quite different course ; so that he feels himself inwardly regenerated and changed . oh have i not been discribing a thing little understood ! some sorrow for sin , which is scarce possible for the worst men to avoid , is all the notion too many have of it . others fancy to compound for their sins , with some austerities , by an outward pageantry , or compounding with god or his sains if they can , and doing it effectually where they can , with the priest : believing that his absolving them is of some other vertue , than a declaration to them of what they may certainly expect if they are sincere in their repentance . but if these things come short of a true repentance , what is to be s●id of those who have not so much : who have no remorse for their sins , but live on securely in them , or do worse , glory in their shame . these are far enough from having repented , who are growing up daily to a higher pitch in their impieties . you have expressed your sense of the necessity of this duty , by your addressing about it : but if it goes no further than the solemnity of a days vacation from business , or abstaining from meat , and the hearing some sermons , or joining in prayers ; this can have no other effect but to raise our guilt higher , by our pretending to draw near to god with our lips , when our hearts are far from him . our sins are drawing heavy judgements on us : our repentance only can prevent them ; not such a trifling performance as i have described , but a sincere and entire turn to god. we ought to be humbling our selves in secret , every one for those sins by which we have provoked him , and have been adding to that great heap of guilt , by which we have been too universally treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath . we are apt enough to censure the vices and failings of others , especially if on other accounts we are displeased with them , and if we our selves are not visibly faulty in the same kind : but there are other sins besides uncleanness and intemperance , which may involve us in the common ruine that threatens us . and if we know our selves guilty , even of that which we censure in others , we by judging them do condemn our selves . let us recollect our thoughts , and ask our selves , what have we done ? have we been adding sin to sin , and perhaps hypocrisy , or a counterfeit zeal to all the rest ? we are under the eye of the all-seeing god , to whom all things lie naked and open , darkness before him shineth as the day ; the darkness and the light are both alike to him . let us not deceive our selves ; god is neither to be mocked , nor bribed . it is only our sincere repentance that can again restore us to his favour ; and if the sins of the nation are not grown to that height , that , as is said of the sin of manasseh , god will not pardon it ; so that though noah , job , and daniel , were among us , they could only deliver their own souls ; we may hope , that upon our repentance , either that cloud of wrath now over our heads , may be broken and dissipated , or , at least , that our peace and tranquility may be so lengthned out , that the evil shall not come in our days . if we repent truly , we will lay down our animosities and quarrellings about lesser matters ; and finding how guilty we are all in the presence of god , we will be more gentle in the judgments we make of others , and more severe in the censures we pass upon our selves . we will change the course and frame of our lives , not only in such instances as are more scandalous , and so may be a prejudice to us in our other designs , but will enter upon another method and way of ●●●e , such as becomes christians . if this is not done , all that we do beside , will not be effectual to preserve us . if god is still offended with us , he will not want instruments for our punishment , though we had not a papist in england , nor an enemy in all the world. but on the other hand , if we sincerely turn to god , as we know in general he is gracious and merciful , slow to anger , and full of compassion ; so we have , in particular , all the assurances that either his promises , or the experience of former times can give us , that he will receive us graciously ; that he will take away all our iniquities , and heal all our back-slidings . personal repentance , and the mourning for the sins of others , are duties incumbent on all : to these you stand obliged in your private capacities ; but as you make up this honourable assembly , there is a further repentance incumbent on you . you , who represent the nation , ought , in the name of the whole body of the people , to think on such laws as are necessary for the restraint of vice. it is visible , the impiety of the nation has made way for popery ; and though that were out of doors , yet if the other continues still , it will prepare us to open atheism and irreligion . god cannot be at peace with us , while our adulteries are so many , while drunkenness is so common , while religion is so much scorned , even by those who seem zealous for it ; while cursing and swearing are the usual dialect ; while profanity , scurrilous talk , and many other things which ought not to be named among christians , are so openly and bare-facedly practised among us . by your endeavours to redress these , and at least , to make people ashamed of them , if they do not forsake them ; you shall also , in your publick capacity , shew the reality of your repentance , both to god and the world. it is an ordinary thing for all people , who have some one great thing in their eye , to look only at that , and to over-look many other things , if they do not immediately belong to that of which they are chiefly affraid . popery is now in your eye , and it ought to be so , till you have to purpose secured us from the danger of it : but at the same time you ought to look further , to the ground of god's displeasure against us , to that which has brought us into all this danger , and must certainly bring ruin on us in conclusion , if effectual remedies are not found out in time . our irreligion and impiety has made many to be little concerned in these matters ; and our contentions about some inconsiderable things , has diverted the thoughts and endeavours of others , to the securing of particular interests , or making of parties . to these , if you provide effectual remedies , both for reforming and uniting us , then you shall be had in perpetual remembrance , as the repairers of our breaches , and the restorers of our ruins : so that all shall bless you , and in their wishes , for a happy parliament , shall name you with honour , and wish it may be such a one as this has been . we have all the reason in the world to conclude , that this nation is dear unto god ; and we are sure , the holy religion we profess , is from him ; why should we then despond , and not still hope in that god , who has hitherto given us such abundant proofs of his care of us , and of his regard to the reformation among us . when we remember by what steps and methods it was brought in and established here ; how short the storm was in queen mary's reign , and that she died without issue , which might have brought us both under popery , and made us a province to a forreign tyranny ; when we reflect on the long and glorious reign of queen elizabeth , on the happy disappointment of the armada , believed and called invincible ; the discovery of the gun-powder plot , with the later blessings yet in our eyes , we have from all these much reason to conclude , that we are in a special manner favoured of god. nothing can break off this course of mercies with which he has followed us , but our obstinate persisting in our sins : if we resolve on this , there is nothing before us , but a fearful prospect of wrath and indignation . and this leads me to the fifth and last particular , of which i proposed to speak , which is . 5. that such as do not make this use of the gospel , as to be thereby led to repentance , have reason to look for sudden and severe judgments . if therefore thou shalt not watch , i will come upon thee as a thief , and thou shalt not know what hour i will come upon thee . god's judgments are a great depth , and the methods of them are unaccountable : some wicked nations , and impious and tyrannical governments , have flourished long : triumph and victory have seemed entailed on them . the assyrian of old , and the turkish empire at present , are great instances of this . these are portions of the world , which god for their other sins gave in prey to savage masters ; whose prosperity made them the fitter instruments of his justice . but it is observable , that those nations whom he has more specially favoured , are more signally punished when their sins have been so notorious , that it seemed necessary to give publick evidences of the impartiality of god's governing the world. you only have i known of all the families of the earth ; therefore will i punish you for your iniquities . the whole history of the jews , till their final , and almost total destruction , is one continued instance of this . the roman empire , when it turned christian , but was not much reformed by that light , was given up to be wasted by swarms of goths , vandals , huns , and other northern nations , who for near two ages together , laid it so wast , that what by the destruction they made , and the famine that followed upon that , which brought after it unheard of plagues , the history of that time contains a succession of the most terrible miseries that can be imagined . the african churches , that were the best regulated of any then in the world , yet having fallen from their first love , and being rent in pieces by schism , and becoming generally corrupt in their manners , notwithstanding the excellent bishops that were among them ; st. austin in particular , who was the last of those that were sent to warn them of the jugments they might look for ; which he did faithfully , but nothing prevailing , they were first destroyed by the vandals , and then so totally by the saracens and moors , that the name of christ is called on no more in them , except it be in their dungeons , by those miserable captives that are kept in such slavery among them , that it should tear every christian's heart to think on it . the eastern empire was first by the goths , then by the huns and the avares , afterwards by the saracens , and finally by the turks , so wasted , that the small remainders of christianity among them , serve only as the ruins of some great fabrick , to shew what once it was . the city of antioch , once among the noblest of the world , in which that glorious name of christian first began , was by a frequent return of most terrible earth-quakes , and devouring fires , so ruinated , that it is now but a small inconsiderable village . sardis , in my text , is no better : these seven churches here writ to , are now under the slavery of mahometans , and indeed retain little but the name of christian ; some of them are so entirely destroyed , that it is not so much as certain where they stood . when we hear of these things , we ought wisely to consider of these works of the lord : why should we hope to escape , if we are as guilty as they were ? but to turn your eyes to what is nearer you ; after the gospel was planted here in britain , while we were under the roman yoke , and was watered with the blood of many martyrs that suffered under the heathenish persecutions ; the britons being blest with peace and prosperity , did soon forget god , and fell from their first love. then what judgments fell on them ? the northern people being more warlike , broke into the southern parts , who were soft and luxurious : these hiring the saxons to their assistance , were thereby brought under a much more cruel bondage ; and those either rooted out the christian religion , or drove it up into the mountainous parts of this kingdom . what the sins , both of the clergy and laity were , is set out by gildas , that lived not long after that time , and they resemble our present condition so much , that it gives us cause to fear the parallel shall be as equal in our judgments , as it is now in our sins . when the reformation began first in england , many run into it , rather out of hatred to the clergy , and love to their lands , than out of zeal for the truth . so that the bishops in king edward's time , did , by some letters which they sent about among their clergy , call upon them to warn the people of the heavy judgments of god , ready to fall upon them : but they went on in their sins with a high hand , so that the land was full of oppression and injustice , adultery and sensuality : god visited them for these things , and took away that blessed young king , and left them in the hands of a superstitious and bloody princess , who fearing her own power was not strong enough to alter the established religion , married the prince of spain , and by a vast treasure which he brought over into england , corrupted the great men , and the publick councils of the kingdom ; so that all that had been building up in twenty five years , was overthrown in a little more than one , by parliaments , over whom spanish gold had greater influence , than the sense of their trust , or their regard to god and their country . shall i put you in mind of the terrible judgment of god , that broke out lately on our neighbouring island , where , the barbarity of the natives being sharpened by the cruelty of their religion , and the practices of their priests , a massacre and destruction did almost wholly consume them ? how near were we brought to utter ruin , and how long were we ruled by the sword , during the late wars ? are all these things forgotten ? or do we remember them , only to furnish out discourse with them ? we at present are all sufficiently apprehensive of our ill condition , we see the great danger we are in of popery's subduing us ; we see an overgrown neighbour ready to break in upon us , or at least , upon that which is but a step from us . there is a fermentation among our selves , so high , that it is like to involve us in great confusions : the things that belong to our peace seem to be hid from our eyes . is not all this of the lord ? most of the evils we either feel or apprehend , are the natural effects of our sins and vices , as well as of the judgment of god punishing us for them . the vices too common amongst us , have corrupted the minds , and darkned the understandings of many , and are like to become their own punishments . all these things are but the beginnings of sorrows , which seem to be coming on us . what do we then ? do we sit crossing our hands , accusing one another , or it may be , faintly condemning our selves ? we perhaps imagine , if we were rid of popery all would be well ; it is certain , we should be much better than we are : but if the root of our distemper remains , the carrying off one symptom will but dispose the way to another . god can either plague us , by delivering us up to a forreign enemy , who shall have no pity on us ; or can again send his arrows among us , a pestilence to sweep away our inhabitants , or a fire to burn down our cities . he can leave us to bite and devour another , till we are consumed one of another . and if he come upon us , what can we do to withstand his mighty arm ? can we restrain his thunders , or be proof against his arrows ? oh how weak are all devices , when god blasts them ! if our distractions continue , we are like the builders of babel , so divided , that nothing but utter and irremediable confusion is like to be the end of them , if we once fall in pieces . well , we are yet in peace , we rise up and lie down in quiet ; how long it will be so , we cannot tell : we seem to be near great convulsions ; we have no reason to desire them . we are now full of wealth , our trade is free , and much spread ; we have a concurrence , both at home and abroad , of many things , that might yet make us a great and happy people , but want the power to improve it . what shall the end of these things be ? it were too great a presumption in me , nor proper for this place or occasion , to enter into particulars ; but one thing i may adventure on , which is , if you of this honourable assembly , who have now bespoke the prayers of the whole nation upon your consultations , would frequently address your selves to god , and set off such hours as your business can admit of , for earnest prayer to god , to direct and bless your councils , and to bend all your hearts , to that which is both most for his glory , the establishment of his true religion , and the security , peace , and happiness of the kingdom ; we might justly hope , that god , even our god , would give his blessing to endeavours so begun , and so managed : then should the light of the gospel , which is our glory , still dwell in our land : mercy and truth should meet together , and righteousness and peace should kiss one another : then should the lord give us that which is good , and our land should yeeld her encrease . o that there were such an heart in us , that we might fear him , and keep his commandments always ; that so it may be well with us , and our children after us , for ever . to god the father , son , and holy-ghost , be all honour and glory , both now and evermore . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30419-e130 jon. 1. 5. isa. 59. 1 , 2. isa. 58. 1. vers. 2. vers. 4. phil. 2. 15. vers. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 math. 13. 20 , 21. gal. 5. 7. gal. 3. 3. gal. 4. 15. 1 cor. 11. 17 , 18. 1 cor. 1. 12. phil. 1. 15 , 16. esth. 4. 13 ▪ psal 127. 1. 2 king. 24. 4. ezek. 14. 14. amos 3. 2. a discourse of the pastoral care written by gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1692 approx. 340 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 154 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-05 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30336 wing b5777 estc r25954 09300621 ocm 09300621 42659 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30336) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 42659) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1303:27) a discourse of the pastoral care written by gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [12], xxxiv, 252, [2] p. printed by r.r. for ric. chiswell, london : 1692. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng pastoral theology. clergy -office. preaching. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-02 john latta sampled and proofread 2004-02 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse of the pastoral care. written by the right reverend father in god , gilbert , lord bishop of sarum . london : printed by r. r. for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxcii . of the pastoral care . imprimatur , jo. cant . maii 5. 1692. to the queens most excellent majesty . may it please your majesty , the title of defender of the faith , is so inherent in the royal dignity , and so essential a part of its security as well as of its glory , that there was no need of papal bulls to add it to the crown that your majesty now wears : you hold it by a much better tenure , as well as by a more ancient possession . nor can one reflect on the pope's giving it to king henry the viiith , without remembring what is said of caiaphas , that being high priest that year , he prophesied . for since that time , the true faith hath been so eminently defended by our princes , and that of both sexes , we having had our pulcheria's as well as our constantine's and our theodose's , that this church has been all along the chief strength and honour of the reformation , as well as the main object of the envy and spite of those of the roman communion . but tho your majesty's royal ancestors have done so much for us , there remains yet a great deal to be done for the compleating of our reformation , especially as to the lives and manners of men . this will most effectually be done by obliging the clergy to be more exemplary in their lives , and more diligent and faithful in the discharge of their pastoral duty . and this work seems to be reserved for your majesties , and designed to be the felicity and glory of your reign . to serve god by promoting this great and glorious design , which is so truly worthy of your majesty's best care and endeavours , i have purposely written this treatise , which i do with all humility dedicate and present to your sacred majesty . may that god who is the king of kings , and hath bless'd us with two such excellent princes , preserve you both long to us , and make you as happy in us , as we are in you ▪ may you reign over us till you have accomplished all those great designs for which god hath raised you up , and with which he hath filled your hearts : and may this church be made by your means the perfection of beauty , and the ioy of the whole earth . these are the daily and most fervent prayers of , may it please your majesty , your majesty's most loyal , most humble , and most obedient subject and chaplain , gi . sarum . the contents . the preface . page i chap. i. of the dignity of sacred imployments , and the names and designations given to them in scripture . pag. 1 chap. ii. of the rules set down in scripture for those that minister in holy things , and of the corruptions that are set forth in them . p. 15 chap. iii. passages out of the new testament relating to the same matter . 28 chap. iv. of the sense of the primitive church in this matter . 53 chap. v. an account of some canons in divers ages of the church relating to the duties and labours of the clergy . 84 chap. vi. of the declared sense and rules of the church of england in this matter . 104 chap. vii . of the due preparation of such as may , and ought to be put in orders . 141 chap. viii . of the functions and labours of clergy-men . 176 chap. ix . concerning preaching . 214 the conclusion . 241 errata . pref . p. 8. l. 21. for tue r. the. book , p. 27. l. 8. cancells r. excells . p. 32. l. 9. declareth r. delayeth . p. 57. l. 13. of r. to . p. 108. l. 1. as as r. as at . p. 133. l. 1. after not r. : p. 147. l. 12. also him r. him also . p. 148. l. 8. man r. men . p. 154. l. 2. all , this r. all this , p. 192. l. 24. strongly r. strangely . the preface . this subject , how important soever in it self , yet has been so little treated of , and will seem so severe in many parts of it , that if i had not judged this a necessary service to the church , which did more decently come from one , who , how undeserving soever he is , yet is raised to a post that may justify the writing on so tender a head , i should never have undertaken it . but my zeal for the true interests of religion , and of this church , determined me to set about it ; yet since my design is to correct things for the future , rather than to reproach any for what is past , i have resolved to cast it rather into advices and rules , into plain and short directions , than into long and laboured discourses , supported by the shews of learning , and citations from fathers , and historical observations ; this being the more profitable , and the less invidious way of handling the subject . it ought to be no imputation on a church , if too many of those that are dedicated to her service , have not all the characters that are here set forth , and that are to be desired in clergymen . even in the apostles days there were false apostles , and false teachers ; as one of the twelve was a traytor , and had a devil ; some loved the pre-eminence , others loved this present world to a scandalous degree ; some of those that preached christ , did it not sincerely , but out of contention ; they vied with the apostles , and hoped to have carried away the esteem from them , even while they were suffering for the faith : for envying their credit , they designed to raise their own authority , by lessening the apostles ; and so hoped to have added affliction to their bonds . in the first and purest ages of the church we find great complaints of the neglects and disorders of the clergy of all ranks . many became the stewards and bailiffs of other peoples estates ; and while they looked too diligently after those cares which did not belong to them , they even in those times of trial , grew very remiss in the most important of all cares , which was their proper business . as soon as the empire became christian , the authority , the immunity , and the other advantages , which by the bounty of princes , followed the sacred functions , made them to be generally much desired ; and the elections being then for most part popular , ( though in some of the greater cities , the magistracy took them into their hands , and the bishops of the province were the judges both of the fitness of the person , and of the regularity of the election ) ; these were managed with much faction and violence , which often ended in blood , and that to so great an excess , that if we had not witnesses to many instances of this among the best men in those ages , it would look like an uncharitable imputation on those times , to think them capable of such enormities . indeed the disorders , the animosities , the going so oft backwards and forwards in the matters of faith , as the emperors happened to be of different sides , are but too ample a proof of the corruptions that had then got into the church . and what can we think of the breach made in the churches of africk by donatus , and his followers , upon so inconsiderable a point , as whether cecilian and his ordainers had denied the faith in the last persecution , or not ? which grew to that height , that almost in every town of africk there were divided assemblies , and separating bishops , upon that account . nor was this wound healed but with the utter ruine of those churches . st. ierom , though partial enough to his own side , as appears by his espousing damasus's interests , notwithstanding that vast effusion of blood that had been at his election ; which was set on by him , and continued for four days with so much violence , that in one night , and at one church , a hundred and seven and thirty were killed ; yet he could not hold from laying open the corruptions of the clergy in a very severe style . he grew so weary of them , and they of him , that he went and spent the rest of his days at bethlehem . those corruptions were so much the more remarkable , because the eminent men of those times , procured a great many canons to be made , both in provincial and general councils , for correcting abuses , as soon as they observed them creeping into the church : but it is plain from st. chrysostom's story , that tho bad men did not oppose the making good rules , while they were so many dead letters in their registers ; yet they could not bear the rigorous execution of them : so that those good canons do shew us indeed what were the growing abuses of the times , in which they were made ; and how good men set themselves against them ; but are no sure indications of the reformation that was effected by them . the tottering state of the roman empire which had then fallen under a vast dissolution of discipline and manners , and coming into feeble hands , was then sinking with its own weight , and was become on all sides an easy prey to its invaders , who were either pagans or arians , ought to have awakened the governours of the church to have apprehended their approaching ruin ; to have prevented it by their prayers and endeavours ; and to have corrected those abuses which had provoked god , and weakned and distracted both church and empire . but if we may believe either gildas here in britain , or salvian in france , they rather grew worse , more impenitent , and more insensible , when they saw the judgments of god coming upon the empire , province after province rent from it , and over-run by the barbarians . when that great wound was in some sort healed , and a second form of christianity rose up and prevailed again in the western parts , and the world became christian with the allay that dark and superstitious ages had brought into that holy doctrine : then all the rules of the former ages were so totally forgotten , and laid aside , that the clergy universally lost their esteem : and tho' charles the great , and his son , held a great many councils for correcting these abuses , and published many capitulars on the same design ; yet all was to no purpose : there was neither knowledge nor vertue enough left to reform a corruption that was become universal . the clergy by these disorders fell under a general contempt , and out of that rose the authority , as well as the wealth of the monastick orders ; and when riches and power had corrupted them , the begging orders took away the credit from both ; yet even their reputation , which the outward severity of their rule , habit , and manner of life did both establish and maintain long , was at last so generally lost , that no part or body of the roman-clergy had credit enough to stop the progress of the reformation ; which was in a great measure occasion'd by the scorn and hatred that fell on them , and which was so spread over all the parts of europe , that to it , even their own historians do impute the great advances that luther's doctrine made for about fifty years together ; whole kingdoms and provinces embracing it as it were all of the sudden . it has now for above an hundred years made a full stand , and in most places it has rather lost ground , than gained any . the true account of this is not easily given ; the doctrine is the same ; and it has been of late defended with greater a●vantages , with more learning , and better reasoning than it was at first ; yet with much less success . the true reason of the slackning of that work , must be imputed to the reformation made in several points with relation to the manners , and the labours of the clergy , by the church of rome , and the depravation under which most of the reformed churches are fallen . for the manners and the labours of the clergy , are real arguments , which all people do both understand and feel ; they have a much more convincing force , they are more visible , and perswade more universally , than books can do , which are little read , and less considered : and indeed the bulk of mankind is so made , that there is no working on them , but by moving their affections , and commanding their esteem . it cannot be denied but that the council of trent established the errors of popery in such a manner , as to cut off all possibility of ever treating , or reuniting with them ; since those decisions , and their infallibility , which is their foundation , are now so twisted together , that they must stand and fall together : yet they established such a reformation in discipline , as may make churches that pretend to a more glorious title , justly ashamed . for tho , there are such reserves made for the plenitude of the papal authority , that in great instances , and for a favourite , all may be broke through ; yet the most notorious abuses are so struck at , and this has been in many places so effectually observed , chiefly where they knew that their deportment was looked into , and watched over by protestants , that it must be acknowledged , that the cry of the scandals of religious houses is much laid : and tho' there is still much ignorance ●mong their mass-priests ; yet their parish-priests are generally another sort of men : they are well instructed in their religion ; lead regular lives , and perform their parochial duties with a most wonderful diligence : they do not only say mass , and the other publick functions daily , but they are almost perpetually imploying themseves in the several parts of their cures : instructing the youth , hearing confessions , and visiting the sick : and besides all this , they are under the constant obligation of the breviary : there is no such thing as non-residence or plurality , to be heard of in whole countries of that communion ; and though about cathedrals , and in greater cities , the vast number of priests , gives still great and just occasion to censure ; yet the parish-priests have almost universally recovered the esteem ●f the people : they are no more disposed to think ill of them , or to hearken to any thing that may give them a just cause , or at least a plausible colour for departing from them . so that the reformation that popery hath been forced to make , has in a great measure stopt the progress of the reformation of the doctrine and worship that did so long carry every thing before it . but this is the least melancholy part of the account that may be given of this matter . the reformers began that blessed work with much zeal ; they and their first successors carried it on with learning and spirit : they were active in their endeavours , and constant and patient in their sufferings ; and these things turn'd the esteem of the world , which was alienated from popery , by the ignorance and scandals of the clergy , all towards them : but when they felt the warmth of the protection and encouragement that princes and states gave them , they insensibly slackned ; they fell from their first heat and love ; they began to build houses for themselves , and their families , and neglected the house of god : they rested satisfied with their having reformed the doctrine and worship ; but did not study to reform the lives and manners of their people : and while in their offices they lamented the not having a publick discipline in the church , as it was in the primitive times ; they have either made no attempts at all , or at least very faint ones for restoring it . and thus , while popery has purified it self from many former abuses , reformed churches have added new ones to the old , that they still retain , and are fond of . zeal in devotion , and diligence in the pastoral care , are fallen under too visible and too scandalous a decay . and whereas the understanding of the scriptures , and an application to that sacred study , was at first the distinguishing character of protestants , for which they were generally nicknamed gospellers ; these holy writings are now so little studied , that such as are obliged to look narrowly into the matter , find great cause of regret and lamentation , from the gross ignorance of such as either are in orders , or that pretend to be put in them . but the most capital and comprehensive of all abuses , is , that the false opinion of the worst ages of popery , that made the chief , if not the only obligation of priests to be the performing offices ; and judged , that if these were done , the chief part of their business was also done , by which the pastoral care came to be in a great measure neglected , does continue still to leaven us : while men imagine that their whole work consists in publick functions , and so reckon , that if they either do these themselves , or procure and hire another person in holy orders to do them , that then they answer the obligation that lies on them : and thus the pastoral care , the instructing , the exhorting , the admonishing and reproving , the directing and conducting , the visiting and comforting the people of the parish , is generally neglected : while the incumbent does not think fit to look after it , and the curate thinks himself bound to nothing but barely to perform offices according to agreement . it is chiefly on design to raise the sense of the obligations of the clergy to the duties of the pastoral care , that this book is written . many things do concur in our present circumstances , to awaken us of the clergy , to mind and do our duty with more zeal and application than ever . it is very visible that in this present age , the reformation is not only at a stand , but is going back , and grows sensibly weaker and weaker . some churches have been plucked up by the roots ; and brought under a total desolation and dispersion ; and others have fallen under terrible oppressions and shakings . we have seen a design formed and carried on long , for the utter destruction of that great work. the clouds were so thick gathered over us , that we saw we were marked out for destruction : and when that was once compass●d , our e●emies saw well enough , that the rest of their designs would be more easily brought about . it is true , our enemies intended to se● us one upon another by turns , to make us do half their work ; and to have still an abused party among us ready to carry on their 〈◊〉 ; for they thought it too bold an attempt , to fall upon all at once ; but while they were thus shifting hands , it pleased god to cut them short in their designs ; and to blast that part of them in which we were concerned , so entirely , that now they carry them on more barefacedly : and drive at conquest , which is at one stroke to destroy our church and religion , our laws and our properties . in this critical state of things , we ought not only to look at the instruments of the calamities that have fallen so heavily on so many protestant churches , and of the dangers that hang over the rest ; but we ought chiefly to look up to that god , who seems to be provoked at the whole reformation ; because they have not walked suitably to the light that they have so long enjoyed , and the blessings which had been so long continued to them ; but have corrupted their ways before him . they have lost the power of religion , while they have seemed to magnify the form of it , and have been zealous for opinions and customs ; and therefore god has in his wrath , taken even that form from them , and has loathed their solemn assemblies ; and brought them under a famine of the word of the lord , which they had so much despised . while these things are so , and while we find that we our selves , are as a brand pluck'd out of the fire , which may be thrown back into it again , if we are not allarmed by the just , but unsearchable judgments of god , which have wasted other churches so terribly , while they have only frighted us ; what is more evident , than that the present state of things , and the signs of the times , call aloud upon the whole nation to bring forth fruits meet for repentance ? since the ax is laid to the root of the tree . and as this indeed concerns the body of the nation , so we who are the priests and ministers of the lord , are under more particular obligations , first to look into our own ways , and to reform whatsoever is amiss among us , and then to be intercessors for the people , committed to our charge : to be mourning for their sins , and by our secret fastings and prayers , to be standing in those breaches which our crying abominations have made : and so to be averting those judgments , which may be ready to break in upon us ; and chiefly to be lifting up our voices like trumpets , to shew our people their transgressions . to be giving them faithful warning , from which we may expect this blessed success , that we may at least gain upon such a number , that for their sakes , god , who will not slay the righteous with the wicked , may be yet entreated for our sins ; and that the judgments which hang over us , being quite dissipated , his gospel , together with peace and plenty , may still dwell among us , and may shine from us , with happy influences to all the ends of the earth . and even such pastors as shall faithfully do their duty , but without any success , may depend upon this , that they shall save their own souls ; and shall have a distinguished fate , if we should happen to fall under a common calamity : they having on them not only the mark of mourners and intercessors , but of faithful shepherds : whereas if an overflowing scourge should break in upon us , we have all possible reason , both from the judgments of god , and the present scituation of affairs , to believe that it will begin at the sanctuary , at those who have profaned the holy things ; and have made the daily sacrifice to be loathed . there is another , and perhaps yet a more dismal character of the present state of the age , that calls on the clergy , to consider well both their own deportment , and the obligations that lie upon them ; which is the growing atheism and impiety , that is daily gaining ground , not only among us , but indeed all europe over . there is a circulation observed in the general corruptions of nations : sometimes ignorance and brutality overruns the world , that makes way for superstition and idolatry : when mankind is disgusted with these , then fantastical and enthusiastical principles , and under these hypocritical practises have their course ; these being seen through , give grea● occasions to profaness , and with that , atheism , and a di●belief of all religion , at least of all revealed religion , is nourished : and that is very easily received by depraved minds , but very hardly rooted out of them : for though it is very easie to beat an enquirer into things , out of all speculative atheism ; yet when a disbelief of sacred matters , and a profane contempt of them , has once vitiated ones mind , it is a very extraordinary thing , and next to miraculous , to see such an one reduced . now this i am forced to declare , that having had much free conversation with many that have been fatally corrupted that way , they have very often owned to me , that nothing promoted this so much in them , as the very bad opinion which they took up of all clergy-men of all sides : they did not see in them that strictness of life , that contempt of the world , that zeal , that meekness , humility and charity ; that diligence and earnestness , with relation to the great ttuths of the christian religion , which they reckoned they would most certainly have , if they themselves firmly believed it : therefore they concluded , that those , whose business it was more strictly to enquire into the truth of their religion , knew that it was not so certain , as they themselves , for other ends , endeavoured to make the world believe it was : and that , tho for carrying on of their own authority or fortunes , which in one word , they call their trade , they seemed to be very positive in affirming the truth of their doctrines ; yet they in their own hearts did not believe it , since they lived so little suitable to it , and were so much set on raising themselves by it ; and so little on advancing the honour of their profession , by an exemplary piety , and a shining conversation . this is a thing not to be answered by being angry at them for saying it , or by reproaching such as repeat it , as if they were enemies to the church ; these words of heat and faction signifying nothing to work upon , or convince any . for how little strength soever there may be in this , as it is made an argument , it is certainly so strong a prejudice , that nothing but a real refutation of it , by the eminent vertues and labours of many of the clergy , will ever conquer it . to this , as a branch or part of it , another consideration from the present state of things is to be added , to call upon the clergy to set about the duties of their calling ; and that is , the contempt they are generally fallen under , the injustice they daily meet with , in being denied their rights , and that by some out of principle , and by others out of downright and undisguised sacriledge . i know a great deal of this is too justly , and too truly to be cast on the poverty of the clergy : but what can we say , when we find often the poorest clarks in the richest livings ? whose incumbents not content to devour the patrimony of the church , while they feed themselves , and not the flock out of it ; are so scandalously hard in their allowance to their curates , as if they intended equally to starve both curate and people : and is it to be supposed , that the people will think themselves under a very strict obligation of conscience , to pay religiously all that is due to one , who seems to think himself under no obligation to labour for it . and since it is a maxim founded upon natural equity , that the benefice is given for the office ; men will not have great scruples in denying the benefice , where the office is neglected , or ill performed . and as for the too common contempt that is brought on the clergy , how guilty soever those may be , who out of hatred to their profession , despise them for their works sake ; yet we who feel our selves under these disadvantages , ought to reflect on those words of the prophet , and see how far they are applicable to us ; the priests lips should keep knowledge , and they should seek the law at his mouth , for he is the messenger of the lord of hosts . but ye are departed out of the way , ye have caused many to stumble at the law : therefore have i also made you contemptible and base before all the people ; according as ye have not kept my ways , but have been partial in my law. if we studied to honour god , and so to do honour to our profession , we might justly hope that he would raise it again to that credit which is due to it ; and that he would make even our enemies to be at peace with us , or at least afraid to hurt or offend us . and in this we have good reason to rest assured ; since we do not find many instances of clergy-men , who live and labour , who preach and visit as they ought to do , that are under any eminent degrees of contempt : if some do despise those that are faith●ul to their trust , yet they must do ●t secretly ; they dare not shew ●t , as long as their deportment procures them the esteem , which we must confess does generally follow true worth , and hearty labours in the ministry . these are things of such consequence , that it may seem a consideration too full of ill nature , of emulation , and of jealousie , if i should urge upon the clergy the divisions and separation that is formed among us ; though there is a terrible word in the prophet , that belongs but too evidently to this likewise ; the pastors are become brutish , and have not sought the lord ; therefore they shall not prosper , and all their flocks shall be scattered . if we led such exemplary lives , as became our character , if we applied our selves wholly to the duties of our profession , if we studied to out-live , and outlabour those that divide from us ; we might hope by the blessing of god , so far to overcome their prejudices , and to gain both upon their esteem and affections , that a very small matter might go a great way towards the healing of those wounds , which have so long weakned and distracted us . speculative arguments do not reach the understandings of the gre●ter part , who are only capable of sensible ones : and the strongest reasonings will not prevail , till we first force them to think the better of our church , for what they see in our selves , and make them wish to be of a communion , in which they see so much ●●uth , and unaffected goodness and worth : when they are once brought so far , it will be easy to comp●ss all the rest : if we did ge●e●ally mind our duties , and discharge them fai●hfully , this would prepare such as mean well in their separation from us , to consider better of the grounds on which they maintain it ▪ and that will best enforce the arguments that we have to lay before them . and as for such as divide from us with bad designs , and an unrelenting spite , they will have a small party , and a feeble support , if there were no more occasion given to work on the affections of the people , by our errours and disorders . if then either the sense of the wrath of god , or the desire of his favour and protection ; if zeal for our church and countrey ; if a sense of the progress of atheism and ●rreligion ; if the contempt that falls on us , and the injustices that are daily done us ; if a desire to heal and unite , to purifie and perfect this our church : if either the concerns of this world , or of the nex● , can work upon us , and affect us , all these things concur to call on us , to apply our utmost care and industry to raise the honour of our holy profession , to walk worthy of it , to perform the engagements that we came under at the altar , when we were dedicated to the service of god , and the church ; and in all things both to adorn our religion , and our church . it is not our boasting that the church of england is the best reformed , and the best constituted church in the world , that will signifie much to convince others : we are too much parties to be believed in our own cause . there was a generation of men that cried , the temple of the lord , the temple of the lord , as loud as we can cry , the church of england , the church of england : when yet by their sins they were pulling it down : and kindling that fire which consumed it . ●t will have a better grace to see others boast of our church , from what they observe in us , than for us to be c●ying it up with our words , when our deeds do decry it . our enemies will make severe inferences from them ; and our pretensions will be thought vain and impudent things , as long as our lives contradict them . it was on design to raise in myself and in others , a deep sense of the obligations that we lie under , of the duties of our functions ; of the extent of them , and of the rewards that follow them , and to observe the proper methods of performing them , so as they may be of the greatest advantage both to our selves and others , that i have entred on these meditations . they have been for many years the chief subjects of my thoughts : if few have writ on them among us , yet we have st. gregory nazianzen 's apologetick , saint chrysostom's books of the priesthood , gregory the great 's pastoral , and bernard's book of consideration , among the ancients , and a very great number of excellent treatises , writ lately in france upon them . i began my studies in divinity with reading these , and i never yet grew weary of them ; they raise so many noble designs , they offer such schemes , and carry so much of unction and life in them , that i hope an imperfect ess●y this way may have some effec● . for the searcher of hearts knows , i have no design in it , save this of stirring up in my self and others , the gift which was gi●en by the imposition of hands . of the pastoral care. chap. i. of the dignity of sacred imployments , and the names and designations given to them in scripture . how low soever the esteem of the clergy may be sunk in a profane and corrupt age , and how much soever the errors and disorders of clergy-men may have contributed to bring this not only upon themselves , but upon others who deserve better , but are unhappy in being mixed with so much ill company ; yet certainly if we either consider the nature of things in themselves , or the value that is set on that profession , in the scriptures , it will appear that it ought to be considered at another rate than it is . as much as the soul is better than the body , and as much as the purifying and perfecting the soul is preferable to all those mechanical imployments which relate to the body , and as much as eternity is more valuable than this short and transitory life ; so much does this imployment excel all others . a clergy-man , by his character and design of life , ought to be a man separated from the cares and concerns of this world , and dedicated to the study and meditation of divine matters . whose conversation ought to be a pattern for others ; a constant preaching to his people : who ought to offer up the prayers of the people in their name , and as their mouth to god ; who ought to be praying and interceding for them in secret , as well as officiating among them in publick : who ought to be distributing among them the bread of life , the word of god ; and to be dispensing among them the sacred rites , which are the badges , the union , and the supports of christians . he ought to admonish , to reprove , and to comfort them , not only by his general doctrine in his sermons , but from house to house ; that so he may do these things more home and effectually , than can be done from the pulpit . he is to watch over their souls , to keep them from error , and to alarm them out of their sins , by giving them warning of the judgments of god ; to visit the sick , and to prepare them for the judgment and life to come . this is the function of a clergy-man ; who that he may perform all these duties with more advantage , and better effect , ought to behave himself so well , that his own conversation may not only be without offence , but be so exemplary , that his people may have reason to conclude , that he himself does firmly believe all those things which he proposes to them : that he thinks himself bound to follow all those rules that he sets them ; and that they may see such a serious spirit of devotion in him , that from thence they may be induced to believe , that his chief design among them , is to do them good , and to save their souls : which may prepare them so to esteem and love him , that they may not be prejudiced against any thing that he does and says in publick , by any thing that they observe in himself in secret . he must also be imploying himself so well in his private studies , that from thence he may be furnished with such a variety of lively thoughts , divine meditations , and proper and noble expressions , as may enable him to discharge every part of his duty , in such a manner , as may raise not so much his own reputation , as the credit of his function , and of the great message of reconciliation that is committed to his charge : above all studies , he ought to apply himself to understand the holy scriptures aright ; to have his memory well furnished that way , that so upon all occasions , he may be able to enforce what he says out of them , and so be an able minister of the new testament . this is in short the character of a true clergy-man , which is to be more fully opened and enlarged on in the following parts of this book . all this looks so great and so noble , that it does not appear necessary to raise it , or to insist on it more fully . indeed it speaks its own dignity so sensibly , that none will dispute it , but such as are open enemies to all religion in general , or to the christian religion in particular ; and yet even few of these , are so entirely corrupted , as not to wish that external order and policy were kept up among men , for restraining the injustice and violence of unruly appetites and passions ; which few , even of the tribe of the libertines , seem to desire to be let loose ; since the peace and safety of mankind , require that the world be kept in method , and under some yoke . it will be more sutable to my design , to shew how well this character agrees with that which is laid down in the scriptures concerning these offices . i shall begin first with the names , and then go on to the descriptions , and lastly proceed to the rules that we find in them . the name of deacon , that is now appropriated to the lowest office in the church , was in the time that the new testament was writ , used more promiscuously : for the apostles , the evangelists , and those whom the apostles sent to visit the churches , are all called by this name . generally in all those places where the word minister is in our translation , it is deacon in the greek , which signifies properly a servant , or one who labours for another . such persons are dedicated to the immediate service of god ; and are appropriated to the offices and duties of the church : so this term both expresses the dignity and the labour of the imployment . the n●xt ●rder carries now the name of presbyter , or elder ; which tho at first it was applied not only to bishops , but to the ap●s●l●s themselves ; yet in the succeeding ages , it came to be appropriated to the second ra●k of the officers in the church . i● either signifies a seniority of age , or of 〈◊〉 , in opposition to a neophite or novice , one newly converted to the faith ; but by common p●actice ▪ as senate or senator , being at first given to councellors , by reason of their age , came afterwards to be a title appropriate to them ; so the t●tle presbyter ( altered in pronunciation to be in english , pri●st ) or elder being a character of respect , denotes the dignity of those to whom it belongs : but since st. paul divides this title either into two different ranks , or into two different performances of the duties of the same rank , those that rule well , and those that labour in word and doctrine ; this is a title that speaks both the dignity , and likewise the duty belonging to this function . the title which is now by the custom of many ages given to the highest function in the church , of bishop , or inspector , and overseer , as it imports a dignity in him , as the chief of those who labour ; so it does likewise express his obligation to care and diligence , both in observing , and overseeing the whole flock , and more specially in inspecting the deportment and labours of his fellow workmen , who are subordinate to him in the constitution of the church , yet ought to be esteemed by him in imitation of the apostles , his brethren , his fellow-labourers , and fellow-servants . next to the names of the sacred functions , i shall consider the other designations and figures , made use of to express them . the most common is that of pastor or shepherd . it is to be remembred , that in the first simplicity of mankind for many ages , men looked after their own cattel , or employed their children in it ; and when they trusted that care to any other , it was no small sign of their confidence , according to what iacob said to laban . the care of a good shepherd was a figure then so well understood , that the prophet expresses god's care of his people , by this , of his feeding them as a shepherd , carrying his lambs in his bosom , and gently leading them that were with young . christ also calls himself the good shepherd , that knew his sheep , and did not as a hireling , fly away when the wolf came , but laid down his life for his sheep . this then being so often made use of in both testaments , is an expression of the great trust committed to the clergy , which likewise supposes a great , a constant , and a tender care in looking to , in feeding or instructing , in watching over , and guarding the flock against errors and sins , and their being ready to offer themselves to the first fury of persecution . the title of stewards , or dispensers , which is the most honourable in a household , is also given to them . these assign to every one his due share , both of labour and of provision ; these watch over them , and have the care and order of the other servants assigned to them . so in this great family , of which christ is the h●ad , the stewards are a post of great digni●y , but also of much labour , they ought to be observing the rest of this houshold , that they may be faithful in the distribution , and so encourage , admonish , reprove or censure , as there is occasion for it . they are also called ambassadors , and that upon the noblest and desirablest message , for their business is to treat of p●ac● between god and man ; to them is given the word or doctrine of reconciliation ; they are sent by christ , and do speak in god's name ; as if god did beseech men by them ; so do they in christ's stead , who is the mediator , press men to be reconciled to god ; words of a very high sound , of great trust and dignity , but which import likewise great obligations . an ambassador is very solicitous to maintain the dignity of his character , and his master's honour ; and chiefly to carry on that which is the main business that he is sent upon , which he is always contriving how to promote : so if the honour of this title affects us as it ought to do , with a just value for it , we ought at the same time to consider the obligations that accompany it , of living suitable to it , answering in some sort , the dignity and majesty of the king of kings , that has committed it to us ; and of labouring with all possible diligence , to effectuate the great design on which we are sent ; the reconciling sinners to god : the work having in it self a proportion to the dignity of him that imploys us in it . another , and yet a more glorious title , is that of angels , who as they are of a pure and sublime nature , and are called a flaming fire , so they do always behold the face of our heavenly father , and ever do his will , and are also ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to them that are appointed to be the heirs of salvation : this title is given to bishops and pastors ; and as if that were not enough , they are in one place called not only the messengers or angels of the churches , but also the glory of christ. the natural importance of this is , that men to whom this title is applied , ought to imitate those heavenly powers , in the elevation of their souls ; to contemplate the works and glory of god , and in their constant doing his will , more particularly in ministring to the souls of those , for whom the great angel of the covenant made himself a sacrifice . i do not among these titles reckon those of rulers or governours , that are also given to bishops , because they seem to be but another name for bishops , whose inspection was a rule and government , and so carried in its signification , both authority and labour . to these designations ▪ that carry in them characters of honour , but of honour joyned to labour , and for the sake of which the honour was due , according to that , esteem them very highly for their works sake ; i shall add some other designations , that in their significations carry only labour without honour , being borrowed from labours that are hard , but no way honourable . they are often called watchmen , who used to stand on high towers , and were to give the alarm , as they saw occasion for it : these men were obliged to a constant attendance , to watch in the night , as well as in the day : so all this being applied to the clergy , imports that they ought to be upon their watch-tower , observing what dangers their people are exposed to , either by their sins , which provoke the judgments of god ; or by the designs of their enemies ; they ought not by a false respect , suffer them to sleep and perish in their sins ; but must denounce the judgments of god to them , and rather incur their displeasure by their freedom , than suffer them to perish in their security . st. paul does also call church-men by the name of builders , and gives to the apostles the title of master-builders ; this imports both hard and painful labour , and likewise great care and exactness in it , for want of which the building will be not only exposed to the injuries of weather , but will quickly tumble down ; and it gives us to understand , that those who carry this title , ought to study well the great rule , by which they must carry on the interest of religion , that so they may build up their people in their most holy faith , so as to be a building fitly framed together . they are also called labourers in god's husbandry , labourers in his vineyard , and harvest , who are to sow , plant and water , and to cultivate the soil of the church . this imports a continual return of daily and hard labour , which requires both pain and diligence . they are also called soldiers , men that did war and fight against the powers of darkness . the fatigue , the dangers and difficulties of that state of li●e ar● so well understood , that no application is necessary to make them more sensible . and thus by a particular enumeration of ei●her the more special names of these o●●●ces , such as deacon , priest and bishop , rul●r and governour , or of the designa●ions given to them of shepherds or pastors , stewards , ambassadors and angels , it appears that there is a great dignity belonging to them , but a dignity which must carry labour with it , as that for which the honour is due : the other titles of watchmen , builders , labourers and soldiers , import also that they are to decline no part of their duty , for the labour that is in it , the dangers that may follow , or the seeming meanness that may be in it , since we have for this so great a rule and pattern set us by our saviour , who has given us this character of himself , and in that a rule to all that pretend to come after him , the son of man came not to be ministred unto , but to minister . this was said upon the proud contentions that had been among his disciples , who should be the greatest : two of them presuming upon their near relation to him , and pretending to the first dignity in his kingdom ; upon that he gave them to understand , that the dignities of his kingdom were not to be of the same nature with those that were in the world. it was not rule or empire to which they were to pretend ; the disciple was not to be above his lord : and he that humbled himself to be the last and lowest in his service , was by so doing , really the first . he himself descended ●o the washing his disciples feet ; which 〈◊〉 proposeth to their imitation ; and that came in latter ages to be taken up by princes , and acted by them in pageantry : but the plain account of that action , is , that it was a prophetical emblem ; of which sort we find several instances both in isaiah , ieremy and ezekiel : the prophet doing somewhat that had a mystical signification in it , relating to the subject of his prophecy : so that our saviour's washing the feet of his disciples , imported the humility , and the descending to the meanest offices of charity , which he recommended to his followers , particularly to those whom he appointed to preach his gospel to the world. chap. ii. of the rules set down in scripture for those that minister in holy things ; and of the corruptions that are set forth in them . i intend to write with all possible simplicity , without the affectations of a strictness of method : and therefore i will give one full view of this whole matter , without any other order than as it lies in the scriptures : and will lay both the rules and the reproofs that are in them together , as things that give light to one another . in the law of m●ses we find many very particular rules given for the washing and consecration of the priests and levites , chiefly of the holy priest. the whole tribe of levi was sanctified and separated from the common labours , either of war or tillage : and tho they were but one in twelve , yet a tenth of all was appointed for them : they were also to have a large share of another tenth ; that so they might be not only delivered from all cares , by that large provision that was made for them , but might be able to relieve the necessities of the widows and fatherless , the poor and the strangers , that sojourned among them ; and by their bounty and charity , be possessed both of the love and esteem of the people . they were holy to the lord ; they were said to be sanctified or dedicated to god ; and the head of their order carried on his mitre this inscription , holiness to the lord. the many washings that they were often to use , chiefly in doing their functions , carried this signification in them , that they were appropriated to god , and that they were under very strict obligations to a high degree of purity ; they might not so much as mourn for their dead relations , to shew how far they ought to rise above all the concerns of flesh and bloo● , and even the most excusable passions of human nature . but above all things , these rules taught them , with what exactness , decency and purity they ought to perform those offices that belonged to their function ; and therefore when aaron's two sons , nadab and abihu transgressed the law that god had given , fire came out from the lord , and devoured them ; and the reason given for it , carries in it a perpetual rule . i will be sanctified in all them that dr●w near to me , and before all the people i will be glorified : which import , that such as minister in holy things , ought to behave themselves so , that god's name may be glorified by their means ; otherwise , that god will glor●fy himself by his severe judgments on them . a signal instance of which we do also find in eli's two sons , whose impieties and defilements , as they made the people to abhor the offering of the lord : so they also drew down , not only heavy judgments on themselves , but on the whole house of eli ; and indeed on the whole nation . but besides the attendance which the priests and levites were bound to give at the temple , and on the publick service there , they were likewise obliged to study the law , to give the people warning out of it , to instruct them in it , and to conduct them , and watch over them : and for this reason they had cities assigned them in all the corners of the land ; that so they might both more easily observe the manners of the people , and that the people might more easily have recourse to them . now when that nation became corrupted both by idolatry and immorality , god raised up prophets to be extraordinary monitors to them ; to declare to them their sins , and to denounce those judgments which were coming upon them , because of them ; we find the silence , the ignorance , and the corruption of their pastors , their shepherds , and their watchmen , is a main article of their charge ; so isaiah tells them , that their watchmen were blind , ignorant , dumb dogs , that could not bark ; sleeping , lying down , and loving to slumber : yet these careless watchmen were covetous and insatiable , they were greedy dogs , which could never have enough ; shepherds they were , that could not understand ; but how remiss soever they might be in god's work , they were careful enough of their own : they all looked to their own way , every one to his own gain from his quarter . they were , no doubt , exact in levying their tythes and first-fruits , how little soever they might do for them , bating their bare attendance at the temple , to officiate there ; so guilty they were of that reigning abuse , of thinking they had done their duty , if they either by themselves , or by proxy , had performed their functions without minding what was incumbent on them , as w●tchmen , or shepherds . in opposition to such careless and corrupt guides , god promises to his people , to set watch-men over them that should never hold their peace day nor night . as the captivity drew nearer , we may easily conclude , that the corruptions both of priest and people increased , which ripened them for the judgments of god , that were kept back by the reformations which h●zekiah and iosiah had made : but at last , all was so depraved that though god sent two prophets , ieremy and ezekiel , to prepare them for that terrible calamity , yet this was only to save some few among them ; for the sins of the nation were grown to that height , that though moses and samuel , noah , iob and daniel , had been then alive , to intercede for them , yet god declared that he would not hear them ; nor spare the nation for their sakes : so that even such mighty intercessors could only save their own souls . in this deplorable state we shall find that their priests and pastors had their large share . the priests said not , wh●re is the lord ? they that handled the law , knew me not , the pastors also transgressed against me ; and their corruption went so far , that they had not only false prophets to support them , but the people , who , how bad soever they may be themselves , do generally hate evil priests , grew to be pleased with it . the prophets prophecy falsely ; and the priests bear rule by their means ; and my people love to have it so : from the prophet even to the priest , every one dealt falsly . and upon that , a wo is denounced against the pastors that destroyed and scattered the sheep of god's pasture . they by their office ought to have fed the people ; but instead of that , they had scattered the flock , and driven them away , and had not visited them : both prophet and priest was profane ; their wickedness was found even in the house of god. in opposition to all which , god promises by the prophet , that he would set shepherds over them , that should feed them ; so that the people should have no more reason to be afraid of their pastors , or of being mis-led by them ; and he promised upon their return from the captivity , to give them pastors according to his own heart , who should feed them with knowledge and understanding . in ezekiel we find the solemn and severe charge given to watch-men , twice repeated ; that they ought to warn the wicked from his wickedness ; otherwise , though he should indeed die in his sin , god would require his blood at the watchman● hand ; but if he gave warning , he had by so doing , delivered his own soul. in that prophecy we have the guilt of the priests set forth very heinously . her priests have violated my law , and profaned my holy things ; they have put no difference between the holy and profane , the clean , and the unclean , and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths ; the effect of which was , that god was profaned among them . this is more fully prosecuted in the 34th chap. which is all addressed to the shepherds of israel , wo be to the shepherds of israel , that do feed themselves : should not the shepherds feed the flock ? ye eat the fat , and ye cloath you with the wool , ye kill them that are fed , but ye feed not the flock : then follows an enumeration of the several sorts of troubles that the people were in , under the figure of a flock , to shew how they had neglected their duty , in all the parts and instances of it ; and had trusted to their authority , which they had abused to tyranny and violenc● ▪ the diseased have ye not strengthened , neither have ye healed that which was sick , neither have ye bound up that which was broken , neither have ye brought again that which was driven away , neither have ye sought that which was lost ; but with force , and with cruelty have ye ruled them ; upon which follows a terrible expostulation , and denunciation of judgments against them : i am against the shepherds , saith the lord , i will require my flock at their hands , and cause them to cease from feeding the flock ; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more . and in the 44th chap of that prophecy , one rule is given , which was set up in the primitive church , as an unalterable maxim , that such priests as had been guilty of idolatry , should not do the office of a priest any more , nor come near to any of the holy things , or enter within the sanctuary , but were still to bear their shame : they might minister in some inferior services , such as keeping the gates , or slaying the sacrifice ; but they were still to bear their iniquity . i have past over all that occurs in these prophets , which relates to the false prophets , because i will bring nothing into this discourse , that relates to sins of another order , and nature . in daniel we have a noble expression of the value of such as turn men to righteousness , that they shall shine as the stars , for ever and ever . in hosea we find among the sins and calamities of that time , this reckoned as a main cause of that horrid corruption , under which they had fallen , there being no truth , no mercy , nor knowledge of god in the land , which was defiled by swearing , lying , killing , stealing and committing adultery . my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge : to which is added , because thou hast rejected knowledge ( or the instructing the people ) i will also reject thee , that thou shalt be no priest to me ; seeing thou hast forgot the law of thy god ; i will also forget thy children . that corrupt race of priests attended still upon the temple , and offered up the sin-offering , and feasted upon their portion ; which is wrong rendred , they eat up the sin of my people ; for sin stands there as in the law of moses , for sin offering : because of the advantage this brought them , they were glad at the abounding of sin ; which is expressed by their setting their heart , or lifting up their soul to their iniquity : the conclusion of which is , that they should be given up for a very heavy curse , of , like priests , like people . in ioel we find the duty of the priests and ministers of the lord , set forth in times of great and approaching calamities , thus , they ought to be intercessors for the people , and to weep between the porch and the altar ; and say , spare thy people , and give not thine heritage to reproach , that the heathen ( strangers and idolaters ) should rule over them : wherefore should they say among the people , where is their god ? there is in amos , a very black character of a depraved priesthood , their priests teach for hire , and their prophets divine for money . these were the forer unners of the destruction of that nation : but though it might be expected , that the captivity should have purged them from their dross , as it did indeed free them from all inclinations to idolatry ; yet other corruptions had a deeper root . we find in zechary , a curse against the idol shepherd , who resembled the true shepherd , as an idol does the original : but he was without sense and life . wo be to the idol shepherd that leav●th the flock : the curse is figuratively expressed , the sword shall be upon his arm , and his right eye : ( the things that he valued most ) his arm shall be clean dried up , and his right eye shall be utterly darkned : but this is more copiously set out by malachi , in an address made to the priests ; and now , o ye priests , this commandment is for you ; if you will not hear , and if you will not lay it to heart , to give glory unto my name , i will even send a curse upon you , and i will curse your blessings ; yea i have cursed them already , because ye do not lay it to heart — then the first covenant with the tribe of levi is set forth ; my covenant was with him , of life and peace : the law of truth was in his mouth , and iniquity was not found in his lips : he walked with me in peace and equity , and did turn many from their iniquity : for the priests lips should preserve knowledge , and they should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messenger of the lord of hosts : all this sets forth the state of a pure and holy priesthood : but then follow terrible words ; but ye are departed out of the way , ye have caused many to stumble at the law : ye have corrupted the covenant of levi , saith the lord of hosts . th●r●fore have i also made you contemptible , and b●s● b●fore all the people ; according as ye have not kept my ways , but have been partial in the law. their ill example made many loath both their law , and their religion : they had corrupted their institution , and studied by a gross partiality , to bring the people to be exact in those parts of the law , in which their wealth , or their authority was concerned ; while they neglected the more essential and indispensible duties . thus far have i gone over the most important places , that have occurred to me in the old-testament , relating to this matter ; upon all whcih , i will only add one remark , that though some exception might be made to those ●xpressions , that import the dignity and sancti●ication of those who were then consecrated to the holy functions , as parts of that instituted religion , which had its period by the coming of christ ; yet such passages as relate to moral duties , and to the oblig●tions that arise out of natural religion , have certainly a more binding force , and ought to be understood and exp●ained in ● m●●e elevated and sublime sense , under th● new dispensation , which is i●tern●l and s●ir●●ua● , compared , to which , the old is c●lled the letter and the flesh : therefore the obligations of the priests , under the christian religion , to a holy strictness of life and conversation , to a diligent attendance on their flock , and for instructing and watching over them , must all be as much higher , and more binding , as this new covenant cancels the old one . chap. iii. passages out of the new-testament , relating to the same matter . this general consideration receives a vast improvement from the great example that the author of our religion , the great bishop and shepherd of our souls has set us ; who went about , ever doing good , to whom it was as his meat and drink , to do the will of his father that sent him : he was the good shepherd that knew his sheep , and laid down his life for them : and since he set such a value on the souls of that flock which he hath redeemed , and purchased with his own blood ; certainly those to whom he has committed that work of reconciliation which stood himself so dear , ought to consider themselves under very strict obligations , by that charge of which they must give a severe account at the great day , in which the blood of all those who have perished through their neglect and default , shall be required at their hands . yet because i will not aggravate this argument unreasonably , i will make no use of those passages which relate immediately to the apostles : for their function being ex●raordinary , as were also the assistances that were given them for the discharge of it , i will urge nothing that belongs properly to their mission and duty . in the character that the gospel gives of the priests and pharisees of that time , we may see a just and true idea , of the corruptions into which a bad clergy is apt to fall ; they studied to engross the knowledge of the law to themselves ; and to keep the people in ignorance , and in a blind dependance upon them : they were zealous in lesser matters , but neglected the great things of the law : they put on an outward appearance of strictness , but under that there was much rottenness : they studied to make proselites to their religion , but they had so depraved it , that they became thereby worse men than before : they made great shews of devotion , of praying , and fasting much , and giving alms : but all this was to be seen of men , and by it they devoured the estates of poor and simple people : they were very strict in observing the traditions and customs of their fathers , and of every thing that contributed to their own authority or advantage ; but by so doing they made void the law of god : in a word , they had no true worth in themselves , and hated such as had it : they were proud and spiteful , false and cruel , and made use of the credit they were in with the people , by their complying with them in their vices , and flatterring them with false hopes to set them on to destroy all those who discovered their corruptions , and whose real and shining worth , made their counterfeit shew of it the more conspicuous and odious . in this short view of those enormous disorders , which then reigned amongst them , we have a full picture of the corrupt state of bad priests , in all ages and religions , with this only difference , that the priests in our saviour's time were more careful and exact in the external and visible parts of their conversation , than they have been in other times : in which they have thrown off the very decencies of a grave and sober deportment . but now to go on with the characters and rules that we find in the new testament : our saviour as he compared the work of the gospel , in many parables to a field and harvest , so he calls those whom his father was to send ▪ the labourers in that harvest , and he left a direction to all his followers to pray to his father that he would send labourers into his harvest . out of which both the vocation and divine mission of the clergy , and the prayers of the church to god for it , that are among us fixed to the ember weeks , have been gathered by many pious writers . in the warnings that our saviour gives to prepare for his second coming , we find the characters of good and bad clergy-men stated , in opposition to one another , under the figure of stewards , the good are both wise and faithful , they wait for his coming , and in the mean while are dividing to every one of their fellow servants his portion to eat in due season , that is their proportion both of the doctrine and mysteries of the gospel , according to their several capacities and necessities : but the bad stewards are those who put the evil day far from them , and say in their heart the lord declareth his coming , upon which they eat , drink , and are drunken : they indulge their sensual appetites even to a scandalous excess , and as for their fellow servants , instead of feeding , of instructing , or watching over them , they beat them : they exerci●e a violent and tyrannical authority over them . their state in the next world is represented as different as their behaviour in this was , the one shall be exalted from being a steward to be a ruler over the houshold , to be a king and a priest for ever unto god , whereas the other shall be cut asunder , and shall have his portion with vnbelievers . the 10 th . of st. iohn is the place which both fathers , and more modern writers have chiefly made use of to shew the difference between good and bad pastors . the good shepherds enter by the door , and christ is this door by whom they must enter ; that is from whom they must have their vocation and mission : but the thief and rober who comes to kill , steal , and de●●roy , climbeth up some other way : whatever he may do in the ritual way for forms sake , he has in his heart no regard to iesus christ , to the honour of his person , the edification of his church or the salvation of souls ; he intends only to raise and enrich himself : and so he compasses that , he cares not how many souls perish by his means , or thorough his neglect . the good shepherd knows his sheep so well , that he can call them by name , and lead them out and they hear his voice : but the hireling careth not for the sheep , he is a stranger to them , they know not his voice and will not follow him . this is urged by all , who have pressed the obligation of residence , and of the personal labours of the clergy , as a plain divine and indispensable precept : and even in the council of trent , tho' by the practices of the court of rome , it was diverted from declaring residence to be of divine right , the decree that was made to enforce it , urges this place to shew the obligation to it . the good shepherd feeds the flock , and looks for pasture for them ; and is ready to give his life for the sheep : but the bad shepherd is represented as a hireling that careth not for the flock ; that sees the wolfe coming , and upon that leaveth the sheep and flieth . this is , it is true a figure , and therefore i know it is thought an ill way of reasoning to build too much upon figurative discourses : yet on the other hand our saviour having delivered so great a part of his doctrine in parables , we ought at least to consider the main scope of a parable : and may well build upon that , tho' every particular circumstance in it cannot bear an argument . i shall add but one passage more from the gospels , which is much made use of , by all that have writ of this ma●●er . when our saviour confirmed st. peter in his apostleship , from which he had fallen by his denying of him , as in the charge which he thrice repeated of feeding his lambs and his sheep , he pursues still the figure of a shepherd ; so the question that he asked preparatory to it , was simon lovest thou me more than these , from which they justly gather , that the love of god , a zeal for his honour , and a preferring of that to all other things whatsoever , is a necessary and indispensible qualification for that holy imployment ; which distinguishes the true shepherd from the hireling : and by which only he can be both animated and fortified , to go through with the labours and difficulties , as well as the dangers and sufferings which may accompany it . when st. paul was leaving his last charge with the bishops that met him at ephesus , he still makes use of the same metaphor of shepherd in those often cited words , take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the holy ghost hath made you bishops or overseers , to feed the church of god , which he hath purchased with his own blood. the words are solemn , and the consideration enforcing them is a mighty one ; they import the obligations of the clergy , both to an exactness in their own deportment , and to earnest and constant labours , in imitation of the apostle , who during the three years of his stay among them , had been serving god with all humility of mind with many tears and temptations , and had not ceased to warn every one both night and day , with tears : and had taught them both publickly , and from house to house : upon which he leaves them , calling them all to witness that he was pure from the blood of all men. there has been great disputing concerning the persons to whom these words were addressed ; but if all parties had studied more to follow the example here proposed , and the charge that is here given ; which are plain and easie to be understood , then to be contending about things that are more doubtful ; the good lives and the faithful labours of apostolical bishops , would have contributed more both to the edifying and healing of the church , than all their arguments or reasonings will ever be able to do . st. paul reckoning up to the romans the s●veral obligations of christians , of all ranks to assiduity and diligence , in their callings and labours , among others he numbers these , ministers let us wait on our ministring ▪ or he that teacheth on teaching , he that ruleth with diligence : in his epistle to the corinthians , as he states the dignity of the clergy in this , that they ought to be accounted of as the ministers of christ , and stewards of the mysteries of god. he adds that it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful . in that epistle , he sets down that perpetual law , which is the foundation of all the provision that has been made for the clergy , that the lord hath ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel . but if upon that , the laity have looked on thems●lves as bound to appoint so plentiful a supply , that the clergy might have whereon to live at their ease and in abundance ; then certainly this was intended that they being freed from the troubles and cares of this world , might attend continually on the ministry of the word of god and on prayer . those who do that work negligently , provoke the laity to repent of their bounty and to defraud them of it . for certainly there are no such enemies to the patrimony and rights of the church , as those who eat the fat but do not preach the gospel , nor feed the flock . happy on the ●ther hand are they , to whom that character , which the apostle assumes to himself , and to timothy , does belong ; therefore seeing we have received this ministry , as we have received mercy we faint not : but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty , not walking in craftiness , nor handling the word of god deceitfully , but by manifestation of the truth , commending our selves to every man's conscience in the sight of god. in the epistle to the ephesians , we have the ends of the institution of all the ranks of clergy-men set forth in these words . he gave some apostles , and some prophets , and some evangelists , and some pastors and teachers : for the perfecting of the saints ▪ for t●e work of the ministry , for the edifying the body of christ : till we all come i● the vnity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the son of god , unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ. in these words we see something that is so vast and noble , so far above those slight and poor performances , in which the far greater part do too easily satisfie themselves ; that in charity to them we ought to suppose that they have not reflected sufficiently on the importance of them . otherwise they would have in some sort proportioned their labours to those great designs for which they are ordained ; and would remember the charge given to the colossians , to say to archippus , who it seems was remiss in the discharge of his duty , take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the lord , that thou fullfil it . the epistles to timothy and titus are the foundation of all the canons of the church , in these we have the characters of bishops , and deacons , as well as the duties belonging to those functions , so particularly set forth that from the●ce alone every one who will weigh them well , may find sufficient instruction , how he ought to behave himself in the house of god. in these we see what patterns those of the clergy ought to be in word ( or doctrine ) in conversation , in charity , in spirit , in faith , and in purity , they ought to give attendance to reading , to exhortation , and to doctrine , that is both to the instructing and exhorting of their people . they ought not to neglect that gift that was given to them , by the laying on of hands , they ought to meditate on these things , to give themselves wholly to them , that so their profiting may appear unto all : and to take heed to themselves and their doctrine ; and to continue in them : for in so doing they shall both save themselves and those that hear them . those that govern the church are more particularly charged ▪ before god , the lord iesus and the holy angels , that they observe these things without preferring one before another , doing nothing by parti●lity , by domestick regards , the considerations of friendship , intercession , or importunity : and above all that they lay hand suddenly on no man ; to which are added words of great terror , neither be thou partaker of other mens sins : keep thy self pure . which ought to make great impression , on all those with whom the power of ordination is lodged : since they do plainly import , that such as do ordain any rashly without due enquiry , and a strict examination , entitle themselves to all the scandal they give ; and become partners of their guilt ▪ which if well considered , must needs make all such , as are not past feeling , use great care and caution in this sacred trust. bishops are the depositaries of the faith , which they are to keep pure ; and to hand down faithfully according to these words , and the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses , the same commit thou to faithful men who may be able to teach others also : upon this he prepares the bishop for difficulties to endure hardness as a good souldier of iesus christ. and according to that figure , since those that go to war , do not carry unnecessary burdens with them , which may encumber and retard their march , he adds , no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life , that he may please him who hath chosen him for a souldier ; upon this it is that all those canons , which have been made in so many ages of the church , against church-mens medling with secular affairs , have been founded ; than which we find nothing more frequently provided against , both in the apostolical canons , in those of antioch , in those made by the general council of calcedon , and in divers of the councils of carthage : but this abuse had too d●ep a root in the nature of man , to be easily cured . st. paul does also in this place carry on the metaphor to express the earnestness and indefatigableness of clergy-mens zeal , that as officers in an army were satisfied with nothing under victory , which brought them the honours of a triumph , so we ought to fight , not only so as to earn our pay , but for mastery to spoil and overcome the powers of darkness ; yet even this must be done lawfully , not by deceiving the people with pious frauds , hoping that our good intentions will atone for our taking bad methods : war has its laws as well as peace , and those who manage this spiritual warfare , ought to keep themselves within the instructions and commands that are given them . then the apostle changing the figure from the souldier to the workman and steward , says , study to shew thy self approved unto god ( not to seek the vain applauses of men , but to prefer to all other things the witness of a good conscience , and that in simplicity and godly sincerity , he may walk and labour as in the sight of god ) a workman that needeth not to be ashamed ; rightly dividing the word of truth : this is according to the figure of a steward , giving every one his due portion ; and a little after comes a noble admonition , relating to the meekness of the clergy towards those that divide from them : the servant of the lord must not strive ; but be gentle to all men , apt to teach , patient , in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves , if peradventure god will give them repentance , to the acknowledging the truth . this is the passage that was chiefly urged by our reformers against the persecution that the roman clergy did every where set on against them : the extent of it ought to be well considered , that so it may not be said , that we are only against persecution when it lies on our selves ; for if it is a good defence to some , it is as good to others ; unless we own that we do not govern our selves by that rule of doing to others that which we would have other● do to us . in the next chapter , we find the right education of this bishop , and that which furnishes a clergy man , to perform all the duties incumbent on him : from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures , which are able to make thee wise unto salvation , through faith in christ iesus : that is the old testament well studied , by one that believed iesus to be the messias , and that was led into it by that faith , did discover to a man the great oeconomy of god in the progress of the light , which he made shine upon the world by degrees , unto the perfect day of the appearing of the sun of righteousness ) and to this he adds a noble character of the inspired writings : all scripture is given by inspiration of god , and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instructing in righteousness , that the man of god may be perfect , throughly furnished unto all good works . the apostle goes on and gives timothy the most solemn charge that can be set out in words ; which if understood , as belonging to all bishops , as the whole church of god has ever done , must be read by them with trembling . i charge thee therefore before god , and the lord iesus christ , who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing , and his kingdom , preach the word , be instant in season out of season , reprove , rebuke , exhort with all long suffering and doctrine ( that is with great gentleness in the manner , and clearness and strength in the matter of their instructions ) and a little after , watch thou in all things , endure affliction , do the work of an evangelist : make full proof of ( or fulfill ) thy ministry : and as a consideration to enforce this the more , he tells what a noble and agreeable prospect he had in the view of his approaching dissolution : the time of his departing drew nigh , he was ready to be offered up , as a sacrifice for that faith which he had so zealously and so successfully preached : and here we have his two great preparatives for martyrdom : the one was in looking on his past life and labours : i have fought a good fight , i have finished my course , i have kept the faith. the other was in looking forward to the reward that crown of righteousness which was laid up for him , which the lord the righteous iudge would gi●e him at that day : and not only to him , but also to all those that loved his appearing , and certainly more especially to those who not only lov●d it themselves , but who laboured so as to dispose others also to love it . to all these considerations , though nothing needed to have been added , to one upon whom they made so strange an impression , as they did upon timothy , yet one comes after all , which ought to teach us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling since st. paul tells timothy that demas , one of the companions of his labours , had forsaken him , and that which prevailed over him was the love of this present world. these are the rules and charges given by st. paul to timothy , and in him to all the bishops and pastors that were to come after him in the church . some of these are again repeated in his epistle to titus , where we have the characters set out ; by which he was to prepare and examine those elders or bishops , who were to rule the house of god : that those being well chosen , they might be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers , and that he might do his duty with the more advantage ; he charges him to shew himself in all things a pattern of go●d works : in doctrine , shewing uncorruptness , gravity , sincerity ; and using such sound speech as could not be condemned : that so those who were of the contrary party ( the iudaizers who were studying to corrupt the christian religion by making a medly of it and iudaisme ) might have no evil thing to say of him ; and after a glorious but short abstract of the design of their holy religion ; he concludes that part of the epistle in these words , these things speak and exhort , and rebuke with all authority : to which he adds a charge , that may seem more proper to be addressed to others , then to himself , let no man despise thee : the same is likewise in his epistle to timothy , with this addition , let no man despise thy youth : but these words do import that it is in a bishop's own power , to procure due esteem to himself ; at least to prevent contempt ; since a holy and exemplary deportment , and faithful and constant labours never fail to do that . in the conclusion of the epistle to the hebrews , we find both the characters of those who had laboured among them , and had ruled them but who were then dead ; and also of such as were yet alive . remember them who had the rule over you ; who have spoken to you the word of god , whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation : they had both lived and died , as well as laboured in such a manner , that the remembring of what had appeared in them , was an effectual means of perswading the hebrews to be steady in the christian religion : for certainly , though while a man lives let him be ever so eminent , there is still room for ill-nature and jealousie to misrepresent things , and to suspect that something lies hid under the fairest appearances ; which may shew it self in due time ; all that goes off , when one has finished his course , so that all appears to be of a piece , and that he has died as he had lived . then the argument from his conversation appears in its full strength , without any diminution . but the charge given with relation to those who then had the rule over them is no less remarkable , obe● them that have the rule over you ; and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls ; as they that must give account : that they may do it with joy and not with grief : for that is unprofitable for you : here obedience and submission is enjoyned , upon the account of their rulers watching over them , and for them : and therefore those who do not watch like men that know that they must give account of that trust , have no reason to expect these from their people : of a piece with this is st. pauls charge to the thessalonians , we beseech you to know ( or to acknowledge , ) them which labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you , and to esteem them very highly in love , for their works sake : here both the submission and esteem , as well as the acknowledgment that is due to the clergy , is said to be for their works sake : and therefore such as do not the work and that do not labour and admonish their people , have no just claim to them . there is another expression in the 2 d epistle to the thessalonians , that is much urged by those who have writ on this head , that if any will not work he should not eat , which if it is a rule binding all men , seems to lie much heavier on the clergy . i shall conclude all that i intend to bring out of the scripture upon this argument , with st. peter's charge to the elders of the churches , to which he writ ; which is indeed so full , that though in the course of the new testament , it had not lain last , it deserved by the rules of method , to be kept last ; for the closing and enforcing all that has gone before , and for giving it its full weight . st. peter descends 1 epistle ▪ 5 ch ▪ 1 ver . to a level with them , calling himself no better than a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of christ : and also a partaker of the glory which was to be revealed . feed the flock of god ( says he ) which is among you , ( these words will bear another rendring as much as lieth in you ) taking the oversight thereof not by constraint ( as forced to it by rules , canons , or laws ) but willingly not for filthy ●ucre ( for though god has ordained that such as preach the gospel should live of the gospel ; yet those who propose that to themselves as the chief motive in entring into holy orders , are hereby severely condemned ) but of a ready mind , neither as being lords over god's heritage ( or not using a despotick authority over their several lots or divisions ) but being examples to the flock , not tyrannizing it over their people : but acquiring their authority chiefly by their own exemplary conversation . the conclusion of the charge , is suitable to the solemnity of it in these words : and when the chief shepherd shall appear , ye shall likewise receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away . with this i make an end of citations from scripture : i think it is as plain as words can make any thing , that such as are dedicated to the service of god and of his church , ought to labour constantly and faithfully : and that in their own persons . for it is not possible to express a personal obligation , in terms that are both more strict and more solemn then these are which have been cited , and all the returns of obedience and submission , of esteem and support , being declared to be due to them on the account of their watching over and feeding the flock of god , those who pretend to these , without considering themselves as under the other obligations , are guilty of the worst sort of sacriledge , in devouring the things that are sacred , without doing those duties for which these are due , and what right soever the law of the land may give them to them , yet certainly according to the divine law those who do not wait at the altar , ought not to be partakers with the altar : those who do not minister about holy things , ought not to live of the things of the temple : nor ought those who do not preach the gospel , live of the gospel . if i had a mind to make a great shew of reading , or to triumph in my argument with the pomp of quotations , it were very easie to bring a cloud of witnesses , to confirm the application that i have made of these passages of scripture : indeed all those who have either writ commentaries on the scriptures , ancient and modern , or have left homilies on these subjects , have pressed this matter so much , that every one that has made any progress in ecclesiastical learning , must know that one might soon stuff a great many pages with abundance of quotations out of the authors , both of the best , and of the worst ages of the church : not only the fathers , but even the schoolmen , and which is more the canonist have carried this matter very high , and have even delivered it as a maxime , that all dispensations that are procured upon undue pretences , the chief of which they reckon the giving a man , an easie and large subsistence , are null and void of themselves : and conclude that how strong soever they may be in law , yet they are nothing in conscience : and that they do not free a man from his obligations to residence and labour : and they do generally conclude that he who upon a dispensa●ion , which has been obtained upon carnal accounts , such as birth , rank or great ▪ abilities , ( and qualifications are not yet so good , as these ) does not reside , is bound in conscience to restore the fruits of a bene●ice which he has thus enjoyed with a bad conscience without performing the duty belonging to it , in his own person . but though it were very easie to bring out a great deal to this purpose , i will go no further at present upon this head : the words of god , seem to be so express and positive ; that such as do not yield to so undisputable an authority , will be little moved by all that can be brought out of authors of a lower form , against whom it will be easie to muster up many exceptions , if they will not be determined by so many of the oracles of the living god. chap. iv. of the sense of the primitive church in this matter . i will not enter here into any historical account of the discipline of the church , during the first and best ages of christianity . it is the glory of this church , that in her disputes of both han●s , a● well with those of the church of rome , as with those that separate from her ▪ she has both the doctrine and the c●nstitution of the primitive church of her side . but this plea would be more entire and less disputable , if our consti●ution were not only in its main and most essential parts , formed upon that glorious model ; but were also in its rules and administrations , made more exactly conformable to those best and purest times . i can never forget an advice that was given me above thirty years ago , by one of the worthiest clergy-men now alive ; while i was studying the controversie relating to the government of the church , from the primitive times , he desires me to joyn with the more speculative discoveries ▪ that i should make , the sense that they had of the obligations of the clergy , both with relation to their lives , and to their labours : and said that the argument in favour of the church , how clearly soever made out , would never have its full effect upon the world , till abuses were so far corrected , that we could shew a primitive spirit in our administration , as well as a primitive pattern for our constitution . this made even then , deep impressions on me , and i thank god the sense of it has never left me in the whole course of my studies . i will not at present enter upon so long and so invidious a work as the descending into all the particulars , into which this matter might be branched out ; either from the writings of the fathers , the decrees of councils , the roman law and the capitulars , or even from the dreg of all , the canon law it self , which though a collection made in one of the worst ages , yet carries many rules in it , that would seem excessively severe , even to us , after all our reformation of doctrine and worship . this has been already done with so much exactness , that it will not be necessary to set about it after the harvest , which was gathered by the learned bishop of spalato in the last book of his great work : which the pride and inconstancy of the author , had brought under a disesteem , that it no way deserves : for whatever he might be , that work was certainly one of the best productions of that age. but this design has been prosecuted of late with much more exactness and learning , and with great honesty and fidelity , where the interest of his church did not force him to use a little art , by f. thomasin , who has compared the modern and the ancient discipline , and has shewed very copiously , by what steps the change was made ; and how abuses crept into the church . it is a work of great use , to such as desire to understand that matter truly . i will refer the curious to these , and many other lesser treaties , writ by the iansenists in france , in which abuses are very honestly complained off , and proper remedies are proposed ; which in many places being entertained by bishops ▪ that had a right sense of the primitive rules , have given the rise to a great reformation of the french clergy . instead then of any historical deduction of these matters , i shall content my self with giving the sense of two of the fathers of the greek church , and one of t●e latin upon this whole business , of the obligations of the clergy . the first is gregory of nazianze whose father ordained him a presbyter , notwithstanding all his hum●le intercessions to the contrary , according to the custom of the best men of that age ; who instead of pressing into orders , or aspiring to them , fled from them , excused themselves , and judging themselves unworthy of so holy a character and so high a trust , were not without difficulty prevailed on to submit to that , which in degenerate ages men run to as to a subsistance , or the mean of procuring it , and seem to have no other sense of that sacred institution , then mechanicks have of obtaining their freedom in that trade or company in which they have passed their apprenticeship . it were indeed happy for the church , if those who offer themselves to orders ▪ had but such a sense of them as tradesmen have of their freedom : who do not pretend to it till they have finished the time prescribed ; and are in some sort qualified to set up in it : whereas , alas ! men who neither know the scriptures , nor the body of divinity , who have made no progress in their studies , and can give no tollerable account of that holy doctrine , in which they desire to be teachers , do yet with equal degrees of confidence , and importunity , pretend to this character , and find the way to it too easie , and the access of it too free . but this holy father had a very different sense of this matter . he had indeed submitted to his fathers authority , he being his bishop as well as his father . but immediately after he was ordained , he gives this account of himself in his apologetical oration , that he judging he had not that sublimity of vertue , nor that familiar acquaintance with divine matters , which became pastors and teachers ; he therefore intending to purifie his own soul to higher degrees of vertue , to an exaltation above sensible objects , above his body and above the world , that so he might bring bis mind to a recollected and divine state , and fit his soul that as a polished mirrour it might carry on it the impressions of divine ideas unmixed with the allay of earthly objects , and might be still casting a brightness upon all his thoughts , did in order to the raising himself to that , retire to the wilderness . he had observed that many pressed to handle the holy mysteries , with unwashed hands , and defiled souls : and before they were meet to be initiated to the divine vocation , were crouding about the altar , not to set patterns to others , but designing only a subsistence to themselves : reckoning that the holy dignity , was not a trust for which an account was to be given , but a state of authority and exemption . they had neither piety nor parts to recommend them , but were the reproaches of the christian religion , and were the pests of the church : which infected it faster than any plague could do the air , since men did easily run to imitate bad examples , but were drawn off very hardly by the perfectest patterns to the practice of vertue . vpon which he formed a high idea of the eminent worth and vertues which became those who governed the church : and of the great progress that they ought to be duly making , not contented with low measures of it , as if they were to weigh it critically in nice ballances ; and not to rise up to the highest degrees possible in it . yet even this , was not all : for to govern mankind which was so various , and so uncertain a sort of creature , seemed to him the highest pitch of knowledge and wisdom , as far above that skill and labour that is necessary to the curing of bodily diseases as the soul is superiour to the body , and yet since so much study and observation was necessary to make a man a skillful physician , he concluded that much more was necessary for the spiritual medicine : the design of which was to give wings to the soul , to raise it above the world , and to consecrate it to god , here he runs out into a noble rapture , upon the excellence and sublimity of the christian religion , and upon the art of governing souls , of the different methods to be taken , according to the diversity of mens capacity and tempers : and of dividing the word of god aright , among them . the difficulties of which he prosecutes in a great variety of sublime expressions and figures : but concludes lamenting that there was so little order , then observed , that men had scarce passed their childhood when , before they understood the scriptures , not to say before they had washed off the spots and defilements of their souls , if they had learned but two or three pious words , which they had got by heart , or had read some of the psalms of david , and pu● on an outward garb that carried an appearance of piety in it , these men were presently pushed on by the vanity of their minds , to aspire to the government of the chur●h . to such persons he addresses himself very rhetorically and asks them , what they thought of the commonest imployments such as the playing on instruments or of dancing , in comparison with divine wisdom : for acquiring the one they know great pains and mu●h practice was necessary : could they then imagin that the other should be so easily attained : but he adds that one may as well sow upon rocks , and talk to the deaf , as hope to work upon persons , who have not yet got to that degree of wisdom , of being sensible of their own ignorance . this evil he had often with many tears lamented , but the pride of such men was so great , that nothing under the authority of a st. peter or a st. paul , could work upon them . upon this mention of st. paul , he breaks out into a rapture , upon his labours and sufferings , and the care of all the churches that lay on him ; his becoming all things to all men , his gentleness where that was necessary , and his authority upon other occasions , his zeal , his patience , his constancy , and his prudence in fullfilling all the parts of his ministry . then he cites several of the passages of the prophets , particularly those of ieremy and ezekiel , zachary and malachi , which relate to the corruptions of the priests and shepherds of israel . and shews how applicable they were to the clergy at that time , and that all the woes denounced against the scribes and pharisees belonged to them , with heavy aggravations . these thoughts possessed him day and night ; they did eat out his very strength and substance ; they did so afflict and deject him , and gave him so terrible a prospect of the iudgments of god , which they were drawing down upon the church , that he instead of daring to undertake any part of the government of it , was only thinking how he should cleanse his own soul and fly from the wrath , which was to come , and could not think that he was yet while so young , meet to handle the holy things . where he runs out into a new rapture in magnifying the dignity of holy functions , and upon that says , that tho' he had been dedicated to god from his mothers womb , and had renounced the world and all that was charming in it , even eloquence it self , and had delighted long in the study of the scriptures , and had subdued many of his appetites and passions , yet after all this , in which perhaps he had become a fool in glorying , he had so high a nation of the care and government of souls , that he thought it above his strength ; especially in such bad times in which all things were out of order : factions were formed , and charity was lost ; so that the very name of a priest was a reproach , as if god had poured out contempt upon them : and thereby impious men daily blasphemed his name . and indeed , all the shew of religion that remained was in their mutual heats and animosities , concerning some matters of religion ; they condemned and censured one another , they cherished and made use of the worst men , so they were true to their party ; they concealed their crimes , nay , they flattered and defended some that should not have been suffered to enter into the sanctuary : they gave the holy things to dogs , while they enquired very narrowly into the failings of those that differed from them , not that they might lament them , but that they might reproach them for them . the same faults which they excused in some , were declaimed against in others : so that the very name of a good or a bad man were not now considered , as the characters of their lives , but of their being of or against a side . and these abuses were so vniversal , that they were like people like priest : if those heats had arisen upon the great heads of religion , he should have commended the zeal of those who had contended for the truth , and should have studied to have followed it . but their disputes were about small matters , and things of no consequence ; and yet even these were fought for , under the glorious title of the faith , tho the root of all was men's private animosities : these things had exposed the christian religion to the hatred of the heathen , and had given even the christians themselves very hard thoughts of the clergy : this was grown to that height , that they were then acted and represented upon the stage ; and made the subject of the peoples scorn . so that by their means , the name of god was blasphemed : this was that which gave him much sadder apprehensions , than all that could be feared from that wild beast , that was then beginning to vex and persecute the church , ( by which probably iulian is meant , ) the comfortable prospect of dying for the name of christ , made that a persecution was not so dreadful a thing , in his account , as the sins , the divisions , and distractions of christians . this then was the reason that had made him fly to the wilderness , for the state of the church had made him despond , and lose all his courage : he had also gone thither , that he might quite break himself to all his appetites and passions , and to all the pleasures and concerns of this life , that did darken the shinings of the divine image upon his soul ; and the emanations of the heavenly light. when he considered the judgments of god upon bad priests and many other strict rules in the old dispensation , and the great obligations that lay upon those who were the priests , of the living god , and that ought before they presumed to offer up other sacrifices , to begin with the oblation of themselves to god ; he was upon all these reasons moved to prepare himself , by so long a retreat . i have given this long abstract of his apologetical oration , not only to set before my reader the sense that he had of the sacred functions , but likewise to shew what were the corruptions of that age , and with how much freedom this holy father laid them open . if there is any occasion for applying any part of this to the present age , or to any persons in it , i chose rather to offer it in the words of this great man , than in any of my own . i wish few were concerned in them ; and that such as are , would make a due application of them to themselves , and save others the trouble of doing it more severely . i go next to another father of the greek church , s. chrysostome , whose books of the priesthood , have been ever reckoned among the best pieces of antiquity . the occasion of writing them , was this : he had lived many years in great friendship with one basil ; at last , they having both dedicated themselves to sacred studies , the clergy of antioch had resolved to lay hold on them , and to use that holy violence , which was in those times often done to the best men , and to force them to enter into orders . which when basil told chrysostome , he concealed his own intentions , but pressed basil to submit to it , who from that , believing that his friend was of the same mind , did not go out of the way , and so he was laid hold on ; but chrysostome had hid himself . basil , seeing he could not be found , did all that was possible to excuse himself : but that not being accepted of , he was ordained : next time that he met his friend , he expostulated severely with him for having forsaken him upon that occasion : this gave the occasion to those books , which are pursued in the way of a dialogue . the first book contains only the preparatory discourses , according to the method of such writings . in the 2 d. he runs out to shew from our saviour's words to st. peter , simon lovest thou me ? what tender and fervent love both to christ and to his church , a priest ought to feel in himself before he enters upon the feeding those sheep , which christ has purchased with his own blood. to lose the souls of the flock first , and then ones own soul , for his remissness , was no light matter . to have both the powers of darkness , and the works of the flesh to fight against , required no ordinary measure both of strength and courage . he pursues the allegories of a shepherd and a physician , to shew by the parallel of these laid together ; the labours and difficulties of the priesthood , especially , when this authority was to be maintained only by the strength of perswasion ; and yet sometimes severe methods must be taken ; like incisions to prevent gangrenes , or to cut off a part already corrupted . in the managing this , great art and prudence was necessary : a bishop ought to have a great and generous , a patient and undaunted mind : therefore , chrysostome says that he found , tho he truly loved his saviour , yet he was so afraid to offend him , that he durst not undertake a charge , that he did not yet judge himself qualified for . it was not enough that a man was tolerably well esteemed by others : he ought to examine himself ; for that of a bishop's being well reported of , is but one of many characters , declared necessary by s. paul. he complains much that those who raised men to orders , had more regard to rank and wealth , and to much time spent in a vain search into profane learning ( tho christ chose fisher-men and tent-makers ) than to true worth , and an earnest zeal for the real good of the church . in the 3 d. book , he runs out with a great compass on the praises of the priestly function ; he looked upon it as a dignity raised far above all the honours of this vvorld , and approaching to the angelical glory . a priest ought to aspire to a purity above that of other mortals , answering that of angels . vvhen a priest performs the holy functions , is sanctifying the holy eucharist , and is offering a crucified christ to the people , his thoughts should carry him heavenwards , and as it were translate him into those upper regions . if the mosaical priest was to be holy that offered up sacrifices of a lower order , how much holier ought the priests of this religion to be , to whom christ has given the power both of retaining and forgiving of sins : but if s. paul , after all his visions and labours , after all his raptures and sufferings , yet was inwardly burnt up with the concerns of the church , and laboured with much fear and trembling , how much greater apprehensions ought other persons to have of such a trust. if it were enough to be called to this function , and to go thr●ugh with the duties incumbent on it in some tolerable manner , the danger were not great ; but when the duty as well as dignity , together with the danger belonging to it , are all laid together , a man is forced to have other thoughts of the matter . no man that knows he is not capable of conducting a ship , will undertake it , let him be pressed to it never so much : ambitious men that loved to set themselves forward , were of all others the most exposed to temptations : they were apt to be inflamed by the smallest provocations , to be glad at the faults of others , and troubled if they saw any do well ; they courted applause , and aspired to honour ; they fawned on great persons , and trod on those that were below them ; they made base submissions , undecent addresses , and often brought presents to those in authority ; they durst not in any sort reprove them for their faults , tho they reproached the poor out of measure for their failings . these were not the natural consequences of the dignity of the priesthood ; but unworthy and defiled persons , who without true merit , had been advanced to it , had brought it under reproach . there had been no due care used in the choice of bishops ; and by the means of bad choices , the church was almost ruined , through the gross ignorance and unworthiness of many in that post. certainly , a worthy priest has no ambitious aspirings : those who fly to this dignity from that base principle , will give a full vent to it , when they have attained it . if submissions , flatteries , and money it self , are necessary , all will be employed : therefore it was an indispensable preparation to it , that one should be duly sensible of the greatness of the trust , and of his own unfitness for it ; that so he might neither vehemently desire it , nor be uneasie if he should happen to be turned out of it . a man may desire the office of a bishop , when he considers it as a vvork of toyl and labour , but nothing is more pestiferous than to desire it , because of the power and authority that accompanies it : such persons can never have the courage that ought to shew it self in the discharge of their duty , in the reproving of sin , and venturing on the indignation of great men ; he confesses he had not yet been able to free his mind from that disease , and till he had subdued it , he judged himself bound to fly from all the steps to preferment ; for the nearer he should come to it , he reckoned the appetite to it , would rage the higher within him ; whereas , the way to break it quite , was to keep himself at the greatest distance from it : nor had he that vivacity , or lively activity of temper , which became this function ; nor that softness and gentleness of mind , that was necessary to prepare him to bear injuries , to endure contempt , or to treat people with the mildness that christ has enjoined his followers , which he thought more necessary to a bishop than all fastings , or bodily mortifications whatsoever : and he runs out into a long digression upon the great mischiefs that a fretful and spiteful temper did to him that was under the power of it , and to the church , when a bishop was soured with it . it will often break out , it will be much observed , and will give great scandal : for as a little smoke will darken and hide the clearest object : so if all the rest of a bishop's life were brighter than the beams of the sun , a little blemish , a passion , or indiscretion , will darken all , and make all the rest be forgotten : allowances are not made to them , as to other men ; the vvorld expects great things from them , as if they had not flesh and blood in them , not a humane but an angelical nature ; therefore , a bishop ought by a constant watchfulness , and a perpetual strictness , to be armed with armour of proof of all sides , that no wound may hurt him . stories will be easily believed to his disadvantage , and his clergy about him will be ready to find them out , and to spread them abroad . he laies this down for a certain maxim , that every man knows himself best : and therefore whatsoever others might think of him , he who knew well that he had not in himself those qualifications , that were necessary for this function , ought not to suffer himself to be determined by that . after this he lays open the great disorders , factions , partialities , and calumnies , with which the popular elections were at that time managed : and the general corruption that had over-run the whole church ; so that the strictness and authority , the gentleness and prudence , the courage and patience , that were necessary to a bishop were very hard to be found all together . he instances to make out the difficulty of discharging the duty of a bishop , in that single point , of managing the widows : who were so medling , so immoral , so factious and so clamorous , that this alone was enough to imploy a bishop's prudence , and to exercise his patience : from that and another article relating to it concerning the virgins , he goes to consider the trouble , the difficulties , and censures that bishops were subject to , by the hearing of causes , that were referred to them : many pretending they were wronged by their judgments , made shipwrack of the faith , in revenge : and they pressed so hard upon the bishops time , that it was not possible for him to content them , and discharge the other parts of his duty . then he reckons up the many visits that were expected from bishops : the several civilities they were obliged to , which it was hard to manage so , as not to be either too much or too little in them : matter of censure would be found in both extreams . then he reflects on the great temper that ought to be observed in the final sentence of excommunication ; between a gentleness to vice on the one hand , and the driving men to despair and apostasie on the other . and he concludes that book with reflections on the vast burthen that follows the care of souls . in his 4th . book he runs through a variety of arts and professions ; and shews how much skill and labour was necessary for every one of them : from whence he concludes strongly , that much more was necessary for that which was the most important of all others ; so that no consideration whatsoever , should make a man undertake it , if he did not find himself in some sort qualified for it : more particularly he ought to be ready to give an account of his faith , and to stop the mouths of all gainsaiers , iews , gentiles , and hereticks : in which the ignorance of many bishops , carrying things from one extream to another , had given great occasion to errours . a bishop must understand the stile and phrase of the scriptures well . from this he runs out into a very noble panegyrick upon st. paul , in whom a pattern was set to all bishops . his 5th book sets out the labour of preaching the tentations to vanity in it ; the censures that were apt to be made if there was either too much or too little art or eloquence in sermons : to this he adds the great exactness that a bishop should use in preserving his reputation ; yet without vanity : observing a due temper between despising the censures of themultitude , and the servile courting of applauses : in his sermons he ought above all things to study to edifie ; but not to flatter his hearers : or to use vain arts to raise esteem , or admiration from them . since a bishop whose mind was not purged from this disease , must go through many tossings and be much disquieted : and upon that he runs out so fully , upon the tentations to desire applause for eloquence , and a readiness in speaking , that it plainly appears that he felt that to be his own weak side . the 6th book is chiefly imployed to shew how much a harder thing it was to govern the church , than to live in a desart , under the severest mortifications . i will go no further in this abstract , i hope i have drawn out enough to give a curiosity to such as have not yet read those excellent books , to do it over and over again . for to any that has a true relish , they can never be too often read : every reading will afford a fresh pleasure , and new matter of instruction , and meditation . but i go in the last place to offer st. ierom's sense in this matter . i shall not bring together , what lies scattered through his works , upon this argument , nor shall i quote what he writ in his youth upon it , when the natural flame of his temper joyned with the heat of youth might make him carry his thoughts further , than what humane nature could bear : but i shall only give an abstract of that which he writ to nepotion on this head , in his old age , as he says himself : a good part of that epistle being a reflection upon the different sense that old age gives of these things , from that which he felt during the ardour of youth . he begins with the title clerk , which signifying a lot or portion . imports either that the clergy are god's portion , or that god is theirs , and that therefore they ought to possess god , and be possessed of him . he that has this portion , must be satisfied with it , and pretend to nothing , but having food and rayment , be therewith content : and ( as men carried their crosses naked , so ) to be ready to carry his . he must not seek the advantages of this world in christ's wa●fare ; some clerks grew richer under christ , who made himself poor , than ever they could have been , if they had continued in the service of the god of this world : so that the church groaned under the wealth of those , who were beggars before they forsook the world : let the strangers and the poor be fed at your tables , says he , and in these you entertain christ himself . when you see a trafficking clerk , who from being poor grows rich , and from being mean becoms great , fly from him as from a plague . the conversations of such men corrupted good minds : they sought after wealth , and loved company , the publick places of conversation , fairs and market places : whereas a true clerk loves silence , and retirement : then he gives him a strong caution against conversing with women : and in particular against all those mean compliances , which some clerks used towards rich women ; by which they got not only presents during their lives , but legacies by their wills. that abuse had grown to such an intolerable excess , that a law was made excluding priests from having any benefit by testaments : they were the only persons that were put under that incapacity : heathen priests were not included in the law , yet he does not complain of the law , but of those who had given just occasion for making it . the laws of christ had been contemned , so it was necessary to restrain them by humane laws . it was the glory of a bishop to provide for the poor , but it was the reproach of a priest to study the enriching of himself . he reckons up many instances of the base and abject flattery of some clerks , to gain upon rich and dying persons , and to get their estates . next he exhorts him to the constant and diligent study of the scriptures ; but to be sure to do nothing that should contradict his discourses or give occasion to his hearers to answer him thus , why do not you do as you say ? then he speaks of the union that ought to be between the bishop , and his clergy : the affection on the one side , and the obedience on the other . in preaching he must not study to draw applauses but groans from his hearers . their tears was the best sort of commendation of a sermon , in which great care was to be taken to avoid the methods of the stage , or of common declamations . great use was to be made of the scriptures . the mysteries of our faith and the sacraments of our religion ought to be well explained : grimaces and solemn looks are often made use of to give weight and authority to that which has none in it self . he charges him to use a plain simplicity in his habit , neither shewing too much nicety on the one hand , that savours of luxury , nor such a neglect on the other , as might savour of affectation . he recommends particularly the care of the poor to him . then he speaks of clergy-mens mutually preferring one another ; considering that there are different members in one body , and that every one has his own function , and peculiar talent : and that therefore no man ought to over-value his own , or undervalue his neighbours . a plain clerk ought not to value himself upon his simplicity and ignorance , nor ought a learned and eloquent man measure his holiness by his rhetorick ; for indeed of the two , a holy simplicity is much more valuable , than unsanctified eloquence . he speaks against the affectation of magnificence and riches , in the worship of god , as things more becoming the pomp of the jewish religion , than the humility of the spiritual doctrine of christ. he falls next upon the high and sumptuous way of living of some priests , which they pretended was necessary to procure them the respect that was due to them ; and to give them interest and credit : but the world , at least the better part of it , would always value a priest more for his holiness , than for his wealth . he charges him strictly to avoid all the excesses of wine , and in opposition to that to fast much , but without superstition , or a nicety in the choice of such things as he was to live on in the time of fasting . some shewed a trifling superstition in those matters , as well as vanity and affectation ; that was indeed scandalous . plain and simple fasting was despised as not singular nor pompous enough for their pride . for it seems by what follows , that the clergy was then corrupted with the same disorders , with which our saviour had reproached the pharasees , while they did not study inward purity , so much as outward appearances ; nor the pleasing of god , so much as the praise of men. but here he stops short , for it seems he went too near the describing some eminent man in that age ; from that he turns to the government of a priest's tongue : he ought neither to detract from any one himself , nor to encourage such as did : the very hearkning to slande● , was very unbecoming . they ought to visit their people , but not to report in one place , what they observed in another ; in that they ought to be both discreet and secret . hippocrates adjured those that came to study from him , to be secret , grave , and prudent in their whole behaviour ; but how much more did this become those , to whom the care of souls was trusted . he advises him to visit his people rather in their afflictions , than in their prosperity ; not to go too often to their feasts , which must needs lessen him that does it too much . he , in the last place , speaks very severely of those who applied the wealth of the church to their own private uses . it was theft to defraud a friend , but it was sacrilege to rob the church . it was a crime that exceeded the cruelty of high-way men , to receive that which belonged indeed to the poor , and to withdraw any part of it to ones private occasions . he concludes with this excuse , that he had named no person , he had not writ to reproach others ; but to give them warning . and therefore since he had treated of the vices of the clergy in general terms , if any was offended with him for it , he thereby plainly confessed that he himself was guilty . chap. v. an account of some canons in divers ages of the church relating to the duties and labours of the clergy . i will go no further , in gathering quotations to shew the sense that the fathers had in these matters : these are both so full and so express , that i can find none more plain and more forcible . i shall to these add some of the canons that have been made both in the best and in the worst ages of the church , obliging bishops and other clerks to residence and to be contented with one cure. in that at sardica that met in the year 347. consisting of above 350. bishops two canons were made , ( the 11 th and the 12 th ) against bishops who without any urgent necessity , or pressing business , should be absent from their church above three weeks , and thereby grieve the flock , that was committed to their care : and even this provision was made because bishops had estates lying out of their diocesses ; therefore they were allowed to go and look after them , for three weeks , in which time they were to perform the divine function in the churches to which those estates belonged . many provisions were also made against such as went to court , unless they were called by the emperors , or went by a deputation from the church upon a publick account . there is not any one thing more frequently provided against , than that any of the clergy should leave their church , and go to any other church , or live any where else without the bishops leave and consent : nor is there any thing clearer from all the canons of the first ages , than that they considered the clergy of every church as a body of men dedicated to its service , that lived upon the oblations of the faithful , and that was to labour in the several parts of the ecclesiastical ministry , as they should be ordered by the bishop . in the 4 th general council at calcedon pluralities , do first appear : for they are mentioned and condemned in the 10 th canon , which runs thus , no clerk shall at the same time belong to two churches ; to wit , to that in which he was was first ordained , and that to which as being the greater , he has gone , out of a desire of vain glory ; for such as do so , ought to be sent back to that church in which they were at first ordained , and to serve there only ; but if any has been translated from one church to another , he shall receive nothing out of his former church ; nor out of any chapel or alms-house belonging to it : and such as shall transgress this definition of this general council are condemned by it , to be degraded . i go next to a worse scene of the church to see what provisions were made in this matter about the 8 th century , both in the east and in the west : the worse that those ages and councils were , it makes the argument the stronger , since even bad men in bad times , could not justifie or suffer such an abuse . in the year 787. the second council of nice was held that setled the worship of images . the 15 canon of it runs thus . no clerk shall from henceforth be reckoned in two churches , ( for every church had a catalogue of its clergy , by which the dividends were made ) for this is the character of trafficking , and covetousness , and wholly estranged from the ecclesiastical custom . we have heard from our saviour's own words , that no man can serve two masters : for he will either hate the one or love the other , or cleave to the one and despise the other : let every one therefore according to the apostles words , continue in the vocation in which he is called , and serve in one church : for those things which filthy lucre has brought into church matters are contrary to god. there is a variety of imployments , for acquiring the necessary supplies of this life : let every one that pleases , make use of these , for furnishing himself : for the apostle saies these hands ministred to my necessities , and to those that were with me . this shall be the rule in this town , which is guarded by god , but in remote villages an indulgence may be granted by reason of the want of men . it is upon this that the canonists do found the first of the two reasons , for which only they allow that a dispensation for holding two benefices may be lawful , one is , the want of fit and sufficient men for the service of the church . the foundation of the other will be found in the canon , which i shall next set down . it is the 49 canon of the sixth council at paris , under lewis the good , in the year 829. this council came after a great many , that had been held by charles the great , and his son for purging out abuses , and for restraining the primitive discipline . these councils sat at frankfort , ments , aken , rheims , chalons , tours , arles , and this of paris was the last that was held upon that design . in these , all the primitive canons relating to the lives and labours , and the government of the clergy , were renewed . among others is that of calcedon formerly mentioned : but it seems there was no occasion given to make a special one against pluralities , before this held at paris , which consisted of four provinces of france , rheims , sens , tours , and rouen . the canon runs thus : as it becomes every city to have its proper bishop ; so it is also becoming and necessary that every church dedicated to god , should have , its proper priest. yet covetousness which is idolatry ( of which we are much ashamed ) has so got hold of some priests and caught them captives in its fetters , that they , blinded with i● , know neither whither they go nor what they ought to be or do ; so that they being kindled with the fire of covetousness , and forgetful of the priestly dignity , neglecting the care of those churches , to which they were promoted , do by some presents given or promised , procure other churches not only from clerks , but from lay-men , in which they do against law undertake to perform the ministry of christ. it is not known whether their bishops are consulted in this matter , or not ; if they are , without doubt their bishops become partakers of their sin : but if they presume to do it without consulting them , yet it is to be imputed to the bishops negligence . there is scarce a priest to be found who warreth worthily , and diligently in that church in which he is dedicated , to the divine service : but how much less will he be able to do that worthily in two , three or more churches ? this practice brings a reproach on the christian religion , and a confusion on the priestly order . the covetousness of the clergy is censured by their people ; the worship of god is not performed in places consecrated to him ; and as was observed in the former chapters , the souls of the people are thereby much endangered· wherefore we do all unanimously appoint , that no bishop suffer this to be done in his parish ( or diocess , these words being used promiscuously ) any more , and we decree , that every church that has a congregation belonging to it , and has means by which it may subsist , shall have its proper priest : for if it has a congregation but has not means by which it may subsist , that matter is left to the bishop , to consider whether it can or ought to be supported or not . but it is specially recommended to their care to see that under this pretence , no priest may out of covetousness hold two or three churches , in which he cannot serve , nor perform the worship of god. the last provisions in this canon are the grounds upon which the canonists found the second just cause of dispensing with pluralities , which is when a church is so poor , that the profits which arise out of it cannot afford a competent maintenance to a clark : but then the question arises what is a competent maintenance : this , they do all bring very low , to that which can just maintain him : and they have so clogged it , that no pretence should be given by so general a word , to covetousness , voluptuousness , or ambition . and indeed while we have so many poor churches among us , instead of restraining such pluralities , it were rather to be wished that it were made easier than by law it is at present ; either to unite them together , or to make one man capable of serving two churches , when both benefices make but a tolerable subsistance , rather than to be forced to have a greater number of clerks , than can be decently maintained ; since it is certain , that it is more for the interest of religion and for the good of souls , to have one worthy man serving two churches , and dividing himself between them ; than to have clerks for many benefices , whose scandalous provisions , make too many scandalous incumbents , which is one of the greatest diseases and miseries of this church . but a due care in this matter has no relation to the accumulation of livings , at great distances , ( every one of which can well support an incumbent ) upon the same person merely for the making of a family , for the supporting of luxury or vanity , or for other base and covetous designs . but i go next to two of the worst councils that ever carried the name of general ones , the third and the fourth of the lateran that we may see what was the sense of the twefth and thirteenth century in this matter ; notwithstanding the corruption of those ages . the thirteenth canon of the third lateran council , runs thus . forasmuch , as some whose covetousness has no bounds , endeavour to procure to themselves divers ecclesiastical dignities , and several parish churches , against the provisions of the holy canons ; by which means , tho they are scarce able to perform the office of one , they do claim the provisions due to many : we do severely require , that this may not be done for the future : and therefore , when any church or ecclesiastical ministry is to be given , let such a one be sought out for it , as shall reside upon the place , and shall be able to discharge the care in his own person : if otherwise , he who receives any such benefice , contrary to the canons , shall lose it , and he who gave it shall likewise lose his right of patronage . this canon not being found effectual to cure so great an abuse . the twenty ninth canon of the fourth councel in the lateran , was penned in these words . it was with great care forbidden in the council of the lateran , that any one should have divers ecclesiastical dignities , and more parish churches than one , which is contrary to the holy canons . otherwise , he that took them should lose them , and he that gave them should lose the right of giving them : but by reason of some mens presumption and covetousness , that decree has had little or no effect hitherto ; we therefore desiring to make a more evident and express provision against these abuses , do appoint that whosoever shall receive any benefice , to which a care of souls is annexed , shall thereupon by law be deprived of any other such benefice , that he formerly had ; and if he endeavours still to hold it , he shall lose the other likewise ; and he to whom the right of the patronage of his first benefice did belong , is empowered to bestow it upon his accepting another ; and if he delays the bestowing it , above three months , not only shall his right devolve to another , according to the decree of the council in the lateran , but he shall be obliged to restore to the church , to which the benefice belongs , all that which he himself ●eceived during the vacancy . this we do likewise decree as to personages ; and do further appoint that no man shall presume to hold more dignities or parsonages than one in the same church , even though they have no cure of souls annexed to them . provided always that dispensations may be granted by the apostolical see , to persons of high birth , or eminently learned ( sublimes & literatas personas ) or dignified in universities , for so the word literati was understood , who upon occasion may be honoured , with greater benefices . it was by this last proviso , that this as well as all other canons , made against these abuses became quite ineffectual ; for this had no other effect , but the obliging people to go to rome for dispensations ; so that this canon instead of reforming the abuse , did really establish it , for the qualifications here mentioned were so far stretched , that any person that had obtained a degree in any university , came within the character of lettered or learned , and all those that were in any dependance upon great men , came likewise within the other qualification of high rank and birth . this was the practice among us , during the reign of henry the 8 th . and he when he was beginning to threaten the see of rome , in the matter of his divorce , got that act to be passed , which has been the occasion of so much scandal and disorder in this church . it seems to one that considers it well , that the clauses which qualifie pluralities were grafted upon another bill against spiritual persons taking estates to farm , with which that act begins : and that in the carrying that on , such a temper shewed it self , that the other was added to it . it contained indeed a limitation of the papal authority , but so many provisions were made , that the nobility , clergy , and the more eminent of the gentry , knights in particular , were so taken care of , that it could meet with no gr●at oppo●ition in the parliament ; but from the state of that time , and from several clauses in the act it self , it appears , it was only intended to be a provisional act ; tho it is conceived in the style of a perpetual law. by it then , and by it only ( for i have not been able to find that any such act ever passed in any kingdom or state in christendom , many having been made plainly to the contrary in france , declaring the obligation to residence to be of divine right ) were the abuses , that had arisen out of the canon of one of the worst councils that ever was , authorised and settled among us ; as far as a law of the land can settle them . but after all , it is to be considered that a law does indeed change the legal and political nature of things , it gives a title to a free-hold and property : but no humane law can change the moral or divine laws , and cancel their authority . if a false religion is settled by law , it becomes indeed the legal religion ; but is not a whit the truer for that . and therefore , if the laws of the gospel oblige clerks to personal labour , as was formerly made out ; an act of parliament may indeed qualifie a man , in law , to enjoy the benefice , whether he labours in it or not , but it can never dis●olve his obligation to residence and personal labour . but to bring this chapter to an end , i shall only add three decrees that were made by the council of trent , in this matter , that so it may appear what provisions they made against abuses , which are still supported by laws among us : a part of the 1 st : chap. of reformation that past in the sixth session , runs thus : this synod admonishes all that are set over any cathedral churches , by what title soever , that they taking heed to themselves , and to all the flock , over which the holy ghost has set them , to govern the church of god , which he has purchased with his own blood , do watch and labour and fullfil their ministry , as the apostle has commanded : and they must know that they cannot do this , if as hirelings they forsake the flock committed to them , and do not watch over those sheep , whose blood will be required at their hands , in the last day . since it is certain that no excuse will be received , if the wolfe devours the sheep , when the shepherd does not look after them . yet since to our great grief it is found , that some at this time neglect the salvation of their own souls , and preferring earthy things to heavenly , are still about courts , and forsaking the fold , and the care of the sheep trusted to them , do give themselves wholly to earthly and temporal cares ; therefore all the ancient canons , which by the iniquity of times , and the corruptions of men were fallen into desuetude , are renewed against non-residents . to which , several compulsory clauses are added , which are indeed slight ones , because the execution of them was intirely put in the pope's power , and the punishment did only lie , if a bishop was absent six months in a year . this decree did not satisfie those who moved for a reformation ; so a fuller one was made in the 23 d. session , 1 st . chap. in these words : whereas , by the law of god , all those to whom the care of souls is committed , are commanded to know their sheep , to offer sacrifice for them , to feed them by the preaching of the word of god , the administration of the sacraments , and by the example of a good life , to have a tender care of the poor , and all other miserable persons , and to lay themselves out upon all the other functions of the pastoral care ; which cannot be performed by those , who do not watch over , nor are present with their flock : therefore this synod does admonish and exhort them , that they remembring the divine precepts , and being made an example to their flock , may feed and govern them in righteousness and truth . upon this they declare that all bishops , even cardinals themselves , are obliged to personal residence , in their church and diocess , and there to discharge their duty : unless upon some special provisions . by which indeed a door is opened to as many corruptions as the court of rome thinks fit to dispense with . yet without this , none may be absent above two , or at most , three months , in the whole year ; and even that must be upon a just reason , and without any prejudice to the flock ; and they leave this upon the consciences of such as withdraw for so long a time , which they hope will be religious and tender in this matter , since all hearts are known to god , and it is no small sin to do his work negligently . they declare the breaking this decree to be a mortal sin , and that such as are guilty of it , cannot with a good conscience enjoy the mean profits , during such their absence ; but are bound to lay them out on the fabrick , or give them to the poor : and all these provisions and punishments , they do also make against the inferior clergy , that enjoyed any benefice , to which the cure of souls was annexed , and the execution of that , is put in the bishop's hands , who is required not to dispense with their residence , unless upon a very weighty occasion , above two months ; and in this they give the bishop so full an authority , that no appeal or prohibition was to lie against his sentence , upon non-residents , even in the court of rome . in these decrees , tho the papal party hindred a formal declaration of the obligation to residence , by divine right , that so room might still be left for the dispensing power ; yet they went very near it , they applied passages of scripture to it , and laid the charge of mortal sin upon it . in the last place , i shall set down the decree that was made in the 24 th . session , chap. 17. against pluralities , in these words : whereas the ecclesiastical order is perverted , when one clerk has the offices of many committed to him , it was therefore well provided by the holy canons , that no man should be put in two churches . but many led by their depraved covetousness , deceiving themselves , but not god , are not ashamed to elude those good constitutions , by several artifices , and obtain more benefices than one at the same time : therefore the synod being desirous to restore a proper discipline for the government of churches , does , by this decree , by which all persons , of what rank soever , even cardinals themselves , shall be bound ; appoint , that for the future , one man shall be capable of receiving only one ecclesiastical benefice . but if that is not sufficient for the decent maintenance of him that has it , then it shall be lawful to give him another simple benefice , provided that both benefices do not require personal residence . this rule must be applied not only to cathedrals , but to all other benefices whether secular , regular , or such as are held by commendam , or of what sort or order soever they may be . and as for such as do at present possess either more parish-churches than one , or one cathedral , and another parish-church , they shall be forced notwithstanding of any dispensations or unions that may have been granted them , for term of life , to resign within the space of six months , all that they do now hold , except one cathedral , or one parochial church ; otherwise , all their benefices , whether parochial , or others , shall be by law esteemed void ; and as such they shall be disposed of to others . nor may those who ●ormerly enjoyed them , receive the mean profits , after the term of six months , with a good conscience . but the synod wishes that some due provis●on might be made , such as the pope shall think fit , for the necessities of those who are hereby obliged to resign . these were the decrees that were made by that pretended general council : and wheresoever that council is received , they are so seldom dispensed with , that the scandal of non-residence , or plurality , does no more cry in that church . in france , tho that council is not there received , yet such regard is had to primitive rules , that it is not heard of among them . such examples are to us reproaches indeed : and that of the worst sort , when the argument from the neglect of the pastoral care , which gave so great an advantage at first to the reformers , and turned the hearts of the world so much from their careless pastors to those who shewed more zeal and concern for them , is now against us , and lies the other way . if the nature of man is so made , that it is not possible , but that offences must come , yet , woe be to him , by whom they come . chap. vi. of the declared sense and rules of the church of england in this matter . whatsoever may be the practice of any among us , and whatsoever may be the force of some laws that were made in bad times , and perhaps upon bad ends , yet we are sure the sense of our church is very different ; she intended to raise the obligation of the pastoral care higher than it was before : and has laid out this matter more fully and more strictly , than any church ever did , in any age ; as far at least as my enquiries can carry me . the truest indication of the sense of a church is to be taken from her language , in her publick offices : this is that which she speaks the most frequently , and the most publickly : even the articles of doctrine are not so much read and so often heard , as her liturgies are : and as this way of reasoning has been of late made use of with great advantage , against the church of rome , to make her accountable , for all her publick offices in their plain and literal meaning ; so i will make use of it on this occasion : it is the stronger in our case , whose offices being in a tongue understood by the people , the argument from them does more evidently conclude here . in general then this is to be observed , that no church before ours , at the reformation , took a formal sponsion at the altar , from such as were ordained deacons and priests . that was indeed always demanded of bishops , but neither in the roman nor greek pontifical , do we find any such solemn vows and promises demanded or made by priests or deacons , nor does any print of this appear in the constitutions , the pretended areopagite ▪ or the antient canons of the church . bishops were asked many questions , as appears by the first canon of the fourth council of carthage . they were required to profess their faith , and to promise to obey the canons , which is still observed in the greek church . the questions are more express in the roman pontifical , and the first of these demands a promise that they will instruct their people in the christian doctrine , according to the holy scriptures : which was the foundation upon which our bishops justified the reformation ; since the first and chief of all their vowes binding them to this , it was to take place of all others ; and if any other parts of those sponsions , contradicted this , such as their obedience and adherence to the see of rome , they said that these were to be limited by this . all the account i can give of this general practice of the church in demanding promises only of bishops , and not of the other orders is this , that they considered the government of the priests and deacons , as a thing that was so entirely in the bishop , as it was indeed by the first constitution , that it was not thought necessary to bind them to their duty by any publick vowes or promises ( though it is very probable that the bishops might take private engagements of them , before they ordained them ) it being in the bishop's power to restrain and censure them in a very absolute and summary way . but the case was quite different in bishops , who were all equal by their rank and order : none having any authority over them , by any divine law or the rules of the gospel : the power of primates , and metropolitans having arisen out of ecclesiastical and civil laws , and not being equally great in all countries and provinces : and therefore it was more necessary to proceed with greater caution , and to demand a further security f●●m them . but the new face of the constitution of the church , by which priests were not under so absolute a subjection to their bishops , as they had been at first , which was occasioned partly , by the tyranny of some bishops , to which bounds were set by laws and canons , partly by their having a special propety and benefice of their own , and so not being maintained by a dividend out of the common-stock of the church as at first ; had so altered the state of things , that indeed no part of the episcopacy was left entrirely in the bishop's hands , but the power of ordination . this is still free and unrestrained : no writs , nor prohibitions from civil courts ; and no appeals have clogged or fettered this , as they have done all the other parts of their authority . therefore our reformers observing all office of ordination , and they made both the charge that is given , and the promises that are to be taken , to be very express and solemne , that so both the ordainers and the ordained might be rightly instructed in their duty and struck with the awe and dread , that they ought to be under in so holy and so important a performance : and though all mankind does easily enough agree in this , that promises ought to be religiously observed , which men make to one another , how apt soever they may be to break them ; yet to make the sense of these promises go deeper , they are ordered to be made at the altar , and in the nature of a stipulation or covenant , the church conferring orders , or indeed rather , christ by the mininestry of the officers that he has constituted , conferring them upon those promises that are first made . the forms of ordination in the greek church , which we have reason to believe are less changed , and more conform to the primitive pattenrs , than those used by the latins , do plainly import that the church only declared the divine vocation . the grace of god , that perfects the feeble , and heals the weak , promotes this man to be a deacon , a priest or a bishop : where nothing is expressed as conferred but only as declared , so our church by making our saviour's words , the form of ordination , must be construed to intend , by that that it is christ only that sends , and that the bishops are only his ministers to pronounce his mission ; otherwise it is not so easie to justifie the use of this form , receive the holy ghost : which as it was not used in the primitive church nor by the roman , till within these five hundred years , so in that church , it is not the form of ordination but a benediction given by the bishop singly , after the orders are given by the bishop and the other priests joyning with him . for this is done by him alone as the final consummation of the action . but our using this as the form of ordination shews , that we consider our selves only as the instruments that speak in christ's name and words : insinuating thereby that he only ordains . pursuant to this in the ordaining of priests , the questions are put in the name of god and of his church . which makes the answers to them to be of the nature of vows and oaths . so that if men do make conscience of any thing , and if it is possible to strike terrour into them , the forms of our ordinations are the most effectually contrived for that end that could have been framed . the first question that is put in the office of deacons , is , do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the holy ghost to take upon you this office , to serve god for the promoting of his glory , and the edifying of his people ? to which he is to answer i trust so . this is put only in this office , and not repeated afterwards : it being justly supposed that where one has had this motion , all the other orders may be in time conferred pursuant to it ; but this is the first step , by which a man dedicates himself to the service of god ; and therefore it ought not to be made by any , that has not this divine vocation . certainly , the answer that is made to this , ought to be well considered ; for if any says , i trust so , that yet knows nothing of any such motion , and can give no account of it , he lies to the holy ghost ; and makes his first approach to the altar , with a lie in his mouth ; and that not to men , but to god ; and how can one expect to be received by god , or be sent and sealed by him , that dares do a thing of so crying a nature , as to pretend that he trusts he has this motion , who knows that he has it not , who has made no reflections on it , and when asked , what he means by it , can say nothing concerning it , and yet he dares venture to come and say it to god and his church : if a man pretends a commission from a prince , or indeed from any person , and acts in his name upon it , the law will fall on him , and punish him , and shall the great god of heaven and earth , be thus vouched , and his motion he pretended to , by those whom he has neither called nor sent ? and shall not he reckon with those who dare to run without his mission , pretending that they trust they have it , when perhaps they understand not the importance of it , nay , and perhaps some laugh at it , as an enthusiastical question , who , yet will go through with the office ? they come to christ for the loaves : they hope to live by the altar , and the gospel , how little soever they serve at the one , or preach the other ; therefore they will say any thing , that is necessary for qualifying them to this whether true or false . it cannot be denied , but that this question carries a sound in it , that seems a little too high , and that may rather raise scruples , as importing somewhat that is not ordinary , and that seems to savour of enthusiasme ; and therefore it was put here , without doubt , to give great caution to such as come to the service of the church ; many may be able to answer it truly according to the sense of the church , who may yet have great doubting in themselves concerning it ; but every man that has it not , must needs know that he has it not . the true meaning of it must be resolved thus ; the motives that ought to determine a man , to dedicate himself to the ministring in the church , are a zeal for promoting the glory of god , for raising the honour of the christian religion , for the making it to be better understood , and more submitted to . he that loves it , and feels the excellency of it in himself , that has a due sense of god's goodness in it to mankind , and that is entirely possessed with that , will feel a zeal within himself , for communicating that to others ; that so the only true god , and iesus christ whom he has sent , may be more universally glorified , and served by his creatures : and when to this he has added a concern of the souls for men , a tenderness for them , a zeal to rescue them from endless misery , and a desire to put them in the way to everlasting happiness , and from these motives feels in himself a desire to dedicate his life and labours to those ends ; and in order to them studies to understand the scriptures , and more particularly , the new testament , that from thence he may form a true notion of this holy religion , and so be an able minister of it ; this man , and only this man , so moved and so qualified , can in truth , and with a good conscience answer , that he trusts he is inwardly moved by the holy ghost . and every one that ventures on the saying it , without this , is a sacrilegious profaner of the name of god , and of his holy spirit . he breaks in upon his church , not to feed it but to rob it : and it is certain that he who begins with a lie , may be sent by the father of lies , but he cannot be thought to enter in , by the door , who prevaricates in the first word that he says in order to his admittance . but if the office of deacons offers no other particular matter of reflection , the office of ordaining priests , has a great deal ; indeed the whole of it , is calculated to the best notions of the best times . in the charge that is given , the figures of watchmen , shepherds , and stewards , are pursued , and the places of scripture relating to these are applied to them : they are required to have always printed in their remembrance ; how great a treasure was committed to their charge : the church and congregation whom you must serve is his spouse and body . then the greatness of the fault of their negligence , and the horrible punishment that will follow upon it , is set before them , in case the church or any member of it take any hurt or hinderance by reason of it : they are charged never to cease their labour , care and diligence , till they have done all that lieth in them , according to their bounden duty , towards all such , as are , or shall be committed to their care , to bring them to a ripeness and perfectness of age in christ. they are again urged to consider with what care and study , they ought to apply themselves to this ; to pray earnestly for gods holy spirit , and to be studious in reading and learning of the scriptures ; and to forsake and set aside , as much as they may , all worldly cares and studies . it is hoped that they have clearly determined by gods grace , to give themselves wholly to this vocation : and as much as lieth in them to apply themselves wholly to this one thing ; and to draw all their cares and studies this way , and to this end ; and that by their daily reading and weighing the scriptures , they will study to wax riper and stronger in their ministry . these are some of the words of the preparatory charge given by the bishop , when he enters upon this office ; before he puts the questions that follow to those , who are to be ordained . what greater force or energy could be put in words , than is in these ? or where could any be found that are more weighty and more express ; to shew the intire dedication of the whole man , of his time and labours , and the separating himself from all other cares to follow this one thing with all possible application and zeal ? there is nothing in any office , ancient or modern , that i ever saw which is of this force , so serious and so solemn ; and it plainly implies not only the sense of the church upon this whole matter , but likewise their design who framed it , to oblige priests , notwithstanding any relaxation that the laws of the land had still favoured , by the firmest and sacredst bonds possible to attend upon their flocks ; and to do their duties to them ▪ for a bare residence , without labouring , is but a mock residence , since the obligation to it , is in order to a further end ; that they may watch over , and feed their flock , and not enjoy their benefices only as farms , or as livings , according to the gross , but common abuse of our language , by which the names of cures , parishes , or benefices , which are the ecclesiastical names , are now swallowed up into that of living , which carries a carnal idea in the very sound of the word , and i doubt a more carnal effect on the minds of both clergy and laity . what ever we may be , our church is free of this reproach : since this charge carries their duty as high , and as home , as any thing that can be laid in words . and it is further to be considered , that this is not of the nature of a private exhortation , in which a man of lively thoughts , and a warm fancy , may be apt to carry a point too high : it is the constant and uniform voice of the church . nor is it of the nature of a charge , which is only the sense of him that gives it , and to which the person to whom it is given , is only passive : he hears it , but cannot be bound by another man's thoughts or words , further than as the nature of things binds him . but orders are of the nature of a covenant between christ and the clerks ; in which so many privileges and powers are granted on the one part , and so many duties and offices are promised on the other ; and this charge being the preface to it , it is stipulatory . it declares the whole covenant of both sides ; and so those who receive orders upon it , are as much bound by every part of it , and it becomes as much their own act , as if they had pronounced or promised it all , in the most formal words that could be , and indeed the answers and promises that are afterwards made , are only the application of this , to the particular persons , for giving them a plainer and livelier sense of their obligation , which yet , in it self , was as intire and strong , whether they had made any promise by words of their own or not . but to put the matter out of doubt , let us look a little further into the office , to the promises that they make , with relation to their flock , even to such as are , or shall be committed to their charge . they promise , that by the help of the lord they will give their faithful diligence , always so to minister the doctrine and sacraments , and the discipline of christ , as the lord hath commanded , and as this realm hath received the same , according to the commandment of god ; so that they may teach the people committed to their care and charge with all diligence to keep and observe the same . this does plainly bind to personal labour , the mention that is made of what this realm has received , being limited by what follows according to the commandment of god , shews that by this is meant the reformation of the doctrine and worship that was then received , and established by law ; by which these general words , the doctrine and sacraments and discipline of christ , to which all parties pretend , are determined to our constitution ; so that tho there were some disorders among us , not yet provided against by the laws of the land ; this does not secure a reserve for them . this is so slight a remark , that i should be ashamed to have made it , if it had not been urged to my self , slight as it is , to justifie in point of conscience , the claiming all such privileges , or qualifications , as are still allowed by law. but i go on to the other promises : the clerk says he will , by the help of god , be ready with all faithful diligence , to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines , contrary to god's word , and to use both publick and private admonitions , and exhortations , as well to the sick , as to the whole , within his cure , as need shall require , and as occasion shall be given : this is as plainly personal , and constant , as words can make any thing . and in this is expressed the so much neglected , but so necessary duty , which incumbents owe their flock , in a private way , visiting , instructing , and admonishing them , which is one of the most useful , and important parts of their duty , how generally soever it may be disused or forgotten : these being the chief instances and acts of watching over and feeding the flock , that is committed to their care. in the next place they promise , that they will be diligent in prayers , and in reading of the holy scriptures , and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same , laying aside , the study of the world and the flesh : this still carries on that great notion of the pastoral care , which runs through this whole office ; that it is to be a man's intire business , and is to possess both his thoughts and his time . they do further promise that they will maintain , and set forward , as much as lieth in them , quietness , peace , and love among all christian people , and especially among them , that are , or shall be committed to their charge . these are the vows and promises that priests make before they can be ordained : and to compleat the stipulation , the bishop concludes it , with a prayer to god who has given them the will to do all these things , to give them also strength , and power to perform the same : that he may accomplish his work , which he hath begun in them , until the time that he shall come ▪ at the latter day , to judge the quick and the dead . upon the whole matter either this is all a piece of gross and impudent pageantry , dressed up in grave and lofty expressions , to strike upon the weaker part of mankind , and to furnish the rest with matter to their profane and impious scorn ; or it must be confessed that priests come under the most formal and express engagements , to constant and diligent labour , that can be possibly contrived or set forth in words . it is upon this , that they are ordained : so their ordination being the consummation of this compact , it must be acknowledged that according to the nature of all mutual compacts ; a total failure on the one side , does also dissolve all the obligation that lay on the other : and therefore those who do not perform their part , that do not reside and labour , they do also in the sight of god , forfeit all the authority and privileges that do follow their orders , as much as a christian at large , that does not perform his baptismal vow , forfeits the rights and benefits of his baptism , in the sight of god ; tho both in the one , and in the other , it is necessary that for the preventing of disorder and confusion , a sentence declaratory of excommunication , in the one , as of degradation in the other , pass before the visible acts and rights , pursuant to those rites , can be denied . to all this i will add one thing more , which is , that since our book of ordination , is a part of our liturgy , and likewise a part of the law of the land , and since constant attendance , and diligent labour is made necessary by it , and since this law is subsequent to the act of the 21 st . of henry the 8 th . that qualifies so many for pluralities , and non-residence , and is in plain terms contrary to it , this as subsequent does repeal all that it contradicts : it is upon all this , a matter that to me seems plain , that by this law , the other is repealed , in so far , as it is inconsistent with it . this argument is by this consideration made the stronger , that the act of king henry does not enact that such things shall be , but only reserves privildeges for such as may be capable of an exemption from the common and general rules . now by the principles of law , all priviledges or exemptions of that sort , are odious things ; and the constructions of law lying hard and heavy against odious cases , it appears to me according to the general grounds of law , very probable ( i speak within bounds , when i say only probable ) that the act of uniformity which makes the offices of ordination a part of the law of england , is a repeal of that part of the act of king henry , which qualifies for pluralities . to conclude , whatsoever may be the strength of this plea in bar to that act , if our faith given to god and his church , in the most express and plainest words possible , does bind , if promises given at the altar do oblige , and if a stipulation , in the consideration of which orders are given , is sacred and of an indispensible obligation , then , i am sure , this is . to make the whole matter yet the stronger , this office is to be compleated with a communion : so that upon this occasion , that is not only a piece of religious devotion , accompanying it ; but it is the taking the sacrament upon the stipulation that has been made , between the priest and the church : so that those who have framed this office , have certainly intended by all the ways that they could think on , and by the weightiest words they could choose , to make the sense of the priestly function , and of the duties belonging to it , give deep and strong impressions to such as are ordained . i have compared with it , all the exhortations that are in all the offices i could find , ancient and modern , whether of the greek or the latin church , and this must be said of ours , without any sort of partiality to our own forms , that no sort of comparison can be made between ours and all the others : and that as much as ours is more simple than those as to its rites and ceremonies , which swell up other offices , so much is it more grave and weighty in the exhortations , collects and sponsions that are made in it . in the roman pontifical no promises are demanded of priests , but only that of obedience : bishops in a corrupted state of the church , taking care only of their own authority , while they neglected more important obligations . in the office of consecrating bishops ; as all the sponsions made by them , when they were ordained priests , are to be considered as still binding , since the inferiour office does still subsist in the superiour ; so there are new ones superadded , proportioned to the exaltation of dignity and authority that accompanies that office. in the roman pontifical , there are indeed questions put to a bishop , before he is consecrated : but of all these the first only is that which has any relation to his flock : which is in these words : wilt thou teach the people over whom thou art to be set , both by thy example and doctrine : those things that thou learnst out of the holy scripture ? all the rest are general , and relate only to his conversation ; but not at all to his labours in his diocess : whereas on the contrary , the engagements in our office do regard not only a bishop's own conversation , but chiefly his duty to his people : he declares that he is determined to instruct the people committed to his charge , out of the holy scriptures : that he will study them , so as to be able by them , to teach and exhort , with wholsome doctrine ; and withstand and convince the gain-sayers : that he will be ready with all faithful diligence , to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine , contrary to god's word : and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to the same : that he will maintain and set forward as much as lies in him ; quietness , love , and peace among all men ; and correct and punish such as be unquiet , disobedient , and criminous , within his diocess : according to such authority as he has . in particular , he promises to be faithful in ordaining , sending , or laying hands upon others : he promises also to shew himself to be gentle , and merciful for christ's sake , to poor and needy people , and to all strangers destitute of help . these are the covenants and promises under which bishops are put , which are again reinforced upon them , in the charge that is given immediately after their consecration , when the bible is put in their hands ; give heed to reading , exhortation , and doctrine : think upon the things contained in this book ; be diligent in them , that the increase coming thereby may be manifest unto all men. take heed unto thy self , and to doctrine , and be diligent in doing them , for by doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee . be thou to the flock of christ , a shepherd , not a wolf ; feed them , devour them not : hold up the weak , heal the sick , bind up the broken , bring again the out-casts , seek the lost : be so merciful that you be not too remiss : so minister discipline that you forget not mercy : that when the chief shepherd shall appear , you may receive the never fading crown of glory , through iesus christ our lord. in these words , the great lines of our duty are drawn , in very expressive and comprehensive terms . we have the several branches of our function , both as to preaching and governing very solemnly laid upon us : and both in this office as well as in all the other offices that i have seen , it appears that the constant sence of all churches , in all ages , has been that preaching was the bishops great duty , and that he ought to lay himself out in it most particularly . i shall only add one advice to all this , before i leave this article of the sence of our church in this matter ; both to those , who intend to take orders , and to those who have already taken them . as for such as do intend to dedicate themselves to the service of the church , they ought to read over these offices frequently ; and to ask themselves solemnly , as in the presence of god , whether they can with a good conscience , make those answers which the book prescribes , or not ? and not to venture on offering themselves to oders , till they know that they dare and may safely do it . every person who looks that way , ought at least on every ordination sunday , after he has once formed the resolution of dedicating himself to this work , to go over the office seriously with himself , and to consider in what disposition or preparation of mind he is ; suitable to what he finds laid down in it . but i should add to this , that for a year before he comes to be ordained , he should every first sunday of the month read over the office very deliberately ; and frame resolutions , conform to the several parts of it , and if he can , receive the sacrament upon it , with a special set of private devotions relating to his intentions . as the time of his ordination draws near , he ought to return the oftner to those exercises . it will be no hard task for him to read these over every sunday , during the last quarter before his ordination ; and to do that yet more solemnly , every day of the week in which he is to be ordained : and to joyn a greater earnestness of fasting and prayer with it on the fast-days of his ember week . here is no hard imposition . the performance is as easie in it self , as it will be successful in its effects . if i did not consider , rather what the age can bear , than what were to be wished for , i would add a great many severe rules calculated to the notions of the primitive times . but if this advice were put in practice , it is to be hoped , that it would set back many who come to be ordained , without considering duly , either what it is that they ask , or what it is that is to be asked of them : which some do with so supine a negligence , that we plainly see that they have not so much as read the office , or at least that they have done it in so slight a manner , that they have formed no clear notions upon any part of it , and least of all , upon those parts to which they themselves are to make answers . and as such a method as i have proposed would probably strike some with a due awe of divine matters , so as to keep them at a distance , till they were in some sort prepared for them ; so it would oblige such as came to it , to bring along with them a serious temper of mind , and such a preparation of soul as might make that their orders should be a blessing to them , as well as they themselves should be a blessing to the church . it must be the greatest joy of a bishops life , who truly minds his duty in this weighty trust of sending out labourers into gods vineyard ; to ordain such persons of whom he has just grounds to hope , that they shall do their duty , faithfully , in reaping that harvest . he reckons these as his children indeed , who are to be his strength and support , his fellow labourers and helpers ▪ his crown and his glory . but on the other hand , how heavy a part of his office must it be to ordain those against whom , perhaps there lies no just objection , so that according to the constitution and rules of the church , he cannot deny them ; and yet he sees nothing in them that gives him courage or cheerfulness . they do not seem to have that love to god , that zeal for christ , that tenderness for souls , that meekness and humility , that mortification and deadness to the world , that becomes the character and profession which they undertake ; so that his heart fails him , and his hands tremble when he goes to ordain them . my next advice shall be to those , who are already in orders , that they will at least four times a year , on the ordination sundays , read over the offices of the degrees of the church in which they are : and will particularly consider the charge that was given , and the answers that were made by them ; and then ask themselves as before god , who will iudge them at the great-day , upon their religious performance of them , whether they have been true to them or not that so they may humble themselves for their errours , and omissions , and may renew their vows for the future , and so to be going on from quarter to quarter , through the whole course of their ministry observing still what ground they gain , and what progress they make , to such as have a right sense of their duty , this will be no hard perforformance . it will give a vast joy to those that can go through it with some measure of assurance , and find , that tho in the midest of many tentations and of much weakness , they are sincerely and seriously going on in their work to the best of their skill , and to the utmost of their power : so that their consciences say within them , and that without the partialities of self love and flattery , well done , good and faithful servant . the hearing of this said within , upon true grounds , being the certainest evidence possible that it shall be publickly said at the last and great-day . this exercise will also offer checks to a man that looks for them ; and intends both to understand his errours , and to cleanse himself from them . it will upon the whole matter , make clergy men go on with their profession , a●●●e business and labour of their lives . having known the very good effect that this method has had on some , i dare the more confidently recommend it to all others . before i conclude this chapter , i will shew what rules our reformers had prepared with relation to non-residence , and pluralities ; which tho they never passed into laws , and so have no binding force with them , yet in these we see what was the sense of those that prepared our offices , and that were the chief instruments in that blessed work of our reformation . the 12 th . chapter of the title , concerning those that were to be admitted to ecclesiastical benefices , runs thus . whereas , when many benefices are conferred on one person , every one of these must be served with less order and exactness , and many learned men , who are not provided , are by that means shut out ; therefore , such as examine the persons who are proposed for benefices , are to ask every one of them , whether he has at that time another benefice or not , and if he confesses that he has , then they shall not consent to his obtaining that to which he is presented , or the first benefice shall be made void , as in case of death , so that the patron may present any other person to it . chap 13. is against dispensations , in these words . no man shall hereafter be capable of any privilege , by virtue of which he may hold more parishes than one . but such as have already obtained any such dispensations for pluralities , shall not be deprived of the effects of them , by virtue of this law. the 14 th . chapter relates to residence , in these words . if any man by reason of age or sickness , is disabled from discharging his duty , or if he has any just cause of absence for some time , that shall be approved of by the bishop , he must take care to place a worthy person , to serve during his absence . but the bishops ought to take a special care , that upon no regard whatsoever , any person may , upon feigned or pretended reasons , be suffered to be longer absent from his parish , than a real necessity shall require . these are some of the rules which were then prepared , and happy had it been for our church , if that whole work of the reformation of the ecclesiastical law , had been then setled among us . then we might justly have said , that our reformation was compleat , and not have lamented as our church still does in the office of commination that the godly discipline which was in the primitive church is not yet restored , how much , and how long soever it has been wished for . it is more than probable that we should neither have had schisms , nor civil wars , if that great design had not been abortive . if but the 19 th . and 20 th . titles of that work , which treat of the publick offices , and officers in the church , had became a part of our law , and been duly executed , we should indeed have had matter of glorying in the world. in the canons of the year 1571. tho there was not then strength enough in the church , to cure so inveterate a disease , as non-residence , yet she expressed her detestation of it , in these words . the absence of a pastor from the lord's flock ; and that supine negligence and abandoning of the ministry , which we observe in many , is a thing vile in it self , odious to the people , and pernicious to the church of god ; therefore , we exhort all the pastors of churches , in our lord iesus , that they will as soon as is possible , come to their churches , and diligently preach the gospel , and according to the value of their livings , that they will keep house , and hospitably relieve the poor . it is true , all this is much lessened by the last words of that article , that every year they must reside at least threescore daies upon their benefices . by the canons made at that time , pluralities were also limited to 20 miles distance . but this was enlarged to 30 miles , by the canons in the year 1597. yet by these the pluralist was required to spend a good part of the year in both his benefices . and upon this , has the matter rested ever since ; but there is no express definition made how far that general word of a good part of the year is to be understood . i will not to this add a long invidious history of all the attempts that have been made for the reforming these abuses , nor the methods that have been made use of to defeat them . they have been but too successful , so that we still groan under our abuses ; and do not know when the time shall come in which we shall be freed from them . the defenders of those abuses , who get too much by them , to be willing to part with them , have made great use of this , that it was the puritan party , that during q. elizabeth , and k. iames the 1 sts . reign , promoted these bills , to render the church odious : whereas , it seems more probable , that those who set them forward , what invidious characters soever their enemies might put them under , were really the friends of the church ; and that they intended to preserve it , by freeing it from so crying , and so visible an abuse : which gives an offence and scandal , that is not found out by much learning , or great observation ; but arises so evidently out of the nature of things , that a small measure of common sense , helps every one to see it , and to be deeply prejudic'd against it . but since our church has fallen under the evils and mischiefs of schism , none of those who divide from us , have made any more attempts this way ; but seem rather to be not ill pleased , that such scandals should be still among us , as hoping that this is so great a load upon our church , that it both weakens our strength , and lessens our authority . it is certainly the interest of an enemy to suffer the body to which he opposes himself to lie under as many prejudices , and to be liable to as much censure , as is possible ; whereas every good and wise friend studies to preserve that body to which he unites himself , by freeing it from every thing that may render it less acceptable , and less useful . here i will leave this argument , having i think said enough , to convince all , that have a true zeal to our church , and that think themselves bound in conscience to obey its rules , and that seem to have a particular jealousie of the civil powers , breaking in too far upon the ecclesiastical authority , that there can be nothing more plain and express , than that our church intends to bring all her priests under the strictest obligations possible , to constant and personal labour , and that in this she pursues the designs and canons , not only of the primitive , and best times , but even of the worst ages , since none were ever so corrupt as not to condemn those abuses by canon , even when they maintained them in practice . she does not only bind them to this , by the charge she appoints to be given , but also by the vows and promises that she demands of such as are ordained . when all this is laid together , and when there stands nothing on the other side , to balance it , but a law made in a very bad time , that took away some abuses , but left pretences to cover others ; can any man that weighs these things together , in the sight of god , and that believes he must answer to him for this at the great day , think , that the one , how strong soever it may be in his favour at an earthly tribunal , will be of any force in that last and dreadful iudgment . this i leave upon all mens consciences ; hoping that they will so judge themselves , that they shall not be judged of the lord. chap. vii . of the due preparation of such as may and ought to be put in orders . the greatest good that one can hope to do in this world is upon young persons , who have not yet taken their ply , and are not spoiled with prejudices , and wrong notions . those who have taken an ill one at first , will neither be at the pains to look over their notions , nor turn to new methods ; nor will they by any change of practice , seem to confess that they were once in the wrong ; so that if matters that are amiss , can be mended or set right , it must be by giving those that have not yet set out , and that are not yet engaged , truer views , and juster idea's of things . i will therefore here lay down the model , upon which a clerk is to be formed , and will begin with such things as ought to be previous and preparatory to his being initiated into orders . these are of two sorts , the one is of such preparations as are necessary to give his heart and soul a right temper , and a true sense of things : the other is of such studies as are necessary to enable him to go through with the several parts of his duty . both are necessary , but the first is the more indispensible of the two ; for a man of a good soul , may with a moderate proportion of knowledge do great service in the church , especially if he is suited with an imployment , that is not above his talent : whereas unsanctified knowledge puffs up ; is insolent and unquiet , it gives great scandal , and occasions much distraction in the church . in treating of these qualifications , i will watch over my thoughts , not to let them rise to a pitch that is above what the common frailties of humane nature , or the age we live in , can bear : and after all , if in any thing i may seem to exceed ●hese measures , it is to be considered , that it is natural in proposing the ideas of things , to carry them to what is wished for , which is but too often beyond what can be expected ; considering both the corruption of mankind and of these degenerated times . first of all then , he that intends to dedicate himself to the church , ought , from the time that he takes up any such resolution , to enter upon a greater decency of behaviour , that his mind may not be vitiated by ill habits ; which may both give such bad characters of him , as maystick long on him afterwards , and make such ill impressions on himself , as may not be easily worn out or defaced . he ought , above all things , to possess himself with a high sense of the christian religion , of its truth and excellence , of the value of souls , of the dignity of the pastoral care , of the honour of god , of the sacredness of holy functions , and of the great trust that is committed to those who are set apart from the world , and dedicated to god and to his church . he who looks this way , must break himself to the appetites of pleasure , or wealth , of ambition , or authority ; he must consider that the religion , in which he intends to officiate , calls all men to great purity and vertue ; to a probity and innocence of manners , to a meekness and gentleness , to a humility and self-denial , to a contempt of the world and a heavenly mindedness , to a patient resignation to the will of god , and a readiness to bear the cross , in the hopes of that everlasting reward , which is reserved for christians in another state : all which was eminently recommended , by the unblemish'd pattern that the author of this religion , has set to all that pretend to be his followers . these being the obligations which a preacher of the gospel is to lay daily upon all his hearers , he ought certainly to accustom himself often to consider seriously of them ; and to think how shameless and impudent a thing it will be in him , to perform offices suitable to all these , and that do suppose them , to be instructing the people , and exhorting them to the practice of them , unless he is in some sort all this himself , which he teaches others to be . indeed to be tied to such an employment , while one has not an inward conformity to it , and complacence in it , is both the most unbecoming , the most unpleasant , and the most uncomfortable state of life imaginable . such a person will be exposed to all mens censures and reproaches , who when they see things amiss in his conduct , do not only reproach him , but the whole church and body , to which he belongs ; and which is more , the religion which he seems to recommend by his discourses , though his life and actions , which will always pass for the most real declaration of his inward sentiments , are a visible and continual opposition to it . on all these things , he whose thoughts carry him towards the church , ought to reflect frequently : nothing is so odious as a man that disagrees with his character , a soldier that is a coward , a courtier that is brutal ; an ambassadour that is abject , are not such unseemly things , as a bad or vicious , a drunken or dissolute clergy-man . but though his scandals should not rise up to so high a pitch , even a proud and passionate , a worldly minded and covetous priest , gives the lye to his discourses so palpably , that he cannot expect they should have much weight . nor is such a man's state of life less unpleasant to himself , than it is unbecoming . he is obliged to be often performing offices , and pronouncing discourses , in which if he is not a good man , he not only has no pleasure , but must have a formed aversion to them . they must be the heaviest burden of his life ; he must often feel secret challenges within ; and though he as often silences these , yet such unwelcome reflections are uncomfortable things . he is forced to manage himself wi●h a perpetual constraint , and to observe a decorum in his deportment , lest he fall under a more publick censure : now to be bound to act a part , and live with restraint ones whole life , must be a very melancholy thing . he cannot go so quite out of sight of religion , and convictions , as other bad men do , who live in a perpetual hurry , and a total forgetfulness of divine matters : they have no checks , because they are as seldom in the way to find them , as is possible . but a clerk cannot keep himself out of their way ; he must remember them , and speak of them , at least upon some occasions , whether he will or no : he has no other way to secure himself against them , but by trying what he can do , to make himself absolutely disbelieve them . negative atheism , that is , a total neglect of all religion , is but too easily arrived at ; yet this will not serve his turn , he must build his atheism upon some bottom , that he may find quiet in it . if he is an ignorant man , he is not furnished with those flights of wit , and shews of learning , that must support it : but if he is really learned , he will soon be beaten out of them ; for a learned atheism is so hard a thing to be conceived , that unless a man's powers are first strangely vitiated , it is not easie to see how any one can bring himself to it . there is nothing that can settle the quiet of an ill priest's mind and life , but a stupid formality , and a callus that he contracts , by his insensible way of handling divine matters ; by which he becomes hardn●d against them . but if this settles him by stupifying his powers , it does put also him so far out of the reach of conviction , in all the ordinary methods of grace , that it is scarce possible he can ever be awakned ; and by consequence that he can be saved ; and if he perishes , he must fall into the lowest degree of misery , even to the portion of hypocrites : for his whole life has been a course of hypocrisie in the strictest sence of the word , which is the acting of a part , and the counterfeiting another person . his sins have in them all possible aggravations ; they are against knowledge and against vows , and contrary to his character ; they carry in them a deliberate contempt of all the truths and obligations of religion ; and if he perishes , he does not perish alone , but carries a shoal down with him , either of those who have perished in ignorance , through his neglect ; or of those who have been hardned in their sins , through his ill example : and since all this must be put to his account , it may be justly inferred from hence , that no man can have a heavier share in the miseries of another state , than profane and wi●ked clerks . on all these things he ought to imploy his thoughts frequently , who intends to dedicate himself to god , that so he may firmly resolve not to go on with it , till he feels such seeds and beginnings of good things in himself , that he has reason to hope , that through the grace and assistance of god , he will be an example to others . he ought more particularly to examine himself , whether he has that soft and gentle , that meek and humble , and that charitable and compassionate temper , which the gospel does so much press upon all christians ; that shined so eminently through the whole life of the blessed author of it ; and which he has so singularly recommended to all his followers ; and that has in it so many charms and attractives , which do not only commend those who have these amiable vertues , but which is much more to be re●garded , they give them vast advantag●● in recommending the doctrine of 〈◊〉 saviour to their people . they are th● true ground of that christian wisdo● and discretion , and of that grave and calm deportment , by which the clergy ought to carry on and maintain their authority . a haughty and huffing humour , an impatient and insolent temper , a loftiness of deportment , ●nd a peevishness of spirit , rendring the lives of the clergy , for the most part , bitter to themselves , and their labours , how valuable soever otherwise they may be , unacceptable and useless to their people . a clergyman must be prepared to bear injuries , to endure much unjust censure and calumny , to see himself often neglected , and others preferred to him , in the esteem of the people . he that takes all this ill , that resents it , and complains of it , does thereby give himself much disquiet ▪ and to be sure , he will , through his peevishness , rather encrease than lessen that contempt , under which he is so uneasie ; which is both better born , and sooner overcome , by a meek and a lowly temper . a man of this disposition affects no singularities , unless the faultiness of those about him , makes his doing his duty to be a singularity : he does not study to lessen the value that is due to others , on design to encrease his own : his low thoughts of himself , make that he is neither aspiring , nor envying such as ▪ are advanced : he is prepared to stay till god in his providence thinks fit to raise him : he studies only to deserve preferment , and leaves to others the wringing posts of advantage out of the hands of those that give them . such a preparation of mind in a clergy-man , disposes him to be happy in whatsoever station he may be put , and renders the church happy in him ; for men so moulded , even though their talents should be but mean , are shining lights , that may perhaps be at first despised , as men of a low size , that have not greatness of soul enough to aspire , but when they have been seen and known so long , that all appears to be sincere , and that the principle from whence this flows , is rightly considered , then every thing that they say or do , must have its due weight : the plainest and simplest things that they say have a beauty in them , and will be hearkned to as oracles . but a man that intends to prepare himself right for the ministry of the church , must indeed above all things , endeavour to break himself to the love of the world , ●ither of the wealth , the pomp , or the pleasures of it . he must learn to be content with plain and simple diet ; and often even abridge that , by true fasting : i do not call fasting , a trifling distinction of meats , but a lessening of the quantity , as well as the quality , and a contracting the time spent at meals , that so he may have a greater freedom both in his time , and in his thoughts ; that he may be more alone , and pray and meditate more , and that what he saves out of his meals , he may give to the poor . this is , in short , the true measure and right use of fasting . in cold climates , an abstinence till night , may create disorders , and raise such a disturbance both in the appetite , and in the digestion ; that this managed upon the practices of other countries , especially in young persons , may really distract instead of furthering those who do it indiscreetly . in short fasting unless joyned with prayer and alms-giving , is of no value in the sight of god. it is a vast advantage to a man to be broken to the niceties of his palate , to be content with plain food , and even to dislike delicacies and studied dishes . this will make him easie in narrower circumstances ; since a plain bill of fare is soon discharged . a lover of his appetites , and a slave to his taste , makes but a mean figure among men , and a very scurvy one among clergy-men . this deadness to the world must raise one above the affectations of pomp and state , of attendance and high living . which to a philosophical mind will be heavy , when the circumstances he is in , seem to impose and force it on him . and therefore he who has a right sense , finds it is almost all he can do , to bear those things which the tyranny of custom or false opinions put upon him : so far is he from longing for them . a man that is truly dead to the world , would chuse much rather to live in a lowly and narrow figure ; than to be obliged to enter into the methods of the greatness of this world ; into which , if the constitutions and forms of a church and kingdom put him , yet he feels himself in an unnatural and uncouth posture : it is contrary to his own genius and relish of things ; and therefore he does not court nor desire such a situation , but even while he is in it , he shews such a neglect of the state of it , and so much indifference and humility in it , that it appears how little power those things have over his mind , and how little they are able to subdue and corrupt it . this mortified man must likewise become dead to all the designs and projects of making a family , or of raising the fortunes of those that are nearly related to him : he must be bountiful and charitable ; and tho' it is not only lawful to him , but a necessary duty incumbent on him , to make due provision for his family , if he has any , yet this must be so moderated that no vain nor sordid designs , no indirect nor unbecoming arts , may mix in it ; no excessive wealth nor great projects must appear ; he must be contented with such a proportion , as may set his children in the way of a vertuous and liberal education ; such as may secure them from scandal and necessity , and put them in a capacity to serve god and their generation in some honest employment . but he who brings along with him , a voluptuous , an ambitious , or a covetous mind , that is carnal and earthly minded , comes as a hireling to feed himself and not the flock , he comes to steal and to destroy . upon all , this great reflection is to be made concerning the motives that determine one to offer himself to this employment . in the first beginnings of christianity , no man could reasonably think of taking orders , unless he had in him the spirit of martyrdom . he was to look for nothing in this service , but labour and persecution : he was indeed to live of the altar , and that was all the portion that he was to expect in this world. in those days an extraordinary measure of zeal and devotion was necessary , to engage men to so hard and difficult a province , that how great soever its reward might be in another world , had nothing to look for in this , but a narrow provision , and the first and largest share of the cross : they were the best known , the most exposed , and the soonest fallen upon in the persecution . but their services and their sufferings did so much recommend that function in the succeeding ages , that the faithful thought they could never do enough to express their value for it . the church came to be richly endowed ; and tho' superstition had raised this out of measure , yet the extreme went as far to the other hand at the reformation , when the church was almost stript of all its patrimony , and a great many churches were left so poor , that there was not in most places , a sufficient ; nay , not so much as a necessary maintenance , reserved for those that were to minister in holy things . but it is to be acknowledged that there are such remnants preserved , that many benefices of the church still may , and perhaps do but too much , work upon mens corrupt principles , their ambition , and their covetousness : and it is shrewdly to be apprehended , that of those who present themselves at the altar , a great part comes , as those who followed christ , for the loaves : because of the good prospect they have of making their fortunes by the church . if this point should be carried too far , it might perhaps seem to be a pitch above humane nature ; and certainly very far above the degeneracy of the age we live in : i shall therefore lay this matter , with as large an allowance , as i think it can bear . it is certain , that since god has made us to be a compound of soul and body , it s not only lawful but suitable to the order of nature , for us in the choice we make of the state of life that we intend to pursue , to consider our bodies , in the next place after our souls : yet we ought certainly to begin with our souls , with the powers and faculties that are in them , and consider well of what temper they are ; and what our measure and capacity is ; that so we may chuse such a course of life , for which we seem to be fitted , and in which we may probably do the most good both to our selves and others : from hence we ought to take our aims and measures chiefly : but in the next place , we not only may , but ought to consider our bodies , how they shall be maintained , in a way suitable to that state of life , into which we are engaged . therefore tho' no man can with a good conscience , begin upon a worldly account , and resolve to dedicate himself to the church , merely out of carnal regard ; such as an advowson in his family , a friend that will promote him , or any other such like prospect , till he has first consulted his temper and disposition , his talents and his capacities ; yet , tho' it is not lawful to make the regards of this world his first consideration , and it cannot be denied to be a perfecter state , if a man should offer himself to the church , having whereon to support himself , without any assistance or reward out of its patrimony ; and to be nearer to s. paul's practice , whose hands ministred to his necessities , and who reckoned that in this he had whereof to glory , that he was not burthensome to the churches : yet it is , without doubt , lawful for a man to design that he may subsist in and out of the service of the church : but then these designs must be limited to a subsistence , to such a moderate proportion , as may maintain one in that state of life . and must not be let fly by a restless ambition , and an insatiable covetousness , as a ravenous bird of prey , does at all game . there must not be a perpetual enquiry into the value of benefices ; and a constant importuning of such as give them : if laws have been made in some states restraining all ambitus and aspirings to civil imployments , certainly it were much more reasonable to put a stop to the scandalous importunities , that are every where complained of ; and no where more visible and more offensive than at court. this gives a prejudice to men that are otherwise enclined enough to search for one , that can never be removed , but by putting an effectual bar in the way of that scrambling for benefices and preferments ; which will ever make the lay part of mankind conclude , that let us pretend what we will , covetousness and ambition are our true motives , and our chief vocation . it is true , the strange practices of many patrons , and the constitution of most courts , give a colour to excuse so great an indecency . men are generally successful in those practices , and as long as humane nature is so strong , as all men feel it to be , it will be hard to divert them from a method which is so common , that to act otherwise would look like an affectation of singularity ; and many apprehend , that they must languish in misery and necessity if they are wanting to themselves , in so general a practice . and , indeed , if patrons , but chiefly if princes would effectually cure this disease which gives them so much trouble , as well as offence , they must resolve to distribute those benefices that are in their gift , with so visible a regard to true goodness and real merit , and with so firm and so constant an opposition to application and importunity , that it may appear that the only way to advancement , is to live well , to study hard , to stay at home , and labour diligently ; and that applications by the persons themselves , or any set on by them , shall always put those back who make them : this would more effectually cure so great an evil , than all that can be said against it . one successful suiter who carries his point , will promote this disorder , more than twenty repulses of others ; for unless the rule is severely carried on , every one will run into it ; and hope to prosper as well as he , who they see has got his end in it . if those who have the disposition of benefices , to which the cure of souls is annexed , did consider this as a trust , lodged with them , for which they must answer to god , and that they shall be in a great measure accountable for the souls , that may be lost through the bad choice that they make , knowing it to be bad ; if , i say , they had this more in their thoughts , than so many scores of pounds , as the living amounts to ; and thought themselves really bound , as without doubt they are , to seek out good and worthy men , well qualified and duely prepared , according to the nature of that benefice which they are to give ; then we might hope to see men make it their chief study , to qualifie themselves aright ; to order their lives , and frame their minds , as they ought to do , and to carry on their studies with all application and diligence ; but as long as the short methods , of application , friendship , or interest , are more effectual than the long and hard way , of labour and study ; human nature will always carry men to go the surest , the easiest , and the quickest way to work . after all i wish it were well considered , by all clerks , what it is to run without being either called or sent ; and so to thrust ones self into the vineyard , without staying , till god by his providence puts a piece of his work in his hands ; this will give a man a vast ease in his thoughts , and a great satisfaction in all his labours , if he knows that no practices of his own , but merely the directions of providence , have put him in a post. he may well trust the effects of a thing to god , when the causes of it do plainly flow from him . and though this will appear to a great many a hard saying , so that few will be able to bear it , yet i must add this to the encouragement and comfort of such as can resolve to deliver themselves up to the conduct and directions of providence , that i never yet knew any one of those few ( too few i confess they have been ) who were possessed with this maxim , and that have followed it exactly , that have not found the fruit of it even in this world. a watchful care hath hovered over them : instruments have been raised up , and accidents have happened to them so prosperously , as if there had been a secret design of heaven by blessing them so signally , to encourage others to follow their measures , to depend on god , to deliver themselves up to his care , and to wait till he opens a way for their being imployed , and settled in such a portion of his husbandry , as he shall think fit to assign to them . these are preparations of mind , with which a clerk is to be formed and seasoned : and in order to this , he must read the scriptures much , he must get a great deal of those passages in them , that relate to these things , by heart , and repeat them often to himself ; in particular many of the most tender and melting psalms , and many of the most comprehensive passages in the epistles ; that by the frequent reflecting on these , he may fill his memory with noble notions , and right idea's of things : the book of proverbs , but chiefly ecclesiastes , if he can get to understand it , will beget in him a right view of the world , a just value of things , and a contempt of many objects that shine with a false lustre , but have no true worth in them . some of the books taught at schools , if read afterwards , when one is more capable to observe the sense of them , may be of great use to promote this temper . tully's offices will give the mind a noble sett ; all his philosophical discourses , but chiefly his consolation ; which though some criticks will not allow to be his , because they fansie the stile has not all the force and beauty in it that was peculiar to him , yet is certainly the best piece of them all ; these , i say , give a good ●avour to those who read them much . the satyrical poets , horace , iuvenal and persius may contribute wonderfully to give a man a detestation of vice , and a contempt of the common methods of mankind ; which they have set out in such true colours , that they must give a very generous sense to those who delight in reading them often . persius his second satyr , may well pass for one of the best lectures in divinity . hieracles upon pythagoras's plutarch's lives ; and above all the books of heathenism , epictetus and marcus aurelius , contain such instructions , that one cannot read them too often , nor repass them too frequently in his thoughts . but when i speak of reading these books , i do not mean only to run through them , as one does through a book of history , or of notions ; they must be read and weighed with great care , till one is become a master of all the thoughts that are in them : they are to be often turned in ones mind , till he is thereby wrought up to some degrees of that temper , which they propose : and as for christian books , in order to the framing of ones mind aright , i shall only recommend the whole duty of man , dr. sherlock of death and iudgment , and dr. scot's books , in particular that great distinction that runs through them , of the means and of the ends of religion . to all which i shall add one small book more , which is to me ever new and fresh , gives always good thoughts and a noble temper , thomas a kempis of the imitation of christ. by the frequent reading of these books , by the relish that one has in them , by the delight they give , and the effects they produce , a man will plainly perceive , whether his soul is made for divine matters or not , what suitableness there is between him and them ; and whether he is yet touched with such a sense of religion , as to be capable of dedicating himself to it . i am far from thinking that no man is fit to be a priest , that has not the temper which i have been describing , quite up to that heig●h in which i have set it forth ; but this i will positively say , that he who has not the seeds of it planted in him , who has not these principles , and resolutions formed to pursue them , and to improve and perfect himself in them , is in no wise worthy of that holy character . if these things are begun in him , if they are yet but as a grain of mustard-seed , yet if there is a life in them , and a vital sense of the tendencies and effects they must have ; such a person , so moulded , with those notions and impressions , and such only are qualified , so as to be able to say with truth and assurance , that they trust they are inwardly moved by the holy ghost to undertake that office. so far have i dispatch'd the first and chief part of the preparation necessary before orders . the other branch of it , relates to their learning , and to the knowledge that is necessary . i confess i look upon this as so much inferiour to the other , and have been convinced by so much experience , that a great measure of piety , with a very small proportion of learning , will carry one a great way , that i may perhaps be thought to come as far short in this , as i might seem to exceed in the other . i will not here enter into a discourse of theological learning , of the measure that is necessary to make a compleat divine , and of the methods to attain it . i intend only to lay down here , that which i look on as the lowest degree , and as that which seems indispensably necessary , to one that is to be a priest. he must then understand the new testament we●l . this is the text of our religion , that which we preach and explain to others ; therefore a man ought to read this so often over , that he may have an idea of the whole book in his head , and of all the parts of it . he cannot have this so sure , unless he understands the greek so well , as to be able to find out the meaning of every period in it , at least of the words and phrases of it ; any book of annotations or paraphrase upon it , is a great help to a beginner ▪ grotius , hammond , and lightfoot are the best . but the having a great deal of the practical and easie parts of it , such as relate to mens liv●s and their duties , such as strike and awaken , direct , comfort , or terrifie , are much more necessary than the more abstruse parts . in short , the being able to state right the grounds of our hope , and the terms of salvation , and the having a clear and ready view of the new covenant in christ iesus , is of such absolute necessity , that it is a profaning of orders , and a defiling of the sanctuary , to bring any into it , that do not rightly understand this matter in its whole extent . bishop pearson on the creed is a book of great learning , and profound exactness . dr. barrow has opened it with more simplicity ; and dr. towerson more practically ; one or other of these must be well read and considered : but when i say read , i mean read and read over again , so oft that one is master of one of these books ; he must write notes out of them , and make abridgements of them ; and turn them so oft in his thoughts , that he must thoroughly understand , and well remember them . he must read also the psalms over so carefully , that he may at least have a general notion of those divine hymns ; to which bishop patrick's paraphrase will help to carry him . a system of divinity must be read with exactness . they are almost all alike : when i was young wendelin and maresius were the two shortest and fullest . here is a vast errour in the first forming of our clergy , that a contempt has been cast on that sort of books ; and indeed to rise no higher , than to a perpetual reading over different systems is but a mean pitch of learning ; and the swallowing down whole systems by the lump , has help'd to possess peoples minds too early with prejudices , and to shut them up in too implicite a following of others . but the throwing off all these books , makes that many who have read a great deal , yet have no intire body of divinity in their head ; they have no scheme or method , and so are ignorant of some very plain things , which could never have happened to them , if they had carefully read and digested a system into their memories . but because this is indeed a very low form ; therefore to lead a man farther , to have a freer view of divinity , to examine things equally and clearly , and to use his own reason , by balancing the various views , that two great divisions of protestants have , not only in the points which they controvert , but in a great many others , in which though they agree in the same conclusions , yet they arrive at them by very different premises ; i would advise him that studies divinity , to read two larger bodies , writ by some eminent men of both sides ; and because the latest are commonly the best ; turretin for the whole calvinist hypothesis , and limburgh for the arminian , will make a man fully the master of all the notions of both sides . or if one would see how far middle ways may be taken ; the theses of sanmur , or blanc's theses , will compleat him in that . these books well read , digested into abstracts , and frequently reviewed or talked over by two companions in study , will give a man an entire view of the whole body of divinity . but by reason of that pest of atheism , that spreads so much among us , the foundations of religion must be well laid : bishop wilkins book of natural religion , will lead one in the first steps through the principles that he has laid together in a plain and natural method . grotius his book of the truth of the christian religion , with his notes upon it , ought to be read and almost got by heart . the whole controversie both of atheism and deism , the arguments both for the old and new testament , are fully opened , with a great variety both of learning and reasoning , in bishop stillingfleet's origines sacrae . there remains only to direct a student how to form right notions of practical matters ; and particularly of preaching . dr. hammond's practical catechism , is a book of great use ; but not to be begun with , as too many do : it does require a good deal of previous study , before the force of his reasonings is apprehended ; but when one is ready for it , it is a rare book , and states the grounds of morality , and of our duty , upon true principles . to form one to understand the right method of preaching , the extent of it , and the proper ways of application , bishop sanderson , mr. faringdon , and dr. barrow , are the best and the fullest models . there is a vast variety of other sermons , which may be read with an equal measure of advantage and pleasure . and if from the time that one resolves to direct his studies towards the church , he would every lords day read two sermons of any good preacher , and turn them a little over in his thoughts , this would insensibly in two or three years time , carry him very far , and give him a large view of the different ways of preaching , and furnish him with materials for handling a great many texts of scripture when he comes to it . and thus i have carried my student through those studies , that seem to me so necessary for qualifying him to be an able minister of the new testament , that i cannot see how any article of this can be well abated . it may seem strange , that in this whole direction , i have said nothing concerning the study of the fathers or church history . but i said at first , that a great distinction was to be made between what was necessary to prepare a man to be a priest , and what was necessary to make him a compleat and learned divine . the knowledge of these things is necessary to the latter , though they do not seem so necessary for the former : there are many things to be left to the prosecution of a divine's study , that therefore are not mentioned here , not with any design to disparage that sort of learning ; for i am now only upon that measure of knowledge , under which i heartily wish that no man were put in priests orders ; and therefore i have pass'd over many other things , such as the more accurate understanding of the controversies between us and the church of rome , and the unhappy disputes between us and the dissenters of all sorts ; though both the one and the other , have of late been opened with that perspicuity , that fulness of argument , and that clearness as well as softness of stile , that a collection of these may give a man the fullest instructions , that is to be found in any books i know . others , and perhaps the far greater number , will think that i have clogged this matter too much . but i desire these may consider how much we do justly reckon , that our profession is preferrable either to law or medicine . now , if this is true , it is not unreasonable , that since those who pretend to these , must be at so much pains , before they enter upon a practice which relates only to men's fortunes , or their persons , we whose labours relate to their souls and their eternal state , should be at least at some considerable pains , before we enter upon them . let any young divine go to the chambers of a student in the inns of court , and see how many books he must read , and how great a volume of a common-place-book he must make , he will there see through how hard a task one must go , in a course of many years , and how ready he must be in all the parts of it , before he is called to the barr , or can manage business . how exact must a physician be in anatomy , in simples , in pharmacy , in the theory of diseases , and in the observations and counsels of doctors , before he can either with honour , or a safe conscience , undertake practice ? he must be ready with all this , and in that infinite number of hard words , that belong to every part of it , to give his directions and write his bills by the patient's bed-side ; who cannot stay 'till he goes to his study and turns over his books . if then so long a course of study , and so much exactness and readiness in it , is necessary to these professions ; nay , if every mechanical art , even the meanest , requires a course of many years , before one can be a master in it , shall the noblest and the most important of all others , that which comes from heaven , and leads thither again ; shall that which god has honoured so highly , and to which laws and governments have added such privileges and encouragements , that is employ'd in the sublimest exercises , which require a proportioned worth in those who handle them , to maintain their value and dignity in the esteem of the world ; shall all this , i say , be esteemed so low a thing in our eyes , that a much less degree of time and study , is necessary to arrive at it , than at the most sordid of all trades whatsoever ? and yet after all , a man of a tolerable capacity , with a good degree of application , may go through all this well , and exactly , in two years time . i am very sure , by many an experiment i have made , that this may be done in a much less compass : but because all men do not go alike quick , have not the same force , nor the same application , therefore i reckon two years for it ; which i do thus divide : one year before deacons orders , and another between them and priests orders . and can this be thought a hard imposition ? or do not those , who think thus , give great occasion to the contempt of the clergy , if they give the world cause to observe , that how much soever we may magnifie our profession , yet by our practice , we shew that we do judge it the meanest of all others , which is to be arrived at upon less previous study and preparation to it , than any other whatsoever ? since i have been hitherto so minute , i will yet divide this matter a little lower into those parts of it , without which , deacons orders ought not to be given , and those to be reserved to the second year of study . to have read the new testament well , so as to carry a great deal of it in one's memory , to have a clear notion of the several books of it , to understand well the nature and the conditions of the covenant of grace , and to have read one system well , so as to be master of it , to understand the whole catechetical matter , to have read wilkins and grotius ; this , i say , is that part of this task , which i propose before one is made deacon . the rest , though much the larger , will go the easier , if those foundations are once well laid in them . and upon the article of studying the scriptures , i will add one advice more . there are two methods in reading them , the one ought to be merely critical , to find out the meaning and coherence of the several parts of them , in which one runs easily through the greater part , and is only obliged to stop at some harder passages , which may be marked down and learned men are to be consulted upon them : those that are really hard to be explained , are both few , and they relate to matters that are not so essential to christianity ; and therefore after one has in general seen what is said upon these , he may put off the fuller consideration of that to more leisure , and better opportunities . but the other way of reading the scriptures , is to be done merely with a view to practice , to raise devotion , to encrease piety , and to give good thoughts and severe rules . in this a man is to imploy himself much . this is a book always at hand , and the getting a great deal of it by heart , is the best part of a clergy-man's study ; it is the foundation , and lays in the materials for all the rest . this alone may furnish a man with a noble stock of lively thoughts , and sublime expressions ; and therefore it must be always reckoned as that , without which all other things amount to nothing ; and the chief and main subject of the study , the meditation and the discourses of a clergy-man . chap. viii . of the functions and labours of clergy-men . i have in the former chapter laid down the model and method , by which a clerk is to be formed and prepared ; i come now to consider his course of life , his publick functions , and his secret labours . in this as well as in the former , i will study to consider what mankind can bear , rather than what may be offered in a fair idea , that is far above what we can hope ever to bring the world to . as for a priests life and conversation , so much was said in the former chapter ; in which as a preparation to orders , it was proposed what he ought to be , that i may now be the shorter on this article . the clergy have one great advantage , beyond all the rest of the world , in this respect , besides all others , that whereas the particular callings of other men , prove to them great distractions , and lay many temptations in their way , to divert them from minding their high and holy calling of being christians , it is quite otherwise with the clergy , the more they follow their private callings , they do the more certainly advance their general one : the better priests they are , they become also the better christians : every part of their calling , when well performed , raises good thoughts , brings good idea's into their mind , and tends both to encrease their knowledge , and quicken their sense of divine matters . a priest therefore is more accountable to god , and the world for his deportment , and will be more severely accounted with than any other person whatsoever . he is more watched over and observed than all others : very good men will be , even to a censure , jealous of him ; very bad men will wait for his halting , and insult upon it ; and all sorts of persons , will be willing to defend themselves against the authority of his doctrine and admonitions ; by this he says but does not ; and though our saviour charged his disciples and followers , to hear those who sat in moses his chair , and to observe and do whatsoever they bid them observe , but not to do after their works , for they said and did not ; the world will reverse this quite , and consider rather how a clerk lives , than what he says . they see the one , and from it conclude what he himself thinks of the other ; and so will believe themselves not a little justified , if they can say that they did no worse , than as they saw their minister do before them . therefore a priest must not only abstain from gross scandals , but keep at the furthest distance from them : he must not only not be drunk , but he must not sit a tipling ; nor go to taverns or ale-houses , except some urgent occasion requires it , and stay no longer in them , than as that occasion demands it . he must not only abstain from acts of lewdness , but from all indecent behaviour , and unbecoming raillery . gaming and plays , and every thing of that sort , which is an approach to the vanities and disorders of the world , must be avoided by him . and unless the straitness of his condition , or his necessities force it , he ought to shun all other cares , such as , not only the farming of grounds , but even the teaching of schools , since these must of necessity take him off both from his labour and study . such diversions as his health , or the temper of his mind , may render proper for him , ought to be manly , decent and grave ; and such as may neither possess his mind or time too much , nor give a bad character of him to his people : he must also avoid too much familiarity with bad people ; and the squandring away his time in too much vain and idle discourse . his chearfulness ought to be frank , but neither excessive nor licentious : his friends and his garden ought to be his chief diversions , as his study and his parish , ought to be his chief imployments . he must still carry on his study , making himself an absolute master of the few books he has , till his circumstances grow larger , that he can purchase more . he can have no pretence , if he were ever so narrow in the world , to say , that he cannot get , not only the collects , but the psalms , and the new testament by heart , or at least a great part of them . if there are any books belonging to his church , such as iewels works , and the book of martyrs , which lie tearing in many places , these he may read over and over again , till he is able to furnish himself better , i mean with a greater variety ; but let him furnish himself ever so well , the reading and understanding the scriptures , chiefly the psalms and the new testament , ought to be still his chief study , till he becomes so conversant in them , that he can both say many parts of them , and explain them without book . it is the only visible reason of the iews adhering so firmly to their religion , that during the ten or twelve years of their education , their youth are so much practised to the scriptures , to weigh every word in them , and get them all by heart , that it is an admiration , to see how ready both men and women among them are at it ; their rabbi's have it to that perfection , that they have the concordance of their whole bible in their memories , which give them vast advantages , when they are to argue with any that are not so ready as they are in the scriptures : our task is much shorter and easier , and it is a reproach , especially to us protestants , who found our religion merely on the scriptures , that we know the new testament so little , which cannot be excused . with the study of the scriptures , or rather as a part of it comes in the study of the fathers , as far as one can go ; in these their apologies , and epistles , are chiefly to be read ; for these give us the best view of those times : basil's and chrysostom's sermons , are by much the best . to these studies , history comes in as a noble and pleasant addition ; that gives a man great views of the providence of god , of the nature of man , and of the conduct of the world. this is above no man's capacity ; and though some histories are better than others ; yet any histories , such as one can get , are to be read , rather than none at all . if one can compass it , he ought to begin with the history of the church , and there at the head iosephus , and go on with eusebius , socrates , and the other historians , that are commonly bound together ; and then go to other later collectors of ancient history ; the history of our own church and country is to come next ; then the ancient greek and roman history , and after that , as much history , geography , and books of travels as can be had , will give an easie and a useful entertainment , and will furnish one with great variety of good thoughts , and of pleasant , as well as edifying discourse . as for all other studies , every one must follow his inclinations , his capacities , and that which he can procure to himself . the books that we learn at schools are generally laid aside , with this prejudice , that they were the labours as well as the sorrows of our childhood and education ; but they are among the best of books . the greek and roman authors have a spirit in them , a force both of thought and expression , that l●ter ages have not been able to imitate : buchanan only excepted , in whom , more particularly in his psalms , there is a beauty and life , an exactness as well as a liberty , that cannot be imitated , and scarce enough commended . the study and practice of physick , especially that which is safe and simple , puts the clergy in a capacity of doing great acts of charity , and of rendring both their persons and labours very acceptable to their people ; it will procure their being soon sent for by them in sickness , and it will give them great advantages in speaking to them , of their spiritual concerns , when they are so careful of their persons , but in this nothing that is sordid must mix . these ought to be the chief studies of the clergy . but to give all these their full effect , a priest that is much in his study , ought to imploy a great part of his time in secret and fervent prayer , for the direction and blessing of god in his labours , for the constant assistance of his holy spirit , and for a lively sense of divine matters , that so he may feel the impressions of them grow deep and strong upon his thoughts . this , and this only , will make him go on with his work , without wearying , and be always rejoycing in it : this will make his expressions of these things to be happy and noble , when he can bring them out of the good treasure of his heart ; that is , ever full , and always warm with them . from his study , i go next to his publick functions : he must bring his mind to an inward and feeling sense of those things that are prayed for in our offices : that will make him pronounce them with an equal measure of gravity and affection , and with a due slowness and emphasis . i do not love the theatrical way of the church of rome , in which it is a great study , and a long practice , to learn in every one of their offices , how they ought to compose their looks , gesture and voice ; yet a light wandring of the eyes , and a hasty running through the prayers , are things highly unbecoming ; they do very much lessen the majesty of our worship , and give our enemies advantage to call it dead and formal , when they see plainly , that he who officiates is dead and formal in it . a deep sense of the things prayed for , a true recollection and attention of spirit , and a holy earnestness of soul , will give a composure to the looks , and a weight to the pronunciation , that will be tempered between affectation on the one hand , and levity on the other . as for preaching , i referr that to a chapter apart . a minister ought to instruct his people frequently , of the nature of baptism , that they may not go about it merely as a ceremony , as it is too visible the greater part do ; but that they may consider it as the dedicating their children to god , the offering them to christ , and the holding them thereafter as his , directing their chief care about them , to the breeding them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord. there must be care taken to give them all a right notion of the use of god-fathers and god-mothers , which is a good institution , to procure a double security for the education of children ; it being to be supposed , that the common ties of nature and religion , bind the parents so strongly , that if they are not mindful of these , a special vow would not put a new force in them , and therefore a collateral security is also demanded , both to supply their defects , if they are faulty , and to take care of the religious education of the infant , in case the parents should happen to die before that is done ; and therefore no god-father or god-mother are to be invited to that office , but such with whom one would trust the care of the education of his child , nor ought any to do this office for another , but he that is willing to charge himself , with the education of the child for whom he answers . but when ambition or vanity , favour or presents , are the considerations upon which those sureties in baptism are chosen ; great advantage is hereby given to those who reject infant baptism , and the ends of the church in this institution are quite defeated ; which are both the making the security that is given for the children so much the stronger , and the establishing an endearment and a tenderness between families ; this being , in its own nature , no small tye , how little soever it may be apprehended or understood . great care must be taken in the instruction of the youth : the bare saying the catechism by rote is a small matter ; it is necessary to make them understand the weight of every word in it : and for this end , every priest , that minds his duty , will find that no part of it is so useful to his people , as once every year to go through the whole church catechism , word by word , and make his people understand the importance of every tittle in it . this will be no hard labour to himself ; for after he has once gathered together the places of scripture that relate to every article , and formed some clear illustrations , and easie similies to make it understood ; his catechetical discourses , during all the rest of his life , will be only the going over that same matter again and again ; by this means his people will come to have all this by heart ; they will know what to say upon it at home to their children ; and they will understand all his sermons the better , when they have once had a clear notion of all those terms that must run through them ; for those not being understood , renders them all unintelligible . a disc●urse of this sort would be generally of much greater edification than an afternoons sermon ; it should not be too long ; too much must not be said at a time , nor more than one point opened ; a quarter of an hour is time sufficient ; for it will grow tedious and be too little remembred , if it is half an hour long . this would draw an assembly to evening prayers , which we see are but too much neglected , when there is no sort of discourse or sermon accompanying them . and the practising this , during the six months of the year , in which the days are long , would be a very effectual means , both to instruct the people , and to bring them to a more religious observation of the lord's day ; which is one of the powerfullest instruments for the carrying on , and advancing of religion in the world. with catechising , a minister is to joyn the preparing those whom he instructs to be confirmed ; which is not to be done merely upon their being able to say over so many words by rote . it is their renewing their baptismal vow in their own persons , which the church designs by that office , and the bearing in their own minds , a sense of their being bound immediately by that , which their sureties then undertook for them : now to do this in such a manner , as that it may make impression , and have a due effect upon them , they must stay , till they themselves understand what they do , and till they have some sense and affection to it ; and therefore till one is of an age and disposition fit to receive the holy sacrament of the lord's supper , and desires to be confirmed , as a solemn preparation and qualification to it ; he is not yet ready for it ; for in the common management of that holy rite , it is but too visible , that of those multitudes that crowd to it , the far greater part , come merely as if they were to receive the bishop's blessing , without any sense of the vow made by them , and of their renewing their baptismal engagements in it . as for the greatest and solemnest of all the institutions of christ , the commemorating his death , and the partaking of it in the lord's supper ; this must be well explained to the people , to preserve them from the extreams of superstition and irreverence ; to raise in them a great sense of the goodness of god , that appeared in the death of christ ; of his love to us , of the sacrifice he once offered , and of the intercession which he still continues to make for us : a share in all which is there federally offered to us , upon our coming under engagements , to answer our part of the covenant , and to live according to the rules it sets us : on these things he ought to enlarge himself , not only in his sermons , but in his catechetical exercises , and in private discourses ; that so he may give his people right notions of that solemn part of worship , that he may bring them to delight in it ; and may neither fright them from it , by raising their apprehensions of it to a strictness that may terrifie too much , nor encourage them in the too common practice of the dead and formal receiving , at the great festivals , as a piece of decency recommended by custom . about the time of the sacrament , every minister that knows any one of his parish guilty of eminent sins , ought to go and admonish him to change his course of life , or not to profane the table of the lord ; and if private admonitions have no effect ; then if his sins are publick and scandalous , he ought to deny him the sacrament ; and upon that he ought to take the method which is still left in the church , to make sinners ashamed , to separate them from holy things , till they have edified the church as much by their repentance , and the outward profession of it , as they had formerly scandalized it by their disorders . this we must confess , that though we have great reason , to lament our want of the godly discipline that was in the primitive church , yet we have still authority for a great deal more than we put in practice . scandalous persons ought , and might be more frequently presented than they are , and both private and publick admonitions might be more used than they are . there is a flatness in all these things among us . some are willing to do nothing , because they cannot do all that they ought to do ; whereas the right way for procuring an enlargement of our authority , is to use that we have well ; not as an engine to gratifie our own or other peoples passions , not to vex people , nor to look after fees , more than the correction of manners , or the edification of the people . if we began much with private applications , and brought none into our courts , till it was visible that all other ways had been unsuccessful , and that no regard was had either to persons or parties , to men's opinions or interests , we might again bring our courts into the esteem which they ought to have , but which they have almost entirely lost : we can never hope to bring the world to bear the yoke of christ , and the order that he has appointed to be kept up in his church , of noting those that walk disorderly , of separating our selves from them , of having no fellowship , no , not so much as to eat with them , as long as we give them cause to apprehend , that we intend by this to bring them under our yoke , to subdue them to us , and to rule them with a rod of iron : for the truth is , mankind is so strongly compounded , that it is very hard to restrain ecclesiastical tyranny on the one hand , without running to a lawless licentiousness on the other ; so strongly does the world love extreams , and avoid a temper . now i have gone through the publick functions o● a priest , and in speaking of the last of these , i have broke in upon the third head of his duty , his private labours in his parish . he understands little the nature and the obligations of the priestly office , who thinks he has discharged it , by performing the publick appointments , in which if he is defective , the laws of the church , how feeble soever they may be as to other things , will have their course ; but as the private duties of the pastoral care , are things upon which the cognisance of the law cannot fall , so they are the most important and necessary of all others ; and the more praise worthy , the freer they are , and the less forc'd by the compulsion of law. as to the publick functions , every man has his rule ; and in these all are almost alike ; every man , especially if his lungs are good , can read prayers , even in the largest congregation ; and if he has a right taste , and can but choose good sermons , out of the many that are in print , he may likewise serve them well that way too . but the difference between one man and another , shews it self more sensibly in his private labours , in his prudent deportment , in his modest and discreet way of procuring respect to himself , in his treating his parish , either in reconciling such differences as may happen to be among them , or in admonishing men of rank , who set an ill example to others , which ought always to be done in that way , which will probably have the best effect upon them ; therefore it must be done secretly , and with expressions of tenderness and respect for their persons ; fit times are to be chosen for this ; it may be often the best way to do it by a letter : for there may be ways fallen upon , of reproving the worst men , in so soft a manner , that if they are not reclaimed , yet they shall not be irritated or made worse by it , which is but too often the effect of an indiscreet reproof . by this a minister may save the sinners soul ; he is at least sure to save his own , by having discharged his duty towards his people . one of the chief parts of the pastoral care , is the visiting the sick ; not to be done barely when one is sent for : he is to go as soon as he hears that any of his flock are ill ; he is not to satisfie himself with going over the office , or giving them the sacrament when desired : he ought to inform himself of their course of life , and of the temper of their mind , that so he may apply himself to them accordingly . if they are insensible , he ought to awaken them with the terrours of god ; the judgment and the wrath to come . he must endeavour to make them sensible of their sins ; particularly of that which runs through most men's lives , their forgetting and neglecting god and his service , and their setting their hearts so inordinately upon the world : he must set them on to examine their dealings , and make them seriously to consider , that they can expect no mercy from god , unless they restore whatsoever they may have got unjustly from any other , by any manner of way , even though their title were confirmed by law : he is to lay any other sins to their charge , that he has reason to suspect them guilty of ; and must press them to all such acts of repentance as they are then capable of . if they have been men of a bad course of life , he must give them no encouragement to hope much from this death-bed repentance ; yet he is to set them to implore the mercies of god in christ iesus , and to do all they can to obtain his favour . but unless the sickness has been of a long continuance , and that the person 's repentance , his patience , his piety has been very extraordinary , during the course of it , he must be sure to give him no positive ground of hope ; but leave him to the mercies of god. for there cannot be any greater treachery to souls , that is more fatal and more pernicious , than the giving quick and easie hopes , upon so short , so forced , and so imperfect a repentance . it not only makes those persons perish securely themselves , but it leads all about them to destruction ; when they see one , of whose bad life and late repentance they have been the witnesses , put so soon in hopes , nay by some unfaithful guides , made sure of salvation ; this must make them go on very secure in their sins ; when they see how small a measure of repentance sets all right at last : all the order and justice of a nation , would be presently dissolved , should the howlings of criminals , and their promises of amendment , work on iuries , iudges , or princes : so the hopes that are given to death-bed penitents , must be a most effectual means to root out the sense of religion of the minds of all that see it ; and therefore though no dying man is to be driven to despair , and left to die obstinate in his sins ; yet if we love the souls of our people , if we set a due value on the blood of christ , and if we are touched with any sense of the honour or interests of religion , we must not say any thing that may encourage others , who are but too apt of themselves to put all off to the last hour . we can give them no hopes from the nature of the gospel covenant ; yet after all , the best thing a dying man can do , is to repent ; if he recovers , that may be the seed and beginning of a new life and a new nature in him : nor do we know the measure of the riches of god's grace and mercy ; how far he may think fit to exert it beyond the conditions and promises of the new covenant , at least to the lessening of such a persons misery in another state. we are sure he is not within the new covenant ; and since he has not repented , according to the tenor of it , we dare not , unless we betray our commission , give any hopes beyond it . but one of the chief cares of a minister about the sick , ought to be to exact of them solemn vows and promises , of a renovation of life , in case god shall raise them up again ; and these ought to be demanded , not only in general words , but if they have been guilty of any scandalous disorders , or any other ill practices , there ought to be special promises made with relation to those . and upon the recovery of such persons , their ministers ought to put them in mind of their engagements , and use all the due freedom of admonitions and reproof , upon their breaking loose from them . in such a case they ought to leave a terrible denunciation of the judgments of god upon them , and so at least they acquit themselves . there is another sort of sick persons , who abound more in towns than in the country ; those are the troubled in mind ; of these there are two sorts , some have committed enormous sins , which kindle a storm in their consciences ; and that ought to be cherished , till they have compleated a repentance proportioned to the nature and degree of their sin. if wrong has been done to another , reparation and restitution must be made to the utmost of the party's power . if blood has been shed , a long course of fasting and prayer ; a total abstinence from wine ; if drunkenness gave the rise to it , a making up the loss to the family , on which it has fallen , must be enjoyned . but alas , the greater part of those that think they are troubled in mind , are melancholy hypochondriacal people , who , what through some false opinions in religion , what through a foulness of blood , occasioned by their unactive course of life , in which their minds work too much , because their bodies are too little imployed , fall under dark and cloudy apprehensions ; of which they can give no clear nor good account . this , in the greatest part , is to be removed by strong and chalybeate medicines ; yet such persons are to be much pitied , and a little humoured in their distemper . they must be diverted from thinking too much , being too much alone , or dwelling too long on thoughts that are too hard for them to master . the opinion that has had the chief influence in raising these distempers , has been that of praying by the spirit ; when a flame of thought , a melting in the brain , and the abounding in tender expressions , have been thought the effects of the spirit , moving all those symptoms of a warm temper . now in all people , especially in persons of a melancholy disposition , that are much alone , there will be a great diversity , with relation to this at different times : sometimes these heats will rise and flow copiously , and at other times there will be a damp upon the brain , and a dead dryness in the spirits . this to men that are prepossessed with the opinion , now set forth , will appear as if god did sometimes shine out , and at other times hide his face ; and since this last will be the most frequent in men of that temper ; as they will be apt to be lifted up , when they think they have a fulness of the spirit in them , so they will be as much cast down when that is withdrawn ; they will conclude from it , that god is angry with them , and so reckon that they must be in a very dangerous condition : upon this , a vast variety of troublesom scruples will arise , out of every thing that they either do or have done . if then a minister has occasion to treat any in this condition , he must make them apprehend that the heat or coldness of their brain , is the effect of temper ; and flows from the different state of the animal spirits , which have their diseases , their hot and their cold fits , as well as the blood has ; and therefore no measure can be taken from these , either to judge for or against themselves . they are to consider what are their principles and resolutions , and what 's the settled course of their life ; upon these they are to form sure judgments , and not upon any thing that is so fluctuating and inconstant as fits or humours . another part of a priest's duty is , with relation to them that are without , i mean , that are not of our body , which are of the side of the church of rome , or among the dissenters . other churches and bodies are noted for their zeal , in making proselytes , for their restless endeavours , as well as their unlawful methods in it , they reckoning , perhaps , that all will be sanctified by the encreasing their party , which is the true name of making converts , except they become at the same time good men , as well as votaries to a side or cause . we are certainly very remiss in this , of both hands , little pains is taken to gain either upon papist or nonconformist ; the law has been so much trusted to ; that that method only was thought sure ; it was much valued , and others at the same time as much neglected ; and whereas at first , without force or violence , in fourty years time , popery from being the prevailing religion , was reduced to a handful , we have now in above twice that number of years , made very little progress . the favour shew'd them from our court , made us seem , as it were , unwilling to disturb them in their religion ; so that we grow at last to be kind to them , to look on them as harmless and inoffensive neighbours , and even to cherish and comfort them ; we were very near the being convinc'd of our mistake , by a terrible and dear bought experience . now they are again under hatches ; certainly it becomes us , both in charity to them , and in regard to our own safety , to study to gain them by the force of reason and persuasion ; by shewing all kindness to them , and thereby disposing them to hearken to the reasons that we may lay before them . we ought not to give over this as desperate upon a few unsuccessful attempts , but must follow them in the meekness of christ , that so we may at last prove happy instruments , in delivering them from the blindness and captivity they are kept under , and the idolatry and superstition they live in : we ought to visit them often in a spirit of love and charity , and to offer them conferences ; and upon such endeavours , we have reason to expect a blessing , at least this , of having done our duty , and so delivering our own souls . nor are we to think , that the toleration , under which the law has settled the dissenters , does either absolve them from the obligations that they lay under before , by the laws of god and the gospel , to maintain the vnity of the church , and not to rent it by unjust or causeless schisms , or us from using our endeavours to bring them to it , by the methods of perswasion and kindness : nay , perhaps , their being now in circumstances , that they can no more be forced in these things , may put some of them in a greater towardness to hear reason ; a free nation naturally hating constraint : and certainly the less we seem to grudge or envy them their liberty , we will be thereby the nearer gaining on the generouser and better part of them , and the rest would soon lose heart , and look out of countenance ; if these should hearken to us . it was the opinion many had of their strictness , and of the looseness that was amongst us , that gained them their credit , and made such numbers fall off from us . they have in a great measure lost the good character that once they had ; if to that we should likewise lose our bad one ; if we were stricter in our lives , more serious and constant in our labours ; and studied more effectually to reform those of our communion , than to rail at theirs ; if we took occasion to let them see that we love them , that we wish them no harm , but good , then we might hope , by the blessing of god , to lay the obligations to love and peace , to unity and concord before them , with such advantages , that some of them might open their eyes , and see at last upon how flight grounds , they have now so long kept up such a wrangling , and made such a rent in the church , that both the power of religion in general , and the strength of the protestant religion , have suffered extreamly by them . thus far i have carried a clerk through his parish , and all the several branches of his duty to his people . but that all this may be well gone about , and indeed as the foundation upon which all the other parts of the pastoral care may be well managed , he ought frequently to visit his whole parish from house to house ; that so he may know them , and be known of them . this i know will seem a vast labour , especially in towns , where parishes are large ; but that is no excuse for those in the country , where they are generally small ; and if they are larger , the going this round will be the longer a doing ; yet an hour a day , twice or thrice a week , is no hard duty ; and this in the compass of a year will go a great way , even in a large parish . in these visits , much time is not to be spent ; a short word for stirring them up to mind their souls , to make conscience of their ways , and to pray earnestly to god , may begin it , and almost end it . after one has asked in what union and peace the neighbourhood lives , and enquired into their necessities , if they seem very poor , that so those to whom that care belongs , may be put in mind to see how they may be relieved . in this course of visiting , a minister will soon find out , if there are any truly good persons in his parish , after whom he must look with a more particular regard . since these are the excellent ones , in whom all his delight ought to be . for let their rank be ever so mean , if they are sincerely religious , and not hypocritical pretenders to it , who are vainly puffed up with some degrees of knowledge , and other outward appearances , he ought to consider them as the most valuable in the sight of god ; and indeed , as the chief part of his care ; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. i know this way of parochial visitation , is so worn out , that , perhaps , neither priest nor people , will be very desirous to see it taken up . it will put the one to labour and trouble , and bring the other under a closer inspection , which bad men will no ways desire , nor perhaps endure . but if this were put on the clergy by their bishops , and if they explained in a sermon before they began it , the reasons and ends of doing it ; that would remove the prejudices which might arise against it . i confess this is an encrease of labour , but that will seem no hard matter to such as have a right sense of their ordination-vows , of the value of souls , and of the dignity of their function . if men had the spirit of their calling in them , and a due measure of flame and heat in carrying it on ; labour in it would be rather a pleasure than a trouble . in all other professions , those who follow them , labour in them all the year long , and are hard at their business every day of the week . all men that are well suted in a profession , that is agreeable to their genius and inclination , are really the easier and the better pleased , the more they are employed in it . indeed there is no trade nor course of life , except ours , that does not take up the whole man : and shall ours only , that is the noblest of all others , and that has a certain subsistence fixed upon it , and does not live by contingencies , and upon hopes , as all others do , make the labouring in our business , an objection against any part of our duty ? certainly nothing can so much dispose the nation , to think o● the relieving the necessities of the many small livings , as the seeing the clergy setting about their business to purpose ; this would , by the blessing of god , be a most effectual means , of stopping the progress of atheism , and of the contempt that the clergy lies under ; it would go a great way towards the healing our schism , and would be the chief step that could possibly be made , towards the procuring to us such laws as are yet wanting to the compleating our reformation , and the mending the condition of so many of our poor brethren , who are languishing in want , and under great straits . there remains only somewhat to be added concerning the behaviour of the clergie towards one another . those of a higher form in learning , dignity and wealth , ought not to despise poor vicars and curates ; but on the contrary , the poorer they are , they ought to pity and encourage them the more , since they are all of the same order , only the one are more happily placed than the others : they ought therefore to cherish those that are in worse circumstances , and encourage them to come often to them ; they ought to lend them books , and to give them other assistances in order to their progress in learning , 't is a bad thing to see a bishop behave himself superciliously towards any of his clergy , but it is intolerable in those of the same degree . the clergy ought to contrive ways to meet often together , to enter into a brotherly correspondence , and into the concerns one of another , both in order to their progress in knowledg , and for consulting together in all their affairs . this would be a means to cement them into one body : hereby they might understand what were amiss in the conduct of any in their division , and try to correct it either by private advices and endeavours , or by laying it before the bishop , by whose private labours , if his clergy would be assisting to him , and give him free and full informations of things , many disorders might be cured , without rising to a publick scandal , or forcing him to extream censures . it is a false pity in any of the clergy , who see their brethren running into ill courses , to look on and say nothing : it is a cruelty to the church , and may prove a cruelty to the person of whom they are so unseasonably tender : for things may be more easily corrected at first , before they have grown to be publick , or are hardned by habit and custom . upon all these accounts it is of great advantage , and may be matter of great edification to the clergie , to enter into a strict union together , to meet often , and to be helpful to one another : but if this should be made practicable , they must be extreamly strict in those meetings , to observe so exact a sobriety , that there might be no colour given to censure them , as if these were merry meetings , in which they allowed themselves great liberties : it were good , if they could be brought to meet to fast and pray ; but if that is a strain too high for the present age , at least they must keep so far within bounds , that there may be no room for calumny . for a disorder upon any such occasion , would give a wound of an extraordinary nature to the reputation of the whole clergy , when every one would bear a share of the blame , which perhaps belonged but to a few . four or five such meetings in a summer , would neither be a great charge , nor give much trouble : but the advantages that might arise out of them , would be very sensible . i have but one other advice to add , but it is of a thing of great consequence , though generally managed in so loose and so indifferent a manner , that i have some reason in charity to believe , that the clergy make very little reflection on what they do in it : and that is , in the testimonials that they sign in favour of those that come to be ordained . many have confessed to my self , that they had signed these upon general reports , and importunity ; tho the testimonial bears personal knowledg . these are instead of the suffrages of the clergy , which in the primitive church were given before any were ordained . a bishop must depend upon them ; for he has no other way to be certainly informed : and therefore as it is a lie , pass'd with the solemnity of hand and seal , to affirm any thing that is beyond one's own knowledg , so it is a lie made to god and the church ; since the design of it is to procure orders . so that if a bishop trusting to that , and being satisfied of the knowledg of one that brings it , ordains an unfit and unworthy man , they that signed it , are deeply and chiefly involved in the guilt of his laying hands suddenly upon him : therefore every priest ought to charge his conscience in a deep particular manner , that so he may never testify for any one , unless he knows his life to be so regular , and believes his temper to be so good , that he does really judg him a person fit to be put in holy orders . these are all the rules that do occur to me at present . in performing these several branches of the duty of a pastor , the trouble will not be great , if he is truly a good man , and delights in the service of god , and in doing acts of charity : the pleasure will be unspeakable ; first , that of the conscience in this testimony that it gives , and the quiet and joy which arises from the sense of one's having done his duty : and then it can scarce be supposed 〈◊〉 by all this , some will be wrought on ; some sinners will be reclaimed ; bad men will grow good , and good men will grow better . and if a generous man feels to a great degree , the pleasure of having delivered one from misery , and of making him easy and happy ; how soveraign a joy must it be to a man that believes there is another life , to see that he has been an instrument to rescue some from endless misery , and to further others in the way to everlasting happiness ? and the more instances he sees of this , the more do his joys grow upon him . this makes life happy , and death joyful to such a priest , for he is not terrified with those words , give an account of thy stewardship , for thou mayest be no longer steward : he knows his reward shall be full , pressed down , and running over . he is but too happy in those spiritual children , whom he has begot in christ , he looks after those as the chief part of his care , and as the principal of his flock , and is so far from aspiring , that it is not without some uneasiness that he leaves them , if he is commanded to arise to some higher post in the church . the troubles of this life , the censures of bad men , and even the prospect of a persecution , are no dreadful things to him that has this seal of his ministry ; and this comfort within him , that he has not laboured in vain , nor run and fought as one that beats the air ; he sees the travel of his soul , and is satisfied when he finds that god's work prospers in his hand . this comforts him in his sad reflections on his own past sins , that he has been an instrument of advancing god's honour , of saving souls , and of propagating his gospel : since to have saved one soul , is worth a man's coming into the world , and richly worth the labours of his whole life . here is a subject that might be easily prosecuted by many warm and lively figures : but i now go on to the last article relating to this matter . chap. ix . concerning preaching . the world naturally runs to extreams in every thing . if one sect or body of men magnify preaching too much , another carries that to another extream of decrying it as much . it is certainly a noble and a profitable exercise , if rightly gone about , of great use both to priest and people ; by obliging the one to much study and labour , and by setting before the other full and copious discoveries of divine matters , opening them clearly , and pressing them weightily upon them . it has also now gained so much esteem in the world , that a clergy-man cannot maintain his credit , nor bring his people to a constant attendance on the worship of god , unless he is happy in these performances . i will not run out into the history of preaching , to shew how late it was before it was brought into the church , and by what steps it grew up to the pitch it is now at : how long it was before the roman church used it , and in how many different shapes it has appeared . some of the first patterns we have , are the best : for as tully began the roman eloquence , and likewise ended it , no man being able to hold up to the pitch to which he raised it ; so st. basil and st. chrysostom brought preaching from the dry pursuing of allegories that had vitiated origen , and from the excessive affectation of figures and rhetorick that appears in nazianzen , to a due simplicity ; a native force and beauty , having joined to the plainness of a clear but noble stile , the strength of reason , and the softness of persuasion . some were disgusted at this plainness ; and they brought in a great deal of art into the composition of sermons : mystical applications of scripture grew to be better liked than clear texts ; an accumulation of figures , a cadence in the periods , a playing upon the sounds of words , a loftiness of epithets , and often an obscurity of expression , were according to the different tastes of the several ages run into . preaching has past through many different forms among us , since the reformation . but without flattering the present age , or any persons now alive , too much , it must be confessed , that it is brought of late to a much greater perfection , than it was ever before at among us . it is certainly brought nearer the pattern that s. chrysostom has set , or perhaps carried beyond it . our language is much refined , and we have returned to the plain notions of simple and genuine rhetorick . we have so vast a number of excellent performances in print , that if a man has but a right understanding of religion , and a true relish of good sense , he may easily furnish himself this way . the impertinent way of dividing texts is laid aside , the needless setting out of the originals , and the vulgar version , is worn ou● . the trifling shews of learning in many quotations of passages , that very few could understand , do no more flat the auditory . pert wit and luscious eloquence have lost their relish . so that sermons are reduced to the plain opening the meaning of the text , in a few short illustrations of its coherence with what goes before and after , and of the parts of which it is composed ; to that is joined the clear stating of such propositions as arise out of it , in their nature , truth and reasonableness : by which , the hearers may form clear notions of the several parts of religion ; such as are best suted to their capacities and apprehensions : to all which applications are aded , tending to the reproving , directing , encouraging , or comforting the hearers , according to the several occasions that are offered . this is indeed all that can be truly be intended in preaching , to make some portions of scripture to be rightly understood ; to make those truths contain'd in them , to be more fully apprehended ; and then to lay the matter home to the consciences of the hearers , so directing all to some good and practical end . in the choice of the text ▪ care is to be taken not to chuse texts that seem to have humour in them ; or that must be long wrought upon , before they are understood . the plainer a text is in it self , the sooner it is cleared , and the fuller it is of matter of instruction ; and therefore such ought to be chosen to common auditories . many will remember the text , that remember nothing else ; therefore such a choice should be made , as may at least put a weighty and speaking sentence of the scriptures upon the memories of the people . a sermon should be made for a text , and not a text found out for a sermon ; for to give our discourses weight , it should appear that we are led to them by our texts : such sermons will probably have much more efficacy than a general discourse , before which a text seems only to be read as a decent introduction , but to which no regard is had in the progress of it . great care should be also had both in opening the text , and of that which arises from it to illustrate them , by concurrent passages of scripture : a little of this ought to be in every sermon , and but a little : for the people are not to be over-charged with too much of it at a time ; and this ought to be done with judgment , and not made a bare concordance exercise , of citing scriptures , that have the same words , though not to the same purpose and in the same sense . a text being opened , then the point upon which the sermon is to run is to be opened ; and it will be the better heard and understood , if there is but one point in a sermon ; so that one head , and only one is well stated , and fully set out . in this , great regard is to be had to the nature of the auditory , that so the point explained may be in some measure proportioned to them . too close a thread of reason , too great an abstraction of thought , too sublime and ▪ too metaphisical a strain , are sutable to very few auditories , if to any at all . things must be put in a clear light , and brought out in as short periods , and in as plain words as may be : the reasons of them must be made as sensible to the people as is possible ; as in vertues and vices ; their tendencies and effects ; their being sutable or unsutable to our powers , to both souls and bodies , to the interests of this life as well as the next ; and the good or evil that they do to humane societies , families and neighbourhoods , ought to be fully and frequently opened . in setting these forth , such a measure is to be kept , that the hearers may perceive , that things are not strained in the way of a declamation , into forced characters , but that they are set out , as truly they are , without making them seem better by imaginary perfections , or worse by an undue aggravation . for the carrying those matters beyond the plain observation of mankind , makes that the whole is looked on as a piece of rhetorick ; the preacher seeming to intend rather to shew his skill , is raising his subject too high , or running it down too low , than to lay before them the native consequences of things ; and that which upon reflection they may be all able to perceive is really true . vertue is so good in it self , that it needs no false paint to make it look better : and vice is so bad , that it can never look so ugly , as when shewed in its own natural colours . so that an undue sublime in such descriptions , does hurt , and can do no good . when the explanatory part of the sermon is over , the application comes next : and here great judgment must be used , to make it fall the heaviest , and lie the longest , upon such particulars as may be within the compass of the auditory : directions concerning a high devotion , to a stupid ignorant company ; or of generosity and bounty , to very poor people ; against pride and ambition , to such as are dull and low minded , are ill suted ; and so must have little effect upon them . therefore care must be taken that the application be useful and proper ; that it make the hearers apprehend som of their sins and defects , and see how to perform their duty ; that it awaken them to it , and direct them in it : and therefore the most common sins , such as mens neglecting their duty to god , in the several branches of it ; their setting their hearts inordinately upon the world ; their lying in discourse , but chiefly in bargaining ; their evil speaking , and their hatred and malice , ought to be very often brought in . some one or other of thes● , ought to be in every application that is made , by which they may see , that the whole design of religion lies against them . such particular sins , swearing , drunkenness , or leudness as abound in any place , must likewise be frequently brought in here . the application must be clear and short , very weighty , and free of every thing that looks like the affectations of wit and eloquence ; here the preacher must be all heart and soul , designing the good of his people . the whole sermon is directed to this : therefore as it is fit that the chief point which a sermon drives at , should come often over and over , that so the hearers may never lose sight of it , but keep it still in view ; so in the application , the text must be shewed to speak it ; all the parts of the explanation must come in , to enforce it : the application must be opened in the several views that it may have , but those must be chiefly insisted on that are most sutable both to the capacities and the circumstances of the people . and in conclusion , all ought to be summed up in a weighty period or two ; and some other signal passage of the scriptures relating to it may be sought for , that so the matter may be left upon the auditory in the solemnest manner possible . thus i have led a preacher through the composition of his sermon ; i will next lay before him some particulars relating to it . the shorter sermons are , they are generally both better heard , and better remembred . the custom of an hour's length , forces many preachers to trifle away much of the time , and to spin out their matter , so as to hold out . so great a length does also flat the hearers , and tempt them to sleep ; especially when , as is usual , the first part of the sermon is languid and heavy : in half an hour a man may lay open his matter in its full extent , and cut off those superfluities which come in only to lengthen the discourse : and he may hope to keep up the attention of his people all the while . as to the stile , sermons ought to be very plain ; the figures must be easy , not mean , but noble , and brought in upon design to make the matter better understood . the words in a sermon must be simple , and in common use ; not savouring of the schools , nor above the understanding of the people . all long periods , such as carry two or three different thoughts in them , must be avoided ; for few hearers can follow or apprehend these : niceties of stile are lost before a common auditory . but if an easy simplicity of stile should run through the whole composition , it should take place most of all in the explanatory part ; for the thing being there offered to be understood , it should be stript of all garnishing : definitions should not be offered in the terms , or method , that logick directs . in short , a preacher is to fancy himself , as in the room of the most unlearned man in his whole parish ; and therefore he must put such parts of his discourse as he would have all understand , in so plain a form of words , that it may not be beyond the meanest of them : this he will certainly study to do , if his desire is to edify them , rather than to make them admire himself as a learned and high-spoken man. but in the applicatory part , if he has a true taste of eloquence , and is a master at it , he is to employ it all in giving sometimes such tender touches , as may soften ; and deeper gashes , such as may awaken his hearers . a vain eloquence here , is very ill plac'd ; for if that can be born any where , it is in illustrating the matter : but all must be grave , where one would perswade : the most natural but the most sensible expressions come in best here . such an eloquence as makes the hearers look grave , and as it were out of countenance , is the properest . that which makes them look lively , and as it were smile upon one another , may be pretty , but it only tickles the imagination , and pleases the ear ; whereas that which goes to the heart , and wounds it , makes the hearer rather look down , and turns his thoughts inward , upon himself : for it is certain that a sermon , the conclusion whereof makes the auditory look pleased , and sets them all a talking one with another , was either not right spoken , or not right heard ; it has been fine , and has probably delighted the congregation , rather than edified it . but that sermon that makes every one go away silent and grave , and hastning to be alone , to meditate or pray over the matter of it in secret , has had its true effect . he that has a taste and genius for eloquence , must improve it by reading quintilian , and tully's books of oratory ; and by observing the spirit and method of tully's orations : or if he can enter into demosthenes , there he will see a much better pattern , there being a simplicity , a shortness , and a swiftness , and rapidity in him , that could not be heard without putting his auditors into a great commotion . all our modern books upon those subjects , are so far short of those great originals , that they can bear no comparison : yet rapin's little book of eloquence is by much the best , only he is too short . tully has so fully opened all the topicks of invention , that a man who has read him , will , if he has any invention of his own , and if he knows throughly his matter , rather have too much than too little in his view , upon every subject that he treats . this is a noble study , and of great use to such as have judgment to manage it ; for artificial eloquence , without a flame within , is like artificial poetry ; all its productions are forced and unnatural , and in a great measure ridiculous . art helps and guides nature ; but if one was not born with this flame , art will only spoil him , make him luscious and redundant . to such persons , and indeed to all that are not masters of the body of divinity , and of the scriptures , i should much rather recommend the using other mens sermons , than the making any of their own . but in the choice of these , great judgment must be used ; one must not take an author that is too much above himself , for by that , compared with his ordinary conversation , it will but too evidently appear , that he cannot be the author of his own sermons ; and that will make both him and them lose too much of their weight . he ought also to put those printed sermons out of that strength and closeness of stile , which looks very well in print ; but is too stiff , especially for a common auditory . he may reverse the method a little , and shorten the explanations , that so he may retain all that is practical ; and that a man may form himself to preaching , he ought to take some of the best models , and try what he can do upon a text handled by them , without reading them , and then compare his work with theirs ; this will more sensibly , and without putting him to the blush , model him to imitate , or if he can , to excel the best patterns : and by this method , if he will restrain himself for some time , and follow it close , he may come to be able to go without such crutches , and to work without patterns : till then , i should advise all to make use of other mens sermons , rather than to make any of their own . the nation has got into so good a taste of sermons , from the vast number of those excellent ones that are in print , that a mean composition will be very ill heard ; and therefore it is an unseasonable piece of vanity , for any to offer their own crudities , till they have well digested and ripened them . i wish the majesty of the pulpit were more looked to ; and that no sermons were offered from thence , but such as should make the hearers both the better , and the wiser , the more knowing , and the more serious . in the delivering of sermons , a great composure of gesture and behaviour is necessary , to give them weight and authority : extreams are bad here , as in every thing else ; some affect a light and flippant behaviour ; and others think that wry faces and a tone in the voice , will set off the matter . grave and composed looks , and a natural , but distinct pronunciation , will always have the best effects . the great rule which the masters of rhetorick press much , can never be enough remembred ; that to make a man speak well , and pronounce with a right emphasis , he ought throughly to understand all that he says , be fully persuaded of it , and bring himself to have those affections , which he desires to infuse into others . he that is inwardly persuaded of the truth of what he says , and that has a concern about it in his mind , will pronounce with a natural vehemence , that is far more lively , than all the strains that art can lead him to . an orator , if we hearken to them , must be an honest man , and speak always on the side of truth , and study to feel all that he says ; and then he will speak it so as to make others feel it likewise . and therefore such as read their sermons , ought to practise reading much in private , and read aloud , that so their own ear and sense may guide them , to know where to raise or quicken , soften or sweeten their voice , and when to give an articulation of authority , or of conviction ; where to pause , and where to languish . we plainly see by the stage , what a force there is in pronunciation : the best compositions are murdered , if ill spoken ; and the worst are acceptable , when well said . in tragedies rightly pronounced and acted , though we know that all is fable and fiction ; the tender parts do so melt the company , that tears cannot be stop'd , even by those who laugh at themselves for it . this shews the power of apt words , and a just pronunciation . but because this depends in a great measure , upon the present temper of him that speaks , and the lively disposition in which he is , therefore he ought by much previous seriousness , and by earnest prayer to god , to endeavour to raise his mind to as warm a sense of the things he is to speak of , as possibly he can , that so his sermons may make deep impressions on his hearers . this leads me to consider the difference that is between the reading and the speaking of sermons . reading is peculiar to this nation , and is endured in no other . it has indeed made that our sermons are more exact , and so it has produced to us many volumes of the best that are extant ; but after all , though some few read so happily , pronounce so truly , and enter so entirely into those affections which they recommend , that in them we see both the correctness of reading , and the seriousness of speaking sermons , yet every one is not so happy : some by hanging their heads perpetually over their notes , by blundring as they read , and by a cursory running over them , do so lessen the matter of their sermons , that as they are generally read with very little life or affection , so they are heard with as little regard or esteem . those who read , ought certainly to be at a little more pains , than for most part they are , to read true , to pronounce with an emphasis , and to raise their heads , and to direct their eyes to their hearers : and if they practis'd more alone the just way of reading , they might deliver their sermons with much more advantage . man is a low sort of creature ; he does not , nay nor the greater part cannot consider things in themselves , without those little seasonings that must recommend them to their affections . that a discourse be heard with any life , it must be spoken with some ; and the looks and motions of the eye do carry in them such additions to what is said , that where these do not at all concur , it has not all the force upon them , that otherwise it might have : besides , that the people , who are too apt to censure the clergy , are easily carried into an obvious reflection on reading , that it is an effect of laziness . in pronouncing sermons , there are two ways ; the one is when a whole discourse is got by heart , and delivered word for word , as it was writ down : this is so vast a labour , that it is scarce possible that a man can be able to hold up long to it : yet there is an advantage even in this to beginners ; it fills their memories with good thoughts , and regular meditations : and when they have got some of the most important of their sermons by heart in so exact a manner , they are thereby furnished with topicks for discourse . and therefore there are at least two different subjects , on which i wish all preachers would be at the pains , to form sermons well in their memories : the one is the grounds of the covenant of grace , of both sides , god's offers to us in christ , and the conditions that he has required of us , in order to our reconciliation with him . this is so important a point , in the whole course of our ministry , that no man ought to be to seek in the opening or explaining it : and therefore that he may be ripe in it , he ought to have it all rightly laid in his memory , not only as to the notions of it , but to have such a lively description and illustration of it all , as to be able to speak of it sensibly , fully , and easily upon all occasions . another subject in which every minister ought also to be well furnished , is concerning death and iudgment ; that so when he visits the sick , and , as is common , that the neighbours come in , he may be able to make a grave exhortation , in weighty and fit words , upon those heads . less than this , i think no priest ought to have in his memory . but indeed , the more sermons a young beginner gets by heart , he has still thereby the more discourse ready upon those heads ; for though the whole contexture of the sermon will stick no longer than as he has occasion for it , yet a great deal will stay with him : the idea of the whole , with the most important parts of it , will remain much longer . but now i come to propose another method of preaching , by which a priest may be prepared , after a right view of his matter , a true understanding his text , and a digesting of his thoughts upon it into their natural and proper order , to deliver these both more easily to himself , and with a better effect both upon himself and his hearers . to come at this , he must be for some years at a great deal of pains to prepare himself to it : yet when that is over , the labour of all the rest of his life , as to those performances , will become very easy and very pleasant to him . the preparations to this must be these ; first he must read the scriptures very exactly , he must have great portions of them by heart ; and he must also in reading them , make a short concordance of them in his memory ; that is , he must lay together such passages as belong to the same matter ; to consider how far they agree or help to illustrate one another , and how the same thing is differently expressed in them ; and what various ideas or ways of recommending a thing rise out of this concordance . upon this a man must exercise himself much , draw notes of it , and digest it well in his thoughts . then he must be ready with the whole body of divinity in his head ; he must know what parts come in as objections to be answered , where difficulties lie , how one part coheres with another , and gives it light. he must have this very current in his memory , that he may have things lie before him in one full view ; and upon this , he is also to work , by making tables , or using such other helps as may lay matters clearly before him . he is more particularly to lay before him , a system of morality , of all vertues and vices , and of all the duties that arise out of the several relations of mankind ; that he m●y have this matter very full in his eye , and know what are the scriptures that belong to all the parts of it : he is also to make a collection of all such thoughts , as he finds either in the books of the ancien● philosophers , ( where seneca will be of great use to him ) or of christian authors : he is to separate such thoughts as are forced , and that do become rather a strained declamation made only to please , than a solid discourse designed to persuade . all these he must gather , or at least such a number of them , as may help him to form a distinct notion of that matter , so as to be able both to open it clearly , and to press it with affection and vehemence . these are the materials that must be laid together , the practice in using them comes next ; he that then would prepare himself to be a preacher in this method , must accustom himself to talk freely to himself , to let his thoughts flow from him , especially when he feels an edg and heat upon his mind ; for then happy expressions will come in his mouth , things will ventilate and open themselves to him , as he talks them thus in a soliloquy to himself . he must also be writing many essays upon all sorts of subjects ; for by writing he will bring himself to a correctness both in thinking and in speaking : and thus by a hard practice for two or three years , a man may render himself such a master in this matter , that he can never be surprised , nor will new thoughts ever dry up upon him . he must talk over to himself the whole body of divinity , and accustom himself to explain , and prove , to clear objections , and to apply every part of it to some practical use . he must go through human life , in all the ranks and degrees of it , and talk over all the duties of these ; consider the advantages or disadvantages in every one of them , their relation to one another , the morality of actions , the common vertues and vices of mankind ; more particularly the duties of christians , their obligations to meekness and humility , to forgive injuries , to relieve the poor , to bear the cross , to be patient and contented in every state of life , to pray much and fervently , to rejoice ever in god , and to be always praising him , and most particularly to be applying seriously to god through jesus christ , for mercy and pardon , and for his grace and spirit ; to be worshipping him devoutly in publick , and to be delighting frequently to commemorate the death of christ , and to partake of the benefits of it . all these , i say , he must talk over and over again to himself ; he must study to give his thoughts all the heat and flight about them that he can : and if in these his meditations , happy thoughts , and noble and tender expressions , do at any time offer themselves , he must not lose them , but write them down ; and in his pronouncing over such discourses to himself , he must observe what words sound harsh , and agree ill together ; for there is a musick in speaking , as well as in singing ; which a man , tho not otherwise critical in sounds , will soon discover . by a very few years practice of two or three of such soliloquies a day , chiefly in the morning when the head is clearest , and the spirits are liveliest , a man will contract a great easiness both in thinking and speaking . but the rule i have reserved last , is the most necessary of all , and without it all the rest will never do the business ; it is this , that a man must have in himself a deep sense of the truth and power of religion ; he must have a life and flame in his thoughts , with relation to those subjects : he must have felt in himself those things which he intends to explain and recommend to others . he must observe narrowly the motions of his own mind , the good and bad effects that the several sorts of objects he has before him , and affections he feels within him , have upon him ; that so he may have a lively heat in himself , when he speaks of them ; and that he may speak in so sensible a manner , that it may be almost felt that he speaks from his heart . there is an authority in the simplest things that can be said , when they carry visible characters of genuineness in them . now if a man can carry on this method , and by much meditation and prayer draw down divine influences , which are always to be expected , when a man puts himself in the way of them , and prepares himself for them ; he will often feel , that while he is musing , a fire is kindled within him , and then he will speak with authority , and without constraint ; his thoughts will be true , and his expressions free and easy : sometimes this fire will carry him , as it were , out of himself ; and yet without any thing that is frantick or enthusiastical . discourses brought forth with a lively spirit and heat , where a composed gesture , and the proper motions of the eye and countenance , and the due modulations of the voice concur , will have all the effect that can be expected from any thing that is below immediate inspiration : and as this will be of use to the hearers , so it will be of vast use to the preacher himself , to oblige him to keep his heart always in good tune and temper ; not to suffer irregular or forbidden appetites , passions , or projects to possess his mind : these will both divert him from going on in the course of meditation , in which a man must continue many years , till all his thoughts are put in order , polish'd and fixed ; they will make him likewise speak much against the grain , with an aversion that will be very sensible to himself , if not to his hearers : if he has guilt upon him , if his conscience is reproaching him , and if any ill practices are putting a damp upon that good sense of things , that makes his thoughts sparkle , upon other occasions , and gives him an air and authority , a tone of assurance , and a freedom of expression . such a method as i have been opening , has had great success with all those that i have known to have tried it . and tho every one has not that swiftness of imagination , nor that clearness of expression , that others may have , so that in this men may differ as much as they do in their written compositions ; yet every man by this method may rise far above that which he could ever have attained to any other way : it will make even exact compositions easier to him , and him much readier and freer at them . but great care must be used by him , before he suffers himself to speak with the liberty here aimed at in publick ; he must try himself at smaller excursions from his fixed thoughts , especially in the applicatory part , where flame and life are more necessary , and where a mistaken word , or an unfinished period are less observed , and sooner forgiven , than in the explanatory part , where men ought to speak more severely . and as one succeeds in some short excursions , he may give himself a farther scope ; and so by a long practice , he will at last arrive at so great an easiness , both in thinking and speaking , that a very little meditation will serve to lay open a text to him , with all the matter that belongs to it , together with the o●der in which it ought to be both explained and applied . and when a man has attained to a tolerable degree in this , he is then the master of his business ; he is master also of much time , and of many noble thoughts , and schemes that will arise out of them . this i shall prosecute no further ; for if this opening of it , does not excite the reader to follow it a little , no enlargements i can offer upon it , will work upon him . but to return to preaching , and so conclude this chapter . he that intends truly to preach the gospel , and not himself ; he that is more concerned to do good to others , than to raise his own fame , or to procure a following to himself , and that makes this the measure of all his meditations and sermons , that he may put things in the best light , and recommend them with the most advantage to his people ; that reads the scriptures much , and meditates often upon them ; that prays earnestly to god for direction in his labours , and for a blessing upon them ; that directs his chief endeavours to the most important , and most indispensible , as well as the most undeniable duties of religion ; and chiefly to the inward reformation of his hearers hearts , which will certainly draw all other lesser matters after it ; and that does not spend his time , nor his zeal , upon lesser or disputable points ; this man so made , and so moulded , cannot miscarry in his work : he will certainly succeed to some degree , the word spoken by him , shall not return again . he shall have his crown , and his reward from his labours : and to say all that can be said , in one word , with st. paul , he shall both save himself , and them that hear him . the conclvsion . i have now gone over all that seemed to me most important upon this head , of the pastoral care , with as much shortness and clearness as i could : so now i am to conclude . the discourse may justly seem imperfect , since i say nothing concerning the duties incumbent on bishops . but i will upon this occasion say very little on that head. the post i am in , gives me a right to teach priests and deacons their duty ; therefore i thought , that without any great presumption , i might venture on it : but i have been too few years in the higher order , to take upon me to teach them , from whom i shall ever be ready to learn. this is certain , that since , as was formerly said , the inferiour orders subsist in the superior , bishops must still be under all the obligations of priests : they are then , take the matter at lowest , bound to live , to labour , and to preach as well as they . but why are they raised to a higher rank of dignity and order , an encrease of authority , and an extent of cure ? and why have christian princes and states , given them great revenues , and an accession of secular honours ? all this must certainly import their obligation to labour more eminently , and to lay themselves out more entirely in the work of the gospel : in which , if the greatest encouragements and assistances , the highest dignities and priviledges , belong to them , then according to our saviour's example and decision , who came not to be ministred unto , but to minister ; and who declared , that he who is first shall be last , and he who is the greatest must be the servant of all ; then i say , the higher that any are raised in this ministry , they ought to lay themselves out the more entirely in it , and labour the more abundantly . and as our obligations to christ and his church , tie us to a greater zeal and diligence , and to a more constant application of our care and thoughts ; so the secular supports of our honours and revenues were given us to enable us to go through with that extent of care and iurisdiction that lies upon us . we are not only watchmen to watch over the flock , but likewise over the watchmen themselves . we keep the door of the sanctuary , and will have much to answer for , if through our remissness or feeble easiness , if by trusting the examination of those we ordain to others , and yielding to intercession and importunity , we bring any into the service of the church , who are not duly qualified for it . in this , we must harden our selves , and become inexorable , if we will not partake in other mens sins , and in the mischiefs that these may bring upon the church . it is a false pity , and a cruel compassion , if we suffer any considerations to prevail upon us in this matter , but those which the gospel directs . the longer that we know them before we ordain them , the more that we sift them , and the greater variety of trials , through which we make them pass , we do thereby both secure the quiet of our own consciences the more , as well as the dignity of holy things , and the true interest of religion and the church : for these two interests must never be separated ; they are but one and the same in themselves ; and what god has joined together , we must never set asunder . we must be setting constantly before our clergie , their obligations to the several parts of their duty ; we must lay these upon them , when we institute or collate them to churches , in the solemnest manner , and with the weightiest words we can find . we must then lay the importance of the care of souls before them , and adjure them , as they will answer to god in the great day , in which we must appear to witness against them , that they will seriously consider and observe their ordination-vows , and that they will apply themselves wholly to that one thing . we must keep an eye upon them continually ; and be applying reproofs , exhortations , and encouragements , as occasion offers : we must enter into all their concerns , and espouse every interest of that part of the church that is assigned to their care : we must see them as oft as we can , and encourage them to come frequently to us ; and must live in all things with them , as a father with his children . and that every thing we say to stir them up to their duty , may have its due weight , we must take care so to order our selves , that they may evidently see , that we are careful to do our own . we must enter into all the parts of the worship of god with them ; not thinking our selves too good for any piece of service that may be done ; visiting the sick , admitting poor and indigent persons , or such as are troubled in mind , to come to us ; preaching of● , catechising and confirming frequently ; and living in all things like men that study to fulfil their ministry , and to do the work of evangelists . there has been an opinion of late , much favoured by some great men in our church ; that the bishop is the sole pastor of his whole diocess ; that the care of all the souls is singly in him , and that all the incumbents , in churches , are only his curates in the different parts of his parish , which was the ancient designation of his diocess . i know there are a great many passages brought from antiquity to favour this : i will not enter into the question , no not so far as to give my own opinion of it . this is certain , that such as are persuaded of it , ought thereby to consider themselves as under very great and strict obligations , to constant labour and diligence ; otherwise , it will be thought , that they only favour this opinion , because it encreases their authority , without considering that necessary consequence that follows upon it . but i will go no further on this subject , at this time , having said so much only , that i may not seem to fall under that heavy censure of our saviour's , with relation to the scribes and pharisees , that they did bind heavy burdens , and grievous to be born , upon others ; and laid them upon mens shoulders , when they themselves would not move them with one of their fingers . i must leave the whole matter with my readers . i have now laid together with great simplicity what has been the chief subject of my thoughts for above thirty years . i was formed to them by a bishop that had the greatest elevation of soul , the largest compass of knowledg , the most mortified and most heavenly disposition , that i ever yet saw in mortal ; that had the greatest parts as well as vertues , with the perfectest humility that i ever saw in man ; and had a sublime strain in preaching , with so grave a gesture , and such a majesty both of thought , of language , and of pronunciation , that i never once saw a wandring eye where he preached ; and have seen whole assemblies often melt in tears before him ; and of whom , i can say with great truth , that in a free and frequent conversation with him , for above two and twenty years , i never knew him say an idle word , that had not a direct tendency to edification : and i never once saw him in any other temper , but that which i wished to be in , in the last minutes of my life . for that pattern which i saw in him , and for that conversation which i had with him , i know how much i have to answer to god : and though my reflecting on that which i knew in him , gives me just cause of being deeply humbled in my self , and before god ; yet i feel no more sensible pleasure in any thing , than in going over in my thoughts all that i saw and observed in him . i have also another reason , that has determined me at this time , to prepare this discourse , and to offer it to the publick ; from the present posture of our affairs . we arenow brought very near the greatest crisis that ever church or nation had . and as on the one hand , if god should so far punish us for our sins , for our contempt of his gospel , and neglect of our duties , as to deliver us over to the rage of our enemies ; we have nothing to look for , but a persecution more dreadful than any is in history : so if god hears our prayers , and gives us a happy issue out of all those dangers , with which the malice of our enemies threaten us ; we have in view the greatest prospect of a blessed and lasting settlement , that even our wishes can propose to us . now nothing can so certainly avert the one , or prepare us to glorify god in it , if he in his justice and wisdom should call us to a fiery trial of our faith , and patience ; as the serious minding of our functions , of our duties and obligations , the confessing of our sins , and the correcting of our errors . we shall be very unfit to suffer for our religion , much less to die for it , and very little able to endure the hardships of persecution , if our consciences are reproaching us all the while , that we have procured these things to our selves ; and that by the ill use of our prosperity , and other advantages , we have kindled a fire to consume us . but as we have good reason from the present state of affairs , as well as from the many eminent deliverances , and happy providences , which have of late , in so signal a manner , watched over and protected us , to hope that god according to the riches of his mercy , and for the glory of his great name , will hear the prayers that many good souls offer up , rather than the cry of those abominations that are still among us : so nothing can so certainly hasten on the fixing of our tranquillity , and the compleating our happiness , as our lying often between the porch and the altar , and interceding with god for our people ; and our giving our selves wholly to the ministry of the word of god , and to prayer . these being then the surest means , both to procure and to establish to us , all those great and glorious things that we pray and hope for ; this seemed to me a very proper time to publish a discourse of this nature . but that which made it an act of obedience , as well as zeal , was the authority of my most reverend metropolitan ; who , i have reason to believe , employs his time and thoughts , chiefly to consider what may yet be wanting to give our church a greater beauty and perfection ; and what are the most proper means both of purifying and uniting us . to which i thought nothing could so well prepare the way , as the offering to the publick a plain and full discourse of the pastoral care , and of every thing relating to it . his grace approved of this , and desired me to set about it : upon these motives i writ it , with all the simplicity and freedom that i thought the subject required , and sent it to him ; by whose particular approbation i publish it , as i writ it at his direction . there is indeed one of my motives that i have not yet mentioned , and on which i cannot enlarge so fully as i well might . but while we have such an invaluable and unexampled blessing , in the persons of those princes whom god hath set over us ; if all the considerations which arise out of the deliverances that god has given us by their means , of the protection we enjoy under them , and of the great hopes we have of them : if , i say , all this does not oblige us , to set about the reforming of every thing that may be amiss or defective among us , to study much , and to labour hard ; to lead strict and exemplary lives , and so to stop the mouths , and overcome the prejudices , of all that divide from us ; this will make us look like a nation cast off and forsaken of god , which is nigh unto cursing , and whose end is burning . we have reason to conclude , that our present blessings are the last essays of god's goodness to us , and that if we bring forth no fruit under these , the next sentence shall be , cut it down , why cumbreth it the ground ? these things lie heavy on my thoughts continually , and have all concurred to draw this treatise from me ; which i have writ with all the sincerity of heart , and purity of intention , that i should have had , if i had known that i had been to die at the conclusion of it , and to answer for it to god. to him i humbly offer it up , together with my most earnest prayers , that the design here so imperfectly offered at , may become truly effectual , and have its full progress and accomplishment ; which whensoever i shall see , i shall then with joy , say , nunc dimittis , &c. finis . books sold by richard chiswell . books written by gilbert burnet , d. d. now lord bishop of sarum . the history of the reformation of the church of england , in 2 volumes . folio . — abridgment of the said history . octavo . — vindication of the ordinations of the church of england . quarto . — history of the rights of princes in disposing of ecclesiastical benefices and church-lands . octavo . — life of william bedel , d. d. bishop of kilmore in ireland ; together with the copies of certain letters which passed between spain and england in matter of religion , concerning the general motives to the roman obedience : between mr. iames wadsworth a late pensioner of the holy inquisition in sevil , and the said william bedel then minister of the gospel in suffolk . octavo . — some passages of the life and death of iohn late earl of rochester . octavo . — examination of the letter writ by the late assembly-general of the clergy of france to the protestants , inviting them to return to their communion ; together with the methods proposed by them for their conviction . octavo . — a collection of seventeen tracts and discourses written in the years 1678 to 1685 , inclusive . quarto . — a second volume , or a collection of eighteen papers relating to the affairs of church and state during the reign of k. iames the second . with twelve others published a little before and since the late revolution , to christmas , 1689. — fast-sermon at bow-church ; march 12 , 1689. on luke 19.41 , 42. — fast-sermon before the queen ; iuly 16 , 1690. on psal. 85.8 . — thanksgiving-sermon before the king and queen ; octob. 19 , 1690. on psal. 144.10 , 11. — fast-sermon before the king and queen ; april 19 , 1691. on psal. 12.1 . — thanksgiving-sermon before the king and queen ; nov. 26. 1691 : on prov. 20.28 . — sermon at the funeral of robert boyle , esq ian. 7. 1691. on eccles. 11.26 . dr. alix's remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the ancient churches of piedmont and the albigenses . in two parts . quarto . the jesuits memorial for the intended reformation of england under their first popish prince . written by father parsons 1596 , and prepared to be proposed in the first parliament after the restoration of popery , for the better establishment and preservation of that religion . published from the very manuscript copy that was presented to the late king iames the second , and found in his closet . with an introduction , and some animadversions by edward gee , chaplain to their majesties . octavo . dr. c●mberland ( now lord bishop of peterborough ) his essay towards the recovery of the jewish measures and weights , comprehending their monies ; by help of antient standards compared with ours of england , useful also to state many of those of the greeks and romans and the eastern nations . octavo . dr. stratford ( now lord bishop of chester ) his disswasive from revenge . octavo . — the lay-christian's obligation to read the holy scriptures . quarto . — a discourse concerning the popes supremacy . quarto . dr. cave's dissertation concerning the government of the antient church by bishops , metropolitans and patriarchs . octavo . two letters betwixt mr. rich. smith and dr. h●n . hammond , concerning the sense of that a●ticle in the creed [ he descended into hell. ] octavo . dr. puller's moderation of the church of england . octavo . jacobi usserii historia dogmatica controvers . inter orthodoxos & pontificios de scripturis & sacris vernaculis . quarto , 1690. tho. pope-blunt censura celebriorum authorum , sive tractatus in quo varia virorum doctorum de clariss . cujusque saeculi scriptoribus judicia traduntur . fol. 1690. gul. camdeni & illustrium virorum ad gul. camdenum epistolae . quarto , 1691. anglia sacra , sive collectio historiarum antiquitus scriptarum de archiepisc. & episcopis angliae , a prima fidei christianae susceptione ad annum 1540. opera hen. whartoni , in 2 vol. folio , 1691. mr. rushworth's historical collections , the third part , in two volumes , never before printed ; from the beginning of the long parliament 1640 , to the end of the year 1644 : wherein is a particular account of the rise and progress of the civil war to that period . folio . 1692. stephani chauvin lexicon rationale , sive thesaurus philosophicus , 1692. folio . sam. basnagii exercitationes historico-criticae de rebus sacris & ecclesiasticis . quarto , 1692. tho. crenii collectio consiliorum de studiis optime instituendis . quarto , 1692. — ejusdem fascicul●s dissertationum hist. critico-philologicarum . octavo , 1691. basilii fabri thesaurus eruditionis scholasticae , cum innumeris additionibus per aug. buchnerum & christoph. cellarium . lips. folio , 1692. ludov. seckendorf historia lutheranismi . folio , 1692. laurentii begeri observationes & conjecturae in numismata quaedam antiqua . quarto , 1691. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30336-e1140 1 phil. 16. malach. 2.7 , 8 , 9. jer. 10.21 . notes for div a30336-e2870 1 tim 5 . 1● . isa. 40.11 . joh. 10.1 . 1 cor 4.1 , ● . 2 cor. 5.19 , 20. rev. 2.3 . ch . 2 cor. 8.23 . 3. heb. 7 , 17. 3. ezek. 17. 1 cor. 3.10 . 1 cor 3.9 st. matth. 20 1. st. matt. 9.37 , 38. 1 cor. 3.6 . 2. philip. 25. st. matth. 20.28 . john 13.5 . levit. 8. levit. 21 ▪ 1. le●it 〈…〉 l●●it . 10. ● 〈…〉 1 sam. 2d & 3d ch. isa. 56.10 . ●er 5.2 . ezek. 14.14 . jer. 2.8 . jer. 5.32 . jer. 6.13 . jer. 23.22 . v. 11. v. 48. jer. 3.15 . ezek. 3.17 . ezek. 33.7 . ezek. 22.26 . ●●ek . 34 2. v. 3. v. 4. v. 10. dan. 12.3 . hos. 4.1 , 2 , 6. joel 2.17 . ch . 3. v. 11. zech. 11.15 . mal. 2.1 . 9 s. matth. 37. 12 st. lu●e 42. 12 st. io. 15. 20 acts 28. v. 19. v. 20. v. 26. 〈…〉 1 cor. 4.2 . 1 cor. 9.14 . ●ct● 6. ● . 2 cor. 4.1.2 4 eph. 11 ▪ 12.13 . ● col. 17. 1 tim. 4.12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16. 1 tim. 5.21.22 . 2 tim. ● . 2 , ● , 4. v. 5. v. 15. v. 24 , 25 , 26. 2 tim. 3.15 . v. 16.17 . 2 tim. 4.1.2 . v. ● . v. 6. v. 7. v. 8. v. 20. 1 tit. 6. 2 tit. 7.8 . v. 15. 1 tim. 4.12 . 13 heb. 7. v. 17. cor. 9 ●3 , 14. math. 23.2 , 3. a collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by g. burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 approx. 179 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 25 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30329) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 66365) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1522:7) a collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by g. burnet. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 49 p. in various pagings. printed at amsterdam, and sold by j. robinson in london, [amsterdam] : mdclxxxix [1689] "reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test" has special t.p. and 1687 imprint date. imperfect: pages cropped with slight loss of print. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. a letter, containing some remarks on the two papers, writ by his late majesty king charles the second, concerning religion -reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test -some reflections on his majesty's proclamation -by the king, a proclamation -a letter, containing some reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience -an answer to mr. henry payne's letter concerning his majesty's declaration of indulgence -the earle of melfort's letter to the presbyterian ministers in scotland -an answer to a paper printed with allowance, entitled, a new test of the church of england's loyalty. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng payne, henry. -an answer to a scandalous pamphlet entituled a letter to a dissenter concerning his majesties late declaration of indulgence. catholic church -infallibility. church and state -england. liberty of conscience. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2004-07 spi global rekeyed and resubmitted 2004-08 rachel losh sampled and proofread 2004-08 rachel losh text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government . written by g. bvrnet , d. d. printed at amsterdam , and sold by j. robinson in london , mdclxxxix . a letter , containing some remarks on the two papers , writ by his late majesty king charles the second , concerning religion . sir , i thank you for the two royal papers , that you have sent me : i had heard of them before , but now we have them so well attested , that there is no hazard of being deceived by a false copy : you expect that in return , i should let you know , what impression they have made upon me . i pay all the reverence that is due to a crown'd head , even in ashes ; to which i will never be wanting : far less am i capable of suspecting the royal attestation that accompanies them ; of the truth of which i take it for granted no man doubts ; but i must crave leave to tell you , that i am confident , the late king only copied them , and that they are not of his composing : for as they have nothing of that free air , with which he expressed himself ; so there is a contexture in them , that does not look like a prince ; and the beginning of the first shewes it was the effect of a conversation , and was to be communicated to another : so that i am apt to think they were composed by another , and were so well relished by the late king , that he thought fit to keep them , in order to his examining them more particularly : and that he was prevailed with to copy them , lest a paper of that nature might have been made a crime , if it had been found about him written by another hand : and i could name one or two persons , who as they were able enough to compose such papers , so had power enough over his spirit to engage him to copy them , and to put themselves out of danger by restoring the original . you ought to address your self to the learned divines of our church , for an answer to such things in them as pussle you , and not to one that has not the honour to be of that body ; and that has now carried a sword for some time , and imploys the leasure that at any time he enjoyes , rather in philosophical and mathematical enquiries , than in matters of controversy . there is indeed one consideration that determined me more easily to comply with your desires , which is , my having had the honour to discourse copiously of those matters with the late king himself : and he having proposed to me some of the particulars that i find in those papers , & i having said several things to him , in answer to those heads , which he offered to me only as objections , with which he seemed fully satisfied , i am the more willing to communicate to you , that which i took the liberty to lay before his late majesty on several occasions : the particulars on which he insisted in discourse with me , were the uselesness of a law without a judge , and the neecssity of an infallible tribunal to determine controversies ▪ to which he added , the many sects that were in england , which seemed to be a necessary consequence of the liberty that every one took to interpret the scriptures : and he often repeated that of the church of englands arguing , from the obligation to obey the church , against the sectaries , which he thought was of no force , unless they allowed more authority to the church than they seemed willing to admit , in their disputes with the church of rome . but upon this whole matter i will offer you some reflections , that will , i hope , be of as great weight with you , as they are with my self . i. all arguments that prove upon such general considerations , that there ought to be an infallible judge named by christ , and clothed with his authority , signify nothing , unless it can be shewed us , in what texts of scripture that nomination is to be found ; and till that is shewed , they are only arguments brought to prove that christ ought to have done somewhat that he has not done . so these are in effect so many arguments against christ , unless it appears that he has authorised such a iudge : therefore the right way to end this dispute , is , to shew where such a constitution is authorised : so that the most that can be made of this is , that it amounts to a favorable presumption . ii. it is a very unreasonable thing for us to form presumptions , of what is , or ought to be , from inconveniences that do arise , in case that such things are not : for we may carry this so far , that it will not be easie to stop it . it seems more sutable to the infinite goodness of god , to communicate the knowledge of himself to all mankind , and to furnish every man with such assistances as will certainly prevail over him . it seems also reasonable to think , that so perfect a saviour as iesus christ was , should have shewed us a certain way , and yet consistent with the free use of our faculties , of avoiding all sin : nor is it very easy to imagine , that it should be a reproach on his gospel , if there is not an infallible preservative against errour , when it is acknowledged , that there is no infallible preservative against sin : for it is certain , that the one damns us more infallibly , than the other . iii. since presumptions are so much insisted on , to prove what things must be appointed by christ ; it is to be considered , that it is also a reasonable presumption , that if such a court was appointed by him , it must be done in such plain terms that there can be no room to question the meaning of them : and since this is the hinge upon which all other matters turn , it ought to be expressed so particularly , in whom it is vested , that there should be no occasion given to dispute , whether it is in one man or in a body ; and if in a body , whether in the majority , or in the two thirds , or in the whole body unanimously agreeing : in short , the chief thing in all governments being the nature and power of the judges , those are always distinctly specified ; and therefore if these things are not specified in the scriptures ; it is at least a strong presumption , that christ did not intend to authorise such judges . iv. there were several controversies raised among the churches to which the apostles writ , as appears by the epistles to the romans , corinthians , galatians and colossians , yet the apostles never make use of those passages that are pretended for this authority to put an end to those controversies ; which is a shrewd presumption , that they did not understand them in that sense in which the church of rome does now take them . nor does st. paul in the directions that he gives to church-men in his epistles to timothy and titus , reckon this of submitting to the directions of the church for one , which he could not have omitted , if this be the true meaning of those disputed passages : and yet he has not one word sounding that way , which is very different from the directions which one possessed with the present , view that the church of rome has of this matter must needs have givē . v. there are some things very expresly taught in the n. testament , such as the rules of a good life , the use of the sacraments , the addressing our selves to god for mercy and grace , thro the sacrifice that christ offered for us on the cross , and the worshipping him as god , the death , resurrection and ascension of jesus christ , the resurrection of our bodies and life everlasting : by which it is apparent , that we are set beyond doubt in those matters ; if then there are other passages more obscure concerning other matters , we must conclude , that these are not of that consequence , otherwise they would have been as plainly revealed as the others are ; but above all , if the authority of the church is delivered to us in disputable terms , that is a just prejudice against it , since it is a thing of such consequence , that it ought to have been revealed in a way so very clear and past all dispute . vi. if it is a presumption for particular persons to judge concerning religion , which must be still referred to the priests & other guides in sacred matters ; this is a good argument to oblige all nations to continue in the established religion , whatever it may happen to be ; and above all others , it was a convincing argument in the mouths of the jewes against our saviour . he pretended to be the messias , and proved it both by the prophesies that were accomplished in him , and by the miracles that he wrought : as for the prophesies , the reasons urged by the church of rome will conclude much stronger , that such dark passages as those of the prophets were , ought not to be interpreted by particular persons , but that the exposition of these must be referred to the priests and sanhedrin , it being expresly provided in their law ( deut. 17.8 . ) that when controversies arose , concerning any cause that was too intricate , they were to go to the place which god should choose , and to the priests of the tribe of levi , & to the judge in those daies , & that they were to declare what was right , & to their decision all were obliged to submit , under pain of death : so that by this it appears , that the priests in the jewish religion were authorised in so extraordinary a manner , that i dare say the church of rome would not wish for a more formal testimony on her behalf : as for our saviours miracles , these were not sufficient neither , unless his doctrine was first found to be good : since moses had expresly warned the people ( deut. 13.1 . ) that if a prophet came and taught them to follow after other gods , they were not to obey him , tho he wrought miracles to prove his mission , but were to put him to death : so a jew saying , that christ , by making himself one with his father , brought in the wors●hip of another god , might well pretend that he was not obliged to yield to the authority of our saviours miracles , without taking cognisance of his doctrine , and of the prophesies concerning the messias , and in a word , of the whole matter . so that , if these reasonings are now good against the reformation , they were as strong in the mouths of the iewes against our saviour : and from hence we see , that the authority that seems to be given by moses to the priests , must be understood with some restrictions ; since we not only find the prophets , and ieremy in particular , opposing themselves to the whole body of them , but we see likewise , that for some considerable time before our saviour's dayes , not only many ill-grounded traditions had got in among them , by which the vigour of the moral law was much enervated , but likewise they were also universally possessed with a false notion of their messias ; so that even the apostles themselves had not quite shaken off those prejudices at the time of our saviour's ascension . so that ▪ here a church , that was still the church of god , that had the appointed means of the expiation of their sins , by their sacrifices and washings , as well as by their circumcision , was yet under great and fatal errors , from which particular persons had no way to extricate themselves , but by examining the doctrine and texts of scripture , and by judging of them according to the evidence of truth , and the force & freedom of their faculties . vii . it seems evident , that the passage [ tell the church ] belongs only to the reconciling of differences : ●hat of [ binding & of loosing , ] according to the use of those terms among the iews , signifies only an authority that was given to the apostles , of giving precepts , by which men were to be obliged to such duties , or set at liberty from them : and [ the gates of hell not prevailing against the church ] signifys only , that the christian religion was never to come to an end , or to perish : & that of [ christs being with the apostles to the end of the world ] imports only a special conduct & protection which the church may alwayes expect , but as the promise , i will not leave thee nor forsake thee ; that belongs to every christian , does not import an infallibility : no more does the other : and for those passages concerning [ the spirit of god that searches all things ] it is plain , that in them st. paul is treating of the divine inspiration , by which the christian religion was then opened to the world ; which he sets in opposition to the wisdom or philosophy of the greeks ; so that as all those passages come far short of proving that for which they are alledged , it must at least be acknowledged , that they have not an evidence great enough to prove so important a truth , as some would evince by them ; since 't is a matter of such vast consequence , that the proofs for it must have an undeniable evidence . viii . in the matters of religion two things are to be considered , first , the account that we must give to god , and the rewards that we expect from him : and in this every man must answer for the sincerity of his heart , in examining divine matters , and the following what ( upon the best enquiries that one could make ) appeared to be true : and with relation to this , there is no need of a iudge ▪ for in that great day every one must answer to god according to the talents thar he had , and all will be saved according to their ●incerity ; and with relation to that judgement , there is no need of any other judge but god. a second view of religion , is as it is a body united together , & by consequence brought under some regulation : and as in all states , there are subalterne iudges , in whose decisions all must at least acquiesce , tho they are not infallible , there being still a sort of an appeal to be made to the soveraigne or the supream legsliative body ; so the church has a subalterne iurisdiction : but as the authority of inferiour judges is still regulated , and none but the legislators themselves have an authority equal to the law ; so it is not necessary for the preservation of peace and order , that the decisions of the church should be infallible , or of equal authority with the scriptures . if judges do so manifestly abuse their authority , that they fall into rebellion and treason , the subjects are no more bound to consider them ; but are obliged to resist them , and to maintain their obedience to their soveraign ; tho' in other matters their judgment must take place , till they are reversed by the soveraign . the case of religion being then this , that jesus christ is the soveraign of the church ; the assembly of the pastors is only a subalterne iudge : if they manifestly oppose themselves to the scriptures , which is the law of christians , particular persons may be supposed as competent iudges of that , as in civill matters they may be of the rebellion of the iudges , and in that case they are bound still to mantain their obedience to iesus christ. in matters indifferent , christians are bound , for the preservation of peace and unity , to acquiesce in the decisions of the church , and in matters justly doubtful , or of small consequence , tho they are convinced that the pastors have erred , yet they are obliged to be silent , and to bear tolerable things , rather than make a breach : but if it is visible , that the pastors do rebel against the soveraign of the church , i mean christ , the people may put in their appeal to that great iudge , and there it must lie . if the church did use this authority with due discretion , and the people followed the rules that i have named with humility and modesty , there would be no great danger of many divisions ; but this is the great secret of the providence of god , that men are still men , and both pastors and people mix their passions and interests so with matters of religion , that as there is a great deal of sin and vice still in the world , so that appears in the matters of religion as well as in other things : but the ill consequences of this , tho they are bad enough , yet are not equal to the effects that ignorant superstition , and obedient zeal have produced in the world , witness the rebellions and wars for establishing the worship of images ; the croissades against the saracens , in which many millions were lost ; those against hereticks , and princes deposed by popes , which lasted for some ages ; and the massacre of paris , with the butcheries of the duke of alva in the last age , and that of ireland in this : which are , i suppose , far greater mischiefs than any that can be imagined to arise out of a small diversity of opinions : and the present state of this church , notwithstanding all those unhappy rents that are in it , is a much more desirable thing , than the gross ignorance and blind superstition that reigns in italy and spain at this day . ix . all these reasonings concerning the infallibility of the church signify nothing , unless we can certainly know , whither we must go for this decision : for while one party shewes us , that it must be in the pope , or is no where , and another party sayes it cannot be in the pope , because as many popes have erred , so this is a doctrine that was not known in the church for a thousand years , and that has been disputed ever since it was first asserted , we are in the right to believe both sides ; first , that if it is not in the pope , it is no where ; and then , that certainly it is not in the pope ; and it is very incongruous to say , that there is an infallible authority in the church , and that yet it is not certain where one must seek for it ; for the one ought to be as clear as the other ; and it is also plain , that what primacy so ever st. peter may be supposed to have had , the scripture sayes not one word of his successors at rome ; so at least this is not so clear , as a matter of this consequence must have been , if christ had intended to have lodged such an authority in that see. x. it is no less incongruous to say , that this infallibility is in a general council : for it must be somewhere else , otherwise it will return only to the church by some starts , and after long intervals : and as it was not in the church , for the first 320 years , so it has not been in the church these last 120 ▪ years . it is plain also , that there is no regulation given in the scriptures , concerning this great assembly , who have a right to come & vote , and what forfeits this right , and what numbers must concur in a decision , to assure us of the infallibility of the iudgment . it is certain , there was never a general council of all the pastors of the church : for those of which we have the acts , were only the councils of the roman empire , but for those churches that were in the south of africk , or the eastern parts of asia ▪ beyond the bounds of the roman empire , as they could not be summoned by the emperours authority , so it is certain none of them were present : unless one or two of persia at nice , which perhaps was a corner of persia belonging to the empire ; and unless it can be proved , that the pope has an absolute authority to cut off whole churches from their right of coming to councils , there has been no general council these last 700. years in the world , ever since the bishops of rome have excommunicated all the greek churches upon such trifling reasons , that their own writers are now ashamed of them ; and i will ask no more of a man of a competent understanding , to satisfy him that the council of trent was no general council , acting in that freedom that became bishops , than that he will be at the pains to read card. pallavicins history of that council . xi . if it is said , that this infallibility is to be sought for in the tradition of the doctrine in all ages , and that every particular person must examine this : here is a sea before him , and instead of examining the small book of the n. testament , he is involved in a study that must cost a man an age to go thro it ; and many of the ages , thro which he caries this enquiry , are so dark , and have produced so few writers , at least so few are preserved to our dayes , that it is not possible to 〈◊〉 out their belief . we find also traditions have varied so much that it is hard to say that there is much weight to be laid on this way of conveyance . a tradition concerning matters of fact that all people see , is less apt to fail than a tradition of points of speculation : and yet we see very near the age of the apostles , contrary traditions touching the observation of easter , from which we must conclude , that either the matter of fact of one side , or the other , as it was handed down , was not true , or at least that it was not rightly understood . a tradition concerning the use of the sacraments being a visible thing , is more likely to be exact , than a speculation concerning their nature ; and yet we find a tradition of giving infants the communion , grounded on the indispensible necessity of the sacrament , continued a thousand years in the church . a tradition on which the christians founded their joy and hope , is less like to be changed , than a more remote speculation , and yet the first writers of the christian religion had a tradition handed down to them by those who saw the apostles , of the reign of christ for a thousand years upon earth ; and if those who had matters at second hand from the apostles , could be thus mistaken , it is more reasonable to apprehend greater errours at such a distance . a tradition concerning the book of the scriptures is more like to be exact , than the exposition of some passages in it ; and yet we find the church did unanimously believe the translation of the 70. interpreters to have been the effect of a miraculous inspiration , till st. ierome examined this matter better , and made a new translation from the hebrew copies . but which is more then all the rest , it seems plain , that the fathers befor the council of nice believed the divinity of the son of god to be in some sort inferiour to that of the father , and for some ages after the council of nice , they believed them indeed both equal , but they considered these as two different beings , and only one in essence , as , three men have the same humane nature in common among them ; and that as one candle lights another , so the one flowed from another ; and after the fifth century the doctrine of one individual essence was received . if you will be farther informed concerning this , father petau will satisfy you as to the first period before the council of nice , and the learned dr. cudmorth as to the second . in all which particulars it appears , how variable a thing tradition is . and upon the whole matter , the examining tradition thus , is still a searching among books , and here is no living judge . xii . if then the authority that must decide controversies , lies in the body of the pastors scattered over the world , which is the last retrenchment , here as many and as great scruples will arise , as we found in any of the former heads . two difficulties appear at first view , the one is , how can we be assured that the present pastors of the church are derived in a just succession from the apostles : there are no registers extant that prove this : so that we have nothing for it but some histories , that are so carelesly writ , that we find many mistakes in them in other matters ; and they are so different in the very first links of that chain , that immediatly succeeded the apostles , that the utmost can be made of this is , that here is a historical relation somewhat doubtful ; but here is nothing to found our faith on : so that if a succession from the apostles times , is necessary to the constitution of that church , to which we must submit our selves , we know not where to find it : besides that , the doctrine of the necessity of the intention of the minister to the validity of a sacrament , throws us into inextricable difficulties . i know they generally say , that by the intention they do not mean the inward acts of the minister of the sacrament , but only that it must appear by his outward deportment , that he is in earnest going about a sacrament , and not doing a thing in jest ; and this appeared so reasonable to me , that i was sorry to find our divines urge it too much : till turning over the rubricks that are at the beginning of the missal , i found upon the head of the intention of the minister , that if a priest has a number of hoslies before him to be consecrated , and intends to consecrate them all , except one , in that case that vagrant exception falls upon them all : it not being affixed to any one , and it is defined that he consecrates none at all . here it is plain , that the secret acts of a priest can defeat the sacrament ▪ so that this overthrows all certainty concerning a succession : but besides all this , we are sure , that the greek churches have a much more uncontested succession than the latines : so that a succession cannot direct us . and if it is necessary to seek out the doctrines that are universally received , this is not possible for a private man to know . so that in ignorant countries , where there is little study , the people have no other certainty concerning their religion , but what they take from their curate and confessor : since they cannot examine what is generally received . so that it must be confessed that all the arguments that are brought for the necessity of a constant infallible iudge , turn against all those of the church of rome , that do not acknowledge the infallibility of the pope : for if he is not infallible , they have no other iudge , that can pretend to it . it were also easy to shew , that some doctrines have been as universally received in some ages , as they have been rejected in others ʒ which shews , that the doctrine of the present church is not alwayes a sure measure . for five ages together , the doctrine of the popes power to depose heretical princes was received without the least opposition : and this cannot be doubted by any that knows what has been the state of the church since the end of the eleventh century : & yet i believe , few princes would allow this , notwithstanding all the concurring authority of so many ages to fortify it . i could carry this into a great many other instances , but i single out this , because it is a point in which princes are naturally extream sensible . upon the whole matter , it can never enter into my mind , that god , who has made man a creature , that naturally enquires and reasons , and that feels as sensible a pleasure when he can give himself a good account of his actions , as one that sees , does perceive in comparison to a blind man that is led about ; and that this god , that has also made religion on design to perfect this humane nature , and to raise it to the utmost height to which it can arrive , has contrived it to be dark , and to be so much beyond the penetration of our faculties , that we cannot find out his mind in those things that are necessary for our salvation : and that the scriptures , that were writ by plain men , in a very familiar stile , and addrest without any discrimination to the vulgar , should become such an unintelligible book in these ages , that we must have an infallible iudge to expound it : and when i see not only popes , but even some bodies that pass for general councils , have so expounded many passages of it , and have wrested them so visibly , that none of the modern writers of that church pretend to excuse it , i say i must freely own to you , that when i find i need a commentary on dark passages , these will be the last persons to whom i will address my self for it . thus you see how fully i have opened my mind to you in this matter ; i have gone over a great deal of ground in as few words as is possible , because hints i know are enough for you ; i thank god , these considerations do fully satisfy me , and i will be infinitely joyed , if they have the same effect on you . i am yours . this letter came to london with the return of the first post after his late majesties papers were sent into the countrey ; some that saw it , liked it well , and wished to have it publick , and the rather , because the writer did not so entirely consine himself to the reasons that were in those papers , but took the whole controversy to task in a little compass , and yet with a great variety of reflections . and this way of examining the whole matter , without following those papers word for word , or the finding more fault than the common concern of this cause required , seemed more aggreeing to the respect that is due to the dead , and more particularly to the memory of so great a prince ; but other considerations made it not so easy nor so adviseable to procure a license for the printing this letter , it has been kept in private hands till now : those who have boasted much of the shortness of the late kings papers , and of the length of the answers that have been made to them , will not find so great a disproportion between them and this answer to them . finis . reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test . humbly offered to the consideration of the members of both houses , at their next meeting on the 28th of april 1687. printed in the year 1687. reasons against the repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test . humbly offered to the consideration of the members of both houses , at their next meeting on the 28th of april 1687. i if the just apprehensions of the danger of popery gave the birth to the two laws for the two tests , the one with relation to all publick emploiments in 73. and the other with relation to the constitution of our parliaments for the future in 78. the present time and conjuncture does not seem so proper for repealing them ; unless it can be imagined , that the danger of popery is now so much less than it was formerly , that we need be no more on our guard against it . we had a king , when these laws were enacted , who as he declared himself to be of the church of england , by receiving the sacrament four times a year in it , so in all his speeches to his parliaments , and in all his declarations to his subjects , he repeated the assurances of his firmness to the protestant religion so solemnly and frequently , that if the saying a thing often gives just reason to believe it , we had as much reason as ever people had to depend upon him : and yet for all that , it was thought necessary to fortify those assurances with laws : and it is not easy to imagin , why we should throw away those , when we have a prince that is not only of another religion himself , but that has expressed so much steadiness in it , and so much zeal for it , that one would think we should rather now seek a further security , than throw away that which we already have . ii. our king has given such testimonies of his zeal for his religion , that we see among all his other royal qualities , there is none for which he desires and deserves to be so much admired . since even the passion of glory , of making himself the terrour of all europe , and the arbiter of christendom , ( which as it is natural to all princes , so must it be most particularly so to one of his martial and noble temper ) yields to his zeal for his church ; and that he , in whom we might have hoped to see our edward the third , or our henry the 5th revived , chooses rather to merit the heightning his degree of glory in another world , than to acquire all the lawrels and conquests that this low and vile world can give him : and that , instead of making himself a terrour to all his neighbours , he is contented with the humble glory of being a terrour to his own people ; so that instead of the great figure , which this reign might make in the world , all the news of england is now only concerning the practises on some fearful mercenaries . these things shew , that his majesty is so possessed with his religion , that this cannot suffer us to think , that there is at present no danger from popery . iii. it does not appear , by what we see , either abroad or at home , that popery has so changed its nature , that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present , than we had in former times . it might be thought ill nature to go so far back , as to the councils of the lateran , that decreed the extirpation of hereticks , with severe sanctions on those princes that failed in their duty , of being the hangmen of the inquisitors ; or to the council of constance , that decreed , that princes were not bound to keep their faith to hereticks ; thô it must be acknowledged , that we have extraordinary memories if we can forget such things , and more extraordinary understandings if we do not make some inferences from them . i will not stand upon such inconsiderable trifles as the gunpowder plot , or the massacre of ireland ; but i will take the liberty to reflect a little on what that church has done since those laws were made , to give us kinder and softer thoughts of them , and to make us the less apprehensive of them . vve see before our eyes what they have done , and are still doing in france ; and what feeble things edicts , coronation oaths , laws and promises , repeated over and over again , prove to be , where that religion prevails ; and louis le grand makes not so contemptible a figure in that church , or in our court , as to make us think , that his example may not be proposed as a pattern , as well as his aid may be offered for an encouragement , to act the same things in england , that he is now doing with so much applause in france : and it may be perhaps the rather desired from hence to put him a little in countenance , when so great a king as ours is willing to forget himself so far as to copy after him , and to depend upon him : so that as the doctrine and principles of that church must be still the same in all ages and places , since its chief pretension is , that it is infallible , it is no unreasonable thing for us to be afraid of those , who will be easily induced to burn us a little here , when they are told , that such fervent zeal will save them a more lasting burning hereafter , and will perhaps quit all scores so entirely , that they may hope scarce to endure a singing in purgatory for all their other sins . iv. if the severest order of the church of rome , that has breathed out nothing but fire and blood since its first formation , and that is even decryed at rome it self for its violence , is in such credit here ; i do not see any enducement from thence to persuade us to look on the councils that are directed by that society , as such harmless and inoffensive things , that we need be no more on our guard against them . i know not why we may not apprehend as much from father petre , as the french have felt from pere de la chaise , since all the difference that is observed to be between them , is , that the english jesuite has much more fire and passion , and much less conduct and judgment than the french has . and when rome has expressed so great a jealousy of the interest that that order had in our councils , that f. morgan , who was thought to influence our ambassadour , was ordered to leave rome , i do not see why england should look so tamely on them . no reason can be given why card. howard should be shut out of all their councils , unless it be , that the nobleness of his birth , and the gentleness of his temper , are too hard even for his religion and his purple , to be mastered by them . and it is a contradiction , that nothing but a belief capable of receiving transubstantiation can reconcile , to see men pretend to observe law , and yet to find at the same time an ambassadour from england at rome , when there are so many laws in our book of statutes , never yet repealed , that have declared over and over again all commerce with the court and see of rome to be high treason . v. the late famous judgment of our judges , who knowing no other way to make their names immortal , have found an effectual one to preserve them from being ever forgot , seems to call for another method of proceeding . the president they have set must be fatal either to them or us . for if 12 men , that get into scarlet and furrs , have an authority to dissolve all our laws , the english government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much scorn , as it has hitherto drawn admiration . that doubtful vvords of laws , made so long ago , that the intention of the lawgivers is not certainly known , must be expounded by the judges , is not to be questioned : but to infer from thence , that the plain vvords of a law , so lately made , and that was so vigorously asserted by the present parliament , may be made void by a decision of theirs , after so much practice upon them , is just as reasonable a way of arguing , as theirs is , who because the church of england acknowledges , that the church has a power in matters of rites and ceremonies , will from thence conclude , that this power must go so far , that thô christ has said of the cup , drink ye all of it , we must obey the church when she decrees , that we shall not drink of it . our judges , for the greater part , were men that had past their lives in so much retirement , that from thence one might have hoped , that they had studied our law well , since the bar had called them so seldom from their studies : and if practice is thought often hurtful to speculation , as that which disorders and hurries the judgment , they who had practised so little in our law , had no byass on their understandings : and if the habit of taking money as a lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt judge , they should have been incorruptible , since it is not thought , that the greater part of them got ever so much money by their profession , as pay'd for their furrs . in short , we now see how they have merited their preferment , and they may yet expect a further exaltation , when the justice and the laws of england come to be in hands , that will be as careful to preserve them , as they have been to destroy them . but what an infamy will it lay upon the name of an english parliament , if instead of calling those betrayers of their countrey to an account , they should go by an after-game to confirm what these fellows have done . vi. the late conferences with so many members of both houses , will give such an ill-natured piece of jealousy against them , that of all persons living , that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their votes , the vvorld will believe , that threatnings and promises had as large a share in those secret conversations , as reasoning or persuasion : and it must be a more than ordinary degree of zeal and courage in them , that must take off the blot , of being sent for , and spoke to , on such a subject and in such a manner . the worthy behaviour of the members in the last session , had made the nation unwilling to remember the errors committed in the first election : and it is to be hoped , that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind ▪ for if a parliament , that had so many flaws in its first conception , goes to repeal laws , that we are sure were made by legal parliaments , it will put the nation on an enquiry that nothing but necessity will drive them to . for a nation may be laid asleep , and be a little cheated ; but when it is awakned , and sees its danger , it will not look on and see a rape made on its religion and liberties , without examining , from whence have these men this authority ? they will hardly find that it is of men ; and they will not believe that it is of god. but it is to be hoped , that there will be no occasion given for this angry question which is much easier made than answered . vii . if all that were now asked in favour of popery , were only some gentleness towards the papists ; there were some reason to entertain the debate , when the demand were a little more modest : if men were to be attainted of treason , for being reconciled to the church of rome , or for reconciling others to it ; if priests were demanded to be hanged , for taking orders in the church of rome ; and if the two thirds of the papists estates were offered to be levied , it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless : but now the matter is more barefaced ; they are not contented to live at ease , and enjoy their estates ; but they must carry all before them : and f. petre cannot be at quiet , unless he makes as great a figure in our court , as pere de la chaise does at versailles . a cessation of all severities against them , is that to which the nation would more easily submit ; but it is their behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like compassion in another reign . if a restless and a persecuting spirit were not inherent in that order , that has now the ascendant , they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present advantages , as to have made our divines , that have charged them so heavily , look a little out of countenance : and this would have wrought more on the good nature of the nation , and the princely nobleness of the successors whom we have in view , than those arts of craft and violence , to which we see their tempers carry them even so early , before it is yet time to show themselves . the temper of the english nation , the heroïcal vertues of those whom we have in our eyes , but above all , our most holy religion , which instead of revenge and cruelty , inspires us with charity and mercy , even for enemies , are all such things , as may take from the gentlemen of that religion all sad apprehensions , unless they raise a storm against themselves , and provoke the iustice of the nation to such a degree , that the successors may find it necessary to be just , even when their own inclinations would rather carry them to shew mercy . in short , they need fear nothing but what they create to themselves : so that all this stir that they keep for their own safety , looks too like the securing to themselves pardons for the crimes that they intend to commit . viii . i know it is objected as no small prejudice against these laws , that the very making of them discovered a particular malignity against his majesty , and therefore it is ill manners to speak for them . the first had perhaps an eye at his being then admiral : and the last was possibly levelled at him : thô when that was discovered , he was excepted out of it by a special proviso . and as for that which past in 73 , i hope it is not forgot , that it was enacted by that loyal parliament , that had setled both the prerogative of the crown and the rites of the church , and that had given the king more money than all the parliaments of england had ever done in all former times . a parliament that had indeed some disputes with the king , but upon the first step that he made with relation to religion or safety , they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past : as appeared by their behaviour after the triple alliance . and in 73 , thô they had great cause given them to dislike the dutch war , especially the strange beginning of it upon the smirna fleet : and the stopping the exchequer , the declaration for toleration , and the writs for the members of the house , were matters of hard digestion ; yet no sooner did the king give them this new assurance for their religion then , thô they had very great reasons given them to be jealous of the war , yet since the king was engaged , they gave him 1200000 pounds for carrying it on ; and they thought they had no ill penniworths for their money , when they carried home with them to their countreys this new security for their religion , which we are desired now to throw up , and which the reverend iudges have already thrown out , as a law out of date . if this had carried in it any new piece of severity , their complaints might be just ; but they are extream tender , if they are so uneasy under a law that only gives them leisure and opportunities to live at home . and the last test , which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the legislative body , appears to be so just , that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing , than that it was done at last : and since it is done , it is a great presumption on our understandings to think , that we should be willing to part with it . if it was not sooner done , it was because there was not such cause given for jealousy to work upon : but what has appeared since that time , and what has been printed in his late majesties name , shews the world now , that the iealousies which occasioned those laws , were not so ill grounded , as some well meaning men perhaps then believed them to be . but there are some times in which all mens eyes come to be opened . ix . i am told , some think it is very indecent to have a test for our parliaments , in which the king's religion is accused of idolatry ; but if this reason is good in this particular , it will be full as good against several of the articles of our church , and many of the homilies . if the church and religion of this nation is so formed by law , that the king's religion is declared over and over again to be idolatrous , what help is there for it ? it is no other , than it was when his majesty was crowned , and swore to maintain our laws . i hope none will be wanting in all possible respect to his sacred person ; and as we ought to be infinitly sorry to find him engaged in a religion , which we must believe idolatrous , so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his person , or calling him an idolater : for as every man that reports a lye , is not for that to be called a lyar ; so thô the ordering the intention , and the prejudice of a mispersuasion are such abatements , that we will not rashly take on us to call every man of the church of rome an idolater ; yet on the other hand , we can never lay down our charge against the church of rome as guilty of idolatry , unless at the same time we part with our religion . x. others give us a strange sort of argument , to perswade us to part with the test ; they say , the king must imploy his popish subjects , for he can trust no other ; and he is so assured of their fidelity to him , that we need apprehend no danger from them . this is an odd method to work on us , to let in a sort of people to the parliament and government , since the king cannot trust us , but will depend on them : so that as soon as this law is repealed , they must have all the imployments , and have the whole power of the nation lodged in their hands ; this seems a little too gross to impose , even on irishmen . the king saw for many years together , with how much zeal both the clergy , and many of the gentry appeared for his interests ; and if there is now a melancholy damp on their spirits , the king can dissipate it when he will ; and as the church of england is a body that will never rebel against him , so any sullenness , under which the late administration of affairs has brought them , would soon vanish , if the king would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised , not only in publick but in private ; and would be contented with the excercise of his own religion , without imbroiling his whole affairs , because f. petre will have it so : and it tempts englishmen to more than ordinary degrees of rage , against a sort of men , who it seems , can infuse in a prince , born with the highest sense of honour possible , projects , to which without doing some violence to his own royal nature , he could not so much as hearken to , if his religion did not so fatally mufle him up in a blind obedience . but if we are so unhappy , that priests can so disguise matters , as to mislead a prince , who without their ill influences would be the most glorious monarch of all europe , and would soon reduce the grand louis to a much humbler figure ; yet it is not to be so much as imagined , that ever their arts can be so unhappily successful , as to impose on an english parliament , composed of protestant members . finis . some reflections on his majesty's proclamation of the 12th of february 1686 / 7 for a toleration in scotland , together with the said proclamation . i. the preamble of a proclamation , is oft writ in hast , and is the flourish of some wanton pen : but one of such an extraordinary nature as this is , was probably more severely examined ; there is a new designation of his majesties authority here set forth of his absolute power , which is so often repeated , that it deserves to be a little searched into . prerogative royal , and soveraign authority , are termes already received and known ; but for this absolute power , as it is a new term , so those who have coined it , may make it signify what they will. the roman law speaks of princeps legibus solutus , and absolute in its natural signification , importing the being without all ties and restraints ; then the true meaning of this seems to be , that there is an inherent power in the king , which can neither be restrained by lawes , promises , nor oaths ; for nothing less than the being free from all these , renders a power absolute . ii. if the former term seemed to stretch our allegeance , that which comes after it , is yet a step of another nature , tho one can hardly imagine what can go beyond absolute power ; and it is in these words , which all our subjects are to obey without reserve . and this is the carrying obedience many sises beyond what the grand seigneur has ever yet claimed : for all princes , even the most violent pretenders to absolute power , till lewis the great 's time , have thought it enough to oblige their subjects to submit to their power , and to bear whatsoever they thought good to impose upon them ; but till the days of the late conversions by the dragoons , it was never so much as pretended , that subjects were bound to obey their prince without reserve , and to be of his religion , because he would have it so . which was the only argument that those late apostles made use of ; so it is probable this qualification of the duty of subjects was put in here , to prepare us for a terrible le roy le veut ; and in that case we are told here , that we must obey without reserve ; and when those severe orders come , the privy council , and all such as execute this proclamation , will be bound by this declaration to shew themselves more forward than any others , to obey without reserve : and those poor pretensions of conscience , religion , honour , and reason , will be then reckoned as reserves upon their obedience , which are all now shut out . iii. these being the grounds upon which this proclamation is founded , we ought not only to consider what consequences are now drawn from them , but what may be drawn from them at any time hereafter ; for if they are of force , to justify that which is now inferred from them , it will be full as just to draw from the same premises an abolition of the protestant religion , of the rights of the subjects , not only to church-lands , but to all property whatsoever . in a word , it asserts a power to be in the king , to command what he will , and an obligation in the subjects , to obey whatsoever he shall command . iv. there is also mention made in the preamble of the christian love and charity , which his majesty would have established among neighbours ; but another dash of a pen , founded on this absolute power , may declare us all hereticks ; and then in wonderful charity to us , we must be told , that we are either to obey without reserve , or to be burnt without reserve . we know the charity of that church pretty well : it is indeed fervent and burning : and if we have forgot what has been done in former ages , france , savoy , and hungary , have set before our eyes very fresh instances of the charity of that religion : while those examples are so green , it is a little too imposing on us , to talk to us of christian love and charity . no doubt his majesty means sincerely , and his exactness to all his promises , chiefly to those made since he came to the crown , will not suffer us to think an unbecoming thought of his royal intentions ; but yet after all , tho it seems by this proclamation , that we are bound to obey without reserve , it is hardship upon hardship to be bound to believe without reserve . v. there are a sort of people here tolerated , that will be very hardly found out : and these are the moderate presbyterians : now , as some say , that there are very few of those people in scotland that deserve this character , so it is hard to tell what it amounts to ; and the calling any of them immoderate , cuts off all their share in this grace . moderation is a quality that lyes in the mind , and how this will be found out , i cannot so readily guess . if a standard had been given of opinions or practices , then one could have known how this might have been distinguished ; but as it lyes , it will not be easy to make the discrimination ; and the declaring them all immoderate , shuts them out quite . vi. another foundation laid down for repealing all laws made against the papists , is , that they were enacted in sixth's minority : with some harsh expressions , that are not to be insisted on , since they shew more the heat of the penner , than the dignity of the prince , in whose name they are given out ; but all these laws were ratifyed over and over again by k ▪ iames , when he came to be of full age : and they have received many confirmations by k. charles the first , and k charles the second , as well as by his present majesty , both when he represented his brother in the year 1681. and since he himself came to the crown : so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first formation of those laws , they have received now for the course of a whole hundred years , that are lapsed since k. iames was of full age , so many confirmations , that if there is any thing certain in humane government , we might depend upon them ; but this new coyned absolute power must carry all before it . vii . it is also well known , that the whole settlement of the church lands and tythes , with many other things , and more particularly the establishment of the protestant religion , was likewise enacted in iames's minority , as well as those penal laws : so that the reason now made use of , to annul the penal laws , will serve full as well , for another act of this absolute power , that shall abolish all those ; and if maximes that unhinge all the securities of humane society , and all that is sacred in government , ought to be lookt on with the justest and deepest prejudices possible , one is tempted to lose the respect that is due to every thing that carrys a royal stamp upon it , when he sees such grounds made use of , as must shake all settlements whatsoever ; for if a prescription of 120. years , and confirmations reiterated over and over again these 100. years past , do not purge some defects in the first formation of those laws , what can make us secure : but this looks so like a fetch of the french prerogative law , both in their processes with relation to the edict of nantes , and those concerning dependences at mets , that this seems to be a copy from that famous original . viii . it were too much ill nature to look into the history of the last age , to examine on what grounds those characters of pious and blessed given to the memory of q. mary are built ; but since james's memory has the character of glorious given to it , if the civility due to the fair sex makes one unwilling to look into the one , yet the other may be a little dwelt on . the peculiar glory that belongs to james's memory , is , that he was a prince of great learning , and that he imployed it chiefly in writing for his religion : of the volume in folio , in which we have his works , two thirds are against the church of rome ; one part of them is a commentary on the revelation , proving that the pope is antichrist ; another part of them belonged more naturally to his post and dignity ; which is the warning that he gave to all the princes and states of europe , against the treasonable and bloody doctrines of the papacy . the first act he did when he came of age , was to swear in person with all his family , and afterwards with all his people of scotland , a covenant , containing an enumeration of all the points of popery , and a most solemn renunciation of them , somewhat like our parliament test : his first speech to the parliament of england was copious on the same subject : and he left a legacy of a wish on such of his posterity as should go over to that religion , which in good manners is suppressed . it is known , k. iames was no conquerour , and that he made more use of his pen than his sword : so the glory that is peculiar to his memory must fall chiefly on his learned and immortal writings : and since there is such a veneration expressed for him , it agrees not ill with this , to wish , that his works were more studied by those who offer such incense to his glorious memory . ix . his maj. assures his people of scotland , upon his certain knowledge and long experience , that the catholicks , as they are good christians , so they are likewise dutiful subjects : but if we must believe both these equally , then we must conclude severely against their being good christians ; for we are sure they can never be good subjects , not only to a heretical prince , but even to a catholick prince , if he does not extirpate hereticks ; for their beloved council of the lateran , that decreed transubstantiation , has likewise decreed , that if a prince does not extirpate hereticks out of his dominions , the pope must depose him , and declare his subjects absolved from their allegeance , and give his dominions to another : so that even his majesty , how much soever he may be a zealous catholick , yet cannot be assured of their fidelity to him , unless he has given them secret assurances , that he is resolved to extirpate hereticks out of his dominions ; and that all the promises which he now makes to these poor wretches are no other way to be kept , than the assurances which the great lewis gave to his protestant subjects , of his observing still the edict of nantes even after he had resolved to break it , and also his last promise made in the edict , that repealed the edict of nantes , by which he gave assurances , that no violence should be used to any for their religion , in the very time that he was ordering all possible violences to be put in execution against them . x. his majesty assures us , that on all occasions the papists have shewed themselves good and faithfull subjects to him and his royall predecessors ; but how absolute soever the kings power may be , it seems his knowledge of history is not so absolute , but it may be capable of some improvement . it will be hard to find out what loyalty they shewed on the occasion of the gunpowder plot , or during the whole progress of the rebellion of ireland ; if the king will either take the words of k. iames of glorious memory , or k. charles the first , that was indeed of pious and blessed memory , rather than the word of the penners of this proclamation , it will not be hard to find occasions where they were a little wanting in this their so much boasted loyalty : and we are sure , that by the principles of that religion , the king can never be assured of the fidelity of those he calls his catholick subjects , but by engaging to them to make his heretical subjects sacrifices to their rage . xi . the king declares them capable of all the offices and benefices which he shall think fit to bestow on them , and only restrains them from invading the protestant churches by force : so that here a door is plainly opened for admitting them to the exercise of their religion in protestant churches , so they do not break into them by force ; and whatsoever may be the sense of the term benefice in its antient and first signification , now it stands only for church preferments ; so that when any churches , that are at the kings gift , fall vacant , here is a plain intimation , that they are to be provided to them ; and then it is very probable , that all the lawes made against such as go not to their parish churches , will be severely turned upon those that will not come to mass. xii . his majesty does in the next place , in the vertue of his absolute power / annull a great many laws , as well those that established the oaths of allegeance and supremacy , as the late test , enacted by himself in person , while he represented his brother : upon which he gave as strange an essay to the world of his absolute iustice in the attainder of the late earl of argile , as he does now of his absolute power in condemning the test it self ; he also repeals his own confirmation of the test , since he came to the crown , which he offered as the clearest evidence that he could give of his resolution to maintain the protestant religion , and by which he gained so much upon that parliament , that he obtained every thing from them that he desired of them ; till he came to try them in the matters of religion . this is no extraordinary evidence to assure his people , that his promises will be like the lawes of the medes and persians , which alter not ; nor will the disgrace of the commissioner that enacted that law , lay this matter wholly on him ; for the letter , that he brought , the speech that he made , and the instructions which he got , are all too well known to be so soon forgotten : and if princes will give their subjects reason to think , that they forget their promises , as soon as the turn is served for which they were made , this will be too prevailing a temptation on the subjects to mind the princes promise as little as it seems he himself does ; and will force them to conclude , that the truth of the prince , is not so absolute as it seems he fancies his power to be . xiii . here is not only a repealing of a great many lawes , and established oaths and tests , but by the exercise of the absolute power / a new oath is imposed , which was never pretended to by the crown in any former time ; and as the oath is created by this absolute power / so it seems the absolute power must be supported by this oath : since one branch of it , is an obligation to maintain his majesty and his lawfull successors in the exercise of this their absolute power and authority against all deadly , which i suppose is scotch for mortalls : now to impose so hard a yoke as this absolute power on the subjects , seems no small stretch ; but it is a wonderfull exercise of it to oblige the subjects to defend this : it had been more modest , if they had been only bound to bear it , and submit to it : but it is a terrible thing so far to extinguish all the remnants of naturall liberty , or of a legall government , as to oblige the subjects by oath to maintain the exercise of this , which plainly must destroy themselves : for the short execution by the bow-strings of turkey , or by sending orders to men to return in their heads , being an exercise of this absolute power / it is a litle hard to make men swear to maintain the king in it : and if that kingdom has suffered so much by the many oaths that have been in use among them , as is marked in this proclamation , i am affraid this new oath will not much mend the matter . xiv . yet after all , there is some comfort ; his majesty assures them , he will use no violence nor force , nor any invincible necessity to any man on the account of his persuasion : it were too great a want of respect to fancy , that a time may come in which even this may be remembred , full as well , as the promises that were made to the parliament after his majesty came to the crown : i do not , i confess , apprehend that ; for i see here so great a caution used in the choice of these words , that it is plain , very great severities may very well consist with them : it is clear , that the generall words of violence and force are to be determined by these last of invincible necessity / so that the king does only promise to lay no invincible necessity on his subjects ; but for all necessities , that are not invincible , it seems they must expect to bear a large share of them ; disgraces , want of imployments , fines , and imprisonments , and even death it self are all vincible things to a man of a firmness of mind : so that the violences of torture , the furies of dragoons , and some of the methods now practised in france , perhaps may be included within this promise ; since these seem almost invincible to humane nature , if it is not fortified with an extraordinary measure of grace : but as to all other things , his majesty binds himself up from no part of the exercise of his absolute power by this promise . xv. his majesty orders this to go immediately to the great seal , without passing thro the other seals : now since this is counter-signed by the secretary , in whose hands the signet is , there was no other step to be made but thro the privy seal ; so i must own , i have a great curiosity of knowing his character in whose hands the privy seal is at present ; for it seems his conscience is not so very supple , as the chancellors and the secretaryes are ; but it is very likely , if he does not quickly change his mind , the privy seal at least will very quickly change its keeper ; and i am sorry to hear , that the l. chancellor and the secretary have not another brother to fill this post , that so the guilt of the ruin of that nation , may lie on one single family , and that there may be no others involved in it . xvi . upon the whole matter , many smaller things being waved , it being extream unpleasant to find fault , where one has all possible dispositions to pay all respect ; we here in england see what we must look for . a parliament in scotland was tryed , but it proved a little stubborn ; and now absolute power comes to set all right ; so when the closetting has gone round , so that noses are counted , we may perhaps see a parliament here , but if it chances to be untoward , and not to obey without reserve / then our reverend iudges will copy from scotland , and will not only tell us of the kings imperial power , but will discover to us this new mystery of absolute power , to which we are all bound to obey without reserve . these reflexions refer in so many places to some words in the proclamation , that it was thought necessary to set them near one another , that the reader may be able to judge , whether he is deceived by any false quotations or not . by the king. a proclamation . james r. james the seventh by the grace of god , king of scotland , england , france and ireland , defender of the faith , &c to all and sundry our good subjects , whom these presents do or may concern , greeting . we having taken into our royal consideration the many and great inconveniencies which have happened to that our ancient kingdom of scotland of late years , through the different perswasions in the christian religion , and the great heats and animosities amongst the several professors thereof , to the ruin and decay of trade , wasting of lands , extinguishing of charity , contempt of the royal power , and converting of true religion , and the fear of god , into animosities , names , factions , and sometimes into sacriledge and treason . and being resolved as much as in us lyes , to unite the hearts and affections of our subjects , to god in religion , to us in loyalty , and to their neighbours in christian love and charity . have therefore thought fit to grant , and by our souveraign authority , prerogative royal , and absolute power , which all our subjects are to obey without reserve ; do hereby give and grant our royal toleration , to the several professors of the christian religion after-named , with , and under the several conditions , restrictions , and limitations after-mentioned . in the first place , we allow and tolerate the moderate presbyterians , to meet in their private houses , and there to hear all such ministers , as either have , or are willing to accept of our indulgence allanerly , and none other , and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the well and peace of our reign , seditious or treasonable , under the highest pains these crimes will import ; nor are they to presume to build meeting-houses , or to use out-houses or barns , but only to exercise in their private houses , as said is : in the mean time , it is our royal will and pleasure , that field conventicles , and such as preach , or exercise at them , or who shall any way● assist or connive at them , shall be prosecuted according to the utmost severity of our laws made against them , seeing from these rendezvouzes of rebellion , so much disorder hath proceeded , and so much disturbance to the government , and for which after this our royal indulgence for tender consciences there is no excuse left . in like manner , we do hereby tolerate quakers to meet and exercise in their form , in any place or places appointed for their worship . and considering the severe and cruel laws , made against roman catholicks ( therein called papists ) in the minority of our royal grand father of glorious memory , without his consent , and contrary to the duty of good subjects , by his regents , and other enemies to their lawful soveraign , our royal great grand mother queen mary of blessed and pious memory , wherein under the pretence of religion , they cloathed the worst of treasons , factions , and usurpations , and made these laws , not as against the enemies of god , but their own ; which laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them ▪ or any of them ad terrorem only , on supposition , that the papists relying on an external power , were incapable of duty , and true allegeance to their natural soveraigns , and rightful monarchs ; we of our certain knowledge , and long experience , knowing that the catholicks , as it is their principle to be good christians , so it is to be dutiful subjects ; and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves good and faithfull subjects to us , and our royal predecessors , by hazarding , and many of them actually losing their lives and fortunes , in their defence ( though of another religion ) & the maintenance of their authority against the violences and treasons of the most violent abettors of these laws : do therefore with advice and consent of our privy council , by our soveraign authority , prerogative royal , and absolute power , aforesaid ▪ suspend , stop and disable all laws , or acts of parliament , customs or constitutions , made or executed against any of our roman-catholick subjects , in any time past , to all intents and purposes , making void all prohibitions therein mentioned , pains or penalties therein ordained to be inflicted , so that they shall in all things be as free in all respects as any of our protestant subjects whatsoever , not only to exercise their religion , but to enjoy all offices , benefices and others , which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming : nevertheless , it is our will and pleasure , and we do hereby command all catholicks at their highest pains , only to exercise their religious worship in houses or chappels ; and that they presume not to preach in the open fields , or to invade the protestant churches by force , under the pains aforesaid , to be inflicted upon the offenders respectively ; nor shall they presume to make publick processions in the high-streets of any of our royal burghs , under the pains above-mentioned . and whereas the obedience and service of our good subjects is due to us by their allegiance , and our soveraignty , and that no law , custom or constitution , difference in religion , or other impediment whatsoever , can exempt or discharge the subjects from their native obligations and duty to the crown , or hinder us fiom protecting , and employing them , according to their several capacities , and our royal pleasure ; nor restrain us from conferring heretable rights and priviledges upon them , or vacuate or annul these rights heretable , when they are made or conferred : and likewise considering , that some oaths are capable of being wrested by men of sinistrous intentions , a practice in that kingdom fatal to religion as it was to loyalty ; do therefore , with advice and consent aforesaid , cass , annull and discharge all oaths whatsoever , by which any of our subjects are incapacitated , or disabled from holding places , or offices in our said kingdom , or enjoying their hereditary rights and priviledges , discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming , without our special warrant and consent , under the pains due to the contempt of our royal commands and authority . and to this effect , we do by our royal authority aforesaid , stop , disable , and dispense with all laws enjoyning the said oaths , tests , or any of them , particularly the first act of the first session of the first parliament of king charles the second ; the eleventh act of the foresaid session of the foresaid parliament ; the sixth act of the third parliament of the said king charles ; the twenty first and twenty fifth acts of that parliament , and the thirteenth act of the first session of our late parliament , in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the oaths , or tests therein prescribed , and all others , as well not mentioned as mentioned , and that in place of them , all our good subjects , or such of them as we or our privy council shall require so to do , shall take and swear the following oath allanerly ▪ i a. b. do acknowledge / testifie and declare / that james the seventh , by the grace of god , king of scotland , england , france and ireland , defender of the faith , &c. is rightful king , and supream governour of these realms , and over all persons therein ; and that it is unlawful for subjects , on any pretence , or for any cause whatsoever , to rise in arms against him , or any commissionated by him ; and that i shall never so rise in arms , nor assist any who shall so do ; and that i shall never resist ●is power or authority , nor ever oppose his authority to his person , as i shall answer to god ; but shall to the utmost of my power assist , defend , and maintain him , his heirs and lawful successors , in the exercise of their absolute power and authority against all deadly . so help me god. and seeing many of our good subjects have , before our pleasure in these matters was made publick , incurred the guilt appointed by the acts of parliament above-mentioned , or others ; we , by our authority , and absolute power and prerogative royal above-mentioned , of our certain knowledge , and innate mercy , give our ample and full indemnity to all those of the roman-catholick or popish religion , for all things by them done contrary to our laws or acts of parliament , made in any time past , relating to their religion , the worship and exercise thereof , or for being papists , jesuits , or traffickers , for hearing , or saying of mass , concealing of priests or jesuits , breeding their children catholicks at home or abroad , or any other thing , rite or doctrine , said , performed , or maintained by them , or any of them : and likewise , for holding or taking of places , employments , or offices , contrary to any law or constitution , advices given to us , or our council , actions done , or generally any thing performed or said against the known laws of that our ancient kingdom : excepting always from this our royal indemnity , all murders , assassinations , thefts , and such like other crimes , which never used to be comprehended in our general acts of indemnity . and we command and require all our judges , or others concerned , to explain this in the most ample sense & meaning acts of indemnity at any time have contained : declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned , as if they had our royal pardon & remission under our great seal of that kingdom . and likewise indemnifying our protestant subjects from all pains and penalties due for hearing or preaching in houses ; providing there be no treasonable speeches uttered in the said conventicles by them , in which case the law is only to take place against the guilty , and none other present ; providing also that they reveal to any of our council the guilt so committed ; as also , excepting all fines , or effects of sentences already given . and likewise indemnifying fully and freely all quakers , for their meetings and worship , in all time past , preceding the publication of these presents . and we doubt not but our protestant subjects will give their assistance and concourse hereunto , on all occasions , in their respective capacities . in consideration whereof , and the ease those of our religion , and others may have hereby , and for the encouragement of our protestant bishops , and the regular clergy , and such as have hitherto lived orderly , we think fit to declare , that it never was our principle , nor will we ever suffer violence to be offered to any mans conscience , nor will we use force , or invincible necessity against any man on the account of his perswasion , nor the protestant religion , but will protect our bishops and other ministers in their functions , rights and properties , and all our protestant subjects in the free exercise of their protestant religion in the churches . and that we will , and hereby promise , on our royal word , to maintain the possessors of church lands formerly belonging to abbays , or other churches of the catholick religion , in their full and free possession and right , according to our laws and acts of parliament in that behalf in all time coming . and we will imploy indifferently all our subjects of all perswasions , so as none shall meet with any discouragement on the account of his religion , but be advanced , and esteemed by us , according to their several capacities and qualifications , so long as we find charity and unity maintained . and if any animosities shall arise , as we hope in god there will not , we will shew the severest effects of our royal displeasure against the beginners or fomenters thereof , seeing thereby our subjects may be deprived of this general ease and satisfaction , we intend to all of them , whose happiness , prosperity , wealth and safety , is so much our royal care , that we will leave nothing undone which may procure these blessings for them . and lastly , to the end all our good subjects may have notice of this our royal will and pleasure , we do hereby command , our lyon king at arms , and his brethern heraulds , macers , pursevants and messengers at arms , to make timous proclamation thereof at the mercat cross of edinburgh ; and besides the printing and publishing of this our royal proclamation , it is our express will and pleasure , that the same be past under the great seal of that our kingdom per saltum , without passing any other seal or register . in order whereunto , this shall be to the directors of our chancellary , and their deputes for writing the same , and to our chancellor for causing our great seal aforesaid , to be appended thereunto , a sufficient warrand . given at our court at whitehal the twelfth day of febr. 168● . and of our reign the third year . by his majesties command melfort . god save the king. finis . a letter , containing some reflections on his majesties declaration for liberty of conscience . dated the fourth of april , 1687. sir , i. i thank you for the favour of sending me the late declaration that his majesty has granted for liberty of conscience . i confess , i longed for it with great impatience , and was surprised to find it so different from the scotch pattern ; for i imagined , that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune : nor can i see why the penners of this have sunk so much in their stile ; for i suppose the same men penned both . i expected to have seen the imperial language of absolute power , to which all the subjects are to obey without reserve ; and of the cassing , annulling , the stopping , and disabling of laws set forth in the preamble and body of this declaration ; whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here : for instead of repealing the laws , his majesty pretends by this only to suspend them ; and tho in effect this amounts to a repeal , yet it must be confessed that the words are softer . now since the absolute power , to which his majesty pretends in scotland , is not founded on such poor things as law ; for that would look as if it were the gift of the people ; but on the divine authority , which is supposed to be delegated to his majesty , this may be as well claimed in england as it was in scotland : and the pretension to absolute power is so great a thing , that since his majesty thought fit once to claim it , he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his language ; especially since both these declarations have appeared in our gazettes ; so that as we see what is done in scotland , we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts , and what we may expect in england . ii. his majesty tells his people , that the perfect injoyment of their property has never been in any case invaded by him since his coming to the crown . this is indeed matter of great incouragement to all good subjects ; for it lets them see , that such invasions , as have been made on property , have been done without his majesties knowledge : so that no doubt the continuing to levy the customes and the additional excise ( which had been granted only during the late kings life , ) before the parliament could meet to renew the grant , was done without his majesties knowledge ; the many violences committed not only by soldiers , but officers , in all the parts of england , which are severe invasions on property , have been all without his majesties knowledge ; and since the first branch of property is the right that a man has to his life , the strange essay of mahometan government , that was shewed at taunton ; and the no less strange proceedings of the present lord chancellour , in his circuit after the rebellion ( which are very justly called his campagne , for it was an open act of hostility to all law ) and for which and other services of the like nature , it is believed he has had the reward of the great seal , and the executions of those who have left their colours , which being founded on no law , are no other than so many murders ; all these , i say , are as we are sure , invasions on property ; but since the king tells us , that no such invasions have been made since he came to the crown , we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his privity . and if a standing ▪ army , in time of peace , has been ever lookt on by this nation as an attempt upon the whole property of the nation in gross , one must conclude , that even this is done without his majesties knowledge . iii. his majesty expresses his charity for us in a kind wish , that we were all members of the catholick church ; in return to which we offer up daily our most earnest prayers for him , that he may become a member of the truly catholick church : for wishes and prayers do no hurt on no side : but his majesty adds , that it has ever been his opinion , that conscience ought not to be constrained , nor people forced in matters of meer religion . we are very happy if this continues to be always his sense : but we are sure in this he is no obedient member of that which he means by the catholick church : for it has over and over again decreed the extirpation of hereticks . it encourages princes to it , by the offer of the pardon of their sins ; it threatens them to it , by denouncing to them not only the judgments of god , but that which is more sensible , the loss of their dominions : and it seems they intend to make us know that part of their doctrine even before we come to feel it , since tho some of that communion would take away the horror which the fourth council of the lateran gives us , in which these things were decreed , by denying it to be a general council , and rejecting the authority of those canons , yet the most learned of all the apostates that has fallen to them from our church , has so lately given up this plea , and has so formally acknowledged the authority of that council , and of its canons , that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing , of warning us before hand of our danger . it is true bellarmin sayes , the church does not always execute her power of deposing heretical princes , tho she always retains it : one reason that he assigns , is , because she is not at all times able to put it in execution : so the same reason may perhaps make it appear unadviseable to extirpate hereticks , because that at present it cannot be done ; but the right remains entire ; and is put in execution in such an unrelenting manner in all places where that religion prevails , that it has a very ill grace , to see any member of that church speak in this strain : and when neither the policy of france , nor the greatness of their monarch , nor yet the interests of the emperour joyned to the gentleness of his own temper , could withstand these bloody councils , that are indeed parts of that religion , we can see no reason to induce us to believe , that a toleration of religion is proposed with any other design but either to divide us , or to lay us asleep , till it is time to give the alarm for destroying us . iv. if all the endeavours , that have been used in the last four reigns , for bringing the subjects of this kingdom to a unity in religion have been ineffectual , as his maj. says ; we know to whom we owe both the first beginnings and the progress of the divisions among our selves ; the gentleness of q. elisabeth's government , and the numbers of those that adhered to the church of rome , made it scarce possible to put an end to that party during her reign , which has been ever since restless , and has had credit enough at court during the three last reigns , not only to support it self , but to distract us , and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them , by fomenting our own differences , and by setting on either a toleration , or a persecution , as it has hapned to serve their interests . it is not so very long since , that nothing was to be heard at court but the supporting the church of england , and the extirpating all the nonconformists : and it were easy to name the persons , if it were decent , that had this ever in their mouths ; but now all is turned round again , the church of england is in disgrace ; and now the encouragment of trade , the quiet of the nation , and the freedom of conscience are again in vogue , that were such odious things but a few years ago , that the very mentioning them was enough to load any man with suspitions as backward in the king's service , while such methods are used , and the government is as in an ague , divided between hot and cold fits , no wonder if laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their effect . v. there is a good reserve here left for severity when the proper opportunity to set it on presents it self : for his majesty declares himself only against the forcing of men in matters of meer religion : so that whensoever religion and policy come to be so interwoven , that meer religion is not the case , and that publick safety may be pretended , then this declaration is to be no more claimed : so that the fastning any thing upon the protestant religion , that is inconsistent with the publick peace , will be pretended to shew that they are not persecuted for meer religion . in france , when it was resolved to extirpate the protestants , all the discourses that were written on that subject were full of the wars occasioned by those of the religion in the last age , tho as these were the happy occasions of bringing the house of bourbon to the crown , they had been ended above 80. years ago , and there had not been so much as the least tumult raised by them these 50. years past : so that the french , who have smarted under this severity , could not be charged with the least infraction of the law : yet stories of a hundred years old were raised up to inspire into the king those apprehensions of them , which have produced the terrible effects that are visible to all the world. there is another expression in this declaration , which lets us likewise see with what caution the offers of favour are now worded , that so there may be an occasion given when the time and conjuncture shall be favourable to break thro them all : it is in these words , so that they take especial care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them , which may any ways tend to alienate the hearts of our people from us or our government . this in it self is very reasonable , and could admit of no exception , if we had not to do with a set of men , who to our great misfortune have so much credit with his majesty , and who will be no sooner lodged in the power to which they pretend , than they will make every thing that is preached against popery pass for that which may in some manner alienate the subjects from the king. vi. his majesty makes no doubt of the concurrence of his two houses of parliament , when he shall think it convenient for them to meet . the hearts of kings are unsearchable ; so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into his majesties secret thoughts : but according to the judgments that we would make of other mens thoughts by their actions , one would be tempted to think , that his majesty made some doubt of it , since his affairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse , if it appeared that there were a perfect understanding between him and his parliament , and that his people were supporting him with fresh supplies ; and this house of commons is so much at his devotion , that all the world saw how ready they were to grant every thing that he could desire of them , till he began to lay off the mask with relation to the test , and since that time the frequent prorogations , the closetting , and the pains that has been taken to gain members , by promises made to some , and the disgraces of others , would make one a little inclined to think , that some doubt was made of their concurrence . but we must confess , that the depth of his majesties judgment is such , that we cannot fathom it , and therefore we cannot guess what his doubts or his assurances are . it is true , the words that come after unriddle the mystery a little , which are , when his majesty shall think it convenient for them to meet : for the meaning of this seems plain , that his maj. is resolved , that they shall never meet , till he receives such assurances , in a new round of closetting , that he ●hall be put out of doubt concerning it . vii . i will not enter into the dispute concerning liberty of conscience , and the reasons that may be offered for it to a session of parliament ; for there is scarce any one point , that either with relation to religion , or politicks , affords a greater variety of matter for reflection : and i make no doubt to say , that there is abundance of reason to oblige ● parliament to review all the penal laws , either with relation to papists , or to dissenters : but i will take the boldness to add one thing , that the kings's suspending of laws strikes at the root of this whole government , and subverts it quite : for if there is any thing certain with relation to the english government , it is this , that the executive power of the law is entirely in the king ; and the law to fortify him in the management of it has clothed him with a vast prerogative , and made it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to resist him : whereas on the other hand , the legislative power is not so entirely in the king , but that the lords and commons have such a share in it , that no law can be either made , repealed , or which is all one suspended , but by their consent : so that the placing this legislative power singly in the king , is a subversion of this whole government ; since the essence of all governments consists in the subjects of the legislative authority ; acts of violence or injustice , committed in the executive part , are such things that all princes being subject to them , the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill administrations , in which as the law may be doubtful , so the facts may be uncertain , and at worst the publick peace must alwayes be more valued than any private oppressions or injuries whatsoever . but the total subversion of a government , being so contrary to the trust that is given to the prince who ought to execute it ▪ will put men upon uneasy and dangerous inquiries : which will turn little to the advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate issue . viii . if there is any thing in which the exercise of the legislative power seems indispensable , it is in those oaths of allegeance and tests , that are thought necessary to qualify men either to be admitted to enjoy the protection of the law , or to bear a share in the government ; for in these the security of the government is chiefly concerned ; and therefore the total extinction of these , as it is not only a suspension of them , but a plain repealing of them , so it is a subverting of the whole foundation of our government : for the regulation that king and parliament had set both for the subjects having the protection of the state by the oath of allegeance , and for a share in places of trust by the tests , is now pluckt up by the roots ; when it is declared , that these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken , or subscribed by any persons whatsoever : for it is plain , that this is no suspension of the law , but a formal repeal of it , in as plain words as can be conceived . ix . his majesty says , that the benefit of the service of all his subjects is by the law of nature inseparably annexed to and inherent in his sacred person . it is somewhat strange , that when so many laws , that we all know are suspended , the law of nature , which is so hard to be found out , should be cited ; but the penners of this declaration had b●st let that law lie forgotten among the rest ; for there is a scurvy paragraph in it , concerning self preservation , that is capable of very unacceptable glosses . it is hard to tell what section of the law of nature has markt out either such a form of government , or such a family for it . and if his majesty renounces his pretensions to our allegeance as founded on the laws of england , and betakes himself to this law of nature , he will perhaps find the counsel was a little too rash ; but to make the most of this that can be , the law of nations or nature does indeed allow the governours of all societies a power to serve themselves of every member of it in the cases of extream danger ; but no law of nature that has been yet heard of will conclude , that if by special laws , a sort of men have been disabled from all imployments , that a prince who at his coronation swore to maintain those laws , may at his pleasure extinguish all these disabilities . x. at the end of the declaration , as in a postscript , his majesty assures his subjects , that he will maintain them in their properties , as well in church and abbey lands , as other lands : but the chief of all their properties being the share that they have by their representatives in the legislative power ; this declaration , which breaks thro that , is no great evidence that the rest will be maintained : and to speak plainly , when a coronation oath is so little remembred , other promises must have a proportioned degree of credit given to them : as for the abbey lands , the keeping them from the church is according to the principles of that religion sacriledge ; and that is a mortal sin , and there can no absolution be given to any who continue in it : and so this promise being an obligation to maintain men in a mortal sin , is null and void of it self : church-lands are also according to the doctrine of their canonists , so immediatly gods right , that the pope himself is only the administrator and dispencer , but is not the master of them ; he can indeed make a truck for god , or let them so low , that god shall be an easy landlord : but he cannot alter gods property , nor translate the right that is in him to sacrilegious laymen and hereticks . xi . one of the effects of this declaration , will be the setting on foot a new run of addresses over the nation : for there is nothing how impudent and base soever , of which the abject flattery of a slavish spirit is not capable . it must be confest , to the reproach of the age , that all those strains of flattery among the romans , that tacitus sets forth with so mueh just scorn , are modest things , compared to what this nation has produced within these seven years : only if our flattery has come short of the refinedness of the romans , it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed fulsomness . the late king set out a declaration , in which he gave the most solemn assurances possible of his adhering to the church of england , and to the religion established by law , and of his resolution to have frequent parliaments ; upon which the whole nation fell as it were into raptures of joy and flattery : but tho he lived four years after that , he called no parliament , notwithstanding the law for triennial parliaments : and the manner of his death , and the papers printed after his death in his name , have sufficiently shewed , that he was equally sincere in both those assurances that he gave , as well in that relating to religion , as in that other relating to frequent parliaments ; yet upon his death a new set of addresses appeared , in which all that flattery could invent was brought forth , in the commendations of a prince , to whose memory the greatest kindness can be done , is to forget him : and because his present majesty upon his coming to the throne gave some very general promise of maintaining the church of england , this was magnified in so extravagant a strain , as if it had been a security greater than any that the law could give : tho by the regard that the king has both to it and to the laws , it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally : since then the nation has already made it self sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding ages ; it is time that at last men should grow weary , and become ashamed of their folly. xii . the nonconformists are now invited to set an example to the rest : and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their opposition to popery and that have quarrelled with the church of england , for some small approaches to it , in a few ceremonies , are now solicited to rejoyce , because the laws that secure us against it , are all plucked up : since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together . it is natural for all men to love to be set at ease , especially in the matters of their consciences ; but it is visible , that those who allow them this favour , do it with no other design , but that under a pretence of a general toleration , they may introduce a religion which must persecute all equally : it is likewise apparent how much they are hated , and how much they have been persecuted by the instigation of those who now court them , and who have now no game that is more promising , than the engaging them and the church of england into new quarrels : and as for the promises now made to them , it cannot be supposed that they will be more lasting than those that were made some time ago to the church of england , who had both a better title in law and greater merit upon the crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to . the nation has scarce forgiven some of the church of england the persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cosened : tho now that they see popery barefaced , the stand that they have made , and the vigorous opposition that they have given to it , is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past , and raises again the glory of a church that was not a little stained by the indiscretion and weakness of those , that were too apt to believe and hope , and so suffered themselves to be made a property to those who would now make them a sacrifice . the sufferings of the nonconformists , and the fury that the popish party expressed against them , had recommended them so much to the compassions of the nation , and had given them so just a pretension to favour in a better time , that it will look like a curse of god upon them , if a few men , whom the court has gained to betray them , can have such an ill influence upon them as to make them throw away all that merit , and those compassions which their sufferings have procured them ; and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them , that they may destroy both them and us . they must remember that as the church of england is the only establishment that our religion has by law ; so it is the main body of the nation , and all the sects are but small and stragling parties : and if the legal settlement of the church is dissolved , and that body is once broken , these lesser bodies will be all at mercy : and it is an easy thing to define what the mercies of the church of rome are . xiii . but tho it must be confessed , that the nonconformists are still under some temptations , to receive every thing that gives them present ease , with a little too much kindness ; since they lie exposed to many severe laws , of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily , and as they are men , and some of them as ill natured men as other people , so it is no wonder if upon the first surprises of the declaration , they are a little delighted , to see the church of england , after all its services and submissions to the court , so much mortified by it ; so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some follies upon this occasion . yet on the other hand , it passes all imagination , to see some of the church of england , especially those whose natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of persecution , chiefly when it is levelled against the dissenters , rejoyce at this declaration , and make addresses upon it . it is hard to think that they have attained to so high a pitch of christian charity , as to thank those who do now despitefully use them , and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them . this will be an original , and a master piece in flattery , which must needs draw the last degrees of contempt on such as are capable of so abject and sordid a compliance , and that not only from all the true members of the church of england , but likewise from those of the church of rome it self ; for every man is apt to esteem an enemy that is brave even in his misfortunes , as much as he despises those whose minds sink with their condition . for what is it that these men would thank the king ? is it because he breaks those laws that are made in their favour , and for their protection : and is now striking at the root of all the legal settlement that they have for their religion ? or is it because that at the same time that the king professes a religion that condemns his supremacy , yet he is not contented with the exercise of it as it is warranted by law , but carries it so far as to erect a court contrary to the express words of a law that was so lately made : that court takes care to maintain a due proportion between their constitution and all their proceedings , that so all may be of a piece , and all equally contrary to law. they have suspended one bishop , only because he would not do that which was not in his power to do : for since there is no extrajudiciary authority in england , a bishop can no more proceed to a sentence of suspension against a clergy-man without a tryal , and the hearing of parties , than a judge can give a sentence in his chamber without an indictment , a tryal , or a iury : and because one of the greatest bodies of england would not break their oaths , and obey a mandate that plainly contradicted them , we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried . i will not anticipate upon this illegal court , to tell what iudgments are coming , but without carrying our iealousies too far , one may safely conclude , that they will never depart so far from their first institution , as to have any regard , either to our religion , or our laws , or liberties , in any thing they do . if all this were acted by avowed papists , as we are sure it is projected by such , there were nothing extraordinary in it : but that which carries our indignation a little too far to be easily governed , is to see some pretended protestants , and a few bishops , among those that are the fatal instruments of pulling down the church of england , and that those mercenaries sacrifice their religion and their church to their ambition and interests ; this has such peculiar characters of misfortune upon it , that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity , since we fall by that hand tha● we have so much supported and fortifyed , bu● we must become the scorn of all the world since we have produced such an unnatural brood , that even while they are pretending to be the sons of the church of england , are cutting their mother's throat : and not content with judas's crime , of saying , hail master , and kissing him , while they are betraying him into the hands of others ; these carry their wickedness further , and say : hail mother , and then they themselves murther her . if after all this we were called on to bear this as christians , and to suffer it as subjects , if we were required in patience to possess our own souls , ●nd to be in charity with our enemies ; and which is more , to forgive our false brethren , who add treachery to their hatred ; the exhortation were seasonable , and indeed a little necessary ▪ for humane nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion : but to tell u● that we must make addresses , and offer thanks●or ●or all this , is to insult a little too much upon ●s in our sufferings : and he that can believe ●hat a dry and cautiously worded promise of maintaining the church of england , will be religiously observed after all that we have ●een , and is upon that carried so far out of ●is wits as to address and give thanks , and will believe still , such a man has nothing to ●xcuse him from believing transubstantiation 〈◊〉 self ; for it is plain that he can bring himself ●o believe even when the thing is contrary to ●he clearest evidence that his senses can give ●im . si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur . postscript . these reflections were writ soon after the declaration came to my hands , but the matter of them was so tender , and the conveyance of them to the press was so uneasy , that they appear now too late to have one effect that was designed by them , which was , the diverting men from making addresses upon it ; yet if what is here proposed makes men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done , and is a means to keep them from carrying their courtship further than good words , this paper will not come too late . finis . an answer to mr. henry payne's letter , concerning his majesty's declaration of indulgence , writ to the author of the letter to a dissenter . mr. payne , i cannot hold asking you , how much money you had , from the writer of the paper , which you pretend to answer : for as you have the character of a man that deales with both hands , so this is writ in such a manner as to make one think you were hired to it , by the adverse party : but it has been indeed so ordinary to your friends , to write in this manner of late , that the censures upon it are divided , both fall heavy : some suspect their sincerity others accuse them for want of a right understanding : for tho all are not of the pitch of the irish priests reflections , on the bp of bath and wells's sermon , which was indeed irish double refined ; yet both in your books of controversy , and policy , and even in your poems , you seem to have entred into such an inter-mixture with the irish , that the thread all over is linsey-woollsey . you acknowledge that the gentleman whom you answer has a polite pen , and that his letter is an ingenious paper , and made up of well-composed sentences and periods . yet i believe he will hardly return you your complement . if it was well writ , your party wants either men or judgment extreamly , in allowing you this province of answering it . if the paper did you some hurt , you had better have let the town be a litle pleased with it for a while ; and have hoped that a litle time or some new paper ( tho one of its force is scarce to be expected ) should have worn it out , then to give it a new luster by such an answer . the time of the dissenters sufferings , which you lengthen out to 27 years , will hardly amount to seven . for the long intervals it had , in the last reign , are not forgot : and those who animated the latest and severest of their sufferings are such , that in good manners you ought not to reflect on their conduct . opium is as certain a poison , tho not so violent , as sublimate ; and if more corrosive medicines did not work , the design is the same , when soporiferous ones are used : since the patient is to be killed both ways : and it seems that all that is in debate is , which is the safer : the accepting a present ease when the ill intent with which it is offered , is visible , is just as wise an action , as to take opium to lay a small distemper when one may conclude from the dose , that he will never come out of the sleep . so that after all , it is plain on which side the madness lies . the dissenters for a little present ease , to be enjoyed at mercy , must concur to break down all our hedges , and to lay us open to that devouring power , before which nothing can stand that will not worship it . all that for which you reproach the church of england amounts to this , that a few good words , could not persuade her to destroy her self ; and to sacrifice her religion and the laws to a party that never has done nor ever can do the king half the service that she has rendred him . there are some sorts of propositions that a man does not know how to answer : nor would he be thought ingratefull who after he had received some civilities from a person to whom he had done great service , could not be prevailed with by these so far as to spare him his wife or his daughter . it must argue a peculiar degree of confidence to ask things , that are above the being either askt or granted . our religion and our government are matters that are not to be parted with to shew our good breeding : and of all men living you ought not to pretend to good manners , who talk as you do , of the oppression of the last reign . when the king's obligations to his brother , and the share that he had in his councils , are considered ; the reproaching his government , has so ill a grace , that you are as indecent in your flatteries as injurious in your reflections . and by this gratitude of yours to the memory of the late king , the church of england may easily infer , how long all her services would be remembred , even if she had done all that was desired of her . i would fain know which of the brethren of the dissenters in forreigne countries sought their relief from rebellion . the germans reformed by the authority of their princes , so did the swedes , the danes , and like wise the switsers . in france they maintained the princes of the blood against the league : and in holland the quarrell was for civil liberties ; protestant and papist concurring equally in it . you mention holland as an instance that liberty and infallibility can dwell together : since papists there shew that they can be friendly neighbours , to those whom they think in the wrong : it is very like they would be still so in england , if they were under the lash of the law , and so were upon their good behaviour , the goverment being still against them : and this has so good an effect in holland , that i hope we shall never depart from the dutch pattern : some can be very humble servants that would prove imperious masters . you say that force is our only supporter : but tho there is no force of our side at present , it does not appear that we are in such a tottering condition , as if we had no supporter left us . god and truth are of our side : and the indiscreet use of force , when set on by our enemies , has rather undermined than supported us . but you have taken pains to make us grow wiser , and to let us see our errors , which is perhaps the only obligation that we owe you ; and we are so sensible of it , that without examining what your intentions may have been in it , we heartily thank you for it . i do not comprehend what your quarrell is at the squinting term of the next heir , as you call it ; tho i do not wonder that squinting comes in your mind whensoever you think of her ; for all people look asquint at that which troubles them : and her being the next heir is no less the delight of all good men , than it is your affliction : all the pains that you take to represent her dreadful to the dissenters , must needs find that credit with them , that is due to the insinuations of an enemy . it is very true , that as she was bred up in our church , she adheres to it so eminently , as to make her to be now our chief ornament as we hope she will be once our main defence . if by the strictest form of our church you mean an exemplary piety , and a shining conversation , you have given her true character : but your designe lies another way to make the dissenters form strange ideas of her , as if she thought all indulgence to them criminal : but as the gentleness of her nature is such , that none but those who are so guilty , that all mercy to them would be a crime , can apprehend any thing that is terrible , from her , so as for the dissenters , her going so constantly to the dutch and french churches shews , that she can very well endure their assemblies , at the same time that she prefers , ours . she has also too often expressed her dislike at the heats that have been kept up among us concerning such inconsiderable differences , to pass for a bigot or a persecutor in such matters : and she sees both the mischief that the protestant religion has received from their subdivisions , and the happiness of granting a due liberty of conscience , where she has so long lived , that there is no reason to make any fancy that she will either keep up our differences , or bear down the dissenters with rigor . but because you hope for nothing from her own inclinations , you would have her terrified with the strong argument of numbers , which you fancy will certainly secure them from her recalling the favour . but of what side soever that argument may be strong , sure it is not of theirs who make but one to two hundred : and i suppose you scarce expect that the dissenters will rebel , that you may have your masses , and how their numbers will secure them , unless it be by enabling them to rebell , i cannot imagine : this is indeed a squinting at the next heir , with a witness , when you would already muster up the troops that must rise against her . but let me tell you , that you know both her character and the prince's very ill that fancy , they are only to be wrought on by fear . they are known to your great grief ; to be above that : and it must be to their own mercifull inclinations , that you must owe all that you can expect under them , but neither to their fear nor to your own numbers . as for the hatred and contempt , even to the degree of being more ridiculous then the mass under which you say her way of worship is in holland , this is one of those figures of speech that shew how exactly you have studied the jesuites moralls . all that come from holland , assure us , that she is so universally beloved and esteemed there , that every thing that she does , is the better thought of even because she does it . upon the whole matter , all that you say of the next heir , proves too truly that you are that for which you reproach the church of england , a disciple of the crown only for the loaves ; for if you had that respect which you pretend for the king , you would have shewed it more upon this occasion . nor am i so much in love with your stile , as to imitate it , therefore i will not do you so great a pleasure , as to say the least thing that may reflect on that authority , which the church of england has taught me to reverence even after all the disgraces that she has received from it : and if she were not insuperably restrained by her principles , instead of the thin muster with which you reproach her , she could soon make so thick a one as would make the thinnes of yours , very visible upon so unequall a division of the nation : but she will neither be threatned nor laughed out of her religion and her loyalty : tho such insultings as she meets with , that almost pass all humane patience , would tempt men that had a less fixed principle of submission , to make their enemies feel to their cost , that they owe all the triumphs they make , more to our principles , than to their own force . their laughing at our doctrine of non resistance , lets us see , that it would be none of theirs under the next heir , at whom you squint , if the strong argument of numbers made you not apprehend that two hundred to one would prove an unequal match . as for your memorandums , i shall answer them as short as you give them 1. it will be hard , to persuade people , that a decision in favour of the dispencing power , flowing from judges that are both made , and payed , and that may be removed at pleasure , will amount to the recognising of that right by law . 2. it will be hard to persuade the world , that the kings adhering to his promises , and his coronation oath , and to the known lawes of the land , would make him felo de se. the following of different methods were the likelier way to it , if it were not for the loyalty of the church of england . 3. it will be very easy to see the use of continuing the test by law ; since all those that break thro it , as well as the judges , who have authorised their crimes , are still liable for all they do : and after all your huffing , with the dispencing power , we do not doubt but the apprehension of an after reckoning sticks deep somewhere , you say , it may be supposed , that the aversion of a protestant king to the popish party , will sufficiently exclude them , even without the test. but it must be confessed , that you take all possible care , to confirm that aversion so far , as to put it beyond a it may be supposed . and it seems you understand christs prerogative , as wel as the judges did the kings , that fancy the test is against it : it is so suteable to the nature of all governments , to take assurances of those who are admitted to places of trust , that you do very ill to appeal to an impartial consideration , for you are sure to lose it there . few english men , will believe you in earnest when you seem zealous for publick liberty , or the magna charta : or that you are so very apprehensive of slavery : and your friends must have very much changed both their natures and their principles , if their conduct does not give cause to renew the like statutes against them , even tho they should be repealed in this reign , notwithstanding all your confidence to the contrary . i will still believe that the strong argument of numbers will be always the powerfullest of all others with you : which as long as it has its force , and no longer , we may hope to be at quiet . i concurre heartily with you in your prayers for the king , tho perhaps i differ from you in my notions , both of his glory and of the felicity of his people : and as for your own particular , i wish you would either not at all imploy your pen , or learn to write to better purpose : but tho i cannot admire your letter , yet i am your humble servant t. t. the earle of melfort's letter to the presbyterian-ministers in scotland , writ in his majesty's name upon their address ; together with some remarks upon it . the earle of melfort's letter . gentlemen ; i am commanded by his majesty , to signify unto you his gracious acceptance of your address , that he is well satisfied with your loyalty expressed therein ; for the which he resolves to perpetuate the favour , not only during his own reign , but also to lay down ways for its continuance , and that by appointing in the next ensuing parliament the taking off all penal statutes contrary to the liberty or toleration granted by him . his majesty knows , that enemies to him , to you , and this toleration , will be using all endeavours to infringe the same ; but as ever the happiness of his subjects standing in liberty of conscience , and the security of their properties ( next the glory of god ) hath been his majesty's great end , so he intends to continue , if he have all sutable encouragement and concurrence from you in your doctrine and practice ; and therefore as he hath taken away the protestant penal statutes lying on you , and herein has walked contrary not only to other catholick kings , but also in a way different from protestant kings who have gone before him , whose maxime was to undoe you , by fining , confining , and taking away your estates , and to harrass you in your persons , liberties and priviledges ; so he expects a thankful acknowledgment from you , by making your doctrine tend , to cause all his subjects to walk obediently , and by your practice walking so as shall be most pleasing to his majesty , and the concurring with him for the removing these penal statutes : and he further expects that you continue your prayers to god for his long and happy reign , and for all blessings on his person and government ; and likewise that you look well to your doctrine , and that your example be influential : all th●se are his majesty's commands . sic subs . melfort . remarks . the secretary hand is known to al the writing masters of the town ; but here is an essay of the secretary's stile for the masters of our language : this is an age of improvements , and men that come very young into imployments , make commonly a great progress ; therefore common things are not to be expected here : it is true , some roughnesses in the stile seem to intimate that the writer could turn his conscience more easily than he can do his pen , and that the one is a little stiffer and less compliant than the other . he tells the addressers , that his majesty is well satisfied with their loyalty contained in their address ; for the which he resolves to perpetuate the favour . it appears that the secretary stile and the notary stile come nearer one another than was generally believed : for the which here , & infringe the same afterwards , are beauties borrowed from the notary stile : the foresaid is not much courser . the king 's perpetuating the favour is no easy thing , unless he could first perpetuate himself . now tho his majesty's fame will be certainly immortal , yet to our great regret his person is mortal ; so it is hard to conceive , how this perpetuity should be setled . the method here proposed is a new figure of the secretary stile : which is the appointing in the next ensuing parliament the taking off all penal laws . all former secretaries used the modest words of proposing or recommending ; but he who in a former essay of this stile , told us of his majesty's absolute power , to which all the subjects are to obey without reserve , furnishes us now with this new term of the king 's appointing what shal be done in parliament . but what if after all , the parliament proves so stubborn , as not to comply with this appointment , i am afraid then the perpetuity will be of a shrort continuance . he in the next place , mentions the liberty or toleration granted by the king. liberty is not so hard a word , but that it might be understood without this explanation or toleration , unless the secretary stile either approaches to the notary stile in some nauseous repetitions , or that he would intimate by this , that all the liberty that is left the subjects is comprehended in this toleration . and indeed , after absolute power was once asserted , it was never fit to name liberty without some restriction . after this comes a stately period , the enemies to him , to you , and to this toleration . yet i should be sorry if it were true ; for i hope there are many enemies to this toleration , who are neither enemies to the king , nor to these addressers ; and that on the contrary they are enemies to it , because they are the best friends that both the king and the people have . it is now no secret , that tho' both the prince and princess of orange , are great enemies to persecution , and in particular to all rigour against the presbyterians , yet they are not satisfied with the way in which this toleration is granted . but the reckoning of them as enemies either to the king or the people , is one of the figures of this stile , that will hardly pass : and some will not stick to say , that the writer of this letter , has with this dash of his pen , declared more men enemies to the king , than ever he will be able to make friends to him . he tells them next , that these enemies will be using all endeavours to infringe the same . this is also a strong expression . we know the use of the noun infraction , but infringe is borrowed from the notaries ; yet the plain sense of this seems to be , that those enemies will disturb the meetings , of which i do not hear any of them have the least thought , yet by a secret figure of the secretary stile , perhaps this belongs to all those who either think that the king cannot do it by law , or that will not give their vote to confirm it in parliament : but i am not so well acquainted with all the mysteries of this stile , as to know its full depth . there comes next a long period of 50 words , for i was at the pains to count them all , which seemed a little too prolix for so short a letter , especially in one that writes after the french pattern . but as ever the happiness of his subjects , standing in liberty of conscience , and the security of their properties , next the glory of god , hath been his majesty's great end ; so he intends to continue , if he have all suteable encouragement and concurrence from you , in your doctrine and practice . the putting ever at the beginning of the period , and at so great a distance from that to which it belongs , is a new beauty of stile . and the standing of this happiness , makes me reflect on that which i hear a scotch preacher delivered in a sermon , that he doubted this liberty would prove but like a standing drink . the king 's receiving suteable encouragement from his subjects , agrees ill with the height of stile that went before , of appointing what the parliament must do . kings receive returns of duty and obedience from their subjects ; but hitherto encouragement was a word used among equals : the applying it to the king , is a new figure . a man not versed in the secretary stile would have expressed this matter thus . his majesty has ever made the happiness of his subjects , which consists in liberty of conscience , and the security of property , his great end , next to the glory of god : and he intends to do so still , if he receives all suteable returns from you in your doctrine and practice . i have marked this the more particularly , to make the difference between the common and the secretary stile the more sensible . but what need is there of the concurrence of the addressers , with the king , if he appoints the next parliament to take off all the penal laws . must we likewise believe that his majesty's zeal for the happiness of his subjects , depends on the behaviour of these addressers : and on the encouragement that he receives from them , so that he will not continue it , unless they encourage him in it . this is but an incertain tenure , and not like to be perpetual . but after all the secretary stile is not the royal stile , so notwithstanding this beautiful period , we hope our happiness is more steady , than to turn upon the encouragings of a few men : otherwise if it is a standing happiness yet it is a very tottering one . the protestant penal statutes , is another of his elegancies : for since all the penal laws as well those against papists , as those against dissenters , were made by protestant parliaments , one does not see how fitly this epithete comes in here ; another would have worded this , thus , the penal statutes made against protestants . but the new stile has figures peculiar to it self , that pass in the common stile for improprieties . this noble lord is not contented to raise his majesty's glory above all other catholick kings , in this grant of liberty or toleration , in which there is no competition to be made ; for tho the most christian king , who is the eldest son of that church , has indeed executed her orders in their full extent of severity , yet his majesty , who is but the cadet in that churche's catalogue of honour , it seems does not think that he is yet so much beholding to his mother as to gratify her by the destruction of his people : yet i say , as if this were too little , the king's glory is here carried farther , even above the protestant kings , who have gone before him : whose maxime was to undo you , by fining , confining and taking away your estates , and to harrass you in your persons , liberties and priviledges . here is an honour that is done the king's ancestors by one of his secretaries , which is indeed new , and of his own invention : the protestant kings can be no other than the kings brother , his father , and his grandfather . kings shut out q. elisabeth , who might have been brought in if the more general term of crowned heads had been made use of ; but as the writer has ordered it , the satyr falls singly on the king's progenitors : for the papers that were found in the strong box , will go near to put the late king out of the list of protestant kings : so that this reproach lies wholly on the king's father and his grand-father . it is a little surprising , after all the eloquence that has been imployed to raise the character of the late martyr to so high a pitch , that one of his sons secretaries should set it under his hand in a letter that he pretends is written by the king's commands , that he made it a maxime to undo his people . the writer of this letter should have avoided the mentioning of fines , since it is not so long , since both he and his brother valued themselves on a point that they carried in the council of scotland , that husbands should be fined for their wives not going to church , tho it was not founded on any law. and of all men living he ought to be the last that should speak of the taking away estates ; who got a very fair one during the present reign , by an act of parliament , that attainted a gentleman in a method as new as his stile is ; upon this ground , that two privy councellours declared , they believed him guilty . he will hardly find among all the maximes of those protestant persecuting kings any one that will justify this . it seems the new stile is not very copious in words , since doctrine is three times repeated in so short a letter : he tells them ▪ that their doctrine must tend to cause all the subjects to walk obediently ; now by obediently in this stile , is to obey the absolute pomer without reserve ; for to obey according to law , would pass now for a crime : this being then his meaning , it is probable that the encouragements which are necessary to make his majesty continue the happiness of his subjects , will not be so very great , as to merit the perpetuating this favour . there is with this a heavy charge laid upon them as to their practice ; that it must be such as shall be most pleasing to his majesty ; for certainly that can only be by their turning papists : since a prince that is so zealous for his religion , as his majesty is , cannot be so well pleased with any other thing as with this . their concurring with the king to remove the penal laws , comes over again ; for tho repetitions are impertinencies in the common stile , they are flowers in the new one . in conclusion , he tells them , that the king expects , that they will continue their prayers for him ; yet this does not agree too well with a catholick zeal : for the prayers of damned hereticks cannot be worth the asking ; for the third time he tells them to look well to their doctrine : now this is a little ambiguous ; for it may either signify , that they should study the controversies well , so as to be able to defend their doctrine solidly , or that they should so mince it , that nothing may fall from them in their sermons against popery ; this will be indeed a looking to their doctrine ; but i do not know whether it will be thought a looking well to it or not . he adds , that their example be influential : i confess this hard new word frighted me : i suppose the meaning of it is , that their practice may be such as that it may have an influence on others : yet there are both good and bad influences , a good influence will be the animating the people to a zeal for their religion ; and a bad one will be the slackning and sofning of that zeal . a little more clearness here had not been amiss . as for the last words of this letter ; that all these are his majesty's commands ; it is very hard for me to bring my self to believe them . for certainly he has more piety for the memory of the late martyr , and more regard both to himself , to his children , and to his people , than to have ever given any such commands . in order to the communicating this piece of elegance to the world , i wish the translating it into french were recommended to mr. d' albeville : that it may appear whether the secretary stile will look better in his irish french , than it does now in the scotch english of him who penne dit . finis . an answer to a paper printed with allowance , entitled , a new test of the church of england's loyalty . i. the accusing the church of england of want of loyalty , or the putting it to a new test , after so fresh a one , with relation to his majesty , argues a high degree of confidence in him who undertakes it . she knew well what were the doctrines and practices of those of the roman church , with relation to hereticks ; and yet she was so true to her loyalty , that she shut her eyes on all the temptations , that so just a fear could raise in her : and she set her self to support his majesties right of succession , with so much zeal , that she thereby not only put her self in the power of her enemies ; but she has also exposed her self to the scorn of those who insult over her in her misfortune . she lost the affections even of many of her own children ; who thought that her zeal for an interest , which was then so much decry'd , was a little too fervent : and all those who judged severely of the proceedings , thought that the opposition which she made to the side that then went so high , had more heat than decency in it . and indeed all this was so very extraordinary , that if she was not acted by a principle of conscience , sh● could make no excuse for her conduct● there appeared such peculiar marks of affection and heartiness , at every time that the duke was named , whether in drinking his health , or upon graver occasions , that it seemed affected : and when the late king himself ( whose word they took that he was a protestant ) was spoke of but coldly , the very name of the duke set her children all on fire ; this made many conclude , that they were ready to sacrifice all to him ; for indeed their behaviour was inflamed with so much heat , that the greater part of the nation believed they waited for a fit opportunity to declare themselves . faith in jesus christ was not a more frequent subject of the sermons of many , than loyalty ; and the right of the succession to the crown , the heat that appeared in the pulpit , and the learning that was in their books on these subjects , and the eloquent strains that were in their addresses , were all originals ; and made the world conclude , that whatever might be laid to their charge , they should never be accused of any want of loyalty , at least in this king's time , while the remembrance of so signal a service was so fresh . when his majesty came to the crown , these men did so entirely depend on the promise that he made , to maintain the church of england , that the doubting of the performance appeared to them the worst sort of infidelity . they believed , that in his majesty , the hero , and the king , would be too strong for the papist : and when any one told them , how weak a tie the faith of a catholick to hereticks must needs be , they could not hearken to this with any patience ; but looked on his majesties promise as a thing so sacred , that they imploy'd their interest to carry all elections of parliament-men , for those that were recommended by the court , with so much vigour , that it laid them open to much censure . in parliament they moved for no lawes to secure their religion ; but assuring themselves , that honour was the kings idol , they laid hold on it , and fancied , that a publick reliance on his word , would give them an interest in his majesty , that was generous , and more suteable to the nobleness of a princely nature than any new laws could be : so that they acquiesced in it , and gave the king a vast revenue for life : in the rebellion that followed , they shewed with what zeal they adhered to his majesty , even against a pretender that declared for them . and in the session of parliament , which came after that , they shewed their disposition to assist the king with new supplies ; and were willing to excuse and indemnify all that was past ; only they desired with all possible modesty , that the laws which his majesty had both promised , and at his coronation had sworn to maintain , might be executed . here is their crime , which has raised all this out-cry ; they did not move for the execution of severe or penal laws , but were willing to let those sleep , till it might appear by the behaviour of the papists , whether they might deserve that there should be any mitigation made of them in their favour . since that time , our church-men have been constant in mixing their zeal for their religion against popery , with a zeal for loyalty against rebellion , because they think these two are very well consistent one with another . it is true , they have generally expressed an unwillingness to part with the two tests ; because they have no mind to ●ust the keeping of their throats to those who they believe will cut them : and they have seen nothing in the conduct of the papists , either within or without the kingdom , to make them grow weary of the laws for their sakes ; and the same principle of common sense , which makes it so hard for them to believe transubstantiation , makes them conclude , that the author of this paper , and his friends , are no other , than what they hear , and see , and know them to be . ii. one instance in which the church of england shewed her submission to the court , was , that as soon as the nonconformists had drawn a new storm upon themselves , by their medling in the matter of the exclusion , many of her zealous members went into that prosecution of them , which the court set on foot , with more heat , than was perhaps either justifiable in it self , or reasonable in those circumstances ; but how censurable soever some angry men may be , it is somewhat strange to see those of the church of rome blame us for it , which has decreed such unrelenting severities against all that differ from her , and has enacted that not only in parliaments but even in general councils . it must needs sound odly to hear the sons of a church , that must destroy all others as soon as it can compass it , yet complain of the excesses of fines and imprisonments , that have been of late among us . but if this reproach seems a little strange when it is in the mouth of a papist , it is yet much more provoking , when it comes from any of the court. were not all the orders for the late severity sent from thence ? did not the judges in every circuit , and the favourite justices of peace in every sessions , imploy all their eloquence on this subject ? the directions that were given to the justices and the grand juries were all repeated aggravations of this matter : and a little ordinary lawyer , without any other visible merit , but an outragious fury in those matters , on which he has chiefly valued himself , was of a sudden taken into his majesties special favour , and raised up to the highest posts of the law. all these things , led some of our obedient clergy , to look on it as a piece of their duty to the king , to encourage that severity , of which the court seemed so fond , that almost all people thought , they had set it up for a maxime , from which they would never depart . i will not pretend to excuse all that has been done of late years : but it is certain , that the most crying severities have been acted by persons that were raised up to be judges and magistrates for that very end : they were instructed , trusted , and rewarded for it , both in the last and under the present reign . church-preferments were distributed , rather as recompences of this devouring zeal , than of a real merit ; and men of more moderate tempers were not only ill lookt at , but ill used . so that it is in it self very unreasonable to throw the load of the late rigour on the church of england , without distinction : but it is worse than in good manners it is fit to call it , if this reproach comes from the court. and it is somewhat unbecoming to see that , which was set on at one time , disown'd at another ; while yet he that was the chief instrument in it is still in so high a post ; and begins now to treat the men of the church of england , with the same brutal excesses , that he bestowed so lately and so liberally on the dissenters ; as if his design were to render himself equally odious to all mankind . iii. the church of england may justly expostulate when she is treated as seditious , after she has rendred the highest services to the civil authority , that any church now on earth has done : she has beaten down all the principles of rebellion , with more force and learning , than any body of men has ever yet done ; and has run the hazard of enraging her enemies , and losing her friends , even for those , from whom the more learned of her members knew well what they might expect . and since our author likes the figure of a snake in ones bosom so well ; i could tell him , that according to the apologue , we took up and sheltred an interest , that was almost dead , and by that warmth gave it life , which yet now with the snake in the bosom , is like to bite us to death . we do not say , we are the only church that has principles of loyalty ; but this we may say , that we are the church in the world that carries them the highest ; as we know a church that of all others sinks them the lowest . we do not pretend that we are inerrable in this point , but acknowledge that some of our clergy miscarried in it upon king edwards death : yet at the same time , others of our communion adhered more steadily to their loyalty in favour of queen mary , than she did to the promises that she made to them . upon this subject our author by his false quotation of history , forces me to set the reader right , which if it proves to the disadvantage of his cause , his friends may thank him for it . i will not enter into so tedious a digression as the justifying queen elisabeths being legitimate , and the throwing the bastardy on queen mary must carry me to ; this i will only say , that it was made out , that according to the best sort of arguments used by the church of rome , i mean the constant tradition of all ages , king henry the viii . marrying with queen katherine , was incestuous , and by consequence queen mary was the bastard , and queen elisabeth was the legitimate issue . but our author not satisfied with defaming queen elisabeth , tells us , that the church of england was no sooner set up by her , than she enacted those bloody cannibal laws , to hang , draw and quarter the priests of the living god : but since these lawes disturb him so much , what does he think of the laws of burning the poor servants of the living god , because they cannot give divine worship to that which they believe to be only a piece of bread ? the representation he gives of this part of our history , is so false , that tho' upon queen elisabeth's coming to the crown , there were many complaints exhibited of the illegal violences that bonner and other butchers had committed , yet all these were stifled , and no penal lawes were enacted against those of that religion . the popish clergy were indeed turned out ; but they were well used , and had pensions assigned them ; so ready was the queen and our church to forgive what was past , and to shew all gentleness for the future . during the first thirteen years of her reign , matters went on calmly , without any sort of severity on the account of religion . but then the restless spirit of that party , began to throw the nation into violent convulsions . the pope deposed the queen , and one of the party had the impudence to post up the bull in london ; upon this followed several rebellions , both in england and ireland , and the papists of both kingdoms entred into confederacies with the king of spain and the court of rome ; the priests disposed all the people that depended on them , to submit to the popes authority in that deposi●ion , and to reject the queens : these endeavours , besides open rebellions , produced many secret practices against her life . all these things gave the rise to the severe laws , which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her reign . a war was formed by the bull of deposition , between the queen and the court of rome , so it was a necessary piece of precaution , to declare all those to be traitors who were the missionaries of that authority which had stript the queen of hers : yet those laws were not executed upon some secular priests who had the honesty to condemn the deposing doctrine . as for the unhappy death of the queen of scotland , it was brought on by the wicked practices of her own party , who fatally involved her in some of them ; she was but a subject here in england ; and if the queen took a more violent way , than was decent for her own security , here was no disloyalty nor rebellion in the church of england , which owed her no sort of allegeance . iv. i do not pretend that the church of england has any great cause to value her self upon her fidelity to king charles the first , tho' our author would have it pass for the only thing of which she can boast : for i confess , the cause of the church was so twisted with the king 's , that interest and duty went together : tho i will not go so far as our author , who says , that the law of nature dictates to every individual to fight in his own defence : this is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time . the laws of nature are perpetual , and can never be cancelled by any special law : so if these gentlemen own so freely , that this is a law of nature , they had best take care not to provoke nature too much , lest she fly to the relief that this law may give her , unless she is restrained by the loyalty of our church . our author values his party much upon their loyalty to king charles the first : but i must take the liberty to ask him , of what religion were the irish rebells ; and what sort of loyalty was it , that they shewed either in the first massacre , or in the progress of that rebellion ? their messages to the pope , to the court of france , and to the duke of lorrain , offering themselves to any of these , that would have undertaken to protect them , are acts of loyalty , which the church of england is no way inclined to follow : and the authentical proofs of these things are ready to be produced . nor need i add to this , the hard terms that they offered to the king , and their ill usage of those whom he imployed . i could likewise repress the insolence of this writer , by telling him of the slavish submissions that their party made to cromwel , both father and son. as for their adhering to king charles the first , there is a peculiar boldness in our authors assertion , who says , that they had no hope nor interest in that cause : the state of that court is not so quite forgot , but that we do well remember what credit the queen had with the king , and what hopes she gave the party ; yet they did not so entirely espouse the kings cause , but that they had likewise a flying squadron in the parliaments army , how boldly soever this may be denyed by our author ; for this i will give him a proof , that is beyond exception , in a declaration of that king 's , sent to the kingdom of scotland , bearing date the 21. of april 1643. which is printed over and over again , and as an author that writes the history of the late wars , has assured us the clean draught of it , corrected in some places with the king 's own hand , is yet extant : so that it cannot be pretended , that this was only a bold assertion of some of the kings ministers , that might be ill affected to their party . in that declaration the king studied to possess his subjects of scotland with the justice of his cause , and among other things , to clear himself of that imputation that he had an army of papists about him , after many things said on that head , these words are added : great numbers of that religion have been with great alacrity entertained in that rebellious army against us : and others have been seduced , to whom we had formerly denyed imployments ; as appears by the examination of many prisoners , of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one troop or company of that religion . i hope our author will not have the impudence to dispute the credit that is due to this testimony : but no discoveries , how evident soever they may be , can affect some sort of men ; that have a secret against blushing . v. our author exhorts us , to change our principles of loyalty , and to take example of our catholick neighbours , how to behave our selves towards a prince , that is not of our perswasion : but would he have us learn of our irish neighbours , to cut our fellow subjects throats , and rebel against our king , because he is of another religion ? for that is the freshest example that any of our catholick neighbours have set us : and therefore i do not look so far back , as to the gunpowder-plot , or the league of france in the last age. he reproaches us for failing in our fidelity to our king. but in this matter we appeal to god , angels , and men ; and in particular to his majesty : let our enemies shew any one point of our duty , in which we have failed : for as we cannot be charged for having preacht any seditious doctrine , so we are not wanting in the preaching of rhe duties of loyalty , even when we see what they are like to cost us . the point which he singles out is , that we have failed in that grateful return , that we owed his majesty for his promise , of maintaining our church as it is established by law ; since upon that we ought to have repealed the sanguinary laws , and the late impious tests : the former being enacted to maintain the usurpation of queen elisabeth ; and the other being contrived to exclude the present king. we have not failed to pay all the gratitude and duty that was possible , in return to his majesties promise ; which we have carried so far , that we are become the object even of our enemies scorn by it . with all humility be it said , that if his majesty had promised us a farther degree of his favour , than that of which the law had assured us , it might have been expected , that our return should have been a degree of obedience beyond that which was required by law ; so that the return of the obedience injoyned by law , answers a promise of a protection according to law : yet we carried this matter further ; for as was set forth in the beginning of this paper , we went on in so high a pace of compliance and confidence , that we drew the censures of the whole nation on us : nor could any jealousies or fears give us the least apprehensions , till we were so hard pressed in matters of religion , that we could be no longer silent : the same apostle that taught us to honour the king , said likewise , that we must obey god rather than man. our author knows the history of our laws ill ; for besides what has been already said , touching the laws made by queen elisabeth , the severest of all our penall laws , and that which troubles him and his friends most , was past by k. james after the gunpowder-plot ; a provocation that might have well justified even greater severities . but tho our author may hope to imp●se on an ignorant reader , who may be apt to believe implicitly , what he says concerning the laws of the last age , yet it was too bold for him to assert , that the tests , which are so lately made , were contrived to exclude the present king : when there was not a thought of exclusion many years after the first was made , and the duke was excepted out of the second by a special proviso . but these gentlemen will do well never to mention the exclusion ; for every time that it is named , it will make people call to mind , the service that the church of england did in that matter , and that will carry with it a reproach of ingratitude that needs not be aggravated . he also confounds the two tests , as if that for publick imployments , contained in it a declaration of the king 's being an idolater , or as he makes it , a pagan : which is not at all in it ; but in the other for the members of parliament , in which there is indeed a declaration , that the church of rome is guilty of idolatry ; which is done in general terms , without applying it to his majesty , as our author does : upon this he would infer , that his majesty is not safe till the tests are taken away : but we have given such evidences of our loyalty , that we have plainly shewed this to be false ; since we do openly declare , that our duty to the king is not founded on his being of this or that religion ; so that his majesty has a full security from our principles , tho the tests continue , since there is no reason that we , who did run the hazard of being ruined by the excluders , when the tide was so strong against us , would fail his majesty now , when our interest and duty are joyned together : but if the tests are taken away , it is certain that we can have no security any longer ; for we shall be then laid open to the violence of such restless and ill-natured men , as the author of this paper and his brethren are . vi. the same reason that made our saviour refuse to throw himself down from the roof of the temple , when the devil tempted him to it , in the vain confidence , that angels must be assistant to him to preserve him , holds good in our case . our saviour said , thou shalt not tempt the lord thy god. and we dare not trust our selves to the faith and to the mercies of a society , that is but too well known to the world , to pretend , that we should pull down our pales , to let in such wolves among us . god and the laws have given us a legal security , and his majesty has promised to maintain us in it : and we think it argues no distrust , either of god , or the truth of our religion , to say , that we cannot by any act of our own , lay our selves open , and throw away that defence . nor would we willingly expose his majesty to the unwearied solicitations of a sort of men , who , if we may judge of that which is to come , by that which is past , would give him no rest , if once the restraints of law were taken off , but would drive matters to those extremities , to which we see their natures carry them head-long . vii . the last paragraph is a strain worthy of that school that bred our author ; he says , his majesty may withdraw his royal protection from the church of england which was promised her , upon the account of her constant fidelity ; and he brings no other proof to confirm so bold an assertion but a false axiome of that despised philosophy , in which he was bred : cessante causa tollitur effectus . this is indeed such an indignity to his majesty , that i presume to say it with all humble reverence , these are the last persons whom he ought to pardon , that have the boldness to touch so sacred a point as the faith of a prince , which is the chief security of government , and the foundation of all the confidence that a prince can promise himself from his people , and which , once blasted , can never be recovered : equivocations may be both taught and practised with less danger by an order that has little credit to lose ; but nothing can shake thrones so much , as such treacherous maximes . i must also ask our author , in what point of fidelity has our church failed so far , as to make her forfeit her title to his majesties promises ? for as he himself has stated this matter , it comes all to this . the king promised that he would maintain the church of england as established by law. upon which in gratitude he says , that the church of england was bound to throw up the chief security that she had in her establishment by law ; which is , that all who are intrusted either with the legislative or the executive parts of our government , must be of her communion ; and if the church of england is not so tame and so submissive , as to part with this , then the king is free from his promise , and may withdraw his royal protection ; tho i must crave leave to tell him , that the laws gave the church of england a right to that protection , whether his majesty had promised it or not . of all the maximes in the world , there is none more hurtful to the government , in our present circumstances , than the saying , that the kings promises and the peoples fidelity ought to be reciprocal ; and that a failure in the one , cuts off the other : for by a very natural consequence the subject may likewise say , that their oaths of allegeance being founded on the assurance of his majesties protection , the one binds no longer than the other is observed : and the inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible , if the loyalty of the so much decryed church of england , does not put a stop to them . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30329-e11740 ☜ ☜ ☜ reflections on mr. varillas's history of the revolutions that have happned in europe in matters of religion and more particularly on his ninth book that relates to england / by g. burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1686 approx. 154 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 101 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30405 wing b5852 estc r13985 12390080 ocm 12390080 60976 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30405) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 60976) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 272:1) reflections on mr. varillas's history of the revolutions that have happned in europe in matters of religion and more particularly on his ninth book that relates to england / by g. burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 203, [1] p. printed for p. savouret ..., amsterdam : 1686. pages 168-203 photographed from british library copy and inserted at the end. errata: p. [1] at end of huntington library copy. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng varillas, -monsieur -(antoine), 1624-1696. -histoire des revolutions arrivées dans l'europe en matiere de religion. reformation -england. europe -church history. europe -history -1517-1648. great britain -religion -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-11 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion reflections on mr. varillas's history of the revolutions that have happned in europe in matters of religion . and more particularly on his ninth book that relates to england . by g. burnet , d. d. amsterdam , printed for p. savouret in the warmoes-street near the dam. 1686. reflections on mr. varillas's history of the revolutions that have happned in europe in matters of religion , and more particularly on his 9 th book that relates to england . mr . varillas has within a few years given the world so many-books of history , and these have been so much read and so well received , that it seems he thinks he is now so far possessed of the esteem of the age , that he may venture to impose upon it the falsest coyn that can be struck , not doubting but that the name varillas stampt upon it will make it pass current , and this being a time in which some have thought that they might doe whatsoever they pleased against those of the religion , he it seems thinks he may likewise say whatsoever he pleased against them , that so there may be a due proportion between the injuries that he does them with his pen , and those that others make them feel with severer tools , and perhaps he thought the severities that are now exercised upon them , are so contrary to that tenderness with which the humane nature , not to say the christian religion , is apt to inspire all that are not transported with such violent passions that they drown the motions of our bowels towards the miserable , that nothing could divert the world from those merciful inclinations but the dressing up the first beginnings of the reformation in such odious representations as might possess the age with so much fury against them , that none of the miseries that they suffer , might create the least compassion for them . it is true , princes have their prerogatives with which they take great liberties as their several passions are excited and dextrously managed , the desire of glory mixing with a heat of blood , at one time can produce a w●r , as terrible in its consequences , as it was injustifiable in its first beginnings , and the same ambition mixing with a superstitious disposition of mind , and working upon colder blood , can at another time produce a violation of edicts that have been solemnly sworn to , and often confirmed , and accompany that with a sequel of severities , that are more easily lamented than expressed ; yet an humble regard to the sublime character of a crown'd head lays a restraint on those groans , which we would rather stifle than give them their full scope , least the language of our sorrows look like an accusing of those , whom , after all that our brethren have suffered at their hands , we would still force our selves to reverence , and therfore we choose rather to support our grief , than to vent it at their cost . but small scriblers , who have set a price upon their pens , and sacrifice our reputation , that they may merite a pension at the hands of the chief instruments of our brethrens sufferings , are not to look for such respect : he that fights against the laws of war ought to expect no quarter when he is taken . a historian that favours his own side , is to be forgiven , thô he puts a little too much life in his colours , when he sets out the best sides of his party , and the worst of those from whom he disfers : and if he but slightly touches the failings of his friends , and severely aggravates those of the other side , thô in this he departs from the laws of an exact historian , yet this biass is so natural , that if it lessens the credit of the writer , yet it does not blacken him , but if he has no regard either to truth or decency , if he gives his imagination a full scope to invent , and his pen all the liberties of foul language , he ought not to think it strange , if others take some pains to expose him to the world. and thô their conscience and religion obliges them to take other measures with relation to truth , and their breeding engages them to a strict modesty of stile , yet if the things that are said are as severe as they are true , and as wounding as they may appear soft , it is nothing but what a zeal for truth , and an indignation at so much ill-managed injustice draws from them . it is not to be denied that mr. varillas has an art of writing that is entertaining he pretends to discover many secrets to give pictures of men to the life , and to interweave the histories that he relates with a thread of politiques that is very agreable , only this appears to be overdone , and those who have had much practice in humane affairs see that the conduct of the world is not so steady and so regular a thing as he loves to represent it , unlookt for accidents , the caprices of some tempers , the secrets of amours and jealousies , with other particular passions are the true sources of almost all that is transacted in the world ; even interest it self does not always govern mankind , but humour and passion have their turns , and oft times the largest share in humane affairs . so that i ever thought that his books had too much of the air of a romance , and seemed too fine to be true . he does indeed now and then , to maintain his reputation in his reader 's mind , vouch some letter or narrative , but he neither tells whither it is in print , or in manuscript , or where he had it , and where others may find it : so this way of citation looked suspitious , yet i could not easily take up such hard thoughts of him as to imagine , that all this was his own invention : but being in paris last summer , i had the good fortune to become acquainted with some men of great probity , and that had particularly applied themselves to examine the history of france with great exactness ; they were of the church of rome , and seemed to have no other dislike at mr. varillas , but that which was occasioned by the liberty , that he had given himself , to writ his own imaginations for true histories they assured me there was no regard to be had to any thing that he writ , that he had gathered together many little stories , which he knit together as he pleased , and that without any good authority : and they told me that the greatest number of the pieces he cited were to be found now here but in his own fancy . in a word , they spoke of all his books with a sharpness of stile , and a degree of contempt , that i will not repeat , least i seem to come too near his forms of speech , which are the worst patterns that one can follow . i found he was generally so much decried in paris , that he has reason to say in his preface , that when the archbishop of paris thought on him , all the world had abandoned him , for i did not find any man under a more universal contempt than he was , and the esteem in which his works were held in forreign parts far beyond what was paied them in france , was imputed to his method of writing , that wants none of the beauties of history except that of truth , and to the ignorance in which strangers live as to the particulars of their history . it is true , at last he has found a patron and a pension , and now he has given us an essay of his merits ; but if this work is examined severely , he will very probably soon lose his appointments ; since mercenary pens are seldom paied longer than they can be useful . here one finds so much occasion for censure , that whereas in other books one must run up and down to find matter for a critical judgment , here it occurs so copiously that a man must take care not to surfeit his reader with too much of it ; and therefore must choose out the more remarkable errours and there are even so many of these , that it is to be feared that the world will not think him not his writings worth the time and the pains that must be bestowed on them . mr. maimbourg has set a pattern to the world , that thô few wil care to imitate , yet it has taken so much with the present age , that it is no light indication of its degeneracy , when surch books are so much read and sold , in which the writer seems to have so broken loose from all the common measures either of honesty or shame , that one would wonder of what composition he were made , if they did not know that he has lived 50 ▪ years the in iesuite order : for as he has no regard to truth , or likelyhood in what he writs , so he seems to be proof against the evidentest discoveries of his prevarications that are possible ; and when they are laid open in a manner capable of making any man besides himself to blush , he neither has the conscience to confess his errours , nor the sense of honour to justify himself : but he finds out still new matter to writ on , and a new stock of champaigne wine , as i have been told , that he has oft said , to make his blood boil till he has spoild an other piece of history ; and he thinks a scornfull period or two in a preface is enough to carry off all the shame to which his errours ought to condemn him . he has also the impudence to dedicate his books to the king , and the world is still willing to be cosened by him . this trade has succeeded so well with him , that it seems mr. varillas vies with him in it , and as he has the chaster stile , and the more natural way of misleading his reader , so he has resolved not to be behind him in a bold quality that i love not to set down by its proper name . but thô mr. varillas has the art to refine upon the pattern that mr. maimbourg set him , yet mr. maimbourg is the author of the invention , and therefore he deserves the better pension . history is a sort of trade in which false coyn and false weights are more criminal than in other matters ; because the errour may go further and run longer : thô these authors colour their copper too slightly to make it keep its credit long . if men think there are degrees of lying , then certainly those that are the most loudly told , that wound the deepest , that are told with the best grace , and that are transmitted to posterity under the deceitful colours of truth , have the blackest guilt ; but some men have arrived at equal degrees in hardning their consciences and in steeling their forheads , and are without the reach either of inward remorses or publick discoveries ; so that as augustus fancied there was a charm in the pillour of a roman , that died hugely indebted , since without an extraordinary saporiferous composition he could not fancy how such a man could sleep securely ; so if humane nature did not often produce some very irregular individuals , a man that feels the authority that truth and modesty have ever a pure mind , can not easily imagine by what secret others can quite extinguish those inclinations which he finds are so prevalent in himself . but i will now by mr. varillas's leave take the liberty to set before him some of his most conspicuous errours , and thô i do not expect much sincerity from himself , yet i hope the world will be juster than he has shewed himself to be . mr. varillas begins his history with a view of the progress of that which he calls heresy , in a prophetick stile , setting , forth what effects it was to produce , as if he were foretelling what was to fall out , and that for 11. pages ( according to the impression of amsterdam ) this has so little of the air of a historian , and is so full of the figures of a declaimer , that it looks liker the strain of a heated and angry fryer , than of a grave and serious writer of history , who ought to be always in cold blood , and ought not to let the heats of a vitious rhetorick transport him . but this is so like one of the forced raptures of some missionary , that one would think it was writ either by one of them , or for one of them . it is much a safer thing to prophecy concerning matters that are past , than concerning those that are to come , and one is less in danger of committing errours ; yet when heat enters into matters of history , and meets with so vast a deal of ignorance as is that of mr. varillas , no wonder if it carries him into great errours . if mr. varillas had gathered the history of the last age out of any books or out of those letters tha● he so often vouches , he could not have said that edward th● 6th's tutor or governour was the duke of northumberland , since there is not any one book writ concerning that time , that does not shew the contrary . the duke of somerset was his governour , and for the duke of northumberland , thô the last two years of that reign , in which that king was past the age of tutelage , he bore the chief sway of affairs , yet he had neither the character of the king's tutor or governour , nor any other whatsoever , but only that of a privy councellour , that was much considered by him , and he at his death professed that he had been always a catholick in his heart , so that his pretending to be of the reformed religion to serve his interests , shews that he belongs no more to our church , than the now forced converts belong to that of rome . in the same page he says that mary queen of scotland did by her bastard brother's persuasions marry a single gentleman , and on the margent he gives his name henry d' arley ; this is a new proof how little he knows the books of the last age. this henry whom he calls d' arley was henry lord darly , eldest son to the earl of lenox , which was one of the chief families of scotland , and a branch of the family of the stewarts . it is true it came off from it before the crown came into it by mariage , yet the grandfather of this henry had matched with one that was very near the crown , and cosen german to k. iames the 4th's and sister to hamilton earl ; of , aran this lord darly's mother was also uterine sister to k. iames the 5. being the daughter to the queen dowager of scotland that was k. henry the 8th's sister , who by her second mariage with the earl of angus ( dowglass ) had lady isabel dowglass , who was bred in the court of england , and whom k. henry the 8. maried to the earl of lennox , that had by her this lord darly , who as he was the queen of scotland's cosin german , was also the next heir to the crown of england after her , and might have been a dangerous competitour to her in that succession , having been born and bred in england , so that this mariage was so far from making her contemptible to her subjects , that it was considered as the wisest act of her life : and mr. var. could not imagine any thing more honourable to the earl of morny's memory , than to make him the adviser of so wise a choice . it is no wonder to see mr. var. make so bold with meaner persons , when he takes so much liberty wiht the royal family of england , as to stain their descent , for which if the consideration of the crowns they wear , did not restrain him , yet the particular regard to the king that now reigns , ought to have taught him so much respect as not to have ventured to blot his scutcheon so far as to call his great grandfather a single gentleman and if he had payd the respect he owed to the memory of that unfortunate princess , he had no● enlarged so much on her story , but i know what is due to the memory of a crowned head , even when it is laid in ashes , and thô he makes an easy weakness to be her prevailing character , upon which he would discharge all her misfortunes , this picture is so different from the truth that she was certainly one of the wittiest and highest spirited women that ever lived . but it seems mr. varillas has pretended to some pension from the crown of england , and in revenge for the disappointment he has resolved to debase the race all he can . here he affords our kings the honour to be descended at least from a gentleman , thô one of the ordin ariest sort ; but upon another occasion he is not so liberal , for in his history he says that henry the 8th had reasons to desire the mariage of his bastard son the duke of richmond with his daughter mary , that were too well known , for libels had been spread over all europe , reproaching him that his great grandfather was not a gentleman , but that by his credit at court , and by the vast riches that he had acquired , he had obtained leave to marry a daughter of the family of the plantaganets , that was then 16. degrees distant from the crown , and yet by that means his grand-child came to reign ; upon which he makes a long speculation concerning the king's reflections on that matter , and the reasons that restrained him from writing on that subject , as if it were an ordinary thing for princes to become their own heralds . he also tells us how he comforted himself by the remembrance of the meanness of arbaces k. of persia , that was the son of a locksmith , whose posterity had reigned so long , and with so much glory , and therefore he says he designed to marry his natural son and his daughter together . here is such a mixture of impertinencies , that it is not easy to know at what one is to begin , and if there were but this one period , it is enough to let the world see , how incapable mr. varillas is of writing history . i shall not in this place shew the falsehood of that imputation on henry the 8th , that he designed this incestuous match , for that will come in more property upon another occasion ; only if his birth was defective on his great grandfathers side , it was an odd method for the correcting of it , to think of adding a new blot , and of bringing a bastard into the 5th succession ; so the reason is as foolish as the matter of fact is false , and the ignorance that mr. var. shews here is the more remarkable , because this matter belongs to the most extraordinary transaction that is in the whole french history , in which he pretends to be so conversant . i need not say any more to prove the tudors to be gentlemen , but to tell that they are welshmen , of the race of the ancient britons , who do all pretend to the highest birth of any in the english nation , and do run up their pedigrees to iulius cesar's time ; among whom is the race of the the ap theodore's or the sons of theodore , that by a corruption of some ages were called tudors : but knows mr. varillas so little of the french history , as to have forgot that the daughter of france , that was maried to henry the 5th of england , in whose right both henry the 5th , and her son henry the sixth were crowned kings of france in paris , did after king henry the 5th's death marry owen tudor , by whom she had 3. sons the two eldest were made the earls of richmont and pembroke , being the kings uterine brothers , and the next heirs to that title , that he claimed to the crown of france , in the right of his mother ( which i am far from thinking was a good one . ) this being the case , it was no extraordinary thing for a man of the earl of richmont's rank to marry a lady that was then at such a distance from the crown , thô it was only in the 6th and not the 16th degree ; but i do not insist on this , because it may be only the fault of the printer , and i will not descend to a doubtful fault , when i have such material ones in my way . i know there are a sort of men that are much more ashamed when their ignorance is discovered , than when their other vices are laid open , since degenerate minds are more jealous of the reputation of their understanding , than of their honour . and as mr. varillas is very like to be of this temper , so if a simpathy with mr. maimbourg has not wrought him up to the like pitch of assurance ▪ such discoveries as these ought to affect him a little ; and here a man is apt to lose his patience , when he finds such a scribler pretend to defame the noblest blood in the world . there is nothing else in the first prophetick rhapsody that relates to our matters , so i was inclined to go from hence to a more particular enquiry into our english affairs , only the ignorance that he discovers in the next paragraph is so surprising that i will bestow a short remark on it . he says , that the switzers were so prevailed on by this pretext , that their separating themselves from the roman communion was the best expedient to preserve them from falling under the dominion of the house of austria ( thô it is certain they were then in no sort of fear of that ) that the four chief cantons were seduced in less than a years time ; but that the seven little cantons continued in the belief of their fathers , and the two midle sised cantons tollerated equally both the religions . one would have thought that a man that had pretended to the name of a historian , would have at least begun his studies with some small tast of cosmography , and would have taken some pains to know the map ; and as the switzers are in the neighbourhood of france , so they have been so long the allies of that crown , that the ignorance of the importance of the cantons is a fault in one that pretends to be such an illuminated historian , that deserves a worse correction than i think fit to give it . to reckon basle and shaff housen among the great cantons , and lucern among the small cantons , solohern and fribourg being also so considerable that some reckon them with the great cantons ; and to put glaris and appeuzel in a superiour order to them that are among the smallest of the least is such a complication of errours that it is not easy to imagine how he had the luck to fetch in so many into one period . but this is not all the ignorance that is in it ; for whereas he pretends , that the four cantons , that received the reformation did it in less than a year , this is so false that zwinglius having begun to preach the reformation in the year 1519. the whole matter was examined in a course of several years , and at last zurich received the reformation in the year 1525. bern three years after in the year 1528. and basle a year after in the year 1529. as for schaff house i must confess my ignorance , but there was at least 10 years interval in this matter ; and if lucern is not so much in his favour , because it is the residence of the spanish ambassadour , yet i cannot imagine what has made him degrade solohern into the number of the small cantons , which is the residence of the french ambassadour , and is reckoned by many among the greater . but it is likely that he knew nothing of all this matter , except by report , and perhaps he thought the period would run smoother to range the cantons thus in the great , in the small , and the midle-sised cantons , and that it would also reflect on the reformation as a precipitated change to say that 4 cantons turnd in one year . but thô impertinence is a fault scarce to be named , when one has so many of a more criminal nature in his way , yet such as are more signal and more advantageously situated for the reader 's eye deserve to be viewed in our passage , with the scorn that they deserve . mr. varillas begins his 3. book which opens the progress of luther's affairs with a preamble of 38. pages , in which he sets out the state of europe at that time , so copiously and with so little judgement , that he bestows 14. pages on the conquests that selim the turk had made , and on his defeat of the mamelucks . this whole tedious ramble signifies nothing to luther's matters ; but in short it was a secret to swell the volume , and to raise the price of the book , as well as it must lessen the price of the author , who shews , how little he understands where he ought to place his digressions . what notions does that view of every state of europe give the world , that doe any way prepare the readers mind ; for what was to come after , unless it be that mr. var. being to present a piece of as arrant poëtry as any that ever possessed the stage , he thought it necessary to fill it at first with many actors , and to make a great appearance , thô none of them were to act any part in his play ? but since he will needs be writing , thô he understands not the common-elements , i will take the pains for once to instruct him a little how he ought to have made this introduction , since he it seems was resolved to begin with one . he ought then to have open'd the state of europe with relation to religion and learning ; he to have shewed what scandals the popes and the court of rome had given , what was the state of the secular clergy , the ignorance , irregularity , and vices of the bishops , and curates ; what were the ●isorders and dissolutions of the monastick orders , both of those that were endowed and of the mendicants . he ought to have shewed in what sort of studies they imploied their time , and with what sort of sermons they entertained the people : and to this he ought to have added somewhat of the state of the universities of europe ; and of the beginnings of learning that were then arising . he ought to have shewed the different interests , in which the several nations of europe were engaged , after the times of the councils of constance and basle ; and to this he might have added the state of the courts of europe with relation to religion , upon all which he might have found matter for a long , and a much more pertinent introduction . and to conclude , he ought to have told the dispositions , in which the peoples minds were , as to those matters : and if he would needs make a vain shew of his faculty of telling of tales , he might have set out the state of the eastern churches , after the treaty at the council of florence , and of its effects ; of the ruine of those churches ; and of the ignorance , as well as misery to which they were reduced by the rigour of the mahometan yoke . it is true this was not a necessary preliminary to the bringing luther on the stage , but it had been much less impertinent , than a long recital of sultan selim's conquests . but i am caried too far , and hereafter i will confine my self to that , which does more immediatly belong to me . he begins that part of his advertisement , that relates to the affairs of england , with a sort of an apophthegme worthy of him : he says , it is without comparison more difficult to be exactly true in matters of religion , than in other matters ; since in those others , it is only interest and passion that make men lie ; but in matters of religion conscience does so entirely conquer all the powers of the soul , and reduces them to such a slavery , that it forces a man to write , that which it dictates , without troubling himself to examine whither it is true or false . here is such a view of his notion of religion , that how false soever this proposition is in it self , yet it gives us a true light of his ideas of religion . good god shall that principle , which does elevate , and illuminate our natures , be considered as a more powerful depravation of them , than that which flows either from interest or passion ? shall that which is the image of the god of truth , and that reduces the soul to a chast purity of spirit , be made the author of the enslaving of all our powers , and the emancipating us from all scrupulosity concerning truth or falsehood ? this perhaps is the character of mr. varillas's religion , thô those that know him well assure me , that religion makes very little impression on him ; and if that is true , then his apophthegme fails in himself , since the interest of a pension , and the passion of making himself acceptable in the present time , have as entirely freed him from all regard to truth , as ever any false principle of religion did an enraged zealot . it is matter of horrour to see religion , and conscience set up as the violentest corrupters of truth : but we know out of what school this has sprung , and it seems mr. varillas has so devoted himself to the order of the jesuites , that he is resolved to speak aloud , that which they more prudently think fit to whisper in secret , and indeed if we may judge of him by this character , that he gives of religion , we must conclude him to be entirely possessed with it , since never man seem'd to be less solicitous , than he is , concerning the truth , or falsehood of the things , that hoavers . he accuses me of favouring my own side too much , and that if i confess some of king henry's faults , it is only that i may have an occasion to excuse the wretched cranmer . this is some intimation , as if he had read my book , but i doe not believe he has done it : for thô i have no great opinion either of his vertue , or of his understanding ; yet i doe not think , he is so forsaken of common-sense , and of all regard to his reputation , as to have adventured to have advanced so many notorious falsehoods , if he had seen upon what authentical grounds i had so exposed them , that i doe not think it possible even for mr. maimbourg himself after all his 50 years noviciat , to arrive at a confidence able to maintain them any longer , if he had once read my book , and what i had writ was at least so important , that he ought to have weakned the credit of my history , by some more evident proofs , than that of saying barely , that i was extreamly partial to my own side . my book was so much read , and so favourably spoken of in france these three years past , that in common decency he ought to have alledged somewhat , to have justified his censure ; but this manner of writing was more easy , as well as more imperious . and if a large volume of history supported with the most authentick proofs , that has ever yet perhaps accompanied any book of that sort , is to be thus shaken off , it is a vain thing to write books for men of mr. varillas's temper . this had been more pertinent , if he had voucht for it a report , which was so spread over paris , that i had received advices of it from several hands , of a design in which , as was reported , a clergy-man was engaged that has many excellent qualities , to which mr. varillas seems to be a great stranger , for he has both great application , and much sincerity . he has searcht with great exactness that vast collection of mss. that relate to the last age , which are laid up in the king's library , and he had found so many things relating to england , that he intended to publish a volume of memoires relating to our affairs : he had also said , that in some things he would enlarge himself more copiously than i had done , and that in other things he must differ from me . matters generally grow bigger by being oft told , so this was given out as a design to write a counter-history , which should overthrow all the credit that my work had got . but upon my coming to paris , i found some sincere enquirers into truth , and who by consequence are men that have no value for mr. varillas , who intended to bring us together that we might in an amicable manner reason the matter be foresome of our common friends ▪ and both of us seemed to be so well disposed to sacrifice all to truth , that two persons of such eminence , that they can receive no honour by the most advantageous characters that i can give them , who were mr. thevenot and mr. auzont , did procure us a meeting in the king's library , and in their presence . in which the abbot as he discovered a vast memory , great exactness and much sincerity , so he confessed that he had no exceptions to the main parts of my history ; he mentioned some things of less moment , in all which i gave not only our two learned arbiters , but even himself full satisfaction , so that i quickly perceived i had to doe with a man of honour . he insisted most on the judgment of the sorbonne against k. henry's mariage , which is not in their registers . but i was certainly informed by a dr. of the sorbonne that their registers are extreamly defective , and that many of their books are lost . he alledged a letter to k. henry that he had seen , telling him , that it was to be feared that he might be displeased with the decision of the sorbonne , and that it might doe him more hurt than good , which letter bearing s after the decision that i have printed , does not seem to agree with it . to this i answered , that all the other decisions of universities being given simply in the king's favours , and that of the sorbonne bearing only , that the majority had declared for him , this left ablot upon the matter , since when the opposition is inconsiderable , decisions are given in the name of the whole body ; but the mention of the majority imported , that there was a great opposition made , which , thô it was not supported by a number equal to the other , yet was so considerable , as to lessen very much the credit of the decision . to this i added , that k. henry's printing this the year after it was given , and none ever accusing that piece of forgery , card. pool on the contrary acknowledging that he was in paris when it was obtained , these were undeniable evidences of its genuinness , to which he answered by a hearty acknowledgment , that he had seen another letter , in which the detail of the whole proceeding of the sorbonne is set down ; and , as i remember , there were but one or two more than the majority , that opined on the king's side ; but the rest were in different classes . some suspended their opinions : others , thô they condemned the mariage , yet did not think it could be broken , since it was once made : and some were positively of the pope's side . in end , after some hours discours , in which all the company was fully satisfied with the answers that i gave , he concluded , that as he had seen many more letters relating to that matter than i had done , so if i thought fit , he would furnish me with a volume of authentical proofs for what i had writ , greater than that which i had already printed . and these were the letters of the french ambassadours , that were in king henry the 8th's court , that are in the king's library ; but i did not stay long enough in paris to procure this . now what those letters of cardinal bellays are , upon which mr. varillas pretends to found his relation , i cannot imagine . for as he came not to act in this matter till the last step of it ; so his letters cannot carry any long series of this affair in them , and they must be far from giving those long excursions , into which mr. varillas always delights to wonder . and , as i remember , i was in particular told , that those letters were in the king's library , and so , since all that was there , agreed with my history , this must pass among those hardy citations of authors , that mr. varillas is apt to make , to give credit to his inventions . he flourishes a little to shew some small reading , but he is as unhappy in that , as in other things . he mentions cambden , as having writ the history of that revolution with some more moderation , than he is pleased to allow me ; but he says , he does so constantly favour the calvinists , in prejudice of those that he calls catholicks , that one needs only read the first page , that turns up to him , in any part of his history , to be convinced of it . this is a very good proof that mr. varillas never opened any one page of cambden ; since he does not write of that revolution . for he begins his history with q. elisabeth's reign , and says no more of what went before her time , than what amounts to a very short hint of her birth and education , and a general introduction into her reign ; and that history is writ with so much judgment and impartiality , that as it acquired the author the friendship and esteem of that eminent historian mr. du thou ; so he after cambden's death published the second volume , from the manuscript that the author had sent him . if the discovery of a great many rebellions and conspiracies against the person of that famous queen is that , which disgusts mr. varillas at that history , it is because his religion has so enslaved his conscience , that he is so little concerned in truth or falsehood , as not to be able to endure one of the gravest writers , that this age has produced , because he could not avoid the recital of those many crimes , that some of the men of mr. varillas's principles as to religion were not afraid to commit . after this he mentions another of our historians , whom he calls dr. morton , and to make his reader know that he is acquainted with the history of his life , he tells us he was afterwards a bishop ; but this is one of the authors of his invention , for thô we had a doctor morton , that was bishop of durham , and that died about 30 years ago ; yet he writ no history . by the character that mr. varillas gives this pretended author , that he was more moderate than cambden , i fancy he is mistaken in the name , and that he would say dr. heylin , thô this name and morton have no affinity ; but heylin was no bishop : it is true , dr. heylin has writ so moderately , that some have been severe upon him for it ; but i will make no other reflections on this , unless it be to shew the slightness of mr. varillas's way of writing , who it is likely had heard one talk at the same time both concerning dr. morton and dr. heylin , and he in his assuming way , pretends upon this to give a character of that history , putting the name morton for heylin ; but he never read a word of dr. heylin , thô in his daring way , he pretends to give his character ; and repents himself of the praise of moderation that he had given in preference to cambden , and sets it out as an artifice , since whereas cambden blames always the pretended catholicks without any mitigations , morton in blaming them counterfeits some pity for them , that is to say , he had some degrees of mr. varillas's character of religion . but dr. heylin's history being writ only in english , and it having never been translated either into latin or french , mr. varillas cannot give a character of it from his own knowledg . from our side he goes to the writers of the roman side , and begins with another essay of his exactness to his principles of religion . for he says , sanders writ so violently , that it vvas no vvonder if the protestants caried their revenge so far , as to force him to die of hunger , in the mountains of the north of england , to vvhich he had retired . here are only three capital errours : for 1. sanders's book , concerning the english schisme , vvas not published till after his death , so that this could give no occasion for so severe a revenge . 2. sanders did not die in the north of england , but in ireland . 3. sanders vvas sent over by the pope to raise and conduct a rebellion in ireland , for vvhich he had immediate povvers from the pope . he was so active , that he brought an army together , which was defeated by the queen's forces : and upon that he fled into a wood , where he was , some days after , found dead . so that having received no wounds , it was believed he died of hunger . this being the state of that affair , as it is related of all sides , is not mr. varillas a very creditable author , who has the brow to report it as he does ? for the character that he gives of ribadeneira , it is so embroiled , that i do not think it worth the vvhile to examine it . it is enough to say that ribadeneira is a jesuite , that is to say , a man true to mr. varillas his character of religion , and his history is nothing but sanders drest up in another method . i speak of that which is in latin , for the spanish , i have never seen it . for lesley he is generally a grave and wise writer , but mr. varillas names him , because some body had told him , that one of such a name had writ of those matters , otherwise he had never cited him with relation to english affairs , which he scarce ever mentions , but as they happned to be intermixt with the scotsh . in conclusion , mr. varillas pretends to depend upon cardinal bellay's letters , and so he thinks here is enough to settle , in the spirit of his reader , a firm beleef of all that he intends to write ; but let him tell the world where they are to be found , since the printed volume contains nothing of the matters , that he pretends to cite from him . and since i have printed so many of the original letters of that time , and have told the reader where they are to be found , i will expect the like from him , otherwise let him cite them as long as he will , i will take the liberty to tell him that i do not believe him . and i think , that by this time i have given him sufficient reasons for excusing my incredulity , in matters that he gives us upon his own word . here is enough for a preliminary . but i am affraid i grow heavy to my reader ; and that by this time he is so fully satisfied concerning the principles both of mr. varillas's religion , and his morals , that he begins to lose patience , when he sees how far i am like to carry him in a more copious discovery . but there are a sort of men , that must be severely repressed : and there are some times , in which even a fool is to be answered according to his folly . yet i will so far manage my reader , as not to overcharge him too much : therefore as to many of those political digressions , that mr. var. makes upon the interest of england , france and spain , i will pass them quite over , as the whipped cream that he sets before his reader . some of them are not unpleasant , if they were proposed as considerations , which might perhaps have had their weight : but his averring them confidently is not to be excused , they might pass in a kind of a book of politicks as a refining upon the actions of princes ; but this way of writing is by no means to be allowed in history , since it is without any sort of evidence , and history ought to relate things as we find they really were designed , and transacted ; and not as we imagine they ought or might have been . i am now entring upon a subject , in which it will be much more easy for me to say too much , than too little : for mr. varillas commits so many errours , that thô i am resolved to let lesser matters pass unregarded , yet i find so many in my way , which require a discovery , that i am engaged in a task as ingrateful to my self , as it must be severe upon him . 1. he begins with an assurance , that all the rest of wiclef's heresy were so entirely rooted out of england , that the whole nation , without excepting one single person , was of the same religion during the reign of henry the 7th . i am not now near the records of that time , but in my history i have shewed by the records of k. henry the 8th's reign , that in the year 1511. which was but two years after henry the 7th's death , there remain yet in the registers of the see of canterbury the processes of 41 persons , of whom 7 were condemned for hereticks , and delivered to the secular arm , and the rest had the weakness to abjure : and from this hint one must conclude , that mr. varillas had no knowledg of our affairs ; but he thought the period was rounder , and the air of writing was more assuming , when he asserted that the whole nation , without excepting one single person , was of the same religion . the opinions , objected to those persons , shew , that the reformation found a disposition in the nation , to receive it by the doctrines which were entertained by many in it : for the chief of them are , that the sacrement of the altar was not christ's body , but material bread : that images ought not to be worshipped : that pilgrimages were neither necessary nor profitable : and that we ought not to address our prayers to saints , but only to god. but since this may be thought only a flourish of mr. varillas's pen , i go to other matters , in which it cannot be denied that a greater exactness was necessary . 2. he lays down for a foundation to all that was to come after , that p. arthur was very unhealthy , when he was married . that he was recovering out of a great disease , of which he died 5 months after . it is true , he does acknowledg , that three words in the bull , that was granted for the subsequent marriage , seem to import , that this marriage was consummated : yet he takes the word of the other historians , and repeats this of p. arthur's ill health so often , that he hoped , it seems , by that means to make his reader swallow it down easily . here he had writ a little more artificially , if he had set over against this , on the margent some citation of a letter , or recital , vvhich vvould have cost him nothing , and have been full as true , as his other citations are . many witnesses that vvere examined upon oath , deposed before the legates , vvhen this matter vvas examined , that p. arthur vvas of a good complexion , vigorous and robust , when he vvas married ; that he bedded vvith his princess every night : and the decay of vvhich he died , vvas ascribed to his too early mariage . and of this mr. varillas takes some notice , vvithout reflecting on the consequence , that the reader might naturally draw from it ; for he says , k. henry the 7th delayed the marrying of his second son 6 years after he had obtained the bull , and that the death of his eldest son made him apprehend the loss of his second son ; if he married him so young . and thô he intervveaves a politick reflection , according to his vvay , that is to say impertinently , and says , if this fear vvas not altogether just ; yet since k. henry the 7th had no other son , it vvas not altogether unreasonable . but it is obvious that this is altogether impertinent , if p. arthur's mariage vvent no further than a publick ceremony . but there are other circumstances that overthrovv this , as much as a thing that is of its nature secret , is capable of being disproved . it is said by our historians , who writ at that time , that the spanish ambassadour took proofs of the consummation of the mariage . and in the bull of dispensation , for the subsequent mariage , this was also supposed as a thing that was perhaps done . but thô our author set on the margent the precise words , in which he says that was conceived ; yet either he never read the bull , and so took this upon trust , or he was in a fit of his religion , which was so violent , that it made him not only take no care of what he said , whither it was true or false ; but made him advance a deliberate falsehood . for whereas in the preamble of the bull of dispensation for the younger brother , it is set forth , that p. arthur and the princess had been lawfully married , and had perhaps consummated their mariage , where the matter of fact is set down in a dubious manner , he makes that the dispensation had allowed their mariage , even thô the former had been consummated . and as the words that he cites are not the words of the bull , so they give a different notion of the matter ; since as he gives the words , they seem only to be a clause put in , to make the bull more unquestionable ; whereas in truth they are a part of the matter of fact represented to the pope . and thô this doubtful way of representing this matter of fact , that is in the bull , was all that could be decently said upon this case , yet it seems the spaniards , who knew the mariage was consummated , resolved to set the matter past dispute , for they either procured at that time a breve , of the same date with the bull , or they forged one afterwards , in which in the preamble this matter is asserted , without any perhaps , or other limiting word , it being positively set forth , that the mariage was consummated . if mr. varillas's religion sets him at liberty from the scrupulosity of writing truth , yet that profound policy , to which he always pretends , should oblige him to take a little care , that the falsehoods that he advances , may not be easily discovered . 3. he says , henry the 8th was 12. year old , when his brother died ; and that his father had designed him for the ecclesiastical state. this was taken up by the writers of the last age , to make the parallel between iulian the emperour and him seem to agree : that as iulian had been a reader in the church ; so king henry should be represented as an abbot with a little band . but as king henry was not 12 year old , when his brother died , for he wanted some months of 11 : and as at that age young princes , considering the respect that is payed to them in their education , have seldome been found far advanced in learning ; so it does not appear , that he had then any other education different from what was given his brother , who understood latin , and some of the beginnings of learning . learning was then in great reputation , and k. henry the 7th engaged his children to study , either to raise their authority the higher by that means , or perhaps to amuse them with learning , that they might not think of pretending to the crown during his life , since the undoubted title to it resting in the person of their mother , it had devolved upon them by her death , thô they did not think fit to claim their right . 4. he says , that when k. henry the 7th intended to marry his younger son to p. arthur's widdow , the privy council of england approuved it the more easily , because of the precaution that had been taken to hinder the consummation of the former mariage : and to confirm this , he cites on the margent the petition , that the parliament of england offered upon this matter to p. alexander the 6th . but as the depositions are yet extant of the duke of norfolk , that was then a privy councellour , and of two others , that there was no precaution used to hinder the consummation ; so warham , that was at that time archbishop of canterbury , opposed the second mariage , as being neither honourable , nor well-pleasing to god , as he himself did afterwards depose upon oath . the parliament took no cognisance of the matter , nor did it make any address to the pope ; so that this citation is to be considered as an effect of mr ▪ varillas his notion of religion . 5. he runs out , in his manner , into a long speculation concerning the different interests of england and spain , that made the spaniards go backwards and forwards , in the agreeing to the match , that was proposed for p. henry and the princess ; whom by an extravagant affectation he calls always duke of york : and makes the princesse's parents represent to k. henry the 7th , the danger of his son 's growing weary of the princess , since he was 4 year younger than she was , and that in order to the procuring of a dissolution of the mariage from the court of rome , he might pretend that his father had forced him to marry her , whenever he should grow weary of her . all the other writers of that time put k. henry the 7th's desiring this second mariage meerly on his covetousness , which made him equally unwilling to repay the portion , or to send a great jointure yearly after the princess : and the prince of wales was too great a match to be so uneasily admitted by the king and queen of spain . he whom he calls by the title of the duke of york , was indeed only duke of york , for some months after his brother's death , during which time it was supposed , that the princess might be with child by his brother ; which proves beyond exception , that it was believed , that the first mariage was consummated . but when there was no more reason to apprehend that , then he carried the title , that belongs to the heir apparent of our crown . but it seems the king and queen of spain were more easily satisfied in this matter , than mr. varillas would make us believe they were : for two years after the bull was granted , when p. henry came to be of age , he instead of entring into any engagement to marry the princess , made a solemn protestation in the hands of the bishop of winchester , by which he recalled the consent that he had given during his minority , and declared that he would never marry her . but it is very likely mr. varillas had never heard of this , thô the instrument of that protestation was not only mentioned , but printed by many of the writers of that age : and it is confessed by sanders himself , who , after all mr. varillas's flourish with his letters , is his only author . and for this foresight , that he thinks he may justly ascribe to the king and queen of spain , because they are represented by the writers of that time , to have had an extraordinary sagacity , the reason that he makes them give , shews it was a contrivance of his own : since a moral force , such as the authority of a father , was never so much as pretended to be a just ground to annul a mariage , after it was made and consummated ; otherwise most of the mariages that have been made , might have been dissolved . 6. he adds to this another speculation , that is worthy of him , he pretends that the king and queen of spain apprehended , that k. henry the 7th had acquired the crown of england , and by consequence had a right to dispose of it at his pleasure ; upon which the crown of spain was afraid , least he should have disinherited his son , and given the crown to the duke of suffolk , that was then at brussels , and was preparing an invasion of england , from which they did not know , but k. henry the 7th might save himself , by declaring suffolk his successour , and that upon those fears they were unwilling to consent to the match . here is such a mixture of follies , that it is not easy to tell which of them is the most remarkable . this doctrine of the crown of england's being alienable at the king's pleasure , might have passed well with those , that some years ago thought to have shut out the next heir , and yet even these did not pretend that it could have been done by the king alone . but here is a new theory of politicks , for which we are sure mr. varillas can cite no authorities from the laws and constitutions of england . k. henry the 7th had indeed acquired the crown , by defeating that tyrant and usurper richard the 3 d : but as he pretended to be heir of the lancastrian race himself , so by marrying to the heir of the house of york , that was the right heir , he by a conjunction of all titles , made the matter sure . but this gave him no right to alienate the crown at his pleasure , and to fancy , that a king might be induced to give away his crown from his own son , to the person in the world that he hated most , and whom at his death he ordered his son never to forgive ; who , by the way , was not duke but only earl of suffolk , is a dream better becoming so slight a brain as is that of mr. varillas , than the consummated wisdome of the king and queen of spain . but thus it falls out when a library keeper turns statesman ; and when from being a teller of tales , he will turn a writer of histories , which he composes out of his own imaginations , he must needs fall into childish errours . when do kings fall under those weaknesses , as to disinherit an only son , to cover them from a remote fear : and a very remote one it was ; for the archduke needed at that time the assistance of england against france too much , to be in a condition to raise a civil war in england , and to support a competition to the crown , which could have no other effect , as to him , but to give france an opportunity , during the distractions of england , to come and destroy him . in short , here is a vision of a poor-spirited pedant , which is too much considered , when it named and laught at . 7. he pretends to enter into the reasons that were alledged at rome , both for and against the granting of the bull ; but at last he concludes , that pope alexander the 6th would not consent to it ; that he might not give occasion to accuse him , of having broken the discipline of the church . but here is such a false representation of the court of rome at that time , and in particular of p. alexander the 6th , that since mr. varillas will needs write romances , i must put him in mind of one rule ; that as painters shew their judgment and learning , in that which is in one word called le costume , observing the air , manners , and habits of the ages and scenes to which their pieces belong ; so poets , when they bring unknown names into their plays , they may clothe them with what characters they please ; but if they represent men , whose histories are known , they must not confound characters , nor represent a nero as a grave philosopher , or as a good natured prince ; nor a marcus aurelius as a wanton stage-player , or as a bloody tyrant . and therefore , thô mr. varillas may shew his pretended discoveries , concerning men that are less known , yet when he brings in an alexander the 6th on the stage , it is too bold a violation of poetry , to lay a strictness of conscience , or a sense of honour to his charge : and thô there is one part of this period true , that there had never been any dispensation of this sort formerly granted , to serve as a precedent for it : yet that exactness , in which he represents the enquiry , that the divines of rome made concerning this matter , agrees ill with the state of the court of rome at that time ; and a painter may as justly represent the old romans in pantalaons , and with hats in their hands . 8. he says , k. henry the 7th was preparing all things for the mariage of his son , to the princess , when he died . and a little before that he had said , that her parents sacrificed the interest of their family to the satisfaction of the king of england , by consenting to it . a match with the heir of the crown of england , was no very costly sacrifice : and for his vision concerning the design of marrying her to the duke of calabria , and by that means of restoring the kingdome of naples , it does so ill agree with the character of the king of arragon , that since there is no proof brought of this , i must look on it as one of those imaginations , with which mr. varillas loves to entertain his readers . but for k. henry the 7th , he was so far from making any preparations for the mariage , that one of the writers of that age assures us , that at his death he charged his son to break it , apprehending perhaps a return of a new civil war , upon the issue of a doubtful marriage . 9. he gives us a new tast of his unskilfulness in ordering his scenes . he had found that when henry the 8th's divorce came to be started , there was some discourse of a match between him and francis the first 's sister , afterwards the queen of navarre , and therefore he thought a proposition for her , might come in before the mariage , as a pretty ornament to his fable . but the silence of all the papers of that time , which i have seen , is a much better evidence against it , than his pretended negotiation of mr. de piennes is for it , to which no credit is due . it is well known that in the archives of venice there are recitals laid up of all the negotiations of their ambassadours , and mr. varillas having perhaps heard of this , he fancied it would have a good grace , to cite such recitals as to french affairs , thô all that know the state of france , know , that this has not been the practice of that court. but as there is no proof to shew that there was any such proposition made at that time , so the state of k. lewis the 12th's court differs extreamly from it , in which the count of angoulême , afterwards francis the first , and his sister , were not so favourable , as to give us reason to think that pains was taken to raise that lady to the throne of england . 10. he tells us , that king henry the 8th calling a parliament in the beginning of his reign , they thought themselves bound in point of honour , to oblige to execute his father's orders , relating to his mariage ; who had not only made it the chief article of his testament , and charged his son to do it upon his last blessing ; but had laid the same charge on the men of the greatest credit in england , as he spoke his last words to them : upon which the parliament being careful to maintain this authority , to which they pretended , over their master , did oblige him , by repeated remonstrances to marry the princess . here he goes to show how implacably he is set against the crown of england : formerly he had debased their birth , but he thought that was not enough ; now he will degrade them of their dignity , and give the parliament a superiority over them . but it is a fatal thing for an ignorant man to write history : for if mr. varillas could have so much as opened our book of statutes , he would have found , that the first parliament , that k. henry the 8th held , was assembled the 21. of ianuary 1510. almost 8. months after the mariage , which was celebrated six weeks after he came to the crown , in which time , if mr. varillas had understood any thing of our constitutions , he would have known , that it was impossible for a parliament to have met , since there must be 40. days between a summonds and a meeting of parliament ; so that if the new king had summoned one , the day after his father's death , it could not have met sooner , than the day before the mariage . 11. he says , the queen bore five children , the first three , sons , and the other two , girls ; but the eldest son lived only 9 months , the other two sons , and the eldest girl , died immediately after they were born , only the youngest , that was born the 8 of february 1515 , was longer lived . mr. varillas has a peculiar talent of committing more errours in one single period , than any writer of the age : and here he has given a good essay of his art ; for the queen bore only three children , the first was a son , born the 1. of ianuary , that died the 22 of february thereafter , which was not two full months , much less 9 months : the second son died not immediatly , but about a fourtnight after he was born : and the daughter , afterwards q. mary , was born the 9th of february 1516. so that thô by chance he has hit the month right , yet he is mistaken , both as to the year , and the day of the month. so unadvised a thing it is for an ignorant writer , to deliver matters of fact so particularly : for thô this may deceive others , that are as ignorant as himself , by an appearance of exactness ; yet it lays him too open to those , that can find the leisure and the patience , to expose him : and the last is no easy matter . 12. he runs out into a very copious account of k. henry's disorders , and dresses up q. katherine's devotions in a very sublime strain . it does not appear , that in all that time he had any other mistress , but elisabeth blunt : and during all that while , he had the highest panigyriques made him by all the clergy of europe , upon his zeal for religion and piety ; possible so , that if we did not live in an age , in which flattery has broke loose from all the restraints of decency , they would appear very extravagant commendations ; and if the sublimities of flattery were not rather a just prejudice against a prince , which give a character of a swelled ambition , and an imperious tyranny , that must be courted by such abject methods , so that it is hard , whither we ought to think worse of the flaterers , or the flatered , we would be tempted to judge very advantageously of k. henry the 8th , by the dedications , and other fawning addresses that were made him . as for q. katherine , it does appear , that she was indeed a vertuous and devout woman ; but mr. varillas being more accustomed to legends , than to true histories , could not set out this , without a considerable addition of his own : for the half of it is not mentioned by any author , that ever i saw , nor by any quoted by himself : but a poët must adorn his matter , and if he has not judgment , he overdoes it . 13. he says , the king designed to marry his natural son the duke of richmont , to his daughter mary ; upon which he makes that long digression , concerning the names of the race of tudors , that was formerly considered . when a man affirms a thing , that is so notoriously injurious to the memory of a prince , he ought at least to give some sort of proof of its truth : for thô in the accesses of mr. varillas's religious fits , he does not think fit to trouble himself with those inconsiderable matters of truth and falsehood ; yet all the world is not of his mind , and some colours of truth are at least lookt for . it is true , a negative is not easily proved , so a bold affirmer fancies , he has some advantages ; but in this case it is quite otherwise , for the whole series of the original instructions , messages and letters , that passed between rome and england , in that matter , are still extant , in all which there is not the least tittle , relating to this proposition . and there are some things of such indecency , that nothing but a temper like mr. varillas's can bring them together . for when k. henry was pretending a scruple of conscience , at his own marrying his brother's wise , it is very improbable , that he would have asked a dispensation for a mariage in a much nearer degree . for sanders , that is mr. varillas's author , says , that both propositions were made at the same time . there were many libels printed against k. henry , about that time ; but the strongest , and the best writ , was that of cardinal pools , in which it is visible , that he spares nothing that he could alledg with any colour of truth ; yet he says nothing of this matter , thô it had more weight in it to discover the king's hypocrisy , in pretending to scruples of conscience , than all the other things he alledges : and i never could find any other author for this story , before sanders , whose book was printed 60 years after . 14. he gives another essay of his skill in history , and that he is equally ignorant of the histories of all kingdomes , when he represents to us the endeavours of the king of scotland , for the obtaining of a mariage with the princes mary , in favours of his son , upon whose person he bestows a kind dash of his pen , and he enters into a speculation of the danger , that king henry apprehended from this proposition ; and that if he had rejected it , the king and prince of scotland might have addressed themselves for it to the parliament , and that the parliament would have raised a general rebellion , rather than have suffered king henry to reject it . the dislike that mr. varillas has conceived against the crown of england , seems deeply rooted in him ; for it returns very often . here he represents forreign princes complaining to parliaments , when the kings do not accept of propositions for their children ; as if our princes were less at liberty in the disposal of their children , than the meanest of their subjects are : but he knows our constitution as little as he does the history of scotland , otherwise he could not have represented the king of scotland , as pretending to the mariage of the princess mary for his son ; since k. iames the fourth , that had married king henry's sister , was kill'd at the battel of floddun the 2 september 1513 , above three years before the princess was born , he left an infant son , between whom and the princess a treaty of a mariage was once proposed , but no progress was made in it , for k. henry neglected it . and he had always his parliaments so subject to him , to apprehend any of those vain schemes , with which mr. varillas would possess his reader . there are many that make no great progress in history , but yet know somewhat of the death of kings , and that carry some small measure of chronology in their head. yet since mr. varillas has not yet got so far , he had best buy some common chronological tables , and have them always before him , when he writes ; and this will at least preserve him from such childish errours . 15. he tells us , that there were many pretenders to the young princess ; and to make a full period , he tells us , that all the souverains of europe courted her , both the emperour , the kings of france , spain and scotland ; and so he gives us a fantastical speculation of king henry's balancing those propositions one against another . but since for a round periods sake he will needs split charles the 5th in two , and name both the emperour and the k. of spain as two pretenders , he might have as well subdivided him into the king of arragon and castile , sicily and naples , and the very titular kingdome of ierusalem , might have come in for its share . 16 he tells us that thô the match of scotland was the most for the interest of the nation ; yet king henry was so angry with his nephew the king of scotland , for taking part against him , in his last war with france , that he resolved never to give him his daughter . here mr. varillas will see again the necessity of purchasing a chronological table ; for thô that will cost him some money , which as i am told , goes very near his heart ; yet it will preserve him from some scurvy errours , they may spoil the sale of his books : for any one of those tables , even the worst and cheepest , would have shewed him , that it was not his nephew that took part with france against him ; but his nephew's father : for king iames the 4th , that was king henry's brother-in-law , made war on that occasion , and was killed in it , leaving an infant son behind him ; but it is pleasant to see the ignorance of this scribler , that makes in one place king iames the 4th to court the princess for his son , thô he died several years before she was born , and then makes king iames the 5th to be making war with his uncle , during his father's life , and while himself was an infant . 17. he says , the emperour came , and pretended the second to the princess , and upon that he sets down a large negotiation , that he had with cardinal wolsey . but he shews here an ignorance of charles the 5th's life , thô he pretends to have made more than ordinary discoveries concerning his affairs , that proves , that he has studied all history alike ill . he reckons up the series of the propositions for the princess quite wrong ; for she was first contracted to the dolphin the 9 november 1518 , by a treaty yet extant , then charles the 5th came into england in person , and contracted a mariage with her at windsor the 22 of iune 1522 ; after that there was a proposition made for the king of scotland , that was soon let fall ; and last of all there was a treaty set on foot , for the king of france then a widdower , or for his second son the duke of orleans , it being left to francis's option to determine that : and so remarkable a passage , as charles the 5th's coming to england in person , was unhappily unknown to mr. varillas ; otherwise he would have dressed up a mighty scene of politicks to adorn it . 18 he gives us the character and the history of card. wolsey , with his ordinary colours , in which truth comes very seldome in for an ingredient , he tells us how he was bp. of tournay , or rather oeconome of that see , and how many journeys he made between tournay and london ; and that he being enriched at tournay , he got the bishoprick of lincoln , after that , upon the bp. of winchester's death , he had that see , from that he was raised to be archbishop of york ; then he was made chancellour of england , then cardinal and legat à latere , and last of all , he was made chief minister of state ; and to shew our author 's deep judgment , this last article seemed so doubtful a point to him , that he must needs bestow a proofe on it , and he sends us to p. leo the 10th's register , thô the advancements that he had already reckoned up , may well make this pass without a more particular proof ; nor is p. leo's register a place likely to find it in . here is a great deal to let his reader see , how entirely he was possessed with the history of that time ; since he could run out so far with the character and history of that minister ; but for the strain , in which he sets out his character , one must see , it is only mr. varillas's fancy : for how came he to know cardinal wolsey's air and manner of deportment , even in the smallest thing . i that have seen much more of him in his letters , dispatches and instructions than mr. varillas can pretend to have done , dare not goe so far , because i have not arrived at mr. varillas his pitch of religion ; but if his character is no truer than the history that he gives of wolsey , i know what name is due to it . he was made bishop of tournay in october , and bp. or lincoln in the march thereafter , or rather in february , for the temporalty was given him the 4th of march , which is always restored after the consecration , so that here was not time enough to make such journies between tournay and london , nor to enrich himself with the former : he had not winchester but 15 years after that ; but he was made archbishop of york two year after he had lincoln ; he was also made cardinal and legate , before he was made chancelour ; for warham archbishop of canterbury was chancelour while he was legate , and had some disputes with him , touching his legative power ; upon which he obtained that dignity , for puting an end to all disputes ; and in stead of his being last of all minister of state , he was first of all minister of state , while he was only the lord almoner , and all his other dignities came upon him , as the natural effects of that confidence and favour into which the king had received him . 19. he cannot assent to some historians , that imagine he was the confident of k. henry's pleasures , since he thinks , if that had been true , he could not have been so cheated afterwards , as he was . here is a demonstration that he never read my history , into which i have put , besides other evidences of his being on the secret of anne boleyn's matter , two letters , that she writ to him , which are undeniable proofs of it . but as for the long story into with he runs out , concerning charles the 5th's intrigues with him , and his way of writing to him , in the stile of son and cousin , for which he cites on the margent the emperour's letters to wolsey , that lie in his fancy , that is the greatest library in the world , but the hardest to be come at , all this is so loosely writ , that it is plain mr. varillas had no light to direct him in it , since he says not a word of the most important circumstance of it , which was the emperour's coming in person to england , which was beleeved to have been done chiefly to gain wolsey entirely , and in which it is certain , that he had all the success that he had wisht for . 20. he says , wolsey being alienated from the emperour , engaged the king of france , after he was set at liberty , to treat for a match between the dauphin and the princess of england , upon which they were contracted with great magnificency ; but that was not enough , for the cardinal's malice . i have formerly shewed , that the proposition of a mariage between the dauphin and the princess was in the year 1518 , long before francis the first 's imprisonment ; but the treaty set on foot after his liberty , was either for himself , or his second son , and this sort of a treaty being somewhat extraordinary , where the alternative lay between the father and the son for the same lady , mr. varillas shews his great ignorance of the affairs of that time , since he says nothing of it ; for this would have given him occasion enough to have entertained his reader with many visions and speculations . 21. he says , that wolsey dealt with longland the king's confessour , to possess him with scruples concerning the lawfulness of his mariage , that longland refused to do it , but engaged wolsey to begin , and he promised to fortify the scruples , that the cardinal should infuse into the king's mind . upon which the cardinal did open the matter to the king , and the king being shaken by his proposition , laid the matter before his confessour , who seconded the cardinal . in this he has taken the liberty to depart from sanders , thô he is the author whom he generally copies ; but it is easy to pretend to tell secrets , but not so easy to prove them . the king himself did afterwards in publick not only deny this , but affirmed that wolsey had opposed his scruples all he could , and that he himself had opened them in confession to longland , and the king himself said to grineus , that he was disquieted with those scruples ever from the year 1529 , which was three years before the matter was made publick . 22. he says , the king upon that consulted the divines of england , concerning the validity of the mariage , and that all those that were men of probity and disinteressed , answered in the affirmative ; but some that did aspire , or that were corrupted , thought it doubtful , others , who were very few in number , affirmed it was unlawful . this is so false , that all the bishops of england , fisher only excepted , declared under their hands and seals , that they thought the mariage unlawful . 23. he gives a character of anne boleyn , in which he takes up the common reports of her ill shape , her yellow colour , her gag tooth , her lump under her chin , and her hand with six fingers : but because all this agrees ill to the mistress of a king , he , to soften that , adds a long character of her wit , her air and humour , in which he lays her charms , and here he takes all the licences of a poët , as well as of a painter . but as several of her pictures , yet extant , shew the folly of those stories , concerning her deformity , so the other particulars of this picture are for most part fetcht out of that repository of false history , that lies in mr. varillas's imagination . 24. he says , the english historians , and some other catholicks , agree to those things , and for his vouchers he cites on the margent , sanders , ribadeneira and remond ; but they add many other particulars , thô they differ concerning them , and thô he will not affirm them to be true ; yet he thinks it worth the while to set them down . they say , that anne boleyn's true father was not known : that she was born in england , while he was ambassadour in france : that henry the 8th , being in love with the mother , had sent away her husband , that so he might satisfy his appetites more freely ; but that he soon quited the mother for her eldest daughter mary : that sr. thomas boleyn at his return to england , finding his wife with child , begun a sute against her , but that the king forced him to be reconciled to his wife , and to own the child that she bore some time after , who was anne boleyn : that this daughter at the age of 15 , was dishonoured by two of her father's domesticks , upon which she was sent to france , where she was so common a prostitute , that she went by the name of the english hackney : that she was a common subject of raillery : that she became a lutheran , thô she made still profession of the other religion . he says , others make her pass for a heroïne , that cannot be enough commended , yet he acknowledges there are not authentical evidences left , to discover their imposture . here is a way of writing , that agrees well with mr. varillas's other qualities : he was here in a cold fit , and so his religion did not operate so strong , as to disengage him quite from all regard to truth , only it produces one start , that is sufficiently extravagant , for he accuses all that is said in favours of anne boleyn of imposture , thô at the same time he acknowledges , there are not authentick evidences to disprove it ; but how then came he to know , that those commendations were impostures ? he answers that in the beginning of this paragraph , and cites in general the historians of england and other catholick writers : and for the historians of england he gives us sanders alone , thô he can hardly make a plural out of him , unless he splits him into three or four subdivisions , as he had done charles the 5th , when he reckoned up the emperour and the king of spain as two of the pretenders to the princess mary . but thô i have in my history demonstrated the falsehood of all this legend so evidently , that i had perhaps wearied my reader , by prooving that too copiously , yet since i see that nature can croud so much impudence in mr. varillas alone , as might serve even the whole order of the jesuites , and that he is resolved to keep up the credit of the blackest falsehoods , as the church of rome preserves still in her breviary a great many lessons with prayers and anthems , relating to them , that are now by the consent of learned men exploded as fables , i must again lay open this matter , thô i thought i had so fully confuted those lies , that even a pension could not have engaged a man to support them any more . it may seem enough to an impartial mind , that sanders was the first , that ever published those stories , above 50 years after anne boleyn's death : that thô card. pool , and the other writers of that time , had left nothing unsaid , that could blacken k. henry ; yet none of them had brow enough to assert sanders's fictions : and that after anne boleyn's tragical fall , when her misfortunes had made it a fashionable thing to blacken her , yet these impostures were reserved for sanders , and for an age , in which he and many others of his church were setting on many rebellions and conspiracies against q. elisabeth , they were so powerfully acted by mr. varillas's spirit of religion , thô they had not the folly to own it , as he has done , as to give themselves the liberty to say the foulest things against the mother , without giving themselves the trouble to enquire , whither they were true or false : and the things here advanced are of such a nature , that either they must be evidently true , or they are notoriously false ; for an embassy into france of such a continuance , a sute moved upon sr. tho. boleyn's return , were publick matters , and must have lien open to a discovery . the whole recital is impossible , as it is told ; for if she was born after sr. tho. boleyn return'd from an embassy , to which king henry had sent him , that he might enjoy his wife , and in which he staid two years , as sanders says ; then since king henry came to the crown in the year 1509 , she must be born in the year 1511 , and then the 15th year of her age will fall in the year 1526 , and it being certain that the king began to court her in the year 1527 , here is not time enough for her leudness and her long stay in france . but it is certain that she was born in the year 1507 , two years before k. henry came to the crown , and when he was but 14 years old , and that at 7 years old she went over to france with k. henry's sister , when she was married to lewis the 12th ; and thô upon that king's death the queen dowager of france came soon after back into england , yet anne boleyn staid still in france , and was in the service of claud francis's the first 's queen , and after her death the king's sister , the dutchess of alençon , took her into her service , and these two princesses were so celebrated for their vertue , that this alone is enough to shew , that she was then under no infamy , since she was of their family . she was also maid of honour to our queen katherine , who , even by mr. varillas's character , was of too severe a vertue to admit a common prostitute to that degree of honour . so that here is more than enough to discredit all those calumnies . 25. he says , thô there is not evidence enough in the former reports , yet there is a certain proof for k. henry's disorders with the elder of the two sisters , mary boleyn , since in the demand , that k. henry made for a permission to marry anne , he confessed his disorders with her sister , and offered to do pennance for them : and to vouch for this , he cites king henry's petition to p. clement the 7th . here mr. varillas shews , how little he understands the advantages that he has , to maintain his assertions , since there is an authority for this last , that has more appearance of truth in it , than all his other citations put together , thô his ignorance made him incapable of finding it out . for cardinal pool , in his book against k. henry , objects this to him , and this has a fair appearance : whereas the petition , that he cites , is a dream of his own , that was never before heard of . but thô i have said more for the honour of cardinal pool , than all the panegiricks that have been given him , amount to , yet i am very well assured , that in this particular he was abused by reports , to which he gave too easy a belief : for as all the original instructions and dispatches , that were made upon that affair , are yet extant , in which there is not one word relating to this matter ; so it is plain , that the affair was never so far advanced , as to demand a permission for a second mariage , since that could never be so much as asked , till the first was dissolved , and that not being gained , there was not room made for it . if the king had given such advantages against himself , as to have put such a confession in a petition to the pope , is it to be imagined , that the popes would not have discovered this in some authentical manner , and even have put it in the thundering bull , that was afterwards published against him ? for this alone proved his hypocrisy of pretending scruples of conscience at his mariage beyond exception ; and if the king acted in this matter without any regard to conscience , it is unreasonable to represent him as so strictly conscientious , and that he would have confessed so scandalous a secret , and so to have put himself in the power of those , of whom he could not be well assured . 26. he gives us a long account of wolsey's design , to engage the king to marry the dutchess of alençon . of the bishop of tarke's being sent over to bring the english princess into france , upon her being contracted to the dauphin . and of wolsey's prevailing with him , to let that proposition fall , and to set on another , for a mariage between the king of england and the dutchess of alençon . and that the bp. of tarke was cheated by wolsey ; and being in the interests of the dutchess of alençon , he demanded a publick audience of the king , in the presence of the council , in which he imployed all his eloquence to persuade him to divorce his queen , and to marry the most christian king's sister . in all this matter mr. varillas is only the copier of sanders , yet he cannot tell another man's lie , without mixing some additions of his own ; for the bp. of tarke's being sent over , to demand the princess , is one of the fruits of his own religion . but thô a pedant of a priest , such as sanders , had told so improbable a story ; yet it ill became a man , that pretends to know courts , and the negotiations of ambassadours , as mr. varillas does , to assert such improbabilities , as that an ambassadour sent express to demand a princess for his master's son , which was the greatest advantage that france could have possibly hoped for , should be so far wrought on by the minister of the court , to which he was sent , as not only to let all this fall ; but to make a new proposition for the illegitimating of the young princess , and for offering his master's sister to king henry , and all this without any instructions from his master , and thereby exposing the dutchess of alençon to the scorn of being rejected , after she was so publickly offered to the king of england ; thô every body knows , that the first offers of princesses are made in secret . and after all this , that the bishop of tarke , who not only exceeded his instructions , but acted contrary to them in so important a matter , was neither recalled , nor disgraced ; but on the contrary , he was afterwards promoted to be a cardinal by the recommendation of the court of france ; and he being a cardinal , and seeing afterwards how he was abused , if we may believe this fable , is it to be supposed , that he , either out of his own zeal for the court of rome , or by the accusations that naturally such a proposition , begun by him , must have brought on him , would not have told all this secret afterwards ? in short , as this relation contains many particulars in it , that are not according to the forms of our court , such as his demanding an audience in the presence of the council ( for it seems , as mr. varillas set our parliaments above our kings , he will make the privy council equal to them ) so the whole is so contrary to all the methods of ambassadours , that this would scarce pass , if it related to the transactions of the courts of china or iapan ; but it is so gross an imposition on such as know the methods of the courts of europe , that mr. varillas presumed too much on the credulity of his readers , when he thought that this could be believed : and si non è vero , il è ben trovato , is so necessary a character for a man to maintain , that would have his books sell well , which i am told is mr. varillas's chief design , that he had best find out some judge of his pieces , that has a true understanding , since it is plain , that he has not sence enough himself to make a right judgment in such matters . 27. he says , when cardinal wolsey went over into france he caried a commission to consult the universities of france , touching the king's divorce ; but that the change of affairs in italy , made the king to recal him ; who was strangely surprised , when he found that the king had no thoughts of marrying the dutchess of alençon , and that he was become so much in love with anne boleyn , that he was resolved to marry her on any terms . it is an unfortunate thing for a man , to have heard too much , and to have read too little of history : for as the one gives him much confidence , so the other exposes him to many errours . mr. varillas had heard , that k. henry had consulted many universities ; but not knowing where to place this , he fancied , that it must be the first step in the whole matter . but he knew not , that this was not thought on , till after a sute of above two years continuance , in which the king saw , how he was deluded by the court of rome ; and upon that , he took the other method of consulting the universities . all his speculations concerning card. wolsey , are built on the common mistake , that supposes him ignorant of the king's intentions for anne boleyn , the falsehood of which i have sufficiently demonstrated . 28. he tells us , that card. wolsey having once several bishops to dine with them , the king knowing of it , went to them after dinner , and made a writing to be read to them , that set forth the reasons against his mariage : the bishops did not approve it quite ; yet they were so complying , as to say , that if those things were true , his scruples were well grounded . this was too important a thing , not be made appear probable by some of his pretended vouchers , thô it is most certainly false ; for a resolution , signed by all the bishops of england , except fisher , was produced before the legates , to shew how well the king's scruples were grounded . 29. he says , the privy councel acted more steadily , and intended to give the king an undeniable proof of his mistresses lewdness ; for sr. thomas wiat , that had obtained of her the last favours , was willing to let the king know it ; and so being of the privy councel , he not only owned the matter to the rest of that board , but was content to let the king know it ; and when he found that the king would not believe it , he offered to make the king himself an eye-witness to their privacies ; but thô the duke of suffolk made this bold proposition to the king , he was so far from hearkning to it , that wiat was disgraced upon it , and by this means the mistress was covered from such dangerous discoveries for the future . such a story as this might have passed from a sanders , that knew the world little ; but in earnest , it seems the fits of mr. varillas's religion are strong even to extasy , since they make him write as extravagantly of humane affairs , as if he had passed his whole life in a desert . a man that knows what humane nature is , cannot think that wiat would have either so far betraied mrs. boleyn , or exposed himself , as to have made such a discovery ; it being more natural for a man , that was assured of a young lady's favour , to contribute to her elevation , since that must have raised himself , than to contrive her ruin. and k. henry , whose imperious temper gave him a particular disposition to jealousy , must have been of different composition from all the rest of mankind , if he could have rejected a discovery of this nature . and when the secrets of jealousies are opened to princes , it is too gross , even for a romance , to make the discoverer to begin with the councel-board , and to procure a deputation from them , to acquaint the king with them . but as wiat does not appear to have been a privy councelour , till near the end of k. henry's reign ; so it is plain enough , he was never disgraced , but continued to be still imploied by the king in some forreign embassies , to the end of his life . 30. he says , anne boleyn endeavoured , thô in vain , to engage sr. thomas more to negociate her affair ; but he being proof against all corruption , gardiner , that was a canonist , was made secretary of state , and was sent to rome with my-lord brian , who scandalised all rome with his lewd behaviour ; and had the impudence to assure the pope , that the queen desired to be divorced , that so she might retire into a monastery . and made other offers of great advantage to the pope , in case he would allow the divorce . mr. varillas cannot say too much in sr. thomas more 's commendation ; but since he was a man of so much sincerity , it is certain , that he approved of the divorce : for in a letter , that his own family printed among his other works , in q. mary's reign , he , writing to cromwel , owns , that he had approved of the divorce , and that he had great hopes of the king's success in it , as long as it was prosecuted in the court of rome , and founded on the defects that were pretended to be in the bull ; and after that most of the universities and of the learned men of europe had given their opinions in favours of the divorce , four years after it was first moved , he being then chancellour , went down to the house of commons and made those decisions to be read there , and upon that he desired the members of parliament to report in their countries , that which they had heard and seen ; and added these very words , and then all men will openly perceive , that the king has not attempted this matter for his will and pleasure , but only for the discharge of his conscience . upon wolsey's disgrace , he was made chancellour , and continued in that high trust almost three years ; which is an evident sign that he did not then oppose the divorce ; nor did he grow disgusted of the court , till he saw that the king was upon the point of breaking with the see of rome . so that he would have liked the divorce , if the pope could have been prevailed with to allow it ; but he did not approve of the king 's procuring it another way . mr. varillas is no happier in the other parts of this article : for gardiner was not sent first to rome , to negotiate this matter . knight that was secretary of state , was first imploied ; and gardiner was not made secretary of state , till near the end of this negotiation : nor was he ever sent to rome with brian : nor was brian a lord , but only a knight ; and it was a year after this sute was first begun , before brian was imploied in it ; so that he could carry no such deluding message to the pope , concerning the queen's desiring the divorce . and for this pretension of the queen's desiring to retire to a monastery , it was never made use of by the english ambassadours . it was on the contrary a notion of the pope's , who thought , that if that could be put in her head , it would be the easiest method of getting out of this uneasy matter : and therefore he ordered his legate card. campegio , to advise the queen to it . and for the scandals of brian's life , they must have been very great , if they gave offence at rome at that time : but as i can not answer much for brian , so i will not trouble my self to vindicate him ; but he could not behave him more indecently at rome , than campegio did in england , when he came over legate , who scandalised even the court with his lewd behaviour . 31. he says , the pope was sensible of his obligations to the king , and resolved to do all he could to gratify him , and so ordered cajetan to examine the matter , who did it in his manner , after the method of the schools . and here he gives us an abstract of his book . he laid this down for a maxime , that the high-priest under the n. testament had no less authority , than the high-priest had under the law of moses , who had power to allow of such mariages , to good ends and in good circumstances ; and that the end of this mariage was noble : that the crowns of england and spain being united , might send their fleets to block up constantinople . and that by this mariage , as italy was to be set at peace , so k. henry was diverted from marrying into families suspect of heresy : and that therefore the pope could not grant a dispensation for annulling it . and with his usual confidence , he cites on the margent cajetan's consultation . and this , he says , confirmed the pope in his resolution , not to grant the dispensation for breaking the mariage upon any terms whatsoever . i have given such authentick demonstrations of the falsehood of this particular , that i am sure the strongest fit of mr. varillas's religion can not resist them . for the pope , upon the first proposition , franckly granted the dispensation , and only consulted with some cardinals about the methods of doing it : and afterwards he sent one over to england , and promised , that he would do , not only all that he could grant either in law or justice ; but every thing else that he could grant out of that plenitude of power , with which he was vested in the king's favour . the pope also proposed a method , that perhaps would have brought the matter to an easier issue , which was , that if the king was satisfied in his own conscience concerning the divorce , in which he did not think that there was a doctor in the whole world , that could judg so well as himself , then he might put away his queen , and marry another , and then the pope would confirm all . for the crafty pope thought , it would be easier for him to confirm it , when it was once done , than to give authority to do it : and in short , the pope made the king still believe , that he would do it , till by that means he brought the emperour to grant him all he desired . and as for cajetan's opinion , i am now in a countrey where i cannot find his works , so i cannot be so positive in this matter ; but as far as my memory serves me , cajetan writ nothing with relation to this matter : but only in the body of his school-divinity , that he had published long before this sute began , he had set on foot a new opinion , touching the prohibitions of marrying in near degrees , which the church by a constant tradition had in all times lookt on as moral laws ; whereas he asserted , they were only positive precepts , that did not bind under the christian religion , and by consequence , that there was no law now against mariages in those degrees , but the law of the church , with which the pope might dispense . in all the books that i have seen , that were writ for the queen's cause , cajetan's authority is brought , as a thing already abroad in the world , and not as a consultation writ upon this occasion : and by what i remember of that cardinal's life , it is said , that in his reasonings with luther he had found himself so defective in the knowledg of the scripture , that whereas formerly he had given himself wholly to the study of school-divinity , he after that gave himself entirely to the study of the scripture , in which , making allowances for his ignorance of the original tongues , he succeeded to admiration . but thô i cannot procure a sight of his treatise concerning the degrees of mariage , the idea that i retain of his solide way of writing , makes me conclude , that he was not capable of writing in so trifling a manner , as mr. varillas represents the matter . for what man of sense could say , that the highpriest under the jewish religion could dispense with a brother's marrying his brother's widdow , in some cases : in case that a brother died without children , his brother , or the next of kin , might have married the widdow , by the dispensation that the law gave , and not by a dispensation of the highpriest . and for the ends that he pretends of those two princes , going to block up constantinople with their fleets , a man must be ignorant in history to the degree of mr. varillas , to imagine this , since as the kings of those times had no royal fleets , but were forced to hire merchant vessels , when they had occasion for them ; so the blocking up of constantinople was too bold a project for those days , and does not seem to have been so much as once thought on . and for the other ends that he mentions , thô the procuring such a peace to italy , as was for the interest of the popes , was a thing for which they would have sacrificed any thing ; yet this differs much from p. iulius the second 's character , who granted the dispensation , since his whole reign was a continued imbroilment of italy . nor does it appear that k. henry's mariage could have any influence on the peace of italy , unless it were very remote . and as for the other reason alledged for the mariage , that it diverted k. henry from marrying into families suspect of heresy , this is too great a violation of the costume ; for it seems mr. varillas had the present state of europe in his head , when he writ it : but cajetan could not write this , for in the year 1503 there were no families in europe suspect of heresy : so that all this reasoning , that is here entitled to cajetan , is a mass of mr. varillas's crude imaginations , which doe equally discover both his ignorance , and his want of judgment . 32. he accuses mr. beaucaire , for saying a thing , that was no way probable , when he affirms , that card. campegio caried over to england a bull annulling the mariage , which he was allowed to shew both to the king and to card. wolsey , but that this was only an artifice to procure him the more credit for drawing out the process into a great length . but when a writer rejects what he finds affirmed by another , that lived in the time concerning which he writs , he ought at least to give some reasons to justify his being of another mind ; since it is a little too bold for any man , of a temper more modest than that of mr. varillas , to deny a matter of fact , meerly because he thinks it is no way probable : but it is not only probable , but evidently true , as i have made it appear beyond all possibility of contradiction : for after that campegio had , according to his instructions , shewed the bull , both to the king and to wolsey , great endeavours were used at rome to procure an order for his shewing it to some of the king's ministers ; but the pope could not be prevailed on so far : and i have printed an original letter of iohn castalis , that contains a long conference that he had with the pope on this head ; by which it appears , that the only consideration that the pope had before his eyes in this whole matter , was the emperour's greatness , and his fears of being ruined , if he had made any further steps in that affair . 33. he says , that the queen having thrown her self at the king's feet , and made a very moving speech , the king was so far melted with it , that he said , he was contented to refer the matter to be judged by the pope in person , upon which she went out instantly , that so the king might not have time to recal that , which perhaps he had said a little too suddenly : and that she always claimed this promise , thô the king had no regard to it . here is a new fit of his religion , for it seems sanders felt not those vigorous motions , that were necessary to furnish out his scenes : and therefore , thô mr. varillas adds no discovery as to matters of fact , beyond what sanders had made , yet he has the more copious inventions of the two . but he does not place his contrivances judiciously , for it is much safer to dress up the secrets of the cabinet , than publick courts of judicature with such garnishings : and as that was the most solemn trial , that ever england saw , in which a king and queen appeared as delinquents , to be tried for incest , so the matter is not only particularly related by those that lived in that time , or soon after it ; but the journals of the court are yet in being , and by all these it appears , that as soon as the queen made that moving speech , she immediatly rise and went out , without staying for one word of answer . and in all that long sute that followed afterwards , for obliging the king to carry on the sute at rome , that depended for three years , this offer of the king 's , if it had any other being but that which mr. varillas's fiction gives it , would have been certainly alledged , for obliging the king to continue the process at rome ; but it was never so much as mentioned , so the honour of it belongs to mr. varillas . 34. he says , that in the process , as the king's advocates produced a letter , that card. hadrian had writ at the time of the granting the bull for the mariage , that he had heard p. iulius the second say , that he could not grant it , the queen's advocates produced likewise a letter of pope iulius to the king of england , that assured him , that thô he had not granted the bull as soon as it was demanded , that was not out of any intention to refuse it ; but that he had only waited for a favourable conjuncture , that so he might doe it the more deliberatly . this is of no consequence ; but some men get into ill habits , that engage them , even when there is no advantage to tell lies . the whole journals of this sute mention neither the one nor the other of these matters : there is somewhat like the second , of which some , it seems , had in discours given mr. varillas a dark hint , and he resolved to garnish it up the best he could . there was a breve of p. iulius's produced , but not writ to the king of england , for it was addressed to the kings of spain , and was indeed believed to be forged in spain . it was conceived in the very words of the bull for the mariage , and was of the same date , and the only difference between it and the bull was , that whereas the bull mentioned the queen's mariage with p. arthur , as having been perhaps consuminated , this spoke of the consummation of that mariage less doubtfully , and without a perhaps : and the inference that was made upon this was , that the spaniards foreseeing that the consummation of p. arthur's mariage would be proved , he forged this breve , to make it appear , that the pope was informed of that as of a thing certain , thô it was decent in the publick bull to mention it doubtfully . but mr. varillas shews how dangerous a thing it is to write history upon flying reports , helped up a little with the dull invention of an ill poet. 35. he runs out into a high commendation of the zeal and fidelity that some of the english bishops , who were named to be the queen's advocates , shewed in pleading her cause . but in this he shews , how little he understands the common forms of law : for since the queen declined the court , and appealed to the pope , there was no more occasion given to her advocates , to speak to the merits of her cause . and whereas he pretends , that this was done , not only by bp. fisher , but by the bishops of london , bath and ely , that was impossible , since all the bishops had signed a writing , which was produced before the legates , in which they all declared themselves against the lawfulness of the mariage . 36. he says , the pope recalled the cause , to be heard before himself , on this pretence , that the king had by word of mouth consented to it . this is a flight of our author's , to colour that shameful secret : for when the emperour had agreed to put florence into the hands of the medici , the pope who had seemed to favour the king's cause till that time , did then admit of the queen's appeal : and thô he had signed a formal promise , never to recal the cause , yet he being as little a slave to his word , as mr. varillas is to truth , broke his faith . but he never so much as once pretended this consent of the king 's . 37. he says , wolsey being disgraced , was sent to york , where he languished some time , being reduced almost to beggary . this comes in as a dash of his pen , to set out k. henry's severity : but one of wolsey's domesticks , that writ his life , tells us , in how great state he went to york , with a train of 160 horse , and an equipage of 72 carts following him with his houshold-stuf ; for the king restored him not only his archbishoprick of york , but also his bishoprick of winchester , which mr. varillas fancies he took from him : and it was impossible for a man , that had those two great benefices , to be reduced to any degrees of want. 38. he says , anne boleyn raised cranmer to the dignity of chief minister of state , who was one of the profligatest men of england , that had nothing of christianity in him , but the outward appearances , being ambitious , voluptuous , bold , turbulent and capable of all sorts of intrigues . he had studied long in germany , where he was infected with lutheranisme , thô he did not outwardly profess it . he took a concubine in germany , whom he afterwards married by the king's permission . he had been chaplain long in the family of boleyn , so when the see of canterbury fell vacant , anne boleyn presented him . the fit here is extream hot and long , and shews , how entirely mr. varillas was subdued by it , since it is hardly possible for a man to spit out more venome and falsehood at once . cranmer was never in the affairs of state , much less chief minister . and any ignorance less than mr ▪ varillas's would have found , that cromwel succeeded wolsey in the ministry . as for cranmers ambition , as he had passed the greatest part of his life in a secret retirement , so he was in germany when the see of canterbury fell vacant , and when he understood that the king intended to raise him to that dignity , he excused himself all he could , and delaied his return to england some months , that so the king might have time given him to change his mind . he was so far from being turbulent and hardy , and from being a man of intrigues , that his plain simplicity made him to be despised by his enemies , till they found that there was a wise conduct under all that mildness and slowness . and it was this simplicity , and his keeping himself out of all intrigues , that preserved him in k. henry's esteem . he never went to study in germany , but was sent into italy and germany to reason with the learned men in the universities concerning the king's divorce . he married a wife in germany , and was so far from obtaining the king's permission to marry her , that upon a severe law , that was afterwards made against the mariage of the clergy , he sent her into germany for some time , yet he franckly owned his mariage to the king , when he questioned him upon it , and there was never the least imputation laid upon his chastity , except this of his mariage , which we think none at all . he was never chaplain in the boleyn family , but lived private in cambridg , when the king came to hear of him , and to imploy him in the prosecution of the divorce . and so far was he from being presented by anne boleyn , upon the vacancy of canterbury , that he was then in germany . and now it appears what a secret mr. varillas has , of making as much falsehood go into one period , as would serve another to scatter up and down a whole book ; but we know the society that has this secret , and it is certain , that mr. varillas has learnt it to perfection . 39. he says , the king accepted cranmer upon condition , that he would pronounce the sentence of divorce between their majesties of england , in case that the pope ratified their contested mariage : and thus by a way so uncanonical he was made archbishop of canterbury . there was no occasion of demanding any such promise of cranmer , for he had openly declared his opinion , that the mariage was incestuous and unlawful , so that his judgment was already known . but mr. varillas shews how little he knew our matters , when he says , that cranmer was made archbishop in an uncanonical way ; for as he was chosen by the chapter of canterbury , so he had his bull from rome , and how little soever , this is canonical according to the canons of the ancient church , yet mr. varillas has no reason to except to the uncanonicalness of it . 40. he says , he was installed by another artifice , for being required to swear the oath to the pope , he had a notary by him , who attested , that he took this oath against his will , and that he would not keep it to the prejudice of the king. he made no protestation , that he took that oath against his will ; but he repeated a protestation twice at the high altar , that he intended not by that oath to the pope , to oblige himself to any thing , that was contrary to the law of god , to the king's prerogative , or to the laws of the land , nor to be restrained by it from proposing or consenting to any thing , that might concern the reformation of the christian faith , the government of the church of england , or the prerogatives of the king and kingdome . this is a different thing from protesting , that he took the oath against his will , which as it had been ridiculous in it self , so was very far contrary to that native singleness of heart , in which he always acted . 41. he says , there was an ancient law against the subjects of england's acknowledging a forreign jurisdiction , upon which the king raised a sute against his clergy , for owning the pope's jurisdiction , in that which was a mixt court , relating both to the temporal and the spiritual . and he adds , that the clergy had an easy answer to this charge , since that law had no regard to the spiritual authority . matters of law are things of too delicate a nature for so slight a man as mr. varillas to look into them . he represents this as one single law , that was very old , and that related only to temporals , whereas if he had known any thing of our laws , he would have seen , that there was a vast number of laws made in the reigns of many of our kings , such as edward the first , edward the third , richard the second , henry the 4th , and henry the 5th , all relating to this matter , and these laws were made in express words against all that brought bulls and provisions from rome to ecclesiastical benefices . 42. he says , the motions of the clergy in their own defence , could not but be feeble , since they had two such treacherous heads , as cranmer archbishop of canterbury , and lee archbishop of york , so they made a submission to the king , but he would not receive it , unless they would acknowledg , that he had the same authority over the ecclesiastical body , that he had over his other subjects : and thus , without thinking on what they did , they furnished the king with a pretence of calling himself , head of the church of england . cranmer was so little concerned in this matter , that it was past two years before he was archbishop , while warham was archbishop of canterbury ; for the submission was made in march 1531 , and he was consecrated in march 1533. and lee of york was so far from consenting to it , that he strugled long against it , after warham and his synode had past it . and whereas he pretends , that the king drew his pretence , to be head of the church of england , from a general acknowledgment that they had made of the king's authority over churchmen , this is so far from true , that the whole clergy , even his admired fisher not excepted , did in the title of the submission , to which they all set their hands , call the king in so many formal words , supream head of the church and clergy of england , in so far as was agreable to the law of christ : and this was done during more 's ministry , who continued chancellour 15 months after this . 43. he says , that upon more 's laying down his office , the king gave the seals to another churchman , that was no less devoted to him than granmer , whose name was andley , on whom he bestows a character , thô he knows nothing concerning him . andley was no churchman , but a common lawyer as more was , that had been chancellour before him , and the gentlemen of that robe being raised upon merit , and not by their birth , his low extraction was no extraordinary matter . 44. he says , the king finding that the pope was ofraid , that he should contract a secret mariage with anne boleyn , resolved to do it , on design to do the pope a spite ; so the day being set , one polland a priest , being appointed to do the office , demanded the pope's bull for the mariage , which he was made believe that the king had procured ; but the king swore to him , that he had it in his closet , and that nothing made him not go immediatly to fetch it , but his unwillingness to retard that action . this is so ill told , that mr. varillas ought to have imploied a little of his religious zeal , to make it more plausible ; for it was then so well understood , that the pope was entirely united to the emperour , that polland lee could not imagine there was any bull granted ; and he was all his life of too complying a temper , to need such artifices to oblige him to do any thing , that might serve to advance him . mr. varillas represents the king here too much like a private gentleman , that keeps his papers in his own closet , of several popes , the canons of many synodes and councils , ●nd by the concurring testimonies of almost all the greek and latin fathers , both ancient and modern , and by the agreeing doctrines both of schoolmen , canonists and casuists ; and if tradition was the true expounder of scripture , and the sure conveyance of doctrine , the mariage was certainly incestuous ; so that according to the fundamental doctrine of the church of rome , the mariage was unlawful : and by the same authorities it was also proved , that the pope's dispensation could not make void the law of god , and that the clergy of england were the proper judges of what fell out in england . this being the state of that matter , and almost all the universities of europe , that of bologna it self not excepted , thô it was the pope's own town , having declared in the king's favours , it was no wonder , if cranmer , upon such grounds , proceeded to give sentence . 47. he dresses up a speech for card. bellay , all out of his own fancy ; but one thing is remarkable : he makes the cardinal represent to the king , that if he went to separate himself from the communion of the church of rome , either he would succeed in it , or not ; if he succeeded in it , besides that he put himself in a state of damnation , there would be no place found that would be safe for his sacred person , against the attempts of zealous catholicks , who would endeavour to kill him , that they might preserve their ancient religion ; and if he succeeded not , he might be assured , that he would lose both his crown and his life in a general revolt . mr. varillas is now in a fit of religion of another sort , for as there are hot and cold fits of agues ▪ so if some of his fits make him forget the obligations of speaking truth , this makes him speak out a truth indeed , but of that nature , that if he had been long practised in the secrets of the court of rome , or of the jesuite order , he would have known , that thô during the minority of a king , a cardinal perron might speak it boldly , or during the confusions of a civil war , the whole sorbonne might declare in favours of it , yet under such a reign , and in the present conjuncture , it was to be denied boldly . and one would not have thought , that at this time a clement or a ravilliae would have had no worse character , but that of zealous catholicks . so we have now an entire notion of a zealous catholick from mr. varillas : he does not trouble himself to examine what he says , whither it is true or false , nor will he stick at any crime , if it may tend to preserve his religion . and if a prince goes about to change his religion , and to depart from the communion of the see of rome , he must at first look for a general revolt , which must end in his deprivation and death , and if that fails , there is a reserve of zealous catholicks , who will pursue him into every corner , and never give over , till they have sacrificed him to the interest of their religion . this is the severest thing that the greatest ennemy to their church could possibly object to it ▪ and yet mr. varillas has so little judgment , as to put it in the mouth of a cardinal . but it is but lately that he has got his pension , and he has not past a long noviciat , or perhaps he is now too old to learn the refayings , that his pattern mr. maimbourg would have taught him , who in such a reign as this is in france , must dress up their religion as a doctrine , all made up of obedience and submission . but perhaps some had told mr. varillas , that the late articles of the clergy lookt like the beginning of a separation from the court of rome , so that he thought , it was fit to let the king know his danger , if he went a step further , either in that matter , or in a reformation of religion , of which there has been so much noise made lately in france , thô it is visible that this has been set on foot , meerly to deceive those , that had a mind to cosen themselves by the hopes of some amendments , to make shipwrack of their faith and of a good conscience . 48. he makes the hopes , that the cardinal bellay had of succeeding in his negotiation , to be chiefly founded on the king's being weary of anne boleyn , and his becoming in love with iane seimour ; and that therefore he concluded that time , and a little patience might infallibly dispose him to return back again to queen katherine . he makes here strange discoveries in the matters of love , since he fancies , that the king 's falling in love with a new mistress , might dispose him to return to his old and abandoned queen . the thing is also so falsely timed , that it was two years and almost a half after this , before there appeared any beginnings , either of the king's dislike of anne boleyn , or of his love to iane seimour . but the made up of obedience and submission . but perhaps some had told mr. varillas , that the late articles of the clergy lookt like the beginning of a separation from the court of rome , so that he thought , it was fit to let the king know his danger , if he went a step further , either in that matter , or in a reformation of religion , of which there has been so much noise made lately in france , thô it is visible that this has been set on foot , meerly to deceive those , that had a mind to cosen themselves by the hopes of some amendments , to make shipwrack of their faith and of a good conscience . 48. he makes the hopes , that the cardinal bellay had of succeeding in his negotiation , to be chiefly founded on the king's being weary of anne boleyn , and his becoming in love with iane seimour ; and that therefore he concluded that time , and a little patience might infallibly dispose him to return back again to queen katherine . he makes here strange discoveries in the matters of love , since he fancies , that the king 's falling in love with a new mistress , might dispose him to return to his old and abandoned queen . the thing is also so falsely timed , that it was two years and almost a half after this , before there appeared any beginnings , either of the king's dislike of anne boleyn , or of his love to iane seimour . but the true account of this last negotiation of the cardinal de bellay is that at marseilles : the pope had promised to francis the first , that if k. henry would submit the matter to him , and send a proxy to rome , he would judg in his favours against the queen , because he knew that his cause was just and good ; and the cardinal was sent over to induce the king to make his submission ; but the king would not upon verbal promises make so great a step , yet he promised that , if assurances were sent him , that were formal and binding , he would upon that send a submission in full form to rome , and when the cardinal procured these from the court of rome , the king did send over the submission . so that mr. varillas having supprest the true account of this negotiation , he thought he must make it up with somewhat of his own invention : and as all liquors drawn out of a musty barrel tast of the calk ; so there are so many characters that belong to mr. varillas's imagination , that it is hard for him to venture on inventing , without discovering , that he has full as little judgment as he has sincerity . 49. he lays the blame of the slowness of the courier , on the care that the emperour's ministers had taken , to stop the passages . but this was a ridiculous observation : for there being a day set for the courier's return , he hapned only to come two days after his time , and it being in the winter , in which the sea was to be twice past , there is no need to run to any other speculation for a slowness of two days in such a voyage , and at such a season ; but it is often observed of those , that have contracted ill habits , as lying in particular , that their naughty customes return upon them , even when there is no provocation lying on them , to tempt them to them ; so mr. varillas has given himself such a liberty , to interweave his own fancies with all the transactions that he relates , that he cannot let the flightest thing pass without bringing in a stroak of his politicks to adorn it . 50. he says , the pope having past sentence against the king , the king did upon that hold a parliament on the 24 of april , 1534 , in which he made himself to be acknowledged supream head of the churches of england and ireland ; and got his former mariage to be condemned , and his second to be confirmed , upon which q. katherine died of grief . in such publick things mr. varillas should be wiser than to venture on the giving of dates , for it is at least two to one that he gives them wrong . the parliament , that past all these laws , sate down on the 15th of ianuary , and was prorogued on the 29th of march , and sentence was given against the king at rome the 23 of march : for the truth is , the king did not expect sincere dealing from the court of rome , and therefore he looking on this last proposition as a delusion , to divert him from passing the acts , that he had projected for this session , resolved to go on with his design , knowing that if the pope would grant him that which he desired , it would not be uneasy for him to get those acts repealed . q. katherine lived two years after this ; so that , thô the melancholy , which this gave her , did very likely shorten her days , yet it was too poetical , to make her just to die at the end of that parliament . 51. he says , that the king upon the first informations of anne boleyn's disorders , would not believe them ; but at last he found such proofs , as fully convinced him , upon which he waited , till he found a fit opportunity , to let his jealousy break out . it agrees ill with what he had said before , that k. henry was become weary of anne boleyn , to make him now so uneasy to believe ill of her ; for nothing disposes so much to jealousy , as a dislike already conceived , which naturally inclines one to think ill of a person whom he does not love ; but it is certain k. henry never pretended , that he saw any thing , that was dishonourable in her : and the ridiculous tale of the tilling at greenwich was a ly too ill contrived , to be again taken up ; for the queen 's dropping a handkerchief , was a favour of too publick a nature , and is not at all credible , considering that she found the king's affections were straying from her . and even that was too slight a matter , to have wrought her ruin , thô it had been true . 52. he says , her own father was one of her judges , but thô she made a cunning defence , yet she was condemned together with four of her adulterers , and after that she went to meet death , with more of fierceness , than of a true greatness of soul , and she died as exactly in all the maximes of the stoical philosophy , as if she had studied them . this assertion of her father's being one of her judges , has past so current , that i have no reason to charge mr. varillas for it , because i my self yeelded to the current of writers ; yet having procured a sight of the original record of her process , i found it was a falsehood , and in the end of my first volume i had corrected the errour in which i had fallen : so i must at least conclude , that mr. varillas never read any history . the queen had a strange plea , for there was not one witness brought against her , so that she was condemned meerly upon testimonies that were brought in writing , which is expresly contrary to our law. as for her behaviour at her death , it was far from being stoïcal , for it was rather too cheerful ; and the lieutenant of the tower , who knew her behaviour better than any person whatsoever , gives a very different representation of it , for in his letter to court he tells of her great devotion , of her cheerfulness and of the protestations that she made of her innocence the morning before she died , when she received the sacrement , adding , that her almoner was still with her , and had been with her ever since two a clock after midnight . and he also says , that she had much joy and pleasure in her death . and as all this is very far from the maximes of the stoical philosophy , so it seems mr. varillas understands very little what they were , otherwise , if he had remembred what a picture he had made of anne boleyn , he must have known , that the amourous disposition that he had fastned on her , agreed very ill with a stoical unconcernedness and equality of temper . but this he thought was a pretty conclusion of one of the scenes of his piece . and now being as weary of this ungrateful imployment , as any reader , or as even mr. varillas himself must needs be , i find my self at great ease , being no more obliged to turn over so very ill a book . and since in the survey of one of the shortest of the ten books , of which that work consists , i have found so many capital errours , in most of which there is a complication of divers mistakes in the same period ; to how much publick shame must mr. varillas be exposed , if those , who are concerned , examine the other books , as i have done this . i expect no other justice from himself , but that he will reckon all this scorn , that such a discovery must bring upon him , as a meritorious suffering at the hands of hereticks , and that he will use it as an argument to raise his pension . but it will be a great happiness if others can learn , thô at his cost , to write with more truth and greater caution . the design of all revealed religion is , to heighten in us those seeds of probity , vertue and gentleness , that are in our nature , and i will not stick to say , that it were better for mankind , that there were no revealed religion at all in being , and that humane nature should be left to it self , than that there were such a sort of a revealed religion received , that overthrows all the principles of morality , and that instead of making men sincere , teaches them to be false , and instead of inspiring them with love and mercy , enflames them with rage and cruelty , and it is likely , that m. varillas will easily find out , what that society is , of which i mean. for he deserves well to be at least one of the lay-brothers of the order , if not to fill up mr. maimbourg's room , and then the order will not lose by the change much of a quality , that has been believed to be almost an essential ingredient in its constitution , which gave occasion to a very pleasant passage , that , as i was told , fell out at amiens within these 20 years . all the companies of tradesmen in the church of rome choose a saint for their patron , and the many new invented trades have put some bishops to hard shifts to give proper saints , which has produced some very ridiculous patronages , for the cooks have the assumption for their feast , because the two first sillables assum signifies roasted ; and when the needle-makers at paris asked of the cardinal gondy a patron , he could not easily find out a saint that had any relation to their trade , but he advised them to take all-saints , for it could not be thought , but that some one or other of the saints had made needles ; but the bishop of amiens gave ignatius loyola to be the patron of the packers , now the word emballeur , as it signifies a packer , it passes also for a trepan ; so the packers being satisfied with the bishop's nomination , had ignatius up on his day in a procession , upon which the jesuites were offended , to see their patron pretended to by such a company of mechanicks , and sued the packers upon it , they defended themselves upon the account of their bishop's naming him to them , and when the bishop was asked why he had given him for their patron , he alluding to the other signification of the word emballeur said , that he had observed that all the emballeurs of europe were under that saint's patronage . but it is not necessary to infer from hence , that mr. varillas has a just claim to his protection , for thô he seems to have very good inclinations , yet he wants the address that is necessary to recommend him to so refined a society , and to a perfection in it , that cost mr. maimbourg a whole jubily for a novitiat ; for thô seven years is enough to learn an ordinary trade , yet 50 is necessary to furnish a man with a sufficient stock of impudence for so hardy an imployment . advertisement . i have at last found card. cajetan's works , and am now confirmed in that , which was only a conjecture , when i writ upon the 31st article , pag. 141 ; for it is hard even to guess wrong , when it is in contradiction to mr. varillas : and as the reasons that he put in cajetan's mouth , had such manifest characters of his own ignorance and hardiness , that i could not so much as doubt of the imposture , yet i was not positive , till i had taken some pains to find out cajetan's works , and there i saw my conjectures were well grounded . that volume in which he delivers his opinion in the matter of the obligation of the levitical law concerning the degrees of mariage , was writ long before this dispute of k. henry's was started ; for it is dedicated to pope leo the tenth . and instead of all those impertinencies , with which mr. varillas calumniates him , and of which none less ignorant than himself , is capable , all that cajetan says is that , whereas thomas aquinas was of opinion , that those degrees were moral , and of eternal obligation , he in his commentary declares himself of another mind , but takes a very backward method to prove it , yet such as was sutable enough to the blindness of the time in which he writ ; for he proves that they are not moral , only because the pope dispenced with them , who could not dispence with the moral law , and he gives for instance the mariage of the king of portugal , to which he adds these words , the present queen of england had likewise consummated her former mariage with the late brother of the king of england her husband . so that cajetan was only driven to this opinion , that he might justify the practises of the court of rome . and it appears by what he says concerning it , that it was considered at rome as an undoubted truth , that the queen's first mariage with prince arthur was consummated : and so it is sufficiently apparent , how impudent mr. varillas is in the abstract , that he charges on cardinal cajetan's memory , it was far from his way of reasoning , to talk of fleets blocking up constantinople ; but mr. varillas , who knows little of the past time , and fancies that matters went formerly as they go now , had perhaps the low estate in which the otthoman empire is at present , or the bombarding of genoa in his eye , when he thought of the sending fleets against constantinople above 180 year ago ; but this speculation was as much out of cajetan's way , as it is sutable to mr. varillas . page 250 he says , king henry the eighth had opposed the mariage of his sister to the king of scotland with so much violence , that it brought on him several fits of an ague . but that mariage being made in august 1502 , the young prince was not then 11 years old , and this is too early even for a poët to make matters of state to have gone so deep into his thoughts , as that they endangered his health . but as the legends of saints represent them in extasies , before they have past their childhood , so mr. varillas thought it sutable to the rest of his poëm , to represent k. henry even in his infancy as transported with the violence of impetuous passions . but i am afraid i lay too much to his charge , since i do not believe that he had examined the history of his life so critically , as to know even his age ; but it is a sad thing for an ignorant man , not to have a chronological table always before him . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30405-e110 pag. 5. lib. 9. pag. 249. pag. 6. p. 226. 228. ● 240. p. 239. illudqu● carnali ●●●pula for● consummavi etiamsi matrim●nium f●rit per ●●●●nalem ●●●pulam ●●●●summa●● p. 232. ibid. p. 235. p. 2●6 . p. 237 ▪ p. 240 , 24● ●orison . p. 244. p. 245. ibid. p. 246. p. 248. p. 250. p. 2●1 . p. 252. ibid. ibid. ibid. p. 257. p. 258. p. 259. p. 260. ibid. p. 261. p. 263 , &c ▪ p. 266. p. 278. ibid. ● . 269 , & ●70 . p. 272. p. 274. p. 277. ibid. ● . 278. ibid. p. 2●1 . ibid. ibid. p. 2●2 . ibid. p ▪ 283. ibid. p. 286. p. 287. p. 287. ibid. p. 288. p. 289. p. 250. notes for div a30405-e10930 2da 2dae quaest . 15 art. 9. moderna quoque regina angliae consummaverat prius matrimoniu● cum olim fratre istius regis angli sui marit three letters concerning the present state of italy written in the year 1687 ... : being a supplement to dr. burnet's letters. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 322 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 105 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30473) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 53104) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 861:4) three letters concerning the present state of italy written in the year 1687 ... : being a supplement to dr. burnet's letters. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [16], 191, [1] p. s.n.], [s.l. : 1688. reproduction of original in huntington library. errata: p. [1] at end. table of contents: p. [3]-[16] relating to the affair of molinos, and the quietists -relating to the inquisition, and the state of religion -relating to the policy and interests of some of the states of italy. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng quietism. inquisition -italy. italy -description and travel. italy -description and travel -early works to 1800. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion three letters concerning the present state of italy , written in the year 1687. i. relating to the affair of molinos , and the quietists . ii. relating to the inquisition , and the state of religion . iii. relating to the policy and interests of some of the states of italy . being a supplement to dr. burnets letters . printed in the year 1688. a table of the contents of the three letters . the first letter . the curiosity which dr. burnets letters had excited of knowing more concerning the quietists , was the motives to this author's further enquiry about them , p. 1 , 2. with what difficulty things before the inquisition come to be known , and with how much fear and reserve the italians talk of them , especially to hereticks . p. 2 , 3. the amasing wealth of the churches , palaces , and convents in rome and thro all italy ; and yet the astonishing poverty of the inhabitants , p. 4. a comparison between the italians upon the one hand , and the english and dutch on the other hand , p. 4 , 5. that the poverty of the people in italy , ariseth from the government 's being in the hands of priests , and from the ascendancy which the principles of their religion give them over mens consciences . p. 6 , 7. how little many of the italians believe the chief doctrines of their church ; and what temptation their religion lay's them under to atheism . ibid. that the mysteries of the conclave ; the qualifications of the cardinal 's ; the characters of the late popes , particularly of the present ; and the manner how the purple , and the triple crown are obtained , are evidences that the romish church is not what she pretends to be , p. 8 , 9. that tho they who are under the yoak , may be willing to continue in slavery ; yet 't is matter of amasement ▪ that such who are delivered from papal bondage , should submit again unto it . p. 9 , 10. whence it was , that so many of all ranks came to be so favourable to molinos ; and upon what grounds , his opinions came to be so universally received . p. 11 , 12. a character of molinos himself ; with an account of the chief authors of the mystical divinity ; together with a representation of it , and why the followers of molinos are stiled quietists ; and what different ends men might have , in falling in with this new method . p. 12 , to 19. when molinos's book called il gui●a spirituale was first published ; and with whose approbations ; and how much it was esteemed . p. 19 , 20. the great reputation he grew into , especially with which of the cardinals . p. 20 , 21. the friendship betwixt card. d'estrée and him ; and the value that the present pope had for him , and the encouragement he gave to his design . p. 21 , 22. of a french book written on the subject of mystical divinity , and by whose means , and of its being translated into italian . p. 22 , 23. of the several writings of petrucci in relation to a contemplative state , with their character . ibid. the jesuites and dominicans allarmed at the progress of quietism , and why . ibid. books writ by the society against molinos and his method ; and the way that the jesuite segueri took to decry it . p. 24. that the matter being brought before the inquisition , the jesuites were accounted accusers ; with an account of what became of f. martin esparsa a jesuite , who had approved molinos's book . p. 25. of molinos and petrucci their coming off justified , and that their books were approved , and the answers of the jesuites censured as scandalous . p. 26. the popes advancing petrucci to be bishop of j●ssi , and how he behaved himself in his bishoprick . ibid. how the party grew in credit and in number , with a short character of them . ibid. & p. 27. of the jesuites persevering to calumniate them , and in what methods ; and of the care that molino ▪ took to desend himself , and of his writing in order thereunto a treatise of frequent and dayly communion . p. 28. an account of that book ; and with whose approbations it was published ; and of the answers given therein to some of mr. arnau●'s objections against frequent communion . p. 28 , 29. of the offence taken at that book , and for what ; and how the quietists are in many things calumniated , p. 30. that their maxims are resembled to those of socrates his school , and wherein . p. 31 , 32. a conversation which the author had with a french clergy-man , with the reasons given by that person why worship ought to be pompous , &c. p. 33. the jesuites upon not being able to ruin molinos by their influence upon the pope , apply themselves by means of f. la chaise to the french king. p. 3● . the ascendant they have over that monarch ; with a just censure of the persecution exercised in france . ibid. the popes disputing the regale with the french king , and at the same time favouring molinos , laid hold of in france , to reproach the pope , and to crush the quietists . p. 34. 35. a report at rome of cardinal d'estrees betraying molinos , by informing the inquisition of many particulars against him . a relation of that whole story , & of molinos's being thereupon clapt up . p. 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ▪ the imprisonment of count vespiniani and his lady , and how they came to be released upon bail ' . ▪ p. 38 , 3 ▪ of the popes being suspected of heresie , and his being examined by the inquisition . p. 39. how they endeavour to avoid the reflection that this exposeth the papal infallibility unto . p. 40. of a circular letter sent by the inquisition to cardinal cibo . p. ●1 , 42 , 43. that several cardinals are apprehensive of a storm from the inquisition , and who they are . a character of don livi● the popes nephew , and how jealous he is of falling into the hands of the inquisitors , p. 44. of the imprisonment of f. appiani a jesuite , and the mortification it gave the society , with a reflection upon the conduct of the society . p. 45. a remarkable story of f. cann an english jesuite in rome . p. 46 , 47. a character of cardinal howard ; and of his being shut out of all the councils of the e. of cast●em●n during his embassay at rome , with an account of the rude and insolent carriage of f. morgan towards the cardinal . p. 47 , 48. the great concern expressed for those in the inquisition by their friends ; with the impression it makes upon the inquisitors , and their behaviour thro the apprehension they have of it p. 48 , 49. that the pope and cardinal cibo are much troubled to see this matter gone so far ; and that cardinal petrucci is still in the popes favour ▪ ibid. the great number of the regulars in rome and in naples , who being generally against the quietists , they are made a sacrifice to their resentment , p. 49. nineteen propositions pretended to be extracted out of the writings and doctrines of the quietists , with a censure of them published by order of the inquisition . p. 50. the circular letter , both in italian and in english , p. 51 , 52 , 53 , 54. the censure of the opinions of the quietists in italian and in english , with some remarks upon it , shewing that many things charged upon them are misrepresented ; that other things are weakly and ridiculously resuted ; that several absurdities are therein obtruded upon the world for truths ; and that the adoration of images , which the papists in england and france do disclaim , is in the censure justified and recommended . p. 55. to p. 88. of the condemnation of molinos ; of the rage expressed by many of the people against him ; and of the hatred declared upon this occasion against the present pontificate , with a character of it , and an account of the gentlness of the inquisition to many of molinos's followers , and what reflections wise men make thereupon , p. 89 , 90 , 91. the whole ceremony at the minerva , the day that molinos was brought forth to abjure , with a relation of some things he said , and of his deportment , p. 92 , 93 , 94. the mildness of the punishment inflicted upon him , ibid. of the boldness of one of his followers before the inquisition , and how slightly he came off , p. 94. of the vast correspondence which molinos had in all places ; and that most of the condemned articles , are but an invidious aggravating of the doctrine of predestination , and of efficacious grace , ibid , & p. 95. the second letter . the author's capacity for giving the following relation , thro having resided so long in rome and in italy , p. 96. some reflections upon the study of manuscripts , medals , inscriptions , and of religion and politicks , p. 97 , 98. a commendation of dr. burnets letters , and that most which the author had observed , is already related there ; and that what is here published , referreth either to places which the dr. did not see , or to matters which his short stay in italy , did not allow him to enquire after , ibid. of a crucifix shut up in the inquisition , the occasion of it , with several reflections on the bigotry , superstition , and idolatry of the papists , especially of the italians , p. 99 , 100 , 101. of the plague in s. gregory the great 's time , ibid. of a stone in the chappel of ara coeli , pretended to have the impression of an angel's foot upon it , and therefore worshipped by the people ; but is now made prisoner in the inquisition , to keep the crucifix company , p. 102 , 103. the story of sr. burrhi a millanese gentleman and a chymist , who becoming suspected by the priests , was brought into the inquisition , and getting off at that time , was afterwards apprehended , and being accused of many errors , was made to abjure , and confined to a perpetual imprisonment , &c. p. 103 , 104 , 105. of the scandalous and lascivous pictures , that are in many churches of italy , and that their most celebrated madonna 's have been the mistresses of the great painters ; with a relation of an intrigue between a frier and a nun , p. 106 , 107. of their sottish and idolatrous representations of the trinity , ibid. of the picture of the b. virgin , with the order of the capuchins under her petticoat , ibid. how learning came to flourish so much in the last age , and to decay so greatly in this ; and of the great masters of painting that italy produced in the former century , p. 108 , 109 , 110. of the picture of the virgin in the annunciata in florence , which they pretend to have been finished by an angel , p. 110. the fable of loretto , and what exceptions the author made to it in a conversation ; and how the italians justify the devotion of the people , upon a supposition that the whole story is a fiction , p. 111 , 112. of a conference between an abbot and an english clergy-man , of the difference between the two churches , p. 112 , 113. that the conversion of nations , is no further accounted of at rome , than as it brings profit to the datary ; and the reason why so little respect was had to the english ambassador , and to every thing he proposed , p. 113. what retarded the promotion of the card. d'esté so long ; with a relation how the late card. d'esté protector of the french nation at rome , hector'd pope alexander vii . p. 114. of the scandalous imposture of the blood of st. january at naples , p. 115. to what excessive height the priests carry the ecclesiastical immunities , and in what danger the general of the horse at naples was of being excommunicated , p. 116 , 117. a remarkable story how far the immunities of the clergy have been pusht in the dukedom of florence , for the saving of a priest ; with a character of the present duke , p. 117 , 118. the present vice-roy of naples commended , for supporting the secular tribunal against the invasions of the ecclesiastical court ; with a relation of the ingenuous and publick affront he put upon an auditor of the nuncio's , and how ill it was resented at rome , p. 118 , 119 , 120. of the difference betwixt the pope and the french king about the regale ; with a further character of the pope , p. 120 , 121. what improvement the jansenists made of the difference , p. 121 , 122. concerning the business of the franchises , and that the pope seems resolved to maintain his late bull , and how it may prove fatal to himself , and the papal sea , to contend that matter with the french king , p. 123. of the way that this pope treats ambassadors ; and of an answer he gave to the english ambassador upon his threatning to leave rome , that shew'd the little respect he had either for him or his master , p. 124. how the present pope conducts his revenue ; that being the only thing he understands . of his retrenching both all expences and the publick charities ; and that he must have a vast treasure , p. 124. the inducement to the making so many cardinals in the last promotion . and the aversion which card. taia , and card. ricci expressed to the purple in the promotion that was made five year ago , p. 125. how cardinal farnese , that was afterwards paull iii. and who raised the family of parma , came to be created cardinal by alexander vi. with an account in what manner the promotion of cardinals is carried ; and how the wench was too crafty both for that lewd pope , and for his son caesar borgia , p. 126 , 127 , 128. of the aversion which this pope has to the jesuites ; and that the english ambassador's resigning himself to their conduct , was the reason of the cold usage he met with at rome , p. 129. what character all wise and indifferent italians fasten upon those of that society ; and their concluding from the credit which they have in england , that the roman catholick religion must needs miscarry there , ibid. & p. 130. the romantick letters which the jesuites write to rome out of england , and what just discredit this puts upon all that they write out of the indies and other remote countreys , ibid. of the letter lately printed that was wrote by a jesuite of liege to those at friburg , concerning the present state of popery in england ; that it is a true and authentick letter , p. 130 , 131. of two things peculiar to this order which render it formidable ; how independent the general of the jesuites is above the generals of other orders , and how absolute his government , p. 132 , 133. by what means the mission comes to be generally in their hands , and of their getting thereby into families , p. 133 , 134. the different humour and conduct of the secular priests , from those of the regulars : and what prejudice 't is the suffering regulars to live in protestant states ; how 't is matter of wonder at rome , that protestans should permit regulars to be in their countreys ; and what a wise roman said to the author about it , p. 134 , 135. how the people of lombardy are possessed with a superstition of mixing water with their wine , and how the priests who nourish the vulgar in that conceit , excuse their own wine from being mix'd , p. 136 , 137. that the tax which is laid upon wine in florence , makes the people there preserve it pure , ibid. of an abbey of benedictines at etal in bavaria , where the monks live in as great abundance as the duke himself , p. 138. a beautiful prospect the author had at burgo in the hills of trent , p. 138. the way of celebrating st. anthony's day at rome , and how the people bring all their horses , mulets , and asses to be sprinkled with holy water by the monks of thet order . how profitable this piece of superstitious folly is to the priests , p. 139 , 140. that molinos's abjuring was only a pretended thing ; that his party continues still to be very numerous ; and that all the reports about the lewdness of his life , are esteemed to be no other than fables , p. 141 , 142. the third letter . of a curious salt-work at sode near francfort , with an account of the way , of making the salt , p. 144 , 145 , 146 that italy is the highest country in europe , as appeareth by the small descent from the alps on that side , to what it is either on the french or german side , p. 147. of guastale , its situation , and of its being wrested from the rightful owner by the french king ; the danger that all italy will be thereby exposed unto , p. 148 , 149 , 150 , 151 , 152. a character of the present duke of mantua ; how he favours the french interest ; of his putting cassal and guastale into their hands ; and how they wind him as they please , p. 152 , 153. of the courage and fidelity of the marquises of cannosse and palliotti to the duke of mantua ; and how the french got them both to be made close prisoners , p. 153 , 154. that the princes of italy are absolute in their dominions , and the slavery their subjects are in , ibid. that there is a french envoy always attending upon the duke of mantua , ibid. how one of the duke of mantua's secretaries was by the duke sent to turin , and seised by a party of french horse from pignerol , p. 155 , 156. the imperious way that the french in casal act towards those of montferrat , and piedmont , p. 157. that having bargain'd with masons , how they broke the agreement , ibid. how the french king having advanced three millions towards a fond for an east-india company , did withdraw it , p. 158. of the disfavour that the marquise of pianesse fell in to with the late duke of savoy , and how he came to be introduced into the ministry again , and afterwards was disgraced , put in prison , and tried ; and how the court of savoy remains governed by the french , p. 158 , 159 , 160 , 161. of the design that was carried on of matching this present duke to the infanta of portugal ; and of his being poysoned ( as his father had been ) and his reflecting on the wise advices which the marquise de pianesse had given him , p. 161 , 162. how much the dukes of savoy are sunk in this age from the figure that they made in the last ; how difficult it will be to remedy it , while cassal and pignerol are in the hands of the french , ibid. of the late persecution in the valley's of piedmont ; how all in the court of savoy are ashamed of it ; with an account of the fidelity , peaceableness , & industry of that poor people ; & what the person who acquainted the author with these things , upon his knowing him to be an englishman , said to him upon it , p. 162 , 163. of the luxury and vanity of living magnificently , wherewith france hath infected the princes of germany , together with a representation of the mischiefs which arise from princes and noblemens travelling into france , p. 164. how fatal luxury & a vain expencefulness are in a special manner to common-wealths ; and what sensible decays in strength , the expenceful way of living that the dutch and cantons are grown into ; with a commendation of that part of the venetian constitution , which regulates the expence of their nobility , p. 165 , 166. of the misery and poverty that appears in pisa thro the severity of the government ; and of the wealth and populousness of lucca , thro being a free government ; how jealous they of lucca are of having their liberty supplanted , & how infinitely they prise it ; with an account of the strength and decoration of the town , p. 167 , 168. of genoa ; its decay from what it formerly was ; and yet its being vastly more wealthy and populous , than any part of tuscany or of the popes patrimony . of the number of the subjects of that republick ; their forts in corsica , with a character of the corses ; the compass of the fortifications of genoa ; the expence they have laid out on the two moles ; the debt it hath run them into ; with an account of the extent of their whole countrey , and how it is defended ; & what their marine strength is , p. 168 , 169 , 170 , 171. how much the safety of millan and of all italy depends upon the preservation of genoa ; and that its interest and spains are inseparably united , p. 172 , 173. a large account of their civil constitution ; and of the divisions that are among them , and how occasioned ; and that these were the inducements to france to attack them , p. 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 , 177. that tho the subjects be wealthy , yet the state is weak ; that there is such a degeneracy among them from what they were , that they have neither heads nor hearts to defend themselves , were they vigorously assaulted ; and whence that degeneracy proceeds , p. 178. curious refl●ctions upon the diseases , that common-wealths are subject unto , with a friendly application of all unto holland , p. 179. that the project of france's falling upon genoa , was formed by one valdyron of nismes , that was a protestant , and had lived long in genoa . that the french might have been easily masters of it , had they assaulted it vigorously at first . the injustice of this way of proceeding , and how the italians stile it , p. 180 , 181 , 182. what reflections a spaniard , belonging to the count of melgar , made upon the french miscarrying in that , and in some other of their undertakings , p. 182 , 183. how valdyron was treated by the genoese , & how poorly requited by the french king , p. 184. an account of a conversation the author had with two of the old magistrates of messina , wherein they said many things reslective on the honour , veracity and iustice of the french king and his ministers , and by what arguments they justified the revolt of their town from the spaniard , p. 185 , 186 , 187. of the method they use in preparing vitriol in the sulfatara near puzzolo . of a little town in the appenins , called norcia , which tho in the popes territories , may be accounted a common-wealth , and which is so jealous of all priests obtaining any share in their government , that they will admit none into magistracy , who can either read or write p. 189 , 190. of the mortification which one of the magistrates , put upon an auditor who was a church-man , by gelding him , for attempting to debauch his wife ; with a pleasant account , how one that hath been so treated , may continue capable to say mass , ibid. & p. 191. the stationer to the reader . i can give no other account of these letters , but that they were communicated to me , by a person of known integrity ; who assured me , that he who made these observations , is a man of great vertue , and considerably learned : who has been long and much in italy : who is both capable of looking narrowly into matters , and is of such severe morals , that one may safely depend on all he says . this was enough for me ; so without making any further enquiry , or knowing any thing of the author , i have set about the printing of them . vale . a letter writ from rome , to one in holland , concerning the quietists . sir , your desire of being informed particularly by me , of the state of religion and learning in italy , and chiefly here at rome , has quickned my curiosity , and has set an edge upon a humour that is of it self inquisitive enough : and tho i am not so much in lo●● with writing , as to delight in transmitting you long letters , yet i find i have matter at present for a very long one ; chiefly in that which relates to the quietists : for you observe right , that the short hints that dr. burnet gave of their matters in his letters , did rather increase the curiosity of the english , than satisfy it . he told as much as was generally known in rome at that time , concerning them ; but as a longer stay might have discovered more particulars to him , so there have fallen out since that time such new and surprising accidents , that there is not more hearkning after new evidence in england , upon the breaking out of plots , than there was at rome upon the imprisonment of so great a number of persons in february and march last ; the number alone of 200 persons , was enough to raise a great curiosity ; but this was much encreased by the quality of the persons that were clapt up , who were both for rank , for learning , and for piety , the most esteemed of any in rome . so i was pusht on by my own inclinations , as well as by your entreaties , to take all the pains that was possible for me , to be well informed of this matter . the particular application with which i had read some of the books of devotion writ in this method , and the pleasure , and , i hope , profit , that i had found in it , made me still the more earnest to know this matter to the bottom . it is true , it was hard to find it out : for those who have been in rome , know with how much caution all people there talk of matters that are before the inquisition : those are like the secrets of state elsewhere : of which a man cannot talk much without incurring some inconvenience ; and there is no inconvenience that is more terrible at rome , than the falling into the hands of the inquisitors : for besides the danger that a man runs , if the suspitions are well founded , the least ill effect that this must have , is the cutting off all a mans hopes of preferment ; for what a suspition of high treason is elsewhere , the suspition of heresy is at rome ; and where there are many pretenders , and there is so much to be expected , you may imagine that hope and fear working at the same time so powerfully , it must be very hard to ingage such persons as probably know the secret of things , to trust themselves upon so tender a point , to strangers . the truth is , learning is so low in italy , and the opinion that they have of the learning of strangers , chiefly of hereticks , is so high , that they do not willingly enter either on subjects of learning or of religion with them ; and on the other hand a stranger and a heretick , who is considered as a spye , or a fair enemy at best , will not find it convenient to thrust on such subjects of conversation , as are tender and suspitious . all this is to prepare you for a relation which you will perhaps think defective , yet is as full a i could possibly gather , out of all the hints and informations that some moneths stay at rome procured me . the first thing that surprises a stranger in rome , is the very unequal mixture of wealth and poverty , that he sees here , as well as in all the parts of italy ; yet it is more conspicuous here , than elsewhere : for as the wealth of the churches , palaces and convents is astonishing , so the poverty of the inhabitants , and the meanness of the ordinary buildings , is extremely unsuteable to the magnificence of the other . when a man sees what italy was an age or two ago , not to go back so far as to remember what rome was once ; he can hardly imagin how such a fall , such a dispeopling , and such a poverty could befall a nation and climate , that nature has made to be one of the richest of the world , or of europe at least ; if the priests had not at the same time a secret to make the natives miserable , in spite of all that abundance with which nature has furnished them . it were not able to withstand even an ordinary enemy , and it can scarce support it self . those italians that have seen the wealth and abundance that is in england and holland , tho their sun is less favorable , and their climate is more unhappy , and that come home so see their towns deserted , and their inhabitants in raggs , speak of this sometimes with an indignation that is too sensible to be at all times kept within bounds . they speak of the difference betweeen holland and italy , like men affected when they compared the two soils and climates together . the one is a soil divided between sand and turff , preserved from the innudations of land-floods , and the overflowing of the sea , at a vast charge , suffering often such losses as would ruin other states , and paying great and constant impositions : and yet with all these inconveniences , and all the disadvantages of a feeble sun , a stagnating and phlegmatick air , violent colds , and moderate , or at least very shorts heats , this countrey is full of wealth and people ; and there is in it such an abundance of great towns and considerable villages , and in all these there appear so many marks of plenty , and none at all of want : and the other has a kind sun , long and happy summers , and mild winters : a fruitful and rich soil , and every thing that the inhabitants can wish for on natures part , to render them the envy of the world : whereas they are become the scorn and contempt of all that see them . and as much as the dutch seem to have acted in spite of nature on the one hand , in rendring themselves much more considerable than she has intended they should be ; so the government of italy seems to have reversed the design of nature as much on the other hand , by reducing the inhabitants to such a degree of misery , in spite of all her bounty : upon this subject the italians will talk more freely than upon matters of religion : and do not stick to say , that it flows from the share that priests have in the government , and that not only in the popes territory , but in all the other courts of italy , where they have the main stroke . they will tell you , that priests have not souls big enough , nor tender enough , for government : they have both a narrowness of spirit , and a sourness of mind , that does not agree with the principles of human society : their having so short and so uncertain a time of governing , makes them think only on the present , so that they do not carry their prospect to the happiness of , or misery that must be the consequences of what they do , at any considerable distance of time : nor have they those compassions for the miserable with which wise governours ought to temper all their counsells ; for a stern sourness of temper , and an unrelenting hardness of heart , seems to belong to all that sort of men in italy . whatsoever advances their present interests , and inriches their families , is preferred to all wise , great or generous councells . now tho the natives dare not carry this matter further , yet a stranger , that thinks more freely , and that has examined matters of religion , in a more inquisitive manner , sees plainly that all these errors in government , are the effects of their religion , and of that authority which they believe is lodged in the pope , chiefly and of which every priest has so considerable a share , that he is easily able to make himself master of every mans conscience that lets him into it , and that believes those three great branches of their power : that they can pardon their sins , make their god , and secure them both from hell and purgatory . these are things of such a mighty operation , that if it is not easy to imagine how they should be so easily believed , yet supposing once the belief of them , all other things flow very naturally from thence : men are not convinced of these errors till it is too late to come and undeceive others . it is true , many of the italians believe these things as little as we do ; yet this is in them rather an effect of a loose and libertine temper , than of study and enquiry , in a countrey where not only heretical books would endanger a man , but the bare reading even of a latin new testament would give some suspition . but the thinking men among them are led to doubt of all things , rather from a principle of atheism , than of searching into matters of controversy : the one is much less dangerous there , than the other would be . and indeed as soon as a man becomes a little familiar with any of the men of freer thoughts here , he will soon see that the belief of their religion has very little power over many of those who are the most zealous to support it , only because their interest determins them . when a man has lived some time at rome , and has known a little of the mysteries of the conclave , with the character both of the present and the late popes , particularly the weakness and ignorance of him that now reigns , who does not so much as understand latin ; when a man sees how matters are carried in that court , what are the maximes they go by , and the methods that they take ; when he sees what a sort of men the cardinals are , men indeed of great civility , and of much craft ; but as to the matters of religion , men of an equal sise both of ignorance and indifference : when a man sees how all preferments are obtained , but chiefly how the purple is given , and how men rise up to the triple crown : when , i say , a man has seen and observed all this a little , he cannot wonder enough at the character that so great a part of the world sets on that court. the plain and simple arguments of common sense work so strong , that transubstantiation it self is not harder to be believed , than that this man is christs vicar , a man of infallibility , and the source or channel at least of divine truth . so that a man that has given himself the opportunities of observing these matters critically , will feel a persuasion of the falsehood of those pretensions formed so deep in him , that all the sophistry of argument will never be able to overthrow it : for the plain sense of what he has seen will apparently discover the delusion of those reasons , which perhaps he is not learned enough to answer : for let men say what they will , it is no easy matter to believe in a contradiction to the clear evidence of sence : and i cannot make my self so much as doubt , but that as cato was wont to wonder how it came that every one of the heathen priests did not laugh when he saw another of the trade , so the cardinals when they look on one another , and a pope even as ignorant a one as the present pope is , when he receives the submissions that are offered him by all who are of that communion , must laugh within himself when he sees how lucky that imposture is , which has subdued the world into so much respect for him , and to so great a dependance on him . a man who sees all these things upon the place , and is of an age capable of making solid reflections , and has a due portion of learning , must return amased , not so much at those who being already under the yoke , have neither knowledge nor courage enough to shake it off , nor at those who go into it because they find their account in it , and so hope to have a good share of the spoil , as at those who have shaken off the yoke , and have got into more liberty and more knowledg , and feel the happy influence of their deliverance even in their civil liberties and other temporal concerns , if they should ever come so much as to deliberate whether they ought to return and serve their old and severe masters , or not . for my part , i speak freely to you , that i could sooner bring my mind to believe that there is no such thing as instituted religion ; and that it is enough for men to be just and honest , civil and obliging , and to have a general reverence for the deity , than ever to think that such stuff as the men of the mission would impose on the world can be true . chiefly in that part of it which relates to the popes authority , after all that i have seen and known . you will perhaps think , that this is a long digression , or at least a very improper introduction to that which i told you i would offer to you , since the relation that all this has with the matter of the quietists , does not appear to be so very proper . yet you will perhaps change your mind , when i tell you , that the miseries of italy , that the aversion that all men of sense there have to the artifices of their religion , and chiefly to the conduct of the regulars , and above all , of the iesuites , is believed the true reason that led such numbers of men of all sorts to be so favourable to molinos : to which this was rather to be ascribed , than to any extraordinary elevation of piety or devotion , of which so little appears in that country , that nothing which touches only upon that principle can have great effects among them . men that are sick , turn to all sorts of remedies : and those who are discontented , do naturally go into every new thing that either promises relief , or that wounds those that displease them . the present state of things in italy being such as i have described it , you need not wonder to find so many ready to hearken after any thing that seemed both new and safe . for as the novelty gave that curiosity which might draw in many , so the safety that seemed to be in a method of devotion in which so many of the canonised saints had gone before them , and which appeared at first authorised by the approbation of so many inquisitours , made them apprehend that there could be no danger in it . in the recital that i am to give you , i do not pretend to tell you all the whole affair : nor will i assure you of the truth of all that you will find here . for in matters of this nature , in which interest and passion are apt to work so strongly , there are alwayes so many false reports spread , and matters are so often aggravated on the one hand , and diminished or denied on the other , that i will not say but there may be some things here that upon a stricter inquiry will perhaps appear not to be well founded ; yet of this i will assure you very positively , that i have invented and added nothing my self . i leave those arts to the italians , and the court of rome : therefore i will tell you things nakedly and simply , as i found them , without adding so much as one circumstance out of my own invention . i also made as much use of my judgment as was possible for me to do , both in considering the circumstances of those with whom i talked on those heads , and the things themselves that they said to me ; so i let pass all that seemed to be the effect of passion or prejudice , and only marked down that which seemed to be true , as well as that which i had from men whom i had reason to believe . my informers were men of probity and of sense ; they were not indeed easily brought to talk of this subject , and they spoke of it with great reserves : so that there may be many defects , and possibly some mistakes in the account that i am to offer you ; yet you must be contented with it ; for it is all that i could gather ; and it is not corrupted with any mixture of my own . michael de molinos is a spaniard , of a good and opulent family . he entred into priests ordors , but had never any ecclesiastical benefice : so that he seemed to have dedicated himself to the service of the church , without designing any advantage by it to himself . he passes in italy for a man both of learning and of good sense . his course of life has been exact , but he has never practised those austerities that are so much magnified in the church of rome , and among the religious orders : and as he did not affect to practise them , so he did not recommend them to others ; nor was he fond of those poor superstitions that are so much magnified by the trafficking men of that church but he gave in to the method of the mystical . divines , of which , since your studies have not perhaps lien much that way , i shall give you this short account . that sublime , but mysterious way of devotion , was not set out by any of the first writers of the church ; which is indeed a great prejudice against it : for how many soever they may be , who have followed it in the latter ages , yet cassians collations , which is a work of the midle of the fifth century , is the antientest book that is writ in that strain : for the pretended denis the areopagite is now by the consent of all learned men thought no elder than the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century . yet after these books appeared , very few followed the elevated strains that were in them : the latter was indeed too dark to be either well understood or much followed . so that this way of devotion , if it was practised in religious houses , yet was not much set out to the world before s. bernards time , whose melting strains , tho a little too much laboured and affected , yet have something in them that both touches and pleases : after him many began to write in that sublime strain ; such as thauler , rusbrachius , harphius , suso , but above all thomas a kempis . and when for some considerable time that way of writing was discontinued , it was again raised up in the last age , with much luster by s. teresa ; and after her by baltasar alvares a iesuit : and as england produced a carthusian in king henry the sixths time , one walter hilton , who writ the scale of perfection , a book inferior to none of these i have cited , and more simple and natural than most of them ; so of late f. cressy has published out of f. bakers papers , who was a benedictine , a whole body of that method of divinity and devotion . the right notion of this way of devotion is somewhat hard to be well understood , by those who have not studied their metaphisicks , and is entangled with too many of the terms of the school ; yet i shall give it to you as free of these as is possible . with relation to devotion they consider a man in three different degrees of progress and improvement : the first is the animal , or the imaginative state : in which the impressions of religion work strongly upon a mans fancy , and his sensitive powers : this state is but low and mean , and suteable to the age of a child ; and all the devotion that works this way , that raises a heat in the brain , tenderness in the thoughts , that draws sighs and tears , and that awakens many melting imaginations , is of a low form , variable , and of no great force . the second state is the rational , in which those reflections that are made on truths , which convince ones reason , carry one to all suteable acts : this they say is dry , and without motion : it is a force which the reason puts upon the will , and tho upon a great variety of motives , and many meditations upon them , the mind goes thro a great many performances of devotion , yet this is still a force put upon the will. so they reckon that the third and highest state is the contemplative , in which the will is so united to god , and overcome by that union , that in one single act of contemplation , it adores god , it loves him , and resigns it self up to him : and without wearying itself with a dry multiplicity of acts , it feels in one act of faith more force than a whole day of meditation can produce . in this they say that a true contemplative man , feels a secret ioy in god , and an acquiescing in his will ; in which the true elevation of devotion lies ; and which is far above either the heats of fancy , which accompany the first state , or the subtilty of meditation , that belongs to the second state : and they say , that the perfection of a contemplative state above the others , appears in this , that wheras all men are not capable of forming lively imaginations , or of a fruitful invention , yet every man is capable of the simplicity of contemplation : which is nothing but the silent and humble adoration of god , that arises out of a pure and quiet mind . but because all this may appear a little intricate , i shall illustratte it by a similitude , which will make the difference of those three states more sensible ; 1. a man that sees the exteriour of another , with whom he has no acquaintance , and is much taken with his face , shape , quality , and meen , and this has a blind prevention in his favour , and a sort of a feeble kindness for him , may be compared to him whose devotion consists in lively imaginations , and tender impressions on his lower and sensible powers : 2. a man that upon an acquaintance with another , sees a great many reasons to value and esteem , both his parts and his vertues , yet in all this he feels no inward charm that overcomes him , and knits his soul to the other ; so that how high soever the esteem may be , yet it is cold and dry , and does not affect his heart much , may be compared to one whose devotion consists in many acts , and much meditation . but 3dly , when a man enters into an entire friendship with another , then one single thought of his friend , affects him more tenderly , than all that variety of reflections , which may arise in his mind , where this union is not felt . and thus they explain the sublime state of contemplation . and they reckon that all the common methods of devotion , ought to be considered , only as steps to raise men up to this state : when men rest and continue in them , they are but dead and lifeless forms : and if they rise above them , they become cloggs and hindrances , which amuse them with many dry performances , in which those who are of a higher dispensation will feel no pleasure nor advantage . therefore the use of the rosary , the daily repeating the breviary , together with the common devotions to the saints , are generally laid aside by those who rise up to the contemplative state ; and the chief business to which they apply themselves , is to keep their minds in an inward calm and quiet , that so they may in silence form simple acts of faith , and feel those inward motions and directions which they believe follow all those who rise up to this elevation . but because a man may be much deceived in those inspirations , therefore they recommend to all who enter into this method , above all other things , the choice of a spiritual guide , who has a right sense and a true tast of those matters , and is by consequence a competent judge in them . this is all that i will lay before you in general , for giving you some tast of molinos's methods ; and by this you will both see why his followers are called quietists and why his book is entitled il gui. da spiritualc . but if you intend to inform your self more particularly of this matter , you must seek for it , either in the authors that i have already mentioned , or in those of which i am to give you some account in the ●equel of this letter . molinos having it seems drunk in the principles of the contemplative devotion in spain , where the great veneration that is payed to s. teresa gives it much reputation , he brought over with him to italy a great zeal for propagating it . he came and setled at rome , where he writ his book , and entred into a great commerce with the men of the best apprehensions , and the most elevated thoughts that he found there . all that seemed to concur with him in his design for setting on foot this sublimer way , were not perhaps animated with the same principles . some designed sincerly to elevate the world above those poor and trifling superstitions , that are so much in vogue , among all the bigots of the church of rome , but more particularly in spain and italy , and which are so much set on by almost all the regulars , who seem to place religion chiefly in the exact performing of them . it was thought that others entred into the design upon more indirect motives . some perhaps from the aversion that they bore the regulars , were disposed to entertain every thing that might lead mens devotions into other channells , and to a conduct different from that prescribed by friers and iesuites . some perhaps had understandings good enough to see the necess●ty of correcting many things in their worship , which yet they dur●t not attack as simply unlawful : so that it might appear more safe to expose these things to the contempt of the world , by pretending to raise men far above them : and thus they might have hoped to have introduced a reformation of many abuses without seeming to do it . in fine , some who seemed to enter into this matter , were men that aspired to fame , and hoped by this means to raise a name to themselves ; and to have a party that should depend upon them : for in such great numbers as seemed to imbark in this design , it is not to be imagined that all were acted by the same motives , and that every man had as good intentions as it is probable molinos himself had . in the year 1675. his book was first published with five approbations before it . one of these was by the archbishop of rheggio ; another was by the general of the franciscans , who was likewise one of the qualificators of the inquisition : another was by fa. martin de esparsa a jesuit , that had been divinity professor both at salamanca and at rome ; and was at that time a qualificator of the inquisition . as for the rest , i refer you to the book it self . the book was no sooner printed , than it was much read and highly esteemed both in italy and spain . it was considered as a book writ with much clearness and great simplicity ; and this so raised the reputation of the author , that his acquaintance came to be generally much desired : those who were in the greatest credit in rome , seemed to value themselves upon his friendship . letters were writ to him from all places : so that a correspondence was setled between him and those who approved of his method in many different places of europe . some secular priests both at rome and naples declared themselves openly for it : and consulted him as a sort of an oracle upon many occasions . but those who joyned themselves to him with the greatest heartiness and sincerity , were some of the fathers of the oratory , in particular three of the most eminent of them , who were all advanced at the last promotion of cardinals , coloredi , ciceri , but above all petrucci , who was accounted his timothy . many of the cardinals were also observed to court his acquaintance : and they thought it no small honour to be reckoned in the number of molinos's friends . such were cassanata azolini and carpegna ; but above all card. d'estrees . the last you must needs know , is a man of great learning : he was ambitious to be thought a reformer of some of those abuses , which are among them , that are too gross to pass upon a man of his freedom of spirit ; who had been bred up in the sorbon , and had conversed much with mr. de launay . he therefore seemed the most zealous of all others to advance molinos's design : so that he entered into a very close commerce with him . they were oft and long together : and notwithstanding all the distrust that a spaniard has naturally of a frenchman , and that all men have of one another , who have lived long at rome , yet molinos , who was sincere and plain-hearted , opened himself without reserve to the cardinal : and by his means a correspondence was setled between molinos and some in france : for tho the spirits of those of that nation go generally too quick for a way of devotion , that was setled and silent , yet some were strongly inclined to favour it even there . perhaps it might be considered as a method more like to gain upon protestants , and to facilitate the design of the re-union , that was so long talked of there . all these things concurred to raise molinos's character , and to render his person so considerable . when the pope that now reigns , was advanced to the throne , which was , you know , in the year 1676. that he took most particular notice of him : and made it visibly apparent , that even in all that exaltation , he thought it might contribute to raise his character , if he were considered as a friend of molinos's and an encourager of his design : for he lodged him in an appartment of the palace ; and put many singular marks of his esteem on him . this made him become still the more conspicuous , when he had the advantage of favour joyned to his other qualities : tho he neither seemed to be fond of it , nor lifted up with it . his conversation was much desired ; and many priests came not only to form themselves according to his method , but to dispose all their penetents to follow it : and it grew to be so much in vogue in rome , that all the nuns , except those who had iesuites to their confessors , began to lay aside their rosaries , and other devotions , and to give themselves much to the practice of mental prayer . this way had more credit given to it by the translation of a french book , that was writ upon the same subject , which cardinal d'estrees ordered to be made . it was writ in the form of a dialogue , and was printed in france in the year 1669. by the approbation of some of the doctors of the sorbon . i am able to give you no other account of the author , but that in the italian translation he is called francis malleva●la , a blind clergy-man . the book being chiefly formed upon the model of s. terese , the translation of it was dedicated to the discalciate carmelites of her order . this did not contribute a little for raising the credit of molinos's method , since it appeared to be approved both in italy , france and spain . at the same time fa. petrucci writ a great many letters and treatises relating to a contemplative staete : yet he mixed in many of them , so many rules relating to the devotions of the quire , that there was less occasion given for censure in his writings : they are a little too tedious ; but they were writ chiefly for nuns and others , that perhaps could not have apprehended his meaning aright , if he had expressed himself in a closer stile , and in sewer words . both the iesuites and the dominicans began to be alarmed at the progress of quietism : they saw clearly , that their trade was in a decay , and must decay still more and more , if some stop was not put to the progress of this new method : in order to this , it was necessary to decry the authors of it : and because of all the imputations in the world heresy is that , which makes the greatest ▪ impression at rome , molinos and his followers were given out to be hereticks . it being also necessary to fasten a particular name to every new heresy , they branded this with the name of quietism . books were also writ by some iesuites against molinos and his method ; in which there appeared much of that sourness and malignity that is thought to be peculiar to the society ; they were also writ with their usual candor and sincerity . one of the fathers segueri took a more dectrous method to decry it . he began his book magnifying the contemplative state highly , as superiour to all others ; and blaming those who had said any thing that seemed to detract from it : yet he corrected all this , by saying , that very few were capable of it ; and that none ought to pretend to it , but those who were called by god to so sublime a state : and by this he seemed only to censure the indiscretion of those spiritual guides , who proposed this way of devotion to all persons , without distinction . he also believed , that such as were at some times called to it , could not remain long in so high a state , to which god called men rather for some happy minutes , than for a longer continuance : therefore he thought that such persons as were raised to it , ought not to fancy that they were now got so far above all their former helps , as never to need them any more : so he proposed to them the accustoming themselves still to meditation , and to support themselves by that when they could not contemplate . he censured severely some of molinos's expressions , such as that , he who had god , had christ ; as if this were an abandoning of christs humanity : he also insisted much on that of a fixed looking on god , and the suspending of all the powers of the soul : but that on which he insisted most , was the molinos ( whom he never named , tho he cited his words , and described him very plainly ) made the quiet of contemplation to be a state to which a man could raise himself ; whereas he maintains , that in this quiet the soul is passive , and as it were in a rapture ; and that she could not raise her self to it , but that it was an immediat and extraordinary favour , which was only to be expected from god , and which an humble mind could not so much as ask of him . these disputes raised so much noise in rome , that the inquisition took notice of the whole matter : molinos and his book , and f. petrucci's treatises and letters , were brought under a second and severer examination ; and here the iesuites were considered as the accusers . it is true , one of the society , as was formerly told , had approved molinos's book ; but they took care that he should be no more seen at rome : for he was sent away , and it is not known whether , it is generally believed that he is shut up within four walls ; but what truth soever may be in that , he is no more visible , so careful are they to have all their order speak the same language ; and if any speak in a different stile from the rest , they at least take care that he shall speak no more ; yet in this examen that was made , both molinos and petrucci justified themselves so well , that their books were again approved , and the answers which the iesuites had writ , were censured as scandalous : and in this matter petrucci behaved himself so signally well , that it raised not only the credit of the cause , but his own reputation so much , that soon after he was made bishop of iessi , which was a new declaration that the pope made in their favours : their books were now more esteemed than ever , their method was more followed , and the novelty of it , the opposition made to it , by a society that his rendred it self odious to all the world , and the new approbation that was given to it after so vigorous an accusation , did all contribute to raise the credit and to encrease the numbers of the party . f. petrucci's behaviour in his bishoprick , contributed to raise his reputation still higher , so that his enemy's were willing to give him no more disturbance ; and indeed there was less occasion given for censure by his writings , than by molino's little book ; whose succinctness made that some passages were not so fully nor so cautiously expressed , but that there was room for making exceptions to them : on the other hand , petrucci was rather excessively tedious , so that he had so fully explained himself , that he very easily cleared some small difficulties that were made upon some of his letters : in short , every body was that thought either sincerely devout , or that at least affected the reputation of it , came to be reckoned among the quietists : and if these persons were observed to become more strict in their lives , more retired and serious in their mental devotions , yet there appeared less zeal in their whole deportment as to the exteriour parts of the religion of that church . they were not so assiduous at mass , nor so earnest to procure masses to be said for their friends : nor were they so frequently either at confession or in processions : so that the trade of those that live by these things was sensibly sunk : and tho the new approbation that was given to molinos's book by the inquisition stopt the mouths of his enemies , so that they could no more complain of it , yet they did not cease to scatter about surmises of all that sort of men , as of a cabale , that would have dangerous consequences ; they remembred the story of the illuminated men of spain , and said , here was a spawn of the same sect : they insinuated , that they had ill designs , and profound secrets among them ; that these were in their hearts enemies to the christian religion ; and that under a pretence of raising men to a most sublime strain of devotion , they intended to wear out of their minds the sense of the death and sacrifice of christ , and of the other mysteries of christianity : and because molinos was by his birth a spaniard , it has been given out of late , that perhaps he was descended of a iewish or mahometan race , and that he might carry in his blood , or in his first education , some seeds of those religions , which he has since cultivated , with no less art than zeal : yet this last calumny has gained but little credit at rome ; tho it is said , that an order has been sent to examine the registers of the baptism , in the place of his birth , to see if his name is to be found in it or not . thus he saw himself attacked with great vigour , and with an unrelenting malice . he took as much care as was possible to prevent , or to shake off these imputations ; for he writ a treatise , of frequent and dayly communion , which was likewise approved by some of the most learned of the regulars at rome , among whom one is martinez a iesuite , the senior divinity reader in their colledge at rome . this was printed with his spiritual guide , in the year 1675. and in the preface he protests , that he had not writ it with any design to engage himself into matters of controversy , but that it was drawn from him , by the most earnest solicitations of some zealous persons . in it he pressed a daily communion , by a vast number of passages that he cited both out of the ancient fathers , and the schoolmen ; yet he qualified this and all his other directions in the matters of devotion by that which he constantly repeats , which is the necessity of being conducted in all things by a spiritual guide : whether he intended to soften the aversion that the iesuites had to him , by refuting some parts of mr. arnaud's famous book of frequent communion or not , i cannot tell , but in this discourse he answers some of the objections that mr. arnaud had made to frequent communion , and in particular , to that which he makes one main ground of restraining men from it , which was the obliging them to go thro with their penitence and mortifications , before they were admitted to the sacrament ; whereas molinos makes the being free of moral sin , the only necessary qualification . in this discourse one sees more of a heated eloquence , than of severe or solid reasoning : yet it presses the point of daily communion , and of an inward application of soul to iesus christ , and to his death , so vehemently , that it might have been hoped that this should have put an end to those surmises , that had been thrown out to defame him ; as if he had designed to lay aside the humanity of our saviour , by his way of devotion : but there is no cure for jealousy ; especially when malice and interest are at bottom : so new matter was found for censure in this discourse . he had asserted , that there was no other preparation necessary , but to be free of mortal sin : so it was given out , that he intended to lay aside confession : and tho he had advised the use of a spiritual guide , in this , as well as in all other things ; yet the necessity of confession before communion , was not expressed : so that by this people seemed to be set at liberty from that obligation : and it was said , that what he advised with relation to a spiritual guide , lookt rather like the taking some general directions and council from ones priest , than the coming alwayes to him as the minister of the sacrament of pennance before every communion ; and to support this imputation , it was said , that all of that cabale had set down this for a rule , by which they conducted their penitents , that they might come to the sacrament , when they found themselves out of the state of mortal sin , without going at every time to confession ; but i will not inlarge further upon the matters of doctrine or devotion , in which you may think that i have dwelt too long , for a man of my breeding and profession : and i should think so my self , if i were not consining my self exactly to the memorials and informations that i received at rome . you will see by the articles objected to the quietists , and censured by one of the inquisition , which i send you with this letter , what are all the other points that are laid to their charge . only i must advertise you of one thing , that their friends at rome say , that a great many of these articles are only the calumnies of their enemies , and that they are disowned by them : but that they have fastned these things on them , to render them odious , and to make them suffer with the less pitty : which is the putting in practice the same maximes which we object to their predecessors , who condemned the waldenses and albigenses of a great many errors of which they alwayes protested themselves innocent : yet the accusing them of those horrid opinions and practices , prevailed upon the simplicity and credulity of the age , to animate them with all the degrees of rage against a sect of men , that were set forth as monsters : the same maximes and politicks are still imputed , and perhaps not without reason to that severe court , which if you believe many has as little regard to justice as it has to mercy . some have carried their jealousies so far against the quietists , as to compare their maxims to those of socrates his school , and his followers after his death , when they saw what his freedom in speaking openly against the establisht religion had cost him : they resolved to comply with the received customs in their exteriour , and not to communicate their philosophy to the vulgar ; nor even to their disciples , till they had prepared them well to it , by training them long in the precepts of vertue , which they called the purgative state : and when men were well tried and exercised in this , then they communicated to them their sublimer secrets : the meaning of all which was , in short , that they would not discover their opinions in those points that were contrary to the received religion , and to the publick rites to any , but to those of whom they were well assured , that they would not betray them : and therefore they satisfied themselves with having true and just notions of things ; but they practised outwardly as the rabble did . they thought it was no great matter what opinions were entertained by them , and that none but men of noble and elevated tempers deserved that such sublime truths should be communicated to them , and that the herd of the vulgar neither were worthy nor capable of truth , which is too pure and too high a thing for such mean and base minds . the affinity of the matter makes me remember a conversation that i once had with one of the wittiest clergy-men of france , who is likewise esteemed one of the learnedst men in it ; he said , the world could not bear a religion calculated only for philosophers : the people did not know what it was to think ▪ and to govern themselves by the impressions that abstracted thoughts made on their minds : they must have outward things to strike upon their senses and imaginations , to amuse , to terrify and to excite them : so legends , dreadful stories and a pompous worship were necessary to make the impressions of religion go deep into such course souls : for a lancet , said he , can open a vein , but an axe must fell down a tree ; so he concluded , that the reformation had reduced the christian religion to such severe terms , that among us it was only a religion for philosophers : and since few were capable of that strength of thought : he concluded , that if the church of rome had perhaps too much of this exteriour pomp , those of the reformation had stript it too much , and had not left enough of garnishing , and of the bells and feathers for amusing the rable . the speculation seems pretty enough , if religion were to be considered only as a contrivance of ours , to be fitted by us to the tempers and humours of people ; and not as a body of divine truths , that are conveyed to us from heaven . thus was molinos's method censured or approved in rome , according to the different apprehensions and interests of those that made reflections upon it . but the iesuites finding they were not so omnipotent in this pontificate , as they have been formerly , resolved to carry their point another way . i need not tell you how great an ascendant f. la chaise has gained over that monarch , that has been so long the terrour of europe : and how much all the order is now in the interests of france . the zeal with which that king has been extirpating heresy , furnishes them with abundance of matter for high panegyricks ; since that which in the opinion of many will pass down to posterity , for the lasting reproach of a reign , which in its former parts has seemed to approach even to augustus's glory , but has received in this a stain , which with indifferent men passes for a blind , poor-spirited and furious bigottry , and is represented by protestants as a complication of as much treachery and cruelty as the world ever saw ; yet among the bigots it is set forth as the brightest side of that glorious reign : and therefore it has been often cited by them with relation to the cold correspondence that is observed to be between the courts of rome , and that at versailles , that nothing was more incongruous , than to see the head of the church dispute so obstinatly with its eldest son such a trifle , as the matter of the regale , and that with so much eagerness ; and that he shew'd so little regard to so great a monarch , that seemed to sacrifice all his own interests to those of his religion ▪ it is believed , that the iesuits at rome , proposed the matter of molinos to f. la chaise , as a fit reproach to be made to the pope , in that kings name , that while he himself was imploying all possible means to extirpate heresy out of his dominions . the pope was cherishing it in his own palace : and that while the pope pretended to such an unyielding zeal for the rights of the church , he was entertaining a person who was corrupting the doctrine , or at least the devotion , of that body , of which he had the honour to be the head. but here i must add a thing which comes very uneasily from me , and yet i cannot keep my word to you , of giving you a faithful account of all that i could learn of this matter at rome , without mentioning it . i do not pretend to affirm it is true , for i only tell you what is believed at rome , and not what i believe my self , nor what i would have you to believe ; for i know you have so high an esteem of cardinal d'estrees , that you will not easily believe any thing that is to his disadvantage . it is then said , that he being commanded by the orders that were sent him from the court of france , to prosecute molinos with all possible vigour , resolved to sacrifice his old friend , and all that is sacred in friendship , to the passion he has for his masters glory ; finding then that there was not matter enough for an accusation against moliuos , he resolved to supply that defect himself ; so that he , who was once as deep as any man alive in the whole secret of this affair , went and informed the inquisition of many particulars , for which tho there was no other evidence but his testimony , yet that was sufficient to raise a great storm against molinos ; and upon this delation , he and a few others of his friends were put in the inquisition ; but this was managed so secretly , that all that is pretended to be known concerning it , is , that upon a new prosecution both molinos and petrucci were brought before the inquisition in 1684. petrucci was soon absolved ; for there was so little objected to him , and he answered that with so much judgement and temper , that he was quickly dismissed ; and tho molinos's matter was longer in agitation , yet is was generally expected that he should have been acquitted . in conclusion , a correspondence held by him all europe over , was objected to him : but that could be no crime , unless the matter of that correspondence was criminal : some suspitions papers were found in his chamber , but as he himself explained them , nothing could be made out of them , till cardinal d'estrees delivered a letter and a message from the king of france to the pope , as was formerly mentioned : and that the cardinal added , that he himself could prove against molinos , more than was necessary to shew that he was guilty of heresy . the pope said not a word to this , but left the matter to the inquisitors ; and the cardinal went to them , and gave other senses of those doubtful passages , that were in molinos's books and papers , and pretended that he knew from himself , what his true meaning in them was . the cardinal owned , that he had lived with him in the appearances of friendship : but he said , he had early smelled out an ill dedesign in all that matter ; that he saw of what dangerous consequence it was like to be ; but yet , that he might fully discover what was at the bottom of it , he confessed , he seemed to assent to several things , which he detested : and that by this means he saw into their secret , and knew all the steps they made , he still cautiously observing all that past among them till it should be necessary for him to discover and crush this cabal . i need not tell you how severely this is censured , by those who belive it . i would rather hope , that it is not true , how positively soever it may be affirmed at rome ; but tho it is hard to reconcile such a way of proceeding with the common rules of human society and of vertue , yet at rome a zeal for the faith , and against heresie , supersedes all the bonds of morality or humainty , which are only the common vertues of heathens . in short , what truth soever may be in this particular , relating to the cardinal , it is certain that molinos was clapt up by the inquisition in may 1685. and so an end was put to all discourses relating to him : and in this silence the business of the quietists was laid to sleep , till the ninth of february 1687. that of a sudden it broke out again in a much more surprising manner . the count vespiniani and his lady , don paulo rocchi , confessor to the prince borghese , and some of his family , with several others , in all 70 persons , were clapt up . among whom many were highly esteemed both for their learning & piety . the things laid to the charge of the churchmen were their neglecting to say their breviary ; and for the rest , they were accused for their going to communion without a going at every time first to confession : and in a word , it was said , that they neglected all the exterior parts of their religion , and gave themselves up wholly to solitude and inward prayer . the countesse vespiniani made a great noise of this matter ; for she said , she had never revealed her method of devotion to any mortal , but to her confessor , and so it was not possible that it could come to their knowledge any other way , but by his betraying that secret : and she said , it was time for people to give over going to confession , if priests made this use of it , to discover those who trusted their secretest thoughts to them ; and therefore she said , that in all time coming , she would make her confessions only to god. this had got vent , and i heard it generally talked up and down rome : so the inquisitors thought it more fitting to dismiss her and her husband , than to give any occasion to lessen the credit of confession ; they were therefore let out of prison , but they were bound to appear whensoever they should be called upon . i cannot express to you , the consternation that appeared both in rome and in many other parts of italy , when in a months time about 200 persons were put in the inquisition : and that all of the sudden , a method of devotion , that had passed up and down italy for the highest elevation to which mortals could aspire , was found to be heretical , and that the chief promoters of it were shut up in prison . but the most surprising part of the whole story , was , that the pope himself came to be suspected as a favourer of this new heresy : so that on the 13th . of february some were deputed by the court of the inquisition to examin him , not in the quality of christs vicar , or st. peters successor , but in the single quality of benedict odescalchi : what passed in that audience , was too great a secret for me to be able to penetrate into it : but upon this there were many and strange discourses up and down rome : & while we hereticks were upon that asking , where was the popes infallibility ? i remember a very pretty answer that was made me . they said , the popes infallibility did not flow from any thing that was personal in him , but from the care that christ had of his church : for a pope , said one , may be a heretick as he is a private man : but christ , who said to st. peter , feed my sheep , will certainly so order matters that the pope shall never decree heresy , and by consequence shall never give the flock poyson instead of the bread of life ; while the popes heresy was only a personal thing , it could have no other effect but to damn himself : but if he decreed heresy , this corrupted the whole church : and since christ had committed all the flock to the popes care , it ought to be believed , that he would never suffer them to pronounce heresy ex cathedra , as they call it . this had some colour in it , that was plausible : but the shift of which another served himself , seemed intolerable . he said , the pope could never decree heresy : for which he argued thus : he must be a heretick before he can decree it ; and upon that he gave me many authorities to prove , that in the minute that the pope became a heretick , he fell ipso facto from his dignity ; and therefore he said , the pope could not decree heresy ; for he must have fallen from his chair , and have forfeited his authority , before he could possibly do it : so that he was no more pope . this lookt so like a juggle of the schools , that i confess it made no great impression on me . imagine what a thing it would be , to see a king accused of treason by one of his own courts ; and then you have fancied somewhat that comes near this attempt of the inquisition's : which being a court authorised by the pope , yet had the boldness to examin himself : and it had certainly been an odd piece of news , if upon the popes answers , the inquisition had stained him with the imputation of heresy , and had lodged him in the minerva . upon the discourse to which this gave occasion , i have heard the authority of the court of inquisition magnified to so extravagant a degree , that some have asserted , it was in some respects superiour even to the pope himself . two days after that , the inquisition sent a circular letter to card. cibo , as the chief minister , to be sent by him all about italy , of which i send you a copy in italian : for tho it ought to have been writ in latin , yet i do not know how it came to be writ in italian : for the writing it in the vulgar language , was censured not only as an indecent thing , but as that which made the matter more publick ; it was addressed to all prelats ; and it warns them , that wheras many schools and fraternities were formed in several parts of italy , in which some persons , under a pretence of leading people into the wayes of the spirit , and to the prayer of quietness , they instilled in them many abominable heresies ; therefore a stricte charge was given to dissolve all these societies : and to oblige all the spiritual guides to tread in the known paths : and in particular , to take care , that none of that sort should be suffered to have the direction of the nunneries , order was likewise given to proceed in the way of justice against those who should be found guilty of these abominable errors . after this a strict enquiry was made into all the nunneries of rome ; for most of their directors and confessours were found to be engaged into this new method . it was found that the carmelites , the nuns of the conception , of the palestrina , and albano , were wholly given up to prayer and contemplation , and that instead of their beads , and their hours , and the other devotions to saints , or images , they were much alone , and oft in the exercise of mental prayer : and when they were asked , why they had laid aside the use of their beads , and their antient forms ; their answer was , that their directors had advised them , to wean themselves from these things , as being but rude beginnings , and hindrances to their further progress : they justified also their practice from those books that had been lately published by the approbation of the inquisitors themselves , such as molinos and petrucci's books . when report was made of this matter to the inquisition , they sent orders to take out of the nuns hands all those boaks , and such forms of devotion as were written in that strain ; and they required them to return again to the use of their beads , and their other abandoned forms , which was no small mortification to them . the circular letter produced no great effects ; for most of the italian bishops were either extream unconcerned in all those matters , or were inclined to molinos's method : and whereas it was intended , that this as well as all the other orders that come from the inquisition , should he kept secret , yet it got abroad , and copies of it were in all peoples hands , so that this gave the romans the more occasion to discourse of these matters , which troubled the inquisitors extreamly , who love not to have the world look into their proceedings , nor to descant upon them : they blamed card. cibo , as if this matter was grown so publick by his means : but he on the other hand blamed the inquisitors for it , and his secretary blamed both . it was also said , that the pope was not pleased with card. cibo's conduct , and that he thought he had suffered this matter to go too far , without giving a check to the inquisitors , when it might have been more easily done ; wheras now matters are gone to that height , that many think they cannot end without some very great scandal . for the quality of the prisoners is considerable ; some of cardinal petrucci's domesticks , and both his secretary and his nephew were of the number ; and tho the cardinal himself came to rome soon after , yet he was there for some time incognito . it is generally believed , that both he and the cardinal caraffa , and cardinal ciceri , who is bishop of como , are in great apprehensions of a storm from the inquisition : and the ceremony of giving them their hats being so long delayed , was generally ascribed to some complaints that it seems the inquisitors made ; yet in conclusion they appeared in publick , and had there hats given them . the duke of ceri , don livio , that is the popes nephew , is believed to be deeply engaged in the matter : for the count vespiniani , who was first seised on , is his particular friend and favorite : and is a sort of a domestick of his . don livio himself is likewise a person of a melancholy temper , that is much retired ; and this at present is enough to make a man pass there for a quietist . he went from rome to a house he has not far from civitavecchia , to avoid , as was thought , the falling into the hands of the inquisitors . the pope writ oft for him , before he could prevail with him to return ; and it was said , that he did not think himself secure even after all the assurances that the pope gave him , that no harm should come to him ; for it might be justly enough apprehended , that the inquisitors , who had been so hardy as to examin the pope , would make no ceremony with his nephew , if they found matter against him . but among all that were clapt up , father appiani was the man that surprised the romans the most : he was seised on the first sunday of april ; he was esteemed the learnedest and eminentest iesuite that was in the whole roman colledge . this did not a little mortifie the society ; one of their fathers had approved of molinos's book , and now another was found to be engaged in this matter : upon which a priest , that was indeed no friend to their order , said to me , that this was their true genius , to have men among them of all sides ; that so which side soever prevailed , they might have some among them , that should have a considerable share in the honour of the victorious . and thus if molinos's method had been established , then they would have gloried as much in esparza and appiani , as they are now ashamed of them . it is likely that they had not discovered appiani's favouring the party , otherwise no doubt they had been before-hand with the inquisition , and had shut him up as they did esparza ; and so have covered themselves from the reproach of having a man that favoured heresy among them . but the confidence of that society is an original ; and since i have this occasion to mention them , i will here digress a little from the business of quietism , to give you account of some of their practices at rome , with relation to english affairs , with which i was made acquainted during my stay there . there is a iesuit belonging to the english house , f. cann , well known in england , by some of his writings , and in particular by one against the oath of allegeance , in which he pleads for the popes power of deposing princes ; it seems he was sorry to see that the discourse which he had writ against the taking that oath , had no better effect , and that the papists generally took it : so he resolved to carry this matter further , therefore tho he had no other character but that of a father of the society ; he proposed at rome , that a formal oath , abjuring the oath of allegeance , should be taken by all who had taken the other ; and that for all that should be received to be students in that house , in all time coming , they should be bound by an oath never to swear the oath of allegeance : since he said , a time might come , in which it should be necessary for their interests , that they should be under no such tie to a heretical prince : but because it was not safe for them to enjoin any new oath , without an order from the court of the rota , according to the forms there , it was necessary to present a memorial for this : and that ought to come from the protector of the nation concerned : so he ought to have addressed himself to cardinal howard ; but the cardinal's temper , and his principles , with relation to civil obedience , were so well known , that f. cann thought to carry the business without his having any share in it . yet he found himself mistaken ; for the iudges of the rota were surprised at the proposition ; and gave notice of it to the pope , who lookt upon it as a thing of very bad consequence : and askt cardinal howard , if it had been set on by any direction from him ; for it seems his name was made use of , tho without his knowledg . the cardinal was surprised at it , and highly resented the impudence of f. cann : he sent a complaint of it to the general of the society , who , to give the cardinal some content , gave cann a reprimand , and sent him out of rome : but the iesuites carry a grudge in their hearts to the cardinal for this , and other things : and this appeared very visibly during the earl of castlemain's embassay : for tho he lodged for some time in the cardinal's palace , yet he gave himself up so intirely to the conduct of the iesuites , that the cardinal was quite shut out of the councils : and while fa. morgan came at all hours to the ambassadour , even in his night gown and shippers , which was thought an unusual thing at rome , where publick persons live in an exactness of ceremony : once the cardinal was made to wait in the antichamber , while the father was within entertaining the ambassadour in this lasy dress , who coming out in it , the cardinal was so provoked at this indignity , that was done him , and at the iesuites insolence , that he threatned to sling him down stairs , if he ever presumed to come within his house again in that habit : and indeed , a cardinal makes so great a figure in rome , that such an usage of him was thought a little extraordinary , but the cardinal is of so mild a temper , and the iesuites are so violent , as to be reckoned the horns of the beast , that no wonder if a sympathy of temper made the ambassador fall in more naturally with them . but i will now return to the quietists , from whom , the particular regard that i hear to the order of the iesuites , has diverted me so long . the prisons of the holy office were full , and the terrour of this matter had struck so many , that no body could guess when or where it should stop . it is said , that the inquisitours have found in some of their examinations , that they have to do with men that are learneder than themselves : and that their prisoners are steady and resolute . it is also said , that their friends abroad have expressed a great concern for them , and for the cause of their sufferings , and that many letters have been writ to the inquisitors , wishing them to consider well what they do to their prisoners ; and assuring them , that they will maintain their interests : and that they are ready to seal them with their blood. it is certain , the pope and cardinal cibo are much troubled , to see that this matter is gone so far , and is now so much talked of . cardinal petrucci is still much in the popes favour , and was suffered not long ago to go visit molinos , with whom he had a long conversation all alone , but the subject and the effects of it are not known : yet a severe sentence is expected against molinos . those that speak the mildest , think he will be a prisoner for life : but a little time will shew more than i can presume to tell you . it is a terrible thing to have the whole body of the regulars against one , who according to the estimate that is made at rome , are about 500000. persons , and of that number it is said the iesuites make 40000. in the city of naples alone it is believed the regulars and other ecclesiasticks amount to 25000. so it is very likely , that when such bodies , and molinos are in the ballance , cajaphas's resolution may once more take place : it is expedient that one man should die , rather than that those nations of regulars should perish , or their trade and profits be lessned . but to come to an end , the inquisitors have prepared the world for any judgments that they may pass in this matter , by ordering one of their number , to draw up a censure of 19. articles , which he pretends to have collected out of the writings and doctrines of the quietists , and thus by representing them so odiously , they have as much as in them lies , prevented those compassions which may perhaps be kindled by the sufferings of those whom they may condemn as guilty of those censured opinions . i have now given you all the informations that i could pick up of this matter , with all possible sincerity ; for i have represented this business to you , just as it was set before my self , without making any additions to it , or interposing my poor judgment in such a matter , which i leave to you , and to such as you are . i conclude , referring you for a further light into this affair to the censure of the inquisitors , which i procured in italian , for tho probably it is written originally in latin , yet i could not get a copy of the latin censure , and so was forced to content my self with this that follows . it appears by it , how low the study both of divinity and of the scriptures is sunk at rome : some few strictures will be found on the margin of the english translation of this censur , which i have added , because some perhaps may desire to see this , who do not understand italian . the circular letter , that was sent about italy , by the order of the inquisition . emmo e rmo sig e mio ossmo essendo venuto à notitia di questa sacra congregatione , che in diversi luoghi d' italia si vadino poco à poco erigendo , e forse anche si siano erette certe scuole ò compagnie , fratellanze , ò radunanze , ó con altro nomi , ò nelle chiese , ò nelli oratorii , ò in case private à titolo di conferenze spirituali , ó siano di sole donne , ó di soli huomini , ò misti , nelle quali alcuni direttori spirituali inesperti della vera via dello spirito calcata da santi , e forse anche malitiosi sotto titolo d'instradare l'anime per l'oratione , che chiamano ▪ la la quiete , ò di pura fede interna , ó con altri nome , benche dal principio apparisca , che persuadino massime d'isquisita perfettione , ad ogni modo da certi principi● mal ' intesi , e peggio pratticati van●●o insensibilmente instillando nella mente de semplici diversi gravissimi errori , che poi abortiscono anco in aperte eresie , & abominevoli laidezze con discapito irreparabile di quelle anime , che per solo zelo di ben servire à dio si mettono in mano di simplice direttori , come pur troppo è noto esser sequito in qualche luogho . hannò perció questi miei em. signori colleghi generali inquisitori stimato opportuno di significare à v. e. con la presente ch● si fà circolare à tutti gll ordinarii d'italia ; acció si compiaccia d'invigilare sopra qualsivoglia nuove adunanze simili diverse dalle già pratticate & approvate ne luoghi cattolici , e trovandone de tali onninamente , le abolisca ; ne permetta in avenire che in modo alcuno ne vengano instituite , & insista , chei direttori spirituali caminino la strada battuta della perfettione christiana , senza affettare singolarità di vie di spirito , con avvertire sopra tutto , che nessuna persona sospetta di novità simili s'ingerisca à diriggere ne in voce , ne in scritto le monache , acciò che non entri ne ' monasterli quella peste , che pur troppo potrebbe contaminare la spiritual intentione di queste spose del signore . il che tutto si rimette alla prudenza dell ' e. v. con che però non s'intenda con quelle provisionali , che ella sarà per fare preclusa la via di procedere , anche per via di giustitia : quando si scoprissero in qualche persona ●ali errori non escusabili . in tanto si và quì digerendo la materia , per poter à suo tempo auvertire il christianesimo degli errori da evitarsi . e le bacio , 15. febrari , 1687. the circular letter , put in english most eminent , or most reverend lord : this holy congregation , having received advertisement , that there are some in divers places of italy , that by little and little are erecting , or perhaps that have already erected , some schools , companies , fraternities , or assemblies , under some other denomination , either in churches , chappels , or in private houses , under the pretence of spiritual conferences ; and these consisting either only of women , or only of men , or of both sexes together , in which some spiritual guides , that are unacquainted with the true way of the spirit , in which the saints have trod , and that are perhaps men of ill designs , do under the pretence of leading souls by the prayer of quietness , as they call it , or of pure inward faith , or under any other name , in which tho in the beginning that they carry men , by maxims that are of the highest perfection , yet at last they by certain principles , that are ill understood , and worse practised , do insensibly infuse into the minds of the simple , divers grievous errors , that do break out into open heresy , and to abominable practices , to the irreparable prejudice of those souls , who out of their single zeal to serve god well , put themselves in the hands of such simple directors , which is too notoriously known to have fallen out in some places . in consideration of all this , my most eminent lords and colleagues , the inquisitors general , have thought fit to signify this to you , by this circular letter , which is sent to all the ordinaries of italy , that so you may be pleased , to watch over all such new assemblies , that are different from those that are practised and approved in other catholick places : and that where you find any such , you abolish them entirely , and suffer them not to be any further advanced ; and that you take care that spiritual directors shall tread in the beaten paths of christian perfection , without affecting any singularity in the wayes of the spirit : and that above all other things , you take care , that no person suspected of these novelties , be suffered to thrust himself into the direction of nunneries , either by word or writing : that so this pest may not enter within those houses ; which may too much corrupt the spiritual intention of those spouses of christ. all this is referred to your prudence : but with all this provisional care , it is not to be understood as if hereby the proceedings in the way of justice , were to be hindred , in case any persons are found to hold inexcusable errors . in the mean while , care is taken so to digest this matter , that christendom may be in due time advertised of those errors that are to be avoided . rome the 15. of february , 1687. the censure of the opinions of the quietists , prepared for the inquisition . errori principali di quelli , che esercitano l'oratione di quiete , co ' le risposte . i. la contemplatione , o vero oratione di quiete consiste in constituirsi alla presenza di dio , con un atto di fede oscura , pura , & amorosa , e dipoi senza passar più avanti , e senza ammettere discorso , specie , ò pensiero alcuno , starsene cosi otioso ; par esser contrario alla riverenza dovuta à dio il replicare quel purissimo atto , il quale però è di tanto merito , e vigore , che contiene in se , anzi supera con gran vantaggio tutti insieme li meriti delle altre virtù , e persevera tutt ' il tempo della vita , mentre non si ritratti con un atto contrario : onde non è necessario reiterarlo , e replicarlo . censura e ris posta . niun ' atto di fede ci constituisse presenti à dio , il quale è dentro à noi per indispensabile necessità della ●ua immensit à , e però spesso dicevano elia , michea , & altri proseti : vivit deus in cujus conspectusto . e con agostino dicono i teologi : in deo vivimus , movemur , & sumus . dunque l'atto di fede , perche suppone l'estere della creatura , suppone questa già prima nella presenza di dio , e solamente sará rassegnatione di spirito nelle braccie della divinitá . intorno à questa all' hora sará contemplatione , quando l'anima contemplarà , e non sarà otiosa , doppo il primo atto di fede oscura , pura , & amorosa . e poifalfità evidente il dire , che non sono necessarii altri buoni atti . l'atto buono , per es●er finito , è migliorabile , per mezzo della continuatione di simili atti . ne ' la moltiplicatione di atti virtuosi e'contrario alla riverenza dovuta à dio , perche iddio non si tedia , ò impedisce , essendo libero da'ogni passione , & in tanto non conviene replicare atti riverentiali a' maggiori del mondo , in quanto , che questi , secondo che porta l'esperienza , sono alterabili , impedibili , ó tediabili della vista di simili atti frequentati . l'atto dunque in se stesso buono , moltiplicato sarà un buono maggiore , e però da ' dio approvato , a più rimunerabile , che un ' atto solo . nella contemplatione poi si stà in atto di operare , e non ostinatamente sopra l'attopassato , essendo il contemplare l'operare mentalmente , ancorche altro anco vi si richieda . ii. senza la contemplatione , per mezzo della meditatione non può darsi un passo nella perfettione . r responso per meditarsi dal christiano precisamente la passione di christo , si riflette , che per amor dell ' huomo tanto pati un dio , unde può risolvarsi à riamarlo , e volerlo obedire in che commanda , e mettere in prattica ( con la gratia di dio , che sempre è in noi ) tal santa deliberatione . dunque permezzo della meditatione può bene incaminarsi l'anima alla perfettione . anni senza contemplare , e senza meditare , purche s'opri secondo li leggi , con l'ajuto di dio fi puo ogn ' uno salvare ; non si salva poi chi non è perfetto , & amico di dio. dunque è falsissima l'opinione contenuta nel secondo capo . iii. la scienza , e dottrina anche teologica , e sacra , è d'impedimento , e repugnanza alla contemplatione , della quale non possono dar giuditio gli huomini dotti , mà solo li meditativi , e contemplativi . r responso la dottrina teologica notifica stabili in noi l'oggetto della contemplatione , che dicono i quietisti esser la divina essenza . dunque in noi è compinibile con la contemplatione , alla quale se la teologia repugnasse l'istesso sarebbe esser contemplativo , e nulla saper d'iddio teologalmente , e cosi agostino , e gli altri santi dottori , e luminari della chiesa , perche erano scientifici , si doverebbero incapaci esser stati della contemplatione . il che è falso , imperoche dio , che institui il sacerdotio , come ministero il più degno , non v'è ragione , che habbia voluto i sacerdoti , ma' che non fossero contemplativi , già che volse col sacerdotio unita la scienza , mentre nella sacra scrittura minaccio per osea profetta à chi disprezzatore della scienza esercitava il sacerdotio . tu repulisti scientiam , & ego repellam te , ne sacerdotio fungaris mihi . e tralascio altre scritture , e raggioni , perche mi viene incaricata la breuità . in quanto poi al che si dice in questo 3. cap. che della contemplatione non possono dar giuditio li dotti , si vede apertamente , che l'ignoranza di questi spiritelli senza intelligenza hà una temerità di non volar soggiacere all' emenda , per mezzo dell ' infallibile sentimento de' scientifici . iv. non può darsi perfetta contemplatione , se non circa la sola divinità . i misteri dell ' incarnanatione , vita , e passione del nostro salvatore non sono oggetto di contemplatione , anzi l'impediscono , onde devono dà contemplativi tenersi lontani ; ò solo considerarsi spregiatamente . r responso se la contemplatione è un affettione dell ' intelletto , e della volontà con l'ogetto , mediante la gratia di dio , in un raccoglimento di spirito , potrà la vita di christo contemplarsi , perche à quella il christiano può farsi presente in spirito , & affettive con atto di fede , & amore. aggiongo che se christo venne à piantar paradisi in terra per commissione dell ' eterno padre , come disse il profeta isaia , posui verbum meum in ore tuo , ut plantos coelos , & fundes terram . dove la parafrase caldea cosi legge : ut plantes coelos in terra : come dire ( si come l'intese girolamo ) che piantasse le contentezze negli huomini disgratiati per il peccato originale : e se i contemplationi si portano sopra se stessi alla consolationi divine nella loro contemplativi , perche si deve disprezzare , e tener lontano christo , che è l'immediato datore ? christo non impedisce l'atto del contemplatione se ve●ne à compartirci perfettioni , e contenti spirituali , che sono il fine de' contemplativi . v. le penitenze corporali , l'austerità della vita non convengono alli contemplativi , anzi meglio si comincia la conversione dalla vita contemplativa , che dalla purgativa , e dalle penitenze . ancora gli effetti della divotione sensioile , la tenerezza del cuore , le lagrime , e consolationi spirituali si devono fuggire , anzi dispreggiare da ' contemplativi , come cose repugnanti alla contemplatione . r. responso le mortificationi dispongono lo spirito , acciò viva sopra le motioni del senso , e perciò tutti i santi cominciarono à viaggiare verso la perfettione con discipline , digiuni , &c. dunque se i contemplativi hanno per fine anco la perfettione , ben li convengono le penitenze , perche più spedito si renda alla contemplatione , chi più tiene domate le alterationi del senso . e se dio promette nelle scritture pardonar al peccatore piante , che saranno dà lui le colpe , mà in nessun luogo del vecchio , ò nuovo testamento , per essersi posto nella contemplatione . dunque meglio si comincia la conversione dalla vita purgativa , e dalle penitenze , che dalla contemplatione . vi. la vera contemplatione deve fermarsi nella pura essenza d'iddio , spogliata delle persone , e degli attributi , e l'atto di fede di dio cosi concepito , è più perfetto , e meritorio di quello , che riguarda dio con le persone , & attributi . r. responso le persone divine , egli adorabili attributi di dio hanno la raggione formale d'esser oggetti di fede , ed'amore nel racoglimento delle nostre potenze , e nella rassegnatione dello spirito , perche sono verità rivelate , e come predicati divini suoni buoni in se stessi , & alle creature . donde può darsene vera contemplatione . che poi l'atto di fede di dio senza le persone , & attributi concepito sia più perfetto , e meritorio di quello , che riguarda dio con le persone , & attributi è falsità . perche se già il credere che dio sia trino , e sia giusto è atto di fede perfetto , e meritorio , e credere dio vero nell ' essenza anco è atto meritorio e perfetto , sarà l'atto con cui si crede dio vero erino , e giusto , più perfetto , e meritorio d'un altro atto , con cui solamente si crede uno nell ' essenza , perche si merita più per due atti dell ' istessa virtù , che per un solo di questi . ( havendoci dio communicate le virtù supranaturali non per sar un atto solo virtuoso , mà per avanzarsi col ' esercitio ●li tali doni ) un ' atto di fede , che equivale 〈◊〉 due è più meritorio , e perfetto di un solo atto delli due : onde ben si conclude contra la prima propositione di questo 6. cap. che la vera , e perfetta contemplatione per essere megliore deve fermarsi nella pura essenza di dio , mà questa nella persone , e negli attributi . vii . nella contemplatione s'unisee l'anima immediatamente con dio , onde non vi si richiedè fantasmi , ò imagini , ò specie di sorte alcuna . r. responso nella contemplatione ancorche in un certo modo s'unisca l'anima immediatamente con dio , cio è effettiye , perche vi concorre l'intelletto a mirar dio semplicemente , però si richiede qualche specie per sollicitare l'intellettuale habilità naturale à portarsi nella consideratione di dio , servendo la specie per oggetto mottivo all' intelletto . viii . tutti i contemplativi nell ' atto della contemplatione patiscono pene , & angoscie si gravi , che pareggiano , anzi superano , li tormenti dell● istessi martiri . r. responso se ( come dicono i quietisti nel primo capo ) la contemplatione consiste nel farsi presente à dio con un atto di fede amorosa , e poi starsene in otio , non è formalmente essere tormentato , e patire pene più delli martiri . e quantunque ad alcuno spesso succeda nella contemplatione angoscie , e dolori , ciò proviene da ' altra causa ò dal demonio , permettendolo dio , ò da ' fiachezza di natura , che consuma il corpo , ò da ' motivi di malenconia , ò da ' soverchio sangue , che sormontato alla testa caggiona dolore . mà moltissimi altri si sono visti nell ' atto della contemplatione , circondati di luce con fronte serena , é bocca ridente , come francesco di paola fu osservato dà luiggi xi . ré di francia , e finita la contemplatione restar tutti inondati di allegrezza , perche in quella vennero à vista ( semplicemente ben si ) li sposi , per restar concertato il matrimonio frà dio e l'anima . ix . nel sagrificio della messa , e nelle feste de' santi , è meglio applicarsi all' atto di pura fede , e contemplatione , che alli misteri di esso sacrificio , ò à considerare le attioni , ele cose aptenenti alli medesimi santi . r. responso vive ingannato chi giudica entrare nella contemplatione senza buona dispositione dell ' anima ; e perche la consideratione delli mister● della messa , e dell'esempio de' santi è preparamento spirituale , ancorche remoto , perciò stimarsi deve meglio , prima applicarsi il christiano alla consideratione de i misteri della messa , e delle attioni de' santi , e poscia darsi alla contemplatione con più adobbo nell ' anima . x. la lettione spirituale de' libri , le prediche , l'orationi vocali , l'invocationi de'santi , e cose simili , sono d'impedimento alla contemplatione , overo oratione di quiete , alla quale non si deve premettere preparatione alcuna . r. responso se in ogni professione , e ' maggiormente in quella della vera , e non fintionata spiritualità : nemo repente sit summus , come l'esperienza dimostra , perche è ordine della nostra fiacca natura , co ' cui si và accommodando la gratia per il nostro camino all' ultimo termine dell ' eternità , che à facilioribus sit incipiendum ; che perciò è grand ' ignoranza , e presontione entrare nell ' oratione di quiete , prima d'altri esercitii , e senza preparatione . chi cosi entra , uscirà ancora senz ' aleun profitto . xi . il sacramento della penitenza , avanti la communione non è per l'anime interiori , e contemplative , mà per l'esteriori , e meditative . r. i contemplativi hanno solamente un ' anima che è può meditare , e può contemplare , & anco può star in peccato . dunque il sacramento della penitenza prima della s. communione , è necessario all' anime contemplative . xii . la meditatione non riguarda dio col lume della fede , mà con il lume naturale in spirito e verità , e però non hà merito appresso dio. r. responso se la meditatione non fosse meritoria appresso dio , ( saltem aliqualiter de congruo ) no' sarebbe cosi famigliare alle religioni , dove furono , e sono grand ' huomini fanali della s. c. r. ne sarebbe incaricata da ' ss . patriarchi , e da ' sommi pontefici rimunerata con indulgenze plenarie , come esercitio spirituale , proportionato alli amici di dio , & à quelli , che abandonano le fallacie del mondo . di dio , come si può conoscere l'esistenza col lume naturale , e con la fede sopranaturale , cosi può darsi meditatione che lo riguardi naturalmente , e meditatione che lo riguardi con fede pura , e sopranaturale . xiii . l'imagini non solo interne , e mentali , mà anco l'esterne solite venerarsi da ' fedeli , come sono quelle di christo , e de' suoi santi , sono dannose a' contemplativi , onde devono fuggirsi , e toglier via , accio non impediscano la contemplatione . r. responso quanto decretò , e decretarà la s. madre chiesa , à cui presiede direttore lo spirito santo tutto giovevole all' vassallaggio di christo ; però se a' fedeli la chiesa ordina l'adorationi delle ss . immagini , non devono queste s●uggirsi , ò toglier via , come nocive alla contemplatione : nulladimeno alcuni sguardi alla sfuggita verso dette immagini non sono valevoli à far perdere la contemplatione , overo oratione di quiete al contemplativo , quale se in ogni caso la perde , proviene dalla sua troppa imbecillità , e per altro poi e più ampia l'anima raggionevole ; e maggine la gratia , che l'assiste di quello che suppone queste 13. cap. anzi la moderata consideratione di dette imagini serve à formar nell ' anima l'interno racoglimento , perche il contemplativo si faccia regolare dalla gratia. xiv . chi una volta si è applicato alla contemplatione non deve piu ritornare alla meditatione , perche sarebbe un passare dal meglio al peggio . r. responso e vero che è cosa mala passare dal meglio al peggio , mà spesso conviene non possedendo attualmente it meglio incaminarsi à posseder il buono . e vero ancora , che essendo pontualmente nella contemplatione , non si deve lacciar questa à fine di mettarsi nella meditatione . ancorche la contemplatione sia migliore , non ritrovandosi il christiano attualmente nella contemplatione , non opera inconvenientemente applicandosi à meditare , perche conviene , che per ogni via , che dio si può mirare dall ' anima , sia da questa riverentemente essequiata . xv. se nel tempo della contemplatione vengono pensieribrutti , & osceni , non si deve usar diligenza alcuna in scacicarli , no' riccorrer ad alcu uno buon pensiero , mà compiacersi di essere da ' quelli molestato . r. responso per non perdersi l'unione effettiva con dio , che nella formale contemplatione si trova , è atto di prudenza toglier via l'occasione , come è atto di scioperaggine il trattenersi con compiacenza , perche come dice s. tomaso d'aquino , qui vult causam , ex quanecessariò , vel regulariter sequitur affectus , vult virtualiter effectum , e lo spirito santo . qui amat periculum peribit in illo . dunque sentendo in noi la rebellione del senso nella contemplatione , ancorche fidati in noi stessi , dobbiamo usar ogni diligenza per superarla . dovemo però raccommandarci alla divinità , e chieder la sua gratia , per tranquillare i mali pensieri , diffondere le sue gioie nell ' anima , incalmare i sensi alterati , & ut sint aspera in vias planas . xvi . niun ' atto ò affetto nostro interno , benche formato per mezzo della fede , e puro , ne piace a' dio , perche nasce dall ' amor proprio , mentre non vi sia infuso dallo spirito santo , sensa nostra industria , e diligenza alcuna , onde quelli , che stanno nella contemplatione ò in oratione d'affetti , devono stare otiosi , ò aspettando l'influsso dello spirito santo . r. responso a dio solamente piacciono i' suoi doni , mà tutte quelle nostre operationi , che da ' noi si fanno con la sua santa gratia. quindi tanto pier , profetta sara ' la contemplatione , quanto meno sarà otiosa , purche il contemplatore non si lasci da ' qualche sensibile trasportare , preche perderia la contemplatione , e gli succederabbe come alla moglie di loth , che per mirar indietro perse il camino . e poi temerità aspettarè in otiosità l'influsso miracosa ' dallo spirito santo , perche a' quei , che sono nell ' oratione di quiete non si deve il camino passivo , mentre non hanno condegnità sopra i doni della spirito santo . bensi succede alle volte che lo spirito penetri l' anima di chi stà nell ' oratione d'affetti , mà per gratia particolare . aggiongo contro la prima propositione di questo 16. capo . li quietisti dicono nel 12. capo che la meditatione non hà merito appresso dio , perche non lo riguarda col lume della fede , dunque l'atto formato per mezzo della fede hà merito appresso dio , dunque è puro , e gli piace . xvii . quelli che stanno nell ' atto della contemplatione , ò dell ' oratione di quiete , ò siano persone religiose , ò figli di famiglia , ò altri , che vivono sotto l'altrui commando , non devono in quel tempo obedire & eseguire gli ordini della regola , ò de' superiori , per non interrompere la contemplatione . r. responso la contemplatione ancorche sia in noi di gran perfettione , perche non ci viene commandata da ' dio , interrompendosi non si pecca , mà essendoci commandata da ' dio l'obedienza a' genitori , & à superiori , si deve obedire a' questi , anco con ●lasciare l'attual contemplatione , perche in riguardo dell ' ordine divino l'obedienza è preferibile nella prattica , ancorche la contemplatione sia molto più considerabile nella sua perfettione objettiva . xviii . devono i contemplativi esser totalmente spogliati dell ' affetto di tutte le cose , che rigettino a' se , e dispreggino li doni , e favori di dio , e si disaffettionino dell ' istessa virtù , ò per maggiormente spogliarsi d'ogni cosa , e viver meglio a'●se medisimi , fare ancora quello , che ripugno alla modestia , & all' honestà , purche non sia espressamente contro liprecetti del decalogo . r. responso iddio favorisce i contemplativi con la communicatione de' suoi boni , non per essere questi disprezzati , mà per abbellirgli l'anima , e fortificargli l'habilità naturale all' esercitio della virtù . dvnque ancorche i contemplativi non se ne debbano insuperbire , devono sopramodo stimarli , ò servirsene con humiltà di spirito : e se dio vuole l'honestà come buona , sono in obligo anche i contemplativi esser honesti , perche iddio non hà fatto decreto , che privilegiasse i contemplativi à non esser sogetti alla raggione , su là quale si fonde la modestia , e l' honestà della vita . xix . li contemplativi sono sogetti alle violenze , per le quali restano privi dell ' uso del libero arbitrio , si che se anco bene gravissimamente peccano esteriormente , nondimeno interiormente non fanno peccato alcuno ; onde ne anco devono confessarsi di ció , che hanno fatto . ciò si prova con l'esempio di giob , il quale con tutto che non solo ingiuriasse il prossimo , mà anco bestemmiasse empiamente dio , in ogni modo non peccava , perche tutto questo faceva per violenza del demonio . e per dar giuditio di queste violenze , non serve la teologia scolastica , e morale , mà è necessario spirito sopranaturale , il quale in pocchissimi si trova , & in questi s'hà dà giudicare non l'interno dall ' esterno , mà l'esterno dall ' interno . r. responso che in questo cap. 19. non solamente latet anguis sub herha , mà apertamente si vede , che sotto nome di contemplativi spirituali , vogliono i quietisti essere debacanti sensuali . l'esempio , che adducono di giob ben dimostra che no' hanno intelligenza della scrittura . mai giob peccò esteriormente nè contro il prossimo , nè contro dio , quando parlò nel cap. 19. nel 6. vorso , come ben dimonstra , anco per mezzo del senso litterale pineda tom . 11. sopra giob c. 35. nè peccò contro il prossimo , come nell ' istesso può vedersi , sempre fondata su la dottrina de' ss , padri , che delle scritture , e insegnano il vero senso . e per dirla in poche parole con altre raggioni , la gratia con la quale iddio sempre ci assiste , unita con la nostra cooperatione può superare ogni assalto nemico . e christo lo disse à t●tti in persona di s. paolo : sufficit tibi gratia mea . dunque il contemplativo non e violentabile de venghi necessitato al peccato este●iori , &c. the principal errors . of those who practise , the prayer of quietness , censured and refuted . i. error . contemplation , or the prayer of inward quietness , consists in this , that a man puts ●imself in the presence of god , by forming an ●bscure act of faith , full of love , tho simple , and stops there , without going further : and without suffering any reasoning , the images of any things , or any object whatsoever to ●nter into his mind : and so remains fixed and ●nmoveable , in his act of faith : it being a ●ant in that reverence that is due to god , ●o redouble this simple act of his : which is a ●hing of so much merit , and of so great force , ●hat it comprehends within it self , and far ex●eeds the merit of all other vertues , joyned ●ogether : and it lasts the whole course of a mans life , if it is not discontinued by some other act , that is contrary to it ; therefore it is not necessary to repeat or redouble it . the censure and refutation . it is not an act of faith that puts us in the presence of god : for he is within us by a necessary effect of the immensity of his nature : therefore elias , micaiah , and the other prophets said , vivit deus in cujus conspecto sto . the lord lives in whose presence i stand : and it is upon the same reason that the divines have said after s. austin , in deo vivimus movemur & sumus ; in god we live , we move , and have our being : so that an act of faith , that presupposes that the agent is in being , supposes likewise that it is in the presence of god ; & is indeed nothing else but a resignation that the creature makes of it self to god. therefore contemplation , even during that first obscure act of faith , that i● simple and full of love , is carried on by the soul while she looks at god , and not at all while she continues in an unmoveable state . it is then an evident falsehood to say , that other good actions are not at all necessary : any good act being of its nature finite , may become alwayes better , by being often reiterated , and the multiplying the acts of vertue cannot be contrary to the reverence that is due to god , who being exempt from all passion , can never be troubled or wearied with importunities , as great men are apt to be , who as experience teaches , are often changed , disturbed , and become uneasy , when the same things are too often repeated to them . but with relation to god , when an act is in it self good , the repeating it is a progress in good ; which is approved of god , and becomes more meritorious in his sight . therefore the soul in contemplating , continues her acts , and does not stick obstinatly to one single act , contemplation being still an operation of the mind , tho other things are likewise necessary . ii. error . one cannot make one step towards perfection by meditation , that being to be obtained entirely by contemplation . refutation . a christian by meditating seriously on the passion of christ , and teflecting on that love that made a god suffer so much for mankind , may upon that resolve to love him again , and to obey all his commands : and he may by the grace of god which is ever present to us , put those good purposes in execution : so that the soul may well advance towards perfection by meditation : it may be also done without meditation : for every one that lives according to the laws of god , may work out his own salvation by the help of god. now since no man can be saved but he that is perfect , and a friend of god's , then this article is most certainly false . iii. error . all study and learning , even in sacred matters and in divinity , is a hindrance to contemplation : of which learned men are not able to make a true judgment , that being only to be expected from those that are given to meditation and contemplation . refutation . the study of divinity makes known to us the object of contemplation : which as the quietists say , is the divine essence : therfore it consists well with contemplation : and if the study of divinity were opposit to this , then the ignorance of it is necessary to make a man contemplative : and thus since s. austin and all the other holy doctors and lights of the church , were men learned in this study , they must be looked on as men that were incapable of rising up to contemplation : which is false : because god , who has appointed the priesthood as the highest degree of service done him , cannot be supposed to have intended that the priests should not be contemplative persons ; and it is plain , that god will have his priests to be knowing : since in the scriptures he threatens by hosea the prophet such as despised knowledg , and yet were in the priesthood . turepulisti scientiam & egorcpellam te ne sacerdotio fungaris . thou hast rejected knowledg , and therefore i have rejected thee from the priesthood . i pass over other arguments from scripture and reason , because i am ordered to be short : and as for what is said in this article , that the learned cannot iudge of contemplation , it shewes plainly , that the ignorance of those spiritualists carries them to this boldness , of not being willing to submit to that correction , which they might expect from that infallible mean of the judgment of the learned . iv. error . there is no contemplation that is perfect , but that which regards god himself ; the mysteries of the incarnation , and of the life and passion of our saviour , are not the objects of contemplation : on the contrary , they hinder it : so that contemplative persons must avoid them at a great distance , and think of them only with contempt . refutation . if contemplation is an affection that is raised in the understanding or the will by its proper object by the help of the grace of god , and that consists in an inward recollection of the mind , then the life of christ is a proper object for it , since a christian can present this to his thoughts , and raise upon it an act of faith and love . besides , christ came by a commission from his eternal father to plant paradise here on earth , according to that of the prophet isaias , posui verbum meum in ore tuo ut plantes coelos & fundes terram ; i have put my word in thy mouth that thou may plant the heavens and establish the earth ; or as the chaldee paraphrase hath it , ut plantes coelos in terra , that thou may plant the heavens in the earth ; as if he had said ( as s. ierome understood the words ) that thou may plant true joy in those minds , that were debased by original sin ; and how can it be imagined , that contemplative persons can rise above themselves in their contemplations to tast of divine joy's , if they must keep at such a distance from jesus christ , who is the immediat giver of them ; and despise him ? christ is so far from hindring of contemplation , that he came into the world to distribute all those perfections and spiritual joys to which the contemplative aspire . v. error . corporal penitences and austerities do not belong to contemplative persons : on the contrary , it is better to begin ones conversion by a state of contemplation , than by a state of purgation or of pennance ; and contemplative persons ought to avoid and despise all the effects of sensible devotion , such as tenderness of heart , tears , and spiritual consolations , all which are contrary to contemplation . refutation . mortifications dispose the spirit to rise above the motions of sense ; and therefore it is that all the saints have begun their course towards perfection with fasting and discipline . and therefore if these contemplatives design perfection , they must practice pennance : since nothing renders a man so fit for contemplation , as to rise above all the disorders of sense . god in the sciptures promises to forgive the mourning sinner ; but this is not promised to the contemplative in any place either of the old or new testament . therefore it is better to begin ones conversion with purgative exercises and pennances , than with contemplation . vi. error . true contemplation must keep it self fixed only to the essence of god , without reflecting either on his persons or his attributes . and an act of faith thus conceived , is more perfect and meritorious than that which considers god with the divine attributes , or with the persons of the trinity in it . refutation . the persons of the trinity , and the attributes of god , are the proper objects of faith and love , while we recollect all the powers of our souls , and resign our selves to god : for as these are divine truths , that are revealed to us , so the attributes of god are both good in themselves , and good to us , so that they are proper to raise in us a true contemplation . it is also false , that an act of faith , that has god for its object , without considering his attributes , or the persons of the trinity , is more perfect than that which regards god in conjunction with them . for if to believe that god is one , and that he is just , is a perfect and a meritorious act of faith , and to believe that god is true in his nature is also a perfect and meritorious act ; then the act by which god is believed to be true , just and three in one , is a more perfect and a more meritorious act , than that in which he was considered only as one in essence . because a man merits more by two acts of the same vertue than by a single one only : for god has communicated supernatural helps to us , not only for doing one act of vertue , but that we may make an advance in such acts. therefore one act of faith , that is equivalent to two others , is more meritorious and perfect than any one of these two . therefore we may justly conclude against the first branch of this article , that true and perfect contemplation raised to its highest pitch , must not only regard god in his essence , but likewise in his persons and attributes . vii . error . the soul becomes immediatly united to god in contemplation ; so that there is no need of phantasms , images , or any sort of representation . refutation . tho it is true , that the soul in some sort unites her self immediately to god in contemplation , that is , by a union of affections ; for the understanding beholds god simply , yet some ideas are necessary for exciting the natural force of the understanding , and to carry it to look at god : which idea is a sort of object that moves the understanding . viii . error . all contemplative persons suffer in the act of contemplation such grievous torments , they seem to surpass even the sufferings of the martyrs themselves . refutation . if contemplation consists ( as the quietists pretend it does ) in this , that the soul puts her self in the presence of god , by an act of faith , full of love , and after that continues idle : this is not the being formally tormented , or the enduring more than the martyrs suffered : and tho it is true in some sort , that pains and miseries come after contemplation , this flows either from the devil , to whom upon that occasion god gives leave to try those persons , or from some weakness in nature , that oppresses the body , from melancholy , or an abundance of blood , that raises headaches , or from some other unknown cause . but many others have appeared to be in the very act of contemplation , as it were environed with light , and have looked with a serene , and sometimes with a smiling countenance ; which lewis the xi . of france observed in francis a paula ; and they have been as it were overflown with joy , when the contemplation was over ; having been admitted in it , to see their bridegroom in that simple act , in which there passes as it were a marriage between god and the soul. ix . error . during the sacrifice of the mass , and on the festivals of the saints , it is better to apply ones self to an act of pure faith , and to contemplation , than to the mysteries of that sacrifice , or to consider the lives of those saints . refutation . he is much deceived , who thinks to arrive at contemplation without a due disposition of soul for it : and therefore the consideration of the mysteries of the mass , and of the examples that the saints have set us , is a spiritual preparation for it , tho it may be only a remote one : therefore a christian ought to set himself first to consider the mysteries of the mass , and the lives of the saints , and then apply himself to contemplation , having prepared his soul duly for it . x. error . the reading of spiritual books , sermons , vocal prayer , the invocation of saints , and all such things , are hindrances to contemplation , which is only attained by the prayer of quietness , to which it is not necessary to premise any preparation whatsoever . refutation . if in every profession , but chiefly in a true and unfainedly spiritual temper , that maxim holds good , nemo repente sit summas , no man attains to the height all of the sudden , which daily experience demonstrates , then it is but suteable to the feebleness of our nature , to which the divine grace accommodates it self , that in our journey towards that heighth of eternity , as facilioribus sit incipiendum , we must begin with those things that are easier ; therefore it is great ignorance or presumption to enter into the prayer of quietness before other exercises , and without due preparation . and he who begins his course thus , will end it without any fruit . xi . error . the sacrament of pennance before communion , is not for contemplative souls , that live in this inward state ; but only for those that are in the exteriour and meditative state . refutation . these contemplative persons have but one soul , which at some times meditates , and at other times contemplates : and that may come to be in a state of sin . therefore the sacrament of pennance is necessary even for those contemplative souls , before they go to communion . xii . error . meditation does not look at god with the light of faith , but only in a natural light , in spirit and in truth : and therefore it is not meritorious before god. refutation . if meditation were not in some sort at least in the way of congruity , meritorious before god ; it could not be so much practised in all religious orders , from whence there have come , and daily there does come , so many of the shining-lights of the holy roman church : nor would it have been set on so much by their holy patriarchs , nor rewarded by the popes with plenary indulgences , as a spiritual exercise suteable to the friends of god ; and to those who had abandoned the snares of this present world. but as one may know the existence of god by the light of nature , as well as by a supernatural faith , so likewise some meditations look at god , only with the light of nature ; and others are acts of a supernatural faith. xiii . error . not only inward and mental images , but those outward ones which are worshipped by the faithful , such as the images of christ and of his saints , are hurtfull to contemplative persons , and they ought to be avoided and removed , that so they may not hinder contemplation . refutation . all things are useful to the service of christ , that either is decreed , or that may be decreed by the holy mother church : in all whose consultations the holy ghost presides and directs them . therefore if the church appoints the adoration of images , none of the faithful ought to avoid them , or remove them as hurtful to contemplation , and some secret looks towards these images , is no way likely to make a man fall from the heighth of contemplation ; or the prayer of quietness ; from which if he falls at any time , it flows from his own great instability , since the reasonable soul is a nobler being , and the grace that it receives , is of a higher nature , than is supposed in this article . therefore a moderate regard to images will serve to confirm the soul in her inward recollection , if a contemplative man regulates this by the help of the grace of god. xiv . error . he that has once applyed himself to contemplation , must never return to meditation ; for this were to fall from a better state to a worse . refutation . it is true , that it is an ill thing to go from better to worse ; but it is oft times good for a man , that cannot attain to that which is better , to content himself with that which is good . it is also true , that while a man is in contemplation , he ought not to let that go that he may turn himself to meditation . yet tho contemplation is still the better state , when a christian is not actually in contemplation , it is not inconvenient for him to apply himself to meditation : because the soul ought to follow god with all due reverence , in all those ways in which he may lead her . xv. error . if foul and impure thoughts come into the mind while one is in contemplation , he ought to take no care to drive them away : nor to turn himself to any good thoughts , but to have a complacence in the trouble that he suffers from them . refutation . it is a piece of prudence in a man who being in contemplation , would not lose that union by which he is united to god , to avoid every thing that may occasion it ; as on the contrary , it is a strong piece of neglect to entertain that with complacence which must make one lose it , as st. thomas of aquin says , he that loves the cause from which any effect follows , either naturally , or at least commonly , does vertually love the effect it self : and the holy ghost says , he that loves danger , shall perish in it . therefore a man who being in contemplation , feels the rebellion of the sensible part , he ought to use all diligence to overcome in whatsoever a state he may be in . he ought therefore to recommend it to god , and to implore his grace to quie● all those evil thoughts : that so his joy being spread abroad in the soul , all the disorderly motions of sense may be calmed , & ut sine aspera in vias planas , that what is rough may be made smooth . xvi . error . no inward action or affection , tho formed by the vertue of faith , is pure or pleasing to god : because it rises out of self-love , unless it is unfused in us by the holy ghost , without any industry or diligence used by us : therefore they that are in the state of contemplation or of prayer , or inward affections , ought to continue in a state of suspence , waiting for the miraculous influence of the h. ghost . refutation . god is not only pleased with all his own gifts , that are in us , but with every thing that is done by us , with the help of his grace : therefore our contemplation will be so much the more perfect , the less inactive we our selves are : provided that the contemplative person does not suffer himself to be carried away by any sensible object ; for by that he would fall from that state , and become as lot's wife , who was stopt short , because she looked behind her . it is then a rashness to keep our selves in an unactive state , and in it to look for the miraculous influence of the h. 〈◊〉 ▪ for all that are in the prayer of quietness , must not expect to be led into this passive state , since they have not a condignity suteable to those gifts . tho sometimes the h. ghost does penetrate the souls of those who are in this prayer of inward affection , but this is the effect of a particular grace : i add against the first branch of this article that the quietists say in the 12th article , that meditation is of no merit in the sight of god , because it does not look at him with the light of faith ; from which i infer , that an act formed by the power of faith , is meritorious before god , and by consequence , it is pure and acceptable to him . xvii . error . those who have arrived at the state of contemplation , and the prayer of inward quietness , being religious persons , or being under the authority of parents , or any other superiours , are not bound to observe their rules , or to obey their superiours , while they are in contemplation , lest that interrupt it . refutation . altho contemplation is an act of high perfection , yet since it is not commanded by god , it may be interrupted without sin : and since obedience to parents and superiours , is commanded by god , 〈◊〉 ought to take place , and even contemplation ought to be discontinued in order to it . and therefore considering the order that god has setled , that obedience ought to be preferred to contemplation , tho the latter is as to its objective perfection much more valuable than the former . xviii . error . contemplative persons ought to divest themselves of all affections to all things : they ought to reject and despise all gods gifts and favours , and to strip themselves of all inclinations even for vertue it self ; and in order to this totall abnegation of all things , and that they may live better within themselves , they ought even to do that which is contrary to modesty and decency ; provided that it be not expresly contrary to some of the ten commandments . refutation . when god favours contemplative persons so far , as to communicate any of his blessings to them , these things ought not to be despised , but to be considered as favours that tend both to beautify the soul , and to fortify her in the exercise of vertue : so that tho contemplative persons ought not to be lifted up with them , yet they ought to value them highly , and to make use of them with all humility of spirit : and since god considers decency as a sort of goodness , contemplative persons ought to be decent in all things : for god has not by any special decree exempted them from the rules of reason , upon which all the modesty and decency of life is founded . xix . error . contemplative persons are subject to violent commotions , by which they lose the exercise of the freedom of their will. so that tho they may fall into most grievous sins , as to the exteriour act , yet they do not at all sin inwardly : and so they are not bound to confess that which they have done . all this is proved by the example of job , who tho he not only said things that were very injurious to his neighbour , but had blasphemed god most impiously , yet he did not sin in all this : because all was done by the violence of the devill . in order to the judging of these violences , neither the learning of the schoolmen or of the casuists , is of any use : but a supernatural spirit is necessary , which is to be found in very few persons : now these are the only competent iudges , who must not judge of the internal by the external ; but on the contrary , of the external by the internal . refutation . in this article the snake does not hide himself in the grass , but shews himself very visibly : since by this it is plain , that the quietists will be sensual libertines under the name of spiritual and contemplative persons . the example that they bring of iob shews clearly how little they understand the scripture . iob did not sin outwardly , neither against his neighbour nor against god in what he said , cap. 19. ver . 6. as pineda ( tom . 2. in iob 235 ) has evidently proved from the literal sense of the words : he did not sin against his neighbour , as appears by the expositions of the holy fathers , from whom we are to learn the true sense of the scriptures . and to end this matter in a few words , that grace with which god assists us at all times , is such , that we co-operating with it , may overcome all the temtations of our enemies . and christ has said to all in the person of s. paul , my grace is sufficient for thee : therefore a contemplative person cannot be pushed on by any violence or necessity whatsoever , to any external act of sin. it is not easie to judge whether these articles are faithfully drawn out , or truly represented : for it is probable , that malice has a large share in some of them , chiefly in this last , which leads to down-right libertinage ; tho others have rather suspected , that all tended to an elevated deism : yet it is certain , that if there is much poison in these articles , the antidote of the censure is so feeble , that it cannot have a strong operation ; and it shews how little the scripture and true divinity is understood at rome . postscript . in the former letter , i told you all that i could learn of this matter , during my stay at rome , but having left in iuly , i prevailed with one to give me an account of the conclusion of this affair , of which i send you a copy : for tho i know all the gazettes of europe will be full of the decision and end that is believed to be put to the business of quietism , yet you know too well , how little one ought to depend on such relations : all the news of this matter , will either be that which is writ by the direction of the inquisition , or by the strangers that are there , and pick up such things as they find among the romans , who are ever true to the old character that iuvenal gave of that city , sequitur fortunam , ut semper , & odit damnator . therefore i will give you an account of this business , on which you may depend , in the words of a letter writ me from rome . now this great affair , upon which men have so long lookt with so much expectation , is at an end : and a party that was believed to be a million strong , is now either quite extinguisht , or at least oppressed with a great deal of infamy : and mr. molinos , who has lived above twenty years in this city , in the highest reputation possible , is now as much hated as ever he was admired : he is not only considered as a condemned , and an abjured heretick , but he is said to have been convicted of much hypocrisy , and of a very iewd course of life ; which is so firmly believed by the romans , that he was treated by them on the day of his abjuration , with all possible indignities ; but the people as they shewed their affections to him , by their cries of fire , fire , so were ready to have sacrificed him to their rage , if he had not been well defended by the sbiri and guards that were about him . and it would be a crime enough at present , to recommend a man to the care of the inquisitors , if he should seem to doubt either of his heresy , or of the scandals of his life . all the party is extreamly sunk : cardinal petrucci himself lives in rome as if he were in a desert ; for no body goes to visit him , and he stirs as little abroad : nor is it thought that he will escape : there are four sent by the inquisition to his diocess of iessi to examin his behaviour there : there is also a discourse , that has lately appeared at rome , that was secretly printed , of which he is suspected to be the author , which is an apology for quietism , that gives great offence . it is said , that the inquisitors had full proofs against molinos , by fourteen witnesse ; of whom eight indeed came and offered their depositions of their own accord , and the other six were forced to declare the truth , which raises the credit of their testimony : since his abjuration , it is said that many of his followers have abjured in private , and that besides the prisoners that are in their hands , great numbers come in every day to accuse themselves , and to offer themselves to pennance , these are all very gently dismissed by the inquisitors , who are now as much censured by the romans for their excessive mildness , as ever they have been blamed by others for their rigour : and those secret abjurations are believed to be all the severity that they will practise on this occasion ; for it is said that even f. appiani the iesuite will be abjured in secret ; tho some say , he is madd , others that he is become deaf and dumb , and not a few believe that he is dead : so uncertain are all reports at present . in a word , the hatred of the present pontificate appears very visibly upon this occasion : the people affecting to shew a very extraordinary rage against a person , and a party , that has been so much favoured and supported by the pope : so that this matter comes clearly home to him , and wounds his reputation extreamly ; all this raises the credit of the iesuites , who value themselves upon the zeal and the conduct of their society upon this occasion . all the popes enemies , the iesuites , the french party , and the body of the people , that are malecontented and weary of him , and his long and dull reign , shew the pleasure they have in aggravating this matter against him : they say , this is the first time that ever any heresy made rome its seat , where it choosed to nestle it self ; but it is yet more strange , that it should have continued there above twenty years , notwithstanding all that multitude of spyes that the inquisition has every where ; that the pope should have shut his ears against all complaints , so that this doctrine had gained so great authority , that those who attackt it , passed for hereticks , or calumniators at least , and that even after all the discoveries that have been made , that the pope was known to favour molinos secretly , and was so hardly brought at last to consent to the condemnation , in which it is said , that nothing prevailed on him till the cardinal 's informed him of the scandals of molinos's life , that were proved : this was indeed a matter that could fall within the popes understanding ; for the points of doctrine are believed to be above it . all these things concur to increase the contempt under which the present pontisicate lies ; yet as for those scandals of molinos's life , i do not know what to believe : many will not believe them , and think they are only impostures given out to render him odious ; for if they had been true , and well proved , it is said , that the censure would have been severer ; for a perpetual imprisonment , and the saying his credo , and the fourth part of the rosary every day , are mild punishments , if he is found to have been so flagitious a man , and so vile a hypocrite , as is given out . his own behaviour at the minerva did not look , either like a man , that was much confounded with the discoveries that had been made , or that was very penitent for them , or for his heresy : so that the mildness of the censure , to a man that shewed to little humility or repentance , seems to flow rather from the defectiveness of the proofs , than from the gentleness of the tribunal . i confess , i was not a witness to what passed in the minerva ; for as i would not venture in the crowd , so both money and favour was necessary to accommodate a man well on that occasion , where not only a general curiosity brought a vast confluence of people together , to see the issue of a business that has been so long in suspence , but a particular devotion : for the pope had granted a general indulgence to all that should assist in that solemnity : but i will give you the account as i had it from eye-witnesses . molinos was well dressed , new trimm'd , in his priestly habit , with a cheerful countenance , that as was said by his enemies , had all the charmes on it , that were necessary to recommend him to the fair sex. he was brought from prison in an open coach , one dominican being with him in it . he was at first placed for some time in one of the corridori of the minerva : he looked about him very freely , and returned all the salutes that were made him : and all that he was heard say , was , that they saw a man that was defamed , but that was penitent ( infamato ma pentito . ) after that he was carried to dinner , where he was well treated , that being to be his last good dinner . after dinner , he was brought into the church , as in a triumph , carried on the shoulders of the sbiri in an open chair : when he was brought to his place , as he made his reverence very devoutly to the cardinals , so there was no shew of fear or of shame , in his whole deportment . he was chained , and a wax light was put in his hand , while two strong-lung'd fryers read his process aloud , and care had been taken to lay matters so , that as some of the articles were read , all should cry fire , fire . when he came back to prison , he entred into his little cell , with great tranquillity , calling it his cabinet , and took leave of his priest in these words , adieu father , we shall meet again at the day of iudgment , and then it will appear on which side the truth is , whether on my side , or on yours . so he was shut up for life . yet after all i find none of the wise men here think that the thing is at an end ; but that the fire which seems to be now extinguished , will break out with more violence ; for one of his followers had the boldness to tell the inquisitors to their face , that they were a company of unjust , cruel , and heretical men ; and compared their treatment with that which christ had met with , and yet even he has escaped upon an abjuration , as is pretended . the reasons that are given for this extraordinary gentleness of the inquisitors , who are seldom accused for erring on this side , are both the numbers of the party , who might be much irritated by publick examples , and also the great credit that their doctrine has from the mystical divinity , that is authorised by so many canonisations : for it is said , that from several parts the inquisitors have brought together above twenty thousand of molino's letters : whose correspondence was so vast , that some give out , that the post of the letters , that were brought him the day in which he was seised on , rise to twenty crowns . and i heard a divine of rome confess , that they have such authorities for most of their tenets , that they will never be beat out of them , by the force of their school divinity , therefore he thought it was necessary to condemn them by a formal sentence , in which the authority of the church was to be interposed . most of the condemned articles are nothing but an invidious aggravating of the doctrine of predestination and grace efficacious of it self , and of immediat inspiration : for all the hard consequences that are pretended to be drawn , either from the one or the other of these opinions , are all turned into so many articles , and condemned as so many impious doctrines ; but you will be better able to judge of this matter when you see all that the inquisitors will think sit to print concerning it . a second letter writ from rome , containing some particulars , relating to the inquisition ▪ sir ; my last to you , together with the advertisement which was sent me from rome , related wholly to the affairs of the quietists ; but because i know your curiosity will perhaps go further , and that you expect such observations from me , as you fancy me capable to make , in a countrey where i have now made so long a stay , that it is my own fault , if i have not been able to see a little further than common travellers do , therefore i will try what i can say that may please you . i am , as you know , no searcher into manuscripts , or the curiosities of libraries , nor can i bring my self to so dry a study as is that of medals , or inscriptions . i had rather be beholding to the labours of others , for the discoveries they have made in those matters , than wear out my eyes and spend my time in the reading and deciphering those remains of antiquity . i love all that knowledg , which , with how much difficulty soever it may be acquired , feeds the mind with some useful ideas : but as for that knowledg which carrys one no further , then that such a word , or such a hierogliphick signified such a thing , and that gives the mind no matter to work on , and raises no game at which it may fly , it has not charm enough to work on so lasy a man as i am . i confess , my studies , and my way of life would have carried me more naturally into matters of religion , or into the politicks : but as to the former , italy is not a country , where a man either can or dare reason upon these subjects : for their ignorance is such , that no man can profit much by their conversation on those heads : besides that , it is not safe to do it . the italians are too well bred , to attack a man on that argument ; and they know their own ignorance so well , and have so high an opinion of the learning of the hereticks , that they are sure never to provoke any of them : and he were a very bold and indiscreet man , that would begin the dispute with them : so after all , newes and politicks is all that remains , and you know i am idle enough both to think and to talk of these upon occasion : yet i must confess , that i find so many of my reflections in dr. burnets letters , that i have got sent me from leghorn , that if i had not seen these , i had very likely writ you a great many of those that are already set out by him , with so much advantage , that i find the best part of all my observations are already made by a better pen : but i , who have as great an aversion from copying , as he says he has ; will avoid the saying any one thing that i find in his letters : and will only speak of those places that he did not see , or of those matters which he had not time enough to enquire after , or to observe ; and since the former letter , contained such a long and serious recital of a matter , that if it fixed your attention , yet must have wearied it , i will now divert you a little , with some storys , that will be more agreeable ; and then i will return to more serious subjects . i will begin with some relating to the inquisition . i told you in my former letter , of a great many prisoners in the inquisition , but among all the prisoners that are there , none will surprise you so much as when i tell you that there is a cruxifix kept there , which is called , our saviour in the inquisition : when this was first told me , i durst not speak out that which naturally occurred to my thoughts , which was , that our saviour and the truth of his gospel , was indeed shut up with so much severity by the inquisitors , that it was no wonder if he were reckoned among the prisoners of that severe court. but this story is less serious , and more comical . you know that in all the bigotted towns , the people are sorted in several fraternities , and every one of these , has their peculiar churches , altars , images and relicks , to which they pay a more extraordinary devotion : so there was one in florence , among whose favourite images a crucifix hapned to be one : a woman ( that had a fair daughter ) fell sick : and as she had payed many devotions to that image , so she came to fancy , that in her sickness she had the returns of very extraordinary favours from it . the truth of the matter was , that one who had a mind to have frequent access to her daughter , made a shift to deceive the poor sick woman : for he appeared in such a disguise to her , that she believed it was the image that came to comfort her . and that which was the most acceptable part of the imposture was , that the impostor knew by her daughters means , every thing that she wanted , and took care to provide it for her , so that at every visit that he made her , he brought along with him , all the things that she needed : this was sensible ; so the credulous woman believed all this came from her beloved image : and she was now as gratefull as she had been before devout : she told all that came to see her ; how careful and bountiful that image was to her : and shewed them how well she was supplied by it . in short , this came to be generally believed : for when the least story of this kind gets vent , and is well received by the priests , the people run in so headlong to it , that it would pass for a crime capable enough of ruining one in the spirit of the inquisitors , to seem to doubt of it ; but much more if one studied to undeceive others : therefore things of this nature kindle the minds of a superstitious multitude so quick , that in a few days a whole town will seem as it was out of its wits : which appeared signally on this occasion at florence : for now the whole town entred into this fraternity . the great duke himself came into the number , and all were studying what new honours should be done to an image that had been so kind to one of its worshippers . but some that were wiser than the rest , saw thro the cheat , and informed p. innocent the 10th . of it , who was resolved to put a stop to the current of this superstition : yet he saw it was necessary to do it with some address : it fell out to be the year of iubily 1650. so the pope writ to florence , that he had heard of the miracles of that image , to which he desired earnestly to do his own devotions , therfore he intreated them to bring it to rome ; that so the image might have the addresses of all the pilgrims , as well as his own made to it . upon this the more bigotted of the fraternity , would needs accompany the charitable image : so they carried it in procession to rome : and did not doubt but that the pope and cardinalls with the clergy of rome would have come out in procession to meet them and their image : the surprise was no doubt very great , when instead of all this , they found a company of sbirri staying for them at the porta dell populo ; who took their image from them , and carried it away to the inquisition ; and sent them away not a little mortified at the disgrace , that had befallen their crucifix , who has been ever since a prisoner in the inquisition . i was told of another prisoner there of a later date , but not much unlike this . you know the legend of the plague that was in rome , as i remember in s. gregory the great 's time , that was stopt by an angel , that as was pretended came down , and stood over that castle , which was formerly called moles hadriani , but has carried the name of castro s. angelo ever since . the fryers of ara coeli had got a stone , upon which there was an impression like the print of a foot : so they had put this in some part of their church , and gave it out that this print was made by the foot of that angel ; tho one can hardly imagine how they fancied that an angel treads so hard . this stone had many devotions payed it . the learned sig r. pietro bellori , who is without dispute the best antiquary in rome , being once in that chappel at his devotions ; observed a great many praying about this stone , and kissing it with great respect and affection ; so he came to look upon it , and having examined it carefully , he saw clearly it was a fragment of a statue of the goddess isis ; the greek characters were legible , and many things concurred to make a man of his learning and exactness conclude , that the devotions were mis-applied that were payed it ; so he went to one of the fathers of the house , and acquainted him with his observation : and wished that they would remove that mistaken object of worship , lest some of the learned hereticks that passed thro rome , might discover and reproach the church with it . but the fathers of the house found their account in this matter , so they were so far from following his good advice , that they aspersed him that had given it , so as to accuse him of impiety for diverting the devotions of the people : the imputation was carried so far that he was brought before the inquisition to clear himself , which he did so fully , that he not only got safe out of their hands , but which was more , he convinced them that he was in the right : so the stone was removed , and keeps the crucifix company in the inquisition . but by these two storys , you will perhaps imagin that i design to beget in you a good opinion of that court ; but i will now tell you another , that will soon bring you back to your old thoughts of that tribunal . burrhi is a man so famous in the world , that one that has looked into natural philosophy and chimistry , could not be long in rome without making an acquaintance with him : but to tell you truth , i neither found him to be so great a chimist as he fancies himself to be , nor so great a heretick as the inquisitors have made him . i tell you this the more particularly , that you may upon it judge how far you are to believe the account that the inquisitors may give of their proceedings against molinos : since you may conclude from what was done to the one , what may be expected in all cases that are brought before them . burrhi's story is in short this ; he is a gentleman of the millanese , who was born to an estate of 8000. crowns a year : in his youth he had travelled , and had got into his head the notions of the now philosophy and of chimistry : so at his return to milan , he began to propogate the new philosophy , and to form a conference upon those matters : the priests it seems suspected , that there might be somewhat under this , so he was put in the inquisition , but nothing could be made out against him , he was let out : after that he went and stayd for some years in germany and holland ; and it is very probable that he might have expressed himself concerning the courts of inquisition , as a man that had no great opinion either of their justice , or of their mercy . and as he has gone into all the high pretensions of the chimists , so it is probable enough that he has talked of matters of religion in that mysterious unintelligible iargon , that is used almost by all the men that are of the highest elevation of chimistry , but chiefly by paracelsus and van helmont . in short , some accusations were given in to the inquisitors against him , who complained of him to the emperour , and had so much credit in his court that he strained his power to the utmost , and seised on him , and sent him to italy , where those good fathers were resolved not to give him a second occasion of boasting , that he had got safe out of their hands : strange things were objected to him ; and as is pretended , they were proved against him ; as that the b. virgin was god equal with the son ; and that the h. ghost was incarnate in her , as well as the eternal word was in her son : that the three persons in the trinity were the first , the second , and the third heavens : that the son was from all eternity discontented with the father , for not making him equal to him : that the consecrated hosty had in it the body of the mother as well as that of the son : and that the putting the pieces of it together in the chalice , demonstrated the vnion between the mother and the son. these opinions were all proved against him : tho he protests that he never thought of them , yet he was forced to abjure them in the year 1668. and was upon that condemned to perpetual imprisonment ; he continued in the prison of the inquisition , till within these five or six years , that the duke d'estrees being sick , procured an order for having burrhi to come and treat him ; and in gratitude to burrhi , who cured him , he got his prison changed to the castle st. angelo : where he now entertains himself with chimical processes . it is indeed very probable , that he had provoked the inquisition , by speaking severely and reproachfully of them , and this was all his crime , unless another article against him might be his estate ; for of his 8000. crowns a year , there is but 3000. left him ; for the good fathers have had the charity to take 5000. to themselves : and his 3000. is so eat up by them , thro whose hands it comes to him , that he has not 1500 : crowns a year payed him : and from this you may see what credit you ought to give to the processes , the articles , and the abjurations that are made before that court. if instead of that zeal which animates them against heresy , they would purge their own church of those disorders , which they themselves acknowledg to be corruptions , they would sooner bring themselves again into credit . the scandalous pictures that are in many churches of italy , are things that might deserve their care , if they would turn it to that hand . is it not a shameful thing , that there has not been a great master in painting who has not put that complement on his mistress , as to paint her for the virgin ? so that the most celebrated madonna 's of italy are known to have been the mistresses of the great painters . the postures , the looks , and the nakedness of many of the church-pieces , are monstrous indecent things . the great design of the cupulo at florence , is such a representation of vice , that all that can be presented by a defiled imagination , comes short of what is to be seen there : and tho the scripture speaks but of one apparition of the holy ghost in the shape of a dove ; one shall find this dove on the head , at the ear , and the mouth of i know not how many of their saints ; and as one finds in many pieces , that their masters have resolved to perpetuate their own amours in them , so amours are every day managed by the same methods : for while i was at rome , i discovered an intrigue between a fryer and a nun , by two pictures , that were drawn for them : the fryer was drawn as a s. anthony , and the nun as a s. katherine of siena : these they were to exchange , and so to feed their passion under this disguise of devotion . but to return to indecent pictures , there is nothing more scandalous , than the many various representations of the trinity , which must needs give to all iews and mahometans as well as to us , that pass for hereticks , a strange horror to a religion that suffers those odious resemblances , that give such gross ideas of the deity , and of the trinity : and that which is yet the most scandalous part of those pictures , is that the representation of god the father is often diversified according to the caprice of the painter ; and he is to be seen in the habits of the several orders of that church , and indeed both features , hair , habit , and postures , have all the diversity in them that is necessary to feed an idolatry , that is as extravagant as it is gross . the picture of the b. virgin , with the order of the capuchins under her petticoat , is not very apt to raise chast idea's in those who look upon it . in short , whereas the rule of the antient architecture of churches , was to below and dark , which was thought the most proper , for the recollection of a man's faculties , and by consequence for devotion , is now quite altered : and great cupulos with a vast illumination , are necessary to shew the beauty of those rich pieces , which would be lost in churches built as dark as the antient ones were . i confess , those pictures are charming things , if they were any where else than in churches : but the pleasure they give , does so possess a man that begins to understand them , that it will kindle any thoughts in him , sooner than devout ones . i will not here let my pen carry me into a subject that must needs set all my thoughts on fire ; and speak of the great pieces of painting that are in italy , and of the many masters that it produced in the last age : who as they were such extraordinary men , so they lived within the compass of one age ; as if the perfection in that amasing art had been to dye with them , as well as it was born with them ; this , i say , would make one think , that there are revolutions and aspects in the heavens that are favorable or cross to arts or sciences : and that then , the most favourable aspect for painting that ever was , produced those astonishing performances . for tho the great decay of learning that is every where , may be reasonably enough resolved in this , that whereas in the last age many great princes were either learned themselves , or at least they made it a maxim to protect and encourage learning ; but this having at last grown to an excess of rudeness and pedantry , and princes becoming generally extream ignorant , it came to pass for a piece of breeding , to say nothing that was beyond their pitch , or that seemed to reproach their ignorance : and those who could not hide their learning , were called pedants : and pedantry was represented so odious , that ignorance being the lasiest as well as the surest way to avoid this , all men took that very naturally ; and when other methods are as effectual to raise men to the highest preferments either of the barr or of the pulpit as true learning or reall merit , few will choose the long and tedious , and often the most uncertain way , when the end that they propose to themselves , may be certainly compassed by a more effectual and easier one . flattery and submissions are sooner learned and easier practised by men of low and mean souls , than much hard and dry study : thus , i say , the decay of learning is very easily accounted for , in the age in which we live : but as for the art of painting , it is still in such esteem , and great pieces go still at such vast rates , that if the genius and capacity for it were not lost , there is encouragment enough still to set it a going : but i leave this subject not without putting some constraint on my self ; for who can think of such wonderful men as correge , michael angelo , raphael , paulo veronese , iulio romano , carrache , palma , titian and tintoret , without feeling a concern at every time that he reflects on the wonders of their pencils : st. lukes pretended work , and even the supposed performances of angels , are sad things set near their pieces . one , whose thoughts are full of the wonders of that art , that are to be seen in florence , goes into the annunciata , and sees not without indignation , that adored picture of the virgin , which , as the fond people there believe , was finished by an angel , while the painter that was working at it , and that could not animate it as he desired , fell asleep , who as soon as he awaked , saw his piece finished . this fiction of the painters , to raise the credit of his picture , is so well believed at florence , that he presents made to enrich the altar and chappel , where it stands , are invaluable : & yet after all , the angel's work is still no better than the common painting of that time : and that angel-painter , was but a bungler if compared , to the great masters . in a word , what can be thought of humane nature , when in so refined a place as florence , so course an imposture has been able to draw to it , such an inestimable stock of wealth . all these things are so many digressions from my main subject , which was , to shew you how much matter the inquisitors might find , if they would use any exactness in redressing those abuses which they themselves will not defend in common conversation : and yet tho the smallest thing , that seems even at the greatest distance to go against their interest , is lookt after with a very watchful care ; yet the grossest of all impostures , that proves profitable to them , is much encouraged by them . the fable of loretto , is so black and so ridiculous a piece of imposture , that i never saw a man of sense , that cared to enter upon that subject . i was once in company where i took the liberty to propose two modest exceptions to it : the one was , that about 200 years after the rest of the angelical labour in carying about that cottage is pretended to have fallen out , vincent ferrrier , whom they believe a great saint , not only sayes nothing of its being then in italy , but sayes expresly , that it was then in nazareth , & that many miracles were wrought about it . antonin of florence ; who is also the most impudent writer of legends that ever was , say's not a word of it some ages after they say that it was at loretto . all the answer that i had to this was , that it was no article of faith , but whether it was true or false , the devotion of the people was still entertained by it : and this , they said , was as much meritorious , tho founded on a fable , as the giving of charity to one who is believed a fit object , but yet is indeed a cheat , is acceptable to god : and thus he who gives upon a good inward motive , will be rewarded according to the disposition of his mind , and not according to the truth or falsehood of the story , that wrought upon him . i durst not press this matter too far : otherwise i would have replied , that how excuseable soever the superstition of ignorant people may be , yet this does not at all justify the cheat that the church puts upon her so easily deluded children . the truth is , the romans themselves have not such stiff notions of all the points of controversy as we are apt to imagine : this makes me remember a conversation that past some years ago , between an abbot & one of our clergymen , that was then a governour to a person of quality , that in his travels stayed for some time at rome . the abbot seeing the governour was considered as a man of learning , desired to be informed of him , what were the points in difference between the two churches : so the governour told him , that we had our worship in a known tongue ; that we gave the cup in the sacrament ; that we had no images , and did not pray to saints : all this did not disturb the abbot , who said , that these were only different rites and ceremonies , which might be well enough born with : when the other added , that we did not believe transubstantiation nor purgatory , the abbot said , these were the subtilties of the school : so he was very gentle till the governour told him , that we did not acknowledge the pope ; then the abbot was all on fire , and could not comprehend , how men could be christians , that did not acknowledge christs vicar , and s. peter's successor : and it is very plain at rome at this day , that they consider the conversion of nations , only as it may bring in more profit into the datary court , and raise the value of the offices there ; for when i seemed amased in conversation with some of them , to see so little regard had to the ambassadour of england , and to every thing that he proposed ; they told me plainly , that perhaps the angels in heaven rejoiced at the conversion of a sinner upon the pure motives of perfect charity , but they at rome looked at other things . they saw no profit like to come from england ; no bulls were called for , and no compositions like to be made ; if those things should once appear , then an ambassadour from thence would be treated like the penitent prodigal , especially if he were a little less governed by the iesuites , who were believed to have managed our ambassadour a little too absolutely : and here it will be no unpleasant digression if i tell you the true reason that retarded the promotion of the cardinal d'esté so long . the pope himself saw what the vncle of this cardinal did at rome , in p. alexander the 7ths time , upon the business of the corsis , and the affront that was put on the duke of crequy , which made so much noise . that cardinal being then the protector of the french nation , offered first to the d. of crequy , to go with him , accompanied with 500 men , that he knew he could raise in rome , to the palace of dom mario chigi , and to fling him out at window : but the d. of crequy thinking that such a revenge went too far , the cardinal himself went accompanied with his 500 men to the palace , and expostulated the matter with the pope , and demanded reparation ; and when the pope put it by in some general answers , he prest him so hard , till the pope threatned to pull his cap from him , but he answered , that he would clap a head-piece on it , to defend it , and that he would never part with that , till he had pulled the tripple crown from his head : this was vigorous , and the cardinal had a mind to perpetuate the memory of it , for he made himself be drawn with a headpiece by him , his hand pointing towards it , which i saw at modena ; and it is plain by their way of speaking of this matter , that they were proud of it . the present pope being at that time a cardinal , saw this disorder , and so he was resolved never to raise one of that family to the purple : yet the earnest and repeated instances from england , overcame him at last . but now again i return to that from which i have digressed so often , which is the work that the inquisition might find in italy , even without departing from any of their received principles . that scandalous imposture of the blood of s. ianuary at naples , that seems to be firm & dry in the vial , and that dissolves and moves as it is brought near his head , which is so firmly believed by all the bigots there , must needs give an indignation to all that love truth , when they see such gross deceptions put upon the world. i will not take upon me to say how it is managed ; but nothing is more easy than the ordering of this matter may be . for if that vial be filled with tinctured liquor , the vial being put in ice and salt , will freese in an instant ; and it being again in the air , may return very quickly to its former state , so that there is no need of any great skill for the conducting this matter : and it is so much their interest , who have the keeping of this pretended blood , to keep the secret very religiously , that it is no wonder if it is not discovered . he indeed who either doubts of it , or would adventure to discover it , must resolve to go and live some were else than in naples , where this passes for the chief glory , as well as the greatest blessing of their city : and the people there are so extreamly credulous , & the priests are so very insolent , that this has appeared of late in such instances , that if the viceroy of naples , were not both a very extraordinary man , and most excessively esteemed and beloved there , he could not have stood his ground in the dispute which is now on foot , and of which tho all the gazettes make mention , yet i may perhaps tell you some particulars , that may be new to you , for i was in naples while this matter was in its greatest heat . the business of the ecclesiastical immunities , is carried so high here , that the general of the horse , who is by birth a flemming , had almost felt it to his cost ; there were two under him , that had quarrelled , but were made friends ; and one of these meeting the other some days after that , he embraced him with all the shewes of friendship , but having a stiletto in his hand , he managed it so fatally , that under all the appearences of tender embraces , he killed him out-right , and presently he took sanctuary in a church , that was hard by ; the general hearing of this , resolved he would make an example of the murderer : but not daring to drag him out of the church , he set a sentinel to the doors , reckoning that hunger would soon force him to come out : and tho the priests that belonged to the church , carried him in some provisions , yet that could not serve him long . but the general was forced to discharge the sentinels : for he was informed , that an excommunication was coming out against him , for distrurbing the devotions of those that went to the church : and he knew that if the excommunication should be once given out , no body would so much as talk with him or come near him after that : so he would not run that risque : and this assassinate had a fair occasion given him to make his escape : this was a good essay of the zeal for the immunity of places . another fell out about the same time near leghorn , in which the sacredness of exempted persons was asserted in a manner that was no less scandalous ; a priest was seised on , for a most horrid crime , either a rape or a murder , i do not remember which : but he who had no mind to be taken , defended himself ; and shot one of the sbiri , upon which the rest run away . so he apprehending that a stronger party would be sent , that would be too hard for him , went and retired into a wood , with his fusee ; and some being sent to find him out , he had shot six or seven of them ; yet after all the sacred character was like to save this execrable man ; for while i was at leghorn i was told that an excommunication was coming out , against all that should violate the ecclesiastical immunities in his person : and no doubt the great duke will give way to this : for he is so entirely delivered up to his priests , and is become so excessively scrupulous , that to deliver himself from those troubles of conscience , which many things , in the administration of the government are apt to give him , he has found out an easy receipt , which if all other princes can be brought to follow , it will be very happy for their ministers . he then considers , that the only sure way to be innocent in the conduct of affairs , is not to know them at all : but to devolve them entirely on his ministers , who do all , without so much as communicating matters to him . but the viceroy of naples is not so very tractable in those matters , as appears by the vigour with which he has supported the secular tribunal against the invasions of the ecclesiastical court. that which gave the rise to the dispute , was , a sute that was between a lay-man and a church-man , before one of the iudges of naples , who decided in favour of the layman ; upon which it was pretended , that this was a violation of the immunities of the church : so the iudge was excommunicated ; and upon it no body would willingly appear before him , or so much as speak to him , so terrible a thing is that thunder there : but the viceroy has shewed on this occasion , that firmness that has appeared in all his other actions : and has also received orders from spain authorising him to keep his ground . the iudge is not only maintained in what he has done , but continues still to sit on the bench , all people are forced to bring their causes before him ; & his sentences are executed with resolution . this contempt put on the ecclesiastical censures by a minister of spain , and at a time in which the pope is so much in their interests , is a little extraordinary . but the affront that the viceroy put on an auditor of the nuntio's , was yet much more provoking , for it was managed with a particular care to make the scorn very wounding as well as it was publick . the nuntio is believed to do ill offices in this matter ; and his auditor was known to be a man of liberties ; it was found out that he went often to a bordello ; the viceroy therefore gave order to watch him so carefully , that the sbiri should be sure to find him in such circumstances , as should make his shame very conspicuous : so he was taken , and carried before the next iudge : the thing was laid before hand , and the iudge refusing to medle in it , the sbiri ( a sort of men like our bailiffs ) carried him to another , and so made the round of all the iudges in naples ; and every one of them refusing to medle with the auditor , the sbiri let him go , when the matter was made sufficiently publick , by their carrying him about to so manny places . the nuntio complained of the violation of the rights of a publick minister , especially of so sacred a one . but the reparation that the viceroy made , was a redoubling of the affront : for he ordered the sbiri that had taken the auditor , to be carried about all naples with an inscription writ in capital letters , both on their breasts and on their backs , mentioning the crime for which they were thus led about , which was their having disturbed the nuntio's auditor in his pleasures . you will easily imagin that this was considered at rome as a most outrageous affront ; and indeed the pope has carried the matter of the regale in france so very far , that it is hard to tell to what a degree this breach in naples may be also carried : for tho the pope is most excessively ignorant in all those matters , yet he has another quality , that is the only thing that is great in him , and that would indeed become him very well , if he had a little more knowledg to govern it : and that is , that he is the wilfullest man alive ; and his temper is fearless enough to make him shut his eyes upon all danger . it cannot be denied , but it is the interest of the pope , as he is a temporal prince , to be of the side that is now the weakest ; and that needs his support the most : and therefore it is no wonder if he is so favourable to the crown of spain , and the house of austria : but after all , his carrying the business of the regale so far , against so great a king , and a king that has merited so much from that church , by his zeal against hereticks , is somewhat unaccountable : after all the havock , that has been made both by princes and popes of the true liberties of the church , and particularly after that shameful bargain that was made between them in the concordate , it has a very ill grace to see a pope make this the subject of so great and so long a dispute ; and that the factious clamours of a few ill-natured and angry priests , should have been so much considered , as to interrupt the good understanding of the courts of the vatican and versailles . all this flowed from the ill opinion that the pope had of the iesuites , which being known in france , the iansenists thought it was high time for them to recommend themselves to the court of rome , in hope of mortifying the iesuites : yet they could not with any decency carry the papal authority high , after they had with so much force both of reason and learning , depressed it as they had done : so they betook themselves to the first thing that offered it self , that they knew would be very acceptable in rome , which was the asserting the liberties of the church , and the disputing the kings imposing the rights of the regale ( that is , the mean profits of bishopricks , and the collating to benefices without cure , during the vacancy ) on the four southern provinces of france . i will not say more of a matter that is so well known , only i will tell you , what a doctor of the sorbon said to me upon this subject ; i found he did not believe the pope's authority more than i did my self ; and yet he was one of those that indirectly opposed the articles of the clergy , and the condemnation that was past on the bishop of strigonium's censure of those articles ; for his authority and learning gave a great turn to that matter : so when i seemed amased at this , that a man of his principles , had acted as he had done upon that occasion , he told me , he had no other consideration before him in that matter , but to mortify the clergy of france , and to maintain the dignity of the sorbon . it was not long since that in the dispute about iansenius's matter , they had made the pope not only infallible in matters of right , but of fact : and now because the pope was not in the interests of france , the dispute of infallibility , and of the councils of constance and basil , were again set on foot ; all which would be given up , and the pope would be considered infallible to morrow , if he were once more in the interests of france ; & the clergy , who had neither learning nor vertue , but made up all defects , by a slavish obsequiousness , would be then as forward to magnify the infallibility , as they are now to depress it . how far the pope will embroil himself in this new business of the franchises , i do not know : he has expressed a great steadiness in it ; and the truth is , rome is now so sunk from what it was , and the franchises are so considerable a part of the city , that their being covered from the execution , both of civil and criminal iustice , is a most horrible disorder : and it seems reasonable enough , that as in all other courts , there is nothing now under the ambassadours protection , but that which is within his gates , so the same regulation should be made in rome ; where the extent of those priviledged places is very great : yet afterall , if the french ambassadour , that is now on his way thither , has positive orders to maintain them , and has mony enough to list men , if the matter goes on to a more obstinate dispute ; it will be no hard matter for him to raise such a revolt in rome , that neither the popes guards , nor those in the castle of st. angelo , will be able to subdue it : and if this matter goes on so far , the french will very probably cut off all annates , and find a shorter way of granting of bulls within the kingdom . it is said , that while some have represented the apparent inconveniences of a rupture with france to the pope , and that he was in no condition to resist that mighty power : he answered , that he would suffer martyrdom in maintaining the rights of st. peter . it must be confessed , that there was something in this saying that was more magnanimous , than prudent . and indeed the popes way of treating with ambassadours , has somewhat in it that comes neerer the simplicity of the fishermen , the more modern politicks . his dry answer to our ambassadour , when he threatned him that he would leave rome , and go back to england , if he were not better used ; lei e badrone ; you are master of that as you please ; had an air in it that i should have been much pleased with , if it had fallen on any other than on the king's minister . his conduct of the revenue is an unaccountable thing ; for if there is not a vast treasure laid up , or a most prodigious deal of wealth secretly conveyed to his family , it is not to be imagined what has become of all that revenue that he has raised , in which the income is so vastly disproportioned to the expence , that the most prying men do not know what is become of it . the war with the turks has not cost him so much as is believed ; on the contrary , many think that he has got by it ; and that the taxes which he has laid on the clergy of italy amount to more than he has laid out upon it : it is certain , it has not cost him very much . he retrenched all expences to so great a degree , that even the publick charities were lessened : for in lent , there is a weekly charity of a iulio , or a six pence , to all the poor that come and ask it : and the poor commonly brought their children with them , so that they got as many iulio's as they brought children ; but the pope limited this , that no charity should be given to any under such an age , as i remember it was below ten year old . the administration of the revenue is indeed the only thing that he understands , and in which he imploys all his thoughts : and it was believed , that the true secret of the greatest number of the cardinals in the last promotion , was the advantages that he made by the sale of the offices which they held , and that fell to the pope upon their advancement ; out of which it was thought that he gained above a million : and upon this i will tell you , what i have learned concerning the aversion that two of the cardinals , taia and ricci , expressed to the purple in the promotion that was made five year ago ; this was magnified in several books , that were printed out of italy , as somewhat that seemed to approach to the best ages of the primitive times , when men refused to accept of so great a dignity , that brought them within a step of the supream elevation : but the truth of this matter was , they were both men of fourscore , and not like to live long ; as they both died within a year of their preferment : they had very good imployments , which they had bought , and which by their accepting the purple were to fall into the popes hands : besides that , the new dignity was not to be entred upon without a great expence : so all this being considered , the vertue of refusing so chargeable a dignity , in men that were more concerned for their families , than for that small remnant of life that was before them , was not so very extraordinary . but since i am upon the discourse of promoting of cardinals , i will tell you a remarkable instance of a promotion , that i do not remember to have met with in any book ; and the dignity of the person and of the family descended from him makes me think it worth the relating ; and the rather because i had it from no ordinary person , but from one of the exactest men in rome , and who has taken the greatest pains to be well informed in the modern history . i had seen several pictures of clara farnese , for there are more than one of them in the palestrina : so i knowing nothing concerning her , asked her story , which in short was this : that she was p. paul the 3d's sister , and the person to whom he owed his cardinals cap , and by consequence all that followed upon it , tho he rewarded her ill for it ; for he poysoned both her and his mother , that he might have all their wealth ; their father was a poor man , that went about selling saucidges and such sort of stuff . clara was married young , and was soon a widdow ; she was a lovely woman , but no extraordinary beauty : her brother was bred to letters , and was one of those poor churchmen , that was looking about on all hands where he might find a patron ; when of a sudden his sisters charms and her artifices together raised him to a height , to which he was far enough from pretending at that time . on a great occasion clara farnese was so near p. alexander the 6th , and was so much in his eye & in his thoughts , that he ordered one that was about him , to enquire who she was , and where she lived : instruments upon such occasions are never wanting to great persons : and notwithstanding the popes great age , yet his vices hung still so close to him , that he could have no quiet till clara farnese was brought him . she resolved to manage her self on this occasion , and to raise her price all that was possible , so a cardinals cap to her brother was both asked and granted : a promise of it was made at least , upon which she came and attended on the old leud pope : yet when the next promotion came to be in agitation , the proposition for abbot farnese was rejected by cesar borgia with scorn ; he had never been a slave to his word , and he had no mind that his father should observe it on this occasion . the way of a promotion is this , the pope setles the list of the cardinals , and writes down all their names in a paper with his own hand ; and in a consistory , when all other business is ended , he throws down the paper on the table , and say's to the cardinals , habetis fratres ; you have now some brethren . one of the secretaries upon that takes up the paper , and reads the names aloud ; and the sbiri are at the door , and as soon as one is named , they run for it , to see who shall be able to carry the first newes of it to the party concerned . upon this occasion , the pope after he had concerted the promotion with his son , writ down all the names . clara farnese was in great apprehensions for her brother , so she being to pass that night with the pope , rise when the old man was fast asleep , & searched his pocket , & found the paper , but her brothers name was not in it : then she set her self with great care to counterfeit the popes hand ; and writ her brothers name the first in the list : next morning she kept the pope as long in bed as was possible ; till word was brought him , that the consistory was set , and that the cardinals were all come : for she reckoned that the less time that the pope had for being drest , there was the less danger of his looking into his paper : so without ever opening it , he went into the consistory , and according to custom , he threw down the list on the table : but to the great surprise of him , and of all that were upon his secrets , the first name that was read , was that of abbot farnese ; and it seems the pope thought it better to let the matter pass , than to suffer the true secret of the business to break out . it is well that the doctrine of the intention , does not belong to the creation of cardinals , otherwise here was a nullity with a witness . thus begun that long course of p. paul the thirds greatness , who lived above 50 years after this , and laid the foundation of the family of parma , which he saw quite overthrown , his son being assassinated in his own time ; and both his grand-children having revolted against him , which , as was believed , precipitated his death , tho he was then fourscore . but now i return to the present pope ; for i have writ you a very loose sort of a letter , all made up of digressions . his aversion to the order of the iesuites is very visible ; for he takes all occasions to mortify them ; and every thing that is proposed to him , thrives the worse for their sakes , if he believes they are concerned in it ; which was given by all at rome , as the true reason of the cold usage that the english ambassadour found there . indeed the pope is not singular in the hard thoughts that he has of that order : i never saw an indifferent man in all italy , that was of another mind : they do generally look upon them as a covetous , fraudulent , intriguing , and turbulent sort of people ; who can never be at quiet , unless they reign : who are men of no morals , that will stick at nothing that may raise the wealth and power of their order : and at rome they do not stick to say , that all the concerns of the roman catholick religion must needs miscarry in england , because the iesuites are so much in credit there . and indeed the extravagantly vain letters that they write to rome out of england , are such contextures of legends , that ever since i saw them , i know what value i ought to put on their letters that come from the indies and other remote countreys ; for when they take so great a liberty when the falsehood is so easily found out , what must me think of the relations that come from places at such a distance , that they may lie with more assurance & less hazard of discovery . the letter that was writ in february last from liege to the iesuites at friburg , of which so many copies were given , that it got to the press at last , was a good instance of their vanity , and of the small regard that they have to a prince , that has as they give out , so much for them . their representing the king , as so concerned in the interests of their order , that he espoused them all as if they were his own , that he was now become a son of the society , and that he was received into a communication of the merits of the order , ( tho a share in their treasure upon earth were a much more considerable thing , than of their treasure that is invisible , ) their setting out the kings zeal for their religion , in such high terms , that they say he is resolved to die a martyr rather than not to succeed in his design of changing the religion , and converting the nation : and this at a time when the king was declaring himself so much for liberty of conscience : and their affirming that the king is become bigotted to so high a degree , as to refuse to suffer a priest to kneel down and do the duty of a subject in kissing his hand , and to tell him , that he himself ought rather to kneel down , and to kiss his hands : all these are such extravagant strains , that by the boldness of them it is evident , that they were writ by a iesuite , and my copy came to me from so good a hand , and so near the source , that how many falsehoods soever may be in that letter ▪ i can assure you , it is no imposture , but was really writ by those of liege . in a word , all the romans have so very ill an opinion of the iesuits , that as soon as any piece of newes comes from england , that is not favourable to their affairs , one finds all , from the highest to the lowest , agree in the same short reflection ; thus it must ever be , where the iesuites have such a share in the councils . a man long practised in the court of rome , told me , it was impossible it could be otherwise , for all the chief men of that order are kept teaching in their schools , till they are almost forty years of age ; and by that means pedantry , a disputatious and imperious humour , and a peevish littleness of soul , becomes natural to them , so that an eminent man here said to me , it was impossible that matters could go better than they did in england , as long as the morals and the politicks of the jesuites , and the vnderstandings and courage of the irish , were so much relied on . but besides all these general considerations , there are some things in the constitution of the order of the iesuites that give those at rome reason enough to be on their guard against them . there are two things peculiar to this order that make it very formidable ; the one is , that those who have made the fourth vow are capable of no preferment , unless it be to be cardinals , and then they are indeed capable of bishopricks . in most of the other orders , every man has his own private interest , and his particular views ; so that they are not always looking after the concerns of their order . but a iesuite can receive no honour but from his order , therefore he consecrates himself to it , and advances the interests of the society with all possible zeal , knowing that there is no other way left him to advance his own interests , but this . so that hope being one of the great springs of humane nature , a iesuite , who hopes for nothing but from his order , must be extreamly devoted to it . besides this , a iesuite fears nothing but from his order : they have not a cardinal protector , as the other orders have , to whom an appeal lies from the sentence of the general of the order : but the iesuites are a body more shut up within themselves ; for the sentence of the general is definitive , and can never be reviewed , no appeal lying from it : whensoever a pope comes that dares mortify them , he will open a way for appeals , for till that is done , the general of the iesuites is the most absolute and the most arbitrary soveraign that is in the world. all these things concur to unite almost all the several interests in rome against this society , which yet is strong enough to support it self against them all : they have the mission generally in their hands ; for the congregation de propaganda , payes a small pension of 20 crowns to all the secular priests that are on the mission , whereas the iesuites bear the expences of their own missionaries , to whom they allow an 100 crowns a year : & so those of the propaganda being willing to be eased of a charge , accept of the missionaries that the iesuites offer them : and they find their account in this . their missionaries are powerfully recommended , so they are quickly received into families , especially where there are yong children to be bred up , or estates to be managed : for in these two lies their strength : but they never forget their order , for which they are as so many factors every where : and they draw vast presents from all places to the house that returns them their appointments ; wheras the poor secular priest must make a shift to live out of the small allowance that he has from the congregation de propaganda fide , and out of what he can raise by his masses . therefore there is nothing that they desire so much , as to see protestant states that give a tolerance to popery , grow once so wise as to shut out all the regulars , and above all the iesuites ; and to admit none but secular priests : for the former , as they are so many agents , to return all the wealth that they can possibly draw together , to the house to which they belong , so they are united together in one body , under a most strict obedience to their general , which may be as great a prejudice to the peace and security of a countrey , as the other is to its wealth and abundance : on the other hand , the secular priests are generally good-natured men , who are only subject to their bishop , and that have no designs upon the government , nor the concerns of any house that is in forreign parts lying upon them : so that since those of that communion have the full exercise and all the consolation of their religion from secular priests , even those in rome it self wonder at the error of protestant states , who have not learned long ago to make this difference in the toleration that they allow : and one that has been almost 50 years in the most refined practices of the court of rome , said to me with a very sensible concern , how happy would we here reckon our selves , if we could have a toleration of our religion allowed in england , tho it were with an eternal exclusion of all regulars and iesuites ? and added , that if he saw good grounds for making it , he himself would go and carry the proposition to those of the propaganda . and now i am sure , i have rambled over a great variety of matter , and have made a shift to bring in to one place or other of this letter , a great many particulars , that i could have hardly brought out in an exactness of method , without a much greater compass of words , and a greater stifness of form : but i thought it was more natural , and by consequence , that it would be more acceptable to you , to make them follow one another , in an easy and unforced contexture . i have discoursed all these matters often over and over again since i came into italy : but i have read very little concerning them ; therefore there may be many things here , that i mention because they were new to me , that perhaps are no newes to those that are much more learned than my self . i have told you all that i could gather upon these subjects from the wisest and worthiest men that i found here : i have writ of all matters freely to you , because i am in a countrey where freedom of discourse , in matters of state especially , is practised in its utmost extent . i have yet matter for another long letter , in which the matters of religion will have no share ; for i will end all these in this : and therfore there is one piece of the superstition of lombardy , that affected me too sensibly , not to lead me to bestow a severe censure upon it . i went through that country in october and november , and was often in great distress , because it was not possible to find a glass of wine , that could be drunk , all being either dead or sour . at parma i waited on an eminent person , and lamented to him the misery of travallers , since no wine was to be found that could be drunk : he told me , the natives felt this much more sensibly than strangers did , with whom it was soon over , but they were condemned to suffer that every year ; and tho he himself had vineyards , that produced much more wine than he could consume , yet he could not be master of a good glass of wine , for a great many months of the year ; since all the people were possessed with this superstition , that it was indispensably necessary to mix it with water in the cask , that by this means it drunk dead or sour for so great a part of the year : and all that could be said could not beat this out of the heads of those that dressed their wine : but he added , that the priests , who confirmed the vulgar in this conceit , had found a device to excuse their own wine from this hard fate : for they said , it must needs be kept unmixed , since in the sacrament the wine must be pure , and is then only to be mixed with water ; and thus in all their cellars good wine is to be found , where there is not a drop any where else that can be drunk : one would think that this is to abuse the weakness and credulity of the people , a little too grosly , when they condemn all the laity to drink ill wine , whereas they themselves drink it pure , which is felt more sensibly by the laity , than the depriving them of the chalice , and the engrossing it to the priest in the sacrament . yet the excise that is laid on the wine in florence , has taught the inhabitants a point of wisdom , that those on the other side of the appenins are not capable of ; for the excise being raised upon all their wine , the people who have no mind to pay excise for water , keep their wine pure , so perhaps some such severity in the government in lombardy , may likewise reform them in this piece of absurd superstition , which i felt too sensibly with all the effects that naturally follow the drinking of sour liquor , not to insist upon it with some more than ordinary concern . but since i am upon the point , of the arts that the convents have to live easy , i will end this letter with an account of a house that was very extraordinary , which i saw in my way to italy thro bavaria ; etal , an abbey of benedictines , that by its foundation is bound only to maintain an abbot and 25 monks . it was founded by lewis duke of bavaria , that was emperour : the building is not answerable to the endowment , which is so vast , that they keep a stable of 150 horses , which is indeed one of the best in germany , the horses are of great value , and well kept : they hunt perpetually , and live in as great an abundance of all things as the duke of bavaria himself can do ; and yet these are religious men , that are dead to the world. i cannot forget to tell you a very beautifully diversified prospect that we had at burgo , a little town in the hills of trent , as we lookt out at window , we saw before us a lovely meadow in all the beauty and pride of the moneth of may : a little beyond that was a rising bank all covered over with trees in their full verdure : beyond that the ground rise higher , and the trees had not yet put out their leaves , and things lookt dead and dry , as after harvest : and beyond that there was a huge hill , all covered on the top with snow : so that here we saw in one prospect all the seasons of the year : upon which one of the company made this reflection , that if any painter should in one landskip ; mix all these things , that were then in our eye , he would be thought a man of an irregular fancy , whose designes did not agree with nature ; and yet we had them all then before us . i will make no excuses nor compliments : for those things do not mend matters , and therefore i send you my letter , such as it is , just as it has grown under my pen : and so adieu . postscript . i find i have forgot to mention one very extravagant piece of devotion , to which i was a witness at rome , on the 17 of ianuary , which is st. anthonys day , that was the great father of the monastick orders , whose life is pretended to be writ by s. athanase ; all horses and other beasts of burden are believed to be in an especial manner under his protection : and the monks of his order , have a house near st. maria maggiore ; thither all the horses , mulets and asses of rome , and all round the city , are brought that day to the door of the church , where some monks stand with a broom in holy water , and sprinkle it upon them all : many doggs and lambs , and other favorite animals , are also brought to share in this aspersion : which is believed to have a most special vertue : the force of this hallowing is believed to be such , that if any should fail to bring his horses thither , all the neighbourhood would look on those that have no portion in it , as accursed animals , upon whom some unlucky accident were hanging ; which is so firmly believed , that none would hire a horse or a mulet , that had not been so sprinkled . so that from the popes horses down to the poorest man in rome , all are brought thither ; but this is not all , the profitable part of this piece of folly is , that every one brings a present ; the richer sort send purses of money ; some give great wax lights , all stuck full of testons ( a piece of 20 pence ) the poorer bring either smaller pieces of money , or presents of wine , oyl , bread , or such things as they can afford : but in a word , no man comes empty ; so that this is the market-day of those monks , in which for some gallons of water and salt , they get more presents , than would serve to maintain them for seven years : they quickly convert all that is not necessary for them into money : and by this means they are vastly rich . when i saw all this , i could not but think that men must become first beasts themselves , before things of this kind could pass upon them : but since i have added this in a postscript , rather than give my self the trouble to make it come in pertinently into my letter i will add another particular that is writ me from rome the sixth of october 1687. i am told , that men are now more puzled in their thoughts with relation to the business of molinos than ever . it was visible that his abjuration was only a pretended thing ; for in effect he has abjured nothing : his party believe , that they are very numerous , not only in rome , italy , spain , and france , and in all these parts of the world , but that they have many followers even in america it self : one sees now in almost all the churches in rome some of them praying in corners , with their hands and eyes lifted up to heaven , and all in tears , and sighs ; which is no small trouble to those who thought they had quite routed them : but find they are not so much quasht as it was thought they would have been by the mock triumph that was made upon molinos . nor do they believe a word of those reports that are spread of his leudness : they say , there was no proof ever brought of it ; and that there are many thousands in rome , of both sexes , that conversed much with him , who have all possible reason to conclude , that all these stories that were given out concerning him , are impudent calumnies , set about only to blast him and his doctrine : and the truth is , this seems to be much confirmed by the bull that condemns his books , and his doctrine ; in which no mention is made of his ill life and hypocrisy , which had been very probably done if the matter had been well proved : since this would not only have satisfied people , with relation to him , but would have very much confirmed the accusations of those horrid opinions that are laid to his charge , which had appeared with much more evidence , if it had been found that his life had agreed with those tenets : for tho it had not been a just inference to conclude him guilty of those things , because they were charged on him in the bull , yet one may reckon it almost a sure inference , that he is not guilty of them , since the bull does not tax him for them . a third letter , concerning some of the states of italy ; and of their present interest and policy . sir ; i threw into my former letter , all those general reflections on the state of religion , and the maxims of the romans , concerning it , that i could gather together during my stay at rome . now i quit that subject , and shall at present entertain you with some political observations , which will be so much the more acceptable , because i fancy they will be new to you . but before i go so far as italy , i will give you an account of a very curious salt-work , that i saw in my way to italy , at sode near francfort . it belongs to mr. malapert , and has been wrought above 60 years ; but the present master of it , as he is a man of great worth , so he is very ingenious , and has much perfected that , which was managed at a much greater expence before he undertook it . there rises at the foot of some little hills , which produce a very good wine , a spring of water , that is so very little brackish to the tast , that one will hardly think it possible to fetch much salt out of it ; yet it has such a tast of salt , that there was room for industry to prepare this water , so that without such an expence in fire as should eat out the profit , it might turn to a good account ; which mr. malapert seems to have carried as far as is possible . the meadow that lies in the levil with this spring , is impregnate with salt , iron , nitre , and sulphur : but salt is that which prevails : first then , a pump is put upon this spring , which is managed by a watermil , and throws up the water about fifteen foot high ; and then it goes by a pipe into vast machines , that are made to receive it . there is a great piece of ground inclosed , in which there are 24 vast chests or cisterns for the water , in two stories , 12 in a story , the one just over the other ; they are about seventy foot long , twelve broad , and two deep ; over every one of these , there is a roof of boards , supported by wooden pillars , of 12 foot high ; which covers them from rain-water , but yet the water within them is in a full exposition to the sun ; those roofs are hung with straw , upon which some that manage the work , are often throwing up the water , so that a great deal of the phlegme is imbibed by the straw , and the more fixed parts fall down : according to the heat of the season , this evaporation of the watry parts , goes quicker or slower ; there is a gage , by which they weigh the water ; and so they know how the evaporation advances ; it is of silver , and is so made , that according to the weight of the water , it sinks in it to such a depth ; & so by the degrees markt upon it , they know how heavy the water is : according then to the heat of the season , and the progress of the evaporation , they let the water out of one cistern into another , by a pipe , and when it has past thro the 12 that are in the upper story , then it is conveyed down by pipes into the 12 that are below , and in them all they continue still to throw up the water upon the wit hs of straw , that are over head . in a word , this evaporation discharges the water of so much of its phlegin , that the same quantity of water , that weighed one ounce when it was drawn from the spring , weighs six ounces in this last chest : and all this rolling about of the water from chest to chest lasts sometimes not above twenty day's ; but if the season is only moderately hot , it will be longer a doing ; sometimes it will not be done in a month's time : after that the water is brought to a very considerable degree of saltness , it is conveyed into two great cauldrons , that are 13 foot long , ten broad , & 3½ deep ; under which there are vast furnaces , where in a most violent fire of 11 or 12 hours continuance , the water receives its last evaporation ; & when that is done , the salt which is become thick , but is still moist , is taken up in baskets of willows , and placed about the wall of the furnace : and so the humidity that remains in it drops out , and it is brought to its last degree of perfection : out of it , a tyth is payed ; of which the elector of ments has one half , and the city of francfort the other . this salt is exceeding good and pleasant to the tast . it is much solider and more like the portugal salt , than like our newcastle salt . it serveth very well all the uses of the kitchin , and table : but it has not strength enough to preserve things long . there are vast quantities made of it in hot and dry summers : for the chests are always kept full : and thus all franconia is furnished with salt of its own production at very moderate rates ; for there is so great a lessening of the expence of the fire by this conveyance of the water thro so many chests , that it is afforded very cheap . this i thought deserved well that i should interrupt the earnestness in which you be , to hear what i have to tell you concerning italy , so that i hope you will not be ill pleased with it , especially if your curiosity after the history of nature is as great as it was . i now go over in one step all the iourney that i made from hence to italy , which is certainly the highest scituated country in europe : for as the rhine and danube , that rise in the alpes , and run down to the ocean and the euxine , shewes you that all that tract of ground to those seas is a constant descent , so when one comes to the alpes , either on the french or on the german side , he is a great many days in climbing up those vast mountains , but the descent on the italian side is very inconsiderable . this appears yet more sensible when one comes from turin , where the ascent up mount senice is but a work of a few hours : and yet from the height of that hill , one is in a constant descent till he comes to lions . i will not carry you about italy , to tell you the remarkable things that are there ; but will only tell you some particulars that made the greatest impression on my self , and which were not seen by dr. burnet . in my way from parma to mantua , i past at guastale , which is half way between them , 18 miles distant from both ; where i saw a scene that surprised me . this town is situated on the southside of the po , at half a miles distance from it : it was a considerable branch of the territory of mantua , that was given off to one of the cadets of that family , and was setled in an intail to the heir male . the best part of the revenue of this small principality , was a duty that was payed for all merchandises that went or came upon the po , which when the trade of italy was in a more flourishing condition than it is at present , was farmed for above threescore thousand crowns . the situation of this place makes it yet much more considerable than it is in it self ; for as it lies in the neighbourhood of the principalities of parma and modena , and is not far from the popes territory , so if this place is master of the po , by crossing it , the detachments that may be sent out from it are not only in the territory of mantua , but they may be also in a very few hours both in the milanese and in the venetian dominion ; so that guastale in some respect may be esteemed the center of all the states of lombardy . the duke of mantua married the daughter of the last duke of guastalé , who died in the year 1680. and his nephew don vespasiano gonzaga , who was then in the spanish service , was acknowledged to be his undoubted heir : so he came & took peaceable possession of his dutchy : he was extreamly much beloved by his subjects , and thought himself at quiet in the enjoyment of his new dignity : but all this was soon overturned ; for one came to him from the court of france , to let him know , that that great king could not be wanting to his ally the duke of mantua , to whom guastale belonged of right , his dutchess being the daughter and heir of the late duke , and that therefore since he had usurped the just right of another , the french king warned him , that if he did not withdraw of his own accord , he would give order to put the d. of mantua in possession . it was to no purpose to argue against all this , and to shew the messenger that guastale was a fee intailed on the heir male , of which there had never been the least dispute : but reasons taken from the equity of the thing , are seldom thought strong enough to hold the ballance against reasons of state : so the poor prince being in no condition to resist so powerful an enemy , was forced to abandon his right , and to withdraw , and he was again entertained by the spaniards . for tho there was a sort of a fortification cast about guastale 50 or 60 year ago , yet as that was at best an inconsiderable defence , so even that was now quite ruined . upon his retiring there came a detachement of 300 men from cassale , who took possession of guastale , and continue there to this day : but this had been no great matter , if it had not gone further : some years passed after the new duke was driven away before the true design of this matter appeared . the world was first to be laid to sleep . the town it self is composed of about six or seven thousand inhabitants ; and so the small garrison in it seemed of no great consequence , and was rather an advantage than a prejudice to the town ; they were kept in very good order , and they payed punctually for every thing that they called for : only they brought the place into the method of a garrison ; for all must come in and go out of the town only at one gate . but in the beginning of the year 1686. the mystery of this matter begun to appear : for mr. du plessis , a french engineer , came thither , under the pretence of repairing the old fortifications , and designed a noble and a regular fortification : it is to be a hexagone , with all necessary out-works ; and there is a great splanade that is to be made round the place , and all the houses or trees that are within a considerable distance are to be beat down . in a word , the design is great , and will be executed in all the exactness of the modern fortification ; so that the advantage of the situation , will make it the most important place of italy , and that which will bridle all lombardy , and be able to put it all under contribution upon every occasion . the works were begun in april 1686. and ever since they have kept 400 men constantly at work , upon the pay of a iulio a day : another year will go near to finish it . and yet tho here the justest ground possible , is given to alarm all italy , none seems to be so much as concerned at it . the venetians , that have at all other times , valued themselves upon their prospect of danger , even at the greatest distance , either do not see this , or dare not own their fear . it is true , all this is carried on in the name of the d. of mantua : but it is as certain , that tho it lies so near him , he has never been at the pains to go and see it : it has never been so much as once considered by his council ; nor is his revenue in such a condition as to bear such an encrease of expence : and yet it passes among the people there , that this is a great strength , that is to be made to keep the french out of italy ; and some priests that are corrupted to serve the french interests promote this fiction . if the venetians look on till this is finished , they will do very well to assure themselves of their new conquests in the morea , for their antient ones in the terra firma of italy will probably fail them very quickly . all those of the territory , who know well that their princes name is only made use of , for the fortifying this place , look on with great regret , while they see a work advancing so fast , that is to be a citadel upon all their countrey : of which an ancient person of quality , that is there spoke to me with so much feeling , that he could hardly forbear weeping , when he shewed me that yoke of slavery under which they were falling . i saw , during my stay in mantua , how much all the sensible people there , are concerned to see their prince deliver himself up so blindly to the french interests : they told me , that since his childhood he has been so beset with the instruments and agents of that court , that his inclinations for them are become as another nature in him : he was not out of childhood , when almost all his domesticks , and his masters , both for languages and armes , were furnished him from thence . his putting cassale in the hands of that monarch , was one good evidence , and now the business of guastale is another , to shew that they have gained such an ascendant over his spirit , and have insinuated themselves so much into him , in all those fatal hours of liberty which he allows himself , that it is not thought he will stick at any thing that they demand of him , unless it be at his own going into france ; to which he has been much solicited : but it is not so much as doubted , that if he goes once into that countrey , he will never come out of it again . so he is not like to be wrought on so far ; and if it were not for some such apprehension , it is like enough that he might undertake the journey ; for he does not love staying in his principality so well , but takes pleasure to ramble about ; and he devests himself often of the ceremonies of his greatness , that so he may take a freer career in those exercises , that he loves better than his affairs : and a prince , whose revenue is none of the greatest , and whose expence is often irregular , who has an active envoy always near him , and who is ever ready to furnish him with money , falls naturally into a great dependence on that court. of this a very extraordinary instance appeared not long ago , in the disgrace of the marquisses of cannosse and palliotti : the first of these is his kinsman , and has served him now for many years , with as much fidelity as affection ; the second was captain of his guards , and governour of the castle of mantua which commands the town . these then had the courage as well as the fidelity , to lay before him the ruin that he was like to bring upon himself as well as upon all italy , by delivering himself up so intirely to the french councils , and by putting them first in possession of guastale , and now suffering then to fortify it , which was in effect the delivering up of his principality , and of all his people to them ; who looked upon themselves as brought already under a forreign yoke : they also represented to him the danger of having almost no other domesticks but frenchmen about him , who were all as so many spies upon him , and upon all that were near him , and that were very exact in giving the french envoy mr. baumbeau an account of every thing that he either said or did . these demonstrances made some impressions on the duke , and he promised to them to find out an effectuall remedy to all those evils : but this was not a secret very long ; money and spies find out every thing ; and it is possible that they who gave the duke these faithfull advices might have been engaged to it , either by some instruments of the court of spain , or of the republick of venice : yet the truth of this is not known , but the french envoy made a shift to charge them so heavily , that he got them both to be made close prisoners ; in this condition they were when i was at mantua , and no body durst so much as mention their names , much less interpose for them . all the princes of italy , are as absolute in their own dominions , and as much delivered from all the bonds of law , as some greater kings are , so their subjects are at their mercy , both for their lives , liberties , and estates : and this is that from which one may take a sure measure of the weakness of italy . subjects that retain still all the due liberties of humane nature , and that are not under an arbitrary but a legall government ; fight for themselves , as well as for their prince ; but if they are already as miserable as they can be , so that a change may perhaps put them in a better condition , but can hardly put them in a worse , they will not much concern themselves in their princes quarrel , since they only fight for the continuance , if not for the encrease of their slavery . but now to return to the duke of mantua ; the french envoy has since that time stuck closer to him than ever ; he indeed waits always on him , sometimes acting like an officer of his houshold , and at other times like the governour of his person : he made the tour of italy with him this year , and waited on him to millan , genoa , florence , rome , naples and venice , where they passed the carnavall together : and he took a most particular care that the duke should meet with none in all those places , that might open his eyes , to let him see the ruin that he is bringing upon himself ; yet after all , one of his secretaries , had still the integrity and courage to give him such faithful councels , as had been fatal to others : yet the duke used him better than he had done the two marquisses : for tho the french spies discovered him likewise , yet , nothing could be done to hurt him in the dukes good opinion , therefore it was resolved to take another method to tear so dangerous a man from him ; so he being sent to negotiate some business at the court of turin , was often invited to go a hunting , which he resisted for a great while , tho the french ambassadour pressed him much to it ; at last he was overcome , but his sport was fatal to him ; for he was seised on , and carried by a small party sent from pignarol as is believed . in short , he is in the hands of the french , and it is said in italy , that he is clapt up in st. margarite one of the little islands in the mediterranean sea . this matter was at first highly resented by the duke , but a little time will shew whether the earesses of the court of france can soften him in this matter or not ; for if they can lay him asleep after such an attempt , then all persons will conclude that he is so much in their power , that none will dare to run the hazard of undeceiving him any more . those in the mountferrat feel what a neighbour cassal is to them ; that imperious way of proceeding , without having any great regard to justice , or to contracts and aggreements , that is practised in france , begins to be felt here likewise : of which many smaller instances were given me , but i will tell you two that were more remarkable ; when the garrison was first setled in cassal , those of the mountferrat held the price of their corn so high , that it was hard to furnish the garrison with bread : so some of piedmont undertook to supply them for two years at 21 livers the ration , and the bargain being made ▪ they bought in great stores , and so they quickly filled their granaries : upon this some in the mountferrat came and offered to serve the garrison at 14 livers the ration , upon which the other bargain tho made as sure as any such contract can possibly be made , was broke , and the undertakers were ruined by it . the other story was , that in order to the building the fortifications , some masons made a bargain at 32 livers such a measure , so they brought together a great number of workmen , and were at work ; when others came and offer'd to perform the work at 28 livers , for which the others had 32 livers , only they demanded a considerable advance ; so the first bargain was presently broken , to the great loss of the undertakers : but the 2d undertakers , that had money advanced them , found they had made a bargain that was too hard for them to execute , so they ran away with the money , to the great joy of the countrey . he that told me this , said , that perhaps it surprised the italians , who were not yet acquainted with such things ; but nothing of that kind would seem extraordinary in france , which was so much accustomed to such a way of proceeding that he gave me a particular account of so many , that he had reason to know well , as would fill a book : but that which touched him most sensibly , was the fonds that was made for an east-india company , to which the king gave in three millions , with this positive assurance , that all the losses and dammage of the company should fall on that stock . this was a great encouragment to draw in men , to put money into the stock , and the court set on the project with so much zeal , that letters were writ to all the great bodies and towns of france , that were considered rather as commands than desires : yet after all were engaged , upon the first occasion the kings three millions were taken out of the stock , and the rest were left to shift for themselves . but i must here give you an account of a very extraordinary transaction in the court of turin , which is likewise thought an effect of the authority that the councils of france have likewise there . the marquis de pianesse the son of him that set on the massacre of the protestants in the valleys of piedmont 34 years ago , was in great favour with the late duke of savoy , but the war of genoa miscarried so in his hands in the year 1672 that the duke could never forgive him that matter ; of which the resentments were so quick when he died , that he left a charge on madame royale , never to forgive him , nor to imploy him : he upon his disgrace retired into france and was so well entertained there , that he had interest enough to procure a recommendation from the king to the dutchess of savoy in his favour ; but her excuse was so reasonable , being founded on the orders she had received from the duke on his death bed , that there was no reply to be made to it : yet afterwards a nephew of his , the count massin , was so happy in the dutchesses favour , that he found he only wanted a head as able as his vncles was to support him in that credit , which her favour gave him : and he was so much in the good graces of mad. royale , that he at last prevailed with her to bring his vncle into the chief ministry ; he being certainly one of the ablest men that belongs to that court ; and the pretence found to bring this about decently , was , that the dutchesse did secretly intimate to the court of france , that she found it necessary to imploy the marq. de pianesse , and therfore she desired that the king would renew his recommendation of him , which being done , he was received into the ministry , and had the chief stroke in all affairs : he placed another of his nephews about the duke , and supported him so that he got very far into his favour , so mr. de pianesse observing great disorders in the government , and a great and useless consumption of the revenue , he instructed his nephew that was about the duke so well , that he entertained the young duke often upon these heads , who was not then 15 year old : he shewed him how his countrey was ruined by his mothers ill conduct , and was always suggesting to him the necessity of his assuming the government , and putting an end to his mothers regency , which is a discourse to which all persons of that age have such a natural inclination , that it was no wonder if both vncle and nephew came to believe that the duke hearkned to the proposition : but the duke thought it too hardy a thing to venture on it , without consulting it with some wiser heads ; upon which mr. de pianesses nephew told him , that he would bring his vncle to him , who would conduct the matter for him ; for tho he had great obligations to madam royale , yet his fidelity to his prince , and his affection to his countrey overcame them all . this was a great surprise to the duke , who looked on mr. de pianesse as the person in the world , that was the most obliged to his mother , and that was the most in her interests : and it was believed that the prejudice which this gave him , blasted this whole design : yet he gave him several audiences in secret , and had concerted with him the whole method , both of assuming and managing the government : which was carried on so secretly , that there was no suspition of the matter , till the day before it was to break out , and that the duke was to withdraw himself from his mother : but then it was discovered , and the duke to reconcile himself to his mother , sacrificed the marq. de pianesse to her resentments : he was not only disgraced , and put in prison , but his processe was made before the court of parliament of chambery , for having endeavoured to throw the government into a confusion , by sowing of division between the duke and his mother : yet he defended himself so well that he was acquitted , but he continues still a prisoner : upon his disgrace , there was none that durst oppose himself to mad. royale , or offer any advices to the duke , so that the court of turin was as absolutely governed by the directions that were sent from the court of france , as if the one had been the vassal , if not the subject to the other . i will not prosecute this discourse to tell you that which all europe knows , of the designed match with the infanta of portugal , by which savoy and piedmont would have undoubtely fallen into the hands of the french. the breaking of this , and the dukes being poysoned , as well as his father had been , tho his youth carried him thro it , are things too well known , for you to be ignorant of them . it is true , those who poysoned the present duke , have not been yet discovered and punished , as those were who poysoned his father . while i was at turin , there was a discourse , that the duke was reflecting on the wise advices that mr. de pianesse had given him , and that he intended not only to bring him out of prison , but to receive him again into the ministry , which is confirmed to me since i left those parts . there is nothing more visible , than that the dukes of savoy have sunk extreamly in this age , from the figure which they made in the last ; and how much soever they may have raised their titular dignity , in having the title of royal highness given them , they have lost as much in the figure , that they made in the affairs of europe : and it is now almost too late to think of a remedy : for pignerol and cassal are two very inconvenient neighbours . the truth is , the vanity of this title , and the expenceful humour that their late marriages with france has spread among them , have undone them , for instead of keeping good troops and strong places , all the revenue goes to the keeping up of the magnificence of the court ; which is indeed very splendid . i will not ingage in a relation of this last affair of the valleys of piedmont ; for i could not find particulars enough , to give you that so distinctly as you may perhaps desire it . it was all over , long before i came to turin ? but this i found , that all the court there , were ashamed of the matter : aud they took pains upon strangers , not without some affectation , to convince them that the duke was very hardly drawn to it : that he was long pressed to it , by the repeated instances from the court of france ; that he excused it , representing to the court of france the constant fidelity of those people ever since the last edict of pacification , and their great industry , so that they were the profitablest subjects that the duke had , and that the body of men which they had given his father in the last war with genoa , had done great service ; for it saved the whole army : but all these excuses were without effect ; for the court of france having broken its own faith , that had been given to hereticks , and in that shewed , how true a respect it pays to the council of constance , had a mind to engage other princes to follow this new pattern of fidelity that it set the world : so the duke was not only pressed to extirpate the hereticks of those valeys ; but this threatning was added , that if he would not do it , the king would send his own troops to extirpate heresy ; for he would not only not suffer it in his own kingdom , but would even drive it out of his neighbourhood . he who told me all this , knowing of what countrey i was , added , that perhaps he would within a little while send the like messages to some others of his neighbours . but to return to the expence that is made in the court of turin , i cannot forget a discourse that i had on this subject with a german , that was a man of very good sense : he told me , that nothing ruined the empire so much , as the great magnificence which all the princes affected to keep up in their courts ; and the luxury in which they begun to live , which had much corrupted the antient simplicity and gallantry of that great and warlike nation . not only the nobility , but their very princes travel into france ; and are so much taken with the splendor & luxury that they see there , that they return home quite spoiled with the ill impressions that this makes on them . they carry home with them french-cooks , and all the contrivances of pleasure that are so much studied there , for the vitiating the minds of their countreymen : and by a vast expence , they not only exhaust their revenue , and ruin their subjects , but they become so liable to corruption , that if their income at home cannot support their charge , both their princes and their ministers are reduced , as it were to the necessity of taking pensions , from those whose instruments have set on this luxury , and whose pensions will still support it , till the germans are sufficiently enervated by the feebleness into which all that luxury must needs throw them , and then they will despise and trample upon them , as much as they do now court them . he who told me all this , added , that the little princes of the empire , affected now as much splendor in their courts as the electors did in the last age , and that the electors lived now in as much magnificence as crowned heads did formerly . but he carried his observation further , and having staied some considerable time both in switzerland and holland , he added , that luxury and expence were wicked things even in monarchys , but they were fatal and destructive when they got into common-wealths ; of which the history of lacedemon , athens , and above all of rome , give proofs that are beyond exception ; for there is a humility , a sobriety , and a frugality , that is so necessary for their preservation ; that kingdomes can be better-maintained without troops and strong places , than common-wealths without these . an emulation in expence , a vanity in clothes , furniture , or entertainments , are so contrary to all the principles upon which a common-wealth must be either built or preserved , that he said , he thought that the dutch had lost more of their real strength , by the progress that this pest makes among them , than by all the expence of the last war , of which they complain so much : and indeed the men of luxury and vanity ought to be driven out of common-wealths , as publick enemies to the constitution of the government : since an irregular profusion throws them into injustice and oppression , and may in time expose them to the corruption of other princes , and dissolves that industry and application for affairs by which only they can subsist : for all the maximes that relate to a common-wealth , there is none more indispensable , than that all men regulate their expence , so that it may not exceed their income : and therefore he admired that part of the venetian constitution , that regulates the expence of their nobility ; and concluded , that if the states and the cantons did not put an effectual stop to the progress of those disorders among them , the figure that they had made in all the affairs of europe , as it was in a great degree already eclipsed among the cantons , so would sink apace even in the states ; and this was all that was wanting , to set up a new monarchy in the west . but i have got such a trick of making digressions , that i find it is hardly possible for me to hold long close to a point : there is something in travelling , i fancy , that makes a mans thoughts reel ; and that leads his pen to wander about as much as his person does : yet i remember still what drew me into all this ramble ; it was the business of guastale , and the court of mantua that led me so far about . i will say no more to you of the rest of lombardy ; nor will i enter into any description of tuscany ; but shall only tell you one thing , which both touched me much and pleased me extreamly . i need not inlarge to you on the poverty & misery that appears in pisa , where there remains yet enough to shew what they once were , and how much they are now sunk from what they were while they were a free state : but all this is much more sensible , when one goes from hence to lucca , which tho it has not the advantage of situation that pisa has , yet is quite another sort of a place . the town is well built , full of people , and as full of wealth : the whole soil of this small state is well cultivated and is full of villages , all the marks and effects of liberty appear , in an universal civility , & a generous and frank way of living : this is also the place of all italy that is freest of all crimes and publick vices ; they value themselves upon nothing but their liberty , of which the state is so jealous , that the frequent change of their magistrates , from two moneths to two moneths , & the restraint in which they are kept while they bear office , they being indeed honorable prisoners all the while , have preserved that here , which so ▪ many of their neighbouring states have lost : and as liberty is engraven in capital letters , upon the publick buildings of this state , so it appears to be much deeper in all their hearts . one sees the effects of their wealth , in all their publick works , as well as in the fortifications of this place , which are much better , and better kept than in any place i saw in italy , except genoa . there is on the inward side of the ramparts , a noble plantation , which is one of the beautifullest decorations that belongs to this place ; for as there is a considerable space left void between the ramparts and the buildings , so this is planted all about the whole town , with several rows of trees , which afford pleasant walks , and a lovely shade , which is no small matter , where they are exposed to so hot a sun. i come in the last place to give you an account of genoa , which tho it is not able now to compete as it did some ages ago with the republick of venice , yet is still a great body and full of wealth ; one that comes out of the popes patrimony and tuscany , into this narrow border that lies between the hills and the sea , should expect to find as great a difference between their abounding in people and wealth , as there is between the soil of these two countries : but he finds the change just contrary to what in reason he ought to expect : for all this edge of soil , is so full of villages and towns , and there is so great a plenty of money and of every thing else here , that it amases a traveller no less , than the abandoned state of those other places . the numbers of the subjects of this republick , are estimated to 330000 persons ; which are thus reckoned up ; in the town of genoa it self there are about 80000. persons : in the villages and towns that lie westward there are 120000. and 30000. in those that lie to the east : and the inhabitants of the island of corsica are reckoned to be 100000. they keep two small forts in corsica , one at calvi on that end that looks to genoa , and another at boniface on the other end that looks to sardinia ; for they have let s. fiorenza and some other small places go to ruin . these two are considerable in themselves , and command two very good harbours ; yet as the building in calvi are too much exposed and too high , so boniface is under a high ground , that is within musket shut of it , and that commands it : these places are now in a sad condition , ill kept , and ill furnished both with men and animunition , so that they could not make a great resistance , there being but 150 men in calvi , and 200 in boniface ; and it is believed , that the reason of their letting s. fiorenza go to ruin , is , the greatness of the place , and the expence of keeping it . the corses are extreamly brave , and have a rage in their courage , that would be much more valueable and usefull than it is if they were more governable , and could be brought under an exact discipline : but they are unruly , and as apt to mutiny , when they see no enemy , as to fight well when it comes to that . the compass of the fortification of genoa is an amasing thing ; for it runs all along the hills in a compass of many miles , i was told it was above 15 mile , & in the expence that has been laid out on this and on the two moles , chiefly the new one , one sees that this state spares nothing which publick safety or the convenience of trade do require : these publick works has run the republick into a vast debt ; for they owe above nine millions of crowns that are upon the bank , besides several other debts , in particular their great debt to st. georges house ; the greatest part of the revenue of this state stands engaged for the interest that they pay , so that tho the whole revenue amounts to 1200000 crowns , they reckon that 900000 crowns of this is engaged , so that they have only three hundred thousand crowns clear for their whole expence , which is so small a matter , that it is no wonder if they are in a low condition , and can do little upon so narrow a fond : their revenue rises chiefly out of an excise that falls so equally upon all the subjects of this state , that they reckon that every man in genoa , payes six crowns a year to the state. the whole land forces of this state were but 3500 men , yet of late they have raised them up to 4000 men ; of which 2500 are the garrison of the city , and there are 600 in savona , which after the city it self is the most important place that belongs to this state : the extent of the whole countrey , that goes by the name of the river of genoa , is 180 miles , of which 120 lie westward , and 60 lie eastward ; the mountains that are almost impassible are thought a sufficient defence to cover them from their neighbours in lombardy , and from the duke of savoy , and the state of millan . it is true , they have one fort called gavi , that is 25 miles distant from the town , which has all the advantages of sitution that are possible for keeping the passes thro the mountains : but as they keep only a garrison of 120 men in it , so all things in it are so neglected , that it could make no considerable resistance to an enemy that could attack in vigorously . in short , the strength of this state is very inconsiderable , their souldiers are ill disciplined , their officers want experience , and they have no good engineers ; the new mole is indeed a vast work , built out into the sea seven fathom deep , and there are an hundred pieces of cannon on it to defend the old mole ; their naval forces consist in six galleys , and and two men of war ; but these are not kept as ships of war , but are imployed rather as merchant-men , so that they not only bear their own expence , but bring in an overplus to the state. finale , which is the only seaport that belongs to the state of millan , is a poor abandoned village without either fortification or garrison , nor do the spanish galleys come there any more ; but make genoa it self their step , and passage between spain and millan : so that an attempt upon genoa was indeed the taking of all the milanese , since the communication between spain and it , being now thro genoa , whensoever this republick falls into the hands of the french , all the millanese must fall of it self , or rather indeed all italy , must needs fall with it . this is as far as i could understand it the outward force of genoa : for it can expect little from its allies , it having none at all beside spain : and the slowness and feebleness of that court , are too visible to give any state great courage that has no other support besides this to depend on : as for their neighbours in italy , they have no sort of commerce with them ; for they pretend to a degree of precedence , equal to the venetians : and to have the respect of a crowned head pay'd to them , and this cuts off all communication with the other courts of italy , who consider venice in another manner than they do genoa . as for spain , they have all possible engagements with it : many of the richest families of genoa have great estates in the milanese , and the other dominions of the king of spain ; so that they must upon their own account be true to the interests of that crown , and spain is as much concerned in their preservation as in any of its own provinces , since it defends their empire in italy ; so that genoa and spain are now inseparably united to one another , by their mutual interests . but i come next to give you some account of the inward state of genoa . it is known , that the liberty was restored to them , by the most earnest intercession of that great captain , and gallant countrey-man , andreas doria , whose statue , in remembrance of this , is set up in an open place in their town : this was in the year 1528. yet tho from that time they had their government in their own hands , they were still obliged to let a squadron of the spanish gallys , stand in their arsenal , who kept then a fleet of about 80. gallys , so that till spain was so much sunk from its former greatness , that it was no more a terrour to any of its neighbours , genoa was still in great dread of having their liberty swallowed up by them , and therefore they do not reckon their entire liberty but from the year 1624. or 1625. that they saw themselves out of all danger from any of their neighbours : france was not then begun to grow strong at sea , and spain was strong no where ; so that since that time , till france began to put out great fleets , and that they had such a dreadful neighbour of touloun , they were safe and at quiet : but they fell under the common disease of all common-wealths , when they are long in peace , and while their commerce flourishes ; a spirit of insolence and of faction began to spread it self over the whole town , which was grown to such a height , that in the project that was offered to the court of france , shewing the easiness of this conquest ( of which i have seen the copy ) the divisions and factions amongst them are proposed , as the chief ground upon which they founded the probability of the ruin of that common-wealth . there are three sorts of persons in genoa , the nobility , the citizens , and the inferior people . there are two ranks of nobility , the one is of the more antient families , the other is of those who have been chosen and raised up to that dignity of late . it is true , the aggreement that was made in the year 1576. between them , is exactly observed , by which the government and the publick imployments are to be equally divided between them : but yet there is so great a height of pride kept up among the ancient families , that they will not inter-marry with the other , and think it a diminution to them , to enter into any familiarity with them , and even to keep them company : this on the other hand kindles an indignation in those latter families , when they see themselves so much despised by the other . the ancient families have a necessary dependence upon the crown of spain , by the great estates that they have in their dominions ; but the others , whole estates lie rather in money , which either is in the bank , or that runs out in exchange or trade , they are concerned in nothing but in the preservation of their bank , and by consequence in their liberty ; for none can doubt but that if they fell in the power of another prince , the debts on the bank would be but ill payd . thus the nobility stand divided into two factions , which discover their animosities to one another upon very many occasions : for publick imployments are sought after here , with as much intrigue as elsewhere . i will give you only one instance of this , because it is both very refined , and it related to that doge , whose government was so unhappy both by the bombarding of genoa , and by his own going to versailles to ask pardon . he himself was a man of a quiet temper , that did not aspire ; but his wife could not be satisfied till he was doge , and she dogesse : so she set so many machines at work , that after the several tours , that the matter made in the many ballottings , it came to the fixing of the last three out of whom the doge was to be chosen : and her husband was one of them ; but there being one of the three , of whom she was very apprehensive , she engaged one of her friends , to seem so assured of his election , as to lay considerable wagers with several of the electors , who were likeliest to favour him , that he should be chosen : now they having a greater mind to win their betts , than to promote their friend , gave their votes in favour of him , that was upon that made doge . the 2d body in genoa is that of the citizens , who seem to be extreamly weary of the insolence of the nobility ; and there are many among them , that think themselves no way inferiour to them , neither in the antiquity , nor in the dignity of their families . they do also complain of a great injustice done them by the nobility ; for in the agreement made between the nobility and the citizens , in the year 1528. one article was , that every year ten citizens should be according to their merit received into their body . it is certain , that if this had been observed , the nobility of genoa had become by this time so common , that this would have sunk its dignity extreamly : but instead of doing this yearly , it is now done but once in 30 years : so the citizens complane much , that this encouragment and recompence of merit is now withdrawn . the nobility pretend on the other hand , that by that agreement , they are only enabled to make an annuall promotion , but that they are not obliged to it : and i was told , that the originall record of that agreement , could not be found now ; and no doubt it has been destroyed by the order of the senate . in short , the citizens have so great an aversion to the government , that it was generally thought that they would easily be prevailed on to shake it oft , and to throw themselves rather into the armes of another prince , who would certainly have very soon trampled upon them all equally ; for it is too common a thing , to see in all those intestine factions , that angry and ill-natured men , consider the last injury , more that all other things : and are ready to sacrifice all to their resentments : and are so intent upon their revenges , that often they will not look into the consequences of what they do , but go on , which way soever the anger of the faction drives them : and those who are wise enough , to make their own advantage of those quarrels , and that are dextrous enough to manage them artificially , make commonly those parties take their turns in using one another ill , in which they know how to find their account : and as this observation holds often in colder climates , so in a countrey where revenges are very much studied and gratified , no wonder if this was much relied on . the third rank is of the trades men and rabble , who have their chief , dependance upon the great nobility : but they are a vicious and dissolute sort of people , as any are in the world . and indeed all genoa is so extreamly corrupt , so ignorant , and so brutal , and so little acquainted with the true notions of government , that here is a common-wealth degenerated to such a degree , that it cannot resist a considerable shock . the subjects are excessively rich , tho the state is poor : and this appears both in the magnificence of their buildings , which is beyond imagination , and in the great wealth that is in their churches and convents , which seemed to me to be beyond what is in venice it self . a sensible man that i knew there told me , that as there was among them a sort of impunity to all kind of vice , so their gross ignorance made them incapable to conduct their state ; for while their wealth blew them up , with that pride that it commonly produces in mean souls , and when their intrigues brought them into a considerable share of the government , they satisfied themselves with carrying on the interests of their own cabal , and depressing those that opposed them , without opening their minds to so great a thought , as that of correcting or securing their common wealth . they neither had heads nor hearts capable of a vigorous defence : and they knew nothing of what was doing abroad ; but contented themselves with minding the interest of their city factions . he added , that when a common-wealth fell once into this disease , it was in a much worse state , than any to which the rigour even of an unhappy war , could reduce it : as a man whose vitals are inwardly corrupted , is in a much worse condition , than he that has received many wounds ; nature may bring him thro the one , tho he had lost ever so much blood ; whereas it must sink under the other : so all the mischief that could befall a common-wealth could hardly destroy it , if it retain'd the inward vigour of its first maximes and constitution : and he did not stick to say , that as high as the states of holland were now in holding the ballance of europe , if their towns fell once into established factions , if learning sunk among them , so that their magistrates grew ignorant , chiefly of the affairs of europe , if they came to have a magistracy , that had not the right understanding of war , and the courage with which some practice in military matters inspire men , and if their wealth swelled them up to an unreasonable pride , and that men rise more upon the little intrigues of city factions , than upon true merit ; whensoever , he said , the states fell into this disease , then the strength of that republick was gone ; and tho they might subsist after that longer or shorter , according to the conjuncture of affairs , yet one might reckon them to be in their decline , which must end in a most certain ruin to them , either within doors , or from abroad . i have now told you enough to let you see how reasonable a project it was to send a fleet against so feeble a body ; which without most prodigious errors in the management , could not have miscarried : and this is so clear , and so confessed by every man in genoa , that one rather wonders how they found a way to conduct it so ill . the man that formed the whole project was stiven valdyron of nismes , and a protestant , who is a person of a very good understanding , and having lived above 12 years in genoa , had time enough not only to raise a very good estate out of his trade , but to see into the whole feebleness of that government . i conversed long and much with him : and having since that time been in genoa it self , i have seen so clearly the truth of all that he told me , that i may now assure you of all that i learnt from him . he had a strange affection to his great monarch , and fancied that the obligations of raising his glory , was superiour to all other : and no doubt he reckoned to find his own account in it , if he could have been the occasion of making the king of france master of genoa : therefore he drew up the whole project , and shewed both of what importance the thing was ; and how easily it might be executed : for i have a copy of the whole scheme , which mr. st. olon sent to the court of france , of which mr. valdyron was indeed the author ; the design being entertained , st. olon had an intimation given him , to withdraw some day 's before the french fleet came before the town . but valdyron was left to try his hard fate ; for as soon as the fleet began to do acts of hostility , valdyron , who had been known to be much with st. olon , was clapt in prison , and while he was in it , a bomb broke thro his prison , but did him to hurt , only the violent noise it made weakned the tympan of his ear so much , that he lost his hearing of one side . but he , as well as all genoa , fancied they were lost , and that the french must be certainly masters of the place in a few hours . the consternation and confusion was so great , that if at first a great shower of bombs had been thrown into the town , and a descent had been made , they had certainly succeeded ; for the people were in such a disorder , that the magistrates were not regarded ; and indeed many of them shewed as much fear as the rabble did . but the french , instead of beginning vigorously at first , threw in one bomb , and after some hours another ; and so went on slowly for a day or two ; in which time , the people began to get into order , and to take heart : and now their first fear , turned to a rage against the french ; so that when they made a descent , they found such a resistance , that they were forced to go back to their ships , having left behind them 500 of their best men : and the fleet continued bombarding the town , till they had shot all their bombs ; and when their store was spent , they sail'd away , having laid a great many noble buildings in ruines . the morality of this way of proceeding , was somewhat hard to be found out : the italians do not stick to say , it was an assassinat , when without warning or proceeding in the way of a fair war , a fleet came and surprised and burnt a town : but the conduct was as extraordinary , as the action it self was honorable and worthy of a most christian king . it was pleasant to hear a spaniard , that belonged to the count of melgar talk of this matter : he said , that in this , france had acted as it had done on many other occasions , in which tho it had the favourablest conjuncture possible , it had done nothing suteable to what might have been expected ; for tho they had here a calm sea , for four dayes , which is a very extraordinary thing in the bay of genoa , that is almost alwayes in a storm , and tho they had surprised the town , that had not the least apprehension of such a design , and found them in a condition not likely to have resisted a much smaller force ; yet he said , that feebleness which had appeared upon many other occasions , shewed it self likewise here , since this great expedition failed , and the reproach of first attempting it , and then miscarrying in it , was studied to be carried off by this , that the design was only to chastise genoa , at which there is not a man in the town that does not laugh . he upon this took a great compass for these last twenty years backwards , to shew that there was nothing extraordinary in all this reign , that had been the subject of so many panegyricks , unless this may be reckoned extraordinary , that there has been so little progress made , when they had the fairest opportunities possible : an infant king of spain , and a feeble council , and a distraction in the states of holland ; so that the first successes that were the effects of the weakness and surprise of those that were attackt , are rather a reproach than a glory to a reign , that has understood so ill how to serve it self of those advantages , that had nothing of the greatness of a conquering genius in it ; and where the ministry shewed rather an exactness in executing little projects , than a largeness of soul in laying vast ones . i could not but be pleased to see a spaniard , find somewhat that entertained his pride in the contempt of the french , at the same time that the low estate of their affairs , made him feel the depression of their own empire as much as the progress of the great monarch of france . but now i cannot but tell you the rest of valdyron's story : as soon as the french were gone , the government of genoa began to examin him , but he stood to his denial , and said , he knew nothing : all his effects were seised on and dissipated , and he himself was four or five times put to the strapado , which was done by tying his hands behind his back , and fetching them over his head , which disjoynted his armes and shoulder-blades , in a most terrible manner , yet he had the firmness to stand it out : and so they could draw nothing from him : but as soon as the court of france understood , that both he , and several other frenchmen , that lived in genoa , were put in prison , the resident of genoa was clapt up at paris : and when the overtures were made to accommodate this matter , valdyron was no more ill used , and after some months he was set at liberty : but his estate was quite lost : yet he came to france , not doubting but that so great a service , and such severe suffering , would have procured him some considerable reward : but after he had languished there above a year , he got a pension , that was just enough to keep him alive , of two hundred crowns : and even that was stopt , as soon it was known that he was of the religion , till he changed . this piece of gratitude for such a service , that had cost him so dear , was no extraordinary encouragement for others to venture as he had done . yet i who knew him well , for almost two years , could not but admire the wonderful zeal he had for the glory of his king ; for in the midst of all his misery , and of all the neglect he met with , having fallen from so flourishing a condition , he could never be brought to think that he had done foolishly : but was rather proud of it , that he had formed so sure a scheme , for putting genoa into his masters hands : & this he said often to me , when he was so poor , that he did not know where to dine . the affinity of the matter , makes me call to mind a conversation that i had at rome , with two of the old magistrates of messina ; who had been men that bore a great stroak in that town , during the revolt : and were then reduced to the misery of accepting a charity . they told us , that all the oaths , that mr. de vivonne , and mr. la fueillade , swore to them in the kings name , as well as in their own , never to abandon them , which were made upon the sacrament , besides whole valleys of oaths , that mr. la fueillade made them from morning to night , while he was among them , it seems went for nothing , but matters of form : yet they said , they thought the french ministry would have considered the kings interests , if they had no regard to his honour . they added , that if the king of france , when he found the war of messina lay heavy upon him , had sent to spain , and offered to that court , as a pledge of the peace that he was offering them at nimmegen , to put messina again in to their hands , provided they would grant an indemnity for what was past , and a confirmation of their antient priviledges , of which he himself would be the garand , this they said the spaniards would have without doubt , accepted as something come to them from heaven : and if the matter had ended thus , as it would have been highly honourable for the king , so it would have given him the dependance both of sicily and naples , and have kept them still in a disposition to throw themselves into his hands : whereas in the way that their business ended , if there should be in any time hereafter , a provocation given in those parts to revolt , they would sooner throw themselves into the armes of the turk , if he should be again in a condition to protect them , than of those who had abandoned them in so strange a manner , taking no care neither of the priviledges of the town in general , nor of those particular persons , who had rendred themselves unpardonable to the spaniards . it is true , some were brought away to france , the two that i have mentioned were of that number , and had small pensions assigned them , which were but ill payed : and because some of them had not patience enough to bear such an unlooked for usage , but complained freely of it , a pretence was taken from thence , to banish them all out of france ; so that ever since they have suffered a great deal of misery . i will not digress so far as to give you an account of that whole revolt , which they justified to us , from the great priviledges of their town , which were indeed such as made it a sort of a common-wealth : that had a right to defend it self against those manifest infractions with which they charged the spaniards . they told us , that the confiscations of messina had amounted to twenty millions : and yet for all that the king of spain was not much the richer by their ruin ; for the vice-roy and government of sicily , pretended to exhaust all by a citadel that they are building : and by some other publick works . in conclusion , the two poor messinesses , seeing a dutchman in our company , turned the discourse to him , and wished him to warn his countreymen , by their fate , how much some courts ought to be relied on . and now i have done with all the political observations , that i could make in italy . but as i begun this letter with one piece of natural history , i will end it with another . the first was a way of preparing of salt , and the second is a new way of preparing of vitriol , which was lately set up in the sulfatara , near puzzolo . it has not been long enough a going , to enable one to judge how it will succeed ; but yet all things are very promising ; and that which gives a good prospect of it , is , that all is done without the expence of any fire . the method of it is this . there are several cistorns made in that great bottom of the sulfatara , of great stones cemented very close : into these all the rain both of that bottom , and of the little hills that are round it does fall , which is impregnated with vitriol : they do also lay a great many tiles and bricks before all those vents , that the fire which is in this soil makes : and where the smoke comes out , with so rapid a violence ; so that this smoke passing thro these bricks , leaves a great deal of sulphur and vitriol upon them : and these bricks are washed in those cisterns , and by this means the water becomes impregnated with vitriol : then they put the water into coppers , which they set over those violent hot eruptions ; so that this serves as a fire , to evaporate the phlegm , and so they find quantities of vitriol . the revenue of this goes to the annunciata of naples : and they begin to promise themselves great advantages from it : but a little time will shew this , as well as greater matters . i will add no new trouble , to that which the length of this letter must needs have given you : so i will conclude , without any other formality , but that of assuring you that i am , sir , your most humble servant . postscript . since i added a postscript to my two former letters , i intend to make this so far of a piece with them , as to conclude this likewise with one ; for i find , looking over the little notes that i took , a particular that had escaped me , and yet it seems to deserve to be mentioned : and since i have not brought it into my letters , i have resolved to make a postscript express for it . there is a little town in the appennins , about 25 miles from rome , called norcia , near which there is a considerable abbey , which belongs now to a cardinal . this town , tho it lies within the popes territory , yet has such great priviledges still reserved to it , that it my pass in some sort for a free common-wealth . they make their lawes , and choose their own magistrates ; but that which is the most extraordinary part of their constitution , and that is the most exactly observed , is , that they are so jealous of all priests , and of their having any share in their government , that no man that can either read or write is capable of bearing a share in their government : so that their magistracy , which consists of 4 persons , is alway's in the hands of vnlettered men , who are called there li quatri illiterati : for they think the least tendency to letters , would bring them under the ordinary miseries that they see all their neighbours are brought under by the credit in which both the robes are among them . and they are so shy of all churchmen , and so jealous of their liberty , that when the cardinal comes during the heats of the summer sometimes , to his abbey , they take no notice of him , nor do they make any sort of court to him . one that has been oft there , told me , that by divers of their customes they seem to be of the race of the old latines ; and that their situation and their poverty had at all times preserved them : yet they are not such strangers to the manners of the rest of the italians as not to take pleasure in severe revenges , of which this instance was given me . the abbot that was the cardinals predecessor , had an auditor who was much in his favour , that made love to the wife of one of the magistrates of norcia , which she discovered to her husband ; he ordered her to give the auditor an appointment ; but provided a good surgeon and all other things that were necessary to put the auditor out of all danger of breaking his vow of chastity : for he was a churchman ; and the auditor not failing to observe his rendezvous , was caught , and the operation was performed with all possible care : and he was treated very well till he was quite cured , and then he was sent back to his patron . the abbot was highly offended with this affront that was done him : and it may be easily believed that the auditor was not well pleased with this forced chastity that was now imposed on him : so they sent an information of the matter to the rota ; and asked their opinion : but the court of the rota was wiser than to suffer a matter of this nature to become publick . to this i shall add a pleasant thing that was told me concerning priests that fell under the misfortune of this auditor . it is known , that according to the canon law , the one indelible character defaces the other : and that a priest so treated can no more say mass : yet i was told that this distinction was used , that if the priest had all that was taken from him restored to him , so that he could carry it in his pocket , he was still esteemed entire , and might say mass ; but unless he could have the consolation of carrying those things dead about him , that had been perhaps too quick before , the character was lost , or was at least under a totall suspension : if all this is a little too pleasant and too natural , a little good humour must be forgiven to a traveller , whose spirits are too much in motion , to be so setled and so grave as they ought to be . finis . errata . page 6. line 16. dele of . p. 9. l. 22. portion r. proportion . p. 16. l. 18. after and r. upon . p. 22. l. 4. dele that . p. 27. l. 7. r. that was . p. 34. l. 23. cited r. said . p. 36. l. 19. is r. it . p. 38. l. 18. dele a. p. 47. l. last . r. slippers . p. 48. l. 9. sling . r. sling . l. 20. hear r. bear . p. 70. l. 26. is r. were . p. 82. l. 11. strong r. strange . p. 83. l. 8. or r. of . p. 85. l. 9. sr. r. st. p. 87. l. 16. 235. r. 35. p. 89. l. 3. r. damnatos . p. 130. l. 11. me . r. we . p. 157. l. 10. where r. when . p. 169. l. 18. shut r. shot . p. 171. l. 18. in r. it . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30473-e4730 another would have thought that s. paul should have been cited for this , rather than s. aust. , since he had said this first , acts. 17. v. 28. but rome is not the place of the world where the n. testament is most read ; and this putting of ones self in the presence of god , can only mean the considering ones self as before him . this article is falsly represented : for the quietists , as all other mysticks , only except to that dry learning which is not accompanied with an inward sense of divine matters . here is a new tribunal of infallibility . if we judge of this new infallibility by this way of proving that iesus christ is the proper object of contemplation , we will not much admire it ; but if this article is true , it looks liker deism . if this article is true , it confirms the suspition of deism . here one sees what a thing school divinity is , by this way of reckoning : but the value of acts rises from the intention of the mind , and not from the extension of the object . this is not meant of pure ideas , but of gross phantasms . this article is also falsly represented ; for the quietists only mean , that souls suffer many inward agonies in a contemplative state , of which all the books of the mysticks are full , and which they call the great desolation . the quietists only mean by this , that if a man in an act of outward devotion is carried to contemplate , he is not to hold his mind to the outward devotion . the quietists only mean , that no general methods carry men to contemplation , and that it is the effect of a special grace . this of one soul is ridiculous . the quietists only condemn a dry and mechanical meditation . here , notwithstanding all our representers in england , you see the adoration of images is so received at rome , that it is a crime to think that the most perfect may be above it . this is only meant by the quietists , of returning to a mechanical way of meditation . this is only so to be understood , that according to the rules given by all the mysticks , when ill thoughts come into a mans mind , the best may to overcome them , is rather to neglect them , than to struggle much against them . this is indeed down-right enthusiasm , yet much of this strain will be found in all the writings of the mysticks . this the quietists deny , as an imputation cast upon them . all the mysticks , and in particular sr. philip nerius , have often done things that seemed ridiculous & absurd , as the highest excercises of mortification and humility . this the quietists reject as a calumny , to render them justly odious to all the world but it is vèry poorly refuted , certainly job said many very hard things , which god who knew the sincerity of his heart , and the strength of his temtations , did not lay to his charge . utopia written in latin by sir thomas more, chancellor of england ; translated into english. utopia. english more, thomas, sir, saint, 1478-1535. 1684 approx. 235 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 104 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2007-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a51327 wing m2691 estc r7176 12089518 ocm 12089518 53806 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a51327) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 53806) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 75:10) utopia written in latin by sir thomas more, chancellor of england ; translated into english. utopia. english more, thomas, sir, saint, 1478-1535. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [22], 206 p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1684. translation of: utopia. first ed. of burnet's translation. cf. bm. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng utopias. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 rina kor sampled and proofread 2006-02 aptara rekeyed and resubmitted 2006-04 andrew kuster sampled and proofread 2006-04 andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion utopia : written in latin by sir thomas more , chancellor of england : translated into english. london ; printed for richard chiswell at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdclxxxiv . the preface . there is no way of writing so proper , for the refining and polishing a language , as the translating of books into it , if he that undertakes it , has a competent skill of the one tongue , and is a master of the other . when a man writes his own thoughts , the heat of his fancy , and the quickness of his mind , carry him so much after the notions themselves , that for the most part he is too warm to judg of the aptness of words , and the justness of figures ; so that he either neglects these too much , or overdoes them : but when a man translates , he has none of these heats about him : and therefore the french took no ill method , when they intended to reform and beautify their language , in setting their best writers on work to translate the greek and latin authors into it . there is so little praise got by translations , that a man cannot be engaged to it out of vanity , for it has past for a sign of a slow mind , that can amuse it self with so mean an entertainment ; but we begin to grow wiser , and tho ordinary translators must succeed ill in the esteem of the world , yet some have appeared of late that will , i hope , bring that way of writing in credit . the english language has wrought it self out , both of the fulsome pedantry under which it laboured long ago , and the trifling way of dark and unintelligible wit that came after that , and out of the course extravagance of canting that succeeded this : but as one extream commonly produces another , so we were beginning to fly into a sublime pitch , of a strong but false rhetorick , which had much corrupted , not only the stage , but even the pulpit ; two places , that tho they ought not to be named together , much less to resemble one another ; yet it cannot be denied , but the rule and measure of speech is generally taken from them : but that florid strain is almost quite worn out , and is become now as ridiculous as it was once admired . so that without either the expence or labour that the french have undergone , our language has , like a rich wine , wrought out its tartar , and is i●…insensibly brought to a purity that could not have been compassed without much labour , had it not been for the great advantage that we have of a prince , who is so great a judg , that his single approbation or dislike has almost as great an authority over our language , as his prerogative gives him over our coin. we are now so much refined , that how defective soever our imaginations or reasonings may be , yet our language has fewer faults , and is more natural and proper , than it was ever at any time before . when one compares the best writers of the last age , with these that excel in this , the difference is very discernable : even the great sir francis bacon , that was the first that writ our language correctly ; as he is still our best author , yet in some places has figures so strong , that they could not pass now before a severe judg. i will not provoke the present masters of the stage , by preferring the authors of the last age to them : for tho they all acknowledg that they come far short of b. iohnson , beamont and fletcher , yet i believe they are better pleased to say this themselves , than to have it observed by others . their language is now certainly properer , and more natural than it was formerly , chiefly since the correction that was given by the rehearsal ; and it is to be hoped , that the essay on poetry , which may be well matched with the best pieces of its kind that even augustus's age produced , will have a more powerful operation , if clear sense , joined with home but gentle reproofs , can work more on our writers , than that unmerciful exposing of them has done . i have now much leisure , and want diversion , so i have bestowed some of my hours upon translations , in which i have proposed no ill patterns to my self : but the reader will be best able to judg whether i have copied skilfully after such originals . this small volume which i now publish , being writ by one of the greatest men that this island has produced , seemed to me to contain so many fine and well-digested notions , that i thought it might be no unkind nor ill entertainment to the nation , to put a book in their hands , to which they have so good a title , and which has a very common fate upon it , to be more known and admired all the world over , than here at home . it was once translated into english not long after it was written ; and i was once apt to think it might have been done by sir thomas more himself : for as it is in the english of his age , and not unlike his stile ; so the translator has taken a liberty that seems too great for any but the author himself , who is master of his own book , and so may leave out or alter his original as he pleases : which is more than a translator ought to do , i am sure it is more than i have presumed to do . it was writ in the year 1516 , as appears by the date of the letter of peter giles's , in which he says , that it was sent him but a few days before from the author , and that bears date the first of november that year ; but i cannot imagine how he comes to be called sheriff of london in the title of the book , for in all our printed catalogues of sheriffs , his name is not to be found . i do not think my self concerned in the matter of his book , no more than any other translator is in his author : nor do i think more himself went in heartily to that which is the chief basis of his utopia , the taking away of all property , and the levelling the world ; but that he only intended to set many notions in his reader 's way ; and that he might not seem too much in earnest , he went so far out of all roads to do it the less suspected : the earnestness with which he recommends the precaution used in marriages among the utopians , makes one think that he had a misfortune in his own choice , and that therefore he was so cautious on that head ; for the strictness of his life covers him from severe censures : his setting out so barbarous a practice , as the hiring of assassinates to take off enemies , is so wild and so immoral both , that it does not admit of any thing to soften or excuse it , much less to justify it ; and the advising men in some cases to put an end to their lives , notwithstanding all the caution with which he guards it , is a piece of rough and fierce philosophy . the tenderest part of the whole work , was the representation he gives of henry the seventh's court ; and his discourses upon it , towards the end of the first book , in which his disguise is so thin , that the matter would not have been much plainer if he had named him : but when he ventured to write so freely of the father in the son's reign , and to give such an idea of government under the haughtiest prince , and the most impatient of uneasy restraints that ever reigned in england , who yet was so far from being displeased with him for it , that as he made him long his particular friend , so he employed him in all his affairs afterwards , and raised him to be l. chancellor , i thought i might venture to put it in more modern english : for as the translators of plutarch's hero's , or of tullies offices , are not concerned , either in the maxims , or in the actions that they relate ; so i , who only tell , in the best english i can , what sir thomas more writ in very elegant latin , must leave his thoughts and notions to the reader 's censure , and do think my self liable for nothing but the fidelity of the translation , and the correctness of the english ; and for that i can only say , that i have writ as carefully , and as well as i can . the author's epistle to peter giles . i am almost ashamed , my dearest peter giles , to send you this book of the utopian common-wealth , after almost a years delay ; whereas no doubt you look'd for it within six weeks : for as you know i had no occasion for using my invention , or for taking pains to put things into any method , because i had nothing to do , but to repeat exactly those things that i heard raphael relate in your presence ; so neither was there any occasion given for a studied eloquence : since as he delivered things to us of the sudden , and in a careless stile ; so he being , as you know , a greater master of the greek , than of the latin ; the plainer my words are , they will resemble his simplicity the more : and will be by consequence the nearer to the truth , and that is all that i think lies on me : and it is indeed the only thing in which i thought my self concerned . i confess , i had very little left on me in this matter , for otherwise the inventing and ordering of such a scheme , would have put a man of an ordinary pitch , either of capacity , or of learning , to some pains , and have cost him some time ; but if it had been necessary that this relation should have been made , not only truly , but eloquently , it could never have been performed by me , even after all the pains and time that i could have bestowed upon it . my part in it was so very small , that it could not give me much trouble , all that belonged to me being only to give a true and full account of the things that i had heard : but although this required so very little of my time ; yet even that little was long denied me by my other affairs , which press much upon me : for while in pleading , and hearing , and in judging or composing of causes , in waiting on some men upon business , and on others out of respect , the greatest part of the day is spent on other mens affairs , the remainder of it must be given to my family at home : so that i can reserve no part of it to my self , that is , to my study : i must talk with my wife , and chat with my children , and i have somewhat to say to my servants ; for all these things i reckon as a part of business , except a man will resolve to be a stranger at home : and with whomsoever either nature , chance , or choice has engaged a man , in any commerce , he must endeavour to make himself as acceptable to these about him , as he possibly can ; using still such a temper in it , that he may not spoil them by an excessive gentleness , so that his servants may not become his masters . in such things as i have named to you , do days , months , and years slip away ; what is then left for writing ? and yet i have said nothing of that time that must go for sleep , or for meat : in which many do waste almost as much of their time , as in sleep , which consumes very near the half of our life ; and indeed all the time which i can gain to my self , is that which i steal from my sleep and my meals ; and because that is not much , i have made but a slow progress ; yet because it is somewhat , i have at last got to an end of my utopia , which i now send to you , and expect that after you have read it , you will let me know if you can put me in mind of any thing that has escaped me ; for tho i would think my self very happy , if i had but as much invention and learning as i know i have memory , which makes me generally depend much upon it , yet i do not relie so entirely on it , as to think i can forget nothing . my servant john clement has started some things that shake me : you know he was present with us , as i think he ought to be at every conversation that may be of use to him , for i promise my self great matters from the progress he has so early made in the greek and roman learning . as far as my memory serves me , the bridg over anider at amaurot , was 500 paces broad , according to raphael's account ; but john assures me , he spoke only of 300 paces ; therefore i pray you recollect what you can remember of this , for if you agree with him , i will believe that i have been mistaken ; but if you remember nothing of it , i will not alter what i have written , because it is according to the best of my remembrance : for as i will take care that there may be nothing falsly set down ; so if there is any thing doubtful , tho i may perhaps tell a lie , yet i am sure i will not make one ; for i would rather pass for a good man , than for a wise man : but it will be easy to correct this mistake , if you can either meet with raphael himself , or know how to write to him . i have another difficulty that presses me more , and makes your writing to him the more necessary : i know not whom i ought to blame for it , whether raphael , you , or my self ; for as we did not think of asking it , so neither did he of telling us , in what part of the new-found world utopia is situated ; this was such an omission that i would gladly redeem it at any rate : i am ashamed , that after i have told so many things concerning this island , i cannot let my readers know in what sea it lies . there are some among us that have a mighty desire to go thither , and in particular , one pious divine is very earnest on it , not so much out of a vain curiosity of seeing unknown countries , as that he may advance our religion , which is so happily begun to be planted there ; and that he may do this regularly , he intends to procure a mission from the pope , and to be sent thither as their bishop . in such a case as this , he makes no scruple of aspiring to that character , and thinks it is rather meritorious to be ambitious of it , when one desires it only for advancing the christian religion , and not for any honour or advantage that may be had by it , but is acted meerly by a pious zeal . therefore i earnestly beg it of you , if you can possibly meet with raphael , or if you know how to write to him , that you will be pleased to inform your self of these things , that there may be no falshood left in my book , nor any important truth wanting . and ▪ perhaps it will not be unfit to let him see the book it self : for as no man can correct any errors that may be in it , so well as he ; so by reading it , he will be able to give a more perfect judgment of it than he can do upon any discourse concerning it : and you will be likewise able to discover whether this vndertaking of mine is acceptable to him or not ; for if he intends to write a relation of his travels , perhaps he will not be pleased that i should prevent him , in that part that belongs to the utopian common-wealth ; since if i should do so , his book will not surprize the world with the pleasure which this new discovery will give the age. and i am so little fond of appearing in print upon this occasion , that if he dislikes it , i will lay it aside ; and even though he should approve of it , i am not positively determined as to the publishing of it . mens tastes differ much ; some are of so morose a temper , so sour a disposition , and make such absurd iudgments of things , that men of chearful and lively tempers , who indulge their genius , seem much more happy , than those who waste their time and strength in order to the publishing some book , that tho of it self it might be useful or pleasant , yet instead of being well received , will be sure to be either loathed at , or censured . many know nothing of learning , and others despise it : a man that is accustomed to a course and harsh sile , thinks every thing is rough that is not barbarous . our trifling pretenders to learning , think all is slight that is not drest up in words that are worn out of use ; some love only old things , and many like nothing but what is their own . some are so sour , that they can allow no iests , and others are so dull that they can endure nothing that is sharp ; and some are as much afraid of any thing that is quick or lively , as a man bit with a mad dog is of water ; others are so light and unsetled , that their thoughts change as quick as they do their postures : and some , when they meet in taverns , take upon them among their cups to pass censures very freely on all writers ; and with a supercilious liberty to condemn every thing that they do not like : in which they have the advantage that a bald man has , who can catch hold of another by the hair , while the other cannot return the like upon him . they are safe as it were of gun-shot , since there is nothing in them considerable enough to be taken hold of . and some are so unthankful , that even when they are well-pleased with a book , yet they think they owe nothing to the author ; and are like those rude guests , who after they have been well entertained at a good dinner , go away when they have glutted their appetites , without so much as thanking him that treated them . but who would put himself to the charge of making a feast for men of such nice palats , and so different tastes ; who are so forgetful of the civilities that are done them ? but do you once clear those points with raphael , and then it will be time enough to consider whether it be fit to publish it or not ; for since i have been at the pains to write it , if he consents to the publishing it , i will follow my friend's advice , and chiefly yours . farewel my dear peter , commend me kindly to your good wise , and love me still as you use to do , for i assure you i love you daily more and more . the discourses of raphael hythloday , of the best state of a common-wealth . written by sir thomas more , citizen and sheriff of london . henry the 8th , the unconquered king of england , a prince adorned with all the vertues that become a great monarch ; having some differences of no small consequence with charles the most serene prince of castile , sent me into flanders as his ambassador , for treating and composing matters between them . i was collegue and companion to that incomparable man cuthbert tonstal , whom the king made lately master of the rolls , with such an universal applause ; of whom i will say nothing , not because i fear that the testimony of a friend will be suspected , but rather because his learning and vertues are greater than that they can be set forth with advantage by me , and they are so well known , that they need not my commendations , unless i would , according to the proverb , shew the sun with a lanthorn . those that were appointed by the prince to treat with us , met us at bruges , according to agreement : they were all worthy men. the markgrave of bruges was their head , and the chief man among them ; but he that was esteemed the wisest , and that spoke for the rest , was george temse the provost of casselsee ; both art and nature had concurred to make him eloquent : he was very learned in the law ; and as he had a great capacity , so by a long practice in affairs , he was very dextrous at them . after we had met once and again , and could not come to an agreement , they went to brussels for some days to receive the prince's pleasure . and since our business did admit of it , i went to antwerp : while i was there , among many that visited me , there was one that was more acceptable to me than any other ; peter giles born at antwerp , who is a man of great honour , and of a good rank in his town ; yet it is not such as he deserves : for i do not know if there be any where to be found a learneder and a better bred young man : for as he is both a very worthy person , and a very knowing man ; so he is so civil to all men , and yet so particularly kind to his friends , and is so full of candor and affection , that there is not perhaps above one or two to be found any where , that is in all respects so perfect a friend as he is : he is extraordinarily modest , there is no artifice in him ; and yet no man has more of a prudent simplicity than he has : his conversation was so pleasant and so innocently chearful , that his company did in a great measure lessen any longings to go back to my country , and to my wife and children , which an absence of four months had quickned very much . one day as i was returning home from mass at st. maries , which is the chief church , and the most frequented of any in antwerp , i saw him by accident talking with a stranger , that seemed past the flower of his age ; his face was tanned , he had a long beard , and his cloak was hanging carelesly about him , so that by his looks and habit , i concluded he was a seaman . as soon as peter saw me , he came and saluted me ; and as i was returning his civility , he took me aside , and pointing to him with whom he had been discoursing , he said , do you see that man ? i was just thinking to bring him to you . i answered , he should have been very welcome on your account : and on his own too , replied he , if you knew the man ; for there is none alive that can give you so copious an account of unknown nations and countries as he can do ; which i know you very much desire . then said i , i did not guess amiss , for at first sight i took him for a seaman : but you are much mistaken , said he , for he has not sailed as a seaman , but as a traveller , or rather as a philosopher ; for this raphael , who from his family carries the name of hythloday , as he is not ignorant of the latine tongue , so he is eminently learned in the greek , having applied himself more particularly to that than to the former , because he had given himself much to philosophy , in which he knew that the romans have left us nothing that is valuable , except what is to be found in seneca and cicero . he is a portuguese by birth , and was so desirous of seeing the world , that he divided his estate among his brothers , and run fortunes with americus vesputius , and bore a share in three of his four voyages , that are now published : only he did not return with him in his last , but obtained leave of him almost by force , that he might be one of those four and twenty who were left at the farthest place at which they touched , in their last voyage to new castile . the leaving him thus , did not a little gratify one that was more fond of travelling than of returning home , to be buried in his own country : for he used often to say , that the way to heaven was the same from all places ; and he that had no grave , had the heavens still over him . yet this disposition of mind had cost him dear , if god had not been very gracious to him ; for after he , with five castilians , had travelled over many countries , at last , by a strange good fortune , he got to ceylon , and from thence to calicut , and there he very happily found some portuguese ships ; and so , beyond all mens expectations , he came back to his own country . when peter had said this to me , i thanked him for his kindness , in intending to give me the acquaintance of a man , whose conversation he knew would be so acceptable to me ; and upon that raphael and i embraced one another : and after those civilities were past , which are ordinary for strangers upon their first meeting , we went all to my house , and entring into the garden , sat down on a green bank , and entertained one another in discourse . he told us , that when vesputius had sailed away , he and his companions that staid behind in new-castile , did by degrees insinuate themselves into the people of the country , meeting often with them , and treating them gently : and at last they grew not only to live among them without danger , but to converse familiarly with them ; and got so far into the heart of a prince , whose name and country i have forgot , that he both furnished them plentifully with all things necessary , and also with the conveniences of travelling ; both boats when they went by water , and wagons when they travelled over land ; and he sent with them a very faithful guide , who was to introduce and recommend them to such other princes as they had a mind to see : and after many days journey , they came to towns , and cities , and to common-wealths , that were both happily governed , and well-peopled . under the aequator , and as far on both sides of it as the sun moves , there lay vast deserts that were parched with the perpetual heat of the sun ; the soil was withered , all things look'd dismally , and all places were either quite uninhabited , or abounded with wild beasts and serpents , and some few men , that were neither less wild , nor less cruel than the beasts themselves . but as they went farther , a new scene opened , all things grew milder , the air less burning , the soil more verdant , and even the beasts were less wild : and at last there are nations , towns , and cities , that have not only mutual commerce among themselves , and with their neighbours , but trade both by sea and land , to very remote countries . there they found the conveniencies of seeing many countries on all hands , for no ship went any voyage into which he and his companions were not very welcome . the first vessels that they saw were flat-bottomed , their sails were made of reeds and wicker woven close together , only some were made of leather ; but afterwards they found ships made with round keels , and canvass sails , and in all things like our ships : and the seamen understood both astronomy and navigation . he got wonderfully into their favour , by shewing them the use of the needle , of which till then they were utterly ignorant ; and whereas they sailed before with great caution , and only in summer-time , now they count all seasons alike , trusting wholly to the loadstone , in which they are perhaps more secure than safe ; so that there is reason to fear , that this discovery which was thought would prove so much to their advantage , may by their imprudence become an occasion of much mischief to them . but it were too long to dwell on all that he told us he had observed in every place , it would be too great a digression from our present purpose : and what-ever is necessary to be told , chiefly concerning the wise and prudent institutions that he observed among civilized nations , may perhaps be related by us on a more proper occasion . we ask'd him many questions concerning all these things , to which he answered very willingly ; only we made no enquiries after monsters , than which nothing is more common ; for every where one may hear of ravenous dogs and wolves , and cruel men-eaters ; but it is not so easy to find states that are well and wisely governed . but as he told us of many things that were amiss in those new-found nations , so he reckoned up not a few things , from which patterns might be taken for correcting the errors of these nations among whom we live ; of which an account may be given , as i have already promised , at some other time ; for at present i intend only to relate these particulars that he told us of the manners and laws of the vtopians : but i will begin with the occasion that led us to speak of that common-wealth . after raphael had discoursed with great judgment of the errors that were both among us and these nations , of which there was no small number , and had treated of the wise institutions both here and there , and had spoken as distinctly of the customs and government of every nation through which he had past , as if he had spent his whole life in it ; peter being struck with admiration , said , i wonder , raphael , how it comes that you enter into no king's service , for i am sure there are none to whom you would not be very acceptable : for your learning and knowledg , both of men and things , is such , that you would not only entertain them very pleasantly , but be of good use to them , by the examples that you could set before them , and the advices that you could give them ; and by this means you would both serve your own interest , and be of great use to all your friends . as for my friends , answered he , i need not be much concerned , having already done all that was incumbent on me toward them ; for when i was not only in good health , but fresh and young , i distributed that among my kindred and friends , which other people do not part with till they are old and sick ; and then they unwillingly give among them , that which they can enjoy no longer themselves . i think my friends ought to rest contented with this , and not to expect that for their sakes i should enslave my self to any king whatsoever . soft and fair , said peter , i do not mean that you should be a slave to any king , but only that you should assist them , and be useful to them . the change of the word , said he , does not alter the matter . but term it as you will , replied peter , i do not see any other way in which you can be so useful , both in private to your friends , and to the publick , and by which you can make your own condition happier . happier ! answered raphael , is that to be compassed in a way so abhorrent to my genius ? now i live as i will , to which i believe few courtiers can pretend : and there are so very many that court the favour of great men , that there will be no great loss , if they are not troubled either with me , or with others of my temper . upon this , i said , i perceive raphael that you neither desire wealth nor greatness ; and indeed i value and admire such a man much more than i do any of the great men in the world. yet i think you would do a thing well-becoming so generous and so philosophical a soul as yours is , if you would apply your time and thoughts to publick affairs , even though you may happen to find that a little uneasy to your self ; and this you can never do with so much advantage , as by being taken into the council of some great prince , and by setting him on to noble and worthy things , which i know you would do if you were in such a post ; for the springs , both of good and evil , flow over a whole nation , from the prince , as from a lasting fountain . so much learning as you have , even without practice in affairs ; or so great a practice as you have had , without any other learning , would render you a very fit counsellor to any king whatsoever , you are doubly mistaken , said he , mr. more , both in your opinion of me , and in the judgment that you make of things : for as i have not that capacity that you fancy to be in me ; so if i had it , the publick would not be one jot the better , when i had sacrificed my quiet to it . for most princes apply themselves more to warlike matters , than to the useful arts of peace ; and in these i neither have any knowledg , nor do i much desire it : they are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms , right or wrong , than on governing those well that they have : and among the ministers of princes , there are none that either are not so wise as not to need any assistance , or at least that do not think themselves so wise , that they imagine they need none ; and if they do court any , it is only those for whom the prince has much personal favour , whom by their faunings and flatteries they endeavour to fix to their own interests : and indeed nature has so made us , that we all love to be flattered , and to please our selves with our own notions . the old crow loves his young , and the ape his cubs . now if in such a court , made up of persons that envy all others , and do only admire themselves , one should but propose any thing that he had either read in history , or observed in his travels , the rest would think that the reputation of their wisdom would sink , and that their interests would be much depressed , if they could not run it down : and if all other things failed , then they would fly to this , that such or such things pleased our ancestors , and it were well for us if we could but match them . they would set up their rest on such an answer , as a sufficient confutation of all that could be said ; as if this were a great mischief , that any should be found wiser than his ancestors : but tho they willingly let go all the good things that were among those of former ages ; yet if better things are proposed , they cover themselves obstinately with this excuse , of reverence to past times . i have met with these proud , morose , and absurd judgments of things in many places , particularly once in england . was you ever there , said i ? yes , i was , answered he , and staid some months there , not long after the rebellion in the west was suppressed , with a great slaughter of the poor people that were engaged in it . i was then much obliged to that reverend prelate iohn morton archbishop of canterbury , cardinal , and chancellor of england ; a man , said he , peter ( for mr. more knows well what he was ) that was not less venerable for his wisdom and vertues , than for the high character he bore : he was of a middle stature , not broken with age ; his looks begot reverence rather than fear ; his conversation was easy , but serious and grave ; he took pleasure sometimes to try the force of those that came as suiters to him upon business , by speaking sharply , tho decently to them , and by that he discovered their spirit and presence of mind ; with which he was much delighted , when it did not grow up to an impudence , as bearing a great resemblance to his own temper ; and he look'd on such persons as the fittest men for affairs . he spoke both gracefully and weightily ; he was eminently skilled in the law , and had a vast understanding , and a prodigious memory : and those excellent talents with which nature had furnished him , were improved by study and experience . when i was in england , the king depended much on his councils , and the government seemed to be chiefly supported by him ; for from his youth up , he had been all along practised in affairs ; and having passed through many traverses of fortune , he had acquired to his great cost , a vast stock of wisdom : which is not soon lost , when it is purchased so dear . one day when i was dining with him , there hapned to be at table one of the english lawyers , who took occasion to run out in a high commendation of the severe execution of justice upon thieves , who , as he said , were then hanged so fast , that there were sometimes 20 on one gibbet ; and upon that he said , he could not wonder enough how it came to pass , that since so few escaped , there were yet so many thieves left who were still robbing in all places . upon this , i who took the boldness to speak freely before the cardinal , said , there was no reason to wonder at the matter , since this way of punishing thieves , was neither just in it self , nor good for the publick ; for as the severity was too great , so the remedy was not effectual ; simple theft not being so great a crime , that it ought to cost a man his life ; and no punishment how severe soever , being able to restrain those from robbing , who can find out no other way of livelihood ; and in this , said i , not only you in england , but a great part of the world , imitate some ill masters , that are readier to chastise their scholars , than to teach them . there are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves , but it were much better to make such good provisions , by which every man might be put in a method how to live , and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing , and of dying for it . there has been care enough taken for that , said he , there are many handycrafts , and there is husbandry , by which they may make a shift to live , unless they have a greater mind to follow ill courses . that will not serve your turn , said i , for many lose their limbs in civil or forreign wars , as lately in the cornish rebellion , and some time ago in your wars with france , who being thus mutilated in the service of their king and country , can no more follow their old trades , and are too old to learn new ones : but since wars are only accidental things , and have intervals , let us consider those things that fall out every day . there is a great number of noble men among you , that live not only idle themselves as drones , subsisting by other mens labours , who are their tenants , and whom they pare to the quick , and thereby raise their revenues ; this being the only instance of their frugality , for in all other things they are prodigal , even to the beggering of themselves : but besides this , they carry about with them a huge number of idle fellows , who never learn'd any art by which they may gain their living ; and these , as soon as either their lord dies , or they themselves fall sick , are turned out of doors ; for your lords are readier to feed idle people , than to take care of the sick ; and often the heir is not able to keep together so great a family as his predecessor did : now when the stomachs of those that are thus turned out of doors , grow keen , they rob no less keenly ; and what else can they do ? for after that , by wandring about , they have worn out both their health and their cloaths , and are tattered , and look ghastly , men of quality will not entertain them , and poor men dare not do it ; knowing that one who has been bred up in idleness and pleasure , and who was used to walk about with his sword and buckler , despising all the neighbourhood with an insolent scorn , as far below him , is not fit for the spade and mattock : nor will he serve a poor man for so small a hire , and in so low a diet as he can afford . to this he answered , this sort of men ought to be particularly cherished among us , for in them consists the force of the armies for which we may have occasion ; since their birth inspires them with a nobler sence of honour , than is to be found among tradesmen or ploughmen . you may as well say , replied i , that you must cherish thieves on the account of wars , for you will never want the one , as long as you have the other ; and as robbers prove sometimes gallant souldiers , so souldiers prove often brave robbers ; so near an alliance there is between those two sorts of life . but this bad custom of keeping many servants , that is so common among you , is not peculiar to this nation . in france there is yet a more pestiferous sort of people , for the whole country is full of souldiers , that are still kept up in time of peace ; if such a state of a nation can be called a peace : and these are kept in pay upon the same account that you plead for those idle retainers about noble men : this being a maxim of those pretended statesmen , that it is necessary for the publick safety , to have a good body of veteran souldiers ever in readiness . they think raw men are not to be depended on , and they sometimes seek occasions for making war , that they may train up their souldiers in the art of cutting throats , or as salust observed , for keeping their hands in use , that they may not grow dull by too long an intermission . but france has learn'd , to its cost , how dangerous it is to feed such beasts . the fate of the romans , carthaginians , and syrians , and many other nations , and cities , which were both overturned , and quite ruined by those standing armies , should make others wiser : and the folly of this maxim of the french , appears plainly even from this , that their trained souldiers find your raw men prove often too hard for them ; of which i will not say much , lest you may think i flatter the english nation . every day's experience shews , that the mechanicks in the towns , or the clowns in the country , are not afraid of fighting with those idle gentlemen , if they are not disabled by some misfortune in their body , or dispirited by extream want. so that you need not fear , that those well-shaped and strong men , ( for it is only such that noblemen love to keep about them , till they spoil them ) who now grow feeble with ease , and are softned with their effeminate manner of life , would be less fit for action if they were well bred and well employed . and it seems very unreasonable , that for the prospect of a war , which you need never have but when you please , you should maintain so many idle men , as will always disturb you in time of peace , which is ever to be more considered than war. but i do not think that this necessity of stealing , arises only from hence , there is another cause of it that is more peculiar to england . what is that ? said the cardinal : the encrease of pasture , said i , by which your sheep , that are naturally mild , and easily kept in order , may be said now to devour men , and unpeople , not only villages , but towns : for where-ever it is found , that the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary , there the nobility and gentry , and even those holy men the abbots , not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded , nor thinking it enough that they living at their ease , do no good to the publick , resolve to do it hurt instead of good. they stop the course of agriculture , inclose grounds , and destroy houses and towns , reserving only the churches , that they may lodg their sheep in them : and as if forrests and parks had swallowed up too little soil , those worthy country-men turn the best inhabited places into solitudes ; for when any unsatiable wretch , who is a plague to this country , resolves to inclose many thousand acres of ground , the owners , as well as tenants , are turned out of their possessions , by tricks , or by main force , or being wearied out with ill usage , they are forced to sell them . so those miserable people , both men and women , married , unmarried , old and young , with their poor , but numerous families , ( since country-business requires many hands ) are all forced to change their seats , not knowing whither to go ; and they must sell for almost nothing , their houshold-stuff , which could not bring them much mony , even tho they might stay for a buyer : when that little mony is at an end , for it will be soon spent ; what is left for them to do , but either to steal , and so to be hanged , ( god knows how justly ) or to go about and beg ? and if they do this , they are put in prison as idle vagabonds ; whereas they would willingly work , but can find none that will hire them ; for there is no more occasion for country labour , to which they have been bred , when there is no arable ground left . one shepherd can look after a flock , which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands , if it were to be ploughed and reaped . this likewise raises the price of corn in many places . the price of wool is also so risen , that the poor people who were wont to make cloth , are no more able to buy it ; and this likewise makes many of them idle : for since the increase of pasture , god has punished the avarice of the owners , by a rot among the sheep , which has destroyed vast numbers of them , but had been more justly laid upon the owners themselves . but suppose the sheep should encrease ever so much , their price is not like to fall ; since tho they cannot be called a monopoly , because they are not engrossed by one person , yet they are in so few hands , and these are so rich , that as they are not prest to sell them sooner than they have a mind to it , so they never do it till they have raised the price as high as is possible . and on the same account it is , that the other kinds of cattel are so dear , and so much the more , because that many villages being pulled down , and all country-labour being much neglected , there are none that look after the breeding of them . the rich do not breed cattel as they do sheep , but buy them lean , and at low prices ; and after they have fatned them on their grounds , they sell them again at high rates . and i do not think that all the inconveniences that this will produce , are yet observed ; for as they sell the cattle dear , so if they are consumed faster then the breeding countries from which they are brought , can afford them ; then the stock most decrease , and this must needs end in a great scarcity ; and by these means this your island , that seemed as to this particular , the happiest in the world , will suffer much by the cursed avarice of a few persons ; besides that , the rising of corn makes all people lessen their families as much as they can ; and what can those who are dismissed by them do , but either beg or rob ? and to this last , a man of a great mind is much sooner drawn than to the former . luxury likewise breaks in apace upon you , to set forward your poverty and misery ; there is an excessive vanity in apparel , and great cost in diet ; and that not only in noblemens families , but even among tradesmen , and among the farmers themselves , and among all ranks of persons . you have also many infamous houses , and besides those that are known , the taverns and alehouses are no better ; add to these , dice , cards , tables , football , tennis , and coits , in which mony runs fast away ; and those that are initiated into them , must in conclusion betake themselves to robbing for a supply . banish those plagues , and give order that these who have dispeopled so much soil , may either rebuild the villages that they have pulled down , or let out their grounds to such as will do it : restrain those engrossings of the rich , that are as bad almost as monopolies ; leave fewer occasions to idleness ; let agriculture be set up again , and the manufacture of the wooll be regulated , that so there may be work found for these companies of idle people , whom want forces to be thieves , or who now being idle vagabonds , or useless servants , will certainly grow thieves at last . if you do not find a remedy to these evils , it is a vain thing to boast of your severity of punishing theft ; which tho it may have the appearance of justice , yet in it self it is neither just nor convenient : for if you suffer your people to be ill educated , and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy , and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them , what else is to be concluded from this , but that you first make thieves , and then punish them ? allow of it ; upon the same grounds , laws may be made to allow of adultery and perjury in some cases : for god having taken from us the right of disposing , either of our own , or of other peoples lives , if it is pretended that the mutual consent of men in making laws , allowing of manslaughter in cases in which god has given us no example , frees people from the obligation of the divine law , and so makes murder a lawful action ; what is this , but to give a preference to humane laws before the divine ? and if this is once admitted , by the same rule men may in all other things put what restrictions they please upon the laws of god. if by the mosaical law , tho it was rough and severe , as being a yoke laid on an obstinate and servile nation , men were only fined , and not put to death for theft ; we cannot imagine that in this new law of mercy , in which god treats us with the tenderness of a father , he has given us a greater license to cruelty , than he did to the iews . upon these reasons it is , that i think the putting thieves to death is not lawful ; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd , and of ill consequence to the common-wealth , that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished : for if a robber sees that his danger is the same , if he is convicted of theft , as if he were guilty of murder , this will naturally set him on to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed , since if the punishment is the same , there is more security , and less danger of discovery , when he that can best make it is put out of the way ; so that the terrifying thieves too much , provokes them to cruelty . but as to the question , what more convenient way of punishment can be found ? i think it is much easier to find out that , than to invent any thing that is worse ; why should we doubt but the way that was so long in use among the old romans , who understood so well the arts of government , was very proper for their punishment ? they condemned such as they found guilty of great crimes , to work their whole lives in quarries , or to dig in mines with chains about them . but the method that i liked best , was that which i observed in my travels in persia , among the polylerits , who are a considerable and well-governed people . they pay a yearly tribute to the king of persia ; but in all other respects they are a free nation , and governed by their own laws . they lie far from the sea , and are environed with hills ; and being contented with the productions of their own country , which is very fruitful , they have little commerce with any other nation ; and as they , according to the genius of their country , have no appetite of inlarging their borders ; so their mountains , and the pension that they pay to the persian , secure them from all invasions . thus they have no wars among them ; they live rather conveniently than splendidly , and may be rather called a happy nation , than either eminent or famous ; for i do not think that they are known so much as by name to any but their next neighbours . those that are found guilty of theft among them , are bound to make restitution to the owner , and not as it is in other places , to the prince , for they reckon that the prince has no more right to the stollen goods than the thief ; but if that which was stollen is no more in being , then the goods of the thieves are estimated , and restitution being made out of them , the remainder is given to their wives , and children : and they themselves are condemned to serve in the publick works , but are neither imprisoned , nor chained , unless there hapned to be some extraordinary circumstances in their crimes . they go about loose and free , working for the publick : if they are idle or backward to work , they are whipp'd ; but if they work hard , they are well used and treated without any mark of reproach , only the lists of them are called always at night , and then they are shut up , and they suffer no other uneasiness , but this of constant labour ; for as they work for the publick , so they are well entertained out of the publick stock , which is done differently in different places : in some places , that which is bestowed on them , is raised by a charitable contribution ; and tho this way may seem uncertain , yet so merciful are the inclinations of that people , that they are plentifully supplied by it ; but in other places publick revenues are set aside for them ; or there is a constant tax of a poll-mony raised for their maintenance . in some places they are set to no publick work , but every privat man that has occasion to hire workmen , goes to the market-places and hires them of the publick , a little lower than he would do a free-man : if they go lazily about their task , he may quicken them with the whip . by this means there is always some piece of work or other to be done by them ; and beside their livelyhood , they earn somewhat still to the publick . they wear all a peculiar habit , of one certain colour , and their hair is cropt a little above their ears , and a little of one of their ears is cut off . their friends are allowed to give them either meat , drink , or clothes , so they are of their proper colour ; but it is death , both to the giver and taker , if they give them mony ; nor is it less penal for any free-man to take mony from them , upon any account whatsoever : and it is also death for any of these slaves ( so they are called ) to handle arms. those of every division of the country , are distinguished by a peculiar mark : and it is capital to lay that aside , and so it is also to go out of their bounds , or to talk with a slave of another jurisdiction ; and the very attempt of an escape , is no less penal than an escape it self ; it is death for any other slave to be accessary to it : if a free-man engages in it , he is condemned to slavery : those that discover it are rewarded ; if free-men , in mony ; and if slaves , with liberty , together with a pardon for being accessary to it ; that so they may find their account , rather in repenting of their accession to such a design , than in persisting in it . these are their laws and rules in this matter ; in which both the gentleness and the advantages of them are very obvious ; since by these means , as vices are destroyed , so men are preserved ; but are so treated , that they see the necessity of being good : and by the rest of their life they make reparation for the mischief they had formerly done . nor is there any hazard of their falling back to their old customs : and so little do travellers apprehend mischief from them , that they generally make use of them for guides , from one jurisdiction to another ; for there is nothing left them by which they can rob , or be the better for it , since as they are disarmed , so the very having of mony is a sufficient conviction : and as they are certainly punished if discovered , so they cannot hope to escape : for their habit being in all the parts of it different from what is commonly worn , they cannot fly away , unless they should go naked , and even then their crop'd ear would betray them . the only danger to be feared from them , is their conspiring against the government : but those of one division and neighbourhood can do nothing to any purpose , unless a general conspiracy were laid amongst all the slaves of the several jurisdictions , which cannot be done , since they cannot meet or talk together ; nor will any venture on a design where the concealment would be so dangerous , and the discovery so profitable : and none of them is quite hopeless of recovering his freedom , since by their obedience and patience , and by giving grounds to believe that they will change their manner of life for the future , they may expect at last to obtain their liberty : and some are every year restored to it , upon the good character that is given of them . when i had related all this , i added , that i did not see why such a method might not be followed with more advantage , than could ever be expected from that severe justice which the counsellor magnified so much . to all this he answered , that it could never be so setled in england , without endangering the whole nation by it ; and as he said that , he shook his head , and made some grimaces , and so held his peace ; and all the company seemed to be of his mind : only the cardinal said , it is not easy to guess whether it would succeed well or ill , since no trial has been made of it : but if when the sentence of death were past upon a thief , the prince would reprieve him for a while , and make the experiment upon him , denying him the privilege of a sanctuary ; then if it had a good effect upon him , it might take place ; and if it succeeded not , the worst would be , to execute the sentence on the condemned persons at last . and i do not see , said he , why it would be either injust or inconvenient , or at all dangerous , to admit of such a delay : and i think the vagabonds ought to be treated in the same manner , against whom tho we have made many laws , yet we have not been able to gain our end by them all . when the cardinal had said this , then they all fell to commend the motion , tho they had despised it when it came from me ; but they did more particularly commend that concerning the vagabonds , because it had been added by him . i do not know whether it be worth the while to tell what followed , for it was very ridiculous ; but i shall venture at it , for as it is not forreign to this matter , so some good use may be made of it . there was a jester standing by , that counterfeited the fool so naturally , that he seemed to be really one . the jests at which he offered were so cold and dull , that we laughed more at him than at them ; yet sometimes he said , as it were by chance , things that were not unpleasant ; so as to justify the old proverb , that he who throws the dice often , will sometimes have a lucky hit . when one of the company had said , that i had taken care of the thieves , and the cardinal had taken care of the vagabonds , so that there remained nothing but that some publick provision might be made for the poor , whom sickness or old age had disabled from labour : leave that to me , said the fool , and i shall take care of them ; for there is no sort of people whose sight i abhor more , having been so often vexed with them , and with their sad complaints ; but as dolefully soeveras they have told their tale to me , they could never prevail so far as to draw one penny of mony from me : for either i had no mind to give them any thing , or when i had a mind to it , i had nothing to give them : and they now know me so well , that they will not lose their labour on me , but let me pass without giving me any trouble , because they hope for nothing from me , no more in faith than if i were a priest : but i would have a law made , for sending all these beggars to monasteries , the men to the benedictines to be lay-brothers , and the women to be nuns . the cardinal smiled , and approved of it in jest ; but the rest liked it in earnest . there was a divine present , who tho he was a grave morose man , yet he was so pleased with this reflection that was made on the priests and the monks , that he began to play with the fool , and said to him , this will not deliver you from all beggers , except you take care of us friars . that is done already , answered the fool , for the cardinal has provided for you , by what he proposed for the restraining vagabonds , and setting them to work , for i know no vagabonds like you . this was well entertained by the whole company , who looking at the cardinal , perceived that he was not ill pleased at it ; only the friar himself was so bit , as may be easily imagined , and fell out into such a passion , that he could not forbear railing at the fool , and called him knave , slanderer , backbiter , and son of perdition , and cited some dreadful threatnings out of the scriptures against him . now the jester thought he was in his element , and laid about him freely : he said , good friar be not angry , for it is written , in patience possess your soul. the friar answered , ( for i shall give you his own words ) i am not angry , you hangman ; at least i do not sin in it , for the psalmist says , be ye angry , and sin not . upon this the cardinal admonished him gently , and wished him to govern his passions . no , my lord , said he , i speak not but from a good zeal , which i ought to have ; for holy men have had a good zeal , as it is said , the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up ; and we sing in our church , that those who mock'd elisha as he went up to the house of god , felt the effects of his zeal ; which that mocker , that rogue , that scoundrel , will perhaps feel . you do this perhaps with a goodintention , said the cardinal ; but in my opinion , it were wiser in you , not to say better for you , not to engage in so ridiculous a contest with a fool. no , my lord , answered he , that were not wisely done ; for solomon , the wisest of men , said , answer a fool according to his folly ; which i now do , and shew him the ditch into which he will fall , if he is not aware of it ; for if the many mockers of elisha , who was but one bald man , felt the effect of his zeal , what will become of one mocker of so many friars , among whom there are so many bald men ? we have likewise a bull , by which all that jeer us are excommunicated . when the cardinal saw that there was no end of this matter , he made a sign to the fool to withdraw , and turned the discourse another way ; and soon after he rose from the table , and dismissing us , he went to hear causes . thus , mr. more , i have run out into a tedious story , of the length of which i had been ashamed , if , as you earnestly begged it of me , i had not observed you to hearken to it , as if you had no mind to lose any part of it : i might have contracted it , but i resolved to give it you at large , that you might observe how those that had despised what i had proposed , no sooner perceived that the cardinal did not dislike it , but they presently approved of it , and fawned so on him , and flattered him to such a degree , that they in good earnest applauded those things that he only liked in jest . and from hence you may gather , how little courtiers would value either me or my counsels . to this i answered , you have done me a great kindness in this relation ; for as every thing has been related by you , both wisely and pleasantly , so you have made me imagine , that i was in my own country , and grown young again , by recalling that good cardinal into my thoughts , in whose family i was bred from my childhood : and tho you are upon other accounts very dear to me , yet you are the dearer , because you honour his memory so much : but after all this i cannot change my opinion , for i still think that if you could overcome that aversion which you have to the courts of princes , you might do a great deal of good to mankind , by the advices that you would give ; and this is the chief design that every good man ought to propose to himself in living : for whereas your friend plato thinks that then nations will be happy , when either philosophers become kings , or kings become philosophers . no wonder if we are so far from that happiness , if philosophers will not think it fit for them to assist kings with their councels . they are not so base minded , said he , but that they would willingly do it : many of them have already done it by their books , if these that are in power would hearken to their good advices . but plato judged right , that except kings themselves became philosophers , it could never be brought about , that they who from their childhood are corrupted with false notions , should fall in intirely with the counsels of philosophers , which he himself found to be true in the person of dionysius . do not you think , that if i were about any king , and were proposing good laws to him , and endeavouring to root out of him all the cursed seeds of evil that i found in him , i should either be turned out of his court , or at least be laughed at for my pains ? for instance , what could i signify if i were about the king of france , and were called into his cabinet-council , where several wise men do in his hearing propose many expedients ; as by what arts and practices milan may be kept ; and naples , that has so oft slip'd out of their hands , recovered ; and how the venetians , and after them the rest of italy may be subdued ; and then how flanders , brabant , and all burgundy , and some other kingdoms which he has swallowed already in his designs , may be added to his empire . one proposes a league with the venetians , to be kept as long as he finds his account in it , and that he ought to communicate councils with them , and give them some share of the spoil , till his success makes him need or fear them less , and then it will be easily taken out of their hands . another proposes the hireing the germans , and the securing the switzers by pensions . another proposes the gaining the emperor by mony , which is omnipotent with him . another proposes a peace with the king of arragon , and in order to the cementing it , the yielding up the king of navar 's pretensions . another thinks the prince of castile is to be wrought on , by the hope of an alliance ; and that some of his courtiers are to be gained to the french faction by pensions . the hardest point of all is , what to do with england : a treaty of peace is to be set on foot , and if their alliance is not to be depended on , yet it is to be made as firm as can be ; and they are to be called friends , but suspected as enemies : therefore the scots are to be kept in readiness , to be let loose upon england on every occasion ; and some banished nobleman is to be supported underhand , ( for by the league it cannot be done avowedly ) who has a pretension to the crown , by which means that suspected prince may be kept in awe . now when things are in so great a fermentation , and so many gallant men are joining councils , how to carry on the war , if so mean a man as i am should stand up , and wish them to change all their councils , to let italy alone , and stay at home , since the kingdom of france was indeed greater than that it could be well governed by one man ; so that he ought not to think of adding others to it : and if after this , i should propose to them the resolutions of the achorians , a people that lie over against the isle of vtopia to the south-east , who having long ago engaged in a war , that they might gain another kingdom to their king , who had a pretension to it by an old alliance , by which it had descended to him ; and having conquered it , when they found that the trouble of keeping it , was equal to that of gaining it ; for the conquered people would be still apt to rebel , or be exposed to forreign invasions , so that they must always be in war , either for them , or against them ; and that therefore they could never disband their army : that in the mean time taxes lay heavy on them , that mony went out of the kingdom ; that their blood was sacrificed to their king's glory , and that they were nothing the better by it , even in time of peace ; their manners being corrupted by a long war ; robbing and murders abounding every where , and their laws falling under contempt , because their king being distracted with the cares of the kingdom , was less able to apply his mind to any one of them ; when they saw there would be no end of those evils , they by joint councils made an humble address to their king , desiring him to chuse which of the two kingdoms he had the greatest mind to keep , since he could not hold both ; for they were too great a people to be governed by a divided king , since no man would willingly have a groom that should be in common between him and another . upon which the good prince was forced to quit his new kingdom to one of his friends , ( who was not long after dethroned ) and to be contented with his old one. to all this i would add , that after all those warlike attempts , and the vast confusions , with the consumptions both of treasure and of people , that must follow them ; perhaps upon some misfortune , they might be forced to throw up all at last ; therefore it seemed much more eligible that the king should improve his ancient kingdom all he could , and make it flourish as much as was possible ; that he should love his people , and be beloved of them ; that he should live among them , and govern them gently ; and that he should let other kingdoms alone , since that which had fallen to his share was big enough , if not too big for him . pray how do you think would such a speech as this be heard ? i confess , said i , i think not very well . but what said he , if i should sort with another kind of ministers , whose chief contrivances and consultations were , by what art treasure might be heaped up ? where one proposes , the crying up of mony , when the king had a great debt on him , and the crying it down as much when his revenues were to come in , that so he might both pay much with a little , and in a little receive a great deal : another proposes a pretence of a war , that so money might be raised in order to the carrying it on , and that a peace might be concluded as soon as that was done ; and this was to be made up with such appearances of religion as might work on the people , and make them impute it to the piety of their prince , and to his tenderness of the lives of his subjects . a third offers some old musty laws , that have been antiquated by a long disuse ; and which , as they had been forgotten by all the subjects , so they had been also broken by them ; and that the levying of the penalties of these laws , as it would bring in a vast treasure , so there might be a very good pretence for it , since it would look like the executing of law , and the doing of justice . a fourth proposes the prohibiting of many things under severe penalties , especially such things as were against the interest of the people , and then the dispensing with these prohibitions upon great compositions , to those who might make advantages by breaking them . this would serve two ends , both of them acceptable to many ; for as those whose avarice led them to transgress , would be severely fined ; so the selling licences dear , would look as if a prince were tender of his people , and would not easily , or at low rates , dispense with any thing that might be against the publick good. another proposes , that the judges must be made sure , that they may declare always in favor of the prerogative , that they must be often sent for to court , that the king may hear them argue those points in which he is concerned ; since that how unjust soever any of his pretensions may be , yet still some one or other of them , either out of contradiction to others , or the pride of singularity , or that they may make their court , would find out some pretence or other to give the king a fair colour to carry the point : for if the judges but differ in opinion , the clearest thing in the world is made by that means disputable , and truth being once brought in question , the king upon that may take advantage to expound the law for his own profit : the judges that stand out will be brought over , either out of fear or modesty ; and they being thus gained , all of them may be sent to the bench to give sentence boldly , as the king would have it : for fair pretences will never be wanting when sentence is to be given in the prince's favor : it will either be said , that equity lies of his side , or some words in the law will be found sounding that way , or some forced sence will be put on them ; and when all other things fail , the king 's undoubted prerogative will be pretended , as that which is above all law ; and to which a religious judg ought to have a special regard . thus all consent to that maxim of grassus , that a prince cannot have treasure enough , since he must maintain his armies out of it : that a king , even tho he would , can do nothing unjustly ; that all property is in him , not excepting the very persons of his subjects : and that no man has any other property , but that which the king out of his goodness thinks fit to leave him : and they think it is the prince's interest , that there be as little of this left as may be , as if it were his advantage that his people should have neither riches nor liberty ; since these things make them less easy and tame to a cruel and injust government ; whereas necessity and poverty blunts them , makes them patient , and bears them down , and breaks that height of spirit , that might otherwise dispose them to rebel . now what if after all these propositions were made , i should rise up and assert , that such councels were both unbecoming a king , and mischievous to him : and that not only his honor but his safety consisted more in his peoples wealth , than in his own ; if i should shew , that they choose a king for their own sake , and not for his ; that by his care and endeavors they may be both easy and safe : and that therefore a prince ought to take more care of his peoples happiness , than of his own , as a shepherd is to take more care of his flock than of himself . it is also certain , that they are much mistaken , that think the poverty of a nation is a means of the publick safety : who quarrel more than beggers do ? who does more earnestly long for a change , than he that is uneasy in his present circumstances ? and who run in to create confusions with so desperate a boldness , as those who having nothing to lose , hope to gain by them ? if a king should fall under so much contempt or envy , that he could not keep his subjects in their duty , but by oppression and ill usage , and by impoverishing them , it were certainly better for him to quit his kingdom , than to retain it by such methods , by which tho he keeps the name of authority , yet he loses the majesty due to it . nor is it so becoming the dignity of a king to reign over beggars , as to reign over rich and happy subjects . and therefore fabritius , that was a man of a noble and exalted temper , said , he would rather govern rich men , than be rich himself ; and for one man to abound in wealth and pleasure , when all about him are mourning and groaning , is to be a goaler and not a king. he is an unskilful physician , that cannot cure a disease , but by casting his patient into another : so he that can find no other way for correcting the errors of his people , but by taking from them the conveniences of life , shews that he knows not what it is to govern a free nation . he himself ought rather to shake off his sloth , or to lay down his pride ; for the contempt or hatred that his people have for him , takes its rise from the vices in himself . let him live upon what belongs to himself , without wronging others , and accommodate his expence to his revenue . let him punish crimes , and by his wise conduct let him endeavour to prevent them , rather than be severe when he has suffered them to be too common : let him not rashly revive laws that are abbrogated by disuse , especially if they have been long forgotten , and never wanted . and let him never take any penalty for the breach of them , to which a judg would not give way in a private man , but would look on him as a crafty and unjust person for pretending to it . to these things i would add , that law among the macarians , that lie not far from vtopia , by which their king , in the day on which he begins to reign , is tied by an oath confirmed by solemn sacrifices , never to have at once above a thousand pounds of gold in his treasures , or so much silver as is equal to that in value . this law , as they say , was made by an excellent king , who had more regard to the riches of his country , than to his own wealth ; and so provided against the heaping up of so much treasure , as might impoverish the people : he thought that moderate sum might be sufficient for any accident ; if either the king had occasion for it against rebels , or the kingdom against the invasion of an enemy , but that it was not enough to encourage a prince to invade other mens rights , which was the chief cause of his making that law. he also thought , that it was a good provision for a free circulation of mony , that is necessary for the course of commerce and exchange : and when a king must distribute all these extraordinary accessions that encrease treasure beyond the due pitch , it makes him less disposed to oppress his subjects . such a king as this is , will be the terror of ill men , and will be beloved of all good men. if , i say , i should talk of these or such like things , to men that had taken their biass another way , how deaf would they be to it all ? no doubt , very deaf , answered i ; and no wonder , for one is never to offer at propositions or advices , that he is certain will not be entertained . discourses so much out of the road could not avail any thing , nor have any effect on men , whose minds were prepossessed with different sentiments . this philosophical way of speculation , is not unpleasant among friends in a free converrsation ; but there is no room for it in the courts of princes , where great affairs are carried on by authority . that is what i was saying , replied he , that there is no room for philosophy in the courts of princes . yes , there is , said i , but not for this speculative philosophy , that makes every thing to be alike fitting at all times : but there is another philosophy that is more pliable , that knows its proper scene , and accommodates it self to it ; and that teaches a man to act that part which has fallen to his share , fitly and decently . if when one of plautus's comedies is upon the stage , and a company of servants are acting their parts , you should come out in the garb of a philosopher , and repeat out of octavia , a discourse of seneca's to nero , had it not been better for you to have said nothing , than by mixing things of such different natures , to have made such an impertinent tragi-comedy ? for you spoil and corrupt the play that is in hand , when you mix with it things disagreeing to it , even tho they were better than it is : therefore go through with the play that is acting , the best you can ; and do not confound it , because another that is pleasanter comes into your thoughts . it is even so in a common-wealth , and in the councils of princes ; if ill opinions cannot be quite rooted out ; and if you cannot cure some received vices according to your wishes , you must not therefore abandon the common-wealth ; or forsake the ship in a storm , because you cannot command the winds ; nor ought you to assault people with discourses that are out of their road , when you see their notions are such that you can make no impression on them : but you ought to cast about , and as far as you can to manage things dextrously , that so if you cannot make matters go well , they may be as little ill as is possible ; for except all men were good , all things cannot go well ; which i do not hope to see in a great while . by this , answered he , all that i shall do shall be to preserve my self from being mad , while i endeavour to cure the madness of other people : for if i will speak truth , i must say such things as i was formerly saying ; and for lying , whether a philosopher can do it or not , i cannot tell ; i am sure i cannot do it . but tho these discourses may be uneasy and ungrateful to them , i do not see why they should seem foolish or extravagant : indeed if i should either propose such things as plato has contrived in his common-wealth , or as the vtopians practise in theirs , tho they might seem better , as certainly they are , yet they are so quite different from our establishment , which is founded on property , there being no such thing among them , that i could not expect that it should have any effect on them : but such discourses as mine , that only call past evils to mind , and give warning of what may follow , have nothing in them that is so absurd , that they may not be used at any time ; for they can only be unpleasant to those who are resolved to run headlong the contrary way : and if we must let alone every thing as absurd or extravagant , which by reason of the wicked lives of many may seem uncouth , we must , even among christians , give over pressing the greatest part of those things that christ hath taught us : tho he has commanded us not to conceal them , but to proclaim on the house-tops that which he taught in secret . the greatest parts of his precepts are more disagreeing to the lives of the men of this age , than any part of my discourse has been : but the preachers seem to have learn'd that craft to which you advise me ; for they observing that the world would not willingly sute their lives to the rules that christ has given , have fitted his doctrine , as if it had been a leaden rule , to their lives ; that so some way or other they might agree with one another . but i see no other effect of this compliance , except it be that men become more secure in their wickedness by it . and this is all the success that i can have in a court ; for i must always differ from the rest , and then i will signify nothing ; or if i agree with them , then i will only help forward their madness . i do not comprehend what you mean by your casting about , or by the bending and handling things so dextrously , that if they go not well , they may go as little ill as may be : for in courts they will not bear with a man's holding his peace , or conniving at them : a man must bare-facedly approve of the worst councils , and consent to the blackest designs : so that one would pass for a spy , or possibly for a traitor , that did but coldly approve of such wicked practices : and when a man is engaged in such a society , he will be so far from being able to mend matters by his casting about , as you call it , that he will find no occasions of doing any good : the ill company will sooner corrupt him , than be the better for him : or if notwithstanding all their ill company , he remains still entire and innocent , yet their follies and knavery will be imputed to him ; and by mixing councils with them , he must bear his share of all the blame that belongs wholly to others . it was no ill simily , by which plato set forth the unreasonableness of a philosopher's medling with government : if one , says he , shall see a great company run out into the rain every day , and delight to be wet in it ; and if he knows that it will be to no purpose for him to go and perswade them to come into their houses , and avoid the rain ; so that all that can be expected from his going to speak to them , will be , that he shall be wet with them ; when it is so , he does best to keep within doors , and preserve himself , since he cannot prevail enough to correct other peoples folly. tho to speak plainly what is my heart , i must freely own to you , that as long as there is any property , and while mony is the standard of all other things , i cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily : not justly , because the best things will fall to the share of the worst of men : nor happily , because all things will be divided among a few , ( and even these are not in all respects happy ) the rest being left to be absolutely miserable . therefore when i reflect on the wise and good constitutions of the vtopians , among whom all things are so well governed , and with so few laws ; and among whom as vertue hath its due reward , yet there is such an equality , that every man lives in plenty ; and when i compare with them so many other nations that are still making new laws , and yet can never bring their constitution to a right regulation , among whom tho every one has his property ; yet all the laws that they can invent , cannot prevail so far , that men can either obtain or preserve it , or be certainly able to distinguish what is their own , from what is another man's ; of which the many law suits that every day break out , and depend without any end , give too plain a demonstration : when , i say , i ballance all these things in my thoughts , i grow more favourable to plato , and do not wonder that he resolved , not to make any laws for such as would not submit to a community of all things : for so wise a man as he was , could not but foresee that the setting all upon the level , was the only way to make a nation happy ; which cannot be obtained so long as there is property : for when every man draws to himself all that he can compass , by one title or another , it must needs follow , that how plentiful soever a nation may be , yet a few dividing the wealth of it among themselves , the rest must fall under poverty . so that there will be two sorts of people among them , that deserve that their fortunes should be interchanged ; the former being useless , but wicked and ravenous ; and the latter , who by their constant industry serve the publick more than themselves , being sincere and modest men. from whence i am perswaded , that till property is taken away , there can be no equitable or just distribution made of things , nor can the world be happily governed : for as long as that is maintained , the greatest and the far best part of mankind , will be still oppressed with a load of cares and anxieties . i confess , without the taking of it quite away , those pressures that lie on a great part of mankind , may be made lighter ; but they can never be quite removed . for if laws were made , determining at how great an extent in soil , and at how much mony every man must stop , and limiting the prince that he may not grow too great , and restraining the people that they may not become too insolent , and that none might factiously aspire to publick employments ; and that they might neither be sold , nor made burdensome by a great expence ; since otherwise those that serve in them , will be tempted to reimburse themselves by cheats and violence , and it will become necessary to find out rich men for undergoing those employments for which wise men ought rather to be sought out ; these laws , i say , may have such effects , as good diet and care may have on a sick man , whose recovery is desperate : they may allay and mitigate the disease , but it can never be quite healed , nor the body politick be brought again to a good habit , as long as property remains ; and it will fall out as in a complication of diseases , that by applying a remedy to one sore , you will provoke another ; and that which removes one ill symptom , produces others , while the strengthning of one part of the body weakens the rest . on the contrary , answered i , it seems to me that men cannot live conveniently , where all things are common : how can there be any plenty , where every man will excuse himself from labour ? for as the hope of gain doth not excite him , so the confidence that he has in other mens industry , may make him slothful : and if people come to be pinched with want , and yet cannot dispose of any thing as their own ; what can follow upon this , but perpetual sedition and bloodshed , especially when the reverence and authority due to magistrates falls to the ground ? for i cannot imagine how that can be kept up among those that are in all things equal to one another . i do not wonder , said he , that it appears so to you , since you have no notion , or at least no right one , of such a constitution : but if you had been in vtopia with me , and had seen their laws and rules as i did , for the space of five years , in which i lived among them ; and during which time i was so delighted with them , that indeed i would never have left them , if it had not been to make the discovery of that new world to the europeans ; you would then confess that you had never seen a people so well constituted as they are . you will not easily perswade me , said peter , that any nation in that new world , is better governed than those among us are . for as our understandings are not worse than theirs , so our government , if i mistake not , being ancienter , a long practice has helped us to find out many conveniences of life : and some happy chances have discovered other things to us , which no man's understanding could ever have invented . as for the antiquity , either of their government , or of ours , said he , you cannot pass a true judgment of it , unless you had read their histories ; for if they are to be believed , they had towns among them , before these parts were so much as inhabited : and as for these discoveries , that have been either hit on by chance , or made by ingenious men , these might have hapned there as well as here . i do not deny but we are more ingenious than they are , but they exceed us much in industry and application : they knew little concerning us , before our arrival among them ; they call us all by a general name of the nations that lie beyond the equinoctial line ; for their chronicle mentions a shipwrack that was made on their coast 1200 years ago ; and that some romans and egyptians that were in the ship , getting safe a shore , spent the rest of their days amongst them ; and such was their ingenuity , that from this single opportunity , they drew the advantage of learning from those unlook'd for guests , all the useful arts that were then among the romans , which those shipwrack'd men knew : and by the hints that they gave them , they themselves found out even some of those arts which they could not fully explain to them ; so happily did they improve that accident , of having some of our people cast upon their shore : but if any such accident have at any time brought any from thence into europe , we have been so far from improving it , that we do not so much as remember it ; as in after times perhaps it will be forgot by our people that i was ever there . for tho they from one such accident , made themselves masters of all the good inventions that were among us ; yet i believe it would be long before we would learn or put in practice any of the good institutions that are among them : and this is the true cause of their being better governed , and living happier than we do , tho we come not short of them in point of understanding , or outward advantages . upon this i said to him , i do earnestly beg of you , that you would describe that island very particularly to us . be not too short in it , but set out in order all things relating to their soil , their rivers , their towns , their people , their manners , constitution , laws , and in a word , all that you imagine we desire to know : and you may well imagine that we desire to know every thing concerning them , of which we are hitherto ignorant . i will do it very willingly , said he , for i have digested the whole matter carefully ; but it will take up some time . let us go then , said i , first and dine , and then we shall have leasure enough . be it so , said he . so we went in and dined , and after dinner we came back , and sat down in the same place . i ordered my servants to take care that none might come and interrupt us : and both peter and i desired raphael to be as good as his word : so when he saw that we were very intent upon it , he paused a little to recollect himself , and began in this manner . the second book . the island of vtopia , in the middle of it , where it is broadest , is 200 miles broad , and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it ; but it grows narrower towards both ends . it s figure is not unlike a crescent : between its horns , the sea comes in eleven miles broad , and spreads it self into a great bay , which is environed with land to the compass of about 500 miles , and is well secured from winds : there is no great current in the bay , and the whole coast is , as it were , one continued harbour , which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce : but the entry into the bay , what by rocks on one hand , and shallows on the other , is very dangerous . in the middle of it there is one single rock which appears above water , and so is not dangerous ; on the top of it there is a tower built , in which a garrison is kept . the other rocks lie under water , and are very dangerous ▪ the channel is known only to the natives , so that if any stranger should enter into the bay , without one of their pilates , he would run a great danger of shipwrack : for even they themselves could not pass it safe , if some marks that are on their coast did not direct their way ; and if these should be but a little shifted , any fleet that might come against them , how great soever it were , would be certainly lost . on the other side of the island , there are likewise many harbours ; and the coast is so fortified , both by nature and art , that a small number of men can hinder the descent of a great army . but they report ( and there remains good marks of it to make it credible ) that this was no island at first , but a part of the continent . vtopus that conquered it ( whose name it still carries , for abraxa was its first name ) and brought the rude and uncivilized inhabitants into such a good government , and to that measure of politeness , that they do now far excel all the rest of mankind ; having soon subdued them , he designed to separate them from the continent , and and to bring the sea quite about them , and in order to that he made a deep channel to be digged fifteen miles long : he not only forced the inhabitants to work at it , but likewise his own souldiers , that the natives might not think he treated them like slaves ; and having set vast numbers of men to work , he brought it to a speedy conclusion beyond all mens expectations : by this their neighbours , who laughed at the folly of the undertaking at first , were struck with admiration and terror , when they saw it brought to perfection . there are 54 cities in the island , all large and well built : the manners , customs , and laws of all their cities are the same , and they are all contrived as near in the same manner , as the ground on which they stand will allow : the nearest lie at least 24 miles distant from one another , and the most remote are not so far distant , but that a man can go on foot in one day from it , to that which lies next it . every city sends three of their wisest senators once a year to amaurot , for consulting about their common concerns ; for that is the cheif town of the island , being situated near the center of it , so that it is the most convenient place for their assemblies . every city has so much ground set off for its jurisdiction , that there is twenty miles of soil round it , assigned to it : and where the towns lie wider , they have much more ground : no town desires to enlarge their bounds , for they consider themselves rather as tenants than landlords of their soil . they have built over all the country , farm-houses for husbandmen , which are well contrived , and are furnished with all things necessary for countey-labour . inhabitants are sent by turns from the cities to dwell in them ; no country-family has fewer than fourty men and women in it , besides two slaves . there is a master and a mistress set over every family ; and over thirty families there is a magistrate setled . every year twenty of this family come back to the town , after they have stayed out two years in the country : and in their room there are other twenty sent from the town , that they may learn country-work , from those that have been already one year in the country , which they must teach those that come to them the next year from the town . by this means such as dwell in those country-farms , are never ignorant of agriculture , and so commit no errors in it , which might otherwise be fatal to them , and bring them under a scarcity of corn. but tho there is every year such a shifting of the husbandmen , that none may be forced against his mind to follow that hard course of life too long ; yet many among them take such pleasure in it , that they desire leave to continue many years in it . these husbandmen labour the ground , breed cattel , hew wood , and convey it to the towns , either by land or water , as is most convenient . they breed an infinite multitude of chickens in a very curious manner : for the hens do not sit and hatch them , but they lay vast numbers of eggs in a gentle and equal heat , in which they are hatched ; and they are no sooner out of the shell , and able to stir about , but they seem to consider those that feed them as their mothers , and follow them as other chickens do the hen that hatched them . they breed very few horses , but those they have , are full of mettle , and are kept only for exercising their youth in the art of sitting and riding of them ; for they do not put them to any work , either of plowing or carriage , in which they imploy oxen ; for tho horses are stronger , yet they find oxen can hold out longer ; and as they are not subject to so many diseases , so they are kept upon a less charge , and with less trouble : and when they are so worn out , that they are no more fit for labour , they are good meat at last . they sow no corn , but that which is to be their bread ; for they drink either wine , cider , or perry , and often water , sometimes pure , and sometimes boiled with hony or liquorish , with which they abound : and tho they know exactly well how much corn will serve every town , and all that tract of country which belongs to it , yet they sow much more , and breed more cattel than are necessary for their consumption : and they give that overplus of which they make no use to their neighbours . when they want any thing in the country which it does not produce , they fetch that from the town , without carrying any thing in exchange for it : and the magistrates of the town take care to see it given them : for they meet generally in the town once a month , upon a festival-day . when the time of harvest comes , the magistrates in the country send to those in the towns , and let them know how many hands they will need for reaping the harvest ; and the number they call for being sent to them , they commonly dispatch it all in one day . of their towns , particularly of amaurot . he that knows one of their towns , knows them all , they are so like one another , except where the scituation makes some difference . i shall therefore describe one of them , and it is no matter which ; but none is so proper as amaurot : for as none is more eminent , all the rest yielding in precedence to this , because it is the seat of their supream council ; so there was none of them better known to me , i having lived five years altogether in it . it lies upon the side of a hill , or rather a rising ground : its figure is almost square , for from the one side of it , which shoots up almost to the top of the hill , it runs down in a descent for two miles to the river anider ; but it is a little broader the other way that runs along by the bank of that river . the anider rises about 80 miles above amaurot , in a small spring at first ; but other brooks falling into it , of which two are more considerable , as it runs by amaurot , it is grown half a mile broad , but it still grows larger and larger , till after sixty miles course below 〈◊〉 , it is buried in the ocean . between the town and the sea , and for some miles above the town , it ebbs and flows every six hours , with a strong current . the tide comes up for about thirty miles so full , that there is nothing but salt-water in the river , the fresh water being driven back with its force ; and above that , for some miles , the water is brackish , but a little higher , as it runs by the town , it is quite fresh ; and when the tide ebbs , it continues fresh all along to the sea. there is a bridg cast over the river , not of timber , but of fair stone , consisting of many stately arches ; it lies at that part of the town which is farthest from the sea , so that ships without any hindrance lie all along the side of the town . there is likewise another river that runs by it , which tho it is not great , yet it runs pleasantly , for it rises out of the same hill on which the town stands , and so runs down throw it , and falls into the anider . the inhabitants have fortified the fountain-head of this river , which springs a little without the towns ; that so if they should happen to be besieged , the enemy might not be able to stop or divert the course of the water , nor poison it ; from thence it is carried in earthen pipes to the lower streets : and for those places of the town to which the water of that small river cannot be conveyed , they have great cisterns for receiving the rain-water , which supplies the want of the other . the town is compassed with a high and thick wall , in which there are many towers and forts ; there is also a broad and deep dry ditch , set thick with thorns , cast round three sides of the town , and the river is instead of a ditch on the fourth side . the streets are made very convenient for all carriage , and are well sheltred from the winds . their buildings are good , and are so uniform , that a whole side of a street looks like one house . the streets are twenty foot broad ; there lie gardens behind all their houses ; these are large , but enclosed with buildings , that on all hands face the streets ; so that every house has both a door to the street , and a back door to the garden : their doors have all two leaves , which as they are easily opened , so they shut of their own accord ; and there being no property among them , every man may freely enter into any house whatsoever . at every ten years ends , they shift their houses by lots . they cultivate their gardens with great care , so that they have both vines , fruits , herbs , and flowers in them ; and all is so well ordered , and so finely kept , that i never saw gardens any where that were both so fruitful and so beautiful as theirs are . and this humor of ordering their gardens so well , is not only kept up by the pleasure they find in it , but also by an emulation between the inhabitants of the several streets , who vie with one another in this matter ; and there is indeed nothing belonging to the whole town , that is both more useful , and more pleasant . so that he who founded the town , seems to have taken care of nothing more than of their gardens ; for they say , the whole scheme of the town was designed at first by vtopus , but he left all that belonged to the ornament and improvement of it , to be added by those that should come after him , that being too much for one man to bring to perfection . their records , that contain the history of their town and state , are preserved with an exact care , and run backwards 1760 years . from these it appears , that their houses were at first low and mean , like cottages made of any sort of timber , and were built with mud walls , and thatch'd with straw : but now their houses are three stories high , the fronts of them are faced either with stone , plaistering , or brick ; and between the facings of their walls , they throw in their rubbish ; their roofs are flat , and on them they lay a sort of plaister which costs very little , and yet is so tempered , that as it is not apt to take fire , so it resists the weather more than lead does . they have abundance of glass among them , with which they glaze their windows : they use also in their windows , a thin linnen cloth , that is so oiled or gummed , that by that means it both lets in the light more freely to them , and keeps out the wind the better . of their magistrates . thirty families chuse every year a magistrate , who was called anciently the syphogrant , but is now called the philarch : and over every ten syphogrants , with the families subject to them , there is another magistrate , who was anciently called the tranibore , but of late the archphilarch . all the syphogrants , who are in number 200 , chuse the prince out of a list of four , whom the people of the four divisions of the city name to them ; but they take an oath before they proceed to an election , that they will chuse him whom they think meetest for the office : they give their voices secretly , so that it is not known for whom every one gives his suffrage . the prince is for life , unless he is removed upon suspicion of some design to enslave the people . the tranibors are new chosen every year , but yet they are for the most part still continued : all their other magistrates are only annual . the tranibors meet every third day , and oftner if need be , and consult with the prince , either concerning the affairs of the state in general , or such private differences as may arise sometimes among the people ; tho that falls out but seldom . there are always two syphogrants called into the council-chamber , and these are changed every day . it is a fundamental rule of their government , that no conclusion can be made in any thing that relates to the publick , till it has been first debated three several days in their council . it is death for any to meet and consult concerning the state , unless it be either in their ordinary council , or in the assembly of the whole body of the people . these things have been so provided among them , that the prince and the tranibors may not conspire together to change the government , and enslave the people ; and therefore when any thing of great importance is set on foot , it is sent to the syphogrants ; who after they have communicated it with the families that belong to their divisions , and have considered it among themselves , make report to the senate ; and upon great occasions , the matter is referred to the council of the whole island . one rule observed in their council , is , never to debate a thing on the same day in which is first proposed ; for that is always referred to the next meeting , that so men may not rashly , and in the heat of discourse , engage themselves too soon , which may biass them so much , that instead of considering the good of the publick , they will rather study to maintain their own notions ; and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame , hazard their country , rather than endanger their own reputation , or venture the being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they proposed at first . and therefore to prevent this , they take care that they may rather be deliberate , than sudden in their motions . of their trades , and manner of life . agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them all , that no person , either man or woman , is ignorant of it ; from their childhood they are instructed in it , partly by what they learn at school , and partly by practice , they being led out often into the fields , about the town , where they not only see others at work , but are likewise exercised in it themselves . besides agriculture , which is so common to them all , every man has some peculiar trade to which he applies himself , such as the manufacture of wool , or flax , masonry , smiths work , or carpenters work ; for there is no other sort of trade that is in great esteem among them . all the island over , they wear the same sort of clothes without any other distinction , except that which is necessary for marking the difference between the two sexes , and the married and unmarried . the fashion never alters ; and as it is not ungrateful nor uneasy , so it is fitted for their climate , and calculated both for their summers and winters . every family makes their own clothes ; but all among them , women as well as men , learn one or other of the trades formerly mentioned . women , for the most part , deal in wool and flax , which sute better with their feebleness , leaving the other ruder trades to the men. generally the same trade passes down from father to son , inclination often following descent : but if any man's genius lies another way , he is by adoption translated into a family that deals in the trade to which he is inclined : and when that is to be done , care is taken , not only by his father , but by the magistrate , that he may be put to a discreet and good man. and if after a man has learn'd one trade , he desires to acquire another , that is also allowed , and is managed in the same manner as the former . when he has learn'd both , he follows that which he likes best , unless the publick has more occasion for the other . the chief , and almost the only business of the syphogrants , is to take care that no man may live idle , but that every one may follow his trade diligently : yet they do not wear themselves out with perpetual toil , from morning to night , as if they were beasts of burden ; which as it is indeed a heavy slavery , so it is the common course of life of all tradesmen every where , except among the vtopians : but they dividing the day and night into twenty four hours , appoint six of these for work , three of them are before dinner ; and after that they dine , and interrupt their labour for two hours , and then they go to work again for other three hours ; and after that they sup , and at eight a clock , counting from noon , they go to bed and sleep eight hours : and for their other hours , besides those of work , and those that go for eating and sleeping , they are left to every man's discretion ; yet they are not to abuse that interval to luxury and idleness , but must imploy it in some proper exercise according to their various inclinations , which is for the most part reading . it is ordinary to have publick lectures every morning before day-break ; to which none are obliged to go , but those that are mark'd out for literature ; yet a great many , both men and women of all ranks , go to hear lectures of one sort or another , according to the variety of their inclinations . but if others , that are not made for contemplation , chuse rather to imploy themselves at that time in their trade , as many of them do , they are not hindred , but are commended rather , as men that take care to serve their country . after supper , they spend an hour in some diversion : in summer it is in their gardens , and in winter it is in the halls where they eat ; and thy entertain themselves in them , either with musick or discourse . they do not so much as know dice , or such-like foolish and mischievous games : they have two sorts of games not unlike our profitable trades ; and if all that number that languishes out their life in sloth and idleness , of whom every one consumes as much as any two of the men that are at work do , were forced to labour , you may easily imagine that a small proportion of time would serve for doing all that is either necessary , profitable , or pleasant to mankind , pleasure being still kept within its due bounds : which appears very plainly in vtopia , for there , in a great city , and in all the territory that lies round it , you can scarce find five hundred , either men or women , that by their age and strength , are capable of labour , that are not engaged in it ; even the syphogrants themselves , tho the law excuses them , yet do not excuse themselves , that so by their examples they may excite the industry of the rest of the people ; the like exemption is allowed to those , who being recommended to the people by the priests , are by the secret suffrages of the syphogrants , priviledged from labour , that they may apply themselves wholly to study ; and if any of these falls short of those hopes that he seemed to give at first , he is obliged to go to work . and sometimes a mechanick , that does so imploy his leasure hours , that he makes a considerable advancement in learning , is eased from being a tradesman , and ranked among their learned men. out of these they chuse their ambassadors , their priests , their tranibors , and the prince himself ; who was anciently called their barzenes , but is called of late their ademus . and thus from the great numbers among them , that are neither suffered to be idle , nor to be imployed in any fruitless labour ; you may easly make the estimate , how much good work may be done in those few hours in which they are obliged to labour . but besides all that has been already said , this is to be considered , that those needful arts which are among them , are managed with less labour than any where else . the building , or the repairing of houses among us , employs many hands , because often a thriftless heir suffers a house that his father built , to fall into decay , so that his successor must , at a great cost , repair that which he might have kept up with a small charge : and often it falls out , that the same house which one built at a vast expence , is neglected by another , that thinks he has a more delicate sense of such things ; and he suffering it to fall to ruin , builds another at no less charge . but among the vtopians , all things are so regulated , that men do very seldom build upon any new piece of ground ; and they are not only very quick in repairing their houses , but shew their foresight in preventing their decay : so that their buildings are preserved very long , with very little labour : and thus the craftsmen to whom that care belongs , are often without any imploiment , except it be the hewing of timber , and the squaring of stones , that so the materials may be in readiness for raising a building very suddenly , when there is any occasion for it . as for their clothes , observe how little work goes for them : while they are at labour , they are cloathed with leather and skins , cast carelesly about them , which will last seven years ; and when they appear in publick , they put on an upper garment , which hides the other : and these are all of one colour , and that is the natural colour of the wool : and as they need less woollen cloth than is used any where else , so that which they do need , is much less costly . they use linnen cloth more ; but that is prepared with less labour , and they value cloth only by the whiteness of the linnen , or the cleanness of the wool , without much regard to the fineness of the thread ; and whereas in other places , four or five upper garments of woollen cloth , and of different colours , and as many vests of silk will scarce serve one man ; and those that are nicer , think ten too few ; every man there is contented with one which very oft serves him two years . nor is there any thing that can tempt a man to desire more ; for if he had them , he would neither be the warmer , nor would he make one jot the better appearance for it . and thus since they are all imploied in some useful labour ; and since they content themselves with fewer things , it falls out that there is a great abundance of all things among them : so that often , for want of other work , if there is any need of mending their high ways at any time , you will see marvellous numbers of people brought out to work at them ; and when there is no occasion of any publick work , the hours of working are lessened by publick proclamation ; for the magistrates do not engage the people into any needless labour , since by their constitution they aim chiefly at this , that except in so far as publick necessity requires it , all the people may have as much free time for themselves as may be necessary for the improvement of their minds , for in this they think the happiness of life consists . of their traffick . but it is now time to explain to you the mutual intercourse of this people , their commerce , and the rules by which all things are distributed among them . as their cities are composed of families , so their families are made up of those that are nearly related to one another . their women , when they grow up , are married out ; but all the males , both children and grandchildren , live still in the same house , in great obedience to their common parent , unless age has weakned his understanding ; and in that case he that is next to him in age , comes in his room . but lest any city should become either out of measure great , or fall under a dispeopling by any accident , provision is made that none of their cities may have above six thousand families in it , besides those of the country round it ; and that no family may have less than ten , and more than sixteen persons in it ; but there can be no determined number for the children under age : and this rule is easily observed , by removing some of the children of a more fruitful couple , to any other family that does not abound so much in them . by the same rule , they supply cities that do not encrease so fast , by others that breed faster : and if there is any encrease over the whole island , then they draw out a number of their citizens out of the several towns , and send them over to the neighbouring continent ; where , if they find that the inhabitants have more soil than they can well cultivate , they fix a colony , taking in the inhabitants to their society , if they will live with them ; and where they do that of their own accord , they quickly go into their method of life , and to their rules , and this proves a happiness to both the nations : for according to their constitution , such care is taken of the soil , that it becomes fruitful enogh for both , tho it might be otherwise too narrow and barren for any one of them . but if the natives refuse to conform themselves to their laws , they drive them out of those bounds which they mark out for themselves , and use force if they resist . for they account it a very just cause of war , if any nation will hinder others to come and possess a part of their soil , of which they make no use , but let it lie idle and uncultivated ; since every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth , as is necessary for his subsistence . if any accident has so lessened the number of the inhabitants of any of their towns , that it cannot be made up from the other towns of the island , without diminishing them too much , which is said to have fallen out but twice , since they were first a people , by two plagues that were among them ; then the number is filled up , by recalling so many out of their colonies , for they will abandon their colonies , rather than suffer any of their towns to sink too low . but to return to the manner of their living together ; the ancientest of every family governs it , as has been said . wives serve their husbands , and children their parents , and always the younger serves the elder . every city is divided into four equal parts , and in the middle of every part there is a market-place : that which is brought thither manufactured by the several families , is carried from thence to houses appointed for that purpose , in which all things of a sort are laid by themselves ; and every father of a family goes thither , and takes whatsoever he or his family stand in need of , without either paying for it , or laying in any thing in pawn or exchange for it . there is no reason for denying any thing to any person , since there is such plenty of every thing among them : and there is no danger of any man 's asking more than he needs ; for what should make any do that , since they are all sure that they will be always supplied ? it is the fear of want that makes any of the whole race of animals , either greedy or ravenous ; but besides fear , there is in man a vast pride , that makes him fancy it a particular glory for him to excel other in pomp and excess . but by the laws of the vtopians , there is no room for these things among them . near these markets there are also others for all sorts of victuals , where there are not only herbs , fruits , and bread , but also fish , fowl , and cattel . there are also without their towns , places appointed near some running water , for killing their beasts , and for washing away their filth ; which is done by their slaves , for they suffer none of their citizens to kill their cattel , becaues they think , that pity and good nature , which are among the best of those affections that are born with us , are much impaired by the butchering of animals : nor do they suffer any thing that is foul or unclean to be brought within their towns , lest the air should be infected by ill smells which might prejudice their health . in every street there are great halls that lie at an equal distance from one another , which are marked by particular names . the syphogrants dwell in these , that are set over thirty families , fifteen lying on one side of it , and as many on the other . in these they do all meet and eat . the stewards of every one of them come to the market-place at an appointed hour ; and according to the number of those that belong to their hall , they carry home provisions . but they take more care of their sick , than of any others , who are looked after and lodged in public hospitals : they have belonging to every town four hospitals , that are built without their walls , and are so large , that they may pass for little towns : by this means , if they had ever such a number of sick persons , they could lodg them conveniently , and at such a distance , that such of them as are sick of infectious diseases , may be kept so far from the rest , that there can be no danger of contagion . the hospitals are so furnished and stored with all things that are convenient for the ease and recovery of their sick ; and those that are put in them , are all looked after with so tender and watchful a care , and are so constantly treated by their skilful physicians ; that as none is sent to them against their will , so there is scarce one in a whole town , that if he should fall ill , would not chuse rather to go thithither , than lie sick at home . after the steward of the hospitals has taken for them whatsoever the physician does prescribe at the market-place , then the best things that remain , are distributed equally among the halls , in proportion to their numbers , only , in the first place , they serve the prince , the chief priest , the tranibors and ambassadors , and strangers , ( if there are any , which indeed falls out but seldom , and for whom there are houses well furnished , particularly appointed when they come among them ) . at the hours of dinner and supper , the whole syphogranty being called together by sound of trumpet , meets and eats together , except only such as are in the hospitals , or lie sick at home . yet after the halls are served , no man is hindred to carry provisions home from the market-place ; for they know that none does that but for some good reason ▪ for tho any that will may eat at home , yet none does it willingly , since it is both an indecent and foolish thing , for any to give themselves the trouble to make ready an ill dinner at home , when there is a much more plentiful one made ready for him so near hand . all the uneasy and sordid services about these halls , are performed by their slaves ; but the dressing and cooking their meat , and the ordering their tables , belongs only to the women ; which goes round all the women of every family by turns . they sit at three or more tables , according to their numbers ; the men sit towards the wall , and the women sit on the other side , that if any of them should fall suddenly ill , which is ordinary to women with child , she may , without disturbing the rest , rise and go to the nurses room , who are there with the suckling children ; where there is always fire , and clean water at hand , and some cradles in which they may lay the young children , if there is occasion for it , and that they may shift and dress them before the fire . every child is nursed by its own mother , if death or sickness does not intervene ; and in that case the syphogrants wives find out a nurse quickly , which is no hard matter to do ; for any one that can do it , offers her self chearfully : for as they are much inclined to that piece of mercy , so the child whom they nurse , considers the nurse as its mother . all the children under five years old , sit among the nurses , the rest of the younger sort of both sexes , till they are fit for marriage , do either serve those that sit at table ; or if they are not strong enough for that , they stand by them in great silence , and eat that which is given them , by those that sit at table ; nor have they any other formality of dining . in the middle of the first table , which stands in the upper end of the hall , a trey , where they live at a greater distance , every one eats at home , and no family wants any necessary sort of provision , for it is from them that provisions are sent unto those that live in the towns. of the travelling of the utopians . if any of them has a mind to visit his friends that live in some other town , or desires to travel and see the rest of the country , he obtains leave very easily from the syphogrant and tranibors to do it , when there is no particular occasion for him at home : such as travel , carry with them a passport from the prince , which both certifies the licence that is granted for travelling , and limits the time of their return . they are furnished with a wagon and a slave , who drives the oxen , and looks after them : but unless there are women in the company , the wagon is sent back at the end of the journey as a needless trouble : while they are on the road , they carry no provisions with them ; yet they want nothing , but are every way treated as if they were at home . if they stay in any place longer then a night , every one follows his proper occupation , and is very well used by those of his own trade : but if any man goes out of the city to which he belongs , without leave , and is found going about without a passport , he is roughly handled , and is punished as a fugitive , and sent home disgracefully ; and if he falls again into the like fault , he is condemned to slavery . if any man has a mind to travel only over the precinct of his own city , he may freely do it , obtaining his father's permission , and his wives consent ; but when he comes into any of the countrey-houses , he must labour with them according to their rules , if he expects to be entertaind by them : and if he does this , he may freely go over the whole precinct , being thus as useful to the city to which he belongs , as if he were still within it . thus you see that there are no idle persons among them , nor pretences of excusing any from labour . there are no taverns , no alehouses , nor stews among them ; nor any other occasions of corrupting themselves , or of getting into corners , or forming themselves into parties : all men live in full view , so that all are obliged , both to perform their ordinary task , and to employ themselves well in their spare hours . and it is certain , that a people thus ordered , must live in great abundance of all things ; and these being equally distributed among them , no man can want any thing , or be put to beg . in their great council at amaurot , to which there are three sent from every town once every year , they examine what towns abound in provisions , and what are under any scarcity , that so the one may be furnished from the other ; and this is done freely , without any sort of exchange ; for according to their plenty or scarcity , they supply , or are supplied from one another ; so that indeed the whole island is , as it were , one family . when they have thus taken care of their whole country , and laid up stores for two years , which they do in case that an ill year should happen to come , then they order an exportation of the overplus , both of corn , honey , wool , flax , wood , scarlet , and purple ; wax , tallow , leather , and cattel , which they send out commonly in great quantities to other countries . they order a seventh part of all these goods to be freely given to the poor of the countries to which they send them , and they sell the rest at moderate rates . and by this exchange , they not only bring back those few things that they need at home , for indeed they scarce need any thing but iron , but likewise a great deal of gold and silver ; and by their driving this trade so long , it is not to be imagined how vast a treasure ▪ they have got among them : so that now they do not much care whether they sell off their merchandize for mony in hand , or upon trust . a great part of their treasure is now in bonds ; but in all their contracts no private man stands bound , but the writing runs in name of the town ; and the towns that owe them mony , raise it from those private hands that owe it to them , and lay it up in their publick chamber , or enjoy the profit of it till the vtopians call for it ; and they chuse rather to let the greatest part of it lie in their hands , who make advantage by it , then to call for it themselves : but if they see that any of their other neighbours stand more in need of it , then they raise it , and lend it to them ; or use it themselves , if they are engaged in a war , which is the only occasion that they can have for all that treasure that they have laid up ; that so either in great extremities , or sudden accidents , they may serve themselves by it ; cheifly for hiring foreign souldiers , whom they more willingly expose to danger than their own people : they give them great pay , knowing well that this will work even on their enemies , and engage them either to betray their own side , or at least to desert it , or will set them on to mutual factions among themselves : for this end they have an incredible treasure ; but they do not keep it as a treasure , but in such a manner as i am almost affraid to tell it , lest you think it so extravagant , that you can hardly believe it ; which i have the more reason to apprehend from others , because if i had not seen it my self , i could not have been easily perswaded to have beleived it upon any man's report . it is certain , that all things appear so far incredible to us , as they differ from our own customs : but one who can judg aright , will not wonder to find , that since their other constitutions differ so much from ours , their value of gold and silver should be measured , not by our standard , but by one that is very different from it ; for since they have no use of mony among themselves , but keep it for an accident ; that tho , as it may possibly fall out , it may have great intervals ; they value it no further than it deserves , or may be useful to them . so that it is plain , that they must prefer iron either to gold or silver : for men can no more live without iron , than without fire or water ; but nature has markt out no use for the other metals , with which we may not very well dispence . the folly of man has enhansed the value of gold and silver , because of their scarcity : whereas on the contrary they reason , that nature , as an indulgent parent , has given us all the best things very freely , and in great abundance , such as are water and earth , but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless . if those metals were laid up in any tower among them , it would give jealousy of the prince and senate , according to that foolish mistrust into which the rabble is apt to fall , as if they intended to cheat the people , and make advantages to themselves by it ; or if they should work it into vessels , or any sort of plate , they fear that the people might grow too fond of it , and so be unwilling to let the plate be run down , if a war made it necessary to pay their souldiers with it : therefore to prevent all these inconveniences , they have fallen upon an expedient , which as it agrees with their other policy , so is very different from ours , and will scarce gain belief among us , who value gold so much , and lay it up so carefully : for whereas they eat and drink out of vessels of earth , or glass , that tho they look very prety , yet are of very slight materials ; they make their chamber-pots and close-stools of gold and silver ; and that not only in their publick halls , but in their private houses : of the same mettals they likewise make chains and fetters for their slaves ; and as a badge of infamy , they hang an ear-ring of gold to some , and make others wear a chain or a coronet of gold ; and thus they take care , by all manner of ways , that gold and silver may be of no esteem among them ; and from hence it is , that whereas other nations part with their gold and their silver , as unwillingly as if one tore out their bowels , those of vtopia would look on their giving in all their gold or silver , when there were any use for it , but as the parting with a trifle , or as we would estimate the loss of a penny. they find pearls on their coast ; and diamonds , and carbuncles on their rocks : they do not look after them , but if they find them by chance , they polish them , and with them they adorn their children , who are delighted with them , and glory in them during their childhood ; but when they grow to years , and see that none but children use such baubles , they of their own accord , without being bid by their parents , lay them aside ; and would be as much ashamed to use them afterwards , as children among us , when they come to years , are of their nuts , puppets , and other toies . i never saw a clearer instance of the different impressions that different customs make on people , than i observed in the ambassadors of the anemolians who came to amaurot when i was there : and because they came to treat of affairs of great consequence , the deputies from the several towns had met to wait for their coming . the ambassadours of the nations that lie near vtopia , knowing their customs , and that fine cloaths are in no esteem among them ; that silk is despised , and gold is a badg of infamy , use to come very modestly cloathed ; but the anemolians that lay more remote , and so had little commerce with them , when they understood that they were coursly cloathed , and all in the same manner , they took it for granted that they had none of those fine things among them of which they made no use ; and they being a vain-glorious , rather than a wise people , resolved to set themselves out with so much pomp , that they should look like gods , and so strike the eyes of the poor vtopians with their splendor . thus three ambassadors made their entry with an hundred attendants , that were all clad in garments of different colours , and the greater part in silk ; the ambassadors themselves , who were of the nobility of their country , were in cloth of gold , and adorned with massy chains , ear-rings and rings of gold : their caps were covered with bracelets set full of pearls and other gems : in a word , they were set out with all those things , that among the vtopians were either the badges of slavery , the marks of infamy , or childrens rattels . it was not unpleasant to see on the one side how they lookt big , when they compared their rich habits with the plain cloaths of the vtopians , who were come out in great numbers to see them make their entry : and on the other side , to observe how much they were mistaken in the impression which they hoped this pomp would have made on them : it appeared so ridiculous a shew to all that had never stirred out of their country , and so had not seen the customs of other nations ; that tho they paid some reverence to those that were the most meanly clad , as if they had been the ambassadors , yet when they saw the ambassadors themselves , so full of gold chains , they looking upon them as slaves , made them no reverence at all . you might have seen their children , who were grown up to that bigness , that they had thrown away their jewels , call to their mothers , and push them gently , and cry out , see that great fool that wears pearls and gems , as if he were yet a child . and their mothers answered them in good earnest , hold your peace , this is , i believe , one of the ambassador's fools . others censured the fashion of their chains , and observed that they were of no use , for they were too slight to bind their slaves , who could easily break them ; and they saw them hang so loose about them , that they reckoned they could easily throw them away , and so get from them . but after the ambassadors had staid a day among them , and saw so vast a quantity of gold in their houses , which was as much despised by them , as it was esteemed in other nations , and that there was more gold and silver in the chains and fetters of one slave , than all their ornaments amounted to , their plumes fell , and they were ashamed of all that glory for which they had formerly valued themselves , and so laid it aside : to which they were the more determined , when upon their engaging into some free discourse with the vtopians , they discovered their sense of such things , and their other customs . the vtopians wonder how any man should be so much taken with the glaring doubtful lustre of a jewel or stone , that can look up to a star , or to the sun himself ; or how any should value himself , because his cloth is made of a finer thread : for how fine soever that thread may be , it was once no better than the fleece of a sheep , and that sheep was a sheep still for all its wearing it . they wonder much to hear , that gold which it self is so useless a thing , should be every where so much esteemed , that even men for whom it was made , and by whom it has its value , should yet be thought of less value than it is : so that a man of lead , who has no more sence than a log of wood , and is as bad as he is foolish , should have many wise and good men serving him , only because he has a great heap of that metal ; and if it should so happen , that by some accident , or trick of law , ( which does sometimes produce as great changes as chance it self ) all this wealth should pass from the master to the meanest varlet of his whole family , he himself would very soon become one of his servants , as if he were a thing that belonged to his wealth , and so were bound to follow its fortune . but they do much more admire and detest their folly , who when they see a rich man , tho they neither owe him any thing , nor are in any sort obnoxious to him , yet meerly because he is rich , they give him little less than divine honours ; even tho they know him to be so covetous and base minded , that notwithstanding all his wealth , he will not part with one farthing of it to them as long as he lives . these and such like notions has that people drunk in , partly from their education , being bred in a country , whose customs and constitutions are very opposite to all such foolish maxims : and partly from their learning and studies ; for tho there are but few in any town that are excused from labour , so that they may give themselves wholly to their studies , these being only such persons as discover from their childhood an extraordinary capacity and disposition for letters , yet their children , and a great part of the nation , both men and women , are taught to spend those hours in which they are not obliged to work , in reading : and this they do their whole life long . they have all their learning in their own tongue ; which is both a copious and pleasant language , and in which a man can fully express his mind : it runs over a great tract of many countries , but it is not equally pure in all places : they had never so much as heard of the names of any of those philosophers that are so famous in these parts of the world , before we went among them : and yet they had made the same discoveries that the greeks had done , both in musick , logick , arithmetick , and geometry . but as they are equal to the ancient philosophers almost in all things , so they far exceed our modern logicians , for they have never yet fallen upon the barbarous nicities that our youth are forced to learn in those trifling logical schools that are among us ; and they are so far from minding chimera's , and fantastical images made in the mind , that none of them could comprehend what we meant , when we talked to them of a man in the abstract , as common to all men in particular , ( so that tho we spoke of him as a thing that we could point at with our fingers , yet none of them could perceive him ) and yet distinct from every one , as if he were some monstrous colossus or giant . yet for all this ignorance of these empty notions , they knew astronomy , and all the motions of the orbs exactly ; and they have many instruments , well contrived and divided , by which they do very accurately compute the course and positions of the sun , moon , and stars . but for the cheat , of divining by the stars , and by their oppositions or conjunctions , it has not so much as entred into their thoughts . they this caution , that a lesser pleasure might not stand in the way of a greater , and that no pleasure ought to be pursued , that should draw a great deal of pain after it : for they think it the maddest thing in the world to pursue vertue , that is a sour and difficult thing ; and not only to renounce the pleasures of life , but willingly to undergo much pain and trouble , if a man has no prospect of a reward . and what reward can there be , for one that has passed his whole life , not only without pleasure , but in pain , if there is nothing to be expected after death ? yet they do not place happiness in all sorts of pleasures , but only in those that in themselves are good and honest : for whereas there is a party among them that places happiness in bare vertue , others think that our natures are conducted by vertue to happiness , as that which is the chief good of man. they define vertue thus , that it is a living according to nature ; and think that we are made by god for that end : they do believe that a man does then follow the dictates of nature , when he pursues or avoids things according to the direction of reason : they say , that the first dictate of reason is , the kindling in us a love and reverence for the divine majesty , to whom we owe both all that we have , and all that we can ever hope for . in the next place , reason directs us , to keep our minds as free of passion , and as chearful as we can ; and that we should consider our selves as bound by the ties of good nature and humanity , to use our utmost endeavours to help forward the happiness of all other persons ; for there was never any man that was such a morose and severe pursuer of vertue , and such an enemy to pleasure , that tho he set hard rules to men to undergo , much pain , many watchings , and other rigors , yet did not at the same time advise them to do all they could in order to the relieving and easing such people as were miserable ; and did not represent it as a mark of a laudable temper , that it was gentle and good natured : and they infer from thence , that if a man ought to advance the welfare and comfort of the rest of mankind , there being no vertue more proper and peculiar to our nature , than to ease the miseries of others , to free them from trouble & anxiety , in furnishing them with the comforts of life , that consist in pleasure ; nature does much more vigorously lead him to do all this for himself . a life of pleasure , is either a real evil ; and in that case we ought not only , not to assist others in their pursuit of it , but on the contrary , to keep them from it all we can , as from that which is hurtful and deadly to them ; or if it is a good thing , so that we not only may , but ought to help others to it , why then ought not a man to begin with himself ? since no man can be more bound to look after the good of another , than after his own : for nature cannot direct us to be good and kind to others , and yet at the same time to be unmerciful and cruel to our selves . thus as they define vertue to be a living according to nature , so they reckon that nature sets all people on to seek after pleasure , as the end of all they do . they do also observe , that in order to the supporting the pleasures of life , nature inclines us to enter into society ; for there is no man so much raised above the rest of mankind , that he should be the only favorite of nature , which on the contrary seems to have levelled all those together that belong to the same species . upon this they infer , that no man ought to seek his own conveniences so eagerly , that thereby he should prejudice others ; and therefore they think , that not only all agreements between private persons ought to be observed ; but likewise , that all those laws ought to be kept , which either a good prince has published in due form , or to which a people , that is neither oppressed with tyranny , nor circumvented by fraud , has consented , for distributing those conveniences of life which afford us all our pleasures . they think it is an evidence of true wisdom , for a man to pursue his own advantages , as far as the laws allow it . they account it piety , to prefer the publick good to one's private concerns ; but they think it unjust , for a man to seek for his own pleasure , by snatching another man's pleasures from him . and on the contrary , they think it a sign of a gentle and good soul , for a man to dispence with his own advantage for the good of others ; and that by so doing , a good man finds as much pleasure one way , as he parts with another ; for as he may expect the like from others when he may come to need it , so if that should fail him , yet the sense of a good action , and the reflections that one makes on the love and gratitude of those whom he has so obliged , gives the mind more pleasure , than the body could have found in that from which it had restrained it self : they are also perswaded that god will make up the loss of those small pleasures , with a vast and endless joy , of which religion does easily convince a good soul. thus upon an enquiry into the whole matter , they reckon that all our actions , and even all our vertues terminate in pleasure , as in our chief end and greatest happiness ; and they call every motion or state , either of body or mind , in which nature teaches us to delight , a pleasure . and thus they cautiously limit pleasure , only to those appetites to which nature leads us ; for they reckon that nature leads us only to those delights to which reason as well as sense carries us , and by which we neither injure any other person , nor let go greater pleasures for it ; and which do not draw troubles on us after them : but they look upon those delights which men , by a foolish tho common mistake , call pleasure , as if they could change the nature of things , as well as the use of words , as things that not only do not advance our happiness , but do rather obstruct it very much , because they do so entirely possess the minds of those that once go into them , with a false notion of pleasure , that there is no room left for truer and purer pleasures . there are many things that in themselves have nothing that is truly delighting : on the contrary , they have a good deal of bitterness in them ; and yet by our perverse appetites after forbidden objects , are not only ranked among the pleasures , but are made even the greatest designs of life . among those who pursue these sophisticated pleasures , they reckon those whom i mentioned before , who think themselves really the better for having fine clothes ; in which they think they are doubly mistaken , both in the opinion that they have of their clothes , and in the opinion that they have of themselves ; for if you consider the use of clothes , why should a fine thread be thought better than a course one ? and yet that sort of men , as if they had some real advantages beyond others , and did not owe it wholly to their mistakes , look big , and seem to fancy themselves to be the more valuable on that account , and imagine that a respect is due to them for the sake of a rich garment , to which they would not have pretended , if they had been more meanly cloathed ; and they resent it as an affront , if that respect is not paid them . it is also a great folly to be taken with these outward marks of respect , which signify nothing : for what true or real pleasure can one find in this , that another man stands bare , or makes legs to him ? will the bending another man's thighs give yours an ease ? and will his head 's being bare , cure the madness of yours ? and yet it is wonderful to see how this false notion of pleasure bewitches many , who delight themselves with the fancy of their nobility , and are pleased with this conceit , that they are descended from ancestors , who have been held for some successions rich , and that they have had great possessions ; for this is all that makes nobility at present ; yet they do not think themselves a whit the less noble , tho their immediate parents have left none of this wealth to them ; or tho they themselves have squandred it all away . the vtopians have no better opinion of those , who are much taken with gems and precious stones , and who account it a degree of happiness , next to a divine one , if they can purchase one that is very extraordinary ; especially if it be of that sort of stones , that is then in greatest request ; for the same sort is not at all times of the same value with all sorts of people ; nor will men buy it , unless it be dismounted and taken out of the gold : and then the jeweller is made to give good security , and required solemnly to swear that the stone is true , that by such an exact caution , a false one may not be bought instead of a true : whereas if you were to examine it , your eye could find no difference between that which is counterfeit , and that which is true ; so that they are all one to you as much as if you were blind : and can it be thought that they who heap up an useless mass of wealth , not for any use that it is to bring them , but meerly to please themselves with the contemplation of it , enjoy any true pleasure in it ? the delight they find , is only a false shadow of joy : those are no better , whose error is somewhat different from the former , and who hide it , out of their fear of losing it ; for what other name can fit the hiding it in the earth , or rather the restoring it to it again , it being thus cut off from being useful , either to its owner , or to the rest of mankind ? and yet the owner having hid it carefully , is glad , because he thinks he is now sure of it . and in case one should come to steal it , the owner , tho he might live perhaps ten years after that , would all that while after the theft , of which he knew nothing , find no difference between his having it , or losing it , for both ways it was equally useless to him . among those foolish pursuers of pleasure , they reckon all those that delight in hunting , or birding , or gaming : of whose madness they have only heard , for they have no such things among them : but they have asked us ; what sort of pleasure is it that men can find in throwing the dice ? for if there were any pleasure in it , they think the doing it so often should give one a surfeit of it : and what pleasure can one find in hearing the barking and howling of dogs , which seem rather odious than pleasant sounds ? nor can they comprehend the pleasure of seeing dogs run after a hare , more than of seeing one dog run after another ; for you have the same entertainment to the eye on both these occasions ; if the seeing them run is that which gives the pleasure , since that is the same in both cases : but if the pleasure lies in seeing the hare killed and torn by the dogs , this ought rather to stir pity , when a weak , harmless , and fearful hare , is devoured by a strong , fierce , and cruel dog. therefore all this business of hunting , is among the vtopians turned over to their butchers ; and those are all slaves , as was formerly said : and they look on hunting , as one of the basest parts of a butcher's work : for they account it both more profitable , and more decent to kill those beasts that are more necessary and useful to mankind ; whereas the killing and tearing of so small and miserable an animal , which a huntsman proposes to himself , can only attract him with the false shew of pleasure ; for it is of little use to him : they look on the desire of the bloodshed , even of beasts , as a mark of a mind that is already corrupted with cruelty , or that at least by the frequent returns of so brutal a pleasure , must degenerate into it . thus tho the rabble of mankind looks upon these , and all other things of this kind , which are indeed innumerable , as pleasures ; the vtopians on the contrary observing , that there is nothing in the nature of them that is truly pleasant , conclude that they are not to be reckoned among pleasures : for tho these things may create some tickling in the senses , ( which seems to be a true notion of pleasure ) yet they reckon that this does not arise from the thing it self , but from a depraved custom , which may so vitiate a man's taste , that bitter things may pass for sweet ; as women with child think pitch or tallow taste sweeter than hony ; but as a man's sense when corrupted , either by a disease , or some ill habit , does not change the nature of other things , so neither can it change the nature of pleasure . they reckon up several sorts of these pleasures , which they call true ones : some belong to the body , and others to the mind . the pleasures of the mind lie in knowledg , and in that delight which the contemplation of truth carries with it ; to which they add the joyful reflections on a well-spent life , and the assured hopes of a future happiness . they divide the pleasures of the body into two sorts ; the one is that which gives our senses some real delight , and is performed , either by the recruiting of nature , and supplying those parts on which the internal heat of life feeds ; and that is done by eating or drinking : or when nature is eased of any surcharge that oppresses it , as when we empty our guts , beget children , or free any of the parts of our body from aches or heats by friction . there is another kind of this sort of pleasure , that neither gives us any thing that our bodies require , nor frees us from any thing with which we are overcharged ; and yet it excites our senses by a secret unseen vertue , and by a generous impression , it so tickles and affects them , that it turns them inwardly upon themselves ; and this is the pleasure begot by musick . another sort of bodily pleasure is , that which consists in a quiet and good constitution of body , by which there is an entire healthiness spread over all the parts of the body , not allayed with any disease . this , when it is free from all mixture of pain , gives an inward pleasure of it self , even tho it should not be excited by any external and delighting object ; and altho this pleasure does not so vigorously affect the sense , nor act so strongly upon it ; yet as it is the greatest of all pleasures , so almost all the vtopians reckon it the foundation and basis of all the other joys of life ; since this alone makes one's state of life to be easy and desirable ; and when this is wanting , a man is really capable of no other pleasure . they look upon indolence and freedom from pain , if it does not rise from a perfect health , to be a state of stupidity rather than of pleasure . there has been a controversy in this matter very narrowly canvassed among them ; whether a firm and entire health could be called a pleasure , or not ? some have thought that there was no pleasure , but that which was excited by some sensible motion in the body . but this opinion has been long ago run down among them , so that now they do almost all agree in this , that health is the greatest of all bodily pleasures ; and that as there is a pain in sickness , which is as opposite in its nature to pleasure , as sickness it self is to health , so they hold that health carries a pleasure along with it : and if any should say , that sickness is not really a pain , but that it only carries a pain along with it , they look upon that as a fetch of subtilty , that does not much alter the matter . so they think it is all one , whether it be said , that health is in it self a pleasure , or that it begets a pleasure , as fire gives heat ; so it be granted , that all those whose health is entire , have a true pleasure in it : and they reason thus , what is the pleasure of eating , but that a man's health which had been weakned , does , with the assistance of food , drive away hunger , and so recruiting it self , recovers its former vigour ? and being thus refresh'd , it finds a pleasure in that conflict : and if the conflict is pleasure , the victory must yet breed a greater pleasure , except we will fancy that it becomes stupid as soon as it has obtained that which it pursued , and so does neither know nor rejoice in its own welfare . if it is said , that health cannot be felt , they absolutely deny that , for what man is in health , that does not perceive it when he is awake ? is there any man that is so dull and stupid , as not to acknowledg that he feels a delight in health ? and what is delight , but another name for pleasure ? but of all pleasures , they esteem those to be the most valuable that lie in the mind ; and the chief of these , are those that arise out of true vertue , and the witness of a good conscience : they account health the chief pleasure that belongs to the body ; for they think that the pleasure of eating and drinking , and all the other delights of the body , are only so far desirable , as they give or maintain health : but they are not pleasant in themselves , otherwise than as they resist those impressions that our natural infirmity is still making upon us : and as a wise man desires rather to avoid diseases , than to take physick ; and to be freed from pain , rather than to find ease by remedies : so it were a more desirable state , not to need this sort of pleasure , than to be obliged to indulge it : and if any man imagines that there is a real happiness in this pleasure , he must then confess that he would be the happiest of all men , if he were to lead his life in a perpetual hunger , thirst , and itching , and by consequence in perpetual eating , drinking , and scratching himself , which any one may easily see would be not only a base , but a miserable state of life . these are indeed the lowest of pleasures , and the least pure : for we can never relish them , but when they are mixed with the contrary pains . the pain of hunger , must give us the pleasure of eating ; and here the pain outballances the pleasure : and as the pain is more vehement , so it lasts much longer ; for as it is upon us before the pleasure comes , so it does not cease , but with the pleasure that extinguishes it , and that goes off with it : so that they think none of those pleasures are to be valued , but as they are necessary . yet they rejoice in them , and with due gratitude acknowledg the tenderness of the great author of nature , who has planted in us appetites , by which those things that are necessary for our preservation , are likewise made pleasant to us . for how miserable a thing would life be , if those daily diseases of hunger and thirst , were to be carried off by such bitter drugs , as we must use for those diseases that return seldomer upon us ? and thus these pleasant , as well as proper gifts of nature , do maintain the strength and the sprightliness of our bodies . they do also entertain themselves with the other delights that they let in at their eyes , their ears , and their nostrils , as the pleasant relishes and seasonings of life , which nature seems to have marked out to be seen a greater encrease , both of corn and cattel , nor are there any where healthier men to be found , and freer from diseases than among them : for one may see there , not only such things put in practice , that husbandmen do commonly for manuring and improving an ill soil , but in some places a whole wood is plucked up by the roots , as well as whole ones planted in other places , where there were formerly none : in doing of this the cheif consideration they have is of carriage , that their timber may be either near their towns , or lie upon the sea , or some rivers , so that it may be floated to them ; for it is a harder work to carry wood at any distance over land , then corn. the peole are industrious , apt to learn , as well as chearful and pleasant ; and none can endure more labour , when it is necessary , than they ; but except in that case they love their ease . they are unwearied pursuers of knowledg ; for when we had given them some hints of the learning and discipline of the greeks , concerning whom we only instructed them , ( for we know that there was nothing among the romans , except their , historians and their poets , that they would value much ) it was strange to see how eagerly they were set on learning that language : we began to read a little of it to them , rather in compliance with their importunity , than out of any hopes of their profiting much by it : but after a very short trial , we found they made such a progress in it , that we saw our labour was like to be more successful than we could have expected . they learned to write their characters , and to pronounce their language so right , and took up all so quick , they remembered it so faithfully , and became so ready and correct in the use of it , that it would have look'd like a miracle , if the greater part of those whom we taught had not been men , both of extraordinay capacity , and of a fit age for it : they were for the greatest part chosen out among their learned men , by their cheif council , tho some learn'd it of their own accord . in three years time they became masters of the whole language , so that they read the best of the greek authors very exactly . i am indeed apt to think , that they learned that language the more easily , because it seems to be of kin to their own : i believe that they were a colony of the greeks ; for tho their language comes nearer the persian , yet they retain many names , both for their towns and magistrates , that are of greek origination . i had happened to carry a great many books with me , instead of merchandise , when i failed my fourth voyage ; for i was so far from thinking of coming back soon , that i rather thought never to have returned at all , and i gave them all my books , among which many of plato's and some of aristotle's works were . i had also theophrastus of the plants , which to my great regret , was imperfect ; for having laid it carelessly by , while we were at sea , a monkey had fallen upon it and had torn out leaves in many places . they have no books of grammar , but lascares , for i did not carry theodorus with me ; nor have they any dictionaries but hesichius and dioscorides . they esteem plutarch highly , and were much taken with lucian's wit , and with his pleasant way of writing . as for the poets , they have aristophanes , homer , euripides , and sophocles of aldus's edition ; and for historians , they have thucidydes , herodotus and herodian . one of my companions , thricius apinatus , happened to carry with him some of hippocrates's works , and galen's microtechne , which they hold in great estimation ; for tho there is no nation in the world , that needs physick so little as they do , yet there is not any that honours it so much : they reckon the knowledg of it to be one of the pleasantest and profitablest parts of philosophy , by which , as they search into the secrets of nature , so they not only find marvellous pleasure in it , but think that in making such enquiries , they do a most acceptable thing to the author of nature ; and imagine that he , as all inventers of curious engines , has exposed to our view this great machine of the universe , we being the only creatures capable of contemplating it : and that therefore an exact and curious observer and admirer of his workmanship , is much more acceptable to him , than one of the herd ; who as if he were a beast , and not capable of reason , looks on all this glorious scene , only as a dull and unconcerned spectator . the minds of the vtopians , when they are once excited by learning , are very ingenious in finding out all such arts as tend to the conveniences of life . two things they owe to us , which are the art of printing , and the manufacture of paper : yet they do not owe these so entirely to us , but that a great part of the invention was their own ; for after we had shewed them some paper-books of aldus's impression , and began to explain to them the way of making paper , and of printing , tho we spake but very crudely of both these , not being practised in either of them , they presently took up the whole matter from the hints that we gave them : and whereas before they only writ on parchment , or on the barks of trees , or reeds ; they have now set up the manufacture of paper , and printing-presses : and tho at first they could not arrive at a perfection in them , yet by making many essays , they at last found out , and corrected all their errors , and brought the whole thing to perfection ; so that if they had but a good number of greek authors , they would be quickly supplied with many copies of them : at present ; tho they have no more than those i have mentioned , yet by several impressions , they have multiplied them into many thousands . if any man should go among them , that had some extraordinary talent , or that by much travelling had observed the customs of many nations , ( which made us to be so well received ) he would be very welcome to them ; for they are very desirous to know the state of the whole world. very few go among them on the account of traffick , for what can a man carry to them but iron , or gold , or silver , which merchants desire rather to export , than import to any strange country : and as for their exportation , they think it better to manage that themselves , than to let forraigners come and deal in it , for by this means , as they understand the state of the neighbouring countries better , so they keep up the art of navigation , which cannot be maintained but by much practise in it . of their slaves , and of their marriages . they do not make slaves of prisoners of war , except those that are taken fighting against them ; nor of the sons of their slaves , nor of the slaves of other nations : the slaves among them , are only such as are condemned to that state of life for some crime that they had committed , or which is more common , such as their merchants find condemned to die in those parts to which they trade , whom they redeem sometimes at low rates ; and in other places they have them for nothing ; and so they fetch them away . all their slaves are kept at perpetual labour , and are always chained , but with this difference , that they treat their own natives much worse , looking on them as a more profligate sort of people ; who not being restrained from crimes , by the advantages of so excellent an education , are judged worthy of harder usage than others . another sort of slaves , is , when some of the poorer sort in the neighbouring countries , offer of their own accord to come and serve them ; they treat these better , and use them in all other respects , as well as their own country men , except that they impose more labour upon them , which is no hard task to them that have been accustomed to it ; and if any of these have a mind to go back to their own country , which indeed falls out but seldom , as they do not force them to stay ▪ so they do not send them away empty handed . i have already told you with what care they look after their sick , so that nothing is left undone that can contribute either to their ease or health : and for those who are taken with fixed and incurable diseases , they use all possible ways to cherish them , and to make their lives as comfortable as may be : they visit them often , and take great pains to make their time pass off easily : but when any is taken with a torturing and lingering pain , so that there is no hope , either of recovery or ease , the priests and magistrates come and exhort them , that since they are now unable to go on with the business of life , and are become a burden to themselves , and to all about them , so that they have really out-lived themselves , they would no longer nourish such a rooted distemper , but would chuse rather to die , since they cannot live , but in much misery : being assured , that if they either deliver themselves from their prison and torture , or are willing that others should do it , they shall be happy after their deaths : and since by their dying thus , they lose none of the pleasures , but only the troubles of life ; they think they act , not only reasonably in so doing , but religiously and piously ; because they follow the advices that are given them by the priests , who are the expounders of the will of god to them . such as are wrought on by these perswasions , do either starve themselves of their own accord , or they take opium , and so they die without pain . but no man is forced on this way of ending his life ; and if they cannot be perswaded to it , they do not for that fail in their attendance and care of them : but as they believe that a voluntary death , when it is chosen upon such an authority , is very honourable ; so if any man takes away his own life , without the approbation of the priests and the senate , they give him none of the honours of a decent funeral , but throw his body into some ditch . their women are not married before eighteen , nor their men before two and twenty ; and if any of them run into forbidden embraces before their marriage , they are severely punished , and the privilege of marriage is denied them , unless there is a special warrant obtained for it afterward from the prince . such disorders cast a great reproach upon the master and mistress of the family in which they fall out ; for it is supposed , that they have been wanting to their duty . the reason of punishing this so severely , is , because they think that if they were not so strictly restrained from all vagrant appetites , very few would engage in a married state , in which men venture the quiet of their whole life , being restricted to one person ; besides many other inconveniences that do accompany it . in the way of chusing of their wives , they use a method that would appear to us very absurd and ridiculous , but is constantly observed among them , and accounted a wise and good rule . before marriage , some grave matron presents the bride naked , whether she is a virgin or a widow , to the bridegroom ; and after that , some grave man presents the bridegroom naked to the bride . we indeed both laughed at this , and condemned it as a very indecent thing . but they , on the other hand , wondered at the folly of the men of all other nations ; who if they are but to buy a horse of a small value , are so cautious , that they will see every part of him , and take off both his sadle , and all his other tackle , that there may be no secret ulcer hid under under any of them ; and that yet in the choice of a wife , on which depends the happiness or unhappiness of the rest of his life , a man should venture upon trust , and only see about an handbreadth of the face , all the rest of the body being covered ; under which there may lie hid that which may be contagious , as well as loathsome . all men are not so wise , that they chuse a woman only for her good qualities ; and even wise men consider the body , as that which adds not a little to the mind : and it is certain , there may be some such deformity covered with ones clothes , as may totally alienate a man from his wife , when it is too late to part with her : for if such a thing is discovered after marriage , a man has no remedy but patience : so they think it is reasonable , that there should be a good provision made against such mischievous frauds . there was so much the more reason in making a regulation in this matter , because they are the only people of those parts that do neither allow of polygamy , nor of divorces , except in the cases of adultery , or insufferable perversness : for in these cases the senate dissolves the marriage , and grants the injured person leave to marry again ; but the guilty are made infamous , and are never allowed the privilege of a second marriage . none are suffered to put away their wives against their wills , because of any great calamity that may have fallen on their person ; for they look on it as the height of cruelty and treachery to abandon either of the married persons , when they need most the tender care of their consort ; and that chiefly in the case of old age , which as it carries many diseases along with it , so it is a disease of it self . but it falls often out , that when a married couple do not agree well together , they by mutual consent separate , and find out other persons with whom they hope they may live more happily : yet this is not done , without obtaining leave of the senate ; which never admits of a divorce , but upon a strict enquiry made , both by the senators and their wives , into the grounds upon which it proceeds : and even when they are satisfied concerning the reasons of it , they go on but slowly , for they reckon that too great easiness , in granting leave for new marriages , would very much shake the kindness of married persons . they punish severely those that defile the marriage-bed : if both parties are married , they are divorced , and the injured persons may marry one another , or whom they please ; but the adulterer , and the adulteress are condemned to slavery . yet if either of the injured persons cannot shake off the love of the married person , they may live with them still in that state ; but they must follow them to that labour to which the slaves are condemned ; and sometimes the repentance of the condemned person , together with the unshaken kindness of the innocent and injured person , has prevailed so far with the prince , that he has taken off the sentence . but those that relapse , after they are once pardoned , are punished with death . their law does not determine the punishment for other crimes ; but that is left to the senate , to temper it according to the circumstances of the fact. husbands have power to correct their wives , and parents to correct their children , unless the fault is so great , that a publick punishment is thought necessary for the striking terror into others . for the most part , slavery is the punishment even of the greatest crimes ; for as that is no less terrible to the criminals themselves than death ; so they think the preserving them in a state of servitude , is more for the interest of the common-wealth , than the killing them outright ; since as their labour is a greater benefit to the publick , than their death could be ; so the sight of their misery is a more lasting terror to other men , than that which would be given by their death . if their slaves rebel , and will not bear their yoke , and submit to the labour that is enjoined them , they are treated as wild beasts that cannot be kept in order , neither by a prison , nor by their chains ; and are at last put to death . but those who bear their punishment patiently , and are so much wrought on by that pressure , that lies so hard on them , that it appears they are really more troubled for the crimes they have committed , than for the miseries they suffer , are not out of hope , but that at last either the prince will , by his prerogative , or the people will by their intercession restore them again to their liberty , or at least very much mitigate their slavery . he that tempts a married woman to adultery , is no less severely punished , than he that commits it ; for they reckon that a laid and studied design of committing any crime , is equal to the fact it self ; since it s not taking effect does not make the person that did all that in him lay in order to it , a whit the less guilty . they take great pleasure in fools , and as it is thought a base and unbecoming thing to use them ill , so they do not think it amiss for people to divert themselves with their folly : and they think this is a great advantage to the fools themselves : for if men were so sullen and severe , as not at all to please themselves with their ridiculous behaviour , and foolish sayings , which is all that they can do to recommend themselves to others , it could not be expected that they would be so well look'd to , nor so tenderly used as they must otherwise be . if any man should reproach another for his being mishaped or imperfect in any part of his body , it would not at all be thought a reflection on the person that were so treated , but it would be accounted a very unworthy thing for him that had upbraided another with that which he could not help . it is thought a sign of a sluggish and sordid mind , not to preserve carefully one 's natural beauty ; but it is likewise an infamous thing among them to use paint or fard . and they all see that no beauty recommends a wife so much to her husband , as the probity of her life , and her obedience : for as some few are catched and held only by beauty , so all people are held by the other excellencies which charm all the world. as they fright men from committing crimes by punishments , so they invite them to the love of vertue , by publick honours : therefore they erect statues in honour to the memories of such worthy men as have deserved well of their country , and set these in their market-places , both to perpetuate the remembrance of their actions , and to be an incitement to their posterity to follow their example . if any man aspires to any office , he is sure never to compass it : they live all easily together , for none of the magistrates are either insolent or cruel to the people ; but they affect rather to be called fathers , and by being really so , they well deserve that name ; and the people pay them all the marks of honour the more freely , because none are exacted of them . the prince himself has no distinction , either of garments , or of a crown ; but is only known by a sheaf of corn that is carried before him , as the high priest is also known by a wax light that is carried before him . they have but few laws , and such is their constitution , that they need not many . they do very much condemn other nations , whose laws , together with the commentaries on them , swell up to so many volumes ; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to obey a body of laws , that are both of such a bulk , and so dark , that they cannot be read or understood by every one of the subjects . they have no lawyers among them , for they consider them as a sort of people , whose profession it is to disguise matters , as well as to wrest laws ; and therefore they think it is much better that every man should plead his own cause , and trust it to the judg , as well as in other places the client does it to a counsellor . by this means they both cut off many delays , and find out truth more certainly : for after the parties have laid open the merits of their cause , without those artifices which lawyers are apt to suggest , the judg examines the whole matter , and supports the simplicity of such well-meaning persons , whom otherwise crafty men would be sure to run down : and thus they avoid those evils , which appear very remarkably among all those nations that labour under a vast load of laws . every one of them is skilled in their law , for as it is a very short study , so the plainnest meaning of which words are capable , is always the sense of their laws . and they argue thus ; all laws are promulgated for this end , that every man may know his duty ; and therefore the plainest and most obvious sense of the words , is that which must be put on them ; since a more refined exposition cannot be easily comprehended , and laws become thereby useless to the greater part of mankind , who need most the direction of them : for to them it is all one , not to make a law at all , and to couch it in such tearms , that without a quick apprehension , and much study , a man cannot find out the true meaning of it ; and the generality of mankind are both so dull , and so much imployed in their several trades , that they have neither the leisure nor the capacity requisite for such an enquiry . some of their neighbours , who are masters of their own liberties , having long ago , by the assistance of the vtopians , shaken off the yoke of tyranny ; and being much taken with those vertues that they observe among them , have come to them , and desired that they would send magistrates among them to govern them ; some changing them every year , and others every five years . at the end of their government , they bring them back to vtopia , with great expressions of honour and esteem , and carry away others to govern in their stead . in this they seem to have fallen upon a very good expedient for their own happiness and safety : for since the good or ill condition of a nation depends so much upon their magistrates , they could not have made a better choice , than by pitching on men whom no advantages can biass ; for wealth is of no use to them , since they must go so soon back to their own country ; and they being strangers among them , are not engaged in any of their heats or animosities : and it is certain , that when publick judicatories are swayed , either by partial affections , or by avarice , there must follow upon it a dissolution of all justice , which is the chief sinew of society . the vtopians call those nations that come and ask magistrates from them , neighbours ; but they call those to whom they have been more particularly assisting , friends . and whereas all other nations are perpetually either making leagues , or breaking them , they never enter into any alliance with any other state. they think leagues are useless things , and reckon , that if the common ties of humane nature do not knit men together , the faith of promises will have no great effect on them : and they are the more confirmed in this , by that which they see among the nations round about them , who are no strict observers of leagues and treaties . we know how religiously they are observed in europe ; more particularly where the christian doctrine is received , among whom they are sacred and inviolable . which is partly owing to the justice and goodness of the princes themselves , and partly to their reverence that they pay to the popes : who as they are most religious observers of their own promises , so they exhort all other princes to perform theirs ; and when fainter methods do not prevail , they compel them to it by the severity of the pastoral censure ; and think that it would be the most indecent thing possible , if men who are particularly designed by the title of the faithful , should not religiously keep the faith of their treaties . but in that new found world , which is not more distant from us in scituation , than it is disagreeing from us in their manners , and course of life , there is no trusting to leagues , even tho they were made with all the pomp of the most sacred ceremonies that is possible : on the contrary , they are the sooner broken for that , some slight pretence being found in the words of the treaties , which are contrived in such ambiguous terms , and that on design , that they can never be so strictly bound , but they will always find some loop-hole to escape at ; and so they break both their leagues and their faith. and this is done with that impudence , that those very men who value themselves on having suggested these advices to their princes , would yet , with a haughty scorn , declaim against such craft , or to speak plainer , such fraud and deceit , if they found private men make use of it in their bargains ; and would readily say , that they deserved to be hanged for it . by this means it is , that all sort of justice passes in the world , but for a low-spirited and vulgar vertue , which is far below the dignity of royal greatness ▪ or at least , there are two sorts of justice set up : the one is mean , and creeps on the ground , and therefore becomes none but the baser sort of men , and so must be kept in severely by many restraints , that it may not break out beyond the bounds that are set to it . the other is , the peculiar vertue of princes , which as it is more majestick than that which becomes the , rabble , so takes a freer compass ; and lawful or unlawful , are only measured by pleasure and interest . these practices among the princes that lie about vtopia , who make so little account of their faith , seem to be the reasons that determine them to engage in no confederacies : perhaps they would change their mind if they lived among us : but yet tho treaties were more religiously observed , they would still dislike the custom of making them ; since the world has taken up a false maxim upon it , as if there were no tie of nature knitting one nation to another , that are only separated perhaps by a mountain , or a river , and that all were born in a state of hostility , and so might lawfully do all that mischief to their neighbours , against which there is no provision made by treaties : and that when treaties are made , they do not cut off the enmity , or restrain the license of preying upon one another , if by the unskilfulness of wording them , there are not effectual proviso's made against them . they on the other hand judg , that no man is to be esteemed our enemy that has never injured us ; and that the partnership of the humane nature , that is among all men , is instead of a league . and that kindness and good nature unite men more effectually , and more forcibly than any agreements whatsoever ; since thereby the engagements of mens hearts become stronger , than any thing can be to which a few words can bind them . of their military discipline . they detest war as a very brutal thing ; and which , to the reproach of humane nature , is more practised by men , than by any sort of beasts : and they , against the custom of almost all other nations , think that there is nothing more inglorious than that glory that is gained by war : and therefore tho they accustom themselves daily to military exercises , and the discipline of war , in which not only their men , but their women likewise , are trained up , that so in cases of necessity , they may not be quite useless : yet they do not rashly engage in war , unless it be either to defend themselves , or their friends , from any unjust aggressors ; or out of good nature , or in compassion to an oppressed nation , that they assist them to the shaking off the yoke tyranny . they indeed help their friends , not only in defensive , but also in offensive wars : but they never do that , unless they had been consulted with while the matter was yet entire ; and that being satisfied with the grounds on which they went , they had found that all demands of reparation were rejected , so that a war was necessary : which they do not think to be only just , when one neighbour makes an inrode on another , by publick order , and carries away their spoils ; but when the merchants of one country are oppressed in another , either under the pretence of some unjust laws , or by the perverse wresting of good ones : this they count a juster cause of war than the other , because those injuries are done under some colour of laws . this was the only ground of that war , in which they engaged with the nephelogetes against the aleopolitanes , a little before our time : for the merchants of the former , having , as they thought , met with great injustice among the latter , that , whether it was in it self right or wrong , did draw on a terrible war , many of their neighbours being engaged in it ; and their keenness in carrying it on , being supported by their strength in maintaining it ; it not only shook some very flourishing states , and very much afflicted others ; but after a series of much mischief , it ended in the entire conquest and slavery of the aleopolitanes , who tho before the war , they were in all respects much superior to the nephelogetes , yet by it they fell under their empire ; but the vtopians , tho they had assisted them in the war , yet pretended to no share of the spoil . but tho they assist their friends so vigorously , in taking reparation for injuries that are done them in such matters ; yet if they themselves should meet with any such fraud , provided there were no violence done to their persons , they would only carry it so far , that unless satisfaction were made , they would give over trading with such a people . this is not done , because they consider their neighbours more than their own citizens ; but since their neighbours trade every one upon his own stock , fraud is a more sensible injury to them , than it is to the vtopians , among whom the publick only suffers in such a case : and since they expect nothing in return for the merchandize that they export ; but that in which they abound so much , and is of little use to them , the loss does not much affect them ; therefore they think it would be too severe a thing to revenge a loss that brings so little inconvenience with it , either to their life , or their livelihood , with the death of many people : but if any of their people is either killed or wounded wrongfully , whether that be done by publick authority , or only by private men , as soon as they hear of it , they send ambassadors , and demand , that the guilty persons may be delivered up to them ; and if that is denied , they declare war ; but if that is done , they condemn those either to death or slavery . they would be both troubled and ashamed of a bloody victory over their enemies ; and think it would be as foolish a purchase , as to buy the most valuable goods at too high a rate . and in no victory do they glory so much , as in that which is gained by dexterity and good conduct , without bloodshed . they appoint publick triumphs in such cases , and erect trophies to the honour of those who have succeeded well in them ; for then do they reckon that a man acts sutably to his nature , when he conquers his enemy in such a way , that no other creature but a man could be capable of it , and that is , by the strength of his understanding . bears , lions , boars , wolves , and dogs , and other animals , imploy their bodily force one against another , in which as many of them are superior to man , both in strength and fierceness , so they are all subdued by the reason and understanding that is in him . the only design of the vtopians in war , is to obtain that by force , which if it had been granted them in time , would have prevented the war ; or if that cannot be done , to take so severe a revenge of those that have injured them , that they may be terrified from doing the like in all time coming . by these ends they measure all their designs , and manage them so , that it is visible that the appetite of fame or vain-glory , does not work so much on them , as a just care of their own security . as soon as they declare war , they take care to have a great many schedules , that are sealed with their common seal , affixed in the most conspicuous places of their enemies country . this is carried secretly , and done in many places all at once . in those they promise great rewards to such as shall kill the prince , and lesser in proportion to such as shall kill any other persons , who are those on whom , next to the prince himself , they cast the chief blame of the war. and they double the sum to him , that instead of killing the person so marked out , shall take him alive , and put him in their hands . they offer not only indemnity , but rewards , to such of the persons themselves that are so marked , if they will act against their country-men : by this means those that are named in their schedules , become not only distrustful of their fellow-citizens , but are jealous of one another : and are much distracted by fear and danger ; for it has often fallen out , that many of them , and even the prince himself , have been betrayed by those in whom they have trusted most : for the rewards that the vtopians offer , are so unmeasurably great , that there is no sort of crime to which men cannot be drawn by them . they consider the risque that those run , who undertake such services , and offer a recompence proportioned to the danger ; not only a vast deal of gold , but great revenues in lands ▪ that lie among other nations that are their friends , where they may go and enjoy them very securely ; and they observe the promises they make of this kind most religiously . they do very much approve of this way of corrupting their enemies , tho it appears to others to be a base and cruel thing ; but they look on it as a wise course , to make an end of that which would be otherwise a great war , without so much as hazarding one battel to decide it . they think it likewise an act of mercy and love to mankind , to prevent the great slaughter of those that must otherwise be killed in the progress of the war , both of their own side , and of their enemies , by the death of a few that are most guilty ; and that in so doing , they are kind even to their enemies , and pity them no less than their own people , as knowing that the greater part of them do not engage in the war of their own accord , but are driven into it by the passions of their prince . if this method does not succeed with them , then they sow seeds of contention among their enemies , and animate the prince's brother , or some of the nobility , to aspire to the crown . if they cannot disunite them by domestick broils , then they engage their neighbours against them , and make them set on foot some old pretensions , which are never wanting to princes , when they have occasion for them . and they supply them plentifully with mony , tho but very sparingly with any auxiliary troops : for they are so render of their own people , that they would not willingly exchange one of them , even with the prince of their enemies country . but as they keep their gold and silver only for such an occasion , so when that offers it self , they easily part with it , since it would be no inconvenience to them , tho they should reserve nothing of it to themselves . for besides the wealth that they have among them at home , they have a vast treasure abroad ; many nations round about them , being deep in their debt : so that they hire souldiers from all places for carrying on their wars ; but chiefly from the zapolets , who lie five hundred miles from vtopia eastward . they are a rude , wild , and fierce nation , who delight in the woods and rocks , among which they were born and bred up . they are hardned both against heat , cold , and labour , and know nothing of the delicacies of life . they do not apply themselves to agriculture , nor do they care either for their houses or their clothes . cattel is all that they look after ; and for the greatest part , they live either by their hunting , or upon rapine ; and are made , as it were , only for war. they watch all opportunities of engaging in it , and very readily embrace such as are offered them . great numbers of them will often go out , and offer themselves upon a very low pay , to serve any that will employ them : they know none of the arts of life , but those that lead to the taking it away ; they serve those that hire them , both with much courage and great fidelity ; but will not engage to serve for any determin'd time , and agree upon such terms , that the next day they may go over to the enemies of those whom they serve , if they offer them a greater pay : and they will perhaps return to them the day after that , upon a higher advance of their pay. there are few wars in which they make not a considerable part of the armies of both sides : so it falls often out , that they that are of kin to one another , and were hired in the same country , and so have lived long and familiarly together ; yet they forgetting both their relation and former friendship , kill one another upon no other consideration , but because they are hired to it for a little mony , by princes of different interests : and so great regard have they to mony , that they are easily wrought on by the difference of one penny a day , to change sides . so entirely does their avarice turn them , and yet this mony on which they are so much set , is of little use to them ; for what they purchase thus with their blood , they quickly waste it on luxury , which among them is but of a poor and miserable form . this nation serves the vtopians against all people whatsoever , for they pay higher than any other . the vtopians hold this for a maxim , that as they seek out the best sort of men for their own use at home , so they make use of this worst sort of men for the consumption of war , and therefore they hire them with the offers of vast rewards , to expose themselves to all sorts of hazards , out of which the greater part never returns to claim their promises . yet they make them good most religiously to such as escape . and this animates them to adventure again , when there is occasion for it ; for the vtopians are not at all troubled how many of them soever happen to be killed ; and reckon it a service done to mankind , if they could be a mean to deliver the world from such a leud and vicious sort of people , that seem to have run together , as to the drain of humane nature . next to these they are served in their wars , with those upon whose account they undertake them , and with the auxiliary troops of their other friends , to whom they join some few of their own people , and send some man of eminent and approved vertue to command in chief . there are two sent with him , who during his command , are but private men , but the first is to succeed him if he should happen to be either killed or taken ; and in case of the like misfortune to him , the third comes in his place ; and thus they provide against ill events , that such accidents as may befal their generals , may not endanger their armies . when they draw out troops of their own people , they take such out of every city as freely offer themselves , for none are forced to the laws of the country , and their learning , add more vigor to their minds : for as they do not undervalue life to the degree of throwing it away too prodigally ; so they are not so indecently fond of it , that when they see they must sacrifice it honourably , they will preserve it by base and unbecoming methods . in the greatest heat of action , the bravest of their youth , that have jointly devoted themselves for that piece of service , single out the general of their enemies , and set on him either openly , or lay an ambuscade for him : if any of them are spent and wearied in the attempt , others come in their stead , so that they never give over pursuing him , either by close weapons , when they can get near him , or those that wound at a distance , when others get in between : thus they seldom fail to kill or take him at last , if he does not secure himself by flight . when they gain the day in any battel , they kill as few as possibly they can ; and are much more set on taking many prisoners , than on killing those that fly before them : nor do they ever let their men so loose in the pursuit of their enemies , that they do not retain an entire body still in order ; so that if they have been forced to engage the last of their battalions , before they could gain the day , they will rather let their enemies all escape than pursue them , when their own army is in disorder ; remembring well what has often fallen out to themselves ; that when the main body of their army has been quite defeated and broken , so that their enemies reckoning the victory was sure and in their hands , have let themselves loose into an irregular pursuit , a few of them that lay for a reserve , waiting a fit opportunity , have fallen on them while they were in this chase , stragling and in disorder , apprehensive of no danger , but counting the day their own ; and have turned the whole action , and so wresting out of their hands a victory that seemed certain and undoubted , the vanquished have of a sudden become victorious . it is hard to tell whether they are more dextrous in laying or avoiding ambushes : they sometimes seem to fly when it is far from their thoughts ; and when they intend to give ground , they do it so , that it is very hard to find out their design . if they see they are ill posted , or are like to be overpowred by numbers , then they their friends to reimburse them of their expence in it ; but they take that from the conquered , either in mony which they keep for the next occasion , or in lands , out of which a constant revenue is to be paid them ; by many increases , the revenue which they draw out from several countries on such occasions , is now risen to above 700000 ducats a year . they send some of their own people to receive these revenues , who have orders to live magnificently , and like princes , and so they consume much of it upon the place ; and either bring over the rest to vtopia , or lend it to that nation in which it lies . this they most commonly do , unless some great occasion which falls out , but very seldom , should oblige them to call for it all . it is out of these lands that they assign those rewards to such as they encourage to adventure on desperate attempts , which was mentioned formerly . if any prince that engages in war with them , is making preparations for invading their country , they prevent him , and make his country the seat of the war ; for they do not willingly suffer any war to break in upon their island ; and if that should happen , they would only defend themselves by their own people ; but would not at all call for auxiliary troops to their assistance . of the religions of the utopians . there are several sorts of religions , not only in different parts of the island , but even in every town ; some worshipping the sun , others the moon , or one of the planets : some worship such men as have been eminent in former times for vertue , or glory , not only as ordinary deities , but as the supream god : yet the greater and wiser sort of them worship none of these , but adore one eternal , invisible , infinite , and incomprehensible deity ; as a being that is far above all our apprehensions , that is spread over the whole universe , not by its bulk , but by its power and vertue ; him they call the father of all , and acknowledg that the beginnings , the encrease , the progress , the vicissitudes , and the end of all things come only from him ; nor do they offer divine honouts to any but to him alone . and indeed , tho they differ concerning other things , yet all agree in this ; that they think there is one supream being that made and governs the world , whom they call in the language of their country , mithras . they differ in this , that one thinks the god whom he worships is this supream being , and another thinks that his idol is that god ; but they all agree in one principle , that whatever is this supream being , is also that great essence , to whose glory and majesty all honours are ascribed by the consent of all nations . by degrees , they all fall off from the various superstitions that are among them , and grow up to that one religion that is most in request , and is much the best : and there is no doubt to be made , but that all the others had vanished long ago , if it had not happned that some unlucky accidents , falling on those who were advising the change of those superstitious ways of worship ; these have been ascribed not to chance , but to somewhat from heaven ; and so have raised in them a fear , that the god , whose worship was like to be abandoned , has interposed and revenged himself on those that designed it . after they had heard from us , an account of the doctrine , the course of life , and the miracles of christ , and of the wonderful constancy of so many martyrs , whose blood , that was so willingly offered up by them , was the chief occasion of spreading their religion over a vast number of nations ; it is not to be imagined how inclined they were to receive it . i shall not determine whether this proceeded from any secret inspiration of god , or whether it was because it seemed so favorable to that community of goods , which is an opinion so particular , as well as so dear to them ; since they perceived that christ and his followers lived by that rule ; and that it was still kept up in some communities among the sincerest sort of christians , from which soever of these motives it might be true it is , that many of them came over to our religion , and were initiated into it by baptism . but as two of our number were dead , so none of the four that survived , were in priests orders ; therefore we could do no more but baptize them ; so that to our great regret , they could not partake of the other sacraments , that can only be administred by priests : but they are instructed concerning them , and long most vehemently for them ; and they were disputing very much among themselves , whether one that were chosen by them to be a preist , would not be thereby qualified to do all the things that belong to that character , even tho he had no authority derived from the pope ; and they seemed to be resolved to chuse some for that imployment , but they had not done it when i left them those among them that have not received our religion , yet do not fright any from it , and use none ill that goes over to it ; so that all the while i was there , one man was only punished on this occasion . he being newly baptized , did , notwithstanding all that we could say to the contrary , dispute publickly concerning the christian religion , with more zeal than discretion ; and with so much heat , that he not only preferred our worship to theirs , but condemned all their rites as profane ; and cried out against all that adhered to them , as impious and sacrilegious persons , that were to be damned to everlasting burnings . upon this he , having preached these things often , was seized on , and after a trial , he was condemned to banishment , not for having disparaged their religion , but for his inflaming the people to sedition : for this is one of their ancientest laws , that no man ought to be punished for his religion . at the first constitution of their goverment , vtopus having understood , that before his coming among them , the old inhabitans had been engaged in grtat quarrels concerning religion , by which they were so broken among themselves , that he found it an easy thing to conquer them , since they did not unite their forces against him , but every different party in religion fought by themselves : upon that , after he had subdued them , he made a law that every man might be of what religion he pleased , and might endeavor to draw others to it by the force of argument , and by amicable and modest ways , but without bitterness against those of other opinions ; but that he ought to use no other force but that of persuasion ; and was neither to mixt reproaches nor violence with it ; and such as did otherwise , were to be condemned to banishment or slavery . this law was made by vtopus , not only for preserving the publick peace , which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and irreconcilable heats in these matters , but because he thought the interest of religion it self required it . he judged it was not fit to determine any thing rashly in that matter ; and seemed to doubt whether those different forms of religion might not all come from god , who might inspire men differently , he being possibly pleased with a variety in it : and so he thought it was a very indecent and foolish thing for any man to frighten and threaten other men to believe any thing because it seemed true to him ; and in case that one religion were certainly true , and all the rest false , he reckoned that the native force of truth would break forth at last , and shine bright , if it were managed only by the strength of argument , and with a winning gentleness ; whereas if such matters were carried on by violence and tumults , then , as the wickedest sort of men is always the most obstinate , so the holiest and best religion in the world might be overlaid with so much foolish superstition , that it would be quite choaked with it , as corn is with briars and thorns ; therefore he left men wholly to their liberty in this matter , that they might be free to beleive as they should see cause ; only he made a solemn and severe law against such as should so far degenerate from the dignity of humane nature , as to think that our souls died with our bodies , or that the world was governed by chance , without a wise over-ruling providence : for they did all formerly believe that there was a state of rewards and punishments to the good and bad after this life ; and they look on those that think otherwise , as scarce fit to be counted men , since they degrade so noble a being as our soul is , and reckon it to be no better than a beast's ; so far are they from looking on such men as fit for humane society , or to be citizens of a well-ordered common-wealth ; since a man of such principles must needs , as oft as he dares do it , despise all their laws and customs : for there is no doubt to be made , that a man who is affraid of nothing but the law , and apprehends nothing after death , will not stand to break through all the laws of his country , either by fraud or force , that so he may satisfy his appetites . they never raise any that hold these maxims , either to honours or offices , nor imploy them in any publick trust , but despise them , as men of base and sordid minds : yet they do not punish them , because they lay this doun for a ground , that a man cannot make himself beleive any thing he pleases ; nor do they drive any to dissemble their thoughts by threatnings , so that men are not tempted to lie or disguise their opinions among them ; which being a sort of fraud , is abhorred by the vtopians : they take indeed care that they may not argue for these opinions , especially before the common people : but they do suffer , and even encourage them to dispute concerning them in private with their priests , and and other grave men , being confident that they will be cured of those mad opinions , by having reason laid before them . there are many among them that run far to the other extream , tho it is neither thought an ill nor unreasonable opinion , and therfore is not at all discouraged . they think that the souls of beasts are immortal , tho far inferior to the dignity of the humane soul , and not capable of so great a happiness . they are almost all of them very firmly perswaded , that good men will be infinitely happy in another state ; so that tho they are compassionate to all that are sick , yet they lament no man's death , except they see him part with life uneasy , and as if he were forced to it ; for they look on this as a very ill persage , as if the soul being conscious to it self of guilt , and quite hopeless , were affraid to die , from some secret hints of approaching misery . they think that such a man's appearance before god , cannot be acceptable to him , who being called on , does not go out chearfully , but is backward and unwilling , and is , as it were , dragged to it . they are struck with horror , when they see any die in this manner , and carry them out in silence , and with sorrow , and praying god that he would be merciful to the errors of the departed soul , they lay the body in the ground : but when any die chearfully , and full of hope , they do not mourn for them , but sing hymns when they carry out their bodies , and commending their souls very earnestly to god , in such a manner , that their whole behaviour is rather grave then sad , they burn their body , and set up a pillar where the pile was made , with an inscription to the honour of such mens memory ; and when they come from the funeral , they discourse of their good life , and worthy actions , but speak of nothing oftner and with more himself that happiness that comes after death . some of these visit the sick ; others mend high-ways , cleanse ditches , or repair bridges , and dig turf , gravel , or stones . others fell and cleave timber , and bring wood , corn , and other necessaries , on carts , into their towns. nor do these only serve the publick , but they serve even private men , more than the slaves themselves do : for if there is any where a rough , hard , and sordid piece of work to be done , from which many are frightned by the labour and loathsomeness of it , if not the despair of accomplishing it , they do chearfully , and of their own accord , take that to their share ; and by that means , as they ease others very much , so they afflict themselves , and spend their whole life in hard labor : and yet they do not value themselves upon that , nor lessen other peoples credit , that by so doing they may raise their own ; but by their stooping to such sevile employments , they are so far from being despised , that they are so much the more esteemed by the whole nation . of these there are two sorts : some live unmarried and chast , and abstain from eating any sort of flesh ; and thus weaning themselves from all the pleasures of the present life , which they account hurtful , they pursue , even by the hardest and painfullest methods possible , that blessedness which they hope for hereafter ; and the nearer they approach to it , they are the more chearful and earnest in their endeavours after it . another sort of them is less willing to put themselves to much toil , and so they prefer a married state to a single one ; and as they do not deny themselves the pleasure of it , so they think the begetting of children is a debt which they owe to humane nature , and to their country : nor do they avoid any pleasure that does not hinder labour ; and therefore they eat flesh so much the more willingly , because they find themselves so much the more able for work by it : the vtopians look upon these as the wiser sect , but they esteem the others as the holier . they would indeed laugh at any man , that upon the principles of reason , would prefer an unmarried state to a married , or a life of labour to an easy life : but they reverence and admire such as do it upon a motive of religion . there is nothing in which they are more cautious , than in giving their opinion positively concerning any sort of religion . the men that lead those severe lives , are called in the language of their country brutheskas , which answers to those we call religious orders . their priests are men of eminent piety , and therefore they are but few , for there are only thirteen in every town , one for every temple in it ; but when they go to war , seven of these go out with their forces , and seven others are chosen to supply their room in their absence ; but these enter again upon their employment when they return ; and those who served in their absence , attend upon the high priest , till vacancies fall by death ; for there is one that is set over all the rest . they are chosen by the people , as the other magistrates are , by suffrages given in secret , for preventing of factions : and when they are chosen , they are consecrated by the college of priests . the care of all sacred things , and the worship of god , and an inspection into the manners of the people , is committed to them . it is a reproach to a man to be sent for by any of them , or to be even spoke to in secret by them , for that always gives some suspicions : all that is incumbent on them , is only to exhort and admonish people ; for the power of correcting and punishing ill men , belongs wholly to the prince , and to the other magistrates : the severest thing that the priest does , is the excluding of men that are desperately wicked from joining in their worship : there 's not any sort of punishment that is more dreaded by them than this , for as it loads them with infamy , so it fills them with secret horrors , such is their reverence to their religion ; nor will their bodies be long exempted from their share of trouble ; for if they do not very quickly satisfy the priests of the truth of their repentance , they are seized on by the senate , and punished for their impiety . the breeding of the youth belongs to the priests , yet they do not take so much care of instructing them in letters , as of forming their minds and manners aright ; and they use all possible methods to infuse very early in the tender and flexible minds of children , such opinions as are both good in themselves , and will be useful to their country : for when deep impressions of these things are made at that age , they follow men through the whole course of their lives , of much blood on either side ; and when the victory turns to their side , they run in among their own men to restrain their fury ; and if any of their enemies see them , or call to them , they are preserved by that means : and such as can come so near them as to touch their garments , have not only their lives , but their fortunes secured to them : it is upon this account , that all the nations round about consider them so much , and pay them so great reverence , that they have been often no less able to preserve their own people from the fury of their enemies , than to save their enemies from their rage : for it has sometimes fallen out , that when their armies have been in disorder , and forced to fly , so that their enemies were running upon the slaughter and spoil , the priests by interposing , have stop'd the shedding of more blood , and have separated them from one another ; so that by their mediation , a peace has been concluded on very reasonable terms ; nor is there any nation about them so fierce , cruel , or barbarous , as not to look upon their persons as sacred and inviolable . the first and the last day of the month , and of the year , is a festival : they measure their months by the course of the moon ; and their years by the course of the sun : the first days are called in their language the cynemernes , and the last the trapemernes , which answers in our language to the festival that begins , or ends the season . they have magnificent temples , that are not only nobly built , but are likewise of great reception : which is necessary , since they have so few of them : they are a little dark within , which flows not from any error in their architecture , but is done on design ; for their priests think that too much light dissipates the thoughts , and that a more moderate degree of it , both recollects the mind , and raises devotion . tho there are many different forms of religion among them , yet all these , how various soever , agree in the main point , which is the worshipping the divine essence ; and therefore there is nothing to be seen or heard in their temples , in which the several perswasions among them may not agree ; for every sect performs those rites that are peculiar to it , in their private houses , nor is there any thing in the publick worship , that contradicts the particular ways of those different sects . there are no images for god in their temples , so that every one may represent him to his thoughts , according to the way of his religion ; nor do they call this one god by any other name , but that of mithras , which is the common name by which they all express the divine essence , whatsoever otherwise they think it to be ; nor are there any prayers among them , but such as every one of them may use without prejudice to his own opinion . they meet in their temples on the evening of the festival that concludes a season : and not having yet broke their fast , they thank god for their good success during that year or month , which is then at an end : and the next day , being that which begins the new season , they meet early in their temples , to pray for the happy progress of all their affairs during that period , upon which they then enter . in the festival which concludes the period , before they go to the temple , both wives and children fall on their knees before their husbands or parents , and confess every thing in which they have either erred or failed in their duty , and beg pardon for it : thus all little discontents in families are removed , that so they may offer up their devotions with a pure and serene mind ; for they hold it a great impiety to enter upon them with disturbed thoughts ; or when they are conscious to themselves that they bear hatred or anger in their hearts to any person ; and think that they should become liable to severe punishments , if they presumed to offer sacrifices without cleansing their hearts , and reconciling all their differences . in the temples , the two sexes are separated , the men go to the right hand , and the women to the left : and the males and females do all place themselves before the head , and master or mistress of that family to which they belong ; so that those who have the government of them at home , may see their deportment in publick : and they intermingle them so , that the younger and the older may be set by one another ; for if the younger sort were all set together , they would perhaps trifle away that time too much , in which they ought to beget in themselves a most religious dread of the supream being , which is the greatest , and almost the only incitement to vertue . they offer up no living creature in sacrifice , nor do they think it suitable to the divine being , from whose bounty it is that these creatures have derived their lives , to take pleasure in their death , or the offering up their blood. they burn incense , and other sweet odours , and have a great number of wax lights during their worship ; not out of any imagination that such oblations can add any thing to the divine nature , for even prayers do not that ; but as it is a harmless and pure way of worshipping god , so they think those sweet savors and lights , together with some other ceremonies , do , by a secret and unaccountable vertue , elevate mens souls , and inflame them with more force and chearfulness during the divine worship . the people appear all in the temples in white garments ; but the priest's vestments are particoloured ; both the work and colours are wonderful : they are made of no rich materials , for they are neither embroidered , nor set with precious stones , but are composed of the plumes of several birds , laid together with so much art , and so neatly , that the true value of them is far beyond the costliest materials . they say , that in the ordering and placing those plumes , some dark mysteries are represented , which pass down among their priests in a secret tradition concerning them ; and that they are as hieroglyphicks , putting them in mind of the blessings that they have received from god , and of their duties , both to him and to their neighbours . as soon as the priest appears in those ornaments , they all fall prostrate on the ground , with so much reverence and so deep a silence , that such as look on , cannot but be struck with it , as if it were the effect of the appearance of a deity . after they have been for some time in this posture , they all stand up , upon a sign given by the priest , and sing some hymns to the honour of god , some musical instruments playing all the while . these are quite of another form than those that are used among us : but , as many of them are much sweeter than ours , so others are not to be compared to those that we have . yet in one thing they exceed us much , which is , that all their musick , both vocal and instrumental , does so imitate and express the passions , and is so fitted to the present occasion , whether the subject matter of the hymn is chearful , or made to appease , or troubled , doleful , or angry ; that the musick makes an impression of that which is represented , by which it enters deep into the hearers , and does very much affect and kindle them . when this is done , both priests and people offer up very solemn prayers to god in a set form of words ; and these are so composed , that whatsoever is pronounced by the whole assembly , may be likewise applied by every man in particular to his own condition ; in these they acknowledg god to be the author and governor of the world , and the fountain of all the good that they receive ; for which they offer up their thanksgivings to him ; and in particular , they bless him for his goodness in ordering it so , that they are born under a government that is the happiest in the world , and are of a religion that they hope is the truest of all others : but if they are mistaken , and if there is either a better government , or a religion more acceptable to god , they implore his goodness to let them know it , vowing , that they resolve to follow him whithersoever he leads them : but if their government is the best , and their religion the truest , then they pray that he may fortify them in it , and bring all the world , both to the same rules of life , and to the same opinions concerning himself ; unless , according to the unsearchableness of his mind , he is pleased with a variety of religions . then they pray that god may give them an easy passage at last to himself ; not presuming to set limits to him , how early or late it should be ; but if it may be wish'd for , without derogating from his supream authority , they desire rather to be quickly delivered , and to go to god , tho by the terriblest sort of death , than to be detained long from seeing him , in the most prosperous course of life possible . when this prayer is ended , they all fall down again upon the ground , and after a little while they rise up , and go home to dinner ; and spend the rest of the day in diversion or military exercises . thus have i described to you , as particularly as i could , the constitution of that common-wealth , which i do not only think to be the best in the world , but to be indeed the only common-wealth that truly deserves that name . in all other places , it is visible , that whereas people talk of a common-wealth , every man only seeks his own wealth ; but there where no man has any property , all men do zealously pursue the good of the publick : and indeed , it is no wonder to see men act so differently , for in other common-wealths , every man knows , that unless he provides for himself , how flourishing soever the common-wealth may be , he must die of hunger ; so that he sees the necessity of preferring his own concerns to the publick ; but in vtopia , where every man has a right to every thing , they do all know , that if care is taken to keep the publick stores full , no private man can want any thing ; for among them there is no unequal distribution , so that no man is poor , nor in any necessity ; and tho no man has any thing , yet they are all rich ; for what can make a man so rich , as to lead a serene and chearful life , free from anxieties ; neither apprehending want himself , nor vexed with the endless complaints of his wife ? he is not affraid of the misery of his children , nor is he contriving how to raise a portion for his daughters , but is secure in this , that both he and his wife , his children and grand-children , to as many generations as he can fancy , will all live , both plentifully and happily , since among them there is no less care taken of those who were once engaged in labour , but grow afterwards unable to follow it , than there is elsewhere for these that continue still at it . i would gladly hear any man compare the justice that is among them , with that which is among all other nations ; among whom , may i perish , if i see any thing that looks either like justice , or equity ; for what justice is there in this , that a noble-man , a goldsmith , or a banquer , or any other man , that either does nothing at all , or at best is imployed in things that are of no use to the publick , should live in great luxury and splendor , upon that which is so ill acquired ; and a mean man , a carter , a smith , or a ploughman , that works harder , even than the beasts themselves , and is imployed in labours that are so necessary , that no common-wealth could hold out an year to an end without them , can yet be able to earn so poor a livelihood out of it , and must lead so miserable a life in it , that whole people , then they are accounted laws : and yet these wicked men after they have , by a most insatiable covetousness , divided that among themselves , with which all the rest might have been well supplied , are far from that happiness , that is enjoyed among the vtopians : for the use as well as the desire of mony being extinguished , there is much anxiety and great occasions of mischief cut off with it : and who does not see that frauds , thefts , robberies , quarrels , tumults , contentions , seditions , murders , treacheries , and witchrafts , that are indeed rather punished than restrained by the severities of law , would all fall off , if mony were not any more valued by the world ? mens fears , solicitudes , cares , labours , and watchings , would all perish in the same moment , that the value of mony did sink : even poverty it self , for the relief of which mony seems most necessary , would fall , if there were no mony in the world. and in order to the apprehending this aright , take one instance . consider any year that has been so unfruitful , that many thousands have died of hunger ; and yet if at the end of that year a survey were made of the granaries of all the rich men , that have hoarded up the corn , it would be found that there was enough among them , to have prevented all that consumption of men that perished in that misery : and that if it had been distributed among them , none would have felt the terrible effects of that scarcity ; so easy a thing would it be to supply all the necessities of life , if that blessed thing called mony , that is pretended to be invented for procuring it , were not really the only thing that obstructed it . i do not doubt but rich men are sensible of this , and that they know well how much a greater happiness it were to want nothing that were necessary , than to abound in many superfluities ; and to be rescued out of so much misery , than to abound with so much wealth : and i cannot think but the sense of every man's interest , and the authority of chirst's commands , who as he was infinitely wise , and so knew what was best , so was no less good in discovering it to us , would have drawn all the world over to the laws of the vtopians , if pride , that plague of humane nature , that is the source of so much misery , did not hinder count the had given of it in general ; and so taking him by the hand , i carried him to supper , and told him i would find out some other time for examining that matter more particularly , and for discoursing more copiously concerning it ; for which i wish i may find a good opportunity . in the mean while , tho i cannot perfectly agree to every thing that was related by raphael , yet there are many things in the common-wealth of vtopia , that i rather wish than hope to see followed in our governments ; tho it must be confessed , that he is both a very learned man , and has had a great practice in the world. finis . the mystery of iniquity unvailed in a discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the roman church to the nature, designs and characters of the christian faith / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1673 approx. 177 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 85 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30394 wing b5838 estc r35459 15313569 ocm 15313569 103413 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30394) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 103413) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1146:12) the mystery of iniquity unvailed in a discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the roman church to the nature, designs and characters of the christian faith / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 161, [5] p. printed by w. godbid and are to be sold by m. pitt ..., london : 1673. errata sheet bound at end. 4 p. advertisements bound at end. imperfect: stained and tightly bound with loss of print. reproduction of the original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -controversial literature. anti-catholicism. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-12 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the mystery of iniquity unvailed : in a discourse , wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine worship , and practices of the roman church , to the nature , designs , and characters of the christian faith. by gilbert burnet , chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . london , printed by w. godbid , and are to be sold by m. pitt , at the angel over against the little north door of st. pauls . 1673. the mystery of iniquity unvailed . he that increaseth knowledge , increaseth sorrow , is an observation which holdeth true of no part of knowledge , so much as of the knowledge of mankind : it is some relief to him , who knows nothing of foreign wickedness , to hope there are other nations wherein virtue is honoured , and religion is in esteem , which allays his regrates , when he sees vice and impiety abound in his country ; but if by travelling or reading , he enlarge his horizon , and know mankind better , his regrates will grow , when he finds the whole world lyes in wickedness . it argues a cruel and in humane temper , to delight in beholding scenes of horrour and misery ; and certainly none , who either honours his maker and redeemer , or is a lover of mankind , can without sorrow look on , and see the indignities done to god and his son christ , and see the enemy of the humane race triumphing over the world , with such absolute authority and so much enraged cruelty ; and that not only in the dark regions of it , which the sun of righteousness hath not yet visited with his gospel , but that where christ should have a throne , satans seat should also be , is justly surprising and astonishing . that almost all christendom hath fallen from their first love , is what none whose eyes are open can deny ; and it is little less evident , that the greater part of it hath made shipwrack , and erred from the faith ; and that the church , whose faith was once spoken of throughout the world , is now become the mother of the fornications of the earth . it is true , the scriptures warned us of a falling away , of a mystery of iniquity , of an antichrist to be revealed in due time , and of a babylonish rome , which should bewitch the earth with her sorceries , but should be varnished over with fair colours and specious pretences , so that mystery should be on her forehead : being then warned of so much danger to the christian religion , it is a necessary ( though painful ) enquiry to see if this antichrist be yet come , or if we must look for another . but because some have stretched the notion of antichristianism so far , that things harmless and innocent come within its compass ; and others have so much contracted it , that they might scape free ; we are to take a view of the nature and designs of the christian religion , and to conclude from that what must be antichristianism : it being not only a bare contradiction to some branches or parts of the gospel ( for then every errour or heresie were antichristianism ) but a design and entire complex , of such opinions and practices , as are contradictory to , and subversive of , the power and life of christianity : and if we find any such thing to be broached and received in the world , we may with the least hazard of uncharitableness , pronounce it to be antichristianism , and if it be acted or animated by any head , he may be concluded antichrist . the designs of the christian religion run betwixt these four heads : the first is , to give us right apprehensions of the nature and attributes of god , that we may conceive aright of him , and adore him sutably to his nature , and according to his will , and thereby be admitted to a free converse with him , and become partakers of the divine nature . how little of god was known by the twinklings of natures light , even to the better and wiser part of the world , tullies books of the nature of the gods do sufficiently inform us ? but if the philosophers were so much to seek in it , what shall we expect from the vulgar ? and indeed homers iliads , and ovids metamorphosis , were wretched systems of divinity ; and yet such , and such like , were the sentiments of the nations about the godhead . it is true , the seed of abraham were delivered from that darkness , and knew god by his name iehovah , and had laws and ordinances given them by god ; yet their worship was so carnal , and did so strike upon , and affect the senses , that we will be soon satisfied , it was not so sublime and free as became the spirituality of the divine nature , and so was only fitted for the infancy of the people of god ; but by christ the mystery that lay hid from ages and generations , was revealed ; for he declared the father , and revealed him , and taught us to renounce idols and vanities , and to serve the living god , commanding all men every where to repent , the times of ignorance wherein god winked at idolatry , being then over . that so mankind being gods off-spring , might feel after him , and not worship him any more in the blinding grossness of idolatry , but in a pure spiritual manner ; and whereas the law came by moses , by christ came grace and truth . grace , in opposition to the severity of the law ; and truth , as opposed ( not to falshood ) but to the figures and shadows of moses his law ; and therefore god is to be worshipped in spirit and truth , in opposition to the carnal ordinances , and typical rites , which shadowed out the truth in the law. the second branch of the christian religion is , to hold forth the method of mans reconciliation with his maker . for the sense of all mankind agrees in this , that sin is an indignity done to god , which deserveth punishment , and cannot be expiated by any service man can do : it was therefore necessary there should be a mean found for incouraging sinners to imbrace a religious life ; of which all had reason to despair , without pardon were offered to penitents , upon the change of their lives . now this was that , the heathen could not dream how to procure : it is true the iews had sacrifices for expiating of sin , but these could never quiet their consciences ; since the common sense of mankind tells , that the blood of beasts cannot appease god. the mystery therefore of the reconciliation of sinners to god , is the proper character of the christian-religion : which holds forth to us how the eternal word was made man , and endured unspeakable sufferings for the sins of men , even to the death of the cross ; and was raised up by god , and carried to heaven , where he is vested with all power and authority , and by the merits of his death hath a right to grant pardon , give grace , and confer eternal life on all that believe on him ; by whom god conveys all things to us , and through whom we are to offer up all our worship to god , he being the mediator betwixt god and man. the third head of the christian-religion is , to teach the perfectest , clearest and most divine rules , for advancing of the souls of men to the highest perfection of their natures . it is true , noble pieces of morality were acknowledged and taught by the heathen philosophers : and the books of the old testament have the doctrin of virtue , purity , humility and meekness laid open very fully : but without derogating from these , it must be acknowledged , that as the doctrin of christianity , teacheth all these precepts with clearer rules , and fuller directions ; so they were in it recommended by the example of its author , backed with the strongest motives , and enforced with the greatest arguments . in these are the lessons of purity , chastity , ingenuity , humility , meekness , patience , and generosity ; so clearly laid down , and so fully evinced , that no man who is so much a man , as to love these things whereby his mind may be improved , to all that is truely great and noble , but must be enamoured of the christian-religion , as soon as he is taught it . the fourth design of religion is , to unite mankind in the closest bonds of peace , friendship , and charity , which it doth not only by the rules prescribed for the tempering our passions , forgiving of injuries , and loving our enemies , and by the doctrin of obedience to those in authority over us , but likewise by associating us into one body , called the church , wherein we are to worship god jointly , and to be coupled in one by the use of the sacraments , which are the ligaments of the body . having thus viewed the great designs of the christian religion in the several branches and parts thereof , i shall add to this , the main distinguishing characters of our religion , which are also four . the first is , its verity ; that it is not founded on the tattles of persons concerned , nor on the reveries of dotards , nor received with a blind credulity , being founded on the authority of the great god , which appeared visibly in those that published it , chiefly in the person of iesus christ , who by his miracles that were wrought in the sight of all the people , even his enemies looking on , and not being able to deny them ; but chiefly by his resurrection from the dead , was declared to be the son of god , which was seen and known by many , who followed not cunningly devised fables , but were the eye-witnesses of his majesty , who went in his name , and published it to the world , confirming it by miracles and mighty wonders , attesting it , notwithstanding of all the persecutions they met with , most of them confirming it with their blood : and this doctrine was received and believed by the better part of mankind , though it being contrary to all the interests of the flesh , whose mortification it teacheth , its reception cannot be imputed to credulity or interest . the second character of our religion is , its genuine simplicity and perspicuity , that all its doctrines and rules are clearly and distinctly held out to us , not like the heathen divinity , much whereof lay in dark oracles in the books of the sybils , and in other pretended mysteries , which none but the priests might handle and expound . the iewish religion was also vailed with types and figures , so that it was not easie to see the substance and truth through all these foldings and shadows . but the glory of the christian religion , as to this particular , is nobly laid out by st. paul , in these words , 2 cor. 3. 18. but we all with open face , as in a glass , beholding the glory of the lord , are changed into the same image , from glory to glory , as by the spirit of the lord. the third character is , the reasonableness of the christian religion , it containing none of these absurd incredible things , which abounded among the heathens ; nor of these rites of judaism , the reasons whereof , beside the will of god in enjoyning them , could not be assigned ; but both the doctrines and precepts of the christian religion are fitted for mankind , and so congenial to his nature , that they well deserve the designation of reasonable service , or rational worship , god having made our souls and them of a piece . and the fourth character of our religion is , its easiness ; christs yoke is easie , and his burden light , mat. 11. 30. wherein we are freed from all the barbarous and cruel rites of gentilism , and from the oppressive bondage of iudaism , which was a law of ordinances , and a yoke that our fathers were not able to bear ; but that we are called to by christ , is so simple , so easie , and so plain , that well may we say , his commandments are not grievous , 1 ioh. 5. 3. having given this hint of the design and characters of the christian religion , i hold it not necessary to dwell on a further deduction of those generals into more particular branches , nor to make this scheme of religion good by any longer proof , the position i have laid down , being so obvious to the reason of every considering person ; wherefore i go on to examine if there be any such system of doctrins or opinions , among pretenders to christianity , which tends to the overthrowing and enervating of this whole design , and whose characters are directly opposite to these i have mentioned ; and the less avowed , and the more disguised that society be , as it is more likely to prevail , since error and vice are not so formidable in their own colours , as when vailed with the pretences of truth and virtue , so it will better agree with that great character the prophecies give of this defection , that it was a mystery , and had mystery on its fore-head , rev. 17 , 15. and here remains the sad part of my discourse , for what lover of mankind can with pleasure either satisfie his own reason , or convince the judgment of others , in a matter the issue whereof is to prove so great a part of the christian societies to be antichristian and adulterate , and certainly if my love to truth , and the honour of my redeemer and his gospel , and by consequence a zeal for souls , did not engage me to this search , i could easily quit the task , and chuse more easie and pleasant subjects for the exercise of my thoughts ; but the wisdom of god having declared it a part of wisdom to observe the characters of the antichristian beast , i therefore , though not without pain , engage in the survey of it . and first , in the entry it will be a bad omen , of no good to be expected from any society that shall study to keep her members in ignorance , and to barr them the study of the holy scriptures , which being the revelation of the whole counsel of god , and written by plain and simple men , and at first directed to the use of the rude illiterate vulgar , for teaching them the mysteries of godliness , and the path of life ; it is a shrewd indication that if any studie to hide this light under a candlestick , and to keep it in an unknown tongue , or forbid the body of christians the use of it ( though its native tendency be to enlighten the understanding , and to enflame the will , it being given out by god for that end ) that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that rule , and apprehend , that if it were more known , their doctrin would be less believed , especially since the hardest part of the scriptures are the writings of the old testament : and yet these were communicated to all of that dispensation , who were commanded by christ to search them , and who did educate their children in them , continuing that holy care to a high degree , even to this day . now except it be said that it is fitter all be kept under darkness in the new dispensation , than was in the old , no account can be given , for the zeal is used in any church , to keep their children in such ignorance ; and yet this is a part of the distinguishing characters of the new dispensation from the old , that light hath appeared in it . now all may know how guilty those of rome are in this : what pains are taken to detract from the authority of the scriptures ? how they quarrel ? sometimes its darkness , sometimes its ambiguousness , sometimes the genuineness of its originals , and always complain of its being too much perused , and therefore let as little of it be put in vulgar tongues as can be ; read it publickly in an unknown tongue , and permit no private person the use of it , without allowance from his confessour : of which , though in some places the reformation hath made them more liberal , yet where there is no hazard of that , they betray their aversion for the scriptures too palpably in all their writings and discourses . but now to pursue my design more closely , i must call to mind the first branch of the christian religion , which teacheth how god is to be worshiped in a pure and spiritual way ; and see how far this is contradicted . and here i must consider the idolatry of the gentiles , which was of two kinds . the one was , when the true god was worshiped in a false manner : the other was , when divine adoration was offered to those who were no gods . of the first i shall reckon two kinds ; the first was , when an image or figure was erected for representing the deity to the senses , and adoration offered to god through it : in which case though perhaps the herd did formerly worship the image , yet their philosopher declared , they meant these only for exciting the senses and imagination , and no for being worshipped ; much less that th●… deity should be conceived like unt●… them , as we find both in celsus iulian , an●… maximus tyrius . now this form 〈◊〉 adoration is contrary both to the divin●… effence and command . for god mu●… either be conceived like such an image or not : if like to it , then a great indi●… nity is done the divine nature ; great than if a toad or worm were set out the image of a king , to have civil rev●… rence payed to it ; since he is of his ow●… essence incomprehensible , and invi●… ble , and so hath no shape nor figure . in word , it abuses our thoughts of go●… when we figure him to our selves . 〈◊〉 if we conceive god not like such image ; then why is it used , except to be a snare to the vulgar , who will be ready to think god like unto it ? and certain it is , that whatever the more refined or abstracted wits may conceive of these images , yet the vulgar offer up their adorations directly to them , and conceive god to be like unto them . this worship is also contrary to the divine precept , who made it one of the ten commandments , which himself delivered to his people , exod. 20. 4. that no graven image nor likeness should be made to be worshipped . and the reason given , shews the law was perpetual , for god is ever jealous of the glory due to him . now what kindness those of rome have to this command , may be guessed by their striking it out of their catechisms , as if it were only an appendix of the first : but if we read the whole old testament , it will furnish us with large discoveries of gods displeasure at this kind of worship , to which the iews were so inclinable ; but god would not give his praise to graven images , isa. 42. 8. now here it is to be remembred , that the jewish dispensation was low and carnal , when compared to that to which we are called : if then this worship was not allowed of to them , it is much less to be allowed of among christians . another part of the false worship of the heathens was , that they believed the deity and divine power was by mystical and magical ways affixed to some bodies , as the sun or stars are ; or to some temples , and to some ancilia and pal●…ladia , which they believed came down from heaven , acts 19. 35. to which they held god to be present and adherent , and therefore worshipped them and of kin to this was the israelites the●… worshipping the calf in the wilderness , exo●… 32. for it is clear , they looked on it their god who had brought them out egypt , therefore could not possibly be ad●…ring the egyptian god that was an ox ; b●… the feast that was to iehovah , and 〈◊〉 psalm 106. vers . 20. that says , they ch●…ged their glory into the similitude of an o●… do shew that they worshipped the t●… god , though in a false manner . neither is it to be imagined , that aaron the prophet and saint of the lord , though very guilty in this matter , could for all that be so criminal , as to make a false god : but the most satisfying account of his fault is , that when he saw god in the mount , exod. 24. 10. god appeared in that figure that was afterwards in the most holy place , which was to be framed after the pattern seen in the mount. and if so , then god appeared between the cherubims ; now the figure of a cherub , was the same with that of a calf in its hinder parts , ezek. 1. 7. and if we compare vers . 10. of that chap. with ezek. 10. 14. what in the first place is called the face of an ox , is in the second called the face of a cherub , which tells us clearly what was the figure of the cherub . and therefore aaron seeing the people desired a sensible symbol of gods presence among them , he made choice of that he had seen in the mount about the divine glory , and yet all that did not excuse his fault in the sight of god. in like manner , after the tabernacle and temple were set up , wherein were the cherubin , when ieroboam revolted , he set up calves , 1 king. 12. 28 , 29. as is probable upon the same account , but no doubt continued in all points the worship of the true god , as it was at ierusalem , as might be proved from many particulars ; but the sin where with he made israel to sin , was the worshipping of the true god by a false symbol . the like account is to be given of the idolatry of gideons ephod , iudg. 8. 27. and of the worshipping the brazen serpent , 2 king. 18. 4. where certainly the true god was adored , and yet the people went a whoring from him in that worship . and here the title of whoredom , given to idolatry so often in the old testament , is to be considered ; the importance whereof is , that god by covenanting with his people , is married to them , to be their god ; and the conjugal duty they owe him , is adoration : when therefore other creatures have any share o●… that bestowed on them , spiritual whore 〈◊〉 is committed . now how sad the application of this to the christian church must be , all may judge , who know how great a part of christendom worship god by images ; and how the adored and incomprehensible trinity is painted as an old man with a child in his arms , and a dove over the childs head ; though no man hath seen the father at any time , ioh. 6. 46. and the son as god can no more be represented by an image , than the father ; and the holy ghost , though once appearing in the symbolical representation of a dove , cannot without idolatry be represented and worshipped under that figure . neither can any apology be offered for this , which could not with the same reason have cleared both jews and gentiles of idolatry . and whatever more abstracted minds may think of these images , yet none that considers the simplicity of the vulgar , the frailty of man , and his inclination to apprehend all things as sensible , can doubt but that the rabble do really conceive of god as like these figures , and do plainly worship them . it is further to be considered , that though the son of god was man , yet as man he is not to be worshipped ; and therefore the setting out of figures and statues for his humane nature ( which on the way are no real adumbrations , but only the fancies of painters ) and worshipping these as the images of the son of god , is no less idolatry , than to worship the father as an old man. and further , the worship of the mass is idolatry , as evidently as any piece of gentilism ever was : for if it be certain that christ is not in the hostie , which shall be afterwards made out , then to adore him as there , must be idolatrous . neither will it serve for excuse , to say that christ is truly worshipped as present ; and if he be not there , it is only a mistake about the presence , but no idolatry can be committed , the worship being offered to a proper object , who is god. but if this apology free them of idolatry , it will also clear those heathens , who worshipped some statues or creatures , in which they conceived god was present ; so that they might have pleaded , it was the great and true god they adored , believing him there present , as their fathers had formerly believed . but he were very gentle to idolaters , who upon such a plea , would clear them of that crime . what then is to be said of that church , that holds it the greatest piece of her religion , to adore the bread with the same devotion they would pay to christ , were he visibly present ; who call the bread god , carry it about in processions , and worship it with all the solemnity imaginable . and finally , the worship they give the cross , is likewise an adoring of god under a symbol and representation . and thus we have seen the parallel of rome-heathen , and rome-christian , runs but too too just . but the next kind of the heathens idolatry , was their worshipping of others beside god , whom they held of two ranks : some that were so pure , that they never dwelt in bodies : others they judged to be the souls of deceased men , after their death acknowledged and honoured with divine honour . and this kind of idolatry was first begun at babylon , where nin is made the statue of his father belus be set up , and worshipped it : and from him all these lesser gods were called belim , or baalim . now concerning these , the heathens believed that they were certain intermedial powers , that went betwixt god and men , by whom all good things were conveyed to mortals , by whom also all our services were offered to the gods . thus the nations had gods many , and lords many , 1 cor. 8. 5. and these lesser deities or d●…mons they adored , by erecting statues to them about their burial places , where they built temples for them , and worshipped them . and from this hint of babylons being the mother of this kind of idolatry , we may guess , why the apostacy of that city , which in st. iohns dayes , did reign over the kingdoms of the earth , rev. 17. 18. is shadowed forth under the name of babylon ; to hold out that the corruption it was to fall into , was to be of a kind with that begun in babylon ; and the character of the whore doth likewise agree well with this . now if we compare with this the worship of angels and saints in the roman church , we shall find the parity just and exact . for after the conversion of the roman empire , it is not to be denied but that in order to the gaining of the heathen world to a complyance with christianity , the christians did as near as was possible accommodate themselves to the heathenish customs : and therefore in stead of their gods , they set up the daemon and baal-worship , to the apostles and other saints and martyrs ; which theodorat doth most ingeniously acknowledge to have been set in the stead of their gods . they became afterwards so exact in the parallel , that as the heathens had of these lesser gods for every nation , so there was a saint appointed for every nation ; st. andrew for scotland , st. george for england , st. patrick for ireland , and many more for other nations : and as every house among the heathens had their houshold god , so every person was taught to have a tutelar saint and angel. and as among the heathen there were gods for all trades , for all sicknesses , and for every virtue ; so in antichristianism there were saints for every disease , for every profession , and for all the graces . and as the heathens built temples for them , so did also babylonish rome . and here an odd remark is in my way of this conformity , that the pantheon at rome dedicated in augustus his time to cybele the mother of the gods , and to all the gods , was afterwards consecrated to the virgin and all the saints . and as the heathens offered prayers , made vows , observed days , brought presents , used processions in honour to these lesser gods , and worshiped their statues and images . so all this by degrees crept into rome-christian , as might be branched out in more particulars than the nature of so short a discouse will allow of . it is true , the worship of images came not in before the eighth century ; but after that time it engaged all that received it into a high degree of madness , for advancing that heathenish piece of worship . and shall i here tell what is known to all who have seen the forms of that church ? how you shall find their churches all over dressed up with images and statues , gorgeously apparelled , and well adorned ; where the poor vulgar are lying prostrate before them , saying their devotions , and perhaps washing the feet of their shrines with their tears , and with great affection kissing the hem of their garments : and if through the tricks of the priest , the image seem to nod or smile on them , ( which is not unfrequent ) with what joy do they go away , as if some angel had saluted them from heaven . and here it were too long to reckon up the abominations of this saint-worship which are offered to the virgin , with the blasphemous titles given her , and prayers made to her ; as if she were more merciful and gentle to sinners , than her blessed son. what shall i tell of the whole psalms turned to her ? the words of goddess and lady , being put in the place of god and lord : and that from the eleventh century , in which the form of the numbering their prayers by beads was begun , ten go to the virgin , for one , to god. how many more worship her , then do her son ? how many more churches are built to her , than to her son ? and how many pilgrimages are made to her shrines and reliques ? and thus i think little doubting will remain , that the worship of the baalim begun at babylon , is now set up in the christian rome . now how contrary this is to the divine nature , common reason may suggest ? as also to the exaltation of the person of christ , isa. 42. 8. god is a jealous god , and will not give his glory to another . we have but one lord iesus christ , 1 cor. 8. 6. who by his most precious blood shed for us , purchased the honour of being mediatour betwixt god and man : and therefore christians ought only to make mention of his name beside the great evil of idolatry is that it debases the soul of the profane worshiper , for like them are all the●… that trust in them , psal. 115. 8. i leads away the mind from that inward free and spiritual converse , and fellowship with god , to which the gospel invites us ; and carries it out into an external , sensible , and dead religion : it stifles the power of true piety , making it die out in formal and stupifying superstition : and the plagues which heaven pours out on those ungodly worshipers , are heavy , and great . a black roll of them in the end of the first chap. to the romans , which were the consectaries on their not glorifying of god , as god , which is branched out into the two kinds i have discoursed of . the first is , v. 23. they changed the glory of the incorruptible god , into an image made like to corruptible man , &c. and the second is , v. 25. who worshipped and served the creature more than ( or besides ) the creator . and it would raise horrour in sober minds to tell how much the sin of the flesh , particularly the sin of sodom , which is first reckoned in that dismal catalogue , abounds with these of this spiritual babylon . and will the poor distinctions of dulia and latria save them from this guilt ? alas ! these are parts of the mystery by which they would vail their abominations ; but their nakedness is not hid with this thin vail . for we see how simply all religious worship offered to creatures displeased god : neither did the prophets tell the israelites that a kind of worship called dulia , or service , might be payed to creatures , but the latria , or adoration , was only proper to god ; indeed they dreamed not of this subtilty ; and when st. john offered to fall down before the angel , he forewarns him not to do it , as being not only his fellow-creature , but his fellow-servant , revel . 19. 10. by which all that prostration for worship is declared unlawful , and what can be called adoration , if to offer prayers , to make vows , to sing hymns , to observe●… days , and to build churches , be not such ? these nice distinctions which the schoolmen have devised , will serve in no stead in the great day when gods jealousie shall burn like fir●… against all that have dishonoured him by this profane worshipping of creatures . and it is certain , that however some speculative people may have distinct notions of these kinds of worship , yet the vulgar , in their practice , make no difference at all , but place all their trust in them , fly to them in their troubles as to their refuge and strong hold ; whereby that faith and confidence which is only due to god and his son is abated , so much of it being bestowed on creatures . and what a baseness of mind doth it discover , for men , to whom god hath revealed so much of the riches of his grace , and hath allowed constant and free access to his throne , with the largest encouragements and assurances of being heard and accepted by him ; and who hath given mankind a mediator , who in the likeness of our flesh did express the greatest and freest love imaginable , dying for us , and being now our advocate and intercessor with his father ; that instead of conversing immediately with god and christ in the exercises of devotion , we should betake our solves to a dead and liveless in vocating of those , of whose hearing us we can have no assurance , and in which there can be no comfort nor true joy found . so much of the object of worship , the manner of it is next to be considered : we observed before , that god called us in the gospel to a lively and spiritual worship ; and this was first in opposition to the sorceries of the gentile worship , and next to the heavy yoke of the jewish bondage . how much of sorcery and enchantments was used in heathenism , every one that gives account of their forms do mention ; but indeed all they used was nothing , if compared to the enchantments of the roman church ; and first of all , can any thing look like●… a charm , than the worshipping god in an unknown tongue ? in which the worshipper is capable of no converse with god by these parts of worship which he doth not understand . next the muttering so large portions of th●… worship , chiefly in the office of the mass , what doth it look like but the mumbling of charm ▪ but shall i here tell of the charming of water , of salt , of wax-candles , for driving away of devils ? shall i next tell of the christening of bells , the hallowing of oyl , the touching of beads , the touching of little pebbles ; which shall have a virtue against sickness of all kinds , thunders and lightnings , and tentations of the devil ? shall i next tell of the consecrating of roses , agnus dei's , medals , and the like ? or , shall i tell of their exorcisms and charms for driving out devils , with all the strange actions used in them ? shall i mention the reliques , and all the virtues believed to be in them , yea and derived from them ? shall i mention their priviledged altars , their iubilees , the prayers upon which indulgences are granted , their solemn processions , together with all the small tricks are used in every part of their worship ? all this should be endless . these things cannot but eat out the power of religion , and introduce a dry and empty skellet of enchanted actions , instead of that lively image of god , which the christian religion designs to restore in us . in a word , shall i tell how the sacramental actions are polluted by the superfoetation of so many new rites , whereby they are wholly changed from their original simplicity . in baptism , instead of washing with water in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost ; how have they added so many adulterated rites ? the child must be thrice blown upon , then a charm used for turning the devil out of him , he must be anointed with holy oyl , and hallowed salt must be put in his mouth , sanctified garments also must be put on him , and a holy wax ▪ candle in his hand , and the priests spittle must be gently stroaked upon him . whether doth all this look like the simplicity of the spouse of christ or the attire of the harlot ? and in the other sacrament , a great dea●… more adoe is made , so that any indifferent spectator , who were not wa●…ned of it ▪ would swear it were a solem●… piece of pageantry ; the priest mu●… come in cloathed with rich embroid●…red vestments , then he goes to the altar , sometimes reads on the one side , then he turns to the other ; often he bows , and kisses , and crosses , sometimes single , sometimes thrice repeated crosses : most of the office he mutters , though what he says is all alike understood , being in an unknown tongue : sometimes he turns to the people , and gives them a short barbarian benediction : then he goes on till he come to the five wonder-working words : and then instead of the bread , which the force of these words hath driven to nothing , behold a god , to be worshipped by the spectators . and after the adoration , the god is to be devoured by the priest , which made the arabian say , he never saw a sect of religion so foolish as the christians were , who with their teeth devoured the god they had adored . certainly all this looks so like a piece of extravagance , especially if the simplicity of the first institution be considered ; that many will doubt if it be possible that such worship can be received in any corner of the christian world. and by these hints , though a hundred more could be instanced , let it be guessed what is become of the simplicity of the christian religion , when it is so vitiated in all the parts and branches of it : and whether that genuine sincere spirituality appear in it , which the gospel holds forth to the world : these things having a native tendency for leading away the soul from attending upon god , in her acts of worship ; which is the only thing for which external worship is to be continued in ▪ that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may jointly concur to converse w●…h our maker . if from this i should reckon up all the tricks are used in secreter worship , what stories should i tell of the pattering over the beads , of the multiplying little unintelligible prayers , the using of penances , some whereof are ridiculous for their gentleness , and others of them are as formidabl●… for their horrour , and fitter for the priests of baal , or the worshipers of diana taurica ▪ then for those that worship the living god with joy and gladness of heart ▪ now by the performance of these , the simple deluded people imagine themselves reconciled to god , and secured from his wrath : and so go about them meerly in the opinion of a charm . but i must next shew how the multiplicity of the jewish rites was also brought in upon christendom , though christ came to set us at liberty from that pedagogy , which was made up of ordinances and lifeless precepts , that could not make the doer thereof perfect : nothing being enjoyned in the christian religion , but that which was of it self easie and proper for the great design of purifying our souls . now such as have brought in a yoke of ordinances , that have no tendency to the cleansing of our souls , but oppress us with their tyrannical burdensomness , being both heavy , and numerous , must be looked on as the introducers , of a new judaism , for oppressing the christian world ; what a heap of new superadded forms have the high priests of rome brought upon these who stoop to their tyranny ? and how much sanctity do they place in them ; enjoyning severer censures on the violation of these , than on the greatest transgressions against either the moral or positive laws of god ? how many holy days have they instituted ? how much distinction of meats , of fasting , and abstinence ? and how like are their jubilees and pilgrimages to the jubilees and yearly trotting up to ierusalem , which was among the iews ? in a word , there is not a piece of worship about which there is not a greater appendage of vain pompous , and withall burdensom ceremonies , then were among the iews . shall i here mention the five superadded sacraments , to the two instituted by christ , with all the rites belonging to each of them , or recount all the rites in their multifarious ordinations ? shall i tell of the laying up the bodies when dead , and of the forms of their burials ? the burning of lamps in the clearest day , together with the incense that perfumes the worship , which are clear pieces of antiquated judaism . in a word , no part of the parallel holds more exactly , than that they are zealous of the traditions of their fathers , whereby the commandments of god are made of none effect ; and that they honour god with their lips , when their hearts are far form him : and worship him in vain , teaching for doctrins the commandments of men , matth. 15. 8 , 9. and hitherto i have discoursed upon the first limb of antichristianism , and have discovered too evident indications of the contradictions is in it , to the first branch of the design of christianity ; whereby the worship of god is partly adulterate , and partly smothered by a heavy and troublesome load of useless and lifeless per●…ormances ; which must needs lead out the soul from an inward attending on god , or free converse with him . the second branch of christianity is , ●…he holding forth that mysterious contrivance of the wisdom and goodness of god , for reconciling the world ●…o himself , by his dear son ; whom ●…e gave to the death for us , and also raised up , making him both lord , and christ ▪ whose glory and dignity is vulgarly branched out in these his three office●… of prophet , priest , and king. by the first of which , he revealed the father , and his whole council to manking , in plain and simple discourses , afterwards committed to writing by the faithful eye and ear-witnesses of his majesty . his prophetiok office therefore is chiefly acknowledged , in our grateful receiving these discoveries , and our studying to adjust both our faith and practice to that unerring rule . but can any thing b●… more contradictory to this , than to keep the knowledge of these writings from christians , to accuse their darkness and defects , and to apprehend great danger from their diligent perusal , to vilify that sacred study , preferring the lame and lifeless discourses of men , to the words o●… eternal wisdom ? for we must consider that our study of the gospel , is of th●… same nature with a personal following o●… christ , when on earth , to see his miracles and hear his doctrin , the same is also to b●… said of the acts and epistles of the apostles . now to bar the vulgar from this , is to hinder them to hear and see christ and his apostles ▪ as if that were a priviledge restricted to church-men . what shall be then said of these , who call the scriptures a nose of wax , the sourse of all heresies , a book written not on design , but upon particular emergents ; and do assert its incompleatness , unless made up by the traditions of the church ? is not this to add to the words of that book , and to accuse the faithful witness of unfaithfulness ? but worse than all this is held by these , who will have all the authority of the scriptures to depend on the church , which must be believed in the first place . but here a great difference is to be made betwixt the testimony of a witness , and the authority of a iudge ; the former is not denied to the church , and so the iews had the oracles of god committed to them ; but that doth not prove the authority of their sanhedrim infallible , or superiour to scripture ; and in this case more cannot be ascribed to the christian church , than was proper to the jewish in our saviours time . but further , if the scripture be to be believed on the testimony of the church , then upon what account is the church first believed ? it cannot be said , because of any testimony in scripture , for if it give authority to the scriptures , it cannot receive its authority from their testimony . how then shall it be proved that the church must be believed ? or must it be taken from their own word ? and yet no other reason can be given to prove the church infallible . for to say that they have continued in a succession of bishops from the apostles days , concludes nothing , unless it be first proved that the doctrine of the apostles was of god ; otherwise , the mahometan religion is as much to be believed , since for many ages a succession of priests have believed it . further , the greek churches drive up the series of their bishops to the apostles days , as well as the roman ; why then should not their authority be likewise acknowledged infallible ? in fine , must the vulgar go and examine the successions of the bishops , and judge about all the dubious elections , whether the conveyance have been interrupted or not ? certainly were this to be done , it were an impossible atchievement , and harder than the study of the originals of both testaments : therefore the vulgar must simply believe the authority of the church on her own testimony , which is the most absurd thing imaginable , and this to every individual , will resolve into the testimony of their priest. behold then a goodly foundation for building our faith upon ! christ prophetick office is also invaded , by the pretence of the churches infallibility in expounding scriptures ; for if this be granted , the whole authority will be devolved on the church , for by this doctrine she may teach what she will , and were the scripture evidence never so full to the contrary , yet whatever wrested exposition she offer , though visibly contrary to the plain meaning of the words , must be believed . but with whom this power and authority is lodged , is not agreed to among themselves ; some yielding it to the high priest of the church , when in his chair , others to the great sanhedrim of christendom in a general council , others to both jointly ▪ but all this is asserted without proof , for that of christs , of telling the church , mat. 18. 17. so often repeated by them , is meant of particular offences , and so is restricted to the case of differences among brethren , and relates not to points of doctrine . besides , the context of these words doth clearly shew them applicable to every parochia●… church , and yet their infallibility cannot be asserted . so it is clear , that christ doth only speak of a jurisdiction for quieting of differences among the brethren . that of the gates of hell their not prevailing against the church , mat. 16. 18. proves not the pretence of infallibility . and indeed the translation of that place deserves amendment and instead of hell , that word is t●… be rendred grave ; so that the meaning of the phrase is , death ( which is the mouth and gate through which we pass ●…nto the grave , and is so used by greek writers ) shall never prevail against the church ; that is , the church shall never die . neither will that of the spirit of truth leading out into all truth , joh. 16. 13. advance the cause a whit , since that promise relates to all believers ; and it is a part of the happiness of the new dispensation , that all in it shall be taught of god. and the promise of founding the church on st. peter , matth. 16. saith as ●…ittle ; for suppose the rock on whom the church were to be built , were st. peter himself , which i shall not much contravert , that is not peculiar unto him , since we are all built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets , and on the twelve foundations of the new ierusalem are written the names of the twelve apostles of the lamb ; but what will that prove for a series of the bishops of rome ? and finally , for the keyes of the kingdom of heaven , matth. 16. 19. their being given to st. peter , that saith no more , but that he was to open the gospel , which is usually called , the kingdom of god , or of heaven in the new testament . now the use of keys being to open the door , this was peculiar st. peters honour , who did first publish the gospel both to jews and gentiles , and in particular did first receive the gentiles into the new dispensation . but this hath no relation to the bishops of rome , nor to the pretended infallibility of that see. that which hath the fairest appearance of reason is , that if there be no absolute unerring court on earth , for deciding of controversies , there shall be no end of them ; but every private man may upon the pretence of some ill understood place of scripture , break the unity of the church , and so the peace of the church is in hazard of being irrecoverably lost . but how specious soever this may appear , it hath no weight in it : for it is certain that vice , as well as errour , is destructive of religion , and it will be no ●…mputation on our religion , that the one be no more guarded against , than the other is ; if then there be no authority for repressing vice , but the outward discipline of the church ; it is not incongruous there be no other authority for ●…uppressing of errour , but that same of the discipline of the church . it is certainly , a peece of humility , for a man to suspect his own thoughts , when they lye ●…ross to the sentiments of the guides and ●…eaders of the church : but withal , a man ought to be in all he does , fully perwaded in his own mind , and we are commanded to try the spirits , and not to believe very spirit , 1 ioh. 4. 1. now reason being the chief excellency of man , and ●…hat wherein the divine image doth ●…ainly consist , it were very absurd to ●…eny man a rational judging and discering of these things wherein his eternal ●…terest is most concerned . besides the nature of religion , it being a thing suta●…e to the powers of the soul , shews that man must have a conviction of the truth of it on his mind , and that he cannot be bound in contradiction to his own apprehensions , to receive any opinions ●…rly upon the testimony of others . if to confirm all this , i should add all can be brought from history for proving general councils to have erred in matters of faith ; or that popes have bee●… hereticks , or that they have been ana thematized as such , by other popes and general councils , i should be too tedious but in end , how shall the vulgar know the definitions of councils , or the de crees of popes ? or must they be blindly determined by the priests assertion certainly , this were to expose the●… to the greatest hazards , since they a●… not suffered to found their faith upo●… the scriptures : nor doth the chur●… reveal her doctrines to them , so th●… their faith must be resolved upon t●… bare testimony of a priest , who is pe●…haps both ignorant and licentio●… and by this we may judge to wh●… a pass the souls of the people a brought by this doctrine . in a wo●… we are not the servants of men , nor bound to their authority ; for none can be a judge , but where he hath power both to try and to coerce : now none but god can either search our hearts , or change them ; for as no humane power can know our thoughts , so neither can it turn them , which are not in our own power , much less in the power of others ; therefore our consciences can , and must only fall within gods jurisdiction : and since the renovation of the image of god consists in knowledge , and religion designs an union of our souls to divine truth , that we may freely converse with it , it will follow , that all these pretences of absolute authority and infallibility in teaching , are contrary to christs prophetick office ; who came to reveal the father to us . the second of jesus christs offices , was the priestly , without which the former had never been effectual ; for had we known never so perfectly the will of god , without a method had been laid down for reconciling sinners to him , it was in vain to think of religion , since nothing sinners could do , was able to appease god , or expiate sin ; but this was fully done by the sacrifice of that lamb of god , who became sin for us , and bare our sins on his own body , in whom we have redemption , even forgiveness of sin through his blood , 2 cor. 5. 21. 1 pet 2. 24. ephes. 1. 7. if then any have derogated from the value of this satisfaction , they have offered the utmost indignity to the highest love ; and committed the crime of the greatest ingratitude imaginable ; who would requite the most inconcieveable love , with such a sacrilegious attempt : but , how guilty are they of this , who would set the merits and works of men , in an equality with the blood of god ? as if by these , we were justified , or owed our title to glory , to our own performances , whereas we are taught by the oracles of god , that by grace we are saved , that god only hath made the difference betwixt us and others , and that he hath freely chosen us in his son christ iesus , ephes. 2. 5. 1 cor. 4. 7. and alas ! where are we , or what is all we do , that it can pretend to the lowest degree of gods acceptance , without he freely , both help us in it , and accept of us for it ? so that when he rewards us for our services with eternal life , he freely crowns his own free gifts to us . for when we consider how great a disproportion there is betwixt our best services and eternal glory , when we also remember how all our good actions flow from the principles of divine grace freely given , but withal , reflect on the great defects and imperfections that hang about our best performances , we will not be able to entertain any thoughts of our meriting ought at the hands of god ▪ and certainly , the deeper impressions we have either of the evil of sin , or the goodness of god ; we will be further from a capacity of swelling big in our own thoughts , or of claiming any thing on the pretensions of justice or debt . it is true , this doctrine of merit is so explained by some of that church , that there remains no ground of quarrelling it ; except for the terms sake , which is indeed odious and improper ( though early used by the ancients in an innocent sense . ) but many of that church acknowledge , there can be no obligation on god by ou●… works , but that which his own promise binds upon him ; which none , who believe the truth of the promises of the gospel , can question ; but still we must remember that we owe all to the love of jesus , and nothing to our selves : which as it is the matter of the allelujahs of glorified saints , so should be the subject of our daily acknowledgements ▪ wherefore , we must abominate every thing that may seem to detract from this . but alas ! were all this zeal , many of that communion own for merits and good works , meant for the advancing a holy and spiritual life , it would carry a good apology with it , and its noble design would very much qualify the severity of its censure ; but when these good works , which for so many ages were highly magnified , were the building of churches , the enriching of abbeys , pilgrimages , and other trifling and voluntary pieces of will-worship , advanced for the secular interests of the church ; what shall be said of all that pains was used by the monks for advancing them ; but that they were willing to sell the value of the blood and merits of christ , for advancing their own secular interests , and divised practices ? alas ! how far are these from that holiness and sanctity , which must qualify us for the kingdom of god , and the inheritance of the saints ▪ and to end this matter , let me add one thing , which is most evident to all who have observed the methods of the directours of consciences in that church , that with whatever distinctions this matter be varnished over among them ; yet the vulgar do really imagine they buy and sell with almighty god , by their undergoing these laws of the church , and penances imposed by their confessour : which as it nourisheth the life of pride and self-love , so it detracts from the value they ought to set on the blood of christ , as their only title to heaven and glory . and to this , i must add that distinction of the temporary and eternal punishments sin deserves : the latter whereof they acknowledge are removed by the blood of christ ; but the former must be expiated by our selves ; either by sufferings in this life , or those we must endure in purgatory ; unless by the popes charity we be secured or delivered from them . now , how contrary this is to the value we are taught to set on the blood of christ , all may judge . ephes. 2. 15 , 16. by christ peace is made , we are reconciled to god , he presents us to the father without spot and wrinkle . and much more of this nature meeting us in scripture , declares how plenary his satisfaction was ; nothing being left undone by him , for removing the guilt and demerit of sin . and what comfortless doctrine this is , we may soon apprehend , how it takes away that joy in god , at the approaches of death : since there is such a hazard of direful miseries following . now , this was no small part of the mystery , by which the world was brought under their dominion ; and therefore great pains was taken for rooting the belief of it deep ●…n all mens hearts , many visions and apparitions were vouched for its proof , and all the lives of the saints , that were written for divers ages , were full of such fa●…ulous narrations ; some souls were said ●…o be seen standing in burning brimstone ●…o the knees , some to the middle , some to ●…he chin , others swimming in caldrons of ●…elted metal , and devils pouring the metal down their throats , with many ●…uch affrighting stories . but for all this , the proof from scripture was only drawn from one wrested ●…lace of the apostle paul , 1 cor. 3. 12 , 13 , ●…4 , 15. who saith , that in the day of the lord , such as built upon the foundation of christ , superstructures of wood , hay , and stubble , ●…ould be saved , because they kept the founda●…ion , yet so as by fire . but this was only a ●…roverbial form of speech , to express the ●…isque they run to be such , as of one that ●…scapes out of a fire ; such proverbial ●…eeches being usual in scripture , as that of the prophet , zach. 3. 2. is not this brand plucked out of the fire ? or of the apostle , iude 23. some save with fear , pullin●… them out of the fire . and any considerin●… person will , at first view , see how slende●… a foundation this was for the supe●… structure built upon it . but the way was contrived for prese●… ving souls from , or rescuing them out 〈◊〉 purgatory , will discover what were th●… inducements of advancing the belief 〈◊〉 it with such zeal , which was thus fr●… med : it is believed by that church , th●… beside the commands that necessarily o●… lige all christians , there are many cou●… sels in the gospel , in order to the attai●… ing a higher pitch of perfection , such a the counsels of poverty , and chastity , o●… the like ; and they teach , that such as d●… not obey these , cannot be said to have si●… ned ; but on the other hand , those wh●… have obeyed them , shall not want a r●… ward , by their so supererrogating beyon●… what was strictly bound upon them , an●… the reward of them is their meritin●… both for themselves and others , an exemption from the pains of purgatory . and of all these merits , there is a common treasure of the church , wherein for good manners sake the merit of christ is the chief stock ; and this is committed to the successors of st. peter , to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven are believed to be given , who can communicate of that spiritual treasure as they will , either for preserving souls from purgatory , or for delivering them out of it . this could not but work wonders for the exaltation of the papal dignity , when he was conceited to be honoured of god with so high a trust . this was also made an engin for advancing all the papal designs , for upon any quarrel he had with any prince , the popes proclamed a croisade , promising exemption from purgatory to all who hazarded their lives for the service of the holy church . and the contrivance of purgatory being universally believed , this could not fail to draw great numbers about his standards . and by this means he brought most princes into that servile subjection to him , under which they groaned for many ages . another practise yet more base and sordi●… was , the selling of indulgences and pardons for money ; certainly here was simon 's crime committed by the pretende●… successors of him , who had of old accused him , that thought the gift of god migh●… be purchased with money , and thereupon di●… cast him out of the church . it were endless to tell the base arts , and blasphemous discourses of the monks wh●… were sent through the world to sel●… these indulgences , which in the end proved fatal to that church , since the excessive magnifying of them did first provoke luther to examine their corruptions . it is true , they will not hear of th●… harsh word of selling indulgences , but disguise it with their giving them to such as will offer alms to the church ; but really , this whole contrivance is so base●… so carnal , and so unlike the spirit of christianity , that to repeat it , is to refute it ▪ here was a brave device for enriching the church , when the making great donations to it , was judged so effectual fo●… delivering out of purgatory . who would not out of love to his friends soul , ●…f he believed him frying in these flames , give liberally of his goods ; but much ●…ather would a man give all that he had for his own security , especially when on his death-bed he were beset with persons who were confounding him with dismal apprehensions , and thus trafficking with him for the exchange of the soul. hence ●…prung the enriching of abbeys and churches , for every religious order hath ●…ts own peculiar merits , which they can communicate to one of their fraternity : ●…f then a dying man had gained their ●…avour so much , that he was received in●…o their order , and died wrapped in one of their frocks , then was his soul secure from the grim tormentors below . and what an endless heap of fables had ●…hey , of souls being on the brink , or in ●…he midst of the flames , and of a sudden ●…natched out . but now all this trade hath quite fai●…ed them , therefore indulgences are fallen ●…n their rates , and in stead of them , there are prayers to be used , and especially to be said before priviledged altars , o●… at such times , or before such reliques ▪ that it is no hard work for any among them to ransome the souls of others , o●… to preserve their own . in a word , doth not all this debase the spirit of true religion , and expose it to the jealousie o●… atheists , as if it were a contrivance fo●… advancing base , and secular designs . an●… doth it not eat out the sense of true piety ▪ when the vulgar see the guides of sou●… making such shameful merchandise o●… them , and doing it with such respect o●… persons , that if a man be rich enough , he i●… secure ; whereby our lords blessing of the poor●… and passing a woe on the rich , is reverse●… but above all , what indignity is by thi●… done to the blood of the son of god●… and how are the people carried fro●… their dependance on him , and the●… value of his sufferings , by these practices ! another art not very remote fro●… this , for detracting from the value 〈◊〉 christs death , and the confidence w●… should have in it , is , the priestly absolution , wherein after the sinner hath gone over his sins without any sign of remorse , ●…nd told them to the priest , he enjoins a ●…enance , the doing whereof , is called a satisfaction ; and the vulgar do really ●…magine , that the undergoing the penance , doth fully serve for appeasing gods wrath against sin ; but as soon as the priest hath enjoined his penance , without waiting that they obey it , he lays his hand on their head , and says , i absolve thee ; and after this , they judge themselves fully cleansed of sin , and that they may receive the sacrament , had their former life been never so bad . it is true , the practice of the priests in their slight penances , and hasted absolutions , and promiscuous allowing of all the holy sacrament , is condemned by many in that church , who complain of these abuses with much honest zeal ; but these complaints are so little regarded , that their writings are condemned , and the corruption continues unreformed . now what can take off more from the value of the death of christ , than to believe it i●… the power of a priest to absolve from sin ▪ all the power of the church being either ministerially to declare the absolution offered in the gospel , upon the conditions in it , or to absolve from the scandal which any publick trespass hath given . it was counted blasphemy in christ , when h●… said , thy sins are forgiven thee , mar. 2. 5 , 10. of which he cleared himself , from the power was committed to the son of man on earth , to forgive sins ; which shews it to be blasphemy in all others to pretend to absolve from sin , it being an invasion of his prerogative . to this i might add the scorn put on religion by many of the penances enjoyned for sin , such as the abstaining from flesh for so many days , the pattering over so many prayers , the repeating the penitential psalms , the going to such churches , and such altars , with other ridiculous observances like these , which cannot but kill the vitals of true religion , and lead away souls from these earnest applications to jesus christ for pardon and renovation . and who can have any sad apprehensions of sin , who is taught such an easie way of escaping punishment ? i confess in this , as in all other parts of religion , the masters of that church have so contrived things , that their doctrines might , according to the fable of the manna , taste pleasant in every mans relish ; for if any be grave and melancholy , then silence , solitude , and retirement are enjoyned them ; if their tempers be more fiery and sullen , severe corporal mortifications and disciplines are tasked on them , such as cruel and perhaps publick whipping , or other unspeakable austerities , with which the lives of the modern saints are full ; but if one be of a more jolly temper , who desires heaven at an easie rate , then some trifling penance shall serve turn . these are a few of their arts for diverting souls from flying unto jesus , as to the sure and safe refuge from the fathers wrath , in whom only we can find sanctuary , and whom the father hath sent into the world to seek and save lost sinners . now whether the priest in the injunction of easie penances , and giving absolution , do not violate th●… prerogative of jesus , and insensibly de●… bauch souls from that affectionate an●… grateful duty they owe their redeemer ▪ into their trifling methods and appointments , i refer it to all who know them . another opposition made to the priestly office of christ is , their conceit o●… the sacrifice of the mass , which they believe is a formal expiation of sins , both for the living , and dead , who are in purgatory : christ once offered himself up for taking away sin , which he did b●… that one sacrifice , and this is by the apostle stated amongst the differences whic●… are betwixt the sacrifices of moses , whic●… were to be daily and yearly renewed and r●… peated , whereas christ offered one sacrifi●… in the end of the world , so that there w●… no need of more , heb. 10. 1 , 2 , 3 , 12 , 14 now , to imagine that the priests goin●… through the office of the mass , and h●… receiving the consecrated elements , 〈◊〉 have a virtue to expiate the sins 〈◊〉 others , especially of the dead , is a thing so contrary to the most common impressions , that it will puzzle a mans belief to think any can credit it . and yet this is one of the master-pieces of the religion of that church . it is true , in a right sense , that sacrament may be called a sacrifice , as it was by the ancients , either in general , as prayers , praises , and alms-deeds are called so in scripture ; or as it is a commemoration of the sacrifice of christ ; but to imagine the action hath an expiatory force in it , is a visible derogation from the value of christs death ; and all the value is in any outward sacramental action , can only be derived into the soul of the receiver , but it is absurd to think one mans action can be derived to another ; and it clearly appears from the institution of the lords supper , that its end was the joint communicating of believers , which is perverted manifestly by the practice of these priests , who communicate in name of the spectatours . finally , what a derogation is it from the priestly office of christ , one branch whereof is his intercession , to join saint●… or angels with him in that work , nay , and prefer them to him ? which will be found too true , if the office of the virgin , and the prayers offered to her , be compared with those offered to her son. did christ by the merits of his passion acquire this honour at so dear a rate ? and shall we for whom he suffered , rob him so injuriously and sacrilegiously of his honour , and bestow it on these who are our fellow-servants ? but having touched this in the former part of my discourse , i advance my enquiry to the opposition given the regal office of christ : and first , how contrary is it to the glory wherewith even his humane nature and body is refulgent in heaven , to believe , that five words , muttered out by the priest , shall have the virtue to produce his real and glorified body , instead of the annihilated elements of bread and wine , and yet under their accidents and appearances ? this is a new and strange kind of humiliation , if true , by which he who is now cloathed with glory , must be every day exposed under so thick , so dark , and so contemptible a covering , as are the resemblances of bread and wine . what low thoughts of his person must it breed in such minds as are capable of believing this contrivance ? again , he , as king of his church , hath given her laws and precepts , to whose obedience she is obliged , to which none can add , without they acknowledge another head , and whose obligation none can untye or dispense with ; for christs dominion consists in this authority he hath over our consciences , which he hath vindicated into liberty , by delivering us from the bondage of corruption . if then any pretend a power of obtruding new articles on our belief , or obligations on our consciences , these must be confessed to be injurious to the dignity wherewith christ is vested . what shall then be said of him , who pretends an authority of dspensing with , and dissolving the obligation of oaths , of dissolving the wedlock-bond , of allowing marriage in the forbidden degrees ? and as for their additions to the laws of christ , they are innumerable . and here what i mentioned last , calls me to mind of a pretty device , to multiply the forbidden degrees of marriage , yea , and add the degrees of spiritual kindred , that is , of kindred with our god-fathers or god-mothers in baptism , which is done upon no other design , but to draw in more to the treasure of the church , by frequent dispenses . if i should here reckon up all the additions which by the authority of that church are made to the laws of christ , i should resume all that i have hitherto alledged , they being visible additions to the doctrine and rules of the gospel , and imposed with such unmerciful cruelty , that an anathema is the mildest of the spiritual censures they thunder against such as comply not with their tyranny , and a faggot would be its civil sanction , were the secular powers at their devotion . i do not deny but there is an authority , both in the civil and ecclesiastick powers , of enjoyning things indifferent , but no authority beside christs can reach the conscience : besides , if these indifferent things swell so in their number , be vain , pompous , and useless , and be imposed without all regard to the tender scruples of weak consciences , they become tyrannical ; and such as do so impose them , discover their affecting a tyrannical and lordly dominion over consciences , and that they prefer their own devices to the simpler methods of christ , and the plainer and easier rules of his gospel . but one instance of their abrogating the laws of christ is more signal , in their violating the sacrament of the lords supper ; wherein , though he instituted it under both kinds , and did so distribute it , with the express command that all should drink of it , yet they presumed , notwithstanding of that , and though the primitive church distributed it in both kinds , which is confessed in their canon , to snatch the cup from the laity , and eng●…oss it to the clergy . now it is to be considered , that the value of th●… sacramental actions flowing only from their institution , the first appointment should be most religiously observed in them : besides , the universal extent of christs word , drink ye all of it , which was not used in the distribution of the bread , hath a particular mystery in it , to guard against the foreseen corruption of that part of it ; and the reason given in the distribution of the cup , shews , it must reach to all that need the blood of christ for the remission of sins ; which not being restrained to the priests , shews , that the cup , without a direct opposition to the mind and command of christ , ought not to be taken from the people ; and any that will read the goodly reasons given for this sacriledge , wil see what a low account they have of the commands of christ , when , upon such trifling pretences they will violate them . and with how much cruelty they backed this invasion of christs authority , the history will declare , they beginning it with a perfidious burning of two witnesses who opposed it at constance : and occasioning so much war and blood-shed against those who adhered to the rule of the gospel , in this matter , and refused to stoop to their tyranny . but i advance to another invasion of christs regal authority , commited by him who pretends to be the universal bishop of the church , and to have authority over all church-men ; whom he makes swear obedience to him , and looks on them but as his delegates : it was unluckily done of gregory the great , to be so severe on this head , as to condemn the title of universal bishop , as antichristian : but little dream'd he in how few years his successour would aspire to that height of ambition . now by this pretence , all these officers whom christ hath appointed to rule and feed his church , are turned out of their authority , and made subject to him : and with how much pride he treads on his fellow-bishops , the histories of many ages do declare . it is true , at first , as being bishop of the imperial city , the bishops of rome were highly esteemed , but pride and ambition , began soon to leaven them ; yet they were for the first four ages , looked upon , by the other bishops , but as their fellow-bishops , and by the decrees o●… two general councils , the bishops of constantinople were in all things , except the precedency , make equal to them ▪ and by the decree of the council of nice , other metropolitans are levelled with them . and here i must tell of a shameful forgery of three bishops of rome , who one after another , would have obtruded on the african churches , a decree , allowing of appeals from them , to the roman see , as if it had been made at nice : which they of africk rejected , and upon tryal , found it to be none of the appointments at nice , but a decree of the council of sardice . but by degrees the bishops of that city got up to the height they are now at ; and not content with their usurping over their brethren and fellow-church-men ; their next attempt was upon princes , who deriving their authrity from iesus christ , the king of kings ▪ by whom kings do reign , it was an invasion of his power to attempt against his vice-gerents on earth . but the popes made no bones of this , for being now held christs vicars on earth , with other blasphemous titles , as vice-god , yea , and lord god , they thought their power was limited , as long as kings and emperours were not even in temporals subject to them . and therefore from the days of pope gregory the 7th , they pretended to a power of deposing princes , disposing of their dominions to others , and dispensing with the oaths of fidelity their subjects had sworn to them ; and it was easie for them to make crowns change their masters , as they pleased : for there were always other ambitious princes ready for their own ends to invade the dominions of these deposed kings , upon the popes warrant , and the generality of the people were so possessed with the popes power of releasing souls from purgatory , and from the punishments due to sin ▪ that they were easily prevailed upon to follow his thunders●… and by that time the popes had swarm●… of emissaries of the begging orders ▪ who under shews of austere piety , gained much reverence and esteem in the world ; and so got all subjected to the papal tyranny . now , should i instance this in particulars , i should transgress the limits of a short discourse , by a long history ; but the lives of gregory the 7th alexander the third , boniface the 8th●…nd iulius the second ; to mention no more , will sufficiently convince any who will be at the pains to read them , as they are written by these who lived in that communion . and matthew of paris will at length inform his reader , how much , and how often england smarted under this tyranny . and all this is so far from being denied , that it is defended avowedly by no●… a few of the canonists and iesuits , and is a doctrine dearly entertained in the court of rome to this day ; as appeared from the late attempt of pope paul the fifth , upon venice : but the world is now a little wiser , than to be carried away by these arts , and therefore that pretence is laid to sleep , till haply the ●…east be healed of the wound was given ●…t at the reformation . but i cannot leave this particular , without my sad regrates , that too deep a tincture of this spirit of antichristianism is among many , who pretend much aversion to it ; since the doctrine of resisting magistrates , upon colours of religion , is so stiffly maintained , and adhered to , by many , who pretend to be highly reformed , though this be one of the characters of the scarlet-coloured whore . but thus far have we gone through the second part of antichrists character , and have discovered too clear ●…ndications of a difformity to the spirit and truth of the christian religion , in all the branches of the honour and worship due to jesus the only mediator of the new covenant . from this i proceed to the third part of my enquiry ; which is , the opposition made to the great design of christian religion , for elevating the souls o●… men into a participation of the divine nature , whereby the soul being inwardly purified , and the outward conversation regulated , the world may be restore●… to its primitive innocence : and men admitted to an inward and intimate fellowship with their maker . the firs●… step of this renovation , is repentance for god commands men every where to 〈◊〉 , and repentance and remission of 〈◊〉 are alwayes united : and this being 〈◊〉 horrour at sin upon the sense of its native deformity , and contrariety to the law of god ▪ which makes the soul apprehend the hazar●… it hath incurred by it ; so , as to study by 〈◊〉 means possible to avoid it in all time coming ▪ nothing doth prepare the mind mor●… for faith in christ , and the study of 〈◊〉 new life , than repentance ; which 〈◊〉 needs be previous to these . but what devices are found to enervate this sins must be divided into venial and mortal ; the former deserving only some temporal punishment , and being easily expiated by some trifling piece of seeming devotion , and hereby many sins are struck out of the penitents consideration : for who can have a great apprehension of that which is so slightly expiated . and this may be extended to the easie pardons , given for acknowledged mortal sins : for he who thinks that god can be appeased for them , with the saying by rote , so many prayers , cannot possibly have deep apprehensions of their being either so displeasing to god ▪ or so odious in themselves . but shall i to this add their asserting , that a simple attrition , which is a sorrow flowing from the consideration of any temporal evil , god hath brought upon the sinner , without any regard had either to the vileness of the sin , or the offence done to god by it ; that this ( i say ) can suffice for justifying sinners , and qualifying them for the sacrament , whereby the necessity of contrition and sorrow flowing from the principle of the love of god , is made only a high degree of perfection , but not indispensibly necessary ? in the next place , all these severities they enjoyn for penances , do but tend to nourish the life of sin , when sinners see a trade set up by which they can buy themselves off from the wrath of god to this , is to be added the doctrine o●… indulgences , which is so direct an opposition to evangelical repentance , as if 〈◊〉 had been contrived for dispossessing the world of the sense of it . that which is next pressed in the gospel for uniting the souls of mankind to god , is that noble ternary of graces , faith , hope , and love , by which the soul rests in god by a holy affiance in him , believing the truth of his gospel , expecting the accomplishment of his promises , waiting for the full fruition of him , and delighting in his glorious perfections , and excellencies ▪ now how much all this is shaken by these carnal and gross conceptions , the roman doctrine offers of god in their image and mass-worship , and by their idolatry to saints is apparent ? are they not taught to confide more in the virgin , or their tutelar saints , than in the holiest of all ? doth not the fear of purgatory damp the hopes of future blessedness ? and finally , what impious doctrine hath been publickly licensed and printed in that church of the degrees of the love we owe to god ? some blasphemously teaching , that we are not at all bound to love him , others mincing it so , as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved . in a word , there is an impiety in the morals of some of that church , particularly among the disciples of loyola , beyond what was ever taught amongst the worst of the heathen philosophers , which hath been fully discovered by some of the honester and more zealous of that communion . and though these corruptions have not been avowed by the head of that church , yet by their being publickly vented , by the deaf ear he gives to all the complaints against them , and by the constant caresses and priviledges he heaps upon that order which teacheth them , he discovers either his great satisfaction in that corrupt doctrine , or that upon the account of other interests , he is content to betray the souls of christians into the corruption of such impious and 〈◊〉 godly leaders , since the order that 〈◊〉 owned all these corruptions is yet 〈◊〉 of the consciences of the greater 〈◊〉 of them that own that communio●… they being the universal 〈◊〉 and since they license the publick 〈◊〉 of so much corrupt doctrine printed writings , what reason have 〈◊〉 to suspect their base compliance 〈◊〉 sins in their more secret and 〈◊〉 practisings , with such poor deluded 〈◊〉 as trust to their conduct ; of which 〈◊〉 proofs are brought by others of 〈◊〉 same church ? but i pursue my enquiry into the 〈◊〉 traces of the antichristian corruption of the purity , and power , of our 〈◊〉 holy faith : solemn worship , and 〈◊〉 devotion , are the great means of 〈◊〉 souls to god , and of deriving the sistance of his spirit and grace to us ; when these are performed in an 〈◊〉 tongue , how uncapable are they of 〈◊〉 that end ? and the doctrine of efficacy of the sacraments , for coming of grace by the work wrought , looks like a design against all serious preparation for the worthy receiving of them ; since by that doctrine , a man , be he never so ill prepared , yet is sure of their efficacy ; for if his priest absolve him , and he have a simple attrition for sin , without any thing of the love of god , he is by their doctrine and conduct qualified for receiving worthily , were his heart never so much united to sin , or averse from all devotion , or application to divine matters . and what complaints shall be here made of these who teach , that the sure way of gaining the favour of god , which they phrase by the keyes of paradise , is to say the ave , to bid the blessed virgin good-morrow every day , or to send our angel guardian to salute her ? or finally , to wear a meddal or rosary in devotion to her , though from the first time we begin to wear it , we never again think of her ; doth not all this look like a conspiracy against the power of godliness ? but shall we next consider the moral law , which though christ said , h●… came not to dissolve , but to fulfil , mat ▪ 5. 17. yet they have found out distictions and doctrines to destroy it . it true , what may be said here , cannot directly , as to every particular , be charg●… on the roman church , since , it hath ●… been decreed by pope , or council ; b●… when prophane casuists have print●… doctrines , which tend to the subv●…sion of the most common principles virtue , and morality , and these are lic●…sed according to the rule of that churc●… and for as publick as they are , and for ●… the censures and complaints others ha●… passed upon them , yet they contin●… without any censure from the chair rome , it is a shrewd presumption that th●… are not unwelcome to that see : thou●… for good manners sake they have giv●… them no other owning , but a connivan●… joyned with an extraordinary cherishi●… of that school which vents them . two general doctrines they have which at two stroaks dissolve all t●… bonds of virtue . the one is , 〈◊〉 doctrine if probability ; the other , good intention . by the first , they teach , ●…hat if any approved doctor of the church have held an opinion about any ●…ractical thing , as probable any christian ●…ay with a safe conscience follow it , were it never so much condemned by others ; and did it appear with the black●…st visage : and by this it is , that scarce ●…here is a sin which may not be safely ●…azarded on , since there have been of ●…he approved doctors of that church , who have made a shift by distinctions , ●…o represent the worst actions , not only ●…s probable , but as really good . the next doctrine is , of good intention , where●…y they teach a man to commit the grossest ●…egerdemain with god and his own conscience maginable ; by which he may act any sin he will , provided he intend not that , but some ●…ther good design or motive : and any that will read the provincial letters , or the mystery of iesuitism , and compare ●…heir citations with the authors , whence they take them , will soon be sa●…isfied of the truth of this . we have already seen how that church violates the two first commandments , by her idolatry : whereby in opposition to the first , she worships saints and angels , with those acts and expressions of adoration only due to god. the second is also palpably violated by their image-worship , and adoring god under sensible and external representations . the third is made void by the popes pretending to dispence with oaths , and to annual their obligation , as also by their doctrines of equivocation and mental reservations , in all oaths , both assertory , and promissory , besides the impious doctrines of some casuists , that justifie the prophaning of gods sacred name , i●… rash and common swearing . their contempt of the fourth precept is not denied , it being usually among them a day of mercating , dancing , and foolish jollity : many among them teaching , that to hear mass that day , doth fully answer the obligation for its observance . their contempt of the fifth follows , upon the doctrine of the popes power , of deposing princes , and freeing the subjects from their obligation to them ; by which they are taught to rebel , and rest the ordinance of god. besides , their ca●…uists allow it as lawful to desire the parents ●…eath , provided it be not out of malice to him , ●…ut out of a desire of good to themselves : that they may enjoy their inheritance , or be ●…id of their trouble . yea , some of their ●…mpious casuists say , that children may lawfully intend the killing of their parents , and may disown them , and marry without their consent . for the sixth command , their casuists do generally allow , to kill in defence of honour , life , or goods , even though the hazard of losing them be not near and evident , but afar off , and uncertain : and they teach , that a man is not bound to stay till another smite him ; but if he threaten him , or if he offend with his words , or if one know that he hath a design upon his honour , life , or goods , he may with a good conscience prevent , and kill him . and this they extend to all sorts of persons , both secular and religious ; allowing it to sons against their fathers . and they leave it free to them to execute this by whatever means they judge most proper , whether by force , or supprize , or by the service of others , if they dare not attempt to kill by their own hands ; which they stretch to the case of one who knows another guilty of a crime , and intends to pursue him for it ; and they allow the guilty person , if he know no other way of escape , to kill him who intends his accusation , that he may thereby preserve his life ; in order to which they also allow it lawful to kill the witnesses that may prove the crime . as for the seventh command , modesty cannot name their polluted doctrines about it : they barred the clergy the lawful use of marriage , but did allow them concubinate , and the publick licenses given to base houses in the popes dominions , prove that see a mother of fornications , even in the letter , the religious houses being likewise full of irreligious intanglements , into a course of life , which many times they are not able to bear ; but being restrained from the honourable ordinance of god , many of these houses have proved either nests of filthiness or of secret impurities ; which it seems by the rules of confession , and the questions their confessours puts to them , are known to abound among them . and any that have read these , will confess , that it defiles a chast mind to read them ; but what must it be to ask them , especially at those of a different sex ? shall i also here mention the frequent dispensing with marriages within degrees forbidden , and their as frequent dissolving of that sacred knot , though ( as if they had resolved on a contradiction to all the rules of the gospel ) they refuse to dissolve the bond on the account of adultery , which christ hath made the only ground than can justifie the dissolution of it ? but shall i add to this , the base impieties , of which not only these of purple and scarlet livery among them have been notoriously guilty , but even the villanies of some that have worn the triple crown ? as i should grow too tedious , so i must needs tell things , which to a pure mind were both nauseating to write and to read . those that have been in that spiritual babylon , know , that is a sodom , even in the letter , none being more guilty of that crying wickedness , than those that bear the character of religious or sacred orders . and what shall we think of the scarlet fraternity , that produced a monster that attempted heaven it self , by writing in defence of that impiety , which it avenged by fire and brimstone , and yet had no censure passed on him for it ? whereas for the least tincture of calvinism or lutheranism , he had been condemned to the fagot . some of them do also teach , that fornication is not forbidden by the laws of nature , and only by positive precepts , so that it may be dispensed with . for the eighth command , those profane casuists have made such shifts for it , that none needs to be guilty of theft ; for they teach it to be no sin to take that from another which he made no use of , but may well want , and that in such a case , he who steals , is not obliged to restitution : others of them teach , that he who stole a great summ , is not obliged to the restitution of the whole , but only of so much as may make the theft not notable : but they teach , that small thefts , even though often repeated , are but venial sins , which is an excellent doctrine for warranting servants insensibly to purloin their masters goods ▪ they also teach arts of escaping just debts , beyond all the subtilties of false lawyers ; which the jesuites themselves have often put in practice ▪ and have found out arts for justifying oppressive usury , defrauding of creditors , ruining of commerce , and making havock of our neighbours goods , without injustice . for the ninth command , though it be so contrary to nature , that the worst of men count it a reproach to be charged with falshood , and lying ; yet they have favoured it avowedly : for by their doctrines of equivocating and using mental reservations , the greatest falsities in the world may be averred and sworn without sin : and the value they set on a strict observance of promises , and candor in them , appeared at constance ▪ where a whole council required sigismund the emperor , to burn iohn huss , and ierom of prague , though he had given them his safe conduct ; for they taught him , that faith was not to be kept to hereticks . another such like trip of one of the popes , proved fatal both to ladislaus , and the kingdom of hungary , at varna ; where they breaking the truce they had sworn to the turk , upon the popes warrant , were signally punished for their treachery . the doctors of the fore-mentioned school do also teach , that he who hath born false witness in a matter that may cost another his life , is not bound to retract it , if that retractation may bring great evils upon him . they also propose methods for suborning witnesses , and falsifying of writs and records , without any sin ; and that all this may be done to defame a person with some horrid imputation , who is led as a witness to prove any thing against one , that thereby he may be cast from witnessing . and as for the tenth command , they have struck out all the first motions of the mind to evil , from being accounted sins ; and by their division of sins into venial , and mortals , they make sure enough work of this command , that it shall not be broken mortally . it were an endless work to go and make out all these particulars , of their dissolving the moral law by clear proofs : but he who desires satisfaction in that , will find it in the provincial letters , or the morals of the iesuits . but if we pass from the law , to the gospel , we shall find they have made no less bones of it . we are all over the gospel called to be heavenly minded , to despise the world , and to set our affections on things above ; and particularly , church-men are taught not to seek the riches , splendor and vanities of a present world ; which was most vigorously enforced by the example of christ and his holy apostles . but how contrary to this is that religion , whose great design is , the enriching and aggrandizing of the teachers and pastours of it , chiefly of him who pretends to be the supreme and sole pastor ? i need not here re-mind the reader , of the trade of indulgences , by which that church rose to its riches and pomp ; nor need i tell what a value they set on outward actions of piety , the chief of these being the enriching of churches , and abbies ; and how these were commended to the world as the sure means of attaining eternal life . shall i add to this , the visible and gross secularity and grandeur , in which the head , and other prelates of that church do live ? the head of it being in all things a temporal prince , perpetually busied in intrigues of state , and ballancing the princes of europe , and chiefly of italy ; and what base and simoniac●… practices abound in that court , all who have written of it with any degrees o●… ingenuity , do acknowledge , all things are venal there : money being able to raise the basest and unworthiest to the highest promotions ; the cardinals ar●… also named either upon the interests 〈◊〉 princes , and chiefly of the two gre●… crowns ; or to make the popes nephews have a greater stroke in the next conclave ; or upon some such carnal account . and perhaps , for good manners sake , a scholar , or a person famous for devotion , may get a red hat , but such are alwayes the least esteemed in the colledge ; all affairs being governed by the popes nephews ▪ or the protectors of the crowns . and who shall expect that such a company of secular , ignorant , ( i mean in matters of religion , ) and oftentimes licentious men , should be the great sanhedrim , by whose advice all that belongs to religion must be managed ? these must be likewise the electors of the pope , when the see is vacant ; whom they choose out of their own number , who is always elected by the prevailing interests of one of the crowns , or by the faction of the former popes nephews . and what caballings , what bespeaking of suffrages , and what impudent ambitus is commonly practised in the elections of popes , is well enough known , nor can it be denied ? now , what man of common sense can imagine , that a pope thus elected by simoniacal arts , and carnal interests , can be christs vicar on earth , or have the holy ghost always affixed to his chair , that he shall never erre in any of his decrees ? truly , he that can believe this , may believe any thing that is gross and absurd . is not the whole frame and contrivance of that court turned so entirely secular , that not a vestige of the character of a church , or of church-men , remains ? and to this , shall i add all the splendor of their apparel , the state of their processions , and the ceremonies of their coronation , and how they wear a triple crown ? which being so well known to all whoever were at rome , need not be descanted on by me . but the mention of the crown calls me t●… mind of the literal accomplishment o●… that , of mystery , being on the forehead o●… the whore ; since the word mystery , was for a great while the inscription on the front of their triple crown , though it be now altered ; which being proved by others , i may not stay to mak●… it good . from this i should descend to the cardinals , bishops , and abbots , and shew how secular they are become ; all their design being to engross the power , and monopolize all riches : which contagion is also derived into the inferiour orders of the clergy , who by the magnifying of their images , saints , and reliques , use all the arts they can devise for enriching of themselves and their friends . and even these orders that pretend to mortification , and abandoning the world , and talk of nothing but their poor and austere manner of life , yet have possessed themselves of no small part of the riches and glory of the world . it is true , there is a young brotherhood among them , which though the youngest yet hath outstripped the elder , and made them stoop to it , and serve it . and what base and sordid ways that society hath pursued , for arriving at the highest pitch of greatness , and riches , and how successfully they have managed their designs , is sufficiently cleared , what through the zeal of some of the honester of that communion , what through the envy of other emulating orders , all these things do fully prove how unlike that church is to the poor , and pure simplicity of christ and his apostles , and of the first ages of the church ? if we further examine the characters of evangelical purity , we have them from the mouth of our saviour , when he commands us to learn of him , for he was meek and lowly in heart : and he made it the distinguishing badg of his disciples , that they loved one another . now for humility , it is true , the head of that church calls himself the servant of the servants of god ; but how far such humility is from his design , his aspiring pretences do loudly declare . all the world must stoop to him ; not only must his fellow ▪ bishops swear obedience to him , and become his vassals , but the kings of the earth must be his footstool , and all must pay him that servile homage of kissing his foot ; an ambition as insolent as extravagant . his power must be magnified with the most blasphemous titles of his being god , our lord god on earth omnipotent ; with a great deal more of such servile adulations , offered to him from the parasites of that court. in a word , a great part of that religion , when rightly considered , will be found on design contrived and abetted , for exalting him to the highest degrees of insolence : but so many proofs of this were already upon other occasions hinted , that it is needless to go over them again : and that same leven , levens the whole lump of their clergy ; who all pretend that by their ecclesiastical character they are only subject to their head , and so enjoy an immunity from the civil authority , be their crimes what they may be . and an in-road on this pretence of late , from the state of venice , when they seized two church-men that were highly guilty , drew out so much of their most holy fathers indignation , that he thundered against them , and finding the weakness of the spiritual sword , resolved to try the edge of his temporal one upon them , in patrociny , partly of these villanes , and partly of the covetousness of the clergy , to which the senat had set a small limit , by a decree ; but finding they were like to prove too hard for him , he was willing to put up his sword , rather then to kill and eat , as one of his cardinals advised him . shall i with this also tell the instances of the ambition of cardinals , who from their first ▪ original of being presbyters of rome , have risen up to the height of counting themselves the companions of kings , and in their habits affect a princely splendor , but have unluckily chosen the liveries of the whore ; for they wear scarlet as the bishops do purple , the foretold colours of the whores garments . shall i next shew to what a height of pride the exaltation of the priestly dignity among them hath risen ? as if it were equal , nay preferable to the condition of princes . the priests giving absolution , is a sure device to make his power be much accounted of , since he can forgive sin . the gorgeous and rich apparel they wear in worship , serves also to set off their dignity . and what a goodly device is it , that their spittle must make one of the sacred rites in baptism ? certainly that must be esteemed a marvellous holy creature , whose very excrements are so sacred . their enhansing the cup to themselves from the people , was another trick for raising of their esteem : but above all things , their power of transmitting the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of christ , by uttering five words , was a marvellous device , to make all the world admire them , who can so easily , and every day work a miracle , compared to which , all the miracles of the gospel may pass for ordinary actions . what a great piece of wonder must such a man be held to be , who can thus exercise his authority over the very person of jesus christ , notwithstanding of all the glory to which he is now exalted ? and it was no contemptible engine for that same design , to possess the people with a belief of the priests offering in mass an expiatory sacrafice , for the sins both of the dead and living ; which proved a stock for them to trade on , both for their ambition and covetousness , and from these evidences we may infer , how little of the humility of christ appears in the church , from the highest to the lowest . the next branch of the evangelical spirit is , meekness and charity , which leads me unto the consideration of the fourth design of the christian religion , which was the uniting of mankind under one head , and into one body , and this it designed to effectuate , not only by these sublime precepts of the highest love , and the outmost extent of the pardoning of injuries , and of returning them with the best offices of love and prayer ; which the blessed author of our faith did enact ; but by the associating of the faithful into one society , called the church , which was to be united with the closest bonds of brotherly love , and charity ; and was to be governed by pastors and teachers , who should feed the flock with the sincere milk of the word ; and was also to be cemented together by the ligaments of the holy sacraments , by which , as by joynts and bands they are both united to their head , and knit together . now we are from these things to consider what opposition that church we are now considering , gives to this branch of the end of christianity . and first , whereas the gospel pronounceth us free , and that we are no more the servants of men , but of god , if any attempt upon that liberty wherewith christ hath made us free , he changeth the authority of the church into a tyrannical yoke ; much more , if all the new articles of belief , and rules for practice , be imposed under the severest certificats . but here we are to consider , that all these things which that church hath imposed on all of her communion , for which we withdrew from her , are additions to our faith ; for in this we mainly differ from that church , that whatever we acknowledge , they acknowledge likewise , but with a great many additions , we believe the scriptures are a rule for christians , and they believe the same ; but they add traditions , and the authority of the church to the scriptures . we believe that god is to be worshipped spiritually , they believe the same ; but add that he may be worshipped by images and sensible figures . we believe christ to be the mediator betwixt god and man , they believe the same ; but add to this the intercession of saints . we hold that god and christ are to be worshipped , they hold the same , but add saints and angels to our worship . we believe heaven and hell to be the several states of the future life , they believe the same ; but add purgatory betwixt them , to the day of judgment . we believe baptism and the lords supper to be the sacraments of the new covenant , they believe the same ; but add five more . we believe christ is spiritually and really present in the lords supper , this they believe ; but add the unconceivable tenent of his corporal presence . in a word , it might be instanced in many other particulars , how they have driven us from their communion , by their additions to the truth , and sincerity of the gospel , which they have adulterated by their inventions ; and not only have they imposed all these things , but thundered out anathema's on all that question them , and have so wreathed all their fopperies , with that main and fundamental article of their belief , of the infallibility of their church , that it is impossible to hope for their recovery , till they renounce that principle which is so dear to them . for if their church be infallible , then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss , and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal ; for if in one of them she step aside , her infallibility is for ever gone . and by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that church , since there is no possibility of our union with them , without we turn over entirely to them : since they cannot part with one of their errors , without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all , to wit , the unerring authority of their church . how cruel then is that church , which addeth the severe sanction of an anathema to all her decrees ; even about the most trifling matters ? and about things that are by their confession of their own natures indifferent . and a consectary to this is , that cruel opinion they hold , that none can be saved out of their communion : pretending there is no salvation without the true church , which they restrict to these who are under the obedience of the roman bishop ; and this is what they usually frighten all with . but it is to be considered what the true notion of the church is , that so we may see through this frightful vizar . the church then is a society of christians united in the same faith , for worshipping of god jointly . and another definition of a church cannot be proved from scripture ; for the church being called the body of christ , its union with him as its head , is held forth by the apostle in these words ▪ col. 2. 19. the head christ , from whom the whole body by joints and bonds , having nourishment ministred , and knit together , increaseth with the increase of god. from which words , we see what constitutes a man a member of the true church ; which is first , his union to christ as his head , together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture : and next , his being knit to all others who are thus united to christ ; which is first the inward union of divine charity , by which he loves all who cleave to christ as their head : and next , his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship , which every christian is bound to do , with all that worship god in spirit and truth . but if a society of christians do visibly swerve from christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his person , and to the obedience due to his laws , and do grossly adulterate the worship , so that communion cannot be had with that church , without departing from the head christ , then it can be no departing from the church , to adhere to christ and his true worship , and to separate from the corruptions are brought in upon the christian religion . if then it appear that the church of rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the gospel , in so many great and main points , these who attempted the reforming her to her first purity , and finding that not to be hoped for , did unite among themselves for serving and worshiping god aright , cannot be charged with separation from the true church . but by that cruel tenent of theirs , they breed up all their children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable , condemning all who cannot believe all their strange doctrines , or concur in their unhallowed worship . thus they are the schismatiques who have departed from the true church , and who force from their communion all who adhere to it : but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures , but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage , as ever sprung from hell ; for all the cruelty of the heathen persecuters , cannot match the practices of that whore , that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the saints , and of the martyrs of iesus . what enraged cruelty appeared against the poor waldenses , for the separating from their corruption ? how many of all sexes and ages , were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the rulers of that church ? and because the albigenses lived under the protection of princes that favoured them , how did the popes depose their princes , and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions : which to effectuate , a croissade was proclaimed , that had been formerly practised against the enemies of the christian faith , and heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents , whereupon they were killed by thousands , without all mercy . never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the church , but the pope and clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a faggot . and when the time of reformation came , with what rage and spite did the pope by his letters and legates instigate all the princes of europe to cruelty against them ; but as these things were not done in corners , so they are still so fresh in our remembrance , by the copious accounts we have of them , that i need not tell what arts the popes and other ecclesiasticks used , to set all germany on fire upon this account : no●… need i tell the cruelty was exercised in the nether-lands , in charles the fifth his time , in which more than an hundred thousand are said by grotius to have been butchered on the account of religion . and in his son philips time , the d. of alva , did in a short time cut down 36000. nor need i tell the cruelties were practised in france for about forty years together ; nor of that treacherous massacre wherein there was an equal mixture of perfidy and cruelty , which for all that was intertained at rome with great joy and applauses . it will be also needless to tell of their cruelty in england in queen mary's dayes , which was chiefly mannaged by the churchmen . and many are yet alive who remember what enraged cruelty appeared in our neighbour-island , against all of our religion , which did not only flow from the fury of an oppressed people , but they were trained , encouraged , and waranded to it , by their priests , and the nuntio who came afterwards among them , discovered who was the spring of all their motions . shall i to this add all the private assassinations committed on that account , which were not only practised , but justified ? i might here congest many instances ; brother murdering brother , on the account of religion . neither is clement a dominican his murthering henry the third , nor chastlets attempt , nor ravallia●…s fact on henry the fourth , forgotten . q. elizabeths life , is full of these attempts , and the blackest of them all was , the gunpowder treason ; all which are to be charged on that church , because the doctrine of murthering heretique princes , was taught , licenced , printed , and yet not condemned in it . from these hints we may guess , how much of the lowly , meek , and charitable spirit , is to be found with them . but should i to this add the horrid cruelties exercised in these massacres , i should be almost past belief , had i not undeniable historians for verifying it ? but the mildest of them being to be burned alive , we may guess what the more savage have done by their tortures and lingering deaths . next , shall i mention their courts of inquisition which have been among them in the hands of churchmen , from the dayes of their pretended saint dominick , whose order have been the great instruments of the cruelties of that church , and whose procedure being tyed to no forms of equity , or justice , is as unjust as unmerciful , persons being haled to their black courts , upon bare suspitions , or secret informations , without leading of proofs against them , are by torture examined , not only of their own opinions , but of all that are known to them , whose testimony though drawn from them by cruel torture , will bring the same tortures on all they delate ; neither is there any mercy or any whom this court declares heretick , but the civil magistrate must condemn them to the fire . now what man that considers the meekness of christ , and the evangelical spirit , can think that church the spouse of christ , that hath rioted it with such savage rage , against thousands of persons , for no other crime , but because they adhered firmly to the gospel of jesus christ , and would not consent or concur with these signal and palpable corruptions with which they have adulterated it . but as from the constitution of their church , we see their difformity from the gospel-rule ; so we will next consider their church-men , and we shall find how far they have strayed from the first original . church-men ought to be the guides and pastours of souls . now , how little of this there is among them , we will soon be resolved in ? what do the popes about the feeding of souls ? when do they preach the gospel ? or dispence the sacraments ? alas ! it were below the height of his holiness , to stoop to such mean offices . does any vestige of a church-man remain in that court ? and do they not directly rule in the spirit of the lords of the gentiles ? and in this the cardinals , bishops , and abbots , do to their proportion imitate their most holy father ; abandoning wholly the work of the gospel , as if they bore an empty title , or at most , were only bound to say mass on some greater holy days ; but in all other things do avowedly cast off the care of their flocks . shall i here tell of the relaxation of all the ancient rules , about the offices and duty of church-men , which these latter ages have invented , and mention how children are made bishops , how they allow of pluralities , non-residencies , unions , commendams , gratia expectativa's , with a great many more corruptions , which are every day authorized and granted at rome ▪ and so zealous were they for these , that they strugled hard against the honest attempt of some at trent , who would have had residence declared of divine right , and got it , though with much ado to be laid aside . and thus it is that the bishops and abbots among them do for most part relinquish their charges , to live at the courts of princes , and insinuate themselves upon all affairs and offices : and swarms of them go to rome , gaping for preferment there . i deny not but even these late ages have produced great men among them , who seem to have designed the reviving of the ancient discipline , both among the clergy , and the people ; but as these instances are rare , so they were hated and persecuted at rome for their zeal . witness the condemning of arnolds book of frequent communion , and the severity iansenius , and the abbot of s. gyran , with their followers , have met with : and thus whatever individuals that church may have produced , yet the corruptions i have hinted , are notoriously , publickly , and generally practised in it , and no where so avowedly , as at the court of rome . but to compened this defect of the superior clergy , they have swarms of the inferior ranks , every where , both secular and regular , who seem to mind the care of souls very seriously . but not to reflect again upon any thing hath been hitherto said of their bad conduct of souls , i shall now only take notice of the authority they pretend to , as if the people were bound blindly to follow their confessors direction , as the voice of god , which clearly makes them the servants of men , and subjects them to the heaviest yoke , which is most directly contrary to the liberty where with christ hath made us free : and what a rack to souls have they made confession ; and what an engine to get into the secrets of all the world , and to bring mankind under their subjection , is obvious enough to any that considers it ? and to enforce it the more , as they teach it simply necessary to salvation , so the authority they made the world believe the priests were vested with for pardoning sin , together with their easie pardons and slight penances , did root it deep in the hearts of all of that communion . but i go next to examine the sacraments , of which so much being said already , little remains to be added . by their dividing the cup from the bread , they destroy christs institution , and so make it no sacrament , and the hearing of mass without communicating , though it make up the greatest part of their worship , yet is purely a service of their ow●… devising , without warrant from christ●… institution , who said , take , eat , this is my body ; thereby shewing , he intended the vertue and benefit of that ordinance , only for those who received it . and in a word , let any read and compare the institution of the lord supper , as it is in the three gospels , and the epistle to the corinthians , together , with the whole office of the mass , as it is in the roman church , and then let him on his conscience pass his verdict , whether they have adhered to , or departed from , christs institution in that piece of their worship . finally , one great end of all solemn worship , being the communion of saints , in their joint adorations , and mutual occurrence in divine services , what union can they have with god ? or what communion can they hold one with another ? who perform all their worship in an unknown tongue , which is the rule and constant practice of that church beyond sea ; though for the better venting of their sophisticated stuff among us , they give the people books of devotion in their vulgar language , yet continue to say the office of the mass in latine . and thus far i have run a ▪ round that great circle , i proposed to my self in the beginning of this discourse : and have examined the chief designs of the christian religion , and have found the great and evident contradictions , given to them in all their branches , by the established and authorized doctrines and practises of that church ; in which i have fully justified the wise mans observation , that he who increaseth knowledge , increaseth sorrow ; and have said enough to evince to all rational and considering minds , how unsafe it is for any that would keep a good conscience , to hold communion with them . but i have not finished my design , till i likewise examine the characters of the christian religion , and compare them with these are to be found in the synagogue of rome . the first character of our faith is , that it was delivered to the world by men sent of god , and divinely inspired , who proved their mission by miracles . now these doctrines about which we differ from that church can pretend to no such divine original , let them tell us what inspired man , did first teach the worship of images , of the mass , of angels , and saints , and of reliques : what man sent of god was the first author of the belief , of the corporal presence , of the sacrifice of the mass , of the popes supremacy , of purgatory , of indulgences , and of all these innumerable superstitions , of which the scripture is absolutely silent : for if these doctrines were not the off-spring of revelations , they are none of the oracles of god , nor can we be obliged to believe them as such . it is true , they vouch scriptures for proof to some of these , but these are so far stretched , that their sure retreat is in the sanctuary of the churches traditions : but till a clear warrant be produced for proving it was impossible that any falshood could have that way crept into the world , we must be excused from believing these . neither is it possible to know what traditions came from the apostles , for as the vulgar are not capable of pursuing the enquiry , so the loss of most of the writings of the first two ages , makes it impossible to know what traditions came from the apostles . but this i say not , that we need fear this trial , for the silence of the first and purest ages , about these things which are controverted among us , is evidence enough that they were not known to them ; especially since in their apologies which they wrote to the heathens for their religion and worship , wherein they give an abstract of their doctrines , and a rubric of their worship ; they never once mention these great evils , for which we now accuse that church . it is true , a late ingenious writer , whose sincere zeal and candor had much offended the roman court , and drawn censures on himself and his book , took a way to repair his reputation by a new method of proving the truth of the opinions held in the roman church ; which was , that since the present church held them , that shews that they had them so from their ancestors , and they from theirs , till you run backwards to the days of the apostles : alledging that a change in the worship was unpracticable , since it could not be done in a corner , but in the view of all the world ; who it is not to be imagined were capable of suffering any great or considerable change to be made in that which was daily in their view , and much in their esteem ; therefore he concludes , that every generation adhered to that belief , in which they were born : and so no change in any great substantial and visible part of worship could be made . it is true , he applies this only to the belief of the corporal presence , which he attempts to prove could never have been introduced into the church , had it not been conveyed down from the apostles . he hath indeed set off this with all the beauties of wit , and elegencies of stile , and much profound reading . but with how great and eminent advantages , both of reason , and learning , this pretence hath been baffled ; i leave it to the judgment of all who have been so happy as to read mr. claud his incomparable writings ? and the common sense of mankind will prove this but an imposture , how fairly soever adorned ; for if we find it certain that any doctrines , or main parts of worship are now received into that church , and if from the undeniable evidences of history , and writings of ancients , it appear , that these things were not received in the ancient church , then it is certain there hath been a change made from what was then , to what is now , though an ingenious invention may make it appear very difficult , to imagin how and when the change came in ; especially when it was insensibly , and by pieces advanced . if then it be proved that the fathers believed the elements in the sacrament were really bread and wine , and not changed from their own nature , but only types and figures of the body of christ , then we are sure a change must have been made , though the ignorance of some ages makes it a hard task to clear all particulars about it . it is true , the fathers did highly magnifie this sacrament , with many expressions , which ( though the vehemence of divine rhetorick can well justifie , yet ) will not bear a logical examen , but when they speak in a cooler stile , nothing can be more clear , then that they believed not the corporal presence . but may not that reasoning of the impossibility of a change in a worship , be as well applied to the taking the chalice from the people , who in reason should be imagined so tenacious of so great a priviledge , that no consideration should have obliged them to part with it ? and yet we know , nor do they deny , how it was wrung from them , about 250 years ago . what may seem less credible then for the people to consent , to have their worship in an unknown tongue , and yet we know that all once worshipped in their mother tongue , but that after ( by the overthrow of the roman empire ) the latine tongue decayed , the barbarous worship was obtruded on the world ? and what piece of worship is both more visible , and more contrary to the clearest evidence of scriptures , especially to the commandments , in which the people were always instructed , then the worshipping of images ? and though we know well enough that for the first seven centuries the christian world abhorred them , yet within a hundredth years after that , we find a great part of it bewitched with them . and what can be thought more uneasie for the world to have received , then the popes absolute authority over all the churches and states of the world ? one should think that though religion and reason , had lien out of the way , yet interest , and ambition , had withstood this : yet we see clearly by what steps they crept up , from being bishops of the imperial city , in an equality of power with their neighbouring bishops , into that culminating hight , to which they have now mounted . in a word , we refuse not to appeal to the first four ages of the church , in these matters that we quarrel the roman church for ; we deny not but humane infirmity begun soon to appear in the church , and a care to gain on the heathens , made them quickly fall upon some rites , and use some terms , which after-ages corrupted . but the ruin of religion was , when the roman empire being overturned by the incursion of the northern nations , in the beginning of the fifth century , both piety and religion being laid to sleep , instead of the primitive simplicity of the faith and worship of the christians , they turned all their zeal to the adorning of the outwards of religion , & hence the corruptions of the church took their rise . but i had almost forgot to name some revelations which that church pretends to , even for some of her most doubtful opinions : which are the visions and extraordinary inspirations of some of their saints , from which they vouch a divine confirmation to their doctrines ; i confess there is a great deal of extraordinary visions , rapts and extasies to be met with among the lives of their saints ; and i fear a great deal more then truth : for really whoso will but read these writings , he must confess they are so far from being probable , or well contrived , that they speak out their forgery . alas ! whereas st. paul being put to glory , of visions and revelations , was to run back fourteen years for one . their saints are found in them every day . are they not very credible stories they tell of christs appearing to some of their she-saints , and kissing them , giving them rings , being married to them , and celebrating nuptial rites , making them drink out of his side , and leaving on them the prints of his wounds , with many other such like apparitions of the virgin , and other saints , which were either forgeries , dreams , or the effects of melancholy , or histerical distempers ; and yet these extravagant fables are given out to the people , as sacred pieces of divine revelations . but the inspiration of the holy writers , on which we found our faith , was proved by their miracles which they wrought publickly in the sight of many , and in the presence of their adversaries , many of whom were convinced by them ; and it is certain , that whosoever offers any thing to anothers belief , pretending he comes to him in the name of god , must have some evident proof of his divine mission : since none are bound to believe him barely on his own testimony : otherwise there should be no end of impostures , if every pretender to divine inspiration were to be believed without proof . now the way it must be proved , is by some evidence of gods extraordinary assisting such a person , which appeared alwayes either in prophesies , or miracles , but chiefly in miracles under the new testament : and therefore both christ and his apostles appeal to the mighty works they wrought , as the great confirmation of their doctrine . if then there be new doctrines brought into the church , they must have the like confirmation , otherwise they are not to be believed . but here those of that church think they triumph : for miracles they have in abundance ; not a relique they have , but hath wrought mighty wonders , nor a countrey-saint , but the curat of the place can gravely tell a great many deeds of his puissance ; nor want the images their marvellous atchievments , but wondrously wondrous are the feats the hosty hath performed : here i am upon a sad subject of that trade of lies and fictions , wherewith the merchants of that babylon have so long traffiqued ; of which the sincerer among themselves are ashamed . how ridiculous are many of their miraculous narrations ? was it a worthy piece of the angelical ministration , for angels to go trotting over sea and land with a load of timber and stones of the virgins house , till at length they set it down at loretto , that great devotions might be shown to it ? it is a goodly story for to tell of a saint that walked so far after his head was cut off , with it in his arms , resting in some places to draw breath ? yet he will pass for an infidel that should doubt of this , at st. denis-church . who can look on the lives of the late saints of that church , without nausea ? gregories dialogues begun this trade , which indeed hath thriven well since . the miracles of the christian faith were grave and solemn actions ; but what ridiculous scenical stories , not to say blasphemous ones , meet us about the miracles of their saints ? he that would know this , may read the lives of st. francis , and st. dominic , st. bridgit , and the two st. catherines , and he will be satisfied to a surfeit . the miracles also of christ and his apostles were acted publickly , in the view of all ; but most of these narrations of their wonders were transacted in corners , none being witnesses but persons concerned to own the cheat : and the doctrine of equivocating was a good cordial for the ease of their consciences , though they swore what they knew false , according to the natural sense of the words which they uttered . thus we have many fables of christs appearing in the hosty , sometimes as a child , and sometimes as crucified , when but a very few of the whole company present , were honoured with that amazing sight . further , the miracles of the christian faith were written in the times in which they were acted , that so enquiries might have been made into their falshood ; and the powers that then governed , being enemies to the faith , it was safe for its opposers , to have proved and discovered their forgery , had any such been . but many of the miracles of rome are not heard of , till some ages , at least years be past , whereby they are secure from the after-game of a discovery ; and he were a stout man that would adventure to question the verity of these pretences at rome , where it is the interest of that church to have them all believed , without once questioning them . but how comes it , that in heretical countreys ( as they call them ) where there is more need of those miracles , and where they might be more irrefragably proved , if true , since the examiners of them were not to be suspected , yet none of these mighty works do shew themselves forth ? certainly , that they are to this day so rife in italy and spain , and so scant in britain , is a shrewd ground to apprehend legerdemain , and forgery , in the accounts we get of their later saints . and indeed the contrivers of these stories have not managed their design by half , so well as need was ; for they have bestowed as many of them on one person , as might have sainted the half of an order . but the gain that is made by new saints , and new reliques , is well enough known ; not to speak of the general advantage that church pretends to draw from it . in end , though some things among them did seem to surpass the known powers of nature , these ought not to prevail upon us for departing from the truth ; since though an angel from heaven preached another gospel , he is to be accursed , gal. 1. 8. if then they have so changed the christian doctrine by their additions and inventions , that it is become thereby as another gospel ; none of the seemingly seraphical appearances they may have among them , though true , ought to reconcile us to it , and that the rather , since we were expresly guarded against this imposture , by st. paul , who gave it as an indication of the son of perdition , that his coming was after the power of satan , with all power and signs , and lying wonders , and with all deceivableness of unrighteouseness , 2 thess. 2. 9 , 10. and it is a part of their curse , that they are given up to strong delusions , to believe lies : the beast also that appeared to st. john rev. 13. 13. did great wonders , so that he made fire come down from heaven , in the sight of men , and deceived many , that dwelt on the earth , by these miracles which he had power to do . but to conclude this , my greatest quarrel , at these forgeries of miracles is , that the people being taught to believe them , and the miracles of the gospel , with an equal certainty , since they have the testimony of the church , for both , and they seeing such evident characters of fraud and forgery on these supposed miracles , whereby they are convinced of their falshood , are thereby in danger of suspecting all the miracles of the gospel , as the tricks of subdolous and crafty men ; whereby they run head-long to an atheistical disbelieving the truth of all alike . and thus far we have found how opposite that church is , to the spouse of christ , since her doctrines are so ill founded , and look so like cunningly devised fables , without the authority of divine inspiration , or the proof of true miracles . the next character of our faith is , its perspicuity , and simplicity , all being called to the clear light of the day in it , and every part of it being so genuine , that it is apparent , it was not the contrivance of designing men , that by the belief of it they might obtain the power , and possess the riches of the world : and therefore there are no secret doctrines in our faith , which must be kept up from the vulgar , whereby the pastors of christendom may have dominion over their souls . but what must we conclude of them , who by all means study to keep all of their communion ignorant , as if devotion were thereby nourished ; and allow them not the use of the scriptures in their mother-tongue , nor a worship which they can understand , whereby it is , that they who occupy the room of unlearned , cannot say amen , at the giving of thanks , since they understand not what is said . to this might be added their implicite faith , to all the doctrines of the church , without further inquiries ; and their blind obedience to the confessarius , be 〈◊〉 never so ignorant and carnal . these are certainly darkening opinions , and practises , and far different from the methods of the apostles , in preaching the gospel , who with-held from the people nothing of the counsel of god , and studied the enlightening their understandings , as well as the enlivening of their wills . but further , how much of interest appears in the doctrines of rome , which tend to the exalting or enriching the papacy , and inferiour clergy , for it is visible what a trade they drive by them , and all the contrivances , all the projectours in europe ever fell upon for enriching their masters treasury , falls short of the projects of purgatory , the treasure of the church , indulgences , and the popes absolute authority , in making abrogating , and dispencing with all positive laws . neither is there more of design to be found in the alcoran , than in the mysteries of that caliph of the spiritual babylon . and we may guess of their concernedness in these matters , since a gentler censure may be hoped for upon the violation of the greatest of the laws of god , than upon the least contradiction to their idolized interests . the one is the constant subject of their studies , and sermons , whereas the other is seldom minded . the third character of our faith , is , that it is rational and suitable to our souls , god having fitted it , and framed them so harmoniously , that they are congenial one to another . it is true , the mysteries about god and christ are exalted above the reach of our faculties , but even reason it self teacheth that it must be so , since if there be a god , he must be infinite and incomprehensible , and therefore it is not to be wondered , if the scriptures offer some mysteries to us about god and christ , which choak and stifle the impressions we are apt to take of things . but in these , it is visible , that the object is so disproportioned to our faculties , that it is impossible we can reach or comprehend it ; but as for the other parts of religion , they are all so distinctly plain , that the reasonableness , as well as the authority of them , serve to commend them to us ; but how void are they of this , who have made one of the chief articles of their faith , and the greatest matter of their worship , that which is , not only beyond , but contrary to , the most common impressions of nature , which teacheth us , to believe our senses when under no lesion , and duly applied to a proper object . for indeed , in that case , we cannot really doubt but things are as they appear to us ; for we cannot believe it mid-night , when we clearly see the sun in the meridian ; nay , and our faith rests on the evidences our senses give , since we believe , because miracles were clearly seen by these who first received the faith : and , christ said , believe me , for the very works sake , ioh. 14. 11. and so their sight of these works was , a certain ground for their belief , therefore the senses unvitiated , fixing on a proper object , through a due mean , are infallible ; therefore what our sight , our taste , and our touch tell us , is bread and wine , must be so still , and cannot be imagined to have changed its substance , upon the recital of the five words . shall i add to this , that throng of absurdities which croud about this opinion ? for if it be true , then a body may be in more places at once , triumphing in glory in one , and sacrificed in a thousand other places : and a large body may be crouded into the narrow space of a thin wafer ▪ they holding it to be not only wholy in the whole wafer , but also intirely in every crumb of it : a body can be without dimensions and accidents without a subject ; these must be confessed to be among the highest of unconcievables ; and yet these miracles must be believed to be produced every day , in above a hundred thousand places . certainly , he hath a sturdy belief who can swallow over all these absurdities , without choaking on them . it is little less unconceivable , to imagine , that a man of no eximious sanctity ( nay , perhaps of noted impiety ) nor extraordinarily knowing ( nay , perhaps grosly ignorant ) in theological matters , shall have the holy ghost so absolutely at his command , that whatever he decrees must be the dictates of the spirit . and what an unconceiveable mystery is the treasure of the church , and the popes authority to dispense it as he will ? no less conceivable is the efficacy of the sacraments , by the work wrought ; nor is any thing more affronting to reason , than the barbarous worship . and of a piece with this is the blind subjection is pleaded for the confessarius his injunctions , and their opinions of expiating their sins by a company of little trifling penances , which tend not to the cleansing the soul , nor killing of the life of sin , much less can be able to appease god , either of their own inbred worth , or by reason of any value god is pleased to set on them , either by command or promise . but should i reckon up every thing is among them that choaks reason , i should dwell too long on this , and reckon over most of the things have been through the whole discourse hinted , which seem to stand in the most diametrical opposition to the clearest impressions of all mens reasons . but to bring my enquiry to an issue , easiness and gentleness are by christ applied to his yoke , laws , and burden ; and whatever opposition or trouble they may give to the carnal man , by mortifying his lusts , and contradicting all his inordinate and unlimitted desires , yet by the rational faculties and powers they are both easily understood and practised . indeed religion lies in few things , and its chief work is the reforming and purifying the inward man , where it mainly dwells and exerts its force and virtue ; but these who have added so much , both to be believed and done , beyond what our lord prescribed , as they accuse his unfaithfulness , so bring unsupportable burdens on the consciences of christians : these therefore who lead out the mind , by presenting a great many foreign objects to it , do introduce superannuated judaism , instead of that liberty christ brought with him unto the world. but shall i number up here all the impositions of that church , whose numbers are great as well as their nature grievous ; for it is a study to know them all , but what a pain must it be to perform them ? it is a work which will take up a great deal of time to understand the rubricks of their missals , breviaries , rituals , and pontificals . in a word , they have left the unity and simplicity of religion , and set up instead of it a lifeless heap of ordinances , which must oppress , but cannot relieve the consciences of their disciples . shall i add to this , the severity of some of their orders , into which by unalterable vows they are engaged their whole lives ? now whatever fitness might be in such discipline , upon occasions , for beating down the body or humbling of the mind , yet it must be very tyrannical to bind the perpetual observance of these on any by an oath , for thereby all the rest of their lives may become insupportably bitter to them , wherein they stand obliged , under perjury , to the perpetual observance of some severe discipline ; which , though at first in a novitious fer●…our might have had its good effects on them , yet that drying up , it will afterwards have no other effect but the constant dejecting of the soul , and so their life will be a rack to them by their perpetual toil in these austerities . this i speak of those who seem the chief ornaments of that church , whose devotion doth for most part turn to outwards , and rests in the strict observance of their rules , not without voluntary assumed mortifications , which they add to them , ●…ut wherein they for most part glory , and so the life of pride and self-love ( the ●…ubtillest of all our enemies ) is fed and ●…ourished by them : neither can we think , that these , whose exercises are so much external , can be so recollected for the inward and serene breathings of the mind after god and christ , without which , all externals , though they seem to make a fair shew in the flesh , yet are but a skelet of lifeless and insipid things . but indeed they have studied to remove this objection of the uneasiness of their religion , by accommodating it so , that the worst of men may be secure of heaven and enjoy their lusts both , according to the corrupt conduct of some of their spiritual fathers : but what i have hinted of the uneasiness of their religion , is taken from the nature of their devotions , in their highest altitude and elevation . and thus far i have pursued my design , in the tract whereof i have not been void of a great deal of pain and sorrow , for what pleasure can any find by discovering so much wickedness , and so many errours in the christened regions of the world , and see the holy and beautiful places , wherein the former ages worshipped god in the spirit , turned to be habitations of idols and graven images , by which god is provoked to jealousie ▪ god is my witness , how these thoughts have entertained me with horrour and regret , all the while i have considered them : and that i am so far from being glad , that i have found so much corruption in the roman church , that it is not without the greatest antipathy to my nature imaginable , that i have payed this duty to truth , by asserting it with the discovery of so many impostures , which have so long abused the christian world ; and if any heat or warmth hath slipped from my pen , i must protest sincerely , it is not the effect of anger , or passion , but of a tender and zealous compassion , for those souls who are either already blinded with these delusions , or do incline towards those paths which lead to the chambers of death . i am none of those who justifie rage or bitterness against those in errours , for if we had the spirit of christ in us , we should mourn over , and lament their misery , who lye under so much darkness . and this is a sure character to judge if our zeal for god and his truth be divine and evangelical , if it make us pour out rivers of tears for those that have gone out of the way , rather than streams of fire against them ▪ that zeal which raiseth melting sorrow , tender compassion , and fervent prayers for those we see erring , is christ-like , and worthy of that meek and charitable spirit which the gospel so much recommends : whereas that which boils out in rage and foam against such as err , and designs their ruin , and mischief , and studies how to persecute , rather than convert them , and kindles in men bitter aversion to their persons , together with rude harshness in their behaviour to them is all antichristian and carnal . my design therefore in this discourse is to provoke pity rather than wrath , and tears more than flames , towards those deceived multitudes , that we may pray for them , rather than rail at them . but my chief aim is to perswade all who love their souls , to consider the danger of continuing in the communion of a church , that hath not only fallen from her first love and purity , but hath in so many great and essential points corrupted our most holy faith , and adulterated the pure sincerity of our worship . i shall not here search into the depths of the mercies of god , how far they may reach any of that communion , nor examin how far they hold the foundation christ , notwithstanding of all the base superstructures they have reared upon it , nor shall i consider how far invincible ignorance may excuse the guilt of an error , nor how applicable this may be to them , nor shall i discuss how far the private differing from these errors may in many things secure some of the individuals of that communion from the general guilt lies over them ; upon all these particulars many things may be said , and none alive is more willing to stretch his invention , for finding out grounds to fix his charity on , than my self . but all i can devise falls short of a full and satisfying excuse for those who being educated in the knowledge of the truth and sincerity of the gospel , do fall away into the errors and superstitions of that church ; nor can i imagin what their temptations should be to it , except one of two : the first is , that they desire a sensible religion , and therefore loath the simplicity and spirituallity of the gospel , and love to have some glorious objects in worship to strike on , and affect their senses : but however this may make impressions on the grosser rabble , yet certainly , any that considers that the perfection of man lies in his reason , and not in his outward senses , and that the exaltation of reason is religion ; he must confess that the less it dwell in the senses , and the more inward it become on the reason , it is the more suitable both to the nature of god , of religion , and of the rational faculties . but the other consideration that may draw many to that religion , is yet worse , which is , because in it a great allowance is given to all manner of sin , by the treacherous conduct of some confessors , who perswade men of heaven , on terms very easie and pleasing to flesh and blood . and hence it is that we see very few who have expressed any affection to a devout life , abandoning us to go over to the roman communion , most of those who do so , ( except it be one of a thousand ) being as void of virtue , is ignorant of the nature of true religion ; that we may say , ioh. 2. 19. they went out from us , but they were not of us , for if they had been of us , they had not gone out from us . these being the only visible tentations to entice any from our communion to theirs , it is hard to preserve any great degrees of charity for them : for a third tentation being that only which can work on a devout mind , takes with so few among us , that i need scarce name it which is the solitary and retired houses among them for leading a devout and strict life , and the excellent books of devotion have been published by many of that communion . this i know wrought mightily on one , and made him many times wish that he could with a good conscience throw himself into one of these religious houses ; but the consideration of these great corruptions lay so in his way , that without the doing the greatest force on his conscience imaginable , and thereby securing damnation to himself by complying with things he judged so damnable , he durst not do it . yet for his further satisfaction , he went among them , to see if their worship appeared more amiable in practise , then it did in writings ; but i have heard him often declare , that though his mind was as free of prepossessions , as perhaps ever mans was , yet all he conceived of them , even from the writings of their adversaries , was nothing compared to the impressions which the sight of their worship left upon him , it appearing so histrionical in all its circumstances , and so idolatrous in its substance , especially as he saw the vulgar practise it . and for their religious houses , he was among a great many of all orders , but was far from meeting with that spirit of devotion , he had hoped to find among them , for they always magnified their order , and the little external austerities and devotions of it , but for genuine humility , a delight in god , and christ , abstraction from the world , ( for all their frocks and retirements , ) sincere heavenly-mindedness , and fervent charity to the brethren , he regrated he had met with little of it among them . and that he found the several orders full of emulation and envy at other orders , and of heats among themselves , which made him see , that he who meant to lead a devout life , must choose another sanctuary than any of these he saw in that communion . i deny not , that it is the greatest defect of the reformation , that there are not in it such encouragements to a devout life ; though the intanglements of vows to things without our power , is a manifest invasion of the christian liberty ; and to languish out ones life in a tract of lasie devotion , without studying to serve god in our generation , seems contrary to the intendment of religion , a great many of its precepts being about those duties we owe our neighbours : yet for all this , it is not to be denied to be a great defect that we want recluse houses , for a stricter training up of those who design to lead a spiritual life , and to serve in the gospel , that their minds being rightly formed before their first setting out they may be well qualified and furnished for their work . such houses might also be retreating places for old persons , after they had served their generation , and were no more able to undergo toil and fatigue ; they might be also sanctuaries for devout persons , in times of their greater afflictions or devotions . but for all this want , it fixeth no imputation on our church , her doctrine , or worship , that she is so poor , as not to be able to maintain such seminaries . but on the way , it is no great character of the piety of their church , that she abounds so with great and rich dotations , when we consider the arts they used for acquiring them , by making people believe themselves secure of heaven by such donations : indeed , had we got our people befooled into such perswasions , the cheat might have prospered as well in our hands ; but we are not of those , who handle the word of god deceitfully ; nor will we draw the people even to do good with a crafty guile , or lye for god. but now , as a conclusion to this discourse , i must consider , if all things among us be so sound and well grounded , that with a quiet mind and good conscience every one may hold communion with our church , and hope for salvation in it , i shall therefore briefly run over the nature and characters of the christian faith , to see if any contradiction to them , or any part of them , be found among us . and first of all , we worship god in spirit , as a spiritual being , with suitable adorations , which we direct to no image nor symbol of the divine presence , but teach , that we ought not to figure god to any corporeal being , no not in our thoughts ; neither do we worship any , beside god the father , son , and spirit : we also worship christ , but as he is god , and hath the fulness of the god-head dwelling in him bodily : angels indeed we honour , but knowing them to be our fellow-servants , we cannot pray to them , or fall down before them : we count the holy virgin blessed among women , but dare give her no share of the glory due to her son : all the saints we reverence and love , but knowing god to be a jealous god , we cannot divide that honour among them , which is only due to him , and therefore do neither worship them , their images , nor their reliques . we desire also to offer up to god such sacrifices as we know are well-pleasing to him , prayers , praises , broken and contrite hearts , and our souls and bodies , but reject all charms and enchantments from our worship , as contrary to the reasonable service which is acceptable to god , and do retain the genuine simplicity of the gospel-worship , in a plain and intelligible stile and form , without any mixtures drawn from judaism or gentilism : and thus there is nothing among us contrary to the first design of religion . and as little will be found against the second , which is the honour due to christ in all his offices : we teach our people to study the scriptures , and to examine all we say by them , and exhort them to depend on god , who by his spirit will teach them as well as us ; neither do we pretend to an authority over their consciences , but acknowledge our selves men of like infirmities with the people , who are all called to be a royal priesthood ; and thus we honour christs prophetical office , by founding our faith only on the divine authority of the scriptures . we also believe , there is no name given under heaven by which we can be saved , but the name of christ , who laid down his life a ransom for our souls , that by his cross we might be reconciled to god ; and it is to that one sacrifice , that we teach all to fly for obtaining remission of sins and the favour of god , trusting only to it , and to nothing we have done or can do , knowing that when we have done all we can do we are but unprofitable servants ; much less do we hope for any thing from any of our fellow-creatures : we apply our souls to no intercessour but christ , and trust to no satisfaction but his , and we acknowledge him the only king of his church , whose laws must bind it to the end of the world. neither do we acknowledge any other authority , but his , over our consciences . it is true , in things indifferent , he hath left a power with his church to determine in those matters , which may tend to advance order , edification , peace , and decency ; but as the church cannot add to our faith , so neither can it institute new pieces of worship , which shall commend us to god , or bind any load upon our souls . we own a ministerial authority in all the pastors of the church , which they derive from jesus christ , and not from any visible head on earth , and therefore they are only subject to christ. we also hold , that the civil powers are of christ , whose gospel binds the duty of obedience to them more closely on us , and therefore if they do wrong , we leave them to christs tribunal , who set them up , but pretend to no power from his gospel to coerce or resist them ; and thus we honour christ in all his offices , and so are conform to the second branch of the design of our faith. we also receive the third with the same fidelity , and whatever the practices of too too many among us be , yet there is no ground to quarrel our doctrine ; we preach repentance to all , and study to convince them of their misery , and lost estate , that they may mourn for their sins , and turn to god by a new course of life ; we preach faith through christ in god , as that which unites our souls to him , by which we are in christ , and christ is in us . we stir up our people to love the lord their god with all their heart , strength , soul , and mind , and to wait for his son christ iesus , who is the hope of glory and shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious body . and from this great motive do we press our people to the study of holiness , without which they shall never see god. we send them to the ten commandments for the rule of their lives , whose exposition we chiefly take from christs sermon on the mount ; neither can we be charged for having taught the people , to break one of the least of these commandments . we exhort all our hearers to make the life of christ the pattern of theirs , and to learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart ; neither can our church be accused of having taught any carnal doctrines , for gratifying the base interests of the flesh , or for ingrossing the power or treasure of the world , the subsistance of our church-men , being but a lively-hood , and not a treasure . in a word , we preach christ and him crucified , and all the rules of his gospel , for ordering the conversation aright , without adding , or taking from it ; and thus our conformity to the third branch of christianity appears . we teach also according to the fourth branch of christianity , the doctrines of charity , neither do we condemn any who holds the foundation , though in some lesser matter they differ from us ; but hope they may be saved as well as we . we abhor the doctrine of cruel persecuting of any for their consciences : the outmost we allow of , or desire of that nature , being the preservation of our own societies , pure from the contagion of other traffiquers , and the driving from us those who do so disturb us . all the authority we give the church , is paternal , and not tyrannical , our church-men we hold to be the pastors , but not the lords of the flock , who are obliged to feed them sincerely , both by their doctrine , labours , and whole conversation ; but we pretend to no blind obedience due to their directions , and count them noble christians , who search and try all they say by that test of the scriptures : we send the people to confess their sins to god , from whom only we teach them to expect their pardon , and pretend to no other keys , but ministerial ones , over publick and known scandals . in our worship , as all do understand it , so every one may joyn in it . and in the number , use , and simplicity of our sacraments , we have religiously adhered to the rules of the gospel , we holding them to be solemn federal rites of our stipulation with god , in which if we do worthily partake of them , we are assured of the presence of the divine spirit and grace , for uniting our souls more intirely to god , and advancing us in all the ways of the spirit of life ; and if the institution of them in the gospel , be compared with our administration of them , it will appear how close we have kept to our rule . and thus we see how exactly conform the doctrine of our church is to the whole branches of the christian design ; upon which it is not to be doubted , but the characters of the christian religion will also fit ours : we found our faith only on the scriptures , and though we pay a great deal of venerable esteem to the churches of god during their purity , which continued above four centuries , and so be very willing to be determined in rituals and matters that are external and indifferent by their opinions and practices , yet our faith settles only on the word of god , and not on the traditions of men ; neither do we believe every spirit that pretends to rapts and visions , but try the spirits , whether they be of god or not , and though an angel should preach to us another gospel , we would hold him accursed . the miracles we trust to , as the proofs of the truth of that revelation which we believe , are only those contained in the scriptures ; and though we believe there was a wonder-working power continued for some time in the church , yet we make a great difference betwixt what we historically credit , and what we religiously believe ; neither will we , for supporting our interest or authority , have recourse to that base trade of forging lying wonders , but we rest satisfied with the miracles christ and his apostles wrought for the proof of the religion we own , since what we believe , is no other than what they taught ; and therefore we leave the trade of forging new miracles , to them who have forged a new religion . and for the plain genuines of the gospel , we have not departed a step from it , since we call upon our people by all the motives we can devise , and with all the earnestness we are masters of , to receive full and clear instruction in all the matters of our religion , which we distinctly lay open to them . and nothing of interest or design can be charged on us , who pretend to nothing but to be the stewards of the mysteries of god ; nor have we offered to sophisticate the simplicity of our worship by any additions to it , for the determining about some particular forms is no addition to worship , but only the following forth of these precepts of doing all things to edification , peace , and order : but an addition to worship is , when any new piece of divine service is invented , with a pretence of our being more acceptable to god thereby , or of our receiving grace by that conveyance ; and therefore any rites we have , as they are not without some hints from scripture , so we pretend not to become any way acceptable to god by them . further , we teach no irrational nor unconceivable doctrine : it is true there are mysteries in our faith , and even reason it self teacheth , that these must be unconceivable ; but for all our other perswasions they are such as may be well made out to the rational faculties of man ; therefore we do not betake our selves to that sanctuary , that we must be believed , assert what we please ; but we assert nothing but what we offer to evince by the clearest proofs . and in ●…ine , we add nothing to the burdensomness of the laws of christ , but teach and propose them as we have them from his gospel , without adding , changing , or altering a tittle from the first institution . and so far have i considered the doctrine and worship of our church ; wherein if i could justify all our practices , as well as i can do our principles , there were no grounds to fear hurt from all the cavils of mortals . but for bad practices , whatsoever matter of regrate they may furnish us with , they afford none for separation : therefore , there is no ground that can justify a separation from our church , much less warrant the turning over from us to the communion of rome : and thus far have i pursued my designed enquiry , which was , if with a safe conscience any might adjoin themselves to the popish religion , or if communion with our church was to be kept and continued in ; and have found great grounds to assert the evident hazards of the former , so that no man to whom his salvation and welfare is dear , can , or ought to joyn himself to that church ; on the other hand , without renting the body of christ , none can , or ought to depart from our churches : but i leave the ●…erusal and considering of these things ●…o the serious reader , to whom i ●…ope they may give some satisfaction , ●…f he bring with him to the enquiry an attentive , serious , and unbyassed mind . and i leave the success of this , and every other attempt of this nature , for the clearing of divine truth , with him who is the only fountain of blessings , who is over all , god blessed for evermore , amen . finis . errata . page 16. line 6. for formerly read formally . l. 24. abuses r. abases . p. 30. l. 14. forewarnes r. warne●… . ●…●…1 . l. 1. where r. what . p. 52. l 9. but r. yet . p. 54. ●… 24. dele a. p. 64. l. 18. betwixt add that . p. 91. a r. ●…is . p. 99. l. 5. enhansing r. engrossing . l. 8. transmit●…ng r. transmuting . p. 103. l. 16. since r. for . p. 110. ●… 18. or r. for . p. 138. l. 13. unity r. purity . these books are to be sold by moses pitt , at the angel , near the little north door of st. paul's church . a table of ten thousand square numbers , by iohn pell , d. d. stitcht , 1 s. 6 d. tuba stentoro-phonica , or speaking-trumpet , being an instrument of excellent use both at sea and land ; 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with many useful notes and occasiona proverbs , gathered out of the best authors unto which are added two treatises ; one o●… the curiosities of old rome , and of the difficul●… names relating to the affairs of that city ; the other containing the most remarkable hieroglyphicks of egypt . the second edition , with additions . by marius d'assigny , b. d. 3 s. 6. an essay about the origine and virtues of gems , by the honourable robert boyle . 1 s. 6 d. essays of the strange subtilty , determinate nature , and great efficacy of effluviums ; to which are annexed , new experiments to make fire and flame ponderable ; together with a discovery of the perviousness of glass . by the honourable robert boyle . 2 s. 6 d. twelves . 〈◊〉 paradise of delights , or an elixir of comforts offered to believers , in two discourses , the first on heb. 6. 17 , 18. the second on rom. 8. 32. by robert wyne . 1 s. a relation of a conference held about religion at london, the third of april, 1676 by edw. stillingfleet ... and gilbert burnet, with some gentlemen of the church of rome. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1676 approx. 320 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 139 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30411 wing b5861 estc r14666 12541241 ocm 12541241 62980 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30411) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 62980) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 308:3) a relation of a conference held about religion at london, the third of april, 1676 by edw. stillingfleet ... and gilbert burnet, with some gentlemen of the church of rome. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. stillingfleet, edward, 1635-1699. [19], 58, 193 [i.e. 197], [3] p. printed and are to be sold by moses pitt ..., london : 1676. errata: p. [5]. advertisement: p. [2]-[3] at end. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lord's supper -real presence. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 john latta sampled and proofread 2004-01 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion imprimatur . june 1. 1676. g. jane r. p. d. hen. epis. lond. a sac . dom . a relation of a conference , held about religion , at london , the third of april , 1676. by edw. stillingfleet d.d. and gilbert burnet , with some gentlemen of the church of rome . london , printed and are to be sold by moses pitt , at the angel against the little north-door of s. paul's church , m dc lxxvi . the contents . the preface . the relation of the conference . an addition by n. n. to what was then said . an answer to that addition . a letter demonstrating that the doctrine of the church for the first eight centuries was contrary to transubstantiation . a discourse to show how unreasonable it is to ask for express words of scripture in proving all articles of faith , and that a lust and good consequence from scripture is sufficient . a discourse to shew that it was not only possible to change the belief of the church , concerning the manner of christs presence in the sacrament ; but that it is very reasonable to conclude both that it might be done , and that it was truly done . errata . page 18. l. 3. said to to be read at the end of l. 4. p. 8. l. 11. after baptism read ethiop . p. 23. l. 20. for cites read explains . p. 26. l. 3. for sayes r. has these words . p. 32. l. 26. after the body of christ these words are left out , is after some manner his body , and the sacrament of his blood. p. 72. l. 28. for must r. to . p. 75. l. 19. for use r. prove . p. 86. l. 26. for these r. the. p. 93 l. 7. for yet r. you . p. 103. for history r. heresy . p. 135. l. 14. for remained r. appeared in the world . p. 140. l. 22. for which r. who . the rest the reader will correct as he goes through . the preface . tthere is nothing that is by a more universal agreement decried , than conferences about controversies of religion : and no wonder , for they have been generally managed with so much heat and passion , parties being more concerned for glory and victory , than truth ; and there is such foul dealing in the accounts given of them , that it is not strange to see these prejudices taken up against them . and yet it cannot be denied but if men of candor and calmness should discourse about matters of religion , without any other interest than to seek and follow truth , there could not be a more effectual and easy way found for satisfying scruples . more can be said in one hour than read in a day : besides that what is said in a discourse discretely managed , does more appositely meet with the doubtings and difficulties any body is perplexed with , than is possibly to be found in a book : and since almost all books disguise the opinions of those that differ from them , and represent their arguments as weak , and their opinions as odious ; conferences between those of different perswasions do remedy all these evils . but after all the advantages of this way , it must be confessed that for the greater part men are so engaged to their opinions by interest and other ties , that in conferences most persons are resolved before-hand to yield to no conviction , but to defend every thing : being only concerned to say so much as may darken weaker minds that are witnesses , and give them some occasion to triumph ; at least conceal any foil they may have received , by wrapping up some pittiful shift or other , in such words , and pronouncing them with such accents of assurance , and perhaps scorn , that they may seem to come off with victory . and it is no less frequent to see men after they have been so baffled , that all discerning witnesses are ashamed of them , yet being resolved to make up with impudence what is wanting in truth , as a coward is generally known to boast most , where he has least cause ; publish about what feats they have done , and tell every body they see how the cause in their mouth did triumph over their enemies : that so the praise of the defeat given may be divided between the cause and themselves : and though in modesty they may pretend to ascribe all to truth and the faith they contended for , yet in their hearts they desire the greatest part be offered to themselves . all these considerations with a great many more did appear to us , when the lady t. asked us if we would speak with her husband and some others of the church of rome , as well for clearing such scruples as the perpetual converse with those of that religion had raised in the lady ; as for satisfying her husband , of whose being willing to receive instruction she seemed confident . yet being well assured of the ladies great candor and worth , and being willing to stand up for the vindication and honour of our church , whatever might follow on it , we promised to be ready to wait on her at her house upon advertisement : without any nice treating before-hand , what we should confer about . therefore we neither asked who should be there , nor what number , nor in what method , or on what particulars our discourse should run , but went thither carrying only one friend along with us for a witness . if the discourse had been left to our managing , we resolved to have insisted chiefly on the corruptions in the worship of the roman church : to have shewed on several heads that there was good cause to reform these abuses : and that the bishops and pastors of this church , the civil authority concurring , had sufficient authority for reforming it . these being the material things in controversy , which must satisfy every person if well made out , we intended to have discoursed about them ; but being put to answer , we followed those we had to deal with . but that we may not forestal the reader in any thing that passed in the ladies chamber , which he will find in the following account , we had no sooner left her house , but we resumed among our selves all had passed , that it might be written down , what ever should follow , to be published if need were . so we agreed to meet again three days after , to compare what could be written down , with our memories . and having met , an account was read , which did so exactly contain all that was spoken , as far as we could remember , that after a few additions , we all three signed the narrative then agreed to . few days had passed when we found we had need of all that care and caution , for the matter had got wind , and was in every bodies mouth . many of our best friends know how far we were from talking of it , for till we were asked about it , we scarce opened our mouths of it to any person . but when it was said that we had been baffled and foiled , it was necessary for us to give some account of it : not that we were much concerned in what might be thought of us , but that the most excellent cause of our church and religion might not suffer by the misrepresentations of this conference . and the truth was , there was so little said by seven or eight ages was contrary to transubstantiation : which we sent to the lady on the seventeenth of april to be communicated to them . and therefore though our conference was generally talked of , and all persons desired an account of it might be published ; yet we did delay it till we should hear from them . and meeting on the twenty ninth of april with him who is marked n. n. in the account of the conference , i told him , the foolish talk was made by their party about this conference , had set so many on us , who all called to us to print the account of it , that we were resolved on it : but i desired he might any time between and trinity sunday , bring me what exceptions he or the other gentlemen had to the account we sent them , which he confessed he had seen . so i desired that by that day i might have what additions they would make either of what they had said but was forgot by us , or what they would now add upon second thoughts : but longer i told him i could not delay the publishing it . i desired also to know by that time whether they intended any answer to the account we sent them of the doctrine of the fathers about transubstantiation . he confessed he had seen that paper : but by what he then said , it seemed they did not think of any answer to it . and so i waited still expecting to hear from him . at length on the twentieth of may n. n came to me , and told me some of these gentlemen were out of town , and so he would not take on him to give any thing in writing ; yet he desired me to take notice of some particulars he mentioned , which i intreated he would write down that he might not complain of my misrepresenting what he said . this he declined to do , so i told him i would set it down the best way i could , and desired him to call again that he might see if i had written it down faithfully , which he promised to do that same afternoon , and was as good as his word , and i read to him what is subjoined to the relation of the conference , which he acknowledged was a faithful account of what he had told me . i have considered it i hope to the full , so that it gave me more occasion of canvassing the whole matter . and thus the reader will find a great deal of reason to give an entire credit to this relation , since we have proceeded in it with so much candor , that it is plain we intended not to abuse the credulity of any , but were willing to offer this account to the censure of the adverse party ; and there being nothing else excepted against it , that must needs satisfy every reasonable man that all is true that he has here offered to his perusal . and if these gentlemen or any of their friends publish different or contrary relations of this conference , without that fair and open way of procedure which we have observed towards them ; we hope the reader will be so just as to consider that our method in publishing this account has been candid and plain , and looks like men that were doing an honest thing , of which they were neither afraid nor ashamed : which cannot in reason be thought of any surreptitious account that like a work of darkness may be let fly abroad , without the name of any person to answer for it on his conscience or reputation : and that at least he will suspend his belief till a competent time be given to shew what mistake or errors any such relation may be guilty of . we do not expect the reader shall receive great instructions from the following conference , for the truth is , we met with nothing but shufling . so that he will find when ever we came to discourse closely to any head , they very dextrously went off from it to another , and so did still shift off from following any thing was suggested . but we hope every reader will be so just to us as to acknowledge it was none of our fault , that we did not canvass things more exactly , for we proposed many things of great importance to be discoursed on , but could never bring them to fix on any thing . and this did fully satisfy the lady t. when she saw we were ready to have justified our church in all things , but that they did still decline the entering into any matter of weight : so that it appeared both to her and the rest of the company , that what boastings soever they spread about as if none of us would or durst appear in a conference to vindicate our church , all were without ground ; and the lady was by the blessing of god further confirmed in the truth , in which we hope god shall continue her to her lifes end . but we hope the letter and the two discourses that follow , will give the reader a more profitable entertainment . in the letter we give many short hints , and set down some select passages of the fathers , to shew they did not believe transubstantiation . upon all which we are ready to join issue to make good every thing in that paper , from which we believe it is apparent the primitive church was wholly a stranger to transubstantiation . it was also judged necessary by some of our friends that we should to purpose and once for all , expose and discredit that unreasonable demand of shewing all the articles of our church in the express words of scripture : upon which the first discourse was written . and it being found that no answer was made to what n. n. said , to shew that it was not possible the doctrine of transubstantiation could have crept into any age , if those of that age had not had it from their fathers , and they from theirs up to the apostles dayes , this being also since our conference laid home to me by the same person , it was thought fit to give a full account how this doctrine could have been brought into the church , that so a change ●ay appear to have been not only possible , but also probable , and therefore the second discourse was written . if these discourses have not that full finishing and life which the reader would desire , he must regrate his misfortune in this , that the person who was best able to have written them , and given them all possible advantages out of that vast stock of learning and judgment he is master of , was so taken up with other work cut out for him by some of these gentlemens friends of which we shall see an excellent account very speedily , that it was not possible for him to spare so much time for writing these ; so that it fell to the others share to do it : and therefore the reader is not to expect any thing like those high strains of wit and reason which fill all that authors writings , but must give allowance to one that studies to follow him though at a great distance : therefore all can be said from him is , that what is here performed was done by his direction , and approbation , which to some degree will again encourage the reader , and so i leave him to the perusal of what follows . the relation of the conference , monday afternoon the third of april , 1676. d. s. and m. b. went to m. l. t 's . as they had been desired by l. t. to confer with some persons upon the grounds of the church of englands separating from rome , and to shew how unreasonable it was to go from our church to theirs . about half an hour after them , came in s.p.t. mr. w. and three more . there were present seven or eight ladies , three other church-men , and one or two more . when we were all set d. s. said to s.p.t. that we were come to wait on them for justifying our church ; that he was glad to see , we had gentlemen to deal with , from whom he expected fair dealing , as on the other hand he hoped they should meet with nothing from us , but what became our profession . s. p. said , they had protestants to their wives , and there were other reasons too to make them with they might turn protestants ; therefore he desired to be satisfyed in one thing . and so took out the articles of the church , and read these words of the sixth article of the holy scriptures ; [ so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby , is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith , or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation . ] then he turned to the twenty eighth article of the lords supper , and read these words ; [ and the mean whereby the body of christ is received and eaten in the supper , is faith : ] and added , he desired to know whether that was read in scripture or not , and in what place it was to be found . d. s. said , he must first explain that article of the scripture ; for this method of proceeding was already sufficiently known and exposed ; he clearly saw the snare they thought to bring him in , and the advantages they would draw from it . but it was the cause of the church he was to defend , which he hoped he was ready to seal with his blood , and was not to be given up for a trick . the meaning of the sixth article was , that nothing must be received or imposed as an article of faith , but what was either expresly contained in scripture , or to be deduced and proved from it by a clear consequence ; so that if in any article of our church which they rejected , he should either shew it in the express words of scripture , or prove it by a clear consequence , he performed all required in this article . if they would receive this , and fix upon it as the meaning of the article , which certainly it was ; then he would go on to the proof of that other article he had called in question . m. w. said , they must see the article in express scripture , or at least in some places of scripture which had been so interpreted by the church , the councils or fathers , or any one council or father . and he the rather pitched on this article , because he judged it the only article , in which all protestants , except the lutherans , were agreed . d. s. said , it had been the art of all the hereticks from the marcionites days , to call for express words of scripture . it was well known the arrians set up their rest on this , that their doctrine was not condemned by express words of scripture ; but that this was still rejected by the catholick church , and that theodoret had written a book , on purpose to prove the unreasonableness of this challenge ; therefore he desired they would not insist on that which every body must see was not fair dealing , and that they would take the sixth article entirely , and so go to see if the other article could not be proved from scripture , though it were not contained in express words . m. b. added , that all the fathers , writing against the arrians , brought their proofs of the consubstantiality of the son , from the scriptures , though it was not contained in the express words of any place . and the arrian council that rejected the words equisubstantial and consubstantial , gives that for the reason , that they were not in the scripture . and that in the council of ephesus s. cyril brought in many propositions against the nestorians , with a vast collection of places of scripture to prove them by ; and though the quotations from scripture contained not those propositions in express words ; yet the council was satisfied from them , and condemned the nestorians . therefore it was most unreasonable , and against the practice of the catholick church , to require express words of scripture , and that the article was manifestly a disjunctive , where we were to chuse whether of the two we would chuse , either one or other . s. p. t. said , or was not in the article . m. b. said , nor was a negative in a disjunctive proposition , as or was an affirmative , and both came to the same meaning . m. w. said , that s. austin charged the heretick to read what he said in the scripture . m. b. said , s. austin could not make that a constant rule , otherwise he must reject the consubstantiality which he did so zealously assert ; though he might in disputing urge an heretick with it on some other account . d. s. said , the scripture was to deliver to us the revelation of god , in matters necessary to salvation ; but it was an unreasonable thing to demand proofs for a negative in it : for if the roman church have set up many doctrines , as articles of faith , without proof from the scriptures , we had cause enough to reject these if there was no clear proofs of them from scripture ; but to require express words of scripture for a negative , was as unjust as if mahomet had said , the christians had no reason to reject him , because there was no place in scripture that called him an impostor . since then the roman church had set up the doctrine of transubstantiation , and the sacrifice of the mass , without either express scripture or good proofs from it , their church had good cause to reject these . m. w. said , the article they desired to be satisfied in was , if he understood any thing , a positive article , and not a negative . m. b. said , the positive article was , that christ was received in the holy sacrament ; but because they had ( as our church judged ) brought in the doctrine of the corporal presence without all reason , the church made that explanation , to cast out the other ; so that upon the matter it was a negative . he added , that it was also unreasonable to ask any one place to prove a doctrine by ; for the fathers in their proceedings with the arrians brought a great collection of places , which gave light to one another , and all concurred to prove the article of faith that was in controversy : so if we brought such a consent of many places of scripture as proved our doctrine , all being joined together , we perform all that the fathers thought themselves bound to do in the like case . d. s. then at great length told them , the church of rome and the church of england differed in many great and weighty points ; that we were come thither to see , as these gentlemen professed they desired , if we could offer good reason for them to turn protestants , and as the ladies professed a desire to be further established in the doctrine of the church of england ; in order to which , none could think it a proper method to pick out some words in the obscure corner of an article , and call for express scriptures for them . but the fair and fit way was to examine whether the church of england had not very good reason to separate from the communion of the church of rome ; therefore since it was for truth , in which oursouls are so deeply concerned , that we enquired , he desired they would join issue to examine either the grounds on which the church of england did separate from the church of rome , or the authority by which she did it : for if there was both good reason for it , and if those who did it , had a sufficient authority to do it , then was the church of england fully vindicated . he did appeal to all that were present , if in this offer he dealt not candidly and fairly , and if all other ways were not shufling . which he pressed with great earnestness , as that only which could satisfy all peoples consciences . m. w. and s. p. t. said , god forbid they should speak one word for the church of rome ; they understood the danger they should run by speaking to that . d. s. said , he hoped they looked on us as men of more conscience and honesty , than to make an ill use of any thing they might say for their church ; that for himself he would die rather than be guilty of so base a thing , the very thought whereof he abhorred . m. b. said , that though the law condemned the endeavouring to reconcile any to the church of rome , yet their justifying their church when put to it , especially to divines , in order to satisfaction which they professed they desired , could by no colour be made a transgression ; and that as we engaged our faith to make no ill use of what should be said , so if they doubted any of the other company , it was s. p. his house , and he might order it to be more private if he pleased . s. p. said , he was only to speak to the articles of the church of england , and desired express words for that article . upon this followed a long wrangling , the same things were said over and over again . in the end . m. w. said they had not asked where that article was read : that they doubted of it , for they knew it was in no place of scripture , in which they were the more confirmed , because none was so much as alledged . d. s. said , upon the terms in the 6. article he was ready to undertake the 28. article to prove it clearly by scripture . m. w. said , but there must be no interpretations admitted of . m. b. said , it was certain the scriptures were not given to us , as pariots are taught to speak words ; we were endued with a faculty of understanding , and we must understand somewhat by every place of scripture . now the true meaning of the words being that which god would teach us in the scriptures , which way soever that were expressed is the doctrine revealed there ; and it was to be considered that the scriptures were at first delivered to plain and simple men to be made use of by all without distinction : therefore we were to look unto them as they did ; and so s. paul wrote his epistles , which were the hardest pieces of the new testament , to all in the churches to whom he directed them . m. w. said , the epistles were written upon emergent occasions , and so were for the use of the churches to whom they were directed . d. s. said , though they were written upon emergent occasions , yet they were written by divine inspiration , and as a rule of faith , not only for those churches but for all christians . but as m. w. was a going to speak , m. c. came in , upon which we all rose up till he was set ; so being set , after some civilities , d. s. resumed a little what they were about , and told they were calling for express scriptures to prove the articles of our church by . m. c. said , if we be about scriptures , where is the judge that shall pass the sentence who expounds them aright ; otherwise the contest must be endless . d. s. said , he had proposed a matter that was indeed of weight ; therefore he would first shew , that these of the church of rome were not provided of a sufficient or fit judge of controversies . m. c. said , that was not the thing they were to speak to ; for though we destroyed the church of rome all to nought , yet except we built up our own , we did nothing : therefore he desired to hear what we had to say for our own church ; he was not to meddle with the church of rome , but to hear and be instructed if he could see reason to be of the church of england , for may be it might be somewhat in his way . d. s. said , he would not examine if it would be in his way to be of the church of england , or not , but did heartily acknowledge with great civility that he was a very fair dealer in what he had proposed , and that now he had indeed set us in the right way , and the truth was we were extream glad to get out of the wrangling we had been in before , and to come to treat of matters that were of importance . so after some civilities had passed on both sides , d. s. said , the bishops and pastors of the church of england finding a great many abuses crept into the church , particularly in the worship of god , which was chiefly insisted upon in the reformation , such as the images of the blessed trinity , the worship whereof was set up and encouraged ; the turning the devotions we ought to offer only to christ , to the blessed virgin , the angels and saints ; that the worship of god was in an unknown tongue ; that the chalice was taken from the people , against the express words of the institution ; that transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass were set up ; that our church had good reason to judge these to be heinous abuses , which did much endanger the salvation of souls ; therefore being the pastors of the church , and being assisted in it by the civil powers , they had both good reason and sufficient authority to reform the church from these abuses , and he left it to m. c. to chuse on which of these particulars they should discourse . m. b. said , the bishops and pastors having the charge of souls were bound to feed the flock with sound doctrine , according to the word of god. so s. paul when he charged the bishops of ephesus to feed the flock , and to guard against wolves or seducers ; he commends them to the word of gods grace which is the gospel . and in his epistles to timothy and titus wherein the rules of the pastoral charge are set down , he commands timothy , and in him all bishops and pastors , to hold fast the doctrine and form of sound words which he had delivered , and tells him , the scriptures were able to make the man of god perfect . if then the bishops and pastors of this church found it corrupted by any unsound doctrine , or idolatrous worship , they were by the law of god and the charge of souls for which they were accountable , obliged to throw out these corruptions and reform the church ; and this the rather , that the first question proposed in the consecration of a bishop , as it is in the pontifical , is , wilt thou teach these things which thou understandest to be in the scripture , to the people committed to thee , both by thy doctrine and example ? to which he answers : i will. m. c. said , we had now offered as much as would be the subject of many dayes discourse , and he had but few minutes to spare : therefore he desired to be informed what authority those bishops had to judge in matters which they found not only in this church , but in all churches round about them , should they have presumed to judge in these matters . d. s. said , it had been frequently the practice of many nations and provinces to meet in provincial synods , and reform abuses . for which he offered to prove they had both authority and president . but much more in some instances he was ready to shew of particulars that had been defined by general councils , which they only applied to their circumstances ; and this was never questioned but provincial synods might do . m. c. desired , to be first satisfied , by what authority they could cut themselves off from the obedience of the see of rome , in king henry the viii . his days . the pope then was looked on as the monarch of the christian world in spirituals , and all christendom was one church , under one head , and had been so for many ages ; so that if a province or country would cut themselves from the body of this nation ; for instance , wales that had once distinct princes , and say we acknowledge no right william the conquerour had , so that we reject the authority of those descended from him ; they might have the same plea which this our church had . for the day before that act of parliament did pass , after the 20. of henry the viii . the pope had the authority in spirituals , and they were his subjects in spirituals : therefore their declaring he had none , could not take his authority from him , no more than the long parliament had right to declare by an act , that the soveraign power was in the peoples hands , in pursuance of which they cut off the kings head . d. s. said , the first general councils , as they established the patriarchal power , so the priviledges of several churches were preserved entire to them , as in the case of cyprus ; that the british churches were not within the patriarchal jurisdiction of rome ; that afterwards the bishops of rome striking in with the interests of the princes of europe , and watching and improving all advantages , got up by degrees through many ages into that height of authority , which they managed as ill as they unjustly acquired it , and particularly in england ; where from king william the conqueror his days , as their illegal and oppressive impositions were a constant grievance to the people , so our princes and parliaments were ever put to strugle with them . but to affront their authority , thomas becket , who was a traitour to the law , must be made a saint , and a day kept for him , in which they were to pray to god for mercy through his merits . it continuing thus for several ages , in the end a vigorous prince arises , who was resolved to assert his own authority . and he looking into the oaths the bishops swore to the pope , they were all found in a praemunire by them . then did the whole nation agree to assert their own freedom , and their kings authority . and 't was considerable , that those very bishops , that in qu●en marys days did most cruelly persecute those of the church of england , and advance the interests of rome , were the most zealous assertors and defenders of what was done by king henry the viii . therefore the popes power in england being founded on●●o● just title , and being managed with so much oppression , there was both a full authority and a great deal of reason for rejecting it . and if the major generals , who had their authority from cromwell , might yet have declared for the king , who had the true title , and against the usurper ; so the bishops , though they had sworn to the pope , yet that being contrary to the allegiance they ow'd the king , ought to have asserted the kings authority , and rejected the pope's . m. b. said , it seemed m. c. founded the popes right to the authority he had in england chiefly upon prescrip said to tion . but there were two things to be that : first , that no prescription runs against a divine right . in the clearing of titles among men , prescription is in some cases a good title : but if by the laws of god the civil powers have a supream authority over their subjects , then 〈◊〉 prescription whatsoever can void this . besides , the bishops having full authority and jurisdiction , this could not be bounded or limited by any obedience the pope claimed from them . further , there can be no prescription in this case , where the usurpation has been all along contested and opposed . we were ready to prove , that in the first ages all bishops were accounted brethren , colleagues , and fellow-bishops with the bishop of rome . that afterwards , as he was declared patriarch of the west , so the other patriarchs were equal in authority to him in their several patriarchates . that britain was no part of his patriarchate , but an exempt , as cyprus was . that his power as patriarch was only for receiving appeals , or calling synods , and did not at all encroach on the jurisdiction of other bishops in their sees ; and that the bishops in his patriarchate did think they might separate from him . a famous instance of this was in the sixth century , when the question was about the tria capitula , for which the western bishops did generally stand , and pope vigilius wrote in defence of them ; but iustinian the emperour having drawn him to constantinople , he consented with the fifth council to the condemning them . upon which at his return many of the western bishops did separate from him . and as victor bishop of tunes tells us ( who lived at that time ) that pope was synodically excommunicated by the bishops of africk . it is true , in the eighth century the decretal epistles being forged his pretensions were much advanced : yet his universal jurisdiction was contested in all ages , as might be proved from the known instance of hincmar bishop of rheims , and many more . therefore how strong soever the argument from prescription may be in civil things , it is of no force here . m. c. said , now we are got into a contest of 1700. years story , but i know not when we shall get out of it . he confessed there was no prescription against a divine right , and acknowledged all bishops were alike in their order , but not in their jurisdiction ; as the bishop of oxford was a bishop as well as the archbishop of canterbury , and yet he was inferiour to him in jurisdiction : but desired to know , what was in the popes authority that was so intolerable . d. s. said , that he should only debate about the popes jurisdiction , and to his question , for one particular , that from the days of pope paschal the ii. all bishops swear obedience to the pope , was intolerable bondage . m. c. said , then will you acknowledg that before that oath was imposed the pope was to be acknowledged : adding , that let us fix a time wherein we say the pope began to usurp beyond his just authority , and he would prove by protestant writers that he had as great power before that time . m. b. said , whatever his patriarchal power was , he had none over britain . for it was plain , we had not the christian faith from the roman church , as appeared from the very story of austin the monk. s. p. t. said , did not king lucius write to the pope upon his receiving the christian faith ? m. c. said , he would wave all that , and ask , if the church of england could justifie her for saking the obedience of the bishop of rome , when all the rest of the christian world submitted to it . d. s. said , he wondred to hear him speak so , were not the greek , the armenian , the nestorian , and the abissen churches separated from the roman ? m. c. said , he wondred as much to hear him reckon the nestorians among the churches , that were condemned hereticks . d. s. said , it would be hard for him to prove them nestorians . m. c. asked why he called them so then . d. s. answered , because they were generally best known by that name . m. w. said , did not the greek church reconcile it self to the roman church at the council of florence ? d. s. said , some of their bishops were partly trepanned , partly threatned into it ; but their church disowned them and it both , and continues to do so to this day . m. w. said , many of the greek church were daily reconciled to the church of rome , and many of the other eastern bishops had sent their obedience to the pope . d. s. said , they knew there was enough to be said to these things , that these arts were now pretty well discovered : but he insisted to prove , the usurpations of rome were such as were inconsistent with the supreme civil authority● and shewed the oath in the pontifi●●le by which , for instance , if the pope command a bishop to go to rome , and his king forbid it , he must obey the pope and disobey the king. m. c. said , these things were very consistent , that the king should be supream in civils and the pope in spirituals : so that if the pope commanded a thing that were civil , the king must be obeyed and not he . m. b. said , by the words of the oath the bishops were to receive and help the popes legates , both in coming and going . now suppose the king declared it treason to receive the legate , yet in this case the bishops are sworn to obey the pope , and this was a case that fell out often . d. s. instanced the case of queen mary . m. c. said , if he comes with false mandates , he is not a legate . m. b. said , suppose , as has fallen out an hundred times , he comes with bulls , and well warranted , but the king will not suffer him to enter his dominions , here the bishops must either be traitors or perjured . m. c. said , all these things must be understood to have tacite conditions in them , though they be not expressed , and gave a simile which i have forgot . d. s. said , it was plain , paschal the second devised that oath on purpose to cut off all those reserves of their duty to their princes . and therefore the words are so full and large , that no oath of allegiance was ever conceived in more express terms . m. b. said , it was yet more plain from the words that preceed that clause about legates , that they shall be on no counsel to do the pope any injury , and shall reveal none of his secrets . by which a provision was clearly made , that if the pope did engage in any quarrel or war with any prince , the bishops were to assist the popes as their sworn subjects , and to be faithful spies and correspondents to give intelligence . as he was saying this , l. t. did whisper d. s. who presently told the company , that the ladies at whose desire we came thither , entreated we would speak to things that concerned them more , and discourse on the grounds on which the reformation proceeded ; and therefore since he had before named some of the most considerable ; he desired we might discourse about some of these . m. c. said , name any thing in the roman church that is expresly contrary to scriptures ; but bring not your expositions of scripture to prove it by , for we will not admit of these . m. b. asked if they did not acknowledge that it was only by the mediation of christ , that our sins were pardoned and eternal life given to us . m. c. answered , no question of it at all . m. b. said , then have we not good reason to depart from that church , that in an office of so great and daily use as was the absolution of penitents , after the words of absolution enjoins the following prayer to be used ( which he read out of their ritual ) [ the passion of our lord jesus christ , the merits of the blessed virgin mary and of all the saints , and whatever good thou hast done or evil thou hast suffered , be to thee for the remission of sins , the encrease of grace and the reward of eternal life ] from whence it plainly follows that their church ascribes the pardon of all sins and the eternal salvation of their penitents to the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints , as well as the passion of our blessed saviour . m. c. said , here was a very severe charge put in against their church without any reason , for they believed that our sins are pardoned and our souls are saved only by the merits of jesus christ ; but that several things may concur in several orders or wayes to produce the same effects . so although we are pardoned and saved only through christ , yet without holiness we shall never see god ; we must also suffer whatever crosses he tries us with . so that these in another sense procure the pardon of our sins and eternal salvation . thus in like manner the prayers of the blessed virgin and the saints are great helps to our obtaining these : therefore though these be all joined together in the same prayer , yet it was an unjust charge on their church to say they make them equal in their value or efficiency . m. b. said , the thing he had chiefly excepted against in that prayer was , that these things are ascribed to the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints . now he had only spoken of their prayers , and he appealed ●o all if the natural meaning of these words was not that he charged on them , and the sense the other had offered was not forced . m. c. said , by merits were understood prayers , which had force and merit with god. m. b. said , that could not be , for in another absolution , in the office of our lady , they pray for remission of sins through the merits and prayers of the blessed virgin : so that by merits must be meant somewhat else than their prayers . m. c. said , that as by our prayers on earth we help one anothers souls , so by our giving almes for one another we might do the same ; so also the saints in heaven might be helpful to us by their prayers and merits . and as soon as he had spoken this he got to his feet , and said he was in great hast and much business lay on him that day , but said to d. s. that when he pleased , he would wait on him and discourse of the other particulars at more length . d. s. assured him that when ever he pleased to appoint it , he should be ready to give him a meeting . and so he went away . then we all stood and talked to one another without any great order near half an hour , the discourse being chiefly about the nags-head fable . d. s. apealed to the publick registers , and challenged the silence of all the popish writers all queen elizabeth's reign when such a story was fresh and well known ; and if there had been any colour for it , is it possible they could keep it up , or conceal it . s. p. t. said , all the registers were forged , and that it was not possible to satisfy him in it , no more than to prove he had not four fingers on his hand : and being desired to read doctor bramhall's book about it , he said he had read it six times over , and that it did not satisfie him . m. b. asked him , how could any matter of fact that was a hundred years old be proved , if the publick registers and the instruments of publick notaries were rejected ; and this the more , that this being a matter of fact which could not be done in a corner , nor escape the knowledge of their adversaries who might have drawn great and just advantages from publishing and proving it ; yet that it was never so much as spoken of while that race was alive , is as clear an evidence as can be , that the forgery was on the other side . d. s. did clear the objection from the commission and act of parliament , that it was only for making the ordination legal in england ; since in edward the sixth's time the book of ordination was not joined in the record to the book of common-prayer , from whence bishop bonner took occasion to deny their ordination as not according to law ; and added that saunders who in queen elizabeth's time denied the validity of our ordination , never alledged any such story . but as we were talking freely of this , m. w. said , once or twice , they were satisfied about the chief design they had in that meeting , to see if there could be alledged any place of scripture to prove that article about the blessed sacrament , and said somewhat that looked like the beginning of a triumph . upon which , d. s. desired all might sit down again , that they might put that matter to an issue : so a bible was brought , and d. s. being spent with much speaking , desired . m. b. to speak to it . m. b. turned to the 6th chap. of s. iohn verse 54. and read these words , whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood , hath eternal life , and added , these words were , according to the common interpretation of their church , to be understand of the sacramental manducation . this m. w. granted , only m. b. had said , all the doctors understood these words so and m. w. said , that all had not done so , which m. b. did acknowledge , but said it was the received exposition in their church , and so framed his argument . eternal life is given to every one that receives christ in the sacrament , but by faith only we get eternal life : therefore by faith only we receive christ in the sacrament . otherwise he said , unworthy receivers must be said to have eternal life , which is a contradiction , for as such they are under condemnation ; yet the unworthy receivers have the external manducation ; therefore that manducation that gives eternal life with it , must be internal and spiritual ; and that is by faith. a person whose name i know not , but shall henceforth mark him n. n. asked what m. b. meant , by faith only . m. b. said , by faith he mean● such a believing of the gospel , as carried along with it evangelical obedience : by faith only he meant faith as opposite to sense . d. s. asked him if we received christ's body and blood by our senses . n. n. said , we did . d. s. asked which of the senses , his taste , or touch , or sight , for that seemed strange to him . n. n. said , we received christs body with our senses , as well as we did the substance of bread ; for our senses did not receive the substance of bread ; and did offer some things to illustrate this both from the aristotelian and cartesian hypothesis . d. s. said , he would not engage in that subtlety which was a digression from the main argument , but he could not avoid to think it a strange assertion to say we received christ by our senses , and yet to say he was so present there that none of our senses could possibly perceive him . but to the main argument . m. w. denied the minor , that by faith only we have eternal life . m. b. proved it thus , the sons of god have eternal life , but by faith only we become the sons of god : therefore by faith only we had eternal life . m. w. said , except he gave them both major and minor in express words of scripture , he would reject the argument . m. b. said , that if he did demonstrate that both the propositions of his argument were in the strictest construction possible equivalent to clear places of scripture , then his proofs were good ; therefore he desired to know which of the two propositions he should prove , either that the sons of god have eternal life , or that by faith only we are the sons of god. m. w. said , he would admit of no consequences , how clear soever they seemed , unless he brought him the express words of scripture , and asked if his consequences were infallible . d. s. said , if the consequence was certain , it was sufficient ; and he desired all would take notice that they would not yield to clear consequences drawn from scripture , which he thought ( and he believed all impartial people would be of his mind ) was as great an advantage to any cause , as could be desired : so we laid aside that argument , being satisfied that the article of our church , which they had called in question , was clearly proved from scripture . then n. n. insisted to speak of the corporal presence , and desired to know upon what grounds we rejected it . m. b. said , if we have no better reason to believe christ was corporally present in the sacrament , than the jews had to believe that every time they did eat their pascha , the angel was passing by their houses , and smiting the first born of the aegyptians ; then we have no reason at all ; but so it is that we have no more reason . n. n. denied this , and said we had more reason . m. b. said , all the reason we had to believe it was , because christ said , this is my body ; but moses said of the paschal festivity , this is the lords passover ; which was always repeated by the jews in that anniversary . now the lords passover was the lords passing by the israelites when he slew the first-born of aegypt . if then we will understand christs words in the strictly literal sense , we must in the same sense understand the words of moses : but if we understand the words of moses in any other sense , as the commemoration of the lords passover , then we ought to understand christs words in the same sense . the reason is clear ; for christ being to substitute this holy sacrament in room of the jewish pascha , and he using in every thing , as much as could agree with his blessed designs , forms as nea● the jewish customes as could be , there is no reason to think he did use the words , this is my body , in any other sense than the jews did this is the lords passover . n. n. said , the disparity was great . first , christ had promised before-hand he would give them his body . secondly , it was impossible the lamb could be the lords passover in the literal sense , because an action that had been past some hundred of years before could not be performed every time they did eat the lamb , but this is not so . thirdly , the jewish church never understood these words literally , but the christian church hath ever understood these words of christ literally . nor is it to be imagined that a change in such a thing was possible , for how could any such opinion have crept in , in any age , if it had not been the doctrine of the former age ? m. b. said , nothing he had alledged was of any force . for the first , christ's promise imported no more than what he performed in the sacramental institution . if then it be proved that by saying , this is my body , be only meant a commemoration , his promise must only relate to his death commemorated in the sacrament . to the second , the literal meaning of christ's words is as impossible as the literal meaning of moses's words ; for besides all the other impossibilities that accompany this corporal presence , it is certain christ gives us his body in the sacrament as it was given for us , and his blood as it was shed for us , which being done only on the cross above 1600 years ago , it is as impossible that should be literally given at every consecration , as it was that the angel should be smiting the aegyptians every paschal festivity . and here was a great mistake they went on securely in ; that the body of christ we receive in the sacrament , is the body of christ as he is now glorified in heaven : for by the words of the institution it is clear , that we receive his body as it was given for us when his blood was shed on the cross , which being impossible to be reproduced now , we only can receive christ by faith. for his third difference , that the christian church ever understood christ's words so , we would willingly submit to the decision of the church in the first 6 ages . could any thing be more express than theodoret , who arguing against the eutychians that the humanity and divinity of christ were not confounded nor did depart from their own substance , illustrates it from the eucharist in which the elements of bread and wine do not depart from their own substance . m. w. said , we must examine the doctrine of the fathers not from some occasional mention they make of the sacrament , but when they treat of it on design and with deliberation . but to theodoret he would oppose s. cyrill of jerusalem , who in his fourth mist. catechism saies expresly , though thou see it to be bread , yet believe it is the flesh and the blood of the lord jesus ; doubt it not since he had said , this is my body . and for a proof , instances christs changing the water into wine . d. s. said , he had proposed a most excellent rule for examining the doctrine of the fathers in this matter , not to canvase what they said in eloquent and pious treaties or homilies to work on peoples devotion , in which case it is natural for all persons to use high expressions ; but we are to seek the real sense of this mystery when they are dogmatically treating of it and the other mysteries of religion where reason and not eloquence takes place . if then it should appear that at the same time both a bishop of rome and constantinople , and one of the greatest bishops in africk did in asserting the mysteries of religion go downright against transubstantiation , and assert that the substance of the bread and wine did remain ; he hoped all would be satisfied the fathers did not believe as they did . m. w. desired we would then answer the words of cyrill . m. b. said , it were a very unreasonable thing to enter into a verbal dispute about the passages of the fathers , especially the books not being before us ; therefore he promised an answer in writing to the testimony of s. cyrill . but now the matter was driven to a point , and we willingly underook to prove that for eight or nine centuries after christ the fathers did not believe transubstantiation , but taught plainly the contrary : the fathers generally call the elements bread and wine after the consecration , they call them mysteries , types , figures , symbols , commemorations and signs of the body and blood of christ : they generally deliver that the wicked do not receive christ in the sacrament , which shews they do not believe transubstantiation . all this we undertook to prove by undenyable evidences within a very few days or weeks . m. w. said , he should be glad to see it . d. s. said , now we left upon that point which by the grace of god we should perform very soon ; but we had offered to satisfy them in the other grounds of the separation from the church of rome ; if they desired to be further informed we should wait on them when they pleased . so we all rose up and took leave , after we had been there about three hours . the discourse was carried on , on both sides , with great civility and calmness , without heat or clamour . this is as far as my memory after the most fixed attention when present , and careful recollection since , does suggest to me , without any biass or partiality , not having failed in any one material thing as far as my memory can serve me ; this i declare as i shall answer to god. signed as follows , gilbert burnet . april 6. 1676. this narrative was read , and i do hereby attest the truth of it . edw. stillingfleet . being present at the conference april 3. 1676. i do , according to my best memory , judge this a just and true narrative thereof . will. nailor . the addition which n. n. desired might be subjoined to the relation of the conference if it were published , but wished rather that nothing at all might be made publick that related to the conference . the substance of what n. n. desired me to take notice of was , that our eating christ's flesh and drinking his blood doth as really give everlasting life , as almsgiving , or any other good work● gives it , where the bare external action , if separated from a good intention and principle is not acceptable to god. so that we must necessarily understand these words of our saviour with this addition of worthily , that whoso eats his flesh and drinks his blood in the sacrament worthily hath everlasting life ; for , he said , he did not deny but the believing the death of christ was necessary in communicating , but it is not by faith only we receive his body and blood. for as by faith we are the sons of god , yet it is not only by faith but also by baptism that we become the sons of god ; so also christ saith , he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; yet this doth not exclude repentance and amendment of life from being necessary to salvation : therefore the universality of the expression , whoso eats , does not exclude the necessity of eating worthily that we may have everlasting life by it . and so did conclude that since we believe we have all our faith in the holy scriptures , we must prove from some clear scriptures by arguments that consist of a major and minor that are either express words of scripture or equivalent to them , that christ was no otherwise present in the sacrament than spiritually , as he is received by faith. and added that it was impertinent to bring impossibilities either from sense or reason against this , if we brought no clear scriptures against it . to this he also added , that when d. s. asked him by which of his senses he received christ in the sacrament , he answered , that he might really receive christ's body at his mouth , though none of his senses could perceive him , as a ●ole or pill is taken in a sirrup or any other liquor , so that i really swallow it over though my senses do not tast it ; in like manner christ is received under the accidents of bread and wine , so that though our senses do not perceive it , yet he is really taken in at our mouth and goes down into our stomach . answer . having now set down the strength of n.n. his plea upon second thoughts , i shall next examine it . the stress of all lies in this , whether we must necessarily supply the words of christ with the addition of worthily : he affirms it , i deny it , for these reasons . christ in this discourse was to shew how much more excellent his doctrine was than was moses his law , and that moses gave manna from heaven to nourish their bodies , notwithstanding which they died in the wilderness : but christ was to give them food to their souls , which if they did eat they should never die , for it should give them life . where it is apparent the bread and nourishment must be such , as the life was , which being internal and spiritual , the other must be such also . and verse 47. he clearly explains how that food was received , he that believeth on me hath everlasting life . now having said before that this bread gives life , and here saying that believing gives everlasting life , it very reasonably follows that believing was the receiving this food . which is yet clearer from verse 34. where the jews having desired him evermore to give them that bread , he answers verse 35. i am the bread of life , he that comes to me shall never hunger , and he that believeth on me shall never thirst . which no man that is not strangely prepossessed , can consider , but he must see it is an answer to their question , and so in it he tells them that their coming to him and believing was the mean of receiving that bread . and here it must be considered that christ calls himself bread , and says that a man must eat thereof , which must be understood figuratively ; and if figures be admitted in some parts of that discourse , it is unjust to reject the applying the same figures to other parts of it . in fine , christ tells them this bread was his flesh which he was to give for the life of the world , which can be applied to nothing but the offering up himself on the cross. this did , as it was no wonder , startle the jews , so they murmured , and said , how can this man give us his flesh to eat ? to which christs answer is so clear , that it is indeed strange there should remain any doubting about it . he first tells them , except they eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man they had no life in them . where on the way mark , that drinking the blood is as necessary as eating the flesh ; and these words being expounded of the sacrament , cannot but discover them extreamly guilty , who do not drink the blood . for suppose the doctrine of the bloods concomitating the flesh were true ; yet even in that case they only eat the blood , but cannot be said to drink the blood . but from these words it is apparent christ must be speaking chiefly if not only of the spiritual communicating : for otherwise no man can be saved , that hath not received the sacrament . the words are formal and positive , and christ having made this a necessary condition of life , i see not how we dare promise life to any that hath never received it . and indeed it was no wonder that those fathers who understood these words of the sacrament , appointed it to be given to infants immediately after they were baptized ; for that was a necessary consequence that followed this exposition of our saviours words . and yet the church of rome will not deny , but if any die before he is adult , or if a person converted be in such circumstances that it is not possible for him to receive the sacrament , and so dies without it , he may have everlasting life : therefore they must conclude that christs flesh may be eaten by faith even without the sacrament . again in the next verse he says , whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life . these words must be understood in the same sense they had in the former verse , they being indeed the reverse of it . therefore since there is no addition of worthily necessary to the sence of the former verse , neither is it necessary in this . but it must be concluded christ is here speaking of a thing without which none can have life : and by which all have life : therefore when ever christs flesh is eaten , and his blood is drunk , which is most signally done in the sacrament , there eternal life must accompany it ; and so these words must be understood , even in relation to the sacrament , only of the spiritual communicating by faith. as when it is said a man is a reasonable creature : though this is said of the whole man , body and soul ; yet when we see that upon the dissolution of soul and body no reason or life remains in the body , we from thence positively conclude the reason is seated only in the soul ; though the body has organs that are necessary for its operations : so when it is said we eat christs flesh and drink his blood in the sacrament which gives eternal life ; there being two things in it , the bodily eating and the spiritual communicating ; though the eating of christs flesh is said to be done in the worthy receiving , which consists of these two , yet since we may clearly see the bodily receiving may be without any such effects , we must conclude that the eating of christs flesh is only done by the inward communicating : though the other , that is the bodily part , be a divine organ , and conveyance of it . and as reason is seated only in the soul , so the eating of christs flesh must be only inward and spiritual , and so the mean by which we receive christ in the supper is faith . all this is made much clearer by the words that follow , my flesh is meat indeed , and my blood is drink indeed . now christs flesh is so eaten , as it is meat ; which i suppose none will question , it being a prosecution of the same discourse . now it is not meat as taken by the body , for they cannot be so gross as to say , christs flesh is the meat of our body : therefore since his flesh is only the meat of the soul and spiritual nourishment , it is only eaten by the soul and so received by faith . christ also says , he that eateth my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in him and he in him . this is the definition of that eating and drinking he had been speaking of ; so that such as is the dwelling in him , such also must be the eating of him : the one therefore being spiritual , inward , and by faith , the other must be such also . and thus it is as plain as can be , from the words of christ , that he spake not of a carnal or corporal , but of a spiritual eating of his flesh by faith . all this is more confirmed by the key our saviour gives of his whole discourse , when the iews were offended for the hardness of his sayings , it is the spirit that quickneth ( or giveth the life he had been speaking of ) the flesh profiteth nothing , the words i speak unto you are spirit and they are life . from which it is plain he tells them to understand his words of a spiritual life and in a spiritual manner . but now i shall examine n.n. his reasons to the contrary . his chief argument is , that when eternal life is promised upon the giving of alms , or other good works , we must necessarily understand it with this proviso , that they were given with a good intention and from a good principle : therefore we must understand these words of our saviour to have some such proviso in them . all this concludes nothing . it is indeed certain when any promise is past upon an external action , such a reserve must be understood . and so s. paul tells us , if he bestowed all his goods to feed the poor and had no charity , it profited him nothing . and if it were clear our saviour were here speaking of an external action , i should acknowledge such a proviso must be understood ; but that is the thing in question , and i hope i have made it appear our saviour is speaking of an internal action , and therefore no such proviso is to be supposed . for he is speaking of that eating of his flesh , which must necessarily and certainly be worthily done , and so that objection is of no force . he must therefore prove that the eating his flesh is primarily and simply meant of the bodily eating in the sacrament ; and not only by a denomination , from a relation to it : as the whole man is called reasonable , though the reason is seated in the soul only . what he says to shew that by faith only we are not the sons of god , since by baptism also we are the sons of god , is not to the purpose : for the design of the argument , was to prove that by faith only we are the sons of god , so as to be the heirs of eternal life . now the baptism of the adult ( for our debate runs upon those of ripe years and understanding ) makes them only externally , and sacramentally the sons of god : for the inward and vital sonship follows only upon faith. and this faith must be understood of such a lively and operative faith , as includes both repentance and amendment of life . so that when our saviour says , he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , that believing is a complex of all evangelical graces : from which it appears , that none of his reasons are of force enough to conclude that the universality of these words of christ ought to be so limited and restricted . for what remains of that which he desired might be taken notice of , that we ought to prove that christs body and blood was present in the sacrament only spiritually and not corporally by express scriptures , or by arguments whereof the major and minor were either express words of scripture , or equivalent to them : it has no force at all in it . i have in a full discourse examined all that is in the plea concerning the express words of scripture : and therefore shall say nothing upon that head , referring the reader to what he will meet with on that subject afterwards . but here i only desire the reader may consider our contest in this particular is concerning the true meaning of our saviours words , this is my body ; in which it is very absurd to ask for express words of scripture , to prove that meaning by . for if that be'setled on , as a necessary method of proof , then when other scriptures are brought to prove that to be the meaning of these words ; it may be asked how can we prove the true meaning of that place we bring to prove the meaning of this by ? and so by a progress for ever we must contend about the true meaning of every place . therefore when we enquire into the sense of any controverted place : we must judge of it by the rules of common sense and reason of religion and piety , and if a meaning be affixed to any place contrary to these , we have good reason to reject it . for we knowing all external things only by our senses , by which only the miracles & resurrection of christ could be proved , which are the means god has given us to converse with , and enjoy his whole creation ; and the evidence our senses give being such , as naturally determines our perswasions so that after them we cannot doubt ; if then a sense be offered to any place of scripture that does overthrow all this , we have sufficient reason on that very account to reject it . if also any meaning be fastened on a place of scripture that destroyes all our conceptions of things , is contrary to the most universally received maxims , subverts the notions of matter and accidents , and in a word confounds all our clearest apprehensions ; we must also reject every such gloss , since it contradicts the evidence of that which is gods image in us . if also a sense of any place of scripture be proposed that derogates from the glorious exaltation of the humane nature of our blessed saviour , we have very just reasons to reject it , even though we could bring no confirmation of our meaning from express words of scripture . therefore this dispute being chiefly about the meaning of christ's words , he that shews best reasons to prove that his sense is consonant to truth , does all that is necessary in this case . but after all this , we decline not to shew clear scriptures for the meaning our church puts on these words of christ. it was bread that christ took , blessed , brake , and gave his disciples . now the scripture calling it formally bread , destroyes transubstantiation . christ said , this is my body , which are declarative and not imperative words , such as , let there be light , or be thou whole . now all declarative words suppose that which they affirm to be already true , as is most clear ; therefore christ pronounces what the bread was become by his former blessing , which did sanctity the elements : and yet after that blessing it was still bread . again , the reason and end of a thing , is that which keeps a proportion with the means toward it ; so that christs words do this in remembrance of me , shew us that his body is here only in a vital and living commemoration and communication of his body and blood. further , christ telling us , it was his body that was given for us , and his blood shed for us , which we there receive ; it is apparent , he is to be understood present in the sacrament ; not as he is now exalted in glory , but as he was on the cross when his blood was shed for us . and in fine , if we consider that those to whom christ spake were jews , all this will be more easily understood : for it was ordinary for them to call the symbole by the name of the original it represented . so they called the cloud between the cherubims god and iehovah according to these words , o thou that dwellest between the cherubims : and all the symbolical apparitions of god to the patriarchs and the prophets were said to be the lord appearing to them . but that which is more to this purpose is , that the lamb that was the symbole and memorial of their deliverance out of aegypt , was called the lords passover . now though the passover then was only a type of our deliverance by the death of christ , yet the lamb was in proportion to the passover in aegypt , as really a representation of it as the sacrament is of the death of christ. and it is no more to be wondered that christ called the elements his body and blood , though they were not so corporally , but only mystically , and sacramentally ; than that moses called the lamb the lords passover . so that it is apparent it was common among the jews to call the symbole and type by the name of the substance and original . therefore our saviours words are to be understood in the sense and stile that was usual among these to whom he spake , it being the most certain rule of understanding any doubtful expression , to examine the ordinary stile and forms of speech of that age , people , and place , in which such phrases were used . this is signally confirmed by the account which maimonides gives us , of the sense in which eating and drinking is oft taken in the scriptures . first he saies it stands in its natural signification , for receiving bodily food : then because there are two things done in eating , the first is the destruction of that which is eaten , so that it loseth its first form ; the other is the encrease and nourishment of the substance of the person that eats : therefore he observes that eating has two other significations in the language of the scriptures . the one is destruction and desolation : so the sword is said to eat , or as we render it to devour ; so a land is said to eat its inhabitants , and so fire is said to eat or consume . the other sense it is taken in does relate to wisdom , learning , and all intellectual apprehensions , by which the form ( or soul ) of man is conserved from the perfection that is in them , as the body is preserved by food . for proof of this he cites divers places out of the old testament , as isai. 55.2 . come buy and eat , and prov. 25. 27. and prov. 24. 13. he also adds that their rabbins commonly call wisdom , eating ; and cites some of their sayings , as come and eat flesh in which there is much fat , and that when ever eating and drinking is in the book of the proverbs , it is nothing else but wisdom or the law. so also wisdom is often called water , isai. 55.1 . and he concludes that because this sense of eating occurs so often , and is so manifest and evident , as if it were the primary and most proper signification of the word , therefore hunger and thirst do also stand for a privation of wisdom and vnderstanding , as amos 8. 21. to this he also refers that of thirsting , psalm . 42. 3. and isai. 12. 3. and ionathan paraphrasing these words , ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation , renders it , ye shall receive a new doctrine with joy from the select ones among the iust , which is further confirmed from the words of our saviour , iohn 7. 37. and from these observations of the i earnedest and most judicious among all the rabbins , we see that the iewes understood the phrases of eating and eating of flesh in this spiritual and figurative sense of receiving wisdom and instruction . so that this being an usual form of speech among them , it is no strange thing to imagin how our saviour being a iew according to the flesh , and conversing with iews did use these terms and phrases in a sense that was common to that nation . and from all these set together we are confident we have a great deal of reason , and strong and convincing authorities from the scriptures , to prove christs words , this is my body , are to be understood spiritually , mystically , and sacramentally . there remains only to be considered what weight there is in what n. n. says . he answered to d. s. that christ might be received by our senses though not perceived by any of them , as a bole is swallowed over , though our taste does not relish or perceive it . that great man is so very well furnished with reason and learning to justify all he says , that no other body needs interpose on his account . but he being now busie , it was not worth the giving him the trouble , to ask how he would reply upon so weak an answer , since its shallowness appears at the first view : for is there any comparison to be made between an object that all my senses may perceive , if i have a mind to it , that i see with mine eyes , and touch , and feel in my mouth , and if it be too big , and my throat too narrow i will feel stick there ; but only to guard against its offensive taste , i so wrap or conveigh it , that i relish nothing ungrateful in it : and the receiving christ with my senses , when yet none of them either do , or can , though applied with all possible care , discern him ? so that it appears d. s. had very good reason to say , it seemed indeed strange to him , to say , that christ was received by our senses , and yet was so present that none of our senses can perceive him : and this answer to it is but meer trifling . here follows the paper we promised , wherein an account is given of the doctrine of the church for the first eight centuries in the point of the sacrament , which is demonstrated to be contrary to transubstantiation , written in a letter to my lady t. madam , your ladiship may remember , that our meeting at your house on the third instant ended with a promise we made , of sending you such an account of the sense of the fathers for the first six ages , as might sufficiently satisfie every impartial person , that they did not believe transubstantiation . this promise we branched out in three propositions : first that the fathers did hold , that after the consecration the elements of bread and wine did remain unchanged in their substance . the second , was , that after the consecration they called the elements the types , the antitypes , the mysteries , the symboles , the signs , the figures , and the commemorations of the body and blood of christ ; which certainly will satisfie every unprejudiced person , that they did not think the bread and wine were annihilated , and that in their room , and under their accidents , the substance of the body and blood of christ was there . thirdly , we said , that by the doctrine of the fathers the unworthy receivers got not the body and the blood of christ ; from which it must necessarily follow , that the substance of his body and blood is not under the accidents of bread and wine : otherwise all these that unworthily receive them eat christs body and blood. therefore to discharge our selves of our promise , we shall now give your ladiship such an account of the doctrine of the fathers on these heads , as we hope shall convince those gentlemen , that we had a good warrant for what we said . the first proposition is , the fathers believed that after the consecration the elements were still bread and wine . the proofs whereof we shall divide into three branches : the first shall be , that after the consecration they usually called them bread and wine . secondly , that they expresly assert , that the substance of bread and wine remained . thirdly , that they believed the sacramental bread and wine did nourish our bodies . for proof of the first , we desire the following testimonies be considered : iustin martyr says , these who are called deacons , distribute the blessed bread and wine and water to such as are present , and carry it to the absents , and this nourishment is by us called the eucharist . and a little after , we do not receive these as common bread , or common drink ; for as by the word of god iesus christ our saviour being made flesh , had both flesh and blood for our salvation , so we are taught , that that food by which our blood and flesh are nourished , by its change , being blessed by the word of prayer which he gave us , is both the flesh and the blood of the incarnate jesus . thus that martyr that wrote an hundred and fifty years after christ , calls the elements bread and wi●e , and the nourishment which being changed into flesh and blood nourishes them . and saying , it is not common bread and wine , he says , that it was still so in substance ; and his illustrating it with the incarnation , in which the humane nature did not lose nor change its substance in its union with the eternal word , shews , he thought not the bread and wine lost their substance when they became the flesh and blood of christ. the next witness is irenaeus , who writing against the valentinians , that denied the ●ather of our lord jesus to be the creator of the world , and also denied the resurrection of the body ; confutes both these heresies by arguments drawn from the eucharist . to the first he says , if there be another creator than the father of our lord , then our offering creatures to him , argues him covetous of that which is not his own , and so we reproach him rather than bless him . and adds , how does it appear to any of them , that that bread over which thanks are given , is the body of his lord , and the cup of his blood , if he be not the son of the creator . and he argues against their saying , our bodies should not rise again that are fed by the body and blood of christ : for says he , that bread which is of the earth , having had the invocation of god over it , is no more common bread , but the eucharist , consisting of two things , an earthly and an heavenly ; so our bodies that receive the eucharist are no more corruptible , having the hope of the resurrection . tertullian proving against marcion , that christ was not contrary to the creator , among other proofs which he brings to shew , that christ made use of the creatures , and neither rejected water , oil , milk , or honey , he adds , neither did he reject bread , by which he represents his own body . and further says , christ calls bread his body , that from thence you may understand , that he gave the figure of his body to the bread. origen says , we eat of the loaves set before us , with thanksgiving and prayers over what is given to us , which by the prayer are become a certain holy body , that sanctifies those who use them with a sound purpose . saint cyprian says , christ calls the bread that was compounded of many grains joined together , his body , to shew the union of our people which he bore upon himself ; and calls the wine which is pressed out of many grapes and berries , his blood : he signifies our flock which is joined together in the mixture of an united multitude . and writing against those who only put water in the chalice , he says , since christ said , i am the true vine , the blood of christ is not only water but wine , neither can we see his blood by which we are redeemed and quickened in the chalice when wine is not in it , by which the blood of christ is shewed . and that whole epistle is all to the same purpose . epiphanius says , christ in the supper rose and took these things , and having given thanks said , this is my , &c. now we see it is not equal to it , nor like it , neither to his incarnate likeness , nor his invisible deity , nor the lineaments of his members , for it is round , and without feeling as to its vertue . and this he says , to shew how man may be said to be made after the image of god , though he be not like him . gregory nyssen , shewing how common things may be sanctified , as water in baptism , the stones of an altar and church dedicated to god ; he adds , so also bread in the beginning is common , but after the mystery has consecrated it , is said to be , and is the body of christ ; so the mystical oyl , so the wine before the blessing , are things of little value , but after the sanctification of the spirit , both of them work excellently . he also adds , that the priest by his blessing is separated and sanctified ; from which it appears , he no more believed the change of the substance of the bread and wine , than of the consecrated oyl , the altar , or the priest. ambrose speaking of bread , which was ashers blessing , says , this bread christ gave his apostles , that they might divide it to the people that believed , and gives it to us to day , which the priest consecrates in his words , this bread is made the food of the saints . st. chrysostome on these words , the bread which we break , it is not the communion of the body of christ ? says , what is the bread ? the body of christ. what are they made who take it ? the body of christ. from whence it appears , he thought the bread was so the body of christ , as the worthy receivers are , which is not by the change of their substance , but by the sanctification of their natures . st. jerome says , let us hear the bread which christ brake and gave his disciples , to be the body of our lord. and he says , after the typical pascha was fulfilled , christ took bread that comforts the heart of man , and went to the true sacrament of the pascha , that as melchifedeck in the figure had done offering bread and wine , so he might also represent the truth of his body and blood. where he very plainly calls the elements bread and wine , and a representation of christs body and blood. saint austin ( as he is cited by fulgentius de baptismo and divers others ) , in his exhortation to these that were newly baptized , speaking of this sacrament , says , that which you see is the bread , and the cup which your eyes witness ; but that which your faith must be instructed in , is , that the bread is the body of christ , and the cup is his blood. and then he proposes the objection , how that could be ? and answers it thus , these things are therefore called sacraments , because one thing is seen and another is understood ; what you see has a bodily appearance , but what you understand has a spiritual fruit ; and if you will understand the body of christ , hear what the apostle says to the faithful , ye are the body of christ and his members : if therefore you be the body and members of christ , your mystery is placed on the table of the lord , and you receive the mystery of the lord. and at large prosecutes this , to shew how the faithful are the body of christ , as the bread is made up of many grains ; from whence it appears , that he believed , that the consecrated elements were still bread and wine . and speaking of st. pauls breaking bread at troas , he says , being to break bread that night , as it is broken in the sacrament of the body of christ. he also says , the eucharist is our daily bread ; but let us so receive it , that not only our belly but our mind be refreshed by it . besides in a great many places st. austin calls the eucharist , the sacrament of bread and wine . and speaking of things made use of to signifie somewhat else , he adds for one , the bread that is made for this , is consumed in our receiving the sacrament . he also says , to eat bread is in the new testament the sacrifice of christians . he likewise says , both judas and peter received a part of the same bread out of the same hand of our lord. and thus from twelve witnesses that are beyond all exception , it does appear , that the fathers believed the elements to be still bread and wine after the consecration . we have not brought any proofs from the fathers that are less known or read , for then we must have swelled up this paper beyond what we intend it . one thing is so considerable , that we cannot forbear to desire it be taken notice of , and that is , that we see those great fathers and doctors of the church call the consecrated elements , without any mincing of the matter , bread and wine ; but when they call it the body and blood of christ , they often use some mollifying and less hardy expression . so st. austin says , almost all call the sacrament his body . and again says , we call that only the body blood of christ , which being taken of the fruits of the earth , and consecrated by the mystical prayer , we rightly receive for our spiritual health in the commemoration of the passion of our lord for us . and he says , after some sort the sacrament of the body of christ is his body , and the sacrament of his blood is the blood of christ. and also says , he carried himself in his own hands in some sort , when he said , this is my body . st. chrysostome says , the bread is thought worthy to be called the body of our lord. and on these words , the flesh lusteth against the spirit , among the improper acceptions of flesh , says , the scriptures use to call the mysteries by the name of flesh , and sometimes the whole church , saying , she is the body of christ. tertullian says , christ calls the bread his body , and a little after , he names the bread his body . isidore hispal , says , we call this after his command the body and blood of christ , . which being made of the fruits of the earth , is sanctified and made a sacrament . theodoret says , in the giving of the mysteries christ called the bread his body , and the mixed cup his blood. and says , he who called his natural body corn and bread , and also calls himself a vine , likewise honoured these visible symboles with the names of his body and blood. but now we go to bring our proofs for the next branch of our first proposition ; in which we assert , that the fathers believed that the very substance of the bread and wine did remain after the consecration . by which all the proofs brought in the former branch will receive a further evidence ; since by these it will appear the fathers believed the substance of the elements remained ; and thence we may well conclude , that where-ever we find mention made of bread and wine after consecration , they mean of the substance , and not of the accidents , of bread and wine . for proof of this , we sha●● only bring the testimonies of four ●a●h●rs , that lived almost within one age , and were the greatest men of the age . their authority is as generally received as their testimonies are formal and decisive ; and these are , pope gelasius , st. chrysostome , ephrem patriarch of antioch , and theodoret , whom we shall find delivering to us the doctrine of the church in their age , with great consideration upon a very weighty occasion : so that it shall appear that this was for that age the doctrine generally received both in the churches of rome and constantinople , antioch , and asi● the less . we shall begin with gelasius , who , though he lived later than some of the others , yet , because of the eminence of his see , and the authority those we deal with must needs acknowledge was in him , ought to be set first : he says , the sacraments of the body and blood of christ are a divine thing ; for which reason we become , by them , partakers of the divine nature ; and yet the substance or nature of bread and wine does not cease to be ; and the image and likeness of the body and blood of christ are indeed celebrated in the action of the mysteries : therefore it appears evidently ●nough , that we ought to think th●t of christ our lord , which we profess and celebrate , and receive in his image , that as they ( to wit , the elements ) pass into that divine substance , the holy ghost working it , their nature remaining still in its own property . so that principal mystery , whose efficiency and virtue these ( to wit , the sacraments ) represent to us , remains one entire and true christ ; those things of which he is compounded ( to wit , his two natures ) remaining in their properties . these words seem so express and decisive , that one would think the bare reading them without any further reflections , should be of force enough . but before we offer any considerations upon them , we shall set down other passages of the other fathers , and upon them altogether make such remarks as , we hope , may satisfy any that will hear reason . st. chrysostom treating of the two natures of christ against the apollinarists , who did so confound them , as to consubstantiate them , he makes use of the doctrine of the sacrament to illustrate that mystery by , in these words ; as before the bread is sanctified , we call it bread ; but when the divine grace has sanctified it by the mean of the priest , it is freed from the name of bread , and is thought worthy of the name of the lord's body , though the nature of bread remains in it : and yet it is not said there are two bodies , but one body of the son : so the divine nature being joyned to the body , both these make one son , and one person . next this patriarch of constantinople , let us hear ephrem the patriarch of antioch give his testimony , as it is preserved by photius , who says thus ; in like manner ( having before treated of the two natures united in christ ) the body of christ , which is received by the faithful , does not depart from its sensible substance , and yet remains inseparated from the intellectual grace : so baptism becoming wholly spiritual and one , it preserves its own sensible substance , and does not lose that which it was before . to these we shall add , what theodoret on the same occasion says against those , who from that place , the word was made flesh , believed , that in the incarnation the divinity of the word was changed into the humanity of the flesh. he brings in his heretick arguing about some mystical expressions of the old testament , that related to christ : at length he comes to shew , how christ called himself bread and corn ; so also in the delivering the mysteries , christ called the bread his body , and the mixed cup his blood ; and our saviour changed the names , calling his body by the name of the symbole , and the symbole by the name of his body . and when the heretick asks the reason why the names were so changed , the orthodox answers , that it was manifest to such as were initiated in divine things ; for he would have those who partake of the mysteries , not look to the nature of those things that were seen ; but by the change of the names , to believe that change that was made through grace ; for he who called his natural body corn and bread , does likewise honour the visible symboles with the name of his body and blood ; not changing the nature , but adding grace to nature : and so goes on to ask his heretick , whether he thought the holy bread was the symbole and type of his divinity , or of his body and blood ? and the other acknowledging they were the symboles of his body and blood : he concludes , that christ had a true body . the second dialogue is against the eutychians ; who believed , that after christ's assumption , his body was swallowed up by his divinity : and there the eutychian brings an argument to prove that change from the sacament ; it being granted , that the gifts before the priests prayer were bread and wine . he asks how it was to be called after the sanctification ? the or●hodox answers , the body and blood of christ ; and that he believed he received the body and blood of christ. from thence the heretick , as having got a great advantage , argues ; that as the symboles of the body and blood of our lord were one thing before the priestly invocation , and after that were changed , and are different from what they were : so the body of our lord , after the assumption , was changed into the divine substance . but the orthodox replies , that he was catched in the net be laid for others ; for the mystical symboles , after the sanctification , do not depart from their own nature ; for they continue in their former substance , figure and form , and are both visible and palpable , as they were before ; but they are understood to be that which they are made , and are believed and venerated , as being those things which they are believed to be . and from thence he bids the heretick compare the image with the original , for the type must be like the truth , and shews that christ's body retains its former form and figure , and the substance of his body , though it be now made immortal and incorruptible . thus he . and having now set down very faithfully the words of these fathers , we desire it may be considered , that all these words are used to the same effect , to prove the reality of christ's body , and the distinction of the two natures , the divine and the humane in him . for , though st. chrysostom lived before eutyches his days , yet in this point the eutychians and the apollinarists , against whom he writes , held opinions so like others , that we may well say , all these words of the fathers we have set down are to the same purpose . now , first it is evident , that if transubstantiation had been then believed , there needed no other argument to prove against the eutychians that christ had still a real body , but to have declared that his body was corporally present in the eucharist ; which they must have done , had they believed it , and not spoken so as they did ; since that alone well proved , had put an end to the whole controversy . further , they could never have argued from the visions and apparitions of christ , to prove he had still a real body ; for if it was possible the body of christ could appear under the accidents of bread and wine , it was as possible the divinity should appear under the accidents of an humane body . thirdly , they could never have argued against the eutychians , as they did , from the absurdity that followed upon such a substantial mutation of the humane nature of christ into his divinity , if they had believed this substantial conversion of the elements into christ's body , which is liable unto far greater absurdities . and we can as little doubt , but the eutychians had turned back their arguments on themselves , with these answers , if that doctrine had been then received . it is true , it would seem from the last passage of theodoret , that the eutychians did believe some such change ; but that could not be , for they denied the being of the body of christ , and so could not think any thing was changed into that which they believed was not . therefore we are to suppose him arguing from some commonly received expressions , which the father explains . in fine , the design of those ●athers being to prove , that the two natures might be united without the change of either of their substances in the person of christ , it had been inexcusable folly in them , to have argued from the sacramental mysteries being united to the body and blood of christ , if they had not believed they retained their former substance ; for had they believed transubstantiation , what a goodly argument had it been , to have said , because after the consecration the accidents of bread and wine remain , therefore the substance of the humanity remained still , though united to the divine nature in christ. did ever man in his wits argue in this fashion ? certainly , these four bishops , whereof three were patriarchs , and one of these a pope , deserved to have been hissed out of the world , as persons that understood nor what it was to draw a consequence , if they had argued so as they did and believed transubstantiation . but if you allow them to believe ( as certainly they did ) that in the sacrament the real substances of bread and wine remained , though after the sanctification , by the operation of the holy ghost , they were the body and blood of christ , and were to be called so ; then this is a most excellent illustration of the mystery of the incarnation , in which the humane nature retains its proper and true substance , though after the union with the divinity , christ be called god , even as he was man , by vertue of his union with the eternal word . and this shews how unreasonable it is to pretend , that because substance and nature are some●imes used even for accidental qualities , they should be therefore understood so in the cited places ; for if you take them in that sense , you destroy the force of the argument , which from being a very strong one , will by this means become a most ridiculous sophism . yet we are indeed beholding to those that have taken much pains to shew , that substance and nature stand often for accidental qualities ; for though that cannot be applied to the former places , yet it helps us with an excellent answer to many of those passages with which they triumph not a little . having so far considered these four fathers , we shall only add to them the definition of the seventh general council at constantinople , ann . 754. christ appointed us to offer the image of his body , to wit , the substance of the bread. this council is indeed of no authority with these we deal with : but we do not bring it as a decree of a council , but as a testimony , that so great a number of bishops did in the eighth century believe ; that the substance of the bread did remain in the eucharist , and that it was only the image of christ's body : and if in this definition they spake not more consonantly to the doctrine of the former ages , than their enemies at nice did , let what has been set down , and shall be yet adduced , declare . and now we advance to the third branch of our first assertion , that the fathers believed that the consecrated elements did nourish our bodies ; and the proofs of this will also give a further evidence to our former position ; that the substance of the elements does , remain : and it is a demonstration that these fathers , who thought the sacrament nourished our bodies , could not believe a transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of christ. for the proof of this branch we desire the following testimonies be considered . first , iustin martyr , as was already cited , not only calls the eucharist our nourishment , but formally calls it that food by which our flesh and blood through its transmutation into them are nourished . secondly , irenaeus proving the resurrection of the body by this argument , that our bodies are fed by the body and blood of christ , and that therefore they shall rise again ; he hath these words , he confirmed that cup , which is a creature , to be his blood , by which he increases our blood ; and the bread , which is a creature , to be his body , by which he encreases our body : and when the mixed cup and the bread , receive the word of god , it becomes the eucharist of the body and blood of christ , by which the substance of our flesh is encreased and subsists . how then do they deny the flesh to be capable of the gift of god , which is eternal life , that is nourished by the body and blood of christ , and is made his member . we hope it will be observed , that as these words are express and formal ; so the design on which he uses them will admit of none of those distinctions they commonly rely on . tertullian says , the flesh is fed with the body and blood of christ. saint austin , after he had called the eucharist our daily bread , he exhorts us so to receive it , that not only our bellies , but our minds might be refreshed by it . isidore of sevil says , the substance of the visible bread nourishes the outward man ; or , as bertram cites his words , all that we receive externally in the sacrament of the body and blood of christ , is proper to refresh the body . next , let us see what the 16 th council of toledo says in anno. 633. condemning those that did not offer in the eucharist entire loaves , but only round crafts ; they did appoint one entire loaf carefully prepared to be set on the altar , that it might be sanctified by the priestly benediction , and order , that what remained after communion , should be either put in some bag , or , if it was needful , to eat it up , that it might not oppress the belly of him that took it with the burden of an heavy surcharge ; and that it might not go to the digestion , but that it might feed his soul with spiritual nourishment . from which words , one of two consequences will necessarily follow ; either that the consecrated elements do really nourish the body , which we intend to prove from them ; or that the body of christ is not in the elements , but as they are sacramentally used , which we acknowledg many of the fathers believed . but the last words we cited of the spiritual nourishment , shew those fathers did not think so ; and if they did , we suppose those we deal with will see , that to believe christ's body is only in the elements when used , will clearly leave the charge of idolatry on that church in their processions , and other adorations of the host. but none is so express as origen , who , on these words , ' t is not that which enters within a man which defiles a man , says , if every thing that enters by the mouth , goes into the belly , and is cast into the draught ; then the food that is sanctified by the word of god , and by prayer , goes also to the belly , as to what is material in it , and from thence to the draught ; but by the prayer that was made over it , it is useful in proportion to our faith , and is the mean that the understanding is clear-sighted and attentive to that which is profitable ; and it is not the matter of bread , but the word pronounced over it , which profits him that does not eat it in a way unworthy of our lord. this doctrine of the sacraments being so digested that some parts of it turned to excrement , was likewise taught by divers latin writers in the 9 th age , as rabanus maurus arch-bishop of mentz , and heribald bishop of auxerre . divers of the greek writers did also hold it , whom for a reproach their adversaries called stercoranists . it is true , other greek fathers were not of origen's opinion , but believed that the eucharist did entirely turn into the substance of our bodies . so cyril of ierusalem says , that the bread of the eucharist does not go into the belly , nor is cast into the draught , but is distributed thorough the whole substance of the communicant , for the good of body and soul. the homily of the eucharist in a dedication , that is in st. chrysostom's works , says , do not think that this is bread , and that this is wine ; for they pass not to the draught , as other victuals do : and comparing it to wax put to the fire , of which no ashes remain ; he adds , so think that the mysteries are consumed with the substance of our bodies . john damascene is of the same mind , who says , that the body and the blood of christ passes into the consistence of our souls and bodies , without being consumed , corrupted , or passing into the draught , god forbid , but passing into our substance for our conservation thus it will appear , that though those last-cited-fathers did not believe as origen did , that any part of the eucharist went to the draught ; yet they thought it was turned into the substance of our bodies , from which we may well conclude , they thought the substance of bread and wine remained in the eucharist after the consecration , and that it nourished our bodies . and thus we hope we have sufficiently proved our first proposition in all its three branches . so leaving it , we go on to the second proposition , which is ; that the fathers call the consecrated elements the figures , the signs , the symboles , the types , and antitypes , the commemoration , representation , the mysteries , and the sacraments of the body and blood of christ. tertullian proving against marcion , that christ had a real body , he brings some figures that were fulfilled in christ , and says , he made the bread which he took and gave his disciples to be his body , saying , this is my body , that is , the figure of my body ; but it had not been a figure if his body had not been true , for an empty thing , such as a phantasm , cannot have a figure . now had tertullian , and the church in his time , believed transubstantiation , it had been much more pertinent for him to have argued , here is corporally present christ's body , therefore he had a true body , than to say , here is a figure of his body , therefore he had a true body ; such an escape as this is not incident to a man of common sense , if he had believed transubsubstantiation . and the same father , in two other places before cited , says christ gave the figure of his body to the bread , and that he represented his own body by the bread. st. austin says , he commended and gave to his disciples , the figure of his body and blood. the same expressions are also in bede , alcuine , and druthmar , that lived in the eighth and ninth centuries . but what st. austin says elsewhere , is very full in this matter , where treating of the rules by which we are to judg what expressions in scripture are figurative , and what not , he gives this for one rule , if any place seem to command a crime or horrid action , it is figurative ; and to instance it , cites these words , except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man , you have no life in you , which ( says he ) seems to command some crime , or horrid action , therefore it is a figure , commanding us to communicate in the passion of our lord , and sweetly and profitably to lay up in our memory , that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us . which words are so express and full , that whatever those we deal with may think of them , we are sure we cannot devise how any one could have delivered our doctrine more formally . parallel to these are origen's words , who calls the understanding the words of our saviour , of eating his flesh and drinking his blood according to the letter , a letter that kills . the same st. austin calls the eucharist , a sign of christ's body , in his book against adimantus , who studied to prove that the author of the old and new testament was not the same god ; and among other arguments , he uses this , that blood in the old testament is called the life or soul , contrary to the new testament : to which st. austin answers , that it was so called , not that it was truly the soul or life , but the sign of it ; and to shew , that the sign does sometimes bear the name of that whereof it is a sign , he says , our lord did not doubt to say , this is my body , when he was giving the sign of his body . where , if he had not believed the eucharist was substantially different from his body , it had been the most impertinent illustration that ever was , and had proved just against him , that the sign must be one and the same with that which is signified by it . for the sacrament being called the type , the antitype , the symbole and mystery of christs body and blood ; the ancient liturgies , and greek fathers , use these phrases so frequently , that since it is not so much as denied , we judg we need not laboriously prove it . therefore we pass over this , believing it will be granted ; for if it be denied , we undertake to prove them to have been used not only on some occasions , but to have been the constant stile of the church . now that types , antitypes , symboles , and mysteries , are distinct from that which they shadow forth , and mystically hold out , we believe can be as little disputed . in this sense all the figures of the law are called types of christ by the fathers , and both the baptismal water and the chrism are called symboles and mysteries . and though there was not that occasion for the fathers to discourse on baptism so oft , which every body received but once , and was administred ordinarily but on a few days of the year , as they had to speak of the eucharist , which was daily consecrated ; so that it cannot be imagined , there should be near such a number of places about the one as about the other ; yet we fear not to undertake to prove , there be many places among the ancients that do as fully express a change of the baptismal water as of the eucharistical elements . from whence it may appear , that their great zeal to prepare persons to a due value of these holy actions , and that they might not look on them as a vulgar ablution , or an ordinary repast , carried them to many large and high expressions , which cannot bear a literal meaning . and since they with whom we deal are sain to fly to metaphors and allegories for for cleaning of what the i athers say of baptism , it is a most unreasonable thing to complain of us for using such expositions of what they say about the eucharist . but that we may not leave this without some proof , we shall set down the words of facundus , who says , the sacrament of adoption , that is baptism , may be called adoption , as the sacrament of his body and blood , which is in the consecrated bread and cup , is called his body and blood ; not that the bread is properly his body , or the cup properly his blood , but because they contain in them the mystery of his body and blood ; and hence it was that our lord called the bread that was blessed , and the cup which he gave his disciples , his body and blood. therefore as the believers in christ , when they receive the sacrament of his body and blood , are rightly said to have received his body and blood ; so christ , when he received the sacrament of the adoption of sons , may be rightly said to have received the adoption of sons . and we leave every one to gather from these words , if the cited father could believe transubstantiation , and if he did not think that baptism was as truly the adoption of the sons of god , as the eucharist was his body and blood , which these of rome acknowledge is only to be meant in a moral sense . that the fathers called this sacrament the memorial and representation of the death of christ , and of his body that was broken , and his blood that was shed , we suppose will be as little denied , for no man that ever looked into any of their treatises of the eucharist , can doubt of it . st. austin says , that sacraments must have some similitude of these things of which they be the sacraments , otherwise they could not be sacraments . so he says , the sacrament of the body of christ is after some manner his blood. so the sacrament of faith ( that is baptism ) is faith. but more expresly speaking of the eucharist as a sacrifice of praise ; he says , the flesh and blood of this sacrifice was promised before the coming of christ by the sacrifices of the types of it : in the passion of christ ; it was done in the truth it self : and after his ascent is celebrated by the sacrament of the remembrance of it . but he explains this more fully on the 98 th psalm ; where he having read , ver . 5. worship his footstool ; and seeking for its true meaning , expounds it of christ's body , who was flesh of this earth , and gives his flesh to be eaten by us for our salvation , which , since none eats , except he have first adored it ; he makes this the footstool which we worship without any sin , and do sin if we do not worship it . so far the church of rome triumphs with this place . but let us see what follows , where we shall find that which will certainly abate their joy ; he goes on and tells us , not to dwell on the flesh , lest we be not quickned by the spirit ; and shews how they that heard our lord's words were scandalized at them as hard words ; for they understood them , says he , foolishly , and carnally , and thought he was to have cut off some parcels of his body to be given them : but they were hard , not our lord 's saying ; for had they been meek , and not hard , they should have said within themselves , he says not this without a cause , but because there is some sacrament hid there ; for had they come to him with his disciples , and asked him , he had instructed them : for he said it is the spirit that quickens , the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that i have spoken to you are spirit and life . and adds , understand spiritually that which i have said ; for it is not this body which you 〈◊〉 , that you are to eat ; or to drink this 〈◊〉 which they are to shed , who shall 〈◊〉 me : but i have recommended a sacrament to you , which being spiritually understood , shall quicken you ; and though it be necessary that it be celebrated visibly , yet it must be understood invisibly . from which it is as plain as can be , that st. austin believed that in the eucharist we do not eat the natural flesh , and drink the natural blood of christ ; but that we do it only in a sacrament , and spiritually , and invisibly . but the force of all this will appear yet clearer , if we consider that they speak of the sacrament as a memorial that exhibited christ to us in his absence : for though it naturally followes , that whatsoever is commemorated must needs be absent ; yet this will be yet more evident , if we find the fathers made such reflections on it . so gaudentius says , this is , the hereditary gift of his new teststament , which that night he was betrayed to be crucified , he left as the pledg of his presence : this is the provision for our journey with which we are fed in this way of our life , and nourished till we go to him out of this world ; for he would have his benefits remain with us : he would have our souls to be always sanctified by his precious blood , and by the image of his own passion . primasius compares the sacrament to a pledg , which one , when he is dying , leaves to any whom he loved . many other places may be brought , to shew how the fathers speak of memorials and representations , as opposite to the truth and presence of that which is represented . and thus we doubt not but we have brought proofs , which , in the judgment of all that are unprejudiced , must demonstrate the truth of this our second proposition , which we leave , and go on to the third , which was ; that by the doctrine of the fathers , the unworthy receivers did not receive christ's body and blood in the sacrament . for this our first proof is taken from origen , who after he had spoken of the sacraments being eaten , and passing to the belly , adds , these things we have said of the typical and symbolical body ; but many things may be said of the word that was made flesh , and the true food , whom whosoever eats , he shall live for ever ; whom no wicked person can eat : for if it were possible that any who continues wicked , should eat the word that was made flesh , since he is the word , and the living bread , it had never been written ; whoso eats this bread , shall live for ever . where he makes a manifest difference between the typical and symbolical body received in the sacrament , and the incarnate word , of which no wicked person can partake . and he also says , they that are good eat the living bread that came down from heaven ; and the wicked eat dead bread , which is death . zeno , bishop of verona , that , as is believed , lived near origen's time , says , ( as he is cited by ratherius bishop of verona ) there is cause to fear , that be in whom the devil dwells , does not eat the flesh of our lord , nor drink his blood , though he seems to communicate with the faithful ; since our lord hath said , he that eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , dwells in me , and i in him . st. jerom on the 66 th of isa. says , they that are not holy in body and spirit , do neither eat the flesh of jesus , nor drink his blood ; of which he said , he that eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , hath eternal life . and on the 8 th chap. of hos. he says , they eat not his flesh , whose flesh is the food of them that believe . to the same purpose he writes in his comments on the 22 th of jeremy , and on the 10 th of zech. st. austin says , he that does not abide in christ , and in whom christ does not abide , certainly does not spiritually eat his flesh , nor drink his blood , though he may visibly and carnally break in his teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of christ. but he rather eats and drinks the sacrament of so great a matter to his judgment . and speaking of those , who by their uncleanness become the members of an harlot ; he says , neither are they to be said to eat the body of christ , because they are not his members . and besides , he adds , he that says , whoso eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , abides in me , and i in him ; shews what it is not only in a sacrament , but truly to eat the body of christ , and drink his blood. to this we shall add , that so oft cited passage ; those did eat the bread that was the lord ; the other ( he means judas ) the bread of the lord against the lord. by which he clearly insinuates , he did believe the unworthy receivers did not receive the lord with the bread : and that this hath been the cons●ant belief of the greek-church to this day , shall be proved , if it be thought necessary for clearing this matter . and thus far we have studied to make good what we undertook to prove : but if we had enlarged on every particular , we must have said a great deal more ; to shew from many undeniable evidences , that the fathers were strangers to this new mystery . it is clear from their writings , that they thought christ was only spiritually present , that we did eat his flesh , and drink his blood only by faith , and not by our bodily senses ; and that the words of eating his flesh , and drinking his blood , were to be understood spiritually . it is no less clear , that they considered christ present only as he was on the cross , and not as he is now in the glory of the father : and from hence it was , that they came to order their eucharistical forms so , as that the eucharist might represent the whole history of christ from his incarnation to his assumption . besides , they always speak of christ as absent from us , according to his flesh and human nature , and only present in his divinity and by his spirit ; which they could not have said , if they had thought him every day present on their altars in his flesh and human nature ; for then he were more on earth than he is in heaven , since in heaven he is circumscribed within one place . but according to this doctrine he must be always in above a million of places upon earth , so that it were very strange to say he were absent , if they believed him thus present . but to give yet further evidences of the fathers not believing this doctrine , let us but reflect a little on the consequences that necessarily follow it : which be , 1. that a body may be , by the divine power , in more places at once . 2. that a body may be in a place without extension or quantity ; so a body of such dimensions as our blessed lord's body can be in so small a room as a thin wafer ; and not only so , but that the whole body should be entirely in every crumb and point of that wafer . 3. that a body can be made or produced in a place that had a real being before , and yet is not brought thither , but produced there . 4. that the accidents of any substance , such as colour , smell , taste , and figure , can remain without any body or substance in which they subsist . 5. that our senses may deceive us in their clearest and most evident representations . 6. great doubts there are what becomes of the body of christ after it is received ; or , if it should come to be corrupted , or to be snatched by a mouse , or eat by any vermine . all these are the natural and necessary effects of this doctrine , and are not only to be perceived by a contemplative and searching understanding , but are such as stare every body full in the face : and hence it is , that since this was submitted to in the western church , the whole doctrine of philosophy has been altered , and new maxims and definitions were found out , to accustom the youth while raw and easy to any impression , to receive these as principles , by which their minds being full of those first prejudices , might find no difficulty to believe this . now it is certain , had the fathers believed this , they who took a great deal of pains to resolve all the other mysteries of our faith , and were so far from being short or defective in it , that they rather over-do it ; and that not only about the mysteries of the trinity and incarnation , but about original sin , the derivation of our souls , the operation of the grace of god in our hearts , and the resurrection of our bodies , should yet have been so constantly silent in those mysteries , though they ought rather to have been cleared than the other . because in the other heads the difficulties were more speculative and abstracted , and so scruples were only incident to men of more curious and diligent enquiries . but here it is otherwise , where the matter being an object of the senses , every mans senses must have raised in him all or most of those scruples : and yet the fathers neither in their philosophical treatises , nor in their theological writings , ever attempt the unridling those difficulties . but all this is only a negative , and yet we do appeal to any one that has diligently read the fathers , st. austin in particular ; if he can perswade himself , that when all other mysteries and the consequences from them were explained with so great care and even curiosity , these only were things of so easy a digestion , that about them there should have been no scruple at all made . but it is yet clearer , when we find the fathers not only silent , but upon other occasions delivering maxims and principles so directly contrary to these consequences , without any reserved exceptions or provisions for the strange mysteries of transubstantiation : they tell us plainly , creatures are limited to one place , and so argued against the heathens believing their inferior deities were in the several statues consecrated to them : from this they prove the divinity of the holy ghost , that he did work in many places at once , and so could not be a creature , which can only be in one place . nay , they do positively teach us , that christ can be no more on earth , since his body is in heaven , and is but in one place . they also do tell us , that that which hath no bounds nor figure , and cannot be touched nor seen , cannot be a body , and that all bodies are extended in some place , and that bodies cannot exist after the manner of spirits . they also tell us in all their reasonings against the eternity of matter , that nothing could be produced that had a being before it was produced . they also teach us very formally , that none of the qualities of a body could subsist , except the body it self did also subsist . and for the testimonies of our senses , they appeal to them on all occasions as infallible ; and tell us , that it tended to reverse the whole state of our life , the order of nature , and to blind the providence of god ; to say , he has given the knowledg and enjoyment of all his works to liars and deceivers ; if our senses be false . then we must doubt of our faith ; if the testimony of the eyes , hands and ears were of a nature capable to be deceived . and in their contests with the marcionites and others about the truth of christ's body , they appeal always to the testimony of the senses as infallible : nay , even treating of the sacrament , they say , it was bread as their eyes witnessed , and truly wine that christ did consecrate for the memory of his blood ; telling , that in this very particular we ought not to doubt the testimony of our senses . but to make this whole matter yet plainer ; it is certain , that had the church in the first ages believed this doctrine , the heathens and jews who charged them with every thing they could pos " ms = " sibly invent , had not passed over this , against which all the powers of reason , and the authorities of sense , do rise up . they charge them for believing a god , that was born , a god of flesh , that was crucified and buried . they laughed at their belief of a iudgment to come , of endless flames , of an heavenly paradise , and the resurrection of the flesh. the first apologists for christianity , iustin , tertullian , origen , arnobi●s , and cyril of alexandria , give us a full account of those blasphemies against our most holy faith ; and the last hath given us what iulian objected in his own words , who having apostatized from the faith in which he was initiated , and was a reader in the church , must have been well acquainted with , and instructed in their doctrine and sacraments . he then who laughed at every thing , and in particular at the ablution and sanctification in baptism , as conceiving it a thing impossible that water should cleanse and wash a soul. yet neither he , nor celsus , nor any other ever charged on the christians any absurdities from their belief of transubstantiation . this is , it is true , a negative argument ; yet when we consider the malice of those ingenious enemies of our faith , and their care to expose all the doctrines and customs of christians , and yet find them in no place charge the strange consequences of this doctrine on them ; we must from thence conclude , there was no such doctrine then received : for if it had been , they , at least iulian , must have known it ; and if they knew it , can we think they should not have made great noise about it . we know some think their charging the christians with the eating of humane flesh , and thye●tean suppers , related to the sacrament ; but that cannot be , for when the fathers answer that charge , they tell them to their teeth , it was a plain lye : and do not offer to explain it with any relation to the eucharist , which they must have done if they had known it was founded on their doctrine of receiving christs body and blood in the sacrament . but the truth is , those horrid calumnies were charged on the christians from the execrable and abominable practi●es of the gnosticks , who called themselves christians ; and the enemies of the faith , either believing these were the practices of all christians , or being desirous to have others think so , did accuse the whole body of christians as guilty of these abominations . so that it appears , those calumnies were not at all taken up from the eucharist , and there being nothing else that is so much as said to have any relation to the eucharist , charged on the christians , we may well conclude from hence , that this doctrine was not received then in the church . but another negative argument is , that we find heresies rising up in all ages against all the other mysteries of our faith , and some downright denying them , others explaining them very strangely ; and it is indeed very natural to an unmortified and corrupt mind , to reject all divine revelation , more particularly that which either choakes his common notions , or the deductions of appearing reasonings ; but most of all , all men are apt to be startled , when they are told , they must believe against the clearest evidences of sense , for men were never so meek and tame , as easily to yeild to such things . how comes it then , that for the first seven ages there were no heresies nor hereticks about this ? we are ready to prove , that from the eighth and ninth centuries , in which this doctrine began to appear , there has been in every age great opposition made to all the advances for setting it up , and yet these were but dark and unlearned ages , in which implicite obedience , and a blind subjection to what was generally proposed , was much in credit . in those ages , the civil powers being ready to serve the rage of church-men against any who should oppose it , it was not safe for any to appear against it . and yet it cannot be denied , but from the days of the second council of nice , which made a great step towards transubstantiation , till the fourth council of l●teran , there was great opposition made to it by the most eminent persons in the latin church ; and how great a part of christendome has departed from the obedience of the church of rome in every age since that time , and upon that account , is well enough known . now , is it to be imagined , that there should have been such an opposition to it these nine hundred years last past , and yet that it should have been received the former eight hundred years with no opposition , and that it should not have cost the church the trouble of one general council to decree it , or of one treatise of a father to establish it , and answer those objections that naturally arise from our reasons and senses against it . but in the end there are many things which have risen out of this doctrine as its natural consequences , which had it been sooner taught and received , must have been apprehended sooner , and those are so many clear presumptions of the novelty of this doctrine . the elevation , adoration , processions , the doctrine of concomitance , with a vast superfaetation of rites and rubricks about this sacrament are lately sprung up . the age of them is well known , and they have risen in the latin church out of this doctrine , which had it been sooner received , we may reasonably enough think must have been likewise ancienter . now for all these things , as the primitive church knew them not , so on the other hand , the great simplicity of their forms , as we find them in justin martyr , and cyril of ierusalem , in the apostolical constitutions , and the pretended denis the arcopagite , are far from that pomp which the latter ages that believed this doctrine brought in the sacraments being given in both kinds , being put in the hands of the faithful , being given to the children for many ages , being sent by boys or common persons to such as were dying , the eating up what remained , ( which in some places were burnt , in other places were consumed by children , or by the clergy ) their making cataplasms of it , their mixing the consecrated chalice with ink to sign the excommunication of hereticks . these , with a great many more , are such convictions to one that has carefully compared the ancient forms , with the rubricks and rites of the church of rome , since this doctrine was set up , that it is as discernable as any thing can be , that the present belief of the church of rome is different from the primitive doctrine . and thus far we have set down the reasons that perswade us that transubstantiation was not the belief of the first seven or eight centuries of the church . if there be any part of what we have asserted , questioned , we have very formal and full proofs ready to shew for them ; though we thought it not fit to enter into the particular proofs of any thing , but what we undertook to make out when we waited on your ladyship . now there remains but one thing to be done , which we also promised ; and that was to clear the words of st. cyril of jerusalem : we acknowledg they were truly cited : but for clearing of them , we shall neither alledg any thing to the lessening the authority of that father , though we find but a slender character given of him by epiphanius and others : nor shall we say any thing to lessen the authority of these catechisms , though much might be said . but it is plain , st. cyril's design in these catechisms , was only to posses his neophites with a just and deep sense of these holy symboles . but even in his 4 th catechism he tells them , not to consider it as meer bread and wine , for it is the body and blood of christ. by which it appears he thought it was bread still , though not meer bread. and he gives us else-where a very formal account in what sense he thought it was christ's body and blood ; which he also insinuates in this 4 th cathechism : for in his first mist. catechism , when he exhorts his young christians to avoid all that belonged to the heathenish idolatry , he tells , that on the solemnities of their idols they had flesh and bread , which by the invocation of the devils were defiled , as the bread and wine of the eucharist before the holy invocation of the blessed trinity was bare bread and wine ; but the invocation being made , the bread becomes the body of christ. in like manner , says he , those victuals of the pomp of satan , which of their own nature are common or bare victuals , by the invocation of the devils become prophane . from this illustration , which he borrowed from iustin martyr his second apology , it appears , that he thought the consecration of the eucharist was of a like sort or manner with the profanation of the idolatrous feasts ; so that as the substance of the one remained still unchanged , so also according to him must the substance of the other remain . or , if this will not satisfy them , let us see to what else he compares this change of the elements by the consecration : in his third mist. catechism , treating of the consecrated oil , he says ; as the bread of the eucharist after the invocation of the holy ghost is no more common bread , but the body of christ ; so this holy ointment is no more bare ointment , nor , as some may say , common ; but it is a gift of christ , and the presence of the holy ghost , and becomes energetical of his divinity . and from these places let it be gathered what can be drawn from st. cyril's testimony . and thus we have performed likewise what we promised , and have given a clear account of st. cyril's meaning from himself ; from whose own words , and from these things which he compares with the sanctification of the elements in the eucharist , it appears he could not think of transubstantiation ; otherwise he had neither compared it with the idol-feasts , nor the consecrated oil , in neither of which there can be supposed any transubstantiation . having thus acquitted our selves of our engagement before your ladiship , we shall conclude this paper with our most earnest and hearty prayers to the father of lights , that he may of his great mercy redeem his whole christian church from all idolatry ; that he may open the eyes of those , who being carnal look only at carnal things , and do not rightly consider the excellent beauty of this our most holy faith , which is pure , simple , and spiritual : and that he may confirm all those whom he has called to the knowledg of the truth ; so that neither the pleasures of sin , nor the snares of this world , nor the fear of the cross , tempt them to make shipwrack of the faith and a good conscience . and that god may pour out abundance of his grace on your ladiship , to make you still continue in the love and obedience of the truth , is the earnest prayer of , madam , london , apr. 15. 1676. your ladiship 's most humble servants , edward stillingfleet , gilbert burnet . a discourse , to shew how unreasonable it is , to ask for express words of scripture in proving all articles of faith : and that a just and good consequence from scripture is sufficient . it will seem a very needless labour to all considering persons , to go about the exposing and baffling so unreasonable and ill-grounded a pretence , that whatever is not read in scripture , is not to be held an article of faith. for in making good this assertion , they must either fasten their proofs on some other ground , or on the words of our article ; which are these , holy scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein , nor may be proved thereby , is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith , or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation . now it is such an affront to every mans eyes and understanding to infer from these words , that all our articles must be read in scripture , that we are confident every man will cry shame on any that will pretend to fasten on our church any such obligation from them . if these unlucky words , nor may be proved thereby , could be but dashed out , it were a won cause . but we desire to know what they think can be meant by these words ? or what else can they signifie , but that there may be articles of faith , which though they be not read in scripture , yet are proved by it . there be some propositions so equivalent to others , that they are but the same thing said in several words ; and these , though not read in scripture , yet are contained in it , since wheresoever the one is read , the other must necessarily be understood . other propositions there are , which are a necessary result either from two places of scripture , which joined together yeild a third , as a necessary issue ; according to that eternal rule of reason and natural logick , that wherever two things agree in any third , they must also agree among themselves . there be also other propositions that arise out of one single place of scripture by a natural deduction ; as if jesus christ be proved from any place of scripture the creator of the world , or that he is to be worshipped with the same adoration that is due to the great god , then it necessarily follows , that he is the great god ; because he does the works , and receives the worship of the great god. so it is plain , that our church by these words , nor may be proved thereby , has so declared her self in this point , that it is either very great want of consideration , or shameless impudence , to draw any such thing from our articles . but we being informed , that by this little art , as shuffling and bare so ever as it must appear to a just discerner , many have been disordered , and some prevailed on ; we shall so open and expose it , that we hope it shall appear so poor and trifling that every body must be ashamed of it . it hath already shewed it self in france and germany , and the novelty of it took with many , till it came to be canvassed ; and then it was found so weak , that it was universally cried down and hissed off the stage . but now that such decried wares will go off no-where , those that deal in them , try if they can vent them in this nation . it might be imagined , that of all persons in the world they should be the furthest from pressing us to reject all articles of faith that are not read in scripture ; since whenever that is received as a maxim , the infallibility of their church , the authority of tradition , the supremacy of rome , the worship of saints , with a great many more must be cast out . it is unreasonable enough for those who have cursed and excommunicated us , because we reject these doctrines , which are not so much as pretended to be read in scripture ; to impose on us the reading all our articles in these holy writings . but it is impudent to hear persons speak thus , who have against the express and formal words of scripture , set up the making and worshipping of images ; and these not only of saints , ( though that be bad enough ) , but of the blessed trinity , the praying in an unknown tongue , and the taking the chalice from the people . certainly this plea in such mens mouths is not to be reconciled to the most common rules of decency and discretion . what shall we then conclude of men that would impose rules on us , that neither themselves submit to , nor are we obliged to receive by any doctrine or article of our church . but to give this their plea its full strength and advantage , that upon a fair hearing all may justly conclude its unreasonableness , we shall first set down all can be said for it . in the principles of protestants the scriptures are the rule by which all controversies must be judged ; now they having no certain way to direct them in the exposition of them , neither tradition , nor the definition of the curch : either they must pretend they are infallible in their deductions , or we have no reason to make any account of them , as being fallible and vncertain ; and so they can never secure us from error , nor be a just ground to found our faith of any proposition so proved upon : therefore no proposition thus proved , can be acknowledged an article of faith. this is the bredth and length of their plea , which we shall now examine . and first , if there be any strength in this plea , it will conclude against our submitting to the express words of scripture as forcibly : since all words , how formal soever , are capable of several expositions . either they are to be understood literally or figuratively ; either they are to be understood positively , or interrogatively : with a great many other varieties , of which all expressions are capable . so that if the former argument have any force , since every place is capable of several meanings , except we be infallibly sure which is the true meaning , we ought by the same parity of reason to make no account of the most express and formal words of scripture ; from which it is apparent , that what noise soever these men make of express words of scripture , yet if they be true to their own argument , they will as little submit to these as to deductions from scripture : since they have the same reason to question the true meaning of a place , that they have to reject an inference and deduction from it . and this alone may serve to satisfy every body that this is a trick , under which there lies no fair dealing at all . but to answer the argument to all mens satisfaction , we must consider the nature of the soul , which is a reasonable being ; whose chief faculty is to discern the connexion of things , and to draw out such inferences as flow from that connexion . now , though we are liable to great abuses both in our judgments and inferences ; yet if we apply these faculties with due care , we must certainly acquiesce in the result of such reasonings : otherwise this being god's image in us , and the standard by which we are to try things , god has given us a false standard ; which when we have with all possible care managed , yet we are still exposed to fallacies and errors . this must needs reflect on the veracity of that god that has made us of such a nature , that we can never be reasonably assured of any thing . therefore it must be acknowledged , that when our reasons are well prepared according to those eternal rules of purity and vertue , by which we are fitted to consider of divine matters ; and when we carefully weigh things , we must have some certain means to be assured of what appears to us . and though we be not infallible , so that it is still possible for us by precipitation , or undue preparation , to be abused into mistakes ; yet we may be well assured that such connexions and inferences as appear to us certain , are infallibly true . if this be not acknowledged , then all our obligation to believe any thing in religion will vanish . for that there is a god , that he made all things , and is to be acknowledged , and obeyed by his creatures ; that our souls shall outlive their union with our bodies , and be capable of rewards and punishments in another state ; that inspiration is a thing possible ; that such or such actions were above the power of nature , and were really performed . in a word , all the maxims on which the belief , either of natural religion , or revealed , is founded , are such as we can have no certainty about them , and by consequence are not obliged to yield to them ; if our faculty of reasoning in its clear deductions is not a sufficient warrant for a sure belief . but to examin a little more home their beloved principle , that their church cannot err , must they not prove this from the divine goodness and veracity , from some passages of scripture , from miracles and other extraordinary things they pretend do accompany their church ? now in yielding assent to this doctrine upon these proofs , the mind must be led by many arguments , through a great many deductions and inferences . therefore we are either certain of these deductions : or we are not . if we are certain , this must either be founded on the authority of the church expounding them , or on the strength of the argu " ms = " ments . now we being to examin this authority , not having yet submitted to it ; this cannot determine our belief till we see good cause for it . but in the discerning this good cause of believing the church infallible , they must say that an uncontrollable evidence of reason is ground enough to fix our faith on , or there can be no certain ground to believe the church infallible . so that it is apparent we must either receive with a firm perswasion what our souls present to us as uncontrollably true ; or else we have no reason to believe there is a god , or to be christians , or to be , as they would have us , romanists . and if it be acknowledged there is cause in some cases for us to be determined by the clear evidence of reason in its judgments and inferences ; then we have this truth gained , that our reasons are capable of making true and certain inferences , and that we have good cause to be determined in our belief by these ; and therefore inferences from scripture ought to direct our belief : nor can any thing be pretended against this , but what must at the same time overthrow all knowledg and faith , and turn us sceptical to every thing . we desire it be in the next place considered what is the end and use of speech and writing , which is to make known our thoughts to others ; those being artificial signs for conveying them to the understanding of others . now every man that speaks pertinently , as he designs to be understood , so he chooses such expressions and arguments as are most proper to make himself understood by those he speaks to ; and the clearer he speaks , he speaks so much the better : and every one that wraps up his meaning in obscure words , he either does not distinctly apprehend that about which he discourses , or does not design that those to whom he speaks should understand him , meaning only to amuse them . if likewise he say any thing from which some absurd inference will easily be apprehended , he gives all that hear him a sufficient ground of prejudice against what he says . for he must expect that as his hearers senses receive his words or characters , so necessarily some figure or notion must be at the same time imprinted on their imagination , or presented to their reason ; this being the end for which he speaks , and the more genuinely that his words express his meaning , the more certainly and clearly they to whom he directs them apprehend it . it must also be acknowledged , that all hearers must necessarily pass judgments on what they hear , if they do think it of that importance as to examine it . and this they must do by that natural faculty of making judgments and deductions , the certainty whereof we have proved to be the foundation of all faith and knowledge . now the chief rule of making true judgments , is , to see what consequences certainly follow on what is laid before us : if these be found absurd or impossible , we must reject that from which they follow as such . further , because no man says every thing that can be thought or said to any point , but only such things as may be the seeds of further enquiry and knowledg in their minds to whom he speaks ; when any thing of great importance is spoken , all men do naturally consider what inferences arise out of what is said by a necessary connexion : and if these deductions be made with due care , they are of the same force , and must be as true as that was from which they are drawn . these being some of the laws of converse , which every man of common sense must know to be true , can any man think , that when god was revealing by inspired men his counsels to mankind , in matters that concerned their eternal happiness , he would do it in any other way than any honest man speaks to another , that is , plainly and distinctly ? there were particular reasons why prophetical visions must needs be obscure ; but when christ appeared on earth , though many things were not to be fully opened till he had triumphed over death and the powers of darkness : yet his design being to bring men to god , what he spoke in order to that , we must think he intended that they to whom he spake it might understand it , otherwise why should he have spoken it to them ? and if he did intend they should understand him , then he must have used such expressions as were most proper for conveying this to their understandings ; and yet they were of the meaner sort , and of very ordinary capacities , to whom he addressed his discourses . if then such as they were , might have understood him ; how should it come about that now there should be such a wondrous mysteriousness in the words of christ and his apostles ? ( for the same reason by which it is proved that christ designed to be understood , and spake suitably to that design , will conclude as strongly that the discourses of the apostles in matters that concern our salvation , are also intelligible . ) we have a perfect understanding of the greek tongue ; and , though some phrases are not so plain to us which alter every age , and some other passages that relate to some customs , opinions or forms , of which we have no perfect account left us , are hard to be understood : yet what is of general and universal concern , may be as well understood now as it was then ; for sense is sense still . so that it must be acknowledged , that men may still understand all that god will have us believe and do in order to salvation . and therefore if we apply and use our faculties aright , joyning with an unprejudiced desire and search for truth , earnest prayers that god by his grace may so open our understandings , and present divine truths to them , that we may believe and follow them : then both from the nature of our own souls , and from the design and end of revelation , we may be well assured that it is not only very possible , but also very easy for us to find out truth . we know the pompous objection against this , is , how comes it then that there are so many errors and divisions among christians ? especially those that pretend the greatest acquaintance with scriptures : to which the answer is so obvious and plain , that we wonder any body should be wrought on by so fallacious an argument . does not the gospel offer grace to all men to lead holy lives , following the commandments of god ? and is not grace able to build them up , and make them perfect in every good word and work ? and yet how does sin and vice abound in the world ? if then the abounding of error proves the gospel does not offer certain ways to preserve us from it , then the abounding of sin will also prove there are no certain ways in the gospel to avoid it . therefore as the sins mankind generally live in , leave no imputation on the gospel ; so neither do the many heresies and schisms conclude that the gospel offers no certain ways of attaining the knowledg of all necessary truth . holiness is every whit as necessary to see the face of god as knowledg is , and of the two is the more necessary ; since low degrees of knowledg , with an high measure of holiness , are infinitely preferable to high degrees of knowledg with a low measure of holiness . if then every man have a sufficient help given him to be holy , why may we not much rather conclude he has a sufficient help to be knowing in such things as are necessary to direct his belief and life , which is a less thing ? and how should it be an imputation on religion , that there should not be an infallible way to end all controversies , when there is no infallible way to subdue the corrupt lusts and passions of men , since the one is more opposite to the design and life of religion than the other ? in sum , there is nothing more sure than that the scriptures offer us as certain ways of attaining the knowledg of what is necessary to salvation , as of doing the will of god. but as the depravation of our natures makes us neglect the helps towards an holy life ; so this and our other corruptions , lusts and interests , make us either not to discern divine truth , or not embrace it . so that error and sin are the twins of the same parents . but as every man that improves his natural powers , and implores and makes use of the supplies of the divine grace , shall be enabled to serve god acceptably ; so that though he fail in many things , yet he continuing to the end in an habit and course of well doing , his sins shall be forgiven , and himself shall be saved : so upon the same grounds we are assured , that every one that applies his rational faculties to the search of divine truth , and also begs the illumination of the divine spirit , shall attain such knowledg as is necessary for his eternal salvation : and if he be involved in any errors , they shall not be laid to his charge . and from these we hope it will appear , that every man may attain all necessary knowledg , if he be not wanting to himself . now when a man attains this knowledg , he acquires it , and must use it as a rational being , and so must make judgments upon it , and draw consequences from it ; in which he has the same reason to be assured , that he has to know the true meaning of scripture ; and therefore as he has very good reason to reject any meaning of a place of scripture , from which by a necessary consequence great absurdities and impossibilities must follow : so also he is to gather such inferences as flow from a necessary connexion with the true meaning of any place of scripture . to instance this in the argument we insisted on , to prove the mean by which christ is received in the sacrament , is faith ; from these words , whoso eats my flesh , and drinks my blood , hath eternal life . if these words have relation to the sacrament , which the roman church declares is the true meaning of them ; there cannot be a clearer demonstration in the world. and indeed they are necessitated to stand to that exposition ; for if they will have the words , this is my body , to be understood literally , much more must they assert the phrases of eating his flesh , and drinking his blood , must be literal : for if we can drive them to allow a figurative and spiritual meaning of these words , it is a shameless thing for them to deny such a meaning of the words , this is my body : they then expounding these words of st. iohn of the sacrament , there cannot be imagined a closser contexture than this which follows . the eating christ's flesh , and drinking his blood , is the receiving him in the sacrament ; therefore everyone that receives him in the sacrament must have eternal life . now all that is done in the sacrament , is either the external receiving the elements , symboles , or , as they phrase it , the accidents of bread and wine , and under these the body of christ ; or the internal and spiritual communicating by faith. if then christ received in the sacrament gives eternal life , it must be in one of these ways , either as he is received externally , or as he is received internally , or both ; for there is not a fourth : therefore if it be not the one at all , it must be the other only . now it is undeniable , that it is not the external eating that gives eternal life . for st. paul tells us of some that eat and drink unworthily , that are guilty of the body and blood of the lord , and eat and drink judgment against themselves . therefore it is only the internal receiving of christ by faith , that gives eternal life ; from which another necessary inference directs us also to conclude , that since all that eat his flesh , and drink his blood , have eternal life : and since it is only by the internal communicating that we have eternal life , therefore these words of eating his flesh , and drinking his blood , can only be understood of internal communicating ; therefore they must be spiritually understood . but all this while the reader may be justly weary of so much time and pains spent to prove a thing which carries its own evidence so with it , that it seems one of the first principles and foundations of all reasoning ; for no proposition can appear to us to be true , but we must also assent to every other deduction that is drawn out of it by a certain inference . if then we can certainly know the true meaning of any place of scripture , we may and ought to draw all such conclusions as follow it with a clear and just consequence ; and if we clearly apprehend the consequence of any proposition , we can no more doubt the truth of the consequence , than of the proposition from which it sprung : for if i see the air full of a clea● day-light , i must certainly conclude the sun is risen ; and i have the same assurance about the one that i have about the other . there is more than enough said already for discovering the vanity and groundlesness of this method of arguing : but to set the thing beyond all dispute , let us consider the use which we find our saviour and the apostles making of the old testament , and see how far it favours us , and condemns this appeal to the formal and express words of scriptures . but before we advance further , we must remove a prejudice against any thing may be drawn from such presidents , these being persons so filled with god and divine knowledg , as appeared by their miracles and other wonderful gifts , that gave so full an authority to all they said , and of their being infallible , both in their expositions and reasonings , that we whose understandings are darkned and disordered , ought not to pretend to argue as they did . but for clearing this , it is to be observed , that when any person divinely assisted , having sufficiently proved his inspiration , declares any thing in the name of god , we are bound to submit to it ; or if such a person , by that same authority , offers any exposition of scripture , he is to be believed without further dispute . but when an inspired person argues with any that does not acknowledg his inspiration , but is enquiring into it , not being yet satisfied about it ; then he speaks no more as an inspired person : in which case the argument offered is to be examined by the force that is in it , and not by the authority of him that uses it . for his authority being the thing questioned , if he offers an argument from any thing already agreed to ; and if the argument be not good , it is so far from being the better by the authority of him that useth it ; that it rather gives just ground to lessen or suspect his authority , that understands a consequence so ill , as to use a bad argument to use it by . this being premised . when our saviour was to prove against the sadducees the truth of the resurrection from the scriptures , he cites out of the law that god was the god of abraham , isaac , and jacob ; since then god is not god of the dead , but of the living : therefore abraham , isaac and jacob did live unto god. from which he proved the souls having a being distinct from the body , and living after its separation from the body , which was the principal point in controversy . now if these new maxims be of any force , so that we must only submit to the express words of scripture , without proving any thing by consequence ; then certainly our saviour performed nothing in that argument : for the sadducees might have told him , they appealed to the express words of scripture . but alas ! they understood not these new-found arts , but submitting to the evident force of that consequence , were put to silence , and the multitudes were astonished at his doctrine . now it is unreasonable to imagine that the great authority of our saviour , and his many miracles , made them silent ; for they coming to try him , and to take advantage from every thing he said , if it were possible to lessen his esteem and authority , would never have acquiesced in any argument because he used it , if it had not strength in it self ; for an ill argument is an ill argumont , use it whoso will. for ins●ance , if i see a man pretending that he sits in an infallible chair , and proving what he delivers by the most impertinent allegations of scripture possible , as if he attempts to prove the pope must be the head of all powers civil and spiritual from the first words of genesis ; * where it being said , in the beginning , and not in the beginnings , in the plural , ( from which he concludes there must be but one beginning and head of all power , ( to wit ) the pope . ) i am so far from being put to silence with this , that i am only astonished how any man of common sense , though he pretended not to infallibility , could fall into such errors : for an ill argument , when its fallacy is so apparent , must needs heap contempt on him that uses it . having found our saviour's way of arguing to be so contrary to this new method these gentlemen would impose on us ; let us see how the apostles drew their proofs for matters in controversy from scriptures : the two great points they had most occasion to argue upon , were , iesus christ's being the true messiah , and the freedom of the gentiles from any obligation to the observance of the mosaical law. now let us see how they proceeded in both these . for the first ; in the first sermon after the effusion of the holy ghost , st. peter proves the truth of christ's resurrection from these words of david , thou wilt not leave my soul in hell , nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption . now he shews that these words could not be meant of david , who was dead and buried ; therefore being a prophet , he spake of the resurrection of christ. if here were not consequences and deductions , let every one judg . now these being spoken to those who did not then believe in christ , there was either sufficient force in that argument to convince the jews , otherwise these that spake them were very much both to be blamed , and despised , for offering to prove a matter of such importance by a consequence . but this being a degree of blasphemy against the holy ghost , we must acknowledg there was strength in their argument ; and therefore articles of faith , whereof this was the fundamental , may be proved from scripture by a consequence . we might add to this all the other prophecies in the old testament , from which we find the apostles arguing to prove this foundation of their faith , which every one may see do not contain in so many words that which was proved by them . but these being so obvious , we choose only to name this , all the rest being of a like nature with it . the next controversy debated in that time was the obligation of the mosaical law. the apostles by the inspiration of the holy ghost made a formal decision in this matter , yet there being great opposition made to that , st. paul sets himself to prove it at full length , in his epistle to the galatians , where , besides other arguments , he brings these two from the old testament ; one was , that abraham was justified by faith before the giving the law ; for which he cites these words , abraham believed god , and it was counted to him for righteousness : from which , by a very just consequence he infers , that as abraham was blessed , so all that believe are blessed with him ; and that the law of moses , that was 430 years after , could not disannul it , or make the promise of none effect ; therefore we might now be justified by faith without the law , as well as he was . another place he cites , is , the just shall live by faith , and he subsumes , the law was not of faith ; from which the conclusion naturally follows : therefore the just lives not by the law. he must be very blind that sees not a succession of many consequences in that epistle of st. paul's ; all which had been utterly impertinent , if this new method had any ground for its pretension , and they might at one dash have overthrown all that he had said . but men had not then arrived at such devices as must at once overturn all the sense and reason of mankind . we hope what we premised will be remembred , to shew that the apostles being infallibly directed by the holy ghost , will not at all prove , that though this way of arguing might have passed with them , yet it must not be allowed us : for their being infallibly directed , proves their arguments and way of proceeding was rational and convincing , otherwise they had not pitched on it . and the persons to whom these arguments were offered not acquiescing in their authority , their reasonings must have been good , otherwise they had exposed themselves and their cause to the just scorn of their enemies . having therefore evinced that both our saviour and his apostles did prove by consequences drawn from scripture , the greatest and most important articles of faith ; we judg that we may with very great assurance follow their example . but this whole matter will receive a further confirmation : if we find it was the method of the church of god in all ages to found her decisions of the most important controversies on consequences from scriptures . there were very few hereticks that had face and brow enough to set up against express words of scripture ; for such as did so , rejected these books that were so directly opposite to their errors ; as the maniche●s did the gospel of st. matthew . but if we examine the method either of councils in condemning hereticks , or of the fathers writing against them , we shall always find them proceeding upon deductions and consequences from scripture , as a sufficient ground to go upon . let the epistle both of the council of antioch to samosatenus , and denis of alexandria's letter to him be considered ; and it shall be found how they drew their definitions out of deductions from scripture . so also alexander patriarch of alexandria in his epistle , in which he condemned aerius , proceeds upon deductions from scripture ; and when the council of nice came to judg of the whole matter , if we give credit to ge●●sius , they canvassed many places of scripture , that they might come to a decision ; and that whole dispute , as he represents it , was all about interences and deductions from scripture . it is true , f. maimbourg in his romantick history of arrianism would perswade us , that in that counsel the orthodox , and chiefly the great saints of the council were for adhering closely to what they had received by tradition , without attempting to give new expositions of scripture , to interpret it any other way than as they had learned from these fathers , that had been taught them by the apostles . but the arrians , who could not find among these that which they intended to establish , maintained on the contrary , that we must not confine our selves to that which hath been held by antiqui●y , since none could be sure about that . therefore they thought that one must search the truth of the doctrine only in the scriptures , which they could turn to their own meaning by their false subtitles . and to make this formal account pass easily with his reader , he vouches on the margin , sozom. cap. 16. when i first read this , it amazed me to find a thing of so great consequence not so much as observed by the writers of controversies ; but turning to sozomen , i found in him these words , speaking of the dispute about arrius his opinions , the disputation being , as is usual , carried out into different enquiries ; some were of opinion that nothing should be innovated beyond the faith that was originally delivered ; and these were chiefly those whom the simplicity of their manners had brought to divine faith without nice curiosity . others did strongly or earnestly contend that it was not fit to follow the ancienter opinions without a strict trial of them . now in these words we find not a word either of orthodox or arrian ; so of which side either one or other were , we are left to conjecture . that jesuite has been sufficiently exposed by the writers of the port-royal , for his foul dealing on other occasions ; and we shall have great cause to mistruth him in all his accounts , if it be found that he was quite mistaken in this ; and that the party which he calls the orthodox were really some holy , good men ; but simple , ignorant , and ●asily abused : and that the other party which he calls the arrian was the orthodox , and more judicious , who readily forseeing the inconvenience which the simplicity of others would have involved them in , did vehemently oppose it ; and pressed the testimonies of the fathers might not be blindly followed . for proof of this , we need but consider that they anathematized these , who say that the son was the work of the father , as [a] athanasius tells us , which were the very words of denis of alexandria , of whom the arrians [b] boasted much , and cited these words from him ; and both [c] athanasius and [d] hilary acknowledg that those bishops that condemned s●●nos●tenus , did also reject the consubstantial , and st. b●sil [e] says , denis sometimes denied , sometimes acknowledged the consubstantial . yet i shall not be so easy as petavius and others of the roman church are in this matter ; who acknowledg that most of the fathers before the council of nice said many things that did not agree with the rule of the orthodox ●aith ; but am fully perswaded , that before that council , the church did believe that the son was truly god , and of the same divine substance with the father : yet on the other hand it cannot be denied , but there are many expressions in their writings which they had not so well considered ; and thence it is that st. basil f observes how denis in his opposition to sabellius had gone too far on the other hand . therefore there was a necessity to make such a symbole as might cut off all equivocal and ambiguous forms of speech . so we have very good reason to conclude it was the arrian party , that studied under the pretence of not innovating , to engage many of the holy , but simpler bishops , to be against any new words or symboles , that so they might still lurk undiscovered . upon what grounds the council of nice made their decree and symbole , we have no certain account , since their acts are lost . but the best conjecture we can make , is from s. athanasius , who , as he was a great assertor of the faith in that council , so also he gives us a large account of its creed , in a particular treatise , g in which he jus●ifies their symbole at great length out of the scriptures , and tell us very formally they used the word consubstantial , that the wickedness and craft of the arrians might be discovered , and proves by many consequences from scriptures , that the words were well chosen ; and sets up his rest on his arguments from the scriptures , though all his proofs are but consequences drawn out of them . it is true , when he has done that , he also adds , that the fathers at nice did not begin the use of these words , but had them from those that went before them ; and cites some passages from theognistus , denis of alexandria , denis of rome , and origen . but no body can imagin this was a full proof of the tradition of the faith. these were but a few later writers , nor could he have submitted the decision of the whole controversy to two of these , denis of alexandria and origen , ( for the other two , their works are lost ) in whose writings there were divers passages that favoured the arrians , and in which they boasted much . therefore athanasius only cites these passages to shew the words of these symbole were not first coined by the council of nice . but neither in that treatise , nor in any other of his works , do i ever find that either the council of nice , or he who was the great champion for their faith , did study to prove the consubstantiality to have been the constant tradition of the church : but in all his treatises he at full length proves it from scripture . so from the definition of the council of nice , and athanasius his writings , it appears the church of that age thought that consequences clearly proved from scripture were a sufficient ground to build an article of ●aith on . with this i desire it be also considered , that the next great controversy , that was carried on chiefly by s. cyril against the nestorians , was likewise all managed by consequences from scripture , as will appear to any that reads s. cyril's writings , inserted in the acts of the council of ephesus , chiefly his treatise to the queens ; and when he brought testimonies from the fathers against nesto●ius , which were read in the council , h they are all taken out of fathers that lived after the council of nice , except only s. cyprian , and peter of alexandria . if then we may collect from s. cyril's writings the sense of that council , as we did from s. athanasius that of the council of nice ; we must conclude that their decrees were founded on consequences drawn from scripture ; nor were they so solicitous to prove a continued succession of the tradition . in like manner , when the council of cha●edon condemned eutyches , pope leo's epistle to ●lavian was read , and all assented to it : so that upon the matter , his epistle became the decree of the council , and that whole epistle from beginning to end , is one entire series of consequences proved from scripture and reason : i and to the end of that epistle are added in the acts of that council testimonies from the fathers , that had lived after the days of the council of nice . k theodoret and gelasius l also , who wrote against the eutychians , do through their whole writings pursue them with consequences drawn from scripture and reason , and in the end set down testimonies from fathers : and to instance only one more , when st. austin wrote against the pelagians , how many consequences he draws from scripture , every one that has read him must needs know . in the end let it be also observed , that all these fathers when they argue from places of scripture , they never attempt to prove that those scriptures had been expounded in that sense they urge them in by the councils or fathers who had gone before them ; but argue from the sense which they prove they ought to be understood in . i do not say all their consequences or expositions were wel-grounded ; but all that has been hitherto set down , will prove that they thought arguments drawn from scripture when the consequences are clear , were of sufficient authority and force to end all controversies . and thus it may appear that it is unreasonable , and contrary to the practice both of the ancient councils and fathers , to reject proofs drawn from places of scripture , though they contain not in so many words that which is intended to be proved by them . but all the answer they can offer to this , is , that those fathers and councils had another authority to draw consequences from scripture , because the extraordinary presence of god was among them , and because of the tradition of the faith they builded their decrees on , than we can pretend to , who do not so much as say we are so immediately directed , or that we found our faith upon the successive tradition of the several ages of the church . to this i answer ; first , it is visible , that if there be any strength in this , it will conclude as well against our using express words of scripture , since the most express words are capable of several expositions . therefore it is plain , they use no fair dealing in this appeal to the formal words of scripture , since the argument they press it by , do invalidate the most express testimonies as well as deductions . let it be further considered , that before the councils had made their decrees , when heresies were broached , the fathers wrote against them , confuting them by arguments made up of scripture-consequences ; so that before the church had decreed , they thought private persons might confute heresies by such consequences . nor did these fathers place the strength of their arguments on tradition , as will appear to any that reads but what s. cyril wrote against nestorius before the council of ephesus , and pope leo against eutyches , before the council of chalcedon , where all their reasonings are founded on scripture . it is true , they add some testimonies of ●athers to prove they did not innovate any thing in the doctrine of the church : but it is plain , these they brought only as a confirmation of their arguments , and not as the chief strength of their cause ; for as they do not drive up the tradition to the apostles days , setting only down some later testimonies ; so they make no inferences from them , but barely set them down . by which it is evident , all the use they made of these , was only to shew that the ●aith of the age that preceded them , was conform to the proofs they brought from scriptures ; but did not at all found the strength of their arguments from scripture , upon the sense of the fathers that went before them . and if the council of nice had passed the decree of adding the consubstantials to the creed , upon evidence brought from tradition chiefly , can it be imagined that s. athanasius , who knew well on what grounds they went , having born so great a share in their consultations and debates , when he in a formal treatise justifies that addition , should draw his chief arguments from scripture and natural reason ; and that only towards the end , he should 〈◊〉 us of four writers , from whom he brings passages to prove this was no new or unheard-of thing . in the end , when the council had passed their decree , does the method of their dispute alter ? let any read athanasius , hil●ry , or st. austin writing against the arrians : they continue still to ply them with arguments made up of consequences from scripture ; and their chief argument was clearly a consequenco from scripture , that since christ was by the confession of the arrians truly god , then he must be of the same substance , otherwise there must be more substances , and so more gods , which was against scripture . now , if this be not a consequence from scripture , let every body judg . it was on this they chiefly insisted , and waved the authority of the council of nice , which they mention very seldom , or when they do speak of it , it is to prove that its decrees were according to scripture . ●or proof of this , let us hear what st. austin says [m] writing against maximinus an arrian●ishop ●ishop , proving the consubstantiality of the son : this is that consubstan●ial which was established by the catholick fathers in the coun●il of nice , against the arrians ; by the authority of truth , and the truth of authority , which heretical impiety studied to overthrow under the heretical emperor constantius , because of the newness of t●e words , which were not so well understood , as should have been : since the ancient faith had brought them forth ; but many were abused by the fraud of a few . and a little after he adds , but now neither should i bring the council of nice , nor yet the council of arimini thereby to prejudg in this matter ; neither am i bound by the authority of the latter , nor you by the authority of the former . let one cause and reason contest and strive with the other from the authorities of the scriptures , which are witnesses common to both , and not proper to either of us . if this be not our plea , as formally as can be , let every reader judg ; from all which we conclude , that our method of proving articles of faith by consequences drawn from scripture , is the same that the catholick church in all the best ages made use of : and therefore it is unreasonable to deny it to us . but all that hath been said will appear yet with fuller and more demonstrative evidence , if we find , that this very pretence of appealing to formal words of scriptures , was on several occasions taken up by divers hereticks , but was always rejected by the fathers as absurd and unreasonable . the first time we find this plea in any bodies mouth , is upon the question , whether it was lawful for christians to go to the theaters , or other publick spectacles , which the fathers set themselves mightily against , as that which would corrupt the minds of the people , and lead them to heathenish idolatry . but others that loved those diverting fights , pleaded for them upon this ground , as tertullian * tells us in these words ; the faith of some being either simpler or more scrupulous , calls for an authority from scripture , for the discharge of these sights ; and they became uncertain about it , because such abstinence is no-where denounced to the servants of god , neither by a clear signification , nor by name ; as , thou shalt not kill , nor worship an idol : but he proves it from the first verse of the psalms ; for though that seems to belong to the jews , yet ( says he ) the scripture is always to be divided broad , where that discipline is to be guarded according to the sense of whatever is present to us . and this agrees with that maxim he has elsewhere , that the words of scripture are to be understood , not only by their sound , but by their sense ; and are not only to be heard with our ears , but with our minds . in the next place , the arrians designed to shroud themselves under general expressions ; and had found glosses for all passages of scripture . so that when the council of nice made all these ineffectual , by putting the word consubstantial into the creed ; then did they in all their councils , and in all disputes , set up this plea , that they would submit to every thing was in scripture , but not to any additions to scripture . a large account of this we have from athanasins , * who gives us many of their creeds . in that proposed at arimini , these words were added to the symbole , for the word substance , because it was simply set down by the fathers , and is not understood by the people , but breeds scandal , since the scriptures have it not , therefore we have thought fit it be left out , and that there be no more mention made of substance concerning god , since the scriptures no-where speak of the substance of the father and the son. he also tells us , that at sirmium they added words to the same purpose to their symbole , rejecting the words of substance or consubstantial , because nothing is written of them in the scriptures , and they transcend the knowledg and understanding of men . thus we see how exactly the plea of the arrians agrees with what is now offered to be imposed on us . but let us next see what the father says to this : he first turns it back on the arrians , and shews how far they were from following that rule which they imposed on others . and if we have not as good reason to answer those so , who now take up the same plea , let every one judg . but then the father answers , it was no matter though one used forms of speech that were not in scripture , if he had still a sound or pious understanding ; as on the contrary a heretical person , though he uses forms out of scripture , he will not be the less suspected , if his understanding be corrupted ; and at full length applies that to the question of the consubstantiality . to the same purpose , st. hilary setting down the arguments of the arrians against the consubstantiality , the third objection is , that it was added by the council of ni●● , but ought not to be received , because it is no-where written . but he answers , it was a foolish thing to be afraid of a word , when the thing e●pressed by the word has no difficulty . we find likewise in the conference st. austin had with maximinus , the arrian bishop * , i● the very beginning the arrian tells him , that he must hearken to what he brought out of the scriptures , which were common to them all ; but for words that were not in scripture , they were in no case received by them . and afterwards he says * , we receive with a full veneration every thing that is brought out of the holy scriptures , for the scriptures are not in our dominion ●hat they may be mended by us . and a little after adds , p●a●h is not gathered out of arguments , but is proved by sure testimonies , therefore he seeks a testimony of the h●ly ghost's being god. but to that st. austin makes answer , that from the things that we read , we must understand the things that we read not . and giving an account of another conference * he had with count pascentius that was an arrian , he tells , that the arrian did most earnestly press that the word consubstantial might be shewed in scripture , repeating this frequently , and canvassing about it invidiously . to whom st. austin answers , nothing could be more conten●ious than to strive about a word when the thing was certain , and asks him where the word unbegotten ( which the arrians used ) was in scripture . and since it was no-where in scripture , he from thence concludes , there might be a very good account given why a word that was not in scripture might be well used . and by how many consequences he proves the consubstantiality we cannot number , except that whole epistle were set down . and again , in that which is called an epistle * , but is an account of another conference between that same person and st. austin , the arri●n desired the consubstantiality might be accursed , because it was no-where to be found written in the scriptures ; and adds , that it was a grievous trampling on the authority of the scripture to set down that which the scripture had not said ; for if any thing be set down without authority from the divine volumes , it is proved to be void ; against which st. austin argues at great length , to prove that it necessarily follows from other places o● scripture . in the conference between photinus , sabellus , arrius , and athanasius , first published by cassander * , as a work of vigilius , but believed to be the work of gel●sius an african ; where we have a very full account of the pleas of these several parties . arrius challenges the council of nice for having corrupted the faith with the addition of new words , and complains of the consubstantial , and says , the apostles , their disciples , and all their successors downward , that had lived in the confession of christ to that ●ime , were ignorant of that word : and on this he insists with great vehemency , urging it over and over again , pressing athanasius either to read it properly set down in scripture , or to cast it out of his confession ; against which athanasius replies , and shews him how many things they acknowledged against the other hereticks which were not written ; shew me these things , ( says he ) not from conjectures or probabilities , or things that do neighbour on reason , not from things that provoke us to understand them so , nor from the piety of faith , perswading such a profession ; but shew it written in the pure and naked property of words , that the father is unbegotten , or impassible . and then he tells arrius , that when he went about to prove this , he should not say , the reason of faith required this , piety teaches it , the consequence from scripture forces me to this profession . i will not allow you , says he , to obtrude these things on me● because you reject me when i bring you such like things , for the profession of the consubstantial . in the end he says , either permit me to prove the consubstantial by consequences , or if you will not , you must deny all those things which you your self grant . and after athanasius had urged this further , probus , that sate judg in the debate , said , neither one nor other could shew all that they believed properly and specially in scripture : therefore he desired they would trifle no longer in such a childish contest , but prove either the one or the other by a just consequence from scripture . in the macedonian controversy against the divinity of the holy ghost , we find this was also their plea ; a hint of it was already mentioned in the conference betwixt maximi●us the arrian bishop , and s. austin , which wehave more fully in st. gregory nazianzen , * who proving the divinity of the holy ghost , meets with that objection of the macedonians , that it was in no place of scripture , to which he answers , some things seemed to be said in scripture that truly are not , as when god is said to sleep ; some things truly are , but are no-where said , as the fathers being unbegotten , which they themselves believed , and concludes that these things are drawn from these things out of which they are gathered , though they be not mentioned in scripture . therefore he upbraids those for serving the letter , and joyning themselves to the wisdom of the jews , and that leaving things , they followed syllables : and shews how valid a good consequence is : as if a man , says he , speaks of a living creature that is reasonable , but mortal ; i conclude it must be a man : do i for that seem to rave ? not at all ; for these words are not more truly his that says them , than his that did make the saying of them necessary : so he infers , that he might without fear believe such things as he either found or gathered from the scriptures , though they either were not at all , or not clearly in the scriptures . we find also in a dialogue between an orthodox and a macedonian , that is in athanasius's works , but believed to be written by maximus , after he had proved by a great many arguments that the attributes of the divine nature , such as the omniscience and omnipresence were ascribed to the holy ghost . in end the macedonian flies to this known refuge , that it was no-where written that he was god , and so challenges him for saying that which was not in scripture . but the orthodox answers , that in the scriptures the divine nature was ascribed to the holy ghost , and since the name follows the nature , he concludes , if the holy ghost did subsist in himself , did sanctifie , and was increated , he must be god whether the other would or not . then he asks , where it was written , that the son was like the father in his essence ? the heretick answers , that the fathers had declared the son consubstantial as to his essence . but the orthodox replies ( which we desire may be well considered ) , were they moved to that from the sense of the scripture , or was it of their own authority or arrogance that they said any thing that was not written . the other confesses it was from the sense of the scripture , that they were moved to it ; from this the orthodox infers , that the sense of the scripture teaches us that an uncreated spirit that is of god , and quickens and sanctifies , is a divine spirit , and from thence he concludes , he is god. thus we see clearly , how exactly the macedonians and these gentlemen agree , and what arguments the fathers furnish us with against them . the nestorian history followed this tract , and we find nestorius both in his letters * to cyril of alexandria , to pope celestin , and in these writings of his that were read in the council of ephesus * , gives that always for his reason of denying the blessed virgin to have been the mother of god , because the scriptures did no-where mention it , but call her always the mother of christ , and yet that general council condemned him for all that ; and his friend john patriarch of antioch earnestly pressed him by his letters not to reject but to use that word , since the sense of it was good , and it agreed with the scriptures ; and it was generally used by many of the fathers , and had never been rejected by any one . this was also eutyches his last refuge * , when he was called to appear before the council at constantinople , he pretended sickness , and that he would never stir out of his monastery ; but being often cited , he said to those that were sent to him , in what scripture were the two natures of christ to be found ? to which they replied , in what scripture was the consubstantial to be found : thus turnning his plea back on himself , as the orthodox had done before on the arrians . eutyches also when he made his appearance , he ended his defence with this , that he had not found that ( to wit , of the two natures ) plainly in the scripture , and that all the fathers had not said it . but for all that , he was condemned by that council which was afterwards ratified by the universal council of chalcedon . yet after this repeated condemnation the eutychians laid not down this plea , but continued still to appeal to the express words of scripture ; which made theodoret write two discourses to shew the unreasonableness of that pretence , they are published in athanasius his works , b among these sermons against hereticks : but most of these are theodoret's , as appears clearly from photius● his account of theodoret's works ; the very titles of them lead us to gather his opinion of this plea : the 12 th discourse , which by photius's account is the 16 th , has this title , to those that say we ought to receive the expression , and not look to the things signified by them , as transcending all men . the 19 th , or according to photius , c the 23 th , is , to those who say we ought to believe simply as they say , and not consider what is convenient or inconvenient . if i should set down all that is pertinent to this purpose , i must set down the whole discourses ; but i shall gather out of them such things as are most proper . he first complains of those who studied to subvert all humane things and would not suffer men to be any longer reasonable , that would receive the words of the sacred writings without consideration , or good direction , not minding the pious scope for which they are written . for if ( as they would have us ) we do not consider what they mark out to us , but simply receive their words , then all that the prophets and apostles have written will prove of no use to those that hear them , for then they will hear with their ears , but not understand with their hearts ; nor consider the consequence of the things that are said , according to the curse in isaias . — and after he had applied this to those who misunderstood that place , the word was made flesh , he adds , shall i hear a saying , and shall i not enquire into its proper meaning , where then is the proper consequence of what is said , or the profit of the hearer ? would they have men changed into the nature of bruits ? if they must only receive the sound of words with their ears , but no fruit in their soul from the ●nderstanding of them . contrariwise did st. paul tell us , they who are perfect have their senses exercised to discern good and evil ; but how can any discern aright if he do not apprehend the meaning of what is said ? and such he compares to beasts , and makes them worse than the clean beasts , who chew the cud ; and , as a man is to consider what meats are set before him , so he must not snatch words strip'd of their meaning , but must carefully consider what is suitable to god , and profitable to us , what is the force of truth , what agrees with the law , or answers to nature ; he must consider the genuineness of faith , the firmness of hope , the sincerity of love , what is liable to no reproach what is beyond envy , and wor●●y of favour ; all which things concur ●word ? pious meditations . and concludes thus , the sum of all is , he that receives any words , and does not consider the meaning of them , how can he understand those that seem to contradict others ? where shall be find a fit answer ? how shall be satisfy those that interrogate him , or defend that which is written ? these passages are out of the first discourse , what follows is out of the second . in the beginning he says , though the devil has invented many grievous doctrines , yet he doubts if any former age brought forth any thing like that then broached . former heres●s had their own proper errors ; but this that was now invented renewed all others , and exceeded all others . which , says he , receives simply what is said , but does not enquire what is convenient , or inconvenient : but shall i believe without judgment , and not enquire what is possible , convenient , decent , acceptable to god , answerable to nature , agreeable to truth , or is a consequence from the scope , or suitable to the mystery , or to piety ; or what outward reward , or inward fruit accompanies it ; or must i reckon on none of these things . but the cause of all our adversaries errors , is , that with their ears they hear words , but have no understanding of them in their hearts ; for all of them ( and names diverse ) 〈◊〉 a trial , that they be not convinced , and at length shews what absurdities must follow on such a method . instancing those places about which the contest was with the arrians , such as these words of christ , the father is greater than i. and shews what apparent contradictions there are , if we do not consider the true sense of places of scripture that seem contradictory , which must be reconciled by finding their true meaning ; and concludes , so we shall either perswade , or overcome our adversary ; so we shall shew that the holy scripture is consonant to its self ; so we shall justly publish the glory of the mystery , and shall treasure up such a full assurance as we ought to have in our souls ; we shall neither believe without the word , nor speak without faith. now i challenge every reader , to consider if any thing can be devised that more formally , and more nervously-overthrows all the pretences brought for this appeal to the express words of scripture . and here i stop ; for though i could carry it further , and shew that other hereticks shrowded themselves under the same pretext : yet i think all impartial readers will be satisfied , when they find this was an artifice of the first four grand heresies ; condemned by the first four general councils . and from all has been said , it is apparent how oft this very pretence has been bafled by universal councils and fathers . yet i cannot leave this with the reader , without desiring him to take notice of a few particulars that deserve to be considered . the first is , that which these gentlemen would impose on us has been the plea of the greatest hereticks have been in the church . those therefore who take up these weapons of hereticks , which have been so oft blunted and broken in their hands ; by the most universal councils , and the most learned fathers of the catholick church , till at length they were laid aside by all men , as unfit for any service , till in this age some jesuits took them up in defence of an often bafled cause , do very unreasonably pretend to the spirit or doctrine of catholicks , since they tread a path so oft beaten by all hereticks , and abhorred by all the orthodox . secondly , we find the fathers always begin their answering this pretence of hereticks , by shewing them how many things they themselves believed , that were no-where written in scripture . and this i believe was all the ground m. w. had for telling us in our conference that st. austin bade the heretick read what he said . i am confident that gentleman is a man of candour and honour , and so am assured he would not have been guilty of such a fallacy , as to have cited this for such a purpose , if he had not taken it on trust from second hands . but he who first made use of it , if he have no other authority of st. austin's , which i much doubt , cannot be an honest man ; who , because st. austin to shew the arrians how unjust it was to ask words for every thing they believed , urges them with this , that they could not read all that they believed themselves , would from that conclude , st. austin thought every article of faith must be read in so many words in scripture . this is such a piece of ingenuity as the jesuits used in the contest about st. austin's doctrine concerning the efficacy of grace : when they cited as formal passages out of st. austin , some of the objections of the semipelagians , which he sets down , and afterwards answers , which they brought without his answers , as his words , to shew he was of their side . but to return to our purpose ; from this method of the fathers we are taught to turn this appeal to express words , back on those who make use of it against us ; and to ask them where do they read their purgatory , sacrifice of the mass , tran●u●●slantiation , the pope's supremacy , with a great many more things in the express words of scripture . thirdly , we see the peremptory answer the fathers agree in , is , that we must understand the scriptures , and draw just consequences from them , and not stand on words or phrases ; but consider things : and from these we are furnished with an excellent answer to every thing of this nature they can bring against us . it is in those great saints , athanasius , hilary , gregory nazianzen , austin , and theodoret , that they will find out answer as , fully and formally , as need be ; and to them we refer our selves . but , fourthly , to improve this beyond the particular occasion that engaged us to all this enquiry , we desire it be considered then when such an objection was made , which those of the church of rome judg is strong to prove ; we must rely on somewhat else than scripture , either on the authority of the church , or on the certainty of tradition . the first councils and fathers had no such apprehension . all considering men , chiefly when they are arguing a nice point , speak upon some hypothesis or opinion with which they are prepossessed , and must certainly discourse consequently to it . to instance it in this particular ; if an objection be made against the drawing consequences from scripture , since all men may be mistaken ; and therefore they ought not to trust their own reasonings . a papist must necessarily upon his hypothesis say , it is true , any man may err , but the whole church , either when assembled in a council with the holy ghost in the midst of them , or when they convey down from the apostles through age to age the tradition of the exposition of the scriptures cannot err , for god will be with them to the end of the world. a protestant must on the other hand , according to his principles , argue , that since man has a reasonable soul in him ; he must be supposed endued with a faculty of making inferences : and when any consequence is apparent to our understandings , we ought and must believe it as much as we do that from which the consequence is drawn . therefore we must not only read , but study to understand the true meaning of scripture : and we have so much the more reason to be assured of what appears to us to be the true sense of the scriptures , if we find the church of god in the purest times , and the fathers believing as we believe . if we should hear two persons that were unknown to us , argue either of these two ways , we must conclude the one is a papist , the other a protestant , as to this particular . now i desire the reader may compare what has been cited from the fathers upon this subject : and see if what they write upon it does not exactly agree with our hypothesis and principles . whence we may very justly draw another conclusion that will go much further than this particular we now examine ; that in seeking out the decision of all controversies , the fathers went by the same rules we go by , to wit , the clear sense of scriptures , as it must appear to every considering mans understanding , backed with the opinion of the fathers that went before them . and thus far have i followed this objection ; and have , as i hope , to every readers satisfaction made it out , that there can be nothing more unreasonable , more contrary to the articles and doctrine of our church , to the nature of the soul of man , to the use and ●nd of words and discourse , to the practice of christ and his apostles , to the constant sense of the primitive church , and that upon full and often renewed contest with hereticks upon this very head : then to impose on us an obligation to read all the articles of our church in the express words of scripture . so that i am confident this will appear to every considering person , the most trifling and pitiful objection that can be offered by men of common sense and reason . and therefore it is hoped , that all persons who take any care of their souls , will examine things more narrowly than to suffer such tricks to pass upon them , or to be shaken by such objections . and if all the scruple these gentlemen have , why they do not joyn in communion with the church of e●gl●nd , lies in this ; we expect they shall find it so entirely satisfied , and removed out of the way , that they shall think of returning back to that church where they had their baptism and christian education , and which is still ready to receive them with open arms , and to restore such as have been over-reached into error and heresy , with the spirit of meekness . to which i pray god of his great mercy dispose both them and all others , who upon these or such like scruples have deserted the purest church upon earth ; and have turned over to a most impure and corrupt society . and let all men say amen . a discourse to shew that it was not only possible to change the belief of the church concerning the manner of christ's presence in the sacrament ; but that it is very reasonable to conclude , both that it might be done , and that it was truly changed . there is only one particular of any importance , that was mentioned in the conference , to which we forgot to make any answer at all , which was spoken by n.n. to this purpose ; how was it possible , or to be imagined that the church of god could ever have received such a doctrine as the belief of transubstantiation , if every age had not received it , and been instructed in it by their fathers , and the age that went before it ? this by a pure forgetfulness was not answered ; and one of these gentlemen took notice of it to me , meeting with me since that time , and desired me to consider what a friend of n. n. has lately printed on this subject , in a letter concerning transubstantiation , directed to a person of honour : in which , a great many pretended impossibilities of any such innovation of the doctrine are reckoned up ; to shew it a thing both inconceivable and unpracticable , to get the faith of the church changed in a thing of this nature . this same plea has been managed with all the advantages possible , both of wit , eloquence , and learning , by mr. arnaud of the sorbon ; but had been so exposed and baffled by mr. claud , who , as he equals the other in learning , eloquence , and wit , so having much the better of him in the cause and truth he vindicates , has so foiled the other in this plea , that he seeing no other way to preserve that high reputation which his other writings , and the whole course of his life had so justly acquired him ; has gone off from the main argument on which they begun , and betaken himself to a long and unprofitable enquiry into the belief of the greek church , since her schisme from the latine church . the contest has been oft renewed , and all the ingenious and learned persons of both sides , have looked on with great expectations . every one must confess , m. arnaud has said all can be said in such a cause ; yet it seems he finds himself often pinched , by the bitter ( i had almost said scurrilous ) reproaches he casts on mr. claud , which is very unbecoming the education and other noble qualities of that great man , whom for his book of frequent communion , i shall ever honour . and it is a thing much to be lamented , that he was taken off from these more useful labours , wherein he was engaged so much to the bettering this age , both in discovering the horrid corruption of the jesuits and other casuists , not only in their speculations about casuistical divinity , but in their hearing confessions , and giving easie absolutions , upon trifling penances , and granting absolutions before the penance was performed , and in representing to us the true spirit of holiness and devotion was in the primitive church . but on the other hand , as mr. claud leaves nothing unsaid in a method fully answerable to the excellence of that truth he defends ; so he answers these reproaches in a way worthy of himself , or rather of christ and the gospel . if those excellent writings were in english , i should need to say nothing to a point that has been so canvassed ; but till some oblige this nation by translating them , i shall say so much on this head , as i hope shall be sufficient to convince every body of the emptiness , weakness and folly of this plea. and first of all , in a matter of fact concerning a change made in the belief of the church , the only certain method of enquiry , is , to consider the doctrine of the church in former ages ; and to compare that with what is now received ; and if we see a difference between these , we are sure there has been a change ; though we are not able to shew by what steps it was made ; nay , though we could not so much as make it appear probable that such a change could be made . to instance this in a plain case , of the change of the english language since the dayes of william the conqueror ; that there has no such swarm of foreigners broke in upon this island , as might change our language : one may then argue thus ; every one speaks the language he heard his parents , his nurses , and others about him speak , when he was a child ; and this he continues to speak all his life , and his children speak as they heard him speak : upon which , a man of wit and phancy might say a great many things , to shew it impossible any such change should ever have been made , as that we now should speak so as not to understand what was said five or six hundred years ago . yet if i find chaucer , or any much ancienter book , so written , that i can hardly make a shift to understand it , from thence , without any further reasoning how this could be brought about , i naturally must conclude our language is altered . and if any man should be so impertinent , as to argue , that could not be ; for children speak as their nurses and parents taught them , i could hardly answer him in patience ; but must tell him it is altered , without more ado . if a child were amused with such pretended impossibilities , i would tell him , that strangers coming among us , and our travelling to parts beyond the seas , made us acquainted with other languages ; and englishmen finding in other tongues , some words and phrases , which they judged more proper than any they had , being also fond of new words , there was an insensible change made in every age , which after five or six ages , is more discernable : just so , if i find most of all the fathers either delivering their opinions clearly in this matter , against the doctrine of the roman church , or saying things utterly inconsistent with it , i am sure there has been a change made ; though i could not shew either the whole progress of it , or so much as a probable account how it could be done . if men were as machines or necessary agents , a certain account might be given of all the events in all ages ; but there are such strange labyrints in the minds of men , that none can trace them by any rational computation of what is likely . there is also such a diversity between men and men , between ages and ages , that he should make very false accounts , that from the tempers and dispositions of men in this age , should conclude what were possible or impossible many years ago . in this age , in which printing gives notice of all things so easily and speedily , and by the laying of stages for the quick and cheap conveying pacquets , and the publishing mercuries , gazettes , and iournals , and the education of almost all persons to read and write letters , and the curiosity by which all people are whetted to enquire into every thing ; the state of mankind is quite altered from what it was before , when few could read or write , but clergy-men ; so that they must be the notaries of all courts ; who continue from that , to be called clerks to this day ; and that some crimes , otherwise capital , were not punished with death , if the guilty person could but read . when people were so ignorant of what was doing about them , when neither printing , nor stages for pacquets , were in being , at least in europe , and when men were fast asleep in their business , without amusing themselves what was doing about them in the world ; it is the most unjust and unreasonable thing in nature , to imagine , that such things as are now next to impossible , were not then not only possible , but easie . so that all such calculations of impossibilities from the state and temper of this age , when applied to the ages before ours , is the most fallacious way of reckoning that can be . for instance , how improbable , or next to impossible , is this following story , that the bishops of the imperial city of the roman empire , whose first true worth , together with the greatness of that city , which was the head and metropolis of the roman empire , got them much esteem and credit in the world , should from small and low beginnings , have crept up to such a height of power , that they were looked on as the head of all power both civil and spiritual ; and that as they overthrew all other ecclesiastical jurisdiction , the bishops of that see engrossing it to themselves : so they were masters of almost all the crowns of europe , and could change governments , raise up , and assist new pretenders , call up by the preachings of some poor beggarly friars , vast armies , without pay , and send them whither they pleased : that they could draw in all the treasure and riches of europe to themselves ; that they brought princes to lie thus at their feet , to suffer all the clergy , who had a great interest in their dominions , by the vast endowments of churches and abbeys , beside the power they had in all families and consciences , to be the sworn subjects of these bishops , and to be exempted from appearing in secular courts , how criminal soever they were ? that all this should be thus brought about without the expence of any vast treasure , or the prevailing force of a conquering army , meerly by a few tricks , that were artificially managed , of the belief of purgatory , the power of absolving , and granting indulgences , and the opinion of their being s. peter's successors , and christ's vicars on earth . and that all this while when on these false colours of impostures in religion , those designs were carried on , the popes were men of the most lewd and flagitious lives possible ; and those who served them in their designs , were become the scandal and scorn of christendom ; and yet in all these attempts , they prevailed for above seven or eight ages . now if any man will go about to prove this impossible , and that princes were alwayes jealous of their authority and their lives , people alwayes loved their money and quiet , bishops alwayes loved their jurisdiction , and all men when they see designs carried on with colours of religion , by men , who in the most publick and notorious instances shew they have none at all , do suspect a cheat , and are not to be wheedled . therefore all this must be but a fable and a forgery , to make the popes and their clergyodious . will not all men laugh at such a person , that against the faith of all history , and the authority of all records , will deny a thing that was set up over all europe for many ages ? if then all this change in a matter that was temporal , against which the secular interests of all men did oppose themselves , was yet successful , and prevailed ; how can any man think it unreasonable , that a speculative opinion might have been brought into the church , by such arts , and so many degrees , that the traces of the change should be lost ? we find there have been many other changes in sacred things , which will seem no less strange and incredible ; but that we are assured whatsoever really has been , may be : and if things full as unaccountable have been brought about , it is absurd to deny that other things might not have run the same fate . it is known that all people are more uneasie to changes in things that are visible , and known to every body , than in things that are speculative , & abstracted , and known and considered but by a few : they are likewise more unwilling to part with things they are in possession of , and reckon their rights , than to suffer new opinions to be brought in among them ; and let their religion swell by additions . for it is undoubted that it is much more easie to imagine how a new opinion should be introduced , than how an ancient practice and right should be taken away . if then it be apparent , that there have been great changes made in the most visible and sensible parts of religious worship , by taking away some of the most ancient customs and rights of the people , over the whole western church , then it cannot be thought incredible , that a new speculative opinion might have by degrees been brought in . this i shall instance in a few particulars . the receiving the chalice in the sacrament , was an ancient constant custom to which all the people had been long used ; and one may very reasonably on this hypothesis , argue , that could not be ; for would the people especially in dark ages , have suffered the cup of the blood of christ to be taken from them , if they had not known that it had been taken from their fathers . upon which it is easie to conceive how many speculative impossibilities an ingenious man may devise ; and yet we know they were got to part with it by degrees ; first , the bread was given dipt in the cup , for an age or two ; and then the people judged they had both together : this step being made , it was easie afterwards to give them the bread undipt , and so the chalice was taken away quite from the laity , without any great opposition , except what was made in bohemia . next to this , let us consider how naturally all men are apt to be fond of their children , and not to suffer any thing to be denied them , by which they conceive they are advantaged : upon which one may reckon , once we are sure it was the universally received custom , for many ages , over the whole latine church , that all children had the eucharist given them immediately after they were baptized . and the rubrick of the roman missal ordered , they should not be suffered to suck after they were baptized , before they had the eucharist given them , except in cases of necessity . this order is believed to be a work of the eleventh century ; so lately was this thought necessary in the roman church . all men know how careful most parents , even such as have not much religion themselves , are , that nothing be wanting about their children ; and it was thought simply necessary to salvation that all persons had the eucharist . how many imaginary difficulties may one imagine might have obstructed the changing this custom ? one would expect to hear of tumults and stirs , and an universal conspiracy of all men to save this right of their children ? yet hugo de sancto victore tells us , how it was wearing out in his time ; and we find not the least opposition made to the taking it away . a third thing , to which it is not easie to apprehend how the vulgar should have consented , was , the denying them that right of nature and nations , that overy body should worship god in a known tongue . in this island , the saxons had the liturgy in their vulgar tongue ; and so it was also overall the world : and from this might not one very justly reckon up many high improbabilities to demonstrate the setting up the worship in an unknown tongue , could never be brought about , and yet we know it was done . in end , i shall name only one other particular , which seems very hard to be got changed , which yet we are sure was changed ; this was , the popular elections of the bishops and clergy , which , as is past dispute , were once in the hands of the people ; and yet they were got to part with them , and that at a time when church-preferments were raised very high in all secular advantages ; so that it may seem strange , they should then have been wrought upon to let go a thing , which all men are naturally inclined to desire an interest in ; and so much the more , if the dignity or riches of the function be very considerable ; and yet though we meet in church-history many accounts of tumults that were in those elections , while they were in the peoples hands ; yet i remember of no tumults made to keep them , when they were taken out of their hands . and now i leave it to every readers conscience , if he is not perswaded by all the conjectures he can make of mankind , that it is more hard to conceive , how these things , that have been named , of which the people had clear possession , were struck out , than that a speculative opinion , how absurd soever , was brought in , especially in such ages as these were , in which it was done . this leads me to the next thing , which is , to make some reflexions on those ages , in which this doctrine crept into the church . as long as the miraculous effusion of the holy ghost continued in the church , the simplicity of those that preached the gospel , was no small confirmation of that authority that accompanied them ; so that it was more for the honour of the gospel , that there were no great scholars or disputants to promote it : but when that ceased , it was necessary the christian religion should be advanced by such rational means as are suitable to the soul of man : if it had begun only upon such a foundation , men would not have given it a hearing ; but the miracles which were at first wrought , having sufficiently allarm'd the world , so that by them were inclined to hearken to it : then it was to be tried by those rules of truth and goodness , which lie engraven on all mens souls . and therefore it was necessary , those who defended it , should both understand it well , and likewise know all the secrets of heathenism , and of the greek philosophy . a knowledge in these being thus necessary , god raised up among the philosophers divers great persons , such as justin , clement , origen , and many others , whose minds being enlightned with the knowledge of the gospel , as well as endued with all other humane learning , they were great supports to the christian religion . afterwards many heresies being broached about the mysteries of the faith , chiefly those that relate to the son of god , and his incarnation , upon which followed long contests : for managing these , a full understanding of scripture was also necessary ; and that set all persons mightily to the study of the scriptures . but it is not to be denied , great corruptions did quickly break in , when the persecutions were over ; and the church abounded in peace and plenty ; not but that the doctrine was preserved pure long after that : there were also many shining lights , and great fathers , in that and in the following age ; yet from the fathers of these two ages , and from the great disorders were in some of their councils , as in the case of athanasiaus , and the second ephesin council , we may clearly see how much they were degenerating from the primitive purity . many contests were about the precedency of their sees , great ambition and contention appeared in their synods , which made nazianzen hate and shun them , expecting no good from them . these and such like things brought very heavy judgments and plagues on the church , and the whole roman empire , in the fifth century : for vast swarms of armies out of germany and the northern nations brake in upon the western empire , and by a long succession of new invaders all was sackt and ruined . the goths were followed by the vandals , the alains , the gepides , the franks , the sweves , the huns , and in the end the lombards . those nations were for the greatest part arrians , but all were barbarous and rude ; and their hatred of the faith , joyned to the barbarity of their tempers , set them with a strange fury on destroying the most sacred things . and to that we owe the loss of most of the primitive writings , and of all the authentical records of the first persecutions ; scarce any thing remaining , but what eusebius had before gathered together out of a former destruction was made of such things under diocletian . nor did the glory of the eastern empire long survive the western , that fell before these invaders : but in europe , by the impression of the bulgars ; and in asia , by the conquests made , first by the saracens , then by the turks , their greatness was soon broken ; though it lasted longer under that oppressed condition , than the other had done . thus was both the greek and the latine church brought under sad oppression and much misery . and every body knows , that the natural effect that state of life brings over the greatest minds , when there is no hope of getting from under it , is to take them off from study and learning ; and indeed to subdue their spirits as well as their bodies . and so it proved , for after that , an ignorance and dulness did to that degree overspread all europe , that it is scarce to be expressed . i do not deny , but there might be some few instances of considerable men , giving an allowance for the time they lived in . for the laity , they were bred up to think of nothing but to handle their arms , very few could so much as read ; and the clergy were not much better , read they could , but in many that was all ; a corrupt latin they understood , which continued to be the vulgar tongue in italy a great while after : they had heard of greek and hebrew , but understood them as little , as we do the mexican or peruvian tongue . they had scarce any knowledge of the greek fathers , a few very ill translations of some of them was all they had . the latin fathers were read by some of the more learned , but for any distinct understanding of scriptures , or the natures of things , god knows they had it not . i design a short discourse , and therefore shall not stay to make this out , which every body that has but looked a little on the writings of these ages , knows to be true . another effect of their ignorance was , that they were easily imposed on by supposititious writings , that went under the names of the fathers , but were none of theirs . gelasius threw out a great many that were breaking out in his time , but the trade was prosperous , and went on to that height , that it cost the criticks of these two last ages much pains to distinguish true from forged , and the genuine from what was interpolated . and indeed the popes were much beholden to the forgery of the decretal epistles , in which work a great many epistles were published by isidore in the eighth century , as the epistles of the popes of the first four centuries after christ : by which they were represented as giving orders , and making definitions over the whole church in a full form , and with the stile of an absolute authority . these were rejected by many , but mightily supported by all the flatterers of the court of rome ; so that they were in the end after some contest generally received , and held presidents to the succeeding popes , who wrote very skilfully after that copy . many other forgeries were also much cherished , which i shall instance only in one other particular , that relates to what is now in my eye . a sermon of arnold of bonneval ( which is now proved clearly to be his ) was published in st. cyprian's works as his sermon of the supper of our lord , though this arnold lived about nine hundred years after him . now such a sermon being generally read as st. cyprian's , no wonder it gave that doctrine of transubstantiation great credit . these writings are now discovered to be such forgeries , that all considering men of their own church are ashamed of them , and disown them . so do baronius and bellarmin the decretals ; and sirmondus , launnoy , and many more , reject other forgeries . yet here is a high pitch of impudence that most of all their writers of controversie are guilty of , to cite these very writings ( which are now universally agreed to be spurious ) still under those great names , which forgery gave them . as the author of that letter about transubstantiation , cites a passage from st. cyprian's sermon de coena domini , though it is agreed to by sixtus senensis , possevin , bellarmin , raynaud , and labbe , to be none of his ; and the publishers of the office of the sacrament , in the table at the end of it , acknowledge it was written by arnold of bonneval , a friend of st. bernard's . after these authorities it is indeed strange , that such sophisticated stuff should be over and over again offered to us . and it was no wonder , such forgeries were generally received , when that church gave them such authority , as to take many lessons out of the most spurious legends and put them in their breviary . of all these dark ages , the tenth was certainly the midnight of the church : we have scarce any writer for that whole age , so that it is generally called the iron age , an age of darkness and wickedness ; and therefore a very fit time for superstition and errour to work in . and thence we may well infer , that in ages that were so exceeding ignorant , and in which men scarce thought of religion , it was no hard thing to get any errour received and established . but this is not all . these were also ages of great licentiousness and disorder ; for though the barbarous nations were afterwards converted to the orthodox faith , ( though by the way it were easie to shew these conversions had nothing like the first conversion of the world to christianity in them ) yet their barbarity remained with them , and the churchmen became so corrupt and vicious , that they could not have a face to reprove them for those vices , of which themselves were scandalously guilty . from the sixth century downward what a race of men have the popes been ? chiefly in the ninth and tenth century . and indeed any religion that remained in the world had so retired into cloysters and monasteries , that very little of it remained . these houses were seminaries of some devotion , while they were poor and busied at work , according to their first foundation ; but when they were well endowed , and became rich , they grew a scandal to all christendom . all the primitive discipline was laid down , children were put into the highest preferments of the church , and simony over-run the church . these are matters of fact , that cannot be so much as questioned , nor should i , if put to prove them , seek authorities for them any where else than in baronius ; who , for all his design to serve the interest of that church , yet could not prevaricate so far , as to conceal things that are so openly and uncontestedly true . now from the darkness and corruption of these ages , i presume to offer some things to the readers consideration . first , ignorance alwayes inclines people to be very easie to trust those , in whom they have confidence ; for being either unwilling to trouble themselves with painful and sollicitous enquiries , or unable to make them , they take things on trust , without any care to search into them . but this general maxim must needs be much more certain , when subjection to the church , and the belief of every thing established , was made a very substantial part of religion , or rather that alone which might compense all other defects . secondly , ignorance naturally inclines people to superstition , to be soon wrought on , and easily amused , to be full of fears , and easie to submit to any thing that may any way overcome these fears . a right sense of god and divine matters , makes one have such a taste of religion , that he is not at all subject to this distemper , or rather monster , begotten by the unnatural commixture of some fear of god and love of sin , both being disordered by much ignorance ; hence sprang most of the idolatrous rites of heathenism , and all people so tempered are fit for the like humour to work upon . thirdly , the interests of church-men , led them mightily to study the setting this opinion on foot . this alone set them as high , as mortal men could be , and made them appear a most sacred sort of a creature . all the wonders of the prophets and apostles were but sorry matters to it : what was moses calling for manna from heaven and water from the rock ? elija's bringing sometimes fire and sometimes rain from heaven ? what were the apostles raising the dead , giving sight to the blind , and feet to the lame ? to the annihilating the substance of bread and wine , and bringing in their stead , not some other common matter , but the flesh and blood of the ever-blessed jesus . he who could do this , no wonder he were reverenced , enriched , secure from all danger , exempt from all civil jurisdiction , and cherished with all imaginable respect and kindness . so that it is no strange thing , that churchmen were much inclined to favour an opinion , that favoured their interests so much . fourthly , the churchmen of these ages were very likely to be easily drawn to any thing , which might so much advance their designs ; that were grown very high , especially from the days of pope gregory the great . they were struggling with the civil powers for dominion , and pursued that for many years , and spared neither labour nor the lives of men to attain it . and it is not to be thought , but men who did prodigally throw away many thousands in a quarrel , would without very nice disputing , cherish any opinion that might contribute toward that end . and as this was of great use to them , so they very much needed both it , and all such like shifts ; for they had none of that sublime sanctity , nor high learning , or lofty eloquence , which former churchmen had , and by which they had acquired great esteem in the world. now the churchmen in these days , having a great mind to preserve or rather to encrease that esteem ; but wanting those qualities which on a reasonable account might have acquired it , or preserved it , must needs think of somewhat else to do it by ; and so found out many arts for it , such as the belief of purgatory , the priestly absolution upon confession , together with the reserved cases , indulgences , and the popes power of taking souls out of purgatory . and if it be not full as unreasonable , to think the pope should be believed vested with a power of pardoning sin , and redeeming from purgatory , as that transubstantiation should have been received , let any man judge . fifthly , there was such a vast number of agents and emissaries sent from rome , to all the parts of europe , to carry on their designs , that we can hardly think it possible any thing could have withstood them . in such ages , by giving some terrible name to any thing , it was presently disgraced with the vulgar ; a clear instance of this was the fate of the married clergy . gregory the seventh , who as cardinal benno ( who knew him ) represents him , was one of the worst men that ever was born , and first set on foot the popes pretensions to the civil authority , and the power of deposing princes , and putting others in their places ; did prosecute the married clergy with great vehemency . this he could not do on any pious or chaste account , being so vile a man as he was : but being resolved to bring all princes to depend on him , there was no way so like to attain that , as to have all the clergy absolutely subject to him : this could not be hoped for , while they were married , and that the princes and several states of europe had such a pawn of their fidelity , as their wives and children ; therefore because the persons of the clergy were accounted sacred , and liable to no punishment , that there might be nothing so nearly related to them , wherein they might be punished , as their wives and children , he drave this furiously on ; and to give them some ill favoured name , called them nicolaitans , which are represented in the revelation so vile and odious . this was the most unjust thing in the world : they might have called them pharisees or sadducees as well , for all the ancient writers tell us , that nicolas having a beautiful wife was jealous , and the apostles challenging him of it , he said , he was so far from it , that he was willing to make her common , and thence some set up the community of wives , and were from him called the nicolaitans . but because women and marriage were in the case , and it was a hateful word , this was the name by which the married clergy were every where made so odious ; and though it was much the interest of princes to have had the marriage of the clergy to be left free , yet the popes were too hard for them in it . thus were the agents of rome able to prevail in every thing they set themselves to . so the opposers of this doctrine were called by the hateful names of stercoranists and panites . sixthly , when all religion was placed in externals , and splendid rites and ceremonies came to be generally looked on as the whole business of religion , peoples minds were by that much disposed to receive anything , that might introduce external pomp and grandeur into their churches ; being willing to make up in an outward appearance of worshipping the person of christ , what was wanting in their obedience to his gospel . and now i appeal to any honest man , if upon the suppositions i have laid down , it be at all an unaccountable thing , that a great company of ignorant and debauched clergymen , should set themselves to cherish and advance a belief , which would redeem them from all the infamy their other vices were ready to bring upon them ; and they resolving on it , if it was hard for them , especially in a course of some ages , to get an ignorant , credulous , superstitious , and corrupt multitude , to receive it without much noise or adoe . i believe no man will deny , but upon these suppositions the thing was very like to succeed . now that all these suppositions are true ( to wit ) that both clergy and laity in those ages , chiefly in the ninth , tenth , and eleventh centuries , were ignorant , and vicious to the height ; is a thing so generally known , and so universally confessed by all their own historians , that i hardly think any man will have brow enough to deny it . but there are many other things , which will also shew how possible , nay feasible such a change may be . first , this having never been condemned by a formal decision in any former age , it was more easie to get it brought in ; for no council or father could condemn or write against any errour , but that which was maintained or abetted by some man , or company of men , in or before their time . since then this had not been broached in the former ages , the promoters of it had this advantage , that no former decision had been made against them ; for none ever thought of condemning any heresie before it had a being . secondly , this errour did in the outward found agree with the words of the institution , and the forms used in the former liturgies , in which the elements were said to be changed into the true and undefiled body of christ. a doctrine then that seemed to establish nothing contrary to the ancient liturgies , might easily have been received , in an age , in which the outward sound and appearance was all they looked to . thirdly , the passage from the believing any thing in general , with an indistinct and confused apprehension , to any particular way of explaining it , is not at all hard to be conceived , especially in an age , that likes every thing the better , the more mysterious it seem . in the preceding ages , it was in general received , that christ was in the sacrament , and that by the consecration the elements were changed into his body and blood. and although many of the fathers did very formally explain in what sense christ was present , and the elements were changed , yet there having been no occasion given to the church , to make any formal decision about the manner of it , every one thought he was left at liberty to explain it as he pleased . and we may very reasonably suppose , that many did not explain it at all , especially in these ages , in which there was scarce any preaching or instructing the people . by this means the people did believe christ was in the sacrament , and that the elements were changed into his body and blood , without troubling themselves to examin how it was , whether spiritually or corporally . things being brought to this , in these ages , by the carelesness of the clergy , the people were by that , sufficiently disposed to believe any particular manner of that presence , or change , their pastors might offer to them . fourthly , there being no visible change made in any part of the worship ; when this doctrine was first brought in , it was easie to innovate , in these ages , in which people looked only at things that were visible and sensible : had they brought in the adoration , processions , or other consequences of this doctrine along with it , it was like to have made more noise ; for people are apt to be startled when they see any notable change in their worship : but this belief was first infufed in the people , and berengarius was condemned . the council of lateran had also made the decree about it , before ever there were any of these signal alterations attempted . and after that was done , then did honorius decree the adoration ; and urban the fourth , upon some pretended visions of eve julian , and isabella , did appoint the feast of the body of christ , called now generally , the feast of god , or corpus christi feast ; which was confirmed by pope clement the fifth , in the council of vienna ; and ever since that time they have been endeavouring by all the devices possible ; to encrease the devotion of the people to the hoft . so that mr. arnaud in many places acknowledges they are most gross idolaters if their doctrine be not true , which i desire may be well considered , since it is the opinion of one of the most considering and wisest , and most learned persons of that communion , who has , his whole life set his thoughts chiefly to the examining of this sacrament , and knows as well as any man alive , what is the real sense of the worshippers in that church . but to return to that i am about , it is very unreasonable to think that the people in those dark ages , did concern themselves in the speculative opinions were among divines , so that the vulgar could not busie themselves about it , but when this opinion was decreed , and generally received and infused in the laity , for almost one age together , then we need not wonder to see notable alterations following upon it , in their worship , without any opposition or contest ; for it was very reasonable such consequences should have followed such a doctrine . but that before that time there was no adoration of the elements , is a thing so clear , that it is impudence to deny it ; there was no prostration of the body , or kneeling to be made , either on lords dayes , or all the time between easter and pentecost , by the twentieth canon of the council of nice . none of the ancient liturgies do so much as mention it ; but the contrary is plainly insinuated by s. cyril of ierusalem . none of that great number of writers about divine offices , that lived in the seventh , eighth , ninth and tenth centuries , published by hittorpius , so much as mention it : though they be very particular in giving us an account of the most inconsiderable parts of the divine offices , and of all the circumstances of them , honorius when he first decreed it , does not alledge presidents for it ; but commands the priests to tell the people to do it ; whereas , if it had been appointed before , he must rather have commanded the priests to have told the people of their sacrilegious contempt of the body of christ , notwithstanding the former laws and practice of the church : but it is apparent his way of enjoyning it , is in the style of one that commands a new thing , and not that sets on the execution of what was formerly used : yet this was more warily appointed by honorius , who enjoyned only an inclination of the head to the sacrament ; but it was set up bare faced by his successor gregory the ninth , who appointed ( as the historians tell us , though it be not among his decretals ) a bell to be rung , to give notice at the consecration and elevation , that all who heard it , might kneel , and joyn their hands in adoring the host. so that any passages of the fathers that speak of adoration or veneration to the sacrament , must either be understood of the inward adoration the communicant offers up to god the father , and his blessed son , in the commemoration of so great a mystery of love , as appeared in his death , then represented and remembred . or these words are to be taken in a large sense , and so we find , they usually called the gospels , their bishops , baptism , the pascha , and almost all other sacred things , venerable . and thus from many particulars it is apparent , that the bringing in the doctrine of transubstantiation is no unaccountable thing . but i shall pursue this yet further , for the readers full satisfaction , and shew the steps by which this doctrine was introduced . we find in the church of corinth the receiving the sacrament was looked on , but as a common entertainment , and was gone about without great care or devotion , which s. paul charges severely on them ; and tells them what heavy judgments had already fallen on them , for such abuses , and that heavier ones might be yet looked for , since they were guilty of the body and blood of the lord , by their unworthy receiving . upon this the whole christian church was set to consider , in very good earnest , how to prepare themselves aright for so holy an action ; and the receiving the sacrament , as it was the greatest symbole of the love of christians , so it was the end of all penitence , that was enjoyned for publick or private sins , but chiefly for apostacy , or the denying the faith , and complying with idolatry in the times of persecution . therefore the fathers considering both the words of the institution , and s. paul's epistle to the corinthians , did study mightily to awaken all to great preparation and devotion , when they received the sacrament . for all the primitive devotion about the sacrament , was only in order to the receiving it ; and that modern worship of the church of rome , of going to hear mass without receiving , was a thing so little understood by them , that as none were suffered to be present in the action of the mysteries , but those who were qualified to receive ; so if any such had gone out of the church without participating , they were to be separated from the communion of the church , as the authors of disorder in it . upon this subject the fathers employed all their eloquence ; and no wonder , if we consider that it is such a commemoration of the death of christ as does really communicate to the worthy receiver his crucified body , and his blood that was shed ( mark , not his glorified body , as it is now in heaven ) which is the fountain and channel of all other blessings , but is only given to such ; as being prepared according to the rules of the gospel , sincerely believe all the mysteries of faith , and live suitably to their belief . both the advantages of worthy receiving , and the danger of unworthy receiving being so great , it was necessary for them to make use of all the faculties they had , either for awakening reverence and fear , that the contemptible elements of bread and wine , might not bring a cheapness and disesteem upon these holy mysteries , or for perswading their communicants to all serious and due preparation , upon so great an occasion . this being then allowed , it were no strange thing , though in their sermons , or other devout treatises , they should run out to meditations that need to be mollified with that allowance that must be given to all panegyricks or perswasives : where many things are always said , that if right understood , have nothing in them to startle any body , but if every phrase be examined grammatically , there would be many things found in all such discourses , that would look very hideously . is it not ordinary in all the festivities of the church , as s. austin observed on this very occasion , to say , this day christ was born , or died , or rose again in 〈◊〉 and yet that must not be taken literally . beside , when we hear or read any expressions that sound high or big , we are to consider the ordinary stile of him that uses these expressions ; for if upon all other occasions he be apt to rise high in his figures , we may the less wonder at some excesses of his stile . if then such an orator as s. chrysostome was , who expatiates on all subjects , in all the delighting varieties of a fertile phancy , should on so great a subject , display all the beauties of that ●avishing art in which he was so great a master , what wonder is it . therefore great allowances must be made in such a case . further , we must also consider the tempers of those to whom any discourse is addressed . many things must be said in another manner to work on novices , or weak persons , than were fit or needful for men of riper and stronger understandings . he would take very ill measures , that would judge of the future state , by these discourses in which the sense of that is infused in younger or weaker capacities ; therefore though in some catechismes that were calculated for the understandings of children and novices , such as s. cyril's , there be some high expressions used , it is no strange thing ; for naturally all men on such occasions , use the highest and biggest words they can invent . but we ought also to consider , what persons have chiefly in their eye , when they speak to any point : for all men , especially when their fancies are inflamed with much fervor , are apt to look only to one thing at once ; and if a visible danger appear of one side , and none at all on the other , then it is natural for every one to exceed on that side , where there is no danger . so that the hazard of a contempt of the sacrament being much and justly in their eye , and they having no cause to apprehend any danger on the other side , of excessive adoring or magnifying it : no wonder , if in some of their discourses , an immoderate use of the counterpoise , had inclined them to say many things of the sacrament , that require a fair and candid interpretation . yet after all this , they say no more , but that in the sacrament they did truly and really communicate on the body and blood of christ ; which we also receive and believe . and in many other treatises , when they are in colder blood , examining things , they use such expressions and expositions of this , as no way favour the belief of transubstantiation ; of which we have given some account in a former paper . but though that were not so formally done , and their writings were full of passages that needed great allowances , it were no more than what the fathers that wrote against the arrians , confess the fathers before the council of nice , were guilty of ; who writing against sabellius , with too much vehemence , did run to the opposite extream . so many of s. cyril's passages against nestorius , were thought to favour eutychianism . so also theodoret , and two others , writing against the eutychians , did run to such excesses , as drew upon them the condemnation of the fifth general council . the first time we find any contestor canvassing about the sacrament , was in the controversie about images , in the eighth century , that the council of constantinople , in the condemning of images , declared , there was no other image of christ to be received , but the blessed sacrament ; in which , the substance of bread and wine was the image of the body and blood of christ ; making a difference between that which is christs body by nature , and the sacrament , which is his body by institution . now it is to be considered , that , whatever may be pretended of the violence of the greek emperors over-ruling that council in the matter of condemning images ; yet there having been no contest at all about the sacrament , we cannot in reason think they would have brought it into the dispute , if they had not known these two things were the received doctrine of the church : the one , that in the sacrament , the substance of bread and wine did remain ; the other , that the sacrament was the image or figure of christ ; and from thence they acknowledged , all images were not to be rejected , but denied any other images besides that in the sacrament . now the second council of nice , being resolved to quarrel with them as much as was possible , doe not at all condemn them for that which is the chief testimony for us ( to wit ) that the sacrament was still the substance of bread and wine ; and damascene , the zealous defender of images , clearly insinuates his believing the substance of bread and wine remained , and did nourish our bodies . let it be therefore considered , that when that council of nice was in all the bitterness imaginable canvassing every word of the council of constantinople , they never once blame them for saying , the substance of bread and wine was in the sacrament . it is true , they condemned them for saying the sacrament was the image of christ , denying that any of the fathers had called it so ; alledging that the symboles were called antitypes by the fathers , only before the consecration , and not after ; in which they followed damascene , who had fallen in the same errour before them . but this is so manifest a mistake in matter of fact , that it gives a just reason for rejecting the authority of that council , were there no more to be said against it : for this was either very gross ignorance , or effronted impudence , since in above twenty fathers that were before them , the sacrament is called the figure and antitype of christ's body ; and at the same time , that damascene , who was then looked on as the great light of the east , did condemn the calling the sacrament , the figure of christ's body . the venerable bede , that was looked on as the great light of the west , did according to the stile of the primitive church , and in s. austin's words , call it , the figure of christ's body . i shall not trace the other forgeries and follies of that pretended general council , because i know a full account of them is expected from a better pen ; only in this particular i must desire the reader to take notice , that the council of constantinople did not innovate any thing in the doctrine about the sacrament ; and did use it as an argument in the other controversie concerning images , without any design at all about the eucharist . but on the other hand , the second council of nice did innovate and reject a form of speech , which had been universally received in the church , before their time ; and being engaged with all possible spight against the council of constantinople , resolved to contradict every thing they had said , as much as could be : so that in this we ought to look on the council of constantinople , as delivering what was truly the tradition of the church , and on the second council of nice , as corrupting it . about thirty years after that council , paschase radbert abbot of corbie , wrote about the sacrament , and did formally assert the corporal presence , in the ninth century . the greatest patrons of this doctrine , such as bellarmine and sirmondus , both jesuites , confess , he was the first that did fully and to purpose explain the verity of christ's body and blood in the eucharist . and paschase himself , in his letter to his friend frudegard , regrates that he was so slow in believing and assenting to his doctrine ; and does also acknowledge , that by his book he had moved many to the understanding of that mystery ; and it is apparent by that letter , that not only frudegard , but others were scandalized at his book , for he writes , i have spoken of these things more fully , and more expresly , because i understand that some challenge me , that in the book i have published of the sacraments of christ , i have ascribed either more or some other thing than is consonant to truth , to the words of our lord. of all the writers of that age , or near it , only one ( and his name we know not , the book being anonymous ) was of paschase's opinion . but we find all the great men of that age were of another mind , and did clearly assert , that in the sacrament , the substance of bread and wine remained , and did nourish our bodies as other meats do . these were rabanus maur●s , archbishop of mentz , amalarius , archbishop of treves , or as others say , metz , heribald , bishop of auxerre , bertram , iohn scot erigena , walafridus strabo , florus and christian druthmar . and three of these set themselves on purpose to refute paschase . the anonymous writer that defends him , sayes , that raban did dispute at length against him in an epistle to abbot egilon , for saying it was that body that was born of the virgin , and was crucified , and raised again , that was daily offered for the life of the world. that is also condemned by raban in his penitential , cap. 33. who refers his reader to that epistle to abbot egilon . and for bertram , he was commanded by charles the bald , then emperor , to write upon that matter , which in the beginning of his book he promises to do , not trusting to his own wit , but following the steps of the holy fathers . it is also apparent by his book , that there were at that time different perswasions about the body of christ in the sacrament ; some believing it was there without any figure ; others saying , it was there in a figure and mystery . upon which he apprehended , there must needs follow a great schism . and let any read paschase's book , and after that bertram's , and if he have either honesty , or at least , shame remaining in him , he must see it was in all points the very same controversie that was canvassed then between them , and is now debated between the church of rome and us . now that raban and bertram were two of the greatest and most learned men of that age , cannot be denied : raban passes without contest amongst the first men of the age ; and for bertram , we need neither cite what trithemius sayes of him , nor what the disciples of s. austin , in the port-royal , have said to magnifie him , when they make use of him to establish the doctrine of the efficacy of grace . it is a sufficient evidence of the esteem he was in , that he was made choice of by the bishop of france , to defend the latine church against the greeks ; and upon two very important controversies that were moved in that age ; the one being about predestination and grace , the other , that which we have now before us , he , though a private monk , raised to no dignity , was commanded by the emperor to write of both these ; which no man can imagine had been done , if he had not been a man much famed and esteemed ; and way in which he writes , is solid and worthy of the reputation he had acquired : he proves both from the words of institution , and from s. paul , that the sacrament was still bread and wine . he proves from s. austin , that these were mysteries and figures of christ's body and blood. and indeed considering that age , he was an extraordinary writer . the third that did write against paschase , was iohn scot , otherwise called erigena , who was likewise commanded to write about the sacrament , by that same emperor . he was undoubtedly the most learned and ingenious man of that age , as all our english historians tell us ; chiefly william of malmsbury : he was in great esteem both with the emperor , and our great king alfred . he was accounted a saint and a martyr ; his memory was celebrated by an anniversary on the tenth of november . he was also very learned in the greek , and other oriental tongu●s , which was a rare thing in that age. this erigena did formally refute paschase's opinion & assert ours . it is true , his book is now lost , being 200 years after burned by the c. of vercel ; but though the church of lyons does treat him very severely in their book against him , and fastens many strange opinions upon him , in which there are good grounds to think they did him wrong ; yet they no where chalenge him for what he wrote about the sacrament ; which shews they did not condemn him for that ; though they speak of him with great animosity , because he had written against predestination and grace efficacious of it self , which they defended . it seems most probable that it was from his writings , that the homily read at easter by the saxons here in england , does so formally contradict the doctrine of transubstantiation . and now let the reader judge , if it be not clear that paschase did innovate the doctrine of the church in this point , but was vigorously opposed by all the great men of that age. for the following age , all historians agree , it was an age of most prodigious ignorance and debauchery , and that amongst all sorts of people , none being more signally vicious than the clergy ; and of all the clergy , none so much as the popes , who were such a succession of monsters , that baronius cannot forbear making the saddest exclamations possible concerning their cruelties , debaucheries , and other vices : so that , then , if at any time , we may conclude all were asleep , and no wonder if the tares paschase had sown , did grow up ; and yet of the very few writings of the age that remain , the far greater number seem to favour the doctrine of bertram . but till berengarius his time , we hear nothing of any contest about the eucharist . so here were two hundred years spent in an absolute ignorance and forgetfulness of all divine things . about the middle of the 11th . cent. bruno bishop of angiers , and berengarius , who was born in towrs , but was arch-deacon and treasurer of the church of angiers , did openly teach , that christ was in the sacrament only in a figure . we hear little more of bruno ; but berengarius is spoken of by many historians , as a man of great learning and piety , and that when he was cited to the council at rome , before nicolaus the second , none could resist him ; that he had an excellent faculty of speaking , and was a man of great gravity ; that he was held a saint by many : he did abound in charity , humility , and good works , and was so chast , that he would not look at a beautiful woman . and hildebert bishop of mans , whom s. bernard commends highly , made such an epitaph on him , that notwithstanding all the abatements we must make for poetry , yet no man could write so of an ordinary person . this berengarius wrote against the corporal presence , calling it a stupidity of paschase's and lanfrank's , who denied that the substance of bread and wine remained after consecration . he had many followers , as sigebert tells us : and william of malmesbury and matthew paris tell us his doctrine had overspred all france . it were too long to shew with what impudent corrupting of antiquity those who wrote against him , did stuff up their books . divers councils were held against him , and he through fear , did frequently waver ; for when other arguments proved too weak to convince him , then the faggot , which is the sure and beloved argument of that church , prevailed on his fears ; so that he burnt his own book , and signed the condemnation of his own opinion at rome ; this he did , as lanfranke upbraids him , not for love of the truth , but for fear of death : which shewes he had not that love of the truth , and constancy of mind he ought to have had . but it is no prejudice against the doctrine he taught , that he was a man not only subject to , but overcome by so great a temptation ; for the fear of death is natural to all men . and thus we see , that in the ninth century our doctrine was taught by the greatest writers of that time , so that it was then generally received , and not at all condemned either by pope or council . but in the eleventh century , upon its being defended , it was condemned . can there be therefore any thing more plain , than that there was a change made , and that what in the one age was taught by a grea number of writers , without any censure upon it , was in another age anathematized ? is there not then here a clear change ? and what has been done , was certainly possible , from whence we conclude with all the justice and reason in the world , that a change was not only possible , but was indeed made . and yet the many repeated condemnations of berengarius , shew , his doctrine was too deeply rooted in the minds of that age , to be very easily suppressed ; for to the end of the eleventh century , the popes continued to condemn his opinions , even after his death . in the beginning of the twelfth century , honorius of autun , who was a considerable man in that age , did clearly assert the doctrine of the sacraments nourishing our bodies , and is acknowledged by thomas waldensis , to have been a follower of berengarius his heresie . and about the eighteenth year of that age , that doctrine was embraced by great numbers in the south of france , who were from their several teachers called petrobrusians , henricians , waldenses , and from the countrey , where their numbers were greatest , albigenses ; whose confession , dated the year 1120 , bears , that the eating of the sacramental bread , was the eating of iesus christ in a figure ; jesus christ having said , as oft as ye do this , do it in remembrance of me . it were needless to engage in any long account of these people ; the writers of those times have studied to represent them in as hateful and odious characters , as it was possible for them to devise ; and we have very little remaining that they wrote . yet as the false witnesses that were suborned to lay heavy things to our blessed saviour's charge , could not agree among themselves ; so for all the spite with which these writers prosecute those poor innocents , there are such noble characters given , even by these enemies , of their piety , their simplicity , their patience , constancy , and other virtues ; that as the apologists for christianity , do justly glory in the testimonies pliny , lucian , tacitus , iosephus , and other declared enemies give ; so any that would study to redeem the memory of those multitudes , from the black aspersions of their foul-mouthed enemies , would find many passages among them to glory much in , on their behalf , which are much more to be considered than those virulent calumnies with which they labour to blot their memories : but neither the death of peter de bruis , who was burnt , nor all the following cruelties , that were as terrible as could be invented by all the fury of the court of rome , managed by the inquisitions of the dominicans , whose souls were then as black as their garments , could bear down or extinguish that light of the truth , in which what was wanting in learning , wit , or order , was fully made up in the simplicity of their manners , and the constancy of their sufferings . and it were easie to shew , that the two great things they were most persecuted for , were their refusing subjection to the see of rome , and their not believing the doctrine of the corporal presence ; nor were they confined to one corner of france only , but spred almost all europe over . in that age steven bishop in edue● is the first i ever find cited to have used the word transubstantiation , who expressly sayes , that the oblation of bread and wine is transubstantiated into the body and blood of christ : some place him in the beginning , some in the middle of that age ; for there were two bishops of that see , both of the same name ; the one , anno 1112. the other , 1160. and which of the two it was , is not certain ; but the master of the sentences was not so positive , and would not determine , whether christ was present formally , substantially , or some other way . but in the beginning of the thirteenth century , one amalric ; or almaric , who was in great esteem for learning , did deny transubstantiation , saying , that the body of christ was no more in the consecrated bread , than in any other bread , or any other thing ; for which he was condemned in the fourth council of lateran , and his body , which was buried in paris , was taken up and burnt ; and then was it decreed , that the body and blood of christ were truly contained under the kinds ( or species ) of bread and wine , the bread being transubstantiated into the body , and the wine into the blood. all the while this doctrine was carried on , it was managed with all the ways possible , that might justly create a prejudice against them who set it forward ; for besides many ridiculous lying wonders , that were forged to make it more easily believed by a credulous and superstitious multitude , the church of rome did discover a cruelty and blood-thirstiness which no pen is able to set out to the full . what burnings and tortures , and what croiss●des as against infidels and mahumetans , did they set on against those poor innocent companies , whom they with an enraged , wolvish and barbarous bloodiness studied to destroy ? this was clearly contrary to the laws of humanity , the rules of the gospel , and the gentleness of christ : how then could such companies of wolves pretend to be the followers of the lamb. in the primitive church , the bishops that had prosecuted the priscillanists before the emperor maximus , to the taking away their lives were cast out of the communion of the church ; but now did these that still pretended to be christ's vicars , shew themselves in antichrist's colours , dipt in blood . if then any of that church that live among us , plead for pity , and the not executing the laws , and if they blame the severity of the statutes against themselves , let them do as becomes honest men , and without disguise , disown and condemn those barbarities , and them that were the promoters and pursuers of them ; for those practices have justly filled the world with fears and jealousies of them , that how meekly soever they may now whine under the pretended oppression of the laws , they would no sooner get into power , but that old leaven not being yet purged out of their hearts , they would again betake themselves to fire and faggot , as the unanswerable arguments of their church : and so they are only against persecution , because they are not able to persecute ; but were they the men that had the power , it would be again a catholick doctrine and practice : but when they frankly and candidly condemn those practices and principles , they will have somewhat to plead , which will in reason prevail more than all their little arts can do to procure them favour . it was this same council of lateran , that established both cruelty , persecution and rebellion into a law , appointing , that all princes should exterminate all hereticks ( this is the mercy of that church which all may look for , if ever their power be equal to their malice ) and did decree , that if any temporal lord being admonished by the church , did neglect to purge his lands , he should be first excommunicated , and if he continued a year in his contempt & contumacy , notice was to be given of it to the pope , who from that time forth should declare his vassals absolved from the fidelity they owed him , and expose his lands to be invaded by catholicks , who might possess them without any contradiction , having exterminated the hereticks out of them , and so preserve them in the purity of the faith. this decree was made on the account of raimond count of tholouse , who favoured the albigenses , that were his subjects ; and being a peer of france according to the first constitution under hugo capet king of france , was such a prince in his own dominions , as the princes of germany now are . he was indeed the king of france his vassal ; but it is clear from the history of that time , that the king of france would not interpose in that business . yet the popes in this same council of lateran , did by the advice of the council , give to simon montfort ( who was general of the croissade , that the pope sent against that prince ) all the l●nds that were taken from the count of tholouse . so that there was an invasion both of the count of tholouse , and of the king of france his rights . for if that prince had done any thing amiss , he was only accountable to the king , and the other peers of france . this decree of the council is published by dom. luc. dachery ; so that it is plain , that the pope got here a council ●o set up rebellion by authori●y , against the express rules of the gospel , this almost their whole church accounts a general council , a few only among us excepted , who know not how to approve themselves good subjects , if they own that a general council , which does so formally establish treasonable and seditious principles . for if it be true , that a general council making a definition in an article of faith , is to be followed and submitted to by all men , the same arguments will prove that in any controverted practical opinion , we ought not to trust our own reasons , but submit to the definition of the church ; for if in this question a private person shall rest on his own understanding of the scriptures , and reject this decree , why may he not as well in other things assume the same freedom . it is true , the words of the decree seem only to relate to temporal lords , that were under soveraign princes , such as the count of tholouse , and therefore crowned heads need fear nothing from it : but though the decree runs chiefly against such , yet there are two clauses in it that go further , one is in these words , saving alwayes the right of the principal lord , provided he make no obstacle about it , nor cast in any impediment . whence it plainly follows , that if the soveraign , such as the king of france , in the case of tholouse , did make any obstacle , he forfeited his right . the other clause is in these words , the same law being nevertheless observed about those who have no principal lords . in which are clearly included all those soveraigns , who depend and hold their crowns immediately from god. now it is apparent , the design of these words so couched , was once to bring all soveraigns under that lash , before they were aware of it ; for had they named emperors and kings , they might reasonably have expected great opposition from them ; but insinuating it so covertly , it would pass the more easily : yet it is plain , nothing else can be meant , or was intended by it ; so that it is clear , that the fourth council of lateran , as it established transubstantiation , so did also decree both persecution and rebellion : therefore the reader may easily judge , what account is to be made of that council , and what security any state can have of those who adhere to it . our saviour when he states the opposition between the children of god , and the children of the devil , he gives this for the character of the latter , that they did the works of their father ; and these he mentions are lying and murdering : we have seen sufficient evidence of the murdering spirit which acted in that church , when this doctrine was set up . but to compleat that black character , let us but look over to the council of constance , which decreed that bold violation of the command of christ , drink ye all of it ; by taking the chalice from the laity : and there we find perfidy , which is the basest and worst kind of lying , also established by law : for it was decreed by them , that all safe conducts notwithstanding , or by what bonds soever any prince had engaged himself , the council was no way prejudiced , and that the iudge competent might enquire into their errors ; and proceed otherwise duly against them , and punish them according to iustice , if they stubbornly refuse to retract their errours , although trusting to their safe conduct , they had come to the place of iudgment , and had not come without it ; and declare , that whoever had promised any such thing to them , having done what in him lay , was under no further obligation . upon which , sigismund broke his faith to iohn hus and ierome of prague , and they were burnt . so that their church , having in general councils decreed both perfidy and cruelty , it is easie to infer by what spirit they are acted , and whose works they did . if then they did the works of the devil , who was a liar and murderer from the beginning , they cannot be looked on as the children of god , but as the children of the devil . if this seem too severe , it is nothing but what the force of truth draws from me , being the furthest in the world from that uncharitable temper of aggravating things beyond what is just ; but the truth must be heard , and the lamb of god could call the scribes and pharisees , a generation of vipers and children of the devil . therefore if a church be so notoriously guilty of the most infamous violation of all the laws of humanity , and the security which a publick faith must needs give , none is to be blamed for laying open and exposing such a society to the just censure of all impartial persons , that so every one may see what a hazard his soul runs by engaging in the communion of a church that is so foully guilty : for these were not personal failings , but were the decrees of an authority which must be acknowledged by them infallible , if they be true to their own principles . so that if they receive these as general councils , i know not how they can clear all that communion from being involved in the guilt of what they decreed . thus far we hope it hath been made evident enough , that there are no impossibilities in such a change of the doctrine of the church about this sacrament , as they imagine . and that all these are but the effects of wit and fancy , and vanish into nothing when closely canvassed . i have not dwelt so long on every step of the history i have vouched , as was necessary , designing to be as short as was possible , and because these things have been at full length set down by others , and particularly in that great and learned work of albertin a french minister concerning this sacrament ; in which the doctrines of the primitive church and the steps of the change that was made , are so laid open , that no man has yet so much as attempted the answering him : and those matters of fact are so uncontestedly true , that there can be little debate about them , but what may be very soon cleared , and i am ready to make all good to a tittle when any shall put me to it . it being apparent then , that the church of rome has usurped an undue and unjust authority over the other states and nations of christendom , and has made use of this dominion to introduce many great corruptions both in the faith , the worship , and government of the church ; nothing remains but to say a little to justify this churches reforming these abuses . and , first , i suppose it will be granted that a national church may judge a doctrine to be heretical , when its opposition to the scripture , reason , and the primitive doctrine is apparent : for in that case the bishops and pastors being to feed and instruct the church , they must do it according to their consciences , otherwise how can they discharge the trust , god and the church commit to their charge ? and thus all the ancient hereticks , such as samosatenus , arrius , pelagius , and a great many more were first condemned in provincial councils . secondly , if such heresies be spread in places round about , the bishops of every church ought to do what they can to get others concur with them in the condemning them ; but if they cannot prevail , they ought nevertheless to purge themselves and their own church , for none can be bound to be damned for company . the pastors of every church owe a charity to their neighbour churches , but a debt to their own , which the stubborness of others canot excuse them from . and so those bishops in the primitive church , that were environed with arrians , did reform their own churches when they were placed in any sees that had been corrupted by arrianism . thirdly , no time can give prescription against truth , and therefore had any errour been ever so antiently received in any church , yet the pastors of that church finding it contrary to truth ought to reform it : the more antient or inveterate any errour is , it needs the more to be looked to . so those nations that were long bred up in arrianism , had good reason to reform from that errour . so the church of rome will ackowledge that the greek church , or our church ought to forsake their present doctrines , though they have been long received . fourthly , no later definitions of councils or fathers ought to derogate from the ancienter decrees of councils or opinions of the fathers ; otherwise the arrians had reason to have justified their submitting to the councils of sirmium , arimini , and millan , and rejecting that of nice : therefore we ought in the first place to consider the decrees and opinions of the most primitive antiquity . fifthly , no succession of bishops how clear so ever in its descent from the apostles , can secure a church from errour . which the church of rome must acknowledge , since they can neither deny the succession of the greek church , nor of the church of england . sixthly , if any church continues so hardned in their errours that they break communion with another church for reforming , the guilt of this breach must lie at their door who are both in the errour , and first reject the other , and refuse to reform or communicate with other churches . upon every one of these particulars ( and they all set together compleat the plea for the church of england ) i am willing to joyn issue , and shew they are not only true in themselves , but must be also acknowledged by the principles of the church of rome : so that if the grounds of controversy , on which our reformation did proceed , were good and justifiable , it is most unreasonable to say our church had not good right and authority to make it . it can be made appear that for above two hundred years before the reformation , there were general complaints among all sorts of pesons , both tho subtle schoolmen and devout contemplatives , both ecclesiasticks and laicks did complain of the corruptions of the church , and called aloud for a reformation both of faith and manners : even the council of pisa a little before luthers days , did decree , there should be a reformation both of faith and manners , and that both of the head and members . but all these complaints turned to nothing , abuses grew daily , the interests of the nephews and other corrupt intrigues of the court of rome always obstructing good motions and cherishing ill customs , for they brought the more grist to their mill. when a reformation was first called for in germany , instead of complying with so just a desire , all that the court of rome thought on , was how to suppress these complaints , and destroy those who made them . in end , when great commotions were like to follow , by the vast multitudes of those who concurred in this desire of reforming , a council was called , after the popes had frequently prejudged in the matter , and pope leo had with great frankness condemned most of luthers opinions . from that council no good could reasonably be expected , for the popes had already engaged so deep in the quarrel , that there was no retreating , and they ordered the matter so , that nothing could be done but what they had a mind to : all the bishops were at their consecration their sworn vassals : nothing could be brought into the council without the legates had proposed it . and when any good motions were made by the bishops of spain or germany , they had so many poor italian bishops kept there on the popes charges , that they were always masters of the vote : for before they would hold a session about any thing , they had so canvassed it in the congregations , that nothing was so much as put to the hazard . all these things appear even from cardinal pallavicini's history of that council . while this council was sitting , and some years before , many of this church were convinced of these corruptions , and that they could not with a good conscience joyn any longer in a worship so corrupted ; yet they were satisfied to know the truth themselves and to instruct others privately in it , but formed no separated church ; waiting for what issue god in his providence might bring about . but with what violence and cruelty their enemies , who were generally those of the clergy , pursued them , is well enough known : nor shall i repeat any thing of it , lest it might be thought an invidious aggravating of things that are past . but at length , by the death of king henry the eighth , the government fell in the hands of persons well affected to the reformation . it is not material what their true motives were , for jehu did a good work when he destroyed the idolatry of baal , though neither his motives nor method of doing it are justifiable : nor is it to the purpose to examine , how those bishops that reformed could have complied before with the corruptions of the roman church and received orders from them . meletius , and felix , were placed by the arrians , the one at antioch in the room of eustathius , the other at rome , in liberius his room , who were both banished for the faith : and yet both these were afterwards great defenders of the truth ; and felix was a martyr for it , against these very hereticks with whom they complied in the beginning . so whatever mixture of carnal ends might be in any of the secular men , or what allay of humane infirmity and fear might have been in any of the ecclesiasticks ; that can be no prejudice to the cause : for men are always men , and the power of god does often appear most eminently when there is least cause to admire the instruments he makes use of . but in that juncture of affairs the bishops and clergy of this church seeing great and manifest corruptions in it , and it being apparent that the church of rome would consent to no reformation to any good purpose , were obliged to reform , and having the authority of king and parliament concurring , they had betrayed their consciences and the charge of souls for which they stood engaged , and were to answer at the great day , if they had dallied longer , and not warned the people of their danger , and made use of the inclinations of the civil powers for carrying on so good a work . and it is the lasting glory of the reformation , that when they saw the heir of the crown was inflexibly united to the church of rome , they proceeded not to extream courses against her ; for what a few wrought on by the ambition of the duke of northumberland were got to do , was neither the deed of the nation , nor of the church , since the representatives of neither concurred in it . but the nation did receive the righteous heir : and then was our church crowned with the highest glory it could have desired , many of the bishops who had been most active in the reformation sealing it with their blood , and in death giving such evident proofs of holy and christian constancy , that they may be justly matched with the most glorious martyrs of the primitive church . then did both these churches appear in their true colours , that of rome weltring in the blood of the saints and insatiately drinking it up : and our church bearing the cross of christ and following his example . but when we were for some years thus tried in the fire , then did god again bless us with the protection of the rightful and lawful magistrate . then did our church do as the primitive church had done under theodosius , when she got out from a long and cruel persecution of the arrians under those enraged emperours constantius and valens . they reformed the church from the arrian doctrine , but would not imitate them in their persecuting spirit . and when others had too deep resentments of the ill usage they had met with under the arrian tyranny , nazianzen and the other holy bishops of that time did mitigate their animosities : so that the churches were only taken from the arrians , but no storms were raised against them . so in the beginning of queen elizabeths reign , it cannot be denied that those of that church were long suffered to live at quiet among us with little or no disturbance , save that the churches were taken out of their hands . nor were even those who had bathed themselves in so much blood made examples , so entirely did they retain the meekness and lenity of the christian spirit . and if after many years quiet , those of that religion when they met with no trouble from the government , did notwithstanding enter into so many plots and conspiracies against the queens person and the established government , was it any wonder that severe laws were made against them , and those emissaries who under a pretence of coming in a mission , were sent as spies and agents among us to fill all with blood and confusion ? whom had they blame for all this but themselves ? or was this any thing but what would have been certainly done in the gentlest and mildest government upon earth ? for the law of self-preservation is engraven on all mens natures , and so no wonder every state and government sees to its own security against those who seek its ruine and destruction : and it had been no wonder if upon such provocations there had been some severities used which in themselves were unjustifiable : for few take reparation in an exact equality to the damage and injury they have received . but since that time they have had very little cause to complain of any hard treatment ; and if they have met with any , they may still thank the officious insolent deportment of some of their own church , that have given just cause of jealousie and fear . but i shall pursue this discourse no farther , hoping enough is already said upon the head that engaged me to it , to make it appear , that it was possible the doctrine of the church should be changed in this matter , and that it was truly changed . from which i may be well allowed to subsume , that our church discovering that this change was made , had very good reason and a sufficient authority to reform this corruption , and restore the primitive doctrine again . and now being to leave my reader , i shall only desire him to consider a little of how great importance his eternal concerns are , and that he has no reason to look for endless happiness , if he does not serve god in a way suitable to his will. for what hopes soever there may be for one who lives and dies in some unknown error , yet there are no hopes for those that either neglect or despise the truth , and that out of humour or any other carnal account give themselves up to errours , and willingly embrace them . certainly god sent not his son in the world , nor gave him to so cruel a death , for nothing . if he hath revealed his counsels with so much solemnity , his designs in that must be great and worthy of god : the true ends of religion must be the purifying our souls , the conforming us to the divine nature , the uniting us to one another in the most tender bonds of love , truth , justice and goodness , the raising our minds to a heavenly and contemplative temper , and our living as pilgrims and strangers on this earth , ever waiting and longing for our change . now we dare appeal all men to shew any thing in our religion or worship , that obstructs any of these ends ; on the contrary the sum and total of our doctrine is , the conforming our selves to christ and his apostles , both in faith and life , so that it can scarce be devised what should make any body that hath any sense of religion , or regard to his soul , forsake our communion , where he finds nothing that is not highly suitable to the nature and ends of religion ; and turn over to a church that is founded on and cemented in carnal interests : the grand design of all their attempts being to subject all to the papal tyranny , which must needs appear visibly to every one whose eyes are opened . for attaining which end they have set up such a vast company of additions to the simplicity of the faith and the purity of the christian worship , that it is a great work even to know them . is it not then a strange choice ? to leave a church that worships god so as all understand what they do and can say amen ; to go to a church where the worship is not understood , so that he who officiats is a barbarian to them : a church which worships god in a spiritual & unexceptionable manner ; to go to a church that is scandalously ( to raise this charge no higher ) full of images and pictures , and that of the blessed trinity , before which prostrations and adorations are daily made : a church that directs her devotions to god , and his son jesus christ ; to go to a church that without any good warrant not only invocates saints and angels , but also in the very same form of words , which they offer up to god and jesus christ , which is a thing at least full of scandal , since these words must be strangely wrested from their natural meaning , otherwise they are high blasphemies : a church that commemorates christs death in the sacrament , and truly communicates in his body and blood , with all holy reverence and due preparation● to go to a church that spends all her devotion in an outward adoring the sacrament , without communicating with any due care , but resting in the priestly absolution allows it upon a single attrition : a church that administers all the sacraments christ appointed , and as he appointed them ; to go to a church that hath added many to those he appointed , and hath maimed that he gave for a pledge of his presence when he left this earth . in a word , that leaves a church that submits to all that christ and his apostles taught , and in a secondary order to all delivered to us by the primitive church ; to go to a church that hath set up an authority that pretends to be equal to these sacred oracles , and has manifestly cancelled most of the primitive constitutions . but it is not enough to remain in the communion of our church ; for if we do not walk conform to that holy faith taught in it , we disgrace it . let all therefore that have zeal for our church , express it chiefly in studying to purify their hearts and lives , so as becomes christians , and reformed christians , and then others that behold us , will be ashamed when they see such real confutations of the calumnies of our adversaries , which would soon be turned back on them with a just 〈◊〉 if there were not too many adv●ntages given by our divisions , and other disorders . but nothing that is personal ought to be charged on our church : and who●ver object any such things , of all persons in the world , they are the most inexcusable , who being so highly guilty themselves , have yet such undaunted brows , as to charge those things on us , which if they be practised by any among us , yet are disallowed ; but among them have had all encouragement and authority possible from the corruptions both of their popes , and casuists . but here i break off , praying god he may at length open the eyes of all christendom that they may see and love the truth , and walk according to it . amen . finis . books sold by moses pitt at the angel in s. paul's church-yard . there is newly published two recantation sermons ( preached at the french-church in the savoy ) by two converted romanists , mr. de la motte , late preacher of the order of the carmelites ; and mr. de luzanzy , licentiate in divinity ; wherein the corrupt doctrines of the church of rome are laid open and confuted . both printed in french and english. also two other sermons , one preached before the king at white hall , jan. 30. 1676. by henry bagshaw , d. d. the other before the lord mayor dec. 19. 1675. by john cook 4o. theses theologicae variis temporibus in academia sedanensi editae & ad disputandum propolitae . authore ludovico le blanc verbi divini ministro & theologiae prosessore . in qua exponitur sententia doctorum ecclesiae romanae , & protestantium . fol. pr. 20 s. a sober answer to the most material thing● in a discourse called naked truth . 4º pr. 6 d. mystery of iniquity unva●led in a discourse , wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine , worship , and practices of the roman church , to the nature , designs , and characters of the christian faith , by gilbert burnet . 8o. price 1 s. a collection of popish miracles wrought by popish saints , both during their lives and after their death , collected out of their own authors . 8º price 1 s. art of speaking by the authors of ars cogitandi now in the press . 8o. history of the late revolution of the empire of the great mogol , with a description of the country . 8o. price 7 s. history of the conquest of china by the tartars . 8º price 4 s. poetical histories , being a collection of all the stories necessary for a perfect understanding of the greek and latine poets and other antient authors . 8º price 3 s. 6 d. a voyage to taffaletta . 8º price 18 d catalogus librorum in regionibus transmarinis nuper editorum . fol. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30411-e4880 more nevochim par. 1. c. 30. notes for div a30411-e6070 apolog. 2. lib. 4 . adv . her c. 34. lib. 1. adv . marc. c. 14. lib. 3. adv . marc. c. 19. lib. 8. cont . celsum . epist. 76. epist. 63. in anchorat . in orat. de bap. christ. lib. de bened . patriarc . cap. 9. homil. 24. in epist. ad cor. epist. ad hedib . comment . s. ma●●● . 6. epist. 86. serm. 9. de divers lib. 3. de trinit . c. 10. lib. 17. de civ . dei. lib. cont. donat. c. 6. serm. 53 : de verb. dom. lib. 3. de trinit . c. 4. epist. 23. ad bonifac. serm. 2. in psal. 33. epist. ad c●●sar . comm. in epist. ad galat. c. 5. lib. 4. cont . marc. c. 40 . lib. 4. cont . marc. c. 40. orig. lib. 6. c. 9. orig. lib. 6 , c. 9. dialog . 1. dialog . 1. in lib. de duab . nat . christ : epist. ad caefar . monach . cod. 229. dialog . 1 lib. 5. adv . heret . c. 2. lib. de resurr c. 8. serm. 9. d● divers . comment . in matth. c. 15. mystic . catech . 5. tom. 5. lib. 4. de orth. fide c. 14. lib. 4. cont . marc. c. 40. com. in psal. 3. lib. 2. de doct. chr. c. 16. homil. 7. in lev. lib. cons. adiman● . manich . c. 12. defens . conc. chal● ced . lib. 9. epist. 23. ad bonifac. l. 20. cont . faust. manich . c. 21. tract . in exod. comm. in 1 epist. ad cor. comment . in mat. c. 15. hom. 3. in mat. tom. 2. spir. dach . tractat. 26. in joan. lib. 21 d● civ . d● c. 25. tractat. 54. in joan. notes for div a30411-e11120 * boniface the eighth , extrav . lib. 1. cap 1. de majoritate & obedientia . after he had studied to prove that the temporal and material sword , as well as the spiritual , was in the power of st. peter , from these word ; behold two swords , & our saviour's answer , it is enough . in the end he c●ncludes , whosoever therefore resists this power thus ordained of god , resists the ordinance of god ; except with manichee he make two beginnings , which we define to be false and heretical : for moses testifies , that not in the beginnings , but in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . therefore we declare , say , define and pronounce , that it is of necessity to salvation to every humane creature to be subject to the pope of rome : and it is plain this subjection must be that he had been pleading thorough that whole decretal , which is the subjection of the temporal sword to the spiritual . hist. de l. arrian , l. 1. [a] de decret . synod . nicen. [b] athan. epist. de sententia dian. alex. [c] de synod . aron . [d] hi● lib. de synod [e] epist. 41 f epist. 41. g lib. 〈◊〉 decret . co●cil . nicen. h act. conc. ep● ; action . 1● . i act. conc. chalced. action . 1 k the●d . in di●l . l gelas. de dua● . naturis . [m] lib. 3. cont. max. 19. * lib. de spect. c. 3. lib. adv. gnost . c. 7. * de synod . arim. & s●lenc . de synod . adv . arrian . * lib. 1. con. max. arr. ep. 〈◊〉 . * lib. 3. c. 3. * epist. 74. * epist. 78. * oper. cass. * orat. 37. * act. syn. eph. * action . 1. * act , 6. sy● constantin . in act. 2. chalcedon b 〈◊〉 2. 〈…〉 . c 〈◊〉 . cod. 46. notes for div a30411-e15660 ord. rom. in pascha . greg. nazian , orat. i. ap●ll . & 20. orat. chrisoft . l. ● . de sacer . 6. 10. greg. decret . lib. 3. 〈◊〉 42. cap. 10. clement . lib. 3. tit . 16. auc●or ad n. 1240. ●rantz . sex . ●b . 8. cap. 10. 9 apost . can. and 2 can. antioch . de ●id . orth .. lib. 4. cap. 14. bed. in psal. 3. & mark 14. lib. 2. de g●●● , reg. sigebert ; platma , antonin . sabellicus , chron. mont. cassin . sigonius , vignier , guitmond , and chiefly william of malmesburg edit . antwerp . 1608. de sacram. al●ar . c. 13. li● . 4. dis● . 11. anno 1215. cap. ● . cap. 3. tom. 7. spic . and tom. 11. of the count. print . anno 1672 , p. 233. sess. 19. a vindication of the authority, constitution, and laws of the church and state of scotland in four conferences, wherein the answer to the dialogues betwixt the conformist and non-conformist is examined / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1673 approx. 500 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 180 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30478 wing b5938 estc r32528 12711648 ocm 12711648 66109 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30478) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 66109) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1032:1) a vindication of the authority, constitution, and laws of the church and state of scotland in four conferences, wherein the answer to the dialogues betwixt the conformist and non-conformist is examined / by gilbert burnet ... burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 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some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of scotland -history -17th century. scotland -constitutional history. scotland -history -17th century. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 john latta sampled and proofread 2003-11 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a vindication of the authority , constitution , and laws of the church and state of scotland . in four conferences . wherein the answer to the dialogues betwixt the conformist and the non-conformist , is examined . by gilbert burnet , professor , of theology in glasgow . glasgow , by robert sanders , printer to the city , and university . m. dc . lxxiii . to his grace the duke of lauderdale , &c. his majesies high commissioner for scotland . may it please your grace . the noble character which you do now so worthily bear , together with the more lasting and inward characters of your princely mind , did set me beyond doubting to whom this address was to be made : for to whom is a vindication of the authority and laws of this kingdom so due , as to your grace , to whom his majesty hath by a royal delegation , committed the administration of affairs among us ; and under whose wise and happy conduct , we have enjoyed so long a tract of uninterrupted tranquillity ? but it is not only your illustrious quality that entitles you to this dedication . no , great prince , greater in your mind , than by your fortune ; there is somewhat more inward to you , than the gifts of fortune ; which , as it proues her not blind in this instance , so commands all the respect can be payed your grace , by such who are honoured with so much knowledg of you , as hath fallen to the happy share of your poorest servant . but , my lord , since all i can say either of the vast endowments of your mind , or of the particular engagements i lie under to honour you , must needs fall short of my sense of both ; and what is just to be said , is not fit for me to express ; the least appearances of flattery being as unpleasant to you , as unbecoming one of my station : i must quit this theme , which is too great for me to manage ; and only add , that i know your understanding , in such debates as are here managed , to be so profound , and your judgment so well balanced , that as you deservedly pass for a master in all learning ; so , if these sheets be so happy as to be well accounted of by you , i shall the less value or apprehend the snarlings of all censurers . i pretend not by prefixing so great a name to these conferences , to be secure from censure by your patrociny , since these enemies of all order and authority ( with whom i deal ) will rather be provoked from that , to lash me with the more severity . i shall not to this add my poor thoughts of what this time and the tempers of those with whom we deal , seems to call for , since by so doing , i should become more ridiculous than phormio was , when he entertained the redoubted hannibal , with a pedantick discourse of a generals conduct . it is from your graces deep judgment and great experience , that we all expect and long for a happy settlement , wherein that success and blessings may attend your endeavours , shall be prayed for more earnestly by none alive , than by , may it please your grace , your graces most humble , most faithful , and most obliged servant . g. burnet . to the reader . how sad , but how full a commentary doth the age we live in , give on these words of our lord , luke 12.49 . i am come to send fire on the earth : suppose you that i am come to give peace on the earth ; i tell you , nay ; but rather division : for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided . do we not see the father divided against the son , and the son against the father , and engaging into such angry heats and mortal feuds , upon colors of religion , as if the seed of the word of god , like cadmus teeth , had spawned a generation of cruel and bloud-thirsty men : but how surprizing is the wonder , when religion becomes the pretence , and seems to give the rise to these animosities , since the wisdom and goodness of god hath devised nothing more proper and powerful for over-ruling all the secret passions of the mind , and for mortifying of all boisterous disorders ? the doctrine delivered by our meek and lowly master , teacheth us the great lessons of humility , of self-diffidence , and self-contempt , guards against the undervaluing of others , and the over-rating of our selves , gives check to wrath , anger , emulation and envy ; hatred and malice , railing and censuring : and in a word , designs the moulding our natures into a conformity with its blessed author : who when he was reviled , reviled not again ; but practised without a blemish , those great lessons he taught his disciples , of doing good for evil , loving his enemies , and praying for such as despitefully used him . but how far have we fallen from that lovely pattern ? and how is the serene and peaceable visage of christianity transformed into a sour cankered and surly temper , as if that which obliged us to love all men , should engage us to look morose on all but a handful of a party : and that which should dilate our love to all mankind , is given for a ground of contracting it to a few as ill natured as our selves . is there not a generation among us who highly value themselves , and all of their own form ? but whoso differs from them , is sure of their fiercest spite , and bitterest censures . are the lives of such as differ from them vertuous , then they say they are good moral men : but , alas ! they know not what it is to be spiritual . again , are they devout and grave , then they are called monastick people , juglers , or papists . and if nothing can be fastened on them , the charge of hypocrisie is the last shift of malice : or if they have been guilty of any failings and mistakes , they are so far from covering or disguising of them ; that on the contrary , the relating , the aggravating , and the commenting on these , is the main subject of all their discourses . and if they go on a visit , the first civilities are scarce over , when these stories ( true or false , all is to one purpose ) come to make up their conversation . who can have the least tincture of the christian spirit , and look on without sad regrates , and see this bitter , fierce , and cruel venom poisoning the several sects and divisions of christendom ? the root and spring whereof is no other than a carnal , proud , and unmortified temper : for few are so atheistical , but they desire to pass , both in their own account , and in the opinion of others , for good christians : but when they find how hard a thing it is to be a christian indeed , and that they must mortifie all their carnal appetites , their fierce passions , and swellings of pride , despise the world , and be resigned in all things to the will of god , before they can deserve that noble character , then they pursue another method more grateful to their corrupt minds , which is to list themselves under a party , to cherish and value the heads and leaders of it , and to divide their kindness to all of their stamp : they stifly adhere to the forms , and maintain all the humors and opinions of that party to which they have associated themselves , and they whet their spirits and sharpen their tongues against all of another mould , which some do with an undisguised fierceness : other with a visage of more gravity , by which they give the deeper wounds . what sad effects flow from this spirit is too visible ; and i love not to play the diviner , or to presage all the mischief it threatens : but certain it is that the great business of religion lies under an universal neglect , while every one looks more abroad on his neighbor , than inwardly on himself ; and all st●dy more the advancement of a party , than the true interest of religion . i deny not but zeal for god must appear , when we see indignities done to his holy name , in a just indignation at these who so dishonour him ; but what relation have little small differences about matters which have no tendency for advancing the image of god in our souls , to that ; since both sides of the debate may be well maintained without the least indignity done to god , or his holy gospel ? what opposition to the will of god , or what harm to souls can flow from so innocent a practice , as the fixing some churchmen over others , for observing , directing , reproving , and coercing of the rest , that this should occasion such endless brawlings , and such hot contentions ? but supposing the grounds of our divisions , as great as any angry disputer can imagine them , then certainly our zeal for them should be tempered , according to the rules and spirit of the gospel . is it a christian temper that our spirits should boil with rage against all of another persuasion , so that we cannot think of them without secret commotions of anger and disdain , which breaks often out into four looks , ridiculous ●earings , bitter scoffings and invectives , and in attempts at bloud and cruelty ? how long shall our nadabs and ab●hus burn this wild-fire on the altar of god , whose flames should be peaceful , and such as descend from heaven ? when we see any endangering their souls by erroneous opinions , or bad practices , had we the divine spirit in us , it would set us to our secret mournings for them : our hearts would melt in compassion towards them , and not burn in rage against them : and we would attempt for their recovery , and not contrive their 〈◊〉 . the ●ne bears on it a clear impress of that nature which is love , in which none can have interest , or union , but such as dwell and abide in love : but the other bears on it the lively signature of him that was a murderer from the beginning : and all that is mischievous or cruel , is of that evil one , and tends to the subversion of mankind ; as well as the ruin of true religion . another great rule by which the peace and order of all human societies is maintained and advanced , is obedience to the laws , and submission to the authority of these whom god hath set over us , to govern and defend us ; to whose commands if absolute obedience be not payed , ever till they contradict the laws of god , there can be neither peace nor order among men , as long as every one prefers his own humour or inclination to the laws of the society in which he lives . now it cannot be denied to be one of the sins of the age we live in , that small regard is had to that authority god hath committed to his vicegerents on earth : the evidence whereof is palpable , since the bending or slackening of the execution of laws is made the measure of most mens obedience , and not the conscience of that duty we owe the commands of our rulers : for what is more servile and unbecoming a man , not to say a christian , than to yield obedience when over-awed by force ; and to leap from it when allured by gentler methods ? if generosity were our principle , we should be sooner vanquished by the one , than cudgelled by the other : or if conscience acted us , the obligation of the law would equally bind , whether backed with a strict execution , or slackened into more impunity . hence it appears how few there are who judg themselves bound to pay that reverence to the persons , and that obedience to the commands of these god hath vested with his authority , which the laws of nature and religion do exact . and the root of all this disobedience and contempt , can be no other , but unruly and ungoverned pride , which disdains to submit to others , and exalts it self above these who are called gods. the humble are tractable and obedient ; but the self willed are stubborn and rebellious . yet the height of many mens pride rests not in a bare disobedience , but designs the subverting of thrones , and the shaking of kingdoms , unless governed by their own measures . among all the heresies this age hath spawned , there is not one more contrary to the whole design of religion ▪ and more destructive of mankind , than is that bloudy opinion of defending religion by arms , and of forcible resistance upon the colour of preserving religion . the wisdom of that policy is ●●●hly , sen●●al and devillish , favoring of a carnal unmortified and impatient mind , that cannot bear the cross , nor trust to the providence of god : and yet with how much zeal is this doctrine maintained and propagated , as if on it hung both the law and the prophets ? neither is the zeal used for its defence only meant for the vindicating of what is past , but on purpose advanced for re-acting the same tragedies : which some late villanous attempts have too clearly discovered , some of these black arts ( tho written in white ) being by a happy providence of god ( by the intercepting of r. mac his letters which contained not a few of their rebellious practisings and designs ) brought to light . indeed the consideration of these evils should call on all to reflect on the sad posture wherein we are , and the evident signatures of the divine displeasure under which we l●e : from which it appears that god hath no pleasure in 〈◊〉 , nor will be glorified among us : that so we may discern the signs of the times , and by all these sad indications may begin to appehend our danger , and ●o turn to god with our whole hearts ; every one repenting of the works of his hands , and contributing his prayers and endeavours for a more general reformation . it is not by political arts , nor by the execution of penal laws , that the power of religion can be recovered from these decays , under which it hath so long suffered . no , no , we must consider wherein we have provoked god to chastise us in this fashion , by letting loose among us a spirit of uncharitableness , giddiness , cruelty and sedition : and the progress of these and other great evils , we ought to charge on our own faultiness , who have provoked god to plead a controversie with us in so severe a manner . this is the method we ought to follow , which if we did , we might sooner look for the divine protection and assistance : and then we should experience it to be better to put our confidence in god , than to put our confidence in men . indeed surh a reformation of our lives and hearts , would more strongly plead our cause , and advance our interest , than the most learned disputes , or the severest laws , tho followed with a most vigorous execution : let us not therefore repine at the contempt we lie under , or the hazard we are exposed to ; nor complain of the non-execution of laws ; but let us examine wherein we have walked contrary to the laws of christ in his gospel , by which we have provoked god to render us base and contemptible before the people . in a word , till we condemn our selves more , and others less , and think more of reforming our selves , and less of punishing others , we look not like proper objects of mercy , or fit for a deliveranee . but i shall quit this purpose to give some account of the following conferences . some years ago , a small book of dialogues betwixt the conformist and nonconformist was published , and received with the general applause and good liking of all , who were so far unprepossessed as to consider the plain and simple reasonings were there laid open ; but presently all the mouths of the enraged zealots were set a yelping and snarling at it , and at its suspected author : some laughed at it , others despised it , and all of them were angry : some threatned a speedy answer , others doubting of the performance , said , it deserved none . at length divers pens were said to have undertaken the task ; but in end we had an answer from beyond sea to it , which was received with an universal shout of victory and triumph : the answerer acting his part with so much confidence , and edging his smatterings with so much bitterness , as if he had engaged with a compound of ignorance and atheism . at first reading i could not but pity one who triumphed so confidently with so little reason , and regrate the bitterness of his spirit , who belched up gall and wormwood upon every occasion . yet in some matters of fact and history , i deny not but his confidence made me imagine truth might be on his side ; but when i examined things from their fountains , i know not wha verdict to pass on him , who fell in so many mistakes , and stumbled at every step . most of his errors i imputed to his second-hand reading , for he seems to have risen no higher in his learning than the reading of pamphlets : and it is like , hath that quarrel with antiquity , that there is not a forty year old author in his closet ; and so much is he beholden to the labours of others , that if one unplume him of what is borrowed , nothing will remain but scoldings , and non-sense . for when he meets with anything out of the road , it is not unpleasant to see how browillied he is ; and so unequal in his stile , that sometimes he flies high on borrowed wings , and immediately he halts and crawls when on his own legs . i was not soon resolved whether such a scribler deserved an answer , since all he said that was material , had both been printed and answered full often ; yet the confidence of the author , and the value which others , much about his own size of knowledg and modesty , did set on his labors , made me think it necessary to say a little more on these things , which were perhaps too overly glanced at by the conformist in the dialogues : and my interest in that person secured me from apprehending his mistakes of my interposing in this quarrel ; for indeed what he said was so far from being shaken by this pretended trifling answer , that as a person of great judgment and worth , said , no more pains was needful for refuting the answer , but the reading over the dialogues , whose strength remained entire after all his attempts against them . i was doubtful what method to pursue in the following sheets , since i ever loathed the answering of books by retail , as an endless and worthless labor : for when should i have done , did i call him to account for all his incoherencies and impertinencies , and examine all his simpering distinctions , and whiffling answers ? i resolved therefore at one dash to wave all that , and to examine the matters of greater and more publick concern , with that clearness of expression which befits such subjects , and with so much brevity , as might not frighten away the more superficial readers , nor surfeit the more laborious . therefore i have not stayed to make good all the conformists opinions or arguments , hinted in these short dialogues , but have left the examining of them , and the answers made to them , to the consideration of the unprejudged reader , and so have considered nothing of what he answers to the fifth and sixth dialogues . to the fifth dialogue , wherein set forms for worship are pleaded for , he answers by confessing their lawfulness , arguing only against the imposing them ; but this i meet with in my second conference , wherein i assert the binding authority of laws in all things lawful . and for his answers to the sixth dialogue , they concern me not , being made up of reflections : it is true , to shew his common place reading , he gives a long discourse of justification , but to very little purpose , since upon the matter the conformist differs nothing from him : and for the justifying or condemning some phrases or modes of speech , they are not worth the while to debate about them : all my quarrel at these long winded common places , being , that by a pretence of making matters clearer , they darken them with a multiplicity of words , and an intricacy of phrases . and as this is justly censurable on every head about which it is imployed , so it is more particularly in the matter of justification , which being the ground of our hope and joy , should be so cleared , that no difficulty , nor nicety get into our conceptions about it . what then can be clearer than that god in consideration of his sons sufferings , offers free pardon to all sinners , on the terms of their forsaking their sins , their accepting his mercy through his son , and their obedience to the rules of his gospel , which whosoever do , are actually in the ●avor of god , made partakers of his grace , and shall in due time be admitted to his glory ? this being the co●f●rmists sense on that head , i leave it with all to consider what reason there was for making such ado about it , or for charging him with so heavy imputations . but he shrouds himself under his own innocency , and will patiently bear all the insultings and ungodly rage of that adversary , without recriminating or answering him in his own style and dialect . i pursue the method of a conference , as being both more suitable to the purposes here canvassed , and more agreeable to the dialogues , only i furnish the scene with more persons ; and i am much mistaken if the answerer himself shall have ground to accuse me of not laying out the strength of his reasonings faithfully , since upon every occasion i put in isotimus his mouth the substance of his arguings , as far as i could reach them . but to make this unpleasant peace of contention go the more easily off , i have subjoyned to it an account of the form and rules of church government , as i found them to have been received in the first and purest ages of the church : but i add no more for preface to that work , since in the end of the last conference enough is said for introduction to it . i have divided my work in four parts and conferences : the first examines the opinion of resisting lawful magistrates upon the pretence of defending religion . the second considers the authority of laws , and the obedience due to them , together with the kings supremacy in matters ecclesiastical . the third examines the spirit that acted during the late times and wars , and continues yet to divide us by schism and faction . and the fourth examines the lawfulness and usefulness of episcopacy . i must now release my reader from the delay this introduction may have occasioned him , without the usual formality of apologies , for the defects the following papers are guilty of , since i know these generally prevail but little for gaining what they desire : but shall only say , that this morose way of writing , by engaging into controversies , is as contrary to my genius as to any mans alive : for i know well how little such writings prevail for convincing of any , and that by them the most part are rather hardened into more wilfulness , and exasperated into more bitterness : yet for this once i was prevailed on to do violence to my own inclinations , by this patrociny of the authority and laws of that church and kingdom wherein i live . i am so far from thinking my self concerned to make apology for the slowness of this piece its appearance in publick , that i encline rather to make excuses for its coming abroad too soon . that it was ready near a twelve-month ago , can be witnessed by many who then saw it . yet i was willing to let it lye some time by me , and my aversion from the motions of the press , put it often under debate with me whether i should stifle it , or give it vent : at length i yielded to the frequent importunities of my friends who assaulted me from all hands , and told me how much it was longed for , and what insultings were made upon the delay of its publication . and by what is near the end of the third conference , it will appear that it was written before the discovery of these who had robbed and wounded the ministers in the west of scotland . i let what is there said continue as it was written , before the discovery , but shall add somewhat here . in september last , after a new robbery had been committed on another conformable minister , whose actors no search could discover ; some few days had not passed over , when by a strange providence one of them was catched on another account by a brave soldier , and being seized , such indications of his accession to the robbery were found about him , that he to prevent torture , confessed not only his own guilt , but discovered a great many more : most of them escaped , yet three were taken , and had justice done on them , with him who had been their chief leader : and who continued to cant it out highly after he got his sentence , talking of his blood as innocently shed , and railing against the prelats and curats ; though before sentence he was basely sordid , as any could be . one of his complices who died with more sense , acknowledged , when he spake his last words , that bitter zeal had prompted him to that villany , and not covetousness , or a design of robbing their goods . yet i shall not conceal what i was a witness to , when a minister of the presbyterian perswasion being with them ( for two of them would willingly admit of none that were episcopal ) after he had taken pains to convince the chief robber of the atro●iousness of his crimes , which was no ●asie task , he charged him to discover if either gentlemen , or ministers , had prompted or cherished him in it , or been conscious to his committing these robberies , he cleared all , except a few particular and mean persons who went sharers with him . and by this fair and ingenuous procedure , the reader may judge how far the author is from a design of lodging infamy on these who differ from him , when of his own accord he offers a testimony for their vindication . but i shall leave this purpose , and the further prefacing at once . if my poor labors be blessed with any measure of success , i humbly offer up the praise of it to him f●om whom i derive all i have , and to whom i owe the praise of all i can do . but if these attempts bring forth none of the wished-for effects , i shall have this satisfaction , that i have sincerely and seriously studied the calming the passions , and the clearing the mistakes of these among whom i live : so that more lyes not on me , but to follow my endeavours with my most earnest prayers , that the god of peace may in this our day , cause us discern and consider these things which belong to our peace . the heads treated of in these conferences . the first conference examines the origine and power of magistracy , and whether subjects may by arms resist their sovereigns on the account , or pretence of defending religion against tyranny , and unjust oppression ? and whether the king of scotland be a sovereign prince , or limited , so that he may be called to account , and coerced by force ? the second examines the nature of humane laws , and of the obedience due to them , and the civil magistrates right of enacting laws in matters ecclesiastical . the third examines the grounds and progress of the late wars , whether they were defensive or invasive , and what spirit did then prevail ? and the grounds of our present schi●m are considered . the fourth examines the origine , lawfulness , and usefulness of episcopal government , which is concluded ; with an account of the primi●ive constitution and government of the churches that were first gathered and planted . the collocutors . eudaimon . a moderate man. philarchaeus . an episc●pal man. isotimus . a presbyterian . basilius . an asserter of the kings authority . criticus . one well studied in scripture . polyhistor . an historian . the first conference . eudaimon . you are welcome , my good friends , and the rather that you come in such a number , whereby our converse shall be the more agreeable . pray , sit down . philarcheus . the rules of custom should make us begin with asking after your health , and what news you have . eud. truly the first is not worth enquiring after ; and for the other , you know how seldom i stir abroad , and how few break in upon my retirement , so that you can expect nothing from me ; but you have brought one with you who uses to know every thing that is done . isotimus . i know you mean me : the truth is , i am very glad to hear every thing that passeth ; and think it no piece of virtue to be so unconcerned in what befals the church of god , as never to look after it : but you are much wronged , if notwithstanding all your seeming abstraction , you be not deeper in the knowledge of affairs than any of us : however since you expect news from me , i was just now reading some books lately printed at holland , and particularly an accurate and learned confutation of these virulent dialogues you were wont to magnifie so much : and it doth my heart good to see how he baffles the writer of them on every occasion ; for he hath answered every word of them so well , and so home , that i believe we shall not see a reply in haste . philarcheus . i suppose we have all seen the book , but it is like you are singular in your opinion of it : i shall not deny its author his deserved praises : he hath been faithful in setting down most of the arguments used in the dialogues , and no less careful to gather together all the vulgar answers to them , and truly hath said as much as can be said for his cause . neither writes he without art ; for when he is pinched , he drives off the reader with a great many preliminary things , to make him forget the purpose , and to gain a more easie assent to what he asserts . i confess his stile is rugged and harsh , so that it was not without pain i wrestled through it : but of all i have seen , he hath fallen on the surest way to gain an applause from the vulgar ; for he acts the greatest confidence imaginable , and rails at his adversary with so much contempt , and malice , that he is sure to be thought well of , by these who judge of a man more by his voice , and the impresses of earnestness , and passion he discovers , than by the weight of what he saith . eud. these things may well take with the ignorant rabble , with whom it is like he designs to triumph : but truly such as understand either the civilities of good nature , or the meekness of a christian , will be little edified with them . indeed i am amazed to see so much indiscretion and bitterness fall from any mans pen who hath read s. paul , condemning railings , evil surmisings , and perverse disputings . isot. who begun the scolding ? the truth is , there are some who think they may rail with a priviledge , and if any in soberness tell them of their faults , they accuse them of bitterness : but was there ever any thing seen more waspish than these dialogues ? whose design seems to have been the disgracing of a whole party , and all their actions for many years : if then the atheism , the blasphemy , the mockery , the enmity to god and religion , the ignorance , the malice , the folly and arrogance of such a confident babler be discovered , you are so tender der hooffed forsooth , as to complain of railings . eud. it seems these writings have made a deep impression on you , you have got so exactly into their stile : b●t this is a place where passion is seldom cherished , therefore we will expect no more of that strain from you . but to deal freely with you , there were some expressions in these dialogues with which i was not well satisfied ; but the whole of them had such a visage of serenity , that i wonder how they are so accused . it is true the conformijt deals very plainly , and yet ere we part , i can perhaps satisfie you : he said but a little of what he might have said : but withal , remember how severely , he that was meekness it self , treated the scribes and the pharisees , and he having charged his followers to beware of their leaven , it is obedience to his command to search out that leaven , that it may leaven us no more . and when any of a party are so exalted in their own conceit , as to despise and disparage all others , the love , ministers of the gospel owe the souls of their flocks , obligeth them to unmask them . as to these poor simple reproaches that are cast on the person of that author , as they are known to be false and unjust , so they are done in a strain that seems equally void of wit and goodness . but we shall meddle no more in these ●●●sonal difference● , afte● i have told you what i heard the author of that conference say upon this subject : he said , he was so far from being displeased with the author of this answer , that he was only sorry he knew not who he was , that he might seek an opportunity of obliging him . for the things charged on him , if he was guilty of them , he needed very many prayers ; but if innocent , the other needed no fewer who so unjustly accused him : but a day comes wherein a righteous judge will judge betwixt them : and this was the utmost displeasure he expressed ; adding , that he had another sense of the account he must give for his hours , than to engage in a counter scuffle , or to play at such small game , as a particular examen of that book would amount to : and he judged it unworthy of him to turn executioner on that man's reputation , by enquiring into all the escapes of his book which are too obvious . but he is willing to stand or fall by the decision of rational and impartial minds , only where he was either too short , or where the answerer hath raised so much mist as might obscure a less discerning reader : he will ( when he gets out of the throng wherein his employment doth at present engage him ) offer a clearer account of the matters in question , without tracing of that p●or creature , who , it is like , expects to be recorded among the learned writers of the age , and the champions of truth . bas. we have nothing to do with what is personal among these writers : but since so many of us have met so happily , and seem a little acquainted with these questions , let us according to our wonted freedom , toss these debates among us , without heat or reflections : which signifie nothing but to express the strength of his passions , and the weakness of his reasons who makes use of them . and indeed the matter of the greatest importance is , the point of subjects resisting their sovereigns , in the defence of religion , which deserves to be the better cleared , since it is not a nicety of the school , or a speculation of philosophers , but a matter of practice , and that which ( if received ) seems to threaten endless wars and confusions . crit. i am no great disputer , but shall be gladly a witness to your debate , and upon occasions shall presume to offer what i have gleaned among the critical writers on scripture : and i hope ij●timus's memory is so good , that he will carefully suggest the arguments used by the patrons of defensive arms. isot. i will not undertake too much , but shall take care not to betray this good cause , yet i will not have the verdict passed upon my defence of it ; however i shall not sneak so shamefully as the nonconformist did in the dialogues . eud. i hope i shall not need to caution you any more against reflections : but as for the alledged treachery of your friend the nonconformist , it may be referred to all scotland , if what he saith be not what is put in the mouths of all the people about these matters , and truly this answer adds so little to him , that nothing can free him so well of that treachery , as the reading of this new book . but to our purpose : the question is first in general , if subjects under a lawful sovereign when oppressed in their established religion , may by arms defend themselves , and resist the magistrates ? let this be first discussed in general , and next it shall be considered how far this will quadrat with our present case , or our late troubles . isot. i like your method well , and that we may follow it , consider ( see pag. 20. of the answer , and ius populi all over ) if their can be any thing more evident from the laws of nature , than that men ought to defend themselves , when unjustly assaulted ? and since the law of nature teacheth men not to murder themselves , it by the same force binds them to hinder another to do it , since he that doth not hinder another from committing a crime , when it is in his power so to do , becomes guilty of the crime committed ; he is then a self-murderer who doth not defend himself from unjust force . besides , what is the end of all societies , but mutual protection ? did not the people at first choose princes for their protection ? or do you imagine it was to satisfie the pride and cruelty of individual persons ? it was then the end of societies , that justice and peace might be maintain'd : so when this is inverted , the subjects are again to resume their own conditional surrender , and to coerce the magistrate , who , forgetful of the ends of his authority , doth so corrupt it . and since the great design of man should be to serve god , and to worship him in spirit and in truth , this is to be preferred to all things else , as being of the greatest importance . if then magistrates , whom s. peter ( 1 pet. 2.13 . ) calls the ordinances of men , or humane creatures , do force there subjects from the true worship of god , they ought to be restrained , and the cause of god must be maintained , notwithstanding their unjust laws or cruel tyranny . bas. you have indeed put such colours on your opinion , that i should be much shaken from mine , were not my persuasion well grounded . but to examine what you have said , you must distinguish well betwixt the laws of nature , and the rights or permissions of nature : the first are unalterable obligations , by which all men are bound , which can be reversed by no positive law , and transgressed by no person , upon no occasion : for the law of nature is the image of god yet remaining in some degrees on the souls of men , and is nothing else save certain notions of truth , impressed by god on the souls of all men that enjoy the exercise of reason . now self-defence cannot be a law of nature , otherwise it could never be dispensed with without a sin ; nay , were a man never so criminal : for as in no case a man may kill himself , were he never so guilty ; so by that reasoning of yours , he ought not to suffer himself to be killed , neither should any malefactor submit to the sentence of the judge , but stand to his defence by all the force he could raise . and it will not serve turn , to say , that for the good of the society he ought to submit ; for no man must violate the laws of nature , were it on never so good a design : and since the utmost standard of our love to our neighbors , is to love them as our selves , no consideration of the good of others can oblige one to yield up his life , if bound by the law of nature to defend it . crit. if i may interrupt you , i should tell you that as among all nations it hath been counted heroical to die for ones country , or for the good of others , so the apostle speaks , ( rom. 5.7 . ) of those who for good men would dare to die . but chiefly christ's dying for us , shews that self-defence can be no law of nature : otherwise christ who filled all righteousness , had never contradicted the laws of nature . bas. i thank you for your remark , which was pertinent . but next , consider there are some rights or permissions of nature , which are allowed us , but not required of us , as propriety of goods , marriage , and other such like things , which whose doth not pretend to , he cannot be said to violate the laws of nature , only for some greater consideration he forgoes these priviledges it allows . and take men out of a society , i acknowledge forcible resistance of any violent assailant , to be one of the rights of nature , which every man may make use of without a fault , or dispense with likewise at his pleasure : but societies being associations of people under a head , who hath the power of life and death , that sets it beyond doubt , that the head must only judge , when the subjects do justly fore-seal their lives or not : which before i go about to evince , i must remove that vulgar error , of a magistrate's deriving his power from the surrender of the people . none can surrender what they have not : take then a multitude of people not yet associated , none of them hath power of his own life , neither hath he power of his neighbors , since no man out of a society may kill another , were his crime never so great , much less be his own murderer ; and a multitude of people not yet associated , are but so many individual persons ; therefore the power of the sword is not from the people , nor any of their delegation , but is from god. isot. you will pardon me to tell you , that the people must give the power , since god did it never by a voice from heaven , or by a prophets command , except in some instances among the israelites , where even that was not done , but upon the previous desire of the people . and for what you say of the peoples having no right to kill themselves , they only consent to submit to the magistrates sentence , when guilty . basil. this will then infallibly prove , that forcible self-defence cannot be a law of nature , but only a right ; otherwise we could not thus dispense with it . but if though guilty , i ought not to kill my self , neither can i so much as consent that another do it : hence it is , that the original of magistracy must be from god , who only can invest the prince with the power of the sword. polyb. i could say much in confirmation of that , from the universal sense of all nations , who ever looked on the magistrates power , as sacred and divine : but these things are so copiously adduced by others , that i may well spare my labor . crit. nay , a greater authority is st. paul's , rom. 13.1 . who saith , that the powers that were then , were ordained of god : which on the way saith strongly , for asserting the right of a conquerour , after some prescription , since if either we consider the power of the roman empire over the world , or of their emperours over them , both will be found to have no better title than conquest , and yet they were ordained of god , and not to be resisted , but submitted to , under the hazard of resisting the ordinance of god , and receiving of damnation , ( p. 2. ) and it is like , the sacredness of the magistrates power , was a part of the traditional religion conveyed from noah to his posterity , as was the practice of extraordinary sacrifices . basil. it is not to be denied but a people may chase their own form of government , and the persons in whose hands it shall be deposited : and the sovereignty is in their hands , of whom they do thus freely make choice : so that if they expressly agree , that any administrators of the power , by what name soever designed , kings , lords , or whatever else , shall be accountable to them ; in that case , the sovereignty lies in the major part of the people , and these administrators are subject to them , as to the supreme . but when it is agreed in whose hands the sovereign power lies , and that it is not with the people ; then if the people pretend to the sword , they invade gods right , and that which he hath devolved on his vicegerent . and as in marriage either of the parties make a free choice , but the marriage-bond is of god , neither is it free for them afterwards to refile upon pretence of injuries , till that which god hath declared to be a breach of the bond , be committed by either party : so though the election of the sovereign may be of the people , yet the tie of subjection is of god , and therefore is not to be shaken off , without we have express warrant from him . and according to your reasoning , one that hath made a bad choice in his marriage , may argue that marriage was intended for a help and comfort to man , and for propagation ; therefore when these things are missed in a marriage , that voluntary contract may be refiled from ; and all this will conclude as well to unty an ill chosen marriage , as to shake off a sovereign . philarch. to this reasoning i shall add what seems from rational conjectures , and such hints as we can expect of things at so great a distance from us , to have been the rise of magistracy . we find no warrant to kill , no not for murder before the floud , as appears from the instances of cain and lamech , so no magistracy appears to have been then : yet from what god said to cain , gen. 4.7 . we see , the elder brother was to rule over the younger . but the want of magistracy before the flood , was perhaps none of the least occasions of the wickedness which was great upon earth ; but to noah was the law first given of punishing murder by death , gen. 9.6 . and he was undoubtedly cloathed with that power . so his eldest son coming in his place by the right of representation , and being by the right of primogeniture asserted before the flood to be over his brethren , was cloathed with the same power , and so it should have descended by the order of nature still to the first-born . but afterwards families divided , and went over the world to people it , whereby the single jurisdiction of one emperor , could not serve the end of government , especially in that rude time , in which none of these ways of correspondence , which after ages have invented , were fallen upon . these families did then , or at least by that law of god of the elder brothers power , ought to have been subject to the eldest of their several families . and another rise of magistracy , was the poverty of many who sold themselves to others that were richer , and were in all nations sub●ect to them , both they and their children : and this was very early begun , for abraham's family consisted of 318. persons , and the many little kings at that time seem to have risen out of these families : for the posterity of these servants were likewise under the masters authority : and these servants were by their masters pleasure to live or lie ; nor had they any right to resist this unjust force : but afterwards emancipation was used , some dominion being still reserved : and it is highly probable , that from these numerous families , did most of the little kingdoms then in the world spring up ; afterwards the more aspiring came to pretend over others , and so great empires rose by their conquests . crit. i know it is strongly pretended , that the state of servitude , or such a surrender of ones life , or liberty , as subjects it to the tyranny of another , is not lawful : but this will be found groundless : for though even the law of god counted the servants a man's money , so that he was not to be punished , though he had smitten them with a rod , so that they died , provided they lived a day or two after it , exod. 21.20 , 21. yet in that dispensation it was not unlawful to be a servant ; nay , nor unlawful to continue in that state for ever , and not accept of the emancipation which was provided to them in the year of iubily . neither is this state declared unlawful under the gospel , since s. paul saith , 1 cor. 7.21 . art thou called being a servant , care not for it : but if thou mayst be free , use it rather : by which we see the gospel doth not emancipate servants , but placeth that state among things which may be lawfully submitted to , though liberty be preferable . basil. from this it may be well inferred , that if a society have so intirely surrendred themselves that they are in no better case than were the servants among the romans or hebrews , the thing is not unlawful ; nor can they make it void , or resume the freedom without his consent whose servants they are : and as s. peter tells , 1 pet. 2.18 . the servants to submit to their masters , tho punishing them wrongfully . by whom all know that he means not of hired , but of bought servants : so if a people be under any degrees of that state , they ought to submit , not only to the good , but to the froward : and still it appears that the sword is only in the magistrates hand , and that the people have no claim to it . it is true , in case the magistrate be furious , or desert his right , or expose his kingdoms to the fury of others , the laws and sense of all nations agree , that the states of the land are to be the administrators of the power , till he recover himself : but the instance of nebuchadn●zzar , dan. 4.26 . shews , that still the kingdom should be sure to him when he recovers . i●●t now you begin to yield to truth , and confess , that a magistrate , when he grosly abuseth his power , may be coërced : this then shews that the people are not slaves . basil. the case varies very much when the abuse is such that it tends to a total subversion , which may be called justly a phrensie , since no man is capable of it till he be under some lesion of his mind ; in which case , the power is to be administred by others , for the prince and his peoples safety : but this will never prove that a magistrate governing by law , though there be great errors in his government , ought to be coërced : otherwise you must open a door to perpetual broils , since every one by these maxims becomes judge ; and where he is both judge and party , he is not like to be cast in his pretensions : and even few malefactors die , but they think hard measure is given them . if then forcible self-defence be to be followed , none of these should yield up their lives without using all attempts for res●uing them . eud. whatever other cases allow of , certainly the defence of religion by arms is never to be admitted : for the nature of christian religion is such , that it excludes all carnal weapons from its defence . and when i consider how expresly christ forbids his disciples to resist evil , matth. 25.39 . how severely that resistance is condemned by s. paul , and that condemnation is declared the punishment of it , i am forced to cry out , oh! what times have we fallen in ▪ in which men dare against the express laws of the gospel , defend that practice upon which god hath passed this condemnation , if whosoever break the least of these commandments , and teach men so to do , shall be called the least in the kingdom of god : what shall their portion be who teach men to break one of the greatest of these commandments , such as are the laws of peace and subjection ? and what may we not look for from such teachers , who dare tax that glorious doctrine of patient suffering , as brutish and irrational , and though it be expresly said , 1 pet. 2.21 . that christ by suffering for us , left us his example how to follow his steps , which was followed by a glorious cloud of witnesses ? yet in these last days , what a brood hath sprung up , of men who are lovers of their own selves , traytors , heady , high-minded , lovers of pleasures , more than lovers of god : having a form of godliness , but denying the power thereof ; who creep into houses , and lead captive silly women laden with sin ? it is our sins that provoke god to open the bottomless pit , and let loose such locusts ; but were we turning to god , and repenting of the works of our hands , we might hope that their power should be taken from them , and that their folly should be made known to all men . isot. who talk bigly now ? but let reason and scripture take place , and you shall find good warrants in the old testament for coërcing the magistrate , and subjecting the power in the peoples hands , ( see p. 12. ) for the people were warranted to punish idolaters , deut. 13.12 . and from the beginning of deuteronomy , it appears that book was directed to all israel , therefore any might have punished idolaters ; therefore the power of reforming is with the people : and again ( see p. 13. ) the law of the king is set down , deut. 18.14 . which gives a clear evidence , that the people might coërce him : otherwise why was that law delivered to the people ? crit. i am much deceived if these instances do conclude for your design , since the utmost they can prove , is , that some share of the executive power lay in the hands of the people among the iews ; but that proves nothing : where by law and practice it is clear the power is wholly in the hands of superior unaccountable magistrates . but that the law of the king , or of punishing idolaters was delivered to the people , proves not that they must execute it : for the law of sacrifices , and all the temple worship was also delivered to them : but i hope you will not from that infer , that the people were to judge in these matters , or to give laws to their priests ; neither will the law , because addressed to the people , prove themselves to be the executors of it ; otherwise the epistle to the corinthians addressed to all the saints in corinth , will prove the people the iudges of excommunication , and of the rules of church-worship , which are there delivered : so that though the law was directed to all the people , yet that proves not that every precept of it concerned all the people , but that the whole of the law was addressed to the whole people , and the respective parts of it , to all the individuals , according to their several stations : and after all this , you are to consider that some things were allowed by that law to private persons , which ought never to be made precedents : for the law allowed the friends of one that was killed by chance , to avenge the blood on the person that slew him , if he kept not within the city of refuge : but that being a particular provision of their judicial and municipal law , will be no warrant for such revenge in other states . isot. but what say you to the revolt of libnah , 2 chron. 21.10 which revolted from iehoram , because he forsock the lord god of his fathers : and of amaziab , 2 chron. 25. 27. who when he turned away from following the lord , his being killed by a conspiracy of these in ierusalem , and the fourscore valiant priests who withstood ●zziah , when he went to offer incense ? 2 chron. 26.17 . see p. 13 , 14 crit. as for your instances , consider that many things are set down in the old testament , that are undoubted faults , and yet so far are they from being taxed , that they rather seem to be applauded : so it is in the case of the midwives lie , not to mention the polygamy of the patriarchs ; therefore it not being clear to us by what special warrants they acted , a practice of that dispensation will be no precedent to us . but for that of libnah , it may be justly doubted if the libnah there mentioned , be that city which was assigned to the priests : for numbers 33.20 . we meet with a libnah in the journyings of israel ; and both the syriack and the arabick version , have understood the place of that city ; for they render it , the idumeans that dwelt at libnah . but whatever be in this , the particle because , doth not always import the design of the doer : which if you examine the hebrew , will be very clear ; and i shall name but one place to satisfie you , 1 sam. 2.25 . elies sons hearkned not to the voice of their father , because the lord would slay them . but , i doubt not , you will confess this was not their motive to such disobedience : so this will import no more , but that god in his providence permitted that revolt for a punishment of iehoram's apostasie : neither will fair pretences justifie bad actions : so the utmost that place can prove , is , that they made that their pretence . but that their revolt could not be without they had also revolted from god , will appear from this , that the priests were bound to give attendance by turns at the temple , so none of them could have revolted from the king without their rejecting of god's service , as long as the king was master of ierusalem , whither no doubt they would not have come during their revolt . as for your instance of amaziah , i confess it is plain dealing , and you disclose the mystery of defensive arms that it is but lamely maintain'd , till the doctrine of murdering of kings be also asserted : and indeed your friend by this ingenuity of his , hath done that cause a prejudice , of which many are sufficiently sensible ; for this was a secret doctrine to be instilled in corners , in the hearts of disciples duly prepared for it , but not to be owned to the world : for if that place prove any thing , it will prove that when a king turns from following the lord , his subjects may conspire and slay him ; how this would take among the fifth●monarchy men , i know not ; but i am sure it will be abhorred by all protestants : and particularly by these who made it an article of their confession of faith , that infidelity or difference of religion , doth not make void the magistrates just power : therefore this being a direct breach of both fifth and sixth commands , though it be neither marked as condemned , nor punished in that short account there given , yet it will never warrant the resisting the ordinance of god , upon which god hath entailed damnation . and whereas your friend alledgeth the justice of this may be evinced from scripture , it shews that in his judgment , not only tyranny , but the turning from following god , is a just cause for conspiring against , and killing of kings : but i cannot see where he finds what the cause of this conspiracy was , since the text taxeth only the time , but not the cause of it . and for the instance of uzziah , the priests indeed withstood him , as they ought to have done , as the ministers of the gospel ought yet to do , if a king would go and consecrate the lord's supper : but their withstanding of that , imports no violent opposition ; the strict signification of the word being only , that they placed themselves over against him , and so it is rendered by the lxx . interpreters ; and remember that s. paul withstood s. peter to his face , gal. 2.11 . yet i do not apprehend you will suspect he used force . as for what follows , that the priests did thrust him out , it will not prove they laid hands on him , that word signifying only , that they made him haste out of the temple : and is the same word which esther 6.14 . is rendered , hasted , where none will think that the chamberlains laid violent hands on haman : so all that the priests did , was to charge uzziah , when his leprosie appeared , to get him quickly out of the temple : and some copies of the lxx . have it so rendered : and the following words shew there was no need of using force , since himself made haste . and for the word rendered valiant , or sons of valor , that word is not always taken for valor , but sometimes for activity ; so gen. 47.6 . sometimes for riches , so ruth 2.1 . it is also rendered wealth , gen. 34.29 . so this will not prove that azariah made choice of these men for the strength of their body , but for the resolution of their mind , that they might stoutly contradict uzziah ; and thus you have drawn a great deal more f●om me than i intended , or these misapplied places needed , for clearing of them from the design you had upon them . isot. but is it not clear from 1 sam. 14.45 . that the people of israel rescued jonathan from his fathers bloody sentence against him , and swore he should not die ? see p●● . ● . 5 . crit. that will prove as little ; for no force was used in the matter , only a solemn protestation was made . next , the word rendered , rescued , is , redeemed , which is not used in a sense that imports violence in scripture : but rather for a thing done by contract and agreement : and the lxx . interpreters render it , the people intreated for ionathan : nor need we doubt but saul was easily prevailed upon to yield to their desire . besides any king that would murder his eldest son and heir of his crown upon so bare a pretence , after he had signalized his courage so notably , as ionathan did , may well be looked upon as one that is furious ; and so the holding of his hands , is very far different from the case of defensive arms. isot. but david , a man according to gods heart , gathered four hundred men about him , and stood to his defence , when cruelly persecuted by saul , 1 sam. 22.2 . basil. many things meet in this instance to take away any colour of an argument might be drawn from it : for david was by gods command designed successor to the crown , and so was no ordinary subject . next , saul was become furious , and an evil spirit seized on him , so that in his rage he threw javelins , not only at david , but at his son ionathan . now all confess ▪ that when a sovereign is frenetick , his fu●y may be restrained . further , we see how far david was from resistance , he standing on a pure defence , so that when he had saul in his power twice , he would do him no hurt ; yea , his heart smote him when he cut off the hem of his garment , 1 sam. 24.4 , 5. this was not like some you know of , who set guards about their king ( for the security of his person forsooth ) when he had trusted himself into their hands . and it is very doubtful if david's gathering that force about him was lawful ; for these who came to him were naughty men , and discontented and broken with debt ; whereas had that been a justifiable practice , it is like he should have had another kind of following . and his offering his service to the philistins , who were enemies to god , to fight for them against the people of god , is a thing which can admit of no excuse . but after all this , if the actions even of renowned persons in the old dispensation be precedents , you may adduce the instances of ehud , to prove that we may secretly assassinate a tyrant ; and of iael , to prove that after we have offered protection to one who upon that trusts to us , we may secretly murder him . isot. but what say you to the resistance used by mattatb●as , and his children , who killed the kings officers , and armed against him ? which resistance , as it was foretold by daniel , so it is said by the author of the epistle to the hebrews , that by faith they waxed valiant in fight , and turned to flight the armies of aliens : which by all is applied to the maccabees . and who are you to condemn that which the holy ghost calls the work of faith in them ? see p. 18 , 19. basil. i see criticus is weary of speaking , and therefore will relieve him for this once , and tell you , that the title anti●●hus had to command the iews , is not undoubted : for iosephus lib. 12. cap. 7. and 8. shews how the iewish nation was tossed betwixt hands , and sometimes in the power of the kings of egypt , and sometimes of syria ; and that the factions among the iews , gave the occasion to their being so invaded ; for ambitious pretenders to the high priesthood , sought the favour of these kings , and so sacrificed the interests both of religion , and their country to their own base ends : which was the case in ant●ochus epiphanes his time , who after his attempt upon egypt , came against ierusalem , to which he was admitted by the men of his party , who opened the gates to him : after which , he polluted their worship and temple , and fell on the cruellest persecution imaginable . now his title over them being so ill grounded , their asserting their freedom and religion against that cruel and unjust invader , was not of the nature of subjects ●esist●ng their sovereign . besides , what is brought from the epistle to the hebrews ch . 11. for justifying these wars , seems ill applied : for from the end of the 32. verse , it appears he only speaks there of what was done in the times of the prophets , and none of these being during the time of the maccabees , that is not applicable to them . next , as for mattathias , i must tell you that god often raised up extraordinary persons to judg i●rael , whose practices must be no rule to us : for god sets up kings and rulers at his pleasure : and in the old dispensation he frequently sent extraordinary persons to do extraordinary things , who were called zealots : and such was samuel's hewing agag in pieces before the lord , elijah's causing to kill the priests of baal , which was not done upon the peoples power to kill idol●te●s : but elijah having by that signal miracle of fire falling from heaven , proved both that god was the lord , and onely to be worshiped , and that he was his prophet , and commanding these priests to be killed , he was to be obeyed . of the same nature was his praying for fire from heaven on the captains who came to take him , and eli●ha his c●r●ing of the children who reproached him . from these precedents we see it is apparent that often in the old dispensation , the power of the sword , both ordinary and extraordinary , was assumed by persons sent of god , which will never warrant private and ordinary uninspired persons to do the like . isot. i acknowledg this hath some ground ; but the first instance of these zealots , was ph●nehas , in whom we find no vestige of an extraordinary mission , and yet he killed zimri and cosbi , for which he was rewarded with an everlasting priesthood : so a zeal for god in extraordinary cases , seems warrant enough for extraordinary practices . pag. 382. to 405. basil. if you will read the account of that action given by moses , it will clear you of all your mistakes : since phinehas had the warrant of the magistrate for all he did ; for moses being then the person in whose hands the civil power was committed by god , did say to the judges of israel , numb . 25.5 . slay ye every one his men that were joyned to baal peor . now that phinehas was a judg in israel at that time , is not to be doubted ; for eleazer was then high priest , and by that means exempted from that authority , which when his father aaron lived , was in his hand , numb . 3.32 . and he being now in his fathers place , there is no ground to doubt but phinehas was also in his , and so as one of the judges , he had received command from moses to execute judgment on these impure idolaters , which he did with so much noble zeal , that the plague was stayed , and god's wrath turned away . but if this conclude a precedent , it will prove too much , both that a church-man may execute judgment , and that a private person in the sight of a holy magistrate , without waiting for his justice , may go and punish crimes . from the instances adduced , it will appear how zealots were ordinarily raised up in that dispensation : but when two of christs disciples lay claim to that priviledg of praying for fire from heaven , he gives check to the fervor of their thundring zeal , and tells them , luk. 9.55 , 56. you know not what spirit you are of : adding , that the son of man was not come to destroy mens lives , but to save them : whereby he shews that tho in the old dispensation , god having by his own command given his people a title to invade the nations of canaan , and extirpate them , having also given them political laws for the administration of justice , and order among them , it was proper for that time that god should raise up judges to work extraordinary deliverances to his people , whose example we are not now to imitate : god also sent prophets , who had it sometimes in commission to execute justice on transgressors ; yet in the new dispensation , these things were not to take place , where we have no temporal canaan , nor judicial laws given us ; and consequently none are now extraordinarily called in the name of god , to inflict ordinary and corporal punishments . having said all this , it will be no hard task to make it appear that mattathias was a person extraordinarily raised up by god , as were the iudges . and though no mention of that be made , neither by iosephus , nor the book of maccabees , that is not to be stood upon ; for we have many of the judges of israel , of whose call no account is given , and yet undoubtedly they were warranted to act as they did , otherwise they had been invaders . but if that practice of mattathias conclude any thing by way of precedent , it will prove that church-men may invade the magistrates office , and kill his officers , and raise war against him . crit. i wonder we hear not isotimus alledging the practice of the ten tribes , who rejected rehoboam , and made choice of ieroboam , which useth to be very confidently adduced , for proving it to be the peoples right to give laws to their princes , and to shake them off when they refuse obedience to their desires . but to this and all other instances of this nature , it is to be answered , that the iewish state being a theocracy , as it is called by their own writers , their judges , and many of their kings had their title from god's designation , and the possession was only yielded to them by the people , according to the command , deut. 17.15 . to set him king over them whom the lord their god did chuse : so when they sought a king , they came to samuel , as the known prophet of god , and desired him to give them a king , which he afterwards did . in like manner was david designed to succeed saul , by the same prophet ; and upon sau●'s death , the tribe of iudah came and aknowledged , and anointed him king , which was the solemn investiture in that to which he had formerly a right . ieroboam being by the same authority designed king over the ten tribes by the mouth of ahijab in the name of god , 1 kings 11. ch. from v. 28. he derived his title from that : and there was as good warrants for the people to reject rehoboam , and follow him , as was formerly to quite ishbosheth , and follow david . another instance of this nature is elisha his sending one to iehu , where that young prophet saith , 2 kings 9.6 . thus saith the lord god of israel , i have anointed thee king over the people of the lord , even over israel : upon the notice whereof , v. 13. he is declared king. these instances will sufficiently prove what i have alledged , that the kings of the hebrews having their right from god , were to be changed when the most high who ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will , and setteth up over it the basest of m●n , interposed his authority and command . one word more , and i have done . when the law of the judge is set down , deut. 17.12 . all who do presumptuously , and hearkened not unto the judge , are sentenced to death , that evil might be put away from israel , whereby the people might hear , and fear , and do no more presumptuously . this shews that absolute submission was due to the judges , under the pain of death ; whereby all private mens judging of their sentence is struck out . it is true the other laws that prefer the commands of god to the laws of men , do necessarily suppose the exception of unlawful commands : but since no law warrants the resisting their sentence , it will clearly follow that absolute submission was due to these judges . basil. truly these things as they seem to be well made out from scripture , so they stand with reason , since no order can be expected among men , unless there be an uncontrollable tribunal on earth . our consciences are indeed only within god's jurisdiction : but if there be not a supreme power to cognosce and determine about our actions , there must follow endless confusions , when any number of people can be got to mutiny against laws : therefore there must be a supreme court. but the laws and settled practices of kingdoms , must determine in whose person this lies , whether in a single person , the nobility , or the major part of the people ? yet i desire to hear what decisions the new testament offers in this question . crit. truly that will be soon dispatched ; consider then how our lord , matth. 5. forbids us to resist evil ; where it is true , he enumerates only small injuries : so i shall not deny but that place will amount no farther , than that we ought to bear small injuries , rather than revenge or oppose them ; but you must yield to the doctrine of submission , if afterwards you consider how our lord tells us , matth. 11.20 . to learn of him , for he was meek ; and that he condemns the thundering fervor of his disciples , who called for fire from heaven , shewing the nature of the new dispensation to be quite different from the old , in that particularly , that the son of man came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them : and chiefly that when he was to give the greatest instance wherein we should imitate him , he refused the defence of the sword , and commanded s. peter to put up his sword , matth. 26.52 . isot. if you urge this too much , then must i answer , that by the same consequence you may prove we must cast our selves on dangers , and not flee from them : since we find christ going up to ierusalem , though he knew what was abiding him there : neither did he fly , which yet himself allowed . besides , you may as well urge against all prayer to god for deliverance , his not praying for angels to assist him . but the clear account of this is given by himself , that the scriptures were to be fulfilled which fore-told his death . see pag. 24. and answer to the letter about ius popul● . crit. i must confess my self amazed at this answer , when i find s. peter saving expresly , 1 pet. 2.21 . that christ suffered , leaving us an example that we might follow his steps , and applying this to the very case of suffering wrongfully ; and that notwithstanding of that , you should study to pervert the scripture so grosly besides : consider that christ was to fulfil all righteousness ; if then the laws of nature exact our defence in case of unjust persecution for religion , he was bound to that law as well as we ; for he came not to destroy , but to fulfil the law , both by his example and precepts . if then you charge the doctrine of absolute submission , as brutish and stupid , see you do not run into blasphemy , by charging that ●●oly one foolishly : for whatever he knew of the secret will of god , he was to follow his revealed will in his actions , whereby he might be a perfect pattern to all his followers : for god's revealed will was his rule , as well as ours . but i dwell too long on things that are clear . as for your ●nstances , they will serve you in no stead . for his coming to ierusalem was a duty , all the males being bound to appear three times a year before the lord at ierusalem , at the three festivals , the passover being the first of them , deut. 16. and this being a duty , our lord was to perform it , what ever hazard might follow . so we find s. paul on a less obligation , going to ierusalem , notwithstanding the bonds were fore-told to abide him there . and as for your other pretended consequence against prayer , from his not praying for legions of angels , it bewrays great inadvertency : for you find our lord a few minutes before , praying in the garden , matth. 26.42 . over and over again , that if it were possible that cup might pass from him . and there is our warrant from his practice , to pray for a deliverance from troubles or persecutions , if it may stand with the holy will of god : but for a miraculous deliverance by the ministry of angels , that our lord would not pray for , lest thereby the prophesies should not be accomplished : and by this , our praying for a miraculous deliverance , is indeed from his example condemned : but still we are to pray , that if it be possible , and according to the will of god , any bitter cup is put in our hands , may pass from us . next , let me desi●e you to consider the reason given s. peter for putting up his sword , matth. 26.52 . for they that take the sword , shall p●●●sh by the sword . isot. you ●i●apply this place palpably , it not being designed as a threatning against s. peter , but for the encouragement of his disciples , and being indeed a prophesie that the iews who now come against him with swords and staves , should perish by the sword of the romans , who should be the avengers of christ's death . see page 25. crit. you are beholden to grotius for this exposition , who is the first of the latter writers that hath given that sense to these words , tho he voucheth for his opinion some elder writers ; and he designing to prove that a private person may resist another private assaillant by force , being a little pinch'd with this place , which seems to condemn simply the use of the sword , escapes o●t of it by the answer you have adduced . but though this were the genuine scope of these words , still remember that our lord rejects the use of the sword for his defence : and if his fore-telling the destruction of the iews , was of force to bind up s. peter's hands , why should not also that general promise , rev. 13.10 . he that killeth with the sword , must be killed by the sword , also secure our fears , and sheath our swords , and the rather that it is there subjo●ned , here is the faith and patience of the saints ? which seems to imply , that since retaliation will be g●ven out by god upon unjust murderers , therefore faith and pat●ence must be the exercise of the saints , which to all unprejudged minds , will sound a discharge of the use of weapons of war. but after all this , the phrase of taking the sword , seems only applicable to s. peter ; for the band being sent out by a magistrate , could not properly be said to have taken the sword , it being put in their hands by these who were invested with it , though they now tyrannically abuse their power : but the phrase agrees much better with s. peter's drawing it , who had no warrant for it , and so did indeed tak● it . next , we hear no mention of the band of soldiers their using their swords ; therefore this prediction seems fitted for s. peter , and all such as mistaking the nature of the chr●●stian dispensation , do take the sword. but next , consider christ's words to pilate ▪ iohn 18.36 . m● kingdom 〈◊〉 n●t of th●● world : if my kingdom were of this 〈◊〉 , then w●ul● my servants fight , that i should n●t be ●●l●v●r●d to the ●●ws ; but now is my kingdom not from ●ence . and this being said upon the accusation the iews had given against him to pilate , that he call'd himself a king , charging him upon his friendship to cesar , to put him to death , christ ▪ s answer shews that earthly kings need apprehend no prejudi●● from his kingdom , since it not being about worldly things , was not to be ●ought fo● . isot. speak plainly , do you mean by this that christ should have no kingdom upon earth ? which i fear too many of you desire , since you press this so warmly . but consider you not that by this christ only means he was not to set up a temporal dominion upon earth , to ●ustle cesar from his throne , such as the iews expected from their messiah ; and therefore this place is indeed strong against the pretences of some carnal fifth-monarchy men , but is ill adduced to condemn defence , when we are unjustly assaulted by a persecuting tyrant . see p. 25. crit. it is no new thing to find the sincere doctrine of the gospel misrepresented by sons of belial ; but learn the difference betwixt a kingdom of the world , and in the world , and so temper your passion . christ must have a kingdom in the world , but not of it . and the greatest hazard of a pretending king , being the raising of wars and commotions upon his title , christ's words are not truly commented on by the practice of his servants , unless they sec●re princes from their fears of their raising wars upon his ●itle : therefore as the sighting at that time , for preserving christ from the iews , had been contrary to the nature of his spiritual kingdom ; to the rule of the gospel binding all the succeeding ages , of the church , no less than these to whom it was first delivered , what was then contrary to the nature of christ's kingdom , will be so still . and to this i might add the doctrine of peace so much insisted on in the new testament it being the legacy christ left to his disciples , which we are commanded to follow with all men , as much as is possible , and as in ●s lies . and if with all men , ●●re much more with the magistrate . and s. paul's words in the xiii . to the romans are so express , that methinks they should strike a terror in all men from resisting the superior powers , le●t they resist the ordinance of god , and receive damnation . and it is observable , that s. paul , who , as a zealot , had formerly persecuted the christians , doth now so directly contradict that doctrine , which was at that time so horridly corrupted among the iews . this place is so express , that it needs not the advantages may be given to it , either from the consideration of the power the roman empire had usurped over the world , or from the emperor who then reigned , who must have been either claudius or nero : and if the former , we find ▪ ac●s 18.2 . that he banished all the iews , from rome , and with them the christians , not being distinguish●d by the romans from the iews , were also banished : and here was a driving of christians from rome , which you will not deny to have been a persecution . but if it was nero , we know very well how the christians were used by him . but these words of s. paul being as at first addressed to the romans , so also designed by the holy ghost to be a part of the rule of all christians , do prove , that whoever hath the supreme power , is to be submitted to , and never resisted ▪ isot. if you were not in too great a haste , you would not be so forward , consider therefore the reason s. paul gives for s●bmission to superior rulers , is , because they are the ministers of god for good . if then they swe●ve from this , they forsake the end for which they are raised up , and so fa●l from their power and right to our obedience . basil. truly what you have said makes me not repent of any haste i seemed to make ; for what you have alledged p●oves indeed that the sovereign is a minister of god for good , so that he corrupts his power grosly when he pursues not that design : but in that he is only accountable to god , who●e minister he is . and this must hold good , except you give us good ground to believe that god hath given authority to the subjects to call him to account for his trust ; but if that be not made appear , then he must be left to god , who did impower him , and therefore can only ●oerce him . as one having his power from a king , is countable to none for the administration of it , but to the king , or to these on whom the king shall devolve it : so except it be proved , that god hath warranted subjects to call their sovereigns to account , they being his ministers , must only be answerable to him . and according to these principles of yours , the magistrate● authority shall be so enervated , that he shall no more be able to serve these designs , for which god hath vested him with power : every one being thus taught to shake off his yoak when they think he acts in prejudice of religion . and here i shall add one thing which all casuists hold a safe rule in matters that are doubtf●l , that we ought to follow that side of the doubt which is freest of hazard ; here then damnation is at least the seeming hazard of resistance ; therefore except upon as clear evidence you prove the danger of absolute submission to be of the same nature that it may ba●●ance the other ; then absolute submission , as being the securest ▪ is to be followed . next , we find saint peter , 1 pet. 2.13 . &c. who being ●et infecte● with the spirit of a iewi●h zealot , had drawn the sword ; afterwards when ind●e● with power from on high , at length pressing the doctrine of obedience adding that the p●et●nce of the christian freedom should not be made a cloak of maliciousness . and this submission he recommends not only to subjects , whose obedience was more easie , but to servants who were under a heavier yoak , according to the laws of servitude , both among the iews and the romans : and he tells them , that when they did well , and suffered for it , and took it patiently , that was acceptable . withal adding , for even hereunto were you called ; becau●e christ also suffered for us , leaving us an example , that we should follow his steps . further , it is to be considered how the iew ▪ s d●d upon the first prea●hing of the gospel persecute the ch●isti●●s every where : s. stephen was stoned , and saul got commissions for making havock of the church● b●● because this was done by the autho●ity of the san●●drim , no resistance was made them , though since at two sermons we hear of 〈◊〉 converts , we may be induced to believe their number was great . and from hence sub●●me that the case of persecution being then not only imminent , but also present ▪ besides the grievous persecutions were abiding the churches for three centuries ) it must be confess●● to be strange , that the matter of resistance being at least so dubious , no decision should be given about it in the new testa●●nt ; nothing being alledged from it that hath any aspect that way . and indeed i cannot conceal my wonder at them who plead so much the authority and fulness of scripture , to reach even the rituals of worship and government , and yet in so great a matter adventure on a practice without its warrant . truly isotimus , if these things prevail not with you , beyond your little small shufflings , i doubt it is because you have lost the standard to measure reason by , and have given up your j●dgment to your passions and interests . isot. i am far from denying the doctrine of the cross to be a great part of these duties we are bound to in the gospel ; but this must not be stretched too far , lest it infer an obligation on us to submit to a forein prince , the turk , or any other , if he come by force to impose on us the alcoran , under a pretence of suffering for religion . see pag. 27 , and 28. basil. truly when i hear how much weight is laid on what you have now said , as if it amounted to a demonstration against all hath been hitherto adduced ; i am in doubt whether to pity their weakness , or blame their perv●●sness , who dare adventure on that , the punishment whereof the holy ghost hath made damnation , upon such mistakes : for god hath put the sword in their hands who have the sovereign power , which they bear not in vain ; for they are the ministers of god , and his revengers , to execute wrath on him that doth evil : the magistrates then are both by the laws of god , and of all nations , the protectors of their subjects , and therefore tributes and customs are due to them , for defraying the expence to which that must put them ; and prayers are to be offered up for them , that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . if then a forein prince invade a country , under whatever pretence , the sovereign is bound to defend his subjects , with the sword god hath put in his hand , which comes to be a most lawful war on his side ; nay such , as he were a betrayer of his trust , if he omitted it . i●ot . but what if our prince should consent to such an invasion , and expose his subjects to be a prey to such an invader , must they look on and see themselves destroyed , upon the pretence that god hath not put the sword in their hands , and therefore they must not take it ; and because christ's kingdom is not of this world , therefore they must not fight for him ? basil. you suppose a case not like to fall out in haste ; but were it real , that invader having no title to that peoples obedience , they may make use of the right of nature which allows to one out of a society forcible self-defence , if violently assaulted : and therefore such hostile invasion , be it upon what pretence soever , may be as lawfully resisted , as one private man may resist another in his own defence , if he threaten to kill him , unless he renounce god. if then one man may resist another , so may more men resist a great force coming against them : for to us who live here , the grand seignior is but a fellow of our nature , and hath no right over us , no more than one private person hath over his neighbour . and if you do not acknowledg a great difference betwixt such an asserting of our liberties , from one that hath no title to them , and the resisting of a lawful magistrate , though unjustly persecuting his subjects , you must be set to your horned book again . isot. but at least you will confess that private men living in a settled society , have no title to the sword , according to your principles ; must we then yield out throats to a robber that assaults us on the high way ? or to come nearer you , if one threaten to kill us . if we yield not to their religion , must we give way to their fury ? basil. remember still how i told you , that men living out of societies have a ●ight to self-defence , and when they come under societies , they retain all their former rights , such only excepted as are by the law● of the society judged inconsistent with its order and peace : therefore resisting of the supreme powers , or those having their authority , being only discharged , the right of self defence against equals still remains intire , so that a private person may claim it or not , as he will : and therefore in the case of such an aggressor , the laws of nature and nations do warrant me to use force when assaulted ; yet if a greater consideration appear , and it be evident that my giving way to such unjust force will be more for the honour of the gospel , if i resist , i do not sin , but do well ; but if i resist not , certainly i do better . end. i have been a witness to this discourse , not without much pleasure , and do acknowledg my self fully convinced of the necessity of obedience , and submission to the supreme power , since without that be once established , as the foundation of societies , i see not what peace or order can be looked for , but every one will take on him to judg the law-giver : and if he have so much power or policy as to make a party , he will never want pretences , chiefly about religion , considering in how many various opinions the christian world hath divided about it . and it is a poor answer to say , it must be the true religion that we should defend , since it is to be supposed every one judgeth the religion he is of to be the true one : if then according to that doctrine , religion be to be defended ; certainly though the religion be wrong , yet every one oppressed in his cons●i●nce , and judging it to be according to truth , is bound to defend it ; since even an erring conscience doth at least tie , if not oblige . for the common resolution of casuists being that a man under an erroneous conscience , is yet to follow its dictates , though he sin by so doing : then all parties that are oppressed , ought to vindicate what they judg to be the truth of god. and by this you may see to what a fair pass the peace of mankind is brought by these opinions . but mistake me not , as if i were here pleading for s●●mission , to patronize the tyranny or cruelty of persecuting princes , who shall answer to god for that great trust deposited in their hands ; which if they transgress , they have a dear account to make to him who sits in heaven and laughs at the raging and consultings of these kings or princes , who design to throw off his yoak , or burst his bonds in sunder . he who hath set his king upon his holy h●ll of zion , shall rule them with a rod of iron , and break them in pieces as a potter's vessel . and he to whom vengeance doth belong , will avenge himself of all the injuries they do his truths , or followers : but as they sin against him , so they a●e only countable to him . yet i need not add what hath been often said , that it is not the name of a king , or the ceremonies of a coronation , that cloaths one with the sovereign power ; since i know there are , and have been titular kings , who are indeed but the first persons of the state , and only administrators of the laws , the sovereign power lying in some assembly of the nobility , and states , to whom they are accountable . in which case , that court to whom these kings must give account , is the supreme judicatory of the kingdom , and the king is but a subject . isot. but doth not the coronation of a king , together with his oath given , and the consent of the people demanded at it , prove him to have his power upon the conditions in that oath ? and these oaths being mutually given , his coronation oath first , and the oath of allegiance next , do shew it is a compact ; and in all mutual agreements , the nature of compacts is , that the one party breaking , the other is also free . further , kings who are tied up , so that they cannot make , nor repeal laws , nor impose taxes without the consent of the states of their kingdom , shew their power to be limited , and that at least such assemblies of the states share with them in the sovereign power , which is at large made out by ius populi . basil. it is certain there cannot be two co-ordinate powers in a kingdom ; for no man can serve two masters : therefore such an assembly of the states must either be sovereign or subject ; for a middle there is not . as for the coronation of princes , it is like enough that a● first it was the formal giving their power to them ; and the old ceremonies yet observ'd in it , prove it hath been at first so among us : but it being a thing clear in our law , that the king never dies , his heir coming in his place the very moment he expires , so that he is to be obeyed before his coronation , as well as after ; and that the coronation is nothing but the solemn inaugurating in the authority which the king possessed from his father's death , shews , that any ceremonies may be used in it , whatever the original of them may have been , do not subject his title to the crown to the peoples consent . and therefore his coronation oath is not the condition upon which he gets his power , since he possess'd that before ; nor is it upon that title that he exacts the oath of alegiance , which he likewise exacted before his coronation . this being the practice of a kingdom passed all prescription , proves the coronation to be no compact betwixt the king and his subjects : and therefore he is indeed bound by his coronation oath to god , who will be avenged on him , if he break it , so the matter of it were lawful : but the breaking of it cannot forfeit a prior right he had to the peoples obedience . and as for the limitations kings have consented to pass on their own power , that they may act nothing but in such a form of law , these being either the king 's free concessions to the people , or restraints arising from some rebellions , which extorted such priviledges , will never prove the king a subject to such a court , unless by the clear laws and practices of that kingdom , it be so provided , that if he do malverse , he may be punished ; which when made appear , proves that court to have the sovereign power : and that never weakens my design , that subjects ought not to resist their sovereign . philar. you have dwelt , methinks , too long on this , though considering the nature of the thing , it deserves indeed an exact discussion : yet this whole doctrine appears so clear to a discerning mind , that i cannot imagine whence all the mist is raised about it can spring , except from the corrupt passions or lusts of men , which are subtle enough to invent excuses , and fair colors , for the blackest of crimes . and the smoak of the bottomless pit may have its share , in occasioning the darkness is raised about that , which by the help of the light of god , or of reason , stands so clear and obvious . but when i consider the instances of sufferings under both dispensations , i cannot see how any should escape the force of so much evident proof as hangs about this opinion . and if it had been the peoples duty to have reformed by the force of arms under the old dispensation , so that it was a base and servile compliance with the tyranny and idolatry of their kings , not to have resisted their subverting of religion , and setting up of idolatry , where was then the fidelity of the prophets , who were to lift up their voices as trumpets , and to shew the house of iacob their iniquities ? and since the watch-man who gave not warning to the wicked from his wicked way , was guilty of his blood , i see not what will exc●se the silence of the prophets in this , if it was the peoples duty to reform : for it is a poor refuge to say , because the people were so much inclin'd to idolatry , that therefore it was in vain to exhort them to reform ; ( see pag. 10 , 11. ) since by that argument you may as well conclude it to have been needless to have exhorted their kings to reformation , their inclination to idolatry being so strong : but their duty was to be discharged , how small soever the likelihood was of the peoples yielding obedience to their warnings . if then it was the peoples duty to reform , the o●ission of it was undoubtedly a sin ; how then comes it that they who had it in commission to cause ierusalem to know her abominations , under so severe a certificate , do never charge the people for not going about a popular reformation , nor co●rcing these wicked kings who enacted so much idolatry , backing it with such tyranny , nor ever require them to set about it ? i know one hath pick'd out some expressions , ( see answer to the letter to the author of ius populi ) which to his thoughts sound that way : but truly they are so remote from the sense he stretches them to , that i should wonder much at his glosses , did i not know that the bell seems often to ring the hearer's fancy . from these , let us pass to the instances of the first christians , who endured the sharpest persecutions with the greatest patience . polyh . here is a large theme for much discourse , if i should adduce all might be said on this head . indeed the persecutions the christians groaned under for three hundred years , are such , that scarce can they be read without horror ; the last especially , which continued for about twenty years under dioclesian , and his colleagues and successors ; and by the number that suffered , we may easily guess what the strength of the christians was . but this can be doubted by none who have ever looked upon history . pliny lib. 10. ep. 97. writes to trajan ( which is reckoned to have been the 104. year of christ ) that in pontus and ●ithynia , where he was then pro●onsul , there were many christians of all ages , ranks and sexes : and that not only in the cities , but through the villages and country places : that the temples were almost desolate , the sacrifices long intermitted , and that none almost were found to buy the victims . the number of the christians being so early risen to that height , we may easily imagine to what it swelled before constantine's times : not long after that , we find a whole legion of marcus aurelius his army to have been christians . and if we believe tertullian , their numbers were formidable in his time ; for after he had purged the christians of his times from the designs of doing mischief to their enemies by stealth , he adds , apol. cap. 37. should we carry towards you not as secret avengers , but as open enemies , would we want the strength of numbers and armies ? are the maurs , the marcomans , or the parthians themselves , or any nations shut up within their own country or bounds , more than the whole world ? we are strangers to you , and yet we fill all your places , your towns , your islands , your castles , your villages , your councils , your camps , your tribes , your decuries , your palaces , your senate , and your market place : only we come not to your temples , but abandon those to you . to what war had we not been both fit and ready , even tho our forces had been fewer , who are butcher'd so willingly , if our discipline did not allow us rather to be killed than to kill ? and he goes on , telling that such was the number of the christians , that would they but change their dwellings , and leave the roman empire , it would have thereby become an amazing solitude , since almost all their citizens were christians . and the same writer saith elsewhere , ad scap. cap. 2. that tho the romans who were idolaters , were found guilty of many conspiracies against their emperors , yet never were any christians found guilty of these practices . and adds , that a christian was no mans enemy , much less the emperors ; but knowing him to be constituted by god , he doth find himself bound to love , reverence , honor , and wish well to him , with the whole roman empire , as long as the world lasts . therefore , saith he , we worship the emperor so as befits him , and is lawful for us , as a man next god , who hath obtained all he hath from god , and is inferior to none , but god only . and a little after , cap. 5. he tells us of the numbers of the christians , and how undaunted they were at the persecution ; so that when one arrius antoninus in asia , was persecuting the christians , the whole city ran to his tribunal , declaring themselves christians . and he adds , if the like were to be done at carthage , what would become of all the thousands were there , of every sex , age and rank ? from this we may guess both of the strength and numbers of the christians of that time , and yet there was not the least inclination among them to resistance . if any doubt the truth of what tertullian saith , as is p. 30. he must charge him with very much impudence , who durst offer such writings to the heathens , in matters of fact , which could not but be notoriously enough known : neither do i adduce these places , because i lay so much weight on tertullian's opinion in this matter , but because he shews us what was the sense of the christians of his time . a little after him cyprian lived , who also tells us , ad demetrianum , that none of the christians when apprehended , struggled with those who seized on them , nor avenged themselves of that unjustice , though their number was great and copious : but their belief of the vengeance sh●uld follow on their persecutors , made them patient , so that the innocent yielded to the guilty . and we may judge of the number of the christians of that age , by what cornelius who was bishop of rome , anno 254. in euseb. 6. book , cap ▪ 43. tells of the state of the roman clergy in his time , how there were in it 46 presbyters , 7 deacons , 42 acolyths , 52 exorcists , lectors and porters , and of widows and poor persons 150● , and where so many poor were maintain'd , you must confess the number of the christians was very great . but if we go to d●●clesian's time , we find the number of the christians incredible ; and the cruelties used against them to have been such , that ●ell could devise nothing beyond them . some were burnt alive , others had boiling lead poured on them , others had their flesh and joints to●n off them by burning pince●s , others were broken to pieces , others stretched all out of joint , others hanged up by the thumbs and cut in slices , others hanged up by-the heels . and this was universal through the whole empire , and to such a degree , that it continued for many years ; and in egypt alone they were often killed by hundreds a day , as eu●ebius tells , who was a witness to much of it . and godean reckons , that in one month there were seventeen thousand martyrs killed : and during that persecution in the province of egypt , there were an hundred fo●ty and four thousand , who died by the violence of their persecutors , and seven hund●ed thousand who died through the fatigues of banishment , or of the publick works , to which they were condemned . i had almost forgot one sort of persecution , which as it was the most dreaded , so hath in it that which could not but provoke all to the utmost of horror and despair , which was the prostituting of their virgins , more dreaded than any death . but among all these vast numbers , none offered to resist with the sword● : and yet they were so marvellously assisted by god , that in their sufferings they expressed the greatest joy in god , by their hymns and psalms , and the most of mildness to their persecutors . and dare you say , isotimus , that these were a stupid self-murdering crew ? or do you think that had they been guilty of such a crime , as you seem to fasten on the doctrine of absolute submission ; god had appeared for them in such a signal manner , to the conviction and horror of their persecutors ? i confess there is no piece of story i read with such pleasure as the accounts are given of these martyrs ; for methinks they leave a fervor upon my mind , which i meet with in no study , that of the scriptures being only excepted . say not then they were not able to have stood to their own defence , when it appears how great their numbers were : or shall i here tell you the known story of the thebean legion , which consisted of 6666. who being by maximinus herculeus , an . 287. pressed in the oath they gave the emperor to swear upon the altars of the idols , withdrew from the camp eight miles off ; and when he sent to invite them to come and swear as the others had done ; they who commanded them answered in all their names , that they were ready to return and fight stoutly against the barbarians ; but that being christians , they would never worship the gods. whereupon the emperor caused tith them , which they received with such joy , that every one desired the lot might fall on himself . and this prevailing nothing on them , he tithed them a second time ; and that being also without effect , he caused to murder them all , to which they submitted without resistance . and it is not to be denied , but such a number being driven to such despair , and having so much courage as to dare to die in cold bloud , might have stood to their defence a great while , and at least sold their lives at a dear rate , especially they having got off eight miles from the army . were it my design to back these instances with the great authorities of the most eminent writers of the church in these times , i should grow too tedious : but this is so far from being denied , that the only way to escape so strong an assault , is to study to detract from these holy men by enquiring into any over-reachings , to which their fervor might have engaged them . isot. all their practices are not binding upon us , for many of them did precipitate themselves into hazards , others were against flight , & others against resisting of private assailants , who without warrant came to murder them ; therefore the spirit that acted in them , tho it produced effects highly to the honour of the gospel , is not to be imitated by us : yet on the other hand , i acknowledg we ought to be slow to judg them . one thing is observable , that maximinus was resisted by the armenians , when he intended to set up idolatry among them . constantine also invaded licinius when he persecuted the christians in the east : and the persians , when persecuted by their king , implored the help of the roman emperor . besides , i have seen a catalogue of many instances of resistance used in some cities , when their good bishops were forced away from them , which shews they were not so stupid as you design to represent them . see pag. 29 , &c. and ius popul● at length . basil. it is certain all christians have one law and rule ; and the laws of nature are eternal and irreversible : if then the law of nature engage us to self-defence , it laid the same ties on them : therefore except you turn enthusiast , you must say , th●t what is a duty , or a sin now , was so then likewise ; and so you must either charge that cl●ud of witnesses with brutish stupidity , otherwise acuse our late forwardness of unjust resistance , since one rule was given to both ; and contradicting practices can never be adjusted to the same rule . and for these invidious aspersions you would fasten on them , as if they had not unde●stood their own liberties , they are but poor escapes ; for it being already made out that violent resistance even of an equal , is not a law , but a ●ight of nature ; if they thought it more for the glory of the gospel to yield even to private injuries , who are we to tax them for it ? but for flying from the persecutors , it is true tertullian condemned it , but that was neither the opinion nor practice of the ch●istians in these ages . as for what you alledg about the resistance made by the armenians to maximinus , i wish your friend had vouched his author for what he saith of them ; for i am confident he is not so impudent as to prove a matter of fact done twelve ages ago , by a writer of this age. all i can meet with about that , is from euschius , lib. 9. cap. 6. who tells , that in these times the tyrant made war against the armenians ( men that had been of old friends and auxiliaries to the romans ) whom because they were christians , and were pious , and zealously studious about divine matters , that hater of god , intending to force to worship the false gods and devils , made to become enemies instead of friends , and adversaries instead of auxiliaries . and in the beginning of the next chapter , he tells how in that war he and his army received a great defeat . now how you will infer from this , that subjects may resist their sovereign for religion , i see not : for these armenians were his confederates , and no● his subjects : and it is clear by the account eusebius gives , that armenia was not a province , nor governed by a prefect , as were the provinces . besides , consider how maximinus came in the fag-end of that great persecution begun by dioclesian and herculius , continued by gal●rius , and consummated by maximinus himself , in which for all the numbers of the martyrs , and the cruelty of the persecution , there was not so much as a tumult : which makes it evident the christians at that time understood not the doctrine of resistance . but the armenians case varying from that of subjects , it was free for them to resist an unjust invader , who had no title to their obedience . for your story of licinius , the true account of it will clear mistakes best ( as it is given by eus. 10. cap. 5. ) constantine after he turned christian , being then emperor of the west , called for licinius , whom galerius had made emperor in the east , and they both from millain gave out edicts in favour of the christians , giving them absolute liberty , and discharging all persecution on that account , which is reckoned to have been in the year 313. afterwards he allied with licinius , and gave him his sister in marriage , and acknowledged him his colleague in the empire . but some years after that wars arose betwixt them , which zosimus and eutropius impute to constantine's ambition , and impatience of a rival : but if we believe the account eusebius gives of it , licinius provoked with envy at constantine , and forgetting the laws of nature , the bonds of oaths , alliance and agreement , raised a pestiferous and cruel war against him , and laid many designs and sna●es for his destruction , which he attempted long by secret and fraudulent ways , but these were always by god's providence discovered , and so constantine escaped all his designed mischief : at length licinius finding his secret arts did not succeed , he openly made war against constantine . and as he was preparing for it , he made war likewise against god , and persecuted the christians , because he apprehended they all prayed for constantine , and wished him success ; whereupon he made severe laws against the christians , forbidding the bishops ever to meet among themselves , or to instruct any women : afterwards he banished all that would not worship the gods , and from that he went to an open persecution ; and not content with that , he by severe laws discharged any to visit and relieve such as were in prison for the faith. yet notwithstanding all this , none that were under his part of the empire did resist him ; nay , not so much as turn over to constantine against him , for ought that appears : but upon these things a war followed betwixt constantine and him , wherein licinius was defeated , and forced to submit to what conditions constantine was pleased to give ; who took from him greece and illyricum , and only left him thrace , and the east . but licinius returning to his old ways , and breaking all agreements , a second war followed , wherein licinius was utterly defeated , and sent to lead a private life at thessalonica , where he was sometime after that killed , because of new designs against constantine . this being the true account of that story , i am to divine what advantage it can yield to the cause of subjects resisting thei● sovereign ; for here was a superior prince defending himself against the unjust attempts , and hostile incu●sions of his enemy , who was also inferior to him , as eusebius states it : whom consult . 10. book , 8. ●● . and 1. book of const. life , ch . 42. and 2. book , ch . 2 , &c. and for your instance of the persians imploring the aid of the romans , i am afraid it shall serve you in as little stead : for the account socrates gives of it ( lib. 7. cap. 18. ) is , that baratanes king of persia , did severely persecute the christians , whereupon the christians that dwelt in persia , were necessitated to fly to the romans , and beseech them not to neglect them who were so destroyed , they were kindly received by aticus the bishop of constantinople , who bent all his care and thoughts for their aid , and made the matter known to theodosius the second then emperor : but it happened at that tune the romans had a quarrel with the persians , who had hired a great many romans that wrought in mines , and sent them back without paying the agreed hire ; which quarrel was much heightned by the persian christians complaint ; for the king of persia sent ambassadours to remand them as fugitives : but the romans refused to restore them , and not only gave them sanctuary , but resolved by all their power to defend the christian religion , and rather make war with the persians , than see the christians so destroyed . now it will be a pretty sleight of logick , if from subjects flying from a persecution , and seeking shelter under another prince , you will infer that they may resist their own king. and for theodosius his war , we see other grounds assigned by the historian : and the politicks even of good princes in their making of wars , must not be a rule to our consciences : neither know i why this instance is adduced , except it be to justifie some who are said ( during the wars betwixt their own sovereign and the country where they lived ) to have openly prayed for victory against their country , and to have corresponded in opposition to their native sovereign . but i must next discuss that catalogue of tumults in the fourth and fifth century , which are brought as precedents for the resisting of subjects : and here i must mind you of the great change was in christendom after constantine's days , before whom none were christians , but such as were persuaded of the truth of the gospel , and were ready to suffer for its profession ; so that it being then a doctrine objected to many persecutions , few are to be supposed to have entred into its discipline without some convictions about it in their consciences : but the case varied much after the emperors became christian ; so that what by the severity of their laws , what by the authority of their example , almost all the world rendered themselves christian ; which did let in such a swarm of corrupt men into the christian societies , that the face of them was quickly much changed , and both clergy and laity became very corrupt , as appears from the complaints of all the writers of the fourth century : what wonder then if a tumultuating humor crept into such a mixed multitude ? and indeed most of these instances which are alledged , if they be adduced to prove the corruption of that time , they conclude but too well : but , alas ! will they have the authority of precedents , or can they be look'd upon as the sense of the church at that time , since they are neither approved by council or church-writer ? and truly the tumults in these times were too frequent upon various occasions ; but upon none more than the popular elections of bishops , of which nazianzen gives divers instances , and for which they were taken from the people by the council of laodicea , can. 13. it is also well enough known how these tumults flowed more from the tumultuary temper of the people , than from any doctrine their teachers did infuse in them . and therefore socrates lib. 7. cap. 13. giving account of one of the tumults of alexandria ( made use of by your friends , as a precedent ) tells how that city was ever inclined to tumults , which were never compesced without blood . and at that time differences falling in betwixt orestes the prefect , and cyril the bishop , who was the first that turned the priesthood into a temporal dominion , they had many debates : for orestes hating the power of the bishops , which he judged detracted from the prefect's authority , did much oppose cyril ; and cyril having raised a tumult against the iews , wherein some of them were killed , and the rest of them driven out of the city , orestes was so displeased at that , that he refused to be reconciled with him ; whereupon 500 monks came down from nitria to fight for their bishop , who set on the prefect , and one of them named ammonius , wounded him in the head with a stone ; but the people gathering , they all fled , only ammonius was taken , whom the prefect tortured till he died ; but cyril buried him in the church , and magnified his fortitude to the degree of reckoning him a martyr , of which he was afterwards ashamed . and their being in alexandria at that time a learned and famous lady , called hyppatia , whom the people suspected of inflaming the prefect against the bishop , they led on by a reader of the church , set on her , and dragged her from her chariot into a church , and stript her naked , and most cruelly tore her body to pieces , which they burnt to ashes . and this , saith the historian , brought no small infamy , both on cyril , and on the church of alexandria , since all who profess the christian religion , should be strangers to killing , fightings , and such like . truly , sir , he that will found the doctrine of resistance on such grounds , hath a mind on very easie terms to run himself upon condemnation . and yet such like are the warrants your friends bring from church history . therefore i see there is yet good ground to assert that doctrine was unknown in the christian church , till the times wherein the popes pretended to the temporal power over princes : all whose plea was managed upon the grounds of the great importance of religion to be preferred to all human interests , and that christ had told his disciples to buy a sword ; and that princes being the ministers of god , were to be no longer acknowledged , than they observed that design for which they were set up . only in one particular , less disorder may be apprehended from the pretensions of the roman bishops , than from these maxims that put the power of judging and controuling the magistrate in the peoples hands , which opens a door to endless confusions , and indeed sets every private person on the throne , and introduceth an anarchy , which will never admit of order or remedy ; whereas these who had but one pretender over them , could more easily deal with him , and more vigorously resist him . isot. you have said very many things from history , which i shall not at this time undertake to examine : but i am sure it hath been both the practice and doctrine of the reformed churches , that in case of unjust tyranny , the states of a kingdom may put a stop to the fury of a king : and therefore where the reformation was opposed by cruelty , it was also defended by arms. and let me add , that i believe your great quarrel at this doctrine , is , because the practice of it was so great a mean of preserving the reformation , which though , in good manners , you must commend , yet i am afraid you hate it in your heart . philar. whether you or we be greater friends to the reformation , let the world judge by this one indication , that you study to draw all can be devised for the staining it with blood , which is the constant calumny of its adversaries , whereas we offer with the clearest evidences to evince its innocence . but let me premise the distinction of doctrine from practices ; and tho some unjustifiable practices appear , these must never be charged on the reformed churches , unless it be made appear they were founded on their doctrine . besides , the reformers coming out of the corruptions of poper● , in which the doctrine and practice of resistance upon pretences of religion were triumphant , it will not be found strange tho some of that ill-tempered zeal continued still to leaven them . but for their doctrine , i take the standart of it to be in the confessions of the several churches ; all which being gathered in one harmony , we are in the right scent of their opinions , when we search for them there . now the doctrine of resisting of magistrates is by divers of their confessions expressly condemned , but in none of them asserted . it is true , there were some ambiguous expressions in our scots confession , registred in parliament anno 1567 , for art. 14. among the transgressions of the second table , they reckon to disobey or resist any that god hath placed in authority , while they pass not over the bounds of their office ; which seems to imply the lawfulness of resistance when they so transgress : but besides that it is not clearly asserted , and only inferred , this doth not determine what the bounds of the magistrate's office are : and if it be found that his office is to coërce with the sword , so as to be accountable to none but to god , then no resistance will follow from hence , except of a limited magistrate who is accountable to others . the same explication is to be given to that part of the 24. art. where all such are condemned who resist the supream power , doing that thing which appertaineth to his charge . but in the same article the magistrate is called god's lieutenant , in whose sessions god himself doth sit and judge . but with this , it is to be considered , when that confession was ratified in parliament , even when no sovereign was to look to the clearing of any ambiguities , which might have-been upon design by some , and through the neglect of others , let pass . the confessions of the other churches are unexceptionably plain , and without restriction in the point of subjection : for what seems like a restriction in the french confession ( that the yoke of subjection is willingly to be born , though the magistrates were infidels , provided that god's sovereign authority remain entire and uncorrupted ) imports nothing , but that our subjection to them , which takes in both obedience and suffering , is not to strike out the great dominion god hath over our souls , whom we should obey rather than man. and even the confession of the assembly of divines , ratified by the scots general assembly , speaks of submission to authority in absolute terms , without the exception of resistance in case of tyranny , cap. 22. art . 4. it is the duty of people — to be subject to their authority for conscience sake . infidelity or difference in religion , doth not make void the magistrate's just and legal aurity , nor fr●e the people from their due obedience to him . if then the doctrine of resistance be to be owned as a law of nature , and as a part of the christian freedom , how came it that it was not more expresly owned in this confession , especially since it is known to have been the opinion of most of both these assemblies ? but on the contrary , it seems condemned , and only the undiscerned reserves of just , legal , and due , are slip● in for the defence of their actings . truly this seems not fair dealing , and such an asserting of subjection at that time , looks either like the force of truth extorting it , or intimates them afraid , or ashamed to have owned that as their doctrine to the world. and by this time , i suppose it is clear that the reformed churches ought not to be charged with the doctrine of resistance . poly. nay , nor the reformed writers neither , with whose words i could fill much paper , and shew how they do all generally condemn the resistance of subjects : and when any of them gives any caveat to this , it is not in behalf of the people , but of the states of the kingdom , who , they say , perhaps are impowered with authority to curb the tyranny of kings , as the ephori among the lacedemonians , the tribuns of the people , and the demarchs in rome and athens . now it is acknowledged , that if by the laws of the kingdom it be found that the king is accountable to the states , then their coercing of him is not the resistance of subjects , but rather the managing of the supreme power which lies in their hands . if then you will stand to their decision in this point , of the peoples resisting of their sovereigns , though tyrants , the debate will not run long , they being so express . and this will be nothing shaken by any thing you may alledge in some corner of a peter martyr , or some other persons of less name ; for as from the same writers , other places may be brought to the contrary ; so what can these serve to enervate so much evident proof ? besides , we are not to consider the writings of some particular persons , so much as what hath been the generally received opinion among the protestant writers , and most taught in their pulpits and schools . and whoever will attempt the contradicting that this hath been for absolute submission , it must be confessed to be hard to determine , whether his ignorance be most to be pitied , or his confidence most wondered at . by these things all may guess , if there be not strong grounds to apprehend the reformed churches must be innocent of that , which both their confessions disown . and their writers condemn . isot. i confess the author of the dialogues did with great confidence undertake the refuting of what is generally acknowledged about resistance used by the reformed churches : but his answerer hath so refuted all he alledgeth from history , that i am confident he repents of his undertaking : and were it to be done again , perhaps he would think on other tasks , than to attempt what hath miscarried so in his hand , that truly i cannot but pity him in my heart . eud. it will be strange if he be so much mistaken as your author represents him , yet his design in that was so good to deliver the reformation from such a challenge , that methinks he deserved a little better usage than your friend bestows on him . but i am much deceived if he be not able to make good all was asserted by him : let us therefore hear what polyhistor saith on these matters . isot. begin then with the matter of the albigenses , where force was used against simon montfort , who had not only the permission of the french king , as is acknowledged , but was assisted by him by 15000. men , which is vouched by some authors : besides , that the cruelties then used ( which are made use of to aggravate their not resisting the king of france ) if pertinently adduced , prove the king of france guilty of accession to them . and the kings son , prince lewis , coming with an army afterward , shews all to have been done by the kings command . and what is alledged from the count of tolouse , his being a peer of france , by which he was a vassal , and not a subject , is to no purpose ; since by the feudal law , vassals are subjects ; and whatever authority they may have within their own dominions , they are still subjects to the lord of the feud . see p. 418. poly. i shall not with big words blow away what you alledg ; but shall examine it from the accounts are given of that war. it is true , the writers of that time do so strangely misrepresent these innocents , that little credit is due to most of the histories about them : but thus much is clear , that the waldenses were every where persecuted , both in dauphine , provence , piedmont , calabria , boheme , and other places , to which they scattered themselves , and fled for shelter : and notwithstanding all the persecutions they lay under , from the inquisition in france , they never armed against the king's authority . these about alby embracing the same doctrine with the waldenses , and called from the country they lived in albigenses , were thundered against by the pope , and a iacobin monk being killed in their country , pope innocent proclaimed a crotsade , promising paradise to all who came and fought against these hereticks , and avenged the blood of that monk : and in particular suspecting raymond count of tolouse , he excommunicated him , and absolved his subjects from their obedience , permitting any to pursue his person , and possess his lands ; with which he wrote to all christian princes to come into his croisade . but the king of france was imployed in wars both with the emperor and king of england , and so could not join in it , but gave way to his barons to take the cross : and here the king consenting to so cruel an invasion , did undoubtedly shake much of his right to these provinces , since he thus exposed them to the fu●y of an unjust invader ; so that tho they had absolutely rejected his authority , this had quadrated with the case of a kings deserting of his subjects . however the war went on , all managed by the legate , as the popes war. but raymond came and submitted himself to the pope , yet the legate went on against beziers and carcasson , who had a great deal of reason to resist such an unjust aggressor . afterwards the legate gaping for the county of tolouse , picked another quarrel with raymond , and did excommunicate him of new , tho he had got the popes absolution : whereupon he armed , with the assistance of the king of arragon , against the legate , and his general simon montfort : but afterwards the king of arragon was defeated , yet all this while the king of france lay neutral , and would not permit his son to go against the albigenses , because he had promised to the king of arragon to be neutral ; but the king of arragon being dead , he gave way to it , and so his son came to the army : and this must be that which gulielmus brito confounds with the beginning of the war. this also is that affair which the centuriators say philippus augustus had with the albigenses . but the legate fearing the numbers prince lewis brought with him , and apprehending he might have possessed himself of the other places which belonged to the albigenses , granted them all absolution , with the protection of the church ; and assumed the confidence to tell the prince , that since he had taken the cross , he was to depend on his orders , he representing the pope , and not to command in that army as the kings son ; reproaching him , because his father had given no assistance to the destruction of the albigenses when there was need of it : but that after the miraculous victories had been obtained , he was now come to reap the harvest of what was due to them who had hazarded their lives for the church . and for all this , i refer you to the history of the albigenses , compiled by m. perrin lib. 1. cap. 12 , &c. but what if by an overplus i should justifie the count of tolouse , tho he had armed against the king of france , upon the account of his being a peer of france , which exempted him from the condition of ordinary subjects , of whom pasquier recherches de france , lib. 2. cap. 8 saith . it was the vulgar opinion , that they were constituted by charles the great , who is believed to have given them almost as much authority as himself had , reserving only to himself the principal voice in the chapter : but he refutes that vulgar error , and shews how in the end of the carolovingian race , great confusions were in france , partly through the various pretenders , but more through their folly : at which time , the crown of france did likewise become elective : and he shews how eude , robert , raoul , lewis , surnamed beyond the sea , lot hair , and another lewis , were chosen kings of france ; and the chief persons who at that time were most active , were these dukes , counts , and bishops , who afterwards were made peers . hugo capet therefore taking possession of the crown , for securing himself peaceably in it , did confirm those peers in that great authority they had assumed ; which if he had not done , they had given him more trouble . and their constitution was , that if any difference arose , either betwixt the king , and any of the peers , or among the peers themselves , it should be decided by the council of the whole twelve peers . and he proves from an old placart , that they would not admit the chancellor , connestable , or any other great officer of france to judg them ; they being to be judged by none , but their fellow peers . these were also to be the electors of the king. but hugo capet apprehending the danger of a free election , caused , for preventing it , crown his son in his own time , which was practised by four or five succeeding kings . and lewis the gross not being crowned in his fathers time , met with some difficulty at his entry to the crown ; which to guard against , he crowned his son in his own time , and so that practice continued , till the pretence of electing the king was worn out by prescription . yet some vestigies of it do still remain , since there must be at all coronations of france twelve to represent the peers : and by this time , i think it is well enough made out , that the count of tolouse was not an ordinary subject . and as for your confounding of subject and vassal , bodinus lib. de rep. cap. 9. will help you to find out a difference betwixt them , who reckons up many kinds of vassals and feudataries who are not subjects : for a vassal is he that holds lands of a superior lord , upon such conditions as are agreed to by the nature of the feud , and is bound to protect the superior , but may quit the feud , by which he is free of that subjection : so that the dependence of vassals on their lord , must be determined by the contract betwixt them , and not by the ordinary laws of subjects . and from this he concludes , that one may be a subject and no vassal , a vassal and no subject , and likewise both vassal and subject . the peers of france did indeed give an oath of homage , by which they became the liege●men of the king , but were not for that his s●bjects : for the oath the subjects swore , was of a far greater extent . and thus i am deceived if all was asserted by the conformist in the dialogues on this head , be not made good . isot. but since you examine this instance so accuratly , what say you to those of piedmont , who made a league among themselves against their prince , and did resist his cruel persecutions by armies . see pag. 423. poly. truly , i can say little on this subject , having seen none of their writings or apologies , so that i know not on what grounds they went : and i see so much ignorance and partiality in accounts given from the second hand , that i seldom consider them much . isot. the next instance in history , is , from the wars of boheme , where because the chalice was denied , the people did by violence resist their king , and were headed by zisca , who gained many victories in the following war with sigismund ; and in the same kingdom fifty years ago , they not only resisted first matthias , and then ferdinand their king , but rejected his authority , and choosed a new king : and the account of this change , was , because he would not make good what maximilian and rodolph did grant about the f●ee exercise of their religion : and thus when engagements were broken to them , they did not judge themselves bound to that tame submission you plead for . see p. 424. poly. remember what was laid down as a ground , that the laws of a society must determine who is invested with the sovereign power , which doth not always follow the title of a king : but if he be accountable to any other court , he is but a subject , and the sovereign power rests in that court. if then it be made out that the states of bohemia are the sovereigns , and that the kings are accountable to them , this instance will not advance the plea of defensive arms by subjects . that the crown of bohemia is elective , was indeed much contraverted ; and was at length , and not without great likelihoods on both sides , of late debated in divers writings : but among all that were impartial , they prevailed who pleaded its being elective . yet i acknowledge this alone will not prove it free for the people to resist , unless it be also apparent that the supreme power remained with the states , which as it is almost always found to dwell with the people , when the king is elected by them . bodin doth reckon the king of bohemia among these that are but titular kings : and the provincial constitutions of that kingdom do evidently demonstrate , that the king is only the administrator , but not the fountain of their power : which is made out from many instances , by him who writes the republick of bohemia , who shews how these kings are bound to follow the pleasure and counsel of their states : and in the year 1135 , it was decreed , that the elected prince of bohemia should bind himself by his coronation oath to rules there set down ; which if he broke , the states were to pay him no tributes , nor to be tied to any further obedience to him , till he amended . see hagecus ad ann . 1135. and this oath was taken by all the following dukes and kings of bohemia ; which is an evident proof that the states had authority over their kings , and might judge them . to this also might be added divers instances of their deposing their kings , upon which no censure ever passed . these being then the grounds on which the bohemians walked , it is clear they never justified their resistance , on the account of subjects fighting for religion , but on the liberties of a free state , asserting their religion when invaded by a limited prince . the account of the first bohemian war , is , that iohn huss and ierome of prague , being notwithstanding the emperors safe-conduct burnt at constance , the whole states of bohemia and moravia met at prague , and found that by the burning of their doctors , an injury was done to the whole kingdom , which was thereby marked with the stain of heresie : and they first expostulated with the emperor and counsel about the wrong done them ; but no reparation being made , they resolved to seek it by force , and to defend the religion had been preached by huss ; and did declare their design to winceslaus their king ( whom the states had before that time made prisoner twice for his maleversation ) but at that very time he died in an apoplexy , some say through grief at that . after his death , sigismund his brother pretended to the crown of bohemia : but not being elected , was not their righteous king : so in the following wars that were betwixt him and zisca , the resistance was not made to the king of bohemia , and therefore all that time was an interregnum , and is so marked by their historian , who tells , that the bohemians could not be induced to receive him to be their king : he indeed invaded the kingdom , and crowned himself , but was not chosen by the states till fifteen years after that a peace was concluded , and he with great difficulty prevailed upon the states to ratifie his co●onation , and acknowledge him their king. see dub. lib. 24. & lib. 26. and by all this , i doubt not but you are convinced that the wars of zasca were not of the nature of subjects resisting their sovereign . and for the late bohemian war , besides what was already alledged of the power of the states , their war against ferdinand , and the reason why by a solemn decree they rejected him , was , because he invaded the crown without an election , contrary to the fundamental laws of the kingdom : hereupon they choosed the prince elector palatine to be their king. it is true , they rose also in arms while matthias lived , though he did not long survive these tumults : but in all their apologies they founded their plea on the liberties of the kingdom of bohemia . and yet though this say much for their defence , i am none of the patrons of that war , which had very few defenders among the protestants . isot. at length you must yield there was war for defence of religion : but if without the inclosure of bohemia we examine the history of germany , there we meet with that famous smalcaldick war , in opposition to charles v. who was designing the overthrow of the protestant doctrine , which the elector of saxony , with the landgrave of h●ssen , and other free cities , managed against him . see p. 427. poly. if any of the passions of men have mingled in the actions of protestants , must these therefore be fasten'd on them as their doctrine ; especially when they went not upon principles of religion , but of provincial law● ? as for germany , let me first tell you how far the protestants were against rebellion , upon p●etence of religion . at first the rustick war had almost kindled all germany , which indeed began upon very unjust causes ; but sleydan lib. 5. tells , that some troublesome preachers had been the cau●ers of that great and formidable war. now it is to little purpose to say they were in many errors , and so fought not for the true religion ; since it was befo●e made out , that if religion be to be fought for , every man believing his own religion to be true , is bound to take arms in its defence , since even an erring conscience binds : b●t as these tumults did ●p●ead through germany , luther published a writing , desiring all to abstain f●om sedition , though with ●l h● told he apprehended some strange ●udgment was hanging over the church-men : but that was to be l●ft to god. after which he explains the duty of the magistrates : and adds , that the people should be severely charged not to stir without the command of their magistrates , and that n●thing was to be attempted by private persons : that all sedition was against the command of god , and that sedition was nothing but private revenge , and therefore hated by god. adding , that the seditions then stirring , were raised by the devil , who stirred up these who professed the gospel to them , that thereby the truth might be brought under hatred and reproach , as if that could not be of god which gave occasion to so great evils . then he tells what means were to be used for advancing of the gospel , that they were to repent of their sins , for which god had permitted that tyranny of the church-men . next , that they should pray for the divine aid , and publickly assert the truth of the gospel , and discover the impostures of the popes . and he adds , that this had been his method , which had been much blessed of god. in a word , the whole strain of that first paper shews , that the great bait used to train all into that rebellion , was the pretence of the liberty of religion , and the tyrannical oppression they were kept under by the ecclesiasticks . but upon this the beures published a writing containing their grievances : the first whereof was , that they might have liberty to choose ministers , who might preach the word of god purely to them , without the mixture of mens devises . the other particulars related to their civil liberties . and upon these pretensions they appealed to luther , who wrote again , acknowledging the great guilt of these princes who received not the purity of the gospel ; but he warns the people to consider what they did , lest they lost both body and soul in what they attempted . that they were neither to consider their own strength , nor the faultiness of their adversaries , but the justice and lawfulness of the cause ; and to be careful not to believe all mens preachings ; for the devil had raised up many seditions and bloody teachers at that time . wherefore he forbids them to take god ' s name in vain , and pretend that they desired in all things to follow his laws : but minds them who threatned , that they who took the sword , should perish by the sword : and of the apostle , who commands all to be obedient to magistrates , charging on them , that though they pretended the laws of god , yet they took the sword , and resisted the magistrate . but he adds , you say , the magistrates become intolerable , for they take the doctrine of the gospel from us , and oppress us to the highest degree : but be it so , stars and seditions are not therefore to be raised , neither must every one coërce crimes , that belongs to him to whom the power of the sword is given , as is express in scripture . and besides , this is not only according to the laws , but is by the light of nature impressed on all mens minds : which shews , that no man can cognosce and judge in his own cause , since all men are blinded with self-love : and it cannot be denied , but this tumult and sedition of yours , is a private revenge : but if you have any warrant for this from god , you must make it out by some signal miracle . the magistrate indeed doth unjustly , but you much more so , who contemning the command of god , invade anothers iurisdiction . and he tells them , that if these things take place , there will be no more magistracy , nor courts of iustice , if every man exercise private revenge . and if this be unlawful in a private person , much more is it so in a multitude gathered together . whe●efore he counts them unworthy of the name of christians , nay worse than turks , who thus violate the laws of nature . then for proof of his opinion , he adduceth that of our lord's , resist not evil ; as also his r●proving of s. peter for smiting with the sword. these steps were to be f●llowed by you , saith he , or this glorious title must be laid down . and if you followed his example , god ' s power would appear , and he would undoubtedly have regard to you . and he adds , how far he had been always from such practices , and how god had blessed his wo●k in his hands : but for you , you advert not how much you obstruct that which you think to promove . these are a few of luther's words , by which it will appear both upon what pretences the●e b●ures went , and what his sense of them was . but i know it will be said , that as in the first ages of the church , these good simple men understood not their liberties nor privileges , but were whee●led into a sheepish tameness : so likewise when the re●o●mation was fi●st sp●inging , they ●●d not in that infancy understand the heroick doctrine , that the following ripeness of some martial spirits did broach and maintain . alas ! luther , poor man ! he had been bred in his monastery , and understood not the brave atchievements of christian chivalry . but who would bear with such disingenuity , as to say , that because he defines sedition to be private revenge , and afterwards condemns private revenge , therefore he must be understood as only condemning that ? pag 432. but as none that reads sleydan da●e say that i have alledged one word in luther's name , but what is faithfully translated out of these writings : so the parcels i have here inserted , will clearly discover that rebellion to have been coloured over with the p●etence of oppression , persecution , and hindering the doctrine of the gospel : and luther's opinion in that must not be looked upon , as only his private sense , but that which was undoub●e●●y received by the rest of the protestants in germany , as appears by the series of the story . and whatever passion luther might have expressed , that will no more brangle what i say , than any of his other unjustifiable f●rv●●s will shake the rest of his doctrine . for i do not adduce him here only as a private doctor speaking his single thoughts , but as the head of the protestants , delivering a doctrine which was then received among them . isot. but he afterwards changed his opinion when the league of smalcald was entred into , and then we find the protestants in another tune ; for upon apprehensions of mischief designed against them , they entred into a defensive league among themselves : tho the constitution of the empire being feudal , the emperor was their sovereign : yet both princes and free cities entred into this league , which afterwards broke out into war. see p 433. poly. before i examine that affair , i must first clear the way by removing a mistake , which truly i judged none capable of that had ever read any thing of the constitution of the german empire , or of the power of the electors , princes , and free cities . i must therefore since i have to do with so much ignorance or perversness , shew that the emperor is not sovereign in germany ; though the thing is so plain , that i am almost ashamed to go about it . the german empire was hereditary from the days of charles the great till henry the fowler , and then it begun to be elective : and as is usual in all such cases , they who had the right of election , got by degrees the authority transferred upon themselves : but the particular time when this begun , is not so clearly defined by the german writers . it is true , the diet of germany is not like the league of the united provinces , or of the cantons of switzerland , where the authority remains with the several states and cantons , and they only meet for counsel : but the diet hath the supreme authority , both of deposing of emperors , as was practised in the case of adolphus and wenceslaus , and of fining , banishing , and forfeiting , either princes or cities . and the princes declare after the emperor is crowned , that they are the vassals of the empire , and not of the emperor . and when the diet sits not , all things are judged by the imperial chamber , whose president must be a prince of the empire , who hath six assessors from the emperor , seven from the seven electors , twenty from the ten circles , two from each of them ; and by them all the differences among the princes or members of the empire are decided . upon greater occasions , the diet is called , which thuan compares to the assembly of the amphictyons in greece , that was made up of princes , who had no dependence one upon another . the diet is not called by the emperor , but by the decree of a former diet : or if the emperor call one , the princes are not bound to come to it . and so the princes refused to come anno 1554. and an. 1506. by the diet laws are given to the emperour , as well as to the other princes : and any mony is ●●●sed for the use of the empire , is not put in the emperors hands , but in the bank of some town , as shall be agreed on . bodin tells he saw letters from a german prince to m●nmorancy , telling him , that the king of france had reason to complain of charles the fifth , and of his brother , to the duke of saxony , and the count palatine , who were the vicars of the empire , because they had , contrary to the laws of the empire , and former customs , suppressed the kings letters to the states of the empire . and maximilian the first in a diet at constance , anno 1507. acknowledged , that the majesty of the german empire consisted in the princes , and not in the emperor himself . i might here add much from the way of the emperors treating with the princes , by sending and receiving of ambassadors that go betwixt them , by the state in which he receives visits from them , and returns them to them , by the princes treating and being treated with , by all forein princes , who write to them brother , and not cousin , by their making of peace and war among themselves : and should indeed run out into a long dig●ession , if i adduced all might be alledged for proving the princes of the empire to be none of the emperors subjects : but i have no mind to engage in a vain shew of reading upon so plain a subject . one thing i shall only add , that by the 12. chapter of the bulla aurea , it is expresly provided , that the electors shall meet together yearly in the four weeks that follow easter , for consulting about the affairs of the empire : and this is thus explained in the 4th article of the cesarean capitulation , that it shall be free for the six electors by the vigor of the bulla aurea , to meet together as often as they please , for consulting about the commonwealth , and that the emperour shall make no hinderance to it , nor take it in ill part . and hence it is that these who give account of the state of the empire , laugh at their ignorance , who through a childish mistake ascribe the sovereign power to the emperor . the same may be added of the free cities united together by a league at least 500 years old , called the hanse-towns , who came under the protection of the master of the teut●●●●k order , that possessed prusse : and an . 1206 , they were so free , that they sent a navy to henry iii. of england , and got great priviledges from him for their traffick in england . there were then 72. cities in the league , who renewed their league every tenth year , and consulted whom to receive , or whom to exclude from their friendship , and choosed a p●o●●●tor to themselves . and one of the conditions on which any city might be of this league , was , that they were free towns : and therefore it was that some towns in the netherlands being of this league , their princes were by oath to confirm their freedom , otherwise they could not be comprehended within that league ; the end whereof was to defend one another in any necessity they might fall in . let these things then declare whether germany be a monarchy or not , and it will never prove the emperor to be the sovereign , because the empire is feudal , and the emperor gives the investitures to the princes ; for they are not the feudato●ies of the emperor , but the empire : and the emperor by giving the investiture becomes not their lord : for in the interregn of the empire , the electors of palatine and saxe are the vicars of the empire , and give the investitures , who are not clothed with any authority over the rest , but only as they are the vicars of the empire , and not of the emperor . and most of the princes of itair receive still their investiture from the emperor , but are far from concluding themselves his subjects upon that account . and who thinks the king of naples the popes subject , tho he receive his investiture in that crown from him ? these things being thus cleared , it will be evident that the wars betwixt charles v. and the duke of saxony , will never be a precedent for subjects resisting their sovereign . and having said so much , it will be to no purpose to examine the rise and progress of the smalcal●● league and war , only thus much is clear , that the leaguing of the princes and cities together among themselves , or with other princes , was not held contrary to the laws of the empire : for after the smalcaldic league , both the emperor and other kings , as france and england , treated with them , and sent embassadors to them : yea , the pope sent a nuncio to the elector of saxe , and landgrave of hessen at smalcald , and yet never were they accused by the emperor for entring into that league of mutual defence : which shews it was not judged contrary to the duty of these princes to associate among themselves , or with others . and the city of strasburg , and after them the landgrave of hessen , made a league with the switzer cantons that received the reformation , for mutual defence against any invasion upon the account of religion . at ausburg the emperor did on the 11. of november 1530. declare , that since the protestants did reject the decree made about religion , he had entred in an agreement with the rest of the diet , not to offend any , but to defend themselves , if any force were used against these who owned that religion . and in the following december the protestant princes met at smalcald , and made an agreement among themselves in the same strain : neither were they ever condemned for so doing , but continued in a good correspondence with the emperor many years after that , till being invaded by the duke of brunswick the war took its rise , which is all along proved to have been according to the laws and liberties of the empire . and thus this case doth vary exceedingly from the matter of our debates . eud. if i may glean after your harvest , i could add , that the divines of germany were notwithstanding of all the immunity of the princes , and injuries they met with , very much against all warlike preparations . many vestigies of this appear through melanclon's letters , particularly in his 71. letter to camerarius an . 1528. where he gives account of the inclinations many had to war , and with how much diligence he had studied to divert them from it , though great injuries had been done them ; and that it was believed that many of the princes had signed a conspiracy against them . and scultet exer. evang. lib. 2. cap. 5. tells how grumbachius and iustus ionas animated the elector of saxe to the war , assuring him of the empire of germany , if he wo●ld adventure for it : which , he adds , the elector did : and his so doing , he compares to his throwing himself over the pinacle of the temple ; but all quickly repented them of the attempt , the elector being defeated , taken , and kept prisoner many years , and his ill counsellors were well served for their advice , grumbachius was quartered , and ionas was beheaded . thus you see how that war is censured by one of the best of the late german divines . by this time , i think no scruples can dwell with any about the german war , and that it agrees with the case of a prince defending his religion and subjects , against the unjust invasion of another prince , to whom he owes neither obedience nor subjection : and this will easily satisfie all that know either law or history , whether the author of the dialogues deserved to be treated as his answerer doth : but it is no new thing to find ignorants full of confidence , and cowards full of boastings . isot. but for sweden , you yield it , and acknowledge , that because their king came against them in an unjust invasion , designing to subvert their religion , they not only armed against him , and resisted him , but deposed him , and put his uncle in his place , than which nothing can be more express . see p. 441. poly. the design of the conformist was to prove that the first reformers did not teach the doctrine of subjects their resistance upon the account of religion ; but he meant not to make good all that followed after that : therefore left the more inconsiderat when they heard of the s●ares of sweden their deposing of sig●smund , might have mistaken that , as he knows some have done , and confounded it with the reformation , he gave the true account of that affair as it was : and it being seventy years after the reformation was first brought thither , cannot be fastened on the reformation . besides the whole tract of the swedish history proves , that the estates , as they elected , so also coerced , and frequently deposed their kings : and therefore bodin reckons sweden among these divided states , where the supreme power lay betwixt the king and the nobility : and tells how in his own time henry king of sweden having killed with his own hand , one that presented a petition to him , the states forced him to quit the kingdom to his brother : and that he had been for seventeen years a prisoner when he wrote his books de republica : it being thus frequent in sweden upon malversation , not only to resist , but to depose their kings , it was no wonder if when sigismund came against them with an army of polanders , whose sovereign he was not , ( for none are so ignorant to think the king of poland is a sovereign ) they resisted him : since that was a subjecting of sweden to foreign force , and so did totally overturn the whole foundation of the kingdom . but after all this , i may add , that charles duke of sud●rman , was not too well reported of , for that abrogation of his nephew , it being generally imputed to his ambition . and thus you see upon how many accounts that action of the swedish state will not serve your turn . isot. but these of zurich resisted the other five cantons , and being provoked by their injuries , they stop'd the pass●ges of victuals to them , upon which a war followed . as also at basel , the people did maintain and assert the reformation by arms against their superiors , and brake the images , and burnt them : they also made the senate turn off some of their number who favored the mass. see p. 443 , 444. poly. as for the war among the cantons , it is undeniable that it was not of subjects against their sovereigns , since the cities of helvetia have no dependence one upon another ; nor can any one city be tied to the opinion or decree of the rest , without their own consent : which shews that every canton is a free state within it self , and therefore their warrings among themselves , makes nothing for subjects resisting of their sovereigns . and what is alledged from the tumult of basel , is as little to our purpose : for these free cities being democratical , it was no wonder if the people off●nded with the senate , did raise that commotion : and the historian expresly asserts , that what they did , they openly declared , was not for defence of religion , but for vindicating of their own liberty . and in the end of the story it appears what they designed , for they made the senat receive 260. out of the companies of the citizens , whose counsel should be carried along in the greater concernments , that might be either for god's glory , or the good of the commonwealth . but if you lay claim to this story as a precedent , you must acknowledge that a reformation may be not only maintained by force , but that magistrats may be removed from their office , if they go not along with it ; and that the people may in their own authority , without waiting for the magistrats concurrence , go by violence and break down images , and throw out an established religion . but this belongs not to the case of subjects , since in these free cities the power is certainly with the people , and so they are not s●bjects to the senat. and for geneve , it is so fully proved , that it was a free imperial city , that i need add nothing to make it out one instance will abundantly suffice to prevail upon the belief of any who can doubt whether the bishop of geneve was their prince , which is , that the bishops of geneve did frequently become burgesses in it : in particular , peter de baul● , the last who sate there , was received a citizen by the senat of gen●ve 15. iuly 1527. which doth fully prove that he could not be their lord. but as for the reformation of geneve , it is true sleydan hints as if the bishop and clergy had left the city , being angry at the reformation : but in that he was mistaken , for their bishop left the city an . 1528. and made war against it upon some disputes were betwixt him and them about their privileges : for though he was not lord of the city , yet the countrey about it belonged to him . but an . 1533. he returned to the city , and left it in the iuly of the same year , fearing some seditious tumults , which he had the more reason to apprehend , because of his transactions with the duke of savoy , whereby he made over to him his interest in the city . and it was two years after this before the reformation was received by that city . for after he left them , they passed a decree for preserving the old religion , and discharging of the lutheran , and banished two of the ministers of that religion . and on the first of ianuary 1534. after the bishop was gone , his vicar published an edict , discharging all assemblies f●r divine worship , without the bishops permission ; and all bibles in the french or german tongues , were condemned to be burnt . and for the duke of savoy his invading them , and being resisted by them , it makes nothing for your design , this being a free imperial city , resisting an unjust invader . for all this , see geneva restituta . isot. but at least the states of the united provinces did maintain their religion by arms , when philip the second was introducing the inquisition among them : and tho these wars were upon mixed grounds , so that papists as well as protestants concurred in them , yet it is undeniable that religion gave the chief rise to them , and was the main consideration that engaged the protestants into that war. see pag. 446. poly. one error runs through all your smatterings , which is , that you never distinguish betwixt a state governed by a monarch , where subjection is due to him by the constitution of the state , and a limited prince , who by the laws of that society is accountable to , and censurable by the nobility and people ; which states so great a difference , that he must be very purblind who doth not observe it ; and therefore i will first shew you , that the prince of the netherlands was but a precarious prince , governing a free people at their pleasure and precariously , as heuterus and grotius de ant. re●p . batav . call him : and among the laws of the government of batavia , one was , that the old customs and laws should be sacred ; and that if the prince decreed ought against them , he was not to be obeyed : and so it was usual among them upon a t●an●gression , to depose their princes , of which many instances are reckoned by grotius , and therefore he compares their princes to the lacedemonian kings , upon whom the ephori and the senat might have cognosced . the brabantins had indeed looked better to their liberty than the rest , and so had guarded against the deceit of their princes ( who might have broken their laws upon the pretence of a publick good ) by an express agreement , that if their prince should violate the laws , they should not be tied to obedience nor fidelity to him , till their injuries were removed : and this was confirmed by the examples of their ancestors , gr. an. lib. 2. and a little after , he adds , that the other provinces in belgium , had by practice that same privilege , and that the rather , that being all united to brabant , by maximilian , they were to enjoy the same privileges with them . the brabantins had also a privilege of chusing a conservator in any great hazard , called ruart , strada tom . 1. lib. 9. whose power was equal to the roman dictators : this they had by the privileges of the laetus introitus . and upon this they chused the prince of orange their ruart , anno 1577. and to run no further for proofs of this , when philip was inaugurated their prince , he expresly provided , that if he broke their privileges , they should be free from obedience and fidelity to him : and this was the ground on which they deposed him , as appears by their decree , st. tom . 2. lib. 4. by these indications it is apparent , that the prince of the netherlands was not sovereign of these provinces , since they could cognosce upon him , and shake off his authority . but i shall next make out , that religion was not the ground upon which these wars were raised : the reformation came unto the provinces in charles the v. his time , who cruelly persecuted all who received it , so that these who were butchered in his time , are reckoned not to be under 100000. gr. annal. lib. 1. all this cruelty did neither provoke them to arms , nor quench the spirit of reformation ; whereupon philip designed to introduce the inquisition among them , as an assured mean of extinguishing that light. but that court was every where so odious , and proceeded so illegally , that many of the nobility , among whom divers were papists , entered in a confederacy against it , promising to defend one another , if endangered : upon this , there were first petitions , and after that tumults ; but it went no further till the duke of alva came , and proceeded at the rate of the highest tyranny imaginable , both against their lives and fortunes , particularly against the counts of egment and horn , suspect of favoring the former disord●●s . but ( it being needle●s to make a vain shew of reading in a thing which every boy may know ) after the duke of alva had so transgressed all limits , the nobility and deputies of the towns of holland , who were the depositaries of the laws and privileges of that state , met at dort , anno 1572. gr. de ant. bat. cap. ● . and on iuly 19 , decreed a war against the duke of alva , and made the prince of orange their captain , which was done upon his e●●cting the twentieth penny of their rents , and the tenth of their moveables , in all their transactions and merchandises . yet all this while the power was in the hands of papists , gr. an●al . lib. 3. no● wa● the protestant religion permitted till the year 1578. that in amster●●● , utrecht and harlem , the magistrats who were addicted to the roman religion , were tu●ne● out , which gave great offence to some of then confederates who adhered to poperv . and upon this the protestants petitioned the a●c● duke matthias , whom the states had chosen for their prince , that since it was known that they were the chief object of the spanish hatred . and so might look for the hardest measure , it they prevailed : it was therefore just they who were in the chief danger , might now enjoy some share of the liberty with the rest ; wherefore they desired they might have ch●rch●s allowed them , and might not be barred from publick trust , which after some debate was granted . and let this declare whether the war was managed upon the grounds of religion ▪ or not . the year after this , the states of holland , geldres , zeland , utrecht , and friesland , met at utrecht , and entred in that union which continues to this day : by which it was provided , that the reformed religion should be received in holland and zeland , but the rest were at liberty , either to chuse it or another , or both , as they pleased . so we see they did not confederate against spain upon the account of religion , it not being the ground of thei●●eague ; but in opposition to the spanish tyranny and pride . and in their letters to the emperor , ian. 8 , 1578. str. tom . 2. lib. 2. they declared , that they never were , nor ever should be of another mind , but that the catholick religion should be still observed in holland : and in the end of the year 1581. they decreed , that philip had forfeited his title to the principality of belgium , by his violating their privileges , which he had sworn to observe : whereupon they were ( according to their compact with him at his inauguration ) free from their obedience to him ; and therefore they chus●● the duke of alenson to be their prince . and now review all this ▪ and see if you can stand to your former assertion , or believe these wars to have proceeded upon the grounds of subjects resisting their sovereign , when he persecutes them upon the a●count of religion , and you will be made to acknowledge , that the states of holland were not subjects , and that their quarrel was not religion . isot. all this will perhaps be answered in due time : but from this let me lead you to france , where we find a long tract of civil wars upon the account of religion , and here you cannot pretend the king is a limited sovereign ; neither was this war managed by the whole states of france , but by the princes of the blood , with the nobility of some of the provinces ; and these began under francis the second , then about sixteen years of age , so that he was not under non-age : and tho they were prosecuted under the minority of charles the ninth , yet the king of navarre , who was regent , and so bore the king's authority , was resisted : and after charles was of age , the wars continued , both during his reign , and much of his brother's , and did again break out in the last king's reign . the protestants were also owned and assisted in these wars , not only by the princes of germany , but by the three last princes who reigned in britain . so here we have an undeniable instance of subjects defending religion by arms. see pag. 454. poly. i must again put my self and the company to a new penance by this ill understood piece of history , which you have alledged : and tell you how upon henry the second's death , francis his son , was under age by the french law , ( for which see thuan. lib. 16. ) which appointed the regents power to continue till the king was 22 years of age at least , as had been done in the case of charles the 6. which yet the history of that time saith , was a rare privilege , granted him because of his gracefulness , and the love was generally born him , whereas the year wherein the kings were judged capable of the government was 25. but francis , tho under age , being every way a child , did for away both the princes of the blood , the constable and the admiral from the government , which he committed to his mother , the cardinal of lorrain and the duke of guise . upon this the princes of the blood met , and sent the king of navarre who was the first prince of the blood , to the king , to complain of their ill usage : but tho he was much neglected at court , yet his simplicity was such , that he was easily whedled out of his pretensions . upon this the prince of conde having a greater spirit , and being poor , thought upon other courses , and as it is related by davila , lib. 1. gathered a meeting at ferté , where he p●●posed the injury done the princes of the blood , who in the minority of their king were now excluded the government : which , contrary to the salick law , was put in a womans hand , and trusted to strangers : wherefore he moved that ( according to the practices of other princes of the blood , in the like cases , which he adduced ) they might by arms make good their right , and assume the government in the kings minority . but the admiral considering well the hardiness of the enterprise , said , that another way must be taken to make it succeed , which was , that since france was full of the followers of calvin , who through the persecutions they had lain under , were now almost desperat , and had a particular hatred at the brethren of lorrain as their chief enemies , therefore it was fit to cherish them , and make a party of them , by which means assistance might be likewise hoped for from the princes of germany , and the queen of england : and to this advice all present did yield . upon this , saith thuan , lib. 16. many writings were published , proving the government of the kingdom in the king's minority to belong to the princes of the blood , and that by the laws of france , the regents power was not absolute , but to be regulated by the assembly of the states , wherein many instances of the french law were adduced : and whereas it was alledged that the king was major at 15. which was proved from an edict of charles the fifth , this was fully refuted ; and it was shewed that notwithstanding of the edict of charles the fifth , his son was not admitted to the government till he was full 22 years of age , and that in his minority the kingdom was governed by a council of the princes and nobility , which was established by an assembly of the states . i shall not meddle further in the debate which was on both hands about the year of the king's majority , or the power of the princes of the blood in his minority , but shall refer the reader to the sixth book of the voluminous history of france , for that time , whose author hath suppressed his name , where a full abstract of all the writings that passed on both sides about these matters is set down : but this shews how little your friends understand the history of that time , who take it for granted that francis the second was then major , since it was the great matter in controversie . but to proceed in my accounts . these grounds being laid down for a war , the p●ince of conde , as thuan relates , would not openly own an accession to any design , till it should be in a good forwardness , but trusted the management of it to one renaudy , who tho a catholick by his religion , yet drew a great meeting of protestants to nantes , in the beginning of february , anno 1560. where he stirred them up to arm : and in his speech , after he had represented all the grievances , he added , that the greatest scruples that stuck with many , was the king's authority , against which whos● rose●he did rebel : and he answered , acknowledging the obedience due to kings , notwithstanding their wicked laws ; and that it was without doubt , that all who resisted the power constituted by god , resisted his ordinance : but added , their resistance was of these traitors , who having possessed themselves of the young king , designed the ruin both of king and kingdom . this then will clear whether they walked on the principles of subjects resisting when persecuted by their sovereign , or not . upon this they designed to have seised on the king , but as it was to be executed , though it had been long carried with a marvellous secrecy , it was at length discovered , and the king conveyed to amb●i●e : and as the protestants were gathering to a head , the kin●'s forces came upon them , and defeated and scattered them . but a little after this the king died , in good time for the prince of conde ; for his accession to these commotions being discovered , he was s●ised on and sentenced to death ; but the king's death as it ●●livered him , did also put an end to the questions about the king's majority , his brother charles the ninth , being a child , so that the regency was undoubtedly the king of navarre his right ; yet not so entirely but that the other princes were to share with him , and the assembly of the states to direct him , as the lawyers proved from the french law. the consultation about the protestants took them long up , and a severe edict passed against them in iuly 1561. but in the ianuary of the next year a solemn meeting was called of all the prin●es of the blood , the privy counsellors and the eighth parliament of france , in which the edict of ianuary was passed ; giving the protestants the free exercise of their religion , and all the magistrats of france were commanded to punish any who interrupted or hindered this liberty , which edict you may see at length , hist. d' a●big . lib. 2. c. 32. but after this , as davila , lib. 3. relates how the duke of guise coming to paris did disturb a meeting of the protestants , so that it went to the throwing of stones , with one of which the duke was hurt , upon which he designed the breach of that edict , and so was the author and contriver of the following wars . after this the edict was every where violated , and the king of navarre united with the constable , and the duke of guise for the ruin of the protestants : upon which the prince of conde , as the next prince of the blood , asserted the edicts , so that the ●aw was on his side : neither was the regents power absolute or sovereign : and the prince of condé in his manifesto declared , he had armed to free the king from that captivity these stranger princes kept him in , and that his design was only to assert the authority of the late edict , which others were violating . upon this the wars began , and ere the year was ended , the king of navarre was killed : after which the regency did undoubtedly belong to the prince of condé . and thus you see upon what grounds these wars began : and if they were after that continued during the majority of that same king , and his successors , their case in that was more to be pitied , than imitated : for it is known that wars once beginning , and jealousies growing strong , and deeply rooted , they are not easily setled . and to this i shall add what a late writer of that church sieur d'ormegrigny hath said for them , in his reflections on the third chapter of the politicks of france : wherein he justifies the protestants of france from these imputations . what was done that way , he doth not justifie , but chargeth it on the despair of a lesser party among them , which was disavowed by the greater part . and shews how the first tumults in francis ii. his time , were carried mainly on by renaudy a papist , who had associates of both religions . he vindicates what followed from the interest the princes of the blood had in the government in the minority of the kings . and what followed in henry iii. his time , he shews , was in defence of the king of navarre , the righteous heir of the crown , whom those of the league designed to seclude from his right . but after that henry iv. had setled france , he not only granted the protestants free exercise of their religion , but gave them some towns for their security , to be kept by them for twenty years : at the end whereof , the late king remanding them , the protestants were instant to keep them longer , to which he yielded for three or four years : in the end , he wisely determined ( saith that gentleman ) to take them out of their hands . upon which they met in an assembly at rochel ; and most imprudently , he adds , and against their duty , both to god and the king , they resolved to keep them still by force . but at that time there was a national synod at alais , where m. du moulin presided , who searching into the posture of affairs in that country , where many of these places of strength lay , he found the greater and better part inclined to yield them up to the king : upon which he wrote an excellent letter to the assembly at rochel , disswading them from pursuing the courses they were ingaging in : where he shews , it was the general desire of their churches , that it might please god to continue peace by their giving obedience to the king : and since his majesty was resolved to have these places in his own hands , that they would not on that account ingage in a war. but that if persecution was intended against them , all who feared god desired it might be for the profession of the gospel , and so be truly the cross of christ : and therefore assured them the greater and better part of their churches desired they would dissolve their meeting , if it could be with security to their persons . and presses their parting from that assembly , with many arguments , and obviates what might be objected against it : and craves pardon to tell them , they would not find inclinations in those of the religion to obey their resolutions , which many of the best quality , and greatest capacity avowedly condemned , judging that to suffer on that account , was not to suffer for the cause of god. and therefore exhorts them to depend on god , and not precipitate themselves into ruin by their impatience . and he ends his letter with the warmest and serventest language imaginable for gaining them into his opinion . it is true , his letter wrought not the desired effect , yet many upon it deserted the meeting . upon the which that gentleman shews , that what was then done , ought not to be charged on the protestant churches of france , since it was condemned by the national synod of their divines , and three parts of four who were of the religion continued in their dutiful obedience to the king , without ingaging in arms with those of their party . amirald also in his incomparable apology for those of the reformed religion , sect. 2. vindicates them from the imputations of disloyalty to their prince : and after he hath asserted his own opinion , that prayers and tears ought to be the only weapons of the church , as agreeing best with the nature of the gospel , and the practice of the first christians , he adds his regrates , that their fathers did not crown their other virtues with invincible patience , in suffering all the cruelty of their persecutors without resistance , after the example of the primitive church , by which all color of reproaching the reformation had been removed . yet he shews how they held out during the reign of francis i. and henry ii. notwithstanding all the cruelty of the persecution , though their numbers were great . what fell out after that , he justifies , or rather excuses ( for he saith , he cannot praise , but blame it ) on the grounds we have already mentioned , of the minority of their kings , and of the interest of the princes of the blood. and for the business of renaudy in francis ii. his time , he tells how calvin disapproved it : and observes from thuan , that he who first discovered it was of the reformed religion , and did it purely from the dictate of his conscience . he also shews that the protestants never made war with a common consent , till they had the edicts on their side , so that they defended the king's authority , which others were violating . but adds withal , that the true cause of the wars , was reason of state , and a faction betwixt the houses of bourbon and guise : and the defence of the protestants was pretended , to draw them into it . and for the late wars , he charges the blame of them on the ambition of some of their grandees , and the factious inclinations of the town of rochel . and vindicates the rest of their church from accession to them , whatever good wishes the common interest of their religion might have drawn from them , for these whose danger they so much apprehended . and for the affaus of our britain , which was then in a great combustion , for which the protestants were generally blamed , as if the genius of their religion led to an opposition of monarchy , he saith , strangers could not well judge of matters so remore from them ; but if the king of england was by the constitutions of that kingdom a sovereign prince ( which is a thing in which he cannot well offer a dicision ) then he simply condemns their raising a war against him , even though that report which was so much spread of his design to change the reformed religion settled there , were true . neither are these opinions of amirald to be look'd on as his private thoughts ; but that apology being published by the approbation of these appointed to license the books of the religion , is to be received as the more common and received doctrine of that church . and what ever approbation or assistance the neighboring princes might have given the protestants in the latter or former wars , it will not infer their allowing the precedent of subjects resisting their sovereign , though persecuted by him , since it is not to be imagined many princes could be guilty of that . but the maxims of princes running too commonly upon grounds very different from the rules of conscience , and tending chiefly to strengthen themselves , and weaken their neighbors , we are not to make any great account of their approving or abetting of these wars . and thus far you have drawn from me a great deal of discourse for justifying the conf●rmists design of vindicating the reformed churches from the doctrine and practice of subjects resisting their sovereign , upon pretexts of religion . isot. a little time may produce an answer to all this , which i will not now attempt , but study these accounts more accurately . but let us now come home to scotland , and examine whether the king be an accountable prince , or not ? you know well enough how fergus was first called over by the scots , how many instances there are of the states their coercing the king , how the king must swear at his coronation to observe the laws of the kingdom , upon which allegiance is sworn to him , so that if he break his part , why are not the subjects also free , since the compact seems mutual ? i need not add to this , that the king can neither make nor abrogate laws , without the consent of the estates of parliament , that he can impose no tax without them . and from these things it appears that the king of scotland is a limited king , who as he originally derived his power from their choice , so is still limited by them , and liable to them . all which is at large made out by the author of ius populi . basil. now you are on a rational point , which i acknowledge deserves to be well discussed , for if by the laws of scotland the king be liable to his people , then their coercing him will be no rebellion . but this point is to be determined not from old stories , about which we have neither record , nor clear account for giving light how to direct our belief , nor from some tumultuary practices , but from the laws and records of the kingdom : and here the first word of our laws gives a shrewd indication that the king's power is not from the people , ( which is anno 1004 , according to sir iohn skeen's collection of them : ) king malcome gave and distributed all his lands of the realm of scotland among his men , and reserved nothing in property to himself but the royal dignity , and the mure-hill in the town of scone . now i dare appeal to any person whether this be not the stile of a sovereign , and if this prove not the king's title to the crown to be of another nature , than that of a voluntary compact ? the next vestige is to be found in the books of regiam majestatem , held to be published by king david i. anno 1124 , and declared authentical by following parliaments , where the third verse of the preface is , that our most glorious king having the government of the realm , may happily live both in the time of peace and of warfare , and may ride the realm committed to him by god , who hath no superior but the creator of heaven and earth , ruler over all things , &c. and let the plain sense of these words tell whether the king of scotland , hath his power from the people , and whether he be accountable to any but to god ? it is also clear that all were bound to follow the king to the wars , and punishment was decreed against those who refused it , see the laws of alexander ii. cap. 15. and iac. 1. parl. 1. cap. 4. iac. 2. p. 13. cap. 57. and this shews they were far from allowing war against the king. the parliaments were also originally the kings courts , at which all his vassals were bound to appear personally , and give him counsel , which proving a burden to the small barons , they were dispenced with for their appearance in parliament , 1. iac. parl. 7. cap. 101. which shews that the coming to the parliament was looked on in these days rather as an homage due to the king , than a priviledg belonging to the subjects , otherwise they had been loth to have parted with it so easily . and 2. fac. 6. parl. cap. 14. it is ordained that none rebel against the king's person nor his authority , and whoso makes such rebellion is to be punished after the quality and quantity of such rebellion by the advice of the three estates . and if it happens any within the realm openly or notoriously to rebel against the king , or make war against the king's laeges , against his forbidding ; in that case the king is to go upon them with assistance of the whole lands , and to punish them after the quantity of the trespass . here see who hath the sovereign power , and whether any may take arms against the king's command : and the 25. ch. of that same parl. defines the points of treason . it is true by that act those who assault castles , or houses where the king's person was , without the consent of the three estates , are to be punished as traytors : from which one may infer that the estates may besiege the king ; but it is clear that was only a provision against these who in the minority of the kings used to seize upon their persons , and so assumed the government : and therefore it was very reasonable that in such a case provision should be made , that it were not treason for the estates to come and besiege a place where the kings person were for recovering him from such as treasonably seized on him . and this did clearly take its rise from the confusions were in that king's minority , whom sometimes the governor , sometimes the chancellor got into their keeping , and so carried things as they pleased having the young king in their hands . the king is also declared to have full jurisdiction and free empire within his realm , 3. fac. parl. 5. cap. 30. and all along it is to be observed that in asserting his majesties prerogative royal , the phrases of asserting and acknowledging , but never of giving or granting , are used , so that no part of the king's prerogative is granted him by the estates , and iac. 6. parl. 8. cap. 129. his majesties royal power and authority over all estates , as well spiritual as temporal , within the realm , is ratified , approved , and perpetually confirmed in the person of the king's majesty his heirs and successors . and in the 15. parl. of that same king , chap. 251. these words are , albert it cannot be denied , but his majesty is a free prince , of a sovereign power , having as great liberties and prerogatives by the laws of this realm and priviledg of his crown , and diadem , as any other king , prince , or potentate whatsoever . and in the 18. parl. of the same king , act. 1. the estates and whole body of that present parliament , all in one valuntary , faithful and united heart , mind and consent , did truly acknowledge his majesties sovereign authority , princely power , royal prerogative , and priviledg of his crown over all estates , persons and causes within his said kingdom by this time i suppose it is past debate , that by the tract of the whole laws of scotland , his majesty is a sovereign unaccountable prince , since nothing can be devised more express than are the acts i have cited . for what you objected from the coronation oath , remember what was said a great while ago , that if by the coronation the king got his power , so that the coronation oath , and oath of allegiance were of the nature of a mutual stipulation , then you might with some reason infer that a failing of the one side , did free the other ; but nothing of that can be alledged here , where the king hath his authority , how soon the breath of his father goes out , and acts with full regal power before he be crowned ; so that the coronation is only a solemn inauguration in that which is already his right . next , let me tell you , that the king 's swearing at his coronation , is but a late practice ; and so the title of the kings of scotland to the crown , is not upon the swearing of that oath : and here i shall tell you all that i can find in our laws of the king 's swearing or promising . the first instance that meets me is , chap. 17. of the statutes of king robert the second , where these words are , for fulfilling and observing of all the premises , the king so far as concerns him in his parliament , hath obliged himself in the word of a prince , and his son the earl of carrict ( afterwards robert the third ) being constituted by the king for fulfilling of the premises , so far as touches him , gave and made his oath , the holy evangils being touched by him , and then the states of parliament did also swear to maintain the earl of carrict , made then lieutenant under the king. now the reason why these mutual oaths were then given , is well known , since the king's s●ccession was so doubtful . but after that , no oath seems to have been given : and tho king iames the second his coronation be set down in the records of parliament , there is not a word of an oath given by any in his name . it is true in the 11. parl. of that king , cap 41. for securing of the crown-lands from being alienated , it is appointed , that the king who then was , should be sworn ; and in like manner all his successors , kings of scotland into their coronation , to the keeping of that statute , and all the points thereof . but this is not such an oath as you alledg . likewise in king iames the fourth his reign , 2. parl. ch. 12. where the council was sworn , it is added , and our sovereign lord hath humbled his highness to promit and grant in parliament , to abide and remain at their counsels while the next parliament . but it is to be observed , the king was then but 17 years old , and so not of full age : this promise was also a temporary provision . besides , the very stile of it shews , that it was below his majesty to be so bound . but the first act for a coronation oath i can meet with , is cap. 8. of the 1. parl. of king iames the sixth , an. 1567. where the stile wherein the act runs , shews it was a new thing , it bearing no narrative of any such former custom : the words of the act are , item , because that the increase of vertue and suppressing of idolatry craves , that the prince and the people be of one perfect religion , which of god's mercy is now presently professed within this realm ; therefore it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord , my lord regent , and the three estates of this present parliament , that all kings and princes , or magistrates what 〈◊〉 , holding their place , which hereafter may happen to reign , and bear rule over this realm , at the time of their coronation , and receipt of their princely authority , make their faithful promise by oath , &c. now you see the beginning of the coronation oath , and i need not here reflect on the time when that act passed , it being so obvious to every one . but i suppose it is made out , that the kings of scotland have not their authority from any stipulation used at their coronation . the next thing you alledg to prove the king of scotland a limited prince , is , because he must govern by laws , which cannot be enacted without the authority of the three estates in parliament : but this will not serve turn , unless you prove that the estates can cognosce on the king , and coerce him if he transgress : for which there is not a tittle in our laws . i acknowledg the constitution of parliaments to be both a rational and excellent model , and that the king becomes a tyrant when he violates their priviledges , and governs without law : but tho his ministers who serve him in such tyrannical ways are liable to punishment by the law , yet himself is subject to none but god. and from our kings their justice and goodness in governing legally by the councils of their parliaments , you have no reason to argue against their absolute authority ; for their binding themselves to such rules , and being tied to the observance of laws enacted by themselves , will never overthrow their authority , but rather commend it , as having such a temperature of sovereignty , justice , and goodness in it . isot. but was not king iames the third resisted and killed in the field of striveling , and afterwards in his sons first parl. act. 14. all who were against him in that field , were declared innocent , and his slaughter was declared to be his own fault , which was never rescinded ? as also cap. 130. of iac. 6. parl. 8. the honour and authority of parliament upon the free vote of the three estates thereof is asserted . and are not you an impugner of the authority of the three estates , who plead thus for the king 's sovereign power ? see answer to the letter written to the author of ius populi . basil. i shall not engage far in the story of king iames the third , which even as it is represented by buchanan , lib. 11. ( no friend to monarchy ) is very far from being justifiable on the side of those who fought against him : nor was it the least part of their guilt , that they forced his son , being then but fifteen years old , to own their rebellion : and what wonder was it , that they who had killed the father , and kept his son in their power , passed such an act in their own favors ? but king iames the fourth quickly discovered what a sincere penitent he was for his accession to that rebellion , as appeared by the iron belt he wore all his life , as a penance for this sin : yet the meekness of his spirit , and the power of that faction , made that things continued in the posture they formerly were in . it is true , that act was not expresly repelled , which perhaps was not safe at that time to have attempted : but it was really done by his revocation ratified in his 6. parl. cap. 100. wherein with consent of the three estates , he annuls and revokes all statutes and acts of parliament which he had enacted in his former years , that tended either to the prejudice of the catholic church , his soul , or of the crown , declaring them to have no force , but to be deleted , and cancell'd out of the books . and it is not to be doubted , but in this he had an eye to that former act : but for your act asserting the authority of parliament , look but what immediately precedes it , and you will find the king's authority and supremacy fully established : and i acknowledg , that whosoever impugns the authority of parliament , as the king 's great council , doth incur a very high punishment ; but this will never prove an authority in the states to coerce and resist the king. one thing i must mind you of from that act , which is , that none of the lieges must presume to impugn the dignity and authority of the said three estates , or to seek or procure the innovation , or diminution of the power and authority of the same three estates , or any of them in time coming , under the pain of treason . and can you be so ignorant of our laws , as not to know that the church was one of these estates : for the small barons which some called the third estate , came not in till three years after ? iac. 6. parl. 11. cap. 113. and now from all these premises , i think we may fairly infer with sir iohn sheen , title 8. of the heads of our laws drawn up by him , that all iurisdiction stands and consists in the king's person by reason of his royal authority and crown , and is competent to no subject , but flows and proceeds from the king , having supreme iurisdiction , and is given and committed by him to such subjects as he pleases . eud. i must confess my self pleased with this discussion of these points you have been tossing among you : and though i have sate silent , yet i have followed the thread of all your discourse with much close attention ; and was mightily confirmed in my former perswasion , both by the evidence of reason , the authorities of scripture , and these instances of history were adduced . but there are many other things yet to be talked of , though i confess this be of the greatest importance : and the satisfaction i have received in this , makes me long to hear you handle the other matters in debate . phil. i suppose we have forgot little that belonged to this question : but for engaging further at this time , i have no mind to it , it being so long passed midnight : we shall therefore give some truce to our debates , and return upon the next appointment . eud. i were unworthy of the kindness you shew me , did i importune you too much : but i will presume upon your friendship for me , to expect your company to morrow at the same hour you did me the favor to come here to day . isot. i shall not fail to keep your hour , tho i be hardly beset in such a croud of assailants ; but truth is on my side , and it is great , and shall prevail , therefore good night to you . basil. i see you are not shaken out of your confidence for all the foils you get , yet our next days discourse will perhaps humble you a little more ; but i refer this to the appointment wherein we hope to meet again , and so , adieu . eud. adieu , to you all , my good friends . the second conference . eudaimon . you are again welcome to this place , and so much the more , that your staying some minutes later than the appointment , was making me doubt of your coming : and indeed this delay proved more tedious , and seemed longer to me than the many hours were bestowed on your yesterdays conference : but methinks , isotimus , your looks , though never very serene , have an unusual cloud upon them ; i doubt you have been among the brotherhood , whom your ingenious relation of what passed here , hath offended . their temper is pretty well known to us all , some of them being as the pestilence that walketh in darkness , with the no less zealous , but scarcely more ignorant , sisterhood , they vent their pedling stuff : but of all things in the world shun most to engage with any that can unmask them , and discover their follies . and their safest way of dealing with such persons , is , to laugh at them , or solemnly to pity them with a disdainful brow. and that is the best refutation they will bestow on the solidest reason , or if any of them yelp out with an answer , sense or nonsense , all is alike ; the premises are never examined , only if the conclusion be positively vouched , as clearly proved from scriptures and reason , the sentence is irreversibly past , and you may as soon bow an oak of an hundred years old , as deal with so much supercilious ignorance . tell plainly , have you been in any such company ? isot. what wild extravagant stuff pour you out on better men than your self ? but i pity your ignorance who know not some of these precious worthies , whose shooe latchets you are not worthy to unloose . but the truth is , you have got me here among you , and bait me by turns , either to ease your own galls , or to try mine ; yet it is needless to attempt upon me , for as i am not convinced by your reasons , so i will not be behind with you in reflections : and i will ●●ow and fight both , as a co●k of the game . 〈◊〉 . hold , hold , for these serve to no use b●t t● 〈◊〉 p●●vish hum●rs , i will therefore engage you in another subject about the civil authority , which our yesterdays debate left untouched ; which is the obedience due to their commands : let us therefore consider how far subjection obligeth us to obey the laws of the civil powers . isot. had you not enough of that yesterday ? is it not enough that the magistrate be not resisted ? but will not that serve turn with you ? or do you design that we surrender our consciences to him , and obey all his laws , good or bad , and follow leviathan's doctrine of embracing the magistrates faith without enquiry ? which is bravely asserted by the author of ecclesiastical policy . this is indeed to make the king in god'● stead , and to render cesar the things that are god's , which is a visible design either for p●pe●● or atheism . phil●r . truly , sir , you consider little , if you ●u●ge submission to the penalties of the law● , to be all the duty we owe superiors . it is true , where the legislators leave it to the subjects choice , either to do a thing enacted , or to pay a fine ; in that case , obedience is not simply required ; so that he who pays the m●lct , fulfils his obligation . but whe●e a law is simply made , and obedience en●oined , and a penalty fixed on disobedience , in that case , n●thing but the sinfulness of the command can excuse our disobedience : neither can it be said , that he sins not who is content to submit to the punishment , since by the same method of arguing you may prove that such horrid atheists , as say they are content to be damned , do not sin against god , since they are willing to submit to the threatned punishment . the right of exacting our obedience is therefore to be distinguished from the power of punishing our faults . and as we have already considered how far the latter is to be acquiesced in , it remains to be examined what is due to the former . but here i lay down for a principle , that whatever is determined by the law of god , cannot be reversed , nor countermanded by any humane law : for the powers that are , being ordained of god , and they being his ministers , do act as his deputies : and the tie which lies on us to obey god , being the foundation of our subjection to them , it cannot bind us to that which overthrows it self : therefore it is certain god is first to be obeyed ; and all the laws of men which contradict his authority or commands , are null , and void of all obligation on our obedience : but i must add , it is one of the arts of you know whom , to fasten tenets on men who judge these tenets worthy of the highest anathema . for if it be maintained , that the magistrate can bind obligations on our consciences , then it will be told in every conventicle , that here a new tyranny is brought upon souls , which are god's prerogative , though this be nothing more than to say we ought to be subject for conscience sake . if again it be proved that the determining of the externals of government or worship , falls within the magistrate's sphere , then comes in a new complaint , and it is told , that here religion is given up to the lusts and pleasure of men , though it be an hundred times repeated , that command what the king will in prejudice of the divine law , no obedience is due . if again it be proved that church judicatories , in what notions soever , are subjects , as well as others , and no less tied to obedience than others ; upon this come in vehement outcries , as if the throne and kingdom of christ were overturned and betrayed , with other such like expressions in their harsh stile . what is become of mankind and of religion , when ignorants triumph upon these ba●ren pretences , as if they were the only masters of reason , and directors of conscience ? you know what my temper is in most differences : but i acknowledge my mind to be f●ll of a just disdain of these ignorant , and insolent pedlers ; which is the more inflamed , when i consider the ruins , not only of sound learning , but of true piety , and the common rules of humanity , which follow these simple contests they make about nothing . basil. to speak freely , i cherish reflections no where , therefore i shall not conceal my mislike of these invectives , which though i am forced to confess , are just ; yet i love to hear truth and peace pleaded for with a calm serene temper : and though the intolerable and peevish railings of these pamphlets do justifie a severe procedure , yet i would have the softer and milder methods of the gospel used , that so we may overcome evil with good . to take you therefore off that angry engagement , let me invite you to a sober examen of the magistrates authority in things divine . but before this be engaged in , let it be first considered whether ●●ere be any legislative power on earth about things sacred : and next , with whom it is lodged . isot. i will so far comply with your desires , that for this once without retaliating , i quit to philarcheus the last word of scolding . but to come to the purpose you have suggested , consider that christ hath given us a complete rule , wherein are all things that pertain to life and godliness . it is then an imputation on his gospel , ●o say any thing needs be added to it , and that it contains not a clear direction for all things ; therefore they accuse his wisdom or goodness , who pretend to add to his laws , and wherein he hath not burthened our consciences : what tyranny is it to bind a yoak upon us which our fathers were not able to bear ? whereby as our christian liberty is invaded , so innumerable schisms and scandals spring from no other thing so much , as from these oppressions of conscience , which are so much the more unjust , that the imposers acknowledging their indifferency , and the refusers scrupling their lawfulness , the peace of the church is sacrificed to what is acknowledged indifferent : neither can any bounds be fixed to those impositions ; for if one particular may be added , why not more and more still , till the ●oak become heavier than that of moses was ? which is made out from experience : for the humor of innovating in divine matters having once crept into the church , it never stopp'd till it swelled to that prodigious bulk of rites , under which the roman church lies oppressed . and besides all these general considerations , there is one particular against significant rites , which is , that the instituting of them in order to a particular signification of any grace , makes them sacraments , according to the vulgar definition of sacraments , that they are the outward signs of an inward grace : but the instituting of sacraments , is by the confes●ion of all , a part of christ's prerogative , since he who confers grace , can only institute the signs of it . upon all these accounts , i plead the rule of scripture to be that which ought to determine about all divine matters , and that no binding laws ought to be made in divine things wherein we are left at liberty by god , who is the only master of our consciences . see from pag. 172. to pag. 180. phil. you have now given me a full broad-side , after which i doubt not but you triumph as if you had shattered me all to pieces : but i am afraid you shall find this volley of chained ball hath quite missed me , and that i be aboard of you ere you be aware . no man can with more heartiness acknowledg the compleatness of scripture than my self : and one part of it is , that all things which tend to order , edification and peace be done , and the scene of the world altering so , that what now tends to advance order , edification , and peace , may afterwards occasion disorder ; destruction and contention , the scripture had not been compleat , if in these things there were not an authority on earth , to make and unmake laws in things indifferent . i acknowledg the adding of new pieces of worship , hath so many inconveniences hanging about it , that i should not much patronize it : but the determining of what may be done , either in this or that fashion to any particular rule , is not of that nature : therefore , since worship must be in a certain posture , a certain habit , in a determinate place , and on such times , all these being of one kind ; laws made about them upon the accounts of order , edification , or peace , do not pretend to prejudg the perfection of scripture , by any additions to what it prescribes ; since no new thing is introduced : indeed did humane law-givers pretend that by their laws these things became of their own nature more acceptable to god , they should invade god's prerogative ; but when they are prescribed only upon the account of decency and order , it is intolerable peevishness to call a thing indifferent of its nature , unlawful , because commanded : for the christian liberty consists in the exemption of our consciences from all humane yoak , but not of our actions , which are still in the power of our superiors , till they enjoin what is sinful , and then a greater than they is to be obeyed . i acknowledg , the simplicity of the christian religion is one of its chief glories , nothing being enjoined in it but what is most properly fitted for advancing the souls of men towards that wherein their blessedness doth consist : and therefore i never reflect without wonder , on that censure ammian marcellin , a heathen writer , gives of constantius , that he confounded the christian religion , which was of it self pure and simple , with doating superstitions : so i freely acknowledg that whosoever introduce new parts of worship , as if they could commend us to god , do highly encroach on god's authority , and man's liberty . but as for the determining of things that may be done in a variety of ways into one particular form , such as the prescribing a set form for worship , the ordering the posture in sacraments , the habit in worship , determinate times for commemorating great mercies , the time how long a sinner must declare his penitence , ere he be admitted to the use of the sacraments , and the like ( which is all in question among us ) they are quite of another nature . and it is a strange piece of nicety , if in these things , because superiours command what seems most proper for expressing the inward sense we ought to have of things , that therefore these injunctions become criminal , and not to be obeyed . for the significancy alledged to be in them , is only a dumb way of expressing our inward thoughts ; and as we agree to express them by word , so some outward signs may be also used : as by sackcloth the penitent expresseth his sorrow , and by a surplice a church man expresseth his purity ; so those habits are only a silent way of speaking out the sense of the heart . only here on the way , if you have a mind to ease your spleen a little , read what that late pamphlet saith , to prove a distinction betwixt these two ceremonies , pag. 111. that vulgar sophism of making sacraments , is the poorest cavil imaginable : for a sacrament is a federate rite of stipulating with god , wherein as we plight our faith to god , so he visibly makes offer of his gospel to us , which he accompanies with the gracious effusions of his spirit : and indeed to institute any such rite , were the highest encroachment on the divine authority : but what sophistry will fasten a pretension to this on the institution of a right , which shall only signifie that duty a creature ows his maker and redeemer , tending both to quicken the person that performs it to a sence of it , as also to work upon spectators by such a grave solemn rite ? to say men can institute means of conveying the divine grace , is justly to be condemned ; but how far differs it from that , to use signs , as well as words , for expressing our duty to god ? thus you see how ill founded that pompou● argument is , with which we have heard many triumphing among ignorants , or where none could contradict them . ●rit . if i may have liberty to add a little , i would suggest somewhat of the true notion of christian liberty , and how it is to be made use of or restrained . for the clearing whereof , we are to call to mind how upon t●●●●st p●o●●lg●tion of the gospel , a contention did early rise about the observation of moses law , the stipulation whereto was given in circumcision ; the iudaizers pleaded its continuance , and the apostles asserted the christian liberty : the iudaizers pretended a divine obligation from moses his law ; the apostles proved that was now vacated by the death of christ , which freed all from that yoak , and that therefore to be circumcised , as a stipulation to moses's law , was to continue subject to that yoak , and so to deny the messias was yet come , by which christ should profit them nothing . but the authority of paul and barnabas not being great enough to settle that question , they were sent from antioch to the apostles , and presbyters at ierusalem , who determined against the necessity of circumcision , and consequently of the observation of the mosaical law , and appointed that these who were proselyted from gentilism to the christian faith , should be received , not as proselytes of iustice , but as proselytes of the gates , who were only bound to obey the seven precepts of the sons of noah ; which i stand not to make out , it being sufficiently cleared already by others . here then the christian liberty was stated in an exemption from the law of moses . but for all this , we see into what compliances the apostles consented , for gaining upon the iews by that condescension , they circumcise , they purifie ( which was done by sprinkling with the ashes of the red cow ) they take the vows of nazarism , they keep the feasts at ierusalem ( which i wonder how that pamphleteer could deny , pag. 301. it being mentioned expresly , acts 18.21 . ) and upon the whole matter saint paul gives the following rules and assertions . the first was , that these things did not commend a man to god : for the kingdom of god consisted not in meat and drink , ( which clearly relates to the mosaical differencing of meats , clean and unclean ) that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availed any thing . and if neither branch of that controversie did of its own nature commend men to god ; what judgments may we pass on our trifling wranglings ? whence we may infer , that we ought to instruct all christians in the faith , but not in these doubtful disputations . the next assertion is , that even in these matters men might be acceptable to god , on which side soever they were , so they judged what they did was done to god. he that made distinction of days , or meats , made it to the lord , and he that regarded them not to the lord , he regarded them not . so that god may be acceptably served by several men doing things contrary one to another . another rule is , that in these things every man must be fully persuaded in his own mind , and proceed out of a clear conviction in his conscience . a fourth rule is , that in these matters none ought to prescribe or dictate to another : such as had a liberty in them , were not to despise the scrupulous , as unreasonable ; neither were these who scrupled at them , to judg such as acted in a higher sphere of liberty , as profane or licentious : so that all were to be remitted to god's iudgment seat. another rule is , that for the peace of the church , many things which are otherwise subject to great inconveniencies , may be done for the gaining our brethren : but if such compliance harden people in their imperious humor , what was formerly to be done for gaining upon them , becomes unfit when so abused by them ; and therefore if after we have complied with the weak exceptions of others , in matters indifferent , they become so hardy as to presume upon our goodness to invade our liberty , by enjoying such things as necessary , pretending to an authority over us ; ●re are not to give place by subjection to such , ●● n●t for an hour . the last rule is , that in matters of indifferency , we are to postpone our own inclination , or desires , when the hazard of our brother's stumbling , or of the peace of the church lies in our way . all these are so clearly asserted by s. paul , and withal are so opposite to our present heats , that i wish they were more minded by the troublers of our israel , and they would certainly give a speedy decision to these feuds about doubtful disputations , which have so long preyed on the peace of the church . basil. and i am sure if so great a compliance may be given to the weakness of our brethren , much more is due to the commands of our superiors ; except you say , we are more subject to equals than to superiors , or that the weakness of a brother should weigh more than the authority of father : and in fine , that the obligations of charity should be more prevalent than those of iustice ; obedience being a debt we owe , whereas compliance is a benevolence given . i do not deny but great caution and tenderness must be used in making of such laws , and that their fitness for attaining the ends of order , edification and peace , should be well considered , and they no longer adhered to , than these effects can be drawn from them : so that if the nature of circumstances which vary all things indifferent , come to change , the same reason that exacted their being first imposed , will plead a change . i also acknowledge , that great abuse hath followed upon the innovating and prescribing in divine matters , and that nothing hath occasioned more divisions among christians , than the overstraining an uniformity . but if because of abuses you overturn all legislative power in matters sacred , nothing that is humane shall scape your fury , since every thing is subject to abuse . and nothing will curb ones career till he turn quaker , that follows these maxims . but one thing is still forgotten , that the dictates of reason are in their kind the voice of god ; reason being nothing , save an impress of the image of god on the soul of man ; which because much obliterated by the fall , was to be supplied by revelation : but wherein it remains clear , its directions not contradicting any positive or revealed law , are still to be followed as the laws of god. poly. for proving all this , i shall not run so far back as to examine the nature of the priesthood , and sacrifices were before moses , to consider whether these flow'd from a revelation conveyed by tradition , or from the dictates of reason ? but after moses his law was given , wherein all was modelled by divine prescript , yet what a vast heap of additions did flow upon that worship before our saviour's days , all that have written on the temple service do abundantly discover . here is a field spacious enough for any that designed a vain shew of much reading ; but a view of doctor lightfoot's temple-service will quickly convince any , that the whole service of the temple was interpalated by many additions , whose first author cannot be traced . they also used baptism to all who were proselyted from gentilism . and in the paschal festivity alone , how many new rites do we find ? every school-boy may know that they had a dish , called charaseth , which was a thick sawce of dates , figs , almonds , &c. pounded together , which looked like clay , to mind them of the clay in which their fathers wrought in egypt , which was a significative ceremony ; and was the dish wherein they dipped their hand , which we find was not wanting in our lord 's passover ; which proves significant rites , tho of humane appointment , cannot be criminal . and if to this i should add the several cups of wine , the divers removes of the table , and covering it of new , the frequent washing of their hands , and divers other things , i should grow tedious . but our lord never reproves these things ; nay , on the contrary he symbolized with them . it is true , when their zeal for their traditions made them break the commandments of god , or adhere so stifly to them , as to judge the consciences of such as did not comply with them in the use of them , then he checks their hypocrisie , and accuses them , not for the use of these things , but because they placed all religion in them , and imposed the precepts of men as doctrines . to this i might add the whole frame of the synagogues , both as to government , discipline and worship : for whatsoever scraps may be brought which may seem to prove there were synagogues before the captivity , which yet is much controverted ; yet the form of government in them , the rules of excommunication , and its degrees , together with their philacteries , and set forms of worship , will never be proved from scripture . now since the law of god was no less perfect in the old dispensation , than the gospel is now , it will follow that additions in things purely external and ritual , do no way detract from the word of god : for nothing can be brought to prove the new testament a complete rule for christians , which will not plead the same full authority to the old testament , during that dispensation ; since though the dispensation was imperfect , yet the revelation of god to them was able to make them perfect and throughly furnished foe every good work : and the scriptures which s. paul saith , were able to make wise to salvation , can be no other than the old testament writings . for besides that by scriptures nothing else is understood in the new testament , there could be no other scripture known to timothy of a child , but these of the old testament . if then they trespass upon the authority of the new testament , and its blessed author , who assert a power to determine about rituals in worship , or other matters of religion ; they committed the same crime who pretended to add to what moses prescribed , since he was also faithful in all his house . or if any plead a divine warrant for these institutions which were traditionally conveyed , this will open a door for all the pretences of the roman church , since the expressions that cancel traditions , are as full in the old testament , as in the new. and thus far i think i have evinced , that there were great additions in rituals made by the iews , and that these were not unlawful , since complied with by him who never did amiss , and yet these could have no higher o●iginal than humane authority . i go on to the new dispensation , wherein i doubt not to evince , that as for rituals , most of these they found in the synagogue were retained , without any other change than what that dispensation drew after it , and that they took both the rules of government , worship and discipline from the synagogue . therefore the epistles do not , when treating of these matters , speak in their stile , who are instituting new things ; but of those who are giving directions about what was already received and known : for if new rules had been to be delivered , the institution had been express , either in the gospels , acts , or epistles . now if any will read these without prejudice , no such thing will appear : of which manner of stile , no account can be given ; but that things , as to rituals continued as they were , the use of the sacraments being only instituted by christ , where the language of an institution is express . about two hundred years after christ , outward penitence was brought into the church , and scandalous persons were , according to the nature of scandals , debarred from the sacrament for a long space , and were by degrees , and according to the heighth of their penitence , received to the communion of the church , but not after some years had passed in outward professions of penitence : and the modelling of this became after that , the chief care of synods for divers centuries . now if one will argue , that though it be true a scandalous person should be excommunicated ; yet since god hath mercy at whatsoever time a sinner repents , so should the church ( which only judgeth of the profession ) forgive at whasoever time one professeth penitence . it will not be easie in your principles to answer this : and see how you will clear this practice of discipline from tyranny , since to debar men from the sacraments , is a greater dominion over consciences than the determining about rituals . but to come nearer home , there was a certain society you have heard of ycleped the kirk , which had divers books of discipline containing rules for that , and a directory for worship , which had no few rules neither : they had also a frame of government , the supreme judicatory whereof was composed of three ministers , and one ruling elder from each presbytery , a ruling elder beside from each burrough , two being allowed the metropolis , and a commissioner was sent from each university ; and in this high court the king came in with the privilege of a burgh : for though the metropolis had two , he was allowed to send but one with a single suffrage to represent him ; and this court pretended to an authority from christ , and their authority was sacred with no less certificate , than he that despiseth you , despiseth me . now how a power can be committed to delegates without any commission for it from the superior , will not be easily made out . and they will search long ere they find a divine warrant for this court , unless they vouch mary mitchelsons testimony for it , whose hysterical distempers were given out for prophesies . and whereas they are so tender of christian liberty , that no law must pass about the rituals of religion , yet their books of discipline and model of government , were not only setled by law , but afterwards sworn to be maintained in the covenant , wherein they swore the preservation of the reformed religion in scotland , in doctrine , worship , discipline and government . these were the tender consciences that could not hear of any law in matters indifferent , and yet would have all swear to their forms , many of which they could not but know were indifferent : which was a making them necessary at another rate , than is done by a law which the legislator can repeal when he will : and never were any in the world more addicted to their own forms than they were . an instance of this i will give , which i dare say will surprise you : when some designers for popularity in the western parts of that kirk , did begin to disuse the lord's prayer in worship , and the singing the conclusion or doxology after the psalm , and the minister's kneeling for private devotion when he entred the pulpit , the general ●ssembly took this in very ill part , and in a letter they wrote to the presbyteries , complained sadly , of a spirit of innovation was beginning to get into the kirk , and to throw these laudible practices out of it , mentioning the three i named , which are commanded to be still practised ; and such as refused obedience , are appointed to be conferr'd with in order to the giving of them satisfaction : and if they continu'd untractable , the presbyteries were to proceed against them , as they should be answerable to the next general assembly . this letter i can produce authentically attested . but is it not strange , that some who were then zealous to condemn these innovations , should now be carried with the herd to be guilty of them ? i am become hoarse with speaking so long , and so i must break off , having , as i suppose , given many great precedents from history for the using of rites in divine matters , without an express warrant , and for passing laws upon these , and have cleared the one of superstition , and the other of tyranny . eud. truly , all of you have done your parts so well , that even isotimus himself seems half convinced : it is then fully clear , that as nothing is to be obtruded on our belief without clear revelation ; so no sacred duty can be bound on o●r obedience without a divine warrant : but in rituals , especially in determining what may be done in a variety of ways to one particular form , there hath been , and still must be , a power on earth ; which provided it balance all things right , and consider well the fitness of these rites , for attaining the designed end , doth not invade god's dominion by making laws about them : nor will the pretence of christian liberty warrant our disobedience to them . it remains to be considered , who are vested with this power , and how much of it belongs to the magistrate , and how much to the church . basil. i now engage in a theme which may perhaps lay me open to censure , as if i were courting the civil powers by the asserting of their rights : but i am too well known to you to dread your jealously much in this ; and i am too little known to my self , if flattery be my foible . i shall therefore with the greatest frankness and ingenuity , lay open my sense of this matter , with the reasons that prevail with me in it : but i desire first to hear isotimus his opinion about it . isot. i do not deny the king hath authority and jurisdiction in matters sacred : but it must be asserted in a due line of subordination : first , to christ the king of kings , and the only head of his church . and next , to the rulers and office-bearers of the church , who are entrusted by christ , as his ambassadors , with the souls of their flocks , and who must give him an account of their labors ; therefore they must have their rules only from him who empowers them , and to whom they are subject : they must also have a power among them to preserve the christian society ; in order to which , they must , according to the practice of the apostles , when difficulties emerge , meet together , and consult what may be for the advancement of the christian religion ; and whoso refuseth to hear the church when she errs not from her rule , he is to be accounted no better than a heathen and a publican . and since the church is called one body , they ought to associate together in meetings , seeing also they have their power of christ , as mediator , whereas the civil powers hold of him as he is god , they have a different tenor , distinct ends , and various rules ; therefore the authority of the church is among the things of god , which only belong to him . and indeed christians were very ill provided for by christ , if they must in matters of religion be subject to the pleasure of secular and carnal men , who will be ready to serve their own interests at the rate of the ruin of every thing that is sacred . it is true , the civil powers may and ought to convocate synods to consult about matters of religion , to require church-men to do their duty , to add their sanctions to church laws , and to join with the sounder part for carrying on a reformation but all this is cumulative to the churches intrinsick power , and not privative ; so that if the magistrate fall short of his duty , they are notwithstanding that , to go on as men empowered by iesus christ , and he who desp●seth them ( be his quality what it will ) despiseth him that sent them . see p. 105. to p. 109. and p. 467. to p. 486. basil. in order to a clear progress in this matter , i shall first discuss the nature and power of the church , by which a step shall be made to the power the magistrate may pretend to in matters sacred . the apostles being sent by iesus christ , did every where promulgate the gospel , and required such as received it , to meet often together for joint worship , and the free profession of the faith , wherein they were particularly obliged to the use of the sacraments . the apostles , and after them , all church-men , were also endued with a double power : the one was declarative for promulgating the gospel : the other was directive , which properly is no power ; and by this they were to advise in such matters wherein they had no warrant to command : so s. paul wrote sometimes his own sense , which he did by permission , and not by commandment , only he advised , as one that had obtained mercy to be faithful . but because christ was to be in his church to the end of the world , the things they had heard were to be committed to faithful men , that they might be able to teach others . all church men being thus the successors of the apostles , they are vested with a divine authority , for solemn publishing the gospel ; but with this odds from the apostles , that whereas they were infallible , their successors are subject to error . and the power of church-men consists formally in this , that they are heralds of the gospel : and by their preaching it , a solemn offer of it is made to all their hearers , which to despise , is to despise him that sent them . but in this power they are bound up to the commission they have from god , so that what they say beyond that , is none of the divine message . yet because many particulars may fall in , about which it was impossible rules could be given , they have a directive authority , which if it be managed as s. paul did , we need fear no tyrannical imposition from it . and therefore in these matters their definitions are not binding laws , but rules of advice : for in matters wherein we are left at liberty by god , if church-men pretend to a dominion over our souls , they make us the servants of men. and indeed it is the most incoherent thing imaginable , for these who lay no claim to infallibility , to pretend to absolute obedience . it is true , the laws of peace and order bind us to an association , if we be christians : and therefore we ought to yield in many things for peace : but since we are all a royal priesthood , why church-men should pretend to authority or jurisdiction , except in that which is expresly in their commission , wherein they are purely heralds , i do not see . it is true , christians ought to assemble for worship , but for the associations of churches in judicatories , i cannot imagine in what corner of the new testastament that shall be found : in which i am the more confirmed , since all the labor of that pamphleteer from p. 126. to 144. could not find it out . for it is a strange method to prove a divine warrant , because some reasons are brought to prove it must be so : to have cited the words , where a shorter and clearer method of proof ; since to prove that such a thing must be , and yet not to shew that it is , is only to attempt against the scripture , for being defective in that which it ought to have contained . but if the phrase of one body conclude a proof for associations , then since the body includes all christians , the whole faithful must meet together in councils . for where have you a difference in that betwixt the clergy , and the faithful laicks ? but here yielding your laick elders of divine institution , and to have from god an authority of ruling , as well as the ministers have , then why do they not all come to presbyteries ? and why but one deputed from them ? was not this an encroachment on them ? for if they have from christ a power to rule , as well as ministers , why should not all the elders meet in presbyteries and synods , as well as ministers ? and why but one elder from every presbytery , when three ministers go to the national synod ? for it is folly to say , because ministers have a power of teaching , therefore in presbyteries and synods the elders must only equal their number , and in national synods be near half their number : for that will only say that in matters of doctrine the elders should be quite silent , but in matters of discipline , why all should not come if any have a right from christ , will not be proved . and is not this to lord it over your brethren ? and do not your ministers thus tyrannize over their elders ? but the reason of it was visible , lest the elders had thereby got the power in their hands , had they been the plurality in the judicatories : which was well enough foreseen and guarded against by your clergy , who though they were willing to serve themselves of them for a while , yet had no mind to part with their beloved authority . but for synods , if the obligation to them be from the unity of the body , then nothing under an oecumenical one will answer this , which yet is simply unpracticable . now as for your national synods , it is visible they are and must be framed , according to the divisions of the world in the several kingdoms : for according to the rules are pretended from scripture ( tell the church , the binding and loosing of sins , or the like ) it follows that parochial congregations , and the pastors in them , are vested with an authoritative power : now why they should be made to resign this to the plurality of the church-men of that kingdom , will be a great atchievement to prove in your principles . for why shall not a parochial church make laws within it self ? and why must it renounce its priviledg to such a number of church-men cast in such a classis by a humane power ? as likewise , where find you a divine warrant for your delegating commissioners to synods ? for either they are plenipotentiaries , or such as go upon a restricted deputation , but so as their votes beyond their commission shall signifie nothing , till they return and be approved by those who sent them ; if they go with a full power , assign a warrant for such a delegation , or that many church-men may commissionate one in their name , and that what shall be agreed to by the major part of these delegates , shall be a binding obligation on christians : and yet i know you will think the independents carry the cause , if it be said that the appointments of these superiour courts have no authority till ratified by the inferiour , which will resolve the power into the inferiour courts . by all which i think it is clear abundantly , that the associations of churches into synods , cannot be by a divine warrant . but i must call in some relief , for i grow weary of speaking too long . eud. i suppose none will deny the association of churches to be an excellent mean for preserving unity and peace : but to assert a divine original for them , methinks , is a hard task ; and truly to assert the divine authority of the major part which must be done according to the principles of presbytery , is a thing fuller of tyranny over consciences , than any thing can be feared from episcopacy ; since the greater part of mankind being evil , which holds true of no sort of people more , than of church-men , what mischief may be expected if the plurality must decide all matters ; and to speak plainly , i look on a potion of physick as the best cure for him , who can think a national synod , according to the model of glasgow , is the kingdom of christ on earth , or that court to which he hath committed his authority , for he seems beyond the power or conviction of reason . crit. the scripture clearly holds forth an authority among church-men , but visibly restricted to their commission , which truly is not properly a power residing among them , for they only declare what the rule of the gospel is ; wherein if they keep close to it , they are only publishers of the laws of christ : and if they err from it , they are not to be regarded : it is true , the administration of sacraments is appropriated to them , yet he that will argue this to have proceeded more from the general rules of order , the constant practice of the church , and the fitness of the thing , which is truly sutable to the dictates of nature , and the laws of nations ; than from an express positive command , needs much logick to make good his attempt . it is true , the ordaining of successors in their office belongs undoubtedly to them , and in trying them , rules are expresly given out in scripture , to which they ought to adhere and follow them : but as for other things , they are either decisions of opinions , or rules for practice . in the former their authority is purely to declare , and in that they act but as men , and we find whole schools of them have been abused ; and in the other , they only give advices and directions ; but have no jurisdiction . it is true , much noise is made about the council of ierusalem , p. 106 , as if that were a warrant for synods to meet together . but first , it is clear no command is there given , so at most that will prove synods to be lawful , but that gives them no authority , except you produce a clear command for them , and obedience to them . next , what strange wresting of scripture is it , from that place to prove the subordination of church judicatories ? for if that council was not an oecumenical council , nor a provincial one , which must be yielded , since we see nothing like a convocation ; then either paul and barnabas were sent from antioch , as from one sister church to ask advice of another ; and if so , it proves nothing for the authority of synods , since advices are not laws : or antioch sent to ierusalem , as to a superior church by its constitution , which cannot be imagined : for what authority could the church of ierusalem pretend over antioch ? and indeed had that been true , some vestige of it had remained in history ; which is so far to the contrary , that the church of ierusalem was subordinate to the church of cesarea , which was metropolitan in palestine , was subject to antioch , the third patriarchal sea. it will therefore remain that this was only a reference to the other apostles , who besides their extraordinary endowments and inspiration , were acknowledged by all to be men of great eminency and authority : and therefore the authority of paul and barnabas not being at that time so universally acknowledged , they were sent to ierusalem , where s. iames was resident , and s. peter occasionally present . now the authority of the decree must be drawn from their infallible spirit ; otherwise it will prove too much , that one church may give out decrees to another . but will the apostles mutual consulting or conferring together , prove the national constitution , and authority of synods or assemblies ? poly. all that hath been said illustrates clearly the practice of the iews , among whom as the high-priest was possessed with a prophetical spirit , which sometimes fell on him by illapses , as apears from what is said of caiaphas ; and sometimes from the shining of the stones in the pectoral , called the urim and thummim ; so the priests and levites being the chief trustees and depositaries of the law , their lips were to preserve knowledg , and the law was to be sought at their mouth , yet they had no legislative authority : they had indeed a court among themselves , called the parhedrim , made up of the heads of the orders , and of the families ; but that court did not pretend to jurisdiction , but only to explain things that concerned the temple-worship : nay , the high-priest was so restricted to the king and sanbedrim , that he might not consult the oracle without he had been ordered to do it by them : neither do we ever hear of any laws given out , all the old testament over , in the name of the priests . and in the new testament , the power ( it seems ) was to be managed by the body of the faithful , as well as by church-men . it is true , the apostles were clothed with an extraordinary power of binding and loosing of sins ; but no proofs are brought to justifie the pretences to jurisdiction that are found among their successors . for in the epistle to corinth , the rules there laid down , are addressed to all the saints that were called to be faithful : so also is the epistle to the thessalonians , where he tells them to note such as walked disorderly , and have no fellowship with them ; which are shrewd grounds to believe that at first all things were managed parochially , where the faithful were also admitted to determine about what occurred : but for synods , we find not the least vestige of them before the end of the second century , that synods were gathered about the controversie concerning the day of easter ; and the following associations of churches , shew clearly , that they took their model from the division of the roman empire , and so according as the provinces were divided , the churches in them did associate to the metropolitans , and became subordinate to them , and these were subordinate to the patriarchs ; by which means it was that the bishops of rome had the precedency , not from any imaginary derivation from st. peter : for had they gone on such rules , ierusalem where our lord himself was , had undoubtedly carried it of all the world : but rome being the imperial city , it was the see of the greatest authority . and no sooner did bizantium creep into the dignity of being the imperial city , but the bishop of constantinople was made second patriarch , and in all things equal to the bishop of rome , the precedency only excepted . much might be here said for proving that these synods did not pretend to a divine original , though afterwards they claimed a high authority , yet their appointments were never called laws , but only canons and rules , which could not pretend to a jurisdiction . basil. but that i may not seem to rob the church of all her power , i acknowledg that by the laws of nature it follows , that these who unite in the service of god , must be warranted to associate in meetings to agree on generals rules , and to use means for preserving purity and order among themselves , and that all inferiours ought to subject themselves to their rules . but as for that brave distinction of the churches authority , being derived from christ as mediator , whereas the regal authority is from him as god , well doth it become its inventors , and much good may it do them . for me , i think , that christ's asserting , that all power in heaven and in earth was given unto him ; and his being called , the king of kings , and lord of lords , make it as clear as the sun , that the whole oeconomy of this world is committed to him as mediator : and as they who died before him , were saved by him , who was slam ●●om the foundation of the world : so all humane authority was given by vertue of the second covenant , by which mankind was preserved from infallible ruin , which otherwise it had incurred by adams fall . but leaving any further enquiry after such a foolish nicety , i go now to examine what the magistrates power is in matters of religion : and first , i lay down for a maxim , that the externals of worship , or government , are not of such importance , as are the rules of iustice and peace , wherein formally the image of god consists . for christ came to bring us to god : and the great end of his gospel , is , the assimilation of us to god , of which , justice , righteousness , mercy and peace make a great part . now what sacredness shall be in the outwards of worship and government , that these must not be medled with by his hands ; and what unhallowedness is in the other , that they may fall within his jurisdiction , my weakness cannot reach . as for instance , when the magistrate allows ten per cent of in●●rest , it is just to exact it ; and when he bring● i● down to six per cent , it is oppression to demand ten per cent ; so that he can determine some matte●s to be just or unjust by his laws : now why he shall not have such a power about outward matters of worship , or of the government of the church , judg you ; since the one both in it self , and as it tends to commend us to god , is much more important than the other . it is true , he cannot meddle with the holy things himself ; for the scripture rule is express , that men be separated for the work of the ministery : and without that separation , he invades the altar of god , that taketh that honor upon him , without he be called to it . but as for giving laws in the externals of religion , i see not why he may not do it , as well as in matters civil . it is true , if he contradict the divine law by his commands , god is to be obeyed rather than man. but this holds in things civil , as well as sacred . for if he command murder , or theft , he is undoubtedly to be disobeyed , as well as when he commands amiss in matters of religion . in a word , all subjects are bound to obey him in every lawful command . except therefore you prove that church-men constituted in a synod are not subjects , they are bound to obedience , as well as others : neither doth this authority of the magistrate any way prejudge the power christ hath committed to his church : for a father hath power over his children , and that by a divine precept , tho the supreme authority have power over him , and them both : so the churches authority is no way inconsistent with the kings supremacy . as for their declarative power , it is not at all subject to him , only the exercise of it , to this or that person , may be suspended : for since the magistrate can banish his subjects , he may well silence them : yet i acknowledg if he do this , out of a design to drive the gospel out of his dominions , they ought to continue in their duty , notwithstanding such prohibition ; for god must be obeyed rather than man. and this was the case of the primitive bishops , who rather than give over the feeding their flocks , laid themselves open to martyrdom . but this will not hold for warranting turbulent persons , who notwithstanding the magistrates continuing all encouragements for the publick worship of god , chuse rather than concur in it ( tho not one of an hundred of them hath the confidence to call that unlawful ) to gather separated congregations , whereby the flocks are scattered . phil. nay , since you are on that subject , let me freely lay open the mischief of it : it is a direct breach of the laws of the gospel , that requires our solemn assembling together , which must ever bind all christians , till there be somewhat in the very constitutions of these assemblies , that renders our meeting in them unlawful : which few pretend in our case . next , the magistrates commanding these publick assemblies , is certainly a clear and superadded obligation , which must bind all under sin , till they can prove these our meetings for worship unlawful . and as these separated conventicles are of their own nature evil , so their effects are yet worse , and such as indeed all the ignorance and profanity in the land is to be charged on them : for as they dissolve the union of the church , which must needs draw mischief after it , so the vulgar are taught to despise their ministers , and the publick worship , and thus get loose from the yoak . and their dependence on these separated meetings , being but precarious , as they break away from the order of the church , so they are not tied to their own order : and thus betwixt hands , the vulgar lose all sense of piety , and of the worship of god. next , in these separated meetings , nothing is to be had but a long preachment , so that the knowledg and manners of the people not being look'd after , and they taught to revolt from the setled discipline , and to disdain to be c●techised by their pasto●s , ignorance and profanity must be the sure effect of these divided meetings . and in fine , the disuse of the lord's supper is a guilt of a high nature ; for the vulgar are taught to loath the sacrament from their ministers hands , as much as the mass : and preaching is all they get in their meetings : so that what in all ages of the church hath been looked on , as the great cherishing of devotion and true piety and the chief preserver of peace among c●●●ti●ns , is wearing out of practice with our new modelled christians . these are the visible effects of separating practices : but i shall not play the uncharitable diviner , to guess at the secret mischief such courses may be guilty of . basil. truly , what you have laid out is so well known to us all , that i am confident isotimus himself must with much sorrow acknowledg what wicked arts these are that some use to dislocate the body of christ , and to sacrifice the interests of religion to their vanity , humor , or perhaps their secular interests . but i hold on my design , and add , that if the magistrate encroach on god's prerogative , by contradicting or abrogating divine laws , all he doth that way , falls on himself . but as for the churches directive power , since the exercise of that is not of obligation , he may command a surcease in it . it is true , he may sin in so doing ; yet cases may be wherein he will do right to discharge all associations of judicatories , if a church be in such commotion , that these synods would but add to the flame : but certainly he forbidding such synods ; they are not to be gone about , there being no positive command for them in scripture , and therefore a discharge of them contradicts no law of god , and so cannot be disobeyed without sin : and when the magistrate allows of synods , he is to judg on whether side in case of differences , he will pass his law : neither is the decision of these synods obligatory in prejudice of his authority ; for there can be but one supream ; and two coordinate powers are a chymaera . therefore in case a synod and the magistrate contradict one another in matters undetermined by god , it is certain a synod sins if it offer to countermand the civil authority , since all must be subject to the powers that are , of which number the synod is a part ; therefore they are subject as well as others . and if they be bound to obey the magistrates commands , they cannot have a power to warrant the subjects in their disobedience , since they cannot secure themselves from sin by such disobedience . and in the case of such countermands , it is indisputable the subjects are to be determined by the magistrates laws , by which only the rules of synods are laws , or bind the consciences formally ; since without they be authorized by him , they cannot be laws ; for we cannot serve two masters , nor be subject to two legislators . and thus , methinks , enough is said for clearing the title of the magistrate in exacting our obedience to his laws in matters of religion . crit. indeed , the congesting of all the old testament offers , for proving the civil powers their authority in things sacred , were a task of time : and first of all , that the high priest might not consult the oracle , but when either desired by the king , or in a business that concerned the whole congregation , is a great step to prove what the civil authority was in those matters . next , we find the kings of iudah give out many laws about matters of religion : i shall wave the instances of david and solomon , which are so express , that no evasion can serve the turn , but to say they acted by immediate commission , and were inspired of god. it is indeed true , that they had a particular direction from god. but it is as clear , that they enacted these laws upon their own authority , as kings , and not on a prophetical power . but we find iehoshaphat , 2 chr. 17. v. 7. sending to his princes to teach in the cities of iudah , with whom also he sent priests and levites , and they went about and taught the people . there you see secular men appointed by the king to teach the people : he also , 2. chr. 19. v. 5. set up in ierusalem a court made up of levites , priests , and the chief of the fathers of israel , for the judgment of the lord , and for the controversies among the people ; and names two presidents , amariah the chief priest to be over them in the matters of the lord , and zebadiah for all the kings matters . and he that will consider these words , either as they lie in themselves , or as they relate to the first institution of that court of seventy by moses , where no mention is made but by one judicatory , or to the commentary of the whole writings , and histories of the iews , shall be set beyond dispute , that here was but one court to judg both of sacred and secular matters . it is true , the priests had a court already mentioned , but it was no judicatory , and medled only with the rituals of the temple . the levites had also , as the other tribes , a court of twenty three for their tribe , which have occasioned the mistakes of some places among the iewish writings : but this is so clear from their writings , that a very overly knowledg of them will satisfie an impartial observer . and it is yet more certain , that from the time of ezra , to the destruction of the temple , there was but one court , that determined of all matters both sacred and civil ; who particularly tried the priests , if free of the blemishes which might cast one from the service , and could cognosce on the high priest , and whip him when he failed in his duty . now this commixtion of these matters in one judicatory , if it had been so criminal , whence is it that our lord not only never reproved so great a disorder , but when convened before them , did not accuse their constitution , and answered to the high priest when adjured by him ? likewise , when his apostles were arraigned before them , they never declined that judicatory , but pleaded their own innocence , without accusing the constitution of the court , though challenged upon a matter of doctrine . but they , good men , thought only of catching souls into the net of the gospel , and were utterly unacquainted with these new coined distinctions . neither did they refuse obedience , pretending the court had no jurisdiction in these matters , but because it was better to obey god than man ; which saith , they judged obedience to that court due , if it had not countermanded god. but to return to iehoshaphat , we find him constituting these courts , and choosing the persons and empowering them for their work , for he constituted them for iudgment and for controversie ; so that though it were yielded , as it will never be proved , that two courts were here instituted , yet it cannot be denied , but here is a church judicatory constituted by a king , the persons named by him , a president appointed over them , and a trust committed to them . and very little logick will serve to draw from this , as much as the acts among us , asserting the king's supremacy yield to him . next , we have a clear instance of hezekiah , who , 2 chron. 30. ver . 2. with the counsel of his princes , and of the whole congregation , made a decree for keeping the passover , that year on the second month , whereas the law of god had affixed it to the first month , leaving only an exception , numb . 9.10 . for the unclean , or such as were on a journey , to keep it on the second month. npon which hezekiah with the sanhedrim and people , appoints the passover to be entirely cast over to the second month for that year . where a very great point of their worship ( for the distinction of days was no small matter to the iews ) was determined by the king , without asking the advice of the priests upon it . but that you may not think this was peculiar to the king of israel , i shall urge you with other instances : when ezra came from artaxerxes , he brings a commission from him , ezra ch . 7. ver . 25 , 26. impowering him according to the wisdom of his god , that was in his hand , to set up magistrates and iudges , who might judg them that knew the laws of his god , and teach them that knew them not : and a severe certificate is passed upon the disobedient ; and one of the branches of their punishment , which is by the translators rendered banishment , being in the chaldaick , rooting out , is by some judged to be excommunication ; which is the more probable , because afterwards , chap. 10. ver . 8. the censure he threatens on these who came not upon his proclamation , is , forfeiture of goods , and separation from the congregation . here then it seems a heathen king gives authority to excommunicate : but be in that what will , ezra upon his return acted in a high character , he makes the priests , levites , and all israel , to swear to put away their strange wives : he convenes all the people under the certificate of separation from the congregation , and enjoyns confession of their sins and amendment : and we find both him and nehemiah acting in a high character about the ordering of divine matters , which could only flow from the king's commission , for neither of them were prophets , nor was ezra the high priest but his brother , and so no more than an ordinary priest. mordecai likewise instituted the feast of purim , for which nothing could warrant him , but the king's authority , committed to him , who gave him his ring for sealing such orders , since he was neither king , priest nor prophet . and on the way , let me observe what occurs from that history , for proving what was yesterday pleaded for , the subjects ought not to resist , no not the tyranny of their superiours , since a writing was procured from ahasuerus for warranting the iews to avenge themselves , and to stand for their lives , and to destroy and slay all that would assault them , which saith they might not have done this before that writing was given out , and yet their killing of 74000 of their enemies shews , what their strength was . but all i have said will prove that the civil powers under the old testament did formally judg about matters of religion ; and that that priviledg belongs to kings by vertue of their regal dignity , and not as they are in covenant with god , since even heathen kings give out orders about divine matters . poly. if from sacred you descend to humane practices , nothing was more used than that the emperors judged in matters of religion , neither was this yielded to them only after they became christians , but eusebius , lib. 7. cap. 30. tells , how they made application to aurelian a heathen emperor , for turning samosatenus out of the church of antioch , who decreed that the houses of the church should be given to those bishops , whom the christians of italy and the roman bishops should recommend to them . constantine also , when not baptized , did all his life formally judg in matters both of doctrine and discipline : and for the laws they made about church matters , they abound so much , that , as grotius saith , one needs not read them , but look on them to be satisfied about this . and indeed i know not how to express my wonder at the affrontedness of that pamphleter , who denies this , pag. 483. pray ask him , was the determining about the age , the qualifications , the election , the duties of church-men , the declaring for what things they should be deposed , or excommunicated , a formal passing of laws in church matters , or only the adding sanctions to the church determinations ? and yet who will but with his eye run through either the first six titles of the code , or the 123. novel , besides many other places , all these , and many more laws about church matters will meet him . but should i take a full career here , i am sure i should be tedious , and grotius hath congested so many instances of this , that i refer the curious reader to him for full satisfaction . the elections of bishops which had been formerly in the hands of the people and clergy , with the provincial synods that judged of them , became so tumultuary , that popular elections were discharged by the council of laodicea , can. 13. and the emperors did either formally name , as theodosius did nectarius , or reserve the ratifying their election to themselves . and i must confess , it is a pretty piece of history , to say the bishops consented to this , either as diffident of their office , or out of ambition . see p. 485. tell your friends that they must either learn more knowledg , or pretend to less ; for can they produce the least vestige for the one branch of this alternative , that the bishops their allowing the emperor such an interest in their elections , flowed from a distrust of their office ? let them give but one scrap of proof for this , and let them triumph as much as they will. is it not a pretty thing to see one talk so superciliously of things he knows not ? isot. but all you have brought will never prove that a king may at one stroke subvert a government established in the church , and turn out all who adhere to it , and set up another in its place ; neither will this conclude that the king may enact all things about ecclesiastical matters , and persons , by his own bare authority , which is a surrender of our consciences to him : certainly , this is to put him in christ's stead , and what mischievous effects may follow upon this , if all matters of religion be determined , by the pleasure of secular and carnal men , who consider their interests and appetites more than god's glory , or the good of the church and of souls : truly my heart trembles to think on the effects this both hath produced , and still may bring forth . see pag. 483. phil. it is charity to ease your lungs sometimes by taking a turn in the discourse , though you need none of my help . but what you say , isotimus , doth no way overturn what hath been asserted : for either the change that was made was necessary , sinful , or indifferent : the two former shall not be at this time debated , but shall be afterwards discussed : but if it be indifferent , then the kings laws do oblige us to obedience , and the mischief hath followed on the change falls to their share , who do not obey the king's laws , when the matter of them is lawful . and as for the thrusting out church-men when they are guilty , solomon's precedent is convincing , who thrust out ab●athar from the high priesthood ; neither can the least hint be given to prove that he acted as inspired , and not as a king : and nehemiah tho but commissionated by artaxerxes , thrust one out from the priesthood , for marrying a strange woman . for your prying into acts of parliament , truly neither you nor i need be so much conversant in them . neither were it any strange matter , if some expressions in them would not bear a strict examen . but that you now challenge about the king's enacting of all matters , will never infer a surrender of conscience to him ; for certainly that must relate to what goeth before , of the outward government and policy of the church . besides , none will quarrel the phrase of the kings authority in all things that are civil ; yet that will not infer that he can enact the lawfulness of murther and theft . so these expressions must carry with them a tacite exception . yea , even without that allowance , the phrase may be well justified , since it only imports that the kings enacting any thing in these matters , makes them legal , which differs much from lawful ; and saith only that such orders issued forth by the king , are de facto laws , which will not conclude they must be obeyed ; but only that his authority is to be acknowledged , either by obedience , if the command be just , or by suffering , if unjust . as for the effects this may produce , i am sure they cannot prove worse than these which have followed upon the pretences of the churches absolute authority , and intrinsick sovereign power . and indeed since there is so much corruption among men , nothing that falls into the hands of men , can scape the mixtures of abuse at long run . but i must add , that the passions and pride of many church-men in all ages have been such , that the decision of the plurality of church-men , seems the model of the world that is fullest of danger . isot. three things yet remain to be discussed : the one is , if obedience be due to the laws , when they command things contrary to our consciences ? for sure you cannot pretend in that case , to give a preference to humane laws beyond conscience , which is the voice of god. the next is , when the magistrate commands things just of themselves , but upon unjust motives and narratives , whether my obedience doth not homologate his bad designs ? and finally , where the commands of the magistrate are manifestly unlawful , how far should the church , and church men , oppose and contradict them ? for a bare non-obedience seems not to be all we are bound to , in that case . when i am satisfied in these things , i will quit this purpose . basil. to engage in a particular discussion of what is now moved by you , would draw on more discourse than our present leisure will allow of ; yet i shall attempt the saying of what may satisfie a clear and unprejudged mind . and to the first , i shall not fall on any longer enquiry into the nature and obligation of conscience , than to tell that conscience is a conviction of our rational faculties , that such or such things are sutable to the nature and will of god. now all religion is bound upon us , on this account , that there is such evidence offered for its truth , which may and ought to satisfie the strictest examen of reason . and all certainty is resolved in this , that our rational faculties are convinced of the truth of the objects that he before us : which conviction when applied to divine matters , is called conscience . but there may be great mistakes in this conviction : for either the prejudices that lie on our minds from our senses , the prepossessions of education , interest , or humors , the want of a due application of our faculties to their objects , or chiefly the dulness and lesion of our organs , the corruption of our minds through sin and lust , occasion many errors : so that often without good reason , oft contrary to it , we take up persuasions , to which we stifly adhere , and count such convictions evidences of the will of god. i acknowledg , when a man lies under a persuasion of the will of god , he ought not to go cross to it : for this opens a door to atheism , when that is contradicted of which we are convinced . but if this persuasion be false , it cannot secure a man from sinning in following of it . for it is a man 's own fault that he is thus imposed upon , since if his rational faculties were duly applied , and well purified , they should prove unerring touchstones of truth . if therefore through vanity , wilfulness , rashness , or any other byass of the mind , it be carried to wrong measures , a man is to blame himself , and thus his errour ought to aggravate , and not lessen his guilt . if then a man's conscience dictate to him the contrary of what god commands , in that case , he is in a visible hazard : for his error can never t●ke away god's autho●ity , and so his wrong informed conscience doth not secure him from guilt , if he be disobedient . on the other hand , nothing in scripture can bind a man to act a-against the convictions of conscience , since we are bound to believe the scriptures , only because of the evidence of their authority to our rational faculties : if then our belief of the scriptures rest on that foundation , no part of scripture can bind us to walk contrary to that evidence , for then it should destroy that principle on which our obligation to believe it self is founded , which is the evidence of reason ; and so in that case , a man sins whatever he do . neither is this to be accountd strange , since that erroneous conscience is from man's own fault . and that which some alledg to escape this , that in such cases a man ought to forbear from acting , will not serve turn , to excuse a man from sin : for in these precepts which exact a positive obedience , such a ●orbearance and surceasing from action , is a sin . upon these evidences then it will follow , that if the conviction of our conscience run contrary to the magistrates commands , these convictions are either well grounded , or ill : if the former , then the magistrates command being contrary to the nature and will of god , a●e not to be obeyed : if ill grounded , then that mistaken persuasion cannot secure us from sin , no more than in the case of conscience contradicting the law of god : for the laws of the magistrates in things lawful , are the laws of god , being the application of his general laws unto particular instances , by one cloathed with authority from him . therefore tho i do not say the laws of the magistrate can warrant our counteracting an erroneous conscience ; yet on the contrary , a misinformed conscience will not secure us when we disobey the magistrates lawful commands . and thus i think your first question is clearly answered . end. you have a great deal of reason to say so , your discourse being so closely rational , that i cannot see any escape from any pa●t of it ; yet i must add , that certainly it is a piece of christian tenderness , which obligeth all in authority , to beware of laying gall-traps and snares in the way of tender consciences . and the best way to get an undisputed obedience , is , that their commands be liable to as few exceptions as is possible ; and that the good of any such laws be well ballanced with the hazards of them , that so the communion of the church in all outwards , particularly in the sacraments , may be had on as easie terms as is possible , whereby nothing be enacted that may frighten away weak●r minds from the f●llowship of the saints . but on the other hand , great caution must be had by all subjects on what grounds they refuse obedience to the laws , that so they be not found following their own designs and interests , under a colour of adhering firmly to their consciences . they must deliver themselves from all prepossessions , and narrowly examine all things , ere they adventure on refusing obedience to the laws . but now consider if an unjust motive or narrative in a law , deliver tender consciences from an obligation to obey it , or not ? basil. if the magistrate do couple his motive and narrative with our obedience , so that we cannot do the one without a seeming consent to the other , then certainly we are not to obey : for actions being often signs of the thoughts , an action how indifferent soever , if declared a sign of concurring in a sinful design , makes us guilty , in so far as we express our concurrence by a sign enjoyned for that end . but if the motive or narrative be simply an account of the magistrates own thoughts , without expressing that obedience is to be understood as a concurrence in such intentions , then we are to obey a lawful command , tho enacted upon a bad design : for we must obey these in authority , ever till they stand in competition with god. if then their laws contradict not god's precepts , neither in their natural nor intended si●nification , they are to be obeyed , whatever the grounds were for enacting them , which is only the magistrates deed , for which he shall answer to god. poly. this calls me to mind of two stories not impertinent to this purpose : the one is of iulian the apostate , who to entangle the christians , that never scrupled the bowing to the emperors statue , as a thing lawful , caused to set up his with the images of some of the gods about it , that such as bowed to it , might be understood , as ( likewise ) bowing to the images : which abused some of the simpler : but the more discerning refused to bow at all to those statues , because he intended to expound that innocent bowing to his statue , as an adoration of the gods about it . a christian likewise being brought to the king of persia , did according to the law bow before him ; but when he understood that to be exacted as a divine honor to the king , he refused it . eud. this is clear enough that all actions are as they are understood , and accordingly to be performed , or surceased from . but it seems more difficult to determine what is to be done in case a magistrate enact wicked laws : are not both his subjects bound to refuse obedience ; and the heads of the church , and the watchmen of souls likewise to witness against it ? and may they not declare openly their dislike of such laws or practices , and proceed against him with the censures of the church ? since as to the censures of the church , we see no reason why they should be dispensed with respect of persons , which s. iames condemns in all church judicatories . basil. i shall not need to repeat what hath been so often said , that we must obey god rather than man : if then the magistrates enjoyn what is directly contrary to the divine law , all are to refuse obedience , and watchmen ought to warn their flocks against such hazards ; and such as can have admittance to their princes , or who have the charge of their consciences , ought with a great deal of sincere freedom , as well as humble duty , represent the evil and sinfulness of such laws : but for any synodical convention , or any declaration against them , no warrant for that doth appear ; and therefore if the magistrate shall simply discharge all synods , i cannot see how they can meet without sin . but for parochial meetings of christians for a solemn acknowledgment of god , such assemblings for divine worship , being enjoined both by the laws of nature , and nations , and particularly commanded in the gospel , no consideration can free christians from their obligation , thus to assemble for worship : if then the magistrate should discharge these or any part of them , such as prayer , prais●s , and reading of scriptures , preaching the gospel , or the use of the sacraments , they are notwithstanding all that to be continued in . but for the consultative or directive government of the church , till a divine command be produced for synods or discipline , it cannot lawfully be gone about without or against his authority . crit. for refusing obedience to an unjust command , of surceasing visible worship , the instance of daniel is signal : who not only continued his adorations to god , for all darius his law ; but did it openly , and avowedly , that so he might own his subjection to god. but for reproving kings , we see what caution was to be observed in it ; since god sent prophets with express commissions for it in the old testament : and samuel notwithstanding this severe message to saul , yet honored him before his people . it is true , there should be no respect of persons in christian judicatories : but that is only to be understood of these who are subject to them : and how it can agree to the king who is supream , to be a subject , is not easily to be comprehended . since then honor and obedience is by divine precept due to magistrates , nothing that invades that honor , or detracts from that obedience , can be lawfully attempted against them : such as is any church-censure or excommunication . and therefore i cannot see how that practice of ambrose upon theodosius , or other later instances of some bishops of rome , can be reconciled to that , render fear to whom fear , and honor to whom honor is due . phil. i am sure their practice is far less justifiable , who are always preaching about the laws and times to the people , with virulent reflections on king , parliament and council : much more such as not content with flying discourses , do by their writings , which they hope shall be longer lived , study the vilifying the persons , and affronting the authority of these god hath set over them . and how much of this stuff the press hath vented these thirty years by past , such as knew the late times , or see their writings , can best judge . eud. now our discourse having dwelt so long upon generals , is to descend to particulars : that we may examine whether upon the grounds hitherto laid down , the late tumults , or the present schisms and divisions can be justified , or ought to be censured ? i know this is a nice point , and it is to be tenderly handled , lest all that shall be said be imputed to the suggestions of passions and malice . wherefore let me intreat you who are to bear the greater part of that discourse , to proceed in it calmly , that it may appear your designs are not to lodge infamy on any party or person , but simply to lay out things as they are : hoping withal , that you will not take your informations of what you say from the tatles of persons concerned , but will proceed on true and sure grounds . and that we may return to this with the greater composedness of spirit ; let our serious thoughts be interrupted with some chearfuller diversions : for our spirits are now too far engaged to fall upon such a head. isot. you have a great deal of reason to guard your friends well when they are to fall upon such matters , lest they sin against the generation of god's children . for my part , i am not afraid to enter on a discussion of these things , and doubt not to make it appear how the lord's work was signally carried on by his faithful servants , and that he himself appeared in it , even to the conviction of all beholders . if there were any either of the church or state , who covered their own bad designs , under these pretences , that makes not the cause a whit the worse : for christ chose twelve , and one of them had a devil . phil. were i at present to fall a canvasing these things , i doubt not i should quickly make all your plumes fall off : but i am willing at this time to break off our conference : for this point will neither be soon dispatched nor easily mananaged ; therefore we shall now part with an appointment to meet next day in this same place after dinner . basil. i believe none of us are so weary of another , or of the discourses we have tossed these two days , that it is needful to apprehend any will fail of being here at that hour : therefore , good night to you all . isot. be sure , i shall keep it , if an unavoidable excuse detain me not . adieu . crit. for me and polybistor , though it is like we shall not have great occasion of bearing our share in your discourse , yet we will not fail to be here . eud. i cannot express my sense of the honour you do me , in making this place still happy with so many good company , and so much pleasant discourse : and therefore you may assure your selves , i will wait for your return , not without impatience . and so i bid you all , good night . the third conference . isotimus . we are again as good as our word in keeping this appointment , and i hope we shall be no less exact in observing the rule we concluded last night of tempering our passions ; only i must guard you against the mistaking my zeal i may express for passion : remember who said , the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up , who also scourged the buyers and sellers out of the temple . eud. i confess , i want not my fears of some heat and excess in this days discourse : but i will crave leave to check it on what side soever it appear , i know there is a holy zeal for god , which will inflame a devout mind . but its fire 〈◊〉 mild and gentle , free of blustering and disorder : and that rage which is in many , for some parties or opinions , and against others , being as void of knowledg as of charity , ought not to pretend to christ's example , unless they be likewise acted by his spirit . a diligent search will quickly discover , if our motives and maxims have a tincture of his lowly meek and self-denying spirit in them . and certainly if our zeal be for god , it will take its degrees from the proportion of its objects . it is therefore a pharisaical pretence to own a zeal for some smaller matters , which have scarce been thought upon by the whole series of christians in all ages , till of late , when we are so cold in the defence of peace , charity , obedience to those over us , and the unity of the church : which are great , certain , and indispensible duties . that zeal likewise which transports a man unto unjustifiable heats of railing against particular persons , and appears in a bitter humor of dull jeering , and bold detraction , hath no reason to shroud it self under the example of christ's holy zeal ; who tho in the spirit of a zealot , having proved his divine mission and authority by miracles , he whipped the defilers of the temple out of it ; yet that dispensation wherein such practices were not unusual from extraordinary persons , being now changed into the new one , whose distinguishing character is charity , we are to bridle all the motions of distempered heat , left the effects of it be as unjustifiable as it self is . for it is to be considered , that the proper characters of the gospel spirit , are not devotion towards god , or zeal for his truths , which were common both with the religion traditionally conveyed from adam , and noah , and that which was delivered to moses ; but that which christ hath made the cognisance of his disciples , is , that they love one another , whereby all must know them to be such . and therefore all these who discover a spirit of hatred , rage , and malice at these , of whom they cannot deny but they may be christ's disciples , prove themselves to be void of his spirit . now , isotimus , what endless complaints could i here make of some you know of , who are perpetually trafficking to make all who differ from them odious , who catch up every tattle they hear that may defame them , and are sure to spread it as far as either their tongue or pen can reach : nor are they niggards of their additions to them , to make them swell bigger . with what marvellous joy do they suck in an ill report ? and tho it be but dubiously related , they will be sure to vent it as the greatest truth in the world. and when the stock of reports fails them , then they break in upon their magazins of forgeries : and here is an endless trade . sometimes they will piece up things as incoherent as the rags of a beggars cloak , and shew either their pretended intelligence , or profound sagacity , to smell out bad intentions . if they can fix nothing on their adversary , then that he is an hypocrite , or a dissembler , comes well to serve all purposes , and to defeat the best intentions : and , oh ! but the jealousies of popery and jesuitical practices , work wonders on their belief ! indeed , sir , i must tell you freely , i see a spirit stirring among us , which i look upon as tinctured with the deepest dye of antichristianism , and so void of the common impressions of good nature and civility ; but much more of his image , who will have us learn of him , in that he is meek and lowly , that really a man had as well live among scythians and barbarians , as among such wasps and vipers . every thing is alike for their malice . do some that differ from them live in a franker way , these are sure to be called licentious and profane . are others more severe , silent , an● retired , who express a contempt of the world with all its enjoyments , these must pass for papists , juglers and hypocrites ; and their best ac●ions must be lashed with the worst censures . again , if we treat them softly with gentleness and respect , then they are insolent , and impute such usage to ou● distrust of our own opinions , and a forced value of thei● way . and if we use a little more freedom to speak home , and discover their weakness and perversness to them , then they rage and some , and call us blasphemers ; and apply all the threatnings against mockers of god and piety , to such as shall offer to unmask them , or disclose any of their follies . if these in authority coerce them , nothing is to be heard but complaints of persecution , and revilings , and evil surmisings : but will gentle courses mollifie their hearts ? no , not so much as to be grateful or civil to those to whom they ow them : but they will be sure to observe how god binds up the hands of the wicked , and how marvellously he protects his own : and all the favor shewed them will have no better character than a very mean and scant act of iustice , ●licite by a visible state conveniency , if not necessity . see p. 493. you know of whom i mean , and how justly applicable these characters are to them : and that they are not the dreams of an e●travagant fancy ; but true , though imperfect descriptions of what every one sees to be among us . isot. i am heartily sorry to find you the first that swerves from your own rule , and to hear you engage in a discourse so unlike your self , at least so different from the character is conceived of you : these invectives being fitter for the author of the friendly debate , the scribl●r of the dia●ogues , or the asserter of ecclesiastical policy , who have mortally wounded religion , and all the professions and expressions of it , under a pretence of unvailing the pharisaical spirit . and indeed you are now in the same tract , your design being to charge all the faithful servants of christ , with this tatling , whispering , and censorious temper ; because perhaps some idle people who own a kindness for these opinions , but really are of no principles , may be guilty of these ways . eud. i beseech you , wrest not my words beyond my design , and their meaning . i charge not the whole party with these arts : yet that there is too great compliance given to them , and too little freedom used against them , by too many , may without unjustice , or breach of charity , be averred : but the disclosing of these is so far from injuring religion , that i know nothing so proper for recovering the world from the jealousies these arts have occasioned at it , as the unmasking of that spirit ; that so the amiable and lovely visage of true religion may appear in its own lustre , and free of these false colors some unjust pretenders to it , h●ve cast over it : and therefore these writings you mention , seem to have pursued a noble design , which shall not want its reward . b●t remember i make a vast difference betwixt the being of an opinion , and the pursuing all these crooked and wicked practices for its defence , which i have laid before you . at the former , i have no quarrel : for knowing how subject my self is to mistakes , i censure and judg none for their opinions , till they strike at the foundations of faith , or a good life : and so do not only not charge all your party with these imputations , but know a great many of them who are very free of them : but that many are too guilty of them , is what your self dares not deny . and how much of that temper appears in the late pamphlets , i leave with every rational reader to conside● : for it is not worth the while for any of us to sit down , and canvass them all . but how guilty are most of you in this which you here blame me unjustly for , which is the charging a party with the escapes , how great or signal soever , of some individuals . for to undertake the patrociny of every man in every party , is that which none in his right wits will do : to deal therefore equally with you , i neither think your party nor ours , culpable for the faults of some particular persons . b●t , sir , when a perverse detracting spirit gets in to these who pretend highly , certainly they ought to be told it , and that roundly too . for you know the greatest danger to religion , is to be apprehended from the leaven of the scribes and phari●●ecs ; since open and discernible faults do not so much prevail for infecting the christian s●creties , as these secret and more easily palliated errors . consider therefore a little what was the righteousness of the pharisees , and what was their leaven , and search for it ; left it yet leaven you , and lest your righteousness exceed not theirs . the pharisees prayed often , and long , both in the synagogues , streets , and widows houses : they studied the law exactly , and had a great reverence for moses and the prophets , and much zeal against blasphemers , false teachers and hereticks : they were strict observers of the sabbath , and were careful to prepare for their passouer solemnities : they had great respect for the opinions of their ancestors : they looked grave and solemn : they fasted often , and gave tythes of all they had : their outward deportment was not only clean , but beautiful : they were zealous to gain proselytes , and expressed a tenderness of conscience , even in the smallest matters : they were careful to avoid all converse with profane or wicked persons . in a word , they had many things , which to a vulgar and less discerning eye , made a fair show in the flesh . but with all this , they were proud , and exalted in their own conceits , so that they despised all other persons : they were magisterial , and desired to prescribe to every body : they were full of empty boastings , and assumed to themselves big and swelling titles : and all their opinions they obtruded as oracles . they did all to be seen of men , and loved salutations in the market places , and the uppermost rooms at feasts . they envied any they saw outstrip them in true worth ; and hated and contemned all that followed these . they studied to calumniate and revile every person that opposed them , with the most unjust and cruel reproaches , excommunicating all who adhered to them : neither would they yield to the clearest evidences were offered for their conviction : and nothing but the blood of the most innocent could satisfie their revenge . they were covetous , and devoured widows houses , with their pretences of devotion . they were false and subdolous , studying to ensnare others in their speeches , or wrest what they said to a contrary and mischievous sense . they were traytors to these in authority , though when it might serve their ends , they spared not to pretend much zeal for them : and the fervor of their zeal made them often attempt the murde●●ng of those who opposed them , and discovered their false pretexts , and mischievous designs . and from this , let all j●dge how much of that pharisaical leaven doth yet lurk , and leaven among us . i know the application would be thought as invidious , as it is obvious . and , i pray god , those g●ilty of these evils , may charge them home upon themselves : for i confess , i love not that part of the chirurgeons trade so well , as to dwell longer on the cutting of ulcers , or the searching of sores : and these whom this general hint will not help to some conviction , would be little prevailed upon by a closer discovery of the parallel . but m●stake me not , as if i charged one party only with this leaven , which is , alas ! too visible among many of all sides and parties . but to dwell no longer on generals , which every one will drive off himself , and lodge on others , let us now come to a closer review of our late times . and here , philarcheus , i quit the theme to you , who i know can manage it better . phil. truly , when i reflect on the late times , and the spirit which did then act in the judicatories both of church and state , i wonder much how any can be guilty of the error of thinking it was the cause of god was then fought for . i deny not but a great many , yea , i am willing to hope the greater part , were misled and abused , and did imagine it was religion and liberties they fought for ; and so went out as they were called , in the simplicity of their heart , and knew not any thing of the secret designs of their leaders : as in the case of absoloms rebellion , two hundred went from ierusalem with him , which might well a little excuse their fault , but could not alleviate the guilt of that unnatural rebellion : so whatever may be said for excusing the multitudes , who , i doubt not , meant well , yet that will never serve for vindicating the course was followed . i confess , if i saw any remorse or shame for by-past miscarriages ; if i found these people we speak of , either humbled for them before god , or ashamed of them among men , i should be the last on earth who would upbraid them with them : and that the rather , that his majesty hath buried the remembrance of them by a gracious oblivion . but when they continue so insolent , as still to bear up so high in their pretentions , as if god had been visibly with them : and when they think it an injury to their innocency to tell them of an indemnity , who would not be tempted to take them to task , and examine all their vain boastings , and empty pretences ? to which i am both provoked from their arrogance , and invited from the evident proofs of all i shall alledge , which i can lay before you from authentical papers and registers : and i shall freely tell you , that if any of these pamphleteers had but the half to say of these who yield a complyance to the present establishment , which i can say of them , the world would ring with it . but i count the defaming of men a wo●k as mean , as it is cruel . yet i look upon my self as obliged to give some accounts of the spirit and ways of these people , which i shall do with all the reserve and caution that becomes a christian. eud. hold , hold , i pray you , run not too far in your carreer , lest you lay open things were better hid : i confess these writers do justly draw it from you ; but for the faults of two or three , be not cruel to a multitude . and what will all you shall say avail ? for we know well enough how little the clearest evidence will prevail upon their belief : and though i in particular , know upon what grounds you can go , for verifying all you undertake , and that they are unexceptionably clear ; yet it is a dunghil not to be searched too much . wherefore let me , with my most earnest intreaties , divert you from the discourse you have threatned isotimus with . but because all these mens defences of the resistance subjects may make to their sovereigns , go upon the principles of maintaining religion and liberties , when invaded by the magistrate ; we will therefore be beholden to you , if you satisfie us , whether the late wars , as they were begun and carried on , were defensive or not ? phil. your authority over me is so entire , that your commands never fail of determining my obedience , therefore for this once i shall yield to your desire , but with this declaration , that if isotimus cannot prevail among his friends , for conjuring that pamphleting spirit into silence , i will be forced on more freedom than i either design or desire : and be made to tell name and surname of the actors of many things , which they may wish lay dead : and be made to prove them from authentick papers and records , and discover a mystery of iniquity , which hath lien long hid under fair pretences : and in a word , let you understand what were the arts , caballings , and intrigues of these who pretended so much to the interest of christ , when they sought their own : and if in doing this , i be forced on much round and plain dealing , the blame of it will fall to their share who extort it from me . but i come now to satisfie your desire , and doubt not to convince you , that the late wars were an invasion of the kings authority , and of the established laws , and were not for defence of any part of the established religion and liberties . in the year 1938. his majesty having understood , that the authorizing of the service-book , and book of canons , and the establishment of the high-commission-courts were illegal ; did upon the representation of those grievances , not only retract what he had formerly done , but in the fullest manner discharged them , and though the articles of perth stood setled by law , yet upon their petitions , who counted them grievances , he warranted their disuse : and for securing the fears of his subjects of the change of religion , ( with which some factious spirits had poysoned them ; ) he appointed the national covenant , as king iames had signed it , to be taken by all his subjects with a bond of mutual defence and adherence to it : he also summoned an assembly and parliament , for satisfying all the just demands and grievances of his subjects . but did this satisfie the zeal of that party ? no , for when all colors of grounds were removed from those malicious imputations , with which his majesties actions were aspersed ; then did they flee to their safe and sure refuge of jealousies and fears , out of which there was never any storming of them , as if all had been only offered to trepan and deceive them . and after his majesty had called a synod at glasgow , then came in the lay-elders , who were all of the nobility , and men of the greatest eminence of the kingdom , and carried the elections of the members of the assembly in the most arbitrary manner imaginable : many instances whereof i can yet prove from authentick papers , one generall i shall only name , ( for did i stand to reckon up all , i should never get to an end : ) the ruling elders who came from every pa●och to the presbyteries , for electing the commissioners to the assembly , were men of power , and of one knot ; and so when it was voted what ministers should be chosen , they who were listed , being at least six , were set to the door , and thus the elders who stayed within , carried the election as they pleased . and when the commissionated ruling elder was chosen , they were all so associated , that they could not choose wrong . and thus it was , that the secular men did intirely choose the members of the assembly of glasgow . but before they went to it , a written citation of the bishops was ordered to be read through all the churches of scotland ; wherein they were cha●ged , as guilty of all the crimes imaginable , which as an agape after the lords supper , was first read after a communion at edinburgh : and upon it , orders were sent every where , for bringing in the privatest of their escapes . ( and you may judge how consonant this was to that royal law of charity , which covers a multitude of sins ) nor was the kings authority any whit regarded all this while . was ever greater contempt put on the largest offers of grace and favor ? and when at glasgow his majesty offered by his commissioner , to consent to the limiting of bishops , nothing would satisfie their zeal without condemning the order , as unlawful and abjured . but when many illegalities of the constitution and procedure of that assembly were discovered , their partiality appeared , for being both judg and party , they justified all their own disorders . upon which his majesties commissioner was forced to discharge their further sitting , or procedure , under pain of treason : but withal published his majesties royal intentions to them , for satisfying all their legal desires , and securing their fears . but their stomachs were too great to yield obedience , and so they sate still , pretending their authority was from christ , and condemned episcopacy , excommunicated the bishops , with a great many other illegal and unjustifiable acts. and when his majesty came with an army to do himself right by the sword god had put in his hands , they took the start of him , and seised on his castles , and on the houses and persons of his good subjects , and went in a great body against him . now in this his majesty had the law clearly of his side : for episcopacy stood established by act of parliament . and if this was a cause of religion , or a defence of it , much less such as deserved all that bloud and confusion which it drew on , let all the world judg . it is true , his majesty was willing to settle things , and receive them again into his grace , and upon the matter granted all their desires : but they were unsatisfiable ; upon which they again armed . but of this i shall not recount the particulars , because i hope to see a clear and unbyassed narration of these things ere long . only one villany i will not conceal , at the pacification at berwick , seven articles of treaty were signed ; but the covenanters got a paper among them , which passed for the conditions of the agreement ; though neither signed by his majesty , nor attested by secretary or clerk : and this being every where spread , his majesty challenged it as a forgery : and all the english lords who were of the treaty , having declared upon oath , that no such paper was agreed on , it was burnt at london by the hand of the hangman , as a scandalous paper . but this was from the pulpits in scotland , represented as a violation of the treaty , and that the articles of it were burnt . these and such were the arts the men of that time used to inflame that blessed king 's native subjects against him . but all these were small matters to the following invasion of england , an. 1643. for his majesty did an. 1641. come to scotland , and give them full satisfaction to all , even their most unreasonable demands ; which he consented to pass into acts of parliaments . but upon his return into england , the woful rupture betwixt him and the two houses following ; was our church-party satisfied with the trouble they occasioned him ? no , they were not : for they did all they could to cherish and foment the houses in their insolent demands , chiefly about religion : and were as forward in pressing england's uniformity with scotland , as they were formerly in condemning the design of bringing scotland to an uniformity with england . i shall not engage further in the differences betwixt the king and the two houses , than to shew that his majesty had the law clearly of his side , since he not only consented to the redress of all grievances , for which the least color of law was alledged ; but had also yielded to larger concessions for securing the fears of his subjects than had been granted by all the kings of england since the conquest . yet their demands were unsatisfiable without his majesty had consented to the abolishing of episcopacy , and discharge of the liturgy , which neither his conscience , nor the laws of england allowed of : so that the following war cannot be said to have gone on the principles of defending religion ; since his majesty was invading no part of the established religion . and thus you see , that the war in england was for advancing a pretence of religion . and for scotlands part in it , no sophistry will prove it defensive : for his majesty had setled all matters to their hearts desire , and by many frequent and solemn protestations , declared his resolutions of observing inviolably that agreement : neither did he so much as require their assistance in that just defence of his authority , and the laws , invaded by the two houses : though in the explication of the covenant , an. 1039. it was agreed to , and sworn , that they should in quiet manner , or in arms , defend his majesties authority , within or without the kingdom , as they should be required by his majesty , or any having his authority . but all the king desired was , that scotland might lie neutral in the quarrel , enjoying their happy tranquillity : yet this was not enough for your churches zeal , but they remonstrated that prelacy was the great mountain stood in the way of reformation , which must be removed , and they sent their commissioners to the king with these desires , which his majesty answered by a writing yet extant under his own royal hand , shewing , that the present settlement of the church of england was so rooted in the law , that he could not consent to a change , till a new form were agreed to , and presented to him : to which these at westminster had no mind : but he offered all ease to tender consciences , and to call a synod to judg of these differences , to which he was willing to call some divines from scotland , for bearing their opinions and reasons . at that time , petitions came in from several presbyteries in scotland , to the conservators of the peace , inciting them to own the parliaments quarrel : upon which many of the nobility , and others , signed a cross petition , which had no other design , but the diverting these lords from interrupting the peace of scotland , by medling in the english quarrel : upon which thunders were given out against these petitioners , both from the pulpits , and the remonstrances of the commission of the general assembly ; and they led processes against all who subscribed it . but his majesty still desired a neutrality from scotland ; and tho highly provoked by them , yet continued to bear , with more than humane patience , the affronts were put on his authority . yet for animating the people of scotland into the designed war , the leaders of that party did every where study to poison the people with damnable jealousies of the king's inclination to popery , of his accession to the massacre of ireland , and of his designs to subvert by force the late agreement with scotland , if his armies were blessed with success in england . it were an endless work to tell all the ways were used for rooting these wicked jealousies in the peoples hearts : neither were all his majesties protestations able to overcome them : yet in end , when his majesty finding what their inclinations were , did refuse to admit the commissioners from scotland to mediate betwixt himself and the houses , they returned home ; and immediately upon that , contrary to all the laws of scotland , a great meeting of counsellors , conservators , and commissioners for the publick burdens , ordained a convention of estates to be summoned , which was never before done without the king's command , except in the minority of the kings : neither did they so much as wait for the king's pleasure , but only signified their resolution to him , and desired his commands against the day prefixed . here was an invasion of the king's prerogative , which deserved a high censure : yet so far did his majesty's clemency , and love to his native kingdom lead him , that he dispensed with this transgression , and allowed their sitting in a convention , provided they meddled not in the business of england , nor raised an army in order to it : but notwithstanding this , they voted themselves a free convention , and not restricted to the bounds prescribed in the king's letter , which they refused to registrate . and after this , they leagued with england . but having spoke my self out of breath , i quit the giving account of what follows to basilius . basil. i have observed one defect in your narration , for which i will be very favorable to you , beca●se i ●ntend to be guilty of that ●ame fault my self ; which is , that you have spoken nothing of the national covenant , and i mean to say as little of the l●ague . and i am apt to gues● that your silence was designed upon the same grounds that mine is : for indeed i can satisfie my self with nothing i can say upon the league , except i told all i know of the arts and manner of its contrivance . and truly , i cannot prevail upon my self at present , for the saying of that . therefore i will draw a vail over it , and say nothing , till i see further reason for a more full discovery ; and then i am afraid isotimus shall confess , it was not prudently done to h●ve extorted it from me . but to quit this , and pu●sue the narration philarcheus hath devolved on me , i shall tell you how commissioners c●me from england to treat for an army from scotland , for their assistance in the war they were then engaged in against the king : upon which all articles being agreed to , and a league ●wo●n , an army was sent into england , which turned the seales that did then hang in an even ballance , to the king's ruin . and truly , my invention cannot reach an argument , or color , for proving these to have been defensive arms , they being the effect of a combination with the subjects of england against our common king. b●t shall i next tell you what followed after the fatal revolution of things in england , upon his majesties trusting himself to the scots army , i am sure i should ●ill your minds with horror . for though his majesty offered concessions , justly to be wondered at , he having been willing to quit the militia for divers years , and to set up presbytery for three years ; and that in the mean while there should be a free synod , in order to a final settlement with other great diminutions of royal authority ; which shew how willing he was at his own c●st to have redeemed the peace of his kingdoms : only he added , that his conscience could not allow him to take the covenant , nor authorize it by law , nor consent to the abolition of episcopacy , or the liturgy ; protesting that how soon he could do these things with a good conscience , he should yield to all the desires of his subjects : in the mean while , he intreated for a personal treaty , in order to mutual satisfaction . yet with how much fury did that party press the setling of the government without him , the di●owning his interest , and the abandoning of his person to his enemies ; tho at that very time , the designs of the sectarian party , against both monar●hy and his majesties person , were breaking out , and had been made known to them by those who understood them well ? what followed upon this , i wish my silence could bury from the knowledg of all the world. but , al●s ! it is too well known what infamy these men brought upon themselves , and their count●y : which in the opinion of the world , was generally held guilty of that which was the crime of the prevailing party , whom the leaders over-awed and influenced . but after that , when his majesty was made prisoner ; when he was carried up and down by the army ; when the army forced both the houses , and the city of london ; when the treaties of scotland were violated in all their articles ; when the propositions agreed on by both kingdoms , were laid aside , and the four bills set in their place , wherein the covenant was not mentioned ; when upon his majesties refusing of these he was made prisoner , and the vote of non-addresses passed against him , then did the loyalty of the scots nation begin again to revive : and what through the sense of duty , what through the remorse of their former actings , eve●y one was forward to real resentments of these unworthy indignities put both on their king and country : but when the parliament of scotland had voted the country to be put in a posture of war for the defence of their s●vereign , then where should i end , if i told all the seditious papers , preachings , and discourses of some of the clergy , who contradicted and countermanded the parliament to a height of unparalelled boldness , even after all their desires , which they gave in a large remonstrance , were granted ? but did that satisfie ? no : they then took refuge in their common sanctuary of jealousies and fears . they threatned all who obeyed the commands of the parliament , not only with their church-censures , but with damnation . they did every where incite the people to rise in arms against the parliaments forces : and at a communion at matchlin , they did so work upon the vulgar , that they prevailed to get them draw up in a body , promising them great assistance both from god and men . they kept a correspondence with the sectarian army , and continued by many letters to press their speedy march unto scotland ; and after the scots army marched unto england , and was by the wise judgment of god defeated , then did many of the ministers , with all the vehemence imaginable , infl●me the people to rebellion , and got them to rise , and the● marched before their parishes like captains . they also called for the help of the sectarian army to them . and thus did they stand to the covenant , in maintaining the privileges of parliament , and preserving the king's person and authority . and when his majesty was murdered , what attempts made they for the preservation of his person , or for the resenting it after it was done ? this was the loyalty of that party ; and this is what all princes may expect from you , unless they be absolutely at your devotion . let these things declare whether these wars went upon the grounds of a pure defence . but if next to this , i should reckon up the instances of cruelty that appeared in your judicatories for several years , i should have too large a theme to run through in a short discourse . what cruel acts were made against all who would not sign the covenant ? they were declared enemies to god , the king , and the country . their persons were appointed to be seized on , and their goods confis●ated . and in the november of the year 1643. when some of the most eminent of the nobility refused to sign the covenant , commissions were given to soldiers to bring them in prisoners , warranting them to kill them if they made resistance . and , pra● , whether had this more of the cruelty of antichrist , or of the meekness of iesus ? or shall i next tell you of the bloody tribunals were at s andrews , and other pl●ces after philips-haughs ? and of the c●uelty again●t those pri●oners of war , who bore arms at the king's command , and in defence of his authority ? what bloudy stories could i here tell , if i had not a greater horror at the relating them , tha● many of these high pretenders had at the a●ting of them ? and should i here recount the procedure of the ki●k iudicatories , against all who were thought disaffected , i would be look'd on as one telling romances , they being b●yond credit . what processes of ministers are yet upon record , which have no better foundation than their not preaching to the times : their speaking with , or praying before my lord montrose : their not railing at the engagement , and the like ? and what cruelty was practised in the years 1649. and 1650 ? none of us are so young , but we may remember of it . a single death of one of the greatest of the kingdom , could not satisfie the bloud●thirsty malice of that party , unless made formidable and disgraceful , with all the shameful pageantry could be devised . pray , do you think these th●ngs are forgotten ? or shall i go about to narrate , and prove them more particularly ? i confess , it is a strange thing to see men who are so obnoxious , notwithstanding that so exalted in their own conceits : and withal remember that the things i have hinted at , were not the particular actings of single and private persons , but the publick and owned proceedings of the courts and jud●catories . these are the grounds which persuade me that with whatsoever fair colours som● m●y va●ni●h th●s● things , yet the ●pirit that then acted in that party , was not the spirit of god. isot. truly , you have given in a high charge against the proceedings of the late times , which as i ought not to believe upon your assertion , so i cannot well answer ; those being matters of fact , and done most of them before i was capable of observing things : and therefore when i see men of great experience , i shall ask after the truth of what you have told me . but whatever might be the design of some politicians at that time , or to whatever bad sense some words of the league may be stretched , yet you cannot deny , but they are capable of a good sense , and in that i own them , and so cleave to that oath of god , which was intended for a solemn covenanting with god : and the people meant nothing else by it , but a giving themselves to christ : to whose truths and ordinances they resolved to adhere at all hazards , and against all opposition : and in particular to oppose every thing might bear down the power and progress of religion , which was the constant effect of prelacy : therefore we are all bound to oppose it upon all hazards . and indeed when i remember of the beauty of holiness was then every where , and consider the licencious profanity , and ●coffing at religion , which now abounds : this is stronger with me than all arguments , to persuade me that these were the men of god , who had his glory before their eyes in all they did , or designed : whereas now i see every one seeking their own things , and none the things of iesus christ . and all these plagues and evils which these kingdoms do either groan under , or may apprehend , ought to be imputed to gods avenging wrath for a broken covenant , which though taken by all from the highest to the lowest , is now condemned , reviled , abjured , and shamefully broken . these things should afflict our souls , and set us to our mournings , if haply god may turn from the fierceness of his anger . phil. as for these articles that relate to the combination for engaging by arms in prejudice of the kings authority , or may seem to bind us to the reacting these tragedies , they being founded on the lawfulness of subjects resisting their sovereigns , if the unlawfulness of that was already evinced , then any obligation can be in that compact for that effect , must be of it self null and void : and therefore , as from the beginning it was sinful to engage in these wars ; so it will be yet more unlawful , if after all the evils we have seen , and the judgments we have smarted under , any would lick up that vomit : or pretend to bind a tye on the subjects consciences to rise in arms against their lawful sovere●gn . and let me tell you freely , i cannot be so blind or stupid , as not to apprehend that gods wrath hath appeared very visibly against us now , for a tract of thirty years and more ; nei●her doth his anger seem to be turned away , but his hand is stretched out still . but that which i look on as the greater matter of his controversie with us , is that the rulers of our church and state did engage the ignorant multitude , under the colors of religion , to despise the lords anointed , and his authority , and by arms to shake off his yoak , and afterwards abandon his person , disown his interest , refuse to engage for his rescue , and in the end look on tamely , and see him murdered . do you think it a small crime that nothing could satisfie the leaders in that time , without they got the poor people entangled into things which they knew the vulgar did not , and could not understand , or judge of , and must implicitly rely upon the glosses of their teachers ? for whatever the general assembly declared , was a duty following upon the covenant ( which was an easie thing for the leading men to carry as they pleased ) then all the ministers must either have preached and published that to their people , with all their zeal , otherwise they were sure to be turned out . the people being thus provoked from the pulpits , they were indeed to be pitied , who being engaged in an oath ( many of them , no doubt in singleness of heart , having the fear of an oath upon their consciences ) and not being able to examine th●ngs to the bottom , were entangled thus , and engaged which way the leading church-men plea●ed , and the guilt of this , as it was great in those who without due consideration engaged in those oaths , so it was most fearful in them ; who against the clear convictions of conscience , were prevailed upon by the thunders of the church , or the threats of the state , to swear what they judged sinful . i confess , their crime was of a high and crying nature , who did thus for the love of this present world , not only make shipwreck of a good conscience , but persisted long in a tract of dissembling with god , and juggling with men . but the wickedness of this comes mainly to their door , who tempted them to prevarication by their severities against all refused a concurrence in these courses . and the sin of all this was the greater , that it was carried on with such pretences , as if it had been the cause and work of god , with fasting , prayers , tears , and shews of devotion . for these things the land mourns , and god continues his controversie against us . to which i must add the great impenitence of those who being once engaged in that course of rebellion , have not yet repented of the works of their hands . for even such as own a conviction for it , do not express that horror and remorse at their by-past crimes which become penitents : but think if by rioting , drinking and swearing , they declare themselves now of another mind than formerly they were of , that they are washed free of that defilement . in a word , none seem deeply humbled in the presence of god , for the sinfulness of these practices , into which they entered themselves , and engaged others . and till i see an ingenuous spirit of confessing and repenting for these great evils , for all that rebellion , that bloud , oppreson , and vastation which these courses drew on , i shall never expect a national pardon , for that national guilt . for when on the one hand , many are still justifying these black arts , and not humbled for them , nor owning their penitence as openly as they committed their sins : and on the other hand , these who confess the faultiness of their courses , do it in a spirit of traducing others , of railing , and reviling , perhaps not without atheistical scoffings at true religion ; but not in a spirit of ingenuous horror , and sorror for their own accession to these courses , it appears we are still hardened , either into a judicial blindness of the one hand , or of obduration of heart on the other . that profanity doth much abound , i must with sorrow confess it , in the presence of my god : and i know there are many who roll themselves in the dust daily before god , and mourn bitterly for it : but when i enter in a deeper inquiry what may be the true causes of it , those that occur to me are , first , a judicial stroke from god upon us , for our by-past abominations : and chiefly for our hypocritical mocking of god , fastning the designs or humors of a party on him , as if they had been his ordinances , interests , and truths . and therefore because we held the truth of god in unrighteousness , his wrath hath been revealed against us . next , the frequent involving the land in reiterated oaths , subscriptions , and professions of repentance , under severe censures , which prevailed with many to swallow them over implicitly , and made others yield to them against their conscience , hath so debauched and prostituted the souls of people , that it is no wonder , they be now , as seared with a hot iron , and incapable of reproofs or convictions . besides , is it any wonder that these whose hearts naturally led them to atheism , when they see what juggling was used about some pretences of religion , and how the whole land was involved in so much bloud , about such trifling matters , come thereupon to have a jealousie of preachers and preaching , as if all they said , was but to maintain and advance their own interests and greatness , and thereupon turn scoffers at all religion , because of the base and irreligious practices of some , who yet vouched god and christ for all they did ? and on remark i shall offer on the way , that the sin of your church was legible in your judgment : their sin was the animating the people to rebellion , upon colors of religion ; and their judgment was , not only to be subdued , and oppressed by another rebellious army , who were not wanting to pretend highly to the cause of god in all their actings : but that they brake in pieces among themselves about a decision , who might be imployed to serve in the army , which at first disjointed , and afterwards destroyed your church : and the schism is still among us , which is like to eat up the power of religion , is but the dreg and genuin effect of these courses , and so all the prejudice it produceth to religion , and the true interests of souls is to be charged upon that same score . isot. really , i am much scandalized with this discourse , which if it were heard abroad , i know would much offend the hearts of the lord's people . and indeed , i think it ought not to be answered , no more than rabshaketh's railings were by eliakim . i wish i could with good hezekiah spread it out before the lord , and mourn over it , and for you who do so blaspheme god , and his cause . but whatever you may say in the point of resistance , yet you cannot deny , but we are all from the highest to the lowest bound in our stations ( at least ) to withstand prelacy , against which we did so formally swear in that oath of god , which most of you are not only content to break , but must needs despise and mock at . phil. god is my witness , how little pleasure i have in this severe discourse , into which the petulancy of these writers hath engaged me : but examine what i said from religion and reason , and you will perhaps change your verdict of it . for my part , i say none of these things in a corner , neither do i expect that they shall not fly abroad , and if they do , i will look for all the severities which the censures and malice of many can amount to . but i will chearfully bear that cross , and will be content to be yet more vile , for declaring freely what i judg to be god's controversie with the land i live in . if for this love to souls , many be my adversaries , i will betake my self to prayer : and shall only add this , that few who know me suspect my temper guilty either of flattery or bitterness . and the searcher of hearts knows , that i neither design by this freedom , to commend my self to any , nor to disgrace others , but meerly to propose things as they are . if this produce any good effect , i have my design ; if not , i have discharged my conscience , and leave the issue of it with god , who can out of the mouths of babes and sucklings , ordain strength and perfect praise . as for any obligation you may suppose the covenant brings upon us to oppose episcopacy , i shall discuss it with all the clearness i am master of . i shall not tell you , how much many who took that covenant , and do still plead its obligation have said ( from the words of the second article , and the explication given in it to prelacy ) for reconciling as much of episcopacy as is setled among us , to it , according to the declared meaning of its first imposers , when they took it , and authorized it . but leaving you and them to contend about this , upon the whole matter consider , that episcopacy is either necessary , unlawful , or indifferent : if the first be true , then you will without much ado confess that no oath in prejudice of a necessary duty , can bind any tie upon our conscience . if it be unlawful , i shall freely acknowledg that from the oaths of the covenants , there is a supervenient tie lying on us for its extirpation . but if it be indifferent , then i say it was a very great sin for a nation , so far to bind up their christian liberty , as by oath to determine themselves to that to which god had not obliged them : for the circumstances of things indifferent , may so far vary , that what is of it self indifferent , may by the change of these become necessary , or unlawful . therefore , in these matters , it is a great invasion of our christian liberty , to fetter consciences with oaths . and though the rulers and chief magistrates of a society , have either rashly or out of fear , or upon other unjustifiable accounts , sworn an oath , about indifferent things , which afterwards becomes highly prejudicial to the society , then they must consider that the government of that state is put in their hands by god , to whom they must answer for their administration . theeefore they stand bound by the laws of nature , of religion , and of all societies , to do every thing that may tend most for the good of the society . and if a case fall in where a thing tends much to the good and peace of a land , but the prince stands bound some way or other by oath against it , he did indeed sin by so swearing ; but should sin much more , if by reason of that oath he judged himself limited from doing what might prove for the good of the society . indeed when an oath concerns only a man's private rights , it ties him to performance , tho to his hurt ; but the administration of government is none of these rights a magistrate may dispose of at pleasure ; for he must conduct himself so , as he shall be answerable to god , whose vicegerent he is : and when these two obligations interfere , the one of procuring the good of the society , the other of adhering to an oath , so that they stand in terms of direct opposition , then certainly the greater must swallow up the lesser . it is therefore to be under consideration , whether the obligation of procuring the good of the society , or that of the magistrates oath be the greater ? but this must be soon decided , if it be considered that the former is an obligation lying on him by god , who for that end raised him up to his power , and is indeed the very end of government : whereas the other is a voluntary engagement he hath taken on himself , and can never be equal to that which was antecedent to it , much less justle it out . but if it contradict the other , the magistrate is indeed bound to repent for his rash swearing ; but cannot be imagined from that to be bound to go against the good of the society , for the procuring whereof , he hath the sword and power put in his hands by god. and so much of the tie can lie upon a magistrate by his oath about things indifferent , in ordering or governing the state that is subject to him : in which he must proceed as he shall answer to god in the great day of his accounts : and ought not to be censured or judged for what he doth by his subjects . but he enacting laws in matters indifferent , they become necessary obligations on his subjects , which no private oath of theirs can make void . indeed the late writer his arguing against this , is so subtil , that i cannot comprehend it so far as to find sense in it ; for he confesseth , pag. 232. that the magistrate is vested with a power proportional to the ends of government , so that no subject may decline his lawful commands , or bind himself by any such oath , as may interfere with a supervenient rational command . all this is sound , and indeed all i pleaded ; only his explication of rational , i cannot allow of : for tho a magistrate may proceed to unreasonable commands , yet i see no limits set to our obedience , but from the unlawfulness of them . but in the next page , he eats all this up by telling , that there are many things still left to our selves , and our own free disposal , wherein we may freely vow : and having vowed , must not break our word . and for instance , he adduceth a mans devoting the tenth of his substance to the lord , from which no countermand of the magistrates can excuse . but still he concludes , page 334. that the magistrates power may make void such vows as are directly , or designedly made to frustrate its right or to suspend the execution of others , in so far as they do eventually cross its lawful exercise . this last yields to me all i pretend in this case : for the covenant being made on purpose to exclude episcopacy , though at that time setled by law : if episcopacy be not unlawful , but lawful , which i now suppose , then the king's authority enjoining it , and it being a great part likewise of the government of the subjects , it is to be submitted to , notwithstanding the oath made against it . so that your friend yields without consideration , that which he thinks he denies : and therefore the reasoning in the dialogues holds good , that the oath of a subject in a matter indifferent , cannot free him from the obedience he owes the laws . it is true , his private vows in matters of his own concern , are of another nature , and so not within the compass of this debate , which is only about the obedience we owe the laws , supposing their matter lawful , notwithstanding our compacts made in opposition to them : and therefore i shall not discourse of them , but stick close to the purpose in hand . but my next undertaking must be to free children from any tie may be imagined to lie on them from the fathers oath : which was a matter so clear to my thinking , that i wonder what can be said against it . isot. indeed here your friend the conformist bewrayed his ignorance notably , not considering the authority parents have over their children by divine command , which dies not with them ; their commands being obligatory even after their death : for god commends the rechabites for obeying ionadabs command some ages after his death : therefore parents adjuring children they are obliged by it , as the people of israel by saul's adjuring them not to eat food till the evening , were obliged to obedience . and such adjurations may not only bind the children adjured , but all their posterity after them : as did the oath for carrying ioseph's bones out of egypt . and further , a society continuing still under the same notion , is bound through all ages to make good the compacts of their progenitors , they continuing to be the same society . and this is not only the ground on which the obligation of all alliances among kingdoms is founded ; but is also the basis on which our tie to the allegiance due to our sovereign is grounded . therefore as we find god in scripture covenanting with men , and their posterity , as in abraham's case , and fathers likewise engaging to god for themselves and their children , as did ioshua for himself and his house ; so our covenants being unanimously sworn by almost the whole nation , and confirmed by all the authority in it , must have a perpetual obligation on all the subsequent generations . see from pag. 205. to pag. 219. phil. i suppose , if it hold good that the covenant binds not these who took it , to oppose or extirpate episcopacy when setled by law , all this reasoning will of it self evanish in smoak : but to give your discourse all advantage , and to yield its obligation on these who took it , what you infer will never be made out ; since it is foun●ed on the supposition of a parents authority to adjure his child , that ties him after his fathers death , which you apply to the covenant . but in this there is a triple error committed by you : one of fact , and two of right . that of fact , is , that you suppose that in the covenant the subsequent generations are adjured to its observance : whereas not a word of this is in the covenant . on the contrary , in the end of the preface to the league , it is said , that every one for himself doth swear : neither is there a word in it all that imports an adjuration on posterity . it is true , in the 5. article , every one is bound according to their place and interest , to endeavour that the kingdoms may remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity . but he th●t will draw an adjuration on posterity from this , must have a new art of logick , not yet known . and in the national covenant , as it was taken by king iames , there is not a word that imports an adjuration on ●osterity . it is true , in the addition was made to it , ann. 1●38 . it is declared , that they are convinced in their minds , and confess with their mouths , that the present and subsequent generations in this land , were bound to keep that national oath and subscription inviolable . but this was only their opinion who signed it : yet for all that , there is no adjuration on posterity for observing it , no not in that addition then sworn to . the next error of your hypothesis , is , that the parents commands can bind the childrens confidence , in prejudice of the magistrates authority : for you must either suppose this , otherwise your arguing is to no purpose , since the king's authority is in this case interposed , and therefore all our fathers commands must yield to it : which because none deny , i shall not stand to evince . for if my father be bound to obey the king , as well as i am ; both he sins , if he enjoin me disobedience , and i am likewise guilty , if upon that i disobey . for he that hath no warrant for his own disobedience , can be imagined to have none for securing me in mine . and in end , you suppose a parents command or authority can bind the conscience after his death : which is manifestly absurd ; for certainly his authority must die with himself . it is true , a piety and reverence is due to the memory of our parents : and so much reverence should be payed to their ashes , that without a very good reason , the things they enjoyned should be religiously observed : but this is not a necessary obligation : for circumstances may so vary things , that we may be assured , that as our parents enjoyned such a thing , so had they seen the inconveniencies of it , they had not done it . now while a father lives , a child hath this liberty to argue with him : where it is not to be doubted , but the affection of a parent , together with the reasons adduced would make him change his commands : but indeed did their commands tie us after their death , we should be more in subjection to our parents , when dead , than we were when they lived : which goeth against the sense of all mankind . and what equality is there in such mens reasons , who will deny absolute obedience to magistrates , tho we be allowed to petition , and represent the grievances their laws bring upon us , and yet will assert an absolute and blind obedience due to the commands of our parents , tho dead ? your instance of the rechabites makes against you , for their progenitors had appointed them to dwell in tents , yet the fear of nebuchadnezzar had driven them to ierusalem : and consider if the incurring our lawful sovereigns displeasure , together with the hazard such obedience may draw after it , be not a juster ground of excusing our selves from obedience to any such command , suppose it were real . the rechabites did indeed abstain from wine , upon ionadab's command , for which they are commended , and blessed ; and so i acknowledg it a piece of piety to obey the commands even of a dead father ; yet in that place , it is not asserted , that that command tied their conscience ; but on the contrary , the blessing passed upon their obedience , seems rather to imply that it was voluntary , though generous and dutiful . the same answer is to be made to ioseph's adjuring the children of israel to carry up his bones ; which ought to have obliged even the children of these that were so adjured , out of the gratitude due to the memory of so great a man , especially nothing intervening that rendered obedience to it , either unexpedient or unlawful . but in general , consider that when a contract is made , either of an association under a form and line of magistracy , or of alliance betwixt two states , and confirmed by oath ; there is an obligation of justice that ariseth from the compact , whereby such rights were translated unto the person compacted with : and thereby he and his posterity according to the compact , are to enjoy these rights , because translated unto his person by the compact : but being once legally his , with a provision that they shall descend to his heirs , then his heirs have a right to them formally in their persons after his death , to which they have a title in justice , and not by the fidelity to which the posterity of the first compacters are bound by their fathers deed , but because the right is now theirs : so that though the first compacters were bound by promise and oath , their successors are only bound by the rules of justice , of giving to every man that which is his right : therefore whatever our ancestors may be supposed to have compacted with the king's progenitors , or whatever by treaty one state yields over to another , that promise , donation and oath is indeed the ground on which the kings right may be supposed to have been first founded . but now his title to our obedience proceeds upon the rules of justice , ( of giving him what is his , by an immemorial possession , passed all prescription , so many ages ago , that the first vestiges of it cannot be traced from records , or certain histories ) and not of fidelity of observing the promises of our ancestors to him , though i do not deny a pious veneration to be due to the promises and oaths of parents , when they contain in them adjurations on their childern . and thus the gibeonites having a right to their lives , confirmed to them by the compact of the princes of israel : they and their posterity had a good title in justice to their lives , which was basely invaded by saul , and had this aggravation , that the compact made with them was confirmed by oath , for which their posterity should have had a just veneration : but though that oath did at first found their title to their lives , and their exemption from the forfeiture all the amorites lay under ; yet afterwards their title was preserved upon the rules of iustice , and the laws of nature , which forbid the invading the lives of our neighbors , when by no injury they forfeit them . thus your confounding the titles of inheritance and presc●iption , with the grounds upon which they first accresced , hath engaged you into all this mistaking . but from all this , you see how ill founded that reasoning of the answerer of the dialogues is , for proving the posterity of these who took the covenant , tied by their fathers oath , which yet at first view , promised as fair colors of reason , as any part of his book , had he not intermixed it with shameful insultings and railings at the conformist : which i suppose do now appear as ill grounded , as they are cruel and base . but i am not so much in love with that stile , as to recriminate : nor shall i tell you of his errors that way of which i am in good earnest ashamed upon his account : for it is a strange thing , if a man cannot answer a discourse without he fall a fleering and railing . to conclude this whole purpose , i am mistaken , if much doubting will remain with an ingenuous and unprejudged reader , if either we or our posterity lye under any obligation from the covenants , to contradict or counteract the laws of the land , supposing the matter of them lawful : which being a large subject , will require a discourse apart . but i will next examine some practices among us , and chiefly that of schism and separation from the publick worship of god ; to which both the unity of the spirit , which we ought to preserve in the bond of peace , and the lawful commands of these in authority , do so bind us , that i will be glad to hear what can be alledged for it . isot. a great difference is to be made betwixt separation and non-compliance : the one is a withdrawing from what was once owned to be the church : the other is a with-holding our concurrence from what we judg brought in upon the church , against both reason and religion : and any thing you can draw from christ's practice or precept , in acknowledging the high priests , or commanding the people to observe what the pharisees taught them , is not applicable to this purpose : for first , these were civil magistrates , as well as ecclesiasticks , and doctors of the civil and judicial law , which is different from the case of churchmen with us . further ; the iewish church was still in possession of the privileges given them from god , and so till christ erected his church , they were the church of god : and therefore to be acknowledged , and joined with in worship . but how vastly differs our case from this ? see from p. 189. to p. 204. phil. you have given a short account of the large reasonings of the late book on this head , only he is so browilled in it , that there are whole pages in his discourse , which i confess my weakness cannot reach . but to clear the way for your satisfaction in this matter , which i look upon as that of greatest concernment , next to the doctrine of non-resistance , of any thing is debated among us ; since it dissolves the unity of the church ; and opens a patent door to all disorder , ignorance and profanity . i shall consider what the unity of the church is , and in what manner we are bound to maintain and preserve it . all christians are commanded to love one another , and to live in peace together : and in order to this , they must also unite , and concur in joint prayers , adorations , and other acts of worship , to express the harmony of their love in divine matters : sacraments were also instituted for uniting the body together ; being solemn and federal stipulations , made with god , in the hands of some who are his ambassadors and representatives upon earth : by whose mouths the worship is chiefly offered up to god , and who must be solemnly called and separated for their imployment . now these assemblings of the saints are not to be forsaken , till there be such a corruption in the constitution of them , or in some part of the worship , that we cannot escape the guilt of that , without we sepa●ate our selves from these unclean things . wherefore the warning is given , come out of babylon , that we be not partakers of her sins , and so receive not of her plagues . but though there be very great and visible corruptions in a church ; yet as long as our joining in worship in the solemn assemblies , doth not necessarily involve us into a consent or concurrence with these ; we ought never to withdraw , nor rent the unity of the body , whereof christ is the head . consider , how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity . and our saviour sheweth of what importance he judged it to his church , since so great a part of his last and most ravishing prayer , is , that they might be one : and this he five times repeats , comparing the unity he prayed for , to the undivided unity was betwixt him and his father . how shall these words rise up in judgment , against those who have broken these bonds of perfection upon slight grounds ! with the same earnestness do we find the apostles pressing the unity of the body , and charity among all the members of it : which is no where more amply done than in the epistles to the corinthians , whom the apostle calls , the churches of god ; and yet there were among them false teachers , who studied to prey upon them , and to strike out the apostles authority : some among them denied the resurrection , there were contentions and disorders among them in their meetings : such confusions were from the strange tongues some spake , that had one unacquainted with them , come in upon them , he had judged them mad : some were drunk when they did receive the lord's supper : they had an incestuous person in their society ; and it seems he was of quality , and much accounted of , since they were puffed up with him : they were also a scandal to the gospel with their litigious law sutes . these were great evils , and i hope beyond what you can charge on us : and yet though the apostle commands them to be redressed , and rectified , doth he ever allow of these in corinth , who were pure and holy , to forsake the solemn assemblies , till these things were amended ? or doth he not highly commend charity and unity to them ? next , consider what teachers these were who preached christ of envy and strife , out of contention , and not sincerely , that they might add affliction to the apostles bonds : and yet of these s. paul's verdict is , what then ? notwithstanding every way , whether in pretence , or in truth , christ is preached , and i therein do rejoice , yea , and will rejoice . now if he rejoiced that christ was preached at any rate , what spirit have they , who because they suppose some preach out of envy , or design to add to their affliction , do thereupon study to blast their reputation , and to withdraw first the hearts , and then the ears of all from them ? certainly , this is not the spirit of christ , or of his apostles . and though we see what corruptions had crept into the churches of asia , yet in the epistles to them in the revelation , they are still call'd the churches of god , in the midst of whom the son of god walked . they are indeed commanded to reform any corruptions were among them ; but such as had not that doctrine , and knew not the depths of satan , but had kept their garments clean , are not commanded to separate from the rest ; on the contrary , no other burden is laid upon them ; nor are they charged for not separating from the rest . from which premises i may infer , that as long as the communion of saints may be kept in , without our being polluted in some piece of sinful concurrence , all are bound to it , under the hazard of tearing christ's body to pieces . and this stands also with the closest reason ; for since unity is that which holds all the body firm , whereas division dislocates and weakens it ; nothing doth more defeat the ends of religion , and overturn the power of godliness , than scisms and contentions ; which give the greatest offence to the little ones , and the fullest advantages to the common enemy imaginable . if therefore the worship of god among us continue undefiled , even in the confession of all ; if the sacraments be administred as before ; if the persons that officiate be ministers of the gospel , then certainly such as separate from our publick meetings , do forsake the assemblies of the saints , and so break the unity of the spirit , and the bond of peace . and what you said of a non-compliance as distinct from separation , hath no relation to this purpose , where nothing of a compliance is in the case , but only a joining with the saints in solemn worship . and doth the change of the government of the church , in so small a matter as the fixing a constant president , with some additions of power over your synods , in stead of your ambulatory moderators , derive a contagion into our worship , so that without a sin it cannot be joined in ? indeed if a concurrence of worship required an owning of every particular in the constitution of the church , a man must go to the new atlantis to seek a society he shall join with , since few of clear unprepossessed minds will find such societies in the known regions of the world , against all whose constitutions they have not some just exceptions : and the world shall have as many parties as persons , if this be not fixed as the rule of unity , that we cleave to it , ever till we be driven to do somewhat which with a good conscience we cannot yield to . and even in that case , except the corruption be great and deep , a bare withdrawing , without a direct opposition , is all we are bound to . you are therefore guilty of a direct separation who forsake the assemblies of the saints , they continuing in their former purity , unchanged and unmixed , even in your own principles . isot. but one thing is not considered by you , which is a main point , that we had our church setled , according to christ's appointment , and ratified by law. and a change of that being made , all our faithful ministers were turned out by the tyranny of the present powers ; who in stead thereof , have set up a new form of government , of none of christ's appointment : and to maintain it , have thrust in upon the lord's people , a company of weak , ignorant , scandalous and godless men , called curates ; who instead of edifying , study to destroy the flock : of whom i could say much , had i a little of your virulent temper : but their own actions have so painted them out to the world , that i may well spare my labor of making them better known , it being as unnecessary as it is unpleasant . now if the true seekers of god do still stick to their old teachers , and seek wholsome food from them in corners , and are afraid of your false teachers , according to christ's command , of being aware of such men ; call you this a separation ? which is rather an adherence to the true church , and the keeping of our garments clean from the contagion of these men . and indeed these who do join with your curates , do profit so little by their ministry , that no wonder others have no heart to it . and i have known some whose consciences are so tender in this matter , that their having at sometimes joined with these curates in worship , hath been matter of mourning to them , even to their graves . and this may serve to clear us of the guilt of schism in this matter , when our withdrawing is only a non-compliance with your corruption . phil. all this saith nothing for justifying your separation . as for the turning out of your ministers , if the laws to which their obedience was required were just ( which shall be next considered ) then their prejudices , misinformed consciences , or peevis●mess , and not the tyranny of the rulers , must bear the blame of it . and for these set in their places , if upon so great a desertion of the church by so many church-men , all their charges could not be of a sudden supplied with men so well qualified , or of such gifts and worth as was to be desired ; it is nothing but what might have been expected upon such an occasion . and for your revilings , they well become the spirit which appears too visibly in the rest of your actings ; but we still study to bear these base and cruel reflections , with the patience becoming the ministers of the gospel , and of these who study to learn of him , who when he was reviled , reviled not again ; but stood silent at those unjust tribunals , when he was falsly and blasphemously reproached by his enemies ; and therefore i shall leave answering of these fearful imputations you charge on our clergy , to the great day of reckoning , wherein judgment shall return to the righteous , and all the upright in heart shall follow it . and in the mean while shall study to bless when you curse , and pray for you who do thus despitefully use us . we trust our witness is on high , that whatever defects cleave to us , and though , may be , we have not wanted a corrupt mixture ( as you know among whom there was a son of perdition ) yet we are free of these things you charge on us promiscuously , and that these imputations you charge us with , are as false as they are base . but all this will not serve the turn of many of your dividers , whose ministers continue with them as formerly , and meerly because they hold themselves bound in conscience to obey the laws they are separated from . truly if you can clear this of separation , you are a master at subtil reasoning . for you know it is not the third part of this church which was abandoned by the former ministers upon the late change , and yet the humor of separating is universal . and though some few of your own ministers have had the honest zeal to witness against this separation , yet how have they being pelted for it by the censures and writings of other schismaticks ? which have prevailed so much upon the fear or prudence of others , that whatever mislike they had of these separating practices , yet they were willing either to comply in practice , or to be silent spectators of so great an evil . but if separation be a sin , it must have a guilt of a high nature , and such as all who would be thought zealous watch-men , ought to warn their people of . and what shall be said of these ( even church-men ) who at a time when the laws are sharply looked to , do join in our worship ; but if there be an unbending in these , they not only withdraw , and become thereby a scandal to others , but draw about them divided meetings ; are not these time-servers ? for if concurrence in our worship be lawful , and to be done at any time , it must be a duty which should be done at all times : and therefore such masters of conscience ought to express an equality in their ways , and that they make the rules of their concurrence in worship , to be the laws of god , and not the fear of civil punishments . finally , such as think it lawful to join in our worship , and yet that they may not displease the people , do withdraw , shew they prefer the pleasing of men to the pleasing of god : and that they make more account of the one than of the other . for if it be lawful to concur in our worship , what was formerly said , proves it a duty : are not these then the servants of men , who to please them , dispense with what by their own concession must be a duty ? besides , such persons withdrawing , gives a great and real scandal to the vulgar , who are led by their example , and so a humor of separating comes to be derived into all : whereby every one thinks it a piece of religion , and that which will be sure to make him considerable , and bring customers to him , if he be a merchant or trades-man , that he despise the solemn worship , and rail at his minister : and if he but go to conventicles , and be concern'd in all the humors of the party , he is sure of a good name , be he as to other things what he will. eud. much of this we know to be too true : and certainly , nothing deserves more blame for all the disorders are among us than this separation . discipline goes down , catechising is despised , the sacraments are loathed , the solemn worship deserted . i know the poor curates bear the blame of all , and all of them must be equally condemned , if a few of them have miscarried ; for which when ever it was proved , they were censured condignly : in end , you charge their gifts , and that their people are not edified by them : but i pray you , see whether the prejudices you make them drink in against them , occasion not that . for it is a more than humane work , to overcome prejudices . read but the complaints of the prophets , and you will confess a churchmans not being profitable to his people , will be no good argument to prove him not sent of god , and when i consider , that even the apostles call for the help of the churches prayers , that utterance might be given to them , yea and desire them to strive together in their prayers for them ; i must crave leave to tell you , that the defect of that utterance , and power in preaching you charge on the present preachers , may be well imputed to the want of the concurrence of the peoples prayers , whom prepossessions have kept from striving together with them in prayer , that they might come among them with the fulness of the blessing of the gospel . and if there be any of such tender and mi●led consciences , who have been smitten with remorse for such concurrence in worship , as their tenderness is to be valued , so their ignorance is to be pitied : and they who thus misled them , deserve the heavier censure , since they have involved simple and weak consciences with their pedling sophistry into such straits and doubts . in fine , you cannot say , that a minister is by a divine right placed over any particular flock . if then it be humane , it with all other things of that nature , is within the magistrates cognizance ; so that when he removes one , and leaves a legal way patent for bringing in another , upon which there comes one to be placed over that flock , what injustice soever you can fancy in such dealing , yet certainly , it will never free that parish from the tie of associating in the publick worship , or receiving the sacraments from the hands of that minister , whom they cannot deny to be a minister of the gospel : and therefore no irregularity in the way of his entry , though as great as can be imagined , will warrant the peoples separating from him . neither can they pretend that the first incumbent is still their minister , for his relation to them being founded meerly on the laws of the church , it is ( as was proved in the second conference ) subject to the magistrates authority , and so lasts no longer than he shall dissolve it by his commands : unless it appear , that he designs the overthrow of true religion ; in which case , i confess pastors are , according to the practice of the first ages of the church , to continue at the hazard of all persecutions , and feed their flocks . but this is not applicable to our case , where all that concerns religion continues as formerly : only some combinations made in prejudice of the supreme authority are broken : and order is restored to the church , instead of the confusions and divisions were formerly in it . and if this change have occasioned greater disorders , wherever the defect of policy or prudence may be charged , yet certainly , if the change that is made , be found of its own nature both lawful and good , the confusions have followed upon it , are their guilt , who with so little reason , and so much eagerness , have not only refused obedience themselves , but hindered such as were willing to have yielded it . crit. indeed this point of withdrawing from the publick worship , for their faul●iness who officiate , or for the errors are supposed to be in the way of their entry , doth so contradict the whole series of the sacred rule , that nothing can be more expresly condemned in it . the sons of eli made the people abhor the offering , and they defiled the tabernacle of god ; yet for all that , the people continued to come and offer their sacrifices . the prophets do also tell us what kind of people the priests in their times were , and yet never a word of the peoples withdrawing from the worship . now this must by the parity of reason , hold good under the new dispensation ; except you say , we are not so much obliged to worship god in the unity of the spirit , as they were ; the contrary whereof will be found true . next , the high priesthood being entailed on the line of aaron , was certainly to descend ( as all other rights did among the iews ) by the right of representation and primogeniture ; and so did eleazer and phinebas follow in a line from aaron . it is true , the high priesthood was afterwards in ithamar's line , but it doth not appear by what conveyance it went to them , which certainly must have been divine , if lawful : and none can limit god from dispensing with his own positive laws . but the high priesthood was again set in its own channel by david , and so continued downward , till after the second temple , it becoming the chief secular power , was exposed to sale : and this appears from a passage cited by doctor lightfoot out of the talmud of ierusalem , in the first temple the high priests still served , the son succeeding the father , and they were 18 in number : but in the second temple they got the high priesthood by money . and some say , they destroyed one another by witchcraft : so that some say , there were 80 priests in that space ; some 81 , some 82 , some 83 , some 84 , and some 85. and that learned doctor reckons 53 in order , till he brings the succession down to the time of the wars , after which it was so confused , that he pursues it no further . and in the beginning of the 3 chap. of his temple-service , he proves the high priesthood to have descended to the first-born , as the priesthood , before the law , belonged to the first-born of every family . and therefore it was that when simeon the iust would have put onias his second son in the priesthood , he could not do it . but simeon the eldest brother obtained his right , and onias was put to fly to egypt , where he built a famous temple . this will prove that the high priests in our saviour's time had no just title to their office ; and yet our saviour , being by his humiliation in the character of a private person , never questioned it , no not when he was upbraided , as if he had answered god's high priest irreverently , which looks like a case of confession . and s. paul did the same . now as to what is said of the high priests being a civil magistrate , it will not serve to deliver you ; for his title to the civil power flowed from his office : therefore the owning him in that , did also acknowledge his office , since he had no other right to the civil power , but because he was high priest , and yet subjection was given him by our lord , who acknowledged the high priest. did he not also continue in the temple worship , and go thither on their festivities ? where you know he must have offered sacrifices by the hands of these priests : and yet we know well enough what a sort of people they were . if then we are no less bound under the gospel to the rules of order and unity , than they were under the law , it will follow that no personal corruption of church-men , can warrant a separation from worship , even though their opinions were erroneous , and their practices naughty : for the impertinency of the distinction of non-compliance and separation was already proved . but next to the temple-worship , was the service of the synagogue , which was for the most part in the hands of the scribes and pharisees , who expounded the law to the people : and christ's commanding the people to observe what they taught , shews clearly his pleasure was , that they should not forsake the synagogues where they taught : and his own going to the synagogues , in which it is not to be doubted but he concurred in the prayers and hymns , proves abundantly that their worship was not to be separated from . as for your friends involved discourse , about the declining of churches , pag. 193. i must let it alone , till i can make sense of it : for if he intend to compare our lord and his apostles , their joining in the iewish worship , with the misguided , though sincere devotion , of some holy souls who worshipped god with all the corrup●ions of the roman church , i hope he will repent the blasphemy of such a mistake . and as for what is alledged , pag. 198. that the iewish dispensation being mixed , and their law made up of matters political , as well as spiritual , therefore these scribes were the oracles of the civil law , and so to be gone to , it is as weak as the rest : for the law being to be sought from the priests lips , as to all the parts of it , any power the priests had of pronouncing about the questions of the law , was because they were priests , or as they were men separated for officiating in the synagogues : so the receiving their decisions in matters judicial , did acknowledg their office , which was purely ecclesiastical and sacred . from all this i may infer , that as long as any society continues to be the church and people of god , and hath the service and worship of god performed in it by men solemnly separated , according to god's appointment , whatever irregularities be either in their entry to such charges , or of their opinions or practices , these should indeed be cognosced upon , and censured by the supreme powers in the society ; but will never warrant private persons to separate from the worship , unless it be so vitiated in any part of it , that without sin they cannot concur in it : in which case , they are indeed to keep themselves clean , and to withdraw , but not to divide until the worship be so corrupted , that the ends of publick worship can no more be answered by such assemblies . poly. i know it is thought a piece of noble gallantry among our new modelled people , to despise the sentiments of the ancient church ; and therefore whatever i could adduce from them , would prevail little for their conviction : otherwise many things could be brought to this purpose from these two great assertors of the unity of the church against schisms and divisions , s. cyprian , and s. augustin : the latter especially , who by many large treatises studied the conviction of the donatists , who maintained their separation from the church , much upon the same grounds which are by your friends asserted . but i shall dismiss this point with one sentence of s. augustin , lib. 2. contra parmen . quisquis ergo vel quod potest arguendo corrigit ; vel quod corrigere non potest , salvo pacis vinculo excludit , vel quod salvo pacis vinculo excludere non potest , aequitate improbat , firmitate supportat , hic est pacificus . and let me freely tell you , that when i consider the temper , the untractableness , the peevish complainings , the railings , the high cantings of the donatists , which are set down by him , and others , i am sometimes made to think i am reading things that are now among our selves , and not what passed twelve ages ago . and indeed some late practices make the parallel run more exactly betwixt our modern zealots and the circumcellions , who were a sect of the donatists , that was acted by a black and a most desperate spirit . for st. augustin tells us , how they fell on these who adhered to the unity of the church , beating some with cudgels , putting out the eyes of others , and invading the lives of some , particularly of maximinus bishop of hagaia , whom they left several times for dead . and what instances of this nature these few years have produced , all the nation knows . how many of the ministers have been invaded in their houses , their houses rifled , their goods carried away , themselves cruelly beaten and wounded , and often made to swear to abandon their churches , and that they should not so much as complain of such bad usage to these in authority : their wives also scaped not the fury of these accursed zealots , but were beaten and wounded , some of them being scarce recovered out of their labor in child-birth . believe me , these barbarous outrages have been such , that worse could not have been apprehended from heathens . and if after these , i should recount the railings , scoffings and floutings which the conformable ministers meet with to their faces , even on streets , and publick high-ways , not to mention the contempt is poured on them more privately , i would be looked on as a forger of extravagant stories . but it is well i am talking to men who know them as well as my self . from these things i may well assume that the persecution lies mainly on the conformists side , who for their obedience to the laws , lie thus open to the fury of their enemies . isot. now , i dare say , you speak against your conscience : for do you think any of the lord's people have accession to so much wickedness , which is abhorred by them all : and this is well enough known to you , though you seem to disguise it . for you have often heard our honest ministers express their horror at such practices ; do not therefore sin against the generation of the lord's children so far , as to charge the guilt of some murdering rogues , upon these who would be very glad to see justice done upon such villains . phil. you say very fair , and i am glad to hear you condemning these crimes so directly : and i am as desirous as any living can be , to be furnished with clear evidences of believing as much good as is possible of all mankind . but let me tell you plainly , that the constant concealing of these murderers , whom no search which those in authority have caused to make , could discover , tho the robbers carried with them often a great deal of furniture , and other goods , which must have been conveyed to some adjacent houses , but could never be found out , after so many repeated facts of that nature , forceth upon the most charitable , a suspicion which i love not to name . next , let me tell you that these things are very justifiable from the principles your friends go upon : for if we be by oath bound to discover all malignants or evil instruments , that they may be brought to condign punishment ; and if our conformity be so notorious a wickedness , and such a plain breach of covenant , in the punishment whereof the magistrate is supine and backward , then let every one compare the doctrine of the late pamphlets , from p. 282. to p. 408. chiefly 404. and 405. and declare whether by the rules laid down in them , any private persons upon heroical excitations may not execute vengeance on these who are so guilty of gross and notorious backsliding and defection : and what may not be expected of this nature from him who hesitates to call the invading of the bishop with a pistol , an accursed act ; and will only condemn it , as rash , precipitant ; and of evil example : and that not simply neither , but all circumstances being considered , and their exigences duly ballanced ? which makes me apprehend his greatest quarrel with that deed was ; that it misled the designed effect , and so was done inadvertently , or too publickly , or upon some such particular ground , which may have occasioned its miscarriage . but to deal roundly with you , i shall freely acknowledg , if the doctrine of resistance by private subjects against these in authority be lawful , i see no ground to condemn such practices : for if we may rise in arms against those in authority over us , and coerce and punish them ; why not much rather against our fellow subjects , and those to whom we owe no obedience , especially when we judg them to have transgressed so signally , and to have injured us to a high degree ? which is the case , as most of you state it , with the ministers that are conformable . and from this , let me take the freedom to tell you , that the whole mystery of iesuitism doth not discover a principle more destructive of the peace and order of mankind , than this doctrine of the lawfulness of private persons executing vengeance on gross offenders , where the transgression is judged signal , the magistrate is judged remiss , and the actors pretend an heroick excitation . this puts a sword in a mad mans hands , and arms the whole multitude , and is worse than theirs , who will have such deeds warranted by some supreme eccl●●●astical power , or at least by a confessarius and director of the conscience . indeed this may justly possess the minds of all that hear it with horror , it being a direct contradiction of the moral law , and an overturning of all the societies of mankind , and laws of nature . eud. i am more charitable than you are : for though i must acknowledg what you have alledged to be the native consequence of what is asserted in that book , yet i am inclined to believe he intended not these things should be drawn from it , since he in plain terms , pag. 402. condemns these outrages . i confess , his zeal to defend all naphthali said , and to refute every thing the conformist alledged , hath engaged him further than himself could upon second thoughts allow of . and as for the instances of phine●as , elijah , or other prophets , the argument from them was so fully obviated in our first conference , that i am confident little weight will be laid upon it . but now , methinks , it is more than time we considered the importance of that difference about which all this ado is made : for one would expect it must be a very concerning matter , which hath occasioned so much bloud and confusion , and continues still to divide us asunder , with so much heat and bitterness . i confess , my discerning is weak , which keeps me from apprehending what importance can be in it to exact so much zeal for it , that it should be called the kingdom of christ ●●●n earth , his interest , cau●e , and work , which therefore should be ●a●nestly conten●ed for . i●ot . the natural man receiveth not the things of god , and the● are 〈◊〉 , to him : but wisdom 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ●●●●dren . that we plead for , is christ's kingdom , which is in opposition both to the proud aspirings of the prelates , and to the violent invasions of the civil powers : we are therefore on christ's side , asserting that none in earth can institute new officers in his house , but those he hath appointed : and that he hath appointed none higher than ordinary preaching presbyters , among whom he will have an equality observed : which whosoever contradict , with diotrephes , they l●ve the preeminence , and lord it over god's inheritance . phil. though i will not fly so high with my pretensions in big words , yet the issue of our discourse will declare if i have not better grounds to assert episcopacy to have descended from the apostles , and apostolical time● , into all the ages and corners of the church who received it : and that there is nothing in scripture that contradicts ●uch an institution . but i shall ●efer the deci●ion of thi● to all impartial minds . basil. truly , when without a particular examen , i consider the whole matter in general , i can see little to except against episcopal government , that i cannot avoid the severe thoughts of suspecting the great ave●sion many have at it , to be occasioned from the ●●●rit of contradiction is in many which lus●●th to 〈◊〉 , or from their opposition to these in a●thority : ●or i doubt not but if presbytery had the same countenance from the laws , it should meet with the same contradiction from these who seem to adhere to no principle so firmly , as to their resisting the powers that are ordained of god. but the handling of this , with that fulness and clearness which the noise made about it requires , will take up more of our time than we can be now masters of , and may well claim a new conference : therefore we shall remit any further discourse about it to our next meeting . isot. it is agreed to : and i shall let you see , that for all the railings of these days discourse , my patience is yet strong enough to allow of another enterview , though i confess my self weary of so much bad company , whose evil communications are designed to corrupt my good principles . phil. i confess , my weariness is as great as yours , though upon a very different account : for i am ●urfeited of the contention and heat hath been among us , and long for an end of our conferences upon these heads , which i shall now go through once for all , being encouraged to meet with you again , because this penance is near an end : out of which if i were once extricated , i am resolved to meddle in such contentious themes no more . eud. having swallowed the ox , we must not stick on the rump . it is true , your converse is extreamly agreeable , yet my stomach begins to turn at so much disputing : but , i hope , to morrow shall put an end to it : and therefore i doubt not of your return , to finish what you hitherto carried on . and so a good night to you . the fourth conference . isotimus . i come now upon our last nights appointment , to pursue this conference to its end , and to examine what these grounds are which endear episcopacy to you so much , especially considering the great disorders and con●usions its re-establishment among us hath occasioned . for my part , i cannot see what can reconcile the world to it , much less what should enamour you so of it , as to make you adhere to it , notwithstanding all the evils spring from it , and all these black characters of god's displeasure are upon it : which really appear so signally to me , that it seems a fighting against god , to adhere longer to it . phil. truly , you and i enter on this s●bject with an equal surprize , though upon very different accounts : for i must tell you freely , that after i have with all the application of mind , and freedom of thoughts imaginable , considered what could engage so many in this island , into so much zeal and rage against the order , i am not able to satisfie my self about it . that venerable order having such a native tendency for advancing of true religion , peace , order , and every thing that is excellent : that the aversion and prejudices so many have drunk in against it , seem as unjust , as unconquerable , and look like a part of god's controversie with us ; whereby we are blindly carried into so much unjustifiable zeal against that , which if well managed , might prove an excellent mean for reviving the power of religion , that hath suffered so great decays . i shall not deny , but on our part there have been great failings , for which god's anger hangs over our heads : and that he permits all this opposition we meet with for punishing us for our sins , which have justly provoked god to make us base and contemptible in the sight of the people . and this i hope shall be an effectual mean of humbling us , and of purging us from our dross : whereby this holy order being again managed with the ancient spirit , may appear into the world in its p●imitive lustre ; and be attended with the blessings that then followed it , to the wonder and conviction of all men . but let me add , the opposition some firy spirits have given the establishment of episcopacy , deserves much of the blame of its being so little succesful in the great work of the gospel : for always bitter envy and strife produce confusion and every evil work : therefore when you are to view episcopacy in its amiable and lovely colors , let me send you back to that cloud of witnesses , who for the testimony of iesus endured all manner of torments , were torn by beasts , slain by the sword , burnt in the fire ; and in a word , who preached the everlasting gospel through the world. how many churches did these bishops found with their labors in preaching , and water not only with their tears , but their blood ? how sublime was their piety ? how frevent were their sermons ? how constant were their labors ? how strict was their discipline ? how zealous were they against heresies ? and how watchful against vice ? in a word , read but the histories and writings of those great worthies , who were by the confession of all men , bishops , and had more absolute authority over the inferior clergy , than is pretended to among us ? and then tell me , if you have not changed your verdict of that order . have there been such men in the christian world , as were ignatius , polycarp , i●●naeus , cyprian , thaumaturg , athanasius , basil , nazianzen , martin , ambrose , chrysostome , augustin , and a thousand more ? these were , after the apostles , the greatest glories of the christian church : and were burning and shining lights . it is in their lives , writings and decrees , that i desire you to view episcopacy : and if it have any way fallen from that first and fair original , direct your thoughts and zeal to contrive and carry on its recovery to its former purity and servor : but take it not at the disadvantage , as it may have suffered any thing from the corruptions of men , in a succession of so many ages ; for you know the sacraments , the ministery , and all the parts of religion have been soiled , and stained of their first beauty by their corrupt hands , to whose care they were committed . but he were very much to blame , who would thereupon quarrel these things . i shall therefore intreat you will consider that order , either in it self , or as it flourished in the first ages of the church , and not as prejudices or particular escapes may have represented it to you . eud. that you may both understand one another better , let me suggest to you the right stating of that you differ about , that you be not contending about words , or notions of things , which may appear with various shapes , and faces ; one whereof may be amiable , and another ugly : give therefore a clear and distinct account of that episcopacy you own and assert . poly. since philarcheus hath appealed to the ancient church , for the true pattern of episcopacy , i shall faithfully represent to you , what the office and power of their bishops was , and how it took its first rise and growth among them ; and then i shall leave it to be discussed , how lawful or allowable it is of it self . the iews had among them , beside the temple-worship , which was typical , their synagogues , not only over the land , but through all the corners of the world into which they were dispersed ; which were called their prosenchae among the greeks , and romans . thither did they meet for the dayly worship of god ; there did they likewise meet on their sabbaths , and recited their philacteries , or liturgies , and heard a portion of the law read : which was divided in so many sections , that it might be yearly read over : there was also a word of exhortation used , after the law was read : and there were in these synagogues , office-bearers separated for that work , who were to order the worship , and the reading of the law , and were to censure sins , by several degrees of excommunications , casting them out of the synagogue : they were likewise to see to the supplying the necessities of the poor . now if we consider the practice of our saviour , and his apostles , we shall find them studying to comply with the forms received among the iews , as much as was possible , or consistent with the new dispensation ; which might be instanced in many particulars , as in both sacraments , the forms of worship , the practice of excommunication , and these might be branched out into many instances . and indeed since we find the apostles yielding so far in compliance with the iews about the mosaical rites , which were purely typical , and consequently antiquated by the death of christ , we have a great deal of more reason to apprehend they complied with their forms in things that were not typical , but rather moral , such as was the order of their worship : these things only excepted , wherein the christian religion required a change to be made : and this the rather , that wherever they went promulgating the gospel , the first offer of it was made to the iews ; many of whom believed , but were still zealous of the traditions of their fathers . and so it is not like , that they who could not be prevailed upon to part with the mosaical rites , for all the reasons were offered against them , were so easily content to change their other forms , which were of themselves useful and innocent . now since we see the apostles retained , and improved so many of their rites and customs , why they should have innovated the government of their synagogues , will not be easily made clear : especially since they retained the names of bishop , presbyter , and deacon , which were in use among the iews , and since they did bless and separate them by the imposition of hands , which had been also practised among the iews : and all this will appear with a clearer visage of reason , if we consider the accounts given in the acts , or rules prescribed in the epistles of the apostles , about the framing and constituting their churches . all which speak out nothing of a new constitution , but tell only what rules they gave for regulating things ; which from the stile they run in , seem to have been then constituted : and is very far either from moses's language in the pentateuch , or from the forms of the institution of the sacraments : and except the little we have of the institution of deacons , nothing like an institution occurs in the new testament ; and yet that seems not the institution of an order , but a particular provision of men for serving the h●llenists in an office already known and received . now let me here send you to the masters of the iewish learning , particularly to the eminently learned , and judicious doctor lightfoot , who will inform you , that in every synagogue there was one peculiarly charged with the worship , called the bishop of the congregation , the angel of the church , or the minister of the synagogue : and besides him , there were three , who had the civil judicatory ; who judged also about the receiving proselytes , the imposition of hands , &c. and there were other three , who gathered , and distributed the almes . now the christian religion taking place , as the gospel was planted in the cities , where it was chiefly preached , these forms and orders were retained , both name and thing : for we cannot think that the apostles , whose chief work was the gaining of souls from gentilism or iudaism , were very sollicitous about modes of government ; but took things as they found them . only the elder and greater christians they separated for church offices , and retained an inspection over them themselves . and abstracting from what was said about the synagogues , it is natural to think , that when the apostles left them , and died , they did appoint the more eminent to be over-seers to the rest ; which why not every where , as well as was done by s. paul to timothy and titus , is not easily to be proved . but this is yet more rational from what was premised about the synagogue pattern ; only they did not restrict themselves to that number , for the number of the presbyters was indefinite ; but the deacons were according to their first original , restricted to the number seven . thus the first form was , that there was one whose charge it was to over-see , feed , and rule the flock : and where the number of the christians was small , they met all in one place for worship , and it was easie for the bishop to overtake the charge . but for the spreading of the gospel , he had about him a company of the elder , and more eminent christians , who were designed and ordained for diffusing the gospel through the cities , villages , and places adjacent : and these presbyters were as the bishop's children educated , and formed by him , being in all they did , directed by him , and accountable to him , and were as probationers for the bishoprick : one of them being always chosen to succeed in the seat when vacant through the bishop's death . now all these lived together , as in a little college , and were maintained out of the charitable oblations of the people , which were deposited in the bishop's hands , and divided in four parts ; one falling to the bishop , another to the clergy , a third to the widows and orphans , and other poor persons , and a fourth to the building of edifices for worship . thus the churches were planted , and the gospel was disseminated through the world. but at first every bishop had but one parish , yet afterwards when the numbers of the christians encreased , that they could not conveniently meet in one place ; and when through the violence of the persecutions they durst not assemble in great multitudes , the bishops divided their charges in lesser parishes , and gave assignments to the presbyters of particular flocks , which was done first in rome , in the beginning of the second century : and these churches assigned to presbyters , as they received the gospel from the bishop , so they owned a dependence on him as their father , who was also making frequent excursions to them , and visiting the whole bounds of his precinct . and things continued thus in a parochial government , till toward the end of the second century , the bishop being chiefly entrusted with the cure of souls , a share whereof was also committed to the presbyters , who were subject to him , and particularly were to be ordained by him ; nor could any ordination be without the bishop ; who in ordaining , was to carry along with him the con●urrence of the presbyters , as in every other act of ecclesiastical iurisdiction . but i run not out into more particulars , because of an account of all these things which i have drawn with an unbiass'd ingenuity , and as much diligence as was possible for me to bring along with me to so laborious a work : and this i shall send you when our conference shall be at an end . but in the end of the se●ond century , the churches were framed in another mould from the division of the empire : and the bishops of the cities did , according to the several divisions of the empire , associate in synods with the chief bishop of that division or province , who was called the metropolitan , from the dignity of the city where he was bishop . and hence sprang provincial synods , and the superiorities , and precedencies of bishopricks , which were ratified in the council of nice , as ancient customs , they being at that time above an hundred years old . in the beginning of the third century , as the purity of churchmen begun to abate , so new methods were devised for preparing them well to those sacred functions , and therefore they were appointed to pass through several degrees before they could be deacons , presbyters , or bishops . and the orders of porters , readers , singers , exorcists ( or catechists ) acolyths ( who were to be the bishops attendants ) and sub-deacons , were set up ; of whom mention is made first by cyp●ian : and these degrees were so many steps of probationership to the supreme order . but all this was not able to keep out the corruptions we●e breaking in upon church office●s , e●pe●●ally after the fou●th century , that the empire became christian : which as it broug●t much riches and splendor on church emp●oyments , so it let in g●eat swarms of corrupt men on the christian assemblies : and then the election to church offices , which was formerly in the hands of the people , was taken from them , by reason of the tumults and disorders were in these elections : which sometimes ended in blood , and occasioned much faction , and schism . and ambitus became now such an universal sin among churchmen , that in that century , monasteries were founded in divers places by holy bishops , as by basile , augustine , martin , and others ; who imitated the example of those in egypt , and nitria ; whose design was the purifying of these who were to serve in the gospel . it is true , these seminaries did also degenerate , and become nests of superstition and idleness : yet it cannot be denied , but this was an excellent constitution , for rightly forming the minds of the designers for holy o●ders ; that being trained up in a course of devotion , fasting , solitude , abstraction from the world , and poverty , they might be better qualified for the discharge of that holy function . and thus i have given you a general draught and perspective of the first constitution of churches , together with some steps of their advance● , and declinings : but i despair not to give you an ampler account , and plan of their rules and forms . mean while , let this suffice . phil. from what you have told us , i shall propose the notion i have of episcopacy , that the work of a bishop , as it is chiefly to feed the flock , so it is more particularly to form , educate , and try these who are to be admitted to church imployments ; and to over-see , direct , admonish , and reprove these who are already setled in church offices : so that as the chief tryal of those who are to be ordained , is his work , the ordinations ought to be performed by him ; yet not so as to exclude the assistance and concurrence of presbyters , both in the previous tryal , and in the ordination it self . but on the other hand , no ordination ought to be without the bishop . and as for jurisdiction , though the bishop hath authority to over-see , reprove , and admonish the clergy ; yet in all acts of publick jurisdiction , as he ought not to proceed without their concurrence , so neither ought they without his knowledge and allowance , determine about ecclesiastical matters . as for the notion of the distinct offices of bishop and presbyter , i confess , it is not so clear to me : and therefore since i look upon the ●acramental actions , as the highest of sacred pe●formances ; i cannot but acknowledge these who are empowered ●or them , must be of the highest office in the ch●rch . so i do not alledge a bishop to be a dis●inct office from a presbyter ; but a different degree in the same office , to whom for order and unities sake , the chief inspection and care of ecclesiastical matters ought to be referred , and who shall have authority to curb the insolencies of some factious and turbulent spirits . his work should be to feed the flock by the word and sacraments , as well as other presbyters ; and especially to try and ordain entrants , and to over-see , direct , and admonish such as bear office . and i the more willingly incline to believe bishops and presbyters , to be the several degrees of the same office , since the names of bishop and presbyter , are used for the same thing in scripture ; and are also used promiscuously by the writers of the two first centuries . now isotimus , when you bring either clear scripture , or evident reason , for proving this to be unlawful , or unexpedient , you shall shake my kindness to this constitution , whose venerable antiquity hath conciliated so much reverence from me to it , that it will be a great attempt to change my value of it . isot. these are all brave stories well contrived for triumphing among ignorants . but these pretences f●om antiquity have been so bat●led by the learned assertors of pre●byterial government , that i wonder how you can so confidently vouch them , ●ince there is not a vestige of any dispa●ity before the 140th year after christ . and we know the mystery of iniquity wrought in the days of the apostles , and that then there was a diotrophes who loved the preeminence , and the darkness and obscurity of the rise and progress of prelacy , doth the more confirm me , that it was the mystery of iniquity . the pretence from ignatius's epistles , hath been often overthrown ; and there are words in these epistles which clearly prove them to be the contrivance of some impostor , they being so inconsistent with the strain of religion , and truth of the gospel , not to speak of the orthodoxy and piety of ignatius , and the simplicity of these times , which demonstrate their interpolation evidently , for all the pains doctor hamond hath been at to assert their faith : and therefore these c●n furnish you with no argument . see pag. 145. and 151. poly. i confess i can hear you tell over the arguments of these pamphlets with some pa●ience : but truly in this instance , i know ●ot how to treat you , or rather him in whose name you speak , who yet would earnestly perswade the world of the great skill , he and his friends have in these things . surely they are the men of wisdom ! and one may as securely pull the hairs out of a lion's beard , as twit them with the least deg●ee of igno●ance . but , pray , tell your learned friend , that in his next publick appearance , he meddle no more with antiquity before he know it better , and discover not so much ignorance , that one of a months standing in that study may laugh at him . pray , sir , are you in earnest , when you tell me that for 140 years after christ , there is no vestige of prelacy on record ? will you not believe irenaeus , who lived at that time , though he wrote some years after , and reckons the succession of the bishops of rome from the days of the apostles ? or if the writings and records of that time be lost , will you give no credit in a historical matter to those who followed that time , and drew their accounts from writings then extant , though now lost , such as tertullian , cyprian , but especially eusebius , who gives the succession of the bishops , in the several great sees , from the apostles days ? certainly , he who was born but about an hundred years after the time you mark , would have had some knowledge of so great a change . but if there was no vestige of prelacy before the year 140 in which it first appeared , what time will you allow for its spreading through the world ? or was it in an instant received every where ? were all the pretenders so easily en●lamed to this paroxism of ambition ? and were all the other presbyters so tame , as to be so ●asily whed●ed out of their rights , without one protestation on the contrary ? how came the eclipse of the church to a total obscuration in one minute ? what charm was there in prelacy at that time , that the world was so inchanted with it ; and that so soon after s. iohn's death , when polycarp , and many more of the apostolical men did yet survive ? and how came it , that all the churches did so unanimously concur in the defection , and not so much as two witnesses appeared to fight against this beast ? let me tell you freely , there is not a ravery in don quixot's adventures , or amadis de gaul , but is liker to prevail on my belief , than this romance . but for ignatius's epistles , the hazard of the issue of the debate about them is very unequal : for if these epistles be his , then he dying so near s. iohn's days , the cause of presbytery will be undone . but though they be not his , the episcopal party sustain small prejudice : for from other traces of antiquity , it can be made as clear , that episcopacy was in the church from the days of the apostles , as any historical thing which is at so great distance from our time . but for your friends exceptions at these epistles , they betray his great skill , and tell clearly , that he understands not the question , and that he h●th never read a page of doctor hamond , though with his usual arrogance , he slights all he saith : for had he read any pa●t of his dissertation , he would have made a difference betwixt the old vulgar edition of these epistles , whose interpolations that learned doctor acknowledgeth , and the late edition of them by the learned vossius , according to the medicean codex , whose authority he only voucheth . now had he known this , would he have cited words out of them , which are not of the true edition asserted by doctor hamond , but are of the old vulgar and rejected one ? certainly , had he read any thing of that debate , which hath been truly managed with much subtil critical learning on both sides , he could not have stumbled unto such a mistake . but his reading , it is like , riseth not above pamphlets ; and finding these words cited on the same design , before the late editions of ignatius came out ; he , without examining , took them upon trust from second hand . but i shall not run out farther upon ignatius's epistles , than to recommend their perusal to you , and then i am confident you will discern such a native , simple , and sincerely pious , and devout strain in them , so unlike the swelled stile , or purposes of interpolated writings , that they will be their own testimony for convincing you of their genuineness : but the exceptions against them being so fully , and so lately , with an amazing diligence , answered by doctor pearson , i shall remit you to his labors , if you intend to examine this matter accurately . isot. your conformist did likewise alledge the 40 , but he should have said the 38 apostolical canon , with a hint , as if fifty of these might have been the apostles appointments : though the heap of them is so full of novelties , that their antiquity cannot be pleaded by any who knows the state of the ancient church ; as appears from the 3 , 17 , and 25 canons : and were these canons received , they would prejudge more than advance the cause you maintain , as will appear from the 4 , 33 , 36 , and 80 canons , not to mention the 24 , 26 , 28 , 41 , 53 , 57 , and 75. and in a word , these canons do only allow of a precedency of order , but not of your prelatick power and superiority , that claims the sole power of ordination and jurisdiction : see pag. 148. poly. truly , sir , if the former exceptions did prove your author a second hand writer , who voucheth antiquity upon the testimony of others , this doth it much more . for i am sure had he but read over those canons , which might be done in half an hour , he had argued this point at another rate : and had he seen the edition of dionysius exiguus , he had not accused the conformist for citing that canon , as the fortieth , since it is so in his division , who was their first publisher in the latine church , tho it be the thirty ninth in the greek division . but i will deal roundly in this matter , and acknowledge that collection to be none of the apostles nor clement's , since all that passed under clement's name was accounted spurious , except his first epistle to the corinthians . nor was this a production of the first two ages . for the silence of the writers of those centuries gives clear evidence for their novelty : they not being cited for the decision of things then in controversie , wherein they are express , as in the matter of easter , the rebaptizing hereticks , and divers other particulars . yet in the fourth and fifth century , reference is after made to some elders rules of the church , which are to be found no where but in this collection . the apostolical canons are also sometimes expresly mentioned : and this gives good ground to believe there were from the third century and forward , some rules general received in the church , and held apostolical , as being at first introduced by apostolical men . this was at first learnedly made out by de marca concord . lib. 3. c. 2. and of late more fully by that most ingenious and accurate searcher into antiquity beveregius in his preface to his annotations on these canons . yet i am apt to think , they were only preserv'd by an oral tradition : and that no collection of them was agreed on , and publish'd before the fifth century . it is certain , the latine church in pope innocent 's days acknowledged no canons but those of nice . and many of the canons in this collection , we find among canons of other councils , particularly in that of antioch ; without any reference to a preceding authority that had enjoined them : which we can hardly think they had omitted , had they received the collection ( i speak of ) as apostolical . and that of the triple immersion in baptism , looks like a rule , no elder than the arrian controversie . they began first to appear under the name of the apostles canons in the fifth century , which made pope gelasius with a synod of seventy bishops condemn them as apocryphal ; though i must add , that the authority of that pretended council and decree , though generally received , be on many accounts justly questionable : and yet by this we are only to understand , that he rejected that pretended authority of the apostles prefixed to these canons . in the beginning of the sixth century they were published by dionysius exiguus , who prefixed fifty of them to his translation of the greek canons ; but he confesses they were much doubted by many . at the same time they were published in the greek church with the addition of thirty five more canons , and were acknowledged generally . iustinian cites them often in the novels , and in the sixth novel calls them , the canons of the holy apostles , kept and interpreted by the fathers . and the same authority was ascribed to them by the council in trullo . these things had been pertinently alledged if you had known them , but for your friends niblings at them , if you will but give your self the trouble of reading these canons , you will be ashamed of his weakness , who manageth his advantage so ill . and to instance this but in one particular , had he read these canons himself , could he have cited the eighty which is among the latter additions , and passed by the sixth , which is full to the same purpose ? but for that impudent allegation , as if a bare precedency had been only ascribed to bishops by these canons , look but on the 14. the 30. 37. 40. 54. and 73. and then pass your verdict on your friends ingenuity , or his knowledg . by the 14. no churchman may pass from one parish to another without his bishop's sentence , otherwise he is suspended from ecclesiastical functions : and if he refuse to return , when required by his bishop , he is to be accounted a churchman no more . by the 30. a presbyter , who in contempt of his bishop gathers a congregation apart , having nothing to condemn his bishop of , either as being unholy or unjust , he is to be deposed , as one that is ambitious , and tyrannous ; and such of the clergy or laity as join with them , are likewise to be censured . by the 37. the bishop hath the care of all church matters , which he must administrate as in the sight of god. by the 39. the bishop hath power over all the goods of the church ; and the reason given is , that since the precious souls of men are committed to him , it is much more just he have the charge of the goods of the church . by the 54. if a clergy-man reproach their bishop , he is to be deposed , for it is written , thou shalt not curse the ruler of thy people . and by the 73. a bishop , when accused , is only to be judged of by other bishops . now from these hints , judg whether there be truth in that assertion , that only a precedency is asserted in these canons : and if all the power is now pleaded for , be not there held out ; not to mention the canon was cited by the conformist , that presbyters or deacons might finish nothing without the bishop's sentence , since the souls of the people are trusted to him . as for the sole power of ordination and jurisdiction , i am sure none among us do claim it , but willingly allow the presbyters a concurrence in both these . and as to what your friend saith of cyprian , it is of a piece with the learning and ingenuity that runneth through the rest of his discourse , from page 150 to page 160. where for divers pages he belabours his reader with brave shews of learning and high invention , so that no doubt he thinks he hath performed wonders , and fully satisfied every scruple concerning the rise and progress of episcopacy . isot. i pray you , do not fly too high , and make not too much ado about any small advantages you conceive you have of my friend : but upon the whole matter i am willing to believe there was a precedency pretty early begun in the church , which i shall not deny was useful and innocent , tho a deviation from the first pattern : neither shall i deny , that holy men were of that order : but when it is considered what a step even that precedency was to lordly prelacy , and how from that the son of perdition rose up to his pretence of supremacy ; we are taught how unsafe it is to change any thing in the church , from the first institution of its blessed head , who knew best what was fit for it , according to whose will all things in it should be managed . poly. it hath been often repeated , that nothing was ever so sacred , as to escape that to which all things , when they fall in the hands of mortals , are obnoxious . and may not one that quarrels a standing ministery , argue on the same grounds , a ministers authority over the people , gave the rise to the authority bishops pretend over ministers , and so the ministery will be concluded the first step of the beast's throne ? or may not the authority your judicatories pretend to be at the same rate struck out , since from lesser synods sprung greater ones , from provincial rose generals , and from these oecumenical ones with the pretence of infallibility ? but to come nearer you , that whole frame of metropolitans and patriarchs was taken from the division of the roman empire , which made up but one great national church : and so no wonder the bishop of the imperial city of that empire , was the metropolitan of that church : yet he was not all that neither , since he had no authority over his fellow patriarchs , being only the first in order , which truly were the bishops of that church : what they were for the first four ages , it was never judged an absurdity to grant to them still : tho the ruin of the roman empire , and its division into so many kingdoms , which are constituted in various national churches , do alter the present frame of europe so entirely , from what was then ; that with very good reason what was then submitted to , on the account of the unity of the empire , may be now undone by reason of the several kingdoms , which are national churches within themselves ; and need not to own so much as the acknowledgment of primacy to any , but to the metropolitan of their own kingdom . and it seems the interest of princes , as well as churches , to assert this . but for the pretence of the pope's supremacy episcopacy was so far from being judged a step to it , that the ruin of the episcopal authority over presbyters , and the granting them exemptions from the jurisdiction of their ordinary , was the greatest advance the roman bishop ever made in his tyrannical usurpation over churches . i need not here tell so known a matter , as is that of the exemption of the regulars , who being subject to their own superiors and generals , and by them to the pope , were sent through the world in swarms ; and with great shews of piety , devotion , and poverty , carried away all the esteem and following from the secular clergy ; who were indeed become too secular , and these were the pope's agents and emissaries , who brought the world to receive the mark of the beast , and wonder at her . for before that time , the popes found more difficulty to carry on their pretensions , both from secular princes and bishops : but these regulars being warranted to preach and administer the sacraments without the bishop's license , or being subject and accountable to him ; as they brought the bishops under great contempt , so they were the pope's chief confidents in all their treasonable plots against the princes of europe . and when at the council of trent , the bishops of spain being weary of the insolencies of the regulars , and of the papal yoak , designed to get free from it . the great mean they proposed , was to get episcopacy declared to be of divine right , which would have struck out both the one and the other . but the papal party foresaw this well , and opposed it with all the artifice imaginable : and lainez the jesuit , did at large discourse against it ; and they carried it so , that it was not permitted to be declared of divine right . and by this , judg if it be likely that the papacy owes its rise to episcopacy , since the declaring it to be of divine right , was judged one of the greatest blows the papal dominion could have received , as the abusing of the episcopal authority , was the greatest step to its exaltation . isot. be in these things what may be , i am sure from the beginning it was not so , since christ did so expresly prohibit all dominion and authority among his disciples , when he said , but it shall not be so among you : but whosoever will be great among you , let him be your minister , luke 22.26 . whereby he did not only condemn a tyrannical domination , but simply all authority , like that the lords of the gentiles exercised over them . see page 88. crit. i confess , the advantages some have drawn from these words of christ , for deciding this question , have many times appeared strange to me , their purpose being so visibly different from that to which they are applied . but if we examine the occasion that drew these words from christ , it will furnish us with a key for understanding them aright : and that was the frequent contentions were among the disciples about the precedency in the kingdom of christ : for they were in the vulgar iudaical error , who believed the messiah was to be a temporal prince , and so understood all the pompous promises of the new dispensation liberally , and thought that christ should have restored israel in the literal meaning : therefore they began to contend who should be preferred in his kingdom : and the wife of zebedee did early bespeak the chief preferments for her sons . yea , we find them sticking to this mistake even at christ's ascension , by the question then moved , concerning his restoring the kingdom at that time to israel . now these contentions , as they sprung from an error of their judgments , so also they took their rise from their proud ambition . and for a check to both , our saviour answers them , by telling the difference was to be betwixt his kingdom , and the kingdoms of the nations : these being exercised by grandeur and temporal authority , whereas his kingdom was spiritual , and allowed nothing of that ; since churchmen have not by christ a lordly or despotick dominion over christians committed to them , but a paternal and brotherly one ; by which in commanding , they serve their flock ; so that it is both a ministery and an authority . therefore the words of christ , it shall not be so among you , relate nothing to the degrees or ranks of churchmen , but to the nature of their power and jurisdiction over their flock , and not to their degrees among themselves , which appears evidently from the whole contexture of the words . and that he is not speaking of any equality among churchmen in their church power , appears from the mention is made of the greatest , and the chief ; he that is greatest among you , let him be as the younger ; and he that is chief , as he that doth serve : which shew he was not here designed to strike out the degrees of superiority , when he makes express mention of them ; but to intimate that the higher the degrees of ecclesiastical offices did raise them , they were thereby obliged to the more humility , and the greater labor . all which is evidently confirmed by the instance he gives of himself , which shews still he is not meaning of church power ( since he had certainly the highest ecclesiastical a●thority ) but only of civil dominion ; nothing of which he would assume . and if this place be to be applied to church power , then it will rather prove too much , that there should be no power at all among churchmen over other christians : for since the parallel runs betwixt the disciples , and the lords of the gentiles ; it will run thus , that tho the lords of the gentiles bear rule over their people , yet you must not over yours : so that this must either be restricted to civil authority , or else it will quite strike out all ecclesiastical iurisdiction . but how this should be brought to prove that there may not be several ranks in church offices , i cannot yet imagine . and as it is not thought contrary to this , that a minister is over your lay-elders and deacons , why should it be more contrary to it , that a rank of bishops be over ministers ? in a word , since we find the apostles exercising this paternal authority over other churchmen , it will clearly follow they understood not christ , as hereby meaning to discharge the several ranks of churchmen , with different degrees of power . but to tell you plainly what by these words of christ is clearly forbidden , i acknowledg that chiefly the pope's pretence to the temporal dominion over christendom , whether directly or indirectly , as the vicar of christ , is expresly condemned . next , all churchmen under what notion , or in what judicatory soever , are condemned , who study upon a pretence of the churches intrinsick power , to possess themselves of the authority , to determine about obedience due to kings or parliaments , and who bring a tyranny on the christians , and pr●cure what by arts , what by power , the secular arm to serve at their beck . whether this was the practice of the late general assemblies , or not , i leave it to all who are so old , as to remember how squares went then ; and if the leading men at that time , had not really the secular power ready to lacquay at their commands , so that they ruled in the spirit of the lords of the gentiles , whatever they might have pretended . and the following change of government did fully prove , that the obedience which was universally given to their commands , was only an appendage of the civil power , which was then directed by them : for no sooner was the power invaded by the usurper , who regarded their judicatories little , but the obedience payed to their decrees evanished . thus , i say , these who build all their pretences to parity on their mistakes of these words , did most signally despise and neglect them in their true and real meaning . now think not to retort this on any additions of secular power , which the munificence of princes may have annexed to the episcopal office ; for that is not at all condemned here : christ speaking only of the power churchmen , as such , derived from him their head , which only bars all pretensions to civil power on the title of their functions ; but doth not say that their functions render them incapable of receiving any secular power , by a secular conveyance from the civil magistrate . and so far have i considered this great and pompous argument against precedency in the church ; and am mistaken if i have not satisfied you of the slender foundations it is built upon : all which is also applicable to st. peter's words , of not lording it over their flocks . isot. you are much mistaken , if you think that to be the great foundation of our belief of a parity among churchmen , for i will give you another , ( page 91. ) which is this , that iesus christ the head of his church , did institute a setled ministery in his church , to feed and over-see the flock , to preach , to reprove , to bind , loose , &c. it is true , he gave the apostles many singular things beyond their successors , which were necessary for that time , and work , and were to expire with it : but as to their ministerial power which was to continue , he made all equal . the apostles also acknowledged the pastors of the churches , their fellow-laborors , and brethren . and the feeding and overseeing the flock , are duties so complicated together , that it is evident none can be fitted for the one , without they have also authority for the other . and therefore all who have a power to preach , must also have a right to govern , since discipline is referable to preaching , as a mean to its end : preaching being the great end of the ministery . these therefore who are sent upon that work , must not be limited in the other : neither do we ever find christ instituting a superiour order over preaching presbyters , which shews he judged it not necessary : and no more did the apostles , though they with-held none of the counsel of god from the flock . therefore this superior order usurping the power from the preaching elders , since it hath neither warrant , nor institution in scripture , is to be rejected , as an invasion of the rights of the church . in fine , the great advantage our plea for parity hath , is , that it proves its self , till you prove a disparity . for since you acknowledg it to be of divine right , that there be office●s in the house of god , except you prove the institution of several orders , an equality among them must be concluded . and upon these accounts it is that we cannot acknowledg the lawfulness of prelacy . phil. i am sure , if your friends had now heard you , they would for ever absolve you from designing to betray their cause by a faint patrociny ; since you have in a few words laid out all their forces : but if you call to mind what hath heen already said , you will find most of what you have now pleaded , to be answered beforehand . for i acknowledge bishop and presbyter , to be one and the same office ; and so i plead for no new office-bearers in the church . next , in our second conference , the power given to churchmen was proved to be double . the first branch of it , is their authority to publish the gospel , to manage the worship , and to dispense the sacraments . and this is all that is of divine right in the ministery , in which bishops and presbyters are equal sharers , both being vested with this power . but beside this , the church claims a power of jurisdiction , of making rules for discipline , and of applying and executing the same ; all which is indeed suitable to the common laws of societies , and to the general rules of scripture , but hath no positive warrant from any scripture precept . and all these constitutions of churches into synods , and the canons of discipline , taking their rise from the divisions of the world into the several provinces , and beginning in the end of the second , and beginning of the third century , do clearly shew they can be derived from no divine original ; and so were , as to their particular form , but of humane constitution : therefore as to the management of this jurisdiction , it is in the churches power to cast it in what mould she will : and if so , then the constant practice of the church for so many ages should determine us , unless we will pretend to understand the exigencies and conveniences of it better than they who were nearest the apostolical time . but we ought to be much more determined by the laws of the land , which in all such matters have a power to bind our consciences to their obedience , till we prove the matter of them sinful . now discover where the guilt lyes of fixing one over a tract of ground , who shall have the chief inspection of the ministery , and the greatest authority in matters of jurisdiction , so that all within that precinct be governed by him , with the concurring votes of the other presbyters : if you say , that thereby the ministers may be restrained of many things , which otherwise the good of the church requires to be done : i answer , these are either things necessary to be done by divine precept , or not : if the former , then since no power on earth can cancel the authority of the divine law , such restraints are not to be considered . but if the things be not necessary , then the unity and peace of the church is certainly preferable to them . i acknowledge a bishop may be tyrannical , and become a great burden to his presbyters ; but , pray , may not the same be apprehended from synods ? and remember your friends , how long it is , since they made the same complaints against the synods : and the hazard of an ill bishop is neither so fixed , nor so lasting , as that of a bad synod . for a bishop may die , and a good one succeed : but when a synod is corrupt , they who are the major part , are careful to bring in none , but such as are sure to their way ; whereby they propagate their corruption more infallibly than a bishop can do . and what if the lay ruling elders should bend up the same plea against the ministers , who do either assume a negative over them directly , or at least do what is equivalent , and carry every thing to the presbytery , synod , or general assembly , where they are sure to carry it against the lay-elders , they being both more in number , and more able with their learning and eloquence to confound the others ? but should a lay-elder plead thus against them , we are office-bearers instituted by christ , for ruling the flock , as well as you , and yet you take our power from us ; for whereas in our church sessions , which are of christ's appointment , we are the greater number , being generally twelve to one ; you ministers have got a device , to turn us out of the power : for you allow but one of us to come to your synods , and presbyteries , and but one of a whole presbytery to go to a national synod ; whereby you strike the rest of us out of our power : and thus you assert a preeminence over us , to carry matters as you please ? now isotimus , when in your principles you answer this , i will undertake on all hazards to satisfie all you can say , even in your own principles . next , may not one of the congregational way , talk at the same rate , and say , christ hath given his office-bearers full power to preach , feed , and oversee the flock ; and yet for all that , their power of overseeing is taken from them ; and put in the hands of a multitude , who being generally corrupt themselves , and lusting to envy , will suffer none to outstrip them : but are tyrannical over any they see minding the work of the gospel more than themselves ? and must this usurpation be endured and submitted to ? and let me ask you freely , what imaginable device will be fallen upon , for securing the church from the tyranny of synods , unless it be either by the magistrates power , or by selecting some eminent churchmen , who shall have some degrees of power beyond their brethren ? in a word , i deny not , but as in civil governments , there is no form upon which great inconveniences may not follow ; so the same is unavoidable in ecclesiastical government . but as you will not deny , monarchy to be the best of governments , for all the hazards of tyranny from it ; so i must crave leave to have the same impressions of episcopacy . crit. but suffer me to add a little for checking isotimus his too positive asserting of parity from the new testament ; for except he find a precept for it , his negative authority will never conclude it : and can only prove a parity lawful , and that imparity is not necessary . i shall acknowledge that without scripture warrants , no new offices may be instituted ; but without that , in order to peace , unity , decency , and edification , several ranks and dignities in the same office , might well have been introduced : whereby some were to be empowered either by the churches choice , or the kings authority , as overseers , or inspectors of the rest : who might be able to restrain them in the exercise of some parts of their functions , which are not immediatly commanded by god. and you can never prove it unlawful , that any should oversee , direct , and govern churchmen , without you prove the apostolical function unlawful : for what is unlawful , and contrary to the rules of the gospel , can upon no occasion , and at no time become lawful : since then both the apostles , and the evangelists exercised authority over presbyters ; it cannot be contrary to the gospel rules , that some should do it . to pretend that this superiority was for that exigent , and to die with that age , is a mere allegation without ground from scripture : for if by our lord's words , it shall not be so among you , all superiority among churchmen was forbid , how will you clear the apostles from being the first transgressors of it ? and further , if upon that exigent such superiority was lawful , then upon a great exigent of the church , a superiority may be still lawful . besides , it is asserted , not proved , that such an authority as s. paul left with timothy and titus , was to die with that age : for where the reason of an appointment continues , it will follow , that the law should also be coeval with the ground on which it was first enacted : if then there be a necessity that churchmen be kept in order , as well as other christians ; and if the more exalted their office be , they become the more subject to corruption , and corruptions among them be both more visible , and more dangerous than they are in other persons ; the same parity of reason that enjoyns a jurisdiction to be granted to churchmen over the faithful , will likewise determine the fitness of granting some excrescing power to the more venerable and approved of the clergy over others ; neither is this a new office in the house of god , but an eminent rank of the same office. isot. you study to present episcopacy in as harmless a posture as can be , yet that it is a distinct office , is apparent by the sole claim of ordination and iurisdiction they pretend to , and by their consecration to it , which shews they account it a second order : besides , that they do in all things carry as these who conceit themselves in a region above the presbyters . phil. i am not to vindicate neither all the practices , nor all the pretensions of some who have asserted this order , no more than you will do the opinions or actings of all your party : which when you undertake , then i allow you to charge me with what you will. but it is a different thing to say , that no ordination , nor greater act of jurisdiction , should pass without the bishop's consent , or concurrence ( which is all i shall pretend to , and is certainly most necessary for preserving of order and peace ) from asserting that the sole power for these s●ands in the bishops person . and though i do hold it schismatical to ordain without a bishop , where he may be had , yet i am not to annul these ordinations that pass from presbyters , where no bishop can be had : and this lays no claim to a new office , but only to a higher degree of inspection in the same office ; whereby the exercise of some acts of iurisdiction are restrained to such a method ; and this may be done either by the churches free consent , or by the king's authority . as for the consecration of bishops by a new imposition of hands , it doth not prove them a distinct office : being only a solemn benediction and separation of them for the discharge of that inspection committed to them : and so we find paul and barnabas ( though before that they preached the gospel , yet when they were sent on a particular commission to preach to the gentiles ) were blessed with imposition of hands , acts 13.3 . which was the usual ceremony of benediction . therefore you have no reason to quarrel this , unless you apprehend their managing this oversight the worse , that they are blessed in order to it : nor can you quarrel the office in the liturgy , if you do not think they will manage their power the worse , if they receive a new effusion of the holy ghost . and thus you see , how little ground there is , for quarrelling episcopacy upon such pretences . eud. i am truly glad you have said so much for confirming me in my kindness for that government : for if you evinces its lawfulness , i am sure the expediency of that constitution will not be difficult to be proved , both for the tryal of entrants , and the oversight of these in office : for when any thing lyes in the hands of a multitude , we have ground enough to apprehend what the issue of it will prove . and what sorry overly things these t●yals of entrants are , all know . ●ow little pains is taken to form their minds into a right sense of that function , to which they are to be initiated at one step , without either previous degree , or mature tryal ? and here i must say , the ruine of the church springs hence , that the passage to sacred offices lyes so patent , whereby every one leaps into them out of a secular life , having all the train of his vanities , passions , and carnal designs about him : and most part entering thus unpurified , and unprepared , what is to be expected from them , but that they become idle , vain and licentious , or proud , ambitious , popular and covetous ? i confess , things among us are not come to any such settlement , as might give a provision against this : but devise me one like a bishop's authority , who shall not confer orders to any , before either himself , or some other select and excellent persons , on whom he may with confidence devolve that trust , be well satisfied not only about the learning and abilities , but about the temper , the piety , the humility , the gravity , and discretion of such as pretend to holy orders : and that some longer tryal be taken of them by the probationership of some previous degree . indeed the poverty of the church , which is not able to maintain seminaries and colledges of such probationers , renders this design almost impracticable . but stretch your thoughts as far as your invention can send them , and see if you can provide such an expedient for the reforming of so visible an abuse , as were the bishop's plenary authority to decide in this matter . for if it lie in the hands of a plurality , the major part of these , as of all mankind , being acted by lower measures , the considerations of kinred , alliance , friendship , or powerful recommendations , will always carry through persons , be they what they will , as to their abilities and other qualifications : and a multitude of churchmen is less concerned in the shame can follow an unworthy promotion ; which every individual of such a company will be ready to bear off himself , and fasten on the plurality . but if there were one to whom this were peculiarly committed , who had authority to stop it , till he were clearly convinced that the person to be ordained , was one from whose labors good might be expected to the church , he could act more roundly in the matter : and it may be presupposed that his condition setting him above these low conside●ations , to which the inferiour clergy are more obnoxious , he would manage it with more caution ; as knowing that both before god and man , he must bear the blame of any unworthy promotion . and as for these in office , can any thing be more rational than that the inspection into their labors , their deportment , their conversation , and their dexterity in preaching and catechising , be not done mutually by themselves in a parity , wherein it is to be imagined , that as they degenerate , they will be very gentle to one another ? and when any inspection is managed by an equal , it opens a door to faction , envy , and emulation : neither are the private rebukes of an equal , so well received , nor will it be easie for one of a modest temper to admonish his fellow-presbyter freely . and yet how many things are there , of which churchmen have need to be admonished , in the discharge of all the parts of their function , especially when they set out first , being often equally void of experience and discretion ? but what a remedy for all this , may be expected from an excellent bishop : who shall either , if his health and strength allow it , be making excursions through his diocese , and himself observe the temper , the labors , and conversation of his clergy ? or at least trust this to such as he hath reason to confide most in , that so he may understand what admonitions , directions , and reproofs are to be given , which might obviate a great many indiscretions , and scandals that flow from churchmen . and the authority of such a person , as it would more recommend the reproofs to these for whom they were meant , so it could prevail to make them effectual , by a following censure if neglected . if the confusion some keep matters in , have hindered us for coming at a desired settlement , the office of episcopacy is not to be blamed , whose native tendency i have laid out before you , and in a fair idea , but in what was both the rule and practice of the ancient church , and wants not latter instances fo● verifying it . in a word , i must tell you , i am so far from apprehending danger to the church , from bishops having too much power , that i shall fear rather its slow recovery , because they have too little : which might be managed with all the meekness and humility imaginable , and indeed ought to be always accompanied with the advice and concurrence of the worthiest persons among the inferior clergy . but till you secure my fears of the greater part in all societies becoming corrupt , i shall not say by the major part of them , but by the better part . isot. i see you run a high strain , and far different from what was the discourse of this countrey a year ago , of an accommodation was in●ended , wherein large offers seemed to be made : but i now see by your ingenuous freedom , that though for a while you ( who were called a great friend to that design ) were willing to yield up some parts of the episcopal grandeur , yet you retain the ●oot of that lordly ambition still in your heart : and so though for some particular ends , either to deceive , or divide the lords people , you were willing to make an appearance of yielding ; yet it was with a resolution of returning with the first opportunity , to the old practices and designs of the prelats , of enhansing the ecclesiastical power to themselves , and a few of their associats . and this lets me see , what reason all honest people have to bless god that these arts and devices took not ; for an ethiopian cannot change his skin . phil. i confess to you freely , i was a little satisfied with these condescentions as any of you ; and though they gave up the rights of the church to a peevish and preverse party , whom gentleness will never gain : and therefore am no less satisfied than you are , that they did not take : and so much the more , that their refusing to accept of so large offers , gave a new and clear character to the world of their temper : and that it is a faction , and the servile courting of a party which they design , and not a strict adherence to the rules of conscience , otherwise they had been more tractable . eud. let me crave pardon to curb your humor a little , which seems too near a kin to isotimus his temper , though under a different character . for my part , i had then the same sense of episcopacy which i have just now owned . but wh●n i considered the ruines of religion which our divisions occasioned among us , and when i read the large offers s. augustin made on the like occasion to the donatists , i judged all possible attempts even with the largest condescentions for an accommodation , a worthy and pious design , well becoming the gravity and moderation of a bishop to offer , and the nobleness of these in authority to second with their warmest endeavors : for if it was blessed with success , the effect was great , even the setling of a broken and divided corner of the church : if it took not , as it fully exonered the church of the evils of the schism ; so it rendered the enemies of peace and unity the more unexcusable . only i must say this upon my knowledg , that whatever designs men of various sentiments fastened upon that attempt , it was managed with as much ingenuity and sincerity , as mortals could carry along with them in any purpose . i know it is expected and desired that a full account of all the steps of that affair be made publick , which a friend of ours drew up all along , with the progress of it . but at present my concern in one , whom a late pamphlet , ( as full of falshoods in matters of fact , as of weakness in point of reason ) hath mirepresented ( the case of accommodation , page 31 ) shall prevail with me to give an account of a particular pas●ed in a conference , which a bishop and two presbyters had with about thirty of the nonconformists , at pasley , on the 14th of december in the year 1670. when the bishop had in a long discourse recommended unity and peace to them , on the terms were offered ; he withal said much to the advantage of episcopacy as he stated it , from the rules and practices of the ancient church : offering to turn their pro●elyte immediately , if they should give him either clear scripture , good reason or warrant from the most primitive antiquity against such episcopacy . and with other things , he desired to know whether they would have joined in communion with the church , at the time of the council of nice , ( to carry them no higher ) or not ? for if they refused that , he added he would have less heartiness to desire communion with them , since of these he might say , let my soul be with theirs . but to that , a general answer was made by one , who said , he hoped they were not looked upon , as either so weak , or so wilful , as to determine in so great a matter , but upon good grounds : which were the same , that the asserters of presbyterian government had built on , which they judged to be conform both to scripture and primitive antiquity . but for scripture , neither he nor any of the meeting offered to bring a title : only he alledged some differences betwixt the anci●nt presidents , as he called them , and our bishops . but this was more fully enlarged by one who is believed to be among the most learned of the party : whose words with the answer given them , i shall read to you , as i take both from a journal was drawn of that affair , by one whose exactness and fidelity in it , can be attested by some worthy spectators , who read what he wrote after the meeting was ended , and judged it not only faithful , but often verbal : and that he was so careful to evite the appearances of partiality , that he seemed rather studious to be more copious in proposing what was said by these who differed from his opinion , whereas he contracted much of what was said by these he favored . the account follows . mr. — said , that he offered to make appear , the difference was betwixt the present episcopacy , and what was in the ancient church , in ●ive particulars . the first was , that they had n● archbishops in the primitive church . it is true , they had metropolitans ; but in a council o● ca●thage , it was decreed , that no bishop should be ●all●d ●ummus sacerdos , or princeps sacerdo●um , sed primae sedis episcopus . 2. the bishops in the ancient church were parochial , and not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but in every village 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for even in bethany we find there was a bishop . 3. two bishops might be in one church , such was ( not to mention alexander and narcissus at jerusalem ) augustin , who with valerius , was ordained bishop of hippo. 4. bishops were elected by their presbyters , so jerome tells us , that in alexandria the presbyters choosed one of their number to be bishop : and finally , the bishops were countable to and censurable by their presbyters : for either this must have been , otherwise they could not have been censured at all . for though we meet with some provincial synods in church history , as that of carthage in cyprians time , for the rebaptizing of hereticks ; and that at antioch against samo●atenus , yet these instances were rare , and recurred seldom ; therefore there must have been a power in presbyters to have censured their bishops , otherwise it could not have been done , which is absurd to imagine . and upon all these accounts , he judged the present episcopacy differed much from the ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . upon this discourse , the bishop being weary of speaking much , looked to one of his presbyters , whom that pamphlet in derision , calls , a worthy doctor : who said , he found the ancient writings were so clear for a disparity among church-men , and so full of it , that he was assured none could doubt it , after he had looked but overly upon them : but as to what was alledged , he first assumed the five particulars , and spoke to them in order . to the first , he said , it was true , the term archbishop , was not used in the first centuries ▪ but in the council of nice , mention is not only made of metropolitans ; but the canon saith of them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let the ancient customs have their force : which shews the superiority of metropolitans to have been pretty early begun . and the canon that was cited , calling him , primae sedis episcopum , makes him primate : now we are not to contend about words , when the thing is clear : neither will ●any archbishop judg himself injured , if instead of that name , he be called metropolitan , or primate . besides , archiepiscopus , doth not import prince of the bishops ; but that he is the chief and first of them . and this prefixing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was not so odious : for nazianzen calls a bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the areopagite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for the second particular , it is true , bishops were in many places very thick set ; for in s. augustin ' s time it appears from the journals of a conference he had with the donati●ts , that there were about 500. bishopricks in a small tract of ground , but this was not universal : for theodoret tells he had 800. parishes in his diocese : and sozomen tells of great countries where there were very few bishops . and to prove this , the canons of ancyra make a difference betwixt the presbyters of the country from those of the city : and over the former there was a chorepiscopus ; which sh●ws that the whole diocese was not within the city . but this was not much to our purpose , since the more or the less did not vary the kind . and if a bishop might be over the ministers of the city , it cannot be unlawful that he be likewise set over more in the country : which can be no more essential to this matter , than it is , whether a parish be great or small . so that this difference may well make the one unexpedient , but unlawful it cannot be , if the other be lawful . for the third particular , there was a canon of the council of nice , that there might be but one bishop in a city . and he was amazed to hear the instance of s. augustin alledged , who was indeed ordained coadjutor to valerius ; but himself in his i 10. epist. condemns that , telling that he did it ignorantly , not knowing it to be contrary to the nicene rules : and therefore he tells how he designed eradius to be his successor , but would not ordain him in his own time , because of that canon . other instances of more bishops in one city , might have be●● more pertinently adduced to this purpose : but they were either coadjutors , such as nazianzen the son was to his father , or it was agreed to for setling a schism , as was done in the schism betwixt meletius and paulinus of antioch . and so s. augustin and the african bishops with him , offered to the donatists , that would they agree with them , these schismatical bishops should be continued as conjunct bishops with those already setled in those sees where th●y lived . it is true , some will have both linus and clemens to have succeeded s. peter at rome , and evodius and ignatius ●o have succeeded him at antioch : but for this , none assert that both succeeded to s. peter ; some being for one , and some for another : and so in a historical matter , the testimonies of these who lived nearest that time should decide the question . but the constitutions of clemens offer a solution to this , that at first there were in some cities two churches , one for those of the circumcision , and another for those of the uncircumcision : and after the destruction of jerusalem , this distinction was swallowed up . this is rational , and not without ground in scripture : besides , that that book , though none of clements , yet is ancient . and from all this it was clear , that there might be but one bishop in a city . as for the fourth particular , it is true , the ancient elections of bishops and presbyters were partly by synods , partly by presbyters , and partly popular . but as none would say it made any essential alteration of the constitution of a church , if instead of these elections , patrons had now a right of presenting to churches ; so though instead of these elections the king were patron of all the bishopricks , it did not alter the nature of episcopacy , much less justifie a schism against it . but beside this , it was known the capitular elections were still continued . and for the fifth particular , he desired they might give one instance in all antiquity , where a bishop was censured by presbyters : it being clear that they could finish nothing without the bishops sentence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was the words of the canon : and if they could finish nothing without the bishop , much less could they censure himself . provincial synods were begun in the second century , which appears from many synods were held about the day of observing easter . another expedient they had , when a bishop was heretical , that the neighboring bishops used to publish it in their cicular letters , which went around , and so they did excommunicate or d●pose them . but the regular way of procedure against bishops was in provincial synods , which were now offered to be se● up . yet even this exception could be no ground for separating , no more than in their principles lay elders had to separate from their ministers , who were their fixed president , and yet did not judge themselves censurable by these lay elders ; tho as to the power of ruling , they held them to be equal . with this he ended , saying , he had now proposed what occurred of a sudden to his tho ughts on these heads , though he believed much more might be adduced ; but he supposed there was enough said to clear these particulars . and it seems the person who had engaged him to this , judged so ; since neither he , nor any of his brethren , offered a reply . and by this account ( of the truth whereof i am willing all there present bear witness ) let the company judge of the ingenuity of these writers . but i shall pursue the discourse of the accommodation no further . basil. i am sure it hath left this conviction on all our consciences , that that party is obstinately fixed to their own humors , without the least color of reason . but now , i think , enough is said for justifying both the lawfulness and usefulness of episcopacy , and that there is nothing in it contrary either to the nature or rules of the gospel , or of right reason . and for any occasional evils may have risen from the restitution of this government , they are with no justice to be fastened on it . i know , many accuse their revenues and honors , thus the spirit that is in us lusteth to ' envy : and the eyes of many are evil , because the eyes of our pious progenitors were good . but indeed the ravenous appetites of some ostriches among us , have swallowed down so much of the churches patrimony , that what remains of it , can scarce provoke envy . and truly churchmen bestowing their revenues well , for alms-deeds , relieving the widows and orphans , and such modest hospitality and decency , as may preserve them from the disesteem of the vulgar , who measure their value of men much from these externals , there were no ground of quarrelling at them were their riches seven-fold increased . i am far from the thoughts of patronizing the german bishops , on whom i look as the disgrace of that order , who live in all things like other princes , making wars , and leading out armies : nor do they once consider their dioceses , or what they owe them as bishops , being wholly immersed in secular affairs . but for all this , i cannot see cause for blaming churchmen , their being either upon the publick councils of the kingdom in parliaments , or on his majesties secret councils , and that both because ecclesiastical matters are often in agitation , both in the one , and the other , in which none are so properly to be advised with as churchmen . occasion may also be frequently given to those who should be presupposed to understand the rules of equity and conscience best , to lay them before others , who either know them not , or mind them too little . and finally , they are subjects , as well as others , and by the clearness is to be expected in their judgments , and the calmness of their minds , together with their abstracted and contemplative manner of life , they may upon occasions be very prudent counsellors : and why a prince shall be deprived of the councils of that which should be the wisest and best part of his kingdom , no reason can be given . but for all this , i acknowledge there is great hazard from humane infirmity , lest by such medling they be too much intangled in matters extrinsick to them , whereby their thoughts may be drawn out from that inward , serene , and abstracted temper wherein their minds should be preserved ; both for more spiritual contemplation , and for a more close pursuing the work of the gospel , which ought still to be their chief labor . but i must touch this string no more , lest you say that the fox preacheth , and methinks our discourse is now near its period . isot. a great many things do yet remain which are untouched , and deserve to be better considered : for these crude dialogues poured out a great deal of stuff , which it is like the writer never examined : and in these , you who are his friends , must either vindicate him , or leave him to the mercy of every severe censurer . eud. his temper is well enough known to us , that he is very little sollicitous about the esteem or censures of men : and therefore , if all the particulars in his book , cannot maintain themselves to the judgments of rational and unprepossessed readers , he thinks them not worthy of his patrociny . and for that little trifling way of writing , by tracing every word in a book , or of making good all a man hath said , it is a task equally mean , unpleasant , and laborious : and looks like one contending for victory more than truth . were it a worthy thing for us to go and reckon how often and comes about in any of that pamphleteers long periods , or how often he writes false grammar , how harsh his phrases , and how tedious his periods are ? or make other such like remarks : alas , did we that , there were no end ! and yet such like are many of his reflections . but then how beautiful were our discourse , if interwoven with those elegancies of poor wretch , babler , impertinent , confident , ignorant , atheist , scoffer , and many more of that same strain ? i know well enough why he used those , his design being to make his gentle and simple readers stand gravely , and turn up the white , and look pale , and affrighted with all those black imputations he charges on that poor wretch . methinks i hear the censures of the herd , when they first read over his book , to this purpose : oh , here is a worthy piece , full of deep learning ; and believe me , he speaks home : he is a sweet man that wrote it , be he who he will , and was marvellously born through in it all . and oh , but it is seasonable ! and well t●ned : for he hath answered the whole book to a word . and where we thought it str●ngest , he sh●ws its weakness most . but i wish the poor wretch r●pentance , yet it is a proud companion , and full of disdain ; but i hope he is humbled for once : it were a pity of him , for they say he hath some abilities : but they are all wrong set : and he will , may be , study to heal the beast of the wound , which one of our champions hath given it ; but had he any sparks of grace , i could yet love him for his good — sake . it were a worthy attempt to go and satisfie such a gang of cattle : therefore the cavils on the fifth and sixth dialogue are so poor , that it were lost time to consider them ; and so groundless , that he who from reading over the dialogues themselves , is not able to withstand all those tricks of sophistry , would be little bettered by all we could add : and therefore we may well quit the theme , and that the rather , that we have examined all that is of publick concern in these debates : and for any thing that was started , which lies out of the way , we will leave the discussing of these to the conformist himself ; since our design in this conference was to get mutual satisfaction to our consciences , in these things which the laws enjoin : and if we have gained this , we are to leave contending about other things , which relate not to us . only if in these greater points it be found that what the conformist said in the dialogues , was grounded on so much clear and strong reason , as we have discovered since our first meeting ; it is to be presumed that in other things he was not so rash or irrational as to utter such absurdities or errors , as the late pamphlets do charge upon him . phil. our work was to consider , whether absolute subjection was due to the civil authority , and how far its dominion over our obedience did reach , and whether the principles and practices of the late times , had such evident characters of god's acceptance on them , that it was an unpardonable crime to reverse that building , which they prepared with so much noise , and cemented with so much blood ; and by consequence whether episcopacy was that accursed thing which provoked god's jealousie so much against us , that it was unlawful to unite with it , or so far to comply with its adherents as to unite with them in worship ? if these things be made clear to us , we need not amuse our selves , nor entertain one another with farther janglings , and therefore may break off our conference . isot. since you will break off , i shall not struggle about it : for it is a confession of your weakness , that you pass over so many things with this slight silence . basil. this is the genuine spirit of the party which you now express to the life ; but when ever the author of the dialogues undergoes the penance of examining what you desire , it will perhaps appear , you have as little ground for this as for your other boasting . but i am sure no scruple sticks with me about these great heads we have examined , so that upon a narrow survey of these matters , it appears he had more reason for what he asserted , than he then vented : and i have as little doubt of his being able to clear himself about other matters , which are snarled at by these pamphlets . but one thing i have not forgot , about which i am more sollicitous : which was a promise polyhistor made of sending when our conference were ended , an account of the model and forms of the ancient government : which i desire with such earnestness , that i wish we we●e gone , that he might be as good as his word . poly. i know not if it shall answer your hopes , but your curiosity shall be quickly satisfied , after i have given you some account of my design in it . when i considered the ruines of religion , and the decays of piety through the world , i have often bent my thoughts to seek out the most proper remedies and means for the churches recovery : and that which seemed the most promising , was to consider the constitution , the rites and forms of the ch●rch in her first and purest ages ; and to observe the steps of their dec●ning from the primitive simplicity and purity , which being once fully done , great materials would be the●eby congested for many use●ul thoughts , and overtures in order to a reformation . and this is a work , which for all the accurate enquiries this age hath produced , is not yet performed to any degree of perfection , or ingenuity : therefore i resolved to pursue this design as much as my leisure and other avocations could allow of . but as i was doubtful what method to follow in digesting my observations , the canons vulgarly called apostolical , offered themselves to my thoughts : i thereupon resolved to follow their tract , and to compile such hints as i could gather on my way for giving a clear view of the state of the church in the first ages . as for the opinions of the ancient fathers , these have been so copiously examined by the writers of controversies , that scarce any thing can be added to those who went before us : bet few have been at such pains for searching into their practices , and rules for discipline , and worship , wherein their excellency and strength lay . in this inquiry i have now made good advances , but at present i will only send you my observations on the two first canons : and as you shall find this task hath suc●eeded with me , i will be encouraged to break it off , or to pursue it farther . only on the way , let me tell you , that i am so far from thinking these canons , apostolical , that nothing can be more evid●nt , than that they were a collection made in the third century at soonest : for the matter of almost every canon discovers this when well examined , and therefore that epistle of zephir●us the pope , who lived about the year 20 , that mentions ●●●or as others cite it 70. ) of the apostles sayings , is not to be consider'd : that epistle with the other decretals , being so manifestly spurious , that it cannot be doubted by any who reads them : and the number sixty agrees with no edition ; for they are either fifty or 85. tertullian is also cited for them , but the words cited as his , are not in his book contra praxeam , from which they are vouched . nor can they be called the work of clemens romanus , though they were vented under his name . for athanasius in his synopsis , reckons the work of clemens apocryphal . and eusebius tells us that nothing ascribed to clement was held genuine , but his epistle to the corinthians . but the first publishers of these who lived , it is like in the third century , have called them apostolical , as containing the earliest rules which the apostolical men had introduced in the church . and afterwards others to conciliate more veneration for them , cal led them the canons of the apostles , compiled by clement . and this drew pope gelasius's censure on them , by which the book of the canons of the apostles is declared apocryphal : which some who assert their authority and antiquity , would foolishly evite , by applying that censure only to the 35. added canons : whereas the censure is simply passed on the book , and not on any additions to it . and this shall serve for an introduction to the papers i will send you how soon i get home . phil. i doubt not but all of us , except isotimus , will be very desirous to understand the particular forms of the primitive church : but he is so sure , that they will conclude against him , that i believe he is not very curious of any such discovery . isot. you are mistaken , for i doubt not , but much will be found among the ancients for me ; but if otherwise , i will lead you a step higher , to let you see that from the beginning it was not so : for antiquity , when against scripture , proves only the error ancient . and if you quit the scriptures to us , we will yield those musty records to you . eud. pray , speak not so confidently , after all your pretences have been so baffled , that we are ashamed of you : for you are like the spaniard , who retained his supercilious looks and gate , when he was set to beg . but i will not be rude in a place which owns me for its master , though really your confidence extorts it . isot. you are a proud company , and so elevated in your own eyes , that you despise all who differ from you , and think you censure them gently , if you call them no worse than ignorants and fools . is there any arrogance in the world like this ? phil. pray , let us not fall out , now that we are to part : but i confess it is no wonder the smart of all the foils you have got , provoke some passion in you , and so i pity you ; for i know none of your party who would have carried so discreetly . therefore , adieu , i must be gone , and leave this good company . isot. you will have the last word of scolding , but i perhaps will find out one that will be too hard for you all , and will call you to account of all you have both argued and boasted . basil. i will break of● next , since the design of your meeting is finished : only , polyhistor , mind your promise . poly. i go about it , and therefore , eudannon , i beg your pardon to be gone . eud. though retirement and solitude be ever acceptable to me , yet it will not be without some pain that i return to it , when i miss so much good company , as have relieved me these four days : but the truth is , on the other hand , i am glad to see an end put to this painful eng●gement of which i suppose we are all weary . it remains only that i return you my sincere and hearty thanks for the favor you have done me , which i wish i could do so warmly ▪ as might engage you frequently to oblige me with the like civilities . adieu , my good friends . finis . four discourses delivered to the clergy of the diocess of sarum ... by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1694 approx. 455 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30350) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 57738) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 175:1 or 2473:10) four discourses delivered to the clergy of the diocess of sarum ... by the right reverend father in god, gilbert, lord bishop of sarum. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. [2], x, 110, [2] p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1694. advertisements: p. [2] at end. reproduction of original in british library and the folger shakespeare library. (from t.p.) i. the truth of the christian religion -ii. the divinity and death of christ -iii. the infallibility and authority of the church -iv. the obligations to continue in the communion of the church. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng jesus christ -divinity -early works to 1800. church of england -doctrines. apologetics -early works to 1800. apologetics -history -17th century. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-01 john latta sampled and proofread 2004-01 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion four discourses delivered to the clergy of the diocess of sarum , concerning i. the truth of the christian religion . ii. the divinity and death of christ. iii. the infallibility and authority of the church . iv. the obligations to continue in the communion of the church . by the right reverend father in god , gilbert , lord bishop of sarvm . london , printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxciv . imprimatur , jo. cant . ian. 22. 1693 / 4. to the clergy of the diocess of sarum . my reverend and dear brethren , these discourses were at first prepared for you , and were delivered to you among a great many more on other subjects on several occasions : they were so well received by you , that many of you desired that you might have them copied out for a more lasting use . this has set me on publishing these that follow , they relating to four different sort of men with whom you may be engaged . the first is against atheists and libertines , who grow to be so bold and insolent , that it is of the last importance , that you should be well furnish'd with answers to those objections with which they make the greatest noise . this is the pest of the age we live in , the most dangerous as well as the most contagious of all others : it strikes at all , and corrupts the whole man , as well as it dissolves all the bounds of nature and society . this promises such an indemnity , and gives so entire a liberty , that depraved inclinations and affections will be always of its side ; and it has some specious things to alledge , the novelty and boldness of which , makes them pass for wit and good humour , which will be always taking to those who want and desire supports and excuses for sins , upon all these accounts , and chiefly upon the fatal progress which this blasphemous spirit of infidelity has made among us , it becomes us to consider these matters well , that we may be throughly acquainted with all those depths of satan , and know what to answer to all those false shews of wit or reason , as wall as to the more petulant demands by which that prophane crew study to undermine and beat down all religion . one of their common topicks , is the decrying all mysteries ; and in this they fall in to the same opposition with the socinians , tho upon very different designs . for the socinians run down all mysteries , and think they can make it appear , that those passages of scripture by which they are commonly proved , have another meaning ; whereas libertines do it , being persuaded that they are indeed contained in the scriptures ; and therefore they hope that they will gain their main end of decrying all revealed religion , if strong prejudices are once formed against mysteries ; and yet they are at the same time consider'd as parts of the christian religion , and are believed to be contain'd in the scriptures . i must also do this right to the socinians , as to own that their rules and morality are exact and severe ; that they are generally men of probity , iustice and charity , and seem to be very much in earnest in pressing the obligations to very high degrees of virtue . yet their denying all secret assistances , must cut off the exercises of many devotions , that give a softness and tenderness to the mind ; which if once extinguish'd , it must of necessity draw after it a dry flatness over all a man's thoughts and powers ; their denying the certainty of god's foreseeing all future events that depend upon the freedom of a man's will , must very much weaken our confidence in god , our patience under all misfortunes , and our expectations of a deliverance in due time . their notions of another state , do also take off much of the terror under which bad men ought to be kept , and lessen the ioys of good men ; on all these accounts , their opinions seem to have a great influence upon practice ; but with ●●lation to the great article of christianity concerning the person and sufferings of iesus christ , their doctrine gives so different a view of this religion in its most important head , that either we have been guilty of a most irreligious prophanation , in esteeming one to be god , and giving him all the acknowledgments and adorations that belong to the great and eternal god , who yet is a meer creature ; or they must be no less guilty , who if he be the great and the true god , do look on him only as a creature , and yet offer him all divine honour and worship : and if his death was only a pattern , or any thing else than a true propitiatory sacrifice , then we who look on it as our propitiation and redemption , who claim and trust to it , as our ransom and atonement , do very impiously raise its value beyond the truth , and fix our confidence , with relation to our peace with god , upon a false foundation . whereas on the other hand , if god has set forth his death as a propitiation for the forgiveness of sin , then they are guilty of black ingratitude , and of defeating the chief design of the gospel , who so far detract from its value , as to reckon it only a patern of dying , a confirmation of the gospel , and necessary preliminary to a resurrection . upon all these accounts it is that i could never understand the pacificatory doctrines of those who think that these are questions in which a diversity of opinions may well be endured without disturbing the peace of the church , or breaking communion about th●m . they seem to be the fundamentals of christianity , and therefore i thought it was very necessary for me to give you a ful and clear instruction in this matter . the 3d. discourse relates to that upon which the whole cause of popery turns ; for if they are infallib●e , it is to no purpose to dispute about any thing else : and if they are fallible , their pretending to infallibility , is of it self a just prejudice against their whole church , and against all their other doctrines , when they claim to so high an authority without good grounds . since therefore this is the most important part of all our controversies with that church , and since it is that to which they always turn themselves by which they gain prosclites , and est●blish their own votaries , and set them out of the reach of all convistion , the understanding of this matter in its full extent , seems to be a very necessary piece of study . we are apt upon a little interval of quiet to forget the practices of that church ; and because we do not think of them , we may be apt to fancy that they think as little of us : but they do still pursue their point with an unwearied diligence . they never give over , but when one design fails , they either study to retrieve it , or to set another on foot , with an industry that ought to awaken us , and keep us always on our guard . the numbers of their emis●aries are great and their zeal is ever warm and active ; therefore we must never lose sight of them ; and above all th● other points of controversy , we must study to be most particularly conversant in this , and expert at the management of it . the fourth discourse relates to the various bodies of the dissenters among us , and all the different grounds upon which they separate from us . the toleration that the law gives them , does not alter the nature of things , nor make an unjust separation to be one whit the lawfuller than it was when they were under a severe yoke . the law only gives a civil impunity , and does not punish : but the cause of the separation is the same that it was , and is neither better nor worse , whether the separation is punished or not . they are now left to themselves , and are so much the freer in their choice , the less restraint is put upon them . therefore it was never more seasonable than it is now , to set the whole matter in a true light before all that may be concerned in it , that they may weigh it the more impartially : and the less uneasy we seem to be , at the ease which the law gives them , we may have thereby the greater advantages in endeavouring to bring them back to the communion of the church , by shewing both their obligations to it , and the weakness of those reasons which have led them to depart from it . i think it is not necessary to say more , for justifying the choice that i have made of these four heads , as the first essay that i offer you , of a great many other discouses , with which i have entertained you , when i have desired you to meet in the sever●l parts and different divisions of my diocess : some head of divinity being proposed as the subject of a conference , i have enlarged upon a great many among you , and have laid bafore you all that my studies and observation could suggest ; and after that , have led you to discourse freely upon it , this has seemed to me a proper method for awakening your enquiries , and for encreasing your knowledge : and those meetings have been so well kept by you , and the discourses so carefully attended to , that it has given me no small encouragement to go on still in the same method , and as your thinking that you have profited by my labours , is a full and rich recompence , that does abundently overbalance any pains they may put me to : so it is for your sake that i do now publish these discourses ; and as they prove acceptable or useful to you , i may , perhaps , publish others hereafter , certainly , next to a true sense of divine matters , and the inward belief and impressions of religion , study , and a desire of useful knowledge , is that which becomes our profession the best . it is that which enables us both to understand our business , and to do our duty . it is the noblest entertainment , and the best preservative from idleness , and from all that dulness and weariness , all those excesses and disorders that arise out of it . the mind will be always working , and if we do not let it fly at nobler game , it will either sink into a feebleness and stupidity , or look out for such diversions as do offer themselves , without a scrupulous regard to their unsuitableness to our caracter . these draw men down to a vicious familiarity with bad men , and do fatally engage many to share with them in bad practices : either they make us much the worse , or at the least we seem to be so to others , when we thow away much of our time in levities , which do often end in gross immoralities . in which the world will be apt to give us a large share , often without a pretence , but to be sure , if there is the least shadow for it , the chief part of the blame will be cast on us . nor will it be easy for us to be blameless , and without rebuke , unless we maintain the other part of the character given by st. paul , that as becomes the sons of god , we shine as lights in the world . and i may well conclude , that a serious application to study , is the best fence , both of the probity , and of the reputation of a clergy-man : it both teaches himself all the parts of his duty , and creates to him that esteem which is necessary to support him in the discharge of it . and therefore , my dear brethren , i do with all possible earnestness call upon you , to study to maintain the high reputation for learning , of which the clergy of this church has been so long possessed ; and to give your selves time and leisure to peruse and digest the learned productions of those great men among us ; and not to be proud , or to boast that we belong to a body that has produced men so deservedly admired , both by friends and enemies , while we our selves are so little like them , that we are not a whit the wiser or the learneder for all that they have left us . some hours every day well placed would soon bring us under such habits , that it would not be easy , if possible , for us to live out of all commerce with learning , and the learned world. i know the unhappy state of many depauperated benefices , puts it out of the incumbent's power to furnish themselves with books ; as much as their narrow circumstances indispose them for making use of them , if they had them . this is a crying grievance , and looks too like a scorn put on the gospel , when those who minister in spiritual things are so slenderly supplied in temporals , that nothing but extreme necessity can induce men to serve in such cures , who are put to wrestle still with the same necessity , especially if they have families that grow upon them . but as we have at present just grounds to hope , and to give you cause likewise to hope , that if god blesses us with calm and setled times , effectual remedies should be found out to that great misery , under which many of you languish , which must needs give very sad and afflicting thoughts to those who observe it , and who ought to watch over you , and to take care of you ; so the best method to move our princes , and to dispose the nation to take pity on you , is for you to take heed to your selves , and to the flocks that are committed to you ; to follow your studies and your labours more diligently , and to raise your own character by your exemplary lives , and the painful discharge of your duties . this , and this only , will draw down the blessings of heaven upon your persons , and your labours ; this will make your very enemies to be at peace with you , and will force those who do now despise you , to esteem you , and to count you worthy of double honour , of a larger and easier subsistence . i will employ the rest of this discourse in pressing upon you one great part of your duty , in which , as i am glad that so many among you set a good example to their brethren , so i do earnestly wish that all the rest may follow it : it is , to express an affectionate and hearty zeal for their majesties , and their government ; and to endeavour to keep your people always in mind of the extream miseries , as well as of the visible dangers of popery and tyranny . this must still be remembred as a lasting honour to this church , that some years ago , there was in a day of trial , so noble an opposition given to that religion , and the steps that were then made to bring it in upon us . we are still in the struggle , and are strangely mistaken , if we imagine the danger is past . we plainly see the clouds return after the rain ; and a relapse into that state would make the latter end much worse than the beginning : the hope which then supported , and afterwards delivered us , would no more soften our miseries with the prospect of better times . the rage , as well as the power of our enemies , would be much encreased ; and there is no doubt to be made , but that those who have no religion , whose numbers , god knows , do swell vastly , would hope to atone for all that has been done with the change of their no-religion , for that to which their interest should lead them . and if ever god , for our great and crying sins , is provoked to visit us in so terrible a manner ; we , who have been hitherto the most favoured of all the churches of god , must become the most miserable . whither can we fly for shelter , or where can we promise our selves either retreat or relief ? the prospect of such a calamity seems to be one of the blackest of all that has been since the world begun ; and yet how tamely do many look for it ; while others with a fury that is as much without bounds , as it is without sense , are endeavouring to bring on that evil day ; to make the nation grow weary of its deliverance and present quiet , and return back into egypt . while they spread so many false reports , with a spite that is as restless as it is insolent ; shall we at such a time stand as neutral , and unconcerned , while all is at stake ? shall it be said , that whereas some years ago , during the debates concerning the exclusion , we sided so openly , and with a zeal that shewed it self on all occasions , and in instances which were better forgotten than remembred ; yet now when all that can concern us , either as we are men , and englishmen , or as we are christians , and the ministers of the church of england , is in such eminent danger , we seem to let all parties fight it out the best they can , while we only do what is enjoined , and express neither affection nor zeal . i will not offer to say any thing to convince you of the lawfulness of the present constitution : for i cannot admit so bad a thought of any of you , as to imagine that you could take the oaths , and continue to perform divine offices , ordinary and extraordinary , unless you were fully satisfied in your consciences concerning the lawfulness both of the one and of the other . this is so black an imputation , to suppose that men of common probity , not to say , men that ought to be the paterns , as well as the instructers of others , should swear an oath and adhere so long to it , which is an interpretative renewing of it , ever till it is openly retracted , and should in those frequent returns of daily prayers , besides the special offices of fasts and thanksgiving-days , offer up devotions to god contrary to their persuasions , that no man is capable of so heinous , and so continued a prevarication , unless he is either a determinate atheist , or a man of a seared and hardned conscience . now as this is of so odious a nature , that indeed it is not easy to find words severe enough to set it out by ; so supposing men once convinced of the lawfulness of our present scituation , it is very extraordinary if they are cold and unconcerned in a point , which when it is once yielded to be lawful , is unquestionably of the greatest importance and consequence possible . if liberty and religion are valuable things ; and if they are not , what is valuable ? if the maintaining the purity of the christian religion , free from idolatry and superstition , from imposture and cruelty ; if the maintaining a church that without partiality , is to be preferred to any church now in the world ; and if the keeping out of a religion , which is without partiality the worst of any that carries the name of christ ; if the preserving a government that is just and mild , that is guided by law , and that maintains property , and that leaves mankind to all the liberties of a free-born nature , and of a well constituted society : and if the withstanding an absolute and despotical , an arbitrary and violent tyranny , that tramples on all thinge sacred and human , that oppresses liberty , and destroys property , and that makes men slaves , and treats them as brute beasts ; if , i say , all these things are well weighed , then we must conclude , that we owe the utmost degrees of affection and zeal to their majesties , and to their government : we ought to make all our people sensible , both of the happiness that we do now enjoy , and of the miseries that we are preserved from , by their means , and under their protection . we ought to set popery and slavery before them in their true colours , with all the light and life that we can give them : we ought to set our selves against those false brethren , that pretend they are of the church of england , but are not ; and are of the synagogue of satan , which in its strict notion signifying an adversary , we may without any breach of charity affirm , that they associate themselves to the enemy of our nation , and of our religion ; whose person , government , forces and successes , they are always magnifying , on design to intimidate such as can be wrought on by their false surmises . these things we ought to repress and oppose on all occasions with the spirit and courage that such matter require . it is stupidity and not patience to be cold and luke-warm , while england and the protestant religion are in the last struggles whether they must live or die . if god does not bless so good a cause in all the steps it makes , with the success that we ought to desire and pray for ; we should teach our people not to murmur , nor aggravate matters , not to sink or despond , but to consider how much our sins have provoked god's wrath , how small a share we bear of those devouring calamities that have ruin'd so great a part of europe ; while we only bear the charge , but feel few of the miseries of war. if some years are less prosperous than others have been , we ought to reflect on former successes , and the ill use that we have made of them , which may have provoked god to change his methods : and yet take all together , it must be acknowledged , that we have had of late more publick blessings and fewer misfortunes , than any nation under heaven . can one reflect on the blasphemy and infidelity , the dissolution of all good morals , and the impieties and vices of all sorts that are among us , and not wonder rather , that we have not been made a scene of earthquakes and ruins , as sicily , malta and jamaica have of late been . it is to these sins that we ought to turn the minds of our people , when they are at any time dejected with ill success ; we ought to call upon them to repent of , and to reform their ways : and when that is done , or even set about , we may then hope that god will change his methods towards us ; and continue his gospel among us , together with the blessings of a iust and wise government , and of peace and plenty . these are subjects on which we ought to dwell much , and preach often . but that i may not dismiss this matter , without any thing that looks like an argument ; i will open to you two great precedents , which you have often heard me enlarge on with much seeming satisfaction : and because you have thought that i laid them out in a more particular manner , than you had otherwise met with them ; i will now spread them out before you : and that the rather , because arguments from examples , and authorised practices , have upon many accounts a stronger influence , than general reasonings . matters of fact are easier apprehended , and more capable of full proof , than points of speculation ; which do more easily bend to any turn , that a man of wit may give them , than meer facts , which are stubborn and sullen . the first of these is taken from the history of the maccabees , which i desire you will consider by these steps . that the jews became the subjects of the kings of babylon by the entire conquest which nebuchadnezzar made of that nation ; that after the end of 70 years , they continu'd to be subject to cyrus , who tho he sent them back to rebuild their temple , and tho his successors suffer'd them both to finish that , and to rebuild and enclose jerusalem , yet they continu'd still to be the subjects of the kings of persia ; this was transferred to alexander the great , when he conquer'd that empire : and finally , they fell to the share of the kings of syria , and were their subjects above 140 years . they proved hard masters to them : antiochus epiphanes robb'd the temple in the 143 year of the seleucida ; a great massacre followed ; but these were particular acts of tyranny ; and so tho there was great mourning upon this , yet it was submitted to : for certainly the peace of mankind , and the order of the world require , that special acts of malversation , and even of trranny , should be born , rather than that we should shake an established constitution : but in the year 145. he went on to a total subversion of their religion , by an edict which required that they should forsake their law , and become one people with him : in pursuance os which , the altar at jerusalem was defiled ; idolatrous altars were set up in all their cities , and every man was to be put to death that still adhered to the law of moses . here then were subjects brought under a general sentence of death , unless they should depart from the laws of god : special oppressions and violent acts of cruelty were submitted to ; but when they saw themselves involved all in the same common fate , they defended themselves . mattathias not only refused to join in the idolatry that they had set up , but killed both him that went to offer the sacrifice and likewise the king's commissioner ; upon which the historian adds this reflection , thus dealt he zealously for the law of god , like pianehas ; he a nimated his children to follow his example , and to trust in god ; but he vouched no immediate warrant that he had from god : he charged his children to be zealous for the law , and to give their lives for the covenant of their fathers ; to be valiant , and to shew th●mselves men in behalf of it , for by it you shall obtain glory ; and he ordered them to take unto them all that observed the law , and to revenge the wrong of their people ; to recompence fully the heathen , and to take heed to the commandment of the law. upon this followed the wars of the maccabees , in which they never pretended to any special authority from any prophet : on the contrary , their history tells us , that they laid up the stones of the altar , that had been prophaned by idolatry , in a convenient place , till a prophet should come to shew what should be done with them . thus then we see subjects defend themselves against their prince , when he designed a total subversion of their religion : and for this they vouched no immediate nor extraordinary authority . but to give this argument its entire force , we must next see upon what reason we may conclude , that this was a justifiable , and by consequence an imitable action . as for this , tho i think it is scarce necessary to enlarge much on an apology for the maccabees , their wars having born such a venerable sound in a course of so many ages ; yet to pursue the matter fully , we find a prophesy concerning them in daniel , which is by all commentators ancient and modern , applied to them , that alone seems to import a full iustification of them ; after mention is made of a king that should defile the sanctuary , and take away the daily sacrifice , and set upon it the abomination that maketh desolate ; to that , this is added , and such as do wickedly against the covenant , shall he corrupt by flatteries : but the people that do know their god , shall be strong , and do exploits . and they that understand among the people , shall instruct many ; yet they shall fall by the sword , and by flame ▪ by captivity , and by spoil many days : and when they shall fall , they shall be holpen with a little help ; but many shall cleave to them with flatteries . as these words import a plain prodiction , in terms of approbation of the wars of the maccabees , so all the commentators that i have yet seen , without exception , do apply them to them there are also many commentators who do apply likewise to them , those words of the epistle to the hebrews , who out of weakness were made strong , waxed valiant in fight , and turned to flight the armies of the aliens : and there is a particular resemblance observed between these words , and some phrases that occur in the books of the maccabees : yet i confess those words are not so express as the former , nor are they so universally expounded in this sense . but to conclude this matter , the authority of those books , as it is an argument of full force against those who acknowledge them to be canonical ; so since by the articles of our church , these books are to be read for example of life , and for the instruction of manners ; tho it doth not apply them to establish any doctrine ; and since we read so many lessons taken out of the apocrypha : these must be acknowledged to be books of great , tho not of divine authority . and tho according to the article of our church , the arguing from any one passage in them is not to be allowed ; yet if subjects standing on their own defence , in the case of a total subversion , is to be esteemed rebellion , then we bind up with our bibles , and recommend to our people , two books that set out a history with great pomp , and with an air of much piety , which was no other than a down right rebellion . to this , the only answer that i have ever yet seen made , is , that the iewish dispensation being founded on temporal promises , whereas the christian religion is a doctrine of the cross , things of this kind might have been lawful among them , tho they are not so to us : and that the rather , because by a practice that was authorised , from the example of phinehas , and the praise given him for it , private men might among the jews , when the magistrate was remiss , fall upon offenders , and punish them , especially in the case of idolatry . this is all that seems to be offered with any colour of reason , to take off the argument from the practice of the maccabees : and therefore the considering and stating it aright , will determine the whole matter . first , then , the true arguments against resistance being drawn from the magistrates having the sword from god , together with all the topicks that belong to that head , they are equally obligatory to all nations , and all religions ; it being no part of any special doctrine delivered in the new testament , but arising from the attributes of god , and the peace and order of the world , which did bind jews as well as christians : tho there are indeed specialties in the christian religion , that do enforce this the more , and aggravate the transgression of it more apparently . so that if subjects defending themselves in the case of a total subversion , ( it must ever be remembred , that i am now only arguing upon this supposition ) is the sin of rebellion , it was a sin to the jews , to the maccabees in particular , as well as it is a sin to christians . as for that of the zealots , tho at first appearance it seems to be of some force , yet when examined it will be found to have very little in it . if we consider the first authorities for zealots , we shall find , that the jews stretched this matter beyond all bounds ; so that to their mistakes about it , they owed a great part of their last fatal miseries , which ended in their ruin . this matter has been also too implicitly taken by many christian writers from them . the first beginning of zealotism was in the instance of phinehas his killing zimri and cosbi ; but before this was done , moses , who was the chief ruler , did command all the judges of israel , that every one should slay his men that were joined to baal-peor . phinehas was one of these judges ; for as eleazar had been set over the tribe of levi when his father was high-priest , so aaron being dead at this time , and eleazar made high-priest in his stead , phinehas was now over the tribe of levi ; and thus moses command was in particular directed to him ; therefore though the zeal with which he executed it , was highly acceptable to god , yet it was exactly regular , since moses had given a general order for it . after this followed some instances of men eminently authorized by god , by the gifts of prophecy and miracles , who did in some cases punish idolaters ; such was samuel's hewing agag in pieces , in execution of the divine command ; and elijah's ordering all the priests of baal to be killed , after he had by an astonishing miracle proved that jehovah was the true god , and that he was his prophet . this was suitable to their dispensation , which being a theocracy , an authorized prophet might well have entred upon the functions of the magistrate , when the king himself was in fault , and the law was openly profaned . upon the same grounds our saviour , after his miracles had openly declared that he was sent of god , did whip the buyers and sellers out of the temple , when they had profaned the court of the gentiles , and had made that house of prayer a den of thieves . thus it is plain , that none of the presidents from the zealots of the old testament , could justify private men , such as mattathias and his children , to do any thing that was of it felf irregular and unlawful . phinehas his practice was a precedent for acting in the matters of their law with much spirit and courage , but it could not justify any man who should presume to do that , which was not otherwise lawful for him to do ; and though the spirit of the christian religion is very different from the spirit by which elijah and other prophets under the old testament were acted ; as our saviour told his disciples , particularly in this , that whereas in the one , prophets did immediately by miracles , or otherwise , punish some offenders ; in the other , all was to be managed with a spirit of gentleness and charity ; yet after all , the lasting rules of morality and human society , were the same then that they are now . this instance , i think , does fully justify those who , seeing a total subversion of our religion so far advanced , that the pope's authority was publickly owned , and that all the laws that secured it , were declared to be under a dispensing power , which was in it self a total subversion of our constitution , did think it lawful to accept of a deliverance , to concur in it , and to assist towards it . the other instance is taken from the first beginnings of christianity's being the legal and authorized religion of the roman empire ; and from the first council that is esteemed general , where a precedent is laid down , that is , no less full for justifying those who tho they did not concur in procuring our deliverance , yet have since closed in it , with all humble gratitude and obedience to those whom god made the instruments in so great a work. after constantine and licinius had given out those edicts at milan , by which the christians had full liberty both for their belief and worship , and had all the rights and immunities of other corporations granted them , licinius being still in his heart an enemy to that religion , began in the year 319 , to persecute the christians : he durst not , for fear of constantine , fall upon them openly ; but his intentions being well understood by his ministers , the governours of the provinces committed in many places great cruelties . he likewise turned the christians first out of his houshoud , and next out of all his armies . he made a law against relieving such as were in prison , by which those who relieved them were to be punished as complices of their crimes . he apprehending that most of the bishops wisht well to constantine , and that in their hearts they were set against himself , went on by degrees in his design against them , he by one edict , forbade the bishops to meet together , or to meddle with the concerns of one another's churches . by another , he designed to expose them to scandal and scorn . he forbade men and women to meet together to worship god , or bishops to visit women ; or women to come to be instructed in their schools ; and appointed that women only should instruct women . he also forbade their holding assemblies within cities , and ordered them to meet in the open fields . some churches were pulled down by his orders , and others were shut up ; and his first successes made him resolve on a general persecution : for not only eusebius , but both socrates , sozemen , and several other writers , do all affirm , that there was no general persecution begun , but that there were visible steps made towards it . when all this was represented to constantine , he was much affected with it ; and resolved to help the oppressed , and thought it was a pious and holy action to save a mulitude , by the destroying of one person : for he saw no other way was left to relieve the oppressed ; and his engaging in a war with licinius , was by the bishops of the east , that is , licinius's own subjects , ascribed to an immediate conduct and providence of god. it is true , eutropius puts this upon constantine's ambition , and his aspiring to be the single monarch of the world : this is also insinuated by aurelius victor , and more fully set out by zosimus ; whose hatred both of constantine , and of the christian religion , breaks out into so many partialities , unbecoming an historian , and engages him into so many stories that are evidently false , that little regard is due to any thing he says . i will not enlarge upon the war that followed , only i must observe , that tho constantine as the senior emperour , had the precedence of licinius ; yet he had no sort of authority over him : so here two princes , both equally sovereigns of the roman empire , colleagues and brothers-in-law , for licinius had maried constantine's sister , were engaged in a war : the quarrel was not a general persecution ; but such steps made , as did plainly discover there was one intended . a peace soon after followed . the cement of it was , the declaring licinius's son licinian caesar , who was then 21 years of age ; this put him in the succession . but a second rupture followed quickly after that . licinius's hatred to the christians being rather encreased than abated , since he observed that they all loved constantine ; this proved fatal to licinius , for he was totally defeated at andrianople the 3d of july 324. and after some fruitless attempts , he was forced to put himself in constantines hand , on the 18th . of september following . whereupon he was sent to live a private man at thessalonica : but constantine understanding that he could not rest , ordered him to be put to death , in the beginning of the year 325. now we are in the next place to see what was the sense of the whole church , of this transaction : i confess we ought not to take it singly from eusebius , for he is rather a perpetual encomiast of constantine , than his historian , but we have a much more certain and authentical authority for this : constantine in the same year in which he had put licinius to death , and had taken no notice of lucinian , tho but a year before made caesar by his own act , called the first general council to meet at nice : for in his speech to them , he tells them , that he had given orders to call them together , as soon as he had overcome the tyranny . the council made no exceptions to constantine as an invader ; they did neither enquire after lucinian , nor complain of licinius's fate : on the contrary , when constantine came in and harangned them , eustathius of antioch did entertain him with a panegyrick , full of high commendations ; and another seems to have been made by eusebius , blessing almighty god upon his account ; which speeches pronounced in full council , are at least a strong presumption , that they all approved of the war , and rejoiced in i● the deliverance . this is yet more evident from the 11th . canon of the council , in which they reflect upon the late tyranny of licinius , which shews that tho his death , and the ruin of his family , must have naturally given some compassion for one that was then scarce cold , and that had so lately been their prince : for almost that whole council consisted of those who had been the bishops in his share of the empire ; yet they considered the danger they and their religion had been in under him , and their deliverance by constantine , as vastly superiour to their ties to him ; so that there was an universal ioy over the whole east upon the successes of constantine . the having adhered to licinius , and taking part with him in the war , tho he was then actually their prince , was a matter of such scandal and infamy , that constantine in a letter which he writ to the nicomedians against ensebius their bishop , reproaches him with this , that he had been always in licinius's councils and secrets , that he had all along stuck to him , and had treated himself with reproach ; that he had imployed spies to procure intelligence to licinius , and that he had given him all sort of assistance , except the bearing of armes for him : all which constantine affirms he is ready to prove , by some priest and deacons who had adher'd to eusebius , and whom he had taken prisoners . and thus we see what the sense of the whole church in one of its best ages , and of the first general council , was of a deliverance procured by one sovereign prince's attacking , dethroning , and possessing himself of the empire of another , who had not yet set on foot a general persecution , but had only violated the laws , which the christians , had for the security of their religion , had committed many acts of injustice and violence against them ; and had declared his intentions so visibly , that there was all possible reason to conclude that a general persecution was coming on . not a bishop , nor a priest , stood out against constantine ; not so much as a private christian was of licinius's party : all went into the revolution , and rejoiced in their deliverance , i will not go on to sh●w how parallel that case was to ours ; the attempt were as needless , as it might seem invidious : only i may well conclude , that it is not easy to imagine how we can be better assured of the sense of the whole church in any point , then we are of the sense of the christians of that age , in this particular . i have not said any thing to justify my putting constantine's prevail●ing over licinius in the year immediately before the council of nice , tho baronius puts it six before it . but it is visible that he has disordered the whole history of constantine , on design to maintain his being baptized at rome , with other unjustifiable things ; besides that , eusebius's chronology in this particular , as it is of authority of it self , without any other support , so it is fully confirmed by the dates of some laws in the code , and several other circumstances . it should be hoped that so great and so plain a precedent should conclude those who have made the primitive church their pattern ; and who have always reckoned this one of the special glories of the church of england , that she built upon , and conformed her self to the first ages of christianity . i have now opened these two precedents very particularly to you ; they seemed to weigh much with you when i have laid them out to you in some conferences that i have held with you upon this subject . i hope you will both feel the force that is in them , and and will be able to manage them with more advantage now that you have them lying before you . to conclude all . i do charge you by all the authority i have over you , and beseech you by all the interest that i have in you , to set your selves wholly to your studies and labours ; to be earnest in prayer , to continue in it , and to join fasting with it : search the scriptures diligently , give your selves to reading and meditation , and be you wholly in them ; that so your profiting may appear unto all men ; and watch over the flock committed to your charge : be instant in season , and out of season ; to instruct , admonish , exhort and reprove ; and by so doing , you shall both save yourselves , and them that hear you : in doing these things , you shall always have the most constant assistance , and the most earnest prayers of , my reverend and dear brethren , your most affectionate brother , and humble servant in the lord , g. sarum . 8. decem. 1693. part i. concerning the truth of the christian religion . there is not any one thing that we ought to enquire into with so peculiar exactness , as the truth of that religion which we believe ; nor is there any thing in which we ought to be so conversant , and to which we should be so well prepared , as to defend this great argument , the foundation of our faith and hope . it is a very preposterous way of study to be able to argue about the retail of our religion ; i mean the particular doctrines of it , and the subdivisions into which it is broken , and not to know how to maintain it in gross ; when the truth of it is called in question , either in the petulant way of profane liberty , or with the subtilties of philosophy and criticism . we may have to do with both in the age in which we live . the divisions among christians have made the world conclude , that they had a right to prove all things , that so they may know how to hold fast that which is good . the enthusiasms and hypocrisies of some , and the looseness and disorders among others ; the superstitious magnifying of small matters , and the contending eagerly for them , while the greater , as well as the more useful and more uncontroverted rules have been too visibly and generally neglected ; have furnished them with prejudices , that must be confessed to be but too specious and plausible : and i wish some of us may not have contributed , to make many think we are scarce in earnest in arguing for the truth of our religion , while our lives do but too openly testifie , that we do not firmly believe our own arguments . the great author of our religion has left this woe upon the world , that offences must come ; and the heaviest part of that woe will certainly fall upon those by whom they come . but when we are enquiring into so important a matter , it certainly becomes us to free our minds from prejudices as much as we can : and neither to suffer our selves to be possessed by the first impressions that education made upon us , nor by our present stations and engagements on the one hand ; nor to be led away by the fury of our appetites and passions , and the bad examples that the world abounds in on the other hand : that so we may more freely search after truth , and both find it out , and follow it . as a preamble to what is to come afterwards , let us look into our natures , and see if we do not feel a principle within us that both thinks and acts freely , which is totally different from matter , which neither thinks nor chuses . this principle then feels that its thoughts do direct its freedom in all that it does , and therefore is capable of good or evil , of reward and punishment . the more distinctly that it thinks , and the more exactly that it follows those truths which by thinking it discovers , it feels it self become the more perfect ; the more that it can resist all the impressions which arise either from the constitution of the body , or from outward objects and accidents , it grows to enjoy a perfecter calm within , and is enabled to go through the fatigues and chances of life with much more ease and patience . the more it resists the furious cravings of the body , it enjoys a longer life , and perfecter health . there is also a chain of rules which arise out of these two qualities , that in the opinion of all mankind are the best our nature is capable of , which are veracity and goodness , which render all the societies of men both safe and happy : they establish a confidence , and maintain an entercourse in the world ; they give credit , and draw esteem ; they endear men to one another , and make all the ties , and the whole neighbourhood and commerce of life firm and useful : and there is also a train of thoughts which run through a man's mind and life , which makes him live with great advantage , and die with much firmness ; which give him much courage , and attract much esteem : these are all things that a man may safely affirm , since none question them ; and as no man who sees the constant mirth in which some in bedlam do pass their days , will be from thence tempted to think that they are truly happy ; so the mad frolick in which some libertines waste both their bodies and minds , their lives and fortunes , has never imposed so far on the world , as to make men so much as to doubt , whether it were better to be as they are , or to be good and wise , calm and sober . this then being laid down , it is a great step made in favour of any religion , if it does exactly quadrat with it all : if the principles that it contains , and the rules that it prescribes , are so much of a piece with this , that they do both improve and fortifie it . this does not prove it to be true indeed , but it renders it probable ; it makes us inclined to believe , or at least to wish it to be true . the thoughts of a supream being , who made and preserves all things , who is every-where , and can do whatsoever he pleases , raise vast idea's in us , and give a sort of opening and enlargement to our powers : the sense of his knowing all things , begets a composure , and creates an awe ; the perswasion of his governing the world , gives a quiet , when we know , that as infinite power cannot be withstood , so sovereign wisdom cannot be mistaken : nothing can have such influence , both on our lives , and in our death , as the belief of another world , and of the account that is to be made after death : nothing strikes the hatred of sin , or the obligations to vertue deeper , than the whole theory of the death and sufferings of christ. the rules given in the gospel to all the orders of men , and in all the relations of life , would make all families and societies both easie and happy ; the obligation to strict justice to all others , and to an abatement of what in justice we might demand from others , by doing as we would be done by : the rules of not only passing by , and forgiving injuries , but of loving enemies , and doing good for evil ; the tenderness , as well as the extent of our charity , the measures and manner of our bounty to the poor , the modesty of deportment , the condescending gentleness , as well as the unaffected humility that are enjoined , have all such characters in them , so suited to our faculties , and to human society ; to the calm of a man's mind , as well as to the comforts of his life , to fortifie him against misfortunes , and to support him against the feebleness and frailties of his nature ; that he who will suffer himself to weigh all this carefully , must feel a strong disposition to believe a religion to be true , that agrees with the highest thoughts that we can have of god , and the best seeds or principles that we feel within our selves . all this receives a vast accesfion from the simplicity of the worship prescribed by it , which consists chiefly in the exercise of the sublimest thoughts that we can entertain of god , and the justest that we ought to have of our selves ; all which are to be expressed in the most genuine and simplest manner possible , with the fewest , but the plainest and most significant rites . thus a great advance is made , when a man can be induced to lay all these things together . the whole moral and practical part of christianity , together with the modesty and reasonableness of its worship , are great inducements , if not arguments , to believe all the rest of it : and this will appear the more sensibly , if one sets by it the idolatry and magick , the cruelties and brutalities that have defiled the whole gentile world , either as we find them anciently , even among the politest nations of greece and rome ; and as they continue to this day in so great a part of the world , which lies still under the darkness of paganism , according to the descriptions that navigators and travellers have given us . here is the first foundation to be laid : to this is to be added , that a nation which hates our religion , does yet retain many books that give a vast strength to it ; and so much the greater , as they ( the iews i mean ) have preserved those books with great care . it was a remarkable step , when those books were put in a language of greater extent , and more certainly understood , than that in which they were first writ ; and that long before our religion appeared , which was done by the men of that nation . that translation was received , and long used by them , which prevented endless disputes that must have otherwise arisen in the beginnings of christianity , concerning the true rendring of many passages in them , which relate to an extraordinary person , that was to be sent to them , and was looked for by them , under the name of the messias : for the hebrew language , as it was little known , so it was capable of such different readings and interpretations , that if the matter had not been setled before by an authentical and authorized translation , it does not well appear how it could have been done . a christian would not have had credit enough , nor a iew honesty enough , to have given a work of this kind , in which the world would have acquiesced . now in these books , as there are some predictions that seem looser and more general , such as those concerning the seed of the woman , the seed of abraham , and the issue of david ; so some , chiefly of the later prophets , fixed upon a period of time , as that he should come during the second temple , and within a limited course of years ; and that he should be cut off , but that afterwards the city and sanctuary should be destroyed : that desolations were determined till the war should be at an end . now , without entring into the exact adjusting of the time limited of 70 weeks , we do certainly know that their temple and city were destroyed many ages ago ; and but a few years after , that he , whom we believe to be that messias , had appeared among them , and was cut off by them : so that either it must be owned that this was not a true prophecy , or the messias came before the destruction of ierusalem : this argument receives a vast strength by those who have made out the point of chronology of the 70 weeks of years , that is 490 years , which does exactly agree to the interval of time . this whole matter receives a great confirmation from that unvaluable history which iosephus a iewish priest , and a man of great learning and judgment , well skill'd both in civil and military affairs , and full of zeal both for his country and religion , has writ in so particular a manner , he having been an eye-witness , and a considerable actor in the whole affair . whosoever is at the pains to compare that dismal scene with our saviour's predictions , sees such an agreement between them , that this is no small argument to prove the truth of the whole religion . nor is it to be past over without a special remark , that we have this piece of history writ by a iew , who cannot be suspected ; had a christian writ it , he might , perhaps , have been thought too partial to his religion ; or had a roman writ it , he might have been suspected to have aggravated matters for raising the triumphs of his country ; but there lies no possible colour of suspicion against iosephus : and since he mentions the story both of the forerunner , and of the disciple of our saviour , this is a great presumption , either that the passage relating to our saviour himself is genuine , or that if he said nothing of him , it was because he knew he could say nothing that could derogate from his credit , and that he would say nothing to raise it : for it is plain from those relations concerning st. iohn baptist and st. iames , that he was acquainted with the beginnings of our religion ; besides , that we see a particular curiosity possessed him , of being well informed concerning all the different sects that were among them , and their particular tenets and customs . there are so many passages in the gospel , of which the iews must have had such full and authentical information , that if they had been falsly related , it must have been in their power to have confuted them beyond the possibility of a contradiction . so that as to this part of the argument , so much is certain , that the iews looked for their messias during the second temple , and about the time that our saviour appeared , which disposed them so easily to hearken to every impostor . their temple has been destroyed , their nation dispersed , their genealogies lost , by which the certainty of their being abraham's seed , subsists no more , and their sacrifices have ceased now above 1600. years . so that their hatred of us , and yet their books agreeing with ours , when joined together , make no small part of our argument . but now to come to the strength of our cause , i lay it thus . the gospels were published in the time when many persons were yet alive , who knew , and were appealed to , for the passages contained in them : which is made out thus : first , they mention the temple and nation of the iews as still in being , which shews they were written before the destruction of ierusalem : more particularly , st. luke writ the acts of the apostles two years after st. paul's going to rome , with which he ends that book : and he begins it with the mention of his gospel , as writ some time before that . his gospel also begins with an account of some other gospels that had been then writ . now st. paul's going to rome happened two or three and twenty years after the time of our saviour's passion and resurrection , so early were these things put in writing . they were no sooner written than they were read in the assemblies of the christians , as the iews were wont to read the law and the prophets in their synagogues . this we do find from st. iustin's apology , was the practice of his time , which was less than an hundred years after they were written . so that we clearly see , these writings were not kept as secrets to be divulged as the depositaries of them thought fit , according to the way that the romans had used about the sybilline oracles ; but were immediately copied out for the use of all the churches , and of as many private christians as could compass the copying them . the epistles of the apostles do carry in them characters that lead us very near the time in which they were written : and by comparing those of st. paul with the books writ by st. luke , we see when most of his epistles were writ , many of them being before his going to rome : now these epistles were addressed to whole bodies and churches , and they do often appeal to the life , death , resurrection and ascension of christ , as matters which were then well known , and firmly believed by all christians : from all which i at present infer no more , but that these things were published in the time , and were known in many remote provinces , soon after they were transacted ; and were not kept close to be published in some other age , when it might have been easie for bold impostors to make any thing pass with a credulous multitude . now all this was published near the fountain , and was so soon spread , that in nero's time we know by tacitus , that there were great numbers of them at rome , who had fallen under a publick odium , and on whom nero , though he had burnt rome himself , threw the hatred of that conflagration , and punished them with the severity that such a crime , if truly proved against them , had well deserved . in the gospels we have the relations of our saviour's miracles , of many of his transactions with the iewish nation , so circumstantiated , more particularly the account of his death and resurrection , is given so minutely , that the iews , who might have been easily masters of the books in which these were contained , had it in their power to have overthrown the credit of them , in many instances , if they had found any falshoods in them . if they had not sealed the sepulchre , or asked of pilate a grant to watch it ; if that guard had not run away in the night , and given out a story of their having fallen asleep , the iews could have well disproved this , upon which the whole depended . now as the iews were engaged , both out of their hatred of our saviour and his doctrine , and to justifie themselves from the imputations of having shed his blood , and that of his followers , to have pursued this matter so close , as to have convinced the world of its falshood ; so the progress that it made , did alarm them too much , to make any one imagine that they could despise it . they had it also in their power , by the registers which were in their hands ; and at least , during agrippa's reign , they were in so happy and flourishing a condition , that it cannot be said , that the ill state of their affairs took from them either the heart or the leisure to look after this . all which received a great confirmation from st. paul's conversion , who from being one , not only of their zealots and pharisees , but of the most furious persecutors of this religion , was so strangely struck down , and changed , while a company of their own people were about him , that he became afterwards the most successful of all the first planters of christianity . he did very frequently appeal to that matter of fact , in which it had been easie to have taken away his credit , if they could have denied it . so far then i have gone to shew that this matter was published early , and in the sight of those who were both most concerned , and most able to have detected any deceit that might have been in it ; who did not by any act , of which there remains the least print , among either the writings of their own nation , or of the other enemies to christianity , attempt to discredit it . had not the genealogies of christ been taken exactly out of the temple-registers , the bare shewing of them had served to have confuted the whole ; for if in any one thing , the registers of their genealogies were clear and uncontroverted : since these proved that they were abraham's seed , and likewise made out their title to the lands , which from the days of ioshua were to pass down , either to immediate descendants , or as they failed , to collateral degrees . now this shews plainly , that there was a double office kept of their pedigrees , one was natural , and might be taken when the rolls of circumcision were made up ; and the other related to the division of the land , in which when the collateral line came instead of the natural , then the last was dropt , as extinct , and the other remained : it being thus plain from their constitution , that they had these two orders of tables , we are not at all concerned in the diversity of the two evangelists on this head , since both might have copied them out from those two offices at the temple ; and if they had not done it faithfully , the iews could have authentically demonstrated their error , in entitling our saviour to that received character of the messias , that he was to be the son of david by a false pedigree ; therefore since no exceptions were made in the time when the sight of the rolls must have ended the enquiry , it is plain that they were faithfully copied out : nor are we now bound to answer such difficulties as seem to arise out of them , since they were not questioned in the time in which only an appeal could be made to the publick registers themselves . if then it is yielded , that those publick actions done in the sight of many witnesses , passed , without being challenged or disproved in that time , here was a series of most wonderful things , done by a man with a word : he calmed seas and winds , he fed great multitudes out of a very small store , which increased vastly as it was distributed ; he cured the most desperate diseases , such as palsies and leprosies : he gave sight to the blind , strength to the lame , and hearing to the deaf ; he healed many of their infirmities ; and which was more than all the rest , he raised some that were dead , to life again : one was indeed but newly dead , but another was led out to be buried , and a third had been four days dead : his own resurrection , ascension , and the wonderful effusion of the holy ghost , surpassed all , and were the confirming seals and testimonies of his whole doctrine ; and proved that he was sent and authorised by god. and besides the miracles which were wrought by those whom he sent to preach his doctrine , the gift of tongues that they had , as it was absolutely necessary for the discharge of their commission , of going to teach all nations ; so it was of a nature not to be capable of an imposture ; since it was in the power of every single man to have discovered the truth or falshood of it . in other miracles it may be suggested , that witnesses might be so managed , as to carry on the credit of them , true or false : but the apostles having given this out as a part , and a main part of their history , we cannot suppose but that this was true , otherwise the falshood of it must have been discovered , and with it the whole must have sunk . if these extraordinary things were really transacted as they are related , it cannot be pretended that they were the effects of some secrets in nature , which our saviour might know : for though the loadstone may be plaid with so much variety , as to amuse a simple man ; and though jugglers by a slight of hand seem to do wonders ; yet the vast variety , as well as the great usefulness of our saviour's miracles , shews he was not limited to a few secrets , which work always one way : nor were the wonders he did , shews of pomp , that do only amuse ; but they were things of such use to mankind , that it very well became one who was sent of god to prove his mission by them : nor can it be said that imagination wrought powerfully , and made people fancy they saw things that they saw not ; or that the persuasion which some took up , might so strike their fancy , as really to cure their diseases ; for though a hypochondriacal person may be deceived , especially in the dark or twilight , yet numbers of people in full daylight could not agree in the same mistakes : some effects were too signal to be so mistaken ; such , as for a man born blind , to be made to see by a word ; or for a storm to be calmed with a rebuke : and tho' in critical diseases , such as feavers , which lie in the fermentations of the blood , a strong conceit may have a real operation ; yet chronical distempers , and natural defects go not off by fancy . nor can it be thought that these wonderful operations could come from the assistance of an evil spirit ; for since our saviour's doctrine tended wholly to pull down the kingdom of satan , to destroy idolatry and magick , and to root out all immorality , an evil spirit could not co-operate to carry on so good a design ; otherwise it had changed its nature , and from being bad , must have grown good ; so that our saviour's answer to this objection was full and clear ; that if satan was divided against himself , his kingdom could not stand : for our saviour's doctrine being so totally opposite to him , if he had joined his force to give it credit , he must thereby have pulled down his own kingdom . but to give infidelity its utmost advantage , we shall now consider that which is its last refuge , and chief strength ; which is , that in all ages some men have been so bold and crafty , while the herd has been so simple and credulous , that many impostors have past upon the world in such different shapes , that though we cannot discover the conduct of them , yet we are not for that to judge in favour of them ; and therefore though it is not easie to assign the method how christianity came to be received , we may still have reason to mistrust the whole matter . this might be tolerably alledged , if there were any one thing in our religion that gave the least shadow to suspicion : if the teachers of it had pretended either to authority , wealth , or pleasure ; if , on the contrary , the rules that were laid down in it , did not shut out all these : for whatsoever corrupt men may have brought in since by an after-game , that has no relation to the beginnings and doctrines of our religion , which does directly contradict them . so far were the first publishers of this from expecting advantages by it , that they knew they were to be exposed to much contempt and hatred , and that by their own countrymen , in which there is a peculiar sting : they looked for severe persecutions , nor were they disappointed ; they endured great hardships , by want and poverty , by imprisonments , and cruel whippings , and in conclusion , they lost their lives in the cause : and they did so certainly reckon for all this , that they warned their first converts of a fiery trial that was to come upon them , and of much tribulation through which they must enter into the kingdom of heaven . impostors must draw on their followers by specious promises , and flattering hopes ; and it argues a great certainty of success , as well as an assurance of the truth of a cause , when those who promote it , are so far from drawing on men by allurements , till they are once engaged , that they warn them early of the dangers and difficulties that are before them : with this our saviour begun , when he said , if any man will come afcer me , let him deny himself , take up his cross daily , and become my disciple . the severe morals which accompany this doctrine , and are indeed a main part of it , are a very lively character of integrity . the true secret of all corrupt religions is , that they propose somewhat to be done for the honour of the deity , by which their votaries may compensate with god , and may buy off their obligations to solid and true vertue : but a religion that proposes a simple and naked worship , with such easie performances in it , that no man can suppose the bare doing of them is any way meritorious ; and that proposes these , not as compensations , but as helps to real holiness , and that carries the obligation to it , into the secret recesses of the heart , to our very thoughts , words and looks , has nothing of the air or genius of imposture in it . a religion that flatters no part of mankind , no not those who are in possession of the greatest esteem , has a farther character of truth in it . the iews valued themselves upon their being abraham's posterity , and their having a law of many precepts given them by god ; among them the most popular were the pharisees , who valued themselves chiefly upon many voluntary observances , as fences and outworks to the law , which kept them out of danger of disobeying . now a great part of the doctrine of our saviour , and his apostles , was designed to beat them out of these , to discover the hypocrisie of the pharisees ; to shew them that all the gentile nations were now to be set on the same level with them , and that thenceforth the obligation and vertue of all their legal performances was at an end . the apostles shewed as little inclination to gratifie or flatter the most admired part of heathenism , i mean the philosophers , who delighted in lofty eloquence , refined subtilty , and sublime metaphisicks : but nothing of all this appearing among them , they were despised by the philosophers , who esteemed all inspiration , madness ; and were prepossessed against both miracles and prophecies , as no better than juggleries . there was nothing left to gain , but the rabble and herd , and yet these were not flattered neither . they are always struck with pomp and magnificence , they love sights and shows , and a splendid exterior in religion , to which both iews and gentiles had been so much accustomed , that besides the difficulty of making them forsake the religion of their fathers , in which they had been educated , which is always a thing of an ill sound , and of a bad appearance ; they were to draw them from pageantry to simplicity ; and from outward and costly shews , to a naked , plain way of strictness and purity . in all these things it must be confessed , that there is nothing of the methods of imposture : now to suspect that any artifice lies hid , when all appearances contradict it , is a very unreasonable piece of jealousie , and looks as if men were resolved to suspect only for suspicion's sake . when therefore there is positive proof brought on the one side , of miracles publickly done , attested by great numbers of witnesses , published in the same age , while great multitudes were yet alive , who were appealed to , and who did so confirm these books , that they were read in all the assemblies of the saints or christians , as the text and rule of their belief , as well as of their manners ; when , i say , all this is proved , and when there appears nothing , neither in the doctrine it self , nor in the management of the apostles , and their first converts , to furnish us with any colour of apprehending any foul dealing , it is an unreasonable thing , still to stand upon the general argument , of the possibility of an imposture . but though it be not necessary , and indeed in many cases not possible , to prove a negative , yet this argument is so full of evidence , that even that may be undertaken here . there are four things possible that may be alledged as methods to support the possibility of a deceit , put on the world in this matter . the 1 st is , that the apostles intended a deceit , which they contrived and managed successfully . the 2 d is , that they themselves were dcceived , and were made tools to abuse others . the 3 d is , that the whole matter went about in tales and stories , till by every one's magnifying them , they grew to be believed without strict enquiry , and due proof made . and the 4 th is , that the books which contain this doctrine were at first more sparingly writ , but were afterwards interpolated , many passages being put in them that had not been in them at first . i have never met with , nor can i imagine any other hypothesis for infidelity to found upon ; and i am not afraid to name all these , because i am very certain i can demonstrate the absolute incredibility of every one of them . as to the first , of the apostles having contrived and managed this , on design to abuse the world. we see nothing in them that looks like this ; a plain simplicity and unaffected honesty appears in all their discourses and actions : they were not bred to literature , eloquence , or policy ; some one or all of which are necessary for men who venture upon such undertakings : and therefore persons utterly unfurnished in them are little to be suspected . but if men be without all these helps , at least they must be naturally subtile and dextrous , bold and daring : since nature , when well moulded , may be capable of great matters , without the refinings of art. now the apostles , as they were all , except st. paul , of galilee , which bred the most contemptible men of all iudea ; so they were fishermen by their trade , which of all the imployments that we know , does naturally flat the spirits the most : they are in the water much , in the night for most part , and in open boats , which exposes them to such cold and flegmatick air , that this must needs dull their spirits exceedingly . but let us suppose them to be as capable , either of the wickedness of contriving , or of the skill in managing such a fraud , as prophane men can fancy them to be . i go next to shew , that the supposition is absurd . the resurrection of christ was the main point upon which all the rest turned . i am now to suppose what shall afterwards be proved , that this matter went abroad at first in the same manner in which we do now read it in the gospel ; and so in this place i am only to shew , that the relation which we now have , could not be the contrivance of the apostles . our saviour was laid in a new tomb , not an ancient sepulchre , to which there might have been secret avenues , that had been so long forgot , that they were known only to some few persons . this was both newly made , and hewen out of a rock : so it might have been well examined , and a passage could not be wrought into it in a night or two . this happened likewise in the beginning of the paschal solemnity , when it was full moon , which in so pure an air gives a very bright light . at that time ierusalem was so full of people , all the iews coming up to keep the feast , that it being then their summer , since we see handfulls of corn were to be offered up at that time , as the first-fruits of the years growth ; we have reason to believe , that great numbers , who could not be conveniently lodged in ierusalem , were in so pleasant a time , and at so great a rendezvous , walking in the fields in the night-time . these things cannot be denied : the apostles had also seen , that one of their number , of whom they had suspected no such thing before , had betrayed our saviour ; that the fear with which they themselves were struck upon his-apprehension , had made them all run away , and forsake him ; and in particular , that he who had been on other occasions the forwardest of them all , and who had been warned by our saviour of his danger , and so was , by consequence , on his guard , and less likely to fall , had yet upon a remote apprehension of danger , with repeated oaths denied that he knew him . now he who through fear will deny a truth , is much more like , upon the same , or a greater danger , to discover a falshood . this being the state of that matter , let us now see how we can possibly imagine the apostles , who knew what effects fear had so lately upon themselves , and who had also seen to what a degree one of them might he corrupted , could so far trust either themselves or one another in such a matter , in which they had reason to believe , that the iews , who had gone so far with their master , would spare neither arts nor violenee to fetch out the secret : besides , that to venture on an imposture , which goes so much against human nature , and which naturally strikes men with fears and jealousies , men must be long practised to boldness , and must have made such essays upon themselves , and upon one another , as to think they are secure of all that are in the confidence . but let us pass over all this , and then see how the matter , when resolved on , could have been managed . either they were to steal away the body of christ , or to leave it in the sepulchre . if they had left it , all must have broke out immediately ; the bare exposing the body must have confuted all that they could have said ; so it must be supposed that they carried it away : now how this could be done when a watch was set , when the moon shone bright , and such numbers of men were wandring about in every corner , is not easie to be imagined . some persons to a considerable number must be imployed , if it had been to be carried to any distance , and they could not think themselves safe if it had been laid near the place of the sepulchre : some trace or print must have remained , if they had broke ground ; which they must have expected would have been looked for ; and being found out , would have discovered all ; not to mention the natural horror that all men have , at the handling dead bodies , even in what is necessary for their burial , but most of all iews , who by their law became defiled to a high degree by it . but suppose the dead body so disposed of , that they apprehended to hear no more news of it , how is it to be imagined , that those frequent apparitions of our saviour's , particularly that in galilee , to five hundred at once , which is appealed to , while many of them were yet alive , could have been manageed . here then , we have first twelve witnesses , against whom no just exception lies , even to feed suspicion , who affirm a matter of fact , and call in many others as their vouchers to support their testimony : they stand to it to the last , tho' they suffered much for it , and could not possibly gain any thing by it ; and yet are supposed by infidels to contrive and stick to a forgery , meerly to perswade the world to vertue and purity , and to sincerity and truth ; which they begin with a train of falshood and deceit , without any other visible bait but their love to their dead master ; that they might magnifie him , and give him a lasting name , and wipe off the reproach of his infamous death , by this bold contrivance of theirs . a man that can suppose all this to be possible , will suppose any thing ; and shews , that he has no regards , so much as to the colours of truth , but will advance any thing , rather than be beaten out of his infidelity . but to follow this matter more home ; a part , and a great one , of the history of the gospel , is , that ten days after our saviour ascended up into heaven , in the sight of his apostles , which with infidels will pass for a part of the contrivance , they received such extraordinary illapses and powers from heaven , in consequence to the promises that our saviour had made them , that they were enabled to work miracles , and to speak with divers tongues : and the first essay of this appeared at the next festival of the iews , in which ierusalem was again filled , not only with all the iews of iudea , but also with those of the dispersion , who from all quarters were come up at pentecost , from the east , as far as from persia and media , from the west , as far as from rome and libia , from the south , as far as from arabia , and from the north , as far as from parthia , and many provinces of asia the less , and from several islands , as well as from the continent . here was an astonishing thing , to see unlettered men , all of the sudden break out in speaking of languages ▪ in which they had no sort of education or practice : fevers or enthusiastical heats may inflame men so far , as to make them speak those languages which they understand , tho' they are not otherwise ready at them ; for the prints being already in their brains , a strong exaltation of their spirits , may fetch those out much better than they themselves in a cooler and more sedate state could have done ; but where there are no previous impressions , no heat whatsoever can fetch out that which is not within : now as this was the most necessary of all other things to qualifie men to execute their commission , of going to teach all nations , in which they must have made a very slow progress , if they must have learned the language of every countrey to which they were to go ; so it was the most signal of all others , and as was formerly hinted at , was that which must have been presently discover'd if it had not been notoriously and unquestionably true . with these powers , and those languages , the apostles went every where ; and promised to confer the like gifts on those that should receive and believe their gospel : and in the epistles which they writ afterwards to those churches , even when their authority was called in question , they appealed to the gifts of the holy ghost conferred by their means ; so that either these things were notoriously true , or they must have been despised as the most assuming and impudent of all impostors : these were their credentials that procured them a hearing ; and as men were disposed to eternal life , so they received and entertained their message . thus we have seen by a great variety of considerations which this matter presents to us , that not only there is no colour of reason , to incline a man to think that the apostles designed to impose upon the world , but that there is all possible reason to the contrary , to persuade us , that they were in no respect capable of projecting any such thing , nor of effecting it if they had intended it . the 2 d. supposition of infidelity is , that they themselves might have been deceived by two or three designing persons , who might have imposed upon them : that in the twilight a troubled fancy might be made imagine , that they saw christ , which being affirmed by those who were on the secret , the rest might so far comply with those who said they saw him , as either to imagine it , or at least to yield to the rest , so as to say , that they saw him ; for so conceits do sometimes spread , and whole crouds fancy they see or hear things , being faced down by the boldness of a few impudent persons ; and this being once set about , the same artifices might prevail again and again upon the same weaknesses . this might look tolerable , if there were no more to be said for the resurrection of christ than one or two transient views ; but continued discourses , the reaching his hands and side to be felt to ; christ's appearance to numbers in full day-light , with all the series of what passed between him and his disciples ; and finally , his blessing them , and being parted from them , and ascending up to heaven ; but above all , the wonderful pentecosts that followed it , the strange effusion of the holy ghost , and the extraordinary gifts that were then given , were things in which it was not possible for men to be deceived . so that the apostles did either certainly know that all those things which they attested were true , or that they were false ; there can be no mean in the matter ; and indeed this objection is so slight , that it scarce deserved to be considered . the 3 d. pretence is more specious ; that the history of the gospel passed easily upon the world , without due examination , that it appears both by some hints that are in the new testament , and several passages in iosephus , that the iews were at that time very credulous , and were apt to follow every pretender : they were broken into several sects , and under great distractions and oppressions , which prepare men to hearken after novelties : so that great numbers might run in upon rumours , and they being once engaged , they might reckon , that in honour they could not go off , and would stick to it even to the hazard of their lives . so we see some enthusiasts and sectaries in all ages , have courted martyrdom , and endured great misery with a triumphant firmness . but to answer all this , a great difference is to be made between points of speculation , and matters of fact ; in the former , men drink in persuasions , and then they grow to be so full of them , especially when a conceit of their own understanding is twisted with them , so that they think it an affront to their own reason , at least a detracting from its reputation , to confess so publickly that they were mistaken ; but in matters of fact the thing is quite otherwise , these are to be strictly enquired into , and a man's believing them imports no more , but that he had a good opinion of those that informed him , nor is it any reproch to be too easy in this ; it rather argues a man to be candid and good in himself , which makes him to apt too think well of others , and to believe them : and how firm soever men may be to opinions , when they have once approved themselves , so that self-love works secretly , yet they are still ready to re-examine matters of fact , when their first informations are called in question ; especially if they are like to suffer considerably for owning and espousing them . it is very true , that the iews had so general an expectation of a messias about this time , that they were apt to run after every pretender , yet they were as apt to forsake him , when their hopes failed them . but all their expectations run in so different a channel , from what they saw in our saviour , that how much soever their curiosity might have prompted them once to run to him , their prejudices drew them so strongly from him , that nothing but mighty and unanswerable evidence could make them still adhere to him . they had groaned long under the slavery of a bloody tyrant , they hated herod and his family , they could not bear the roman yoke , that was coming over them . they fancied a messias should come , in whom the characters of a moses and a david should meet , that he should raise the honour of their nation , and establish the observances of their laws . there were three things in our saviour and his doctrine , any one of which was sufficient to disgust them . 1 st . his mean and humble appearance ; whereas they looked for a glorious conquerour and a magnificent prince . when he made nothing of paying tribute to caesar , and despised the offers of a crown , they could not but despise him for it , according to their notions . 2 ly . his seeming to set a low value on the observances of the law , and his disciples setting the gentiles at liberty from them , was of all things that which appeared to them the most odious and impious : they were so accustomed to a reverence for those rites , that no sort of immorality could strike them , so much as a coldness in them , and therefore they could not bear some liberties which our saviour or his disciples took on the sabbath day , even tho' those could have well been reconciled to the letter of the law ; and 3 ly . besides the common fondness that all men have for their countrey , they had so particular a value for their own , for abraham's circumcised posterity , and such a contempt for all the heathen nations , who were no better than dogs in their esteem ; that the many broad hints that appeared in our saviour's parables and discourses in favour of the gentiles , and the open declaration which the apostles soon after made , of bringing them into an equality of dignity and priviledges with themselves , was such a stone of stumbling to every natural iew , that nothing besides a full and uncontested evidence could have ballanced it : therefore tho' it may be confessed , that the circumstances the iews were in , made them easy to be practised upon , and to run as often as any said , see here is the messias , or there he is ; yet their prejudices and false notions were so rooted in them , that as a great many of them left our saviour , and fell off from his apostles , when they understood the tendencies of his doctrine ; so those that stuck to him , were without doubt so far shaken by those prejudices , that they made them examine all things the more critically , and particularly look into those wonderful matters of fact that were believed among them ; so that how easy soever their first credulity might have been , they must have re-consider'd the matter more narrowly before they could overcome principles and notions that were so deeply rooted in them . men are not easily carried to forsake their friends and families , to draw upon them the hatred and curses of their countreymen . these things have a charm and authority in them , which few can withstand ; but when it rested not there , but went on to all sorts of outrages , to the spoiling their goods , the imprisoning their persons , to cruel whippings , to the beheading some , and the stoning others , when this fury grew so general , that even devout and honourable women in contradiction to the gentleness and decencies of their sex , went in to it ; then at least it is reasonable to suppose , that they made all possible enquiries into the matters of fact. i do acknowledge that the martyrdoms in the succeeding ages , are no concluding proof in the behalf of our religion , but in the first age , in which the question was , whether such things were seen and heard , or not ; mens suffering so much for their persuasions , shews this at least , that they were so persuaded . therefore when this was the point , whether they had seen or heard such or such things ? their adhering firmly to it , shewed that they did so believe . the case was yet more amazing with relation to the gentiles , who were generally given up to a sensual as well as to a sensible religion , that was overrun with idolatry and magick ; who were not acquainted with the prophecies that were among the iews , and despised them as a mean and a factious nation , that had an ill-natur'd religion ; so that they had not that disposition among them , which awaken'd the curiosity of the iews . they had been so accustomed to gross and lewd fables concerning their gods , that it was the moulding them anew , to talk of one invisible deity , and of a spiritual worship , or a severe morality , especially in some particulars , such as the restraint of appetite , or the loving an enemy . add to all this , that the heathen priests were soon aware , that this doctrine would have very ill effects upon their profits and authority ; therefore they animated the world into a most implacable hatred of them , which broke out soon into most violent persecutions : and as the governors of the provinces and subaltern magistrates were willing enough to gratify the people in their fury , so the emperors themselves were soon set on against them . the restless tempers of the iews at that time had so provoked them , that it was crime enough for the christians to be consider'd as a sect of the iews ; and so careless were they in rome , of enquiring exactly into those matters , that we find by suetonius , that they believed that christ had set on the iews to all their seditions , by which they must have been enflamed so much the more against the christians ; and if such a monster as nero was rightly informed of the exactness of their morals , that must have sharpned him so much the more against them . there was in his time a vast multitude of them at rome , the matter of fact concerning christ's being put to death in tiberius's reign by pontius pilate , procurator at iudea , was so well known , that it was put in the annals of that time ; and the christians appeal'd to the publick registers for many other particulars relating to it . no wonder if the singularity of their doctrine , and the strictness of their lives , draw a general hatred upon them ; nero laid hold on this , and he having once fastned the burning of rome upon them , was obliged to follow that with a severity proportion'd to the heaviness of the imputation . upon all these accounts we see how little the gentiles were disposed to hearken to our saviour's doctrine , or to the testimony of his apostles ; and as for the few philosophers that were among them , as they were more likely to look into the proofs that were offer'd , or the evidence that was given , with an inquisitive strictness , so they were as strongly prejudic'd against it , as either their pride or their principles could make them ; they were haughty and scornful men , they despised the vulgar as a contemptible herd , and undervalued all that were not formed into their notions , and accustomed to their cant. they had such a high opinion of their own understandings and their theories , that they were possessed against inspiration , miracles and prophecy ; they could not digest mysteries , nor hear any thing that seem'd to rise above a man's understanding : nor could they endure a doctrine that took in all sorts of people within it ; reckoning , that only men of a peculiar frame of mind , and of a singular education , were capable of true philosophy ; and they were men that studied both to be popular and safe : so that howsoever socrates had exposed himself to the fury of the athenians , by contradicting the received opinions concerning the divinity ; yet all the later pretenders had avoided his fate , by complying with receiv'd opinions and practises . so that upon all these accounts we see , that all sorts of people were at the beginnings of christianity so strongly prejudic'd against many things in it , that nothing but a very extraordinary evidence could have overcome it ; nothing less than the demonstration of the spirit , that is of the inspiration that did actuate them , which was given with power in mighty signs and wonders , could have overcome it . it was to this that they always appealed , and this only could conquer such mighty prejudices . when the love of this world , together with the fears of suffering , made many fall back , chiefly to judaism , we do not find that they furnish'd the enemies of this religion with any thing to object to it , or detract from it ; tho' apostases , who to justifie their own change , and to beat off the reproaches of those whom they forsake , are observ'd to have a peculiar sharpness against those of whose sect they once were . they may be apt to forge unjust slanders and calumnies , but are not like to suppress any scandalous truth that they can suggest against them : and yet we find no prints of any such things alledged by any of them ; if there had been either delusion , imposture or magick in those great performances , those apostates could have discover'd all such secrets ; some having fallen away that had been partakers of the holy ghost , and of the powers of the world to come ; that is of the dispensation of the messias . we see by pliny's epistle how early christianity had spread it self over the northern parts of asia the lesser , filling not only their towns and cities , but even their villages and hamlets , to such a degree , that the temples of the gods were forsaken , and no more sacrifices were offer'd at their altars : he adds , that many had of their own accord return'd back from that religion , before he had begun to prosecute them ; some three years before , others more , and one five and twenty years before that time : which is a good character , to shew us how early christianity had been spread in those parts ; he adds , that an incredible multitude was informed against , and that his severity had brought back a great many ; by these he might have been well informed concerning them . he adds , that since he saw such numbers in danger of falling under the severity of the imperial edicts , he had tortured two of their deaconesses , that he might draw from them all the secrets that were amongst them : but he found nothing , only an inflexible aversion to the worship of the gods , and the genius of the emperor ; and that they met and sung hymns to christ as a god , and were tied by vows not to commit adultery , nor to steal , or deceive , or commit other crimes ; and that their feasts were innocent and harmless . this happening not above seventy years after our saviour's death , shews us how fast this doctrine did spread , and what vast number had then embraced it ; and yet these being all born and bred with such prejudices against it , cannot be supposed to have received it too rashly , or to have believed it implicitly . the last supposition of infidelity yet remains to be consider'd , which is , that something must be yielded to have been published and received concerning this religion , soon after its first appearance ; but that in process of time the books might have been interpolated , after all the eye-witnesses were dead , and many additions of great importance might have been clapt in afterwards . and this indeed is the plausiblest part of their whole plea ; for if they yield that the books which we now have , were given out in the same manner as we have them , and that they were receiv'd in the age in which many eye-witnesses were alive to vouch them , then all that can be cavilled at , after this is once yielded , is so poor and slight , that it only shews the incurable obstinacy of those who maintain it . this last has more colour : there were many gospels given out at first , as st. luke informs us , some false gospels there were ; and there was a consierable diversity among some copies ; parcels were in some , that were left out in others : and it could scarce be otherwise , while many were writing what they themselves knew and saw , and others might copy these too hastily , and uncorrectly : yet within a hundred years after our saviour's death , we find this matter was so settled , that we see these books were cited by iustin , and iremaeus , not to mention the epistles of clemens , ignatius and policarp ; and from them downward , in a continued succession of writers , and they were such as we now have them . i except only such small variations , as might be the mistakes and errours of copies ; all which when put together , amount to nothing that is of any importance to the matters of our belief , or the rule of our life . now , when we consider how near st. iohn lived to that time , and that irenaeus was instructed by policarp , who was ordained by st. iohn , and lived not far from him , when we see what weight irenaeus lays on the scriptures , in opposition to all oral tradition , and how positively he makes his appeals to them : when we see how soon after that time , both the greek and latin , the roman and affrican churches , those of syria and aegypt , do all agree to cite the same books , in the same words , or with inconsiderable variations , we have all reason to conclude , that this great point of the books was setled much sooner : since by the end of a hundred years they were in all peoples hands , and were read in all the assemblies of christians ; they were also read by their enemies , trypho in particular , as iustin informs us : we see also soon after this , that celsus had read them ; and indeed , it is plain from all the christian writers in those ages , that the books of the n. testament were in all mens hands ; they quote them so often in their apologies , and other books , as writings that were generally read and known : such a spreading of books , and multiplying of copies , was a work of time , when all was to be writ out ; and this was so near the fountain , that we have all reason to believe that the originals at least of st. paul's epistles to the churches , were still preserved : and tho an oral tradition of a doctrine , even for so short a period , is so doubtful a conveyance , that it were not easy to think , that it might not have enlarged a little beyond the truth ; yet a tradition of some books could hardly in so very short a time have been varied , or altered , chiefly in so important a point , as the resurrection of christ , which was the main article of their belief , and that which runs as a thread through all the sermons and epistles of the apostles : and indeed , this being once yielded , settles all the rest with it . therefore since we have such a copious concurrence of authors that cite those books all-a-long , from that time downwards , besides the epistles of those apostolical men , st. clement , st. ignatius , and st. policarp , the first having writ in that very time , probably before the destruction of ierusalem , and the other two soon after it ; in which several of the books of the n. testiment are cited , as writings then well known , and in all mens hands : we must from all this firmly conclude , that the books , as we now have them , are not altered from the form in which they were at first writ . they were quickly copied out for the use of the churches ; they were read at the assemblies of the christians ; they were translated into the vulgar tongues , particularly the latin and syriach , very early ; so that they becoming so soon publick , and getting into so many hands , it was not possible for any one , who might have had the wickedness to have attempted the corrupting them , to have compassed it afterwards . and what noise soever the enemies of our faith may make of the various readings , and how much soever the bulk of them , as they are added to the polyglot bible , may at first view strike the eye ; yet when all these are examined , they amount not to any one variation in any article of our faith , and they appear so plainly to be the slips of the writers , that this can never shake any man who will be at the pains to search it to the bottom . so that i have now gone round all the suppositions of infidelity , and have , i hope , clearly evinced , that there is not any one of them which is in any sort credible , or even possible . i will in conclusion consider some few of their objections , indeed all that i have ever met with , which seem to have any force ; some cannot imagine why our saviour , after his resurrection , shewed himself only to a few , and did not come in next day to the temple , and shew himself to that vast assembly , which was then to be there ; since that must for ever have put an end to all doubting , and have silenced all his enemies . this were a very reasonable objection , if god's ways were as our ways : our warm tempers that boil with resentment , and that pursue eagerly our own vindication , would have no doubt wrought this way ; but if we go to ask an account of all god's works or ways , we shall find them very different from our own notions . a great part of his creation seems useless to us : much of it seems defective , as well as another part seems superfluously redundant to us : there are many very unaccountable things , both in the structure of our bodies , and the temper of our minds ; and if we will quarrel with every thing that does not suit our own notions , we will be very uneasie in our thoughts . there are some sins , for which god gives over all further dealing with persons and nations , and upon which he delivers them up to their own reprobate minds : and when he has used such sufficient means , as might well serve to convince and reform them , he lets them alone , and leaves them to their own hearts lusts : those who had seen so many of our saviour's miracles , which , instead of having a good effect on them , did only serve to harden them the more in their opposition to him , did well deserve that god should suffer them to harden themselves still more and more : and it was enough that christ shewed himself so often to such a competent number of unexceptionable witnesses , and give them full powers to prove their testimony concerning him , by working such miracles as he himself had wrought . why he did it in this way , and in no other , is among the secrets of his councils , which are to us unsearchable . when our souls become more perfect , our capacities and faculties more enlarged , and our thoughts more exalted , then we may come to understand the reason of these things more perfectly than it is possible for us to do in this depressed and darkned state . one thing after all we may gather from our saviour's words , who has pronounced them blessed who have not seen , and yet have believed ; and from the value that in many places of the new testament is set on faith and on believing , that god did not intend to give the world such an undeniable evidence , as that it should be out of their power to disbelieve : for to believe either such things as our senses do plainly perceive , or to believe mathematical truths , is that to which our nature constrains us , and for which we can deserve no sort of commendation . therefore to make our faith to be both well grounded , and also highly acceptable to god , it is enough that there are sufficient reasons offered to us , to persuade our belief , and that there is no good reason to the contrary , tho' we may start possibilities of imaginary reasons against it ; and a man who is so far convinced by those , that he is from thence determin'd to believe all the other parts of that revelation , both the promises and the precepts of it , so that he gives himself up to its conduct in the whole course of his life , in the assured expectation of the promises it sets before him ; has such a faith , that must certainly be of great value in the sight of god ; because it has a great effect on the believer himself . there is beauty enough in the rules of our religion , to oblige every man to examine well the authority upon which it rests , and to him that will set his thoughts a working upon it , this authority will soon appear strong enough to determine his assent : and when that has its due operation upon him , then his faith has had its full effect . so that it is no dull , nor lazy or implicite faith on which the new testament sets so high a value ; it is a faith that purifies the heart , that worketh by love , that makes us new creatures , and engages us to keep the commandments of god. so that this objection has no other force in it but this , that god's ways are a great depth , and to us are past finding out . a second objection is , that if our saviour and his apostles gave such proofs of their mission , how is it to be imagined , that any man could be so obstinate , as to stand it out against so full a conviction ? these things were probably enquired into at that time , by men of all sides ; curiosity might work on some , and fear on others : and those who had drawn the guilt of his blood upon them , were most particularly concern'd to examine the matter carefully , since blood is apt to raise a clamour within , which is not easily silenced : besides , according to the acts of the apostles , the iews , and even their sanhedrin , seem to have been struck with the reports of his resurrection , so that they knew not how to gainsay it , and were concerned only to stifle and silence it . now it seems somewhat unaccountable , how it came that they still stood out , and were not overcome with all that evidence , if it was so full as we do now represent it ? but in answer to this , it is to be considered , that there is a perversness and depravedness in humane nature that cannot be accounted for . to some of the enemies of our religion , i mean the iews , this can be no objection , since pharaoh's hardning himself against all moses's miracles and messages , and even the murmurings of their forefathers the israelites , in the wilderness , are every whit as extraordinary instances of the depravation of humane nature , as these we now consider were : but indeed we need not go so far to seek for amazing characters and instances of the madness of mankind ; no laws , no rewards , no punishments , no experience nor observation can make men wise or good . when men are once engaged in ill courses , they quickly contract habits , and are soon hardned in them ; and when pride and interest are got on the side of that , which of it self was strong enough to overcome them , then they become intractable and fierce against every opposition , and become really the worse , the more they are pursued and dealt with . another objection is , why do not some of those miracles that seem to have been with a sort of profusion thrown out abundantly at first , now appear to convince the world , for these would certainly have a great effect ? what was said to the first objection , belongs in a great measure to this . we are not to ask of god an account of his ways , if he has laid enough before us for our conviction ; and if that is rejected by us , we have no reason to expect that he should disturb the order that he has setled in the creation , to gratifie our humours . it were not suitable to that order , that he has so wisely and usefully establish'd , that it should be too often put out of its channel : it is enough that at the first openings of the two revealed religions that he delivered to the world , he gave evident signs , both of his dominion over the works of his hands , and of his having authorised those whom he sent to speak in his name . that being then fully done , and the precepts of this religion bearing such an apparent suitableness to our natures , and to the interests of all humane societies , there is no sort of reason for us to demand more proof , than that which god was pleas'd to give at first . besides , that all ages and nations have the same pretended claim to miracles , for they are equally his creatures ; and we can fancy no reason why he should be partial to some , more than to others : now if there were such a constant return of miracles , the whole argument from them would in a little time be lost ; men grow accustomed to what they see daily , and it makes no impression , otherwise the wonders of day and night , of summer and winter , the ebbing and flowing of the sea , would work more powerfully on us , than they do . a superfetation of miracles would have no effect , if it were not a bad one , to make the divine power in working them be called in question , and to lead men to impute them to some natural cause , or to some secrets known only to a few . in all which we may conclude , that according to what our saviour said of moses and the prophets , if men believe not christ and his apostles , they would not believe , tho' a man should rise from the dead , or that the most uncontested miracle that they would call for , should be wrought for their conviction . another objection of the infidels is taken from the differences that are between the gospels , in which the same passages seem to be variously related in different words , and in another order of time ; things being by some set down as done after those things before which they are set by others . questions and answers are variously stated ; they also find some reasonings that do not seem concluding , even those that are brought to convince gainsayers , where there ought to be more exactness . there is also a lowness and flatness of style , that makes the books seem but mean ; nor are they laid in any exactness of method , but seem to run in a loose ramble ; besides , that there are many passages in them that look staring , as that of christ's preaching to the spirits in prison , that of melchisedeck , and some other things that we scarce know what to make of . these things look not like the products of divine inspiration . but in answer to all this , we are to consider the different orders of inspiration , according to the different ends for which it is given . moses had the law , as the iews confess , by an immediate communication with god , as one man converses with another , expressed by the phrase of face to face , or mouth to mouth ; such a degree seemed necessary for one who was to deliver an entire system of a religion of sacred rites , as well as binding laws to that nation . but those who were only sent to call on the people to the obedience of the law , and to denounce judgments upon their disobedience , and give out predictions , received a lower degree of inspiration ; the will of god being represented to them in dreams and visions , in which several representations were drammatically impressed on their imaginations , and explained by a secret intimation made by god to them : others had yet a lower degree , being animated by a divine excitation to compose holy hymns and discourses to the edification of the people : now as the iews divide the books of the old testament in three different volumes , according to these various degrees of inspiration ; according to which division our saviour himself cites the old testament ; in all of which , we find that those holy penmen writ in such a diversity , that it is apparent every one was left to his own way and geni●us , as to style and composition , some being much loftier than others . now to apply this to the new testament ; it was necessary that men sent to publish such a doctrine , should be so divinely filled with the knowledge of it , and should be so actuated by that same influence that assisted them miraculously , as neither to be able to mistake , nor misrepresent any part of it ; for the miracles that they wrought , bringing the world under an obligation to believe them , it was not possible that they could be left to themselves , and be subject to mistakes : but after all this , every one acted according to his natural temper , and writ in his natural style ; so we see a great variety in the whole composition and method of their discourses and epistles . the gospels were writ either by apostles , or by those who were their companions in labour , and whose books were authoris'd by them ; but it does not clearly appear what method they intended to follow , whether to observe the order of time , or the relation that one passage might have to another : in this they were left to their natural faculties ; all that was of consequence , was to have the doctrine and discourses of christ , his action and his miracles , faithfully stated to us : but in the method of ordering or expressing these , they might be left to their natural powers ; and in this there might be a particular ordering of providence , that every thing should not be said in the same way by every one as by concert , which might have looked liker a contrivance ; it being more genuine , when different persons write in different ways , and all agree in the same account of the doctrine and miracles . there may be also many ways of reconciling small diversities , which at this distance may be lost to us : things may appear to be different , that yet may very well agree ; of which we find innumerable instances in critical authors : and those passages whose agreement they have made out , give us very good reason to believe , that if we had a greater number of contemporary books now extant , we might understand many more better than we can do in this want of them . passages very like one another might have happened in different times of our saviour's life ; and that which seems to be one story , related two different ways , may be really two different stories , and both may be exactly related . so that all this objection , instead of derogating from the credit of the gospel , does really heighten it . as for many answers and reasonings that do not seem to us to be very concluding , we are to consider , that in a short relation , in which hints are only given , it was impossible to open every thing fully : we are also little acquainted with the methods of the iews arguings at that time . philo and iosephus are the only writers that remain . the one is short upon their customs and notions ; and he affecting to write elegantly for the romans and greeks , gives us very little light this way . philo does indeed much more ; tho' living long at alexandria , and studying the greek philosophy , he is so mystical and sublime , that it is not easie always to comprehend him ; yet in him we plainly see , how much the iews were delighted with very dark allusions and reasonings : and since it is a just and allowable way of arguing with any , to argue from suppositions granted by them , and suitably to their principles and notions , we who plainly see in philo , that the iews used them to explain a great deal of scripture by a dark cabbala , are not to wonder if some arguments run in that strain . for instance , we do not see how the last words of the 102 psalm , concerning god's creating all things , and his eternity and unchangeableness , belong to the messias , which yet are applied to him in the epistle to the hebrews ; but we see clear characters in that psalm , to shew us that the iews did so expound it ; since those words , the heathen shall fear the name of the lord , and all the kings of the earth his glory ; and when the lord shall build up sion , he shall appear in his glory ; together with several passages that follow , could not according to the cabbala of the iews be understood of any thing but of the messias , and of the divine shechinah , that was to rest upon him , and so according to this all the other parts of the psalm were also applicable to him . if st. paul argues , that the promise was not made to seeds , but to the seed of abraham , which seems a bad inference ; since seed , tho' in the singular , is yet of a plural signification ; this may perhaps be bad greek , unless some corrupt form of speech had made seed stand for son ; but tho' the greek is not pure , yet the sense is true , and the argument in it self is good ; st. paul's design being to let them see , that their being the seed of abraham alone , was not enough to assure them of the favour of god : it was not to all abraham's posterity that the promise was made , since neither ishmael nor keturah's children were comprehended within it : but it belonged only to isaac ; and in that contracting the promise to one , an emblem was given of the messias , in whom singly the blessing of that covenant was to center , and was not to be spread into the whole nation that descended from him . so that what fault soever we may find with the greek , the sense is true , and the application is useful ; and we do not know , but such a form of speech might have been then used in common discourse . it is certain , that the apostles had no rhetorick , and often their grammar is not exact : but this , instead of making against their writings , does really make for them ; since it shews , that they us'd no enticing words , nor laboured periods ; no lively figures , nor studied sentences ; all was natural , without art or study ; which shewed that they knew they needed no borrowed help to support a cause in which they were sure heaven would interpose , and promote its own concerns ; and the veneration with which their writings were received , and in which they were held , shews that there was somewhat else than the skill or eloquence , the persuasives or arguings of the authors , that begat and maintained their reputation . if we find here and there a passage that we know not well what to make of , this is the fate of all books that were writ at a great distance from us ; the customs and manners of men change strangely in a course of many ages ; and all speech , especially that which is figurative and dark , has such relation to these , that if in a book full of many plain , useful and excellent theories and rules , some passages come in amongst them which we plainly see relate to some practice or opinion of which we are not sufficiently informed , such as the being baptised for the dead ; having power on the head because of the angels , or the like : this is nothing but what occurs to us in all ancient books , and what we easily bear with in all other writings , even of a much later antiquity : weare therefore to make the best use we can of that which we do understand ; and to let those other places lie till we can find out their true meaning . that of christ's going in the spirit , to preach to the spirits now in prison , is perhaps one of these , unless we believe that by prison is to be meant , according to the use of that word , and others like it in the septuagint , the darkned state of the gentile world , who were shut up in idolatry , as in a prison , or in chains , under the power of the god of this world. in this sense there is nothing easier to be apprehended than that period ; which imports only , that christ by vertue of the holy ghost that he had poured out upon his apostles , was calling the gentile world out of their ignorance and idolatry : and as in the days of noah , those who were disobedient perished in the flood , while there was an ark prepared for those who would go into it : so says he , our rising out of the waters , that being the last piece of the baptismal ceremony , as it was then practised , and being the representation of our rising again with christ , was that which now saves us . in all this the sence is clear and good , tho the manner of the expression be a little dark . the way of all the easterns , even to this day , in all their discourses , being obscure and involv'd , where a great deal is supposed to be already understood ; we are not to wonder , if we should find some parts of the new testament writ in that strain . as for that of melchisedeck , as the words lie , they seem to be a riddle indeed ; but with a little observation we will find that passage concerning him in the epistle to the hebrews , to be as plain as any thing can be . the design of a great part of this epistle is to shew , that the messias was to be a priest , and was to offer up a sacrifice ; but not to be of the family of aaron , since he was to spring out of the tribe of iudah ; nor to be a priest after that order , or according to the rules of that institution ; but according to the psalm , to be a priest after the order of melchisedeck : now the rules or order of the aaronical priesthood were , that every priest was to be descended from that line , to be born of a mother that had not been a widow , or divorced ; and this gave him who was thus received , a right to transmit his priesthood to his descendants in a genealogy derived from him . these priests were also tied to their turns in attending on the temple , which were called their days , in which they were admitted to serve at thirty , which was therefore the age of the beginning of their days ; and at fifty they were dismissed and were no more bound to attend , than if they had been naturally dead ; so this was the end of their life , as to their priesthood . now in opposition to this , melchisedeck was a priest without father and mother ; that is , he was immediately called to it of god ; and it did not devolve on him by descent , nor was he to derive this in a genealogy to his posterity : he came ●ot on to an attendance on the service of god at such an age , nor went he out at another , but was a priest of god for ever ; that is , of a long continuance , according to the common use of that word , which only imports a constancy in any thing . melchisedeck was a priest for term of life , which answers the signification of the word ; but was a type of him that in the strictest sense was to be a priest of god for ever . thus if we conster that verse by a reverse , which is very ordinary , of bringing the last word the govern the whole period , placing the word priest at the head of it ▪ nothing can be plainer and more full to the point that is there driven at . and thus many passages that appear difficult , when they are but slightly looked at , become very intelligible when more attentively examined ; and as we can make this out in a great many instances ; so if there are others in which we do still stick , we have all possible reason to impute our ignorance to our wanting a sufficient number of helps , and of books writ in that country , and at that time , from which we might better collect the opinions , customs , phrases and allusions of those parts and times : for since the books of our religion were writ for the use of plain and simple people , to whom they were addrest , and in whose hands they were to be put ; they must have been writ in a popular , and not in a rhetorical or philosophical style ; which tho it is more correct and more lasting , yet it is both drier and more laboured , and shews always more of art than of nature . i have now gone over all the heads that i thought necessary to make this discourse full in all its parts : i have left nothing behind me that seemed to be material : i have not been afraid to lay open all the secrets of infidelity , with the utmost strength that i could ever find them urged in ; because i was fully satisfied in my own mind , that i could answer them all . there is only one particular remaining , which i have reserved to the last place , because it affords a proper conclusion to this discourse . one of the main things in which infidels support themselves , is , that tho they speak out , yet let others deny or disguise their thoughts as much as they please , either out of interest or modesty , since their doctrine has an ill sound in the world ; yet they think with them , because they live with them , and not according to the doctrine which they espouse : and they seem to conclude with some advantage , that we collect what men think , much more infallibly from what they do , than from what they say ; and this they urge with much malice ; and would to god that i could add with as much injustice against too many of our selves ; whose arguings upon these heads are so much the less to be regarded than other mens , because we have espoused the cause , and have made it our own , both in point of reputation and interest : i wish and pray that we may all resolve on the only effectual confutation of which this is capable , by setting such a patern to the world , and leading such exemplary lives , that in these they may see how firmly we believe that to which we endeavour to persuade others , who wait for our halting , and are critical in observing our failings , and malicious in aggravating them . it gave the chief strength to the first apologies that were made for christianity , that they durst appeal to the lives of the christians , to give the world a right idea of their doctrine ; whereas we must now decline that argument , and appeal from the lives of christians to their doctrine : yet wheresoever numbers embrace any thing , there must especially in a course of many ages , follow upon it a great declining from what was while they were fewer in number , and that the thing was newer and fresher upon their thoughts . besides , that the best christians are those who are the least known , their modesty and humility leading them to hide their best actions ; whereas those who make the most noise , and the greatest show , are for the most part hot or designing men. a man may also be really a much better man than one would take him to be , that sees him only on one side , and does not know him wholly . the frailties of some mens natures will hang heavy upon them , and sometimes burst out even in scandalous instances , notwithstanding all their principles and struglings to the contrary : therefore upon the whole matter , tho we cannot deny but that there is too much truth in this prejudice , yet it is but a prejudice , and cannot bear much weight : so that it is a most unaccountable piece of folly to venture mens souls and their eternal concerns upon a reflection , that as it is not generally true , so has no solidity in it : yet after all , the use that we ought to make of it is , that we ought to frame our own lives , and the lives of all that are in our power , as much as may be to a conformity to our doctrines , that so the world may observe in us such a true and unaffected course of solid vertue and useful piety , that we may again recover that argument , which we have too much lost , for the truthand beauty of our religion , from the lives of those who believe and practise it ; and that so the apologies now writ , which in all other respects are the strongest that ever were , may again have their full perfection , and their entire effect upon the world. discourse ii. concerning the divinity and death of christ . the main articles of the christian religion , as it is distinguished from all other religions , are those which relate to the person and sufferings of christ ; and therefore it is of the last importance for us to have our notions concerning these , right and truly stated : and that the rather , because in the age in which we live , the laughing at every thing that is resolved into a mystery , passes for a piece of wit , and has the character of a free and inquisitive mind . and while some would have every thing taken for a mystery , others set their strength to the decrying of every thing that is proposed as such , as if that were an imposition upon human nature , and the bringing mankind under a yoke that it cannot and ought not to bear . therefore , that i may treat of this matter in a proper method , and with a due clearness , i shall first in general consider this prejudice against all mysteries ; and when i have thus prepared my way , i shall come to the consideration of those which i intend now to treat upon . mystery in its first and common signification , stood for some sacred rites by which men were initiated into any form of religion , which the priests of corrupt religions kept as secrets , that either they might by that concealment , encrease the value of them , which if they had been generally known , might have appeared so slight and mean , as to have become contemptible , or that they might hide some immoralities or frauds in the management of them ; and all those theories which were kept up from the herd , and only communicated to confiding persons , were also given out under this name , as things known only to those that were initiated . in this sense there is no secret in christianity , no hidden rites , nor concealed doctrines that are not trusted to the whole body of christians . but by an extent of the use os this word , it came to be applied among the christians of the first ages , to those holy rites of our religion that were instituted by our saviour , and which they also called sacraments ; because in those , the vows that tie us to god in this religion , were both made and renewed : the venerable truths of this faith , and secrets then made publick , were also by s. paul expressed by this name , which as it is now commonly understood , signifies some theory , or point of doctrine that we believe ; because we are persuaded that it is revealed to us in scripture , tho' we cannot distinctly apprehend how it can be ; and that in the common view which is offered concerning it , it seems to contradict our common notions . in this sense it is opposed by many , who say , there can be no such thing in religion : that every thing of which we can form no distinct idea , is nothing to us , and that we cannot believe it : since we can only believe that of which we have some thought ; god having made us reasonable creatures , cannot intend that we should act contrary to our natures ; and believing any thing contrary to our apprehensions , seems to be a flat contradiction to our faculties ; and it is a question , whether those who plead for mysteries , can believe themselves , after all their zeal for them since a man can no more think that to be true , of which he has no idea , than a man can see in the dark ; for let him affirm ever so much that he sees , all other persons who perceive it to be dark , are sure that he sees , nothing . it seems to be the peculiar character and beauty of the christian religion , that it is our reasonable service , or the rational way of worshipping god : and therefore those who would propose it as containing mysteries , under a pretence of magnifying it , do rather lessen it , and give advantages to the enemies of it to expose it on that account . for upon this supposition of there being some mysteries in it , those who corrupt it , seem to have a ground given them for raising a much greater super structure , and for silencing all objections against their unconceivable doctrines , with this word mystery , which being so apt to be abused and carried too far , seems to give a just prejudice against it : upon this ground they conclude , that we are to believe nothing but that which we can distinctly apprehend : and that if any word or expression in scripture seeme to import any other thing , we must soften these to a sense agreable to our faculties , but that we ought never to yield to a sense that is unconceivable ; which as they argue , is still nothing to us . this is the foundation of their reasonings : and upon this it is that they justify or excuse some expositions that seem forced and unnatural : for they say , they are sure they are not to be understood in the mysterious sense , because of this general theory ; and therefore they must give them the best sense that they can find that is suited to their principles . upon the right stating of this , the whole matter turns ; and because this whole speculation is urged to much worse purposes by atheists and deists , it will be necessary to consider it carefully . it is certain we can apprehend nothing , but as our faculties represent it to us , no more than we can see sounds , or hear colours : it is also certain , that we can receive nothing that contradicts our faculties : for let a man strain for it as much as he will , he cannot believe that any thing both is , and is not at the same time ; or that two and three do not make five , and neither more nor less . the objects of sense do also determine us ; for when we see a thing clearly before us , we cannot force our selves to think , or so much as to doubt that we see it not . but after all , there are many things which we believe upon the report of others , or upon the consequences of our own observation , that seem to be so far out of our own reach , that our faculties cannot easily receive them : for instance , let us make a discourse of light , and of seeing , to a blind-man : let us tell him , that a vast globe , called the sun , which as he feels , creates a great heat in the air at some hours , in some seasons of the year , gives such pushes to infinite numbers of small parts of matter , that they are upon that put in a vast motion ; and that as these strike upon every resisting body , and recoil from it , they carry in them some mould of its figure and bigness ; and of another thing too called colour , of which he can frame no sort of notion ; and that these in this motion , striking upon that which he can feel to , which is his eye , do go through it , and enter at a small passage ; that is , in a second coat of his eye , which an anatomist may make him feel to : and within it , as they have passed through those humours that he can also feel , those small movers do at last so strike against the most inward coat , that from thence a man may know the figure , matter , bigness , and distance , of such objects as the blind man can only feel to , and that a great many miles of ; and that with one glance of his eye , he can see many millions of objects at once , and be able to judge concerning them , and concerning their distance from him , and from one another , a great way off : and that he can see the sun and stars , tho' distant from us many millions of millions of miles . now tho' it is to be confessed , that a blind man can form no true idea of all this , yet he may be bound to believe it , not only from the testimony of all seeing men , but from his own observation : for by setting a man at a considerable distance from him , and holding up towards him all such things as he knows by feeling , he by the other man's answers may perceive plainly that he knows them , tho' he not only cannot apprehend how this is done , but seems to raise whole schemes of impossibilities against it . but to give another instance of this , that will be more universally sensible ; let a man practis'd in geometry , shew a clown a small quadrant , and tell him that by it he can measure the compass of the whole earth , and the distance between the earth and the heavenly orbs : he will laugh at him as a boasting vain man , or one that intends to impose upon his credulity : but if this mathematician will , to convince him , take the heigt of any building , or precipice that he can measure ; the clown , when he finds that the observation agrees with the length of his plumbline , is somewhat convinced , and is apt to think , either that the two stations , and the computations which he saw him make on paper , were magical spells , or that he has a method that leads him to this by degrees of which he himself is utterly ignorant : so by all this it is plain , that a man may be bound from some authorities and observations , to believe some things of which he not only has no notion , but fancies he has very clear ones to the contrary . from hence i will make another step to shew , that indeed we believe almost every thing that we do believe , under the like difficulties and disadvantages : for instance , we know that we move , and yet there is something very like a demonstration against motion ; let a. move from b. to c. two supposed contiguous points in a supposed instant d. a. when it moves , is supposed to be in b. so in that instant it cannot go to c. because it is supposed to be in b. and it cannot be in the same instant both in b. and c. for then it should be in two places at once , that is , in the same instant ; therefore in the instant in which it is in b. it cannot go to c. and so it cannot do it in any other instant , because it is still supposed to be in b. when a man has turned this over and over in his thoughts , he is indeed very sure that it is false , and is very certain that he moves ; yet he feels a contradiction to that in his reasoning , from which it is not so easy for him to free himself , as he might at first view apprehend . this of motion carries me on to a greater difficulty , whether there are vacuities in nature , or not ; that is , distances between bodies in which there is no sort of body at all . it is very hard to apprehend how things can be either of these ways . motion it self , condensation and rarefaction , weight , and the crouding of all things to the centre , can hardly be explained without admitting a vacuum . and yet as our thoughts cannot receive the idea of it ; so the whole connexion of things , the whole chain of matter , and the communication of motion from the heavenly orbs down to us , is all broken and interrupted ; nor can we see how the frame of nature can hold together , if a vacuum is once allowed . so that tho' we are certain that either it is , or it is not ; yet when one weighs well the difficulties of both hypotheses , he is so equally ballanced , that he is apt to lean against that whose difficulties were the last , and are the freshest in his thoughts . if from this we go into the compositions of matter , we are sure that either it is divisible on to infinity , and that there are no indivisible points in it ; or that it has points , either such as have no parts , or extended atoms that may have parts , but that are indiscernible . it must be one or other of these that must be true : for they may be reduc'd to the terms of a contradiction , since either matter is divisible into infinity , or not ; if not , then either those indivisibles have parts , or they have not : so that it is plain one of them must be true ; and yet every one who has gone through that famous question , must see that there are such insuperable difficulties against every one of them , that they seem to amount to a demonstration . i shall instance but in one other particular , which though it is that of all others that we should understand the best ; yet carries no fewer nor less difficulties in it , and that is our own composition . we plainly perceive that we think , and that we act freely : then either this rises out of meer matter , or we have another principle in us of another nature and order of beings , that thinks and moves , both it self and also our bodies . that meer matter can have no liberty , and that it cannot think , seems to be evident of it self ; all our observations of matter shew it to be passive , and to act necessarily , and that it neither has in it self a power of motion , nor liberty , but always goes in a chain : and thought being perceived by us to be one simple act , it must flow from a single principle that is uncompounded : but on the other hand , what should chain down such a subtile being , into so gross a one as body ; and how a thought should move it , or how the motions of matter should affect the thinking-principle ; how they should give it either pleasure or pain ; how the mind should be furnished from the body with such images and figures , by which it remembers , imagines , argues and speaks ; how these should be so subtile , and yet stick so long , and lie in such order , are things that the more a man dwells upon them , and spreads them out before himself , he not only comprehends them the less , but seems to find such difficulties against them , that he is lost , and knows not what to think of himself . when a thinking man lays all these , and a great many more , which will arise from these hints , if he has a mind to look for them , together , they shew him how limited our faculties are , how little able we are to dive into the nature of things ; and that we can much more easily raise difficulties , than solve them . yet the use that i plead for in all this is , neither to lead men to be sceptical , and believe nothing , nor to be too implicite to believe every thing : but only to evince this , that we may be bound either from our own observation , or upon the authority of other persons , to believe some things , of which we are not able to give our selves a distinct account , nor to answer the objections that may lie against them . great difference is to be made between the believing a thing , and the apprehending the manner of it . if we have sufficient authority to guide our belief , it will be no just objection against it , that the manner of it cannot be explained : and this is yet more evidently true , if the being in which a thing is proposed to our belief is of an order and rank above us ; and most of all , if it is infinitely above us . we perceive in the gradations of our own being , that a child is not capable of those thoughts which he himself will come to have when he is more ripened : and a man of low education cannot frame those apprehensions which are easy to those who are born and bred in better circumstances . if then the difference of age and education make thoughts that are plain and easy to some , seem unconceivable to others ; this ought , when applied to the divine essence , make us conclude , that there may be mysteries in that being , of infinite perfection and elevation above us , far beyond all our apprehensions : and therefore , if god lets out any hints of any such to us , we are to receive them in such a plain sense as the words do naturally bear : and if this should happen to import that which does not at all agree with our conceptions of other things , we ought not to wrest it to another sense that seems easier to us . we can frame no distinct idea of that infinite essence , and it were not infinite if we could . how things were made out of nothing , is above our reach ; how it thinks , is an amazing difficulty , whether its acts are , as is commonly believed , one with the essence , or distinct from it . this essence having necessary existence in its first conception , those free acts that might not have been , are not easily apprehended to be one with his essence ; and if those acts are said not to be free , then all things exist by the same necessity by which god exists ; for if the immanent acts of god are one with his essence , then since all the transient acts do certainly follow his immanent ones , there is an universal necessity equally spread over the whole frame of nature ; and god can do nothing otherwise than he does : but if those acts of god are different from his essence , and distinct from it , such as our thoughts are ; then here are accidents in god , and a succession of thoughts , which seem inconsistent with infinite perfection , that is , all one eternal and unchangeable act. here is a difficulty that perhaps few reflect on ; but it is every whit as great and as unaccountable as any of the mysteries of revealed religion can be pretended to be ; tho this arises out of natural religion . if to this we add all that we be believe concerning the attributes of god , his being every where , his knowing every thing , his providence in governing all things , together with those unsearchable methods in which it exerts it self ; we must acknowledge that he dwells in a light to which we cannot approach : but that as the present frame of our bodies , and structure of our eyes , cannot bear the looking stedfastly on the sun , or the being brought much nearer him , of which yet we may be capable in another texture of our eyes and bodies ; so in this state in which we have narrow notions , and gross imaginations , we are not able to frame distinct ideas even of those attributes of god , of which we make no doubt , but yet we find such difficulties in apprehending them , that they do blind and confound us , and put us to a stand in all our thinkings about them : but for all that we still go on , believing firmly those his attributes . in fine , we are to make a great difference between those plain perceptions we have either of the objects of sense , or of simple theories , and the difficulties and deductions that belong to them : the one is the voice of our faculties , and we cannot oppose it , or believe against it , because it is in some sort the voice of god within us , since it is the natural result of those powers that he has put in us ; but it is quite another thing when we go to inferences , and to frame difficulties . in this appears our ignorance of the nature of things , of the several ways and manners in which they may operate , and of the consequences that seem to belong to them ; because we are apt to judge of every being by our selves , and have not extent enough of thought and observation to reason always true , or to judge exactly : so that this must be setled as a clear difference between plain perceptions , and a train of consequences ; we are always to be determined by the one , but not by the other . to instance it then in that which is now before us ; we have a plain perception , that no being can be both one and three in the same respect , because we are sure that is a plain contradiction , which cannot possibly be true ; but if a thing is represented as both one and three , this in different respects may be true . thus i have dispatched this first part , in which it seemed the more necessary to state this matter aright , that so it may appear , that no part of the plea for mysteries , belongs to transubstantiation , since here is the fullest evidence of sense , in an object of sense , which plainly represents to us bread and wine to be still the same after consecration , that they were before ; and therefore we can never be certain of any thing , if in this case we are bound to believe in contradiction to such a plain and simple perception ; but this is not at all applicable to any speculations concerning the divine nature . i go on from this previous discourse , to the subject it self that i am now upon ; in which there have been three different opinions : the one is , that christ was a divine person , miraculously conceived , and wonderfully qualified for revealing the will of god to the world ; which he did in so excellent a manner , and set so perfect a pattern both in his life and death , that in reward of that , god has given him the government of the world ; putting the divine authority in him , and commanding him to be worshipped and acknowledged as god , and has subjected both angels and men to him ; tho he had no existence before he was formed in the virgin 's womb , and no other nature but that which he derived from his miraculous conception . others have thought that there was an essence created by god before all worlds , by which he made and governs all things , and that this essence which was like god , dwelt in christ iesus , and was by the gospel revealed to the world : so that all were bound to honour and obey him . some of these called him a being of a nature quite different from , and unlike the divine nature ; which was found to be of an unacceptable sound ; so others softned it by saying , that he was of an essence like the father : but this was only a milder way of speaking , since if this being was created , so that once it was not , its nature must be essentially unlike the father ; for sure nothing can be more unlike , than created and uncreated . and by likeness , such men could only understand a moral likeness of imitation and resemblance ; so that he might be like god , as we are called to be like him , tho' in vastly higher degrees . the 3 d. opinion is , that the godhead , by the eternal word , the second in the blessed three , dwelt in , and was so inwardly united to the human nature of iesus christ , that by vertue of it , god and man were truly one person , as our soul and body make one man. and that this eternal word was truly god , and as such is worshipped and adored as the proper object of divine adoration . by those of this perswasion , the name person came to be applied to the three , which the scripture only calls by the names of father , son , or word , and holy ghost , on design to discover those who thought that these three were only different names of the same thing : but by person is not meant such a being as we commonly understand by that word , a compleat intelligent being , distinct from every other being : but only that every one of that blessed three , has a peculiar distinction in himself , by which he is truly different from the other two . this is the doctrine that i intend now to explain to you . when i say explain , i do not mean , that i will pretend to tell you how this is to be understood , and in what respect these persons are believed to be one , and in what respects they are three . by explaining a mystery , can only be meant the shewing how it is laid down and revealed in scripture ; for to pretend to give any further account of it , is to take away its mysteriousness , when the manner how it is in it self is offered to be made intelligible . in this too many both ancients and moderns have perhaps gone beyond due bounds ; while some were pleased with the platonical notions of emanations , and a fecundity in the divine essence : for we have footsteps of a tradition as ancient , even among heathens , as any we can trace up , which limited the emanations to three : and these thought there was a production , or rather an eduction of two out of the first : in the same manner that some philosophers thought that souls were propagated from souls ; and the figure by which this was explain'd , being that of one candle's being lighted at another ; this seems to have given the rise to those words , light of light. it is certain , many of the fathers fell often into this conceit , and in this way of explaining this matter , they have said many things which intimate that they believed an inequality between the persons and a subordination of the second and third to the first : so that by the same substance or essence , they do in many places express themselves as if they only meant the same being in a general sense , as all human souls are of the same substance ; that is , the same order or sort of beings ; and they seemed to entitle them to different operations ; not only in an oeconomical way , but thought that one did that which the other did not . this was indeed more easily to be apprehended ; but it seemed so directly to assert three gods , which was very contrary to many most express declarations both in the old and new testament , in which the unity of the deity is so often held forth , that therefore others took another way of explaining this ; making it their foundation , that the deity was one numerical being . they then observed , that the sun , besides his own globe , had an emanation of light , and another of heat , which had different operations , and all from the same essence ; and that the soul of man had both intellection and love , which flowed from its essence : so they conceiv'd that the primary act of the divine essence , was its wisdom , by which it saw all things , and in which , as in an inward word , it designed all things : this they thought might be called the son , as being the generation of the eternal mind ; while from the fountain-principle , together with this inward word , there did arise a love that was to issue forth , and that was to be the soul of the creation , and was more particularly to animate the church : and in this love , all things were to have life and favour . this was rested on , and was afterwards dressed up with a great deal of dark nicety by the schools , and grew to be the universally received explanation : tho many have thought , that the term son , did not at all belong to the blessed three , but only to our saviour , as he was the messias ; the iews having had that notion of the messias , that as he was to be the king of israel , so he was to be the son of god : we find nathanael addressed himself thus to him ; and when the high-priest adjur'd our saviour to tell if he was the messias , he knits these two together , art thou-the christ the son of the most high god ? which shews , that they did esteem these two as one and the same thing . now some criticks do apprehend , that since in many places the term son of god , has manifestly a relation to christ as the messias ; there is in this an uniformity in the whole scripture style , so that every where by the phrase son of god , we are to understand iesus , as the messias , in which the human nature being the first conception , they conceive that all the places importing an inferiority of the son to the father , have no difficulty in them , since they are only to be understood of iesus as the messias ; but that the divine principle that was in him , is in the strictness of speech to be called as st. iohn does , the word . so that by this , if true , all the speculations concerning an eternal generation , are cut off in the strict sense of the words , tho in a larger sense every emanation of what sort soever , may be so called . these , and a great deal more of this kind that might be further branched out , and enlarged upon , are the explanations that divines have offered at upon this mystery . but it may be justly questioned , whether by these they have either made it to be better understood , or to be more firmly believed ; or whether others have not taken advantage to represent those subtilities as dregs , either of aeones of the valentinians , or of the platonical notions ; which last being in so high and just a reputation among the greeks , it is plain , that many of the ancients thought it was no small service to the christian religion , to shew a great affinity between it and plato's theology : and it being long before these theories were well stated and setled , it is no wonder if many of the fathers have not only differed from one another , but even from themselves in speaking upon this argument . while men go about to explain a thing of which they can frame no distinct idea , it is very natural for them to run out into a vast multiplicity of words ; into great length , and much darkness and confusion . many improper similies will be urged , and often impertinent reasonings will be made use of . all which are the unavoidable consequences of a man's going about to explain to others that which he does not distinctly understand himself . this in general is the sum of the received doctrine , that as there is but one god , so in that undivided essence , there are three that are really different from one another , and are more than only three names , or three outward oeconomies , and that the second of these was in a most intimate and unconceivable manner united to a perfect man ; so that from the human and divine nature thus united , there did result the person of the messias , who was both god and man. here new subtilties have been found out , to state the formal notion of a person , which was supposed to consist in a special subsistence , so that it has been thought , that the human nature in christ , had no special subsistence of its own , tho it was not easy to explain this notion ; since if subsistence belonged to the human nature , it might seem that it was not perfect , if it had not a proper subsistence . a hypostatical union was proposed as a term fit to explain this by , that is to say , the human nature was believed to subsist by the subsistence of the word ; but it was not easy to make this the more intelligible , by offering a notion full as unintelligible as it self , to explain it by . tho indeed this is a point , in which it is more possible for us to arrive at distinct ideas , or somewhat very like them , than the other . we plainly see , that the union of our souls to our bodies , consists in a harmony that god has setled between such an organization of matter , and such sensations that arise out of the different motions of this matter so organiz'd : upon which this matter is in many things under the power of the mind , which by its thoughts commands and moves it , and it has from it a continual influence and actuation that is called life ; so that the union of the soul and body is the result of such a proper harmony of the body , according to the mechanical structure of its necessary parts , as makes it fit to give proper sensations to the mind , and to receive and obey the impressions of the mind , the breaking of which harmony brings on death . from hence we may apprehend several degrees of the union of thinking being with matter : the lowest , is that if infants , where there is a thought , but a thought so entirely under the impressions of matter , that it is not able to rise above them , and either to think of any thing else , or to stop the violence of these impressions : so here is a spirit wholly immersed in matter , that is in every thing under its dominion , and is a slave to it ; and in this state ideots continue their whole life long . a second degree is that of men in this life duly ripened , in which their minds are as to their sensations still subject to matter ; that is , they must feel pain or pleasure , according to the dispositions of matter ; but then there is a power in the soul to govern matter , and not to yield to those sensations : so that there is a lasting struggle between the sensations that arise from the body , and the cogitations that spring in the mind , which have the better of one another by turns . here the soul and body are as it were equally yoked together , only the soul may by the use of reason and liberty be so assisted , as to have the ascendant over the body for the greatest part . from these we may conceive two other degrees of union , which may be between souls and bodies . the one is a state in which the soul shall have an entire authority over matter , but yet shall need the assistance of it , as a necessary mean of motion , and as having in it a repository of images and figures , for memory and imagination : so that in such a state , the body shall have no power at all over the mind , but shall only serve it as instruments do a mechanick : and this seems to be a philosophical notion of the use that our bodies , shall be of to us in another state ; in which they shall be no more clogs upon us , to give us uneasy or grievous sensations , but shall only be the proper machines for motion and memory , and for such like uses , in which the body when well tuned can serve the mind . a fourth degree may be a state in which a mind may be so entirely perfect in its self , and in its own acts , that it may have no need of a body upon its own account , but only in order to the ministring to another spirit that is yet under the power of matter , to give it either warnings , or assistances ; which perhaps it cannot communicate , but through the conveyance , or by the mechanical motions and impressions of one piece of matter upon another . upon this account , and for this end , spirits of the highest form , nay god himself , may at some times , and for some unknown ends , make use of a body , and put it in such a form , and so actuate it , as thereby to communicate some light or influence to minds that are yet much immersed in matter . these are all the ways that we can apprehend of a mind 's assuming matter , and being united to it , which is the having it under its actuation , or authority ; so that the acts of the mind give such impressions to the body , as govern and command it . by the same way of thinking , we may apprehend yet more easily , how one spirit may be united to another ; which is , when a superior spirit has another of an inferior order so entirely under its conduct and impressions , that the inferior receives constant communications of light and impulse from the superior : and as the body lives by the presence of the soul , even when it does not by any distinct act work upon it , or enliven it ; so a superior mind may have a perpetual conduct of an inferior , even when it leaves it to its own liberty , and does not break in upon it by any immediate enlightning or animating of it . and thus we may conceive the subsistence of an intelligent being to be its acting entirely in it self , or upon matter united to it , without any other spirit 's being constantly present to it , actuating it , or having it under any immediate vital and inseparable influence . this seems to give some light towards the idea of a subsistence , as separated from the essence , and by consequence , of one person's subsistence in , by , and from another . i do not pretend to say , that this is the strict notion of subsistence , but it is the nearest thing that i can imagine to it , which will at least help to form some general idea of it ; for these being all the distinct notions that we can frame of the union of spirits to other spirits , or of spirits to matter , they will help us to a more distinct apprehension of the union of the eternal word to a human nature , by which it assumed the man into such an inward and immediate oeconomy , that it did always actuate , illuminate and conduct him , as we perceive our souls do our bodies . this is the clearest thought that we give our selves of that human nature's subsisting by the subsistence of the word that dwelt in it . this also agrees well with the expressions of the word 's dwelling in flesh , and of the bodily indwelling of the fulness of the godhead in christ iesus . but having now shewed how far these things may become in some sort intelligible to us , i go to my main design , which is to examine no longers whether this ought to be believed or not , in case we should find it very expresly affirmed in the new testament , for i hope i have already made that out fully : therefore the only question that now lies before me , is , whether this is contained in the new testament , or not ? for if it is in it , and is a part of its doctrine , then since that doctrine is proved to be all true , and revelled by god , this must be likewise true , if it is a part of it . this i will also yield , that authorities brought to prove articles that are so sublime● as to rise above our ways of apprehension , ought to be made out by a greater fulness of express proofs , and bare precepts of morality , or more easily received notions ; for as among men , every thing requires a proportion'd degree of proof , as it is more or less credible of it self : so in religion , we ought not to suppose , that if god intended to reveal any thing to us , that should pase our understandings , he would only do it in hints or in words , and in expressions of doubtful signification ; therefore i yield , that those who deny mysteries , have a right to demand full , express and copious proofs of them . i will therefore only dwell upon those proofs that are very comprehensive , and will not rest upon single passages , which i leave to books of controversy or criticism , in which they are fully opened and made out : my not using these , is not from the distrust that is in them , but i intend to lay this matter before you , in some observations that take in a great deal , and that if they are true , do give a clearer light , and a more unquestioned authority to single passages , since those agree with the frame of the whole . i need not spend many words to prove , that the main design of revealed religion , was to drive all idolatry out of the world , either the worshipping of other gods besides the true , or the worshipping the true god under a bodily representation . this is so expresly set out by moses , and so much insisted on , and prosecuted by the prophets , that it will admit of no dispute ; nor is there any made about it . to guard this capital article of religion , god , when he sent moses to be the deliverer and the law giver of the iews , gave himself a particular name that was to be peculiar to himself ; so that the kings or false gods might be called by the other names of the deity , yet this was never given to any of them . the old testament being put in greek by the iews , the name iehovah was throughout translated by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i do not insist upon the article being prefixed to it ; for tho it is so very often , yet i am convinced that there is no arguing from that , since there is such variety in the use of it . now the greek translation of the old testament being that which was the most read and us'd by the iews in our saviour's time , in the whole phrasiology of their sacred reading , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and iehovah were one and the same thing . the authors of the new testament , as they were iews by birth and education , so they offered the gospel first to the iews . in all that they writ , we see plainly that they had them in their eye , either to convince them , or at least to answer their prejudices and objections . and it is certain , that how much soever that nation was anciently bent to idolatry , they were ever after the time of the maccabees so entirely cured of it , that they could not bear any approachs to it , or shadow of it . yet the apostles through the whole new testament call our saviour by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; sometimes he is called lord , or the lord , that is , with or without the article , and that simply without any addition ; sometimes my lord , or our lord ; but most frequently the lord iesus christ , or iesus christ our lord : these indeed return so often , especially in the acts of the apostles , and in the epistles , that they could not be all copi'd out in many pages . now this being so sacred a name to the iews , it is impossible to imagine that the apostles could intend other in it , but that the iehovah dwelt so immediately and bodily in christ iesus , that by that indwelling he was truly iehovah . this will be more evident , if we consider the glorious appearance of god in the holy of holies , in which there was a cloud , and within the cloud a glory that did often shine out , to shew an acceptation of their sacrifices and prayers , or to give particular answers , when the holy priest came with the urim in the breast-plate to consult god. this was a continued miracle , and a lively emblem of the deity , which is full of light and glory in it self , but is environ'd with such impenetrable darkness to us , that we can neither comprehend his nature nor his operations , but as he is pleased to shine out and shew somewhat of himself to us . but this was yet more than a bare miracle , it was a constant presence and inhabitation of god , who not only kept the cloud and light from being dissipated , which otherwise must have hap'ned according to the laws of matter and motion ; but he was so signally present in it , that in the wholestyle of the old testament , iehovah was said to dwell between the cherubins , to shine out , to shew the light of his countenance , or to hide his face , and cover himself with a thick cloud . he was said to be in his temple , to sit on his throne ; with a great many other expressions , which relate to this ; the lord of glory , and the god of glory , his appearing in glory , his coming with glory , do all belong to this . fron whence it is plain , that a constant and immediate visible indwelling of the iehovah was according to the scripture-phrase , said to be iehovah , which was applied to nothing else . it is further to be observed , that as the iews called this the glory simply , or the schechinah , that is , the inhabitation , so it was wanting in the second temple ; and this was indeed its greatest want , which no doubt occasion'd the chief grief of those who mourned when they saw the second temple ; since to one who was an israelite indeed , this was the real glory ; the gold and the silver being poor matters in comparison with this . these were comforted by the prophet haggai , who promised to them in the name of god , that god wouid fill the house with his glory ; he also takes off meaner minds from their opinion of a defect for the want of gold and silver , since that was all god's : so they offer'd up nothing in that to him , that was not his already . the glory that is promis'd , was to exceed the glory of the former house ; to which two great characters are added , the one , that he would shake all nations ; that is , an appearance should come , in which the gentiles should be concerned in an eminent manner : the other is , that in that place he would give peace . now let any unprejudic'd man consider , if herod's rebuilding the temple can in any sort be thought to answer this ; especially the glory being both in the true value of thing , and in the prophetick style , to be understood of that signal presence of god in the temple , which was its solid and true glory . since then the iews looked for this , and that by many prophecies concerning the messias , mention was made of his appearing in glory ; this could be meant no other way by them , but that either he was to restore that glory to the temple , or that he was to have it in himself ; and since it was to be greater than that of the former house , there must have been some eminent character in it beyond the former : in particular , the whole world was to be struck with it , which is expressed in the prophetick strain , by the shaking the heavens and the earth , the sea and the dry land ; and the shaking of all nations . i do not argue from that which follows , of the desire of all nations , because i know it is capable of another translation , and i will build upon sure grounds . this glory was likewise to bring peace with it ; which cannot be literally understood , since the iews had very little peace , either from the days of herod , to whom they apply this ; or from the days of our saviour , to whom the christians apyly it . now from all this it is to be inferred , that the apostles applying universally the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our saviour , could mean no other , but that he was the true iehovah by a more perfect indwelling of the deity in him , than that had been which was in the cloud . this glory was greater than the other ; for the other dwelt in a mass of meer matter , whereas this dwelt in the soul and body of our saviour ; and a soul is much a perfecter sort of being than the purest matter possible . this was also to last for ever , whereas the other had a determined duration , and came to a period : and the other did shine out only upon special occasions , whereas in this we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the lord , are changed into the same image from glory to glory ; a period made up of the phraseology that belonged to the schechinah : as is also that of his being the brightness of the father's glory , and the express image , or character , of his person ; that of the word which was made flesh , and dwelt among us , and we beheld his glory , the glory as of the only begotten son of the father ; that of the light of the glorious gospel , or rather of the gospel of the glory of christ ; and that of the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face or person of iesus christ ; all these , with many more that might be quoted ; do so plainly allude to the phraseology of the cloud of glory , that it is not possible for any who consider things carefully , to avoid the evidence of it . if it had not been so , what can be said to justify this manner of expression , especially the giving the translation of the incommunicable name that was in the old testament , in a thread all over the new , to our saviour ? this was the laying snares for the first believers , and that in the most important point of all religion ; so that since our saviour denounced a wo to him , by whom scandals should come ; the apostles were the first that incurred it , if they by a continu'd course of style led the world to believe that a meer man was the great iehovah . if that had occurred only now and then , the extent of the signification of the greek word might be alledged ; but it being the title which they constantly give him , as well as it was that by which the iews understood the iehovah to be meant , this cannot in any sort be justified from a gross abuse put on the world , if the messias was not the iehovah . the great objection that arises against this is , that tho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indeed the common translation for iehovah , yet sometimes it is put for the other hebrew words , both elohim and adonai ; and that in the new testament it is used rather in opposition , or more properly in subordination to the name of god , which seems to be stated very plainly by st. paul , when he says , there were many that were called gods , whether in heaven or in earth , as there were gods many , and lords many ; in opposition to all which he asserts , that to christians there is but one god the father , of whom were all things , and we in him ; and one lord iesus , by whom were all things , and we by him : from hence it seems that the true notion of this , according to st. paul is , that as the heathen nations believed some supream deities , and other deputed or lower deities , that watch'd over particular nations ; so we christians do own only one eternal god , the creator and preserver of all ; and one lord , to whom he hath given the government of all things : so that this , as it favours the notion of one exalted to divine authority and honor , it does likewise take away quite the whole force of this argument : and so it cannot be well establish'd without considering this very carefully . it is then to be observed , that through the old testament , god is spoken of under two different notions ; the one is general , as he created and govern'd all things ; and the other is special , as he was in covenant with the jewish nation , and as he govern'd them particularly by his laws , was present among them in a visible symbol , and watch'd over them by a distinguishing providence . in this last sense iehovah is the name by which he is strictly express'd , as their federal god , that had an immediate care over them , and a right to them . the nations that lived in idolatry , had notions which seem to be taken from this : for as they believ'd some supream and some subaltern deities , so they also fanci'd that some , even of those supream deities , were more especially related or appropriated to some places : thus as they conceiv'd them to be supream , they held them to be gods ; and as they believ'd them to have a special relation to any place or nation , they were esteem'd according to this piece of jewish phraseology here us'd by st. paul , lords as well as gods. in opposition to all which , we christians own but one supream god : and we do also believe , that this great god is also our federal god , or iehovah , by his dwelling in the human nature of iesus christ : so that he is our lord , not by an assumption into high dignity , or the communicating divine honor to him , but as the eternal word dwelt bodily in him ; and thus he is our lord , not as a being distinct from , or deputed by the great god , but as the great god manifesting himself in his flesh or human nature ; which is the great mystery of godliness , or of true religion : and this will give a clear account of all those other passages of the new testament , in which the lord iesus is mention'd as distinct from , or subordinate to god and his father . the one is the more extended notion of god , as the maker and preserver of all things , and the other is the more special notion , as appropriated to christians , by which god is federally their god , lord , or iehovah . this i think does fully establish this argument , and takes away the whole force of the objection against it . but to carry this yet further , the apostles do not only name him thus , in all their writings , but they do propose him as the proper object of adoration , at the same time that they commanded the world to renounce all idolatry , and to serve the living god. st. paul gives this definition of heathenish idolatry , that it was a worship given to those who by nature were not gods ; yet he prays to christ , he prays for grace , mercy and peace from him to all the churches he writes to ; he gives him glory for ever and ever ; a phrase expressing the highest act of adoration : he believes in him , he serves him , he gives blessing in his name ; he says , that all in heaven and earth must confess him , and bow before him ; a phrase importing adoration ; he says , the angels of god worship him . in other epistles this is also often mention'd , and in st. iohn's visions , all the hosts above are represented as falling down before him to worship him . now the bare incurvation does not import divine worship , but may be made ●o a creature ; yet incurvation join'd with prayers , acts of faith and trust , and praises , is certainly divine worship . since then our saviour in his temptation said to the devil , that according to the law we must worship the lord our god , and serve him only ; since also the angel when he reproved st. iohn for falling down before him , bids him worship god ; then when these things are laid together , and it appears that all the acts of adoration by which we worship god , are also ascribed to christ , and offered up to him , either it must be confess'd , that he is truly god , or that the christian religion sets up idolatry at the same time that it seems to design the pulling it down every where ; as if idolatry had only been to be changed in its object , and to be transfered from all others to the person of our saviour . this point of the worship of christ is so plainly set forth in the new testament , that the chief opposers of the article of his divinity have asserted it with so much zeal , that they deny , that such as refuse to pay it to him , deserve to be called christians : and yet there is not any one point that is more fully and frequently condemned through the whole scriptures , than the worshipping a creature . it is also a main part of all the exhortations of the apostles . angels were often sent on divine deputations , as the instruments of the great god , but yet they were never to be worshipped . idolatry is an evil in it self , and is not only the transgression of a positive precept , but it is a transferring of the honor and homage due to the author of our being , and the fountain of all our blessings , and the ascribing these to a creature ; it is a worshipping the creature besides the creator : and if the same acts of prayer and thanksgiving in the same words , can be offered up both to the creature and the creator , then how can we still think that god is a jealous god , and that he will not give his glory to another ? in a word , this is that which seems so sensible , that one does not know what to think of those men's reasons , who cannot bring themselves to believe any thing concerning the divine nature , which differs from their own notions , and yet can swallow down so vast an absurdity , that is more open to the compass of their understandings , as that the same acts in which we acknowledge and adore god , should be at the same time offered up to a creature . but to urge this a little more closely , it is well known how averse the iews were to all the appearances of idolatry , in our saviour's time ; their zeal against the figures of the roman eagles , set over the temple-gates by herod , and against the statue of caligula , besides many other instances , prove this beyond all question . they were much prejudiced against the apostles , as well as they had been against our saviour ; and the apostles do in several passages of their epistles set down these their prejudices , together with their own answers to them : they excepted to the abrogating the mosaical ordinances , and to their calling in the gentiles , and associating themselves with them ; but it does not appear that they did ever charge them with idolatry , nor do the apostles in any hint ever offer to vindicate themselves from that aspersion . now if christ had been only a man defi'd , advanc'd to divine honor , or if he had been ever so noble a part , and even the first part of the creation , and had been now made the object of the worship of the christians , let any man see , if it is conceivable , that the iews who were such implacable enemies to christianity , should not have held to this as their main strength & chief objection : since as this was a very popular thing , in which it was easy to draw in all their country men ; so it was the easiest , as well as the most important part of their plea , they might have yielded , that all the miracles of christ and his apostles were true , and yet upon this pretence of idolatry , they had the express words of their law on their side . if there ariseth among you a prophet , or a dreamer of dreams , and giveth thee a sign or a wonder ; and the sign or the wonder come to pass , whereof he spake unto thee , saying , let us go after other gods which thou hast not known , and let us serve them : thou shalt not hearken to the words of that prophet , or that dreamer of dreams , for the lord your god proveth you , to know whether ye love the lord your god with all your heart ; and with all your soul. this was such an express and full decision of the case , that he may imagine any thing , that can imagine that they could have past it by , and that they should not have objected it , or that the apostles , if their doctrine had been either that of the arians , or of the socinians , should not have either answer'd or prevented the objection , since they dwell long upon things that were much less important . several that join'd themselves to christianity were scandaliz'd , and fell back to the iews ; but it does not appear , that any of them ever charged them with idolatry , or that the iews ever reproach'd them with it ; which yet we cannot think they would not have done , if the christians had offer'd divine adoration to a creature , to one that was a meer man newly dignifi'd , or that had been made by god before all his other works . here a creature was made a god , and the christians were guilty of serving other gods , whom their fathers had not known . this cannot be retorted on us , who believe that christ was god by vertue of the indwelling of the eternal word in him . the iews could make no objection to this , who knew that their fathers had worshipped the cloud of glory , because of god's resting upon it : so the adoring the messias upon the supposition of the godhead's dwelling bodily in him , could bear no debate among the iews ; and since it was singly upon this point , that they could let it pass without raising objections or difficulties about it , and since we find in fact , that they did let it pass , and that the apostles made no explanations upon it , we have all possible reason to conclude , that it was thus understood of all hands at that time . i think it is not possible to imagine , that this could be otherwise : so that upon these reasons , we may well and safely determine , that christ was truly both god and man ; and that the godhead did as really dwell in his human nature , and became united to it , as our souls dwell in our bodies , and are united to them . having then laid down this matter from authorities that run through the whole new testament , and that return often in every book of it , i may now upon greater advantages refer such as will descend to a more particular enquiry , to all those passages that assert christ's having created all things , angels as well as men ; that he is over all and in all ; before all things ; in whom all things do subsist ; that he is the lord of glory , the great god , and the true god ; the lord almighty ; who was , is , and is to come ; who knows all things , and can do whatsoever he will ; who is the first and the last , the king of kings , and lord of lords ; who alone hath immortality ; who was in the form of god , and thought it no robbery to be equal with god ; who will raise the dead at the last day , and judge the world ; who is god manifested in the flesh , the great mystery of godliness ; who is over all god blessed for ever . these and many more such like passages , but above all , the beginning of the gospel of st. iohn , on which i need not insist , since that has been done with such strength and clearness of reason by a much better hand ; all these single passages , i say , are so many express proofs of this great article of our religion , that i am confident , those who have clear'd themselves of that great prejudice against it , to which the first part ▪ of this discourse was directed , cannot read them without feeling that they are wrestling against the full current of the whole new testament , who oppose this . i know a great deal has been said to take off the force of every one of them ; for if a man resolves beforehand not to believe a thing , he may easily bring out matter enough to avoid the most express words that can be invented : yet this i dare positively affirm , that at their rate of answering passages , with which we urge them , it were easy to answer the most express words that we could be capable to contrive , for setting out our doctrine : to which this is likewise to be added , that it will be very hard to preserve any respect for writings that are filled with such intimations of so important a doctrine ; all which at first view seem to carry a sense which they judge monstrous and impious , and that with much labour and difficulty are wrought to another sense . it will not be easy to think , those men had the common degrees of honesty and discretion , not to speak of inspiration , who writ in such a style , with such phrases , and in such a continu'd strain , that ordinary readers must stumble in every step ; and that in a point of such vast consequence , as whether a meer creature is the great and true god , or not ? and that a great deal of dexterity and diligence is necessary to give them another sense . i must own , that if i could think so of the scriptures , i should lose all esteem for them , and could think no other of the pen-men of them , but that their great affection for their master had led them to say many things concerning him , that were excessive and hyperbolical , and not strictly true . this is literally , and without any aggravation , the sense that i have of this matter : and the prophane tribe of libertines go all into this , of laughing down all mysteries ; knowing well , that when they have once gain'd that point , the new testament it self will be laughed down next , in which they are so plainly contain'd : and indeed , the christian religion must be the most self-contradicting of all the religions in the world , since it does so often condemn the worshipping of creatures , and yet heaps all sorts of divine honors on a creature ; and st. iohn must be a most incongruous writer , who could at the conclusion of his first epistle , say of christ jesus , this is the true god , and eternal life , and in the very next words add , little children keep your selves from idols , when in the very preceding words he had been setting them on to it , if st. paul's definition must hold true , that idolatry is a service to those who by nature are not gods . it is true , upon this they will recriminate and say , that there being nothing more expresly and frequently contain'd in scripture , and that indeed arises more plainly out of our idea of god , than that he is one , we destroy that by setting up three . this would press hard , if we did affirm three distinct beings ; but since that wich is one in it self , may be three in other respects , it is only a consequence that they infer , but which we deny , that we set up more gods than one ; and no man is to be charg'd with the suppos'd consequences of his doctrine , when he himself does not own them , but denies them , and thinks he can plainly show that they do not necessarily follow from it . we do plainly perceive in our selves two , if not three different principles of operation , that do not only differ , as understanding and will , which are only different modes of thinking , but differ in their character and way of operation . all our cogitations and reasonings are a sort of acts , in which we can reflect on the way how we operate ; we perceive that we act freely in them , and that we turn our minds to such objects and thoughts as we please . but by another principle of which we perceive nothing , and can reflect upon no part of it , we live in our bodies , we animate and actuate them , we receive sensations from them , and give motions to them ; we live and die , and do not know how all this is done . it seems to be by some emanation from our souls , in which we do not feel that we have any liberty , and so we must conclude , that this principle in us is natural and necessary . in acts of memory , imagination and discourse , there seems to be a mixture of both principles , or a third that results out of them : for we feel a freedom in one respect , but as for those marks that are in our brain , that set things in our memory , or furnish us with words , we are necessary agents , they come in our way , but we do not know how . we cannot call up a figure of things of words at pleasure . some disorder in our mechanism hides or flattens them , which when it goes off , they start up and serve us , but not by any act of our understanding or will : thus we see that in this single undivided essence of ours , there are different principles of operation , so different as liberty and necessity are from one another : i am far from thinking , that this is a proper explanation or resemblance of this mystery ; yet it may be called in some sort an illustration of it , since it shows us from our own composition , that in one essence there may be such different principles , which in their proper character , may be brought to the terms of a contradictition , of being free and not free . so in the divine essence , which is the simplest and perfectest unity , there may be three , that may have a diversity of operations as well as oeconomies . by the first , god may be suppos'd to have made and to govern all things : by the second , to have actuated and been most perfectly united to the humanity of christ ; and by the third , to have inspir'd the pen-men of the scriptures , and the workers of miracles , and still to renew and fortify all good minds . but tho we cannot explain how they are three , and have a true diversity from one another , so that they are not barely different names and modes ; yet we firmly believe that there is but one god ; and with this i conclude all that i have intended to say on the head of the divinity of christ. the next head that i have now before me , is his death and sufferings . which i intend to treat in the same general way in which i consider'd the former . i must first observe , that school-men and the writers of positive divinity , have upon this head laid down a great many subtilties , in which the scripture is absolutely silent . they begin with a position , that is the foundation of all their calculations , that god cannot freely forgive sin ; that purishing as well as remunerative justice , are essential to him ; that god being infinite , every offence against him has an infinite guilt , and must be expiated either by acts of infinite value , or of infinite duration ; and that a person of an infinite nature , was only capable of acts of an infinite value ; that such a one was necessary for expiating sin . but in all this gradation , there is one main defect , that the scripture sets none of these speculations before us ; nor is it easie to apprehend , that a right of punishing , which is in the legislator , and a right to a reward , which passes from him to the person that acquires it , should be equally essential to god. in the one , his fidelity and justice are bound , because of the right that accrues to another ; but the other of punishing , seems to be a right that is vested in himself , which he may either use or not , as he pleases : and if every sin , as being of infinite guilt , must be expiated by an infinite act , it will not be easy to make this out , how the acts of christ , tho infinite in value , should stand in a strict equality with all the sins of so many men , every one of which is of infinite guilt . therefore these being a subtil contexture of legal metaphysicks , of which the scripture is silent , it best becomes us to take our notions from the scriptures themselves . it is true iustice and iustification being the terms used upon this head , in some of the epistles , that seems to give some authority to those reckonings which are laid down to make out a justice in all god's proceedings . but those who observe the style of the scriptures more narrowly , will see , that those words import no more but a state of favour and acceptation with god ; for the righteousness of the law , was a man's acceptation that had served god in the mosaical dispensation ; and the righteousness of faith was the acceptation that a man in the gospel-dispensation had in the sight of god ; so that the frequent use of those words will be found to have no relation to those subtil weighings of infinities one against another . but i go next to shew in what notion , and under what a set of phrases this matter is stated to us in the new testament : it is then to be consider'd , that when the new testament was writ , there was not any one thing that all people understood better , than the sacrificatory style , and all the phrases that belonged to it . the iews were much accustom'd to it , and had a great variety of sacrifices that they offer'd up to god ; and the gentiles were likewise well acquainted with all the several sorts of sacrifices that us'd to be offer'd up among them . and this was not one of the secrets of their religion , that was kept only among the priests , and was not to be communicated to the people ; it was known to them all most particularly , for they were to bring and offer those victims . therefore it is plain , that no forms of speech were then so fully and so generally understood , as those which related to sacrifices . the heathens had their expiatory and piacular sacrifices , by which they did reckon that they transfer'd their sins on the man or beast that was devoted , and that they thereby expiated them ; and those they reckon'd aton'd the offended deity by their death , which they suffer'd in their stead : they also had many lustrations and ablutions upon their offering their sacrifices , to import the atonement that was made by them ; and at the making their covenants , they had sacrifices with which they propitiated heaven , and seal'd their covenant : this practice of expiatory sacrifices had been indeed both so ancient and so universally spread , that it is not an unreasonable conjecture , to think that there was a tradition in favour of it , convey'd down from noah . we are very sure , that both greeks and romans were at the time that the new testament was written , very full of the style and phrases that belong'd to expiatory sacrifices . the iews were no less acquainted with them ; they had both their sin and trespass offerings ; their great yearly expiation by the sacrifice of a goat ; they burnt a red-cow in a peculiar manner , and with its ashes they were purifi'd and sprinkled . they had also their daily offerings of two lambs , and their peace offerings , and free-will offerings ; and in their law the sacrifice was call'd their atonement , by which their sin was forgiven ; it was also said to bear their iniquity , which was among them a phrase importing guilt . for while a man stood under the guilt of his sin , liable to punishment , he was said to bear his iniquity : their sin-offerings were in their language call'd simply their sins ; to which , tho our translators have added the word offering , yet in the hebrew they are call'd sin or trespass , and in the greek , render'd for sin ; and in this all the people of that nation were certainly well instructed , it being by these that their consciences were quieted , their sins pardon'd , and god reconcil'd to them . so this ground that i lay down is certain , that there was not any one sort of things , which the whole world knew better than all that belong'd to sacrifices . at the time of writing the new testament they certainly were more accustom'd to it , and understood it much better than we generally do now , in ages in which those practices have so long ceas'd , that the memory of them is quite extinguished . it is indeed very probable , that many particular phrases belonging to them , might have been by a poetical liberty , extended to other matters : for things of the sacred'st nature are by poets and orators made use of to give the liveliest illustrations , and raise the strongest passions possible : yet after all , an entire thread of a sacrificatory style , was a form of description , that the world must have known could belong only to an expiatory sacrifice , that is , to some person or thing that was devoted to god by a sinner in his own stead , and upon the account of his sin and guilt was to be some way destroy'd , in sign of what he own'd he had deserv'd ; and this was to be done in order to the reconciling the guilty person to god , the guilt being transfer'd from the person to the sacrifice ; and god by accepting the sacrifice , was reconcil'd to the person , whose sin was upon that account forgiven . this being thus laid down , let us look next to the whole strain of the new testament , particularly to those parts of it in which this matter is more fully treated about . here i will again follow the method that i took upon the former head , and not enter so particularly upon the criticisms of some passages , but will view the thing in gross , that seeming to be both the most convincing way in it self , and the best suited to my present purpose . i must further observe , that this was a point of vast consequence , as being that which concern'd men's peace with god , the pardon of their sins , and their hopes of god's favour , and of eternal happiness . therefore we ought not to imagine , that rhetorick or poetical forms of speech could be admitted here , to the aggravating of so solemn a piece of our religion boyond its true value ; so that we must conclude , that here , if in any thing , the apostles writ strictly , besides that their manner of writing is always plain and simple . when then they set forth the death of christ with all the pomp of the sacrificatory phrases , we must either believe it to be a true propitiatory sacrifice , or otherwise we must look upon them as warm indiscreet men , whose affections to our saviour heated them so far , as to carry them in this matter out of all measure far beyond the truth . those who oppose this article , believe that christ only died for our good , but not in our stead ; that by his death he might fully confirm his gospel , and give it a great authority , that so it might have the more influence upon us : they also believe , that by his dying , he intended to set us a most perfect pattern of bearing the sharpest sufferings , with the perfectest patience and submission to the will of god , and the most entire charity to those at whose hands we suffer ; and that by doing this , he was to merit at god's hands that supream authority , with which he is now vested for our good , that so he might obtain a power to offer the world the pardon of sin upon their true repentance ; and finally , that he died in order to his resurrection , and forgiving a sensible proof of that main article of his religion , that we shall all be raised up at the last day ; therefore he was to die , and that in such a manner , that no man might question the truth of it , that so his resurrection might give a most demonstrative proof both of the possibility of it , and of our being to be raised up by him , who was thus declared to be the son of god , by his rising from the dead . on the other hand , we believe that god intending to pardon sin , and to call the world by the offers of it to repentance , design'd to do it in such a manner , as should both give us the highest ideas of the guilt of sin , and also of his own love and goodness to us , which he thus order'd : that after that divine person in whom dwelt the eternal word , had sufficiently opened his doctrine , and had set a perfect pattern of holiness to the world , he was to be fallen on by a company of perfidious and cruel men , who after they had loaded him with all the spiteful and reproachful usage that they could invent , they in conclusion crucified him ; he all the while bearing , besides those visible sufferings in his person , most inexpressible agonies in his mind , both before and during these his sufferings ; and yet bearing them with a most absolute submission to his father's will , and a perfect charity to those his persecutors ; and that in all this , he willingly offer'd himself to suffer both upon our account , and in our stead , which was so accepted of god , that he not only raised him from the dead , and exalted him up on high , giving to him even as he was man , all power both in heaven and earth , but that upon the account of it , he offer'd to the world the pardon of sin● , together with all those other blessings which accompany it in his gospel , and that he will have us in all our prayers for pardon , or other favours , claim them through that death , and owe them to it . these are two contrary doctrines upon this head. now let us see which of them come nearest the manner and style in which the scriptures set it out in the new testament . christ is said to have reconcil'd us to his father ; to be our propitiation , to have born our sins , and to have been bruis'd for our iniquities ; to have been made sin for us ; to have been accursed for us ; to have given himself for our sins ; that he might redeem us from all iniquity ; he is said to have died for : or in the stead of our sins ; to have given his life a ransom for us , or in lieu of us ; he is said to have born our sins on his own body ; he has appointed a perpetual remembrance of his death in these words , that his body was broken for us ; and that his blood was shed for many for the remission of sins ; remission of sins is offered in his name , and through his blood ; god laid upon him the iniquities of us all ; he was our justification , our peace and our redemption ; he is called the lamb of god that taketh away the sins of the world. his death and intercession are very copiously compared to the expiation made on the solemn day of the atonement for the whole nation of the iews , on which after the sacrifice was offer'd on the altar , the high priest carri'd in the blood to the holy of holies , and set it down before the cloud of glory , as that which reconcil'd that people to god. this is done in so full a discourse , and with such a variety of expressions , that it is not easy to imagine , how any thing could be more plainly told . he is call'd the high-priest that was consecrated to offer up sacrifices for the people ; it is said , that he has entred into the holy place by his own blood , having obtain'd eternal redemption for us ; his blood purges our consciences from dead woks , to serve the living god ; he hath put away sin by the sacrifice of himself , and was once offer'd to bear the sins of many ; we are sanctifi'd by the offering of the body of christ once for us all ; and after he had offer'd one sacrifice for sins , he for ever sate down on the right hand of god , having by that one offering for ever perfected them that are sanctified : so that we enter into the holiest by the blood of iesus : he is also compared to the sacrifice that was burnt without the camp ; and that he might sanctify the people with his own blood , he suffer'd without the gate ; and he is call'd that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant . now let it be consider'd , that as this argument is in some places closely pursu'd in many chosen and strict expressions , so it returns in a great variety of phrases through the whole epistles , in so many different places , and on so many several occasions , that nothing can appear plainer in words , than that the apostles cosider'd this as the capital article of their whole doctrine , and the main point given them in commission . in their preaching to all nations they inculcate it chiefly , they repeat it often , and for ought i have been able to judge , they have not left one single phrase that belong'd to sacrifices in the old testament , which they have not appli'd to the death of christ in the new. it is true , they mention his resurrection often , as the great and eminent proof of christ's being the messias ; but they never apply that with those lively and inflam'd expressions to men's consciences , that they do his death and sufferings . the merit is plainly put there ; the resurrection being the glorious reward and consequence of it . upon his death and cross it is that they dwell the most ; they set an infinite value upon his loving us , and dying for us : now if he had only di'd , for our good , tho it is not to be deni'd , but that this was a great evidence of perfect love ; yet the world was full of stories of men that had di'd for their country ; so that barely the dying for our good , if it had not been likewise in our stead , could not have born such a sublime strain as that is in which they set this out . if our saviour had only been to endure those bodily torments , how violent soever , it does not give any extraordinary character of him , that the very night before , he was so exceedingly amaz'd at the prospect of what he was entring upon , that he became sorrowful even to the death ; and was in such a bodily agony , that his sweat fell down as great drops of blood ; which shews that his mind was then in a much more unconceivable and unsupportable agony ; so that an angel was sent from heaven to comfort him . now if there was no more in his sufferings than that which we see , here is a depression far below what great heroes have express'd , even during the most extream sufferings ; and yet it was at a distance from them , only upon the prospect of their coming on . all the while before , our saviour knew they were coming , and yet till then , no agony is heard of ; which intimates , that there was somewhat peculiar in it , which some churches have in their liturgies call'd very properly his unspeakable and unutterable sufferings . they are so indeed ; for we who have only a notion of vast agonies in the mind , when rack'd with the horror of guilt , it cannot bear the apprehensions of the wrath of god , and the reproaches that arise from a wounded conscience ; cannot apprehend what could have rais'd such amazing sorrows in so pure and unspotted a soul , that was conscious to it self of no sin , and so could fear nothing from a just and good god : therefore we must not pretend to explain what we cannot understand . but to return to the main argument : when this whole collection of the ways in which the death of christ is propos'd to the world in the new testament , is laid together , we must conclude , that either this death was a propitiatory sacrifice , or we must for ever despair of finding out the meaning of any thing that can be express'd in words : nothing could be plainer said , nor oftner repeated in a greater variety of expressions , proper to signify this , and not proper for any thing else . i do not deny , but those who would turn all this another way , have found to every one of these passages somewhat that seems to favour the diverting them to another signification ; but as it was observ'd before , if some of the sacrificatory phrases have by some authors , and upon some occasions been brought down to a signification less important , it will not from thence follow , that discourses that are a contexture of those notions and forms of speech , should be so wrested from their natural signification , to a sense so far below the genuine and receiv'd importance of the words . and indeed i do not see what we can make of any part of the new testament , or how much of it we can receive with any degrees of esteem , if we do not believe the death of christ to have been a truly expiatory sacrifice offerr'd up to god in our stead . nor does this at all contradict the freedom of the grace of god in pardoning sin , which is so much set forth in scripture , since there is matter enough for free-grace to exert it self , notwithstanding the atonement made by sacrifice . for god might have , in the strictness of justice , demanded satisfaction from our selves ; so his commuting the matter , and accepting of it in the person of another , is a very high act of his grace ; then our saviour's offering himself up so freely for us , was a signal as well as an undeserv'd act of love , in that he died for us while we were yet enemies : and tho this act belong'd to his human nature , yet the union between it and the eternal word that dwelt in him , may very well entitle god to it , so that in that respect this also may be call'd an act of god's grace . the offering this to us on such easy terms , and the exacting only a sincere obedience as the condition of it , without insisting on an entire obedience , is another part of the grace of it : and finally , the proposing such vast rewards to our poor services , and the conveying the knowledge of this to some nations , when others are left in darkness and ignorance , are very great and undeserved acts of love and mercy : so that the sense of our saviour's dying for us as our sacrifice , does not at all derogate from , or lessen our acknowledgments of the love and goodness of god. nor are those objections of more value that are taken from the shortness of the continuance of christ's sufferings , since besides what is commonly urg'd to this purpose from the infinite dignity of the person , we are to consider , that in sacrifices it is the appointment and the acceptation that makes the satisfaction ; for god's accepting a sacrifice , is an abatement of the rigour of justice , and a declaring that he will pardon sins in such a method , and upon such a consideration : and there appear very good reasons , even to us , for the method that god thought fit to take in this great transaction . he intended to call the world to repentance and reformation : now it had been a vain attempt to have persuaded men to repent , without an offer of pardon ; for if men are made desperate , there is no great hope of prevailing on them ; so an offer of pardon was necessarily to be made ; yet this was to be made in such a way , as to have the greatest effect possible on men . if the offer of pardon had been made upon too slight a consideration , the world might have been tempted to have had slight thoughts of sin , as a thing of no such black nature , since it was so easily forgiven : and therefore to heighten the sense of the odiousness of sin , god would pardon it in such a manner , as should show how much he hated it , at the same time that he shew'd such love and compassion to sinners . since then the great design of this whole oeconomy was to reform the world , we see in every step of it a tendency to that ; a pardon was offer'd to give men hopes , but the consideration of it was so amazing , as to encrease their horrour at sin , and their strict watchfulness against that , which was so hard , and stood so dear to expiate . further , the rule of life that was proposed , was so exactly pure and holy , that it well became a god of infinite purity to impose it on us , since it has in all its parts such a tendency to the making us perfect , even as our heavenly father is perfect . it begins at the cleansing our hearts , and from thence it goes the whole round of our lives , in all our actions , circumstances and relations : it neither dispences with an idle word , a lewd look , nor a defiling thought ; but is a law of life and love , that will sanctify every individual nature , and settle every society that comes under its conduct . but that , as the holiness of this rule is no small honour to the religion of which it is so main a part ; so that the strictness of it might not frighten men from embracing it , tho there is no slackning of the obligation of the law , but that every offence against any part is a sin ; yet there is an abatement made , as it is a condition of salvation : and thus it is not an entire , but a sincere obedience that is made the condition upon which we are admitted to the gospel-covenant . every sin gives a wound , and requires repentance to wash and heal it ; but every sin does not shut us out from a right to the blessings of this covenant : so that here is a main distinction never to be forgotten . we are under the whole gospel , as it is a law and role of life ; and every time that we break any part of it , we ought to be humbled for it before god ; but nothing that does not defile our hearts , and make us go off from the sincerity of our obedience , breaks our relation to christ , and dissolves our being in a state of grace and salvation , it may seem a diminution of the purity of our religion , that an entire holiness is not made the indispensable condition , as well as the absolute duty of christians ; since god might have furnished us with such degrees of grace , as might have conquered every corrupt inclination : besides , that this doctrine of the unattainableness of perfection , and invincible infirmity , does furnish bad men and cold christians with many pretences to hide or excuse their faults , and makes the greater part sit down contented with very low degrees , in which they quiet themselves with this seeming defectiveness of the new covenant . but it is certain , that every man who deals honestly and impartially by himself , does perceive that he might be much better than he truly is ; and that god's assistances are not wanting to him , but that he is wanting to them : every man feels , that it is by the vicious use of his own liberty , and not by reason of any impotency that is in his nature , that he falls in sin : and the eminent strictness and victory over sin , that some men arrive at , who shine as lights in the world , serves to let the rest see what they might come to , if it were not for their own fault : so that god's accepting a sincere obedience , instead of an entire one , is no encouragement to sin ; but is a condescention to humane infirmity : and it seems that god does , while he continues us here on earth , suffer our natures still to hang so heavy about us , and sometimes to prevail so fatally over us , that we may be thereby obliged to live in a more constant distrust of our selves , and a more humble dependance on him , to make us feel the necessity of applying our selves often to him for pardon and assistance , and also to beget in us more tender compassions for the frailties of others , which we can more easily bear with , and forgive , when we reflect on our selves , and what we are capable of . this gives a more melting charity than could flow from a severer vertue , that had never felt the weight of nature , nor the strength of temptations : if this is abused by some who turn the grace of god into lasciviousness , it is a very ungrateful return to god for his mercy , and a signal abuse of his goodness . but if this gospel is bid , it is bid to them that are lost . there remains yet one article to be well stated , relating to this matter , and that is to give the true notion of iustification , of which there seem to be two such different accounts given by st. paul and st. iames , that this has led men into a great many subtilties . i shall first open this matter , as it is spoke of by these two apostles : the design of st. paul , in his epistle to the romans , was to oppose that conceit of the iews , who thought it impossible to be in the favour of god without observing the mosaical rites . this he beats down , by leading them up to their father abraham , and shewing them how he came into a state of favour with god , before he had received the covenant of circumcision ; and that his believing in god , was accepted of god , and reckoned to him , or imputed to him for righteousness ; or in order to his being in the favour of god. the inference that he naturally drew from this , was , that he was justified without the works of the law : and by the tenor of the whole discourse , it is plain , that by the works of the law , are meant the mosaical precepts , and not the works of moral vertue . for st. paul had divided mankind into those who were in , or under the law , and those who were without law ; that is , into iew and gentile . the design of the epistle was not to give us metaphysical abstractions and distinctions between faith , as it is a special grace , and works or obedience to the laws of god ; but by faith he means the entire receiving of the whole gospel in its commands , as well as promises ; for so he reckons abraham's readiness to offer up his son isaac , as an act of his faith ; so that faith stands for the complex of all the duties of christianity ; and therefore his assertion of our being justified by faith without the works of the law , signifies no more , than that those who received the gospel , who believed it , and lived according to it , were put in the favour of god by it , without being brought under the obligation of the mosaical precepts . the same argument is handled by him upon the same grounds in his epistle to the galatians , only there he gives a more explicite notion of that faith which justified , that it was a faith that wrought by love ; so that in all st. paul's epistles , he understands by faith the compleat receiving the gospel in all its parts . but whether these expressions were any of those that st. peter says , the unstable wrested to their own perdition , or not , we see plainly by st. iames's epistle , that some began to set up the notion of a bare believing the gospel , as that which justified ; as if the meer profession of christianity , or the persuasion of its truth , without a suitable conversation , justified . for st. iames speaks not of the works of law , but of works simply ; and as he had just reason to condemn a doctrine that tended to the total corruption of our faith ; so he plainly shews , that he did not differ from st. paul , since he takes his chief instance from abraham's faith , which made him offer up his son isaac upon the altar , by which he was justified ; so that faith wrought in his works , and by works faith was made perfect : and he concludes all , that as the body without the spirit was dead , so faith without works was dead also : from whence it is plain , that faith in st. iames stands strictly for a believing the truth of the christian religion , and not for an entire receiving the gospel , which was the faith that st. paul had treated of . these things will appear so clear to any one who will attentively read and consider the scope of st. paul's epistles to the romans and galatians , and the discourse in st. iames's epistle , that i am confident no scruple can remain in men , that are not possessed with prejudices , or over-run with a nice sort of metaphysicks , that some have brought into these matters ; by which they have , instead of clearing them , rendred them very intricate and unintelligible : their stating the instrumentality of faith in justification ; their distinguishing it from obedience in this , but joining it with it in sanctification , are niceties , not only without any ground in scripture , but really very hurtful , by the disquiet they may give good minds : for if the christian doctrine is plain in any one thing , it must be in this , which is the foundation of our quiet , and of our hope . it would make a long article to reckon up all the different subtilties with which this matter has been perplexed : as whether justification is an immanent or transient act ; whether it is a sentence pronounced in heaven , or in the conscience ; or whether it is only a relation , and what constitutes it ; what is the efficient , the instrument , and the condition of it ; these , with much more of the like nature , filled many books some years ago . the strict sense of iustification , as it is a legal term , and opposite to condemnation , is the absolution of a sinner ; which is not to be solemnly done till the final sentence is pronounced after death , or at the day of judgment : but as men come to be in the state to which those sentences do belong , they in a freer form of speech are said to be justified or condemned . and as they who do not believe , are under condemnation , and said to be condemned already ; that is , they are liable to that sentence , and under those characters that belong to it , blindness , obduration of heart , and the wrath and judgments of god : so such believers , to whom the promises of the gospel belong , and on whom the final sentence shall be pronounced , justifying them , are said now to be justified , since they are now in the state to which that belongs : they have the characters of it upon them , faith , repentance , and renovation of heart and life , by which they come to be in the favour , and under the protection of god. the gospel is of the nature of a publick amnesty , in which a pardon is offered to all rebels , who return to their duty , and live peaceably in obedience to the law ; and a day is prefixed to examine who has come in upon it , and who has stood out ; upon which final acts of grace or severity are to pass . it is then plain , that though every man is pardoned in the strictness of law only by the final sentence , yet he is really in the construction of law pardoned upon his coming within the terms on which it is offered ; and thus men are justified , who do truly repent of , and forsake their sins , who do sincerely believe not only the truth of the gospel in general ▪ but do so firmly believe every part of it , that acts proportioned to that belief , arise out of it ; when they depend so much on the promises , that they venture all things in hope of them ; and do so receive the rules and laws given in it , that they set themselves on obeying them in the course of their whole life , and in a most particular manner , when they lay claim to the death of christ , as their sacrifice , and the means of their reconciliation ; with such a repentance as changes their inward natures and principles , and such a faith as purifies their hearts , and makes them become new creatures . these are the conditions of this covenant ; and they are such conditions , that upon lower than these it became not the infinite purity and holiness of god to offer us pardon , or to receive us into his favour : for without these , the mercies and favours of the gospel had been but the opening a sanctuary to criminals , and the giving encouragement to sin , if a few howlings to god for mercy , and the earnest imploring it , for the sake of christ , and on the account of his death , would serve turn . this every man , under the least agony of thought , will be apt to do , especially when death seems to be near him , and yet be still in all respects as bad as ever , this indeed is so slight a thing , that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our religion , nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived , than the giving any sort of encouragement to it ; for it is one of the greatest , and the most mischievous of all those practical errors which have corrupted religion . these are the most important parts of our whole commission ; and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts , that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them , that they may sink deep into our own minds , and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our natures and lives ▪ and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness , and with better advantages , when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the love and goodness of god. if the condition of this new covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts , then we should publish them with more life and joy to others , and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the gospel on our selves , and on our labours . discourse iii. concerning the infallibility and authority of the church . after we are well setled in the belief of the christian religion , our next enquiry must naturally be into the way and method of being rightly instructed in the doctrine , and other parts of this religion ; and that chiefly in one great point , whether we ought to employ our own faculties in searching into this , and particularly into the meaning of those books in which it is contain'd ? or , whether we must take it from oral tradition , and submit to any man , or body of men , as the infallible depositaries and declarers of this tradition . in this single point consists the essence of the differences between us and the church of rome : while we affirm that the christian doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the scriptures , and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps , and all the skill and application of which he is capable : and that he is bound to believe such doctrines only , as appear to him to be contain'd in the scriptures , but may reject all others that are not founded upon that authority . on the other hand , the foundation upon which the church of rome builds , is this , that the apostles deliver'd their doctrine by word of mouth to the several churches , as the sacred depositum of the faith : that the books of the new testament were written occasionally , not with intent that they should be the standard of this religion ; that we have these books , and believe them to be divine , only from the church , and upon her testimony ; that the church , with the books , gives us likewise the sense and exposition of them , they being dark in many places ; and that therefore the traditional conveyance , and the solemn decisions of the church , must be infallible , and ought to be submitted to as such , otherwise there can be no end of controversies , while every man takes upon him to expound the scriptures , which must needs fill mens minds with curiosity and pride , as well as the world with heresies and sects , that are unavoidable , unless there is a living speaking judge : this they also prove from some places of scripture , such as christ's words to st. peter , vpon this rock will i build my church , and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; and unto thee will i give the keys of the kingdom of heaven : tell the church , i am with you alway , even to the end of the world ; the spirit shall lead you into all truth ; and the church is the pillar and ground of truth . this is their doctrine , and these are their chief arguments upon which it is founded . there is no point in divinity that we should more clearly understand than this : for it is in it self of great consequence , and is that which determines all the rest ; if it is true , it puts an end to all other controversies ; and if it is false , it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing , and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that church that pretends to it without just grounds . it is also that which of all others the missionaries of that church understand the best , and manage the most dextrously ; they are much practised to it , and they begin and end all their practice with this , which has fair appearances , and will bear a great deal both of popular eloquence , and plausible logick : so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd , and as ready on the other side of the argument , they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that church . there is not indeed any one point that i know of , that has been open'd and examin'd , both with that beauty and force , that is in chillingworth's unvaluable book upon this subject . few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a mathematical evidence , as he has pursu'd this argument ; and his book is writ with such a thread of wit and reason , that i am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it . i shall now endeavour , in as narrow a compass as is possible , to set this matter in its true light. we must then begin with this , that the freedom of a man's thoughts and understanding , is the most essential piece of his liberty , and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited : therefore any restraints that are laid upon him in this , must be well and fully proved ; otherwise it is to be suppos'd , that god could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing , without giving clear and evident warrants for it : and as every invasion on the liberties of the human nature , ought to be well made out ; so every priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of mankind , ought to be also fully proved , before others can be bound to submit to it : we perceive in our selves , and we see in all others , such a feebleness of understanding , such an easiness to go too quick , and judge too fast , and such a narrow compass of knowledge , that as we see all mankind is apt to mistake things , so we have no reason to believe , that any one is exempted from this , but as there are evident authorities to prove it . since then this is a priviledge in those that have it , as well as an imposition on those that have it not , it ought not to be offer'd at , or obtruded on the world without a full proof . probabilities , forced inferences , or even disputable proofs , ought not to be made use of here , since we have reason to conclude , that if god had intended to put any such thing upon us , he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way , that there should have been no room to have doubted of it . besides , all such things as do naturally give jealousy , and offer specious grounds of mistrust , ought to be very clear . since then all companies of men that lodge themselves in any authority , and more particularly those who manage mens consciences , and the concerns of religion , have been too often observ'd to enlarge their powers , and to make the most of them they could , and that by their means , religion has been often and much corrupted , the world has from hence a right to exact very full proofs before they can be bound to believe any such body of men to be exempted from error . this will yet appear the more evident , if that very body in which this infallibility is suppos'd to dwell , has manifestly corrupted the morals , and the order or discipline of this religion ; if they have fill'd the world with fables , if they have fallen under gross ignorance , and have been over-run with vice and disorder ; these must afford great occasion of suspecting them in all other things , if impostures have been set up and promoted with great zeal in some ages , which have in other ages of more light and knowledge been thrown out and disclaim'd ; and if we find that the same methods of craft and violence which have been practised in all other societies , have been more notoriously and scandalously practis'd by the men of infallibility , then we have from all these things just prejudices given us against this pretension . now a just prejudice amounts to this , that we have no reason to believe a thing , unless we see very good grounds to believe it ; and it gives us all reason to suspect those grounds , and to examine them well , before we are concluded by them . further , this being so great a matter , and that which must settle all other things , we have just reason to believe , that if god has left such authorities in the world , that he has also made it plain where they lie , and with whom they are to be found ; for it is not imaginable that god should have concluded mankind under such an authority , and yet not have explain'd so necessary a point , as , who are the depositaries of it , but to have left men to their shifts to find that out the best way they can : since till this is clear'd , the other is of no use . there is a dormant infallibility , they say , in the church , but no body knows where ; for it is no article of faith in whom it is vested . we are where we were , only with this disadvantage , that if we think we are sure there is an infallibility in the church , but are not sure to whom it is trusted , we may be resisting this infallibility by opposing those who indeed have it , while we adress our selves for it to others who have it not , tho we fancy it belongs to them . in all constitutions among men , the most evident thing is this , where rests the supreme authority of that constitution ? and if this is necessary for the order and policy of the world , it is much more necessary , that if god has devolv'd so main a part of his own authority , and indeed the dispensing of one of his own attributes , this should be so described and circumstantiated , that there should be no danger of mistaking ; and that there should have been such characters given , by which all the world should have been as infallibly directed to this authority , as it was to be infallible in its decisions . when god consign'd such a character to the jewish nation , that the symbol of his presence was to appear , and that answers were to be given out as he was consulted , it was expresly declar'd with whom it was lodged , and in what method the high-priest was to appear before the lord , with the vrim in the breast-plate ; that so there might be no room left for imposture or even for suspicion . upon all these reasons , we have a very just right to demand of those who call us to submit to their infallibility , to give us such plain , express and determinate proofs for it , as are proportion'd to the importance and unusualness of that which they impose upon us . it is a vain thing to prove that this must be in the church , because otherwise a great many absurdities must needs follow , if it were not in it . when it is once prov'd that god has given it to his church , we shall very willingly yield , that he had very good reasons for it ; since so extraordinary a power , which might be easily imploy'd to very bad purposes , certainly was not to be given but for very good ones ; but it is a very preposterous way to argue , that god must have done such a thing , because we fancy that it is necessary to prevent some great evil , or to procure some very great good. for this is only to pretend to prove , that god ought to have done somewhat that he has not done ; unless they can at the same time prove , that god has done it : this is to conclude , that his ways must be as ours are , and that his thoughts must be as our thoughts . we may at this rate prove as well , that the messias should have appear'd much sooner than he did ; have shew'd his miracles , and even his body after his resurrection more publickly than he did : this will prove , that the gospel should have been preach'd to many nations yet in paganism ; and this will rather , with an advantage in the argument , prove , that there should be no sin left in the world , and that no man should be left to perish in his sins , and so be damn'd for them . it will require no great art to make it appear , that these are much more dreadful things , and seem to be much more contrary to god's nature , to his love to mankind , and to his church : but indeed if we will give our selves scope upon this argument , to fancy that god must do every thing , which we imagine would be very convenient , we should soon frame an idea both of his creation and his providence , that is wholly different from what we perceive it to be . we are not capable of so vast a thought , as to take in a scheme of those great designs that lie in the eternal mind , and that are scatter'd in a seeming confusion through his works and ways , but are beautiful and orderly as they are gathered together in his ideas . we cannot say what is good or evil with relation to the whole ; nor what are the properest methods of bringing about the one , or of diverting the other : so , to conclude , the arguing that christ had dealt ill with his church , if he had not made her infallible , unless it is made out that he has done it , is only a reproaching him with this , that he has not done that which he ought to have done , and that he has not been faithful in discharging the trust committed to him of his father . therefore all these are false ways of arguing , which cannot work on any , but such as measure god by themselves . the argument if true , is infinite , and has no bounds . it does seem to agree much better with the jewish oeconomy , that an infallibility should have been lodg'd among them . their being typical , it was much more reasonable to have expected an oral tradition of its signification . their prophets express'd themselves in a very dark and figurative way , full of strange allusions , and lofty phrases ; and since these were to lead them to the messias , and yet seem capable of very different senses , all this required an infallible expounder . they were one nation , so that unity was in many respects most necessary to their preservation ; they were for many ages strongly set on idolatry , so that a solemn , publick and infallible authority was the more necessary . there were also provisions in their law , much more express than any can be pretended in the new testament , requiring them when they had any controversies within their gates , to come up to the temple to the priest that stood there , to minister before the lord , as well as to the judge ; and they were upon pain of death to submit to their determinations . this matter is set out in such a variety of large and positive expressions , that tho perhaps that passage belongs to their law suits , ( but by the way , that of tell the church , seems to be limited to the same sort of matters ) yet if a parity of reason , or if the letter of the law is consider'd , this will go much further towards an absolute submission , which seems to suppose an infallible authority , than any thing that can be alledged for the like out of the new testament ; not to mention other expressions of asking the law at the priest's mouth , and that his lips should preserve knowledge , for he was the minister of the lord of hosts : these things , i say , seem to make out a very fair title to infallibility under the mosaical dispensation ; and they continu'd to be not only the true , but indeed the only church that god had on earth , till the dispensation of the gospel was opened : they had still among them the federal means of salvation , which is all that is necessary to the being of a church . our saviour join'd both in temple and synagogue-worship , which alone is enough to prove them to have been a true church . in this we plainly see the sophistry of one argument , which perhaps makes some impression on weak minds , that a true church must be true in its doctrine : it must indeed have those things that are necessary to keep up its federal relation to god ; so the iews had their circumcision and sacrifices , together with the rest of the temple-service : but yet that church had fallen under two great errors , that had a vast extent , as well as a very fatal consequence . they understood all the prophecies of the messias in a literal sense of a temporal prince , and a glorious conqueror . here oral tradition fail'd , in that , which of all other things was the most important for them to understand aright , since their mistakes in this occasion'd their rejecting the true messias , which drew on their final ruin. the other error was also very fatal , for it brought them under a vast corruption of their morals . they thought the ritual part of their religion was of such high value in the sight of god , that this alone , together with many invented rites that had been handed down to them by tradition , were of such value in the sight of god , that they did compensate for the grossest immoralities , and excuse from the most important obligations of the moral law. these things had pass'd down among them by tradition from their fathers , and had corrupted all their notions about religion : so that here we see all the arguings from a seeming necessity of things for an infallible authority , are only vain imaginations , which do not hold in instances , in which we have all the plausible reasons of looking for them . nor does it appear , that it is any greater imputation on the goodness of god , that he has not provided an infallible remedy against error , than that he has not provided an infallible remedy against sin. sin is that which of its own nature bears the greatest opposition to the attributes of god , and to his dominion . and that does defile and corrupt our souls the most . we can much more easily apprehend , that god can bear with a man that lives in error , than with one that lives in sin : the one can consist with good intentions and a probity and integrity of heart : for he who is in error , may think that he is serving god in it , and so it can dwell in the same breast with the love of god , and of our neigbhour , which are driven out by sin. the true design of religion , is to give us such degrees of light and knowledge , as may preserve us from sin , and purify our hearts and lives . holiness is a much more certain character of a man's being in the favour of god , than all the degrees of knowledge possible . upon all these grounds we may conclude , that there is no reason to think , that god should have made a more certain provision against error , than he has made against sin. now what are the provisions against sin ? god offers the free pardon of all past sins , to encourage us to forsake them ; he gives us secret assistances to fortify our endeavours against sin ; he sets before us unspeakably vast rewards and punishments ; and he accepts of a sincere , tho imperfect obedience ; so here a great deal is left to the freedom of our wills. god will not work in us as in necessary agents ; but having made us capable of liberty , he leaves us to the use of it , and if we perish , our perdition is of our selves . and therefore , if we will not apply our faculties , and use our best endeavours to become truly holy , the blame must lie upon our selves ; for god will not convey into us by his power , such principles and dispositions as shall force us to be good ; and unless we do what lies in us at the same time , that we pray to him for inward aid from him , we have no reason to hope that he will hear us . in like manner , he has call'd us to a religion that lies in a very little compass ; he has order'd it to be deliver'd to us in books , writ in a great simplicity of style ; he has given us understandings capable of knowledge , and of great industry in the pursuit of it ; and we feel this difference in our natures , in seeking after truth , from following after holiness ; that there is no natural disposition in us to error , or against truth ; whereas there are born in us propensities , that we feel to be deeply rooted in us against holiness , and in favour of sin . among men , some are naturally inquisitive , made and fitted to dive deep into profound searches ; these men do in religion , as well as in all other arts and sciences , so open and clear the way to slower and lazier minds , that they render things easy to them . and as we have no reason to imagine , that god should have laid insuperable difficulties in the way to divine knowledge ; so those few that are in it , have been so overcome by the men of labour and learning , that even the church that boasts of infallibility , would have made a small progress without their endeavours . and why should we imagine , that a religion which we feel to be so hard in practice , should be made so easy in the speculative part , that we should be in no danger , and need no industry to understand it . a promise of the spirit is indeed pretended , that the church should be thereby guided into all truth . but it is to be consider'd , that this promise was made personally to the apostles , who were inspir'd , and so were infallibly guided , which appears more plainly from the following words , and he shall shew you things to come ; that is clearly a promise of the spirit of prophesy , to which , since no body of men can now pretend , they cannot claim the other neither ; for both must go together , according to the force of those works : nor is there any reason from those words to conclude , that this , any more than the inspiration of the apostles , was to descend to others after them ; or if any will , through a parity of reason think , that this was to continue in the church , why should it not belong to every christian , and not be confin'd to any body or succession of men ? especially since those who think that the same parity will hold as to the other effects of the spirit promis'd there , of its dwelling in them , of bringing things to their remembrance , of giving them confort , peace , ioy and victory over the world , and that these do descend to others after the apostles , do believe that they belong to all christians , and are not to be contracted to a small number . now if all the other promises were to descend thus , why not this of being led into all truth , as well as the rest ? for all promises , even tho express'd in positive words , do carry a condition naturally in them : so that when this promise is believ'd to belong to all christians , yet it is not absolute , but supposes men's using their utmost endeavours with an honest and good mind ; in which case no man can deny , but that whether that promise was specially meant to them or not , yet it shall be so far accomplish'd in them , that they shall be left in no error that shall be fatal to them ; but that either they shall be deliver'd from it , or that it shall be forgiven them , since it is inconsistent with the notion of infinite goodness , that any man should perish , who is doing all he can in order to his salvation . if it be said , that error does disturb the peace and order of the church , beyond what is to be apprehended from sin. error runs men into parties , and out of those , factions do arise , which break not only the peace of the church , but the whole order of the world , and the quiet of civil society : whereas sin does only harm to those who are guilty of it , or to a few who may be corrupted by their ill example . but to this it is to be answer'd , that sin does naturally much more mischief to mankind , than error : he that errs , if he is not immoral with it , is quiet and peaceable in his error : therefore still the greatest mischief is from sin , which corrupts men's natures through its own influence . and the mischief that error does procure , arises chiefly from the pretensions to infallibility , or something that is near a-kin to it ; for if men were suffer'd to go on in their errors with the same undisturbed quiet that they have for most of their sins , they would probably be much quieter in them ; since sin of its nature is a much fiercer thing than a point of speculation can be suppos'd to be : but if men apprehend inquisitions , or other miseries , upon the account of their opinions , then they stand together , and combine for their own defence and preservation ; so that it is not from the errors themselves , but from the methods of treating them , that all those convulsions have arisen , which have so violently shaken churches and kingdoms . but the last and main thing that is urg'd on this head is , that no private understanding is strong enough to find out truth , in all the points of religion : that it is an indecent and an insolent thing for private men , for tradesmen perhaps , or for women , to pretend to expound scripture , or to judge in points of religion : this feeds pride and self-conceit beyond any thing that can be imagin'd ; whereas a spirit of submission and humility , of thinking others , particularly superiours , wiser than our selves , has so great a resemblance to the spirit of the gospel , and seems to agree so well with the design of this religion , that we must believe it to be a part of it . this is indeed specious ; but after all , it is to be consider'd , that god has made us of such a nature , that our apprehensions of things must determine us whether we will or not ; and it is not likely that god would make us as he has done , and yet at the same time so limit our faculties , that they should not be imploy'd in the matters of religion . we naturally love freedom , and we believe things the more firmly , the more profoundly we have inquir'd into them ; when we come to be once fully satisfi'd about them ; when we find our selves oft call'd on in the scriptures to search them , to prove all things , to try the spirits ; when we see a great part of the new testament was directed to whole churches , to all the saints , that is , to the whole body of the christians ; when so much of it is writ in the style of one , that argues , that descends from that apostolical authority by which he might have commanded those he writes to , to receive and rest in his decisions ; and that lays things in their natural connexions and consequences before those he writes to ; we see in that such an appeal to their reasons , and that even in the age of miracles , in which there was another sort of characters of the divine commission , that render'd the apostles infallible ; when i say , this appeal was made to their reasons and understandings at that time , it seems much more reasonable , that in the succeeding ages men should have a right to imploy their faculties in finding out the sense , and examining the books of the new testament . here let us consider the state of every iew at that time , and see if this reasoning for authority and infallibility was not then as strong to keep him in judaism . there was a controversy between the apostles and the sanhedrim , whether iesus was the messias , or not ? a decision of this was in a great measure to be made from the prophecies in the old testament concerning the messias , which were urg'd by the apostles ; but the rabbies , the scribes and pharisees , put other senses on these . now what was a private iew to do ? must he take upon him to judge so intricate a controversy ? must he pretend to be wiser than all the doctors of their law , or the conveyers of their traditions to them ? must he set up his skill and reason above theirs ? thus we see that if this reasoning is true , it being founded on maxims that are equally true at all times , then it was as true at that time as it is now . it is of no force to say , that the miracles which our saviour and his apostles wrought , gave them such powers , that the people were upon that account bound to believe them , rather than their teachers : for one part of the debate was , both the truth of the miracles , and the consequences that arose from them . so the appeal , according to this way of reasoning , did still lie to their sanhedrim . in a word , in such matters every man must judge for himself , and every man must answer to god for the judgment that he has made ; he judges for no body else , but for himself . he , and he only can be the judge ; and if he uses a due degree of industry , and frees himself from every corrupt biass , from pride , vain-glory , and affectation of singularity , or the pursuing any ill ends ; under those appearances of searching for truth , and the adhering to it , he is doing the best thing , which according to that nature of which god has made him , he can do ; and so he may reasenably believe , that he shall succeed in it : nor is there any pride in this , for a man to think according to his own understanding , no more than to see with his own eyes . his humility ought to make him slow and cautious , modest and fearful ; but no humility can oblige him to think otherwise than he feels he must needs think . among the works of the flesh , heresies or sects are reckon'd as one sort and species . now by works of the flesh , are to be understood the appetites of a vicious and depraved nature : the meaning therefore of reckoning heresies among these is this , that when a man out of a bad disposition of mind , and on ill designs , chuses to to be of a party , he then is a heretick ; but he that in sincerity of heart goes into persuasions , from an overcoming sense of their truth , cannot be one , because he does not chuse his persuasion out of a previous ill design ; but is of it , not out of choice , but necessity ; since his understanding , in which those matters may be variously represented , offers them so to him , that he must believe them to be true ; in the same manner in which he apprehends them . if upon this principle there happen to be many sects and divisions in the church , this is a part of that wo that christ left upon the world , by reason of offences and scandals ; for he forsaw that they must needs come . god has made this present scene of life , to be neither regular nor secure : the strange follies and corruptions of mankind must have their influence on religion , as well as they have on all other things . god has reserv'd a fulness of light and of unerring knowledge to another state : here we are in the dark , but have light enough , if we have honest minds to use and improve it aright , to guide us thither ; and that is the utmost share that god seems to have design'd for us in this life : we must therefore be contented , and make the most of it that we can . i go next to shew ; that the same difficulties , if not greater ones , he upon those who build on infallibility : for before they can arrive at the use of it , they must have well examin'd and be fully assur'd of two things , either of which has greater difficulties in it , than all those put together with which they press us . first , they must be convinced that there is an infallibility in the church ; and next , they must know to which of those many churches into which christendom is divided , this infallibility is fastned . unless the design is to make all men take their religion implicitely from their forefathers , these things must be well consider'd : if men are oblig'd to adhere blindly to the religion in which they were bred , then iews , heathans and mahometans must continue still where they are . if this had been the maxim of all times , christianity had never got into the world. if then men are allow'd to examine things , they must have very good reason given them for it , before they can believe that there is an infallibility among men : their own reason and observation offers so much against it , that without very clear grounds they ought not to receive it . now the reasons to persuade it , must be drawn either from scripture , or from outward visible characters that evidence it . the scriptures cannot be urg'd by these men , because the scriptures , as they teach , have their authority from the testimony of the church ; therefore the authority of the church must be first prov'd , for the church cannot give an authority to a book , and then prove its own authority by that book : this is plainly to prove the church by her own testimony , which is manifestly absurd ; it being all one , whether she affirms it immediately ; or if she affirms it , by affirming a book in which it is contain'd ; here a circle is made to run for ever round in , why do you believe the church ? because the scriptures affirm it ; and why do you believe the scriptures ? because the church affirms them . i do not deny , but they may urge the scriptures for this , very pertinently against us , who acknowledge their authority : but i am now considering upon what grounds a man is to be instructed , in the stating the grounds of his own faith , and resolving it into principles . in this an order must be fix'd , and in the progress of it , every step that is made must be prov'd without any relation to that , which is afterwards to be proved out of that : and therefore , either the church or the scriptures must be first prov'd , and then other things must be prov'd out of that which is once fix'd and made good . but in the next place , if we should suffer them to bring proofs from scripture , how shall it he prov'd that the true sense of them is that which makes for infallibility ? other senses may be given to them , which may both agree to the grammatical construction of the words , to the contexture of the discourse , and to the phraseology of the scriptures : who shall then decide this matter ? it were very unreasonable to prove what is their true sense by the exposition that any church puts on those passages in her own favour ; that were to make her both judge and party in too gross a manner . therefore at least th●se passages , and all that relates to them , must fall under the private judgment : and in these instances , every man must be suffer'd to expound the scriptures for himself ; for he cannot be bound to submit to any exposition of them , but that which satisfies his own reason : and if this step is once admitted , then it will appear as reasonable to leave a man all over , to the use of his faculties ; since these passages , and that which necessarily relates to them , will lead a man into the understanding of the hardest parts of the whole new testament . if this method is let go , they must prove the infallibility of the church by arguments drawn from some other visible characters , by which a man is to be convinc'd that god has made her infallible : if there were such eminent ones , as the gift of tongues , miracles or prophecies , that did visibly attest this , here were a proof that were solid indeed ; it were the same with that , by which we prove the truth of the christian religion : but then , these miracles must be as uncontestedly and evidently proved ; they must also belong to this point , that is , they must be miracles publickly done to prove the truth of this assertion . but to this appeal they will not stand , what use soever they may make of it to amuse the weaker and the more credulous . the character of an uninterrupted succession from the days of the apostles , is neither an easier nor a surer one , since other churches whom they condemn , have it likewise ; nor can it be search'd into by a private man , unless he would go into that sea of examining the history ▪ the records and succession of churches . this is an enquiry that has in it , difficulties vastly greater and more insuperable , than all those that they can object to us . if they will appeal to the vast extent of a church , that so many nations and societies agree in the same doctrine , and are of one communion ; this will prove to be a dangerous point ; for in the state in which we see mankind , numbers make a very bad argument . it were to risque the christian religion too much , to venture on a poll with the mahometans : in some ages the semi-arrians had the better at numbers , and it is a question , if at this day , those that are within or without the roman communion make the greatest body : nor must a man be put to chuse his religion by such a laborious and uncertain way of calculation . to plead a continuance in the same doctrine that was at first deliver'd to the church by the apostles , is to put the matter upon a more desperate issue : for as no man can hope to see to the end of this , so it lets a man in , into all controversies ; when he is to compare the present doctrine with that which was deliver'd by the apostles . let then any character be assign'd that shall oblige a man to believe the church infallible , and it will soon appear very evidently , that the searching into that , must put the world on more difficult enquiries , than any of those , that we are pressed with : and that in the issue of the whole , the determination must be resolv'd into a private judgment . another difficulty follows close upon this , which is , in what church this infallibility is to be found ? suppose a man was born in the greek church , at any time since the ix . century , how shall he know that he must seek the infallibility in the roman communion , and that he cannot find it in his own ? he plainly sees , that the christian religion began in the eastern parts ; and by every step that he makes into history , he clearly discerns that it flourished for many ages most eminently there ; but now that there is a breach between them and the latins he cannot judge to which communion he is to adhere , without he examines the doctrine : for both have the outward characters of a succession of martyrs and bishops , of numbers , and an appearance of continuing in the same doctrine ; only with this difference , that the greeks have the advantage in every one of these : they have more apostolical churches , i mean founded by the apostles , than the latins ; and they have stuck more firmly with fewer additions and innovations , to their ancient rituals , than the latins have done : how can he then decide this matter , without examining the grounds of their difference , and making a private judgment upon a private examination of the scriptures or other authorities ? if it be said , that the present depress'd and ignorant state of those churches makes it now very sensible , that there can be no infallibility among the easterns . to this it is to be answer'd , that i have put the case all-along from the 9th . century downward ; in many of those ages the greeks were under as good circumstances , and had as fair an appearance as the latins had , if not better : for the outward appearances of the roman communion in the next centuries , the 10th . and 11th . are not very favourable , even by the representation that their own writers have made of them ; and if we must judge of the infallibility of a church by outward characters , it may be urg'd with great shews of reason , that a church which under all its poverty and persecutions , does still adhere to the christian religion , has so peculiar a character of bearing the cross , and of living in a constant state of sufferings , that if infallibility be in the church as a favour and priviledge from god ; and not as the effect of human learning and other advantages , i should sooner believe the greek church infallible , than any other now in the world. but when these difficulties are all got over , there remain yet new and great ones . suppose one is satisfi'd that it is in the roman church ; he must know where to find it : without this , it is of no more use to him , than if one should tell a hungry man that there is food enough for him , without directing him where to seek for it ; he must starve after all that general information , if he has not a more particular direction . and therefore it seems very absurd to affirm , that the believing of infallibility is an article of faith , but that the proper subject in whom it rests , is not likewise an article of faith. this is the general tenet of the whole roman communion , who that they may maintain their union , notwithstanding their difference in this , do all agree in saying , that the subject of this infallibility is not a matter of faith. this destroys the whole pretension ; for all the absurdities , of no end of controversies , of private judgment , and every man's expounding the scriptures , do return here , and the whole design of infallibility is defeated : for how can a man be bound to submit to this in any one instance , or to receive any proposition as coming from an infailible authority , if he does not know who has it ? thus , according to that maxim of natural logick , that a conclusion can have no certainty beyond that which was in both the premises ; if it is not certain with whom the infallibility dwells , as well as that there is an infallibility in the church , all the noise about it will be quite defeated , and of no use : if a man had many medecines , of which one was an infallible cure of such or such diseases , can it be suppos'd that he would communicate these to the world , and tell that one of them was infallible , without specifying which of these was the infallible one ? there are some things that look so extravagant , that really it is an absurd thing to suppose them , of which this seems to be evidently one , that god should have left an infallibility to his church , and not have declar'd with whom this , the greatest of all trusts , to which probably many would pretend , was lodged . so that this , which is the general doctrine of the whole roman communion , has an absurdity in it that cannot be reconcil'd to common sense and reason . many among them put it in the whole diffusive body of all christians ; to which purpose the words of vincentius lirinensis are perpetually repeated ; but after all , this is only to abuse people : for if the sense of the church in all places and ages must be sought for , here come endless enquiries , and some of them cannot possibly be made , the history of many ages and churches being lost . if this is made the standard , as the labour becomes infinite , so after all , it resolves into private judgment , since every man must judge as he sees cause , and must collect the sense of ages and churches from authors , which as they are often both dark and defective , so he must understand them as well as he can , by his own judgment and observation , unless some infallible expounder , or declarer of their sense , is set up , and then the infallibility is translated from hence to the expounder . and indeed , it is so hard to trace a great many points of controversy , thro even the first and best ages , that the church must fall under great difficulties , if this hypothesis is assum'd for maintaining the infallibility . and when all is done , we see by the performances of the writers of controversy , that both sides think they can justify themselves by the ancient fathers as well as by the scriptures : so that all these absurdities that are urg'd against apealing to the scriptures , or arguing from them , as that to which all hereticks do fly and in which they shelter themselves , will return here with the more force ; because these writings are much more voluminous , and are writ in a much more entangl'd and darker style ; so that these two objections lie against this way , that it is both vast , if not impossible as to the performance of it ; and next , that after all the pains that can be taken in it , it is of no use , for private judgment will still remain ; so that controversies cannot be ended in this way . others are for the diffusive church of the present age , and put infallibility there : for they reckon thus ; that every age of the church believes as the former age believ'd , till this is carried up to the apostles themselves . this is to resolve all matters into oral tradition , and to suppose it infallible : and indeed , if we can believe that the generality of christians have in all ages been wise , honest and cautious , and that the generality of the clergy have in all ages been faithful and inquisitive , we may rely upon this , and so believe an infallibility : but at the same time , and upon this supposition , we shall have no occasion for it ; since if mankind could be brought to such a pitch of reformation , there would be no controversies , and so no need of a judge to decide them infallibly : but if we will admit that , which we see to be true , and know to have been true in all ages , that men are apt to be both ignorant and careless of religion ; that they go easily into such opinions as are laid before them by men of authority and reputation ; and that they have a particular liking to superstitious conceits , to outward pomp , and to such doctrines as make them easy in their ill practices ; then the supposition of every age's believing nothing but that which it learn'd from the former , falls quite to the ground . if we can also imagine , that the clergy have been always careful to examine matters , and never apt to add explanations or enlargements even in their own favours ; or if on the contrary , we see a gross ignorance running through whole ages ; if we find the clergy to have been ambitious and quarrelsome , full of intrigues and interests , then all this general specious prejudice in favour of oral tradition , vanishes to nothing . all this will be easier to be conceiv'd , if we state aright the difference between those times and our own . now , printing has made learning cheap and easy , the disposition of posts , the commerce of letters , the daily publication of gazettes and journals , fill the world with the knowledge of such things as are now in agitation . but when all was to be learn'd from manuscripts , knowledge was both dear and difficult ; and the methods of communicating with the rest of the world , were both slow , and often broken ; so that this thread of oral tradition will not prove a sure guide . there is an humour in men to add to most things , as they pass through their hands ; if it were but an illustration , which seems not only innocent , but sometimes necessary : those enlargements would very naturally be soon consider'd as parts of the doctrine : and to these in a constant gradation , new additions might still be made , and inferences from illustrations would in conclusion become parts of their doctrine . if i did not limit my self in this discourse , it were easy to apply this both to the doctrines of redeeming out of purgatory , to those of praying for the dead , or invocating saints , and the worship of images . it is confest by the assertors of this hypothesis , that the whole face of the latin church is chang'd both in her worship and discipline ; tho these are more sensible things , than points of meer speculation , which in dark ages could not be much minded ; whereas the other are more visible , and make a more powerful impression ; besides , that all those changes arise out of some new opinions to which they related , and on which they are founded : a change then that is confess'd to be made in the one , does very naturally carry us to believe that a change was also made in the other . we do all plainly see , that some traditions that come very near the age of the apostles , and that seem to be expositions of some parts of the new testament , were chang'd in other ages . the belief of christ's reigning a thousand years on earth , is one of these ; for which , tho it is now laid aside in that church , there is another face of a venerable tradition , than for most of their doctrines . we see a practice that was very ancient , and that continu'd very long , which arose out of the exposition of those words , except ye eat my flesh , and drink my blood , ye have no life in you , by which infants were made partakers of the eucharist , was afterwards chang'd in that church ; tho it is much less easy to think how that should be done , than almost how any other should be brought about : for those words being understood of an indispensible necessity of the sacrament to salvation , and all parents having naturally a very tender concern for their children , nothing but an absolute authority , against which no man durst so much as whisper , could have brought the world to have parted with this . it were easy to carry this to many other instances , and to shew , that not only ritual traditions , but doctrinal ones , such as were found on explanations of passages of scripture , have varied . it were perhaps too invidious to send men to petavius , to find in him how much the tradition of the several ages has vari'd in the greatest articles of the christian doctrine . it is no less certain , that origen laid down a scheme with relation to the liberty of man's will , and the providence of god , that came to be so universally receiv'd by the greek church , that both nazianzen and basil drew a sort of system out of his doctrine , in which those opinions were asserted , and large quotations were gather'd out of him , explaining them with most of the difficulties that do arise out of them : and as this book had not only origen's own authority to support it , but likewise that of those two great men who compil'd it ; so it passed down , and was the uncontested doctrine of the greek church : but st. austin being engag'd into disputes with pelagius , fram'd a new system that had never been thought of before him ; and yet the worth and labours of that father gave it so a vast reputation , that this was look'd on in several ages as the doctrine of the church ; and learning vanishing at that time , the roman empire being then over-run by barbarians , his book came to be so much read , and so universally receiv'd , that it gave no small suspicion , if any one oppos'd his tenets : yet cassian , who was a greek , and was form'd in their notions , writ a book of conferences , which contain'd the precepts of a monastick state of life , that were digested in so good a method , and writ with so true an elevation , that it is perhaps one of the best books that the ancients have left us . this came to be held in such esteem , that all the monks read it with a particular attention and regard . in it the doctrine of origen and the greek church was so fully set forth , that this , and perhaps this alone , kept up a secret opposition to st. austin's doctrine , tho that came to receive a vast strengthening from aquinas and the schoolmen that follow'd him : and yet at the time that luther and calvin , in opposition to the church of rome , built much upon st. austin's authority , almost all all that writ against them , argu'd according to the sentiments of the greek church : but those of louvain , and the orders of the dominicans and augustinians did so maintain st. austins and aquinas's doctrine , that tho it was not liked , because it seem'd to be too near theirs who were to be condemn'd as hereticks ; yet the council of trent seem'd still to stick to st. austin . since that time the iesuits order , who tho they at first set up for st. austin's doctrine , yet since have chang'd their minds , and taken themselves to the other side , have by their influence both at rome and in other courts , so chang'd the sense of the greater part of that church , that it is plain , tho st. austin's name is too great to be openly disparaged , yet they are now generally in the contrary hypothesis . this i only instance to shew , that in speculative points it is no hard matter to make multitudes go from one opinion to another , and to alter the tradition of the church , that is , to bring one age of the church to think otherwise than another did . but after all , oral tradition cannot be set up as the judge of controversies , much less as the living and speaking judge , it is no real being , nor do we know where to find it : the tradition of one body among them differs from another , as in the point of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin , in which an opinion has been lately started , which is now receiv'd into all their rituals , and has given occasion to many acts of worship and publick devotions , which is most expresly contrary to all ancient tradition ; and yet is become now so sacred , that the whole dominican order feels no small inconvenience by their being oblig'd , as the followers of aquinas , to maintain the contrary . the traditions of one nation are question'd by another , particularly in this important point of the subject of this infallibility . it is also impossible for any man to find this out ; must he suspend his opinion till he has gone round the church , to ask every man what he was bred to ? this , as it could not be suffer'd , so it could not be so fully found out , as to put a man in the way to end all controversies ; in this a private judgment must again come in : for tho it were granted that oral tradition is a rule to judge controversies by , it can never be pretended that it is the living and speaking iudge that must determine them . i come now to the two more receiv'd opinions in this matter ; the one puts it in a general council , and the other puts it in the pope ; and both the one and the other pretend that the church representative is in them . as for the pretence of some who seem to make a third party , and believe it to be in a council confirm'd by the pope ; this is only a plausible way of putting it wholly in the pope ; for if the definitions of a council have no infallibility in them , till the pope's consent and approbation is given ; then it is plain , that all the infallibility is in him , and that he only chuses to exert it in that solemn way : for either christ gave it to st. peter and his successors , or he gave it not ; if he gave it not , that pretension is out of doors ; if he gave it to them , we plainly see no limitations in the grant ; and whatsoever rules or methods may have become authoris'd by practice and custom , they are only ecclesiastical constitutions , but can never be suppos'd to limit christ's grant , or to give any share of it to others . it will be to no purpose to object here , that as some constitutions , our own in particular , are so fram'd , that the legislative authority , tho it flows only from the king , yet is limited to such a method , that it cannot be exerted but with the concurrence of lords and commons , so it may be also in the church ; and thus the pope can only use his infallibility in concurrence with a general council , or at least , that both together are infallible . but tho human societies may model themselves as to their legislation which way they will , this will only prove , that as to the government and administration of the church , she may put her self into such a method as may be thought most regular and expedient ; and thus the council of nice limited the bishops of a province , to do nothing without the consent of the metropolitan : yet whatever may be done in sub●ltern bodies , where things that are done amiss may be rectifi'd by appeals , the supream and last resort must be left to the full freedom in which christ has constituted his church . it must be further consider'd , that infallibility is not like ordinary jurisdiction or legislation , which may be moulded according to the conveniences of society ; it is a priviledge , which if the church has it at all , she has it by an immediate grant from heaven ; and so she must enjoy and apply it according to the ten or of that grant , and she cannot expect to have it continu'd to her , but as she observes the nature of the grant. indeed if it were given her at large , to be modell'd and lodg'd as she pleases , there might be a power in her to limit the use of it to such forms as should be least liable to exception or abuse : but either it is granted to a single person , or to the body in general : if it is granted to a single person , then he , and he only has it . he may indeed , if he pleases , in order to his being better inform'd or obey'd , call a general council ; but their proceedings are only preparatory to his using the infallibility , which is singly in himself : nor can the divine grant be limited as to the exercise or use of it ; all such rules must still be at the pope's discretion . on the other hand , if the grant is given to the community of the pastors , then the infallibility must be in them , and cannot be limited or supposed to stay for the consent of any one bishop ; for whatsoever regard may he had to any one man , by reason of the dignity of his see , or his other circumstances ; yet still this must be but a point or form of human prudence : for the infallibility must be where christ has placed it , and cannot be transferr'd from thence , or be put any where else : so unless it is said , that christ has put this infallibility between pope and council in so express a manner , as all constitutions do , which are under a mixed legislation , which is not pretended ; then it must be lodged either in a general council , or in the pope , and cannot be in both . this then is to be examin'd in the next place . i begin therefore to examine the plea for the infallibility of councils . it is at first no small prejudice against this opinion , that the church was constituted , and had continu'd 300. years before any thing that has the shadow of a general council was call'd : so if an infallible judge of controversies be necessary to the church , here we see she subsisted , in her hardest times , in which she was the most distrest both by heresies and persecutions , without one . we also see , that she has been these last 130. years without one , tho there are warm disputes among them , both in speculative and practical doctrines , both sides reproaching one another with heresy : and as there is little prospect of a council , neither the court of rome , nor the courts of other princes , who have among them taken away all the primitive and canonical rights of the church , which an honest council must desire to regain , being concern'd ever to have one : so if a council were necessary , it is not very easy to see how it should be brought together . during the greatness of the roman empire , it was in the emperor's power to have brought the bishops together at his pleasure ; but now this depends upon the pope , who summons them , having obtain'd the consent of the princes of christendom , which is subdivided into many different soveraignties , this matter depending then so entirely upon the see of rome , there is no reason to look for one from them ; for they pretending to have the infallibility in themselves , should very much derogate from that , if they summon'd a council for a decision in doctrinal matters , they being in possession of judging these at rome : and as for matters of discipline , except we can imagine , that they will be content to part with that authority which they have assum'd over all sees and churches , and over all the canons of the church , we cannot see reason to fancy that they will ever call one . if they should , the consent of all soveraigns must likewise be obtain'd ; for it being a part of the civil authority , to keep subjects within the princes dominions , they cannot be oblig'd to send their bishops and divines to a council , unless they please . this is a power which seems to belong to them , it is certain they claim it , and very probably would put it in execution , if that matter came to be contested : so here are very great contingencies to be conquer'd before a general council can be brought together . now it is not very likely that christ should have left so great and so necessary a power to his church , by which all controversies must be judged , which yet must be at the mercy of so many accidents before it can be brought to work ; and that the bringuing together of those councils should depend so entirely upon them , against whose pretensions or usurpations it seems to be most necessary . but to go more closely to this opinion , if the infallibility lies in a general council , it is first necessary that we know who are the members that must constitute this council ; whether the laity have a right to be in it , and to judge , or not ? we find the brethren as well as the elders join'd with the apostles in that first council , to which all subsequent councils pretend they have succeeded , and whose style , it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us , is one of the foundations of this authority . why then are the brethren , or the whole church , that is , lay christians , whom even the apostles , tho inspir'd , took to consult and judge with them ; why , i say , are they now excluded ? it is also probable , that by elders or presbyters , are to be meant those to whom that name was afterwards appropriated ; why then are they shut out ? in a word , if by a divine grant infallibility belongs to a general council , we have a just right to ask for a definition of the council , by the same authority ; otherwise we may ascribe infallibility to those to whom god never meant to give it . must this council consist of all the bishops of the christian church ? for tho this is both unreasonable , and scarce possible , yet if the infallibility is given in common to the pastors and bishops of the church , then it will be hard to shut out any from it , if because of their distance , their age , or their poverty , they cannot come to it ; and if tho a general summons is pretended , to give all men a right to come , yet it is certain , that only a few of those who have lived at a distance have come , even in the best ages ; those few will either be men of a greater degree , of wealth , of heat , or of health , and will be probably men pickt out by their princes , as the fittest to serve their ends . now if the divine grant be to the whole body , it will not be easy to shew , that even the most numerous of those meetings , that pass for general councils , were truly such . or if it is said , that those few of remote provinces come in the name of the rest , and so represent them ; it must first appear , whether such a thing as infallibility can be deputed : indeed where a controversy is already known , churches may send men fully instructed in their doctrine , who may be thereby well impower'd to declare , how the doctrine and tradition has been setled among them : but if a judgment is to be made upon the hearing of parties , and the discussing their reasons on both sides , which must be the case , otherwise here is no infallible judge ; then in that case , men at a distance , who never heard the matter , but very generally and partially , cannot do this : therefore such as come to a council , must have the full power of judging . we know , that in fact such powers or instructions are seldom given , and in these latter ages they will not at all be allow'd ; for the bishops so instructed , must be consider'd as the proxies of their principals , and vote in their name , which is contrary to the practice of all councils exept that of basile , and can never be endured at rome , where every italian bishop , tho his see is in some places but a small parish , is reckon'd in the vote equal with any of those few that come from great provinces . now these are all difficulties of such weight , that it will not be easy to settle them with any divine warrants , the scripture being silent as to all such matters . nor is it clear , whether the whole council must agree in the same sentence ; or if a major number , tho exceeding by one single voice , is sufficient . if the council at ierusalem is insisted on , as the precedent to other councils , we see that all agreed there : and if this infallibility is a power that christ has left in his church , as necessary for her peace and preservation , it may be reasonable enough to suppose , that for giving their decisions the more authority , he should so order this matter by his providence , that they should all agree in their judgments : for after all , when a thing is carri'd but by one vote , tho according to the rules of all human courts , it must be good in law ; yet it is not easy to think , that god would lodge such an authority , and suffer it to turn upon so small and so despicable an inequality . in conclusion , it does not appear from the scriptures , whether in such decisions the bishops should expect a divine inspiration , such as that which setled the judgment in the council of ierusalem , or not . the meaning of those words , it seemed good to the holy ghost , and to vs , seems to be this ; that as they of themselves were resolv'd on making that decision , so an immediate inspiration , which was own'd by them all , did finally determine them in their resolution : or it may be suppos'd to relate to that effusion of the holy ghost upon cornelius and his friends , that being a solemn declaration , that men might be accepted of god , while they were yet uncircumcised ; and that by consequence , the gentiles were not bound to the observance of those precepts , which did not oblige any but such as were circumcised . so that what they then decreed , was only a general inference which they drew from that particular case : and so they made a decision in favour of all the gentiles , from that which had happened to cornelius . this is the clearest account that can be given of these words , which understood otherwise , look as if they had added their decision , as the giving a further weight to that made by the holy ghost , or as a vehicle to convey it , which is too absurd to suppose : now if any build upon that council , they must make the parallel just , and shew that the holy ghost interposes in their conclusions . to all these considerations we must add this , that the first councils are to be supposed to have understood their own authority ; or at least the sense of the church at that time concerning it . they considered the several passages of scripture , and framed their decisions out of them ; which were afterwards defended by some who had been of their body ; not as if their authority or decision had put an end to the controversy . they urge indeed the great numbers of the bishops that made those decisions ; but use that rather as a strong inducement to beget a prejudice in their favour , than as an authority that could not be contradicted . in this strain does athanasius defend the council of nice : for indeed even that of numbers was to be sparingly urged , after the council at arimini , where numbers were on the other side . the chief writers of those times make their appeals to the scriptures , they bring many passages out of them , and are very short and defective in making out the doctrine of the church from tradition , or fathers . athanasius names not above four , and these had lived very near that time ; two of them , origen and dionysius , were claimed by the other side . there are but few , and very late authorities , alledged in the council of ephesus ; and those at chalcedon made their definition chiefly upon the authority and reguard to pope leo's letter , in which there are indeed very many allegations from scripture , but not so much as one from any father . thus it is plain , both from the practice of those councils , and the disputes of those who writ in defence of their decisions , that it was not then believed that they had any infallible authority , since that is never so much as once claimed by any of that time , that i know of , a great deal being said to the contrary by many of them . it is true , there are some high expressions , both in some of the councils , and in some of the fathers of that time , which import that they believed they were directed by god : but this is no other , than what may be said concerning any body of good and learned men , who use a great deal of pious caution in forming their decisions . therefore great difference is to be made between a plain assuming an infallible authority , and rhetorical hints of their being guided by the holy ghost ; the former does not appear , and the latter shews that such as used those ways of speaking , did not think them infallible ; but they believing that they had made good decisions , did upon that presume that they were guided by the holy ghost . and thus it appears in a great variety of considerations , that we have no reason to believe that there is an infallibility in a general council , and that we do not so much as know what is necessary to make one . and to sum up all that belongs to this head , the decisions of those councils must have an infallible expounder as well , as it is urged , that the books of the scriptures cannot be of use to us , if there is not in the church a living speaking iudge to declare their true sense . now this is rather more necessary with relation to the decrees of councils , which as they are writings , as well as the scriptures , so they being much more voluminous , and more artificially contrived , and couched , need a commentary much more than a few plain and simple writings , which make up the new testament . if then the councils must be expounded , there must be , according to their main reasoning , an infallibility lodged somewere else , to give their sense : and the necessity of this has appeared evidently since the time of the council of trent ; for both upon the article of divine grace , and upon their sacrament of penance , there have been , and still are , great debates among them concerning the meaning of the decrees of that council , both parties pretending that they are of their side . who then shall decide these controversies , and expound those decrees ? this must not be laid over to the next general council , for then the infallibility will be in an abeyance , and lost during that interval . so this inference leads me to the last hypothesis , that the infallibility is in the pope , and in him only . and it must be confessed , that this is the only opinion that is consistent to it self in all its parts : here is a living and speaking iudge , and if he is not infallible , it is plain that they have no infallibility at all among them . and yet his infallibility , as it is a thing of which no man ever dreamt for the first nine or ten ages , so it has such violent presumptions against it , that without very express proof it will not be reasonable to expect that any should believe it . the ignorance of most popes , the secular maxims by which they are governed , the political methods in which they are elected , the forgeries , chiefly of their decretal epistles , by which their authority was principally asserted , and which are now as universally rejected as spurious , as they were once owned to be genuine ; their aspiring to the same authority in temporals , for many ages , which they have gained in spirituals ; their having dissolved the whole authority of the primitive constitutions , and ancient canons of the church , and all that practice of corruption that is in all their courts , by which the whole order of the church is totally reversed : all these are such lawful and violent prejudices against them , that they must needs fortify a man in opposition to any such pretensions , till it is very plainly proved . these characters agree so very ill with infallibility , that it is not easy to believe they can be together : since for above 800 years together the papacy , as it is represented by their own writers , was , perhaps , the worst succession of men that can be found in any history ; and it will seem strange , if god has lodged such wonderful power with such a sort of men , and yet has taken so little care of them , to make them look like the proper subjects of that authority . we do plainly see , that the primitive church , even when they enlarged their papal authority , as to government , did it , what out of a respect to st. peter , and st. paul , who they believed founded that church , and suffered martyrdom in it ; and what , or most chiefly , out of their regard to the dignity of that city , it being the head of the empire , under which they lived ; and this appeared by their giving the same priviledges to constantinople , when it became the imperial city , which was made second to the other , and equal to it , except only in order and rank : but as for the doctrine of the church , tho still the regard to st. peter went far ; yet when liberius subscribed to semiarianism , it was never pretended that his authority had in any thing altered the case , which must have been urged , if he had been believed infallible . the case of honorius does fully discover the sense of the church in the sixth century , concerning their infallibility : he was condemned as a monothelite , by a general council , which was confirmed by several popes , who did by name condemn him . now we are not , a whit concerned in his cause and condemnation , whether it was just or not ; and whether it was upon a due examination or not ; it is enough for us that a general council , as well as several popes in that age , had never dreamt of infallibility ; otherwise they could not have condemned him , or believe him capable of heresy . this might be brought down to many later instances , in which several popes have been charged with heresy ; one shall suffice . they have pretended to an authority from christ , to depose kings , and to transfer their dominions to others : this they have not only done by force and violence , but by many solemn decisions , in which this authority has been claimed as founded on several passages of scripture , not forgetting those , in the beginning , not , in the beginnings , did god create , and the great light that rules the day ; these , with many more , they have urged both from the old and new testament . this they did with the utmost pomp of solemn declarations , and upon this head they filled the world with wars : some few writ against these pretensions , but the popes stood to them , and carried them on in a course of five or six centuries with all possible vigour : and during those ages this doctrine grew to be universally received by the learned and unlearned , by all the universities , all the divines , canonists , and casuists , not one single person daring to oppose so strong a current : so that cardinal perron was in the right , when he affirmed that this was the doctrine universally received in the church for the last six centuries , without contradiction , before calvin's days ; and those few that seemed to write against it , durst only oppose the pope's direct power in temporals as the superior lord , to whom kings were but vassals , but durst not contradict his authority over them in case of heresy . this then being so publick and uncontested a point , as it shakes the authority of oral tradition , and shews how doctrines , even in points in which mens interests did strongly oppose them , could get into the church , though not derived down from the apostles ; so it totally destroys the pope's pretensions to infallibility , in the opinion of all such as think this to be simply unlawful ; and that it subverts the order which god has setled in the world. for there is not any one fact in history that can be less contested , than that the popes have assumed this authority , and that they have vouched divine warrants for it . to this also we may well add another train of difficulties , about the right to chuse this pope ; in whom it is vested ; what number is necessary for a canonical election ; and how far simony voids it ; and who is the competent judge of the simony ; or in the case of different elections , who shall judge which of the two pretending popes was truly chosen . it must also be cleared in what form he is to proceed , when infallibility accompanies his decisions ; whether he may proceed upon his own sense , or with the advice of others , and who these must be ; and what solemnities in the publication are necessary to make him speak ex cathedra . here a great variety of difficulties arise , which ought to be well cleared to us , before we can be bound to acquiesce in so great a point as his infallibility : and we ought to have these things made out by a divine authority ; for if christ has made a special grant of infallibility to the bishops of rome , no forms nor rules invented by men can limit that . these may be rules agreed on as fit to be observed ; but after all , if a pope is infallible , by a commission from jesus christ , he must be believed infallible , tho he should break through all those forms , that men have only invented . it remains then , that we consider those proofs that are brought to confirm this ; since without very good ones , it is extream unreasonable to urge such a point , or to expect that it should be submitted to . here all that was said formerly against proving this matter from scripture , is to be remembred : but waving that in this place , the passages that seem to be formal , for the church in general , are brought to support the papal authority : for if great powers are given to the church , and if it does not appear that they are any where else , then they must be found in him , he being the church-representative . but this is an absurd imagination , unless they can shew us , that god has lodged that representation in that see. as for that of 18. st. matthew 17. for telling the church , and that such as do not hear it , shall be to us as heathens and publicans , it must be confess'd , that these words barely in themselves , and as separated from all that went before , seem to speak out all that they plead for ; but when the occasion of them , and the manner that governs them , is consider'd , nothing is plainer , that our saviour is here speaking only of such quarrellings and differences as may happen to fall out among christians , who are by these words oblig'd to try all amicable ways of setling them : first by private endeavours , then by the interposition of friends , and finally , by the authority of that body or church to which they belong'd ; and such as could not be prevail'd on by those methods , were to be esteem'd no true christians , but to be look'd on as heathens , or as very bad men . they might upon that be excommunicated , and prosecuted afterwards in civil courts : since they had no right any more to the tenderness and charity that ought to be among the members of the church . this exposition has a fair appearance , and looks like being true , to say no more at present , for that is enough , according to what was formerly laid down , since the proofs of such a matter as this is , ought to be full and home : this seems to look more favourable towards the way of the congregational churches , in which the whole assembly of the brotherhood govern all their concerns ; but does not so much as by a hint seem to favour the pretensions , either of popes or councils . that character of the church given by st. paul , that it is the pillar and ground of truth , is a figurative form of speech , upon which it is never safe to build , much less to lay so much weight upon it : it is a description that the iews gave to their synagogues , and is by st. paul appli'd to the church of ephesus ; for it is visible , that it has no relation to the catholick church , it being only an enforcing consideration to oblige timothy to a greater caution in his behaviour there . it has visibly a relation to inscriptions that were made on pillars : but what ever be the strict importance of the phrase , it is clear , that it is but a phrase , and therefore it cannot bear that which is raised upon it . some reflections have been already made on those promises of christ to his apostles , that the spirit should lead them into all truth , which plainly related to the infallible conduct under which they were to be put ; but from these words themselves there is no reason to infer , that the promises were to descend to any after them , they relate to an immediate inspiration ; so if they prove any thing , they prove too much , that the church must still have in it a successive inspiration . it is urg'd , that a parity of reason leads us to conclude , that this promise was still to continue , tho not in the same manner , in the church : but all such arguments are only conjectural inferences , and are at best but probabilities ; so that there is no arguing from them , and therefore this can signify nothing . those words of our saviour's , with which st. matthew concludes his gospel , lo i am with you always , even to the end of the world , infer no infallibility , but import only a promise of assistance and protection , which was a necessary encouragement to the apostles , who were sent out upon so hard and laborious , as well as dangerous commission . in both testaments , by god's being with any , by his walking with them , his being in the midst of them , his never leaving them , nor forsaking them , no more is meant , but that he watches over them ; that he directs , assists and protects them ; and there being a vast difference between all this and infallibility , it can prove noting of that kind . so that in conclusion , the whole matter must turn upon the words of christ to st. peter ; for these do not relate to the church in general , but seem to belong particularly to him : yet there is not so much as a hint given to lead us to apply them to his successors ; nor does he give any himself when he was writing his second epistle , not long before his death , since he mentions a revelation that he had of its being near him ; yet he does not in those last warnings against the corrupters of this holy religion , give so much as a remote intimation of any authority that he was to leave behind him for the government of the church , and preserving it pure both from error and immorality . nor were these words of christ's so much as pretended for many ages , to import any authority or infallibility lodg'd with st. peter's successors . i do not now question his being at rome , tho that matter is really so doubtful , that even there , we are far from any degree so much as of human certainty . but to go on with those words of our saviour's to st. peter , there is one great presumption that lies against any pecular authority given to him by them , since we see not the least appearance ; either in the acts of the apostles , or epistles , of any peculiar appeals or references made to him : on the contrary , he seems to be call'd to an account for his going to cornelius , and baptizing the gentiles ; he only delivers his opinion as one person in the council of ierusalem , but st. iames gives the definitive sentence . st. paul never makes any appeal to him , in the contests of which he writes ; he settles matters , and makes decisions , without ever having recourse to his authority . he seems on the contrary to avoid it , and when probably some of the judaisers among the galatians were appealing to him , or at least to some practices of his , st. paul shews how he had fail'd in those matters : for tho the apostles were so govern'd by divine inspiration , that they could not err nor be mistaken in points of doctrine ; yet as to their actions , they were left to the freedom of their own wills , and so humane frailty might in some instances have prevail'd over them . it is evident from that epistle , that st. paul own'd no dependance upon him , nor did he submit in any sort to him , as having any degrees in his commission or authority superiour to his own . these are all such pregnant intimations , as make it more reasonable to give such a sence to those words , as will import no special authority given to st. peter , since it does not appear , that either st. peter or the apostles themselves understood them so : for since they persist afterwards to have their disputes , which of them was the greatest , it is plain , they did not understand this to be the importance of our saviour's words ; and it is as plain , that no part of the scripture-history makes for this , but very much against it . now as to the words themselves , they begin with an allusion to his name , and phrases built upon such allusions , are seldom to be strictly and grammatically understood . by , vpon this rock will i build my church , many of the fathers have understood the person of christ ; others , which amounts to the same thing , faith in him , or the confession of that faith ; for strictly speaking , the church , can only be said to be founded upon christ and his doctrine . in a secondary sense , it may indeed be said to be founded on the apostles , and upon st. peter as the first in order , as well as the forwardest among them : and since the apostles are all reckon'd foundations , tho this should be allow'd to be the meaning of these words , which yet is a sense in which they were not taken for many ages , it will import nothing peculiar to st. peter . what follows , of the gates of hell 's not being able to prevail against it , may either be understood according to the greek phrase , death , which is often thus represented as the entrance to the grave , which is the signification of the word rendered hell ; and then the meaning is , that the church which christ was to found , was never to come to a period , and to die , as the iewish religion was then to do : or by a phrase common among the iews , who understand by gates , the wisdom and strength of a place , since their court and councils were held near their gates , these words may signify , that all the powers of darkness , with all their force and spite , should not be able to bear down or destroy this church ; but this does not bar any errors or corruptions from creeping into any part of it : for the word rendred prevail , properly signifies an entire victory , by which it should be conquered and extirpated . as for the keys of the kingdom of heaven , that christ promised to give to him , it must again be consider'd , that these words are figurative ; so that it is never safe to argue from them , since figures are capable of larger and narrower significations . no man will carry them so far , as to think that the power of giving or denying eternal life , is hereby put in st. peter ; for that is singly in the mediator's hands . this shews how difficult it is to know how much is to be drawn from a figure . by kingdom of heaven , through the whole gospels , with very few or no exceptions , we find that the dispensation of the messias is to be understood ; this appears evident from the first words with which both st. iohn baptist , and our saviour begun their preaching , repent , for the kingdom of heaven is at hand : and this is the sense in which it is taken in all those parables to which our saviour compares the kingdom of heaven ; and in those words , the kingdom of heaven is among you , and it cometh not with observation , or the like . this being laid down , as that which will soon appear to every one that shall attentively read the four gospels ; then by the keys of the dispensation of the messias , the most natural and least forc'd signification , and that which agrees best with those words of the same figure , he that hath the key of the house of david ; he that openeth and no man shutteth ; and that shutteth and no man openeth : and also with the phrase of the key of knowledge , by which the lawyers were described ; for they had a key with writing tables given them as the badge of their profession , which naturally imported that they were to open the door for others entring into the knowledge of the law : with which our saviour reproach'd them , that they entred not in themselves , and hinder'd those that were entring . from all these hints , i say , we may gather , that according to the scripture-phrase , by the keys of the kingdom of heaven , is meant , that st. peter was first to open the dispensation of the gospel ; which he did in the first preaching of it to the iews , after the wonderful pentecost : and this was yet more eminently perform'd by him , when he first open'd the door to the gentiles : to which the words of the kingdom of heaven seem to have a more particular respect . this dispensation was committed to him , and executed by him , and seems to be claim'd by him , as his peculiar priviledge in the council at ierusalem ; so we may safely conclude , that this is the natural meaning of these words , and is all that was to be imported by them ; and those who carry them further ▪ must use several distinctions , lest they give st. peter that which belongs only to our saviour himself . what follows concerning the binding and loosing in heaven , whatsoever he should bind or loose on earth , is no special priviledge of st. peter's , since we find the same words said by our saviour to all his apostles ; so that this was given in common to all the apostles . according to the sense now given of the kingdom of heaven , these words will be easily understood , which are otherwise very dark : but they are full of figures , and so are not to be too far stretch'd . by binding and loosing , we find the rabbins do commonly understand the affirming or denying the obligation of any precept that was in dispute . this then being a common form of speech among the iews , a genuine paraphrase of these words is , that christ committed to the apostles the dispensation of his doctrine to the world ; in which they should be authoris'd to dissolve the obligation of the mosaical laws , and to confirm such parts of them as were moral , and perpetually binding ; which the apostles should do , with such visible characters of a divine authority , empowering and conducting them in it , that it should be very evident , that what they did on earth was ratified in heaven . these words thus understood , carry in them a plain sense , which agrees well with the whole design of the gospel ; but whatsoever may be their sense , it is plain , that there was nothing here peculiarly given to st. peter . as for our saviour's praying for st. peter , that his faith might not fail , and his restoring him to his apostolate by a threefold charge , feed my sheep or lambs ; it has such a visible relation to his fall , and threefold denial , that it is not worth the while to enlarge on ; or to shew , that it is capable of no other signification , and cannot be carried further . and thus i have gone through all that is brought from the scriptures , for asserting the infallibility of the church , and in particular of the pope's ; and have i hope fully shew'd , that they cannot bear that sense , but that they must genuinely bear a plainly different sense , which does no way differ from our doctrine . it was necessary to clear all this ; for tho , as was before made out , it is no proper way for them to resolve their faith by passages out of scripture ; yet these are very good objections to us , who upon other reasons do submit to their authority . there remains but one thing now to be clear'd , which is this ; if the church is not infallible , it does not easily appear what certainty we can have concerning the scriptures , since we believe them upon the testimony of the church ; and we have no other knowledge concerning them , but what has been handed down to us by tradition : if therefore this is fallible , we may be deceiv'd in our persuasion even concerning them . but here a great difference is to be made , between the carrying down a book to us , and the oral delivering of a doctrine ; it being almost as hard to suppose how the one could sail , as how the other should not fail . the books being in many hands , spread over the whole churches , and read in all their assemblies , makes this to be a very different thing , from discourses that are in the air , and to which every man that reports them , is apt to give his own cue . a great difference is also to be made between the testimony of a witness , and the authority of a judge . if in any age of the church , councils had examin'd controverted writings , and had upon that past sentence , this had been in deed a judging the matter , but no such thing ever was . the codex of the scriptures was setled some ages before any provincial council gave out a catalogue of the books which they held as canonical : for no ancient general council ever did it ; and tho the canonical epistles , of which there not being such a certain standard , they not being addrest to any particular body that had preserv'd the originals , were not so early nor so universally receiv'd as the others were , yet the matter was setled without any authoritative judgment , only by examining originals , and such other methods by which all things of that nature can only be made out . but this matter having been so fully consider'd and stated in another discourse , i shall dwell no longer on it in this . as for the authorities which are brought from some of the ancients , in favour of the authority of the church , and of tradition ; it is to be considered , that though the word tradition , as it is now used in books of controversy , imports a sense opposite to that which is written in the scripture , yet tradition is of its own signification , a general word , that imports every thing which is delivered : and in this sense the whole christian religion , as well as the books in which it is contained , was naturally called the tradition of the apostles : so that a great many things said by ancients to magnify the tradition of the apostles , and by way of appeal to it , have no relation to this matter . besides , when men were so near the apostolical age , that they could name the persons from whom they had such or such hints , who had received them from the apostles , or from apostolical men , tradition was of another sort of authority , and might have been much more safely appealed to , than at the distance of so many ages : therefore if any thing is brought either from irenaeus or tertullian , that sounds this way , here is a plain difference to be observed between their age and ours , which does totally diversify it . but to convince the world how early tradition might either vary or misrepresent matters , let the tradition not only in , but before st. irenaeus's time , concerning the observation of easter , be considered , which goes up as high as st. polycarps's time . we find , that as the several churches adhered to the practices of those apostles that founded them , so they had quite forgot the grounds on which it seems these various observations were founded : since though it is very probable , that those who kept easter on the iewish day , did it , that by their condescendence to the iews in that matter , they might gain upon them , and soften their prejudices against christianity ; yet it does not appear that their successors thought of that at all , for they vouched their custome , and resolved to adhere to it ; nor is there any thing mentioned on either side , that give us the account of those early , but different observations . if then tradition failed so near its fountain , we may easily judge what account we ought to make of it at so great a distance . many things are brought with great pomp out of st. austin's writings , magnifying the authority of the church , in terms , which after all the allowances that are to be made for his diffuse and african eloquence , can hardly be justified : yet when it is considered , that he writ against the donatists , who had broke the vnity of the church upon the pretence of a matter of fact , concerning the ordainers of cecilian , which had been , as to the point of fact , often judged against them : and yet as they had distracted the whole african churches , so they were men of fierce and implacable tempers , that broke out daily into acts of great fury and violence , and had set up a principle that must for ever break the peace and union of the church ; which was , that the vertue of all the publick acts of worship , of sacraments and ordinances depended upon the personal worth of him that officiated ; so that his errors or vices did make void all that past through his hands . now when so warm a man as st. austin had so bad a principle , and so ill a disposition of mind in view , it is no wonder if he brought out all that he could think on upon the subject ; so no wonder if he raises the authority and the priviledges of the church to a vast height : yet after all , these were not his setled thoughts ; for he goes off from them , whensoever he has an eye on his disputes against the pelagians ; for the system which he had framed in those points , could not bear with any other notion of the church , but that of the persons predestinated , to whom all the promises belonged . and thus whatever he himself asserts in his zeal against the donatists , comes to be thrown down , when the pelagians are in his view ; so we see from hence how much deference is due to his authority in this point . the last head relating to this whole matter , is to explain in what the authority of the church does consist ; what it is both in matters of faith and discipline . as to matters of faith , it is certain , that every body of men is bound to study to maintain its own order and quiet , and must be authoris'd to preserve it ; otherwise it cannot long continue to be one body . this binds the body of christians yet much more , who are strictly charged to love one another , to worship god with one heart and mouth , to be of the same mind and judgment , to assemble themselves together , and to withdraw from all such as cause divisions , or corrupt the great trust of the faith committed to their keeping . it must be therefore a great part of the duty of those that are bound to feed the flock , to observe when any begin to broach new opinions , that they may confirm the weak , and stop the mouths of gainsayers : which as the apostles themselves did during their own lives ; so by the charges that they gave to the churches in their epistles , and more fully by those given to timothy and titus , it appears that a main part of their care and authority was to be employ'd that way . when therefore any new doctrines are started , or when there arise disputes about any part of religion , the pastors of the church ought to consider , whether or not it is in a matter of any great consequence , in which the faith or lives of men may be concerned ? if the point is not of a great importance , it is a piece of wisdom to connive at lesser matters , and to leave men to a just freedom in things where that freedom is not like to do hurt ; only even there , care is to be taken to keep men in temper , that they become not too keen in the management of their opinions ; and that they neither disturb the peace of the church , nor state , upon that account . if the matters appear to be great , either in themselves , or in the consequences that are like to follow upon them , then the pastors of the church ought to consider them with an equal and impartial mind ; they ought to here parties fully , and weigh their arguments carefully ; they ought to examine the sense of the scriptures , and of the best times of the church , upon those heads , and finally to give sentence : in which two things are to be considered ; the one is , that great regard is due to a decision made by a body of men , who seem to have acted without prejudice or interest . for i confess it will be very hard to maintain such a respect for a company , in which matters are carried with so much artifice and intrigue , as even cardinal palavicini represents in the management of the council of trent , where bishops were caressed or threatned , well paid , or ill used , as they gave their voices : such a proceeding as this will rather inflame , than allay the opposition ; but a fair and equitable , a just and calm way of examining matters of dispute , will naturally beget a respect , even in such as cannot yield a submission to their decrees . after all , it must be confessed , that no man can be bound to a blind submission , unless we suppose an infallibility to be in the church ; yet private men owe to publick decisions , when decently made , a due respect ; they ought to distrust their own judgments , and examine the matter more accurately : but if they are still convinc'd that the decision is wrong , they are bound to persist in their own thoughts , only they ought to oppose modestly ; to consider well the importance of order and peace , and whether their opinion , even suppose it true , is worth the noise that may be made about it , or the disorders that may follow upon it . after all , if they are still convinced that their opinions are true , and that they relate to the indispensible duties of religion , or the necessary articles of christianity , they must go on , as they will answer it to god , upon the sincerity of their hearts , and the fulness of their convictions : so that the definitions of the church may have very good effects , even when it is not pretended that they are infallible . another thing to be consider'd in those decisions is , that though they are not infallible , yet they may have authority , in this respect , that they are the established doctrine of such a body of christians , who will have no other to be taught among them , and will admit none to be of their body , or at least to be a teacher among them , who is not of the same mind . in this , it is certain , great tenderness and prudence is to be used , and the natural liberty of mankind is not to be too much limited : but yet as any man may fix and declare his own opinion ; so certainly by a much greater parity of reason , any society or body of men may declare their opinions , and so far fix them , as to exclude all other doctrines , and the favourers of them , from being of their body , or from bearing any office in it : so that though such decisions do not enter into mens consciences , nor bind them further than as they are convinced by the reasons and authorities upon which they are founded ; yet they may have a vast influence on the order and peace of churches and states . as to rituals , it is certain that there are many little circumstances and decencies that belong to the worship of god , the order of religious assemblies , and their administrations ; and that in these , the pastors of a church , by the natural right that all societies have to keep themselves in order , must have a power to determine all things of this nature . this becomes yet clearer in the christian societies , from the rules that the apostles gave to the churches , to do all things in order , and for the ends of edification and peace . there is not one of the rules laid down in scripture , concerning the sacraments , or the officers of the church , to which many circumstances do not belong ; now either these must be all left to every man's liberty , which must needs create a jarring disagreement , in the several parts of this body , that would both breed confusion , and look very ridiculous and absurd ; or there must be an authority in the pastors of the church to meet together , and to settle these by mutual consent . all the greater bodies of those who divide from our constitutions , have some rituals of their own ; so the dispute in this , must only be concerning the degrees and extent of this power : for if any authority is allowed , it will not be easy to fix any other bounds to it , but this , that it must not invade the divine authority , nor do any thing beyond the rules and limits set in the scriptures ; for if there is the least degree of authority in the church , the grounds upon which it is founded , must carry it to every thing that cannot be proved to be unlawful . bare unfitness , though it ought to be a consideration of great weight when such things are deliberated about ; yet when they are once concluded , can be no reason for disobeying them , since the fitness of order , and the decency of unity and obedience , is certainly of much more value , than any special unfitness that can be supposed to be in any particular instance . so that one of these two must be admitted , either that the pastors of the church have no sort of authority , even in the smallest circumstances , but are limited by the rules of the scripture , and can only execute them strictly , and not go beyond them in a title ; or this authority must go to every thing that is lawful . on that i will dwell no longer here , the fuller discussion of this matter belonging to another discourse , it is a natural consequence of the authority given to the pastors of the church , that they having declared and fixed their doctrine , and having setled rules for their rituals , may excommunicate such as either do not live according to the rules of their religion , which are a main part of their doctrine , or do not obey the constitutions of their society . excommunication , in the strictness of things , is only the churches refusing to receive a person into her communion ; now as every private man is the master of his own actions , it is clear that every body of men must also be the masters of theirs : and thus , though excommunication in some respects is declaratory , it being a solemn denunciation of the judgments of god , according to the tenor of the gospel , against persons who live in an open violation of some one or more of its laws ; so it is also an authoritative act , by which a church refuses to communicate with such a person . in this , it is true , churches ought to make the terms of communion with them as large and extensive as may consist with the rules of religion , and of order ; but after all , they having a power over themselves , and their own actions , must be supposed to be likewise cloathed with a power to communicate with other persons , or not to do it , as they shall see cause ; in which , great difference is to be made between this power in it self , and the use and management of it : for any abuses , whether true , or only pretended , though they may well be urged to procure a proper reformation of them , yet cannot be alledged against the power it self , which is both just and necessary . it is not so very clear to state the subordination in which the church is to be put under the civil power , and how far all acts of church power are subject to the laws and policies of those states to which the several churches do belong . it is certain , that the magistrate's being a christian or not , does not at all alter the case , that has only a relation to his own salvation ; for his authority is the same , whatever his belief may be in matters of religion . his design to protect or to destroy religion , alters the case more sensibly ; for the regards to that protection , and to the peace and order that follow upon it , together with the breaches and disorders that might follow upon an ill understanding between church and state , are matters of such consequence , that it is not only meer prudence , which may give perhaps too strong a bias to carnal fears and policies ; but the rules of religion , which oblige the church to study to preserve that order and protection , which is one of the chief blessings of the society , and a main instrument of doing much good . great difference is to be made between an authority that acts with a visible design to destroy religion , and another that intends to protect it , but that errs in its conduct , and does often restrain the rules of order , and impose hard and uneasy things : certainly in the latter much is to be born with , that may be otherwise uneasy , because the main is stil safe ; and private slips , when endured and submitted to , can never be compared to those publick disorders , that a rigid maintaining of that which is perhaps in it self good , must occasion . but when the design is plain , and that the conduct of the civil powers goes against the truth of religion , either in whole , or in any main article of it , then the body of the christians of that state ought to fortify themselves , by maintaining their order , and their other rules , in so far as they are necessary to their preservation . upon the whole matter , it does not appear that the church has any authority to act in opposition to the state , but meerly in those things in which the religion that she professes is plain and positive ; so that the question comes to be really this , whether is it better to obey god , than man ? there the rule is clear , and the decision is soon made : so when the church acts meerly in obedience to rules and laws laid down in scripture , such as , in declaring the doctrine , in administring the sacraments , and maintaining the setled officers of the church , she is upon a sure bottom , and must cast her self upon the providence of god , whatever may happen , and still obey god ; but in all things that have arisen out of ancient customs and canons , in every thing where she has not a law of god to support her , i do not see any power she has to act in opposition to law , and to the supreme civil authority . in this the constant practice of the iews is no small argument ; whos 's sanhedrin , that was a civil court , and the head of their state , did give rules and orders , which their priests were bound to obey , when not contrary to the law of god. we are sure this was the rule in our saviour's time ; and it was never censured nor reproved by him , nor by the apostles . the argument is also strong , that is drawn from the constant practice of the church , from the time that she first had the protection of the civil authority , till the times of the papal domination , in which we find , the emperours all along making laws concerning all the administrations of the church : we find them receiving appeals in all church matters , which they appointed such bishops as hapned to be about their courts , to examine : this was like our court of delegates ; for the bishops , who judged those matters , did not act according to canon , or by the ecclesiastical authority , which had put the church in a stated line of subordination , according to the division of the provinces of the empire : they acted only by an imperial authority ; so that though they were bishops , they acted by the emperor's commission . such authorities as these , drawn from the practices of the iewish and the primitive church , are at least strong inducements to believe this to be true . but the argument that seems to determine it , is , that men cannot be obliged to obey two different authorities , that may happen to contradict one another ; this were a strange distraction in mens thoughts and consciences , and therefore it cannot be supposed that god has put them under such a divided authority ; for all temporals will easily be fetched within an in ordine ad spiritualia . since then every soul is bound under the hazard of damnation to obey the supreme powers , we must be bound to obey their laws in every thing that is not contrary to the law of god ; which seems to be the only limitation that this can admit of . that settles this whole matter , which otherwise must be ravelled out into vast intricacies ; and yet it must be supposed for certain , that the rule for mens obedience must be distinct and fixed . to conclude this whole matter ; the best and surest way for preserving the order and authority of the church , as well as its peace and prosperity , is for the clergy to live and labour so , to be so humble and modest , so self-denied and heavenly-minded , that from thence the laity may be brought to see , that whatsoever power they have , will be employed for the publick good of the whole . this will make them to be less jealous , and more submissive ; and this will secure to them , most commonly , the protection and encouragement which they may expect from the civil powers ; who will be apt to have regard to their clergy , according to the esteem which they observe their other subjects have for them . discourse iv. concerning the obligations to continue in the communion of the church . there is nothing that concerns the peace and order of churches , and indeed the quiet and good government of mankind more , than rightly to understand our obligations to continue in the communion of that church in which we were born , or which is the main body of that society of christians among whom we live . the extreams in this matter are dangerous on both hands . a lazy compliance with every thing that is uppermost , because of the law and advantages that may be on its side , and an implicite believing and receiving of every thing that happens to be proposed to us , does on the one hand depress our faculties , render us so easy to every form in religion , that we become at last indifferent to all , and concerned in none ; it makes way for tyranny in those that govern , and sinks those that are governed into a sottish stupidity . on the other hand , a wanton cavilling at every thing , thebreaking of an established order , the making divisions , and the drawing of parties , the quarrelling about nicer points of speculation , or some lesser matters in rituals , do occasion much passion and animosity , they take men much off from the great ends of religion , they divide christians from one another , and sharpen them against one another ; all which are evils of so high a nature in themselves , and in their consequences , that it will be of great advantage to find so true a mean in this matter , that in it we may avoid the mischiefs of both extreams . the foundation then to be laid here , is first , to consider the natural obligation that all men , who are united by any common bond , come under to maintain a cordial affection , and a mutual good understanding among themselves ; both as it is an instrument to preserve and strengthen their body , and as it makes such a body of men easy and happy . but this , that is a consideration common to all joint bodies of men , becomes much stronger in the christian religion ; one of its main designs being to knit mens hearts to one another , by a tenderness of brotherly kindness and charity , our saviour having made this the distinction , by which all the world might know who were his disciples , and who were not so . and all his apostles , have in every one of their epistles , not excepting the shortest , prest this in such a variety of copious and most earnest directions , that whosoever reads the new testament carefully , must see that this is enlarged on beyond all the other duties of our religion , and prest in the most comprehensive words , and with the most enforcing considerations possible , the chief of all being the love which our saviour himself bare to us ; in imitation of which , he has required us to love one another , to love enemies , to pass by , and to forgive injuries , doing good for evil ; to relieve the necessitous , and have bowels of compassion for all men . this is a main part of the glory , as well as of the duties of our religon . to advance this , and to endear us to one another , we are obliged to pray with , and for one another , we are bound to assemble our selves together , that by our seeing of one another , and meeting in the same acts and duties of religion , our love and union may become stronger , and more firmly cemented . sacraments are sacred rites , instituted not only to maintain our devotion towards god , as acts of homage and solemn vows made to him , but likewise as bonds to knit us together , as well as to unite us to our head : and it is no small confirmation of all this , that our saviour in his last and longest prayer to the father , when he was interceding for his church , has repeated this prayer so often , no less than five times , in no very long prayer , that they might be one , and be kept and made perfect in one ; and the unity prayed for is so sublime , that it is compared to that unconceivable unity or union that was between the father and the son ; and by this the world was to be convinced of the truth of his religion , that the world might believe that the father had sent him . more needs not be said upon this head to make it evident , that it is of the greatest importance to the christian religion , to maintain an entire union among its members ; and that the chief mean of doing this , is their uniting themselves in the same acts of worship . now the only question that will remain , will be , how far must this go ? and the only answer that can be made to it , is , that it must go , till the body , in which we happen to be engaged , imposes unlawful terms of communion on its members : in that case we must remember , that it is better to obey god than man ; and that we must seek peace and truth ; since an union on unlawful terms is a combination against god and his truth , and is no piece of christian charity . this will be agreed to on all hands in the general . so i will go next to examine the pretences for disjointing this union among our selves , and see whether the main body among us , i mean our church , has imposed unlawful terms of communion on her members ; for if that is true , we by so doing have broke this union : or whether any who have separated from us , have not done it upon less binding considerations , for then they have broken the union . this i will manage with all possible fairness , and without the least reflection on persons and parties . i will state their grounds , and put their arguments , with the utmost force that i can apprehend belongs to them ; and when i have weighed them , i will leave the whole matter to an impartial consideration . the first point , in which every man must fix his thoughts , is , that it is not free to him to chuse to which body he will join himself , as it is free to him to chuse in which parish he will settle himself ; for since all parishes make but one communion and church , the one cannot be compared to the other : and if all that was said before , is true , then certainly it is not lawful for any man to break the union of the body , unless he is persuaded that it cannot be maintained but upon unlawful terms . therefore except a man is under this persuasion , he sins if he departs from the union of the body . but since conscience is a word that may be used in the following part of this discourse , its true notion ought to be well setled ; which is , according to the natural signification of the word , in all languages , an inward persuasion , founded upon some reason , apprehended to be true , concerning the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a thing . by this it will appear , that a bare aversion or dislike to a thing , without any reason on which that dislike is grounded , cannot be called conscience ; since things with which we are not acquainted , or that are uncouth to us , which we have often heard spoken against , are disliked by us , through a habit or prejudice conceived against them : but unless this is founded upon some reason , that appears to us true , drawn either from the nature of things , or from the scriptures , it is not conscience . i do not say , that every man under these convictions must be able to maintain those his reasons to others , to be just and good ; for then a better arguer , who can silence him , should be able to alter his conscience : but though he cannot answer objections , yet as long as his persuasion appears to be well grounded to himself , such a man is still under the bonds of his conscience . i am not now to examine how far an erring conscience obliges , or at least excuses , it is enough to have stated in general the true notion of conscience , by which every man that does not intend to deceive himself , may certainly know , whether he is really under the persuasions of conscience , or if he is only guided by humour , conceit , or the power of education and prejudice . the main foundation out of which most of the objections against some of the terms of our communion are rais'd , is this , that the church is only empower'd to execute those rules and orders that are set christians in the scriptures ; that the pretending to add to these , is to accuse the scripture as defective ; that all additions to those rules set us in scripture , are superstitious usages ; that they impose a yoke upon us , and so deprive us of our christian liberty ; that if some rites may be added , others upon the like reasons may be also added to these , and so on without bounds , as in fact it appears ; that when the church went once off from the first simplicity , in which the apostles deliver'd the christian religion to the world , and that new rites were invented to beautify the worship , these additions did at last swell up to that intolerable height in which they are now in the church of rome . in religious matters , it is not enough , according to st. paul's rule , that a thing is lawful , it must also be expedient : but for that pretended expediency which is alledged for some rites , that they are expressive and significant , it is rather an argument against them ; for a significant ceremony is of the nature of a sacrament , the common definition of which , that it is a visible sign of an invisible grace agreeing to it ; and certainly the appointing sacraments is above the power of the church , and can belong only to iesus christ , who is its head and founder . but all this is in appearance the stronger , if rites so enjoin'd have been abus'd to idolatry , and are parts of an idolatrous worship : to retain these , is to conform our selves to it , tho the scriptures command us to come out from among all such , and not to be conformable to them . hezeki● broke the brazen serpent , tho a memorial of a signal miracle , in which it had been in some sort an instrument , yet when even that was abus'd to idolatry , a good king broke it to pieces . this will hold stronger against things that are but of human institution , that they ought to be taken away , how innocent soever they may be in themselves , after they are grosly abus'd . to keep up the use of such things , is to scandalize and offend the weaker christians , tho st. paul lays great weight upon this , and charges all christians not to lay a stumbling-block in one anothers way ; he calls the doing otherwise , the destroying a weak brother ; and in conclusion , since st. paul said , whatsoever is not of faith , is sin , these rites therefore not being warranted from scripture , cannot be of faith , the object of which is a divine revelation ; they must therefore be sinful . and thus i have set down all the branches of the plea against ceremonies , with as much advantage as i can imagine belongs to them . i go therefore in the next place to take it to pieces , and to examine the strength of the whole , and of every part of this reasoning , that , as must be acknowledg'd , wants not fair and specious colours . the main stress lies upon this , whether the church in her rituals is so limited to the scriptures , that she has no power to add any thing to what is prescribed in them ? great difference is to be made between matters of doctrine , rules of life , foederal acts , together with the other acts of worship which are parts of the new covenant , or conditions of it ; and some ritual appointments , such as the circumstances of those instituted acts , the forms for the solemn acts of worship , together with some other institutions which are helps to devotion , and do fix or raise the attention . for the former sort , it is confess'd , that christ and his apostles having deliver'd this religion to the world , it must continue in the same state in which they setled it , without additions or variations : but since all instituted actions must be determined by the circumstances of persons , places , times , words and postures , these must be all manag'd with such deceency and beauty , as may carry on the order and edification of the church ; and since some actions seem to have a very natural tendency to give good impressions , and to raise a seriousness and awe for divine performances , these may be also appointed by those who are to feed , teach and guide their people . we see the iews , tho their religion seems to have in it a sufficient share of rituals , did add a great many ceremonies to those which moses gave them . they had in their pascal-supper a thick sawce of dates , almonds and figs , pounded together , and wrought up into the form of clay , to remember them of the clay of which their fathers had made bricks in the land of aegypt ; and yet our saviour observ'd this paschal-supper with the same addition : for this was probably the sawce into which iudas dipt the sop. they had likewise a form of initiating proselytes into their religion by baptism , not mention'd in the old testament ; and after this paschal-supper , the table was spread a second time , and nothing but bread and wine was set on it : yet tho these two last mention'd were rites added by them to the divine institution , our saviour was so far from condemning them for those additions , that he took these , and hallow'd them to be the two foederal rites of his own religion : nor does he so much blame the pharisees for the observation of those rites which tradition had handed down to them , as because they set that value on them , as to make the laws of god of no effect upon their account , when those voluntary assum'd ceremonies were preferr'd by them to the moral law it self ; so that the over-valuing of rituals , and the imagining that by them compensation can be made to god for the weghtier matters of the law , faith , justice , and the love of god , is indeed severely reprimanded by our saviour ; but the bare observance of them is no where censur'd by him . on the contrary , the whole service of the synagogues was only a human institution , no print of any divine precept appearing for it in the whole old testament ; yet our saviour came to their synagogues , and bore a share in the acts of worship that were perform'd there . a feast was instituted by the maccabees , in commemoration of their having purg'd the temple from idolatry , which was observ'd by our saviour ; and the whole new testament is full of allusions to some forms and rites which were their practised by the iews in their worship , tho no where instituted in the old testament . there are also some precepts given in the new testament about ritual matters , which are now taken away only by disuse ; that is , by the authority of the church that has discontinu'd the practice of them : such is the decree that the apostles with the rest at ierusalem made against the eating of meats strangled , or offered to idols , or of blood ; which as they are join'd with fornication , so the prohibition of them is reckon'd among necessary things ; yet these are now no more consider'd , as forbidden , that prohibition being lookt on either as a compliance with the iews , in those precepts which they believe were given to the sons of noah ; or as a direction to keep the christians at a due distance from all compliances with the gentiles in their idolatrous practises . and now that all regards to the iews have ceased with god's rejecting them from being his people , at the destruction of ierusalem , and all danger of coming too near the practices of the gentiles , is likewise at an end , we living no more among heathenish idolaters ; the nature of the things prohibited by that decree , not being evil in themselves , when the ground of the prohibition ceases , all men reckon that the prohibition must be at an end . here then the authority and practice of the church seems to be strong , even in bar to an apostolical decree ; and none of those bodies that are offended at our rituals , have revived this : so at least this argument is of force against those who do it not ; for certainly a greater degree of authority is necessary to take away a practice that has the face of a plain commandment in scripture enjoining it , than for adding such rites as are recommended by new emergencies . to this may be added the practice and rules given by the apostles concerning deaconesses : phoebe and others are mention'd that serv'd in that function . st. paul also in the rules that he gives concerning the age , the qualifications and the functions of the widows , seems plainly to mean them ; and we do certainly know , that they were in the first ages of christianity , and were imploy'd in the instruction , and about the baptism of such women as were converted to the faith. but when afterwards some scandals rose upon them , as the council of nice prohibited the clergy to keep any women that were not very nearly related to them , in their houses ; so in the fifth century , upon some publick scandals given by them , we find , that as they were put down in the western church by several provincial synods , so they insensibly wore out of the greek church ; and yet none in our days have endeavour'd to revive this institution . the kiss of peace was likewise us'd in the apostles times , and is mention'd in their epistles ; yet that rite being perhaps made use of by prophane scoffers , to represent the assemblies of the christians as too licentious , for the black and unjust imputations cast on their meetings seem to have no other foundation but this , it wore out of practice ; and i do not hear that any in our days have endeavour'd to bring it again in use . we see likewise , that they had love-feasts before the eucharist , which was taken from the iews ; and tho st. paul complains of some abuses in this practice , he does not condemn it , nor order it to be let fall ; yet it wore out , and is not now offer'd to be reviv'd by any among us . thus we see , that as to matters that are expresly mention'd in scripture , with warrants that seem to impose them as standing rules upon succeeding ages , the abuses or unfitness which afterwards appear'd in them , were thought sufficient reasons for departing from them . to these instances another may be added , that must needs press all that differ from us , one body only excepted , very much . we know that the first ritual of baptism , was by going into the waters , and being laid as dead backwards all-along in them ; and then the persons baptized were rais'd up again , and so they came out of them . this is not only mention'd by st. paul , but in two different places he gives a mystical signification of this rite ; that it signified our being buried with christ in baptism , and our being raised up with him to a new life ; so that the phrases of rising with christ , and so putting on christ , as oft as they occur , do plainly relate to this : and yet partly out of modesty , partly in regard to the tenderness of infants , and the coldness of these climates , since such a manner might endanger their lives , and we know that god loves mercy better than sacrifice , this form of baptizing is as little used by those who separate from us , as by our selves . if we consider only the words of the scripture , without regarding the subsequent practice of the church , we see reason enough to imagine , that the washing of feet should be kept up in the church . we have our saviour's practice for it , and words that seem to import an obligation on us to wash one anothers feet , together with the moral use and signification of it , that it ought to teach us humility . from all these things this inference seems just , that according to the practices of those who divide from us , the church must be suppos'd to have an authority to adjust the forms of our religion , in those parts of them that are meerly ritual , to the taste , to the exigencies and conveniencies of the several ages and climates . i say in things that are meerly ritual ; for i do not think that these instances can justify a church that should alter any main part of a foederal rite instituted by christ , such as the giving the chalice in the sacrament ; since this institution is deliver'd with so particular a solemnity , and in express words is appointed to be continu'd till christ's second coming ; and the cup is given as a seal of the new covenant in his blood , for the remission of sins ; which therefore all are requir'd to drink . we are to consider , that in matters that are meerly ritual , unless we suppose that charms are ti'd to particular rites , there could be no other design in them , but to secure some good purpose , or to keep off some bad practice by those outworks : if then the state of mankind does so alter , that what is good in one age , is liable to abuse , mistake or superstition in another ; there must be suppos'd to be a power in the pastors of the church , to alter or add as they see real occasions or good warrants for it . outward appearances work much on mankind ; things that look light , must dissipate men's thoughts , as much as graver methods do recollect them . dancing in the praises of god , would look very wild now ; but in other ages it had a better effect . since therefore the christian religion was to last to the end of the world , and to be spread to very different climates ; and since there is no special rubrick of forms digested in it ; since there is also no limitation put upon the church in this point , but rules are given that sound very much to the contrary , of doing all things that tend to order , edification and peace ; this great prejudice seems to be fully taken off and answer'd . nor do such institutions lead to superstition , but rather to the contrary . superstition , in its strict notion is a baseness of mind , that makes us fear without cause , and over-value things too much ; imagining that there is more in them than really there is . if things that are ritual were unalterable , there might be from thence more occasion given to superstition , according to the conceit of the iews , who thinking that their rites were unalterable , came to fancy from thence , that there was a real value in them , which upon their own account render'd men the more acceptable to god : superstition is more effectually beat down by the opinion of the alterableness of all external forms , according to the different exigencies of times and places ; since this shews , that rites are only matters of order and decency , which have no real value in them , because they are alterable . if any grow superstitious in the observance of them , this is an abuse to which all things , even the most sacred , the sacraments themselves , are liable . it can as little be said , that these rules in ritual matters are impositions on our christian liberty ; they are rather the exercise of a main part of it , which is our not being tied up so strictly by a law of commandments , as the iews were . the notion of liberty , as it is stated by st. paul , is the exemption under which christians were brought from the precepts of the mosaical law : for those who asserted the standing obligations of that law , were bringing christians under a heavy yoke , in opposition to which , the apostles asserted their liberty . but it is likewise a true piece of liberty , and a very necessary one for the societies of christians , to have among them a power of of using or forbearing to use , such external things , as do either advance or obstruct the main ends of religion . that some churches may abuse , and that others have abused this authority by carrying it too far , and imposing too great a load of external performances , is not to be denied : the number of them may become a vast burden , and a distraction rather than a help towards the main design of religion . ludicrous rites beget● prophaneness , and pompous ones and undue gaity : but the apprehension of an abuse in the extent of an authority , cannot justify the quarrelling at a few rites , when it is visible there is no disposition to swell or encrease them . if every year were producing some new rite or other , there might be good ground to fear , that there would be no end of such impositions ; but this cannot be appli'd to our circumstances . it is also a question , whether in case that there were indeed too many rites enjoin'd , every one of which were innocent in it self , so that no special objection lay against any one , but against them all , as too many ; whether , i say , in such a case , private persons were not oblig'd rather to bear their burden , than by shaking it off , to rend the body , and disturb the peace and order of the church ? it seems they ought rather to bear it : the rulers of a church have indeed much to answer for , who press her too hard , with burdens that are both useless and heavy to be born ; but the obligations to peace seem to conter-ballance this inexpediency . for tho private persons must judge for themselves , whether things requir'd of them are lawful or unlawful , and must act accordingly ; yet expediency or inexpediency is only to take place , in cases in which they are entirely at their own disposal , and where the rules of prudence or charity can only determine them . but where the quiet and order of the body is concern'd , publick orders and determinations being interpos'd , they are not to depart from those , upon their conceiving them inexpedient ; for it is certainly more inexpedient and mischievous to break publick order , than it can possibly be to practice any rite , which perhaps if left free to us , might seem not expedient , and were better let alone . the expediency of forms and rites is a very proper subject of publick consultations ; and those who are concern'd in them , will have much to answer for to god if they do not weigh this , together with all that counterbalances it , very critically : but in a setled state of things , exceptions to the expediency of them can never justify the interrupting the order and quiet of the society . on of the chief of these expediences is , that those rites have a real tendency to make good impressions on peoples minds ; that they put those who practice them in mind of their duty ; so that there is some good signification in them . the objection against significant ceremonies , as being of the nature of sacraments , will appear to be founded on a great mistake : if we state a little the difference between the signifying or expressing some part of our duty , with such proper acts of our minds , as do become the occasion , and the signifying some blessing that is offered or conveyed to us by god , in the use of that action ; the former is far from the nature of a sacrament ; and indeed is only a mute way of speaking : for actions as well as words may become instituted signs to express our thoughts . but indeed if we should fancy , that such rites did offer or convey into our minds those things that are signifi'd by them , as a foederal institution , to which a divine vertue were annexed , this were to consider them as sacraments ; the institution of which is unquestionably beyond the power of the church : but it is quite another thing , when rites are appointed as means only to raise in our minds suitable and corresponding thoughts . to instance this in one particular ; if we pretended that by the use of the cross in baptism , a divine vertue were conveyed to the person baptized , that deadned him more entirely to the world , and wrought him up to a greater conformity to christ ; then here were a new sacrament set up , which could not be justified : but when it is only meant , as an exhibiting the form of the cross of christ , to put us in mind of our obligation to imitate him , and to suffer for him ; here is only a rite that speaks to us in an ●ction , which is explained by the words that accompany it . it is more important which is urged from the abuse of rites to idolatrous practices : this was the first objection that was started among us against the habits in the worship of god ; and had without doubt a very plausible appearance ; since a great part of the mosaical law seemed to be the establishing many rites , merely to put them in a great opposition to the gentiles , and to set them at the vastest distance possible from their idolatrous or magical practices : yet at the same time many others of those instituted rites , are by some very learned men proved to have been taken from other practices of the same idolaters , that were more innocent in themselves , tho abused , as the rest of their rites were , to idolatry . the iews had certainly very much corrupted their religion by the addition of many rites , and by their over valuing those additions : and yet two of these were made use of by our saviour to be the sacraments of his church . but besides this , a great difference is to be made between rites that were in their first use invented for the pomp of idolatry , and were in their first use applied to it , and those which had been in use long before those idolatrous practices begun , and were afterwards applied to them . in these last , if their abuse is taken away , and the first and simple usage is revived , this seems to be no compliance with either idolatry or superstition . to go on with the former instance ; we find the primitive christians used the making a cross in the air , or upon their bodies on many occasions ; afterwards , when a divine vertue was fancied to accompany that ritual action , it was used in baptism as a sort of incantation ; for with the use of it , the devil was adjured to go out of the person that was to be baptized ; such an usage made it a sacramental and a superstitious action ; and if it had been still retained in that form , as it was in the first reformation of our liturgy in king edward the vith's time , i do not see how it could have been justified ; but since it had been an ancient form to use the sign of the cross , the church might well have retained this in some of her rites ; and it belonged to none of them so properly , as to the initiatory sacrament , in which the first use of it was retained , and the succeeding abuse was laid aside . since also we find that the primitive christians received the other sacrament in the posture in which they prayed to god ; and since the posture in which all our prayers are now made , is kneeling , it might be very proper to go through this whole office from beginning to end , in the posture of prayer : but this could not be so well excused if the posture were left free till the consecration ; and if then only kneeling were required , this were indeed to continue a practice that had been abused by idolatry , which could not be justified : so that the abuse of forms may require the altering them from that method in which they were abused , but cannot import an obligation to abstain wholly from the use of them in another method . it may be a very just matter for a publick deliberation , whether such things ought to be retained , they being freed from such abuses , or not . on the one hand , the people who are apt to be much struck with a total change of outward forms , especially when that is suddenly made , may be more easily brought about , if the alterations are not too sensible , but that some things seem to remain , to which they had been accustomed , and for which they retained a value . now since mankind is so weak , that some lesser frailties ought to be indulged , while more criminal ones are not to be spared , here was a very specious ground to persuade the continuance of those rites ; and that the rather , because we find the apostles themselves complied with the iews in instances of a much higher nature . they circumcised some ; they observed iewish rites , and to the iews they became iews , as they became all things to all men . st. paul took vows on him , and went to the temple to be purifi'd , which could not be done but with a sacrifice : and though he still stood upon the exemption of the gentiles from the obligations of their law ; yet he himself , together with other born iews , complied with them in their observances . now when it is considered , that these were typical laws that were accomplished by the coming of our saviour , and that the iews pleaded still for the continuance of them , so that it was indeed the main controversy of that time ; it will appear , that the compliance of the apostles in such things , was liable to much juster objections than any that can be brought against obedience to constitutions , that are about things of their own nature innocent and indifferent . but yet we see the apostles judged , that as long as the temple stood , and that god's wrath was not yet poured out on that nation , there were still some among them , that as a remnant were to be gained to christianity , and therefore while there was ground to hope for that , they went on in that condescention to their infirmity , observing that very low which was then maintained by the iews with the highest insolence and cruelty possible against christ and his followers . when this point is well weighed in its full extent , and in all its consequences , it will , i hope , satisfy many , how far so great an end as the publick peace , and the edification of the whole body , ought to be pursued , when the apostles went so far in order to the gaining of a few . and here it will be no impertinent digression , to observe the rules that st. paul lays down to christians in this whole matter : i cannot think that it was so fully opened in epistles that have been preserved down to our days , as a main part of the canon of our faith , without a special providence of god , that in those rules we might see our own duty in the management of such controversies as should afterwards arise : since besides a historical knowledge of the state of that time , this is all the use that it seems we can now make of such long discourses , and arguings ; and if this can be well stated , it will be a sure thread to guide us . first then , st. paul leads men above the valuing such matters too much ; as if the being of the one or the other side , signified any thing towards their peace with god : for all fierce zealots are apt to imagine , that by their zeal they please god , and atone for great faults . therefore to take away that false conceit , this is often repeated , that in christ iesus neither circumcision nor vncircumcision a vailed any thing , but a new creature , or faith which worketh by love , and the keeping the commandments of god ; and that the christian religion , or the kingdom of god consisted not in meat and drink , that is , in rituals , concerning the distinction of meats clean and unclean , but in much higher things , righteousness , peace , and joy in the holy ghost : and he seems to assert , that whosoever served christ in these things , was acceptable to god , and ought to be approved of men ; whatsoever his sense might be as to all other things . another position laid down , is , that every man ought to he fully persuaded in his own mind ; to have clear principles , and to frame these into as distinct rules as possibly he could : and this is the meaning , of doing all things in faith ; which word signifies persuasion , and ought to have been so rendered here : and then all those difficulties that arise out of the misunderstanding of that word , would cease ; so that the paraphrase of those so oftencited words will run thus , hast thou a persuasion ? have it within thy self ; so that then mayst appeal to god upon it : for happy is the man that is so setled , that he does not waver in a distraction of thoughts , sometimes approving , and at other times condemning the same thing ; for while a man is still doupting , he is condemned within himself . for instance , if he eats freely of all meats , without regarding the iewish distinctions , and yet has within him an opinion of the obligatory force of those laws ; he does not act upon clear principles and persuasions ; for while a man acts without these , not knowing but that he may be sinning against god , he does then really sin , since he does things which he thinks are sins , so that they become sins to him . this is a plain account of those words , which as it agrees exactly to their natural signification , so it shuts out all the difficulties which arise out of them . for the word rendred by doubting , according to the sense in which it stands in all the other parts of the new testament , signifies the making distinction ; so that the meaning of it is , he who thinks that there is still a distinction between meats clean and unclean , is very guilty if he eats as long as he is under that persuasion . a third rule laid down by st. paul , is , teat in all such matters , men ought not to assume an authority to judge others ; that is , to impose things upon them , as if they had a judiciary authority over them . let not man judge you in meat , or in drink , or in respect of a holy day : that is , let no man in matters left at liberty , pretend to an authority over another ; for god is the sole judge of all men : and let no man judge his brother , that is , offer to call him to an account of his actions ; for we must all stand at the judgement-seat of christ , where he who is our only judge , as a law giver , will then be our iudge , by calling us to an account of our actions : upon this follow the rules of mens deportment towards one another . those that have larger principles , and higher notions ; who in that respect are stronger , and who by that freedom of mind and thought , did eat without those nice distinctions of clean and unclean , ought not to despise such as were yet fearful and straitned in their thoughts , and durst not emancipate themselves , as if they were men of low thoughts , and narrow minds : on the other hand , those who were still entangled with an opinion of the obligation of the mosaical law , ought not to condemn such as acted with more freedom , as if they were loose and lawless men . to this a fourth assertion is added , that in such diversities of apprehensions , men of both sides might be received and accepted by god , both acting with good intentions , and following sincerely their persuasions . one man regarded a day : he observed the iewish festivities , their new moons , and days of rest , called by the general word of sabbaths ; yet in doing this , under the sense of the obligations of that law lying still over him , be regarded it to the lord : another , who reckoned himself freed from that yoke , did acknowledge , that this his liberty was occasioned by the christian religion ; so he , in not observing it , acknowledged that religion which had set him free . the same rule is also instanced in observing the distinction of meats ; the one did eat freely , and thanked god for that liberty : while the other did abstain from forbidden meats , and thanked god for that law by which the iewish nation had so many special priviledges beyond all other nations , so that god was honoured by both , even in all that diversity of practices : and perhaps , a diversity of practices , if with that , a tender and perfect charity could be maintained , might be yet a greater honour to religion , than an absolute ageement in all points ; since it is a higher instance of the power of religion , if men can love one another , notwithstanding a diversity in opinion and practice ; than if they loved one another , being in all points of the same mind , and agreeing in the same practices . after these , came two rules relating to private mens behaviour towards one another in such cases : the one is , not to set a stumbling-block , or an occasion to fall , in another man's way ; that is , not to use our liberty in such instances , or on such occasions , as may draw other men to act in imitation of us , against their own consciences . this is the true notion of giving scandal , or the laying a trap in the way of another , by which he may fall , or be catched : and this every man is to avoid , when it is free for him to act , or not , as he pleases ; for in that case only , he is under this obligation and caution ; since otherwise , if he is determined by any law , divine or humane , he must go on and do his duty , without considering what consequences may happen upon it , for which he is not accountable ; since he is not at liberty to dispose of himself , but is concluded by a higher authority . the other rule is , that we ought , as much as may be , to avoid doing any thing that may grieve other christians , which is said to be walking uncharitably ; since we ought to have such regard , even to the tenderness and weakness of our brethren , as not to do such things as may wound or trouble them , still under the former supposition , that we are fully at our own liberty , and under no law nor obligation to the contrary . these are the rules laid down by st. paul ; which , when well considered , and rightly understood , will give a great light into this whole controversy . by these it will appear , that even the apostles themselves , who might have assumed a higher strain of authority , yet had great regards to the frailties of those they governed : and although most of these positions and rules do suppose men to be in a state of an unrestrained liberty , so that they do not belong to our case , in which laws and constitutions have already determined us ; yet they ought still to have great weight with those that are not concluded by laws , and all such as may have the making or reviewing of laws under their care and deliberation . but i have opened this matter more fully than was , perhaps , necessary to my present purpose , which only required , that i should clear some passages in st. paul's epistles that are applied to the points now under examination , though they do not at all belong to them ; since all that is in st. paul , relates only to such things as were entirely left to mens own liberty , and in which it was free to them to act which way soever they pleased ; which are not at all applicable to established rules , setled by law , and recommended by ancient practice . it is true , that no age of the church since the apostles days , can make laws for succeeding ages ; since the pastors of every age have the same authority that the pastors of any precedent age had after the times of inspiration : whatever was done in a former age , may be altered in a subsequent one : and therefore all those rules , of the subordination of churches one to another , being taken from the disposition of the roman empire , europe being now totally moulded into another frame , are now at the discretion of princes to cotinue or change them at their pleasure : and all the rituals of the church are in the power of every age to alter or continue them as they shall see cause ; but till they are altered , they bind , not by reason of any authority that former ages had over the present ; but because the present age , by not repealing former rules and canons , does tacitly and interpretatively confirm and renew them : for if the pastors of the present age , in concurrence with , and a due subordination to the civil powers , have an authority to make laws or canons in such matters , they have likewise a power to continue such as were made in any former age , and they are presumed , and in law taken to do that , till they repeal them . i have now gone through the general plea that is brought against our constitutions from general topicks ; and have , i hope , shewed that there is no force in any part of it . i come next to consider such things as are objected more specially to several particulars in our constitution . they except to the government of the church , because of the different ranks of bishop , priest and deacon , whereas the scriptures use bishop and priest so promiscuously , that from thence it seems reasonable to infer , that they are one and the same function , and that there ought to be but two ranks , bishop and diacon , in the church ; but those who object this , have really among them but one function and order , since they have no diacons , in the sense of st. paul's epistles , who are a degree of men dedicated to the service of god , out of which , as any served well in it , they were advanced to a superior degree , and were ever esteemed a sacred order of men. there are none such among those who urge this matter against us . the promiscuous use of names does not prove the offices the same . the apostles are called , sometimes , deacons or ministers , and so are their companions in labour ; for the term diacon , signifying any one that ministred : it was not then appropriated to the lowest order , no more than presbyter was to the second ; for the apostles call themselves sometimes deacons ; so that from hence an argument might be drawn , as well to prove that deacons are equal in rank to the highest order of bishops . we plainly see , that god setled three orders of officers in the iewish temple : we see also , in their synagogues , that there were three different ranks taken probably from the model of the temple : we see our saviour chose twelve apostles , and afterwards seventy disciples , having in that , no doubt , a regard both to the numbers of their tribes , and of their sanhedrin : we plainly see , that during the apostles lives , the governing and ordering of the church was in them , yet they constituted some in their name to govern a large extent of churches ; and by their epistles to these , it is plain , that the power of governing those churches , and of ordaining new officers in them , belonged to them ; they being the persons to whom that trust was committed , with solemn charges given them for it by the apostles : we plainly see two distinct orders of bishop and deacon , as two sacred functions that were to labour in the work of the gospel ; and we find by the short epistles in the beginnings of the revelation , that there was one man who had the immediate charge of those churches , to whom every thing relating to them is addressed , as to a person that was accountable for the rest , and that by consequence must be suppos'd to have an authority over them : we see immediately after the days of the apostles , that all the churches were cast into one mould , of bishop , priest and diacon : this taking place every where , and that at a time when no meetings of the clergy could be held to establish any such form , and that no laws of princes were made to enact it , and no men of authority could so early and so universally have brought such a change into the order of the church ; when there was nothing to tempt any to affect preheminence : labour and sufferings being all that then follow'd this superiour rank ; and yet within less than one century after the days of the apostles , we do plainly see , that this was the constitution , even of those churches that had been gathered and setled by the apostles themselves . among whom so visible a thing as the order in which they had put the church , could not possibly be soon forgotten , and this was not complain'd of by the sects of those days , particularly the montanists , that had so fair an appearance by their praying and fasting so much , that not only tertullian was drawn away by it , but even the church seems to have taken a tincture from some of their methods ; whether in imitation of them , or on design to out-do them , is not so easy to determine ; yet nothing of this kind was ever objected , as if the church had by the authority given to bishops , departed from the apostolical customs . now i will acknowledge , that a bare practice , tho very ancient , such as the giving the eucharist to infants , without a colour for it in scripture , ought not to conclude us : but when there is a great deal in scripture that looks favourably to a thing , tho the proof from the words alone should not seem full and positive , and when the first writings and clearest practices of the ages that immediately follow'd , confirms such an exposition , then we have all that is possible for us to pretend to , for giving a fixed and determinate sense to such passages . from all this then it is clear , that we are now upon the same constitution as to the main , on which the apostles setled the churches , and that we have all the reason that a thing of this nature is capable of , to conclude , that the distinction of bishop , priest and deacon , was setled by the apostles themselves , and is related to by many places in the new testament . the division of the world into diocesses , larger or narrower , as well as of parishes , some being excessively large , and others as unreasonably small , does not a whit alter the nature of the thing in it self ; since tho' it were to be desir'd , that parishes were nearer an equality in point of labour and cure ; yet this is an inconvenience that we must bear , and not disturb the church , by seeking undue remedies for it : so such disorders , as a length of time , a corruption of manners , a change of governments , and civil policies , has brought into a constitution , may put it out of our power to procure the redress of many things , that yet will as little warrant a renting the body , or dividing the church upon any such account , as it would justify the lazy sloth of such as may bring things to a better state , and yet do not set about it , nor do heartily endeavour it . another head of objections is to set-forms of prayer in general , as a stinting of the spirit of prayer ; of which mention is often made in the new testament , and which ought to have scope given to it ; since it is a mean to rouze up and quicken heavy minds , which become flat when accustom'd to a constant form of words , that render both the clergy lazy , and the people dead : but when it is consider'd , that every man's words become a form , to which all the rest of the assembly is limited ; the question then lies naturally between the sudden conceptions of one man , who is often young , rash , without judgment , and who always speaks on the sudden ; and between a form well digested and prepared by a body of wise and good men : since then the people must be under a form , it may seem much more reasonable that they should be under such a form , than under the other ; and that the rather , since we see moses , david , and the prophets of old , gave the jewish church so many forms , both for prayers and praises : we know that in our saviour's time , the iews had a stated liturgy of their own ; which our saviour was so far from blaming , that he himself prescribed his disciples a form , and compos'd it out of theirs ; laying together so many petitions drawn out of their prayers as answer'd his end , in appointing his own : and praises seeming to be the sublimest acts of worship , in which the soul ought to arise to its highest elevation ; it is not easily accountable why so much excitation should be required in prayer , while men are left to be still flat and formal in their praises . it is not to be deni'd , but that among the extraordinary gifts that follow'd the wonderful effusion of the holy ghost , one was , that men were inspir'd to offer up such prayers to god as comprehended the necessities of whole congregations ; it appearing in those prayers , that the spirit in him that pray'd , searched all their hearts , and so did prompt him with groanings that were unutterable ; and it thus appearing , that the spirit , or inspiration which moved any to pray in this sort , searched all things ; every man finding the sense of his own heart thus open'd , together with suitable intercessions , it was from thence evident , that this was the spirit of god , making intercession for the saints , in the mouth and words of the inspir'd person . this being a plain account of those words of praying in or by the spirit , and well agreeing with every thing said concerning it in the new testament , it is a great mistake , if we in these days , should expect any such assistances from god : so that now a readiness of new or tender expressions in prayer , is an effect of a quickness of thought , a liveliness of imagination , together with a good memory , much conversant in scripture-phrases , and long practised in that way . all things by a long use grow flat to minds that are not seriously awaken'd ; but extemporary prayers do rather kill than feed true devotion , since they must be hearkened to as discourses , which is a distraction to him that prays after them , whereas those accustom'd to set-forms , have only the things themselves that their devotion relate to in their view ; so they are certainly less tempted to distraction , than they must be who follow the other way . those sudden starts that are given to the mind by soft words , and melting images of things , may be according to the different compositions of men more or less useful to them in their secret exercises , but they ought not to be let in upon publick assemblies , which being made up of a great variety of tempers , must be entertain'd only with such devotions that suit with all their conditions , and do equally quadrate to all their necessities ; and thus it is not only natural , but necessary for all men who will maintain order in their worship , and will frame it in so diffus'd an extent , as to take all equally within it , that they have set and stated forms ; and these ought to be cast into the plainest and most comprehensive simplicity possible , since that is always suited to all mankind , whereas men are vastly diversifi'd in every thing that is lively or fanciful such a way of worship ought neither to be unreasonably long , nor excessively short . the length must be proportion'd to what the greater part of mankind can bear ; it ought also to be so diversifi'd , that mens minds be not kept too long at any one part of it , or their bodies in any one posture ; and there should be as great a compass in it , for taking in the several acts and offices of devotion , as may be ; and in all these respects , it may be safely affirmed , that our forms have as few defects , are as little liable to objections , and are indeed as perfect , not only as the forms or liturgies of any church , that we know of , ancient or modern , but are as perfect as we can in reason expect in any thing that came from men not immediately inspir'd . any small exceptions that may be made , as they do all admit of very good answers , so can never be put in the ballance with the peace and order of the church , and the edification that the members of our body might receive from such pure and spirital devotions . if men grow too languid and flat in them , even this is much more supportable than the gross affections , and the scandalous indecencies that are so common , to say no worse , in the tumultuary way . man is indeed so made , that he grows soon corrupt and dead in what method so ever he is put : but as mankind bears the longest and the most generally with common food , and is less disgusted at the continuance of it , than it would be with more chosen delicacies , which would become much sooner nauseous than simpler nourishment ; so it may be positively affirm'd , that grave and well-compos'd devotions , fitly diversifi'd , and often broken , as ours are , have not only reason and authority clearly on their side , but have great advantages in them , and few disadvantages to ballance those . they are such as are proper for us to offer up to god ; they have in them all the gravity and solemnity that becomes a religious assembly ; they comply with our very infirmities , and give us such breathings as may be necessary for loose and vagrant minds ; and they carry in them the whole complex of a religious service : so in going that round with due degrees of attention , we are sure we offer up to god the several branches of that reasonable service , or rational worship , that we owe him . the more particular exceptions lie chiefly against our forms in the two sacraments : the anabaptists object our not dipping when we baptize ; which was not only the practice of christ and his apostles , but seems to be recommended by the mystical allusions made to the being buried in the water , and the being again raised up out of it , as was formerly observ'd . indeed if we could think that a divine vertue follow'd the application of the water only to the parts washed with it , so that there were a sort of a charm in it , we must acknowledge our baptism to be defective ; but since water is only us'd as an emblem of the purity of our religion , it seems in the nature of things to be all one , whether the person baptized is put into the water , or if the water is put upon him . the design of baptism is a foederal sponsion , upon which water is to be us'd , with a determined form of words ; and when these are observed , all that is primarily intended in it , is observed ; nor will allusions made to the rites with which this was at first managed , prove that those ought to be perpetual , these being only devout and instructive thoughts offer'd upon the occasion of such forms . yet after all , our church is so little liable to censure in this matter , that the rule given in the rubrick is first for dipping ; sprinking is only allowed of ; so that tho it comes to be more commonly practised , yet no person that desires it in the form of dipping can be denied it among us , since it is the form that is chiefly favoured by the rubrick , tho the practice runs in a current the other way . there is a more important scruple rais'd upon infant baptism , since the persons mention'd to be baptized in the scriptures were all of age , capable to answer and promise for themselves ; and since by the institution of baptism , the making of men disciples is set before it , and the teaching them to observe all that christ hath commanded comes immediately after it , both these seem to be characters importing that they should be of an age capable of instruction , since they only can make the answer of a good conscience : so that the baptizing upon a vow or promise made by another , seems to be a new sort of foederal sponsion , not instituted by christ , and by consequence not warranted by the gospel . nor will the argument from circumcision appear conclusive , when it is consider'd that females not being capable of it , that rite seems rather to have been a national mark , to distinguish them as abraham's posterity from other nations , than a rite relating to the blessings of a future state . but to all this we must answer , that since our saviour took baptism from the iews , it being visible that they were not at all surprized at st. iohn baptist's baptizing , they only questioning him upon his mission and authority for it ; we have reason to conclude , that he took it from them as they practised it : and we find by their writings , that when any proselytes came over to their religion , they not only baptized them , but also their children . this being their practice , and our saviour making no exceptions as to this particular , but saying words that plainly favour it , suffer little children to come unto me , and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of god , or the gospel-dispensation , this is no small argument for it : but that which seems to determine the matter , is the resolution that st. paul gives in a case that must have been very common in those days , when one of the married parties was converted to christianity , the other remaining still in infidelity , he determines that the husband ought not to put away the wife , nor the wife leave the husband ; and the reason he adds is , that there was a communication of sanctification from the believing to the unbelieving party , which descended to their children , who should be otherwise vnclean , but now they were holy. now it is to be consider'd , that in the new testament holy , or saint , and a christian , stand promiscuously for one another ; and the word holy , can only signify either a real inward holiness , or a holiness of dedication , in which sense all things appropriated to god are said to be holy. a believer could not communicate a real holiness either to the unbelieving yoke-fellow , or to the issue , since that is personal , and cannot be derived , or descend . the only holiness that he could derive , was a right to consecrate the common issue to god ; which is in some sort a sanctifying of one another . this is a plain and natural meaning of these words ; and tho they should not seem to im●port it so necessarily , but that other glosses might be put upon them , yet the early practice of the church mention'd by irenaeus , tertullian , and most copiously by st. cyprian , seems to be a sure commentary upon them , this being a ritual and visible thing , in which we may much more safely have recourse to tradition , than in matters of doctrine ; it being here remembred , that a practice without warrant in scripture , is not to be so regarded as a practice that seems to have favourable , if not clear warrants for it in scripture . this also agrees with the natural order of the world : children being put in the power of their parents , by the laws of nature , who , considering their incapacity , must act in their name , and may both procure rights and priviledges to them , and also lay ties and engagements upon them . it is then suitable to the extent of the mercy of god in the gospel , that parents may offer up their children to christ , that they may be tied by them to his religion , and received into the blessings and privileges of it . when this whole matter is thus laid together , i doubt not but the lawfulness of infant-baptism will evidently appear ; and if it is lawful , then according to what was at first made out , the church may oblige all her members to it . the practice of having sponsors , being but an increase of the security given for the person 's education in christianity , the care of the parents being supposed , as already bound upon them by their natural relation to their children , and it being a great mean , if well managed , of knitting neighbours together in new and christian bonds , all exceptions to such a custom seem very ill-grounded ; and their answering so positively in the name of the child , does according to the nature of all acts in the name of infants , import only , that as far as in them lies , care shall be taken that the infant shall make good those engagements in due time . our affirming so positively , that all children who are baptized , and die before they grow to be capable of committing any actual sin , are certainly saved ; does not only agree with the idea's of the infinite goodness of god , but also with this declaration , that the promises of the gospel are made to all christians , and to their children . the most general scruple against our form in baptism , remains yet to be discussed : that we have added to it the sign of the cross , which is a piece of popish superstition . indeed , if we use it as was formerly observed , as they do , with an adjuration of the devil to go out , and not to presume to violate the sign of the cross ; if we breathed cross-ways , and pretended by that to infuse divine virtues and blessings , here were just objections ; for in so doing , we should assume a power to make sacraments , and to affix divine powers to institutions of our own : therefore nothing of this being retained among us , all the papistical and superstitious use of the cross in baptism is thrown out : but since the primitive christians did so glory in the cross , that in stead of being ashamed of the reproach of it , they used it upon most occasions : our reformers designing to restore primitive christianity , thought , that though the abuse of this to so much superstition , made them supercede the frequent practice of it ; yet in this first initiation to christianity , it was reasonable to use it , once for all , but with words that shewed they retained none of the superstitious conceits of popery , and meant only thereby to own the receiving all christians into the doctrine of the cross , and to an obligation to follow christ , bearing his cross. and thus it is plain , that this practice is in it self not only innocent , but decent : and that there were very plausible reasons , to say no more , for enjoining it ; so that the not using it , is the disobeying a just authority , in a lawful injunction . kneeling in the eucharist , seems not only liable to an imputation of idolatry ; but is also under this further prejudice , that it is in none of the ancient rituals : on the contrary , we have all reason to believe , that for many ages they did communicate standing : since all kneeling in churches on sundays , or in the time between easter and whitsunday , was esteemed a crime in tertullian's time , and was forbidded by a canon of the council of nice . this being that , of all the objections raised against us , that touches in the tenderest part , since this is the great symbole of the union of christians , and that in which most formally the communion of the church consists , it will be necessary to examine it very narrowly . it is then , first , to be considered , that outward actions do signify only that which by a general consent , or an express declaration is agreed on as their sense and importance . kneeling to kings , is understood to be only the highest act of civil respect ; and therefore it is liable to no imputation of idolatry , therefore if there is an express declaration made of the importance of this action , that it is neither an adoration of the bread and wine , nor of the person of christ , as supposed corporally present , but only a worshipping of god in the acknowledgment of the great blessings there exibited to us , then this posture cannot be stretched beyond this express declaration ; nor is this that kneeling which is enjoined by the church of rome ; for that is only a falling down at the elevation , in acknowledgment of the miraculous change then made : whereas ours is a continued posture of prayer , in which we continue during the whole office : so that kneeling , as used by us , does in many respects differ from the knoeling used in the church of rome . as for that specious pretence , that in the primitive times they did not kneel at the receiving the sacrament ; it is only an appearance of a reason . in the primitive times , they had a notion of kneeling as an abject posture , which only became penitents , or the times of fasting : they thought that upon other occasions standing in prayer had an appearance of faith and confidence in god ; and agreed with those comfortable assurances , and that joy to which we are called in the gospel : and therefore those who were in the full peace of the church , were to stand up at prayers ; which was most indispensably observed on sundays , and the fifty days from easter to pentecost . but standing was then their posture of prayer , so they received the sacrament in the posture appropriated to prayer ; and it were easy to shew , from those wery fathers who mention standing as the posture in which the eucharist was received , that they did consider it as a posture of adoration , and so required all christians to adore as they received it . now in a course of many ages , this difference of several degrees in prayer , and the postures proper to them , is quite worn out ; so that kneeling is become the common posture of all prayer whatsoever : therefore we receiving in a posture of prayer , do in that follow the constant practice of all christians , in all the best ages . kneeling is a matter merely ritual ; and being now grown the common rite , expressing our humility in prayer , we do not depart from the spirit and intentions of the primitive church ; since we receive the eucharist in our posture of prayer , as they did in theirs . the plausible exception to all this , is , that since our saviour did institute this sacrament , at a table after supper , it is a needless departing from his practice , and the pattern that he hath left us , to receive it in any other posture . if this objection had any force , it should oblige us to receive leaning along , according to the posture of sitting at table in those days ; and if we must adhere to the circumstances of the institution , the time after supper , and the place an upper room , will be as obligatory upon us as the posture , since all these things are of the same order and value . but to go to the bottom of this objection , and to shew by a clear parity the just reason of departing from our saviour's practice in this particular . it is to be remembred , that when moses gave out the institution of the paschal festivity , he limited that people by express words to a posture , they were to eat it with their loins girt , and their shoos on their feet , with staves in ther hands , thus ready to march . there is nothing in the institution that gives the least hint , as if this was not meant to be a lasting precept : so here is much more than a bare example , a precept given in very plain words , without any limitation of time : and yet when the israelites were setled in the land of canaan , at rest , and no more obliged to march , this change of their circumstances did , from the natural suitableness of things , bring on a change in this part of that festivity : they sate about their tables , or rather leaned , and so they did eat the lamb in that lazy posture , that expressed the rest which god had given them . and we are sure , that in this they committed no error , since our saviour himself justified their practice , by conforming to it . so here more than a bare practice , an express institution in a ritual matter , is changed by a church , that in all such things seems to have been much more tied up to the letter of their law , than the christian church is ; yet a great alteration in their circumstances made them conclude , that this ought to be altered , and in that they did right . now if we will apply this to the christian passover ; christ being in a state of humiliation , and in the form of a servant , institutes it ; and does it in a familiar posture of equality with his disciples at table , but gives no rule how , as to that particular it ought to be observed for the future , as moses had done . afterwards , a vast change happens in his visible condition ; he is raised from the dead , and exalted up into heaven : upon this change therefore , with relation to his human nature , that was vastly more important than that which had happenened to the iews when they were brought into the land of promise ; it seems to have been highly congruous to that practice of the iews , with which the first christians could not be unacquainted , for them to have changed the posture from the appearance of familiarity , to that of respect ; and to have brought it to the posture which they use in prayer , and their other devotions . and this i think is a full answer to every thing that can be objected to our posture in receiving . another exception some have to our administration of this sacrament , that there is no previous examination of those who are admitted to it ; that a promiscuous multitude comes without any notice given , or enquiry made after them ; tho we are commanded to note such as walk disorderly , and to have no fellowship with them , that they may be ashamed : nay , with brethren , that is , christians who live scandalously , not so much as to eat . to this it is to be answer'd , that a great difference is to be made between a church that lies yet under some defects , which she laments and cannot get them to be effectually supplied , and a church that is viciously faulty , and blamable in any thing she does . if the acts of church-communion are in themselves lawful and good , so that particular persons are obliged to nothing that can be made appear to be unlawful ; it can be no reason for them to separate from it , because other things are not done which perhaps are fitting and may seem necessary . but a further distinction is to be made , between things commanded by a divine precept , and such things as are only recommended by the practice and rules of the church . st. paul does only prescribe this , that every man examine himself , but does not impose it upon any to examine others ; and the true importance of the word render'd examine , is approve ; that is , let a man so consider himself , as to see whether he is approved of by his own conscience : but this gives no other person an authority to search into , examine , or approve such us come to the sacrament . there is therefore no rule given in the new testament for any such previous enquiry : it was indeed a very ancient , and is upon very many accounts a good and useful practice so to do . but how criminal soever a defect in obeying a divine law may be , it can be no such matter not to observe even the ancientest rules of the church , that after all , do rest only upon a human authority : those rules concerning scandalous persons , belong to the body in general ; and if there should be errors and male-administrations , the body , or rather its pastors when in a body , are accountable for that , and not the the individuals of the society , who cannot be further concern'd in them , than to lament such defects , and to use their best endeavours to help them to be redressed ; so this can never justify a separation , because there may be erroneous or scandalous men in a society , who are too much connived at . st. paul finds great fault with many errors ; some bad practices and scandals among the corinthians ; yet tho in one case he thunders a severe sentence upon a more eminently scandalous man , he never so much as insinuates that the rest of the body should separate themselves from those erroneous or irregular men : on the contrary , he presses the obligations to unity , most vehemently on the corinthians , tho that was the church which he charged the most severely of all others , both with errors , disorders in worship , and scandalous practices . it was no wonder , if after the church of rome had enervated the whole ancient discipline , and had turn'd it all to be a secret practice between the priest and the penitent in auricular confession ; and that dispensations and commutations were brought in ; by which men know the price of sin , and how to buy it off , that all of the sudden this church could not be brought back to the primitive constitutions : tho we see that our reformers did sincerely intend it , and prepared a model for it . but our bad circumstances have made , that this great and good design could never be effected since that time ; for which we still continue to make a publick acknowledgment in the preface to the office of commination . but after all , how faulty soever particular persons may be in not obeying the rules of the church , the clergy are obliged to catechise the youth , and when they are duly prepared for it , they ought to offer them to the bishop to be confirm'd ; and this ought to precede their being at first admitted to the sacrament . if this is not duly and punctually executed , it is the fault of those who fail in their duty ; and one of the best and most effectual answer that we can make to this prejudice , is to endeavour to do in this point what lies in us , towards the instructing and confirming the youth . as for the scandals of men's lives , much more certainly might be done , both in the way of private admonition , and publick censure , than is done ; so here the best answer will still return upon us : we ought to do all that is incumbent on us , for watching over those that are committed to our care , for correcting their manners , for making the incorrigible asham'd , and for cutting off corrupt and gangreen'd members , that they spread not their infection to those that are yet found . yet if another man fail of his duty , that can never excuse any one from doing his ; and so it can never be a just ground of separation . some except to our habit , as a ceremony taken from the service of the jewish temple : and this , tho it is now esteem'd the least considerable of all the exceptions made against us , yet was that which first began those unhappy disputes that have since increased so fatally upon us . the chief thing stood upon at first , was , that it was a compliance with the supestitions of popery ; but that has been consider'd already ; to which i shall in this place only add this one consideration more to justify those compliances in matters that are in themselves innocent ; that in fact , the body of this nation was in a very few years brought off from popery ; to which it is highly probable , that those small compliances contributed not a little ; so that the single reason upon which this was at first oppos'd , was the chief reason for its continuance . all publick functions are perform'd in some special habits ; and white being among both greeks and romans , the colour that expressed ioy it bearing also a signification of purity and innocence , it was natural for the primitive christians , both to put such as were newly baptized in white , and also to have divine offices perform'd by persons habited in the same manner . it is true , popery had brought in much superstition upon all this ; the several parcels of the habits were deliver'd with particular devotions in the conferring of orders ; which imported a peculiar virtue and sanctity to be in them , and they were to be us'd with such constant devotions , that did all signify that a sacramental virtue was believ'd to be lodg'd in them . now all this was taken away by our reformers ; only for the decency of worship , in compliance with ancient practices , they retain'd the habits themselves ; and since the greatest bodies of those who divide from us , have us'd black gowns , which is both a peculiar form of a habit , and in a special colour , that signifi'd gravity , it will not be easy to find a good reason , why a peculiar habit in a colour that expressed both innocence and joy , might not be as well us'd . if we pretended that innocence is by this convey'd to us , here were a just exception ; but we using it only as a decent habit , that is enjoin'd by law , it is enough to justify our obedience , if the thing is lawful ; and it is enough to justify the law , if this robe was ancient , and have in it a proper expression of that temper of mind , in which we ought to be , when we go to perform divine offices . and thus it appears on how weak grounds the first disputes concerning rituals among us were begun ; upon the progess of which , and the effects that have followed upon them , one can never reflect without remembring those words of st. iames , behold how great a matter a little fire hath kindled . some have excepted to our observing holy-days , as if this was an invasion upon that liberty which the fourth commandment gives for work , all the six days of the week ; and as if men pretended to an authority to make any parcels of time holy. some quarrel with the days for the honor of the apostles , as if this was a remnant of popery : others except even to the observance of christmas and ascension-day , together with those other days that relate to our saviour himself ; as if the observing them were a reproaching the apostles with want of regard to the person of christ , which we pretend to supply . but those words of six days labour , are not to be understood as a perpetual command , otherwise god himself had appointed a violation of this , by all those other days of rest that were enjoined the iews , all which were called sabbaths . every seventh year was to be one continued sabbath ; therefore the importance of the 4 th . commandment is only this , that when that precept was first given , god left mankind free for six days , and only reserved a seventh for rest and religion ; but that did not limit himself , nor all other lawful powers , from making further impositions for rest and religious exercises . it is also certain , that men cannot make a day holy in one sense , that is , affix a special purity , or particular virtue to any one day ; but the larger sense of a holy day , being a day dedicated to religious exercises , it seems to be in the power of every society to appoint such anniversary days , as well as to appoint special times of fasting and thanksgiving upon one particular day , and for one turn : for since all do agree , that this may be done for once , the arguments from the fourth commandment , and against appointing a holy day , are out of doors ; so it remains only to consider , whether anniversary days may be appointed . we see the iews , during the seventy years of the captivity , observ'd the fast of the fourth , the fifth , the seventh and te●nth month ; and the prophet expostulating in the name of god upon that head , does neither except to the imposition , nor the fixing anniversaries , but only complains of their being ill kept ; which plainly imports the acceptance of them , if well kept . the iews also fixed one anniversary in commemoration of their deliverance from haman's wicked designs against them ; and another for remembring the purifying the temple from its idolatrious defilement by antiochus epiphanes . this last was observed by our saviour , at least we find him in the temple on that day . now can any reason be assign'd ; either from the nature of things , or from any special limitations in the scripture , that should restrain the power that is naturally in every body of men , for appointing things of this nature ? the commemorating the dispensation of the gospel committed to the apostles , has nothing of the superstition of popery in it : no invocations or addresses being made to them , and no sacraments administred for their honor , or recommended to their intercession . god is only blessed for those several dispensations , of which they were made the channels and instruments . but we ought rather to be concern'd , that these commemorations are practic'd in so slight a manner , that we seem much more liable to an objection upon that account ; and tho in the first fervour of christianity , in which those early converts lived almost wholly in the meditations of christ , and of what related to him , some institutions of days for more special remembrances of particular circumstances had not been made , there might have been very good reason for the succeeding ages to have studied to keep alive that fervour by such appointments of days , for the more solemn commemoration of such signal blessigns : and tho there were not the same clear warrants from antiquity for every one of these , yet it was still in the power of the church to make such new orders , as should seem necessary for carrying on the main design of religion . the ancient church thought that the whole fifty days between easter and pentecost ought to be kept with a special solemnity of rejoycing , for the resurrection and ascension of our saviour , and for the effusion of the holy ghost ; since some more particular devotions on those heads , during that whole time , did not break off the labours of their other employments , nor interrupt the common business of life ; upon the same parity of reason they might appoint some time before that season of ioy , to be spent in confessing past sins , and mourning for them in higher degrees of prayer and fasting . this being only the prescribing a method for appropriating such exercises in devotion to the several seasons of the year , an over-valuing of these things , together with a nice distinction of meats , was a piece of superstition which might corrupt that which was good in any constitution . the distinction of meats for that season , is among us founded meerly on a law of the land , for civil and political ends , since the church only recommends prayer and fasting in general , witout any further specialities as to the measure of the fast ; so no just exception lies to any part of this whole matter , concerning days and times appropriated to particular exercises . i wish our practice in these were such , that this part of our constitution were not too evidently a matter of form , and observed with too visible a slightness . and thus i have gone round ●ll that i remember ever to have met with in books or discourses from any of the dissenters , except from those call'd quakers , against our constitution , and have offer'd you those answers , which to me , after the most impartial search that i am capable of , seem full to satisfy 'em all . it remains , that i consider such as are offer'd by those who are called quakers . first , they are against all sorts of stated forms ; their main principle being , that nothing is to be done by us , by virtue of any outward warrant , unless there is an inward excitation or opening of the spirit that leads to it : and therefore all fixed rules being contrary to the freedom of the spirit , they are against them all . but either this principle must have some limitation to restrain it , or it will cast open a door to subvert all religion and policy ; for those inward excitations being only known to those who have them , every man's word must be taken concerning them . if then a man by affirming that he had , or had not , such or such an excitation , will be thereby justified or excus'd ; then he may do , or not do what he will , and the whole order of religion , morality and civil society will be thereby dissolv'd : but if they say , that there is that harmony between the secret leadings of the spirit and the scriptures , that whatsoever is commanded in the one , is always witnessed to by the other ; then we are to examine this matter by the scriptures , and to conclude , that if there are rules given in them for the constant use of the sacraments , then they are hereby condemned who have laid them aside . our saviour encourag'd his apostles to go and execute the commission that he gave them , to make disciples , and baptize all nations ; with this promise , that he was to be with them alway , even to the end of the world. the promise is given as as an encouragement to the duty enjoin'd ; and from hence we may conclude , that the precept of baptisme must continue likewise to the end of the world. to this we must join those other words of our saviour , except a man is born of water and of the spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven which is affirmed without any limitation of time . by the kingdom of heaven is plainly meant the dispensation of the gospel ; and since baptism was then practised , and was well understood by them , who were born iews , nothing in reason can be understood by the being born of water and of the spirit , but the being initiated by baptism , and the being inwardly sanctified : the one as well as the other , is made indispensably necessary to the being a member of this new dispensation . st. mark also has recorded those words of our saviour : he that believeth and is baptized stall be saved , but he that believeth not shall be damned : now since baptism is only enjoined by precept , and is not necessary as a mean , but only as an act of obedience : therefore tho the doing it is commanded in order to salvation , yet damnation is not the consequent of its not being done , since one may be prevented in it by death , or other impossibilities may put it out of his power to procure baptism to himself : and therefore , as the one branch of this period shews the obligation laid on us to be baptized in order to salvation , so the leaving it out in the other branch , shews that our not coming within the rites of our religion , when that failure is no fault of ours , does not exclude us from salvation , or bring us to a state of damnation . in the beginnings of christianity , the wonderful effusion of the holy ghost was thought a true reason for baptizing such persons on whom it fell ; and therefore st. peter said , when the holy ghost fell visibly on cornelius and his friends , can any man forbid water , that those should not be baptized , who have received the holy ghost as well as we ? and with this he settled the minds of those who were a little offended at that action . this shews that no pretence to a high dispensation of the spirit , can evacuate that precept ; since , on the contrary , an evidence of the giving the holy ghost , was pleaded as an argument for baptizing : nor does any one passage in which baptism is mentioned in the new testament , limit it to that time , and intimate that it belonged only to the beginnings of christianity , or that it was to determine when it was more fully setled : so that this , with the constant practice of all succeeding ages , without a shadow of any exception , must conclude us as to this point . our saviour did also appoint the other sacrament to be continued in remembrance of him ; by which st. paul says , we shew forth his death till he come . now these words cannot be understood of any supposed inward and spiritual coming , since the most signal coming in that sense , was the effusion of the holy ghost at pentecost , and yet after that time the apostles continued to practice it , and delivered it to the churches as a precept still obligatory , till christ should come . if then we ought still to remember him , and shew forth his death ; if it is the communion of his body and blood ; if it is the new covenant in his blood for the remission of sins ; then as long as these things are duties incumbent on us , so long we must be under the obligation of eating that bread , and drinking that cup. further , if christ has left different gifts to different orders of men , some apostles , some prophets , some evangeliste and some pastors and teachers , for the perfecting the saints , for the work of the ministry , and for edifying the body of christ , till we come unto a perfect man , and are no more in danger of being tossed to and fro , and carried away with every wind of doctrine . these words do plainly import , that as long as mankind is under the frailties of this present state , and in this confused scene , that some of these orders must still be continued in the church , and that those rules and preceps given to timothy and titus concerning such as were to be ordained bishops or elders , that is , priests and diacons , were to be lasting and standing rules ; for indeed if the design had not been to establish that order for the succeeding ages , there was less need of it in that , in which there was such a plentiful measure of the spirit poured out upon all christians ; that such functions in that time might have been well spared , if it had not been for this , that they were then to be setled under the patronage , if i may so speak , of the apostles themselves , from whom they were to receive an authority , which how little necessary soever it might seem in that wonderful time , yet was to be more needed in the succeeding ages . therefore we may well conclude , that whatsoever was ordered concerning those offices or officers of the church , in the first age , was by a stronger parity of reason to be continued down through all the ages of the church ; and in particular , if in that time in which women received the gifts of the holy ghost , so that some prophesied , and others laboured much in the lord , that is in the gospel ; yet st. paul did in two different epistles , particularly restrain them from teaching or speaking in the church ; to which he adds , that it was a shame for women to speak in the church ; that is , it might turn to be a reproach to the christian religion , and furnish scoffers with some colours of exposing it to the scorn of the age. this was to be much more strictly observed , when all those extraordinary characters , that might seem to be exemptions from common rules , did no longer continue . as for those distinctions into which they have cast themselves , of the hat , and the denying titles , and speaking in the singular thou and thee , it is to be considered , that how unfit soever it be , and how unbecoming christians to be conformed to this world , yet it rather lessens than heightens the great idea that the world ought to have of the christian religion , when it states a diversity among men about meer trifles . our saviour and his apostles complied as much in all innocent customs , as they avoided all sinful ones . honour to whom honour is due , is a standing duty ; and though the bowing the body , and falling prostrate , are postures that seem liker idolatry , and more abject in their nature than the hat ; yet the very prophets of god paid these respects to kings . outward actions or gestures signify only what is entended to be expressed , and what is generally understood by them ; so that what is known to be meant only for a piece of civil respect , can never be stretched to a religious respect ; and though that abject homage under which the iewish rabbies had brought their disciples , and which they had exprest in titles that imported their profound submission to them , was reproved by our saviour ; yet we see that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sir , or lord , was then used as commonly as we now do ; since mary magdalen called him , whom shee took for a gardener , sir , or lord. and st. paul gave festus the title which belonged to his office , it being the same that claudius lysias gave felix , who certainly was not wanting in that ; and that being the title of men of rank , st. luke adresses both his books to thephilus , designing him in one ofthem in the same manner . words signify nothing of themselves , as they are meer sounds , but according to the signification in which men agree to use them ; so if the speaking to one man in the plural number , is understood only as a more respectful way of treating him , then the plural is in this case really but a singular . indeed these things scarce deserve to be so narrowly lookt into . the scruple against swearing , is more important both to them and to the publick . they have indeed the appearance of a plain command of our saviour's against all manner of swearing , which is repeated by st. iames ; but this must be restricted to their communication , according to the words that follow , since we find swearing not only commanded in the old testament , but practised in the new , the apostles swear , at every time they say god is witness ; and more solemnly , when god is called for a record upon their soul. the angel of god lifts up his hand , and swears by him that lives for ever and ever . god swears by himself , and an oath for confirmation , that is , for affirming any matter , is the end of all controversy . we find our saviour himself answered upon oath , when adjured by the high priest to tell , if he was the christ , the son of the most high god ; for according to the mosaical law , when any soul sinned , and heard the voice of swearing , that is of adjuration , and was a witness whether he hath seen it or known of it , if he do not utter it , then he shall hear his iniquity ; that is , he shall be guilty of perjury . it were easy to shew from several passages of the old testament , that superior , whether parents or princes , could put others under a curse , and by that either bind them in a promise of vow , or oblige them to declare the truth . this being then the custom of the iews , our saviour , though silent , as long as it was free to him to speak or not , he in that shewing his patience and meekness ; yet as soon as he was adjured , he then answered ; for he was bound by that oath to declare the truth : therefore since among the iews the party did not take the oath , but was only passive to the judge that imposed it upon him , those cited words of our saviour cannot be extended beyond oaths in communication , that is in common discourse , or the common business of life : for indeed to end all matters by a solemn appeal to god , is a natural piece of worship and religious adoration . they load us with another prejudice , in which , tho we may seem to much parties to it , yet it is not to be passed over : they call us hirelings for receiving those supports and rewards for our labours that are appropriated to us . those who run into these imployments only with such views , and desire to be put in a priest's office , that they may eat a piece of bread , must feel somewhat within them that testifies to the truth of this imputation : but such as do dedicate themselves to the gospel , and serve at the altar , may well live of the altar , and of the gospel , or the reward of the glad tidings that they publish ; for so , saith st. paul , hath the lord ordained . all persons will yield it to be lawful to accept the bounty that is freely offered , by private persons to such as labour among them ; so it will not be easy to shew why publik bodies may not by setled laws give those bounties for ever , as well as particular persons do it for once . and therefore not to enter upon the discussion of any antecedent right to tythes , it is certain that publick laws may appropriate such proportion of soil , or of its growth , to such uses as they think fitting : and when that is once done , private persons must bear that , even when they do not approve of the use . those very people think that all wars are unlawful , and yet they pay taxes , tho levied in express words to carry on a war. thus then , when any proportion of the growth of a nation is applied to any use by a law , that proportion becomes a rent due to the publick , in consideration whereof , there is a full abatement made , as it is bought and sold : and whosoever purchases with such abatement , can have no right to that for which they paid nothing . now it is certain , that no man can pretend to possess himself of that which is not his own ; on this colour , that he who does then possess it , has no good title to it . that man knows that he himself has no right to it , whether the possessor's title is good or bad , and that is enough for him not to challenge or invade it : every man knows that his tythes are not his , he never bought them ; on the contrary , he made a considerable diminution of the price that he would have paid , if the land had been tythe-free : and therefore this being of the nature of a quit rent , that the law has laid on an estate , any opinion that a man may have of the lawfulness of the use to which it goes , can never justify him , who keeps that which is not his own , from the person to whom the law has appropriated it . if therefore these men would govern themselves by the maxims of strict justice , as long as they cannot overcome this scruple , they ought to make no purchases , but where they buy out the whole increase of the soil , and pay its full price : and as there are fair portions over the whole nation , that are tythe-free , this were a way of dealing that would look like a strictness of conscience , a regard to their own peace , and the quiet and peace of the society ; by so doing , they should possess nothing that were not their own , and invade nothing that were any other man's . thus , i think , i have omitted no material objection that is made to the terms of communion among us as to our worship and rituals ; and i think i have offered sufficient reason , not only to justify the concurrence of all the single members of our body in every one of them , but also to justify our forms and constitutions in themselves : it is enough to prove that they are lawful , to oblige all the members of the body or society to observe them ; but the fitness and usefulness of them must also be made out , to justify the laws and constitutions that are made concerning them . but tho lawful and unlawful are severe and rigorous things , and of a fixed and determinate nature ; yet fit or unfit are of a more loose and unstable order : and in this respect things may have different faces ; what is fit in one respect , and at one time , may be much otherwise at other times : and therefore , tho this is not a consideration strong enough to dissolve the obligation , under which private persons lie to obedience , yet it ought to be well considered by those to whom that care may belong . it is certain , that a long continuanc of any custom is a very powerful argument , enforcing any antecedent fitness that might have been at the first setling of such matters : for all novelties , as they gratify the levity of more inconstant minds , so they grate no less upon men of more staid tempers ; who naturally are not given to change : yet when all things are well weighed , there may be upon some occasions very good reasons for altering some things , which were at first established upon as good and just considerations ; since there is nothing in any human constitution , which comes not from an immediate divine authority , that may not be brought under second thoughts , and become the matter of new deliberations . to conclude , those divisions from us , and the prejudices that are raised against us , ought to make us watch the more carefully over our selves , since we have so many severe observers : they ought to oblige us to such an exactness of deportment , and such diligence in our labours , that our behaviour , both in our persons and callings , may not inflame and heighten , but on the contrary , very much allay and soften those prejudices : since after all that is said in the way of speculation and argument , the numbers are most wrought on by visible and sensible prejudices . if we see among those who divide from us , any of the appearances of vertue , in a sober and grave deportment , a modest and humble way of behaviour , a solemn seriousness , the fear of an oath , a plain simplicity of living , a mutual union and tenderness for one another , and a seeming to be in earnest in the matters of religion , together with a true strictness in breeding their youth to understand religion , and study the scriptures ; let us not deny that which we see to be true , but let us study to bring our selves , and our people , to outdo them in these things : and to add to these , an exact probity and justice , candor and truth , fidelity and integrity , a meek and gentle behaviour , free from rash censuring , and evil speaking , a universal charity to all mankind , a readiness to forgive injuries , to do good for evil , and liberality in our bounty to the necessitous ; straitning our selves to relieve others : and if we can bear with them by our charity , as well as the law tolerates them in their opinions , we may hope , by the blessing of god , in a competent time to overcome all their prejudices , and so to heal all our divisions , and to become of one heart and mind . finis . the contents . discourse i. concerning the truth of the christian religion . pag. 1. discourse ii. concerning the divinity and the death of christ. 25. discourse iii. concerning the infallibility and authority of the church . 52. discourse iv. concerning the obligations to continue in the communion of the church . 83. books lately printed for r. chiswell . a discourse of the pastoral care ; by the lord bishop of sarum . 8 vo . an imperial history of the late wars of ireland , from the beginning to the end . in two parts . illustrated with copper sculptures , describing the most important places of action written by george story , an eye-witness of the most remarkable passages , 4 to . a discourse of the government of the thoughts . by george tully . sub-dean of york 8 vo . memorials of the most reverend thomas grammer , archbishop of canterbury . wherein the history of the church , and the reformation of it , during the primacy of the said archbishop , are greatly illustrated , and many singular matters relating thereunto now first published in three books . collected chiefly from records , registers , authentick letters , and other original manuscripts . by iohn strype , m. a. fol. origo loegum ; or , a treatise of the origin of laws , and their obliging power . as also of their great variety , and why some laws are immutable , and some not ; but may suffer change , or cease to be , or be suspended or abrogated . in seven books . by george dawson , m. a. fol. a brief discourse concerning the lawfulness of worshipping god by the common prayer ; in answer to a book intituled , ( a brief discourse of the vlawfulness of common-prayer worship ) by iohn williams , d. d. 4 to . a true representation of the absurd and mischievous principles of the sect commonly known by the name of the muggletonians . 4 to . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a30350-e210 1 macc. 1.20 , 24 , 25. v. 41. v. 54. v. 57. 2 ch . 24 , 25. v. 26. v. 50. v , 64. v. 67 , 68. 4 macc. 46. 11 dan. 31 , 32 , 33 , 34. 11 heb. 34. art. 6. 25 num. 5. 3 num. 32. 20 num. 28. 1 sam. 15.33 . 1 kings 18.40 . 21 mat. 13. 9 luke 55 , 56. eus. chron theoph. anonim . vales. eus. l. 10. c. 8. eus. de vit. con. l. 1. c. 5. c 53. eus. l. 10. c. 8. de vit . con , l. 2. c. 2. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . eus. l. 10. c. 8. lib. 10. principatum totius orbis affectans . eus. vit. const. l , 3 c. 12. theod. l. 7 de vit. const. l. 3 c. 11. theod. l. 1. c. 20. notes for div a30350-e3500 9. dan. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. justin. apol. 2. 1 pet. 4.12 . ●● acts 22. 16. matth. 16 , 25. rom 15.19 . 1 cor. 14. 2 cor. 12.12 . 3 gal. 5. 1 thes. 1.5 . 1 tim. 1.20 . heb. 2.4 . sueton. in claudio . tacit. annal . 15. 1 cor. 2.4 . 6 heb. 4.5 . plin. lib. 10. ep. 97. luke 16.31 . numb . 12.8 . heb. 1.10 , 11 , 12. v. 15 , 16. gal. 3.16 . 1 pet. 3.19 . isa. 61.42 . isa. 7.49 . isa. 9.1 , 2. heb. 6.20 . heb. 7.3 . psalm , 110 4. lev. 21.7 , 13.14 . notes for div a30350-e7230 2 hag. 6.7 , 8 , 9. 2 cor. 3 , 18 1. heb. 3. 1. john 14. 2 cor. 4.4 . verse 6. 18. mat. 7. 1 cor. ● 5 , 6. 1 thes. 1.9 . 4 gal. 8. 2 phil , 10. heb. 1.6 . rev , 5.8 . 4. mat. 10. 19 rev. 10. isa. 42.8 . deut. 13.1 , 2. 2 col. 9. 1. çol. 16.17 . 2 jam. 1. 1 cor. 2.8 . 2 tit. 13. 1 john 5.20 . 1 rev. 8.21 . joh. 17. 3 phil. 21. 1 tim. 6.17 , 18. 2 phil. 6. 5 john 21. to 29. 6 john 54. 1 tim. 3.16 9 rom. 5. 1 joh. 2.2 . 1 pet. 2.24 . 1 cor. 15.3 2 cor. 5.21 1. gal. 4. 3. gal , 13. 2 tit. 14. 20 mat. 28. 3 rom. 25. 4 rom. 25. 5 rom. 6.10 ; 11. and to the end . 1 cor. 1.30 . 1 eph. 7. 1 col. 14.20 , 21. 1 joh. 29. 9 heb. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. & 8.26.28 . 10. heb. 10 , 12 , 14 , 19. 13. heb. 12.20 . 22. luke 44. 26. mat. 36 , 37 , 38. 4. rom. 3. 2. rom. 12. 3. rom. 28. 5. gal. 6. 2 james 12. to the end . 3 john 18. notes for div a30350-e12420 16 , mat. 18 , 19. 18. mat. 20 28 mat. 20. 16. joh. 13. 1. tim. 3.16 . 17. deut. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. 2. mal. 7. 16. john. 13. 5. gal. 20. 6. joh. 5 3. 15. act. 23. to 30. athan. de deer . sin. nicen. aug. con . maxim. l. 3. c. 19. 1 tim. 3.15 . 28. mat. 20. 2 cor. 6.16 . 13 heb. 5. 16. mat. 18 , 19. 2. eph. 20. 3. rev. 7. 11. luke . 52. 18. mat. 18. 22. luke 32. 21. joh. 15. notes for div a30350-e17270 13 joh. 35. 17. st. joh. verses 11 , 21 , 22 , 23. verse 23. 1 cor. 10.23 . 2 kings 18.4 . 14. rom. 13. ● vers. 23. 15. act. 9. 16. rom. 1. 1 tim. 5.9 . 1 pet. 5.14 . 16. rom. 16. 1 cor. 16.20 . 2 cor. 13.12 . 1 cor. 11.21 . 6 rom. 3 , 4 , 5. 2 col. 12. 13. john 14 , 15. 14. rom. 19. 1 cor. 14.26 , 40. 5. gal. 1. 16 acts 3.21 acts 24. 1 cor. 9.20 . 5 gal. 6. 6 gal. 15. 14. rom. 17. v. 18. v. 5. v. 23. 2 col. 16. 14. rom. 6. v. 13. v. 15. 1 cor. 3.5 . 2 cor. 3.6 . & 6.4 . & 11.23 . 3 eph. 7. 1 col. 23 , 25. 6 eph. 21. 4 col. 7. 1 thess. 3.2 . 8. rom. 28 , 29. 12. rom. 1. 10. mark 13. 1 cor. 7.14 . 2 acts 39. 12. exod. 11. 2 thess. 3.14 . 1 cor. 5.11 . 1 cor. 11.28 . 3. jam. 5. 7. zech. 5. 8 zech. 19. 9. esther 21.27 , 10 , john 22. 28. mat. 20. 3. john 5. 16. mark 16. 10 act. 47. 11 act. 17. 1 cor. 11.26 . 4 eph. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. 1 tim. 3. 1 tit. 1. 1 cor. 14.34 , 35. 1 tim. 2.11 . 13 rom. 7. 2 sam. 20.41 . 1 sam. 24.8 . 1 kings 1.23 . 23 mat. 8.9 , 10. 20 john 15. 26 acts 25. 23 acts 26. 1 luke 3. 5 mat. 34. 5 jam 12. 1 rom. 9. 1 thess. 2.10 . 2 cor. 1.23 10 rev. 5 , 6 6 heb. 16.17 , 18. lev. 7. 1 sam. 14.24 , 38 , 39. 17. judg. 2. 26. mat. 63 , 64. 1 sam. 2.36 . 1 cor. 9.11 , 13 , 14 ▪